Clare Teal: Tour tales of fishing about for things to do in Arbroath

The Blue Lamp is one of Aberdeen's hidden treasures.

We were originally hired to play at a different gaff, but the chap who booked us had "left the building", and his replacement, not knowing anything about the booking had engaged somebody else! Jazz Aberdeen and the lovely Todd Gordon came to our rescue and Grant and I found ourselves at the "Lampie" instead. A big square, low-ceilinged open room, with stone floors, a great piano, a great engineer and lovely staff, what more could you ask? The people are rocking, the joint was packed and we had an absolute ball. I may consider summering in Aberdeen.

From Abbers, we drove to Glasgow. I could write pages to sing the praises of this city, but surely by now everyone knows how great it is. We played at the Glasgow Concert Halls (lah-di-dah!) and had a wicked night.

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However much we cajoled, we couldn't stay in the hotel past 11 o'clock so waved a fond farewell to Glasgow and headed for the big smokie – Arbroath. We were due to finish our Scottish tour the following night in Horsham near Gatwick! Because of this we weren't staying in Arbroath, instead Muddy was driving us down to Gretna Green so as to take the edge of the next day's drive. This is a regular touring dilemma and involves hours of hanging round random places waiting for the concert to start. The sun was shining and it said on www.we love Arbroath.com that there was plenty to do in this small fishing port. Muddy, Grant and I would like to debate the accuracy of this rash statement. Grant had an application on his phone guaranteed to find the nearest good restaurant to your actual location. After nearly two hours of driving round the general area we found a nice restaurant (with smokies on the menu) a few paces from our original starting point.

By now we had been on the road for more than a week and the hysteria was setting in. Epic and uncontrollable fits of the giggles ensued, the most embarrassing of which occurred seconds after meeting the promoter of the Arbroath gig, a lovely chap called Alan. Tune in next week to find out more.

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