A magical night - and a possible fly in the ointment

Last night’s open mic was at The Magic Garden in Battersea. The official title is “Sing for Your Supper” because performers get a free meal, which is a pretty tasty (ahem) perk. Usually it'd be pub grub, but with the kitchen closed last night they did a mammoth pizza order instead, which I had my fair share of - yum.

I couldn’t figure out how to book in advance for this one, so signed up on the night. When I turned up I added my name to a list that was already well into double figures, which felt slightly daunting - especially since I was only a few minutes after the official 'sign-up' time. The lively and friendly host Carl said that people have got in the habit of dropping in early to put their name down before coming back later - and of course the regulars have his number so can sign up that way. There was no downside of being late to the table though. From what I could see everyone who signed up was able to play, and the running order wasn’t ‘first come first served’ - Carl said he likes to prioritise people who are coming to the open mic for the first time. In fact, I was lucky enough to be second in the running order - not just because I was a newbie, but also because I put my hand up as a volunteer to go on first, in a bid to get it out of the way quickly! As I get more seasoned I'll hopefully feel more relaxed about playing later in the schedule.

There was a broad mix of performers with a range of styles, both covers and originals. In particular, Kieran’s incredible performance of his original songs was well worth waiting for - what a voice! - and I thoroughly enjoyed the lovely Katya who partnered with the fabulously skilled and aptly named guitarist Panama Dave. Seems the two gallons of tea Katya drank earlier in the evening did the trick at lubricating her voice ;). I might be biased to call these two out, as I was chatting to them most of the evening - but I'll be honest, I don’t think so! 

I also had so much fun during Kosmic Troubadour’s (literally!) colourful set. He distributed maracas and tambourines amongst the crowd, and you’ll be unsurprised to hear I was an enthusiastic participant :).

So… how were my own songs? Well... before I get to that, it’s worth mentioning that I had reason to believe things could go pear-shaped - because frustratingly I’ve come down with a cold, and my throat was pretty sore! After three negative covid tests (albeit lateral flow - still waiting for the PCR one) I'm pretty sure a cold is all it is, so no excuses to cop out - but even so it's not ideal for a great vocal performance… So that's the potential fly in the ointment in the title of this post - especially if it gets worse. Given my experience with the last cold I had (I was wiped out for weeks, and ended up on antibiotics after it turned into a nasty chest infection), I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that this one doesn’t linger or deteriorate, which could derail my challenge.

Luckily so far, despite the razor-blades in my throat, my vocal cords seem to have survived reasonably intact. Last night's performance was never going to change the world, but it was passable - I even (mostly) remembered which words and chords came in which order :). And I felt more able to focus on the expression of the songs and less worried about whether I'd get the structure right than the night before. So while it's early days I suspect the experience is starting to make a difference and that I'm becoming more relaxed and natural.

Rather wonderfully, I even got some objective external support for that conclusion. One of the open-mic-ers at The Magic Garden had also been at The Junction the night before, and had the dubious honour of watching me play for the second night in a row. I’d planned to switch up the songs, but when I kept slipping up in yesterday's practice session decided to stick to the same three that I'd done the night before - so it was a like for like comparison. When I was chatting with him afterwards he mentioned he thought I’d played better the second time. Of course, that might have been a critique of the night before - or perhaps just a sign that the sound engineering was more forgiving 🤷‍♀️- but I’m going for a ‘glass half full’ interpretation ;-).

In summary then, so far so good. Tonight is a night off - phew! Hopefully it’ll see me on my way to recovering from this cold - because it’s back to the stage for number three tomorrow.