Dark Tales and Experiences with Aidan Moffat

Image: Dave Galbraith

Not really got much to report on from Friday, the day being a full one at the office where I earn my mortgage payments. The evening, however, now that was a belter!

70th Birthday Celebration
My wife and daughter had headed through west earlier in the afternoon to do some shopping and walking around the city centre. I left work early—or as early as I can these days—and was supposed to meet them in George Square. No show; they were still up in Sauchiehall (pro: sucky hall) Street shopping, so I headed off to the pub on my lonesome to kill some time.

Those of you who know me will know I’m not exaggerating when I tell you of the thrill I still feel when arriving back in the city of Glasgow. I spent many hours of my youth in the town and lived there for several years as a young man; my own little flat in Shawlands, which was my base for a several years of fun and games.

But I digress slightly. The pub we were all to meet in was also one of my youth: The Auctioneers (oddly classed as a restaurant these days!) just off St. Vincent’s Street, was a popular post-work venue for me and my mates when I worked in the city. It was also handy for for the city’s night-life that usually followed on but that’s another story.

Eventually the family all met up: Gail, Laura, my mum and dad, Binny and her man, Derek, and then in the restaurant, Fiona and hubby Nolon.

It was quite a night. Here’s the highlights (click here if you can’t see the video):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSTTbeHakhM

Overtime
Saturday was a write off in terms of any writing related work because most of my time was spent working overtime for the day job. It was the last thing anyone really wants to be doing on a Saturday but it was a big implementation and it paid well.

Oceanlife
On Sunday I stuck to my regular pattern and went for a coffee and read of the paper in the morning. That didn’t take too long so on my way back home I popped into my local aquarium centre, Oceanlife, on Leith Walk. I bought a few new fish (half a dozen Rummy Nose Tetras, a Siamese fighter, two fabulous Angel fish – one silver and a beautiful dark one, and a Pleco) but was gutted to discover they are to close next month. Now I really am stuck for a good local shop to serve my tropical fish requirements.

Aidan Moffat
I got through some work in the afternoon and evening, with a detour in between to attend an event at the Sierra Metro art gallery in Newhaven. Aidan Moffat, formerly of  cult Scottish band, Arab Strap, was “exploring the ideas of transformation and de-contextualisation, reflecting the themes of Carmen Sylva by collective Peles Empire.”

It was fascinating stuff, with only about 20 of us in the entire gallery space. We were treated to several songs from Moffat before the lights were dimmed and a pre-recorded musical track turned up. It was a lengthy number with lots of different levels and angles; transporting us into a new age world with a Romanian ambience and an eerie quality as the rain fell outside. There were crickets, jungle sounds, tube stations and people all around us, and all of it to the backdrop of a choir-like elongated version of Kung Fu Fighting. The space we were in definitely made the experience so surreal and quite magical.

I would love to hear the track again though, this time with a pair of decent headphones on because it sounded like something you could easily sit back and close your eyes and have your mind explode with sights and smells and all kinds of new feelings.

To complete the 40-minute set, Moffat read to us a short story called (I think) The Girl in the Turquoise Dress. Here’s Moffat performing his ballad about a brain haemorrhage:

The Edinburgh Book Festival starts this week so I’d better get my arse into gear.

Ciao for now!