The back story:

If I was playing at a venue and it was super busy, 3-sets gigs would often become 4, 5 or 6 sets. To keep the vibe going, I would go a step further by playing double-sets (90 minutes instead of 45), taking a short break before going straight into another set or double set. Rinse and repeat, gigging 5-nights a week. This was hard on my voice and fingers, but after a while I got match-fit enough to be able to do it consistently.

One night in around 2015, at the end of another ridiculously long gig at a local hotspot, David and I were talking and he asked “Do you think you could sing for eight hours?” I laughed and said “If you mean eight hours straight with no breaks, then no, I don’t think so.” “What about six hours?” he said. I hesitated. “Yeah, maybe, but not in a loud pub. If it was somewhere I could hear myself properly, then yeah I think I could. Why do you ask?” I recall him saying something like “Just curious,” and left it at that. Well it stuck in my head. A few years later I asked David if he remembered that conversation. Of course he did, but he offered no further insight into his thinking at the time so I was left to ruminate.

Fast forward to a Sunday afternoon in September 2024. David stopped in to a gig to listen to “just a few songs.” Several hours later when I finished playing, he was still there so we chatted over a glass of red or two. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I pressed him on his cryptic question from all those years earlier. I’d always wondered if, maybe, he had wanted me to perform a marathon set at Mona — a test of both musicianship and endurance.

Whether or not that had been David’s intention then, it certainly was now, and we started throwing around ideas. Having a way for people to request songs, as he himself often likes to, quickly became a key factor and David then said “and we could use a real jukebox.” Bingo! Over the next hour, the concept of Tony’s Human Jukebox was formed: part Artist-in-residence, part Endurance Art installation, 100% bat-shit crazy.