Ersatzreal...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – The Acoustic Ersatzreal
Brian Eno – Apollo
Craig Armstrong – Piano Works
Bang On A Can – Music For Airports

Hmm....

One of the most beautifully hot sunny days there’s been in Edinburgh for a long time....

But we were so hung over, we couldn’t do anything...

Anne spent the entire day being sick when she wasn’t lying on the settee...

For my own part, I did get up at the normal time and made it into town but by 10 am, I had to give up and come back home having achieved nothing other than banking a cheque...

I was just soooo drunk still....

After an almost unbearable bus journey home, I stumbled into bed and slept from 11 till 3 then got up feeling a wee bit better but not much....

Once again the words “I’m never drinking again” came from our lips – with Anne adding the word “champagne” to her utterance...

I ran through my set for tonight and wrote up some programme notes on the songs which doubled as my introductions...

I arrived at POL’s house around 7:30 and was immediately introduced to Dave the Dog - a delightfully friendly greyhound cross. Then I soundchecked and met Stephen Carey, the evening’s third performer...

The guests started to arrive around 8:30 and the house filled up – it was indeed a party and people had the option of staying in the kitchen, drinking and chatting, lurking around the hall, going out into the garden or listening to the music in the living room...

Prior to the evening’s entertainment, POL, Stephen and I discussed various things music with a couple of audience members, OOTB regular poet, Bill Philip and none other than Mr Ian Sclater....

Stephen went on first and was as good if not better than I’d remembered from seeing him at OOTB. Great songs, technically proficient guitar playing and a beguiling vocal delivery, including a nice line in falsetto – which put me in mind of the last two great bands to emerge in the UK, Radiohead and Coldplay...



A tough act to follow...

POL had originally wanted me to go on last but I was so nervous I wasn’t able to enjoy the night and so I asked to go on next...

Just before I went on, an old schoolfriend of Alan Brodie’s and mine arrived. Mr John Sobik – and so we chatted a bit about the old days and our class reunion back in 1999 before I went on to sing the ten songs from what will be the next CBQ album, “Ersatzreal” – ersatz meaning artificial and real meaning, well, real – though in the context of the title it’s pronounced as in German, rayal....

Which reminds me, we even had two guys in from Germany for the night...

And, midway through my set, Mr Kevin Hill arrived - I used to sit next to Kevin in Maths when we went to school in Lasswade....

The set went better than I could have expected given how nervous I was about playing all these new songs....



Songs about car-crash victims believing they've survived; people who trample on everyone around them; last laments for love gone completely wrong; blurring failed relationships out of all recognition; sleepwalking through life; suffering from memory loss; realising too late how simple it might have been for everything to have been very different; finally being able to love, be loved and live a normal life; angels who are devils in disguise; and the song-writing process...

After I finished, sold some CDs of “The Acoustic Ersatzreal” and chatted about the music and generally was able to relax at last. I really enjoyed playing and am now looking forward to the Beanscene Fringe gigs...

POL ended the night with a storming set in his (literally) inimitable style – hammering his guitar at around 350 bpm – which takes a lot of muscle development to keep up...



At the end of the night I took Ian S and Stephen home, arriving back at Crispycat around 12:45 to find a still ill Anne had been trying to phone me for the last hour wondering where I was – somehow, the ringtone on my mobile was set to silent...

Ooops...

All’s well that ends well though...

Highlight of the Day : Performing “Ersatzreal” for the first time...