The island, the music, the motorcycles

There's an island in Clew Bay, County Mayo, known as Inishturkbeg: an anglicised form of the Irish for 'Small Island of the Wild Boar'. It's the most beautiful place I've ever known. I fell in love with it after a picnic there on my 40th birthday and bought it a little later, developing it into a home.

The island was a 63-acre sheep-grazing piece of land when acquired, and ten years later, I had installed an all-weather access system, a sewage system, roads, five homes, a boatyard, fuel storage facilities and numerous agricultural buildings.

Later, it became the foundation for a commercial brand that spoke of 'living life at a tilt' and encompassed a luxury rental destination, a Connemara Pony Stud, a smoked fish line distributed throughout Ireland and the UK, art residencies and exhibitions, a number-one listed music album The Brilliant Irish Flute, and award-winning 'Maiden Voyage', a single malt Irish whiskey. I was thrilled that we won the 'best new brand' in the Global Mobius awards, amongst almost 5,000 entries from 36 countries.

Videos

Inish Turk Beg on Wikipedia →  ·  Follow on Facebook →

Music has always fascinated me. When I couldn't speak Yoruba, and before I could master Bahasa Melayu, or even speak French that well, I noticed that music was a universal language of its own. People feel each other's sentiments, convictions and passions through it. It transcends boundaries, lifting each person above a verbal articulation of themselves.

Music Videos

Perhaps my greatest thrill, if I'm honest, is being Artist Manager for my daughter, the Warner-signed recording artist Shaefri, at Off The Record, a small music label. I've helped Shaefri with her career since the release of her critically praised 'Cracks EP' in 2017, and as long as she sees I'm fit for the job, I'll persist. She's building a fabulous catalogue of work. If you don't already, see her work at shaefri.com, follow her on Spotify, and give her love. She's brilliant.

I rode my first motorbike aged ten, when a visiting tailor came on his to see my father at home in Kuala Lumpur. It was a Honda 50 which he kindly loaned me to go around the garden. He must have hated it. This was quickly followed by some madcap riding of a Honda 250 around the roads of a tin mine. It was probably my most dangerous moment on a bike. Then came a wonderful Suzuki GT200X5 two-stroke in Dublin, which doubled as my means of getting to university and a vehicle for earning some cash, working as a courier with Pony Express.

Four wheels took over for a while, till the call of the open road brought me back. With a group of film-makers I set up Boss Bikes Club and have happily made about 25 episodes, riding all sorts of motorcycles around the world.

Episodes

My book Rides: The Marques & Minds of Motorcycling is forthcoming from Veloce Publishing in 2027: the psychology and physics of why we ride, told through the people, places and machines.

Watch on YouTube →

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