A lot of friends have made very drastic new year's resolutions as 2019 kicks in, but I feel kind of grateful that I'm not in that boat as such. Basically, mine were: get into classical music, drink less beer and more wine, try and sleep 8 hours a day and watch more films. Other than that, I go into 2019 feeling unusually optimistic about things.
Christmas was lovely, but, for the first time in my adult life (and I'm 37) it was the first time I've given myself more than two consecutive weeks off. The three weeks I took out from shows/recording/teaching were mostly family-based, but I did also write my new show, Harvey Greenfield is Running Late. Well, a first draft of it, at least. It's nice writing a show without being pushed for a deadline, it's been a while since that happened, but the tempo of the piece is far from leisurely. It's a frantic, punch-in-the-gut sort of play and it'll knacker me out performing it, but I really like the story that's being told. It needs work, but it's more than on schedule at the moment.
We've also got some huge History of Pop shows coming up. It's a show that's served me well over two Edinburgh runs, but I'm all too aware that shows that work at the fringe aren't necessarily going to be instantly successful on tour, so we're adding, editing and rewriting for a whole new type of audience. It's exciting, though, we're in some awesome venues.
Band-wise, what with Griff leaving Fred's House at the end of last year after the frankly amazing tour (we'd known for a year, he gave us plenty of notice, even if we didn't announce it until October), we've have to regroup and recruit, but we're thrilled with our new member (not sure if I'm allowed to announce it on here) but it's a very different sound so we're locked away in rehearsals until the gigs start again in April. In the meantime, I've been rehearsing with the very wonderful Glymjack, a folky-type band with strings and everything, ahead of some shows with them, and I also drummed on all 12 tracks of Steve Logan's cracking new album.
The drum lessons continue to be lovely and I often feel guilty for getting paid to have so much fun, but I remember not having fun for many years and getting paid terribly for it, so maybe it's just my time? I'm fully booked up, by the way, but do message me if you're in Cambridge and in need of lessons as I'm always of the impression that I can find more hours in the day, in particular on a Sunday evening.
January is also the time when fringe applications go in and many plans are made. That's what happening right now, but until those plans are confirmed I have the odd spare hour at the end of an evening, hence why this was the longest blog post ever...