Blog:
31 January 2006
January's escapades!
January has never been my favourite month for various reasons.
Apparently, (as my friend Jim Mango would say!) January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was always shown as having two heads (nice). He looked back to the last year and forward to the new one. As Yoko Ono writes:
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
- Season of Glass
However this January has been immense!
Some of you may have caught site of me on STV’s Yorkhill programme…a moving experience for me and I know many others. Very humbling!
As for gigs:
Martyn Joseph was one of the first singer/songwriter’s I ever saw ‘live’. I was 12 and I remember thinking ‘I want to do that!’ . It’s funny how it can take a more recent event to jog a memory like that. I’d kind of forgotten! I’d also forgotten how much I love this man…in a purely artistic sense of course! So it was a huge privilege to open for him at a wee place called Comrie in Perthshire on 14th. It just so happens, that Comrie is where I spent many wild weekends at Crusader camp (but the less said about that the better perhaps!). Anyway, the night was packed out with music enthusiasts and Martyn was outstanding. It felt like I had had an emotional, intellectual and spiritual workout by the end of the night. His songs touch so many places. I was left in tears at the end and quite embarrassingly had to tell Martyn how I felt..uch well..you’ve got to do these things! He is truly an inspiration.
Met some lovely people that night and had a touching wee moment. While packing up the car I could hear Fearless being played in the house just next to us…a nice wee memory!
Spent some time just outside Newcastle with my singer/song writing friend Gareth Davies Jones. Did a gig with him and had a great time with his beautiful family. Thanks guys. Saw Hadrian's wall for the first time in my life!Then up to Auchengillen, just outside Drymen for a late night acoustic spot.
However, just when I thought January couldn’t get any better, along came the BBC Scotland ‘live’ broadcast. What an amazing night. It’s fair to say that DL and I were both terrified but it went so well. Had our own dressing room between Eddi Reader and Kate Rusby and Band! (sorry…it’s things like that that get me excited!) Met Brian McNeil, Eddi Reader, Kate Rusby and Band, and all the lovely people at the BBC. Special thanks to Iain Anderson, Stewart Cruickshank, Richard Bull and co!
Phew! So there we have January’s escapades! Here’s to a great 2006!