It’s been a lengthy period of heavy work lately and finally I have a couple of midweek days off. The occasion? Today’s the day of the annual St. Patrick’s Day gig by Stiff Little Fingers at the Glasgow Barrowland.

For 19 years these guys have been coming here to inject some top notch punk into the main musical artery running through Glasgow; this is not an affair to miss.

My plan, which naturally involves putting work behind me for a few hours, will involve getting my butt through to Glasgow, meeting my sister, drinking some Guinness, then going to the gig.

I’ll be staying over in Glasgow so no blog until late tomorrow at the earliest. Until then here’s a little taster of what I can expect tonight. Dad, you can stop viewing now (there’s real music coming up).

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Pretty tired this morning. Not from being up extraordinarily late last night but from a very early start this morning. There’s a lot happening today ranging from training courses to writing and a fair bit of website work, so I wanted to get a head start on everything.

I’ve just wolfed down a roll with egg and black pudding in it along with a strong coffee, so I’m feeling pretty damn good for now.

Speaking of food, I found myself in the canteen for lunch again yesterday, and it was worth it because it was the infamous, glorious and infinitesimally orgasmic Cheese Macaroni Day. I had a big plate with a pile of chips on the side for good measure. Stuffed I was—stuffed!

I almost finished writing PAINT last night, a short story initially intended for a cover design competition, except I’m not quite sure how to end it. I have, for the first time ever, a final line that I want to use, I’m just not sure how to get there and I went to bed last night feeling confused and trying to visualise the best ending. Oh, the trials!

I’ve taken on a new roll in my capacity as Assistant Editor at The Scruffy Dog Review and am now the “website bloke”. I’ve been in discussions with the Editor-in-Chief and we came to the decision that we should use my website skills to free up more of her time to do more actual editorial tasks as opposed to website maintenance.

The magazine has gone through a tough time lately and I feel like this change could breathe new life into it. A re-launch was discussed and communications will be sent out to the other editors today about the change. One of the first things I’m going to look at is a revamp of the site to make it more web friendly and modern.

The gig listings for this week have been pretty poor, though if I get the chance I might pop up to the Citrus Club tonight to see punk band The Vibrators and get a review in for Sunday’s NotW online edition. Also might pop along for The Black Seeds gig at the Picture House next week, which would make it through in time to be a contender for next week’s print edition.

My old man phoned from outside a pub on Tottenham Court Road in the evening. He had just discovered Hairspray has cross-dressing in it and wanted to let me know how happy he was to have been stitched up again. “It’ll do you good,” I told him with a loud guffaw. Sounds like they are both having a great time in Landahn Tahn, though.

Remember I mentioned the guy from Leith who works for the Scottish Parliament and submitted some poetry to the Ranfurly Review after reading my interview in The Leither Magazine while lunching in far flung Beju? It turns out he got he can’t spell and what he really meant was Bijou, the small coffee shop at the bottom of Restalrig Road! Oh, well!

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I spent a long day in the office yesterday—really long. Same hours as normal but the final drag up to 5pm seemed to go on forever. I was just so tired from the night before I felt exhausted at the thought of going out. But I did and I’m glad I did.

I met my sister, Binny, to go and see The Stranglers. They were playing at the Picture House as part of the newly fangled Edge Festival (previously known as ‘T on the Fringe’.

Before hand we went for an Indian meal at 9 Cellars Indian restaurant. It’s situated on the corner of York Place, right next to The Stand comedy club, and having walked passed it may times I’d often wanted to have a meal there. Having now been, I wished I hadn’t.

The staff were friendly and attentive and the prices reasonable. But it was the food that let the experience down. It was quite simply very poor cooking. The main course was where it all fell down; too much sauce, not enough herbs or spices, bland flavours, and not enough meat to feed a chicken. I won’t be returning.

After the meal we walked through St Andrews Square and along George Street, passing the ever growing resurrection of the Book Festival. There are now several white tents and walkways laid out, and a big sign displaying “8 Days To Go”. How exciting.

We popped into Shakespeare’s for a drink—warm beer; always nice—then into the venue. I never gave The Stranglers credit for having such a passionate following, nor for having such an impressive backlog of punk rock songs. They played all their most popular hits within the first half hour and it worried me at the time, needlessly as it turned out.

Being sober at a gig can often be a tricky predicament, but I have to say The Stranglers were a superb live act. They played with confidence, precision, and a delightful twinge of arrogance, which is really something when you consider their drummer, Joe Black, is 71 years old!!!

I walked my sister to the train station, and was then after waiting at the bus stop back to Leith, was delighted to see my bus soar passed me, the driver gazing blankly at me as me and several other people were left stranded in the west end of Edinburgh. Too tired to even complain about it, I jumped into a taxi and forked out the cash to get home.

I battered together my review of the gig before I went to bed, then this morning, polished it up and sent it off. My normal editor is on holiday so hopefully it will get through in time for publication on line tomorrow.

Right now, I’m off up town! I need new shoes for work, a quiet coffee, and have a couple of other small errands to do. Later on, reading and writing.

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I received an email over the course of the weekend that has had me thinking quite heavily, once more, about Jackie McCann. I can’t seem to get away from him or his story. Let me explain. The email concerned a publisher that I have often thought of pitching the story to. In fact, they did approach me around three years ago to see if I would be willing to sell Hunting Jack through them, but I declined due to their terms and conditions being less than I would expect.

However, since then their royalty policies have changed, and what has got me thinking this time are two major developments in how and where they publish. First, they have formed an association with a major e-book marketing and distribution company, and secondly, they also now publish in trade paperback.

In short, I think I’m going to pitch Hunting Jack to them. The story needs a strong edit and a new ending but yes, I think it’s time. Not forgetting I want to complete Greener is the Grass and get Slick out on submission – they are the priorities – but today I began an intense run through of Hunting JackGreener is the Grass into the computer. It’s going slower than I hoped compared to the longhand writing of it, because I’m editing it as it goes into the word processor. I’m not sure how clean that will make it but it feels as if it’s going well.

I found myself up in the Liquid Rooms this evening to see a band that I had to admit not knowing anything about. I went on the recommendation of my mate Rob, who has a good record of introducing me to bands that I seem to have missed while I was growing up. This particular band have been around since the early 1970’s, have developed a world-wide punk rock following, and smashed into the UK with one, hugely recognisable single that was used in a kids TV programme.

The Dickies gave is The Banana Splits, and tonight they brought their madcap mayhem to Edinburgh. It was a hugely enjoyable gig, which although was only an hour long I’m sure they played almost 30 songs. Their music is fast, furious, and funny, and their on-stage antics was pure entertainment.

Rob did it again – another band I’ll be back to see and will be going out to get their CDs very shortly.

Greener is the Grass (Writing)

Hunting Jack (Editing)

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I’m back and the writing routine has swung back into action. A quick review of the weekend first:

Saturday

There was much tidying of the house to be done in preparation for work going on next week, but I managed to catch some of the final weekend’s play in the Six Nations Championship. Scotland were beaten, unsurprisingly it was back to business as usual; England hammered Ireland; Wales thumped France in a classic match to claim a Grand Slam title on top of the Triple Crown already bagged. Well done to them.

For match reports on all the final weekend’s games, go to the Six Nations Rugby Spotlight website. A full review of the championship will be up later this week.

I moved the bunnies to a new spot in the garden. The main reason was to avoid a clash with the new washing line, but their new spot provides more shelter from the wind, and they also pick up much more healthy sunlight where they are now. It’s also easier access for them to get out to the run on the lawn, so everyone’s a winner! Soon be time for their annual jabs, I’ll need to make that appointment with the vet soon.

Sunday

Family day. My parents and sister, Lindsay, were through for a big meal in Edinburgh to round off Gail’s 30th birthday celebrations. I joined my sister and parents on the drive back through to Glasgow to save me a train journey in the morning.

Monday

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and for punk fans, especially the Irish ones, that meant the traditional annual party at the Glasgow Barrowlands Ballroom with Stiff Little Fingers.

My sister and I took much delight from a hearty breakfast and a day listening to music, talking, drinking Guinness, cider, and vodka (not all at once – mostly), before going to the gig.

I’d forgotten just how rough a gig it is. You don’t get a mosh pit at SLF on Paddy’s Day, you get an entire ballroom full of mayhem bordering on the edgy. I don’t say this lightly to boost these guys reputation – frankly, they don’t need it – but when you see guys as big as tanks being dragged out semi-unconscious, you know you have to watch yourself. I thought Madness was rough, but you haven’t seen anything until you have seen SLF on their March 17th gig in Glasgow.

FUCK ME I was almost glad when it was over, and the thing about it is, I spent practically the entire time trying to stay on my feet, fending off the ragers around me, and making sure my sister was protected, I hardly got any time to actually see the band!

Nevertheless, it’ll be same time next year!

Tuesday

A very sore day; back, stomach, legs, and neck all stiff and sore from last night’s SLF gig. A wee trip to Ludovic’s for brunch sorted out the hunger, and then an afternoon watching DVDs with Irn-Bru and snacks sorted out the hangover. After a Chinese meal for dinner I caught the 10pm train back home to Edinburgh, and got home at the back of 11; in bed by midnight.

Today

Email catch up! I had loads from over the past three days sitting in my inbox waiting to get through. Amongst them was a rejection from Rumble; Spawning now back on the pile.

I got a postal letter from FUSE (think I may have mentioned it – can’t remember) who are putting What a Waste through their process. The first stage is to have it read anonymously by a highly skilled professional; then I will receive written feedback to help me develop the play and my craft; feedback is presented to all Partner companies for consideration; and information on my writing will be available to other theatre companies. So it’s quite an exciting time for What a Waste!

Plenty more submissions for The Ranfurly Review – I’ve fallen behind somewhat so I spent some time getting back on track with those today.

Got an article published on CopyBlogger. Click to read 7 Advantages of Working in Your Dream Market

DWT have also published a new article, the first of two parts about SEO article writing. Click to read How to Write an SEO Article – Part 1

I complete the re-write on Regrets, which I have to agree is much better now. I’ll give it another pass tomorrow and get it back out in circulation.

I think that’s enough of a catch-up for today.