My Music Episode 328 - Diving At Dawn

Pete Hobbs fronted User, a power trio that also featured future Razorlight star Andy Burrows on drums. Everyone had high hopes for I Can’t Love You Anymore. East West records put them in the studio with The Stone Roses producer Paul Schroeder and they even won a TV talent show performing it. A record deal was arranged, Abbey Road studios was booked and success seemed inevitable. But dramatically.... everything fell through at the last minute. Their manager went to prison and the label folded the day before they were due to go into Abbey Road. Despondent and shell shocked, Pete went back to the drawing board, eventually finding success with The Boy Least Likely To. Until the summer of 2023, Pete had totally forgotten about the song "I Can’t Love You Anymore". But his Mum, responding to a “Any requests?” post he put out on instagram, asked him to perform it again. It got him thinking. First he thought it would be a nice thing to do for his Mum and step Dad, it had always been one of their favourites. Then he added it to his live set and started developing and updating it and in the process totally reconnected with the song and who he was when he wrote it. “It’s very strange to go back and inhabit something you created 25 years ago. Much more emotional than I had anticipated. It’s almost impossible not to compare myself now to who I was then. Have I done ok? Have I achieved what I set out to? What would the younger me think of me now? I Can’t Love You Anymore was released on 3rd Nov 2023, Pete now uses the moniker Diving At Dawn.... Graham catches up with him for My Music