Monday 25 July 2011

Glasgow airport
Revenge of the Folksingers is now available on iTunes. Get there now!

I got up at 4.25 this morning and got here, to find our one-hour flight delayed by three and a quarter hours. What a waste of a night’s (lack of) sleep.

Yesterday Barnaby and his family came over to share in the benefits of my weekend of gardening, arriving on their amazing new Zigo cargo trike. In the morning I’d been talking to another historically-minded piper, Matt Seattle, about the Montagu Music Collection, and we ended up bemoaning how little pre-Gow Scottish fiddle music gets played: there are two generations before him that don’t get much of an airing.

Why can’t we have politicians like Norway’s? David Cameron’s response to Friday’s events was pretty shameful compared to the thoughtful, calm words coming from Oslo under unimaginable strain. While I’m sitting in this building which was the site of a pathetic attempt at a terrorist attack a few years ago, I remember that Alex Salmond’s response to that was calming, in marked contrast even to Gordon Brown’s line coming from London. I hope that here in Scotland we have more in common with our close neighbours across the sea.

Having lost very talented friends and colleagues to addiction, the loss of Amy Winehouse has some painful resonances. I’m still uneasy about how often alcohol and performance are considered to go together, especially in traditional music circles. The rush of adrenaline from performing can be pretty addictive and disorienting in itself, without adding another addictive mind-altering substance. Offstage is a different matter of course: a post-gig beer is one of life’s great pleasures.