Sorry I’ve been out of the blogosphere for a while. An unexpected life changing tragedy recently turned my whole world upside down.
My father passed away in a horrific car accident in May, so my inspiration to keep writing a blog has been, well, not on my list of priorities I’ll be honest.
Some would say it’s unprofessional to bring up personal issues at work, but my business is a personal one – I’m a singer, I am my business !
So now that I feel ready to write again I want to pay tribute to my dad and remember the person who was without doubt my greatest supporter.
Going right right back to when I was a little girl at Oaklands School playing the part of Fagin in the school production of Oliver Twist; to Carol Services and Gold Singing Awards at Queenswood; to the BBC Radio 2 Choirgirl of the Year Competitions in Manchester; to waving me off at Heathrow on the start of a South Pacific tour with the National Youth Choir of GB (and collecting me at the end when the whole choir sang impromptu to the arrivals terminal!); to end of year showcase productions at Italia Conti; to Weddings of family and Weddings of friends; and eventually, when I got my little business up and running, Weddings of clients…… Dad (and of course my beautiful mum until 2009) was always to be found in the audience.
Many of my former clients will remember my father helping me at wedding fairs, eagerly distributing my demo CD’s and leaflets to unsuspecting brides and grooms to be! And after mum passed away from cancer he relished the opportunity to get out of the house and accompany me to bookings. I was always so grateful for his help lugging my PA equipment in and out of churches and venues – the best roadie I could have wished for and a roadie with style for he was always suited and booted to compliment the occasion.
My bookings became our mini-adventures (quite literally as I used to drive a Mini), entering into the lives of happy people for a while and visiting picturesque churches and venues, a huge bonus of being in the wedding world.
So this Summer has been incredibly tough without him. As fate would have it I have been back-to-back with bookings, one of my best seasons yet. I would never dream of letting any of my clients down so it had to be business as usual and if I don’t have anything else to thank god for at the moment I can at least be thankful for keeping me busy. All the gorgeous weddings and occasions that I have been part of over the past few months have helped me to stay focused, occupied and on the straight and narrow.
Below is a gallery of just some of the lovely brides and grooms I have been honoured to sing for this Summer – thank you so much for saving me. And my dad, Colin Evans, the smartest roadie there ever was : )