Charity, and other stuff

It's very rare that something on the news grabs me so much that I feel the need to actually do something about it. I mean, lets face it - in this world we live in pretty much everything is bad news, if we are to completely believe what the media tells us is a fair assessment of what's going on. But the recent Haiti earthquakes dragged me out of my normally thick-skinned, ignorant shell. A Blog isn't the right place to pour out my sentiments to those who are suffering, but in a time when I moan about pretty much everything (the quality of beef in microwave burgers, the fact that I'm late to the office most days because of the slow women in people carriers doing the school run), the Haiti situation is one of those stark reminders - which normally come occur about every five years or so (September 11th, Tsunami etc) that actually I have no right to moan - I'm pretty lucky. And the extension of that thought process soon leads me to realise that somehow I should be able to help those who have lost their families, their homes, their lives, their loved ones. I'm a stupidly busy man, but nothing I do can't be put on hold for a couple days whilst I put together a charity gig - it's really the least I can do and I'm baffled/concerned that nobody else has done it already around here. Fortunately, with venue managers as willing and as switched on as Jo Tomkins around, finding a location hasn't been a problem - the gig takes place on Sunday 31st January at The Haymakers, a venue she has recently taken the reigns of, and is an all dayer - midday till 11pm. I need to work on the line-up, but the early indications are good - Lone Wolves are decent addition to the billing, The Lost Weekend should keep things lively and it'll also be nice to play again with Under The Streetlamp - it's kind of our comeback gig, if we ever did split up? We're still not sure and it was never official, we just never did anything, touched our Myspace page or spoke to each other for 18 months, but we all went out and got drunk at the weekend and are looking forward to starting our musical journey again together. The show is only £2 on the door, but we'll get a lot more than that out of people - I'm aiming for a grand, if a city like Cambridge can't raise a grand for a cause such as this then it's a pretty sorry affair.

Elsewhere, all is frantic. Got told one of my plays from about 4 years ago, 'An Ambulance Stuck In Traffic' is being performed in London on the 21st March, which is all very nice but I'm slightly baffled as to why people keep wanting to perform my older material - I'm a better writer these days, surely? I mean, I can't have got worse. Talking of new material, I've nailed the 3 short plays for Brighton Fringe Show 1: Some Plays About Indie Rock - the plays are called 'Reviewing Jonathan', 'Jason's Last Night In Town', and 'Honey, I've Been Really Struggling'. They're all about 15 minutes long, and people will love it - if they love the music of Ben Folds Five, Ed Harcourt and Camera Obscura of course, if not, it's probably not worth them turning up. The second Brighton Fringe show, which has a working title of 'Roger Verses The Fenland Tiger' will be more accessible to a mass audience, I'd like to think, not that I'm a great judge of these things. The venue for Brighton is just about sorted, as is a party down there, I just need to get some actors and a director and we'll be well away. I've organised a read-through of my new stuff for early Feb, which will be a good test for it. Meanwhile, the brilliant Elaine has agreed to direct my Edinburgh show (as long as the script isn't a stinker), just need to write it now.

Still plenty to do on my checklist for the month, like book the rest of the MC Band tour (still only got the one show in Holland), but rehearsals for various projects have started well and it's just nice to be drumming again on an intensive basis, I feel strangely comfortable when my schedule is cluttered. It's been a good year so far, been to some nice parties (the wrap party for the theatre show 'Clockwork' last weekend was particularly charming), met some nice people, have discovered the joys of television masterpiece Citizen Smith, and I've found the time to write and drum my arse off. So far, so good - which is even more reason to give a little of my time back and do some charity work.