Edinburgh Fringe
With Hexicon at the Edinburgh Fringe, 11th to 18th August 2004:
Phew… Quite a saga getting there: my train was due in at 7:30pm but arrives at 12:10am. Never mind! I stagger off the train into the centre of Edinburgh. The dark, imposing Athens-of-the-north architecture jostles for position with neon lights, bars, takeaways and shuttered tourist tat. The night feels warm and soluble, and is swarming with unusually inebriated people. Despite disorientated, jet lagged sensations, I quickly get my bearings and have no choice but to head straight for the venue, weighed down with sleeping bag, guitar and gap-year style back pack. I am sweating like a pig and some of the people around here look like they’ll have me squealing like one in no time, too. I negotiate sundry drunks and loons and make it down to Infirmary Street, right in the heart of the city. Having explained to the barmaid that no, I wasn’t a vagrant/alcoholic/drug-fiend/asylum seeker/war criminal/bloody student/comedian/performance artiste (though some may beg to differ) and that I was supposed to be playing with “the band”, my feeling that this was all turning out to be a dreadful mistake was alleviated; helped somewhat by the presence of Hexicon flyers (I’m in the right place!) and a pint of beer. Mike and Paul (Hexicon) arrive with their entourage. Mike blinks at me like he’s seen a ghost, but I am warmly greeted. I’m glad to have finally made it! There commences a week of total body-clock confusion, surviving on cereal, not much booze (too expensive!), one slap-up meal (thank you, Monster Mash and Velocet!), one rip-off meal (Pizza Paradise? Pizza Purgatory, more like!) and what Mike routinely refers to as “living the dream”.
The set up for Hexicon is Mike Collins (vocals, guitar, bass, drums) and Paul Rains (guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, FX). They swap instruments as material requires and mix and match covers (Neil Young, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey, amongst others) with their own material. Like me, they haven’t had time to prepare as much new material as they wanted, so are playing more covers than they would like. The covers aren’t a problem as such. The songs all fit together nicely, but it is a shame in that when a band has original material as strong as “Zither”, “Did You Think I Would Love You?”, and “Sweet Things”, I want to hear more. Like me, they have a CD to sell: an EP entitled The Noises People Make, which includes the aforementioned tracks. I’m not a sure how best to describe them. Phrases like “acoustic rock” conjure up images of Jon Bon Jovi (aka “Bum Bogie”) goin’ out in a blaze of glory and anyway, they mostly play electric guitars and use quite a few FX. I think the covers maybe give a good indication of their sound: poppy without being crass (or, er, Crass); akin to a blend of The Byrds, Elvis Costello and Radiohead, without the tendency to whiny emoting of the latter. Hexicon are in Edinburgh for the whole month. Their “day job” is as part of the Velocet Theatre Group, providing music and sound effects for an engaging and highly atmospheric two-man production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at C Venue in Chambers Street (the bar here bears an alarming resemblance to a student union, albeit with a severe price hike). By night they plough their own musical furrow, across the road in CO2, playing between 1am and 3am as Hexicon. This is where I come in: as support act, sitter-inner, and official bootlegger. Playing to an entirely new audience is a convenient way of refreshing your material and also of testing yourself. With a short-ish slot I can play a different set every night. I am looking forward to this! Plus ten days out of Whitstable is not to be sneezed at.
When I arrive, they’ve been here for a little over a week and are well into their stride (and coping with survival on adrenaline and going to bed at 8am!). Audiences vary: as well as friends and associates there are a number of people from other shows being staged in the C venue taking full advantage of their free entry and Hexicon are attracting a fair few regulars. However, occasional punters aren’t always the most attentive and occasionally you wonder why they’ve bothered coming down at all when they’d clearly rather be somewhere else. It’s not hard to find places to stay out drinking all night in Edinburgh, after all. There are one or two hacks. The only review I actually get to see is a favourable one in Three Weeks, which generally gets the point of what Hexicon are up to, stressing the intimate low-key nature of the set up and emphasising the quality of the material on offer (this is, of course, before I’ve arrived). There are some others we encounter, but of them, more hereafter. Audiences vary from about half-a-dozen to a good 30-odd (the room, minus bar, is about as big as a large living room!). Most people are very appreciative and there is a lot of affirmative feedback, even for me!
Okay, so here is a day-by-day, gig-by-gig, sleep-deprivation-by-sleep deprivation account of my EDINBURGH EXPERIENCE!!:
11th August
After Virgin Trains’ impromptu scenic tour (line washed away at Stafford, highly circuitous detour took in Carlisle and Glasgow!) and arriving somewhat later than planned, my brain is highly confused. That said, it feels GOOD to be back in Edinburgh. I’m pleased to get my bearings pretty quickly and find that the venue is in easy staggering distance of Waverly station. Gig gets underway as planned at 1AM. Mike and Paul are on form — tight harmonies and judicious instrument swapping help create an illusion of there being a bigger band. Completely on auto-pilot by this stage, I opt to play a short set of songs I can play in my sleep, in this case almost literally. “Cocoon”, “Force Of Nature”, John Entwistle’s “Whisky Man” and “What’s Under The Stairs?” are despatched with as much gusto as I can muster. I mutter a few threats and imprecations against Virgin Trains. These and the songs are well received. Hooray! Sleep-walk back to our surprisingly plush accommodation, collapse on sofa bed and lapse into coma.
12th August
Rain. Precipitation. Deluge. Monsoon. The very air is soluble. Saw Jekyll and Hyde, with Hexicon providing on-stage music and FX (including e-bow zither!) whilst dressed as Victorian undertakers. The Times’s notoriously hard-to-please theatre critic was reputedly in the audience that day and gave a three out of five review — praise indeed. There are to be several more favourable reports by the end of the month. I can’t pretend to be much of a theatre goer, but I am impressed. Two actors fill all of the roles, thus neatly underlining the story’s themes of identity and duplicity thereof (or something). It manages to balance humour and suspense without either element being overstated (although, as befits the story, suspense wins out in the end). The gig that night felt below par, for me at any rate. Inexplicable nerves and feeling strangely subdued. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. Set: “Cocoon”, “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Force of Nature”.
13th August
Carried out extensive explorations of the city during the day. Less rain, I’m pleased to say — quite summery, in fact. There is an awful lot I’d like to see, in theory (comedy, plays, music and exhibitions) but timings and limited funds mean I’ll have to be selective. Gig much better, from my point of view. Sat in with Hexicon for the first time, which was also good — should only get better with practice. Tonight we have my only direct encounter with hacks. They bray extensively and announce themselves to be “too pissed” to be there; they make loud haughty remarks; scrawl things like “bedroom musicians” on their scraps of paper (I’m sitting behind them readers, trigger finger twitching; I can hear every smug condescension they utter); and they loudly and pointedly walk out less than half way through. I don’t know what publication they were from or whether anything was published (maybe they were impostors?), but their tedious behaviour makes you wonder about the accuracy of some of the reviews you see, good or bad. Anyhow, we’ve got you on camera. Watch your backs, watch your shadows; for death is swift… Where was I? This gets me fired up to strum like a bastard, but, typically, they’ve buggered off before I get to play. I know there’s nothing worse than suffering fools whilst trying to play. It either only makes you make mistakes or turns you into Lenny Bruce’s less well-mannered alter-ego. So it goes that suitably riled, I play better than I have previously, whereas Paul and especially Mike, being on the hacks’ receiving end, seem cheesed-off and distracted. Tonight is thus deemed something of a damp squib.
Stayed out (not on the lash, too damned expensive, just “out”) until 5am. Paul and I discuss upping the ante, embarking on some abstract epic a la Bass VI with his tape loops and FX and my guitar antics (although the extremely limited space precludes pretty much all looning — so much as reach out to tune your guitar and you’re liable to punch somebody. The venue is as intimate as you can be without getting unwholesome). I even consider finding an extra guitar to abuse. This is partly to fuck-up any more hacks of the type we endured tonight, but mostly, as ever, it’s to confound expectations, just to see the looks on people’s faces (those expecting “‘mellow acoustic” whatever). Mike disappears, not to return until 10am, having enjoyed a four-star breakfast (it’s a long story!). For some reason tonight’s mini-disc only yields the keyboards. Set: “Force Of Nature”, “Medway Crab Fisherman” and “It’s A Small Town”.
14th August
Body clock profoundly confused. House starting to resemble student digs. Living on cereal, toast, bananas and tea, which is somewhat vexatious, as is getting shamelessly short changed by Pizza Paradise, the bastards! More nosing round city: I find a copy of the first Chameleons album and visit the City Art Centre (incalculably miserable Titanic exhibition, cheer myself up with rampant frivolity of Cecil Beaton Portraits). My beard-growing experiment has reached the wino stage. Gig: One of Hexicon’s choice covers is Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing”, a tricky song to capture and one I’ve heard a few wannabe acoustic troubadours walk all over in hob-nail boots. On a good night (and tonight is one of them) Mike’s solo rendition is nothing short of spine-tingling. Recordings improving: levels good, performances good, audience reaction good. CD sales less good (i.e. non-existent). What will make the bastards bite? I’ve tried gentle reminders, maybe physical violence is the only solution. Set: “A Million Platitudes”, “Cocoon”, “Beat On The Brat”.
15th August
Er… I seem to have lost a day somewhere… It’s easily done, I can tell you.
This may have been the day we first tried some extra songs as a trio (including Dick Dale’s “The New Victor”), but as each day blurs into the next, if I don’t write everything down then I really can’t remember accurately. Maybe I’m going senile? Realisation that not only am I at the Rock’n'Roll Death Age of 27 (it caught Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison), but I will soon be 28. When will the indifferent bastard world recognise my genius? Buy a curry to cheer myself up, only to find I’ve ordered the wrong one. Oh, for fuck’s sake! More rain.
16th August
Visit an open stage at Whistle Binkies on South Bridge, next to the accursed Pizza Paradise. Sound is ropey and the PA buzzes and farts all night long. Most of the acts are quite tedious, to be frank. Compere is affable but has the slight air of “must-I-work-with-these-amateurs” condescension that often seems to go with the turf, especially when my guitar fails to produce a signal when plugged in. I get the usual “your guitar’s broke, sonny”. Cobblers! Well, it’s worked every night since 2001! Borrow a somewhat dilapidated Takamine, beat through “Cocoon”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, and “Force of Nature”. Response is pissed and enthusiastic but the clock has struck 1am, so I run straight out of the door and down to CO2. It turns out things are 20 minutes behind schedule (it should be noted you get fined £10 for every minute you overrun so tonight is expensive for the act that precedes us). Despite this, it turns out to be a good gig (and yes, my guitar works perfectly! I haven’t even broken any strings!). Two in one night is often a good recipe for playing well, although it can sometimes confuse your brain into thinking you’ve already played something when in fact you’ve played it at the previous set. Strummed like a mo’-fo’. Mini-Disc working. Probably the best night overall (for all three of us, while I’m here anyway), so I’m glad I caught it!
Home at dawn. Much mysterious early-morning shenanigans. Woken by Paul exiting the kitchen and bathing the room in incandescent light, silhouetted like an alien from Close Encounters.
17th August
Visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Because it’s FREE, readers!). See John Hegley and Helen Lederer in the café (indeed, Hegley leaves his mandolin next to my guitar in the cloak room!). Absurd amounts of rain. Today is Velocet and Hexicon’s day off and I am invited to join them for a big feed at Monster Mash, a no-nonsense café specialising in deluxe sausage’n'mash ensembles. The joy of getting a square meal that A) you haven’t paid three times too much for and B) Is what you thought it was, is indescribable! Workaholic that I am, I can’t go without playing, so I visit an open stage at the Blind Poet. Audience is more subdued here, but the sound is a lot better. Visit the Holyrood Tavern, which is the first truly decent pub I’ve found since I’ve been here. Take advantage of a comparatively early night.
18th August
Sensation of being well-fed and well-slept and healthy is almost weird. Beard is making me look like a vagrant; a ginger vagrant at that. Tonight is the last night and there is perhaps a slight feeling of fatigue on my part. More band activity — I play some percussion on a Hexicon tune (with only five minutes practice on some sofa cushions beforehand!) and we try collective versions of “It’s A Small Town” and “The Model”, amongst other things. Finally sell a CD (just the one, mind!) and persuade Avalanche Records to take a few on sale-or-return. And that’s it! Until next year? We’ll just have to wait and see…