Making up for injury time
FOR the London-based Irish/Italian singer-songwriter Pepe Belmonte, it seemed like the pieces were finally falling into place. After years of slogging on the live circuit, the former West Cork resident had recorded his debut album, The Hermit’s Waltz. Film director Sebastian Michael had commissioned him to soundtrack his feature, The Hour of Living. He had even directed a music video for the trip-hop artist Tricky.
His prospects could hardly have been brighter. Then, in the spring of last year, Belmonte was knocked from his bicycle by a speeding police van in London. “My injuries were pretty dramatic,” he says. “I was on the critical list for three days and they really didn’t know if I would pull through. There was pressure building in my brain, my back was broken and my spinal chord was nearly severed. Now there are plates in my face where they reconstructed my right cheek bone, and there’s a huge pin in my right knee where the ligament had become completely detached.”
