January 2023

  • Burnin' love: Up Helly Aa returns and embraces its feminine side

    Shetland’s biggest viking fire festival is back after three years It’s Up Helly Aa day, and here’s this week’s viking-themed newsletter – the (highly recommended) audio version (link here and with playlist at the end) contains an hour’s worth of tracks specially chosen for Up Helly Aa, including Michael Marra’s tribute to the late Thomas…

  • After Eight: mints or…mince?

    Those aspirational slivers of minty luxury conjure up some memories. And music! You can read the newsletter or listen to it, interspersed with 15 tracks (playlist below, and link to the Mixcloud stream) plus some vintage adverts. From Lola in Slacks to Lindsey Black via the Roches, Yvonne Lyon, Linda Thomson and more. After Eight…

  • It's gym, life, but not as we know it…

    The awfulness of exercise, past and present, with 15 tracks of noisy music to go The audio column. Music with words. A diary with optional noise. This week, it’s mostly to do with gym. As in gymnasiums. With a sonic bias towards garage rock. 15 tracks, some louder than others. Have a read. Or take…

  • The long and short of shorts

    Winter male legs are being unwisely displayed It’s Bad January in Ayrshire, cold and brutal blasts of Arctic near-gale are gusting through my triple-fleeced Swedish Goretex jacket, Shetland wool gansie, insulated gloves, jeans and Patagonia long johns. In front of me on the prom is a middle aged man wearing shorts. The only notable thing…

  • Troon, my rock-'n'-roll city of South Ayrshire…sort of…

    The bands I never saw. And some I did. As an experiment, I read the following text in what I hope is a convincing and meaningful manner on the hour-long Mixcloud show you can stream from the link at the end. Songs by most of the artists mentioned are played: Dean Ford and the Gaylords,…