How was the Day Out for you darling? Did the Hendrix tour light your fire? Were you wild in the country or were you just boxing Helena? Why not put your innermost secrets into a letter to The List? The best one printed wins a bottle of exceedingly wonderful Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila and a psychedelic T—Shirt!
Soap ott
Is nothing sacred? Not only is Eldorado on its way down the toilet. but Take The High Road is to suffer the same terrible fate. No doubt all the anti-soap snobs will be stinking in their smelly, smug superiority as they switch on to the incredibly entertaining [are Show. worth waiting up for. I say ‘goodbye Scotland' as the infrastructure crumbles and we cower behind our foam-filled dralon brown sofas. The one remaining reason for residency in Scotland has been plucked from our grasp like the seagull steals our second-last chip. I will lead the mass exodus. never to darken this nation's doors again. unless they show repeats of course. right from the beginning.
Lou Fergusson
Novar Drive
Glasgow.
0K, The List letters likes its soap as much as the next eoueh potato. L014. But four million snraekers a year for Glen Darroeh." Pass me that are. Eileen.
Zero tolerance
In the clippings section of Agenda in
LETTERS
the last issue (The List 202) you pointed out that Edinburgh District Council's Zero Toleranee campaign against violence towards women does not seem to have reached the Edinburgh Evening News. A good reason for having zero tolerance ofthc News. is that besides employing John Gibson and publishing his misogynist rantings it actually declares itself to be a supporter of the campaign!
No doubt the editor thinks that Gibson isjust winding up a few feminists — all a bit ofharmless fun really. chaps. But by poking fun at those who oppose the violence. instead of ridiculing the violent. he is actually supporting violence towards women.
Alison Neathy Keir Street Edinburgh.
Justin time
Justin Montpelier‘s letter (The List 202) reveals. albeit unwittingly. a lot of what has gone wrong with intelligence. The attacks he made on my previous letter show that he hadn‘t an inkling of what he was meandering on about. Parsons (Tony) slagged young kids. saying they don't write p0p. To counteract this woeful misrepresentation ofthe truth with the likes of Dylan would not have been very sensible. so I mentioned some juvenile popsters. End of story. except Montpelier got wind of it. Montpelier get real.
()n a lighter note. I would like to mention both the Scottish and English soccer teams. In these grey times. we all need a good laugh. bless 'em. Stuart Chalmers
Allander Street
Glasgow.
Fair of Fleadh?
I have just retumed from the I’Ieadh a so-called ‘Celtic Festival’ — and have to say that although the bands were excellent. the ‘services‘ were about as Celtic as a kangaroo.
I am talking about the twee American/ English-styIc/type franchises. with their bored London teenagers in plastic peak hats dishing out over-priced anything- but-Scottish food. lfhygienc is the reason for franchising. how come there
wasn‘t anywhere to wash your hands? Even the ‘Worker‘s‘ Beer Company (from London) was raking it in at £2 for a pint and £1.60 for a glass of wine. As there was no re-entry and the punters weren’t supposed to take in their own ‘containers or flasks‘ this was tantamount to extortion. Was I in Scotland or Disneyland. I asked myself. How much better the Traquair Bear Fayre is. with its hippy stall holders. home-made clderflower champagne. excellent. reasonably-priced own beer and biodegradable toilets. But then the Fleadh is run by three right-on companies and the Bear Fayre by a bunch of aristocrats. Karen Allan Victoria Street Rosewell.
92 J08: . -, OUERVO
Seems that old money just knows how to organise the hippies better: Karen.
But neither gives away bottles of totally
wonder/ill Jose ('uervo (iolden Tequila. That's what makes The List letters spet'ial. so hop along to our o/fit'e. where a bottle awaits . . .
Nasty old AOR
Why were you so nasty about Brian May in the Rock listings? I'd have thought that you List writers would be into some good old AQR! l myselfam more of a Heavy Metal fan. but l also adore Queen. I was thrilled that Brian was playing two Scottish dates — I would never have expected him to play the Barrowland. whereas the Playhouse seemed typical.
True. I was not impressed when Brian joined the great Deep Purple/ Rainbow/ Whitesnake/ Sabbath etc faruily tree by recruiting old mates Cozy Powell and Neil Murray into his backing hand. But when I saw them play. I realised that whatever their history ofever-changing line-ups. these are two amazing musicians. Cozy‘s drug solo at the Playhouse was out of this world! (It can only be done where there‘s a high ceiling. for pyro-teehnical reasons: you Glaswegians missed out there . . .)
NEXT ISSUE OUT THURSDAY 1 JULY
Anyway. let‘s get to the point here — those Brian May shows were two of the best gigs I‘ve been to in a long. long. time (AND I've been to a fair few!). His solo material sounds far more powerful live. and he did a pretty good job on the Queen songs included in the SCI.
Queen fans have always been a special. unique kind of audience. and all the old faithfuls tumed out in force (Edinburgh was particularly special. as his first solo UK date) — we've been waiting long enough while Brian's been galavanting around the USA with Guns N' Roses! It‘s paid offthough. as his vocals have improved dramatically since he recorded the album.
Incidentally. you may not realise that he began work on his solo project in I987; it was certainly not a question of ‘What shall I do now that Queen is no more?‘ But that being the case. all we can do is give every support to Brian. Roger and John in their future projects.
So I'll be looking out for a review of the shows. and I suspect you will be forced to take back those derogatory comments about Brian May. Otherwise I shall send you my review to set the record straight! And no jokes about him falling off the stage at the Barras please — l was right down the front left where it happened and it was quite frightening. Thank God it wasn‘t serious though. and he bounced back with a night to remember fora long time to come.
Tara Wilcock
Sciennes
Edinburgh.
Post Script
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Get street culture with Peter Howson. the Glasgow boy madegood. Get reverent with Godfather of grunge Neil Young (left).
Get the horn with our definitive Glasgow Jazz Festival covera
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PLUS: Benny and Joan. David Hockney. those hippie survivors in full. and a whole new batch of Days Out for summer.
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80 The List 18 June—l July I993
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