On the 16th January 2024, I found out that I’d won a competition I entered to win tickets to see Kings Elliot at an intimate, acoustic gig in London. The gig was the 18th January 2024. So just the two days notice.. One by the time I had booked my train ticket and hotel. Seeing Kings again was great, a privilege.. A shock as I wasn’t going to enter. I really wasn’t going to bother, I thought that there would be so many going for the tickets, I didn’t think I would have any kinda shot, but I did and I won. A capacity of 40 in the room but there was just 17 of us there. A very personal, intimate gig. It was supposed to be an acousting set, but Pete was there on Keyboards, guitar and electric guitar too. I felt just like a kings gig.
But this time, I had asked a good friend if they was available to come with me, and they were, which really made my night. My friendship with this friend never changes, it can be literally 10 years or 10 minutes between seeing each other and we slip right back into where we were last time as if no time had passed at all. A dear dear friend that I am so glad I have found a place for in my life.
I honestly thought that the Kings set would be a little longer than it was. I thought perhaps she would take a break and come back and play some more songs, but it was just on an hour with some time between songs for some questions to be asked and answered. But there were 6 or 7 songs that were played in the end, including two previously unheard tracks and some older tracks too. She didn’t play Butterfly Pen :(. But for a free show I can’t complain or ask for more. We were all given a free bookmark with “Sick Puppy Book Club” on it. It was a nice little free gift. I had hoped there might have been some merch available to purchase, and later found out that there was some, but Kings forgot to put it out. One of the newer songs that Kings sang was ‘Never Be Mine’, and this alongside other tracks really hit home. But perhaps that’s ok.. Perhaps it’s what it is and that is what it’s meant to be? My thoughts and feelings are never going to change, and why should they? Life would be grayer without this friendship in my life. I am there for the fun and the good times, and I’ll be there for the bad times too to help and support however I can.
The venue was a lovely community space with several different rooms and spaces to hang out. The bar was were we went prior to going upstairs to the Chapel, and were we returned to after the gig. When we did there was a guy playing a guitar and a fiddler playing the er.. fiddle. – It was an Irish community center! It was.. far too loud to provide a comfortable space for talking, but we made it work. After the gig there was supposed to be a meet and greet with Kings, but I had got confused and went downstairs, thinking it would be down there. – Only saw Kings for a moment or two as she was being hurried out of the door by her manager. Later on, on the 22nd January, I spoke with Kings and explained the confusion as to why I ‘left’.. I mean I didn’t leave, but you know what I mean. She thanked me for my support and for coming and said that she did see me and recognise me in the audience. That meant a lot!
I know I don’t usually write about events I go to here on this blog, but I didn’t know where to put this exactly. It was for sure an experience via x40, but I also got to meet up with a friend and we spent some time together chatting and catching up, and that in itself was well worth the trip down.
In other news / developments this month, I have finally.. moved & sorted through what was remaining of my Mum’s clothes in her wardrobe in her bedroom. My clothes now have a wardrobe to call their own. I have kept one or two items of Mum’s clothes, that remind me of her, but for the most part, they are clothes. She enjoyed them when she wore them, and must have liked them because she kept them, but otherwise, she’s had her use of them and it’s time to allow them to go off to a charity shop and allow someone else to make some use of them. It was time. In the end I felt no feelings while doing this. So I don’t know what it was I was dreading. But it’s done now. There are perhaps two more small boxes to go through – of clothes – so that’ll be done by the end of January too. Then it’s on to some other stuff. Onwards progress marches.
