The metaphysics of musicians

They transport us

Musicians – people who create and play music – inhabit some kind of separate universe to the rest of us. Look at my friends Blair, Mike and Steve up there. They’re on another plane, lost in the the sheer joy of it.

This otherness of music people is something I’ve really come to understand in the twenty plus years I’ve lived in Hastings.

For the first time in my life down here I’ve become good friends with natives of Planet Sonic and have been able to observe them frequently at close quarters doing what they do.

On stage. Knocking out a number. Making a space go OFF.

So as a tribe, they are relatively new to me, although through my professional life over the past forty years I’ve had the joy of being surrounded by amazing people from other creative fields.

Writers and journos, fashion designers and stylists, graphic designers, fabric designers, theatre designers, interior designers and stylists, actors, comedians, choreographers, artists, illustrators, gardeners, photographers, film makers, poets and chefs.

All fascinating in their own ways, how they approach projects, combining imagination and inspiration with very specific practical skills and experience.

Making something beautiful that didn’t exist before – be it a garden, a dress, a poem, or a stage set. The definition of a creative role. But somehow the musos stand alone.

Maybe it’s because what they create doesn’t exist until it’s reverberating on our ear drums. It’s intangible. We can’t hold it in our hands, touch it, or look at it.

OK, you can pick up a vinyl record and read the cover, but that’s completely unrelated to the experience of listening to the music on it. It’s a form of alchemy what they do. It makes us spontaneously move our bodies and touches our souls.

It’s metaphysical.

And since I first posted thhis, I’ve understood another reason it’s so special -thanks to the brilliant comment from Danya Wellington below. We experience it together as a crowd. It’s a shared joy.

I can be very moved by a poem, or a painting, even a garden, but that’s a very subjective solo experience. With live music you’re feeling it simultaneously with everyone else there. Which is also true of great theatre, or even standup comedy - but nothing moves you to your deep down dirty core like music. Popular music. (I

I had ample opportunity to ponder all this last weekend, when my great friend – actor, musical theatre and cabaret star, musician and songwriter – Steve Furst (on the right in the picture) came down for his birthday weekend.

Steve – who you might know as his legendary cabaret character Lenny Beige – doesn’t live in Hastings anymore, but he comes down a lot to visit what he calls his ‘Hastings family’ and it always leads to a great deal of joy in the form of live music. And, for me, a lot of dancing…

Steve as his hilarious and brilliant lounge superstar Lenny Beige.

For many years he’s performed here with our dear mutual pal, songwriter Blair Mackichan (left in top pic), who has written hits for Lily Allen, Paloma Faith and Will Young, among many others.

The two of them together are just heaven.

Blair is one of life’s natural performers, throwing out hilarious one liners along with blockbusting sets of mashed-up cover classics, with him singing and playing dazzling keyboards. He creates an atmosphere in an instant with his amazing energy and verve.

Add in Steve, sometimes on his fiddle, or red hot lead guitar, cut with doing his own numbers and hilarious spiel, and it’s a massive party.

Recently they’ve joined forces with another Hastings-based songwriter, Mike Willis (centre). Georgia-born (I think, he sings a lot about the rain there…), once Nashville based, Mike is a proper country music guy. I absolutely love his music.

It’s hard to think of a more diverse trio of performers – the musical theatre professional, the pop hit songwriter and the country music guy – but it’s one of those mad mixtures that adds up to exponentially more than the sum of the parts.

They are magic together.

Last weekend I saw them perform twice and it was fascinating to see them coalesce from a gang of pals getting up on stage together on Saturday – to a second gig on Sunday afternoon, when they spontaneously coalesced into a band.

Which they’re calling The Shambollocks. Of course they are.

Part of the crowd at Porters on Sunday. That’s me on the left, lost in it. These black and white pictures are by Dave Boutman, thank you, sir.

It was such a privilege to be there in our local wine bar, Porters, as they supported each other playing their own compositions and then together, performing rumbustious covers as a trio.

And even though other people wrote Sweet Home Alabama and Rapper’s Delight (which they played as one number…) each track was born afresh from their interpretation.

What really moved me was the magic of watching it happen live.

While all the other creatives I know labour away privately to produce the finished work, on Sunday, we got to witness the entire process – and share the joy it gave them to do it.

You could see it on their faces. They were transported, entirely in the moment – and so were all of us in the room.

Days later I’m still on a high from it. So thank you, Steve, Blair and Mike, The Shambollocks, for your metaphysical magic.

I didn’t take any video Sunday, because I didn’t want to be separated from the moment looking at it through a screen – but here is a quick clip I took of them singing Happy Birthday to Steve on Saturday.

But these are my guys. I’m sure wherever you are, there are great musicians. Go and seek them out, performing live, support them, share the joy. It’s a thrill like no other.

The Music

Here are some links to each of them separately, to give you a flava flav of their work. First up is Steve performing one of my favourites of his numbers, The Ballad of the Bald Mod.

These are a couple of Blair’s amazing pop hits.

The song below by Blair, with him singing it, Mother Nature, makes me cry every time. It’s dedicated to the fishing fleet which still goes out into the waters off Hastings, as they have for over 1000 years.

The video was made by Glenn Venness, another local legend who has been making films of Hastings life for four decades and who supports all our musicians with the amazing events he puts on. That’s Glenn lighting the ciggie from the fire pit in his garden (where he has a stage, as you do).

Here’s Mike, below, in the full music joy moment.

And this is the link to his website, featuring a sneak preview of his new album Sunday Flying, which is coming out at the end of October.

Thank you to The Shambollocks. I can’t wait for the next gig.