hey there! Well our play went up Friday night. It went well. One of the actors forgot one line- so that made them jump about 8 lines altogether. They fudged it well though. No one noticed. We didn't win our night. We came in second. We lost to a play called The Day Marlon Brando Died. They move on to the finals next weekend. I am happy regardless. I am also glad it's over. I was getting tired of arguing with the actors (who are also my friends). You would think it would be easier working with friends and I have in the past, but this time it was a little trying. I am still not really talking to one of them. He was the one who dropped the line. He got so pissed at himself that he started arguing with me right after the show. So I basically said "good riddance". Oh well. The celebration afterwards was great though. Alot of my other friends and family were there and I had the best time. The highlight for me was, one of the actors of "The Day Brando Died" is the voice of Fritz the Cat! Skip Hinnant! Now THAT was cool! Otherwise I am doing real well!
Glad to hear there was some kind of resolve to your theatre experience. Hope you can keep going on with your book. Is the book directly about them or is it about community theatre in general? Are they just a pissy group of clowns? They should just eat crow.
Yes I would like to see you bluesing out on youtube. Now THAT sounds grand!
Be well! cheers!

How are you? How is the play going? I resolved the stupidity with the community theater by severing most ties with them. It got very silly and stressful last week. There were wild threats going around and I am afraid I blew. I don't know quite where that leaves my book, but I have spent too long and worked too hard not to publish it. My band played Friday and it was a nice outdoor gig, a lot of fun. We play at a festival Saturday afternoon for two hours and then four hours in a bar later. I can't wait. We will have some videos on youtube soon. It is old man blues but played with passion, which I think makes a change. Anyway, just wanted to say hi. Take care.

Thinking of 25 things to do with a follow spot that don't include lighting helped the whole shitstorm thing. It all got very ugly, but my band starts gigging on Friday, an open air Gazebo thing, so I am looking forward to that and trying to forget the silliness.

I am glad you are doing a bit better. Going back to old haunts that contain shared memories is tough, but good too. It is something I wish I could do. I am really in the mood for a mooch round the sleazier parts of London's West End. I am going to a sleazy dive here in Porterville tonight though, so that is good Take care

Hey, you survive the shit storm from those peeps at the theater? Did you break the "fourth wall" over somone's head? :) Feeling better--thankfully- hope you are too. I wanted to tell you that I made to my local hang,Magnetic Fields last night. Boy was it a tearjerker- but it was a good one. You're a gem. Be well!!!

Auntie Doris is a real good sort by the way!

Quite alright by me. I hope your rehearsal goes well. I am facing a shit storm from the community theater I am involved in. I directed their silly musical as a favor, and now one of the 'stars' is addressing the board tonight saying I treated her unfairly. She was one of the few with pro experience in the cast and yes, we pushed her further than some of the others as she purported to know what she was doing, but this is very silly. Being summoned in front of the board does sound more dramatic than anything that usually happens on their stage so I will play the scene out!

Thanks for the support. Have to go to rehearsal now, but wanted to touch base. If it's ok, I deleted my post. I don't want to read it anymore...y'know...
anyway ! cheers Auntie :)

No such thing as an unselfish actor in my experience. It would be like finding a sane drummer or a rational republican. Of course that's not entirely true. The frustrating thing about directing I have found is that once I came to realize that no matter how I tried, the actors just would not or could not do what I asked, then the resulting piece always becomes a disappointment, no matter how successful anyone else thinks it might be.

I have lost two friends in that way in the last year or so. I did a mixtape each time, fat lot of good that did. Well, it was good for me to be able to get some of the anger out. I was angry. I lost a lot of time through illness and farting about, time I can't get back, and through almost losing my life I tend to value life in general a bit more these days. I have done lots of stuff in my life, most of it badly. I have screwed up a lot, have nothing much financially to show for it, but I have done things I really wanted to do, and I don't regret doing them. I want to spend what time I still have trying more stuff. I moved from London to California on no money, since I got here I have ended up playing in a band again, written one and a half books, direct a cable chat show, do the community theater stuff, and write all manner of nonsense. I make mistakes all the time, but to just give up totally without allowing a glimmer of hope that things could improve...that seems totally whacked to me. It is late, I am rambling. Maybe this isn't the type of thing to write on this forum, but then again why the hell not. Anyway, feel better, try and get some sleep. (Bloody hell, I sound like my Auntie Doris!)

Yeah, I was an actor musician back in the day, then after I got sick I went back and got a theater studies degree. I directed Oliver recently at the community theater I am writing the book about. Not my cup of tea, but I did it as a favor and I did enjoy working with a large cast of kids. What is the play you are directing?

love the story. no worries. Trying to get over a flu-cold thing that won't leave my body and just trying to deal with the goings on around me. So you taught drama too? I am directing a play for a 15 minute festival that's going up next week.
be well B

How I made the transformation from bottom feeding musician to bottom feeding music biz person and back again is a story in itself...

I 1994 I got really sick and it took me three years to get anywhere near healthy. I went back to University planning to teach drama and music. The day I was leaving college (1998) I had arranged to go to a club in Camden Town to see my all time musical hero Peter Green play. Peter founded Fleetwood Mac in the Sixties, took too much acid, became a paranoid schizophrenic, left the music biz, made a brief comeback in the 80s and then returned again in the mid 90s. I was going to the gig with my best friend Bill and a friend from Wales, who I had met online as a result of a fansite I ran in Peter's honor. We turned up at the gig and were fairly drunk by the time we got inside the club. So much so that we felt the need to sit down. It was pretty much standing room only, but there were a few chairs vacant next to one table which had an old guy with a walking cane and a few very odd people in fishing hats sitting round. Someone who worked at the club (Dingwalls) told us we couldn't use the chairs, but the old guy with the cane said we were in his party. It turns out that he was Stuart Taylor, Peter's manager. He bought us more drinks, I wasn't supposed to be drinking at all at the time, and things got very relaxed. Peter played but I can't really remember much about the gig. My friend Bill had to get up in the morning so he went home, leaving the two of us there. It turned out that one of the guys in a fishing hat was Gary Moore, a rock guitarist of some repute, but I was not impressed. My Welsh friend was if anything more drunk than me, and she started telling anyone who would listen that I did a web site about Peter and that I should do the official site.

The gig finished and there were a bunch of people waiting for Peter to emerge from the dressing room. My friend just waltzed in there and came out with Peter on her arm. He came over to us and asked for coffee. This was overwhelming to me. I had met a fair few musicians over the years, but this was different, I had idolized this musician since I was 16. He took one look at me (I am somewhat rotund) and asked if I was one of the bouncers. I was crestfallen, and his manager Stuart explained that the only subjects that Peter would open up on were food, guitars and travel. I tried food and travel to no effect, but when I got on to guitars, and asked him about a specific concert the year before, he became animated and for a few minutes we had a real discussion. I was like a kid at Christmas. Then, he was gone, off up the motorway being driven to the next nights gig. We stayed talking to his manager some more, he took my number, but I had forgotten why he might have wanted it. I was keeping quiet that I had been a musician up till a few years before.

Finally my friend Jen and I got up to leave. We went out of the main exit, but there seemed to be a ramp that was not there on the way in. She was ahead of me, and she seemed to hit this wooden wall that stopped her from walking any further. She kept walking anyway. It was about this time
that I realised we had actually walked into the back of one of the equipment trucks that was about to be full of Peter's PA, etc! I just turned her around and she walked straight out of there.

I thought that would be the end of it, my one meeting with someone I had always admired. However, a few days later I heard from his manager, I was hired to do his official web site, and within a year I was sharing an office with his management, and in fact was managing another old Brit blues legend myself.

I actually once planned to write a book based on my dealings with Peter, I in fact wrote most of it, but I left it for other projects. Peter is a trip though. Some folk that meet him don't see beyond his illness, but he has a wicked sharp sense of humor. When asked once if he believed in life after death, he said he wasn't sure he believed in this one yet. Another time when he and Stuart were sitting outside a pub, a sad old fan liked me saw him and asked for an autograph. Peter looked up at him and asked "What's the alternative?" I could go on.

I thought you might be fed up with my stories. I get like that every now and then. It has not been too good a few weeks here either. I have plenty of ancient stories to go, plus a few not so ancient ones.

oh no was it something i said? been a tough week- only got miserable stories, not worth sharing.....yet

As you told me about one of your local hangouts, here is a little about one of mine from back home. I lived in Finchley, a suburb of North London. Not that much went on there except for Sunday nights. The back room of the Torrington pub became a once weekly rock club. I started going in 73, when pub rock was the thing in London. I saw Joe Strummer in the 101ers there, Dr Feelgood, very very early Nick lowe and Elvis Costello, plus, the guy that ran the club, George, had some unusual contacts which meant that every now and then West Coast musicians like Bob Weir of the Dead would come, as did Quicksilver Messenger Service and Hot Tuna. The most exciting of these gigs was the Sunday afternoon show Doctor John played. All this in a sweaty little room that held 200 at a push! Stephane Grapelli also played there one time, but I missed that one. There was this one band, 'A Band Called O' who had a record deal, Atlantic I think, but they were not exactly wonderful. One night they were hanging around after the gig to sign autographs and no one wanted one. My friends and I asked the band if they wanted our autographs as the band almost outnumbered the crowd. A couple of years later I was up London with the same friends when we saw Band Called O loading their van up. Thing is, they recognised us before we recognised them! I think the Torrington Sunday music is still going, run by the son of the guy who used to do it.

As you told me about one of your local hangouts, here is a little about one of mine from back home. I lived in Finchley, a suburb of North London. Not that much went on there except for Sunday nights. The back room of the Torrington pub became a once weekly rock club. In started going in 73, when pub rock was the thing in London. I saw Joe Strummer in the 101ers there, Dr Feelgood, very very early Nick lowe and Elvis Costello, plus, the guy that ran the club, George, had some unusual contacts which meant that every now and then West Coast musicians like Bob Weir of the Dead would come, as did Quicksilver Messenger Service and Hot Tuna. The most exciting of these gigs was the Sunday afternoon show Doctor John played. All this in a sweaty little room that held 200 at a push! Stephane Grapelli also played there one time, but I missed that one. There was this one band, 'A Band Called O' who had a record deal, Atlantic I think, but they were not exactly wonderful. One night they were hanging around after the gig to sign autographs and no one wanted one. My friends and I asked the band if they wanted our autographs as the band almost outnumbered the crowd. A couple of years later I was up London with the same friends when we saw Band Called O loading their van up. Thing is, they recognised us before we recognised them!

hey there- not a really a story but- One of my local hangs is throwing in the towel. It was a good place where I had great surprise birthday parties, sharpened my pool skills (until they got rid of the pool table), saw some great bands, took great black/white photobooth pics, played family guy pinball (which rocks), hung out with friends but regrettably never took advantage of their live band karaoke. DAMN. Bottom line is I will miss the place. Then I realized that I hadn't been there in such a long time. Bartenders left, the crowd changed a little, hanging out seemed less appealing. I fell in love with my couch again. Things changed I guess. Still feel sad though. It's like losing a friend- not to death or anything, but more to divergence. You know...you say potato, I say potato(e). I am sure I am not the reason for the closing, but wouldn't it be interesting if they laid that sort of guilt on me. I wish. The clencher is tonight, they are having a surprise concert with Yo La Tengo (not such a surprise anymore) and I will be celebrating a close friend's surprise birthday party- elsewhere. DAMN. I have to remember friendship is deeper than beer, a crowded hot room and music- RIGHT- Hah who am I kidding!!
I know I will miss the place. I know it. I will. I do already.
RIP Magnetic Field

cheers

Excellent!! One step beyond!!!! Food fights come in handy sometimes. hope you had a great mini vacation! I'll send you tale later too.

It was Christmas, 1979. I still knocked around with a lot of my friends from school, even though I had left five years before. We decided to meet up to go to a costume party (or fancy dress party as we Brits say) a couple of days before Dec 25th. We all met up with a variety of stupid costumes. (One of the best belonged to this guy Chris who tied a model of a fighter plane to his arm and went as an aircraft carrier.) I wore a pinstriped suit, black shirt, white tie, fedora a toy machine gun and some fake fangs and went as Dracula after he became a made man. Anyhow, we all met up at Ruby In The Dust, a popular spit and sawdust rock hangout in Camden Town ran by an insane person called George Tilley. They sold meat pies and mashed potatoes and other typically English fayre. It was a small place, and my friends and I had two long tables which took up one side on the diner. We had been told that the other side of the place was going to be taken up by a rowdy stag night. The party rolled in, and we recognized them straight away. It was the members of Madness, plus a few more folk. They got srunk, we got drunk, they got drunker. At this point, they were singing along to Beatles songs being played on the sound system. We got talking to some of them, and found out that Suggs, the singer, was getting married the next day. Round about this time they asked us if we knew any stupid songs we could sing to them. i think we were about twenty seconds into a noisy 'dah de dah, dah de dah de dah de dah de dah' version of 'One Step Beyond' when my girlfriend reported that she had large blob of mashed potato on her forehead. Round about the same time most of a steak and kidney pie arrived on my chin. The food fight with Madness was on. I remember lobbing some bread pudding which landed on Mike Barson's head but I think in all honesty Madness won the contest. We sat there for another couple of hours covered imn our dinners singing more beatles songs with them and buying condoms out of a machine as a wedding present for Suggs. We finally left and arrived at the costume party which was a bust and breaking up as we arrived. People asked why we were so late and when we confessed that we were detained having a food fight with London's top white boy ska band we were met with cries of 'Oh Yeah'?

Great story. I will have a look at Poppo at youtube! Just got home from a short vacation. I will reciprocate later!

ps --- it's actually Poppo and you can see his shows on youtube--- i just watched some and it brought back some memories--hee hee-- you might find it interesting- cheers again! B