Glasgow Letter
For the second week in a row, I find myself writing the Glasgow Letter from Newcastle. Last week, we were in HMV to promote our new album. Seven days later, we’re in the Newcastle University Student Union as part of our full UK tour scheduled for the next two and a half weeks south of the border.
There is little I can do to make this relevant to the Glasgow Letter except for drawing on a few obvious similarities between the two cities. For a start, I find Geordies very similar to Glaswegians in the way they make small talk no matter the circumstance. Secondly, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge that crosses the Tyne bears an undeniable resemblance to Glasgow’s “squinty bridge” – or Clyde Arc to give it its Sunday name. Thirdly, one of Newcastle’s most famous sons, Mark Knopfler, was born in Glasgow. The writer of the Local Hero theme (adopted by Newcastle United as a match day anthem) actually went to Bearsden primary school.
These, perhaps, are tenuous links; but never let it be said I don’t try and relate this article to Glasgow each week!
Joking aside, you may recall I was very excited in Newcastle last week because our album was sitting at number six in the Official UK Album Chart midweek. As I wrote at the time, I knew it would slip back as the week progressed and we competed with all the major streaming artists; but, to our delight and disbelief, we ultimately held onto a top 15 position – finishing at 13 in the UK (and number one in Scotland) when the final chart was announced last Friday.
I mention this merely as a thank you to anyone who supported us by buying the record, downloading, or streaming to help us chart. You made four lads very, very happy.
I’ll finish with a heart warming story. On our way to our show in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, last week (the last of the Scottish tour dates) another driver bumped into the side of our van on the dual carriageway coming through Dundee. This resulted in us giving our details to a policeman at the side of the road. As we did so, we heard a voice saying “cracking show in Aberdeen last night, lads!” A lady had spotted our van and stopped to check we were OK. Not only that, she offered to take some of our equipment in her own car to Edinburgh to help us out. Her offer totally epitomised the support we had from our fans over the last few weeks and we are so incredibly grateful for it.