Thursday 22nd February

Well another Thursday has come around and this week was the first time this year that I suffered from the singer's version of brewer's droop! I was as flat as I have been singing for a good time. I suppose I have had a good run of late but tonight I just couldn't hit any note's at all and had to resort to being loud and funny to take the accent off my duff voice on the night. I think my reason for this was the fact that I did two song's that I had totally unprepared for, and my ego got the better of me. But in the true tradition of being a professional I did the only thing I could think of and walked off in a huff!
Anyway back to the song's. Tonight's treats were as follows 1. Burning Heart by Survivor (PI04616) 2. Shine by Take That (SF25107) 3. S.O.S. by ABBA (SFAB0110) 4. Lay Your Love On Me by ABBA (SFAB0207) 5. Angie by The Rolling Stones (LG014134)

Burning Heart by Survivor

First track of the night and totally unprepared for it so walked off as I got to the chorus. I can only put this down to the fact I had not tried it at home at all and just thought it would be easy to sing. I may not give up on this one completely as I think it's poor preparation that led to giving up on it, but when you know a song is going bad it's not worth making yourself look daft. I'm sure all the pro's do it!!

Shine by Take That

Had to redeem myself after the last track so a couple of Stella's later my voice was totally ready for action. It's like wearing a comfy pair of old slipper's singing this song, just feels right. As i've said before Take That have a special place in my singing heart.Maybe it's the Robbie thing or maybe it's just the fact their stuff is just easy to do, I'm not sure but when you need to pull off a good song go back to what you know!

S.O.S. by ABBA

Think I had a go at this one to see if last week's was a fluke and thankfully it wasn't. This is probably one of the few ABBA track's a male vocalist can have a go at (unless your Jimmy Sommerville!!!) It was also an opportunity to do what I planned last week and compare the track's that Ben Mills may of sung on X-Factor.

Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA

Sharon Osbourne you are spot on. At the time of the ABBA week on the X-Factor I was convinced this was the track that most suited Ben's voice with it having those Joe Cocker undertone's but how wrong could I of been! This is in no way a male vocalist's song so, as I did earlier, I got out why the going was good! Well done Sharon S.O.S. was the perfect choice for Ben.

Angie by The Rolling Stones

Not sang this one for age's and it's one of my top ten by the Stone's. If you listen to the lyrics you can really see how Mick Jagger is pouring his heart into singing it, so that's how best to go at singing it yourself. This is where a singer has to imagine the song's story and put themselves in that frame of mind to get the best of a vocal performance. This obviously doesn't work for every song you sing but if a song is originally sang with feeling I find that if you research the song, find out the story behind it, it can help you sing it with more feeling, so therefore you sound better. Well it's a theory anyway and it work's for me so try it for yourself.

There you go then another Thursday over with. I will definitely not go into another night without warming my voice up properly as I do have a reputation to uphold! Sometimes you can take this too seriously though and that is why I do it for fun! If I was a pro then walking off mid song is a no no and not preparing properly is stupid. I will take this week as a slap on the wrist, give myself a D and write on my paper MUST DO BETTER.
As this week seems to have ended up all serious I have decided to end up this weeks blog on a lighter note with a quote from my favourite person to great Homer Simpson. Don't laugh too soon he has probably the best way of summing up all of life's intricate little problems in a few short words so I may take it upon myself to educate you with one every week to advance your personal well being!! Anyway here goes the first
"No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you." Homer J Simpson