The February Gig

An excellent evening yesterday at Poetry at the Great Grog, as displaced to a hall in St Cuthbert’s Church. The acoustics were good, the church officer was friendly and helpful, there was a good crowd, and the readings were terrific. Thanks to Alan Gay, Andrew Shields, Jane McKie and Tim Turnbull – all entirely different in style, but together showing the range of what good poetry can offer.

Before the gig, I had tied laminated posters to the railings outside on Lothian Road (a very busy city centre street) which simply said “POETRY” along with an arrow pointing to the venue. I wondered if any curious passer-by would follow the arrows and come in to see what was going on, but that didn’t happen. Maybe people aren’t really curious?

The snow began during the gig and was still falling heavily afterwards. Tim had his car but was staying in my living room rather than driving home. So was Andrew. So we piled into Tim’s car and I attempted to give directions through the snow and roadworks – in fact, the mile from the city centre to Haymarket station is, literally, one giant roadwork – we made it (we only got in the wrong lane once) and then shot home at about 20 miles per hour where a few welcome bottles of Tuborg awaited us.