I got my Celtic Connections ball rolling today by purchasing my first ticket for the 2010 festival. Funnily enough, it’s for the last show of the fortnight, but tickets can tend to get quite pricey if you’re planning on going to a number of events, so I’m trying to be selective. This one is a must-see. It is Glasgow-based label Chemikal Underground’s 15th anniversary and will have the likes of Emma Pollok, the Phantom Band, and Zoey Van Goey playing. £15 to spend an evening watching a bunch of talented musicians is, in my opinion, money well spent.
Chemikal Underground have been responsible for putting on excellent events such as Ballads of the Book – a musical/literary collaboration day at the Tramway a couple of years ago, which had Scottish poets writing for different bands. There is also the Burns Unit, a group of singer/songwriters who took themselves to a log cabin in some magical highland existence to collaborate together and make fantastic music.
Getting off the point there though…..January 31 is the date, o2 ABC on Sauchihall Street is the venue, this is not one to be missed!
(And if you’re planning on hitting the Festival Club, the final night is the one you’ll want to be at!)

Celtic Connections Tickets

So Labour won, as everyone expected. SNP were second, but only got just over a third of the votes Labour did.

“The SNP is a novelty that has worn off.”

- Jim Murphy, Scottish Secretary

Looks like he was right! (just to clarify, I’m a ‘floating voter’, which means I’m allowed to slag off anybody I like!)

The poorest turnout to date for a Scottish by-election – 32.97%.

Conservatives and the BNP received almost the same amount of votes, and the Lib Dems are lagging behind with only 494 votes.

What baffles me is that 54 people actually went to the ballot and voted for Big Brother nine contestant Mikey Hughes!

Full results listed on the BBC website

I really need to get this off my chest…!

Today, I was quite excited to see Biffy Clyro on the front cover of the Big Issue. So I counted out my £1.50 and thanked the lady for my copy….

There was a nice three-page-spread with the band discussing their new album (which is amazing by the way) and how they felt about coming back to the Barrowlands for two nights last week, after spending months in LA recording.

I was about halfway through and thinking to myself:  ’this is really quite a good feature’ – then it happened. The worst possible thing you could ever imagine a journalist could do. The writer, Jasper Hamill, referred to frontman Simon NEIL as Simon KING.

There it was, in a block quote – not even hidden within the article with the hope of going unnoticed. It continued throughout the whole story. Mr Hamill should go back to Journalism Lesson One: make sure you have the right names, and spell them right. He clearly does not know anything about the band if this is the kind of error he’s making, I just cannot believe it. I feel like writing to the Big Issue editor and telling him that I could have made a better job of this piece.

Seriously though, what a big mistake to make.

On Tuesday night I left the Barras looking like I’d been showering with my clothes on. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was one of the top five gigs I’ve ever been to. Have a look at my photo story…

Biffy Clyro at the Glasgow Barrowland

Biffy Clyro will be realeasing their fifth studio album ‘Only Revolutions’ on 14th floor records, on November 9.

Although they have a new album coming out, they didn’t overload the setlist with new stuff. They managed to get through 23 songs in 90 minutes, with a great mix from Blackened Sky right up to unheard new tracks.

Here’s the full setlisting….

Encore:

On Tuesday morning, Emma and I went to the Celtic Connections Press Launch at the Royal Concert  Hall.

First we heard from Ann Loughrey, Head of CSR for ScottishPower – Celtic Connections’ Principal Sponsor. She spoke about how glad ScottishPower are to yet again support the festival. This year, they are also launching the ScottishPower Powerful Performance schools competition, to give one school group the chance to appear as part of the music festival.

We then heard about the extensive Education Programme of the Festival. Finally, Donald Shaw, Artistic Director, announced this year’s line-up, highlighting some of the great things we can look forward to in January.

Emma and I were also able to interview Jade Hewat, the Festival Manager. Below you can listen to some more details of the Festival and our interview with Jade. You can read our artlice on the Local News Glasgow website!

Celtic Connections Press Launch

 Last minute tickets are just about one of my favourite things, particularly when they’re for something you’ve been really wishing you could go to! So when my big brother Robert phoned this week and asked me to head along to see Billy Connolly with him on Friday night, I happily accepted.

 Connolly is almost 67 now, and he is still one of the best there is. His show was very typical of what you’d expect – lots of laughs relating to his working class background, everyday life, sex and religion. Coming towards the end of a string of 12 Glasgow tour dates, you may have expected him to recycle some jokes but after comparing notes with my boss who was there last weekend there seemed to be no similarities!

 I was laughing before Billy even started – this could be blamed on the bottle of wine we’d had with dinner – but mostly because of the numerous loudspeaker announcements in the Auditorium reminding gig-goers that Cliff Richard was not playing in this venue but over in the SECC. This was followed by three old dears running up to me and Rob looking very panic stricken and crying: “Where’s Cliff!?”

Arriving in his trademark black and white stripy trousers, Billy took the stage and my eyes were streaming within about 10 seconds. He certainly knows how to deal with hecklers, simply shouting at one rowdy drunk “sit the f*** down and shut the f*** up!” 

The Armadillo is a great venue, and Billy commented on how pleased he was to play so close to where he had grown up in Anderston. The crowd were also brilliant, I think just about everyone loves Billy Connolly.