Janice Long

I have just been thinking about Janice Long, and what a wonderfully tactful and gracious woman she was. Janice can take the credit for me being confident enough to record and mix my own songs. During lockdown she phoned me out of the blue, and asked me to record a session for her Radio Wales show. 

We had a long chat; her husband had brought their baby in a pram to see Helen and the Horns, apparently. And she remembered me all that time.

I couldn't say no to that, could I?

But I was at home, with only my rudimentary home recording equipment. I just sat there and worked at it until I thought it sounded OK, then sent it to Ian Button to master (he does perfect mastering for radio). Bless his cotton socks, when he sent it back to me so I could forward it to Janice, he wrote that he hadn't had to do very much: just temper some of the high end sounds.

When the tracks were done and delivered, I listened to them on the show and they sounded great. No need to record anywhere else for my own stuff any more.

Janice didn't tell me she was poorly, but I think she must have had an inkling, and must have decided to tidy up everything in her life. So I didn't know she was terminally ill, and found out she had died and the funeral was being arranged from Twitter. 

I wish I could have told her the impact that her kind-hearted offer of a session has had on me. I can feel my brain making musical decisions in a really confident way, not just for me but for other people that I work with (and for). 

I can't say 'Always thank people as you go along' because of course I did that when we were chatting and laughing. But it's interesting to realise that some gifts that people give you take a long time to embed themselves within you. So thank you again, Janice! You were one hell of a dude!