So I’m on holiday – in Snape Maltings home of Benjamin Brittan, Peter Pears and the Aldeburgh Music Festival. The heart of Suffolk, white as white can be and the perfect antidote to running a black musical theatre company.

I’ve been coming here, on and off, for about five years now. I remember walking for the first time along Aldeburgh high Street and seeing a black man, the only other non-white person I’d seen in a week. A year later I returned and saw a entire black family; I thought they had to be American, why else would they be here? I’ve returned many times and now, just five years on, there seems to be an interesting development. A number of young black and mixed race kids with white adults. What is going on? Has this become the favoured destination for adopting families? Hanging out with the North London-on-Sea set. All this does is display my own preconceptions, prejudices and assumptions. I have no idea, other than the clear fact that, back in Snape, at the concert hall listening to a stunning performance of Argentine Tango my family and I are the only non-white people in the place. It could be London all over again: lots of colours in the streets, just one shade of white in the cultural palaces.

So why do I come here? Because it is beautiful; the landscape is full of fabulous colours, beaches in mid-August are sandy and, most importantly, largely empty. I can buy the best fish and meat from anglers and farm shops; the long walks are wonderfully restorative; I cycle, the kids can play football in huge fields or just run and run until they drop and I know they’re safe. Yes, occasionally I look at it all – the upper middle classes in their Glyndebourne-type outfits, the men in their striped blazers and everyone looking very ‘yacht-ish’ - and I question the cultural references but I think, “this place is gorgeous, why can’t we all have a piece of it?”.

In the middle of all these cultural validity doubts I meet up with my dearest friend and occasional accomplice, the supremely talented Alex Wilson. Born of mixed Sierra Leonean and British parentage, now he lives in Switzerland – work that one out.

He’s composer–in-residence at Snape and part of his job is working on the Aldeburgh carnival. Not quite Ladbroke Grove but if you close your eyes it could be ….well, Suffolk. Nevertheless he’s here on a mission to get some Latin tempos embedded into these angular Anglians. We have dinner with this excellent gentleman – John Mosessman -  who studied music under Benjamin Brittan and who then opened a chain of Swedish restaurants followed by an ecologically sound enterprise turning straw into building materials. He’s got two grand pianos in his house and musicians floating around everywhere. We talk music – of all types - till the early hours and I’m in Heaven, in Suffolk.

One of the more fun meetings was with Jonzi D. It is not common knowledge but I once directed him in a dance show when he was 14 years old. Was I therefore a major influence on the future hip hop artist, entrepreneur and yoof cultural ambassador?  It may be too early to tell. As ever, we talked for far too long and only occasionally kept to the subject we were meeting about, which was a potential project for the Cultural Olympics. Will it happen? Who knows….but it was a good meeting.

So Fulham, heroes of the Europa Cup -  have gone for Mark Hughes….not my first choice but it could have been worse – we could have got Sven…. Now we’ve got to keep Mark Schwarzer, Gera, Dempsey, Zamora and the others, buy a few geniuses and make that assault up to the peaks of European qualification again. What’s this got to do with art? If someone pressed a gun to my head and said, “football or theatre”, I’d have to say ‘shoot’. And when I say football I really mean Fulham – supported them for 42 years…..through thin and thin. But last years match against Juventus at home took me through emotions I have never experienced watching a play. Ask Tony Graham, Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre and fellow Fulham fan. We met at Femi Elufowoju Jnr’s farewell do at the Almeida last week  - full of the cream of black culture and its supporters - and the only thing we could talk about was the Juventus game.

The cultural highlight of my week was most certainly Toy Story 3; even if I had to wear those stupid sunglasses for no real reason. A fabulous plot, humour at both child and adult level and an ending to tear your heartstrings apart. I defy anyone to leave the cinema dry-eyed. A bit like the Juventus game. Now when did that last happen in the theatre? 

Last week we asked 8 singers and 2 percussionists to work with us for a couple of days on a version of Mass Carib. What w’re trying to do is see if we can still deliver the piece with fewer performers and thus get it produced more often.  I think it sounds brilliant and I’d like to say a huge thanks to all the artists concerned:

Sarah-Jane Lewis

Angela Caesar

Debra Michaels

Josie Benson

Ronald Samn

Wills Morgan

Keel Watson

Trevor A Toussaint

And of course our wonderful Musical Director Allyson Devenish.

You can hear the results on our SoundCloud page. On this site we’ve also got a recording of the full Gloria with the whole choir and band, so you can compare the arrangements.

Femi Elufowoju Jnr founded Tiata Fahodzi nearly 15 years ago and developed it into a leading organisation on the theatre circuit. A few months ago he announced he was leaving to pursue a freelance career and last Sunday Tiata Fahodzi threw a farewell party for him at the Almeida theatre. A fine send off, a perfect networking opportunity for anyone wanting to do business in the black theatre sector – we were all there and all kinds of conversations took place. Could there be the slightest possibility of a new Nitro comedy musical written by Jocelyn Gee? Who knows…..? Good luck Femi!

I met with the hugely impressive and extremely pleasant Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the other day. We ate, it was around 1pm, so you could call it lunch but actually it was a couple of sandwiches. I’m going to call it lunch ‘cos it sounds more significant. Anyway, we talked about the possibilities of working together on a couple of projects. Watch this space and I’ll let you know.

From the moment I got back from South Africa nearly three weeks ago, I’ve been composing and recording the incidental music for Tamasha’s latest production, The House of Bilquis Bibi. This is an adaptation of Lorca’s the House of Bernado Alba and set in modern day Pakistan. The Press Night was this Monday and the evening doubled as a grand party for Tamasha’s 21^st birthday.  Yet another place to meet just about everyone who was anyone. Nitro would like to wish Tamasha a very Happy Birthday!

Yesterday – Tuesday 28 July – I went to Urbanomix in Leicester Square. A room packed with about 150 of the leading figures in urban music and music funding. The delegate list was seriously good and seriously young - I was old enough to be everyone’s granddad. They were discussing funding possibilities and how to survive/succeed in this current economic climate. I tell you, these people were highly clued up. If they represent the future of the music business then things are looking good, very good. At their age I could hardly tie my shoelaces…….