Where do I go from here?

Hello from Poynton in Cheshire. I’m with my schoolfriend this weekend as I’m singing not too far away tonight in Romiley for the ‘Little Theatre Group’.

In Romiley……
Wrote my blog earlier and now back from the gig…

My third time there. I’m going to do half an hour on the streets of Wilmslow this afternoon (I don’t usually sing somewhere if I have a gig), but it’s posh here. I mean really posh. An Aston Martin garage on the high street so it’s a good opportunity to give a few cards out. You never know. We always scour the charity shops too. You get some good stuff round here. The fickle capitalist world we live in and people get rid of good stuff that hasn’t really been used or worn. Let them pay full price and I’ll buy it second hand.

I was telling my friends last night that I’m not really drinking so much these days. I used to have a beer every night. Love my Belgian beers etc…..and I just stopped and am having an odd glass of wine now. I’m sleeping better too. Much earlier than usual, and then my friend said maybe it’s because I’m also not on the move as much. I have a home at the moment and that is helping.

No packing big suitcases and adapting to somewhere new. My skin is better and I’m eating better and I’m going for walks on the hills at the back of where I live. I even picked some wild raspberries yesterday which were so sweet and tangy, and came back with freshly laid eggs from one of the farms. I love stuff like that. The real deal and simple stuff.

I’m really grateful that I have things on here even though I put most of my energy into being in America when I was there. One lovely thing from being there was the video that Benjamin John Zimbric did for me for free. FOR FREE!!! Someone helping me out, and he’s done a great job, really capturing who I am and what I am about with my singing thingy. I pay a narcissistic prick of an agent a ton of money and it takes him three weeks to get back to me to listen to the demos I’ve paid more money to make. The day before I left NY he was ‘oh such and such a person is interested in hearing you’. Well, I’ve been here for 3 months and you had me all that time and did nothing but the day before I leave again you actually do something and it’s too late. I mean this guy wants to make me get a big stick and cosh the shit out of something, he annoys me so much. The profession and the bullshit. Everything I got away from and he makes me frustrated because I paid him a lot of money and he just doesn’t care.

Back to the video I do like and the people who actually ‘get’ what I am doing.

Thank you Ben. Him and his friend took their time to lug all their equipment to where I was singing twice and interview me and spend time editing it. I’ve had some lovely comments about it too.

‘Nicola……I am caught up in your video. Have listened to it at least ten times since yesterday. It really is terrific and there are passages where your voice actually gives me the shivers. I could hear you sing these arias a hundred times and not tire of them.’

‘So very nice to see this, Nicola! It’s like having you here with us again on our streets! I see myself in the background of this video. I’m looking down at my phone to try to hide the tears that were running down my cheeks as I had been caught off guard by my emotional reaction your singing had caused. I was lucky to have caught you at that spot twice. I was sitting next to two lovely strangers who felt the same that it was so special to share that moment.’ 💕❤️💕❤️

So what am I doing in the UK? I’m writing my Julie Andrews show. I know my beginning and end and some of the bits in between and the musicals I want to feature and am learning some of the songs from shows like ‘Camelot’ so I can create exactly what I want. Bring my audience up and down and share ‘My Spoonful of Julie’ with people. My take on it. What she means to me. Get people involved. Create some workshops alongside it. I’m writing her story in my own words now so I can take the pieces I want from it. Not have it where it’s just other people’s words and I just regurgitate it but it’s my story of her. The things that have stuck out to me.

On the performing front I’ve also been busy. I sang in Bolton for a Jigsaw stroke group who meet every two weeks. They have been organising entertainment for 11 years and said:

“What a brilliant afternoons entertainment you gave us yesterday at Jigsaw Bolton Stroke Group. Everybody thought you were just wonderful. Stroke survivors need positivity and music helps enormously. All our members left in a high spirit and could not stop talking about you. Thank you once again.”

Lots of compliments this last week. I also sang in the stations in London and a guy has asked me out for dinner, I recorded and edited the second half of my cd ‘Songs for the People’, sang at a beautiful and intimate wedding in Kent,

and then travelled back up North to sing at an evening of Viennese Opera with Oldham Symphony Orchestra. I was nervous of a few parts as it’s not the easiest music. The end of ‘Vilja’ had been plaguing me all week. Just soooooo difficult so in true ‘me’ style to cover my back and help with the anxiety I told the audience I was scared of it and to clap early if I mess up. That got a laugh and I managed the note but was flipping relieved to have that one over and done with. Beautiful song but bitch of an ending. The Mayor of Oldham was there too and there was a nice review written of me. Is it the week for compliments? They seem to have been coming thick and fast.

Nicola informed us she was from Oldham and how thankful she was to Oldham for giving her the chance to have singing lessons and attend Oldham Music Centre. She now sings all over the world. Her speech really moved us all. A truly outstanding woman with an incredible voice.

I have gigs all weekend and then it’s more back on the streets. I get some funny looks here. I get lots of support. I get many people saying ‘have you thought of X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent or X Factor? Yep. I did them both and it went nowhere. I don’t like these programmes and never watch them. Controlling people and manipulating them so they get their 15 minutes of fame. Not for me. I’ll just carry on doing it my way. I do ask myself every day ‘What am I doing? Where is this going? Will it ever go anywhere beyond what I do now?’ I feel it will and I’m waiting. Sometimes patiently and sometimes ‘hurry the fuck up, tired of waiting’.

My friend just asked me to go and sing for her neighbour who is an old guy who was a farmer so I just rocked up in his kitchen with the dog going a bit crazy and sang a couple of songs. He gave me some Pringles at the end of it. Anywhere I can be of some help and all that……