We had a great trip to The Reel in Orkney last week. After a very early start from Glasgow and Pathhead we were met at the airport by Hazel Wrigley who introduced us to her convertible car. We got in and she put the roof down and we looked so cool driving to her house. We need more convertibles in folk music.
After a cup of tea we then headed for lunch at Skara Brae with Jennifer and Hazel (Wrigley) and Paul. I had some lovely salmon but Dave definitely won with the biggest plate of food (which is always a win in my book). We then took a walk round Skara Brae which was fab. These guys must have been tiny!
After another brief sojourn in the convertible we headed to The Reel. I was really looking forward to this as I have heard so much about this venue and the great work the Jennifer and Hazel have done. It is a brilliant place! It’s on 3 floors. The ground floor is a cafe (with WIFI) and then you head upstairs to the teaching rooms on the first floor plus a beautiful green room with Peter Maxwell Davies’ piano and then on the next floor is the keyboard/recording rooms and more teaching space. Also on the stairs are some brilliant photos of days gone by when I had more hair…
The gig was fantastic fun. It’s always fun to play with Dave and for the first time I managed to video our whole gig. I haven’t edited it yet but I will upload it to YouTube in the next couple of weeks. When I watched it back the first half was fine but in the second half the camera slipped and cut of my head and showed more of my knees. Hey ho….
For the encore it was great to play with Jennifer and Hazel and remember our old tunes from times gone by. They’re both fantastic players and it was a pleasure to play with them again.
After the gig we had a burger which was delicious and then headed back to the house where I promptly fell asleep – I’m getting old…
