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  • All we like sheep

    Good news! We’ve been told that the Scottish government is to consider changes to crofting law which could put an end to uncontrolled wandering of the lanolin-soaked disease carriers. Also, thanks to Jimmy C for pointing out that the upper limit for the Small Claims Court in Scotland is now £3000. Which might just about…

  • Sheep and why I hate them

    In Shetland they’re disease-ridden, enormously destructive, almost valueless, stupidly romanticised subsidy objects, and if it wasn’t for the ramifications I’d have been out this morning already with the .20 gauge terminating the ones that have destroyed our trees, bulbs and grass. Despite the cattle grid installed at enormous expense. We found out this week that…

  • Reconnecting the Radiocroft

    Fair play to BT, or British Telecom…one on-line reporting of a fault at The Radiocroft, and within an hour or so an engineer – Ross – was in the exchange re-setting the ISDN card…another lightning strike suspected; everything is now fixed and The Radiocroft is back online, with broadband due for installation tomorrow. We’re going…

  • From The Radiocroft back to The Palace of Sheep

    I feel sorry for the local BT engineers, who respond like lightning to…well. Lightning strikes that fry the Hillswick telephone exchange. But over the past five weeks, my ISDN (Integrated Systems Digital Network) line has melted down no less than four times, all but once sending my daily radio show into a disastrous tailspin and…

  • Aberdeen skyline

  • At Baldragon Academy

    The school soul band rehearse for today's TM show.

  • In Another Land: the death of Larry Norman

    I think it was 1972. Larry Norman arrived in Scotland to play for the first time, at the militantly traditional, eccentrically evangelical Tent Hall in Glasgow’s Saltmarket. It was the moment rock’n’roll in all its glamour, hairiness, colour and American vigour, arrived in the midst of Scottish fundamentalism. Nothing would ever be the same again,…

  • George Formby and the Arctic Monkeys – a clear line of inheritance

    Arrived home to find the copy of George Formby – The Ultimate Collection had arrived. It is part of my continuing obsession with things ukulele-ish, but what a revelation in terms of comic songwriting (few of the songs were actually written by Formby himself). And filth. It seems My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock was…

  • Malt and Barley Revue goes ukulele crazy !

    If you click on the link and have RealAudio, you’ll be able to hear one of the songs from the show I’m just putting the finishing touches to, the Malt and Barley Revue. It’s a mixture of whisky tasting, concert, celebration of Scotland and alcohol, and a questioning of our relationship with the demon drink.…

  • End of an era at the Famous Bein Inn

    From the Mundell Music website (http://www.mundellmusic.com) The day the music died……………! Urgent news about The Famous Bein InnThere will be no more music at The Famous Bein Inn due to a very sudden change of policy……….. but don’t despair as Mundell Music are continuing at The Glenfarg Hotel.Please call the Glenfarg Hotel on 01577 830241…