markmcclelland

I think it's very common and Scott Devine says it increases when you become professional. I think because at that point your balls are on the block and you have to deliver. Just keep going, keep playing and you'll find it I'm sure.

[size=5][color=#141414]Getting very busy and I think I'm somewhat settled and stable for the first time since this began way back in Costa Blanca. Also, why working in a bar is very similar to being a pro musician, and quite a bizarre encounter in the restaurant.[/color] [color=#141414][url="https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-61/"]https://marksdiaries...5/12/19/day-61/[/url][/color][/size]

It's the first Omater rehearsal. And also another random encounter. Will it lead to anything? Who knows? Just got to keep putting it out there in the quest to go pro. This is London. https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-59/

PMd you. But that sounds crazy that it was by saved bookmarks.

[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] To jam or not to jam. Out and about and continuing to get known on the London scene[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-58 [/font][/color]

[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] Just a month after total disaster, now starting to get out and about in London. This is November 2014.[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-52/[/font][/color]

Good idea with the leads. The number of times I've come away from a gig with different leads to what I took is crazy. Generally doesn't happen now for the same reasons you've said. And yes. It sucks you didn't get the strap back. I know it's something you really get used to. The height, the feel, even the look. Yeah. I was lucky to get mine back and as quick as I did.

Well that's one way to get your strap back. And my first jam at the famous Troy Bar. https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-51/

Excellent.

Hey Rob. Interesting and really cool to make that connection. I know she met a lot of people before me, and meeting her in that context is exactly like going for a job interview. From what you say, it seems like it was nothing personal, more like, this isn't going to work for either of us. As for what's happening with her, it's all coming up. I'm guessing you're reading the diary on Wordpress. That's around 16 months behind where I actually am although it is all written up to date and is on another website. If you want me to PM you with what's going on with her and me now, I can do that.

Oh bloody hell. It's a ... frog. Brilliant.

Hey Raymondo Thankyou very much mate. Really great to hear and appreciated you took the time to let me know. As for the bass, Frog is purely the name of it. As far as I know, it shares absolutely no characteristics with those strange amphibian fly eating creatures. It always freaks me out when I see them just happily sitting on the bottom of ponds with zero fear of drowning.

Another band interested and I meet my first ever real life SBLer who has quite the surprise for me. https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-48/

Hey Lewis. Thanks a lot man. Believe me, I was living it through fingers.

After a caravan, friend's bedroom floor and totally unfurnished, unheated three day emergency measure, I have a place. And my first audition. It's been a horrendously bumpy landing but London is finally saying 'Oh alright. In you come.' http://bit.ly/1P3HOLD

[size=4][quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1457440508' post='2998526'] I've just read through all your London section of the blog... It's a really engaging read and sounds like you've been through some sh*t trying to do what you want with your life. I'm far too much of a "safe and secure job" type guy to ever have the balls to go it alone like you are! I really hope things work out for you. Make sure you post up any gigs etc. [/quote][/size] [size=4]Thankyou very much Rob. And yes, it's definitely not for secure types. Many years ago, a very good and secure friend of mine said, 'Your lifestyle would terrify me.' And yes, you are definitely right about the trying times but that's where all the drama comes from - and some of the comedy when I get the writing right. And I never thought it would be easy. That said, what actually did happen was way off the scale of what I'd considered as a worst case scenario before I came. Now there's a teaser for anyone who's not read it yet. And yes. I will post the gigs. I hadn't thought of doing that on here before and I just did three last weekend. Well, the next ones I will. Also, I'm currently writing the back story to go as a bio on the wordpress page and that will cover Madrid which led to Costa Blanca and the genesis of The Diaries. I was in Madrid for six years and it was one very difficult place to get out of. Hence taking the massive chance I did to move to London when it came up. I'll leave you with the last lines of The Costa Blanca Diary. "[color=#474747]I arrive in Madrid about 11pm with a non-existent bank account, no job and an August that offers very little prospect of one. Beware. That’s what can happen when you take a big risk and back yourself. At the next opportunity I’m going to do it all again."[/color] [quote name='Stylon Pilson' timestamp='1457451655' post='2998714'] Mark, Really enjoying reading these diaries. I just thought I should let you know that a couple of the articles have been placed out of sequence and need to be swapped over - London Day 18 and Day 22. S.P. [/quote][/size] [size=4]Hey Stylon. Thanks a lot for the props and thanks a lot for letting me know. I'll get on it.[/size]

Hey Rob that's class. Thanks a lot mate. May catch you around sometime.

[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The one where I live in three completely different areas of London in one entry. And an audition to prepare for at the same time.[/font][/color] [color=#A3AAAE][font=proxima-nova,]http://bit.ly/1M2x3cy[/font][/color]

https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-31/ And so begins possibly the most eventful period since Costa Blanca. A few firsts, a few rays of hope, and then disaster as the threat of homelessness strikes again.

[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] The green shoots of London? Maybe, just maybe.[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-28/[/font][/color]

Day 16 of the London Diary - Friday October 17 2014 When worse than the imagined worst case scenario happens, what do you do about it? That's what our intrepid hero is having to ask himself today and, it would seem, for quite a few of the next days. https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/

The latest instalment is short but a total game changer. So it deserves to be put up in full here. For the first time, I'm asking if you could share this with your friends on twitter, facebook or whatever you use and see if they'll share it and so on. So many people have told me they are addicted so there must be something to it and I think the time has come to really give it a push. If you are reading this, I know you are already a reader. And for that I thank you. It's all here. https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/ [b][size=4]Day 16[/size][/b] [size=4][b]Friday October 17 (2014)[/b][/size] [size=4]A few things have happened in the last week that I was going to talk about a little but I just didn’t get round to them. There was a funny little water supply anecdote. And one night I got ‘home’ and none of the lights worked. Another day we had quite nasty weather and I got back from work to find the skylight cover I’d put up had been ripped clean off leaving a gaping hole above the shower. One night I had another unexpected visitor to stay. Although he ended up not sleeping in the caravan, he did come in and we watched the England San Marino game together and generally got on very well. There were some other little bits and pieces. Instead I’m going to tell you this.[/size] [size=4]A friend of mine once got hit by a car on the way to college. It happened on a dual carriageway – a kind of highway for non-English readers. He was knocked all the way to the other side of the road, almost into traffic coming in the other direction. Not only was he absolutely fine but he got up, picked up his things and continued on his way. How much interaction happened with anyone on the scene I have no idea. I just know he went to college as though nothing had happened. But as soon as he arrived, his classmates took one look at him and said, ‘What the hell happened to you?’ He says he doesn’t know what it was but everyone knew without a doubt that something bad had just happened. Well he told them about the accident and they told him to just leave and go straight home.[/size] [size=4]This is exactly the first thing I say to Dave when I decide to stop and talk to him. He’d seen me walking down the street and into the yard to go back to the caravan. Dave’s a lorry driver for the company, among other things. People do lots of different jobs here. I think we’ve spoken maybe twice since I’ve been here so he doesn’t know me at all. Doesn’t know the way I walk, doesn’t know my expressions, nothing. But when he sees me walking towards him, well, in his general direction on the way to the caravan at least, he somehow knows something isn’t right. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ he calls out. At first I say, ‘Nothing,’ and take the left turn I was intending to take before his intervention. Then, I change direction, go to stand next to him and, with my back against a wall, tell him the story I’ve told you there.[/size] [size=4]When I’ve finished, I look him in the eye and say, ‘I just got fired.’[/size]

[color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] Tuesday October 7[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] So there’s someone out there and it’s past midnight. But I’m on an industrial estate with double locked gates and a tall spiky fence. This doesn’t seem quite right.[/font][/color][color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/[/font][/color]

Hey Thankyou so much for letting me know that. Really appreciated. You know, I wrote quite a lot of the backstory ages ago and then just kind of stopped it. Then I thought it was a bit presumptuous to think that people would be interested in it. Then I just started bits and pieces it in through The Diaries - I'm over year ahead of what's on Wordpress. But you may have just been the catalyst for me to return to it. I actually don't think I'd have that much more to write. But where to put it? Hmmm. I'll have to think about that. Oh. As I've been writing this I've been having an idea or two. OK. Back to thinking.

[color=#292F33][font=Arial, sans-serif]I now live on my own in a two bed caravan next to a container in a lorry park on an industrial estate. The London Diary. Day 1. October 2 [/font][/color][url="https://t.co/xfnD0dLwpy"][size=1]https://[/size]marksdiaries.wordpress.com[size=1]/[/size][size=1] [/size][/url]