Spotlight: Charles Arthur - How I Got My Media Break

Charles Arthur is the Guardian's Technology Editor.

Charles Arthur, the Guardian's Technology Editor

My journey into the media began when Dunlop had a competition where you could win a week in New York watching the US Open tennis. I entered it and won. I offered to write an article for a tennis magazine that was then going, they accepted it and said "if you'd like to do more..." So I got to go to the professional tennis events all over the UK.

I did that while having a job in the civil service - the amount I got paid by the magazine wouldn't have covered a good meal.

After two years I realised I definitely didn't want to be in the civil service, and definitely did want to be in journalism, but there wasn't any chance of getting a job in tennis journalism - the national papers were all sewn up, and the magazines were tiny with no budget and barely any staff. I noticed that it was actually me who was asking the questions that got the best answers in the press conferences. My degree is in electronic engineering - and so I expanded that.

I looked for jobs in the computing trade press. I got offered two in one week - but the one that I really wanted I was offered on the spot, in the interview room, by David Craver who subsequently set up ZDNet in the UK. David was a great man - I don't say that only because he hired me - who died a year ago.

After five years at Computer Weekly, I became news editor, which meant trying to herd all the cats in the newsroom. It was fun, but I wasn't great at it, because I wasn't good enough at the personal side. Too young, perhaps.

I went from Computer Weekly to Business magazine, that went bust so I freelanced for a year and then joined New Scientist. Then one day the cartoonist came in and said "so I suppose you're going to apply for that job on the Independent?" I knew the person who was leaving it, had a chat with them for some useful interview info and got the job - which was mostly reporting. Though at the end of my time at The Independent I was editing its technology pages, on pretty much zero budget.

We had a third child coming and freelancing seemed like a better way to balance family time. So I spent a year freelancing. Then the Technology editor job came up at the Guardian, which I regard as the pinnacle of technology journalism in Fleet Street, and which only comes up about once a generation. So I went for it..

I've liked all my editors which tends to help. If you're not enjoying your job, you're either in the wrong trade (I think of journalism as a trade, not a profession) or the wrong place. If you're in the wrong place, find somewhere else, or make it. I've never done a job I actively hated. Life's too short.

Links to connect with Charles Arthur:-

Follow him on twitter

Charles Arthur's blog

Soulcial Consciousness - Get to know: Imani Hekima

Imani Hekima's singles Shame and Robots Rebellion are available to buy on his itunes page.
Lyrically and melodically haunting, I decided I wanted to get to know more about this Soulcial Conscious one.

Imani Hekima. Check his Myspace for tour dates http://www.myspace.com/imanihekima

Tell me all about the current single

I wrote ‘The Robots’ Rebellion’ in 2004 and it appeared as a ‘promo’ on a compilation album in 2007. It was released as a single in December 2010, available on iTunes and Amazon.  The song takes its title from a book by David Icke, published in 1994. The promo video (which you can find on Youtube) pays homage to John Carpenter’s film ‘They Live’.    

What did changing your name mean for you?

Coming from a British/Jamaican background, changing my name was a way of identifying with my African cultural heritage and history.  Six years previously, I’d begun reading up on it.   I was originally Andrew Mitchell and I changed it by deed poll to Imani Hekima in 1994.  Imani means ‘faith’, Hekima means ‘wisdom’ in Swahili.

What is your earliest musical memory?

My earliest musical memory, which is also my earliest memory, was hearing Tamla Motown. I can’t have been much older than one year old because I was in a cot.  That’s probably why I love Motown.

What was the first song you bought?

For my “sins”, the first record I bought was Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof’s band.

Whose concerts have you attended, and which was your first gig you attended?

I’ve seen a variety of people.  The Specials was my first gig, back in 1980.  I saw all the 2 tone bands and British reggae artists such as UB40, Aswad and Steel Pulse.  I’ve seen Public Enemy (back in 1990), The Pharcyde and the great jazz drummer Max Roach.

What instruments do you play?

Piano/keyboards, singing, bass guitar, 6 string guitar and drums (drum kit).

How do you write your songs?

Usually either the music comes first or I’ll get the lyrics.  Occasionally, they’ll both arrive at the same time. The ideas drift in at any time.  I don’t sit down and try to force myself but I do lots of practise and research to get ideas.

Have you ever wanted to give up and how do you overcome that?

Yes, on some occasions.  It happens to most people.  You have to keep going and if you love what you do enough, you will persevere. 

What drives you, and what inspires you?

I’m inspired by my own passion and by the examples of others who also keep going regardless.  I’m inspired by the whole journey, the trials, errors and successes. 

What’s your favourite city/country to play in and why?

I’ve only really played in the UK with my own music, though I’ve gigged in Holland and Spain with covers bands.  Favourite city?  None really – if people are feeling your work, it doesn’t matter where. 

What do you like about being in the studio and what do you enjoy about being on stage?

On stage it’s obviously more immediate and direct communication with the audience.  I also enjoy recording and seeing the music take shape and the general banter when it’s going well.

Do you think politics and music work together well?

Politics and music does go together but there’s an art in getting the balance right.  The music has to be good enough on its own to make someone listen or dance.  It has to be remembered that many people who happen to love political songs may not be attuned to the lyrics.  Saying that, the message alone, no matter how worthy, will not be heard if it isn’t given an effective musical setting.

How important is the visual aspect of your music?

It’s important in some ways.  I’d like to develop that side of things for live performances.  The video for Robots Rebellion obviously had a lot of thought put into its visuals.  It was done by a guy called Ian Geddes, who had the idea of blending footage from the film ‘They Live’ with my song.

You perform interpretations of Bollywood music, how did that come about?

In 2008, I saw a job advert for a pianist to perform Bollywood at an Asian wedding.  A little light went off in my head and I instantly knew I wanted to apply.  This is despite me knowing no Bollywood songs at all at the time.  I’ve since played at Asian weddings all over England, all faith groups.  I played a support slot to Raghav in 2009.  That’s the short of it.  People can visit http://www.myspace.com/bollywoodpiano to find out the full story.

What music do you listen to and when, to relax, in the car etc?

It varies.  At home I listen to all kinds of stuff.  I listen to lots of dub, Miles Davis and just about anything else in between and related.

Do you have an ipod or ipad?

I don’t own one.  My brain is my iPod.  I always have songs going on up there.

Any thoughts on technology and music?

With the exception of a few ‘neo soul/progressive soul’ artists, I think black music over the past 20 years specifically has suffered through not enough instrumentalists.  

However, you can still make great music via computer technology.  In that respect, hip hop (REAL hip hop, not ‘bling pop’) has led the way.   

Have social networking sites helped you?

Myspace and Facebook are good means of showcasing what I do.  There are a lot of people who are against them but I say it’s what you make of them.

What are you working on?

I’m working towards the release of an album in 2011.  Rather than put it out in 2010, I decided to put out two singles this year to test the waters and raise a bit of awareness.  I’m also working on new material intended for the second album.  I’m supported live by Philippe Clegg on bass and my sibling Stuart Mitchell on drums.  All being well, I’ll be recording new stuff with them.

What does the future hold for you?

Hopefully I’ll continue to grow as a musician and reach more people with my work.  

Links to check out Imani Hekima:-

Imani Hekima Facebook Group 

Imani Hekima's Myspace
imanihekima.co.uk/ 

Back to the Future I thought I had. [Bio part 2]

I don’t know when I realised I wanted to write, I just remember always getting pens and pads for presents...so I would just write whatever came to me as I hung around my parents clothes stores. I was such a nerd I used to date my work too, some of them date back to ’91 which means I’ll have been 8.

First issue of Vibe I bought in 1996. Fugees cover - with a free casette featuring demos by D'Angelo and Erykah Badu

I used to buy all the magazines I could when I was younger, mainly Smash Hits, BIG, Top of the Pops, Vibe, Blues & Soul, Off The Wall, the odd copy of anything else with someone I really liked on the cover. A lot of times I thought "I could ask better questions than these people."

Many years later, in my Sixth Form book I wrote I wanted to be a music journalist.

When we studied a module on media at school I became really interested in becoming a journalist and writing books because I thought nobody was representing my opinions and I wanted to share my voice.

I was always inspired by my family and friends faith in my talents, but I had a lot of opportunites and setbacks which shouldn't have been hard to recover from if I had believed in myself.

I remember for my GCSE coursework we had write a story and a poem, I loved that assignment based on a jazz musician. When I got my work back my poem was missing. When I asked my teacher what happened she told me she entered it in a competition.

I didn't back my work up...I tried to recreate the poem but I never could re-write it. I don't know which competition she entered it into or if she won - I'd like to think it was that good that she did!

When I was 17 I saw a flyer in the library to be part of a BBC Talent workshop to create a pilot soap set in Bradford which ended up being called Khidaaar! [which apparently means what’s up in urdu – I think]

It was the most fun thing I had ever done in my life at that point, I loved working in a team creating a character, my group selected me to pitch our characters storyline

I won the first and last scene for my team's character which was a massive achievement. I thought this would be where my future lies. The show was directed by Kate Rowland who was head of BBC Radio. I ended up storyboarding for the episode and script editing and loved every minute of it.

My BA [Hons] degree was in Media Studies at Sheffield Hallam Uni.  I got my experience in journalism, pr, writing for film and writing for TV and learnt about media around the world and its history.

As soon as it was all ending I got a call, from someone who I’d worked with on the BBC Talent soap, saying he remembered how hard I worked and asked me if I would help him with a new company he set up.

I ended up being a band liaison manager – looking after the music artists he signed up. I’d accompany them on festivals and take care of their backing tracks.

After a while I ended up as company secretary – just because the role was available, I guess! I threw myself into the work, without getting paid as I was living off my student loan [I was very good –  non drinker here!].

I loved that we hosted workshops for people of any age. We ended up writing a theatre piece and performing it in 2 cities for Black History Month 2004. I designed the flyer [with 1 or 2 mistakes on it]. It was great, conceiving the play with the CEO and the participants who were encouraged to develop their characters.

We also made a film documentary called “When Something Ruled The World” which got screened alongside our theatre piece .

I was also responsible for a member of staff under the job centre scheme and speaking to the local press, Huddersfield Examiner in which we were featured quite a lot.

It was an amazing role, I left it not because I wasn’t getting paid properly, I would still be there but I could never stick up for myself and I would get blamed for everything going wrong. It still makes me emotional thinking about it, because I lost a job I loved so much. I never found anything like it since.

My confidence was knocked, my self esteem was shattered and  I couldn’t get a job like that again and thought I would fail at it anyway. I ended up at a call centre for just over 2 years listening to people who were in debt. I’d go home and cry about their day as well as mine. It was awful hearing their stories. The only thing that kept me there so long was the fact I really loved my team.

It got to the point where I thought if I can’t get a job doing what I want, maybe I should run my own theatre workshop group, which I found hard to get off the ground, I didn't want to do it the way I learnt from my previous boss, I wanted to start small scale and with funding, so while trying to set that up I thought I'd get a job at least using my IT skills.

I got a job in admin that was different from the call centre, I liked a couple of people but otherwise I was surrounded by mostly miserable people who’d worked there a long time, and I didn’t want to become one of them, so after almost 2 years I managed to get another admin job at Bradford Council.

Admin, although I could do it well, I began to sink. Saving me though -  my stifled creativity was bursting to come back out with the theatre project, some free lance articles and I ended up on a music album...

Spotlight: Tom Cain's break into the media





Tom Cain Assassin



Tom Cain is the pseudonym for the author of thrillers Assassin, Accident-Man and Dictator. The award winning journalist tells me how he got his break in the media.

By pure chance...



In the summer of 1979, when I was still at university, my parents were living in the States. So I spent a lot of my vacations living with my girlfriend and her parents. But then we broke up and I had nowhere to live. I was literally out on my arse in the street. The only person I knew in London was a guy whose brother was married to my half-aunt (tenuous, huh?) I called him up and asked if I could have a bed for the night. He said, sure, but he warned me that his flat was about to be used as the office for a bunch of Times and Sunday Times journalists, temporarily without work owing to a printers’ strike at the paper, who were about to do a spoof newspaper called Not The Times. To cut a long story short, I ended up being the Not The Times tea-boy and dogsbody, got to know a bunch of journos and 18 months later, when I was an unemployed graduate, one of them gave me a day’s shift as a researcher on the Sunday Times. And I was off …



The hardest struggle was simply getting my foot in the door. It took about 18 months and I got very, very low at times along the way – also very, very broke – but once I got my foot in the door I was very lucky and things happened fast. I was Young Journalist of the Year and a professional magazine editor within three years of my first paid day’s work. But it’s still a struggle, perhaps of a different kind. It’s a very, very tough world right now for journalists and authors. I’m having to work much harder and hustle much more fiercely to get less well paid. And 99% of writers would say the same.



I was writing non-fiction and humour books right from the start of my career. Back in the 80s it was much easier to get a publisher to take a punt on a silly idea. The money wasn’t big, but it gave you experience and a track record. I was also very lucky in that I had a mate who came from a very powerful family who ran a big TV/radio/literary agency, so I also got a couple of TV gigs. The agent fired me when I turned down the chance to be on ‘That’s Life’ which was a very popular, but very cheesy BBC show starring Esther Rantzen … But by then I had enough of a CV and enough contacts that I could get another agent. I kept publishing stuff over the years. And so when I had the idea for The Accident Man, my first Sam Carver novel, I had no trouble getting an agent interested in the idea. Turning the idea into an actual book, though ... well, that was a whole other matter …





Tom Cain Accident Man

My Ideal Work Experience

Seven weeks into the Catch 22 Experience has got me thinking who I'd love to write for.

I really enjoy Harper's Bazaar magazine which is a stunning monthly women's glossy magazine,  intelligent in content and style.

Harper's Bazaar UK cover girl Alex Chung

The editor is Lucy Yeomans who transformed Harper's Bazaar from Harpers & Queen into a leading young women's fashion magazine receiving praise and accolades. It's published by the National Magazine Company.

They also publish magazines for new brides and mums, womens and mens health, even beautiful magazines for the home such as Good Housekeeping and cool men's magazine Esquire. I would want to work for such magazines but my strengths would most likely lie in one of their many great women's magazines such as Company, Cosmopolitan, She, Best, Prima and Reveal. They give the opportunity to deal with a range of issues from lighthearted to serious, fashion, music and film and TV.

The National Magazine Company celebrated turning 100 this year and have just recruited Asos' customer insight chief Aida Muirhead for the role of research and insight director, I really liked the quote from their group circulation and marketing director Sharon Douglas:-

“This is a key appointment within the business and Aida brings a wealth of insight and research experience to our company. Her role will enable us to drive further our strategy which puts the customer at the very heart of everything we do. With Aida’s commercial digital insight, we will be able to increase the pace of change in this growing area.”

I would be proud to write for such publications.

Finding Dory in the Land Before Time [Bio part 1]

I decided to rename my blog 'Car Can't Catch Me' after a famous family tale.


When I was young I believed I could do anything - I was also really naughty, which unfortunately meant my parents sent me to nursery younger than they sent my older sister. I have a younger sister too, so I have my tantrums which my family call my 'middle child issues', but that's another blog and a half!

Homer's overlooked middle child

Back to the original story, my mum or little sister probably tell the story better:

You know the phrase "running before you can walk?" Well, I actually did, and the famous incident I think is on a trip to Madame Tussauds [I'm sure my sisters will correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is not perfect].

Hi, I'm Dory, what's your name?

Ok my lil sis actually corrected me...

My grandad had picked me up from nursery, he went to close the car door and I had already run across the road and into the shop where my parents worked, then he came in huffing and puffing telling me I could have been run over and I said to him in reply "car can't catch me!"

I'm sure I really believed it too, I remember feeling confident when I was younger, not scared of spiders or rules -  until somebody told me I can't do something, those thoughts never entered my head.

By the time I was 16 I loved English and was intrigued by the power of the media and wanted to be a part of that world. I had plans, and opportunities which excited me and at that time I was very sure I'd end up writing for Blues & Soul or Vibe Magazine or work for MTV.

Then things changed....

Song from those good old innocent days:

30 seconds in the mind of Mary Kanu

H A I L  M A R Y!

Dig in with Mary Kanu!

Mary, 22, is a Southampton Politics and International Relations graduate. Now she's back in London to conquer the writing and publishing world. I wanted to put some random questions to her to find out what she's all about.

What is your greatest fear?

This'll probably never happen, but being buried alive! It really disturbs me when they show people buried alive on TV and in movies. If I'm under my duvet I feel claustrophobic so I think that's linked to a fear of being in dark enclosed spaces for long periods of time.


What is your earliest memory?

Wow, my memory's really bad, I guess some good memories are waking up at 7 am to watch Saturday morning TV. When shows like Live and Kicking and Diggin' came on that was my time, my mum would call me to eat and I didn't want to be disturbed.

What are you like onstage?

I used to act for the National Youth Theatre, so when it's acting and role-plays I enjoy doing that it's fun. But when I have to be myself, I'm a dork! I was at an Open Mic Night singing but when I had to speak I couldn't and my friend had to speak for me!


What are you like to live with?

On the surface I'm neat, but below the surface, say if you open my wardrobe then everything will fall out!! I can be immature too but lets not go into that!

What gadget do you think should be invented?

I've always wanted some kind of machine that would read my mind and type up my work for me. I don't know if there's a general disconnect between my brain and writing or typing for me to translate what I'm thinking in my head down.

My Experience of Catch 22 so far

It's been 5 weeks since I joined the Catch 22 Academy in London's Bernie Grant Arts Centre and what a journey it's been, my life has completely changed!

Just 6 weeks ago I was working part time in my home-town of Bradford, cold calling people trying to get them to take advantage of the government grant for getting their homes insulated.

I was writing in my spare time and working in a school doing some pretty amazing art projects such as creating tape sculptures and Egyptian murals.

I applied for the course believing that I could achieve my ambitions if I put the effort in to what I really wanted in life. Within a week of my Catch 22 interview I came to London.

My first four days included attending the course and searching like crazy for a place to live. In fact the first Wednesday I came there was a tube strike which made my second day a challenge in just getting around! So I knew I had to find a place nearby - which I did on the Thursday but couldn't move in straight away, but at least I got that ticked off my list pretty quickly.

Catch 22 Magazine  gave me the tools to believe in myself. It can be scary to push yourself but you have to get round certain corners to progress and that started with me. This has been the best decision for me and even looking back, everything seems to make sense now.

Next I had to find a job; So the endless applications began...more on that next time.

Might be cliche but this song sums up my experience so far, I love Sam Tsui's covers: Sam Tsui "Don't Stop Believing"