Pete Bate

Sitting at home surrounded by silence apart from the hum of the laptop and the rain on the windows, I'm decompressing after preaching at church for the first time in 18 months. It was a different experience to the last time I spoke there in October 2024. That felt more emotional as, preaching for the first time since my diagnosis, I outlined our cancer journey in some detail. Today, I used Palm Sunday as a diving board before sharing a bit about how we're finding life in the crater that...

I recently started writing for a new website. Spectrum Culture is based in Portland, US, and focuses on music, film and books. Its editor approached me after reading some of my work elsewhere on the web. After penning a short blurb on the latest Stereolab album for Spectrum Culture's 2025 music roundup , I offered to review Our Secrets Are The Same - a new book by Simple Minds' mainstays Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill (with author Graeme Thomson) about the Scottish band's history. I'd got...

As the season of Lent begins again, it's like slipping on my aged blue woolly jumper. Probably about 15 years old, the jumper is stretched and saggy and, following Lisa's frown, I tend not to wear it in public. But it's often my go-to for warmth and comfort. This week, after a fun family Shrove Tuesday evening enjoying savoury and sweet pancakes, I realised Lent, like my tatty pullover, was my go-to season. As I woke on Ash Wednesday, I welcomed Lent's reassuring presence and remembered the...