To Patisserie Florentin for breakfast. I broke new ground again by ordering the Toast Breakfast - two slices of toast, a glass of orange, some butter, jam and a cup of latte - £3.80. Very tasty...
Back home to discover I'd missed the chance to see the highlights of QoS thrashing Dundee 3-2 yesterday...
Because ITV is repeating pish like American Idol at lunchtime on a Sunday, the football's been brought forward to 9:25 am, when any self respecting musician is updating his blog re the previous night's exploits..
At 12:15 I set off on my own for Glasgow for the Sparks gig...
I've been listening to their new album every chance I can since it's arrival on Friday. It's so weird but so good...
In Glasgow I parked at the West End and visited FOPP, buying a mainly 70's Blue Note compilation "Untinted" and a just re-released album "Smokestack" by one of my Blue Note favourites, the pianist Andrew Hill from 1963...
Amazing to think that when this music was being recorded, the world was going ape for Dylan and The Beatles....
Took in the 2nd hand shop in DeCourcey arcade but nothing for me today...
Back to the car and into the town centre - where I visited FOPP's main shop, buying Lee Morgan's "The Gigolo" forom 1965 and Aimee Mann's album from last year, "The Forgotten Arm"...
Then to another 2nd hand shop, Missing, where I found a rare beast indeed, Anthony Moore's 1978 album "Flying Doesn't Help"....
I bought this on vinyl on it's release and it was one of my favourites back then - he ended up making a fortune due to being lyricist of a couple of songs on Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason" in 1987 - I had never seen this album on CD till today....
So then I drove around for a while and listened to Anthony Moore and Aimee Mann. By the time I got to Lee Morgan I was parked outside the venue for the gig...
At 18:15 I joined the cue and fired up Sparks on the jukebox...
There was a delay..
When they finally opened the doors at 7:35 (instead of 7:00) we were told to go upstairs to the bar, negating any advantage of having stood in the queue for almost an hour and a half with a broken ankle..
However, I managed to wangle my way to the front and got exactly the spot I wanted - on the barrier on the first raised section - near where I'd been for Fripp and The Porcupine Tree back in December..
Sparks finally took the stage around 8:30 and played the new album in its entirety with a screen backdrop showing a synchronised film for each song...
It was quite amazing - and it's the first time for a long time I've seen a "rock" audience standing in silence during the performance and going into raptures at the end of each song..
The amount of work which went into the production must have been enormous...
Then a 20 minute or so interval while the stage was rebuilt and back they came with selections from their previous 19 albums and totally rocked the hall...
By 11:15 it was all over and I waited for the crowd to dissipate before heading back out to the car...
The drive home was through fog, so I kept at a steady 60mph in fifth gear, allowing me to rest my leg as I drove along listening, firstly, to Lee Morgan and then to Sparks' new album one more time - this time with added input from the visual extravaganza I'd just witnessed..
Home at 12:30 without incident and into bed a very happy boy indeed...
Highlight of the Day : Sparks Live in Glasgow
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