In 2018 I began writing a book as many people had been encouraging me to do. The book is a combination of all the stories I’d told people over the years. It is unfinished but in skeletal form I know it concludes with a show I did with my band at the Georgian Theatre in Stockton on Tees in March 2018. The show was such a resounding success that it seemed a good place to conclude the story.

The final sentence has been written.

However the story continues. After that successful show, enthusiasms in my band were running high. The energy between the six protagonists was palpable. More shows were booked and we were on our way. Then suddenly the drummer quit. And then like dominoes falling others left too. It was somewhat bewildering. Eventually we were just three. Now that’s not a band but incredibly the three of us, me, bass player John Dawson and Vocalist Jen Normandale believed we were still a band. Incredibly a drummer, Ian Halford, for some weird reason thought it looked like a band too and joined us.

In the Summer of 2018 the four of us went into a recording studio and made some music. Not just any music, there was a reason and a story to what we were doing. Over the coming months more sessions took place in several studios and a new story started to emerge.

I’ve decided to blog these stories in a series I’ll call “after the show”. This is the beginning.