Mrs. Arbuthnot Had Ears Sharpened By Malice

I don't have anything profound to add about the pandemic except to say let's wash our hands. Let's self-isolate. Let's not panic buy. Let's respect our health workers. Whatever we pay our nurses - it's not enough.

Correct technique to wash your hands for proper disinfection. #CoronavirusOutbreakindia #CoronaVirusUpdate #COVID #CoronaVirusUpdate pic.twitter.com/1WeDwlCaF6

— Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) March 19, 2020

I recently read "Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont" by the other Elizabeth Taylor.

Funny, bittersweet, melancholic. Gently heartbreaking. Peppered with subtle zingers throughout.

...Mrs Arbuthnot had ears sharpened by malice...

...'It is three thousand days ago today that my wife died', Mr. Osmond said, to no one in particular...

...'Ah, yes', Mrs de Salis said dismissingly. 'I suppose you just had a local anaesthetic.'
'No, we were living in Norfolk at the time, and my husband insisted on my coming to London.'...

...She gave a smile which meant nothing, and took a cautious sip of her whisky...

...Mrs. Post considered the dish, and then carefully picked out one nut, as if it were different from the others...

...In spite of his question, she decided to enchant again...

...'We were talking about Brighton', Mrs Palfrey said, skipping the varicose veins...

...'Denise is the name of our hostess,' Mr. Osmond said across Mrs. Palfrey, who drew back her bust a little as he did so...

...'Ciggie?' she asked Colonel Mildway, holding out her case, and blowing thin streams of smoke down from her nostrils...

Starting another book right away feels like a disservice.

Keep your eyes peeled for this album...

...and not just because I wrote a song for it called "Punk Rock Boy".

I liked The Two Popes on Netflix.

And I dug Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool on BBC.

I'll finish up with Unbuttoned by the one and only David Sedaris.

And this from Dr. Benjamin Janaway.

Let's stay safe.

Robert Bloody Forster - and some Teenage Fanclub News

All being well I am extremely looking forward to opening for the wunderbar Robert Forster in Strathaven in May.

I *loved* Robert's show at St Luke's last year. 

Here's just one wee gem among many that could slip by if you didn't know better...

I fell for The Go-Betweens around the time of The Friends Of Rachel Worth. I hadn't been drumming long with Teenage Fanclub. We played with them in Madrid and Barcelona. Nov 2000. Quite the epiphany.

Talking of Teenage Fanclub (editor's note: silky...) - ta dah!:

Tickets on sale soon - www.teenagefanclub.com

Album sessions have been fun and productive. Watch this space.

I will be talking about composing for film/TV at this BAFTA Scotland event in Glasgow on 28th March. Tell your aspiring composer pals.

Talking of composing (editor: you're on fire, Francis...) I finally got to see "Eminent Monsters" on a big screen. A powerful film directed by Stephen Bennett and edited by Berny McGurk. I am very glad to have been involved.

I liked this:

Following on from this (which I dug)...

...I am re-reading this (which I am digging).

I saw Scottish Opera's Nixon In China. If I'm honest I loved the staging more than the music.

For some reason I am really enjoying the BBC repeats of Rick Stein's Long Weekends.

That's Rick Stein - not me.

Also grooving to Inside Number 9 and Better Call Saul.

I am working on titles music for a top secret TV project. It's all about... ha! - just kidding. I can't say.

This is still on telly. I tweeted about it and look what happened...

Right - I'm offski. Remember to wash your hands.

Chillin' With My Parsnips

So I read and enjoyed this...

I wonder if the film is any good?

Recently I saw Parasite (liked it very much) and Greed (can't argue with the points it makes about obscene wealth inequality).

I am well up for a bit of this...

Enjoyed watching Wonder Woman avec la famille. (Although the greatest family film viewing experience remains Paddington 2 - personally speaking).

Hurrah for the return of Inside Number 9.

Episode 2  "Death Be Not Proud" was particularly great. In a dark kind of way. Great but dark, but great. But dark. (Mr Jelly's few seconds on screen stole the show.)

I caught the Oscar Marzaroli Exhibition...

...Loved it.

RIP Nicholas Parsons:

Finally, I provided the music for director Stephen Bennett's documentary "Eminent Monsters" - coming to UK cinemas in the next few days.



It's a dark film (you're not going to mistake it for Paddington 2) but powerful. Important. Necessary.

Tickets/info here.

Live And In Person in Newcastle

So I played a solo acoustic show in the mighty Cumberland Arms, Newcastle for Burns Night.

I played some songs I have written but not released; some songs from "Bonjour" (the album I made with Harry Pye); and some songs I just like,  eg "I Don't Want To See You Anymore" by Michael Shelley.

Half a set list.

I sang "Green Grow The Rushes, O" in tribute to Scotland's favourite tax-collecting, philandering bard.

Could you get haggis suppers or deep-fried pizza in the local chippies?, I enquired of the audience. You could not. I said, "There must be something you can get in a Newcastle
fish and chip shop that you can't get in Glasgow?". A voice piped up, "Botulism".

I tasted some Dalwinnie whisky with some good people.

I don't know about you but I love a post gig sing-along on the piano when no one knows the words. Instead folk clap along, getting faster and faster, exposing the limits of one's pianistic proclivities to the point where you may as well be wearing extra large oven gloves. Bliss.

Before the gig I had some tasty lentil soup and an amazing Turkish coffee in The Bake.

To those that don't know The Cumberland Arms - it's a grrreat pub. I stayed in a room upstairs and next morning they brought me breakfast.

During my trip I found time to visit the Laing Gallery.

Can you see the two faces?

I visited the beautiful Baltic Mills on the banks of The Tyne.

I had a stroll along the quay.

And then I took the train - and my fond memories - home.

(Thanks again for the gig, Owain.)

"Sorry" from David Sedaris's "Calypso" is great. But everything he writes is great.

A wee while ago I finally got around to doing the Glasgow City Chambers Tour. I recommend it.

I recently saw this...

...and this...

I enjoyed both.

In a few days I am talking to some composition students at the RCS about making music for film/TV:

So there you are.

January again

It's January...

Hope Santa was good to you. I've got new books from Billy Connolly and David Sedaris so I'm happy. (When I say "from" I mean "by". Just in case you thought...)

Apropos of nothing this lemon cheesecake recipe works.

Farewell, Neil Innes.

I have vague memories of The Innes Book Of Records being on TV when I was a kid. I saw him with the latter day Rutles a year or two ago in Glasgow. It was joyful. A good few years prior to that I saw a great, fun solo show at The Stand Comedy club in Glasgow. He told a wonderful story about the Bonzo Dog Doo Band recording "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight" at Abbey Road, whilst The Beatles were in the next studio recording 'I Want To Tell You". The power of self-deprecation. He kept switching between 'stand up' and being sat at the piano. The venue had two mic stands but only one mic so he would sit down at the piano and the only mic was still on a stand elsewhere onstage. Some 'artistes' might have gotten a little frustrated. Neil incorporated into his schtick.

A wee while ago my pal Harry Pye asked me to record some long distance percussion overdubs on a version of Mike Nesmith's "Rio"- vocals by Neil Innes...

Farewell Alasdair Gray.

His mural at Hillhead Subway is a great gift to the city of Glasgow. Every once in a while I read On What Led To Literature from his Book Of Prefaces. An amazing chunk of condensed knowledge, including this zinger on the sexism of the Church:

"God's Word had refused to become flesh in the dirty vessel of a naturally pleased womb, so women without the priestlike strength to love God alone should submit to breeding Christians in a posture of stoical passivity".

And farewell to Jonathan Miller. He directed The Taming Of The Shrew for the BBC in 1980. In tribute, here is an extract from my News jotter. I was 10 years old and likely a bored and befuddled viewer. But I liked Fawlty Towers...

Some recent telly stuff for which I provided music...

• "Paddington: The Man Behind The Bear" was on BBC TWO on Boxing Day
• "Priest School" was recently on BBC ALBA;
• "Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen And Milkmen" was repeated on BBC Two on Christmas Day.
• "Trump's Mother" was repeated on BBC ALBA;
• And I worked on the current series of "Emergency Helicopter Medics" on More4.

What next? (he wondered, peering into the void).

I enjoyed In Search Of Dracula With Mark Gatiss. A brief chat with Martin Jarvis was somehow a highlight. I used to like him in Rings On their Fingers. 9 year-old me thought he was very lucky to be married to Diane Keen.

Along with composer Matthew Whiteside, I will be talking about how Composers might promote themselves at this event in Edinburgh on Friday 17th January.

And if you are in Newcastle on 25th January, I'll be performing some songs - solo acoustic - at the Cumberland Arms...

Tinkety-tonk! x

Me and Paddington - The Truth... (Merry Christmas!)

First of all, I worked on the music for this wonderful documentary (directed by Eric Haynes) on BBC TWO, Boxing Day at 9pm...

It is joyous and moving. But don't just take my word for it.

I believe I got the gig partly because of my work last year on a lovely BBC doc (directed by Louise Lockwood) about Raymond Briggs. "Snowmen, Bogeymen And Milkmen" is repeated on Christmas Day this year - so yay for that:

Also - BBC Alba are showing a 3-part doc series called Priest School on 25th, 26th & 27th Dec, featuring my music (*looks shy, coughs*). For a few tracks I enlisted the wonderful fiddling of Laura Wilkie as recommended by my pal John McCusker - who was off gallivanting with Mark Knopfler. As you do.

John McCusker & Mark Knopfler. Just kidding.

Oh - and my theme music introduces the Christmas Special of Inside Central Station - 22nd Dec on BBC Scotland.

New Teenage Fanclub promo photo. Just kidding.

And Series 3 of Cash Trapped (featuring my quiz music) has just finished its 6-week run on prime prime ITV. And I've still never met Bradley Walsh.

In other news, Teenage Fanclub have been having a fun, productive time in a Hamburg studio.

It's not ALL schnitzels and beer

Here's Euros laying down some tasty Wurlitzer:

 

Btw, Euros has a new album - Gingerbread House Explosion. "Bits Of Me (Falling Off)" is an immediate highlight.

Recording and playing music is groovy. But sitting around in the evening, blethering, imbibing and listening to music is also groovy. Norman turned me on to this:

...and also this:

I am digging the Ken Burns doc series Country Music. And Series 2 of The Young Offenders is a right rollicking hoot.

If anyone gives a monkey's...me and composer Matthew Whiteside will be talking about self-releasing and self-promoting music at this event in Edinburgh on Jan 17th.

And yikes - I've got this solo acoustic gig to think about for the next few weeks...

Och, it will be fun.

And finally, Esther, the Lost Glasgow Facebook page posted Edwin Morgan's "Trio" and, just like yon painter (was it Picasso?), I was overcome with emulsion...

Do your best to have a happy Christmas.

Francis x

Hamburg and Sitges

On 30th Nov Teenage Fanclub played a wee hot 'n' sweaty 4-piece set at the excellent Clouds Hill Studios in Hamburg...

I love the Hamburger Kunsthalle and so I went back  for another mooch about...

Couldn't get near this chap for a proper view last time.

Ah, Gene Wilder...

I am reading A Gentleman In Moscow. I'm going to start coming out with phrases like "I have been known to scuff the parquet" and what not.

I recorded some drumming...

Then onwards to Barcelona and Sitges where we played a surprise festival set.

Norman onstage before the curtain went up....

...and after the curtain went up.

In Sitges I visited The Cau Ferrat Museum. Loved it.

I ate paella on the seafront. Alas the Costa Dorada was out of their tiramisu. Means I'll have to go back another time.

And that was that. Nothing says "home" like a half hour airport taxi queue at 11pm at night in six degrees.

On an unrelated note - wouldn't it be great if we could vote Boris Johnson out?