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A lovely sunny morning, so the perfect time to head to the dump! We’ve been streamlining and tidying up the place in the last couple of weeks and it’s starting to look pretty nice, but there were some old electric items and other bits of debris to get rid of, so I loaded up the car and headed to Letchworth.
I can’t tell you how much I love the dump. So much so that I am considering going every day, even if it means throwing away things that I need and want. And Letchworth dump is something else - the parking system works well, the staff are friendly and helpful and there’s a big bin of metal that they let you swim around in if you want. That last bit isn’t true, but it should be.
I got hot and sweaty in the sun, but that’s all part of the joy of it and a pleasure that sadly Prince Andrew is unable to partake. Which is perhaps why he chose to find his kicks in other, less reputable ways. We should pity him, not punish him. Oh, we’re not punishing him. What’s that about?
I have decided to get rid of the vast store of boxes of programmes that I’ve been hanging on to, in case of an old show revival. I realise that it’s unlikely that I will do the shows again though, but also, thanks to our increasingly cashless society they do not raise more than a few pennies if I give them away at shows now. I think the days of the Scope charity programmes is thus sadly over and the need to have 3000 copies of the Lord of the Dance Settee brochure clogging up my garage is thus minimalised.
I am sad for the loss to Scope, but slightly relieved for myself. Carting the programmes around and putting them out on seats before each gig and then bagging up all the coins and finding a bank to deposit them in took up an awful lot of time and energy on previous tours. It was worth it as we raised a huge amount of money for the charity in all the years we did this, but I won’t mind not having to do it.
Unlike for most rubbish there is not a huge skip for paper, or at least not one that you have to climb some stair to access. It’s a smaller container with a slit for the paper, which meant that to get the 10 boxes of programmes recycled I had to carry each box over to the recycle point and feed through 20 or so programmes at a time. It’s a strange experience to be throwing dozens upon dozens of pictures of your own face into a massive bin. I wondered if anyone would spot the sea of programmes a top the pile of paper rubbish and wonder who I was and why so much of my merch was being thrown away.
It felt like throwing away my past - there I was dancing in 2014 or eating yoghurt in 2005 or sitting with my wife and baby daughter (and it felt wrong throwing her away over and over again) in 2015. The past is gone. The past is now detritus. You are old and useless too and soon you will be disposed of too.
Still loved it though, because it was at the dump.
I didn’t scratch the surface with the programmes, though the real product clogging up my garage is maybe 5000 or more copies of the original Emergency Questions books. It feels wrong to throw actual books away though, even though I can never hope to sell them, so I decided to put 300 copies in the car for my weekend gigs to give away to the audience. Maybe I can do this throughout the tour in lieu of programmes (though I still have some copies of the RHLSTP prog, even if they are sponsored by Bulb, which somewhat dates them).
I also found four boxes of RHLSTP Top Trumps, which I thought would be a bit seller on tour, but which only sold in their ones. It’s a fun and workable version of the game though, and again, I don’t want these to go to the dump, so on Monday I will be giving everyone who comes to the Leicester Square Theatre a set.
Book here - the Top Trumps had RRP of £10 so you’re almost getting a free ticket!
You can buy them here if you can't make the gig.
