At The Glad Café

I had forgotten how much my identity is linked to travelling around and playing music- those rituals! These journeys were all by train, the vomit-inducing stench of Avanti west coast trains convincing me that I'd succumbed to Covid until I disembarked at Glasgow Central and inhaled the fresh-ish Scottish air.

I went straight to the Glad Café via Crossmyloof station (name!) and was delighted to see that everyone was taking sensible precautions and wearing a mask. Saskia and Russ arrived soon afterwards and we did sound checks. There were a few blips: some of their equipment said 'no', and the pizza dough also said 'no'. There were a lot of Covid absences. But the evening was going to go ahead, and go ahead it did.

As soon as Kenji and Till appeared I knew it was all going to be OK. And there was Maria, and Howie, and Joe, and even Allan Dumbreck showed up later.

I asked Saskia and Russ to play because I wanted to see them play live after doing all of those Kevin Younger online nights during lockdown. A huge bunch of us made videos of us playing cover versions around a different monthly theme chosen by Kevin (Mr Unswitchable on Youtube). We became a community of assorted musicians, all held together by Kevin's warmth and wit. Once a month on a Saturday night, you could sit with your laptop, press 'refresh' and see all sorts of people doing their online thing, and you'd stop feeling quite so isolated.

Their cover of Tiger Feet got first prize out of the whole lot, in my estimation:

They were fabulous on Thursday- lo-fi scorching duelling guitars, witty and sometimes moving vocals and a great onstage presence. It was so enjoyable and engaging, and kicked off the night to a great start.

I was unexpectedly nervous, but from what I was told afterwards I think on this occasion it was a good thing. Ritchie the sound engineer needs to take first prize as the best person I've ever worked with for live sound. It was near-on perfect, and he had disinfected everything, even taking the microphone to bits to clean its inside and out. What attention to safety and detail! It's so important to be able to trust the person doing your sound and I absolutely could, and did. I played for an hour which passed in seconds, and I very much hope to be back. Thank you to Kim and everyone else there!

I sneaked a relatively new song in there, but mostly played songs that were comfortable to play, including a couple of singalongs (At The Bathing Pond and The Sea). I could still hear people singing through their masks (they are not 'muzzles': there's even a masked busker at Tottenham Court Road tube station) and it was a warm and lovely evening.

Afterwards we went for chips: huge, huge portions for drunken revellers. We devoured them back at Kenji and Till's even though we were not drunken. These guys were outside the chip shop. Who needs east London hipsters when there are stylers like this roaming the streets in Glasgae?

The next day, Kenji and me went for a long, long walk of more than six miles through the Glasgow streets while Till was at work. It's such an interesting city, full of surprises and beautiful round-the-corners. The evil hand of gentrification has yet to destroy parts of it although the cruel motorway has sliced through swathes of the city like a concrete octopus. Till cooked us a sumptuous dinner when he got back. Thank you guys, and the vegetarian lasagne will be waiting for you when you come to London!