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Lyrics: “Just For Tonight” ~ Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, 2023

I’ve lived plenty these past three days travelling to London and Belgium and back.

Operation Mincemeat (Again) | On the drive to Brussels I listened to a podcast / interview cast member Jak Malone did a few days ago. He mentioned that the one line in his tear-jerker “Dear Bill” with the biggest risk to  make him tear up a bit as well is

But it’s good to hear you even just in my head

“Dear Bill” – Operation Mincemeat

It reminds Jak of the moments when he hears his late Nan’s voice in his head. When he talked about the “Finding Hester” campaign I also welled up a bit, which is not the best thing to do on a Belgian motorway.

I had such a good time seeing this show again; this time from the 4th row, which is the closest to the stage I’ve ever been (yet). You’d think after having seen the West End version 3 times already and previous versions multiple times as well, I’d know the dialogues and actions on stage by heart. And in a way I do (thanks to the soundtrack) but in other ways: I so don’t! It’s amazing that even this 4th time there are tiny details I noticed for the first time. Themes sung in the background. Props I hadn’t noticed before. It’s amazing.

Just as it had happened in June, Ewan Monatgu was played by the understudy Holly Sumpton. And while she is good, I did miss “my” Tash Hodgson in that role. I guess I do have to come back to the see the show once (or twice) again in 2024. They have extended once more till the end of February, so there is plenty of time to plan. The friend with whom I’ve met up to see the show had bought the CD (for yet another friend) and got it signed by the cast at the stage door. Getting something signed is always a good occasion to talk to them. And once again they’ve all been lovely and gracious with their time and some have been quite chatty as well. I just love those guys. As you can tell from the amount of words I’ve written about them in the past few years. 

Back to Belgium | Saturday morning – after not enough sleep – I left London again to head back to the continent. I will share a few more stories and photos of the one day in London later this week, I hope.

For the night of the 2nd part of fangirling this weekend – Frank Turner at Brakrock Festival in Duffel – I had booked a hotel near Brussels airport, because there wasn’t anything suitable left near Duffel. It’s a 25 minutes drive from the airport and I was fine with that. The drive from the train station to hotel went more or less ok. See “fork in road tunnels” and also some of my SatNav’s directions on the motorway were a bit unclear to me. Maybe I was just too tired. When I checked in the receptionist asked me if I was in town for the concert. I was pretty sure he didn’t mean the festival 25 minutes away, but I told him about that anyway. “No”, he said. “Rammstein are playing their third show here tonight.” Ehm, Nope! Thank you very much. 

I was able to check in earlier than expected, so lay down for some rest, after checking the weather forecast. There was supposed to be a lull in the rain around 5-ish, so that’s when I headed out to see… 

Frank Turner @ Brakrock Festival | I found the city and parking easily and walked over to the festival site. I think it’s about time to confess I’m not the festival type. I like my gigs to focus on the band I want to see. I often don’t know or don’t care about 75% of the bands at a festival. I like my indoor plumbing and solid ground beneath my feet. I admit also preferably a roof above my head. 

Alas, Frank was only playing festival slots in Europe this summer, so if I wanted to see them at some point I had to go to one. And Brakrock in Belgium it was. It’s on the small side, I’d guess up to 3.000 people at the same time, at 3 stages around a castle ruin in the woods. Quite lovely setting in fact. The other band I wanted to see that evening was BadCop/BadCop and they were on at 20:10. After finding my bearing re: toilets and such and after getting something to eat I then decided to go get another drink around 19:00. I recalled the empty bar at the start of the festival site, so I turned around to go there. Guess who comes walking towards me in that exact spot and that exact moment? Frank Turner himself. We looked at each other and I think for a millisecond we both were a bit startled to run into each other. And it actually really was just a quick Hey & Bye: a hug, pleasantries, moaning about the rain. But seriously, what were the odds? I admit I kept grinning for quite a bit after.

I watched BadCop/BadCop and liked them as I knew I would from their music I’ve listened to so far. By the end of their set the rain started to fall more heavily so I put on the rain poncho I brought and the baseball cap to keep the rain from my glasses . And I didn’t take neither off till I got back to my car after Frank’s set. Because it kept raining. A lot! For Frank’s set I managed to get a spot at the barrier (not on my usual side, but that was fine) and at least kept standing on a solid metal surface for a while. Lo and behold, the rain turned into a mere drizzle shortly before Frank started playing. Until the last two songs, when it started to pour heavily again. 

But enough about the weather. I had the best of times regardless. It’s Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls playing songs I love to sing along to. Songs I love to move around to. Some songs with some words that mean so much to me. Being able to scream along to those words in a crowd full of like minded people while seeing the man who wrote these words sing them to me (well all of us) always does wonders for my mental health. And it’s definitely been to long since I had the chance last (October 2022). 

Sleep is another thing which helps with my mental health, so I’m trying to head to bed early-ish today. As mentioned above more about London (my run in the park and along the canal, the Postal Museum) another time…

What sad news tonight. I admit, I don’t think I really know more than that song from Sinéad O’Connor and yes, I know it’s a Prince song originally. But she made it her own. I just read her obituary on the BBC and learned so much about her. Her memoir is still on my “to read some day” list. I might do that sooner now. RIP Sinéad, I hope you’re at ease now.

Mental Health Podcasts | I use this as a very general term here. Some times I’m worried that I’m listening to too many of those and that I should branch out a bit more. That I should find other interests and I did look into some history centred ones and I do have many episodes downloaded from a comedy (host & guest) podcast I like. At the moment though, I still learn so much from those mental health podcasts – some in German (one recently recommended by my therapist), most of them in English – about mediation, mindfulness, mental health strategies and such. Reminder, refresher or extension of what I’ve learned in therapy. Or what I’ve learned from books written by the people who are now doing the podcast. Here are the ones I’ve subscribed to at the moment, though I’m doing a lot of pick’n’mix when it comes to which episodes I actually listen to

Achtsam – DLF Nova (German)
Psychologie to go! (German)

Mayim Bialek’s Breakdown
Ten Percent Happier
The Way Out is In – Zen and the Art of Living
Struggle Care

Then there are those podcasts or rather podcast episodes from any genre I only listen to because I’m fan of the guest who’s on the show and said guest shares it on their socials. Happens with Frank Turner a lot as I am a fangirl after all. Today on my way to work I listened to Bryony Gordon on the “On the Mend” podcast, where she talked about mental health, addiction, but also lot of other stuff. In her usual open, lovely, funny and a bit inspiring (to me at least) way. I had thought to use the last bit of this quote for the title, but “Nothing Compares 2 U” works just as well:

I’m done with making myself small or not allowing myself to be as dazzling and bright as I know I can be, because I sometimes worry, that it might upset other people or I might annoy other people or it might dim other people’s light. But we’re all capable of so much and we’re often operating on like half the dimmer and I’m like: Let’s all operate on full fucking beam. That’s what we’re here for.

Bryony Gordon

The morning was spent planning a bit for the next week, some dawdling, a late breakfast and then I went out to meet a friend for a immersive art exhibition in a former industrial space: Phoenix des Lumieres. They showed art from Klimt and Hundertwasser in a digitalized from and it was pretty cool.

We spent over 90 minutes watching all three “programs” twice, because there was always something new to discover from different spaces inside this venue. Very impressive.