MARGARET’S not well this morning…not sure if it’s a bug or last night’s dinner. I’m OK, so I suspect it might be a bug….
After breakfast I call Jimmy Egypt and arrange to drop off the signature guitar and spare cone for repair. I could swap out the cone myself, but the piezo pickup in the biscuit complicates matters so it’s best left to the pros!
I make up a shopping list and head into Glasgow, drop off the guitar then hit Costco and the supermarket.
It’s dark by the time I get home and Margaret’s still feeling crap. No dinner for her and I make some kalbe (Korean short ribs), watch some telly then head for an early night.
Vic and Nicola launch the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) awards ceremony in Stirling
AS EXPECTED Freya has us up early and wants me to play Ker Plunk while Margaret’s in the shower.
I’ve a lot to do so escape to the studio after breakfast and don’t venture back to the house ’til lunchtime.
There’s two projects I need to get moving on. The first is narrowing down a pick list of tracks for a new acoustic album.
To help, I take my list of potential songs and use SurveyMonkey to create a poll. The free account only allows a limited number of respondents so I send a link out to the Wildcats group then duplicate the survey and draft a note to go out to my mail list folks tomorrow.
I’m hoping the feedback along with stats/ratings from all the streaming services will help me choose 12 or so tracks then I’ll launch a Kickstarter campaign.
The second project is the residential guitar workshop we’re planning for the end of January. I have a draft ‘sales pitch’ and need to tweak it for different channels.
We’re off to the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards ceremony in Stirling tonight, so drop Freya back home en route.
There’s time for some grub when we get to Stirling – Margaret found a place called Chicken Union so we give it a try. Kinda weird, scuzy cash-only place…no toilet and a little manky-looking….BUT…the Korean fried chicken, kimchi and rice is amazing! And good value.
On to the Albert Halls for the SAY Award and we have a grand evening catching up with folks we haven’t seen in a. while….
WE’RE up at a reasonable time and get packing before breakfast.
After loading up the car Chris and Cath take us to Malaga airport, stopping off en route for a coffee.
Check in and security go smoothly, as does our changeover at Schiphol…but when we board the final flight we realise Maragret left the wee Os mo video camera int he seat back pocket on the previous flight.
Aargh. The camera itself is old and we don’t use it much so not a huge loss in itself…bit all;t he cutaway video footage and b-roll I shot from the tour is on there 🙁
Not much we can do about it until we’re home.
We land in Glasgow just before midnight, pick up the car, stop art Asda for some shopping and head for home.
CHRIS and Cath take us to a Sunday market and we stop for breakfast in the sun.
Next stop is a visit to Mike’s – the guy who opened my show yesterday – studio in Granada where have a great few hours chatting and drinking coffee.
Then on to Santa Fe to load in at Terra Blues. There was a minor panic over the sound system but Raquel and Bjorn have sorted out enough stuff for me to get by.
Turns out a great gig with a full house….then we have a lovely meal before heading back to Alcala La Real.
AFTER breakfast we chill for a while then Chris and Cath take us out for a drive.
First stop is a walk round some old caves then lunch in Alcalá La Real.
We head to Granada for tonight’s show at Liberia. The venue is OK but the PA – or rather, ‘sound system’, is nothing short of awful.
There’s a mixer behind the bar that we can’t get near and I reckon girl on bar duty (Dani) has been dropped into dealing with the sound without having had any instruction. There’s a sound limiter, so there’s little sound from the speakers that are working….yet before and after my show the music is blaring without cutting out ‘the system’.
She’s very nice, tho’, and does her best….but it’s bad – and it’s not helped by my radio pack running flat (musta been switched in in my bag?!?) and some technical guitar issues.
On the plus side there’s a good crowd of mainly young folks in who get right into it and don’t seem bothered by the shit sound.
And…our pals Alex and Marie-Louise have made a four hour drive from Madrid to come to the show. It’s great to see them.
All in all a fun but challenging Spanish debut ….we get back to Chis and Cath’s about 2am and crash….
Chris and Cath take us a walk around Mirador San Marcos before lunch.
THE ALARM goes off at 3am…we have half an hour to get out the house and on our way to the airport.
Our outward flight to Malaga is with Jet2 and I have to say the check in process is very efficient and smooth.
Not the same deal at Glasgow airport security which is a bit of a mess even at that early hour.
Flight is fine but our hearts sink when we see the huge queues at passport control. Thanks Brexit!
The queue moves fairly smoothly though and soon we’re in the car with our pals Chris and Cath and on the way to their place – and our base for the next few days – near Alcalá la Real.
When we get there I reassemble the acosustasonic….but when I open up the National to bring it up to tune there a problem. Disaster even. The cover plate has been bashed in
I take the guitar to bits and on removing the cover plate find the cone squash’s on one side.
In an amazing turn of luck I manage to gently reshape the delicate cone and get it to 90% of its regular shape. The cover plate pops back into shape.
I get everything back together, tune up and everything holds. Phew!
Relieved, I go for a nap then we all head out down town for dinner.
AFTER my regular guitar student has been and gone I get busy in the studio setting up some ticket links and events for gigs coming in 2025.
I spend some time setting up online access to documents relating to the local community asset transfer request.
Sorting out and rationalising gear for tomorrow’s trip to Spain takes a while. Margaret is busy doing doing the same for merch.
I take a quick walk along to Betty’s and drop off some apple pie then. get back to the house to Finishb tour prep. one between times I make pizza..then an early night. A 3.30am departure tomorrow….
AN online guitar lesson first thing..then a message from our pals from Finland. They were meant to be coming to stay tonight, but Sanni has a bad cold and doesn’t;t want to pass it on to us before we go to Spain.
Shame we won’t see them, but we’ll catch up soon – here or there.
The upside is that we have time to finish merch and other prep for the Spain tour. Time’s tight as we leave the house around 3.30am on Thursday.
I help Margaret with some stuff for the local community trust – the ongoing saga of the community asset transfer request for the car park in the village is, hopefully, nearing a conclusion.
I’m in the studio experimenting with some recording techniques when my evening guitar student rolls up.
Once we’re finished with the lesson I get some chicken breast in to sous vide and do some more work on merch in the office.
