Paperwork

Why do all exciting projects come with big amounts of paperwork? Things are taking shape here, but with a few creative projects confirmed it's suddenly all about the admin - for the forthcoming Matt Corrall Band tour (which is now back to being a tour of Europe, having realised that the China idea - whilst great, was going to be littered with more problems than we needed) we have to still confirm further dates alongside the Holland performance as well as local warm-ups and confirm who is actually in the band, for Brighton rehearsal schedules need to be sorted and we still need to know who is actually in the play, plus there's the forthcoming murder mystery evening performances of my little whodunit 'The Murder Of The Razzle Dazzle Rose' to confirm etc etc, I'm glued to my email, it's fairly exciting, but doesn't go beyond 'fairly'.

Meanwhile I've managed to spend a few evenings in to finish what will be the Edinburgh script, if I decide to do Edinburgh this year - it's all slightly up in the air, see, as there are other opportunities being mentioned (for me as a musician) which I can't mention here because this blog is public, although I'm wary of letting my thoughts getting too excited because bad things happen when my expectations raise...anyway, it's written, just in case and if not I've got a decent play to do something with in the future. It's called 'Totally From The Heart', and is about heart attack victims, and really is the darkest thing I've ever done, in a good way I'd like to think. It caused some weird reactions with me whilst writing it - I almost felt emotional towards the characters, started to care for them a lot more than I normally do, like I was convincing myself of their plight. Maybe it was the whiskey, but I've never written anything genuinely moving before, took a lot more out of me than the average awkward farce I often bash out.

In the meantime I started filming some new comedy with my good friend Rich, it's been a while and whilst we may not do anything with it unless it's really good, we've got ideas and I've got a camcorder, and we had a few spare hours, makes sense to just do these things sometimes. Ah yes, and recording started last night for the Under The Streetlamp album - that was an intensive evening. The problem being Alister, our pianist, flies out to Mexico for many months next week so we needed to move quickly to get this done before he goes. His parts, and my drum parts, for 9 tracks are all in the bag though - mostly because Rob @ Half Ton Studios is the most patient and hardworking engineer you could ever meet. Recording for the vocals and bass take place next week in another lengthy, gruelling session, followed by many hours of mixing, in time for an early summer release. Next week I also start rehearsals with Lu, and hopefully my 'special' new project which I can't mention, and the week after I'm back in the studio with Bryan Shore. By the time that's all done, the Eureka Stockade album should be complete...I love being a drummer sometimes, especially when there's so few of us around.

Brighton stuff

Just registered the Brighton show, another £175 spent on a creative project which I may never see again but don't want to turn this blog into a rant about money because I CHOOSE to do these projects...only registered the one show in the end, 'Cat Food', although yesterday's readings of new material was pretty successful. In fact, everything apart from 'Reviewing Jonathan' seems to work - 3 out of 4 plays certainly isn't a bad ratio, I reckon I'm getting better at this. But I just felt the whole concept of 'Some Plays' - which is 3 short plays on one billing, wouldn't work in Brighton - they do work as individual pieces and I'll put them on somewhere at some point, but 'Cat Food' was really, really strong just from the readings yesterday - there's a couple lines that need tweaking but it feels structurally sound and I'm gonna focus on making this as good as it can be rather than stressing out with 2 shows. The play itself runs for 2 nights in May, and it's on twice a day, so 4 performances, which makes it worthwhile, plus a few other places beforehand I imagine. Going to have a long old think about casting though, it's all getting a bit routine and I get the feeling some of my regular team aren't taking it as seriously as they did before, and I've got to look after myself sometimes and do what's best for the production, even if that's not easy.

Had an interesting evening last night, went out with friends, enjoyed their company greatly, and it now looks like we're not touring Europe in June...because we're touring China instead. I love the way life throws these little surprises at you, sometimes.

Friday night

It's a Friday night and I'm sat in my tiny flat by myself, having just eaten a microwave cheeseburger and enjoying a can of Carling. Is this how my life is heading? Hope not/don't think so - I could have spent a romantic evening at my girlfriend's flat but I had to come home to print off the scripts for tomorrow's 'new material' day, which I am more than a little anxious about. I'm anxious because I'm not too confident about the material I've churned out this year to be honest, 'Cat Food' has potential to be a real winner and I feel like I've hit top form with that, whilst 'Jason's Last Night In Town' also has great potential. But will anybody really like 'Honey I've Been Really Struggling' - only if they get the Camera Obscura and Ed Harcourt references perhaps, and on reading back 'Reviewing Jonathan', one of my other short plays, even I think I'm weird. We'll see though, we've got some of my trusty regular actors - Colin, Vaughan, Heather, Juliette there to tomorrow, as well as 2 excellent newcomers - Emma Spearing and Cara McLean, both of whom I respect greatly, so it should be either a) interesting or b) embarrassing - depending on how my latest ideas are recieved. And as always there's a real shortage of male actors, a problem that would be solved if Kevin learnt how to answer his mobile.

It's been a good, if exhausting week. After the fun of the Haiti gig on Sunday evening, I spent Monday night back at one of my regular recording haunts; Half Ton Studios in Milton, with the ever excellent Rob Toulson behind the desk. I was recording with Alighting, all felt a bit nostalgic but I came away feeling I did a really good job for them - the whole splashy ride and hot-rod trick seemed to suit their Cambridge Folk Festival-tailored sound a treat, and we discovered this fairly early in the session which was a bonus. Tuesday was supposed to be my quiet night in/catch up on cleaning evening, but Jess and Alister from Under The Streetlamp came around and we got really drunk instead, how childish, but much fun was had. Wednesday I enjoyed the rare pleasure of actually catching a Spurs game on TV and an even rarer pleasure of watching us win convincingly, and last night I went to the launch of 'Lol-a-thon', which is a new comedy night for Cambridge that my good friend Andy Higson has organised. 10 comedians on the bill so obviously a little hit and miss, but headliner David Trent (whom I had the pleasure of randomly booking for a Jiggery Pokery Cabaret show last year) was immense and worth the cheap entry fee alone. So, here I am - creatively more inspired than ever, with more ideas than ever, but also having more fun than ever - which takes up so much time.

Much to do, urgent priorities need to be booking up the Brighton Fringe shows (depending on how tomorrow goes we'll know how many of them) - we have the venue waiting for us which is lovely of them, and I also need to sort out the Under The Streetlamp album recording before Alister buggers of to Mexico. I'm still not sure if I'm going to do the Edinburgh Fringe this year - and I never thought I'd say that. I have one or two doubts at the moment - like would my life be enhanced by a fifth fringe show? Would this script I'm working on for it be actually better than the last 4? I need to develop, I need to move on, and sometimes self-producing doesn't help that. It also takes a long chunk of my year up, and I can't help but feel I could be spending the time trying to write 'the' radio sitcom that I always knew I could - that really would be progression. But then again August without the Edinburgh Fringe is like December without Christmas. True, I could just go there as a spectator - but being at the Edinburgh Fringe without a show of my own would be like Christmas without presents, which, as we all know, would be rubbish.

Haiti gig

I'm exhausted today. I need to somehow get out of this Red Bull loop, yesterday's Haiti gig was a brilliant but long day so I drank a lot of caffeine to get through it - today, slumped at my desk, I'm drinking a lot of Red Bull to get over the fact I drank a lot of Red Bull yesterday so didn't sleep too well. And tonight I'm back in the studio which certainly won't be an early night, ahhh...

Anyway, the Haiti gig itself was a decent little day. My own expectations of raising thousands and every band playing to a heaving room of enthusiastic gig-goers never really happened but then again that'll teach me for having expectations in the first place; I have too many of them and it barely ever works out. But I do appreciate how well it went, we had 15 bands playing over the course of 11 hours and by the end of it we were only over-running by about 10 minutes. This of course is nothing to do with my stage management skills as they're practically non-existent, but it says a lot about the professionalism of those playing. I don't think there was a bad act all day, I enjoyed it - in particular The Travis Waltons (was there a better song than 'Millionaire' played all day? No. In fact, I don't think there would have been a better (original) song played anywhere in Cambridge all weekend than 'Millionaire', it's superb) and The Violet Bones, but it would be unfair to single out individual bands too much because everyone did their bit. As did Pete the soundman who consistently kept the show moving, and Jess and Rachel for doing the door and telling me things were 'okay' on several occasions when I needed to hear it the most. Not a huge crowd to be honest, but it was a Sunday, and it was short notice, but a nice consistent room of people who enjoyed it all a lot. We raised just under £240, not a massive amount - but considering it was only £2 to get in, people were very generous. I like people. I'm too tired to write much more apart from a quick review, purely for the archives, of the 4 gigs I played during yesterdays lonnnnggg day.

ALIGHTING
Set: Baby Lie, Silent Eyes, Here Comes The One, New Beautiful Day, Nothing Left To Rain, Broken Hymn
Notes: First time I've played with Alighting in 8 years, a little unplanned but nice songs and I kept myself in the distance so I didn't impose myself too much. Would have liked to have known the songs a little better so I could have thrown a few tricks in there, but from an audience perspective as a whole it worked very well.

MATT CORRALL BAND
Set: My Babe, Too Tired,Spoonful,I'm Tore Down, The Spider and the Fly, Walking by Myself
Notes: First gig with the Matt Corrall Band. One of those strange gigs where I wasn't comfortable with the material, but I was comfortable enough with the genre (pure, often filthy, blues) to wing it convincingly enough. We need to be much tighter than that for the tour, but 2 rehearsals in and for a Sunday afternoon it was very pleasing.

LOSERS
Set:
Notes: Our first show as a five piece, although only James and I knew the songs. It did show, sadly, and could have looked terrible on stage if it wasn't for James' honesty and humour, which made Losers look very likable, if slightly unprofessional. We went down very well all the same, which goes to show that even if musicians are dropping notes, and even playing in the wrong key, if the songs are good you can get away with most things.

UNDER THE STREETLAMP
Set: Do I Don’t I I Do, Sunny Rainy Tuesday, Anything Nothing, I Never Win, Last Excuses Of Summer, Honest Lullaby
Notes: Our first gig in 18 months. I've never felt more comfortable on stage - like putting on an old pair of socks to find they're still warm and fit a treat. I loved every second of it, I want to do it more, I need to do it more, fortunately the feeling's mutual.

New material, facial hair

Well, it's been a long time in coming but my facial hair is starting to look like a beard. In fact, Claudia McKenzie (bassist) even called it a beard in rehearsals at the weekend (in the context of me 'getting salad in my beard' because I forgot to bring a fork). Hurrah, finally. It's got a way to go yet, but it's even beginning to look like it was intentional. I must be growing into a proper man, I couldn't have done this a year ago.

Anyway, been a busy time. The charity gig takes place this Sunday, an 11 hour gig with 15 bands playing, but it has been by far the easiest thing I've ever organised - bands just want to play, the press need something to write about, the whole thing is just rather lovely and the poor chaps in Haiti will benefit from it too. It's gonna be a decent night. I'll be playing in a few bands that day/night myself, hence why I found myself rehearsing with 3 bands for nearly 11 hours on Sunday - I thoroughly enjoyed it and am confident that Losers, Matt Corrall Band and Under The Streetlamp will all perform admirably. Had another rehearsal with 'Streetlamp last night (my gig with Eureka Stockade was cancelled, so I was very happy to still be drumming) and I'm buzzing from it all, probably more than ever. I'm really wary of the band because we've tried two times before and fizzled out, expectations rise too quickly and then it's painfully frustrating when things don't happen. But as long as, in my head, it's a band that I can play with and be happy with - with no expectation - then I should be fine. We reformed 2 weeks ago, have had 2 rehearsals in the last 4 days, a couple drinking sessions, a gig this Sunday and next Sunday we start recording the album. If the album, which will largely be recorded live, sounds like our rehearsal last night I'll be a happy chap. The problem is, and probably always will be, is that we're all such busy people. But if the album takes off, you never know. Last night's rehearsal was just wonderful, musically it was challenging and the whole process of playing those songs is physically demanding at times, but the laughter, honesty and joy to be back in a rehearsal room with these incredible human beings is something I've missed.

I took a days leave on Tuesday to finish the Brighton material - that's 3 short plays and 1 full-length piece now to be workshopped next weekend by my carefully chosen team of actors. This latest piece is called 'Cat Food', it's the silliest thing I've ever written but I needed to write something cheery like this because the other material I've been churning out this year has been a little too dark at times. I'm really happy with 'Cat Food', as far as first drafts go at least. 4 plays in a month - that's a lot of writing, but I really wanted to write 5. That elusive number 5, 'Totally From The Heart' keeps getting nudged aside, which is weird because it has the potential to be the best thing I've ever done. I don't understand myself, sometimes.

Yet, despite all this oozing of creativity, both in the rehearsal room and at my desk, it's the simple, normal things which drive me to frustration. This week it's the turn of a slow puncture, which has gradually turned into a much quicker puncture than I would have liked. Why do garages only open during office hours? Can't they understand that most of their customers work the same hours as them so can't actually get in to get their vehicles looked at? Eventually I managed to work through a bit of my lunchbreak, left the office early and dashed down to the nearest tyre store to get mine sorted, only to be told by the idiot there that I've left it too late in the day and he wouldn't have time to fix it. Kwik Fit my arse.

Currently listening to: Electric Soft Parade - No Need To Be Downhearted, Elvis Costello - Live At The El Macombo, Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (lets be honest, I've not stopped listening to this since last August)

Currently watching: Citizen Smith - series 2 DVD, endless clips of the Ben Folds Five reunion gig on YouTube

Currently reading: The instruction manual of my new camera, which all seems a bit complex.

Charity, and other stuff

It's very rare that something on the news grabs me so much that I feel the need to actually do something about it. I mean, lets face it - in this world we live in pretty much everything is bad news, if we are to completely believe what the media tells us is a fair assessment of what's going on. But the recent Haiti earthquakes dragged me out of my normally thick-skinned, ignorant shell. A Blog isn't the right place to pour out my sentiments to those who are suffering, but in a time when I moan about pretty much everything (the quality of beef in microwave burgers, the fact that I'm late to the office most days because of the slow women in people carriers doing the school run), the Haiti situation is one of those stark reminders - which normally come occur about every five years or so (September 11th, Tsunami etc) that actually I have no right to moan - I'm pretty lucky. And the extension of that thought process soon leads me to realise that somehow I should be able to help those who have lost their families, their homes, their lives, their loved ones. I'm a stupidly busy man, but nothing I do can't be put on hold for a couple days whilst I put together a charity gig - it's really the least I can do and I'm baffled/concerned that nobody else has done it already around here. Fortunately, with venue managers as willing and as switched on as Jo Tomkins around, finding a location hasn't been a problem - the gig takes place on Sunday 31st January at The Haymakers, a venue she has recently taken the reigns of, and is an all dayer - midday till 11pm. I need to work on the line-up, but the early indications are good - Lone Wolves are decent addition to the billing, The Lost Weekend should keep things lively and it'll also be nice to play again with Under The Streetlamp - it's kind of our comeback gig, if we ever did split up? We're still not sure and it was never official, we just never did anything, touched our Myspace page or spoke to each other for 18 months, but we all went out and got drunk at the weekend and are looking forward to starting our musical journey again together. The show is only £2 on the door, but we'll get a lot more than that out of people - I'm aiming for a grand, if a city like Cambridge can't raise a grand for a cause such as this then it's a pretty sorry affair.

Elsewhere, all is frantic. Got told one of my plays from about 4 years ago, 'An Ambulance Stuck In Traffic' is being performed in London on the 21st March, which is all very nice but I'm slightly baffled as to why people keep wanting to perform my older material - I'm a better writer these days, surely? I mean, I can't have got worse. Talking of new material, I've nailed the 3 short plays for Brighton Fringe Show 1: Some Plays About Indie Rock - the plays are called 'Reviewing Jonathan', 'Jason's Last Night In Town', and 'Honey, I've Been Really Struggling'. They're all about 15 minutes long, and people will love it - if they love the music of Ben Folds Five, Ed Harcourt and Camera Obscura of course, if not, it's probably not worth them turning up. The second Brighton Fringe show, which has a working title of 'Roger Verses The Fenland Tiger' will be more accessible to a mass audience, I'd like to think, not that I'm a great judge of these things. The venue for Brighton is just about sorted, as is a party down there, I just need to get some actors and a director and we'll be well away. I've organised a read-through of my new stuff for early Feb, which will be a good test for it. Meanwhile, the brilliant Elaine has agreed to direct my Edinburgh show (as long as the script isn't a stinker), just need to write it now.

Still plenty to do on my checklist for the month, like book the rest of the MC Band tour (still only got the one show in Holland), but rehearsals for various projects have started well and it's just nice to be drumming again on an intensive basis, I feel strangely comfortable when my schedule is cluttered. It's been a good year so far, been to some nice parties (the wrap party for the theatre show 'Clockwork' last weekend was particularly charming), met some nice people, have discovered the joys of television masterpiece Citizen Smith, and I've found the time to write and drum my arse off. So far, so good - which is even more reason to give a little of my time back and do some charity work.

New Year, new projects, old projects

It's been a strange start to the New Year. There's something about the dawning of a new 12 months that puts a little pressure on me to get somewhere, an added intensity perhaps to really make it work this year. The result has been some very clear plans, which already I've not stuck to (such as 'not going out on weekends so I can concentrate on writing new material during Jan/Feb'), but some other things are making progress, alongside the inevitable bouts of staring at a blank screen wondering why I'm not a creative genius. The big plan for this year is to tour; I've always wanted to, it would be a lovely way to see some new places and to give out my session drummer business card to new territories - it's time for an adventure, a few scrapes. Random aside: If my life were a sitcom, and every year was a series (I've always like to think the series started in the year 2000 as that's when my life really seemed to begin) I don't think 2009 would have warranted a full 6-episode series, there was just too many flat moments, perhaps it would have been a 2-part Christmas special to catch up on the characters? This year though, it has to be a full series again, series 9 I guess, the characters need to stay fresh. Anyway: touring. On Christmas Eve, over a couple festive beers, I expressed my plans to tour to my good mate Matt, whom I recorded with last year. Our release was strange - we got a bunch of us in a room, most of us with hangovers, and recorded some random, improvised blues/jazz led by his spectacularly good harmonica playing. The result is an album which got to 34 in the MP3 blues charts, and hung around the top 3,000 in the UK charts for a while. Matt likes an adventure, and I need to tour, so it makes perfect sense that we take this random project on the road and see how far we can push it. We tour in June, I've just booked the leave for it, and that felt very good - asking for leave to go on tour makes you feel like somebody. The tour so far only has one gig - and that's in Holland on 6th June, but we're asking around everywhere else to see what we can get our hands on, looks like we have a very good contact for a gig in a cave (yep, a cave) in France, and Matt's welll connected in Denmark as he used to live there. I'm also fairly close to getting us a show in Cardiff, which sounds far less glamorous, but touring doesn't have to be glamorous all the time. We're both skint so plan to fund it by playing pub gigs in Cambridgeshire in April/May time, sounds like a great idea - hope this one works out as my bank balance can't afford another hammering, Christmas was typically enormously expensive. If we can can get enough gigs, including the well-paid pub warm-up shows, there's no reason why we can't do this. Oh, we probably need to actually have a full band though as we're called 'The Matt Corrall Band', and to tour as a drums/harmonica duo wouldn't work. We're working on the band line-up at the moment, I'm sure it'll be cool.

Meanwhile, I've been sorting through a few ideas about what I want as a musician, what kind of songs I actually want to play, where I want to be with them, and sometimes that does mean every now and then I have to part from a project or two. It was with a little sadness that I told my bandmates that I would no longer be able to commit to The Damsons - who are, frankly, a lovely band with lovely and talented people, and I'm sure they will strive for big things. It just wasn't me though; I didn't actually realise I'd 'joined' the band as such, I depped for them at The Secret Garden Party Festival last year and never really left, but deep down it wasn't what I was looking for and it was a good time to go. I've not left them in the lurch either - I can still dep for them if they're really stuck, and have even offered to still record their new studio stuff with them if need be, it's just in the long term it's best they find someone who can dedicate more time to it. One of the biggest plus points of last year for me was the Losers EP, which was largely ignored by everyone because we did nothing to promote it, but I was really proud of what we recorded, and I love playing James' songs. Happy then that I can commit to the project a little more now, Losers should be out there a lot more in 2010 - we're both keen, and with the odd guest joining us on stage, I think there's a good little band here.

It is strange though, looking back. I don't like looking back too much - but little things prompt you to have a quick glimpse in the other direction. For example, this year is the 10th anniversary of my first ever gig - when I drummed for Alighting (and The Origami Heroes) at the St. Ives Corn Exchange (ironically next month I'm drumming on Alighting's album for them, which is all rather fitting). At that point in my life, that was unquestionably the happiest day of my 19 years of existence - it was a life-changing experience, being on stage for the first time and not only surviving, but enjoying it, it opened doors which I didn't know existed. But 10 years...that's a long time, there's a little (okay, HUGE) part of me that questions why I've not got anywhere properly as a musician yet. So, okay - I'm doing well, I'm very much in demand as a studio session drummer across 2 or 3 counties, I've recorded in some great places, I've played some great gigs (good bits of the London circuit, Cavern Club, Corn Exchange, some good festivals etc), I get offers for work on a very regular basis. But I'm still working in an office, living in roughly the same area, I still have the same ambitions that have yet to be realised. Like most musicians do. Sometimes though these little things prompt you to have a think about, as my friend Claudia put it, 'the bands that got away'. And with that in mind, and with a listen to a former band's Myspace page from a couple years ago, I've actually completely and utterly ignored the saying 'you shouldn't go back'. The band in question split about 2 years ago, none of us are better for it, all of us want to do it again, it's just a question of who is willing to swallow a little pride and say 'lets start playing music together again, think of how fun it would be'. That would be me then. I sent a Facebook invite earlier to my former bandmates requesting their attendance at the pub on Friday evening to discuss everything, they all accepted within 3 mins without hesitation. I'm feeling excited, all over again.

Elsewhere, on the writing front, plenty of ideas as there always is, and one or two pieces nailed in a first draft sense. With the deadline for the Brighton Fringe at the end of the month it's suddenly become my priority, my idea for this being 3 short (15-20 mins) plays about musical obsession, with a juggler in between each play to keep the audience occupied. Obviously the whole musical obsession thing is something I've done a couple times before (Patrick in 'With Arms Outstretched' has a crush on Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis, and pretty much all of 'Frank's Aim Is True') but these are very, very different stories that work really well I think, with a new rhythm to the dialogue. I discussed all the ideas in great detail to actress Heather Yeadon on Saturday night at a party and she seemed to believe in the ideas too, which is a good thing because she's pretty honest. I've nailed 2 of the 3 so far; 'The Best Imitation Of Myself' and 'Honey, I've Been Really Struggling'. I think the latter may shock people with it's dark twist, I sincerely hope so. Hopefully I'll have the third piece 'Crichton, Hall and Porter' finished this week, and then I just need to find a juggler who'll be up for a jolly up by the Brighton sea. Then I'll start proper work on the Edinburgh show, which I have 8 pages of notes for and am very confident about - I'm so clear about this idea it's going to practically write itself I feel. I've written 4 chapters of my novel, 'Johnny In The Real World', and whilst I'm on a brief break from writing the rest of it I think I'll send these sample chapters around to potential publishers, just so they can reject it and make me feel downhearted about writing the remaining hundred pages or so. I still don't know how many shows to take to Brighton - probably 2, and Edinburgh - probably 2 at this stage, but ah - I always wanted to take 3 to Edinburgh. Should probably write lots of decent material first though before planning these things...in the meantime some of my older material looks set for an airing soon. The party on Saturday was a birthday party for my director friend Sarah Ingrim, who herself has just formed her own theatre group called 'Flying Handbags' (I think thats the name, will have to double check), she gets commissions from various charities etc, not too sure how it works but she makes money for good people, and also gives writers she likes a bit of exposure too. She's taking my play from a few years back, 'The Healthy Option' under her wing (she directed it originally) and also hopefully my much forgotten ode to the July 7th bombings, 'Letters To Sparkle' - I really want to see that on a stage again, and she's the right kind of person to do that. And also this week I'm meeting with director/writer Gytha Lodge for a good old chat about all things Fringe to see how we can collaborate, and also my good friend Elaine, whom I'm hoping maybe interested in some ideas I can throw her way.

It's all going to happen, I can feel it - all of it, it's going to be an exciting year. And when it does kick off I'm going to be bloody knackered.