In the early hours of December 27th 2012, Guitar-vocalist Paul Needs was carrying his equipment out from another successful Boxing Day show in Cardiff.

Four steps from the bottom of the staircase at the Cardiff Bus Sports Social Club, he missed a stair & fell headlong to the bottom, tipped over by the gear he was carrying, & severely crushing his spinal cord in the process.

“While it was all incredibly scary, & somewhat undignified in being fed, catheterised & using a bed pan, I was really happy to be there. The staff were all absolutely incredible – in all departments – the nurses were amazing & took fantastic care of me, & physiotherapy got me on my feet & using at least one of my arms again”.

“For a while, I was unable to hold a guitar – or even touch the strings as my fingers are hyper-sensitive – touching anything was pretty painful.

Paul continues to recover, his playing being, “no way up to my pre-accident standard, but improving each time I play”.

Paul is working on a multi-song project he’s calling “Only Music Can Save Us Now”. A fairly loosely blues-rooted collection of songs, it’s pretty much how he sees his life.  “The overwhelming and number one target I had while in hospital was to be able to play again. So in a way, music has been part of what has helped me to recover. I’ll never be as physically able as I used to be - for instance I can’t stand and play guitar - but I can sit to do so.”

Nicholas Mordecai is a British songwriter who established himself as a guitarist in 2012. The guitarist writes beautiful intricate melodies using the entire guitar to create acoustic fingerstyle music. Each song released tells us a rich story and captures our vivid imagination. The solo artist collaborates and experiments with other creative musicians online from all over the world.

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