Day 2 Colchester Klanging

Days seem to go on forever. Perhaps it's the single focus. It's great, I'm exhausted and I look and it's only 8.30pm, then we relax and it's only 11.30pm. Today is another day of being charming, what a delightful way to spend some hours, being helpful, sunny and buzzing along problem solving. Tomorrow I must do some singing! The pigeons are getting on our tits and we are playing the calls of hawks to piss them off, they are shitting on us in retaliation. We came home and ate wonderful food cooked by Lingford. Great day.

KlangHaus Alight Here : Day 1

It's not all about rushing and being stressed. It's not all about being early and knackering yourself. We took a realistic timescale and all arrived at Colchester from our triangulation of homesteads at 2pm. We went on a hunt for a cherry picker and used all our charms of reassurance to get what we needed. We looked at books in Firstsite Gallery that made us feel sick. We did a floor plan for electric power location needs. Tony George flung locks around and wrenched open doors so we have miraculously got gear safely locked away in anti-rooms. We food shopped, we snacked on mountains of cheese and salty olives. We planned for tomorrow and are soon to be sleeping in this amazing, ancient Georgian house, which feels like it's been modernised to the 1940s. The light switches snap on and off very loudly. A great day after weeks of anxious uncertainty.

KlangHaus: Alight Here, Colchester Old Bus Depot

Tomorrow morning we leave for a weeks KlangHausing at the old Colchester bus depot. The first KlangHaus in a semi derelict building since our early beginnings at Westlegate tower. That comes with it's own challenges, like no insurance possibilities. We are now liaising with over night security guards...interesting and expensive! We have had an amazing week. Funding for the project was confirmed..that was a nerve wracking wait! We confirmed accommodation on Tuesday, again, nerve wracking leaving it so late in the day, but I had a hunch it would work out, lesson learned...follow the hunch! Listen to intuition.We are all in varying states of exhaustion but looking forward to coming together and helping each other thrive. We are on the cusp of becoming full-time artists, thanks to the continuing support and arse-kicking from the Norwich Arts Centre. I hope to share our experience, share our determination and hard work and inspiration with others. Dream and make it real.

Final week at RFH

I'm currently in Dressing Room 15 at The Royal Festival Hall. KlangHaus is about to do it's 33rd show of a run of 41. I am relaxed in here. I iron all the show shirts and do my vocal warm-ups. When we are all in here it's pretty snug, though we calmly fit around each other. Often Mark asleep on the floor or recording/writing songs. Jeron on the sofa. Sal pop's in and out. Jon pop's in and out, he prefers being outside. Lingford will pop in and out. I am often stationed at the ironing board or in the massive bathroom doing some singing or putting my hair up. That's our routine we choose to anchor ourselves. This show has been a wonderful success so far, affecting people on a deep emotional level. This is due to many reasons but Sal and I laugh about how our sexuality as women plays no part...flat shoes and flat chests. I wear a shirt buttoned up to the collar. There is something honest and different about this show. Being in the show actually makes me none the wiser of it's effect. All I know is that it feels pretty damn good to be in. My voice is just about holding up. I got too over emotional on Friday night and over-sang. Then had there shows on the Saturday. The first show I realised I'd lost my vocal power, not really the notes, just the strength. I 'Rod Stewarted' through the next three shows. I remained calm and went with it. I still remain calm, I'm curious as to it's state today, so warming up fully and gently and gargling salt water...weirdly I love gargling with salt water. Then finally I tell myself a story about how my voice will be fine, stoopid, but it works!

15 shows in at The Royal Festival Hall

This is a place in my life that is hyper real and yet unreal. I'm performing daily in the RFH, which feels like an enormous brilliant dream. Trying to maintain energy, be real, be here now. Not only are we at the RFH doing music and singing and mucking around all evening. We get to touch our audience, get close-up. Let them feel the air between us. Once installed we have a lovely time. The build is pretty painful, especially if we are stressed. So a strategy is needed, we will be working on this in the next week. We walk miles to, from and during the show. We behave with grace to all we meet. We attempt our most skillful ways of communication. This is heaven, the world and its politics are mayhem around us. We make our own world in KlangHaus: On Air and allow ourselves, us and the audience to escape for 50 minutes.

Day 3 RFH

On the first day we had to be inducted and sign lots of forms. We were in offices near our workspace in the ceiling, with a view over Waterloo. I had a moment of realisation that this is actually happening and a massive flush of pride...' We are here now'. Rosie is being complimented on her astute risk assessment. This is real. Then to work. What has been great is that over the last two days if one of us has floundered, another has scooped them up and either helped, or distracted them from themselves. We are a strong team, the skills between us are diverse. We are gonna make this show the best yet.

We're about to leave for London

On the eve of leaving. Very tired now but a good day. Collecting artwork, dimmer racks, perspex, ordered sharks tooth gauze,BNC convertors, watched Dan's new video for Jon Hopkins, a drone flight over Stiffkey marshes, so beautiful. Had artwork chopped, we were assisted by all manner of Norwich folk. Sorted a cash-flow plan, paid people we had to. Remembered at 7pm that I hadn't chased up the insurance people... Karen our event manager sent the unhelpful folks a stinging email at 11.30pm...nice! We've done our best and that's all we can do. Sleep well all and let the adventure unravel.