Leicester nightlife

• Posted by Ariane Durand October 28, 2023 173 views
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  Chantel McGregor is my current favourite artiste. She comes from Yorkshire, she has a big voice, and she plays a mean guitar. She sings about relationships and heartbreak, and because she's a guitarist as well as a vocalist, many of her songs morph into long instrumentals.

   

  I have travelled across the world to watch Chantel perform. Well, London and Surrey anyway. Tonight she was due to perform at The Musician venue in Leicester. I thought it was time that Ariane caught up with Chantel. So I took the train 100 miles north, booked into somewhere central, and got myself ready.

   

  I've been looking inconspicuous for a while, but night time is the right time, so tonight Ariane was wearing a black mini-dress, a black leather fitted jacket, and ankle boots with 4" heels. I looked in the mirror before I went out, and for the first time I thought, You look gorgeous, I wish I was going out with you.

   

  The venue was crowded, but I found a place near the stage, and had a nice conversation with a Leicester girl called Julie before the set began. Then Chantel went through her set. Most of the songs featured on her best album, Bury'd Alive, recorded live in Bury St Edmunds in 2019. The word is she's writing a new studio album, but we didn't hear much from that tonight.

   

  No one took much notice of me, which is good in a way, because it shows that Ariane is convincing, but even so I went there feeling a bit like a tease, so it was slightly disappointing that no one tried to chat me up.

   

  After the show I thought, The night is yet young, let's see what else Leicester has to offer. So I walked through the centre to the Dover Castle. This bar claims to be the UK's oldest LGBT venue. Friday night is cabaret, so I settled down with my drink for a performance by the drag artist Missie Jay. Drag is not really my scene, but she was outrageous, and the audience were loving it. Again no one stared at me or made out I was weird. So that was fun. I left around midnight and walked back to my overnight stay.

   

  All this going out is changing Ariane as a person. I used to look on places like Manchester's Canal Street as a safe haven, somewhere I could go where everyone was like me. Or at least, alternative in an absolutely fine kind of way. I still like that and I always will. But Ariane now wants to do normal stuff in normal situations, just like in boy mode, only as Ariane. Something like my local Waitrose, or the Etihad Stadium. I'm going back to watch City at the end of November and I'm seriously thinking of taking Ariane to her first match.