56 .............................. Friday, May 1, 2015 1SM

Something for the WeekendSomething 2

TamCow

an’s ON A HIGH ROAD . . . Lomond Arms

REWIREDWHO: Andy Nagle (vocals/guitar),Raymond Kaczmarek (bass),James McKay (keyboard), MartinWalker (drums)WHERE: BathgateFOR FANS OF: Kodaline, Stereo-phonics, U2JIM SAYS: Rewired is a name thatfits this West Lothian four-pieceperfectly.

Andy, James and Raymond firstmet at school and played their firstgig as The Haze some 20 yearsago. Andy said: “We playedtogether from the age of 15through to 21 before breaking up.

“Last year we all met up at aclose friend’s funeral. After a fewdrinks we thought it would be agreat idea to get back togetherand take the band a step furtherthis time.”

Recruiting Martin on drums,they headed to Sheffield to playGrammy-winning producer EliotKennedy some tracks. Kennedy,whose credits include Bryan

Adams, The Spice Girls andAretha Franklyn, loved the songsand agreed to produce the band’snew EP Feel at his Steelworks stu-dio. Andy added: “Being in thesame studio as Bryan Adams andhost of other stars was a realbuzz…you just never knew whoyou were going to bump into.

“Working with Eliot was a hugelearning curve. Challenging butvery rewarding. When I was put-ting vocals down for Feel, Eliotasked me to perform the song, getmy message across but without

making a sound. At first I looked athim like ‘you’re having a laughmate aren’t you?’. The thinkingbehind it was your job as vocalistand performer is to transfer emo-tion to the listener. Not all of thiscomes directly from your voice.

“Your body language, moodand temperament all affect thefinal tone of your voice. I think it isfair to say by the end of the record-ing I managed to get that feelinginto Feel.”

The songs on the EP are packedfull of emotion. Driving anthemsthat suck you in. It’s has a greatresponse so far.

Rewired hope to get back toSheffield to record a full album,but that’s on hold due to Eliot’sother commitments.

Rewired kick off their Get WiredTour next Friday at King Tut’s inGlasgow, with further dates in Mayincluding Aberdeen, Inverness,Edinburgh and Paisley.MORE: rewiredofficial.comlJim presents Drivetime on XFM Scotland,Monday to Friday 4-7pm. xfm.co.ukwww.jimgellatly.com

REWIRED

WeFeelreadytotake thenext step

SO, a chicken and anegg are lying in bed.

The chicken is puffing on apost-coital ciggy with a satisfiedsmile on its face, while the egg islooking totally brassed off.

“Well,” scowls the egg, “I guess we’veanswered THAT question . . .”

But who cares whether it was thechicken or the egg that came first — I’vegot my own riddle to solve after eatinga quite delicious Sunday lunch at TheLoch Lomond Arms Hotel in Luss.

Was my starter a duck Scotch egg (aScotch egg encased in duck meat) or aScotch duck egg (a duck egg wrappedin the traditonal sausage meat)?

The fact I had the sniffles didn’t help(my tastebuds weren’t exactly firing onall cylinders) and neither did thespecials board on which this starter wasscribbled.

And I do mean scribbled. Quitefrankly, the board looked like a pre-scription written by a doctor.

My wife also struggled to read it and,thanks to laser eye surgery a couple ofyears ago, she’s got 20/20 vision (in fact,it’s so good I’m amazed she still hasn’tfiled for divorce).

To be honest, though, I don’t reallycare. Even though I had a cold, theflavour still shone through (I’m certainit was indeed duck meat) and thisScotch egg was one of the most memo-rable things I’ve eaten this year.

Right up there, in fact, with the peaand bacon croquettes at The WesternHouse Hotel in Ayr.

Coated in crunchy, golden brownbreadcrumbs and logged in my trustynotebook as VVG, it was actually thesize of an ostrich egg. Or maybe evenan Easter egg.

Could hear roasters crunchThe runny, oozing yolk in the centre

(how the hell do they do that?) wassensational and the whole thing workeda treat with the generous squirt of HPsauce served on the side.

But why did it only appear on thespecials board? Do yourself — and yourcustomers — a favour, chef, and get iton the main menu NOW!

My missus often finds Loch Lomond abit disappointing (“I’ve been loads oftimes,” she says, “but I’ve never seen themonster.”) but she’s still raving about lastSunday’s trip to this delightful hotel.

Described at the bottom of the menuas “Scotland’s loveliest village” (the goodpeople of Shotts may disagree) it’s stillsynonymous with Take The High Road —the STV soap opera that was a crossbetween Eldorado and Prisoner CellBlock H.

Luss apparently attracts 790,000 visi-tors a year (it would be even more, butanother half-million get stuck behind acaravan on the A82) and, on this evi-dence, I reckon The Loch Lomond ArmsHotel must be the No.1 localtourist attraction.

The traditional coaching inn has beenelegantly transferred into a couthy,country hotel and we loved the veryfriendly, relaxed atmosphere.

Were we really just a half-hour drivefrom Glasgow city centre?

The walls of the restaurant are taste-fully decorated with a selection of wild-life pics and prints, although the stag’shead (the stuff of Basil Fawlty’s night-mares) is probably a wee bit of a cliche.

The toilets are also immaculate. Ialways check out the cubicles (for thebenefit of readers) and, yep, I’d havehappily nipped in for a Greyfriars . . .

Just one complaint about the

ByJIM

GELLA

TLY

NEW

MUSIC