Therapy For Me

W/C 24th February 2025

I found myself watching the first Rambo film last night, partly because it was there and partly because I haven’t seen any of that particular franchise.

Clearly they were films of their time, but it is interesting that the original - which was called First Blood and has since been rebranded as Rambo: First Blood - bore little resemblance to the genre it effectively spawned.

It got me thinking about the parallels the Deep Purple Machine Head, which I had also listened to for the first time recently and which also sounded nothing like the musical style that the band is cited with creating.

As far as both were concerned I was pleasantly surprised. I guess it’s a reminder to always experience the source material first hand, and always make your own mind up.

Stay safe.

Coffee and TV - Blur

Documentally substack

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 17th February 2025

It really has been a revelation listening to some CDs again, the only real downside is that I had forgotten the effort it takes to read the album titles up on the high shelf in the back room.

You will understand what has got me to this point when you have listened to this weeks TFM, but in real terms it means I have given the following a spin;

• Symphonie Fantastique - Hector Berlioz
• Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen - Various Artists
• Small World Turning - Thea Gilmore
• Green Light - Cliff Richard
• Something to Be - Rob Thomas
• Crazy on the Weekend - Sunhouse
• S P Q R - Steve Hogarth
• Eyes Wide Open - Snow Patrol
• Let it Bee - Voice of the Beehive
• Melissa Etheridge - Melissa Etheridge
• 12 Songs - Neil Diamond

I am not convinced I would have surfed that lot down on Spotify.

Stay safe.

Running With Our Eyes Closed - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Harrison Ford

Illinois State of the State Address

W/C 10th February 2024

As I have mentioned before, there are some weeks when it comes around to TFM time that I literally have nothing.

Over time I have learnt not to panic, trust the process, and hey presto something appears right when I need it and away we go.

The same is also true of writing the notes.

So even though I finished this weeks TFM last night, I am still waiting for process to deliver, to allow me to finish the notes. I am staring to panic a little because I am hoping to get out for a run in the next twenty minutes or so.

I am sure something will come to me.

Stay safe.

Think for a Minute - The Housemartins

Julie Hartley Brewer

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 3rd February 2025

Whatever we thought was going to happen when the world became more connected, this absolutely ain't it.

I have spent the last few weeks speculating on the 'end-game' for the sector I work in. Not quite existential, but certainly diminished to a point that would have been unthinkable when I first wandered into a guitar shop back in the mid-eighties.

Of course it is part of a bigger pattern, where the problem isn't the information we have at our fingertips, but the difficulty we now have in being able to navigate it.

In the past effective oppression has come in many forms - physical, structural, spiritual - all of which kept people in their place. Our paths today are influenced by the sheer quantity of information we are bombarded with, and our inability to make any kind of sense of it. So after starting out with the best of intentions of becoming better informed, we put our heads in our hands in despair at the doom-spiral we are locked in, and just give-up.

Because the path of least resistance may not be enlightening, but it certainly is easier.

Stay safe.

This Ain't It - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Journalism is collapsing in the middle of the information war - Ian Dunt

LALAHO Piano

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 27th January 2025

You may well have heard of Rob Thomas, and if so it is entirely possible this is down to the Santana tune Smooth. Not only did he sing on that track, he also rewrote the lyrics and melody.

My Rob Thomas story starts in Durham, on a Sunday afternoon and the purchase of the first Matchbox Twenty album from a little independent CD shop just this side of the bridge.

It is a cracking album called Yourself or Somebody Like You, and it was followed up by the equally sublime Mad Season.

Fast forward a bit and Rob releases his first solo album - Something To Be - which I end up getting slightly obsessed with for a while.

I finally got to see him/them in Manchester in 2008. They were touring their first hits compilation Exile on Mainstream. You will be pleased to know they didn’t disappoint.

Stay safe.

This is how a heart breaks - Rob Thomas

When the heartache ends - Rob Thomas

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 20th January 2025

I just need to accept the inevitability of not sleeping when I arrive here.

But no, for the first two nights I tried to outwit my old LA nemesis by every single combination of pillow and bedding known to man, in the vain hope that I would unlock the mystical elixir of deep and unbroken sleep.

You are aware in an instant, on awaking at 03:17, that sleep as an option has been pulled from the menu, so why would I believe that having one foot out from under the covers and one of the pillows folded double will somehow make a difference.

I tend to give up just after five, and pop the coffee machine on.

Stay safe.

Old Friends - Simon & Garfunkel

Redondo Beach Pier

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 13th January 2025

Because I am not sure what to write this week, I am going to back fill a few bits of extra information on some of the stuff that came up...

• Duke Special was born just a few weeks before me in Northern Ireland, and the song of his I am banging on about was released in 2005. There is a Marillion tie-in as he often works with Ben Castle
• Pride and Prejudice (sort of) has just begun its run for this year, and is going to be on the road for quite a while so you have a good chance of catching it. The website has the cast details, and jolly fine they all were. Don't think about it, just book and go.
• According to onlineopticiansuk there is a chart to help you pick reading glasses, and apparently for my age I need a 1.50 to a 2.00. The strength of all reading glasses is measured in dioptre, with units increasing by 0.25 dioptre depending on the power of the lens. So there.

Stay safe.

Freewheel - Duke Special

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 6th January 2025

It's always a little strange that the first couple of episodes of the New Year also mark the end of another year of TFM.

Here we are at episode 52 of season 5, which means that next week will mark the beginning of my sixth year of banging away at whatever this curious little podcast actually is.

Anyway, whilst searching to see if `I had used this weeks episode title before (which I had) I took a moment to stop and read the episode notes from back in January 2021, and as it turns out it was that episode when I made the decision to publish in seasons, as it marked the end of the first year proper of the pod.

Strange how these things make sense of themselves...

Stay safe.

Seasons End - Marillion (with Friends)

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 30th December 2024

Having made the decision to go with Old December as the title track, it turns out I have already used it - way back at the end of December 2021.

That left me with the dilemma of what to do, should I consider something different and if so should I re-record the final bit of the podcast? Of course that would have meant selecting another tune as an episode title, and nothing was coming to mind.

Should I go back and rename the earlier episode? Not a bad idea, but I would have to go back and listen to it to try and select something suitable, and I am not overly excited about that prospect.

Or should I just power on and repeat myself. Well it is a great tune.

Stay safe.

Old December - Thea Gilmore

Ashley Jackson

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

W/C 23rd December 2024

Here we go then, the Christmas TFM.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching a lot of Christmas specials, you know the kind of thing Not Going Out, Gavin & Stacey, Frasier, Click & Collect, etc, etc. I have been over indulging in them for the reasons we do anything at this time of the year; they are there and they make you feel good.

And I think some of that Christmas Special formula has permeated its way into this week's episode. Think about it, it feels like a normal episode but somehow it isn't quite the same, it has an unashamed Christmas vibe and it is a little less ranty and a little more mushy.

Of course any series that has been running this long would be expected to deliver some form of festive special, after all it is the law, so I am on point in that respect.

Stay safe.

P.S The other Christmas Carol spoken TV episode I was struggling to recall was Simon Callow.

That'll be Christmas - Thea Gilmore

Hendersons Relish

Sheffield Lyceum Snow White

Therapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.

If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.