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I'm very happy to score my 38th No.1 record today with the new Snow Patrol album "The Forest is the Path"  It's the first time I've worked with producer Fraser T Smith but I sure hope it isn't the last!!

Someone sent me this link to a Youtube video where someone had taken the trouble to transcribe my Trumpet solo on the Jamiroquai track "Scam"

It always feel strange to see written down something which just flowed out of my head. Looks way too complicated for me to play! 😂 Click HERE to hear it.......

40 years after being in the Buddy Rich Band, I was very happy to return for a run at Ronnie Scotts in London with the version of the band run by Cathy Rich and Greg Potter. My fellow Trumpeters on this occasion were Simon Gardner, Craig Wild and Andy Greenwood. Simon is also an alumnus of the band as is the great Jay Craig on Baritone. I can confidently report that the music hasn't got any easier in the intervening years. Great fun, though!! 

I started playing with Jamiroquai way back in 1993 when we recorded the "Emergency on Planet Earth" album and here we are, 30 years later still playing together. I've been in, I've been out but through it all Jay and I stayed friends (and neighbours). This shot was taken at the Lytham Festival 2023 and clearly illustrates the amount of hair loss in the intervening 30 years!! 

After 10 years of loving this band, Brother Strut finally asked me if I'd like to do a tune with them. WOULD I??? You bet. And this is the result........

El Fuego written by myself and Steve Jones it's a latin infused, kick arse tune that we hope you love.

Brother Strut featuring Johnny Thirkell

Back in December when the Olly Murs album I played on went to No. 1, I rather casually claimed that it was my 27th Number 1 –  without really checking that that was accurate. I had sort of roughly started to keep count around the 15th and just added from there as and when they came along. However it seems that all this time I’ve been making false claims. I discovered this because, on that post a friend asked me to provide a list! Ooh. I’d never thought of that.

And so, one afternoon with a few hours to spare I googled a list of all the UK & US no.1 albums and singles since 1980 and, bugger me I was wrong. It’s not 27….. it’s 35.

I found another 8 albums that I played on which went to No.1 either in the UK or US without me realising.

When you're young these things don’t seem to matter and so I never really took that much notice. However, as you get older these small triumphs take on more significance. In a world where the young - quite rightly – gradually usurp the old, it’s as though we search for evidence of our achievements – however small. Some kind of reassurance that we haven’t wasted the time allotted us.

Now, I’m not suggesting that playing on a few records is evidence of a life well lived, but somehow it assuages that feeling that time is running out to make a mark on the world.

And so, for the sake of accuracy – and in possibly the most maudlin announcement of all time – I’m happy to say that the Shania Twain album that went to Number 1 in the UK this week is my 36th

I'm very pleased to notch up my 27th No.1 record this week with this little beauty from Olly Murs. Aided and abetted in the brass dept. by Tom White, Tom Walsh and Snake Davis, it just goes to show there's life in the old dog yet. Age is just a number (albeit quite a high one in my case)

Hoping to get to 30 No.1s before I pack it in (or it packs me in)

The lovely Melissa Brown invited me to witter on about trumpetty stuff on her excellent 'Bold As Brass' podcast. Naturally I was happy to oblige......

You can listen to it here....

Apple podcasts: apple.co/2Ab9vYR
Google podcasts: bit.ly/3dxquTD
Spotify: spoti.fi/3bhyEOF 

The great record producer and arranger Richard Niles (and dear friend) interviewed me for his podcast "Radio Richard" 

Watch the whole interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVyA68XIVQI

Following on from the recent "Sound of Silence'"campaign when the Musicians Union asked me to speak on their behalf to BBC Radio stations nationwide about the shrinking opportunities for children from poorer backgrounds to learn an instrument in school, I was invited to put the case to a House of Commons inquiry into social mobility in the Arts.

So, off I trundled to the Houses of Parliament and I told them what I thought. Makes a change from my usual audience of unsuspecting strangers and old ladies at the bus stop.

Check out the picture. 3 MPs, 2 Lords and  a tubby little Trumpeter. 

Five Goooooooold Riiiiingggsss.........

Today sees me score my 24th UK Number 1 with the new Paul Weller album 'On Sunset' It's only his 5th so he's got a bit of catching up to do! Haha 😂

Seriously, it was great to work with him again after playing with The Style Council way back in 1982 and happy to see he's not lost his touch. 

Click on the button below to see a short video of us making the album. 

A few weeks ago I met up with John Hutchinson, Trumpeter, Teacher and  creator of MouthpieceOnline.com, an amazing online resource for all things Trumpet. Over a couple of beers and a rather sumptuous pub meal, we chatted about the Trumpet and, more specifically, my career and approach to the Trumpet and the music business in general. 

Check it out.....

Number Ones are like buses. You wait ages for one then two come along in close succession. I'm very pleased to score the 25th No.1 of my career as K-Pop sensations BTS hit the top spot in the US Billboard 100. Produced by David Stewart, I recorded the Trumpet parts in my studio at the bottom of the garden and then emailed them to him. That's my kind of commute, folks. Though it's my 25th, I still get a buzz every time. Especially the US No.1s. 

Today we made the news! CNN announced our shows in the Philippines. they come straight after our tour of Japan - while we're in that neck of the woods.

Support act is Sybil, apparently. I remember playing on one of her albums back in 1996. Not sure if she'll remember though.

24 years and 5 albums later, I'm thrilled once again to be on the new Jamiroquai album which is released today. 

After my 10 year, self-imposed break from playing the trumpet in order to run my business,  it's great to be playing again - and what better way to celebrate than by getting back in the studio with my old mucker Jay. We've been close friends for 25 years and close neighbours for 15 of those, but to be back making music with him is an absolute joy.

He's no less demanding than he was in the beginning but that's the secret to how he keeps making consistently great music. 

Happy New Year everyone and I hope it's a great year for you all. The first half of  2020 is going to mainly be about Swing Out Sister for me. Not so much a tour but a series of short forays, starting with a Jazz Cruise in the Caribbean, if you don't mind!

I'm very happy to be back playing with such a great bunch of people.

Myself, Randy Brecker, Marvin Stamm and Markus Stockhausen share our memories of studying with the great Carmine Caruso in New York. Carmine was an absolute genius and was for me, the first teacher to address the mental and psychological approach to playing the trumpet.

In October we will be touring the US & Canada for 4 weeks of fun and merriment. Tickets are now on sale for all of the shows and, by all accounts, are flying out the door. So, if you wanna come, you'd better get cracking. We'll be doing the usual mix of old classics and songs from the new album. With a couple of surprise new band members too!!

News in today that the entire Lisa Stansfield European Tour is now sold out. So far we have had some absolutely barnstorming shows and, with only two UK shows left before we head across to mainland Europe, news that the Album has just entered the German charts at No.7 bodes well for the shows there.

Reviews of both the shows and the album have been universally very positive. Check this one from last night's show in York.

Tomorrow sees the start of rehearsals for the Lisa Stansfield Affection tour which will take us across 30 cities in 10 countries and almost 14,000 kms. As it's the 30th Anniversary of the release of the Affection album, we will be playing the whole album live on stage (with a few more of the hits thrown in for good measure). I will be doing my usual daily video blog which you can keep up with by following the link. Wish me luck!