Show a Little Emotion
Well my time in Glasgow has come to an end for now, and here's how Scotland with Style tried to stop me leaving.
Thursday: I met Julie at the train station and we headed to Nice N Sleazy for some drinks, Julie a little fired up for the impending Rico concert. Had a good wee chat and caught up on each other's lives from the past few weeks.
Cut to 8:30 and we're in King Tut's. We watched the first support act, a duo with some of the worst lyrics ever, then the second, a local band called Bad Dancer, who sounded pretty tight though I personally didn't think the lead singer's voice was anything special.
Anyway, they were basically just filling in the gaps until Rico arrived, and he played a really good set. Almost every song was reworked in some way, which can be hard to pull off but it sounded very polished, like a Nine Inch Nails remix album, only less extreme. Also, you could tell Rico was putting all of himself into the performance: often a band can only exude energy if the crowd is giving off energy, but this gig wasn't overly packed, it was in a small room, and few in the crowd were moshing, yet Rico was still on edge all the time.
Friday: During the week I'd been trying to arrange for a small group of friends from my year to meet on Friday night. A few were lined up to join the regulars, but one by one they fell victim to illness and tiredness through work.
So by the start of the night only the regulars (minus Rachel who had to work late) survived the cull and made it to Curlers. Not a whole lot went on here, except the loss from the pack soon after leaving the pub of Matt, for reasons known only to himself. Sorry i couldn't say goodbye to you, Dude.
Around 7pm we were all back at Lauren's flat with a bit of bevvy. What ensued was conversations about army training, mens romm ettiquete and the Britney Spears outfit , not to mention some guitar showmanship from Stevie, Chris and Stewart, Colin doing his best to break one of Lauren's lights, and Stevie running out of loo roll when dropping the kids off at the pool.
To explain, the bog roll in Lauren's WC had run out before tonight, and with no more in the flat, she'd put a box of tissues on the cistern. Stevie had gone to show Mr Whippy how things were done, but made the biggest mistake you can on a toilet visit: not checking the bog roll supply. He didn't want to use the tissues because he felt they were not meant for the purpose at hand, so instead started shouting (and whistling) for assistance!
We were putting off leaving for the shack for a while, but when it came time to go (with our number reduced by Stewart and Colin's earlier departures), Lauren was too tired to come out. Quite a shame since she'd gone to the trouble of getting ready for a night out, but perhaps for the best as will soon be revealed.
So the plan now: head round to Rachel's (which was not "just round the corner", despite what Stephen might tell you) and get a taxi from there to the Shack (not my choice of venue, but I was happy enough to go there rather than splinter off somewhere else and not spend the night with the peeps). Stevie and David left en route, and Iain had stayed behind with Lauren at her flat, so we were reduced to Stephen and Chris.
Speed round: Say hello to Rachel; try to book a taxi: 40 minute wait (sod that for a game of soldiers); try to flag on on a) Argyle Street, b) Sauchiehall Street, c) all of the above, but failed; Decide to retire to Rachel's flat.
Out of place prologue: Way back near the start of my summer placement, Rachel and I were in Starbucks and had a conversation I will now paraphrase to save time:
Steven: I'm staying in my sister's old room. The wardrobe is almost full of her old clothes.
Rachel: Can we expect you to turn up to work in girlie tops?
Steven: It's mostly skirts
Rachel: So you'll be wearing skirts?
Steven: (Reaching for funny excuses) I don't have the legs for that
Rachel: OK, we'll have to get you some tights.
Rachel threatened to buy the tights for quite some time, and finally produced a set of stockings in the lab earlier this Friday. This was all fun and games, but now we were back at her flat, and she was demanding to see them on me! Many drinks and Stephen telling me he'd have done it sent me towards Rachel's room, emerging shortly after wearing the stockings and a wee skirt Rach had found that would fit me. I have no doubt that the photos will be online very shortly, if they aren't already (I have yet to check other blogs), but I was not alone: Stephen also wore the stockings, but this time with a long coat and very little else. He deserved that after "forcing" me into cross-dressing.
Around 6am we said our goodbyes (mine holding a bit more weight than others since I was leaving the city) and headed home.
Since this is where my contact with the kids from the lab is temporarily broken, I'll take a minute to say thanks to them all: Chris, Colin, David, Iain, Lauren, Lotr, Matt, Rachel, Stephen, Stevie and Stewart. Thanks for making the summer work easier to take, and I'll see you all soon.
Intermission: Will this week ever end? Please take 5 minutes to blink, make a brew, or wipe that tear from your eye.
Saturday: To help you follow the story, my sister is called Christine, and I've always called her Chris, but we already have one Chris here, so it's Christine for you!
Christine and I met up with wee Graham and his girlfriend Donna at Barfly for Ginger's acoustic gig. We thought that it could be a quiet night since it had only been announced a couple of weeks before, but it seemed packed to the gunnels once the second support act were underway.
But back to the first support: Deckard's lead singer doing a solo set, including a few tracks from his time in Baby Chaos, and a cover of STP's Interstate Love Song. All very good.
Next up were Plan A, fronted by Jeff, formerly of The Wildhearts. Playing their songs acoustically did little to hinder how good they sounded, so I bought one of their EPs, as well as the Gigner acoustic CD on sale at the gig. During and after the Plan A set, Hot Steve, Random Jon Poole and Ginger all walked past us through the crowd, indicating just how small the venue was.
On to their set, which was just phenomenal. It pissed from a great height on the Edinburgh show last year, which Ginger admitted was a "pretend" show. They played many tracks for the first time to my ears, including their first dip into the Endless Nameless album since The Wildhearts split about a year after making it. There were medleys of covers, medleys of their own songs, and in general much more of a show than you'd expect given the small number of shows and the size of each show on the tour.
After the show, Christine and I hung around with her friend Graham (not the wee one, another one), who had heard that the band would sign stuff if you waited long enough. Sure enough, 15 minutes later we were in the dressing room getting our CDs signed. In hindsight, we should've asked Ginger if The Wildhearts were supporting The Darkness on their UK tour (it's not been confirmed or denied at the mo), but instead could think of nothing to say. Ach well!
Epilogue: So that's how my last week living in Glasgow tailed out. I'm now back in Aberdeen, with just 2 days before I have to show up at Uni #2. Here's hoping the kids here are even half as much fun as Glasgow's.
My name is Steven, and I belong to Aberdeen once more.
Thursday: I met Julie at the train station and we headed to Nice N Sleazy for some drinks, Julie a little fired up for the impending Rico concert. Had a good wee chat and caught up on each other's lives from the past few weeks.
Cut to 8:30 and we're in King Tut's. We watched the first support act, a duo with some of the worst lyrics ever, then the second, a local band called Bad Dancer, who sounded pretty tight though I personally didn't think the lead singer's voice was anything special.
Anyway, they were basically just filling in the gaps until Rico arrived, and he played a really good set. Almost every song was reworked in some way, which can be hard to pull off but it sounded very polished, like a Nine Inch Nails remix album, only less extreme. Also, you could tell Rico was putting all of himself into the performance: often a band can only exude energy if the crowd is giving off energy, but this gig wasn't overly packed, it was in a small room, and few in the crowd were moshing, yet Rico was still on edge all the time.
Friday: During the week I'd been trying to arrange for a small group of friends from my year to meet on Friday night. A few were lined up to join the regulars, but one by one they fell victim to illness and tiredness through work.
So by the start of the night only the regulars (minus Rachel who had to work late) survived the cull and made it to Curlers. Not a whole lot went on here, except the loss from the pack soon after leaving the pub of Matt, for reasons known only to himself. Sorry i couldn't say goodbye to you, Dude.
Around 7pm we were all back at Lauren's flat with a bit of bevvy. What ensued was conversations about army training, mens romm ettiquete and the Britney Spears outfit , not to mention some guitar showmanship from Stevie, Chris and Stewart, Colin doing his best to break one of Lauren's lights, and Stevie running out of loo roll when dropping the kids off at the pool.
To explain, the bog roll in Lauren's WC had run out before tonight, and with no more in the flat, she'd put a box of tissues on the cistern. Stevie had gone to show Mr Whippy how things were done, but made the biggest mistake you can on a toilet visit: not checking the bog roll supply. He didn't want to use the tissues because he felt they were not meant for the purpose at hand, so instead started shouting (and whistling) for assistance!
We were putting off leaving for the shack for a while, but when it came time to go (with our number reduced by Stewart and Colin's earlier departures), Lauren was too tired to come out. Quite a shame since she'd gone to the trouble of getting ready for a night out, but perhaps for the best as will soon be revealed.
So the plan now: head round to Rachel's (which was not "just round the corner", despite what Stephen might tell you) and get a taxi from there to the Shack (not my choice of venue, but I was happy enough to go there rather than splinter off somewhere else and not spend the night with the peeps). Stevie and David left en route, and Iain had stayed behind with Lauren at her flat, so we were reduced to Stephen and Chris.
Speed round: Say hello to Rachel; try to book a taxi: 40 minute wait (sod that for a game of soldiers); try to flag on on a) Argyle Street, b) Sauchiehall Street, c) all of the above, but failed; Decide to retire to Rachel's flat.
Out of place prologue: Way back near the start of my summer placement, Rachel and I were in Starbucks and had a conversation I will now paraphrase to save time:
Steven: I'm staying in my sister's old room. The wardrobe is almost full of her old clothes.
Rachel: Can we expect you to turn up to work in girlie tops?
Steven: It's mostly skirts
Rachel: So you'll be wearing skirts?
Steven: (Reaching for funny excuses) I don't have the legs for that
Rachel: OK, we'll have to get you some tights.
Rachel threatened to buy the tights for quite some time, and finally produced a set of stockings in the lab earlier this Friday. This was all fun and games, but now we were back at her flat, and she was demanding to see them on me! Many drinks and Stephen telling me he'd have done it sent me towards Rachel's room, emerging shortly after wearing the stockings and a wee skirt Rach had found that would fit me. I have no doubt that the photos will be online very shortly, if they aren't already (I have yet to check other blogs), but I was not alone: Stephen also wore the stockings, but this time with a long coat and very little else. He deserved that after "forcing" me into cross-dressing.
Around 6am we said our goodbyes (mine holding a bit more weight than others since I was leaving the city) and headed home.
Since this is where my contact with the kids from the lab is temporarily broken, I'll take a minute to say thanks to them all: Chris, Colin, David, Iain, Lauren, Lotr, Matt, Rachel, Stephen, Stevie and Stewart. Thanks for making the summer work easier to take, and I'll see you all soon.
Intermission: Will this week ever end? Please take 5 minutes to blink, make a brew, or wipe that tear from your eye.
Saturday: To help you follow the story, my sister is called Christine, and I've always called her Chris, but we already have one Chris here, so it's Christine for you!
Christine and I met up with wee Graham and his girlfriend Donna at Barfly for Ginger's acoustic gig. We thought that it could be a quiet night since it had only been announced a couple of weeks before, but it seemed packed to the gunnels once the second support act were underway.
But back to the first support: Deckard's lead singer doing a solo set, including a few tracks from his time in Baby Chaos, and a cover of STP's Interstate Love Song. All very good.
Next up were Plan A, fronted by Jeff, formerly of The Wildhearts. Playing their songs acoustically did little to hinder how good they sounded, so I bought one of their EPs, as well as the Gigner acoustic CD on sale at the gig. During and after the Plan A set, Hot Steve, Random Jon Poole and Ginger all walked past us through the crowd, indicating just how small the venue was.
On to their set, which was just phenomenal. It pissed from a great height on the Edinburgh show last year, which Ginger admitted was a "pretend" show. They played many tracks for the first time to my ears, including their first dip into the Endless Nameless album since The Wildhearts split about a year after making it. There were medleys of covers, medleys of their own songs, and in general much more of a show than you'd expect given the small number of shows and the size of each show on the tour.
After the show, Christine and I hung around with her friend Graham (not the wee one, another one), who had heard that the band would sign stuff if you waited long enough. Sure enough, 15 minutes later we were in the dressing room getting our CDs signed. In hindsight, we should've asked Ginger if The Wildhearts were supporting The Darkness on their UK tour (it's not been confirmed or denied at the mo), but instead could think of nothing to say. Ach well!
Epilogue: So that's how my last week living in Glasgow tailed out. I'm now back in Aberdeen, with just 2 days before I have to show up at Uni #2. Here's hoping the kids here are even half as much fun as Glasgow's.
My name is Steven, and I belong to Aberdeen once more.
posted by Steven Morrison at 11:23
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