Interview - James Walsh
We’re now at the stage where the fruits of artists’ labours are coming to pass.
Fortunately for us music lovers, we’ve had many options for entertainment to keep us going during lockdown. Like live-streamed gigs; the good eggs that they are, musicians have often provided their services for charity, and Starsailor frontman James Walsh went straight for the jugular recently, performing a full acoustic version of the band’s debut album Love Is Here to raise funds for the NHS. Even he was surprised by the reaction.
“I think it raised nearly £10,000,” he tells Live4ever during an exclusive interview. “Considering it was just, ‘I’m going to do this and tweet about it and set up a Just Giving page’, I’m really pleased about how that grew through word of mouth. I think because the NHS was under a lot of strain there was a real groundswell of support for it, to do something. To make sure they got a few quid from our bands as well.”
When it’s put it to him that it shouldn’t really have been necessary, Walsh makes a compelling argument in response: “I completely understand the argument, but you can still hold that viewpoint and ethos while campaigning for more government money for the NHS, while also accepting they aren’t getting enough. It doesn’t necessarily let the government off the hook.”