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The Promotional WhirlLike the wind, the sea, or the UNIVERSE ITSELF, it seems that the promotional whirl of ROCK has no real ending, for LO! today I sent out a huge batch of emails to over a THOUSAND music blogs, telling them that "Forest Moon Of Enderby" is going to be released SOON.
It was all fairly painless, and certainly took a LOT less time than it'll take to do the hundred or so PHYSICAL CDs I'm going to be sending out. I don't know though, somehow emailing a link to a DOWNLOAD point feels significantly less exciting than struggling down Leytonstone High Road with huge bags FULL of jiffy bags that I've sat and packed myself. I know some people who've followed the indie ROUTE complain about this bit - "I didn't set off on the road of ROCK to spend my days in the POST OFFICE", the might say - but I actually rather like it. It's not as much FUN as the first flurry of orders for a new album from actual PUNTERS, but posting out the promo copies always feels to me like the first stage of the GOOD TIMES of an album being released.
That said, there are certainly HUGE parts of the process I could happily do without - I'm sure nobody wants me to go over the RIGMAROLE of preparing artwork in the right format for printers, for example - but when it's all finally analysed at the end of Release Schedule, i have to say it IS good fun doing it all yourself, especially, as I say, when you're sending out the first batch of orders. The same names pop up again and again, and it's lovely to think there's people out there who keep coming back and buying our stuff.
And still to come are the WEEKS of googling and Nervously Checking Radio Playlists. Aah, the joys of THE INDIE! I bet U2 never get as much JOY out of finding their name in a podcast do they? Your loss, THE EDGE, this is GRATE!
posted 3/9/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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The Creative Process
Cor, it's a wonderful thing, the old Creative Process isn't it? I love it when I've got a NEW THING on the go and the BRANE is at FULL TILT. It feels like trying to SOLVE a puzzle while WRITING it at the same time - for instance, in "Moon Horse" I knew there had to be (MILD SPOILERS) a ROPE dangling from the sky into Trafalgar Square at the start, but spent ages worrying about how it got there and who made it. I went through a couple of solutions to this before finding one SO OBVIOUS it made all sorts of OTHER things fall into place, almost as if it had been the answer all along and I'd just had to solve it. The solution involved a SUPER VILLAIN who was SO obvious that I have spelt the past week and a half LARFING about it - truly, it is a thing of GRATE BEAUTY, the old INSPIRATION, even when it involves as much DAFTNESS as this all does.
And believe me, there is DAFTNESS to the MAX - I spent a good chunk of yesterday GIGGLING about some particularly foolish rhymes for "Jupiter" whilst mentally choreographing some STREET DANCE. Obviously all these years reading biographies of and documentaries about Old Fashioned Comedians is finally having its DREAD EFFECT and I have become CONVINCED that the future of ROCK lies in All Round Entertainment. I wrote a song the other day that features a TAP DANCE BREAK. Really.
It's all jolly exciting, but it doesn't mean that I've forgotten about Dinosaur Planet. FAR FROM IT - we're negotiating a bunch of tour dates, and have a MEETING next week to get us fully into the SWING of it. We can confirm ONE date, however - we're playing at The Waiting Room in Stockton-on-Tees on October 23rd! I'm RIGHT looking forward to this, it's always a good night there and you get FREE GRUB! Now THAT'S what the future of ROCK is REALLY about!
posted 2/9/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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TRADITION
What a fine institution is the Great British (or, in this case, English Welsh and Northern Irish) Bank Holiday, for LO! I had a FINE old time of it indulging in some TRADITION.
On Friday I made my TRADITIONAL pilgrimage to Peterborough for the Beer Festival. It was GRATE, but for the rather odd decision by the organisers to change the layout. In all years past you've been able to walk down one side of the MASSIVE tents, through the bands' tent, up the other side and then round the front, making for a DELIGHTFUL perambulation during which you can see how many former PE teachers you can spot staggering around. THIS year the whole thing was in a bizarre "C" shape, so you COULDN'T circumnavigate the festival (there were FENCES to stop you!). This also meant that MUCH less people saw the bands. It was DAFT, but we bravely struggled on.
As I did for most of Saturday. Oh dear. Why does that LONE Bad Pint ALWAYS get me?
On SUNDAY we all set off with various nephews and nieces to the SEASIDE - Walton on the Naze, to be exact, where we sat down for the most TRADITIONAL beach picnic EVER i.e. the tide was coming in so we had to keep moving everything back, it suddenly TIPPED it down with rain, and we all ended up sitting in the car, eating crisps, drinking tea, and LOOKING out of the window at the sea. BRILLIANT! When it cleared up we went to the PIER where I lost a shocking THREE POUNDS on the amusement arcade and then went and made myself feel even LESS well by going on the Waltzers. WHEE!
Yesterday I sat in bed. That "Moon" film is awfully good isn't it?
And as a final FLOURISH of tradition, today is Newsletter day, and the latest issue has just gone flying out to subscribers. It's full of EXCITINGLY NEW things - for LO! what could be MORE traditional than thrilling newness? Well, probably a lot of things, but still: FORWARD!
posted 31/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Before I Disappear Into The Mud
You discover me this afternoon preparing, MENTALLY, for my annual pilgrimage to The Peterborough Beer Festival. I'm a bit afeared this year as it has been LOBBING it down with RAIN for the past couple of days and I fear it may not be the delightful sun-dappled picnic of BOOZE that it has been for the past few years. Still, I shall be there with my colleague Mr P Myland, with whom I withstood not one but TWO of the MOST RAINIEST Glastonbury Festivals EVER! We don't like to talk about it, but the MEMORIES will always be with us.
Before I go though, a NOTE about ANOTHER compilation that we're on, No More Of Your Fairy Stories, "an indiepop loveletter to The Ramones". We recorded our version of "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" AGES ago - maybe even a couple of YEARS ago - and had GRATE LARKS so doing. We knew we wanted to do it in a different musical style, but couldn't decide WHAT... so ended up doing LOTS of different versions and stringing them together. We had a LOT of fun, as you can probably tell if you listen to it, though my FAVOURITE bit is Emma refusing, audibly, to have anything at all to do with the REGGAE section. That's BRILL, that is!
We got given copies of it when we were at Indietracks, tho there were only enough to go round for The Validators to have them, so I've not had a chance to hear what the rest of it's like. Looking at the tracklisting, however, it looks AMAZING, a right proper STAR STUDDED sample of the Current Crop Of The IndiePop. I wonder how many of them ALSO did cod reggae versions? I bet it's most of them, right?
Okay then, enough chat, it's nearly time to head for the MUD - if I'm not back after the bank holiday, send a Chilean Digging Team in to get me!
posted 27/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Moon Horse Progress Report
Since last we spoke of it progress has gone on "MOON HORSE" has occurred at BREAKNECK SPEED - I now have almost THREE songs written for it and nearly 15 minutes' worth of material. This will hopefully be PARED DOWN a bit when I do proper editting, but COR! It's whipping along beautifully, and I haven't even got to The Mars Men Of Jupiter or the SECRET VILLAIN yet.
This may well be my FAVOURITE bit of the whole process of doing this kind of thing - this morning walking to the tube I suddenly saw how one bit could work as a song and it all SPLURGED out of my brain just as I sat down on the train. It's amazing and exciting to have all this stuff going on in the old BRANE, and also a bit SCARY - how do I know it's all going to actually WORK? What if the ideas suddenly STOP and I never finish it? All I can do at this point is be sure and leave my mind AJAR at all times so that anything that wants to get in - or OUT - can so do.
I'm also doing a bit of RESEARCH - over the course of doing Dinosaur Planet several people have come up and said things like "Iridium actually IS in meteorites you know!" as if I'd been MAKING IT UP!!! PROPER RESEARCH goes into all of this, and the same is true of "Moon Horse". So far I've been reading about The Fall Of Lucifer, The British Interplanetary Society, and UK-USA relations in the 1960's... and also watching Mike Yarwood on YouTube. It's all ESSENTIAL!
But yes, it's all going JOLLY well and I'm really looking forward to being able to start showing it to people, even though that won't be until next year. I'm also thinking about MAYBE doing BITS of it elsewhere, but that'll have to wait until it's all done and, you never know, I might get STUCK trying to do an historically accurate representation of Lyndon B Johnson.
Or maybe I'll just make him into a COWBOY. Hmmm...
posted 26/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Maurenbrecher fur alle
A very exciting item arrived through our letterbox this mid-morning - "Maurenbrecher fur alle", a THREE CD tribute to Manfred Maurenbrecher. My involvement in this was to record a version of "Arbeit", which I spent AGES trying to translate and then significantly less time recording.
I haven't listened to it for AGES and so was quite impressed with how PROPER it sounds on the CD, especially the "interrupted by nearby children" INTERLUDE. Unfortunately for my poorly tutored BRANE the whole package is in GERMAN... which is only fair enough, as Mr Maurenbrecher and nearly all of the other acts ARE also German, but does make it a bit difficult for me to work out what's going on.
It also means I haven't been able to find a link to buy it - it's on German Amazon, but I don't know if that translates to being able to IMPORT it anywhere else. If i find out, i shall ALERT you!
Still, I'm EXTREMELY proud to be on this huge tribute, and exceptionally pleased to be asked - it's a glorious packaged PACKED with all sorts of interesting stuff, if you can get hold of a copy, please do!
posted 25/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Warriors Of Nanpantan
As we continue the steady march towards the release of Forest Moon Of Enderby I'm still gradually putting the rest of our might back catalogue up on our Bandcamp Pages. I've so far managed to get one sorted out a month, though this month's effort took a bit longer than normal as there is so much of it!
For LO! It is our first "Rest Of" compilation, Warriors Of Nanpantan which is now available for LIVE STREAMING and downloading. I've also, as usual, linked up the songs on THIS site so if, for example, you visited the page for Another Man's Laundry (hanging on your line) you could LISTEN to it while you read the lyrics and COPIOUS NOTES. It's all rather SWISH, i reckon!
That means that ALL of our full band albums so far are now available - next month Forest Moon Of Enderby itself will be up, then after that I'll start putting some SOLO stuff up, starting with Hibbett's Superstore. Isn't living in The Modern World GRATE sometimes?
posted 24/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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The London Run
Mr S Hewitt and I met once more on Saturday evening, at The Camden Head in Camden, London, Camdencestershire, to do the first of our two night LONDON run of Dinosaur Planet.
I was, to say the least, feeling a bit TREPIDATIOUS about it all. I knew we hadn't sold many advance tickets and wasn't sure if many people at ALL were coming. What if this turned out to be a Really Bad Idea which casted a PALL across the whole experience? Steve was, i think, feeling the same, so you can imagine our AMAZEMENT when we went upstairs to do the show to find that the room was PACKED!
PACKED, i tell you, PACKED! This led to a GRATE show where we larked around like NOBODY'S business having an ACE time. There was an air conditioning unit on VERY LOUDLY which meant we had to shout a bit to be sure everyone could hear us, and it was odd to be playing an L-Shaped room, but we ROMPED through it, and went home VERY pleased with it all. HOORAH!
So pleased was I, in fact, that the next morning I woke up with a HUGE and WHOLE NEW FANTASTIC IDEA for NEXT year's show ready formed in my brain. I had to RUN downstairs to write it all down, it sounds GRATE - for a little while now I've been concerned that the idea for doing a whole show about Terrence Lloyd-Johnson might not a) be enough for a fun hour b) have much scope for HILARITY and c) be entirely RESPECTFUL if we did. Nobody else, I thought, is doing gently humorous two man science fiction ROCK OPERAS, so perhaps it might be better if we carried on and did something ELSE in the same vein?
I arrived at The Hangover Lounge with all this ringing in my brain. I was spending the afternoon there to see TWO bands and also because Steve had suggested some flyering. Nervously I approached him with my THORTS and then explained the IDEA. I needn't have bothered going into so much depth, I think i HAD him with the words "MOON HORSE"! "MOON HORSE!" we would sing for the rest of the evening. "MOON HORSE!"
Honest, it's going to be GRATE!
Upstairs I watched the first of the two TURNS I had come to see, Jyoti from White Town. I've been loosely linked with him ever since we advertised our very first AAS single as "featuring members of number one hitmakers White Town" (which it did, Mr Frankie Machine and Ann from Sienna were both in his backing band EONS ago) but ridiculously have never ever heard him play. This is foolish as he was GRATE - playing Totally Acoustically i was first of all amazed at how LOVELY his singing was. Really, you so rarely hear Proper Excellent Singing in the live arena, it was beautiful, and the songs were brilliant. I was HUGELY impressed, and even more so when Elizabeth Allo Darlin' joined him for the final song which was, of course, "Your Woman". It was FAB!
As indeed was the next TURN, which was the aforesaid Elizabeth Allo Darlin', playing similarly Totally Acoustically. There was a new song, a couple of requests (someone - hem hem - BELLOWED for "Silver Dollars", almost as if the lyrics are Extraordinarily Relevant) but best of all "Tallulah", which is pretty much my FAVOURITE right now. I love the fact that a song which ASKS, among other things, whether you've heard all the songs that will ever mean anything to you goes on to say "No, because THIS song does". It's just a brilliant song, as they all are really.
It was a brilliant afternoon, not least because it was so nice to be back in INDIE WORLD, where people are dead nice and there are Pleasant Times to be hand. With all this buzzing through my head we then went for BURRITO before heading once more to The Camden Head for what was to be, pending further bookings, the FINAL SHOW for Dinosaur Planet. It's very unlikely that it WILL be the final show, not least because once again we had a WHALE of a time doing it. We were nowhere near packed this time, and so got the audience to sit in one LIMB of the L-Shaped room, but they were WELL up for it and there were LARFS APLENTY. I tell you what, it doesn't half make a difference doing the show in the evening, when people have had a BEER!
It was HECKLOADS of fun and, as I say, we are thus EAGER to do more. I'd been feeling a little bit DOWN about the whole thing with the Post-Edinburgh Blues but this "Victory Lap" reminded me how much GOOD TIMES there are to be had in doing this show and not only made me want to TOUR it, but also to do something similar next year. This, I believe, is known as The Healing Power Of ROCK!
posted 23/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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To Enderby... and BEYOND!
Crumbs, we've hardly even FINISHED this run of Dinosaur Planet (actually we HAVEN'T - we on at The Camden Head on Saturday and Sunday, do come if you're around!) when it's time to start moving on to the NEXT thing.
For LO! we now have an Official Release Date for Forest Moon Of Enderby! It's going to be available in SHOPS (theoretically), on Online Retailers, and on iTunes (and so on) from OCTOBER 18th! HOOPLA!
That means I've got all sorts of work to do to make it all happen on time, and so have done myself a BIG LIST. When i first looked at it I thought "But this seems significantly LESS ONEROUS than usual Album Campaigns, have I missed something?" then i realised I have actually already DONE the most HIDEOUS aspect i.e. the Manufacturing. All the compiling, CD burning, DEALING WITH PRINTERS, and waiting in for deliveries, that's all DONE. All I have to do now is the relatively EASY business of getting it to shops and things, and promoting it! And that's almost FUN!
So I'm currently going through checking and adding to the promo mailing list - this morning I almost HOOTED with JOY when I realised I can use Large Letter Stamps for this one, THAT'S how much Almost FUN this bit of it is! The press release is pretty much written, the gigs are all booked, and everything else seems to be well under way. Maybe i HAVE missed something?
If you'd like a copy and can't WAIT until October 18th then don't worry, I will as usual be doing an Early Bird Offer for people on the mailing list, so if you're NOT on there already now would be a good time to sign up!
Once that's done I've got to get back up to Derby to start mixing SOUND EFFECTS for the NEXT album, but let's worry about that another day shall we? For now it's full steam ahead for ENDERBY!
posted 20/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Indietracks Appeal
And now, it's time for a CHARITY APPEAL. For LO! Team Indietracks are trying to raise some money to help the LOVELY people at the Midland Railway finish off their station building. It's a brilliant idea and they really are ACE, so I heartily ENDORSE the following:
We're really lucky that the Midland Railway makes it possible for Indietracks to take place on their steam railway each year. It's such a beautiful, perfect location for our festival and the railway staff and volunteers have always been incredibly welcoming, friendly and supportive. As you can imagine, it takes a lot to keep the railway going each year, so we'd like to try and help out. We asked the charity how we might help and they said they'd love some help in raising money to finish their Swanwick station building. They've set up an appeal page at Charity Giving (see the link below) so that people can donate online.
The link for donating is RIGHT HERE, and if you've ever been to Indietracks I think it'd be a SUPERB thing to help them out. The appeal's running until Friday 10 September, let's all go and give them some CA$H!
posted 19/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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IDEAZ!
I'm sure nobody can tell from the high levels of CHARM and SPARKLE eminating from my person like ANTI-ODOUR or something, but I've had a bit of the old Post Edinburgh BLUES for the past few days. Mostly it has exhibited itself in the form of being KNACKERED and/or sitting at work looking A Bit Glum, but I've woken up this morning after a truckload of KIP feeling MUCH better.
INDEED, i MUST be feeling back to normal as my BRANE is FULL of ideas. Metric TONNES of IDEAS for future projects and EXCITEMENT in fact - here's a brief look at the main points running through my BRANE this morning:
TEBBS
This is the front-runner - or, AHAHA! Front WALKER - for next year's show. The story of Terrence Lloyd Johnson, the oldest man EVER to win an Olympic Track and Field medal. He won Bronze for Great Britain in the 50km Walk at the 1948 games in London and is COMPLETELY BRILLIANT. I've got various ideas about how to do this, most of which seem to be coalescing around the idea of doing some Proper Research and perhaps even some RACE WALKING! If nothing else, if we do THIS next year then Mr S Hewitt and I will end up SVELTE!The Sword Of Monsters
The early favourite for next year's show, now slipping back a bit. This would be fairly similar to Dinosaur Planet, except with Skeletons, Sea Monsters, ACTUAL Pirates and A Faithful Horse. Part of me thinks it'd be GOOD to do something fairly similar to Dinosaur Planet, part of me thinks it WOULDN'T.Captain Wonderful
A superhero story which I have PAGES and PAGES of notes for, mostly based on a night of FEVER DREAMS when i was last proper poorly. I LOVE this story, it's FULL of stuff, but it might be a bit MUCH to stuff into an hour long show for next year, so I'll probably save it for something else.Totally Acoustic
This is the last of the Next Year's Fringe Ideas, and only PARTLY to do with it. As I've mentioned elsewhere we're going to be doing PODCASTS of the next run of Totally Acoustic and, having looked online a bit, I think the BEST thing to do to get it going properly would be to do a TRAILER for it. That way I'd already have a link set up to the PODCAST FEED ready for our first episode (NB please note I may not know what I'm ON about here). Related to this I am also finalising the THEME TUNE in my head, wondering about recording it on video as WELL as on my four track to maximise likelihood of recording it all, and thinking about maybe using THAT to do a MINI VIDEO TRAILER each fortnight. Oh, and I'm also seriously thinking about trying to do a few shows of THIS at the Fringe next year, mostly as an excuse to get some PALS to come over!Dinosaur Planet
And then, as ever, there's MORE to do with Dinosaur Planet. In brief:
- Oooh! We're Doing It In Camden At The Weekend!
- When Am I Going To Go To Derby And Start Doing The Sound Effects?
- The Animated Version: Where To Go?
- I Wonder If Anyone Would Be Interested In Putting On An AM DRAM Version Of It? With A Proper Actual Full Cast And Everything?
And THAT is what was going on in my BRANE when i got up this morning. It was EXHAUSTING - I think I might go back to bed!
posted 18/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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On to... CAMDEN!
You find me this morning sitting at work feeling WORN OUT. That was a LONG couple of weeks of ACTION and adventure and, to be honest, I was sort of expecting to be resting on a CHAISE LONGUE for the next few days fending off calls from theatrical agents and the desperate pleas Lloyd-Webber's people to not TOTALLY reinvent musical theatre before they had a chance to pack up their belongings. Oh well - I suppose being back at work is NEARLY as much fun, right?
Still, the TREADMILL of THEATRE pauses for no one, and we're back on it in just a few days as we do the traditional VICTORY LAP, this time comprising of two nights at the Camden Fringe. I'm actually dead excited about this - by Saturday lunchtime Mr S Hewitt and I had got ourselves RIGHT into the GROOVE of doing Dinosaur Planet and I am really rather PROUD of how GRATE it was, so am very pleased to have the chance to do it AGAIN so soon, and also so much closer to my own bed!
So yes, if you're in That London at the weekend and fancy coming along to see what I've been going ON and ON about all this time, do pop along to The Camden Head on Saturday or Sunday to see us. Our show is on from 8.45pm to 9.45pm (there's people in before AND after us, so those'll be pretty strict timings!) and you can get all the details over on the Dinosaur Planet page. Go on, it'll be GRATE!
posted 17/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Home again
Greetings from Hibbett HQ, where I'm having a much needed day off to get over the excitement of Edinburgh. COR, but that a) seemed like we were there for MONTHS b) FLEW by at incredible high speed. We saw HUGE amounts of shows - my FAVE was Pappy's, i think, or maybe seeing Otway and then GETTING OUR PHOTO TAKEN WITH HIM, my LEAST fave I won't go on about (send SAE/ask in pub) altho for some reason it's the one I keep reading the MOST good reviews about! Sarah Bennetto was GRATE too, as were Being 747 (who I saw TWICE - man alive i was RELIEVED that it went so well for them, after GOADING them into doing it so much!), Stewart Lee, Helen Arney (who let me do a "Boom Shake The Room" at her ukelele night, which was DEAD good!), The Order Of The Leaky Boot, Ellis James, Richard Herring, Josie Long and... well, all sorts!
The big fun for me this time was going to the Free Fringe tho, which felt PROPER, whether it was Robin Ince or the four Scottish Comedians that me and The Punchline In My Gag saw on her last night. I always feels a bit CORPORATISED wandering round the big venues, so going to see some PROPER Fringe shows felt DEAD PUNK.
For those keeping count (i.e. probably just me!) we got quite a lot more people through the door this year, which was ESPECIALLY good going for our time slot (NOON is pretty much the earliest slot in nearly all the venues, so there's not many spare people about) and the problems the venue had with ELECTRIC. We DID manage to do all our shows, but on Thursday especially (or was it Friday? Time tends to BLUR!) it was beginning to look like we might not make it.
Also we only actually got ONE review this time around, which was a bit disappointing although it WAS a jolly good one - ghere on BroadwayWorld. Oddly, even though they sent a reviewer on our first day, we DIDN'T get one in ThreeWeeks, although we DID get BIG mentions in both issues of the ThreeWeeks WEEKLY newspaper for the Spotify Playlist I did for CMU, which they also publish - especially the second issue when there was a HUGE photograph! (you can see some of it HERE). We also got a nice plug on Lauren Laverne's show, which was GRATE, almost as if ROCK was there to look after us when COMEDY was doing its best to look the other way.
It's a shame though, especially as the show got better and better as we went along, and by the end (when we NEARLY sold out, two days in a row!!) it was actually DEAD GOOD. We're doing a couple of nights at the Camden Fringe at the end of the week (Saturday and Sunday, 8.45-9.45pm at The Camden Head, do come along if you can!) which I'm VERY pleased, also VERY excited about. It's going to be FUN!
Nearly everything, in fact, WAS a lot of fun. Even doing busking on the Royal Mile, where we'd leap about singing in Dinosaur Masks, finish, take them off, and realise that NOBODY was paying any attention, was daft enough to be funny. We also saw lots of shows, as mentioned, met TONS of pals (there seemed to be LOADS of people up there we knew this year), drank some DELICIOUS beer (it is a wonderful city that has Deuchar's IPA available in nearly EVERY pub), had some SMASHING curry and generally larked about like nobody's business. There is no greater testament to the GOOD TIMES that myself and my colleague and pal Mr S Hewitt had than to report that, even as I was relaxing into my seat for the LOVELY relaxing journey home I was ALREADY thinking about what we'd do NEXT year!
It was, in summary, HECKLOADS of fun - I'm glad it's only once a year though, all those HILLS have done for me!
posted 16/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Halfway
Morning all - today we sit at the Peak Of The Week (or The Trough Of The Lot) as we're officially HALF WAY through our run of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. As usual, afterspending eight months or so gettinng ready to do it the actual time here is FLYING by!
The show itself has ROLLED on with much joy - Sunday was probably the best version yet, I think, but it's never been less than ACE. I have to say doing the show as a double act is ALWAYS a LOT more fun than doing it on my own, and the EXTRA GAGS continue to appear! I'm really looking forward to the rest of the shows as it feels like we're fully into the swing of it and we've got our biggest ticket sales still to come... except tomorrow, when we've STILL sold NONE! Is there something else happening at noon on Wednesday? Or BE WE CURSED THAT DAY?
We've continued in our publicity efforts - yesterday we played the Family Fringe Showcase, doing three songs, and in the Kids' Feedback session we were told a) we were a bit silly b) everyone likes the Dinosaur puppets c) we look like Postmen d) we look like Cheryl Cole! If we get to TOUR the show I think that's our press release right there!!
We also appear to have accidentally acquired a STREET TEAM as The Koobas have rolled into town and taken a pile of flyers to distribute. Being 747 have also been going GRATE guns, and are getting MASSIVE audiences daily. They seem to be REALLY enjoying it all, which is a) lovely b) a RELIEF!
We even managed to see some OTHER shows too - Stewart Lee was dead good yesterday, as was Josie Long and, in our room, Steve Pretty. The Tasks In My Improv is arriving today, so that means it'll be time to see OTWAY soon, which I'm VERY much looking forward to, also some CULTURE and, who knows, maybe even some CULTURE!
In summary then: it's all going GRATE - but it's going FAST!
posted 10/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Greetings From Edinburgh!
Hello from a very sunny Edinburgh, where you discover us three (and very nearly four) dates into our run at the Fringe where, so far, everything's going WELL!
We got here on Wednesday and walked round to our INCREDIBLY POSH flat. It's a few doors down from the American consulate and is GINORMOUS - if one of us is in the kitchen and the other in a bedroom you cannot shout loud enough to be heard, and a trip to get the milk requires extreme planning to make sure you've got enough food and equipment to make it back again.
The venue's nice too - being used to doing gigs in pubs and GIG venues makes it feel a bit weird to suddenly have door staff and a whole OFFICE full of people DOING stuff. The shows themselves have been MUCH fun. We were a bit nervy on the first day, which unfortunately was the day that the threeweeks reviewer came, but since then we have been LARKING ABOUT like nobody's business. We've got fairly decent tickets sales ahead too, which is a relief, apart from the 11th when NOBODY is coming, AT ALL. Is something else more exciting going on at noon that day?
Talking of other more exciting things, we've also been to a whole bunch of shows, the first of which was Amoeba To Zebra by our pals Being 747. It was GRATE - i sat STUNNED by the SPECTACLE throughout, like a medieval peasant in a Cathedral, GAWPING at everything. They seem to be really getting into it all too, I have yet to see ANY of them without a lab coat on or an Insect Head near to hand!
Other good stuff so far's been Toby Hadoke (not what I expected, but/and ACE), Helen Arney, Two Episodes Of Mash,Storytellers and Richard Herring, who was GRATE. We've only had TWO curries in between all of these, but have managed to squeeze in a few BEERS at opportune moments. One of the NICEST things about Edinburgh is that EVERYWHERE seems to sell Deuchar's IPA - INDEED, at the Meet The Press event yesterday they were giving it out FREE, which was much needed as it was HOT!
So yes, so far so good - we've got into our rhythm of getting up and going to the show and though it'd be nice to have a slightly LONGER lie-in (10am feels like DAWN) it seems to be working out pretty darn EFFICIENTLY. Talking of which, I'd best go and get my boots on - it's nearly SHOWTIME!
posted 8/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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The Changing Of The Googling
Today I find myself on something of a precipice - a peak, a turning point, an epochal moment IF YOU WILL, for LO! today is the day I finally stop googling "MJ HIBBETT INDIETRACKS" and instead turn to "DINOSAUR PLANET EDINBURGH". Remember where you were when you found out!
I'm sat at work WITTLING about the whole thing, to be honest, largely because we are SO prepared for it. For the past couple of days my colleague Mr S Hewitt and I have been emailing each other with progressively tinier and tinier Things To Do, having run out of ACTUAL things to organise long ago. Everything's booked, everything's learnt (pretty much) and all we have to do now is wait until NOON tomorrow, when we catch the train from London up to lovely Edinburgh for 10 days of MUSICAL THEATRE.
So, as I say, WITTLING. I'm sure we're going to have a brilliant time, but I'll be much MORE sure of that at approximately 1.30pm on Thursday when we've done our first show and we're settling down with a RELAXING PINT, hopefully of our traditional Fringe Beer: DEUCHARS IPA. I'm taking my laptop with me and our flat's got Wi-Fi in it so hopefully I'll be able to keep you fully informed of ALL the THRILLZ that occur, though I should warn you it's likely to feature quite a lot of CURRY!
Right then, time to set the Out Of Office and then go home to PACK. See you in SCOTLAND!
posted 3/8/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Video Of Indietracks
I really AM going to stop going on about Indietracks at some point soon, but I can't help but point you in the direction of these fantastic videos which I've grouped together in our gallery.
It's film taken by Mr Eolrin De Bara of our set last weekend, and it is BLOODY GRATE. All the bits I remembered as being ACE are there in full colour (plus some I didn't notice, like Tom's LUSTY singing along) but my favourite favourite thing of ALL is in THIS:
It's a mass Music Of The Future, at a festival, with choreographed DANCING! If any other band has managed this I would very much like to see it - HOORAH!
posted 30/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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The Final Preview
After our brief hiatus back in The Krazy World Of ROCK Steve and I were back to WORK yesterday, ZOOMING off down to Brighton to do the final preview for Dinosaur Planet.
We got there extra early for SOUNDCHECK purposes... before realising we didn't actually NEED one as the room wasn't that big, so settled down for a chat and a BEER with Phil The Promoter, who told us about the One On One Festival he'd played at. He say in a small box and played a five minute GIG for one person at a time. It sounded dead interesting, but we all agreed it ART that we had all inadvertantly created SEVERAL times before!
As show time approached PEOPLE arrived - it was lovely, some of them I didn't even KNOW! Many of the people i DID know had also been at Indietracks, and the first person ANY of us asked each other was "How's your post-Indietracks comedown?" There was HUGGING, but it still wasn't quite the same. Gopal's Curry was NOWHERE to be seen!
Our support act was Autumn In The Fall, which I thought was going to be a band but was actually a young lady doing some vaguely First Aid Kit-y songs - I was AMAZED when she said "This is a Beatles Cover" and she did "DOn't Pass Me By"! It was a LOVELY version of it - all changed around and rethought but CLEAVING to the original, it was GRATE!
I was conscious of the fact we had a TRANE to catch, so come half past nine I patrolled the pub HOOVERING UP anyone I could find who'd paid to get in - partly because without microphones it's a bit easier to get distracted by people talking as they come in, but mostly because I wanted to make sure everyone got it right from the start!
Everyone DID seem to get it - we ROMPED through the whole thing and there were BIG LARFS throughout, it was brilliant! We made almost NO mistakes and there was MUCH larking about, almost as if we've been practicing it or something! Steve had received NOTES that he needed to "grab the focus" (or "try not to let Hibbett get ALL the limelight") so the ongoing WAR OF ATTENTION GRABBING reached new and highly prosperous HEIGHTS. It was VERY MUCH FUN INDEED!
Everyone else seemed to enjoy it too, and there were many SWEATY HUGS and FIRM HAND SHAKES of appreciation afterwards. It felt really really good and we dashed off for our train thinking that this KRAZY IDEA might just work.
Only a week until we actually find out... YIKES!
posted 29/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Onward!
Right, time to stop the post-Indietracks REMINISCING and look to the FUTURE, for LO! Tonight we're playing at The Prince Albert in Brighton for our FINAL Dinosaur Planet preview, and then it's ONWARD to Edinburgh.
Yikes! And with that in mind, here's this year's trailer, fresh off the Computer!
As per, any links or mentions MOST appreciated - now, to the TRANE!
posted 28/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Indietracks Tour: DAY FOUR
If I'd felt a bit nervous on Saturday morning it was as NOTHING to the WOBBLES I had on Sunday, for LO! It was GIG DAY!
Things started a bit daftly by me arriving for BREAKFAST with 60% of Legendary Sheffield Rockers Velodrome 2000 an hour EARLY. I THOUGHT it was a bit early, but dared not to disobey what I thought had been stated, so was surprised/relieved to get a text just as i got back to my room to find I'd been WRONG, not STOOD UP. Phew!
I was soon in a taxi to Butterly, where we arrived just in time to hop on the train. Stood in the buffet carriage I saw an example of what's so BRILLIANT about Indietracks. The chap behind the counter noticed that some people chatting were from America, and asked them whereabouts - "San Francisco" they said. "Aah, I used to fly into San Francisco all the time" he said, going on to tell various tales of INTERNATIONAL JET SETTING through the ages. Like so many of the GRATE Midland Railway Volunteers he was someone who'd live an EXCITING life of ADVENTURE and was now enjoying himself helping on the train, selling beers and cheese cobs, and chatting to all the different people who came along. At how many festivals does that happen, especially when members of BANDS are the ones being chatted with?
We disembarked and I wondered over to the MAIN STAGE. I'd half thought they'd be back to the Back Of A Lorry stage they'd had in 2008 but no, it was a MASSIVE PROPER FESTIVAL STAGE. The Tiger was already setting up so I thought I'd go backstage and have a LOOK at the stage, hoping it would become less TERRIFYING. It did NOT. It was HUGE! How we WERE ever going to fill it?
The stage was SO BIG it had TWO people whose job was JUST to manage the monitors! When we soundchecked we had to persuade Emma that she really DID have her own monitor mix and just had to ask to have it made PERFECT for her. It was STRANGE - wonderful, but STRANGE!
I'd already got myself TWO beers (i was PANICKING) and Frankie was the only one who also fancied a beer, so wandered off to get one. People started arriving to see us. Lots of people. Lots and LOTS of people - FEAR! Mr S Mackay arrived backstage to say hello and ask if we were ready to start... but hang on, where was Frankie? As is his WONT he had DISAPPEARED. Imagine our RELIEF when he was spotted strolling back 2 minutes before stage time. "We're ready, he's coming!" I said and our introduction began... but Frankie appeared NOT. Where WAS he? I had to run round the front, and spotted him sat relaxing, having a chat, seemingly unaware that he was meant to be going on stage. "Please do come on the stage old chap, if you have time", i shouted. More or less.
And then we were ON! PANIC, FEAR, and DREAD disappeared almost immediately. "Who's still pissed?" I asked and, though I was INCREDIBLY SOBER I felt oddly relaxed and at home as we launched into THIS:
Billy Jones Is Dead
Hey Hey 16K
Please Don't Eat Us
We Are The Giant Robots
Leave My Brother Alone
The Merchant Ivory Punks
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
Do The Indie Kid
The Lesson Of The Smiths
Easily Impressed
It was THE BEST GIG EVER! Man alive but we had fun - the crowd was our largest EVER and ready to ROCK, the sound sounded FANTASTIC and we played pretty much as well as we ever possibly could. Tom had some issues with his amp for some of it and SOMEONE (hem hem) apparently missed a bit of a song, but otherwise: AMAZING! My highlights included:
As I say, it was THE BEST GIG EVER and I just hope that my constant HARPING ON about how we were the only band to play all four times (and, somewhat cheekily, bellowing "SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!" at the end!) doesn't damage our hopes of making it to an unprecedented FIFTH gear because, GOODNESS ME, we fcuking love playing Indietracks. I don't think I've ever SEEN happier Validators than those I saw for the rest of the day, it was BRILLIANT!
Afterwards we strode over to the merchandising tent and had an AMAZING hour or so meeting tons of people who wanted to buy CDs. It was all a bit overwhelming to be honest, but VERY exciting to finally be getting copies of Forest Moon Of Enderby to people, as well as to be handing out a METRIC TONNE of leftover badges. I left that tent light of heart and MUCH lighter of luggage to take home!
There then followed a lot of wandering around GRINNING like LOONIES before it was time for my FAVOURITE band of the weekend, STANDARD FARE, who were BRILLIANT on the main stage. There was huge dancing, there was mass singing along, and there was general DELIGHT to be watching a band who are so SO clearly going to be HUGE any time now. The best thing about it was how HAPPY they seemed - they've played LOTS of proper festivals and big gigs, and yet they seemed AGHAST at how much people liked them. I thought the Young Guitarist Lad was going to BURST, he looked so happy!
After they'd finished myself, Mr T Pattison and Miss E Pattison went to get PAID. We took Edie with us so she could start to CRY if they didn't have any money for us, but they DID. It was a bit odd as we had to queue up behind other bands to go in for an INTERVIEW in THE OFFICE, where two BURLY CHAPS stood on either side of the desk while a lady gave us our CA$H and reciept. It was like going in to see The Head in a particularly rough inner city school!
I also did a quick BIT for a PODCAST, playing The Gay Train (as it seemed wrong NOT to play it at some point in the weekend) and doing a quick interview round the side of the tram shed. Apparently it'll be online just before NEXT year's festival - which reminds me, I was also one of the people doing WINKBALL interviews. These people wandered the site all weekend asking how it was going - here's a Lightly Refreshed ME looking very happy to be there:
And then the day FLEW by - I was upset to miss out on Sarandon, due to QUEUE, but DID get in to see The Pooh Sticks, who were BLOODY GRATE. Somehow I'd got it into my head that they'd be a bit mimsy, but no - they ROCKED!
Soon it was the end of the bands and I realised I was MASSIVELY EXHAUSTED. Tom offered me a lift home so, rather than DISCO DANCE, we headed over to see Penny, Steph, Jo and co at CAR BAR for a FAREWELL DRINK/HUG and then hopped into The Tiger Mobile to a) listen to the Standard Fare album VERY LOUD b) discuss what a GRATE few days it had been and, as is traditional c) get slightly lost on the way back the Travelodge.
Next morning it was a TIRED but very very happy Hibbett who found himself on Alfreton station platform, boarding the train home. A very nice chap came over and said "Well done - that was one of the highlights of the weekend for us". PLEASED, I said "It was for me too!" but i FIBBED: it was more than that, it was a highlight of our entire career in ROCK!
Thanks Indietracks and, as I said, one way or the other, see you next year!
posted 28/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Indietracks Tour: DAY THREE
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling a bit ODD - strange in the tummy and shaky in the legs. It took me a while to realise that this was because I was EXCITED, for LO! after nearly a YEAR of waiting it was finally time to go back to INDIETRACKS! Hoorah!
After a big Holiday Inn Breakfast and a SPRINT through the Spa Facilities, The Rooms In My Hotel and I checked out and strolled back to the railway station, where we said TEARFUL GOODBYES. I was excited to be heading to the festival, but was really going to miss her - touring is a lot more FUN and a HECKLOAD more SALUBRIOUS when she comes along!
Still, i bore up MANFULLY and was soon in Alfreton, in my long-booked room at The Travelodge for an unpack, a bit of a wash, and then another taxi ride back to the site. I'd asked to be dropped off at Butterly station, but the taxi driver took me to the Swanwick Junction site, leading to INDIE PANIC: if I was SEEN arriving in a LIMO like this at the main foot entrance, then surely that would blow ALL my Indie Cool?!? What would Bobby Gillespie do in such a situation eh?
Luckily we weren't allowed to go all the way in, so i got turfed out, whereupon I heard someone say "Are you in MJ Hibbett & The Validators?" "Yes, yes I am", I said, and it turned out be be Be Like Pablo, lovely people who gave me a GRATE CD last year. I wasn't going to be able to SEE them, as we were on at much the same time, so it was nice to MEET them like this.
I gained access to the site and IMMEDIATELY starting bumping into various lovely people. About the THIRD group of pals I met included Mr S Hewitt who, before the festival, had been expressing some doubts. "PAH!" he would declare, "Indie Schmindie Nonsense! PAH!" I was a bit nervous about how he'd going on, so asked how the weekend had been so far. "Everyone here is SO LOVELY!" he said, practically EXHALING BUTTERCUPS as he did so - like everyone else, he had GONE NATIVE!
The rest of Saturday is a little bit of a blur, to be honest. I wonder why that could be? Still, I do remember seeing part of La La Love You (GRATE jackets!), The Just Joans (i SWELLED with glee at how BRILLIANT they were), The Parallelograms (ALWAYS a delight), The Smittens (IBID) and... er... eventually The Primitives (a bit rubbish). MOST of the day was spent just wandering around with and towards PALS, not least 80% of The VAlidators who had arrived mid-afternoon.
I know everybody says this about MOST Festivals, but at Indietracks it is EVEN MORE TRUE: it really ISN'T mostly about the bands, it's the lovely people that MAKE it so GRATE. Everyone was having a BRILLIANT time and weren't afraid to show it and, as I struggled home and into my hotel bed at WAY past my bed time it was with a HUGE grin on my face. Could this possibly get any MORE fun?
Yes. Yes it could.
posted 28/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Indietracks Tour: DAY TWO
Friday found myself and The Bed In My Hotel Room up bright and early and off to Leicester station, there to journey to distant DERBY for a recording session. The Indietracks Bumping Into People CONTINUED as we bumped into RAY at the station. HOORAH! A swift hug and chat later and we were striding across Derby, arriving to find Rich was in the studio waiting for us.
The Microphones In My PA had been a bit nervous about this, her first recording session, but she was soon in the BOOTH, ROCKING OUT. Man alive, she is a pretty bloody amazing woman at the LEAST of times, but I was positively BOOMING with pride as she - as we say in the recording industry - KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK. We got her vocal for Here Come The Dinosaurs done in TWO takes, and then moved on to DIALOGUE. This took a few more runs through, largely because I had slipped into DIRECTOOOOOR mode. "Yes, one more time, more emphasis on syllable twelve, with a hint of fear and a SOUPCON more angst, if you will." That sort of thing.
It sounded FANTASTIC, especially when mixed with Mr Bob Fischer's lines recorded a couple of months ago. Her session COMPLETE, The Items In My Exhibit set off to view The Pickford Museum ("GRATE!", apparently) making way for Tom, who'd just arrived. My DIRECTORIAL BENT was now at full extension as we worked through his scenes (as Professor Peter Probersite), trying out different voices and casting around for The Right Inflexion. Tom took direction EXCEPTIONALLY well and we were done with time to spare. Seizing the moment, Rich asked what mixes we wanted in our Individual Monitors for Indietracks, as he was doing our SOUND for us. "Mixes in individual monitors?" I thought, "Is he mad? It'll just be one broken monitor on the back of a lorry this year, surely?"
Next we were joined by The Family Machine, with Frankie ROARING through his lines as The Corporal. To be fair, almost all of his lines are "Ma'am!", "Ma'am?" or "Yes Ma'am!" but he did them BRILLIANTLY and MY GOODNESS ME when his work in For The Fate Of The Earth is made public i reckon WAR as we know it will be OVER.
During this bit Mr Steve Morricone arrived hot foot from Huddersfield to record his parts as The Giant Robots. I'd always thought of them as being a bit BLUFF and NORTHERN, but Steve took it to WHOLE NEW PLACES with the most positively EVIL vocals I have EVER heard - we did his bits four lines at a time, partly because he wasn't sure of the tune, MOSTLY so he could recover from the EVIL CACKLING that was going on. It was AMAAAAAZING!
We finished at 4pm prompt, giving me and Tom to dash back to Leicester and our respective abodes before he, I and The Lanes On My Motorway were BACK in the car and heading for Kirby Muxloe, where we were due to play our SECOND warm-up gig, at Tim's Work's DO.
It was LOVELY to be together again, although a) Frankie was DISGUSTED by the rest of us mocking his Astoundingly Almost Punctual Arrival and b) Tom was surprised by EVERYONE saying, individually, "Are you not wearing your Black Sheep T-Shirt tonight?" We got the PA set up (with some gentle "help" by a very worried looking man from the club who kept changing things - Frankie used his Stern Calm Voice a bit, which sorted it out), and then fell into CHAT. Tim had to keep going off and CHATTING but it gave the rest of us a delightful chance for a CHINWAG.
We had, in fact, a lovely time all round. Everyone there was dead nice and relaxed, the beer was GRATE (Burton Bitter on tap! ZANG!), the BUFFET was plentiful, the other people playing music were good (my especial favourite was the acoustic version of FREAKSCENE!), there was a QUIZ which I'm sure we would have won if we'd remembered to hand in our quiz sheet, and there was even time to do The AAS Football Trophy Presentation. Pictures to follow!
Inevitably it was time to ROCK, so we gathered together "Tim Pattison & The Validators" (or "EMMA AND THE VALIDATORS!" as Emma put it) and did THIS:
Billy Jones Is Dead
Hey Hey 16K
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
The Merchant Ivory Punks
Leave My Brother Alone
We Are The Giant Robots
Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
Do The Indie Kid
The Lesson Of The Smiths
Easily Impressed
It was a LOT more together than last time - despite, or possibly BECAUSE of some members of the team being slightly tiddlier than usual. I mention no names - because we all spent much of Sunday "HILARIOUSLY" doing so - as it wouldn't be fair to single anyone out, and anyway it's not like she does it very often...
I JEST OF COURSE - we had a lovely time even though I think we might have been a bit too loud and played for a bit too long, but people seemed to like it. It was BRILLIANT to be able to do it, and come Sunday we would very much appreciate the chance we'd had to work ourselves up a bit. For now though we finished our drinks, packed up, said bye bye and headed off back into the night.
The warming up was complete - tomorrow it was time to head for Indietracks!
posted 27/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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Indietracks Tour: DAY ONE
At long last, after months of discussion and planning it was time for The Validators to get back on the road - a road that would lead us to Indietracks.
The tour started, for me at least, before it had much chance to begin (poetry) as I bumped into How Does It Feel's Mr Ian Watson as I walked to King's Cross to catch the train North. Bumping into people is pretty much the main excitement of Indietracks, so it was lovely to get started early.
Inside i met The Trains On My Tracks and we WHIZZED off to Leicester, where, as a special treat, we were staying at The Holiday Inn. Half an hour later we were sat in the JACUZZI, discussing how nice Touring can really be!
We'd agreed to meet at The Musician at 6.30pm and I was pleased to see Tom getting out of his car at exactly half past, as I strolled up the street. I was about to comment on how PUNCTUAL we were when The Pattisons rolled up! I said hello and carried on unloading before realising that I hadn't seen Emma all YEAR- it felt so natural and normal for us all to be together like this that I'd forgotten we'd not done it for AGES!
We got set up, updated each other about our various families (you know you've been in a band a long time when you ask after each other's mums), soundchecked and then went out for CHIPS and a discussion about how GRATE Dinosaur Planet is sounding.
Back at The Musician we were made complete by the arrival of Mr Frankie Machine. I think i was not the only one to be bit over-excited about us all being together again. "It's like getting the band back together!" I kept saying, before realising that, actually, that's EXACTLY what it was!
I enjoyed seeing The Lime Chalks again and then SANG ALONG with almost the whole of Standard Fare's set. As i have probably mentioned ENOUGH, i LOVE their album and am fairly convinced that this time next year nobody will BELIEVE that we were able to do a gig with them, let alone with them playing before us. They were GRATE!
And then it was our turn to go on, and do THIS:
Billy Jones Is Dead
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
The Merchant Ivory Punks
The Merchant Ivory Punks
The Merchant Ivory Punks
We Are The Giant Robots
Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
Please Don't Eat Us
Do The Indie Kid
The Lesson Of The Smiths
Easily Impressed
It was a LOT of fun, and a LOT ramshackle - The Merchant Ivory Punks is not there twice by mistake, we just messed it up so badly the first time we had to have another go! Most of it was surprisingly all right however, and I enjoyed it ENORMOUSLY - as shown by the LARGE amount of CHAT that went on. I had to remind myself that there were people there who MIGHT want to hear songs rather than Various Remarks, and get ON with it!
Get on with it we DID, although that didn't stop a convulted ramble about Prolapse being unforgivably missed out of Britpop retrospetives, a "cover" of one of their BBC Sessions, nor The Tiger's ROAR. It felt NATURaL to be back together but also a bit STRANGE to once again NOT be doing songs that were all about Dinosaurs!
It all seemed to go quite well though, helped by GRATE sound and, after some more CHAT and BEER finishing (I had a pint of Kodiak Gold that was AMAZING!) it was time to pack up and get gone. Day one had finished, but there was a LOT more tour still to go!
posted 25/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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A Dream Come True
It was a STRANGE day yesterday - i felt like I was at the NEXUS OF ALL REALITIES as so many different bits of current activity were all coming together at once. I was editing the trailer we shot for Dinosaur Planet the other day, receiving a delivery of FLYERS for the Edinburgh run, writing a press release for us and two other shows, writing the Tour Booklet for the Validators gigs this weekend, having a practice of our SONGS for INDIETRACKS, doing an INTERVIEW with The Brighton Argus for our gig THERE next week (which was a LOT of fun), rehearsing with The Ticks On My To Do List for our recording session on Friday (an afternoon's work on the CONCEPT ALBUM in Derby), doing some bookings for the new Totally Acoustic season, working out a Spotify playlist for a future edition of CMU Weekly, starting my PACKING for today AND doing my laundry! With all that going on the fact that I was about to fulfil A LIFETIME'S AMBITION just seemed like part of the natural flow of the day.
FOR LO! in the evening I found myself in DISTANT BATTERSEA where Steve and I were going to perform Dinosaur Planet in a PROPER THEATRE! ZANG! Here I was, FINALLY putting on a Play What I Wrote in an Actual Theatre - 19 Year Old Me has waited a LONG LONG time for this dream of his to come to fruition, and now I was able to DO it. HOORAH!
We met in the beer garden where we were DELIGHTED to be sat next to twenty end-of-term teachers, ALL of whom were using The Teacher Voice At Full Pelt To SCREECH And/Or Bitch About Whoever Had Just Gone To The Toilet. It was the loudest thing EVER, so we had to lean in to hear The Theatre Guy who'd come down to tell us we had a "Small House". I thought that that sounded very nice, if a little twee, but Steve later pointed out that that meant we'd sold NO tickets! Ah!
We went upstairs to see THE SPACE and COR but it really WAS a Proper Theatre. OK, it was ALSO a room above a pub, but it had proper tiered seating, an all BLACK stage area, a dressing room, lighting box etc etc. It made me feel a bit NAUGHTY turning up to do this daft thing about SPACE DINOSAURS when, surely, we should have been assessing The Situation In Northern Ireland or something?
Still, it looked a LOT more proper when we'd put our PROPS out on a table at the back - SURPRISINGLY proper in fact - and even more so when Isabelle, who's going to be our Tech Person in Edinburgh, arrived for a TECH RUN. Even if nobody'd come it would have been FINE as we could have used it as a run through for us and her together, but happily we DID get an audience, in the shape of Mr J Kell and Mr D Paton. PHEW!
So we went on and DID the show, and I must say it seemed to go pretty well. I'd forgotten that we'd re-written the first scene so messed that up but otherwise it felt GRATE, with the general increase in LARKS and OVERACTING moving along nicely. Doing this show is a whole LOT of fun!
Afterwards we all went for a Well Done Everybody drink and then got the BUS to Victoria. It was only when I finally got home that I remembered that this was a Dream that HAD Come True. I must admit it WASN'T quite like I imagined it, due to the lack of film crews, huge audience, curtain calls or AWARDS, but it was still GRATE. It bodes well for the 10 days in Edinburgh - if we can enjoy it this much with only 2 people watching, imagine how GRATE it's going to be if we get FOUR!
posted 22/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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International Glamour
This morning I rang up the people printing our flyers, to find out why they hadn't been delivered yesterday. There was a slightly oddly phrased automated message and then i got through to a VERY polite young lady who seemed to have a German accent. "That's unusual", I thought, "That's not an accent your hear often in this country, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have call centres in GERMANY would they?" She went on to explain that they were on the way but "They are coming from Germany and so will be arriving on tomorrow." AAAH! It WAS Germany that I was speaking to!
And that's JUSt the kind of INTERNATIONAL GLAMOUR LIFESTYLE that I'm enjoying at the moment, as we teeter gently towards the HUGE MILESTONE that is INDIETRACKS at the weekend. Indietracks! I can't believe it's almost here, in all the EXCITEMENT of everything else (like Dinosaur Planet in an ACTUAL THEATRE tomorrow, or the wonderful prospect of seeing all The Validators on Thursday) it had sort of slipped by me. I'd best get learning some of the songs really, shouldn't i?
posted 20/7/2010 by MJ Hibbett
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An Artists Against Success PresentationMaintained by MJ Hibbett & The Validators