17/07/2026
Hi everyone,
Stuart here from The Journey Back just giving an overdue update with what’s been happening regarding shows recently.
It’s been an absolute honour and privilege the last 3 years from creating this show and being able to perform it for such an amazing and likeminded audience as myself. From having zero background in writing and producing to having one of the biggest shows the country ever saw was an exhilarating experience and one that I will remember fondly forever.
I lost count of the amount of people that would message me or come up to me in the pubs to tell me how much they enjoyed it and how many times they’d came to see it and that was always the greatest achievement I’ll take away from doing this show, how it made people feel and how much they connected with it the way I had intended.
The show has always been ran solely from one person, myself and as it grew to the stage it’s at just now, it became harder and harder to keep grasp of exactly what I had created. It became my entire life, every waking moment of everyday was me working on any issues or plans just to keep the show on its tracks to the point it started to affect my personal life, my family life and my health.
Since the start of the year, the show has became something unmanageable for me and instead of trying to find help to keep it straight, I plowed on myself always trying to keep it on its tracks but with some low selling shows around the country mixed with monumentally high costs to produce the show to the scale we always had, the wheels finally started to fall off.
Cancelling shows, processing refunds but with still an extremely busy schedule to maintain where I refused to call it quits, the immense pressure of the running of the show finally got me to a point where I couldn’t carry on anymore and landed me in professional care.
I never wanted to cancel shows. I pushed myself and my team to breaking point just to make sure I wasn’t letting anyone down but ultimately I was crashing and burning.
It’s at this point the decision that’s been made for me is to postpone the remaining shows of Blackpool, Airdrie and Belfast. Refunds will be made to all customers for these shows and I’m aware that we have had MAJOR refund issues for Stornoway and Dunoon but I swear if the last thing I do, any outstanding refunds still to be processed, will be. I will not have this hanging over both the reputation of this show and/or my own character. Everyone who is still owed a refund, will get their refund. I will make sure of it.
The show was always to end at The Pavilion this year in September and I refuse to let what I devoted my heart, soul and ultimately sanity to, just wither away into the night. I want to be able to look back at this period of my life with affection that I created good, put smiles on faces, gave back and showed my love to my football team and its support so I will be keeping those Pavilion shows on which will be the last shows I do myself.
There are plans in place for the show to continue into the future under another production team outwith myself but as of September, I’ll be removing myself to focus on finding my feet again, be a dad to my son and get some normality back into me and my families lives.
Thank you to everyone who stood by what I created. I hope I’ve given you all the time of your lives.
Thank you for the memories.
WATP 🇬🇧💙
