It's already been a busy old week with a six-song live session on the Billy Sloan show on Clyde One on the Sunday (particularly enjoyable for me as I remember listening to the likes of Tiger Tim on Radio Clyde as a younger fellow, which is something these East-Coasters have never had the pleasure of - uh-oh uh-oh uh-oh baaaa-byyyeee! etc.), and a session for Vic Galloway on Radio Scotland on the Monday which coincided with the release of "wir album". I have been unable to find a method to listen back to Billy's show but the Beeb have put up a video of one of the tracks from Monday for your perusal here:
The eagle-eared (?) amongst you may notice that this is not one of our
tunes, but in fact one from back in the day by the Velvet Underground.
Having said that we would try to avoid ever playing covers, when it
came to actually doing one it was really rather enjoyable...
Tuesday saw us starting the tour in Aberdeen at Moshulu. We were last here a year ago with Sons and Daughters when we turned up extremely late with our stricken van on the back of a flatbed truck. This time we thought we had arrived extremely early but it seemed a certain Sparrow and the Workshop were even keener than ourselves and already had their rather funky campervan parked up at the back of the venue when we arrived. Despite a reported downturn in live attendances up in the Granite City there were people there which was good and the sound stage-wise was magic so it was a good first night to get back into the way of things. We played around an hour long set which felt like about five minutes.
For the Scottish dates we unfortunately had to leave sharpish to head back to Edinburgh at some semblance of a reasonable hour, before a quick sleep, few hours at so-called "work", then off to Glasgow for a night at King Tut's, which has been a good venue for us in the past and proved so again this evening. The crowd was good in both enthusiasm and numbers and we all left the stage happy.
Have to cut it a bit short as we're running off to Newcastle, so...
[Stage direction: time elapses as Gill gets round to posting the Blog online]
In the van heading Newcastle-ward now, so anyways as I was saying yesterday we went up to Dundee for a gig at the Doghouse, which we were pleased to note is still open. Soundcheck was a loud affair, with the back doors shut my snare drum was as loud as I've ever heard it. We were a bit pushed for time as we were to do a photo shoot upstairs in the rehearsal space and we had also booked to go to the Discovery (the boat, likes) at six for some photos with Ryan. Shooting on the boat was fun despite everyone's increasing hunger, and we got to sit around the captain's table pretending to be Scott and Shackleton, with a selection of period items plundered from the various displays. I wasn't allowed to go up to the crow's nest though which, to be honest, was probably for the best.
As we were pushing it time wise it was off to grab a chippy and back to the venue. By the time we got there the first support band, Dave?, had already finished and Sparrow and the Workshop were getting ready to head on. I missed their set as I was trying to force down a horrific deep fried battered burger (with the cheese inside the fucking thing. Honestly I don't know how anyone can eat them...), although I have had Devil Song stuck in my head for the past three days so maybe it's good to take a wee break every now and then.
This was the first time we had played the Doghouse where we opted to keep the doors at the back of the venue shut, which made a good difference in terms of stopping that whole "hanging back at the bar" vibe, and the sound doesn't just fly off round the corner. In fact, it just seemed to stay bouncing around the room and getting gradually louder and louder for the duration of the set. By the time we got off my ears were ringing as were everyone else's I think.
So we're now en route to Newcastle for the "English leg" of the tour, and the first day of the tour proper in the sense that we won't be heading back to Edinburgh tonight but onwards to Leeds. It's been a funny old week, with the album coming out we have been constantly updated by the label with various reviews etc. which could be quite daunting I guess, but I have actually been finding it pretty interesting as it is impossible for me to be objective about the damn thing! There's been a good few interviews going on this week too, and I suppose things are going to get busier over the coming weeks...
Going to try and keep this updated on a regular basis as I left me banjo at home so there will be long periods where I will be looking for things to occupy my hands with. No jokes please. Anyhoo we're nearly at Newcastle so I'm going to finish up for now and will get back on this tomorrow.
BR xxx
Tuesday saw us starting the tour in Aberdeen at Moshulu. We were last here a year ago with Sons and Daughters when we turned up extremely late with our stricken van on the back of a flatbed truck. This time we thought we had arrived extremely early but it seemed a certain Sparrow and the Workshop were even keener than ourselves and already had their rather funky campervan parked up at the back of the venue when we arrived. Despite a reported downturn in live attendances up in the Granite City there were people there which was good and the sound stage-wise was magic so it was a good first night to get back into the way of things. We played around an hour long set which felt like about five minutes.
For the Scottish dates we unfortunately had to leave sharpish to head back to Edinburgh at some semblance of a reasonable hour, before a quick sleep, few hours at so-called "work", then off to Glasgow for a night at King Tut's, which has been a good venue for us in the past and proved so again this evening. The crowd was good in both enthusiasm and numbers and we all left the stage happy.
Have to cut it a bit short as we're running off to Newcastle, so...
[Stage direction: time elapses as Gill gets round to posting the Blog online]
In the van heading Newcastle-ward now, so anyways as I was saying yesterday we went up to Dundee for a gig at the Doghouse, which we were pleased to note is still open. Soundcheck was a loud affair, with the back doors shut my snare drum was as loud as I've ever heard it. We were a bit pushed for time as we were to do a photo shoot upstairs in the rehearsal space and we had also booked to go to the Discovery (the boat, likes) at six for some photos with Ryan. Shooting on the boat was fun despite everyone's increasing hunger, and we got to sit around the captain's table pretending to be Scott and Shackleton, with a selection of period items plundered from the various displays. I wasn't allowed to go up to the crow's nest though which, to be honest, was probably for the best.
As we were pushing it time wise it was off to grab a chippy and back to the venue. By the time we got there the first support band, Dave?, had already finished and Sparrow and the Workshop were getting ready to head on. I missed their set as I was trying to force down a horrific deep fried battered burger (with the cheese inside the fucking thing. Honestly I don't know how anyone can eat them...), although I have had Devil Song stuck in my head for the past three days so maybe it's good to take a wee break every now and then.
This was the first time we had played the Doghouse where we opted to keep the doors at the back of the venue shut, which made a good difference in terms of stopping that whole "hanging back at the bar" vibe, and the sound doesn't just fly off round the corner. In fact, it just seemed to stay bouncing around the room and getting gradually louder and louder for the duration of the set. By the time we got off my ears were ringing as were everyone else's I think.
So we're now en route to Newcastle for the "English leg" of the tour, and the first day of the tour proper in the sense that we won't be heading back to Edinburgh tonight but onwards to Leeds. It's been a funny old week, with the album coming out we have been constantly updated by the label with various reviews etc. which could be quite daunting I guess, but I have actually been finding it pretty interesting as it is impossible for me to be objective about the damn thing! There's been a good few interviews going on this week too, and I suppose things are going to get busier over the coming weeks...
Going to try and keep this updated on a regular basis as I left me banjo at home so there will be long periods where I will be looking for things to occupy my hands with. No jokes please. Anyhoo we're nearly at Newcastle so I'm going to finish up for now and will get back on this tomorrow.
BR xxx
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