Loz 1964

son/father/grandfather

A noisy pub outside Petworth becomes a time machine the moment Loz starts talking, carrying us straight back to Southampton in the late sixties and seventies. We get into street football with one car a day, climbing trees, roaming until hunger called you home, and the wild logic of exploring half‑built housing estates with absolutely no health and safety in sight. If you’ve ever wondered what childhood freedom used to feel like in working‑class Britain, his memories are vivid, funny, and occasionally a little alarming.

Music threads through everything. We swap the songs that pull you back in an instant, the ritual of Top of the Pops, and the Sunday chart countdown you tried to tape without the DJ talking over the intro. From there, the conversation widens into class and expectation — being nudged towards trades, being told what you couldn’t do, and how rarely anyone explained a route to bigger dreams.

Then we shift into mental health and the pressures that arrive later in life. Loz speaks openly about anxiety and panic attacks, what sets them off, and the habits that help: slowing down, talking to someone, choosing the road over the sky when flying feels impossible. And at the end, a simple lesson lands with real weight: enjoy your days, treat people well, and if you feel the pull to change course, take the plunge.

If this episode resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend who’ll relate, and leave a review with the memory — or the song — that takes you straight back.

At 9:45 there is a slight lost of sound for a second, “it’s not you, it’s me”.

Mud - Tiger Feet (Live TOTP 1974)

Anxiety Help

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Memory is Fragile

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Lee 1951

grandson/sailor/traveller/DJ/adviser/musician

A quiet corner of Sussex opens the door to one of the most wide‑ranging life stories I’ve ever recorded. Sitting with Lee, we begin in 1950s Great Yarmouth, where summers meant guest houses, seaside theatres, and helping his nan run a busy holiday season. His dad worked the beachfront with a camera, and Lee’s first taste of performing came early — a singing competition in 1957 that he won before he even knew what a stage really was. Boarding school followed, and with it a fiercely independent streak that would shape everything that came next.

That independence carried him into the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, where engineering skills led unexpectedly to diving. Lee talks about the cold, the darkness, the pressure, and the discipline of ship’s diver training — and the extraordinary moment he became one of the early divers on what’s believed to be the Mary Rose, long before the world watched her rise from the Solent.

From there, his story widens again: driving a Bedford truck across Africa with twenty passengers, months on the hippie trail through India and Sri Lanka, and then four surreal, electric years in Montreux as a full‑time DJ. He crossed paths with rock royalty, worked with Queen, and even narrated a film for HR Giger about the making of Alien. Later came the hard lesson of losing his home to soaring interest rates — and the decision to become a financial adviser so others wouldn’t fall through the same cracks. Eventually, he sold his business and spent a decade touring the UK as ‘Robert Plant’ in a Led Zeppelin tribute band.

If you enjoy personal history, Royal Navy stories, Mary Rose diving, overland travel, Montreux nightlife, and the art of reinvention, this one’s for you. Press play, share it with a friend, and tell me which chapter of Lee’s journey you’d have said yes to.

The wreck of the Mary Rose was located in 1971 and was raised on 11 October 1982

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Memory is Fragile

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

All Steve's People - Steve 1963

family/son, husband & father

A rough sea, a low sky, and the bridge to Hayling Island set the tone for my conversation with Steve — a story about what truly holds a life together. As we talk, he takes me back to a Portsmouth childhood framed by open doors, tight streets, and the hard memory of standing between warring parents. His mum’s grit — three jobs, empty cupboards, and not a hint of self‑pity — becomes the moral baseline he’s carried ever since: show up, work hard, do right.

Family, for Steve, arrives in unexpected shapes. Ray never married his mum, yet lived as “grandad” if not in Steve’s eyes, then certainly in the eyes of Steve’s children. Then there’s Bob, the father‑in‑law who modelled what a good dad looks like: honour, steadiness, and unfussy generosity. The day Bob introduced him as “my son” rewired something deep — a simple phrase that offered a sense of belonging and a standard to live by.

Threaded through it all is Julie, the girl he walked home from a school disco just before they turned fourteen. Together, Steve and Julie build a family business in financial planning and later wills and trusts — a partnership shaped by graft, loyalty, and a shared instinct to look after people properly. Enter Jasmine (Jazz), the daughter who earns every step, surpasses them in qualifications, and eventually becomes the mentor. When a seizure forces Steve out of the driver’s seat, clients love Jazz for her clarity. She modernises the culture too, swapping “back in the day” barked orders for calm guidance and turning complex pensions into plain English.

At the heart of the firm are the “afterlife meetings,” where bereaved families receive clear explanations and a map for what comes next. It’s service in its purest form: keep it human, help where you can, and put family first. Across mother, step‑grandad, father‑in‑law, wife, son and daughter, one creed holds everything together: don’t be a dick. Do the right thing, even when no one’s watching.

If Steve’s story resonates, follow and subscribe for more conversations about love, work, and the people who shape us.

Jazz really is a force to be reckoned with, hence I say it three times!

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Have a story echoing through time? I’m listening—300 words or fewer.

Memory is Fragile

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."