Dear Harry and Friends
Here is my Christmas literary work from the recalcitrant pen of a jobbing song-writer!
I have to apologise for a delay in communicating with you, old friends, but not-so-good health has come upon me by the rules of fate, a truly hard task master. I have always loved what I do and I’m well aware of being the ‘lucky one’ who appeared to have a growing audience for the musical and literary outpourings under the guise of Magna Carta. For all my incapacities, I’ve had a rather busy year!! Earlier this year, as a guest of the Society of Antiquaries in London, I was honoured to share exhibition space with the ‘real’ Magna Carta and King John! The year became even better when, to my astonishment and delight, the top magazine UNCUT had the eponymous classic ‘Seasons’ placed at number 83 in the top 200 Greatest Progressive Rock Albums. And then, to cap it all, I was re-presented (by the Mayor, no less) with the gold album for ‘Seasons’ at a delightful evening of ‘listening’ to the album in full with a fabulous audience in my birth-town Harrogate. And if that wasn’t enough, my dear friend and ace journalist, Graham Chalmers, has completed his book telling my life in music. What a year!
I had always managed to ‘do it all’ – the endless trans-global tours, from Petra to Jerusalem and Birsett University. I put the pen to work writing for the Dalesman, which even at one point, invited me to meet the God-like figure of James Herriott for lunch. Then looking back on the great concerts, London’s Albert Hall, Amsterdam’s Carré Theatre, and so on, and from that point meeting up with the poet laureate, Robert Graves, at the Festival Hall, and from there on across the world. Time and time again, travels took me on a crest.
I was ever an outdoor man, caver and climber, as well. We never seemed to stop working and travelling and playing the music. One minute pulling people out of caves the next the Maadan in the land once called Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers (the Tigris and the Euphrates).
My energy never let me down…… until I found something that was going to occupy me across many aspects of our world – my health. I noticed that suddenly (or so it seemed) I was finding some of what I took to be the simpler things in life became a complex merry-go-round. I have never been short of energy, but suddenly found that the demands on my mind and body were pushing me to some limits. Difficult for me to write and express.
All in all, having a diagnosis of dementia last year has been a terrible shock to my system, and strange to find myself suddenly experiencing for the first time the resounding blow to my self-belief that I wasn’t able to continue as before. When I found myself admitted to hospital 2 years ago, due to strange feelings and a situation I couldn’t begin to describe, my world changed and I realised that things were not always going to be as obviously surmountable as in the past. Everything I’ve done before, with a profound energy, taught me something. Now I bridle at the minimal, and things now bother me that I never thought about before.
Magna Carta fans mean a great deal to me, more than ever now, and I know how lucky I have been with you all. I sometimes feel like an old car, with bits falling off! I don’t always know where something is coming from, I don’t always understand everyday things, and sometimes simple things take on the guise of something horrendous. Things that were easy are sometimes now difficult.
Looking back, as indeed I do, I have realised that everything I’ve seen, all my experiences, are a learning curve – including my health. It can either destroy me or give me the opportunity to rise above every day tribulations and find some peace or joy. On that note, I wish each and every one of you a joyous Christmas. May you all find peace with your friends and families, and may the New Year bring you all good luck, good health, good cheer and happiness – for you all deserve that. And my thanks go to you all for your love, support and friendship over the years. I am indeed a lucky guy! In fact, I consider myself more than lucky in someone who has helped me through a lot of dark corners and uncertainties and that is somebody most of you know, the Lady Catherine, who against the tide, has cared for me more than anything I’ve ever known. And to you Harry, eternal and grateful thanks for all you do for me too.
With love
Chris xxx
P.S., you haven’t heard the last from me just yet! There’s life in the old dog yet!!