Friday 4 December 2009

Christmas party, Christmas plays, Christmas gigs, Christmas everywhere

I'm knackered. Like, proper exhausted. I know it's because of the amount I drank last night, I've tried to deny it, but I've been getting lots of sleep this week and I'd like to think I'm in decent shape, so it must be the booze. I really shouldn't have drunk so much last night. But it was a free bar, and to be honest, compared to some, I barely drank at all. But I drank a lot - the wine, the beer, the vodka that the new-ish girl in the office insisted we all drank, lots of. But it's Christmas time, and we were certainly merry - we had JLS play our Christmas party and I've never seen so much security for an office Christmas get together. JLS playing at the Holiday Inn in Histon was very strange, but it must have been even stranger for them, bless 'em. Last year we had McFly play - working for this company has certainly helped me get to know my boybands, at least.

Anyway, things are roughly okay, I think. We had the first rehearsal of 'Goldilocks & The Beanstalk' last weekend, and even though I'm a rubbish narrator it's looking great - Pam is a superb director. True, she has so many ideas it's difficult to keep up with her sometimes, but she was on fine form and it's going to be great. A day later one of our actresses, Cara, pulls out due to a scheduling clash, and there's an element of panic in the air. Heather Yeadon, who is also in the other play that evening, has saved the day by stepping in. People, sometimes, are great. Rehearsals for that continue this weekend, we don't have many because the show is creeping up, but when Pam's in charge things generally get done. I have no idea how the other play, 'A Fairytale Of Bar Hill' is looking - seriously, I've been so wrapped up in other stuff I've barely had a chance to ask people how it's shaping up, I hope it's okay - it's a decent script, they're an exceptional team, but a little more communication is needed perhaps. Tickets went on sale yesterday, 26 have gone already which is a promising start. Generally I've been getting sick of promoting events recently, I might just have to get my head around the fact that my friends, sometimes, would rather stay in and watch television, or go to the cinema, or do anything that involves them not going to the shows I put on. I respect this, I respect them, but it still gets to me sometimes - I go to pretty much everything that my friends do if they're doing a show, because human beings need support sometimes. I know full well it's because I do a hell of a lot, and I can't expect people to turn up all the time, but I'm knackered and I'm thinking too much about it all. Next year, I need to be in a position where I'm not relying so much on friends and family to be the audience. It can work, I mean - in Brighton and Edinburgh this year my work was being performed to absolutely packed houses, constantly, of complete strangers, and I was a very happy man with this. Perhaps doing less in Cambridge is a better move? Or perhaps, and I know this is probably the right route of thought, I should stop giving a damn about the audiences and concentrate on the creative aspect of it all. Yep, that's definitely it.

I was having a slightly drunken, but rather inspiring, chat with my workmate Jack last night about the 'great Cambridge bands'. The Dawn Parade, Winter Kings, Broken Family Band etc, and we came to the conclusion that actually, right now, this little scene of ours isn't in the best shape. It's a cliche to have the 'where have all the great bands gone?' chat, but I think it was justified. Next year, hopefully, maybe, something will happen. Not that you can just form a 'great band', but personally I'd like to think I've got enough passion to kick something into life. Meanwhile, the Bryan Shore recordings sound superb - he gave me a CD of 9 of them the other day and I'm proud of some of the playing on those (and less proud of my drums on some of the others), and on Monday I'm in Norwich to record at the SickRoom Studios with Hodge - I've heard great things about this studio, can't wait to see the place, actually. Next Saturday we have the much anticipated Eureka Stockade Christmas gig - we were all pretty hyper about this one, but our bassist, Nathan, has drifted seriously out of contact, we're all a bit concerned. There's plenty of bassists out there, but Nathan is Nathan, we just hope he's okay, it's getting a little worrying now...

Meanwhile, on the commercial front, some of my older scripts are now available to purchase here: http://www.productionscripts.com/paul-richards-m-113.html which is nice, and Lu's debut EP, 'First Light', which she released on my label, has quickly become the biggest selling release on Cracking Tunes, at one point she was at 523 in the charts, which doesn't sound too high but there's thousands of albums being released all the time, it's a very respectable achievement.

I'm rambling, I should be asleep. Night.

Currently listening to: 'The Planeteer' by Julian Velard, 'The Best Christmas Album In The World...Ever' by Various Artists.

Currently watching: a fine selection of Christmas DVD's.

Currently eating: Jaffa Cakes.

No comments: