Locally based band Whisky Kiss are on the move again. In the first of a new series, bassist Iain MacPhail looks backward and forward to an exciting month, some of which will be spent halfway across the globe.
Hello again Spurtle and Broughton!
Many thanks for hosting our latest blog as Whisky Kiss prepare to go global with gigs in Shanghai, Oman and Glasgow.
Shanghai will be the furthest east the band have been. Normally if someone looks to book us for a gig in the 'far East', we assume they mean East Lothian, somewhere like Carberry or Lennoxlove. Looking beyond East Lothian, there was one memorably extreme case of a 'new money' booking for the band in the Borders village of Grantshouse. At the risk of breaking a confidence, that guy wasn't even called Grant, and it certainly looked too expensive to be his house, if you get my drift.
Talking of the recently refurbished Carberry Tower in East Lothian, we played there recently for a gig organised by one Kenny Logan, and there to greet everyone in the foyer was a rather fantastic Medieval suit of armour. Being the cheeky chappie band that we are, we quickly set up a mic. in front of the gallant knight (see pic.), and took suggestions on what medieval songs he might have been singing. Some great suggestions came forth, forsooth, noteworthy entries including: 'Is this the way to Armour Villa' and '(I love you) Joust the way you are'. But my fair maidens and gentlemen, the winner by a medieval country mile was the suggestion that the knight in shining armour was performing a cover version of Barry White's 'My Fist, My Lance, My Everything'. Ouch!
Thankfully, our never-ending willingness to have a Pun Down has not put everybody off our band (yet), and we are delighted to beh aving a fabulous November this year. We began the month by playing at the launch event for Glasgow2014 (Commonwealth Games ). We had a great time, the highlight being when the signed Rangers football top in the raffle was won by Celtic's accountant.
[img_assist|nid=2333|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=161|height=200]On that occasion, Whisky Kiss were delighted to be introduced onto the stage by none other than the BBC's Hazel Irvine.
She was absolutely great company, and we got off to a flyer, seeing as our first intro to her was when she wandered into our dressing room whilst Ewan, our piper, was (shall we say) only halfway through putting his kilt on. Cue one red-faced piper, and one totally cool and unflustered Beeb reporter!
I jumped into the silence with a hasty 'Hazel, great to meet you. Let me introduce you to, erm, Ewan …" No pics of that one, ladies, I'm afraid. (You'll have to make do with him tuning-up, right.)
The last time we'd seen a lot of Hazel Irvine was during the last Olympics (held in China) where she had to wake up every morning to spend hour after hour with Adrian Chiles presenting Olympic Breakfast. Poor girl, can you imagine? At best we'd describe that as 'character building'. One was tempted to ask if, following that experience, a night out with Whisky Kiss felt like some form of divine reward for passing the perseverance test!
[img_assist|nid=2334|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=91]So, that's been the month so far. We will be delighted to keep you up to date with the 'haps' of our trip to China and the Gulf. Our piper is (incredibly) going to be coming to China literally for the day, as his flights have been booked in such a way that he will arrive in time for the gig in Shanghai on the Saturday, but he'll be home in time for the X Factor Results show on the Sunday night. Can you imagine?
Bye for now
Iain and all at Whisky Kiss