So that was Christmas

Was originally going to spend 9 days at the family home, but it was established quite early on that 6 would be more than enough. Mostly because families are stressful, aren't they? But also because of the sleeping arrangements; with my sister taking the spare room I had two options 1) kip on the couch 2) sleep in my old room, which is where my father died a year ago. That room still feels eerie to me so I don't think I would have slept well in there, so took the sofa option. Apart from the fact I'm 6'3" which means my legs were hanging off the side, the other main issue with this was the dog, who at about 6am everyday would jump on me wanting to 'play'. Often crushing my bollocks in the process.

Christmas wasn't bad, though, really. I mean, it could have been a lot worse. We got through it. The three of us bickered quite a lot, but somehow we always come out of it stronger. I drank too much, ate too much and was generally quite unimpressed by everything we watched on the TV so I went out quite a bit, too. On Christmas Eve I met up with Marcus T, Matt and Champs, Boxing Day it was Chris, the day after I had several drinks with Fiona (who still gets it, and me, more than most) and last night had quite a heavy one with my old landlord, Marcus H. Good friends, good times and that's what Christmas is all about, yeah?

Also, I got bored on Christmas Day and started writing a new novel. Wrote it all in a notepad, because Mum has banned the internet from the house. Will look to do more with that soon.

6 days was enough, now back home, slowly catching up on emails and working out which way to take 2017. I also need to get my head around this new show of mine; previews start (on Alex's boat) on 27th January which is a bit closer than I thought, with it opening properly at the Leicester Comedy Festival on 9th February and that's a biggie for me. I've had my rest, it's now time to make things happen.

Thursday 22nd December 2016

Did a final bit of work from home for a while (the year?) and waited impatiently for the post to arrive. It did, luckily, complete with the last of the Christmas shopping.

Confirmed two new shows for next year, and signed up for 3 more gigs with the choir for next year. It's all looking quite healthy.

Claudia and Marcel came over, presents exchanged, lovely festive evening. We can't help but talk 'business', but that's always the way.

I think everything is done now for Christmas, tours planned, shows coming together. Next question: can I actually stop, for a few days?

Wednesday 21st December 2016

Final day in the office before Christmas, nice to catch up with the boss. Looks like I'll be staying there a bit longer yet, even though my contract is up soon - we're both mutually keen to keep me there and I appreciate the flexibility.

So happy with the musical last night. So many plans for next year but my diary already has 60-odd shows in it for 2017 and more stuff is coming in.

Finished my Christmas shopping, then went to a nice party next door. I've lived here for a while now (over 2 years) and I've barely spoken to the neighbours so it was nice to finally, you know, learn their names and stuff.

Then finished the 'Rosie' movie - the movie of my mum's dog. It's a masterpiece. Annoyingly, because it's not something I can release publicly.

Tuesday 20th December 2016

Christmas shopping in the morning, got annoyed by people in general so left it for another day. Got back and put together the footage of Sunday's action and shared it around.

Musical tech from 1pm, nervous but brilliant cast. Amazing venue, run by good people - I know the manager well, but the whole set up is just lovely. They rehearsed hard today.

Technically a sellout, but a few of the locals who bought ticket didn't turn up; still, the money goes to charity.

The musical itself was just brilliant to watch (and tech). Four actors and a brilliant (seriously brilliant) director working so hard on a script I had written, singing songs I'd written the words for...it's just, well, flattering. The love they put into the characters, I'm almost moved by it. The performance was great; messy, yes of course it was, but messy in character and with so much fun with the audience at the same time it was half musical/half party at times. 90 minutes of joy, that was. I like this cast a lot, and they like this script a lot. The whole thing was filmed and the footage is top-notch, so will bash together a 5 minute trailer and we can tour this next year - we're all keen this one grows and grows.

That's next year's Christmas show sorted, then.

Monday 19th December 2016

Hands still hurting a little from yesterday but went into the office anyway so make up some time ahead of Christmas. Nobody else was in, which was a good thing because I could get a load of work done without having to smile or anything. Yep, so tired my face wasn't working properly. We achieved something amazing yesterday, though.

Aberdeen confirmed for the tour! Finally!

Long rehearsal with FH was lovely, slow start but we got back into pretty quickly. We're a great band, you know, I just hope the occasional moments of tension don't destroy everything we've built.

Sunday 18th December 2016

Big, long day. Our challenge was simple; 12 gigs in 1 day to raise money for charity. Booked ages ago, lots of excitement about this. Claudia, Marcel, Edd and myself, one car, 25 minutes in each venue, 12 gigs. Almost impossible on paper...

Gig 1: venue forgot we were turning up. Awkward start, clearly in the way of the busy cafe customers, but a good few quid made. Performance was a bit loose on the new stuff.

Gig 2: venue were ready for us, which was nice. Hardly anyone there but the staff were so lovely, performance of the new stuff a little sharper.

Gig 3: proper music venue, who were quite excited about this project. Bugger all people there, literally - about 4 people, but they were generous and I got free beer. Performance was great.

Gig 4: got attacked by a dog. Most enthusiastic landlady ever. Small crowd that grew during the performance. Played really well.

Gig 5: one of our favourite venues. Rammed, didn't realise a friend of mine actually ran the place! Staff donated their tips for the day to the cause; what an amazing thing to do. Lovely. Performances starting to settle now.

Gig 6: Crazy. A frantic, loud venue that clearly doesn't have live music normally but loved the idea of it. Felt very loved here, as much as the audience were right in our faces. This felt like a special moment for the venue, it was nice to be part of it.

Gig 7: Running behind. Venue had no idea we were turning up and I didn't like their attitude at first but they warmed to us. Upstairs, which is a nightmare for this amount of equipment. 3 people there but 3 lovely, pretty people who supported us generously.

Gig 8: Regular venue. Sparse, but great staff who encouraged us and treated us well. Always nice to do there.

Gig 9: A real surprise. The sort of pub where you go to die, it's a bit grim. But the locals really got into it, possibly my favourite gig of the whole lot. Hands hurting.

Gig 10: Didn't like this one. As much as the staff at the venue did their best it was full of students who talk over the music and gave fuck all.

Gig 11: Just lovely - back at my favourite venue, The Red Bull, where everyone is just so nice, so warm and although we were clearly struggling we had a brilliant time.

Gig 12: Final gig! Well attended, great friends there. In a lot of pain, all of us, as it's been a day of physical endurance but what a finale!

What we achieved today was very, very special indeed. Making loads for charity in the process, I'm so very proud. This'll hurt in the morning.

Saturday 17th December 2016

Tried and failed to reply to the many gig offers that have come through, 2017 looks brilliant/daft.

Took Mum for her pre-Christmas-Christmas shop and then did some slightly last-minute Christmas shopping myself. All good, I think.

Premiere of Ranataclaus in the evening was a slight disaster as most of the cast pulled out (due to fog...seriously, man up) and I got a bit grumpy about it all. Evening itself was lovely, it's a really nice film, I'm not gonna release it for a while because of the sound issues but those who could make it really seemed to enjoy themselves.

It's not working, though, is it? All of these projects? Book launch - 3 people turned up, Christmas tour - quiet and messy, film premiere - half of the cast couldn't be arsed to make it over.

Next year will be a bit different; more solo stuff (I'm done with people), nothing in Cambridge. Just the one show (One Man and a Box), one musical (The Little Git), one film (whatever I feel works best out of the 7 scripts I've been putting together). It'll be awesome.

Friday 16th December 2016

It's amazing what setting up a new email account can do, isn't it? Set up a new account, emailed 526 venues that didn't reply earlier in the year about my solo show and I've suddenly got lots of offers. More than I can handle, to be honest, but that just makes 2017 really exciting. I'll worry about diary clashes with band stuff later, it's a decision to make another day...

Did a spot of freelancing from home and felt quite festive, and got excited by the idea of a European tour next year.

Nice evening catching up with my old mate Rob, he's a good person to be a sounding board for ideas - mostly because he's as eccentric as I am.

Thursday 15th December 2016

Popped into the office for 4 hours to say hello and try in vein to find us some new contacts. It's all gone a bit dry there, running out of potential clients.

Then over to Stamford for an early evening drink with the amazing Emma who has a knack of calming me down without really trying. I can feel pieces of life jigsaw falling beautifully into shape.

Got back and am determined to make next year the best year ever. This one hasn't been bad, but it feels a bit 'transitional' - understandably. Lots of things have worked, but lots haven't. The 'One Man and a Box' show has to be a show that I'd still be happy touring in 2018, this is it - I'm getting older, I can't be doing this when I'm 40, there needs to be progression. Scheduled 528 emails to go out tomorrow, time to make this happen.

Wednesday 14th December 2016

Worked from home for a bit and managed to finish my Christmas shopping, all online, in good-ish time. It's handy when people like my sister just send me Amazon links, I appreciate it probably takes away all of the joy from festive shopping but for the modern man in a rush it's ideal...

Turned down a couple of stand-up festivals, one in Preston, one in Liverpool, both run by a promoter contact I know quite well. Mostly because I have other gigs around that time and logistically it could get messy but also because both festivals have really outpriced themselves and I'd rather spend the cash on established events.

Finally got the details for the musical tech rehearsal on Monday, that's a relief for all concerned.

Evening gig with FJ at the Apex in Bury. Really struggled to find the venue and then an old man called David (must have been in his 70s) could tell I was lost, driving around the car park, so got in my car and navigated me to a different car park and then even carried my equipment to the venue for me. What a nice man, thank you, David, whoever you are. Big venue, first time I've played with Lou and Alex in ages but we were great tonight, possibly the best this band have ever been. Amazing what good sound can do, isn't it? That was a big gig tonight supporting the legendary Big Country. I like playing big gigs.

Tuesday 13th December 2016

In the office for the first time in a while. Nobody talked as always, but we got through it. Football seems to be the only thing we have in common. Still, got 6 hours in, pays for a couple presents.

Evening gig in Milton Keynes - the final one of my Christmas tour, was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales (0), and it was mutually agreed it probably wasn't worth risking the 165-mile round trip. Turns out a couple people (including my mate Tom) turned up to the show, but by then I couldn't possibly get there in time. Bugger it. The Christmas tour has been a bit of a disaster - I mean, only three of the seven shows actually happened and one of them was really shit, but most of this has been out of my control.

Spent most of the evening working on next February's tour, which is a proper tour. It had better work out, I'm putting a lot work into this one.

Monday 12th December 2016

Took Mum shopping (she does a lot of shopping these days, which is slightly worrying) whilst replying to various emails etc. Also continued making 'Rosie the Movie' about my mum's dog, which will be part of her Christmas present, but could also go viral...I mean, everyone loves watching a lanky man getting assaulted by a fat staffie, yeah? Lots of times.

Then over to catch the first bit of the musical rehearsals. Having lost our rehearsal space at the last minute I'm very grateful to Kim (he wrote Walking on Sunshine, what a guy!) and Lee for the use of their living room, what lovely friends they are to me. That show seems a little tense because, well, it's being performed next week, but the cast all have a great attitude and I can't praise Claire enough as a director. Yeah, she's a bit more full-on than I was expecting, but she gets stuff done.

Then over to do a stand-up set in Cambridge. Let's be honest, none of us went down well tonight. All 8 of us on the bill. I went down marginally better than some of the others but there was very little Christmas cheer in the room that night - just a (packed) audience staring at us, stony faced. For 2 hours. A promoter was there, though and liked what I do enough to offer me a bunch of gigs, which is nice. Also great to catch up with a few comedians that I've been on the bill with a few times recently, there's a nice camaraderie there, laughing about the failure of it all.

Sunday 11th December 2016

Last night was so good. So, so, brilliantly good. Was so tired I didn't even drink the beer I bought myself.

Had a nice sleep, and then a Sunday roast with my housemate, it's all good.

Caught up on emails (I currently have 3 accounts: general, drummer and comedian, all of which are filling up - I caught up on 'general' today, the other two can wait till tomorrow), made enough room in the dining room for the second Christmas tree to be installed and then over to town for the Cambridge leg of my 'tour'.

Was rubbish tonight. Audience - it was about half full - were kind enough, a few people who didn't know me (why were they at my show?) were totally baffled by it. I just felt flat and a bit bored of Paul Richards being Paul Richards. I've done a lot recently, some of it really good, that one tonight...less so.

Saturday 10th December 2016

The big day, the cup final of all gigs.

Load in for the drums was just after 11am at the Corn Exchange, the staging was epic and I was right at the very top of it, which was lovely for my ego.

6/7 hours of soundchecking with over a hundred singers, brass, strings, various instruments guesting alongside us rhythm people - me on drums, two bassists and the brilliant Ryan on guitar. So much work went into getting the sound right, the sound team must have been dead afterwards because they worked so hard getting every single thing specifically perfect. Daytime rehearsals weren't as tense as I feared they could be.

Gig itself was pretty much a blur...a long, complex show, about a thousand people in the audience, standing ovation at the end, tears in the eyes of many on stage. I'm still quite speechless about it all, sometimes these things just shouldn't work but it did; it all came together at the last minute, we all, collectively, stole the show. A magical, magical night.

Got back at 1am, drained but quietly happy: my book is doing well, my new show has gone down surprisingly brilliantly, the Freewheeler Project was a LIFE highlight, film coming out soon, huge projects like last nights event...I'm getting this right, I think.

Friday 9th December 2016

With tomorrow looking excessive, and everything else roughly in shape, the plan was to have a little downtime but then I got overexcited by plans and stuff and ended up doing loads.

I'm really aware that the cast of the musical are feeling the pressure of the show a little - the music mostly, because I've still not been able to get the backing tracks sorted in time, or at the very least get the chords over to the director because suddenly, despite their initial keenness, all of the songwriters involved in this project have drifted out of contact. I woke with this amazing idea...what if the actors mime the songs? And we'd get good comic value out of the fact it's not their voices etc.

Called Claire our director to discuss this, and whilst she didn't entirely disapprove, she wasn't keen. Mostly because she had just started rewriting the songs anyway from my lyrics. She sent me over a 'sample' five tracks and they're brilliant...and much more suited to the voices that we have available than the songs my songwriters had written originally. So now she has rewritten all of the songs from the show and suddenly it feels like a 'proper' musical - my book/lyrics, her music and it just fits so well. Now just need the cast to learn them, but suddenly I'm a lot more confident about this show. Also, I think a new creative partnership has just been born there for future musicals...

Did my 2 hours of freelancing that needed doing, and tried to fill that elusive Dundee-shape in my touring schedule for next February.

Continued work on new show.

Evening rehearsal with Claudia and band was enormous fun, as usual.

Thursday 8th December 2016

Put in the rest of my freelance hours in the office, basically worked so many because I'd like to have Friday free or tour planning and drum tuning.

Long day. So long, but just need to work one more hour tomorrow then that's my 20 hour weekly contract with them fulfilled for the week.

Evening dress rehearsal with the choir. Stressful, as you can imagine for these things, but not half as stressful as our previous dress rehearsals. We'll be fine. There's moments of magic there, and moments when clearly nobody knows what they're doing, but enough to work with and after another run through at the venue on Saturday before the gig I'm sure we can get this right.

Wednesday 7th December 2016

Worked a few hours from home, and then spent a hefty amount of time putting together ideas for next year's fringe/tour show. At the moment the plan is to have it as a 90 minute show for the tour, a mix of new stuff and material which I know works. That'll get me through the February run, and by the time it tours again in May it will then be a 60 minute show, all of it new, and by the fringe in August that new stuff will feel comfortable. As a show it will be less narrative-based, less reliant on callbacks, and more...well, jokes I guess. This feels like a logical way to go - my first proper solo show was restricted to the story of me moving back to my home town and the 'walk', the second one was tied down to the plot of me not being man enough to ask for my deposit back from a former landlady and this year it was too restricted by the idea that I was obsessed with lists. For next year's show it can have similar content, but it doesn't need to be structured in such a way. 

In the evening I went to watch my musical be rehearsed. They're all great and Claire is a magnificent director with a real 'roll your sleeves up and crack on with it' kind of attitude. It's really, really close to the performance of it, but if they can get this right then we can do a lot more with this next year.

Tuesday 6th December 2016

Normally I get annoyed when shows are cancelled, I used to get so agitated...ahh, but this is my life! Etc! But I'm very happy for the Cholderton one to be rescheduled, I feel sorry for the promoter for Friday's gig because he's clearly suffering from a lot of health problems and as for Needham Market...well, I never liked it there anyway so they can do one.

Or maybe I'm just happy because I needed a night in to catch up on admin anyway - which I did do tonight, working on the press/stuff for the 12 gigs in a day event, all the bits and bobs for the musical (they started rehearsing it last night), updating my diary with all the FH gigs that have suddenly come in...and suddenly it is 2am.

Before all of that I was in the office for 6 hours and got through it, but it was a slow day. Treated myself to a copy of the Christmas Radio Times as a reward.

Monday 5th December 2016

Decided make Monday my day 'off', so after catching up on a little sleep I replied to about five million emails and then did the usual family rounds of taking mum shopping whilst keeping an eye on all correspondence. It's good being self-employed, sometimes.

Next year looks crazy and there already so many diary clashes. As usual I'm thinking I may have to push the comedy more or the band more, but it may be impossible to push both of them this hard all of the time as there simply isn't that many days.

Then simple enough drive over to a small village in Norfolk for the Christmas show. A performance on the top deck of a double-decker bus was never going to be easy considering my excessive height. Locals were eager, the first 25 minutes or so we me just getting used to them as an audience, testing the boundaries a little, doing the Christmas story routine - and mostly playing it safe. The second half, which is basically the main festive show and all new stuff was just frantic. I mean, it's a bus: you try doing this show, with it's four costume changes, a reindeer on an exercise bike and quite a lot of drumming on a bus...it was never going to be easy, especially with the constant interruptions by the bar lady who clearly wanted it to be her show. The result was a flustered, frantic mess but I still managed to force the story out, somehow, and the audience loved it...some of them even hailed it as 'genius' and other such kind words. Maybe they did love it, honestly, or maybe they could just see what I was at least trying to do here.

Either way, got home and drank beer. It was needed. Lots of shows have been cancelled for this tour which is annoying; tomorrow's show has been pulled because the venue has new owners and didn't know anything about it, Wednesday was mutually rearranged because it's miles away and it would fit better with my February tour and Friday is pulled because of illness to the landlord. Still, it's not a show I'm hugely enjoying at the moment so maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Sunday 4th December 2016

Drove back from Southampton, unloaded my excessive amount of props and then off to rehearsals with the choir...drumming for them is a complete joy sometimes. Today it was a bit stop-start but everyone seems remarkably relaxed considering we're about to play in front of a thousand people next weekend.

Long rehearsal. This weekend has knackered me out. Back on the road with the Christmas show tomorrow.

Saturday 3rd December 2016

A year ago today we lost Dad. It's been an odd year.

Today I did what I always do in these situations; work really hard. Plugged the single like crazy - it came out today from the Freewheeler Project and I'm so flattered by how many friends shared it, and bought it. As I write this, it's 202 in the charts which is pretty amazing.

Then picked up Vicky, who was kindly keeping me company on the first night proper of my Christmas show. Drive to Southampton was fine until I got flustered finding the actual venue, was so close for so long. 

Amazing venue, always my favourite, and one seat off being a sellout too. Performance was shoddy beyond belief, I lost my thread so many times and the whole structure of the piece crumbled frequently. Yet, as I got all flustered and panicked my way through the 90 minutes, often dressed as an elf, the audience loved all of it. One woman said afterwards that it was the funniest show she's ever seen. I'm getting better at audience interaction these days and it was needed. On another day, I would have been booed off for that but in that venue I'm treated as some kind of hero.

Friday 2nd December 2016

Drive back from Devon was long and we all got a bit angry with each other.

I'm glad we did this trip, out of respect to Dad, but I can't help but feel we could make things easier for ourselves sometimes.

Cinema with Emma was nice, the distraction from the real world was exactly what I needed.

Thursday 1st December 2016

Families are tough aren't they, sometimes?

Up early to pick up rental car (because my car clearly isn't able to do long trips), then drove mum and sis (and the dog) down to Devon...it's nearing the year anniversary of dad's death, it felt right to be down there. Sad times.

Wednesday 30th November 2016

Making up as many freelance hours as possible, I spent a long-ish day in the office. I mean, not long like a 9-5 or anything daft like that, but long enough to keep the bills paid.

Also found the time to reply to a bunch of tour emails for next year, confirmed a show in Wales for the show I'm doing with Laura. A venue got stroppy with me for emailing them so many times...clearly my spreadsheet isn't as watertight as I thought it was. I've sent a LOT of emails recently, worrying lack of response.

Evening band session with ...Sound, this time with brass players. It's a bit stressful, this one, but a whole lot of fun with it.