Five go to Edinburgh! Well, more like thirty five actually! We couldn’t let a prestigious spot at the Edinburgh Festival go past without turning it into a weekend away with our pals, so by bus, train and plane, a number of the Skydiva faithful made the long journey to Edinburgh to cheer us on.

The bands adventure began at 3.00pm on Friday 16th of August. A minibus loaded with band members, equipment, a sound engineer (good old Marky Hadman), various mates and a years supply of Stella. Of course, it was the Stella that created the first problem, and 7 hours, and 6 toilet stops later we pulled up outside the digs.

After a quick change it was off to the venue - The Counting House on West Nicholson Street. A well set up room with a balanced stage and a really good atmosphere. After an hour chilling and hanging around we went on stage at about 1am and whipped through just over an hours worth of material. I’d love to say that it was fun, but we were all so exhausted it was a bit like just going through the motions. The audience didn’t seem to notice though and a good time was had by all.

The next morning we were all up bright and early to get out and explore this city of culture. The Edinburgh Festival is a fantastic experence, a real mish-mash of music, theatre, comedy and art. Every where you turn there are touts trying to sell you tickets and street performers getting in your way, its fantastic - although I did have the misfortune of seeing the worst Shakespeare production in the history of the world (not naming anynames!)

Not to be left out of the street scene, our manager had booked a spot for me and Graham to busk on the royal mile in the early evening. The trick to a succesful busk is to create the illusion of interest. It’s a bit like the theory that if you start a cue then people will join it without asking why.

We got a few of our mates to stand around in a sort of horseshoe shape and within 5 minutes a crowd had gathered to watch, only to be pounced on by another wave of mates armed with flyers, cd’s and general paraphernalia. It did the trick though!

When we arrived at the Counting House at about 10.30pm that night, the place was rammed. High on adrenalin and single malt, we ripped out an hour and a half of Skydiva and, even if I do say so myself, we were on fire. The punters loved it, we loved it and thanks to the expertise of Mr Hadman, the sound was fucking great! After the show we shifted a load of CD’s and even ended up signing some autographs!

The evening was fininshed off in true rock and roll fashion - drinking into the wee hours and rolling into bed just as the sun was came up.

And, as quickly as it had started, our Edinburgh adventure was over. We loaded ourselves, and what was left of the beer, back into the van and began the long journey home. I’m pleased to say that the toilet stops were reduced by two thirds and we rolled into Sheffield just as it was getting dark. All absolutely exhausted but well pleased with ourselves.

And are we going back next year? Too f*cking right matey, and this time for a week!