‘I parked in Carrington St to grab a coffee and could here this beautiful guitar almost a block away. I found Billy, had a chat and enjoyed my coffee listening to this talented fella. Have posted a vid in comments.’
Billy – “ I was one of the first responders in the big flood. They said, ‘Don’t go out there’ but I grabbed a dinghy and saved friends standing on their roof. This was at 5.30 in the morning and it was still pissing down rain. I grabbed my raincoat but I didn’t have time to put it on. There were so many people out there worse off than me. I was soaking wet but I didn’t even feel it, it didn’t matter. I’m originally from NZ but I’ve been here in the Northern Rivers over 33 years. I work in the Gulf. I’m a Gulf fisherman. I’ve been up there for 45 years.
I’ve been playing guitar since I was 5 years old. All my family play, all my brothers play. We all sing, we had a 24 part harmony in the whole family. We were brought up with a church backround so we all sang Gospel in a choir. We don’t sing it now but that’s where we learnt to harmonise. We had 24 in our mob, including cousins and other relatives. All the ones who wanted to sing would turn up, which was most of them because they got a free feed…cheeky buggers (laughs).
I now live between Lismore and Drake. I just love to busk here in my Lismore. I’m just free flowing and that’s how I like to play. I don’t know what I’m gonna play but I get the vibe from the street. I love our Lismore.“