Hi Everyone,
Happy Thursday, Happy blog day, Happy rain day!
Dunno what it's like where you are but the weather is trying to be as dull as possible here today!!! Not gonna effect me though, I've woken up this morning feeling energised and ready for a good two show day!
This week has been an interesting one, probably more for me than for you as readers (sorry about that) - it basically involved a lot of me walking and having time to think.
I'll start, as always with the end of last week. Thursday evening I went to the gig at Alley Cat Club where I was suppose to be singing a couple of album songs and a duet with the wonderful Louise Dearman, but I had decided during the interval of the second show of Ghost that my voice was too tired (cos I had a hideous cold at the end of last week!) so I would just go there for a chat on stage and possibly sing the duet with Louise, which is what we did. It was a nice night, the atmosphere at those 'After Show' gigs is great, they are on the second Thursday of every month, so if you can make it one week it's definitely worth a visit!
After I sung I more or less headed to get the last train home.
Friday morning I woke up and my voice hated me so I tried to chill out as much as possible and steamed like a demon then headed for a vocal massage with my AMAZING physio Fabi! He is so good at his job and he is a massive help when playing a role this vocally demanding!
After seeing him I met my friend Nathan who was helping me work on some material for a few meetings I had over the weekend which were very important. I then had to go with a couple of Ghost peeps to do a sound check for a gig that night.
I was not performing in the show on Friday night because there was a massive awards ceremony called the world travel awards on the south bank of London which Ghost had sponsored, so Rebecca, who understudies Molly, and I were asked to perform a couple of numbers from the show during their ceremony.
So we headed to sound check in the beautiful hotel and then went back to the theatre and actually ended up going out to watch the first act of the show as we didn't need to leave until 8.45pm - it was the first time I had watched any of Ghost since October when I went to see it 4 days after getting the job offer. It was an overwhelming reminder of what an incredible show it is! When you're in a show you don't see all the stuff that happens around you and the technical elements of Ghost are even better than I remembered them from all those months ago! It reminded me why I called my agent last year and told him that "I HAVE TO DO GHOST!" and I felt proud to be a part of such a great show!
The gig that night went really well, they were a lovely crowd of people to perform to - they even got up and danced on the dance floor while we sung Unchained Melody - and we were very well looked after.
I got a car home and attached myself to my steamer immediately and then got a good night's sleep.
I woke up ready and raring to go for my album signing on Saturday but my voice was unfortunately not quite as happy to be used and abused by Sam Wheat that day, I called my physio and he told me not to perform and to head home and rest straight after my album signing. Which is what I did.
Thank you so much to all of you who came along to Dress Circle in Covent Garden for the signing. It was great to meet you all and I really hope you all enjoy listening to the album and the single of Unchained Melody. I was sat there for an hour and kept busy chatting and signing the whole time so thanks for making it a good turn out folks!
Saturday I spent the day chilling and working on the material for my meetings (mentally working on them and not vocally cos I wasn't able to speak which was frustrating!) and by the evening I cooked myself a bolognese, then after a short walk to clear my head before bed, I got to sleep.
I randomly woke at 5.15am on Sunday and felt fresh as a daisy and naturally wide awake, so I just thought I'd get up and go for a walk instead of trying to force myself back to sleep. It was a beautiful day and I left the house at 6am and walked around and sat in different parks and gardens until I returned home at 8.30am (public gardens of course, I didn't just sit on someone's front lawn while they watched me out of the kitchen window!) ha - It was the perfect thing to do before an important meeting to give me time to clear my head and focus. I always carry and pen and paper when I go for a walk to write things down which helps get it out of my head. This all sounds really dramatic but you all know by now that I am a positive thinker and so I have certain things I do to keep me thinking positive and calm when it comes to dealing with really important moments which would usually involve a lot of pressure and nerves!
My friend Callum says that I am like an onion because I'm so 'deep' and 'have a lot of layers' and so I decided to call those types of long pensive walks 'an onion walk' - so once I'd returned from my onion walk I casually got ready to leave the house to go to my meeting and then got on the train.
It went really well and once I'd come out I just headed home to chill and then later on got in the car with my mate Callum and I drove him to the park that I went to in Crystal Palace (which is near by but I'd never been there, even though I've lived in the area for 6 years) because it had a 'dinosaur park' and I was intrigued and wanted to show him the benefits of an onion walk after all his constant mocking! haha.
We then had a Sunday roast then I dropped him home before I got and early night ready for another big meeting the next day.
I woke early again on Monday and after working on some material for the meeting I headed on the train into town, but when I got to London Bridge I realised I had more than two hours before I needed to be at my physio appointment for my vocal massage so I decided to do another onion walk along the Thames from LondonBridge to Embankment then up to the theatre to grab my swimming stuff and do a few lengths and have a steam! I have realised that although I am always manically busy, I think I function better by having an hour less sleep in the morning and just being able to slowly get ready for the day ahead! Are any of you like that?!
Anyway, after my physio appointment I went to my meeting which went very well and then had a coffee with a friend before heading to work to rehearse our number that we're performing at West End Live this Saturday. After the rehearsal I had a big dinner and then did the show! It was nice to be back at work after having Saturday off!
Monday was also the release day of my new album THE JOURNEY HOME - DELUXE ENGLISH EDITION. I cannot thank you enough for all the amazing messages and letters and cards and tweets and emails I've received. I'm delighted you enjoy listening to it and the best thing about it is that the song choices I made have seemed to inspire you and make you all very positive which was exactly why they were chosen to go on there! Thank you very much!
I woke on Tuesday morning and had to go for yet ANOTHER meeting so I popped for a swim and a steam before hand and then went along to my appointment. I will be telling you what the meetings were for very soon but for now I'm unable to be specific. It's all very exciting though.
After that I basically went to my dressing room to sleep and chill the bloody hell out after so much prep work for meetings! (and a hell of a lot of walking onion style!)
After Tuesday night's show I went home and slept until I couldn't sleep no more!
Yesterday was a good day, the sun was shining I chilled at home and did a lot of work on my summer school and then headed for food with a mate before going to work and doing the show which was great last night, lovely crowd of people in the audience!
And that beings me up to date. I have many things to announce soon but nothing is confirmed yet. As you all know we finish in Ghost on October 6th, and although I will be having the BIGGEST holiday possible at that point (which is yet to be arranged) I will also be doing lots of gigs and concerts especially on the run up to Christmas so I'll keep you all updated and announce everything I can once it's all confirmed!
WEST END LIVE is this weekend. We are performing one of the numbers from Ghost on Saturday at about 12.30 and I am doing a few songs from my new album on Sunday afternoon at about 2.40 so if you're gonna be in the crowd then give us a cheer! My first song on the Sunday is The Journey Home and I want you all to sing along with me - I even made a video with the lyrics on it for you to learn - here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7wWuXV4yRA
Have a great week folks! Hope to see as many as possible on the weekend and I hope the weather stays bright for you!
Keep Smiling & Keep On Believing!
Sh-boom
Mark
