Big Decade Out.


It’s hard to fathom, but in a few months it will be a decade since my old band Big Day Out got together one last time for a special reunion gig to raise money for Glyn’s and my first Edinburgh Fringe.

I don’t how it can be so long ago; it’s frightening really. And that anniversary’s just the half of it, as while our reunion gig may have been ten years ago, we actually officially split up six years before that.

Sixteen years have passed since we were still a going concern, which is as long as I’ve been out of drama school too. It was a sad end to something very special that, at the time, meant the world to me. When we broke up I was ripped apart, and what made it worse was I was the reason it ended, after the two consecutive UK tours I took after leaving college left the rest of the band thinking they could no longer wait for me.

In retrospect this seems silly when, in reality, we could have easily found a way around it. But back then, faced with an unusual situation where one of us was unavailable for longer than we'd experienced, that length of time sounded like an eternity. What made it worse was the fact that me taking the second job - which basically sealed the deal - even felt like a mistake as I did it, and yet I didn’t feel I could turn it down when it was such a big opportunity; these actor / musician shows have a lot to answer for.

What was great about the reunion gig was it came at a time when I was over the split and could just enjoy the night. It’s not like the band broke up with any malice - we were all still friends - it was just how things had to be.

Rehearsing was easy and fun and the show went perfectly. It was a great night. There’s video footage of our set somewhere that I’ve never seen; I’ll have to dig it out one day. Perhaps I can convince Mark and Chris to join me again to for our twentieth anniversary? The only question is which twentieth anniversary should it be?

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