I am bloody shattered! There’s been a lot of travel. Early days and restless nights. And I feel like I’m getting too old for this malarky – but I wouldn’t have swapped the past few days for the world!
Thursday – Hamish Hawk
First up was a trip down to Manchester to see Hamish Hawk play at an intimate venue called the Night and Day bar directly across the road from Manchester’s Piccadilly Records. As an album launch show – it was going to be a short set. I had assumed that the whole album would be played but they played five songs from the album and five songs requested by the fans. I took a wee snap of the setlist but didn’t get to nab one of them later unfortunately. But that’s no real let down as I do have a bit of a memorabilia collection already as far as HH gigs are concerned.
The venue, as I said early, was very intimate. The band was on one of the tiniest stages I have ever seen! It looked about two metres square. I was worried that Hamish wouldn’t have enough room to do all his signature moves but he managed somehow. There was a roughly four inch high lip at the front of the stage and during Big Cat Tattoos, Hamish stepped up onto this stage lip and towered over the top of us. It was quite the thing! I got some great pics and a wee bit of footage of the final few seconds of BCT. Fast and fabulous! It was quite warm in the place as well. There is never any excess bulk to Hamish’s sets or music in general. It’s always, ALWAYS ‘all killer and no filler.’ It’s been such a whirlwind few days, I haven’t even had the chance to listen to the whole album – yet! But I will do it sometime today. Either after I post this blog post or once settled in bed this evening.
I got to have a bit of a chat with Andy Pearson after the show – he was manning the merch stall. I always feel compelled to let any of the band members know how fabulous a show is. I bumped into Stefan Maurice (the band’s drummer) on the way to the merch stall and thanked him for a great show and asked him if Hamish might come out to the bar area at all. He wasn’t sure but he confirmed that Andy was at the merch stall. I asked Andy about the way the songwriting goes with the group and it sounds like shades of SM inasmuch as either Andy or Stefan come up with a piece of music and then Hamish will work with that to get lyrics together for it. Although Hamish IS a musician and plays guitar, I’m sure he has penned completely solo compositions as well. I asked after Alex Duthie as well as he’s not currently touring with them. Andy says he’s just become a father – the baby arrived in May. The new merch is great and I asked Andy if he had designed it, given his penchant for having many strings to his bow but he told me it is an artist friend of theirs that is responsible. I’ll definitely get one of the shirts at one of the shows coming up.
I waited around in the hope of seeing Hamish. It was early when they finished the set – barely 8.15pm so I could afford to hang about a while and wait. I went outside for a bit just to get some fresh air and got chatting to some fans for a bit. Then I decided to go back in and ask Andy if he’d give my regards to Hamish. Then I was chatting to a man at the stall – he was telling me it was his first time seeing Hamish and had been instantly won over. He could buy ONE album – so which of the two would I recommend? I was like – Oh, man…that’s like choosing your favourite child, jeez-o!! At a push I said to him I’d go with Angel Numbers. He then asked the same thing of Andy when it was his turn to be served, and Andy chose Angel Numbers too. And just as Andy was getting the album packaged up for the guy, I looked to my left to see the man of the moment making his way through the smattering of patrons left in the bar. I walked over, hugged him saying ‘Aaawww, I didn’t think I was going to get to see you. What an amazing show!’ A guy standing to my right rhetorically asked me, ‘When have you ever seen Hamish perform a bad show?’ I said ‘NEVER! Never, ever!’ Hamish actually blushed at the adulation. He’s just ssooo bloody humble and so lovely. I’m crossing my fingers that at some point real soon an interview for the blog will happen. I really do hope so. Stay tuned!!
Also, can I just say that the fact that he remembers my name blows me away every single time. It’s going to be a long wait until Glasgow now. Not in real terms but, you know…it’s over a month! I’ve decided to go to Edinburgh as well as I could purchase a gig only ticket and because they are just short shows that will end early, it means I can get back to Glasgow on the train from Waverley and make the last train home to Ashfield as well. A win-win, really. The one and only downside to having decided on Manchester and now there being such a gap between that gig to the Glasgow and Edinburgh shows is: In Manchester it was the night before the album being released, so there was nothing to get signed. And come Glasgow/Edinburgh…my vinyl copy of the album that I ordered for the Glasgow show is ready to collect from Assai…so unless I take it with me on Sept 23rd, erm… I might just have to invest in another copy on the night of one of the shows so I can get one signed? Dunno. I think I’ll have to contact Assai for some clarity over this.
Friday – The Anchoress
The next day we were off the Milton Keynes to see The Anchoress perform at the Craufurd Arms just a little way out of the town centre, at a suburb called Wolverton. Our train to MK was running a little late and so we arrived at our accommodation for the night later than expected but still in enough time before the gig would start.
We (me and the OH) got to the venue just before 7pm. Catherine had two support acts on: Leoni Jane Kennedy and Ebony Buckle. I had seen Leoni support Catherine at last year’s shows and she’s incredible. She has such a fantastic voice and is such a great guitarist. A fabulous songwriter. I love watching her. On Saturday night I couldn’t enjoy her set as much as I really wanted to as I was in absolute agony. All the travel, walking and standing around for the previous 24 hours or so were taking their toll on me and my legs and feet felt excruciating. I was conscious of just grimacing all the time trying to fight the pain. I so desperately wanted to sit down but I didn’t want to miss Leoni’s set. All I kept thinking about was just trying to make it through until the break between her set and Ebony’s and that I’d get to sit down for a bit then. But I was also starting to panic as to how I’d survive the rest of the night. I felt gutted that my leg pain was diminishing my enjoyment of Leoni’s set.
I sat on the edge of the stage when Leoni’s set ended and I didn’t know how I was going to stand the rest of the night. A few people had brought in stools from the bar to sit at the front. I was looking at Em, my Other Half, in a plea for her to get me a stool from the bar. She did, mercifully, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the show in relative comfort (stools are not the most comfortable of seats for me, but to have use of one on Saturday night was much preferable to standing).
I really enjoyed Ebony Buckle’s set. She and her guitarist/producer had fantastic vocal harmonies. She had a projector behind playing images of the videos that she’d made of her previous work. And she has a new album coming out in October and there’ll be a launch show for that in Camden on 17th October. You can listen to her music and find links to her social media, including her Patreon via her BandCamp page: https://ebonybuckle.bandcamp.com/music
I recommend you check out Ebony’s music – I find it very ethereal and magical.
As for The Anchoress? Well, she was just phenomenal. Catherine has an amazing band with her, Leoni (guitar), Charlie (bass) and Keir (drums) are incredible musicians and you can tell that Catherine feels really comfortable and in tune with them. It really shows in her performances and it is so wonderful to see. In spite of her having some illness of late that has been affecting her voice, it did not in any way hamper her ability to perform on the night. She sounded absolutely fantastic. The highlight for me? If I could pinpoint a standout from what was a whole show of standouts? It’s impossible but I’d say ‘5AM’ moved me to tears once again, Unravel gets me too – because it always reminds me of the dedication of it to me she made in Edinburgh – and…we kind of have an understanding between us about what the song means (without going too into it) – so again, that was really emotional. Human Reciprocator is just such a great electronic dance thing and she delivers it with such vitriol – it’s awesome! Below is a recording of The Heart Is A Lonesome Hunter that Em recorded on my phone. Amazing, amazing, AMAZING! Long Year also was just fantastic! The whole gig was fabulous. I got to speak to Catherine for a little bit at the merch stall and was able to get a copy of the setlist signed. I have no other words but thank you.
I also want to quickly mention fellow Anchorite, Moray, who I got chatting with on and off through the evening. It was lovely to chat and be in your company. I look forward to us catching up at other Anchoress shows in the future.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t allow myself the extra time away to do the Trentham Live, let alone afford the extra travel costs, but I was so thankful for being able to travel on from Manchester down to MK to see The Anchoress doing her own headline show.
The Logistics
As for the travel itself? It was all great. The first part of the journey from Glasgow to Manchester was via train with TransPennine Express and it was all very smooth and ran to schedule. We stayed at the Townhouse Hotel in Manchester and they were fantastic. We had an ‘executive king room’ which had an extra wide king bed, a bathroom with a bath and separate shower, bathrobes and slippers for use. There was also a tray of fresh fruit served on the table in the room when we arrived. Check-in at 3pm and check-out at 11am – which was fantastic. All this for £80! Amazing!
The next day, Manchester to MK Central via train was with Avanti West Coast and incurred a short delay on arrival to MK. We were due to arrive at 15.53 but didn’t get in until 16.03. In the grand scheme of things, a 10 min delay was okay. The place we stayed in was a private residence with the son of the owner there as the in-house ‘manager.’ He was really friendly and very helpful. We had a room downstairs. It was pretty hot in the room. The weather was so much warmer in this part of England. He offered us the use of a fan which cooled the room down in the evening.
Saturday – The Return Home
Finally yesterday it was the long trek back home to Glasgow. Firstly, it was a train back to MK Central from Wolverton (where we stayed and where the venue is located). From there, a bus to MK coachway to get a National Express coach to Luton Airport. This was the only delay we encountered. The NE coach arrived on time and we set off on time but we got caught in a M1 traffic jam just prior to the junction 11 exit. It delayed us by about 25 minutes. We just headed straight through check-in and security when we arrived and that all went pretty smooth, so it was fine. We arrived in Edinburgh a little ahead of schedule so we had a bit of time to wait for the AIR coach to take us to Buchanan bus station. We got back to Glasgow around 7pm. The next train to Ashfield was at 7.40pm. Finally in the door at home just before 8pm. We’d left our accommodation at Wolverton at 9.30am (we didn’t need to check-out until 11am) and got the train to MK Central at 10am – so it was a loooooong travel day. I’m still pretty shattered today to be honest. But it was so fabulous – I’d do it all over again – just…not yet!
