Are we there yet?

Normal is defined as the usual, typical, or expected state or condition. Normality, normalcy if you will, is the state (and or condition) I've been striving to achieve from the moment my one on one cardiac nurse woke me from my anaesthetic fuelled slumber back in December. Whether I was indeed normal before my surgery is obviously debatable, but by and large in the three months since my old heart valve was replaced with a shiny new heart valve I've been trying to softly softly catchee monkey the only way I know how. And that is just literally one day at a time and, most importantly, listening to my body. Even when I came out of hospital I only have to look at the photos of myself with any of my early visitors to see that I looked like a ghost. A silent ghost: the Influenza Type A I contracted in hospital all but took away my voice during my first two or three weeks of liberation. So, gradually I've been driving again, getting my voice back again, getting my appetite back again (I lost over 10 kilos in hospital) and having the odd beer again (after 70 days dry it was a relief to discover I hadn't taken against the stuff). 

And walking again. My health app on my phone would indicate that in December I'd fallen off a cliff (which I kind of did) and it wasn't till mid-January that my weary body showed any signs of physical movement (hospital corridors aren't as long as you think). A major milestone was achieved only last week when I climbed (my) Everest and a couple of weeks before that I pulled in my first gig for nigh on three months - Chuck Prophet (who I know has been dealing with his own personal demons recently - he's currently in remission from Stage 4 Lymphoma). Chuck and his new band The Cumbian Shoes were nothing short of sensational at Nottingham's Metronome last month.

I guess, after normal, that's my next milestone: wouldn't it be great to feel sensational? Until then I'll stick with my usual response when people ask me how my recuperation's going: "Getting there," I tell them; quite ironic when you consider the masthead at the top of the page.

High Voltage

My friend Neil had a spare ticket for Electric Six last night. Of course I went; it would have been churlish not to. We met in good time (very good time) and so went from a boozy Sunday afternoon to Chinese meal to gig. To my shame I  didn't really know an awful lot about them prior to showtime (apart from a couple of standout hits 20+ years ago), but in the course of their 90 minute set I was absolutely bowled over. Echoes of the Hives and Turbonegro if you wanna know roughly what page they're on. (Kicking myself now for not getting a tee shirt.)

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I particularly got off on their version of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder on the Dance Floor - a contemporary in so many ways of their their own monster single Danger! High Voltage. This is from last Tuesday night at the Brudenell in Leeds.

Walk and Talk

Nottingham Poetry Festival 2019 is in full swing. Curated and overseen by its Creative Director, the effervescent Georgina Wilding - the whole thing runs from 26 April to 5 May. And, as you would expect, there's a fantastic smorgasbord of poets doing full-on gigs, readings, workshops & open mics in scores of venues across the city.

I was lucky enough to see Georgina on Sunday supporting Caroline Bird (more on her to follow, I can assure you) at one of Nottingham's newest venues, Metronome. Georgina was Nottingham's Young Poet Laureate 2017/2018 and has had an extremely busy 12 months - taking her work all over the county, and beyond (she was recently in India). She is currently in the process of completing her first soon to be published anthology and, in a few days time, is jetting over to Poland for a few weeks to write, gig, teach and perform. Not bad for someone who was telling me after Sunday's gig that she never thought of herself as academic when she was at school.

Georgina Wilding - That's Where We Live (2018)