Most of my favourite writers and singers are women. My all-time favourite is Joan Armatrading. I first saw here in 1977 not long after she had released Love and Affection but, I seem to remember that it may have been the album after that – Show Some Emotion.

A great artiste, to be sure. From that time I have seen her in concert almost every tour, except, perhaps, for a couple of tours.

Now that we live here it is more difficult. She doesn’t really ‘do’ Italy. Not so much of a fan base here, I guess. This year, having released a new album “Into the Blues”, she once again embarked on a ‘world’ tour. However, it did not include Italy. I listened to the tracks of the album when it came out and, whilst musically, it was very good it really wasn’t my cup of tea. It featured, what V & I call, her lesbian music. She has a huge lesbian following and they seem to get very excited with tracks that, to us, were not our favourite ones on the albums.

So I wasn’t too bothered about not being able to see her this time round. In spite of that, I was delighted when V noticed she was coming to Milan as part of the Milano Jazzin Festival. So, last night, we saw Joan play live.

I have the feeling it was a shortened set. After all the place was hardly bursting at the seams although a very respectable crowd, in my view.

There was no encore, which was a shame and we sort of guessed there might not be when Willow was played as the penultimate number.

It was, as I suspected mostly the ‘lesbian music’ that she played but good none the less. The new stuff she played did sound much better live than it did when I heard it. Even the ‘lesbian music’ was good, in spite of a moment where everything seemed to go a bit off-key. Joan still has a wonderful voice and plays some great music.

She did play Willow, as I mentioned, Love and Affection; Me, Myself, I; etc. And I even liked Tall in the Saddle and You Rope, You Tie Me which are the tracks I most dislike on their respective albums. Maybe it was the dearth of the tracks of Joan’s that I really like.

And, given the new album, I was really hoping for a version of Cool Blue Stole My Heart which, as an album track is OK but as a live piece of music is, by far, the best piece of music that she has ever played. Ah, well. Next time, maybe?

Still, I can’t complain. At least I did get to see her. And she tried a little Italian (although she needs a better translator).

As well as this, it is getting warmer again. Hurrah! It’s supposed to be mid 30s over the next week or so, thank goodness. But, S (my work colleague) has confirmed. This is not a fantastic summer. As she said this morning, she slept with a blanket last night. Us too, although for about 3 or four weeks now.

It does feel more like September with warm days but cool nights (i.e. below 25 degrees). I hope it gets much better, especially for when S and the kids come over.

Can’t wait for that either.