Evolution Emerging 2011

Last night I went to an amazing mini-festival in Ouseburn. Evolution Emerging is the little sister of the big Evolution Festival happening over the bank holiday weekend. However, in my opinion this free festival offers a lot more quality than the much larger festival (which is £25 per day or £35 for the whole weekend; a very reasonable festvial price but not as good as free!) - which while offering a lot of great music (including some from Evo Emerging such as Toyger, Vinyl Jacket and The Lake Poets) like Iggy Pop and Billy Bragg, also has Tinie Tempah (oh dear) and a lot pretty bland, boring stuff.

Anyhow, Evolution Emerging was spread over six venues in the Ouseburn Valley (a place so cool the New York Dolls chose to record their most recent album there!) - The Cluny, The Cluny 2, The Star and Shadow Cinema, The Tanners, The Cumberland Arms and The Tyne Bar.

We started off at the Cluny with Vinyl Jacket

We only stayed for a couple of songs as we were trying to get to the next venue (the downside of festivals, I suppose!) but I really enjoyed them and will definitely look out for them (we were given free CDs which include a lot of the music we heard which was great; I was prepared to pay a tenner or whatever it cost!).

We then made our way up the hill the Cumberland Arms. We passed Hyde&Beast on the way! And we located Zoe (yay!). This venue was very cramped and it felt like seeing people play in a barn or something! But I was very impressed with Tomahawks For Targets.

I'd been listening to all of the bands (or most of them) playing to decide who to go and see and I loved these! I subsequently discovered that I knew (vaguely) the bass player, Ross! So that made it all the more exciting (he grew up in my street and was friends with my brother; I hadn't seen him in at least a decade!).

We headed down the hill again and had a quick drink in the Cluny 2 before heading downstairs to see the amazing The Lake Poets. I was so excited about R seeing him! (And I think R was very impressed by the This Ain't Vegas cover - the world of Sunderland bands is small and lovely.)

Absolutely great! I hope to see him again on Sunday!!

After that we had a brief stand about outside the Cluny venues (Cluny 2 was especially hot and steamy!) before heading into the Cluny for a bit of Toyger. They were a cool, fun band who looked to be having an amazing time.

They also dealt very well with the crazy dancers in the front (most dressed as tigers, one girl just wearing a bra!) who kept knocking into people, causing choas etc! They were fun though and the band seemed bemused and flattered.

We left to have a little wander to the Tanners but we stopped in at the Star and Shadow on the way to meet up with Zoe (she'd left after a bit of The Lake Poets' set and gone to see Motion Tourist and Pilots - I think!) and see a tiny bit of Grandfather Birds.

I enjoyed them but not as much as last time I'd seen them. We didn't see their full set though.

We then popped across the road to see Waskerley Way at the Tanners. His stuff is so unlike anything else.

It's a combination of electronic computer stuff and Mikey's guitar or clarinet! Really interesting and clever. We headed back before the end to make sure we got back into the Cluny 2 (they were operating a one in, one out system).

It was still boiling in there; we decided to go on the balcony (hotter but less crowded) and saw the end of Ajimal's set which seemed really good. I'll have to look them up (and listen to my free CD!). The had violins and a cello (which I love).

Then Zoe spotted a free bench so we got to sit down (we were all tired!) for the final band of the night! Hyde&Beast took ages to set up and while we knew who they were (David Hyde, Futureheads drummer and Neil Basset, ex-Golden Virgins drummer) we weren't sure who played with them live but were thrilled to see Barry Hyde on keyboards and Lucas Renney having a wonderful time on the guitar. In fact they all looked like they were having a lot of fun! It was great and I look forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks.

Overall, the night was wonderful. Every venue we went to (and we only didn't make it to The Tyne!) had a brilliant atmosphere and despite everywhere being packed and hot, everyone was really lovely. We'll be back next year!

Three Weeks

It's three weeks until the Fringe programme comes out!!

You can order your programme here: http://www.edfringe.com/ (or choose to become a Friend which saves you money if you see a lot of shows!).

You can get a few ideas (and book selected shows) from here:

http://www.assemblyfestival.com/ Most exciting is Hot Tub With Kurt and Kristen (I hope it's on when I'm there!) - Kurt Braunohler is also doing a solo show! Yay!

There's a few shows you can book all ready here too: http://www.underbelly.co.uk/webpages/edinburgh/index.php (eep Frisky and Mannish - Pop Centre Plus).

The Pleasance have been 'Pleztweaking' on Twitter and have revealed the following people will be doing shows:

http://twitter.com/#!/ThePleasance/pleasance-2011/members

I'm most excited about James Acaster's solo debut, Tim Key's return and will hopefully see Thom Tuck too.

I'm not for a moment suggesting that http://www.edcomfest.com/ is the only place to look. There are so many more places to see shows than the big four! That being said they do tend to race to get the shows out and onsale so you can generally find out more sooner.

I've been checking here too http://www.freefringe.org.uk/ but no details yet. I'm eager to see what shows Robin Ince is doing (other than the one I all ready have tickets for - his angry show with Michael Legge at the Stand).

There's yet another week to wait for the Book Festival details (http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival) and their tickets don't go on sale until June 26th (my anniversary so I'll definitely remember to book! I've missed Lady Antonia Fraser twice now!)

I can't wait to have the programme arrive and to be able to start planning another lovely trip to Edinburgh! In the mean time there's checking Twitter and the websites above and dreaming, hoping and speculating!

Lewis Schaffer in Washington

Comedians almost never play in Washington, where I live. My dad saw Sarah Millican at the Arts Centre years ago (before I saw her and I saw her in 2007 or something - way before she was well known!) but usually there aren't many comedy gigs on too near my house. Which isn't exactly a problem - I'm willing to travel miles and miles for comedy, music, plays, etc - however, it is lovely to pop to a gig in a matter of minutes.

And it was Lewis Schaffer! I'd only seen him once (Ed Fringe 2008) but I'd always remembered him fondly and enjoyed reading about him. He's pretty strange and says things that are quite wrong. But gets away with it because he seems like such a lovely (though mad) guy.

He is still on his Free Until Famous tour and some of the material was stuff I'd heard three years ago - still, it was great to see him again and he did have some new stuff about Argos (which he pronouced Ar-gose much to everyone's delight!) and customer service (which was spot on!).

However, the gig was seriously marred by the audience. In the first five minutes Lewis pointed out that it was a free gig so the audience may have been thinking he was shit; he said conversely that we had come to a free show - maybe we were a shit audience who didn't want to pay for the show (instead you paid what you thought appropriate at the end - a good system, I always think!).

He was sadly right for the most part. The audience didn't seem like a comedy audience, rather an audience who had come for a free night and to get drunk. I'm fine with people getting drunk, of course, if they want to. I tend to only get drunk when I'm not seeing something. I'd hate anything to spoil the music, comedy or whatever I'm seeing. (I realise some people feel it improves things; I've never felt it necessary. The show itself is enough for me.) But fair enough, people can do what they like. However, the drunkenness (combined with people just being generally annoying) came to impinge on my night and the quality of the show. And that really pissed me off.

Schaffer asked a few questions; some audience participation was just part of the show. Which is fine. But as a comedy crowd you have to know when to shut up and listen to the jokes. And people didn't. They thought they could do better. One woman (she was so ridiculous!) shouted at him for not making jokes about Bin Laden. As if it was some sort of request show.

Lewis himself was so personable - he shook hands with us at the start and the end of the show; during the interval (which was silly as it wasn't a long enough show to warrant one!) he wandered around checking everyone was enjoying it so far. His personality made me all the more angry with the crowd for berating him, heckling and being mean about America (and one guy was being mean about Schaffer being Jewish!).

There was a family in the front row (and they'd clearly sat there to ensure the show was all about them!) and I've never seen people so weird. It seemed to be a daughter, her partner, her parents and her friends (a couple). She looked humourless from the start, got offended by a Madeline McCann joke (it wasn't particularly bad; I certainly wasn't too uncomfortable), and - the creepiest bit!! - in the interval she sat lovingly stroking her mam's hair. She was in her thirties. Oh, it was just so icky. The looked like lovers. Bleurgh.
When I left I told Lewis that I loved America (the hecklers had been so mean!) as I truly do. I think he appreciated it.

There are more comedy shows coming up there but I'm not sure that I'll be going. I want to support local artisitc endeavours but I'd far rather spend time with real comedy fans who know how to behave. I'm just counting the days until our Stand opens!

The Stand

I love The Stand. I know I've said it before! I dare say I will say it again!! The Newcastle Stand (our very own!!) will open in October (I knew it would be around then but it's good to know exactly when! I hope very much that it opens on or near my birthday: it will be amazing!).

But October is quite a while away. What's less far away is August - glorious month of Fringe-y fun. And today the Stand announced their Fringe line up: http://www.thestand.co.uk/fringe2011.aspx

It's very exciting! The best things are shows I all ready knew about: Stewart Lee, Bridget Christie and Richard Herring's podcast. Yes, yes and...yes!

There are some people you just expect to play the Stand (but it's still exciting to have it confirmed; some years people don't do the Fringe at all so you never know for sure): Simon Munnery, Andy Zaltman (and his presence means Political Animal too), Bob Doolally (who I don't think I'd ever bother seeing but my dad loves him!), etc.

Phill Jupitus is a nice surprise! I'll definitely consider trying to fit him in to my busy trip. Tony Law (yay), Alun Cochrane, Stephen Carlin, Ava Vidal, James Dowdeswell, Tiffany Stevenson and Susan Murray are returning; I think a lot of performers like to play the Stand every year. Because it's quite simply the best.

The show I got most excited about is Robin Ince/Michael Legge: Pointless Anger, Righteous Ire 2: Back In The Habit. We missed their show last year as they only did two weeks (not the third one when we were there!) but oh, I love them both!!

I would also love to see Lloyd Langford (I still haven't!), Joanna Neary's new show sounds brilliant (Youth Club), I'd quite like to see Francesca Martinez's show What The Fuck Is Normal? I hadn't heard of Lee Camp but he sounds intriguing. I'd be interested to see a Fred MacAulay show. Mitch Benn's doing a short run. Oh, and there's Todd Barry (from Flight of the Conchords) and Omid Djalili is doing a few dates before his UK tour.

I'm very excited indeed. The only thing is there's another month before we'll know the rest of the Fringe line up so we'll just have to hope that nothing sells out or take some risks in guessing now! It's tricky. I would imagine that not many people will be buying tickets this incredibly early!

I wonder how long until the Big Four release their dates. Have fun scheming and dreaming!

Charlie's Comedians - A - Andrews, Will

Well, I must say Will Andrews does a very convincing North East accent! I honestly thought he was from up here...turns out he was born in Zimbabwe! Anyway, apparently he started off doing this Geordie character, Tony Carter. I haven't seen him do this but when I have seen him he's still had our accent! So, I'm a little confused about that. Nevermind.

I've only seen him twice and never for a full set; once was with Greg McHugh when they did about ten minutes as part of a Juppcast (in 2008) as Will and Greg, their sketch show.

The next time I saw him was at the very end of the Fringe in 2009 when he did a set for BBC Comedy Presents which included him playing the Dogtanian theme on his ipod and doing a bit of stuff based on that. R laughed for about ten minutes!

I'm not sure what a full hour of Will would be like - chaotic and a bit all over the place perhaps but with moments of surprising stuff relating to eighties cartoons. I honestly don't know but maybe one day I'll find out.

And the eternal question: do I fancy him? No, I don't think so!