Makes Mud

Nicholas Gledhill and Chris Dale would like to invite you to a performance of new songs, "Makes Mud", on the 10th June.

Now also extended to a 2nd night, the 17th of June.

A celebration of local talent, and new song writing.

After the success of their cabaret show, "Odd Spaces", in February, Nicholas and Chris have teamed up again, to create a new show - this time, a small collection of new songs, called "Makes Mud".

So, is this a continuation of the story of Odd Spaces?

No. I'm afraid, those of you waiting to find out what happened to Tom, after his unplanned ejection from the Earth, will have to wait a little longer...

Where: @Newtown RSL, Enmore Road.
When: 10th June. After 8:00pm.

Google Map

So, why the uncertain start time?

The evening itself is an evening of new compositions, by a range of performers from the local area. It's hard to say precisely when, during the night, "Makes Mud" will be on. But it will be some time after 8:00pm - and is unlikely to be too much later than that.

We are also preparing the songs for a singer/songwriter competition, in the following weeks. Come back, soon, for updates on how that goes.

Nicholas and Chris would also like to use the opportunity to get some feedback on the songs, before entering the upcoming competition.

If you would like to indicate your intention to attend, please visit the Event page.

Or you could become a "fan", or review some the videos from the previous show.

Unofficial Recordings

OK - so I got new recording toy recently - called an MBox. And it inspired a few new recordings.

I've also been working with a friend of mine, Chris, on a cabaret show we called "Odd Spaces". For those on facebook, you can see some videos of the original performance of "Odd Spaces" here.

Chris and I have also been working on a second chapter for "Odd Spaces". One of the outcomes of that has been some new songs.

Now, I haven't written music for a long time - but I'm quite happy with some of the songs that have been coming out recently.

On this page, I'm posting some of the recordings that have come out of my work with Chris, and for "Odd Spaces". All of them have problems... none of them are for "official" release - which is why they're on this page... but it's nice to have somewhere to put them - as an interesting record of our work and the process we've been through.

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No Need

This one is interesting - it's the first song I've written in years... too many to bear counting really... The vocal quality is a little weird because I was recording in the kitchen and trying not make too much noise :-)

I quite liked the way the song turned out, in the end though - and Chris and I are working on a version to perform soon - so I'll post that here if we get a recording of it:

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Drag Me Under

This version doesn't have any words for the verses - the lyrics have now been locked down - but when Chris and I were working on it, I hadn't finished writing them, so I just "na na"'d it.

But it worked quite well as a first pass for orchestrating it with just 2 guitars... and I quite like it as a record of our work:

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The River

Now there's 2 versions of this to post here.

The first is the example recorded for Chris to listen to. It was recorded in Garage Band and the way I hooked up the MBox means it's a got a really weird split between the left and the right sides - with all the vocals in the left audio... but it's a nice record of one of the original versions of the idea (mistakes, throat cold and all):



The second version is from the next night, when Chris and I got together to work on it. It's terribly distorted - but I really like Chris's work on the guitar, and some of the ideas he was playing around with for backing vocals:

[this version currently unavailable]

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Now onto the covers...

Rickety Tickety Tin

Considering there's no video of our performance of this, from the night of "Odd Spaces", I'm glad we've still got this rehearsal recording...

It may not be quite as good as it ended up being in the show. But it's still a fun song - from the ever-entertaining Tom Lehrer.

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And the songs that were captured that night...

To see the "boot-leg" videos of the night @Newtown RSL see the Odd Spaces video page.

Sydney Fringe Application Successful

Our application to produce "Closing Time" as part of the Sydney Fringe was successful - more details on the SpaceCraft Productions web site.

"Fan" page and Video for Odd Spaces

While preparations for the second performance of Odd Spaces are underway (details of first performance, here) - some work on a second chapter to the story have also begun...

To bring both our old and our potential audience together, and keep them up-to-date, we started a Facebook fan page.

*** Become a fan of Odd Spaces today ***.

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It turns out there was some boot-leg video taken of the show in February - so here it is...

As Tom gets taken down to the Strawberry Fields insane asylum, the police found it *hilarious* to sing this little ditty to him:



... again, here's another one of the unofficial videos from the original performance of Odd Spaces - at this point, Tom has made the obvious mistake of asking one of his fellow inmates "Who's that over there? Why do they call him Mr. Raccoon":



... more videos from the original performance of Odd Spaces - Tom's final escape plan, to get away from Strawberry Fields, goes horribly wrong, as he finds himself, accidentally, reaching escape velocity:



... this is my favourite, I think, of the videos from the first night of Odd Spaces... you may have heard this song before - but not this way:

Press coverage for The Dream

The Blue Mountains Gazette and the Penrith City Star gave some good covrage for our production of A Misummer Nights Dream last week.

For more details of the show, see below... or the the ABC's Big Diary entry.

Link to the Penrith City Star article.

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Details
The Acting Factory presents "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as part of its annual Shakespeare by the River series.

February 20 - March 14

Men are asses, redcoats are in love and Celtic Gods are confounded by a mischievous spirit as old and as powerful and the land itself.

Bring a picnic and settle back in the moonlight dreamers all.

"The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve... tis almost fairy time..."

Saturday & Sunday Evenings - 7:30pm

Regatta Park, River Road, Emu Plains.

NO BOOKINGS REQUIRED
A $10 (per head) contribution is encouraged.

for a map, please visit www.actingfactory.com

Odd Spaces

Chris Dale and Nicholas Gledhill, for one night only.

Odd Spaces - a tale of love, mystery, murder and mayhem. Set against the leafy green backdrop of the Strawberry Fields insane asylum - our hero, Tom, finds himself surrounded by strange people and even stranger stories.

Having plead insanity to avoid jail time - how will he get out of here with his mind (and his body) still intact?

Extreme circumstances call for even more extreme solutions. But will they work? Have things gone too far? How will Tom's story end?

As Tom's story spirals out of control - how will he ever find peace again?

To find out the answers - come along. Come see the cabaret.

This Thursday night, the 4th February, Newtown RSL:


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From 8:00pm

Playing Demetrius in A Midsummer Nights Dream

The Acting Factory Inc. is presenting A Midsummer Nights Dream in February/March.

See the Shakespeare By The River page, on their website - for more details.



I'll be playing Demetrius - hope to see you there.

More performance dates and details soon.

Finished filming - on to post

Finished filming for Dead Down Under this week.



They seem to have released a MySpace page for it too.

Going into "post-prod" for the next few months - ADR and all that... :-)

Almost at the end - should have a finished product by July. More images from the set and tasty teasers coming soon.