the MaRTiaNS 2007 - high street EDinBuRGH

THE MARTIANS

They add a splash of fun on the High street.

Tuesday

Ah how does it feel – another year has passed – and the FIF is here again. I have put in my order for warm sunny days.

John

On a dull Tuesday I ventured rather late in the day up the High Street – There was John leaning in the St Giles doorway (I saw John leaning several times the next few days, absorbed in his thoughts) John is now shuttling between San Francisco and Edinburgh the past year. The Martians performed their covers ( ) . John looked well, with a beard and slightly shorter hair, and he and said he was still writing. The designer and the producer of their musical the Sundowe are there and we chat for a bit. They say it will be October before any definite word on when the Sundowe will be performed.

I have lost three people recently and John lost his dog Jamie and his grandfather this year also. He said 2007 is the ‘Year of Death’ – this is not good. He tells me some of his lyrics for songs in a show at the Underbelly are are nominated for a Lyric Fringe award. He explains where the venue is and when he is going to see it. The really GOOD news is that he is doing one of his ghost tours on Thursday evening at 10!

It’s late and he says they’ll be busking around 1.45.

Gerry

I need to write about the less well-known younger Kielty brother Gerry. He appears on the steps of St Giles steps engrossed in a book and reserved. But once up performing he bounces into life – literally – with his High helium voice and a face full of laughter.

I hadn’t warned my friend about them! She was quite taken aback I think – I mean about how funny they are. I love the deep ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ – of John and Houston - And then Gerry appears between them to sing ‘Oh Baby Bay how was I supposed to know!’ Some of the crowd are in absolute fits howling with laughter!

I had a small chat with Gerry. He wants to be a football a manager – even though he doesn’t play football! I asked him about the Sundowe and he said it might be next summer – that there is a problem getting the new Eden Court theatre in Inverness finished. We thought January would not be the best time for the musical. I asked him if the past year had flown by because it felt odd being back on the High street once again. He said no because so much had been happening it felt quite a long time.

Thursday – ‘The Rehearsal’ and John’s Ghostour

The sun’s here! Martians busking on the High Street 1.45 pm. This is the weather I expect for my festival visits, it makes all the difference.

The 3 Jazz Bar gigs with DAVID SNEDDON (Thurs, Fri, Sat)

Tonight the first Jazz Bar gigs. I met my cousin after seeing the Andy Warhol exhibition at the mound. A friend was there doing a review for the Edinburgh Guide and I suggested she gave David 5 stars! she was asking about his Time song.

So very good to see John Kielty and David back on stage and in good spirits. The venue was packed with people deep at the Bar – hopefully I got good pics.

 (Review of David’s Jazz Bar gig is separate Blog)

CITY OF THE DEAD TOUR

 After the gig I go on John’s scary Ghost tour to Greyfriars Bobby’s graveyard and the Covenanters grave where there are many many buried and you can feel the hands of time. As I approach St Giles John is leaning very still against his ‘Dead Ghostours. As I ask him about SF he walks around me in wide circles... which feels an odd experience! I see him later leaning against the side of the speakers during Chris’s set, as if last in his own thoughts. On Friday when I start photographing David’s set – after ‘ One Old Soul’ John suddenly leaps in front of my camera flexing his muscles – ‘I’m here too!’ he proclaims!

This spooky place of Greyfriars Kirkyard, has inspired many writers including John (and Gerry) and he quotes from his 'Sundowe' musical – which is about the dead rising in Edinburgh. I WISH very much I had been recording but it was something about how we will all die one day, but our spirits will live on. And certainly in this dark eerie place you can feel their very presence and their forgotten voices. ‘One day we will all die and I will die and our stories and passions will be here.’ How good John is at the tour. It was this that inspired his writing for his Sundowe.

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