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…
Happy slightly new year all!
2011 ain’t been too bad for me so far. A few bits have been going on…
I made another appearance at the Village Green Preservation Society at the end of January with a Lois of the Lane based guitar/voice over happening which, despite being very last minute, seemed to work! This was a very, very basic try out of an idea I have for a new full length show this year that I want to take up to the Edinburgh Fringe in August if I can scrape together the monies. Watch this space! (I am very excited about it…)
I’ve finally created a Facebook page for Lois of the Lane. You can find her here:
Lois of the Lane
Promote your Page too
I’ve also just uploaded the versions of ‘Me and Mr Bones’ and ‘The Last Two Zombies in the World’ that I recorded for The Other Woman Podcast. You can find ’em on my singing page.
Onwards into February…
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 🙂
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…
Here are some more details about the one-off performance I’m in next Saturday. I’ve got a really great part in a play called ‘No Surprises’, written by my friend Mikail Chowdhury. He wrote it whilst doing the writers course at the Royal Court and is putting it on to raise money for a charity.
Here’s the spiel:
Set in the near future, the first Muslim Prime Minister of Great Britain is facing a terrorist attack and a nuclear crisis which threatens to pull the country into another lengthy and damaging conflict. As he considers a dangerous course of action that could lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent lives he is faced with a younger version of himself.
As the Prime Minister tries to reconcile his past choices and religion with the consequences of his actions, the time for a decision draws closer and he is faced with the choice of making the ultimate sacrifice.
This dark comedy explores the question of whether the greater good is always the most right course of action, and how far would you go for your beliefs.
I’m playing Tahiya, the no-nonsense advisor to the Prime Minister. She has a wonderfully dry sense of humour and I have some really great lines – sort of a cross between Margot from The Good Life, Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It and CJ from the The West Wing…
This is the info about the charity:
We are setting up an initiative to provide medical care to women, their young children and immediate families in Dhaka (currently they have no medical treatment whatsoever and suffer badly as a result) and are working in conjunction with and NGO called Tarango (http://www.tarango-bd.org/) who do some excellent work taking destitute women and giving them training, a safe place to work, salary and independence.
We need to raise £3,000 for the first year and will provide a weekly on-site medical consultation service, pay for medication and provide seminars on things such as family planning, sexual and women’s health issues.
The event runs:
with the performance starting at 2:45pm
Tickets are £15 (I think!)
The event is on Facebook here.
Rehearsals started this week and it’s going to be one step up from a rehearsed reading – we’re probably still going to be using scripts, but it will be staged. (Need to carry on getting my lines in my head today…) It’s a really great show with a very good cast and I’m really looking forward to it 🙂
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…
Another 4 months appears to have zipped past. They do that don’t they?
Well, in April I was being all tragic in a masked version of The Bacchae for Chris Vervain which was filmed for use in schools. Helloooooooooooo Thebes!
In May I had another private Lois of the Lane gig and then subsequently found myself hanging out at Paul Zenon‘s cabinet of Curiosities at the Brighton Fringe:
I was generally being a helpful sailor and keeping an eye on Paul Garner‘s freakshow artwork:
June saw me freaking out with the Gawkagogo Freakshow again – this time at the Udderbelly on the Southbank as part of the Time Out Live Friday Night Freakshow. There was pigging and a bit of Siamese Twin action:
(Lots of black wig wearing going on over the past few months!)
Also finally put in an application to the Arts Council in June, for funding to re-develop and re-vamp Super Situation. ALL TOES ARE CROSSED. I’ve just been on a fund raising course too, so NOTHING WILL STOP ME…
Moving on to July, last Thursday I was part of Jennifer Farmer’s 10 minute slot during the Brand writers symposium at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival. She presented 4 small sections of piece she is developing entitled ‘thefadingcity’ which will ultimately be a large scale immersive theatre piece. I was doing random, absurd, interactive improvised stuff with kitchen implements, imaginary toxic ingredients and song. Love it 🙂
Coming up…
I’m putting on Super Situation and Glitch at the (almost) newly opened Waterloo East Theatre on Brad Street next week. Here be map. Also on the bill is ‘Baby Rice Cakes’ by Michele Hallak; performed by Michele and the Director of Super Situation: Jamie Rocha Allan. (We have the honour of being the first professional shows on there – whoop!) Important details below:
Thurs 22nd and Fri 23rd of July
7:30pm – Super Situation
9pm – Baby Rice Cakes followed by Glitch£8 for one time slot, £10 for both
Box Office: 0207 928 0060
Click here for Facebook event.
It’s part of the Best of Festivals season produced by Theatre6 which is warming up the theatre before it officially opens in September. Looking forward to cracking on with rehearsals next week 🙂
In August I’m going to be disappearing off to the Edinburgh Fringe to do a bit of busking for just over a week. As yet, I still have to dust off my guitar and come up with the songs, but, seemingly, I like a challenge!
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…
Whilst all quiet on the blog front it’s been all go in the real world…
My new show Super Situation was somehow finished in time after me spending most of the year hurtling at breakneck speed towards the ever looming deadline. We had a great couple of previews at Theatre 503 at the end of July and then off I headed to The Bongo Club for the whole of August for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Wearing a Super Hero outfit almost every day for a month really ain’t that bad and a great time was had by all. You can find reviews, photos and the rather wonderful Extraordinary Watch blog here.
I managed to get a great team on board to help me with the show (you knows it) and the plan now is to develop the show further and get ourselves a nice tour booked. Yum. Lots of work to be done.
Lois of the Lane also made a number of cabaret outings up at the Fringe this year including Sweet Venue‘s open mic night, the Generation Crunch night at Bedlam Theatre, the MOOnlight Sessions at the Cow Cafe in the Underbelly and last, but certainly not least – the Bongo Club Cabaret. Then, upon our return, she nipped straight off to do a gig in the teeny tiny Comedy Tent at the Offset Festival, where she ate lots of food and drank some oh-so-delicious free beer.
In Gawkagogo news, preparations are well underway for the next, re-vamped outing of the Gawkagogo Freakshow which will be rearing its beautifully ugly head on the 3rd of December at The Lowry in Manchester. I’ve got one half of a great new character to get my teeth into and some new Piggy antics to attack. Can’t wait.
Some photos of three of the characters from the Freakshow, including me as the Pig Faced Girl, are up on Alexandra Jasper‘s website – taken for her collaborative ‘Burlesque Grotesque’ book project.
Finally, after picking up my geetar on Sunday for the first time in ages, I wrote a silly little song which there’ll be a link to once I’ve got round to recording it. For now though, the to-do list must be tamed and the backlog of my life must be vanquished. Have at you!
The Edinburgh preparations continue…
The show is now written, as of Tuesday last week, and it’s now onto casting the voices, putting together the soundtrack, finding more money, organising props, costume and rehearsals, putting together the flyer and press information and EVERYTHING ELSE! Lots to do, but I’m very excited.
Unfortunately I’ve been mysteriously let down by the Producer I thought I had on board, so valuable time has been wasted on that front, but hopefully I’ll have someone else in the driving seat very, very soon (please).
Blurb deadlines have already past, so here’s what’s going in the Bongo Club brochure:
Enter the world of Extraordinary Girl, ordinary Jo turned Super Hero.
KA-BLAM!
Following exposure to a mysterious chemical at the hands of evil genius Megalomaniac Man, Extraordinary is one of the members of the Government-funded Unstoppable 5, always ready to come to the rescue (not leaving a great deal of time for much else…).
Lois Tucker’s silent comedy creation Lois of the Lane returns to Edinburgh in this new visual comedy, following the transfer of her last show ‘Glitch’ to the British Library. Performed to a juicy soundtrack featuring great music and larger than life voice-overs.
THWACK!
along with this image:
I’m playing (almost) every day during the Festival in August at 3:30pm. Here are the dates:
5th-6th: £4
7th-16th, 18th-22nd, 24th-30th: £6.50, (£5 conc)
(Is that the sound of you writing those in your diary? Good, good.)
Much more news on all this soon. Now, back to work…
