Today was a good day because I got to my first gig in two and a half years.

I was reporting on The Gathering music festival in Inverness and managed to take in a couple of bands before I had to leave to post something online for the Inverness Courier.

The last band I saw was The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing in The Tooth & Claw in the city in 2019 which I quite enjoyed but then Covid kicked in and we all know what happened after that – we all obeyed the rules while those in charge did not.

Fast forward a couple of years and we are in a much better place. Events such as The Gathering are now taking place and we seem to be moving forward into a better place.

And it was good to catch up with my former work colleague Dave Barry, from my time in Scarborough, who is a regular visitor to the event.

And on a positive note it turns out that I will be helping out more with ents articles a lot more in the near future so hopefully I will get to a few more gigs in the coming months.

• The article as it appeared on the Inverness Courier website.