Barcelona (without the fringe)

There had been a few issues in the run up to my Barcelona Fringe festival show. Mostly a minor disagreement about what time slot I'd have (they wanted me on later, I wanted to be on in the afternoon as it's a play, in a festival mostly filled with stand-up...they agreed with me eventually) and then pricing (as I was out of town/country, I wanted to be a 'pay what you want' show, they wanted to charge 9 euros...I backed down on this one). But the communication was good, quite a lot of promo. Wifey wanted to join me for this one, which she always does when I get the 'nicer' gigs (New York etc), thought we could tie it in with a little sight seeing. 

On Thursday, just as I was about to go onstage to perform the latest house show of Many Cars (which was fine, incredible audience around Steph's place, performance was a bit rushed but it's not short of nice lines and quirky moments - it wasn't bad) I got a message saying my Barcelona Fringe show had been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Gutted. Having spoken to the promoter quite a bit since, I get it...venues need upfront sales so they know with confidence they can provide staffing. At the Edinburgh, or any other Fringe, this wouldn't be an issue, but it's a different culture, I guess. 

Still, we had an amazing deal on a 5-star hotel which was non-refundable, neither were our flights, and we'd sorted dog care for Freddie. So, we decided to go anyway, and have an unexpected long weekend away. It was actually really good for us; I'm just entering a period where I'm teaching long days 7 days a week, mostly to meet demand, mostly because I can't say no, and partly because I'm saving up for a new car before this one blows again. Plus the gigs and shows. Wifey is a headteacher and is more stressed than anyone I know. My hours are long, but they're fun hours...hers aren't. Suddenly, it kinda felt like we had this 'bonus' holiday and it was wonderful. We met up with our friend, Helena, who is Spanish and lives there and showed us around, we stayed in the same hotel as a top division football team, we found cool rooftop bars, we ate top class tapas, we stopped and enjoyed each other's company, which our schedules don't always allow. 

Home now after a whirlwind 2 and a bit days, refreshed and ready to take on the world. More last minute gig cancellations, please...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dinner parties, movie readings and the good folk of Ely

Being self-employed is a tricky one, isn't it? I go from "help, I don't have enough work!" (because in one of my schools, 12 out of the 17 students are in year 6 so they're about to leave) to suddenly "help, I've got so much work coming in I can't breathe" which is where I am right now. Which is probably a good thing, apart from the lack of breathing, obviously, because fringe accommodation costs waaaayyy too much but I have no choice but to pay it and my car is making so many rattling scraping sounds people are actually looking out of their windows at me.  But it also means I'm massively late in updating this, and I have some good times to write about - mostly about last weekend. This all came after a fun script reading of my very new show with Izzy and Alan, and a much needed catch-up with Esther, the first time we've seen each other since the fun/many arguments of the Brighton Fringe; no arguments this time, just two excited people wit...
Read more

Double gig Saturdays

I've missed doing this. I've missed doing this with this band. A two gig Saturday with my Fred's House chums, two festivals. We used to do this stuff all the time, but we're all so busy with other things these days. When we do get together it's a bit of a treat, though and that was the case at the weekend. Two festivals; the first one a REALLY packed sold-out show in the afternoon. Whilst the rest of the line-up, particularly ours on the main stage, seemed to be on the heavier side of things, I like the fact that we never compromise - we play our nice, happy, summery, original tunes.  We then headed over to Bedford to headline a festival there, which was a little smaller but really lovely.  The gigs were fine; we were tight, we should be after all these years, and we're clearly still into it despite barely gigging. But it's not just about the gigs, is it? It's about the backstage chat, the catching up over grub, the long car chats. Lovely stuff.
Read more

Odd gigs, cracking review

Schools out! Although I seem to be teaching more than ever...lots of drum courses, in some cases for the really young kids it's bordering on babysitting. I already have a business called, 'Team Building with Drums', maybe next it should be 'Babysitting with Drums'...I'm a VERY expensive, noisy babysitter, though... Alongside the courses, I've been writing, lots, as always. Edinburgh is creeping up, I like what I'm doing with those (despite a bit of a panic earlier about the 'Band Playing...' show although it's pretty much worked wherever I've done it apart from the first day in Brighton), but also launching two new shows in October. I like being a one-man theatre company. I also like working with actors, but I don't like the constant Doodle Polls for availability.  Played an odd gig on Saturday with a makeshift blues band, a 70th birthday party in the rain, but it still worked. Although massively under-rehearsed, stick good musicians ...
Read more