The Electronic Wizard

Image: RampantScotland.com

I was forced to log on to the day job network at half past eleven on Tuesday night (after I’d written up and scheduled yesterday’s blog post), because of the downright arrogance of one of my colleagues – the contractor. Despite an earlier agreement made within the team, of which he was part, he did the exact opposite and put in jeopardy the integrity of one of our production systems because: “It’ll be fine – what can possibly go wrong?”

For those of you who have suffered computing problems or experienced pain at the hands of a company that did the opposite of what it promised, it is down to people like this. These are the people that give the I.T. industry a bad name, because they assume that since they have more years on them than the rest they know more, even when there’s been a cumulative decision to the contrary.

I ended up sleeping in slightly yesterday (7am) as a result, so I never got my early morning quiet time I like to take before leaving for the day job. Spending 20 minutes enjoying the silence of dawn with my rabbits and a fresh coffee sets me up for almost any day I might be about to embark. It also meant the work on Baccara Burning I had hoped to get done before I started work never transpired.

That aside, I had a lot of other things going on that made me happy. Day job itself went very well, I had an excellent quarterly review from my manager in the morning, and even better was that my shift finished at lunchtime. I had arranged a half-day so I could travel through to Glasgow for dinner with some of my family, and then attend the Jean Michel Michel Jarre concert at the Clyde Auditorium, aka, the Armadillo (see image above).

After nipping home to get changed and grab my overnight bag, I jumped a train to Glasgow and headed west. While travelling, I got a call from my Ed at News of the World. Two guest listed Press tickets were waiting for me if I wanted them. You should have seen my mother’s face when I told her she could come to the gig. She had only come into town on her way back from Perth, and was going to carry on home after our meal while my sister, father and I went to the gig.

With there still being a spare ticket up for grabs, my dad rang his old pal who had been unable to get tickets, to see if he wanted to take the remaining brief. Naturally, he jumped at the chance.

Our meal was in Glasgow’s famous Amber Regent Chinese restaurant. It’s a top class venue with a superb menu and cooking staff. I enjoyed a delicious chicken and sweetcorn soup to start, with chicken in green pepper and black bean sauce and the fluffiest egg fried rice I’ve ever had. Washed down with a bottle of Chianti, it turned into another hilarious meal for the Galbraith family, albeit, with sister Fiona in absentia due to her status as new mother.

After a quick pint in the Drum and Money where we also got ring side seats for watching two of Glasgow’s finest drunks battle it out, we headed off to the venue.

You can imagine our delight when on collecting my Press tickets, I saw they were directly behind the seats my sister had already booked for us in the first place. All five of us were able to sit together, front centre of the stage!

The gig was totally amazing. Lasers and light shows to go with some of the most powerful electronic wizardry I’ve ever heard. My father, who is a long-time Jarre fan, loved every minute of it, and on looking back today, it really was something special; a real one off. I took a few pictures; not very good but I’ll post them here tomorrow when I’ve had time to upload them.

After probably the most hilarious journey back to my sister’s flat, the in-car entertainment provided by my dad (Dave) and his pal (Clive) – think Jack and Victor crossed with Barney Rubble and Fred Flinstone – my sister and I went to the pub for a quickie before closing. I wrote up my notes for the gig review at a table, and then it was back to Lindsay’s to kip over.

I finished the review in my notebook by longhand on the train home this morning, and typed it up as soon as I got back. It’s now in the hands of the editor and should appear in this Sunday’s issue of the News of the World music supplement. I sent them two versions of the review – a long and short one – but I think this gig is only going to get around 150 words or so, so it will be nothing like my previous splash. I’ll post the full one if it’s not used.

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