theweeklyfucker.com

I thought I would take a bit of time before writing this, as I have felt quite angry, and it has taken me a bit of time to process my experience.

As you no doubt know, I volunteered to spend some time (24 hours) on the street, begging and homeless, in support of our great friend Richie Roncero, and his ground breaking charity, Steps to Hope.

I never expected this experience to be easy, and my God, it really wasn’t. I still marvel at the fact that Richie is in the midst of doing FIVE full weeks – what an absolute hero.

Heres the thing though, the hardest thing wasn’t really about sleeping outside, the cold, the hunger or any of those tangible, explainable things.  

The hardest part of it, was realising how incredibly mean some people can be.

I surround myself with love and kindness, and I try to do my bit for every single person I can, but I realised during this time that I just can’t judge everyone by my own standards – it seems we are all just different, and some of us are a lot less compassionate than others.

What struck me most was very much a paradox.

Dave and I constantly have a laugh at how over the past eighteen months, I have become a lot more recognised. I get stopped in the street quite a lot and asked for photos etc, and I have to be honest and say that whilst I find it quite amusing, I do also love it.  

I don’t love it because of my ego, I just love it because its so great to be able to engage with people – communicate and spread good feelings. For me, that’s EVERYTHING in life.  Life is too precious and too short to be any other way (in my opinion anyway)

What a difference though when you are homeless. On the Saturday, I played in front of 35,000 people at Murrayfield – it was adulation everywhere, sign this, sign that, can I get a photo etc.  Then on the Sunday, I was invisible as a homeless man.  

Not even invisible, I felt like I was an absolute nuisance to society.

People constantly looked at me like I was piece of shit on their shoe, even though I was exactly the same person who had been playing in front of a massive crowd the day before. 

To be honest, it was a total headfuck (sorry Mum).

I feel really strongly that this whole situation is absolutely wrong.  When I was begging, some people were desperate to tell me that I would probably just spend it on drink or drugs (I didn’t – I donated any money I got along with my sleeping bag to another homeless person), but even if I had chosen to spend it on drugs, isn’t the question more about HOW and WHY those people got to where they are? They are not lesser human beings, just “People Like Us” who happen to be experiencing a bit of a downturn in their lives.

Judging the homeless doesn’t make the situation easier for them.  People looking down their nose at them only makes them feel worse and less valued.

We are all part of the same planet, all part of the same consciousness – all the same people, pauper or billionaire, born the same and die the same regardless of our status.

I think there really needs to be a change, a collective change, a determination to fix the world’s problems.  

All these muppets at COP26 talking drivel for two weeks.  

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in a pissing competition about who gets to space first – its utterly ridiculous when all this is going on right here, on our own planet. 

People are dying of cold on the streets, and as a society we are letting it happen.

Special mention must go to Starbucks who were absolutely deplorable to me. 

They treated me like an absolute leper, and I for one, Will never put cash in their tills again.

On a positive note, the wonderful taxi driver who took me home told me to donate the fare to the charity, which I did – THANK YOU!

I want to leave you with one little story that both Dave and I found absolutely heart wrenching.

When we were talking to Richie he said that he went to Tesco in the morning, and here’s what he said:

“For the first time since being on the streets, going to Tesco was the first time I actually felt like a person.”

When we asked him “why?”

He replied:

“Because the automatic doors opened for me and it made me feel like I was somebody”

CB/DR November ’21

I don’t think any of us had ever been to Ipswich, but this week we spent two nights here, and we had a great time.

The theatre was a proper old style theatre, the sort of place that seems to be getting lost to modern structures all across the country.

Thanks to Amy and her team, we have been able to play a few of these theatres, and we have all loved it. its been such a different experience for Callum to play these sorts of sit down shows, and i think it has done wonders for his confidence and self belief.

He maybe doesn’t show it much, but at times, he has massive doubts and insecurities about his ability as both a songwriter and as a musician, and its always been my long term strategy to get him into new and unfamiliar situations in order to build his confidence and make him realise just how good he actually is.

More than anything else, my reward is to watch him grow and develop into the artist we all know he can be.

Ipswich rocked!

DR ✌️❤️

Haven’t had a minute since yesterday, but we have had two amazing shows.

Manchester last night was immense, a brilliant night, a great venue and great sound.

Stockton earlier tonight was the same. Under normal circumstances you’ll have a great gig followed by an average one, a sporadic pattern. But on this tour, so far we seem to have been gifted with the stars aligning to just make every performance incredibly special and almost spiritual.

We all cant thank Amy, Chris, Pam and the rest of their wonderful crew enough for making this such an amazing experience. – we are forever grateful for your support and belief in us to deliver for you.

I’ve always believed music is a spiritual journey. It is one of the things that can truly bring people together across generations and borders. We are all on the same level ground when it comes to music. It’s a common language.

Perhaps the Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper said it best, when he said that music is closer to divinity than any other creative discipline. He said that music is everything acting wants to be, because the connection it creates is what everyone is looking for. – its the holy grail that every actor is trying to attain.

When you are touring and witnessing that connection night after night, it just makes you realise why people like Callum and I and Amy and her manager Chris connect, and embark on this incredible journey together in the first place.

Maybe its just all about seeking out those heart connections and trying to do our bit, no matter how small, to change people’s universe, starting with our own

DR ✌️❤️

First night nerves over!

I think last night was as nervous as I have seen Callum. compounded by the fact that it was a sit down gig, we are so used to playing to a standing audience, so it was a different experience, at which him and the band completely excelled.

it was a virtual full house for them going on, with a very attentive crowd – we are so grateful to everyone who came out to see us.

Our amazing band were brilliant as always.

we also all sat and watched Amy’s set which was mind blowingly good.

if you can catch her at any shows we would all recommend it – great songs, great singer and a great band.

Now for the inside scoop though – as you all saw we had a few drinks to celebrate our first night on the bus.

on the second night though: callum: ”im just going to take it easy tonight. I’ll have a few beers then bed.”

After the show, i was shattered, so went to bed about midnight.

3AM: cue the madness, Callum, Eryn and Jason land back in the bus, and thought it would be great to listen to music and talk until 6:15am no less 😂😂😂

I could hear every word and I kid you not, i have never heard so much rubbish spoken in my entire life! 😂😂😂 – callum and jason were having a conversation with one another, apparently about two unrelated subjects!

Eryn was no better.

Lets see what tomorrow brings, but all i can say is that they are lucky they are such a talented bunch of people! 😂✌️❤️

We couldn’t start a tour without Jason blessing us for the trip.

That’s become standard practice these days! it was also a full moon when we set off last night, so we needed a bit of extra protection! 😂

I have to say that just seeing how buzzing Callum was about actually being on his very own tour bus was VERY heart warming, and makes me realise why I really do the job I do. He was beaming all the way, and he woke up, still beaming this morning.

I’ve never known a human being like him – he is filled with gratitude and first class manners and that goes such a long way in an industry not always known for being filled with great people!

We left Glasgow about 10pm, then arrived in Reading about 10am, stopping somewhere in the middle.

Bus life is crazy, because you get a sense of having absolutely no idea where you are.

Let’s just say that when we stopped in services and I stopped a woman at 2am and said “excuse me, do you know where we are?” It was met with a very strange look! 😂😂😂

I’ve had to go on the road with a lot of idiots in my time, but it makes such a huge difference to do it with a genuinely amazing bunch of low maintenance, egoless people. All people that I’d be proud to call my friends, whether we worked together or not. – Eryn, Steven, Gus, Nairn and Jason – everything we could want in a band.

There’s a wee video coming soon on facebook with some first night antics. Let’s just hope for tonight it’s a take away pizza and a movie! Famous last words!

Update coming tomorrow at some point!

Dave and Cal ✌️❤️

Callum’s first gig with Amy will be this coming Thursday in Reading.

For the duration of the tour, we will upload a daily tour diary on here, with any interesting stories, and a few pieces of exclusive content!

I’m sure the next week on a tour bus will be a rollercoaster so please subscribe if you want to receive updates, and catch up on all our daily shenanigans

Dave ✌️❤️

This week, we are doing something different.

As some of you will know, I spent most of last Monday 2 November night into Tuesday November 3 morning hidden away in a basement in a bar in the centre of Vienna, while a terrorist attack was happening outside.

I thought I would take this opportunity to write a few words about it from a personal perspective, not so much as a critique of terrorism, but more about the feelings it creates in the world around us, and more specifically, the reflective thoughts it triggered in me.

I won’t bore you again with the whole story, but being stuck in a basement while you know people are being killed not too far away from you, certainly gives you a bit of time to reflect.

Of course, the whole concept of terrorism is abhorrent – the concept of people fighting over religion is just that, a concept. Every religion throughout history (Christianity, Islam, Hindu etc) has teachings that are based in love, and being in that basement really made me think about the whole concept of love and how some of us embrace it in our daily lives, and how some of us run a mile from it.

How can a religion preach love, and then followers of that religion can kill people? Not only that, they believe that they are killing people for the greater good of mankind, like it’s an honour. This is the 21st century, yet we still behave like it’s the 1700’s.

It’s the same as people fighting over land and borders. Borders are nothing more than a construct. America isn’t even 250 years old, but everyone constantly fights over its borders, including those of us who chose to kneel at the sacred altar of “the orange one.”

In actual fact, those land borders formed the absolute foundation of his 4 year, fear based campaign.

Is killing people for attempting to cross a border towards a better life, really any different from terrorism?

People can fight as much as they want, but the FACT remains, no one on the planet has more right to be in a certain place than another – it’s nothing more than a government concept, and like most government concepts, it’s based in fear. When the new world was discovered, those land borders just didn’t exist.

I believe that every day in the course of our lives, we are faced with a never ending stream of choices. People commonly say “I didn’t have a choice” but I don’t believe that, I believe we ALWAYS have a choice, and that choice is whether to choose LOVE or choose FEAR.

Think about it?

Everything comes down to love or fear, and the problem with our modern society seems to be that we are constantly being led towards fear. Don’t you think that’s a big part of the reason that we are suffering from what can only be described as a “depression and anxiety epidemic”? You only have to watch the news or pick up a newspaper to see first hand how we are being led towards fear driven choices.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that as things get worse, smartphones and tablets are infiltrating deeper into our lives, and the way things are headed, future generations are going to be even worse – all because we are being force fed, and coerced into following the path of fear.

The whole concept of terrorism is based on pushing us into the path of fear, but in that basement, I found myself feeling feelings of anger. Anger that people can have such a flagrant disregard for innocent human life. The fact that it could just as easily have been me sitting outside having a beer isn’t lost on me.

Terrorism is fear. War is fear. Racism is fear, it goes on and on…. but in our constant search for truth and the nature of reality, it becomes obvious that as human beings, our natural, fluid state is love.

I would respectfully ask you all, the next time you are making a decision, try to focus consciously on LOVE and see if it makes a difference to how you feel.

Follow your heart, follow the path of love.

Does that make me sound like a hippy? If it does, so be it, but love, compassion and loving kindness are the cornerstone of our very existence, and I believe that for future generations to survive and thrive, the world has to turn to love.

We are all somebody…. or maybe the ultimate truth is that we are all nobody.

#LetLoversRunTheWorld ✌🏻❤️ CB/DR ©️2020

This week, we have decided to focus on a person who is a lover, and also a footballing legend and all round amazing man. Although we are focusing on him, we are also highlighting a never ending stream of fuckers within our government.

There’s a lot of negativity around right now, what with COVID and a government who don’t seem to know their arse from their elbow, but when faced with the choice, The Weekly Fucker (despite its title) always try to focus on seeking out the positive in every situation.

Marcus Rashford MBE, remarkably at only age 22, has proven to be an absolute inspiration to our nation. Having played for Manchester United since the age of 7, he’s a man for whom loyalty and integrity rank high, his passion and belief are unprecedented, as is his commitment to “doing the right thing”. This has been demonstrated through his quest to secure free meals for children.

Like Marcus, we find it absolutely ridiculous that in this country, children can be experiencing food poverty. A supposed civilised nation, but our kids are going hungry. Rashford is absolutely correct in his comment, “This is not politics, this is humanity.”

His petition for these free meals recently passed 1 million signatures, and he’s not a bad football player either – last night he scored the fastest hat trick in Champions League history.

In complete contrast to his creative and compassionate personality, let’s focus for a moment on the Conservative Party (again!). Bear in mind that kids are actually starving and on the breadline! Yet, in a Commons vote, the tories voted down the free children’s meals proposal by a majority of 61. I don’t mean to be repetitive, but KIDS ARE STARVING!

How can the people running the country, on behalf of the people who LIVE in the country, oppose this and say a firm “fuck you” to the families who can’t afford to feed their kids?

Ben Bradley, Paul Holmes, Mark Jenkinson, Brandon Lewis and Danny Kruger – those are the five MPs in the photo above, all of them opposed free meals for children.

Mr Bradley: expenses in 11 months, £58,985.65, on top of his basic salary of nearly 82 grand, you can bet your bottom dollar that his kids don’t go hungry! What a thoroughly despicable state of affairs, and we allow these guys to represent us.

To quote the words of Chance the Rapper, I hope you win the lottery and lose the ticket.

But hey, let’s try to focus on the positive, Marcus Rashford – an inspiration to us all, young and old, and absolutely irrevocable proof that some heroes don’t wear capes.

CB/DR ✌🏻❤️ ©️2020