Sunday 23 August 2009

Two down, two to go. At the end of our soundcheck last night I was too tired or distracted to remember to ask someone to keep the air conditioning on in the hall during the show: Barnaby had spotted on Thursday that this was the reason that his pipes had stayed miraculously in tune throughout the day. So by 10 minutes in last night, the room was warming up and steaming up, and certain crucial instruments were already wandering way out of tune (and I could see the audience fanning themselves with their programmes). I mustn't forget that little detail tomorrow. A fun gig though ... but it is hard to tell in the rather antiseptic acoustic of the Hub.

Most of the happy band clambered into the minibus afterwards (Andrew had successfully blagged his way past all the police cordons for the Edinburgh Tattoo and parked it at the front door) and once we were under way Liz produced a bottle of Knockando, Iain McGillivray some cases of beer, various foodstuffs including Iain's carrot soup appeared, and my resolve to abstain from alcohol until this was all over crumbled to dust.

After a couple of shows of improv and dance music, now we've got to play baroque for a couple of days - discipline, discipline.

Anyway, special mention in last night's show must go to DG's playing of Chiling o guiry, accompanied by lute, guitar, wire-strung clàrsach and harpsichord, which gradually turned into an elaborate game in which no-one really knew how swung or straight, in time or free, the next beat was going to be. A bit like a very relaxed cat-and-mouse chase where we never quite figured out who was chasing who.  I'm normally very disparaging about musicians enjoying themselves on stage too much, as it can be very dull for the audience, but I think that particular bit of fun might have transmitted itself out to the house.