Marrakech Express

Daniel and myself returned last week from a successful trip to Morocco to climb North Africa's highest peak - Jebel Toubkal. We are also pleased our efforts managed to raise £1500 (so far) for MacMillan Cancer Support.

Rundown on the trip below -

Having been concerned for some time about hiking up a mountain in the considerable summer heat of Morocco, I was relieved to hear that the forecast for the trip was 44c with a wind chill factor bringing it down to a cool 42c. Nae bother, I thought.

Friday

We abandoned the luxury of the moving oven (bus) when we were all ‘well done’ and the road ran out at the mountain village of Imlil, some 1700m high in the Atlas mountains. I passed up the opportunity to have a mule carry my guitar as I decided that just wasn’t in the spirit of the event and I felt sure I’d be spurred on by my fundraising promise to carry the guitar to the top. As we hiked up through the village, passing numerous stalls selling rugs, trinkets, shoes & tagines, the views steadily improved, from terraced slopes of herbs, spices and walnuts giving way to cooler air and the dry rocky valley walls of Toubkal National Park.

Sweating our way up the long twisting path, passing various fuelling stops where local Berber people squeezed the most refreshing orange juice into a glass for about 20p. My favourite being the Charles Bronson look-alike’s O.J.

Our guide Aziz led the trip with a steady pace up to the packed Mountain refuge (10,000ft) where an army of locals threw much needed pasta at us before we spent the night ‘acclimatising’ or rather just passing out.

Saturday

The 5am alarm hit like double decker bus, marking the start of what was to be an extremely long day, so I downed my high energy shot of caffeine and other ‘stuff’ to help me up and away. So with guitar strapped to my back and cloaked in darkness we tackled the steepest section of Toubkal. The problem with the caffeine shot and the burst of energy it unleashed was it caused me to talk at 100mph and that it lasted for 5 hours oh and I had 2 more bottles of the stuff. There was nearly a mutiny.

As we neared the top the cloud broke and the sun and blues skies spurred us on. There was a party atmosphere as we reached the summit of Toubkal 4,167m (13,671ft), with bottles of Irn Bru being fizzed up like formula 1 winners and bodies lying crashed out all over the place. Once I got my breath back I played the song I had penned for the trip 'Call Me A Doctor' and then savoured the views as Andy Robbie of Glasgow band, The 4/5’s took a turn on the guitar with a few tunes which was much appreciated by all.

By 6pm the group of weary souls & soles had reached our beds for the night at the spectacularly located village of Armed. Not even a huntsman spider stalking the bedrooms prevented me from getting any sleep - the spider was in someone else's room.

 

Sunday

A casual morning stroll of about 2hours the next morning took us through the village and back to the bus-oven, which inturn took us back down into the inferno of 52c of Marrakech where the sweat started all over again...

Armed School

A brilliant trip, with a great team of people so a big thanks from both Daniel & myself for all those donations.

Next year – hillwalking in the Netherlands.

www.justgiving.com/aintnomounatain

Stonemason's Blues

It was with great sadness that i learned of the loss this week of Scottish Bluesman Tam White.

He was a familiar face on the Scottish music scene and i had the pleasure of opening for him a few times. I first discovered his music at his gig on my 18th birtday in The Old Athenaeum in Glasgow. We had been given complimentary tickets as he worked as a stonemason for the same company as my mum. (i should add that whilst my mum is a Glaswegian she was not a stonemason - she did the bookkeeping!).  I was well impressed with his performance and  blending of jazz and blues styles with his usual Scottish take on things.  More recently I have seen him perform acoustically with fellow Scot and harmonica player,  Fraser Spiers, where these intimate gigs fitted perfectly with Tam's story telling and humour.

A great character that will be sorely missed in the UK music scene.

Tam performing Stonemason's Blues

Performing at the Fringe on a budget

With news that there is an award for the best publicity stunt at the Edinburgh Fringe and realising that this award shows just how hard performers are trying in order to get their show noticed, I decided to make a list of things I have learned from my first show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

As it was my first show I was unaware of the costs involved and how easily they could all add up. It seemed everyone and their dog have ways for you to part with your cash when it comes to putting on a show at the Fringe.

So here are a few ideas for promoting your own show at the fringe on a budget.

Show Title

Make sure you have a catchy title and an attention grabbing description of your show for the fringe magazine. Assume the majority of people will not know your name. Get across what you are about in this section – there will be people out there who will like what you but only if you tell them about it. The Fringe Magazine is first stop for many when choosing what events to attend.

I put a theme into my show description, which described my style of songs and the stories they would be telling.

Emailing

With the usual sending out an email to your email list, I also asked folk if they could spread the word for me and tell their friends who were in Edinburgh.

Use Facebook, Myspace & Twitter. All the social networking sites at your disposal can be used to your advantage. They are free and have a huge reach.

Posters

I certainly think posters are vital for the venue itself and maybe a few other key places around the city. Put your own posters up and hand out your own flyers rather than spending £££s on 1000’s of posters/flyers.

Advertising

Avoid the vastly overpriced adverts in magazines. This will quickly blow any budget for a show without any guarantees of success.

Some magazines also offer last minute adverts as the deadline for publishing approaches at vastly reduced prices – e.g. £800 to £80, - but even at this I would still question whether it was worth it.

Make it Newsworthy

Can you find some unique aspect of you or your show that will stand out from the crowd. Remember Aaron Barschak? That guy who gate crashed Prince William’s birthday dressed as Osama Bin Laden? According to the press this attention seeking comedian stood to lose up to £15,000 on his run of poorly attended shows. Or was that another PR stunt in itself as it made the news which in turn probably helped him recoup some loses.

Busking – if you can be heard over the construction work!

Or busk at the venue itself. I attended a show where there was a bluegrass band playing to the queue of a show waiting to go in. They also handed out flyers and got on the chat with folks milling about.

Meet the Press

The Fringe ran a ‘meet the press event’ this year where you for free could speak directly to journalists. An excellent idea which avoids the use of expensive PR campaigns.

Local Radio

Offer to play a live set / interview, send out some cds./ even if you can just get them to mention it. Leith FM worked well for me.

please leave comments with any more your own ideas.

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An important lesson I learned for the next time was to book more than one show. This year I only booked one. If I had booked several nights, whilst the initial outlay would be higher, it would mean everything else becomes more cost effective. Also any reviews you can get then have the added effect of advertising the next show etc.

The average ticket sales for the fringe is 6. Unbelievable but true. Anything more than that and your doing well.

I’m still awaiting the final results of my ticket sales, but I had a good turnout, but with box office commissions, PRS payments etc, to come off that I am still just hoping to break even.

John