Category: 1980s songs

A Significant Non-Birthday, The “Dolly Effect” and The Dulcet Tones Of Matt Monro

Today is quite a big day for me and one I am strangely excited about. It’s not often that you celebrate getting older but when it comes with a monthly remuneration attached, not quite so bad. To be clear, it’s not my birthday, it’s just that anyone born after the 6th of April 1960 is part of the generation that will now miss getting their monthly remuneration at age 66. By 6th April 2028 everyone will have to be 67, but they’re doing it incrementally until then. To celebrate we’re going out for lunch with DD and Mr DD. She will no doubt be telling me all about the new album she purchased yesterday, Like A Virgin, by Madonna. It came out 10 years before she was born but she has a really good knowledge of older (to her) music, so much so that whilst on holiday recently she and Mr DD won the music quiz held one night in their hotel. They were up against teams of up to seven people of all ages. I was very proud!


But what else has been happening this week? We’re getting ready to go on our first big adventure post-“remuneration” (I can’t bring myself to say what it’s really called). Going on holiday used to be simple – just pack the kind of clothes you think you’ll need, some toiletries, money, your passport and you were set. Now everything is booked online so you need many, many apps, but you also need a photoshot of what’s on the app in case you can’t get a signal, and ideally a hard copy in case you run out of charge. Talking of which you need to make sure your phone will work abroad with the correct roaming settings and source an extra powerpack with connectors for the charge issue. Special front-facing, anti-theft bags have to be acquired to thwart sneaky pickpockets and multiple credit cards taken in case the one you usually use doesn’t work! Whatever happened to traveller’s cheques? Where am I going I hear you ask. Well here is a clue featuring one of Mr WIAA’s favourite songs and by the end of this post I’ll fill you in.

On Days Like These by Matt Monro:


Last time I wrote a tribute to Dolly Parton who very sadly passed away at the end of August. There was an awful lot of news coverage about her life and legacy in the days afterwards and it must have had an effect on the great British public as it was looking for a while as if she might finally make it to the No. 1 spot on the UK Singles Chart. But no, that was not to be, although she did reach the No. 5 and the No. 6 spots with 9 To 5 and Jolene respectively. Unbelievably the highest chart positions she ever reached.

So if Dolly isn’t No. 1, what is? After 23 weeks at the top spot, it is no longer Rein Me In by Sam and Olivia, it is this song, Choosin’ Texas, by Ella Langley. I wasn’t surprised as it’s been gradually creeping up the chart since January, but now, perhaps because so many of us have enjoyed hearing an abundance of country music courtesy of Dolly’s sad demise, it’s top dog. The song was written by Ella with help from Miranda Lambert amongst others, and is about the sting of watching someone choose the open road and the Lone Star State, over the relationship. Maybe I’m wrong but it feels like quite a while since someone who performs country music has topped the UK chart. It must have something to do with Dolly as not many of us on this side of the pond will ever have had to drink “jack” all on our own because our Texan, cowboy boyfriend just can’t cope with living in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.


But back to my forthcoming trip. As you will probably have guessed, I’m not going to Tennessee or Texas, but somewhere a lot closer to home, relatively speaking. Later on this week I’m heading to Rome for a few days after which we head down to Naples and then on to Sorrento for a more relaxing holiday. Troublingly, the weather there has been at heatwave levels for quite some time but it seems as soon as we arrive, the temperature is going to drop and it will rain for the following 10 days. In some ways that’s great for my fair Scottish skin but I get plenty of rain at home so I did hope for some blue skies. Long-range weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate though, so cross-fingers we’ll get both the lower temperatures and less rain.

Rome
Sorrento

If anyone has been to either of these places, do let me know. You may have some hints and tips we’ve not discovered yet. Our trips to the Vatican and to Pompeii have already been booked and our attempts at picking up basic Italian phrases are going well (although Mr WIAA keeps mixing up his Italian with his Spanish). All being well I shall return here in two weeks with tales of our trip. As I’m not an expert in the pop music of Italy, I’m going to finish off with a clip of a band I had all but forgotten about. Way back in 1983, Roman Holiday had a hit with the song Don’t Try To Stop It. Very upbeat and jaunty – just the thing to listen to whilst getting the suitcases packed.


Until next time…

Choosin’ Texas Lyrics
(Song by Ella Langley/Joybeth Taylor/Luke Dick/Miranda Lambert)

Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee
I shoulda known better than to take him back to Abilene
I put him right back into her arms
I wasn’t a match for that kinda spark

She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way
He’s two steppin’ ’round the room
And judgin’ by the smile that’s written on his face
There’s nothin’ I can do
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin’ Jack all by myself
He’s choosin’ Texas, I can tell

Well, I guess he forgot about the Smoky Mountain rain
Them old Hank tunes, the Memphis blues we used to sing
He always loved Amarillo By Morning
I shoulda taken that as a warning

She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way
He’s two steppin’ ’round the room
And judgin’ by the smile that’s written on his face
There’s nothin’ I can do
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin’ Jack all by myself
He’s choosin’ Texas, I can tell

When I’m eastbound and down and I can’t help but cry
‘Cause I-40 gets lonelier with every mile
I’ll know that his mind wasn’t ever gonna change
‘Cause his heart still belongs to the Lone Star State

She’s from Texas, I can tell by the way
He’s two steppin’ ’round the room
And judgin’ by the smile that’s written on his face
There’s nothin’ I can do, nah, yeah
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin’ Jack all by myself
He’s choosing Texas, I can tell, no
Drinkin’ Jack all by myself
He’s choosin’ Texas, I can tell

Come on, baby
Oh, yeah
Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee

Pop Quiz Jeopardy, Wham! and “Freedom”

I am puppy-sitting again and not at home in front of my computer where I do my blogging. I did however get an alert recently letting me know I had written this post 10 years ago, and did I want to share it again. As it wasn’t read by many people back then I am thinking, why not? It’s a fun story but rereading it I’m not sure if I would have used quite the same language if I’d written it today. Despite the fact I was writing about myself and my friends, it comes across as a tad sexist to my 2026 ears. It is a story from over 40 years ago so things were very much like that back then, but even over the last 10 years things have moved on yet again, which is a good thing, so our against the odds performance now doesn’t seem as remarkable. Anyway, let me know what you think and as you all know by now, I always reply!

First published 23rd of August 2016

At the end of 1984 I had just completed another set of very taxing exams (literally, as accountancy ones this time) and considering I had been doing this for nearly nine years now I decided I’d had enough. As I was living in Aberdeen at the time, the Oil Capital of Europe, work was plentiful so I decided a belated gap year was needed and off I went to register with the various recruitment agencies in order to pick up some temping work. With the recent drop in the oil price things are not as buoyant nowadays, but back then jobs were aplenty, and so it came to pass that at the start of 1985 I joined the ranks of one of the big five Oil Companies that had a headquarters in Aberdeen.

There is an irony to this situation however as there had always been a bit of a divide between the Town, Gown (quite a sizeable population) and Oil communities, and as part of the gown and then the town community (working in the public sector), my friends and I had always tended to snigger at all those glamorous “oil secretaries” who earned copious amounts of money for (we thought) not doing very much and who drove around in their rich boyfriends’ sports cars. We tended to stick to the bars of our student days, and  our student uniforms of jeans and T-shirt.

The irony here is that in 1985 I morphed into an “oil secretary” (I wasn’t actually a secretary and would have been a rubbish one at that, but you know what I mean). I think we all have a tendency, like animals in nature, to adapt to our surroundings and that’s exactly what happened. Big hair and white high heels anyone? Yes please. After years of being a bit dismissive of the breed it turned out to be a fine life. The average age of our small department was 28 and although I hate to admit it, I think the “secretaries” were hired mainly as eye-candy as you didn’t really get many what you could call plain girls in that world. Anyway, fighting against my feminist principles, I totally got on board with the whole thing and soon became the person who organised all the social events for the department.

dynasty
The cast of Dynasty with Crystal Carrington ex-stenographer!

I had been there for around six months when word got out that there was to be an Inter-Oil Company Pop Quiz which would be hosted by local Breakfast DJ Nicky Campbell in one of the city’s big nightspots. Now regular readers of this blog will know that this would be right up my street – I had recorded the Top 20 in notebooks since the age of thirteen and watched TOTP since I was a child. I was a bit rusty, but if I purchased the latest Guinness Book of Hit Singles, and memorised it, the whole thing should be a dawdle. As for the memorising of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, not as difficult as you would think as this was the 1984 version and there had only been a chart since 1952 and back then there was only a Top 12. I remembered most of the music from the late ‘60s and all of the ‘70s anyway so it was just a case of brushing up on the ‘50s and some of the more recent stuff I was not so familiar with. And so I spent the next few weeks surreptitiously working my way through this tome, whilst at work, in between doing what I was paid to do. The pride of our department was at stake after all so none of our bosses, still in their twenties, were too bothered.

Step one was to enter a team from our department into the heats to determine who would represent our company at the main event. Tick. I was pretty confident we would do well but needed two others to make up the team so I recruited a couple of my fellow “secretary” friends to join me, lets call them Julie and Amanda (!?). I was aware their knowledge was a bit scant but really, like George Michael needed Andrew Ridgeley for support, I needed Julie and Amanda.

The heat took place on a Friday evening straight after work in the very lavish company sports and social club (no expense was spared in those days). By this time I had realised that the lads from The Print Room were the ones to beat. They were weekend DJs, played in bands and were very “cool” so when they heard that a team of blonde, high-heeled secretaries had entered it was all a bit of a joke. But hey I was having a year off studying, was afflicted with having a photographic memory for all this kind of stuff and if you get your timing right you can peak at just the right time then promptly forget it all again! (When I say affliction, it kind of is, because you end up getting better results than you perhaps deserve compared to more able students, as for some exams rote learning is all that is required).

Anyway, the upshot was that the in-house Pop Quiz to determine who would represent the company got underway. Waiting for our turn in the hot seat I was quietly confident, as most of the questions were relatively easy. Gradually we got through the stages as one by one departmental teams were eliminated. Then it came to the final round and yes you’ve guessed it, it was us against the cool dudes from The Print Room. The various rounds progressed, some individual questions, some quick-fire and a “name that tune” round complete with audio (not easy in those less technologically advanced days). My fellow team mates had upped their game as well, and were doing a sterling job.

By this time I could see that the lads were rattled – “How can this be happening to us”, I imagined them thinking. They were looking pale and sweat was glistening on their top lips. I can still remember the final three questions that clinched it for us:

1910 Fruitgum Company
  1. Who had a hit with “Simon Says” in 1968? – Easy, The 1910 Fruitgum Co. (but not easy to find in an alphabetical list of artists).
  2. Which band won the Eurovision Song Contest with A-Ba-Ni-Bi? – As a life-long fan of the contest that was also an easy one, it was Izhar Cohen and the Apha-Beta.
  3. And here is where I was just so proud of my team-mate “Julie” – A lovely girl whom I am still in touch with today. The final question was a lyrics one and anyone following this blog will know that there lies my weakness. I don’t know what I’ve been doing all my life but it doesn’t seem to have been listening to lyrics properly! We were given a line from a recent song that had been a chart hit and although it meant nothing to me, it did to “Julie”, a big fan of Wham!. Yes the winning points came from her knowledge of the lyrics to Freedom, which had reached No. 1 in the charts the previous year.

So there we had it, the “secretaries” had won the quiz and would represent the company at the main event. The lads from The Print Room were furious although when you think of it, if they were as cool as they thought they were, they should have been pleased that they didn’t know about The 1910 Fruitgum Co., Eurovision and the complete works of Wham!, but it was the principle I think.

wham


Yet again I have overrun on words so I will leave the story there for the moment and come back to it another day. I think the featured song for today however will have to be Freedom from 1984, a fun and camp record with apparently Abba-style cord changes. Every day’s a school day.

Freedom by Wham!:


I should also point out here that all my preconceptions about “oil secretaries” turned out to be unfounded as they were generally very smart girls who just happened to be very good-looking as well. The earlier dismissiveness was of course down to jealously, that ugly emotion that hits us all at certain times in our lives. Happy days and as I said before, I’m still in touch with some of the “team” today. A second bit of irony is that the song chosen here should be called Freedom as that was the year I split up with my long-term student boyfriend – George Michael didn’t want his freedom, but suddenly I did, and I think a lot of it was down to my short-lived time in the oil business!

Freedom Lyrics
(Song by Simon Law/Caron Wheeler/Beresford Romeo/George Michael)

 Everyday I hear a different story,
People saying that you’re no good for me,
“Saw your lover with another and she’s making a fool of you”

 If you loved me baby you’d deny it,
But you laugh and tell me I should try it,
Tell me I’m a baby, and I don’t understand

 But you know that I’ll forgive you,
Just this once, twice, forever,
‘Cause baby, you could drag me to hell and back,
Just as long as we’re together.
And you do

I don’t want your freedom,
I don’t want to play around,
I don’t want nobody baby,
Part time love just brings me down.
I don’t want your freedom,
Girl, all I want right now is you.

Like a prisoner who has his own key
But I can’t escape until you love me
I just go from day to day knowing all about the other boys
You take my hand and tell me I’m a fool to give you all that I do
I bet you someday baby someone says the same to you
But you know that I’ll forgive you
Just this once twice forever
’cause baby, you could drag me to hell and back
Just as long as we’re together
And you do

The Tartan Heart Festival 2026: The Human League Come To Belladrum and I Was There!

I’ve written about our local music festival around here many times, despite never having experienced it for myself. I’ve dropped DD and her friends off, picked them up, and washed the mud off their wellies, but have always dithered, and never quite got round to buying tickets. At first (it’s been going since 2004) I thought such festivals were for young people and for those who don’t mind camping in a muddy field for a weekend, but over the years I’ve discovered that all ages congregate at Belladrum during the last weekend in July, and blow me down, you don’t even have to camp as there is a shuttle bus that goes back and forth from the town centre. You can even buy a day ticket nowadays, so this year, the year I’m desperately trying to tick things off the bucket list before I get any older, I did just that. The day I chose was the Friday as that was the day when The Human League were going to be headlining on the big stage. They definitely didn’t disappoint.


But first, a little bit of background to The Tartan Heart Festival. Although about a tenth of the size (up to 25,000 capacity), it’s become known as the Scottish Glastonbury, and I can see why. It’s held on a farm in the middle of the countryside and as well as featuring music, there are also all sorts of artsy things that go on in the various upcycled farm buildings and pop-up venues – poetry reading, cinema, comedy, circus skills and so on. It’s also very family friendly with lots of activities for kids and special camping areas set away from the boozy youngsters! We never get the really big names of course, but we are on the circuit for all those artists who are doing the current year’s round of festivals. It’s also a great venue for local and traditional Scottish bands.

The countryside where it all takes place


And so it came to pass that Mr WIAA and myself got up early last Friday and as if preparing for a military campaign, packed all the things we thought might be useful for a long day at an outdoor festival. Layers of clothing complete with wet weather gear (as it turned out we were lucky with only two short showers the whole day), pop-up chairs (essential for oldies like us), paperwork for the bus and venue (no phone signal out there) and plenty of hand sanitiser and tissues (just in case the toilets were less than ideal – they were ok actually).

It’s only 7.6 miles door to door so we just had to walk down the hill from our house and catch the bus from our local stop. The drive through the countryside is beautiful at this time of year but of course double decker buses are not a common sight on such lanes so if you’re at the front on the top deck (as we were), it’s a bit scary to see solid tree foliage heading towards you, but both the bus and the trees survived I’m glad to say.


We got there well before 11am and some of the campers were just getting up so the fields were still quite empty. I was amazed to see a pop-up Co-op supermarket near the entrance full of all the essentials needed by festival goers. The fact we both had our Co-op membership cards with us proved very useful later in the day but I’ll come to that in a bit. DD advised that we would need a lanyard which would guide us to what was going on throughout the day, so after a coffee we set about acquiring one. Seasoned festival goers will know about such things but as newbies we needed all the advice we could get. It was time for a proper walk around the entire venue so we could get our bearings on where all nine stages were, and what else was on offer (the food options were amazing).

It was reassuring to see that all ages were represented and who knew that hippies still walk amongst us! There were plenty of people there who looked as if they “dropped out” many decades ago and good for them. Their clothes and hair styles were a dead giveaway and very different from the outfit of choice for teenage girls this year. The spray tan centres in town must have run out of product, as they all seemed to have skimpy shorts, orange legs and cowboy boots. I was tut-tutting at the skimpiness of the shorts, but hey, I was being a “mum” and I might well have worn the same had I been their age.

The Tartan Heart logo

But this is a music blog so where is the music I hear you ask. At midday the acts started to appear so first we caught a couple (Fiddle Forte and Devin Casson) in the Grassroots tent then ventured out to get some lunch. Mr WIAA met some yoga friends who were holding a class in one of the tents and I met an old work friend whose daughter was getting married in the temple later in the afternoon (there are a few weddings held every year). For the afternoon we planned to see Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5 on the main stage and then Out Of The Blue (a celebration of Joni Mitchell) at The Ice House.

It’s a bit difficult to describe the Colonel Mustard outfit from Glasgow, and this clip is really tame but I can’t find a decent one of them in action. Suffice to say everyone headed to the main stage for their set (they are regulars at the festival) and there was much audience participation when they sang their songs, Cross The Road and Bouncy Ball. This is how they describe themselves: We are the shiny disco ball hat wearing, ultimate genre hopping, twisted festival, live stage machine that puts the emphasis on music, entertaining and laughter. We are a party at its most outrageous and ridiculous.


We then got to The Ice House just in time to watch the Joni Mitchell tribute band and were treated to many of her songs starting with Big Yellow Taxi. Most of the audience looked as if they had been around during her heyday, so we fitted right in.

Out Of The Blue

After that we met up with my friend again in the area cordoned off for wedding guests having cake and champagne. The ceremony had already taken place, so they were having some down time before heading off to enjoy the rest of the festival. The friend was a little tipsy by this time so we left them to it and headed off to find something tasty to eat to set us up for the evening ahead. The sun had even come out so it was all good at Belladrum.

The Wedding Temple

I mentioned earlier that we had our Co-op membership cards with us and as luck would have it there was a partially covered area next to the bar at the main stage, set aside for anyone carrying such a card. I don’t think many people knew about it or maybe the youngsters just wanted to be nearer the stage but it was perfect for us oldies who had their chairs with them, so we could have a drink and a sit-down between the acts. It was also a little higher up so you could look down on the stage without anyone’s head getting in the way. There was a slight problem in that you couldn’t see all the acts you would have liked as they coincided with each other on another stage, but it seemed the Hothouse Stage was the place to be.

First of all we had Scouting for Girls who came on at 6.25pm, then we had Rizzle Kicks at 8.05pm and finally, the one I was waiting for, The Human League at 9.45pm. Like at the Take That concert, I didn’t want to spend my time taking bad photos rather than watch the bands, but I did get a few shots which I’ll share here.

It seems that to do well at a live festival you have to be able to add a little banter between songs and both Roy Stride from Scouting For Girls and Jordan Stephens from Rizzle Kicks were really good at that. I enjoyed both bands and got a real surprise with Rizzle Kicks – they have lots of horns in their band so unlike most hip-hop outfits they have a very distinctive sound. They first found success in the early 2010s but after having gone off to do other things for eight years, they are back performing again. The girls next to us in our little area were obviously big fans so they knew they would finish with this song, Down with the Trumpets.


I did a bit of reading up about them when I got home and was surprised to learn that Jordan is the grandson of one of The Boulting Brothers, those English filmmakers who became known for their 1950s satirical comedies such as Lucky Jim and I’m Alright Jack. Every day’s a school day.

After a bit of a sit down and a drink it was time for The Human League to come on. It gets dark later up in the north of Scotland but dusk was approaching, always the best time for an outdoor concert to start. What can I say, they were absolutely fantastic. Phil was in fine voice and changed his outfit no less than seven times during their hour and a quarter set. The two girls, Joanne and Susan, emergency recruited for a tour way back in 1980 are still with him, and that is all you need really to recreate those synth-pop songs they became so famous for. They played all the hits starting off with Sound Of The Crowd and ending with Don’t You Want Me (obviously). I didn’t know Mr WIAA back in the early ’80s and was amazed that he knew all the words to all the songs, but he was at art school then and synth-pop was big with his fellow students. There is no footage yet of our festival but having watched a few other clips it seems they’ve been doing the same set for a couple of years now so plenty out there. There is quite a preamble in both these clips with Phil not coming on until 2:00 – just enough time to change outfits (yet again!).

Sound Of The Crowd by Human League:

Don’t You Want Me by Human League:


Phil is aged 70 now but he certainly still has plenty of energy and traversed the stage continually from left to right. He still looks really “cool” and the outfits could have belonged to David Bowie with the occasional bit of headgear taken from the Pet Shop Boys closet. I loved it and had a big smile on my face for the duration. Mr WIAA, who has never been a fan of concerts or festivals (his middle-aged bladder being a worry) has decided we should now go every year, but maybe not to camp.

It was fully dark by the time The Human League finished their set (which thankfully did include my favourite song of theirs, Louise) so rather than stay late for the last act we decided to head for the bus home. About eight double-deckers were waiting at the PUDO area so it was all very well organised and we got home in no time. I again was acting as a mum and felt very sorry for some of the teenagers who were deemed too drunk to get on the buses. Their mums would be getting very worried soon if no-one helped them out, but there is a welfare team there who hopefully did.

So, “What’s It All About?” – I just dipped my toe in the water really but my first experience of a festival was very positive and all being well I think we’ll try and go again next year. It’s so close to home it would be ridiculous not to really.

Until next time…

Don’t You Want Me Lyrics
(Song by Jo Callis/Philip Oakey/Philip Adrian Wright)

You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up
And turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on you’ve got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don’t forget it’s me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too

Don’t. Don’t you want me?
You know I can’t believe it when I hear that you won’t see me
Don’t. Don’t you want me?
You know I don’t believe you when you say that you don’t need me

It’s much too late to find
When you think you’ve changed your mind
You’d better change it back or we will both be sorry

Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!
Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then I knew I’d find a much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had have been such good at times
I still love you
But now I think it’s time I live my life on my own
I guess it’s just what I must do

Don’t. Don’t you want me?
You know I can’t believe it when I hear that you won’t see me
Don’t. Don’t you want me?
You know I don’t believe you when you say that you don’t need me

It’s much too late to find
When you think you’ve changed your mind
You’d better change it back or we will both be sorry

Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!
Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!

Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!
Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me? Oh!

Yet More Trips Away, “Castles In The Air” and Castles On Hills

Last time I wrote about my trip to Inverclyde, but since then I’ve had trips to Fife and Aberdeen, met up with lots of old friends, watched a World Cup Final and a Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, witnessed the appointment of the seventh PM in 10 years and finally, I am watching in disbelief, as our local Cairngorms National Park has a fire burning out of control, and villages are being evacuated.

As for a topic to write about, the less said about that World Cup Final the better (a horrible, dirty match with a ridiculous “pop concert” in the middle) and as I’ve written about trips to Fife and Aberdeen before I won’t go there either. I’ve given up on writing about politics (how long will the latest incumbent last?) and I can only hope the wind dies down and the fires south of us can be extinguished soon.

Fortunately Spain won, but it wasn’t looking good for a while!

Something new we did do when away, was make full use of our National Trust for Scotland membership cards, a thoughtful Christmas present from DD that last a whole year. This week we managed to take in three castles not far from Aberdeen, an area known as Castle Country, and last week we visited Falkland in Fife, a gorgeous little village with a whopping big 16th century “palace” at it’s centre. It was built by James V of Scotland as a hunting lodge but still has a chapel that is used every Sunday and boasts the oldest tennis court in the world. It is more like a squash court however with walls, from back in the days before lawn tennis became more popular.

But once you’ve been on one tour of a 16th century castle you’ve pretty much seen them all so at Crathes Castle we concentrated on the beautiful gardens and at Craigievar we just had a coffee in the grounds, and admired the castle’s Disneyesque pink render.

Crathes Castle
Craigievar Castle
Drum Castle
The entrance to Falkland Palace


There are lots of songs with the word castle in the title but hardly any of them refer to actual castles and use the term as a metaphor for something else. A hauntingly beautiful song that I’ve not listened to for a long time is this one, Castles In The Air by Don McLean. Don actually wrote this song in 1970 for his first album but re-released it in 1981 as a single, this time a slower ballad version. I’m pretty sure my memory of the song is from first time around after which he went on to have many hit records such as American Pie and Vincent.

Castles In The Air by Don McLean:


In this instance the castles represent the high-rise living experienced by people in big cities. The narrator is weary of his urban lifestyle and is desperate to live a life in the country despite the fact he must say farewell to his love interest. He wants to realise his dream and look for a more like-minded country woman.

Castles In The Air Lyrics
Song by Don McLean

And if she asks you why, you can tell her that I told you
That I’m tired of castles in the air
I’ve got a dream I want the world to share
And castle walls just lead me to despair

Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky
A dream come true, I’ll live there ’til I die
I’m asking you to say my last goodbye
The love we knew ain’t worth another try

Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I’m weak, but I can’t face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can’t remain
Perhaps she’ll understand if you tell it to her plain

But how can words express the feel of sunlight in the morning?
In the hills, away from city strife
I need a country woman for my wife
I’m city born, but I love the country life

For I will not be part of her cocktail generation
Partners waltz, devoid of all romance
The music plays and everyone must dance
I’m bowing out, I need a second chance

Save me from all the trouble and the pain
I know I’m weak but I can’t face that girl again
Tell her the reasons why I can’t remain
Perhaps she’ll understand if you tell it to her plain

And if she asks you why, you can tell her that I told you
That I’m tired of castles in the air
I’ve got a dream I want the world to share
And castle walls just lead me to despair


Unusually for me I’m going to include the lyrics for two songs today as on the way home from our Aberdeen trip we had to go cross country and I passed through the village where I grew up. I got really nostalgic as we drove along streets I still know like the back of my hand despite the fact most of the shops are different and some new buildings have popped up. I had another trip planned for August when I was going to head down to the village and visit some old school friends. Sadly that is now on hold, as unbelievably, one of them has just lost her husband and another has a husband undergoing treatment for cancer. Both have parents who are still alive. I’m really starting to notice that unlike our parents generation we’re just not living as long, not a week goes by without some ex-colleague or acquaintance passing away. Don’t know if it’s the food we’ve eaten or the lifestyles we’ve led, but a sobering thought.

My childhood “castle” – a stubbier version of Glastonbury Tor?


But back to the village, we were lucky to have a castle on a hill overlooking us, so we always knew when we were nearly home. As teens it was not unusual for a group of us to climb to the summit of the hill and hangout amongst the ruins of the 13th century fortress that once stood there. Ed Sheeran wrote a song about a castle on a hill, an unlikely subject matter for a boy from Suffolk I thought, but it always reminded me of our castle and the times I spent there. Here is Castle On The Hill. The castle mentioned in Ed’s song is Framlingham Castle, and in 2017, he was invited to perform there. The song has been described as a love letter to Suffolk.


So, “What’s It All About?” – My quest to fit as much into the summer as possible is a tad exhausting, especially on top of all the other things I do in a week, but very enjoyable all the same. No more overnight stays now until September although a few day trips I’ll be writing about – first one is on Friday so watch this space, as it definitely involves music!

As for my friends in far-flung places, please stay fit and well. I don’t know what’s going on at the moment but we’re losing far too many people prematurely. I’ve just about caught up with all the friends I hadn’t seen for a long time now, but still a few to go. Will be later in the year now, but I will do it.

Until next time…

Castle On The Hill Lyrics
(Song by Ed Sheeran/Benny Blanco)

When I was six years old, I broke my leg
When I was running from my brother and his friends
And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down
Well, I was younger then, take me back to when

I found my heart and broke it here
Made friends and lost them through the years
And I’ve not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I’ve grown
But I can’t wait to go home

I’m on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
And we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

15 years old and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes
Running from the law through the backfields
And getting drunk with my friends
Had my first kiss on a Friday night
I don’t reckon that I did it right
But I was younger then, take me back to when

We found weekend jobs, when we got paid
We’d buy cheap spirits and drink them straight
Me and my friends have not thrown up in so long, oh, how we’ve grown
But I can’t wait to go home

I’m on my way (hoo-hoo)
Driving at 90 down those country lanes (hoo-hoo)
Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
And we watched the sunset (hoo-hoo), over the castle on the hill

Hoo-hoo, over the castle on the hill
Hoo-hoo, over the castle on the hill

One friend left to sell clothes, one works down by the coast
One had two kids but lives alone, one’s brother overdosed
One’s already on his second wife, one’s just barely getting by
But these people raised me and I can’t wait to go home

And I’m on my way
I still remember these old country lanes
When we did not know the answers
And I miss the way (hoo-hoo) you make me feel, it’s real
When we watched the sunset (hoo-hoo) over the castle on the hill

Hoo-hoo, over the castle on the hill
Hoo-hoo, over the castle on the hill

More Weekends Away, “Shipbuilding” On The Clyde and Robert Wyatt

Since celebrating this blog’s 10th birthday, I’ve done a pretty good job of posting something new every Saturday as that’s pretty much my only free day for blogging nowadays. I averaged 50 posts per year over the first 10 years so I thought it would be really easy to aim for that target going forward but I’ve now missed four Saturday sessions, one because we were puppy-sitting and three because we’ve been away for the weekend. I have a bit of catching up to do.

I’ve already written about the weekend I was down in Glasgow for the Take That Circus Tour, so what else have I been up? After not having been down in “Glasgowshire” since 2019, I ended up going again within the following three weeks. When you are used to driving in the Scottish Highlands you are not used to the fast paced motorway network that gets people around in the South of Scotland. It was therefore with some trepidation that we ventured by car down to Greenock on the River Clyde to visit my uncle and cousins. As it turned out it was very easy, as the same motorway took us right through the centre of the big city and continued onto Greenock with no slip roads having to be negotiated at any point – phew.


Of course I knew all about the history of shipbuilding on the River Clyde and how it turned Glasgow into the Second City of the British Empire for a time. For decades, over 20% of the world’s ships were constructed there. The earliest commercial steamship was built in 1812 and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries over 200 shipyards lined the river, made famous for producing legendary vessels, including luxury ocean liners and naval warships. Sadly those days have long gone but I still remember watching the likes of Shop Steward Jimmy Reid on the news in 1971, organising work-ins after the collapse of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders consortium. Rather than striking, he wanted to ensure the workers completed orders and projected the best image they possibly could. Many of us will remember his address where he instructed them that there should be “no hooliganism, no vandalism and no bevvying”. First time a public figure probably used the word bevvying (drinking) in a widely broadcast address.

Greenock, Gourock and Port Glasgow all merge together nowadays and I visited all three places on my weekend away. You can still see signs of the now defunct shipbuilding industry and the wealth it brought to the towns, but the big warehouses have now been converted to luxury flats overlooking the Clyde and boats now leave the many piers taking people on pleasure cruises. I don’t know about you but when I think of shipbuilding on the Clyde nowadays, I can’t help but think of the comedian Billy Connolly. Like many boys his age in Glasgow he entered the shipyards after he left school and has often said that’s where he learnt his craft. The men he worked with had a great rapport with each other and he still thinks their humour was funnier than anything he came up with.


When visiting my uncle in his fine flat overlooking the Clyde, I was lucky enough to see The Waverley pass by. It was built in 1947 and is the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. There used to be many such passenger steamers on the Clyde, running from Glasgow downstream to Rothesay and other towns, a journey known as going “doon the watter”. Many Glaswegians started their annual holiday on such vessels.

My poor photo of The Waverly (ignore my reflection in the window)

When watching The Waverly pass by I was reminded of another boat famous for travelling down the Clyde. I don’t know if it was screened in the rest of the country but the The Vital Spark was a television series based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. Para Handy was the captain of the puffer The Vital Spark and the series followed the crew’s adventures in the 1930s, around the coastal waters of the West of Scotland. I think I was too young for the original 1960s black and white series but I remember well the one aired in the 1970s in colour. Must-watch television in our house at the time. Think it still stands the test of time.

But here I am writing about comedy that was derived from the antics of workers in the shipyards and on the puffers. This is a music blog, so where is the song?

A bit of a no-brainer really – it’s going to be the song Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello, the most successful version recorded by Robert Wyatt. It was actually written during the  Falklands War in 1982, with Elvis’s lyrics highlighting the irony of the war bringing back prosperity to traditional shipbuilding areas such as  Clydeside, in building new ships to replace those being sunk in the war, whilst also sending their sons off to fight and potentially lose their lives in those same ships.  Looking back I don’t think the war lasted long enough for that to happen, but 44 years later there is still anger in Argentina over that war, which sadly spilled onto the football pitch after this week’s grudge match between the two erstwhile foes.

Shipbuilding by Robert Wyatt:


I have seen Elvis Costello perform that song, but I very embarrassingly interrupted him in mid-flow at Aberdeen’s Capitol Theatre. I was Yoko in the early 1980s, always wanting to be with my boyfriend, but having to accept he always had a coterie of male friends around him as well. They didn’t want to watch the support act which turned out to be The Bluebells who went on to great things, but decided to leave the theatre bar just in time for the main event. After consuming a few half pints I had to go to the “ladies” first, which took a while, so I was last to my seat and after Elvis had started his set. We had good seats near the front so I was mortified at having to walk down the middle aisle to get to my spot, Elvis giving me dagger looks all the while. Maybe I imagined it but I still cringe about that long walk to this day. Sorry Elvis.

Until next time…

Shipbuilding Lyrics
(Song by Elvis Costello/Clive Langer)

Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy’s birthday
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we’ll be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said ‘DAD THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE ME TO TASK
BUT I’LL BE BACK BY CHRISTMAS‘
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they’ll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It’s all we’re skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
WITH ALL THE WILL IN THE WORLD
DIVING FOR DEAR LIFE
WHEN WE COULD BE DIVING FOR PEARLS

A Busy Week: Trips To Leeds, Birthday Celebrations and “No Scotland No Party”

It’s been a busy week so I think it’s going to have to be a web diary type post from me today as lots to download from my overloaded brain.

First of all, I spent three days in the city of Leeds this last week, as it was time for BlogCon26 where six like-minded bloggers and their partners have a get-together in the “real world” as opposed to in the comments boxes of our online offerings. I mentioned it last time and despite my fears that rain would spoil proceedings we were very lucky in the end with only one downpour causing us a bit of bother.


As for Leeds, I had never been to the city before and my idea of the place must have been clouded by watching too many period dramas about cotton mills, and factory owners called Cartwright. Leeds has really reinvented itself in the 21st century and is now the largest financial centre outside London. The glass towers in the city centre make it look like Canary Wharf. Alongside all this development, the old Victorian buildings have been lovingly restored and the civic buildings and shopping arcades look beautiful. As for the bars and restaurants there were plenty to choose from and all bustling, even on a weekday night. Definitely a city on the up and one I plan to visit again.

Luckily for a bunch of music bloggers, an exhibition was taking place in the city’s museum when we were there called: Music Leeds Us: Celebrating 60 Years of Music in Leeds. It was really interesting and I discovered a lot about bands/artists I had hitherto not realised came from Leeds. I knew about the Kaiser Chiefs and Mel B of course, but didn’t know about Christie, Scritti Politti, The Wedding Present, The Sisters Of Mercy or Corrine Bailey Rae. Also, Marc Almond and Dave Ball from Soft Cell went to art school in Leeds. Here is Scritti with probably their most memorable song, from 1984, Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin).


But also this week I had a birthday, which is always a cause for celebration in our house. DD had been round when we were away and pinned up a personal birthday banner she had made herself – most impressive. As for the number this year, it should have been a significant one but in their wisdom the government decided a few years ago that the state pension age should increase, again, so it will be another few months until I get my remuneration. The weird thing is that you can’t believe you’ve got to that age, as in your head you’re still a young thing of 20-something (albeit with a lot more life experience under your belt).


Anyway I had a lovely day of opening cards and presents (a lot of them gardening related this year – an OAP activity?), and receiving messages from friends and family. We had birthday cake with DD and Mr DD, also known as The Grass Whisperer. In three weeks he has turned our patch at the front from this (left photo), to this (right photo) so well done him.


When I met up with my old schoolfriend last summer I reminded her that for my birthday in 1975 she gave me the single, Whispering Grass, by Windsor Davies and Don Estelle from the popular sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. That show hasn’t aged very well but in its heyday it attracted up to seventeen million viewers – different times. My friend denied giving me this very uncool record but I know the truth and I still have it in my collection. The song was written by Fred Fisher and his daughter Doris Fisher. The notion of “whispering grass”, which reveals a person’s secrets, apparently extends back to Greek mythology, notably the myth of Midas. Many people recorded it, notably The Ink Spots in 1940 but Windsor and Don’s version was the only one that made it to the No. 1 spot on the UK Singles Chart.


In other news, it’s only four days now until the start of the 2026 World Cup and things are really ramping up. Scotland qualified for the tournament for the first time in 28 years so there is much excitement in the country. We seem to have a fairly decent team this time around and we watched their friendly against Bolivia last night, which they won decisively (in the first half really). There are high hopes that they will be the first Scotland team to progress from the Group Stage.

Local Scotland player Ryan Christie in a shop window

As for the famous Tartan Army of Scottish Football Supporters, I fear there will be no repeat of the show they put on in Germany two years ago for the Euros. The cost of going to a tournament, in the United States especially, is beyond the realms of possibility for most supporters, and this will be the most expensive one to attend yet, by far. Money has really taken over the beautiful game, so the keenest supporters are left out of the party. The bulk of the supporters there will have to be well-heeled indeed and I’m not confident that they’ll be bringing their kilts, bagpipes, drums and “See You Jimmy” hats stateside.

On the plus side, Nick Morgan, who penned a fantastic song for the Euros has updated it for the World Cup. The lyrics don’t scan quite as well as he has had to substitute Boston for Berlin amongst other changes, but it’s a lot more palatable than the song brought out by the Irn Bru people starring Susan Boyle and John McGinn amongst others (link here).


Before I finish up, a bit of an antidote to what I was writing about last time – the ugly emergence of The Manosphere. I don’t know if you watched it, but one of our favourite programmes on telly is Race Across The World. Yes, it’s a reality show, but it’s also a travel show where you learn so much about the countries the teams pass through. The latest series took them from Palermo in Sicily to Hatgal in Mongolia. The route covered the old Silk Road, a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BC until the mid-15th century, so we got to see countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It was fascinating and of course places not easy to travel to unless planned out in advance by the BBC.


One of the pairs taking part this time was made up of a couple of teenage lads from Liverpool. At first I didn’t hold out much hope for them as they had little travel experience under their belts, and of course, I’ve been brainwashed by the media’s portrayal of modern day young men. Like most of us who watched the show, by the end of it I was a little in love with Jo and Kush (in a motherly way).

Jo and Kush winners of Race Across The World

I don’t think I’ll be giving out many spoilers by saying they won the race as it aired a few weeks ago now, but since then there has been an outpouring of admiration and respect for the lads, who are being seen as role models for young people. Their head teacher said he felt a gush of pride at seeing them triumph and his school assemblies are now all about the notion that these boys had courage, ambition and took risks. He described the former students as “magnificent, young gentlemen”, adding that “for both boys, behind the scenes there’s a mum who has sweated blood and given tears to make sure that they get everything they and other children in their families need. I think those mums deserve an enormous amount of credit and there’s a lot for us all to learn from that kind of family unit.”

The pair have been widely praised for their openness, including by politicians promoting healthy masculinity, with former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips telling the Guardian, “There are nasty influencers we need to worry about, but men and boys need to see this. Being kind and looking after each other – that’s real masculinity.” Amen to that.

Until next time…

No Scotland No Party Lyrics
(Song by Nick Morgan)

In the land where thistles sway, and the sound of bagpipes play in every social club and bar
From Hampden Park to towns afar
Tales of football have been told, of triumph and dismay
They talk of tournaments we’ve played and all the memories that were made, we never seem to do too well
I guess that time will tell if we will finally gonna make it through the group stage

Nobody’s saying we’re gonna win it
We know we ain’t no Argentina

But we’ve got John McGinn (John McGinn, John McGinn)
And Robbo out on the wing (On the wing, on the wing)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army
And even if we don’t win (We will win, we will win)
We’ll boogie on in Boston (In Boston, in Boston)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army

They talk of France in ’98 and all the years we’ve had to wait
To make another World Cup, things are finally looking up
It’s always been a dream a generation’s never seen
That’s how long it has been
But now we’ve made it and we’re here, there should be nobody that we fear
Beating the Danes along the way, it doesn’t matter who we play
‘Cause nobody else has got themselves a Dykes or McTominay

Nobody’s saying we’re gonna win it
We know we ain’t no Argentina

But we’ve got John McGinn (John McGinn, John McGinn)
And Robbo out on the wing (On the wing, on the wing)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army
And even if we don’t win (We will win, we will win)
We’ll boogie on in Boston (In Boston, in Boston)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army

We’re on our way to USA
Here we go, here we go
We’re on our way to USA
Here we go, we go
We’re on our way to USA (Our way to USA)
Here we go, here we go (To watch the Scotland play)
We’re on our way to USA (We’re off to USA)
Here we go, we go

And we’ve got John McGinn (John McGinn, John McGinn)
And Robbo out on the wing (On the wing, on the wing)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army
And even if we don’t win (We will win, we will win)
We’ll boogie on in Boston (In Boston, in Boston)
No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army


No Scotland, no party
Steve Clarkes Tartan Army

Maisie Peters Visits Aberdeen, Olivia Rodrigo Gets Her “Driver’s Licence” and A Sad Farewell To Máire Brennan

DD was on holiday from work this week, and one of the things she did was head through to Aberdeen to watch Maisie Peters perform in a small intimate venue. I’ve noticed her Maisie album on the shelves but can’t say I knew anything about her, until now. Turns out Maisie is a 25-year-old British singer-songwriter who has been around since 2017, and in 2021 she signed to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records. Her two albums have done really well but so far her singles have only reached the lower reaches of the charts which is why I probably didn’t know about her. On the way home from the concert DD sent us a clip showing Maisie on stage singing her song, My Regards, which I did recognise because of this line: “He took me off the market and I took him to the moon”. I’ve definitely heard that line on the radio as I thought it was quite funny.


Maisie felt she had not ventured into her tongue-in-cheek style of writing prior to this song and was inspired by country music classics about standing by your partner. The music video for the song, starring Maisie and Benito Skinner as love interests, modernised the narrative, and rather than portraying herself as a “simpering love interest” she showed it from the perspective of a fierce woman protecting her romantic partner. She even references the 1992 Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard within the lyrics. It seems the song was released as a single in February this year but only reached the No. 98 spot for one week. Don’t understand that at all but I wish her well for the future.

Maisie Peters

For those of you following my updates on what is currently at the top of the UK Singles Chart, I am going to sound like a broken record. Yes, for the 10th non-consecutive week, the Sam Fender/Olivia Dean song Rein Me In is at the top spot. Back in the day lengthy stays at the top of the charts just didn’t happen often, but because of the way we now consume music it is becoming more common.

Anyway, the reason Sam’s song dropped to the No. 2 spot twice in the last 12 weeks was first because of a Harry Styles release, and secondly because Olivia Rodrigo’s new song Drop Dead got to No. 1. Unlike with Maisie, I am fully aware of Olivia Rodrigo and fell in love with her song drivers licence (all lower case) after she performed it at the Brit Awards a few years ago. It is a pop power-ballad containing poignant lyrics detailing heartache. It has also been described as coming from the bedroom pop camp, which is a new one on me but a term I totally get. The narrator is young, probably still school age, and as we all know first loves at that stage in life can be terribly intense. You hold nothing back as you really do think it will last forever, only to find yourself broken-hearted down the line (not that I know of anyone who has had that happen to them of course). It was one of 2021’s most successful songs, and launched Olivia’s career. I would urge you to listen to the lyrics – pretty heart-breaking, whatever your age.

drivers licence by Olivia Rodrigo:


Drivers license broke a string of records, including the record for the most first-week streams for a song on Spotify and Amazon Music. It also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and made Olivia the youngest artist ever to debut atop the chart. It spent eight consecutive weeks at number one.

Olivia Rodrigo

The last lady I want to feature today is Irish singer Máire Brennan (latterly Moya Brennan), best known as the lead singer of Grammy and Bafta-winning group Clannad. She sadly passed away recently at the relatively young age (from my perspective anyway) of 73.

The Celtic folk singer, songwriter and harpist from the Irish-speaking Donegal area of the Republic, recorded 25 albums and sold millions of records worldwide, coming to prominence as part of her family’s band which formed in 1970, and later included Máire’s younger sister, Enya. The group became one of the world’s most popular traditional Irish acts after finding mainstream success with the theme tunes for the TV series, Harry’s Game, as well as Robin of Sherwood. I recently wrote about our own Scottish Celtic band Runrig, who were the first to perform on Top Of The Pops in Gaelic. Clannad became the first band to sing in Irish when they performed the Theme from Harry’s Game in 1982.


The late 1980s and the 1990s were a fertile period for Celtic music with many Scottish and Irish bands finding success. It was also the period when Ireland always seem to win the Eurovision Song Contest, and we were all hopping across The Irish Sea to Dublin for city breaks. Then there was the phenomenon that was Riverdance which started out as a seven-minute bit of interval entertainment at Eurovision, but wowed the audience more than the actual songs. Wonder if all that had anything to do with Clannad?

Máire Brennan

Until next time, RIP Máire/Moya Brennan

drivers license Lyrics
(Song by Olivia Rodrigo/Dan Nigro)

I got my driver’s license last week
Just like we always talked about
‘Cause you were so excited for me
To finally drive up to your house
But today I drove through the suburbs
Crying ’cause you weren’t around

And you’re probably with that blonde girl
Who always made me doubt
She’s so much older than me
She’s everything I’m insecure about
Yeah, today I drove through the suburbs
‘Cause how could I ever love someone else?

And I know we weren’t perfect but I’ve never felt this way for no one
And I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone
Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me
‘Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street

And all my friends are tired
Of hearing how much I miss you but
I kinda feel sorry for them
‘Cause they’ll never know you the way that I do
Yeah, today I drove through the suburbs
And pictured I was driving home to you

And I know we weren’t perfect but I’ve never felt this way for no one
Oh, and I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone
I guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me
‘Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street

Red lights
Stop signs
I still see your face
In the white cars
Front yards
Can’t drive past the places
We used to
Go to
‘Cause I still fucking love you, babe

Sidewalks
We crossed
I still hear your voice
In the traffic
We’re laughing
Over all the noise
God, I’m so blue
Know we’re through
But I still fucking love you, babe

I know we weren’t perfect but I’ve never felt this way for no one
And I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone
Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me
‘Cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street
Yeah, you said forever now I drive alone past your street

Castle Experiences, Runrig and “Loch Lomond”

Well, a strange bit of synchronicity has come about this morning which makes today’s post a no-brainer. Yesterday was a bit of a foul day weather wise so my walking friend and I decided to visit the new tourist attraction that officially opened in our town a couple of months ago. If you look at my banner photo at the top of the page you will see a castle right in the middle, built on a hill on the east side of the River Ness. It’s not an old castle, but was built in Victorian times to house the town’s courthouse and jail. Although the town jail moved to a new building a long time ago, the courtrooms were only recently replaced by a fancy new Justice Centre. It had long been mooted that the castle should be a tourist attraction, situated as it is right in the centre of town, so that is just what happened and we now have the Inverness Castle Experience. As locals, we can buy a special pass for the price of one ticket that allows us to visit as many times as we like between October and March, thus yesterday’s visit before our pass expires until autumn.

The castle lit up at night


Last time we went (I’ve now been three times and four times to the lovely restaurant), we concentrated on the building called the south tower but this time we spent our time in the north tower where there are three rooms dedicated to the band Runrig who hail from the islands off the west coast of Scotland. They were/are loved by the global Scottish diaspora and we in The Highlands also have a soft spot for these lads who took Gaelic Rock to a whole new level in the late 20th century.

Runrig in 1987

runrig


It made for really interesting reading, about how they got started – playing for ceilidhs in village halls on the islands – to recording their albums and touring the world. The synchronicity I mentioned at the outset was because on Rol’s Saturday Snapshots this morning there was a photo of Runrig. The puzzle is to find a link between all 15 photos and it turned out to be that the artists had all made songs about “bodies of water” and I immediately thought of their rousing performance of the traditional song Loch Lomond. I had never seen Rol mention Runrig on his blog before so coming straight after my visit, and my plan to write about them today, it felt like a weird coincidence indeed. Here is a clip of them live at Loch Lomond giving the song the full-blown Celtic rock treatment (especially after 3:00).

Loch Lomond (Live) by Runrig:


Here are some of the photos I took of the exhibition but as such behaviour is generally frowned upon, they were limited to just one room. The recording equipment is what they used to record their second album (I had a cassette recorder just like that one).

It was not until I arrived in The Highlands that I really started to appreciate some of the great Celtic rock bands that hail from this neck of the woods. Runrig‘s lead singer at that time was Donnie Munro whom I later found out had taught Mr WIAA art at school in the ’70s. When he’d told the class he was involved with a band, and that they played a kind of Gaelic/Celtic rock, the class were highly sceptical (this was the decade of glam rock, punk and disco after all) but he certainly proved them all wrong. In the period 1987-1997 they were signed to the Chrysalis label and released five very successful studio albums. I remember buying The Cutter and the Clan not long after arriving in The Highlands and I saw them perform three times in a short space of time at various venues, including a large marquee during a memorable homecoming trip to Skye.

cutter


The song An Ubhal as Àirde (The Highest Apple) from The Cutter and the Clan album gave Runrig their highest placing to date on the UK Singles Charts, debuting at number eighteen in May 1995, eight years after the release of the album because of its inclusion in an advert. The song made history when it became the first song to be sung in Scottish Gaelic to chart on the UK Singles Chart. They even performed it on Top of the Pops.


The band has changed its line-up many times since forming in 1973 but the two songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald have been there right since the beginning. Donnie Munro left in 1997 to pursue a career in politics but was replaced by Bruce Guthro, from Nova Scotia, who seemed to be just the right fit. In 2016, the band announced their retirement from recording following the release of The Story, their 14th studio album. Their final tour started the following year and in August 2018 the band performed their final shows, entitled The Last Dance, in Stirling City Park beneath the castle ramparts. An estimated 52,000 fans attended.


I hope I’ve done a good PR job promoting both the new tourist attraction in our town and the band Runrig. The castle isn’t full of stuffy artefacts and long passages of writing, but is quite immersive with audio visual displays and plenty of opportunities to design your own tartan or mix a new Runrig track. Funny to look back at photos of the young lads who were brought up on crofts, and films of where their love of music took them. Do come for a visit.

Until next time…

Loch Lomond Lyrics
(Song by Unknown – Traditional)

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines on Loch Lomond.
Where me and my true love spent many days
On the banks of Loch Lomond.

Too sad we parted in yon shady glen,
On the steep sides of Ben Lomond.
Where the broken heart knows no second spring,
Resigned we must be while we’re parting.

You’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland before you.
Where me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Ho, ho mo leannan
Ho mo leannan bhoidheach

You’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland before you.
Where me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Postscript

The band got their name from the runrig system of land tenure practised in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. It was designed for subsistence farming rather than commercial production. The runrig system was systematically dismantled during the Highland Clearances and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution (18th-19th centuries). The strips of land are called rigs and the run is the channel that runs between them.

He Was Brill and Heard “Laughter In The Rain”: RIP Neil Sedaka

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about when I woke up this morning but then I heard the news that the singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka had passed away at the age of 86, so it became obvious. I thought I had written about him a fair few times around here but not as often as I’d thought once I looked back, so maybe it’s just that many of his songs were radio staples when I was growing up, both the ones from the early ’60s and then the ones during his successful second career in the ’70s. I didn’t know it back then but he had also written many hits for other artists, first of all with his childhood neighbour Howard Greenfield and then later on with Phil Cody.

Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield were one of the many successful songwriting partnerships who took up residence in the Brill Building on Manhattan’s 49th Street in the late ’50s (written about here). Along with Gerry Goffin / Carole King and many other pairs, they churned out hit after hit for people like Connie Francis, Jimmy Clanton and the big Girl Groups of the day. Neil’s first big international hit was in fact Oh! Carol, written about his old high school sweetheart Carole King (she added the ‘e’ later).


A little family anecdote now. We always used to find a song for DD’s birthday so that when she came into the living room to see the balloons, banners and pile of presents there was an appropriate track playing in the background. Obvious I know, but when she turned 16 we chose Neil’s 1959 song Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen. Now that I’ve listened to the lyrics properly it possibly wasn’t appropriate coming from a parent as it’s written from the perspective of a love interest, but hey, it did fit the birthday. I look back at those times and wish I could have bottled them, as time passes so quickly. In the blink of an eye they have grown up and flown the nest (but often come back again, as happened to us).

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen by Neil Sedaka:


Neil had more hits as an artist in the early 60s, Stairway to Heaven, Calendar Girl and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, but everything changed after the British Invasion and suddenly the Bobbys (Darin, Vee and Vinton), the Frankies (Avalon and Valli) and the songwriters of the Brill Building became unfashionable and were left out in the cold. Neil carried on songwriting but he didn’t have any more hits until he moved to the UK in the early ’70s and hooked up with the future 10cc at their Strawberry Studios in Stockport. He started writing with Phil Cody and made two albums there one of which featured the song Solitaire made successful by the Carpenters, and the other featured the song Love Will Keep Us Together made successful by Captain & Tennille. Neil’s partnership with Howard Greenfield was now over but his next purple patch was just round the corner.

If like me you were a teenager in the early 1970s, you would have been glued to the TV screen on a Thursday night to watch Top Of The Pops. In amongst all the glam rock artists with their outrageous outfits, we often used to have this middle-aged guy (he was only in his mid 30s at the time) sitting at a piano singing pleasing pop tunes. This song, Laughter in the Rain, reached the No. 15 spot on the UK Singles Chart in 1974 but reached the top spot on the US Billboard Chart. Neil was back.


And here is yet another little anecdote involving DD. A couple of years ago we gave her a turntable for her birthday as the young people seem to have fallen in love with vinyl, as we did back in the day. She has built up a collection of contemporary albums but in amongst these she has also acquired some classic albums by the likes of Sinatra and the Carpenters (we have obviously had an influence on her). I went round to visit recently and she showed me her new purchase, it was the Laughter in the Rain album. “Have you heard of Neil Sedaka?” she asked. I was taken aback but I think she has good taste in music so he has clearly stood the test of time.

Neil followed the success of Laughter in the Rain with a more politically motivated song, The Immigrant, which was inspired by his parents and by John Lennon, then facing immigration issues. The Immigrant reached No. 22 on the Billboard Chart.

The Immigrant by Neil Sedaka:


All these years later, a very apt song for the times we live in. Think it would be banned by “the administration” today.

Neil continued to write songs and perform over the next few decades. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020, Neil launched a series of free mini-concerts, released through his social media channels, as a method of entertaining his fans during the pandemic. Despite having been nominated for five Grammy awards, he sadly never won the coveted trophy.


Until next time… RIP Neil Sedaka.

The Immigrant Lyrics
(Song by Neil Sedaka / Phil Cody)

Harbours open their arms to the young searching foreigner
Come to live in the light of the beacon of liberty
Plains and open skies billboards would advertise
Was it anything like that when you arrived
Dream boats carried the future to the heart of America
People were waiting in line for a place by the river

It was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhere

Now he arrives with his hopes and his heart set on miracles
Come to marry his fortune with a hand full of promises
To find they’ve closed the door they don’t want him anymore
There isn’t any more to go around
Turning away he remembers he once heard a legend
That spoke of a mystical magical land called America

There was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhere

There was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhere

A Big Week In The News, Dolly Parton and “Jolene”

Well, what a week. I had intended to write another post that followed on from last time, but after two fairly routine vaccinations on Monday, I spent the rest of the week in bed with flu-like symptoms. It seems I was one of the unlucky ones who got quite bad side-effects, but on the upside, I should avoid Shingles, Pneumonia, Sepsis and Meningitis in the years to come. I was in two minds about having them as we’ve become human pin-cushions of late but then I thought of all the people of my generation who would still be around had they been offered the childhood vaccines now freely available. Also, a few days of feeling a bit shitty is still far better than getting the diseases listed above, so I went for it.

Not much to do when you have a duvet pulled up to your chin but I did manage to listen to the radio and scroll on my phone. In fact I did manage to do an awful lot of scrolling and it turned out to be quite a big week for news stories on social media. First of all the World Economic Forum took place in Davos where world leaders from government, business and academia met to discuss global issues and set priorities. Even David Beckham turned up to address issues with social media, which was quite ironic this week of all weeks.

The beautiful Davos in Switzerland


The not so beautiful Davros (impossible not to think of him when you hear the word Davos)


So what was discussed at Davos? I’m afraid the detail eluded me what with having a fever an’ all but it seems there was one very impressive speech from a world leader we know very well over here because of his time at the Bank of England. It will be remembered for a long time. There was another speech that will also be remembered for a long time, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Earlier in the week some of the posts on social media made me chuckle, but as the days have gone by I’m starting to think it’s all a bit sad. Having witnessed my own mum deteriorate mentally from the age of 80, I can see the signs. It was another three years until she was officially diagnosed by which time things had really got quite bad. I hope the administration in charge have the levers needed to address such a serious issue otherwise we really are in for a tough time.

A country whose name is apparently interchangeable!


A much-loved character from our childhood who was also obsessed by “windmills”, but he needed them to grind corn, not generate clean energy


Whatever happens, there now seems to have been a line crossed in the sand and for the male and female leaders of European countries, it’s time to…


In other news, there has been a very public falling out between the Beckhams and their eldest son. Most people will not be remotely interested in this but it even made it to the national news, so just shows the level of interest in their lives. Again, the first posts on social media made me chuckle, but for VB, former Spice Girl, this week has been excruciatingly embarrassing, and it’s sad that it’s come to this. A not very-talented singer and a good footballer have managed to amass a fortune through hard work and self-promotion, but, they didn’t ever consider that their children might not have wanted to be part of the copyrighted “brand”, especially as adults. Also, as the old saying goes, “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all of her life”. I hope they can work things out behind the scenes but I fear worse is yet to come.

There was no actual footage from the wedding held for Beckham Jnr and his new bride, but the former Spice Girl has been accused of humiliating her son by doing a bit of this with him…


From all accounts it wasn’t that bad but VB would have been wise to remember that it was the bride’s day and only she should be centre stage. But what do I know? I do remember that not long after the film Dirty Dancing came out this song became a hit all over Europe and many of us tried doing the Lambada for the first time. Like most South American dances it’s a bit raunchy and not something we were used to in the Scottish Highlands, but maybe at weddings of the rich and famous it’s de rigueur.


Did you watch it? The latest series of The Traitors came to a conclusion on Friday and again, such was the furore, it featured on the national news. I for one just don’t get it but I seem to be in the minority so ended up watching the whole series (for research purposes). Personally I think of it as reality tv for middle-class people. It’s touted as “a game” where you have to be really clever to oust the traitors from the castle. To be fair, you do have to be a goodish actor if you’re chosen to be a traitor, but other than that it’s just a lot of people sitting around asking each other who they’re going to vote for, and lying a lot. Anyway, it got massive viewing figures, and the area it takes place in is just north of us so good publicity for The Highlands. The castle is at Ardross and I discovered this week it used to be owned by Mr Perrins of the famous Lea and Perrins brand. Look what a dash of Worcestershire Sauce could buy you in those days.

The beautiful Ardross Castle just north of the Cromarty Firth

This year’s finalists with the diminutive Claudia (who comes to our town for her spray tans!)

I didn’t mention who won the show in case anyone hasn’t watched it yet but no worries about spoilers with this next story, again on national news. It was Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday last week and she is still as busy as ever. I watched two programmes last night on BBC2 about her and it’s impossible not to smile when doing so. She is so upbeat and positive the whole time, exuding that wholesome Southern Charm. It seems she has been like that since childhood and it’s hard to believe she is not like that all the time but even Dolly must have her dark days, especially after her husband Carl died last year. She hides them well though and no-one ever sees her without her signature wigs, make-up and outfits. Even during filming, she never emerges from her dressing room or trailer without being fully Dollified. It’s just who she is.

Hello Dolly!


To finish off this longish post (sorry), here is a clip from 12 years ago when she appeared in the Legends slot at Glastonbury. I don’t know what Dolly’s undergarments are like, or if it’s all cosmetically enhanced, but she certainly has a perky bottom for someone of her years. This song, Jolene, was unbelievably the only one that remotely bothered the UK Singles Chart, reaching the No. 7 spot in 1976. Dolly has written over 3000 songs during her lifetime and apparently wrote both Jolene and I Will Always Love You during the same song writing session in 1973. Not a bad return on the time spent.

Jolene by Dolly Parton:


I think I’ve told this story before, but even to this day Mr WIAA winces when he hears the song Jolene. It came out at just the wrong time for him, before he’d had work done to remedy his slightly discoloured teeth, which had come about because of the tablets his mum had taken for morning sickness ahead of his birth. Oh yes, kids can be cruel, and because his teeth had a “greenish” hue, his classmates’ playground taunt was Joe Green, Joe Green, Joe Green, Joe Green… , sung along to the melody of Dolly’s famous hit. Needless to say, his schooldays weren’t the best years of his life but it just goes to show, sometimes a little bit of “work” is needed to make life as a teen just that little bit more tolerable.

Until next time…

Jolene Lyrics
(Song by Dolly Parton)

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There’s nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene

And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don’t know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He’s the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him even though you can

Jolene, Jolene

Postscript

For those followers who are happy for me to update them on any change at the top of the UK Singles Chart, I found out at 6pm on Friday that this song is the new No. 1 – Raindance by Dave (ft. Tems)