How is everyone? It's been a little while since I've done a post, as I've had a busy week!
Now, where do I start?...Ok...
On Friday (May 21st) I had a gig at the Woodvale. - It was a very enjoyable gig, as it always is down there, but a few things went wrong...for example... we had a lot of feedback from the equipment. It's probably our fault because we're novices, but it's very frustrating. Then it goes away, and you don't really know why it's gone away. Anyhow - that was a bit annoying. And then at the end of the second set, my music stand decided to give up, throwing all of my music on to the floor...hm. Luckily it was at the end and I only had about three more songs to go, so I just picked the three up and got on with it. Then at the end a lovely man came up to me and said that he'd been watching me on YouTube for a while and had come all the way from Germany to the Woodvale to watch me! :-O So the gig had some really cool bits! And also some not so cool bits (stand etc.)! Lol.
The next day I was up bright and early (after falling into bed at about 1am - eek!) to go to Platform One for the Wight Noize industry showcase. It was a bit scary, but the judges said some lovely things about my voice, words, image...which was really cool - and I made it onto the shortlist for the Acoustic Stage at the IW Festival! Which is cool. I'm just waiting to hear a bit more from them about that. :)
And then on Sunday I went out to Ventnor to do a bit of filming...well...I wasn't doing the filming, I was being filmed for a promo vid for Ventnor Fringe Festival. (http://www.vfringe.co.uk/) It was lots of fun. :D They were making a set of little videos in the style of La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows.
( http://www.blogotheque.net/spip.php?page=cae_all&lang=en )One of the recordings involved me walking into a cafe full of people whilst singing Beautiful Deceit - which was very fun! :D Hopefully you'll be able to see them at some point.
Then I had my driving lesson on Monday, and I was shockingly terrible, or terribly shocking...as my test is looooming... :-S I also went into Newport to sort out some extra bits and bobs for the album launch...
Then on Tuesday...
ALBUM LAUNCH!
I woke up in the morning and felt very very nervous and also pretty tired...Violet kept waking me up in the night as she wasn't very well. :-S Then I got my set list prepared and organised things for the evening...
In the afternoon Mum and I went up to the Quay Arts for the soundcheck and met a duck who was on his travels. The duck, whose name was Xeno, filmed the performance in the evening, which was very kind of him. :)
After the soundcheck Mum and I whizzed home and I quickly got changed for the evening and had something to eat. Then we whizzed back to the Quay and I tried to calm down a bit whilst feeling very nervous...
Then the bell rang for the audience to come upstairs and take their seats. I hid behind the wings and spied on the audience coming into the theatre. - As I watched more and more people come in, I felt less and less nervous, and more excited! It was such a cool feeling. Then Stuart, the brilliant sound/lighting man introduced me and I went onto the stage. All of the seats were filled and there were some people standing too!!! I was like :-O
I had such a brilliant time. It's the first time in ages that I've felt so comfortable on the stage. Actually, I think it's the first time ever. There have been times before that have come close...but this was a different feeling. I felt comfortable on the stage, and I also felt comfortable being me. I'm a bit of a wally, and generally I feel a bit embarrassed for being a bit of a wally, but on Tuesday it felt like people were accepting me for my wallyishness and laughing at me in a good way, rather than in a bad way. And I had some lovely, lovely feedback from people (not the screechy noise kind!). In the break and at the end, people were queueing to talk to me and for me to sign things!!! That's never happened before! Lol.
We have some pictures from the evening too. - I do believe that the aforementioned Xeno took some, and we also have some courtesy of Donna...I shall put them on Facebook and come back and put a link on here. :) Here's one of them just for now...
Waffle hands! Lol. :)

Lots of love from a very happy Hollyxoxoxoxoxox
P.S - I'd just like to say an ENORMOUSLY HUGELY MASSIVE THANK YOU! To Vic of Vaguely Sunny promotions who helped me so much - and also to the lovely Xeno (who in fact is a human, and not a duck!) Larry and Trevor and Uncle Tim and Wolfgang and the Tassie Gang - for always being there - I couldn't have done it without you. :) xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox