Gig report - Eureka Stockade @ Cornerhouse

Date: 05.08.09
Band: Eureka Stockade
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Type Of Gig: Pub/venue
Venue Vibe: Sweaty
Audience: Sweaty, mostly exchange students until they buggered off. Extremely polite crowd considering we've not rehearsed for three weeks, and were frankly a fair way off the pace.
Set List: (I think, but not too sure) Slight Of Hand, Resistance, Sharks, Heroes Fall, Through Every Darkness, Without You, All Alone.

The preview dates

Did the preview dates last night in Cambridge and I have to say I haven't been that stressed in a long time. Was nothing to do with the show itself, was purely down to my lack of box office ability...the show had sold out long before the event itself, and I found myself in a bit of a panic when good friends, who had asked for tickets, turned up but I had forgotten to put them on the list. And then good friends of Victoria's, and a couple others too. I'm sure I broke the Health and Safety regulations somehow, we crammed loads of people into the tiny cellar of CB2 Restaurant, but I like that - there was a flattering demand to see this show, I think it's a clear sign that finally, after 4 years of putting on shows there, my work is perhaps needing a larger venue. Or, people just like coming out on a Tuesday. Anyway, thanks to the bar staff very kindly lending me extra chairs from the main bar we just about got away with it, but can't have been comfortable for those poor audience types. The performances themselves were near spot-on during both performances (we did two, one at 7.30pm, one at 9pm, with a 25 minute break) and the cast energy levels were fantastic throughout. Once again, actors amaze me, and Pam's authority seemed to keep them on their toes. As for how the play was received...well, I felt the first performance was a bit lacking in the laughter department, and was a bit concerned and even momentarily down about it. The second performance went down an absolute storm and we left the venue buzzing. I've been told today by several friends who were at the first showing that it was a great show and that they were laughing, and I'm probably weird/deaf for not spotting this. That's cool then, I may be a weirdo but as long as people like the show.

We travel to Edinburgh on Friday, and there's still a few concerns. The flyers have arrived which is a huge relief, but sudden fears on whether our accommodation will actually fit us all in, what the venue looks like and financial concerns still rattle around a little, but that's all part and parcel of the Edinburgh Fringe. When I get there, know that I have a floor to crash on, know that the venue looks like a venue, and have a pint in one hand and a random stand-up comedian telling crude jokes in front of me I know I'll be at home.

Frantic-ness

I'm not entirely sure where the time is going at the moment, but beneath all this frantic energy and occasional bouts of exhaustion I can't help but remain positive about it all. The 'it' probably being the Edinburgh show, which, as expected, is starting to dominate my life, as it does around this time every year. I really wanted to take a back seat this year, and to a certain extent I have; I've left the show completely in the hands of a director for the first time (it's like handing your baby over for six weeks) and Pam, it has to be said, has done an amazing job. I went to the dress rehearsal last night and it's the first time I've seen the play, 'With Arms Outstretched', fully staged. It's incredibly exciting - I'm more excited about this than I have been about any of my other plays, honestly. It's remarkable how all the stage direction and dialogue is faithful to my original script, yet the play still looks completely different to how I originally envisaged it - for starters Kev as the narrator has gone from a slightly dull man in the corner to a Fagin-esque monster of a man, both terrifying yet enthralling to watch. The show itself is working, no question there, and I'm very happy about it all. Yet, still from my 'back seat' view I've found myself working very hard, in the producer capacity of things. I did an extremely hungover live radio interview a couple weeks back (a friend's leaving do in the office over-ran till 2.30am, I was on air at 8am), the last-minute prop buying and have been the one-man box office for the Cambridge dates. And, although we have accommodation sorted for Edinburgh and tonight's 2 preview performances of the show both selling out very quickly, there's still plenty to be worried about. For starters, the flyers (all 3000 of them) haven't arrived yet, and it's Tuesday today, and we travel on Friday, and without flyers you really don't have a show...also, Vaughan's son had swine flu last week - and without our master acting genius Vaughan we really don't have a show...and then there's the whole not entirely knowing what your venue is going to be like situation. We basically arrive at the venue on Saturday, 15 minutes before the first fringe performance, not having seen even a picture of the space we're going to be performing in, that bit is a little scary. I've tried doing my research on the venue and I keep finding myself reading reviews about how terrible the beer is, how rude the staff are, and how the food gives people poisoning. So, I'm not going to be sleeping too easy any time soon until I know exactly what we're dealing with. In the meantime, the premiere of the show tonight - I'm both terrified and thrilled at the same time, which is a confusing mindset to be in.

On the music side of things the Matt Corrall Band will be releasing their debut album on the 15th September, with me on drums and on my Cracking Tunes record label (artwork is attached to this post, video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5uP__3Q468). Played the Secret Garden Party festival a couple weeks back with The Damsons and, despite all the hype surrounding this 'major' festival it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Playing a festival with 16,000 attendees is great, but not when only about 8 of them are watching you, and 3 of them didn't really give a sh*t. The organisation of the festival, from an artist point of view, is totally shocking - how hard can it be to direct us to the right car park? We were driving around for hours. It did actually look like a great festival though, from an audience perspective, but surely basic staff training wouldn't have gone amiss. Meanwhile, gigs with Damsons, Eureka Stockade and Dear Old Blighty all on the horizon, I do feel the need to actually sit down and work out what band is working properly for my needs at the moment, I'm not convinced I'm actually 'getting anywhere' anymore, but lets get the theatre stuff out the way first.

All this fun is happening whilst I'm trying to negotiate with various agents about taking me on as a playwright, and, perhaps the most difficult thing is trying to select my fantasy football team for the new season - Defoe and Adebayor up front? I very much think so.

Currently listening to: Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (on repeat, about 8 hours a day)

Gig report - SGP 09

Date: 23rd July 2009
Band: The Damsons
Venue: The Secret Garden Party
Type Of Gig: Festival (major)
Venue Vibe: Hippie
Audience: Where were they?
Set List: Dark Outside, Show Me The Way, In The Meantime, Hold Me, Going Places, Goodnight Baby, Be True.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

It's all good, things are getting exciting in my small little world:

SECRET GARDEN PARTY: Playing tomorrow with The Damsons, the rehearsals and warm-up gig have been good, there's a nice vibe in the band. I'm looking forward to playing in front of a decent-sized audience, playing on a big stage, and eating those festival burgers, it is simply what I live for.

EDINBURGH FRINGE: The show seems to be in remarkably good hands. I've not made it to a rehearsal for a while due to other busy stuff, but our director Pam seems incredibly upbeat about it all. Cracking cast, cracking director, my best script yet, finally - have I got it right? Well, there's every chance people will hate it, but that's another fear for another day. And the first Cambridge warm-up date is 2 tickets away from selling out too, hurrah.

BLUES ALBUM RECORDING: Got sent the first mixed track from the Matt Corrall album last night that we recorded a few weeks back. Now, I know we played well, but considering it was a live recording in a small room I wasn't expecting much in the form of audio quality. But B L I M E Y - Marto has done a cracking job, sounds crystal clear, and very, very releasable. Hurrah, again.

It will wear off, this optimism, but for now I'm bouncing along nicely, thank you.

First Damsons gig

Been an odd week that one, had so much time to achieve stuff but my body seems to have demanded a bit of a break, and alas, I've spent a few evenings simply drinking beer and wading through classic episodes of 'Rising Damp', which is still unrivalled for me in it's simplicity - better than the original Reggie Perrin? I'm not sure, perhaps shouldn't even be having this argument with myself, but either way the comic timing of Leonard Rossiter is probably something we'll never see again. So, a lazy one then, which almost makes me feel a little guilty because those brilliant actor types are working incredibly hard, so I hear, on the Edinburgh show, it's creeping up - I'm getting all excited. Have found the time though to work on the first couple of chapters of an exciting novel idea that has been buzzing around my head for a while now, more soon once I actually feel like I've got a 'product' to shout about.

First gig tonight with The Damsons, the band I've been rehearsing with for the last month or so. The show doubled up as both a warm-up for next week's Secret Garden Party festival slot, and also as part of a charity night for under privileged children in Ecuador. Not the first charity that springs to mind to be honest, but fair play to them - once I listened to the organiser (who I think was called Sarah, although she could be an Emma, or a Kate? Whoever she was, she was very friendly and kindly gave me a nice bottle of wine for playing) chat about the difficulties that surround the lives of these young adults I felt guilty about stressing about my own rather worrying financial situation - it's easy to say so, but we've got it easy, really, and it was nothing but a pleasure to be part of such a worthy event. The night itself was slightly scary - I'm no snob but Romsey Labour Club, on Mill Road in Cambridge, is a fucking scary place. I'm amazed my car was still there by the end of it, without any scratches (apart from the one I did to it in another curb-related incident on the way out), and some of the locals didn't look like they were going to be in to it. Amazingly, they were, and we played to a rowdy, but ultimately supportive audience who made us feel like we did well tonight. Did we actually play well? I think we did, you know, certainly better than a band who has only had a handful of rehearsals anyway. The Damsons are growing on me in a big way, as people - all of them are frankly lovely, and I'm starting to enjoy to myself/relax a bit with them more and more often. This is why I love being in bands - people are, just generally, a bit great. So, first gig out of the way - felt like a home tie, next week The Secret Garden Party gig is a whole different kettle of fish altogether, as much as I never understood that term.

Also, from now on I'm going to try and keep a record of the setlists from the gigs that I play; gigs are a strange one, I do so many and they can easily get forgotten, obsolete in a world of other shows, and yet each show is so individual at the same time and it would be wrong for all the effort to go to waste with out remembering it somehow. So, quickly, match report of tonight's show is below:

Date: 18th July 2009
Band: The Damsons
Venue: Romsey Labour Club, Cambridge
Type Of Gig: Charity gig
Venue Vibe: Phoenix Nights
Audience: Scary, but nice
Set List: Dark Outside, Show Me The Way, In The Meantime, Hold Me, Going Places, Desperately, Goodnight Baby, Be True.

"That's not the blues"

There's really only one thing better than a plan coming together, and that's when there isn't really a plan but it still turns into something rather lovely. That was very much the case on Saturday; the recording of Matt Corrall's harmonica-led album. To say we had very little idea of what we were actually going to record was understatement, the rehearsal on Wednesday night (which only featured half the band) was good fun - but let's face it, it was just a jam with very little structure. Having lost a bassist during the week, we called around and, at stupidly short notice (Friday afternoon) were lucky enough to secure the services of Mr. Marcus Hood. But there was still no set agenda - apart from to record a whole album, live, in the space of 8 hours, that showcases the impeccable harmonica playing of the boy Corrall. Naturally, our plans leant towards simple 12 bar blues, because you don't need to rehearse that at all. But Saturday sooned turned into something all the more brilliant, if I may be so arrogant to suggest such a thing without listening to the final mixes. My old chum Marto Randle was our engineer for the day, Matt had a case full of harmonicas, Kerry (Dear Old Blighty) was in genius mode, Claudia McKenzie from The Winter Kings guested on bass for 2 hours, Marcus was generally very chatty, I drank lots of caffeine, and all in all great things were created. Maybe it was because Matt, Marcus and myself had appalling hangovers (well, me and Matt did, Marcus really should of done if he didn't) following our "couple of beers" on Friday night to discuss the project. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because you can lock 6 above average musicians in a small room in Huntingdon for 8 hours and it's either a case of creating mass tune-age, or sitting in silence. Whatever it was, we're very proud of the project - 12 songs nailed, fusing very different genres, from psychedelic rock to good old fashioned piano-led New Orleans jazz. Claudia, a blues bassist by trade, was very quick to say "that's not the blues" on a couple of occasions, but none of us had a problem with that. What we've created will never rip the charts apart, but would certainly serve as a fascinating instrumental soundtrack to an eerie movie, and it's a credit to Matt's playing that I was never bored with the noises he was creating, despite being limited to about 20 mouth organs. That twinkly keyboard song Kerry had up his sleeve that we recorded right at the end was nothing short of beautiful, if you're a Guillemots fan...

Otherwise, a nice enough weekend. Last night Rob Toulson's party in Cambridge was a joy to attend, particularly the bongo and didgeridoo jam with Bill 'The Legend' Campbell. Today saw 'Bruno' in the cinema; the more I think about it the more I like it, at the time though I was too distracted by cringing, in a being entertained way.

I actually have a day off work tomorrow, I just fancied some sleep as I don't seem to get much these days. If the sleep thing doesn't work, I'm gonna write a masterpiece instead, we'll see. I think I'm acting arrogant over the last few days and I'm not sure why, probably because I'm excited about things generally. If I tell people my arrogance is merely because I'm insecure, that makes it okay, yeah?