7 October

12 men walked on the moon. Only 4 are still alive. I was born just as the Apollo program was doing this. I’d sit for hours staring at the NASA photos of all the missions, amazed by the audacity of the engineering and vision. Just as kids did with their Jules Verne novels in the 19th century, about amazing submarines and moon rockets. Then along came Elvis, and The Beatles. Suddenly the passion of kids was directed at people standing on a stage with guitars, singing into microphones. That shift is still with us today. You can send a rocket to Mars and it won’t even get on the news. But a new tour by Oasis will. Music has always been a first love of mine. But to make it the centre of culture was a terrible mistake. My passion for renewables and EVs is the same passion I had staring at the NASA photos as a kid. The excitement of building an amazing new world. Not singing about it. Birds use music to create and maintain territory. When you hear ‘bell birds’ (bell miners), you’re hearing war cries, they’ve driven out the opposition. Our shift to music was really a shift to war. Competing teams, each with their own war cry. Nothing fires up people more than criticism of their favourite acts. The explosion of music represented a fracturing of society.