Our neighbour’s daughter is looking sad. I take my drum and over the garden wall, play her a song incorporating her name. She’s delighted. Her Dad comes out and we get chatting. He works for a publishing company and asks if I’ll do a drum session with his team. Three months later the phone starts ringing off the hook. He’s written a glowing piece of editorial in BA’s inflight magazine. Vienna, Chicago, Istanbul – I go all over the world drumming with corporate teams.
One gig is in Johannesburg. While I’m there, I visit a township where I learn a song from Goodness, a single mother who lives in a shack. “Can I build you a house in exchange?” I ask. She says yes. Telling this story to another client, several more houses get built employing local township labourers.
On returning home a business friend says, “I’ve employed all sorts of PR people to get into BA’s inflight magazine. Nothing. How on earth did you do it?”
“Serenading serendipity” I reply. “Singing to chance. I was simply trying to make a little girl smile. I know nothing about PR, I’m just a drummer”.