On Yer Bike.

I returned to biking later in life when I started to see signs for cycle routes as I was driving around Birmingham in my car. I presented a radio breakfast show so had few traffic problems. But the signs made me think about bikes, so I bought a cheapy one from Halfords, Kings Heath. Not the best move. I had to take it back 3 times as the pedals kept coming loose! But don't let that put you off. A trip to a proper bike shop solved the problems.

The first time I did cycle the 7 miles to the studio – up a big hill – it took me nearly an hour. But I'd make the effort once a week.  The start of the journey was through the rather lovely Cannon Hill Park.  Sun shining, birds singing, mugggers mugging...  During the summer it gradually dawned on me that I quite liked being in the fresh air, so I started cycling two or three times a week.  Within 12 months, the hour ride magically became 20 mins. I also lost 5 stone! And I was unexpectedly overcome with a very strange feeling of well-being after a ride…

Cycling is an almost organic experience after years of being cooped up in cars and public transport. If you’re new to the idea, give it a go. It really will effect your outlook on life. I’m discovering London now. I no longer present a breakfast show and London doesn't have Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, but it does have the River Thames.  Which as you can see from the picture below, is rather nice!

Happy New... oh yes, a bit late for that.

It's been a busy and fairly tough financial start to the new year.  I didn't really have time to write last month.  Since leaving Uni I've been spending a lot of time looking for part-time work and trying to get things ready for my new production company and as always, everything is many times more difficult and time consuming when you have no dosh.  But I'm almost ready to start my new life.  Sort of.  Well, new career anyway.  It's taken 50 years, but I now have some sort of focus on what I intend to do professionally.  And I'm fortunate in that so far some very successful people in the industry seem to think I am going to do okay.  One or two have even tipped me as a 'rising star'. Heh! 

But the reality at the moment is that the difficult financial situation has meant I have discovered southern dole offices, too.  Posher than Kings Heath, Birmingham, although my London 'office'  is a newer building! I get the impression that there's a bit more care and help available than last time I had to sign on.  In the early 1990's I think we were just dole scum.  Now the Labour Govt seems to really want to help. Things are much better now. There are still rules, but in the past you were either on the dole or not.  It was unhelpfully black or white. You felt a bit like a hopeless scrounger. Now, although it's actually tougher to get help initially and they ask more questions, they've even accepted that I have to spend time to prepare for a new business and they have been offering help and referrals.  I get annoyed by people who seem to think benefits are some sort of easy way out. Try living on £65 per week.  It stops you starving, sure, but its not really going to give anyone a lifestyle after bills are paid. There are always those that will abuse any system, but I think social benefits, like the arts, are a mark of a civilised society and I for one feel better for being part of that.  Plus, with the eye-watering amounts of tax I paid in the 1980's, I would need many centuries of claiming £65 per week to break even! I suppose the key word about National Insurance is that it's, well... insurance. 

There are some benefits to being very poor again. I cycle to sign on, which is as it should be, and actually gives me some exercise. And it has forced me to find cheaper stuff in London.  Not an easy task in leafy Chiswick. I go to my exclusive show biz club and drink tap water (served in posh jugs with ice and lemon), use the free wi-fi and finish with a coffee.  A whole days work for £2.95.  Then down the road in Turnham Green, if you get fed up of home made food,  you can eat a massive plate of Chicken and Black Bean Noodles and a mug of Chinese tea for under a fiver.  Now that's living!

 

That's living!  All this for under a fiver in Chiswick.

This theatre thang has never been about the money but believe me when I say I am hugely looking forward to the day when I can afford a holiday again.  But in one way I am truly blessed.  I have a plan. I am in an industry that is starting to notice what I do.  It might not work out exactly as I want, but at least I have some hope, ambition and direction. I feel desperately sorry for those others who are suffering as a result of this current economic climate and can see little hope at all.

Playing with the Big Boys

New experiences continue unabated, not least of which is the fact I've been able - had no choice really - to get over the claustrophobia I developed some years ago on the London Underground. And I also find I'm really quite enjoying this University lark. Don't get me wrong, the pay is rubbish. Well non existent. Actually of course you have to pay fees. (I can't BELIEVE there's virtually no financial help for an MA. Age discrimination I think. Or maybe academic discrimination. Most Masters have done a 'normal' degree. Not me mate. I think I'm a special case. Well, special. Maybe just a 'case'. Whatever. Get back to it...!)

It occurs to me that one of the big gripes I had about my beloved Birmingham is that there were no networks. There are maybe four theatre producers in Brum that I can think of. And the chances of us ever getting together socially were virtually impossible. And we all have different agendas and methods of working. Plus most of the original 'Mavericks' have moved on, mainly to London. My main, regular chums in Birmingham have long since been bored by my theatre talk and it is not doing them a disservice when I say most of them have absolutely no ideas about the standard or concept of theatrical production anyway, so nights down the pub tended to fairly uninspiring for me and probably very boring for them.

So its only just occurred to me that three days a week I am not only listened to when I talk about theatre production, but listen to lectures about it and hang out with people who are equally if not more into it than I am. Bliss! I have a new bunch of chums who rave about theatre in different disciplines and I am regularly meeting/talking to theatre obsessives, mainly West End, but not exclusively. It can't last. This is almost fun. Imagine. Me, at my age, admitting that. They won't believe it down me local in Brum...

A Birmingham Stomach and Goodbye M. Palin

I'm off to Olde London towne for a full week and after a conversation with me other half, Rebecca, about the joys or otherwise of being a Lady of Leisure, I decide to become a Lad Who Lunches. Bring it on, capital city. Can you beat Birmingham, Balti Capital of the World?

The potential cost of this potential gluttony is being supported by another personal loan I have had to take out. As you may know from a previous blog, I ran out of money at the end of March. This new loan means I now have enough finance to keep going till September 2007. The reality of Maverick moves another step closer. As does the reality of paying back the loans. But this is no time for a faint heart...!

I have also now COMPLETELY got over Michael Palin. I have a new best friend now, a man called Dominic Dromgoole. Apart from the obvious Irish connections, Dommy, as I have already started to call him, has written a book called 'Will and Me - How Shakespeare Took Over My Life'. So far it's a great read. As with Mickey P, I feel an initial twinge of envy at the Oxbridge education and all its opportunities, but, also like Mickey P, Doms lack of bull is refreshing. And reading about another human soul hijacked by the Bard gives me something of the feeling of self-help. I've also been buggered a bit by the bard, metaphorically speaking. Although, looking at my finances trying to get Henry V on, maybe more literally. And Dom likes his Shakespeare without all the pretentious bollix that often goes with it.

I love Dom. I hardly give Mickey P a thought now. Ever. I'm completely over him and his diaries 1970 - 1979. Although I did nearly buy the Monty Python DVD last week. ..

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...

In the Beginning...

... there was ME. This is my pic. Looking old and, yes, with a glass of red wine. And some 30 years after I came along, there was an idea for a theatre company. T'was 1992 and I'd been doing all sorts. Me and a mate Rob Vomit - the only actor I knew - did a one man version of Henry V wot I wrote. Called Henry V - Lion of England, we performed at the mac in Brum for 1 night. Another mate, Robb Williams, wrote an atmospheric soundtrack. Cost me fifty quid to hire the venue and I asked me family and mates along. Also present were Jasper Carrott's then managers and they took us to the Edinburgh Fringe which inspired me to start a company in Birmingham that would be true to the spirit of the fringe and be truly accessible. So we started Maverick at the Billesley Pub in South Birmingham on the edge of a council estate where, coincidentally, I was born. It was hard, artistically and financially and our last production was in 2003. Now, in 2007, we're kicking off again. Why? Mmm. Good question. NEXT TIME. Why I hate Michael Palin.