La Faruk Madonna an' that

A few days ago I had to get my phone repaired. With an hour to kill I popped into the brilliant Kelvingrove Art Gallery and learned the moving story of the La Faruk Madonna.

I thought this film was pretty great:

I can recommend watching "The Battle Of Skye Bridge". I remember driving up to Uist with my late mum via the Skye bridge in the early 2000s. As our car pulled up to the tollbooth mum quipped, "Robbie The Pict says I don't have to pay."

Talking of family drives in the Scottish countryside (silky!), a week or two ago we had a wee family holiday in lovely Melfort Village, taking in Oban and Easdale (no roads but plenty of wheelbarrows). Driving by Loch Lomond with the Bridge Over Trouble Water album playing it could have been 40 years ago, except I would have been in the back seat. And instead of switching between Simon & Garfunkel and Tracyanne & Danny, the tape deck would have been switching between S&G and Charley Pride.

A few years ago I went to see Charley Pride at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. He was in fine voice. Towards the end of the show a wee old wifie walked up the front of the stage to present him with a jumper she had knitted (aww!). Charley seemed pleased.

My brother reckons he once saw a poster in a hotel bar in South Uist advertising the forthcoming live performance of "Eddie Pride". In brackets it said (Charley's Cousin). It surely can't not be true.

Loved Billy Connolly: The Sex Life Of Bandages.

Did I mention I completed the Couch To 5k? Well I did. Celebratory scotch pies and cream buns all round. Anyone want to buy a pair of running shoes?

I've been rewatching some Mighty Boosh. Or have I?

I thought Unbelievable on Netflix was fairly fab.

I played this to my Glasgow University songwriting class last night (as I type):



RIP, Daniel.

Now I'm off to write some music for a secret BBC doc. Hmm, how to underscore hard stares...?

Friend Of Judy

I liked this.

I thought Renée Zellweger was pretty amazing. Although she unwittingly morphed into Shirley Bassey once or twice before my eyes.

Michael Shelley's facebook post on the sad passing of Kim Shattuck from The Muffs reminded me of this song - that Michael stuck on a cassette for me many yonks ago:

I'm chuffed to see that some projects for which I provided music are nominated for BAFTAs:

SHORT FILM:
THAT JOKE ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE
Hannah Currie, Beth Allen 

...A beautiful short film.

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY: 
IN SIGHT OF HOME - THE IOLAIRE
Production Team - BBC Scotland/BBC Two Scotland

...Powerful film about a devastating tragedy, directed by Kath Pick.

SPECIALIST FACTUAL:
YES/NO: INSIDE THE INDYREF
Michael McAvoy, Stephen McGinty, Paul Mitchell - STV Productions/BBC Scotland

...An insightful doc series about how we nearly voted Yes - then didn't.

Oh and I had one wee contribution here:

DIRECTOR – FACTUAL

LOUISE LOCKWOOD
imagine... Hockney, the Queen and the Royal Peculiar

i.e. I wasn't the composer but I provided a soporific take on Land Of Hope And Glory that popped up a couple of times. Go Lou Lockwood!

I'm watching this on Netflix.

And I am enjoying Alexei Sayle back on Radio 4.

Right. I am off to write some music for a groovy TV documentary that should be on BBC around Christmas. Can't say anything about it. My word is my Bond....

Songwriting Class Begins

As I type I am getting ready to start teaching a 10-week block of evening classes in Songwriting at Glasgow Uni, kicking off THURSDAY 26th Sept, 7pm.  More info here.

I can highly recommend "The Farewell". Awkwafina is brilliant.

I'm still on The Couch To 5k. Week 6. Ran 25 minutes today. When is it you actually start losing weight by the way? Here is my current running playlist. Shuffle Play naturally. (Hope the music snobs approve.)

When this is all done I look forward to doing the 5k To Couch.

I've been asked to work on the music for a wonderful new TV doc. Can't say anymore at the moment. Need to keep it under my hat. Next to my marmalade sandwich.

Toodle pip.

PS: Three cheers for Joanna Cherry.

The Reel Frank

So The President's Mother (music by moi) has aired on BBC ALBA:

And "Inside Central Station" is back on the box. Yes that's me pretending to play piano in the opening titles.

Speak of music (silky, I know), I worked with the wonderful fiddler Laura Wilkie for some music for another TV project. Amusingly she seemed to get a kick out the fact that I am "Frank" as in "Frank's Reel", written by my best pal John McCusker. Meanwhile I sure got a kick out of how she played my compositions. What a thrill.

The new Shaun the Sheep movie "Farmageddon" is great...

(Doesn't mean it's ok to photo bomb me, Shaun..)

This is one of the most harrowing, powerful documentary films that I have ever encountered...

It was my birthday last week.

I got a DVD of The Prime Of Miss Jean Broadie, which I liked...

...and a visit to the Linda McCartney exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery, which I loved.

I watched Scotland's glorious defeat at the hands of Belgium. Hadn't been in Hampden in donkey's yonks. (My 10 year-old felt that the man seated next to him was "clapping too loud".)

Oh and I dug this:

Relatively downbeat, stylistically, for Pedro - but none the less rewarding.

I gave a talk about making music for film/tv to some students at the University Of West Of Scotland. One student heard a rumour that I had once given Noel Gallagher some songwriting advice. Not really! Many moons ago I was touring UK with BMX Bandits and Oasis opened 3 or 4 shows. This was before their first single was released. I was watching them and thinking that a Bb chord might sound better than an F in "Live Forever" (I think I was thinking of opening chords of The Smith's "Panic"). I had the cheek to mention this to Noel and he asked me to run it by him while maintaining that if he used my chord it was still his song. Well the trouble was I hadn't actually tried my theory out and when I did - it sounded murder. So that was that. Moving on.

Bob's got some new Bootlegs on the way. (Yay!)

I've been dipping into the Beatles white album demos.

Oh - and I highly recommend this...

Me and Charles Manson

So...

...Teenage Fanclub's show in the beautiful Leith Theatre was a blast.

Sweet Baboo filled in brilliantly on last-minute bass guitar, covering for Dave who was about to become a daddy. (And Dave now IS a daddy! (welcome to the world, Erik!))

I am savouring "Ennio Morricone In His Own Words". Here's a particular piece I like returning to (I've never seen the film):

I liked Transit.

And I really liked this...

Bob Dylan told me never to name-drop, but while watching I had a flashback to a time when the late great Alex Chilton was staying in Glasgow for a few days at his pal Jason's flat and I was hanging about. I slept over on a couch. Next day Alex drawled, "Now I can say I spent a night in the same room as Charles Manson AND Francis Macdonald."

You can chip in to support a forthcoming doc about Alex here.

I have been working on music for 2 x documentaries; one about President Trump's mother and one about the Scots College in Rome. More boasting on these soon.

I'm giving the Couch to 5k a go. First track on my Spotify playlist is Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" - to accompany a 5 minute warm-up walk. Hmm. Maybe this would be more appropriate.

If you feel like helping stop the country being driven off a cliff by irresponsible liars you might consider signing/sharing this.

Tinkety-tonk, Old Fruit - and down with the Nazis.

Camera Obscura, The Belle & Sebastian Boaty Weekender, Etc....

On 30th July Teenage Fanclub played the Kelvingrove Bandstand.

Fun.

It didn't rain during our set so hooray for that.

On 5th & 6th August Camera Obscura returned to live performance. 

More fun.

The venue was St Luke's in Glasgow: warm-up shows for The Belle & Sebastian Boaty Weekender and also fundraisers for the Prince & Princess Of Wales Hospice - where Carey Lander spent her final days.

The love in the room was palpable. Peter Ross's 5-star review for The Times put it well: "This was a hug as much as a gig...it was beautiful to have them back."

Before heading down to the second show I sneaked a visit to the good ol' GFT to see Scorsese's Rolling Thunder film on the big screen. 

It was amazing all over again, of course. Bob was on fire during that period.

Next day I flew with Teenage Fanclub to Barcelona for The Boaty. Some travel issues aside (ahem!) it was a pretty unique, amazing happening. 

Belle & Sebastian were great..

The Buzzcocks were great (I sure dug Diggle's stagecraft)...

The Vaselines were great...

Tracyanne & Danny were great (Laura Cantrell joined them onstage for a surprise rendition of "Glass Armour" - written by Tracyanne and Laura)...

Camera Obscura were great...

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Mediterranean Tears For Affairs #cameraobscura #theboatyweekender

A post shared by Francis Macdonald (@francismacdonald) on Aug 9, 2019 at 12:59pm PDT

The chocolate cake was great...

I loved the Teenage Fanclub gigs. 

Norm's annual tune-up.

Playing past midnight on the open air pool deck as we cruised through the surreal blackness of the Mediterranean sea and sky was both nuts and fan-dabby-dozy. 

But I think I enjoyed our second and final show in the Stardust Theatre even more.

It's not often I'm moved to throw my drumsticks to the punters at the finale of a performance. Those things don't grown on trees.

Great to hear Yo La Tengo's "Stockholm Syndrome" live - complete with Blakey holding down the acoustic rhythm guitar.

At an autograph session a kind music fan from Japan gave me an interesting photo from the day, many moons ago, when I visited Tokyo Disneyland with BMX Bandits:

Rare snap of me without my make-up

Me and my favourite female country singer.

Me and the boat.

Me and my husband. Just kidding. Me and and the man who made it all happen. All hail Stuart Murdoch!

Me, Norm & Raymond (+ Tour Manager Keith etc.) disembarked on Caligiari, Sardinia.

We went for some lunch. 

An embarrassment of pasta

I had a siesta. We went for some dinner.

Seafood Fragula (yum)

Some Sardinian wine earlier this week.

On Monday I visited the Galleria Comunale D'Arte. 

The Mother Of The Murdered Man by Francesco Ciusca

Still Life by Giorgio Morandi. 

I walked back to the hotel, drank a farewell chinotto...

... and headed for the airport, homeward bound.

An amazing few days. I am lucky to get to do what I do. And I do appreciate it.

Teenage Fanclub play the Leith Theatre on Friday 19th August. Nearly sold out apparently - so now you know. Don't come greetin' to me if you can't get a ticket.

Arrivederci! x