April 3rd, 2011 11:56am
billmarshall
Is it just me or does anyone else think that energy saving light bulbs are a scam?
Firstly there’s the equivalent ratings which are hopelessly optimistic and lead to you buying a second bulb cos the first one has all the brightness of a crusie lamp running out of oil. Then there’s the fact that they seem to be somewhat fragile – the first one I ever bought cracked when I turned it on.
But most damningly the advertised long life that is supposed to save us money and energy is just complete bollocks due to them getting dimmer and dimmer throughout their lives to the point of being unusable. One I put in a table lamp wore out in under 18 months and its replacement is getting noticeably dull after just 5 months.
I reckon we’ve been had. Kinda like carbon offsetting.
March 20th, 2011 03:46pm
billmarshall
Thankfully Scotland finally came good against Italy yesterday and avoided the wooden spoon with a decent display. Ritchie Gray was particularly good and if we’d had him against Wales it might have been different season, while Sean Lamont has been a revelation in his inside centre role, even if he did have one embarrassing failure to convert a kick and chase. Great to see Chris Paterson back to such good form after that serious internal injury kept him out for so long – his second last-gasp try saving tackle in two games showed again that even the big men can be brought down with good technique and bravery.
Jackson is now beginning to look promising at stand-off and seems to get the backs moving better than Parks does, and with Paterson taking some pressure off him by providing options with his experience of the distribution required there’s a better balance. We do miss the quality of Parks’ kicking but that can be learned, as John Rutherford famously proved.
After the success of the Argentina tour and the Autumn internationals we should have been able to push forward but the first half against Wales blighted the next couple of games. With a bit more confidence the England game could have been won and that would have given us a much better feeling as we head towards the World Cup.
Appearance of a rather unexpectedly unbiased commentator
I must say a few words about Brian Moore. In his playing days he was a man that Scotland fans loved to hate. He had a way of consistently winding us up (and a few other countries) with outrageously biased comments. However as he’s settled into his role as a commentator alongside Eddie Butler he’s been showing quite another side to his character. While not afraid to call a spade a spade he’s been remarkably unbiased in judging on-field events, frequently calling the play against his own England team or criticising refereeing decisions that he felt were wrong. In an era where commentators are tending more and more to be supporters he’s been a breath of fresh air and I congratulate him for it. Not quite in Bill McLaren’s class yet but following in his traditions, and I can’t praise him much more than that. Well done Brian.
October 22nd, 2010 05:34pm
billmarshall
It’s been a trying few days, as you’ll see from the immediately preceding post, but on Sunday I had something to take my mind off things – something I’d been looking forward to for ages. Not one, not two, but three lovely blonds with voices to die for. The Tzuke family was in town playing the Queens Hall.
Now I’ve had a few disappointments in the Queens Hall, as a former sound engineer I know the acoustics are a bit weird and not really suited for rock. So I was a bit worried when I saw the tour schedule, and the first support did nothing to ease my fears – there was a nasty resonance in the low mid-range which obscured David Saw’s vocals a bit. A pity as he had a gentle humour to his songs that deserved a better platform. He certainly won over the audience when he described the experience of writing with Judie as having received a masterclass in songwriting.
I was sad to see that the hall wasn’t full – I remember when Judie could fill the 2000 seat Playhouse and she really deserves far wider support. Maybe all the intelligent fans have emigrated!
Happily the engineer had got a better handle on the acoustics by the time Bailey Tzuke came on with sister Tallulah and the band. Bailey has grown into a really confident performer and her voice is developing all the time. I can’t wait to hear her in a big concert hall with more open acoustics, as her dynamic range is just straining to be let loose. Her set was mainly rockier arrangements and, although I enjoyed it immensely, in some ways I’d have liked to hear some more of the gentler solo songs such as the lovely Mind of a Boy. However she did include Fish, which I was astonished to learn was the first song she ever wrote. An amazingly complex song for a first effort with a delightful background rhythm.
A quick word about Tallulah; if anything I do believe she may be growing to be the most attractive of the three – which for anyone who remembers Judie at her bonniest and has seen how stunning Bailey is now is quite a compliment. She has a lovely fine bone structure, the family hair, and though still a little shy she has a gorgeous smile. I don’t have children but she looks to be everything you’d like your daughter to be.
After the interval during which I had a brief chat with Jamie during which he said he’d never heard Judie singing better, we came to the main event. Judie came on looking more confident than I’ve seen her for ages. Maybe because she’s now so widely acclaimed as a songwriter, or maybe knowing that Bailey is growing into a star has taken the pressure off a little. Whatever the reason it was good to see and and, as we were to discover, it seemed to allow her to really let loose that wonderful voice. The band was a slight departure – the first time I can remember a line-up with two guitarists. And one of them plus the bassist sported the best quiffs I’ve seen since the 60′s!
The opening number fairly rocked – a good loosener – but things really ramped up in the second and third songs. Under the Angels and Secret Agent are amongst my favourite albums and the two titles tracks amongst my favourite ever studio songs. They both have a testing range and phrasing which makes them ambitious songs to schedule so early in a gig unless you’re on top form. Judie was. Angels was one of those hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck moments – it soared, it vibrated with energy and the top notes were as pure as I’ve heard them and delivered with complete control and assurance. Secret Agent if anything was even better – it had a power and an emotion behind it, and midway through I realised that I had tears running down my cheeks. Maybe it was partly the emotions of my last couple of weeks coming out but it was an awful lot to do with the fearless openness that seemed to characterise Judie’s singing.
The bar had been set high, and it would have been easy to have dropped from that level of quality. In fact as anyone who has played gigs knows you have to balance the showstoppers with the simpler or less dramatic songs or everything becomes the same and you lose the contrasts and dynamic range. Faith maintained the quality while allowing some of that essential contrast and then Submarine Boy brought another aspect. Part-way through it there was a remarkable interplay between Judie and Bailey using their voices as instruments in a sort of call and response mode that was quite beautiful. I’m not sure if the idea was deliberate but it immediately reminded me of whale song.
Joan of Arc was next and was clearly a popular choice. I recall it being a highlight of a show a couple of tours ago in Glasgow, but here I felt it suffered slightly from being a little too similar to the early brilliance – not that it was in any way bad or less than well-sung – just that a little more contrast might have been better.
Edinburgh audiences can be notoriously slow to respond but by this time things were really warming up and we were treated to a variety of new and old to hoots and hollers of enthusiasm despite a predominantly older audience – hey we old folks can still rock! The band were turning on the heat too, a good old fashioned guitar solo being well appreciated.
I didn’t manage to write down all the songs played and am probably missing a couple but it was all just turning into a feast of pleasure by then. Bring the Rain has long been a favourite and was a delight to hear again while Vivien was one that fairly raced along. It seems that Bailey has many favourites amongst the albums from before she was even born and it was interesting to see that in some of them she and Judie were almost singing twin lead. The looks of sheer fun that passed between the three girls were great to see.
Sukarita is another old favourite with many fans, then the inevitable Stay With Me Till Dawn (“my one hit”) and, praise be, Sportscar - my fave driving accompaniment – brought the audience to their feet as the set closed. Of course they weren’t getting away that easy and they soon returned for two of the high points of the night.
For You was always a special song – with the three of them singing together layers that Judie used to multitrack it brought more tears to the eyes. It must be a very special feeling for Judie to have her daughters with her for that, a family in genuine harmony. But there’s now another song to bring a lump to the throat – If - inspired by the Rudyard Kipling poem and with Judie and Bailey weaving in and out together effortlessly hitting perfect notes it was impossible not to feel a range of overpowering emotions.
One last encore -a joyous Choices You’ve Made, apparently Bailey knows the words better than Judie! – and they were gone. But unlike the last tour when many of us worried we’d never see another one, this time we were promised more to come in the future. They seemed to be having so much fun, and although by the next time Bailey will surely be headlining her own shows and Tallulah may be pursuing her own career (in I believe film making) it would be wonderful for them and us if they were together again.
Thank you Judie, for a lifetime of glorious songs and wonderful singing, and for giving us the next generation of Angels to carry on the creativity. Come back soon.
October 22nd, 2010 04:21pm
billmarshall
On Wednesday last week my mum died at the age of 85, and a week later the funeral was held at Warriston Crematorium. The time in between was, as you may imagine, difficult.
On behalf of Dad and I I’d like to thank all the friends who contacted us to offer condolences and support, my clients who were universally understanding and patient, and all those people who came along to the funeral.
A special mention must also go to the carers – both at the care home where mum had been for the last couple of years, and those who used to come into the house to assist her while she was at home.
September 25th, 2010 10:37pm
billmarshall
On Thursday I took my friend to the airport for her flight back to Amsterdam. What a shambles! Of course getting there is the first problem in Edinburgh – the traffic as usual was hopeless despite it not being rush hour, but I’ll leave that for the next post. Arriving at the airport showed just how useless our transport systems and planning are.
First we have traffic lights at the roundabout that you reach after leaving the dual-carriageway. There is only one way to go at this roundabout – to the airport – so why put in traffic lights? All that happens is that traffic going to or coming from the airport is held up while the other sequence waits for any traffic that’s just come off the dual-carriageway to rejoin it; hardly a likely scenario. So that was the first holdup, but worse was to follow. As we approached the airport and the turnoff to the car park the traffic slowed to a crawl, including taxis.
When we eventually arrived we found that the usual entrance was blocked off but information was completely lacking and the diversion signs seemed to take you back out away from the airport. As a result people were stopping in a cramped area and letting their passengers out, blocking any other traffic from getting through. Clearly this was not the intended action but the Police Traffic Warden was just standing around making no attempt to advise anyone or prevent the blocking of the road. Maybe he realised that the situation he’d been left with was untenable.
I was forced to do the same as everyone else and then when I was finally able to get out from the confusion I drove around back to the now sole entrance to the short-stay car park to find part of it being dug up, but as usual very little in the way of help as to where to go. Had there been any indication that this was now the only way in and that this was the best place to use for dropping off travellers then this could all have been avoided.
Recently we’ve heard that the airport plans to charge people £1 for just dropping off travellers – an unbelievable action that is completely without justification, so it’s unclear whether this crazy situation is part of the preparation for that, but this is just another example of the way Edinburgh seems determined to discourage visitors. It’s bad enough that they are treated this way when trying to leave, but the welcome when they arrive is regularly just as bad. On a number of occasions I’ve returned from trips to find the arrival process positively hostile and the transport provision almost non-existent. On one occasion my father and I arrived at around 10pm on a Saturday night to find that there were no taxis for an hour – the many tired and irritated people, many with young children, forced to queue with no seating wore expressions of astonishment at the lack of facilities. The bus and taxi points seem to be in different places on every visit and like everything else are poorly and confusingly signed even in English, and there seems to be no sensible long term plan for protecting people from rain and bad weather – the glorified bus shelters doing very little. Compared to most international airports there is virtually no signage in foreign languages. Generally the feeling is that no-one cares about visitors and the impression they get on arrival.
Meanwhile the tram system – if it ever gets finished which is looking doubtful – will not go to the terminal but will stop at a park-and-ride from where travellers will have to board a shuttle bus. Of course most European cities have trains from their airports. In Zurich they run under the airport with escalator connections and you never have to step outside. In Amsterdam the railway can have you in the city centre in minutes, in Frankfurt, in Brussels, in countless other cities it would be unthinkable to not have a railway connection. Edinburgh has a railway line that passes close by, yet again and again the suggestion that it actually have a connection has been knocked back by planners and politicians. Short term finances are put ahead of any sort of vision, any sort of integration, any hint of green planning, or any consideration for passengers and visitors.
As my friend asked – why do we put up with it and why is it that no-one is held responsible? She was glad to be heading back to Holland where things are done differently. I wonder how many other visitors to Edinburgh never return?
August 11th, 2010 12:49am
billmarshall
The last few months have been extremely busy, with few chances for posting on either this blog or any of my others. Aside from the SEO consultancy business which is a seven day a week job at this stage, there have also been the legal intricacies of a separation agreement and the handover of my half of the old marital home to Fiona and the gradual removal of more of my possessions from there.
It feels strange going back to that house now. We bought it 28 years ago and we went through a lot there – starting with stripping out old furnishings and carpets and making improvements when we could afford it, which wasn’t often when interest rates on the mortgage were around 14% and I was managing on a bookseller’s wages. We added double glazing and central heating. Went through the trials of a council area redevelopment process that caused endless dust and considerable expense, plus a caved in kitchen ceiling that killed off our enthusiasm for a long time. Then there were the personal trials; the attempts at having a child through medical investigations and operations for Fiona sadly followed by a miscarriage.
But there were good times too, making plans for holidays in Mull and Skye and the west coast of Scotland, in Slovenia, Austria and Switzerland, always finding mountains and water and breathtaking scenery. We shared plenty of good food and wine. There are many happy memories but ultimately it all fell apart. Now, nearly at our 30th anniversary we’re finally both moving on and it’s time to look forward rather than back.
Work has changed out of all recognition too. From sound engineering and the excitement of the music business, to the apparent stability of the book trade over 22 years, the uncertainty of finding a new career, surviving a few hiccups and a year of being unemployed to a new position in a business that grew and flourished for five years then ran into trouble. Now I’m just starting my second year of being my own boss and have just taken on an assistant while building links with other businesses.
Next on the agenda is finding a new house, with all the complications involved in that. Where do I want to live, and how much will it cost? As they keep telling you at the new business forums you should have a business plan that asks “where do you want to be in 2 years time?” Looking forward I need to answer that question in both business and private spheres.
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