TO: [email protected] RE: PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER Hi folks – just got tickets for this Saturday’s show in Edinburgh when I spotted the call for house band members. I’m a bitter and twisted ex-musician who’s been through the grinder, and had to be physically restrained from chopping up my guitars for firewood by the missus on more than one occasion, so thought I might be the kind of person you were looking for! I mainly play guitar, but can tap/clap/shake/ hum and even sing a little, so if you’re in the market for any of the above then put me down – and if not, best of luck with the show. I’ll be there enjoying it either way :-) Cheers, Paul PAUL HAGAN EDINBURGH HOUSE BAND THE SONG OF HOW THIS WORKS to record some of the ripples from PUTTING THE BAND the show. I’ve done that partly BACK TOGETHER: through first-person accounts: between June 2016 and February STORIES FROM 2017 I interviewed roughly 30 people, from all over the country, THE HOUSE BANDS about their experience not MADDY COSTA just of being in the show, but of anticipation, rehearsal and being inspired afterwards. But because Putting the Band Back Together is also a gig, telling its stories in songs, I’ve written that way too: wonky paeans, doggerel sometimes, to the themes that Every Unfolding Theatre show to music, past or present. The kept coming up, such as how comes with an invitation. On my House Band has expanded cultural participation raises first encounter with them, in to include singers alongside confidence, and how the Unfolding Edinburgh in 2012, I was given a instrumentalists, people who last company dismantled hierarchy. “motivational banana” and invited played 15 years ago and people Also true to the company, this to celebrate the often overlooked who have barely been learning for document is part of an unfolding sporting achievements of the 15 weeks, people accustomed to story: the show will continue to great darts players. That opened performing live and people who tour long after I write my final the door to another celebration: never get the opportunity or give sentence, and memories will of all the small and quirky ways in themselves the chance. continue to be cherished, or fade. which human beings are – as the It is an invitation developed Like any such document, this can show itself was called – Best in over the course of more than only be a snapshot – I’m catching the World, whether at something a year, as Unfolding Theatre at melodies heard on the breeze. or for someone. It’s a key tenet in director Annie Rigby, associate But it’s partial in other ways. the Unfolding philosophy: every artist Alex Elliott, musician Ross There are no stories here of human has something remarkable Millard, writer Chloe Daykin, people for whom this was just about them. But as members of performer Maria Crocker and a lark, quickly forgotten. That’s the audience came on stage to theatre-maker Mark Lloyd (whose partly because the group I spoke try their hands at scoring a treble experience of putting his own to was self-selecting: if people 20, another key tenet revealed band back together after learning didn’t think they had anything itself: we all could take pleasure he had cancer was among the interesting to tell me, they didn’t in shooting arrows for the stars, stories that inspired Annie to reply to emails or texts asking never mind that they’ll never make the work) collaborated with to talk. And I’ve had to edit to get there. Or, less fancifully: a growing community of music prevent the document becoming excellence is vital and winning enthusiasts in Sunderland to think unwieldy, which has inevitably does count – but imperfection through possibilities for the show. meant focusing on the stories of and the possibility of failure In Sunderland, musicians were realisation, or transformation, of shouldn’t stop anyone taking part. able to attend workshops once a doors opening and opportunities Putting the Band Back month, and contribute to songs as being created, because who Together is shaped by, energised they were being written – some wouldn’t want to read about the by, the invitation to take part. even heard their own stories activations of joy? Taking part in It was originally conceived for become lyrics or text for the show. Putting the Band Back Together people who used to play music, On tour, the relationship with won’t have changed everyone’s but haven’t for years, offering musicians has necessarily been lives, but where it has had an them an opportunity to join a quicker, but no less meaningful. impact, however slight, that’s the band for a night. In practice, Taking part changes lives, tale I’ve felt most drawn to tell. that invitation has been open to however minutely. So hey, ho: let’s go. Let’s meet include any kind of relationship This document is an attempt the House Band. 3 THIS IS MY STORY making you happy. I really THE SONG OF NO HIERARCHY (OR: LET'S MAKE IT TOGETHER) PENNY FOLLAS, SALISBURY HOUSE BAND love music and want to learn something a bit more Penny played piano and guitar in her youth but drifted from music challenging. And I would when her children were born. She started learning the ukulele two love to perform! I would years ago, and now plays in two bands, a big group who practise love to be good enough to be every Monday and a quartet who meet on a Wednesday and able to perform: I’m a bit of occasionally perform. a perfectionist and I don’t like to play if I don’t feel I didn’t know but the story in confident. the show is actually my story: It’s great performing with when my son was seven I was really good musicians who diagnosed with breast cancer. give you the courage to go So it was a bit weird when it for it and try it; if you’re with started, I could feel myself people who are not sure of shaking. But you get caught themselves it’s harder. The up with the music, luckily, it company are so open and sort of takes over. easy to let you play with The first thing I did when oxygen kills cancer cells. them, no matter how good or I was recuperating was get And music’s just brilliant: bad you are: you just have a singing lessons because it’s one of the best things at go, which is great. SOMETHING MORE THAN NOTHING never going to be the world’s DAVE, LUTON HOUSE BAND best ukulele player, but I can strum a few chords together, Dave played brass in his younger years and performed in a brass and Ellie – who’s also in the band until work as a primary school teacher made it difficult to Meetup group, and played in commit – and “motivation dried up as well”. He tried to teach the House Band – can sing a himself guitar, “and lasted about 10 minutes”, so switched to bit, so why not just do it? So ukulele, with the faultless logic that if young children can learn I’ve managed to book us a gig to play it, he ought to have no trouble. He now runs a ukulele for a local festival in July, and group on Meetup, through which he received an invitation to join we’re going to the Luton Beer the House Band from the Hat Factory – a neat bit of outreach Festival this weekend: we’re work from the venue. just going to turn up and have a jam in the corner. There’s I’ve been playing ukulele and like everything, practice probably a lot of people who about six or seven months: makes perfect. I found as I sit at home and have a little it was a little challenge I set was strumming away I got play and don’t really think myself, to learn from a teach into it, and it was the first they can do it; what I want to yourself app. I set up the time I’ve played ukulele do is go out and find people, Meetup group because I got publicly outside my class of whether by sitting in the pub bored of playing on my own: children, so it was quite a having a jam, or busking at it’s quite a recent thing, and big experience for me. And a the beer fest, and give them there’s only a couple of us who really nice thing to do. the confidence to be able to attend regularly, but out of Having done the show, I play in public rather than at molehills mountains are built realised that I can play – or, home on your own. The show (or whatever the saying is!). I can play to an audience. It has really inspired me to keep Ross did say during the did help that I had a drink playing, rather than giving up House Band rehearsal that in between the rehearsal and thinking I’ve had my little the chords are not easy for and the show, but generally fun. I want to do more, it’s ukuleles, but life isn’t easy I thought: I can do this. I’m really spurred me on. 4 THE GIVE AND TAKE experienced players. THE SKILLS INSIDE elements of it and the most STEVE WILLIAMS, NEWCASTLE HOUSE BAND It’s Ross’s songwriting ALLEN MORNINGTON WEST, SALISBURY HOUSE BAND confidence-boosting.