Tag: Memories

Karaoke Nights: Finding Connection Through Music

Clocks went back by an hour over the weekend so its now gone 10pm instead off 11pm on Monday night. It feels more like a Sunday night as I had the day off today. I went out to a city called Plymouth to a bar called Walkabout to sing Karaoke with some friends on Sunday. I hope we all had a good night and got up and sang our little hearts out.

Some of my favourite songs that I sing relate to a connection between my head and heart in the songs concerning such unspoken matters such as unrequited love, past lovers no longer with us and love lost as well as other other things that are also important to me such as the loss of my father and brother or what will happen to us all on this planet in the future (all good deep and meaningful issues on my mind of coure).

I got to sing three songs last night – the first was ‘the Blowers Daughter’ by Damien Rice. The next song I sung I was ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting and finally I sang a song by the killers called ‘All the things I have done’. I bit of drunken crowd participation took place too which was aq lot of fun and also late night out as the bar shut about 1:30am and I got home just after 2:30am so lucky to have the day off really as  a means of recovering from such a late night.

It’s a big venue with a big stage but does not really get that full so feels quite intimate to sing there and there are lots of other really good singers that also get up and give it their best. Since lock down back at the beginning of the 2020’s I have met so many good and new friends due to singing at Karaoke bars and it really has brought so many great opportunities too and a new lease of life for me.

I really do enjoy meeting new people and getting to know who they are and what makes them tick. I don’t know if this is a natural curious state of mind or brought on even more due to having lost people through them passing away and so searching for ways to meet other new and lovely people as a means to try and compensate for those that have been lost. This will be my first Christmas without my Dad which is strange and even though it’s still nearly 2 months away it is nonetheless a though on my mind.     

The Blower’s Daughter · Damien Rice

Sailing to Alderney on a tall ship called Queen Galadriel 

July 9th 2010 is  a date that comes up on my computer pictures timeline for a wonderful visit from Portsmouth to the Island of Alderney on a tall ship no less when I was 34 some 14 years ago now. 

Queen Galdriel – The Cirdan Sailing Trust
(https://www.cirdantrust.org/queen-galadriel)

Alderney is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is 3 miles long and 1+1⁄2 miles wide. The island’s area is 3 square miles, making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick.

Smb1001, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

I was staying in supported accommodation in Chepstow in South Wales at the time of the trip to Alderney, after having come out of a hospital stay, due to struggling with my mental health back then. Though I am pleased to say that that was the last time I spent time in hospital due to my mental health and had I not been staying in accommodation in Chepstow I would never have been invited to sail on the ship. 

I was well on the way to recovery when this trip to Alderney took place and it really was a great adventure and a real privilege to go there on the working tall ship. I have just spent the last two hours trying to work out the name of the charity that we sailed with and also the name of the boat. Which I am pleased to say I found out eventually.


It turns out the boat is called as already mentioned in the title the Queen Galadriel and was originally built in 1937 in Svenborg, Denmark and was named Else first after the Captain’s daughter. She traded as a cargo vessel around the coasts of Denmark and Norway, initially as a motor sailor but after 1956 under motor alone. In 1983, she was bought by The Cirdan Sailing Trust and went into service, renamed the Queen Galadriel. The Ciridan Saling trust still run her today and groups or individuals can still pay to go on trips with her. 

Back in 2010 the weather was stunning when we sailed out to Alderney, really hot, but with a cool breeze on the ship so you did not really feel the heat too much when sailing. Alderney was such a lovely place to visit also, with the beaches there being really special as well. 

The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (High Quality)

Singing in a bar called The Ship again

Well me and a couple of friends headed out last Friday to a bar called the Ship in Exeter and they had their Friday karaoke tunes being played and sung to. My friend Michelle was the first person to get up and sing and sung ‘Take My Breath Away’ by Berlin and really did such a powerful and yet emotionally beautiful version of the song it really was amazing to listen to, she did herself, the audience listening and the song proud.

I then put in a request for a song and got up and sung it, I was very nervous and sung a song called ‘all the things that I’ve done’ by the Killers. I was a little shy and not sung this song in a bar in many a year and found the words racing ahead on the screen where I would be then trying to catch-up and sing along to what was coming up. I managed to get through the whole song and people were very kind and clapping and cheered at the end of the song when I had finished which was great, I look forward to going back there and having a go another time.

I would like to try and sing the following song if I had a little more confidence and if the DJ had the song top sing which is by the cranberries and called ‘no need to argue’. I don’t think it would be suitable for the ship as that is more power ballads and rock and pop anthems where drunken crowds join in, but I might be able to get away with trying to sing it at the Arcade see if Damien has it as a selection.

The Cranberries – No need to argue

The album this song is on is also called ‘no need to argue’ and it came out when I was 18. It was beautifully sung and gently expressive song on an album that I found really helped me bring about calmness in my mind at a time in my life when I was a hugely sensitive and emotional person. All happy, hippy go lucky one minute, in love the next and then heartbroken after that! Listening to the song still to this day and it reminds me so much of when and what I have found and had, loved and lost and thankfully recovered and then been able to move on and prepare for the whole lot of madness and shenanigans again.