Reproduced from The Sun 10 November, 1997

As the band at yesterday's Service of Remembrance played Elgar's Nimrod, tears welled up in my eyes.

It is my favourite tune and sums up the country I love.

As a record producer, I regularly travel around the world and the one thing you notice is that people you meet in Japan or in the States, want to know about Britain.

The Japanese are in love with us. For a tiny island perched on the edge of Europe we have huge influence around the world.

We have led the world of music since the days of The Beatles. Our success is as impressive today as it was when the Fab Four began.

The UK is one of the few places in the world where sales of CDs and tapes is not falling. People wrongly believe that record sales were better years ago. In Britain we are buying more than ever before.

Last week nine out of the ten top-selling albums in the UK were all British - which is unheard of.

In the next three months those bands - led by the Spice Girls - will dominate the record charts of the world.

"Bands like Prodigy and The Verve are on the threshold of becoming household names around the globe.

Prodigy's albums will sell 10 million. The Spice Girls' two albums could sell more than 30 million copies worldwide. That ranks them alongside the classics of all time like Sgt Pepper and Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.

They stand alongside Michael Jackson. Only the Spice Girls have done in two years what it has taken Jacko nearly 25 to achieve - to become a true phenomenon.

There are not many places in the world where a boilerman on the railways like me can go on to become a millionaire making records.

At one time or another - especially when taxes were cripplingly high - I considered moving abroad to the USA, Japan or even the south of France.

But I just couldn't do it. As I look out of my window the sun is breaking through the clouds, the trees are brown and a squirrel is scrabbling for nuts in the wet grass.

There is nowhere like it in the world.