Sometimes things drop into your lap as though they were ‘meant to be’.

Shortly after David moved into the home we now share, we had a ‘rationalisation’ of our computer kit and a colour ink jet printer that I’d been using but was poor quality and toner cartridge hungry was being thrown out. Now I hate waste and although I didn’t need the printer any more because David’s was better, more efficient and higher quality, I didn’t want to simply dump the printer that worked perfectly well.

I offered it to the members of my team saying anyone who could use it was welcome to take it away free. One of our young guys, Chris took the printer home and said he would let me have his second hand copies of Q magazine after he’d finished with them as a way of thanking me for the printer.

He duly turned up a couple of weeks later with a copy of Q and I browsed through it on my way home from work. I noticed a really interesting photo in the Album Reviews section. It was just the sort of photo that I thought DM would like. It was of a man, lying on a bed, fully clothed and the shot was taken from below his feet so his feet were perfectly in focus and his head, propped up against the headboard was outside the depth of field and therefore not in focus.

The photo intrigued me and interested me and I pointed it out to David when I got home. For some reason he then went on to read the album review, which I had not done, and he remarked that the album looked like a good album. That happens quite often in our house.

What happens less often is that he acted on it and bought the album. The album was really hot. It was so good, we hungered after his stuff and bought his other albums. We joined his mailing list. We went to see him play. Our whole lives were engaged with this singer/songwriter whose albums were breathtaking in their simplicity and in their style.

Then he ‘fell into a black hole’ and we heard nothing about him for a long time. All of a sudden, I see a ticket agency touting tickets for Richard Hawley and the Feral Cats. It’s obviously the same guy, but with a band? It turned out he was doing a one-off show in London’s 100 Club – one of the most famous small venues in London, on a par with the Cavern in Liverpool and the Marquee, also in London. The venue only holds around 200 people or so and is so intimate you can reach out and touch the musicians if you choose. This venue has seen people like The Rolling Stones cut their teeth there and famous acts from the USA like Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters also taking the stage. In fact, The Stones still do the occasional secret gig there.

We snapped up three tickets and had the time of our lives, we saw a bunch of gifted musicians belting their way through a set of rock and roll classics. There was even a stand-up bass! You don’t see bands with them often these days.

Here is Mr Hawley, getting on down. What a night. Please note the 'Warning - no photographs (among other heinous crimes)'

How wonderful that I was giving away a printer, in exchange for which I got given Q, noticed a photo and David was inspired to buy an album, that led to us being at this amazing gig.