Post by deborahw37 on May 16, 2004 19:18:38 GMT
Sorry I couldn't find an existing thread, please shift this one over if I'm posting in the wrong place
First I have to give Kudos to everyone on the team who organised this event and to all the Stewards , It was smooth, slick and fun, Queues were kept to a minimum, information was timely and accurate and screenings of fan vids, Chance and Andromeda kept us occupied whilst James was wearing himself out making friends with 600 fans .
And it was great to have time to chat to so many lovely people,
leave that bit for my LJ ( I'm deborahw37 in LJ land BTW ) but I must just say once again that Spike fans/ James fans/ GOTR fans are the best!
I got my autograph/ meeting with James very quickly because I was in the first 100 , I can't tell you what a joy it was to chat to James about The Clash and GOTR ... Ok I can tell you! It was an absolute delight, the man is so nice, so open and friendly and approachable . I Gave him a signed copy of The Complete Clash , bookmarked to where he and the band are mentioned and it seemed to please him .. Then I floated away to the audotorium to chat and watch and have fun...
The Q and A's were entertaining and interesting , The Band all seemed to put some thought behind their answers, I especially like them talking about how having James had allowed them to skip a lot of stages and get to where they are now very quickly , every band needs something different and if James gets people through the door then they get to hear the music and that's cool, James spoke of how in theatre he used to use misleading advertising, playing up the sex and violence because once you got people in the theatre they got to watch the play and that was what mattered .
( I'm sure that lots of people will do full or fuller transcripts so I'm just skimming,)
They spoke of how the promotors in Paris have quadrupled their asking price following the bands success over there which means that though they'd like to play France again it probably won't be Paris. They spoke of what a terrible venue 14 below is. They told us how scheduling was their worst problem with James acting and two band members still in School but that now that the show has wrapped James has more time to rehearse and write and they are dying to get back and work on the album ( James sang a snatch of a new Steve Song which sounded intriguing)
I was especially impressed by Sean, for such a young man he seemed very informed and grounded and gave well thought out and entertaining answers.
James' Q and A was fascinating.. I can report that it's very difficult to ask a halfway sensible question about Macbeth when James interupts to come over , adjust your microphone and instruct you to kiss it .. I'm sure I sounded like some gibbering halfwit but I greatly enjoyed James talking about his screnplay for Macbeth and am overjoyed to hear that the film is going to happen. I didn't want to disturb the rest of my row so I saw the rest of the Q and A from the sidelines..
James was very open and gave very direct and personal answers to some of the questions but also had some lighthearted moments . Above all his intelligence shines through so very clearly as does the fact that he thinks deeply about things and is totally commited to his work , his collegues, his bandmates and his family.
He says that he would like to do theatre here in ten years time and I'm sure that his audience will wait (im)patiently for that to happen. I also loved his pragmatism .. he spoke of auditioning for the Harry Dresden role but being under no illusions that an audition would mean he gets the part .
I also love the fact that he never bad mouths anybody or anything, ( with the possible and understandable exception of The Julliard Schoool) A question was asked about Winding Roads and he spoke about wanting to play this character who was a good person but who just couldn't be enough no matter how he tried and of how he admired the director for getting the film made on such a tight budget... that's class , many actors openly mock films from early in their career .
He said that he hadn't consiously changed his Spike accent for Angel but that he owed everything to ASH for helping him to get from Spike circa School Hard ( which he thought was terrible.. I actually thought that it hit just the right note of vainglorious posturing for that episode) to the Spike of the later series and that Actors should be allowed no control over scripts because he had been angry and afraid every time they changed his character but every change had allowed new facets of Spike to be seen
I have to be honest and say that I didn't and couldn't take any notes because I was just wrapped up in watching and learning from the guy on stage but If I had one wish it would be for an audio or video tape so that I could rewatch ... and rewatch again and listen and learn .
Anyway it was a wonderful day and the conclusion to a wonderful couple of weeks . I'm going around with a stupid grin on my face at the moment and I don't see it fading any time soon .
First I have to give Kudos to everyone on the team who organised this event and to all the Stewards , It was smooth, slick and fun, Queues were kept to a minimum, information was timely and accurate and screenings of fan vids, Chance and Andromeda kept us occupied whilst James was wearing himself out making friends with 600 fans .
And it was great to have time to chat to so many lovely people,
leave that bit for my LJ ( I'm deborahw37 in LJ land BTW ) but I must just say once again that Spike fans/ James fans/ GOTR fans are the best!I got my autograph/ meeting with James very quickly because I was in the first 100 , I can't tell you what a joy it was to chat to James about The Clash and GOTR ... Ok I can tell you! It was an absolute delight, the man is so nice, so open and friendly and approachable . I Gave him a signed copy of The Complete Clash , bookmarked to where he and the band are mentioned and it seemed to please him .. Then I floated away to the audotorium to chat and watch and have fun...
The Q and A's were entertaining and interesting , The Band all seemed to put some thought behind their answers, I especially like them talking about how having James had allowed them to skip a lot of stages and get to where they are now very quickly , every band needs something different and if James gets people through the door then they get to hear the music and that's cool, James spoke of how in theatre he used to use misleading advertising, playing up the sex and violence because once you got people in the theatre they got to watch the play and that was what mattered .
( I'm sure that lots of people will do full or fuller transcripts so I'm just skimming,)
They spoke of how the promotors in Paris have quadrupled their asking price following the bands success over there which means that though they'd like to play France again it probably won't be Paris. They spoke of what a terrible venue 14 below is. They told us how scheduling was their worst problem with James acting and two band members still in School but that now that the show has wrapped James has more time to rehearse and write and they are dying to get back and work on the album ( James sang a snatch of a new Steve Song which sounded intriguing)
I was especially impressed by Sean, for such a young man he seemed very informed and grounded and gave well thought out and entertaining answers.
James' Q and A was fascinating.. I can report that it's very difficult to ask a halfway sensible question about Macbeth when James interupts to come over , adjust your microphone and instruct you to kiss it .. I'm sure I sounded like some gibbering halfwit but I greatly enjoyed James talking about his screnplay for Macbeth and am overjoyed to hear that the film is going to happen. I didn't want to disturb the rest of my row so I saw the rest of the Q and A from the sidelines..
James was very open and gave very direct and personal answers to some of the questions but also had some lighthearted moments . Above all his intelligence shines through so very clearly as does the fact that he thinks deeply about things and is totally commited to his work , his collegues, his bandmates and his family.
He says that he would like to do theatre here in ten years time and I'm sure that his audience will wait (im)patiently for that to happen. I also loved his pragmatism .. he spoke of auditioning for the Harry Dresden role but being under no illusions that an audition would mean he gets the part .
I also love the fact that he never bad mouths anybody or anything, ( with the possible and understandable exception of The Julliard Schoool) A question was asked about Winding Roads and he spoke about wanting to play this character who was a good person but who just couldn't be enough no matter how he tried and of how he admired the director for getting the film made on such a tight budget... that's class , many actors openly mock films from early in their career .
He said that he hadn't consiously changed his Spike accent for Angel but that he owed everything to ASH for helping him to get from Spike circa School Hard ( which he thought was terrible.. I actually thought that it hit just the right note of vainglorious posturing for that episode) to the Spike of the later series and that Actors should be allowed no control over scripts because he had been angry and afraid every time they changed his character but every change had allowed new facets of Spike to be seen
I have to be honest and say that I didn't and couldn't take any notes because I was just wrapped up in watching and learning from the guy on stage but If I had one wish it would be for an audio or video tape so that I could rewatch ... and rewatch again and listen and learn .
Anyway it was a wonderful day and the conclusion to a wonderful couple of weeks . I'm going around with a stupid grin on my face at the moment and I don't see it fading any time soon .
;D
a heart on their sleever who managed to make James cry 
and one particular moronic question along the lines of 'Does Joss know you've raided his wardrobe department and stolen Spikes clothes' asked during the GOTR segment 
