It’s the second instalment of our tour diary, brought to you by Springfree Trampoline.  This week’s diary will cover our first shows in London and our journey up to Edinburgh.

27th July 2010 (Tuesday)

In our first week of being in London we were told by our tour guide Elly Gay that what we call ‘soft serve’ ice-cream in Cape Town, is called ‘Mr Whippy’ over here.  For some reason I found this fact particularly interesting, and after a fairly lengthy conversation making sure that my facts were correct and that ‘Mr Whippy’ wasn’t simply just a brand of ice-cream, but rather the name for the type of ice-cream, I started keeping my eye out for ‘Mr Whippy’ to make sure that Elly’s British facts were actually true.

To be fair, I should have doubted Elly’s facts.  She’s a great lady, but on my first day of being in central London she did try to convince me that fish and chips are exclusive to Britain, and seemed rather surprised that us South Africans have both fish and also chips, and have caught on to putting the two together.  In her defence, she hasn’t been to Cape Town and visited the town Fish Hoek, which is currently very close to changing its name to Fish & Chips Hoek.

Now it probably says something quite bad about me that I’m more interested in spotting ice-cream vans than I am about visiting Madame Tussauds, but since being alerted to the concept of ‘Mr Whippy’, I have noticed that no other ice-cream vans actually do call their ice-cream ‘Mr Whippy’.  Which is worrying.  Because if Elly thinks all ‘soft serve’ is called ‘Mr Whippy’, she is clearly being followed around by someone in a ‘Mr Whippy’ van.

Anyways, Tuesday saw us saying goodbye to our host Laura Jacobs, and making our way through to St Pauls to meet Caryn Sims for a pub lunch at Punch Tavern.  Afterwards we were then going to mission off to Bromley to stay with Nancy and Andrew Keggie (our bassist’s sister and brother-in-law), but Caryn invited us to stay at her place in Colliers Wood for two days because she lived closer to our first two gigs.

When it came to organising shows in London, we did it very last minute, and so we basically just accepted any venue which said yes.  And when it came to finding accommodation in London, we also did it very last minute and just accepted anybody who said yes.  This meant that we weren’t necessarily going to be staying anywhere near where we needed to be, so we were grateful for The Sims’ hospitality, and were once again reminded that London is far bigger than Cape Town.  You can walk from one side of Cape Town’s city centre to the other without breaking much of a sweat.  You can’t walk from one side of London’s city centre to the other without breaking your legs.

28th July 2010 (Wednesday)

Our search for CD jewel cases continued as we walked to a nearby Staples to see if they sold things other than staples.  They did, but as with most places, if they had CD jewel cases, they didn’t have the ones with a clear tray.  The clear tray isn’t a particularly new invention, and most bands use clear trays for their albums, so I’m not sure why London is so behind.  They might as well be selling VHS boxes and floppy disc holders.

Wednesday was our first actual productive day because we also decided to work on our Edinburgh show.  We’ve had the songs for our Edinburgh show sorted for quite a while now, but we had yet to sit down and work on the song order and the banter in-between the songs.  Partly because we wanted to observe British culture before writing the show, and partly because it is Streep tradition to leave things for the last minute.  We work best under pressure, which is why we write all of our songs in submarines.

This was also the day of our first gig in the UK.  I would be lying if I said we weren’t slightly nervous.  We don’t usually get anxious before a show, but this was our first time performing in a completely different culture to what we’re used to – there was definitely a small part of us worried that for some reason jokes wouldn’t translate and we’d have to rewrite all our material in a week.

Fortunately, the folks at the Halfmoon in Putney warmed to us well, and we got our first UK laughs.  We played alongside Roland Albertson and The Brilliantly Simple, both great acts and great people.  If you missed us in Putney, we’ll be playing at Roland’s farewell show on the 5th September.  He’s also South African, which is not surprising, because apparently Putney is full of South Africans.
 
I unfortunately got carried away and forgot to mention that just before the gig, we managed to find CD jewel cases in Putney’s WHSmith.  This meant that just before the show, Dyl and I were sitting in The Halfmoon assembling albums.  Streep tradition thrives once again.

Our journey back to Colliers Wood was an interesting one because Dyl fell asleep on the bus, and my eyes decided not to remember familiar scenery, so we ended up missing our destination by four or five stops, and we found ourselves in Morden.  Whilst waiting for the night bus to get us back to our area, a man stopped us and asked whether we were ‘The Feeling’.  Sad to disappoint him, we said “unfortunately not”, to which he replied, “it’s actually a good thing you’re not them” - which is quite a weird thing to say.  Almost as if he had a huge vendetta against The Feeling and if we had been them, Morden would have been our last stop ever.

Luckily the night bus arrived and we made our way back home.  Although we did miss our stop again and ended up walking back to the house.

29th July 2010 (Thursday)

There are apparently also loads of South Africans in Wimbledon, so Thursday saw us meeting up with our friend Skye and her sister for pancakes.  We explored Wimbledon Common for a bit looking for Wombles, but Skye was the closest thing to a Womble we found.  In our defence, Skye has been known for “making good use of the things that she finds, things that the everyday folks leave behind”, so our search wasn’t a complete disappointment.

That night we were not only playing a gig, but we were also heading off to our next accommodation, so that meant carting all our luggage to our show in Stockwell, so that we could go stay with the Keggies in Bromley after the show.

Our show in Stockwell at The Cavendish Arms was part of their weekly variety nights which take place on Thursdays.  ‘Variety’ is what they claim to offer, and ‘variety’ is exactly what they delivered.  We played with a raw minimalist rock & roll band called Black Vox, a comedy skiffle outfit called The Ouse Valley Singles Club, some burlesque dancers, and the whole show was hosted by fellow Fringe and Gilded Balloon performer, H Anthony Hildebrand.

Hildebrand and talented artist Hannah Neale joined us for the walk to the station after the show, and we parted ways at Stockwell Station, where we caught the tube to Brixton, and then the train to Bromley.  Our train ride to Bromley was free after a kind policeman told us that they probably wouldn’t check tickets so late at night.  He was right, and we were happy.

30th July 2010 (Friday)

If you’ve seen our publicity shots for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, you would know they consist of us dragging our luggage around ‘Scotland’ – actually Paarl in Cape Town – looking rather tired and lost.  We would have never known this at the time, but these pictures have proved to be rather accurate.

We haven’t stayed in a place much longer than three days, so there’s been an awful lot of carrying luggage around, and unluckily for me, my case weighs about the same as Barry Ronge.  (Or James Corden.  Or Pavarotti.  All depending which reference you understand.)  I’m also carrying around my guitar, but I might as well be playing the grand piano at shows, because it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.  Dyl is in a similar boat, but his bag straps to his bag, so he’s been able to manoeuvre around London fairly easily, although I fear he might be a hunchback by the end of the tour.  I’ve had to rely on my bag’s wheels, which means I’ve come to hate stairs, and also pavements which don’t cater for wheel chairs.  This whole ordeal seems to have made me more socially aware - I’ve started taking notice of how few places cater for the disabled, which probably means I’m one step closer to recycling and becoming a vegetarian.

After experiencing the joy of Krave – a cereal which has to be about as healthy as just eating chocolate for all three meals of your day – Dyl and I simply spent the whole day resting and catching up with friends on the Internet.  The day ended with supper with the Keggies, a bit of The IT Crowd, and all of us trying to convince Andrew to stay up for Would I Lie To You.  He faded halfway, but don’t worry Rob Brydon, we think he enjoyed it.

31st July 2010 (Saturday)

Saturday afternoon we did something which most Londoners probably don’t normally do on a Saturday afternoon.  We went into central London.  I’m not entirely too sure if it’s possible for a city to be full, but London must be close to spilling.

We thought it might be good to check out the Museum of Natural History, but the queue was so long that people at the end of the queue were probably going to be part of the exhibit before they got in.  Luckily, we found a sneaky entrance round the side, got in, and then realised the queue to see the dinosaurs was too long, so we decided to visit the museum on another day when we’d be able to do so without jeopardising general mobility.

So without any natural history in our heads, we ventured to Oxford Street to do some shopping.  I was hoping to get an iPhone and Dyl was hoping to get Star Wars themed Adidas shoes, but none of us were successful.  Which is probably why we decided to binge on DVDs at HMV instead.

That night we had supper with the Keggies, and then we all went down to the local Bromley pub, after which we went back home to watch my new Best Of Never Mind The Buzzcocks DVD.

It was a relaxed night because the next day we were off to Edinburgh.

1st August 2010 (Sunday)

The festival only begins on the 4th August, and our first technical run through is on the 3rd August, but we decided to get there on the 1st August because we booked a month’s accommodation and were planning to make the most of it.

We left the Keggies bright and early on Sunday morning, caught the bus to Bromley station, caught the train to Victoria, the tube to Kings Cross, and then an East Coast train to Edinburgh.  So yes, if you’re from Bromley and are looking to come to Edinburgh, now you know exactly how to do it.  Our train had a power point for my laptop, so I spent most of the journey catching up on my blogging, whilst Dyl read a book called The World of Chickens.  I don’t know what it’s about, but if we do badly in Edinburgh and Dyl goes into farming, at least I’ll know why.

Sitting opposite from us on the train was Max, a friendly guy in a Star Wars t-shirt who hails from California.  He’s part of an improv group called Smile and Nod, also performing at the Fringe.  So if you’ll be attending and want something to see, so far we can suggest H Anthony Hildebrand and Smile and Nod.  In the spirit of piracy we loaded our album onto Max’s iPod, although I’m not too sure if it counts as piracy if we pirated it for him.

It might have been poor geography on my behalf, but if I’m correct, the moment we crossed into Scotland, it began to rain.

When we arrived in Edinburgh that afternoon, the rain subsided for enough time for us to get helplessly lost trying to find our rental office, and then started again when we were in the middle of an unknown town, tired, and weak from all the luggage.  There’s nothing quite like the feeling of not having a clue what’s going on or what to do next, whilst you and your belongings are simultaneously getting completely drenched.  Welcome to Scotland.

When we eventually got to our accommodation our spirits rose as we realised that not only was our accommodation incredibly nice, but we could also finally settle in – we have a month’s break from having to lag our stuff around.  Once we’d recovered we decided to have a sneak peek at where we were going to be performing, so we visited the Gilded Balloon, which fortunately is about a five minute walk from our flat.  And, in an unusual turn of events, we actually didn’t get lost on our way.

Before heading back home we stopped for supper at The Doctors, which seems like it might become our official favourite Edinburgh pub, and perhaps our favourite pub of all time.  We’re open to more pub suggestions, but so far we’re sold on the fact that you can get two meals for five pounds.  You know it’s a good deal when it’s even a good deal in South African rands.

This was the night we began our first of many Edinburgh movie trilogies.  They’re not real trilogies, but rather loosely themed trilogies.  Our first trilogy is of films which contain characters who find themselves living in some form of their own fantasy world.  So we began with a movie called Youth In Revolt, a film which is a bit like the teenage version of Garden State, except Zach Braff is Michael Cera, and Michael Cera has an imaginary alter ego.

2nd August 2010 (Monday)

Today we slept in, and then woke up and worked on our show.  We even wrote a new song, perhaps because we felt guilty for doing so little work and sleeping in.

The song is called “There’s An Awful Lot To See At The Fringe”, and it’s the opening number for our show.  It’s done in a vaudeville style and is all about... wait a minute... not so fast.  If you want to know what the song is about, you’re going to have to come see our show.  And yes, for most of you reading this, it might mean hopping onto a plane and flying to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but trust me, it will be worth it.  Not for the song, but because yes, there is an awful lot to see at the Fringe.

After feeling rather proud of our own productivity, we took a trip to the EdCom office (our agents for the Fringe) and then walked around town for a bit, handed out fliers, and mysteriously ended back at The Doctors for an early supper.  That evening we watched the second movie in our ‘characters who find themselves living in some form of their own fantasy world’ trilogy, which happened to be Drop Dead Fred.

And thus concluded another good week.  And in case anyone is interested, I haven’t seen a Mr Whippy in Scotland.