Tuesday 12 June 2001

This morning began with a trip across to Edinburgh to audition some drama students with Andrew for parts in The Gentle Shepherd.  There were some good people, although no-one leapt out at us screaming 'TALENT!!' or 'I would make a perfect so-and-so'.  But it was great to hear people speak the words, after just having them going round my head for a couple of months.  

Before heading back to Glasgow I dropped in on Ben Lane who's going to save a lot of my time by putting all the songs onto Sibelius (the software) for me, and then I came back and had a meeting with Marie to go through some administrative stuff.  BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme has asked us to go on and play live the week before our GS performances in Edinburgh - this should be worth doing to publicise both the shows and the CD, which should be out by then. 

Somehow I managed to fit in some correspondence, and a bit of arranging and some practice for this Saturday's McFall's gig, where I'm playing keyboards, harmonica and perhaps some percussion.  I noticed yesterday my fingers were beginning to seize up from complete lack of use, so I got my book of Hanon keyboard exercises out and gave them a bit of a gentle workout.  It doesn't take much to keep them ticking over.  I could never be one of those people that practises for hours on end every day, but then I'm not playing demanding music all the time, so I don't have to.

Tonight, work was put on hold, as Nicholas McGegan called me up last night to say he was in town, and was I free for a drink and a chinwag.  I often complain that in Scotland, we're cut off from the cultural world at large, mainly through geography, but it's also true that a great many people, if they have some trace of Scottish ancestry, capitalise on it as much as possible and make it their business to be here when they can.  Nick worked at Scottish Opera for a while (and his mum is a Robertson I think), so he has a flat just down the road and he stays there from time to time.  It's nice to be able to drop in on the director of one of America's great baroque orchestras, just a 5 minute scooter ride away, and while away an hour or two.  There are quite a few conductors with Scots connections who have little bolt-holes or relatives in the country, and John Butt has just been appointed Gardiner Professor of Music at Glasgow University, so he'll be resident here in the next few months too.  Isolation - pah!