I met up with my mum in Walsall yesterday afternoon. We took her stuff to her hotel, went to campus so I could get changed and fetch all the stuff I needed, and then we were off again to head to The Roadhouse in time for 6 o’clock. We arrived to find that the only people who were already there were my band. Aiden’s guys started arriving some minutes late, and Chris got there at 6:30 or so. This made me slightly nervous.

We were late starting the sound checks, and the start of the gig was pushed forward to 8:30. I felt a bit easier after everyone was done sound checking.

A little while before 8 pm, however, as I was sitting at the entrance ready to take entry money from the coming audience, I had the biggest birthday surprise of my life.

Through the door came Morten, my boyfriend. I had a moment of, “Wait, wut??”, as my mind first decided that it was impossible for him to be there, and then realised that, no, it was definitely him.

He had flown down that morning, had lunch with a friend in London, and then headed up to Birmingham at a leisurely pace. He hadn’t told anyone. Officially the best birthday present ever! Suddenly, everything felt awesome, and I didn’t feel as nervous as I had. I felt excited and ready and happy.

Aiden and Chris played really well (Chris especially impressed us with an incredibly intricate guitar tune that blew us all away). Then it was my turn, and it went AWESOME! I realised a couple of songs in that I’d forgotten to hand my promo packs to the assessors, so I asked if I should take a break and do that, and was told to keep playing, so I did.

It was the most awesome gig I’ve ever played! I felt great up on stage, I felt like everything went really well, and I got loads of applause and cheering, and as we all know, us performers live for recognition(!)

Now, as we’d started off half an hour late, the sound tech had been getting cranky. He had, apparently, asked Chris to cut down his set, which he had refused to do. He kept playing. The sound tech never said anything to me, but I cut one song anyway, because I realised that if I’d played it, my set would have gone up to about 50 minutes, and it was supposed to be 45 minutes. By the time I got on, we were only about fifteen minutes behind schedule. However, during my second last track, the sound tech started waving his arms (I think he was gesturing before that, but I wasn’t wearing my glasses and so couldn’t see him properly on the other end of the room). When that song was done, he cut the sound.

Here are two very important facts: 1. In the e-mail I had received when making the booking, I was told that we could play until 11:30 if need be. 2. It was, at this point, 7 minutes before 11.

I told my band to stay where they were, and stomped off to the sound tech, where I found Brendan already telling him that he was out of order. I asked the guy what the hell he was up to, and he said that we could only play until 11. I told him about the e-mail correspondance, he said it was wrong, and I told him that that’s not my problem. I was told 11:30, and that was what I had paid for. He sullenly told me I could do one more song, and I said that was all I had left.

Then I got back on stage, to great cheer, and performed Uninvited, as intended. When I got up to the green room after, it was exactly 11 o’clock.

This is where I interject that I am as proud of myself as I could possibly be. I stood up to the man and I won! I think I’m allowed this little victory.

After the performance, I gave my promo pack to the assessors, received kudos from Steve Cooper (happy birthday, Steve!), and then lots of other people for having stood my ground, received lots of hugs, and felt sweaty and tired, but incredibly happy. Then I went back to campus with my boyfriend, and we spent half the night singing folk songs, because that’s what I do when I’m happy.

Today I handed in my final assessment and went out to dinner with Morten, Abi and mum for a more proper birthday celebration. I’ve had a great day, and tomorrow I’m off to London with mum and Morten’s going back to Norway. I go home in a week. I’ve completed all my assessments, and I feel so accomplished and done and just good.

This is my life, and I feel good about it.