DNA to Do-Re-Mi - How to write a Eurovision tagline
A moment at the piano sparked the line that would become central to a Eurovision sponsorship.
On discovering Pink Floyd
From Cold War childhood to lockdown, how Pink Floyd’s poetry, protest and imagination shaped my love of storytelling.
On watching my kids fall in love with music too
From Loopy to The Logical Song, this is what it looks like when music becomes part of family life.
Forever Young in a nuclear age: The Cold War in songs
A look at how three iconic Eighties tracks captured the quiet dread of the Cold War.
When a concert ticket becomes a story
An essay on the wooden hallway frame that holds my old concert tickets and the nights behind them.
Free, Fire and Water
A reflection on Free’s Fire and Water, a seven–track masterclass in restraint and creative clarity.
Highbury and Abbey Road - An Arsenal story
Thoughts on loving Arsenal through music, memory, Wenger, the Invincibles and now a new generation of supporters.
Counting Crows, August and Everything After
How a university recommendation and a chaotic Paris bar turned into a love for one of the great storytelling albums.
Is La Marseillaise the greatest piece of music ever written?
An Englishmans reflection on the emotional power, history and fierce lyricism of La Marseillaise.
The bands I missed the first time around
Rediscovering the Manics and The Libertines years later, and how music often makes sense when life catches up.
Rediscovering Dylan through a Complete Unknown
Before algorithms and genAI, creativity came from something deeper. A few reflections on A Complete Unknown.
Stereophonics, Word Gets Around
A moment in HMV Oxford, 1997. A Stereophonics track and a sense of what show-stopping creativity feels like.
Why I love art, just not so much the gallery kind
A reflective piece about realising that art doesn’t have to mean galleries and canvases.