Is anybody watching The Voice on BBC 1?

[Parksy]

I doubt if there will be many takers, after all BBC 1's The Voice is a singing competition but at least it seems a bit more honest than the X factor which appears to be full of hype.
The reason that I asked is that I was watching The Voice on tv last Saturday with Herself and a glass of wine and I was gobsmacked to see a young lady who I knew 30 years ago appear on screen unexpectedly
Her name is Lyndsey Butler and she's had a great voice since she was a little kid, sit back and I'll tell you the story........

Back in the early 1980 myself and some mates of mine were terminally skint, we'd all been made redundant with no redundancy money and were all on the dole.
One or two of us had been in various local groups but apart from our guitars we had no proper amplifiers, no transport and no prospects at all.
The vocalists older brother had been injured in an accident at the rolling mills and he kindly lent us the money from his compensation to buy some equipment on the strict understanding that we'd pay him back from the gigs that we got.
Our benefactor, Alan, had a 10 year old daughter and he asked if she could come to a rehearsal and have a sing with us.
We were not altogether keen but we owed Alan everything so we agreed and to be honest we expected to patronise this precocious kid for half an hour and then forget all about it

The shy little girl turned up with her dad at the rent free back room of the pub where we rehearsed every afternoon in exchange for us performing occasionally for no fee.
She was very nervous and we asked what she wanted to sing. She'd obviously been influenced by her parents record collection because she named a couple of Brenda Lee rockers. Our band had a five minute run through, the songs were only '3 chord bashes' and Lindsey stepped up to the mike which had been specially lowered for her.
She blew our socks off!!!
I've never heard such a good rendition of a Brenda Lee rocker before or since from anyone! We all had goose bumps!
We knew that she was good because the old stumble bum lunchtime drinkers shuffled round from the bar to watch, a thing that had never happened before.
Over the next couple of weeks we worked out a set list for our own 'Little Miss Dynamite' and Lyndsey cut her show-biz milk teeth working with us. For one so young she knew her own mind and had a full and equal share in our decision making, we wouldn't have dared to try to patronise her in any way because of her great vocal style.
Time marches on, eventually the band split and we all moved on and I lost touch with Lyndsey and her family.
I knew that Lyndsey had worked as a musician all over Europe so on reflection perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to see her on tv.
She was chosen by Sir Tom Jones to be on his team and she's one to watch out for, I hope that forumites will join me in wishing Lyndsey Butler the very best of luck on the show.
The voice is open to professional and semi-pro singers and musicians so the X Factor sob story / delusional freak show format is largely avoided, everybody who appears deserves to be there.
Click Here to see another example of Lyndsey Butlers work, I'm sure that you'll enjoy it

P.S. Her Mum and Dad once owned a 4 berth tourer

 

[emmerson]

Lovely story, Steve, and a great voice. Good luck to the girl.

 

[Mel]

What a great story. If she makes it big time perhaps you could apply to be the backing musicians. She clearly now owes you! BTW did Alan ever get his money back?
mel

 

[Parksy]

Thanks Mel, Im glad that you liked the story of what happened

Of course it was a point of honour to see that Alan was repaid quite quickly and because he was always supportive and keen we ditched the entertainment agencies that we worked for and made him our manager which meant that he earned a share of the fee for the multitude of bookings that he arranged for us.
After we sorted our stage act out had decent sound equipment we had lots of work and were booked up at least a year in advance. We were able to buy a van to get us around and had some great times and good laughs whilst supplementing our incomes with something that we really loved doing.
Lyndsey was with us for a few years and I'd say that we had more work because of her so she doesn't owe any of us a thing.
It was a real pleasure and privilege to witness a young talent begin to develop to the point where when she left school she worked as a well paid solo vocalist in towns and cities up and down the country rather than in a factory or an office. She stopped working to stay at home when she married and had her daughter so I'm told, and she is hoping to revive her musical career by appearing on The Voice.
We all moved on to other things eventually, I continued to enjoy playing regularly until twelve years ago.
Sadly, after I had a stroke back then I can no longer play and my trusty Fender Precision Bass which I called 'Thump' is sleeping in the guitar case under the spare bed but, I could never bear to part with it because of the wonderful memories that Thump and I share.

 

[Mel]

I love people's stories Parksy, thank you for telling the rest of this one. Sorry to hear about the stroke. Strokes are cruel sods, but they can't take away the good stuff from the past.
mel

 

[Parksy]

I enjoy recounting stories of the past Mel, our memories are wonderful gifts.
My particular stoke seemed cruel and unjust at the time, you go to bed powerful and whole and wake up weak and crippled and wanting to blame everybody and everything and dark times await but to progress you have to move on

Life changes, and it takes a hell of a time to adjust to new sets of circumstances but it's do-able.
I found that I could draw on past happiness and strengths to try to make the necessary adjustments to my life, there's always somebody much worse and you never know what you can do unless you try

Over the years I've accumulated lots of stories and I draw a lot of strength from the memories that I'm lucky enough to be able to re-visit in my minds eye.
I really must recount the tale of the handmade showbiz type jump suits one of these days.................

 

[Parksy]

Unfortunately Lyndsey wasn't selected to progress to the live shows, I already knew this because the early stages were recorded some time ago but I didn't want to spoil things for anybody.
Lydsey's 'battle round' was against a duo called Matt and Sueleen, this may explain why Lyndsey had been sort of billed as a 'country singer' when in fact she can sing anything and rock it out with the best of them.
The decision to pit a solo vocalist against a duo was strange and i.m.o. rather unfair because the key of the song was arranged to suit the range of the duo so that their vocal harmonies would fit the key.
Lyndsey was very gracious when the decision went against her and I wish her all the very best for the future.

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

ive not been on for a while just read this and what an amazing story. when was the last time you seen or spoke to her steve?

jo x

 

[Parksy]

Hi Jo-Anne, it's been a couple of years since I saw Lyndsey or her parents but I'm in touch with Lindsey again through Facebook and Twitter so I can keep track of how she's getting on.