This was proper amateur dramatics: the kind where the worse things got, the more entertaining they became, and where the most recognisable voice was the prompt. St Laurence Church Players had audiences in stitches decades before The Play That Goes Wrong became a smash hit.

At The Music Man Project, I often talk about the importance of role models. I’ve been blessed with outstanding musical role models in my life and the first of these is the world-renowned theatre organist, Robert Wolfe of the magical Thursford Collection in Norfolk.   August 1987, the Thursford Collection. I’m 10 years old and on a family holiday, one of many the Stanleys enjoyed to Norfolk in the 1980s. I wriggle restlessly in my seat as we wait for the music to start. As so

On Thursday 20th May 2023, Southend Council bestowed on me the honour of Freeman of the City of Southend - the highest recognition a city can bequeath on an individual. As I entered the Council Chamber, I noticed only one name under the Freeman of the City heading: my friend and Music Man Project President, the late Sir David Amess. Sir David posthumously became the first Freeman of the City after Her Majesty the Queen awarded Southend City Status in 2022. Presenting my scrol

If my students had lived 50 years ago, they would be discarded in mental hospitals and treated as sick patients alongside anyone else deemed a burden on society.