At last something appears to be going right. My visit to the chiropodist (or podiatrist as she prefers to be called) seems to have been a success and my cold appeared to be on the wane. If you’re squeamish skip the next bit.
Turns out it wasn’t an in growing toenail, but it was a corn under my toenail that was causing all the pain. There was much cutting, gouging etc etc while I tried to keep up a merry banter with the lovely young lady. No anaesthetic for this procedure. I came a way with a dressed and sore toe but with hope for the future and word that I should be able to play football again by next Wednesday.
I probably won’t return until 11 May though as I’m hoping to go along to The Czars concert on 27 April while 4 May is my birthday and I’ll be out with Anne.
I called Jamie to ask if he wanted to come along with me to see Iona Marshall at the Out of the Bedroom Acoustica Night tonight. The answer came back in the affirmative and so I went to pick him up. Neither of us was drinking as I was driving and Jamie’s on painkillers for an unidentified arm injury, which has rendered him sleepless for the last few nights. We were able to compare notes on being tired as we supped on pints of fresh orange and lemonade.
We skipped the first act, Furious George (previously known as Willie Fyfe) as his music is not our cup of tea. Next up was Julie King. Julie is an act with a USP – she’s totally a Capella. However, she also sings with a rather overwrought fake American accent and uses the same guttural voice inflections so beloved of Britney Spears. 30 minutes of this was not exactly the greatest entertainment in the world. Her songs are good but a slightly different delivery would help them I think – perhaps even the use of a beat-box would inject a bit of variety into her set.
Of course I am always wary of making such pronouncements – let he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that. During the evening Jamie told me that, when CBQ (Me, Jamie and Jim Park) were doing a gig a couple of years ago, our old friend Donald Mitchell had come up with the comment, which I may well use as a strap line at some point –
“Dave Reilly – he makes Joy Division sound like Busted”
...well Julie King made me sound like Busted!!
Andy Patterson was third on, accompanied by a violinist. He sang good “storyteller” type songs – Jamie compared him to David Gates of Bread. Andy also plays a mean piano, which leads Jamie to bemoan the fact that he himself is rubbish on piano due to a lack of co-ordination.
During Andy’s set, a car outside, making a U-turn on the street, was ploughed into by a huge tourist bus, causing the audience to run to the window to check the commotion (later on a fire engine arrived to hose down the leaking fuel from the street).
Iona sang with her usual inimitable style and was accompanied for most of the set by her friend Lisa (no last name). I’d heard most of Iona’s songs before as I have a recording of the set she played for me last year at the Waverley during the festival. I had to agree with Jamie when he said Iona’s probably forgotten more chords than we know between us. She really is an extraordinary talent and I hope she makes it someday.
As with the Big Word last Thursday, the room was very smoky (even though attendance can’t have been any more than around 25) and I felt much the worse for wear when I got home just after midnight – my cold went into relapse and my toe was burning – I shouldn’t have gone out…..
But if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have discovered that one of my favourite bands, Madredeus (from Lisbon) are coming to the Usher Hall in Edinburgh at the end of May. I’m hoping it won’t be cancelled due to lack of ticket sales, as I’m sure hardly anyone here has ever heard of them.
Also I got to see John and Ali again for the first time since Anne and I were round at there’s for dinner. Ali’s voice is shot and she’s been ordered to stop singing for the foreseeable future – which is a bit of a bummer for a singer, to say the least!! I gave them some possible dates for a return visit to Crispycat Towers.
Jamie managed to flog a couple of his CDs tonight too – what a salesman.
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