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LOL Writers DayOn Saturday I headed into London's Fashionable Covent Garden area of London for the "Writing Comedy L.O.L. Lots of Laughs" Scriptwriters' Day. It was organised by one of our lecturers this term, Jim Hill, as part of his DAY JOB on the DMU Television scriptwriting MA. There were five of us from my course there for what turned out to be a GRATE day.
I met one of my COLLEAGUES outside at 10am, thinking we'd be the first there, and so were surprised to find the theatre bit of The Actors Centre (where it was held) nearly FULL. The first session was run by Keith Lindsay, talking about the kind of characters needed for a successful sitcom - he did a DIAMOND diagram, which I found TERRIBLY exciting as my favourite lecture last term was by Laurie Hutzler who made some VERY INTERESTING POINTS with a diamond diagram, it was GRATE. This too was dead interesting, especially as he used about a MILLION examples of different sitcoms to make his points, ALL of which I knew. It's a times like that that I think "Yes, I think trying to write for TV would be a MUCH better idea than theatre, as I at least WATCH telly."
Next we had a keynote from Laurence Marks, which was a) interesting b) FUNNY c) dead impressive, as he REELED off a list of HUGE shows he's written and also shared SMALL GOSSIP about some of the people in it. After lunch they did an interview with Jesse Armstrong, which was Quite Interesting and then they had a panel which featured Trix Worrell (who wrote DESMOND'S!!) and James Cary (who wrote Bluestone 42, which we LOVED in our house). It was all very exciting - here were ACTUAL TELLY PEOPLE who seemed Quite Normal and/or full of FACTS.
Afterwards we had a bit of a LURK, but didn't have sufficient nerve to go and network properly, and then it was time for me to FLY HOME to do some serious TELLY HOMEWORK i.e. "Doctor Who". Here is my review of it: "COR! EH? WOW! ZANG!"
Telly! It's BRILL!
posted 22/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Cardiff
Steve and I ROLLED into Cardiff last week to continue our pre-Edinburgh touring of Total Hero Team. Once we'd checked into Our Usual Suites at the Ibis we popped round the corner to the Trader's Tavern to meet Mr Chris Evans (not that one), famed proprietor of GoFasterStripe. We'd been trying to actual meet in person for AGES, so it was lovely to see him and also his KIDS - Steve and I went into FULL UNCLE MODE, as CARD GAMES were explained, heads were RUFFLED, and we marvelled at the ageless joy of Kids Running Round A Pub. The only thing we both forgot was to pick someone up and turn them upside down - NEXT TIME!
We then popped over to Gwdihw to meet Mr J Morris, promoter for the evening, to reassure him we were in town, then went out for TEA. Unable to find a curry house we instead went to a Fairly Posh Italian Restaurant which, apparently, it THE FAVOURITE of The Stereophonics. GLAMOUR!
That done it was back to the venue to see the first of the two supports for the evening, Francesca's Word Salad, who turned out (after much THINKING) to be a.k.a. Fran From The School. She was GRATE, and now sits at the top of my list of People Who I Want To Get For Totally Acoustic When I Start It Again. After her was Shiny Tiger, who I enjoyed also, but at a different angle - he was really serious about DOING his songs, had a lovely turn of phrase and very DISTINCT kind of song all his own, with traces of other people sometimes - it felt like he was STARTING to find HIS VOICE, and was determined to get there. I liked!
And then it was time for me and Steve to hit the stage. In all honesty, it was Quite Hard Work - we weren't using microphones, and the room was steadily getting people coming in for the CLUB NIGHT later, so there was a bit of chatter and wandering around - this was of course FINE, as people had come for the later thing, but it didn't half make it difficult to maintain THE SHOW. The LULLS - which the live Dinosaur Planet experience suffered so much from - were back, and as we were doing it I kept thinking "There's SO MUCH we can cut!" To be fair to US, we DID carry on and enjoyed the songs especially, but this was the first Slightly Difficult gig we've done for this show. It's VERY GOOD INDEED to do one, as it serves to TIGHTEN UP, and I'll be doing some re-writes over the next couple of weeks!
That done we RELAXED and had CHAT with some delightful people, also DRINK,including some dead good WHISKY from nearby Penderyn. It was NICE!
Next morning we headed back to the station, passing the Motorpoint Arena where Eddie Izzard had played the night before. We were astonished to see he had THREE massive articulated LORRIES - why on earth does a solo stand-up need THREE massive articulated LORRIES for his tour? Steve suggested maybe he brings his own CHAIRS, I looked down at the Big Bag Of Props and was grateful that we don't need to - they'd never fit on the train!
posted 21/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Death In Essex
Myself and The Engine Of My Train headed off to distant (not that distant) ESSEX the other night. The evening started well with us managing to meet on the platform at Leytonstone, and continued in that vein when we got to Loughton and hopped straight into a TAXI. The gig was at The Gardener's Arms, which is HIGH UP on top of a great big HILL. I don't enjoy GRADIENTS at the best of times, let alone when it's tipping with RAIN.
We arrived to find Mr Charlie Flowers and Mr George Death arriving simultaneously. George was booked to play at the Stand And Deliver acoustic night, and we all went in to find a large room ready to ROCK. Well, I say ready to rock - those of us who are VETERANS of running this sort of event DID spend some time saying "oh no, I wouldn't arrange the tables quite like THAT" but before we could get too far into PLANNING the host came over and said "anyone know how to work a PA?" We'd been in the building less than a MINUTE before Charlie was working the PA - a new record! I was surprised NOT to find myself immediately doing the DOOR!
The evening was a good old do, very similar to ALL acoustical "singers night" gigs i.e. some people did their own material Quite Well, but it was those who did cover version in ANY format that did best. One chap did a couple of Simon & Garfunkel numbers, not particularly expertly, but it was ACE to have a bit of an old singalong. The only trouble was that I spent the whole evening REALLY NERVOUS - I've been to so many of these sort of things I'm always convinced that I'm going on next!
The first half ended with The Act We Were There For, George Death himself, who we'd not seen in AGES. He was ACE - I've usually seen him play at MY nights, where the audience is a bit LEFTY, so seeing him in deepest ESSEX, where it's usually safe to assume people aren't QUITE as lefty, was interesting, hearing the jokes work in slightly different places. He went down GRATE though - I think some people down the front were A Bit Serious, but at our end of the room there were GUFFAWS aplenty, especially for "PC Girlfriend", which is GRATE.
We retired to the BAR, where George ended up talking to someone who performed operatic versions of popular songs, changing the words to make them a) comedic b) about the political situation in Israel. I think that's the most NICHE act I've ever encountered! We also covered further DIVERSE SUBJECTS, not least ARTHRITIS as a) Charlie has it b) it looks like I might too. Our conversation was liberally interupted by going "EH? WHAT'S THAT DEAR?" and LEANING IN to hear properly. OLD AGE FUN!
Charlie and George went back in for part two, but we decided we'd earnt enough ACOUSTIC CREDITS to be able to be excused, and set off home. I asked at the bar for a taxi number, but they just rang FOR me, so within minutes we were heading downhill again for the TOOB. It all felt faintly decadent, I must admit, but at MY AGE it's probably for the best!
posted 20/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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A Dodgy Individual
At the weekend The Hours In My Day Off did an online order, to be delivered to our house. This happens fairly often without INCIDENT - these particular orders of Nice Things are delivered by DPD, who have a very efficient system for re-arranging delivery dates AND tell you what time they're coming to within an hour. It's GOOD.
However, for some reason (probably the REN Cosmetics [for it was they] ordering system) we noticed on the evening before delivery that it was being delivered NOT to our house but to my OLD OFFICE, where I worked until a couple of years ago. We've had stuff delivered there in the past, but goodness knows why it had suddenly reverted to THERE after all this time.
The DPD system is good for rearranging times, but changing anything else relies on you GETTING a non-delivery card, which would be difficult if it was going somewhere we would never be. Emails were sent, but I sent off to work A Bit Worried.
As luck would have it I happened to be passing the old office JUST at the start of the alloted delivery hour, so DEBATED whether or not to just POP IN. It's owned by an entirely different organisation, so has no connection to us, and I changed my mind MANY times as I wandered round Bedford Square before finding myself at a DOOR I had passed through a couple of THOUSAND times over the past decade. I rang the bell and GALLUMPHED in, where I tried to explain the situation to a very SURPRISED young man in main reception.
"I used to work here", I said, "and there's a parcel coming for me. Have you had it yet? What would you do with it if it came?" I was conscious of how EXTREMELY DODGY it all sounded even as I said it - surely this was the start of a CRIMEWATCH reconstrucion about Identity Theft and INTERNATIONAL DIAMONDS/DRUGS SMUGGLING?
After making us ALL feel A Bit Uncomfortable I thanked them for their time and headed for the door... just as the doorbell rang. It was the DPD Delivery Man. "Mark Hibbett?" he asked. "That's me!" I said, and signed for my packaged, thanked him, and closed the door. I went back into reception, waving the box. "Got it!" I said, and wandered out again.
It was all a BIT WEIRD and so, when I got to the NEW office, I thought I ought to send an email from my Work Email Address just to show I WAS a Birkbeck employee, and to a) reassure them I WASN'T an evil crimelord using them as PATSY for an Evil Scheme and b) not get myself referred to THE COPS as a possible evil crimelord (see above).
Thank goodness for DPD and their excellent adherence to the hour-long delivery window - without that the entire SCHEME would have failed!
posted 17/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Net Profit
Sorry for the lack of UPDATES lately, I'm just coming to the end of a rather HECTIC chunk of Life Activity at the moment - it's all jolly good, but has left me a bit KNACKERED!
One ASPECT of this was a course I went to on Monday, called Net Profit: Making Your Own Web Show. It caught my eye because I've been thinking for a while that it might be fun to have a go at actually FILMING something myself, though goodness knows what. It was a RIGHT fun day, full of interesting stuff and THORTS. The most interesting thing had nothing to do with the title - they advised that, when filming out and about, make sure to record a minute's "silence" in the location, to use as background noise for different takes - but the TIPS and HINTS were many.
I hadn't realised that part of the day would be working on our own, existing, ideas for shows, so was taken by surprise when they went round the room getting everyone to PITCH their shows. Luckily I was LAST, so had a couple of minutes to come up with an idea for a 90 second puppet show about MONSTERS featuring a new song each episode, played on ukelele. When I explained it it actually sounded like a pretty good idea, and I've been MULLING OVER IT ever since!
I also got to meet some very interesting people, not least Mr J Dredge whose podcast, "The John Dredge Nothing To Do With Anything Show" is a) available at Comedy Chords and b) GRATE! I have been listening to more episodes this morning, and LARFING!
It was a REALLY interesting day, which I think they're going to be doing again. I would RECOMMEND, but if you do go try and think of a SHOW before you go, otherwise you might end up seriously considering ways to make SOCK MONSTERS!
posted 15/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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What A Week
PHEW! You find me today Physically And Emotionally Exhausted after a week of STUFF. My super smashing brother (who I have previously asked people in general to leave along) and his family were over from AUSTRALIA, so we had numerous GOOD TIMES a) lolling around in my parents' back garden b) PADDLING c) going to the PUB and d) sitting around YAKKING with. It was all rather lovely, SO lovely in fact that when we said a merry cheerio on Monday evening it was only after shutting the front door that my INNER MIND went "You know you're probably not going to see them for AGES now, don't you?" and my HUMAN EGO went "WAAAAAH!" in response. It was WEIRD, like my FORE BRANE had been so busy having fun it had FORGOT, and my BACK BRANE had been lying in WAIT to UPSET it.
And then yesterday i went to a FUNERAL, for my "Auntie" Olive, who'd been my Nan's best friend since SCHOOL. This was a funeral where people said "She lived a FULL LIFE" and MEANT IT - crikey! The vicar had to go through SEVERAL SHEETS OF A4 to list ALL the organisations she had set up/run/organised/sat on the BOARD of, and the church was RAMMED with people. My Dad did a Eulogy too, i BEAMED with pride!
It's all be lovely but, as I say, a bit KNACKERING, so it's quite relaxing to get back to WORK today, both Actual Work and The Work Of ROCK. One item on today's agenda was to start the ball rolling thinking of a name for the COVERS COLLECTION I mentioned last time (UPDATE: after saying that ONLY people subscribed to the newsletter would be eligible to recieve it i got ONE more subscriber... and THREE requests to unsubscribe!). I asked The Vlads... and within minutes Mr F A Machine came up with a GENIUS suggestion. I think I'll try and wait until the next newsletter to REVEAL it, but I may not be able to contain myself, as it is SO GRATE!
posted 8/5/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Newsletter Day
It's the last working day of the month which means it's time for the latest - 98th -edition of our newsletter The Last Working Day Of The Month.
As ever it is BRIMMING with information, not least the fact that we'll be giving away a FREE GIFT with our 100th issue, due out at the end of June. Everyone who's subscribed to the newsletter on the day it comes out will be entitled to a FREE and also EXCLUSIVE album by ME - details will NOT be on the webpage version, you'll have to sign up for the newsletter to get it.
"But what IS this free album of which you speak?" you may ask. Good question! It will be an (approximately) 18 track WHOPPER bringing together pretty much ALL of my solo cover versions, previously released AND unreleased. That means it'll include things like "Glory Days", "Saddle Up", "Vicar In A Tutu" and "Boom Shake The Room" that have been available elsewhere, but also some ODDITIES like "9 to 5", "Keep The Faith" and "Sweet Child Of Mine" that I recorded for various PROJECTS/IDEAS that never quite happened.
It'll ONLY be available via the newsletter, and ONLY for the month that that newsletter is current, so mark it in your DIARIES to make sure you're around to collect it! The only thing I need to worry about now is what to call it...
posted 30/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Joan Collins And Iron Man
It was a day of CULTURE round our way on Friday. To kick off, I gently slid out of work early to go an watch "Iron Man 3", which was UTTERLY GRATE. It's amazing that it took Hollywood SO LONG to realise that the best way to make a good superhero film is to make it like a good superhero comic i.e. ACTION PACKED but also FUNNY. I LARFED, I went "OOH!" at The Bit Where Everyone Falls Out Of An Aeroplane, and I really REALLY liked the way that T.Stark and P.Potts BICKER the whole way through. It was ACE.
Also, I realised that I've actually MET one of the writers - Drew Pearce, who co-wrote it with Shane Black, also wrote "No Heroics", and I met him when I went to a preview showing YEARS ago. He's done jolly well for himself!
Then I wandered into THEATRELAND to meet The Star Of My Show for "An Evening With Joan Collins". Now, we BOOKED this via a circuitous route - we'd both read good reviews of "The Audience" feat. Helen Mirren and thought it might be fun to see... about an hour after EVERYONE ELSE had thought the same thing and bought ALL the tickets. The Print On My Page had happened to pick up "Time Out" that week and seen that Joan Collins was doing her one woman show, thought it might be interesting, so suggested we go to that instead.
The aforesaid Beer In My Glass got caught at work, so I ended up going in on my own - the door staff at The Leicester Square Theatre were VERY nice and assured me she'd get in OK (which indeed she did), so I shuffled in to find myself very much one of the youngest people there, in an audience that was 50% early middle-aged gay, 50% late middle-aged heterosexual, ALL in couples. It was a NICE audience to be in, jolly and excited but not TOO jolly and excited, and the Leicester Square is a LOVELY theatre to be in - OOH! The SEATS! They're so COMFY!
I must admit, I wasn't expecting much, but in the end it turned out to be GRATE. She did a sort of "My Exciting Life In ROCK" show (I'm SURE she got the idea off me) with film clips to illustrate the stories, which were by an large HILARIOUS and full of ENORMOUS NAME DROPS. Every so often you had to stop and think "Hang on a bloody minute, that's the ACTUAL JOAN COLLINS over there!"
She looked INCREDIBLE for her age and FULL of energy and very much deserved the TWO standing ovations at the end. They also did a sort of encore when her husband BOUNDED on and asked questions suggested beforehand by the audience. This was a) LOVELY ) also FUNNY, and she ended the whole show rather delightfully with a GAG about having to go and see D.Cameron afterwards. The whole show was LOVELY really - funny, interesting, well done, and HANG ON A MINUTE! That's JOAN COLLINS!
I would heartily recommend BOTH Joan Collins AND Iron Man 3 to anybody: a little bit different in tone, perhaps, but both GRATE!
posted 29/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Totally Acoustic Podcast
Let the world THRILL to the news, for LO! after a gap of MANY months there is finally a brand new Totally Acoustic podcast to download!
This was recorded last month and features not only ME doing a couple of songs but also the very very marvellous Enderby's Room. Their set sounds GORGEOUS - I know I always say this, but I do still find it remarkable how BEAUTIFULLY acoustical instruments sound together when they're unencumbered by amplification. It's how they're DESIGNED to be played, and they sound GRATE - especially when HARNESSED to songs as lovely as the songs that this lot play. It's ACE!
And after them there is music of a slightly LESS crafted/delicately played nature, in the form of me and Steve doing Total Hero Team. I thought the best way to present it here would be to just have some short excerpts, with three full songs (presented here online for the first time EVER!). It kind of makes sense, I think - see what you reckon!
I rather enjoyed putting it all together - one of the very few Transferable Skills that I have transferred FROM work to ROCK (rather than the other way round, which has happened surprisingly often) is the fact that when I did the first few podcasts I documented EVERYTHING i needed to do, which has been a BOON over the years, making the whole process much easier to repeat. This meant i was free to listen to it all a couple of times and enjoy the lovely SOUNDS - tho as per, choosing WHICH songs to put in was harder work. Hope you enjoy my choices!
posted 25/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Record Shop Day In Altrincham
I set off for distant ALTRINCHAM on Saturday, where I was due to play at Beatnik Records, a brand new record shop opening its doors for the first time on Record Shop Day.
I had to go most of the way there on a MASSIVE Virgin Train (there were about a MILLION carriages) and as usual I was moved to think "Virgin Trains are shit". This time I was moved so to think by the fact that the "reservation screens" weren't working. It was hard to tell because, OBVIOUSLY, the little displays that tell you whether you can sit on a screen are so DARK and TINY you can't see them ANYWAY, but this time, apparently, they were still "downloading" when we set off (and when I, and loads of other people, had had to jiggle their seats around). Two hours later, when I arrived for my change at Stockport, they STILL hadn't started working.
ANYWAY, after that the rest of the day was DELIGHTFUL - the sun was shining and SPRING seemed to be showing up. I strolled through Sunny Altrincham, amazed that anywhere could have SO MANY chip shops (it smelt LOVELY) and arrived at Beatnik to be greeted by Grant and co, who were catering to a HUGE crowd of people who were packing the shop out. So busy was it that soon i was forced - FORCED - to decamp next door to the Belgian Beer Bar (one of THREE in the area, apparently - they like Belgian Beer almost as much as they like CHIPS in Altrincham, and who can blame them?) where I enjoyed some TASTY, yet SENSIBLY STRENGTHED, beers in the sunshine. GOOD TIMES.
Eventually though it was time for me to get on with what I had come to do, so I stood up in the shop window and did THIS:
The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)
Clubbing In The Week
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
Do The Indie Kid
Get Over It
Theme From Dinosaur Planet
The Lesson Of The Smiths
Boom Shake The Room
It was AMAZINGLY good fun to be back doing a "normal" set again - this was the first time I'd done such a thing in over five months - and it was HUGELY gratifying to get one of the best reactions of the day for Get Over It too. People seemed to like it - some people were DETERMINEDLY studying vinyl racks throughout, but it IS a record shop so that's fine, and some took a bit of persuading - one small child took several songs to change his mind from a definite thumbs down to a double thumbs up towards the end - but there was singing along and clapping and general SMILES. I was pleased!
I was also WHOOZY - it turns out that standing in a huge glass window on a sunny day, ROCKING OUT, will do that to you, so a pint of water and a cup of tea were downed in quick succession, before I fell to CHAT with several of the DELIGHTFUL people who had turned up, moving on later to further BEERS imported from next door. It turned out that a lot of the attendees were former members of The Word Magazine's message boards, so I knew I was in good company.
Soon it was time to wobble off home again. It turned out that about ten minutes after I'd gone MIKE JOYCE from THE SMITHS happened to turn out, but that was the ONLY part of the day I would have changed. We've since spoken about a return trip later in the year - I do hope it happens, I had a GRATE day!
posted 23/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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The Return To Totally Acoustic
I found myself back in the King & Queen for the first time in AGES last night, for a special one-off edition of Totally Acoustic. I'd originally booked this particular evening because an American Artiste had asked for a gig while he was touring, but when he had to pull out I decided to carry on anyway and a) use half of it as a preview for Total Hero Team and b) book Enderby's Room for the other.
When I got there I found Steve AFEARED as the aforementioned Enderby's Room were already upstairs with HUGE INSTRUMENTS, and he was worried they might be a whole other band, double booked. We're used to people turning up with a GUITAR or a UKELELE or something, so when you see a mini drum kit, DOUBLE BASE, entire KEYBOARD THING and a RANGE of guitars, it can be a bit alarming.
We got set up and a Very Respectably Sized audience arrived, including not only Totally Acoustic veterans Mr M Tiller and Mr T Eveleigh, but ALSO a rare sighting of Fran From Cheshire For Life, our PAL from The Buffs Club of 2011 - he's writing a musical for this year's Fringe, and had come by to pick up TIPS! No, honest, he really had!
I kicked the evening off with a couple of songs - partly because I don't like to just LAUNCH our guests onstage first of all, but mostly so that I had a chance to play The Fight For History at SOME point close to the actual funeral. I then did Clubbing In The Week, as I'd been LEARNING it back up this week, before introducing Enderby's Room.
They were ACE - beautiful songs played beautifully, with all SORTS of tunes and instruments going on. I've said it MANY times before, but it always strikes me that these instruments we play were DESIGNED to be played together, so when you get rid of artifical amplification it always sounds EXACTLY RIGHT. The double bass was especially GRATE, this mighty LUGUBRIOUS sound that made everything sound wonderful.
I liked them a LOT, and as we sat and listened I realised that I'd rather MISSED these evenings. Since I stopped doing them regularly I must admit I haven't THORT that i HAD missed it - doing them regularly tends to turn into a bit of a HASSLE as you're forever trying to get bands sorted out, get people to come, organise promotion and then do the podcast, so my MEMORIES have often focussed on THAT part of it, forgetting sometimes the MIGHTY JOY of sitting in a really nice pub with a load of FRIENDS, listening to ACE music. It was brilliant!
And then Steve and I took to the stage to do the latest version of Total Hero Team. We had a PRACTICE the other night during which we DROPPED two whole songs, as part of our continuing attempt to squeeze it into the hour long slot we'll have in Edinburgh. It all worked FINE without those two songs (you wouldn't notice they weren't there if you didn't know they had been) and it DID get in under an hour... but only just. MAYBE it was because of all the LARFS... although it might also because there was a little bit of MESSING ABOUT, also some bits that didn't go as SMOOTHLY as they might. Still, we have several months in which to exert THEATRICAL ALLEN KEYS and tighten it all up a bit!
The evening ending with the oft-heralded BEST BIT of these shows i.e. the ability to sit around afterwards and have a bit of an old chat, which was LOVELY. The Acts On My Bill and I strolled out into the London evening both thinking the same thing: these gigs are GRATE!
posted 19/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Write The Theme Tune, Sing The Theme Tune
Last night Mr T Pattison was in the studio again, doing final mixes on the theme tune and SUNDRIES for A Brief History Of Time Travel. We'd had some online discussion about what needed doing, and it looked like there was a LOT - not only was he doing a big POP HIT final mix of the main theme, but also an instrumental version, some "STABS" (those short bits of music you get sometimes in radio/tv shows to punctuate the action) and ALL the incidental instrumental tracks that had been JAMMED.
Just after eight o'clock I had a call from Tim, which i MISSED. I rang back ten minutes later. "I wanted to ask you opinion of something", he said, "But I've done it now anyway." They'd thought that there should be TWO choruses at the end. "Good Idea" I said.
And that was that - there have been occasions in the past when i've had SEVERAL calls from and to The Studio, but all was STILL for the rest of the night, until around midnight when I checked my email to find that Tim had sent the "final" mix. I say "final" because often the rest of us will hear it and have NIGGLES, sending Whoever Is Producing This Time BACK to try again. No such worries this time - it sounded AMAZING! We'd been talking about making this an Official Single later in the year when the podcast comes out, and I think we'll DEFINITELY be doing so now, as it sounds GRATE! Hooks! Tunes! Danciness! WORDZ! It's FAB!
I was very very pleased - for the past three or four years MIXING has been a TORTUROUS and COMPLICATED process, so I'd forgotten how EXCITING and (seemingly) PEASY it can be when you DON'T have to link it to dialogue sections on other side, add on an orchestra, and then layer it with EXPLOSIONS and DINOSAURS.
Surely THAT had taken all night though? I responded favourably, asking if by any chance they'd had a chance to do the STABS, and LO! Just as I pressed SEND a new email appeared, containing a ZIP of a LOAD of STABS, which all sounded DEAD PROPER. "That must be it", I thought, sending congratulations, but NO! Fifteen minutes later yet ANOTHER file arrived, containing all the instrumental incidentals. I'd asked Tim to turn down the DRUMZ on all of these ones, so they wouldn't STICK OUT as much when placed under dialogue, and BLOW ME but he HAD and it sounded FAB!
As you may have noticed, I am really rather a) please with b) excited about all this. I've just sent the theme tune to the ABHOTT chaps, so I rather hope they agree! In the meantime THORTS are rocketing around about what we can do for a VIDEO for it - HIT PARADE AHOY!
posted 18/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Pitch Up at BAFTA
After work on Monday night I strolled through London's Fashionable THEATRELAND Area Of London to head to the headquarters of BAFTA, where there was a special event about PITCHING for Comedy and Drama shows. It had been suggested to me by the esteemed Mr D Green, who works there. He's kindly suggested a FEW similar events in the past, knowing I'm doing the Playwriting/Screenwriting MA, but I've not been able to go before as they always seem to be on MONDAYS when I'm usually AT school. We're still on Easter hols at the moment tho, so I was FREE!
After getting slightly lost (I'm not familiar with Piccadilly, it is WAY outside my hood) I eventually met Dave in the BAR upstairs, where he showed me a GRATE IDEA he is developing. Amazingly, in this day and age, it was an actual THING, with WIRES and CHIPS and stuff, rather than an Idea or Program or WebCloudHologram or something, and tho it is SECRET I can say EXCLUSIVELY that it is Dead Good, Interesting and rather EXCITING.
We finished our beers and headed down for the event itself, which had started a minute EARLY so we had to CREEP IN. There had been a COMPETITION beforehand for people to send in PITCHES for new drama and comedy shows and they'd chosen the best TEN to pitch live at the event. I'd sent in an idea for a show called "Mum & Dad" which, INCREDIBLY, didn't get through - maybe they thought it was CLEARLY TOO GOOD? That's probably it.
The pitches themselves were ALL pretty good, with varying degrees of confidence in the pitchers. It was interesting to see that the people who really WENT for it in a big dramatic way didn't come across as the best - both my favourites were done quite calmly and quietly, but you believed that they totally knew what they were on about, and were full of IDEAS. The judging panel of five Proper Big Media Types offered feedback on the ideas and pitches and asked questions - the PRIZE was to have one of them meet you for more advice and THINKING. The feedback ALSO was dead interesting, not least because they discussed Actual Practicalities a lot more than ARTSY stuff, like the fact that it's much easier to sell something if there's a chance for a second series, or that you can't really have a TV show that features fighter pilots actually FIGHTING in PLANES very much.
At the end we all voted for our favourites, and I was pleased that MY favourite won both the audience vote AND the judges - it was a comedy drama about a family who have a patch in their garden where, if you bury a body, that body will be resurrected next day. It was a good idea REALLY well presented - my second favourite was the aforementioned one with FIGHTER PILOTS in, which came second.
Then we stood around and had a CHAT about Fascinating Things. One of the many good things about going with Dave is that he KNEW people - I'm always afeared at this kind of DO that I'm going to end up stood on my own drinking a beer VERY QUICKLY, maybe lurking NEAR a group of people, then FLEEING at HIGH SPEED. This time we got to talk to a couple of people involved in video games, with MANY interesting things to say - not least that MOST pitches these days would have to have something to say about cross-platform options, like social media strategies, online content, extra videos etc. That alone was worth going to find out - oddly NONE of the ten pitches that evening had mentioned any of this though.
Another good thing about going with Dave is that he knew where the EXTRA FREE BEER was kept (there was FREE BEER as part of the event!!) so we got to have one of those too, and ended up a) being AGHAST to talk to someone about my age, brought up in the UK, who had NEVER HEARD of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds (HOW!?!?) and b) discussing FILMS, fittingly for the location.
It was a brilliant night out, not only EDUCATIONAL but also featuring FREE BEER. WINZ all round!
posted 17/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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PBH Free Fringe Album Final Statement
Last night the PBH Free Fringe Benefit Album was DELETED FOREVER after six delightful weeks of being on sale via bandcamp. The point of only having it available for a limited period was THREEFOLD, thus: 1) it meant bands could give me tracks from forthcoming albums/singles that they wanted to use themselves later 2) it gave some URGENCY to proceedings, as the CA$H is needed fairly soon and 3) it stopped the whole process getting too COMPLEX, as (for various reasons) the money was going through my paypal account.
The second point was perhaps the BEST USED in all of this, as it gave me a good excuse to do DAILY TWEETS (an idea suggested by Mr D Green) and COUNTDOWNS, and we did have a last minute FLURRY of purchases right at the very end, tipping us over into just over a HUNDRED sales - 106 all together, in fact. I was rather pleased with this, not least because I'd been UNDERESTIMATING sales all the way through. I forgot that Bandcamp takes its 15% fee by redirecting 15% of paypal payments directly to them, so I was counting how many of these payments came to MY account, not realising there were MORE that I wasn't seeing. I only realised this on Monday morning, so went STRAIGHT from thinking "OH, I wish we'd manage to sell a hundred copies" to "Oh! we DID manage to sell a hundred copies!"
I would have liked to sell a LOT more, obviously, as it's a GRATE cause and a FANTASTIC album with some BRILLIANT tracks, but I think we would have needed to get it onto iTunes for that, to have had some bigger names maybe, including some COMEDIANS perhaps, and to have had a longer run in. But STILL, we raised £463 (after bandcamp fees, and with some lovely people paying MORE than they needed to) which is more than I'd EVER have made with a benefit gig, hopefully introduced people to some new bands, and introduced some BANDS to the idea of what the PBH Free Fringe is all about.
And, of course, we also got to make a FAB album - or, rather, TRIPLE ALBUM. If you're one of the people who bought it then thanks very much, and I hope that you're enjoying listening to it. I know I am!
posted 16/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Pappy's - Last Show Ever
On Thursday last week The Gags In My Routine and I went out for A MEAL and THEATRE: it was DEAD sophisticated.
We had TEA in Tibits (always ACE) and then strolled through London's SOHO area of London to the Soho Theatre, to see Pappy's doing their new show, "Last Show Ever". They've always been one of our FAVOURITE things to see at Edinburgh and, as we didn't GO this year, we booked tickets for this MONTHS ago and had been RIGHT looking forward to it.
We were not disappointed, for LO! it was UTTERLY BRILLIANT. I honestly LARFED so much that my FACE hurt all the way home and my CHEST ached until the next morning. It's like watching three Tommy Coopers or Eric Morecambes in that they just LOOK HILARIOUS whatever's going on. I was a bit skeptical beforehand because I'd read reviews saying it was An Emotional Story, so was a) happy that there were still a LOT of sketches but b) actually MOVED when they totally pulled off the Emotional Story bit.
The best thing about them though, as ever, is the way they make it LOOK like they're just titting about throughout, with silly ideas and daft sketches, BUT the longer it goes on the more you realise that everything is LINKED, leading to HUGE pay-offs at the end. Some of it was SPECTACULARLY clever - there's one sketch where they do EXACTLY the same thing three times to different music, getting funnier each time AND relating backwards and forwards to other sections.
They're on for another week, I think, so if you're about in That London I'd HIGHLY recommend getting a ticket, they are my FAVOURITE!
posted 15/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Twenty Years Of Lammo
Today is Steve Lamacq's twentieth year as a broadcaster, and Music Week have done a rather MARVELLOUS tribute to him in which lots of Successful And Popular People say how GRATE he is. This is all well and good, but it's not JUST Successful And Popular People who owe a lot to Lammo - he's helped a lot of us Unsuccesful And Unpopular types too!
I first came into contact with Mr Lamacq when we sent some "I Like Voon" stickers to the Melody Maker when he worked there. The phrase "I Like Voon" appeared in the gossip column, and Dr Kneel spoke to Lammo about it on the phone (for the rest of this LONG story, which involved us pretending to have an Australian Covers Band, ask me in the pub). Later on he did a big piece in his column about my booklet/fanzine "The Curse Of Voon", and I THRUST a TAPE (young people: it's like a solid mp3) at him in the Bull & Gate at a John Sims gig. He was, I recall, very nice about it.
My first PROPER contact with him, however, was about 10 years ago, when I'd just moved to London and he was starting his 6Music Sunday show. I'd sent him a copy of This Is Not A Library, he listened to it, and got his producer Henry to ring me. They were going to be playing a track from it next Sunday, he said, and would I like to go into the studio the week after and be on the show?
He'd rung me at work, so I had to go outside and LEAP ABOUT and SQUEAL a bit - I couldn't BELIEVE it! As promised they played You Will Be Hearing From My Solicitor on the next show and then the following weekend I went into the Broadcasting House for a LIVE appearance. As a Studio Assistant took me up to the actual studio he said, in awestruck tones, "the great thing about Steve is that he really does listen to everything people send him." I was surprised - surely ALL DJs listen to everything they get sent, don't they?
But, as I came to discover, that really IS one of the things that makes him special. Very few DJs and/or Producers bother to listen to ANY of the unsolicited tapes/CDs/mp3s/brain holograms (delete as time goes by) they receive - ESPECIALLY when they've got over two decades of ROCK HISTORY behind them - unless it's handed over by a PLUGGER or something, but Steve TOTALLY does - I've seen the BULGING SACK he has to go through every week! So, when people ask me now how I first got to know him they always seem surprised that the answer is "I sent him a CD", without any other contacts, DEADLY SECRETS or SUBTERFUGE. That's just not the way it's usually done.
Anyway, that appearance was the start of quite a LOT of activity on the Sunday show - they asked me to write them a CHRISTMAS song, so I wrote The Advent Calendar Of FACT and I got a large posse of PALS to come along with me to sing it on their Christmas show. During the European Championships 2004 I acted as FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT and wrote four different versions of The Fair Play Trophy (again), popping into the studio every week to record it. Then, when he moved to DAILY DRIVETIME, I wrote Good Luck In Your New Job and played it live on air on his final Sunday as a SURPRISE.
It was a lovely time, just nipping in every few weeks to do something, and I was always AMAZED about how easy going it all was. One week, mid-way through Euro 2004, Steve was broadcasting from Glastonbury, so I ended up doing my bit all alone in a little room at Broadcasting House. It struck me that I'd been given COMPLETE CONTROL of a national radio station - they'd just trusted me to get on with it!
After the Sunday show finished he continued to support us, including on his Radio One show, Lamacq Live. One day I got another call, from Steve himself. Radio One were cancelling Lamacq Live, so, he said, he'd decided to give us one of the last sessions. I got the distinct impression that this was an act of SCREW YOU THEN devilry, giving a huge chunk of radio time (with MILLIONS of listeners) to the least likely band going, but HEY! I wasn't going to complain. Thus we ended up going to Maida Vale where so many LEGENDS had been before, and performing three songs to the ENTIRE NATION. It's one of the absolute high points of my entire life in ROCK, and it still feels weird to think that it actually HAPPENED. Steve could easily have got in any one of HUNDREDS of managed, promoted, record company approved bands to whom it would have been just another step on their Proper Career, but I think he knew that it would mean a WHOLE LOT MORE to a bunch like us, who were unlikely to ever get the chance to do such a thing ever again. It was MAGIC - especially when, a few weeks later, he played our session version of The Lesson Of The Smiths as his last EVER song on Radio One.
He's continued to be a PAL to us ever since - I bumped into him at St Pancras once and that led to him doing a VOICEOVER for THIS:
As before, there was no need for him to do something as NICE as that, there was nothing at all in it for him, he did it in his own time, it was all his idea, and he never asked for any CA$H nor nothing, he just thought it would be a GOOD IDEA. Shortly afterwards Regardez, Ecoutez et Repetez was Album Of The Day on 6Music - he never said anything about it but I very much suspect The Hand Of Lammo in making that happen, possibly again with a hint of NAUGHTINESS to it. I don't think I'll ever forget George Lamb HAVING to play Do The Indie Kid and TAKING IT OFF because he couldn't stand The Music Of The Future any more!
And these, of course, are just MY memories of being helped along by Lammo. He does this sort of thing for all SORTS of bands, ALL THE TIME. He seems to ALWAYS be out and about at gigs in London, ALWAYS looking out for something ACE and you'll OFTEN find him at some point having a chat with people in bands, EITHER giving advice OR talking nonsense OR both. He sometimes gets slagged off for discovering/favouring popular, straightforward bands like Coldplay, but that's just the ones people have HEARD of. I can testify personally that he does exactly the same for a lot of bands that hardly ANYBODY else likes, just because he thinks it's a good idea!
In summary then: I'd like to wish him at LEAST another twenty years of ROCK, and thank him very very much INDEED for everything he's done for us, and that he continues to do for all sorts of bands, popular and otherwise.
Thanks Steve!
posted 12/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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She Invented Windows Vista
The Fight For History is very much my Grown-Up Meditation on the death of Thatcher, but in the words of YODA (who waged battle against Emperor Palpatine, another "divisive" Conviction Politician), "There Is Another".
And that other is That Was Margaret Thatcher from Moon Horse, which I present to you NOW in this LIVE VERSION:
It is an ACCURATE HISTORICAL BRIEFING.
For those FEW who haven't seen the show, about three quarters of the way through it is revealed that The Secret Evil Empress Of England (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), who has been guiding The Mars Men Of Jupiter in their dastardly schemes is the aforesaid Margaret Thatcher. This was one of my FAVOURITE parts of the show, doing the line "Perhaps you know me better as..." with my back to the audience was GRATE, then turning round like a Panto Villain in my Thatcher wig to assorted GASPS and BOOs was WONDERFUL. All through the run of the show there was only ONE person who objected to my PORTRAYAL of her as a force for evil - one day during our fortnight in Edinburgh a lady very loudly said "QUITE RIGHT!" after the line "Say what you like about her, you always knew just where you stood"... and then STORMED OUT after the next line, which was "Up to our eyeballs in cold shite". This made me JOLLY HAPPY.
For the entire year we DID the show, however, I was in a constant state of PANIC in case she actually DIED, thus making it pretty much impossible for us to DO the show. I wondered if MAYBE we could get away with it, and even get some PUBLICITY for being SICK or something, but that's not something that ever really appealed, and so I ended up being one of the very very very few people in the country who LIVED through her regime who was wishing her GOOD HEALTH.
At the end of the show we even presented a vision of what would happen to Thatcher after death - Harold Wilson arrived to take her to The Heaven Of Prime Ministers. I wonder if she's there now? Sharing a room with Ted Heath... FOREVER.
UPDATE: I've done it as a soundcloud thingy of just the song too:
posted 9/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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On The Day That Thatcher's Dead
I'll never forget where I was when I heard Thatcher had resigned as prime minister- in a very dull lecture about Politics at Leicester Polytechnic. Our lecturer (who was, for the time and place, EXTREMELY right wing i.e. A Little Bit) said "Margaret Thatcher, who may not be Prime Minister for very long..." and someone put their hand up and said "No! She resigned this morning!"
It seems WEIRD to even think of something happening that way now - I'd had breakfast, wandered through Vic Berry's scrap yard, and been sat in a lecture for HOURS without knowing the Big News Of The Day. TODAY, when the Big News was announced, i knew within SECONDS, being first alerted by a text from Mr W Pilkington, closely followed by a LOT of other texts, tweets, emails, and facebook. Thatcher, everyone was saying, is dead.
And blimey, it feels really WEIRD. It's like January 1st 2000 or something, a day looked forward to for DECADES which finally turns up and... is the same as any other, really. Living under the EVIL YOKE of Thatcherism back in the eighties, when the country was in recession and there was a threat of nuclear war (DISTANT DAYS, i know) we regularly fantastised about her being killed, and working out what you'd do on the day of her death was a regular topic of conversation. It's strange - I bet nobody ever did that about Harold Wilson or Ted Heath, and I'm sure nobody does it now about Cameron. As loads of people in the media are saying TACTFULLY today, she was "divisive". By which they mean "Everybody sensible HATED HER but my BOSS thought she was great so I have to be careful."
This is quite different to how I expected things to turn out today - when Ronald Reagan died the Public Agenda was set ENTIRELY by the press and TV media, so it was a load of old bollocks about how ace he was, what a great leader, and nothing about the rollicking ride towards nuclear oblivion that he led us on, or how he (and Thatcher) did everything they could to profit the rich and destroy the poor. It even drove me to write a song about it, predicting the same would happen with Thatcher.
But, actually, it hasn't yet. The MIGHT of social media means that NORMAL PEOPLE have a chance to speak their mind IMMEDIATELY and say what WE thought of her and her legacy. Now, obviously, feelings are very slightly muted by the fact that she ended her life as a poorly old lady with dementia, and, despite everything, it STILL isn't nice to take joy in someone's painful death. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean we need to instantly forget everything she stood for, nor should we fail to stand up for the view of history held by those who live through her reign, rather than that of those who profitted from it.
What I'm basically trying to say is that we should fight for history, on the day that Thatcher's dead.
posted 8/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Amongst Heroes
Having spent the weekend looking in MUSEUMS and that, me and The Painting In My Frame continued being DEAD SOPHISTICATED by going to an ART exhibition last night, Amongst Heroes: the artist in working Cornwall at Two Temple Place.
It was actually our THIRD attempt at going - the first time we'd got the wrong day for late opening, the second we were booked for A Cornish Evening Of Song which got CANCELLED (so i got a pasty and we went to the pub instead) - but WELL worth the wait, as it was utterly BRILLIANT. Two Temple Place is a crazy/gorgeous building in its own right, and was worth going for how Slightly Potty it is, with rooms having sculptures based on (i think) Lord Astor's favourite BOOKS from around when it was built.
The paintings were from 18th/19th century painters based around St Ives and Newlyn, mostly Stanhope Forbes (why yes, i DID read all the labels) showing working people in Cornwall doing WORK. You get so used to seeing paintings of Important Figures From History and THE SUPER POSH in paintings that it was slightly mind blowing to see ACTUAL PEOPLE, especially when the SAME actual people popped up in different pictures - there was one fisherman in a red beret, white smock and MOUSTACHE that seemed to be in half of the fishing ones. My favourite BIG painting was "A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach" which was ASTOUNDING and gorgeous, but the best part of the exhibition as a whole was on one of the landings, where they had small portraits of individuals. They REEKED of character and humanity and Actual LIVES - again,when you're used to seeing the same chinless privileged arrogant twits in all old paintings, it comes as a bit of a shock to be confronted with people who look like you could bump into them in the street outside.
ALSO also pretty amazing was seeing sort of Impressionist (again: i read all the labels) style painting applied to places I have actually BEEN. I've only visited St Ives a couple of times, but it looked very familiar in the paintings to how I remember it, and I'm pretty sure we've been to Newlyn too... though it'll have been with my Dad, so we probably nipped to the pub at some point.
ANYWAY the point is: it was BLOODY GRATE. As I always say, living in That London can be a bit of a pain at times, but the ability to wander along to FANTASTIC things like this after work, for FREE, doesn't half make up for it!
posted 4/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Bath!
The Minerals In My Spring and I went off for a PROPER GROWN-UP Easter Away Weekend City Break this Easter, for three whole nights in BATH, and LO! It was GRATE!
The best thing of ALL was that we went to the Thermae Bath Spa - I was expecting it to be an Ancient Roman place with a big smelly BATH in the middle of it, but it was all DEAD modern, also rather SWISH. We spent FOUR HOURS wandering around in BATHROBES, dipping into a ROOFTOP POOL, a massive steam room and a whole other POOL which had JETS in it so you could get drifted around. It was UTTERLY ACE, like being in something off the TELLY. It was also packed out with Women On Hen Nights Being RELAXED (we went in the morning) and a TONNE of COUPLES also being relaxed and SMOOCHY. Having typed that it sounds less pleasant than it was, but basically it was like being in a really really nice PUB, but everybody was in their swimming costumes, also in a pool.
The other best thing was the Bizarre Bath Walk which was a 90 minute stroll around while a comedian did JOKES and MAGIC TRICKS. It was bloody GRATE - a huge MOB of us walked around and LARFED. Also rather good, if a bit different, was Bath Abbey (I do like a good cathedral, even when they don't CALL it a Cathedral) and our favourite PUB, The Crystal Palace, which we went to a LOT. Ooh, and we even went out for a POSH MEAL at a place called De Muths. It was DEAD POSH - all veggie, but not like a veggie cafe, everything was JOLLY SUBTLE and DELICATELY FLAVOURED. As The Grub On My Plate remarked, it's not the sort of place you'd want to eat all the time - you'd hanker for CHIPS after a while - but it was lovely to go to and we would do AGANE.
In fact i think it's highly likely we WILL go again, tho there's a few things I'd be unlikely to repeat. One is the City Sightseeing Tour, if only because we did BOTH of their trips, which were EXCELLENT as ever - anyone who has ever travelled ANYWHERE with me will know i am a FAN of this company. "Go on an open top bus tour within 24 hours of arriving in a city", I will tell all and sundry, "for then you will get yr bearings and also some FACTS!"
The Jane Austen Centre, however, I'd not go to because it felt like a bit of a rip off. Jane Austen lived in several houses in Bath, but this wasn't one of them, although it was QUITE NEAR somewhere she lived for a few weeks. And didn't like. They had a "museum" downstairs where, as far as I could see, the only ACTUAL item from anywhere near Jane Austen times was A PAIR OF SOCKS. We did get a ten minute talk right at the start from someone who was FUNNY and KNOWLEDGEABLE, but to be honest it did feel like we'd paid fifteen quid for entry to a cafe and Jane Austen Themed Tat Shop.
The other thing we'd probably not do was go to the same hotel. We stayed at the Abbey Hotel (Best Western), which was nice enough except a BIT expensive, and had a COACH LOAD of RUGBY FANS/STAG WEEKENDERS on our floor who sat in the hotel bar until 4am every night then spent up to an HOUR running up and down corridors, singing, shouting, knocking on doors, and generally being TWATS. You know when you get a bunch of total wankers together, like on a train or something, and there's always a little weaselly one who SHRIEK-GIGGLES at everybody else? We heard a lot from him. I did complain at reception and they apologised... but kept serving the idiots until 4am that night anyway.
On the plus side I did call them A VERY RUDE WORD as I passed them in the corridor one morning. "Did that bloke just call us [VERY RUDE WORD]s?" one of them asked, surprised. It made me feel better anyway!
Apart from those two things, however, we had a BLOODY LOVELY time in Bath. Even the fact that trains were a bit knackered and it took an hour longer than normal each way was PLEASANT - it made it worthwhile getting a Weekend First upgrade and RELAXING. Bath! It's dead good! We'll be back!
posted 2/4/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Dinosaur Planet Performances
Yesterday I had an email from Mr J Walsh, telling me that he'd dug out Let's All Play The Dinosaur Way and recorded his own version of
Nice, isn't it? I thought so, and mentioned it in this month's edition of the newsletter, wondering if anybody else might like to have a go at using the songbook to record their own versions. To my a) amazement b) GLEE I received two responses almost immediately, the first from Mr C Evans, with a version of Please Don't Eat Us recorded by his family the day the album came out, THUS:
... and the second from Mr G Wood, a version of A Little Bit which he recorded about a year ago for a charity day at his work. Here it is:
I think these are rather fantastic, and so I put this challenge out there as a bit of EASTER HOLIDAY FUN: does anybody else fancy doing a song? Go on, I'll stick it on the webpage and EVERYTHING!
posted 28/3/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Coincidental Edinburgh
We're doing Total Hero Team with the Free Fringe again this year, because they're ACE (and VERY MUCH deserving of any support you can give them e.g. by buying a copy of the amazingly GRATE benefit album what I put together). We got approved to be part of it AGES ago, but had to wait a while to find out what venue we'd be getting, as we're only doing two weeks and they sort out people doing a full run FIRST.
I kept saying "I bet it'll be Medina!" to all who asked, CHORTLING as I did so - the Medina is where we played for the first two years that we did the Fringe, and I knew that it had joined the Free Fringe last year. How HILARIOUS it would be, I thought, if out of ALL the many many venues the PBH Free Fringe had access to, they chose that one! IMAGINE!
And lo and behold, we totally DID get given it as a venue - cue much saying "HO! I told you: I AM PSYCHIC, FEAR MY MIND". We logged it on systems, put it on our gig listings, and felt ready to ROCK... until a couple of weeks ago when we got an email telling us that the Medina (now called "The Third Door") had been SOLD and the owners had gone with someone ELSE instead, so we were being moved to somewhere called "The Wilkie House Upstairs".
I couldn't register this on the Fringe website just yet (NB we have to register it there to get our listing in the Big Fat Programme) as it wasn't LISTED yet - INDEED, as far as GOOGLE knew, the Wilkie House had closed down in the 1990s or something, but we were pretty sure we knew where it was, in the Sin Nightclub on Cowgate, just down the STEPS from the GRV where we played the year after Medina. That would be FINE with us.
Then last night I got another email which happened casually happened to mention halfway through that "Wilkie Upstairs" is a slightly different building to the main "Wilkie House" that we knew about and is, in fact, the new name for ... the GRV!
To summarise: we had originally been booked to play in the same venue we used in 2008 and 2009. That fell through, so we were transferred to... the same venue we used in 2010. I am now COMPLETELY READY for THAT to change in a few weeks and for us to end up back at The Buffs Club again! Apparently it has closed down and is being changed into a HOSTEL instead of a social club, but I do not see that as much of a barrier when, clearly, THE GODS OF ROCK are intent on us revisiting all our old venues... and then NOT revisiting them!
For now though it remains "Wilkie House Upstairs (formerly GRV)" over on the Total Hero Team website. When it changes to "Building Site For Backpackers Hostel (formerly Buffs Club)" I'll let you know.
posted 27/3/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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A San Francisco Wedding
On Wednesday evening I received the following rather wonderful email:
HiI'm sure I don't know WHAT they mean by that first sentence - as far as I recall I was ENTIRELY sober throughout the day - but the rest of it is BEAUTIFUL. Much to my amazement there's a few couples I know off who have It Only Works Because You're Here as THEIR song, and it always fills me with JOY to think that something what I wrote has such a magical place in other people's hearts. It really does make the whole thing worthwhile, and I'm INCREDIBLY grateful to Mr & Mrs Temple for not only telling me about it, but for sending this GORGEOUS photograph too:
You won't remember (you were very drunk) but we collared you at the end of your set at the Sheffield Pop Weekender last year and told you of our plan to elope to San Francisco. Well we did the deed yesterday and celebrated by dancing to our song "It Only Works Because You're Here" in our room at the Ritz.
So thank you for playing a part in our wedding day
Hugs
JP and Jo-Anne
Aaaah, isn't that lovely? It lit up my evening on Wednesday night and continues to do so today - HUGE HUGZ and best wishes to the new Mr and Mrs Temple, have a GRATE honeymoon!
posted 22/3/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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The 360 Deal
I'm very VERY honoured to be able to say that there's a whole chapter by ME in this amazing new book, released this week, called The 360 Deal, which you can actually BUY right now!
The idea of the book is to counter the current Music Business THING of "The 360 Deal" where the corporation gets a piece of EVERYTHING that the ARTISTE does - touring, merchandise etc etc as well as the usual huge chunk of music sales. Professor Andrew Dubber decided to put together a WEALTH of ADVICE from people involved in INDEPENDENT music, in order to help people who (wisely) would like to pursue a different course.
The bits I've read so far are ACE and feature Wise Words from people like Derek Sivers of CD Baby, our pal Chris T-T, all sorts of ACADEMICS, DJS, songwriters, label types, journalists and... er... me! The idea is that everybody gives the BEST bit of advice they've ever had, in 360 words or less, and over time the book GROWS until it has 360 seperate chapters.
Beautifully, most of the advice seems to be "Get on a do it, and be nice". I couldn't agree more!
It's a lovely idea full of fascinating FACT, and it's all in a good cause too - the money goes to Music Basti, an Indian charity which brings music to children in extreme poverty, which does fit rather brilliantly with the THRUST of the book.
Finally, it's CHEAP - $3.60 in fact! Go on, get a copy, it'll be GRATE!
posted 19/3/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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Total Hero Team In Nottingham
Mr S Hewitt and I were properly back on the road yesterday, as we headed up to Nottingham for another preview of Total Hero Team. Our train was one of those you get on Sunday that stops EVERYWHERE (e.g. Luton Airport Parkway AND Luton) so we had plenty of time to wonder at all the SNOW, go through our LINEZ, discuss ADMIN issues and, in my case, read some comics. It's funny - not doing so many gigs lately has been FINE, but I've really missed the opportunity that train travel provides to read COMICS!
We arrived in a very chilly Nottingham and hopped on a TRAM to Spanky Van Dyke's, a venue that I quickly realised I had played BEFORE, many moons ago - much discussion eventually revealed that it used to be called The Fair & Firkin, and The Validators had played there almost exactly THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, when we were on tour with Johnny Domino. I distinctly remember Mr FA Machine being surrounded by GURLS that night, Dr Kneel playing SYNTH, and I think it may have been the first time that Tom was ever addressed as "The Tiger". There should be a BLUE PLAQUE!
This time it was full of CHILDREN - well, teenagers at least. As more PALS arrived there was much discussion of how, IN OUR DAY, students didn't have enough CA$H to EAT, let alone EAT OUT, but here they all were, eating Sunday Roasts ("Ironic Sunday Roasts", as Mr S Metcalf put it) and drinking Jaeger Bombs. There were also some much YOUNGER children, in the form of ACTUAL children, including the sons of aforesaid Messrs Metcalf and Machine, who ended up PLAYING together (NB the children, not the gentlemen). I expect a band to be formed before the month is out.
There was a slight delay in getting upstairs as the Small Child running the bar had forgot to put ALL of our food orders in, but it was all fine as we got upstairs just in time to see Markie Does GirlPop - he claimed to be NERVOUS but it all came across as a GRATE bit of SCHTICK, especially when he was flipping through his book of SONGS saying "No, not that one, too hard." I told him he should keep it in the ACT!
I think I upset The House Engineer after that, by fiddling with LIGHTS, as it was DARK, but he soon sorted it out ready for Norbert And Daniel Dentrassangle, who was also ACE - lovely songs as heard on The PBH Free Fringe Benefit Album, including one about BINKER from the AA Milne poem which has been turned into a DIFFERENT song by Mr Chris T-T. "This is from a poem by AA Milne" said Dan. "WE KNOW" said me and Steve.
And then it was time to get going, and we got going pretty good - there were a couple of mistakes, which I think we covered up in a quite jolly way, especially when Steve said a Slightly Rude Word by accident, which I covered by saying something MUCH RUDER. It was a BIG old room to do it in, so there was HOARSENESS halfway through, but it all seemed to work out pretty well. Still a bit long, but I'm sure we'll fix that somehow.
Afterwards there was plenty of time for CHAT before we rolled down the hill to catch our train again. The journey home was slightly FRAUGHT by the train only having TWO working toilets, one of which contained a VERY ANGRY YOUTH avoiding paying for a ticket - I know this because when I knocked on the door he opened the door and SCREAMED at me... all three times I did it!
It was a lovely day out, a reminder that the NICEST thing about going off and doing gigs is meeting the SMASHING PALS that are there, especially the ever marvellous Mr Alexander Hale, who had BOOKED the whole thing. Thanks Alex, it was GRATE!
posted 18/3/2013 by MJ Hibbett
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An Artists Against Success PresentationMaintained by MJ Hibbett & The Validators