From coffee to canvas, projects take dedication

Mal Pope is a songwriter who co-produced the film Jack To A King, about the 10-year rise of Swansea City FC

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In case you haven't had the memo, today is National Cappuccino Day.

In a previous life that frothy drink would have been at the centre of a whole host of celebrations. I would probably have taken to the airwaves with The Cappuccino Girls Song, I’d have made sure to have had a picture taken with a layer of froth on my top lip as I cradled a coffee cup in my hands.

Tonight I would probably have produced a celebration performance of my musical ‘The Cappuccino Girls: Not today. I might have a small Espresso later with a little tot of whisky for my ongoing chest cold, but it seems, for the time being at least, my cappuccino days might be over.

That's the thing about taking on a big project. For months, sometimes years, it is all you can think about. It consumes your thoughts and your dreams. You become obsessive, it’s all you want to talk about and then...you move on to something else.

I remember when I started writing the musical ‘Amazing Grace’ about the Welsh Revival, I would read everything I could possibly find about the revivalist Evan Roberts. I would go to his house in Loughor, the house where he said he had met the Almighty and spoken to him face to face as a man speaks to another man. I would sit for hours outside Moriah Chapel just thinking about what it must have felt like to be there in those revival days of 1904 and 1905.