Camera Obscura

Anyway, we’re just back from the lovely St. Malo in Brittany, France, where we played La Route du Rock festival as the sun went down. I love playing outdoors in the evening; as if the romance of the fading sunlight wasn’t enough, there’s also the pleasure of being that bit higher up on the bill. No ego there or anything…

I have a survivable smattering of three languages (in addition to my not very Glaswegian Scottish English), and try my best at all three whenever I get the opportunity. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to get them a bit off in terms of geography, and frequently say “por favor” or “bitte” where I should say “s’il vous plait”, for example. I compound this bumbling by attempting to speak with the most over-egged French, Spanish or German accent I can muster. The harder I try to fit in, the more apparent it is that I do not.

That said – my lingo skills are next to native when compared to the spectacular effort of another (past or present) member of this band a few years back, in Madrid. When approached by a little old woman who began chatting enthusiastically with him/her/ in a supermarket queue, this person looked around, panic-stricken, and when the help (brutally, intentionally) didn’t arrive, they blurted out “NO SPEAKO SPANO!”

There’s always someone worse off than yourself. Green Man Festival next. No speako Welsho. Respectfully.

Hello.

This morning I woke up too early, to a horrible alarm clock which I had forgotten to unset, and it gave me chest pains. To put matters right, I tried waking up all over again, this time to Linda Thompson’s Versatile Heart. Things have improved dramatically as a result.

We’re at Lee’s Palace, Toronto tonight, which has been sold out for some time apparently. So thanks for that, Torontonians, from us Glasgonians.

Kenny

It’s a night off. We’ve stopped for the day in Lincolon, Nebraska, en route to Denver. I’m up the back of the bus listening to the beautiful and bizarre Dangermouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch collaboration, Dark Night of the Soul, streamed from Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current. That’s a station worth checking out if you haven’t already.

We did a little live session for them in their St Paul studio – complete with funny mistakes and everything – then went on to play a show in the fabulous Cedar Cultural Center (ooh check my American spelling). What a beautiful place to play, and what lovely, funny, friendly staff. Thank you all so much. We would like to apologise for not putting your records back after dj-ing with them in the wonderful dressing room. And for, er, acquiring a wig from the huge dressing up box. Please forgive me – I get occasional bouts of hair nostalgia. The crowd were great too, by the way, as they always have been here.

In other news, and just to further illustrate the extent to which we take nothing to do with anything Belle and Sebastian related – I recently played guitar, along with The Attic Lights’ Tim Davidson, on a song for Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl adventure. He posted a little blog about it, and you can also listen here.

Bluebird Theatre and some pretty special hot dogs next…

Kenny