Hey Coo Kids,
Birthdays!
Who needs ‘em? Probably no one over 35!
Sometimes I don’t think I relax into it enough, perhaps there’s a pressure to have the best day ever, but this one was definitely a good one. And it was quite memorable too. Here’s a quick list of some of the highlights:
I was very very spoiled, which is something never to be taken for granted but embraced with great gratitude.
I realised that two great musical personages share a birthday with me, Chris Quinton, fabulous Isle of Wight based singer-songwriter extraordinaire, and some guy called Michael Eavis.
We met a member of Anvil in Southampton outside Poundland (really!)
I got Jarvis Cocker’s new book as one of my presents and it’s going to be a wonderful read and is already hitting notes that resound with me as a fellow songwriter/artist/hoarder.
I got a fab t-shirt (see photo) which I had wanted in some shape or form for a while as Vienna is one of those seminal albums for me.
I played live in the evening (with Outlandish, the folk band that I’m part of), and, given the choice, I would now always play live on my birthday as it was really good fun, and I got made a fuss of again!
Life is full of heavy, worrying stuff and so always look for the moments that lift it out of that. I am happy to report that my birthday was full of those moments. Thankyou everyone who helped to make that happen.
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Thursday - four different occasions, shops, cafés, (mostly Southbourne) people were just lovely, I hate to mention it as though it’s a rarity, but everyone was just buoyant and friendly and joking about my shoes and chatting about the dog in their shop and stopping me to talk about Midge Ure being in Thin Lizzy (the T-shirt again) and it was just delightful, so I wanted to share.
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Follow The Music
Last time I commented on a book I’d been reading, Richard Reed’s ‘If I could tell you just one thing…’ which is a book full of famous and successful people giving one piece of advice that they’ve learnt and I gave my one piece of advice last time, which was “follow the music” and now I need to explain or define that piece of advice, just for completion purposes you understand:
It means find something, something that makes you feel light, or heavy with excitement, that compels you to do something that feels as though your whole insides buzz with anticipation, something that feels like it’s what you were put here for, and gives you a satisfaction you don’t find elsewhere. For me, that’s music and creativity, something I actively, sometimes obsessively, chase. I follow the music.