Happy Thursday.
I hope you're all well.
I am sat in my dressing room, starting this weeks blog a little later than I normally would as I decided to have a 'day off' type day and went to the theatre with Ben Stott who plays Boq in Wicked to watch Betty Blue Eyes which is a musical that opened at the Novello Theatre in the West End a few weeks back. We enjoyed it and my friend Hollie who is in it playing a bratty 12 year old was very very good! Love seeing friends do a good job in shows!
So what a busy week it's been.
Let me chat you through the manic 7 days that seem to have flown by since the last edition of my blog.
Friday I woke and went for breakfast to a cute little local cafe with a friend of mine and then headed home to work a bit more on the songs for my album.
During last week i had started to get a bit anxious about the recording of my album to be honest, because I felt slightly pressured to get it all recorded within such a tight schedule that I was a little worried weather or not my voice would hold out. 9 hours singing is pretty intense eh?!
Hang on… the microwave just pinged with my dinner - and i just need to tell you that I'm multitasking like a demon right now, typing, and at the same time I'm literally shovelling food into my face like the kids from Oliver do with the porridge looking stuff - and…. I'm just gonna put it out there…..I make a mean bolognese!
Anyway….
So I felt a little better after rehearsing the songs on Friday so I went to meet my mate Haley to enjoy a couple of hours with her walking around London in the amazing sunshine that we had. Very hot!!!
Then I left Haley so I could fit in a good old swim before work. I have been wearing my aqua mitts recently when i swim which increase the resistance in the pool and i must tell you…my man boobs have been aching a considerable amount more since I've been wearing them so they obviously work. Look out…soon I'll have boobs as big as Katie Price!!!
Actually….now, I can't believe I'm telling you this, but, I was very over weight when I was in high school - because I ate chocolate bars for breakfast every day whilst waiting for the school bus, and I was bullied pretty badly, and one of the names I was called was 'Milk Mark' because…..wait for it…… they said I had boobs!!! Please laugh at this and don't feel sorry for me because I think it's hilarious!!!
I didn't really let it bug me at the time either because I wasn't really aware of the fact that I was over weight. But I was a proper little chunk! For your information, I was probably a 'C' cup! :)
Anyway, my mind seems to have an even bigger tendency to wonder than normal tonight eh?! I really am a type what i think sort of guy. So…….
After Friday night's show I headed straight home to pack for the busy weekend ahead.
Saturday morning I tried to chill before work but then decided to head in so I could do a little food shop so that Ashleigh (who was coming to record my duet with me) and I had snacks for the long journey.
The two shows on Saturday were great. I've discovered a great new naturally caffeinated drink, which I can't remember the name of, but my goodness it really gave me a boost for the Saturday double show day. I'll find out the name and recommend it next time. I made sure i packed a couple of them for the weekends recording work incase I started flagging and needed a pick me up - I very rarely drink energy drinks because once when I was in Rocky Horror, i drank a can of 'Relentless' in the interval of one show and then during my solo song I started having extreme heart palpitations and it really stressed me out so I'm glad that I've found and 'all natural' drink that serves the same purpose.
The journey up to Caernarfon in North West Wales begun at 10.30pm Saturday evening, with Ashleigh and I getting into the car the record label had provided for us to head up there and immediately the laughing and the fun began. The driver departed and Ashleigh still couldn't find her seatbelt socket so she said 'Listen if you don't want me on the album just tell me, you don't need to subtly sit me in the ejector seat so you can fire me out somewhere on the M1'
Ashleigh had bought a couple of cans of mojitos for us to drink and I was so glad she did because it really relaxed me.
We had a good catch up in the car. Had to stop a couple of times 'cos Evans here nearly wet himself! Then once we'd been travelling a good 3 hours we decided to get some sleep. I had bought both of us some travel pillows so we could rest our heads and the giggles started again as we were trying to blow them up. Basically, I just couldn't do it! Hilarious.
We got some shut eye and then the next thing I woke up and Ashleigh was heavy breathing with the window open - I thought she'd gone into labor but she was just feeling a little travel sick because we'd reached the dark, long, winding roads taking us through the hills of Wales. She said to me 'If I squeeze your arm can you tell the driver in Welsh to stop please so I can be sick' - what she didn't realise was that the Welsh word for 'stop' is 'stop' so she would have been fine just just say it instead of creating a code arm squeeze. But luckily that wasn't a problem.
We arrived the hotel having been on the road nearly 5 hours and then got a good sleep before waking up and getting ready to hit the studio for the first day of recording my debut album. I won't say any more - just watch this…..
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24887934?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=1" width="398" height="224" frameborder="0"></iframe>
If you don't see the video embedded in the blog (as some of you have been having problems with previous blogs) then cope and paste the link below!
http://vimeo.com/24887934
So that was the weekend. I really am so pleased with how it went and the fact that we're so ahead means that I'm only recording for one day this coming weekend (Sunday) and my family are coming down to the studios to watch and see how it all works and that means that because I won't be needed in the studio monday morning ,fingers crossed, I will be able to go home with my folks and do that amazing thing known as 'sleeping in your own bed at your mum and dad's house'. I can't wait to see my family.
So after the show Monday night I went home and had a great sleep and then woke up with no definite plans which was nice after such a manic weekend so I headed into town to spend a good couple of hours in the gym and pool and steam room and then had a quick sun bed to give my skin a bit of vitamin E and to make me look slightly less dead. Then I had a meeting and catch up with my manager to discuss all the different projects i have going on and the stuff that's coming up, which I'll hopefully be able to tell you all about by next weeks blog (gigs and album launches etc) so it was good to chat to her about it all.
I woke Wednesday morning before the two shows and had a general tidy of the flat because my friend holly was coming to stay and she'd never seen my place. Then I headed into work. During the show I was told by the stage door keeper that I had a delivery arrive at stage door so I told him I'd see what it was after the matinee. Well I forgot to check after the matinee as I was rushing out to have a meeting with my manager and the amazing photographers who are working on my album photo shoot and all the publicity shots etc. Check the photographers out online - Snooty Fox Images. I'm so excited and they both really get me and what I picture the album looking like and i have a photo shoot soon to get it all sorted asap ready for the August 1st album release.
So after the meeting I headed back to the theatre a bit excited after a very productive meeting and then I remembered about this 'delivery' at stage door. I went to check and no word of a lie, there was the most amazing carrot cake waiting there for me. It had been delivered direct from my favourite cake shop, The Hummingbird Bakery in London and it was a whole cake, not a slice…a whole cake. I opened the card and realised it had very generously been sent from a very dedicated fan of mine and it was apparently to 'keep my energy levels up' during all the recording work. How kind!
Well you should have seen Ben's Stott's face when I went into his room parading this beautifully iced full sized carrot cake in front of him. We decided we'd be a couple of granddads and wait until the interval to have a cup of tea and a piece of cake. It was amazing! It's still not all gone either - Sh-boom!!!
After last night's show I met my friend Hollie who I did High School Musical with about 3 years ago - she played Kelsi Nielson the pianist and did a wonderful job of it too. We hadn't had a good catch up in a while so we picked up lots of nice nibbles and headed straight back to my flat to listen to good music and chat for hours and drink lovely wine. We also fitted in a Skype conversation with our friend Becca in New York so all in all it was a perfect night.
On the subject of music I have two recommendations for you. A lot of you know i don't have any specific taste in music styles I kind of like all types. So my friend Aaron who I'm now calling my music guru recommended a guy called Simon Curtis. If you google him online, you'll get a link to download his album FOR FREE!!! It's called '8 bit heart' and it's cool electro pop music and that guy is immensely talented.
Also my friend Caryl who wrote the kids TV show I did, 'Marcaroni' has a daughter named Greta who is only 16 and is currently sitting her GCSE exams but just before Christmas she started teaching herself the guitar and started song writing. Now, 6 months later she's great and has some beautiful songs. She's got a real Laura Marling sound (if you know who that is) and I would really recommend you visit Greta Isaac's myspace page and check out her music because she's going to do really well and I always find it exciting to discover someone when they are still 'undiscovered' in a main stream way. Let's support young British talent folks! Here's the link to her page - please click 'LIKE'
http://www.myspace.com/gretaisaacmusic
So Hollie and i woke this morning, had some breakfast then she needed to head into work while I met Ben for some lunch before watching Betty Blue Eyes. It was a great show and well worth a visit. Kylie Minogue is the voice of the pig in the end. Ha. Random.
After the show Ben and I decided we would go and sit with Julie who plays Madame Morrible in Wicked and we all drank tea and ate carrot cake in her dressing room and had a nice chat whilst she did her make up. She's a wonderful woman and a joy to work with.
Which more or less bring us to now. I am currently sat on the train to my best friend Sal's house as I finish this up.
A good few of you have asked on Twitter if I am singing at West End Live. I am not doing the Trafalgar Square stage as it's just our greeny Rachel Tucker wowing the crowds there but i'll be doing West End Live in Cardinal Place in Victoria before the matinee next Wednesday 15th June. So come along, most of the cast will be there and we'll be performing a few songs from the show. Well worth a visit. I believe it's at 12.30pm so perfect timing for you all to then grab some lunch before coming in to watch the matinee. See you there :)
Right I think that's enough typing for one day. I will of course be filming week two in the recording studio for the next video blog.
Thanks for reading and as ever, thanks for supporting Mevans in all I do!
Until next time, love your lives and live your lives.
Sh-boom
Mark
