Paolo and Joan!

Sometimes what your body’n soul cries out for is just to be in the presence of great live music. Music you think if only you had the talent; their songs are exactly the ones you’d have written!

So, in the last few weeks I went to see a new love and an old love. My new love I discovered last year at Glastonbury. My friends’ son had whisked me down TO THE FRONT AND THERE HE WAS…..I could almost touch him. Paolo Nutini. Swoon! I just can’t believe such a young man can have experienced life so deeply. His songs are so timeless and universal. And lo! He’d actually written one just for me – “Jenny, don’t be so hasty” – and I swear he looked at me the whole time he sang the song! I was hooked. So a few weeks ago my friends Sarah and Phil got tickets and we met up at the Albert Hall. (That’s me sitting with my friend and her daughter). I was too far away from my love but his voice was clear and pure and I swear he could still see me (mind you, he does bend down a lot!).

THEN I caught sight of a flyer in my office advertising in Bristol my old love, who I could ‘drink a case of’ anytime: Joan Armatrading. What a woman. The mainstay of my young life. I had an epiphany – I always thought of her as an icon, the voice of experience – now I realise she must only have been the same age as Paolo – she’s actually younger than me! What a shock! What’s more, whilst she did sing our favourites (e.g. Love and Affection…..) SHE HAS MOVED ON. She has got even more dynamic, she’s a powerhouse of blues and rock – and an amazing guitarist. She’s an example to all of us in that she LOVES what she does, she’s passionate, she’s brave. I LOVE HER. Also her latest album ‘This Charming Life’. And let’s face it, the life we have is charmed……..and charming.