The best show on earth

We have a show, 41 shows, at the Royal Festival Hall in July. It is a dream come true. How did that happen then? I want to answer that question so I can remind myself! It came about through a series of events over several years and I think a large part of that was talking to people, making friends with other musicians and artists and building working relationships. We have done large shows in unusual places since 2011 and on a much smaller scale in derelict shops, behind gallery walls and in attics since 2008. The show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2014 was a catapult into having a national profile and being written about in the national press. Building relationships with people over many years, building a reputation for solid, innovative work. Pushing and following up off-the-cuff remarks, "I know an interesting building, perhaps you could do a show in..." Listening to people we trust, trusting our intuition. Avoiding people we don't trust (often after trying to trust them for a year or so!). Talking to people, not worrying if we come to a dead end. We have been especially excited by our own work since our trip to Berlin in 2008 when we took 9 artists and musicians to an extraordinary building The Funkhaus and played games in order to make new work. We became obsessed with the building and its sound/acoustic/resonance and all realised that we could literally 'play', muck about in order to make songs,images,films. As a band we had already been playing together for 10 years. We re-found the fun. we stopped feeling like we had a race to win, to get a record deal, to 'make it'. That was a golden moment. I remember walking on stage at a gig in Belgium not long after sensing this feeling of freedom and saying, "Wow, we don't have to make it". So when faced with the daunting task of making and performing 41 shows at the Royal festival Hall that we want to be exciting, innovative, moving and unforgettable, our armoury is, trust, trust in each other and calmness in order to play, muck about and continue working with a sense of fun and to get on with it. Make enough stuff so that 70% of it can be rubbish and the 30% is more than enough to fill the show. That's the challenge. Join us in July and see what happened!KlangHaus:On Air