Mostly Autumn

Glasgow University

23 March 2006

She was perfect.

There's always a dilemma at these standing gigs: do I stay further back and get a better sound but a worse view or...

No, there's no dilemma really. Right up against the stage, right-hand side, where I can forget that the crowd exists, and the music is being played for me personally. Yes the sound is a bit chaotic so I can't be objective about the quality, but right from the first solo of the first song (The Last Climb) I knew I was in a perfect spot.

I suppose people will want to know how they managed without Iain Jennings? The simple answer is "very well". As I was expecting, Angela handled the majority of the keyboard parts. I spent all day going over songs in my head and trying to work out what they couldn't do if she was playing keyboards instead of flute parts, and came up with a depressingly-long list. But I needn't have worried. With some obvious rearrangements, and a bit of a shift of emphasis from keyboard to flute parts (Out of the Inn, Shindig, and you know the keyboard melody in the middle of Evergreen? I always thought it should be played by the flute, and now...)

And she was perfect. I could have just stopped writing there...