Friday, 4th October 2019

Me and Johnny.

  It was the day before the Lyde church gig, and my concert kit was on its way from storage in London to Hereford. My drum tech. Justin was bringing them over in a van, and would eventually set them up for me.

 Around lunchtime, the phone rang. Paul Cheshire, the key guitar player for my songs, was on the line. The night before he had gone to see a gig and had damaged his leg badly. He couldn't walk and was stretched out, unable to move. Needless to say, he couldn't do the gig on Saturday, and the pressure I felt had just been ramped up a few notches.

Cramming before the doors open.

 Luckily, another friend of James Honeyman-Scott, Nick Trigg, was already on the bill and was able to step in and rehearse Paul's key guitar parts with hours to spare. Ready or not, the gig was happening in 18 hours time.

 I had never played guitar in public before, let alone lead a band! I had, however, travelled to Minsk in 1991 to play a song of mine in a stadium there for the 'Children of Chernobyl'. It was at the end of the USSR and later in December the country was dissolved which was in effect the end of the Cold War.

Paul Cobbold and me after the show. I look so wired!

 Film of that gig was smuggled out and can be found on the internet under ‘Children Of Chernobyl’. It's a long film with a voice over by the actress and politician Glenda Jackson. I hope you can find the time to watch it!

 On Saturday around lunchtime, we ran my two songs with my tech. Justin on drums. Justin used to play in the band Elastica and now has his own band, Piroshka. Then we ran the Stevie Winwood song 'Can't Find My Way Home'. I did three or four songs on the drums with Paul Cobbold’s band, Mode-X and one song with my surprise guest Johnny Borrell from Razorlight. He had turned up right on time midafternoon from Birmingham airport for a quick run-through for the number 1 hit song 'America'.

 The rest of the time I was helping out, setting up images for the video screen and finding suitable sounds for the evening.

Those lyrics never left that pocket!

It's the waiting that gets you. 

 By late afternoon I had dealt with all the last minute incoming phone calls and tried to relax.

Fine chance. Doors opened at 7 pm, so we had just an hour or so to go. Maintain an even strain.

 The stage is eighteen inches high and the faces are right there four feet away and they are expecting big things.

Oh well, what’s the worst thing that could happen? 

 I had written out the key lyrics to start verses and lines that were not readily forthcoming as I sang. I had only finished the lyrics the previous evening and I was finding it hard to get them to come to mind just before I opened my mouth to sing them. These prompts were in the back pocket of my Levi skinny jeans as I went on stage to play the drums for a while.

My plan was to put them on the floor by my feet for security.

They never left my pocket for the whole evening.

M.D.C.

**Special thanks to Richard Shakespeare for taking these wonderful photographs!**