Wycombe 3 Villa 8 – get in!
And so, another week has flown by in my ever-hectic life! Mental Note: I must try and post more often!
Had a slight drama in the Imogen Heap camp this week when Immi and her manager’s visas didn’t turn up in time for them to start the American tour. Unfortunately this meant Immi had to miss the first two shows in New York & Pittsburgh. It also meant I had to tell everyone and take some of the stick via email! Fortunately the majority of people have been very understanding.
On Friday last week I had my first experience of conference calling! It was quite a strange affair, in total we had 9 people on the call. Myself and Imogen’s manager Mark in the UK and then another 7 people spread across different offices in New York. It was actually surprisingly simple and there wasn’t much confusion, or people talking over each other, just the occasional long silence when everyone was waiting for someone to jump in and say something. We talked about a lot of stuff and came up with some good ideas, which was cool. I dread to think what that 1 hour call cost though! Went out for some drinks with Stat and Mike & Nicky on the evening, which was very pleasant and a nice way to finish the day off.
Over the weekend we (Stat, Dicko & Myself) finished series 4 of 24. This mad me happy and yet sad at the same time! The ending was sad, but I had a big smile on my face because I loved how the last half of that series had twisted and turned with so many unexpected things being thrown into the mix. Supposedly they ARE making series 5, so I have a year long wait for that to come out on DVD. I think I might start again at the beginning with series 1 and do all four series in the next year! Since 24 has been finished we’ve moved back to our Tesco online DVD rental list and begun watching ‘Long Way Round’ – the documentary about Euan McGregor’s motorbike trip around the world…..it’s REALLY interesting and I’d recommend renting it. We’ve only seen two episodes so far, but so much has happened and him and his friend Charley really are just nice, down to earth guys….who love bikes!
In the last week we have had two Scrat practices and last night, despite having some kind of weird migraine that was affecting my eyes I think we had the best one yet! This is a good job really as the gig is only a week away! Things are going well, we’re going to be well rehearsed for the gig, we’ve got all the production stuff sorted apart from the banner, which should be sorted soon. I just hope some people turn up!
In the last 36 hours I’ve been battling with some email software to send out an email to Imogen’s mailing list. It’s taken forever to do, due to the influx of new subscribers in recent months, but it’s done now….and it *tells* me the email went to everyone, so fingers crossed! I have also spent quite a bit of time on the phone offering technical support to Kelly while she reloads her computer. In fact, I’m sure if I were driven by making money I could make a packet doing technical support on the phone….I could set up my own premium number and everything. But I fear that I would LOSE MY MIND doing this kind of thing all day long!
It looks like We’re Not Afraid.com is going to be publishing a book with people’s images that have been submitted to the site. It amazes me how much that site has grown, from one person’s simple idea into such a big thing. First there was the site, which within days of the London bombings got millions of images of support submitted to it. Then there was all the TV & press coverage that Alfie did. Recently there’s been an exhibition in London, which looks like it’s going to tour the world…and now there’s talk of a book. It’s great to see how it’s grown from such a simple idea into something so big and so important/interesting to so many people. Very inspirational!
And so, until next time….
Rockin’ and Rollin’
Been busy as ever recently….I seem to always be busy, but I like it.
On Sunday I jumped on a train to Nottingham to see Linchpin. They are a rock band hailing from London, all aged 15. A friend of mine is managing them and asked me to check out their gig and meet with them with a view to doing some web work with them. I arrived at Rock City just as they were loading in (great timing!), so I helped with the load in and watched the soundcheck. I was really impressed, without sounding too age-ist, they were really good for a bunch of 15 year old kids. I was playing drums at that age and their drummer kicks my arse now, nevermind when I was 15! Soundcheck finished and we had our meeting, Myself, Johnny (their manager), the band and another guy called Matt who’ve I’ve met before and had done some cool photos for a band I worked with. The meeting went well and we got some good ideas going, so I’m looking forward to this project.
After the meeting the boys played and they were really on the money. The crowd stayed pretty interested, which is always a good sign, especially when the place is like some kind of under-age rock disco with chavs and goths exchanging glares across the dance floor. Very weird!
I made my way home from Nottingham (almost getting lost on route to the train station) and got a few hours sleep before heading down to London the next day…
I had the *pleasure* of spending nearly 2 hours sitting in the blazing sun on an old-style Virgin train, with no air con. Cheers Branson! I got to London and jumped on the tube down to The Bedford in Balham where Miss Imogen Heap was about to play her first show in a LONG time….the first of the campaign for her new album no less. I arrived and called Immi & her manager to see where they were, they were running late, so I sat in the pub with a drink watching England celebrate their ashes win.
Before long Imogen and Mark (her manager/my-kind-of-boss) turned up and we loaded in. I’ve never know one person have so much gear for a gig! The biggest/heaviest/space-age-ist keyboard stand ever, (’Stand’ is an understatement), electric piano, keyboard, racks of effects, compressors, samplers, a 16 channel mixing desk, more keyboards, powerbook, fairy lights, a huge flightcase with the mmmmbira (a new musical instrument invented by Immi’s friend), several more cases full of cables and lead, stage outfit, make up and other personal belonging. All this for one person doing a 6/7 song set! Luckily Immi knew how to wire everything up pretty quickly and did so for soundcheck. There was enough cable to go around the earth at least 3 times I reckon.
After soundcheck people started arriving and I met up with Anna, Ruth & Holly and bumped into various other people I knew. The first support band called ‘Airman’ were pretty cool. Kind of a European Jeff Buckley meets…uh…some kind of classic rock, but not cock rock. I liked them and they went down pretty well. The next band were called ‘Papas In Love’. They were pretty good at what they did, but it wasn’t really my thing. Kind of a Brand New Heavies meets Jamaroqui (sp?) type vibe. It got old pretty quick.
Around 10pm Immi finally took to the stage. The place was absolutely packed and EVERYONE went berserk when she came on. It would seem the majority of people were there to see her, which was great. This being the first show of the campaign, there had to be a few gremlins in the works. A couple of technical errors got in the way, but Immi handled it very well and managed to overcome them. When she was playing everyone was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I’ve never been to a gig where the audience was so quite during a performance, everyone was captivated! And when the technology wasn’t playing ball she just went back to playing piano and singing – something the majority of the people I’ve spoken to thought was the highlight of the set!
All in all it was a really good gig. And her shows will only get better from here on in. I can’t wait to see her once she’s back from a month long tour of the US! I’d highly recommend the venue too – it’s called ‘The Bedford’ and is in Balham….it’s a really good smallish venue, in the style of an old roundhouse theatre.
I’m now going to retire to bed, because I’m knackered and have been trying to shake a headache for 48 hours.
Oh, Chloe is back soon…she should be back already I think, but in typical Chloe style she locked her iPod & Phone in her Uncle’s (empty) house as she left for the airport! So she changed her flight to a day later. Classic!
London to Newquay (Via Home)
I suck at posting regularly. I started off well, but when I get really busy I slack. And then I can’t face a mega-entry to catch up, so this will be a half-mega-entry.
Last Wednesday, August 31st, a few days after my last entry I jumped in the van and headed down to London with my good friends (and family members) The Deciphers for their gig at The Marquee in London. It was a nice sunny day and we had a good laugh on the journey down. Arrived at the venue which was AIR CONDITIONED! In London! A venue! This was a big relief as it was 31 degrees outside and very sweaty – not the kind of temperature you want when you’re lifting heavy stuff around small, sweaty clubs under hot lights!
Soundcheck was remarkably easy and before long we were done and out of there while the other bands got on. We headed to the pub for some food and pre-show beers. Met up with various friends and it was most enjoyable. I do love visiting London in the summer….especially in the evening when it’s cooled down and calmed down and you can just chill out in a typical English pub. It’s heaven. Before long we headed back to the venue and caught a bit of the support bands. This was The Deciphers’ first London show since they’d all played in various other bands, so there were A LOT of folks who came down to see them. Lots of familiar faces I’d not seen for 2 or 3 years, people who worked with the Dum Dums, Clarkesville, Sonara…as well as everyone’s friends and family, so it was great to see so many people. It also made my night a bit chaotic trying to chat with everyone and get ready for the show. I also managed to trip on the edge of the stage and spill water everywhere during change over, which was pretty amusing to all involved, including myself….although the bruises on my shins weren’t so amusing the next day!
The guy’s set went well, very few technical problems which is always nice. Stu forgot to swing his mic stand around on one of the tracks he sings backing vocals on, so I had to run on behind him and move it for him. I’m sure he does it on purpose sometimes so I have to go on stage and look like his bitch! He loves it. By the time they’d finished everyone was happy with how it went, despite the on stage sound not being great. So far the reaction from all the industry types has been very encouraging too, so this is a good sign. We’ll be back in the big smoke soon.
By the time we’d finished chatting, loaded out and got into the van it was about 1am. We then made the 125 mile trip back up to Birmingham. By the time my head hit the pillow it was 4:30am and I had to be up at 9am the next day to go on holiday to Newquay.
I woke up the next morning not feeling too bad – just a bit dehydrated. Started packing all my stuff up for the trip to Newquay. It was Steve & Michael’s Uncle’s stag do weekend and there was 31 of us descending on Newquay over the weekend! We left about 1:30pm and arrived in Newquay 4 and a half hours later. I travelled down with Stat & Dicko and we met up with Big Yarn, Mike & Steve on route. We all check in…them at their trendy surf lodge, and Stat and I at our old school hotel, which happened to have the best sea view in Newquay! Had a few drinks and waited for the others to start turning up. John (the stag) arrived shortly after and the major drinking began. Dicko began the weekend in style and attempted to eat his polystyrene burger packet at the kebab shop later that night. It was of course captured on video, for future use ;-)
The next few days were spent playing football & cricket on the beach, eating, drinking, watching the match England on TV…..I visited the Blue Reef Aquarium one morning when I was up before everyone else…we went to numerous pubs, all of which were pretty cool old mans’ pubs. I really liked Newquay. I think we went at the right time, just as the holiday season was winding down, so it wasn’t too busy and full of twats…it was just right. The weather was amazing the whole time and waking up and looking out over the cliffs, beach and sea each morning was so nice. I live about as far away from the sea as you can in England!
I took a ton of photos on my phone, so many that I’m considering buying a bigger memory card for when I next go away, which I’d like to be sooner rather than later! I posted a load over at my Moblog (clicky) and there’ll be more soon.
A good time was had by all….sun, sea, sand, footie, beer and friends. All good.
I came back to a silly amount of emails, hence me not blogging sooner. Went to see ‘Crash’ last night and really liked it, very good storyline and well done….kinda similar to ‘Magnolia’ so if you’ve seen that check it out…and if not, check them both out!
The past week I have mostly been listening to Our Lady Peace ‘Healthy In Paranoid Times’, Death Cab For Cutie’s ‘Plans’, anything and everything by the Foo Fighters and most recently ‘After The Goldrush’ by Neil Young, which I found online for a fiver, bargain!
