MC Mixy's Blog
06-09-2010: Edinburgh Fringe 2010
So yeah, me and Mark hit our first month long run at Edinburgh fringe festival August 2010. There were a lot of pro’s and con’s but overall the whole month was a success! We got the train from Peterborough on August 5th, I had a big backpack and a box of our CD’s that we planned to sell, Mark had a big backpack.. a small backpack.. a handbag.. a laptop bag.. and 3 boxes of flyers and posters which made our getting on and off the train quite a task in itself!
We were sharing a flat with Tim Clare and Ross Sutherland who were both doing their own shows, two amazingly good poets I was happy to learn from while in Edinburgh. When we got to the flat Tim was there and getting ready to leave for his show so me and Mark walked with him into town to find our venue ‘The Banshee Labyrinth’
We got to the venue and checked out our performance space, it was a dingy little cave like room, with seats you could probably fit 35 maybe 40 people in. To be honest that was a bit of a relief, they say when you go to Edinburgh fringe you should expect an average audience of 4 so the smaller the venue the less noticeable an empty room would be. We met a few of the staff from the venue that day and luckily they were all more than safe, by the time we left we had made more than a few good friends.
We had the best part of two days in Edinburgh before our first performance and we spent the time watching other shows, drinking, giving out flyers, and running material when we could, just trying to get the feel for the area, you know. We were performing the 12.30 - 13.30 slot every day and while handing out flyers and putting up posters it was pointed out to us by a targeted audience member that the time was not printed on our promotional papers, over the next few weeks I spent a lot of time with a pen writing on stacks of them!! On the night before our first gig we planned to get an early night but Mark had some friends in town so we ended up at a Kayley (Scottish barn dance) till 6am. Not a good look.
The day of our first gig, we started the half hour walk from the flat to the venue not knowing what to expect, the best term to describe us both would have to be… hanging right out. We got to the venue for about 11.15 only to find out we couldn’t get in any earlier than 12 any day, and the venue would only let public in at 12.30. Still, we got in, set up the seating, checked the sound, and got a few pear ciders 2 maintain our level of intoxication. To both our surprise we had about a 30 strong string of people pile right into the venue and take seats for our show as soon as the doors were opened. Relief.
Our first show went really well which was a big confidence boost to know that we were not out of our depth at this world renound festival, knowing that we could smash a show was exactly what we needed to start our run on the right foot. The room of smiling faces left while showing a lot of praise and positive feedback, they even left us about £70 in donations and CD sales, I didn’t have to touch my bank account the whole time I was in Edinburgh, the taking after every show went from £35 up to £153 which was more than enough to get by on.
The shows seemed to blend into each other a bit, sometimes the crowd was not very responsive but we always got them by the end, we had a few minor technical issues but worked through all to the best standard possible. The vast majority of our shows were to packed rooms and the smallest audience we had for the dead poets show was about 16, still 4 times the expected average. Very happy with that.
On top of the 20 dead poets shows me and mark both involved ourselves with numerous other slots, we both took part in the poetry takeaway which was basically a stall on the royal mile set up by Tim Clare to write free poetry for the public on any requested subject. I had a lot of fun doing that and covered shifts whenever I could, though I am slightly upset I kept no copies of the work I wrote for people!! If I wrote you a poem and you’re reading this, please, get in touch, I’d love a copy!
We both performed on the royal mile, took part in the hammer and tongue poetry slams, we both made it to the final and mark managed to come joint 1st. We both performed at other regular running nights such as Utter, The Two Gents, and both assisted with a guest appearance for Helen Mort in ‘A Pint For The Ghost’ I was also hitting the weekly open mic night at the Banshee and dragging random musicians up to jam with me, even won my second battle for the UK rap battle league ‘Don’t Flop’ as you can tell it was a busy month.
We somehow managed to get 6 different reviewers in to watch us, how this happened I don’t know as many of the acts were really wanting reviews and not getting much luck. All 6 of them gave us a positive review with 4 out of 5 stars which to be fair I am very happy with, we said before we went to Edinburgh we were aiming for 3 stars. The reviews were from The Scotsman, Three Weeks, Music OMH, Edinburghfestival.co.uk … and another 2 I can’t remember… Sure Mark will know, I’ll ask him.
I’ve been back in Peterborough about a week now and am still missing the way of life I had in Edinburgh for a short while. I miss performing everyday, I miss the other acts, I miss the staff at the venue and the temporary flat mates, I miss being able to party every night of the week till 6 in the morning, I miss running threw the days with Jagerbombs, Tequila, Koperberg, Newcastle Brown Ale, cans of Carlsberg and cheap Brandy! I could spend a day naming names here but I wont, you know who you are!!
I could rabbit on for days about everything that happened in Edinburgh last month and that would still not scratch the surface so I’ll leave it here for now. Many thanks to everyone that has supported us and those who continue to do so, everyone we met along the way and those we are yet to meet, all is appreciated!
Now, next year……………
