Saturday May 3rd 2025
Our first summer gig of 2025 takes us to the award-winning Old Fire Station in Carlisle. As the city’s largest independent entertainment hub (capacity 500), they host a diverse array of events, up to 20 per month—from famous touring bands and hilarious comedy headliners to captivating talks & interviews.
We’d arranged to meet up at Starbucks at the first junction of the M58…
The plan was to drive to Shap in Cumbria for some lunch…
We set off about 11.30…
We were all very excited as it was the start of the new festival season…
Keith was enjoying a mellow moment…
And the sun was shining…
In no time we arrived in Shap…
It was hot…
Our pub of choice was The Greyhound Inn…
Good choice of beers…
We wanted to order the Loweswater Gold but as it was a new barrel it was too lively to pour so we ordered the Wainwright Gold…
Food was good…
Grilled pineapple, fried free-range egg and chunky chips. £17.95
Crisp battered fish with mushy peas, chunky chips and tartare sauce £17.95
Whitby wholetail scampi, chunky chips. garden peas & tartare sauce £17.95
One more pint then time to bid farewell…
Carlisle wasn’t that far away…
We watched an episode of the series Black Mirror…
We eventually arrived at the venue…
and we were made very welcome…
There was a smashing fridge…
and some nice fruit…
Here we go gathering assets in May…
We waited for Peter to finish an interview then proceeded to our hotel where we ordered a cab to take us to meet guests at the West Walls Brewery…
We enjoyed a couple of these IPA’s…
It was a ten minute walk back to the venue so we took in some of the sights…
Back outside the venue with Carl’s former student Toni and her dad Jordy…
Time to go on…
Comedian and and writer Jo Caulfield and her partner Kev were in the audience…
The crowd were fabulous…
…but backstage it had all gone a bit Father Ted
We caught up with our mate Jo Caulfield…
Carl’s guests were having a great night…
and Toni loved her signed set list…
What a great day out we had in Carlisle…
Time to head off back to our hotel as we had a long journey north to Scotland in the morning…
By the way you can read Peter’s interview here🙂
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/25161490.farm-opens-tour-gig-carlisles-old-fire-station/
Sunday May 4th 2025
Today we are heading to the Black Isle Showground near Inverness as guests of the band Peat & Diesel. Their Black Isle Belter music festival is set to return for it’s second year this weekend, taking place at the Black Isle Showground on May 3 and 4.
A familiar sight when staying overnight in a hotel is seeing the gold bus parked up outside…
Another cheery sight is the hotel breakfast, although sittings are usually a quiet affair with people coming to terms with their hangovers…
We all made sure we had plenty to eat as the journey to Scotland looked ominous…
The forecast was for rain but the day started out fine…
After another stressful Black Mirror episode, we stopped off in Perth for petrol and to stretch our legs…
Think we dozed for the remainder of the journey…
At last we arrived in Muir Of Ord…
Must be near the venue now…
We arrived on site to collect our wristbands…
and our handy plan of the festival site…
You guessed it…straight to the bar area and this fabulous IPA from Cromarty…
Volume: 440ml
BREWERS NOTESABV: 3.8% IBU: 20
Malts: Pale, Wheat, Oats, Cara
Hops: Motueka, Citra, Mossaic, Simcoe
We were on stage at 3pm so didn’t have much time to look around but we noticed the crowd building up…
We had a wander over to the entrance of the tent and bumped into our friend Lorna…
As you can see from what I’m holding, the Whiteout IPA had ran out so we were on to the Tenants lager – a blast from the past as we did a tour of Scotland in 1989 sponsored by Tenants…
Back stage Keith had met up with Team Mullin’s Lily the Chihuahua…
Time to go on – some amazing photos of our performance taken by Vhairi Walker…
The crowd were fantastic!!!
It was a brilliant gig!
Time to get some food…
Peat & Diesel where on next so we went back into the tent…
It was packed…
We also watched them from the side of the stage…
They went down brilliantly and it was a great festival but it was time for us to head off to our hotel in Inverness…
We dumped our things and a few of us met downstairs to take a look around the town – a sort of ‘coalition of the willing’. The idea was to head off to the Black Isle bar which was just up the road…
We had a good pint of the Goldfinch Session IPA…
From there we went on to the ‘An Seomar’ venue where Peat & Diesel were having their after show party…
Here we tried the Nitro Stout by the Dog Falls Brewery in Inverness…
As time was getting on, Carl wanted to find a bar he’d been to before called ‘Gellions Bar’…
It was jam packed…
It was full of music lovers who’d been to the festival and we were recognised immediately!
Needless to say we didn’t have to buy another drink again that night…
We managed to get out alive and staggered back to the hotel…
Monday May 5th 2025
Travel day today so a big breakfast was on the cards…
Team Mullin had gone on ahead sightseeing…
We planned to stop off in Moffat for some lunch…
It was a beautiful day…
We stopped off in Sterling to get petrol…
About an hour later we arrived in Moffat…
We ordered two pints of the Highlander…
Proudly traditional, Highlander is the punchy, bittersweet amber ale that Fyne Ales was built on.
And two pints of the Black Bull best…
Food…
£14.95
In a scotch pie shell, served with
a tender stem broccoli & whisky sauce
Freshly made pie served with seasonal veg, mash or chunky chips
£16.95
£15.95
Thick cut chips, minted mushy peas,
chargrilled lemon wedge, homemade
tartar sauce & side salad
The pub was great and had loads of character so we had one for the road before setting off once more on the journey home…
Last stop Tebay…
What a fabulous few days we had!
sipadvisor 