Travel

A weekend in Edinburgh

By nathanmckean ⋅ June 7, 2008 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

Last weekend I headed up to Edinburgh for Vodafone’s first TBA gig of the year: The Sugababes, the Hoosiers and The Feeling in Princes Street Gardens.

Rather than just go up for the gig on the Sunday, I decided to make a weekend out of it. So after an early 5am wakeup, I grabbed the 7am train to Edinburgh, pulling in to Edinburgh Waverley at about 11:30. First stop was to go check out construction of the stage as I was curious as to where it would be. They couldn’t have picked a better spot, right at the foot of Edinburgh Castle. The day was gorgeous, mid 20s and sunny without a cloud in the sky - everything was looking up.

After checking into my hotel (The George) which surprisingly was the best value for money available at such short notice (and I’d definately recommend it) I caught up with some of the others that were up for the gig and had a few drinks on George St, before heading off for dinner.

Dinner at Blue was really nice. I had a haggis/black pudding starter (neither of which I’d had before) and not knowing what to expect, it was actually really nice… but not a patch on the chicken with wild mushroom stuffing main.

Then things got a little messy as we headed for a few more bars/clubs and long story short I rolled into bed somewhere around 4:30… that was a full day!

The next morning I woke to a nurofen starter at 9:30 before heading for a full Scottish breakfast and then off to the gig. The day was not a patch on Saturday’s weather - the clouds had come across and were looking ominous. I met Chantel nearby who I hadn’t seen since she moved up there and in we went and got a great position.

First up were the Sugababes, accompanied by minor spots of rain which turned into a light mist. As long as it didn’t get any heavier, the weather would be ok. The music was surprisingly entertaining as I’m not particularly a girl-band fan, although I am a big fan of Heidi. Some singing and dancing later and a few quite freaky look-a-likey back up dancers they left to strong applause… but by then, the light rain had become quite heavy, and I was just there in a shirt and jeans.

A fifteen minute break later and the Hoosiers hit the stage complete with a spiderman-suited keyboardist and a brass section of skeletons who also doubled as back up singers. The Hoosiers got my vote for gig of the day - both in terms of the music and their overall entertainment value - even if by this stage I was soaked with rain - despite a friend having brought an umbrella around.

Last on stage was The Feeling who were very energetic, and I like their music, but their constant copy-book powerstances and stage antics just seemed very rehearsed as opposed to the sponteneity that I felt they were trying to achieve. Still, an impressive performance from a band I didn’t know that much about.

With the gig ending, we headed off for a couple of drinks in a oub across town before I had to hop the train back to London - my second 4.5-5 hour train journey in two days… after that though, it was nice to be home (and straight to bed).

Thanks all for a great weekend.

Tags: edinburgh, scotland, tba, Work