Day 8: Glasgow
Welcome
Yesterday we played in the second city of the empire, Glasgow, Scotland.
Our hotel was right next to the River Clyde so I started my morning with a jog. Crossing the Clyde Arc bridge took me to the river’s south bank, and I headed west on Plantation Quay, enjoying the clear, sunny skies that we always seemed to find when we arrive in Glasgow. I never like to miss a chance to see a site of great historical significance, and that’s why I was keen to pay a visit to the nearby Govan Graving Docks. Glasgow was once a city famed for its shipbuilding industry. HMS Hood, HMS Duke of York, RMS Lusitania, RMS Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth 2; these famous vessels were all constructed just a handful of kilometres up the river at Clydebank in the John Brown & Company Shipyards. Although the Govan Graving Docks never possessed any of the glory carried by an association with these powerful battleships and transatlantic titans, they earned their place in Glasgow’s history books by serving a vital but much humbler purpose; a bread-and-butter role in the shipbuilding industry: the yearly maintenance of the city’s expanding fleet of steamers. If you were a holidaymaker in the Victorian era you could go doon the watter and ride one of these ships downriver to any number of different resorts or hotels on the Firth of Clyde. To give you an example of the scale of this industry, by 1900 there were 300 of these ships operating every summer, meaning that during the winter months these graving docks would have been very busy carrying out refits, maintenance, and repairs. Finally closing in 1987 they now lie derelict but are remarkably well preserved with a lot of the original equipment still in place and intact.
We checked out of our hotel at eleven and headed into the city for a meal. Just around the corner from our venue is a café called Singl End and it was a nice spot to spend a couple of hours while we waited for load-in. I ordered a breakfast of baked eggs with sourdough bread and mozzarella.
At 2pm we began unloading our equipment into the venue. A process that normally takes us an hour, from when we open the rear doors of the van to when the final cable is plugged in, was accomplished in fifteen minutes thanks to the adroit stagehands whose bodies were as strong as their moods were merry. We enjoyed a luxurious soundcheck and finished well ahead of schedule allowing us to head back outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. Close to a hundred times yesterday we were thanked by various Glaswegians for bringing the great weather with us. They take a sunny day very seriously in this city.
This is how sunny it was.
Our set began at precisely 8.45pm, as we had a schedule to keep to. As we walked out onto the stage the cheer from the crowd was completely deafening. Glasgow crowds really know how to make you feel welcome. For precisely an hour and seven minutes we performed to this beautifully enthusiastic 800 strong audience, while having the greatest time, and trying to give back some of the immense energy we felt in the room. At 9.52pm we finished our set and came back on quickly for a two-song encore, finishing at 10pm on the dot, to allow for the club night that was starting in a different part of the building (this venue prides itself on having a club night 365 days a year). Our friendly stagehands returned and thanks to their deft and experienced hands we were packed down in fifteen minutes. It was another great show in Glasgow, and a great way to end this short run in the United Kingdom.
Packing out after the gig with the help of the stagehands.
P.S.
I have gone a wee bit bananas on colons and semicolons today and I’m too tired to know if any of them are grammatically correct.