Over the course of the last week I have drummed for Flaming June, Trevor Jones, Bare Bones Band, Eureka Stockade, Dowsing Sound Collective (band session and also rehearsal with full choir), the British IBM and The Prisoner of Mars...I've thoroughly enjoyed most of it, as much as it's perhaps halted the progress of the latest draft of the fringe script. The Edinburgh Fringe means a lot to me this year - more so than any other year perhaps. There are many reasons behind this - a key reason being that I've got all of August up there and if we're stuck with a script that doesn't work/feels mediocre after five performances, it's going to be a very miserable time indeed. Also, I just feel the need to develop - to progress, I'm proud of what has been achieved in previous years but I'm far too reliant on using awkward situations as a comedic device. We have a wonderful venue this year for 'Redundancy Club', a great team (just two performers - Izzy and myself, with Sarah Ingram directing and Alan Morgan doing sound stuff), the opportunity is there to create something rather special. But the writing of it has often felt like another Oscar Pike play (nothing too wrong with this, but we're mutually done with Oscar now - a third show would be too much, as much as I still want to write 'The Inevitable Demise Of Oscar Pike' at some point), but the first draft of the new show is finally showing signs of something a bit exciting - it's fresh, it's manic, it'll be exhausting to perform. Our other fringe show of course is 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' but that's all tried and tested, with previews confirmed and everything, I'm almost getting cocky about it...
Pulling my hair out writing the show aside, it's been a great week to be a drummer - I know it's my life anyway, but to be playing with this range of artists has been a bit of a treat. From drumming for just Grace (vocals) in our duo project (Bare Bones Band) on Friday night to backing a full choir on Saturday with Dowsing, there's been plenty to stretch my musical bones. Yesterday the busy, busy week concluded with recording drum parts for the new Prisoner Of Mars album, 'Stage Directions'. Drums were recorded in a warehouse in Huntingdon and they sound bright, full of life, with a 'live' feel but still with a certain amount of control. Songs were learn't "Neil Young style" - Bryan showed us the songs, we play through it, we record it. The result was 10 drum tracks successfully laid down in the space of 4 hours, 9 original songs and a cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Paper Thin Hotel' - a wonderful session in which I had the chance to play without restriction. If only all recording sessions were as easy as this!
The admin of life (press for the preview dates, programme blurbs, sorting my schedule which is double booked to buggery) will now consume me for a couple days, but by the time I write my next blog post I hope to have written an absolute masterpiece. But then again, I always hope that.
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