I hope you’re all keeping well, wearing masks, and working to overthrow the Tories.
Been a busy week here… I was in a live streaming show in Canada Friday night – an online show for Live Bait Theatre, a company I had the privilege of working with for 20 years, as part of Live Bait’s 3rd Annual New Works Festival.
Here’s the show… Grandma’s Bubble Trouble, written and directed by the wonderful Charlie Rhindress. I played an ageing Punk Rocker by the name of Max Libido! And I play my Uke!
And coming up on Sunday 19th July at 8pm, it’s the latest episode of my online chat show, MOCKDOWN! I have three guests from the world of Comedy, to discuss if we’ll still be laughing once the pandemic is over.
Here’s a preview…
So, I may still be isolating at home, but I’m getting out there online!
Enjoy your weekend, and please wear a mask!
Stay safe, D x
Hope you’ve all survived another week, well, let’s face if, if you’re reading this, you HAVE survived, but, of course, it may have been a bit of a shit week.
This Government-led Shitshow rolls on… excess deaths, the collapse of the economy, right wing thugs on the streets… but at least I found a socially appropriate way to unload with 3 mates over a chat.
Kurt Brookes – Head of Development at MIM Productions and the producer of the upcoming BBC Radio 4 comedy series “The Likely Dads“. He is also the creator and co-everything of the webseries “Barry Pigeon Protects“.
Marie Friend – a born & bred scouser who’s now dead posh and living in Chester. Marie has trained with many acting practitioners across Manchester over the last 6 years , she is a Broadcast Journalist , experienced in Voiceover and TV presenting… and was last seen at the Hope Mill Theatre in Welcome to Shangri La…. along with myself, and my final guest…
Robyn Moore – a London born, British actress of Belgium and Polish decent. She has over 30 years of experience in theatre, film and television… including “Family Affairs” and playing Shirley Benson in “East Enders”. She also has over 20 years of experience teaching actors and professionals in acting and performance techniques.
Hope you are all keeping well and retaining sanity during these strange, strange times.
I was delighted to help friends set up the technical side for a couple of Live Streaming shows over the last few weeks, so taught myself to use StreamYard, an amazing bit of free Chrome-based goodness that allows you to broadcast to the world.
And so decided that I too wanted to add to the self-broadcasting scene.
I hosted a lot of radio when I lived in Canada, so I love the buzz of hosting a live show, though this is all very different, clicking on the computer to add guests, sources and images…. I could do with a studio crew.
The first show went live last Sunday… there’s a link to view it on YouTube below. But if you’d like to keep up to date and receive notifications and links to future shows, please follow my actor page on Facebook, ROWE DAVID McCLELLAND. The show will air Sundays at 8pm on Facebook, and I will put them on YouTube after the event.
Here’s the show from the weekend… three lovely guests, Jo Swain – Sheffield actor, known for the Full Monty, now running Hello Velo, a super B&B/Bike hire place in the wilds of France, TV Director Neil Alderton in Manchester – if you love a TV soap, chances are he’ll have had a hand in it – and Phil Yarrow, a Northumbrian exile now living in That London. Actor, Puppeteer, Improviser and dad, with a passion for Theatre For Young Audiences.
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Many freelance artists are struggling during these Covid-19 days.
If you are able to donate a little to the EQUITY BENEVOLENT FUND, or any of the links mentioned in the show, please do.
Another streaming show you may enjoy is hosted by my lovely friend in Canada – actor, writer, director (and so much more) Charlie Rhindress. The Charlie and Heather Showairs 8pm on Sundays in Canada (that’s midnight here in the UK), so if you’re a night person, please tune in, there’s a lovely mix of chat, stories and songs. I was a guest on the show May 31st/June 1st, so check it out on the show page or below….
And finally, I’ve taken some time to update my acting showreel…. Take a look…
Greetings Dahhlings!!!
I hope this update finds you happy and healthy.
A couple of items for you… on the last post, I shared a video of me doing the opening Future Legend monologue from Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, a lyric I memorised at 16 and never forgot.
Today I have more remembered lyrics, and I’ve done a bit of a video production on this one. Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3, by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, is well lodged in my brain, and I will often rattle it off to the confusion of those around me… Until I get to the chorus and they realise what it is.
So here is my version of it. It makes me cheerful, I hope it does you during these Lockdown Days. My memory must be dodgy though, I missed some lines, should have listened to the original or checked the lyrics first!
NEXT:
Right, last time I told you about the new Barry Pigeon Protects episode, Barry Goes Viral, a special Covid-19 episode.
Happy to report it’s been selected for an online screening in the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network Online screening event Tuesday night. Going to be a few other short films on the bill, so it’ll keep you entertained on Tuesday night.
It’s streaming online and features a Q&A, so put your very best Pajamas on, grab a glass of your favourite beverage, and see you there. Here’s the streaming link. It gets underway at 7pm.
I hope you’re all well and staying safe during this pandemic. I don’t know how it’s impacting on you, but for me, I seem unable to concentrate on computer stuff, hence the long wait since my last post. I just don’t have the willpower tou sit at a screen. I’ve had to force myself to write this today.
Similar tale with TV. I can sit to watch a show and I’m constantly pausing to check for phone updates. And I fall alseep a lot in front of the telly, despite sleeping well at night. It’s different ways of reacting to the state we live in I guess.
I’m trying to be creative, done lots of garden work, tidying, weeding, planting. I make lots of videos, dog walks, bird song, etc. More of that further down.
A couple of things I’d like to promote though… 5 years ago, I worked on a web series called Barry Pigeon Protects, all about a night security guard sharing his life via webcam. Lovely project written/directed and produced by Kurt Brookes and Andrew Birtwell.
My old mate Doug Thorp asked if I could rekindle Barry as a guest for his Broken Biscuits Online Cabaret.
I asked Kurt and Andy, and within a week we had it written, shot and edited. Due to lockdown, I shot at home with a green screen, and my old security cabin office magically appeared in editing.
Here’s Broken Biscuits Online No. 2. Barry Pigeon is the final artiste in the show… It’s well worth the watch as an alternative to the assault of information we have these days.
For those who want just a dose of Barry Pigeon, here’s the new episode….
And good new Pigeon fans, more Barry is likely to be forthcoming 🙂
I’ll update when I can.
Other bits of creativity overcome me. The opening of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album, the spoken track Future Legend, is something I committed to memory at age 16.
The words kept coming back to me recently, so here it is, performed as a monologue…
I have another favourite song committed to memory that I plan to make a video for. A more complicated production, but hopefully coming soon.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve been filming my daily dog walks, and sharing on my Facebook feed as Virtual Dog Walking for Shut Ins. I also post my daily Twitter Feeds… the sound of bird song captured in the park.
Hello there!!!! April has suddenly turned cold, we’ve had snow this week! Luckily the weather was warmer last week when my son Benjamin helped me make a new video for a song I originally recorded 4 years ago.
I’d never been happy with the original video. I shot it on my iPhone and I didn’t have playback of the song to sync with so I guessed the audio speed when I shot the video…. which made editing very difficult .
So I’ve been wanting to make a new video for some time and I recorded a new audio track for it as well, so what we have below is a whole new version.
That’s the new above…. below is the old version from 2013….
Hope you like one of them at least….
Cheers and stay warm. Especially on’t moors!
Dave X
Lovely sunny Spring day today, very nice to see longer days and some sunshine.
Wanted to do a quick update about my iPhone 5s today. Okay, it’s getting on the old side, but it does everything I need, I like the size of it and it’s in good nick. But the battery life was getting to be awful…. Warning messages at 20% and then shutting down, battery lasting half a day so had to carry cables/chargers, etc with me if I was out and about. And it would always die when I was about to take a great photo. So… I was thinking it was time for a new phone.
But the Yorkshireman in me said no, change the battery lad! I looked at the how-to videos (and this one is particularly good, very detailed). Ordered a new battery/tool pack from Amazon (£12.99) and swapped it over this morning.
Happy to say it all went well and the new battery seems good so far, easy job, just take your time, make room on a desk and have something white to put all the TINY screws on. I used a hair dryer to heat the sticky pads holding the old battery in (blowing on the back, not the exposed innards, and well away from the tiny screws mentioned earlier, didn’t want them blowing off the white pad I’d put them on). First time switched on the screen was showing odd stuff, which meant one of the screen cables wasn’t seated properly, so I went back in, sorted it and job done. I’ll post an update on the life of the new battery in a few weeks, but so far so good!
Oh the agony!
I’m still suffering from back pain. I’ve had sciatica for a couple of weeks now (gardening did me in!) and in agony much of the time. Doc gave me a variety of painkillers, muscle relaxants, etc, but did little to help it. I wasn’t sleeping well at all.
I visited The Chinese Doctor, a local massage/acupuncture place in Hillsborough, and he’s worked wonders. Pinpointed the problem area and I’m now doing my homework to stop muscles in spasm. Hopefully I’ll be back to fine fettle soon.
Teabagging
My back wasn’t feeling great last Friday when the Yorkshire Teabaggers were on the road, playing a gig with the bloody amazing Chuffin Ellvis at the Polish Catholic Centre in Leeds. Painkillers an hour before we went on and the adrenaline of being on stage got me through the show. And thanks to Tommy Teabag for driving me there and carrying my gear. We had a new set list, re-ordered our material, played some new stuff and had an amazing night! Leeds we love you!!!!!
Check the Teabaggers Page for new videos and upcoming dates – we’ve got another brewery show coming up soon!!!
Right, off to stick a tennis ball into the tense bits of my back.
Si the soon!
D x
We’ve got two new songs almost ready to go public, there’s a sneak listen to a snippet of one of them at the end of the video above 🙂
Here’s a link to our Video Playlist on YouTube…. which I’ve also added below for your convenience. [Until we add a new video, Shek it off! will be first up below as well]
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The Yorkshire Teabaggers - LIVE!
The Yorkshire Teabaggers - Feeling Shit ("Feeling Good" Parody)
The Yorkshire Teabaggers - "Shek It Off!" (Parody of Shake It Off)
The Yorkshire Teabaggers - "Yorkshire Lass" (Parody of Pet Shop Boys/West End Girls)
The Yorkshire Teabaggers - King of the Swingers ADULT LANGUAGE-NSFW
"LARDY BUM" - Parody video by The Yorkshire Teabaggers
I trust Christmas was good to you and that 2017 has been a happy one for you so far. Look at this, almost Valentine’s Day and it’s my first update of the year… naughty Dave.
Dave’s birthday 2017
Things are good here, I had a most enjoyable Christmas with family and friends and then another birthday rolled around a couple of weeks ago…
My birthday was quickly followed by my son Benjamin reaching his 15th… He’s a pretty amazing young man and makes me very proud.
Benjamin’s 15th birthday
Glad to say BBC is showing trailers for upcoming drama series and Jimmy McGovern’s BROKEN, starring Sean Bean (and me as one of his brothers), is in the list. As soon as I have dates I will post it here.
In the meantime, The Yorkshire Teabaggershave been busy in the rehearsal studio with a few gigs recently and more to come.
Dave and Bex at Teabaggers gig
We made this video during our rehearsal this week, consider it our Valetine to the women of Yorkshire….
Follow us on Facebook.
And I’m very happy to share that I have a new pair of Doc’s…. picked up at a decent price on eBay, lightly used. Love ’em!
Doc Martens
So, that’s it for now. Wishing you as much love as you can handle for Feb 14th!
It’s been an exciting few months here at McClellandMedia HQ….
I shot an episode of the new BBC TV series IN THE DARK, starring MyAnna Buring.
I shot an amazing leading role in the super new horror movie PANDORA. I played a coach driver in new feature film DESTINATION: DEWSBURY…
and there’s something new coming up very soon that I’m very excited about, but I can’t share as yet…
So it looks like you will see a lot of me on screens large and small over the next few months.
Add to that an upcoming gig by our band, THE YORKSHIRE TEABAGGERS, this very weekend at the Regather Venue in Sheffield – follow this link for all the details. We’ll be treating everyone to a drink, so don’t miss it!
Other recent events of note….. Well done Jeremy Corbyn! Let’s hope the Labour Party can now get on with fighting the Tories.
And it was a happy 84th birthday for my Mum, June McClelland, the very best mum in the world!
A few pictures for you…
PANDORA wrap party cocktailsMum, June McClelland, out and about on her 84th birthday!Yorkshire Teabaggers rehearsalYorkshire Teabaggers rehearsalShooting DESTINATION: DEWSBURY
My back wasn’t feeling great last Friday when the 
