On My Mind

WRITING about the often fluffy world of entertainment can seem somewhat inappropriate in a week when yet again we are hearing more tragic news.

As I write families and friends of those involved in the catastrophic London tower block fire are waiting anxiously for information on the whereabouts of loved ones.

The constant TV and media coverage has meant we as a nation have shared some of their private grief, which coming so soon after the London and Manchester terror attacks is all the more harrowing.

It is no surprise that several friends have been saying to me that they are giving up watching the news: "I've decided I'm just going to live in a bubble" one friend told me.

A trip to the theatre or cinema offers the best means of escapism I know from the troubled world we live in. The One Love Manchester benefit concert organised by Ariana Grande, featuring stars such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Coldplay on June 4, was much more than this though; as millions of people tuned in from around the globe it felt as if the world was standing united and, metaphorically speaking, sticking two fingers up at the evil of terrorists.

I watched the concert on Catch Up TV the following day as that night I had another engagement - I was reviewing Jane McDonald's concert at Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre ahead of her Southampton Mayflower show on Sunday July 16. This concert came just a day after the London Bridge terror attack but Jane was on stage and the theatre was full, all of us set on carrying on as normal and not caving in to the fear that these terrorists seek to cripple us with.

Unlike the stars of the One Love Manchester concert, Jane decided not to talk about these terrible events and instead gave us heat-warming chat and hilarious banter mixed with stunning vocal performances and a fabulous wardrobe of glitzy frocks. She simply told the crowd she had no words for what was going on and could only communicate through her songs.

I was delighted to meet Jane face to face after the show for a glass of Prosecco. She told me it was impossible to do the show without alluding to these terrible events but her job was to give people the escapism they need from life hence she hadn't dwelled on it. Before leaving to sleep on her tour bus overnight back up to Wakefield she told me she couldn't do her job if it wasn't for people like me doing mine and she gave me a huge hug. It can be a rotten world but in bad times the good will always shine through.

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