Happy Gotcha Day

So the Doune The Rabbit Hole is up the swanny. More info here.

Green Man still beckons for Teenage Fanclub...

Talking of ('live') shows, I loved Bob's contrived, moderately perverse we're-not-miming-honest Shadow Kingdom show...

What Is Bob Dylan's Best Song is a pointless game. But I sure do love "When I Paint My Masterpiece". This solo piano demo version is a gem.

I enjoyed this...

It stretched me a wee bit but that was kind of the point.

Nice riposte, Ludwig.

Now I'm giving this a go...

I like the film Death Watch by Bertrand Tavernier. I like its soundtrack by the late Antoine Duhamel. (I once titled a short piece of music after him: I also got his address and sent him a wee letter and a miniature of Jura whisky.) A while ago I was looking at the LP cover...

...and on the back there is a picture of Duhamel and someone called Harry Rabinowitz working together in a recording studio....

This led me to an episode of Desert Island Discs featuring Rabinowitz (at the grand old age of 99). Among plenty of other stuff (working on Chariots Of Fire, Barbara Streisand stopping a recording session in order to sit down to a Chinese meal, etc.) Sid James pops up in a nice wee aside. If you're that way inclined you can listen here.

Karine Polwart is great in this radio doc about "The Parting Glass".

On the subject of The Crystal Bucket, I've been Catching up with Don't Forget The Driver; Revisiting Stranger Things; nearly finished Monty Python series on Netflix. 

We've had Sita The Rescue Dog for a year...

...so we sang her Happy Birthday....

...and ate homemade cupcakes. Sita had a pupcake. 

I am writing music for something that I can't tell you about.

Tinkety-tonky. x

Indiana Jones And The St Vincent Street Ticker Tape Parade

Last weekend = Paesano pizza, Austin Powers and Dumb & Dumber.

This week I took a rare trip into Glasgow city (where filming of the next Indiana Jones film is underway) and wandered about Downtown Manhattan circa 1969.

I enjoyed working on the titles music for this. 

The music brief indicated that Amol likes Jamaican Dub. So I dug out my melodica and turned up the Reverb and Delay.

I was glad my pal Harry Pye roped me into providing the music for this...

I finished the BBC adaptation of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier, Spy'. Loved it. They don't make them like that anymore. The late Geoffrey Burgon wrote the music including this over the end credits...

Here is his obituary from 2010, written by Terry Jones.

And here is a more recent obituary, for Colin Tully who wrote the soundtrack for the beloved 'Gregory's Girl'...

I suppose it is tricky to imagine any film with a different soundtrack. But I'm very glad that Bill Forsyth went with Colin Tully. 

My mind keep wondering back to this and I realised - I'm like Henry Fonda's character in 12 Angry Men, but without the skills of persuasion.

Now reading this...

Tinkety-tonk, old fruit.

Cardiff

Well. 

Teenage Fanclub have a (socially distanced) gig...

Yikes.

I was on this...

I chose Limmy's autobiography 'Surprisingly Down To Earth And Very Funny' because -  as I say in the programme - Limmy's comedy makes me laugh in a way that so much comedy doesn't and I went through his book like a hot knife through butter. Themes include: mental health; serendipity; how fleeting moments of childhood can leave a lifetime's mark; how young people talk about sex (and subsequently how some men and boys treat women and girls); daring yourself to operate outwith your comfort zone; there is no wrong path; etc., etc. Lots of stuff resonated for me. And it is brutally honest; a literary warts-and-all self-portrait if ever there was one.  My fellow discussers were less taken. It would be a dull world where we all liked the same things. Here's a link to me yakkin' with Lloyd & Harriet.

Harriet's recommendation led me to this...

...which I loved.

Then I read this bonkers affair...

...or maybe I'm still reading it. Or I'm still living it. Maybe Italo Calvino authored me saying that. Or something. Anyway it was (is) weirdly wonderful. I loved the very end.

Now reading this:

I am chewing over the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy. I love Michael Jayston. He could have played Richard Burton. Or Richard Burton could have played him. Not that Richard Burton is a character in Tinker, Taylor, Solider, Spy. Och you know what I mean.

Anyway.

Last episode of Inside Culture (*COUGH* FEATURING MY TITLES MUSIC *COUGH*)...

...is on i-player here.

As I type I'm up for a New Music Scotland Award. Golly.

I watched Yesterday. Family viewing. I liked it. I was sure it was going to end differently (*spoiler alert* it was all a dream and when he awakes from a coma of course The Beatles exist but he realises that his true love has always been there right under his nose (and maybe she sends his Summer Song to Ed Sheehan who likes it and covers it?) *spoiler ends*). They really should have got me involved as a script editor. Poor them.

A world without The Beatles. Can you imagine? I can't ...