A Concert, Exhibition or Show

I guess I’ve been lucky when it comes to listening to live music. I grew up in a time when everybody I knew was either in a band, starting a band, or knew someone who was in a band or starting a band. From the age of 16 I went to gigs regularly. I watched rock bands in pubs, Jazz bands in hotel bars and punk bands in dark dingy basements. Today I’ll write about one of the concerts I enjoyed most, which was going to see Nina Simone in London in 1988. I started listening to Nina when I heard one of her songs on a cassette my brother had. The song was “My baby just cares for me” and it was love at first listen. I’d listened to other female Jazz/blues singers before like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith but I’d never heard a voice with the quality of Nina’s. Over time, I started to hear more and more of Nina’s recordings and the more I heard her the more I liked her. Anyway, when the concert dates were announced I went out and bought tickets straight away. I was living in London at the time and I read about the dates in the New Musical Express, a popular music paper which I used to read from cover to cover every week. Nina Simone was a very special artist. I’d had tickets to see her before but the show was cancelled at the last minute because of trouble with Nina’s mental health. She had been trained as a classical pianist but became known as a jazz singer. However, in her concerts she often used to stop mid-song and tell the audience to stop talking or insist that they pay attention. If they didn’t, she would often just get up and leave. When the day of the concert arrived I was really excited. It was held in a theatre in the centre of London and it had the atmosphere of a classical concert. I went with my girlfriend (at the time) and a couple of friends. The support act was Najma Akhtar a British/Indian singer who I really like. She played a wonderful set and got a great reception. When Nina arrived on stage the applause was thunderous. It was just Nina and her piano but the sound she created was amazing. Nina introduced some of the songs with stories about the song; how it was written or why she enjoyed singing it. She was very formal and asked people not to talk while she was playing. She played for a couple of hours and then she was gone. I think the main thing I remember about the concert was the fact that I had experienced something extremely special. Well, it’s not every day you get to see a living legend. Write about a concert, an exhibition or a show you went to. Say: What it was, Where it took place, How you found out about it, Who you went with, Why you enjoyed it. Write at least 300 words. Leave a comment on you teacher’s blog and on the blogs of at least 3 classmates.