Giggin’

About ten years ago I made a decision about Van Morrison. Having seen him about ten times in concert, roughly defined as twice brilliant, twice passable and six times rank rotten I vowed to suffer no more. No more would I hear ‘Moondance’ crucified as a lazy shuffle, country and western hoe-down or Irish jig [...]

Maxwell’s Tartan Ribbon

For some reason I’m already thinking of two Beatles related songs, namely Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Ringo Starr’s Photograph. I wonder if you know that last week (17th May) was the 150th anniversary of the first colour photograph? I wonder if you know that James Clerk Maxwell a Scottish scientist was involved in this pioneering [...]

Influences

This is the XX I like this stripped down electro-atmospheric stuff. What about the guy playing the drum machine in real time? I was first drawn to this band and song by this: And going back to the original, it has shades of this:

Small World (2)

The internet is a wonderful thing. I love doing this blog and also being a member of several mailing lists. Connecting with people worldwide with similar interests is stimulating, interesting and fun. The opportunity of meeting some of those people intensifies the satisfaction. In 2006 when Paul Buchanan announced his first gigs in nine years, [...]

The Blue Nile Ticket Information

I have had many visits to the blog on the posting about The Blue Nile’s up and coming gigs at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on the 9th 10th and 11th of July 2008 . I’m sure many of the hits will have been to try and find out ticket information. The gigs were announced [...]

The Blue Nile v. Edward Hopper

I featured this on my previous blog last year. No excuse needed to link to it again because it is simply wonderful. Thanks Paul for doing it.

Christmas Track of the Day!

Silent Night – Paul Buchanan from "Seasons of Light" As readers will know I'm not religious. Indeed I'd describe myself an atheist prepared to be proved wrong. However this is certainly the most powerful video I have seen this festive season. It would be nice to think that Roman Catholicism's latest high profile convert Tony [...]

Christmas Track of the Day!

12_Days_Of_X-mas – Various Paul buchanan Regular readers will be aware that this blog is a big fan of Paul Buchanan and The Blue Nile. It is dificult to think of a more respected musician and band than PB and TBN in Scotland in the last 25 years or so. So what about this? It's a [...]

Christmas Track of the Day!

OK I'm going to stop mucking about on this so stand by for some quality. This is The Blue Nile recorded at their recent gig in Belfast by my German correspondent Marc. Family Life is a beautiful song and contains the line "tomorrow will be Christmas – we'll sing all the songs that light up [...]

The Blue Nile v. Blade Runner

The Blue Nile vs Blade Runner I've had an email from my fellow Blue Nile fan Paul Rodriguez who was the creator of the wonderful Nile/ Hopper montage Click Here regular readers will remember from a few months ago. Paul has been at it again and has put together this rather impressive, if unlikely video of Downtown Lights [...]