Busy Week

Phew, what a week! Caught a flight to Belfast on Tuesday and started the Suzanne Vega tour. It’s going very well and Suzanne’s audience is a great one to play too. She has been opening for Sting and played before 250,000 folks in Budapest last week! From Belfast on the tour bus down to Dublin and then Cork on the Thursday. Ireland is a beautiful place and I must try and come back a little more regularly. After the Cork show we travelled through the night (well some of it), getting to Dublin airport at 5 am.Suzanne, band and crew caught a flight to Rome for more Sting stuff and I waited for five hours for a flight to Aberdeen. In was amazed at how busy the airport was at 5am, it was like Christmas Eve! As a side issue I cant figure why Ryan Air only allow 15 kg baggage allowance, it’s the lowest of any airline in the world. My excess baggage bill was more than my flight ticket! The show in Fraserburgh was great. The town has suffered a great deal because of European fishing quotas enforced by Brussels and it has hit the town and community hard. It was hard not to feel a link between this situation and the mining communities, especially when considering the danger that men put themselves in when working their trade. Although not always fatal, the town looses a boat around once a fortnight. On the Saturday morning I gave a song-writing workshop, which had a great turnout. That went well too and I should do more of this as it seems to be something that folk are really interested in. After that I drove south to Comrie for a lovely gig in the village hall. It was good to be playing in towns outside the usual gigs in Scotland. Flew home this morning and have two days now before heading off to Holland for more Vega shows on Wednesday.