I've Opened a Record Shop - (Sort of)

Right then.

I’ve been bombarded by people asking whether im doing Edinburgh*. So, to clarify – I have decided not to go to the Edinburgh Festival this year. Now, this was, a tricky decision because I am double dingled and I do love the festival and I have built my entire year around it for over two decades but, gallingly, I don’t think I’m quite ready in the noggin, just yet. I recently struggled with going to the opticians and got genuinely scared by thunder a couple of weeks ago. So, I’m not sure about inviting strangers to huddle round me in the dark, cackling their rancid lung filth into the dank air of an Edinburgh basement for slightly longer than an hour. Also,  I reckon I’m still too scared to sit in an audience without freaking out or eat in many of my favourite places or linger in a coffee shop, trying to impress the staff with my knowledge of naturally processed beans. Also, also, I am actually, a tiny bit reluctant to toot the magic horn and summon fervent danoracks from all corners of the legally available globe to congregate in a place they don’t live to worship at my feet. Of course, I genuinely hope everyone has a wonderful and nourishing time, that shows are successful, technicians are employed, local businesses thrive and egos are satiated but I don’t think its for me, this year.

Of course, I’m already wracked with regret, envy, sadness, self loathing and statistical doubt about my decision, so, to stay busy and distract myself from the fact that countless other people are having precisely the sort of time I physically and emotionally crave but am, for now, psychologically unequipped to enjoy, I’ve been working on something else. 

Which is this.  

I’m going to release a newly finished show exclusively on physical media (LP, CD, Cassette Tape) and for a strictly limited time.

The show is called Shenanigan, I’ve been working on it on and off for a couple of years and whilst I think its top notch, it’s actually something I slightly struggle to describe. I did work in progress shows of it two years ago (a few nights at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge and a few weeks at The Roundabout in Edinburgh) and over the course of those, it developed into a really really good story about two people with a satisfying mystery at the middle of it and  I really liked it. I had plans to turn it into some vaguely experimental play, but then the kerfuffle happened and that plan fell away. Then, in June of this year, i did two weeks of work in progress on the show as an Audio Only Online Storytelling Experiment™ during which time, I tweaked it and changed it, I realised it was a story about telling stories and I was frankly, delighted by how well it worked as an audio thing. So now I’m going to work on finishing it over the rest of August and most of September, then I’ll record it three times, once for the LPs, once for the CDs, and once for the Casette Tapes. The finished version will never be performed live and there are no plans to make it available as a download which means this show will only exist on/in these objects.

 Which I think is nice.

 So.

I’ve set up a shop where you can pre-order the show on whichever format you want. Now, there is some really important, if potentially boring, information for you to read before ordering - please do read it.  

Briefly though, the prices for Shenanigan are £30 for Double Vinyl, £17 for CD and £12 for Cassette. There’s no limited number available or anything like that, the number of each item that gets made will be dictated by the number of orders placed.  The shop is open from by the time you read this until Midnight on September 30th 2021.  At that point the shop will be closed, all items will go off sale and I’ll use the money you’ve paid to finalise various orders with a few places and then update my website with  the expected lead times on each of the formats. Then once they’re made and delivered to me, I’ll parcel them up and post them to you.

So, there we go, a bit of fiddly, time consuming and hopefully, satisfying fun.

There’s also double vinyl pressings of three old shows available in there at £25 each and If this goes well, I may look into releasing some of the longer shows on triple vinyl but if, as is a distinct possibility, this turns out to be a logistical ball ache the like of which I’ve never imagined I might not bother.

So that’s that.

But also, just quickly whilst I’ve got you, I’m aware that what with everything in the UK unlocking and everyone deciding to ignore everything for a while before everything becomes impossible to ignore again, some of you will be, understandably, wondering about me doing some live stuff. But then, I’m also aware that some of you will be feeling a bit left behind at the moment and I happen to know how scary and miserable that feeling can be and would rather not contribute to it, so I’m going to be doing some more things online (once I think of them) and also trying to find ways of doing live shows in such a way that other people as reticent as I currently am would feel comfortable attending. Not sure how yet, probably some combination of masks and gaps along with, potentially being outside. Although, I’ve contacted a few open air theatres, and weirdly, at this stage in the summer,  they’re all a bit booked up. So maybe I’ll rent a field or have a tiny audience in a massive hall somewhere. Anyway – I’ll be in touch about that if and when I’ve worked it out.   

But for now, the shop is open and however you’re doing, I very much hope you’re doing alright.

You can find the shop by clicking on, SHOP.

*I’ve received three (3) semi interested emails over the last six weeks.