I’ve never loved a band like I love this band. I don’t know if it’s that thing when you get into them early and the connection is more special.
Only his parents and grandparents were ahead of me really but as his uncle I wasn’t far behind.
He was a really bright kid, when he was five on the occasions I was there when he came home from school, I’d ask if he’d been a good lad and paid attention, also asking if hed learnt much. He’d say yes, so I’d say let me have a look in your ear, and I’d peer in and “you have been a good lad, your brain has definitely got bigger’.
He started playing the piano around the age of 6 and applied himself well.
I lived out of town for most of his life so didn’t see a great deal of him, but when home he’d be at my Mum’s a lot after school so we could pick up where we left off. He adored his grandad.
They left for New Zealand when he was 9. Next time I saw him he was over to see his Grandad, he was 14 and 6foot, we got thrown out of the Three Pigeons four pints into a session.
He went to Uni doing a music production degree. He sent me some of his own experimental stuff on MP3, I sent it on to a muso mate who knowing nothing about the artist asked where he could buy it.
On the course he met Amy, they started a covers/wedding band and they became a couple. A few years back they were visiting Europe, they asked me to meet them in England, work stopped me doing it, they changed there trip and spent three days in the IOM. I was humbled.
They had progressed to be a proper band, and although a proud Uncle, they really are good.
Two LPs in the bag, although sadly they recently split up as a couple and a band.