It’s been awhile. I was on a train travelling up to play a show with Francis Dunnery in Cumbria a few weeks ago. It’s a journey. He recorded my first solo album in a time when I thought I didn’t have it in me, and since then I have discovered there is more, always more. […]
When the Combine appears at your window you know that Summer is wrapping up its might, the heat has relaxed and the soft winds of September are on their way. It seems that if i sit still long enough i start to blister from the aperture of doing little. I should be relaxing, and in […]
Today I received a box of books here at the Edinburgh festival, where Boo Hewerdine and myself are playing songs and telling some jokes. The paperback of my book is now released with its extra chapter now wraps up the story thus far. I have really enjoyed the process of being with a book, its […]
Summer has scorched the earth and the soul with its wonderful oven like heat. I’m not one for hot but the sun was soaked up like olive oil on Focaccia. Squeeze played a few festivals, with its fair share of hot tin roof, all game and correct. The World Cup seemed to stick people together, […]
I have been hosting songwriting retreats for 26 years, this year was a time of great reflection as I stood surrounded by massive talent and love. The retreats started down in Devon at Huntsham Court, a big old pile run by two lovely nutty people, they had to be to house so many lose cannons. […]
Ah the smell of the open road, this time back in Squeeze gears. Blackburn and a warm up show not to be sneezed at, across the road from many a curry house and many a strange face. I was late for the Gm jam that flavours most sound checks. It all sounded good to me. […]
I watched The Defiant Ones with Louise on the sofa this week and was moved in so many ways, its one of the best documentaries I have seen. It engaged me and scared me too. It made me think about fame and fortune and what that means to me. Yes I had the large PRS […]
House concerts are mixed and varied, this one today in Kendal was outstanding, in the living room of a farmhouse with sandwiches cakes and meringues. On a cattle farm way up a hillside was where I found myself, it was so much fun to wonder through some songs on my own for the lovely people […]
Have you ever sat in the bath pulled out the plug and watched the water drain away leaving your body as an island in the middle, no neither have I. But thats what it feels like being out on tour, I can feel the past draining away revealing the clean tired but relaxed me like […]
A marathon drive from Preston down to Cheltenham back up to Warwick On Eden and then on to Perth in Scotland, miles and miles on the new clock. The God of Audi would be proud of me. The show in Perth was totally amazing, in a barn at the back of a wonderful house on […]