Wednesday 26 April 2006

I'm a bit bleary of eye this morning, after legendary producer Stewart Cruickshank's BBC leaving party last night at Oran Mor. Just about every indie band from Scotland in the last 20 years has something to thank Stewart for, so the bill included Teenage Fanclub, the BMX Bandits, The Pastels, the Surviving (!) Alex Harvey Band, The Primevals, and probably more that I have forgotten already. And Karine Polwart and Michael Marra both played too: Karine very kindly sang  Ivor Cutler's 'Beautiful Cosmos' with me (hence my harmonium practice on Monday - and the first time I've sung in public for 10 years at least), and Michael got me up to busk my way through all the wrong chords in 'Frida Kahlo's visit to the Taybridge Bar'.  The most disconcerting moment was when just after I'd started singing I noticed smoke coming up from the harmonium and started to wonder if there was an electrical fire under it. It took a second or two before I registered that this was a rock 'n' roll gig and there was a smoke machine. Duh.

Then as the night wore on, I joined the BBC Scotland Music Department house band, christened on the spur of the moment 'Jim McAteer and the Bawbagz' (ahem - that's me on the right). I'd taken my bass along, but I left bass duties to Sushil (hiding at the back) and played melodica instead. The law of diminishing returns soon kicked in, as our first number went very well, with me doing my best Alan Price impressions in a re-written House of the Rising Sun. We gave in to audience demands for an encore of 'That's All Right' which went OK, and then stupidly stayed on stage, and our third number sucked big time in front of an audience of musicians and BBC music producers. Oh well.