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Michael Gray rescues one-man-show from potential disaster

Posted Sunday, July 1, 2007

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Moville's DylanFest Top Attraction

Michael Gray waited for his highly acclaimed one-man-show to start - and he waited and waited and waited.

There were technical difficulties with the sound which the Thompsons manfully worked on.

Good Crowd

There was a good crowd which had come to see the world's top expert on Dylan and author of the defining books on him.

In fact it was a great boost to the festival as virtually all of those at the talk were from outside of Moville and many would have come especially to see him and would have stayed for the rest of the Festival bringing much needed income to the town.

Underwriting It

This was the event that I was underwriting.

The pubs were paying for the acts both inside and outside.

The Sponsors

The Derry Journal were sponsoring the DylanFest to the tune of £500 and free ads in the Tuesday and Friday editions.

Because costs had spiralled for the outside acts as insurance was needed for the street and the trailer, and we were incurring other costs like the rent of the trailer, the stewards, the ambulance on both nights etc. we had asked some of the town's businesses if they would like to sponsor the DylanFest and most were pleased to do so.

Good Deal

I think they managed to get a pretty good deal out of it as they got ads on the flyers, and in both the Tuesday and Friday Derry Journals where the flyers were re-printed with their names on it.

The programme was also printed in the Inishowen Independent, as is, with the sponsors names kept in.

Indeed the leading advertisers got to sponsor one of the three nights and two afternoons of the festival.

Late Decision

However, Michael Gray got in touch quite late and I had to take a decision on whether to bring him or not by myself.

None of the pubs could have afforded him by themselves and they couldn't have had him out in the street splitting the costs.

St. Eugene's Hall would be the obvious place for him to do his one-man-show but I was doubtful if the pubs would sponsor a talk in a Temperance Hall when they would prefer the 'punters' in their pubs drinking.

Took a Chance

So, I took a bit of a flyer and calculated that I would need 70 people paying €15 to break even.

If there were more people attending than that then I would plough the money back into the DylanFest for any cost overruns.

If there was substantially more than that I would slip the bands some money as many of them were playing for just expenses only.

Reasonable Crowd

When I went in there was a reasonable crowd.

It didn't look as if there would be the 70 or so people that I would need but there must have been 50 or 60 so I reckoned I wouldn't lose much.

However, as time went on and and on some of the people started to drift away.

Original Idea

It had originally been the idea that people would have been moved out to the other bar for a few minutes and then they would pay to get back in, but as people were in and waiting it was decided that it should just be announced from the stage that we were coming around collecting the money.

I counted the money.

There was €510. This meant that I would lose around €500 I reckoned.

"Ah well" I thought. I lost more at the Champions League Final in Athens when I had €3,500 and a digital camera removed by pickpockets in two separate incidents.

People Leaving

However, the sound system problem remained unsolved and four people wanted their money back, then another three, then another two and another four again.

That was another €195 down the pan as I took hit after hit.

The audience were becoming very restive and so was Michael Gray, calm though he usually is.

Under Way

However, suddenly, after a two hour wait, the show was able to get under way.

In the end those that stayed were very glad that they had done so.

I watched people's faces during the talk and all of them were held captive by Michael's talk and his show.

There were other technical gremlins as the show went on but Michael rode them very well.

Loved It

The audience loved it and formed a queue at the end to buy autographed copies of his books.

Michael wouldn't have had many shows like that.

As I said to him afterwards I thought the show had been a huge success, the audience had been very attentive and that everyone in it would remember it for the rest of their lives.

Settled Up

I settled up with him and it came to about €100 less than I thought it would have been.

He had been very reasonable with the expenses and travelled on all the cheapest forms of transport.

Others might havs shoved in expenses for meals etc. but he didn't.

I think I lost about €650 on it but as an experience I think it was well worthwhile.

Good Publicity

He was able to get the DylanFest a lot of good publicity and many would have come there just on the back of his attendance at it.

Although he tried to keep calm he must have been getting a little stressed with the long delay.

I saw him out and about on the streets afterwards watching the bands and as I said to him "It's good to get your own performance over with and be able to enjoy the festival, isnt it?" and he nodded his head and smiled at that.

Great Coup

I think it was a great coup to get Michael Gray to come over for the Festival and would certainly invite him over next year again.

We'll just need to be better prepared for him next time - and I would need to look at passing over the costs to someone else as well.

But we only had 7 weeks to prepare for Ireland's first DylanFest after I first suggested it to the pubs.

We've got a year to think about and prepare for the next one.

And there's till one more day to go of this one.