- Joined
- Sep 18, 2017
- Messages
- 15,181
- Reaction score
- 9,198
- Points
- 203
- Age
- 63
- Location
- Scotland
- Website
- monaghan.tv
I'd finished university and headed back home to Scotland with no clear idea of what I wanted to do but with some vague notion of some post grad studies. Menial jobs came and went but mostly I was on the dole which is a benefit paid for those out of work by the state and gave me £9 per week and living with my parents I contributed to the household leaving me with £3 per week to spend and have fun with. Back then the bus fare into Glasgow and back to where I lived was a £1 so I walked the sixteen mile round trip to save money.
When I cashed my weekly check I would head into Glasgow city centre to kill time and wander around the music shops looking at all the instruments I could only dream about owning. I had taught myself to play guitar and mandolin but really wanted to have a tenor banjo to play celtic music.
One 'pay' day as per usual I headed into town to do the rounds and in one of the music shops there was a used tenor banjo for sale, tenor instruments are quite rare so to find this was amazing. Most people know bluegrass banjo which has five strings and is tuned very differently think duelling banjos and that instrument is very common.
Anyway, I played it and it was a great instrument but even second hand it cost £55 and might have well been £55,000 as it was way out of my league so I left muttering to the sales guy I'll think about it. Even though too expensive for me I think it was undervalued at £55, add a zero and that might have been closer.
As I walk around the corner into another street walking past a bookmakers I see what looks like a £10 note lying on the ground, folks just walking by and not noticing. Heart racing at this treasure I got to it and picked it up, turned out to be £60 in tenners. Morals go south here, I went back to the music shop and bought the banjo with change to spare.
To cut out the long story I started playing this thing on the streets of Glasgow and other cities as a busker and this got me noticed by other musicians as I got more skilled. Within a year I became a pro musician touring with bands other than my own, session work and generally having the best time of my life.
Finding money on the street changed my life in a way that was completely unexpected.
When I cashed my weekly check I would head into Glasgow city centre to kill time and wander around the music shops looking at all the instruments I could only dream about owning. I had taught myself to play guitar and mandolin but really wanted to have a tenor banjo to play celtic music.
One 'pay' day as per usual I headed into town to do the rounds and in one of the music shops there was a used tenor banjo for sale, tenor instruments are quite rare so to find this was amazing. Most people know bluegrass banjo which has five strings and is tuned very differently think duelling banjos and that instrument is very common.
Anyway, I played it and it was a great instrument but even second hand it cost £55 and might have well been £55,000 as it was way out of my league so I left muttering to the sales guy I'll think about it. Even though too expensive for me I think it was undervalued at £55, add a zero and that might have been closer.
As I walk around the corner into another street walking past a bookmakers I see what looks like a £10 note lying on the ground, folks just walking by and not noticing. Heart racing at this treasure I got to it and picked it up, turned out to be £60 in tenners. Morals go south here, I went back to the music shop and bought the banjo with change to spare.
To cut out the long story I started playing this thing on the streets of Glasgow and other cities as a busker and this got me noticed by other musicians as I got more skilled. Within a year I became a pro musician touring with bands other than my own, session work and generally having the best time of my life.
Finding money on the street changed my life in a way that was completely unexpected.
