Not me. Gotta say that from the very start. Not me.
Many years ago, back in the old forum, some of the elder-statesmen may recall that I shared a few videos of my grandson, Cameron, as a young teenager playing a bunch of songs. I was teaching him from raw beginner and he had made great progress in his first nine months, singing and playing too. We stuck a camera in front of him and he ran through these, all from 14 years ago.
In the intervening period other interests took him in different directions - notably acting (he joined an amateur dramatic group aged 15 and went on to a 1st class degree in performance, plus he has had several professional acting roles, as an extra or a performer role, on stage and screen) and teaching (he is a qualified primary school teacher).
In his most recent theatre role in summer 2023 (a play called Steel & Iron at Middlesbrough Town Hall), he had an acting and singing part which gave him a huge confidence boost, musically speaking. He had never taken his guitar out and played music for anyone but family or friends.
Fast forward to the present day. Just a few weeks ago on 17th December, in the run up to Christmas, he decided to take his acoustic and a Roland Street Cube and went busking. In his first 45 minute session he earned ÂŁ36. He sent me this overjoyed and gobsmacked message.
For those who don’t know, Redcar is in north-east England, on the north sea coast, and the December wind and cold are biting. It is a town where carrying lots of surplus cash is not exactly the common experience. It is a post-industrial town suffering much socio-economic deprivation. Those good folks showed some true festive generosity.
It got better. He returned several days later and, in a 3 hour stint, earned over ÂŁ300. Holy cow. One extraordinarily generous man listened to several songs, gave him ÂŁ20 and told him he should be on stage. He went back a couple more times and was high on the buzz of getting out there and playing and singing each time. He took his younger brother once and during his own short stint he earned some money too!
Two weeks ago, at his enthusiastic prompting, we went with Cameron to his first Open Mic night. His name went in and, can you believe it, he was selected to perform first. He jumped in and went for it. Three songs, straight off.
…have to leave soon but…I was captivated from the first seconds WOW
