It's been many years since I came here with this show, 2004 or 2005 by my reckoning. I also came here with a show called Route 66 in 2009... Those bastards still owe me £250! I wrote it off a long time ago. I don't know whether it's a consolation that I was the least owed from all the debtors of that show. The pa company being top of the list were owed over £10,000. A shark by the name of John Mills, infamous in the industry as being a rip-off. After going bankrupt, they set up under one of his son's name shortly after and put the show out again with a completely new cast. He may have done it one more time after, I'm not sure. He clearly isn't getting the hint that he sucks at making a success out of a show, 4 times I believe he started up.... And went bankrupt. Maybe he's really good at going Bankrupt?! I recently heard that he did time in jail, so he got what's his just deserts. Though you won't see that on any dessert menu.
Creme brûlée
Vienetta
Strawberry cheese cake
A stretch of bird for being a ripoff cunt.
Anyway, I digress. On previous outings, the futurist is the theatre we played at. This time though, it was at a new venue called the spa Pavillion. Within eyeshot of the futurist it's no surprise to hear that they're rivals. I bet the staff taunt each other from the verandas. Like a football match.
"Fuck you futurist! You're shite and you know are!"
"Spa wankers, come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!!"
"Er... We don't actually"
"Oh okay. So... Er, no worries then. Bye x"
Something like that.
I lovely little theatre but a pig of a load in comprising of a staircase and a passenger lift with a weight restriction of 4 people...
Or one American. (Sorry USA! We're fat bastards too!)
It was a bit of a headfuck thinking of how to rig the pa because the room was too small to use only ours. There was nowhere we could have placed our stacks without infringing on sight lines and making the already small stage even smaller. The show would have been likened to the entry to the canteen when the dinner bell rings with all acts bottle necking to get seen.
Nerdy sound spoiler alert!
So, basically I would have to send a main left and right out, a sub out, a send for fills (small speakers at the front of the stage) and delays (small speakers dotted around under balconies and shit) So coupled with out 5 monitor mixes that's a total of 10 outputs. The desk only has 8 so I had to figure out how to configure the S16's 8 outputs to be separate from the 8 local outputs. I was confident with my knowledge of the desk and my general aptitude of digital consoles that I would figure it out in seconds.
... Yeah I had to call Behringer (the manufacturer of the desk) to sort it.
They were very helpful and gave me the info needed straight away. It wasn't as obvious as I thought.
With that done, it was the rest of the build up to deal will. To my surprise, I actually managed to get an hour for dinner. So I sent Clayton (sound man) off too to have some himself.
I had soup... And beer! 'Twas lush! And I bet you're happy I told you that eh?
Sound check done, it was time to meet my old mate Neil Fitzpatrick. He too is from Wales but lives in Scarborough. I met him here in 2001 when he was resident with a band in Cayton Bay holiday park, roughly between where I was resident and Scarborough.
He now owns a graphics design company here and was very kind enough to do me a sticker for the kick drum for free. Because the show is called "London after midnight" I thought it would be great to have a clock face in the kick drum displaying a time of 0:05 but it wasn't so easy to find a place to do one. There is a custom skins company that would have done one for £119 but with Mr Fitzpatrick's involvement, I think the price of FUCKALL is definitely more favourable.
In the break, while having a beer with Neil a tall chap emanating a local accent came up to me and said, "Did you used to live in Abu Dhabi?" It was none other than Andrew Harness, a chap I knew from my time out there. It's a bloody small world, or town, as this is actually his home town. So I shouldn't be too surprised to bump into him. Though I was surprised he left Abu Dhabi. I was certain he was like the many uk musos out there that faced with the prospect of coming home from Abu Dhabi or spending the rest of their life upto their necks in shit, they'd choose the poo everytime.
But home he is and trying to make a go of it here. He doesn't play drums anymore which is a shame because he was a great player and singer. Maybe my time is yet to come?
If you're interested, he's doing some promo for some comicon thingy in Scarborough next year. The flyer had a funny as fuck tag line.
"Oh I do like to GEEK beside the seaside!" I'm defo going just because of that.
The dressing rooms were interesting. Ours was just stage left but the Kenyans (better known as The Mambulus) were up a ladder into a loft type of deal.
DA pointing to where the Mambulus were lurking.
Pull done was tough based on the awkwardness if the load out... And the fact there's just so much shit we carry now.
A long drive via Whitby to view Whitby abbey, the scene of Dracula's first victim. The reaction from Doug (who plays a Vampire in the show) and is supposedly a massive Dracula fan/nut/nerd was a mere "oh?"
Not so impressed then Doug?
I actually thought it was part of the legend of Vlad the impaler (Dracula according the legend) but it's not, it's just the scene from the book. So it's just an old chruch Pah! We got fucking loads of them in Wales!
Anyway... That was Scarborough.
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