Blog: Glasgow

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Greetings from Glasgow! When last i typed i was sat waiting for my PLANE to get going, which eventually it did, and we zipped north. When i got to the airport I was a bit confused as I thought I'd be landing at Glasgow Prestwick and then getting the train, but instead ended up at Glasgow Normal and made myself look like a bit of a twit asking where the railway station was. There isn't one!

A swift bus trip and I was back in Glasgow - Glasgow is GRATE! It reminds me a LOT of two other brilliant cities, New York and Sheffield, especially New York. It's lovely here, also DEAD easy to find your way around. I checked into my hotel (oh yes, i is POSH!) and then went out on the Open Top Bus Tour. As usual when I go on one of these I can't remember an awful lot about it, although I'm pretty sure that they used to build a lot of ships and steam engines here, and the Winter Gardens were pretty impressive.

Back to the hotel, showered, and then off i went to try and find the RAFA Club, which took a bit of doing as there were no street signs anywhere. I eventually knew I was in the right place because Ms E Pemberton, all the way from Blackpool, was outside, having also had a bit of a job finding it. We went in and I was REUNITED with Martin Plimptons, and took in the rather GROOVY surroundings - the function room is much like ALL function rooms in these sort of clubs, although there was one vital difference i was to discover later...

I went out to get some TEA and bumped into Adam Plimptons, my TOUR BUDDY of two previous campaigns, and together we went to Subway. If only all international corporations were like Subway the world, i think, would be a happier place. We got back, soundchecks occurred, and we settled in for the evening. Going through the main room of the club I once again felt like something was WRONG - it's a really nice place, and felt like all the other social clubs I'd been in, with people sitting around chatting, the same sort of chairs and tables and general cosiness you expect, but it felt DIFFERENT. Eventually I realised what it was - it smelt clean! I'd forgotten about the smoking ban coming in this year, and had indeed wondered why I'd seen so many people standing around outside pubs on the way over. It makes a BIG difference i must say, everywhere feels MUCH more pleasant and this morning my head isn't clogged with smoke nor do my clothes stink. Like when I went to Cork a couple of years ago I was REALLY impressed by how affable everybody was about it, it just seems to have slipped into part of the rituals of going to the pub, nobody made a big deal of it and everyone appreciated the benefits. I wonder if it'll go so well when it comes to England, or whether Miserable Old Gits will kick up a fuss?

ANYWAY people started to arrive, including Mr Sandy Blair and Mr Gary Urquhart and his brother, and we sat down for a chat. I must say i had a GRATE time - they're all lovely chaps and we had a RIGHT old LARF, i started to regret the fact that I was going to have to get up and do a gig and break it up, to be honest. Martin and Adam seemed a bit worried that there weren't many people there, although it seemed OK to me, so we decided to start a bit later than planned. During this time my BEER was TAKEN from me by the landlord - i was a bit surprised, but then he explained it should have a better head on it than he'd done (ENTENDRES: AVOIDED) and so poured me a whole new pint. This was very nice of him, especially as it seemed to have taken him a few minutes to come to the conclusion that it Just Wasn't Good Enough - i hope it hadn't been preying on his mind.

At ten o'clock we decided to get going, and this is what I did:

The Gay Train

The Fight For History

We Only Ever Meet In Church

Mental Judo

It Only Works Because You're Here

And I Love Her

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

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

Boom Shake The Room

Clubbing In The Week

I'd intended to do Sod It Let's Get Pissed and Red And White Sockets too, but instead I TALKED a bit between songs, so dropped them. It all seemed to go pretty well anyway, although And I Love Her (which I've learnt to play at Susan and Martin's wedding next week) wasn't very exciting - thus obviously PROVING My Songs > The Beatles. Obviously. At the end there were - oh yes - REQUESTS for various songs for THE ENCORE, so I asked "Do you want a song about getting pissed and having a GRATE time, home computers, or really loving your girlfriend?" The result was not unexpected.

So yes, I had a brilliant time, and then there was more LARFS before The Plimptons came on, and were GRATE. Last time i saw them it was just Martin and Adam and, I think, a keyboard, but now they are a full band of ROCK ACTION, and they were brilliant - in The Hector Collectors it was just Adam LEAPING around and putting the FRONT into Front Man, now there are TWO of them at it, and it was fantastic to watch. They were really really really good.

For the last hour of the night it was DISCO time, which in my case included some NUTTY DANCING and then some determined GROOVING to The La's when nobody else seemed to want to. Gary, Steve and Sandy saw me home afterwards and I went to bed KNACKERED but full of the joys of GLASGOW.

I'm happy to report that, unlike last time, i managed to stay in my room and not lost, naked and drunk in a corridor. I was relieved, doubtless the hotel staff were too. Today I'm off to meet The Plimptons again, so's we can go off to the studio where they're doing the final mixing of their album. I might be doing a GUEST SPOT on it somewhere, and hopefully also recording a VIDCAST for Last Night From Glasgow - I'll let you know how i get on!

posted 14/10/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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