American post-Trump Comedy? Glasgow International Comedy Festival

Glasgow International Comedy Festival Review

Greg Proops, Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow. March 15 2017
Rich Hall, Garage, Glasgow. March 18 2017.

Glasgow International Comedy Festival rumbles along again. There is never any feeling of a "festival" going on with venues and acts scattered across the city, there is no hub or buzz about it. The Aye Write book festival is on at the same time, but centred at the Mitchell Library, when you are there you feel there is something happening. Despite that the comedy festival brings an impressive line up of acts each year, if you can stumble upon them. With the incomprehensible mess that is American President Trump, I decided to seek out a couple of American comedians to see if they could find humour in their situation. 

Greg Proops came to the attention of British audiences as a regular guest on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? My kids know him as their least liked character in the whole Star Wars saga, Fode, a two-headed Troig ("I don't care what universe you're from, that's gotta hurt.") He now regularly records a popular podcast, which he recorded on the second of his two nights at Cottiers Theatre. His show was a game of two halves. The first half he appeared rather deflated, rattled off a few jokes about his previous times in Scotland. From brutal haircuts, mocking our tablet and Irn Bru, and the idea of having a whisky and cola, to the pointlessness of a Ferris wheel in George Square. But his concentration wandered; some stories were forgotten and punchlines were told back to front. The second half he came out with more energy, either because he started by ranting about the America's moronic president, or because he had a vodka and ice at hand. His exuberant faith in the abilities of Hillary Clinton, may have raised a few sceptical eyebrows, but it was women in general who he felt should be running the world. I'm not sure that out-of-towners get that saying Nicola Sturgeon seems to be doing a good job will cause most audiences to immediately split down the middle.

Rich Hall made a similar comment vaguely supportive of Nicola Sturgeon's competency, and similarly got as many boos as cheers. I think it is a topic that requires a more nuanced approach to carry the whole audience with you. He gave us an hour of gags and stories, before coming back on stage with his band to give us a musical second half. His tales of his previous dealings in Scotland seemed a bit warmer and a bit more up to date, his anger at Donald Trump and his electorate a bit more visceral and a bit less despondent. As he said, the problem doing comedy about Trump is that three days later, his actions in the real world will be madder than any comedic invention. For his musical entertainment he battered out a series of songs about audience members he had been dealing with in the first half, quickly rattling off rhymes with their jobs and even a cheery ditty about Larkhall. He clearly has spent far too much time in small towns around Scotland as he managed to work Glenrothes, Hawick and Eccclefechan into his songs. His world-weary face brightened up when people requested a rendition of his Border Collie Song that he had created whilst filming a BBC4 documentary on country music, that had been on TV the night before (still available on BBC iPlayer until end of April).

Big Country. A nostalgic gig reviewed.

Big Country. Live gig review. Cottiers, Glasgow, 17th December 2016

Big Country - The Seer album. 30th Anniversary Tour

On Saturday night I donned my tartan shirt and joined a decent crowd in Cottiers for a nostalgic trip back to the 1980s with Big Country performing there on their current tour. Only two of the original four members were playing in the current five-piece band. With the death 15 years ago of charismatic singer, guitarist and songwriter Stuart Adamson and the retirement of Tony Butler, that leaves Bruce Watson and Mark Brzezicki to carry the torch for the anthemic Scottish rock band. It may sound a bit like going to see Ringo and George Harrison playing as The Beatles, but a week before Christmas the chance of singing along with one of the favourite albums of my 16 year old self was too good to miss.

Formed in Dumfermline in 1981 by former Skids guitarist and songwriter Stuart Adamson and fellow Fifer, guitarist Bruce Watson. One version of the band briefly featured Peter Wishart on keyboards, later of Runrig and now an SNP MP, but Big Country settled their four-piece line up with bass player Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki. Their first single was released in 1983, Fields of Fire, from the Steve Lilywhite produced album, The Crossing, which also had their hit In A Big Country on it. The Crossing was available in a red, blue or green cover and in textured or smooth finish. As a complete sucker for that kind of fly, marketing gimmick I bought it in all the variations that I could find in the 1980s, despite the album inside being identical each time.

My tatty copies of Steeltown and The Crossing

The single Wonderland followed The Crossing and then the album Steeltown came next, in October 1984, with the singles East of Eden and Where The Rose Is Sown on it. Their success continued with the album The Seer in June 1986. Produced by Robin Miller, the title track features guest vocals from Kate Bush and the album was a return to the more Scottish, bagpipe-guitar sound of The Crossing. It has the hits The Teacher, Look Away and One Great Thing on it. The last of those it is hard to think of without seeing the old Tennents Lager advert that featured it. 

This album was one that I played endlessly and have a 12 inch single version of One Great Thing that has a strange "almanac and discography" booklet in the middle of it. You don't get any of that when you buy a download, do you? This has some photographs of the band in it that I was flicking through today, which are very much of their time. It is 30 years since The Seer was released, and the album is being played in full on the current tour. 

Mark Brzezicjki and Bruce Watson in the One Great Thing "almanac"

Peace In Our Time followed The Seer in September 1988, which marked the beginning of me falling out of love with Big Country and was the last of their albums that I bought. Further albums followed, with diminishing chart success and Stuart Adamson had by the 1990s moved to America to live, where he continued to make music. In 2000 the band ended their "Final Fling" tour with a sell-out concert at the Glasgow Barrowlands. Adamson had a history of alcohol problems and sadly fifteen years ago, in 2001, he committed suicide.

Cheesy  gate-fold picture from the Peace In Our Time album

In 2007 the surviving founder members reformed for a brief 25 year anniversary tour and Bruce Watson and Mark Brzezicki have intermittently toured, playing the band's old material. The current tour marks the 30th anniversary of the release of their third album, The Seer.

Big Country line up 2016, photo from their website

The current line up in 2016 has Jamie Watson on guitar, alongside his father Bruce Watson, drummer Mark Brzezicki, singer Simon Hough and bass player Scott Whiteley. They came on stage to a warm welcome and battered through the tracks of The Seer with Bruce Watson, grinning from ear to ear, briefly chatting between songs. The sing-along mood was carried into a few tracks played after the album play-through. It was a breezy, cheery evening, no maudlin reminiscing allowed. Simon Hough has the toughest job, trying to fill Stuart Adamson's shoes, and vocally he sings in the same key as Adamson, but was otherwise happy to leave Bruce Watson to do all the chatting. In A Big Country, Wonderland and Fields of Fire gave us further chance to sing ourselves hoarse and a final encore followed, which I think was one of the songs from the film Restless Natives.  Though Bruce Watson looked like he was ready to carry on, the rest of the band dragged him off, still grinning away and clearly having a ball. A nostalgic evening that reminded me of how many great tunes Big Country produced, a distinctive and inventive soundtrack to my teenage years.

Big Country in Cottiers, December 2016

Emma Pollock and Grandmaster Flash. January 2016

Emma Pollock and Grandmaster Flash. Live gig reviews. 29 January 2016. Glasgow.

Appearing on the same blustery night in Glasgow, but sadly not on the same stage, these two acts performing in two recycled church buildings 200 yards apart probably reflect why I love the live music scene in Glasgow so much. There is always something happening, and something for all tastes.

Emma Pollock. Oran Mor. January 2016

Oran Mor, Glasgow

On the final weekend of the Celtic Connections festival Emma Pollock, accompanied at times by 11 other musicians, launched her new solo album, In Search of Harperfield. Her third solo album since The Delgados split up 10 years ago, with much energy in that time being put into running the Chemikal Underground record label that seems to single-handedly power Scottish indie music. She was performing in Oran Mor, the former Kelvinside Parish Church built in 1862, the bar-come-venue-come-theatre space, now adorned with some of Alasdair Gray's finest works.With a nod to the usual noisy chatter from the bar that often overwhelms the sound from the stage in this space, she acknowledged that any gaps between tracks as they undertook this ambitious set, would be covered by the bar noise. However she had nothing to fear in this regard as she fully held the attention of a rapt audience. Accompanied at times by (what is becoming her house string section) The Cairn Quartet, singer Siobhan Wilson, RM Hubbert (who wrote and performs on one of the new album tracks) and BDYPRTS as backing singers there was a bit of shuffling on and off stage, but it was a gig that felt like a family party with a congenial host. At the heart of it are some mighty fine tunes. House On The Hill, written during her Burns Unit days, shows what a great voice for folk music she has if she chose to go in that direction. Intermission, Clemency and Parks and Recreation are stand out tracks for me.

It is a great album, go buy it here.

Grandmaster Flash. Cottiers. January 2016

Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow

We dashed away before the end of the Emma Pollock gig to go 200 yards away to the former Dowanhill United Presbyterian Church. Designed by William Leiper and built in 1866. With fine stained glass and interior decoration by Daniel Cottier, the vacant church has been running for 30 years as Cottiers. A bar, restaurant and theatre space the owners, the Four Acres Charitable Trust continue to slowly restore the church to its former glories. This year they have re-instated the old church organ and perform afternoon concerts on it.

This made it a seemingly incongruous place to find one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing and mixing on a wet Friday night, however Grandmaster Flash seemed quite at home. He probably isn't the first grandmaster to stand where the alter previously stood in this old church, but it was just appy, nostalgic fare he was dishing out. No longer accompanied by the Furious Five he stood in front of the Cottiers apse with his turntables, playing like the world's cheeriest wedding DJ. He may well have been mixing and scratching with gusto, resplendent in his bespoke Puma gear, but it was hard to see past a crowd of sweaty Glaswegians who were kept bouncing and clapping by their MC. We had a short David Bowie section keeping it topical, someone he spoke of having a lot of respect for. "Glasgow. Let's Go" and "Here we go, here we go, here we go" were as close to any chants or rapping on display, but that was never what he brought to the music he worked on. A quick encore brought us his own tune, White Lines, mixed into White Stripes song Seven Nation Army for a finale. I left with a big smile on my face, as did he I think.

Grandmaster Flash performing in
an old church in Glasgow. Bit weird.

Two old Glasgow churches, two diverse performances by two masters at their game. It's the future for our places of worship.


live review, gig review, Emma Pollock, Glasgow, Cottiers, Oran Mor, Grandmaster Flash

Sophocles and The Brothers Grimm - Theatre Review, Glasgow, Nov. 2013

Antigone, Strathclyde Theatre Group, Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow

Guilty, Play a Pie and a Pint, Oran Mor, Glasgow

I have been off work this week and am meant to be doing Christmas shopping. Fortunately there has been plenty of stuff on in Glasgow to let me avoid doing much of that. So pretending I was researching for our holiday in Greece next year I went to Cottiers Theatre, where Strathclyde Theatre Group are performing Sophocles classic play, Antigone. STG are a community theatre group/ amateur dramatics society that has been on the go for 40 years, and certainly has an ambitious programme, heavily flavoured with classics that appeal to people wanting to see a play from their exam syllabus, from Arthur Millar to Shakespeare. They lost their usual home in Strathclyde University last year when they had to move on from the Ramshorn Theatre there and seem to be regulars in Cottiers now. One advantage am-dram can have over professional theatre is in being able to call upon enough willing volunteers to fill every part in a large cast, or a Greek chorus.

As well as seeing this as research for trip to Thebes in the summer, I was also interested in seeing the play, as when I was assistant stage manager at our secondary school drama club, for some bizarre reason Antigone was one of the plays we did, with Rosemary from my year in the lead role.

Knightswood Secondary School does Antigone

Antigone is set in Thebes, the greatest city state in Ancient Greece before Alexander the Great conquered the land and destroyed the city. Thebes was also the mythical setting for stories of Dionysus, Heracles and Oedipus. The two brothers of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, have died on the battlefield on opposing sides. King Creon has proclaimed that one shall be mourned as a hero, the body of the other to be left on the battlefield, as carrion, disgraced. Antigone refuses to accept this, disobeys the king and buries him herself. She is caught and sentenced to death. Creon's stubborn pride leads to tragedy for his family, punished by the gods he displeased. This production seemed to be set it in the middle east or Egypt going by the the costumes and music, which jarred a bit for a Grecophile like me. Christian Zanone, as the sentry who discovered Antigone, put on a fine turn, and Creon was suitably proud, stubborn and chastened. The blind prophet Tiresius was kind of played as a transsexual, but on reading up on it later I see that Hera turned Tiresius into a woman for 7 years, so that's that explained. Anyway I enjoyed the story, if a few mumbled lines made it hard to work out exactly why Creon and his son suddenly fell out and how Antigone and Haemon met their end exactly. As tragedies go, Antigone is pretty tragic, and my sympathies lay with the heroine rather than the foolish king. The moral for him is to learn from his mistakes.

My son did the Wizard of Oz in his school's drama club last year. Obviously when I was at school in the 80s drama teachers were a bit more ambitious.

From a cast of sixteen to a cast of two as Lesley Hart and Louise Ludgate take their turn doing a lunchtime play for Oran Mor's flourishing A Play, A Pie and A Pint. This was another co-production with Aberdeen's Lemon Tree Theatre and will be on up there next week. Detective Black is questioning Blanca, who has recently left home to lodge with some geology students, about her missing step-mother. Lousie Ludgate in her lovely north-eastern dialect is stroppy, bullying and just a wee bit scary. As my kids for years have delighted in reading the grim endings of the original versions of well-known fairy tales, I could see what way the story was going but it was good fun watching it get there and a full house of Glasgow's west-end, lunchtime pie munchers was chortling away throughout (quiche is also available though tastes rubbish with gravy or brown sauce I imagine). The jousting of two fine actors, a pie and a pint of Guinness - a bargain at £8 on a Wednesday.

George Wyllie vs Rembrandt, Aidan Moffat vs Wagner

George Wyllie vs Rembrandt, Aidan Moffat vs Wagner

Review of George Wyllie Retrospective Exhibition, Rembrandt and the Passion, Aidan Moffat at Cottiers, Wagner- Tristan and Isolde Act 2 BBCSSO

There were two opportunities this week for me to compare internationally acclaimed masters in their field against uniquely Scottish national treasures in the same disciplines.

I often forget about the Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow University but the posters advertising their Rembrandt exhibition, "Rembrandt and the Passion", brought me along this week. I'm no religious authority but that is the second Passion themed thing I've seen this winter, and even I know this would chime better at Easter.

Last time I was in here there were clearly a few leaks in the roof and the layout was looking a bit tired, but I was delighted to see that it has all been renovated and re-hung. All of my favourite paintings are still there and JD Ferguson's Les Eus, Joan Eardley's paintings and their unique array of Whistler's are all allowed to shine. If you've not been in a while, go and stick your head through Paolozzi's doors and have a look. The temporary exhibition upstairs is built around the gallery's "Entombment Sketch" by Rembrandt, a wee picture I'm familiar with as it has hung in the Gallery forever. However it does merit the extra attention it gets in this exhibition, hung alongside some of his other paintings (including his "Entombment of Christ" painting on loan from Munich), etchings and works of other artists of the Passion story. It is all very interesting, but £5 entry was a bit steep considering it is usually free to see it on its own.

George Wyllie scul?tures


In the main hall at the Mitchell Library just now is a retrospective of the work of George Wyllie, who died earlier this year aged 90. If you don't think you know his stuff then think back to the huge 'paper boat' floated down the Clyde or the straw locomotive that was hung from the Finnieston crane in 1987 and then burnt (a model of it and a box of the ashes are on show here). He is a David Shrigley, with a blowtorch. 

Model for The Straw Locomotive



At present there is a large question mark hanging from the Finnieston crane in tribute to the man, who described himself as a "Scul?tor". His work was often playful and fun, but usually had a political edge or carried a message about Glasgow's declining industrial hinterlands. His family have brought together a great selection of his work from early paintings to major sculptures for this exhibition, titled "In Pursuit of the Question Mark".

I've always liked his stuff and his "Just In Case" giant nappy pin sculpture that sits at the former site of Rottenrow Maternity Hospital always raises a smile in me when I pass it. Hopefully this exhibition will inspire someone to fix the clocks in his running man sculpture outside Buchanan Bus Station. I'll definitely be back to see this exhibition again, which is free and on until February 2013 and I'll bring my kids, who will love it.

 

Saying that, however, on balance I'd give this one 2-3 to Rembrandt. Despite Wyllie having the home advantage, the big man from the Netherlands just wins here thanks to his superior technique.

This week I also had the chance to compare and contrast the music of Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells in Cottiers on Wednesday night with that of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the City Halls on Thursday. This really was a Champions League clash of techniques, the Scottish underdogs playing their homely tunes against Teutonic efficiency, complex chromaticism and one of the finest orchestras in the country.

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat

Rick Redbeard, lead singer of The Phantom Band in folkish guise, strumming his acoustic guitar opened and has a solo album out next year. Next up was Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, who won the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year award in June for "Everything’s Getting Older", a mixture of spoken word pieces, alcohol sodden songs and a quintessentially Scottish glumness. I last saw them perform songs from the album at a gig in Paisley and now about 18 months later it was nice to see how the live arrangements have evolved. Bill was at piano, with a trumpeter up front and Aidan on drums, vocals and bits and bobs. The 10 minutes on the album from "The Copper Top" through to the brutish "Glasgow Jubilee" are some of my favourite minutes of music and it was good to hear those tracks again. He promised a cover version tonight and although he seemed sorely tempted by an audience request for Chas ‘n’ Dave’s "Ain’t No Pleasing You" he settled for Black Heart by girl group Stooshe instead. If you follow Aidan’s drunken MTV music reviews on twitter you’ll know that this type of pop trash is what he loves at 4am. There were also outings for some tracks that they thought "too cheery" to make the album. He is always an entertaining performer and I think I’d enjoy hearing him read a shopping list over Bill Wells’s mournful piano and the muted trumpet, but the wee tales he tells of mundane ordinariness are great.

AL Kennedy and bluebottle address those who arrived early

By contrast the following night I was out to see Act 2 of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, a concert performance over three evenings of the opera, being performed by the BBCSSO. First on stage was author AL Kennedy. I like her Scottish dourness, love her books and she gave an interesting talk, bizarrely interrupted by a persistent bluebottle that landed on her mic and politely listened to the last 5 minutes. I really wonder what the Radio 3 audience would have made of her stopping mid-sentence to utter such things as "Go away, I don’t want to kill you". Presumably they were able to edit these bits out. I had enjoyed the first Act a few weeks ago and it had ended on a cliff hanger. The music and orchestra were fantastic, I particularly liked the bit where Tristan and Isolde meet to the crashing music of a thunderstorm rather than to sounds suggesting joyful love lies ahead. As before, it takes a strong voice to carry out to the audience with the orchestra right at your back rather than in the pit, and there were some cast changes from Act 1 which made for an odd continuity. Nina Stemme's Isolde was released from the Sinex she had to resort to a couple of times on the last outing and was strong and impressive. Her new Brangane, Jane Irwin, had a fantastic voice and presence. Our new Tristan, Robert Dean Smith, however was a shadow of the Tristan from Act 1. Not only did he dress more prissily than everyone else, in his tails and white bow tie, he sang more prissily too, not having the volume to carry his words over the orchestra. So he made an unconvincing subject for Isolde's passion. Peter Rose entered as King Mark towards the end and his booming baritone was full of pathos. Because they are singing, not acting, we were left with a cliff hanger again as Tristan sings "On guard, Melot" and the act ends (you don't get to see him throw aside his sword and allow Melot to severely wound him). So I'm looking forward to Act 3, and as each act lasts 75-90 minutes I can see why it merits this type of treatment, and again focusing on the music of Wagner is enjoyable. However the next act is in April, which does seem a wee bit far away.

So I'd give this one as a surprise victory for the plucky Scottish underdogs who took full advantage of playing in front of a home crowd. The German played a solid game, but couldn't deliver that knockout blow. Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells 3-1 Wagner.

This was all a convoluted metaphor to allow me to shoehorn in a mention of Scotland's football match of the week. No, not Celtic's impressive 2-1 victory over Barcelona, but Partick Thistle's storming dismantling of their main promotion rivals, Dunfermline, this afternoon. 5-1 it ended and Dunfermline were lucky that was all we scored. It was a great game, a great crowd of over 5200 and a wee suspicion is circulating around Firhill that we are looking bloody good this year. Next home game is in 2 weeks, vs Livingston on the 24th November. If you haven't seen them this year, drag yourself along.

 

Recycle your local church

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get to see another Play, a Pie and a Pint performance at Oran Mor, a fine example of a church, formerly Kelvinside Parish Church, which has been turned to another use. So successful has this arrangement been that only this week David MacLennan won the inaugural Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS). Although I'd like to, I think I'll be struggling to see this week's  Play, a Pie and a Pint offering, a new play by Peter MacDougall.

Another nearby church is also up and running again as a theatre space after recent renovations. It was about 8 years ago that I saw campaigning comedian Mark Thomas in Cottiers Theatre, getting quite merry and excited about performing there because he liked the idea of taking over church buildings for new (non-religious) uses. The Four Acres Trust people who bought Downahill Church in 1984 and started the process of converting it into an arts venue, whilst preserving the decor within the church of Daniel Cottier, do seem to be quite earnest in their efforts to save it for art's sake. With the annual jamboree that is the West End Festival in full swing again this month they have for the second year put on the perfect season of performances for the performance space, with The Chamber Project, daily performances of a varied programme of chamber music. I looked it up to check, but chamber music is music written for a small group of instruments, such as could fit in small room, private salon or palace chamber. Last year I saw a couple of the performances that they put on, Daniel's Beard, sort of Cottier's house chamber ensemble were the ones that stick in my memory, mainly as the musicians seemed very relaxed, chatty and engaging.

Just pop it in the freezer, et voila! A jubilee

Today I hadn't planned a bit of classical music after my tea, but enjoying a few days off work because of the Queen's jamboree (that's what it's called, right?) I've been doing Bank Holiday type things. Yesterday I took the kids an overlong run on their bikes to Clydebank, today they wanted to see Men In Black 3, which was pretty much as you would expect it to be, good fun but you'll not be rushing off to buy the DVD to re-watch it. On getting home we checked out what we could see in the West End Festival, and as the Cottiers Chamber Project offers free entry for under 16s we plumped for that.

Solway Trio in Cottiers

Today's offering was four pieces performed by the Solway Trio on flute, viola and harp. That combination of instruments conjured up something folky to my mind, but apparently Debussy first thought of putting them together. All I know of Debussy really is a line in a Pet Shop Boys song so this'd be something new. The first piece was by Richard Rodney Bennett, which was pleasant enough and quite cinematic. The next was by Toru Takemitsu, inspired by a poem by Emily Dickinson and was calm and quiet, and to be honest a wee bit dull. The biggest disappointment for me was the piece by Sally Beamish, Between Earth and Sea as in my unknowing head a harp, flute and viola (or fiddle) playing something which is based on a Gaelic song I thought would be a bit upbeat and heedrum hodrum, but the title should have given me the clue that it is based on a Gaelic keen, or mourning song, so again a subdued, quiet piece. Finally Debussy's Sonata for flute, viola and harp, which in Debussy's own words is "melancholy". This piece was head and shoulders above the others, rhythmic, pacey, the melody ebbing and flowing from the flute to the viola, which I liked very much. This was the least melancholic piece of the evening and a good way to end.

Now. Next I need to decide what to do in Glasgow this Friday. Andrew Bird at the Fruitmarket, Momus at CCA, watch an olympic torch arrive or the opening games of Euro 2012? Oh, or Kes is on at the Grosvenor, be nice to see that on the big screen.

330 Million Years of Entertainment

That's what I sought out this weekend - 330 million years worth of culture, sport and entertainment and, do you know what? I found it.

Scotland getting beaten by Wales at Rugby 7s

It started on Saturday in Scotstoun Stadium with the Rugby 7s. Scotstoun Stadium has changed a fair bit since I lived in Knightswood when it was a grassy bit of ground with a changing room, overlooked by a railway track. When my son's school class had been dispatched to Glasgow Airport by the city council to welcome the teams to the city he had a great time there and managed to get 21 illegible autographs of Fijian and Kenyan sports stars. So he was keen to see them playing and I was keen to have a nosey around the future home of Firhill's departing tennants, the Glasgow Warriors rugby team. Funnily enough the rugger playing schools of Glasgow hadn't sent children to Glasgow Airport to welcome the teams, but they appeared to have pitched up in numbers with their families at Scotstoun. It was all very jolly and nice. Lots of jolly nice people in fancy dress, but I've never liked rugby and a few hours of this event did nothing to change my opinion. The 7s game is meant to be faster and higher scoring, but so is basketball, and when I've been to see Glasgow Rocks, the score ticks by, but I don't have enough invested in it to care that much. I can watch any old football game and withing 5 minutes I'll have plumped for a team and got into it. Rugby never does that for me. Anyway, my impression was that AUstralia, Fiji and New Zealand seemed too far ahead of anyone else to make it that competitive and Scotland were vaguely disinteresed or rubbish (I don't know enough about rugby to tell).

The 17th hole at the crazy golf

One good thing about being down at that part of Glasgow is that Victoria Park is nearby, which I've always loved visiting. It is a shame that the crazy golf is now a shabby pile of rotting concrete that seem to function as an al fresco drinking venue going by the amount of bottles and cans left lying about. Thankfully the Fossil Grove is still there, and although it hasn't really been updated since I used to come here as a 5 year old. I guess there is only so much updating you can do with the 330 million year old fossilised remains of a forest that was in Glasgow even before a Labour-controlled council, if it's possible to imagine that far back.

The building housing the Fossil Grove

It is open between 10 am and 4pm every day until September, so go along if you've not been for a while. It's a lovely place, if a wee bit shabby and neglected at the moment. 

Fossilised tree stumps

The domestic football season also drew to a close today in the SFL with Partick Thistle playing against Hamilton.  I decided that my season finished 7 days earlier so didn't go, but it sounded like a great game, another decent performance, but another 2 points dropped. Roll on next season.

Went to see Marley at the Grosvenor Cinema on Saturday night. My mum was briefly an usherette here in the sixties, before Mr King brought in his leather seats and bar. (Is it just me, or is it not a bit weird to decide to sit at the back of a cinema on an old cusion and blanket, on a wee leather sofa some other couple were on half an hour ago?) The film is a documentary of his life, and as it has been made with the assistance of his family can't help but being a wee bit of a hagiography, but some of the cinematography in Jamaica was glorious and the music is fantastic. Afterwards I realised that I don't have any Bob Marley on my phone (just some Damian Marley) so I put that right when I came home. It was funny that I'd just read Gil Scott-Heron's memoir of his tour with Stevie Wonder, and in that he comes across Marley a couple of times, and as Marley takes unwell with cancer this is the whole reason Gil Scott-Heron carries on touring with Stevie Wonder.

 In the gods at the Theatre Royal

If you like an opera with a few big numbers, a melodramatic story, beautiful stage sets, a fantastic orchestra, murder, assassination and suicide then you should make an effort to go see Scottish Opera doing Tosca, which is on at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow just now. I've seen this production before, relocated to 1940s Rome under Fascist rule, but I can't remember it being this good. I thought that the orchestra played beautifully, it was well acted and sung and Robert Poulton as the scheming baddie, Scarpia, stole the show. We had great seats up in the gods despite the frizzy-haired, rather self-centred woman in front of me being perched forwards all the way through the last 2 acts when she moved to the the empty seat I was enjoying in front of me.

I am looking forward to hearing Dexys new album, and tried and failed to get tickets for their gig in Cottiers last night, a Big Issue seller and me hanging about at the door asking for any spare tickets (nae chance, apparently). I was able to hear them doing some old song called "Come On Eileen", muffled and from outside, but still sounded good to me.

Right. Off to bring myself back up to date tonight at Grimes at the Berkely Suite, not a venue I've been to before in its current incarnation. I bet there is some frizzy-haired 6 foot tall woman stuck right in front of me waving her hands in the air all night.