Rip It Up And Start Again

The following article was first published on The Alternative UK on Oct 12, 2019 Pop music may be an unlikely metaphor for saving the world, but in the constant reinvention and embracing of new sounds that so typifies popular music across the western world, we might find inspiration for some profound, existential thinking. From the […]

The End Of Stuff

First published on The Alternative UK 08/12/18 Eight years ago Mick Jagger told the New York Times that the days of artists regularly making millions from the music industry are over. It bummed me out at the time because I’d just signed a record deal and I realised he was right. No-one was going to […]

Britain: A Nation Of Cowards?

The UK’s obsession with immigrants and benefit cheats shows the cowardice rooted deep in our national psyche. There is legitimacy in the concern that large immigration numbers might impact on the economy and quality of life for working families in the UK. Equally, it is easy to understand the upset caused by working our fingers […]

Where are all the dicks hiding?

I’m in a bar with two friends I’ve known my whole life, one getting the drinks, one beside me on his phone. I can’t see what he is looking at but I’m 99% confident he is NOT sending an unsolicited picture of his dick to some unsuspecting woman on Tinder. That’s what I’d like to […]

Bow To Your Audience: a musician’s take on how power is changing in the UK

First published on The Alternative UK July 27, 2017 As a working musician, at the end of every gig I play, I bow to my audience. I do this because on stage I am in a position of power. I have the loudest voice in the room and these people have respected me enough to offer […]

Are we betraying David Bowie’s Legacy?

First published on Pure Moth. Like many artists working in the record industry I’m on an independent label having had the obligatory major label experience. I’ve seen both sides of the industry at work and am aware of the failings and strengths of each. With this in mind I would like to suggest that if […]

Eight billion tribes of one

First published on Pure Moth. The great European author and semiotician Umberto Eco once posited the idea that the Erasmus project, so beloved of students wishing to spend a free year at another university in the EU, should be extended to all professions. Far from being confined to the elitism of higher education, it should […]

Frank Sinatra, Future Islands and Status Quo: a musical history of the SNP and Scottish Labour

Originally printed in New Statesman 01/05/15 Just noise? These days you’d be hard-pressed to find any credible indie rock kids willing to admit they’re Status Quo fans. There are no breakbeats, hip hop samples or underground indie kudos here. It’s just the old guard cranking out the same old hits of yesteryear, pushing nostalgia tours […]

Why I changed from a ‘No’ to a ‘Yes.’

First Published in New Statesman 29/08/14 I despise nationalism. I despise patriotism. I hate bagpipes, I hate kilts and tartan and I hate the cringe inducing shouts of “wha’s like us” in bars across the nation at closing time on drunken Saturday nights. I love the other countries we share this little island with. I […]

Summer music festivals: On the road with Attic Lights, part four

First published on stv.tv The day of our show at the Benicassim festival in Spain and I found myself alone in the dressing room a couple of hours before we went onstage. There was a knock on the door and two guys introduced themselves and came in. They were in charge of filming the performance […]