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Hi everyone, and for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere
, welcome to summer! Here in Scotland, we've had one of the
wettest Mays we can remember, and can only hope that June
will be better. I've been working most week-ends in May, all
within England, Scotland and Ireland. Most of the time things
go smoothly, but I thought I would give you a little glimpse
of 'normal' life on the road, when everything doesn't go exactly
to plan!
Last Thursday I travelled down to Ayrshire for a concert
in Maybole Baptist Church. I grew up three miles from the
venue, and my Mum still lives in there, so I went down early
and spent the afternoon with her. The concert went well. I
stayed overnight and rose early to travel the 15 miles back
up the Prestwick Airport to catch a plane first to London,
then connecting on to Cork in Ireland. I was met in the airport
and taken to the venue to check out the sound system. When
I took my Taylor guitar out of its case and plugged it in,
something was obviously wrong. Clicks and buzzes from the
electrical system that shouldn't have been there. Air travel
I think, is horrible for acoustic guitars. Eventually we sorted
it out , and I then had a long job trying to get a less than
perfect PA system to sound reasonable.
The most nerve-wracking thing I find for the performer is
when you're standing there in front of an audience, trying
to sing and play your best, but you just know that there's
something wrong with the sound. It was one of those nights.
I kept my nerve, and we got through it. One of the hardest
parts about a bad sound night, is that although the audience
sort of knows that it isn't the performer's fault, the association
is made, e.g. '' we went to hear so and so , and the sound
was bad ''. Oh well !!
One of the big joys of visiting Cork is that I get to stay
over with dear friends Doug and Olwen Venn, who run the best
B&B in the world, called Maranatha Country House. [ yes,
this is unashamedly a plug! www.maranathacountryhouse.com
]
Next morning, I had to give a talk on children's music and
ministry, before being rushed back to the airport to catch
a lunchtime flight, to get me back to Perth, for a concert
that night. Nancy More, who used to work in the office here,
and asked me if I could fit in a fund raising concert for
a very needy cause in Burundi, and we had arranged it for
that Saturday. I knew I was cutting it a bit fine, with a
connection through London getting me back to Prestwick at
5, pick up the van, and drive 11/2 hours back to Perth, but
surely the planes are mostly on time aren't they ??!!!!
'' I'm sorry sir, but the flight to London is delayed by more
than an hour''--- I couldn't believe I was hearing it. By
the time I got to London, I had completly missed my connection
back to Prestwick. Standing next to the baggage carousel,
I was already trying to make contingency plans. I called around
to see if a friend could manage to do a first half for me,
which would buy until 9 o'clock for me to get to Perth. My
plan was to buy a fresh ticket to either Gasgow or Edinburgh,
and have someone drive down from Perth to get me. I would
worry about my van in Prestwick later. Not wanting to worry
Nancy unnecessarily I decided not to call her until I had
some good news. However, one of the musicians I called , instead
of calling me back, called Nancy direct. So the first message
Nancy got was, ''Hi, Ian's stranded in London, and I can't
manage to do the first half!!!!'' Nancy recovered well: a
gallant chap called Chris White put together a worship band
at 15 minutes' notice, to do the first half, and Nancy's husband
Jack was sent racing down to Glasgow to collect me . I was
on stage at ten past nine, and 500 pounds was raised for Burundi!
After a few restful days this week, on June 4th, I begin
a 20 date concert tour in conjunction with United Christian
Broadcasters.
For those of you in countries like USA where Christian radio
is part of every day life, you may not be aware that in the
UK , legislation makes it very very difficult for large scale
Christian broadcasting to operate. In these circumstances,
UCB do a great job, and concert tours with artist like myself
help make more people aware of the work they do. The evenings
will consist of me doing a regular praise concert, plus a
short presentation from UCB. Do try to make it along to one
of the nights. Entrance is free, with an offering taken. The
full tour dates are on the diary page on the website here.
Although it looks a busy schedule, it is planned carefully
in sets of five, with me getting home for the two days in
between each week, and staying at home every day during the
Scottish week at the end, [apart from Stornoway! ].
I'll write again with an update during the tour. Bye for
now!
Best Regards, Ian White.
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