Hello, I write this missive from the city of Edinburgh. I arrived some days (weeks?) ago with my guitar, a life-size cut-out of Ricky Gervais and a suitcase full of hopes and dreams.
I’m here for a month to perform my one-man show based on the book wot I wrote, Anoint My Head – How I Failed to Make it as Britpop Indie Rockstar.
It’s a whopping 25 shows in a row. Here is the flyer…
I’ve told myself I’m not going to drink. I need my wits about me. Edinburgh is a party city. There are shows everywhere, the bars are heaving and as I type, in what I thought was a quiet pub, a drag artist called Kate Butch has taken to the stage to sing Wuthering Shites… So maybe just a wee one. It’s exciting to be here. I’ve no idea what the month ahead holds. Recently, I’ve enjoyed telling people how I am ‘doing Edinburgh’, but now comes the actual doing it. Which is always a bit harder. I initially planned to do the book festival, but it turned into a one-man show somewhere along the line, and I got booked into a comedy venue. I tried stand-up in the early 90s, which was disastrous (see the Silent Comedians / Chuckle Club chapters in Anoint My Head), but my motto is to jump right in and work out details later…. Always say YES! And although that may not have worked with the Pointy Birds 30 years ago, history isn’t always doomed to repeat itself. Is it? So a full-run was booked… And then came the hard part of adapting the book, from page to stage… Which was difficult. So many moving parts, and no matter what you think might work in your head, stuff needs to be tested in front of audiences. And unlike writing a book or recording a song which you can capture like a dead butterfly, a live show is a living, breathing thing. It’s a beast! Or a wee beastie, as they say up here….while munching on a deep-fried mars bar. Sorry, that’s a bit Scottish-ist. But I know what I’m doing now. It’s taken a while, but the show is now in place. It looks like this.
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