James

I received some very sad news this morning and have been feeling emotional all day.  

My friend and bandmate James died last night.  He had been struggling with cancer for a few years, we had hoped that he was over the worst, but sadly while the illness had gone it remission for a while, it returned very aggressively earlier this year. 

James was a truly lovely man and I have been blessed to have known him.  As a musician (trumpeter) and singer he was a phenomenon.  Gifted with a truly wonderful voice he lifted any band that he was in, and he was in a few!  

As a result, getting rehearsal time with James was always tricky, at one stage I think he was actually in 6 different bands at the same time. :-)  We were his blues and soul project.  Not his major focus, truth be told we were a bit of a sideline.  I think he cut us some slack as we became friends, but he was enormously generous with his talent and abilities.  Everyone who came to see the band would always comment on how good a singer James was, but then in truth James was a professional musician .

I have some wonderful memories of fun times with James.  In rehearsals and even in gigs he liked to take selfie shots with his phone - at least, that is what you thought he was doing and then you found out later that he had always really been taking secret shots of his band mates, often pulling funny faces as they tried to master their parts :-)

James's party trick in gigs was to undertake a one handed handstand whilst still singing.  It never failed to bring the house down - although in one pub that we played the manager did threaten to deduct the cost of painting the spot of wall where James's shoes had left a mark at head height - the manager relented in the end.

Needless to say, this shot was not taken today, but I hope the Blip Authorities will allow me this breach of Blip etiquette in such extenuating circumstances.