Band: The British IBM
Venue: Hope And Anchor, London
Date: 23/09/12
Audience: Friendly
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Animal, Sugar Water, The British IBM, Cannibal, 3 Years, Washing Machine
Notes: We've been reluctant to play London recently, preferring instead to play in other cities/towns in the country where we could make more of a mark, but the chance to headline this prestigious venue was too good to turn down. Great performance space, nice house kit to play on, good sound on and off the stage, managed to get the train in from the small village I live in and meet the guys at Kings Cross - it was such an easy gig to do. That was possibly the reason why we were just a little bit slack - some good friends were there (Rob, Matt, Izzy, James) so a little alcohol indulgence was in order, and we all came off stage knowing that we hadn't really played that well. The thing is, as I've said before, we know we're a really strong band - we've been gigging a while now with two tours and we're very rehearsed, so even when we're not quite hitting our full stride we put on a good show and those who were there to watch us really seemed to love it. I just know how good we can be, if my memory serves me correctly I dropped three beats in the whole gig - but that's three beats more than I should have dropped, it's just good enough. Apart from our actual slightly ramshackle performance it was a really nice evening though.
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Gig report: Trevor Jones @ Black Bull Festival, Godmanchester
Band: Trevor Jones
Venue: The Black Bull Festival, Godmanchester
Date: 15/09/12
Audience: Drunk, brilliant
Set: Not sure of the order - usual set with the omission of Solid Ground
Notes: This was a really brilliant gig - and even more so because on arrival they looked like the kind of audience who wouldn't like us. The festival, held at our regular venue of The Black Bull, had been on since 1pm, so by the time we went on - 8.20pm, a majority of the audience were hammered. Although there were plenty of acoustic acts on the bill, a lot of the bands on our stage - the electric stage, were of a heavier rock vibe, and somehow I just felt our acoustic-led pop would unsettle the audience. I was proved wrong though as they got into it from the start, and as a trio (Trev, Tony and myself) we really got into it, more so than we have done in ages, can't work out why - sometimes an audience like that just helps things. The sound on and off stage was great, the kit was lovely to play and I really hit my stride, it was just a really fantastic little gig to play and Allan's Promotions deserve credit for running it so well. We've been in the studio for the last couple of nights recording and haven't quite hit that level of performance again I feel, but the sessions continue again soon and I've got a sneaky, and slightly arrogant, feeling that we will.
Venue: The Black Bull Festival, Godmanchester
Date: 15/09/12
Audience: Drunk, brilliant
Set: Not sure of the order - usual set with the omission of Solid Ground
Notes: This was a really brilliant gig - and even more so because on arrival they looked like the kind of audience who wouldn't like us. The festival, held at our regular venue of The Black Bull, had been on since 1pm, so by the time we went on - 8.20pm, a majority of the audience were hammered. Although there were plenty of acoustic acts on the bill, a lot of the bands on our stage - the electric stage, were of a heavier rock vibe, and somehow I just felt our acoustic-led pop would unsettle the audience. I was proved wrong though as they got into it from the start, and as a trio (Trev, Tony and myself) we really got into it, more so than we have done in ages, can't work out why - sometimes an audience like that just helps things. The sound on and off stage was great, the kit was lovely to play and I really hit my stride, it was just a really fantastic little gig to play and Allan's Promotions deserve credit for running it so well. We've been in the studio for the last couple of nights recording and haven't quite hit that level of performance again I feel, but the sessions continue again soon and I've got a sneaky, and slightly arrogant, feeling that we will.
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Recording times
After a summer of dashing about everywhere it feels really good to be drumming in the studio again. See, as much as I love the thrill of live work (as a musician, writer, actor) there's always a sad sense that when it's done, it's done - with no or very little record of it. Now though I enter a few months where I'll be on stage less and recording more - and as a writer we (Izzy and myself) will be focusing more on radio projects. A good recording can go a long way - I'm really proud to be on the British IBM album - my dad believes it's the best thing I've ever been on and my dad is always right, yet that was one of the very few studio sessions I've done this year, unlike 2011 when I was seemingly in the studio all the time.
This weekend we recorded the backing music for a Christmas album I'm devising. Can't go into too many details about the concept of the project (for many reasons, the main one being I haven't finished writing it yet and it's likely to change a million times before I feel comfortable), but it is effectively a theatre/music crossover (but not a musical), utilising some classic Christmas tunes nicely rearranged as the backing track to the drama. For this I called upon a few good friends who also happen to be outstanding musicians; Alister Bunclark, Clare Calder and Steve Calder, and, aided by Una the enthusiastic puppy, we recorded the music in one fairly lengthy, live session. Alister, Clare and Steve really are brilliant musicians - and so versatile too, and on the record we have piano, double bass, strings, flute, saxophone alongside my percussion...I don't think 'Jingle Bells' has ever sounded so worldly. Felt slightly strange recording Christmas songs in early September, but it also felt bloody good.
A couple days later I was back in the studio recording with Louise and producer Rob for the new Flaming June EP. This one really is a quite dramatic leap (in places) from the last EP, but I now get why Louise has done this - the last EP was very successful and even won an award but why replicate it? It's sounding brilliant (quite a lot has been done already), the folk roots are still very much there but it just feels more electric (whilst remaining largely acoustic), it's sounding big already. On top of the congas I've added a bass drum, snare, hi-hat and ride cymbal - so yep, a full kit, but all recorded separately as each one is being treated as an individual percussional sound in the mix. I think this EP will be a while yet as everything is being done carefully, but it will really be worth the wait.
Next week work continues on the Trevor Jones album back at Half Ton with the most patient engineer on the planet, Matty Moon, and there's also the new Eureka Stockade album in the pipeline - Rob and Andy have 16 new songs, and at some point I'll be in to drum all over them, marvellous stuff.
Anyway, best get back to trying to learn how to cook. Since coming back from the fringe I feel refreshed and looking forward to some new creative challenges, with a new website, the launch of the new theatre company (Fat Fox) with Izzy which will be amazing, finally getting my novel out there, some new plays, some new recordings and yep, going to try and cook too. That's the bit I'm really struggling with to be honest, but we all knew that was going to be the case, yes?
This weekend we recorded the backing music for a Christmas album I'm devising. Can't go into too many details about the concept of the project (for many reasons, the main one being I haven't finished writing it yet and it's likely to change a million times before I feel comfortable), but it is effectively a theatre/music crossover (but not a musical), utilising some classic Christmas tunes nicely rearranged as the backing track to the drama. For this I called upon a few good friends who also happen to be outstanding musicians; Alister Bunclark, Clare Calder and Steve Calder, and, aided by Una the enthusiastic puppy, we recorded the music in one fairly lengthy, live session. Alister, Clare and Steve really are brilliant musicians - and so versatile too, and on the record we have piano, double bass, strings, flute, saxophone alongside my percussion...I don't think 'Jingle Bells' has ever sounded so worldly. Felt slightly strange recording Christmas songs in early September, but it also felt bloody good.
A couple days later I was back in the studio recording with Louise and producer Rob for the new Flaming June EP. This one really is a quite dramatic leap (in places) from the last EP, but I now get why Louise has done this - the last EP was very successful and even won an award but why replicate it? It's sounding brilliant (quite a lot has been done already), the folk roots are still very much there but it just feels more electric (whilst remaining largely acoustic), it's sounding big already. On top of the congas I've added a bass drum, snare, hi-hat and ride cymbal - so yep, a full kit, but all recorded separately as each one is being treated as an individual percussional sound in the mix. I think this EP will be a while yet as everything is being done carefully, but it will really be worth the wait.
Next week work continues on the Trevor Jones album back at Half Ton with the most patient engineer on the planet, Matty Moon, and there's also the new Eureka Stockade album in the pipeline - Rob and Andy have 16 new songs, and at some point I'll be in to drum all over them, marvellous stuff.
Anyway, best get back to trying to learn how to cook. Since coming back from the fringe I feel refreshed and looking forward to some new creative challenges, with a new website, the launch of the new theatre company (Fat Fox) with Izzy which will be amazing, finally getting my novel out there, some new plays, some new recordings and yep, going to try and cook too. That's the bit I'm really struggling with to be honest, but we all knew that was going to be the case, yes?
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Gig report: Jon Orchard @ The Royal Oak, St Ives
Band:
Jon Orchard (acoustic duo)
Venue: The Royal Oak, St Ives
Date: 09/09/12
Audience: Lively
Set: Lots of covers
Notes: A nice if rare gig with Mr Orchard. Sunday night gigs are always a tricky one - half of the audience are there for a quiet drink to conclude the weekend, the other half are getting hammered to try and forget about the impending Monday. Either way, everyone seemed to enjoy it - mostly thanks to Jon's choice of songs, he has a repertoire that consists of real crowd pleasers and from a percussionists point of a view it was a pretty easy gig to play musically. Hard work at times though because it was such a long show, but when you're playing good songs, with a good fellow musician, in front of a lively crowd the time just flies by.
Venue: The Royal Oak, St Ives
Date: 09/09/12
Audience: Lively
Set: Lots of covers
Notes: A nice if rare gig with Mr Orchard. Sunday night gigs are always a tricky one - half of the audience are there for a quiet drink to conclude the weekend, the other half are getting hammered to try and forget about the impending Monday. Either way, everyone seemed to enjoy it - mostly thanks to Jon's choice of songs, he has a repertoire that consists of real crowd pleasers and from a percussionists point of a view it was a pretty easy gig to play musically. Hard work at times though because it was such a long show, but when you're playing good songs, with a good fellow musician, in front of a lively crowd the time just flies by.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Lodestar Festival 2012
The Lodestar Festival is awesome - it's a growing music festival just outside of Cambridge that I have the privilege of being the Director Of Theatre for. I'm not long back from spending the whole of my weekend at this year's event and once again I'm just amazed by how lovely the whole festival is, so incredibly friendly. This is my third year with Lodestar and in short my role is to book the comedy/theatre acts for the second stage - I'd like to think that every year our line-up is getting just a little bit better and although I was honestly worried about how this one would work out it really did, brilliantly. My fears were that we had to re-schedule a couple of the acts at really short notice, such short notice that programmes had been printed already with the wrong information (it's a festival - it's bound to happen sometimes with this many acts), but there were no worries really at the end of the day - we put plenty of acts on, people walked in to our tent and enjoyed them. The tent this year was a circus style big-top tent and was absolutely perfect - a good distance from the main stage so no chance of being drowned out by the bands, and undercover so no chance of being drowned in the rain.
Alongside booking the non-music stuff, two of my own pieces were performed; There's Absolutely Nothing Wrong With Oscar Pike on the Saturday, and You Don't Miss Your Water today - Sunday. This has always been scheduled as the final performance of this Oscar show - having started our little adventure a couple months back in Bristol before Cambridge (twice), London and of course the Edinburgh Fringe, it's a show that really has developed nicely along the way. Saturday felt like a challenge at first - due to the size of the stage (huge), the distance between us and the audience, and due to both of these things the fact that we had to do the show with radio mics so we would be heard. That's a first for me as a performer, and it took a couple minutes to adjust, but we soon settled into it. In a strange kind of way it felt like an important performance - there was a pretty big crowd there to watch us, bigger than any of the previous showings, yet we hadn't rehearsed since the fringe. But we know this show inside out now and if anything it was one of our most comfortable performances yet, even if (in the final scene where I knock the 'David' picture over) I did smash the photo frame with glass everywhere, that almost felt like a spectacular conclusion to this production. Izzy and Grace were both fantastic - they seemed relaxed enough pretty much straight from the start. Waiting before the show, in character (ie; in my pyjamas) I looked at the audience and there was a real sense of expectation in the air, I found out later on our play was announced on the main stage by the lovely people at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire who recommended us, hence why we suddenly had a big turnout. As I was pacing about around the back, people in the audience could see us and a couple even took pictures; difficult to explain but for the first time I actually felt like a 'proper' performer, this was a 'proper' act, that people wanted to see. I got a buzz out of that. I don't think there can be any more Oscar Pike shows though unless I suddenly get a big idea, feels like I've done all I can with this character. Either way, it went down well, and quite a few strangers (including a random bunch of girls who approached me later in the evening at the festival) praised the quality of the piece. A good day for my ego.
Today we debuted a comedy musical I had written as a vehicle for Bristol-based blues band, The Outlines. This has been on the cards for a while now, The Outlines were keen to play the festival so I suggested that I write a script to go alongside their awesome tunes and we can make a proper theatre show out of it. I only know one Outline - the legendary Matt Corrall, but the whole band went along with this idea. I then kind of ran out of time when it came to writing the script, and although the format and structure had been knocking about in my head for a couple weeks I didn't finish writing the thing until the early hours of Thursday morning. It took 6 hours to write...it shouldn't have worked really, but 'You Don't Miss Your Water' really did. A majority of the cast, and the band, only saw the script for the first time yesterday morning, that was how tight we were cutting things...we had a slightly worrying run-through on a patch of field before Oscar Pike, and then this morning did the same thing again, with most of us having hangovers. The rehearsals - well, I think 'rehearsals' is probably an exaggeration, these were just a chance to get vaguely familiar with the script, were worrying. So why did it work in the performance? Simple really; The Outlines are a brilliant - and more importantly, likable, band that have songs that work so well in this medium, and we had a cracking cast of Izzy, Abi, Alan, Vaughan and Kevin, who were just so open to the 'anything can happen' nature of this show, a joy to work with. There were glimmers of really, really perfect moments in the production, mostly thanks to Vaughan's slightly erratic dancing, and none of which were apparent in the rehearsal, and the band were super-tight, that was apparent in the rehearsal. Yeah, it was thrown together at short notice and could have looked that way to some of the audience, but with a lot of enthusiasm and charm that made me proud. And I have to admit, considering it only took 6 hours to write, I was rather happy with the script - it's as cheesy as anything, but with some nice lines and serves it's purpose perfectly. But in lesser hands it wouldn't have worked - with The Outlines and that cast it did, but then again if you put that much talent on one stage you can't really fail, can you?
Not that it was all about us/me of course; our stage was littered with treats. Helen Arney, in particular - I know she's a mate so I'm biased, but she was outstanding on Saturday, playing at midday it could have gone either way but she played a truely delightful set and the audience lapped it up. Other great stuff - Custard Comedy (a really fine range of new comedians), Rosie Wilby, The Cambridge Improv Factory, The Gamlingay Players. We also caught a bit of Bob Geldof's headline set on the main stage, and watched some burlesque which made me feel all awkward.
Over the years I've started to go off music festivals, big and small, mostly because they're hard work sometimes - they get overcrowded, rowdy, uncomfortable. But Lodestar is different - it is without question the nicest festival in the country, with really good quality acts (gutted that due to my comittments I couldn't really catch much of the music on the main stage but whenever I did pass it looked wonderful, The Go Team on Friday night were outstanding), and all the simple things we forget about like reasonably priced beer and plenty of different food options. It's a festival where you can stretch out a bit, it's on a really attractive site and it's run by geniuene, honest people. And selfishly, it's a great creative outlet for me too - Doug the director gives me a lot of freedom to book the acts I want and to put on my own work, and I'm grateful for this. I'm also knackered though as it kicks into life four days after the Edinburgh Fringe, and tonight - our final night - we chickened out and left at 6pm, my brain is frazzled from a manic couple of weeks and I admit - I've run out of steam. My friends are as nice as the festival by the way, whilst I've been running around worrying about the acts they do great things like set up my tent for me, and even take it down, it's almost like they know I'm not a typical outdoor type.
I think I'm happy right now, I'm knackered but when I wake up a bit I think I'll realise I am happy - it's been a good couple of months what with the musical, the tour, the fringe, the festival. It's weird not suddenly having to dash about somewhere, my inbox is cleared for the first time this year. Time for new projects, I have many ideas both theatrically and musically, and many ideas of who I want to do them with. And Christmas seems to be creeping up on us too...this quiet period won't last for long, phew!
Alongside booking the non-music stuff, two of my own pieces were performed; There's Absolutely Nothing Wrong With Oscar Pike on the Saturday, and You Don't Miss Your Water today - Sunday. This has always been scheduled as the final performance of this Oscar show - having started our little adventure a couple months back in Bristol before Cambridge (twice), London and of course the Edinburgh Fringe, it's a show that really has developed nicely along the way. Saturday felt like a challenge at first - due to the size of the stage (huge), the distance between us and the audience, and due to both of these things the fact that we had to do the show with radio mics so we would be heard. That's a first for me as a performer, and it took a couple minutes to adjust, but we soon settled into it. In a strange kind of way it felt like an important performance - there was a pretty big crowd there to watch us, bigger than any of the previous showings, yet we hadn't rehearsed since the fringe. But we know this show inside out now and if anything it was one of our most comfortable performances yet, even if (in the final scene where I knock the 'David' picture over) I did smash the photo frame with glass everywhere, that almost felt like a spectacular conclusion to this production. Izzy and Grace were both fantastic - they seemed relaxed enough pretty much straight from the start. Waiting before the show, in character (ie; in my pyjamas) I looked at the audience and there was a real sense of expectation in the air, I found out later on our play was announced on the main stage by the lovely people at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire who recommended us, hence why we suddenly had a big turnout. As I was pacing about around the back, people in the audience could see us and a couple even took pictures; difficult to explain but for the first time I actually felt like a 'proper' performer, this was a 'proper' act, that people wanted to see. I got a buzz out of that. I don't think there can be any more Oscar Pike shows though unless I suddenly get a big idea, feels like I've done all I can with this character. Either way, it went down well, and quite a few strangers (including a random bunch of girls who approached me later in the evening at the festival) praised the quality of the piece. A good day for my ego.
Today we debuted a comedy musical I had written as a vehicle for Bristol-based blues band, The Outlines. This has been on the cards for a while now, The Outlines were keen to play the festival so I suggested that I write a script to go alongside their awesome tunes and we can make a proper theatre show out of it. I only know one Outline - the legendary Matt Corrall, but the whole band went along with this idea. I then kind of ran out of time when it came to writing the script, and although the format and structure had been knocking about in my head for a couple weeks I didn't finish writing the thing until the early hours of Thursday morning. It took 6 hours to write...it shouldn't have worked really, but 'You Don't Miss Your Water' really did. A majority of the cast, and the band, only saw the script for the first time yesterday morning, that was how tight we were cutting things...we had a slightly worrying run-through on a patch of field before Oscar Pike, and then this morning did the same thing again, with most of us having hangovers. The rehearsals - well, I think 'rehearsals' is probably an exaggeration, these were just a chance to get vaguely familiar with the script, were worrying. So why did it work in the performance? Simple really; The Outlines are a brilliant - and more importantly, likable, band that have songs that work so well in this medium, and we had a cracking cast of Izzy, Abi, Alan, Vaughan and Kevin, who were just so open to the 'anything can happen' nature of this show, a joy to work with. There were glimmers of really, really perfect moments in the production, mostly thanks to Vaughan's slightly erratic dancing, and none of which were apparent in the rehearsal, and the band were super-tight, that was apparent in the rehearsal. Yeah, it was thrown together at short notice and could have looked that way to some of the audience, but with a lot of enthusiasm and charm that made me proud. And I have to admit, considering it only took 6 hours to write, I was rather happy with the script - it's as cheesy as anything, but with some nice lines and serves it's purpose perfectly. But in lesser hands it wouldn't have worked - with The Outlines and that cast it did, but then again if you put that much talent on one stage you can't really fail, can you?
Not that it was all about us/me of course; our stage was littered with treats. Helen Arney, in particular - I know she's a mate so I'm biased, but she was outstanding on Saturday, playing at midday it could have gone either way but she played a truely delightful set and the audience lapped it up. Other great stuff - Custard Comedy (a really fine range of new comedians), Rosie Wilby, The Cambridge Improv Factory, The Gamlingay Players. We also caught a bit of Bob Geldof's headline set on the main stage, and watched some burlesque which made me feel all awkward.
Over the years I've started to go off music festivals, big and small, mostly because they're hard work sometimes - they get overcrowded, rowdy, uncomfortable. But Lodestar is different - it is without question the nicest festival in the country, with really good quality acts (gutted that due to my comittments I couldn't really catch much of the music on the main stage but whenever I did pass it looked wonderful, The Go Team on Friday night were outstanding), and all the simple things we forget about like reasonably priced beer and plenty of different food options. It's a festival where you can stretch out a bit, it's on a really attractive site and it's run by geniuene, honest people. And selfishly, it's a great creative outlet for me too - Doug the director gives me a lot of freedom to book the acts I want and to put on my own work, and I'm grateful for this. I'm also knackered though as it kicks into life four days after the Edinburgh Fringe, and tonight - our final night - we chickened out and left at 6pm, my brain is frazzled from a manic couple of weeks and I admit - I've run out of steam. My friends are as nice as the festival by the way, whilst I've been running around worrying about the acts they do great things like set up my tent for me, and even take it down, it's almost like they know I'm not a typical outdoor type.
I think I'm happy right now, I'm knackered but when I wake up a bit I think I'll realise I am happy - it's been a good couple of months what with the musical, the tour, the fringe, the festival. It's weird not suddenly having to dash about somewhere, my inbox is cleared for the first time this year. Time for new projects, I have many ideas both theatrically and musically, and many ideas of who I want to do them with. And Christmas seems to be creeping up on us too...this quiet period won't last for long, phew!
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Edinburgh Fringe 2012
Well...where do I start? I've not long woken up from a 14 hour sleep, I didn't think I had the ability to do that, but the Edinburgh Fringe has done that to me. In a good way. We were only up there for eight days, but the fringe is a special place - as an audience member it's probably the only place to be in August, the festival itself is the greatest show on earth and within it contains lots of other little greatest shows on earth. As a performer/writer/anybody part of a show, it is all of those things with an added emotional rollercoaster of magical moments and periods of great frustration, all concluding in a week which you weren't quite sure worked for you or not but can't wait to do again.
Arriving in cloudy Edinburgh on Sunday morning (Izzy and myself stayed in a Travel Lodge in Newcastle the night before to make the long drive slightly more comfortable, Grace and Michelle travelled separately by train) we checked into our lovely, if small, accommodation and headed over to our venue. I really like Sweet Venues, they are under different management now to when I was last with them (with a show called The Knowledge Of Beauty all of those years ago...I feel old) and it has a more of a family vibe to it all now, JD the boss is a very organised and friendly chap who made us feel very welcome, and the spaces themselves are a joy to perform in - perfect size, with comfortable seating for the audience, the sound quality is good, the stage size offers enough space to perform the pieces as intended whilst still feeling intimate. I'm by no means an experienced performer, but I felt instantly at home on that stage. We went for late drinks to catch up with friends, most of whom who are involved in other shows, then I got a bit touchy and snappy because I wanted to go home and sleep before an early morning tech on the Monday and it was getting late. Izzy and Michelle found me acting touchy rather funny, as they've never seen touchy Paul before. I wasn't functioning properly the next morning, having a tech at 9am having slept quite badly on the floor in the flat the night before didn't put me in the best of mindsets but it went smoothly enough and I was fine after a Red Bull and packet of Monster Munch. The Greatest Goal tech, which was just after, served as a dress rehearsal for Grace too, but looked great. A couple hours later, Greatest Goal premiered in front of a modest audience, but went down well, wasn't aware that Grace was going to do this in a Welsh accent (I hadn't been at the rehearsals and Michelle (the director) and her decided on this) and it was brilliant, injected more charm into the whole of the second half of the show. After briefly flyering the Royal Mile in my pyjamas (the fringe is probably the only place where you can go out into the streets dressed in your jim-jams and nobody bats and eyelid) it was the first Edinburgh performance of the new Oscar Pike show. We had friends in, my sister and her boyfriend were in, the press were in...whilst by far not the tightest it's been, it had plenty of energy and no major cock-ups, people laughed when they were supposed to, we were happy enough so got drunk to celebrate this fact.
There has been much said in the media about the demise of the fringe this year. Okay, demise is a bit strong, but it's struggled a bit. Numbers have been down, even established acts like Richard Herring haven't been selling out, which is unthinkable. As usual there are a couple of 'buzz' acts that you can't get tickets for no matter how hard you've tried - David Trent (a friend of mine), Pappy's, Daniel Kitson - but quite a few of the bigger acts were suffering a bit for audiences. Many have theories on why this is - somebody said to me at the end of run party on Sunday evening that it was because the fringe relies a lot on international visitors and, because of the Olympics, flights into the UK were so much more expensive so that put them off. A few people believe it's simply because it's been a busy summer for Great Britian - all the sport, how much money, and leave, and energy do people have? Alan our soundman extraordinaire believes it's deeper than a one-year blip and that the model of the whole fringe is changing, and going back to basics. With about 40% of the fringe being free, why would people pay to see a show? There really is much to be said either way about that, he has a point though - there's still a recession, people don't have money at the end of the day.
It was clear very early on that both of our shows were going to struggle, because, probably of all of the reasons above combined, but also because (as Izzy pointed out) we didn't really have a marketing strategy. No 'really' about it, really. Gone are the days when flyering with a little charm on the Royal Mile was enough to convince people to come to your shows. The flyering didn't work at all this year - maybe I'm just not charming any more. Felt like we were the only people without a review on our flyers because we didn't have one to put on there (the danger of only doing a limited run, and also because we didn't get any reviewers in to the previews because we were so unsure about the quality of production at the time so didn't invite any press). We had three reviewers in for Oscar Pike during the week - the one that came on the first performance (he laughed a lot and I'm confident about this one - review hasn't emerged anywhere yet though), one that came on the second performance which was a TERRIBLE DAY where the reviewer was one of only two people in the audience (the other being our friend Mary who had already seen the show in Cambridge but still found it in her to laugh at the same jokes again, top lady) and it was the worst we've ever performed the play - we had been working so hard to flyer and get the numbers up that we were knackered before the play even started...also, it's really hard to say monologues to the audience about 'the lady league' and other blokey things when the audience is made up of two women - at one point I said a whole monologue to an empty chair. Annoyingly, that's the only review that has been published so far, it wasn't the nicest but said some nice-ish things about the piece - if I was a reviewer that day I would have ripped us apart. We also had a journalist in for the fourth performance, he laughed a lot and it was a good day, but again - nothing has been printed yet, maybe it'll be out there soon. One reviewer was scheduled for Greatest Goal, but never turned up, which was a shame because it was mid-run and Grace was really hitting her stride by then.
Wednesday felt like a new low for me as a fringe producer...that day's performance of Oscar Pike was cancelled because we hadn't sold a single ticket. And that was despite my meeting the night before with the lovely Lynne - marketing manager at Sweet, who let me invent any offer I wanted to get people in. That day we decided to go half price and flyered our amazing offer like crazy, but nothing. Greatest Goal did go ahead earlier that day to three people, all of whom loved it, but for Oscar - nothing. The most painful thing about this is knowing that you've not sold any tickets but having to put up the set and be in costume just in case somebody decides to turn up at the last minute. They didn't, so I'm sat in an empty venue, in my pyjamas, feeling like a loser, being called "grumpy pants" by the others. I wanted to go back to the flat to sulk and watch TV, but the others wouldn't let me as it's Grace's birthday and besides - there wasn't a TV in the flat anyway. In six years at the fringe, this was a first. It won't happen again. I had cheered up later in the evening, we celebrated Grace's new age by seeing Piff The Magic Dragon (one the funniest things I have ever seen at the fringe - choking with laughter) and Andrew Lawrence, and drinking in the Pleasence courtyard until the early hours. We spent a lot of time in the Pleasence courtyard - it's my favourite place at the fringe, vibrant, colourful, lots of space, and a good place to spot the odd celebrity (one night we saw Simon Amstell, Tim Vine and Richard Bacon all loitering, and I got introduced to comedian Nick Helme by David Trent at the bar but foolishly didn't know who he was - the next morning Izzy was telling me what a fan of his she is and I felt a bit daft).
Thankfully the rest of the performances of Oscar did happen - in fact the next day we EIGHT people in, yeah, get us. That was because we had the show for sale in the Half Price Hut though I think. Greatest Goal ticked over nicely with small audiences but Grace knew exactly how to handle them completely, such a good actress. She deserved a bigger audience for her performance though, she deserved some kind of recognition for this, as does Michelle for directing it so well - monologues can be boring, they made them lovely and interesting to watch. In the penultimate performance of Oscar there was five people in, one of which was my ex-girlfriend. Awkward! It was pointed out to us by someone at the venue that everyone who came out of both shows during the week were smiling/still laughing, and looked like they had really enjoyed the productions. Not being arrogant or anything, but that's because these shows are good, a lot of time and care had gone into them. But as I've already touched on earlier in this post, having a good show isn't enough these days - but we'll learn from this. Our marketing strategy was flawed this year. Well, we didn't have one. Next year we'll have one. Did I just say we're doing another show next year? Hhhhmmm, let's have a think about this.
The final Oscar was beautifully surreal - twenty people in, quite a few of them children...Oscar isn't a kids show, it has the words 'fuck' and 'wanker' in it quite a lot. 'Fuck' was replaced by either strained facial expressions to express my frustration or 'sod' when it came to 'fuck off'. 'Wanker' was replaced by 'prat' - which apparently is the most hilarious word in the world if you're under 10. Ironically, Oscar Pike's fringe farewell went down a storm, maybe family-friendly is the way forward? Yeah, right! Got away with it anyway, and nice to end on a high, we needed to, what with an eight hour car drive home the next day. At the Sweet end of fringe party/awards ceremony, which was really lovely and so nice to chat and drink with other performers, we won an award: The Realism Award For Company Name Most Frequently Used In Real Life. Realism for our company name (Get A Real Job Productions) in what was a pretty surreal fringe.
You know, staying in that small flat, I'm amazed Izzy and Grace didn't kill me - I think I may have been difficult to work with last week, I was either ratty/grumpy when things weren't going to plan ("this pointless, I'm not doing the fringe again...") or over-enthusiastic ("if we flyer lots tomorrow we can sell out and be rich and famous...") but they didn't, which demonstrates what lovely people they are. And the late night lectures/advice (they were lectures) about how to find a new girlfriend were appreciated, even if it did feel like I was being told off a bit (a lot). They're both really lovely, as is Michelle, and Alan our soundman is a dude and friend who I need to drink beer with more often.
And beyond the stress and excitement of our own shows there was of course hundreds and hundreds of other shows to see, and we saw lots in between flyering/our own productions/drinking lots, Piff The Magic Dragon topped my favourites list for the year (you should go and see this show, wherever it is and wherever you are) with Tim Key a close second with 'Masterslut' - a great, surreal show that is difficult to explain but I can't wait to see it again in Cambridge soon. I somehow ended up playing second percussion for comedian Rob Deering during his show, and Dead Cat Bounce, Rom Com Con and The Beta Males were also really great. There was also a few stinkers, but it's just not nice to list them because there's every chance there's someone else somewhere like me blogging about the fringe and I wouldn't want them to mention our shows in such a light. But...there was one evening that was totally dreadful - it was a benefit night, and was supposed to have a selection of top comedians performing. Only one of them had turned up, and sat awkwardly in the little venue we watched him explain that he was stretching this out (there wasn't even a host), we wanted to like him and go along with it but the material wasn't working - he was trying so hard, but it just wasn't. As the evening progressed and no other act turned up he started to lose the plot, and eventually the whole audience (about twenty people) were forced onto the stage to see what it's like under the lights, not allowed to sit down until we laugh, and the second comedian (who had just turned up) had to start his act sat in the empty audience. Eventually, we were freed from this weird comedy hostage situation and 'allowed' to sit down, but the second comedian was as dreadful as the first and small group by small group of people everybody ran out. Outside it was like the fire bell had just gone off - the audience in hysterics (for the first time in about 40 minutes) about how bad that was, and relieved we had managed to escape that monstrosity. It kind of all adds to the fringe experience, I guess.
Although having a 'quiet' year, the Edinburgh Fringe is the most magical place on the planet, on arrival at the top of the Royal Mile all you have to do is look down at the thousands of people, whether they be potential audience members or more than likely performers desperately wanting to entertain you. Being entertained is one of life's treats, laughing is healthy and I did a lot of that last week. We made a couple mistakes at the fringe with the planning of our shows, but equally, in retrospect, we have every right to be very proud of ourselves. Good work, team.
So, what next? Well, it's Lodestar this weekend - the final hurrah for Greatest Goal and Oscar, and there I shall be premiering a new show I'm writing for fantastic blues band called The Outlines. I should have probably been working on the script rather than spending so much time on this blog post but hey - there's still time to do a good job of it. After that I'm straight into the studio to record a Christmas album with some lovely and talented people, and some gigs and stuff, some nice gigs coming up. I should really get my novel out there too, finally, now I've got my head around this whole Kindle thing (and the ultra-arty Cara Pedder is designing me a cover), and there's talk of a radio sitcom before the Christmas show. Lots of ideas, too many ideas, as always. Whatever they may be though there's nobody I would want to work more on them with than Izzy, okay so she snaps a bit when she hasn't eaten (as I discovered), but she's annoyingly talented, has got a genuine eye for what works and what doesn't as well as fast becoming one of my best friends in the whole world, great things can be achieved. I'm not sure if she agrees, but I'll give her a few weeks of space and then start sending scripts over.
Edinburgh Fringe 2012 - done. Stressfully. Edinburgh Fringe 2013? I've had time to think about it, of course we bloody will.
Arriving in cloudy Edinburgh on Sunday morning (Izzy and myself stayed in a Travel Lodge in Newcastle the night before to make the long drive slightly more comfortable, Grace and Michelle travelled separately by train) we checked into our lovely, if small, accommodation and headed over to our venue. I really like Sweet Venues, they are under different management now to when I was last with them (with a show called The Knowledge Of Beauty all of those years ago...I feel old) and it has a more of a family vibe to it all now, JD the boss is a very organised and friendly chap who made us feel very welcome, and the spaces themselves are a joy to perform in - perfect size, with comfortable seating for the audience, the sound quality is good, the stage size offers enough space to perform the pieces as intended whilst still feeling intimate. I'm by no means an experienced performer, but I felt instantly at home on that stage. We went for late drinks to catch up with friends, most of whom who are involved in other shows, then I got a bit touchy and snappy because I wanted to go home and sleep before an early morning tech on the Monday and it was getting late. Izzy and Michelle found me acting touchy rather funny, as they've never seen touchy Paul before. I wasn't functioning properly the next morning, having a tech at 9am having slept quite badly on the floor in the flat the night before didn't put me in the best of mindsets but it went smoothly enough and I was fine after a Red Bull and packet of Monster Munch. The Greatest Goal tech, which was just after, served as a dress rehearsal for Grace too, but looked great. A couple hours later, Greatest Goal premiered in front of a modest audience, but went down well, wasn't aware that Grace was going to do this in a Welsh accent (I hadn't been at the rehearsals and Michelle (the director) and her decided on this) and it was brilliant, injected more charm into the whole of the second half of the show. After briefly flyering the Royal Mile in my pyjamas (the fringe is probably the only place where you can go out into the streets dressed in your jim-jams and nobody bats and eyelid) it was the first Edinburgh performance of the new Oscar Pike show. We had friends in, my sister and her boyfriend were in, the press were in...whilst by far not the tightest it's been, it had plenty of energy and no major cock-ups, people laughed when they were supposed to, we were happy enough so got drunk to celebrate this fact.
There has been much said in the media about the demise of the fringe this year. Okay, demise is a bit strong, but it's struggled a bit. Numbers have been down, even established acts like Richard Herring haven't been selling out, which is unthinkable. As usual there are a couple of 'buzz' acts that you can't get tickets for no matter how hard you've tried - David Trent (a friend of mine), Pappy's, Daniel Kitson - but quite a few of the bigger acts were suffering a bit for audiences. Many have theories on why this is - somebody said to me at the end of run party on Sunday evening that it was because the fringe relies a lot on international visitors and, because of the Olympics, flights into the UK were so much more expensive so that put them off. A few people believe it's simply because it's been a busy summer for Great Britian - all the sport, how much money, and leave, and energy do people have? Alan our soundman extraordinaire believes it's deeper than a one-year blip and that the model of the whole fringe is changing, and going back to basics. With about 40% of the fringe being free, why would people pay to see a show? There really is much to be said either way about that, he has a point though - there's still a recession, people don't have money at the end of the day.
It was clear very early on that both of our shows were going to struggle, because, probably of all of the reasons above combined, but also because (as Izzy pointed out) we didn't really have a marketing strategy. No 'really' about it, really. Gone are the days when flyering with a little charm on the Royal Mile was enough to convince people to come to your shows. The flyering didn't work at all this year - maybe I'm just not charming any more. Felt like we were the only people without a review on our flyers because we didn't have one to put on there (the danger of only doing a limited run, and also because we didn't get any reviewers in to the previews because we were so unsure about the quality of production at the time so didn't invite any press). We had three reviewers in for Oscar Pike during the week - the one that came on the first performance (he laughed a lot and I'm confident about this one - review hasn't emerged anywhere yet though), one that came on the second performance which was a TERRIBLE DAY where the reviewer was one of only two people in the audience (the other being our friend Mary who had already seen the show in Cambridge but still found it in her to laugh at the same jokes again, top lady) and it was the worst we've ever performed the play - we had been working so hard to flyer and get the numbers up that we were knackered before the play even started...also, it's really hard to say monologues to the audience about 'the lady league' and other blokey things when the audience is made up of two women - at one point I said a whole monologue to an empty chair. Annoyingly, that's the only review that has been published so far, it wasn't the nicest but said some nice-ish things about the piece - if I was a reviewer that day I would have ripped us apart. We also had a journalist in for the fourth performance, he laughed a lot and it was a good day, but again - nothing has been printed yet, maybe it'll be out there soon. One reviewer was scheduled for Greatest Goal, but never turned up, which was a shame because it was mid-run and Grace was really hitting her stride by then.
Wednesday felt like a new low for me as a fringe producer...that day's performance of Oscar Pike was cancelled because we hadn't sold a single ticket. And that was despite my meeting the night before with the lovely Lynne - marketing manager at Sweet, who let me invent any offer I wanted to get people in. That day we decided to go half price and flyered our amazing offer like crazy, but nothing. Greatest Goal did go ahead earlier that day to three people, all of whom loved it, but for Oscar - nothing. The most painful thing about this is knowing that you've not sold any tickets but having to put up the set and be in costume just in case somebody decides to turn up at the last minute. They didn't, so I'm sat in an empty venue, in my pyjamas, feeling like a loser, being called "grumpy pants" by the others. I wanted to go back to the flat to sulk and watch TV, but the others wouldn't let me as it's Grace's birthday and besides - there wasn't a TV in the flat anyway. In six years at the fringe, this was a first. It won't happen again. I had cheered up later in the evening, we celebrated Grace's new age by seeing Piff The Magic Dragon (one the funniest things I have ever seen at the fringe - choking with laughter) and Andrew Lawrence, and drinking in the Pleasence courtyard until the early hours. We spent a lot of time in the Pleasence courtyard - it's my favourite place at the fringe, vibrant, colourful, lots of space, and a good place to spot the odd celebrity (one night we saw Simon Amstell, Tim Vine and Richard Bacon all loitering, and I got introduced to comedian Nick Helme by David Trent at the bar but foolishly didn't know who he was - the next morning Izzy was telling me what a fan of his she is and I felt a bit daft).
Thankfully the rest of the performances of Oscar did happen - in fact the next day we EIGHT people in, yeah, get us. That was because we had the show for sale in the Half Price Hut though I think. Greatest Goal ticked over nicely with small audiences but Grace knew exactly how to handle them completely, such a good actress. She deserved a bigger audience for her performance though, she deserved some kind of recognition for this, as does Michelle for directing it so well - monologues can be boring, they made them lovely and interesting to watch. In the penultimate performance of Oscar there was five people in, one of which was my ex-girlfriend. Awkward! It was pointed out to us by someone at the venue that everyone who came out of both shows during the week were smiling/still laughing, and looked like they had really enjoyed the productions. Not being arrogant or anything, but that's because these shows are good, a lot of time and care had gone into them. But as I've already touched on earlier in this post, having a good show isn't enough these days - but we'll learn from this. Our marketing strategy was flawed this year. Well, we didn't have one. Next year we'll have one. Did I just say we're doing another show next year? Hhhhmmm, let's have a think about this.
The final Oscar was beautifully surreal - twenty people in, quite a few of them children...Oscar isn't a kids show, it has the words 'fuck' and 'wanker' in it quite a lot. 'Fuck' was replaced by either strained facial expressions to express my frustration or 'sod' when it came to 'fuck off'. 'Wanker' was replaced by 'prat' - which apparently is the most hilarious word in the world if you're under 10. Ironically, Oscar Pike's fringe farewell went down a storm, maybe family-friendly is the way forward? Yeah, right! Got away with it anyway, and nice to end on a high, we needed to, what with an eight hour car drive home the next day. At the Sweet end of fringe party/awards ceremony, which was really lovely and so nice to chat and drink with other performers, we won an award: The Realism Award For Company Name Most Frequently Used In Real Life. Realism for our company name (Get A Real Job Productions) in what was a pretty surreal fringe.
You know, staying in that small flat, I'm amazed Izzy and Grace didn't kill me - I think I may have been difficult to work with last week, I was either ratty/grumpy when things weren't going to plan ("this pointless, I'm not doing the fringe again...") or over-enthusiastic ("if we flyer lots tomorrow we can sell out and be rich and famous...") but they didn't, which demonstrates what lovely people they are. And the late night lectures/advice (they were lectures) about how to find a new girlfriend were appreciated, even if it did feel like I was being told off a bit (a lot). They're both really lovely, as is Michelle, and Alan our soundman is a dude and friend who I need to drink beer with more often.
And beyond the stress and excitement of our own shows there was of course hundreds and hundreds of other shows to see, and we saw lots in between flyering/our own productions/drinking lots, Piff The Magic Dragon topped my favourites list for the year (you should go and see this show, wherever it is and wherever you are) with Tim Key a close second with 'Masterslut' - a great, surreal show that is difficult to explain but I can't wait to see it again in Cambridge soon. I somehow ended up playing second percussion for comedian Rob Deering during his show, and Dead Cat Bounce, Rom Com Con and The Beta Males were also really great. There was also a few stinkers, but it's just not nice to list them because there's every chance there's someone else somewhere like me blogging about the fringe and I wouldn't want them to mention our shows in such a light. But...there was one evening that was totally dreadful - it was a benefit night, and was supposed to have a selection of top comedians performing. Only one of them had turned up, and sat awkwardly in the little venue we watched him explain that he was stretching this out (there wasn't even a host), we wanted to like him and go along with it but the material wasn't working - he was trying so hard, but it just wasn't. As the evening progressed and no other act turned up he started to lose the plot, and eventually the whole audience (about twenty people) were forced onto the stage to see what it's like under the lights, not allowed to sit down until we laugh, and the second comedian (who had just turned up) had to start his act sat in the empty audience. Eventually, we were freed from this weird comedy hostage situation and 'allowed' to sit down, but the second comedian was as dreadful as the first and small group by small group of people everybody ran out. Outside it was like the fire bell had just gone off - the audience in hysterics (for the first time in about 40 minutes) about how bad that was, and relieved we had managed to escape that monstrosity. It kind of all adds to the fringe experience, I guess.
Although having a 'quiet' year, the Edinburgh Fringe is the most magical place on the planet, on arrival at the top of the Royal Mile all you have to do is look down at the thousands of people, whether they be potential audience members or more than likely performers desperately wanting to entertain you. Being entertained is one of life's treats, laughing is healthy and I did a lot of that last week. We made a couple mistakes at the fringe with the planning of our shows, but equally, in retrospect, we have every right to be very proud of ourselves. Good work, team.
So, what next? Well, it's Lodestar this weekend - the final hurrah for Greatest Goal and Oscar, and there I shall be premiering a new show I'm writing for fantastic blues band called The Outlines. I should have probably been working on the script rather than spending so much time on this blog post but hey - there's still time to do a good job of it. After that I'm straight into the studio to record a Christmas album with some lovely and talented people, and some gigs and stuff, some nice gigs coming up. I should really get my novel out there too, finally, now I've got my head around this whole Kindle thing (and the ultra-arty Cara Pedder is designing me a cover), and there's talk of a radio sitcom before the Christmas show. Lots of ideas, too many ideas, as always. Whatever they may be though there's nobody I would want to work more on them with than Izzy, okay so she snaps a bit when she hasn't eaten (as I discovered), but she's annoyingly talented, has got a genuine eye for what works and what doesn't as well as fast becoming one of my best friends in the whole world, great things can be achieved. I'm not sure if she agrees, but I'll give her a few weeks of space and then start sending scripts over.
Edinburgh Fringe 2012 - done. Stressfully. Edinburgh Fringe 2013? I've had time to think about it, of course we bloody will.
Friday, 17 August 2012
Pre-fringe thoughts
Tomorrow we make the first bit of our journey up to the Edinburgh Fringe. I say 'first bit', but that's because of the accommodation issues - and it's these little bits of admin that have really been niggling me for a couple of weeks now. Accommodation-wise I should really take the blame, although apparently we live in a world where sending an email saying, 'yeah sounds cool :-)' isn't considered to be a confirmation - madness. Anyway, we've found somewhere new to stay, but have to pick up the keys by 2pm on Sunday and leaving at 5am on Sunday morning wasn't really an option anybody was keen on so Grace, Izzy and I are staying in a Travel Lodge half way up the country tomorrow night before making the short trip up to magical fringe land the next morning. Our actual accommodation in Edinburgh is tiny (but within my equally tiny budget), it's a little bit concerning because we will be in each others pockets a lot for the next week or so. We're all really good friends (Michelle is joining us from Sunday - Tuesday too) and it shouldn't be a problem, but it's a bit different to touring with the band because, you know, Aidy, Dave and myself are all sweaty blokes, we drink lots of beer and every now and then break wind. Don't think I can really do that with Izzy, Grace and Michelle because they're ladies. Not that I'm that kind of person anyway, really, I guess, but you know what I mean. I just have to be on my best behaviour.
Accommodation aside, it's hard work taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe, and it's a bit harder taking two - although to be honest when you're doing the work for one production you might as well go the extra mile and do it for two anyway. Let's do three next year? Maybe that's pushing it a bit. But once you've chosen your venue, agreed a run, fee and contract, hassled one of your best mates to design a masterpiece of a flyer (Matt never lets us down, he's totally excelled himself this year), sorted accommodation, lost your accommodation, found more accommodation, got confused by PRS licensing for the shows, spent agonising days writing your 40-word entry for the fringe programme and the longer one for the official website, get stressed because your image didn't make it into the programme before giving up because nobody f*cking answers their phones in that office, filled out what feels like endless risk assessments, written the press releases, dealt with the PR team at your venue, insured both plays, printed the flyers...once you've done all this, it's easy to forget you actually have a show or two to do. Luckily, my little team here of Izzy, Grace, Michelle and Alan are worth their weight in gold and are so focussed, so whilst I ponce around getting flustered with the admin they never lose track of the actual productions themselves.
The shows are looking good, the previews were worthwhile (Bristol - messy but fun, Cambridge 1 - really worked, London - not our finest, Cambridge 2 - a bit flat I thought but everyone else thinks it was the best performance so far), in Edinburgh after a couple of days we'll find some consistency and really make ourselves proud. Haven't heard from our venue in a while, hope everything is okay - there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be, but I just worry sometimes. Still not sure if we should have gone for a free venue or a paid one - we went for a paid one in the end. It's a tricky one to judge having done both, 40% of the fringe is now free - that means 40% of the shows are free entry, ours is £7 to get in (still very reasonable, I think). The reason why I actively chose to go for a paid venue this year is control - you know that you're getting a proper venue, with fixed seating, a proper tech run, marketing team behind you, a sense of organisation about it. There's so much at the fringe you can't control, quality of performance space counts for a lot. Although an audience would be nice.
Who knows what my blog post will say when I get back? Anything can happen at the fringe. This is my sixth year up there, and there's a realistic approach to it all now. It's a bit like being in a band - you start off wanting to be 'spotted', to be on the front cover of the NME, then you grow up a bit and realise the ambition is often just to have your talents recognised, to network, to see what might happen. Was chatting to Izzy about this earlier in the week - whilst we're up there we're gonna try and do everything, film bits, write stuff - be inspired by it all, make things happen. And enjoy it, of course, because basically the Edinburgh Fringe is right up there with Christmas as far as I'm concerned. And just as magical, and as expensive.
Accommodation aside, it's hard work taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe, and it's a bit harder taking two - although to be honest when you're doing the work for one production you might as well go the extra mile and do it for two anyway. Let's do three next year? Maybe that's pushing it a bit. But once you've chosen your venue, agreed a run, fee and contract, hassled one of your best mates to design a masterpiece of a flyer (Matt never lets us down, he's totally excelled himself this year), sorted accommodation, lost your accommodation, found more accommodation, got confused by PRS licensing for the shows, spent agonising days writing your 40-word entry for the fringe programme and the longer one for the official website, get stressed because your image didn't make it into the programme before giving up because nobody f*cking answers their phones in that office, filled out what feels like endless risk assessments, written the press releases, dealt with the PR team at your venue, insured both plays, printed the flyers...once you've done all this, it's easy to forget you actually have a show or two to do. Luckily, my little team here of Izzy, Grace, Michelle and Alan are worth their weight in gold and are so focussed, so whilst I ponce around getting flustered with the admin they never lose track of the actual productions themselves.
The shows are looking good, the previews were worthwhile (Bristol - messy but fun, Cambridge 1 - really worked, London - not our finest, Cambridge 2 - a bit flat I thought but everyone else thinks it was the best performance so far), in Edinburgh after a couple of days we'll find some consistency and really make ourselves proud. Haven't heard from our venue in a while, hope everything is okay - there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be, but I just worry sometimes. Still not sure if we should have gone for a free venue or a paid one - we went for a paid one in the end. It's a tricky one to judge having done both, 40% of the fringe is now free - that means 40% of the shows are free entry, ours is £7 to get in (still very reasonable, I think). The reason why I actively chose to go for a paid venue this year is control - you know that you're getting a proper venue, with fixed seating, a proper tech run, marketing team behind you, a sense of organisation about it. There's so much at the fringe you can't control, quality of performance space counts for a lot. Although an audience would be nice.
Who knows what my blog post will say when I get back? Anything can happen at the fringe. This is my sixth year up there, and there's a realistic approach to it all now. It's a bit like being in a band - you start off wanting to be 'spotted', to be on the front cover of the NME, then you grow up a bit and realise the ambition is often just to have your talents recognised, to network, to see what might happen. Was chatting to Izzy about this earlier in the week - whilst we're up there we're gonna try and do everything, film bits, write stuff - be inspired by it all, make things happen. And enjoy it, of course, because basically the Edinburgh Fringe is right up there with Christmas as far as I'm concerned. And just as magical, and as expensive.
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