Monday 26 January 2009

As places to sing Auld Lang Syne go, on stage between Robbie Shakespeare's bass rig and 1100 people in the Fruitmarket is one of the more visceral. Lots of very happy people in the room ...

Sushil's bass left casually up against the mighty Robbie's cabs at soundcheck

stylophone ready for action, smoke settling in the balcony

There was so much smiley happy music on offer in the course of the evening that we were a bit nervous about going on after Edward II. Still, at least my equipment worked: my only technical failures were the power going down momentarily during Rip It Up on the MIDI keyboard that the festival provided, and my schoolboy error of not plugging the melodica breathtube in properly so that when I picked it up for the first time and blew, it just fell out. Egg on face. We also managed an excellent car crash during our opening number of Moscow but somehow recovered.

Afterwards, Grace took this picture of a happy band very keen to have our photo taken with Edwyn.

Between soundcheck and gig, Alison had the excellent idea of nipping across the road to the relaxed ambience of Babbity Bowster where she had the necessary 25 January dish of MacSween's haggis, and I had an excellent plate of stovies. When I make stovies, the main ingredient is potatoes; Babbity's version is more like a plate of mince with some vegetables in it, but this gives it an undoubtedly West of Scotland sense of authenticity.