The Music Of A Lifetime - APS 1957

1957 THAT’LL BE THE DAY – Buddy Holly & The Crickets

"Well that'll be the day When you say good-bye Yea that'll be the day When you make me cry You say you're gonna leave You know it's a lie 'cause that'll be the day When I die Well you give me all your lovin' And your turtle dovin' All your hugs and kisses and your money too Well uh you know you love me baby Still you tell me maybe That someday well I'll be blue Well that'll be the day When you say good-bye Yea that'll be the day When you make me cry You say you're gonna leave You know it's a lie 'cause that'll be the day When I die Well that'll be the day When you say good-bye Yea that'll be the day When you make me cry You say you're gonna leave You know it's a lie 'cause that'll be the day When I die Well that'll be the day Ooo ooo That'll be the day Ooo ooo That'll be the day Ooo ooo That'll be the day!" - Buddy Holly It may seem strange to you, I know it seemed strange to me to find out that the tune that was top of the pops on the day that I was born contained the words “That’ll be the day that I die!” Buddy Holly and his Crickets were part of the New Wave of American R&B that was hitting the shores of the UK back then. Buddy Holly was the inspiration for many bands included a little outfit from Liverpool called “Johnny and the Moondogs” (aka The Quarrymen) some say it was in homage to The Crickets that they changed their name to The Silver Beetles and eventually The Beatles all those moons ago! As for me, I was blissfully unaware of the song until much later in my life, at the time I would lay there and gurgle, cry, burp, eat and sleep. I suppose nothing much has changed! LOL So, the week before I showed up allegedly three weeks late of my due date, and the three weeks after my arrival this song was number one in the British Pop Music Chart, and yet probably I was more likely to have heard my Mum singing a song from Gracie Fields back catalogue and let me tell you, my Mum had a wonderful singing voice and often entertained on a purely amateur footing. Late 1957 was the start of space travel, Sputnik I was launched on the 4th October and the day after I was born the Russians sent the first dog into space. Laika was the first space traveller and Sputnik II was her spacecraft, it was to be more than three years before Yuri Gargarin would be the first man sent into space on 12 April 1961. This was the beginning of my life and the beginning of changes that were brought about worldwide as a result of Rock’n’Roll and Space Travel. Tragically Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash on the 3rd February 1959, by which time he had made almost 350 recordings of some of the most lasting and memorable pop tunes of the late 1950’s. He had personally written 40 songs among them True Love Ways, Peggy Sue, Not Fade Away (covered by the Rolling Stones), Everyday, Words of Love (covered by The Beatles) and of course That’ll Be The Day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPLAxDYgVE In the song American Pie Don McLean told the story of “the day the music died” the tragedy of that cold February morning when my Dad celebrated his 37th birthday and when the talent of Buddy Holly was quietened.

Music

Music was a very large part of my early life. My Grandfather, Father and Mother all sang in the local church choir. My Mum used to entertain at various local events by singing the songs of Gracie Fields and other spiritual songs that expressed her Christian faith. My Dad was involved in a Church concert party when I was about seven, that performed on over 100 occasions. I went to many of the performances!

My Mum took me to audition for the Bradford Cathedral Choir, I was so nervous my throat went dry and I couldn't sing for Keith Rhodes the Choirmaster; needless to say I failed the audition. It seemed that the ability to sing hadn't been passed down to me, but I still enjoyed singing hymns on a Sunday and singing along to the radio! I got a guitar when I was about ten and learned to strum a few chords too.

We listened to "Junior Choice" on the radio on a Saturday morning. In the mid sixties I used to buy ex juke box 45 rpm singles for half a crown (13 pence) from the local supermarket. I bought records by The Beatles, The Seekers, The Kinks and many others. I loved listening to the "B" sides, my favorite was The Beatles "I'll Get You". In the summer of 1969 I bought my first full price 45's, I got 3 for £1!

In the early 1970's I started to buy albums as recommended by my friends. "Pilgrimage" by Wishbone Ash "Grave New World" by The Strawbs, and Humble Pie's "Rockin' the Filmore East" my collection started to grow! Then one summer's day I went into the Virgin record shop in Brighton (Richard Branson only owned one other shop at the time, it was in London) and I bought David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust."

It was the first time I'd bought an album which hadn't been recommended to me by a friend. I just liked the title and I'd seen Bowie on Top of the Pops singing "Starman" and remembered "Space Oddity" from three years before. I then began to experiment and buy other albums not recommended to me, such as "Honky Chateau" by Elton John, "Laughter In The Rain" by Neil Sedakka.

I soon realized that my favorite kind of music was that of the singer/songwriter. After all who is best placed to sing a song, than the person who wrote it. They know what the meaning of the song is, better than anyone else. It is now my privilege to work with singer/songwriters as "The Musician's Life Coach" in this way, I am now involved with one of my main life interests!

Beliefs - Part Two

I suppose I've always been a passionate, all or nothing type person, so being more expressive about my faith came easily to me. In the "House Church" or new church environment I thrived! I became a teacher of basic Christianity for new believers, a home group and worship leader and head of the evangelistic outreach team for the local church, with a particular interest in the teachings of other faiths.

My Bible College training meant that I knew the scriptures well and so when I saw excesses within the local church I challenged the leadership. Sadly they weren't willing to back down and so to be a man of peace I left the church. I thought hard and long about what had happened and realized that I had become so dogmatic about my doctrinal beliefs, that I had lost the joy of my faith.

One day I heard a knock at the door to find some Jehovah's Witnesses there, in the past I would have spent a long time speaking to them, like I had to the church elders about where they were leaving the teachings of the bible as I saw it. I decided I no longer wanted to be in a minority of one and told them maybe they weren't wrong about what they were saying, maybe we all were slightly mistaken?

They probably thought I was talking gibberish, but it was a totally significant moment in my life. I no longer wanted to waste my life arguing with people and telling them where they were going wrong. The fact is we all see things differently and I know my faith had always been a source of joy and happiness. To regiment people into believing what I did was no longer what I wanted to do.

Everything we do in our lives adds to how we perceive things and the way we see ourselves in the world. To put people into a box and label their beliefs is like attempting to nail a balloon full of paint to the wall! Our six billion belief systems on planet earth are a moving target and we can all chose to believe what we want to, it is part of the amazing variety which makes up the human experience!

Beliefs - Part One

As a young child, I stood by the garden gate asking passers by if they were "Prodestant or Cat-lick" I suppose I was interested in the spiritual side of life because our family belonged the local Methodist church where my Grandfather was the Sunday School Superintendent, my Mother was a Sunday School teacher and my Father ran the young people's group and later became a Methodist Lay Preacher.

As a teenager having recently left school, I became rather vocal with my criticism of the sermons of lay preachers. I suppose it was partly meant as a challenge and partly in the attempt to shut me up my Mum said "Andrew if you can do any better, do it yourself!" This led me into a conversation with the local minister where I asked him how I could become a lay preacher.

He told me I couldn't be a preacher because I wasn't yet a Christian; I argued the point with him. He said all the family connections I had and all the church services and events I attended didn't make me a Christian. He didn't actually tell me what to do to become a Christian, but he made me think and set me on a journey that resulted in me asking Jesus into my life and eventually becoming a preacher.

As a result of the studies, the possibility of going to Bible School was something I considered, and in September 1979 I became a student at Cliff College in Calver, Derbyshire, UK. Although Cliff College is a Methodist college, there were people from other denominations in attendance and my beliefs were challenged and revised as a result of the teaching I received and my conversations with other students.

By the end of my studies I was a fundamentalist, evangelical, pentecostal and charismatic Christian believer. This resulted in me leaving the Methodist church after working for them as a Pastoral Assistant, to join what my Grandfather called "the happy clappies." I was surprised by his attitude and the way that going to a Methodist Bible School could mean I no longer fit within the church I grew up in.

(to be continued)

Who is Andrew Paul Smith?

So dear reader you have got a pencil sketch of where I'm from; next is who I am; followed by where I intend to go in this life time. I will write more about the events of my life, but before I go any further I wanted to let those reading my blog know who I think I am. Our own definition of the person we call "Me, Myself or I" is critical to all our interactions with those we meet.

I see myself as more than the events and interactions of my life; of course I have been shaped by them. At age 52 I see the development of my character identity and position in life as the result of choices I made before I came into this world. I believe I am a spiritual being having a human experience that I chose for myself before I got here.

This means that I believe we all have a purpose in being here and that part of this lifetime's journey is about discovering what that purpose is and then finding ways to fulfill that purpose. We can only go by the light and insight we have at any given point in time and so the definition I can give to what is my purpose is restricted to what I have discovered up to this point.

If you ask people about themselves, usually the first thing they speak of is the work they do, but in very few cases would that define them as people. Those who are the exception to this rule are those who see what they do as their calling, their vocation. I believe I experienced all the events of my life to enable me to do what I do now. I am an inspirational life coach, an encourager and a possibility thinker.

I believe I was sent here to be a catalyst for people to first find their purpose and then to help them to achieve all that they were themselves were sent here to achieve. I know this all may seem a little grandiose to some, but when I look back over my life and my studies I can see that I have always been involved at some level in keeping people on track towards their perceived destinations in life.

Pre School

I went to school for the first time in September 1962, less than two months after my brother was born and a couple of months before my fifth birthday. I have very few personal memories of the years before my school days, but like all families mine was in the habit of repeating to me stories of what happened prior to my earliest recollections. Sometimes I think I remember things, and then I wonder whether it is just my memory of what I heard my parents and grandparents say.

My Mum taught in Sunday school and from September 1959 I went with her. I learned many of the songs she taught. My first sentence was heard as I was walking to my Grandma's Turner's house when I said "Acan smell t'dinner!" On the way to Grandma Smith's flat on the bus I was separated from my Dad. As I held aloft a big bogey I had extracted from my nose and asked my fellow passengers "What shall I do with this?" A kind lady told me to put it in my handkerchief, whilst my Dad disowned me and looked the other way!

According to my baby book I grew in my first year from 8lbs 8ozs to 27lbs 1oz and from 20.25 inches to 29.5 inches. There is a photo of me sitting on a swing from September 1958, my head is covered with long locks of blond curly hair, apparently my hair darkened after my first haircut or at least that was the story I was told. I crawled for the first time aged 10 months and stood unaided and walked around my play pen at aged 12.5 months, taking my first unaided steps at 14.5 months.

I had many childhood ailments such as nose bleeds, measles, colds, tonsillitis and mumps. I suffered "brain fever" caused by the shoddy and frightening administering of my smallpox vaccine, by a doctor who eventually got struck off! My favorite song back then was "On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep" after hearing it performed in a local pantomime. For my fourth birthday I had the first of my annual birthday bonfire and firework parties celebrating the end of the gunpowder plot of 1605.

I spent the first of my childhood holidays in Worthing, Sussex in 1959, staying with our dear family friends (brother and sister) Uncle Ray and Auntie Peg Watkins. Returning in 1961 and every year thereafter till I went on my own in 1974. The kindness of the Watkins has never ceased to amaze me, friends that were as close as anyone and all because the Second World War brought our two families together. I am so thankful for such a happy childhood which my parents and grandparents provided me with, I was most surely one of the lucky ones!

Heroes and Mentors

We all have people we look up to and people whose opinions we trust. People we admire in whose footsteps we'd like to follow. In the end though, we come to a point where we acknowledge the effect these individuals have had on our lives but have to stand on our own two feet and face the world alone, with our own definite purpose in mind. My number one hero and mentor is my Dad, who I still have such great respect for, but I have realized he wasn't always right, just walking by the light that he had! :)

My father was an amazing individual; recently I was reading what friends and family wrote about him at the time of his 70th birthday. One said "Always your concern in life has been to help, in whatever way you could, those who were in need or going through difficult experiences. You have listened to people's problems and sought to give counsel when asked. Not only that but you were prepared to get your hands dirty, doing and giving practical help when necessary." No wonder he is my number one hero and someone I want to emulate.

My maternal grandfather Harry Turner gave me so much of his time and encouragement too! He was someone who desired to share with me the wonder of nature, the joy of family and to let me know of the potential he saw in me. I had many happy hours learning from him the awe with which he regarded life. He is number two on my list. I cannot underestimate the effect of other adults who were involved with my young life and would make special mention of Rev T. Stanley Clayton, and also Raymond and Peg Watkins.

There are of course many others Kenny Baker, Winston Barraclough, Eric Blenkin, Donald Phelps, Tom Saunders, John Worsnop and Graham Swallow who all treat me with respect and as an equal when I was in fact many years their junior. They made me feel good about myself something I aspire to do for others today. I will mention these names again in my blog from time to time. I am thankful that people took time to show an interest in me and mentor me, they are part of the reason why I am the person I am today.

People who I have met in my adult years have also been a source of encouragement and helped me to be determined in taking the paths I have pursued; they will get a mention too! People I admire who I have not met include Gandhi, JFK, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Larry Norman, Arthur Blessitt, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali. Professionally I aspire to follow in the footsteps of Earl Nightingale, Wayne Dyer, Tony Moore, Tony Robbins and Bob Proctor and in some cases for different reasons than seem likely.