Flying without wings

I’ve been lucky enough to play in some of my favourite record shops over the years: Amoeba, Fingerprints, all the Rough Trade shops, that massive HMV on Oxford Street that’s now a Sports Direct. And this weekend I get to add another one of my favourite record shops to that list. Union Music Store in Lewes. And I’m terrified.

The shop itself isn’t terrifying at all. Far from it. Stevie and Jamie and Emma are all lovely and it’s just a shop full of records. And I’m not afraid of records. No, I’m just scared because I won’t have a microphone and Adam won’t have his guitar plugged into an amp. And I know this sort of thing shouldn’t frighten me because I go through my whole life without being amplified, but somehow if I haven’t got a microphone in front of people it feels a lot more like I’m giving a talk. And I’m terrified of giving talks. At college I was so nervous about a presentation I was doing on Women In R&B that I came up in a weird rash all over my body and felt light headed and feverish in the days leading up to it. The talk ended up being more of a mumble and I remember not being able to answer a question about why I thought Right Here by SWV could be seen as political and empowering for women in a post feminist society. As soon as the talk was over the rash went away and I felt completely normal again. So that’s how nervous I get about doing talks. But this weekend at Union Music I need to try and remember it isn’t a talk, even if there probably will be some talking. It’s more of a sing. And I’m nowhere near as nervous about sings as I am about talks.

I can’t remember the last time I really sang without a microphone at a show though. It was probably when I was eight or nine in front of the mirror and a stuffed toy audience, into a hairbrush. Maybe I’ll take a good hairbrush along to the instore to sing into just in case. Although they’ve probably got professional ones there.

Anyway, we’re playing at 3pm at Union Music Store in Lewes and it’s going to be a lovely intimate acoustic show and I was practicing with Adam for it yesterday and it sounded genuinely really quite special. I just hope no one asks me about why I think Right Here by SWV is political and empowering for women in a post feminist society.

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