I grew up in the outskirts of London, and have been visiting central London regularly for nearly 20 years. While I don’t know my way around the all the backstreets, I’ve been to a lot of museums, galleries and historic houses. Not just the main ones, like V&A and Briti...

The relentless gentrification of London is something that makes me really angry: the way in which property prices are becoming completely out of control (my own flat has almost doubled in value in just 3 years, while friends of mine can't even afford to buy small stud...

A few years ago I saw a brilliant exhibition at the Barbican called Everything Was Moving. It was a photography show, highlighting the changing world of the 60s and 70s through the eyes of international photographers. Two of the featured photographers were from America...

“Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.” Tom Waits

About 10 years ago I listened to Tom Waits’ album Raindogs. I hated it. I didn’t understand it. Why was he growling so much? What on ear...

My top 5 songs by Bob Dylan, in no particular order: Obviously 5 Believers, Most of the Time, Simple Twist of Fate, Moonlight, and Cold Irons Bound.

But, individual songs aside, the real question is this: has Bob Dylan ever released a perfect album?

Blonde on Blonde come...

The other day my parents found a short essay I’d written in primary school about how excited I was about learning to play clarinet. I started learning to play when I was in Year 4, and continued playing for the next 12 years, taking various exams, playing in the local...

I started playing guitar when I was about 15 years old. My first teacher, Ms Kidd, taught me how to play basic things like Greensleeves. So I did that for a year or so: Greensleeves over and over again. After that, I had teacher called Paul, who was in his early 40s, w...

In September 2012, I went on a train journey across the US with my friend Louise. We started in New York, and travelled to San Francisco, via Washington DC, New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago.

In Memphis, we stayed with a girl called Amy-Noelle: a friend of a friend of a...

Many of my favourite songs were released in the 1960s. Nina Simone’s I Put A Spell On You. Beach Boys’ God Only Knows. Dusty Springfield’s If You Go Away. And Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come: one of the greatest songs of all time.

There are some vocal performances th...

I spend quite a lot of time outside work playing music: singing, writing songs, recordings songs, playing gigs. When I'm at home, I always pick up my guitar - whether it's for 10mins or an hour. Sometimes playing and singing can be really fun. Sometimes it can be reall...