Top floor calypso

I'm so tired, I don't know if I'm coming or going. I was awake until 3am writing drum parts last night and was up at 8 this morning to spend a day on the White City Estate teaching songs to the troops. We started the day at Frank's house, had lunch in the vegetarian cafe (a glorious lasagne), and then climbed the five floors to John's house to sing his calypso. 

Nathan was with me today, which meant I could relax a little and let him take control with the singers. A fresh pair of ears is always useful, especially when I'm this tired. I basically spent the whole day sitting on various sofas with my little green keyboard, playing a few chords here and there and trying to deal with bits of admin which I've been ignoring for days.

After John's we went to the community centre to teach a group of young girls harmonies for their sequence in the film. I was hugely impressed by how quickly they picked up the melody. There's something fearless about young people. The older we get, the more pressure we put on ourselves because we know the horrors of failing. Nowhere have I noticed this more acutely than when I ran auditions in the West End for the show Taboo. The older, more experienced actors, with extraordinary CVs were always the most nervy. There's invincibility in youth. 

The oldest of the three girls was, I think, Nigerian, and had learned singing by the rather bizarre tonic sol-fa method (every note is assigned a word: do-re-mi etc) so Nathan spent ten minutes converting the music accordingly. Never let it be said that we don't cater for all musical tastes!

I've come home to continue writing and printing parts, but as a sort of gift to myself for working hard today, am simultaneously watching last night's Eurovision semi-final. For those who have lived in a barn for the last year, it's being staged in Sweden, home of ABBA, prompting cries that "Eurovision's come home." It's certainly an extraordinary show. They did an epic version of last year's winner to kick things off which quite took my breath away!