#6 Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen

What a perfect day, what a crappy end to the night.

Everything had started well. Try and imagine what kind of festival this guy would put on:

Yep meet Walter Micklethwaite, creator of The Insider Festival and a gem of a man who showed us around the gorgeous 200-acre grounds of his scottish manor.

Not only does he seem to live the most enviable life, but he lives not 20 seconds from the best cake shop in Scotland:

I would have taken a picture of the slice I picked, but I ate it before I had the chance…

On to Aberdeen’s venue. The mis-named Cafe Drummond is the last place you’d grab a bacon roll or sip on a latté. It’s one of those proper music venues that form the backbone of the UK’s music industry. Sticky floor, good sound, big but not too big, there when you need it when you’re building your career, forgotten about when you’re bigger, grovelled back to on the way down.

Some personal shit span me out before the gig (I blame Facebook), and for a while it threatened to swallow me up. But I got into the support acts, Cara Mitchell and Boy With Compass, and was so up for expressing myself by the time we went on. John played so beautifully – he’s like a rock on this tour – partly cos he’s so solid, but mostly cos he rocks. I snapped a string, played a song in the crowd, talked to a guy who loved both Frank Zappa and the Presidents Of The United States Of America, and met some really interesting people.

What a shame it ended with me feeling crushingly lonely in a travelodge, eating shitty fast food cos absolutely no where else was open. LOW POINT! Not even drinking the milk servings as if they were little shots could cheer me up like it normally does. I love what I do but I do miss the important people in my life. You know who you all are. At least there are plenty more people to meet along the way, so don’t forget to come say hi.

Next postcard to: Jan Williams
Postcard sent to Walter Micklethwaite
Thanks to: Gordon, the Pottery Shed cake shop, Walter and his lovely mum, Ross, Callum and everyone at Drummonds (especially the barmaid who bought her first ever CD off a band who played there), Hazel the reviewer who did just the same, the dudes I was chatting to about music, Cara and her whole extended family, Dave, Sam and Dom from Boy With Compass (thanks so much for letting me borrow your guitar).