Reflecting on the past year in blog post form, my vintage highlights reel if you will, is a long standing tradition by now. It’s one I like to keep – both to check in with myself about where I am at and what I’ve achieved and experienced, as well as to keep those of you who follow my career and support my music updated and in the fold! This year though, I’m facing a bit of a conundrum: I may not be able tell you about the most important and special things that happened in 2025…just yet. Sorry. Moving on swiftly to the highlights I can share with you…
2025 started with a bang as I was invited to go on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour as a guest to talk about my book The Piano Player of Budapest and its accompanying album back in January. This was a real bucket list moment for me – my dad used to listen to this programme religiously and would often call me to enthusiastically discuss stories and subject matter featured on the show (Surprised? Don’t be! About 40% of listeners each week are men). So it felt particularly meaningful for me to be a guest and to get to mention him and talk about my grandfather and our family’s story. It was such a huge pleasure meeting host Anita Rani – I still think this picture snapped in the studio makes it look like we’re in a feminist psych-rock band together. You can still listen to the episode (sadly sans musical interludes) on Spotify:
Also in January 2025: my book was published in Hungary and was book of the month in one of the biggest bookshops in Budapest! It feels so special to have Stephen’s story told in his mother-tongue and it really means a lot to receive lovely messages from Hungarian readers! Throughout the early months of the year I got to talk and perform at several literary events here in the UK – most significantly meeting and talking to survivors at North London’s Holocaust Survival Centre. I’m grateful for every person I get to meet and learn about through this book…it truly does continue to be a magical journey that I’m incredibly thankful for.
Another book highlight in the spring of 2025 was speaking and performing at Guernsey Literature Festival together with the brilliant Xenia Pestova Bennet! It feels a fever dream now: flying to the island and singing my grandfather’s songs at a sold out show in a beautiful, old church, hiking along the blooming cliff-sides and cold-water swimming in the icy, crystal blue sea (yes I actually did that…thanks to Xenia’s encouragement…it was not as terrible as I thought it would be!)
It wasn’t all book stuff – I also got to tour opening for both The Veils from New Zealand and the brilliant Anchoress on a couple of her UK shows. And in addition to performing and promoting the book, I spent the first three months of 2025 organising and hosting a three-part educational event series all about how to build a sustainable career in music for the legendary Roundhouse in Camden. I really loved putting these events together (amazing to have such inspirational speakers on board such as Kate Nash and Dave Okumu!) and seeing the enthusiasm and excitement across the attendees faces (these events were for 18 – 25 year olds as that’s the focus of the Roundhouse charity). I really enjoyed project managing and would definitely be up for designing more educational events for artists in the future.
Paperback Writer
“Dear Sir or Madam won’t you read my book?” 2025 was the year this Beatles obsessive become a bonafide paperback writer! Huge thank you to my publisher Little Brown for involving me in the creative process and for making the paperback version of The Piano Player of Budapest look this stunning…I love the Wes Anderson vibe and continue to be so excited to find them in bookshops across the country! To celebrate the launch, I got to travel around the country for a little Waterstones tour in the height of summer, holding events in Bristol, Liverpool (the paperback launch – couldn’t have been more appropriate than to do that in Liverpool!) and of course in Stratford upon Avon. Thank you to everyone who came along…all three of these felt quite special, although the launch in Liverpool definitely takes the proverbial cake.
And speaking of writing…I did A LOT of songwriting this year…like, more than ever. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever written as many songs as I have in one particular lighting-strike-week in March and throughout the month August. The latter was undoubtedly helped by attending my very first ever songwriting camp – Chris Difford’s songwriting retreat at the beautiful Pennard House! What started as a totally impulsive wildcard of an idea turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. I got so much out of it – firstly, the surroundings were just magical and the host lovingly curated the group of artists and guided us really thoughtfully through the week. I left with a whole new perspective on songwriting, sharpened tools and, most importantly, new friends and collaborators. So for any songwriters here reading this – I’d 100% recommend you apply if you fancy trying out a songwriting retreat. It was so worth while. I rode that creative wave throughout the next months – the timing, unplanned as it all was, couldn’t have been more perfect, cause I immediately after, I…
Another super special moment of 2025 was bringing my grandfather’s music back home: In October I was invited to take part in Hungary’s Margo Literary Festival to give “A Budapesti Zongarista a proper launch”. I cannot thank my lovely Hungarian publishing team enough for organising the event, as well as a personalised tour of Budapest by the brilliant Elza Morcsanyi, who showed me and my family members around Budapest, visiting some of the hotspots and places my ancestors frequented – it felt like I was on my very own episode of Who Do You Think You Are! Talking about my family’s story to an Hungarian audience felt special and, given the currently political climate in the country, poignant. I don’t know why, but I was surprised at how comfortable I felt in this city and how easy it was to picture an alternative reality – one in which my family could have stayed, uninterrupted by war, Budapest.
Back on the Road!
Your support act, here on duty! Chances are, if you discovered my music this year, you most likely saw me open for someone. Right after the Budapest, I had the huge pleasure of opening for Rumer at Liverpool’s Philharmonic (stunning night, thank you Rumer for having me be part of your Seasons of my Soul anniversary tour!) and speaking of anniversaries and momentous occasions: in November I went on tour opening for Howard Jones on his UK tour in honour of the 40th anniversary his album Dream Into Action: eight dreamy shows in some of the most stunning halls in the UK, including the legendary London Palladium! I just had the best time on this tour… Howard isn’t just the nicest himself, but he has built the BEST team & crew around him and they make touring just such a joy! There’s nothing I love more than getting to perform in these kind of beautiful venues and play to such openminded audiences…it makes my job very easy and so, so fun. Honestly, every night of this tour was a highlight, but the most special moments were probably the audience clapping and cheering to my 99 Luftballons cover every night, getting to perform “together with” my grandfather in these gorgeous venues (where his music belongs!) and the catering…which was pretty amazing (it’s not every day that someone who’s cooked for Beyonce prepares food for you!). Oh, and Sharon Corr from the Corrs told me she really liked Red And White Blood Cells at the Palladium afterparty, so that’s also something!
The London Palladium show really does deserve its stand-alone paragraph in my 2025 highlights blog – what a dream to perform on such hallowed boards! Everyone, from Buddy Holly, to The Rolling Stones and Madonna have graced that stage! It’s apparently also the birth place of Beatlemania… maybe it’ll be RDB-mania next…! Luckily, we were able to record the show! You can stream or buy my cover of Nena’s 99 Luftballons exclusively from my Bandcamp page as of now! If you’d like to hear the whole show, go check out my Patreon Community (they were sent the high res wav file of my whole set just ahead of Christmas).
This highlights blog would be amis without the show I got to play together with the Anchoress at London’s Union Chapel (this one was sandwiched conveniently on an off-day of the HJ tour, meaning I could do it all!) – I’m so grateful Catherine (AKA the Anchoress) invited me back – this show at the Union Chapel had something very special about it and I hope to work together with Catherine more in the future!
So all in all, 2025 was a pretty great year for shows…Honourable mentions go to the Five Years of Folklore show I hosted at The Green Note, the couple of festivals I got to play in Germany in the summer and my show at Darlington Library – met lovely people at all those shows!
My final gig of the year was the annual Beatles celebration show I host together with my good friends Thom Morecroft and Graham Holland of Liverpool Acoustic. Regular readers will know all about these nights: a cast of great local artists, a night of Beatles songs (this year celebrating the 60th anniversary of Help! And Rubber Soul), lots of special performances, and a lovely atmosphere.This time we sold out the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room and raised over £1,000 for Choose Love!
Which brings us to the end of the year: It’s been a remarkable 12 months, one for the history books in fact! I know that sounds like a Trump-like brag, and boy does my own little life with all its ups and downs feel small against the background of creeping global dystopia, but it really has been a year full of incredible moments and opportunities that I’d never imagined for myself. I cannot wait for it to unfold.
So here we are in 2026! Sorry for the classified part of this blog post, but I promise to bring you new music and a hell of a lot of excitement soon! It will have been five years…and that is kind of a clue. Thank you for being here, for supporting my music and independent artists, I truly couldn’t do it without you – Happy New Year, here’s to you and here’s to the next one!
Always nice to read your annual Blog and looking forward to 2026 and UnRedacting some secret “stuff & things”.