Students and shows

I enjoyed last week, in particular last Sunday. 

See, it's very rare I get stressed about shows to the point where I lose sleep, but once a year, as if by clockwork, I do: student showcase day. It's a lovely concept; my students going onstage, many of them for the first time, playing with a professional band. They get a life-changing experience, the venue does well out of it (proud parents drink a lot, it seems, so bar trade is pretty good), a charity gets a few quid out of us. Yet, there are so many things that can go wrong with it; in the run-up we had to change bassist, bringing in someone else at a week's notice to learn all 26 songs, students wobble with nerves. I guess my lack of sleep is just because I know that I'm putting a lot of people through a lot of work on the day - the band have to play non-stop for 2 hours, the soundguy has to deal with 26 different drummers all hitting the kit with different velocity, and maybe, just maybe, some students are so nervous and don't actually want to be there but their parents are desperate for them to be onstage. As ever, though, I needn't had worried. Four years we've done this now, and this was easily the best. True, so we lost one to nerves, but the band were outstanding, this is the tightest and most composed my drummers have ever been and it was pretty much hassle-free, making plenty of money for a charity along the way. 2 hours, 26 songs. Flew by. I have a lot of friends who helped with this, in particular Paul M, who had no reason to be there apart from 'be around if you need be', which we did. 

I drove off, buzzing from that, and straight over to Fenstanton to perform Harvey Greenfield for the 140th time. It was in front of my old boss and her lovely family, who I haven't seen for 5 years, and before that it was at least 10 years that we caught up. Back in my office days, Bobby was the BEST boss ever, she let quite a lot go, she understood that I was working there purely to fund my ambitions and she backed them throughout my four years, giving me time off for fringe festivals and being so flexible. Inevitably, we all got made redundant, eventually, but we vowed to stay in touch. I never saw her as a boss, I always saw her as a mate, and it was so lovely to catch up again with her and her wonderful husband, kids, grandkids...all of them, just perfect, kind, warm people. I loved the show that evening. On top of the student showcase earlier that day, it was a manic, but near-flawless Sunday. I drove home feeling like everything is working like it should do, I've made the right choices with my life. 

Naturally, the Monday was a little quieter, just the usual 8 lessons and my voice was starting to crack, but that evening I performed Harvey for the 141st time, this time around Nicole's flat, and had another decent show with a lovely audience.

On Wednesday Spurs won the Europa League which made me very happy, and on Thursday I performed Harvey G around Susie's house. I don't know Susie, I'd only met her once, 2 years ago, very briefly after a show, but she was a brilliant host and, whilst the audience took a little longer to warm into the show, by the end it felt lovely. 

I'm working hard here, but I'm also very lucky, aren't I?