#10 Berit’s & Brown, Eurocentral

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“Everybody’s got a story to tell, tell me yours” Tom McQ.

The Scottish dates have come to a close, so I thought I’d jot down some creeping conclusions…

Artists and fans alike exist because we think music has intense value. It can make us feel emotional highs and lows, sometimes it understands us better than anyone. Is good music the goal in itself?

Recently I’ve been thinking maybe not. Music feels like just a vehicle through which we try to understand ourselves and each other. A key to enter each others worlds, but what do those worlds look like? What happens there? There the real work begins.… Read the rest

#9 ABC2, Glasgow

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I wanna share a little lesson I learned about 13 years too late. The main ingredients for looking after your singing voice are:
– lots of good, uninterupted sleep
– not drinking too much alcohol
– plenty of water (at room temperature if possible)
– regular days off

I woke up in Dunfermline after 4 hours of sleep, feeling hungover and dehydraded having done a gig every night for 8 nights. At the point where I’d let go a little John was there to pick up the slack. I fell into the van and we rolled into Glasgow, and the biggest gig of the tour.… Read the rest

#8 PJ Molloy’s, Dunfermline

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“I promise it’s not normally like this” she said as the entire pub erupted in a mass violent brawl. Women spat venomous words at each other whilst slapping and shoving each other. Brutal, drunken hulks (and one suited businessman) knocked lumps out of each other over some irrelevancy. It had been hands down the weirdest gig of the tour.

I made my first mistake as we knocked on the venue to load in. A young man opened the door and after he introduced himself as Lee, I quite accidentally opted for perhaps my worst ever conversational opening gambit “ah I was hanging out with your sister last night”…
Actually a girl at the Dundee gig the night before had just mentioned that her brother Lee ran the next venue we were playing and said to say hello. I got it totally innocently wrong, and it wasn’t a good start.… Read the rest

#7 Dexter’s, Dundee

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Whether its the high of a great gig or the low of a rubbish travelodge moment, nothing stays still on tour, and nothing lasts. Another nice life lesson maybe – everything is always changing whether we like it or not.

The morning passed by in intense debate with John about the food industry, employment, music, politics, law, science and religion – the usual. We moved on, as we always do.

Dundee is a great little city, and we were playing in the best little venue around. Whilst not a gig high on drama (certainly not compared to the next night…), it demonstrated exactly what we do best. Go somewhere and play our guts off with fire in our bellies and passion in our hearts.… Read the rest

#6 Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen

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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:

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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.… Read the rest

#5 Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore

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Drunken nights have consequences, and much of the day went by in a daze of blurrily epic scenery. At one point I even wondered what on earth I’d write about it, but as it turned out something special happened in Aviemore – I felt totally and utterly at home.… Read the rest

#4 Newmarket Bar, Thurso

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The most northerly town in mainland scotland, Thurso greeted us with a now-familiar sight – two young men sitting on the floor pissed out of their skulls singing unrecognisable songs and hurling casual abuse at people at 4pm. Still – you shouldn’t judge a whole town on two loud drunks, so let’s get to the venue.… Read the rest

#3 The Star Inn, Stornoway

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“Ladies and gentleman we are currently experiencing engine problems, which is why we’ve basically stopped moving. We are trying to repair this and hopefully we’ll be on our way again soon.”… Read the rest

#2 Hootenanny, Inverness

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I didn’t once hear a calm reaction to our Bath – Inverness drive. What?!? 500 miles?! But actually the trip flew by in a flash- thanks in no small amount to scenery like this:

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And this:… Read the rest