Andy McGregor

Last week was taken up with mainly working on 'The Land of Lost Things' with the Beacon Youth Theatre.  This is a devised musical created by myself, Marianne and Megan Yeomans in conjunction with all the young people.  It's a pretty big undertaking with around 110 performers, aged from 4 up to 21 all taking part. Some of the cast from The Land of Lost Things One thing that  I have been adamant about since I started running youth theatres over ten years ago (gulp) is that a youth theatre is not a stage school.  It's not about auditioning, it's not about whipping out the same old shows to sell more tickets to the general public and it's not about who is 'talented' and who isn't. That's a different thing and there are various groups around Scotland who do it very well, but what I hope to do is create an environment where all participants can have fun through being creative .  Of course if a student shows a great aptitude towards one thing or ...

I finished recording the main bulk of my musical 'Towards the Moon' last night.  I was lucky enough to have the excellent Lyndsey Knox sing the female parts for me and I sang all the male parts with my wife, Kirsty, helping out with backing vocals.   ****RECORDING GEEK WARNING: I recorded everything myself with Cubase (first 6 and then the new 7 when it came out) using a whole bunch of virtual instruments, mainly from Native Instrument's Komplete, with some of the drums being done on BFD2 and RMX's Stylus and I also used Omnisphere a lot - processing was mainly done with Focusrite's Liquid Mix (which is an oldie but a goodie) and a bunch of Waves plug-ins, in particular I like the SSL EQ. The guitars are all real and I used Guitar Rig for the bulk of the guitar sounds.**** I'm happy with the way it's sounding, there are a few little numbers here and there that I need to work on a bit but on the whole this is the music for the show as it currently st...

So I have had this idea for a story for a while.  I know what it is.  I know the characters.  I got 80 pages into writing a play about them.  And then I realised my approach was all wrong.  A standard, fourth wall play wasn't working.  I was getting annoyed, frustrated.  So I've started again, this time looking to combine the various skills I've been developing over the years. Theatre is a bastard.  I remember that from a day one theatre studies lecture.  It's origin is the meshing together of other, more pure, art-forms.  With this in mind I've started working on this show with a focus on the different art-forms that I work in.  So I've been composing music, I've been writing text and I've been making video and on Friday I shall be attempting choreography.  Who knows how it will go.  I've been researching a lot.  Watching various videos, reading various books, but the most important thing is to keep my eyes open an...

The last few weeks have been taken up mainly with me getting to grips with making videos of as high quality as I can muster! I went out with my actor friend, Lucy Hollis, to try and work on getting some shots for her showreel and so I could practice my technique of filming outside as I will be making a music video soon so wanted to get to grips with various new pieces of equipment I had bought. I was really happy with the results that you can see here: We shot on location around Largs and the music is by Paul McGranaghan.  I produced the song and played keys on it. Whilst we were up in the hills and on the beach I thought I'd try and get a few snaps whilst I was at it.  I  struggled for a while as I was using a new lens I wasn't used to, but in the end I got some pics that I was really happy with. I then worked with Lucy and actor Sam Keefe on a short scene from Dennis Kelly's 'After the End'.  This is the first time I really filmed a scene, I...

Last night saw the final time that the Greenock Arts Guild will be open to the public.  It's not all bad news though as all the creativity and community spirit from the building will soon be moving to the amazing new Beacon Arts Centre.  I first attended drama classes at the Arts Guild when I was about 13 and now, 20 years on, I am running the youth theatre alongside Marianne and Megan Yeomans.  I thought this would be a good wee time to have a look back at some of the productions that I've been involved in over the years, if anything it's a good excuse to put some embarrassing photos up on the web - thanks to Jonathan White for providing some great images and also for reminding me of the various projects we've done over the years! I think the first show I was in at the Arts Guild was the Changeling Challenge as part of Carole M. Fry's studio theatre.  It was an original show written by Carole's friend Geraldine and... that's all I can remembe...

So last week I got the urge to create a music video.  It's been ages since I've made one but this seemed like a perfect time as my ex-bandmate Paul McGranaghan had just digitally released 'Carry the Torch' an excellent album based on the life and writings of Hunter S Thompson.  I had spent over a year recording and producing this and I think it's brilliant.  Great song-writing, great playing from a fantastic band that Paul assembled and I reckon it's the best 'sounding' record I've made, there's certainly more attention to detail in there than anything I've done in the past. Here's one of my favourite songs (about Hunter watching the Chicago riots): So, onto music videos.  Creatively the music video is an odd one.  It can all hinge on one idea and one idea alone.  Think of Coldplay doing The Scientist: the one real concept is that it moves backwards, but Chris Martin is singing forwards. Within that basic concept there is something l...

This week saw the debut show for my theatre company, Sleeping Warrior , at the Arches as part of the Arches Live festival.  The show, 'Roses are Dead' told the tale of a failed relationship.  It was a quirky little half hour show that I wrote based on devised work in the rehearsal room.  My friend Deborah Hannan directed with Lucy Hollis and my good self performing. The room was small and provided an intimate performance space, we only had about 35 tickets available for each show.  I was happy with how it all went, Arches Live gives theatre makers the chance to do something a little bit different and try out new ideas.  That's exactly what we did and, for every unsuccessful idea, there were hopefully two or three more successful ones. You can see a whole bunch of photos from the rehearsal room through to the final show here .