Kelvingrove, Kelburn Castle, and Kevin Bacon

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Here’s some fascinating trivia for you. Did you know that there are only four degrees of separation between Bombskare and Kevin Bacon? That’s the same as Adolph Hitler. It’s true. Let me enlighten you. I am in Bombskare and I worked as a focus tester on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, which means I’m in the game credits, somewhere near the bottom, which also featured Gary Busey, who was also in ‘The Firm’ with Tom Cruise, who was in ‘A Few Good Men’ with Kevin Bacon; Adolph Hitler was in ‘Triumph of the Will’, which was directed by Leni Riefenstahl, who in turn was in ‘Das Blaue Licht’, with Mathias Wieman, who was in ‘Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz’ with Maximilian Schell, who was in ‘Telling Lies in America’ with Kevin Bacon. QED. Admit it, you’re impressed. It’s not as close as Root System though. Apparently our Kev was Kevin Bacon’s stunt dance double on ‘Footloose’. Didn’t know that, did you? It’s a widely believed fact.

While it’s good to joke and laugh, ska is no laughing matter. We’ve had a few pretty big gigs recently and that’s something we take seriously. Very seriously. Very few laughs in the Bomblab recently. No time for fun and games, and jokes about Kevin bacon, we’ve got other bacon to fry. We’ve been rehearsing our world famous ‘Playing of the Ska tunes’, to great effect. If you had been at Glasgow’s West End Festival in Kelvingrove Park you would have noticed us. We were the ones on the main stage delivering the ska.

They had predicted all this terrible weather, but it was scorching. Getting to the stage was the problem. We arrived late because of a broken down truck at the beginning of the M8. By the time we arrived we had to fight our way through thousands of bodies enjoying the festival, and an entire parade of semi naked ladies, dancing and playing the drums. I’m not going to lie to you, we were impressed. We finally got to the stage in a bit of a panic and got set up and went for it, no time to spare. It’s definitely been our biggest audience this year. A couple of thousand punters sitting in the sun even more than at Toots at the O2. Highlights include Murray setting my microphone too high so that I had to stand on tip toes to sing. And of course the famous mixing up of the solos on ‘The Ballad of Lloyd Knibb’. Thanks to Pauly for the photos. Almost as soon as we left the stage, the weather turned grey, and by the time we were on the M8 again it was pouring rain, complete with lightning, a proper storm.

The Kelburn Garden Party was another big gig for us, although less people than they had hoped. It was in the grounds of Kelburn Castle, one of the oldest castles in Scotland, that has had graffiti art painted all over it.

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When I first saw it, it scared me. It was like the building was staring at me, all the way through our set. Very unnerving. Before us were the amazing Samba Ya Bamba, and after us the also amazing The Aliens. Andy and I were interviewed for the Vic Galloway show. God knows what I said, and don’t believe a word of it. One thing I will say, apart from the terrible midgies, it has the makings of an excellent festival, in a really interesting location.

Thanks to our Annaline for the photos. Our next gig is up north at The Insider, near Aviemore. Probably more midgies. I’ll definitely be bringing the skin so soft this time, unlike last time.

On one final note. Many congratulations to Murray’s sister Lindsay who has just had a baby girl. All the best from all of us. Here’s hoping she has no resemblance to her Uncle!