Iain Archer

the man himself - Iain Archer

well last night I went to see Iain Archer - live in Edinburgh :-) I'd been looking forward to it for ages and had bought myself and Sarah tickets for it for her birthday (hmmm... why did that not seem really selfish at the time - its a bit wrong to buy someone tickets to a concert that you want to see!) Anyway Sarah had to work :-( so to save the prospect of going on my own Arlene offered to accompany me having heard nothing of Iain's songs and nothing about him.
Well i must say i had the best night ive had in ages! Iain played some of hs older stuff and some new ones too. The best bit was standing front row and being able to see all his effects stuff - he must have had at least 20 different pedals and 3 different mikes!
He also had Matt Jones - who plays with lots of big names that i cant remember - on stage with him playing keyboards/tambourine/computerised drum thing/£1.99 argos kazoo kinda thing. He was genious - the tambourine was stuck to a stool with gaffa tape so he could play it with one hand while playing keyboard with the other!

this is matt playing an instrument that looke d like one of those kids plastic keyboards except it had a pipe that he blew in to get the noise - it was very comical to watch but with a cool sound

Iain talked a bit about Northern Ireland and his new album "magnetic north" is coming out soon. I wish sarah had made it cos no one cheered when he said he was from bangor (maybe co. downers dont cheer - they maybe think its uncouth?). He didnt play wishing - no surprise there I guess!
It really reminded me of going to see him when i was 15 in belfast - i remember the quote at the time that van morrison said "this boy is a litle bit special". I think that was meant to be a compliment!