Count Up To Edinburgh #8 I can count the days on my right hand now

So in one weeks time I'll be up there. Bonkers mate! Been building up to this all year but it's now suddenly come round very fast. Bit of a cliche but it's true. Mind you, the last month has been mental, I've not had a great deal of time to think about it really. In the last two weeks I've finished my school job for the summer, finished a 2 month youth project with Lyrix Organix, called Kingston Roots and just completed a 2 week musical theatre residency at Stratford Theatre Royal with Conrad Murray. And oh yea, I've moved out of my house as well. Not the most ideal of preparation but I'm alright none the less. Could do with a fat kip though. You know, one of those massive 16 hour ones that proper recharge you, waking up in a light and airy room with cotton drape curatins gently flapping in the summer breeze, with a load of Andrex puppies rolling round in carzy roll. I'm rooming with Gary From Leeds up in Edinburgh, I might ask him if he wants to stand in for the Andrex Puppies.

Look at that mug with his Edinburgh show

 It dawned on me this morning whilst brushing my teeth that this is all now happening next week, it's actually happening. I'm about to go and do 25 shows plus extra gigs, as well as having to go out there and get the punters in every day, which in itself is quite daunting. Of course, I knew all of this when I signed up and I'm making it sound like I'm about to go to war or something. I'm going to do a show in a pub / bar..I like performing, why the worry? I don't have the answer to that question. My reactions are probably way over the top but it's still a big deal for me. I'm sure I'll look all at this in a few months time and laugh, whilst thinking what a nob. There's a whole bunch of people I know who are going up there and I'm sure it'l be a laugh. It'l no doubt be a slog at points but that's all part and parcel. No pain no gain and all that. By sticking the show on, I wanted to see if I could actually do it and I'm doing it. Putting my money where my mouth is. Not that I have much money, but my mouth is reasonably sised, so in case I grt a massive windfall, I'll be alright. Anyway, I wasn't doing anything else this summer, so why not?

What?! He's got his mug on the back as well?!

I had a day this week with director Stef O'Driscoll, who I worked with on A Tale From The Bedsit. Stef is now really making a name for herself out there, I think there's 3 shows in Edinburgh this year alone that she's directed, don't quote me on that, she might have been telling me about shows in devlopment. Either way, she's smashing it, so I was lucky to get a day with her. I like to think working with me back on the Bedsit show launched into her new found director stardom, but I can't say that's true, though we did drink a lot of tea and had a good laugh whilst making it, so it was great to get back in the room with her again. She helped me tighten up all the pieces and add what I hope are now the finishing touches. I just have to record one more piece of audio then the thing there is done. I've also managed to recruit a tech to do my sound this week as well, seems like a cool guy and I hope we work well together.  I hope he doesn't like lager as much as I do, then we might have a problem.


So yes, I am now days away from starting. Gonna do a few more of these blogs whilst I'm up there. But if you are up there, I'm at the Pilgrim, everyday except the 16th, 4:15. Just look at the flyer, it's all on there. By the way, flyers are great aren't they.. They were designed by Natlie Clay check her stuff out www.styloclay.com. Peas and taters

Some things I've been up to of late

1: I did a nice rap battle

 

Got asked to do this a few weeks back, what with the show, work and everything else I almost said no, but I rarely say no to anything, so I didn't say no, instead, I said, yes. 

Now, I'm a fan of battle rap, I've been watching it regularly since The Jump Off days of Professor Green and Stig Of The Dump and have followed that evolution of it into Don't Flop and all of the other leagues that have sprung up around it. I'm no stranger to rapping but battling? Mate. I'd be lying if I said I haven't ever thought about it and when they told me I'd be facing Bru-C in a compliments battle, I was a bit nervous to be honest, he's really good and I' seen him battle many times, as well as hearing a lot of his music, which is decent by the way. However, by the time I stepped up onto the stage, I'd gone from being very nervous to just wanting to do it. And I did it. And I'm glad I did it. I messed up my last round (which thankfully insn't on there above video) which I was annoyed about it but overall I was pleased with how it went. I'd go as far as to say I loved it. The event was great. All the battes were brilliant. It was packed, the crowd were really into it and I really enjoyed being on that stage, it was a different experience for me and one that I'll remember, I didn't sleep much that night and was still buzzing about it the next day.

Super last minute gig at BoxedIn

 

'Tis was the Tuesday before the big show at Roundhouse, myself and Talia Randal were due to lead a workshop in Surbiton as part of the Kingston Roots project, but alas, Talia was struck down with illness! Panicking we were, until out of the shadows and fresh off his Until You Hear That Bell tour stepped Sean Mahoney, who did a fantastic job, saving the day. By chance, Sean's regular gig as co-host of well known peotry night, BoxedIn, happened to be the same evening, and alas, their mighty headliner, Simon Mole had also been struck down with illness! So Sean offered me the chance to step in and do a slot straight after the workshop, "yes" I said, "we shall do this!" Ran we did, to Surbiton train station, to Waterloo, then down into the underground for The Waterloo and City Line (which neither me or Sean had ever been on?!), riding it over to Bank, where we seemed to get stuck behind a gate trying to get to the circle line. Bursting out of Liverpool St we then ran to Boxpark for Sean to immediately take the mike, sweating out of breath. 5Five minutes later I was on stage, I did my little bit and low and behold, it was filmed by these wonderful people called BlaSphMe TV. I had a great night, Talia and Simon made a full recovery, Sean is still hosting BoxedIn and as for the rest of the world, they all lived happily ever after. The End.

PBH Free Fringe Fundraiser

 This was last Wednesday. Really good night. The Bedford is a proper gig venue, old school, it has a green room with loads of graffiti all of over the walls from various bands, wicked. The bill was a mixture of poets, singers and comedians. They were all of a very good standard. I think these sorts of mixed bills are my favourite gigs and all of these people on the bill all seem to be out there and doing really well as the merch stall was packed with products. Don't often see a merch stall at the usal gigs I do.  I'd never seen Attila The Stockbroker before, he was great and lived up to the name. Was really impressed with Chris T-T too. He was something else.

Back in the booth

 

Been a while since I did anything like this. Wrote the bars on the spot. Was good fun though. Round Conrad Murray's studio again. Think I got shown up by the younger guys! Track line up:  Boss Man Bob, me, Killer Plo and Nahum. Beatbox by Nahum, produced by Conrad Murray.

No Milk For The Foxes Trailer

Yep. So Myself and Conrad are deep in rehearsals for the show, so far so good, just over one week to go now, here's the LINK for tickets

No Frills live @ Cabaret Lounge

Performed this live back last year for a live spoken word and music set I did with Conrad Murray

New Vid: Lost Days Lost

Greetings, Friday and all that.

Been a nice little week for me, not quite as hectic as the last few. Did Shambala fest last week which I really enjoyed, I was in the Storytelling tent as part of the Natural Born Storytellers, which is an event that runs in Camden. Loads of decent stories and slightly different to the sort of spoken word events I usually do.

This week I hooked up Conrad Murray, who I collaborate with regularly and we made a little video for Lost Days Lost, which I've been doing at gigs quite a lot recently, have a butchers!

March 2014 (nuts!)

Greetings...

So, March was a pretty busy Month. I've been enjoying spending some time at home of late, working on some new bits and having a bit of a rest after all the activities of the last month...

A Tale From The Bedsit

It all worked out well. I really enjoyed the run at BAC, had some great audiences in and lots of new faces which was really nice, managed to pick up a couple more reviews as well, got another one from EVERYTHING THEATRE and POEJAZZI which I was chuffed about. The British Library came and filmed it for their archives, which is nuts! The show they came for, was probably the best one as well, it never works that way!.. I'm waiting to see what happens next with the show, hopefully more..err shows! In the meantime, here's some pictures Stef took from the rehearsals..

No Milk For The Foxes

So straight after I finished the Bedsit show, I went straight into rehearsals the next day, with Conrad Murray, for the Foxes show. We were performing a work-in-progress, kind of like a first draft really, at the Camden people's Theatre. We had no idea what to expect, I think what Conrad and I are doing is quite different, in the way we perform and how we've developed it but it went really well. So much so, were hopefully going into full development..fingers crossed

This was pretty much our set for the show

Play Festival

The Young Producer program at Battersea Arts Centre I have been working with as artist, since the beginning of the year had their 3 day festival in March and it all went off pretty damn well! they had programmed several artists and installations and fun rooms, all around the theme of childhood and play. It went off a treat, really proud of the team!

The team, minus Charlie

Hello 2014

Greetings

Happy new year and all that.

It's been a wee while since I've posted anything and a fair bit has happened, what with the bedsit show and general festive shenanigans.
 

The Bedsit

 Speaking of the show, as in A Tale From The Bedsit, it all went pretty well. We did 9 shows, over the last week of November and really enjoyed it, I felt it went pretty well all in all. There were a few hiccups but that's to be expected. The whole vibe of the festival was great, saw lots of familiar faces in the bar at Roundhouse who were either performing or just as punters. The whole thing has been a massive learning curve for me and I feel pretty good after coming out of the other side.

Reviews

I was told before the show started not to expect many of the supposed big-guns in, in terms of reviewers, for various reasons but I weren't that fussed. I appreciate that at this moment in time I'm not exactly a big draw and spoken word isn't quite as big as a play happening else where etc etc, I was just glad of the opportunity and was pretty chuffed about the fact the most of the shows were sold out (even if it was just 8 people per show, that's still 8 people that have made the effort to come in and see it, too me, that's nuts!)

HOWEVER! I was made up when I saw these two reviews from Londonist via Lindsey Clarke and Sabotage Time via Lettie McKie

http://londonist.com/2013/11/have-a-cup-of-tea-with-paul-cree-in-a-tale-from-the-bedsit.php

http://sabotagereviews.com/2013/12/05/review-the-last-word-festival-the-roundhouse-16-nov-1st-dec/

And on a final bedsit note, the show will be going to Bettersea Arts Center for a week in march, which I'm delighted about, as BAC is a venue I have a lot connections with, you can purchase tickets from here

https://www.bac.org.uk/content/31456/see_whats_on/current_shows/cook_up/a_tale_from_the_bedsit

This was me in the Camden Lock Hotel where most of the shows were

This was where the final show of the run was, for a bigger audience

rODIUM

For the last year or so, I've been playing drums and precession for my friend and collaborator Conrad Murray's band, rODIUM. We've recently had a spat of gigs which I really enjoyed, most notably at legendary gig venue, The Water-rats in Kings Cross, here is a video.

rODIUM - Steppin (Out of Love)

Way back at the beginning of the year, I went in a studio in Colliers Wood to play drums on a attack for my good friend Conrad Murray's band rODIUM. Around the same time he asked me to appear in the video, which we shot in Kingston on a cold Saturday afternoon and then at Breakfast studios in Clapham Junction. We had a lot of fun on those days and here is the the result of that work.

rODIUM, have been gigging relentlessly all year and you are most likely catch them around London, occasionally I bang a drums, or even more occasionally a full kit full for them too. The track features, Conrad Murray on guitar and vocals, Fudge as rapper, Rochelle Francis also on vocals, Rosa Brook on Violin and Dean Hewins on bass. The video was filmed by Vilmos Media, big up Mervin, Jo, Dom and the crew!

You can join the growing army of rODIUM fans on facebook HERE and purchase their first EP The rODIUM EP from Bandcamp HERE

My activites: London Stories

Good morning one and all

Just a quick update to let the E-universe know what I've been up too (I could well be talking to myself here but it's fine, this is useful for 'reflection' time, that word comes up a lot in my youth work, like an error message popping up when I go to use my printer).

As part of the final previews, A Tale From The Bedsit went in it's rawest form to a little tree in the middle of Bestival, the weather weren't too bad all in all, it rained in places, and though there were the usual noise issues spilling out form other areas (on the first day there was karaoke going on in the tent next door), which generally can't be avoided at festivals, it went pretty well. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to get this review from the preview show we did at Hoxton Hall from Everything Theater which you can read HERE.
I'll be doing the final edit of A Tale From The Bedsit over the next few weeks, all in time for the full show in November at Roundhouse...

Since I've come back from Bestival, I've been back in the studio with Conrad Murray to work on the EP, The Dice That Rolled A 3, which is 70% done now so I'm getting excited about, here's a preveiw of one of the tracks weve recorded called No Frills, also a little picture of Conrad hard at work in the studio.

 I've been lucky enough to be taking part in a festival at Battersea Arts Center called London Stories, which as the title suggests is all about stories about London. Most of the storytellers involved are non-performers, bar a small handful of us, it's been great so far, almost completed the first week, as far as I know the rest of the run is almost sold out, here's a nice REVIEW from Time Out. Also have a butchers at the trailer.

I think that's about it for now.

Peas and taters

Forthcoming EP and wee up date!

Hello!

It's Monday and I've just got back from Latitude festival yesterday, had a great time. I was performing as part of the 90's BPM show and apart from a 7 hour journey to get there from London, due to a man on the roof of Ipswich station with pants on his head (if you don't believe me read HERE) it was a whole heap of fun.

There's been a quite a few gigs of late, Purely festival, Brockley Jack Scratch to name a few, most with Conrad Murray who I work with regularly, we both had a lot fun. But on the 7th July I was invited to perfrom at the Cabaret Lounge, which is a night run by a singer and artist called Airlie Scott. I took Conrad with me and we did a full 25 minute set so I was able to mix it up with straight spoken word and music, which I don't get to do very often, I even played the snare drum for one of Conrad's solo tracks. It was a wicked night and we were well looked after. It was a different sort of gig to what I'm used to but I really enjoyed it. It's set in a restaurant called Toulouse Lautrec and is very well set up for small gigs, there's even a camera over the piano keys so the audience can see what the pianist is doing! Anyway, I was able to perfrom 2 tracks from the EP myself and Conrad are working on called The Dice That Rolled A 3, and luckily we had it filmed and recorded, so below is a one of those tracks, called No Frills. 

From next week, I go into the final development phase for my first solo show A Tale From The Bedsit so I'll keep you all posted. 

Enjoy

Paul

New Scratch Show and Ritzy Gig Audio

Hello. There's pollen type things flying around the air, carried on the winds and it's making my eyes itch, though, anyone that's ever seen me get nervous, on, or off stage, will notice that I'm always rubbing my eyes anyway, especially as at the moment there is a lot for me to be getting excited / nervous about!

New Scratch show No Milk For The Foxes

So...At the end of July I'll be going into the final development phase for A Tale From The Bedsit where we actually get to make the show, set an all, and we now have a brilliant set designer on board, which is great....but before then, on the 31st May as part of the Cook Up Scratch festival at Battersea Arts Centre myself and Conrad Murray will be presenting 10 minutes of a new work in progress called No Milk For The Foxes. The show is about 2 security guards and we will be exploring what a job like that means to them in the current climate, using elements of dialogue and rap. I've been working with Conrad for over 2 and a half years now both in theater and with music, as well as our work with young people for BAC Homegrown . We've had endless conversations lasting for hours about our mutual interests, swapping books, reading articles and posting each other links to video's and the like. It feels like a natural time for us to finally collaborate in a theater context and to do it at Battersea Arts Center which is somewhere that means a lot to both of us. There are over 60 artists and company's all going to be showing new work over the course of the scratch festival so naturally I'm rubbing my eyes in excitement and nerves, but trust me, nerves are good!

New Audio: Live At The Ritzy

Back in February, I performed at the Brixton Ritzy, at a night called Ritzy Platform which is an open mike night hosted by fellow spoken word artist and good friend Richard Purnell. Every month Richard will feature an act to do a full 20 minute set, and back in February it was me. It was a good gig, I had a few of my mates there and also 2 of my brothers came which is quite rare. Conrad Murray also joined me for the final piece, which was an improvised acoustic version of a track off the EP were working on called The Dice That Rolled A 3. Have a wee listen...

Paul, where have you been and what are you doing?

Well, I hear you (don't) ask...

I've been a bit slack with updating this, but I guess that means that in-between watching reruns of Peep Show and Don't Flop rap battles I have actually been doing some stuff. So before I mention what’s coming up, I think it only nice I mention a few things that I've been up too.

Since February gigs wise I've been lucky enough to feature at The Patchwork Club, Platform @ The Ritzy, Come Rhyme With Me in both Brighton and London, and also at Look Mum No Hands as a fund-raiser for the charity CALM. I also did a weeks run, for the third time, of The Great Escape (A Borrowers Tale) as part of the Imagine Children s Festival at The Southbank Centre, which of course was a lot of fun.

I've also been working on some more workshop projects with Battersea Arts Centre as part of their Homegrown young people's program for 18-25 year olds, for the Brave New World festival. I also worked with Farnham Maltings Art Centre in a spoken word project working with some Traveller children from Cranleigh Primary school which was ace, working in part of Surrey that I'd never been to before, and quite different form Horley where I grew up in.

And so to the future! It's been a very long time in my head, and in carious forms and drafts on my PC, but since January my first ever solo project A Tale From The Bedsit is now currently being made and is in it's second stage of development, which I'm very excited about. It's essentially me telling a story about a bedsit I actually lived in Brighton a few years ago, and some of the things that went on. I say it's a solo project, but in reality, it isn’t, as it firstly took the Roundhouse to commission me to do it, and produce it, and for them to bring in a director, which is Stef O'Driscoll who's quite frankly breathed a whole new lease of life into it as a project and really helped me to shape the writing. Were currently rehearsing all this week at Battersea Arts Centre, and have bought in a sound designer, Phil Davies who's a don! There's going to be 2 scratches coming up at the Roundhouse on 22^nd April.

I'm also working on a show that will be heading to the Lattitude festival with Poejazzi, called 1990BPM, so, along with, Joshua Iduhen, Chimene Sullymen and Bridget Minamore, were all busy working on pieces to do with the 90's...and to top it all off, in conjuction with the bedsit show, I'm working on a EP with Conrad Murray called The Dice That Rolled A 3.

Hopefully it won't be so long until I update this again

Until next time

Paul

Music, it's all gone full circle!

Greetings!

This is a little update to let you know about some music projects I've been working on of late...

For anyone that's known me for a while, or for that matter has ever listened to me talk about myself, which, I do, erm, probably a bit more than I should... the'l know prior to entering the world of Poetry and Spoken Word, I was a rapper and an MC, prior to that I was a drummer, prior to that I was a fan of music! I've been lucky enough to be born into a family of music and have had many different influences around me my whole life.

So about 18 months ago I was offered the chance to go into the studio of Conrad Murray aka Cakey Monkey. I knew Con through working on theatre projects at BAC, and together with Dani Marshall whom I also know from BAC (but did'nt know at the time she possessed the voice of an angel) we put this track together (the working title is Outcast) as a little experiment, it was the first time I'd been 'in the booth' rapping for a few years

We all clicked pretty quickly and soon enough a whole project was born. At the moment, a lot of it is still under wraps but here's another work in progress track (Working title Time, Blood Sweat and Tears). 



and then finally, as if going back to rapping wasn't enough, I was just last week invited to play drums on the video shoot for Conrad's Hip Hop group Rodium (Cakey Monkey, Joypad B and Killer PLO). I must say, I was a bit rusty too begin with but it was a lot of fun in a dirty old studio round the back of the legendary Tin Pan Alley!
Here's a sneaky behind the scenes video for the track You're A Star.



To top it all off, I've been working on my self produced EP which I hope at some point will see the light of day! Who knows...

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Beatbox Jam

As mentioned before, I sometimes get to work the stupidly sick BAC Beatbox Academy led by Conrad Murray. Here's a video of a jam we did last week. I look like the awkward uncle trying to dance in this one, I think I was concentrating trying to remember the words, it was a new piece...


If you're interested in Beatboxing (and under 21, sorry!) the Beatbox Academy run drop in sessions every Thursday in term time) as part of Homegrown

Using the mouth to make sounds and Edinburgh!

Hello

Over easter this year, I got to work with the amazing BAC Beatbox Academy on a show divised for the 1on1 Festival. I had enormous amounts of fun doing it and I've just found out the show will be going to Edinburgh for the festival. The BAC Beatbox Academy are made of some very talented young guys aged from 12 up to 18. Watch!! All the video's were filmed and put together by Conrad Murray, who leads some of the workshops and directed the car show, a very talented dood!

The BAC Beatbox Academy at The Lyric Hammersmith