Category: Music

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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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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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Love song and new show

Afternoon.

I’ve been happily procrastinating in a useful way.  Aside from a few mini website tweeks, I’ve uploaded my latest song to my singing page.  It’s called ‘Lovesong 333‘ and I recorded it on Sunday with my trusty bro.  I wrote it in time for February’s Village Green Preservation Society.  Very pleased with how it turned out 🙂

In big news: I’m definitely going to be doing a new show for the Edinburgh Fringe this year!  More news when I have it.

Must… continue… to write… show…

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Lots of guitar stuff and a smidgen of cat

Crimbly times approach…

What news?  Well, last week I was Lois of the Lane air guitaring at Oh My Lord!, the opening of the first Japanese style cosplay cafe event in the UK (^_^)

At the beginning of November I had my first ever comparing gig at FanSHEN theatre company’s 5th Birthday bash at Southwark Playhouse.  I survived, and managed to do a few songs and a Lois of the Lane slot in amongst the fantastic musicians and DJ who were playing that night.  Grand evening!

At the end of November I made another outing to the Village Green Preservation Society‘s monthly night.  It looks like I may well be a regular there if I manage to keep pulling songs out of the bag!  I’ll be back there in January all being well.  (As my blog updates on here are sometimes quite sporadic, you could join my Facebook group if you want to be kept more in the loop with such stuff… mebbee?)

Following this I made an appearance this week on The Other Woman Podcast, chatting about the kind of stuff I get up to and playing a couple of songs.  You can listen to the whole thing here:

…and the songs I played, here:

Thank you, ladies, for having me!

The tracks’ll end up on my singing page at some point soon.  As one of them includes “Me and Mr Bones”, here is a picture of said legendary animal, just because I can 🙂

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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…

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The March-ing of Time

Erk – another long update hiatus. As ever, stuff’s been going down despite the radio silence.

First up, I had some marvellous new headshots taken at the end of October by Ceri Ashcroft.  They are waiting in the electronic pile of bits to upload to my website when I manage to squeeze a long overdue website updating session in.  Soon I hope!  Soon…  Here is one of ’em for now:

There are more on my Spotlight CV if yer interested.

The beady eyed of you will also notice on said CV that I have an agent!  I’m now represented by Sharon Foster Management 🙂

Over a couple of Sundays in October I also got round to recording my little song with my bruv.  It’s called ‘Really and True’ and it’s been uploaded to the site for a while now so you can listen to it here. ( For those with a more offend-able disposition than my own, there is mild ‘language’ from the start…)  It’s me on guitar, kazoo and vocal and my bro on thigh slapping, faux glockenspiel and faux accordion.  Very pleased with how it’s turned out.  There’ll be a proper link to it added during my next update session and, at some point, there’ll be a video for it too.  Raaaah!

In December, the Gawkagogo Freakshow descended upon The Lowry:

Much freakiness abounded and I got enjoy being part of the inaugural outing of the all new, literally all singing, all dancing Siamese Twin act, as well as the premier of the new Beatnik Piggy act and various other freaky gubbins.  More Freakshow news at some point in the near future…

As for Lois of the Lane, she performed at the Comedy Cabin at the end of October and has had her a private gig so far this year at the RVT, with another private gig booked for elsewhere in May.  On the Super Situation front, plans are still afoot for the next stage of the show.  STILL VERY EXCITED!

Coming up, I’m going to be involved in a film production of The Bacchae in April.  Amongst other things, it’ll be a great chance to learn a good chunk of lines again.  (So much silent performing over the past few years – which I LOVE, but speech based things do also most definitely float the boat.)  Until then though, there must be a veritable cracking on with the stuff that needs to be done.  Let me at ’em…

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Alive and Amplified

Been beavering away over here on a new Lois of the Lane act which I’ll be performing at The Red Velvet Curtain Cult‘s ‘(Truth &) Lies’ evening at The Bethnal Green Working Man’s Club next Thursday the 19th of June.  The night’s a mask and dress up affair (dress code: Vagabonds, Butterflies, Carnival Freaks, Alter Egos, Dopplegangers, Victorian swooning ladies, Eccentric Gents, Vintage Belles, N’er do wells, Spies, Dead Poets, Faux Queens, Fake Kings, the Devil himself…) which promises: “productions and destructions, illusions and delusions and the conception of deception with performances, art, happenings, devilish delectables, oddities and conundrums galore.”.  More details here, and here’s the flyer:

After this skewed affair, I’m going to be singing Second Soprano in a piece entitled ‘Steta Speaks: The Opera’, a 6-10min piece for 9 voices – concept and text by Rachel Greaves, score by Gregory Emfietzis – at the Byam Shaw Fine Art Degree Show on Monday the 23rd of June between 6 and 8pm and then Wednesday the 25th of June between 3 and 4pm.

Then (unless anything crops up beforehand) it’ll be off to the Latitude Festival with me as The Pig-Faced Girl in the Gawkagogo Freakshow.  The Freakshow tent’s coming with us, to be pitched in what will become ‘Pandora’s Playground’, and we’ll also be headlining the Cabaret Stage on the Friday.  Lots of happy squealing from me 🙂

The Edinburgh Fringe will be waving its cheeky little hand at all and sundry after this.  I’m hopping up there a couple of times on the 9hr Coach of Joy to peddle Lois of the Lane to the masses.  Hopefully, they won’t know what’s hit ’em.  More on this when I have it…

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Playing away

Not long back from a day trip to Ipswich.  Travelled up there to record the violin and vocals I had come up with for Jason Ware’s ‘Pink Cake’ soundtrack.  After a fair sized helping of tube and train delay, the day went very well, and I had a lot of fun being musical in his producer’s bathroom for a few hours.  (Acoustics you see!)  I came away with a rough mix of the songs so far, and it’s all sounding great, despite being far from finished.  When they’re fully mixed and produced I will upload some of them for your listening pleasure.  Now to bed for a much needed kip…

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Let them eat cake

Just got back from an afternoon in North London spent stretching my musical muscle.

Jason Ware has asked me to provide some vocals, violin and guitar on the soundtrack he’s currently putting together for his upcoming film “Pink Cake” and today was the designated day to show him what I’d come up with so far.  It seems both of us are pleased, so that’s a good start!  Should be heading into the studio in the next couple of weeks to get my contributions down.

I don’t give myself much of a chance to indulge myself musically on a regular basis, so I’m really glad of this opportunity.  When anything’s available to listen to I’ll let you know.  It’s sounding very good so far.  Jason’s a great songwriter, and he’s got some very talented people on board to record the soundtrack with him.  (I feel privileged!)  The movie looks set to be a corker too.  Keep your eyes and ears peeled…