A new addition to my studio: A classic Shure 55s mic. This one was manufactured in October 1954 and appears to be totally original. It sounds great too - as in it doesn’t sound great but it sounds exactly how you’d think it should sound. Known as The Elvis mic for obvious reasons.

Learning to fly a glider with the RAF cadets. The guy on the winch fell asleep on takeoff as we were 1000ft up. We stalled and just recovered control before we crashed, writing off a 2 week old glider. I was actually remarkably un-hurt. They sent me straight up in another glider to get over it

Nerves of steel Danny! Mastermind came to my school when I was 17. I was head of sound at the school theatre. I sat in that chair with the lights on me. Terrifying. It was my first interaction with the BBC and the OB sound guys told me who to write to to apply for a job. Six months later I was in.

Happy 100th birthday Dick Van Dyke!

That Julian Simpson is quite good actually.

Found the relevant pages, feels like an eyewitness account of the creation of the world, yeah that's hyperbole but holy shit

I can’t sum it up any better than this. Thanks Steve

Nine years ago Mike Fitzgerald wrote up an extraordinarily fascinating breakdown of the differences between the Tom Stoppard shooting script and the original Jeffrey Boam draft of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It's well worth your time: www.creativescreenwriting.com/indiana-jone...

I’ve only recently come to realise how much David Bowie and his work shaped who I wanted to be as an adult. Not to be like him, but to follow my own path. School career advisors said there was no point applying to BBC for their sound course but I got in as youngest ever. events.bl.uk/events/david...

I’ve been thinking all day about the amazing Radiohead gig at the o2 last night. I bumped into a few friends by chance and had the best time. I was still at the aftershow as the time ticked over into my birthday today.

On a way to a job in the Midlands and stopped off in Stratford. This is the room that William Shakespeare was born in.

Interesting bit of archive from 1979 for Kate Bush fans. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQoX...

My favourite photo from tonight’s bonfire celebrations in Lewes, taken half way up the high street.

Lewes castle from our garden. Just now

Family Christmas presents incoming…

Destroying some already broken laptops before taking for recycling. Recording interior and exterior drops, slides, fumbles and pick-ups. Recording at night to avoid birds and traffic.

I think he’s seen me.

How can we use SOUND to enhance story-telling? A date for your diary if you're anywhere near the delightful @gladlib.bsky.social on Saturday 17th January and you're interested in writing for either books or radio. To kick off my time as writer-in-residence, I'm doing a day-long 'masterclass':

I just knew it. I was prepping some snooker sound effects that I did with John Virgo years ago for a show next week, and I said to myself “I bet I come across loads of John Virgo stuff in the next few days”. It begins.

It is a bit weird when I see a video of the Radio Museum and I realise I’ve spent literal years of my life sitting behind two of the three exact desks they have on display there. (The old Radio 1/2 desk and the Radio Sussex one). I feel old but it is quite a cool thing. youtu.be/ZjDXKQ63RaI

The desk at the end of the video below is the exact desk that I used for years at Pier Productions, old Radio Sussex building. Here’s a pic of it in its original location just before we decommissioned it. The amp that powered the speakers (Quad 306) now powers the centre speaker in my own studio.

The Greenwich Meridian on the first night of GMT

I arrived to record a show yesterday and the internal power supply of my big desk had died. Aargh. Thankfully I always travel with a spare desk of the same type (but smaller channel count) so I was up and running again in 5 mins-ish. Phew. Parts to fix main desk arrive tomorrow. 🪛 🔧 ⚡️

Here's a video of the Bayeux Tapestry being carefully removed from its case and packed away. I had my heart in my mouth while watching. And yes, I do have nightmares about it crossing the channel! I had my heart in my mouth just watching this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ys...

I’ve done a bit of ambience recording over the last couple of days. Beachy Head, top and bottom on consecutive days. 500ft cliffs on the Sussex coast. Just about managed to avoid the rain

In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”

Slows in a jar with sugar and gin. Looks like a Pixies album cover.

Picking Sloes to make Sloe Gin. It should be just about ready for Christmas.

this was recorded as an encore, after we’d made homecoming, the first episode of which - the one we recorded in addis - might just be the best half hour of sound i’ve ever made, and which you can no longer hear legally *anywhere*. shame. it was really good.

it’s international poetry day so here’s lemn sissay reading invisible kisses at a gig we did in addis ababa

Amazing story of four vintage clothing dealers rescuing depression-era workwear from an Appalachian farmhouse, and the story that the very visible mending tells of a family with nothing, doing whatever they could to make it through. prelovedpod.substack.com/p/one-thousa...

Legendary 93 year old designer Dieter Rams (classic Braun, Vitsoe and a huge inspiration on Jony Ive/ Apple) has won the World Design Medal. His approach of simple environmentally responsible design has always spoken to me. I love idea of “Joyful seriousness” in design www.vitsoe.com/gb/voice/wdo...

A friend just sent me a voice note so long it was brought to me by Squarespace

Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From

I missed the broadcast as I was on holiday but this is now up on BBC Sounds, produced by Laura Grimshaw and mixed by me. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Went out to see the blood moon and found a very nice couple with a very big lens taking a photo of the moon from the end of our drive. Clouds meant we didn’t see the red phase though www.instagram.com/p/DOUNEFxjCp...

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge? It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.

Beyond their work as The Turtles or as Flo & Eddie with Zappa, T. Rex, Springsteen or Alice Cooper, Volman & Kaylan also had a stint as the house band on the CBC’s 90 Minutes Live with Peter Gzowski, where they also interviewed other artists—like David Bowie. youtu.be/iS1pixsC_i4?...

Dying to know more about this photo.

On a Zoom with John Bolton last night for BBC Too Long Didn’t Read, (talking about “The Special Relationship”) and a few hours later he got raided by the FBI. That would have been tricky for the programme if it had been a few hours earlier! On Radio 4 at 6:30 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

My son wanted an Oxblood Fender Precision Bass for his 18th but they don’t exist (affordably) so we got a blank body to put onto my old black Squier. Several coats of dye done and now the first coat of laquer is drying. (Wood block in place of neck is to hold at correct angle when applying lacquer)

@myke.social re: M2 MacBook Air. FWIW I sometimes have to make significant changes to 200 track Dolby Atmos projects on an M2 Air on the train and it doesn’t break a sweat (Pro Tools rather than Logic though). I suspect your problem is not the hardware in this case. M2 Air is a magical machine!

Daguerreotype image of the hand of fishing boat captain and slavery abolitionist Jonathan Walker showing the “SS” (for “Slave Stealer”) that the US Govt branded on his palm after he tried in 1844 to help runaway slaves in Florida find freedom in the West Indies (Massachusetts Historical Society) 🗃

Harvest Moon. Landport Bottom, Lewes

AMV BBDO WTF?

David Byrne came to my band’s show at a gay bar in Bed-Stuy and sang This Must Be The Place with us and I still haven’t processed it

This is one of the best ideas I've heard in ages.

Oh Mavis! We all bow down to you.

Recognise.

@lbflyawayhome.bsky.social did you see this? www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/...