Posted: 05 December 2011 at 8:26pm | IP Logged

Last night we were at a fundraiser at our church entertained by Chris - saviour's day- Eaton. Told him that I saw him with the Mark Williamson Band years back, sorry I digress.

I was next to one of the church leaders, my mate Alan Hoare. Over the meal we had a good chat and I got him to recount the Andy P tale. Alan was a schoolboy friend of Ian Smale - Ishmael- and they played in a band together (Hendrix/Cream yummy,yummy.)

Alan was in Worthing at a pub that put on Blues bands and was outside with his girlfriend. AP came out tripped over Alan's leg and spilt his beer. Alan said sorry mate let me get you another. From that fateful meeting a life long friendship was forged.

Later Alan said you must meet my pal Ian, it involved a train at 11pm at night and hitch-hiking, arriving at 5am.

Eventually Ian brought Alan to faith, whilst later Alan led AP to Christ at a church meeting. Ish and Andy became a musical duo.

AP was one week away from qualifying as a BT engineer and his parents begged him to complete it but he gave it up tour as Ish and Andy. AP's complete tunnel-vision as Alan described it.

Good story. And I suppose Banksy the Island boy was putting the final finishes to his musical canoe, named ATF. He finished reading the Eagle, listening to Telstar on Radio Luxemburg and he knew he was Sparky with the magic piano. AP jumped on board, and the two of them created some very memorable shanties. But I bet he didn't know how long he'd be paddling the thing. With many crew members pulling the oars, frequent scrapes, capsizes, navigation haphazads, wonderful scenery, highs and lows, and many a big cheer from the shoreline.   

Good job Alan's legs were stuck out and AP didn't look where he was going.

Cheers. 

Posted: 05 December 2011 at 9:58pm | IP Logged

Amusing, thanks Rod.  I don't know about frightening, Seagull, doesn't the fact that the Omnipotent One with a great sense of humour (and I don't mean Banksy!) can and does use all means, make the journey often surprising and entertaining...