LIVERPOOL FC were due to win the premiership after 30 years of chasing the title before COVID-19 took over the country, Jeremy Corbyn was defeated in an election after being vilified in the press and slated by centre right MPs within his own party – people have been laid off from their jobs and tens of thousands have died prematurely.
Relatives abuse minors and lie about the past, creepy managers and public relations staff smooth over corporate mistakes which cost employees lives, spineless scammers secure themselves pay outs, bosses leave employees stranded and move on, British death camps are missed out of the history books – bad stuff happens and mean liars win. Every day.
It puts my personal position, as a stranded musician in lockdown, in a more realistic context about life in general to admit how grim life can be. No pub gigs around Leyland (they were mostly miserable anyway) , my holidays to Portugal and Denmark gig cancelled, no pay out and communication from my cruise company as yet. Is it that bad for me? No, not really.
It has felt like a drag at times. I came back from San Francisco, recovered from COVID-19 in an isolated house for 14 days then moved back in with my girlfriend who, at present, is in the middle of annual leave and we’re building raised beds out of rescued pallets (well she is and I’m cccasionally joining in, having spent a few years working outdoors).
At first I was chomping at the bit to get online having realised that I wasn’t able to go to the pub to meet my mates, wasn’t able to watch BBC’s Match of the Day and wouldn’t be able to travel as a musician until 2021 at the earliest. Possibly, probably.
I was sporting my tan from lying on deck in Mexico and Hawaii, the fittest I have felt for years having ate all the rich folks’ food, made my way round all the metal stairways and mad corridors of a massive liner for months and been a regular visitor to the moving gym on Deck 15. I felt slimmer more flexible and alive.
Plus I’d played at least 200 times in a row and felt a storming confidence in singing ike never in my life before, however a weird, artifical gigging environment a cruise is. For the first time in my life (embarrassingly) , I’d been consistently well paid as a professional musician on a daily basis.
A month later and all that healthy confidence has taken a battering. I have been forced to faff about with a bunch of new online livestream options, boring and annoying me until I forgot what I wanted to say and play in the first place. My agent, colleagues, company, salary, life were all lost in an instant. Me and everybody else I guess.
What can you do?
Be glad you’re not stuck in one rented room, or on a coronavirus boat and learn from the choices you made for starters. I had the drastic options of going to the press for some personal fame and fortune or kissing corporate arse to be part of the compensated “family” regardless of how irrresponsibe they were being with my health and safety. One or two individuals were being reckless but the overall organisation itself went on a fast learning curve designed to protect passengers as well as profits.
I’m glad that I chose the medium path of trying to stay honest and open about my opinions on how a workforce should be treated while trying not to alienate and insult my fellow musicians and supervisors. Did it work? Definitley.
I was wrong to imagine my cruise company was totally dishonest or corrupt. I felt confused by the events and by some of the reactions of people around me in a pandemic panic.
Main thing I learnt is not to give up and to face up to the truth that if you want to beat the cheats you have to be really, really good at everything you decide to do. You have to be better than they are. For a musician that means more original, creative and soulful as well as perfected to the best of your ability. No easy ask.
You have to learn to be happy and confident in yourself when you have a garden, sunshine and a nice space to live in even if you’re going nowhere for months.
And you have to think deeply about who you are and what you want to do with your life, while staying realistic, and believe that you can do it while working towards it.
Easier said than done. Best start that novel then.
what will happen to Liverpool’s premiership hopes
The Music Workers Diary 