I left the Cafe de Paris shortly after playing my set and was immediately stopped on the street by a hip-hop looking black guy grabbed my shoulders and said "you're a guitarist! I know it! I know you're the real deal, I have a sense for it.." and talked at me for about 5 minutes about how he reckoned I was the real deal. (...)

He explained he had won a rap contest for MTV and ...I have to tell you I have a very healthy dose of skepticism in me and I nearly said "yeah right, and I'm the queen of Sheba"...I let him talk and then he wanted to rap to me. He produced some paper that he had been scribbling on and started rapping to me right there on the street. And I was flattered he wanted to "own the zone" to me but I was dying for some chips with mayonnaise sauce. I had left the Cafe de Paris to satisfy my hunger.

In the end I said to him "well I will play you a song that I think needs some rapping over it and we'll see how we fare..OK?" I pulled my guitar out of the case right there on the street and started strumming a recent composition "Thinkin About You".

What happened next is beyond normal. This man can rap free-fall. He just launched into a super rhythmic burst of words and I started to dance while I played the guitar and sure we enough we attracted a small crowd who were filming us with their mobile phone.

I suddenly entered "the zone". (In my head when I say "the zone" it is in a gravelly, Odeon cinema male voice - "THE ZONE") We just rocked out. And then two other guys wanted a go, so they hustled into the crowd and started rapping. It became a sort of "rap off" interspersed with me singing a 8 bar chorus and giving the guys a chance to catch their breath and come up with another blinding verse.

Then another man stopped in the middle of the street, looked straight ahead of him but he was holding out an MP3 player in our direction clearly recording what he was hearing and more people were dancing and it was just so organic and fun. We were not busking. We were spontaneously jammed on the street at about 11pm.

I then tried a new song I have been composing for a friends wedding - it has a latin kick to it and this brought on some beatboxing from passers by, more rapping, more people came to take videos and pictures. I reckon we must be on about 20 randoms mobile phones and I really wish someone who was there would send me a copy so I can post it on my YouTube profile.

To top it all off, I managed to strum and play with so much gusto that I ripped the skin off 4 of my fingers and they bled and stung so much. Had no idea this was happening until 3 girls were pointing at my guitar in disgust. I looked down and there was blood. I had to pull out and go back into the Cafe de Paris for some medical attention! Now I know what Bryan Adams means in his Summer of 69 where he plays his guitar till his fingers bled. Really sweet bathroom attendant Annette fixed me up and I came back outside and made a beeline to my chips. Haven't been able to calm down and this happened 3 weeks ago.

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