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?