Blog: The Final Curtain

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Yesterday Steve and I gathered at Kings Cross once more for an afternoon out in YORK. It was only a couple of hours later when we arrived in The Distant North that it struck me quite what a daft thing it is just to pop up to the other end of England for the evening and come back. "Whose idea was this?" I thought. Then remembered.

We were up there to perform Total Hero Team for the last time, at the York New Musicals Festival, run by Mr Jim Welsman. After a very very pleasant stroll through picturesque, sunny, York, we met the man himself at the theatre. Jim turned out to be LOVELY man who was full of enthusiasm for the whole IDEA of new musicals, and keen to make a big thing of this festival, which was only in its second year. He took us upstairs to the Actual Theatre we'd be playing in, and the three of us toyed around trying to get the lights working. After a while a proper Lighting Guy came and did it - he and Steve discussed the lighting effects, and I got told off for stepping straight through the back curtain into the dressing room. Dressing room! Curtains! SIDES! We were not used to such exotic items!

With the lights done and the props set up we had no option but to pop down the road for a couple of pints in the tranquil beer garden of the Tap And Stile nearby. We got back to the venue at about twenty to six and waited round nervously. We knew we'd sold SOME tickets, but nobody turned up at all until ten to, so we were AFEARED! As it turned out we had a very decent crowd of about twenty in (including at least ONE person who writes The Avengers, which is always exciting), who saw us do a slightly nervy (especially at the start) show that blossomed into a WHOLE LOT OF FUN. We discovered in this, our final show, that the way to FINALLY get a laugh out of the "Musical Pirates" joke is to EXPLAIN it at LENGTH. I'd been talking about this with The Punchline In My Gag the night before, and she'd said "OH! Is THAT what that jokes about?" and it turned out that the reason nobody ever laughed at it is nobody knows what we're on about. They're two people discussing an Extended Metaphor for music piracy, who do so in a song, while dressed as pirates. "Musical Pirates"! If only we'd known that sooner!

There were quite a few children in the room too, which always means that Come On Pussy gets a lot of TITTERS, and the whole thing ambled gently to a CLOSE with me saying, on Steve's suggestion, that "Fufu the future kitten will be back to try again at www.totalheroteam.co.uk" rather than at the next gig, for LO! there would not be one! It felt a bit weird!

We thanked and hugged the marvellous Mr Welsman, promising to come back with the new show NEXT year (a new show which Steve and I had had our first meeting about on the way up - it will feature a TOP HAT somehow) then went back to the pub to meet Mr J Smith with Miss L and Master L Smith. I'd earlier been presented by some rather brilliant Dinosaur Planet FAN ART by Loula, featuring a lovely picture of a dinosaur harassing the main heroes and a RADICAL design for the Actual Dinosaur Planet, and now we were presented with PINTS by the senior member of the group. That's my kind of family!

With all that done we wandered back to the station for another beer in the York Tap and a very SNOOZY trip home. We arrived with Total Hero Team completely DONE, which means I can now FINALLY listen to the podcast of Moon Horse without confusing myself, then get on with writing the NEXT show!

posted 13/6/2014 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Glad we're your kind of family - you're our kind of Indie Music Legend!
posted 13/6/2014 by The Smiths (not those Smiths)

Thanks, Mr Hibbert! Big hugs!
posted 18/5/2015 by Loula

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