Last week, I had the wonderful pleasure to be tete-a-tete with Son of Dave, Benjamin Darvill, of the one time Crash Test Dummies, at the Cluny, the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle... This is a once industrial area, full of Victorian warehouses, now almost transformed with European funding into artists' studios, an interactive museum replete with old and new Children's Books, 'Seven Stories', a horse-riding centre with resident gee-gees, galleries and the Cluny, a former whiskey bottling plant...
With a stamp on my hand, the like of which I had not seen since the Under 16's disco at the Catholic Club in 1980, I stood with many others (mainly gobby, chit-chatting, men - Don't dare say to me that women are the more talkative sex!!!), to listen to the wonders of this man, Benjamin Darvill, native of Winnipeg, Canada, now resident in the UK, where he must feel very much at home amongst us English Eccentrics, living la vida loca, in song and sound, in life and loves, in mind and mentality, in word and deeds...
And he was WONDERFUL, and life-enhancing... I felt full of wonder just spending one and a half hours in his crazy, fabulous, crackers, talented, musical presence, dodging beer being poured over me by gossiping men, swilling Cherry Kriek from Belgique and eschewing all but the Absolutely Fabulous, dahlink...
I live, I love, I listen to music, and I ask you...
We've got to that time of the year, have we not, mes bloggy budding snow-drops, where we re-assess where we're going and re-visit where we've been?
I'm going nowhere at the moment, to be honest, as we've been snowed into our little house on a very steep hill for days and days!
Anyhoo, back to the plot!
As we get older, don't you find that we've a tendency to look at the past with rose-coloured spectacles?
Old Times Were Good Times, that kind of thing?
How realistic is that as a motto to live by?
We've a dear, dear friend, a chap, who is always looking to the past, harking back to perceived past glories, imagining that if he'd only done this, e.g. dated and married GJ's sister, (perish the thought, each of them is as bad as the other!), then all his life would have turned out much better... He'd have been someone, done something with his life... (He's 48 this month).
In my, (always less than humble opinion. let's face it!), he chooses to stick with these backwards-facing thinking patterns because he's got nothing to lose (because it'll never happen, as it's in the past he cannot go back there...), and it's a get-out clause that permits him to remain in his 'stuck' behavioural patterns in the present... Living always in the past, as he does, he has an excuse for the present, as it's all pre-ordained, everything is doomed to failure in any case, no matter what he does...
He's managed to keep this up through a plethora of failed relationships, jobs and business decisions... He never accepts advice from us, but will take on really bad advice from others (whom he sees as successes in life, even 'though they're not all that they seem...) - All 'froth and no substance', 'all fur coat, no knickers' - That's another story!
I don't know why I'm putting all this out into the Universe on this occasion, mes bloggy loves, but it just seemed to fit with my love of the Son of Dave and this record... (I'm showing my age there, you see, talking about a record, rather than a track or a tune! There's no hope for me, you do know!)
And the fact is, you've got to keep moving, in my opinion... Move on. Embrace the new to a degree, and don't keep on about the negatives of the past.
You can't change the past. So don't choose to live in it. Don't let it continue to hurt and abuse you.
Je ne regrette rien, as the Little Sparrow sang...
I recently had cause to quote Gandhi at someone, well to paraphrase, and I said, (and I accept it's very easy for me to say this, and hard to live it! And I swear I'm not trying to sermonis/ze again...):
'Be the future you want to see...'
And, the day I wrote this, my funny little quote of the day muttered,
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you" - Satchel Paige
Serendipity, non?!
Ciao bellas. Mwah dahlinks!
And original painting above is 'The Long And Winding Road' by Kelley Stengele . SOURCE
I saw him perform on Jools Holland's BBC 2 show, and I was spell-bound, blown away at what he managed to draw out of the machines he works with...
This is Son of Dave...
La Wiki whispers in Fhina's shell-like...
"Benjamin Darvill (born January 4, 1967) is a Canadian musician and singer-songwriter. He was a member of folk rock band Crash Test Dummies in which he played harmonica, mandolin, guitar and percussion. Since 2000, he has been busy with his solo project Son of Dave, which has resulted in four albums.
Darvill was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He moved to London, England, in 1998 and lived there for several years. His 2000 album 01, recorded in London, combined "aged blues with techno beats and everything in between".
Reviewer Benoît Felten described it as "a mixture of modern R&B, hip-hop and electronics with an edge; it has a strong bluesy feeling".
His 2006 album 02 has been described as a mix of "cotton-pickin’ blues, vocalising beat-box, hard-breathing folk, steamy funk and even modern R&B".
