Well here we are now into the final week of January and what a busy month it has been. Now I know I said that I wouldn’t be looking backwards this year, but like most people I have a secret list of thinks that they would like to achieve before we shuffle off this mortal coil and I am no different. I call it my Bucket List and during the last couple of years I have realised that I am slowly beginning to cross items of the list almost at a monthly basis, and this month has been no different.
The first tick of the month arrived quite by surprise, and ticks of my work on a Hollywood movie.
It all happened the week before last when I was commissioned as a Director for a two minute program insert into a Hollywood movie. Yes a real Hollywood Movie. Every film maker I have ever met dreams of working on a Hollywood movie and eventually to achieve it to me is a big deal. I suppose its the equivalent of coming across a Unicorn whilst out for a walk.
Now I know what you are thinking, blockbuster, shed loads of cash and a lifestyle that makes Simon Cowell look like a Tibetan Monk.
What you have got to take into account is that I cannot claim fame to something like ‘Gone With the Wind’ this is something that will be more like ‘Gone in a Blink’. I along with a colleague was commissioned to produce a scene that will be shown on a TV in a scene in a movie. So blink and you will miss it or even worse the acting will be that brilliant you wont even notice whats on the TV screen whilst watching.
Now the nearest hint of Hollywood gets people excited, you get levels of co operation that you don’t get making a commercial, it is surprising that even in this day and age Hollywood has the effect of making people dream the dream and that is a great achievement in this day and age.
The second tick on my list is back to the second great passion in my life, Music. I must have been a particularly good boy this year because my wife Ann bought us tickets to see Queen and Adam Lambert as a birthday treat.
I am still kicking myself because in the 80s I had a chance to see them when Freddie Mercury was still at the helm, but made the mistake of thinking I will catch them next time and we all know how that played out.
So Wednesday we left a very snowy and cold Diggle and headed into Manchester to the Arena. On the way I couldn’t help think will this be as good as I remember them and will the new guy be just a Freddie Mercury Impersonator.
I needn’t have concerned myself with that thought, from the best entrance of a Band ever to the final note of the concert, it was without doubt the best concert I have ever been to. For over two hours they blazed their way through hit after hit taking me back in time. Even doing the Radio Gaga hand claps.
As for Mr Lambert, he is his own man and he has a fantastic voice, not Freddie but different in a great way. Brian May and Roger Taylor gave performances that men half their age would have struggled with.
I suppose it is right that we think that someone will be irreplaceable and with good cause but without looking forward and finding a talented individual to take up the challenge these songs would be just tracks heard now and again on the radio, rather than as part of the epic performance I witnessed on a cold dark January evening.
Its amazing to think that I have experienced things already this year that I had erased from my memory as being unattainable, but you never know, life has a way of surprising you so my new philosophy of looking forward rather than backwards seems to be working.
John D Eccles 