My Fat Fingers & Haunted By Dolphins...!

Dan, Jules, Me, Ange & Prentiss.

Gizmo befriending the Crew Room Guardian

A sign in a cool place called Bar 12. Great little pub band bar.

Me actually proving that the show is playing in a venue in London and that I'm not just on a drinking holiday!

The previous post shouldn't have been posted - clicked the wrong button & no, I'm not drunk or even have a hangover as I bailed from the venue last night and came straight home! The photo on the previous post is me & my 2 x Spot Ops, Jen & Mik.

Yesterday (Sat 22nd) was a weird afternoon show & it was just one of those freaky days in the theatre. When I left the Arts Centre I was given a soft toy Gizmo, a Mogwai - the fluffy creatures in Gremlins before they change. He's had a few adventures around town so far but yesterday was the first time he'd entered the venue. I think the venue Gremlins sensed him and just went to town! My operation of the cues was OK but my calling of the spots was completely off. If it hadn't been Jen & Mik up on the spots with knowledge of the show, it would have been messy. The Artistic Director changed the order of a couple of pieces about 15mins before curtain up so I was replotting blindly right up until curtain up. In three of the pieces, the guys nearly dropped their partner and it was highly visible. The band completely messed up the intro into the start of Act II - which doesn't help the LX Op when he has snap cues that 'Go' on particular beats!! 2 of the boys T-Shirts went missing from Dressing Rooms & all their Act 1 shirts all had this weird black oil substance on them after Ange had washed, dried & iorned them....! Really weird. What was different - I brought a Mogwai into the venue....! D'oh! Evening show went far better - guess the Gremlins (or ghosts) had made their point.

Speaking of ghosts - as all good venues are, The Peacock is haunted but not by a 'normal' ghost. Years ago the venue was a Burlesque Venue & you can still see the tubes where cages were lowered from out over the auditorium. Also, the main stage had this huge trap in it where this massive tank was rasied up for the finale. The lift under the stage, although not in working order, is still there. In the tank were 2 x performing Dolphins. When the club went broke, everything was abandoned & boarded up, years later the tank was found along with the 2 dolphins. Really sad I know but I ain't ever heard of a venue being haunted by animals before, let alone Dolphins!!

I've been out exploring a bit and have started to take my standard shots of signs, alleyways etc. Much better way to remember a place than the 'tourist' places. My good mate Julia came across for a few days. Haven't seen her in 6 months since she moved across to Amsterdam. She somehow managed to make it across just in time for the Opening Night Drinks...! Cunning! She then bailed back to the Dam on Fri but it was great to see her and we'll see her in another 6 months when we hit Holland!

A cool place to visit in London is a place called the John Soames Muesum. It's free to get in (they heckle for a donantion). Jen took me there the other day. This Soame bloke was a complete nutter! He was an architect back in the 1700-1800's and designed (from memory) the English Bank and numerous other London buildings. His house is just amazing - he bought 3 houses next to each other and then just remodelled & turned them inside out. As they had no electrical power in those days, his use of natural light is just amazing. As is his use of perception & space. He uses mirrors and all these little periscop type towers to capture & disperse the light! And the wierd thing is he actually lived in the house! It's a weird eclectic mix of all sorts of styles and it was all obtained thru auction - he only ever travelled abroad twice & they were both to Paris! It's really hard to describe how it all worked & photography was banned but it was an amaing little place. Would have loved this guy to have designed theatre sets. My favourite part is The Picture Room - just a room that has paintings hung in it but then the walls open up like a picture book to reveal even more paintings etc! Absolutely amazing!!

Anyway gotta go, Sunday maitinee awaits. Take care all catch you soon.

Lessons Learnt

Hello Reader, Well, we opened in London @ The Peacock on Tues (tis now Sun) & the show went really well. It came back better than I thought it would. They've got a Strand 520i so it was nice to have a familiar console to work on. The show was very well recieved & the Big Boss Andrew was over and said that he thought it was the best the show had ever looked - the whole package of the show was really tight! Phew - pass me another free glass of red!!


The bump in brought with it a few lessons - and there will be more to learn. Have already decided to change positions of a few lanterns and even swapout some from fresnels to profiles etc. Stuff that will only help/quicken the process for the future, especally when we hit the one night regional leg. Same for what to focus 1st to last & what I can afford to loose if time gets too tight.

The crew @ The Peacock have been fantastic. A great bunch of boys & girls that have the same attitude as us - know their venue but don't take it too 'seriously'. Within the first hour I think I'd had 2 gaffa (tape) balls thrown at me - mainly due to me singing and getting really annoying songs stuck in people's heads!! Ha! They've taken us under their wings & have taken us out for many an ale and O'Neill's, their local pub has now become my local and it's really scary when both the day & night staff know your first name after 3 days...! A large portionof my per diems have been left behind @ that pub! They do really good food and I've had their Irish Breakfast numerous times now.

We've caught up with a number of Aussies who are living over here at the mo'. Which has been great. It's been nice to have familiar faces around for the first leg, which also means that it's been hard not to go to the pub each day as there's always someone who wants to catch up for a quick one...!

A Few Happy Snaps & Stuff

Have had a walk thru the venue - bout 1,000 seats and quite quaint. Apparently the Season is over 50% sold which is apparently great news! They seem like a decent bunch and the space is quite intimate. I'm operating from quite a way back but I guess in the long run I'm gonna see the show from all sorts of different angles!

We're apparently only having one dome op (gotta get used to calling them spots) for the season and the other one wil rotate thru about 3 or 4 people cause that's the way things are done here in London due to people needing to work as much as they can to live! Quite different to Melb/Aus.

It's been great to catch up with a few familiar faces. Some I haven't seen in years. Have met a few new ones - a guy called Phil& I hit it off straight away. No getting to know you stuff, chinked a pint and then it was like we'd known each other for years. What was going to be a quite eve turned into a bigger one than planned to the hilarity myself & Phil inflicted upon our drinking companions!

It's been fun getting back on the Tube. Puts our PT Network to shame - as do alot of other cities in the world. It's pretty easy to navigate, especially for the second time around as it's marked out really well.

Hope all is well in your world and cacth you via SMS/Blog/Email or that highly stoopid & addictive Facebook soon!

Photos - 1) Adam,Flea, Me, Stackers & Dan. 2) Gizmo familiarising himself with the Tube layout (his knowledge has been invaluable!). 3) See, Speak & Hear No Evil - not that we've ever upheld it! 4) The L7 Workshop Crew - GP, Ron & Me.

And Reality Crashes In...!

Well hello, hello from Hyde Park (near Notting Hill) in ol' London town! It's begun...! Still a bit weirded out by the whole thing but was just hunting for a shower after 32hrs of being in airports or on a plane. The 7hr stopover in Bangkok was SO much fun! The lady at the bar looked at me funny when I ordered a beer @ 0630 in the morn but the body was thirsty and it was kinda humid!
A big thanks to one & all for the best wishes and meals/beers/laughs etc that I managed to squeeze in before I left. Just been chilling out today & it's been great not to have to do anything & to just have some TFT (time for Tim). Went out and explored my local area which I'm already familiar with as it's where Adam & Flea lived & where I stayed when last over here, so it's not 'new' per se. Forgotten how crap UK coffee was! Breakfast was pretty decent - a good ol' English fry up!
My little apartment is just that, little but it's got a kitchen and I'm all settled in. Found the local cinema & will finally get to see The Simpsons Movie on Sat morn. Off to the pub (surprise, surprise) 2nite to meet up with some of the Aussie's who are over here and meet some theatre people.
Stay tuned for more adventures as they happen...!