Party like it’s 1969

On Sunday we went to the Fringe in Edinburgh, our second visit this year. This time we travelled down from Ullapool in the morning, went to the Fringe in the afternoon and travelled back to Ullapool the next morning after spending the night in a Premier Inn at Edinburgh Park. Our first show was Stewart Lee. He is not for the faint-hearted and the twists and turns in his thinking made my brain nip. He’s very clever as well as funny. Alfie Moore was much more conventional but also very funny in a gentle way, he’s a traffic policeman who asked the audience to chime in on a case of speeding; very entertaining. After a reviving drink outside a restaurant in George Street we met up with Gordon to see Omid Djalili. He was very good although I thought that he got off to quite a hesitant start. Once he got going though he was very thought-provoking and topical. 

When we went outside the street was running with water; we had just missed a torrential downpour. This was quite lucky because we had carelessly left our waterproofs at the hotel. We walked up to the old town and had an excellent curry at Solti’s, before meeting Gordon’s friend Tom and the four of us went to our last gig of the day at the Queen’s Hall; Lindisfarne.

It was really great and I was so glad that we went. It must be about thirty years since I last saw them perform live. The group are mostly ancient except for Alan Hull’s son-in-law who is a bit younger than us and is the lead singer on the majority of the songs. The only truly original member of the group is Rod Clements, but the rest of them have come and gone over the years so they have all worked together for a long time. There was a happy atmosphere (although most of the audience remained seated rather than dancing due to their advanced age!) and Rod Clements gave us some good chat in between the songs, including telling us to “party like it’s 1969” which I thought was very funny. Needless to say my favourite song was Run for Home, but I liked many others too, especially Lady Eleanor and Meet Me on the Corner. At the end I was chatting to a wee man who was in a wheelchair and his wife, and he said that he didn’t know when he had last enjoyed himself so much. It was a very good day.