Strange Brew...

My word, but this year is turning out to be a fine one for music. Particularly that with a folkish bent. The latest piece of music to impress me is Meursault's All Creatures Will Make Merry.

I first came across that unwieldy term 'folktronica' when I went to see Fourtet at Triptych about six or seven years ago (and what happened to that festival?), and didn't trust it then or now. However Meursault fit into that particular straitjacket more comfortably than most. All Creatures Will Make Merry is a deceptively complex album, one of those where you can play 'spot the influence' on each track.

There are the obvious echoes of The Arab Strap boys, particularly Mr Middleton, and of course, the ethos of The Fence Collective. But Meursault take the listener on a greater journey. There are trips to Canada (Arcade Fire and The Besnard Lakes) and America (Will Oldham, Explosions in the Sky and even The Low Anthem)via Iceland and back(Sigur Ros, but particularly Mum). Some people have claimed that Meursault are part of a great Scottish folk tradition, which is fine, but there is so much more going on here. This is an album that travels.

What really impresses me about it is the lo-fi production. It allows the music to sound at times as if it could have been made any time in the last 45 years, but still remains brand new. To put it another way; it's a little bit 1968, a little bit 1991, but always 2010. Just as The Jesus and Mary Chain pushed West Coast rock through broken amps and a fuzzbox so Meursault rough folk up until it feels dirty and a little scared, and I think it's all the more appealing for it. Here are a couple of clips. The first is taken from a great website called theyshootmusic/ and sees singer and songwriter Neil Pennycook performing among the swans (unfortunately, not the band):

The next clip is taken from a great night at the Edinburgh Queens Hall on my birthday last year, a coincidence, but a happy one:

This was during the Edinburgh Festival, and my various previews of this year's festival will appear on these pages soon. I'm going to split them up into comedy, music, theatre,etc, so keep 'em peeled.

In praise of: Alfred Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps'...

In between all the football and 12 hour tennis marathons I managed to fit in another viewing of Alfred Hitchcock's film adaptation of John Buchan's novel The 39 Steps. This story has been adapted many times with differing results, but Hitch's version is far and away the best. Made in 1935 the film has many of the motifs that would become familiar to fans of Hitchcock's movies.

Robert Donat is a classic leading man, and his portrayal as Richard Hannay, an innocent man under suspicion, can be seen as a forerunner of Cary Grant's role as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest. Madeleine Carroll takes her place alongside Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren and others in the pantheon of Hitchcock's 'blondes' (he believed they represented innocence, apparently, making any deception they are involved in all the more shocking) and there are plenty of typical set pieces, maguffins and mild misogyny along the way.

The chase on the Forth Railway Bridge, the enforced stay in the boarding house and the final act of the memory man (see below) are all stunningly staged scenes that stand alone, with the dialogue and action firing. There is a sense of humour that is lighter than in later Hitchcock films, where the humour, if you can find it, is pitch black.

But the most interesting section of the film, and I'll admit I'm not the first to mention it, is that involving John Laurie's crofter and his young wife Margaret (played, a little bizarrely, by pre-Dame Peggy Ashcroft). The scene shows a change in pace from the chase in which Hannay finds himself embroiled.

At first Hitchcock shows how remote this croft is, isolated in the bleak Highland landscape. He then moves onto the drama that lies inside. When Hannay first meets the couple he understandably presumes that Margaret is the crofter's daughter, not his wife. Later conversation between Hannay and the young woman subtly presents the audience with the clash of two Scotlands. Circumstances dictate that Margaret finds herself in what could be described as a typical Kailyardesque situation, married to an older man who treats her as unpaid help. When she waxes lyrical to the stranger about her days in Glasgow and the bright lights of Sauchiehall Street, and gets excited as Hannay talks about his big city life, possibly seeing him as a passport out of her current situation, it becomes obvious that Scotland was changing, and that the hopes and dreams for a young woman went beyond marriage and motherhood.

Laurie's crofter soon realises that there is a connection and possible attraction between the two and sets out to hand Hannay over to the police. He is seen watching the two (voyeurism being yet another favourite Hitchcockian trait) and the hatred and fear of his younger rival is etched on his features.

Here Hitchcock delivers one of his most dramatic, and understated scenes, and it is a testament to his skill that the change of pace it brings doesn't derail the rest of the film. The film as a whole is a triumph, but next time you watch it think of the crofter's scene as a drama on its own. If you're like me you'll find yourself wondering what happened next to Margaret and her frightening husband. For all of the mystery and suspense in The 39 Steps, they are the characters that stay with me.

Django Rules OK...

Better late than never, I've criminally overlooked this year's Glasgow Jazz Festival which has been on over the last week. There have been familiar names such as Carol Kidd, Lucy Kerr, Bobby Wishart and Tommy Smith mixing with the more avante garde; The Arun Ghosh Quartet, Polar Bear and the brilliant dBass.

Although this is the last weekend of the festival there is still plenty to see and hear, including the amazing bass of Michael Janisch who plays with his quartet on Sunday at the Royal Concert Hall. You can find all the relevant information at jazzfest.co.uk, but one of the highlights was virtuoso guitarist Martin Taylor who presented an evening of the music of Django Reinhardt at The Old Fruitmarket last night. Taylor is a great talent and Django was one of the greats, and this gives me the perfect excuse to post a great clip of Django, alongside Stephen Grapelli. If your music collection contains no Django then I would suggest that you rectify this. If I'm feeling like I need a lift then he is one of the first artists that I turn to. Here he is looking all jazzy 'n that...

The Girls are Back in Town...

Once upon a time, in 1998, there were a group of girls from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour for Girls who went to Edinburgh to take part in the national choir finals. With this simple premise The Sopranos, one of the best novels of the 1990s, was written. Alan Warner's third novel is an astonishing, and slightly worrying, book in the sense that he gets into the hearts and minds of the titular girls with amazing accuracy and insight. I believe that his debut Morvern Callar, while it has become the more respected text, was in a sense a warm up for The Sopranos. The female voices appear to me more realistic, less problematic, than in Morvern, at least until the voyeuristic scene in the girls local nite spot. But that's for another day.

Set three years on from that day in Edinburgh, The Stars in the Bright Sky is the sequel to The Sopranos and reunites us with Kay, Kylah, Chell, Finn and Manda. My strongest memories from the first novel were of the blossoming relationship between Kay and Finn, and the tragic tale of Orla, but I had forgotten what an amazing grotesque Manda was, and she is front and centre here. Think of all the worst of those Daily Mail headlines about binge-drinking and single mothers and they are personified in Amanda Tassy. What Warner does so well is to show the humanity and vulnerability that lies behind the brazen and brash exterior. She is a visceral character, one that you'll feel sympathy for if you have any heart, but would cross the road to avoid being caught in her whirlwind of (extra-cold) Guinness fueled innuendo and abuse. For those readers who meet the group for the first time they may wonder why the others put up with the behavior of Manda, but, read in conjunction with The Sopranos, The Stars in the Bright Sky is that rare thing, a female 'gang' novel which is about so much more than any superficial trappings and desires. Warner manages to convey the strength and complexity of the ties that are formed in formative years.

The Stars in the Bright Sky is a more sober novel than The Sopranos, and does not reach its shocking heights as a result. However, few novels do. As with all Warner's novels it is superbly written. There are few Scottish writers who observe human nature as well as he does. The introduction of the upper-middle class character Ava initially brings an interesting new dynamic to the group, but as she begins to fall apart so does the novel. I don't wish to spoil any plots, but I didn't buy into the supposed difference in worldly knowledge between her and the other girls, particularly when it came to drugs. Their home town of Oban may not be London, but it's not Balamory either. The unravelling of Ava signals a drop off in the novel, although Warner manages to pull it back with a finale that some may see as contrived, but worked for me. I would suggest that if you haven't read The Sopranos you should do so whatever, but definitely before reading The Stars in the Bright Sky. It's not one of Warner's best, but it's still better than most Scottish novels that will appear this year.

Holiday Clip #4...

The FIFA World Cup is now well under way so let me take you bakc to happier times, perhaps the happiest time of all. Or was it a dream:

Holiday Clip #3...

It's not the greatest quality, but this paen to Glasgow is classic:

Holiday Clip #2...

It's Ivor Cutler. Say no more:

Holiday Clip #1...

This clip is from one of my favourite TV shows, and one which is impossible to get a hold of. It's from John Byrne's Your Cheatin' Heart. It has Eddie Reader, as Jolene Jowett (one half of The McPhail Sisters, one of Lanarkshire's finest Country and Western Acts) duetting with Guy Mitchell on The Bellamy Brother's Let Your Live Flow as Freddie Boardley leads a group of Hells Angels through a boot-scoot. That's quality TV:

Out of the Shadows...

Sometimes records reach you at a certain time and/or place in your life and end up meaning the world to you. Grand Prix by the Teenage Fanclub is one of those records for me. I bought it, along with the second Tindersticks album, in a small record shop in Sydney on the day I was starting a new job and had just found somewhere to stay. I love both of those records as much for the memories associated with them as the music, but Grand Prix in particular seemed to match the wonder and excitement of the new. To this day I still play it at least once a week.

So there is always that (slight) worry when a new Fannies album comes along. I know I'm going to get it, and I know I'm going to like it, but I also know it's unlikely to mean as much to me as Grand Prix. Doesn't mean it's not a fine album, and they always are, just missing that little 'I don't know what'.

Which brings me to their latest offering, Shadows. When I write about new music on these pages I try and do so after I've lived with it for a while. You can rarely tell what you think about an album after a listen or two, for instance I wasn't sure of the Steve Mason album at first but it wormed its way into my head and now I think it's a corker (see Outside Now...). Having said that it was love at first listen for Shadows. As most fans of Teenage Fanclub know, their albums, at least from Thirteen on, don't differ greatly in terms of overall sound, so what makes the difference between, say, Songs From Northern Britain (great) and Howdy (very good) has to be subtle and, as I've hinted, almost indefinable. The closest I can get is that it is when the parts, that is those different songs by different songwriters, work together at their best they produce a greater whole. Where does this place Shadows? I think it's their best since Grand Prix.

I could go through it track by track, but you can find such reviews elsewhere. What I suggest is to buy yourself a copy and spend time with it. It's very rare these days that I listen to an album, then stick it straight back on once it's done. There doesn't seem to be the time, and there is always something new to take my attention. Over an evening Shadows appeared four times. I recommend you take some time to relax into Shadows and listen to a band who understand each other, are comfortable and confident in what they do, and may just have made yet another of my favourite albums. Below is a live version of the single Baby Lee followed by some of my favourite Fannie tracks:






I'm off next week for another tour of duty on the West Coast of Scotland working on the puffer VIC 32. While I'm away some posts featuring a few of my favourite video clips will appear on these pages so keep an eye out. They include Hells Angels boot-scooting, Ivor Cutler, a song for Glasgow and something to lift the spirits at this time of year. See you in a few days...

The Shoe...

The latest entry in the Indelible Ink column is now available for viewing over at dearscotland looking at Gordon Legge's 1989 novel The Shoe. A recent on-line conversation turned into a 'Where are they now?' chat and one of the names mentioned, along with Davie Henderson, Michael Caton-Jones and The Wild River Apples, was Gordon Legge.

The Shoe is a novel about friendship, and if I can steal a quote from Indelible Ink: 'I can’t think of another Scottish novel which represents a group of friends so warmly and evocatively. They share more than just history, they have a real friendship that you feel will see them through dark days. This is partly as the novel is set just after the group have left school and still have the roles that were defined in the heat of the playground, and the optimism of youth is still strong enough to block out the feeling that life may never be that easy again.'

The Shoe is packed with cultural references, but these don't seem forced as can happen with other novels. Legge uses them as part of the common language shared by the four friends and their peers. There is a confidence in the writing that allows a novel which appears to be about very little actually mean a lot. And for those who want to know where Gordon Legge is now, he apparently works as a nursing assistant in Edinburgh. Nursing's gain is definitely Scottish writing's loss.

Next month's Indelible Ink will look Alan Bissett's debut novel Boyracers. Bissett is building a deserved reputation as one of Scotland's best contemporary writers, and one of the most versatile. As well as fiction he has written plays, performed with, or opened for, bands such as Zoey Van Goey, Malcolm Middleton and The Vaselines and has written and narrated the award winning short film The Shutdown.

Boyracers is similar in topic and tone to The Shoe, looking at a group of friends in Falkirk rather than Grangemouth. It could be the novel Legge would have written if he had been born 10 years later. One reviewer described Bissett as a cross between James Kelman and Douglas Coupland. He has shown with his subsequent novels The Incredible Adam Spark and Death of a Ladies Man that he is a writer that can't be so easily categorized.

The next 5 novels under discussion are:
Alan Bissett Boyracers (Jul)
Iain Banks The Wasp Factory (Aug)
Anne Donovan Buddha Da (Sept)
Alasdair Gray Lanark (Oct)
James Robertson (Nov)

Back to the Old School...

I'm aware that those of you overseas have problems accessing BBC's iplayer, but hopefully BBC Scotland's The Glasgow Boys, shown on BBC2 in Scotland last night, will find its way to you sometime soon as it is exactly the kind of programme that the BBC should be making. I previewed The Glasgow Boys exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery before (see The Boys are Back in Town... which contains lots of examples of their work) and The Glasgow Boys worked perfectly as an accompanying piece to the exhibition. BBC Scotland is making a happy habit of producing joined up programming. The recent Burns anniversary was well served by the corporation, and the interactive relationship between TV, radio and internet was again in evidence during the History of Scotland series.

The Glasgow Boys was presented by ex-Glasgow School of Art alumni Muriel Gray. Muriel is a woman who splits opinion in not so much a love/hate divide, more a like/hate divide. Despite disagreeing with a lot of the stuff she writes in The Sunday Herald I'm very fond of Muriel. This is down to her sterling work on The Tube, where she was a refreshing counterpoint to Paula Yates woman-child act, and a long forgotten programme called Walkie-Talkie, which was so simple in its premise (well known Scots such as John Byrne walked their favourite walks while talking to Muriel) that it was genius. I also have a soft spot for her Munro bagging series The Munro Show.

The Glasgow Boys was another example of her excellent and always informed presenting style, and it did make make me wonder why she isn't on our screens more often. But then I repeat, I like her. I have been told by those who don't that they find watching her like the equivalent of chewing cotton wool. The programme itself gave an excellent insight into 'The Boys' and their work. Concentrating on John Lavery, Edward Hornell, George Henry, Edward Walton and James Guthrie as well as their 'mentor' WY Macgregor, they were portrayed as a romantic bunch who genuinely helped each other to improve their work. As someone who only knew the paintings it was fascinating to learn of the stories that lay behind them, and Gray was informative and unassuming as she guided us through the lads and the landscape.

If you can access iplayer then you'll find The Glasgow Boys here for at least the next week. If not I can only try and make amends by including this clip of the lovely Muriel at work half way up a mountain, and which also features a cameo by the late, great, poet Sorley Maclean. Those of an anti-Muriel disposition, look away know:

Outside Now...

Top Ten Gigs Ever... one of those lists that often gets kicked around the table before last orders. No harm in it, except that it can lead to 3 in the morning texts as people suddenly remember Aimee Mann at King Tuts or the like. One I never forget, which always makes the list, is The Beta Band at the Barras.

Someone once said of George Best that he found the game so easy that by 26 he got bored and just gave up trying (apologies to all Hibees, but he was to all intents and purposes done by the time he rocked up at Easter Road). When The Beta Band split up in 2004 I had similar thoughts. They just seemed to find it all too easy. I'm not saying that Steve Mason is the George Best of Scottish music... although now I come to mention it.

Tom Naylor recently wrote an article in The Guardian which looked at the demise of LCD Soundsystem by stating that more bands should release a minimum of three albums and split up. I think the point he was making was that most bands only have three great albums in them, if they're lucky (he cites New Order, Public Enemy, The Pixies and Oasis!!! amongst others to back up his point). His exceptions that prove the rule are The Beatles and Kraftwerk. Where that leaves Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Prince, Bowie, Springsteen, Dylan etc I don't know. And it's not necessarily about length of service. I would argue that Gillian Welch, PJ Harvey and The Pet Shop Boys have all been involved in four or more great records. I don't think Tom had properly thought things through, but the general point, if it had been a good one, could have been applied to The Beta Band. Discounting compilations, their three album run of The Beta Band, Hot Shots II and Heroes to Zeros showed a musical vision that was eclectic, inventive and sometimes obtuse. It appeared that they had so many ideas that they were impatient to move on to the next without fully exploring what they had just done. As a result these are three records that bear repeated listening.

Mason has just released a new solo record Boys Outside, and it's the best thing he's done since he was one of the Beta boys. Mason, or someone involved, made the surprising (at least to me) choice of the modern day Trevor Horn, Richard X, as producer, but the collaboration is a success. X brings his 80s influenced, slightly grimy, pop sensibilities to Mason's sparse tunes, and it works a treat. All tracks were originally written on acoustic guitar, and their simplicity is respected. After flirting with other musical genres with King Biscuit Time and Black Affair this is a return to what Steve Mason does best. Here's the video for Lost and Found:



I think the actor in the above clip played the dentist ex-husband of Suzie Kettles in John Byrne's Tutti Frutti. But back to The Beta Band. It may be an obvious choice, but here they are live doing Dry the Rain, a song that will always take me back and make me smile: