A Rainy Night in Glasgow…

The weather may well have been worse in Edinburgh, actually, but never mind…

American Music Club were playing in a venue we hadn’t been to before – Stereo in Renfield Street Lane. Upstairs was a busy bar, serving what looked like good organic food (which we didn’t have time to sample) and downstairs was a fairly basic, large basement, fitted with a bar at one end and a small stage at the other. We caught the end of the 2nd of two short support slots; a not bad singer/guitarist.

After a very short turnaround, AMC came on – a revised line up from a few months ago when we saw them in Oran Mor; two of that gig’s support group (Bee and Flower) were playing bass and guitar, the new drummer was still there, and Vudi and Mark Eitzel.

Drumkit, after the gig

It was a fairly short set – about an hour – and Mark didn’t seem that happy some of the time. A supporting pillar in the middle of the stage got in his way a few times early on but, apart from a brief equipment failure (one of ther guitars needed a new battery fitted) it was pretty good stuff, with a cracking version of Home followed by a great version of Windows on the World to close. The encore finished with the two guitarists messing with feedback, etc. for several minutes after the song finished and the rest had left the stage – great slabs of noise!

Afterwards we met a couple of guys who had seen them about as often as I have, including the famous ‘gig in a tent’ on top of Calton Hill during the Festival years ago… Then a train back to Haymarket, a taxi home, and so to bed.

On the train I managed to read quite a bit of a paperback of Joe Haldeman’s The Accidental Time Machine (which I had started in hardback last year) and found that it reminded me a lot of some of Keith Laumer’s work! I suspect that’s not necessarily a comparison Haldeman would appreciate! I’m over 1/2 way through, so I’ll probably finish it… Parts of it also reminded me of one of Brian Stableford’s early-ish books, The Walking Shadow and also Ian Watson’s story, The Very Slow Time Machine.

After the Fringe is Over…

Saturday night was our 2nd official Festival event, as far as I know (the Steve Reich concert was the first); we went to see Turkish Whirling Dervishes at the Festival Theatre…

Before the interval the performance consisted of poetry and recitations by several of the company, often as a chorus, backed by 4 musicians playing traditional instruments.
After the interval the stage had been re-set and the musicians and singers (now in different traditional garb, including wonderful tall felt hats) slowly entered, bowed towards the opposite wing and took their places at the rear of the stage. Then, equally slowly, with much bowing and pausing, the 8 whirling dervishes followed them on. The music started and continued for some time before the dervishes began. The leader, who, like his assistant (either 2nd in command, or an apprentice, who knows?) barely whirled at all until near the end, greeted the 6 main participants with much bowing and ceremony until, eventually, the 6 started whilrling, and whirling, wide white tunics spinning out almost horizontally while the musicians and recitalists provided an accompaniment. Twice they slowed and stopped,only to resume again, while the black-clad assistant paced between them, stopping frequently to (presumably) study their technique. Eventually even he, and the master, started making slow whirls.
And then they stopped, and the ceremonial leave-taking began, which took about as long as the ceremonial entering! Very interesting and quite entrancing.
Apart from the numbers of participants, this page seems to be a good background piece.

In the Planthouses

On Sunday we headed for the Botanics despite the rain and, although we did get wet, enjoyed them, especially the fish in the aquarium in the glasshouses.

And that’s definitely the Festival & Fringe over – the fireworks concert finale was last night, and although we didn’t actually go see them, we certainly heard them, and managed to catch the odd burst above the rooftops from our front window…

Back to talking about books and films and so on, I suppose, although there are several concerts coming up before the end of the year! Just have to visit the Queen’s Hall Box Office for tickets when it’s actually open, rather than when it says it’s open! (A minor annoyance this morning)