Meltdown
I've been a musician (guitarist) since I was very young. Self-taught. No industry connections. No youtube to get tips. Had various bands with friends during my teenage years and we made our own independent way.
One partnership used to rehearse in the school youth club. We had no transport so we moved the drum kit on a pram. Not recommended - a hill was involved in the journey and we should not have let go at the top! Another partnership at school wanted to be Genesis - not that clever, needed to aim a little 'lower' in terms of technical ability. Another partnership wanted to be Status Quo. Believed to be playing the songs correctly and yet as many people have discovered it never sounded quite 'right'. Never quite like Quo. There really are more than three chords and a little magic involved!
At sixth form college I had a little more success. With three friends, including the afore-mentioned drummer-on-a-pram (by now graduated to a friend's car). This was a band that wanted to be Rush. Had got better at playing, so some of the Rush catalogue was not beyond us. This was Elgin. We excelled in writing songs in the style of Rush and although we didn't play very many gigs, those we did were generally well-attended and considered a success. We played at the college where we won the local band competition - the judges seemed particularly impressed that we had a key-change in one of our songs. All those hours listening to Rush finally paid off! 😉 This was around 1980. Then the singer went away to university, the bassist joined the Royal Airforce and the drummer - yes, him with the pram - stole my girlfriend. End of Elgin.
So with no options whatsoever, I got a haircut, got a 'proper' job and got accustomed to playing guitar alone in my bedroom for a while. Put a band together called Professor Fate. Lasted about five years, played lots of gigs, playing originals and covers, leopard skin pants, Bon Jovi - then I left in 1988, looking ahead to the birth of my first son, Chris. I was so restless at home however that Lynne turned around one day before Chris had actually arrived, and said to me 'For God's sake get back in a band!' So I did. Kick The Kat was born and we played covers, blues rock and hard rock, literally hundreds of gigs doing well off the back of the Gary Moore inspired blues rock boom across the nineties. This was the most fun I ever had in a band. Kick The Kat never ended. It just sort of fizzled out like a gentle wave on an outgoing tide which returns to shore for the occasional get-together.
Fast-forward to February 2022 and although I still played guitar at home, I had of course in the meantime become fully engaged with management and labels Rocksector Records and Blaze Bayley Recording. Very little time for anything else.
When my diagnosis with Parkinson's came along like many people I imagine the symptoms and the future impact took a while to sink in. But when, at around the same time, Kick The Kat and friends were invited to jam at a friend's wedding, I discovered - half way through the first set - that it's very difficult to play what you know you want to play when your brain is telling your fingers to do something different. I'm very right-handed and sadly my tremor is on my right side, so I thought I was staring down the barrel of no guitar, forever. I had what I can only call a meltdown and retired at the interval, friends fortunately well placed to take over from me and complete the second set. I was so very sad and frustrated.
I have since discovered that although certain aspects of my guitar playing have definitely gone, most likely forever, I've been able to adapt and some level of ability remains at least for the time being. I'm working on songs, will collaborate with other people and one day I hope to release some music and songs in my own name, something I've never got around to doing before. Watch this space!
As you'd imagine I keep my ear to the ground in terms of research and development into my illness and I was pleased to see that just recently Parkinson's UK have donated over £100,000 to a new system which reflects very well the true intersection of music and Parkinson's - the inspiration for my newsletter / blog.
Rather than squeeze a minor mention of this system at the end here, I'm going to research more deeply and report back to you soon.
God bless you all. Whatever's going on in your life, please stay strong and keep smiling.
Mark x
To be continued...