Lee Remick (she's a darling)

This is my favourite Go-Betweens album

Teenage Fanclub played some shows with them in Spain around its release in 2001 and I had a kind of epiphany. I hadn't quite picked up on them before. What a twit. Now I loved them.

A little later I was asked to play drums with some music pals - Sushil Dade (bass), John Hogarty (guitar) and Finlay Macdonald (keyboards) - to back Robert Forster on some songs at a show in Glasgow; the old 13th Note Club down by The Clyde. Cue me being very excited and chuffed.

Well....John H just posted some recordings from that show on-line. I hadn't heard any of it in over 14 years.

Hear we are having a bash at "Lee Remick".

TFC played some more shows with The Go-Betweens in Spain in 2006. The last of the run in Bilbao was particularly amazing. Robert's exit from the stage up the sweeping stairs of the venue while the band played out (I'm gonna go up those stairs"...) was camp and wonderful. After the show Grant McLennan made us all a cocktail of his own devising.  A "Go-Between".

When Grant died a matter of weeks later I was asked to write an appreciation by The Herald newspaper in Glasgow.

So very sad. But the music lives on.

I Do Like France

Hello 2015.

I turned on the radio in bed the other night and caught Count Basie "April In Paris". I remembered playing it live with the late great Alex Chilton a few years ago. He was on a Count Basie - Louis Prima kick for a while. Yonks ago we were in an Italian restaurant on Renfield St and Alex asked the staff to play his Louis Prima CD instead of whatever they had on in the background. They obliged. 

LX really was out on his own. A wonderful songwriter ('d'uh', as they say...). But you might see him live umpteen times and never hear him sing one of his own. Instead he might favour gems like Eddie Floyd "Never Found A Girl" or "The Hucklebuck" or "Alligator Man" or "There Will Never Be Another You". Nina Simone. Ollie Nightingale. Whatever. I wish I'd seen him sing "Claim To Fame" but the next best thing is listening to the live version on his last album "Live In Anvers". Anyway. "April In Paris". How like Alex to work out a version of a big band swing number with him covering the orchestra parts (apart from bass and drums) on his hollow-body Gibson thingummyjig and grooving through it while a room full of punters waited patiently for something, anything by Big Star.

I remember LX saying that being in Paris made him want to earn his first million and buy an apartment there. This just made me think of Alex's pal Ben Vaughn - "Jerry Lewis In France":

And that just made me think of this by Ben's pal Jonathan Richman - "Give Paris One More Chance":

It's been a while since I was in Paris but almost two years ago I was in a studio near Carpentras in the south east of France with Teenage Fanclub working on a new album. French food, wine and countryside. I'm not really going anywhere with this except to say I love France. I hope to get back there soon.

a bientôt x

PS:

I found this list of short and long films that I like and meant to blog about ages ago. Whoops.

The Great Beauty

I Am Tom Moody

Spectators

Red Dust

Dallas Buyers Club

Tim's Vermeer

The Act Of Killing

Ahora, No

I will try not to leave it so long next time....

Alors...

Salut.

Last year Teenage Fanclub relocated to the south of France for 3 weeks to work on a new album. We ate cheese every day and I learned that a pinch of curry powder in your salad dressing gives it a wee sweet kick. And we recorded some music. Plans are afoot to finish up. Watch this space.

I like France. And I like collaborating. A while ago Harry Pye sent me lyrics for a song called "Sympathy For Jean Luc Godard" and inspiration struck. Harry also encouraged me to 'make some art' on postcards to go along with his drawings in order to make a video for the song.

Here's the video.

And here's our website - www.francismacdonaldandharrypye.com

Other stuff I have been up to lately:

* Motoring to Manchester to see Laura Cantrell live. Wonderful new album here. I think she liked the 'Auld Reekie' smoked cheese I brought along as a gift.

* Recording with two different people called Aaron. Crazy I know....

* Scheming with and for North Uist's own Julie Fowlis.  Brilliant new album here - Track 5 ("To Calum") might just tear your heart out...

* Scheming with and for The Vaselines...

*Scheming with and for Camera Obscura - who tour UK in May (Yay!). Info here

*Working on music for a BBC project...

*Making music for filmmakers...

*Watching some films. Two favourites spring to mind: "The Great Beauty" (particularly glad to have seen this one on the big screen) and "I Am Tom Moody". Off the top of my head honourable mentions also go to "Dallas Buyers Club", "Only Lovers Left Alive" and "The Zero Theorem". And you know me - I generally like to keep things positive here. But referring to "Monuments Men" as baloney would be a disservice to baloney.

When Camera Obscura tour the UK in May, support comes from Crybaby.  Here's why:

Toodle pip.

Harry Pye

As I type I have only had one telephone conversation with Harry Pye. We have never met.  But Harry has encouraged me to make original works of art and to contribute to a recording of a song sung by the great Neil Innes; we have written several of our own songs together, with which I am chuffed (one will be premiered with a video at an art happening in Denmark next month); and he has co-painted a picture of me meeting Michael Nesmith:

More will be revealed. For now here's a link to a blog post from Harry himself:

PS: films I have recently seen and enjoyed/appreciated: "The Act Of Killing", "Tim's Vermeer", "Vicky Christina Barcelona". Oh and it was pleasant being interviewed for this 

Camera Obscura - "Troublemaker"

 

Watch the video...

Directed by Blair Young & Gavin Dunbar. Great song, great video, right?

Och, This 'n' That 'n' "Sunshine On Leith"

(not The Proclaimers)

Some things I have liked in recent times...

(1) Laura Cantrell at St Andrews In The Square, Glasgow - Fri 4th Oct (2013).

Something like 14 years ago on a brief jaunt through Glasgow, NY producer-guitarist Jay Sherman-Godfrey gave me a CD 'demo' with 4 x songs by Laura Cantrell which included 2 Seconds and Queen Of The Coast. Cue over-excited phone messages on Laura's answering machine as I foamed at the mouth about putting out her debut album on Spit & Polish; an imprint dedicated to Americana, roots, folk and later Scots Gaelic music (Yay for Julie Fowlis!). In the first instance, however, S&P was all about Laura. She first came to Glasgow in January 2000 for the Celtic Connections festival and her live show gave me goosebumps all over again. The late John Peel memorably described "Not The Tremblin' Kind" as "my favourite album of the past ten years and possibly my life". He once sent me a postcard asking when her next album would be released. In the note he mentioned that he had bought 14 copies of NTTK for friends. Laura's brand new album "No Way There From Here" is as good as anything she has ever done and includes a gem "Glass Armour" co-written with Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura. Her show, with brilliant sideman Mark Spencer, as part of the Glasgow Americana Festival was her umpteenth visit here. And it was wonderful. 

(2) The Vaselines in Easterhouse - Sat 5th Oct.

Watching this show I had a minor re-epiphany (it's my blog; I'll make up words if I want) about how great this particular song is. 

It's every bit as great as the video, directed by Pat Harkins.

(3) "Sunshine On Leith" - the trailer alone gets me every time. Go and see it and feel the love or we can't be friends:

(4) Julie Fowlis in the studio (eek!)  I shall say no more.

(5) Camera Obscura's next video (genius!).

(6) And while we're on the subject of great videos, try this from Attic Lights:

(7) Harry Pye 

(8) Scottish Mask And Puppet Theatre

(9) That'll do for now.

PS: Laura sang this in Glasgow...

I know, right?

PPS: I was interviewed by National Geographic's Digital Nomad

Billy Connolly

Someone emailed me to ask about the Billy Connolly Bafta event at The Fruitmarket in Glasgow the other night. Here's what I replied:

"Billy Connolly was a very special affair. It was relatively slow paced (he's 70 now). A seated interview with clips of films throughout. He seemed almost a wee bit nervous/melancholic on occasion but the stories and memories just flowed and he got into his stride before long: Richard Burton and priests in confession and touching a snake at Kelvingrove Museum when he was a boy, shopping  with Robin Williams and Michael J Fox, thinking Judi Dench fancied him, being the only person with a Glasgow accent in a film ("it's like a joke: this Glaswegian walks into a film..."), watching an Orange Walk band performing Any Dream Will Do on Argyle St., etc, etc.  There were questions from the floor including a guy from The Gorbals who told him that The Crucifixion changed his life.

When he got the BAFTA Scotland Lifetime Achievement award at the end he stood centre-stage and spoke about how much it meant to him that this was from Scotland, that it almost broke his heart and "it hits me somewhere I live". And then his hands shook and he teared up and it felt like most of the room did the same."