Living Adventurously I'm Out Of My Depth, Let's Do It // I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again. Living Adventurously 19.
Boff Whalley, from the band Chumbawamba is a keen runner, never happier than when mud-splattered and gasping up on the windy hills of West Yorkshire. He is also a playwright, the founder of Commoners Choir, and the author of Run Wild - an account of his experiences as a fell runner.
I arrived at Boff's house after a long day in the saddle. His family welcomed me and plied me with cups of tea and a veggie burger in the sort of living room I would love to have one day: filled with quirky art and design, masses of music, and a happy level of lived-in clutter.
We had a fascinating, wide-ranging chat about success, creative ambition, and the child-like joy of running in the hills. As I left their home, Boff's wife gave me directions to her favourite river swimming spot. In short, the perfect podcasting afternoon!
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE LIVING ADVENTUROUSLY PODCAST
(It’s completely free, zero hassle to do (click here), but really helpful for me trying to get a new podcast off the ground. If you’re feeling extra kind, please leave a review on the app – that really helps.)
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn (“Alexa, please play the Living Adventurously podcast”) or on your favourite podcast platform such as Overcast, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Breaker, Soundcloud, Castbox, Castro.
THIS PODCAST IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY KOMOOT
Your very own outdoor experiences are waiting for you. Go explore more with komoot. Use the voucher code ADVENTUROUS to claim your free region maps bundle.
The personalised planning and navigation tools ensure you plan the adventure that’s perfect for you. Komoot is Europe’s number 1 outdoor app, with route planning and navigation functionality, and strong community-driven inspirational features in the form of recommended Highlights and inspirational route Collections. It is used by nearly 10 million adventurers worldwide. Komoot is becoming the app of choice for cyclists and hikers the world over, with rapid community growth in the UK, the US and other parts of Europe.
You can see my ride’s route on komoot here.
SHOW NOTES
- If you enjoy listening to this episode over a cup of coffee and think it might be worth the price, you can buy me a coffee here: www. ko-fi.com/al_humphreys
- Keep up to date with future episodes (and my other adventures, projects and books) with my free monthly newsletter: alastairhumphreys.com/more/subscribe
- Say hello on Twitter and Instagram: @al_humphreys
- Boff's website and Twitter
- I was in a pop group for 15 years before I had a hit song, but you can't measure success by that. The success of being in a band was just being together for that long and remaining friends.
- Success these days is taking my son to school then going for a run and having an hour of my own time to disappear, to be offline and spend time in nature.
- If you lower your expectations you can be continually happy (but don't be pessimistic)
- The creative ambition is very personal and you can judge success by yourself
- Life is like doing a run where you get lost several times, you fall over, and a series of weird dead ends and double backs. It's about the run not the finish.
- We are 'supposed' to put away childish things - stop running for the bus - but actually fell running is just really good fun.
- Early ambition: "Maybe we can go further with this [the band] than just playing youth clubs in Leeds."
- I'm not a risk-taker in fell runs. But with life and music and art I don't want to get stuck so I take creative risks to keep me on my toes.
- Try something that other people aren't doing
- Boff has an underlying confidence in what he does
- The band wasn't driven by ambition, but the creative impulse drove him on.
- The creative impulse can be hard work because you can't switch it off.
- Some of my artistic heroes (eg the Beatles) were people who changed a lot.
- Why would you want to be in a band that does the same set every time?
- I'm out of my depth, let's do it.
- Leaving the city to live in a small town (where I could go running) was one of the most adventurous things I've done in my life.
- Run Wild is about trying to nudge people into doing something.
- Social media is doing a great job of encouraging people to get into new, physical down-to-earth things