Wednesday night in The Jazz Bar was a blast, the Blueswater were out to have fun and spread some joy; after a long, very wet journey it was exactly what this moose needed. Great music and fiery ginger beer, much to warm the soul!

Yes, I’d been back down in Yorkshireland for a week, dogsitting and sorting through more of mother’s things. It’s not the clearing out that’s hard, a tad sad at times, yeah; it’s the siblings later airing their views on everything I’ve done, why, where, who did I ask?! And then there’s particular items that none of us personally want to keep, but neither do we want them gone, so everyone wants another to say they’ll have it (disgruntled airs all round). Mind you, sometimes a couple of days of mulling can help, feelings assessed and resolved; all part of the process.

Whilst down, I was also under instruction to not let the garden birds go hungry! (this will also be pointed out to whoever buys the house) Mother had two bird feeders in a little tree postioned in sight of the kitchen window. The view takes away the drudgery of washing up, it can also slow the job right down as one stands enchanted by the birds. There’s house sparrows, tree sparrows, dunnocks, a robin, the occasional blackbird, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, a whole gang of goldfinches (six or seven always turn up together) and a pair of nuthatches. I was leaving all the evenings washing up to do in the mornings (okay, so I often do, but this time it really made sense!).

I had thought I’d be playing Christmas tunes on my journey back up, with it being December now – where Christmas music belongs. The inclement weather demanded something more exhilarating and brash to keep me going, so I stuck with my downward choice of Live Forever by The Screaming Jets. I’d grabbed it as something a little different as I was leaving the moose cave. It’s a 2 cd set but I mainly stuck to Part 1, let’s just say, I had all the words down by the time I arrived in the Old Town. I would recommend it as great Aussie rock, but it may be difficult to find as the band released it themselves back in 2001, then again, as it’s from a concert all the songs can be found elsewhere.

A couple of years ago I did my own take on an advent calendar, for the 24 days running up to the Logan’s Close gigs at Sneaky Pete’s, I put up pictures of Close signposts around the Old Town on my Instagram stories. This time I thought I’d have a look back at live music I’ve enjoyed through 2024 (I may make an exception of clips from previous years’ Blue Christmas shows, I reckon that’s allowed). Oh, if you want to check them out it’s @bruceonthefringe and they’ll all be in the Advent 24 highlights for later viewings.

Today’s door is yet to be opened, it is rather late but hey, that’s musicians for you! Today’s clip will be Carl Marah playing one of his own at the Auld Hundred a few weeks back; he’s just announced that there’s solo stuff on the way, so it kinda fitting. This is such a great picture of him from his post (taken by John Mackie), you really have to see it…

Toodle pip!