26/10/2026
I've been asked alot about The Circus (building), & the circus life, & whether I'll miss touring & travelling & the honest answer I think is yea, I will.
I've never really stopped moving, I don't even stay in one place when I'm not touring. For those who don't know, that's been my life for almost 40 years. I've been a performer, a musician, a PR manager & publicity manager. I've been lucky enough to appear on TV, in films, record music & feature on radio & in magazines, but more importantly than any of that, I've been privileged to do it all surrounded by my family.
I was first in the circus ring at 3 years old, as a clown. Beaide my Father & Philipo, I started playing drums for the circus when I was 11, took to the air at 13 & left school at 14. Now my knees ache, my back complains, my shoulders are pretty much shot to s**t & if ya one of the people responsible for making a tour happen, you'll know it can be one headache after another. So will I miss it when we finally stop moving from place to place? Absolutely. Am I excited for what's next? Without a doubt, & for a little while we'll be the only family in the UK with both a touring circus & a permanent circus venue, which is pretty special when you think about it. Now do I know what the future holds? Not at all, but I can't wait for a different kind of challenge. Perhaps one where I can finally go to bed without wondering if the wind is going to blow the bigtop down overnight, that would be nice ey... but there's one question I kept coming back to. One I didn't write at first because I was not quite sure how to answer it...
Will I lose something of myself when we stop touring? & I do think so.
When we finally stop touring... when the mud & the wind are gone from thought. When the late nights & the long drives become memories. When the towns, villages & cities we have visited year after year no longer come around when we have always known they have. When the conversations change from, "That's a long journey," or "Those hills were a nightmare," to "Remember when we broke down there?" When those moments stop being our present & become our past... I think a little part of me will end & I think that's true for every showman & every circus family. When the touring stops... when the travelling ends... when the bigtop comes down for one last time, the trucks are parked away, the posters stop going up (lol), & the performances become memories... a little piece of who you are goes with it. I seen it within my own family already, so I know it's to come when we do.
But... but the magic won't go, the things that made me smile as a child & now as an adult, the feeling of walking into a circus. The smell of popcorn, candyfloss & sawdust. The excitement. The laughter. The people. The memories. I'll keep all of that alive. I'll keep it alive in The Circus. My family will still be beside me. I'll still have my caravan somewhere nearby, on a little piece of land that I'll one day call home. A place where our showman's way of life never really disappears. The museum will tell our story, & the story of circus, for generations to come. The shows we produce inside the building will carry on creating memorys for new family's, just like the touring show did for me & for many
So to the next chapter ey, to creating something that keeps the magic alive for everyone who walks through those doors 🤍🎪⛪️✨️
