Grounding oneself whilst everything else flies away...

Venues are promised and then disappear. Or might disappear. This year for some reason, I know that I will make plans and those plans will dramatically change... it is inevitable..pushing ones head above the parapet, doing a financially risky show... so to anchor myself, I'm gonna concentrate some time on singing. For Edinburgh, I am intending on singing 2 shows a day for 20 days, with a few days off along the way. How do I keep my voice strong...? First up an exercise called messa di voce... long notes , no tension in the throat, crescendo in the middle.

Edinburgh smells great.

Up at 4.20am... dark...collected Steve, our guide and trusted friend and colleague...drove to Stansted in pouring rain. We take off into the sky and watch the moon. Approaching Edinburgh the Forth bridges appear, like toys.....not real. We land. Edinburgh smells good. Fuel, rubber, perfumes, I'm hit by loads of new versions of smells. First stop is the Festival Fringe office...fresh paint smell, new carpet, delicious tea...new water..different cows. Barry and Kevin are warm and helpful. we watch their minds' eyes scan the city for a potential KlangHaus. We leave with lots of leads. Next stop Craggs Sports Hall... a place we could convert into a KlangHaus.... we disappear off and find the enormous basketball hall. we stand in the darkness and shout and gurgle and sing...it sounds like a giant's cave. Simon with a strong New Zealand accent shows us round. Perhaps we could perform in this cupboard... It's not right, but it smells good in here. We thank him warmly and leave. We are starving....next stop is Summerhall and we need to make a good impression. We eat bakery stuff and head to Summerhall cafe. Rupert Thomson the Artistic Director of Summerhall will chat with us but he is busy talking to other folks... We drink coffee. Rupert joins us and is warm, friendly, interested, we speak with excitement and plonk the Butcher book in his hands and give him 3d viewers to show in seconds how we respond to buildings... He invites us to a tour of Summerhall. The smells, old university building, autopsy rooms, ancient looking lecture theatres, wooden, curved, with a drain in the middle for bloods. room after room ...bone library attic, we need access..lifts or ramps... There is one place I think you will like.... The Small Animal Hospital... During the tour which was thorough and extensive, we had been wowed, we exclaimed at details, sinks, gas pipes, in the Small Animal Hospital, I was reduced to yelps of joy, surprise and wonder... What about access, we need easy access for folks with mobility issues.... what about this lift... a lift leading through a tunnel, which is actually a bridge and looks like something from Doctor Who!!! okay, that will do fine! Soon we moved on and Rupert had to leave us.. we then went to the cafe ...ate haggis and neeps and tatties.. and met a great resident photographer called Pete and his dog Jack. I was in a whirlwind and in heaven from the tour and having a grand ole sugar hit from my veggie haggis and mashes... a moment to cherish... Pete took us on more tours, we saw his photography studio and more rooms..Jack the greyhound/lurcher type fellow came with us... you know how sometimes pets know stuff, they look like they can talk but just choose not to, that was Jack. Finally we had to move on, we explored the immediate area for suitable buildings where we could set a KlangHaus nearby and affiliate to Summerhall, in the event that we couldn't use the Small Animal Hospital. The sun shone and Edinburgh looked magnificent. We found garages and disused houses, made notes... we got our barings...

Keep talking...be prepared to fail.

Talk talk talk talk...explain connect ask... keep asking. Had a great conversation with a woman at Edinburgh City Council re buildings... honest...open...enquiring...helpful....calm. Spoke to friend Dot Howard, who has done shows at Edinburgh for the past two years. Today I will speak to folks from Sound House and Edinburgh University. Keep talking, keep doing the detective work. Keep looking, but mainly keep talking. I had a moment last night as I explained my days findings... I had a moment where I remembered how it felt to find The Funkhaus for the Butcher project... keep asking and the leads start to point in the same direction. Be prepared to fail.

Run Like Hell

I have to keep reminding myself that being paralysed by fear at the task ahead, is not helpful and a fantastic bit of imagination on my part. We need a house in Edinburgh, large enough for us to perform in, live in, we need to be able to safely accommodate 10-20 audience members and we will be 7 or so living there. We need permissions, licences to perform, we need good neighbours to negotiate our noise levels with them. We don't need to play loud late at night, our shows can be afternoon and early evening. So to move this thing ahead, all I need to do is a list of tasks...phone calls and conversations. I am not a criminal, I have done nothing wrong, I 'm not a sniveling idiot, I just need to talk to people, to ask people questions in order to find a house. Glad I'm understanding this. Being a frightened rabbit is uhelpful and a bit tiring!

The tides are turning

A lead, one with spirals of links to folks we know... A house in Edinburgh that has been a hypothetical music venue, run by people passionate about having a place to play live music on their own terms. Intimate. It has been asked to stop doing what it does by Edinburgh City Council..... I'll talk to people... Shut doors and tangents..keep talking Reilly , keep talking

10..9..8..7..6

The countdown , the deadline... 10 days before our funding application has to be in for financial support to get to Edinburgh. we travelled to Colchester yesterday for a meeting with the wonderful producer Kate Harvey...you remember Dinning With Alice, Walking.. she was one of the main folks making them happen, even if you don't like massive outdoor theatre...it's an amazing feat to have a job where you make fun things happen for pleasure and enjoyment of others....just a thought....so, the funding application.. a combination of hoop jumping and small boxes to make you really think about what you are actually trying to do! Reality strikes. Kate was good on advice... just to say that the people reading the applications have loads to read in a week, so use the return key to make lots a space between sentences... I like this simple advice. Also good on over-looked stuff like cost of licences for a non venue show. Still my biggest mountain is finding a house, with a wide frontdoor on pavement level.. where we can take over, make a noise and invite people in for two shows a day and live there.. I'm gonna telephone Edinburgh City Council.... wish me luck!