INSPIRATION AND DREAMS

 

I walked somewhat nervously into that office in the bustling West End to begin my first real job, not long since leaving my schooling and the first face I saw was that of a smiling man of my own age, sitting directly behind me…

 

He’d joined the company but a week before and as the new boys with much in common we instantly became friends. We were both Mods, both loved blues and both read Private Eye…what more did we need to know about each other?

 

Many a lunchtime would find us sprinting along Oxford Street as ever late for work after spending far too long in the Marquee Club watching their lunchtime blues sessions…we continued this trend and went to clubs in each other’s home towns, listening to the Blues and Soul singers that were plentiful in the day…we were good mates.

 

Steve would often talk about his passion for playing blues guitar, and how he wanted to head his own blues band. I, though I hadn’t written as yet knew I was full of stories and what I would really prefer to do if given half the chance was to be a writer. Young men’s dreams…? Perhaps so, but there’s nothing wrong in having dreams, not at any age…

 

After many years we drifted away, as friendships often do, until last year when seeing his name on Facebook I decided to write and perhaps renew an old friendship.

 

My message was replied not by him but by his son who bore the same name…and he was to explain that his father, my friend had sadly passed away only a couple of months previously. I felt quite empty, for though I’d not been in contact for such a long time, he was still in my minds eye the same bloke I’d known and been friends with.

 

It was then his son told me that Steve had gone to America to pursue his dreams…and had indeed become what he’d always wanted to be…a blues guitarist, cutting albums, being resident in West Coast clubs, and extremely well known and respected in the industry…with his own band, the Steve Gannon Band .

 

I was so proud of him, and that inspired me…Steve had lived out his dreams…I have written so many stories, yarns…tales, call them what you will…and now it’s my chance to share them with you, to live out my dreams, and I can only hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.