Fire Service

Didn't want to start the new year off with a bang so got my fires serviced. About time too said the man.

Gig 61 - Christmas at Leith Depot

 Leith Depot Thursday 18th December 2025

Super gig , band on good form to a man, we were having fun and it showed. Ian excellent as quizmaster..."The Twelve Days of Christmas" as the theme. Won by IC, give the boy a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Set list : I Need to Clean The Floor, Polish Seamstress, Take The Picture, Valentine, Sixteen Steptoe,  Ink Arrears, Freiburg CH '89, Red Star, Christmouse inc. Jingle Bells, It's Abnormal.

Valentine, Christmouse and debut of Ink Arrears went down particularly well. Responsive, amused audience.

Support: Adam Stafford on pedal-loop guitar warmly applauded.

Sound: Corey, really pretty good.

Left us wanting to do more in 2026

Lakes 2025

In Bowness - on - Windermere 21st to 28th November. A bit more rain than usual but a sunny Tuesday trip to Sizergh Barn and Beetham. 

Saw "The Choral" at Fellinis, very enjoyable. One cliché after another but none the worse for that.

La Boheme

Festival Theatre, 18th November 2025

Scottish Opera

Unusual impulse led to me going to this, a rare occurrence. Thoroughly enjoyed it and had a sore throat at Mimi's demise. Clever disappearing corpse trick.

Didn't get a programme so can't name the cast. Singing and playing all fine good quality stuff.

Foul, cold November night, went with CB. Taxi up, bus 31 and tram home.

Rick Wakeman Royal Concert Hall Glasgow

Thursday 16th October 2025

Thanks to Callum Mills, Fraser couldn't make it down to go to Glasgow together to see Rick Wakeman, despite getting us the tickets. Which is a shame because he was great, whether you like him or not the guy can play, and his band was hot. 

He performed the two first albums in their entirety,  barely getting a note wrong and adding extra frills and thrills. King Arthur seemed to have something missing? Indeed, they missed out Merlin, and did  that as a spectacular encore, featuring his son Alan. They had the keyboard-round-the-neck things and did dualling synths, with the lead guitarist too. 

Wakeman is no stranger to fun and bad taste, the foxy girl trio singers crouched down and let him use them as a keyboard stand. 

Went with Dale instead, train extremely convenient and £11 return with a Senior Railcard. 

Peter Hammill Queen's Hall

First gig for PH for a while, 76 years old and still trouping away. An original talent, a bit hit and miss but the good ones genuinely moving art. Live, the piano songs work better, the guitar songs show the shortcomings. Still, good gig, hopefully not the last time but who knows.

With IJD, GG, FM, BW.

My Room, Just Good Friends, Easy to Slip Away

Too Many of my Yesterdays, The Descent,

The Comet, the Course, the Tail, Shingle Song

If I Could, Driven, Last Frame, Patient, A Better Time, The Mercy,

Stranger Still, Four Pails, Traintime.

Vision

Rosslynlee Revisited

 Very interesting morning courtesy of Dale Garbutt. We went back to visit the remains of Rosslynlee, shut in 2010, burnt down 15th July this year.

New modern houses built in the fields behind Avenue House (itself gone) and Firth Road and the old staff houses. Typical modern insulted affairs.

Man in charge very interested to see us, the actual hospital buildings still to be used as shells where possible. Old ward 10 reroofed and smart, giving an idea of the finished product. A major headache was the amount of asbestos, the most poisonous sort, in the boiler house, the pipes and the old basement archives.

The place looked like it had been bombed.

Took our names for further contact.