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Plus the full playlist and streaming link for this week’s Beatcroft Social on 60 North Radio Listen to the Mixcloud stream of Friday’s Beatcroft Social by clicking here. Full playlist at the end of this post. As I write, on Friday 10 May, the UK at large is baking in May sunshine. Shetland is haar-haunted,…

It’s May. Shetland is baking in the sun while 10,000 fiddlers fiddle and frolic. The start of May, and not untypically, Shetland is actually warm. The sun is shining, hoverflies are hovering and the lambs, marked in lurid spray-paint for identification, and presumably so their mothers don’t lose them, are cavorting on the hill. It’s…

Just 90 minutes of great records with me chatting about them. Kind of like a radio show… Pilot — Never Give Up David Bowie — Absolute Beginners Freda Leask — Old Man of Madison Kevin McDermott Orchestra — Hole in the Ground Marco Rossi — Can’t Cut It Yvone Lyon — the Hands That Learn…

Elvis Voe’s Fitful Head sings about cars, girls and (possibly temporary) Scottish Government ministers… I want to ride In Lorna’s limousine  She’s got a driver She’s just like the queen It’s a hybrid It’s sort of clean Paid for by a Government department  There’s space to practise  Her circus skills She can do handstands Going…

A song by Elvis Voe’s Fitful Head Apologies to Mark Knopfler, who said in an interview: “I will always cross the street, to a window of guitars”, but who, as far as I know, has not used the phrase in a song. Yet.” In the window of guitars You can see the price of dreams …

There will always be a fire burning in our house, no matter what the Scottish Government says… Back to some audioletter action, some thoughts on solid fuel, illustrated with tunes by Laura Veirs, Talking Heads, Regina Spektor, AC/DC and many more if you listen to the Mixcloud version here: https://www.mixcloud.com/tom-morton2/lets-coorie-in-beside-the-heat-pump-beatcrofting-with-tom-morton/ Full playlist (and link to…

The strange obsession of Hamilton Severiano Driver Having the surname Driver in the small Ayrshire town of Troon, home to nine golf courses, one an Open Championship venue, had always been an issue. When teachers at the local secondary school, Marr College, found out his middle name was Severiano, they would chuckle, snort or dismiss…

Memories, strange platonic romances and some truly stupendous guitar playing Not so much an illustrated essay this week as a few emotional songs and some words about them. The full playlist is at the end. You can listen to this show on Mixcloud here: https://www.mixcloud.com/tom-morton2/the-beatcroft-antisocial-tunes-fae-troon-volume-one/ There’s a Spotify playlist at the end too. I’ve known…

New Celeste’s On the Line is a 1979 masterpiece. Now remastered and rereleased You can read the essay below while listening to the Spotify playlist (it’s at the end) or listen to me reading the whole thing, with the listed tracks played at occasionally relevant points, on Mixcloud here. https://www.mixcloud.com/tom-morton2/scotlands-great-lost-album-new-celeste-and-a-1979-treasure-remastered/ New Celeste — Johnny An…

A matter of inflation… Four in the morning, and boat anxiety strikes. The wind has risen after a day calm enough for me to unpack and inflate my Ukrainian dinghy, henceforth known as The City of Dnipropetrovsk. Dnipro for short. She – let’s be traditionally distaff – was made in a factory there, presumably within…