Mark's Diaries - The unflinching account of trying to make it as a professional bass player

[Mark McClelland]

With Maja heading away for most of May we have a great end to our first three week period of London gigging. Eight performances in those first three weeks and a great platform to build on. We really have hit the ground running and we’re now ready for the next stage which will begin when Maja returns.
2023/04/30 – The Diaries

 

[Mark McClelland]

A bit ahead, but really wanted to get this up.
So, for the first time we played for a West End theatre crowd last night - Sunday June 18. Amazing professional performers. And this is what happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyMynHoTEu0&t=105s
This is our performance and below is their vid of the event.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtqsrcXgLkC/
At the inaugural Di And Phil's Open Mic Party at Wonderville, Haymarket.

Will be coming to Diary very soon. Hopefully.

 

[audreycashin]

A bit ahead, but really wanted to get this up.
So, for the first time we played for a West End theatre crowd last night - Sunday June 18. Amazing professional performers. And this is what happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyMynHoTEu0&t=105s
This is our performance and below is their vid of the event.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtqsrcXgLkC/
At the inaugural Di And Phil's Open Mic Party at Wonderville, Haymarket.

Will be coming to Diary very soon. Hopefully.

Loving the energy!

 

[Mark McClelland]

That's really cool. Thankyou very much Audrey. Yeah, that really is a big thing we're going for. It just occurred to me that this now looks a little weird on a bass forum, what with me up there playing guitar and Maja singing, but you know our story. But yeah. Just a thought I thought was a little amusing.

 

[audreycashin]

You're still Mark the bass player, I wouldn't worry. Your journey deserves to be told. I've enjoyed it very much.

 

[Mark McClelland]

That's brilliant. Thankyou very much. And yes, I am very much keeping it up and, at the very least, am playing bass on the recordings, which have yet to be totally finished.

 

[Mark McClelland]

We decide it’s time to move to Camden Town. This decision happens just after Maja returns from Sweden. So now it’s apartment search time. This entry ends with our first West End performance in front of an audience made up of veterans of the West End.
And oh dear. I thought I'd posted this last week. Maybe I wrote it in and forgot to hit the post button. Well, here it is now.

2023/07/26 – The Diaries

 

[Mark McClelland]

The last days of Shoreditch before moving to Camden. In among it all and out of nowhere an enormous project and opportunity pops up for a possible next chapter of The Diaries. But it’s up to us to work out how to even get this thing off the ground. We have no idea how we’re going to do that.

2023/08/02 – The Diaries

 

[Mark McClelland]

We’re gonna go and play Edinburgh Festival. Absolutely nothing booked. Not even accommodation. Just gonna sleep in the car which we’ve prepped for the purpose in Camden, use our new national gym membership for showers, and hit the streets and hustle and hustle and hustle. We’ll be driving there this Sunday, August 6. In this entry, while we settle into Camden life after the move from Shoreditch, Edinburgh becomes our main focus. New songs come on board and old ones get dusted down as we consolidate our repertoire.
https://thediaries.band/tag/2023-08-03/
And thought we’d put this video up with this one.

 

[audreycashin]

We’re gonna go and play Edinburgh Festival. Absolutely nothing booked. Not even accommodation. Just gonna sleep in the car which we’ve prepped for the purpose in Camden, use our new national gym membership for showers, and hit the streets and hustle and hustle and hustle. We’ll be driving there this Sunday, August 6. In this entry, while we settle into Camden life after the move from Shoreditch, Edinburgh becomes our main focus. New songs come on board and old ones get dusted down as we consolidate our repertoire.
2023/08/03 – The Diaries
And thought we’d put this video up with this one.

Glad both of you are home at last....
My good friends are touring again, hope you can catch a show!
http://612666520_pfbid02BWogk4EKcmoTLhTcJYWhbZJX5WRNdnctR1qB7R4Au96GhXuNTkWwGhX9wqJHqDKAl

 

[Mark McClelland]

Hey Audrey

Thankyou very much for that. And yes. Both of us being at home again is proving a huge deal. Is there any other link you can send me for your friends? Because that one didn't work at all - server IP address could not be found apparently.

 

[audreycashin]

Hey Audrey

Thankyou very much for that. And yes. Both of us being at home again is proving a huge deal. Is there any other link you can send me for your friends? Because that one didn't work at all - server IP address could not be found apparently.

Hitmanbluesband.com
Russell is the front man and songwriter, Mike is on bass... lovely people

 

[Mark McClelland]

Thanks a lot for that. Yes. I do remember you mentioning that band before. Well, they were quite close to us a few weeks ago when they played in Kennington. We're in Camden, so a 25 min jaunt south on the Northern underground line and whatever walks in between. Basically less than five miles away. Prob would have been just over half an hour door to door and we probably would have gone too. I'll keep an eye out. Just followed them on facebook from our Diaries page.

 

[Mark McClelland]

So here’s our vid from the Edinburgh Festival
As ever, full story to come soon from a Diary near you.

 

[Mark McClelland]

It’s on. Edinburgh Festival, we have arrived. Let’s see how many doors we can smash down and what we can do once we’re through them. Yes. This is our account of what The Diaries did in Edinburgh.
https://thediaries.band/tag/2023-09-07

 

[audreycashin]

It’s on. Edinburgh Festival, we have arrived. Let’s see how many doors we can smash down and what we can do once we’re through them. Yes. This is our account of what The Diaries did in Edinburgh.
https://thediaries.band/tag/2023-09-07

There you are! Glad you're settled and can't wait to hear about the festival!

 

[Mark McClelland]

Brilliant. Audrey. Thanks a lot. Well, pretty much all caught up on that and hopefully getting more or less up to date this week.

 

[Mark McClelland]

A little ahead of where we are in Diary, but I think we should just put this in here now. Our new EP was put out yesterday on loads of platforms including Spotify and Youtube.

The NOW Hustle EP.

Five live tracks from a NOW Hustle - one of our last shows before leaving Ireland for London. Like so many of our shows, the people here had absolutely no connection with us and had never heard any of our songs before.

 

[Mark McClelland]

We decide not to continue with Scotland, instead returning to London to maybe get back to working on the album. That doesn’t quite happen, but we do manage to get out our first EP, The NOW Hustle. Five live recordings from a single show. This is a great representation of our Now Hustling in Ireland. And the seeds are sown of a hopeful new international venture.
https://thediaries.band/2023/08/08/
The NOW Hustle EP is available on Spotify here:
https://open.spotify.com/album/5BtuonVvLY7feuO2cExaOc...
And on Youtube here:

 

[Mark McClelland]

Damn. It’s been a hell of a long time since we posted anything. Now we can finally reveal why. Some huge events going on in Diaryworld.
2023/11/30 – The Diaries