General
Pete and Michelle’s in Portsmouth…
Any musician reading this out there, or indeed artist, poet or writer, will know that it isn’t always easy to keep on believing in what you do, and keep on trying to get stuff out there, especially as when you are first learning your craft there can be lots of false dawns: deals that almost happen then fall through, business or band relationships that don’t turn out how you thought they would. Everybody knows that it is difficult to keep believing in yourself all the time.
Well, I’ve been very lucky over the last few years to have a few people out there who have never failed to be supportive and show belief in my music. None more so than Pete Fincham and his wife Michelle.
He’s been coming to my gigs since 1998, owns more recordings of my songs than I do (I don’t know where he finds them) and constantly badgers me at gigs to play songs I can barely remember the words to or that I had hoped everyone had by now forgotten about!
Over the years he has become a good friend. I played at his wedding in Portsmouth cathedral and you can check out the first Unlit we ever did in his house earlier in the year, if you watch the first episode of The House We're In, which was the series of films we made during the first ever UK Unlit tour.
Anyway, we were passing through Portsmouth again this week, so it only seemed right to pay Pete and Michelle, and their gorgeous kids Gracie and Freddie, a visit.
Gracie had started playing songs on a small pink guitar and even making up strange surreal verses... and as night drew in, a crowd of friendly folk made their way round to Pete’s.
The band The Visitors set up in their Kitchen, and their pedal steel player Ed Hogsdon and I jammed until late. There was Port and cheese, and we collapsed weary and happy in bed at some late hour.
Music clips coming soon to the Performer's Gallery.
