Last train

Boron arrives at the back of four in his Land Rover ambulance camper van to give me a lift into Edinburgh. He’s going to see Hawkwind with Fergus, while I’m going to Karine Polwart with Claire.

We grab a quick pint at The Brass Monkey before I stride off, complete with rucsac for the week, towards Lothian Road. On the way, I reserve a table for two at Frizzante where Clairs and I stuff ourselves on fine Italian fare.

Karine’s doing two sets - both of them entirely comprised of covers of Scottish pop, from the 80s onwards. The tour is supporting her new album, The Scottish Songbook, with a large helping of additional songs - some only tenuously connected to Scotland (such as Teardrop by Massive Attack our Road To Nowhere by Talking Heads). I made a stab at the set list: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/karine-polwart/2019/usher-hall-edinburgh-scotland-b9afd72.html

Claire ducks out after the first set to go to Marty’s birthday party in a Leith pub. We meet up at Waverley and catch the last train to Kinghorn. It’s rammed full of drunken boots and barely dressed girls. There’s an appalling sing song in our carriage, muttering everything from Do They Know It’s Christmas to Bohemian Rhapsody.

But it gets us home, where a half drunk bottle of red awaits.