Glasgow and Edinburgh Open Mic events
by on May 26, 2025 in 2025
Had two wonderful days in Bonnie Scotland. I went with my daughter Stella Eva who is also a singer/songwriter (her channel on YouTube is @stellaevemusic8847) and this trip was something we wanted to do for a long time – father and daughter bonding, so to speak. It was a long haul to Glasgow from Kent but after we arrived we walked down the main drag, Sauchiehall Street, which is 1.5 miles long. In the evening we found the BOX, the venue where the Open Mic was going to be. “Put yer name on the wee board, pal” the host said, so we did. The BOX has free entry until 3am(?) , which is why the event only kicked off at 10pm. There was a big selection of whiskies but I waited until after my spot to sample them. I love the Scottish accent and the artists were a decent bunch with good songs to boot. Around midnight we left because the following day we had to travel to Edinburgh. The weather during both days was brilliant and not ‘dreich’ (dull, dreary, wet) so we were very lucky. After a train ride of a bit over an hour, we arrived in Edinburgh, a wonderful city. First thing we saw coming out of the train station was a bonnie lass playing the doodle sack – bagpipe to you and me. We made our way to the Open Mic venue in a part of town called Leith. And guess what, there WAS ‘Sunshine On Leith’ as sung by The Proclaimers. I couldn’t get that tune out of my head, while we were on the tram to Leith. We arrived at the Sketchy Beats Cafe for the Sad Song Club evening and within a few minutes the place=living room was packed with around 30-40 people. Host Dan kicked off the evening. And what an evening it was! Dan was very theatrical, I loved his song “Imposter of the Year”. Then came Pete, the anti-capitalist, kind of early Bob Dylan. Then a wonderful act – Biff The Poet. He was marvellous, reciting a poem :” tell it like a song, keep dancing, it’ll be harder to shoot you that way…” and then a poem performed first in English and then the same poem in French. I know enough French to tell you, this was genuine! Then came a gentleman who played the lyre, his fifth – he built them all. Brilliant. I loved his songs and if that wasn’t enough – he only had one arm. Then it was Stella’s turn – very good performance, followed by me. We only saw one more act, a lady called Marianne, she is French and she had lovely songs. She sang “be bold, be bright, reflecting the light…” A fitting note on which to end our visit to beautiful Edinburgh.
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