I stopped painting a long time ago. I did music instead because I found that making music was a more immediate form of expression. After thirty seven years years in the music business - making records, waiting for records to come out, touring (or waiting to tour), sitting in a moving vehicle waiting to get somewhere, waiting to soundcheck, sitting around in a grubby room waiting to go on stage, waiting to get paid...and so on - I'm beginning to re-think my position. I started painting again last year. I did so in order to raise money to release an album. I'd wanted to start doing it for a long time but due to a childhood spent basking in the glimmer of post-war austerity I needed an excuse to do it so that I wouldn't appear to be enjoying it.

I found that painting is a whole lot more immediate than making music, and I enjoy it hugely. I paint things that I like, I listen to records while I'm doing it. I have my themes - musical equipment, string packets, seed packets - anything with lettering on it - the ubiquitous 33s & 45s paintings (after my song of the same name), and more recently road signs and detergent packets. I'm not precious about this, everything's for sale and from time to time I even do requests. Or commissions as they're usually called in the art biz.