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Medicine Show On The Road tour wth Paul Barrere, Fred Tackett and Gypsy Dave Smith,Dec 2008 this could not be a happier pilgrim.
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Travel day today, two airports 300 miles apart, a train station, a lost ba,g a 48 hour flight from Thailand, to Inverness a quicker one from Spain to Preswick and Gypsay Dave comes in from Newcastle, now four days with three on my favourite musicians of all time its 2.30 am now the fun starts tomorrow in Aberdeen.
One liner of the day, Gypsy Dave Smith on being asked if he wants a cup of Coffee " Ah Starbucks thats where you fo if your stuck for a bar, Prestwick Air Port December 5th, its burned to disk already!! We duly took photos of all and sundrie at the plaque to Elvis where the King stood on British Soil for the one and only time. Headed to Strathpeffer.
The drive to Aberdeen was blessed by a panoramic turquoise blue and ruby red sky,
The Tunnels lies under Union Street with 50 foot of granite surrounding a semi circular tube that hold 150 people, with a nice PA and a sound man that knows what he's doing, and what he was doing was delivering sound directly to the ear and heart, of the Feat faithful,. Rocking funky club and gig.
Gypsy Dave was in the band by the time the sound check was done, he opened up to a room, most of whom had seen him before, and the rest will, he left them all with a smile as big as his own saying "I'm getting to play with them at the end"
The Guys rolled Um Easy from the get go, people were exploding into spontaneous whoops of joy all around, an hour and a half just wasn't long enough Gypsy did return for Sailing Shoes, then took the centre stage for one of his own with Fred chiming Mandolin and Paul sliding along, in a harmony tuning, and Daves face nearly cutting him from ear to ear, Dixie Chicken brought communal singing to a a crescendo of little feat love.
Paul Barrere Fred Tackett and Gypsy Dave Smith reach the end of the world and on to the end of the tour.Posted by rob ellen on
Dunnet Head Light House is the most northerly point on the mainland of Scotland, (beats John O Groats by a couple of miles) and since its automation 30 years ago, all the buildings accept the light, belongs to Caithness legend musician Johnny Fats (Sutherland) home of www.qpqproductions.com recording studio and now home to the best house concert on the planet. We arrived just in time to catch a glimpse of Orkney from the 1000 foot cliffs of Dunnet across the Pentlands firth befor the winter sun finally fissles out
Johnny and his son Isaac have filled the place with recording, sound equipment and vintage guitars, and have set up the gig in the way they would want to find a gig, the hospitality is astounding, infact the party was in full flow by the time we arrived, as was the cooking of a gourmet vegan dinner, John cooks while Isaac hooks the boys up to the PA and studio.
Sound checks are taking 10 minutes now.
Dunnet head puts the High in the Highlands, this was a complete celebration of music, and life. Johnny seats everyone in airline rows in the part of the building that used to house the diesels that ran the fog horn once, and settled everyone down with a warm welcome and warm thankyou to Paul and Fred for making the journey, then he and Isaac set about a blistering duo spot before bringing Gypsy Dave on, who is no stranger to the Light House and had many fans in the audience to, he suitably impresses and we stop for coffee and a break in th Highland Ceilidh tradition.
This is a magic gig for us all, Paul and Fred in such intimate surroundings with a quadraphonic surround a sound system with 100 people who have a total grasp on the sense of occasion. An occasion that brings Gypsy Dave and Isaac (bass) and a immensely happy Johnny (Congas) back for the finally. A night that will remain with everyone who was there for the rest of their life's.
Then home again home again lickety split, 2 hrs to Strathpeffer, the base of the tour at Steve and Clancy Macdonalds owners of Square Wheels cycles and highland music sponsors and now promoters.
Next day the home gig at the historic Strathpeffer Pavilion, which was the biggest dance hall in the Highlands for 100 years, generations of people here were either conceived of, or conceived at the Strath dances. The Who played here and The Beatles made the mistake of trying to play near by Dingwall town hall on the night of the Strath Dance and didn't pull a crowd, infact had to go find the promoter for there money, he'd taken off for the Strath dance. Paul and Fred's first ever acoustic show was here 2 years ago and people came from all over europe for it. This very much felt like a home coming gig and a healthy audience were gathered, and enjoyed a powerful performance and clean sounding gig.
We travelled on a frosty morning through snow caped peaks, to Glasgow down Loch Ness through the Great Glen (we even got to see Ben Nevis in maximum glory, glistening in the sun, wondered at Glen Coe in its history (expained graficaly by the MacDonalds) and magnificence and loch Lomond never looked better. Reaching Glasgow in a sudden traffic jam of people, to find the beautiful Oran Mor venue hadn't sold out!! go figure??
The smallest audience of the trip filled in but not so oddly we found them the best and most Feat fanatic of all, communal singing from the onset. Gypsy Dave was brought on to do the finally which included Paul and Fred backing him up on his song Jacqueline, before we all helped them with Willing, which blended neatly into what Paul described as "The Jamaican National Anthem" Rolllllllll and-nuther one! just like the other one! a standing ovation followed with encores.
That a trip!! an other great thing about Paul and Fred trips aparth from the great music and easy company is, the tour party tends to grow day by day friends/fans join the tour for more than one gig and instantly start to pitch in setting up merch getting dressing room drinks and snacks, it really does tun into a traveling medicine Show, with all the best medicine for life on display. So one and all gathers for an end of tour Indian (Its a Scottish tradition) and yours truly set about a bottle of glen Livet with Gypsy Dave, who I swear went to sleep back at our room singing Dixie Chicken between snores. happy days.
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