Just arrived home from Belladrum, perhaps the most enjoyable festival i have ever experienced.....
Thursday began with Drumdave picking up all the stage equipment needed from myself and Scott. Of course the essentials for the weekend were also included - tents, sleepin bags, camping chairs (well remembered dunc u dirty bitch! but more about that later.....) and lastly alcohol. How many tins of lager should you take with you? Considering we were getting free Carlsberg most of the weekend we decided to take even more with us, resulting in maybe 45 tins per head? And thats not including the dodgy Yugoslavian vodkas ally brought with him, or in fact the Morgans, the Smirnoff, the Grants, the Strongbow and those delightful energy drinks.
Im wandering.......
We stopped off in the lovely little hillbilly place called Dunkeld, Id heard rumours everyone who lived here was related, but found no evidence of this while there. There we met Mull, who stays at The Bungalow - the incredible little bitch who we wish we could take with us to every gig we play. Not only was she always smiling, happy and carefree she could also eat rocks and was impressively hairy.
Once on the road I found myself being repeatedly attacked by all sorts - tents, guitars, pedals, sausage rolls and worst of all hula hoops. The journey up to Beauly was not the best.....although we did listen to some SoCo which brought back some fucking tremendous memories.
Arrived at the campsite to find a million 15 year olds running about off their faces due to what, i dont know? Drum Dave, Scott and I pitched, Drum Dave, Scott and I sat, and Drum Dave, Scott and I drank until the other guys arrived (they took 10 hours from Dundee to Beauly.....yeah I know) and then proceeded to get absolutely smashed and run about like 15 year olds handing out flyers promoting our gig which was in 9 hours time. After the hazardous drinking sesh at Rockness, I decided to stick to lager this time, avoiding losing my voice for our gig. Responsible, I know. We then met people who'd seen us play at Rockness who assured us they would bring a big crowd to the HAIL Seedlings Stage at 1:15. It was then 5 o'clock, the 29year old, the quiet 1 and the Lesbian had left our inner circle and it was time for bed.
We woke the next day gagging to play, and in the mood for some cheese strings. Made our way up to the stage, watched a bit of the band on before us and got fired right in about the rider. Dunc (again I'll come back to him) Ally, Mr Neil. and Neil wandered about handing out even more flyers for the gig, so were hopeful of a big crowd....
Did a quick sound check then continued to soften our lips/nerves with Carslberg...
Steve came and told us we were due on. Steve, the stage manager is an absolute legend, perhaps the nicest guy we've ever met, even had time for a couple beerios.
The tent was full, seen some familiar faces and some soon-to-be familiar faces and we all walked on stage, apart from Scott who fell and nearly killed himself but resulted in an even bigger cheer. Had a storming set. Best we've ever played in fact, most we've ever sweated and most appreciative crowd we've performed in front of - FACT. A cheeky wee STV cameraman was in the tent, turns out we were being filmed and on the news (not because of Fraz' convictions) which is pretty damn cool. After the set we did a couple of interviews and for some strange reason Drum Dave decided to speak, handed out CDs, signed some boobs and then had a couple more Carlsbergs.
The rest of the day consisted of drinkin, watchin bands, losing stuff and meeting people.
Cant remember much more bout the rest of the weekend to be honest apart from watching Editors (whom Fraz and Scott met afterwards and had a beer with), OCS, Saw Docs, Dangleberries and some shitty band from Landaan, met up with Huggy Bear, Penny the Alcoholic and her legendary sister Lanna. Oh and that charming girl Kylie Minogue.
All in All theres only one thing to learn from the whole weekend, and that's not to hook up with a 42 year old woman and let her have her wicked way with you Duncan Clarke.
dx
C-C