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The Old Guitarist

By Jasper Tait

The Old Guitarist by Jasper Tait

Read by Helen Clapp from the 大象传媒 Radio Drama Company.

Brian was an old guitarist who lived on the streets, he had no friends or family, just a hat, a tatty blue suit and an old guitar. He LOVED Christmas because he got to go to the community centre and have tea. When he did, he got a lovely glow in his cheeks. It was too bad it was summer-time but he was still excited for Christmas.
Every day when he was out and about in the town feeling lonely and hungry, people gave him funny looks. He knew that he looked messy and dirty because he didn't have the means to keep himself clean. Once he had had a nice house and a good job playing in a band, he had had nice clothes to wear and plenty of good food to eat. His luck changed when his band got less popular and people stopped buying their records and booking their gigs. He struggled to get enough money to pay the bills and eventually he lost his house and all his belongings, and he ended up on the streets.
One day as he sat outside the shopping centre playing his guitar with his hat on the ground, he hoped people would give him some coins as he'd had a couple of bad days was starving! Luckily it was a sunny day and there were lots of people about. Soon he had enough money for sandwich and a hot drink, and while he was thinking about what he could get to eat he looked up and noticed that a crowd had appeared around him and were clapping in time to the music. Can this be for me? he thought. He turned around and noticed that another busker had joined him. "Joey is that you? I haven't seen you since the band split up!". His old band mate was playing along with him, a song that they written years ago but had never played in public. The crowd were loving it, the two guitars playing together making a magical sound. It was truly wonderful, people were dancing and now someone was drumming against a metal bench and some teenagers were beat-boxing. He wanted the song to go on and on forever, but when it eventually came to an end there was an almighty cheer from the crowd and people were filling up the hat with coins. Brian shared the money with his old band mate and right at the bottom of the hat he found a note "Call me if you're interested in recording this, Emily Jones, Head of Music Production, Universal Records".
Brian, Joey and the beat-boxers from the shopping centre formed a new band, and with help from Emily at Universal their song 'a happy home for Christmas' made number 1 in the charts. Brian had the best Christmas EVER in his new house. He made a feast of roast turkey with all the trimmings and invited everyone from the community centre to join him and share his joy.

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