Memories

It's the last two days of my training at Mountview and I found the blog post I meant to post over a year ago.

It may only be of interest to a few but hey ho - here it is:

Day One

Got to Mountview for just after half 9 and stood around the reception area like a right prat waiting to ask where to go. To my surprise and great luck, I heard someone shout my name and saw some of the girls who I'd met at my audition and who had also got onto the course. Man did I look popular to the rest of the group I thought - not even joined them all in the cafe and already they knew my name. So the entire class came down the stairs and we headed round the corner to have our proper meet and greet from the staff. Sue Robertson gave us an informative talk and welcome including 'what mountview expects from you and what you can expect from Mountview', health, support and all round attitude of mountview. We had all the 'new students' there including BA and Postgrad. All staff were introduced and we were then sent off with our respective heads. We'd been given an incredibly handy folder with our induction pack, our locker key, swipe cards and programme handbook all in our very own folder to keep. Result. There were a lot of us newbies - around 70 or so which was exciting rather than daunting and I was starting to feel settled already. We then were taken to a room back in the Ralph Richardson building with the postgrad actors to have a talk from head of acting and postgraduates, Matthew Smith. He seemed gentle and calm whilst being completely engaging and charming. He had helpful tips, industry stories and answered as many questions as he could for us. Although not quite filling all the time with a planned agenda (he felt pretty much finished half an hour or so into our two hour session) he was passionate and made me feel relaxed about being there and about acting: There is no such thing as good or bad acting. Either you are acting, or you're not. It's taken me about 25 years to realise that.
There was a huge range of post grads. From recent uni graduates, some performing arts, the majority not in fact (geology, architecture, law) to people who have been working (accountant, farmer, beautician) and from all over the world (Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Irish, American and Darlington haha).
We then had lunch and headed to the Duke of Edinburgh round the corner (or the Jew as I mistakenly heard...) where I was charged a hefty £2 for a diet coke. I was about to KICK OFF and fortunately Matthew (my new firm friend) lent me the 30p extra I needed to buy this desired beverage. I joked about the interest I would owe him for this loan but I was a bit serious - times are hard. A really cool guy, Matt had only got into musical theatre through his girlfriend and stumbled upon some great roles (Judas - Jesus Christ Superstar) and sang I'm Alive from Next to Normal at his audition. For those who don't know, I sang Superboy and the Invisible Girl from the same new musical. Bonding continued.
Katy, a girl who came to see Wild West End (my Edinburgh fringe show) when I posted about it on our mountview postgrad group was just as lovely as I remembered and seemed very similar character to myself. Relaxed in nature but a bit nervous today and ready to laugh at herself, I hope we stay good friends (says she on day one) and her friend Luke continued to entertain me and the rest of the class. All in all, a great bunch of people. Headed back to the base for our afternoon workshop with Matthew Smith again and we played some name games, some acting games such as 'One chair left' and after a break again and a few more interestingly long-answered questions, the self-proclaimed King of long-answers, got us to do an exercise called It's Your Fault It's My Fault. 3 people would head to the floor and with only 'it's your fault' and 'it's my fault' as the text, had to see where the scene would take them. The first round was interesting and saw people play with the words themselves rather than a background  of scene. It was great and Matthew asked whether we thought scenes were outside/inside, at work/home, friends/colleagues. The second time round, we had to decide before we went up whether the thing that was or was not our fault, was a big deal to us or a small deal to us. This changed the scenes a lot and provoked interesting scenarios when one or two people saw it as a small deal and one person saw it as a big deal and vice versa.
This session finished just before 5 when we had photos taken for the benefit of the staff teaching us. We then went to have a talk from the SU team - pretty shambolic. No real introductions into the SU and what it does, they almost assumed that we knew it all. And if you didn't have facebook and hadn't joined the 'Mountview SU' group, you were stuffed. Eventually I put up my hand and explained I didn't really know what they were talking about (costumes for thursday night and cafe de paris being next to KFC) and would they explain properly. The boat party had pretty much already sold out - again something you could have only found out on facebook. Should we go searching for our SU and our events or should they tell us? Surely something could have been sent out by email when the initial handbook got sent....
Feeling a bit left out as postgrads, we were then going to be taken on a tour and each group of the school 'Acting, MT and Techies' were going off to be taken round. Postgrads weren't mentioned. So, as the old grannies that we are, we just left and went home. It was near 7 anyway and we weren't going to the pub quiz happening at the Duke - we took our zimmer frames and headed home. It's great for Freshers but I've done that...for about 5 years. I'm ready to hit the books and work hard.
I feel so relieved my first day is done because anxiety is really not my thing. My appetite came back - a welcome return, and I realised that it's not going to be the boot camp I thought it was and that in fact I am well prepared and going in with perhaps a more realistic approach and more focused approach than most. I mean this compared with those in the school not necessarily the postgrads. Seeing the undergrads in the SU talk made me feel so happy doing the post grad too - as a group you could tell we were more confident in ourselves, we know what uni is about and we know that we really want this training and with only a year to do it we'll give it everything. My class all went home to practise our songs for tomorrow's 2 minute performance for 4 tutors. Dedication on day one.
CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW. Yippee!!!!

artist of the day

A lot of the music I listen to comes from Britain and I occasionally look westwards to see what's happening in the States but haven't ever really scoured the globe properly enough to reach Australia. Now this may not be a post that necessarily looks at 'new' music, this artist has been going for a long time, but he's new to me!

Rai Thistlethwayte and Thirsty Merc

An accomplished musician, Sydney man Rai Thistlethwayte has had a relatively successful career down under both as a solo artist and with his band Thirsty Merc. Growing up in a musical family, Thistlethwayte's music ranges from strong jazz to pop ballads all of which are topped off with his penetrating and beautiful voice which work for the numerous genres he switches between. A talented guy whose vocals, playing skills and song writing are mighty impressive; I've put a mixture of covers and originals up here to give you a taster:

*

Alexander Wolfe

It has been a while since I paid some attention to my dear blog and thinking about the amount of new music I need to catch up on does fill me somewhat with worry! But I have a couple of weeks on my hands and I'm looking forward to discovering what bright new things have cropped up since I last explored. I will write something substantial very soon but in the mean time wanted to post about Alexander Wolfe who may already be on many radars but I recently saw him perform at the Edinburgh Fringe with theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. They created a show called The Trench with Wolfe composing the music. It was a beautiful score which you can find here.
It's easy to see why Wolfe was asked to join the show, not only for his flawless soft vocals, but because he creates real atmosphere with his accompaniments and looks to an array of instruments to bulk out his melodies. He played a number of different instruments on stage - it was impressive to watch. As to his future work, I'm excited to hear his new album 'Skeletons' out on Sept 10th. His debut album Morning Brings a Flood is available on iTunes.

Below are a couple of my favourites of his including the title track of the new album - enjoy!

*

Happy 24th Birthday Miss Cordy!

 This entry is dedicated to my sweet and quirksome friend Miss Cordelia Bradley. One-of-a-kind, kook and all round babe, you give me nothing but joy, laughter and hopefully in the future, hats. Please have a little listen to the band below, they are one of my favourites:

I hope you like them because on May 1st I am taking you to see them. Please RSVP ASAP that is if you are not too busy reporting sky news.
Bon Anniversaire mon petit choufleur

**

band of my day

The Civil Wars.

I am so glad this duo has been brought to my attention because they couldn't be more up my street. Not only I am generally a fan of boy girl duos (see my earlier post about them here) but this Californian-Nashville treat are Grammy award winners and Jools Holland featurees. They are touring in the UK in the coming month but sadly most dates are sold out - they are, however, back again in November time and I for one will be purchasing a ticket. Already rather big within the folk scene, their future can only hold great things. Hope you fall in love with them just as much as I have

 

 

**

for huma

Now I don't normally write entries for specific people but my dear friend came to me like a little grasshopper seeking advice to find out what's new, cool and fresh on the music scene. I knew she'd come to the right person for although I do not know what is new, cool and fresh I can find someone who does and regurgitate it for her...

Jake Bugg.

I heard about this young man from a girl I met at one of my many new jobs. She's an aspiring singer-songwriter and has done a few gigs with Jake in and around Nottingham. He's a couple years ahead of her and is really starting to make waves, already making his way onto the line-up of gigs hosted by genius music lables like Communion. Just 18, there is a very strong country Johnny Cash feel to his voice with a hint of Dylan too. Gets thrown around a lot but he really is a fresh sound and his sweet love songs create the perfect soundtrack to spring. A Nottingham original and recording his first album this year in Tennessee - exciting things to come.

Sam Beeton.
                       Stumbled across this wonderful performance when revisiting Jake Bugg's Burberry Acoustic session and I'm a fan. Continuing with our Nottingham-based guitar boys theme, Beeton is very much a rising star having supported big acts like The Script on tour and Jo Whiley is even a fan. He has also modelled for Burberry so there seems to be very little reason why he won't start to make it big in a year or so. Huma - he is finishing his tour in Nottingham on May 12th if you're keen...I am.

Matthew and Me.

Something a bit more mellow and appeals to the other side of my music taste - the not-so-folky part. This Cornish group are hitting up many of the folk gigs around London and are pretty well known in and around Cornwall. For a few more videos and just for general interest see their website.

Goodnight Lenin.

I may be a bit slow on the uptake with this group as their name has been flying around - a great name too if you ask me. I bloody love Goodbye Lenin so that's already a big tick in the box. They are right up my street with their ability to create fun folk that makes you want to get up and jig to and also sing beautiful harmonies along to piano melodies. An all-round band and one I would love to see live. 

 

Roo Panes.
                    And finally: Classic guitar playing, lovely garden and great beard. What's not to like?
                    Listen to a bit more of him here if you like!

*

coming soon...

I am seeing Ellen and the Escapades tomorrow and I'm very excited. Things have been hectic recently and I haven't been to a gig in a while so tomorrow I will come out from the shadows and return with what I'm sure will be, a glowing report about the gig. Malt Cross. Nottingham. Be there or be square. (That phrase is making a comeback...)

*