Day 36: And the winners are…

John

You don’t really expect me to tell you, do you? I came up to Edinburgh yesterday for the conclusion of the series filming tonight. And rather wonderful it’s been, with two lovely simultaneous events this evening and then the announcement of which team had won. Which had pretty much everything: screams of delight, hugs, applause, more hugs, the odd tear or two, over-the-moon winners and gracious, resigned losers. As to which team took which role, well, you’ll have to wait for the final episode.

Today was dedicated to prepping the two spaces at the Roxy Art Centre. Team L had the ground-floor ‘chapel’ – spacious, neo-gothic, a monument or two on the walls and a good acoustic for the Li Lu’s solo cello and Lindsey’s unaccompanied voice. Team JJ elected to go with the basement room: grungier, funkier, more real, more them, and with the perfect walls on which to hang Johan’s portrait of Lindsey and his most recent large-scale abstract. The label next to the portrait had the hopeful price-tag of £4,000; the abstract bore a figure nearly twice as much.

Both teams had enlisted friends and family to help them get their respective spaces just as they wanted them. Team L hung photos, laid out souvenirs, fixed their map to the wall (complete with luggage labels showing where they’d been) and, later, welcomed the canapés donated by helpers. Team JJ was probably a touch more imaginative, and they scored an early coup with a very large poster just inside the main door with an arrow pointing people to their event.

When Li Lu and Lindsey saw this, they decided that they too needed a very big poster, and soon they had several — including one that they stuck up outside, displacing a number of Team JJ’s smaller posters to make room. As she was removing her opponents’ marketing, Lindsey felt confident that Team JJ would understand and be appropriately forgiving. The crew weren’t quite so sure.

Mid-afternoon we gathered the vehicles and the camera kits and the crews and the contestants to take a team photo outside. By this point it was clear that the spaces would be ready, and our four brave and brilliant contestants too — but would anyone else turn up? Johan was still doing some last-minute flyering only thirty minutes before curtain up.

Team L felt sufficiently confident to do a final busking session on the Royal Mile. But on a Saturday afternoon there was a lot of competition, and Bach’s Cello Suites stood little chance against an amp-ed electric guitar immediately across the street and a man doing tricks with a whip who gathered a large crowd just fifty metres away. Not that the excursion was wasted, however, for Lindsey managed to persuade a very nice biker and his son to give her and Li Lu (and Li Lu’s cello) a ride back to the Roxy on their very large motor bikes. This was a lot of fun for participants and all those watching. The biker then turned up with his wife in the evening and was thrilled to see the two girls perform.

In the event, and drawing in family and friends, both teams attracted decent audiences, who it has to be said seemed to have a very good time. Janie played and sang as Johan painted a new work. Janie recounted their adventures, just as, separately, Li Lu and Lindsey did upstairs, reliving some of the highs and some of the lows, and then some more of the lows. But what was really great was that all four agreed that the trip has been a wonderful experience.

The hats went round the watchers and Johan negotiated over a possible sale to representatives of a serious art collector who was interested in his portrait of Janie. Notes and coins were collected and, as the final applause died away, the totals were carefully calculated. I was charged with checking and re-checking the final sums, and there were a few minutes when only I knew the result. All I will say is that it was remarkably close. I wrote the two totals on sheets of Paperchase’s finest and stuffed them into two envelopes.

Seb made a final speech of thanks to the contestants and the crews and then handed each pair their envelope. There was a moment when each urged the others to open theirs first. One of them was torn open and the words read out: ‘Your team’s total is… Sorry! You have come second.’

As the man says, ‘Down here it’s just winners and losers, and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.’

Day 35: tomorrow never knows

Seb

First, an apology. The blogs are getting shorter, the details sketchier and the photos poorer. I’m sorry. But it’s not down to laziness – and neither is it a reflection of what’s happening in Edinburgh. I think it comes more from a sense of wanting to preserve what you’ll see when (if) you watch the series.

I’m also aware that in some ways with the blog, we’re making a rod for our own backs. Can the series compete with your expectations of what you’re reading? Can we condense each week of adventures and knockbacks into 57 minutes of film (and that of course is between the teams). Can we “live up to” the blog? You’ll be a better judge of this than me.

The penultimate days begins with one of the most fascinating trades of the trip.

Janie has arranged an appointment with Stringers – one of the preeminent music shops in Scotland. She desperately needs a new cello case. Will they go for the smallest of Johan’s abstracts which he painted in Corfu?

Sorry – I’m going to leave this to the film.

And then at 11am, we’ve arranged for the two teams to meet at the Roxy – the venue where they’ll all be holding their shows. This is the first time that Johan, Janie, Lindsey and Lilu have met each other – but there is some pressure to the meeting as the teams must decide between them which of the three spaces they want to perform in.

Sorry – I’m going to leave this to the film

The rest of the day is taken up with print shops, timber merchants (for framing Johan’s large abstract) and a good deal of flyering.

We say our farewells to Team JJ at about 8pm. They’re in a reflective mood.

“I don’t want this to end,” says Johan.

Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Day 34: nearly there…

Seb

So 34 days ago both teams started their journey in Athens at exactly 3pm.

Today, Johan and Janie, Lilu and Lindsey arrived at Edinburgh’s Waverly station within 30 minutes of each other. I’m sad to report that in terms of crews, Ian, Paul, Stef and myself arrived six minutes after Clare, Mungo, Matt and Manu.

Oh yes, Team JJ arrive first.

Team JJ planned to be in Edinburgh much earlier as their boat had docked at about 10am. By late morning they were at Newcastle railways station..

Except then Janie meets a café owner who offers lunch in return for a gig. How can Janie turn down a performance in England? And then Johan wonders if he has time to visit one more gallery..

Newcastle is as friendly – perhaps more so – than anywhere else we’ve visited on the journey. The sun is out and it’s all rather fantastic to be back in England. Spirits are high.

Johan phones ahead to the Opus gallery and they’re keen to see his work. Introductions made, work set out, they’re delighted to be involved. The turn-around is impossible but they’d hit the phones and put the work on their web-site. They’d see. Johan and Janie are beginning to relish the impossible.

4.40pm Team JJ catch the train to Edinburgh.

Lots of phone-calls between Clare and myself.

And then we discover that both teams have booked themselves into exactly the same hostel. More phonecalls.

I let Janie and Johan know the situation – and they’re happy to change hostels. We help them find an alternative – that seems only fair..

Then Team JJ head to their marketing meeting. Er, marketing meeting?

The rules stipulate that once the teams hit Edinburgh, they can take advantage of any help they can find – even that of family, friends, friends of friends.

Jo is a friend of a friend and works at a design agency. She’d love to help out. Plans are hatched.

We leave them to it.

The two crews are having dinner together tonight. It won’t be an early night.

Day 34: one day at a time

Clare

The girls woke up desperate to get to Edinburgh but they didn’t have enough money.  All they needed to do was make £60 and they could then be on their way. Seems simple enough, but the reality was very different.

10am: Played for an hour in the square – a few quid was made.

11am: Played outside the Cathedral. Moved on with only a handful of coins received.

12.30pm: Headed to recommended busy lunch time spot to find area not so busy.

1.30pm: Returned to main square to catch afternoon shoppers. Shopping is what the locals were doing and not paying attention to the visiting musicians.

2.30pm: Performed on a pedestrianized street but only a handful of people noticed the girls.

3.30pm: Girls began to tear their hair out wondering if they would be able to get to Edinburgh.

4pm: Back to main square to make up the much needed final amount. Still no luck.

5pm: Only £3 to go and the girls were finally confident they would get to Edinburgh.

5.15pm: Board the train. Final destination Edinburgh

Day 33: ‘ain’t nothing but tired’

Clare

The initial decision of the day was that they were going to reunite after last night’s argument. Neither teammate wanted to arrive in Edinburgh not speaking to each other. They wanted to win as a team and not as two individuals, so they put their differences to one side and started the slog of making some cash.

Their aim for the day was to make £250 and they didn’t want to leave York until this mission was completed. They needed this money to fund their trip up north, pay for their accommodation and give them some extra cash to help them pay for arranging the final concert in Edinburgh. This focus helped the girls re-unite and they bonded once again.

They performed outside the Minster, in the Abbey grounds, in parks, in shopping squares and around cafes but the problem was — so did every other musician in York. They had tough competition and the money wasn’t coming their way. As the girls realised their aim of £250 was looking optimistic, their energy levels dropped. They admitted the enthusiasm to perform constantly was depleting. All they wanted to do was get to Edinburgh and win this competition.

Not having enough money to take them all the way to Edinburgh, they decided to have one more stop before Scotland. They could afford to travel to Durham so the plan was to get a later train. Before heading further north, they wanted to make some more cash in York, in one final bid to complete their morning’s mission. Neither girl wanted to be defeated and were keen to leave this city having achieved what they set out to do.

Day 32: farewell Leicester Square

Clare

Having returned to their hostel early the night before, the girls woke up fresh faced and ready to take on London and happily with a little more enthusiasm than the day before. First stop was Capital FM. Although rejected by them yesterday they wanted to give it one more go. Their reason for this visit was to make a plea for a lift north, promote the event in Edinburgh and also to get locals to come down to Leicester Square and support them.

Immediately an advancement from yesterday’s effort was made. They got past the initial security, they then even managed to get past the reception and to their joy they got to speak to the press guy, Mikey. He seemed impressed with their story but he told them he couldn’t get them on a show immediately but he would see what he could sort out later on.  He would call them with news in the afternoon.

The girl’s mood was still upbeat. With their logistical heads on, they decided to split for a while. Lindsey headed off to an internet café to find out bus times and costs for heading north; meanwhile LiLu performed to make some money for the bus trip and accommodation. LiLu began performing but no one was stopping to listen. Different locations were found but still nothing. She decided to return to Leicester Square where Lindsey joined her. After 20 minutes of playing and little cash in the hat, they were then asked to move on by a local artist as they were playing in his patch where he paints caricatures.

Struggling to perform with any financial gain, the girls were ready to push on and head north. Lindsey called Mikey to find out if they were going to be able to get onto one of his radio shows, but he regrettably told them timing wasn’t great and there was no space for them on today’s schedule. With that final rejection the girls decided it was a sign to leave London.

Just as Lindsey was telling the crew how they only had enough money for the bus trip up north and nothing for accommodation, LiLu came skipping up to the camera with a £50 note in hand. A guy from Bermuda had been listening to her play from a distance and had enjoyed it so much he wanted to pay her handsomely. Panic over for the girls.  They could now head to the bus station, head north and find a cheap hotel for the night. Next stop York.

Cut to girls arriving at York bus station. There wasn’t a smile in sight and before we knew it a full scale argument was taking place. They headed off in a taxi to the local hostel still mid conflict or in fact not even on speaking terms. Just as we thought Team L were getting on so well, we have a war once more.

Day 31: lost in London

Clare

During the ferry trip back to the UK last night, the girls had not only managed to wangle performing to the captive audience on the boat, they had also earned a fair few pounds/euros and also secured a bed for the night at one of the passengers home.

This morning we found the girls fully rested having had a good nights sleep at Cat’s family home just outside Portsmouth. Cat had heard the girls’ plea last night for someone to offer them a room and she had dutifully taken Lindsey and LiLu under her wing and looked after them for twelve hours. After a good breakfast from their latest host, the girls continued on their journey and headed to London.

Arriving at Waterloo the girls were keen to see how London would compare to other cities visited on this trip.  Both were optimistic that London would be good to them, mainly due to the lack of a language barrier.

First stop in the city was London’s local radio station, Capital FM. They were keen to do a shout out for anyone to help them, whether it be financially, transport wise, accommodation wise or in any other way. Unfortunately they couldn’t even get past the front door. Security were not going to let them in. Slowly the girls’ optimism for the city was fading.

Plan B was to play in Leceister Square to make some cash. Before even a note was played the girls were moved on and told they couldn’t perform in the park area and had to be outside the gates. Moods were really beginning to decline.

Next stop was to play in Trafalgar Square. Three lines into one of Lindsey’s songs and they were yet again told they couldn’t play at that spot and had to find somewhere  else to perform. LiLu set up her base a few meters on in a legal busking spot and managed to draw in an audience who loved her playing. Although no records were broken financially, LiLu regained her enthusiasm, especially when she discovered that one of the audience members had heard her play earlier on in the trip when they were in Cremona in Italy.

Lindsey watched on and was struggling to have the same passion for performing, for the city and in fact for this whole trip. She admitted she was completely over the competition, she was bored of singing on the streets, exhausted from the travelling and all she really wanted to do was get to Edinburgh to see her much missed boyfriend.