Sinister: Aye Write! and the First Post Nerves

[J Stewart]

Hi everyone

I just wanted to write a little about the Aye Write! (Glasgow Book Festival) 
event that Stuart Murdoch did last month. It was called 'Songwriting' and 
Stuart talked to about 400 (according to Glasgow Evening Times) smiley B & S 
fans., myself included. It was brilliant.

Because we don't know Glasgow very well and didn't really know how to find 
the venue (a library) and due to loads of excitement , we arrived a 
ridiculous one hour before the thing was due to start. So we decided to run 
around the library looking for Things to Do. We went to the wee bookshop. 
There weren't very many books though. We looked at the photo exhibition - 
but that didn't take long to go round. Then I spotted the ladies' toilets.  
Lovely old-fashioned wood and frosted glass doors - must be the most 
decadent toilets in any Glasgow library : ) That wasted a few minutes.

Anywaaaay... We spent the next 46 minutes sitting in the foyer where I got 
hot flushes or something (not old age though - I'm just a young thing) which 
was possibly due to my burning desire to be in the same room as Stuart 
Murdoch, poet laureate of the star-gazing hipsters. Or maybe it was just my 
scarf. Took a gamble on the fact that it was the former and kept the scarf 
on for comfort value.

So enough about my scarf - interesting as it is - a woolly stripey one. 
Finally they opened the lecture theatre doors and we all tried to run up the 
stairs towards the seats without looking like we were running really, you 
know quite casual ....(''yeah we're gonna see Stuart but och yeah I saw him 
on the bus the other day... so what? ") So yeah we all sort of ran without 
trying to be too obvious and the venue slowly filled up. I think it was sold 
out. Stuart was introduced by .. someone from the press. And then Stuart 
came on stage and picked up the guitar. He then stood leaning on it and said 
he wasn't going to play yet, he was just going to use it as a 'prop', 
'Jasper Carrott' style.

After that Stuart gave a great talk about the inspiration behind some of B&S 
lyrics and melodies. He's a star - he seemed a bit nervous at first but he 
was so interesting and funny, that it didn't take long until he was on fire. 
In between, he would sort of look over to the wings (where Stevie, Chris. 
and Mick were sitting) and gave the Secret Signal (or someone would just 
shout "Song!") and they played a few tunes to break it up a bit. They played 
three - Dog on Wheels., a good new song not yet released and then I'm a 
Cuckoo. The acoustics in the theatre were brilliant. I'm no expert but it 
gave a really good sound, like Lazy Line Painter Jane , that rich sound. It 
seemed to really suit their songs.

It was really a treat. The gig was only supposed to go on till 9  but Stuart 
was taking questions from the audience here and there too, and he was 
talking so well he lost track of time and then realised it was 9.15 and time 
to finish.

Afterwards Stuart came into the foyer and said hello and we all said thanks 
for a great time. It was a great atmosphere, very positive. We skipped out 
of the venue with that feeling you get when you go to school in the morning 
feeling really crap and then someone tells you the pipes have burst and you 
have a day off. We skipped to the station.

That's my first post -phew-I'm going to have a cup of tea now.

*Strella*

PS Just in case you're wondering (and some people have) THE ABOVE IS NOT A 
DREAM I ONCE HAD - It really happened  : ) Felt like a dream though ... 
aww... yeah ok whatever I'll say good night now..

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