Since 2015, Ive been putting on Fringe shows. First in Manchester, then in Buxton and I've also done Camden Fringe and Edinburgh. I started doing Fringe to help me to identify an audience for my music. I feel that in the current era, music shows need an implicit context. By that I mean, if you're a tribute band, you're recreating another artist's music for nostalgia. That is your context. Obviously in that case, you cannot claim originality.
If, however, you play Jazz, Rock, Folk or Classical, you can be original because you are placing your music in a specific setting. But pity the singer songwriter who has no such context. He can use words like Americana, or Folk, but there is very little scope to explain the product beyond that, and it's not helpful, if you do not see yourself as an American artist or a folk singer.
With my Fringe Shows I decided to add another element to help sell the show. I started with ribald songs mixed with stories. I then tried a modern mystery , featuring a man who wakes up in a bag. Then I developed a sleazy journalist singing saloon songs. In 2019, I won the Buxton music award for a photo romance, that you might find in the 20th Century girl's magazine 'Jackie' if it were accompanied by Jazz inspired music. In 2020 I wrote a tribute to Fado Music based on an imaginary female Fado singer. Last year and this year I have concentrated on other elements.
For 2022, my inspiration was projection mapping. Although Buxton Fringe awarded me a music award for a solo show, it wasn't the projection mapping I had planned, but it was quite good to look at, as it featured large projections behind each song, interspersed with a talking robot.
This year, I'm playing with the idea of a clown, as there is something poignant about someone pretending to be a clown whilst singing heartfelt songs. I think it gives the songs a wider meaning. Also by using mime, I get a chance to have some fun and hopefully make the audience laugh!
I spend all year thinking of these project, and writing these songs. It is very tiring as it is hard to determine if the show will work. And then it is only relevant for the three weeks during which the Fringe is active. But I have kept going because of the three awards from the lovely people at Buxton Fringe.
I am someone who finds the continual need to shout about the 'three times award winning' as ridiculous, but the cost of putting these shows on can be prohibitive , so one needs to work to attract an audience, who frequently have lots of choice as to what to see at Fringe Festivals
After this year, I'm planning to change direction, both in terms of the show's content and my approach to marketing.
2022 Adventures in Sound and Light - Winner Buxton Fringe Music Solo
2021 A Piano and a Story ran into a Song - Nominated
2021 Xuxu's Revolt - (no Award Lockdown)
2019 11 Reasons - Winner Buxton Fringe Music Small Combo
2018 Frank Sinistra: An A-Z of Sex, Drugs and PR - Nominated
2017 Mr Different - Nominated
2016 Extraordinary People - Winner Buxton Fringe Music Small Combo
Adventures in Sound and Light. Inspired by projection mapping and animation, this show involved a sarcastic animated robot called I.A.I.N. who was not very complimentary about Egriega nor the human race in general. All songs had projections behind Egriega, ranging from bright coloured beaches and animated birds, to intense line drawn landscapes.
A Piano and a Story ran into a song. Immediately after lockdown Egriega and Charlie Ormorod decided to do a hastily assembled selection of songs and stories, much of the piano playing behind the stories was improvised in real time.
Xuxu's Revolt. Originally intended as a live show, becasue of lockdown we turned it into a film. Based on an alleged real life Fado singer called Xuxu Carvalho, whose grandsom is supposed to have met Egriega outside a pub in Stockport.... well I suppose it might be true. Nonetheless the sholw/film tells a story opf this singer who existed around the time of the famous Portuguese Carnation revolution in 1974. A bloodless coup where the population deposed the then fascist authoiry throguh a combination of workers, people and the military.
Currently Pieter Egriega is writing a play based on this story, based around a Fado club that is preparing for the night's show whilst the coup is going on outside.
11 Reasons
This show featured a photo romance set in and around Buxton projected onto a screen, a voce over commentary and a brilliant live Jazz Trio, featuring BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2020, Alex Clarke on Tenor Sax , Charlie Ormrod on Piano and Egriega on Double Bass and Vocals.
Frank Sinistra: Sex, Drugs and PR
Frank Sinistra is a former News of the World Journalist and part time media adviser (A kind of lounge singer Max Clifford). Egriega dn Ormrod took this show to Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 but found marketing the show amidst all the younger people happily shouting Look at me! Look at me! a littel hard to compete with. Also it is fair to say that Egriega thought the idea was sound but didn't really concentrate his creative attention on the between songs dialogue
Mr Different
A man emerges from a laundry bag in some distress on an industrial estate in Manchester. Behind him a rumba band busk. With a sizeable grant form the Arts Council, after the 2017 Fringe, Pieter developed the show with the help of Theatre Director Richard Ross and they put Mr Differtent on at the Contact Theatre in 2023, with a female Lead, and obviously a major shift in the narrative.
The performance was greeted enthusiastically by the audience and the reviews as part of the Arts Council's requirement were all superlative. Richard is currently preparing a show reel to present with a view to creating a run in a legitimate large theatre. Pieter and Richard are also in discussion about forming a Theatre Company (Strange Life Productions) to create new work that mixes Theatre with Music in new ways.