Sunday - and finally folks!

I cannot express how weird it feels getting up on the last day of the Fringe feeling like I've only just arrived. My familiar routine is about to be shattered, dismantled and packed away for another time.

On Stage at the full Irish

Wake up, out of bed, shit, shower and shave to use the army vernacular. Coffee, brekky and blog to use mine.

No Strut!

Gig1) The Full Irish. The show for Irish comedians so once again "I'm Paddy O'Sadler feckerty feck feck feck. Top 'o the mornin' to's  ya"

The Staff at Whistlebinkies were fab!

"Give me a cheer if you've been to Ireland?" "What's it like?" I think they saw though the thin veneer of my character. I tell the story of two mythical Irish giants, Diddly Dee and Diddly Di and how they inspired Irish dancing.

Gig 2) Camden Comedy
Nearly full with Jack Brooks, Susie Steed, Colin (couldn't remember his name) Chadwick and David Tsonos. A really good show and a fine way to end Camden Comedy at the Fringe.

Gig 3) No one showed at first for Weeners the show after us so rather than leaving an audience hanging, I just went in and just riffed. It seems like a million years ago that I got stage fright.

After the PBH clear up at Cowgate Head and a few goodbyes it was a pleasant afternoon with Fliss. We Mambalsa'd in the Royal Mile to a busker, bought the obligatory Fringe T shirt.
We returned later for the party but very few in at first and so we went to the Beehive for a beer where I was accused of nodding off when I was just resting my eyes!
Finally we returned to the party to say a few more goodbyes.

This isn't the last post of my Fringe blog as we're still in Edinburgh. I would also like to do a special post on the highs and lows of the Fringe and a summary of stats and conclusions.

Dalry we have lift off

Saturday Sadness

It's coming to the end, and to misquote Oscar Wilde "Fringe love is the beginning of a life long romance" I imagine that sort of misquote would really upset Oscar, yes he'd be wild! Boom.

I'm sad in two ways today, and although I perhaps should start with one sadness I shall continue to take it from the top and let yesterday unfold.

I talk in the Mambalsa show about breaking through barriers. Closing something, stopping, ceasing, all have a tinge of sadness. As I come to the end of this amazing run my mind starts to make little notes of conclusions, lessons learned, little pats on the back and kicks up the arse.

Today was the last day of the Edinburgh Mambalsa strut in the street. The four from the yesterdays show came along and we were joined by another lady. What worked especially well was having Fliss there to Flyer and chat while I led the dance.

 Camden Comedy, penultimate Edinburgh show and what should be a banker, i.e. a good take in the bucket and a seamless show.

11am send out reminders to acts. This is a great way to gather all the excuses into one lump of disappointment and frustration, which I never let show to them. Occasionally if they've rolled in drunk in the wee hours (it's been known!), they'll almost certainly have left their phone on, and they're pulled into consciousness, I imagine their salutations to the Irish god of comedy- O'Shite!

It's 11.15am it was clear that three acts out of four had bailed, and one had car trouble.

'Welcome to my solo show :-)'

I posted help posts in certain facebook groups and messaged acts I thought were around.

11.30 David Mullholland confirms - Hero! His tenth year of the Fringe and he's loving every gig he can get.

11.50am So with my two handed show do I have enough material to survive half an hour?

My pre-Fringe brain shouts noooooo!

My Fringe brain says Helllll Yeah! Tons and Tons of material. I can chat and riff the audience easily for twenty mins. I've 20mins of stand up on Edinburgh alone, 20mins on teaching dance and 20mins of topical stuff like the Bob Marley groaner set and the Jelly fish.

12.01pm  The show prior to mine finishes. I exit flyer and David Tsonos (car trouble) arrives.

David has been my hero several times this Fringe, but he excels this time with a simple suggestion. "Why not ask the acts from the previous show?" Booom!

Damian Kingsley, my first ever facebook comedy friend, Richard Pulsford and Maxine Jones.

12.05 on stage with a full line up!

What a show.

My warm up was full of joy (I wonder why?)

Damian smashes the opening set.

Richard does an awesome tight five of one one liners followed by Maxine.

David Mullholland nails it! Finishing on his 'no more nails' joke which I've heard many times before by for some reason it had me corpsing off and on stage. We finish with David Tsonos who's so suited to this kind of gig. His cat/x-ray joke totally rocks!

Like we say on the flyer 'Camden Comedy - It's Awesomely nice'

Mambalsa Show 3-4pm

At two 2.45 there was just one older couple who had come from Glasgow just for the show. They had danced all their lives and their daughter was a Ceroc teacher in London. Mum and had recently taken up 'Ballet for the over fifties' which is a fantastic idea!

Two other couples got willingly roped in and a post marriage stag party? That's right, he got married the day before and then has his stag party the next night.

It was the last show and I had a heap of fun ending in nearly all of them up and dancing Mambalsa.

A familiar face arrived during the show. I could place her until after the show. It was Sue a journalist and often plus one (for bringer gigs) to Nigel Roberts.

Sue had come in person to tell me that Nigel had died suddenly two days earlier.

Nigel had performed many times at Camden Comedy and many other open mic nights and had become a personal friend. Last time I saw him was in a coffee shop in Muswell Hill where we had chatted about comedy and the show's narrative curve. I will miss him.

After a tea and cake Fliss and I wandered back and had a pub supper where I had Haggis Tatties and Neaps. Yummmy

Had a good old blether with Helen into the wee hours.

Nigel Roberts

 

Fabulous Friday

Fabulous Friday? Well it was!
Took all our bucket money to the HSBC and poured it into the coin sorter/ paying in machine.
Children in a toy shop num num num num num!
Accounts will follow but after the final show. Other act may have better or worse venues and I didn't want to tempt fate by comparison. Compere not compare!

One flyerer plus me and Fliss. I say flyerer but we've run out of flyers so it's just a matter of holding a correx board up with a poster stuck to it and yelling "Camden Comedy Free Lunch Time Stand-up Show Case!" ...sore throat!
In the show I reference Fabian Velez and the fact that he was a captain in the Colombian navy. So who do I meet on the streets of Edinburgh? The Colombian navy! How weird is that!
I said 'I have a friend who was in the Colombian navy and may I have a photo' and one of them gave me a look to say "Really? He wants to do a selfie with the boys in uniform!'
'No amigos! No selfie!' ...and yes I'm old enough to remember when we simply asked someone to take a photo rather selfie ourselves into a sprained wrist! Which sounds darker than it should!
'All the nice girls, love an hola' Boom a bi lingual pun based on film musical reference from the nineteen fifties...comedy gold!

Camden Comedy Awesomely nice!
I was my new compere self with rapport and attitude and fluff and pow! The acts were brill and our headliner was Kate Smurthwaite who gave me my third ever gig at the Fringe a few years ago. Now she's headlining my show! 30+ in and a cracking show all round.
I'm loving the compering and have started to develop a nice style that I'm quite pleased with including techniques such as:
The faux start. before the show starts I'll do a mic test 'one two one two' then test the cable length by walking down the aisle. 'About the right volume?' casually asked to an audience. Then a chat begins and weeeeere off! The faux start end with a couple of questions. 'Cap or no Cap?' 'high energy or low energy?' They always go for high (50:50 re cap on/off) So I release the high energy clips board crazy dance!
At the end of the show I remembered all the acts names so another two stars to me!

Snuck in for half an hour of Joke Thieves, a show where acts do a set then have to do other acts sets. The audience sees the original then the copy and the result is very funny and very clever. It's going to be on TV soon.

Mambalsa Show. Five in. People think it's somehow harder playing to a small audience, but I find it's fun a friendly and more interactive. James Ross **** who I saw earlier in the week is going to do a UK tour of peoples living rooms instead of Edinburgh next year.
My audience was (right to left) Engineer, Accountant, NHS something to do with training, and Auditor. So who's bad with names then! Mandy from Crouch End and Camden arrived ten minutes in which was lovely and we all had a good giggle.

Met Fliss to go to Phil Jupitus doing his poetry show on the Free Fringe. Amazing show and great that an Act off Telly still supports the Free Fringe.

Had a lovely dinner with Gary and Lucy in a fine vegetarian restaurant. Very good food but on balance, for top end cuisine, Helen's cooking is better. Gary and I compared notes and gossip as we both compere shows at the same time but in two different organizations. My conclusion is that both organizations try their best and occasionally make mistakes which provided everyone with the opportunity to gossip. I blame all those exam questions that say 'contrast and compere...'

After dinner Fliss and I head off to the Pleasence to see Show Stoppers the improv musical. It was very good but isn't something I would see twice as like most improv including this type of 'long form improv' with a  musical twist, the suggestions from the audience are shoe horned into an existing structure. See it twice and all the structure shows. I could see it twice because I nodded off many times which has nothing to do with the show but everything to do with me being tired.

Fun Thursday

Maybe 'Junk food Thursday' would be better.
And we used to eat like this all the time! Watch out me! It's so easy to slip back into the greasy pit of carbs and fat. Noooooo! Loosing three stone since Christmas was too hard to let it slip back.
Besides, I like being slim, I like feeling sympathy for those who aren't, I like preaching about self control and I like being a condescending git, It feels natural.
Breakfast in City Cafe on Blair St. is one of my favorite diners this side of Miami. Haggis bap with fried egg. Ummm :-)

Camden Comedy bounced back with thirty plus and all the acts showed up and got rewarded with shorter sets. I was reliably informed by several old hands to over book the last few days, as many acts party into the wee hours and discover their ability to text an excuse is greater than their desire to perform at a lunch time gig!


Lunch. A beer with Fliss, Nigel and Zac very nice. A little difficulty finding a quiet pub with decent beer. We ended up in the Pilgrim which was at least quiet! For those who care, I've been reliably informed that the Pilgrim's special own label lager is bog standard Carling.

Jannis from Fife

Mambalsa. Six in. None had actually came for the show but stayed anyway. Which is a result for my people skills and the show's content. Two design students from London were interesting as he had been a contemporary dancer because he had had a proper dance curriculum at secondary school. She had convinced herself that she had no coordination skills and was still convinced even after I'd shown her to dance in less than two minutes. Self limiting beliefs are difficult to shift.


Fish and Chip supper in a grotty chip shop. Stained menus, sticky bottles of the cheapest watered down bottles, and the toilets :-(
Delicious fish and chips though :-)

Totally coordinated

Christian Reilly's show is the best example of the Free Fringe working well for an act. His show had over sixty in which was quiet for him but every time I see his musical cowboy political show I say to myself  'why isn't he on the telly'. He'll make money from the Fringe with little overhead.

Hal Cruttenden at the Pleasance. Excellent show but only marginally better than the solo shows I've seen this week for free. Yes, he's been on the telly but £14 per ticket compared to a Free finge donation of £1- £4 in the bucket, shows the Paid Fringe as the money machine it is. Stars do very well. Free shows can do ok and the less known paid shows can suffer a lot of debt if things go wrong. Had I been not working that night we could have seen his preview for a fiver at 'We Are Funny Project' in liverpool Street.

Flyers are sometimes misleading, or to be fairer they sometimes fail to convey the true nature of the show, or we simply mis read them! I thought Lip Syncers was going to be comedians lip syncing funny stuff over video clips like I've seen Hugh Dennis do on Mock The Week.
...so the drag cabaret spectacular was quite a surprise but very good with only the occasional glance from Fliss to say "why did you choose this?" "Is there something you're not telling me?"

All in all a good day at the Fringe.

What the? Wednesday

I lost another hat! That's two since I've been here, and it's raining.

You gain a respectful relationship with rain at the Fringe. Camden Comedy has benefited in the past but not today. The rain started around 10.45am which herded a crowd into 'The Full Irish' which is the show before Camden. Rammoed!
Acts and flyerers tend to magically get ill or dissolved or something when it rains.
Chris asks me to fill a ten spot in a show for Irish comedians, 'sure says I, diddley diddley, top of the morning.' My Irishness, as I explained to the audience, is based on having been to Ireland once! And tried Guinness once. Actually I'm rather fond of Guiness and have been to Dublin twice so I'm practically full blood. My ten spot went very well :-) Not a hint of nerves and I even threw in some new material that I wrote that morning!

Camden was the quietest we've ever had! Twelve! Rain plus no Flyerers! Headlining was PBH himself AKA Peter Buckley Hill who at 77 did an energetic musical set mic free and was great.
At least I can now say I've had the man who set up the Free Fringe play at my gig in my first year at the Fringe. I so wanted to impress with a full house and a tight show but he missed my fluffy warm-up and the PBH backdrop had gone missing the night before :-(

Fliss arrived! So nice to see her after one of our longest periods apart for just under thirty years. People often don't count the seven years we lived together before we were married.

Mambalsa show was very pleasant with just five in but a lovely four friends.

A slow walk along Nicolson St. charity shopping to get another hat. Found  a nice tweed one for four pounds.
On the way to the flat, Fliss spots the office of the charity that Helen is CEO of. I've walked past it twenty times and have been collecting foreign coins at the shows for Rowan Alba but had never spotted it. The Charity houses homeless people who have extra problems. http://www.rowanalba.org/

A delicious spaghetti carbonara, home cooked from scratch by Helen, with Daffy's gin and tonics plus a bottle of a nice red and a copious blether. We crash into bed while Helen goes out to see a play about death.

Typical Tuesday

Woke up in far less discomfort than yesterday :-)
The pain seems to have become a hip twinge and is only painful when I bend.
My only other mal de Fringe is a slight sore throat be could be the start of the dreaded Fringe Flu or is probably just me hawking "Camden Comedy Free Lunchtime Showcase Start 12.15"
The best way to test this is to go a hawking! Maybe i'll end up sounding like a seagulls?
I'm running seriously low on flyers for Camden. We're go through 5000 since the start!
The backup plan is to glue posters (that I didn't think I'd use) to correx board and just point and shout.

Camden went well, partly because the very very nice sound man had put my spare phone, which I'd left there the day before, behind the bar with a label on it saying it was mine. Yes I owe him beer!
Numbers were a typical for early in the week i.e. 30.
I love the way everyone avoids the front rows so the first few rows are empty. I just step forward a do the gig from the ayle. "Hello front row"
I did my high energy intro in spite of my back and it was fine.

In between shows I did five minutes of telling a true story called Spark. It was an interesting exercise in speaking from the heart. I would have loved to stayed longer.

Mambalsa show. An amazing twelve in the audience! None from flyering but from the brochures, the Camden Comedy show or just happened to be passing by! "I know, that room above the car park with 'Kill' graffitied on the wall looks interesting, lets see if there's a show about dancing inside"
At the end I got everyone up and dancing which was lots of fun.
In the show I reference Fabian Velez and my wife Felicity doing a boleros concert. Here's a still from the show. It's a shame Fliss is hidden just behind him.


Feeling good so went to see James Ross's show. Really good! The cleverest show I've seen and a fantastically ranty delivery.

Went back to the flat to blob when I receive a text from Toby Hershman (band leader and serial Fringe addict) asking if I was up for a beer? Certain-a-mundo!
Back into town an hour before the show he was watching finished, so I jumped into a free one man show by James Loveridge excellent! People think the free Fringe is some how lower quality than the paid shows. I'm sure some are but I've seen some cracking top quality shows.

Really nice to chat with Toby at the Blind Poet where I did my second ever gig! I was tempted to get up a sing a song in the musical open mic but that might not be fair to the audience :-)

Helen and me, Freedom!

Good 'ol blether into the wee hours with Helen.
OMG I'm going native! Next I'll be painting my face blue and shouting 'Freedom' :-)

Back to Monday

Arhhhh 'Good Morning back'
Arrrrhhhhhh 'getting ready'
Arrrrrhhh 'the website's still down' so bite the bullet and sent another appeal to the isp.

I was not at best at Camden Comedy. Small but friendly crowd, but a slow and sluggish MC hobbling about like a slug in a salt factory.
A laboured riff trying to get the oboist to circular breath while playing the Kazoo. Not enough back pressure :-(
My best line was "I there an osteopath in the house?"
yes two in the front row!
"Have you always dreamed of being asked that?"
'Yes'
'Help me'

Left my sodding back-up phone there!!!!!!! -£150 arrhhhh

An endless and painful wait to do the Mambalsa show.
Zero in Hurrah :-)
Two older people sat down and I chatted to them and a lady from Market Drayton in Shropshire.
The Older man Coy was a bowen-technique therapist and he treated me there and then relieving much of the pain. I've no idea how it works but it did.

My Heros

Went to see some friends show to boost numbers. It was great totally mad.
Web site up and running. Hurah!
They (Namehog) put the problem down to a cron script running on my site. There's only one and it's been happily running away for eight year! So nothing to do with the unannounced update to the server system they've decided to do in the middle of the holiday season!

Lower back pain is such a pain in the arse!

Staggering Sunday

Bad things happen in threes according to my mum. If you don;t believe that you've either lost count or a shed load of proverbial is about to hit your fan!

1) Hopefully you've read about this morning's 'issues' with namehog.net / daily.co.uk
Three hours after the original response I got an email saying a script on my site was maxing out the servers cpu, that's the black box at the heart of the server that make the magic happen (sorry for technobabble)
I replied in the theme of (not the actual words)....
I'm four hundred miles away from my office and haven't touched the site since 5th Aug so either there's a cock up in your blame game or I've been hacked.
Assuming the latter (based on the proppersion that they are as perfect and error free and they think)
perhaps you could identify which script so I can remove it and not the whole site?
Oh and by the way, would it be possible to email me that you've put my business on hold, rather than let me discover it by chance?
These are difficult questions that require at least three hours to answers. And then some more time to get the answer over to me. Still waiting at 10pm! Whoever said digital was instant, clearly didn't have namehog and their ISP support.

2) Flyer team did a crackin' job and Camden Comedy was full. Lets hear it for

Posing with Mgana La Fey

Ally the tall erudite beady singer guy.
Gabrial the American who's soooo American we can barely talk to each other in English.
Dougy the quiet but effective one who out flyers me ten to one.The groups equivalent of a scruffy spaniel owned by a big issue seller.
Love you guys :-)
Without blowing my own trumpet I was on form as MC and lovin it.
Sadly two of the acts had BS'ed me onto the bill. Weak and feeble.
The result was that after a record bucket yesterday today's bucket just paid for the flyerers.
Ouch!

3) Mambalsa show was fun with seven in. Zuk-eros from Finchley. Ceilidh-eros from Edinburgh. Nondance-eros from somewhere.
A good show that was a fusion of stand up, documentary and fun.
About two minutes after the show I felt a twinge. My back went into spasm. Five minutes before I could walk around the bar, then a long painful walk home.
Severl hours of stretching, cold compresses and Helen's magic massager I feel like a wounded human.
So looking forward to waking up stiff tomorrow morning.

SO what have I learned today:
Take action and complete it: I should have changed ISPs months ago!
Attention to detail: Vet the acts, insist on youtube clips.
re Back: Put the sodding back rub in me back pack and don't leave it at the flat!!!!!

Last word from Namehog.net

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The requested URL /Admin/sales_report.php was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Thanks Namehog!

Saturday Sucess

Good morning Edinburgh :-)

After a relatively early night, having fallen asleep mid sentence while blatherin' to Helen - my wonderful hostess and landlady, who's cooking delights and whose' wit amazes and who now reads this blog!
I overtubed it down to the Royal Mile for a pop-up strut. I met Jon who's an actor with a show here and probably not up for a mano y mano with hundreds walking by. I say to the first lady walking by 'would you like to dance?' 'Yes' she replies, and the popup strut is on. Actor and Clinical psychologist from Norwich in perfect harmony with me to complete the drama triangle. (that's one for all you psychologists out there)




Camden Comedy.
Three flyerers, well briefed and perfectly positioned on a Saturday in a perfect precision pincer movement providing a rolling barrage of flyers.
The show is rammed! 'Sorry, come back tomorrow' all you late arrivers 'but come early'
Record bucket to offset some of the losses and on to Mambalsa.

15 in the house:-) -
Including Simon from Camden/Edinburgh who did the pop up in an earlier blog.
Also in was Nigel Day my old school friend, band mate (as mentioned in the show) and best man.
There was a lot of background noise towards the end of the show but a relaxed and fairly slick performance.

A beer/coffee/ blather with Nigel, which ended up going to seeing a couple of shows at George Next Door on George IV bridge. The first was cancelled due to zoro in, and the second was a great fun show, totally mad, but only had five in, including us. I guess Mambalsa isn't doing too badly after all!
Then back to refresh before catching a couple of late night shows.

As I left the flat the heavens opened, so I had to go back for dry clothes and a mac. Once in town I realised that Edinburgh isn't quite as prepared for heavy rain as one might think, but nor was I with swede shoes. Puddles, overflowing drains and many cases of 'brolly eye' (where someone's brolly catches your eye)
The first show was Steve's Tight Six Comedy at Cao Roma. Cancelled due to flooding! I felt so sorry for Steve McLean who's held that show together in spite of major difficulties. Cancelling a busy Saturday night is totally gutting. Knowing Steve he'll bounce back today as if nothings happened because he's a professional.
Then I hooked up with Gary Shaw and Lucy and we went off to George next door.
One room was like a sauna. I could feel tomorrow's sore throat coming on now! The bar was a dismal tatty NHS waiting room of of a place but that didn't stop them charging £4.50 for a can of warm beer.
A moment of being homesick for London.
Walked back to Princes Street getting re-soaked then a steamy bus home.
Saturday night on the town. Brilliant day!

Got up today (Sunday) to find my web site is down. Streetbeat and Mambalsa. NameHog my internet service provider is proving less than competent this year. This is the third time my site has got down due to no fault of my own. They are the least communicative company on the planet and since Christmas have withdrawn telephone support so a one minute phone conversation takes a week of support tickets!
DONT SAY IT!
Yes I have found a much better ISP, set up the account but I didn't finish transferring the files and domain names over. I can't fix anything from up here so it was better the devil you know, right?
WRONG!
Only a totally pants set up would upgrade their system with no warning or notice in August when most of their clients are on holiday, without checking if the sites they've hosted are still working!
There are some words over used in comedy that offend.
Please think of them now as you think of Name Hog which is owned by daily.co.uk
I raised a support ticket at 7.45am marked critical. It is now 8.50am and no reply.
Their web site clearly states:
'Our Support Team is available for ticket support 7:00am to 9:30 pm, 7 days a week including bank holidays.' maybe they should add the line 'except when you actually need support'
I hate using the C word but they are a right bunch of Charlies!
Breath......

Friday blues

Bump bump bump.
I was expecting it
bump bump bump
Everyone gets it at the Fringe.
bump bump bump along the bottom of my moral.
Not a crash or a crisis or a flatness or stuck but huuuuuuuuu - a long slow sigh.

Reasons
1) Tiredness; Way to many late nights chatting followed by early starts. Yesterday's run up Arthurs seat has a price to pay today.
2) Fatigue; Yes it's different. The same routine everyday is taking it's toll. More accurately the things that are wrong on day one, that are not fixable e.g. flyer design, venue location are still a problem at the end of day thirteen and will be until the end.
3) Performance; I love my little show. There are many other shows (thousands) but none quite like mine. My audience has come from connections I've made before getting here and conversations I've had with the public. There was not enough of the former and it's hard to delegate the later.
The upshot is very small numbers for the Mambalsa show and very little I can do about it..... this time around.
I took action yesterday re Camden and started two new flyerers and yes we were busier today c.30
Now the teams in place for the weekend where I can rammo it. (hopefully)

What I can do is take action where I can and learn from my mistakes.
Yes I'm going out salsaing tonight and hopefully do a mambalsa demo and network the crowd.
Now I'm going to list all the things I could do better for next year.... on paper.

Now I'm starting to feel better.
Just got my first ever review ever! It's from broadwaybaby.com! hurrar two stars! that's **
here the bit about me :
"Compere Alastair Sadler anchors the show. He is the bread of your BLT, holding all the ingredients together, just about. His rapport with the audience is natural, and of the performers he is one of the most self-assured. His background as a dance instructor make for some funny observations on the quality of British men’s dancing. Sadler is quick in responding to audience banter but the professionalism of his compering would be improved if he could remember all the act’s names."

So here's my thoughts:
First ever Fringe show two stars equals  not bad.
Two stars - but who's the other one?
I would have liked three but two's better than one, and BB. gave 240 shows one star to date.
I agree that my style of MC'ing is shambollic. That's my style. I like to start off shambolic and stay that way rather than start of slick and end up shambollic. Let's face it I can't do shampoo but I can do shambollic.

I've never been called bread before! I think a little extra detail as to what type of bread would have been useful! Baggett vs sesame bun, Homepride vs artisan whole grain. But it just says 'bread' so please choose the most appropriate for a btl and picture me having them roll-ing in the ayles. Bap you didn't see that one coming! I'm very crustworthy! Perhaps I should be aspiring to be the lettuce? Begone my delusions of bacon!

Ok I forget names all the time and the one's I don't, I fluff when saying them. That's why I have them on my phone which I use to play the 'to the stage music' which sometime helps and sometimes doesn't, see paragraph on shambollic. I do totally own all my mistakes and my apologies to any act who's names I've mucked up, mispronounced or misspelled. Why misspelled? Well the reviewer, who's name I forget, had to email me because she had..... forgotten  the acts names!!!!

Alastair aka Staradoubley
ps the reviewers name was 01000001111010101010100001101111001010100111110000
Yes it's a binary joke!