Appreciation

I went to a house-gig in Brighton last night. My friend, Sharon Lewis, was playing. She was amazing as always, but what really made her something special last night was that another friend, Anjuli, was singing backing vocals with her. They sounded great together but, no offence to Sharon, I was just waiting for Anjuli's vocals in every song they did together. It just gave it that soulful edge without overpowering Sharon's beautiful voice. I was really wowed.

I want to see more music like this in settings like this. It was great sitting in someone's front room listening to great music. Everyone was quiet and paid full attention to the singers. I think that's all I want from an audience, a bit of attention and appreciation.

I met a singer last night who I instantly didn't like. I'd seen videos of him on YouTube before then and knew I wasn't going to like him. He sat next to me and I didn't like him. He sang and I didn't like him. He called me Si when I'd introduced myself as Simon which made me like him even less. And finally he said "Is it different weather up there, Si?", in a cheap jibe about my height (I'm 6 foot 7) which pretty much put the final nail in the coffin.

I thought I never had a problem about whether people called me Si or Simon. But I realised it's my oldest friends and family and people who are really close to me who abbreviate my name to Si. It feels like a liberty when people use Si when they don't know me. Especially when they're middle class, jumped up, public school boy, Damien Rice wannabes.