muddybay-kyebeoy

Enjoyed that!

Well done min, here is the link... http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=471232007 Enjoyed the gig at the Lang Spoon Festival too! Ower an oot

Sorry to go back to top comedians bit, but the Jim Davidson bit just underlined what a spooner he is - best joke they could find was something like... 'You should see what I'm earning for this show, unbelievable, I'm minted. And all those starving Africans....ah well, f%$k 'em.' Whole place burst into laughter. He has sold 5 million DVDs. Thats not even 'witty' political incorrectness/racism. Or is it just me? I really like Bill Hicks, but I enjoy reading the books of his stuff more than his live show for some reason.

I heard a few weeks ago that Britney Spears is the most googled search name. That is probably why BBC feel the need to respond. The main point I agree with Demascus is who gives a monkeys?!?!? You can just see her agents sitting around the table thinking of the best publicity, and morons around the world lapping it up by buying papers and magazines with 'Britney - her story' on the front. Hellish.

All this 'hang 'em' balls comes from the complete disregard of the fact that even in places where body parts are chopped off for stealing, plenty of people still steal. And the US states that have the death penalty have the highest crime rates (the inverse is also generally true). Do the advocates of tougher sentences have a theory for this? Or are they willing to accept that the issue of crime has much deeper problems than what to do with a criminal once they have been found guilty.

For anybody interested in the Glasgow area on Friday night at 7.30pm in the Royal Concert Hall... (Taken from Celtic Connections website) In what promises to be a truly awesome celebration of that outward-looking spirit, top young Shetland ambassadors Fiddlers' Bid are throwing one mighty international ceilidh, building on the strong Scandinavian influence that has long pervaded their music. Joining the Bid's own lethal seven-strong line-up, comprising four fiddles, clarsach/piano, guitar and bass, will be the formidable Cape Breton singer and multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier, virtuoso cellist Rushad Eggleston - from the band Crooked Still, a major hit of last year's festival - Faeroese singer Eivør (also a Celtic debutante in 2006), Olov Johansson (Väsen) and Solas stars Séamus Egan and Winifred Horan. "Quite simply, Fiddlers' Bid are the best celtic fiddle band in the world. They play like angels and devils all at once." (ABC Radio) Tickets: £16, £14 Tel: 0141 353 8000

I had to laugh the other day when reading an article on the police appealing to cannabis users to stop as they were funding criminal organisations and murderers all around the world. Every single chonger was thinking 'Aye! So change the bloody law then, and the government can make money from us instead!' Suddenstop, the law as it stands does not work in the slightest, it doesn't really matter what reasons they had for making them illegal.

Sorry I think that is mince - something that could well have been lifted out of The Sun newspaper. The things he did during his years in power were awful, and he deserved to be punished severely. However, it must be sensible to recognise that taunting a soon to be martyr minutes before his death is going to fuel hatred and further death. Or am I being too politically correct? I don't think so, sorry.

I have a digital clock on my hifi in the living room, and it is mental. After 23:59 it turns to 24:00 and continues until 24:59 then goes to 00:00. But it doesn't end there. By the time I get up at 7.30am, it will be at any time you care to mention eg. 14:06 = completely random! But by the time I get back from work it will be exactly right. What in the name of Holy God is wrong with it? It defeats the point of a clock as I have to double check the time every time I look at it

If heroin use has gone up at the same time as da dug is raking aboot, then it may or may not have a link. There are many reasons folk turn to heroin, bigger societal issues than a medieval scheme of hounding (pardon pun) users. I think Shetland has to look at why folk are using and educate instead of funding a bloody dug to solve (or partly solve) the problem.

I'd really like to see the Foghorn String Band up in Shetland as I reckon they would go down a storm. Saw them near Cork in May and in Glasgow couple of months back and both times had the audience eating out of their hands.

Fiddlers' Bid playing with JP Cormier at this years Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. January 26th. He is amazing on guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and probably most other things. Love his songs too.

A lot of young folk I've spoken to don't know who Pinochet is and what he did. Celebrating his death is different to making a big deal of it - I've been letting them know in no uncertain terms of his crimes. I almost crashed my car when I heard Thatcher stating that she was very sad he was gone!!!

I have a 1976 Fender Precision bass, sounds super dooper My acoustic guitar is a 1999 Ltd Edition Takemine (edit - with Mount Fuji carved into sound hole and on neck), sounds great especially for singer songwriter stuff. Might be selling it sometime soon.

An amusing and disturbing relationship between Downing St and BAE systems can be read about in Mark Thomas' book 'As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela'. I yarned with an ex-military fellow at a bar in Islay at da weekend, and when I suggested that the money could be better spent he got really defensive and joked that I was a tree-hugger. That article in the Guardian fae McFly more accurately describes how I feel on the matter.

I love his music (and as a Shetland connection Aly Bain plays on several of his tracks), but I imagine his fee would be astronomical and only a major injection of backing from local/national arts trust. Perhaps the new music venue would be a good venue for this kind of gig?

1) I heard on Radio Scotland the other day that Norway has filtered much of its oil revenues into a fund that will allow pensioners to have a decent income for eternity, so that seems good to me. Not that they will live for eternity, now that would be quite something. 2) Scrap Trident, an outdated form of deterrent for the 21st century. Saved billions to be spent on... 3) Regeneration of the thousands of hellholes that pollute Scotand with poverty, unemployment, and crime. Within a generation standards of living and education in these areas would improve beyond recognition. 4) De-criminalisation of drugs. Heard yesterday about Switzerland after it de-criminalised heroin a few years back - not one death by overdose since. Clean needles, proper education. Money earned through taxation to be spent on rehab in poorer areas and retraining. 5) Ban religion. Just so that I could be chased out of office after a fun but brief few days as PM by hoardes of misguided fools with strange smiles and retire back to my peerie flat, spark up, and watch greedy folk greet on Deal or No Deal.

A 17 year old lass asked me what Shetland was like yesterday. When I told her the usual things and finally that we had very few trees her response was (in a genuine tone)....'How do you breathe?!?!?' Ahhh, our future leaders.

Hiyi AV me auld mucker - agree with lots of that, and no doubt lots of non-religious aspects at play. But ask those who are having their homes destroyed and families killed what is the main factor behind the war, and there will be no mention of geopolitics. They pray to Allah to avenge the illegal war. No doubt as you previously mentioned that there is some serious blood on the hands of our leaders, and each and every MP who has not opposed the occupation.

Hiyi Fratelli, don't worry about choosing da same avatar as me, great minds and all that. Or in the case of our pic, fools seldom differ...

I noticed my beer belly rapidly go after a 2 month hiatus fae da guinness, but by christ I'm enjoying it noo that I've fallen aff da wagon. However, jogging as well as beer moderation fairly gets rid of it. A couple of belt buckles within 2 months, no probs, and still a bit o a muggy to 'yockahaddo' as dey say in da far aest.

Great playing! The Simpsons theme tune is genius. When I was teaching a music class about an orchestra I tried to get them into it via that theme tune. I wish I'd had that clip to show them as well...

I'm fairly sure Shaw knows that...

The American Recordings are all very different but great in their own ways. I was always intrigued by his years in the doldrums, when some of his output was very ropey - I think this would have been a good era for 'walk the line' to have touched on. His meeting with Rick Rubin must be one of the greatest musical alliances to have ever happened.

I saw them in Faroe a couple of years ago at a festival and they were good entertainment, even still. The bill for the festival was Jethro Tull, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Fiddlers' Bid!