The Atlas
‘There is a Nation, wherever we go,
with places to talk about, and people to know.’
– Jack Hues (Wang Chung)
WHERE I’VE BEEN
*The Atlas is a work in progress, please bear with me while I gradually renew some of the older content. This page contains affiliate links.
ANDORRA
Place: Andorra
AUSTRIA
Place: Vienna – IN PROGRESS.
See Nomad book.
AUSTRALIA
Place: Brisbane, Bundaberg, Gold Coast (Coolangatta/Tweed Heads and Surfers Paradise at the time), Melbourne, Sydney (all pre-blog).
Culture: Sgt. Iva’s Magical Mystery Tour (Spinning the Big Wheel), Over the Line (ICEHOUSE Bsides), RE:COVERED – Australian Music Design – IN PROGRESS
Music: Boom Crash Opera, ICEHOUSE, INXS, Pseudo Echo
BELGIUM
Place: Bruges, Brussels
BULGARIA
Place: Sofia
CAMBODIA
Place: Phnom Penh
CHINA
Place: Beijing, Changsha, Chenzhou, Dongguan, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Kunming, Nanning, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen (external link)(For those not highlighted, see the HOUSE OF MANY FACES book).
Culture: China – Frustrations and Fascinations, Five Years in a Kingdom of Red, Guangzhou Opera House – After Zaha, In Search of Old Baiyun, Metro Museum, Playing Boule with the Chinese (on old site), The Through Train, Transport to the Max! Xiaozhou Art Village
CROATIA
Place: Zagreb
CZECH REPUBLIC (now CZECHIA)
Place: Prague (pre-blog but covered in the Nomad book).
DENMARK
Place: Copenhagen (pre-blog)
EGYPT
Place: Cairo
ENGLAND
Place: Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cheltenham, Chester, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Swindon (most pre-blog but some covered in the Nomad book and Oxford in the Year Amid Winter book, you can buy both here).
Culture: Bomberg at the National, Brian Eno’s Diary (book review), Culture Under Attack! In Search of Croydon, Mark Hollis (eulogy), No-Man (album review), No-Man Urban Disco (the London songs), QUEEN (Hot Space), Dylan Jones’ Sweet Dreams (book review), Yuka Fujii Like Planets (exhibition)
Music: Brian Eno, David Sylvian, John Foxx, Steve Hogarth, Steve Jansen, SUEDE, Tears for Fears, Tim Bowness, Wang Chung
ESTONIA
Place: Tallinn
FINLAND
Place: Helsinki
Culture: The Nordic Theory of Everything
FRANCE
Place: Biarritz, Cherbourg, Lyon, Menton, Nice, Paris, Villefranche-sur-Mer (see Nomad book for Nice, Paris and V-s-M).
Culture/Music: 50 Years of Planet Jarre – IN PROGRESS
GEORGIA
Place: tbd
GERMANY
Place: Berlin, Frankfurt
Music: Alphaville, Claudia Brücken – IN PROGRESS
GIBRALTAR
Place: Gibraltar
GREECE
Place: Athens, Thessaloniki
Culture: In Search of Hellinikon
HONG KONG (now part of CHINA)
Place: Hong Kong
Culture: Hodgkin in Hong Kong (exhibition), In Search of Kai Tak, Railway Museum
HUNGARY
Place: Budapest
IRELAND
Place: Cork, Dublin, Galway, Sligo (all pre-blog but featured in Voyage of Nomad)
Culture: Songs of Faith and Devotion (Perry album review)
Music: Perry Blake
ISLE OF MAN: Douglas (postponed)
ITALY
Place: Florence, Pompeii, Rome, Sorrento, Venice (see Nomad book)
Culture: Nomad Italia
LATVIA
Place: Riga
LITHUANIA
Place: Vilnius
LUXEMBOURG
Place: Luxembourg
MACAO (now part of CHINA)
Place: Macao City (no blog)
MACEDONIA (now NORTH MACEDONIA)
Place: Skopje
MALAYSIA
Place: Kuala Lumpur (pre-blog)
MALTA
Place: Malta (Gzira, Luqa, Mdina, Pembroke, Sliema, St Julians, Qawra, Qormi, Valletta)
MOLDOVA
Place: Chisinau
MONACO
Place: Monaco (pre-blog but covered in Nomad)
NETHERLANDS
Place: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague (all pre-blog but Amsterdam covered in Nomad)
NEW ZEALAND
Place: Auckland, Gisborne, Napier, Nelson, Palmeston North, Queenstown, Rotorua, Wanganui, Wellington (most of these were in my youth so obviously pre-blog). See also Year Amid Winter for extensive writing on Auckland.
Culture: RE:COVERED – New Zealand Music Design
Music: Strawpeople
NORWAY
Place: –
PHILIPPINES
Place: Manila
Culture: Transport – More Fun in the Philippines?
POLAND
Place: Warsaw
Culture: In Search of Mokotowski, Neon Lights, Travellers Cafe.
PORTUGAL
Place: Faro, Lisbon, Sintra
ROMANIA
Place: Cluj-Napoca
SCOTLAND
Place: Edinburgh, Fort William, Glasgow, Inverness (all pre-blog)
Culture: The poem Lyrical Scotland appears in Notate, buy it here.
Music: Hats off to the Scots (Simple Minds, The Blue Nile, Love and Money, The Big Dish, Aztec Camera, Del Amitri, Chvrches and many more)
SERBIA
Place: Belgrade
SINGAPORE
Place: Singapore
SLOVENIA
Place: Ljubliana
SLOVAKIA
Place: Bratislava
SPAIN
Place: Albacete, Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Cadiz, Castellon, Elche, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia, Orihuela, Pamplona, Tarragona, Seville, Valencia (see also upcoming Iberia Unknown book)
Culture: Transport Nostalgia (part of revised Barcelona blog), The Murals of San Isidro
SWEDEN
Place: Malmo (pre-blog)
Music: Stina Nordenstam – IN PROGRESS
SWITZERLAND
Place: Geneva, Montreux (pre-blog)
Culture: Remembering Switzerland
TAIWAN
Place: Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei
Culture: Flying the Golden Route with Hello Kitty
THAILAND
Place: Bangkok
TURKEY
Place: Istanbul
*See also Year Amid Winter book, buy it here.
UKRAINE
Place: Kiev
UNITED KINGDOM
See England, Scotland and Wales
UNITED STATES
Place: Los Angeles (pre-blog see poem LAX in Terminal Wanderlust)
Culture: Cock Robin (Analysis of a Reformation), Hall and Oates and the new wave of American Culture, Ian Abrahams On Track… Hall and Oates (book review) – IN PROGRESS, Harold Budd (eulogy), Populating Polytown: Mapping the Spiritual Nineties and the Geography of Sound, Prince (eulogy), Richard J Williams Why Cities Look the Way they Do (book review)
Music: Cock Robin,
VATICAN
Place: Vatican City (pre-blog)
Culture: Maison D’Orient, Riding the Rails of Reunification
WALES
Place: Abergavenny, Barry, Caerleon, Caerphilly, Cardigan, Cardiff, Cowbridge, Cwmbran, Monmouth, Newport, Penarth, Pontypool, Swansea, Usk
Culture: Kizuna Wales-Japan Design Exhibition, Cardiff Parks, Cardiff Story Museum, The Hopper Season, Is the BBC Too Arrogant?, Transport Futurology.
Music: Scritti Politti
TRAVEL GENERIC AND MISC:
Balance – Arts and Travel in a Post Covid World, Europe by Coach, Farewell Queen of the Skies (747), The Music of Airlines, The Music of Tourism, Remember That Flight, Remember That Night, Starbucks Travel Mugs, Travel – American Tourister Bags, Travel – Sleeping in Airports, Travel – Station to Station (Ridin’ the Rails), Travel – Where I’ve Stayed, Travel – Where I’ve Stayed Part 2, Travel – Where I’ve Stayed part 3, Travel – What I Pack