blog #7

Four Months On

It’s crazy to think it’s already been 4 and a half months since I drove up to the north west from Southampton docks. It’s been a hugely positive experience for me, and has essentially been my first taste of the adult world.

The truth is that, I have always lived with the idea, that when presented with options, I should always seek the most challenging route. See, at least in my experience, it’s usually the hardest path that has the most benefits available. In this case I was looking at three different options. The first was staying in London; while this had many obvious benefits it would have involved staying in comfort, I had a great spot playing for an incredibly talented singer songwriter as well as, lots of friends who I’d met in the three years that I had spent there at university. The second option was Brighton, Brighton was (and still is) my favourite city in southern England, it’s buzzing at the moment on the musical front and has an array of quality music venues to play in, plus it was right by the sea. The final option was to move to Manchester, a city that I had never been to and knew very little about. The options of moving to Manchester was by far the most challenging of the three and for a lot of people was seen as a senseless move.

However, in just four months this city finally feels like home!

The people have played a huge role in my love for Manchester, people are generally a lot more talkative than folks down south, and are often more willing to make conversation to a total stranger. The second comes from a geographical standpoint. Despite being one of the UK’s major cities, Manchester city centre is completely dwarfed by London. Whilst many people assume that this would make it somewhat less desirable, I disagree. A smaller, densely populated city centre seems to allows for a strong and well-connected music scene to exist, a perfect place for new talent to grow a fan base. Throw in the relatively low rent and rich musical history and you’ve got a city that is ideal for a young, artist to live and work in.

George Capon (Guitar Teacher)