Da Skapital

Our gig with Big Hand went well, even though I lose an internal bet with myself; that we would get our album out before them, blast! It sounds great and probably cost a fortune. Well worth it though. More than four hundred of you turned up and about a hundred of you bought copies of the album. Well done to the boys of course, they put on a good show as always. We had toyed with the idea of playing a cover of ‘This Town Aint Big Enough’, but that would have been a bit mean spirited. They can come and visit Edinburgh anytime they like. No more than a few days though.

We thought we should return the compliment and head down to London and play a gig down on their patch, see how they liked it. Of course they were all up in Edinburgh when we did it so the point was lost. Except for Ingi, their long suffering Manager/Keeper, who made it all the way from Ealing to Brixton, about ten miles as the crow flies just to see us. Not bad considering I don’t think I’ve even walked the length of myself to see Big Hand, and they are way better looking than us. They’re practically handsome. That’s not true actually. I drove to see them in Glasgow once and missed them by an hour.

Anyway, after a four hundred mile drive and a quick Thai meal, we played to a completely unsuspecting Brixton crowd, and just like that, they now know the score. Pow, right in the kisser! One clearly disorientated gentleman afterwards said that we were the best Ska band he had seen outside of Jamaica. I asked him if he had ever been to Jamaica. He said he couldn’t be sure. Classic London pub. They even had Chas and Dave playing there in May. We will definitely be back down there at some point, to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. After our set we had a very quick drink before they shut the bar because of their strange foreign licensing ways. The trouble with England, is that its full of English. Nah, they were lovely really, even when they couldn‘t understand our language, our alien money or our fantastic banter. Except for one guy. Whilst we were setting up one of the crew was trying to break a cable tie at the front of the stage, and turned round and asked if anyone had a knife. I said, ‘ Oh aye, just because we’re Scottish, you assume we’re all carrying knives, you bastard’. I tried to get him but fortunately some of the boys were on hand to pin me down before I could get my Stanley blade out. Apart from that small moment of awkwardness, great gig. The following day Andy and I raced each other all the way to Scotland. I won by about twenty seconds. Car could use a wash though.

Other news, we have relocated our headquarters to Granton, so we can be nearer the water. I’ve also heard that we are going back to the Ironworks again in the near future. I cannot wait. I am counting the days. We will be playing with The Cuban Brothers which should be interesting. One of them was at school with our Vini believe it or not. In Tranent. Next gig, 1st of March in St Andrews with Big Hand and Joe Viterbo. Colin has been invited to play with Amplifico at their long awaited album launch this Saturday, the same time we are playing in St. Andrews. I got a sneak listen of their album and it’s stunning. All these bands with their album launches; its enough to make one very envious. In any case we have come up with a plan to overcome the problem of being in two places at once. It involves a fast car and ten cigarettes. I won’t go into details. Look for us in Fife.