She sits on the edge of her bed, shattered, eyes encircled with mini blackholes, contemplating the result of two and a bit months of work and effort and a crazy 24 hours. She has to conclude, that in spite of everything, the smiles on the faces of Hilda, Warren and Dennis made it worth it, that and David and James’ wonderful opening performances.
So it has been 4 days since the gig and I think I can only now have enough distance to begin to judge the successes and failures of a venture.
OK in retrospect:
- organising a gig while trying to write a 10,000 PhD upgrade proposal not that sensible
- allowing someone to arrange a line up without fully vetting all bands listed may lead to things like Gob Sausage……different to say the least.
- delegating certain things is not necessarily more efficient and can have other repercussions
- don’t pick up the drinks on the day of the event
- it’s better to pay for a van than drive around London on a pre-christmas Saturday while your mum’s waiting for you
- don’t put the ink pad you used for the hand stamps in your hand bag (favourite moschino gloves are a casualty)
- put “please do not touch” signs on EVERYTHING, especially ropes that might be pulled
- buy more wine and less cider or beer
- start and finish earlier
- don’t do another event on a saturday which requires the staff to come in on their day off
- insist on a full briefing of the building and its use for the event before hand
- find and marry someone who owns a PA system (this last one may not be that realistic)
But other than those points……a success! I will be posting pics very very soon as the lovely Ivy was snapping away for me as well as the unnamed photographer who was “silly” (his words, not mine) enough to pull the bell rope.
I had 5 of my own clients there and they loved it. I felt a lovely atmosphere in the chapel. People came and congratulated me. People smiled. There was laughter. There was dancing. There was music. There was a client on stage doing a wonderful improvised performance. There were people asking me about future events. There were people wanting to be involved in future events, most notably one of the clients which very much pleased me as this is exactly what I wanted; to inspire clients to help and create this with me.
I felt as though, although it was stressful to run as an event with alcohol, this was something that came closer to what the homeless people I am doing this for actually want. I don’t want to patronise people to the extent that I remove elements of what the rest of society consider normal in a night out.
I do think I need to ensure more volunteers are present, but in future I will make sure all recruitment of volunteers goes directly though me rather than being delegated.
THE THANK YOUS……
The security guys were great, Mac and Del I think they were called, I don’t know if ever I shall see them again but this is a big shout out to you boys you were helpful, humourous and heroic so thank you.
Thank you also to Chaz, who in spite of some rather divaesque moments managed to get everyone onto the stage in spite of sound engineer delays, the wrong monitors and some rockstar behaviour that required reprimanding, in spite of it all, I know you did a lot and I appreciate it.
Thank you to Shelley for curating the art works that looked lovely. For being there to fill in all the gaps right up to the last minute, sorting the mini-bus, volunteers to man the bar, manning the doors, taking care of people and being supportive and enthusiastic. I am very grateful. I know that I wouldn’t have had a complete night without your input it was invaluable.
Thank you to David. Your performance was great as it stood alone, let alone the fact that it was a last minute improvisation. Also I hear you were a whiz at getting money from people trying to avoid it at the door, and I have had people asking about your performance. It created the atmosphere that lasted through the night.
Thank you to Gershon and Roberto for being there and for showing your wonderful art work. I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the volunteer doing all that filming but thank you for that too. God knows what it looks like, but it was great to have it recorded. Thank you to Reza who wasn’t there but whose artwork also brought life to the walls.
Thank you to John Wales the volunteer who wonderfully manned the bar all night. Thank you to Jon Cadera for all your positive energy. Thank you to Nick for driving that mini-bus around London and making me laugh in the face of immobile-madness and for lugging a hell of a lot of stuff down the stairs.
Thank you to Ben the guy that brought the speakers and took them away.
Massive thank you to Owain, for coming from Cardiff for this, and for being there right til the end and not only setting up and taking down but also helping me clean up.
Thank you to Vicky, Chris, Tom and Jon, who manned the doors as well as actually paying entry.
Thank you to Ad for being there to receive my silent “help-me” hugs.
Thank you to Erin, Tom, Sade, Will, Dalia, Jem, Ruth, Leah and anyone else I haven’t mentioned for attending, and dancing around like fools and not allowing the frostbite to get in the way of limb movement in that freezing chapel.
Thank you to Tim and Jose for driving around London to take all the equipment back and stopping off in the middle of it so I could get coffee and regroup!
Finally, thank you to Martin, Pippa and Louisa, the staff at St B who allowed me to do this, I can only hope you know how much I appreciate the opportunity, it was an unknown quantity to me so it wasn’t perfect but it has allowed me to see that something of my theory IS true, and that encourages me and renews my belief in this indescribable solidarity I am trying to capture.
In the words of Antonio Machado as spoken to me by my uncle who first inspired me to get into this work: “caminar caminante, no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar” (google it)
PS we made a profit, only a teeny weeny one, but it’s not a loss, and it’s more than a break even so it’s a big deal-o to Natalie Pilato
