Albert Einstein once said, “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”. To my mind this rings true, for out of loss comes life, and out of tragedy comes beauty. We see examples of this throughout history; such as The Roaring 20’s which were a direct result of World War I and the NHS, which was a product of post World War II social reforms. These of course are extreme examples, but they highlight my point. The Corona Virus has been devastating across the globe, and we are only beginning to see the end of it, but out of this crisis we’ve had opportunities and out of the demise of the Ollie Trevers band we have become The Great Leslie. We are a pandemic band, and only just beginning our journey in the real world.
As I write this blog entry it has been a year and eight months since the Corona Virus first landed on the shores of Blighty and started to infect the entire world. We were subsequently locked up like the chickens in Chicken Run. And whether or not you like gravy, none of us wanted to be a pie (That’s for all you millennials out there).
Thinking back on the best part of the last two years, it’s fair to say that in many ways life as an artist and or musician was very difficult. All you have to do is go back to my earlier blog entries where you’ll find me talking about overcoming the adversity of a pandemic and how we as a band had to adjust our way of life. Having said that, I can’t rightly sit here and tell you that I underwent any financial or physical turmoil, which sadly many have. I am incredibly blessed to have had my family help me in every way they could. Like almost everyone on the planet, I didn’t have any work and I didn’t have any social life, but unlike a lot of people, I did have a roof over my head, food in my belly and a lot of bloody time. How bizarre is that? The pandemic inadvertently gifted me the most precious of all things. Time. Time to reflect, reassess, and regroup. And with all that time what have I/we done? I’ll tell you. We have formed a new band which has already released six singles, two of which have been crowned BBC Introducing Suffolk’s’ ‘Track Of The Week’. We have had repeated support from Janice Long (formerly Top of the Pops presenter) on BBC Wales, repeated airplay on Planet Rock with Wyatt Wendels, and repeated airplay on Kerrang! Radio from Johnny Doom. To top it all off our last single, ‘Everything From Last Night’, got us our first ever play on Radio X with John Kennedy who declared it ‘an instant hit’, and let’s not forget ‘Out Of My Hands’ being played on Sunday Brunch!
So as you can see, we have a lot to be grateful for, but the question now is, where do we go from here? At least that seems to be a question that interviewers consistently like to ask, usually at the end of the interview. My answer is, on. We go on. We just carry on with what we have been doing, but now we also get to do it all in front of live audiences. We’ve had several gigs already this year, all of which have been amazing experiences, so if you have a chance to come and see us live, then please do so, you will not be disappointed.
Before the close of 2021 we have two more releases coming your way, and we couldn’t be more excited to share them with you. Firstly we have ‘You Lost Yourself’, which will be released on the 15th October, and lastly we have ‘Anna’ which will be out on the 26th November; and if that’s not enough we have another five singles for you that’ll be released throughout 2022.
It has been a very strange existence we’ve all had to share these past almost two years, but I’m thankful for it. There is no going back to normality, as a wise man once said, “Normal is what normal makes normality”. The pandemic became normality and now we’re moving forward into abnormality where we as a band can perform in front of audiences that don’t have to be seated and where we can have interviews with people in the flesh. Bring on the weirdness, bring on next year, here’s to us ceasing our next opportunity. It only gets better from here.
I am most honourably,
Oliver Trevers aka. Leslie The Great