Edinburgh : The
Story of Edinburgh
The first time I went to
EdFringe was 2009. Remember those dying days of Brown, when selfie
sounded like a cute way of saying LONELY and the world waited with bated breath
whether Harry Potter would survive the next, and last, two films?
He did.
I then went and worked
teching with C Venues in 2010, and again with Pleasance Venues 2011. Both
times I had a great time, the work was hard and the rewards far from monetary
but it was a great experience for anyone just out of University looking for a fun
summer. But I was a techie, and I was bursting to be recognised as an
artist.
In 2012 I took my solo
show, Letter To The Man (from the boy) with support from Pilot
Theatre. If setting up a venue, teching 10 shows a day and then stripping
it all down sounds hard, then it’s nothing compared to the emotional
rollercoaster of making a show, putting on a show and then dismantling the
show. And yourself!
The next few years I
visited the Fringe to do scratches or see friends or catch the odd show, with
the additional open mic or slam slot. Then, this year, I kinda got the
taste to return. To take something and once more try and prove a worthy artist
in the arena or performance.
I made my show, Up
The Nerd Punks, from a collection of pre-existing poems and wrote some new ones
around them. It felt good and artistic, but it didn’t get in the way of
my other projects for The Laurence Batley Theatre, Hull Truck or York Theatre
Royal.
EdFringe was very
fun. I did x2 hours of flyering a day, which made me feel good when
hardly anyone showed up, because frankly I went with the old punk adage:
At Least I Tried.
♫ At least I f**king tried. That’s the only eulogy
I need ♪- Frank Turner, Eulogy
Last night, me and some
chums watched Anvil: The Story of Anvil. It’s about some old
metalhead rockers from the 80s trying one last time, having one last attempt,
putting all their hope and faith into a dream of making a glorious metal
album. And all the way through, lead singer Lips has a driving hope that
you just gotta believe, after 10, 20, 30 years, ya just gotta keep going and at
the end of the day, if you don’t make it, then at least you can look yourself
in the mirror.
♫ Metal on metal, it's the only way, to hell with
tomorrow, let's live for today ♪ -
Anvil, Metal On Metal
Anvil’s problem is they
come from a school of music which measures success by proportions. Their
idols were Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, their peers were Motorhead and Bon
Jovi, their successors were Metallica and Anthrax. Stadiums, festivals
and grand gestures. They are almost punks, they have a DIY gusty attitude
but still search for a manager and a major label to accept them.
I think that the ‘majors’
of EdFringe are pretty obvious, not only do they rules the advertising and the
reviews, but geographically they control space. I found my place on the
Fringe of the Fringe, in a small venue called the Stafford Centre the ‘other side’
of town. The staff were lovely, the venue was just right and the
audiences that came were there because they wanted to see a scrawny punk make
jokes about Star Wars for 50 minutes.
I could not have gone to
the Fringe if not for the DIYness of the PBH Free Fringe. I don’t think I
would have wanted to. I don’t really want to play stadium gigs. I’m
not of the metal school that says louder the better, bigger the better, badder
the better.
I’m a punk, admittedly a
nerd punk. For me, scale doesn’t matter, but attitude & intention
does.
I do want to look myself
in the mirror. Sometimes that’s hard. But the lovely audiences,
lovely guests I had, lovely staff at the Stafford Centre, the folks who hang at
Forest Café, lovely PBH poets, lovely bar staff at the Banshee Lab and lovely
random folks on the Mile also flyering who stopped for a natter were a huge
amount of reinforcement.
Love you all x
(oh and if you’re the
person who snapped a photo of the human pyramid at my last show, please please
please send it along henrythepoet@btinternet.com)
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