Simon of the Desert was a movie made by the great surrealist Luis Bunuel in 1965, which both celebrated and mocked the life of Simeon Stylites, a 4th century mystic who spent 37 years trying to get closer to God by living on a tiny platform on top of a tall pole in the middle of the desert. Given that my name is also Simon (Simon Gillham to be precise) and that I too am partial to the contemplative life (though not that partial!) I felt justified in stealing from them both. A very long time ago I was one half of semi-legendary 80s pop duo Intaferon. Our song ‘Get Out of London’ is now a bit of a cult classic, having featured in several films and been covered by The Pretenders. In even earlier times I played bass, toured and recorded with Colin Newman of Wire. These days I divide my time between songwriting and teaching Philosophy, on a good day doing both at the same time. Jarvis Cocker took a great liking to my song 'We Can Deal With The Detail Later', playing it several times on his BBC 6 Music show and making it one his records of the year. The songs here are part of a long deferred album 'Festival of Disappointment', which will will come out when I finally come down off that pole.