First on today's agenda was a call to the Western Lawn tennis tennis club. "No need to book", so Danny and I donned our stylish Nike gear and strode round the corner (quite literally) for our planned midday knockabout. We had the place to ourselves, the weather was near perfect and the courts were fab. After an hour, we decided to head back to the hotel where due to a travel agent cock-up we had to vacate our rooms at lunchtime. So Bernie and the driving team arrived to take us down to the venue early where we all headed straight for catering for a spot of lunch.



There were a couple of notable guests today, firstly, Scotland's very own Mr. accordion, Phil Cunningham. Phil of course played accordion on the Get Lucky album along with Mike and John and gratefully accepted Mark's offer to come and play a few tunes at the show tonight. Phil recently interviewed Mark in his TV show 'Scotland's music with Phil Cunningham' about their shared love for traditional music.



Mike McGoldrick and John McCusker



John gets to grips with the Telecaster...



Sound check was a little later as we weren't allowed to make any noise until 5pm due to a convention in the next hall. We ran through the songs that Phil was to play with us and returned to the dressing rooms to luxuriate before a slightly earlier 8pm showtime.



The other guest today was wee Molly McCusker. John and Heidi's 8 week old daughter. She's absolutely gorgeous and I confess to a slight feeling of male broodiness when I held her. Time really does fly as I'm sure all parents of teenagers will testify, and most will recognize the feelings which fleetingly return when you get hold a baby. Here she is after sound check, which incidentally she slept through, with her new headphones.



Friday night in Glasgow is always a good night and the audience this evening were predictably rowdy. There was plenty of excitable behavior and apparently the odd alcohol related incident, nothing I hope to mar the enjoyment for most folks. A great show with a slight set-list change for Mark's home town and after we'd toasted the crowd and done the encores, it was back to the airport for the short hop down to Newcastle. The manager of the hotel du Vin greeted us as we arrived and Danny, Rich, Mike, John and I found ourselves in the bar for a nightcap.