what the wedding present has taught me

We can all easily get distracted. Emails. The phone. Twitter. But how can we stop flitting and focus? 

by Catherine Levin

Following on from my new year’s resolution published on comms2point0 to focus more, I have been thinking about what makes me do just that. I didn’t have to look far to find the answer.

But first: some history.

In 1989 I was 18. I drove from my rural Oxfordshire village to the vast metropolis that was Coventry to see my heroes in concert. I was in love with Dave Gedge, the Wedding Present and Leeds. So much so, I went to Leeds University two years later.

My love affair with the Weddoes continues to this day. It is an enduring love that culminates in Take Fountain, the least known of all their albums that came out in 2005: post break up – not mine, his (Dave Gedge).

The melancholy and trauma in the lyrics of Take Fountain take me through the slow disintegration of years of love and how not to move on. It’s not depressing. It’s evocative and with the constant refrain of the Weddoes bass, it’s a lullaby.

And this is how I focus. I put on my headphones; I find Take Fountain (on iTunes but not free on Spotify, sadly) and transport myself to a familiar, safe place that somehow allows my fingers to move across the keyboard. Cementing all those thoughts, batting away all those distractions that stop me from writing copy; when my deadline looms, the Weddoes are my saviour.

“No, I’m not from the south, I’m from further north than you,” that Leeds accent transports me to another place, one where I was a happy, badly dressed student living on chips and beans and bottles of Newcastle Brown.

Now, let’s do some work: no more flitting, just focus.

Catherine Levin is director at Elgin Fire Consulting.

Picture credit.