The Graham Norton Show

Well, we made it!

This week without doubt has been the most unbelievable week in the history of The Musgraves.

A little over a week ago, (Sunday 29th Jan) we were right smack bang in the middle of shooting the new music video for ‘Last of Me’. We were buzzing like a flock of bees about appearing on The Graham Norton Show the following day. We had all our clothes pressed, back up clothes in case something was spilt or went wrong, instruments with extra strings and batteries, capo, bows and sticks. We were ready. Little did we know that as we slept that night the evil side of human nature was prowling around waiting for its chance to pounce and boy did it pounce.

I was awoken at the unholy time of 6:30am by a phone call. I picked it up and before I could speak Tom said “this is not a joke…the van has been stolen. Everything is gone”. Silence. It took a good minute to register what had been said. “Everything is gone”. Sometimes it takes a situation like this to show how much you believe and want something. We could have just given in then. One too many knock backs to put up with. However, just like the squirrel type creature in Ice Age, who is forever chasing that lovely nut, we were never going to give in or give up.

Between us and our wonderful management we stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park. We arranged to hire all the equipment we had lost, down to the last drum stick. We had to work fast as time was running out to get the gear to the studios for 11am. We did it.

With the hired equipment loaded in at London Studios we set off for London. “All trains to London are cancelled for up to 3 hours” the tiny voice of the invisible train God told us as we reached Birmingham New Street. WHAT?.Well, we had not come this far to give up, so with a bit of negotiation with London Midland Trains we managed to get on the next train to London Marylebone with only an hour lost. Phew.We got to the London studios and found all the hired instruments set up and ready to go. It was going to be OK, we could relax.

It was an unbelievable day. Unbelievable that we were going to be on The Graham Norton Show and unbelievable that we had lost all our stuff. One moment we were sound checking with cameras zooming in and around, feeling amazing, then the next we would look down and instantly remember that our instruments had gone.

Our performance time came, we all took a deep breath and played like we have never done before. When you have played with the same people for a long time it does not matter if you cannot see them. You can feel it in the air, that certain energy – it felt right, it felt good, and the audience were fantastic!

When the show ended we all got together in a group and congratulated each other on pulling off something that only a few hours earlier we thought was impossible.

The guests on the show were all lovely, especially Alex Kingston and Reginald D Hunter who we meet in the green room after the show. Very down to earth, beautiful people!

Graham came in afterwards and was amazing as ever. He has done so much for us, we are lost for words as to how great he has been. Thanks again Graham.

Matthew Bennett.