We're Back!

And now it’s back to reality! But let me finish telling you all about it. We woke bright and early to a slightly overcast but dry Saturday morning and wandered out on to the beach for a little exploration. We did our bit for the beach clean-up: brought in an old petrol can and a plastic carrier bag; had a good look at where we were playing outside the Ice House – stunning location with views over the bay – back to the house to get organized and then on to the café for a mega-breakfast before we set up outside ready for our afternoon gig. Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men and all of that…! Halfway through breakfast the heavens opened and the rain came down in heavy grey sheets. Non stop. All day. Everything was completely washed out. No beach clean. No people. No outdoor gig. But, being the true professionals that we are (basically just a lot of musical tarts!) we thought ‘We’ve come here to play, so we bloody well will!’ and we set up a little stripped down acoustic gig in the gallery just off from the shop – Keith on African drums and percussion, Malcolm plugged into Alan’s acoustic amp – just as well we’d done Leith FM the day before – and we played to a handful of very wet people. And d’you know what? It was great! And it was just lovely to be there at the Wildlife Centre and to see first hand the dedication of the staff and volunteers. Even overnight on the Friday there were volunteers out on a boat monitoring the dolphins. Anyway, as we were in the area, that night we decided to visit Universal Hall at Findhorn – home to the great Mike Scott of The Waterboys. Findhorn is an eco village and spiritual retreat and Universal Hall is the arts centre on site. That night it was hosting a sell-out concert for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. As you all know, we are a bit cheeky so we set off to find the manager to see if we could get a gig. Well, we found him. A lovely guy called Peter; we had a chat; gave him a CD and a copy of Red Waters and he’s asked us to phone him in September. We then stopped off for a meal at the Brewers Fayre travel place near by; got chatting to the manager there and she said that if we were up there for a gig at Findhorn, if we played for her as well, she’d give us all accommodation and feed us and water us for the duration. We thought that was a pretty good night’s work! Back to the cottage – still raining of course – a glass of wine and a chat and then up at the crack of dawn to set off on the long, rain sodden journey home. The guys did brilliantly swapping drivers every two hours, plenty of snacks and cups of tea and we arrived into the transmission area for Original 106 in time to hear them repeat Monday’s interview from Saxon Square and play Red Waters again. That station has been brilliant to us. And so now, it’s all over … except we’re all rushing round because we’re off to France on Friday at 5.30 in the morning to play a little outdoor concert over there. There are 21 of us going over. We have warned France! And although Save The Whale Week has now finished, the Stop Bloody Whaling Campaign continues as does Red Waters. The song will be available to download for months yet and we are planning to put some film footage behind it for UTubes and myspace etc To download Red Waters log on to http://www.foppdigital.co.uk or http://www.apple.com/itunes to learn more about Stop Bloody Whaling log on to http://www.wdcs.org to keep up to date with what we’re doing check our website http://www.stateofundress.com.
A bientot! (just getting into the spirit of things…)
Charlie