Hello and happy Sundays!
The sun is shining and I’ve played my first gig of April, last night in Calbourne. Thanks to everyone who came along, supported the Saturday Sessions and bought a CD.
We also helped to promote a new monthly folk club starting up there also at The Sun Inn, on Tuesday. ‘Downlands Traditional’. Strictly no Beatles I’m told, or music hall, variety, etc so definitely no George Formby or any of that kind of thing. Ideally there would be a group of the old boys from the village, singing the rural songs passed down through the generations. Sadly the last of those passed away in recent years, so that tradition has probably ended with them. The person running the new club asked me to come along with my guitar, so we’ll just have to see if they want to make some space for a contemporary singer-songwriter.
Back to today, and I have made a new video. It’s for the Ventnor Fringe people to help publicise the show, and the tickets when they go on sale at the end of this month.
The video itself is not for general release yet, since it’s asking people to buy tickets which are not yet on sale, so it’s behind the paywall, but I’m including a transcript of most of what I say in it right here:
Hi, I’m Andy Roberts, a singer-songwriter here on the Isle of Wight and I wanted to talk to you today about my new theatre show called “Boulevard Days” . It's a play. A play with songs, and it's a true story, based on my own life. I didn’t really like school, I just wanted to play my guitar so I ran away from home just before I was 16, and became a full-time musician in Paris.
The play follows the ups and downs of that journey and events following, and some of the songs are the original songs that were written at the time. I’ve had a really interesting and reflective time piecing it all together, first as a series of writings on my Substack site and mailing list (you should sign up for this here now), and then as this theatre play you will be able to see on stage this year.
Now It isn’t a musical, but the songs do help to move the story along, and I narrate the story as myself and enact it, as the teenager and others in the tradition of the one person show. A piece of drama, that is also a live music performance, gig theatre perhaps.
The debut is at the Ventnor Fringe Festival in July. I really hope you'll come and see it. It'll be on for three days, midweek.
Not only do some of the songs speak across a time gap of 50 years, but the guitar that I play is itself the original guitar, which I bought off a man in the cafe in Paris and still have with me to play at the show. In fact, the guitar is a character in the show.
There are three main characters: my present self, my teenage self, and the guitar. There are some other characters, all played by me. This is the most ambitious project I’ve ever worked on all by myself but it’s been a load of fun, and preview audiences seem to love it so I hope you will too!
To recap, the show is called "Boulevard Days" a One Man Show by Andy Roberts, it’s a Play with Songs, on for three days midweek at the Pier Street Playhouse, Ventnor Fringe Festival, I hope it will be a highlight of your visit, so get your tickets now, and I’ll look forward to seeing you there in July.
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