Frantic-ness

I'm not entirely sure where the time is going at the moment, but beneath all this frantic energy and occasional bouts of exhaustion I can't help but remain positive about it all. The 'it' probably being the Edinburgh show, which, as expected, is starting to dominate my life, as it does around this time every year. I really wanted to take a back seat this year, and to a certain extent I have; I've left the show completely in the hands of a director for the first time (it's like handing your baby over for six weeks) and Pam, it has to be said, has done an amazing job. I went to the dress rehearsal last night and it's the first time I've seen the play, 'With Arms Outstretched', fully staged. It's incredibly exciting - I'm more excited about this than I have been about any of my other plays, honestly. It's remarkable how all the stage direction and dialogue is faithful to my original script, yet the play still looks completely different to how I originally envisaged it - for starters Kev as the narrator has gone from a slightly dull man in the corner to a Fagin-esque monster of a man, both terrifying yet enthralling to watch. The show itself is working, no question there, and I'm very happy about it all. Yet, still from my 'back seat' view I've found myself working very hard, in the producer capacity of things. I did an extremely hungover live radio interview a couple weeks back (a friend's leaving do in the office over-ran till 2.30am, I was on air at 8am), the last-minute prop buying and have been the one-man box office for the Cambridge dates. And, although we have accommodation sorted for Edinburgh and tonight's 2 preview performances of the show both selling out very quickly, there's still plenty to be worried about. For starters, the flyers (all 3000 of them) haven't arrived yet, and it's Tuesday today, and we travel on Friday, and without flyers you really don't have a show...also, Vaughan's son had swine flu last week - and without our master acting genius Vaughan we really don't have a show...and then there's the whole not entirely knowing what your venue is going to be like situation. We basically arrive at the venue on Saturday, 15 minutes before the first fringe performance, not having seen even a picture of the space we're going to be performing in, that bit is a little scary. I've tried doing my research on the venue and I keep finding myself reading reviews about how terrible the beer is, how rude the staff are, and how the food gives people poisoning. So, I'm not going to be sleeping too easy any time soon until I know exactly what we're dealing with. In the meantime, the premiere of the show tonight - I'm both terrified and thrilled at the same time, which is a confusing mindset to be in.

On the music side of things the Matt Corrall Band will be releasing their debut album on the 15th September, with me on drums and on my Cracking Tunes record label (artwork is attached to this post, video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5uP__3Q468). Played the Secret Garden Party festival a couple weeks back with The Damsons and, despite all the hype surrounding this 'major' festival it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Playing a festival with 16,000 attendees is great, but not when only about 8 of them are watching you, and 3 of them didn't really give a sh*t. The organisation of the festival, from an artist point of view, is totally shocking - how hard can it be to direct us to the right car park? We were driving around for hours. It did actually look like a great festival though, from an audience perspective, but surely basic staff training wouldn't have gone amiss. Meanwhile, gigs with Damsons, Eureka Stockade and Dear Old Blighty all on the horizon, I do feel the need to actually sit down and work out what band is working properly for my needs at the moment, I'm not convinced I'm actually 'getting anywhere' anymore, but lets get the theatre stuff out the way first.

All this fun is happening whilst I'm trying to negotiate with various agents about taking me on as a playwright, and, perhaps the most difficult thing is trying to select my fantasy football team for the new season - Defoe and Adebayor up front? I very much think so.

Currently listening to: Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (on repeat, about 8 hours a day)