I was about 14 when I first heard a song by ’Japan’ and I’ve been hooked ever since. There was something different about the band back then, that didn’t quite fit into anything else around it. My friends didn’t get my instant obsession until they saw ’Japan’ singing ’Ghosts’ on Top of the Pops, then suddenly they all wanted in.

I read every interview going with David Sylvian and I wrote my English exam based on one of the band’s songs, which earnt me a very decent grade.

I was upset when they split up, but knew that Sylvian was going solo, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I remember watching some review programme where they talked about ’Brilliant Trees’ his first solo album in reverential terms, and I rushed out and bought it the moment it was released.

There’s a spirituality about Sylvian’s songs, a way in which he sonorically reaches the deepest emotions that we feel and manages to turn these feelings into a song. He connects on a level that other artists often miss and to this day I buy everything he releases, knowing it will be great. He has never disappointed me yet.

I’ve seen him live, numerous times, and I haven’t been the only one in the audience crying. His gigs are not fast moving, they are not all about excitement and great backdrops, they are just about gorgeous songs and his rich, resonant voice.

More recently, I wrote my thesis for my M.A. about poetry and pop lyrics, two worlds that Sylvian seems to straddle, so there he was again, my hero, informing my intellectual work, and once again, I passed.

He’s inspired me to look into other artists, to discover people I might never otherwise have heard of and all the time his beautiful music accompanies me on my own personal journey.

Before I log off I have some vaguely interesting news, I have finally decided to go and book the appointment to get that tattoo that I had gotten on that very drunken night removed. It has been infuriating me for far too long, apparently I have grown out of that whole rebellious stage now. However, I was looking on the page for laser tattoo removal stockport and I am uncertain if it will look better afterwards, some of the photos are a little bit unconvincing!