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Little Tony Das, dreaming of his lass (babe? naaah, his Tele, silly), sits in the hall shredding away on his yet-unsold (sigh) Ibanez. The Guzuru man is busy doing some brisk, expletive-laden kitchen magic. Rajeev is somewhere en route from London to Glasgow, plane, taxi, whatever. Rudy probably in Exeter or Newcastle, should make it in tomorrow. And I sit on Guzuru’s beat up old chair, tapping away blithely on his beat-up old laptop.

The Govan Festival gig, the Sketch, was one of those special ones. Some venues can do that – this one was the auditorium of the Pierce Institute in Govan, a mid-sized, vault-ceilinged, woody affair, with an enormous pipe organ presiding over the main stage. A bit run down with age, but still a beaut. Sound check went completely according to plan – both guitar amps (Marshalls too) breathed their last, Tony and I had to go D.I. with just two monitor mixes, and other such exciting stuff. Anyway. Went on the #3 slot. Sound wasn’t the greatest, but ’twas a really good gig. Booties were shaken, yells were heard, and CDs were lapped up with gusto. Autographs were signed on… well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.

Packed up into our tour bus – what a tour bus. Apparently used by REM, Greenday, System Of A Down, Feeder, Anthrax, and many others on their European tours, it was a little piece of history – and wore all its years on its vaguely cream-ish skin rather well. Belted off down the motorway with Guru at the helm, making it to London in 9+ hours. Pile into Narayan’s place (poor man) for a bit of R&R before soundcheck at the Doctor’s Tonic. {Special mention: throughout this trip, TAAQ has been able to do what it does best thanks to a few large-hearted folks who let us into their worlds with great love. Guru, Prasanna, Sandeep, Vijaya, Hemanth, Ram, Rinku, Shantanu, Sonia, Omie, Sagar, Narayan – we couldn’t have done this without you guys. And I must stop now before something gets in me eye.}

The Doctor’s tonic soundcheck was very pro – Dave was our sound engineer for the day (also happens to be Narayan’s guitar guru in London). Used his looovely Hughes & Kettner amp. Played at #2, after Shotgun Suicide, a local act. Good gig overall, but our fatigue showed a bit, I guess. Just how are we going to get used to this back-to-back touring that grandaddies like the Rolling Stones do as a matter of course? Shucks. Rayner, Merwyn, and a whole bunch of Bangalore buddies, along with various long-lost relatives of band members were in attendance. Felt like, well, home! Super.

Btw, Big Macs are better than BK Cheeseburgers, but not as good as Whoppers.

Spent all of Sunday wandering around Tottenham Court Road, Denmark St., (where all the music stores are, terribly boring aren’t we just). Walked past the Astoria, the Dominion, all those fabled places where our musical heroes have reigned.. Good trip. Guru and some of the boys left Sunday night, I stayed on for another day. Did all the touristy stuff – Hyde Park (or should I say Hyde Beach; it was hot yesterday and apart from the water and the sand, it was a beach all right), Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Big Behn, etc etc. Saw some cool buskers. Smita, our drummer’s better half, was my tour guide for the evening. The tube is cool too. Massive underground maze, that.

Caught the cramped megabus back. Was bloody hot in London. Glasgow back to being cool today. And with that weather report, shall sign off for now. Ciao folks.