Stagolee…from Saturday’s show at Urban Blues Fest in Bucharest
MY regular Monday morning Zoom guitar student has been put back to tomorrow (Tuesday) which gives me time to get a lot of today’s to-list dealt with.
We have both Euros and Romanian Leu to exchange. As usual, Travel FX offers by far the best – and easiest – rate and service. I log in to my account sort everything out then pack the dosha nd paperwork into a special delivery package to be picked yup by our post tomorrow morning.
Awful weather outside but I brave the rain and get some other stuff posted.
In the studio I create a website landing page for the upcoming May shows with my pal Andres then a Zoom session with another of my regular Monday guitar students.
There’s time to finish the landing page and make it live before an in-person guitar student arrives.
Once we’re though I sort some video clips from Saturday’s show in Bucharest to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
After the livestream we have dinner then I start prep for a batch of Andouille sausage. It’s quite an involved process but I have my sausage mix finished and in the fridge ready for stage two of production tomorrow!
Waiting for our Uber outside the hotel…no idea of the panic soon to ensue…
THERE’S a bit of tidying up and packing to do after breakfast…and we ‘re out of of our room a good half hour before midday checkout.
Downstairs I order an Uber to get us to the airport and we head to check in for our 2.45pm flight to Edinburgh.
There’s no queue at check in – and I’m surprised the desk is manned…the screen above has some Romanian ext and 12.55pm which, I assume, is when the check in desk opens…just under two hours before our flight.
We check the bags and are instructed to wait for someone to collect the guitars. Mmm…odd – normally we take ’em to outsize baggage. I ask Margaret to check the flight number and time and we realise the flight isn’t at 2.45pm….it’s at 12.55pm. In 20 minutes. We need to clear security and border control. And, of course, our gate is fucking miles away. Fuck!
Margaret gets through border control first…when I get through there’s not sign, so I assume she’s headed for the gate. I go down the4 escalators. No sign off her. I go through gate check. No sign. Onto the bus. No sign.
I call and find she’s still waiting for me at border control. She wandered off to see where the gate was and missed me coming through. Jeez. Anyway, the girl at the gate realised ‘wife’ was missing and holds the bus until she arrives.
If the nice couple in front of us at border control hadn’t told us to go ahead of them we may well have missed the flight. And if we hadn’t had out shot together earlier we woulda definitely missed the flight. F’sakes.
Anyway, both the bags and us make it to Edinburgh, pick up the car, stop for some shopping and get home soon after 6pm. What a day!
BREAKFAST at the hotel is good, if a little strange…the hot buffet has a kinda mixed roast veg – courgette, onion and peppers. It goes well with the sausages and mustard. I like it!
Even with the air con on full blast it’s still pretty hot in our room. We catch up on some work and chill before heading to the venue for my 4pm soundcheck.
Gates open at 6pm and I’m not on ‘til 9pm so there’s plenty time to sort out the merch and get fed.
The artists area is busy – I’m last on and the band before me seem to have brought a load of pals ‘backstage’. It’s all good tho’ and I’m introduced just after 9pm.
I play 90 minutes straight through, joined by harp player Marcian in Good Friend Blues part way through.
It’s really hot and sweaty….seems the audience enjoys my more ‘dynamic’ stage persona than the very restrained performers before me 🙂
After an encore I’m whisked off to the merch area to sign stuff and for a seemingly endless stream of photos.
Once everything’s packed up we chill for a drink with the booker, promoter and some of the other festival artists.
Deny and Mike stop to show us the parliament building en route from the airport to our hotel. The second biggest in the world after the Pentagon!!
USUAL travel day chaos when we get up a little later than we should have.
Still, we get last-minute packing done, car loaded and on the road on schedule.
We have a direct flight from Edinburgh to Bucharest…all booked by the festival folks. All goes smoothly albeit Ryanair have us waiting and queueing at three different places after the gate opens.
At baggage reclaim there’s no sign of the guitars. I check the other belts/area and outsize baggage. Nothing.
The AirTags show they aren’t far away tho’. I find a handler and they call around – turns out the guitars are two floors up in a security office! Thank fuck for AirTags!
Croco, Deny and Mike from the festival are waiting for us when we eventually get through to arrivals.
It’s a 40-minute drive to the hotel where we drop off all our stuff then we’re taken to the festival venue where we’re wonderfully looked after, fed and watered. It’s after 10pm and the final act of day one of the festival is still playing.
We meet booker Radu and event manager Crista and then we’re driven back to our hotel …
Most of the day is spent editing the video for Kevin’s forthcoming single Sha Na Na (who shot the)
IT’S straight into the studio to work on the video edit for Kevin’s forthcoming single Sha Na Na (who shot the).
I take a breaks to finish off the Ben Lomond plaque, then coffee, then lunch.
There’s a lot of ‘learning as I go along’ on the video edit. I’d never pay this much attention – or attempt anything as creative – for my own videos, but maybe that’ll change in future efforts.
Will drops off Freya late afternoon and I take another coffee break. Freya’s acting up a bit but by the time I’ve finished the first full draft edit of the video she’s settled down…
AFTER a little more work on the Ben Lomond plaque idea I hit the studio. Video editing is my priority today.
While I know what I want to do, actually making it happen in the video edit is a bit more challenging. I out some ideas on the back burner and concentrate on getting a first cut done of the start of the video to send to Kevin. Wanna make sure Iim on the right track before working out more.
After lunch I get a positive response so carry on the edit and trying to work out how to emulate some of the old Top of the Pops-style vision mixer effects.
I take a break and help Margaret lay some slabs to put a new storage box on then prepare for one of my young guitar students coming to the studio.
After the lesson I go back and help Margaret finish building the storage box. Once done, it’s back tot he studio to try and figure out how to re-create an old analogue ‘video echo’ effect….
(Looks like you’re) Walkin’ on Water Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre
UP early to get sourdough in the oven. While it’s cooling I modify the layers of the Ben Lomond plaque I prototyped last week.
Then it’s breakfast and time for a Zoom session with one of my guitar students.
I downloaded Apple’s Motion app to try and streamline the creation of some of the effects I wanna use in Kevin’s video for Sha Na Na (Who shot the…) – there’s a steep learning curve but I manage to create some clips that I import into Final Cut for further editing.
The video work keep me busy til lunchtime then I have another Zoom guitar student.
I edit some video of my own – (Looks like you’re) Walkin’ on Water from a recent show at Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre – to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook then decide to go for a wee paddle. It’s the only break int the weather/wind this week.
It’s after 7pm when I get back to dry land and lug the paddle board back to the house…just enough time to get cleaned up and changed before the livestream!
AFTER yesterday’s busy day we have a long lie – Sunday Brunch on the telly, coffee and leisurely email and socials check.
Then it’s into the studio to get down to business with Kevin’s video.
Aside from the general edit, I’ve a lot to learn off I wanna pull off some of the ideas we’ve had.
Late afternoon there’s a break in the rain and I head out for an hour or so’s walk…halfway through the rain starts, then hailstones, then the sun comes out.
I’m back in the studio ’til late, finally stopping for dinner…
Greenscreen setup in the studio for Kevin’s video…
UP early to get the studio sorted for my pals Kevin and Nick. It’s filming day for Kevin’s forthcoming single Sha Na Na (who shot the).
As well as clearing space and setting tip lights I need to add a count in to the beginning of the song so the guys know where the music starts.
Own arrival we have a coffee, I outline my plan and we start the filming.
We’re done in less than three hours with lots of green screen rushesin the bag. Hopefully I have enough to start working with.
Margaret’s made soup so we have some lunch then Kevin and Nick head off. I start ingesting the video footage into the computer and deal with some other stuff in the studio while the video churns away.
I manage to get some editing started before Betty and Liz arrive for dinner. We have a grand night…
