This, and South Bank Show, are two of my cultural landmarks.
Trying to make sense of my surroundings, and myself, in an ever-changing city. Dreamer and imagineer. Memorial Device: Alternative National Treasure
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This, and South Bank Show, are two of my cultural landmarks.
On the upside, went for a coffee to kill time, and bumped into two old pals, actor Colin McCredie, and music maestro, Bobby Bluebell. Pleased to report that, despite the advancing years, we are all still young at heart, although Bobby did use his bus pass to get home.
LG apologises for the late arrival of today's Worsdall Wednesday. Had to meet my big bro in the West End at 10am - only to arrive, on time, and then get a phonecall saying he'd only just woken up! Pic/text: The City That Disappeared: Glasgow's Demolished Architecture by Frank Worsdall (1981)
Yep - Peter McDougall plays the junk dealer nicknamd 'Mother Superior'.
Not for a long time. They called him 'the priest' because of the length of his habit -a joke later pinched by Irvine Welsh. Ever seen this? www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kH...
There's now five copies of the book up for grabs on LG FB.
Released 76 years ago today. The large central axis of Vienna's giant Ferris Wheel – 10.9 meters long, 0.5 meters in diameter, 16.3 tons in weight – was supplied by the steelworks W. Beardmore & Co of Glasgow. More to us than the cuckoo clock... www.youtube.com/watch?v=21h0...
Out this week, I got to factcheck the proofs for the publisher, Birlinn. birlinn.co.uk/product/glas...
Some nice ghostsign action going on at the Thai Royale, 336 Argyle Street, where the old signage for the Blythswood Press Agency has been revealed. Bunnet tip to Tony Russell for the pics.
September shuffles in, with a flurry of showers and buffeting winds, so it's time for some literary and musical shenanigans. On the night, there will be music, dancing, laughter, and surprises galore. Tickets from: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wax-fruit-...
#OTD in 1971, the last gas streetlight was lit in Glasgow. The honour fell to the then Lord Provost, Sir Donald Liddle to hold the lighting pole against the mantle in North Portland Street. Gas close lighting would hiss on for a few years after that.
A nice interview with my friend and top Glasgow lensman, Zeno Watson. flashbak.com/people-light...
'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there...' I can smell the 1970s from this. .. Someone on Twitter described this thus: "Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee, waiting on Tommy to form the Ramones."
Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNCo...
Ladies and gents, The Oblivians. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd4h...
Out dancing last night. and bumped into a mate who produced my old pal Rab's last LPs. Thank you. Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycG0...
Yes, he's a grumpy auld bugger. But, he did this. I'm 20, on a Greek island, and making the beast with two backs with a Norwegian beauty. we bonded over Italian horror director Dario Argento. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFAp...
Ooh! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWij...
Night! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-38...
Night,,,
I was 11, and my world spun out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCW7...
Oh, those Russians, Ksenia Parkhatskaya! www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0WG...
Once, in Corsica, going looking for fags, I heard this. I sat in the back of a 16th c church and cried. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4EZ...
Hot, in a good way www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM2X...
Two of the good folk. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0U...
Nacht III www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaHg...
Nacht II www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1w...
Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuv...
This dame! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjvv...
His Lordship do Orange Juice Swagger! www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTyY...
Just before this LP, an interveiw which turned into two bottles of Paddy, and three C90 tapes of us talking pish.` A brave and beautiful soul, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q73...
eK mad, with Hope Sandival... www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdAc...
Bert Jansch covering Jackson C Frank. Glasgow's greatest guitarist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MO_...
A bottle of dark rum killed, at least two empty champagne bottles on the table. Dancing, and the troops off by 1.30am. Result! www.youtube.com/watch?v=StHG...
Off out here this afternoon, with a large portfolio, being the amanuensis for two old pals. Three, if you add my late mum, who is the glue that links us all. Wish us luck.
Night...
This! www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiK-...
Nacht II www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3O...
Nacht... www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8oq...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-R...
Night... www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSym...
Night! www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCW7...
Gaelic
I once went looking for cigs in Corsica, I hit this, Up their with Ge www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4EZ...
Oopps... www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNCo...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJXD...
March! www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfST...
I'm too old; who's on pill patrol? www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Ls...
Still 'doing' - that'll do.
I saw the Kennedys at Tiffanys!
Like to think that young gun would dig the older me. We done alright. Still arguing, still dancing. Pic: Aged 59, at a Northern Soul Weekender in Blackpool
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" Having a tidy out, and bumped into this young stranger; me, aged about 27, thin as a rake after my stomach operation, sampling the delights of Paris (somewhere about the foot of Rue Mouffetard).
Due to the suspicious number of winning entries in this week's Spot The Ball competition, we shall not be awarding our usual £5 Postal Order prize...
Thinking of ace Glasgow cartoonist, Bud Neill, who died on this day, in 1970, aged only 59.
ICity.. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqxR...
Nak
Up, down turnaround... www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxDv...
Nacht III - in this old town... www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijz...
Fanny!
Nacht II... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6e...
Two of the best. Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8oq...
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
For the 10th year in a row, I get to kick-off this year's Glasgow Doors Open Days. This time, I've teamed up with my pals from the Hunterian, and the National Library of Scotland. www.doorsopendays.org.uk/regions/glas...
Perhaps one of the city's greatest architectural losses - Alexander 'Greek' Thompson's magnificent Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church - destroyed by a stray German incendiary in March 1943. Pic/text: The City That Disappeared: Glasgow's Demolished Architecture by Frank Worsdall (1981)
Faces in the crowd... An estimated 40,000 people took part in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' march through the city centre in 1971; among them, a young Billy Connolly, and his Humblebums bandmate, Tam Harvey. Pic: Evening Times
#InternationalDogDay Some pals, you never forget. My constant companion and best friend from the age of five to 15; the daftest and most beautifully natured blue roan cocker spaniel. A bashed and worn 15p metal name tag, which still means the world to me.
www.facebook.com/events/17459...
Only ever knew Fury Murrays on Maxwell Street.
The maritime-themed Cathadhmara Bar (Gaelic: cathadh-mara - "spindrift"), in Dunlop Street, in November 1984, which later became the Mardi Gras nightclub. Pic: Chris Doak
A Glasgow kiss... Hunt is on to find clinching couple. www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/hunt-ho...
Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=emUT...
Sad news. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Some nice guerrilla marketing - stencil on pavement - for the long-awaited re-opening of the Citizens' Theatre. There's aye drama in the Gorbals!
Born this day in 1765, Thomas Muir of Huntershill, the 'father of Scottish democracy'. The French raised a statue to him. East Dunbartonshire Council tried to flog off his family home, in Bishopbriggs, to a private care home operator. His life reads like a Robert Louis Stevenson adventure.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNP...
This dame! www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhfA...
Too truel... www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSAB...
Grat band. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBny...
Nacht II www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aade...
Nacht! I used to drink, and blether, with Paul in my Dundee days. Nice guy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aade...
A very happy 66th birthday to this Blue Boy. An inspiration then, and an inspiration now. Still remember the teenage thrill of seeing him, from the upper deck of a bus, stride up Queen Street, in his Davy Crockett hat, and into the Rock Garden.
Nacht! The late Rachel Nagy powering through Otis Redding's 'Shout Bamalama!'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3XO...
That Friday feeling... These mini-muscle men were photographed flexing their biceps outside the Three Stills Bar, at the corner of Laidlaw Street and Gloucester Street, in Kingston, back in 1964. Pic: Mitchell Library
Remembering Joe Strummer, who was born on this day in 1952. I snapped him outside Dukes Bar, Glasgow, on the '85 busking tour.
Off to Embra tomorrow; no Festival stuff - lunch with an old artist pal, with a view to a Glasgow exhibition, and a first visit to the Scottish Art Club. I shall have this blowing in my lugs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKfc...
I'm feeling old; archaeologists are digging up part of my childhood. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Open-air pulpits! Whatever next? Pic/text: The City That Disappeared: Glasgow's Demolished Architecture by Frank Worsdall (1981)
Neither do many of the people...
Happy #WorldPhotographyDay Jerome's, on the corner of Trongate and Hutcheson Street, seen here in 1938, was just one of the many city studios where you could get your 'fotie' taken. The city, and its citizens, frozen in time, like flies in amber.
Soon, the large mansion flats and townhouses of Abbotsford Place were being subdivided to rent out to poorer families. The mighty brick towers at the rear of the block were a later addition, ensuring that all families had access to communal cludgies.
The establishment of heavy industries in the area, and the air pollution that they created, meant that affluent Glaswegians preferred to move to homes in the West End.
We're out the back of Abbotsford Place, part of the original Laurieston development, created by John Laurie and his brother, David, in the early 1800s. Despite considerable investment by the pair, Laurieston failed to become an exclusive suburb.
A lovely splash of colour for you today from Tom Rodger, who I met last week at the Kelvingrove book talk. Tom took these pics in 1963, or 64, when he was working in the Gorbals with the International Voluntary Service.
Typical, you wait ages for a tour of the old Coplawhill Tram Depot, former Transport Museum, then six come along at once! www.tramway.org/event/8a9333...
Nacht! www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC3A...
Any weekend you get to bounce along with this. Think I was 11/12 when I first heard it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKtv...
As it is Lost Glasgow's 11th birthday today, treated myself to a digital slide scanner. Some early 1960s Gorbals gold incoming tomorrow.
When two old DJ mates bring their legendary Soul Jazz Sunday party south of the river, well, it would be rude not to join them. Also, my first chance to get a nosy at the revamped Marlborough.
Lest we forget - 206 years ago today - St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England. One year later, the Radical War erupted in Scotland, with three of its leaders - James Wilson, Andrew Hardie and John Baird - becoming the last men in the UK to be hanged and beheaded.
