Missing Madonna - with CliveMissing Madonna - with Clive
Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol free life!
Clive talks frankly about growing up with wine, building a career around it, and realising his drinking had quietly taken over. His story culminates in a powerful goodbye letter to alcohol and a new sense of strength in living alcohol-free.
1:01:41•8 Aug 2026
Missing Madonna and Finding Clive: A Candid Sobriety Story
Episode Overview
- Early normalisation of drinking in the family can shape long-term habits and make problems harder to spot.
- A wine-based career can blur the line between professional tasting and using alcohol to zone out.
- Repeated moderation attempts often reveal that once a certain line is crossed, controlled drinking may no longer be realistic.
- Stereotypical images of alcoholism can stop people from seeking help if they don’t match that picture.
- Writing and rereading a goodbye-to-alcohol letter can reinforce why change was needed and help keep sobriety on track.
“I thought you made me strong. I make me strong.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of alcohol recovery as Clive shares his story with Tribe Sober host Janet Gorand. This conversation is aimed at anyone who’s sober, sober curious, or quietly wondering whether their drinking has crossed a line. You’ll hear how alcohol was woven into Clive’s childhood, with his dad offering him sips of sweet wine to make drinking feel normal rather than forbidden.
That early familiarity later morphed into a full-blown wine-centred career: wine writer, educator, club host, and diploma student. Wine wasn’t just a drink, it was part of his professional identity, which made spotting a problem far harder. Clive talks candidly about his failed moderation attempts, including an 11‑month alcohol-free stretch that ended with a swift slide back to nightly bottles.
He also describes why he walked out of AA feeling relieved he “wasn’t like them”, and how that stereotype of the homeless man on a park bench kept him stuck for years. One of the most striking moments is his “Missing Madonna” story: a dream concert at the Royal Albert Hall, buckets of wine, and almost no memory of the show he’d spent a fortune to attend.
It’s a sharp example of how alcohol can steal the very experiences it promises to enhance. The emotional core of the episode is Clive’s goodbye-to-alcohol letter, read aloud in full. It’s raw, honest, and packed with lines like, “I thought you made me strong. I make me strong.” He frames alcohol as a long toxic relationship he finally walked away from, and talks about reclaiming discipline, reducing anxiety, and realising that Clive doesn’t need alcohol to be Clive.
If you’re wrestling with moderation, triggers, or the fear of losing your social self, this conversation might leave you asking: what story about alcohol am I still telling myself, and is it time to rewrite it?
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