Blog: Glasgow

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I'm back home, OFF THE ROAD at last and am a) KNACKERED but b) very happy, as The Tour all went really well. It started off with a surge of PANIC, however, as overland train cancellations and regulation of the underground meant that I ended up catching the train from Euston to Glasgow with only TWO MINUTES to spare. I spent the first hour of the journey CONVINCED i was coming down with ILLNESS as I was out of breath, ached all over, and was HOT, then kept reminding myself that that was probably because I'd been running up stairs with a back pack, a guitar, and a VERY heavy wheelie suitcase containing piles of t-shirts and CDs.

The journey was fine although I had to AGREE later on when I discussed it with my Tour Buddies that it was the BORING route North. When You go on the GNER route there's coastlines and impressive cathedrals every five minutes, but on the Virgin Trains route you're dangerously close to over-excitement when you see a shed. Still, I got there OK and trundled across town to my hotel, straight away thinking "Glasgow is GRATE!" It feels like a HOME sort of place as soon as you arrive, like Sheffield or Leicester does, it's lovely.

I wandered back across town to meet Mr Pete Green in Glasgow's Famous 13th Note Cafe where we had a couple of BEERS and a CHAT before going back to the hotel to fetch my GEAR and also Mr Warren Pilkington, who was coming along with us for the tour and, very kindly, doing the merchandising. We headed over to The Captain's Rest with Warren, as he would do throughout, acting as our guide. Mr Adam Smith, veteran of previous tours, arrived soon after, and we settled into more BEER while setting up the room. An early attempt to shift a DJ table fell apart when we realised that the CONCRETE PAVING SLABS on top of it were SUPERGLUED!

The Just Joans arrived, as did a good clutch of people including Mr Sandy Blair and Mr Gary Urqhart, and also Mr Gordon Anderson who'd bought a CD and t-shirt ages ago - I'd posted it off to him and, three weeks later, had it come back to me, so ended up delivering it by hand! As there was a few people in I thought it'd be a good idea to kick things off with a Ukelele Set, as follows:

Red & White Sockets

Fucking Hippy

A Million Ukeleles

Leaning On A Lamppost

Unfortunately BEER had interfered somewhat and A Million Ukeleles was rather cruelly shortened by me completely forgetting the words. Happily Pete went on shortly afterwards and sorted it all out with, as usual, a lovely set, especially finishing with Take Your Time which had everyone SPELLBOUND, it was ACE. Next it was The Just Joans, who were also GRATE. There was a Plimpton and an ex-Hector Collector in the group, along with Katie and Katie's little brother, whose house i stayed at when I first played in Motherwell (which I was convinced was so long ago that he'd been a TODDLER. I would like to apologise to all concerned for going on about it SO much), so it felt like i'd seen them loads of times already. The songs were fab - funny, and touching, and full of tune, and the the way the various members had spread themselves back across the room made the sound LOVELY.

Then it was back to ME, doing THIS:

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

I Did A Gig In New York

Do The Indie Kid

The Gay Train

Easily Impressed

It Only Works Because You're Here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Much to my relief my BRANE had by now sorted itself out, so things went MUCH better. It was quarter to eleven by now, and I'd assumed that everything would be fine, as licensing hours in Glasgow are , i guessed, more flexible. Adam went off to check and came back with the Bad News that we'd have to finish at 11pm... so when we were told, firmly but apologetically, that we really HAD to stop now I took everybody outside and did The Lesson Of The Smiths in the street. This was a Really Good Thing.

Job done we packed up and headed down the road EN MASSE to The Liquid Ship, where there was an acoustic night going on downstairs... which didn't want us to join in. We took the disappointment WELL, and got on with drinking BEER and chatting instead, so it was a MERRY band who wandered back to the Ibis, with the tour of to a ROCKING start.

posted 2/11/2007 by MJ Hibbett

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