Dunstaffnage Festival, Oban 28/07/07

Or Pikey¹s Party, as it was once known.
Hanging about backstage hours before we were due to go on, I spotted a wee guy in a jamaican flag track suit, looking a bit lost, and, figuring that he was probably with Pama International, an English reggae/soul act on the same stage as us, I caught his eye for a chat.


photo: Johnny Brady

"Want some Buckfast?" I asked, intending him to take a wee uppy-downy.
"I¹ll go get a cup," he said, which he did, then took a quarter of the bottle.
"Thanks," he said. "Interesting taste," he added, before wandering off again.

Disco comes over at this point, and I say to him, "that wee guy just took a big dose of my only bottle of Bucky," all pure affronted like.

Disco replies "that wee guy is Lynval Golding!! y¹know, The Specials guitarist!"
I say ""No.."
He says "Oh yes!"
I say "he can have all the Bucky he wants!."

Later, aware that Lynval was watching our set from the side of the stage, Disco and myself gave it complete laldy with the jumping about, not wanting to disappoint the great man, and that bounciness spread to Mick, and Helen, and of course Jane, so we think it was a pretty good show, though it was all a bit of a blur cos I¹d finished the Bucky by then, and the smoke machine was in overdrive.

Highlight: having our own beer waiter on stage, thanks to super roadie Jim Brady, a major bout of thirsty Stan obscenity.was quelled.

Lowlight: as was the case at last year¹s Dunstaffnage, the security guys seemed a bit unhinged. Last time, we got chinned for skipping stones on the loch, this time we got chucked out of the artistes 'lounge' tent for daring to actually sit on their hand-stitched cushions. Bizarre.