Burlesque or Bust? From a stalking attack to celebrating 10 years of marriage.

This is a heartfelt thank you from both Tony and I as July 4 is our 10-year wedding anniversary.

We are an ambitious singer/songwriter and music producer couple, known as Priscilla & Antony Silcock and artisically named as Sapphira & Tonestepa. Indeed, we met like star-crossed lovers from Melbourne to Bristol online some 14 years ago and it was just as I was launching into a crusade to get investment for my burlesque enterprise that included asking Sir Richard Branson to be my Valentine and, yes, I did eventually meet the business magnate, too.

It's an unlikely backdrop for a true love story but in the process of this publicity stunt I happened upon a man after my own heart in the form of a music producer from Bristol.

We met online whilst I was working at MySpace in Melbourne and you could say our eyes met across a crowded internet but I was smitten and I never realised how deep the romance would go.

One thing led to another in the process of writing our album we realised we had a similar scar. We had both been excommunicated by a seperatist sect of Christianity known as The Brethren. Both of us turned to music to heal the wounds. I would later discover burlesque in London and truly reinvent myself healing many past hurts becoming the dazzling showgirl, Sapphira.

It wasn't practical living in different countries so eventually we married whilst he came to Melbourne on a brief holiday and I later moved to the London using my duel-nationality as a British-Australian with my English father who hailed from Portsmouth.

The past 10 years as a married couple have been fraught with a rollercoaster of exhilarating highs and plummeting lows, but despite this we have set up the self-funded Ibiza Burlesque Festival now in its eighth year and published the five-star Amazon reviewed book, my memoir, Burlesque or Bust whilst employed at Macmillan Publishers. The book was commissioned by my then line manager who became head of a mental health corporation.

With all that has happened we were very much looking forward to celebrating our 10-year anniversary, which is today, on the UK's Election day, Thursday, July 4.

However, this day and making it today now has more meaning than ever.

Last year Tony was attacked outside our home, but is thankfully healed and thriving. As is our modus operandi, we vowed to turn this turmoil into triumph and we are both fully recovered.

So on this day our 10-year wedding anniversary, we have the exciting news my book Burlesque or Bust which is really our love story is now being released back to me from my publisher and it means I fully own the books and have copies to sell and sign for anyone interested in what has been quite honestly a life worthy of a movie!

The tale includes the chapter My Heart Belongs To Branson detailing my question to reach the British business icon but moreover, its about mental health recovery.

We are also sending a thanks to the city of London today. We have this photo of us at the Lover's Statue, just metres from where we first met in person all those years ago.

We have released my song 'Sanctuary' it is a home recording on a piano the people of London including friends, fans and family helped me to own as I was able to restore it thanks to the support of donations via Go Fund Me in the lockdown.

I had never owned my own piano and thanks to all our supporters in London, we now have this beauty which I am playing in the recording. We think it is at least 100 years old but it plays beautifully.

London may be full of highs and lows but it's been my sanctuary for the past ten years.

And we are dedicating this song to all the medical staff at NHS including Deepti Singa, Komal Solanki, Vanessa Georgoupolus and Manan Patel and welcoming our new landlords Redwood Property who truly do provide us with a sanctuary.

Readers can listen to Sanctuary here:

https://www.sapphiramusic.com/sanctuary

Anyone interested in Burlesque or Bust can find out more and support two independent artists on our 10 year annviversary which is very much appreciated.

https://www.sapphiramusic.com/burlesque-or-bust