Hang On, I’m Thinking!
It’s a new year and traditionally that means Quiet Time for me; it’s never a particularly busy time for concerts and prospective clients tend to be slowly getting back to it after the Christmas break and dealing with their heaving inboxes. For me, it’s a chance to take stock of existing projects that are in development but need a fresh push and - more excitingly - come up with new ideas. For that, I need time and space. And once the twins are back at pre-school, that’s what I get. It might look as though I’m lounging on the sofa drinking tea but I’m actually in the middle of a decades-honed technique of Thinking that yields - hopefully - interesting projects ahead.
It wasn’t always this way in January. When I was a filmmaker, creating video content for orchestras, publishers, musicians and all sorts of others - when that kind of thing was pretty new - one of my big clients was the London Symphony Orchestra and for many years I was a major part of their season marketing campaigns. I would help come up with the approach for the campaigns and then produce all the filming (and often photography) that would launch each season. The LSO always liked to get in first with their new season announcements and they got earlier and earlier; a season starting in September would often launch in February. That meant a very busy Christmas and New Year for me, attempting to catch world-famous musicians in the down-time or if they happened to be in town. Scheduling was a nightmare, especially at that time of year. I spent a lot of very long nights editing films to get them ready in time. But somehow we managed it. Sometimes only just.
A day trip to Leipzig to film and photograph conductor Kristian Jarvi and violinist Julia Fischer went very well (two terrific and lovely musicians to be with) followed by a leisurely lunch outside the Leipzig Gewandhaus in the sunshine ahead of our drive to Berlin to get the flight home. Only, Easyjet had other ideas and cancelled the flight. And there were no more flights that day. We all needed to get back to the UK for jobs the next day - I was due to film The King’s Singers - so we took evasive action and rented a car (it was now about 7pm). I drove us from Berlin to Calais (580 miles) overnight with my cameraman Simon and photographer Gautier in the back and Jo, LSO Head of Digital Marketing - in charge of us - in the front talking to me a lot to make sure I stayed awake. [Full Disclosure: Jo is now my wife]. We dropped off Gautier in Lille as that’s where he lived and the rest of us then sprinted to get the ferry to Dover (it was now about 8am), abandoning the rental car in the car park and hoping the company would find it. From Dover we caught a train into London and then another out to Gatwick, which is where the car was parked. So it really was Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I think we all made it home around lunchtime, all our work for the day cancelled, of course.
It goes without saying that the concert involving Jarvi and Fischer that we’d talked to them about was eventually cancelled (many months later) so it ended up being a totally wasted trip anyway. (This happened quite a lot, actually. Because season launch dates were so early, I was often interviewing musicians/conductors about a concert that was nearly two years away - and, particularly with singers, anything could happen in that time. I used to joke - still do - that orchestras should write in the season brochure, next to a singer’s name, “Please note that this singer will not be the one performing in the actual concert”).
ANYWAY, there wasn’t much time for thinking! That was a manic but hugely enjoyable time and I loved being on the road, filming with amazing musicians and creating content. But now things usually happen at a rather more leisurely pace and that’s fine by me as the father of 3-year old twin boys.
Ideas are what I thrive on. I have far too many ideas and spend a lot of time thinking about them, putting each one through a series of tests in my head for viability (creative and financial) and effectiveness before landing on the best two or three. That process can take ages and might take weeks of washing up, baths, hoovering, Bargain Hunt and talking to my mother. It might look as though I’m binge-watching Slow Horses on Apple+ but I’m actually in the middle of a decades-honed technique of Thinking.
My wife is often amused by the process. I usually pitch my ideas to her just to get an experienced ear - she knows this business (and me!) pretty well. But for her, what effectively happens is that I mention an idea at lunch one day and about a year later there we are at the Royal Albert Hall doing it. And it’s usually the maddest ideas that end up happening. I wanted to do a big show with Sir Michael Caine at the Royal Albert Hall, with the LSO, Quincy Jones, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Everyone told me it wouldn’t happen. It did. Hans Zimmer and I, having lunch one day in the canteen in Abbey Road Studios, came up with the idea of doing Interstellar with live orchestra within 3 months. Everyone said I was crazy. But I did it. I wanted Prof Stephen Hawking to introduce it and everyone said he would never do it. He did. (Mind you, everyone was proved right about me being crazy as the concert ended up being a total nightmare for me afterwards).
Sometimes, good ideas just don’t take off. When my home town of Harpenden opened a brand new small venue (500 seats) I was keen to do something there and thought I’d use my celeb contacts to create a series of special Q&As. Lined up I had my friend Sanjeev Bhaskar, satirist/impressionist Rory Bremner and legendary TV producer John Lloyd (Blackadder, QI). I also produced a special day celebrating comedian Eric Morecambe, who lived in Harpenden, and who the venue is named after. I got Michael Parkinson, Angela Rippon, comedians Robin Ince and Richard Herring, biographer Louis Barfe and Eric’s son Gary Morecambe as guests in talks/events throughout the day. Stellar line-ups that I was really proud of.
But for some reason, people didn’t come. I really thought local people might enjoy something at this level that was on their doorstep rather than a trip into London. But I was wrong. We struggled to get audiences (although the ones that did come were very appreciative). The venue was a bit naive about what we had and the publicity was left far too late. The best turnout, inevitably, was for one of the Eric Morecambe sessions when Michael Parkinson and Angela Rippon spent 90 minutes telling stories, which was amazing. It was an unforgettable day that included a very treasured photo (above) but I didn’t make any money on it, even with that cast. I had to cancel the John Lloyd event because not enough people had bought tickets (John, typically, was extremely generous and understanding about it). Maybe Harpenden residents prefer to trek into London for their special evenings. Who knows. But those were ideas that didn’t fly and one can only really learn from such experiences.
I have a couple of extremely mad ideas for this year that just might happen. They are huge and involve very very famous participants so on the face of it they look impossible. And I will need to engage my most advanced skills of persuasion. But everyone involved seems keen so I’ve got a lot more creative sessions to come. It might look as though I’m having coffee in a cafe and reading the paper but remember - I’m actually in the middle of a decades-honed technique of Thinking.
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