Lounge Plays, congas, cowbells and opera

This weekend I finally found myself with something I've been valuably missing recently; writing time. Which is a relief, because I had a lot of projects to write - but as before, I only tend to write when under pressure, and there's no pressure like forthcoming performances. True, so I may have been slightly tired on Saturday morning having driven back from Bristol (via central London, thanks to a diversion of epic proportions) in the early hours - worth it though as finally got to see Graham Parker & The Rumour - the last time they played in the UK I was 1 years old and probably wouldn't have paid attention. We enjoyed the gig so much we saw exactly the same show in London on Saturday evening, and it was just as brilliant. What. A. Band. Anyway, apart from these musical treats, the writing itself was very productive - I found myself switching rooms for different scenes in a bid to find the perfect writing 'zone.' As always, the best writing zone is lying in bed with a laptop, but that's surely not healthy? Anyway, I nailed a brand new script called, 'Privacy' and wrote twenty minutes or so of, 'The Shubber Show' - which is a show I'm writing for Hind Shubber.

On Monday evening I was back in the, 'Lounge Play' zone and performed show number four, 'Thomas Livermore Wouldn't Hurt A Fly' around my mate Phillip's house. Phil's a good mate and, in keeping with this run of shows, a brilliant host. I was happy with this one (and let's be honest, I'm not always happy), it's familiar territory for me - a comedy about a man struggling to write whilst being attacked by 'nature', but with really dark overtones. A brand new piece with a twist I'm rather chuffed with, all in all this was a decent little show I'd like to think. Performed to an audience of six in Phil's lounge, including my good friend, the mighty Rob Toulson who I don't see enough of these days as we're all so busy, also in the audience was an opera singer called Hazel. We joked briefly about forming a band - an opera and conga band - for busking and potential fringe shows, and a day later we'd already found ourselves performing together. On Tuesday it was our regular new material evening at CB2, I looked at, 'Privacy' and realised it wasn't ready for performance so instead rehearsed, 'New Adventures In Sat Nav', we did bits of, 'The Shubber Show', Gulliuame played some wonderful French tunes and Hazel and I tested our collaboration. It shouldn't work, should it? Congas, with lashings of cowbells, and opera vocals? The thing is, Hazel has an incredible voice - honestly, earth-shattering wonderful, it almost scared me how such a voice can come out of such a slender person, and my 'scattered' percussion worked really well alongside it. I haven't got time for another project. But I have to do this one, it's too exciting to dismiss. Plans are afoot.

Tonight I arrived at Jules' house to perform the final, 'Lounge Play.' With, 'New Adventures In Sat Nav' not recording properly in Little Downham, the plan was to perform that one - leaving, 'Privacy' to my large archives of plays I haven't dared to perform. In front of a jolly crowd, '....Sat Nav' worked well, I'm really fond of this piece, and then Jules persuaded me to do the other piece anyway - such was the loveliness of the audience I couldn't really say no. 'Privacy' wasn't so bad - the story really, really works. My performance didn't, it was rushed and garbled, just really unrehearsed. There's something about, 'Privacy' I like, but that recording won't be released - I'll re-work it for another day.

I've said this before, but I'm still a work in progress as a performer, but I really am feeling the progress, it's starting to work. The forthcoming Christmas show will be my best yet, it's an intense concept, an exhausting show, a challenge with singing, magic, costume changes...certainly a busy end to the year in store. Tomorrow I'm back behind the drums, back with Fred's House. I feel creatively fulfilled for the first time in years. Life is good, you know?

Gig report: Fred's House @ NMG Awards - Portland Arms, Cambridge

Band: Fred's House
Venue: The Portland Arms, Cambridge
Date: 24/10/2013
Audience: Sold out, frantic
Set: Last Thing I Wanted, Standing Next To Me
Notes: I seem to be spending a lot of time at the Portland of late, playing and watching gigs, but last night was a bit different - it was the NMG (New Music Generator) awards, there was a red carpet, people wearing jeans were refused entry, no tickets on the door and more punters than you would have thought possible squeezed in. I knew a lot of people there last night, it often felt more like a networking event than a gig, but with a nice party vibe going on. We won two awards - The Audience Choice and Best Folk/Roots act, the second of which caught us by surprise as we assumed our friends The Willows would win that one. We also played a couple tunes in front of a vibrant and excitable audience, and felt very happy about everything. All is very well indeed in Fred's House.

Gig report: Fred's House @ The Waterfront, Norwich

Band: Fred's House
Venue: The Waterfront, Norwich
Dates: 21/10/2013
Audience: A good few of them, very nice
Set: Take A Ride, Face In The Water, Wrong Time, Too Late To Go Home, Hold On, Beautiful You, Marathon Man
Notes: This is the first time I've found Norwich without getting horrendously lost, and also the first time I've not got lost getting out of it either - this makes me happy. It was a happy evening on the whole, actually, we were supporting the fantastic Ahab for a second night running, and at a cracking venue - The Waterfront is blessed with decent acoustics and a top-class soundman. Good crowd in, perhaps a little reserved at first but very attentive and by the end the rapturous applause made us feel very welcome indeed. It's obvious really, but a run of gigs really help a band gel together - our fourth gig in three days and the last two have been absolutely wonderful.

Gig report: Fred's House @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge

Band: Fred's House
Venue: The Portland Arms, Cambridge
Dates: 20/10/2013
Audience: Packed, wonderful
Set: Take A Ride, Too Late To Go Home, Standing Next To Me, Beautiful You, Hold On, Marathon Man
Notes: This is more like it - our third gig of the weekend following Oxjam (bit rushed in the set-up but good fun) and the fresher's ball (spirited, but with some frustrating sound issues), this was a proper great gig. Supporting the incredibly popular Ahab, the Portland was completely packed on Sunday evening and we played to a vibrant yet attentive audience. Strong set, possibly the tightest we've been since I joined, excellent show.

Gig report: Fred's House @ Cambridge Union, Cambridge

Band: Fred's House
Venue: Cambridge Union, Cambridge
Dates: 19/10/2013
Audience: Rammed, drunk, happy
Set: Not sure
Notes: My third gig of the day and second with Fred's House, having had a chance to quickly nip home and freshen up. As a musician you want to play in bigger venues, to bigger crowds, and this was one of those shows. A university gig, this fresher's ball found us performing to a very busy venue, enthusiastic audience, a few sound issues on stage but we play enough now to now how to deal with these situations. Good gig, professional, job done kind of show.

Gig report: Fred's House @ Oxjam - The Emperor, Cambridge

Band: Fred's House
Venue: Oxjam @ The Emperor, Cambridge
Dates: 19/10/2013
Audience: Very busy, enthusiastic
Set: Take A Ride, Face In The Water, Last Thing I Wanted, Standing Next To Me, Hold On, Looking Glass
Notes: I ran from the last gig to the NCP and then sped my way over to this next show of the day, in a very lively Emperor (still an afternoon gig, but unlike the other one this was buzzing - maybe it's a venue thing?). Although indoors, this felt like a proper festival gig - quick changeovers, perhaps slightly rough around the edges performance-wise but with a nice energy and a really happy vibe on stage. Gave the new track, 'Standing Next To Me' it's first airing, sounding great.

Gig report: Flaming June @ Oxjam - The Avery, Cambridge

Band: Flaming June
Venue: Oxjam @ The Avery, Cambridge
Dates: 19/10/2013
Audience: Polite enough
Set: Rejoice, Stop The Ride, Rumplestiltskin, Nerves Of Steel, Those Were The Days, Little Love In A Cruel World, Pyscho, Wednesdays & Weekends, In Pursuit Of Happiness (no drums)
Notes: Hungover from a rare night off from gigging (so naturally I was at a gig with friends, followed by a somewhat excessive aftershow party) and straight from a cracking session recording the jazz Christmas album with Grace and Alister (two of my favourite people, it was a joy), I dashed over to The Avery to play the first of my two Oxjam gigs for the day. Afternoon gigs are strange, and the vibe in the room felt that day, very polite but slightly subdued. Still, both Louise and Diane were on cracking form, I enjoyed it a lot despite having to miss the last song to dash to my next gig...

Gig report: The British IBM @ Fab Cafe, Manchester

Band: the British IBM
Venue: Fab Café, Manchester
Dates: 12/10/2013
Audience: Busy
Set: Cannibal, 3 Years, Animal, Sugar Water, Feeling, Bob Noyce, CGE Adventures, The British IBM, Washing Machine
Notes: When you buy a nice-looking new drum kit - be wary of the cheap extras that come with it. My new cocktail kit is an awesome thing, made from top-quality Maplewood, and I like it very much - but some of the hardware isn't so great, and two tracks in to this gig the bass pedal fell apart. I should have known, really, it didn't look the sturdiest, I really should have packed my sturdy Tama Speed Cobra pedal instead as that'll never break but still...a learning curve, and an obstacle quite early on in the show. Actually the kit itself was fine, it perhaps won't cut it in a bigger venue but the retro-themed Fab Café was intimate enough for us to cut it and performance wise I became more of a percussionist using the floor-tom with my right hand for any bass beats. The cocktail kit is a marvellous thing - a kit you can play standing up, a kit that fits in your boot, I'm very fond of it already. This was the first and last British IBM gig for a while; Aidy and Dave spent the whole weekend at a retro games fest in Manchester and I turned up for the gig side of things which was the aftershow party for the retro gamers. Gig itself felt a bit flat, that always the danger of one-off gigs because sometimes you need a few to hit your stride despite being well rehearsed, but some of it (CGE Adventures, for example) sounded great.

Gig report: Flaming June @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge

Band: Flaming June
Venue: The Portland Arms, Cambridge
Dates: 11/10/2013
Audience: Busy, nice enough
Set: Not sure
Notes: My good friend Gav organised this special event to raise awareness of mental health. The format of the evening was us, some guest speakers, and then Rockaoke - basically karaoke only with a live band. Although on early and back down to a duo as Dianne was ill, Louise and I enjoyed a decent set in front of a busy Portland audience. Played some new tracks ahead of recording the next release early next year, alongside some of the older favourites - all performed with plenty of energy and passion. The event itself was a cracker, and deservedly rammed by the end, full credit to Gav and his hard working band (Up & Atom) for such a worthy and fun show.

Technically Single recording/Lounge Plays in Bristol/Ely

Last Thursday we started recording, 'Technically Single' - a little radio/podcast sitcom I've had stashed away for a while now. I originally wrote the pilot last year, which worked a treat, so then spent a fair bit of January working on another three episodes. A majority of this team - Izzy Rees, Abi Sage, Alan Hay and our techie Paul Malpas had been on-board from the start, but the problem with working with such quality actors is, as I've discovered, their availability. Alan and Abi in particular seemingly spend most of their lives on stage, whilst Izzy had lots of Paul Richards shows (poor girl) and a production of Calendar Girls filling up her schedule. Finally, though - mostly thanks to Paul M's determination to make this happen - we've managed to block out five Thursday evenings in a row to bring this project to life. The final piece of the production jigsaw was actor Robin Owen, who I'd met for the first time at the recording - he arrived highly recommended by Izzy; turns out he's just been in a show with Alan and he lives three minutes down the road from me. Robin's performance as Tom fits perfectly, with his confident yet awkward portrayal the perfect foil for Alan's wonderfully annoying turn as Ian. Izzy and Abi are top-notch, bringing their characters to life with ease and without stereotyping. The first session - recorded in Paul's little studio space, flowed suspiciously well. I'm really confident about this, and it's so incredibly nice not to be a performer in this one either - sometimes you just have to hand over your work to the pro's. If the next few weeks work as well this show will be launched in time for Christmas. I'm hoping there's enough buzz about this, enough demand, to warrant a second series as I love writing for these characters, and of course these actors.

On the other end of the professionalism scale, I've been performing a few more, 'Lounge Plays.' With, 'Technically Single' being tight and polished, my solo shows - recorded in a lounge on my iPhone, are messy, rambling affairs, but I'd like to think somehow they work just as well. The freedom of it, the slightly unpredictable nature of my performance, the intimacy...it's a scary thrill. On Saturday I was in Bristol performing Lounge Play number 2 - 'How I Lost My Trousers.' Hosted by my very close friend Matt (who is a brilliant host, it should be noted), it was a very friendly little show, the material perhaps darker than the title suggested, but a nice little story. Last night I was in Little Downham, performing, 'New Adventures In Sat Nav' - a show so new I'd finished writing it yesterday morning. With a, shall we say, slightly mature audience, I cut the swearing and enjoyed entertaining the locals - I was made to feel very welcome indeed. Two more Lounge Plays to go, possibly three, with offers coming in for 2014 already. A bit like the solo show at the fringe, I'm learning a lot about myself during these shows, gradually finding my own voice. It's a ranty voice, that sounds like I have a cold, but it's mine.