Glasgow!
Well, turns out I was bang on about tonight being a belter. Jesus but Scottish fans go mental. We played a 20 song set, with a similar mix of old and new as the warm up last night. Picture Me In A Hospital was a particular highlight, with Stephen's melodica covering the viola part beautifully. Funny how a £12 plastic instrument can replace a £37K viola's part so easily. Well, depends on who's playing it obviously. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Stephen Large. Man's got soul.
Though we're not particularly adept at socialmedialisating, we've been checking Twitter a bit more since the new album's campaign kicked off. And, frankly, tonight its been a struggle to remain composed in the face of hysterical praise from the Scottish Twittersphere.
Our guitar tech Brucie, usually conservative in his praise, has just climbed on board the bus announcing tonight's show to be his "favourite Shambles gig ever". Not to fill this blog the HP have kindly offered me with self approbation, but if we continue in this vein its going to be a smasher of a tour. Splendid.
Had a little jammette with Peds on the bus as soon as we came offstage. Propelled with the inertia of the gig we grabbed the "bus guitars" as soon as we got on. I played him a new song I have about dancing, and he played me a funny little ditty that basically review's Jeanne Crain performance in the film "Pinky". The creative drive from the Sequel To The Prequel is still bubbling happily away.
Adam, Stephen and I took full advantage of our folding bikes today. Man, that was such a good idea. Its remarkable how many miles you can cover on a bicycle in a few short hours. Glasgow was beautiful today in the indian summer sunshine. For lunch we met our friend Emma Gillespie, a local singer songwriter. She told us a funny story about being invited to dinner at Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's house. She never did establish exactly why she had been invited...
We looked pretty comical rocking up to the show on our little bikes, waving to the queue of kids and ringing our bells. We got a massive cheer and a big laugh...think we're on to something.
Its now gone midnight, the bus is pulling off and that's us away to Newcastle. Thank you Glasgow, fair dame. All the bright lights and Up The 'Shambles.