ON LEARNING FROM SUGGS

On Saturday I went to see "Suggs - My Life in Words and Music" in Aylesbury. It was wonderful and if you haven't seen it yet I'd suggest you try and catch it as it tours around the country.

Now I'm old enough to have grown up loving Madness, The Specials and all the other Two Tone bands. Ska revival music was a big part of my teens so for me this was a real treat. But it was about so much more than just the music.

For almost two hours Suggs held the audience in the palm of his hand. The stage contained just an armchair and another guy who played piano/guitar. As he walked and talked he interwove excerpts from his songs and other music of the time. He skillfully moved backwards and forwards in time, always carrying us along with him. He painted vivid pictures and wove rich tapestries of sound. We were taken on a rollercoaster of emotions - sadness, loneliness, excitement, frustration. We felt it all. It was a show that you could enjoy on so many levels. Whether you loved the music, loved the great stories or loved the sensitivity of the man behind them both - there was plenty to hold you spellbound.

He told of his quest to find out about his father who he thought had died when he was very young. How his hopes were built up and dashed. He told how he came to understand the importance of those around him and to appreciate them for all that they are. He realised that his fellow band members - although irritating and chaotic in many ways were really the family he'd never had. "Our House" was not how his life was in reality. "Always something happening and it's usually quite loud". No - he was an only child brought up by a working mum and spent lots of his early life alone.

From an NLP perspective the show was a fascinating demonstration of several techniques. He made extensive use of anchoring - both using the music of course and his physical positioning on the stage. He told the stories in nested loops, carefully interweaving and overlapping them, breaking them off before the end...........before picking them up later and closing the loop.

But you don't need to know any NLP to love it. You just need to have a heart.

Look out for our next video. It's being released on You Tube on 25th January. 
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Michelle