Take a trip to the top of the Empire State,
Take a walk across the Golden Gate,
March, march, march across Red Square,
Do all the things you've never dareD*
At 16, completely uninvited, I strolled up to the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon at a press event in Manchester, fielded a few off-the-cuff questions, and pretended to take shorthand in a spiral-bound college notepad. Nobody batted an eyelid. I was in.
I learnt from the best. Writing in The Face, Fiona Russell-Powell was an early call to arms, so too the fearless prose of Lynn Barber. "Always tell the unvarnished truth", advised the reigning queen of spleen.
It's the most important thing I ever jotted down.
Working for titles such as i-D and the late Record Mirror, it struck me that a career spent denting egos might have its virtues. Breakfast with Donny Osmond ensued, followed by a blunt exchange with Public Enemy. I chewed the philosophical cud with Scritti Politti, made The Smiths single of the week, and survived on a diet of warm white wine and dead peanuts. Writing about whatever took your fancy seemed like the way to go. It still does. And it is.
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I've interrogated men about their proclivities for titles such as V, Another and Fantastic Man, and been commissioned by The Guardian, El Pais and The Independent to opine, review, and direct people to things they didn't know they wanted. Even better, I've had the pleasure of psycho-analysing a disparate bunch of characters, including memorable exchanges with Joan Collins, Fran Lebowitz and the odd Warhol superstar. Give me 45 minutes and I will extract the parts other hacks fail to reach.
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Travel is key. There are few things more rewarding in life than landing on foreign soil with everything to gain. I've Harleyed from Melbourne to Hell with a pride of Angels, lost myself stupid in deepest Sweden, and bedded with Bedouins in deepest Wadi Rum. Hotels, motels, Holiday Inns - I've thrown my towel on countless marble floors, and slipped on several in the process.. People think travel journalism is the best job in the world. It's certainly the best to see it
Welcome to my world, then, a place where Empire State humans, off-the-scale locations and platos combinados converge in the best possible fashion.
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Everybody needs love and adventures.
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* P Oakey / P.A. Wright
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management US, LLC
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