Oooo ent technology grand...!

I'm feeling guilty that I've not blogged for a while, particularly, and perhaps because, this is a fairly crucial and formative time for Maverick and, I have to say, me personally. So this is an apology, but guess where I'm writing this? In me fave curry house, the Sylhet Spice, in Kings Heath, Birmingham, with a couple of pints of God's Nectar. Or Cobra, as they call it. When I think of the cost and size of computers just a few years ago and now here am I able to blog whilst waiting for a takeaway! I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel good about life and things. Or is that the short term result of God's Nectar. Mmmm.

Strewth Mate! What a tragedy!

Hot News. Funding crises in the Arts? The Olympics might actually bring some benefit to those OUTSIDE London? No. Worse. THE BBC ARE TO STOP SHOWING NEIGHBOURS! Yes it's BBC Curtains for the Aussie Soap!

It's some sort of bidding war, but they know not what they do, poor fools. For years presenting plays, mainly at the Billesley Pub in South Birmingham, myself and many of my fellow artistes would regail each other with tales of our regular breakfast television treat. It was a treasured routine for us pub thesps! Show, Beer, Curry, bed at 4 or 5am, then up with a spring in the step for our Breakfast Television - The 1 o'clock news on the BBC and then Neighbours. Real life like!

Sadly, with the current pressure of re-starting the Maverick, I now find myself getting up in the middle of the night... 9am, a ridiculous time, I know. But the old habit dies hard and I retire with a cup of tea and a marmalade sandwich come 1.40pm each day to luxuriate with my daily dose of Aussie bimbo's and blokeo's, laughable plots and vacuous characters.

So it looks like it'll be Neighbours with commercial breaks! BBC. Why oh why oh why! I am a license payer! And what about the health service. And immigration. The fabric of the country. And the youth of today! The worlds gone mad, I tell you...

Here we go then!

Look everyone! An Actor! I spoke to Michael Shaw last week and asked if he minded if we used his image for a touring brochure - which he didn't. This was Michael when he performed my Henry V - Lion of England at the Waterside in Stratford-upon-Avon. We were there for 6 weeks, I think and I can't believe it was 1995!

Michael may be up for Henry again, but as he said, it's a VERY strenuous part and he's 12 years older now. But he is a great talent is our Mickey and even if his knees won't bear three months on the road as the Merry Monarch (and 12 other characters!) I'm sure we'll do stuff together again sometime.

Me ol' mate John Slater has knocked up a touring brochure and this week I've got it printed and so it looks like it's all systems go with the new Maverick. So gird your loins - Henry V - Lion of England is going to be touring the UK for the first time ever! In the autumn. How exciting! Although I did write it in 1992, so it's not as if it's not overdue. It's had brilliant reviews, fortunately, and I hope you'll like it. Watch this space for venues. I shall once again be knocking on the door of the Arts Council. And I've spent, literally, months trying to put a business plan together. Not my natural environment, loves!

And talking of the business plan, for some reason I seem to work quite well down the pub! It gets me out of the house, you see. If you find yourself in a pub in Kings Heath, Birmingham and there's a nutter with a notebook in the corner with a pint, chances are it's me. Although nothing makes much sense after the third pint, I have to say.

I'm trying to write a novel on the Two Pint Principal, too. I'm hoping it's a really good kids sci-fi adventure story. It's certainly a good excuse to take me notebook down the pub and have a pint and not look too much like a lonely, solitary, sad old man. A word of warning though. Usually, after a few pints of literary sparkle the curry house beckons and I owe many stones of weight and a rapidly increasing waistline to the Sylhet Spice in York Road.

Finally, another brilliant thing about t'interweb. I'm not supposed to talk about it, but allowing ads on this page earned Maverick 78 US cents on Monday. Rock On! And another brilliant feature is that you can comment on these posts. I didn't realize until I saw that Robb, our original musician and good guy, left a comment about the early days. I think you can see it too if you click the correct bit somewhere down below. And that's about as technical as I get especially as I've got to finish my 2008 turnover projections now for the Business Plan. Where's me coat? 3 pints, then I think it will be a Chicken Tikka tonight...