S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

I’m on the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street. I can barely guess how many times I’ve made this journey in my life - way back in student days, a long time ago, it seems. I went to meet my mate Ian Hartley, from both those days and these, for some very fine sushi [...]

I’m going to try really hard to be disciplined about writing during the Air tour… which is now more than I bargained for in the beginning, in that they’ve asked me to stay on for the full world tour. It transpired to be a lot more complex gig than Leo or I had originally thought, [...]

We are caught up in the current flight-cancellation nightmare that is gripping the UK airports. Following a two-hour grind through Gatwick security yesterday, we had just enough time to let Luka circumnavigate the departure lounge once before we were rounded up and shown the path to baggage reclaim. Grim. And the earliest possible rebooking we [...]

There it was. A text from Brian Eno saying “We’re on for 12 at … Brondesbury Villas”. The day had finally come - I was going to be in an all-day freeform recording session with the legendary Herbie Hancock. Almost amazingly, the fact that he is such a legend put me completely at ease - [...]

My son Luka is one year old today. A year, almost to the minute, since he was born on a cold blustery night up in Paddington. When I try and gauge all that has happened in the days from then until now, I just get so lost and confused I don’t know where I am.
Something [...]

I have decided to post a completely free download of my album Angels In Drag for general download. All it will take is an email address and a link will be sent. Please tell everyone you know to go and grab it. I will be doing the same for the next record. For the time [...]

I just got a copy of Leo Abrahams’ new record ‘Scene Memory’ through the post. Much to my amazement he called me on Friday to say that he had dedicated the record to me. I was completely overcome and very emotional. I have a deep bond with the record - it pulled me through some [...]

Last night my friend David “Wildcard” Tughan called me to say he had a spare ticket for an Oscar Peterson show in the Royal Albert Hall. Being as it was a fine summer’s evening, not to mention the fact that Oscar Peterson is regarded by many as the greatest jazz pianist of all time, I [...]

Saturday morning with baby Luka. He’s so mobile now its scary, and with his new wee teeth has a very simple checklist of things to do with everything he comes across:

Can I eat it?
Can I rip it?
Can I climb up it?

.
If the answer to all three is “No” then he moves on to something else. [...]

Just back from a weekend and a bit more in Bangor, the town where I first snogged a girl, drank a bottle of cider, and jumped naked into the sea. Not all at the same time, I hasten to add, though thinking about it that would have been fun. The main purpose of the visit [...]

I went out to water the plants this-morning. There is a big old rosemary bush at the back of the garden, and as I was watering it, I noticed something red peeping out from the leaves. It was a perfect scarlet rose - just one that had grown about 3 feet of stem to reach [...]

London gridlock. There’s nothing quite like it to ruin your day. Travel should be transparent - a bland tunnel through which to pass on the way to brighter things - and I’m pretty sure it used to be like that, but time have changed and travelling from A to B has become a thing of [...]