My Guitar Heroes
When you achieve something and think that you finally arrived, there always seems to be one extra hurdle to get across the finish line. At least that's my experience. When I decided to be a professional guitarist at age 19 I imagined it would be hard to make a living as a musician however I underestimated how hard it is. If I could go back and tell my younger self what the future holds I'd make a lot of changes. I'm sure some of you feel the same, right?! Firstly, I would've taken the opportunity to get my A-level in Music, gone to university and studied to have a better grounding in my subject. Instead, naïvely, I thought I could learn all I needed to by myself. I bought many books on Music, jazz play alongs, I listened to as much music as I could in different genres I took my teachers advice of working with as many different musicians as possible.
Eric on the Constellation: SHOWTIME
The stage was set, the band rehearsed and EQ’d by the sound guy and the lights were being programmed. There was a wait until the show started in the evening and I was a little nervous. I knew my parts and I was a little worried that I would forget some of the lyrics. However, after a practice again in my cabin, I was confident that I would put on a good show. I was quietly excited. This was a big thing for me, I'd taken a long time to develop the show in conjunction with my agent and tested it on Princess cruises while I was employed as a guitar of vocalist. The entertainment team there had been very supportive of my show and the audience who had witnessed the birth of the show loved Eric Clapton. In fact, whenever I played Eric Clapton on a cruise ship, I got such a great response…
Eric on the Constellation: The Rehearsal
Getting into the theatre wasn’t as easy as you might think, up in the lift, all the way along the deck to the far end and then through a very heavy door, down some steps, through a tight gap between the bar and some fixed chairs… through a curtain, down another couple of stairs and finally into the backstage area! Not the easiest with my heavy cases. However, later I was to discover there was an easier route, but my newness to Celbrity Cruises meant I was yet to find out.
I was early. The stage crew were there wheeling the piano into position and running cables so I asked where I was to stand and started setting up my equipment. Got the guitars out of their cases and started tuning up. One by one the musicians arrived…