vampires rock blog!!

vampires rock

For those of you who havent heard of Vampires Rock yet it's a touring show that combines rock music with theatre, it's a great show thats been touring for 4 or 5 years i think and i was lucky enough to join the cast as a dancer last year, i absolutely loved it!! This year however is even better than the last, we have a brand new sexy rockin band that all the ladies will love as well as all the amazing main characters from last year and the legend that is Toyah Willcox is also on board for the tour so it's definately not to be missed!!
i've made this blog purely as a diary of touring with the show and behind the scenes goings on and i know there are many hardcore fans out there so hopefully this will be a little taster of the stuff you dont get to see on the tour, im going to try keep it updated though i must warn you it will probably get behind as il be touring with the show aswell as my own show The Glitter Kittens but i will do my very best!! i aim to add pix from the show from our own private collections and hopefully keep you informed on the goings on with the cast and show in general.
Below is the little press description of the show along with tour dates.

A show like no other, with a twist of rock and a hint of musical theatre, and jam packed with the greatest anthems you know and love, you’re guaranteed to be on your feet!

Set in New York in the year 2030, the undead are among us and livelier than ever, none more so than in club ‘Live and Let Die’, where aspiring singer Pandora (Emily Clark) arrives to audition for the resident vocalist position.

Little does she know, that the only job on offer is to be the eternal bride of evil Baron Von Rockula! (Steve Steinman)

Cue a host of classic rock, played live by the Baron’s hand picked band, The Lost Boys, and a hint of comedy, as the Baron and his sidekick, Stringfellow (Mike Taylor), attempt to convince Pandora to lose her soul to rock and roll!

With songs made famous by the likes of AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Meat Loaf, Joan Jett, Suzi Quatro, Queen and many more, you’ll be rocking in the aisles (or on your knees with your air guitar above your head!)

An amazing stage set, pyrotechnics to blow your mind, beautiful dancers and of course Steve Steinman’s famously powerful vocals and sense of humour, make sure this show is not to be missed!

first few shows!!

september 12th Retford

After these last couple of weeks rehearsing the time has come for us to have an audience and i cant wait!! i love it when its new enough for you to feel slightly nervous and the adrenelin is definately in full flow, its lucky for us that we get to have a rehearsal week in the theatre of the first show as we know all the entrances and exits and have had time to get used to the size of the stage and spacing and stuff. Thats the hardest thing about touring a show i think, having a different size stage every night, different dressing room, different route to get on and off and sometimes the stairs to lead us on and off the top of the crypt round the back are in different places which always makes me think one day il run off in the dark the wrong way and drop however high it is which would be not good!!
Anyway day one we potter about all day going over details, routines, setting up our costumes and generally mentally preparing.
7.30pm comes quickly enough and its show time, there is two photographer's here tonight for promo pics and the end result was awesome, the show went really well and everyone was on a high! Arthur and Henry's mum and dad came as well as Nicky's as a suprise for the lads and they said they loved it so there we go, one succesful show down god knows how many more to go but i cant wait!! Rock n roll!!

Sep 13th Milton Keynes

This theatre is amazing its like a tv studio so you can see the audience in front of you quite closely aswell as there being seats on the sides which i love, it means you cant lose your character for a second because people can see you all the time. Toyah isnt with us tonight as she had a show booked previously to joining the tour with us, a big open air show so we have had to adjust parts of the show so that it still works without her. It's a bit scary to adapt after only doing one show but it worked brilliantly. The band are absolutely wicked this year, because they get on so well and are real rock and rollers they work great together on stage and everything goes well!
It's a great show with a manic signing after, everyone was lovely and we got time to really hang out in the bar with fans and chat properly rather than be rushed in the foyer by theatre staff.
We get packed up as quick as possible to head home, me and emily had high hopes of getting back to Manchester in time to go to Sankeys for my friends night and dance the night away but sadly we dont get home til 4am so thats out of the question! Gutted, ah well off to bed we go.

Sep 17th Doncaster

I really remember this venue from last year for some reason, maybe its because my friend and ex boyfriend came last year or something but its quite an intimate stage so again a case of adapting the show and the little details in the show.
We got a bottle of wine for the girls backstage and sat there early having girly chats and bonding as we havent had much time together yet and its great because theres four of us know. We all get on really well which is lucky and really rare i imagine in a show, Chloe is the new dancer and she's really great, easy to get on with and a laugh! She already knows Emily and Shereen from the Dolly tour but we all feel like we have all known each other ages which is great!
Toyah is back and the show is back to normal, it went well although as the ceiling was quite low i kept smacking my hand on the ceiling and the light rig when we were dancing on the crypt, ah well..

Sep 29th Buxton

im just back from Ibiza and doing my own Glitter Kittens gigs so im a little worse for wear but dying to get stuck in again, we set up, soundcheck and have a quick trip to the pub to be fed and watered. My friend Sarah is coming to the show tonight and she very kindly did my make up for me backstage so i could feel like a star haha, we all do our own hair and make up and sometimes thats the only part of the day i dread, it always feel like a chore but the second im made up i feel instantly better and ready to rock and by the time the fangs go in then i cant wait to face the audience!
The show goes well for everyone but i feel exhausted after all the shows and partying in my 11 days off and feel a bit mad at myself for feeling like im not really going for it, Sarah said she loved it though and was so impressed bless her waving her Vampires Rock foam hand in the audience haha. We all head home, the show is starting to stick in my head and feel natural now, the first few dates always feel edgy for me, i have to have a set list and costume list on hand so im certain what happens next but im getting to the point where its all making sense without that which is great because thats when you can really go for it and get stuck in!

sep 28th Nottingham Rock City

Tonight theres myself, Scarlet, Sarah and Denim doing the show thats a freshers party and absolutley huge!! No expense has been spared here thanks to Nottingham uni, theres loads of bands performing including Audio Bullys, the whip and Reverend and the Makers plus loads of djs and ourselves. theres even an Alice in wonderland style chill out room with real grass on the floor and giant toadstools to sit on!! brilliant!! we get ready and get sarah and denim out as sexy hostesses with trays of sweets for the students which fly out so quick! myself and scarlet do the dancing in the downstairs room with the dj's before having a break to watch some acts, its such a good night but everyone seems so young and naive on there way to uni, bless! We do some more dancing in different pairs before finishing in time to see most of the rev's set which was absolutely awesome, we chatted to them backstage and reminised over the last time we did a show with them which was over a year and a half ago!! oh my god!! time flies. they are lovely though and such a great band so its nice there doing so well, we had a quick photoshoot with John before they headed off on there bus and let us have all there leftover rider on top of own!! thanks guys!! bonus!! we headed of with all our booze then went for a dance to finish the party before heading home satisfied after another happy night as a GK!!

john-reverend and the makers and the glitter kittens

sep 27th birmingham academy glitter kittens show!!

This is the life you want a big dressing room, a nice rider of booze and soft drinks, your own keys to the dressing room and someone to escort you to the stage! we are starting to get this sort of treatment more recently and without sounding like i fuss over things like this it does make life so much easier. we spend half the time in the car when gigging so to then be squeezed into a cupboard with two other girls and attempt to look sexy isnt always easy. We also have a camera women on hand today so when i get those pix il stick some up also. Anyway tonight is rammed and i cant wait to go onstage, were doing two 15 min sets and Dragonforce are here as they have just finished a gig here, the crowd and venue is huge and the stage is bigger than my flat so all is good. Theres also massive posters around birmingham city centre of us im told so thats a bonus too. We do our first set and its goes amazingly well, im on a proper high after i do my bits, welcome to the jungle into (s)aint, even though the stage is massive you can get really near the crowd which i love, especially in routines like these when i have a whip to play with!! I meet up with my friend Evelina and her crew and she had just missed our set by going out to smoke!! idiot,haha. We hang about and get changed into our next outfits before heading back downstairs and doing our second set! again brilliant response from the crowd and i had a great time, we stick around to party and finish off most or our rider before calling it a day to head back to Manchester, tomorrow night were in Nottingham. It's nice being back with the GK girls while im doing Vamps, i miss them, tonight it was myself, sarah and denim. Good fun, i could stay on the road forever!! Rock n roll..

sep 26th Fedde Le Grande Sankeys

Get home from Wales around 8am and get on the couch in our pjamas with a baked potato as we were starved and sobering up and watch The Office on dvd, I love lazing around watching comedy dvds even though I know most of them off by heart. We got some sleep in the afternoon for a couple of hours before watching CITV and popping to the shops to buy something healthy to cook as we havent been eating very well recently and I like to try keep fit and healthy as much as possible though looking at this blog you'll find that hard to believe but true! Eat a nice veggie meal before another half snooze half watch Tenacious D Pick of Destiny before getting motivated and ready to re live Ibiza at Sankeys in Manchester as Fedde Le Grande was DJin, 'Put your hands up for Detroit' is one of my party anthems so im pretty excited. Its just me and Sarah going to get our groove on tonight,our friend Steve O'Neill was going to come but couldn't and we tried to get a gang together but noone was in the mood to party..rubbish. Ah well we had a wicked time on our own and danced on the speakers for a good few hours til 4am when we were all danced out and went home to chill with some strongbow and league of gentlemen on dvd. Im getting used to Sarah being at my house though it does scare me as i think were the femail 'Men Behaving Badly' which isnt good. Finally sleep around 6am which is starting to feel normal now happy afetr dancing the night away, Fedde Le Grande was as awesome as expected so a good wind down after Ibiza.

thursday sep 25th What the Butler Saw-Cardiff

Still feeling a bit blue on leaving Ibiza yesterday so im glad to be on the move and busy already, I hate having time off for more than a day I always feel like im wasting time or missing something. Me and Sarah had a chilled night last night eating some good food,some alcohol and some trash tv. Today were up and ready to catch the train to Cardiff which takes absolutely ages after stopping every possible station en route which sends me mad! Sarah is coming with me to keep me company and to prolongue her party basically, I have a gig at What the Butler Saw with Kitty our very own Welsh kitten. We finally get to Cardiff around 7pm and my friend Dan kindly picked us up from the staion and took us to his to chill with a giant bottle of wine while he got ready,we then went for a cocktail before getting to the venue around 9.30. Lolly (the stunning organiser and party animal) greeted us bless her with her new sexy red hair (she used to have bright pink) and looked lovely as always, it was her birthday at midnight so we were ready for a mental one! Kitty was there too looking very elegant though a little nervous about our duet as we hadnt had time to rehearse it before the show as we are just both always really busy and miles apart. We found out we were on seventh for a night that was meant to be fetish and fantasy themed but seemed to now just be fantasy which was typical as our duet was very fetish and revolved around an army major and soldier to a heavy track while everyone else was going for the cute fantasy look, ah well! We got a few drinks and mingled until it was time to get ready, the stage at minksys is really small to what im used to but i love it, its nice and high and intimate so you get a real feel from the crowd. Kitty opened the cd to give the dj only to find that the cd was missing from the case and must have still been in her player at home,aargh!! The band thank god saved the day and brilliantly accompanied us live saving our lives! It changed the whole style of the piece to something less sinister and more swingy which I think myself and Kitty didnt feel completely satisfied with but the audience didnt know any better so it was a success considering. We watched all the other great performers before heading off to Buffalo with the birthday girl and the rest of the butler crowd (except kitty who had to leave which was a shame). Myself,Sarah, Dan, Lolly and her fella Dan carried on drinking like the alcohol was about to run out and had a great time, unfortunately i thought it would be good to head home at 4am on the train and pre booked my ticket thinking I would be all partied out when I booked it before Ibiza and was absolutely gutted to tear myself away! (note to self I am never too partied out!!) Dan walked us to the station like a true gent haha well maybe not as we were all pretty smashed and took loads of photos of us being stupid in the street, I had been wearing Dan's tie and decided to stand on the railings by the side of the road on St.Mary Street and do a striptease of sorts singing the stripper theme tune, the things we do eh, dont do alcohol kids haha, its not as if I didnt look strange enough to begin with walking the streets with my Liam Gallagher parker, full burlesque make up and a cane from the show like some mix breed of drag chav and old gent. All in all a good night, great to see Dan, Lolly and Kitty and have a catch up in Cardiff. Bring on the next one..

Ibiza September mash up!!

September- Friday

After a night with no sleep because i was so excited i got up early as sarah was arriving at 10.30am, i met her at the station and we decided to get drunk before leaving as you do, i hate flying so its better im a bit out of my mind, im like mr.t!! 'i aint getting on no plane'. We met my brother who was coming with us and made it to the airport just as they were closing the desk, i cant imaging how gutting that would of been but anyway we made it so all was good, a few more pints as our flight was delayed and eventually we boarded with big drunken cheesy grins thinking of ibiza and yes the raving had begun!! i had a quick sleep on the plane to distract myself and woke to sarah robbing my beer! so this is hows it gonna be eh?! We got to the hotel about 9.30pm ibiza time and couldnt wait to get out, we were staying right in the centre by the egg ( you will know what i mean if you have been, if you havent been whats happening?!) anyway we got ready to out, Sarah and my bro went for a beer and some goodies which they never came back with before we all headed to Plastik which was absolutely dead, we were gutted as this was the spot to start most big party nights, by now it was about 2am and seemed a bit late to pay into a club when we were all pretty tired deciding to have an early one or go where the night took us! We ended up meeting a couple of guys in there called Jamie and James from Leeds who after having a few drinks with them we all headed to ibiza rocks hotel to carry on the party! Had a good laugh and got pretty messed up resulting in James falling through a table on the balcony next to his mate who was passed out in his superman trunks!! Sarah and my bro were drinking on the balcony wondering where i was apparently when suddenly she heard 'Sarah!!' and saw me fly through the air in my underwear into the pool. Jamie had decided it was a good idea for us to jump in and in my drunken state i agreed. looking back it was funny but i think i got ill that night from my 6am swim!! We met some swansea boys who were a good laugh and partied til about 8.30,sarah joined me in the pool until we got so cold we decided to call it a night. Matt from swansea lent me his towel to take home and keep warm which i intended to take back but never did, sorry Matt-bless him. got a couple of hours sleep before heading to Buddha bar to chill in the sun and drink all day and spent most of the afternoon drunkenly tattooing each other with a lighter pen which sarah had stole off jamie-she went out that night with ket hed 2000+8 on her ankle beside a daisy chain and ibiza rocks logo im not even gonna tell you what mine said but apparently if destroyed still true so there you go!!
Saturday
After our day in buddha which is a great place to chill out because they have big comfy seats you can laze in the sun on with a nice cold beer and a great view of the beach not to mention the sexiest spanish bar men on the island if thats your type!! theres also really cute stray cats which we always name after djs, we now have pete tong, lisa lashes and a judge jules, bless them.
Saturday night we went to Es Paradis for the water party. Got mashed up again and spent the whole night dancing with sarah to cheesy dance anthems and anticipated the water!! rave it rave it rave it!! jamie arrived with another mate from scotland who was well funny doing the running man and calling himself puff daddy despite being as white as they come but there you go!! ibiza randoms, i fuckin loves it! at 5.30 the water was about to drop and drown the dancefloor so clever me thought the best place to be would be the middle with scottish puff! the water was awesome but so cold and as it kicked in it was like having bucket loads dropped on you, we persuaded sarah and jamie to join us for a bit before getting out to watch all the nutters swimming in the waist high water full of ravers and floating cig ends..me and sarah went back home drenched again!! bed for a couple of hours as usual before being woken up by the hot sun.

Buddha Bar view.

Es Paradis Fiesta Del Agua

the view from our hotel
Sunday
We go for some food by the beach and spent the whole day tanning ourselves and getting excited about judgement sundays!! this is my favourite night out here and its always packed so we knew it would be a good one. We got guestlist sorted and as my bro was craving a guiness we went into the dodgy west end to find an irish bar-not a good idea off your head and in the mood to dance though as they were playing footloose and u2 etc, i hate u2-not good! we ran off asap and went ground zero for a rock music fix where sarah spent about an hour sat in the toilets while i kept her company from outside the cubicle. i knew she was ok though as she kept giving me the thumbs up from under the door. once she was ready to come out we went to eden luckily cos of the guestlist jumped the que (thanks to mathew and lashes-we owe you one!!) and joined the masses. sarah spent the first section of the night with my bro outside talking to randoms while i danced on my own with my own little ibiza bez i just befriended. they came in in time for some proper raving in the kissdafunk room which was awesome, me and sarah got on the speakers to strut our stuff with the dancers to mickey slim before some wasted guys joined us and we all got asked to get down-not right mr security guard!!we should get paid to show our skills haha what was he thinking!
We went in the main room for judge jules set which was a bit tame this time round to be honest- not his best-julesy sort it out! had a bit of a wasted photo sesh by the dj booth with micky slim and alex kidd-legends!! think they made our night until lisa lashes came out and stole the show! she was absolutley amazing and i think we danced harder than ever without stopping right until 7am when they decided to cut her off mid her dirty diana finale! she still had time to throw some shapes though and wowed us with her ballet performance with the bouncer! top dj and all round top bird! me and sarah went back to rave on the balcony until we dropped into bed shattered.
Monday
Started the day with food by the beach again, i had the only semi veggie option i could which was lovely to be fair while sarah had chicken and chips washed down with beers obviously!! my bro couldnt keep up with us hardcore party animals clearly and went to the hotel to shave his head (which really meant sleep as he never surfaced until tuesday!) while we sat on the beach tanning and raving to alex kidd and goldie lookin chain on the ipod.. 'i got a chain when i came of age..' classic!! We got some beers and watched the sunset talking about life before heading home desperate for a wee even debating on doing it in some posh garden we were so desperate!
we got changed and sat on the balcony watching the drug dealing shenanigans which we got pretty hooked on- best reality show ever before going to Mambo to see Roger Sanchez pre party set which was really chilled and a good start to the madness then off to eden again- our second home to party and dance the night away to the Koolwaters night where stanton warriors were playing but for some reason we found a happier place in the small room and decided to dance the night away to fran cossgrave like absolute nutters haha i wish we had a video of us running around the half empty room entertaining all the other nutters off their heads only pausing to dance at fran while shouting 'go on fran!!' and re enacting lashes' dirty diana scene. top night!! we didnt stop dancing until the music stopped and bizarrely enough i saw my business advisor off his head raving next to me but thats a different story! only in ibiza!! got an eden tshirt and went and sat on the beach where we met a sweet guy called remi who was a classroom assistant who had been there 20 weeks after spontaneously heading out there, he had some cool stories and walked us back to our hotel never to be seen again which is probably the only bad thing about ibiza, you meet so many cool people and connect with all sorts for a short time before all going your seperate ways but i guess thats travelling and its so nice to meet cool people. it really restores your faith in humanity!
we eventually dropped into bed at 8ish after sitting on the balcony in shock as it had started raining and lightning proper hollywood lightning where it forks in the sky- brilliant! we debated the predicted weather and discussed our pychic source in japan impressed with his knowledge! (thanks pritch!)
Tuesday
Last day and absolutley gutted, i felt well rough this morning and nearly passed out in the shower-not happy days! i think ive raved myself stupid but im sure i can squeeze another party in! rock n roll!!
we went for a meal in a different place this time, i had a lasagne which wasnt great with chips and a slice of pizza. all that dancing give me an appetite clearly, fat bastard! we got a couple of pints while waiting for the heavy rain to stop and then off we went tshirt and cd shopping! got a few goodies then went for a stroll and ended up in linekers bar drinking with the 18-30 nutters! one got naked and ran in the sea off his head before following randomers walking by to make friends with, raving in the old womens faces and kissing the guys for some reason..strange boy but well funny. there was a big gang of them completely out of it but they were good fun. we noticed that the swansea v cardiff match was showing later so decided to get changed for the night then headed back there to watch it with a load of welsh people and sarah(who watched the man utd match by herself with a bottle of san miguel from the shop cos she was almost broke which she hid under the table so she didnt get told off before getting ripped off on a pint of cider for 6 euros-ours were only 4!! oh,whats occuring?!)
the match was pretty intense especially as they were half swansea half cardiff supporters but they were all mates so all good. sadly swansea won but there you go. 5 pints later we got bored of linekers and headed to itaca (the best bongo man ever plays here alongside the dj and hes awesome) and bar m to get our freak on one last time as we had an early flight so chose not to go to a big club and get fucked per usual incase we didnt get up, to be honest 5 hardcore nights in a row off our heads was taking its toll a bit anyway so we chilled in there til around 4. had a laugh dancing in there and doing laughing gas which i think we got a bit obsessed with in the end- if i could take a tank home with me i would. some good tunes and lisa lashes, micky slim and some of the eden lot were in their so not a bad finale really to an awesome over the top long weekend of raving and livin it large in beefa!! bring on next year!! ive already decided im living here with sarah and any randomers who care to join us, the more the merrier! preferably in a big party mansion in the hills with a private yacht to party on whenever the mood takes us! im also getting married here (if i ever get married) on a big boat party with alex kidd (not to alex kidd by the way)on the decks after and everyone off their heads partying hard otherwise im not doing it haha!
We left bar m because it was closing and strolled up the strip home, the police were out random searching people for drugs which was really horrible, we saw that last time out here and guilty or not its so intense and scary that you feel guilty. they stand there selecting mainly guys to be fair to thoroughly search and question and we knew someone who got pulled aside and it was shit scary! they pretty much violate that person and warn them that if they have anything whatsoever on them thats it game over! the other guys who we didnt know that were being searched had also been in bar m and had passed some stuff to a girl when he got called over and they were gonna searh there hotel! bit of a downer to end the trip on but i guess its to expected.
we sat in the hotel contemplating the last few days and winding down before getting the longest sleep i had in days- about 4 hours and waking up absolutely gutted to be leaving. We got a taxi at about 8.30am to the airport and that was it ibiza part 2 over!back to manchester, back to reality and back to the tour but i fuckin loved it!!!

August 28th onwards..

August 28th

After Vamps rehearsals I drove back to Manchester to film a short scene in a local horror film thats coming out soon where i played a she-snake a part invented for the kittens by ry mccormack the writer, great bunch of cast and crew and good fun all round even though it took about 2 hours to get all the make up on and i was shattered from rehearsing, anyway the end product should be good and il stick it up here when i get a copy!! for now heres a couple of pics..



Aug 29th

After a day working out I set off to Cardiff to party and catch up with my friends Kitty from the GKs and Mathew and some of his mates, after having a nightmare journey getting stuck in traffic and a flat tyre i finally got out to party at about 11pm! Rubbish! I met up with the gang and went to some bar for lots of Jack Daniels and coke before going to a club to dance the night away with the cardiff bboys and got pretty drunk on champagne and deciding it would be a good idea to head to a strip club where I got a private dance by myself for some reason?!! good laugh though and ended up calling it a night at around 4am. The next day i headed over to Kittys in Caerphilly to work on a duet to perform at What the Butler Saw in Cardiff in September before heading home jealous as Mathew was off to Ibiza!! Gutted. Not long til i get back there though so i can cope, Eden here we come!

The next week is spent in Vamps rehesearsals ending in another mashed up weekend in Cardiff thanks to Annie and Adam, it was really great to see them as well as Mag, Paul and Rob who we partied in Ibiza with last time. Great night catching up on whats been happening and partied til 1pm the next day. A chilled night on Sunday was much needed, i felt so rough it was untrue so spent a chilled evening with mathew and aled down there watching Top Gear and Charlie Borman before getting a much needed early night and lazing around all day Monday which was great, i rarely get a day with nothing to do except chill with friends so i left around 6pm and headed home happy ready to get back to Vampires rehearsals and the start of the tour this week!