'What I've Been Waiting For' - guest post

Today I am hosting another in my series of guest blogs from local creative people who have been inspired by music.

Graham Chambers is a good friend of mine. We go back a long way. Too long. We went to school together, and both benefited from teaching staff and a music curriculum that was supportive, encouraging, and inspiring. As a talented multi-instrumentalist Graham pursued his passion for drumming, playing guitar, and singing. While most of us were banging our heads to heavy metal, and a brave few dabbled with indie, Graham’s heart was in rock ’n roll. As Graham says,

“I’ve always enjoyed the late 50’s Elvis sound, basic, raw, exciting, and at the time, very new. My love of music, and the Elvis influence came to the fore when Shakin’ Stevens arrived on the mainstream scene around 1980. This was when I really got into performing and writing.”

Graham formed and played in a number of bands and has been a part of the North East music scene for over 25 years. His most recent outfit, the Cadillacs entertain audiences in bars, clubs and events across the region. All the while Graham was writing and recording material, never considering putting together an album. Then everything changed.

This is Graham’s story. I hope you find it as inspirational as I have done. Graham’s message is a simple, but important one. It’s never too late to follow your heart and make your dreams happen. Just keep believing. Make it happen. Make it marvellous.

‘What I’ve Been Waiting For - Graham’s story’ ‘Sometimes, you've just got take a chance. Sometimes you might fall flat on your face, but if you don't try, how do you find out? That was me for twenty five years. After an epiphany moment while speaking to a good musician friend about my music, I knew the time was right. The time had come to sort through my back catalogue of two hundred and fifty songs and filter the wheat from the chaff, and put out a self published, self released, self everything, album of ten of my songs. This was only meant to fulfil a personal wish. As the process went on however, it began to gain momentum, I was getting more excited by the day. Some of my lifelong friends helped out and all time musical heroes were actually speaking to me and agreeing to play a part in MY music! This was way above anything I had ever imagined for my little project. With the support of the magnificent producer Ally Lee at Mill Studios in Alnwick who pulled recordings from these luminaries from all over the world, the album was shaping into something special, more so than I had ever thought. Listening to the final process emotions were mixed. At times I was happy for all we had achieved. There was sadness too, for the memories these songs took me back to. That is the beauty of music.

After fifteen months of hard work the album was complete, I held the finished disc in my hand. I released the album on iTunes and Spotify, sharing it with friends all over the world. I had no idea at the beginning that sitting flicking through my phone on the second day of its release I would see myself sandwiched between Johnny Cash and Shania Twain in the iTunes Country Chart at number sixteen.

I can't even begin to explain the feeling of personal achievement. I thought that was it. I had done it all. But no. There was more. A year later I've begun another album. This time there are ten brand new tracks I'm currently writing in the hope of releasing another album in 2018 when I turn fifty. So, there's more to come and who knows what joy it will bring me.’

You can find out more about Graham and his music at http://graham-chambers.co.uk

You can download a copy of his debut album, ‘What I’ve Been Waiting For’ on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1114267051?ls=1&app=itunes