Martin Bridgeman

Some of you will ‘get’ this…

What you see (part of) has been our teenage childrens’ den, a home to a huge flowing cast of their very welcome friends and my ‘study’ where I sweat buckets for a Master’s Degree. It’s almost 25 years since we moved and we’re on the move out soon. A lot has happened here and in the rest of the house but, as you can imagine, it’s full to the brim of memories, many now in boxes, ready to be stored and resettled. 

It slowly but surely became my ‘work room’, an occasional practice room, a recording space, hair and make up central for a wedding and, in recent years, my ‘radio’ studio where I’ve had the honour and privilege to record parts of ‘Ceol Anocht’ and the many interviews with so many great musicians as part of the show. During Covid, I finally got my technical act together and set up a home setup which has worked out well. Apart from the occasional bark from the terrier, it’s been good enough to act as a studio, and re-fired my zeal for broadcasting and latterly podcasting. 

This week it’s fallen silent, although more correctly it’ll be more ‘hollow’, as it’s now fully free of the books, CDs, vinyl and various instruments that bedecked the floors, walls, chairs, all available flat surfaces and ceilings, which rendered the room as close to studio quality as was possible. Some of this was by accident and some was by design. Many pleasant hours were passed here on recordings, zoom calls and other interviews. 

It’s weird to hear the bare room echo to the sound of boxes being assembled, filled and stacked. What has been a delight is to have found things I had missed, misfiled or just put down in the wrong place, including a number of interviews I thought I had lost. They’ll be re-filed, edited and put out in the new year. I’m not the first that this has happened to, but that sickening feeling of their imagined loss is something I hope never happens again and hope does not happen to anyone else.

Plans were afoot to upgrade (short of putting in a mezzanine floor) or going in to a new building out the back, but a bigger picture emerged, and so we’ve set our sights on a new house across town. Still in my beloved Kilkenny, but nearer to it’s centre than before.  

The walls did talk, indeed, for many, many hours of talk and music, and more talk. 

Over the years, the room has been the backdrop to many Zoom calls and more than a few comments about the walls behind me. Some have marvelled, some have looked behind me in horror, some have commiserated with my wife, called them ‘grounds for divorce’ while others nodded and agreed with the phrase ’tools of the trade’. They are all that and more. I found my original copy of ‘Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part’, by Horslips, an album I bought before I even owned a record player. One memory in many over the years of my life in and around music. Safe and sound, still in its plastic cover, along with many, many more from my earlier days, filing in to boxes and in to the car.

The stacking and boxing has been bittersweet; many albums were signed by the artists, and our meetings, gigs and interviews are all tied in to that small CD case. Posters from previous gigs are emerging, some very dusty, so the dust in my eyes are partially to blame for the occasional tear and a smile too, it has to be said. I have name badges from old gigs, band gigs, signed notes and cards or the occasional letter, laminates, children’s models, drawings and more recent photos and mementos, all of the memorials to the many happy times and the inevitable sad times also.

Yes, this took way longer than it should have…For now, they’ll rest in safe storage until we unpack all other important things.

We’ll move nearer the city than we’ve ever been, so the bike will re-appear, suitably decked out for the many books and records I have no doubt I’ll pack in to whatever appears in the new place.

I’ll still be on air, but cutting back to the minimum while we get settled in our new place, ready to make more memories. I know I’m lucky, trust me. When we move, my music and book collection (AKA ‘your shite’) will stay safe for another time, but we’ll get on with the priority things to mark the last move. 

If I can borrow from the departed Shane MacGowan and appropriate it for the moment:

“I’ll walk in on my feet, but I’ll leave there on my back.”

Beir beannacht.