Woodford Day Dunno (Paul)

Damn the gypsies make good coffee.

It's just after midnight on I think Tuesday, although I guess it's now technically Wednesday. I'm really not sure anymore. It only matters when it comes to remembering gigs anyway. You know where you are in the program because the previous day's page is dusty, tattered and most likely has coffee, kofka balls and Byron Bay Doughnut stains on it. I'm in the wonderfully-named Green Room, and it's just occurred to me that perhaps Green Rooms are thus named because they're places of peace and solace, away from the madness that surrounds. People are asleep on the giant bed pallets, catching a few zeds under the cool of the huge fans in here. It's a nice place to sit, recharge (both body and iPhone) and people watch. These blogs take me ages to write, not because I'm ogling famous types, but simply because I get sidetracked by the interesting people. There are ten thousand stories at this festival, and I want to write about them all.

But I'm here to write about ours.

I'm really proud of that segue!

So today, I met Dougie MacLean.

I'm not going to go into details about how I feel about his music; everyone in the band has been influenced by him in a very personal way, but I'll just mention that seeing Dougie perform live has been pretty much at the top of my musical to-do list for well, over twenty years. And to see him perform then get to chat and play with him…

As a performer, he is just sublime. Music, humour, and and amazing self-deprecating sense of self that has audiences sitting mesmerised. When he struck up those wonderful first chords of 'Not Lie Down' (which I've been picking at soundchecks but never performing for years), I was lost.

When you meet people who have had a profound effect on you (and I'm talking about meeting them here on professional level rather than as a fan, as we're all here to perform at the festival) it can go many different ways, but we all kind of knew that he'd be great. But that initial moment when you strike up conversation is always tricky. It's very easy, particularly with someone held in such esteem as Dougie, to make a complete arse out of one's self, but he's a wonderfully warm and at-ease character so all went well. We're going to be playing again at the Cygnet Festival next week, along with Dougie so we wanted to make sure we got off on a good foot! Some stonking tunes and geeky guitar talk was a great start! Now I have to work on the idea of playing something together at Cygnet. The idea has been floated (and very well received). Watch this space...