OK so I was last here in June. I've started doing The Artists' Way and I seem to remember that the last day I wrote this was a day I didn't want to do my morning pages and I felt this was a good alternative. I suspect I've not done my morning pages since. I've enjoyed the experience when I've knuckled down to it but have not been very disciplined since oh, about the 23rd June. Maybe a little later.
I've been travelling again. I went to Avignon (again) to play at the OFF Festival, their fringe festival for the towns' main (but much smaller) festival. Peadar King came up with the idea of playing in Avignon after he wound up doing an Erasmus year in the university there. We played two very successful concerts in the town in May which found the three musicians getting on well together, eating and drinking well, enjoying the music and playing to two packed (50) houses. We were lured into a somewhat false sense of security by this and when the theatre we had played in suggested we return for a week of the three week festival, Peadar was intrigued by the idea. I suggested the 'band' (Tom Portman and I) return too and we all agreed that we were happy to just take a share of whatever came in which wasn't likely to be much.
In reality, it was not much at all although probably slightly more for Tom and I than Peadar. The music was the easy part. We had a good show rehearsed and although it changed slightly over the run, it basically ran to script most nights which allowed us all relax thanks to a certain familiarity and ease that the show worked the way we were doing it. Some bands and singers don't like this but I believe that a live set has a natural rhythm and flow and if you hit a good order, don't mess with it.
The hard part was getting the audience in. An extra boulster to the false sense of security came when Peadar played a show a few weeks earlier to 35 people in the same theatre lending a certain bounce of "what can possibly go wrong ?" to Peadar's step when we arrived. We realised pretty quickly that people were not going to come unless we made them very aware what it was we did and so, after two nights (Saturday - 12 people, and Sunday - fewer than 12) we took to the streets for what is known as Tracting where you get out and busk and hand out flyers and talk to everybody wherever they are (usually outside the cafes but sometimes there are other good busking spots) and urge them to go and hear this excellent Irish band who are playing tonight in this strange theatre nobody's ever heard of or has any idea of how to get to at the obscenely anti-sociable hour of midnight. It was a hard sell. The sun heated up Avignon to about 35 degrees Celsius every day (and when the wind blew it went down to about 32) and we did an hour or two (or sometimes three) of this every day in a number of different locations and drank copious amounts of water. Being shite at French and not strong enough to carry a piano on my back, I got away with doing very little. Peadar's friend Ivonne and Sara did a lot of the talking and leafleting, Peadar and Tom did the playing and I hid under umbrellas trying to stay out of the sun. There was one night with one audience (our audient, I christened him) and one night with no audience at all (we played two songs to make the fact we were there and went home). After that, it was 6, 8, 15, 40 (on the last night).
Once the audience were beginning to come in, this presented a few hurdles of its own. On the last night, Peadar had friends in who had worked in another theatre where he was working during the day and they had been for a 'few' drinks beforehand. On another night, an audience member became so enraptured by the show she started singing along, one thing in a big stadium or even a club but quite another in a 50-seat basement theatre. She was glared at by everyone in the room and enjoyed the rest of the show in silence but apparently greatly enjoyed the evening even so. We finished the run wondering (and only half-jokingly) whether we preferred the show with audience or without audience. The two instnaces I refer to above certainly threw the musicians on the stage but we realised by the end that we need to learn to project something from the stage that says "this is our show - enjoy but be aware of who is on the stage", obviously in a nice way. We're still finding that familiarity and ease and sympathetic assertiveness but it's been an interesting learning curve.
And after the run was over, I had three days of holiday taking my ipod and book down to the river in the shadow of the half-finished bridge and lazing away the exceptionally hot day before getting an ice cream on the way home or getting crepes for lunch or croissants for breakfast. I even discovered a new game called Munchkin which I have since bought three sets of. I highly recomment it. It was a good fortnight.
I needed a break when I got home and I spent a serious amount of time in front of the Olympics which was just the tonic I needed to get me back in the flow. Well done Katie, our medal winners and our entire team on a job well done. The coverage on the telly and, by the looks of it, the organisation of the whole event was super. Although it's probably not cool to say it, I was also delighted to see how well the British team did - it's great to see a country finding its rhythm and running with it, even if the BBC were a bit hysterical about it. I was a little bemused by the Closing Ceremony but hey, somebody had a bit of fun making it all up and I'm sure the crowd who got seats (ie not the athletes) all had a great time.
August is a month of weddings, rehearsals and lots of gigs. It feels like only rehearsals at the moment but I know in about a weeks' time, the heat is going to turn on.
* I'm still doing the nursing home circuit with Hedda Kaphengst and the Klawitter Theatre Group. I've been working quite frequently with her in the last wee while, I'm looking forward to working with Lou Van Laake (who I last worked with way back in the Sundance Cafe with David MacKenzie) tomorrow and on the horizon is the inaugural Klawitter show in the Mermaid Theatre in Bray.
* Helena Byrne's Breakaway Project is reprising their New American Musicals evening on Tuesday 21st August in Bewleys, this time with one of the composers from America (Scott Evan Davis) in the room to play the piano on his own tunes and other musicians from America joining us on various songs too. The Irish contingent remains as before; Helena Byrne, Simon Morgan, Silvia Napoleoni, Anthony Kinahan and myself on piano. Tickets are €15 on the door.
* Hege Anita Skjaervik is a great singer who I've worked with on various occasions over the last few years but it looks like the next year or so will be a particularly fruitful collaboration as we are working on songs which she will then paint - she will paint interpretations of her composed songs and compose musical interpretations of her songs. We've got going on the songs anyway and, having finished two and made good tracks on another two, we are going to play our first four songs at the Monday Echo "Occasional Piano Night" at the International Bar on Monday 27th August (starts at 8.30 or thereabouts).
* I'm also working madly with singer Keith Allen who is a superb singer, about 20 years old and working in Michigan for a degree in musical theatre but also dabbling in writing his own songs and they're great. We're a little way from showing any of them to the public but the collaboration is proving to be fun.
* The Dublin Unitarian Church is opening its doors for Culture Night on September 21st so that's already occupying my life in preparation for that. I'm also going on my next trip; to the edge of civilisation that is Great Hucklow in Derbyshire for the Unitarian Music Society AGM at the end of the month.
Who said August was a month for summer holidays ?
Last week I went to Roundstone
Roundstone is one of my favourite places in the world. I first went there with Roesy at the invitation of Sheena Keane and the Roundstone Arts Festival. I returned at the invitation of Noelie McDonnell to play in his band the following year at the following festival. I haven't been back since but often dreamed of returning. Ronan Swift is one of my favourite singer-songwriters in the world and when he told me that he'd been asked to perform in Roundstone in the local Church of Ireland church in aid of their restoration fund, I jumped at the chance. Little budget for fees but we would be put up, fed and watered and get to perform for the people of Roundstone and then drink a pint on the pier watching the sun go down. These rather romantic notions were rather nicely played out thanks to the weather being agreeable. The gig went well and the audience enjoyed themselves. We won't have saved the belltower singlehandedly but we certainly did our bit.
The following morning, I waited for the unreliable Bus Eireann bus to take me to visit my aunt in Galway. It was six minutes and I was starting to get worried although a passerby assured me this was too early to get worried. A gentleman approached from across the road and came straight up to me and said;
"How do I know you ?" He was French.
Quick as a wink, we both realised that he had been at one of the two concerts in Avignon in May (the first trip). He told me that he had enjoyed it greatly and I pointed out to sea in the general direction of Inis Bofin, the home of Peadar King, the main man on the stage that night. The bus arrived and I was off.
Small world !!!
I've been travelling again. I went to Avignon (again) to play at the OFF Festival, their fringe festival for the towns' main (but much smaller) festival. Peadar King came up with the idea of playing in Avignon after he wound up doing an Erasmus year in the university there. We played two very successful concerts in the town in May which found the three musicians getting on well together, eating and drinking well, enjoying the music and playing to two packed (50) houses. We were lured into a somewhat false sense of security by this and when the theatre we had played in suggested we return for a week of the three week festival, Peadar was intrigued by the idea. I suggested the 'band' (Tom Portman and I) return too and we all agreed that we were happy to just take a share of whatever came in which wasn't likely to be much.
In reality, it was not much at all although probably slightly more for Tom and I than Peadar. The music was the easy part. We had a good show rehearsed and although it changed slightly over the run, it basically ran to script most nights which allowed us all relax thanks to a certain familiarity and ease that the show worked the way we were doing it. Some bands and singers don't like this but I believe that a live set has a natural rhythm and flow and if you hit a good order, don't mess with it.
The hard part was getting the audience in. An extra boulster to the false sense of security came when Peadar played a show a few weeks earlier to 35 people in the same theatre lending a certain bounce of "what can possibly go wrong ?" to Peadar's step when we arrived. We realised pretty quickly that people were not going to come unless we made them very aware what it was we did and so, after two nights (Saturday - 12 people, and Sunday - fewer than 12) we took to the streets for what is known as Tracting where you get out and busk and hand out flyers and talk to everybody wherever they are (usually outside the cafes but sometimes there are other good busking spots) and urge them to go and hear this excellent Irish band who are playing tonight in this strange theatre nobody's ever heard of or has any idea of how to get to at the obscenely anti-sociable hour of midnight. It was a hard sell. The sun heated up Avignon to about 35 degrees Celsius every day (and when the wind blew it went down to about 32) and we did an hour or two (or sometimes three) of this every day in a number of different locations and drank copious amounts of water. Being shite at French and not strong enough to carry a piano on my back, I got away with doing very little. Peadar's friend Ivonne and Sara did a lot of the talking and leafleting, Peadar and Tom did the playing and I hid under umbrellas trying to stay out of the sun. There was one night with one audience (our audient, I christened him) and one night with no audience at all (we played two songs to make the fact we were there and went home). After that, it was 6, 8, 15, 40 (on the last night).
Once the audience were beginning to come in, this presented a few hurdles of its own. On the last night, Peadar had friends in who had worked in another theatre where he was working during the day and they had been for a 'few' drinks beforehand. On another night, an audience member became so enraptured by the show she started singing along, one thing in a big stadium or even a club but quite another in a 50-seat basement theatre. She was glared at by everyone in the room and enjoyed the rest of the show in silence but apparently greatly enjoyed the evening even so. We finished the run wondering (and only half-jokingly) whether we preferred the show with audience or without audience. The two instnaces I refer to above certainly threw the musicians on the stage but we realised by the end that we need to learn to project something from the stage that says "this is our show - enjoy but be aware of who is on the stage", obviously in a nice way. We're still finding that familiarity and ease and sympathetic assertiveness but it's been an interesting learning curve.
And after the run was over, I had three days of holiday taking my ipod and book down to the river in the shadow of the half-finished bridge and lazing away the exceptionally hot day before getting an ice cream on the way home or getting crepes for lunch or croissants for breakfast. I even discovered a new game called Munchkin which I have since bought three sets of. I highly recomment it. It was a good fortnight.
I needed a break when I got home and I spent a serious amount of time in front of the Olympics which was just the tonic I needed to get me back in the flow. Well done Katie, our medal winners and our entire team on a job well done. The coverage on the telly and, by the looks of it, the organisation of the whole event was super. Although it's probably not cool to say it, I was also delighted to see how well the British team did - it's great to see a country finding its rhythm and running with it, even if the BBC were a bit hysterical about it. I was a little bemused by the Closing Ceremony but hey, somebody had a bit of fun making it all up and I'm sure the crowd who got seats (ie not the athletes) all had a great time.
August is a month of weddings, rehearsals and lots of gigs. It feels like only rehearsals at the moment but I know in about a weeks' time, the heat is going to turn on.
* I'm still doing the nursing home circuit with Hedda Kaphengst and the Klawitter Theatre Group. I've been working quite frequently with her in the last wee while, I'm looking forward to working with Lou Van Laake (who I last worked with way back in the Sundance Cafe with David MacKenzie) tomorrow and on the horizon is the inaugural Klawitter show in the Mermaid Theatre in Bray.
* Helena Byrne's Breakaway Project is reprising their New American Musicals evening on Tuesday 21st August in Bewleys, this time with one of the composers from America (Scott Evan Davis) in the room to play the piano on his own tunes and other musicians from America joining us on various songs too. The Irish contingent remains as before; Helena Byrne, Simon Morgan, Silvia Napoleoni, Anthony Kinahan and myself on piano. Tickets are €15 on the door.
* Hege Anita Skjaervik is a great singer who I've worked with on various occasions over the last few years but it looks like the next year or so will be a particularly fruitful collaboration as we are working on songs which she will then paint - she will paint interpretations of her composed songs and compose musical interpretations of her songs. We've got going on the songs anyway and, having finished two and made good tracks on another two, we are going to play our first four songs at the Monday Echo "Occasional Piano Night" at the International Bar on Monday 27th August (starts at 8.30 or thereabouts).
* I'm also working madly with singer Keith Allen who is a superb singer, about 20 years old and working in Michigan for a degree in musical theatre but also dabbling in writing his own songs and they're great. We're a little way from showing any of them to the public but the collaboration is proving to be fun.
* The Dublin Unitarian Church is opening its doors for Culture Night on September 21st so that's already occupying my life in preparation for that. I'm also going on my next trip; to the edge of civilisation that is Great Hucklow in Derbyshire for the Unitarian Music Society AGM at the end of the month.
Who said August was a month for summer holidays ?
Last week I went to Roundstone
Roundstone is one of my favourite places in the world. I first went there with Roesy at the invitation of Sheena Keane and the Roundstone Arts Festival. I returned at the invitation of Noelie McDonnell to play in his band the following year at the following festival. I haven't been back since but often dreamed of returning. Ronan Swift is one of my favourite singer-songwriters in the world and when he told me that he'd been asked to perform in Roundstone in the local Church of Ireland church in aid of their restoration fund, I jumped at the chance. Little budget for fees but we would be put up, fed and watered and get to perform for the people of Roundstone and then drink a pint on the pier watching the sun go down. These rather romantic notions were rather nicely played out thanks to the weather being agreeable. The gig went well and the audience enjoyed themselves. We won't have saved the belltower singlehandedly but we certainly did our bit.
The following morning, I waited for the unreliable Bus Eireann bus to take me to visit my aunt in Galway. It was six minutes and I was starting to get worried although a passerby assured me this was too early to get worried. A gentleman approached from across the road and came straight up to me and said;
"How do I know you ?" He was French.
Quick as a wink, we both realised that he had been at one of the two concerts in Avignon in May (the first trip). He told me that he had enjoyed it greatly and I pointed out to sea in the general direction of Inis Bofin, the home of Peadar King, the main man on the stage that night. The bus arrived and I was off.
Small world !!!
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