Did you ever wonder how we got here, and how sometimes tiny pieces of history make up, and have shaped our lives?
Or realised how every day, all of us are making history?
Join me, Sarah Dowd, in exploring what has happened in the everyday lives of people for the better, or at least the experiences that have just make us laugh and say…
This is… History. For F***’s Sake, the podcast that explores untold stories that make a difference.
When the world seemingly shut down for almost two years, what were we doing? We were creating art, making history and crying out of human contact. We were craving our culture.
I’m your host, Sarah Dowd, and I have worked on over 200 history, heritage and arts projects in the last 20 years across the world, everywhere from the Imperial War Museum in London to exploring how we put a fleet of ships in the sky, or bringing wrecks back from Honolulu.
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD which has brought a whole new layer of thinking about creativity and how we get people – ALL PEOPLE – really engaged with our shared history and culture.
Stories. Art. Film. Books. Ships. Music. Museums. People. Joy. Experiences. Humour. Humanity.
Because it’s all History, For F***’s Sake.
Find out more at historyffs.com
It’s 1986, and cinemas are obsessed with speed. Jets scream across the screen, engines roar, and pilots push their machines to the limit. Top Gun becomes one of the defining films of the decade, turning fighter jets into cultural icons. Forty years on, it’s back on the big screen – and that tells us something.
We love old machines. Aircraft, ships, trains, cars. We photograph them, film them and build museums around them. But keeping the real thing alive is far harder. So can technology give historic machines a second life? Can a ship that no longer sails, or no longer exists at all, still show us how it worked and what life on board was like?
In this special episode, filmed on location in Australia, Sarah sits down with Dr. CJ Manjarres-Wahlberg, Chair of Sea Heritage Foundation Australia and First Officer of the MV Cape Don. They trace CJ’s journey from airfields and lounge-room war films to maritime preservation, Indigenous inclusion and the launch of The Ghost Fleet – a bold plan to create digital twins of historic, and even vanished, vessels.
Highlights:
00:00 The cultural power of old machines from Top Gun to maritime icons
00:50 Why preservation is hard: corrosion, skills gaps and rising costs
01:23 Meet Dr. CJ Manjarres-Wahlberg and the story of the MV Cape Don
06:13 Creating a memorial for forgotten heroes
11:18 The end (and afterlife) of the Naval Historical Flight
16:01 Buying the MV Cape Don
23:02 How old, simple technology sometimes still works best
23:29 The disappearing link between people, machinery and repair skills
28:37 Why lighthouses are still vital in a world of GPS and electronics
32:27 Where did all the maritime jobs go?
34:43 Why the Cape Don is more than a museum
38:00 Reinventing maritime training
42:44 Paid apprenticeships and challenging elitism in history work
44:00 History is not a jar of specimens; it’s the story and meaning of now
55:04 Why we need spectacle and “wow” from Top Gun to Ghost Fleet
01:00:15 Cape Don as flagship for a new kind of living maritime heritage
01:07:16 Launching the Ghost Fleet
01:09:04 Everything’s impossible until it isn’t
01:12:06 Dry-docking dreams, and the practical work of ship-saving
01:12:33 Why the people that save ships matter
About Dr CJ Manjarres-Wahlberg:
Dr CJ Manjarres-Wahlberg is a highly respected maritime professional, educator and social impact leader with three decades of service. He joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1996, later serving in the Australian Army Reserve on operational, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions across the Asia-Pacific. As Chairman of the Sea Heritage Foundation, he has pioneered Indigenous maritime training with a 99% completion rate, and is leading the development of its Maritime Academy for Indigenous Australians and veterans.
About Sarah Dowd:
I’m Sarah Dowd – writer, speaker, heritage and arts consultant, producer, and all-around nerd – here to share the stories of our past that make us laugh, gasp, and mutter: It’s History… For F***k’s Sake. For 25+ years I’ve created immersive, inclusive experiences that bring history alive, from rallying Second World War convoys through London to staging performances between Pearly Kings and Gen Z creatives. My work spans museums, cathedral crypts, pop-up theatres, global brands, and community projects across the UK and beyond. As a Canadian living between the UK and France (with a late ADHD diagnosis that fuels my curiosity and creativity), I zigzag through culture, history, and big ideas, but never boring ones.
Every week on HistoryFFS, we explore how history echoes through today, make sure you are following the show so you don’t miss an episode.
Connect with Sarah:
Website:www.historyffs.com
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdowd/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/historyffs-pod/
Substack: @historyffs
YouTube: @HistoryFFSPod
Instagram: @historyFFSPod
TikTok: @historyffspod
Bluesky: @historyffs.bsky.social
In this episode of History for F**’s Sake*, host Sarah Dowd welcomes Graham “Gaz” Brown; musician, conductor, vocal coach, and former army bandsman, for a frank, funny, and moving conversation about how music shapes memory, and how ordinary people end up living through extraordinary times. From growing up just outside Glasgow to performing in the Gulf War, Gaz’s story is about the power of sound to steady us, change us, and connect us, both to each other and to history itself.
From Glasgow to Kenya – via the Band Room
Gaz’s life in music began at home: his dad was a tenor, his mum played organ, and singing was simply part of family life. He played cornet and trumpet at school and showed promise early on, but his path to formal music training hit a dead end when he was told he’d need Grade 8 piano to get into college. “That was never going to happen,” he laughs.
A careers advisor offered another route: the British Army. Initially unsure, Gaz soon realised this meant playing music for a living and travelling the world to do it. His first flight took him not to a holiday destination but to Kenya, aged just 18, where he performed in military bands under the East African sun. What followed were years of training, discipline, and performance in places as varied as Belize, Edinburgh, and later, the Gulf.
War, Fear, and Music as Survival
The Gulf War marked a turning point, not only in Gaz’s life but in how he saw the role of music in extreme circumstances. “I remember sitting there thinking, I’m a trumpet player. What the hell am I doing here?” he recalls. But even in the middle of air raid sirens and desert heat, music didn’t leave him. A borrowed church organ became a place to write and reflect.
His mantra (formed in those high-pressure moments) has stayed with him: “If I can survive this, I can survive anything.” It’s not a dramatic flourish, just a quiet philosophy grounded in experience.
Life After the Army
Returning to civilian life wasn’t straightforward. Military structure doesn’t always translate to the creative world, and Gaz found himself navigating a series of jobs before setting up a recruitment business focused on helping veterans find their next step. But music remained his anchor. From ska bands and jazz nights to conducting choirs in Cambridge, his musical life kept evolving. Eventually, he released Time, an album inspired by his experiences in the forces, a personal act of storytelling through sound.
Queen, Theatre, and Soundtrack Moments
Alongside the heavier moments, the episode is filled with laughter, especially as Gaz and Sarah debate musicals, revisit memories of performing together, and geek out over Queen. For Gaz, Freddie Mercury’s voice is something close to sacred: “So clean, so precise, and so full of emotion.” The band’s influence becomes a recurring thread, culminating in a legendary Bohemian Rhapsody remix that had nightclub bouncers applauding.
Why Music Still Matters
At its heart, this episode is about music’s ability to carry memory. “It puts you back in that place like nothing else can,” says Gaz. Sarah agrees: “music isn’t just a reflection of history, it’s part of how we write it.”
Whether he’s teaching, composing, or simply sharing war stories with his old music teacher, Gaz is still finding ways to connect the past with the present, one note at a time.
Listen to the full episode of History for F**’s Sake for more on Gaz’s story, and how music continues to make, and make sense of, our most defining moments. [Link]