Thursday 29th June 2017

Did a spot of freelancing in the morning, and then over to Cambridge to host the drum workshop. Felt much more organised today, I slowed things down a bit, played some more rhythmic games and everyone calmed down a little. It was an easy 2 and a bit hours.

Then the long-ish drive to tonight's preview in Marlow, which was lovely. Quiet audience of about 15 or so, but there was lots of positive chat afterwards (in person and on Twitter) from those who really, really enjoyed it. Performance felt rushed in places, but the new material feels strong, if a little safe. Need more lounge shows where I can try out the non-safe bits.

Home by 11.15pm.

Wednesday 28th June 2017

Blitzing my to-do list for the week, I seem quite on top of stuff at the moment.

Went into the office. Powercut there, so went home (where there wasn't a powercut today) to carry on there. Amazing how a bit of thunder really buggers up power, this 2017!

As advised, set up a Fringe Funder page for my Edinburgh shows, looks like I'll be creeping up to the hundred confirmed performances by the end of the week so it made sense to try and get some funding for this if possible. On paper everything looks a bit exciting, in reality I'm knackered already and need to wake up a bit.

Filmed my scenes for 'Date' - the newly shortened title of the piece I started filming with Izzy on Sunday. Then spent 5 hours editing it all together. I probably needed a quiet night tonight but this project excites me and suddenly it was 2am...looks glorious, though!

Tuesday 27th June 2017

Spent the morning working on freelance stuff, and then there was a powercut which put an end to that.

Technically my one day off this week, so took Mum for her weekly food shop whilst continuing to work on 'Attic Boy' - a novel idea, as I waiting for her. Every time I check my phone it's a show offer somewhere, so I switched my phone off for a bit. That felt good.

Evening met up with good friends for a mate's 40th birthday curry; good food and good conversation. Slightly later night than planned...

Monday 26th June 2017

So many ideas for new projects at the moment and just not enough time - my notepads are bulging. I think there's some gaps in September where I can work on these properly, they're all of the 'very exciting but won't make any money' ilk, like so many of my best ideas are.

Back to actually making enough money to pay the bills, it was my first drum workshop today at a local college. I think one thing is clear: I could never be an actual proper teacher as I don't have the discipline skills, but these kids were reasonably well behaved. The ideas I had seemed to go a bit quickly - my 2 and a half hour lesson plan only realistically lasted 45 minutes, so I was very much making up new games and challenges as I went along. This mostly involved getting them to play reggae. I found the whole thing quite stressful, but they seemed to enjoy it. 9 sessions to go, next one is on Thursday...I'll think it through a bit better.

Got back and spent the rest of the evening working on a campaign for PBH before eventually crashing out.

Sunday 25th June 2017

Up early-ish to re-write the 'I'm Calling it a Date' show to be a film version. Should have done this ages ago as we were filming it today, but that's how I like to do things. Besides, this stage script always did have a movie feel about it anyway, so it was merely a case of simplifying it and cutting it down from 45 minutes to 20 or so. Took about two hours.

Then over to Izzy's to film it, all remarkably simple and I'll film my bits on Wednesday before what will be the longest part of making this film - editing it all together. That'll take probably about a day, but if I can get that done before the fringe I'll be happy.

Then over to St Ives where Matt kindly took a load of promo photos of me, for me, for my forthcoming shows - I needed some newer ones with my older face.

Then back home to edit the MM show, work out which actor is playing what, and send over the scripts to my lovely new cast. Show opens on Friday, quite a lot of pressure on that one.

Then spent 3 hours lesson planning my drum workshop for tomorrow.

A productive Sunday, but on the verge of being burnt out before the new week even begins.

Saturday 24th June 2017

Up early, over to the band lock up and then long trip up to Manchester for a major festival.

A country and western event, and normally I can't stand that sort of thing, but it was actually okay - turns out C+W music covers many other genres and most of it I could tolerate.

Huge stage today and big audience. My monitor popped during the first song and it eschewed my timing somewhat, we recovered well but it was a little shaky. By the third track everything had settled and we had a brilliant, brilliant gig.

Got treated really well today with good food and drink, nice set-up and songs we know inside out. All is good with the world.

Friday 23rd June 2017

Must stop confirming fringe shows, this is getting daft now. In an exciting sort of way. 

Spent the day away from my laptop, which was a good thing. Most of the day was spent dressed as a hare, for Gav's music video (I drummed on the track/album so it made sense to be in the video, too). Enjoyed being an actor today, some nice comic stuff in there (intentionally) and they were a nice team to work with. Whole thing wrapped up in 5 hours. 

Got back, caught up on all manner of emails and then met up with Meg for a bit of a catch up whilst watching Glasto on TV. 

Thursday 22nd June 2017

Popped in to the office for a couple of hours for a meeting and got set a new freelance task, which is cool and should keep me ticking over for a bit. 

Got back and nailed the final draft of the new MM show, and then back over to Cambridge to meet up with Edd and off to a gig in Bishop's Stortford with Claudia and band. Cracking night, brilliant gig - played a guest track with an old friend, Paul, who I hadn't seen for ages (meaning I got to play reggae, which I thoroughly enjoyed) and then Claudia totally stormed it. Top night in good company, being a drummer is brilliant, isn't it? 

Wednesday 21st June 2017

I bloody hate this heat, it just slows me down big-style. Just find myself walking around the house, swearing at flies/nature.

Spent the morning writing, quietly happy with what I wrote last night and I get the sense this new MM script is quite lovely, if a little bizarre. I mean, nobody has ever managed to combine a murder mystery with a live, audience-interactive game of bingo before, have they?

Drove over to Mum's and took her for her weekly food shop, whilst frantically making notes for new shows.

Then over to rehearsal with the choir band. Everyone seemed a bit hot and drained but as a show it's coming together nicely.

Tuesday 20th June 2017

I'm in one of those classic Richards 'too many shows, not enough time' situations, which I vowed not to get into this year. But it's all terribly exciting, isn't it? And I'm really enjoying writing at the moment, even though I have a lot of projects I feel like I have freedom with them - mostly because (apart from the new murder mystery piece) they are solo shows and nobody is telling me what to do.

Popped into the office for a bit to get some hours in, and then home to do some more writing. Wrote for 7 hours tonight. I'll review what I've written in the morning.

Monday 19th June 2017

There was this amazing house in Dawlish that Mum had been sent the details for, so I picked her up and drove her down there today like the legendary son I am. Looked nothing like the pictures...seriously, nothing at all, was it even the same house? Are they allowed to do this? I felt for her, she was massively disappointed - she was ready to buy her dream home but it was a rundown shithole.

Drove for 14 hours today. I didn't like the Devon roads, there was one road so steep that my CD player fell out whilst we were going up it.

Long, long day.

On a different note, just how many fringe shows does this guy (me) need? Just confirmed another one, for a full run. Just sayin'

I'll write it next week.

Sunday 18th June 2017

I never sleep in the heat, which should mean I actually get time to write the many shows I should have written by now, but actually it doesn't at all - I just get hot and grumpy and watch The Likely Lads till the early hours.

And then up early-ish to head over to Hull for a festival with the band. Nice little event, the audience were as sleepy as we were though - tried to play our uptempo set to wake them up but neither side were really buying into it. We got treated really well and the pies were awesome, we were tight, in a knackered sort of way. Home by 11pm-ish which isn't bad considering the distance.

Saturday 17th June 2017

It's so hot, isn't it? Too hot. Ridiculous.

Spent the morning working on the MM scripts and, for some reason, started writing a new film - this is the last thing I should be doing right now!

Met up with the guys at midday and over to Shorditch for a wedding gig. Typically for London the traffic was a nightmare (I wasn't even driving) and logistics of lugging lots of gear down a busy street and then down two floors of a trendy venue made it feel like hard work, even if the money is great. And then lots of waiting around as weddings always run late, don't they?

We were good tonight, though, especially when it came to playing the first dance - it was a song I'd never even heard before, let alone play, but got away with it with patronising ease.

Home by 12.30am, kept awake by neighbours having a party. Well, the teenager was having a party because her parents were away. It went on till 3am, I got pretty grumpy about it all, but we were all young once, yeah? Ages, and ages ago.

Friday 16th June 2017

In the office for a bit, and, alongside getting my work done, generally got quite stressed about the fact I haven't finished writing the new MM scripts yet, that I'm still one actor short, and that all of my fringe plans feel so...well, messy at the moment. The box show is coming together really nicely but even that has a new draft now and needs more stage time, the others could go either way. Yet, there still could be more. Everything is totally in my hands, though, there are no excuses, really. 

Got offered the biggest stand-up gig of my career, moved other stuff to make sure it can happen. 

Then over the road for a rare local FH gig at the Portland. Totally and utterly stormed it tonight, huge crowd, long and sweaty gig, there was such a buzz and we're on really cracking form at the moment. Sweaty, sweaty times. Many believe it was the best FH gig ever, I think it's up there. What a band! What friends! Brilliant night.

Thursday 15th June 2017

Long day. Morning spent working on a few projects and getting the murder mystery up to shape, then off to Nottingham for a meeting about that show and have a look around a new venue. They're happy with the restructure of the piece and agree it'll work for their audience (bite-sized plays, rather than one full piece, which helps with attention spans after a few beers etc).

Then had 3 hours to kill so did a bit of rewriting of my new fringe hour, then performed it in a lovely coffee shop in the city. 9 people in but it was a really good night - they were into it from the off, I was on form, the new bits are starting to gel. Home by 11.30pm, all in all a cracking evening.

Wednesday 14th June 2017

My one day-off for the week so did the usual mum/shopping stuff whilst writing excessive notes into my trusty notepad. There's seriously about 4 novels worth of material just waiting to be written up. Will have to wait quite a long time, though, I've still got to write my fringe shows...

Dog bit my arm quite badly today, 'playing'. Little rascal.

Evening session with the choir band; such wonderful musicians and a joy to just hang out with. This line-up has been together a while now but seemed to take a while to settle but it all just feels so easy. The gig next month will be a total joy.

Tuesday 13th June 2017

Brighton show mutually cancelled due to poor ticket sales; if it was a local show I would have done this but it's an eight-hour round trip and would have made a massive loss which is not really what you want for trying out new material.

So I went to the office for a bit instead, and then spent quite a lot of time working on the new version of the murder mystery. Pretty much got a cast for this now. just missing one person, but the concept seems to be working.

Monday 12th June 2017

Typical life of a performer I guess... by 11am I'd had two shows cancelled (tonight's due to staffing problems at the venue, tomorrow's show in Brighton due to poor ticket sales), at 2pm I got offered the chance to do a TED talk, which I've agreed to, naturally. Lots of ups and downs, isn't there?

Had a cracking meeting about my team building with drums malarkey (and have a contract heading my way next week for this which is for 6 sessions from the same organisation which is brilliant) and then to my regular freelance post to get some work done for them.

My fringe shows are nowhere near ready, but I've successfully managed to re-cast the murder mystery show, with actors rather than musicians, which is cool. And for my Edinburgh show, where I've lost the band, I've decided to replace them with a choir instead. I think it can work. I've also got a director for my Edinburgh show now, finally admitting that it's not quite working the way I thought it was going to and maybe I just need a little guidance here. We worked together on a Christmas show last year and she'll kick me into shape - I won't enjoy the process as such, but it'll be a better show for it.

Got back from freelancing and with this unplanned night off I looked at my to-do list and procrastinated far too much.

Sunday 11th June 2017

Really annoyed about the band pulling out of the fringe...I've got a lot of thinking to do now.

Rehearsal with the choir, complete with special guest Fyfe - the whole session was just amazing. I think I prefer being a drummer to the comedy stuff...this was a magical rehearsal on so many levels. It's all rather exciting.

Met up with Meg for a quick catch up, which ended up with a nice late dinner and proper catch up. Lovely evening, I've got a lot of stress around the corner I think with my five million shows but that was the nice relaxing night I needed.

Saturday 10th June 2017

Up early to take Mum's dog to the vets, she's fine, as predicted.

Have somehow managed to lose my backing band for the Edinburgh fringe. Careless, Richards, very careless...in a mild panic about this.

Met up with Rob and filmed the scenes for our 'Luck' short film, which mostly involved quite a lot of gambling. Footage looks awesome, I'll edit it all at some point next week.

Then over to a small Cambridgeshire village for a fringe preview. Small-ish crowd, some of them really into it, a few of them really not. Felt awkward at times, but never really broke into a sweat doing it.

Got back to a message from an audience member saying how much she really, really enjoyed the show. I need moments like that, sometimes, I'm having a few doubts about the comedy stuff right now.

Friday 9th June 2017

Woke up late as that politics stuff went on a bit last night...

Dozy, popped into the office for a bit, nobody else was in, confirmed a show in Dublin and one in Norway. Got some actual work done, too.

Then over to the band lock up, followed by long trip down to Farncombe with the band.

Lovely gig; small venue but packed and we played a stormer. Sweatiest gig in the world but everyone seems in fine spirits. Home late.

Thursday 8th June 2017

Uh oh, politics day! Voted for the first time in ages, but that's mostly because I actually felt strongly this time in one direction, rather than just being one of those guys that just sits on the fence.

From there I popped over to the office for a bit and chatted politics there, which kinda justified my vote, which is nice.

Got back and replied to the usual five million emails about shows, did a bit of 'life admin' and then over to Claudia and Marcel's to demo the History of Pop show in front of them and generally catch up.

Then, for some reason, I found myself watching the news till 5am...

Wednesday 7th June 2017

Decided to make Wednesday my one day off for the week, but it's not really a day off as I had to take Mum shopping. Still, sat in that Waitrose car park, much was achieved in my bulging notepad of ideas for shows I'll never get a chance to write up properly.

Then over to We Are Sound rehearsal with the band which was spectacular - I just love making music with these guys, and the sessions for this gig feel really comfortable. We're bouncing ideas off each other more than before, there's a real respect thing going on and I get to play a jazz drum solo, which is awesome.

Tuesday 6th June 2017

There's a lot of projects on the go the moment (the box show, the Will show, the Will sitcom, the Will book, the History of Pop show, the revamped murder mystery show, the Britpop show, the band stuff with FH, Claudia, Gav and the choir) yet I still find myself itching to do slightly more. Basically I'm in that weird place between excitement and exhaustion. I know that I'm not drumming enough at the moment, that is something that needs to be addressed soon - my gig rate is down considerably this year. 

Anyway, today I popped into the office for a bit, the boss gave me a bit of work to do which is long, slightly tedious but keeps me in cash for a while. 

Got back, tried and failed to get a couple more shows for the Ireland tour, did a bit of work on the History of Pop show and then popped over to Bury to discuss a show with a promoter there. Got home from that and emailed a few more people about the team building with drums project. My head is full of ideas right now.

Monday 5th June 2017

Long day in the studio working in Gav's stuff. Much more convincing than the last session; we were well rehearsed this time and the whole process felt a lot smoother. As always with these things there is a lot of waiting around for tech stuff to happen and a lot of re-takes to get the 'feel' right with the producer. It was clear from the start that technically everything I was doing was great, so with the time available we had a chance to iron out the finer details, too. 

All in all, a convincing session. 5 drum tracks down in 8 hours and now that's all the drums for that album done and sounding lovely. 

Got back and worked on the 'History of Pop...' show, ahead of Thursday's first private preview of it.

Sunday 4th June 2017

Ended up getting back quite late last night, and then staying up even later to watch the news unfold about last night's terrorist attacks. What harsh times these are.

Over to Longstanton for a quick run through of all of the tracks with Gav, sounding sharp so recording tomorrow should be a doddle, and then back home to work on fringe sponsorship emails. Spent 6 hours working on those, still nowhere near finished...

Saturday 3rd June 2017

Up early-ish to respond to emails and then met up with the band in the afternoon to head up to Colchester for an early soundcheck.

One of our favourite venues and a sold out show; great sound, an audience who know us, nice long set (I enjoy longer gigs as sometimes we take a while to warm up), good food, beer, lots of humour onstage. Perhaps technically not the tightest we've been, but it was a performance littered with personality and the whole thing was filmed too. I've said it before, but when we're on this sort of form...you know, fast, sweaty, confident, we're totally unstoppable.

Then got off stage, all buzzing and signing merch, to find out there's been another terrorist attack in London. Speechless, again.

Friday 2nd June 2017

With the FH gig cancelled I had a bit more time to earn money with the office stuff. Boss came in it was great to catch up, gave me a few bits of direction as to where this is going and it was all very productive.

Also managed to finally sort this murder mystery issue, which has been a problem for a few weeks. Clearly it's not working in it's current format, so have decided to go back to a show I did a while back that doesn't involve a band and instead is a more traditional show. The venues seem happy with this and I even accepted a new booking for it. Everything feels like it's coming together nicely, apart from the fringe shows which, as is always the case at this time of year, are a bit of a mess.

Evening caught up with Rob, great to have a bit of a rant (even though things are in quite a good place right now but ranting is fun) and come up with some rather adventurous show ideas...

Thursday 1st June 2017

Launch of my new team building project - a success, I'd say. I mean, some people are very nervous about playing drums, but I got a lot of people involved and we all seemed to have a nice time. I liked the guys I was doing it with, too, we're all very much on the same team here.

So, after 6 hours of pretty much solid drumming, what do I do? More drumming of course, this time rehearsing with Gav ahead of his recording on Monday. Sounding good, eventually - some of the stuff needed a lot of work (when we released that simply replicating electronic drum beats sounded rubbish) but it's all in good shape now.

A long day, pretty much all spent hitting things with sticks. Which is how it should be, yeah?

Wednesday 31st May 2017

Dog needed rushing to the vets (nothing serious in the end) so I dashed over to St Ives to be the taxi driver for mum and the malting mutt. Spent the morning there, generally panicking about how much stuff I have to do and then eventually popped home to work on that stuff.

Mostly the team building day, which launches tomorrow, and the worrying gap in my previews schedule so I did a spot of work on that too.

Then off to rehearsal with the choir band which was nothing short of sensational - brilliant, brilliant musicians.

Tuesday 30th May 2017

Popped into the office for a bit - I can only do two days this week as it's all bit busy, so nice to finally fix the thing that I broke last week (which I thought I'd fixed the week before). 

Applied for yet another fringe show, as I have an awesome idea, and ran into town to pick up my team building flyers (which I designed in haste last night). They look great, they look overpriced - which they were, but it serves me right for leaving it all so late.

So many emails with gig enquiries, all from months ago, all starting to surface now. It means my schedule is looking a bit silly, but if people actually replied the first time around it wouldn't come to this. 

Got home and re-edited the sitcom, from scratch. It now looks totally and utterly awesome - I can't wait to release it!