Harry Potter and the Bastard Ska Band from Hell

Been hammered with the cold last week. Since we finished in the studio last Sunday, I have felt like death.

So I wasn’t looking forward to last weekend’s Wizard Festival near New Deer up in Aberdeenshire. At least Joe was driving the whole weekend, so I could sit in the back, feeling sorry for myself with a blanket, an MP3 player, and the world’s smallest bottle of whisky, for medicinal purposes. The plan was to play on Friday evening as Bombskare on the main stage, the Voodoo Stage (ooooohh!), then play a Skaramanga set on the smaller stage on Saturday, the Banshee stage (aaaahh!), and then drive back down to Aberdeen and play with none other than the Root System boys at our beloved Café Drummonds (wehaaay!). However after some confusion, naturally, we only discovered on the Monday beforehand that we were expected to be up there at the Wizard Festival at 5pm to kick start the whole event off. If we had known this, we wouldn’t have agreed to do it, because it was too early for us to get up there. With so many of us unable to get off work at such short notice it was looking like we wouldn’t be playing on the Friday, and possibly not the Saturday either. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and also by sheer luck that Joe was on holiday, seven of us out of ten had managed to be off on Friday, so we agreed we could do it. However that plan was far too straightforward and likely to succeed for us. After even more confusion and some general tardiness we set off an hour later than planned and by about a third of the way up we realised we were not going to make it on time. In fact we would be hitting Aberdeen in rush hour at approximately the time we were supposed to be playing. After some phone calls back and forth, it was agreed that we wouldn’t be playing on the Friday, because they couldn’t change the running order at this point in the proceedings. Darkwater would be filling in our slot on the main stage and then heading over to do their own set on the wee stage. We were gutted obviously, travelling all the way up there and not playing. At least we were still playing on the Saturday, and I liked Darkwater, I’ve played with them before in Aberdeen.

We arrived a good hour and a half late. It was a pity because it looked like a great festival. Definite memories of Shetland in 2004, travelling a distance and not playing at a great festival, and The Undertones headlining the night we were supposed to be playing. I couldn’t help but thinking The Undertones were bad luck for us. Or was it The Bluetones. Andy came back with a bit of good news at this point. Fortunately for us someone from Eddie and The Hotrods injured themselves when they fell over drunk or something, so they had to bow out of their slot on the Saturday afternoon. Ouch for them, great success for us. Isn’t that always the way? One man’s Angel Delight is another mans kick in the balls! We would be playing their slot and we now had the time to get the rest of the boys up in time. Nice. I love it when a plan comes together.

We scrapped the Skaramanga set on Saturday and just got ready for the main stage at around four. We were going on after, wait for it, The MacDonald Brothers, of X Factor infamy. Yes indeed. They played a set of covers and came off stage to a bit of a mob of autograph hunters. If I hadn’t had the cold and wasn‘t feeling rubbish, who knows what I could have said or done while I had the chance, I mean, they were right there! Curse this mortal frame!

So we came on and played for forty five minutes, in between The McKaraoke Brothers and Sandi Thom, strange bedfellows for us. It was surreal. I thought I was having a psychedelic experience brought on by the potent combination of max strength Lemsip and Bells whisky. Anyway the sound was awesome, and the crowd was excellent, maybe close to a thousand bodies, including kids. I broke a string. Thanks to the organisers for having us up and rescheduling us, after all the confusion and panic, our normal bedfellows. Thanks to Dod and Sally as usual for the photos, and our mate Dod Copeland who unfortunately had a run in with the local constabulary. We hung around for the rest of the afternoon and early evening to catch some of the other bands including Sandi Thom and The Cuban Brothers, but we had to leave before the great Hayseed Dixie. Still not managed to see them live. Didn’t see any real magic either. Don’t know why it’s called the Wizard Festival.

Another late one At Café Drummonds and not the busiest night we’ve ever had mainly because of the competition; two festivals within an hour of Aberdeen, but it was still a cracking night in Drummonds as always. We were supported by Root System who were awesome as usual. Kev insists that their band is more attractive than our band. That’s nonsense. He even suggested that our Papa Joe is so scary he looks like he eats people. Crazy talk. I will admit that the Roots guys do have that certain boy band charm about them, a rough sweaty boy band perhaps, one that you definitely wouldn’t want to meet in the back streets of Glenrothes, but a boy band charm, nonetheless. They definitely have that X Factor factor, or maybe it’s the X Files factor. And they have Handsome Dan, their secret weapon. Also, admittedly there are a few bodies in our band that might be described as ‘could do with losing a few pounds’, such as myself. In spite of that, I would say that the overall beauty of our band is far greater than their’s. Our beauty is of a more spiritual quality, a harrowing, appalling beauty, kind of like a Picasso. You could say that we’re so beautiful, you might be sick. Anyway, by the time we came on it was about midnight, and it had been a long day. We still managed a ninety minute set at least, and included a cheeky cover of Root System’s ‘Don’t Worry’ as a tribute to the boys, who unbelievable weren’t even upstairs when we played it, so they missed it. That’ll teach them to be relaxing in the green room while we were full effect on stage. Prima donnas. We also had a small fridge on stage with us, that we squeezed in behind one of the amps, so we had chilled drinks on stage. Excellent. Thanks again to Nathan for the photos, and to Eric and Callum. Back into the van around three and down the road to Edinburgh, rolling in at dawn.

Next gig is in Hartlepool. Note to self; don’t mention the monkeys!

Welcome Back Again My Friends, To The Show That Never Ends

After what seemed like ages we managed to spend the weekend in the studio recording vocals. It was our first time back in the studio for almost a month. We have been gigging every weekend for months so we have simply struggled to find the time. As you can imagine this is the main reason for the recording taking so long. There is so much to record in a ten piece band, over thirteen tracks, with a gigging schedule like ours. We may have to take a break from gigging for a bit. In addition Gav has been in California for three weeks. So it was great to get back into it, especially since we were recording vocals. Once vocals are on the tracks, they start to sound more complete. It was interesting as well, watching Gav’s reaction to hearing some of these vocal parts properly for the first time, hearing the songs come together. Some of the tunes he obviously didn’t get, when the vocals were missing, but as soon as the vocals were there, I could see the realisation on his face. We worked all day on Friday and went home around midnight, dropping Gav off on London Road, as he headed off to a party with a bottle of tequila. Next morning when we arrived at the studio, Gav was already there, passed out on the couch in the kitchen. The steamer had just rolled in from his party a full hour before us. As a result we left him passed out in his sleeping bag since he would have been useless, and I did the engineering on Saturday. We moved our Sunday recording session to the following weekend because Murray was busy that Sunday, splitting the weekend session over two weekends so to speak. After two days we got a substantial part of the vocals on about two thirds of the tracks completed and at least some vocals on the other tracks. Some tracks obviously take more work than others. Plus we like to try stuff out, experiment with different parts, different harmonies, different lyrics. Its starting to sound really good. We’ve also come to realise that Murray is almost definitely an android. When we have been getting him to double track his vocals, each take he does is identical to the last, right down to individual waveforms. It’s scary. No human could possibly do that.

Two gigs that week, the first on Tuesday night at King Tuts in Glasgow with The King Blues. We were the first band on the bill because we had sold almost no tickets. Going on first in the evening is usually good news for us because it means we sound check last and so have a reasonable chance of getting everyone there to the venue and sound checking on time. We went on first to a decent sized crowd and played a rapid fire set of about thirty five minutes. I have to say even I thought it was a cracking performance from us. The crowd and the promoters were certainly glad of our efforts. Next up were The Hostiles, who we liked a lot. Third wave of Ska type stuff, with horns and lots of jumping around. Finally, The King Blues who are really nice guys, and an incredible band. They didn’t have their regular drummer and were being helped out by the drummer from Capdown, who was excellent as a dep. I will confess to being only slightly aware of these guys before this gig but they were fantastic. They came back on for an encore and gave a big up to our good selves but also their three favourite Scottish bands, Junkman’s Choir, Ex Cathedra and The Amphetameanies. They then kicked into a medley of covers, mainly dictated by the crowd shouting out song titles randomly, including 54 46, Pressure Drop, and the theme from Bob the Builder, oddly enough. Good to catch our friends in the west, Esperanza, and of course, Gordon and Jane from the Meanies. Hope Gordon got home safely with his leaky petrol scooter.

Back in the Burgh. We’ve been overplaying Edinburgh a bit of late. Four or five gigs in two months or so. That’s way too much for a wee place like Edinburgh. The gig at the Exchange on Friday, was a bit of a last minute affair. We had moved the gig from The Ark because of health and safety concerns from the last gig, and we had left off promoting the gig until the last week because promoting music events during the festival is impossible because of all the competition. The Foo Fighters gig at Meadowbank was even struggling to sell out because of all the shows going on. They were practically giving tickets away outside the stadium last Tuesday. So with all of that in mind it was going to be difficult for us to fill the place, therefore getting two hundred of you down was not bad. I think most of the crowd were there to see Taking Chase and Big Hand, to be perfectly honest. Taking Chase kicked off the evening and included a couple of new tunes. Lee at one point broke a string on his SG so borrowed one of my back up guitars, my purple Tanglewood flying V, which is a bit much for most people, but not our Lee. I love Taking Chase. Even when they think they haven’t played a good set, its still usually twice as good as most other bands. Big Hand were up next. Also outstanding as usual. Anyone who doesn’t like Big Hand is quite simply wrong. They played most of their usual classics but also featured our Andy on harmonica (the name of the song temporarily escapes me) and also myself singing lead vocals on their final tune ‘Big Hand’. Our set went down well I thought, except for a few technical issues on the bass. I’ve started breaking strings again. It must be a lunar thing. Thanks to everyone who came out that night. Thanks to Jamie our engineer, who he haven’t seen since he did our sound in Lochinver in 2003. We only have two more gigs in Edinburgh this year. Hopefully October with Jerry Dammers, and then our Skalloween party with The Toasters. It’s the first time they have been to Scotland in either nine or ten years. Can’t wait.

Back into the studio the following Sunday, a bit hoarse from the gigs, but keen as a shed full of mustard. We got more backing vocals done and also more of the lead vocals from Andy. There are now only two songs needing vocals done. Which means we don’t have much more to do. Some more horn parts, a little bit of harmonica, and some more keyboards which we’ll do last. The only trouble is the more that we do, the more that we want to do. We put something down and then decide that something else needs changed or re done. Realistically another few days of studio time should have nearly everything actually recorded. Unbelievable!

York, York! So Good They Named It Once

Sometimes when I’m bored, which is often, I imagine what element each of the band members would be if Bombskare were the periodic table? Colin would be Lithium of course, highly reactive and popular with mental people. Jay would be Argon of course, abundant and inert. Murray would be Copper, mildly valuable and highly conductive. And so on in this manner. What about me, you say? I would be Iron obviously. Iron is the most stable element in the universe. Essential and stable. All other elements are trying to combine with others to become as stable as iron. Well, that’s me to a tee.

We don’t often gig in England, and no, its not a racist thing. Some of my best friends are English. It’s simply the logistical difficulties of transporting a small army and all the gear so far south. Ask William Wallace. So it was with a great deal of planning, and a hire van for a change, that we set off the other Friday for Ashington near Newcastle for the first of two dates down south, Travelling on Friday is always shit, especially if your starting point is Edinburgh. Leaving The Burgh on Friday is like trying to escape from quicksand. The more you struggle, the slower you go. However because we had a sexy hire van, we could travel fast once we hit the A1. We arrived in Ashington around eight which wasn’t too bad and got into our set pretty soon after that. The Elephant is a nice wee place and the natives definitely appreciated our efforts. Wasn’t too busy but apparently there was a scooter rally up the road which explains a lot. Thanks to our host Tony, and all his family, who put us all up in his house. We got to play pool at night and swing ball in the morning. Civilised. We’ll definitely be back down soon.

York, York! So good they named it once. The York gig wasn’t as straightforward as Ashington. We were playing at a place called The Junction and the first thing to mention is that both Murray and Tom wouldn’t be featuring with us. They were busy doing other things with other bands. Sluts. Sam arrived at York first in his wee van ahead of us by about an hour. He phoned me and said “I’m here. What should I do?“ Now, it’s a popular belief, thanks to Mel Gibson, that William Wallace sacked York in the thirteenth century, but there is no evidence for this. It’s too far south, but still, while we were here we wanted to make a good impression, for Wallace‘s sake. “OK Sam here’s what I want you to do. Surround the place for three days, then set fire to it.“ It’s what he would he would have wanted, sniff! The rest of us also arrived in York early, even earlier than This R2 Tone who we would be supporting yet again. This meant that to kill time we all went into York for drinks. You would think we would learn from our mistakes but no. To cut a very long story short, everyone got pretty drunk before the gig and ended up fighting and falling out. I know lots of shenanigans happened in my ‘absence’. I excuse my own behaviour because I was pissed off with everyone plus I had been doing all the driving again and was decidedly unhappy. Anyway our Mike has thoughtfully filled in some of the blanks.

Mike says:

“The hostel in York proved a problem. Up front it was straight forward, £14 per person per night with breakfast thrown in; we had already paid in full. It transpired, upon arrival however, that there was an undisclosed £20 cash insurance per person for the night. This was returnable at checking out time the next day (10am), subject to good behaviour. The manager summed it up like this. "Look, you're a group of British blokes, we know why you're here. If you tell me you're here for a prayer meeting, I'll know you are lying". I bit my tongue; I was tempted to say that we were but humble musicians in York to join in fellowship with the faithful of York Minster to hear the organ recital from Colin Andrews & Janette Fishell that evening after Evensong. I bit my tongue a second time. Paradoxically, the hostel bar would be open as long as the bar staff were tipped. We paid up. The next problem was some time after the gig. The Skebabs were leaving in their mini bus to head back up the road to Edinburgh, so Andy jumped in to get home early to be with his kids. Half an hour later we couldn't find the keys to our van / dressing room. A phone call to Andy quickly established that he had the keys and that he was somewhere on the M1; along with a dozen or so merry Skebabs and their mates. He was unable to persuade his fellow travellers that the best course of action was to turn around and head back to York. (selfish bastards - Scott)

Now, it is a little known fact that we, Bombskare, are like Santa Claus in that we keep a Who's Been Good, Who's Been Bad list. Our Good list has a new top 10 entry. This R2 Tone had organized for the whole night to be filmed and had got a friend in to operate the cameras. Borrowed cameras, so he was being extra careful all night to the extent that he was on soft drinks. "I'll drive up to catch them", said Michael. "I haven't been drinking and I am fully comprehensively insured". Andy phoned back. In a compromise to all concerned, the van keys had been left at the desk of a service station somewhere on the M1. A quick conversation between Andy & Michael established which service station. It was at least 40 miles away. Our wellbeing was now dependant on the milk of human kindness lactated from the breast of a night shift worker on minimum wage somewhere in the Midlands of England. No matter, we had a plan. Michael would drive Sam's van to the service station, pick up the keys & drive back. Sam was reluctant to the whole idea. In a 20 minute impassioned outburst of emotional rhetoric Sam refused to hand over the keys. As was his right. Could we persuade Sam that it was perfectly legal for Michael to drive his van and sort out this mess? 10 minutes later Sam was won round with a compromise. Michael would drive the van and Sam would be the co-pilot. Great success. Off they went.

At the back of 3 Michael phoned. They had picked up the keys. However, Sam's thinking had become more lucid and he had started to ask some pressing questions. "Who are you? Why are you driving my van? Where are we? Where are we going? What's happening". Michael & Sam finally arrived back with the van keys. Now, what to do with an unlocked van full of amps, instruments & a ‘fatigued’ Scott asleep in the van? We lock the van, head back to the hostel, persuade the night porter to let us in, go straight to bed only to be awoken at 7 in the morning by a group of hill walkers heading off for the Yorkshire Dales. And the hostel had shut the bar at 1 o'clock because there was a school party staying that night. No matter, after multiple rounds of toast, coffee & cereal on Sunday morning we got our insurance deposit back and left.”

Cheers Mike.

I woke up the next day in the van, which I didn’t immediately recognise, in a car park in York, which I didn’t immediately recognise and I had somehow vomited down my own back. I was quite disorientated at first. Even though I was crippled from alcohol abuse I had to drive back to Scotland. Not a problem because remember folks, I am Iron. Stable, except at high temperatures. I had definitely cooled off and was too poisoned to care about much except making it back home without killing myself, and others. Thanks again to This R2 Tone for having us down there, and thanks to everyone in York for putting up with us. In spite of all the nonsense we actually played a pretty good set considering we were two pipers down so to speak. Hopefully be back down there sometime next year. Next gig in England will be Hartlepool. Next gig in Scotland will be at the Exchange with the always lovely Big Hand, and the always handsome Taking Chase, which is only next week. Don’t worry people. We are all best friends again.

We will be in the studio next weekend getting more vocals down for our long, long overdue album. Stay tuned for a progress report.

We'll Sleep When We're Dead

You would think that after supporting Toots and the Maytals and what not, we would be feeling elated and enjoying ourselves overly, but no, Dammit. We have been straight back to work. Almost the second we finished playing the Toots gig we were off to Lochinver again, mainly because that’s how long it takes to get there in our van. It was going to be a reprise of our visit there a few months back with some bunch of clapped out, no hoper, crusty fuckwits whose name momentarily eludes me. The Saturates? The Saturites? The Skebabulites? Whatever. Anyway, this time we would be playing a full show, not some soft core, flash of the sweaty forehead, forty minute set. This time we were there for the duration, money shot included, so to speak.

The drive up took four weeks. In that time we came to realise that our van is not long for this earth. If we go faster than fifty miles an hour, it belches black smoke out the exhaust so badly that cars behind us have to use their windscreen wipers. No joke! Also when we take it over fifty it overheats significantly. Not good. Especially because we are nearly always two hours late for anything and we desperately need to be travelling faster than fifty miles an hour almost all the time. We have also been playing up north a lot of late and those roads can take ages. So anytime we go anywhere I am usually stressing about being late, and also that the head gasket is about to blow at any second, which it probably is. Plus there have been a host of other problems with the van. Doors seized shut, windscreen wiper motor failure and replacement, fuel filter housing replaced (twice), leaking fuel pump, leaking dipstick, leak in the vent in the cell at the back of the van where we stash our gear, indicator light failure, bad smell. Fair enough, it was a police riot van. The worst thing though was when the gearbox broke. In the car park of the DVLA. Two minutes after I had signed it over into my name. I couldn’t believe it. It’s the kind of bad luck you only see in films. I couldn’t believe my karma was that bad. I almost started writing a list of all the people that I had done something bad to, and started going around making amends. But who am I kidding? I haven’t hurt anybody. Anyway, if anyone wants an ex police riot van, with a functioning cell in the back, see me. We’ll give it to you.

We arrived in Lochinver on the Friday, late again. Niall is a good guy and wasn’t too upset. It was our third visit there. He knows what to expect. Tonight was special for another reason. We would be supported by Skaramanga. Skaramanga are this amazing band who… aw hell.. Skaramanga is Bombskare with an alias. Yes, very clever. We were doing a double show so that we could play a set of covers in our civilian dress before coming on as Bombskare in our usual tasteful attire. As Skaramanga we get to play a lot of old Ska classics such as Al Capone, Guns of Navarone, The Israelites, Texas Hold Em, You’re Wondering Now, Madness amongst others. We went off and came back on in suits and kicked into our usual set which lasted about an hour and forty minutes. We ended up by the end playing almost two and a half hours! Exhausting but enjoyable. The good people of Lochinver and surrounding parts were certainly pleased by our efforts. Usual shenanigans afterwards that we don’t need to go into. Lots of jelly and ice cream. We’ll be back. Thanks again to my buddy Niall for inviting us up again.

The second phase of our expedition was Nairn on the Saturday. We set off after lunch, with Papa Joe driving. We got about twenty miles before Joe suffered a mild case of the I-guess-I-shouldn’t-have-had-a-bottle-of-jack-daniels-to-myself-last-night-plus-all-the-cider, and puked over himself at the wheel and then again behind the van. Nice one. Luckily in the back of the van we have a little ‘in case of emergency, break glass’ container, in which, we keep a little version of me, who proceeded to help Joe into the back seat for a lie down and then drove everyone the remaining eighty miles to Nairn. I tell you, that guy is a lifesaver. He deserves more than being kept behind a small glass screen in case of emergencies. He deserves to be kept in his own flight case.

Nairn. Never played there before. Has anyone ever played there before? In any case we were playing at the Nairn Highland Show which is a day long event where all the farmers get together and talk sheep. In the evening they all bugger off to the pub while the stage is set up for the entertainment, which in this case was us. The stage is in a giant marquee, on the back of a massive metal trailer. Now, we are no stranger to playing on unusual stages e.g. Linkylea festival, but this was different. The whole thing was made with big plates of steel that, when jumped up and down on, they kind of flexed and popped with this big noise that ended up vibrating through the mics on stage, sporadically creating this terrifying noise through the PA system. The solution: turn everything up so that it all became a terrifying noise. The entire gig was quite unusual for us. We took it because it paid really well and that we were up in that part of the world anyway, but it was effectively a corporate gig. No one was really there for the music. So we had probably the first gig we have ever had where the crowd didn’t respond to us between songs. I’ve never had a gig with Bombskare where we were greeted with indifference. Disgust and despair, certainly, but never indifference. By the end we had them bouncing, but we played for well over two hours and it was certainly exhausting. We were also enormously entertained watching all the women in mini skirts and hot pants making there way across the muddy field afterwards, in the dark and drunk. Priceless. Thanks to Sam’s mates, Callum and Dougie, for helping us with the P.A and to the organisers for having us. Drove back that night with help from my mini me. A cool one hundred and sixty mile in the dark. Arrived in Edinburgh at daybreak again.

The third phase of Operation Kill Scott from Exhaustion involved us playing with Pama International on the Sunday. Thankfully it was here in Edinburgh at Club Ego in Picardy Place, right next to the statue of Sherlock Holmes. We played a forty minute set to a fairly busy crowd, our first gig since the near fatal gig at The Ark, up the road. As an aside, I heard a rumour that since that gig, the venue has been reclassified from a 230 capacity to 60. Ouch! Also this was my tenth gig without breaking a string. This has been my longest run of gigs without breaking a string ever, so my technique (brute force and ignorance) must be improving. Pama International were excellent. They are comprised of Lynval Golding of The Specials and also the drummer from Pop Will Eat Itself and Lee Scratch Perry’s band. When I met Lynval Golding he was really cool and extremely helpful. He even offered to help me move amps! We’ve met a lot of Ska stars and musicians; Laurel Aitken, Toots Hibbert, Buster Bloodvessel, Rhoda Dakar, Pauline Black, Lloyd Knibb and The Skatalites, Nick and Martin of The Selecter and Skaville UK, Roger Rankin, and out of all of them, I think Lynval was the coolest. Just a regular guy. At the end of their set they played an encore of Message to You and I was invited up on stage with them. I got to jump about like a lunatic and sing Johnny Vegas style backing vocals with Lynval Golding. Awesome! I have a photo of it but it’s a bit blurred. It was a good night, but to be honest I think most people were there to see us. Good to see some of our mates from the awesome Underling, who had travelled down from Fife. They informed us that coincidentally our compadres Root System were supporting Neville Staples, also of The Specials, up in Dundee at The Doghouse, but they elected to come and see us instead of them. That’s a tough call.

Recording update. Eh…. Nothing. Gav is in California, the son of a bitch. How dare he?! He’s back next week. We’ll be going straight back into the studio as soon as he is back to get the vocals done.

Next gig is down in Ashington and then York with This R2 Tone. Never been there before. Should be good. I’ve heard that in York it is still legal to shoot any Scotsman in the city limits with a crossbow. I might bring a crossbow in case Colin gets out of hand.

I don’t like the choice of moods available on the Myspace current mood selection. Nothing there comes close to describing my current mood. Although it has been suggested to me that ‘bipolar’ isn’t actually a mood. Hmmmm! Time for my medicine.

Toots, Man!

Sorry for the delay in updating our blog, again. I’m too busy for sitting in front of my computer. I haven’t answered emails in over a week. I don’t even have time to drink. Shocking! It’s the festival. I hate it. It’s not the shows, the tourists, the buskers, or the fact that it makes it impossible for us to promote our own events in the general hullabaloo; it’s the fact that it takes three times longer to do anything in Edinburgh, such as drive across town, or get a bus from Leith to Oxgangs. And I know that I will be involved in working at it, either driving or doing sound for something or worse, both. And it hasn’t even started yet. Aaaarrgh!

Not much to say in this instalment of our blog except to say, well people, we played with Toots and The Maytals. And yes, it felt as great as it sounds. The Arches was sold out. Nine hundred people. It was certainly the biggest crowd we’ve played to this year. When Toots finally came on, I don’t think anyone in the place was disappointed. I’ve read a few lukewarm reviews of his performance, but from where I was standing he was excellent. Some have said his voice was a bit shaky. I couldn’t hear it but I suppose that anyone can have an off night. Highlights for me include watching Matt’s girlfriend Susan getting past the bouncers at the front, presumably because she had a Bombskare access all areas pass, and getting on stage with Toots. He gave her a big kiss, but even then she didn’t want to get off the stage, until she was politely encouraged by the security guys.

On a personal note I can barely remember the gig. I wasn’t drunk or anything. The previous day and night I had been working on the crew for a Queen tribute band up near Keith. I had worked a 23 hour shift, drove back to Edinburgh and had grabbed about three hours sleep before driving through to Glasgow with all our gear for the sound check. By the time we came on I was dead on my feet. I know I enjoyed the gig, I’ve seen the clips on YouTube, I just can’t remember enjoying it.

We met the great man himself, Mr Toots Hibbert. He was even a rather personable chap. I got to ask him “Hey Fred? What’s with the effeminate nickname? Do you really want people to think that you play for the other team?” I didn’t really ask him that. I wanted to, but some of my band mates stopped me, thank god. You can’t say something like that to the man who wrote Pressure Drop and 54/46 was my number. Well, you can’t, because you never met him. I could because I did, but I didn’t do it. The question is valid though. Why is he called Toots? Answers on a postcard please.

Thanks to the Arches and to Craig for putting us on. I’ve heard we may be returning to the Arches later this year with Jerry Dammers of The Specials. That would be cool. Watch this space. Our next gig will be a trip back up to Lochinver and then over to Nairn, followed by a gig in Edinburgh supporting Pama International, featuring, amongst others, Lynval Golding, also of The Specials. Aren’t we lucky?