It was another late night. After the usual late-night, post-gig bowl of cereal and yoghurt, I finally got into bed and tried watching a couple of boxing videos before realising I was that tired, I should attempt to get some sleep. I put on a podcast which tends to be the only thing that can put me out for the night and sure enough, I was soon out. I was up early again though. Any form of lie-in just seems to be out of my reach. I’ve tried all sorts of things to address it. Meditation videos just keep me awake. As soon as I woke this morning, my ears seemed to home in on some weird creaking sound coming from somewhere in the room. Was it a creak, was it a scratch? Were my co-tenants the rodents back? I was too tired to care beyond being irritated by the audio. If you asked me five years ago if I could co-habit with pests, I’d have told you absolutely not. Twenty summers ago, I walked out of one flat on a Saturday night after an unusually big-eared brown rodent appeared in my Crouch End flat (my only North London experience). I packed a bag super-quick, fetched my badminton racket and moved out that night, spending the next three months in what turned out to be a haunted maisonette on Clapham Common Northside, a tale I’ve told on my old radio/podcast show.
The day is likely to feature rehearsing tonight’s set at regular intervals. With any gig, you just want to put on the best show you can. There are always variables on the night and something I try to keep in mind, bearing in mind I’ve been on stage as late as 2am in one unusual instance, is that whatever energy you’re able to put into your set during a daytime rehearsal isn’t necessarily going to be replicated, at least not easily, on stage at night. Sometimes, roughly 24 hours before a show, I’ll rehearse well into the evening to try and see what kind of performance I can deliver after a long day. It’s not easy but of course, if a show has sold out, as tonight’s has, the audience’s energy will lift you and you get through it.