Slinky!

Meanwhile, in the real world, one of my best friends and her husband have become the proud parents of a baby daughter. Which of course is amazing news.

Krissy, as she will be known in this posting, is one of my absolute best friends. When my wife and I got engaged I knew pretty much immediately that Krissy was the only choice for my 'best man', despite being very much a woman. After all, there aren't many friends in a life who you can say without hesitation or exaggeration have saved your life.

Back in the mid to late 1990s I was in a band with a guy called, for the sake of posting, Lucas. He'd answered an ad for a guitarist for the band I was in at the time. We met up, hit it off and for the next year made some loud noises across London's venues. One of the people that would come to every gig was an old friend of his called Krissy. Krissy was a classical singer, working with choirs across the country. But when the band Lucas and me were in dissolved and we began to put another one together we invited Krissy to sing for us.

We met up at the Bull And Gate in Kentish Town for drinks and there in the bar Krissy auditioned for us by singing Minnie Ripperton's Lovin' You a cappella. How could I say no? The band we formed were called Slinky and for the next five or six years Slinky played across the capital at every venue that would have us. We hassled every record company that would listen and for a while it felt like we were bound for glory. But as happens more often than not the wind changed and the band came to an end.

When the band first started I was involved in a relationship that was pretty unhealthy for me. Unhappiness makes for prolific writing they say. I was writing at least a song a day at one point. Most people I knew when questioned later said they knew I wasn't happy with my life. But nobody said a word. Except Krissy. One night after a gig we were sat in a bar drinking and she prodded and she poked and asked why I was living a life that made me unhappy. It might not sound like much but that one question and the response it forced from me were what saved my life. I wrote a post a while back detailing the life I was living and the choices I made to take me to my much happier life. None of that would have happened if Krissy hadn't made me be honest with myself about what I really wanted for me.

Krissy's own life wasn't what she wanted for herself either around this time. She'd seen in me what was going on within herself. It's how a lot of friendships begin. Her life was saved and changed for the better when she met her future husband Mr. C around the same time the band was coming to an end. She moved from West London where we were both living to North London and I followed, where I met my wife. Both myself and Krissy had our weddings within a year of each other. Krissy was my 'best man' and looked great in a suit. And it was some of the best news ever when her and Mr. C announced that that they were to become parents.

And now their new arrival is here! Congratulations to you both guys and welcome to the little one!

To celebrate I'm breaking a little unspoken rule of mine. I said to myself when I started this blog that I wouldn't post my own stuff. I'm not sure why. But our old group Slinky are nowhere to be found online. It's scary how many bands that must have existed, even amongst the signed bands, and of whom there's no trace.

So here's a couple of tracks by Slinky. There are other songs that I was listening to around that time, but it seems suitable to use our own tunes as our soundtrack. I can't promise I won't do the same again at some point in the future!

Slinky - Slinky
Slinky - Broken
Slinky - Free-Falling
Slinky - Just The Girl