Saturday 1st February

Saturday February the first and the Batties are off for an early foray into England. We’re very fortunate that the tour didn’t begin two days previously when eastern England was paralysed by 2 inches of snow and thousands of vehicles were stranded on the M11 motorway overnight. Pat and I are flying into Luton airport, one of the airports closed by the weather. We meet up with Mike, Rob and Alasdair and drive down to the south coast for our first gig at Fareham.The weather is good and the traffic surprisingly light. We last played at Fareham 3 years ago with Malcolm Stitt on board standing in for Davy Steele. Davy had just become ill at the time so there are mixed feelings coming back here. However a full house sets us at ease and this small intimate venue provides us with a grand night. Next stop is Huntingdon Hall, Worcester and all of 2 hours drive away.We stop in Oxford for lunch then make our way to our digs. We drive past it several times thus maintaining an old tradition of not being able to find it first time. The concert is in a hall donated by a countess in the 18th. century and has the accoustics of a church but we always have a good crowd here and tonight is no exception. Dinner is good too.. Monday is off.

 

Tuesday 4th February

Rob and I head up to Shrewsbury for our next stop .We stay at a lovely old hotel where amongst notable others Paganini lodged (and performed ) in 1833. The other lads have a day jaunt to London and don’t return till the wee sma’ hours thanks to high jinks in the capital and a snowfall near Birmingham. Meanwhile central Scotland suffers a heavy fall too. So far the Batties are being spared the inclement weather. It’s our first time in Shrewsbury which is a lovely old town full of history.We have another good turn out and a quietish but very appreciative audience...and another grand dinner. Wednesday finds us heading south to High Wycombe and the Swan theatre.This is another place we haven’t played at for a few years but many of the audience return for this show and another enjoyable night is had by all. Amongst others in the crowd are Pat’s sister Mareve and her husband Bob. The only disappointment for us is a rather mediocre hotel. On Thursday we have a date in historic Canterbury and there’s plenty of time to get there so Pat leads us into London to show Alasdair Camden and its market. Now Ally can picture the place in the song. We have a lovely show in Canterbury with a big crowd which includes a couple called Tony and Irene whom my family met on holiday in Brittany last year.They have a boat and our daughter Curstaidh had managed to charm an invitation aboard from the couple .They are delighted with the show.

 

Friday 7th February

On Friday we zoom up to the Midlands and the splendidly named Ashby de la Zouche where Nina Szifris has pulled out the stops to rescue a gig that had been lost due to a hall mix up. We play in a small theatre to a packed house which includes Tim, another member of the Kilbride clan , and his family. I also meet up with Neil, a fan from a few years back. And let’s not forget Jackie, our Midlands super fan who has arrived with her mum. It’s Jackie’s second attendance this week. I think she managed 4 concerts on the last tour! Saturday finds us down in Devon and the Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter. It’s a full house and very warm audience who insist on 2 encores, a great way to finish off this leg of the tour. Our next job is not till the following Friday in Teeside so we take the opportunity to drive back to Scotland and get in some rehearsing for the next few days before heading back to Darlington and the arts centre there. This has been a grand venue for us for a number of years and we always are well received, tonight being no exception. Then we head off to Bangor in North Wales and our last stop, Theatr Gwynedd. Again it’s a good crowd, quiet but appreciative. It’s not been a long tour but we are well pleased that in difficult economic times we can still count on a solid body of fans to come out and support us despite the fact that we get get so little media attention. It’s feedback like this that helps encourage us to keep at it. Thank you all.

Alan Reid