Scotland’s For Me!
Friday, August 7th, 2009This time last year, we were approached by a friend of a friend, about playing at a wedding. In Aberdeen.
Phew, we thought. Blimey! That’s not very near to Leeds at all.
And so it proved. However, to sweeten the pill we had another gig arranged for the Friday night, so that (after 7 hours driving through amazingly hot early July weather) we could give our very best performance in front of a truly crowded house*.
* some of the above may not be true
Then Saturday dawned – and after a night of truly biblical rain (this is Puritan Scotland, so actually it was quite restrained), the sky cleared and we were able to sunbathe as part of our vital pre-match preparations!
At 5pm, we wandered up to the location. Top of a hill, farmer’s field, a circle of ancient standing stones (from the 1980′s I think), meadows, mountains, 85 degrees – you know, the usual for Aberdeen.
And there she was, the marquee. 100ft x 80ft, and the hottest place on the face of the earth that late afternoon. I watched (I am the singer after all) as the rest of the guys got really hot and sweaty making cables that would work with a diesel generator, and setting up the mountains of kit.
Occasionally I loafed about outside enjoying the rare breeze that was wafting from the sea and onto the Grampians, and had a sneaky lager.
To top it all, we had prepared a special, first dance, song for the happy couple. Some of the band were nervous about playing it, but not me (ahem) – Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”.
(Adrian – Donna really liked the relevance of the bag-pipe thing you did at the beginning).
Happily the gig went fantastically, and there was much rejoicing and stripping of the willow by the attending men in skirts (the ladies in skirts were much more attactive – to me at least), and we left Mr DJ to finish the evening with the traditional Andy Stewart knees-up (I’m not kidding either).
Thanks very much for the invite – we’ll be back next year, I promise!