England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and so forth..

so after a travel-filled week or so in Ireland & England jonny & i decided our carbon footprint wasn’t quite significant enough and decided to visit?friends and play a few tunes near Aberdeen… a 5 or so hour drive from Chester, not a problem! after swinging by Rosslyn chapel to see if Tom and/or Jesus were kicking around we headed up to Inverurie…the Beatties & Brodie greeted us, the beer and wine flowed and a great time was had.. the following day we walked the river, swam, sauna’d & played snooker at the club, checked out Glen Garioch distillery and wrote a song about it, then played said song as part of a small concert for the gathered that evening… wednesday we said our goodbyes and headed for Holyhead after stopping in the beautiful city of Edinburgh for a couple of hours.

on the way to the holyhead ferry we visited the? home of Dan in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Mr Hegarty has bought a great old church which he’s slowly renovating and making into a venue. after a couple of beers and what have you we got out the guitars and played a couple of tunes in in this amazing place and wow!! the acoustics were truly amazing and we decided it’s truly got the makings of a superb music venue… with the mezzenine and the floor level, all done in fine old wood and the stage back drop of massive organ pipes… brilliant!!!

the 2 am ferry crossing saw us in Dublin at a lovely 6am where Myles roused himself to open his home to us… Myles is an old friend from the Dingle days who writes great music under the name of Juno Falls and is a magician in the realms of film & photography… the craic was mighty!!! that night after doing a show on Dublin south radio (go & havva listen) jonny, myself and roisin joined myles down at the spiegel tent where some local acts were playing… the coolest of whom was a chap from an outfit called the villagers… truly superb. the ensuing session back at the house saw the cracking open of the Glen Garioch single malt we’d brought and many tunes were played and many laughs laughed til we realised the sun was rising yet again and sleep could be a good idea…

up to Cavan via the hill of tara, where the protestors, it seems, are sadly losing the battle to divert the approaching M3 motorway construction. a curious and tragic insight into some of the decision making in the political world here. in Cavan we stay with Jons good friend Gerry and his family and the following afternoon after a great session we were off to play a forgettable show in Mohaghan… however, after the show we headed off to catch up with the Blaney folk… Castleblayney!! yeeeehaaa!! this town laid it on!! the guiness flowed like a river in flood. and the night back at anthonys pad listening to steely dan and the likes on vinyl was again great craic.. the following day after watching the all ireland final… as you do, and repairing a busted speaker cable we set up to play the horsmans bar in ‘blaney. all the local crew we’d met the night before were gathered with high expectation (almost everyone there was an outstanding musician of some description!) no pressure lads! some places have something, a warmth, an inaudible resonance of great times had and of times to come and with a fine blend of characters blended to the mix the horsman bar turned out to be the finest gig on the trip to date… magic!

the morning came dull and wet, a song yearning to be written… we piled the gear into the trusty tour wagon (jons Lucida) and we hit the road to Sligo through some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland (Dingle takes a bit of beating).. a simple wow!! is all i can come up with… during his time living in the beautiful area that we drove through Irish poet William Yeats aparently was inspired to write many great works… little wonder…

the hospitality and the great times we’ve had on the road so far has been incredible. the generostiy and the great craic, homes, hearts &? fridges opened to us and some great music played… a massive thanks to all the friends who’ve put us up, and to those who’ve come along and enjoyed the music…

dave, Sligo – to be continued