Socks in Batman's back yard

It's hard to write about a whistle-stop tour without using cliches like whistle-stop tour. To be honest I'd have to Google "whistle-stop" to be entirely sure of its derivation and its relevance. To be honest, this string of dates has involved a lot of stopping but not a great deal of whistling. But, for the purposes of brevity, lets just say the Socks are in the middle of their whistle-stop preview tour and things are going well. Check out the adoring fans.



That's right, they turned up with finger puppets and everything and wanted their photos taken with the Socks. For a moment we were star struck.  It turned out they were just at the Splendour Festival in Nottingham as part of a hen weekend which included finger puppets, and had never seen the Socks before. But they're now devoted Socks fans, after a cracking 20 minute mid-afternoon set, and took away business cards wanting to book the Socks to appear at another wedding next year, so result. Yes, this was the Socks first open-air festival gig of the year since Adelaide, and it went swimmingly. And took place in Batman's back garden.



Wollaton Hall outside Nottingham was used as Bruce Wayne's mansion in The Dark Knight Rises and is, this weekend, home to the Splendour Festival. Reminiscent of the Ashton Court Festival in Bristol, there was stuff taking place all over the grounds of the stately home - I managed to catch a bit of Bjorn Again and a veggie burger before shooting off - including the comedy which had a courtyard to itself and a very good and appreciative audience. The Socks did their best family-friendly stuff and loved it. We even managed to wear the wristband:



Then it was off to Guildford's Electric Theatre to play a Boo Lingerie Edfringe preview, into which we also threw some Best Of material, this being the Socks first ever show there. In all they got a 75 minute show and loved it. Having been originally planned to play in the main auditorium, in which we would have rattled around a bit, we moved the show to the cafe bar area which we then packed with punters with standing room only, making for a perfect atmosphere. It also gave rise to this lovely sign, suggesting the only people who would be admitted were "Falsetto customers". All drinks to be ordered by yodelling.



Courtesy of Sara Thornton on Facebook, a photo of the Guildford gig

So we've had Thursday in Bath a success, Friday night's Manchester preview and Sitcom Trials show both excellent, a festival slot in Nottingham and a preview in Guildford both perfect, and today we have a 2pm afternoon preview in Derby. It's good to be busy and, er, we'd better get going.





The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre present not one but two new shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012: Boo Lingerie - A Socky Horror Show every night at 10.40pm and Chunky Woollen Nits - The Family-Friendly Hour at 11am. Tickets are now on sale, book now!

See all other Socks tour dates in the Scottish Falsetto Socks Gig Guide.