The song “When I needed a neighbour were you there? Were you there”¦” goes into the annals of my own personal history as worst EVER song at Primary School. (Closely followed by ‘I am the Lord of the Dance, said He’…Shudder.)

Why the dislike, you ask. Well, it’s got the most dreadful tune, words, vibe and general awfulness about it. For me, it conjures up the smell of dying cabbage, holes in my tights, maths homework I couldn’t do and the smell of wee from the girl who never washed. (She was lovely, but she shared a bed with two sisters. Who never washed either.)

That song is about as pleasant as being inadvertently spat on by someone who’s just eaten a pack of Iceland tuna vol-au-vents. Or perhaps slightly less so?

Music has an incredible way of bringing back memories doesn’t it? I have howled my way through supermarkets as an old song comes over the tannoy reminding me of a by-gone era. I have had my mood totally turned around by an up-beat song. I’m sure you have felt the same.

As a fairly new song-writer, I feel the power of some of the songs I write. Not because I have written them”¦ but because they have come to me in a kind of ‘downloaded’ form. I don’t really ever feel I work hard to write something. It just seems to wash over me like a gentle wave, and I try and catch it before it goes again. It is nothing much to do with me. I don’t read or write music. I’m not that great at lyrics.

Occasionally I get what I feel is an ‘anthem of my soul’ and I just rejoice. I haven’t got anyone here that I sing with or create music with yet, so its all about me and God for now. But I am enjoying the space to try new things with Him.

I really hope that some of the things I am writing have an impact of others. And not in the ‘Were you there?’ sense”¦

I have a theory about good music though. Most of the time when I love a song, a melody or a lyric I think it because it sounds familiar. I get the sensation that I have heard it before. The book of Ecclesiaties says there is ‘nothing new under the sun'”¦ in musical terms I feel that is very true. Whenever I hear a song and get that feeling I smile; something deeper is going on. My spirit is connecting to the spirit of the song. One of my favourite ways to spend an evening is at a friend’s house sharing ‘tunes’. Two of my closest musician friends at Uni, Rupert and Jez got me into that habit”¦ It tells you a lot about another person to hear the songs that move them.

I currently have my builders playing hard core trance in my kitchen. I think its making me type faster and remember that I have urgent business far away to attend to.

Music moves me. And today, quite literally.