So that was that and this is now. NOISE 2006, firmly wrapped up, 2008 on the horizon.  It’s exciting, it’s me, Rosie, Neil and Denise starting the whole rock n roll rollercoaster again. Foundations have been made (the long-standing little nuggets here and there, that’ll ensure 2008 goes off with a b,b,b,BANG!)

My NOISE 2006 Blog will be a little footnote* in the history making bonanza that was NOISEfestival.com’s very first showcase for young creative talent making sure that new artists, whoever you are, wherever you are, get the chance to have your work seen, heard, respected and renowned.** 

I’m, dam proud to have been a part of it, and I hope you have enjoyed the journey along the way.

Let’s draw one of those squiggly lines under 2006/2007, a caption that say’s “to be continued” and turn the page for Chapter 2, ‘NOISE 2008’
           ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

*foot·note [foot-noht]
1. an explanatory or documenting note or comment at the bottom of a page, referring to a specific part of the text on the page.

**2,000 exhibited bits of work, raging from moving images; still images with African Tribesmen, roadside shrines and a tart in railway carriage. Drawn items of metropolitan cities, mutant fish and 2hand sketches. Feminist statements with a Disney kick, casts and textiles with a neither regions theme. Contraptions to make Rover happy at the dinner table, and that homeless chap comfy in a cold doorway. Spitting rhythms, melodical lyrics and unforgettable lyrics. Fashion statements fit for the Paris catwalk or Market Street or Elle Decoration for that matter. Combining cultures in interior design to discovering heritage identity Krushin’ on the Drom or mashing up the TATE, in the Urbis ICA and Magma; on the TV, the wireless, print, and online. 

One day in October 2007, me and Rosie had our weekly look through some of the things people had been sending through after our call out for a new web dude. This one Leeds based chap caught our eye. The words ‘Joomla’ sprang out the page.

Life at NOISE generally revolves around a few things, namely the Outlook Calender and Joomla. J- to the – A is this big bad website development program that looks quite scary on the surface but can work wonders when you mix it with a bit of Dreamweaver, PHP, HTML, components, modules etc. It makes websites look and act pretty smashing thank you very much, but it can be a right pain in pain in the arse sometimes- me and Rosie have been known to get Joomla rage

Anyway enough of ol’ geeky me. I could go on for hours about the delights of the in-built Sonic on the Sega Master System, the marvels of BitLord, and how not to try and turn your laptop into a makeshift sound system and blow the speakers…and then in one big swoop Victoria Turnbull, was now so uncool she was the new black.

 So, Neil came along one day for a chat, and then he came back the next day, and then he sorta stayed. We have a male in the office at long last to counter balance talks of shopping, shoes and smelly boys. He’s gotta a cool taste in music and is a big geek like me. Neil is busy re-designing the new NOISE 2008 website, mashing up ideas, codes and programming. From the looks of things it’s gonna be a right little corker!

As ever a random life I have.
Last year I woke up on my birthday in Mauldeth Road park at 11 in the morning surrounded by school children, with a few friends near by.
This year I bring in my birthday stood on a stage in the middle of Naples, in front of 500 people getting hugged by a range of Italians.
Then in a square outside a bar an Italian Blues Brothers tribute band sang to me surrounded by about 60 Friday night revellers drinking mojitos and basking in the warm medditaranian night.
NOISE is looking to hook up with European Festivals across the continent to swap and exchange ideas, art and creativity for the next NOISE in 2008. Rosie went off to France in May, and I trekked off the Barcelona and now Naples.

I was invited to be a judge as part of a new music festival in Naples. The panel of judges included, a TV presenter, music producer and journalist, a music promoter, another music writer and a nobhead from Manchester.

I can't even speak Italian so most of the time I was pretty quiet, nodding and taking advantage of the nibbles.
It's been magical - if not slighlty nerve wracking. As you probably could have guessed from my last post in Barcelona i poop myself on planes. And here i am taking 3 planes in one day. I may have taken too much night-nurse and nitol because i could see shapes in the clouds, and one of the most bizzare things was walking around Rome airport and thinking that everyone was talking Mancunian when infact they were all talking Italian. To say I'd taken too many in my nervous state was a bit of an understatement. By the time i got to Naples i was ravenous. I have never spoke Italian in my life and started to jot down things i NEEDED to say..all in the back of my notepad- and tryed to memorize it on the planes- and forgot it all.

I was picked up from the airport by a dude who didn't speak much English- and was put up in a lovely little hotel where i banged the laptop on and found some tunes i didn't know was there.
The Festival took over a square in a cool part of town, there were empty shop fronts covered in graffiti that had been overtaken my cool kids wearing ripped jeans and riding mo-peds. The stage was surrounded by historical beautiful buildings, a stark contrast to the rocking choons that were coming out of the youngsters who performed. One band wore Marx-esq fake noses and glasses, and donned Doctors whites to play Vandals style fast paced punk. I thought they were ace- even though i dodnt understand what they were singing about. Me and this other judge loved em, but i later learnt that they were close to be disqualified, because apparantly loud rants about the Mafia doesn't go down to well in broad daylight in the middle of Naples.

Many of the bands were not my cup of tea, but nevertheless by all means great. The over all winner was my favourite- a new wave ska flavoured, male fronted band - who gave me a copy of thier album as a bday present as they left the stage.

I was only there for 2 days so I thought I'd cram in all the Italian classics, I had e pizza, e pasta, e ice cream and a plate of pork (the language barrier got the better of me)

I also had a ride on the back of a motorbike, with no helmet.  I read that Naples 'was the most violent and dangerous cities in Italy' , it maybe, but I've never been met with so much friendliness and lovliness. And the 2 kiss thing I was well getting to the swing of things and lunging for everybody.

Then there was the flights.  I missed my connection to Manchester so I spent most of birthday in Paris airport, awkwardly asleep on a plastic chair.  I thought I was going to spend all night there so i put on me 'Birthday Girl' badge, bought a muffin and bottle of wine and sang 'Happy Birthday' to myself.

The plane back was made better by a woman sat next to me who was more terrified than me.

7 Planes, in 2 weeks, my carbon footprint is blummin massive.

I do hate all these traveller types who go on about 'god, I had the most amzing time in India where i stood on top of a mountain with a naked hippy and really found who I was about, and what life really means, while the hippy stuck a smoking stick up my arse'.

But I did have a randomly great time.

This made me laugh. Ok I laughed then I got a tiny bit scared.

Click Giovani Suoni
Then 'Enter', then 'Giuria' on the top navigation bar.

'Giuria' incidently means 'judge' in Italian.
Scroll down the romantic Italian names and you'l me self at the bottom.

On Thursday and Friday night I'll be on the judging panel at a new music festival in Naples, Italy.

Bloody hell

The cuisine of Spain is famed for its tapas, seafood, fesh veg and lush fruit, and in the past two days all I have managed to eat is two cheese sandwiches. and beer cus, at the end of the day everyone knows what 'beer' is in any language and i have got a case of the terrible vegetarian language barrier.

My Spanish has got me far these past few days...'pardon' when I bump into someone. 'rethebo' when I  need a receipt, and my old favourite 'Ola!' , you can't go wrong with the odd hello. I even sent a lady to the 5th floor of my apartment block by pointing at the buttons and asking 'cinco?' She may not have been going there...

I love Spain because it's full of brown wrinkly old men who always need to sit down. Even on the big massive street in Barcelona, where there are those silver painted mime artists who think they're robots, they have special old men seats. Not even next to each other, but randomly scattered. So walking down the street you can bet ur ass every 10 yards you'll find an old man asleep.

I managed to catch a very odd installation slash show today. I even had to sign a release form before i went in, and there were paramedics waiting outside. I'm not one for installations, to be honest I can take me or leave em.

It started with 60 or so of us watching an odd projection of what looked like the dancing a baby from Ally Mcbeal, then a whole lorra smoke filled the room, mixed with strobe lights, then pulsating coloured lights. You know when you poke urself in the eye (if your as stupid to) and you get those strange little red greeny splashes in your eyes, well that was what it was like, but not just straight ahead but to the side of you and mixed with the smoke and sub bass surround sound - i thought i was going to punch the girl beside me. Well done you crazy artist you, that's not art, it's messin with me vision you wierdo.

Sonar is split up into about 5 different areas. You have your main stage – an outdoor affair in the middle of a huge courtyard; two other stages in some other rooms; a record and industry fair, with stalls advertising new music initiatives, magazines, labels and fashion thangs; then a new media section- where the latest technology has a chance to strut their stuff.

The theme of this year’s Sonar Tech was magic, and a bunch of innovators and tech supreemos had created installations in them of all things illusion – and as the blurb said, the internet and advances in social media is like a big illusion, you see the end product but non of the workings that give the end result. There were displays of interactive shadow puppetry, touchy feely forks and knifes (you had to be there) and a big silver floaty balloon.

Every half an hour there was a live show. So’s not be rude I sat myself down to take a gander. Well…I wasn’t expecting a guy to take a knife to his arm and cut a huge gash into his skin. There was a also a dude who sat at a desk and hovered his finger over a white sheet of plain paper, deep in thought as if pondering what next to right. As if by magic words appeared on the paper under his fingertips, without a pen or wires under the table to be seen. Paul Daniels..eat yer fooking heart out.
Moving on from the weird…

I had a meeting with a dude from Switzerland who runs out-source programming for a range of European radio stations - one that I’d set up whilst in Manchester- which was bizarre.

In fact this trip has been uber liberating for me. I never thought in a million years I’d have the guts to go somewhere on a plane on my own. Never mind traveling on a tube or talking to random irish people who own a dance label. I’m proud of myself, and you can bugger your trips to Thailand, and traveling the world with only a backpack- this once shy girl who cries when a plane sets off has only gone and bloody done it.

But I keep getting the heebeejeebees every time I go back to the apartment cus a guy that rents a room there is dead quiet and apparently he’s away for a while, but you can’t be too sure can you?

My flight was not until late this afternoon- so i spent the rest of the day wondering the streets of the city and strolling about 2 miles up the beach trying to find a bar Denise was telling me about. I didn't find it, but had a little sunbathe on my own next to a man who had a really hot bike with a skull and cross bones spoke.

I can't wait to tell everyone about my adventure..and how we can figure something Sonar-like into NOISE 2008.

ooooo, ooooo,  but lets come back again one day, as us, not just me

My second day in Barcelona, I'm sat on the tiniest balcony with me laptop in me, well lap over looking terracotta rooftops, satillite dishes; to one side of me is the ocean and to the other sise is mountains I can't even see what is at the top of, but I know the lights twinkle at night time. Peoples washing hangs in the balance 12 story's high, and I be questioning where my smalls were gonna fall if I was them.

But this is Spain, and as is the nature of the county, anything goes. It's uber chilled out, maybe its the sun, or may be it's the cheap wine. (I bought  bottle of red vino for €1.01 and i thought that was a bit ruddy steep)

Sonar was wicked. Although I spent 2 whole hours trying to find it. I thought it couldn’t be THAT hard to find the biggest dance festival in the west in this city, but it was. I traveled tube after tube, going down street after street, stopping for an ice lolly and trying to remember the Spanish for receipt. I even tried latching a group of yoofs who looked like they were heading to a festival and almost ended up in their apartment. It was fun, I had my ipod on, and without asking for directions, with only my a-z of Barcelona and Less Than Jake to help me I found it…

I'm sure I saw the guy who sang the Macarena get on the tube.
I’m not one for striking up a conversation with anyone…but I had a mission and I wasn’t going to fail, so with a few cerveza in the sunshine down I went in head first for schmoozing at Sonar 2007.
I hung out in the Sonar Pro area, a make shift haven for museos and industry professionals, trying to latch on to converations mid way through, leaving NOISE magazines here and there and trying to get an ear for this 'dance music'.

I'm having a ball- and picking up some ace ideas for NOISE 2008. Who needs mud up to your eyeballs and a tent- when you can have Spanish sun, some wierd technilogical advancements and humming bass?

Down in the Sonar Tech area there's a section to test out the lastest in web- delevlopment. One section, Sonar highlights the best music sites making an impact on the ol' internet. Big things are happening in the world of samples, mash-ups and copyright. The big question is should a track be soley owned by the artist or can it be laid out as an open invite for DJs, producers and budding bedroom superstars to tinkle with to make it something extra special? Check out Creative Commons for more on this, and how you can sample/ use specially licensed tracks

The odd thing was..Sonar doesnt want you just to stand at a desk to surf these sites.No siree, You have to wrestle yourself into a chair come recliner come desk- and visit the websites almost lying down - legs acimbo- with huge earphones on. It was one thing trying to get in them, and quite an adventure getting out of them. It was like Krypton Factor.

I took snaps of everything like a mad-man- scribbled notes - just so's when i get back to the rainy city it'll be like I'm bringing back a little bit of Sonar with me.

Sonar by night kicks off in a few hours. I may pop along, after a ickle siesta.

I'm having an amazing little time on me own, but I'd be lying if i didnt want someone else here, if only to sit here and share this amazing view with me.

bueno no?

Having woke up in Manchester and tried to take something back in Primark this dinner time, I'm now sat on a balcony over looking all these lush twinkly lights of Barcelona at half 12 at night.

It's warm and I can see people getting ready for bed.

Oh and I'm on my own. For those of you who know me, I am terrified of flying, so this is a pretty big deal for me, even though i can't quite remember getting on the plane.

So far I've managed to wake up a pair ‘friendly’ Spaniard blokes when i tried to open their apartment with my keys, and splashed red wine half way up the window and interior of the aero plane and myself.

This is all very bizarre, it may be one of the most stupidest things i have ever done, or one of the most fantastic.

So here's to me adding 'o' to every word to make it sound Spanish, and having my own little adventure!

To get a tiny flavor and some ideas for our next NOISE extravaganza, we’re heading to a few European festivals this year. Looking for artists and installations to switch over to the UK in 2008 and European lovlies to help share the NOISE love. We’re on a three woman mission to get contacts and buddies to join the NOISE fun in 2008.

First port of call for Turnbull and Proctor is Sonar Festival in Barcelona. A annual festival of the best new digital innovations, technological advantages and three days of busting electro, dance artists and musical movers and shaker.

‘cept Proctor couldn’t make it, so I headed there on my own to mooch with the Sonar Pro (industry types) lot, and the mission was ‘to take Sonar back to Manchester for all to see’

But before all that I had to put my huuuge fear of flying to one side, and board a plane on my own, and with my limited Spanish find my apartment on the outskirts of Barcelona on my own…

I’m excited or scared…or excited I dunno. I think I’m scared…I can do this. In fact I have no choice…best start downing that Night Nurse…

Viva Espanola!!!!!

The first screening of ‘Gypsy Fair, Krush on the Drom’ took place today in Appleby, about 4 days before once again, thousands, upon thousands of people descend upon this quaint little village.

The timing of the screening was purposely planned; and took on board what the group and policeman were talking about back in Feb. In the eyes of the police force and many of the key figures in the Appleby community, a lot of the residents could do with a little re-education about the fair, its history and its significance amongst the Gypsy and Traveller community. The air of misunderstanding, prejudice and ignorance are not un common occurrence within the town, or the wide community. Ultimately and one of the foremost reasons why the film was created was to dispel myths let people adopt another point of view about the community.

We invited people who starred in the film, and figures from the community whom the fair has a massive affect upon. The mayor and mayoress came along, with chains and everything, as did a local reporter from BBC Radio Cumbria.

We decided to hold the screening at Lady Annes Pants..sorry Lady Anne’s Pantry, the café we filmed in back in February.

It was bizarre coming back up to Appleby again, last time I was up here it was raining, it was a bit stressful, and I was happy, albeit a bit sad to be oop in these there hills again.

We’ve also had a quiet word with the Tourist Information centre in Appleby and we’re going to be selling the documentary thee over fair time. As you can imagine, the town does a roaring trade in anything fair related over that week, from tea towels to oddly shaped stuffed horses, the Gypsy and Traveller community also love buying videos of each horse fair, whether that be Appleby, Stow or Lee Gap, I’ll be surprised if you don’t find a knock off one on sale up Lee Gap this September.

The screening went lovely, and there was enough orange squash, and quiche to feed an army.

It was a smashing finish (or start – half full/ half empty?) apart from an upsadaisy with the DVD; the printers burners had broke half way through the copy of our DVD. One in 4 copies hadn’t burnt properly, and after only checking the first 10 minutes, about half an hour in the thing started skipping. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Welcome to the on going tale of ‘things are never simple’ at NOISE.

 All in all…we’d only gone and bloody done it Rodders…

The Gypsy Fair film had finally finished being edited, in record 3 weeks and a bit. The final stage was recording the voice-over and what better place to do it than in the BBC, well it’d be rude not to while we’re here.

We invited the group to come down from Leeds and booked in a recording studio in the BBC Radio6 and Radio5live corridor. It was exciting! And I saw Lard from legendary Mark and Lard waiting to use the studio after us. My DJ idols as I was growing up!

The kids were well excited to be in the BBC, and I showed them the suites they edit Question of Sport in and took them up to the canteen, where I lost most of them.

To finish the day off I’d set up an interview with Rokker Radio – the radio show broadcast down souf on BBC Three Counties which is made for the Gypsy and Traveller community. By the powers of technology I’d set up a pre-record from the BBC Manchester studios to be broadcast on the Sunday show.

There’s one thing about the group that makes me laugh. They’ll talk to anyone, and dead inquisitive, they’d talk the hind legs off a very large animal from a woman cleaning the canteen to a big bloke sat behind his desk in the offices of BBC Radio Manchester.

So that was that!! The last stage of production – I can’t quite believe that Gypsy Film is now complete.

The last thing to do was design the cover of the DVD, get them pressed, get ready for the premiere and get the kids an Arts Award…

The little fire turned out to be a massive ‘un. We’d all established I’m rubbish in a crisis, and 4 days later me and Rosie were let back in the office to rescue some more ‘needed’ items that we required to keep the “office” running for a weeks without a physical office. Such as the server, computers and some files. As happens, the VHS, plastic wallet and magazine I’d saved 3 days previous weren’t going to quite set us on our merry way.

 With no office we set up shop on Denise’s kitchen table and turned her living room into NOISE HQ for about 3 weeks- which was weird not only because I could make a cup of tea with out getting of my chair, but the only shop within walking distance was a Chinese wholesalers, and lychee juice didn’t quite quench my thirst.

As it turns out the tiny rooms behind our office that lived the server was left virtually unscathed by the fire- and the room upstairs we use to store extra bits and pieces, such as artwork, stuff from the 2006 exhibition just had a little bit of scorched black in the corner of the ceiling. About 1 foot outside the door the ceiling had caved in and the room opposite was a complete right off. You could say we’d had a very lucky escape.

In the weeks after the fire me and Rosie spent a few days wondering around the Northern Quarter trying to find another office, but to no avail as they were just too far above our price-range, and had no room for the swing After about 3 weeks of in-kitchen office fun we were on the move to the BBC. The beeb rent out offices in the new broadcasting house on Oxford Road.

How exciting was it to be in the BBC?! I’ve spent about 4 hours getting lost in the maze that is the New Broadcasting House, and we have to wash our cups in a tiny sink in the disabled toilets, with a  hand dryer cleverly placed underneath so that when you  wave your hand under the tap the  ridiculous G-Force that is omitted from the blower sends water gushing towards  your face/ legs - and  flings what ever you had on the sink side almost down the toilet..it 's like an adventure everytime you have a wee.

As Rosie booked the perfect week to go off on holiday me and Denise finally finished off packing up the old office into boxes at around midnight. I also managed to get round to doing the pots that I’d left on the Friday before the fire, hoping to do em on the Monday of the fire. They were smelly. The next day was spent with 3 massive tattooed men with a van taking NOISE and filling up a metal cage in a safe-store unit and the rest to our new office in the BBC. These safe-store places are weird, and I bet you could live in one for only like £30 a week- you’d just need a toilet and a bucket to have a wash, so that’s 2 buckets and a roof over your head for the price of night out.

So here we are now, in the bowels of the BBC in our little dinky new office, where the windows don’t open and it’s a bit dark; but you can be guaranteed to see Gordon Burns in the canteen- but tis a shame I can’t invite him back to play on our swing.

A entry originally posted on my other  blog. Oh sorry, you weren’t supposed to find out this way…I mean they’re completely different to you, no, you don’t even know them, and it all started off as a bit of a play- around…it’s not you it’s me, I mean I’ve changed, people change….

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Oh no!
This weeks been the worst week I've had in a long time..

Was pretty excited to have me office to me self again on Monday (there's a swing, and over the past few days have been trying to see how far across the room I can reach when i jumped off - so was planning to work on that again...)

On Monday morning Manchester's Northern Quarter had it's own little drama as a masseeeve fire took place in a building on Dale Street, which closed down half of the area, including my building.

Fancy when the boss called and asked how I was going on

“Well, I’m not actually at work, I’m stood right outside though, but I can’t get in”
“why?”
“Fire, a big ass fire”
“where?”
“Just behind our building”
“well let’s give it till the afternoon, and see if they’ll let you back in”

Not quite sure she pictured the actual scale of the blaze…
 
I was finally allowed in on Tuesday along with a few other people from my building, with a man in a hard hat and a big torch. I made a joke as we went in the dark, smelly place.

"Why don't we just take the lift"

Well, that went down like a lead balloon. Too soon?

I had 10 minute top to grab what I could and leg it out of there before they started demolishing the neighbouring shell of a building. I panicked, and grabbed what I could. When I got out I looked down at my stash and I’d managed to ‘save’ a magazine, a VHS and a folder. I’d be shit on supermarket sweep.

I'll save you the details but it looks like a whole network of small independent  companies, a whole chunk of Manchester’s creative industries are out of action for a month or so...

So what else has made this week effing special too?

I've just wiped my whole IPod. Me little pod had plugged its  ass into so many people's Itunes, it'd docked it's white thang into so many computers that I'll never get all of me tunes back..and I'm truly gutted. From lush little playlists, to sentimental numbers.

From a riff to a lyric, sometimes a song is all you need to bring back memories that last a life time and make you smile.

Balls

Did i mention a taxi reversed into me as well? - walking disaster

24 hours of footage, or something daft like that. A whole days worth of footage! And I was worried that we were going to be a little light on the ground for footage. We’ve enlisted the help of an editor, Paul to help us make all this footage into a documentary that fulfils the original proposal, is jam packed full of culture and heritage and that will above be entertaining and educational.

Apparently there’s enough footage here to make 3 different documentaries running on various different themes and subjects…

For few days we took the edit suite up to Leeds to give the kids a few workshops on how to edit using the final cut pro system. They realised how much editing is involved in the making of any production, whether that be for tv or film. Every shot is a cut, and was purposely put there to create meaning, connotations etc. Post production can be as important as the production itself. Clever editing can cover a plethora of mistakes, fix continuity Then there’s the stuff that can be added during an edit, filters can be placed over shots to make the scene lighter, captions added, voice-overs, and in this modern fangle dangle world of ours CGI and SFX…

And you can go a bit stir crazy being an editor, and you don’t even realise. You could quite happily re-listen to a 5 second clip, around 60 times with your nose pressed against the monitor. We’ve decked the back room of the office into a mini suite, that gets abnormally hot..so R2D2 our little air conditioning unit has been wheeled in to help Paul.

It's taken me 4 days working 15 hour days to digitize all the rushes.

In non media talk: its taken 60hours to feed all the footage we shot into the editing system. And you can't be half arsed about this- each tape needs to be named, each shot named -so that it's easy peasy for the editor to see what and where stuff is. But mighty difficult as you can expect for some one who knows nothing at all about the project to come in and make sense of all this footage.

Welcome to post production....

It’s all come leaps and bounds since my day tediously editing VHS.

I could go on for about 10 blogs about the editing of the film, but to cut along story short, it ended up looking nothing like i imagined. I am damm proud of it. The beggining is my favourite- even though listening to the continous editing of it almost gave me a humerous mental breakdown...

On top of the film, we've invited new bands from NOISE 2006 to feature on the soundtrack...

In the middle of south Cumbria was where we found ourselves for the next and may I add the final shoot of the Appleby Fair documentary. Oop the side of a road, behind an A-Road nr Ulverston - lost. Now I’m sure this was where our next interviewee lived.

As it happens we’d drove past his home like 6 times, as he didn’t live in a ‘house’. He lived in a Bow-Top wagon, kept his stuff in a static caravan, with his son and granddaughter, who lived in a yert round the corner.

I was magical!!

Walter was a predominant figure in the Traveller community, he’s been travelling up to Appleby in Bow-Top wagon every year since the 50’s. Although Walter was not a Gypsy, he supported the Traveller way of life, was even the Traveller representative on the New Fair Committee.

He was a wonderful person, with strong opinions on how the fair was run, and had built each of his wagons by himself, and  had even wrote a book on how he did it. Walter even knew Grandma Cannon, who we’d spoke to last month.

I was appointed sound person for the interview and we got a cracking shot of Walter at the side of a fence with his horses. The horses kept biting the cameraman, so I was silently chuckling…I can’t wait to see the footage of the shaky cam, and knowing full well I’m pissing my sides on the floor trying to steadily hold the boom…

It’s funny times like these, in the middle of what has been an arduous project, and a demanding shoot that makes me happy to be doing what I’m doing. I’m tired, but as we pack up to head back home the sense of enormous achievement and pride wells up inside me like a big warm glow. A Dream Job, I think so. I get to travel and talk to the most eccentric of folk, hit it off with complete strangers and delve into a culture unbeknownst to me until 6 months ago.

As we drove off and headed back to Manchester, I think we all felt that little glow of achievement, and what followed later that evening was one of the most loveliest nights of my life.

See I can be heartfelt. It just takes a man in wagon to bring it out.

A café we pit-stopped for dinner at, kindly gave us an interview. This little quaint café is fit to busting during fair time. Today we share the space with an old fella and a lady feeding her baby. After a few moments of quiet persuasion the lovely owner and waitress spoke to Mary-Joyce about the fair. The waitress, who has lived in Appleby all her life remembers the fair from when she was a child, and it was fascinating to hear another opinion of how the fair used to be, from someone outside the Gypsy community.

It’s becoming apparent that through the sheer size of the fair swelling in numbers, then the folk of Appleby and the surrounding areas have had to become more accommodating to the increasing visitors. Which has meant farmers and such opening up neighbouring fields. The lady also remembered how all the shops knew most of the Travellers by name, and the atmosphere was much more friendly, there may have also been a possibility that her father knew Mary-Joyce’s grand-parents, so they both agreed to meet up in June, during the fair.

The owner told us how the money that they take in fair week pays for the rent of the café for the whole year. Now, if one business makes enough to sustain the lease of a business on a bridge with a river view…imagine how much money all together Appleby reeps in from that week in June. However from the feeling I gaged from other folk in the town over the last week - they simply shut shop - board up their windows and have nothing to do with the fair. Some locals even go on holiday during fair week. It’s not even about the money. So where are all these people that were against the fair? I tell you where….the call had been made, and they’d buggered off for the day. Strangers were in town with video camera things, a bunch of kids and a German….

Meanwhile a few metres up the road the rest of the group were causing havoc in the Age Concern shop…
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I love charity shops me…another mans trash, is another mans...castle?

The kids had got into full swing of this undercover reporter thing. The group were in the middle of interviewing two old dears sat behind the counter of the local charity shop, asking them about the fair - trying to get an honest opinion from local point of view. And taking on board what I was saying about old people a few blogs back, this had to be gold dust footage…

And it was…at one point I had to stuff my scarf in my mouth because I started laughing. Propped up right behind the two old dears heads, on display along with the usual charity shop tat, an old vinyl and a the 178 Blue Peter annual was a huge leather bra with studs. S&M meets rural paradise. Perhaps there’s a mean underground swingers scene in Appleby, and that’s why everyone is so hush hush… we were just a leather bra and pvc gag away from un earthing a whole new world…

Outside the shop we bumped into one local who’d lived in Appleby for the last 15 years or so and went on holiday for that week each year, he didn’t like the fair, and feared for his own safety each time the fair came. Finally someone who opposed the fair! But the streets were strangely quiet, even for this town. Perhaps he didn’t get the call.

The guys had finished the interview in the café, and we hooked up under the statue in the centre of two and bumped into two young local moshers who gave their honest view of the fair. This shoot wasn’t turning out half- bad. With only 1 official interview lined up for the day with the kids, we’d managed to get quite a varied bunch of people on film. I do love it when things come together.

The last shoot of the day for the kids was to take them back up fair hill, just as it started to lag it down.
Another fine example of how tis place changes in June. For miles up to fair hill thee are wagons and trailers parked on the verges, on the round-about before the hill there’s folk fixing horse shoes, the neighbouring hill is rammed with stalls and people humming around, fair hill itself is like one huge trailer park, and there’s cars and people as far as the eye can see. Today; a field some sheep and a storm a brewing.
I’m actually really proud of the kids, they’ve worked so hard. If I was dragged round a rainy village when I was 13 for a whole day I’d be stamping my feet and throwing a tantrum by now.

Just one shot left- to get the kids to walk round fair hill and pick up what they are saying on the mics to use as the end credits - just that the radio mics didn’t work too well in the rain - so the very last thing we did was record a wild-track inside the mini bus- we could then magically over-lay this over the footage of them on the hill. Aah the illusions of post-production. Where the kids told us that they’d named a big sheep after Sebastian whilst on the hill….

Woo hoo….the filming was done!!! Ok, not quite but the bits where we needed the kids was complete, as they trekked off back to Leeds we had one more location, 2 more interviews to go and tomorrow was a whole-nother day…

Recce (pronounced "recky"): is a word used in media production, derived from "reconnoiter". It is a pre-filming visit to a location to work out its suitability for shooting, including access to necessary facilities and assessment of any potential lighting or sound issues.

I reconnoitred Appleby today, to check out the logistics of our shoot later on it in the week. I also had to go up and source more interviews for the 2 days and get an idea of shots, locations etc…

I took the Carlisle-Settle railway oop to Appleby, and with out coming across all Judith Chalmers, I fully recommend everyone at least once in their lifetime take this trip - it’s breath-taking and the only train I’ve been on that the train driver turns into a tourist guide and they sell keyrings and pens on the drinks trolley. Each passing train station looks like where Thomas the Tank engine lives, a quintessential slice of traditional England, that simply pisses all over Piccadilly…

You wont get a travel review like that on ‘I Wish You were Here’…

I was nervous, after my few weeks of research, calling up near, every local business in a 2 mile radius of this lush, yet vastly rural Cumbrian village- I had a feeling everyone was expecting me…

I’d managed to quite accidentally wear a rain coat and shades, so I looked like an inconspicuous 1940’s Russian spy. As I stepped off the train, I could swear blind there were curtains twitching, and a silent alarm buzzed in every house-hold where the words ‘outsider’ lit up; projected onto the screens of each TV screen in Appleby. I was paranoid, and scared that I was going to go down in Cumbrian folklore as the traveller that came from beyond and never returned home. Damm it was like those Roald Dahl ‘Tales of the Unexpected’…

I headed into the town centre and met up with a dude who’s set me up an interview with the ex-mayoress, I have no idea why he wanted to meet me. He only said hi and then said he had to go…I have a feeling he was checking me out- to see if I’d fit in his basement - along with the lone rambler who trespassed over his field…probably…

Me and my stupid raincoat stuck out like a sore thumb. I went into each shop and started looking at trinkets, toys, read magazines and started to strike up conversation with the guys behind the counter..

“Lovely weather we’re having..”
“ So, about that horse fair…..”

Wooop wooop, pupils dilated, and a sly hand went under the counter to press the ‘inquisitive outsider button’…As I left each shop I had a feeling they were straight on the blower to the next shop up the road to warn them of my impending visit.

As I jumped on the train home, all I could think that it was a Hot Fuzz kinda place…

**Appleby is a really nice friendly town…as I discovered a few days later, and is in no way all a bit Tubs and Edward**

I’d love to be an octopus right now. Not huge and slimy but with an extra few pair of hands. The last of the filming for the Gypsy project - woo hoo. I’ve wrote my plans down and stuck it to my wardrobe so I don’t forget where I need to be in the next few days, cus I’d hate to be oop in Cumbria when I’m supposed to be down in Leeds doing a workshop.

Friday…home shoots in Leeds - tick
Saturday… home to Sheffield - tick
Sunday…finalise my research
Monday….Appleby recce