Saturday 11th December 1999

Edinburgh - Cas Rock

Yesterday we decided that we would stay in a Travelodge for our time in Edinburgh, so we booked two rooms and slept three and four to a room, which is not strictly legal according to Travelodge regulations. It was a brand new hotel and some of the staff were very keen to be overly officious, but hey, it was warm and only cost us £200 for two days (ouch).

Andy, Der and myself had a quiet meal at a nearby restaurant, followed by a visit to a friendly and late closing pub. The others stayed in and played cards / watched Telly.

I do like Edinburgh, it's a beautiful city and we managed to get a lot of exploring done despite the torrential rain.

We knew how to get to the gig so we arrived a wee bit early and sat in the nearby pub whilst we waited for the afternoon covers band to pack up. They were certainly a very popular band, the pub was very full. We had a few games of pool, a couple of beers, a few packets of crisps, you know, the usual ;-)

When we were free to load in we met up with the boys from Huckleberry, with whom we were to share the stage that evening. Readers of my previous tourdiaries would have read about Huckleberry before and know that they are a favourite of mine. It was good to see them again, there were a lot of hugs and shaking of hands.

In a reverse of our previous gig at Cas Rock, Huckleberry were to heeadline tonight and Abdou would be in the middle of three bands. This suited us fine as we knew that the Hucks would pull the majority of the crowd.

The first band on were called Deadhead Briggs (I think) and were bloody marvellous. They played 60's style rock blues, like a Scots version of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They even played a Dr Feelgood cover. It was great to hear such vintage sounds coming from a band that must be in their teens. If you get a chance, go to see them.

We were on next and played fairly well, but not brilliantly. Some how, the crowd weren't up for the Abdou experience as much as they were the last time and I was a little disappointed in our performance. It was only in relation to the great gig that we had last time though.

Next on were Huckleberry, who were superb they have gained a harder edge with the help of their new drummer Simon.They played some great new stuff and I thoroughly enjoyed their set.

After the gig I met some new friends and caught up with some old acquaintances. Sarah and the guys from the venue had looked after us very well all day. I really like Cas Rock, it is a wonderful place, and so convenient for the lap dancing clubs.

Tomorrow is my birthday, so it's off to Aberdeen!