Therapy For Me

W/C 3rd July 2023 There isn't any really definitive reason why or when the 'High School Prom' arrived in the UK. Most of the returns on the first page of a google search (because in reality when does research actually extend beyond that) seem to coalesce around the notion that it was due to their visibility on American TV shows around the turn of the millennium. I can't really disagree with that a...

W/C 26th June 2023 It turns out the capacity of Headingley is a little over 18,000. Probably a statistic you didn't know that you needed in your life, but it may help a little in terms in context as you listen to this weeks compact episode of TFM. In my third year of University I lived but a few hundred yards from where I found myself sitting last Sunday, so I was able to have a pre-match stroll a...

We toss around the phrase 'where does the time go' without actually giving it any real thought, but we perhaps should. This week has been such a week. I am struggling to believe that I have a son that has reached sixteen, sat his GCSEs and left High School. But he has, and after a pause to regroup over the summer he will be off on his next adventure. It is also coming up two years since we lost Da...

W/C 12th June 2023 That should be it. By all conventional standards we should have seen the back of him. Following a damning verdict from the Privileges Committee, and another week of histrionics and pyschodrama, I am hoping we are not only near the finish line, but actually there. The manner of his exit was totally on-brand, screaming self-pity and blaming everybody but himself. It was as predict...

W/C 5th June 2023 Somethings just aren't meant to be. It's a brilliant idea, and the kind of thing I would normally be all over - but for whatever reason there is a part of my psyche that built it up into something that it was never intended to be, and in doing so put a great big block in the road that I struggled to get around. The human mind is a funny old contraption, and mine is no more or les...

W/C 29th May 2023 It's a simple little thing that has made my day today. I hadn't actually realised it had made my day, until I found myself reflecting on it and chuckling to myself in that way that catches you completely off guard. I am not going to say anymore at this point, and just invite you to share the experience by clicking here . See what I mean, isn't that just the coolest thing ever. I...

W/C 15th May 2022 This song packs a real lyrical punch, it's honest and raw, sparse and powerful and I continue to be moved by its power. There are a few elephants in the content of this weeks TFM, so it gave me a perfect opportunity to share it with you. Stay safe. Elephant - Jason Isbell Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism fo...

W/C 8th May 2023 The one thing I didn't mention this week was the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It's a corker and it did that thing that The Force Awakens did, in that it took me right back to how I felt when I saw the original all those years ago. I think it is something to do with the music, or maybe it's the kind of grainy look of the footage, o...

W/C 1st May 2023 I am making Risotto for tea. In fact it is about the last thing I said on this weeks episode of TFM so it must be true. And just to confirm it is definitely for tea, because supper is a cheeky biscuit or two whilst watching the telly and dinner is long since in the past. There is a magic moment when you are making risotto and that is point when you add the wine. First up is the fr...

W/C 24th April 2023 The Brew Society figures this week so I thought I would let them have the first crack at describing it in their own words.. . Opening their doors in February 2018, Nino, Danni and Rich created The Brew Society as a collaboration project which was put together to create a relaxing, indie coffee and beer house within Leeds City Centre that serves speciality, high quality drinks....

W/C 17th April 2023 In a bit of a rush this morning as Josh & I are trying to make sandwiches, book trains and print off tickets. The reason is we are heading to Wembley to watch the Red and White Wizards (Sheffield United) in the semi-final of the FA Cup. Of course it is a somewhat pointless exercise as we are playing arguably the best team in the world in Manchester City, so we are expecting...

W/C 10th April 2023 When the Red Hot Chill Peppers sang about the dark side of the California they got it pretty square on the head. Of all the lines in the song the one that has always stuck with me is this one... 'Space may be the final frontier but it's made in a Hollywood basement' It gets straight to it for me, and it's been buzzing around my head ever since I arrived here. So much to love ab...

W/C 3rd April 2023 With the very best of intentions, and working to the boundaries of my abilities, some weeks I am just going to be late. And so it is for this easter episode of TFM. The recording went OK and the QC listen proceeded without a hitch. But due to a Saturday morning School Governors commitment - and the need to get a run in before I set off - the actual publishing and note writing di...

W/C 27th March 2022 Not a lot to say to tee up this weeks episode, it's slightly different to normal but you will get the gist as we go along. Maybe I am reading far too much into this and maybe this is merely the normal path of transition to a different way of framing the world. I do think the politics of division has a lot to answer for though. The one upside is that TFM came through again for m...

W/C 20th March 2023 I was trying to work out how unusual it was for the first day of spring to fall in the same week as the clocks changing to British summertime. The answer is of course ‘not that unusual’ and yet in my head those two events always seem to have a more pronounced gap. What doesn’t help is that this year it seems that winter wants to stubbornly cling on for a bit longer, so even tho...

W/C 13th March 2023 For many years the stadium announcer at Bramall Lane used to open match-day proceedings by welcoming the crowd to the 'oldest professional football stadium' in the world. As it turns out this isn't entirely true, because although professional football has been played there since 1862, they were already kicking a ball about at Field Mill in Mansfield a few months earlier in 1861...

W/C 6th March 2023 I probably wouldn't have put Richard Hawley together with Elbow if I am being honest, it's not a collaboration that would have been obvious to me. But I am really, really glad it happened. This song is something special, not only because the it is so interesting musically, or so beautiful lyrically, but because the two of them have a real chemistry and their vocal timbres work s...

W/C 27th February 2022 For one week only I am going to go with a lyric, rather than the actual song title for the episode name. The explanation for which comes in two parts; Firstly you have to watch this... MOTD FA Cup Introduction (or in better quality here if you are in the UK) And then you have to read this; The Greasy Chip Butty Song Oh and if you missed the game itself you might want to give...

W/C 20th February 2022 I have been literally dashing around all of this week, so everything feels a bit rushed and not quite thought through. As I type it's 05:53 on Saturday morning and I have a pile of stuff to remember before I jump in the car to head to The Guitar Show for the weekend. Of course I am bound to have forgotten something, but as of now I have organised the U10s football fixtures,...

W/C 13th February 2023 I love this song. And I never really imagined how I would get it into an episode title, but fortunately this week something unfortunate happened and here we are. I am a middling Peter Gabriel fan, I don't go al the way back to the beginning because I was never a Genesis fan, but I equally couldn't imagine a musical world without the songs that formed the seminal So & Us...

W/C 6th February 2023 I am going to have to use that phrase, that is becoming so well used that is now some form of self-induced irony loop. "we use the term legendary or unique far too often these days, but in the case of xxxxx it really is true" Of course I am going to fall into the same trap, and insert the name of Burt Bacharach into that particular sentiment. Not because I am a huge fan parti...

Five minutes ago I didn't know this song existed. When I decided on the title song for this week, I was thinking of the Paul Carrack penned track (recorded by Ace in 1974) and it was only when I was searching out a link that I discovered this gem by George & Ira Gershwin. Of course there are multiple versions too choose from, and although I am not a card-carrying Van Morrison fan, I do think t...

W/C 23rd January 2023 By the time you get 10 minutes into this weeks episode you will realise that I have been fulfilling a bit of an ambition. Of all the things that struck me in those few hours on Tuesday, the one I wasn't expecting was the attitude and approachability of the people that worked there. They were very friendly, and very helpful, and very engaging. I ended up chatting quite a bit (...

W/C 16th January 2022 There is a (welcome) return to rantiness this week, and it probably doesn't take a genius to work out what has got my dander up. I happened to listen to the The Counterweight this week, which is a really great Thea Gilmore album from 2017. The War is the final track of the album proper and begins as a lyric in response to the senseless killing of Labour MP Jo Cox, a few miles...

W/C 9th January 2022 I hadn't even realised it may be birthday week until I started typing the notes. Now you may know that I have a bit of a difficult relationship with the whole idea of my own birthday, but I am fairly relaxed about it as far as TFM is concerned. Of course I can't be 100% sure when the exact date is, and I imagine there will be divided opinion on the matter. Episode 1 was publis...