EDINBURGH 2006
SHOULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL. WASN’T.
The 2006 Fringe should have been a triumph for me. Look at what happened:
69 shows on the Free Fringe, almost all of whom had a good time. I
received copious thanks for the idea. I got two awards. The Three Weeks Editors’ Award in my own right, and
the Tap Water Awards version of Spirit of the Fringe, for PBH’s Free Fringe.
I did lots of radio. I got a three-column feature in The Scotsman. My shows went well; excellent guests in PBHASC. Ross Noble as surprise
guest (audience’s jaw dropped collectively) and, on a different night, a
wonderful Fringe moment, in which the entire second half didn’t turn up and I
was telephoning replacement acts from the stage; I did 50 minutes filling in
and the Glen Wool (who was basically the second half) eventually got my
frenzied messages and arrived, and did another 50 minutes. We finished nearly
an hour and a half late, and nobody left. Magic. The one-man show went well also. A simple idea, but it worked. One
reviewer said that it only ticked the boxes for three starts, but he
personally would be back next year to see whatever I was doing. Whoopee. If
you like it, give it more stars. This is a norm-reference, not a
criterion-reference. And so did all the guest slots (do well, that is). Even my appearance as
Doc in Paul Kerensa’s Back To The Futon: I was often stopped on the street and
hailed as Doc. I’ve never seen the film, or a picture of the character, until
I did two of them live. Does he really look like me? Rest of the guest slots fine, as well. I did more than one appearance
for each year of my age, not counting the Kerensa videos or any radio that
didn’t have a live audience. And I never gave out a single leaflet for my own shows. All the
leafleting I did was for the Free Fringe in general. Oh, how happy I ought to be. Everything I’ve worked for, working
smoothly. So, why am I not? Simple answer: the Laughing Horse. I took on these people to help, initially by providing a compilation
show that was not my own, as soon as I had the chance to expand the Free
Fringe. I wish I hadn’t. Throughout our association, they have manoeuvred themselves in a
position to take over the Free Fringe, and now they think they’re doing so. I
object to that; the Free Fringe is supposed to be an association of
performers. This year, where I never leafleted for my own shows, they never
leafleted for the Free Fringe as a whole. They’re spreading all sorts of
negative spin about me, and claiming they always did all the work and that I
can’t organise anything. And their little toadies are posting on Chortle,
singing their tune. The Free Fringe will go ahead, even if they capture all our venues. In
the worst case, we’ll get new venues. And good acts will choose to work with
me rather than them. I wish I didn’t have to fight. But since I do, I will.
The Free Fringe isn’t safe in a promoter’s hands. It is safe in mine.
Click here for the
Cambridge Folk Festival page.
But surely, Peter must have recorded
something? Don't you hate websites that put questions in your mouth
like that? Click here for details of the
tapes.
This is the 2005 PBH Fringe report . Here's the 2002 post-Fringe page. I wasn't there in 2003 and didn't do one for
2004. Here's 2001's
Edinburgh-afterwards page;
here's the outdated preview
for Edinburgh 2001 and here's
the report on Edinburgh 2000.
Here's the old report on
Edinburgh 99 and here's the Edinburgh 2000
preview page. Don't say I don't archive things.