| JOMCCAFFERTY.COM | > HOME > NEWS > DIARY MAY 2003 | CONTACT | LEGAL | PRIVACY | <Extricated from the email newsletter of May 2003> Gigs 30th April Lemon Tree, Aberdeen Had a fantastic night with Lynn Sangster, Ian Simpson, Fiona Keenan and Keith Watson. 7th May Belmont Cinema, Aberdeen Another Belmont gig this time with Ellie Mulhern 16th May Eden Court Theatre, Inverness The Eden Court Theatre is beautiful, a mix of old and new. The stage is huge and I have to admit to being quite nervous! I met the Donnie Munro band, who were all very cool. Donnie Munro mentioned to the audience that I reminded him of Shawn Colvin, so I think I need to go and get a few albums of hers and see if it's true! I had a couple of drinks afterwards and went up to stay the night with my friend. The next day she drove me back to Inverness for the next leg of the journey. 17th May Corran Halls, Oban Oban is gorgeous. For some reason I had been leafing through an old diary recently, and found an entry under Oban from when I was a kid. All it said was Oban: Had tea, saw the cake. This made no sense to me until driving into Oban when I saw the folly on the hill. A very round building that, at night, gets lit up. Looking remarkably like a cake. Mystery solved. The gig itself was quite cool although I had to have an impromptu change of set due to quite a few of the audience attending both the gigs! 23rd May Kirkmichael International Guitar Festival This gig was quite interesting as it was 2 sets, one in the daytime and one at night. It was also the third outing of Chiar Daca, Ma Duareh (my Romanian love song) at the request of Alan who was playing bass in the Donnie Munro Band. Tommy Emmanuel was playing who is a phenomenal guitarist. Kirkmichael is a great place, and I was lucky enough to see is drenched in sunshine! 30th The Venue, Edinburgh After traffic jams, pouring rain and a burst tire, we arrived at the venue. Soundcheck seemed ok but when I got on stage I couldn't hear a thing. I even asked the sound guy to try to do something about it but to no avail. The monitor guy had disappeared. Very helpful. However, it was a packed out venue and it seemed most people were enjoying it, and so I enjoyed it too. Got rather plastered in the Black Bull and my guitar got knocked over twice. Spent night in Edinburgh with some hospitable friends (thanks guys). 31st Loch Centre, Tranent The Loch Centre is a big room with loads of echo so soundcheck was rather painful but it got sorted out. Recording I've done a few sketches, one for Dangerous Ground and one for Chiar Daca, Ma Duareh. Both new songs. I'm not sure where I want them to go stylistically so I've left them quite bare so I can have a think about it. It's quite difficult to think of how to produce work that has been primarily acoustic for so long, but I'm getting there! I'm going to be getting a small set up to do my own sketches at home. Hopefully I can find the direction I'm looking for. Gossip I saw some great bands at Go North, my favourite being The Ruffness who were phenomenal! I bought their cd straight after the gig and it's brilliant. Go to www.ruffness.com for more details. Work's been hectic as usual, so not much social life for me! Ceiling caves in: On the 27th, I was sitting at my computer in the early evening listening to the news when all of a sudden there was the most tremendous crash from the bedroom. I ran through to find that half of my ceiling had decided to have a closer look at my floor (and bed and chest of drawers and hairdryer and phone and lamp) My neighbours ran through to find out what was going on only to find me shaken and to be honest quite weepy, staring at the havoc. The mess was astounding, and took ages to clear up! Next Month June is going to be fairly quiet on the music front while I start the real groundwork on the album. Take care, and hope you're all fine, Jo < Back to the News page for the full diary list