Paul's latest article for Glastonbury Care Home's in house magazine where he lifts the lid on how a gift, unknown to him at the time, would significantly change his life forever.

MIKEY’S £30 GUITAR A GIFT LIKE NO OTHER

“Hey Paul, thought you might like this. I can’t take it with me to Ireland. Cheers Mikey”. 

So read a note attached to a guitar left outside my office door at Wells Cathedral School. As I looked down on this black, dusty Makro Dreadnaught guitar I had no idea it was about to take me on the most extraordinary personal journey of my life.

At the time that Mikey gave me the guitar I knew 4 basic chord shapes.This had been the case since I was 11. I took the guitar home. Then, like thousands of guitars in the world I propped it up in a corner of a room where it remained unloved and untouched. 

I discovered rock aged 11. During my turbulent teens I would lie for hours on my bed eyes shut, volume up to 11 listening to Ozzy, Aerosmith and Triumph imagining I was on stage. For me nothing was off limits. I did the tennis racket routine, the shower head rock out and pulled all the cliche poses in the bathroom mirror that my rock idols had on the covers of their LPs. I was hooked, obsessed and passionate. I unapologetically wanted to be a rock star. 

About a year after Mikey left for Ireland something made me finally lift his guitar from its shadowy grave in the corner of my room. Something spiritual hit me and has never left me since. This was it. Whatever ‘it’ was going to be.

My first live gig on Mikey’s guitar (coincidentally the first time I’d ever sung in public) was to an audience of one in a small room playing my own song. I shook from head to foot. My fingers shook so much finding the right fingers on the frets was like looking through bubble wrap. Despite my nerve fed concerns at what my audience of one maybe thinking, the guitar made me feel I was at home. This was only a start.

A few years later my mum fell downstairs at home ending up in hospital in a coma. One evening visiting her the guitar happened to be with me. Again, something out of my understanding pushed me to play to her. My sister had died 22 years previously and my mum and her were very close. My sisters favourite song was Let It Be. On the last chorus of Let It Be my mum’s hands started to move! As the last chord faded her hands fell by her side again. This would be the last movements my mum would make. Without Mikey’s guitar I’d never have said goodbye to mum. 

I have cried on Mikey’s guitar. Fallen asleep on it. Felt moved by it and with it. I’ve punched the air excited by it. I’ve loved and loathed it. I’ve sat quietly in total easy silence with it on my knee. I’ve strummed it like a tennis racket and been 13 again. I’ve discovered a whole new understanding of songs and a deeper connection with music. I thought I knew the power of music but I didn’t until I could play Mikey’s guitar.

In a world where I despair daily as our humanity dies before our very eyes, this guitar has made me feel my own humanity again. In a tornado world descending into unimaginable emotional shut down, where originality, the beautiful uniqueness of every one of us is being ridiculed and buried in A1 slop and GBT chat this guitar reminds me every day why I will do all I possibly can to give the beauty and joy of human interaction without any technology in the way.

If Mikey hadn’t left his guitar outside my door my rock dream to play would never have gone further than a tennis racket and a shower head. My rock poses would be confined to “what on earth was I thinking” memories. Worn down by age, people and life I would have probably given in, had my hair cut short, thrown out my leather jackets, shopped in M&S and frequented garden centre cafes. No chance. I’ll rock ’til I drop.

I may not be playing the O2 but I am playing one to one in care homes at peoples bedsides at the end of their life and at singing circles. I’ve added other much more expensive guitars but it will always be Mikey’s £30 black guitar that sits closest by me by my desk. It is the only guitar I pick up every single day to practice on. 

To this day Mikey has no idea what his simple act of kindness has brought to me, and I hope, for every elderly person in care for whom I have played. Mikey’s guitar arrived at my door when the residents and I needed it most. Mikey’s guitar rediscovered my passion, my purpose and gave me my life back. Mikey’s guitar reminds me every day why I am still alive. Having lost who I was it brought me back to my true self ….. I can’t tell you how good that feels……. I’m finally back home again. Thanks Mikey.