James Blennerhassett

I walked into a shop some weeks ago with my wife to buy the de riguer black suit for live shows after my old one finally fell apart and while I was (reluctantly) trying one on the young man who was looking after us asked Emily if I was a teacher in BIMM (did I really look like a teacher?)

She replied I was not and told him what I do and as I was at the till paying for same said suit, I gave him a business card whereupon he took a step back, looked at me and said I was one of his biggest inspirations as a Bassist…wow!

He was studying Bass in Bimm and quoted my work on a recording of the late Fergus O’Farrell’s band Interference as being inspirational.. wow again!

I was quite touched to have influenced a player in some way and had to download the album to hear what I had played as he mentioned the song “Vaj Vaj” as a particular one.

Yep, that was me alright, brought back memories of a very enjoyable session which took place behind what was Mother Redcaps I believe, with Dan Dan Fitzgerald at the controls.

Then, a week later I was speaking with Lisa Lambe to congratulate her on her beautiful album “Hiding away” and she reminded me again about that same track and how it had inspired her, so thank you Fergus for having me play on your great songs, it made me realise how important music is in our lives and if we can make someone happy in some small way by what we do then it’s all worth it.