Peterborough part 2, 2008 drawing to a close

Just back from Peterborough, where my very latest script, a panto called Goldilocks And The Beanstalk, was performed by the locals. Compared to this time last week when we were happy to get out alive following the final date of 'On The 12th Day Of Alex', I was really happy with tonight. This is all very odd because 'Alex...' is by far the superior play, and with respect to the locals, it had a far superior cast. But that may have been the difference. For my alternative adult panto, which I wrote in 4 hours on Boxing Day, we used a cast purely made-up of Glass Onion locals, and they really seemed to enjoy being on stage. Despite the fact that the script was nothing more than a trad panto with 2 storylines combined, a couple bad lines about the credit crunch and some cheap talk about sex, it went down incredibly well tonight. I still don't fully understand, and it's certainly not a play I'm proud of or intend to ever use ever again if I'm to retain some level of dignity, but for tonight at least I am just proud I ticked the box required.

So, 2008 is drawing to a close. I've moaned a lot about this year, but on reflection it's been nothing but a learning curve. It's a cliche, but generally I feel I'm a bit stronger for it. Christmas was nice, I actually relaxed for the first time in about 12 months (since last Christmas, actually), but that hasn't stopped my mind working overtime on new ideas. Naturally, I am aware 2009 is a day away and I still have no idea which play(s) I'm going to be taking to Edinburgh next year, but I do realise that in Colin Woodham I have a decent actor on my side who is very keen, so I'd best get writing. Budgets and all that will be worked out later, it's time to get creative. Despite a fairly busy gigging schedule with The Lunar Pilots in January, I still intend to make the first month of the year a proper creative time, I've tidied my desk and everything...

The last day of the year looks like being a little hard work actually. For the rest of the country everybody will be getting ready to party, pity the poor musician who somehow agreed to form a covers band for the evening and has to play a charity gig. Rehearsals for the show, it has to be said, didn't go well, and I still fear we may lose James the vocalist before the evening due to issues/tension regarding the choice of songs. I do wish things could be a little simpler, sometimes, but I guess that would only make things boring.

On The 12th Day Of Alex in Peterborough

How did we survive that? Fuck knows...

Good times

Last week was a decent week, one of those actually really good weeks which had the promise of being stressed and busy but actually all falls into place splendidly. I think Christmas has a lot to do with this, I'm not 100% feeling the festive vibe just yet but mere glimmers of it keep appearing, which is more than enough for now. Last Wednesday I played with The Lunar Pilots at the Bull & Gate in London, in what I thought was a pretty weird night. With my equipment going in Paul-the-keyboardists car I was free to take it easy and get the train down, but naturally this resulted in a little confusion and I was late - I must stop being late for soundchecks, it's very unprofessional of me. The event itself was actually part of a band competition, but with these things it's always healthy to forget the competition aspect of the evening and just play the show to those of you who were kind enough to make the trip down. We seemed to be on heavy rock night, which was far from ideal considering our keyboard-lead pop ideals, and as a result I generally felt a bit old being there, but we played well (video footage of the whole gig can be found at www.myspace.com/thelunarpilots by the way), and I got a text on the way home saying we got through our heat to the next round. Again, competitions mean nothing to me, but it does mean we have another decent London show in the bag for next year which can only be a good thing.

On Friday it was the two performances of our Christmas show, On The 12th Day Of Alex, in Cambridge. Although my plans to turn the venue into Santa's Grotto didn't really come off (we put one or two decorations up, but time was against us), I'm still really thrilled with the way it's worked out. Okay, so I never planned to be in it, write it and drum in it, but meeting the challenge feels very rewarding. The first performance sold out, the second one very nearly did, and generally we ticked all the right festive boxes, we seemed to make a lot of people happy and most importantly raised a good few quid for charity too. It's the last performance tonight in Peterborough, which is likely to be a different show altogether due to the rowdy nature of the audience, the different stage-layout and the fact that we've lost our soundguy so my old mucker James has to step in without even read the script. Could be interesting, but either way we've achieved a lot with this play in a stupidly short amount of time - that's largely down to the wonderful acting abilities of Colin, Vaughan, Victoria and Heather - I must keep this cast for Edinburgh.

Christmas shopping was completed in a hurry on Saturday morning before watching Cambridge United win (which cost me £17 to watch! Crazy - it's a non league match...), and then yeserday I was straight back in the studio for a very long, but highly successful session with Our Painted Nature. I'm really excited about this band - there's a bit of a buzz about it all within the group, and although yesterday's mammoth session (complete with exceptional guest violinist, Neve) at Half Ton Studios was tough, our first demo recording is sounding like a cracker. Huge thumbs up to our engineer, Rob Toulson (my bandmate from Eureka Stockade) for having so much patience, a lot of engineers would have given up on us, but it's gonna be worthwhile.

It's all good you know, the band for the New Years Eve gig is complete (James, Keith, Martin Ryan, Matt Corrall and me), and although I still haven't written the panto for next week (*slight* panic) I'm sensing good things are on the cards for 2009 - I will achieve those things listed at the bottom of this blog. And my contract at work has been extended by a month, and it's Christmas day on Thursday...sometimes life puts you in a position where you just can't complain. Merry Christmas.

Christmas=yay, etc

Is the word 'yay' too feminine? For an unshaven, six footer such as I with an occasional gruff voice when the situation demands it? That thought aside, things are actually taking shape rather nicely. The weekend was remarkably good, firstly a rehearsal with Our Painted Nature which continues to be mind-blowingly creative (despite the fact that I think I was still drunk at the time from a drinking session with my returning mate Rob the night before), and then the first ever gig for Eureka Stockade - which was sadly the last ever gig for our venue, The Alma, as it shut about half an hour later. I know we weren't the tightest, but we weren't that bad surely...in all fairness though a decent gig with lovely people. The Sunday saw the premiere performance of my new Christmas script - On The 12th Day Of Alex, which really could have gone either way. I've tried a lot of things with this script - the typical Boy Richards awkward young man traits mixed in loosely with live music, stand-up and tragedy. Somehow, it works, and it worked fantastically at the weekend as part of WriteOn's Christmas celebrations - at times it felt like we couldn't do much wrong up there, I feel very happy with the way it's turned out. Next Friday we're doing 2 shows at CB2 in Cambridge - one at 8pm, one at 10pm, because the first one has now nearly sold out - and here's me moaning only last week that nobody was interested...I really want to go to town with this, it's our show - the audience belong to us - lets give them more than just a play, lets give them an experience. I have ideas, I want them to come out of the show feeling more entertained than they ever imagined possible. My head is exploding with ideas, most of them impossible with the time scale but we'll see.

Otherwise I'm struggling to find serious time to write new material which is a deep concern. I think it is something to do with all the Christmas festivities which are upon us - tonight I wasted a whole evening trying to sort out the lounge because we got ourselves a tree that is simply too big and now it's getting in the way of the telly, last night was my works Christmas party (with, somewhat randomly, a live appearance from McFly), tomorrow it's a friends birthday and then suddenly it's the weekend in which I'm back with Our Painted Nature, watching the fabulous Ezio, and then last minute rehearsals with The Lunar Pilots before the big London gig next week. I still need to find time to work seriously on next year's Edinburgh Fringe shows - and it is a case of 'shows' not 'show' at the moment. I just need time to nail these ideas properly and see if they have legs. I have found time though to complete a sitcom script that I've had knocking around pretty much all year, it's called 'Awkward Age', it's about young people who don't know what they're doing with their lives. Hmmmm...

But things are roughly falling into shape, still have no idea if I'll have a job by the 1st January when my contract ends, and still haven't written the Glass Onion Panto which is creeping up, but I've got some musicians together for New Years Eve (James and Keith at this stage - both top chaps) so that's one weight removed from one's shoulder. I'm rambling now, I'm going to sleep.

New Year's Eve with a band that doesn't exist...

It all started a couple weeks back when I got a new mobile. Getting confused by the whole transferring numbers malarkey, I ended up putting the same number in for both Graham's I know. It just so happened that the Friday night that followed found me wanting a drink with 'Graham', and naturally I invited 'the other one' out by accident. It was awkward, but Graham is a nice chap - the father of my mate, and after the initial confusion, we enjoyed beers anyway and a slightly random chat. Not sure how we got there, but somehow I have now found myself organising the music for a New Years Eve gig for him. That's doable, and for charity too so I'm always keen to do my bit, but my delay in announcing the band (because I've not found one that is willing to play for nothing on the biggest earner of the year) lead to Graham putting my name on the posters as time is tight and promotion needs to begin. Suddenly, there's a good few posters out there advertising 'The Paul Richards Band', who are set to appear at the New Year's Eve show. Shit. The band doesn't exist, and I've got under four weeks to not only find some bandmates, but also learn a set with them and hope they don't mind the stupid band name that just looks like an ego trip from the drummer....

Otherwise all taking shape, the producing for WriteOn eventually went very well, mostly courtesy of the willingness of the ever brilliant and reliable Vaughan Allanson and Colin Woodham who have the talent and ability to play any character you throw at them. The Christmas show premiere's this weekend for the preview date, but I have a terrible cold so not sure if a snotty narrator is something people really want to see. Guess they'll have very little choice in the matter...ticket sales for the most promising performance of the show (which will be on the 19th at CB2 in Cambridge - the most promising because it's a cracking little venue, it's the Friday before Christmas and the show should be proper good by then) seemed to be causing us optimism due to a lot of promises, but then I stick a Facebook event up and f*ck all people are up for it, including some people I actually consider real friends. Just goes to show you can't take anything for granted, I'd best get writing a couple press releases and try and get some 'neutrals' in I guess. In the meantime, I'd best get back to editing the lines from the script that the rest of the cast very kindly pointed out could be considered offensive. I just can't tell anymore...

Pantos, producing and amazing bands

The week has started in manic fashion, which was probably not what was needed considering the weekend I had. Friday's gig in Westcliff-On-Sea with the Lunar Pilots was an enjoyable seaside joint (as much as the sea seemed to confuse my Sat-Nav, making me unprofessionally very late for the soundcheck). The band seems to be progressing well after a difficult first year in business, next stop is the Bull & Gate in London in December, which I'm secretly excited about. Got back from that gig at 2am, and then up at 8am to be in the rehearsal room with my old mucker James Burling for our little duo project, Losers. Quirkiness all the way, but in a good way, the Boy Burling knows how to write a tune or two and I'm looking forward to our little acoustic show this Thursday in Cambridge.

A while ago I agreed to produce a couple evenings for my local theatre group, WriteOn, and I awoke in Sunday to glance at my calender and realise I'm actually producing next week's show, which I was very unprepared for. I've spent every spare second today trying to recruit suitable actors for this weekends performance of exceptional new writing; so far the results have been pretty poor, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna get away with this one...in the meantime I'm still trying to promote our Christmas show which I'm very much looking forward to, although I still need to write a stand-up comedy routine for it, something I keep putting off, which is very bad of me. I also need to gain more confidence as a narrator, I'm rushing my lines far too much - either I'm doing this properly or not at all. I've also agreed to write a pantomime, for the lovely Glass Onion venue in Peterborough. It is set to be performed on the 30th December - well, it will be if I can write it in time. I think I have a spare night next Tuesday...

Creativity is something I've been thinking about a lot really, not that it should be analysed. Went to watch Guillemots play at The Junction on Tuesday; the 6th time I've seen them, the 6th time I've come away feeling utterly inspired. Fyfe Dangerfield (the frontman) is a remarkable character, capable of joyous, exhilarating moments followed by tear jerking agony, he's a one-off, and gigs like that make me realise why I love being alive. But it did make me realise I'm doing too much non-creative stuff. I consider myself to be a writer, but I'm working too hard as a producer at the moment (alongside the already mentioned theatre stuff I am organising 2 charity gigs, one for the 10th December, the other for New Years Eve), I have so many ideas; it's about time I was more selfish and actually allocated more time in my life to them. Just as I was having these thoughts though I received a rejection from the BBC for my radio show, 'Becoming More Like Mandy' which was a little harsh, but happiness/good vibe returned with an email from my publishers in Canada - who are publishing my play 'Bed'. They sent over a proof of the book, and it's looking exceptional, feeling proud today...

Ah yes, and I'm trying to grow a beard. Again. In all the struggles ahead, this is the biggest struggle of them all...

Buzzing

What a difference a couple days can make. On Tuesday the Christmas show was in a little doubt, as much as I was determined to put it on somehow. We'd lost a leading actor, venues were not chatting, it looked like being another show which never really happened. Now, a few days later we've confirmed 3 performance dates for the show, and most importantly managed to find ourselves an exceptional new leading man - Colin Woodham. Last night the rehearsals started and this team are amazing - Colin, Heather Yeadon, Victoria Welsh and of course Vaughan Allanson as the world's first ever Northern Santa Claus are just so easy to work with, the rehearsal felt like a delight from start to finish. Still a lot of work to be done before the first preview on the 7th December (before full performances on the 19th and 23rd), for example I still need to write a whole smutty stand-up routine for Father Christmas (never written stand-up before, I need to learn very quickly...), but I'm buzzing again now for the first time in a while. I think narrative comedy could be the way forward - I like the idea of a narrator on the side, connecting with the audience, as the actors do the clever stuff. I'm also going on a bit now, so I'll leave it there.

Christmas

The idea of putting on a Christmas show seemed good at the time but already I'm faced with a few problems; such as lack of leading actor, lack of venue confirmation and the fact that Christmas is getting a bit close. Still; I said I'd do it, and I'd feel silly now if it didn't happen - and the cast members I do have left are amazing. Calling venues has been a problem because they don't open during the day and I'm usually tucked away in a studio in the evening, but it will work itself out - I kind of feel like I owe it to my remaining cast members (Heather, Vaughan, Victoria) for the show to go ahead. I also feel I shouldn't be writing this right now, on my afternoon tea break at work, and instead I should be calling every actor possible to see if they can join us on Thursday night for the first rehearsal...

In the meantime, my head is continually exploding with all manner of ideas, just written a short 5 minute film, and as I've just found out my takings from this year's Edinburgh Fringe are now in my bank balance, I'm going to buy a camcorder and attempt to make a little Youtube short. You can only but try....

The wake-up call

I've started this blog not as an ego enhancement (like my website, you could argue), but as a way to stick to the challenges I've just set myself. Another reason why I've decided to join the blogging revolution, perhaps, is because this year - for the first time since 1996, I stopped writing my diary. Every day I entered some of the day's ramblings (or, 'Every Day I Write The Book', as Costello wrote), but this year I figured I was too old for that, I had to stop at some point - maybe it was time to grow up? Writing a diary was beginning to feel like being a teenager, pubescent, dreaming of normality, naughty hairs, of finding romance one day etc etc. Obviously, those things were achieved, apart from the normality, but I've lost a sense of what this is anyway. But I was wrong; because writing my diary became part of my progression. If I did nothing all day apart from play Pro Evolution Soccer (4) on the Playstation I could almost punish myself with guilt by writing this in my diary - like an apology to myself. And there's only so many times you can apologise before you realise you're doing something wrong, so in a way - a big way, it helped me actually find the will to do good things - exciting things - creative things, with my days, or else I'd have the half a page of A4 to answer to. This year hasn't been good for many reasons, but there's still no excuse for my fucking laziness. It's time for that to change, the diary is gone but maybe this'll help me achieve some simple tasks.

Paul Richards; 27, going slightly grey, not looking his best. Scruffy, Pepsi stain on teeth. Terrible posture, lacking in academic qualifications and with a bit of a Red Bull problem. 3 Edinburgh Fringe shows (plus 2 Brighton Fringe, 1 Buxton Fringe and various other theatrical malarkey) behind him, reasonably well regarded session musician, locally at least. Should probably play more jazz. Still lives at home with parents, often convincing himself that's because he's saving up for a mortgage, but often spending the money he saves on studio time, Fringe productions and snare drums. In a temporary job, very little career prospects or options, especially within the current recession. Shit-loads of ideas on how to make his world a better place, but often these are confined to his notepad as he spends most of his evening watching episodes of classic sitcoms (circa 1974-1989) on his PC.

I have a few simple targets, and this blog should help me stay focused in my mission. By the end of December 2009, I should have achieved the following:

* Been on the recording for a song which has charted - top 50 in the UK singles chart.
* Start to actually make money out of playing original music.
* Take at least 2 shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009, ideally 3. All of these shows should be a touch sharper in script than my previous attempts.
* Toured; either with my own theatre production, or with a band. 'Toured' means a series of dates in a row that doesn't involve coming home at night; give me a dirty old van, different cities every night and service station food now!
* Made a short film for internet distribution.
* Raise my profile as a writer considerably both in the UK and abroad - although this one may be difficult to measure.

And by achieving all of those things, I should be in a position where I:

* Know what I'm doing with my life.
* Be able to afford to live and stand on my own two feet, not from the funding of my parents.

It's a challenge, but one I think is in reach. Time to roll my sleeves up and be somebody. I'm not sure how often I'm going to update this, but probably a lot. If I stop updating this, I've probably failed badly and become a sterile excuse for a human being, I hope it doesn't come to that, obviously.