My band-mates were always willing to give my song writing exploits the benefit of the doubt and with Tom’s effortless ability to truly deliver a vocal and Brian’s innate skills in song and harmony arrangement, some of those songs became staples of the band’s repertoire. To say I was lucky to be in that company would be a considerable understatement.

Playing the festival was a marvelous experience and not just because we as a band were on fine form and won prizes! During the course of the three or four days we were in Rostock we met artists from all over Europe and we had the time to talk and make music together informally in our hotel in the evenings. Being on the far side of the Berlin Wall exposed us to a very different culture but reinforced that we, as ‘ordinary people’ were very alike in many ways. I often wonder what happened to all the people we met after the wall came down in 1989.

I realise now that I didn’t appreciate it until I was much older just how good the Tom Topping Band was and how much genuine joy we brought into so many people’s lives.