Therapy For Me

W/C 2nd November 2026 As is often the case, for the second week on the spin I have returned to the Dels for my episode-naming inspiration. Like many others I have had a little extra bounce in my step since Wednesday, but in reality it is was more of a dismantling than a ringing endorsement of a positive alternative, hence why this track feels appropriate. I still think there is a lot of kicking an...

W/C 26th October 2026 The obvious choice was to go with Blondie, it's better known and I could argue it even makes a little more sense in a "purely-physical-geography-look-at-the-height-of-the-water" kind of way. But I love this track, it's a lovely little song, a great example of what a good album track should be, and why Del Amitri are a belting band, and Justin Currie is a kick-ass songwriter....

W/C 19th October 2026 Way back at the beginning of all of this I had a couple of rules of thumb as far as the template for TFM was concerned. The first was that as far as possible it was to be a spontaneous reaction to what had made an impact on me in the last week or so. Unscripted, unedited and unique, to the point that had it been recorded a day, an hour or even a minute earlier it may well hav...

W/C 12th October 2026 When I am considering the episode titles for TFM, I often make quite tenuous links to odd bits drawn from that weeks chat in order to get something to fit. Quite a lot of them feel like a square peg in a round hole, and sometimes it's the longest part of the creative process of the podcast itself. it's actually the most stressful part of my Saturday morning. This week's was a...

W/C 5th October 2026 The title choice this week isn't some form of play on words, or sentiment inspired by one of the topics I am talking about. It's far more literal than that. The song itself came out in 1995, which is significant because at that point I was living in the north east and just a few miles from the river in question. It's a great song, and it sums up perfectly both the place itself...

W/C 28th September 2026 So it’s been a long while since I have been to the Hammersmith Apollo, and I am not sure I have ever sat upstairs before. I am finding it a little hard to imagine this place (in the way back) when it was a picture house, and what it must have been like to pitch up for a movie in the company of three and a half thousand other folks. i am also struggling to come to terms with...

W/C 21st September 2026 2 quick things, because I am very late to meet a man for a German breakfast. No QC this morning, Mrs S. has been able to get some peace, so it might be an editing-car-crash. Let me know if there is stuff I need to fix. What is it with duvets in German hotels, like a postage stamp and the towels aren't much better. Stay safe Travelling Alone - Jason Isbell Therapy For Me (or...

W/C 14th September 2026 In the car on the way home from the cinema on Wednesday, Jack and I discussed three things about Raiders of the Lost Ark It is genuinely quite a disturbing film, and deserving of its updated 12A rating. It isn't surprising that I was a little traumatised when I first saw it on the big screen at the age of ten. Is there anybody cooler than Harrison Ford The 2013 episode of B...

W/C 7th September 2026 This week's TFM is a little late, 44 minutes and counting. It's because of a bag of bolts and assorted fittings. A bag that is imperative if you want to transform these bits of wood, frame and perforated metal shelving into a shoe rack. And I would dearly love to do that. I won't bore you with the details, but it involves a nineteen year old, a second year student house and...

W/C 31st August 2026 I have always seen inbetween as one word, but it turns out it should always be written as two. So when I used it previously as an episode title, I employed it incorrectly. I thought about correcting it, but I have decided I am going to leave there as a 'note-to-self' to be better in the future. I can only apologise. Stay safe. In Between Days - the Cure Therapy For Me (or TFM...

W/C 24th August 2026 I was going to go with Sweet Transvestite as the episode title this week, simply because it that cinematic moment I most associate with Tim Curry (seriously, is there a better entrance in a movie ever...?!). But I decided to go with this one, as it feels more in keeping with the impact that TRHPS has had one my life. From the movie to the stage show, from attending in costume...

W/C 17th August 2026 The TFM-whilst-travelling episodes invariably have one thing in common, and that is they end up being some of the longest I record. I really enjoy being able to capture audio in a travelogue style, and whilst that may play havoc with your Saturday morning, it helps me process the stuff I have seen (and heard) whilst I have been mooching about. So I give you a week in Catalonia...

W/C 10th August 2026 I am not quite sure what happened to the QC last week, but whilst recording TFM this morning I picked up on the fact that we had two Thursdays last week. Thinking back, I don't remember any form of official-calendar-based-anamoly so I am guessing it was just a cock-up on my part, and another example of me not being able to complete a simple task. I was reminded this week that...

I am half way through the new Dan Brown/Robert Langdon book and I am thoroughly enjoying it, even though it is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Why? Because it is fairly woeful. Not only are all of the RL books the same, but we are definitely in diminishing returns territory. Like most people my first experience of his writing was The Da Vinci Code, and I maintain that the first couple of hundred of pa...

W/C 27th July 2026 I am finding it hard to believe that I haven't used this song as an episode title before. Indeed, so concerned was I that I had and the search function in my hosting platform wasn't doing what it should, that I sorted it alphabetically and then checked it twice. The reason is simple, I have had so many special experiences over the time I have been recording TFM that I was convin...

W/C 20th July 2026 I ended up having a bit of something to eat at Pizza Pilgrims this week, a funky little chain that I was aware of, but never actually frequented. It all turned out fine, the staff were friendly and attentive and the pizza was more than acceptable. In preparation for the weekend to come I opted for the Amalfi Coast, which meant Anchovies, Capers, Olives and at least two types of...

W/C 13th July 2026 If I think about it rationally Dublin is no more of a city of contrast than any other. Most places you visit are marked by the different stages of their development, or the businesses that thrived there, and Dublin is no different. Depending on where you find yourself there are similarities with Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and of course Liverpool. I guess the reason w...

W/C 6th July 2026 At first I thought the marketing algorithm might have lost the plot? I say that because this week I have been getting some very extended posts about the benefits of collagen, and the difference it can (and has if the posts are to be believed) made to the lives of many suffering the symptoms of the menopause. As you would expect my first thought was how and why are these finding a...

W/C 29th June 2026 Never, ever, did I expect to be using this song as a title inspiration for TFM. I do have previous with it, because back in the day it was a third-set-staple when I was out playing the pubs and clubs of a weekend, in various parts of Yorkshire. But that still makes tacking it on as a reference to a section all about Brexit a little bit of a stretch, but there we are, that is how...

W/C 22nd June 2026 No word of a lie, I popped out yesterday to try and buy a fan... And of course you are right to ask the obvious, what kind of a lunatic tries to buy a fan on day three of a heatwave. Well after a near-military effort to keep the house cool Josh's room was still in need of a bit of assistance, partly due to user error, partly due to house design and aspect. And, for what seems li...

W/C 15th June 2026 Toyah took me to the Beatles, and the Beatles took me to Sarah McLachlan. (Of course it starts with a Apple TV box-set, but that will become obvious as you listen to this weeks episode…) It could so easily have been Toyah, as ‘It’s a Mystery’ is one of the earliest chart tunes I can remember being fixated on (thinking about it, if you throw in Prince Charming and Stand & Del...

W/C 8th June 2026 Because this week is a bit of an 'on location' episode I didn't get around to mentioning a few other things. Firstly, the parking notice appeared for APCOA who handle the parking at Manchester Airport, a cool £100 fine for genuinely forgetting to pay the £5 charge. As it turns out I was in the parking zone for 2 minutes and thirty-five seconds. I may well still share my thoughts...

W/C 1st June 2026 So I was in a hotel on Tuesday night, and I did that thing where I was just flicking through the TV channels and I chanced upon a film I hadn't seen in a long time. In this case it was The Hunt for Red October, and although I hadn't planned to, I settled back and gave myself over to a film I had seen many times before. Personally I think it is a belting movie, great cast and real...

W/C 25th May 2026 I like things in group of threes or fives is possible. So the fact that naming this week's pod Thunderstruck means I have four touchpoints to the AC/DC classic is a little unsettling. The first is the song itself, absolute banger - no disagreement allowed. The second is the fact that it was used spectacularly well in the soundtrack of the Pixar film Planes. The third is excellent...

W/C 17th May 2026 There is something so satisfying about wandering around selecting the wood I need for a project, getting stuff cut to size and whipping out my 5m measure to check some widths. I appreciate it's more than likely a bloke thing, and probably only one that hobbyists get a buzz from, but we have a cracking example in Huddersfield and the cohort that work there are super helpful. This...