For over four decades, Bid has crafted lyrics that are witty, elusive, and quietly unsettling. If you’ve ever wondered what might inspire a line like “Every night at sleepy time / I hang my skin out on the line,” this is your chance to explore the answer—or at least venture deeper into the mystery.

Drawing on his remarkable book Strange Young Alien, Bid reflects on a life shaped by travel, music, and unexpected transformation. Part memoir, the book traces his childhood in India and the Himalayas, his adventures within the British music industry, and the near-fatal aneurysm in 2010 that profoundly altered his brain—and his creative process. In its wake emerged what Bid calls “the Creature,” an artistic other self that challenges the very idea of authorship.

Expect intriguing and often darkly amusing stories: the haircut that sparked “Letter from Viola,” the supermarket worker behind “The Cosmonaut,” and the unsettling figures linked to “Reach for Your Gun” and “Hello, Save Me.” Yet the more Bid reveals, the more his work resists simple explanation.

Alongside these reflections, Bid will perform a selection of songs in a stripped-back acoustic setting, offering a fresh perspective on his distinctive catalogue—where sharp humour meets exotic imagery and a uniquely philosophical edge.

Long admired by fellow musicians—famously including Johnny Marr and Morrissey—Bid remains one of the most original and enigmatic songwriters to emerge from the UK post-punk era.

This is more than a conversation or a reading; it’s an invitation into a creative mind where meaning is fluid, inspiration is unpredictable, and the boundary between artist and art begins to blur.