Indie As F*ck
by Kirsten McPake and Peter Stewart
A piece of gig-theatre following the short rise and rapid decline of a small town teenage band. Featuring a live five-piece band and original songs
Venue: C royale, venue 6, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Dates: 2-28 Aug (not 15)
Time: 22:25(0h55)
Ticket prices: £9.50-£11.50 / concessions £7.50-£9.50
Indie as Fuck is the story of Cold Light, a five-piece unsigned teenage indie band from West Lothian at the end of the noughties.
The band documents the hilarious and embarrassingly accurate cliches of what life is like as a scottish teenager in the world of unsigned music. From the fake IDs to finding something appropriately original and cool to wear, the show is bursting with moments everyone suffered through as a teenager.
What was the inspiration for this performance?
The show is based on my real life experiences of being in a band during my formative teenage years.
The band was called Streetlights and to be honest, we weren’t very good at all, but we did end up with some amazing and somewhat unbelievable stories - many of which have ended up in the show.
Set in West Lothian at the end of the noughties Indie as Fuck follows a band who slowly realise that your teenage dreams don’t always come to fruition, something that most people can relate to.
When first began to develop this piece gig-theatre in Scotland was rapidly growing in popularity and I quickly became extremely interested in this genre.
Music is an incredibly powerful form of art and how better to tell the story of a band than recreating the atmosphere of a gig within a theatre. We knew we wanted a full live band performing as both actors and musicians in true gig-theatre fashion.
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?
Of course it is! But, even more importantly it is a safe space to discuss different ideas and different experiences, presenting arguments in more unique and thought provoking ways.
I really think the true purpose of theatre goes well beyond mere entertainment, but is used as a jumping off point for important stories, issues and experiences that we can discuss.
How did you become interested in making performance?
I've loved theatre for a very long time but after studying acting for a year I realised that that bit wasn't really for me,
although I did learn some amazing things on that course it set me on the path to directing and writing instead. I think theatre and performance just clicked with me.
I am currently studying Theatre Studies at Glasgow University and am very interested in making performance from scratch in
many different ways using different techniques. There is something incredibly exciting about seeing all the ideas come together to make a solid performance.
Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
Indie as Fuck started as a mind map on a scrap of paper I drew when bored at work many years
ago, I really didn’t think anything would ever come from it but slowly I started to collect all my stories and memories of band life and began to write them down for my own enjoyment. Slowly this developed into a full blown play and I was determined to bring it to the stage.
Shortly after completing the script I approached my close friend and musical genius Peter Stewart at a bowling club disco about writing music for the show and he was eager to come on board. Both music and script hold equal weight in our production and we spent equal time developing both.
What do you hope that the audience will experience?
We want the audience to be transported into a small cramped, sweaty pub watching a small town teenage band, complete with stamps and wristbands.
Indie as Fuck is not solely about the experiences of being in a band, but of being a teenager as a whole. The show follows five teenagers who realise their dreams can’t be sustained - an experience most can relate to but that doesn’t mean that those dreams, skills and hobbies we spent so much time on were not important.
Of course, my teenage band never ‘made it’ and we knew it never would but it was still one of the most important and frankly, one of the most fun things I have ever done. We want to remember the fun in the fuck ups and the mistakes, and that is what we aim to achieve with Indie as Fuck.
Indie as Fuck returns to the Fringe after a short four star run back in 2015. A piece of gig-theatre with a live five-piece band performing original songs, taking the audience into the atmosphere of a seedy pub during a teenage gig. Written by Kirsten McPake with music by Peter Stewart, both of whom are veterans of the teenage band scene, Indie as Fuck is both hysterical and brutally honest.
Pinched! Theatre Company is a small emerging company based in West Lothian, made up of students and recent graduates. Formed in late 2014, they are returning to the Fringe for their third consecutive year. Pinched! Theatre Company create theatre from their own lives and experiences, with a focus on music and movement within their storytelling.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Venue: C royale, venue 6, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Dates: 2-28 Aug (not 15)
Time: 22:25(0h55)
Ticket prices: £9.50-£11.50 / concessions £7.50-£9.50
C venues box office: 0845 260 1234 / www.CtheFestival.com
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