From the Ganges to the Allander



I do not know where I am getting this obsession with walking along the banks of rivers, but it continued today with a wander up the River Allander in Milngavie.

It is a journey I have taken on many occasions, but as the rain held off today, I meadered up the fast flowing banks on the West Highland Way.


I can remember the time I walked along another river in a land faraway, in a land time forgot, where I would be stepping on the charred remains of bodies from the pyres.

Not so Milngavie.

Librarians Manifesto for Silence

Reading David Toop’s (one of this writers favourite authors & musicians), review of Stuart Sim’s ‘Manifesto for Silence’ I was so impressed & in total agreement that I felt I should lift huge chunks of it & upload it here as it is so relevant now to our crazy lives.

I step out into the garden to discover strange, captivating silence, so I decide to read a book outside. Minutes later I sit down & hear, at the edge of perception, a disturbance. Now it has caught my attention, I can’t ignore it, so gradually it moves to the forefront of my hearing where I can comprehend the noise as a distant car alarm.

This continues until something else takes over, or the alarm stops.

My book lies unread, I can’t concentrate due to the colonisation of my attention, by this frantic, pernicious racket. This is one of the difficulties of noise.

WHO research suggests that excessive noise can trigger heart disease by increasing sustained levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline & noradrenaline.

Noise drives me nuts: local council days of mowing & pruning; police helicopters that shake the windows; motorway roar spreading over miles of countryside; high-ceilinged bars full of glass, metal & shouting oafs; machine noise in rooms that are supposed to be silent; drunks conversing in the street at 4 a.m.; somebody listening to the thin residue of a tune on their mobile in a so-called quiet coach on a train; amplified announcements telling us to watch our bags.

Just thinking about noise is a health risk.

The Late but Timely Return of the Great Bobo Baldi


As the final whistle sounds, we have Celtic narrowly sitting at the top of the table (where they belong of course), but it has been swings & roundabouts, not the usual Premier League won by Xmas that we have grown used to.

Is this the worse two Celtic & Rangers teams for years?

Certainly our heroes have been leaking goals, but perhaps that it all over now. Thanks Santa for letting Gordon see sense. Big Bobo is the missing piece of the jigsaw. He will get us results at home & perhaps in Europe?


We hope!

End of an Ear

Wading through the boring list of last year’s the best of whatever & 1 list I do attend to is ‘the Wire’s 2007 Rewind: 50 records of the Year.

To be honest, I have 40+ of these releases & I think that this is a very healthy sign.

Robert Wyatt’s ‘Comicopera’ is sitting @ #1….way cool man, I can dig it as we over 50s say. Karl Heinz Stockhausen was laughing all the way to his grave (R.I.P).

Last Xmas, I obtained Sufjan Stevens album of xmas songs & playing it constantly gets you in the mood, but hearing songs of quality sounds better than the usual stuff you hear elsewhere.

What’s shaking my xmas tree:

18^th Day of May

v/a – fistful of fuzz

brian hanratty – American winter

hans Frisch – sjooooo

greg davis – somnia

Beirut – live Glastonbury

Stanley bros – Columbia recordings

Daevid allen’ gong – banana moon (69 classic)

Animals – winds of change (1^st lp) psychedelic headcleaner

Gavin bryars – sinking of the titanic (new version with phil jeck): spooky listening to this as I have spent the last week watching boats, divers, police outside the library window searching for bodies of mariners after their tug went down!!!!

Between 2 Rivers: More Tales of the Riverbank

Living between the Forth & Clyde Canal & the River Clyde, I also enter a comfort zone walking along the shores of the Leven or the Clyde in Dumbarton.

My workplace has constant views of the Clyde & it is so important that this river is no longer hidden from sight, behind buildings as if we are ashamed of it.

Recently however the tragic side of the river has been on view. I found it totally surreal to be eating smoked salmon & listening to a live string quartet at an end of year party, when outside the huge windows, there were large numbers of police, divers, coastguard & boats searching for bodies.

As I grow older the waterways & the hills are becoming central to my life. I am no longer heading off to Kathmandu on a whim or a 4 month jaunt, so on a micro level I find enough to interest me closer to home.

I hope to get down to see Dunglass Castle at some point. It is more than just a convenient name for a roundabout. I would also like to continue my exploration of the area around Balloch Castle & the woods.

I remember a notion I once had, that if you could not reach the place you wanted on foot, then it was not worth going there.

(insert ‘Goodnight Irene’ ‘Sometimes a Great Notion’)

My colleague, Neeraj has booked an 8 day holiday in Goa this January with his new wife. He asked my advice on Goa & although I am deeply touched that he would respect my thoughts on this matter, I fell so helpless as my information is now redundant in such a rapidly changing world. It is 33 years since I was there. Please note kabalah heads here is another magic number!

There was no hotels when I was there. Certainly no-one could envisage a Marriot going up amid all those dirty hippies. The only ‘goa trance’ I knew, was when we lit up the first of the day!

8 days holiday, it took me 8 days to get a jar of water from the well or to get the one-eyed goat shepherd to deliver the goats & the fresh milk, to my spot on the beach.

In the Land of the Lennox

At last a day off on a bright crisp dry winter’s day & the opportunity to get out for a walk.

Re-tracing old schoolboy haunts, I crossed the River Leven & set off around Levengrove Park. I thought I knew every inch of this park, as I almost lived here during the last 2 years of my schooldays.

However, I did discover a forgotten corner, that I had not seen before & here lay the ruins of St Serf’s church.

Derelict & neglected but it was with great interest that I read the plaque, that stated that the viscera of Robert the Bruce lay there. His heart was supposed to go to Palestine (as he always wished to go on crusade, events closer to home kept him too busy!),but a wise neighbour informed me that it only got as far as Melrose!

Alistair, the history lecturer, & who lives in Dumbarton, pooh poohs this fact & states that, if all the alleged remains of Roberto were placed together, they would stretch from Silverton to Newtonmore.

I know there are many doubts about the authenticity of various relics of the saints & bits of the Christ cross, especially around the Kingdom of Lennox with the St Patrick legend & Pontius Pilate’s birthplace….etc…….but I wanted to believe I had discovered the final resting place of bits of one of our national heroes.

As I am hoping to attend a wedding at Dumbarton Castle this summer (if I have not upset my future daughter-in-law, by trashing her hair!), it felt good to know, while I was standing in that churchyard, I could also see the castle, where our other national hero was taken on his capture by the darkness, before he was taken to his terrible fate in London.

Why Are All the Tobacconists Riding Sleds?

To understand the above heading you would need to know the Billy Connolly sketch.

Having to ‘make do’ with Clan as, Asda had no Gold Block is not good enough: get it right.

Us pipesmokers used to be spoiled for choice & now we have to compromise or else.

This weirdness was nothing compared to my shock when I discovered the Happy Highlander had left me what I thought was a cd by Bobby Sands. However all was well when I discovered it was a Tommy Sands.

Is it just a crazy time of year. My Scottish CrossCountry dance class was cancelled yesterday as my teacher was ill. I had to settle for the less than macho game of 5- a- sides.

As you can imagine these macho lads who gave me such a rough time last week when they saw me at the dance class, were looking to make more mileage out of the experience.

They were laughing on the other side of their faces as I backhealed & nutmeged the goalkeeper into the back of the net. The joke was that it was thought to be a move I learned at my class. It was thought to be part of the Gay Gordon.

Black Ships

Playing Current 93’s ‘Black Ships Ate the Sky’ at 7 a.m. reminded me of how great this piece of work is.

I have dipped in & out of this gothic folk/country genre for a while.

Maybe it’s time for some Johnny Dowd or some Handsome Family or Jim White freakiness or is that too depressing for these long winter nights?

What a great title for an album, but what does it mean? ‘Black Ships Ate the Sky’………….the answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

Dharma Bums

There is something very odd about listening to a cd of Allen Ginsberg reading Jack Kerouac’s ‘Dharma Bums’ (One of my favourite Kerouac novels).

Both are now dead (but not forgotten), but they were a major part of my youth & the start of my lifelong journey.

I mentioned this to Keith Dylan Ginsberg Beattie, but he probably thought why was bobby d. not on it too?

How to Survive a 21^st Century Scottish Winter Without Central Heating: guide for the over 50s

· Wear fleece pyjamas.

· Keep your mobile phone by your bedside.

· Don’t drink too much liquid before retiring as this could lead to unnecessary journey to the loo during the night, with the increased risk of falling downstairs

· Seek advice from concerned experts e.g. Saga

Jackie Leven

Sorely tempted to go & see Jackie Leven @ King Tuts Wah Wah Hut again, but I have caught him twice there in recent years.

Maybe I am just all gigged out with concerts in Milngavie with Bridget St John/Michael Chapman & Robin Williamson & Andy Irvine all within these dark winter months.

The Happy Highlander & I have certainly filled the Jackie Leven gaps in our ridiculously huge cd collections of late.

I am sure that he is as aware as I am, that this lifelong obsession, began as our paths crossed with arms full of vinyl, will one day come to an end.

Tears of a Clown

I don’t know what’s happening to me, maybe it’s just an age thing, but in this past year, the tears come into my eyes very easily.

Last night my wife & I watched a movie on tv ‘In America’ made by the same team that created the ‘My Left Foot’ film. It was a family’s plight in the poorer part of New York. It was sad: we cried.

P. S..I had the above Tom Rapp on vinyl: in fact I still have it

Bin Down so Long, It Seems Like Up to Me

No excuses. Why have I taken a while to update. Well I have been busy with the last of the concerts at the Fraser Centre, Milngavie: Andy Irvine. He was outstanding.

Also managed to cram in some undirected reading.

I started Christopher Brookmyre’s ‘A Tale Etched in Blood & Hard Pencil’ while up @ Glenmore. It is an excellent story about a Catholic school childhood in the Central Belt. I honestly could not put it down.

There is of course a knock on effect, I am struggling for time with my 3 novels in 6 weeks for the Reading Group from Clydebank Library & the 1 title per month for the College Reading Group. (Stress for librarians!)

Fortunately, I have read the Fanatic by James Robertson for the latter, however I am on still on the first book for the public library: Jane Harris’s ‘The Observations’, but its this thick. It is a gripping tale of Scottish life & very much along similar lines to Patrick McGill’s ‘Children of the Dead End’, a novel that still haunts me.