At last night’s gig the band played a song called “Freetime” which is from their wonderful album Weightlifting. I had noticed a line in the song before about the hills of Glen Rosa which I knew referred to Arran.

Frank introduced the song as being “about Arran” so today I dug out some photos I took there on holiday in 2005 and selected Freetime as the soundtrack.

Here it is.

And that is an understatement.

Sometimes one wonders.

One looks around at the talentless eejits who carve out a glittering career in music, selling out huge stadia and concert venues, to be blindly (and deafly) followed by millions of fans. (can’t deny I’m thinking U2 here)

Then there’s the Trashcan Sinatras

Last night amidst the rain and howling gales, along with about 60 other folk I went along to Bar Brel in Ashton Lane Glasgow to witness their unplugged show. The gig was in a conservatory area which was being lashed by driving wind and rain.

The Trashcans in action last night.

The band has been together for 23 years and despite widespread critical acclaim and well supported tours they retain that homespun ethic. I wondered as I watched three guys on acoustic guitars, one on a keyboard and one with brushes and percussion if there was something almost Calvinist about their approach.

This band could have undoubtedly sold out a larger venue in Glasgow and played their full set after all. For example they had played Oran Mor recently.

However they are it seems destined to play venues like the Tait Hall in Kelso rather than the Carnegie Hall in New York.

I don’t mean to damn with faint praise at all. They have worked with many of the top names in the business and I would think that respect for them in the music business is at a similar stratospheric level to those other Scottish enigmas The Blue Nile (see TBLFP passim)

Wordplay, pathos and self deprecation are the band’s stock in trade. They’re from Irvine and reminded us that Robert Burns had his poetic epiphany in the town as a young man before singing a song about the occasion.

Eddi Reader was in the audience.This is perhaps not surprising as her brother Frank Reader is the band’s front man and her husband (partner?) John Douglas is also in the band.

Eddi joined them on stage for a number and I caught it on my digicam.

This is the wonderful dreamy “Weightlifting”

A highlight was a song called “I wish you’d known her” which was prequeled as a song about finding love later in life. It was a plaintive cry to a departed relative.

There were memory sticks available with a recording of the gig ten minutes after the finale.

Anyone who wants one, or a similar stick containing any of the other gigs from their tour, should go to the Trashcan Sinatras website.

Anyone ever tried Leffe Belgian beer?

Awfy nice.

I’m grateful to my correspondent Paul for noticing this remarkable lookalike!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Roy Keane

e-fit of suspect

This e- fit of a murder suspect in Bolivia has wrongly been derided as the worst ever issued. These accusations are wrong of course. Certainly anyone who saw this e-fit issued by Portuguese police during the investigation of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann would disagree

The remarkable thing about the Bolivian picture is that it has led to an arrest of a man in connection with the crime. TBLFP is proud to give you a world exclusive of the picture of the suspect in custody.

This is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on a one day state visit to Bolivia yesterday. Apparently he’s off to see his “friend” Hugo Chavez in Venezuela today.

I’ll go first with the caption – “Who are you calling a dodgy looking character?”

Indeed.

Have a look at this article published earlier in the year by the BBC about the changing situation in the southern Iraqi town of Basra.

A double take may be required on the name of the Major featured in the article.

This comes from b3ta which is one of the most consistently tasteless, yet occasionally funny sites in the UK.

I’ve checked and it is apparently 100% genuine.

(November Playmate)

]]> http://bigrab.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/playboy-in-braile/feed/ 0 bigrab playboy playboy2 playboy3 http://bigrab.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/show-me-the-way/ http://bigrab.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/show-me-the-way/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:51:10 +0000 bigrab http://bigrab.wordpress.com/?p=5906 ]]>

Recently in the Seventies Cheese series, I featured Peter Frampton playing Show Me the Way.

Thanks to Russell my north eastern cultural correspondent I can now bring you this most remarkable version of the song by “manualist” Jerry Philips :

Edit:

And Stairway to Heaven!

As Russell points out, this is a man with an array of audio equipment to enhance the (frankly) farty noises he makes with his hands. Isn’t the internet wonderful?

Both today’s postings are courtesy of TBLFP readers which is great. I really appreciate you taking time to forward stuff. John the lensman in Bonhill contacted me yesterday about the story of whisky from the Shackleton polar expedition being searched for in ice (where it has lain since 1909) and how it is regarded as drinkable (if relocated and retrieved).

This coincided with two other whisky news items so here they are in logical order:

Scotch whisky protected against ‘inferior’ copies

New guidelines to protect whisky from foreign imitation, including new rules on labelling and bottling, are coming into force in Scotland on Monday.

There will be a new requirement to only bottle Single Malts in Scotland, and tighter rules on the use of distillery names on bottle labels.

There will also be better protection of traditional regional names such as “Highland” and “Lowland”.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) described it as “landmark legislation”.

The regulations have been drawn up by the UK government.
The full article on the BBC is here

Something had to be done. Some of the Indian and Chinese whiskies aren’t great but it will only of course be a matter of time. Remember how we laughed at Japanese cars?

Scotch whisky accounts for 20% of Scotland’s exports (!)

The term “single malt” (which means a malt whisky or malt whiskies using product from one distillery) will now only apply to whisky distilled and bottled in Scotland and the term “pure malt” is to be banned.

Story two from Kathryn Hopkins in Sunday’s Observer:

Dalmore Oculus whisky fetches a record £27,000 at auction

Britain may still be in recession, but the appetite for the finer things in life, it appears, lives on. Topping all expectations, Bonhams, the upmarket auction house, last week sold a decanter of whisky to a bashful buyer for a record-breaking £27,600.

Richard Paterson and The Dalmore Oculus

The unique Dalmore Oculus, blended from some of the most exceptional whiskies of the past 140 years, had been expected to reach up to £20,000. Instead, it raised the largest amount of money ever paid for a Dalmore whisky. The buyer asked to remain anonymous.

Dalmore Oculus was created on 15 October by Glasgow based distillers Whyte & Mackay. The oldest whisky in the blend was distilled in 1868, with others from 1878, 1922, 1926, 1939 and 1951. Whyte & Mackay’s master distiller, Richard Paterson, said: “I am confident it will appeal to epicureans, investors and collectors.”

The sale in Edinburgh raised of £211,518 – the best on record.

And finally…..

Again a story concerning Richard Paterson:

The search for Shackleton’s spirit

(Simon Johnson – The Telegraph)

Two crates of the now extinct “Rare Old” brand of McKinlay and Co whisky have been buried in the Antarctic ice since Shackleton was forced to abandon his polar mission in 1909.

Sir Ernest Shackleton - Liked a dram apparently

But Whyte & Mackay, the whisky giant that owns McKinlay and Co, has asked a team of New Zealand explorers heading out on a January expedition to return a sample of the drink for a series of experiments.

The team intends to utilise special drills to free the trapped crates and rescue a bottle from the wreckage, which is believed to have been discarded 97 miles from the pole.

If they cannot retrieve a full bottle, they are hoping to use a syringe to extract some of the contents.

The sample will then be brought home to Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay’s master blender, who intends to replicate the famous old whisky.

If the experiment is successful, original McKinlay whisky could be put back on sale.

Mr Paterson said: “I really hope we can get some back here. It’s been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born.

“Even if most of the bottles have to remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, it would be good if we could get a couple.”

McKinlay's Whisky

Mr Paterson said Shackleton’s whisky could still be drinkable and taste exactly how it did 100 years ago, but conceded that the bottles could have been damaged due to the changing conditions in the Antarctic.

“When that whisky was made it would have been quite heavy and peaty as that was the style in the early 1900s,” he added.

“It may taste the same as it did back then if the cork has stayed in the bottle and kept it airtight. However, if the whisky is on its side, the cork may have been eroded.”

Europe's Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw

New EU Presidential HQ

“Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set; God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet” – AC Benson

“Ein volk, ein reich, ein fuhrer!” – A Hitler

“One flag, one anthem, one army” – H Van Rompuy

Just for fun how much do you think this building cost?

A clue is perhaps contained in the shock news that it is £60 million over budget.