https://www.decool.co.uk/looking-around daily 0.75 2026-09-09 https://www.decool.co.uk/looking-around/september26-e6wbp monthly 0.5 2026-09-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/3dd22b0d-07eb-4893-a4fd-a6e9bc04a1b3/nick_cave_fixed.jpg Looking around - September 2026 - Nick Cave Anyone who’s talked to me in the last eight months probably knows that I bumped into Nick Cave in my favourite coffee shop in Lewes (Taith). In early August, I saw his biggest ever show, which was such an event in Brighton that even the train station announcements were changed to his voice. Through songs, books, and films, I’ve been drawn to his masterful ability to play life back at us, in all its deepest struggles and highest joys. Back to Lewes, I didn’t say a word; Josh did have a half-hearted attempt at flashing the Betty Davis vinyl we’d just bought, to no effect. Somehow, that felt fitting for the relationship he manages to create with his audience and this seemingly impossible oscillation between mystical figure and vulnerable human. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/c287652a-96a3-4b4a-8227-5326d8fbdb69/Fuji+Stolen+Space.JPG Looking around - September 2026 - Stolen Space Stolen Space is an underground and urban art gallery tucked away at the start of Brick Lane. Their latest exhibition, Create and Annoy, showcases skaters turned artists and artists shaped by skating. It’s “a tribute to grit, style, and the underground ethos”. I grew up in a family of skateboarders and BMX riders, brought up on stories of how skateboarding and the likes of the Lords of Dogtown were liberating for my dad's generation. And every Sunday, we used to pick up kids from all walks of life to head to BMX races. I don’t skate or ride myself, but I’ve always been drawn to these sports and what goes beyond them: an obsessive commitment to a very hard discipline, a space in which every fall can be big in consequences, and a willingness to find your people somewhere outside the obvious places. Let’s not forget, always with a slight tendency to annoy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/c757ac84-aa85-4239-b640-366c8af94476/Fuji+Goodwood.JPG Looking around - September 2026 - Goodwood I was invited to the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time, a British institution I’ve always been intrigued by. I’ve learnt by now that a British institution also means a dress code! The hat was the key requirement, and I found myself running around town trying to find one that might be the right fit. Once there with my hat, I was surprised by the scale of it all. Daytime fireworks, gigantic car sculptures, the noisy and shambolic paddock, and, in the middle of it all, cars and motorbikes going to and from The Hillclimb. Meandering through all of this, you get to see some of the most incredible designs: unique lines, unexpected colours, beautiful materials. From tailor-made, revisited classics to brand new, made-to-order Italian barchettas. Being a relative novice to this world (though Peugeot was the first brand I ever worked on), I found myself appreciating how, at its best, car design pulls the broader creative world towards beauty, sensoriality, and flow, and how each country has developed such a distinctive design identity from its own mix of historical, cultural, and environmental influences. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/08572657-d6a3-4c84-a555-8be9972e35f9/love_supreme_fixed.jpg Looking around - September 2026 - Geordie Jazz This one is shorter, as I only got to stay for one song. We checked out the Love Supreme Jazz Festival this year. It was our daughter’s first festival, and she loved it all, except for the one band that turned out to be our biggest discovery of the day. It was “too noisy”, apparently, and so we had to leave. They’re called Knats and play “Geordie Jazz”, blending jazz, drum and bass, punk, and electronic influences. We did realise later that they were these three stylish guys who had lunch next to us, not as short a time as we thought then! I love how they carry the North East of England with them, and with it the community stories, resilience, and hard-won optimism. https://www.decool.co.uk/looking-around/ten-years-and-whats-next monthly 0.5 2026-09-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/658213fb-ffb9-4775-8211-65aeb970af21/DSCF5836.JPG Looking around - July 2026 - Walthamstow I came across this mural on my way to a kid’s birthday party in Walthamstow, London. It was designed to reflect the St James Street area’s social history and multicultural identity. It honours workers who arrived at the station from Ireland, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and many other parts of the world to build the railway and contribute to the local brewery and textile industries. It fit perfectly with our wander through the area and that very London feeling of visiting ten countries at once The work was created by a great local artist Angry Dan (who I only realised later was also at the birthday party!). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/9e0bf486-d097-43bc-8c86-f169fded7e05/E4903885-53D8-4120-8715-7A85838B53F8-13640-0000016CDDAA4FF8.JPG Looking around - July 2026 - Terrace I spent a day in Paris for the first time in a little while. I was reassured (and slightly nostalgic) to see the terrace culture in full swing and very much alive. Think sun, putting the world to rights (‘refaire le monde’), and some very slow sipping. All this with just enough spectacle unfolding: a discreet argument between the three waiters (two were caught talking about the other one while he was serving a table), a couple of characterful regulars sitting at the bar, the ebbs and flows of the tables, and a road junction that comes with its share of gentle animation. A way of being with time and of soaking in the theatre of life that I haven’t found anywhere else. This was in Le Marais, at one of my old favourites, Le Pick Clops. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/d3223066-46fa-48b9-b5d6-cd218fe1dcbc/4FAFA901-24EF-4A66-B295-C1CEC51A4F57-10662-000001096BF2C56E.png Looking around - July 2026 - Paris-Roubaix The Paris-Roubaix is a cycling race that starts in Paris and finishes in the north of France. It is infamous for its cobble sections and has been called the “Hell of the North” because when the race returned after the First World War, the organisers driving the route were horrified by the hellish landscape. I grew up on the route. The area has been Roman, Spanish, occupied in both world wars, and very close to Flanders throughout its history. It built a solid industrial identity in the 20th century, which then collapsed, and is now in another phase of redefinition. It’s a place of unique warmth and community-led, hard-working grit. The picture is of my Franco-English daughter flying the Flemish flag. I’ve always been fascinated by places shaped by movement, overlaps, and reinvention. Their soul is always there in the open, quite raw. They’re not the most glamorous, but if you listen carefully, they often have the most to say and express. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/242b3bce-e23d-4686-8f2f-669d952ffac6/DD16B50F-10AA-43EE-B2EF-171DF5A3D8ED-51410-00000EFCF13532C8.JPG Looking around - July 2026 - Jack in the Green I went to the Jack in the Green festival in Hastings for the first time. Four days of drumming, dance, theatre, and towering handmade giants moving through the town. The line between crowd and performers disappears as the days unfold, and the whole thing feels joyful, gentle, and proud. Since moving down south, I’ve loved spending time in Hastings and St Leonards, and the way they consistently show up as fiercely creative spaces, with an unbeatable sense of community. In today’s world, that mindset matters more than we may realise. It comes through particularly strongly in local celebrations like this, where pride in place expresses itself in the most idiosyncratic ways, and where the character of a town feels like something to be shaped and looked after together. https://www.decool.co.uk/home daily 1.0 2026-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/46846e02-ccb2-4536-84f6-03ed953f5e19/ZD_Full+Logo+Reverse.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a1687bda59f406d53faeee2/016dfac5-eacf-43d1-a818-a42ae5b0ce27/Zoe.jpg