Tag: guitar gigs

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Overdue update and new show ‘Fabled’!

Ahoy!  So, here’s my brand spanking new website ready for a fresh leap into creative action this Spring.  It’s been another quiet few months, blog-wise, around these parts but, as ever, stuff’s been going down.  The main thing was trying to find a new place to live and then getting settled in, but thankfully that’s all now done and dusted and I’m most definitely ready TO GET CRACKIN’.

In August I made a brief jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe where I made a couple of appearances at the Gorgeous George Cabaret Club, singing some of my songs and doing a bit of Lois of the Lane-ing.  Lovely to see everyone and get my Fringe fix.

September saw me popping up to Birmingham to Lois of the Lane at Barbara Nice‘s Jamboree at A.E. Harris.  A grand evening it was too.  For all of you Brum-based, the next one’s on Friday the 20th of April and you can book tickets now.

Here’s a picture of me doing ‘Alive and Amplified’ that night, picture by Graeme Braidwood:

There was also a great 1st Birthday Village Green in September, theme: Hotel vs Camping, where I performed Chris Issac’s ‘Blue Hotel’ with the lyrics changed to make it about an Hotel painted blue…

October saw another Village Green, this time the theme being Wonkavision and I Lois of the Lane-ed it up good and proper with my ‘Dance Fever’ act.

November saw me hosting a Pac Man vs Pac-a-Mac Village Green then, after the Crimbo hiatus, I was back in the driving seat on Friday the 13th of January at the ‘Bad Luck Cabaret’ at The Space with a BRAND NEW Lois of the Lane act called ‘Somewhere’ which went down a treat.  Here’s me gurning away as normal during the show, photo by Johanna Spiers:

January also saw another Village Green, the theme being Spelling Bee, where I performed Arthur Askey’s ‘The Bee Song’ with the lyrics changed to make it about a Spelling Bee (the reference was mostly lost as only one person in the audience had even heard of the song… ha!).

Aside from all of this, I’ve also been in the very early stages of rehearsal of a brand new play called ‘Kill the President’ by James O’Shea which should be on in London in September, funding dependent… and I’ve also hooked up with Angela Gasparetto who’s going to be helping me develop all aspects of my performance goings on – exciting times!

The BIG big news is that my new solo show is going to be premiering in June.  It’s called ‘Fabled’ and it will be showing, initially, for one night only at the Holloway Arts Festival at 5pm at Platform.  Details and tickets here.  Now I’ve finished my website, the task is to actually finish writing the show and get it all ready – I like a deadline!  More dates for the show following shortly, all being well…

2012 – I’m comin’ atcha!

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Beastly escapade

I’m upping the ante with finishing the script for my new show so expect WELL exciting news on that soony soon.

In guitar based news, I’m heading out to The Betsey Trotwood for another night of Village Green Preservation Society shenanigans tomorrow. This month’s theme is Bears vs Foxes.  I plan to do 2 of my songs that I have previously mauled there by forgetting the words as they were too new and not in my brain properly.  This is as close as I’ll be getting to the actual theme…  Come down!  It is but 3 of your English pounds and is always a great night out 🙂

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Hot guitar action!

Sweaty times.

I’ve got 2 gigs coming up.  This Thursday the 30th I’m rolling out a new song for my monthly Village Green Preservation Society jaunt at The Betsey Trotwood.  No ideas what it’ll be as yet.  This month the theme is New York vs Yorkshire.  Grand.

Next Tuesday the 5th I’m going to be ‘busking’ at the London premier of Hobo with a Shotgun – including a Q&A with the Director – at XOYO in Old Street.  More details here.

The film originated as an award-winning ‘fake’ trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse and became an internet sensation via YouTube.  Starring Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) in the title role, Hobo With A Shotgun is a full-on, no-holds-barred tour-de-force of gratuitous violence, gore and bloody mayhem inspired by exploitation movie classics of the 1970s and 80s.  Should be a night out to remember!

After this I’ve got a charity gig lined up for Sunday the 17th of July.  Details to follow…

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A Holloway’s Day’s Night

I’ve just come to the end of a long day’s sound editing on my computer and my brain is pretty fried, but I am determined to push a blog out before I collapse into bed.  Hmm… that sounds wrong.

The sound in question was a long overdue re-edit of my Lois of the Lane Air Guitar act which I’m going to be doing at tomorrow (today’s!) monthly Village Green Preservation Society night at The Betsey Trotwood.  Much happier with the act now – just got to find some time to rehearse it…

I’m back at The Betsey next Monday the 30th of May where I will be very pleased to be playing a couple of songs for John Hegley‘s monthly night.

The week after, on Saturday the 11th of June at 2pm, I’m going to be doing a one off performance of my show GLITCH in the Old Fire Station on Mayton Street (N7 6QT) for the Mayton Street Festival which is part of the Holloway Arts Festival.  It’s freeeeeeee!

Circuit went down really well the week before last and Iris Theatre have plans afoot to get it on again.  Here are some pictures of me as the malfunctioning musician android:



and here’s a snippet of my act:

Now, to sleep….

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Royal Circuit

I’m currently brushing up my Queen impression for this evening’s monthly Village Green Preservation Society jaunt.  I’ll be doing my version of a Queen song… as the Queen.  I’ll also be taking requests from my steadily growing catalogue of songs as I’ve actually practised them!!  Last month’s VGPS outing resulted in an almost finished new song.  Still not quite there with that one yet so I’m going to let it bubble away in my bonce for a bit…

Currently my next little outing will be at Bob Slayer’s Heroes of Alternative Comedy night at the Leicester Square Theatre on the 7th of May.  Not sure what I’m doing at this yet, but I’ll either be Lois of the Lane-ing or doing some songs.

After this I’m going to be part of a new show called Circuit put together by Iris Theatre.  Details on Facebook here and on Iris’ website here.

“The dark fairy-tale world of Circuit is an experimental performance project which blends the very best of emerging physical theatre, circus and contemporary dance.

A long forgotten, cavernous building broods in the dark, the air thick with the hum of a million ghosts. The silence is suddenly broken by the sound of a heavy metal door slowly swinging open. A child peers in through the darkness. In the shadows strange creatures, half human, half machine, begin to move…

Performed for two nights only at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, this is an evening of circus, music, theatre and dance not to be missed.”

8pm Fri 13th and Sat 14th of May
St Paul’s Church WC2E 9ED
www.seetickets.com
0871 230 0010
£12 advance
£15 on the door
£10 concessions

I’m playing a musician android and will be doing some kind of bizarre skit with loads of different bits of music.  Looking forward to it!  The space is fantastic and there’s a whole bunch of really talented people getting involved.  Promises to be a grand evening.

In new show news: I am no longer taking this up to the Edinburgh Fringe this year unfortunately (curses) but I have about a third of it written and aim to have it finished and on before the year is out.

Right, back to Queen rehearsing…

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Braiiiiiiiin…

After many, many hours of website updating – my brain is now more mushy than usual.  Some of it may be dripping out of my right ear.  Who can say…?  Now you can find: production photos from Glitch; a freshly tidied up singing page which now includes my new Zombie song that I recorded this week with my bro + 2 tracks recorded during my interview on Leith FM in August; my latest headshots and some fantastic photos taken during a shoot by Gavin Hill of Mecaniques Photography on the gallery page.  See below for an example of the latter:

PLUS I’ve added some more photos to my MySpace photos page, including some great Lois of the Lane in action shots, one of these being this one, taken by Piglicker:

(It appears I never leave the house without said stripy top on…)

There has been a whole host of other general tidying up/updating bits including the expulsion of a sneaky rogue apostrophe.  (Ha ha!  I tame you, punctuation.)

Soon I can stop looking at a computer screen and all will be well.

In other news – No Suprises went down a storm last Saturday.  It was an overwhelming success and a whole heap of money was raised.  Very glad to have been a part of it.  Enjoyed myself muchly 🙂

This week, on Thursday the 28th, I’m playing at the Village Green Preservation Society‘s monthly night at The Betsey Trotwood again.  Last month’s was great!  This time, the theme is Tricks and Treats so my Last 2 Zombies song is making another appearance, along with another song I’m yet to write.  No idea what’s going to pop out.

For now though, I must switch off.  Night all.  Zzzzzzzzzzz…

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Guitar, maaan

I’m currently sat all beatnik-ed up in my room, ready to go and perform at the inaugural night of The Village Preservation Society‘s monthly residency at The Betsey Trotwood this evening.

Slight changes (or rather: additions) are now afoot in my cabaret offerings following my jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe last month.  I went up to busk on the mean streets of the Royal Mile and prepared some cover versions and original bits to sing and play guitar to.  I even made the very serious investment of purchasing a kazoo and bastardised harmonica holder to spice up the proceedings.

Considering I would never have dreamt of singing and playing in front of people under normal circumstances, coupled with the fact that I haven’t picked up my guitar regularly for ages, it went really well!  I made a few bob (I do really mean ‘few’), didn’t have rotten food thrown at me and massively upped my confidence levels.  I had NOWHERE NEAR as big a crowd as some of the old hands, but it was muchly useful nonetheless.

I subsequently had a radio interview on Leith FM, where I played a couple of my original songs (I’ll upload the catchily titled ‘A Chinese Food Loving Vegetarian’s Lament’, based on a song you’ll aaaaall know, soon…) and a couple of gigs at the legendary Bongo Club Cabaret where I had a fantastic time and realised that playing and singing in front of people and actually speaking(!) in between that, isn’t actually all that bad.  Lovely friendly place to discover that.  Thank you Bongo and Rhymes with Purple!  Who’d’ve thunk it?  Lois of the Lane made a brief but triumphant appearance at the Bongo too.  She’s definitely here to stay 🙂

So, on the back of this, I’ve decided to start writing some more songs and do them on the comedy/cabaret circuit – as well as Ms of the Lane – and this evening I’m premiering a jaunty new song entitled ‘The Last 2 Zombies in the World‘ which I knocked out on Sunday.  A month or so early I suppose, but it’s good to be prepared.  (You never know when they might strike..)  I’ll get it recorded at some point soon and stick it on my singing page.  Keep your eyes/ears peeled for more…

Since I’ve been back from the beautiful ‘burgh I was a part of Jennifer Farmer‘s première performance of her new immersive theatre/sound play ‘Conversations I Wish I Could Overhear’ which was part of the Spit ‘n’ Scrub open studios at ASC Studios in Bow.  I’ve also just found out that I’ve got a cracking part in a great piece called ‘No Surprises’ by Mikail Chowdhury, that’s going to be part of a one off charity event on the afternoon of Saturday 16th of October.  More details on this one soon.  Really looking forward to getting my teeth into it!

Until then, here’s a couple of picture of me busking on the Southbank, just before heading up to Edinburgh, taken by my friend Sarah:

You’ve gotta love a kazoo…