It's a Nice Day to Start Again

My friend Holly Taymar is not only a fabulous musician (solo and as one half of the Bronze), but also - her actual day job - a tireless fundraiser for Mind. During this current incarceration Holly has been presenting her unique Lockdown Jukebox (read all about it here): for a modest donation to a vital and respected mental health charity, Holly will sing you a song - any song - and post it on her Youtube channel along with all the other jukebox selections which have ben pouring in over the last couple of weeks or so.

I asked her if she'd curl her top lip and 'have a go at Billy Idol...'

Holly Taymar & Chris Bilton - White Wedding (2020)

Can we just go back to the start?

Anyone who watched Cold Feet first time around will remember three couples, six friends, living in faltering relationships and generally not making a great advertisement for marriage - falling in and out of love - sometimes with each other, sometimes not. I was the same age as these people back in the nineties and found the whole thing mesmerising. And having a soft spot for Helen Baxendale I always thought Rachel could have done better than Adam. As it turned out, it was all immaterial. Life really is too short.

Sometimes all we want to do in life is stand up and say: 'Can we just go back to the start?'

'It felt like 2005 again'

The delightful Holly Taymar headlined the main stage at Pickering Acoustic Music on Wednesday night; those who stuck two fingers up to the freezing temperatures outside were rewarded with one of the finest singers ever to appear at North Yorkshire's most revered music venue.

Joined by the obscenely talented Christopher Bilton she played some tasty covers, not least a stripped down version of Sheffield anthem Common People, as well as some of her own sensuous tunes - many from the new CD Never Winter Mind (Part Two). From which she sang the best song I've heard all year. And I've heard a few. It's called The French One; Holly says it's because it sounds French. (Naming songs may not be her forte: the first song on the album is titled Song One).

Holly Taymar - The French One (2012)