Fringe fundraiser 1: the gig

That was a pretty tiring weekend, but in a really good kind of way. Despite feeling really pretty rough on Friday, Saturday's filming of 'Being Mr Abernathy' was great fun and from there I went to the first of two Edinburgh Fringe fundraisers in two days. This one was the gig - it was the one I felt most comfortable with to be honest, because I understand gigs. I knew where I stood with this one - Jo at the Cornerhouse has always been very good to me and paid half the soundman's fees and gave us the venue for free. We had a great turnout, so I like to feel she got enough out of the evening in the return so we can all be happy. This was a different kind of gig because as you may realise by now I get bored easily, and I was certainly bored of the standard gig formula - you know the one, four bands, half an hour each. This was an Edinburgh Fringe fundraiser so we can get our two new shows up there, so it had to have a gimmick somehow so I wondered if it would be at all possible to cram as many songs in as possible. I set the target of '100 Songs In Five Hours' and people seemed to click with this. I felt sorry for the soundman - he must have been more knackered by the end of it because we had so many acts playing. It was a brilliant night, and people really went along with this slightly ridiculous idea - some more than others, some even quite intensively as they added up song totals on their phones and worked out if we were on track. I booked lots of friends to play and it was great, sadly Rishi had to pull out of the opening slot (partner about to give birth at some point/has given birth already?) so Aidy (with Dave) kindly stepped in to kick things off for us. There wasn't a huge crowd at the beginning but they played with enthusiasm and, for the sake of this challenge, nice and quickly. Steve Matthew - a friend from my theatrical side of things, played an often hilarious set next, felt sorry for him that nobody else was going to join in with the the dance moves he was so keen to initiate. I then played with the Trevor Jones Band - we were without Tony so no bass but acoustically it still works nicely and was well received. My old mucker from Eureka Stockade, Rob, played a brilliant selection of songs, mostly material I don't know actually, before one of our out of town bands, Master Solo added to the belief that there are not any rubbish bands from Norwich - they were absolutely fantastic. And nice people too, I want to see them again. The other out of town band, The Wreck Scene shortly followed - a new punk/rock and roll band fronted by my mate Ade, they're from High Wycombe and were genuinely good fun to watch, I like them very much. Tom Tilbury slowed things down a little (not a critisism - slows songs are okay, although not perhaps when you're trying to get a 100 tracks in - but he's great, and one of my best friends, and it's always a pleasure) and the mighty Dave Greeves swiftly followed; Dave should do more solo gigs, he really is excellent. Jon Orchard - a good pal and somebody I've been working with a lot on a business project recently was next up and he really believed in the concept of the evening, completely rattling through songs - including one he'd written at the bar that evening - to try and get our numbers up. Jon's appearance added a pop element to the proceedings and went down very well indeed. I was then back on stage with a fully electric set with The British IBM (our first gig with this name, having changed it simply from Aidy). I'm really proud to be in this band you know, we really are starting to hit our stride. It's an odd one, we hadn't rehearsed, but we're so comfortable with each other's playing, we are a proper band, it's a lovely thing. I enjoyed it a lot and the audience - and there was now lots of them, responded well and one person even called out for 'Washing Machine' - the song we ended with. A geniuene pleasure, we're looking and sounding like we know what we're doing, which is a good thing because we're back on tour in July. As planned, we left half an hour at the end for anybody else to go up and play a few tunes, I also left this time because having 11 acts would probably mean we would be running late anyway. We weren't, amazingly. It was clear by now 100 songs in 5 hours was unlikely, but the wonderful Annie Dressner stepped up and played a few tunes, and the evening ended with the also wonderful Sam Inglis playing a couple tracks. Sam's a well regarded producer/musician around here and it was flattering that he closed the evening for us, especially with 'Mini Cab Driver' - a song I'd first heard him play about 8 years ago when we were both on the same bill at the now defunct venue, The Sophbeck Sessions. A brilliant evening - in the end 84 songs were played live, by some pretty exceptional people. We had a good turnout, and - at a fiver a head, to make £160 profit towards our shows was a pretty healthy comeback. I can't stress how grateful I am to those who played - but then again I know that sometimes musicians do like to play anyway so I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. Special thanks also to Alan Hay, who kindly stepped in at the last minute (ie; I was chatting to him on the film set earlier that day) to do the door ALL NIGHT and was jolly throughout. And should probably give extra credit to Izzy - yes, I know she's in the Edinburgh shows so will benefit from this, but to host the night, keep the scores, and keep me calm is no easy task, especially as she was drinking, but she did so remarkably. A great night.