The John Robins Vibemail - Issue #2
Hey team! It's me again!
I must admit to being somewhat fuzzy headed after a few delicious orange drinks (great slang for beer) last night. But how better to celebrate getting the band back together for the first time in FOUR YEARS! It was so much fun, as proved by this snapshot of a controversial moment
If you missed the show due to an early start, childcare or other #factors you can rent online for the next 38ish hours here.
Onwards!
I do hope this finds you well as restrictions ease once more?
There’s been a lot of correspondence sent to The Isolation Tapes where people have expressed some anxiety about going back to ‘normal’. I’ve decided the ideal solution would be if we could 'opt in' to the elements of pre-lockdown life we miss, but give the stuff we didn’t enjoy a swerve. A bit like deciding what cookie consent you are willing to give on a website. So you could tick the box for drinking in pubs with friends but leave the one for music over a certain volume in said pubs unticked. But I guess like all good ideas it’ll probably be BANNED BY BRUSSELS OR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY BRIGADE! RIGHT GUYS?!
Sorry for imposing on your inbox again so quickly. Having spent a year planning how best to create #content in a digital age I find myself with a lot of non-live eggs in my basket just as live comedy chickens are about to run free once more. So regardless of your imminent access to comedians in car parks and fields and quarries or whatever, I do hope my eggs are of interest to you.
"John! Have you abandoned your Parish Council Agenda format so soon?! We were just getting into the swing of it!"
Oh ye of little faith...
Members Present
Apologies
Thank you's
Announcement: The Moon Under Water
Darkness Of Robins / Any Other Business
Goodbye
Members Present
The Rt Hon Lord Sir Johnny JR MA Oxon Esq? Present!
Apologies
Elis sends his apologies. Despite being a direct beneficiary of a lot of the information in these Emails, he has, alas, got to oversee the edit of his new documentary about Welsh Football Boots 1935-1991. It’s a fifty-eight part documentary for BBC Wales that has got a lot of the big players at Adidas, Nike and K-Swiss VERY NERVOUS!
Secondly, I would like to apologise to those who have objected to my spelling of thank you's with an apostrophe. Some of whom with no small amount of gusto! Sorry folks. There's no escaping the fact that The Oxford Style Guide outlaws apostrophising any plural on pain of death. Far be it from me to begin a futile war against such a hallowed tome, but the truth is, I don't like the way it looks without it! Just as I wouldn't like the way it looked if I told those grammar dweebs to mind their "ps and qs", so I can't get on board with "yous". A rule breaker to the last! Also, fun fact, spelling and grammar are not actually my strong suits! So inevitably there will be errors in the Vibemail as time goes on, which no amount of 5am panic checking will prevent.
Here it comes...
Thank you’s
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this Email (electronic mail) since the first issue went out! You can check out that very issue here! This is where all Emails (electro mailouts) are stored for my inevitable biographer.
Announcement: The Moon Under Water
Revealeth thy s’e’n!
Almost two years ago I had an idea for a live show / podcast. Other people liked the idea and twice we booked venues to record it and twice a UK-wide lockdown came into force just days before the gigs. Some of you may have bought the very limited tickets for these shows and twice had your thirst for content thwarted by this dratted pandemic! Well, I’m delighted to say that The Moon Under Water is GO GO GO! On 12th April the first episode will land in your podcast feed of choice.
“But what is The Moon Under Water John?! It sounds so mysterious!”
And quite right too! Depending on your literary tastes The Moon Under Water was an essay written by George Orwell about the perfect pub / a disappointing Wetherspoons on Leicester Square.
I have attempted to honour the former by making a podcast about pubs. I have long been fascinated by pubs, their mythical qualities, their attempts to satisfy the unique form of desire certain people have for peace, the past, escape, magic, the uncertain. How they succeed and fail in satisfying this desire. How they often feel like a parallel universe. How they often don’t. So each week I and The Lovely Robin will invite a guest to The Moon Under Water to create their perfect pub!
Recording began in earnest a month or so ago and we've had some superb guests. I'm so looking forward to you hearing it!
The podcast is produced by Audio Always (who make the Elis and John 5live show), and, rest assured, Dave oversees all content. Audio Always have worked incredibly hard to make this show sound and feel truly like ‘the correct realm’ we dreamed it could be. A big part of this unique vibe is the music created by The Lovely Robin himself. He’s such a supremely talented musician, (just check out his bandcamp page) and it’s a delight that he can join me every week as The Moon Under Water’s most devout regular. The blissful artwork is by Jem Ward. Check this baby out...
Jem has created such beautiful images to accompany the podcast, some of which you will have seen snippets of in my groundbreaking social media teases (to all those who asked, yes, I did get a young person to do them all for me!). Fun fact, Jem is son and heir of Snackhacker and Anarchist Cook George Egg. You can check out Jem's design work here and follow George for amazing cooking content on instagram. What a talented family!
It's so satisfying to bring together such wonderful creative people to make new #content. But it's just as satisfying to pay them for their talents! (#ArtIsWork).
This podcast is funded through advertising and Patreon, there is no deep-pocketed channel or streaming conglomerate behind it, so whilst each episode is free for those who can’t afford to donate through Patreon, for those who are able to please do, there are benefits to every tier! Head to our Patreon Page to sign up. Every tier grants you an ad-free episode and membership of The Moon Under Water Social Club Facebook page, which will be an absolute #vibehub for pub-based chat. We’ll also be posting fun bits and bobs there as the weeks go by! The top two tiers also get the monthly bonus podcast ‘Behind The Cellar Door’. This is where Robin and I enter the 'pub within the pub' / 'the realm beyond the realm' (delete as applicable). Expect beer tastings, live pub crawl audio, pub reviews, pub memories and pub scenarios! An introductory episode will be available for said patrons later today! If you want to be eligible for limited live tickets when we’re able to record at a pub near you (me), you'll need to become a ‘Legend Under Water’. Exciting times!
The first episode lands on the 12th April, but all Patrons will get it ad-free on the 11th.
So, there you have it. A podcast where I get to talk about pubs for ages with my best friend, what a chore!
The Darkness Of Robins / Any Other Business
THE DARKNESS OF ROBINS: It’s now almost a year since I found TDOR had landed on Netflix. As nice a surprise as this was, I have no idea what the state of play is, and it may well come off Netflix very soon, maybe in as little as a few days from now. If you haven’t seen it, or would like to re-watch it then please do so now! You can find it here. If you have the time to share it on social media then that would be warmly appreciated!
HOT SHAME: Many people ask if Hot Shame will be available to watch or download at some point. I’m afraid I don’t think it will be. The reason being, that, to my frustration, I never recorded it in high enough quality when the show was ready. The recordings I do have are iPhone voice notes of early, ropey versions of the show when it was still a work in progress being previewed above pubs. Rest assured I’m even more annoyed than you are about this lapse in judgement!
MERCH: There’s some nice new merch in the Elis and John merch store to reflect more recent moments from the E&J Canon, including, but not limited to, a mug that shows you where The Falkland Islands are.
QUEENPOD: If you really really really like Queen, then this really really really is the podcast for you. It’s great fun to do and we’ve got permission to use the music too! Here are links to Acast and iTunes
Goodbye
And so we come to the end of another vibemail. I do hope you are looking forward to the many stimuli we are about to welcome back into our lives. I certainly can’t wait to weigh up whether lunch is just a prêt, or a prêt/itsu/nice coffee shop combo once again. Even if I’m not looking forward to the birds being drowned out for another two hundred hears. Maybe I shall leave that box unticked!