Hello!

Think we’ve all just about recovered from the various gigs we’ve had recently… I may not be particularly witty, though. It’s entirely possible I never am, however.

First up was the Captain’s Rest in Glasgow. It’s one to be remembered for the banter, I believe. Och. It was very nice to meet The Cinnamons, too. A performance from us that was more entertaining than note-perfect, I think. Always good to play in Glasgow, for the conversations one can have from the stage.

Photo by Claire Thomson

Photo by Grave Maurice

We played the first of our three Freshers weeks at Teviot Union for the University of Edinburgh Freshers week. It was a very good laugh. It was nice to meet all the enthusiastic young folks afterwards, too. We debuted our cover version of King Creosote’s ‘Missionary’ to give it a bit of an airing before we had to play it on the radio. We had spent 3 hours practicing in the studio that afternoon…

Photo by Claire Thomson

We played a very LOUD gig at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh. We did drinking and laughing afterwards.

Meetin 'n' Greetin. Photo by Mike Melville

We had the pleasure of playing Independent’s Day at the Barron Theatre in St Andrews as part of their Freshers Week. It was quite a thrill to play in such a small, theatre setting. It was a great line-up with Jo Mango, The Oates Field, Iona Marshall, The Last Battle and FOUND playing, too. Managed to get a Fisher and Donaldson Fudge doughnut kept aside for after our set too. Magic. Played ‘Missionary’ in front of Kenny to give him a final chance to tell use that we weren’t allowed to murder his song on the radio. He say yes.

Photo by Mike Melville

We were delighted to be asked to play a session for Vic Galloway on BBC Radio Scotland. It was a really great experience. Had to do a bit emergency surgery on my guitar in the Green Room prior to playing. I managed to get some mounting screws for the pickups my telecaster from the life-saving Strung Out Guitars. Somehow I’d managed to shake loose four of the screws that hold some very important bits of my guitar…

We had the help of 2/3 of the Wild Life Choir (J-Smizz and DoHo, K8 E and Rows) for our live rendition of ‘You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night’. We also managed to get away with our King Creosote cover and ‘And Another Thing!!’ A naughty blogger has put the tracks up here. A couple of mothers both commented on how articulate I sounded in the interview. Someone else went as far as to say “Dave actually sounds intelligent on the radio.” I have feelings, yeah?

Vic is a terribly enthusiastic man and he and his team looked after us really well. “Mad props” to Lee-ann who patiently ferried us about the BBC for hours. It really was flippin’ great.

BBC Radio Live Studio

When I was in Strung Out Guitars to get the screws to fix my guitar. I saw this:

Yes please.

and on the way to Strathclyde Student’s Union to support the super-amayzun Frightened Rabbit  I stopped by again to buy it. It sounds gorgeous. It’s older than me! By quite a bit. It’s a 1974 Fender Twin Reverb amp. YES. Kate has an Orange Amp, so I needed it, OK? I’ve been feeling the need to justify myself. It’s time to retire the Peavey Bandit. It buzzes like a fridge.

So yeah, we were supporting FRabbit. It was a rather good gig. Playing to 600 hammered students is a fun experience. It was also the first night we had our t-shirts for sale, which was exciting. They’ve proved so popular we’ve had to order a second shipment after only a week. So, thanks everyone! Endor were on the bill too, we shared a laugh at how long we’d both taken to release and album and then we did it on the same day. Lovely chaps and a great set. Hadn’t seen them for ages. And Frightened Rabbit were most excellent, also. Duh.

Eiggy Scott

So, ‘fresh’ from the union we set off on our hurried journey to the Fence Away Game Festival on the Isle of Eigg. I won’t say too much about it just now as Peenko has asked me to write a wee bit about it for his blog. I’ve neglected to inform him most of it is a blur. Eigg is an absolutely stunning part of the world. And we managed to survive the now legendary third ferry, Scott and I by consuming most of a crate of Tennent’s and cheering at each plunge over a crest of a wave, Kate and Rose by staring at a fixed point in the distance. Our set on the Saturday was a mixture of emotions, to say the least… On one hand it was wonderful to have 200-odd folk singing Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’ at me. On the other hand it was heart-breaking for all of us and especially for Scott for him to get (what is hopefully only) cramp two songs into our set. He still couldn’t make a proper fist the next day. He soldiered on and in the process gave himself a black eye with one of his sticks and managed to cut his hand and cover his crotch in blood through over-compensation. He’s a trooper and we managed to finish our set. Luckily the crowd were in high-spirits and on our side and hopefully we were entertaining as well shambolic. We had an extended choir including DoHo, J-Smizz some of The RaMilnes, King Creosote, Princess Biscuit and the Pictish Trail. It was quite a weekend. More Fisher and Donaldson grub, too. Brilliant. A big thanks to Johnny, Kenny and Sarah for having us and for organising such an unforgettable weekend.

Photo by Benjamin Milne

Wild Life. Photo by Filthy Swan

Photo by Benjamin Milne

There were far too many commas in that.

Next up: PopFest, England and Wales!

Hope you’re all well

davidx