No Frills live @ Cabaret Lounge

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

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