April 9th 2014

When on Orkney do what the Orcadian's do and get involved with the music scene; or in my case almost get involved with the music scene. A wet and blustery day in Orkney today, which is normal apparently, so I planned to do some more long distance sightseeing and keep as dry as possible. The above photograph then is my attempt at recreating the cover from an Orkney band, The Chair, who I first heard of a year ago and love their music. Their album 'The Road to Hammer Junkie' has a fabulous cover of an old car and old musicians thumbing a lift. As I drove over to the east of the mainland I thought this road looks familiar, so looking at the CD cover, indeed yes, it's the very same spot. However as is often the case when I parked my car here to take a photo, even though I'd not seen another car for 20 minutes on this lonely moor road one came around the bend, just time then for a quick snap.

Later on in the day as the rain really came in I drove down to South Ronaldsay to get as close to Scotland as possible - it's about 6 miles away. On route at the Italian Chapel, just over the first of the Churchill Causeways (the second one was shut for repairs for twenty minutes at a time, so it was a good excuse to see the chapel), I met these 4 guys. The chap on the left with the guitar is someone called Rick Redbeard, who with his band had come to the chapel to practice before doing a gig at the Kirkwall Yacht Club. I asked him if they were anything like The Chair, but as they'd never heard of them, maybe not then. They're from Aberdeen, fair enough, but his music like that of The Chair is on you-tube.