Perhaps the top birthday highlight amid a thoroughly pleasurable weekend of mild (no longer wild) celebration was a concert by Nadine Shah at the Cheltenham Festival.  Because it was my birthday, Jane generously came along with me even though I had told her it wouldn’t be her choice of music.  It was an opportunity to take in a bit of the atmosphere of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, see an art exhibition featuring one of our village acquaintances, and have dinner out together for a change.

I have seen Nadine Shah nine times now and have loved every one of those performances.  I still remember first seeing her in 2013 in The Lexington in London.  Then, the hairs stood out on the back of my head as she sang ‘All I Want’ virtually unaccompanied and I became a big fan.  I recall I chatting with her Dad afterwards and then meeting her.  She’s a charming Geordie and a huge, interesting talent.

Up to this month, the venues I have seen her perform in have been small and intimate.  Cheltenham Town Hall wasn’t that.  The sound was muggy, the distance to the stage – we were half way back – was huge in comparison to previous Nadine Shah concerts I’d been to, and we were sitting down so only foot-tapping was really allowed.  For all that it was alien to previous experiences, I loved the music and her energy; Jane, not so much!

Nadine Shah’s latest album (Filthy Underneath) traces her fall from grace as she left Ramsgate and London for her native South Tyneside to look after her terminally ill mother during the Covid pandemic.  The pandemic prevented her from touring and performing her music, she separated from her husband and, in her relative isolation, became addicted to her Mum’s drugs.  Several of the songs on the new album relate to this dark period of illness, suicidal thoughts, rehabilitation and recovery.  

Despite their dark themes, I love their dramatic, relentless, pulsating beats and the compelling lyrics.  They were in my head seemingly incessantly for well over a week after the concert.

Helping with that was a birthday present from Middle Son and his fiancée: Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones by Shokz.  I hadn’t seen these until MS showed me his a few weeks ago.  He had bought some because he doesn’t like wearing in-ear headphones and knows that I have a problem with them too.  These new ones sit outside the ear and use vibration to exercise the cheek and ear bone structure to reproduce perfect headphone sound without blocking out birdsong or traffic noise for example.  The technology verges on the unbelievable to me.  The headphones are perfect for my two-hour walks into Stroud on Food Bank days and, on the first of those after I saw Nadine Shah, I naturally gravitated to playing her music.

Since my birthday, and a flurry of family related activity, life has returned to normality; lots of walking in spring sunshine, local volunteering, visits to our local pub and, now the weather has finally improved, gardening.  Gradually, one patch and raised bed at a time, I am getting the vegetable garden under control.  I also need to invest time in the garden at our rental property and the small allotment I tend very fitfully; next week, maybe….

Jane and I did manage to spend an afternoon helping in MS and his fiancée’s garden.  Their own gardening desires are frustrated currently by a necessary focus on their new baby and work.  It was nice to be able to step in to tidy and plant a few things in their garden and, of course, to see Second Grandchild. 

Plus, they gave us a couple of tickets for Hamilton on its UK and Ireland Tour which they had bought before the timing of a new baby was fully realised.  It was my first visit to the Bristol Hippodrome and, as far as I can remember, my first live musical (rather than opera).  I was enormously impressed with both.  Management of the audience in and out of the Hippodrome was extremely efficient, the stage sets were impressive and our view was elevated, central and splendid.  

Hamilton itself started with a bang and the energy didn’t let up throughout.  The hip-hop and r&b songs were catchy.  They were sung beautifully but in a way that enunciated every lyric so that the story, for those with only a passing familiarity with it, could understand the multiple layers of the storyline. 

A huge amount was packed in and I was left a little overwhelmed by the end of the performance.  I really enjoyed the variety of the music and the way elements of it cropped up repeatedly throughout to remind us of the key themes.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliant, invigorating introduction to modern musical theatre.

May has been a full and very enjoyable month and we still are barely more than halfway through!