September 2008

It all seems so long ago - September! But I seem to remember; there was a credit crunch - again! I'd mentioned that, eventually, the words 'credit crunch' would become so common place that soon you'd be hearing folk in the street shouting, 'Kylie, David, Danielle, Credit Crunch, come on in, your dinner's ready!'

A smart person from the BBC suggested to me that she was beginning to think it was the name of a breakfast cereal!

Anyway, last month (August) it was all 'mixing, mixing, mixing' but at the beginning of September, it was all rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal...

All was going well - I had Marco, Stuart and David and bassist John Spiers all working together, the sound was great.

But, as I had all this time at night, I decided to start varnishing the outside of the upstairs staircase - well, it would be easy and, as you know, I'm no stranger to DIY!

So there I was, about 7 metres high on my ladder, pot of varnish in one hand and brush in the other...then I felt it, the ladder slipping away from me. I looked down and saw the massive void that was the stairwell, 'it's okay, it's okay, just let it fall' I said to myself, perhaps speaking about the brush, the varnish, or perhaps even my body. And so I did, I let it fall...all of the above...and before I knew it, I had avoided falling down the stairwell and managed to manoeuvre my body onto the bottom of the new stairs - via the ladder's edge, the wall, the banister and the edge of 3 stairs - while still holding the brush and the varnish! Well, rather onto the stairs than right down to the bottom floor, right?

Needless to say, I was a bit flabbergasted (and winded). As soon as I fell, I said (out loud, whilst feeling for a broken rib or wrist) you've got a gig on Saturday, make sure nothing's broken.

And so, I poked around my ribs and, satisfied that nothing was broken, I scaled the ladders again to finish the job - no, not the breaking of the ribs, but the staircase!

Shock!

That's what took me back up those ladders - shock!

It was quite a fall...and when I came back down, feeling a little woozy and shakey, I looked under my t-shirt to find an eight-inch cut under my arm and ribs and bruises from the ankles up! Duh!!!

All surface stuff, nothing serious - but my ego was severely wounded - a hot bath for me - and lots of arnica - it was! I must admit, I'm still suffering from it - it's difficult to hug someone or even to play the guitar - never good when you've got a twelve-date tour coming up!

I worried that I may have trouble playing my guitar at the Tron, but as with all of these events, adrenalin kicks in and I was fine.

I'm glad too because here we were, first date of the tour, Tron Theatre in Glasgow (magnificent) and not a ticket to be found - imagine if the singer turned up and couldn't play? Not a comforting thought!

That thought takes me back to a night in 1996 when I had two nights off back-to-back, before my huge Celtic Connections show at the Concert Hall. I'd indulged in a few glasses of wine, not much, but enough to make me lose my footing while scaling the kitchen table (the dance floor), making me fall backwards onto my left wrist. The result was that I was in plaster up until the day before the show! In fact, when I went to have exploratory tests done (I'd told the folk at the hospital about my guitar hands) there was a load of NHS staff there, talking in hushed voices - 'oh my god,' I thought, 'they're going to have to amputate the hand' (not one bit dramatic, me!!!).

It turns out though, all these folk had tickets for the show and wanted to make sure my hand was okay and that it wouldn't be cancelled.

Anyway, the Tron; thankfully, like the Concert Hall, not being able to play was just a thought, because, like I said, I was fine. Better than that actually, I was great. The gig was great, the new songs were great, the band was great and the audience was awesome - what a fabby night. And, if you were one of the folk in the audience, thanks! Thanks for making it such a memorable night.

Marco and Stuart - as the WellGreen - opened up for us, which was a great start. The crowd loved it and it meant that when CL came on, it wasn't too big a change over. Also, the Carol Laula crowd just loved the stuff the guys were doing. Please, if you get a chance, check them out live, they're amazing. Check up on them on www.myspace.com/thewellgreen

Anyway, new record - Answers in the Mirror - Internet-released on 8th September. It was a great day, mainly because I've never really done an Internet release before, not solely anyway, but there was a healthy influx of orders so that felt good...

A full release will come in March/April 2009, but it's good to get a feel of how the record will do with the online thing...

Anyway, (I say that a lot, don't I???) Sunny Govan radio...a live session!

This was fun. The presenter was Tony Gaughin of Neon Tetra Records. What a guy! What a label!

It seems like all they want to do is to get contemporary Scottish music out to the masses and Tony seemed to really encompass that with the whole ethos of Neon Tetra and Sunny Govan. If you get a chance to tune in, the frequency is 103.5fm - it's worth it. Good fun and honest to goodness radio - plus, Caitlin and I may be getting our own show!!!!! Watch this space...

I made some new friends in St Andrews too - we had a show there and, although it wasn't sold out(!), we still shared with some friends, old and new...Plus, the Byre Theatre? What a venue...stellar!

The following week we had a few gigs - Peebles, Edinburgh, Govan and Falkirk (one of my faves on the tour) - but all great fun, really great fun! I had asked Marco and David to do those gigs with me and the combination of instruments actually really worked - I actually felt like Ricky-Lee Jones had just walked into the room a couple of times! Honestly? I feel blessed to be able to work with such talented folk! Also, playing with others makes it feel a wee bit warmer...not so lonely!

Speaking of which (talented folk, that is), I went to see Tom Urie in his play, a pie and a pint shoe - Sweet Home Balmaha. This was fantastic. A real look at Scottish writing and acting at it's absolute best. It was only on for a week in Glasgow, but if it comes on again, anywhere, I will let you know as soon as poss - this is really great!

At the end of September, I went to visit my lovely friend in Brussels - nothing much to say except that it was amazing to see her and her lovely new partner and baby. More especially though - and I might sound shallow when I say this - it was pretty spectacular to eat all that chocolate, all those chips and to drink all that lovely Belgian beer - especially as when we came home, we were right into DETOX!

The detox is fine now...this is the 4th time we've done it and, apart from being totally boring, we're so used to it that we know what it takes to get through it...also, I'm feeling more and more that I actually ENJOY it - please, don't tell anyone I said that!!!

DETOXtober

That's what I'm going to call this month from now on!

Although, it was pretty much the same as September, except without the crisps and wine!

Lots of live shows - all of which were great fun.

We did have a weird one though - weird, in a good way, if there can be such a thing!

The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen in the afternoon - kind of like a lunch-time gig. That was strange - although, we probably sold more CDs there than anywhere else - I guess folk couldn't hear themselves over their chewing and wanted to hear the records again!!!

Later that night, we were in Stonehaven - what a lovely place it is. The gig was great too, however, the wind was really tough and I felt like such a 'townie' who just couldn't handle the highland weather.

Reminds me again of another gig about a hundred years ago - maybe 1992 - while I was touring the album Still.

We got there, absolutely frozen stiff, managed to thaw out in time for the gig. Now, this was in Thurso - a particularly cold, and yet, beautiful, part, of Scotland! It must have been October/November times and all these people started pouring in - the guys all in shirt sleeves and the girls all with opened toed shoes, not flinching a bit in the cold - I had tears in my eyes!

But anyway, back to the present - the final night of the tour - PAISLEY! Really a homecoming gig!

I love playing Paisley - I keep seeing all these folk that I went to school with and thinking they look so much younger that I do. Then I realise that it's not them, it's their children! A weird feeling. And a great, amazing, fun gig.

At the end of detox - yeehar - I went for a Chinese meal with my beautiful god-daughter, Caitlin. It's a wee ritual she and I have - the Chinese meal thing...special fun and a special way to finish that bloody, boring detox!

So what if my clothes are falling off me? So what if I'm as healthy as a healthy person? I just wanted something with a strong taste - as Wendy Weatherby said, I'm retoxing now, rather well!

But back to the weird feeling of seeing a face you know...Another god-daughter who I'm looking forward to sharing a million memories with - my sister had her own baby - she's a wee miracle.

And it was weird when I saw her - I felt like I knew her from somewhere! I couldn't work out where, and I still can't. But I think it's because she looks so much like my sister did when she was just born and, although I can't actually remember, she must be somewhere back in my psyche...

There's also a nice wee twist - folk keep saying she looks so much like ME! Of course, as you can imagine, I'm just hating that!!!! Yeah...right!

And, just a wee spill into November - as if our hearts weren't bursting enough - my brother, father of Jersey princesses, had another wee baby.

It's too much - I said to him just today, I love her and I don't know her. I miss her and I haven't even met her - sometimes the world's just too big!

Anyway, on that note, I'm off to get on with November –

See ya...

Carol