Back To Shore

I’ve been home from Scotland for a few days now. Most of the time all I did was being lazy and reading the latest Inspector Lynley novel, which I finished late last night. I thought I might start my vacation recap(s) with the main reason I decided to go on vacation in Scotland: Frank Turner’s Lost Evenings Festival VIII in Edinburgh last week. And before I delve a bit more into the wonderful gigs and experiences and my 4 minutes on that Lost Evenings stage, I’d like to share a few words on the fact that the festival will be held in Dallas, Texas next year. 

I had and still have many of thoughts on that. Thoughts which stand in conflict with each other to some degree. Thoughts on Frank’s lengthy statement on why Dallas, Texas of all places and what I thought was lacking from it. Thoughts on how the online discourse about this decision was conducted, at least the bits and pieces I saw. At first I did not want say anything about it online. Last night after all I tried writing my thoughts down, but it turned into a convoluted and preachy piece and was rather passive aggressive towards some of who’ve been commenting about it. And I didn’t like that about myself, so that text was binned. 

In short: I have sort of come around to the idea of it being held in Texas next year. I won’t be going, but I haven’t been to either of the ones held in North America so far and I most probably will never be attending one even if it was held in the most liberal city in Canada.

What helped me shift my – at first very critical – perspective about Dallas were comments left on one of the many Facebook posts about it. I don’t recall which post and I won’t wade back into the cesspit to find it. But these comments were a reminder that the idea of Lost Evenings had always been to bring this particular festival and all it entails – panels, open mic, fundraising, community, making friends, hearing 84 different Frank songs in a row – to as many people in as many different regions as possible. The fact that a (small) subsection of the larger fan community is willing (and able !!) to travel from all over the world or even just from one coast to the other and by doing that year after year have quickly created a “global / international LE community” is a wonderful side-effect. But possibly – I’m having a wild guess here – that might not have been Frank’s main intention with this travelling festival concept. Again referring to the comments I mentioned above: If gathering the same global community year after year had been the main purpose, he could have just started doing “Frank Turner Festival Cruises”. Which also makes people travel from all over the world to gather in one location – a cruise ship – to experience 4 days of live music and community and all that. That furthermore is an already well established concept and probably much easier to pull off than organizing a festival in a different place each year. As someone who works in the climate action field I object to the festival cruise concept with a passion and I’m very glad Lost Evenings doesn’t fall in that category, but that’s just me. 

So, maybe let’s all take a step back and think for a moment about why Frank wants to do the festival in a different location each year. And consider that it might not (always) be about gathering the same global fan community in a (different) room somewhere each year? 

I have more thoughts on all of it, but this was the one I felt was missing in most of the online discourse I’ve seen.

Stepping off the soapbox now. 

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Lost Evenings in Edinburgh! Plus one of the warm-up shows in Aberdeen. I had a great time all in all. Due to the festival venue being a bit outside the city and our accommodation being on the other side of the city, I didn’t really partake in any of the usual festival community stuff like I used to at previous festivals. I had consider going to the “Writing Panel” on day 2, but I knew the room would be small and getting in would have meant coming to the venue and start queuing before 11 probably. Which meant that I would have to leave “home” before 10. By the end of night 1 I knew that I would be too exhausted to make myself to do that. I admit I wasn’t too keen on many of the support bands or the acts on the NA stage, so most of the nights we didn’t make it to the venue until 7 or 7.30. After Doors anyway. So I didn’t have all that much of the festival community experience this time and hadn’t said Hi to as many people I knew from previous gigs. Next time in 2027, right? But also there was more to do and see in Edinburgh. Some of which will be shared – via photos at least – in a different post later. 

By the end of night 1 my friend and I ran into Bryan from Koo Koo. My friend has known them for years and because Bryan is such a nice guy and because we know no-one really gets embarrassed or shamed during the silly games on stage, we let him talk us into being part of it on the last night. For the next three days I was surprisingly chill about the prospect of stepping on stage in front of 3.000 people and doing a silly “air bagpipe competition”. Yes, we had been told in advance so we spent that Sunday morning browsing some of the tackier souvenir shops on the Royal Mile for cheap accessoires. I still wasn’t too nervous when we were brought backstage and given last instructions plus a few sips of Buckfast to fortify us. I think by then it might have been the adrenaline that kept my nerves calm. Adrenaline because I was about to make a fool of myself by pretending to play bagpipes in a silly Scottish costume in front of 3.000 people. Potentially also being witnessed by Frank & the Sleeping Souls in the wings. And I didn’t really care.

From the first three nights and previous festivals where I saw Koo Koo do similar stuff, I knew that the crowd would be kind and the reaction would be positive. At Lost Evenings we are a community of like minded people after all. So I wasn’t really scared if I looked stupid. I mean, I KNEW I looked stupid, but I also knew no-one down in the crowd would care. It was fun! It was also over before I knew it and in less than 4 minutes we were shepherded back from the stage, while Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls entered the stage from the other side. How absolutely surreal! We took a quick photo with Koo Koo backstage and when we were led back to the space where we left our things I had last glimpse of Callum and then “Eulogy” started. An absolute crazy experience.

I am so glad I stepped out of my comfortzone and allowed myself too look silly in front of 3.000 (very friendly) people. I mean, how many people can say they have stood on and have gotten a round of applause on a Lost Evenings stage? 

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I stopped doing gig recaps years ago, so I won’t be starting with that again, but here is a tiny recap and some memories from the five shows I’ve seen while I was in Scotland. I went up to Aberdeen for the first warm-up show on Sunday 21st. The main reason for that was that it was my show #75 and I wanted that to happen at a smaller, more memorable place than the first night of Lost Evenings. It’s nerdy and silly, I know, but what can I say. I also had a chance to briefly chat to Frank after that gig, which is always nice and I admit I had hoped for that being possible after the smaller gigs.

That warm-up show was about half of the setlist of night 1 – Back in the Day. I admit I had expected a few more proper vintage rarities and B-sides that night and all, but it was still a amazing start to the festival. Frank wore a kilt! 

Night 2 – Acoustic Duo will be stored in my memory for a loooooong looooong time. Afterwards I said, that it might have been my favourite Frank Turner show so far, 12 years and 77 shows in. And I stand by that! Not necessarily because it was the perfect setlist, as there are always a few songs I don’t care for as much as I do care about others. But even the songs that weren’t among my favourites I liked fine. The magic of that night was that the whole room knew and sang along to all the words to all the good old classics. The songs about community and friendship and resilience. The old anthems about keep fighting the good fight (Thatcher Fucked the Kids, Love, Ire & Song…) There also were most of my favourite songs from No Man’s Land (Jinny Bingham, William Blake…). Not all that many people knew all the words as well as I did, but that didn’t stop me from singing along from the top of my lungs. I usually can only do that in my car. What a perfect, perfect night! 

Night 3 – Positive Songs For Negative People and songs from that era. It was great show as well, because the album has a few great singalong songs and it comes with a lot of memories. That album tour was the first proper one after I had discovered Frank in late 2013 and thus holds a special set of memories.

Night 4 – Bagpipes (see above) and a Greatest Hits Set and also some of the new album stuff, which all in all always makes for a great night. 

All in all a great weekend and the memory of night 2 will definitely help me through potentially darker times for a while. Thanks for that Frank Turner. 

Lyrics: “Rivers” – Frank Turner, 2011

For reasons unknown quite a few of the “self care” podcasts I recently listened to, dealt with how our phones are messing with our brains and lives and everything. I paraphrase here, obviously. But basically it’s true and not really a new discovery. One things that stuck with me though from a chat with Cal Newport about his book “Slow Productivity” was the “phone as distraction” issue. It focused on the phone as means of distraction from thoughts and such Somehow this time it clicked for me, because I know I (too) often use my phone – and other media like TV shows and even books to an extent – as a distraction. But when he talked about how good it can be to really just be with your thought, I figured out why I distracted myself so much. Because for most of my life my mind was a worried and anxious place to be in. Lots of self-loathing, lots of negative self-talk… of course I did not wanted to be there.

I’m trying to be less on my phone and more in the moment, starting with this trip by very consciously not sharing it all each day on Instagram (which is the social media app I’m on the most these days). So, this trip: Scotland! Finally again. The first three days went fine, though not without hiccups, but I managed to deal with all of them so far, so no big deal.

Being behind the wheel in the UK felt familiar very quickly, the weather so far was…. Scottish (lots of rain, but also some nicer times) and my apartment in the depth of rural Perthshire is quite cozy. And when I say rural, I mean it. I see and hear cattle grazing from the window while I type this.

“Sightseeing” so far: The Kelpies (I mean, how can I now, when I fly into Edinburgh and have to drive west), Drummond Castle Gardens and a long drive up (and back) Cairngorms National Park for a guided summit walk (not from the ground, but the Mountain Railway Top Station). There will be more excursions over the next few days, depending on the weather and what I feel like doing and then it’s over to Dundee on the weekend. All in all I’ll try to be in front of screens (phone and computer) a bit less and just watch the amazing, constantly changing Scottish sky a bit more.

Lyrics: “Isabel” – Frank Turner, 2009

A friend and I went to an open air “musical gala” last night and we had fun. On the way back we started chatting about how musicals seem to have changed over the years. I think there might be different definitions of the term “musical” for different generations. Once I said it I felt very old for a moment. To me a musical is a piece of art, where the book / plot and the music have originally been created for this piece of art. I know by now there are many different versions of musicals out there, centered around well known music of a band or artist. “We Will Rock You” comes to mind first of all, I guess. I learned the term jukebox musical for these shows last night. Then of course there are the musicals based on well known films: “The Bodyguard”, “Back to the Future”, “Pretty Woman” and so on which may or may not include song from those films. I don’t quite get the appeal of those to be honest. The idea of rewatching a movie from my youth put on a stage with added music? Is it nostalgia? I think there is a whole media psychology field around our desire to go back in time to things we know and love, because the world we live in right now is uncertain and scary and all that. But I still don’t get it in regards to musical theatre and I say that as someone who returns to watch the same old TV shows over and over again as sort of a comfort watch. Also last night I learned that there is a tendency – maybe only in Germany – to create musicals around well known novels (“Rebecca”) or well known artists, like “Mozart”.

Anyway, this morning when I started gathering ideas for this post in my mind, I thought I’d cite “My Fair Lady” from 1956 (proper vintage) or “Cats” from 1981 (not so vintage in my eyes, but still decades old!) as examples for proper original musicals, with an original plot and songs and all. Luckily – before I could make a fool of myself – I remembered that the first one is based on a play – “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw, 1913 – and the latter on the poetry collection “Old Possums Books of Practical Cats” by T.S. Eliot, 1939. So both not quite as original as I had thought for a moment. I know there are still many musicals which might support my argument.

And it’s not even an argument as such, just an observation as to how definitions and views of stuff change over time. Is “The Jungle Book” an animated film? A musical film? A musical as such? For me it’s always been a film first, a musical film second. Semantics, probably, I know. But for that reason I wouldn’t have necessarily expected to hear Disney songs featured in a “musical gala”. To bring my non-sequential rambling back full circle, isn’t it interesting to think that most of the Disney musical films are based on fictional works from others and thus aren’t an original either?

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The years rolled by as well, when I started to work out how many times I have been to Scotland before this upcoming trip. When I tell people about where I’m going on vacation I also often mentioned that I’ve been there “loads of times” before, but how many in fact? This right now is the point where I regret to never have been willing enough to go through the hassle of doing a printed photo book of these trips. I do have the photos stored on my computer (time for some backup, maybe?) and I have been documenting some parts of it in blog posts, which are still available to me, even if I have taken lots of stuff down by now.

Even with the digital photos I have kept, I haven’t always kept the travel documentation (places, routes and such) and I regret that a bit by now. Or right this moment anyway. Maybe putting together a proper Scotland travel photo book from the last 16 years is a project for end of the year.

I am not going to share all that here now or ever, but I thought a quick run through the years might be fun. For me anyway.

June 2009
The first trip. I had bought the novel “Outlander” a few years before and decided going to Scotland might be a good time to finally start reading it. I started reading on the first leg of my train journey and hadn’t even left mainland Europe when I was already hooked. I stayed in London for a bit, took a train up and stayed in Glasgow for a few days, before I took a 5 days tour (group, mini bus) around the Highlands (2 nights in Inverness, 2 nights on Skye) and I then ended with a few days in Edinburgh and back home via London again.

The group tour took me to Ardvreck Castle for the first time. Instant love and I can’t even say why. It’s just a small crumbled remain of a castle.

August 2012
Friends and I went over with our own (their) car. Ferry to Newcastle, avoiding the big cities with a European car. Up through the highlands, Perth, Inverness, Skye, Fort William…. those kind of places.

August 2015
Another few days in Edinburgh and Glasgow and then I took the small plane to Stornoway on Lewis (Outer Hebrides), where I stayed for about a week. I picked this remote place, because I wanted to practice driving a rental car in the UK (‘wrong’ side of the road) and thought there this would be a good small place to do so. I was right.

August 2016
That was my Outlander / North Coast 500 trip. The show had been on for two seasons and there already was quite a lot of information about filming locations and such. Ten years later there is a whole Outlander based tourist industry, which is cool and all, but I’m kind of glad I was there before the big hype.

December 2016
Edinburgh for a weekend in December, because Frank Turner was playing and it was my 20th show. What can I say? Fangirl!

September 2017
The first My Peak Challenge Event (I have left that movement by now, because it was getting kind of expensive, and I didn’t made the friendships / connections through it as others seem to have). Glasgow first, then another trip through the Highlands. I bagged my first Munro: Loch Lomond.

2019
The 2nd My Peak Challenge Event in Edinburgh followed by another road trip through part of the Highlands. Another Munro.

June 2023
Finally back after the travel-less pandemic years. I took the Caledonian Sleeper up to Inverness and back (won’t do that again). I stayed in Inverness for about a week and then Glamping in the Western Highlands, by the coast. Blissful solitude.

All those photos from up on mountains and such make me look much more outdoors-y than I am. I like to be out in nature and up hills / mountains on my vacation obviously, but don’t do that all that much the rest of the year around. Maybe I should start changing that…