Robert in lockdown!
Normally this week I would be writing about the World Pipe Band Championships which take place every year on Glasgow Green. I would be reporting a selection of the winners, including the grade 1 world champions, and more than likely telling a few anecdotes from the fringe events.
Some of those fringe events would be part of Piping Live – the annual week-long festival of piping. Others would be less formal. Last year, I remember standing on Gray Street (between the Park Bar and the Snaffle Bit) in the pouring rain with the one-off outside bar doing a roaring trade as hundreds of pipers and drummers enjoyed the social side of the championships despite the horrible weather.
This year, with a cruel irony that felt somehow inevitable, Glasgow experienced the best weather that particular weekend has seen in years – with temperatures reaching the high 20s and not even a breath of wind – yet Gray Street lay empty. I think it is wise not to look at a calendar or a diary until the summer is over because every weekend only throws up reminders of what would have been going on had things being normal.
The good old Scottish weather playing tricks with us hasn’t helped either. The heart of lockdown (when everybody was confined to barracks) was a heatwave. Then the kids go back to school and the sun comes out again! And I dare say pipers the world over would have been hearing of the sun in Scotland this weekend and wishing they were out strutting their stuff on Glasgow Green.
It reminds me of the old story of the two Scottish soldiers lying in the desert one day in scorching heat. One turns to the other and says: goodness me, it would have been the Tobermory Games today! The other one said: well they’ve got a fine day for it!
As I’ve mentioned a number of times in this column over the last few months, there are so many aspects of recording and filming that have changed due to the coronavirus. I’ve written about having to film a virtual gig two metres apart from my band mates; having a virtual interview between Glasgow and Inverness facilitated by a guy in London; and even having to dress up as an alien and film myself in my flat while folk looking out windows across the road thought they were hallucinating!
Last week, though, while doing a bit of filming at Pacific Quay for a BBC Alba kids programme, I had a new experience altogether. I had to put on my own TV make up!
The BBC make-up lady was on hand to tell me what to do; but it turned out I wasn’t much use. ‘Don’t tell any of my pals about this,’ I joked with her. Then, as soon as I was finished, with it being a Friday, I went off and met said pals...forgetting I still had a full face of television make up on!
I won’t be living that one down for some time.