A week away from an English Autumn
Posted by Andre King on Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Under: Work
It's getting much colder now, but still not nearly as cold as I've felt in NZ during the winter months. Looking forward to wearing my very first winter coat with gloves and scarf, possibly even my "Christies" fedora?? Not sure if Ive told you the story of the fedora, I've always wanted one, some budget models found were £30 but were thin and didn't hold their shape very well and ultimately would have contributed to make me look like a scruffy bucket of knickers, however, after a bit of research found that Christies sold the hat that I wanted in the basic colour that I wanted... but for £200 odd. In kiwi dollars that's $400 which is exorbitant for a hat, even a really nice one. So a bit more investigating (being a former PI has some advantages...) I found the supplier to Christies... and after finding the supplier, found they had an outlet store... after visiting them discovered I could purchase a hat directly from them (with the Christies lining and Christies hat box for £50!!!
Now £50 is still $100 where I come from, but looking at it from the perspective of "that's 1/3 what I charge out for a 20 minute gig..." I was able to justify the purchase not only to myself but also to Mareena whom I have handed the purse strings to.
The point of my telling you all of this is simply because I was performing in Rochester last night, wearing my jeans a shirt and my suit jacket, spent most of the evening in the garden bar and as a result was quite nippy on the way back home and wished I'd instead worn my coat and hat. Rochester is one the oldest townships in the country and was one of the first Roman built towns in the United Kingdom. The streets are still cobbled (as they are most places) and I have to admit that I didn't see anything particularly identifiable as "Roman". It is still something that the townsfolk are proud of referencing. Dan Wright (from BBC's Big Cook Little Cook) was MC that night and was recognised as soon as we stepped out of the car to walk to the venue, I was on first, a lovely young lass named Dee was filling the open spot and headlining was Richard Morton. Dan did well with the opening 10 warming the crowd up nicely, I stepped on and hit 17 minutes before checking to see if I'd done my 20, pulled some good solid laughs out of the crowd. Dee admitted prior to going on, that she had only started standup in may 2010 and that she was in fact a singer, fancied herself as a poet and had a poem that she would be performing for the crowd. Her gags were a little slow in being brought forward, but her poem was actually quite funny and worth the wait. Richard Morten the Geordie Bard, made jokes about looking like Billy Idol's dad, or Annie Lennox getting good audience response from the crowd immediately, he expertly managed to keep that energy alive throughout the course of his 30 mins through the use of some very sharp one liners and song parodies that Gish would have been kicking himself that he hadn't thought of.
All in all it was a good gig, Nigel the pub landlord was very happy with the result, the acts were all happy, the audience was happy, no one died. Can't really ask for too much more than that!
Another job done, next on the hit list is Shirley - the place not the person. Gig in Birmingham this weekend, should have been Tipton, but Tipton cancelled again!!!
Now £50 is still $100 where I come from, but looking at it from the perspective of "that's 1/3 what I charge out for a 20 minute gig..." I was able to justify the purchase not only to myself but also to Mareena whom I have handed the purse strings to.
The point of my telling you all of this is simply because I was performing in Rochester last night, wearing my jeans a shirt and my suit jacket, spent most of the evening in the garden bar and as a result was quite nippy on the way back home and wished I'd instead worn my coat and hat. Rochester is one the oldest townships in the country and was one of the first Roman built towns in the United Kingdom. The streets are still cobbled (as they are most places) and I have to admit that I didn't see anything particularly identifiable as "Roman". It is still something that the townsfolk are proud of referencing. Dan Wright (from BBC's Big Cook Little Cook) was MC that night and was recognised as soon as we stepped out of the car to walk to the venue, I was on first, a lovely young lass named Dee was filling the open spot and headlining was Richard Morton. Dan did well with the opening 10 warming the crowd up nicely, I stepped on and hit 17 minutes before checking to see if I'd done my 20, pulled some good solid laughs out of the crowd. Dee admitted prior to going on, that she had only started standup in may 2010 and that she was in fact a singer, fancied herself as a poet and had a poem that she would be performing for the crowd. Her gags were a little slow in being brought forward, but her poem was actually quite funny and worth the wait. Richard Morten the Geordie Bard, made jokes about looking like Billy Idol's dad, or Annie Lennox getting good audience response from the crowd immediately, he expertly managed to keep that energy alive throughout the course of his 30 mins through the use of some very sharp one liners and song parodies that Gish would have been kicking himself that he hadn't thought of.
All in all it was a good gig, Nigel the pub landlord was very happy with the result, the acts were all happy, the audience was happy, no one died. Can't really ask for too much more than that!
Another job done, next on the hit list is Shirley - the place not the person. Gig in Birmingham this weekend, should have been Tipton, but Tipton cancelled again!!!
In : Work