Letters To Sparkle - London matinee performance, and other ideas

That was a pretty lively week, started with me turning 29 and feeling actually rather flattered by the amount of lovely messages (via Facebook, text and good old fashioned phone calls) wishing me well, I've got some lovely friends, I have. The whole 'must have done more before 30' thing is very much happening, more on that in a sec. On Thursday we saw the incredible Daniel Kitson at the Junction in Cambridge - Kitson is a storytelling comedian and is easily the best storytelling comedian in the country, if not world. He is a genius. Friday we had a meeting to discuss our forthcoming sketch show, 'The Hedgehog Collective', which is practically written now and initial rehearsals start next week, tickets already on sale and the brochure looks lovely.

Yesterday there was a matinee performance in London of my play 'Letters To Sparkle', and after a frantic rush to get there (because I waited too long at the hairdressers and eventually gave up so I still look like a girl, and then the Northern Line not going to Kings Cross due to engineering works also really confused me) I met up with my old boss, Bobby, and her family at the venue, The Old Queen's Head in Islington. Firstly, really good to see her and her lot again, lovely people, a further reminder that there are so many lovely people in this world, and a good few of them support my work too. The performance itself was on the bill with 3 other pieces, and was the first ever 'Saturday Matinee' showcase of work, which is set to run once a month from now on at the venue. The Old Queens Head was the perfect space for it, with a lovely little stage and relatively convenient location, and the show itself was brilliant - Luisa Hinchliff really understood the piece and got the changing of pace to perfection which really demonstrated it's full dramatic potential. Actors Shinead Byrne and Kevin Kemp were both top class and were completely believable as the contrasting characters, and the audience were also very enthusiastic - it's not lough-out-loud material, but they did laugh out loud. And 4 of them cried at the end, people always cry when they see this play because of the viscous twist, and I feel very proud of that.

After networking briefly I dashed back to Cambridge, to pick up a parking fine, and then off to see my good friends Andy and Luci's wedding reception. Andy's my bandmate from Eureka Stockade, and it was a wonderful evening with lovely people, complete with good muso chat, and the excellent band Indietones playing. All in all, good times.

Anyway, alongside the sketch show, which seems in really good shape because Pam is directing it and my co-writer Alan is so damn organised, I've got this radio sitcom idea on the go. It's called 'The Modest Adventures Of Patrick And Cameron' and all 5 episodes are written, and currently in process of casting it, with recording to take place at the end of June. By August we'll have 5 gloriously produced episodes, and then our many plans for world domination with this idea will kick in, more on that soon, I just want things to start happening first before I go into great detail about what it could lead to. I'm also currently writing a play about a carpark attendant - I picked up the fine yesterday (and was angry about it because the machine at the train station confused me, I DID get a ticket, but got the wrong one) and have 14 days to pay it off, or they'll double it. Within those 14 days, I'm also going to write a play and finish about parking attendants, it's a nice challenge and I work better to tight deadlines. Writing wise things are in shape, just need to sort out my band life now, I never thought I'd ever say this but: I'm just not playing enough.

Gig report: Matt Corrall's 30th Birthday @ The Cornerhouse, Cambridge

Bands: Tom Tilbury (with myself on congas/drums, and Matt Corrall on harmonica for on2 track), Stephen Matthew (guest drums on 1 track), Matt Corrall Band
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 22/05/10
Audience: Packed, lively, appreciative
Sets: Lots and lots of songs
Notes: My good friend Matt turned 30, and to celebrate I put together a gig for him - he's a harmonica maestro, so arranging a gig around his talents seemed like the most suitable way to celebrate his big day. The Cornerhouse very kindly gave us the venue (and soundman) for free, and we packed the place out, was a much enjoyable, if drunken evening. The extremely humerous Stephen Matthew (who this time last week was on stage as an actor alongside myself in 'Cat Food' at the Brighton Fringe) opened the show and none of us had ever seen anything quite like it - his eccentricity was a joy to watch, from his one-handed drum solo with a puppet called 'Royston' to his joyous cover of Father Ted's 'My Lovely Horse', he both excited and confused the locals. I was asked to guest with him on one track - which I can't remember the name of, but it did involve the audience all participating in a dance called 'The Washing Machine'. Brilliantly, most people did. I then played a full set with Tom Tilbury - starting out on congas as we 'rehearsed' at Wednesday's gig, and it was nice to also get behind a full drum kit for one of the tracks too to add a bit of variation. After that it all got a bit messy, in a good way, with what is probably the last ever Matt Corrall Band gig (the man himself moves to Bristol in a couple weeks time), so the harmonica-led blues with a scattering of guest guitarists (a French chap called Gilliam, Mark Allum, Tom Tilbury, Kerry Lambert) and bassists (Marcus Hood, Stephen Matthew), with me on drums for pretty much the whole thing apart from a superb turn from Kerry who is actually an excellent drummer and he played 2 tracks when I needed a bit of a break. It was a long evening, the set was completely unplanned and the blues stuff ran from 10.30pm for over 2 hours. I was very drunk, and critical of my own performance as always, but in retrospect nobody noticed because everybody was as beveraged-up as I was. We're all growing up a bit, and probably should grow out of this binge drinking malarkey at some point, but a cracking night was had by all.

Gig report: Tom Tilbury @ The Cornerhouse

Band: Tom Tilbury (with myself on congas, and Si Dartford on a couple songs on additional guitar)
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 19/05/10
Audience: Very little of them
Set: Not sure - 9 songs I think
Notes: A very short notice gig - I'm due to play percussional backing for my mate Tommy Tilbury this Friday evening at our mutual mate Matt's 30th birthday gig, and Wednesday was due to be our rehearsal around my tiny flat. However, when my promoter friend Jo emails me desperate for a band to fill some time on Wednesday the idea of a live rehearsal seemed like fun, after all - how wrong can it go with just guitars and congas? It was actually okay, I was kept pleasantly low in the mix, and Tom's songs were well structured enough to be able to follow. Just a shame he dropped his brand new guitar, making a nasty looking hole in it, which kind of marred the whole evening.

Brighton Fringe 2010 and other thoughts

Okay, this could be a long one. I'm exhausted, but I said to myself earlier I'd write up Brighton whilst it was still clear in my head, so here goes.

The Brighton Fringe itself was actually fine, it bounced along nicely with very little incident, and often with these things 'little incident' is a decent target, sometimes all we want to do is do the show, take the applause, and ignore the reviews. I think a lot of the stress was taken away from me this year, thankfully, because Gytha extended her duties beyond being an excellent director but she also helped out a great deal with the producing side of things, which meant all things like accommodation for the cast (which I cock up every year) were in her hands, and a result we didn't end up camping in a field like we did with the Buxton Fringe a couple years ago. That was fun! Also, another helping factor was my friend Steve driving me (and our soundman, Alan) there, I know he was going to the show anyway, and I know he only did it because he doesn't trust my ability to get us there in one piece, but it was still very nice to be driven so I could learn my words en route. The venue was, as always, The Ambassador Hotel, which is run by the always friendly Nick Head who genuinely understands what fringe theatre is about - top chap, who makes putting on a show very easy. Well it would be easy if I wasn't in it - I always said that at some point I'd get 'found out' and people will realise I'm not actually an actor, just a slightly rubber-faced awkward bloke who has remembered a few lines. I felt like I was 'found out' in the first performance - well aware that the press were there, I stumbled and thumbled my way through it in a way that any professional, or really good amateur actor, would be ashamed. It was a nerves thing, and also a Red Bull thing - I could feel my whole face exploding as the blood went to my head when I sat down on stage, and wasn't sure if I would get through that first show without collapsing. I've quit Red Bull by the way, I was drinking far too much of the stuff...after a bit of flyering and a cheeky cheeseburger to discuss what exactly didn't work with the first performance, we were back on again for an 8pm showing. That's what I love about the Brighton Fringe - we can get away with doing 2 shows a day, and naturally we were flying in the second one, in front of a good audience too, so went and got very drunk feeling happy with ourselves. The post-show drinking was fun but I can't remember much of the end, apart from the fact that I seemed to get annoyed that Heather (Yeadon, actress) hadn't heard of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, so I went on a bit of a tangent about it (the attached picture is of me explaining the storyline for the series in epic detail at some early hour in the morning in a bar, with another one of our team - Cara also being dragged in to my rambling). Back in Worthing at our hotel, after a frankly terrible breakfast (could have been the hangover, not the food), a few of us did the whole tourist thing - which is go on the pier, feel cold, take photographs and pretend we're having the time of our lives just so we can put them on Facebook, and then let Alan-the-soundman win at Crazy Golf. Performance 3 was notable for being pretty good in terms of line-learning but also for having our biggest audience of the weekend yet none of them laughed at anything at all apart from the friendly guy at the back who seemed to be making up for the rest of the room by finding everything hilarious. More flyering, including running out of flyers so we gave out posters instead, later, and then the final ever performance of Cat Food. A mere 8 people in the audience, 2 of them press, and a nice ending to the show because even that small crowd made us feel like we were doing it right - it was by far the best performance of the show I think. I left the stage relieved - I'm no actor, and I never would have willingly accepted the leading role, but I had to, and 9 performances later I'm sad that all that hard work has lead to a moderately attended show, but relieved it never totally died. An experience, a frantically enjoyable one, but one which I don't intend to repeat for a good while. As for the rest of the cast - well, Cara, Heather, Hind, Carl and Stephen - as Gytha said, there "wasn't one diva amongst them" and I totally agree, lovely people, who worked very hard to put my silly little scripts about a cat on stage and made it look like a play, I'm very grateful to them all.

But now - what next? Well, the Cambridge Comedy Festival is looming, and me and Alan are currently working on the script for that, that'll be for July 11th, and it's a sketch show called 'The Hedgehog Collective'. But apart from that, and my radio sitcom which is to be recorded next month, I'm almost verging on boredom. Of course, there's opportunities, loads of them, to write new plays, and then put them on, and I just repeat the cycle again of workshopping them, putting them on at CB2, sending them to theatre companies, having a little luck every now and then, occasionally getting spotted by the right person, perhaps have my hopes built a little, often it's justified, sometimes not. I'm not sure though - I've gone flat, I need new opportunities, as both a writer and a musician (only 2 of my many projects are actually gig ready at the moment and they're not active due to a wedding, and a pianist in Mexico). This all sounds negative I know - but next Monday I turn 29, and it's got me thinking a bit, and not always in a good way. Career-wise I'm not really striving, it's a nice little job that helps me scrape my rent and have a social life, but I've always been reliant on the thought that I would be successful at something outside of the 9-5 workplace. In theory I have (played some nice venues, recorded in some nice studios, been published internationally etc), but I don't really have a plan b, which is a shame because I could have done with one. There's no time limit or anything, but I am a little worried of that turning 30 malarkey - which is now only 12 months away, I would have just liked to have gotten further by now. I imagine everyone wants that, but not everyone blogs about it. Maybe living in Cambridge isn't helping me progress? My girlfriend, Juliette, is London-bound, maybe I should be too? When I first started this blog I gave myself a year to achieve some pretty unachievable things, although at the time they seemed reasonable enough. It's time to focus again - by the age of 30 (which is 12 months and 7 days away) I will be making a living out of either being a playwright, or being a drummer. There, I've said it. I might have to get back on the Red Bull first though.

Bury Fringe

We did the Bury Fringe Festival last night and actually had a really good time. I even took some pictures, if I find the cable that connects my camera to my PC I'll put some up because the venue - The Attic of Benson Blakes, was lovely and the people running the festival were also very kind and very welcoming. 'Some Plays About Indie Rock' was obviously *slightly* messy due to the fact that the guys had just 5 hours to rehearse the thing, but they pulled through it bravely and the audience were kind enough to ignore any glitches. After a short interval we did 'Cat Food' again and for the second night running it was really slick, fast and looking like the show I always hoped it would be, I was a little too animated as the character of 'Michael' perhaps but I blame that on the fact I was caffeined up to my eyeballs, and also the fact that the more animated I seemed to get the more the audience seemed to enjoy it more. I'm such a show-off, sometimes. There wasn't a huge crowd there at all, but it was one of the most enjoyable theatre-based nights out I've had in ages, despite the fact the show was billed as 'Paul Richards Double Bill', which alarmed me slightly (and Gytha's kind flattery of my writing abilities during her interview on BBC Radio Suffolk may have boosted my ego somewhat, even if she did say I was "bonkers", which she meant as a compliment I'm sure). Good times - these are good times, and I've got a good feeling about Brighton.

The fourth performance

I'm really happy tonight's performance was filmed, because it was easily, by far, by some distance, the best Cat Food has ever looked. The energy levels were pretty good this evening, and it was a pretty smooth transition - Gytha's desire to throw in an extra rehearsal certainly did the trick. The fourth performance then, and perhaps the first time we've actually got it right. Maybe it was something to do with the fact we had a packed out audience? It certainly helped, they all laughed a lot, which made us feel good, and as a result we performed better. Gahh, we're so fickle.

I was in the cellar of CB2 for 9 hours today, because before Cat Food took over we had 5 hours rehearsing my other play, 'Some Plays About Indie Rock', which we've got the only performance of tomorrow night at the Bury Fringe (with Cat Food on a joint billing). This show has long been a problem for me, simply because we kept losing actors, in fact the ever dependable Anne Marie Eeles is the only person who has stuck by myself and director Jo Smythe throughout the whole sorry process of cancelling performances and much confusion. But she joins a patched together cast tomorrow which includes Steve from Cat Food (who accepted because I drunkenly told him a week ago that it was a 'tiny part' only for him to realise that it's 12 pages of dialogue he needs to learn, nice chap though - he barely complained and just got on with it), Andy Higson (my friend who is actually a stand-up comedian, but has kindly stepped in and is learning to be an actor in time for tomorrow), Marto Randle (a close friend who has never acted before in his life but it worked today - he has the presence to pull it off, and confidence) and the excellent Alexandra Hussain - who was in 'An Ambulance Stuck In Traffic' a couple weeks back in London, she's a trained professional and her performances today were outstanding, it just takes the whole show up to a different level, and she even seemed to enjoy it. It's touch and go whether tomorrow's show will work or not, but to be honest - I actually love all this, I don't know why, but I'm still really excited by the process we go through and when it comes to life it's a beautiful thing. Bury St. Edmunds Fringe: I admit I've never heard of you until earlier this year, but we're bloody well up for this.

The third performance...

Which was actually a couple days ago but I've only just got around to writing this. I was concerned about Wednesday's show because we hadn't rehearsed much before the performance, but it was a million times better than the second time we did it. Gytha is right in that the slickness wasn't there, but the comedy was more 'bang on', at the moment the show is an energetic ball of fun - which is cool, but there's more to it than that, and we'll get that soon I'm sure especially with the extra rehearsals now lined up. Nice audience by the way.

Streetlamp album

I've just put the new Under The Streetlamp album on Myspace, go on, check it out: www.myspace.com/underthestreetlamp

It needs to be mastered (Rob's doing that at the mo) and we need a cover for it (Matt's doing that), but should be good for an August release. Hurrah!

Anyway, have done absolutely nothing this Bank Holiday weekend apart from socialise with good friends, need to do some work in these last few hours, May is going to be a silly month.