Journey

For those who may be interested. Last night my girl and I went to see Journey at the Clyde auditorium. They were very good, and while declining in years, they still rocked.
I could write a huge speech about how good they were, and go over there set list like the music geek I am, but It's the warm up act I wanted to talk about.

Here goes. When we got to the gig we checked our tickets to find out what seat we were in. I noticed that on the ticket it said "no warm up". Fair enough. Anticipation is the only warming a band like Journey needs. So off to our seats we went. Approximately five minutes later a tall, blond, ageing rocker walked out on stage with his acoustic guitar. He introduced himself as John Parr. and started playing. I was blown away.
For anyone who doesn't Know who he is, (me included, until last night) he is the guy who wrote the St Elmo's fire song. I'd heard it before and dismissed it as a wee bit to cheesy for my taste. (says me going to a Journey gig!)

Before he started playing St Elmo's fire he took time to explain how he went about writing it.
He was asked to come up with a theme tune for the Movie St Elmo's fire. He mulled over it for days, hoping something would come to him, but everything he wrote seemed flat. He confided in a friend who suggested he watch a programme he'd recorded the previous night, for some inspiration. He gave it a shot. It was a documentary about a teenage boy ( we'll call him Sam, until I can find his real name on Google) who, while out driving with his friend got into a car crash. Both had there seat belts on, so the driver was fine. Unfortunately for Sam, there was a toolbox on the seat behind him that was flung forward on impact. It smashed into him, breaking his back. He was paralysed for life.
Sam was Angry that in this day in age, you could break an arm or leg and have it mended, but there was still no cure for back injures. He was determined to do something about it. He set his sights on wheeling himself around the world. His friend, who was in the car, drove the relief van behind him.
The first day into his trip he was stopped on the motorway by the police. they told him that he was slowing down traffic and he would have to take the farm roads instead.
So he set about traveling the mostly deserted farm roads with his bucket to collect money for Spina bifida. His friend in the relief van and a small camera crew followed.
The documentary ended when they were passing a small farm. they were all feeling quite low about how the first day was panning out when a kid ran out from the farm whooping. they ended the documentary with a freeze frame shot of the kid jumping into the air with arms aloft and a huge cheer on his face.
John Parr then wrote St Elmo's fire and Sam finished his wheel around the world raising 28 million for Spina bifida.

I've now changed my mind about the song and every time I hear it, I will be reminded that it's about bravery, hope and determination.

Thank you John Parr.