NO long lie after last night’s show – I manage to get the gear unpacked and video downloading before my early minting guitar student arrives.
I’d promised to restring Dawn’s guitar so our session lasts a wee bit longer than usual.
Last night’s promoter asked if we have any photos from the show. I have some I took of Charlie, but Margaret only got video of yours truly so I grab a couple of still from the video footage.
In the office I don’t the audiopoint info panel another coat of varnish. It takes 24 hours to dry/cure and I think I’m gonna have to sand it between coats. I suspect it’ll need a good few coats to help make it weatherproof.
I also remember that Will added for a batch of stickers for his paperweight boxes. Luckily I have some of the thin black/gold acrylic in the store so I get busy. Over time and experimentation I’ve found the best method is to cut on the CO2 laser then batch fill and engrave on the diode. Easily the fastest, easiest and best result.
It’s another nice day outside and I manage a walk up the lochside before one of my young guitar students rolls up. We have a good session then I get back to the start and we prep dinner for Betty coming.
Cottiers, Glasgow – amazing venue, great crowd, grand night out 🙂
MARGARET has an optician appointment first thing. I drop her off and go to Costco to pick up some shopping and stuff.
We’re back home by lunchtime. I pack the car and stuff and we make our way back into Glasgow and park up at Cottiers in the west end.Our pal Charlie’s already there and engineer Ben wastes no time in getting us both soundchecked.
There’s time for the three of us to have dinner and a catch up before doors open..this is the last date of Charlie’s European/UK tour before he goes back to the USA…but he flies back from the Netherlands and has to drive south after the show to get a ferry tomorrow and drop off his rental car. Oooffft.
The venue is pretty full when I take to the stage and play a 40-or-so-minute set…then Charlie plays a spellbinding set. Everything goes well and we all have a grand time 🙂
Amazing weather for a change…and time to get out for a paddle 🙂
CRACKING day outside. After breakfast I g out and see if I can dismantle the big old cross trainer that’s been sitting under the smoker shelter completely unused for two or three years. I’s kinda big to take to the dump in one piece.
There’s some engraving to be done on the wooden info panel for the audiopoint. Hoping to get a better contrast than my first efforts. I sanded down the reverse of the first one I made and trying to see if I can do better.
It’s nearly lunchtime before I get out for a paddle. The loch’s choppy in places, but it’s still a lovely day and I have
I have a late afternoon guitar student. Once he’s through, I get out to the office and make a couple of brass resonator guitar pins…we need to replenish the merch for tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) show in Glasgow.
In the studio I make us a set list for tomorrow's show and run through the songs.
Once done I restring the guitars I’ll be using and get some of the other stuff ready….
AFTER breakfast and my first guitar student of the day I investigate Mixcloud as a possible way of archiving my radio show and providing a ‘listen again’ separate from rock.scot which hasn’t yet got that feature.
I manage to set up an account and upload my archive copies of the first three episodes. Check it out here.
The sun’s out and it’s not due to rain over the next day or two so I take the opportunity to get the rest of the weedkiller down then venture to the studio with the striker and cut back some of the grass that’s sprouted out front.
Vintage, Rare & Retro Guitars has announced my show at Gullane Village Hall near Edinburgh and knocked up some poster art. I get eh gig listed on my website and other online listings aggregators and sites, set up a. Facebook event and spread the word.
My afternoon guitar student arrives with her mum and we have a grand session of music and chat then I head back to the studio to prep for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
I get some video edited to spin into the livestream then I have a live interview on Monster Radio out of Lanzarote. An hour. Then a frantic rush to finish livestream prep before I go live at 8pm.
NICE DAY outside but I need to get into the studio and finish prepping my radio show for tonight.
I take a wee break and cut the grass and then sit in the sunshine and play some guitar. Still haven't decided what I'm gonna play at Cottier's in Glasgow on Wednesday night.
Margaret is sitting indoors with Mikey trying to sort out his accounts and stuff.
By the time I'm all prepped for my Dave Arcari's Deep Blues show on Rock.Scot – 7pm-9pm UK time – there's not much time for a walk, but I manage out for a wee while before my show.
AFTER breakfast I get the two brass orders all finished off and packaged up. One of the packs has to go to the USA and the other is being picked up later today. Phew.
There’s a wee bit of tidying up and stuff to be done outside Then I hit the studio and start some work on tomorrow’s radio show.
Mikey arrives late-afternoon and Margaret helps him with some of his account and paperwork while I carry on in the studio.
John and Vicky roll up to collect the brass and we have a coffee and blether for w while…then I go back to the studio.
Another late dinner by the time I get the charcoal lit for smashburgers….
NOW I’VE got all the signatures and stuff I need for my board nomination for Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park (LLTNP) I check over all the forms and get everything printed out.
The stuff needs to be delivered by hand to the returning officer at Stirling Council so we take a trip into Stirling to do that.
Margaret needs to exchange some paint and we also wanna go and check out what the current situation with the PCP agreement on our car which we’ve now had for three years.
Looks like we need to sit tight for the final year of the PCP thing…I’m ready to go electric with our next car/vehicle and rather like the new Kia PV5. None to be seen here tho’…might need a trip to Glasgow to check one out properly.
Back home I carry on with the brass golf markers and Buchanan church pins etc for Clan Buchanan. Need them all finished for tomorrow.
We’re so busy with stuff that I don’t get the pizza oven on ‘til nearly 11pm..so a late dinner for us…!
AN EARLY start – first up is an 8.30am haircut before heading into Glasgow for an eye test at the optician.
I have time to pick up some shopping and venue have a coffee and muffin before the optician and I’m on my way back home before 11am and drop in and see some local folks along the way.
Back home I continue the brass golf ball marker I production – I need to have them finished ASAP so I can get the Clan Buchanan pins started and finished by Saturday lunchtime.
After lunch I give the audiopoint info panel it’s first coat of varnish so Betty can see progress later on tonight then I get to work on some stuff in the studio.
I nip back to the house to make some wild garlic pasta dough – and a batch of pizza dough for the weekend – then back to the studio.
Betty comes along for dinner – just a plate of wild garlic pasta with cherry tomatoes – and we have a nice night catching up.
I’M on a mission to get the brass golf ball markers finished and figure if I go full pelt I can have them done by close of play tomorrow (Thursday). That’s a good couple of days ahead of schedule.
Just as well though – I’ve been asked to make a batch of brass pin for the Clan Buchanan before their USA visitors leave on Sunday morning. It’s gonna be tight, but I think I can get it done.
Processing each brass item takes time which allows me into the studio to work on some new guitar ideas and then after lunch I head up the lochside to get another signature on my nomination form for the National Park board. I’m not too hopeful of being voted on but it’s worth a try – our area needs a say!
Back home I do some work in advance for Sunday’s Dave Arcari’s Deep Blues radio show and get some more guitar stuff done in between monitoring and changing the brass stuff on the office.
MARGARET’S off early to meet Les and get her hair done in Edinburgh – I have a load of things on my to-do list.
First up, I need to get the brass golf ball markers on the go…the jig I set embossing last night isn;t gonna work which is a bit of a pain as I’d hoped to be able to set up four at a time so’s not to have to go and reset every four hour or so. I can’t get the laser to do layers on each in order – it wants to do one at a time then move on…by which time the focus is out. It also doesn’t let me double check the alignment on any of the engravings after the first one.
Ah well, one at a time it has to be.
I experiment with some infill for engraved text on the wooden audio point info panel, but it’s not gonna work very well so it may have to stay ‘raw’.
In the studio I play some guitar and run through some songs I might play at next week’s – Wednesday 27 May – show with my pal Charlie Parr at Cottiers in Glasgow. Unsure what set length I’m playing here my uncertainties about what I’ll play.
Margaret gets back and has some shopping but she’s run a little late (!!) and has to rush straight off to a local community trust meeting. One oof my guitar students arrives right behind her…for some reason I’d not put him in the diary and get caught a little off guard. All goes fine tho’… 🙂
