Roy Stannard's Blog

When you think you know it all, ask the next question

  • Are you made of the write stuff?

    Regular visitors to this Blog will know that I indulge from time to time in creative writing and will have found evidence of this in the form of poetry, an unfinished novel and a short story for children. Putting something like that on your Blog is usually the closest one gets to actually publishing one’s… Read more

  • Work Life Balance. Debunked.

      For years now I have been driven into by well-meaning NLP practitioners behind their Life Balance Wheel, determined to get me to score every aspect of my life in a harmonic way. The point of this exercise is to throw into sharp relief elements of my everyday existence out of kilter with the rest. The metaphor being… Read more

  • Seagulls by Roy Stannard

      Seagulls There must always be seagulls Just as there were When I struck  lucky And met you Offering you a lift In a quiet seaside town Where nothing happens, except us. That was ten years And many seagulls ago But the same sense That anything could happen Happens again As I look into those… Read more

  • Roy Stannard’s Top 150 Albums of all time

    Grace by Jeff Buckley – Arguably, the best album of all time. OK you asked for it. I don’t expect you to agree with me, but here they are – some of the best music ever produced on the windblown terraces of God’s own earth – Roy Stannard’s Top 150 Albums of all time. 1.         … Read more

  • Selfless – a psychological tripwire by Roy Stannard

    Colm was a generous man. He had been brought up to believe that the more he gave, the more he would be rewarded later in life or in the life after. As a child he had shared his toys with his friends at school, unselfishly. He had lent his things to people he hardly knew… Read more

  • Excavating the Eighties Pt 2 – more rare 12″ vinyl

    Won Ton Ton’s singer Bea Van Der Maat  is probably the reason to explore this Belgian Eighties outfit. After Chow-Chow, the forerunner to Won Ton Ton split,  Bea started a career on television and sang in the LSP Band. Her popularity got the group a record contract. In 1987 the group reformed – under the name Won… Read more

  • Writing a letter of application using Auto-Response Psychology

    A young friend of mine called Mark asked me to look over a letter of application he is writing for a Grad job in the City. It was a good letter, full of earnest expressions of enthusiasm for the job he was applying for, direct and honest about his achievements to date. Anyone reading it… Read more

  • Who’s to blame?

    We live in a blame culture. If we fail our exams, it’s the fault of the teacher – or it could be the environment we grew up in, or the school. If we trip over a jutting flagstone, then it’s the fault of the Council and we reach for the solicitor’s telephone number. If we… Read more

  • Rare Eighties music gems (ripped from 12″ vinyl)

    Jonathan Bernstein and Beatrice Colin together formed April Showers – a fleetingly brilliant Glaswegian pop duo who released just one single “Abandon Ship” on Big Star, a subsidiary of Chrysalis in 1984.  It quickly gained a cult following due to its sparkling production from Anne Dudley (Art of Noise) and string-heavy arrangements. This quality was echoed… Read more

  • Adorable’s last album – Fake – another lost classic

    Dismissed by some as less immediate than its predecessor, ‘Against Perfection’ (1993), ‘Fake’ is actually better written and produced with at least three all-time classic rock songs and impassioned singing throughout from Pete Fijalkowski. The reason that Adorable have lasted better than some of their contemporaries (Slowdive, Ride, Curve etc) is that Pete’s voice and guitar… Read more