Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to step in last minute as support for Gavin Thorpe at his gig at the Folk House in Bristol. It was a great night, really well attended and a lovely atmosphere.
Gavin has an interesting story (if I have any details wrong, I hope I am corrected): he’s a local guy, got signed by Atlantic only a couple of years ago, went off to America, recorded the album – everything looked really good…. but Atlantic shelved it and released some bloke called James Blunt (?) around about the same time … hmm… hard luck! I quite like Blunty-boy in small doses, but after seeing Gavin Thorpe live last night, I have to say GT is better!
Just goes to show … !
Anyway go check out www.myspace.com/gavinthorpemusic and give him your support. I still have 2 of his songs stuck in my head, Idiot and Out of Place – he has a great voice, a nice personality and is a pretty good songwriter to boot.
No, I don’t do this for everyone

B

sO, TONIGHT (15th April) I play a benefit gig in Bath, for The Big Issue. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is – it’s a magazine that’s published specifically for homeless people to sell on the streets so they can earn a bit of cash for themselves – and then the rest goes back into printing the mag. . . I call that a GoOd ThinG … so tonight is about raising awareness and raising cash – and having a good time listening to some fantastic LiVe MuSic! It’s all being set up by another singer-songwriter Leanne Walsh, from Bath (myspace.com/leannewalshmusic) and there are some other fabulous people playing besides myself. It’s at St James’ Wine Vaults, St James Sq, Bath 8.30pm if you wanna check it out! …
I am really chuffed to be a part of this event, for 2 reasons 1) I have some idea of what it’s like to be homeless myself – and now work with homeless people in my other job! 2) One of the first gigs I ever played was a benefit gig for The B.I. right back when it was quite a new thing … so it all seems to make sense to me.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that anything that can happen to one person, could happen to us all … we might all be unique, but we’re not so very different. At bottom, we all just want and need the same basic things – and we all have a responsibility to each other; we don’t all exist in individual me-sized bubbles immune & seperate from the things that affect other folks… sounds like a depressing thought – but it shouldn’t be! Just try to do one little thing today that makes a positive difference to someone else’s life, and one day when you need it, you’ll get it back … … you could start by buying a Big Issue – or coming to this gig
Be well. Be happy Take care.