About Us
We are Love, Blood and Covers, a Mother and Son team, Julia and Iain Gordon-Smith. Along with our band of close musical friends we’re supporting the creation of a symbol of remembrance and reflection in honour of all those infected and affected by the Contaminated Blood Disaster. The Contaminated Blood Tree as it will be known, is planned for Edinburgh, Scotland, and fundraising has been underway for around 7 years. Together with Haemophilia Scotland and the Contaminated Blood Fund, we are working towards this cause with music created in memory of our respective Father and Grandfather Peter Gordon-Smith who died as a result of Contaminated Blood in 2018.
Our Story
Big Pete contracted Hepatitis C through the use of infected factor VIII while on a hospital visit relating to his haemophilia in the early 80’s. Previous to his infection he held a challenging, active job as an SYHA Warden in Edinburgh and at night ‘depped’ all over the Lothians as a bass player, often at short notice. Indeed, at his funeral in August 2018, a seasoned musician and music lecturer noted, “We were always amazed at his musicality. Peter could play anything you threw at him...”. But like so many others, after his infection began to take its toll, he lived a permanently debilitated life and, despite his immediate families' best efforts, spent much of his final years in isolation. Having died in July 2018 with cancer of the liver, a direct result of Hepatitis C, Pete is just one story of many thousands.
On the final birthday Julia spent with her Dad, her sister Rachel produced a handmade birthday card from Pete with a cartoon and caption: “Keep Singing. Keep Acting. Keep on Being You”. Having received this blessing, Julia very soon asked Iain to help her create a body of musical work in dedication to Pete and to honour this ‘final wish’.
Along with our band of friends, we recorded 6 tracks - our own versions of popular songs which we feel have their own relevance to this cause - on Father’s Day 2019 at Bell Studios, in Acton, London and have subsequently released these six songs in dedication to all those infected and affected by this disaster and as the centrepiece of this fundraiser towards the creation of the Edinburgh tributeWith our fundraising goal very much still in mind, our next aim is to record a full album, once again in dedication to all of those affected by this disaster, bringing more attention to our fundraising and to serve as a reminder that these types of occurrences must never be allowed to happen again.
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