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Much of my writing is related to my research on ageing, but I also want to share the personal side. I’ve been out almost every night for a couple of weeks, mainly to see live music.
Have I been doing too much?
For me, music nurtures my soul and makes me more of who I am. It goes way back to my teen years, watching pub bands in the early/mid 70s and continuing to buy albums and go to gigs until becoming a parent. Then restarting 10 years later.
Looking back over the past couple of weeks … I have been doing too much, and now I’m not feeling well – sore throat, ear ache, aches and pains. And stoically living with it – I don’t even want to take paracetamol.
Over the past 2 weeks I have been to
1. Improv comedy class (Wed)
2. Singing with Nightingales (this was a muddy experience which involved a lot of standing in and moving through mud where two musicians played for the nightingales …) (Thurs)
3. Getting home at 0130 I needed to recover that day (Friday)
4. Full day indoor music festival which was a 2-hour drive from my home (Saturday)
5. Walk with a friend and then a gig – Circa Waves. (Sunday)
6. Charity committee meeting (Monday)
7. Cinema (Tuesday)
8. Improv comedy class (Wednesday)
9. Jazz festival for 3 hours (Thursday)
10. Jazz festival all evening (Friday)
11. All day at the wood and then a gig in the evening (Saturday)
12. Full day gig – 15 bands overall including Pet Needs (Sunday)
13. Day trip to watch some 17th C historical reenactment but skipped the early evening gig (Monday)
And today I’m unwell.
Do I think I’m still 20!
With working from home, I usually do go out 4 evenings a week – cinema, comedy, gigs but this is a bit of a record.
Thing is, I don’t like to miss out on anything. I’m always open to new opportunities, and if things sound good I want to get involved. This is particularly around live music; it really does nurture my soul.
Are you in a time warp about music?
For many people you can guess their age based on the music they listen to. Is it still from the 70s or 80s? A lot of the people I know love watching covers bands, playing songs they know, and their gigs are big Stadium ones such as seeing Bruce Springsteen. I would rather listen to newer music, I want to challenge myself, and 10 or more years ago really got into Drum n Bass (and Psy. Trance).
This is one way I see myself as staying relevant. Listening to new bands, seeing trends. They are not always for me but I like to give it a go. I belong to a Meet Up group run by a friend who is over 70 and he keeps me up-to-date on music to explore.
For another article I was looking into different ways of describing age – biological age, chronological age etc. and came across Musical Age which can be well outside the typical if you look at a persons’ chronological age.
My interests cover a wide range of genres, post punk could well sum things up. I want to listen to bands who sing about what is affecting people right now. So, a lot of lyrics are around anxiety and kindness. I think this is one example of being curious.
But I must also listen to my body and allow myself some time to recover. Tomorrow I’m going to head out to my private wood and quietly sit amongst the trees and listen to the birds. Over the weekend I’ll take my hammock for a spot of wild camping.
I’ll just share one video from the fabulous Pet Needs. I hadn’t heard anything by them until their gig. Now one of my favourite bands :)
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Oh Denise, I'm sorry you aren't well - but you'll get better and have your memories of all the live music as well! I never thought about musical age before. I think it's older than I'd like it to be.
I enjoyed reading your post. I can relate to your life in that I, too, research and write about ageing and love most genres of music. However, I tried your link and this is one of the genres that's just not for me. I admire the way you follow through with your love of music by going to so many types of live events. Hope you recover soon!