Up at 4am for a 6am train out of Euston. Spent the night between the peeling walls of the cheapest hotel I could find within walking distance of the station. We both admitted to having stayed in worse, which should be a damning enough note on any accommodation. Getting up that early is a holiday…

It has been a week. The problem is that I have nothing to complain about in this space. On top of having a job that I enjoy, I’m also grafting at my novel, trying to get it into the right place for it to go out to publishers. It’s a very exciting time but my…

I’m very much aware of how obtuse my last couple of posts have been. There are a number of recent changes in my circumstances that I don’t think are appropriate to share outside of those that it directly impacts. As ever, that hasn’t stopped people from sharing their thoughts on my life outside of those…

When I was young, and cool, I was in a band. The main reason we were in the band was to tell girls that we were in a band. Some of the time it worked. One of the songs that we wrote, and I think specifically Mike come up with the title of, was The…

If anyone reads my blog with any regularity, you will have noticed that the last year was completely dedicated to the Music Jar project. I didn’t write about anything else on here during that time although I was eagerly beavering away on THE NOVEL in the background. With a new year comes the opportunity to…

Here we are, mostly safe at the end of 2022. For the last of my Music Jar project artists, I’ve had the incredible pleasure of listening to Self Esteem. Now, there has been little option but to have had some skin in the Self Esteem game this year (both mine and theirs). As a rising…

This week I have been listening to Jehnny Beth – thanks to Steph for the recommendation. I didn’t know of Jehnny Beth before and I’m not sure I do now. I expected a twee singer songwriter and instead was delivered these beautiful ethereal landscapes of music that felt like they belonged in the HyperNormalisation. While…

This week, it is the turn of an out and out legend. A woman with so much clout that I daren’t do anything but adore everything that she is about. Maybe the true People’s Princess. An icon of Liverpool and a Saturday night television staple, she ate it up whatever she turned her hand to.…

This week I have been listening to the nu jazz musician Emma-Jean Thackray and her wonderful album, Yellow. The fun thing about Thackray is that I didn’t know of her before this came up (thanks Jamie) and I don’t know much more now. I know she’s a multi-instrumentalist with her own record label and that…