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Back in London I filmed an interview for BBC television to be shown in the autumn. It is part of a series of three programmes about Buddhism in the UK. After this I took the film crew to the Barbican concert hall to meet my friend and fellow Buddhist, Herbie Hancock. We explained the practice and chanted together at his grand piano in the dressing room. It was both bizarre and natural at the same time. Herbie told them how he had started practicing and what an influence it had on his life and consequently his music. We also discussed the importance of culture, in its broadest sense, and music in particular; how it can lift everyone’s life condition, open our lives, give us a sense of communion and make us feel truly human. Anyway, for those who are interested there is an article on Herbie talking about creativity in the features section. Click here

Next off I did an interview for BBC Radio Northern Ireland in which I spoke to drug and alcohol counselor, Beechy Colclough about life, love and the universe. It will be broadcast on August 17th. For those of you outside the UK you can read the transcript in features next month.

The following week I visited another old friend, Maxi Jazz, who has been enjoying the most amazing success over the past few years with Faithless. I have known Maxi for a very long time, prior to his recent success, when he was an aspiring Buddhist rapper working for British Telecom. He is communicating in a very different way nowadays! He and his crew are currently experimenting with the multi-tracks of “Always Something There To Remind Me”. We are not sure how it will turn out but if it is any good you will definitely get to hear it!

I have also started an email communication with a really interesting young French recording artist and technican, Fred Avril – you never know….

There have been a series of “then and now” articles and ../pics in the British press recently. I thought you might find them amusant. So here goes….