100 Songs In 5 Hours...the 2013 version

On Saturday we had our (now) annual fringe fundraiser – another attempt to try and get 100 songs performed in the space of just 5 hours. It’s a near impossible task, and completely irrelevant to the show(s) we’re taking to the Edinburgh Fringe this year – but if you’re going to put on a gig as a fundraiser you might as well make it an interesting show rather than the whole four bands on one billing thing. Last year 84 songs were played, this year didn’t start off on a promising note because the rugby was on in the pub and we ended up starting half an hour later than planned. Still, when it did eventually kick off it was great – with my old chum Emily Blickem making it down from London to open the show for us (she’s midway through a film at the moment, with six weeks to go, so I really appreciated her stepping out of it for a night to play) with a selection of witty, sunshine-blessed ukulele tracks. Colin McGerty was next up playing some darker material (I played congas for him on his request, even though I’ve never heard him play before/only met him twice very briefly previously), and then probably the most thrilling Flaming June set in a very long while. FJ have this knack of being fast and raucous anyway, so when Louise said to me beforehand, “lets really go for this” I knew it was going to be an exhausting set – in a good way, and we blasted through everything at a frightening pace. I had a quick breather as the wonderful Danielle Page (backed by her guitarist Ian) played 11 quick songs – she has a brilliant, brilliant voice, before returning to the stage with Popping Candy. PC are a function band I’ve recently put together with two of my most favourite people in the whole world – Izzy (my Fat Fox Productions co-founder, wonderful actress, collaborator, close friend) and Alister (long term collaborator, pianist, genius, drinking buddy, close friend) – this was only our second show but we bashed through a few crowd favourites and whilst there’s a sense that we’re a little nervy at times, we’re starting to find our feet and the audience responded well. Mr Gavin Bates was next up – an old friend and former bandmate; I’m really glad Gav could play this, not only because he’s a bloody good songwriter but just nice to catch up with him. Included in his sterling set were some songs we wrote together many years ago, what a nice touch that was. My fourth set of the evening came in the shape of an acoustic Eureka Stockade – we’re really starting to sound like a proper, established band these days, the kind of sound you only get after years of playing together. A set consisting mostly of new material, but sounding really ‘complete’ already, Andy and Rob were in good voice with plenty of charisma and the time just flew by. The legendary Stephen Matthew was next up, a mesmerizingly confusing blend of comedy and serious songs that you can’t really pigeonhole but he had the audience grabbed throughout – we all ‘danced’ the instructed moves to his original track, ‘Do The Milkshake’, whilst his cover of ‘My Lovely Horse’ from Father Ted was nothing short of amazing...Steve (a regular fixture in my Christmas shows as an actor) has this incredible knack of being both intentionally shambolic and appealing in equal measures and the whole room was encapsulated by his antics. With 40 minutes to go, we were still 45 songs short of hitting the 100 mark...so it’s a good job the mighty Jon Orchard was our final act. I’m still not sure how he did it – well, I guess it’s all rather simple really – he just played really, really fast. Improvising songs along the way alongside several established tracks, the man didn’t even have time to drink in between songs (apart from when he was force-fed shots by friends mid-tune) – there was a fire about his performance, a determination to hit that goal, and remarkably – with a minute to spare, he did. A frantic, fitting end to a wonderfully manic evening. So great to see so many good friends there, both on and off stage, with a good few quid raised towards the fringe show too – a wonderful, wonderful night.