Growing up in Glossop, with weird, folk-loving parents, I never had much contact with popular music. So when, one day, my dad once took me upstairs to the stereo there and introduced me to this song via a old scratchy record, it left quite a lasting impression on me.

This is of course Brian and Michael’s number one hit, Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs.

And parts of Ancoats where I used to play

Now I live in one of the famous cotton mills in Ancoats that Lowry must have walked past and which probably influenced his paintings, I can’t help but be inspired by the “simple man” who once said:

“I am not an artist. I am a man who paints.”

Bridge over the Rochdale Canal, Ancoats