One night when my little sister Jacqueline was only 3 years old, she couldn’t sleep, so she walked downstairs and into the lounge where Mum and dad were watching TV. My mother thought that Jac was trying to avoid bed time and get to stay up a few more hours, but as she sent Jacqueline up to bed again, with a little telling off she caught a glimpse of her face, and it was not a nice sight!
That was the first time we realized Jacqueline was allergic to peanuts…her nose was the size of a golf ball, her eyes two puffy red protrusions and her lips could’ve been a dinghy. Obviously she was rushed to hospital and she never enjoyed a ‘Snickers’ bar or a packet of ‘Chimpees’ again!!
Allergies …..they come fast, and unexpected like a thief in the night! And they cripple you! That’s what happened to me last Saturday. It was a rare gig we got to play in front of so many thousands of people and unfortunately I had to cut it short because of something which I had no control over.
When you lose control of anything, you feel like you’ve let yourself and everyone around you down! You feel like you want to rectify the situation but you have no means to do it. Half choking on stage I had to stop the show there and then. If I could’ve done a better jig than my voice was sounding at that instant I would’ve, but the allergy had struck hard and I was seriously feeling faint. The support the audience showed me that night, was incredible! It is always so nice to have that sort of support. When people genuinely care about someone, it touches my heart.
I was glad to meet most of the audience after the show, I couldn’t really chat, but I could meet the people who had been so supportive.
Obviously any singer’s fear is that this should happen again, especially when I knew I had to open the Rod Stewart Concert the following Tuesday. A visit to Dr.Lapira and an Endoscopy later, I was told that I was ok and my vocal chords were in perfect shape. That I had just suffered a severe allergic reaction, that I had done the right thing to stop the show and that I had to rest and not worry.
In typical fashion, the Rod Stewart gig was not lacking stress, that afternoon we waited incessantly to go on to do our sound check, due to certain issues. Hours later we finally go to test our sound, which was perfect thanks to Howard. Walking up on stage to play my set, I was confident that all was going to be fine. The band smiled and played an amazing gig. They were professional and enjoyed every single note they played.
Following the show we moved to the front of the stage to watch Rod Stewart. Having watched his concert in London a few months back I knew what to expect. A powerful and energetic show, with brilliant musicians playing some of his most popular tunes. Now I don’t know what happened to Rod before the show or during the show. Maybe his hairspray wouldn’t hold, maybe Penny sent him a text that she’d also fallen for Robbie Williams, maybe his pants were too tight, maybe he realized that he’s not that sexy anymore….hey I don’t know, but he sure seemed ticked off.
A few years back we heard rumours about Elton John’s sudden jetting off from the Granaries, due to an argument with his partner David Furnish which involved a male masseur, Sting’s non communicative skills were also commendable at Luxol Grounds and now we can add Rod to our list. These are all media stories which could or could not be true, they’re post concert gossip we like to engage in.
However, it is a scary thought that if you take your personal life with you on stage, at times it can be so inspiring to people, and yet sometimes it can really work the other way round.
