Said a final goodbye to Bradford this week as we sold our house and my family officially left Bradford after 37 years (and are now full-time Londoners). It was sad, I was born in Bradford and have many fond memories, awkward growing up episodes, it’s where I ignited my passion for music and had many first-times.
In fact the house we sold was our family home for 29 years! Mrs T had only been Prime Minister for a year when my family got the house. yes a lot has happened in that time. Emails, internet, downloading and blogging – unheard of.
I have my school friends and family friends up in Yorkshire/Lancashire still so I will go and visit them – but I will keep the Bradford of my youth in my memories.
Also saw Brandi Carlile perform her only date in the UK this year and she was simply amazing – she has an awesome voice and the songs are so beautiful. The concert had to be rescheduled due to power cuts in Kings Cross (!) but I was lucky enough to be able to make the new date. Below is a video of her singing ‘Turpentine” at La Scala pretty apt as this was the week we left Bradford for good.
The rhythm section – a fundamental part of the band. Greg our brilliant drummer needs a solid bassist that he can also have a giggle with.
As we say goodbye to Cristiano who played with us at The Cobden and The Fly (for a second time) , we held auditions for new bassists over this month. A varied bunch came across our palette with all sorts of experiences and backgrounds. We put out the ads in Gumtree and Denmark street and met some very interesting characters. Then Max walked in – a fellow Bradfordian – he had lived in Nab Wood and soon we were having depth conversations about the meaning of being a Heaton Girl and The Wheatsheaf (I’m sure there is a song in there somewhere). Most importantly he had actually gone through the songs and learnt them – gold-dust.
So we have our rhythm section now and we go onto playing a headline show at The Fiddler’s Elbow (our first one) on February 12th. Bring it on!
A couple of pics from our Cobden Club gig and The Fly January gig (headlined by the wicked Hell and Hackney).
As yet another January zips by and we hurtle onto Easter, whilst still recovering from Christmas, crazy things are happening.
I was in Bradford this weekend, my old home is being sold and we are packing boxes. I have my first guitar up there, a wonderfully resonant spanish guitar. As I was surrounded by dust and boxes, I remembered the first time I tried to play that guitar. I got a book out of the library (as you do – who needs guitar teachers) and for some strange reason the first chord in the book to play was a G chord. For those guitarists out there, that is one big stretch and one of the hardest chords to play, especially as you get used to the pain of holding down those metal/nylon strings, and for a petite 13 year old on a spanish guitar just a bit much. For a brief moment my rock’n'roll dreams ended. How did Hendrix, Page, Santana and do it? The pain lasted three months, but rock’n'roll never dies, the dreams rushed back and there are now loads of guitar books and interactive online sessions that start with easy chords like the A chord.
Lesson: A little pain may hurt for a while, but giving up your dreams hurts for a whole lot longer..
