We woke early and jumped aboard the train in Edinburgh Station that would carry us to Inverness. I love traveling on trains. It seems so civilized and romantic. We steadily wove our way through the Scottish Coast and took a sharp left turn after an hour or so and headed directly up to the Highlands. Rolling green hills all around.
Could be worser.
Did I ever tell you about that saying? “Could be worser”. An old Skipper in Petty Harbour used to say that all the time. I always thought it sounded cooler and made more sense than the proper grammar of “could be worse”. It has an innocence and naivety that I find charming and honest. Could be worser.
We arrived in Inverness and the sky opened up. The threatening rain of the forecast had kept its promise and dumped on the highlands just in time for the start of Runrig’s ‘Beat the Drum” Festival. The Festival was actually a few kilometers outside of Inverness in the town of Drumnadrochit on the shores of Loch Ness. The drive down the winding lake side, or loch side highway was slow, slow, as the concert goers made their way down the only access to the big gig.
The concert was a much bigger affair than I imagined. With a Sold Out crowd of almost 20,000, the venue featured a massive stage, audio and light rig, video production, the whole lot. We’ve toured with Runrig before and it seems they are still growing in popularity, despite being well into their fourth decade as a band. That is quite an accomplishment and the lads deserve congratulations.
We played our set and managed to get through it with no massive mistakes. I think we were fairly well received. With a long travel day ahead and rain coming down in buckets, we packed the gear and made our way back to Inverness.
A drive, a flight, and a drive got us to the Beautiful Days Festival near Exeter, England. Ever see those photos from Glastonbury? You know, the ones with people covered in mud, looking kind of Druidish? That was the vibe at the Beautiful Days Festival. British festival fans are completely unhindered by mud. Not only do they happily stroll through it, oblivious to the dirt and muck that they would normally avoid, but they also look very cool doing so. Dare I say, the gals actually manage to make it look sexy! Yes British gals in Festival Wellies are sexy. There, I said it. Sexy Wellies. Maybe it’s my Petty Harbour wharf days coming back.
Only saw one other act at the Festival. Comedian Bill Bailey is a huge draw in the UK and I can see why. His parody songs are both hilarious and poignant. More evidence that the funny guys are the ones with the truest words. He is a great player as well and he wowed the packed tent of a few thousand fans.
We played our set to a hearty crowd of close to a thousand people and we sold a bunch of discs to newly converted fans.
We bolted after the show to Exeter, where Sean, Murray, Kris and I stayed for the evening. We thought about hitting the hay early after a long day on the road. We dropped our bags in the room and went directly to the pub instead.
More later.
Cheers,
Alan