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It’s now heading towards two and a half years since I began work on The Record. Going back to the start of the year and I wanted to have the book finished by the end of 2018. I haven’t managed to achieve this, but I am certainly on the homeward straight with it now, and plan to have it published during 2019. Spring is my target, but don’t quote me on that. It will be ready when it’s done… It’s been quite a year with the book, and I’ve met some amazing people, so I thought I’d document what’s happened in 2018.

At the very start of the year I met Olympic gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu in East London. It was a bitterly cold day, and I only took off my coat and jumper to do a photo with the stop bowel cancer t-shirts I’d also just launched. Since our meeting Christine has announced her retirement from athletics.

At the end of January I travelled down to Brighton to meet Jeremy Cunningham, the bass player with The Levellers. We met at the band’s Metway Studio, and it was fascinating talking to him about the band. He gave me a fascinating tour of the studios. Later on during 2018 to complete the chapter the band organised me a photo pass for their gig in Basingstoke.

In February I had a very special experience meeting Biff Byson from heavy metal legends Saxon before their gig in Cardiff. I got to see a bit of the soundcheck, before we had a chat in his dressing room. I was then given a photo pass, so I was able to photograph the band in action. It was an incredible experience, and extremely loud. I think my ears have just about recovered.

In March I met comedian Lucy Porter at Norden Farm in Maidenhead, which is a place that always has an extra special meaning for me. Located in Altwood Road where my folks lived from 1960 until they died, and where I grew up. Lucy was great fun, and I stayed to watch her performance which was hilarious.

As we entered April, and winter gave way to spring, I met former England cricketer and Guardian journalist Mike Selvey just outside Milton Keynes. He was fascinating to talk to about not just cricket, but his long career with The Guardian, and of course his many years working for Test Match Special.

May saw me travel to see The Alarm play in New York, and then a few weeks later play in London. It was there that I met their former roadie Gareth Jones aka Gaz Top, who went on to have a highly successful career in television. As you can see Gareth is a huge Slade fan, and more recently I got to see him perform ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ at the Smiley Christmas gig in Ascot.

As the summer heatwave took hold, I met Sarah and Richard Haugh just outside Reading on a very warm evening. The couple live in Scotland, but were down south visiting Richard’s parents. Richard had stage 3 bowel cancer, and his story is hugely inspirational, as is Sarah’s, who as well as caring for Richard during his illness. also spent a number of years working as a moderator on the Beating Bowel Cancer online forum. Richard has now past the five year milestone since being diagnosed with bowel cancer. I really enjoyed meeting them.

June also saw me meet Rick Witter, lead singer with Shed Seven. I travelled to see the band play in Northampton, which fell on the same day that England played Belgium in the World Cup. Fortunately the match was shown on a big screen in the venue, so a possible disaster was averted. Rick was brilliant, and I enjoyed chatting with him outside the venue. The concert that followed was absolutely brilliant, and I don’t think I’ve seen a better frontman than Rick.

Things went rather quiet during July and August, and it was probably around this time during the year that I realised that the book would not be finished by the end of the year. If I am honest it was all getting a little frustrating, but all this changed when I met Siân Lloyd in September. Not only was our meeting great fun and interesting, but Siân was able to give me some really useful advice, which gave me new impetus and I haven’t really looked back since. We met at Dartmouth House in Mayfair, and I arrived there hoping to have perhaps half an hour with Siân, and ended up chatting for two hours. Siân also made sure that I got the best photos possible, and there was much laughter throughout. She is an incredibly nice lady, and the meeting is right up there in my favourites for the book.

The photos were flowing as we entered autumn, and on a very warm October afternoon I travelled down to The Principality Stadium in Cardiff to meet the former Welsh rugby international, Rupert Moon. He was brilliant, and he really went that extra bit for me and the book giving me a guided tour of the stadium.

Into November, and I travelled down to Southampton to meet Greg Gilbert and Stacey Heale. Greg is the singer with the band Delays, as well as being an accomplished artist. If you scroll back to the top of this post, and look at the prototype book cover, you will be looking at one of Greg’s pieces of art. Greg has stage 4 bowel cancer, and his wife Stacey gave up her job as a university lecturer to become Greg’s carer. They are two of the most lovely people you could wish to meet.

Meeting Kim Wilde was a real highlight. Although we had made contact at the beginning of 2017 the trail had gone cold, and I had almost given up. Thankfully I managed to get a response from her management, and she was still keen to be in the book. The meeting in Hertfordshire was brilliant. She talked about her career in music, and couldn’t have been nicer.

Into December and I got to meet one of my favourite bands Skinny Lister before their London gig at The Garage in Highbury. In fact I got to see their soundcheck, which was a terrific experience. I had already photographed them from the photo pit 18 months earlier at their gig at The Scala, so this was a great way to finish the chapter for the book.

My final photo of 2018 was with Steve Norman and Sabrina Winter. I met the couple in Brighton the week before Christmas. Steve is the saxophone player with Spandau Ballet, and Sabrina, a singer in her right, is not just his partner, but also his manager. Steve is a wonderful talker, and I could have quite happily spent the whole day listening to his stories. After we finished the interview we had great fun taking the photos, and they were happy to do as any photos as necessary to give me what I needed for the book.

This is just as a selection from the year, and there are simply too many to be able to include everyone in this post. I have also met Deborah Alsina, Jacquie Beltrao, Jim Rosenthal, The Tearaways, Gregg Wallace, Ed Bazalgette, Nick Robinson and Matt Allwright. I couldn’t quite get all the photos and meeting completed by the end of 2018, so I have a busy start to 2019 trying to complete the meetings. Hopefully I will get everyone left who has agreed to be in the book, but there is now a time element forming in my head, so it’s possible I might miss out on one or two. However I have already got around 60 chapters completed, so the book is looking in great shape.

I can reveal that in early January I will be heading to Scotland to meet a couple of ladies, Olivia Rowlands and Gillian Wood, both of whom have had bowel cancer. I also have two more ladies in Cheshire to meet. Helen Johnson is five years clear of bowel cancer, and Kelly Smith is living with stage 4 bowel cancer. These will no doubt be very humbling and inspiring experiences for me. There are still a few celebrity photos left to do including a meeting with Gail Porter, who I have kept in touch with, and become good friends with from the last book.

Keeping following this blog for all the updates, and hopefully news of publication for spring 2019. I am really excited for this book to be seen and read. It’s been a massive undertaking, but something that I’ve really enjoyed doing. I will miss meeting people when it’s all over. Not sure what will follow the book, but that can wait for a while…

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