So, that was 2013

My hundredth blog post of the year and it feels like time for a little reflection. It's been a good twelve months, I tend to cram a lot into my days but in 2013 it feels like I've gone into overdrive at times...a lot of projects, some of them really, really worked, a couple that didn't, a year of wonderful people, big ideas, lots of Red Bull consumption and continued failure to grow a beard. So, this is what I went and did in 2013...

As always January starts off with ideas of writing a musical, as always nothing came of these ideas but still - it's good fun and hopefully, 'The Worriers' will see the light of day, one day. January is traditionally spent writing, fresh from the drunken excess of Christmas and feeling surprisingly refreshed. I spent a lot of the month booking tour and fringe dates and we also had our first new material show of the year. As far as new material nights go it was quite a successful one - it gave me an opportunity to try out two plays that have been quite good to me this year; GREAT ACHIEVERS (which would eventually be filmed for the YouTube series) and THE PRETTY GIRL IN THE SUPERMARKET (which would become an integral part of my touring live show). At the end of the month I was in the studio recording for DOWSING FOR SOUND - a mammoth project (that would, shortly after, have a slight name change) featuring huge choir and band, this was the first time we had recorded together but it was a glorious session. You know the kind of session where it all comes together even though it shouldn't? It was ambitious, but we nailed it, to be honest I wasn't quite expecting it to be as comfortable as that. I also played my first gig of the year with THE BRITISH IBM, we were in Derby for that show. In February I started writing my fringe shows, none of those original scripts made it further than my PC but it's good to keep trying stuff, I played further shows with The British IBM including a session for Q Radio (Q Magazine) in Birmingham, I also hit the stage with Dowsing for a lovely acoustic show as part of the E-Luminate Festival and played my first gigs of the year with EUREKA STOCKADE, TREVOR JONES and FLAMING JUNE. I was in the studio with Eureka Stockade. I had this idea of getting some of my plays filmed - over the years I've built up a solid back catalogue of short comedies and I just felt the need to have a record of them on film somehow so discussed this idea with one of my favourite directors, Sarah Ingram. In March this project came to life - called, AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHARDS (terrible pun, Sarah's idea!), we put together a small cast of outstanding actors (Eifion Jones, Amelia Mary, Alan Hay, Emma von Schreiber and occasional guests - Adam Daniels, Sylvie England, William Ingram, me) and recorded six plays in three weeks (two a night) over consecutive Sunday evenings in the back room of a small pub in Gamlingay. The plays were, 'Reviewing Jonathan,' 'When Jimmy Became James,' 'Toxic Tornado,' 'Great Achievers,' 'Letters To Sparkle' and, 'How About You?' I'm really proud of these scripts and this cast were incredible, perhaps the concept of theatre on a YouTube screen doesn't work as well as I wanted, but it's still nice to have a filmed record of my work - you can watch the plays here. This was also the month where I started drumming for FRED'S HOUSE for the first time - I've long been an admirer of this band, their ambitions match mine and they write exceptionally good tunes, so the opportunity to join them to record a couple tracks wasn't something that needed much consideration. It was a good session, we all seemed to click - same sense of humour, and although I only initially joined up for one recording session I found myself joining the band permanently shortly after. They work so hard, this makes me happy. I also found myself recording acoustically with Trevor Jones, and that month I had more gigs with Trevor, The British IBM and Eureka Stockade. The month ended with our Edinburgh Fringe fundraiser, in which we attempted to have 100 songs performed in 5 hours...thanks to JON ORCHARD's speedy tunes we did, it was great fun. April was mostly consumed by rehearsing and then touring SOME PLAYS BY PAUL RICHARDS. This was a show I had first toured in November 2012, it had developed naturally as a piece, I'd grown in confidence around the material and added, 'The Pretty Girl In The Supermarket' to the show. I was joined on tour by my close friend and cracking actress Hind Shubber and we performed the show in Kingsbridge, Newquay, Guildford, Great Massingham, Cambridge (two shows), Galashiels and then the tour ended triumphantly with a show on The Isle Of Skye. It was a tour that lacked logic in it's planning, it was stressful, tiring but remarkably good fun - I was buzzing by the end of it, a real sense that I'm starting to find my feet as both a performer and a writer, a genuine and unexpected success. I also managed to squeeze in a gig with Flaming June that month. In May I turned 32, confirmed our Edinburgh Fringe runs for, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' and also a new show with my regular collaborator and all round awesome dudette, Izzy Rees called REDUNDANCY CLUB. I then spent quite a lot of the month actually writing it. I was back in the studio with The British IBM to record a single (CGE Adventures), released a Kindle e-book called, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' and performed that show again, this time at The Bay Tree in Bury St. Edmunds and also in the Lake District, where we did the show at Wilf's Café in Kendle - both venues where we felt very welcome indeed. I played drums on the full rock album by THE PRISONER OF MARS, played live for the first time with THE BARE BONES BAND and more shows with The British IBM, Eureka Stockade, Trevor Jones and Flaming June and my new play, THE NIGHTS MUST FLY BY was given a first performance by WriteOn at the ADC theatre. By June the summer festival season had kicked in, I played various events with Flaming June, Eureka Stockade and the newly-named DOWSING SOUND COLLECTIVE, as well as other gigs with The British IBM and a London show with The Prisoner Of Mars. A venue became available at the fringe and, on a whim, I agreed to take it and suddenly I found myself booked to perform my first ever completely solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe. I had a title and a very brief (three sentences) synopsis plus a cracking promo photo courtesy of Chris Boland, this was enough for me to secure the offer. The show was to be called THINGS COULD BE MARVELLOUS, mostly because I was listening to The Lightning Seeds a lot at the time, I'd never written a completely solo show before and spent the rest of the month denying it was actually happening. By July I could feel everything building up; I'd probably taken on too much, which was both exciting and concerning in equal measures. The most challenging of those projects was The Dowsing Sound Collective gig at Ely Cathedral. A show that was so ambitious in the scale of it - the ever-growing choir, the choice of material, some of the rehearsals were a tad worrying but the show itself was...well, up there with my favourite nights ever. A remarkable evening in a jaw-droppingly beautiful setting, the kind of show so majestic I just felt flattered and honoured to be involved. I listened to the live recording the other day and it still sends a shiver down my spine; an incredible night where everything - both professionally and personally, came together. Perfect. I attempted to write, 'Things Could Be Marvellous' but gave up, instead choosing to concentrate on rehearsals for, 'Redundancy Club'. I also played my first live shows with Fred's House in July and it was lovely how things came together so quickly, I also played live with Trevor Jones, Flaming June, The British IBM and Eureka Stockade and started work on a jazz record with my close friends, Rohan Leach and Chris Lawrenson. That project would eventually be called, PILLARS. We've been back in the studio since, it isn't finished yet but that's one for 2014. The last weekend of July was a bit frantic; 'Redundancy Club' opened with three fringe previews in Cambridge and one in Great Massingham (alongside, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' on the same bill...on the Friday I was acting on stage for 4 hours), that weekend I also played at the Ickworth Race For Life festival with Trevor Jones, Fred's House and The Dowsing Sound Collective and I also moved house...looking back, I'm not sure how I managed to do all of that in two days, but it happened, somehow, although I remember very nearly collapsing at the end of it. Suddenly it was August; I had to write the solo show. I did, I was quite happy with the concept of it and some of the dialogue was snappy enough but when I went to perform it, script-in-hand, in front of a handful of friends at an invite-only performance in Cambridge it was clear I had no idea how it would work...and the show was due to open in Edinburgh later that week. Still, the Edinburgh Fringe is a spectacular place where dreams come true and creativity breads more creativity. Sure, it was a tough run at times; our venue caught fire, it flooded (twice), it was huge which was tough for the kind of intimate shows we were doing, we sometimes struggled for audiences (but other times it was great) and nobody could find it...but a lot of good came from this year's run. Spending three weeks up at the festival, performing pretty much every day, is a challenge - but one I loved, it was intense and we drank far too much but by the end of it I was thinking that I could happily have done even more. 'Redundancy Club' generally worked quite well, perhaps a bit unspectacular but satisfying all the same and Izzy's performances were consistently great, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' was a bit of a treat after a shaky start and the solo show, 'Things Could Be Marvellous' - well, let's be honest about this, was a bit of a mess for the first week and a bit but by the end of the third week I was having a cracking time up there (just sorry to anyone who saw the earlier performances, what a shambles). By the end of the run I felt so very comfortable in my own skin as a solo performer, I knew the material I had written wasn't the best but already ideas were brewing for how the next solo show(s) could work. Also at the fringe we had a guest slot at another venue so performed MAN V ANTS, we met some great people, saw some amazing shows. A day after I returned I was back on stage as a drummer, playing with Eureka Stockade. I needed to drum, it felt good. Still buzzing from the fringe, a week later it was September and Lodestar Festival where I returned to my role as Director Of Theatre. Alongside those duties (I booked some acts, basically), I performed, 'Some Plays...' with Hind and, 'Redundancy Club' with Izzy, and played with Fred's House. I also popped out, mid-festival, to play a gig with Trevor Jones, because clearly I wasn't doing enough that weekend. September also saw a load of gigs with Fred's House and some more studio time with them; you could just feel us getting stronger and stronger together (they've been going for years, suddenly having a fifth member must have taken a bit of adjusting to), performed a really stunning gig with Trevor Jones at The Bedford in Balham with guest piano, strings and double bass, got back in the studio with Pillars and played live with Flaming June. The final performance of, 'Redundancy Club' took place at The Bay Tree in Bury, and the final ever performance of, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards' took place at the Preston Fringe. I'd had this show for a while, toured it twice as well as the Edinburgh run so felt a little sad about finally letting it go as much as I needed to move on. The Preston show was particularly strange; our venue went bust and we ended up performing it in someone's garage on a freezing night...but it went down well, a fittingly surreal end to a show that has been good to me. Next up was a concept I had thought of whilst at the fringe...LOUNGE PLAYS, in which I'd perform five different solo shows in five different lounges, recording them for a podcast type thing in the process. The first one was the final performance of, 'Things Could Be Marvellous' - performed around my good friend Julia's house in front of a happy and supportive audience, she was about to head off to Australia so I pushed this show forward to make sure she had a chance to see it and it was by far the best that show had looked. There's something about turning up at somebody's house and just performing a show in their lounge, or dining room, that appeals to me - it feels a bit dangerous, because they're so close to you, but when it works you feel rather good about it. In October I wrote and performed the rest of the lounge plays, 'How I Lost My Trousers' was performed at Matt's, 'Thomas Livermore Wouldn't Hurt A Fly' was performed at Phill's, 'New Adventures In Sat Nav' was performed at Alan's, 'Privacy' and also a re-record of, 'New Adventures In Sat Nav' performed at Jules'. Messy shows, but fun, and a great excuse to write new material. I'll be doing another run next year, in the meantime the 2013 lounge plays can be heard here. Also in October we started recording, TECHNICALLY SINGLE. A 4-part radio sitcom I'd written at the end of last year, it was nice to go back to being 'just a writer' - with Robin Owen, Izzy, Abi Sage and Alan Hay as the cast - they're all top, top notch actors and being recorded by Paul Malpas who is the master of his trade this is turning into a very decent project. It's still not finished, but will be released soon. Many gigs throughout the month with Fred's House (who also picked up two honours at the NMG Awards), Flaming June and the last show of the year for The British IBM, and I also recorded a jazz Christmas album with Grace Williams & The Bare Bones Band. Having booked a tour, November was mostly spent writing the Christmas show, and then rehearsing it. I co-organised a charity gig for Magpas and played live with The Dowsing Sound Collective (Christmas lights switch on in Cambridge), Fred's House, Flaming June and Trevor Jones. My new play, GAPS was given a first airing by WriteOn at the ADC Theatre and I also wrote and recorded a new live show, SHORT STORIES FOR LANKY PEOPLE. That featured 8 short stories in an hour, with Ali Bunclark doing piano bits in the middle, we recorded it live in front of a small audience and the recording sounds much better than it felt at the time. And so here we are; December. It's been a frantically festive few weeks; at the start of the month we toured the Christmas show, SOME CHRISTMAS PLAYS BY PAUL RICHARDS. It was myself and Hind back on the road again, a tour which saw us perform in Bury St Edmunds, Kingsbridge, Liverpool, Kendal (two performances), Preston, Cranford (two performances), Cambridge (two performances), Bristol and Halesworth. An interesting run - some shows to really small crowds (2 people in Preston, for example), other shows completely sold out, the show took a few days to get going but when it did I felt more Christmassy than I have done in years. Straight after the tour I was back in Dowsing mode as The Dowsing Sound Collective ended a brilliant year with a show at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in front of over a thousand people. With over a hundred singers, band, brass section, string quartet, guests all over the place it was an absolute beast of a project but it achieved what it set out to be - a riotous Christmas party that, a few days later, people are still talking about. A day later I was busking in the centre of town with opera singer Hazel Neighbour - we have a new project called, OPERACONGA...more on that one next year. And...relax. One more gig to go (New Years Eve show with Fred's House), but for now - hurrah, a few days to see family, to appreciate them, to soak up the merriment of the most wonderful time of the year.

So quickly, some stats:
This year I have played (well, would have played when the final gig is done) 92 gigs
I have drummed with 11 different artists
I have played drums on 5 albums, 4 EPs and 1 single
I have performed on stage as an 'actor' 75 times, but I still deny I'm actually an actor. I just get away with it, most of the time.
I have written 14 plays

I've really enjoyed 2013; I've been lucky enough to have played some really wonderful gigs in front of big and vibrant audiences, I'm continually finding my feet as a writer and performer. Like every artistic endeavour some of it shouldn't work, some of it didn't, but sometimes it really does. For every show there's a million ideas which get scrapped before performance, for every gig there's a Sat Nav cock-up. For every project there's a shed load of rehearsals, admin and continued reminder that I am surrounded by exciting and talented people. I'm often reminded that I don't see enough of my friends, that I don't know how to relax, that I've been a bit crap at keeping in touch and that I'm doing too much...all correct, of course, sorry about that. Equally though I'm really enjoying it - everything. See you in 2014, I predict it will be amazing x