Scaffolding for a show

I remember when I first realised that when you put on a show there are, 'inevitables'. Things that will happen. You will need a poster, you will need a venue, you will need a PA, you will need someone to man the door, you will need to sort a float...etc, etc.... The fact that they are inevitable brings a certain form of comfort. I am embarking on the inevitables of our KLANG HAUS show. I want to put up the show scaffolding so that we can concentrate on the flesh. The scaffolding may change a few poles as we near the show, but if it is mainly in place we can proceed with a quiet mind. Front door person outside, side door person inside, merch seller, bar tender, all seeing eye ( big person to ward off ne'er-do-wells ). PA, BBQ, Temporary Events Notice for selling booze and having public entertainment, fire officers liason, risk assessment, doorway measurements, flow of traffic, thoughts of visual beauty/innovation/smells standing sounds. Letter to the neighbours, bloody good signs.I have the letters from the old cinema signage...yes you can make some brilliant swear words from Klang Haus....

Thinking Big

We have been asked to be artists in residence at the Norwich Art Centre. Think Big! he said.... so off we went excited as hell and thought big.....elaborate shows in far flung places...then even more elaborate shows in close-by places with 8 show in two days and just you me in a show and face to face and in yer face and in yer ear..... Putting on strange shows is the best, but the biggest thing we can do is to make the most extraordinary music.....and then deliver it in exciting ways...but lets not get over-distracted by the show......the music is king....the music is where the think big should be....no better experience and dare I say transcendence, can happen than with music...you and what you allow into your ears.It goes in deep, it goes somewhere other than rational thought....I was watching the When Björk Met Attenborough doc and it reminded me of how unique music is as a thing, a stuff.

D.I.T not D.I.Y

A gig day is a hyper-real day. It begins calmly with lists, packing equipment and time checks. It's 11am, due to leave at 11.30am, Sal has just received an email cutting her hours of work as a lecturer, she is devastated. Devastation rolls through the house and we begin to cling to schedules as a way of keeping our heads above the turmoil. Sal proceeds through the day in a state of shock, we help her cope....first hurdle of the day, quickly bowled in. We collect equipment,gather shoes, screens, cradles, cables....Jon commented that it was like moving house twice in one day all the stuff we take. Set up was good, then things go into slow motion...somehow? Mark and I shoot off to Future Radio for an interview...crikey I can go on, little miss motor mouth! I think it's because I was once told that dead-air on the radio is the enemy. I did manage to shoe-horn in the .... So, Neutrinos, you like the D.I.Y ethic... no I said, we are more D.I.T, Do It Together. Always plan food on a gig day..even if it doesn't happen, know it. I booked a table at the Last Wine Bar ( work colleagues), who said they could throw some soup and chips our way within moments of us needing it.... we were stressed and late when we arrived and the atmosphere in the LWB was so comforting, the food delicious, we handled the linen napkins like blankets and rubbed our faces in the soft whiteness....breathing in the cleaness....then rushed back to the venue.....on in 30 mins. It felt strange leaving the venue at that point, but it gave us a quick bit of perspective, calm down, talk to the audience,be authentic, be real. Food is incredibly grounding and brings you back into your body. So last bits of manic set-up , helping hands arrive, I felt like a kid who had fallen asleep in the car and was having everything done for them... help is good ....always accept help and don't try and be in control. The show has it's own energy and cannot be driven by one set of hands. The show begins, then I fell down the stairs, not hurt, stamped my broken shoe heel back in place, just got rid of my stored up adrenalin, now time to breathe. I love singing, I love letting the air out slow, I love joining the lines, I love almost speaking, my singing is a conversation....perhaps it was watching musicals on tele when I was small and confused thinking that chat,chat burst into song was normal( I generally hate most musicals and the honky nose-singing pisses me off btw)...I love shouting. Sal and Tim lit us, Mr Bill Vine made us sound like us. We played, literally played within the skillful sound and light. An honour and a great audience to play with! We all drank rum into the night whilst the ciccada on continuous loop played in the bushes! Thanks to all involved especially the host Puppet Theatre, we had a night we will remember, we D.I.T.

The night before

So here I am again wondering what the hell am I doing all this for! The team of 6 of us are working our arses to the bone because we want tomorrows show at the Puppet Theatre to be extraordinary...... lists everywhere...favours pulled in... I was very relaxed earlier on today....now I am running on empty. It's going to be fine... permissions for total blackout still not quite negotiated. Wish I would just go for the goal a little quicker rather than postponing things hoping they will become easier....banking on timing things well, catching people at the right moment....... Lists lists lists...visualising events, room layouts, knowing that the time tomorrow will just disappear.......gone 8 hours in a puff of smoke..... There will be puppets...........Sal is amazing at animating the monkeyboy! There will be shadows, there will be films, moving slides, moving sounds, illuminations, book films, rum, free notebooks............I'm running on empty, I wish us good luck and good sleeping and thank all folks in advance for there generosity in lending their time and effort and equipment and patience.... and I'm gonna thank us for making another world to live in tomorrow night. A bit like the KFC Drive-by we invented today where you shoot yer own chicken to eat....yeeee haaaaa!

'Go Have Fun'

here is our latest track.....lyrics are the speech Bush gave to Obama when he got elected in 2008. Go Have Fun

Neutrinos in Berlin final day

I miss the sounds. The loud chirping sparrows, the turkish music swirling from car-radios waiting at the traffic lights on the junction at Silbersteinstrasse and Hermannstrasse. I miss the screech of car tyres around that same junction in anticipation of a sugar hit from the Burger King Drive-Thru next door to our block of apartments. I miss the sound of our bare feet on laminate floors padding about making coffee, opening doors and windows, amplifying all the sounds from outside. The shower was good..set by a window which you could open the top half of wide, like a door and stare at the sky and the swifts hurling themselves around in thermal loops. I miss the anticipation of who we will met today. Monday, yesterday was our final day,with our first appointment being at the British Embassy, passports, security checks, gates, air locks.. then waiting in the foyer next to a photograph of the Queen. Banners saying, Shopping is Great Britain, Knowledge is Great Britian, Creative is Great Britian..... shopping?? Hmmm Miriam our contact appears and she is German and small and young, she shows us around the public area. The building is very 1990s in it's appearance. We drink water and share our purpose for meeting. Soon the tiny woman is on fire with ideas of how this weighty institution steeped in history and bureaucratic sheets and blankets can assist. Let's see what happens there. Last task was to deliver a Butcher book to Funkhaus, its place of origin. We knew it would be unceremonious as the manager of the building, our point of contact, Susanne Graef was on leave. We buzzed over on the train, had to memorize a page from the book of an impression of Jon at the correct tram stop. In the summer heat the journey was easy and calm, we had only visited in deepest winter and the memory of the journey is shrouded in effort! There it stood, smaller than I remember. We went in, laughed at the familiarity, gave the book to a red faced man and said goodbye. As we walked around the outside of the building to the exit, we saw an open door, couldn't resist but go in, for one last taste...and found the Milch Bar open. In 2008 it was moth-balled. It has a red sparkly ceiling and genuine 1950s decor, nice to see it back in working order.We drank very milky coffee.

I saw a man from the previous night, he had played at Ausland. We bumped into him again at the tram stop and chatted. He was going to London the following day and Sal was invited to his gig at Cafe Oto. It feels easy to meet people here, you see them again and again, there is a community. We leave Berlin. Thinking about other cities of Germany, Berlin feels like the estranged child of the family, who has had a different upbringing to the rest. Other stuff happened to it and so it remains unique in character, Berlin is unlike anywhere else.

Neutrinos gone to Ausland

Went to Ausland....an avant guard music venue. Free jazz was great, Cactus Truck from Holland, they began with an explosion of noise which continued at the same level. I wanted to laugh really loudly and watched the gig with a new look of my face of being on the verge of pissing myself with laughter, it was bloody brilliant. It was such explosive energy and so so funny. I can't say I'm naturally drawn to music that makes me laugh, but this was ace and a had no idea that free jazz was hilarious. Squeeely-bonk -tastic. But alas even the avant guard have complaining neighbours.....grrrr! We walked in the grid of roads called the Schillerketz, found a great burger bar, Schiller burger, onto a bar round the corner And chatted and laughed a lot. They show silent films in the bar and its accompanied by someone on the grand piano. We have established our bearings for this part of the city around Hermannstrasse, Neukölln . On the main drag good cheap Turkish food and sports bars galore, on the roads parallel quirky bars and artsy crowd. We chatted about the twilight zone. We have enjoyed the shape of our time here, intense mid week start, managing to relax for a couple of days and final bit of business tomorrow. A visit to the British Embassy and leaving a book at the Funkhaus.