The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live Radio Show in Hackney
It was a Saturday it was.
All day the facebook feed had been abuzz with excitement from fellow Hitchhiker fans. There are the DACcers (this is the Douglas Adams Continuum) and the ZZ9ers (This is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation society known as ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha). Carrie and I are in both groups and are surfing this wave of pleasure and anticipation as these people meet up during the day. We travel into London a little later than most and book into a hotel just down the road from the Hackney Empire in Bethnal Green. It's a very basic affair (being a Travelodge) but cheap for London clean and fairly nearby.
We catch a bus down to the Hackney Empire and pick out the narrow passageway that takes us into the Ship Inn, only 50 yards from the theatre. We have reserved 12 spaces there for dinner but upon entering the pub we see that this is nothing like enough. There are around 20 people already there and more are arriving as we settle in and buy beer. The bar staff look a little terrified but somehow we manage to figure out ways and means of finding flat surfaces from which to eat pre theatre dinner and drink several pre-show drinks. They are serving Doom Bar beer in here. This beer was a wonderful new discovery for me only about a year ago but I guess it must have been for many other people also as I'm told it is now ubiquitous in all parts of London.
We eat, drink, chat with friends who have arrived here from all over the world (several in particular from the United States such as Ami Lou and Janette. We were expecting that Ami would have brought naked Barbie with her and indeed she has but it has been handed off to Dirk Maggs who says he will try and get a picture of naked Barbie on top of Marvin.
Geoffrey McGivern is in the pub and is happy to pose for photographs. He comes to see us on the way out and assures all will be well despite the band being drunk etc etc.
The ZZ9 Meetings book is passed around. There's a comment from Jonny5 about the combination of ZZ9 and DAC being unstoppable. I exercise my no talent drawing skills to try and draw something that looks vaguely like a train with a ZZ9 carriage and a DAC carriage. I then place a suicidal stick man in front of it trying to stop the train. Several more pints and I'm sure it would have been hilarious.
We troop off to the theatre and are soon seated and waiting. There's the soundtrack of Douglas Adams speaking as background to our settling down. I glance around and see many familiar faces such as Dave and Sarah Haddock, Alex McLintock, Keira Vallejo and up there on one of the balconies is Kevin Jon Davies with his son Liam. Kevin has the towel with the full quote about towels on it and has draped this towel over the balcony in front of him.
Here's the quote, although it looks quite long so I wonder just how much of this is on the towel.
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
The first half of the show is very similar to last year although there is one major cast change. Mitch Benn is playing the Zaphod Beeblebrox character and has a completely new take on it. The character is played as a bit of a big stupid lummox. He is self obsessed, of course, but the accent is not the mid Atlantic drawl to which we are accustomed. It's more English and somehow perhaps a little more believable. I was unbalanced by this portrayal but it was a brave direction to take and felt refreshing and interesting for that. The first half contains mostly material from the early incarnations of Hitchhiker's but the second half is where most of the surprises were. Mitch Benn sings a new song about matter transporters that proclaims "If you have to take me apart to get me there then I don't want to go" in a mock Elvis style. It's a rocking little number that had us chortling merrily. My favourite song as always tho' was the Krikkit song. Full of poignancy, sensitivity and the desire to wipe out all life forms.
Neil Gaiman was the voice of the book for this show and got a huge round of applause when he sat down in his book chair. He seems a very popular chap indeed among the Hitchhiker crowd.
The show has been tightened up a lot since last year and feels smoother and a more coherent production. I saw Dirk Maggs later after we'd gone back to the pub and he said that tightening up the production had been one of his main aims this time and hoped he'd achieved that.
The full cast adjourned to the pub and there was much quaffing of wine and beer.
Many pictures were taken and everyone seemed happy with the way things had gone.
I was also pleased to see some faces there that I didn't expect to see such as Lilian Edwards.
She'd been in the area, Neil Gaiman had suggested she pop along to the show so along she had popped. Lilian asked me about my recent TAFF experiences and we discussed each of our experiences with places such as New Orleans. It seems Lilian was there for the last Worldcon they'd had. Fascinating to hear about this as I'd been talking to people about the last New Orleans Worldcon only a week before.
Dirk returns a little later to our table to tell us a tale about Ray McKinley (drummer in Glenn Miller Orchestra). Dirk knows that Carrie and I are fans of Glenn Miller. He tells of seeing Ray play and all the younger folks around him being just entranced by his magic. It sounded a very enviable experience indeed.
It was a fine night and Carrie and I stayed in the pub until we were all chucked out around half past midnight. We see James Thrift and Sue Adams as we leave. They look as if they've had a great time and are shaking hands with everyone. We wave goodbye to Silas on the pavement outside and then walk off down the street to our hotel.
All most excellent fun.
All day the facebook feed had been abuzz with excitement from fellow Hitchhiker fans. There are the DACcers (this is the Douglas Adams Continuum) and the ZZ9ers (This is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation society known as ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha). Carrie and I are in both groups and are surfing this wave of pleasure and anticipation as these people meet up during the day. We travel into London a little later than most and book into a hotel just down the road from the Hackney Empire in Bethnal Green. It's a very basic affair (being a Travelodge) but cheap for London clean and fairly nearby.
We catch a bus down to the Hackney Empire and pick out the narrow passageway that takes us into the Ship Inn, only 50 yards from the theatre. We have reserved 12 spaces there for dinner but upon entering the pub we see that this is nothing like enough. There are around 20 people already there and more are arriving as we settle in and buy beer. The bar staff look a little terrified but somehow we manage to figure out ways and means of finding flat surfaces from which to eat pre theatre dinner and drink several pre-show drinks. They are serving Doom Bar beer in here. This beer was a wonderful new discovery for me only about a year ago but I guess it must have been for many other people also as I'm told it is now ubiquitous in all parts of London.
We eat, drink, chat with friends who have arrived here from all over the world (several in particular from the United States such as Ami Lou and Janette. We were expecting that Ami would have brought naked Barbie with her and indeed she has but it has been handed off to Dirk Maggs who says he will try and get a picture of naked Barbie on top of Marvin.
Geoffrey McGivern is in the pub and is happy to pose for photographs. He comes to see us on the way out and assures all will be well despite the band being drunk etc etc.
The ZZ9 Meetings book is passed around. There's a comment from Jonny5 about the combination of ZZ9 and DAC being unstoppable. I exercise my no talent drawing skills to try and draw something that looks vaguely like a train with a ZZ9 carriage and a DAC carriage. I then place a suicidal stick man in front of it trying to stop the train. Several more pints and I'm sure it would have been hilarious.
We troop off to the theatre and are soon seated and waiting. There's the soundtrack of Douglas Adams speaking as background to our settling down. I glance around and see many familiar faces such as Dave and Sarah Haddock, Alex McLintock, Keira Vallejo and up there on one of the balconies is Kevin Jon Davies with his son Liam. Kevin has the towel with the full quote about towels on it and has draped this towel over the balcony in front of him.
Here's the quote, although it looks quite long so I wonder just how much of this is on the towel.
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
The first half of the show is very similar to last year although there is one major cast change. Mitch Benn is playing the Zaphod Beeblebrox character and has a completely new take on it. The character is played as a bit of a big stupid lummox. He is self obsessed, of course, but the accent is not the mid Atlantic drawl to which we are accustomed. It's more English and somehow perhaps a little more believable. I was unbalanced by this portrayal but it was a brave direction to take and felt refreshing and interesting for that. The first half contains mostly material from the early incarnations of Hitchhiker's but the second half is where most of the surprises were. Mitch Benn sings a new song about matter transporters that proclaims "If you have to take me apart to get me there then I don't want to go" in a mock Elvis style. It's a rocking little number that had us chortling merrily. My favourite song as always tho' was the Krikkit song. Full of poignancy, sensitivity and the desire to wipe out all life forms.
Neil Gaiman was the voice of the book for this show and got a huge round of applause when he sat down in his book chair. He seems a very popular chap indeed among the Hitchhiker crowd.
The show has been tightened up a lot since last year and feels smoother and a more coherent production. I saw Dirk Maggs later after we'd gone back to the pub and he said that tightening up the production had been one of his main aims this time and hoped he'd achieved that.
The full cast adjourned to the pub and there was much quaffing of wine and beer.
Many pictures were taken and everyone seemed happy with the way things had gone.
I was also pleased to see some faces there that I didn't expect to see such as Lilian Edwards.
She'd been in the area, Neil Gaiman had suggested she pop along to the show so along she had popped. Lilian asked me about my recent TAFF experiences and we discussed each of our experiences with places such as New Orleans. It seems Lilian was there for the last Worldcon they'd had. Fascinating to hear about this as I'd been talking to people about the last New Orleans Worldcon only a week before.
Dirk returns a little later to our table to tell us a tale about Ray McKinley (drummer in Glenn Miller Orchestra). Dirk knows that Carrie and I are fans of Glenn Miller. He tells of seeing Ray play and all the younger folks around him being just entranced by his magic. It sounded a very enviable experience indeed.
It was a fine night and Carrie and I stayed in the pub until we were all chucked out around half past midnight. We see James Thrift and Sue Adams as we leave. They look as if they've had a great time and are shaking hands with everyone. We wave goodbye to Silas on the pavement outside and then walk off down the street to our hotel.
All most excellent fun.