Hey, the performance at Birmingham New Street station went really well!
The travellers and staff really enjoyed it yesterday. I had a couple of people saying how they had had a bad day and just hearing me play made them better – and that’s worth every note for me 🙂 One of the staff wanted me to stay until they finish their shift, 4 hours later!!! But I had to get home to teach and also hold a phone conference with my Cafemnee Planning Team. Oh, I had some interesting Gig enquiries and a professional photographer was passing through Birmingham New Street Station and stopped to take some shots of me which he will send soon – can’t wait to see 🙂 We also got some good footage for my Take Me To The King video.
But, I really want to give you a massive apology and this is what happened yesterday. The day before Alex Gordon suggested on my Facebook page that I should livestream my performance at Birmingham New Street Station. Great idea! So I put things in place to make it happen i.e. brought my tripod, data in place, download Facebook App, sent you a message, etc. But… there is one thing I assumed and didn’t factor in and that is where I was standing would be difficult for the signal to work. I think it maybe because I was under the Boards. I did try my data but that didn’t work either. I was up against time and had to perform in the next few minutes. So I quickly went outside and sent you a message to say my livestream wasn’t going to happen. Really sorry. Massive apology again for not being able to take you with me yesterday. And thank you for showing up online to watch. I can feel the love! It will not be forgotten. I hope the flowers above make up for it 🙂
Still I had a fantastic time. And you know what, I learnt something new about performing. You recall I mentioned that it was my most daring gig yet. Well one of the reasons why I said this is this. Playing at a location where 145,000 people pass through daily nerved me! Honestly I was getting stage fright. You’re probably thinking ‘What? You? Never!’ but ‘Yes! Me! I did!’ 🙂 My husband had to coax me down from Anxiety Hill. I engaged relaxation techniques and prayer to settle my mind. I managed to do so even though in the first couple of songs the thought remaind chained in the back of my mind. Let me explain further.
In a standard gig, say at Not Just Jazz, you have one audience from the beginning to the end where you can build rapport and engagement and you know where you are with them. Here, at Grand Central and New Street Station not so. The audience is constantly changing – arriving, staying for a few minutes, checking boards, engaging, then moving on to catch trains or get to their next appointment. This meant I was repeatedly saying hi! (through my music), engaging with new faces, starting rapport, saying goodbye to previous travellers. I mean it was constant. If you teach, you will know the nerves that come with teaching a new group for the first time. It’s a bit like that but over and over and over again within minutes. My set was for an hour.
That said, it was still a great gig! Hard work in a different ways, and, YES! I would do it again because it was fun challenging myself to play in a different surrounding and do me in it. And next time I won’t be so nervous.
To finish on some music here is Katie Perry’s bosting tune (in my opinion) ‘Firework‘ just for you, performed yesterday at Birmingham New St Station concourse:
