Monday 7th of August, 2000
Rock and Roll.
Post successfully collected (those of you on tenter-hooks from Saturday. It was the fliers. Now I can harrass people in the street if I so desire.
I was thinking that the Festival and the internet seem to have a lot in common. A lot of people trying desperately to attract attention to their little endeavour, and most people thinking that the more noise they make, the more likely they will be to be successful - so just as you get mass spams from people advertiing their websites, you get painted-faced student strolling around shouting at people and forcing them to take fliers, as if flier ditribution is an end in itself.
Does this work? Of course not
At the festival, as on the internet, you will only really attract attention if you can provide someting that is genuinely entertaining or interesting (and I am absolutely sure that our show is that), or genuinely useful (such as a search engine, or,on the fringe, a preview show). It is very easy to tell those things that are neither, and you don't have to be a dedicated cynic like me to identify them.
I suspect (as a bitter old man) that the students are here as a learning experience rather than as an attempt to contribute to the artistic life of the country. I'm sorry that that sounds dismissive. I suppose that the charm of the thing is that it is a ragbag of professional theatre, amdram, cabaret, divers musics, drink-sodden stand-up comedians and aspiring performers like myself.
Something for everyone.
Managed to get some practice done today - I have a promising chord progression, which I can lovingly develop and throw onto the heap of un-lyricised and unfinished songs.
Went to see Rebecca Hollweg at the Tron. Very, very fine Joni-ish singer-songwriter, with Andy Hamill on bass (a double-bass hero of mine), although Mr H was playing an electric bass guitar this time. I watched closely for hints, although it seems that having preternaturally long fingers probably help a lot.
We thought the gig would be dead - there were only three tickets sold and a press person when we arrived - but on emerging from the toilet there were miraculously a couple of row filled. And it turned out to be a fine gig, I enjoyed it a lot. I'm beginning to fill in what I do on Richenda better, I think. I'm supposed to noodle behind Phil, but it can sometimes be difficult to find appropriate things to do that don't sound superfluous. However, I think I'm negotiating my way around it, particularly over the chorus section which modulates unexpectedly for runs. However I asked Dave what he was playing and it turns out that I can do min7b5 chords or arpeggios, which sounds quite groovy. To me anyway. Of course all this effort is just for the love of it, because (a) we've recorded the track already, so my "official" version is aready down and (b) everyone is (quite rightly) watching and listening to Phil, and if they are looking at me, then I'm doing something wrong.
So there.
After the gig I slipped off to the Tron again to do an ESS floorspot. I was on last, so I got to see all the other acts. A lot of fun, but many people breaking the rule that they should do a maximum of ten minutes (most people don't realise that their songs are so long, particularly those who smoke a lot of dope). I did Hard To Be a God, which got a good reception (I was worried) and Comforting Lie - I did ask whether they wanted a quiet or loud song and they asked for a loud one. Isn't democracy wonderful? Maybe someone will come to see me next week, although, when I was doing the sell from the stage, I thought today was Tuesday, and told them a week today, and had to be corrected, and gave the impression of someone who had no idea what day it was, which was, in fact, accurate.
Rock and Roll.