My cousin Ginny visited from the USA with some of her stateside buddies and took us for lunch with my more ‘local’ cousin, Fred 🙂
AFTER my first Zoom guitar student of the day I get some more West Highland Way Gifts‘ merch production underway for the village shop order.
In the studio I start setting up some gig ticket/tour shirt bundles for sale and take some pix of myself modelling a prototype of the new Devil May Care tour shirts. They’ll go up on pre-order later on today.
My cousin Ginny from the USA has been on a tour of Scotland with some of her pals..she’s back in Glasgow and my cousin Fred brings them all to visit and they take us to the local pub for lunch. It’s great to catch up with Fred, see Ginny for the first time since lockdown and meet her pals.
We have a great afternoon then I get back onto some work and prepare for tonight’s livestream into my Wildcats’ Facebook group before another Zoom session with one of my guitar students.
The livestream all goes to plan then I make it back to the house for dinner just after 9pm….
WE have a well-deserved long lie…I feel pretty broken after last night’s show. Clearly not ‘match fit’..and I musta been pulling some funny shapes!
I’m been busy with West Highland Way Gifts production for the village shop when Catriona, Will and the kids rock up.
We all hang out for a while and after they head off I hit the studio and do some tuff to help promote next Sunday’s show at the Cashel Bash Autumn Festival. There’s a nice press preview in the Stirling Observer to use around my socials..and I also have some pix and stuff from last night’s FrewFest show.
In between times I dot between the office and the house checking on fridge magnet production.
We have an early evening meal then go along to see Betty, Joe and Kirsty for a blether and. couple of glasses of red….I;m starting to feel a little better and more like myself!
STILL not feeling 100% but I gotta pull myself together – there’s a gig tonight for FrewFest near Glasgow.
I rehearse the second part of my set that I’d missed the other day then start getting the gear ready. In between times I nip down to the shop for some rolls and see they’re running low on West Highland Way Gifts’ stock. I take an order for replenishments while I’m there.
Once the car’s packed and merch sorted there’s time for a nap then we hit the road to Renfrew.
The show is at Sammi’s Bar – a trendy pub slightly off the beaten track…and not a place that would normally have live music. That’s the point of FrewFest – to take live, original music to places and audiences that wouldn’t normally experience such a phenomenon.
Thankfully there’s a decent, raised stage area and engineer Colin (Angus) has put in a nice PA rig. The pace is busy with a young, noisy crowd and a DJ in the corner blasting out mostly dance/pop music.
The original opening act has pulled out and by chance Bartok Thins are a last minute replacement…husband and wife duo Helen and Peter are pals…although I haven’t seen them for years. Helen was singer in Ayrshire blues band The Rhymes back in the early 90s. They and first band – Summerfield Blues – often crossed paths on ‘the circuit’.
The football is still on when Bartok Thins start their set but they hold the crowd and make it an easy passage for yours truly. Not my usual kinda gig by a long chalk, but still fun…and great to catch up with old pals 🙂
…and from the shadows emerge…Helen, yours truly, and Peter…!
Communities Housing Trust conference at Town House, Inverness
I’M feeling slightly better when I wake up. We pack up and get ready to go but there’s a problem..the key Matty got cut for his front door doesn’t work and we’re locked in!
A few phone calls later we manage to locate another spare key which, thankfully, works and we dash to the Town House for the start of the Communities Housing Trust conference.
We have an interesting morning – although I have to keep running to the toilet – then deliver posters for the November show in (Inverness before heading back down the road.
We stop off to see Catriona, Will and the kids en route but when we get home I’m feeling crap again and go straight to bed…not that I’m in there much as I’m on the pan every half hour!
HEADING to Inverness this afternoon, so lots to do before we go.
The posters for my gig up there in November are meant to arrive by midday so we can take them but it looks like they’ll be late. Eventually they show up just after 3pm and we hit the road.
I’ve been feeling pretty crap since yesterday lunch time and still feel odd….tired, bloated, skits…. Margaret does all the driving and we arrive at Matty’s around 7pm.
We go out for something to eat and end up at Walrus & Corkscrew – a nice wee wine bar where Matty’s pal Tommy works. We share a ni e bottle of red and a platter of meats, cheese and sourdough bread. It’s really good but I’m feeling like shit. I go straight to bed when we get in!
Looking forward to playing some songs at the Cashel Bash on 2 October…click here for info on the event…
THERE’S a lot on the to-do list today and I manage to tackle a few of them before one of my guitar students rolls up at 9am.
After the lesson I spend some time the song JonZip recorded last week then run through some of my proposed set for Frew Fest on Saturday.
there’s a prescription to be collected form the village so I jump on the bike and combine my errands with a bike ride on the West Highland Way.
After lunch I create some graphics and set up a Facebook event for my appearance at the Cashel bash on Sunday 2 October, put out a news release about it then set up Facebook events for the November album launch tour dates.
There’s promo postcards to be overprinted for Saturday’s gig and a load of other bits and bobs to be done before Margaret gets home with the shopping.
We take some chilli along to Betty and Joe’s for dinner and have a nice evening and get back in time for an early night.
WE’RE off into Glasgow at 7.30am. Margaret drops me in Milngavie and I get the train into town and start capturing some footage for the video for Meet me in the City.
I grab as much ‘covert’ footage as I can before my camera batteries finally run out in the West End. Hopefully got plenty to work from.
Next stop is the hairdressers at Kelvinbridge for a long overdue haircut then I walk back to the city centre for the Musicians’ Union (Scotland and NI region) AGM. Nice to catch up with folks and contribute to what’s going on.
margaret picks me up and we dash home in time for a local community trust meeting then I dump the video footage from this morning onto a hard drive while Margaret makes dinner….
FIRST job of the day is to chase the poster printer…I sent artwork and my order off a week ago and haven’t heard anything. That’s unusual.
I call – looks like the email didn’t get through for some reason. sorted now.
Next up, my first Zoom guitar student of the day. once done I hit the office to try out some packaging ideas for what is about to become my first range of beard oil. My last two suppliers of beard oil have ceased trading, so time to make my own!
i experiment engraving the wee bottles and filling the engraving with silver paste but it’s not very tidy. instead I opt to make black/gold labels and engrave my web address. The result is good!
There’s a leftover ball of dough from the weekend so I make a pizza for lunch then onto the studio to make a temporary video for Meet me in the City. I want a full-length preview of the track for tonight’s Wildcats livestream and have no accompanying video…I’m gonna be filming some stuff in Glasgow tomorrow (Tuesday) – meantime I knock something using online footage.
I head put for a quick walk and get back just on time for another Zoom session with one of my guitar students.
Then it’s livestream time….then back to the house for dinner.
After we’ve eaten I sterilise all the stuff for making beard oil, including the bottles and droppers for the final product. It’s pretty straightforward and I have my first batch of ’ultimate beard oil’ ready before bedtime!
THE kids are awake at 7am…I manage to stay in bed for another hour then we all have breakfast.
Margaret and Catriona take the kids to feed the ducks and I hit the studio to get some promo done for next weekend’s FrewFest show in Renfrew.
I’m still at it when they come back and pick up their swimming stuff. I finish what I’m doing then create some artwork for personalised Paddington bear badges for the kids…a wee dye-sub project test run. They work out really well 🙂
Catriona and the kids leave early afternoon then Margaret go for a meeting up at Cashel. I’ve been asked to play at the Cashel Bash Autumn Festival on Sunday 2 October. We get a plan in place then I go out for a paddle with Fiona.
After a shower we nip along for an aperitif or two with Betty and Joe then back home for dinner….
MY VIDEO teaser for Meet me in the City has prompted a few queries from radio folks asking when I’ll be putting out promos…
The track drops on Friday 7 October, so I really need to get it out to the media now. I put together a news release, make up a folder with tagged .mp3 and .wav audio files, cover art and the afore-mentioned news release and email some of the key radio folks.
There’s a video to be made for the track too. I’d thought out a treatment and made up a shot list but it’s too ambitious given the time frame and lack of budget. It’s not a difficult job and would best be done unobtrusively using the wee Osmo Pocket or GoPro cameras but I don’t want to ask anyone to do a job like this for free, no matter how quick and simple. I could use tripods and stuff, but it’s not easy to produce, direct, film and be in the production too…even if there’d only a couple of shots with both myself and Margaret in frame.
I decide that I’ll just grab as much relevant footage when I’m in town on Tuesday and make something from that.
Next job is some PR and promo for next weekend’s FrewFest show. I’ve not done much promo for it to date other than online listings and stuff so I need to get my finger out and get news releases and images out to the relevant press and local media.
Catriona and the kids arrive late afternoon so i hang out for a while then finish off in the studio. once the kids are in bed I make some arancini..then it’s pizza time!
