Bruce

I love music, and have listened to music from all different sources, radio, live gigs, friends’ albums, random internet finds, deliberate attempts to widen my knowledge, deliberate explorations of other cultures and traditions, street musicians and buskers…. And I have always one this. I used to listen to music stations compulsively, and thought I had a broad and wide taste and knowledge. Even if I didn’t like a genre, an artist, a style, I would still listen so at least I knew what it was like.

Several years ago… well, actually quite a lot of years ago, I went on a school trip to Germany; I went as a teacher and there were half a dozen other teachers to look after the students who were with us. Although it was a school trip, and most of the staff and students were from our school, there were some teachers and their students from other schools. Among them was a teacher called Charlie… I can’t even remember his second name now, but he was one of those people who was just really, really nice. I don’t mean I was attracted to him in any way at all, although he was quite attractive, but he was just a really pleasant person. he was about 5′ 10″, gingery brown curly hair, wire rim glasses, a smiley face, the sort of bloke who would always have loads of friends, men and women.

Charlie didn’t set off with us from school, he joined us when we got there… wherever ‘there’ was, and the reason he joined us later was because he had already been in France at a concert by Bruce Springfield… Bruce who? I asked. I had never heard of him… which I remarkable really. At the time I didn’t even realise how important or popular Springfield was… in fact I wondered if he was Australian, associating the name Bruce with Australians. It was only much, much later when I worked with another Bruce fan that I began to realise… and even then I didn’t actually know his music, or even individual hits.

It was only when I heard Raul Malo sing a fabulous song, which I at first assumed was his, but then found out was a Springsteen number that I heard a song I recognized as part of his cannon. Of course I now do know more of Bruce’s work… and today as we were driving home I put on a CD of his… I have to admit, to confess, that shocking as it is… I’m not really a fan