I've had quite a lot of time to think over this year, and a lot of things to think about.  We meet very few people in our lives who show true, unadulterated belief in us as individual human beings.  Dont get me wrong, I have a lot of people in my life who I trust and believe in me, but I'm talking about people who change your perception, and understand you more than you thought possible.  If I exclude my family and my wife, I can list them on one hand.

There was Mr Lewis, my form tutor at Senior School.  A true welshman with a gift for exaggerating everything - but someone who believed in me, pulled me back from the brink on a number of occasions and ultimately taught me to understand that we live our lives to better ourselves and overlook the failings of others.  I always planned to go back and thank him after school but he passed away suddenly before I had the chance. 

Then there's my best mate in the whole world Simon ....he never comes to see me play, never answers his phone, he's the only person I know who can't tell his left from his right (truly - hand signals are the only way to direct him in a car) but he has always believed in me and always pushed me beyond my comfort zone, he always tells it like it is, even if it hurts a lot (and eventually I will write a song about him, but only when he stops nagging me to do it...). 

Finally and most recently there's Ian Wright. My Manager.  Ian believed in me enough to invest a lot of his hard earned cash in me.  He believed in my songs and the meaning behind them, and he understood what makes me tick as a human being.  Quite rare that....  I'm a complicated soul... I have a lot of issues and a lot of history that means it can take people quite a while to understand what makes me tick.   Ian got it straight away.  Moreover, he actually told me things about myself that I didnt even understand until he told me.  He put things into context, and helped me to grow as an artist.  I only knew him for just over a year yet when he passed away suddenly in the summer of this year he left a gaping chasm in my life....

So here I am, a long way from the person I was a couple of years back when I started out on this journey of musical enlightenment...  I've written a load of songs I'm really proud of, and I only hope I've done all those people who believed in me proud at some point along the way...  I used to think there was a little bit of everyone in every song I've ever written, but the truth is there isn't... theres a little bit of everyone who believed in me somewhere in my head, and they keep pushing me harder and harder and harder....

I WILL finish album No.1 in the new year... (plan was to finish it by Christmas but I was gazumped in the studio by another band)..  so in the meantime, there's a new song up on my player.... Inspired by Ian, and written about everyone who doesnt get 'it'....