Don't Lets Be Beastly To The Leavers - new video

Brand new from the Socks - Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Leavers. A fun new song, recorded and shot today, I do hope everyone enjoys it.

The song itself, obviously, is based on the Noel Coward classic and channels the same satirical message. Having written the lyrics Wednesday evening, I then had to go to the storage unit to rescue my keyboard in order to record it. This is the first song where I've played all of the music for a while, having relied on karaoke tracks for a lot of recent tunes, especially ones that aren't part of the stage show. Possible the last song I played with no assistance was Avengers Reel from the Superheroes show. Anyway, any bum notes, they're all me, played in the key of C then transposed down to B flat so I could sing it.

The video was a tight thing too. My camera has a fault by which the power cable doesn't seem to be working. It's had this glitch on and off over recent years but usually, eg last week when I used it, it fritzed back onto working properly and it charged up. This video was shot in one take, with the camera showing 8 minutes of battery life remaining, and transferred to the laptop on the same bit of juice. I'm now looking at a DV camera that's dead to the world. A problem I'll remember about when it's time for the next video.

And I know there's an error in the subtitles (apart from the indecision about whether to write Lets or Let's, and doing both), which I didn't spot until it was too late. Live with it.

UPDATE: By Mon Feb 4 this has had 3200 views on Facebook, + 820 views of its square version. This compares to 2500 views of Fyre Festival. On Youtube it's only mustered 193 views.

Let's see how many Leavers this drags out of my Facebook woodwork. Chances are there aren't any left. But I did get one slightly hostile comment on last week's Fyre Festival video:

boredoftheworld wrote:

I love the Socks. For years I've subjected everyone I know to clips. A trip to the UK with my wife to see the Socks is at the top of my bucket list. I've up-voted every Socks clip but this one... this one was oversimplified pandering that serves no one. Take a few shots but an all out assault only alienates people with differing political opinions. It's the overreaching that turns something funny into something annoying. Everyone on earth already knows all the trendy people hate brexit, there's no point virtue signaling about it anymore.

As I say, I'm not expecting him to have this among his favourites either.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are previewing and touring throughout 2019.

Sun Jan 27 Dumfries Fringe 4pm Big Burns Supper

Feb 15/16 - Kayal Leicester 

Mar 20/21 - Dram Glasgow 

Mar 22 - Britannia Panopticon Glasgow

April 5 - Chorley Little Theatre 90 min (Superheroes)

April 6 - Rondo Bath 90 mins (Superheroes)

April 12 - Ropewalk Barton 90 min (Superheroes)

April 13 - Artrix Bromsgrove 90 min (Superheroes)

May 24 - Victoria Halifax Roll Up 7pm

June 1 & 2 - Brighton Komedia
June 8 - Harlequin, Reigate

July 8 - OSO Barnes Fringe

July 19 - Kings Arms, Greater Manchester Fringe

July 20 - Bedford Fringe

July 30 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 9.30pm

Dumfries

I knew my one off gig at the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries was going to be a loss leader, but I never guessed quite how expensive it was going to end up being. This was what the screen of my laptop looked like after I’ve taken advantage of the offer of putting bags in the hold on my Easy jet flight home on Monday afternoon. Not thinking how vulnerable my laptop might be inside my suitcase, it having been fine every journey before. I let it go in the hold, and when I got back home I found the lid was slightly dented and the screen looked like this. On Wednesday I have to get a new laptop or get the screen fixed.

The Big Burns Supper event I was to be part of was a bit of a mystery to me. Was it a festival like the ones they have in a field, or more like those Fringes that take place across a town? A bit of both, it transpired, with my show taking place in a converted packing container which made an efficient little black box theatre. Unfortunately it was right next to the main tent with bands and music on. So, as I discovered when I went to watch a magic show in there on Saturday night, it suffered total noise bleed the like of which you’ve never heard. 

Playing on Sunday afternoon in Dumfries meant that I had to fly up on Saturday and back on Monday, which made a one hour gig take up three days. But I thought I could use the getaway experience as an excuse to get some writing done. I managed a couple of gags and a couple of blogs I’m afraid. But the budget worked out a lot better than it might have done. With a Holiday Inn costing only £25 a night, flights at a little over £20 each way, £25 for a hire car for 2 days, and £25 for parking, it might not have been. Impossible to break even on this gig. As it happens, with about 20 punters in the container, I might not quite have managed it. But at least it eased me into the year’s performances, and was a good gig.

It turned out to be my second show of the year, having headlines Mark Olver’s Belly Laughs charity show at Spike Island the previous Tuesday, sharing a bill with an impressive array of 7 other really good acts, all Bristol based. Truly the Bristol wave of comedy has gone from strength to strength while I’ve not been paying attention.

In Dumfries I ended up seeing almost as many shows as I saw last year in Edinburgh, watching the magic show on Saturday then a one man dramatic monologue about a murder in Cyprus, both battling with noise bleed, then after my show I stuck around for James Cary’s show about comedy and religion. I even bought his book, which is very good, and we chatted for a bit as our shows crossed over.

The Socks gave them an edited version of Superheroes (removing The Brother subplot, Avengers Reel, FF and Thanos) with Magic and Earth Song inserted. I thought this would work as a sort of Best Of, and it went down really well, but I’d have been more satisfied if I’d just given them Superheroes in its entirety. All good though, and both of this year’s shows have helped me back on the Socks horse. 

It’s been a funny old January and no mistake. The funeral and clearing out the house in  Kibworth, coupled with trying to work from home and having fewer schools lined up than this time last year, has made it a low earning and hard going few weeks. I’ve been putting lots of stuff on eBay, generating very little money, making it seem like a time wasting cry fo help as much as anything constructive. I hope to get the year back into its stride when February comes. 

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return with a brand new show in 2019. Stay tuned.

Sun Jan 27 Dumfries Fringe 4pm Big Burns Supper

Feb 15/16 - Kayal Leicester 

Mar 20/21 - Dram Glasgow 

Mar 22 - Britannia Panopticon Glasgow

April 5 - Chorley Little Theatre 90 min (Superheroes)

April 6 - Rondo Bath 90 mins (Superheroes)

April 12 - Ropewalk Barton 90 min (Superheroes)

April 13 - Artrix Bromsgrove 90 min (Superheroes)

May 24 - Victoria Halifax Roll Up 7pm

June 1 & 2 - Brighton Komedia
June 8 - Harlequin, Reigate

July 8 - OSO Barnes Fringe

July 19 - Kings Arms, Greater Manchester Fringe

July 20 - Bedford Fringe

July 30 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 

Dreams

I very rarely write down dreams, I'm not even sure how often I remember them. But on the Monday night after coming back from my travels to Dumfries, I jotted down this epic. Apologies for it being in gibberish.

Indian news presenter, poss Samira Ahmed who interviewed me on Front Row, has to get stuff from car, when she returns she's turned into Mum. I have to reverse small car and find parking space then meet up with mum when I have, there is to-ing and fro-ing by text. Mum has fetched stuff from my office in garage, I have had to bring car round. Star spotting I see Ringo Starr and follow Joe Cocker thru crowded bar, that’s where I meet Mum. Mum needs loo in a department store, we rush up and down corridors following woman who works there, end up in office where Dad and boss are watching Rugby match with two sons and fellow workers and betting on it. Dad drinking coke and burping, 50s unshaven, telling me how he’s now doing 3 spots a week guesting on local radio, The boss tells me they’ve based the year’s Christmas card on Bob’s office chair.

In earlier dream I introduce Simon Pegg to David Tennant, then have to get boring guy away from Paul Weller who’s trying to do a crossword in the corner of the pub.

Other dreams in sequence feature famous people.  

There was a feeling that they were all famous and I wasn’t but felt I should be.

Tuesday dream: At a location based on Kibworth Primary school hall there were speeches and some sort of charity presentations going on, I had to go round the back of the building to get to where the portakabins used to be to avoid going through the hall.

The celebrity studded dream was sparked by going through security at Glasgow airport alongside Paul Weller. Biggest star spotting of the year so far. The crossword puzzle comes from a guy on the plane who was doing one next to me. The office chair may relate to the one from my office which we took to the recycling a week or so ago. The appearance of Mum and Dad is not that surprising as they've been in our thoughts a lot this month. These dreams were of course fragments of long dreams, most of which I'd forgotten by the time I started writing them.

Wednesday dream: Donald Trump was visiting our small flat, he was landlord or something, and for some reason he goes and hides in the shower, or takes a shower. We've been wondering where he's got to then he emerges, soaking wet, weraing some pyjamas he's grabbed, and screaming that there was only cold water and he's had a cold shower and is very unhappy about it. Hev's Mum & Anet have been watching or listening in on the shower incident and are in fits of laughter. The carpet of our room is blue and wet and mouldy, the whole place (again not based on our actual flat it has a long, low layout, like an apartment in an American film) is decrepit. Trump gets dressed and leaves, we leave him to walk the long way down to the street below. He is followed out a bit later by his wife, not Melania but an older woman with red curly hair who seems amused by the affair.

Dream Diary Monday Feb 4:

I had to help organise stand up gig that was part of a wedding, when I arrived they had no idea and were trying to get sound out of lamp stand plugged the wrong way into a speaker (this refers to lighting I used to make Socks videos, and sound system we had to set up at Spike Island gig).

Then a small female comedian called (forgotten name, Spig or Mig or Blink, made up name) who look like Pog off TV, turned up nose but with orange hair, starts doing routine but audience leaves during it.

Previous dream ( 2 nights ago) had various Doctor Who’s. The part of Tom Baker was being played by Geoffrey Rush.

Fyre Festival - new video from the Socks

A totally brand new video from the Socks, Fyre Festival, written and shot this week. And it's the first I've managed to shoot in Clevedon, since losing the studio last year.

I filmed this by comandeering the lounge and setting up my green screen across the entrance to the kitchen. So it's shot entirely using daylight, but I think it's worked (apart from the height of the chair I used, meaning that unfortunately you can see my head). Not as convenient as the old studio set up, but not impossible. Little by little I'm finding ways of keeping the creative juices flowing.

Not that I've written much of any use for the new show yet, which debuts in little over a fortnight, but the cogs are slowly starting to grind back into action after what has been, I think anybody would have to concede, a very unusual and disturbing few months.

Fyre Festival is on Youtube as a subtitled version and a vanilla version (I prefer the subtitled, which is also edited down a bit to lose less good lines) and is getting good viewings on Facebook, already over the 2000 mark, the first in a while to take off so quickly.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return with a brand new show in 2019. Stay tuned.

Sun Jan 27 Dumfries Fringe 4pm Big Burns Supper

Feb 15/16 - Kayal Leicester 

Mar 20/21 - Dram Glasgow 

Mar 22 - Britannia Panopticon Glasgow

April 5 - Chorley Little Theatre 90 min (Superheroes)

April 6 - Rondo Bath 90 mins (Superheroes)

April 12 - Ropewalk Barton 90 min (Superheroes)

April 13 - Artrix Bromsgrove 90 min (Superheroes)

May 24 - Victoria Halifax Roll Up 7pm

June 1 & 2 - Brighton Komedia

July 30 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 

Perfumes & Hollywood - new Socks videos

Perfumes, a new video from the Scottish Falsetto Socks, enjoy. I say new, but in fact it's a routine we did ages ago, that I fancied refilming. And the same goes for this one, Hollywood Babbling...

This has never been performed by the Socks before, but has an even older provenance, having begun life in a strip called Hollywood Babbling that I wrote and drew in UT comic, way way back in the day.

Having lost the studio at the end of last year, and thus the easy ability to very quickly shoot a video against the green screen that was permanently set up there, I was struggling to get my Socks' creative gears running. So I took advantage of last week's visit to Kibworth to set up a temporary studio in the back room and very quickly rattle off these two videos, plus some plugs for the forthcoming Socks shows in Leicester and Glasgow:

Leicester plug 1, 2, 3 and Glasgow plug 1.

The lighting for these worked out rather well, using the angled light from the corner of the room as they top light, and my old anglepoise lamp as the lowlight. That's the light I used to use as a kid, still coming in handy all these years later.

The plug videos have gone onto Facebook and Twitter in a framed version, made using Keynote. I make these notes largely for my own benefit.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return with a brand new show in 2019. Stay tuned.

Sun Jan 27 Dumfries Fringe 4pm Big Burns Supper

Feb 15/16 - Kayal Leicester 

Mar 20/21 - Dram Glasgow 

Mar 22 - Britannia Panopticon Glasgow

April 5 - Chorley Little Theatre 90 min (Superheroes)

April 6 - Rondo Bath 90 mins (Superheroes)

April 12 - Ropewalk Barton 90 min (Superheroes)

April 13 - Artrix Bromsgrove 90 min (Superheroes)

May 24 - Victoria Halifax Roll Up 7pm

June 1 & 2 - Brighton Komedia

July 30 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 

The Motherlode - all my old diaries found

As the clearing out of Windmill Gardens continued this weekend, I uncovered in the furthest depths of Private (the storage space along the sides of the house that I christened thus as a kid) what can only be described as The Motherlode.

All of my comic art, drawn from age 4 to 18, with such comics as my Planet Of The Apes series, that ran to over 20 issues, and such long forgotten titles as Top, Showcase and Pop People. And most significantly of all - my diaries.

I had long thought these lost, in a loft clearance long ago, but here they are, an undreamt of find. From my very first diary in June 1974 through to volume 8, I have volumes 9 to 11 at home, and finally volume 12, the one where I ultimately got too busy with life to spend all day illustrating it.

The pages from these will find their way on the My 1970s Diary blog, but to celebrate the big find, here is my very first Picture Diary page. The plan was, as you can see, to do a comic strip of my life. Over on the other blog you'll see how those plans changed over the coming months.

As well as these treats, I've found comics that I thought were worth putting on eBay (at time of writing, a Planet Of The Apes No 1 and a Daredevil 181 have got no bids, so what do I know?) and heaps more that, I'm afraid, will be heading to the charity shop. I fear there's no market for every Buster comic from 1974.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

Doctor Who VHS mountain + mags & toys on eBay

Having struck lucky with a couple of the books I put up on eBay the other day, I suddenly thought I'd hit on the perfect way to clear an entire box out of my storage unit - my priceless collection of Doctor Who VHS videos. Well, priceless turns out to be the word, but not in the way I thought.

Not a single one has received a bid, even at a starting price of 50p. It seems these treasures, from 25 to 30 years ago, aren't wanted, and are destined to be cast into The Recycling Pit Of Terror. Ironically cast there by the very people who spent the last 30 years bemoaning the fact that the BBC threw away so many tapes just a few years before.

Should there be a keen VHS collector out there with holes to fill in their complete set, here's the list of what is on eBay for the next week (and in Somerset landfill a week hence)...

An Unearthly Child http://ebay.us/xzkmNW 
The Hartnell Year & Dr Who & The Daleks movie http://ebay.us/hmrg94 
The Daleks (two tapes) ebay.us/EyVjAB 
Tomb Of The Cybermen ebay.us/MR3ZSx 
The Seeds Of Death ebay.us/6rSPnk 
The Mind Robber ebay.us/Shohzy 
The Dominators ebay.us/7I6Op5 
Spearhead From Space ebay.us/oysMDY 
Terror Of The Autons ebay.us/nRbvEm 
The Daemons ebay.us/NKWmro 
Day Of The Daleks ebay.us/gcUrHh 
The Time Warrior http://ebay.us/AB1U4n 
Death To The Daleks ebay.us/SSOBbg 
Planet Of The Spiders ebay.us/Yx8VRe 
Terror Of The Zygons http://ebay.us/h3QpLw 
Masque Of Mandragora ebay.us/gcc2zw 
The Talons Of Weng Chiang ebay.us/rSDa8T 
The Power Of Kroll ebay.us/lf1RrB 
City Of Death http://ebay.us/8Furrm 
Shada + script book ebay.us/HXAsxs 
The Curse Of Fatal Death ebay.us/vEjNqj 

Also some toys on ebay:

Remote Controlled Davros + 2 Battling Daleks ebay.us/xf0hW6 
Eccleston, Jack & Rose figures ebay.us/8iRd4N 
Tennant, Martha & Cyberman figures ebay.us/7yea1s 
Weeping Angel & Werewolf figures http://ebay.us/2z8oXq 

And I've also relisted some Doctor Who Adventures and Radio Times:

DWA No 1 and gifts ebay.us/kzhleM 
DWA 4 + Tardis clock ebay.us/2I6Blc 
DWA 15 + fingers http://ebay.us/LaIaZr 
DWA 19, 20 & 21 with gifts ebay.us/GAuIJC 
DWA 25 + Cyberman camera ebay.us/decPLR 
DWA 33 + gifts ebay.us/gCparz 
DWA 34 + spinners ebay.us/dg76n8 

Radio Times + Dalek cover 1999 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292921552431
Radio Times + Dalek cover 2005 http://ebay.us/C1H84q 
Radio Times + Doctor Who fold out cover 2006 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292921559045

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here. 

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return with a brand new show in 2019. Stay tuned.

Sun Jan 27 Dumfries Fringe 4pm Big Burns Supper

Feb 15/16 - Kayal Leicester 

Mar 20/21 - Dram Glasgow 

Mar 22 - Britannia Panopticon Glasgow

April 5 - Chorley Little Theatre 90 min (Superheroes)

April 6 - Rondo Bath 90 mins (Superheroes)

April 12 - Ropewalk Barton 90 min (Superheroes)

April 13 - Artrix Bromsgrove 90 min (Superheroes)

May 24 - Victoria Halifax Roll Up 7pm

June 1 & 2 - Brighton Komedia

July 30 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe