by Yuta Hsu
The number five. Trad Irish music. Twenty Twenty Vision. What do these all have in common, you may ask? How could such seemingly random things have any connection? If you look around hard enough, you’ll see the hidden connections, but you don’t have to look very hard to find this connection. It’s none other than the very talented and lovely Dave Thorpe. A man of many talents, one of which is bringing a smile to your face with his disarming charm and laid-back manner.
Born in 1960, he grew up listening to his father’s records, ranging from The Beatles, Slade, Simon & Garfunkel, to big bands like Glenn Miller. You can see his varied musical taste started early. As a child, he took classical piano and trumpet lessons, but found that they didn’t agree with him. He discovered his love of stringed instruments on the age of fifteen when he borrowed his sister’s guitar and taught himself how to play. Back in those days, there was no internet or YouTube, so he had to learn by looking at chord sheets and listening.
For most of the last 20 years, he mainly played guitar for Trad Irish sessions and gigs with some of the best Irish musicians such as Elmer McGowan (flute), Colette O’Leary (accordion), and Brendan Power (harmonica). He also recorded several albums (all available on Apple Music/Amazon/etc), the most recent being his first ukulele-based titled “Twenty Twenty Vision” back in June of 2021.
Since music was a passionate hobby, I asked him about his professions. To no one’s surprise, music played a big a part of that too! He’s been a classroom teacher for decades, working with children who had special social, emotional or behavioral needs. Many times he’d bring his guitar in and play music for the children, but it wasn’t music therapy per se, as he was really just a teacher who happened to be a musician. He didn’t say it in this way, but I think he was inspired by witnessing how music helped the children to earn a master’s degree in music therapy. He became a full-fledged Music Therapist in 2013, and helped countless people for nearly 10 years. He worked with cancer patients, people with autism, adults with dementia, and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
One of his greatest projects as a music therapist was setting up the first dedicated music therapy service in a renal dialysis ward. This was an important project to him because he was a patient at the same dialysis ward back in 2004, before getting a kidney transplant in 2006. Knowing how difficult dialysis is, he wanted to go back into that setting and use his newfound skills to help. It was a very successful program, but unfortunately lost funding after three years. Since then, he became a dialysis patient once again, as his kidney transplant is now failing. He now finds himself in the same dialysis ward three times a week, six hours each time, sitting next to some of the same patients he played music for, waiting for news of another transplant.
In his words, finding Ukelandia “was brilliant!” Before COVID hit, his life consisted of a lot of going out and performing at venues all around London. Playing Trad Irish music meant musicians sat around tables playing all sorts of instruments right next to each other, which was obviously out of the question with the advent of COVID. He hasn’t played with another musician live since February 2019 and misses it. Mostly, life is going to dialysis, maybe an outing or two and being at home playing ukulele.
We talked a bit about his some of his outings, and a recent favorite was being able to visit the Southern Ukulele Store and meeting Alex. If you don’t know, SUS is a wonderful uke store in England and Alex uploads many videos to YouTube. On the platform he is showing off the many incredible ukes they have, along with tutorials about strings, woods and many other topics related to our favorite instrument. Dave was given the VIP treatment, with no other customers in the store, and hundreds of ukes to play with! In the words of Dave himself, “it’s a two and a half hour drive, but it’s worth it!” As a result of his visit, he ended up two more ukes.
I paused slightly and smiled, because I realized that Dave was in that very familiar spot in his house we see in all of his videos… on his couch, with a painting on the wall behind him and a uke always within arm’s reach. It’s amazing that he only really picked up the ukulele a few years ago and now it’s his go-to instrument. Dave is on a wonderful musical journey which he shares with all of us with his video’s and articles in this magazine. I was honored to listen and share his story with us all.
Oh, and the number five? Dave lives just a few blocks from the old Wembley Stadium, so he’d get to hear concerts for free. Once, he got to hear the Bon Jovi concert for what seemed like five times.
Before we stopped, I told him that I like to end my interviews in the same way James Lipton of ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ ended his, with a questionnaire based upon one used by Bernard Pivot on his talk show. So without further ado, here are Dave Thorpe’s answers…
- What is your favorite word?
Syzygy. A word that describes the seeming chaos and order of the universe. - What is your least favorite word?
Like. When used as a filler word or a pause. Or emojis! - What turns you on?
Music. Song lyrics. - What turns you off?
Our current Prime Minister - What sound or noise do you love?
The C5 chord. It’s neither major nor minor because there’s no third. - What sound or noise do you hate?
Foxes at night. Though he points out, as a music therapist, that any sound can be used in a positive way. Except those damn foxes. - What is your favorite curse word?
Bollocks. It’s a very flexible word. - What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
“I would’ve loved to do music at a high level.” Meaning, he would’ve loved to been a full-time musician. - What profession would you not like to do?
Anything that’s a 9-5 desk job. - If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
“John Prine’s over there, and he’d like to talk to you about all of those covers you’ve done over the years.”
