I Love The Edinburgh Festival

I love the Edinburgh Festival. Where else do you come off stage and randomly get asked to host a karaoke night in the venue bar! We had a ball. Andy did his version of Angels, Steve sang Billy Joel, James and Derek were immensely cool, and I even came up with a few choice lines. Hooray for improvisation and being up for a laugh.

Our show here is going well now, after a bit of a slow start. Tonight's audience rocked, and it feels like the festival is really rolling now. Wish you were here!

Michael

Six Mics, No Luggage: Back in Edinburgh for Fringe 2007

We're back in our second home, Edinburgh, for our third go at the Fringe Festival. Despite our year off in 2006 it certainly feels like we're almost an integral part of the Fringe now. Everyone knows who The Magnets are, we've got a great part time slot in the Assembly Ballroom - one of the top venues, and we've even sold some tickets!

That doesn't mean we'll be resting on our laurels though. The secret of Fringe success is in hard work. We'll be here, there and everywhere, guesting on shows for anyone who invites us, and promoting the show everywhere from the free stages on the Royal Mile, to swanky corporate dos in the evening.

As a band we've been through a lot since the last time we were here in 2005. Our last Fringe show 'Magnetude' brought us a major production deal, and a world of trouble. We still don't really understand what happened. One minute we were playing to packed houses in Berlin with our show Vox Pop, with gigs in the diary into the next year, and a production company for whom money seemed no object. The next we're left high and dry, with no gigs, and a large debt.

So, once again we've found we're better off doing things our own way. The gigs are rolling in, nobody is trying to make our show into something its not, we've all gained lives outside The Magnets, and Edinburgh awaits. Six Mics No Luggage? Six Guys, No Worries.

OK, OK

I admit to being a rubbish blogger. Sorry we haven't been updating this site for a while. Apart from regular corporate gigs and a couple of superb nights at the Kitsch Lounge Riot pictures below), things have been quietish for The Magnets with no big announcemnents to make. We've even lost a member - Steve - albeit temporarily. He's off in the jungle for a couple of months looking after Orangutans.

However, with our return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival drawing closer, things are hotting up in time for the summer. Look out for some warm up gigs in the UK and Germany in July, and then we'll be at the Assembly Rooms Ballroom in Edinburgh for most of August. More details to follow, promise!

Michaelx

A Small Update

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch asking about future plans for The Magnets. We're currently developing plans and seeking investors for a new show, and hopeully we'll find somebody rather more reliable than Back Row Productions, who let us down badly despite the obvious success of Vox Pop in Hamburg and Berlin in terms of both audience numbers and reviews.

Unfortunately, the news about the cancellation of our German dates came too late to rebook dates for this summer, or return to the Edinburgh Fringe, which is very frustrating. This is an industry in which bookings tend to happen six months or more in advance, so we'll be looking at getting back on the road towards the end of this year, or the start of 2007. In the meantime we're all keeping busy in our different ways, and will be coming together soon to begin work on the new show. We'll keep you posted.

Rotterdam and Beyond

Hello everyone....

I thought I'd put a picture from the Musicals in Ahoy series that we did in Rotterdam. The picture is actually posted on http://www.musicalsinahoy.nl -- hopefully they won't mind that I'm putting it here too!

The picture is from our "Jersey Boys" medley that we performed in the second half. For those who couldn't make it to the show you can see from the photo that the production was absolutely massive!!

Luckily for us, we got to sing on a 50m wide stage with 42 dancers around us...ahh it's a tough life!

Now that we're back from Rotterdam we are having a well earned break. Some people will know that we are now not going to be performing in Germany this summer, and in fact we won't be doing Vox Pop again. Sadly the relationship with our production company did not work out. That leaves us with quite a long break in our diary, but also provides us with time to think about what we are going to do next.

Fear not, all is not lost and we're working on one or two things for the future. No news yet, but when we have something to announce we will of course make it public as soon as we can.

In the meantime we're retiring to our gardens, slapping on the sun cream, opening a few beers and watching the World Cup.

And yes, England will win. In Germany. On Penalties.

Nic

Xx

Back Rehearsing B4 Amsterdam

We've reconvened in London for the last three days to rehearse our part in the 'Songs from the Shows' fortnight that we're about to perform in Rotterdam. We're only doing a couple of tunes so it was really nice to be able to rehearse without the kind of pressure we had before the opening of Vox Pop. Learning 20+ songs in three weeks was no easy matter! We're off tomorrow early, and I'm looking forward to the first three days in Amsterdam, which I haven't seen since I was about 11.

If you get the chance, check out some of the new songs we've posted on the web here: http://www.overplay.com/band.asp?band_id=1002158&page=songs. For what it's worth we're in their top 10 at the moment, so play the tunes and keep us there!

Rotterdam Details

Our next step is a guest spot in Rotterdam's 'Musicals in Ahoy' 2006', from 17th - 28th May. It is a night of songs from the shows in which we'll be peforming a medley from current broadway show 'Jersey Boys', and our favourite from Edinburgh 2006 'Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat'. So don't expect to see us on stage for too long! We're basically there to generate interest in the Vox Pop run we'll be doing in Amsterdam in the Autumn.

You can find more details about the show here.