In search of a new life...
With university over, and a strong desire to escape the dead-end town I begrudgingly call home, plans were made and bags were packed and I drove 130 miles south to the city of Bristol.
One of England's most beautiful cities, it has enough going on to keep it's inhabitants occupied for a lifetime, without being the bustling metropolis of London; too many people with not enough jobs and opportunities to satisfy all of them, where one always feels like they're playing catch up. Bristol, whilst far from being small, has somehow retained a sense of community and places great importance on that.
A degree in music hasn't gone completely to waste as every Thursday evening, for two hours, I conduct a small community choir; leading 50+ people (of mostly 50+ in age) through the songs that will soon make up our Christmas concert. Because a man needs to eat, I work 5 days a week in a bar and grill - blending coffees, pulling pints and mixing cocktails - and earn as much in a day as I do for those 2 hours taking the choir. Music, that's where the money is kids.
Slowly but surely I'm carving myself out a nice little life down here. This is real independence; free from the security net family and formal education provide. It's make or break, and if I don't pull my finger out soon and try to get my music on the gigging circuit, the latter could well prevail. But such motivation is hard to muster when your primary concern is having enough money to put a roof over your head and food in your belly.
On 15th March 2007 I paid a fine gentleman to tattoo the phrase 'young and lost' to the inside of my left arm (a lyric from the Maximo Park song 'The Coast Is Always Changing'). So far, this declaration still rings true. Will there come a time when it stops ringing?
With university over, and a strong desire to escape the dead-end town I begrudgingly call home, plans were made and bags were packed and I drove 130 miles south to the city of Bristol.
One of England's most beautiful cities, it has enough going on to keep it's inhabitants occupied for a lifetime, without being the bustling metropolis of London; too many people with not enough jobs and opportunities to satisfy all of them, where one always feels like they're playing catch up. Bristol, whilst far from being small, has somehow retained a sense of community and places great importance on that.
A degree in music hasn't gone completely to waste as every Thursday evening, for two hours, I conduct a small community choir; leading 50+ people (of mostly 50+ in age) through the songs that will soon make up our Christmas concert. Because a man needs to eat, I work 5 days a week in a bar and grill - blending coffees, pulling pints and mixing cocktails - and earn as much in a day as I do for those 2 hours taking the choir. Music, that's where the money is kids.
Slowly but surely I'm carving myself out a nice little life down here. This is real independence; free from the security net family and formal education provide. It's make or break, and if I don't pull my finger out soon and try to get my music on the gigging circuit, the latter could well prevail. But such motivation is hard to muster when your primary concern is having enough money to put a roof over your head and food in your belly.
On 15th March 2007 I paid a fine gentleman to tattoo the phrase 'young and lost' to the inside of my left arm (a lyric from the Maximo Park song 'The Coast Is Always Changing'). So far, this declaration still rings true. Will there come a time when it stops ringing?
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
hezza:
i wish you a happy new year 
arcei:
Quite an old post, but I very much enjoyed it. Are you still making out in that "little life"?