Today Lazy Daze were invited to play at a benefit to help raise funds for those effected by the floods we’ve had on the Somerset Levels. I was pretty certain the rest of the band would say yes, particularly Emma and Davy as they’ve already been helping out; gathering boxes of food and helping out out those facing challenges because of the rising water level. You may have seen some of the images on the news. It strange to have a crisis you’d expect to hear happening in a far off, less developed country, right on your doorstep.
Sharon, a friend a colleague at Chalice Well, is arranging the fundraiser with a friend of hers who runs the Shirston Inn, Wells. The two dates put forward at the moment are 26 April or 10 May. There will also be a skittles match, a popular West Country things which I’d never heard of until I moved to Glastonbury, a raffle and some food laid on. I also asked Sharon if she thought the Shirston Inn might be up for have a house band. It’s not something the band have discussed but the idea came to me while talking about the fundraiser. Sharon mentioned the Shirston Inn had been finding things a little harder since a Weatherspoons pub opened not far away, selling beer and food at low prices. I wondered if having a regular band might tempt customers as this isn’t something Weatherspoons offers. Seems like a win-win to me. We play every few weeks in exchange for food and beer, hopefully attracting a few more punters to the pub and we get the opportunity to grow our local following. Watch this space…
That afternoon a second potential development came up. Last year I did some work with a charity being set up by a lady who lives not far from Glastonbury. A friend had got involved and asked me if I would be able to help out as they were looking to offer life coaching to young offenders. (After taking redundancy in 2007 I trained as a life coach – more on that some other time) Having come from a learning and development background, I developed my own coaching programme and the charity was potentially interested in using it as part of their solution. During the period I was involved the charity set up a board of Trustees, one of whom was involved in the music industry. Not being in a band at the time I didn’t think much of it, other than the fact he was a pretty influential figure and maybe we’d get tickets to some gigs or get to nose around a top studio.
Anyway, back to this afternoon when I bumped into the founder of the charity, having not seen her for a few months. She asked how the band were doing and I took the opportunity to ask if she would be up for passing on a demo CD to this guy on the board of Trustees, to which she kindly agreed. She mentioned she would be seeing him soon and if I could drop the CD off, with an introductory letter, tomorrow afternoon, she would be happy to pass it on. I’m aware I’ve been less than forthcoming with names but I have to be a bit sensitive. However, the guy who is now going to be personally handed a Lazy Daze demo CD is none other than David Sharpe, COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Universal Records UK. At the very least we’re hoping for some knowledgeable feedback about next steps. Needless to say we’re all eager to hear what he has to say, at the same time remembering patience is a virtue.
Now, as with all these things, it may amount to nothing but you never know. And it’s that ‘you never know’ that I think those hoping to make it as a musician, or in any creative field, have to hold on to. ‘You never know’ keeps you going. It’s not knowing who might be at the next gig and where the next opportunity will come from but knowing that if you’re not in the game, one things is for certain, you won’t be exposing yourself to the chance that something might happen. So it’s all about belief, but belief that generates effort, not the belief that one day something magic might happen, completely out of the blue.
So, let’s wait and see, because ‘you never know’. And in the meantime we’ll keep rehearsing and arranging more gigs and applying to more festivals. And hopefully we might also hear from Mike Scott of the Waterboys, who you may remember was sent one of our CDs not too long ago. And I have a couple more contacts up my sleeve but will get to those soon enough.
Good luck out there and keep your eyes and ears open, you never know when the next opportunity is going to present itself. If you’re not paying attention you just might miss it!
Best wishes,
The Adventures of Lazy Daze 
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