I’m delighted to announce that Apple have invited me and the band to perform a special concert at their Covent Garden store on Friday 15th July. They don’t hold these too often so it should be quite an exciting experience.

Here are the key facts in the style of a Steve Jobs bullet point presentation:… Read the rest

Were there always this many festivals in the UK? Maybe there were and I just never noticed them, playing Street Fighter II on the SNES at aged 7 when I could have been watching early Radiohead smash it in some regional field.

I just want to play as much as possible, so I’m delighted to be doing one (or sometimes 3) each weekend of the summer.… Read the rest

I’d love to apologise for being too busy to write, but I’m just too sad that I didn’t get to go see Paul Simon.

What makes Graceland one of the best records of all time is a question I’ve often referred back to. The lyrics seem like utter nonsense half the time, so why do I care about the woman with diamonds on the soles of her shoes? Does it matter to me whether he knows the girl from the cinematographer’s party? And will someone please tell me how to make the sign of a teaspoon?… Read the rest

When your manager gives you 3 missed calls by 7:55am, you know that it’s either going to be a very good day or a very bad day.

On this occasion it was very much the former, as we got offered a live session on Janice Long’s Radio 2 show. Needless to say we almost bit their hand off in accepting – big national radio slots can be hard to come by for people without massive radio plugger budgets.… Read the rest

Tomorrow’s City Showcase gig is hugely significant for me for lots of reasons, partly for my career but also because of a strong connection to the venue – London’s 100 Club.

Sometimes lots of paths just so happen to converge at a single point in space and time. Call it fate or coincidence (in fact can we just grow up and call it coincidence?), it’s nonetheless equally magical and amazing.… Read the rest

One of the first rules of popular music is get to the chorus as soon as possible. But this misses out on one of pop’s finest institutions – the double first verse.

Everyone knows the chorus is the heart of a song – the hooky bit that sells it and gives everyone what they want. But whatever happened to screwing with people? We don’t have to give them what they want, not yet, and that’s why I like a good double first verse. My top three in reverse order:… Read the rest

Feet Don’t Fail Me Now has now been playlisted by over 40 radio stations, and had some big airplay on Dermot O’Leary’s Saturday afternoon Radio 2 show. Thank you Dermot! By all accounts he actually cares passionately about the future of music and young songwriters, contrary to what you might expect from watching X-Factor… (sorry X-Factor fans but it’s true!)

I’ve done so many radio interviews I have to be careful not to launch into a traffic update every 5pm. Although you can’t beat the big all-powerful Beeb, I’ve been so impressed with some of the smaller local and community stations. They’re often staffed by volunteers who do it for the pure passion of it, for the thrill of having a microphone in front of them and a big bag of CDs… Read the rest