Unpicked in 5

Kurt Cobain ,Elvis Presley, Amy Whitehouse, Micheal Jackson ,Prince ,Karen Carpenter, Whitney Houston, George Michael ,Jimi Hendrix ,Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison are all pop starts that died early from either suicide or drugs or something similar. Goerge was worth £200m when he died and Michael £500m. Seemingly these people had everything to live for and achieved what most of us can only dream of...

Interview with Brady Kent Check out another Radio Interview with Brady Kent and his ‘Unpicked in 5’ Podcast series (35 Editions) with David and Jon on The David Bowers Awards Show in the USA and other Radio Stations #BradyKent PLUS #TheGravesBrothers guest EXCLUSIVELY on #TheDavidBowersAwards https://buff.ly/LVo9gU1 @ladylakemusic @artistrack @radiowigwam @euroindiemusic @indie_music_1 @ekletrikre...

Interview with Brady Kent Check out another Radio Interview with Brady Kent and his ‘Unpicked in 5’ Podcast series (35 Editions) with Peter Lewis on "In The Cooler" (Sun 5pm) on www.thefeelgoodstation.uk (S. England) "In The Cooler" ( Sun midnight) on www.yourhitsdigital.com (Ireland)  “In The Cooler” (Tues 2pm) on www.countywideradio.com (Manchester) “In The Cooler” (Sat 2pm)...

Carla Bruni is an Italian singer song writer and was a First Lady of France. She was born in 1967 into a wealthy industrial family. Her Father was a classical composer and opera director, and her mother was a concert pianist – wow what a start in life. The family moved to France , when she was five, to avoid a possible kidnap by The Red Brigade terrorists She studied art and architecture at Colleg...

I love California. I have visited many times, up and down the West Coast. I think my favorite places are La Jolla ( San Diego), Laguna Beach, Manhattan Beach and  Santa Barbara. I have visited 23 of the 50 USA states and still like California the best. The Golden State is the 3rd largest state after Texas and Alaska, with a population of 39m. It's the 5th largest economy in the world. The pac...

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty enlightening the world) stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. It's a symbol of freedom, democracy and opportunity. It welcomes immigrants to the USA. The idea for the statue was fist suggested in 1865, It was assembled in France ,then disassembled into 350 pieces before being sent in 214 crates to the USA. It was opened in 1886, some 139 years ago. There...

There is only one Melania. Of course I am taking about Melania Trump. She is 54 and has been married to Donald for 20 years. They have an 18-year-old son called Barron. Melania  was born in 1970 in Slovenia ( the old Yugoslavia). She is also the fist naturalized First Lady of the USA. She moved to America in 1966 and became a permanent resident. Melania was a professional model, scouted at only 16...

There are about 58,000 nannies working in the UK and about 75,000 au pairs. This is dropping by quite a lot due to Brexit and a change in immigration laws. A nanny is seen as professional employee, whereas an au pair is a someone on a cultural exchange visit. Generally, au pairs receive pocket money or a small allowance and work an average 30 hours a week and unlike a nanny, are not required to ha...

I hate winter. I have to go somewhere in November and February. Some see it as a scenic, cozy time of the year, when landscapes are transformed into a wonderland. A time for winter sports, unique events , health and wellness.  Also, a time for rest and comfort food. I don’t get much of this. What I see is a dangerous time for accidents and health, higher costs  such as utility bills) and cabin fev...

I quite like the phrase ‘Gotta squeeze the juice’ – not sure where I got it from. It’s the title of my ‘splitting up song’. From my point of view, writing a song is about being honest, getting to the truth and knowing what to leave out. Also ‘leaving space’ as someone once told me. It's also very easy to make use of cliches and well-known sayings to take short cuts. Then the song would sound...

Penelope is a woman I met in coffee shop a place called Marseillan in southern France. As a guess I would say she was mid 70’s. She was the epitome of elegance and had lived a very full life. It must be terrible to be a celebrity and have the press publish pictures of you at aged 20, 40, 60 and 80 , which of us grows old gracefully ? Whereas Penelope has. She reminded me of  Jane Fonda, Helen Mirr...

The word Euthanasia comes from the Greek words ‘eu’ and thantos’ meaning good death. Also know as  mercy killing, i.e. ending a life to relieve pain and suffering. It's separated into active ( taking action) and passive ( allowing a person to die) and voluntary ( with consent of the patient) and non-voluntary ( where the patient is unable to give consent). Involuntary is against the will of t...

I’m often challenged or I challenge myself to write a song about a subject I know very little about. I do quiet a bit of research first, so its and education for me but staring at  a blank page he still terrifying. One such subject is the gay community and in particular lesbian women. Where do on earth do you start as a middle class, white male from  middle England ! Around 2.1m people in the UK b...

I’m writing this podcast from La Rochelle in France. I'm on my way to Bordeau and Montpellier, having visited Biarritz, San Sebastien and Bilbao in Spain. I travel for 4 months of the year, writing as I go along, and hitting the gym ( by the way I follow Peter Atia for longevity tips !) Deciding what you do during your retirement years is tricky, particularly when you partner is much younger...

I have written one or two poems in the past about Autumn, waxing lyrical in full arty mode. However, other than nice looking trees, I’m not keen on Autumn. It spells the end of summer and the start of winter , which I’m not keen on in the UK. It’s one of the reasons I travel a lot. Some see Autumn as a unique season, a time of great beauty and transition. Green turns to red and brown and the natur...

Do you believe in the idea of ‘the one’ – the belief in the existence of a soul mate. To find the perfect mate as predetermined by fate. Some religions believe that spirits are split into two and you must spend you whole life looking for the other half. Overall, it’s a feeling of ‘it’s meant to be’. If you're dating it means you keep looking until you find him or her-not sure I would have the...

Santa Catalina Island or ‘California’s Island Escape’ is 22 miles from Los Angeles. It's about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. It takes about an hour ferry to get there from Longbeach. It’s a very relaxed, pedestrian friendly place where people get around on golf carts and bicycles. The Casino in Avalon , the capital, is well-known landmark as well the 500 strong heard of imported Bison.85% o...

For some reason I find it much easier to write songs about grief, loss, regret, failed relationships, war and all manner of failed connections. Whenever I try write a happy song it feels like a bad song from the 1970’s – unless you think all my songs are  bad –don’t answer that .The music industry calculates that 50% of all songs released are happy ones . Music platforms use advanced algorithms (...

Is God responsible for the death of loved ones and other awful events? Some believe God is all powerful and all knowing, therefore everything is part of his divine plan. Maybe God has greater vision and sees these events in a different way to us. Does he see all the complexities and then uses suffering for the greater good of mankind. Death is not seen as random but part of the plan for eternal li...

This is yet another happy song for all you that switch off sad songs. This is a nod to Romcom films, you know when we all gooey and shed a little tear. Everybody likes a love story with a big dose of humour. When Harry met Sally, Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle have gotta be my favourites as well as Notting Hill. The first meeting, the chemistry, the funny conversations, the obstacles to overco...

After University I joined my families Road Tanker business, based in the north of Englard for 3 years., working with my brother We would transport valuable liquids in 20 tonne road tankers to all parts of Europe and back. At the time the song Convoy, was very popular. I set this country song in Houston, Texas to exploit the iconic USA view of life on the open road. I love road songs like ‘On the r...

Do you remember the film the Fatal Attraction.  I do as I had a ‘stalking experience’ once  when I was much younger ( when I had hair !) The man in this film has an affair ( Micheal Douglass)  to then realise his lover ( Glenn Close) is obsessively possessive  and begins to stalk him. This is where the saying ‘bunny boiler’ comes from, if you remember the ending ! Who can forget it ! Through unwan...

I’m a fairly obsessive character, not giving up easily, I could go on, but you will probably stop listening. During my song writing career I have become a bit obsessed with the blues, probably my favourite music type. The genre has many sub genres like Delta blues ( my favourite),Country blues, early Chicago blues, jump blues, west coast blues ,Texas Blues ,and soul blues amongst others. I also li...

Why do people talk to their dead friends and lovers ? Is it because they believe they are ‘still alive ‘ in heaven ?. Its worth bearing in mind that about 100 billion people have lived and died, so the size of heaven would have to be a city about the size the of the USA and India combined or say Europe , assuming everyone is crammed in.  Women are 2.5 times more likely to  widowed than men. There...

As I get older, I have to do my best to avoid ‘grumpy old man syndrome’. There are many things that annoy the hell out of me. My number one is bad manners ! My grown-up children will tell you I drilled into them ‘manners maketh man’. They are both very polite. Second on my list are overused politically correct phrases like ‘lived experience’, ‘invalidate’, ‘gaslighting’, ‘marginalised’, ‘systemic’...