Well... I think we've really made it now. After two attempts to buy a copy of what shall, in future, be known as "that rag" - The Shields Gazette, I've finally read it. Our first ever poor review. Our review predicted we'd be savaged or ignored by the Edinburgh critics. Our reviewer was also convinced that he was missing a series of in-jokes, directed at individuals in the audience.

Clearly not the reviewer's cup of tea. I think he was probably right to point out that the reaction to some things was over-exuberant - the crowd were very excitable, and this did eclipse some of the intended humour. However, if we had in-jokes with the crowd, I wish someone would tell me what they were. I think we do have a challenge playing the show to a harder crowd - we need the pace, but the audience need room to get the show. In this case, the reviewer wasn't swept along by the momentum of the rest of the crowd and so we lost him. Fair enough. We need to play the show to more people and see where it goes.

I'm proud of the review - you have to be really something to be panned so hard. I suspect I'll take reviews a lot more seriously once we get to Edinburgh, but for now, a two-bit local rag is not going to ruffle my feathers too much.