- Homepage / News
- Blog
- Music Stuff
- Video Stuff
- Photo Gallery
- Online Shop
- Podcasts
- Press
- Biography
- Gigs
- Contact Details
- MySpace Page
Mitch's Podcast:
wahey
Tuesday 18th November 2008
Wonderfully misleading intro to this trailer; I'm quite stoked about this now. And it's absolutely the right thing to do with the franchise; it had gotten so bogged down in fan-pandering and continuity porn that going right back to its roots can only be a good idea...new weight idea
Monday 17th November 2008
It's a long shot but it just might work.20 12 or thereabouts today, so just another pound gone and at least we're still moving in the right direction.
However, it does feel like a long time since I've made any major progress in this regard, so with that in mind I'm setting myself a little short-term goal here...
Christmas is five weeks on Thursday; I reckon if I pull my finger out, I can get down below 20 stone by then. It's 12 pounds, which would require a loss of just under two and a half pounds a week, but it would be a nice little milestone to reach; it would re-affirm my seriousness about all this and it would mean I could feel a bit less guilty about maybe letting things slide just a little over the festive period.
So there you go, that's the plan. I shall of course expect you to hold me to this; I don't 100% guarantee I'll pull it off but I need you to help me try.
Thanks.
stuff and more stuff
Saturday 15th November 2008
... any ideas?There are just three dates left on the tour; I'm actually going to miss this when it's over. Previous years at this stage I've had a bit of a get-it-over-with feeling but this time I think I may be left a bit bereft. It's all gone very well so far; good numbers and no real dramas (well nothing to compare with this at any rate)
Another Good Thing has been the sheer volume of CDs we're shifting, in particular the new one as a. it's a good album and I'm proud of it, and b. we spent quite a bit of money on it and it'll be a while before it breaks even, so the more of them we can sell now, the sooner we might actually make some money out of it.
I'm always struck by quite HOW keen some of my "people" are to buy my CDs. It's almost like they appreciate the opportunity to support what I'm doing just that little bit extra, as if just COMING to the show weren't enough. In fact, more than one person I've met on this tour has told me that they're almost frustrated that I don't produce more Stuff for them to buy.
Since I don't think I can really put out more than one album a year (not if I want to maintain any measure of quality control) and since plans for next year's album and tour are already afoot (oh yes) , if I want to satisfy what appears to be a real demand for More Mitch Benn Stuff, then I have to think of what form exactly said Stuff should take. And so, again, I turn to you, faithful bloggees... what would YOU like to see on offer?
Many "celebrities" (NOT a word I would use to describe myself and if I ever discover I've become one I'll jump off a bridge somewhere; I just bring this up for illustrative purposes; back to the sentence) are lending their names to all manner of products, few of which I think would make any sort of sense with the "Mitch Benn" imprimatur. Not for me, for example, the designer clothes range favoured by the pop and soap stars of our time; if you wanted to reproduce my "look", you'd just need to get hold of a XXXL black AC/DC t-shirt and persuade a friendly baby to puke over one shoulder. Likewise, I can't imagine there'd be much call for a Mitch Benn scent; that unmistakable aroma of stage sweat, diesel, Red Bull and (yes) baby puke...
But seriously (ish), what sort of Stuff should I make? There are a few obvious ideas such as t-shirts (did those few years ago and they went pretty well; may be time for some more) but what else could I do? Given the limited means of production at my disposal, of course. Action figures would be fun, I know, but prohibitively expensive, I fear...
So, any thoughts...?
the home stretch
Thursday 13th November 2008
... and thoughts on hypeThere are only four tour dates left (Bristol, Manchester, Grantham and Shoreham) and thus far I'm very pleased. Numbers-wise we're definitely well up on last year and if the press haven't shown much interest in reviewing the shows they've been very keen to plug them ahead of time, which is better if anything.
I don't really need any reviews ever again, you see, since I finally have the perfect poster quote. That's really all we need reviews for - choice word-bites we can stick on posters and flyers to get the punters in. The movie business is particularly geared toward this; it's a long-established habit of film ad campaigns to salvage the one or two positive words from a write-up and slap them boldly across the top of the poster (as in "SPECTACULAR!" culled from the sentence "The spectacular effects just show up how dire the script and acting are", or such like).
My own "perfect poster quote" is a bit of a case in point; Chris Campling, giving a rather equivocal review of my podcast in The Times, nonetheless prefaced it by referring to me as "The country's leading musical satirist"; I immediately drew Ian's attention to this and insisted that it feature boldly on this year's tour poster, because somebody had finally called me The Best. Not One Of The Best, or just Very Good, or Okay If You Like That Sort Of Thing, but the best. I'd been waiting for that superlative for thirteen years and by God I was going to make the most of it. Just goes to show you; I've had far more positive reviews from which nothing useful was harvestable.
The thing is, once you someone's called you The Best, it spreads and soon becomes an accepted fact - indeed, many of the previews and interviews for this tour have simply introduced me as "the country's leading musical satirist", without mentioning that this is simply someone's opinion. This is of course exactly what I had in mind when I suggested using the quote. If I wanted to, I could put "the country's leading musical satirist" on next year's poster and attribute the quote to someone else, were it not for the fact that the byline "The Times" is perhaps as impressive as it gets in UK press terms.
Not everyone waits for this sort of thing to arise legitimately... The thing is, the rise of electronically manipulable text has engendered a lot of laziness in some of those who work with words... I've noticed that a LOT of the press coverage I get these days consists of whole paragraphs cut 'n pasted from my press release or my online biog, and I imagine the same is true for most performers. No-one's edited it, it's entirely possible no-one's even READ it, they've just highlighted a big chunk of text, command-C command-V, there, I've Written An Article. And no-one's ever going to bust them on this; the only people who'll even notice are the artist concerned and their PR people, and they're not likely to complain since the paper has just printed quite literally exactly what they wanted them to print.
Now if you were putting a press release together, and you had the Sheer Brass Balls to proclaim YOURSELF as, say "the single finest comic talent of his generation" then you could be pretty sure that sooner rather than later some sub-editor will paste the paragraph containing those words into an article. Once that's happened, you're laughing, because now the comment "the single finest comic talent of his generation" has appeared in print, and - as far as anyone can tell - YOU DIDN'T SAY IT. It's an opinion in a press article. Your NEXT press release can quote it - "the single finest comic talent of his generation" - Plymouth Argus, or whoever. Now, it appears, you're being proclaimed by impartial observers as "the single finest comic talent of his generation" and soon it's received opinion. Everyone now acknowledges you as "the single finest comic talent of his generation", despite the fact that no-one ever said you were except you yourself...
Propriety (and libel law) prevents me from saying if anyone you've ever heard of has ever actually pulled anything like this off. But in case you're wondering, "Chris Campling" is a real person...
weight news
Monday 10th November 2008
20 st 13, so two pounds down and through the 21 stone "barrier".fireworks
Monday 10th November 2008
... and other things (nearly) going offSo anyway, this evening (yesterday evening now) the Anglers pub in Teddington, which is in the process of becoming our new local since our arrival in Ham, was holding a firework display at 8pm. Greta loves fireworks and since we didn't get to see many on the 5th, we promised her we'd go.
The pub, while technically the closest to our house, is in fact on the opposite side of the Thames; we reach it by means of a footbridge which is the only direct link between Ham and Teddington (to drive there would involve going the three or so miles to Kingston Bridge, crossing over and coming back the three or so miles on the other side; walking across the bridge takes about ten minutes).
For safety's sake, the bridge - as we were told by signs placed there a couple of days ago - would be closed at 7.50pm, ten minutes before blast-off. With this in mind, and also not wanting to make Greta and Astrid wait in a cold and (intermittently) rainy pub garden for too long, we timed our departure to arrive at the bridge shortly after 7.30. This we did, at the same time as another family (Mum, Dad, two little boys, all in anoraks).
At the bridge we found a large-ish hi-viz clad security guy who told us, rather apologetically, that the bridge was already closed. We pointed out the time, and he said he'd had orders to close it at 7.30. We pointed out that the bridge was a public thoroughfare (not sure he understood that bit) and if the signs had promised to keep it open until 7.50 then 7.50 it was (Amusingly, Greta was vociferously repeating everything I said from her seat at the front of the pram).
Security guy checked with his "superiors" on his little radio and confirmed that the decision had indeed been made to close the bridge early. At this point I suddenly realised that I didn't care what decision had been made or by whom. I pushed past the rather startled security guy and beckoned everyone else along the bridge. They hurried along towards freedom and fireworks while I took up the rear of the column, the security guy now running along behind me and grabbing at my coat. I slapped his arm away and said "Are you a cop?"
"What?"
"I said are you a policeman? Because only an on-duty policeman has the right to manhandle me. Anyone else does it, it's common assault. That means I get to defend myself. Try to imagine how that's going to feel."
He stopped following us.
I was expecting his pals to greet me mob-handed at the other end of the bridge (does the name Horatius mean anything to you?) but nothing further transpired. We took our places in the pub garden and Greta got her fireworks. Quite impressive too, for pub fireworks.
Perhaps the security guys knew they were taking the piss changing the times at the last minute like that (what if you didn't give a toss about the fireworks and were just trying to get home?), maybe the lone guy on the bridge didn't dare admit he'd just been stared down, or maybe he told all his mates I was a psycho and to keep back.
The thing is, I've been feeling a bit ill at ease ever since. I abhor even the possibility of violence so much that even resorting to vague threats has left me queasy and shameful. There's also the knowledge that my hardcase routine on the bridge, while impressively scripted (that is exactly what I said, by the way) was purest bluff, and if I'd been called on it I don't know what the hell I would have done. I haven't been in a hands-on scrap since the primary school playground and would have no idea how to proceed if I found myself in one now. Don't let the whole 6'2" 21 stone scouser thing fool you. When I related my little speech to Clara we both giggled at the sheer ridiculousness of my parting shot; "how it would feel" to have me defending myself against you is, more or less, however it would feel to be confronted by a large panicking fat bloke batting feebly at you with flapping wrists while blubbing for mercy.
feeling okay
Sunday 9th November 2008
... thankfullyHello all,
Sorry for the few days' radio silence; had tour gigs the last three days running but moreover I've had various things to do all day BEFORE the tour gigs, which from my point of view are quite major undertakings in themselves - I have to load up the Multipla at about 1pm, drive it to wherever I'm picking up Kirsty and Ivan, drive to the venue to arrive by about 4-5pm, set up, sound check, do the gig, drive back to either Kirsty & Ivan's respective abodes (quite a schlep in itself as K lives in Crouch End and Ivan lives in Fulham) or at least anywhere I can kick them out without stranding them, then drive back to my place, UNLOAD the Multipla and then what's left of me gets to go to bed.
As you can imagine, that's hard going whatever the distances involved, but when it's a bit of a trek like yesterday in Loughborough or Friday in Chelmsford (technically not that far but it did involve getting from one end of Greater London to the other on a Friday evening - took longer than the Loughborough run) I'm generally barely clinging to consciousness by the end of the day.
Added to this, as I said, I've been running around doing interviews and the like all morning all this week... by the end of last night's show in Loughborough, once the performance-rush had abated, I was feeling pretty dreadful. Had a horrid feeling I'd actually managed to make myself ill so I was hugely relieved to find myself feeling much better this morning. It's Greta's third birthday on Tuesday and I'd hate to be unwell for that.
president obama
Wednesday 5th November 2008
Sounds odd but good5.30 am.
Gotta go to bed.
GOTTA go to bed.
But meanwhile... yes, President Obama's (say it again...) speech was as
awesome as I'd expected; when he gets going it's like watching JFK
channeling MLK or vice-versa - but wasn't McCain's speech great?
I found myself experiencing a twinge of regret... you see, THAT John
McCain might have stood a chance. It was the grumpy reactionary fearmongering old git he's been pretending to be for the past year who blew it.
My birthday is January 20th. Thank you America for not buggering up my birthday.
It's a different world. An actually different world.
weight
Monday 3rd November 2008
...and panicky websites Somewhere between 21/1 and 21/0, so only about half a pound down if anything. Think maybe the time has come to get some proper exercise. The knees feel up to it (more or less).
As you may recall, last week I accidentally told the Weight Watchers site that my weight was 23 stone 1 pound, and was amused at the sanguine-ness of its response. Since I've now just entered my correct weight - and, as far as the site's concerned, lost two stone in a week - I was intrigued as to how it would respond. Well for the record, it said:
Please note: You're probably excited to be losing weight, but you're losing faster than is recommended. Although it's normal to lose over 2lb in 1 week, if you lose more than an average of 2lb per week over a 4 week period, this could pose health risks, such as heart irregularities, anaemia or loss of muscle mass. Please slow your weight loss; your doctor can help you do this if you're not sure how.
It seems to be far more worried by the thought of someone LOSING two stone in seven days than by someone gaining two stone in seven days. Interesting set of priorities for a weight-loss site.
blow winds and crack your cheeks
Sunday 2nd November 2008
(It's not rude, it's Shakespeare)It's about 5am and I've just got in from Manchester, having experienced just about every adverse weather condition on the way with the exception of pyroclastic flow. I'm very tired but I thought I'd just post a quick one before passing out.
Saw Quorn Of Someplace; it's perhaps a good thing that the reviews had been a bit equivocal, as having adjusted my expectations accordingly I enjoyed it a great deal. It ISN'T as good as Casino Royale but 80% as good as Casino Royale is still two or three times as good as most action movies. I'll give it the full write up when I'm not hallucinating with weariness.
On the topic of the whole Brand/Ross debacle, Paul Gambaccini had some very interesting thoughts - ones I've not heard expressed elsewhere and which correspond quite closely to my take on the affair - which you can hear here (it's the first audio stream on the page).