Film scripts, Edinburgh and general musical confusion

I'm not sure if I like this hot weather. I know everybody raves about it but to be honest I'm just getting a little bit grummpy with the heat, and I'm thinking far too much, which is never a good thing...

Things are okay I think, Kerry and I have decided to scrap the name Rory Bullard because it just didn't suit what we do. We discussed several other names, and alas, we're now called Dear Old Blighty; like we were three years ago when we were in a band together. It's a cracking name for a band, but part of me feels we could have done with a proper fresh start, and going back to your old name doesn't really give that impression. Name aside though, we were really happy with the recordings we did with Rob T the other day, hopefully they will emerge on our Myspace soon as they sound simplistically beautiful. The problem with Kerry though is that he's such a perfectionist and won't let anything out to the public until it's spot on. Is that a problem? Probably not, but it does mean things just take a bit of time, sometimes. The plan is still to record an album called 'Songs About Darling', although it will be even more story/concept based than ever. What is it with concept/story albums these days? I've had another offer from a friend to record one with him (which I intend to once I've fully got my head around the storyline), and I've had that 'Clowns' idea for a long time. Also, I've been listening a lot to an incredible album called 'God Help The Girl' by Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian), and Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) is releasing an album soon purely with songs about cricket. Is this the start of some kind of theatre pop revolution? It's all good, I guess, but sometimes I just feel like playing some great songs; no pretension, here's the songs - go out and play them to people. I'm yearning for that at the moment, probably because gig-wise things have dried up a little, I need to be out there more simply being a 'drummer'.

As a writer things seem to be a bit easier; probably because I'm not constantly waiting/relying on other people, I can just sit down at my PC and write, god damn it. On Friday evening, as thunderstorms rattled the little village I reside in, I stayed in and re-visited an old project; a half-finished film script called 'New Adventures In Sat Nav'. Suddenly, I felt very excited by it again - 2 years after I started writing it. The creative process still amazes me, suddenly I worked out the twist, and how to end it, and wrote the remaining 20 or so pages of it over the weekend. Just need to tidy it up a bit and then I'll do the rounds with it.

In the meantime I've had initial discussions with my old pal, Irsan Ismail, about setting up a theatre company in London, which he seems very keen to do, and I still need to confirm the musicians for next week's recording session for the Matt Corrall Blues Album. I've also flooded my bathroom, which is annoying, and very careless of me, and I'm now without my own toilet, bugger. Ah yes, and the Edinburgh Fringe rehearsals are seemingly going well, despite the fact we've still not got cast pics or a flyer design and the show is very soon. In fact, I should probably stop writing this, and get my arse in gear...

People

People drain me, I'm fed up with people, I know I expect a lot of myself but people seem to expect even more of me. Especially people who say the word 'chillaxing', that's a pathetic word, although no person in particular who has said that word has drained me recently that I know of, but I really still hate that word. I'm tired, I'm trying far too hard, with everything. I'll post something more constructive soon...

Currently listening to: Ed Harcourt - Hangin' With The Wrong Crowd.

Frank's Aim Is (still) True

I love it when things just work out. Got an email yesterday from one of my UK publishers, Limelight Scripts, telling me that due to poor sales they're dropping all of their plays on sale that aren't pantomimes. That means my little one-act piece, Frank's Aim Is True, was no longer going to be available. I don't mind, as such, because sales for it have been non-existent, but equally I did like the fact it was on sale somewhere, just in case somebody wanted to buy it..

Anyway, within a day I have another offer for it, from One Act Plays Dept in Canada, who wanted to publish it the first time round. Hurrah! They know my work, they have already published my 'Bed' script, and are lovely people. 'Bed' has been selling reasonably well too...I'm going to feel smug, for a short while, if that's okay? Thanks.

Potential image for Edinburgh Fringe flyer

Inspired or just plain weird? I'm still not sure...

I'll Drive Tonight, Darling, and studio stuff

Quietly, this year is turning into a goodun. Phew! That fact emphasised by another decent weekend. We've all had a fairly stressful time with I'll Drive Tonight, Darling - our sketch show for the Cambridge Comedy Festival. The stress has mostly come from the fact that we had bugger-all time to put the thing together, by the time I'd been offered the show, brought in Alan Morgan as a co-writer, found a suitable director (Anita Lehmann) and a lively cast it was only a matter of weeks before the event. It really does go to show that anything can be achieved if you've got a cracking team alongside you; the cast of Juliette, Kevin, Heather and Carl worked very, very hard for Anita, and the show can only be considered a rousing success - Saturday's performance at The Boathouse was well attended, the audience loved it, and most importantly I don't think anybody would have known how rushed the whole thing was. Following the (surprise) success in Brighton, the second production of the year has made me very proud for the second time this year.

Today I was in the studio with Kerry, recording some stuff - this time with the technical genius that is Rob Toulson doing all the clever technical genius stuff. I have high hopes about the results of today's live-ish recording (ie; live but with one overdub), we recorded four songs in, somehow, four hours - and that includes all of the clever technical genius stuff that goes into getting a good sound out of slightly out of tune drums and complicated organs. The songs were; When You’re Not Around (It's Barely Worth Me Breathing), Club Culture, Too Many Things Just Went Wrong and Great Achievers. My hopes are on Great Achievers to be our debut single, but I imagine Kerry is far more realistic than me and will probably want to listen the recordings first before I jump the gun, like I have this knack of doing...

Creatively, it's going to be a less active week ahead - but I plan to fill the gaps with proper good writing time. So many ideas, so little skills at prioritising. Still, for when I get frustrated staring at a screen all evening there's my first rehearsal with The Damsons tomorrow night, and an Edinburgh Fringe rehearsal on Wednesday to look forward to…

Right, best get back to being proud.

Crazy busy times

I'm generally one of those people that moans when I don't have much on, yet when I do pack my schedule with shows I concern myself with the amount of energy drinks I consume to get me through these projects. Generally though, I'm happy enough.

It's been a frantic couple of weeks. Two weekends ago we had the Edinburgh Fringe fundraiser at the Cornerhouse and as usual for such occasions I am flattered at the generosity of people; both those who contribute financially (we made a good few quid that night) and also those who performed for free to make it into a cracker of an evening. I somehow found myself playing in three bands that night, I feared that may have looked like some kind of ego enhancement but it honestly wasn't the case; I play in lots of bands, every now and then a few of them will appear on the same bill as each other. I drummed for the ever faboulous Eureka Stockade, my final show with The Lunar Pilots and my debut show with Rory Bullard (aka me and Kez bashing out a few numbers). Also on the night, Mr. Tom Tilbury opened the show for us with a fine set of original material, my old mucker Lu popped down from London to play some beautiful piano stuff, The Winter Kings confirmed their place as the best band in the region, award winning comic Andy Higson tickled us with his often blue humour, Rob from Eureka Stockade won the auction to have the Edinburgh show performed in his front room and Vicky, Rob from Eureka Stockade's girlfriend, won the auction to have Eureka Stockade perform in her house. All in all, great fun. Must organise a cabaret night soon, I like putting on shows...

Meanwhile, Edinburgh Fringe rehearsals have started, and boy have they started well...cracking cast (including new addition, the mighty Kev Wright who is to be narrator), a director who is in complete control and probably my most commercial script to date, I'm very excited about it all suddenly. Kerry and myself have started recording some Rory Bullard songs with the genius that is Alister Bunclark engineering/producing - Alister played keys in one of my many previous projects, Under The Streetlamp, and it's good to be working with him again, we do have so much fun and the banter makes the complexities of 'studio' recording so much easier. I've also played my final, final show for covers band Joe Public, this one in Ely, nice people, not a bad gig but I don't think I was exactly on fire that night, got through it though, and I've confirmed my place as 'drummer slut' by joining Cambridge pop/rock/soul originals band The Damsuns - I know realistically another band is probably not a good idea especially as I'm trying to cut down on the drumming commitments a little, but the opportunity to play at Secret Garden Party (headlined by Jarvis Cocker) was too good to not accept, and I really like Phil and Christina from the band as people so I think it'll be good to work with them. On the writing side of things I'm very happy that Essex group 'Destiny Of Theatre' want to produce my short comedy, 'Gone Midnight' for a radio production - it's just little things such as this that keep me going, just need to find time to work seriously on new material - 'Clown' is going to be an absolute winner, when I find time to finish it, and I'm also half way through writing more conventional stage plays, 'Honey, I've Been Really Struggling' and 'A Right Fidget.' Next weekend sees the premiere performance of our sketch show that I have co-written with Alan Morgan, 'I'll Drive Tonight, Darling', which, despite my initial reservations, is looking like a real winner, and tonight sees the first performance of my short piece, 'Mega Value Mickey' as part of WriteOn's 'MAD' season - it's the final night of the season today and it has all the hallmarks of a goodun. Ah yes, and I've got myself a new car, which is very expensive and I need to earn more money somehow, either as a writer or a musician - I'm out of my financial comfort zone, I could do with being back there at some point...

Yesterday was the day of Cambridge's most liberal, and biggest, music and arts festival, The Strawberry Fair. As Alan put it, the Strawberry Fair is "full of elderly stoned gypos eating chips" and whilst I can't really argue with those facts, I had a marvelous time. Okay, so there was some drawbacks; like carrying Kerry's fucking heavy organ across a field, twice, and me getting the times wrong for the Rory Bullard set so all of my friends actually arrived an hour after our performance, but our performance itself was one of much understated joy, if I may be so arrogant. Kez himself was in fine voice, the sound quality was brilliant, and those who did wonder in at the early time of 1pm were most complimentary, especially the elderly stoned gypo eating chips who shouted some nice words in our direction. By the time I was back in stage, this time with Eureka Stockade, three hours later, our tent was very busy and it was by far our best performance yet, helped by the fact the audience were just lovely. And I really, really enjoyed Vicky's party in the evening; okay so I drank far too much and accidentally stumbled into the wrong house after I'd walked Juliette back to her car which was a bit awkward, but it was just one of those really nice parties where the conversation is flowing and you just get the feeling that you could have a chat with any random person in the room, which I did with my slightly drunken slur. It's a lovely world, really.