'Tis Done

Been there, got the T-Shirt.

I've done it. Sunday 16th August at 01:00hrs saw me take over the plinth for an hour.

I was exceedingly nervous all day but relaxed a bit once I'd booked in with the organisers and had a cup of tea. My nerves came back once I was up there and set my equipment up. I just couldn't remember what I was going to do - fortunately I had a script/running order taped to the back of my pa and that prompted me to get going.

First I had a short rant about bankers but I soon got bored with that so I then launched into a few poems. My main reason for the poetry was that I'd got a bit annoyed by several plinthers who had read some poetry but without sufficient volume for people in the Square to hear them - this is annoying when you're in the Square but of course, these plinthers would have been audible to the rest of the world via the internet. With the benefit of my pa I could bring poetry to the Square. I'm not exactly the worlds best reader of poetry but I only made a couple of small mistakes (allowing for the fact that it's about 40 years since I read any poems out in public), so I was generally quite pleased and started to relax. Next I threw some fake banknotes into the crowd and was impressed with how many people rushed to grab them - I reckon there could have been injuries if I'd tried that during the day! I'm sort of half-hoping to spot the fake notes being traded on EBay or elsewhere.

I was supposed to start my music running at 10 past but I was about 5 minutes late doing so. For the first couple of tunes I was feeling a bit awkward but took the opportunity to take some photographs. I did this primarily to upset those people who've been moaning about plinthers taking photographs!

"Dad Dancing" followed whereby I just did those steps that all dads do when they dance and embarrass their kids. By now I was really enjoying myself - it was a pleasant evening, nice and warm, I was enjoying the tunes I'd selected, the crowd were friendly and the spotlights meant I couldn't see anything other than my own little plinth-world. Soon I was stripping off down to my rusty brown "gimp suit". Hand made by my friend Denise, the idea was to look like one of Gormley's iron men in Event Horizon or Another Place. I danced around to Jumping Someone Else's Train by the Cure, Beautiful World by DEVO and Touched By the Hand of God by New Order before ripping off my appendage, donning a pair of wings and becoming The Angel of the North. At this point I slowly rotated to reveal the word Brandalism on the back of the wings (and tried unsuccessfully to keep my wings as horizontal as possible).

Six minutes later and the next person was due up so I had to quickly pack all my gear away in my suitcase. I didn't really want to get down as by now I was feeling very comfortable up there - I'm guessing a lot of others have felt the same, I suppose it's the realisation that we're highly unlikely to ever have the opportunity to do it again.

My nerves are getting the better of me currently and I can't seem to focus properly on anything. I'm wondering how to arrange my stuff whilst I'm on the plinth - I don't want to accidentally knock anything off into the catch netting. I must remember to take some water up there with me. I've just noticed this entry is all short and separate comments- like that one! Hmmmm, better shut up.

Whoops! I've forgotten to add anything here for a while......
The hour is rapidly approaching and I've got some things prepared but loads still to do.
I now have a pa system - not as loud as I'd like but hopefully good enough for the early hours of the morning (will it overpower the sound of the drunks?). I've got most of my props sorted and I've got some music lined up. I haven't written my detailed script yet - I've been wondering whether I can ad-lib my way through the first 30 minutes. I'm also looking anxiously at the weather forecast - will I have to waterproof things?

Trafalgar Square will be fenced off over the weekend so I'm thinking it will make it easier for me in that I'll only have people near the plinth on one side so I can focus my "performance" in that direction. I'm not sure how that'll fit in with the cameras though - I think a visit to the Square on Friday is in order.

My wife has persuaded about 10 other people to have a late night and spectate, so I know I won't be completely alone......

Ups and Downs

Some days I really look forward to my hour, other days I'm in a cold sweat.

I've been to Trafalgar Square quite a few times now as well as visiting the One and Other video stream practically every day and find myself wondering what the most interesting thing is about the whole thing. From the start, I've not considered what people actually do on the plinth as being the most important aspect and felt that it was just the overall occupation of that space that was the whole point. However, I now see that as much as anything it's the interaction of the "plinthers" with the people around them that is becoming the point. I'm sure most of the plinthers volunteered just to be part of something (without necessarily thinking it all the way through) and most of them are patently NOT performers. But, performance is what most of the crowd seem to want - can any of us "non-performers" satisfy them and yet still give a picture of what we are about? I admire those people determined to just stand and "be" on the plinth. I know I haven't got the bottle for that, so I'm hoping to deliver four discrete pictures of me that will (hopefully) confuse the crowd enough for them to miss my lack of performing ability!
So you can see that my way of interacting is to avoid it as much as possible.....

The music is go!

Second question now answered - there is a PRS licence for the event so I am allowed to play music in public as part of my "performance".

I wonder what the weather is going to be like in the middle of August?

It was my brothers birthday yesterday. The whole family were chipping in with ideas for what to do on the plinth - several of which have already been done - my brother seemed especially keen on some sort of "charades" element.

Last week someone else suggested I take a spinning wheel up there (even though I've never used one in my life) but I notice that someone did that last night!

This thing is making me realise that, although we are all unique, we all have a lot in common.....

Running Behind

I was supposed to have finalised what I'm going to do by today so that I can get all the preparation/rehearsal done.
I've failed - I still only have ideas enough for the first and last of my self-imposed four "segments". Must pull finger out.....