HeadSpill

Day 4 - Great Malvern
“Malvern is full of old people, but they don’t die”, said Bill one of the nice tech crew as we rocked up to Great Malvern Forum Theatre. The older generation dictate the speed of life in Malvern, as exemplified by the equally nice man at the guest house we stayed in who told us loads of information about previous tenants, and the strengh of the wifi signal we could expect from each of the rooms, even though we were only staying in one of them. The main supermarket in Great Malvern is a Waitrose, which kind of tells you what you need to know, on entering it you may take a hand held price scanner around the shop. There is trust in Malvern.
The venue was lovely, and the gig was great, a nice savvy crowd who loved Danny and lapped up Charlie’s show.

Day 5 - Carlisle.
Up the M6 in the sunshine, and a stop off at Tebay services to experience the expensive delights of Westmoorland Farm Shops. I’ll not get a ‘beef growler’ from the deli counter though, am trying to be good.
The Carlisle Sands Centre, a duel purpose venue that is also a sports hall, and big with it. Took a mosey into Carlisle and got in touch with Sarah Ledger, a no-nonsense ex-comic who invited me round for a cuppa. It was great to catch up and chat about old stuff. Charlie really wanted to visit Hadrian’s Wall, we’re back here for Hexham next week, so we’ll do that then.
Tonight’s show was a tough crowd, not hard to please, but hard to keep bouyant - almost like weightlifting - requiring lots of performance heavy lifting to keep them interested. Back down the M6 tomorrow.

The Middlesborough gig was fun. Arriving at the venue charlie was recieved by one of the locals, leaning on a bin asking if he was looking for the post office. The local was a regular who comes to most of their productions. Entering the venue and looking around we spotted this.

Yes, it really is.

Day 3 - Bradford
Got to see my folks before we headed off, which is always great, then straight down the A19 towards Bradford. The theatre is huge, with loads of posters from stand up’s who have toured here. I’m slowly getting my tour legs, and promise to myself to try and eat as properly as I can for the rest of the month. Charlie want to get some silica gel packs (where the hell would you get them?) and Kristina is happy as the sound desk at the venue is a better model. I’m contemplating transcribing some of Danny’s notes into a new diary, as the current one is beginning to look a bit battered now, but saying that the batteredness does have a nice worn quality quality to it, maybe keep it a bit longer until it falls apart.

John Cooper grabs the comedian to chat about his new Edinburgh show “Now I Know My BBC”

This year’s Edinburgh festival is in full swing and with it Toby Hadoke’s new show “Now I Know My BBC”, an affectionate and stroppy love letter to Auntie Beeb touching on shows such as Quatermass, Doomwatch and Survivors. Toby’s previous show “Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf” received five-star reviews in 2007 and toured the UK. I stole some of his time to catch up and talk about his new show. MORE…

Dive! Dive! Dive! Blogger John Cooper looks at subs – and we don’t mean long sandwiches

Thank telly for The Deep, a show that has come along to fill that Paradox shaped hole. I didn’t know about it, I wasn’t excited about it, but I am watching it… and it has a very similar vibe. MORE…

Extracting bits from time and space – blogger and comedian John Cooper has a list of other peoples favourite things

Summer means convention time and in a little street in Manchester I’m helping plan “Vworp 3″ the annual pub-based Doctor Who mini-con. I have in front of me list. A list of Doctor Who moments compiled by the likes of Graeme Harper, Terrance Dicks, Rob Shearman and other respected Who contributors.MORE…

Fresh videogame fun – blogger John Cooper peruses some picks from the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010

If you like games it may not have escaped your notice that E3 took place last week. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the place where all the big dogs of the gaming world come out to play and show off their wares….

Devouring whole seasons at a time: a healthy habit? Blogger John Cooper crawls out into the light after another heavy telly binge…

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/04/24/blog-looking-back-at-reboot/

Love it of hate it, time-travelling dino series Primeval is a show with legs. Losing its leading man before his action figure was even delivered to the supermarket…http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/04/08/blog-primeval-speculation/

Today I recieved my speeding ticket from the Welsh Police, for going 61mph in 50mph roadworks.

Is it me or are there sixty millions lots of unnecessary road works going on at the moment? Last week I couldn’t get home  4 times without being re-routed, diverted, scenic’ed or ground to a halt then sent the full length of Stafford on a B road with a motorways worth of traffic. On the M6 last friday, getting home a full 3 hours later than is healthy for someone whos been on the road for 4 hours already. Having siphoned me through the devils own bottom that is single lane traffic they have the hi-visibility audacity to put up a sickly orange lit sign saying “Tiredness Kills, take a break”, don’t bet on it. Stuck in the car for what seemed like the duration of a mid-life crisis I had lucid imagingings of happily swerving through the line of cones that fenced off a seductive stretch of vacant motorway and flooring it, taking out whatever got in the way. Staring at the road, guess what - NO WORK GOING ON. Nothing, no men in hats or steam rollers, big trucks with an arrow on the back or 5 men standing around watch another pour new tarmac onto a patch of perfectly serviceable tarmac that they’d removed earlier that night. ITS TARMAC! It’s not about fixing the roads is it?! Really?! is it? It’s about nearing the end of the financial year and local councils needing to spend all of the budget so it’ll get renewed next year, because if they dont spend it all, they won’t get as much next time - so every middle management manatee working for the local council looks for ways to spend it, and their miniscule imaginations all arrive at the same idea, pour it into the road. Why mess about? Just take the extra couple of million and bury the actual money in the actual road, it’s less work and easier on drivers. Or god forbid do something worthwhile, like fund some local volunteers to go out and help with earthquake victims, or pump some money into the Welsh venue I played last week so they can better publicise the events they are putting on, which will get more people out of the house and spending, which will stimulate your local economy for the better. It’s not rocket Science is it?! BUT NO. Just do what you’re doing council men, spend the excess budget you’ve poorly managed on thick black tarmac, as hard and dark and bland as the dreams you had as a child. When I finally got free of my sixth traffic diversion, I floored it. Fast and carefree for less than two minutes before being flashed for speeding. You ****s. You ***** ****** ****s. You want my money? Now, after all you’ve done? Tell you what, From now on when ever I see cones obstructing a stretch of road with NO WORK GOING ON I’m going to get a van, come back, take them all and sell them on ebay. Call it my ‘council cünts fund’. Happy Motoring.