And some of those memories are really quite remarkable! I won’t reminisce in full here – again there are more stories than there is space on this page, or patience in any sane reader – but there are a few moments I would share, if we had a long evening to pas and a big pot of coffee…
We’ve played concerts to costumed, axe-bearing warriors in a remote valley in the Italian Alps, overloking a glacier from the festival stage; we’ve been flown around Mexico to play to audiences who were delirious despite never having heard of us before; we’ve performed in such extreme heat that my cymbals burned my fingers when I was packing down, and in such bitter cold that none of us could coax any but the most basic functionality from our
fingers; we headlined
one recent concert where we had les than twenty minutes to play because of a timing overrun, and yet in the past we’ve managed to fit over seventy short shows into a ten-day stretch at a Breton festival; we’ve done tiny village gigs where no-one comes from more than half a mile away, and festivals like WOMAD this year, where musicians converge from all over the world to surprise and delight the diverse, cosmopolitan audience…
Did I say a few, and then get carried away? Sorry, but I really could go on – even for a born talker, it’s one of the subjects I can really get on a roll with. Stop me now, don’t be polite!
One final thought then – it’s not all about me, me, me,
this overview of the band is from a very personal perspective.
though It’s
really about you, and him, and her, and them – the people who listen to our music, and whose lives are touched by it. Now if that sounds immodest, here’s one little tale from years ago, from the first time I ever looked at the band’s ‘guestbook’ on our old website. I’d never realised how many people had posted there until one day when I saw a particularly moving comment from someone who said that our music brought their family together in their mutual enjoyment.
Somewhat
taken aback, I scrolled down, and down, and down through a long list of entries I’d never seen, one after the other describing how our music had somehow had a positive impact on their lives, and I’m happy to confess that I cried copiously, and was truly humbled.
It was in that moment I realised
that the purpose of my musical career was to spread joy, and that if any band could provide me with the means to do that, it was a project worth pursuing.
So when
the mortgage question popped up last night, it only really took a few seconds of silence to come up with my answer: “Some of my gigs pay very well, and some others are immensely rewarding. Sometimes they’re both – but as long as they’re one or the other,
I’m happy.”
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