Hi Everyone
How you all doing on this fine Thursday?
Hope you've had a good week since my last blog. Mine has been busy to say the least - but then most weeks are, eh?!
Last Friday I woke and had to head to do a live radio interview for the Curtain Up Show which is on Resonance FM, which is a new theatre radio programme hosted by Tim McArthur and Nathan Matthews. I was one of two guests for the hour long programme, the other guest being Raza Jaffrey who is currently playing Billy Flynn in Chicago but is probably most recognisable from his new TV show Smash which is a US series that aired here for the first time a few weeks back.
It was a fun show to do and we actually had a lot in common as the two guests - Raza was in Bombay Dreams the musical at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (where Wicked is now) and he sang the song The Journey Home, and the first time I heard it was when I was a dancer for the Royal Variety Performance in 2006 and Raza performed as part of the Bombay Dreams section and from that moment I loved the song The Journey Home and that's how it ended up being on my album as the title track.
After the radio programme was done I had to shoot straight over to Trafalgar Square to do a sound check for my set of three songs for West End Live on Sunday and then had to stick around to sound check for the number we were doing from Ghost on the Saturday.
Sound checking was fine and then I headed to physio before grabbing food and then doing the show! Needless to say I slept well on Friday night!
Saturday was an early call as we needed to be at the theatre by 11.15am to get into costume and head down to West End Live.
For those of you who don't know what West End Live is, it's an event hosted on a temporary stage in Trafalgar Square where each west end musical performs a song or a section from the show as well as other acts and groups and entertainment and it is all for free. It's an incredible opportunity to see what is happening in the west end without having to pay to see a show.
On Saturday by the the time we had arrived the event they had sealed off the entrances to the public as they had exceeded the maximum capacity of Trafalgar Square for that particular event which was 100,000 people. SOoneedless to say it was a great crowd and we had a wonderful reaction from everyone and the atmosphere was amazing.
After that, we went straight to the theatre to do warm up for the matinee. Between the two shows I went with one of the guys from the cast to a restaurant called Vapianos which is an incredible italian near Oxford Street. We ate amazing food and then went back to the theatre for the evening show, for which I had somehow found a reserve of energy somewhere because I was hyper for the entire evening.
After work I gave my mate a lift round to his friends house - so that I had an excuse to pass Dominos pizza on my way back and treated myself to a large Mighty Meaty all to myself! Yum!
Sunday I woke up and gradually warmed up my voice before heading into town to meet my manager ready for West End Live day 2. This time I was performing songs from my album. It was nice to be doing it as me instead of in character because that way you can actually interact with the amazing audience instead of just acting the role your playing.
Louise Dearman was on stage directly before me which was great because she is wonderful with an audience so the crowd were in very good spirits by the time I was on. For everyone of you who were there over the weekend I want to thank you immensely for being so incredibly supportive. It was really great to be able to do a gig of my album music in Trafalgar Square and have a proper festival type audience because it's been a while since I've had time to do those sorts of gigs and I miss it.
I started with The Journey Home which was great as everyone joined in, then I did the acoustic version of my album track Brand New You which was fun to sing in the sun. I then invited my great friend and duet partner from the album, Ashleigh Gray onto the stage as a surprise special guest to sing the popular song Alive from my album.
It's a tough song to sing and granted we made a couple of lyric errors between us but we had fun and it was great to be singing on stage together again.
After the performance, myself, Louise Dearman and Alex Gaumond (who was performing after me) sat in a designated signing area for two hours signing peoples CD's and flyers etc and meeting lots of lovely people for photographs.
By the time I got home it was nearly 7pm and I was shattered. I got into some comfy clothes, met my mate and went for a long walk with him and his dog in the local park so that I felt like I was doing something that felt like a day off!
I bought a bottle of wine on the way home to enjoy with a movie but after 7 minuets of the film and two and a bit gulps of wine I was flat out asleep on my sofa and then peeled myself off to go to bed and get a good sleep.
I woke on Monday and headed into town to do a couple of hours in the gym before going to work. I was still a little tired after the weekend but was geared up for the show and I enjoyed it.
After the show on Monday I drove to do a big food shop (it's always better at night, cos it's quiet) then slept like a baby before getting up on Tuesday to do lots of work on my summer school and then a good 50 lengths of the pool and a steam before meeting my mate Hollie for a coffee and something to eat!
Tuesday night's show was great, the audience were amazing. Really enjoyed it.
Yesterday (Wednesday) I decided I was bored of carrying my laptop, iphone and work diary with me everywhere so after a swim in the gym I went to the Apple Store to buy myself an iPad 2 and I already don't know how I lived without one before. It's going to be a lot easier to keep on top of my manic schedule and busy life routine with my iPad with me everywhere! Woohoo!
After buying it I met some mates from Rock Of Ages before heading to do the show - which was a VERY sweaty one! It has been super humid recently and it makes the show a lot harder and wetter. So once I got home, a much needed shower freshened me up before a good sleep, which brings me to the here and now!
Good times!
I'm off to probably have a swim before the matinee. Have a great week everyone, and thanks once again to all of you who came to support at West End Live - you're all amazing.
If you live in North Wales head on down to the Pavilion Theatre this Sunday to see the show 'Born To Entertain'. I'll be doing a song or two from my album and then doing the only signing of my album in North Wales ever.
Keep believing!
Sh-Boom!
Mark
