Blog 106! Proud to be British!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Thursday.

It is ROASTING in London this week. Hope you've had nice weather wherever you are as you're reading this.

It's been a good week, busy for me but again nothing exciting really other than being stuck behind a desk sorting LOTS of things for my summer school, and it's just typical that one of the busiest weeks I have as far as office work is concerned, the rubbish weather takes a major turn for the better! Anyway, I'm being so stereotypically British talking about the weather aren't I?!!!!

Talking of being British though, how excited are you about the Olympics? The opening ceremony is tomorrow night!!! I mean yeah, the whole thing is gonna send London into mayhem for nearly two months but I have decided to be patriotic and be proud that we are hosting the 2012 games. (until you read one of my tweets where I'm complaining about TFL).

I had a thought today, well it was more a flashback to when I was a teenage fatty in Wales and doing not much other than a lot of dance classes, singing lessons and eating chocolate bars, I would never have dreamed then that 12 years down the line I'd actually consider London to be my home and to be living here this year is amazing! I just thought I'd write that in here as a reminder to you all that none of us know what the future holds and we should be excited by it and not just plod through life! I wonder where we'll all be and what we'll be up to in 10 years time! Whatever you WANT to do, set a goal now to get there by 2022! Have faith and belief and you'll get there - if you need a little guidance read a book called The Secret!

Anyway, this week as I said has been mostly working on office work so the only things I need to write about really are that I allowed myself a real chilled out Sunday with a couple of friends and enjoyed a good few drinks - which resulted in a few comedy photographs being taken which many of you will have seen on Twitter! It was a great weekend.

Other than the gym and swimming a lot that's all that's really happened this week- oh we also had an extra matinee on Tuesday because we don't have a show on Friday night because it's the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It's a much harder schedule to perform the show this way because although it's still the same amount of shows within one week, doing an extra double show day is tough. Singing and shouting the show twice in one day really takes its toll on a person vocally and so 3 double show days in one week is extreme! However I'm also glad because I would not like to be working tomorrow night because I wanna be able to enjoy the footage of what I'm sure is going to be an immense opening to our games!

Anyway folks I'm off to have a session with my physio (or physic as my autocorrect on my iPad likes to call him) before heading in for two hot shows! I'll be dead sweaty! Get it! Ok enough with the jokes I'm off!

Have a great weekend and lets celebrate how amazing Britain is and support TeamGB and hopefully we'll get lots of medals!

Positive thoughts! Keep believing!

Sh-boom!

Mark

BLOG 105! A whole lotta summer school prep!

Hey Everyone,

Happy Thursday and happy blog day.

Hope you're all grand.

Is been a good week since my last blog. Nothing majorly huge to report but it's been a good week non the less.

Last Thursday night after the show I met with my agent and had a good catch up to chat about lots of things and then headed home to chill with a couple of episodes of Brothers and Sisters and then slept like a baby! I've now finished the 3rd season and still love it as a tv show. I'm gonna start on the 4th season next week I reckon.

Friday I think the jet lag had caught up with me. Going back to do two shows was a bit of a killer after a few days in NYC. Luckily all I needed to do was sit in front of my computer and watch video entries of kids performing to pick a winner for a competition which has been held recently on a welsh TV show called TAG where the winner gets to come along to my WEST END IN WALES summer school for free. There were lots of talented kids who applied and it took a while to get through all the videos. There were 5 who I thought stood out over all and one winner, so it was quite an inspiring afternoon. By late afternoon I was on my phone on standby ready to speak to them in the TV studio live on air to announce who the competition winner was. Once I had done that I went for a nice long swim at the gym and then did the show.

Saturday I needed to head into work early for a guitar lesson and then performed the matinee. I don't know what happened to me but I had somehow shaken off the tiredness and jet lag and managed to have loads of energy for both the matinee and evening show which resulted in me heading out for a good few drinks with some of the cast and then headed home for some nice food and a long sleep.

Waking up midday on Sunday was a rare treat. I felt rested and refreshed. Headed to do a big old food shop before working on more summer school stuff and then heading to my friend Callum's house for a Sunday roast, lots of ice cream and a good film! Perfect Sunday!

Monday morning I woke and after 4 hours work on West End In Wales I headed to the gym for a couple of hours and then went to work. The audience on Monday night were incredible! Really great crowd! We have Lisa Davina Philip paying Oda Mae Brown this week (she's the understudy) and she is bloomin marvellous! It's worth a trip to see Ghost this week just to see her! So funny!

On Tuesday I did more work on the summer school and then again I went to do a couple of hours in the gym. After the show I saw my agent as he was in watching again and then headed home.

Guess what I did yesterday? (Wednesday)...... Yup you got it I did a lot more work on the summer school - due to the fact that it's the last one this year I am doing everything I can to make sure it's the best ever, hence all the hard work!
I then headed in to meet my manager Rebecca for a coffee and a catch up before heading to work to chill out in my dressing room before doing the show.

Last night I wanted to watch a movie when I got in but I ended up being too tired and just fell to sleep like a little old man! Ha.

I feel nicely awake now though to go in and crank out two shows and love every minute of it. I can't tell you how much I love doing this show. Of course it is hard work and I shall be more than ready to move on in October when we finish but having just gone past our 6 month mark (Siobhan and I opened in the show officially 6 months ago to last Friday 13th July, which is weird as we opened on Friday the 13th too), I can honestly say that I'm really happy to have been a part of this amazing piece of theatre and urge you to try and see it before October 6th if you haven't already,  it's a really special show that is very different to anything you'll see in the west end right now, and anytime soon I imagine.

Anyway, that brings me to a close yet again. Thanks for reading as usual. Hope you all have a great week.

I'm off for a swim before the show.

Love your lives cos life is great and above all...Keep Believing!!!

Sh-Boom

Mark

BLOG 104! Empire State Of Mind!!!

Hi Everyone,

How you all doing? Happy Thursday.

I am pretty darn jet lagged today. I'm not sure why cos I had quite a restful day yesterday after I landed back from my trip to New York. Perhaps it's the thought of trying to energise my body enough to do two shows today that's proving a little overwhelming for my little (yet very intelligent) brain! :-) 

So it's been a busy ole week including a trip to the other side of the world for a few days which was fun.

Last Thursday evening I packed everything I needed to take with me to NYC on the weekend so that I was all set and could use Friday as a chill out day before I left, which I certainly did. I had a lazy morning before heading to meet my good friend Haley on her lunch break from rehearsals which was nice to catch up and then after that I headed to Leicester Square to check out what film I might fancy watching in the movie theeaytre (I've become very American since my trip!) I decided to book a ticket to see 'Friends With Kids' but had a good hour and a half to wait before the film start time so I crashed on the comfy sofa in the bar of the movie theeaytre and watched a video on YouTube which was a bit of a research video for a project I'm working on at the moment. 

'Friends With Kids' is a great film, very funny, very well written and very well acted. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. I left the cinema feeling like I wanted to find a friend to fertilise casually and raise a child with! I could just keep the kid in my dressing room while I'm on stage right?! ha. One day there'll be a bit more stability in my life to consider things other than being mainly busy with theeaytre stuff!  (You're never gonna call it a theatre again now are ya?!)

So after the film I headed home to have some nice food and tried to get an early night after watching some Brothers & Sisters. 

My wake up call was 6.15am on Saturday as I was being driven to Heathrow Airport at 6.50. I arrived the airport and headed straight to the lounge to shove my face full of as much of the breakfast buffet as possible before getting on the plane.

I arrived in New york and the weather just hit me like a tidal wave of hairdryers blowing as hot as they could on my face!….IT WAS HOT!!!

I checked in to my hotel which was just off Times Square and was on the same street as the theeaytre where Ghost is playing - I was like "of course I'm gonna feel like I'm at work on my week off!" haha. It looks great. I didn't see the show while I was over there. I might see it when I head back November time I reckon. 

I went straight to meet one of my best friends Becca who is in Spiderman out there after she finished her matinee - I walked three blocks from my hotel to her theeaytre and was drenched with sweat! HOT HOT HOT!!! 

We had some great sushi and spent the rest of the night chilling with Drinks which was great. It was 4am on my body clock by the time I got to bed but it was 11pm local time so that was a good time to retire to the land of nod.

Sunday I woke and wandered around with a friend of mine Jake and we had brunch, then just walked near the Hudson river and around Central Park which was great but I got some dodgy tan lines by the afternoon cos the sun was blazing and I was wearing a vest which goes really narrow at the back near my shoulder blades so I have a pretty curvy tan going on right now. Ha

In the evening I went for dinner and a couple of cocktails with my friend Stephen which was good. It was a really great mexican place with gorgeous food. I was stuffed by the time we finished. That night me and my mate Jim headed up the Top Of The Rock (the open air top level of the Rockefeller Centre) which I've done a couple of times before, but when you get a view of the New York City skyline from so high up it's a great moment to put the world to rights and clear your head so I am always keen to get up there! 

We then met Becca for a smoothie before getting an early night.

I woke on Monday morning and had to go to a meeting until lunch time and then spent the afternoon eating a MASSIVE pizza from the famous John's Pizzeria - they're famous because of their 'no slices' rule - I had a small pizza and I was defeated by it, I had to take two slices back to my hotel room which is SO not like me. If you are ever in New York and want good pizza, go to one of those restaurants.

After that I headed back to the hotel to chill before meeting Becca to go for a walk in the park. We walked miles without realising it. We walked uptown through the park and it was only when we exited onto the street that we saw we were on 95th street (which is a long way from Times square) - and as Becca lives on 96th we walked to her apartment where I serenaded her with her guitar for about 20 minutes before we set off on the long walk back to the hotel. The hotel was on 46th street so between going to and from Becca's apartment, we walked over 100 blocks! That's insane. We had a quick drink in the hotel bar before I sent Becca home cos I needed my sleep. I woke early on Tuesday as it was my last day there and I had a meeting from 9-11am. After that, myself, Jake and Jim went for some gorgeous cocktails in an Oyster bar downtown. They were called Cucumber Rickeys and were really tasty and refreshing. Gonna try and make them here soon!

So all that was left to do after that was head back to my hotel to shower & pack and then get in a car to JFK airport and fly the red eye (over night) flight home to London.

I had a good couple of (ridiculously strong) drinks in the club lounge and then a fair few more on the plane with the food which was amazing before transforming my seat into a bed and getting a couple of hours sleep.

It wasn't enough though because by the time the cabin crew woke me for breakfast, we'd only been in the air 4 hours and two hours sleep was not good as you lose 5 hours of your life on the return flight because of the time difference. So I felt like someone had stolen my nighttime from me but it was good to touch down in London yesterday (Wednesday) morning, get in the car home (whilst sleeping the whole way) and then climbing into bed for an hour or two more! Nothing beats your own bed eh?!

So the rest of yesterday was just chilled really. I popped to see a mate then drove to get some food before having a chilled night on the sofa and then hitting the hay nice and early to get ready for today's double show day! 

It's been an eventful week but a good one and I look forward to returning to New York again in November all being well for the 5th time.

Hope you've all had a great week folks. Keep smiling, keep loving life and as the song on my album goes - Keep On Believing! 

Sh-boom!!!

Mark

Blog 103! Driving me mad!

Hey  Everyone

Happy Thursday!

How you all doing? I am sitting in a lovely Italian restaurant in central London writing this as the matinee of Ghost is about to start! Yes that's right I have a week off on holiday which means I can spend today and tomorrow chilling out all day! I might even change location half way through writing this just because I have time to relax! Happy Mevans indeed!

It's been a very busy week since my last blog and a tiring one too so these two days are very much needed as I am flying to New York City on Saturday for a few days and want to be rested before being affected by Jet Lag.

So last Friday I was doing lots of work on my summer school and preparation for a busy weekend in Wales which I'll write more about in a little while. Then in the afternoon I had a swim then a physio session before heading to the theatre to pre record a press interview over the phone and then did the show.

Saturday morning I drove in to town so that my car was there for my journey home to North Wales after the show on Saturday night, then after some food I headed in to do the matinee. I had my good friend Aimee watching the show with her Mum and Mum's friend and then we went for food afterwards. The evening show was great, it was really nice to randomly feel like my voice wasn't really exhausted at the end of the week! I seemed to have extra vocal supply in some newly discovered reserve account which I managed to access so I went to town with the ole belting my tits off!

After the show Aimee and I exited the theatre as soon as we could to get to the car and get out of London as quickly as possible! We certainly managed it, we were on the M1 motorway by the time I'm usually just exiting the car park which was great......but then.....the gods of the motorways clearly decided it was not our night to get to Wales in a hurry! They had closed the motorway for a whole 4 junctions which resulted in them diverting ALL four lanes of busy traffic off a single carriage slip road, then for miles through a couple of small towns which had the MOST amount of traffic lights and junctions I have ever known. We were at a stand still for most of the time we were away from the motorway. It took two hours twenty minutes to get back onto the motorway and we were still 20 miles south of Milton bloody Keynes. When we set off our estimated time of arrival was 2am - I got to bed at 4.15am. The birds were tweeting in the trees as the sun was rising and there I was trying to get some sleep, 6 hours after finishing the show! I could have performed Ghost another two times in the time it took me to drive back!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that for the last 25 miles the petrol light was on in the car with nowhere to buy fuel so that was an added stress at the end of a long journey!

ANYWAY....enough moaning! I woke on Sunday and chilled during the day then put some petrol into the car from the stash my dad has on the farm for his quad bike and then drove to The Rhyl Pavilion Theatre for the night.

My first dance school The Adele Meads School Of Dancing were doing their show and the principal had asked me to present the awards and to sing a song which is why I headed home for the weekend. I was also signing copies of my new album as it was the first time in a long while that I've been able to get back to North Wales!

It was a great night and it was a real trip down memory lane for me seeing all the kids wear some of the costumes I would have worn over 10 years ago - when I was much shorter and fatter and spottier! It reminded me why I do so much work to promote youth theatre because I thank my lucky start that everything worked out for me as far as making the right decisions and getting the breaks I needed are concerned but for some young talented people they don't have a clue where to even begin when it comes to following their ambition to work professionally as a performer.

I decided that night that as this year will be the final year of my West End In Wales summer school, I have lowered the age limit down to 9. So the new age restrictions are 9-18 so spread the word folks and lets give those 9 year olds the opportunity to work with myself and west end stars for a week in August.

After the show I drove to my folks' place and was entertained by two of my little nieces who were thrilled that they were still not in bed at midnight. They were singing and dancing and acting like crazy animals and I loved it!

After a good sleep I woke up feeling a little reluctant to drive back to London but alas, after a breakfast with my wonderful sister I jumped in the car and drove back for 5 hours in the hideous rain and dangerous driving conditions listening to music blaring to keep me awake and finally reaching my place in London at 3pm. Instead of allowing myself to crash and burn on the sofa I quickly grabbed my swimming gear and went to swim away my stress before heading to work to do the show.

I went home on Monday night and boy did I need my sleep. I slept like a baby.....in my pants though, I don't wear a baby grow to bed! Neither do I have a dummy or a soft toy! Ok I'm gonna say I slept like a log instead! I slept like a wooden log!

Tuesday I woke up and had lots of work to do in my office at home before heading to the BBC Radio building in central London as I was performing a set of three songs at a media showcase along side Louise Dearman and a guy named Mike.

It was basically promoting my new album to radio, tv, press and media people in a chilled out environment with a very laid back acoustic feel to it. I had to do my set first as Ghost had allowed me to be late for work that day so that I was able to do the gig, so as soon as I sang my third song I grabbed my bag and legged it to the theatre in time to do the show.

After the show on Tuesday night I chilled watching a movie before bed and then woke Wednesday (yesterday) knowing I only had one more show to get through before having some time to chill. I did some shopping to update my wardrobe and then had some work to do at the theatre before doing the show then heading home to officially crash and burn!!!

I woke this morning and headed to get my hair cut and then had a physio session before heading to Vapiano where I am now, having devoured amazing food and I've just made plans to meet my friend Nathan at a cool place called The Riding House Cafe on Great Portland Street for a coffee! Nathan is a great friend of mine and is a technical genius! He bought me my cool new iPad case and this is in fact the first blog I have written on my iPad instead of on my computer! Good times!

That's me done typing! This time next week I will be performing in Ghost again having had a couple of chill out days and a few days in New York too! Plenty to write about next week I'm sure!

Have a great week folks! Thanks for reading as usual.

Keep believing

Sh-boom!

Mark

Blog 102! A whole lotta West End Live!!!

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

BLOG 101! Meetings and onion walks!

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

BLOG 100!!! (Good times) A bloody amazing weekend!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Thursday

HAPPY 100th BLOG DAY!!! 

How you all doing? I have had the most incredible week and I don't even know where to start. 

Last Thursday was the first day of my full week off from Ghost. I woke and after posting my blog I headed over to meet my good friend Ashleigh for a catch up and to run through some music for a gig we are doing together soon. It was great to see her and really good to have a laugh and catch up properly.

After that I drove over to my mate's in East London to go for food, and then work on some script work for a project I am involved with at the moment. It was really great and we did some very productive work and then I jumped in my car and headed on down to my best friend's house in Epsom as she was getting married on the weekend so I wanted to see her to check she was ok and to see if there was any thing I needed to do as last minute preparations because i was her man of honour. I arrived nearly three hours later than planned because the day got snatched away time wise and I was sat in very heavy London traffic for a long while - but I didn't mind as I was singing along to my CD's in my car and happy to be free to do what I wished for a week.

We had a great night in Epsom and after a good sleep I drove back home and then headed for a singing lesson which was pretty horrendous because I think my voice had cottoned on to the fact that it was allowed to rest for a few days so it certainly was in rest mode. It was nice to touch base on lots of technical exercises though and I got excited about doing more vocal work on other projects in the near future.

After that I decided to have a chill out afternoon so went to my favourite place of late -  Thai Square Spa in Covent Garden for a couple of hours and well and truly chilled out and it was great to have some peace to think about lots of different things without rushing from one place to another.

Friday evening I met my gorgeous friend Caroline for an impromptu night of tapas and cocktails and wine. It was superb.

I woke on Saturday and had a real blitz around my flat to make sure it was clean and tidy for when I returned from my best friend's wedding weekend because I knew I wasn't going to be in ANY fit state to do any house work upon my return - because I fully intended on getting well and truly plastered on champagne! - which believe me I did! 

So I arrived the hotel and met the bride to be and the other bridesmaids and bridesmen  - there were six of us, three men, three women! We had lots of champagne and chatted and then went to the restaurant for laughs, food and more alcoholic beverages. We tried not to have too late a night so that we could enjoy the wedding day but I'll be honest I really didn't sleep too much as I had so much on my mind. I kept thinking of things I should check and created a little to-do list in my head and believe me, when I have a to-do list I can't switch off until it's done so I might as well have just got out of bed and done it! - ANYWAY….

Sunday morning involved breakfast, a couple of rehearsals and then decorating tables for the wedding reception and basically casually getting ready whilst drinking champagne from 9am! The morning was amazing, we all got so excited and then the time came for us to go down to 'The Library' which was the stunning room in which the wedding ceremony was held. We walked down the aisle in our couples and once we settled in our places the stunning bride (my best friend…oh did I already mention that she is my best friend?) slowly walked toward her husband to be with the biggest smile I've ever seen. I don't think I have ever seen the two of them look so happy. The service was amazing and then there were lots of photographs on a beautiful terrace over looking hundreds of acres of well maintained grounds while we drank much more champagne and laughed and I got chatting to all the different guests. 

By the time we sat down for the wedding breakfast I was more than ready for food because the champagne had taken a firm hold of my personality with a tight grip and wasn't gonna let go until I gave my body some form of substantially filling nutrition.

The food was incredible, followed by a few games and great speeches and then we had a little down time to chat and rest a little before the 'evening do' started and more guests arrived.

Well I can safely say that I have not partied like that in a very long time. I sang the song for their first dance which was at 8 o'clock and then the band took over who were amazing which meant that other than a trip to the buffet and one trip to change my sweaty shirt, I didn't leave the dance floor for 4 solid hours! It was one of the best nights I've ever had in my life and it was amazing to be able to really chill out and let go and and have fun and not worry about having to sing the next day or be fit for the show because I knew I had 3 whole days to recover. 

The drinking and good times continued into the early hours of the morning until I gave in and went to bed - it was a busy 20 hour day but every minute was just perfection!

We all woke on the Monday morning and had a breakfast together in a private function room which was great, everyone looked and felt a little worse for wear and then we all went to the spa which had amazing outdoor heated jacuzzis that we relaxed in whilst the rain poured down on our heads - quite surreal but so nice that we could all still be together and still have fun, because it's very often after a big event like a wedding that you feel a little deflated the next day and on a bit of a come down, but I didn't feel that way at all. After a few hours in the spa, there was a group of about 15 of us who were in the close wedding party who went back to the brides parents house for gorgeous food and we all sat and chatted about the highlights of the day whilst they opened their gifts and cards.

Then the time came for us to let them have a couple of hours to themselves to pack before they jetted off on the honey moon for a 12 day cruise. I could not be more proud of Sal (she's my best mate you know) and her new husband Ollie and was overwhelmed by what an incredibly perfect weekend it was and I'm thrilled for them both that they have each other and that they now have a long happy married life ahead of them! Amazing!

Monday evening I drove home and had to use an emergency can of Redbull which I'd been keeping in my glove compartment for whenever i felt tired whilst driving - well after that weekend, the energy was certainly required to get me home safely - once home, I just passed out on my sofa and then pealed myself off it to flop down into bed and try and sleep off the exhaustion. 

Tuesday I worked on some summer school organisation and preparation and then headed into town to meet a couple of mates for coffee at 3.30pm which ended up in me staying out until nearly midnight catching up and having lots of laughs! They were all drinking wine and beer whilst I stuck to peppermint tea as I was still a little fragile after the weekend! 

Yesterday (Wednesday) I woke and carried on working on summer school stuff before heading to the London aquarium with a mate which was fun  and then I was going to watch my good friend Haley playing Miss Honey in Matilda the musical which was incredible. It's a great show and I highly recommend it - Haley was perfection as Miss Honey - I'd spread her on my toast she was so Hunniful (yeah I made that word up but I don't give a damn!)

Last night I headed home and got a good night's sleep before waking this morning and accepting that today is the day that the busy work ball starts well and truly rolling again. I have a T.V interview to film before the matinee and then I'm heading to sound check for a gig I'm doing tonight with Louise Dearman, David Bedella and a few other people at The Alley Cat bar, if you want to come along please do it'll be great fun,  and then i'll be returning to the theatre for the evening show before then heading to perform at the gig which I'm looking forward to! Hope to see you there tonight from 10am! 

Tomorrow is again a very busy day with rehearsals for a few gigs and then Saturday you need to get your bottoms down to the showbiz shop AKA Dress Cicle in Covent Garden because I'll be doing an exclusive signing of my new album THE JOURNEY HOME 'Deluxe Edition' which is officially out on Monday but if you come along on Saturday you get a singed copy two days before the release! I look forward to seeing lots of you there for a good chat and a few pictures and for me to squiggle on your albums! Let's see who can request the most random thing to be signed! 

Right I'm off to work!

Thanks for reading and for all your support as always and because this is my 100th BLOG, to mark this occasion, if you re-tweet it on twitter I will pick one of you (if you've re-tweeted) as a winner and will send you a Ghost programme signed by me, a signed picture of me in Ghost and a signed poster from the Album launch too! All you have to do is re-tweet it! And I will also tweet the winning person and give them a follow myself! (If it's you I pick then yo better be interesting!) ;-) 

Love and luck to all of you and enjoy your lives as much as you can!

Believe

Sh-boom

Mark