Residential care 

I perform in residential care homes across Manchester - just me, an acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin and portable PA speaker. I really love this element of my job as it allows me to make a difference to people. A lot of my family wound up in residential and nursing care and, let's be honest, it can be a fairly depressing existence without much to look forward to. 

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I use my personality to connect with residents; to make them laugh and get them involved; whether that's joining in on the chorus, playing the (sterilised) kazoo or accompanying me using my box of percussive tricks (I can never forget Marge from Haslingden and her creative use of the upside down cow noise toy during a rendition of 'Withering heights' - it brightened up everyone's day; including mine).

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I play a mixture of songs from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s (and some before that) and either play unaccompanied or utilise a backing track for variety. Sometimes just guitar and harmonica is enough. I may not be blessed with the vocal cords of George Michael but I do, thankfully, have a sense of humour and am very good at establishing rapport with the residents (if I do say so myself). 

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Here are some videos of my playing from rehearsal. Videos from residential care homes to follow.