sweet dreams are made of this

This is H playing bass in an all-girl band.  They were good.  Really good.  I took the original photo when they won a local ‘battle of the bands’ competition back in 2003.  The prize was time in a recording studio to cut a demo.   She’d always wanted to be in a band, ever since she was quite young.  Either that or a weather forecaster.

She played flute at school and so when she picked up a bass guitar in the 6th form she found the transition quite easy.  Because she knew her scales.  Kids - if you want to play lead guitar or bass, learn your scales.  Just do it.  It’s easy when you’re young.  Nigh impossible when you’re a pensioner. 

After winning the competition they started to get offers of gigs far and wide.  One particular night they had a gig in Kingston-upon-Thames.  It’s quite a distance from MK and on a school night as well.  So the deal was that her band would play the first half and I’d drive down and pick her up in the interval.

I arrived at the appointed time to a wall of sound; exuberant members of the audience spilling beer everywhere while the second-half acts did their sound checks.  I found H sitting at the side of the stage doing her A-level geography homework.  Completely oblivious.  I wish I’d had a camera.

In the car on the way home she said “I love the band but (patting her geography text book) I love this more.”  

After university in the UK and Canada she achieved her childhood dream.  She is now a highly regarded meteorologist having worked in Antarctica, the Falklands and Ascension Island.  Sweet dreams indeed.


An aside; I’ve turned off comments for a while.  I just don’t have the energy right now to give them the attention they deserve.  And they do deserve attention - I don’t like receiving and not giving.  Normal service will be resumed before too long I hope.