I love a bit of guitar! This guy is the business. (so are his regular band RAQ)

Back in the Spring of this year I witnessed a house fire in my street. I had a camera with me and took a few photos of the firemen in action,the billowing smoke etc.
I then emailed the photos to the local Ealing newspaper.

The following day I had a telephone call from a reporter from the paper. He thanked me for the pictures and then asked me a few questions about the incident. In true tabloid style he asked me my age. You know the kind of thing, Madonna aged 50, Kate Moss 32 etc. Anyway, without thinking, (something I'm very good at) I blurted out "I'm 51.."

Oh how I regret this confession.

There are a couple of mums I know who live locally who have taken to shouting
"Al Stuart 51" at me, as they pass me in the street. They think it's highly amusing.

I don't very often think about how old I am, but recently I've had a few reminders.
A couple of weeks ago my oldest and best friend from art college was down in London with his wife visiting their kids. I met them as they came off the Underground.I don't get to see them very often and I always imagine them looking just like they did in the 70's. There they were coming up the stairs from the train, looking like me, a lot older than the fresh faced long haired art students we were. (I hope they don't take this the wrong way!)
Seeing someone I've known that long makes you realise that you're older than you like to think you are!
The other indicator of impending old age has been at a couple of concerts I went to recently. Stephen Stills guitar player with CSN, who played at Woodstock was in town.
Looking round the Shepherds Bush Empire before the lights went down revealed a sea of grey hair and middle aged spreads! I also went to see an old, fairly obscure prog rock band called Nektar. I was a fan back in the early 70's.
The audience at the small but friendly Borderline were the usual old hippies like me.
The band were probably even older. Close your eyes and it could be 1973. Open them and you'll see the keyboard player have to put his reading glasses on to see what was next on the set list! The drummer looked like my dad.
Nick my advertising copywriter and friend (of a similar age) have decided that perhaps the Ad industry thinks we can't cut it anymore. So we've launched our very own food website.
www.foodepedia.co.uk
Nick is editor and I've decided I'm creative director (stop laughing at the back). We've been out and about interviewing chefs, going to cookery demonstrations and enjoying some wonderful free lunches. Who says there's no such thing!
Mind you there's no escape from the 'age thing'. We constantly meet lovely PR girls who are young enough to be our daughters. We attended a cocktail evening at the very posh Langham hotel, the four young PR girls awaiting the arrival of the hotshots from foodepedia, only to turn round to see two blokes in their early 50's shuffling through the door!
Still in true Jeremy Clarkson style, being an old git isn't going to stop me wearing jeans, leather jackets, cowboy boots (yes really) and it won't stop me going to gigs either. Mind you in a few weeks time those mums will have to revise the number they shout at me.....Al Stuart 52 :-(

February and its time to go see the latest US guitar slinger, you know the kind of thing, started playing at the age of two!
This was Joe Bonamassa and his band. Touted as a blues guitar player his style is very much in the classic 70's hard rock envelope. No complaints from me,Shepherds Bush empire is Sold Out. Quite impressive for an artist not well known over here in the UK.
We've got tickets in the stalls,and position ourselves with a reasonable view of the stage. That was until the world's tallest bloke and his best friend (who was runner up in the competition) come and stand right in front of us! I'm six foot -ish and I had to stand on tip toes to see anything, no such luck for the smaller members of our party who only had the back of a xxl demin jacket to look at.
Still the sound was good. You could feel your trousers flapping in the 'wind' from the speakers,and the next day a fine whistling sound in your ears. Rock n Roll.

March. Were off to see the rather excellent british blues/rock guitar player, Matt Schofield at the Borderline in central London. A nice little venue. We arrived early and got seated with an unobstructed view of the stage. I took my camera along and despite the gloomy lighting I managed to get a couple of good photos. We've seen Matt a lot of times and he always puts on a great show.
Next month were going to see the Black Crowes at the Brixton Academy. Their only UK date which has sold out, looking forward to that gig.

This weekend our kitchen/diner had its official launch or should that be Lunch?
On Saturday we had my brother and my dad and their partners over and on Sunday ,my brother and sister in law. So it was my chance to slave over a hot new range cooker.
It's certainly easier to entertain now with the extra space.

Working in advertising or graphic design, to people in ‘ordinary’jobs is either a glamerous job filled withbeautiful people, exotic photo shoots and long lunches.
Or a world populated by a bunch of overpaid art school nancy-boys and lemon sucking po faced women with heavy drug habits, making really annoying commercials for the latest Ford Menopause sports utility vehicle..
My expertise, if you can call it that, is through -the- line advertising. This isn’t your fancy big budget commercials (or films, as top creatives call them). It’s all the stuff the superstar creatives wouldn’t touch with yours.
The Direct Marketing, the Door Drop, the Shelf Sticker, the end of gondola display(don’t ask ).
Sure, you do get the occasional ad to do. But there’s no huge photo shoot. It’s probably a Trade ad, or a small black and white ad in the regional press.
Oh, and don’t try to have a witty headline or some stylish photography. There won’t be any room left once you include the coupon (with a scissors motif,just in case people don’t realise they have to cut it out to post it ), the telephone number in a type size for the hard - of - seeing and the starburst telling you to hurry while stocks last!
Since going freelance most of my work has been for small,through -the-line Ad agencies needing a hand with creative work for new business pitches. This can be quite excitng. A blank pad, with no restrictions.
I usually ride (bike) into town. Meet the creative director and account exec at the agency to be briefed.It only takes an hour or so, I sit in the board room sipping my coffee, stroking my chin, nodding sagely and playing with my stylish Oakley reading glasses (age!) in a creative person sort of way,whilst they waffle on about target audience and other facinating facts.
Briefing over I ride home again.I usually have a couple of days to come up with some ideas. Agencies expect three routes or campaigns to show to their prospective client.
So that’s one straight fairly safe route, a slightly more edgy idea,and a really mad,crazy idea that all the creatives like but the MD'wife hates.
I usually present my ideas as magic marker sketches on layout paper, but increasingly agencies expect you to present visuals produced on an Apple personal computer. ( Mac visuals)
This brings me neatly round to the other area of my freelance work.
Graphic design.
I sometimes wonder how small Graphics outfits make any money at all. I have people call me up having seen my ad in the local Yellow Pages. They’re looking for, in the main, letterhead and business card design but sometimes even a logo and complete corporate identity .
These callers are, like me, small businesses trying to make a living. however when I mention my fee they gasp in amazement. “that’s a bit steep” they say .
It seems that they think I do this stuff for fun, I tell them I have 25 years experience, and I do this to earn a living in much the same way they fit replacement windows or whatever.
The trouble is at the back of their mind they’re thinking they could always design it themselves!!.
Since the advent of the dreaded PC nearly everyone thinks they’re a designer. I need look no further than my own father! A man in his mid seventies he spends his retirement designing posters and flyers for various organisations in the Warwick area on his home PC. He rings me from time to time to ask advice on type or how to retouch out a splodge on a picture in Photoshop!
Don’t get me wrong the PC/Mac is a very useful tool. In days gone by if I was doing a visual that had,say, a black background with white type, it would take forever hand drawing the type and then carefully colouring in the background round it. Now I can have the background any colour I like,I can change the font, its size, its colour,
its position on the page.
All at the click of a pearly white Apple mouse.
Thankfully however there is still no “ idea button on a computer!
So perhaps my skills and experience are good for a few years yet.
Work