Hello. I’m sat in bed with my dog lying with me. I’m in my flat in Halifax but I know the dog can’t stay here with me again. He finds the noises of the cars outside too much for him. He is super noise sensitive as a border collie and every loud exhaust scares him, so I’ve put a classical playlist on so it distracts him from the noises outside and we are sitting in the back room away from the noise. Plus, it’s lovely for me too. Since I started the radio show on Phoenix FM every other Sunday from 4pm until 6pm I’m finding my passion again for classical music and listening to a lot more, as me and Jon choose the pieces we want to play. I never fell out of love with classical music but it’s good to just get back into it again and start listening to different things. So I’m sat in my bed on a Saturday night with my dog with me enjoying some beautiful music. I have a cultured dog. Ha ha

I’m not going to be in this flat much longer too. I’m moving to Holmfirth in 3 weeks, to live with Jon and his son. We’ve found a house to move into together, so it’s all change again. It was a big decision to leave my gorgeous little flat and to let some of my independence go. The last time I lived with a partner was 2011 so it is a BIG thing for me. I’ve LOVED living here. It’s been my utter sanctuary and place of peace for the last 18 months and I can honestly say I have been so happy here, but it’s time to put my life together with Jon and my little doggy. I spoke to a medium in June and she said that a house would come along for me and Jon in around 6 months and it would be a fresh start.

At that point there was no way I was even contemplating it but she was spot on, but the new house has a piano and the guy leaving has sold it to me, so for the first time in absolutely years I’m going to have a piano. Not an electric one, but A REAL PIANO. OMG!!! That just feels sooooooo lovely for me. When I was travelling I used an ipad with a piano keyboard on it and that’s all I had for years to practise from.

Another thing that feels great is to be ABLE to practise again. I can honestly say the last few months of 2022 were not easy. Constant worry about my voice from having a cough and cold in October and it just not feeling well again and having to keep singing on it. All I was doing in between concerts was resting it hoping it got well enough again in time for the next concert. No fun really and a lot of stress. I can’t sing properly on a voice that has been sick, and just before Christmas I got laryngitis so that was the final thing to say you need to rest a bit Nick. Nothing I could do then. Then I got a full on cold, just got back on my feet in January and then another cold, so it’s been months of not being able to practise properly and to build up my confidence again that I’m not going to have to worry again. This week I’ve actually been able to just spend time working on new songs I’ve added to my Song Menu. I think I’ve learnt that I have to keep myself in balance and just take time out to rest too, but also not to sit worrying. I’ve worried for years and it has to stop really.

I have so many lovely things coming up. This time last year I had to almost start again and base myself somewhere and organise so many events myself and pay for all the venues. It was so much work and not easy at all, but this year I am so pleased to already have lots of dates in my diary, and only a couple that I am organising myself. Just take that massive weight off my shoulders, relief, bliss. People are asking me now and doing the putting it out there so my hard work from last year has started to pay off. Skipton Town Hall have booked me and Jon every Thursday from January until March for ‘soup and singalong’ sessions in Skipton and The Yorkshire Dales. We are loving it. We are on tour now and it’s a good balance between me and Jon. He is the less serious rock and roll one and I am the serious let’s do this properly with my classical training one. Both of us make it work together and we have some followers now who come to every one. The idea came from Lost Chord who I work for in Sheffield. They started some sessions in December which went down a storm. Bringing people together to sing and have some fun without any pressure. Great. Thanks to them for coming up with the original idea, and Brighouse have given me some funding too so I’ll be doing some more local too in the next month.

I’ve already also done a Julie show (A Spoonful of Julie) this year too. At Norton Priory Museum and Gardens in Runcorn. George has gone onto pastures new at the moment and is working on a show in London for the next few months (congrats to George, and good for him), but it did leave me without a pianist and three weeks to the show (slight ‘shit, what am I going to do?’ went on for a few days). More stress, but Maria King who I work with for Lost Chord stepped in, and played absolutely beautifully. She lives near Macclesfield and we are going to team up and work on getting it out there more. I landed on my feet. I even bought myself what I consider a ‘sexy dress’ (having never thought of myself as that), and got out there with it on. It felt very out of my comfort zone but I needed to do it for myself too and it worked and I felt good.

Maria worked on cruise ships for years and has a little boy now so doesn’t want to go away all the time, so it was perfect timing for me too, plus if you are going to play for a Julie Andrews tribute what better name can you have than ‘Maria’. Ha ha. I have to start contacting some more venues next week as I only have 2 more for this year for my show, and Norton Priory feedback was ‘this show has to be seen by more people. It was amazing’. They’ve already asked us back for another event in July.

In my gut, this is my year. My year to really get things going. I have given so much of myself for the last however many years. Real blood, sweat and tears to make it work and this is my year. It’s going to get going and then I’m going to fly with it, and I cannot wait. I always listen to my gut and it’s never wrong.

Me and Jon saw 3 houses before the one we got and I knew the first 3 weren’t for us. As soon as we drove up to the last house I got a big hit in my gut and said this is our house. And it was. I remember standing outside the opera studio in Amsterdam in 2007 about to go in to see the guy who ran it for an audition and I said to my ex (who I wasn’t in a relationship with at that point) that I was going to come to the opera studio. I just knew and it was a real feeling of deja vu, and two months later I got offered a place. I felt like I had been there before. My gut is always spot on. I’m not living in a fantasy land. I KNOW from deep within myself. I came here to do a mission and I will be doing that mission, and it’s to spread light to others through singing, and not on a small scale.

I’m starting to travel around a bit more too which feels nice. I used to enjoy that side of it so much. I feel like me and Jon will get set up and then I’ll be off doing stuff and go back home in between. My base. It really is exciting times for me and I am looking forward to seeing what this year brings. I have lots of ‘Opera for the People’ events set up and more are coming in too. Everything is on my website at http://www.iamnicolamills.com Really, for me it’s about leaving people better than when I met them. Seeing people smiling and uplifted. It really is about ‘people’, and communities and bringing people together. It’s positive energy we all create together.

I’m also looking forward to the Yorkshire proms in July. It got cancelled last year the day before because the Queen died (my god, was I upset), and they’ve set it for July 23rd this year. I am going to walk out with that massive orchestra and love every minute of it.

It’s fun too to do the radio show together. Just have a bit of banter and chuck out some good classical pieces that we both love and have stories about. I enjoy just chatting and being ‘normal’ about it (most of time I don’t know that much about the historical side of it), but I love telling my stories and playing pieces for people and telling their stories around it. We are on tomorrow (5th Feb) from 4pm until 6pm on http://www.phoenixfm.co.uk I hope we can build a bit of a following. I have absolutely no idea how many people tune in, but if you fancy it tune in and let me know too what pieces we can play for you. Contact me on 07838360195 or email me at iamnicolamills.com

I think last year was a steep learning curve for me and it tested me in so many ways. It stressed me out a lot. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking ‘what is noone comes?’ and ‘I have to do this and that’, and walking around putting flyers through doors too. But it was necessary too. I had to go through that. I had to experience people not coming and losing money sometimes and see that actually I was still ok. Not failing, but on the journey to getting it out there. So many great experiences too but I’m not used to failing or facing things not working out so it was good for me to go through that. Some of my worst scenarios in my head happened and at the end of the day everything was fine and nothing was the end of the world. I’ve put far too much pressure on myself for years and that’s another thing that has to stop. At the end of the day I’m just singing a few songs and hoping I can do them the best that I can, and most times I’m not perfect, and sometimes I stand singing full of anxiety or worry, but I’m giving it my all, and trying to have as much fun as I can at the same time and connect with my audience, and that’s all I can do.

For more info check out my website (the link is above) and follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/iamnicolamills