*meep morp* Roboblog

How are you? This is an automatic post - I still wrote it, we haven't reached the singularity just yet, but I scheduled it the night before I went on holiday. I feel absolutely done in, and I feel very lucky to be able to get a week away from everything. The good people at Aimless Play will be minding my socials over the week and posting pictures of my face and stuff that I've written, so it's not really lying. I have been promised that I won't return to having mysteriously gained a Tik Tok account. Can you imagine? Don't, it's an awful series of mental images.

I'm knackered. Mentally exhausted. I'm not unique in this, so I won't go on. By the time you read this I'll have been lying fairly still for a few days and hopefully the knots in my back will have decided I've had enough, and my brain will stop periodically feeling like it's trying to push it's way out of my skull via the nearest orifice. I've been feeling a tad overwhelmed with everything on my plate. JUST A TAD. But this is the life I've chosen for myself. It's not like my other job is in A&E, so I will save you the trouble of telling me to shut it, by pre-emptively shutting it.

May has disappeared in a flash. We had a very enjoyable gig at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine. After picking up Lesley and her drums at RIG Arts in Greenock we head up over the hills and towards Ayrshire. The weather is hummin and Gill lightens the mood with a description of the damage a machete can do to the human eye. I don't take my own eyes off the road, but I think I can hear the colour drain from Bart and Lesley's faces in the back. We're meeting Tom 'Sassy Paws' Dallas, who's on bass for these shows, at the venue and he therefore misses out on this visceral patter.

Soup skin

I promised myself that I wouldn't make any jokes at Ayrshire's expense on stage that night, after years of enjoying bamming up Scott from Kid Canaveral, but as soon as we're through the roundabout after Lochwinnoch there is a man driving what can only be described as an upside-down tin bath with a square hole cut in it, three wheels, an engine, a wooden cockpit, two number plates, and a Union Jack flying off the back of it. Of course he was wearing a leather aviator cap. But I digress. The Harbour Arts Centre is a brilliant wee venue. The banks of seating up and around the stage make for a very lively setting and the crowd are well up for it. Broken Chanter Version 26 take to the stage and we're made to feel very welcome indeed. We all thoroughly enjoy ourselves. I talk a power of shite again, but see the last blog re: if you encourage me...

Freckfest are doing a great thing in Irvine. If you're nearby, then you should 100% check them out. It's a bonnie spot as well.

We head home and unload the gear into the unit. It's late. At some point between Harbour Arts Centre and our practice space I lose my wee cardboard box with my Broken Chanter stamp, card reader, pens, and stickers in it. It's got a picture of a cassette on it and a Dymo-ed Broken Chanter label on it, in case you stumble across it.

The next night is in Stirling at the Tolbooth. There is a rave on in the Old Town Jail next to the venue and the scene outside looks like it should be accompanied by the text Do You Know Where Your Children Are? Sitting on the wall outside our dressing room is a teenage lassie with green hair who is incapable of controlling her neck. Her pal tries in earnest to hold her head up and dodge puke, as her verdant-barneted mate whiteys all over the shop. All of a sudden I have a flashback to drinking Rolov Spirit Drink mixed with cheap orange juice in a plastic bottle sometime in the year 2000/2001 in a lane somewhere near the university in Glasgow, on the way to trying to portray my sparsely-haired, acne-assaulted coupon as that of a definitely-over-18 student, to a credulous pub bouncer. Worked most weekends tbh. A different time.

Adam Ross of Randolph's Leap and A.R. Pinewood infamy is opening tonight as...Adam Ross. He's in fine form and voice, as always, and plays tunes for his from his recent folk album and a wheen of new songs, the prolific fud.

The Tolbooth really is a beautiful venue. It's a good set and we come off stage to the relief that the UK has not won Eurovision. A man at the merch desk sincerely tells me and Adam "not to worry" because [pointing] "he will stream both our records". Our bank balances high five each other in giddy anticipation of the £0.0008 coming their way.

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of watching one of my favourite people talk about the photos that she took for a book about one of my favourite albums, at the Aye Write festival.

Stephanie Gibson, who's done all of the album and promo shots for Broken Chanter, and is an all-round star, took a stunning series of photos for The Perfect Reminder - The Story of Trashcan Sinatras' I've Seen Everything. We even got a half hour acoustic set from the Trashcans.

Another remix of Horse Island has dropped, this time by the mysterious Carbon Hen Trek. Please stream it, playlist it, share it, and buy it. It's guid, like.

To celebrate this and the Tommy Perman Mix of Horse Island I've updated my Chantin Awa' playlist over on Satan's Turntable. It's full of remixes this time. Synergy, ken? You can listen to and LIKE/FOLLOW it here.

Coming up in June, I'm heading to the East Coast to do full band shows in EDINBURGH, ABERDEEN and DUNDEE. This will be my first Dundee show since September 2019 and my first Aberdeen show as Broken Chanter ever, following two previous abortive attempts - roof collapse and disease, respectively. I can't wait. Please get your tickets now to spare us squeaky bum anxiety from here. I'll joined on these dates by M John Henry (of De Rosa fame) and Mt Doubt (solo). Exciting, eh?

Into July, and I'll be playing a full band show at the Lantern House theatre in Cumbernauld. It's a brilliant new venue space, and if you're within driving distance of it you'd be in for a good night and potentially my last Scottish full band headline show for a wee while. Man of the Minch will be bringing his delicious queer galactic folk to wow the good people of North Lanarkshire that night too.

Check out my tour page for some solo support shows too.

I've also got a couple of other things that are yet to be announced. An announcement about announcements. YAWN. What a fanny. I'll be doing something a bit different at the start of June too, which should hopefully see the light of day later in the summer if I don't make a total hash of it. Shut it, mister mystery.

That's all folks. Come and see a show. Be kind to yourself.

davidx