Winter in your heart? It certainly is in my bank account

 It is bloody freezing out there this morning. What have I been doing? Changing my energy tariff! It will save me around £100 this year. By my reckoning, that's two curries more that I can afford, although I'm on a new year diet, so it may have to wait a few months to benefit. January is the worst month for me financially. It is, like the weather, a perfect storm. In January, we have to pay a VAT quarter payment, that happens to be for September-December, which is the best quarter of the year. Then we have to find the money for self assessment. On top of that, we have two of the worst months of the year for our business, December and January are always months which have a significantly reduced turnover for our studio. This used to be offset by good sales in the music retail business, but the shift to online retailing has clobbered this. It is almost impossible to predict how good or bad the busines will peform. We used to be able to predict, almost to the penny, how much we'd turn over. Now it is impossible. Last year some weeks were 40% up on the previous year, others were 30% down. Over the year, our turnover was up by about 10%, which meant we made a tiny profit. WIth the changes, courtesy of the Chancellors budget, we've had to put our prices up. I've calculated that we need around 15% more revenue to stay still. The difficult part of the equation is calculating whether raising prices will cost us business. Having put the prices up on the 1st January, we really won't know until maybe mid March. 

The way the government structures it's taxation system, we are clobbered in January and then Feb and March are good months, as local councils only collect business rates for ten months. On top of that, business always picks up. as more people start rehearsing for gigs. Rachel Reeve, the chancellor, made it very clear that helping small businesses recover from the pandemic is the last thing  that she's worried about. There are many things that she could do to help firms like mine, but none are being done. It pains me to say it, but despite all of their faults, the the last Tory government did offer a degree of help to businesses struggling to recover from the pandemic. The live music sector is one of the most affected. It is a miracle that our studio business survived. This was only because we had cash in the bank and the covid grants were reasonably generous. Now we have no cash and no grants and we are still trading 20% lower than we were in 2019. Not only that, but energy prices and labour costs have shot through the roof. Making huge hikes in minimum wage costs and National Insurance is completely anti growth in the current economy. I am a firm believer in paying staff a fair wage, but you need a healthy balance sheet to do that. The complete failure of Reeve to recognise that companies such as mine are desperately struggling at the moment, shows a complete lack of economic competence. If my business was to shut, not only would 11 people potetially be claiming benefits, there are at least 30 other customers of ours that would be impacted and have problems. 

For me, my music business is a lifelong passion. It is not just a source of cash. If it was, I'd have taken the grants and liquidated the company and retired in 2020. At 57 years old, I could have easily have retired. Why didn't I? Because I love music, I love musicians and I believe that God blessed me with the talents to run a business that is universally good for the local community, the music community and my own love of music. On Sunday, I wrote a blog about superstitions. I have a strong superstition that if I don't fulfill my mission in this world as best I can, bad things will happen. You may laugh, but I have had the most extraordinary luck in my life. As a dyslexic who was deemed educationally subnormal aged eight and had remedial reading lessons, I've done OK. When I was at FCHS school, my then Headmaster Nick Kelly told me that I'd never have a decent job, a nice wife or decent children. He told me I was a waster and a loser. For some people, such a statement would be a crushing put down. To his fury, I laughed and replied "We'll see Sir". What Kelly failed to see in me and many of the other boys I was at school with, was that the world was changing. Being adaptable is perhaps the greatest of all survival skills. Whilst he was lecturing me on how useless a human being I was, I was planning to start a band. My plan was to get a band together, and make a career in music. I didn't see Maths, Geography and History as part of the plan. The best teacher at FCHS was our physics teacher, John Shuttler, who was also into music. He counselled me and asked what I want to do with my life. I told him that I wanted to start a punk rock band and spend my life making music. John didn't laugh. He said "If you want to write great songs, you need competent music and English skills. If you run a band, you'll need maths to keep on top of the finances, if you are planning a tour, geography will help you work out where you are going next, and if you understand history, there is a rich source of inspiration for stories for songs. Look at the Irish music scene. Even the bands like the Sex Pistols reference history in songs, and if you get it wrong, you'll look like a fool". He then added "And if you study physics and electronics, it will make working out how to get great sounds out of your electric guitar easier". I found out later that John made amplifiers at Uni to suppliment his income. 

That intervention, over a cup of tea in his office was a key moment in my life. Why was I there? I'd been being disruptive in class. He'd told me to see him after the lesson. I expected a lecture. I got a cup of tea and a pep talk. We then talked about the music of Joni Mitchell for ten minutes. I realised that John would have been successful in whatever career he wanted. He was intelligent and insightful. He saw things in people that even they weren't aware of. He chose teaching because he could make a difference. I am sure at times, people like me would infuriate him, but he stuck with us. To my shame, I repaid his faith rather badly at the time, but did he lose it? No, he tried again. Eventually the message got through, long after I left FCHS. I saw him at a retirement dinner and failed miserably to thank him properly. But we had a great chat about music, so I guess he got what he wanted from me. 

The thing is, the example of people like John Shuttler made me realise that you stick with your mission and you keep the faith. You keep going and you look for new ways. You believe. You find a way. Then you get there. If I'd retired and crashed the business in 2020, when financial sense would have dictated it as a wise move, The False Dots would have folded. In 2021, our drummer Graham Ramsey lost his son to suicide and it gave me a massive reason to continue and reinvent the band. (Please donate to Graham's appeal to help pay for a headstone) The four years since have been a blast. The best ever. I'd rather be gigging at The Dublin Castle, where we are regulars, with a residency than sipping G&T's in Barbados (although Mrs T would disagree). So what I am saying is that if you have a dream, stick with it. The point I am making is that January is grim financially, but there is more to life than money. Don't let it get you down.

In 2021, the False Dots completely changed our sound and our style. Poet Allen Ashley left the band and I took over on vocals. Allen is still a mate and I believe that this number was his finest moment with The Dots, so here it is, from 2015. We sound a bit different now (Click here to listen)