Storyjohn

John Edgar, the Wolverhampton based writer and story teller, has featured "Well Adjusted" on his monthly "Storyjohn" Podcast. The show is a monthly podcast featuring performances, interviews and Techy reviews.

Next month I'll be chatting with John on the podcast, so get it subscribed on your itunes or whatever clever doofer you use for such things...

Edinburgh Fringe

I've been up at the Edinburgh Fringe for a week and three days.

We've seen some great shows and acts including Susan Calman, 4 Poofs and a Piano and Kevin Tomlinson, "Seven Ages" as well as a lot of street performers...

Which brings me to, me. I've been busking for 6 days between 11.45 and 12.15 next to St Giles, which is right in the heart of the Edinburgh Fringe on the High Street, the "Royal Mile"


At the time of day I've been performing passers by seem to be mainly family's and older ladies, and I've had several very sweet toddlers who like to dance by the side of me while I'm performing, which has been lovely. I've also been photographed by a lot of tourists, which again is pretty cool, to be thought of as part of their Edinburgh Fringe experience.

Here at the Fringe it seems that people are most interested in street performers doing something a bit unusual, like the fire eating, juggling and five part opera singing that seems to draw the big crowds. Humble solo singer-with-guitar people like myself seems to be a pleasant distraction between these big draws. At times, however, I've had nice crowds build up to watch me play, and as my first time busking anywhere I've learnt a lot about what catches peoples attention.

All in all, I've had a great time and the bit of money I've earned has been a very cool bonus. The main aim was to promote the EP a bit, and I've shifted quite a few copies of it so that seems to have gone well.

I'll do a more in depth round up of each day later, but for now here's some images of the first day, one of the two days when it rained very heavily. Playing in the rain seemed to elicit some respect from passers by, and this was oddly one of my biggest earning days...


The rain got so bad, I ended up getting a bit of help keeping dry... (this video sums up the whole thing really, people pass and smile or nod their heads but keep moving, it is raining after all!)

Twenty Two

£2 from any of my gigs, 3 tracks

Liverpool 2

Did you know the Beatles were from Liverpool? It's weird, you would think they'd mention it more!

The second part of my Liverpool trip with my girlfriend featured some visits to the Beatles tourist spots. I wasn't really planning to do many of these, the only one I really wanted to do was the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney.

Lennon's house was great, you can really imagine a teenage, rebellious but secretly sensitive teenager stalking through the place. It's hardly working class hero by the way, its big and quite posh. In this picture I'm standing next to the porch where, get this, he practised his guitar (he wasn't allowed to play in the house itself apparently) and he and Paul wrote some of their early songs because the acoustics were so good. And that's me, standing there. That brought a little lump to the throat.

Paul's house was a smaller place, and because of this there was less furniture and rooms to walk round, although this was made up for by the really great pictures taken by Paul's brother Mike which were displayed in each room. In one John and Paul are sitting reading the words and chords to the recently finished "I Saw Her Standing There" and the picture hangs just above where they were sitting. I'd recommend this trip to the two houses highly, even if your not much of a Beatles fan, which I don't think most of the people on the trip were, it's a cool bit of social history. Like the Black Country Museum but more recent. In both of the houses the guides (who live in them all year round) were really interesting, especially the lady in John's house who was a genuine Cavern Club attendee. Talking of which, we visited there too. Or the the rebuilt one which is just up the street. There was a Beatles tribute band on, and it was rammed and it was only a couple of quid in, so it was pretty good.

Liverpool itself is a great city, one of my favourites I think. It was a good trip, with Clapton, the Beatles, the city and all the very cool, and free things to see and do. And Maria was excellent company too! I wish we'd gone for a bit longer really. Perhaps another month...