Hi All, A great long, rambling diary post - sorry! but hey, no-one is reading tonight anyway so what the hell. THURSDAY - Gig Day To The Tap for pool, drink & silliness before The Concert Not much of a review I'm afraid, Neil, more a succession of images retained by my memory. After support band Suckle (who I didn't see and didn't miss) Alasdair Gray made a speech about War, full of passion, sometimes at the expense of coherence. A large part of the audience made their position clear for the rest of the evening by heckling & chattering throughout his words. Most of the kids around me seemed determined to talk all night, if necessary shouting to make themselves heard above the noise of the band. Students for you. Clothes: I can't remember it all now. Stuart in tight white tee & slacks (surprise), Bobby in Elvis tee, Richard in ? Advertiser tee (don't think it was that Perthshire one again, though) Bob on 12 string during Turn, Turn, Turn Stuart said that The Magic Of A Kind Word was about John Phillips from The Mamas And The Papas (non-gurning) Richard reading a copy of Razzle whilst singing Cool For Cats. Stuart pretended to be offended & embarrassed when Richard showed him one of the pictures. Towards the end of the song Isobel started doing the bump with Richard, eventually hitting him a right belter with a mighty swing of her hip but he still managed to stand up. Top Man. Please Don't Let Them Make Me Be An Orang-Utan Butler Isobel wore an Orang-Utan around her waist whilst performing the song (arsemonkey!) & someone dressed in a similar costume (Tony Doogan again?) ran around the stage. The drawing of the raffle & prize giving took a little too long: Mick whiled away the time by practising his 70's heavy metal bass lines: I recognised Dazed And Confused (Led Zeppelin) & Black Knight (Deep Purple) - were there any more? During Space Oddity Stuart was doing the background countdown & seemed to have some trouble holding the correct number of fingers aloft. The Boys Are Back In Town was grate: introducing the song Stuart said that his bass (that perspex one) used to belong to someone else & that it played itself during this number. Phil Lynott would have been proud of the poses at least that he struck during the song. B&S play it with three lead guitars, one more than Thin Lizzy's original. Thin Izzy, Sarah & Chris appeared onstage dressed as "terrorists" (Lucy) or more possible primary school Nativity Play shepherds, Isobel with full beard & Chris with droopy moustache. Beans pretended to play electric guitar, going back to back with Mick, who did Townsend windmills, & Hendrix playing guitar behind head & with teeth poses. The Strange Fruit posse joined the band onstage for Merry Xmas (War Is Over), Monica Queen was there for Lazy Line Painter Jane. All the band looked like they were having fun of stage (that's right, all of them!) & I know we all did too. Thanks a lot. I hope you transported all of the gear to Belfast OK. Present: Sally, Carey, Chris, Lucy, Ally, Lixi, Mark, Vicky, Honey, Linda, Chris & Julia, Keith Watson, Ailsa, Calumn, Sarah, Jo, Richard (thanks for the TalkBox info), *** **** (mightily pissed), Jeremy, Matt, Amy, Martin, Tania, Paul, Idleberry, Iain Radcliffe, Will, Sweetie. Usual apologies to anyone I've omitted or don't know. Missed: The geezer Brooker (writing The Book?), The Petefox (sadly, due to a prior engagement shivering in Druidic robes celebrating the Winter Solstice at a henge in Wessex) I see that the B&S website has just been updated with the following: "Plans for Next Year The band are in the midst of planning some gigs for the first half of next year. Details to follow. The soundtrack album for 'Storytelling' is looking like an early spring release date. " I'll certainly be up for some more! FRIDAY - Drinking Day Following lunch at Jack McFee, Fresh From The Sea, we perused the Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery for a bit of culture, then walked through the dark park. I found out that Cabbage is a great (& tidy!) cook. Then on to Bacchus, where Gav was playing records, and what's more very well indeed. A great selection of tunes, accommodated most requests, kept a fantastic pace up which resulted in us drinking a lot. Who was it who said "Oh, look, they do Shooters!" & was guilty of making us consume over a dozen different liqueurs in several combination, some in stripes? Spirits were too up for bed so off to the Scotia Bar/The ? Pool Hall with Biff Starlet: being checked out through the grille before being allowed in four at a time, Elvis & The Eagles on the jukebox, blood all over the bouncer's shirt, all the guys extraordinarily respectful & polite, a bloke mopping up after he had puked on the floor, Robbo being compared to Morrissey & Quentin Tarantino (for a change). Chippy for chips with curry sauce (num num), then home, passing Strathclyde Uni on the way, The Stone Roses being played so loud inside the walls were rattling. Watching B&S & Camera Obscura videos & then falling into bed. SATURDAY - Lilly, Carey & The King Of Partick Carey took both Chris & I up the Necroplis, great views on a cold but bright sunny day. Back home for tea (Stuart Pudding!), Lucy, Honey, Linda, Ally coming round, then off to the best pub in the world in Woodlands. Horseshoe bar, closed booths in the corners, *amazingly* cheap booze, free 80's party food, 80's music, a raffle (Honey won an enormous Luxury Christmas Pudding), Christmas presents for all (I got Irish coffee glasses with a GOLD rim), Richard, Kenny from Avalanche Records, Gav & John Henderson also there, latter two telling tales from their Christmas Carol appearance at Peel Acres. Great fun, especially the girlie popfan discussion. The landlord shook all our hands & thanked us on the way out (!) Really knackered, ready for bed, so off we trooped to the Art School for a dodgy late 60's English style R&B band & Divine's great Northern Soul. Beans, Aidan Moffat & Calumn & Debbie also present. SUNDAY - Cookie Jar Lunch wi' lovely Lilly, followed by drink, sit & listen in the 13th Note. Excellent customer service skills demonstrated by the bar staff by turning off the jukebox when full of your choices in order to play their Leonard Cohen album. Goodbyes, bus for the airport, (bus stance = bus stop), looking forward to seeing family again, very regretful at leaving nice times & nicer people behind. Must get some sleep. OK, I'll let you all off now. Love & Merry Christmas, David Moore Chelmsford, UK +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. 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