I wanted to tell my story of the night I lost my wonderful, constantly by my side, guitar...
I joined a band when I left school. I was the only girl in an all male, country rock band, they taught me a lot about life on the road in scotland... the drugs, the drink, the women, mostly they taught me never to go near a musician if I wanted a stable relatiionship...
anyway I was young, The guitar player had a family and had bought a second hand guitar for his son... the son refused it so I bought it from him for 40 pounds.
a lot for me in '78.
I took it with me all over europe busking when I left my band... it was a small guitar with and easy action, built as a copy of the Martin I think. It was called a YASUMA and was number 1000 hand made, it said inside.
I loved the way it sounded and slept near it, ate near it, played it more than I walked and talked, I was in love.
then I went to AVIGNON in the south of France... me and some other campfire, grape picking, street musicians .. packed up for the day and took our van to the outskirts of town to find a camp...
when we were making our evening meal... I went to the back of the VW van and there was NO GUITAR... I pleaded with the guys to drive the five or so miles back into the centre of town to the car park were I was sure the guitar was left... but there was no guitar or case there...
I went to the police station and reported it missing... I broke my heart.
my passport was inside the case but I didnt care about that.
for one week I returned everyday to the AVIGNON police station, hopefully someone would hand my guitar in... they shook their heads a lot... no-one was very hopeful... it was such a big town and so many transients.
SIX days later the police told me someone had my guitar... they gave me the address... and I found that it was someone who lived above the bread shop where I used to play. The husband of the woman who used to sell me bread for my lunch had picked up the guitar in the car park on his way home from work. On looking inside the wife saw my face in the passport and recognised me as the singing girl.
I was reunited with my love and never more have we been apart.
that was ... OH MY Goodness!! twenty five years ago.