Dear Heart,
Well its been a long tepid , heartbreaking , filthy (in a good way), anxious, euphoric, pissed up and all together enlightening summer. Faithful reader as I write this blog to you from my slightly chilly bedroom overlooking a blustery Autumnal day on our temporary tumblr whilst we build the newmacho.com, i think of the future and it feels good.
“where have you been bitch?!” I hear you mutter to yourselves and my response is everywhere and nowhere all at once. A pilgrimage of sorts, working all over the place trying to get to a point where we are ready for the next vita steps in NewMachos journey.
Over the past few months I have somehow found myself travelling the length and breadth of this great isle attending festivals watching copious amounts of performance whilst working on the new shows and generally trying to make sense of it all… . still not done making sense but the shows are coming along a treat.
So in order to sum up the gap where the radio silence once was i will give you a sentenced per memorable event this summer then we can be friends again, move on and be done with it….
- Latitude– Went with BAC Take Out! had a very soggy time in the forest bot got down stuck in with beautiful work from Subject To Change , Coney & Little Bulb. Learnt how to cruise effectively with the wonderful Brian Lobel and Cruising For live art- Bloody marvelous. Insect Bites + Soggy Forest= strange swelling.
- Secret Garden Party - Utter filth and Hedonism paired with good friends and a range of interesting encounters. Needed to sit myself down and have a good talk to myself afterwards, decided was time to grow up - whatever that means.
- Amy Winehouse- Discovered her passing whilst at SGP - people thought i was tripping on acid when i began to spread the news. Genuinely heartbroken, Held mini memorial on kitchen floor with friends, back catalogue and brandy.
- New Smart Phone- After a glorious house party in Brixton with friends and Siting of Florence from the machine i discovered my faithful Nokia had died. Enter new smart phone and the discovery of Grindr - there is definitely a show in this, not quite sure what it will do. But they really do change your life.
- London Riots- In my home town of Croydon - apocolyptic. Tip of the Ice Burg i promise you.
- Undercurrent Weekend- Worked on amazing festival in Shoreham-By-Sea with some amazing Artist. Very healing time in which i decided i would love to spend some portion of my life living on a houseboat - SO BEAUTIFUL.
- Prides- London & Brighton… am i proud? sometimes.
- Edinburgh- Went with the Fierce Festival as a Platinum artist and had an amazing trip. Saw everyone i had met (theatre wise) in the past three years. Gary McNair, Non Zero One, Bryony Kimmings and Ross Sutherland (who made me teary) were clear highlights. Got into falafel in a really big way.
- Edgelands – Big conference in Edinburgh with all of the movers and shakers in contemporary performance. Some brilliant moments, some interesting people but a lot of talking with not much promise of action. There was even a moment when someone compared David Camerons reaction to the Looting, with Norways Governments response to the Mass Shooting tied in with the state of the arts - it was at this point that i realised that we will do anything to blame the tories for anything. Big fuck ups take a long time and lots to people to become big and actually affect society. I am angry and not quite sure what to do about it - next show perhaps?
It was a special special time , i hope you had some fun and thought but now we must look forwards i feel. All we can ever be as artist is a catalyst - so lets get better at doing that. See you all very soon with some exciting news.
Rob Macho xx
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