November was all about voices – lost voices. Yes it is that time of year when the shops start going Christmas crazy. It’s also started to get so cold that you can see your breath in the air and everyone seems to be coughing or sneezing. This year has been one of the mildest October and November periods I have ever been through – but danger lurks around every corner.
Losing your voice is crippling. Your voice is the way you express yourself, communicate anything. Silence may be golden for a few hours, especially if you are surrounded by noise – but the novelty wears off when you are unable to communicate with others. That’s why solitary confinement is a higher-level punishment and why in cavemen days, tribes punished a person by sending them out of the confines of the tribe and prevented other tribe members from speaking to them.
My lost voice snuck up on me. I felt a little irritation in my throat and the next day my voice had disappeared. There are other singers feeling the pain at the moment too – Adele has had to cancel her world tour and Keith Urban is taking rest. There is nothing worse for a singer than not being able to sing. Apart from it stopping their career – most singers love singing – so they also can’t do what they love.
So I started the endless rounds of lemon, honey and ginger, cough syrups and cough sweets, wrapping up warm and not leaving the house. If I see another lemon again it will be too soon! Slowly my voice turned from a whisper to sounding like Donald Duck and many lemons later it became husky and low (actually not a bad voice for radio interviews). After almost a month I have about 80% of my voice back – enough to sing at Bar Solo on November 25th and that was lots of fun.
Camden on a Friday night is always great and the bar was heaving when we played to launch Undercover on Rockband (which came out on the 17th). This time the boys who had been playing on my album down in Brighton joined me onstage – Ry on bass, Ant on drum and Jamie on guitar. There’s nothing better than a packed room singing your songs!!
A few pics below.
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- Jamie guitar
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- Rocking out at Bar Solo
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- Bar Solo crowd
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- Anita and band
I also attempted a couple of radio interviews this month when my voice was a little better – cheers to Caroline Fleck at Downtown Radio and John Waller on Nevis Radio for nattering across the airwaves with me.
Adele in happier times
Rock on!
Anita x
