I never tried at school, or at anything because from an early age I assumed I was going to be the next Janis Joplin. Hopefully minus the heroin and sadness, but ugh that voice. Hearing Janis Joplin for the first time is one of those incredible vivid memories from youth that stay with you forever. So much of life goes by and though it may feel intense at the time you don't remember it 10, 20, 30 years later. And yet some things, for whatever reason, are there, stuck in your heart like a note on a pinboard.One of those halcyon spring/summers that you don't notice the significance of until years later. Warm, English weather. My mother was helping set up an opera festival in an old estate in Hampshire and I was either on holidays or bunking off. The opera was set in the grounds of this huge, mostly derelict house, with a few usable rooms that would be used as a dining room. A lovely (I think Swedish) artist had been asked to paint a massive clock on the floor of the dining room and for whatever reason she agreed to have a grumpy 13? 14? 15? year old hang out with her for the afternoon while my mum helped in the grounds. She even let me paint.
