I can’t stop listening to the new album by the Stagger Rats, a charismatic rock band from the small Scottish town of Dunbar. They remind me of all the best music I have heard over the last 30 years. Some critics use the word “Beatles” when trying to define their sound and you can see them on this surrealistic video which they made in Hungary last year. The Big Issue magazine describe them as “timeless, but also intriguingly fresh and unique” and Irvine Welsh said (on Twitter) “Great riffs and brilliant name for a band.”

I saw the Rats perform at the Control Club in Bucharest, a successful Indie club that has (for some bizzare reason) just closed down.  The basement room was packed and the performance was a sensation.  I spoke to the band members afterwards and several of them said to me “that was the best gig we ever did”, and I assume this is because of  the peculiar magic of Romania.

I asked Daniel Paylor, their lead singer, what he thought of Romania and he sent me an email that is so different from the usual travel writing that I thought it essential to reproduce it here.

This is what he wrote:

“We were treated very well by everyone in Romania.  As soon as we crossed the border in our old van we found potholes and ill-kept roads. We dodged horses-and-carts and old, weather-beaten, head-scarfed women. We never went faster than 40 mph.

At Cluj-Napoca we were warmly greeted at the club we were playing at and helped with our equipment — something which has never happened before or since. The club’s promoter – Raul – gave us free drinks all night, let us all stay in his flat and even cooked us dinner. We found out later that this was not as uncommon in Romania as it would be in the UK.

After Cluj we embarked upon a journey through the Carpathian Mountains. We saw little clearings next to the Danube and promised ourselves to return an