At my first live concert in 18 months, songs about divorce have never felt so joyful | Rick Burin

We weren't used to being back in a crowd - until Martha Wainwright's music let us forget about the pandemic

We are all returning from the restrictions of the pandemic at different speeds. To seeing friends, to seeing art, to the office, to obligations. We may put those priorities in different orders, but it is a constant weighing: is this venture into crowds worth the risk? Is this? In my life, live music looms large. Now it is worth it again.

On a recent Monday evening, a mere 557 days since I had last been to a concert, I returned to gigs. Finally I was back where I am most content: in this case, London's Union Chapel, waiting for the voice of Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright to shatter the tedium of a Covid-era evening.

Rick Burin is a writer and senior press manager at the Royal Albert Hall