Once upon a time, I was a little girl who liked putting on shows at home with my younger brothers, for parents and random visitors - now I'm allegedly a grown up, I've given up my grown up job and started putting on shows again.
Why? well... I'm lucky enough to be married to Phil Martin - fiddle/guitar/tambourine and triangle player in a few great bands, past and present. He started composing some of his own stuff including a Nativity musical, and I thought Phil and some of the bands he's in needed a bigger audience. I organised a gig with Roy Hill about a year ago at our Church, St Paul's in Brentford, as a fundraiser for the Open House community cafe, and about 100 people came - Phil and I organised the support act with the Brentford Belles gospel group doing a few numbers with Phil - the gig was a great success and quite a few people said it seemed like a natural thing for me to be doing. Others commented that the Church felt lke a great place to have gigs in. It was so satisfying seeing the whole thing through, right from the buzz of contacting Roy, to the end of the night when we'd cashed up and were too hyped up to sleep. At the time of that gig I was having a hideous time at my day job, and organising gigs was like escaping to fairyland - a counterpoint to the everyday stresses I was dealing with. After that Phil and I started the open mic nights at St Paul's Church which have been so diverse and rewarding. I was on a roll! Throughout the 12 years I've been with Phil, I've harboured thoughts of putting on a gig with fellow Brentford resident, Nick Lowe . I put a note through Nick's door and asked him if he'd come and play at a fundraising gig, and he agreed - again a massive buzz which felt quite out of control in the build up at times as I had to hold back tickets as they were going so fast! - This was a major operation - I had to get a personal license, organise a bar and build a huge team of volunteers, now known as Hel's Angels to help on the night. I was aided throughout by my right hand woman, Rebecca David; engineer at Bulmers by day, rock and roll superwoman by night. Phil and I also built a brilliant support act, again with the Belles and Phil and I did a couple of duets - very exciting. We raised £6k on the night, and really it was all over for the day job - encouraged by a new locum boss, I started to plan - I signed up with a temp agency and handed in my notice - I set up Helen Martin Productions and here I am!
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ReplyDeleteand I ought to mention that Nick and his partner Peta were a real pleasure to work with - Peta designed the programmes for the evening as well. It was such fun and so much raised for community projects at the Church - I hope we can do it again sometime!
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