It started off as a typical sort for week in December. Over the past few years The Hamper Charity ‘Everyone Deserves…’ has taken over large swathes of my time up to the big day and to be honest I love it. But I have to say in a life and career that has taken one or two strange turns this week is probably right up there.
Last week saw the launch of this year’s campaign with an open air performance in Victoria Gardens in Neath. The climax of the launch was a performance of the new Christmas single ‘Everyone Deserves 2024’, a reworking of last year’s song performed this year as a duet with the driving force behind the campaign MP for Neath and Swansea East Carolyn Harris or so I now refer to as Christmas Carolyn!!!
I know she is rather busy at the moment with her day job in parliament. I really wasn’t expecting her to rock up to every event I had agreed to attend but I think following our debut as the ‘Donny and Marie of Manselton’ the previous Thursday at the Swansea Arena for Maggie’s, well, I think she’s got the bug.
Saturday took us to St Peter’s in Newton for the 2 Wish Christmas Fundraising concert. I always try to speak to the organisers to find out what is available technically at a venue. Saturday was a particular concern because I was going to rushing to get there after the Swans home game against Portsmouth.
It was the look on the face of the lad fiddling with the knobs on the PA that got my immediate attention. It soon became clear there was a bit of an issue with one of the microphones. My contribution entailed 2 duets!!! I explained the situation to Carolyn and suggested we would need to attack the evening a bit like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards by sharing the one mic and strategically weaving in and out of each other’s way as we took turns to deliver our lines. We never had issues like this when we sang in the Philip Street Gospel Hall Carol Services 50 years ago.
On Sunday we headed to St Paul’s for the Sketty Community Fayre. It felt like we were working our way through the apostles with each new gig. Again I had spoken to the head of tech for St Paul’s earlier in the week. They seemed to be very well equipped which made a lot of sense when I found out that Pete had previously worked as a BBC Engineer. My confidence grew even more when he told me that for a number of years he had also been an engineer at the Marquee Studios in London, the studios where I had my first proper recording session back in 1973.
Carolyn and I shared the stage with the Rising Stars Theatre Group. The Rising Stars have been involved in a couple of our ‘Everyone Deserves’ Christmas records with a wonderfully signed version of our Away In A Manger lighting up the internet a few years ago.
When we were planning in the video for the new duet Carolyn suggested we included the Stars again. It was a night to remember for the both of us when we went to their rehearsal space in Cwmbwrla, firstly learn the moves ourselves and then to film them in all their joyous glory.
Before Carolyn and I could perform we first had to ask the Stars to teach the audience, including the High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, all of the signs they would need to join in the performance. What I hadn’t reckoned with was since filming the silent signed version for the video the Stars had now all learned the song and heartily joined into the performance.
On Monday and Tuesday I had a few radio interviews lined up for the new duet and shared the story of the charity and Carolyn’s involvement. On Wednesday the world went crazy…
The day started in a similar vein with a few promotional interviews with stations across the country. It was around 12.30 that my iPhone and social media accounts blew up. One if the amazing things about technology these days is the ability to catch up really quickly with TV and Radio shows you might have missed. It took minutes for me to find Prime Ministers Questions on BBC 2 and what I saw and heard left me speechless.
The first question for the Prime Minister after the Leader of the Opposition came from Carolyn Harris. Here she was talking about our record and asking the Prime Minister if he would like to thank us all for the work of the charity and the record. Then the Prime Minister thanked me personally by name!!!
It wasn’t long before I received a WhatsApp from an old friend from Swansea who had been watching PMQs from a land far away. He asked me to give him a call when I had a moment. When I managed to speak to him he asked for some more detail about the charity and asked if there was anything he could do to help. I suggested I get Carolyn to give him a call and left it at that.
It was about an hour later that Carolyn rang to say she had spoken to my old friend and that he had made a donation. When she said that he had deposited £25,000 into the charities bank account I have to say we both burst into tears.
The following few days have been a bit of a blur. That night Carolyn made the BBC programme ‘Today in Parliament’ and we both appeared on the BBC Radio Wales Drive.
Thursday the whole media circus went up a notch with Carolyn appearing on ITV’s This Morning with Ben Shepherd and Cat Deeley followed by an appearance on BBC 5 Live with Matt Chorley.
So that was the week that was. This week we have another few events lined up but who knows what might happen. I for one wouldn’t be surprised by anything…