Football!

The World Cup starts today, it's incredibly exciting. But I've done something I said I wouldn't do; I've gone and booked myself up for quite a lot of it. This goes beyond actually wanting to watch the matches themselves, football is therapeutic - when I watch the match I don't have the ability to multitask, I like to focus on it, shout at it, drink beer during it (okay, that's kind of multitasking). It stops me from doing other things but you know...that's not always a bad thing, it means I actually get to relax, a chance for my creative brain to recharge.

Anyway, first game tonight and I'm doing a warm-up show in a lounge, first England game on Saturday and I'll be in Wales doing the show...and so on, I'm very booked up at the moment. But let's be honest about this - I chose things to be this way. Projects are exciting and I keep taking on more, diaries are clashing but I'm dashing about and just about managing to get everything done (next weekend is a prime example of that - I have a 3 day residency with the solo show in Barnstaple, but slap bang in the middle of that I have a festival gig in High Wycombe...).

I've spent a lot of time writing recently; writing the second fringe show, writing dialogue for a series of short arty films for somebody else, writing 31 short stories for July (more on that soon), so it was great to be drumming again this weekend. Fred's House utterly stormed Strawberry Fair Festival, I was very proud and also thrilled to see so many good friends there (especially the legendary Julia, who has just returned from her world domination in Australia). On Monday and Tuesday I played two cracking gigs with Claudia McKenzie and her super-talented band, some really great Latin/Samba vibes in there alongside great songwriting. It's nice because for everyone in the project it's a 'second band' for us - we all have other musical commitments that take up more time so this is a no-pressure gig, just good musicians enjoying each other's company and it certainly shows on stage.

The filming of The Paul Richards Disasters continues, with Hind's sterling performance as the 'pretty but evil' Caroline, and I've also performed 2 more lounge shows (another one tonight) ahead of two big venue shows this weekend in Wales.

But back to the football. Last night, to promote our remarkably successful World Cup Track, Roy!, The Free Kicks (aka Griff, Chris, Josh and myself) took over a local radio station for an hour and hosted football-based banter. It was all very Baddiel/Skinner/Euro 96...in a good way, of course. And looking at the schedule of matches, a lot of games kick off at 11pm. Inconvenient for most, but perfect for working musicians/awkward accidental actors.