Realising the Future of Work

  Have I ever told you I used to be in a band? Yeah man, you were so rad… Well anyway, I’ve written a blog commemorating this fact and here it is. Now you know. Remember that band you used to be in as a teenager? You know, back when life was as simple as packing in your last class of the day, necking as many £2 pints in the pub next to college as you could in the hour before rehearsal with your mates, all showing up to the unit absolutely plastered and then just basically smashing your instruments together in a sort of frenzied passion before your parents came to pick you up at 9pm on a Wednesday each week? No? Well, fortunately for me I do – and I can tell you, it was pretty epic. Now I’m not some crazed rock god and will never claim to be – I just can’t seem to get the hair right – so rather than go down the usual rock band route we went down the… Disco, Funk and Soul one. After all, we had the instruments to make it work. How many college “battle of the bands” have you known to ...

  A large part of my passion for music was forged in the fires of the Wind Bands of my youth – if you can describe such collectives as “fiery”. This is the story of how I fell into them – and then of how the conductor within me was born… Whilst it wasn’t the first instrument I learnt to play, the saxophone has become the bedrock of my musical endeavours and certainly the instrument I am most fond of. To those who know me as a musician, I am a Saxophonist foremost, a Flautist secondly and a hobby Pianist very much thirdly (at best). What drew me to the saxophone was not just the infamous sound and pleasing aesthetic – but also the surprising versatility of the thing. Stronger together As a young musician initially focussed purely on solo piano studies, I had not experienced much in the way of ensemble playing. That was until I picked up the shiny yellow parp machine and had a good old blow. Here was something that was far easier to play, sounded way cooler, and opened up loads of op...