Friday is Not Moving to the Grassmarket
No, I am not, but Avalanche Records is. I pinched this video from the Guardian’s Edinburgh blogger, a position I applied for but was rather hilariously deemed to have insufficient blogging experience. Â Still, I’ve had a ton of link love from them since they kicked off with someone more respectable, and I don’t have to cover local council meetings, so it all worked out for the best I’d say.
Anyhow, in the most 21st Century way possible, I am writing this from my iPhone on the train from York to Edinburgh on my way back from In The City in Manchester. This is because, in the most 20th Century way possible, this train doesn’t have fucking WiFi for some unfathomable reason, so I can’t write nice and comfortably on my fucking laptop. Come on, people, get your shit together, if the fucking bus has WiFi now, surely a £70 train journey should have equivalent facilities.
Anyway, an iPhone is far from the easiest device to type out a whole post upon, so I had better cut this short and get straight to my ritual invitation to take this opportunity to de-lurk and leave your first comment because, well, no-one else will be talking any sense anyway, so the pressure’s off really, isn’t it.
1. What was the first poster you ever put on your wall?
2. Describe a print or poster or something like that which reminds you strongly of your folks’ house.
3. What did your Grandma always cook when you were home to visit?
4. Are you the Good Son (or daughter of course), the Bad one or an only one?
5. Odd nostalgic bit about going back to visit your family.
Flower Orgy – Mutual Benefit
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Shilpa Ray & her Happy Hookers – Venus Shaver
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True Womanhood – Dream Cargoes
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Útidúr - Fisherman’s Friend
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1. no idea, something like Hanoi Rocks or Whitesnake
2. any shite 70′s wallpaper.
3. Sunday roast…..over done sprouts love em!
4. Good one (tho i would say that)
5. it’s all odd, my mother acts like i’ve got MS or something ‘careful with that cup, don’t drop that plate, don’t break that glass’ nice
1. Fireman Sam when I was 5
2. A painting of Hawick town hall my folks have had since the begining of time.
3. Mince and Tatties or Meatloaf
4. Im a good boy now but apparently I was a horror when I was wee.
5. My folks have cassettes of me and my sister talking and singing when we were toddlers. The Christmas 1987 tape is a classic.
1. Christ, no idea. Probably a football poster from Match or Shoot I would imagine.
2. My folks have a gorgeous Chinese print of two monks which is probably the one which tells me I am home the most. That and a painting I did in Primary 3.
3. She did a mean apple pie, but it’s always been Sunday roasts my grandma was best known for.
4. Generally I am very definitely the Bad Son, but I am riding a wave of achievement at the moment, so for now I might be dabbling the in the exotic territory of Good Son status for a change.
5. Well the decor in my Granddad’s house hasn’t changed in forty years, so the whole thing, to an extent. Now that the black and pistachio bathroom has finally be re-fitted it’s probably the rather louche lion, tiger and cheetah prints, hanging in glamorous gold frames above the couch in the living room, I think.
1. I have no idea. I’m sure it was something awesome with a dragon or a unicorn or something.
2. A painting of a fox that my mom has in her house. The orange tones in it go great with her 70′s decor.
3. Green peppers stuffed with mince and rice with some sort of tomato sauce on it, straightforwardly called stuffed peppers.
4. I think my brother and I take turns. He’s terrible with communication and buying gifts, but I fuck off to foreign parts without a thought for the feelings of my family (so my mother points out). I’d like to go with “rebel” over bad, though…
5. My house. It looks the same as when I was growing up, but “home” isn’t the same whatsoever. It’s kinda unnerving.
1. Again, some sort of football poster, Uwe Rosler possibly. Music wise, I remember having, EMF, Jesus Jones and Wonder Stuff posters trying to imitate my cooler older brother.
2. A big tapestry type think my great gran did in the early 1900′s. Nobody goes near it anymore because when it was taken to be re-framed, the guy said he wasn’t touching it cos it would disintegrate in his hand. I swear I’ll go back home one day and it’ll just be a frame of dust.
3. Scotch Broth, Roast Beef and Lemon Meringue Pie. Wrong question when you are minutes away from tucking into a boring cheese and ham roll at your desk.
4. My Dad always introduces me as his favourite son but I’m pretty sure he’s proud of us both. He employed the other one. I chose to shun a career in accountancy so this may count against me.
5. Having the same conversations, just updated slightly. My Mum’s cooking.
1 Diana Ross or Bruce Lee
2 A weird black & silver etched stag in a wood.
3 Rice crispy cakes (made with Mars I think)
4. Its surely not as simple as that…..oh ok. Bad.
5 Maw & Paw still telling stories about people I haver never met or, to my knowledge, ever heard of.
“Your uncle Jims cousin Bob…you must remember him,well, his wee dog died last week”
1. It was probably something to do with dinosaurs.
2. They don’t really do art. My dad’s a painter and decorator, and I just imagine he can’t see why you’d ruin a lovely papering job like that by putting a dirty great picture over it.
3. Lime soda and crsips
4. The Good One. But only because my sister still lives at home.
5. Christmas. The decorations are the same (some older than I am), the food is the same, the films are the same (some on VHS taped over 20 years ago). It’s always bloody awesome.
1) I think it was a poster of Jim Leighton. For those of you who don’t know who that is, tough. I’m to embarrassed to say.
2) Well, hmm. I would have to say the Native Canadian print of an orca. I have always loved it, and the Owl it has been hanging next to for 20 odd years. I lime to think they are old friends.
3) Shortbread. Shortbread so rich and buttery you didn’t have to chew it.
4) I’m bad son. To be fair, Matthew had to pull out some serious stops to win the title, and I respect him for it. Does Matthew have the stones to last at the top? I don’t think so.
5) Going for a walk after dinner. Sitting with my Mum while she weeds her garden.
1. It almost certainly came from the centre of Melody Maker, but who was on it I have no idea.
2. In the living room there’s a huge print of a lion on a rock. It’s old and pretty battered.
3. Beef Stew is the first thing that came to mind, that’s posh grandma in Devon. Other grandma was tinned vegetables and some form of meat, and a Carlsberg Special Brew in the later years.
4. Bad I think, though only by a small margin.
5. There’s a patch in the centre of the garden where the grass still bares scars from many many evenings wear playing football, that and the automatic lights which you’d have to reset every couple of minutes to keep playing in the darker evenings.
1. Probably for Blade Runner.
2. My uncle had a poster which I think was free with the original release of This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello, which I inherited. It was tattered and sun bleached, but awesome.
3. Champ.
4. I think through adolescence I was the good son, but now my brother has settled down and I’ve decided to continue living in blind oblivion to responsibilities/reality, it’s switched round.
5. Eating lemon curd on toast on a cold sunday morning.
1. What was the first poster you ever put on your wall?
2. Describe a print or poster or something like that which reminds you strongly of your folks’ house.
3. What did your Grandma always cook when you were home to visit?
4. Are you the Good Son (or daughter of course), the Bad one or an only one?
5. Odd nostalgic bit about going back to visit your family.
1. must have been a celtic poster of some kind.
2. my mum went through a phase of doing that wood effect paint thing on every possible surface in her house. so that.
3.i remember my gran used to do this thing where she would have an imaginary chip shop in her kitchen and we would all go in and pay pretend money for a poke of chips. that or mince and tatties. and her soup is legendary in our family.
4.only child.
5.just getting totally looked after and not having to lift a finger is really nice.
1. I recall having a wallchart for the 86 World Cup up… musically, I’m pretty sure a Metallica print was the first to go up.
2. I’m honestly not sure about this one… maybe that bobbly wallpaper you used to get. My folks weren’t ones for having stuff up on the walls.
3. Lentil soup which I always claimed wasn’t as good as ‘real soup out of a tin’. I now make it myself.
4. Only one – while my parents now seem to think I’ve done well for myself (???) their opinion of my has fluctuated, not least the point where I turned from child genius to stoned slacker overnight. These days I’m merely a child-like slacker.
5. Tears in my eyes on a home visit a few years back when I took my daughter for a walk round some old haunts – Gran’s house, local park, first school … jolted myself out of it when I realised I’d been staring at young schoolkids for ages and moved on before the police were called.
‘Real soup from a can’. Classy! I still think I prefer tinned custard to any posh alternative I’ve tasted.
1. What was the first poster you ever put on your wall?
Late 80s/early 90s metal. Probably Iron Maiden or Metallica.
2. Describe a print or poster or something like that which reminds you strongly of your folks’ house.
For some reason they are obsessed with maps of Fife, having 2 separate ones up on their wall so whenever I see a map of Fife I think of my folks’ house.
3. What did your Grandma always cook when you were home to visit?
Split pea soup so thick that you could lay bricks with it. Mince & tatties. The sweetest (and tastiest) caramel shortbread known to man.
4. Are you the Good Son (or daughter of course), the Bad one or an only one?
Pretty bad and the only one too. I’ve gone months at a time without speaking to them.
5. Odd nostalgic bit about going back to visit your family.
If I get the bus through from Edinburgh then it goes past an estate agents just off the high street in Kirkcaldy that used to be Sleeves Records, a place that pretty much shaped my musical upbringing. It’s a little moment of sadness when I see it’s an estate agents, just thinking back to the conversations I had with the people who worked there, the fact that they let me pay off festival tickets a bit at a time cos I was a student/on the dole etc.
1. I think it was a flags of the world poster that I got when I was pretty young. I used to be able to recall every flag, now I can’t cause I’m a forgetful sod
2. probably their old Glasgow City of Culture picture that they had. I now have it in my sitting room above the fire, which makes me very happy
3. one made awesome cakes and the other super soup!
4. as I’m the first child I think I get way with a lot more, although i probably am the bad yin
5. my folks just moved, so I am not too sure yet as the next time I see them it won’t be in the old family home. This makes me sad
till next week kids BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
1. What was the first poster you ever put on your wall?
A WW1 poster of plane recognition (I’d been to the Imperial War Museum). Wasn’t allowed posters of “girls”.
2. Describe a print or poster or something like that which reminds you strongly of your folks’ house.
Horses dancing in waves. Very 70s but also very Guiness advert
3. What did your Grandma always cook when you were home to visit?
Steak and Kidney pie. I always left the kidney bits neatly on the edge of the plate.
4. Are you the Good Son (or daughter of course), the Bad one or an only one?
Only one.
5. Odd nostalgic bit about going back to visit your family.
The sight of rows and rows of 1930s semis from the Metropolitan line as it heads out into North-West London suburbia.
1. I can’t remember this so I’m going with a poster of a unicorn. It was awesome.
2. This one portrait of my sister and I that was done when we were little.
3. Blueberry pancakes.
4. I wouldn’t call it the good daughter/bad daughter. I am the artistic idealistic and emotionally fragile daughter. My sister is the successful well adjusted corporate daughter. However, I have never required them to wake up at four in the morning to drive me to the airport or to the start location of the marathon that I’m running.
5. My home town because somethings are never going to change and many things have (some for the better!). I’ve realized that most of my parents’ neighbors are now people who are my age and have kids…
Ctel – long time no see old chap!
1. A Lamborghini Countache probably
2. A photo of Cwm Tydi – a tiny hamlet in a bay on the West Wales coast where my mum’s family originated – that’s currently hanging in the downstairs toilet.
3. Welshcakes. She made me special coconut ones because I wasn’t keen on raisins as a kid.
4. Bad
5. Arguing with my mum
1. A Lego spaceship. None of the fancy pants Star Wars ones you get nowadays, something classic like this one:
http://www.dansdata.com/images/blog/uglylego/set1968.jpg
2. My mum and dad have never really had many pictures up, but for some reason they still have this little clay relief picture thing of a sea monster up in the kitchen which I did when I was in primary school. I don’t think I could do any better now.
3. My granny always made rock cakes – like scones but harder.
4. I make myself available when they want a day out in the capital, but I don’t go down to visit them often enough. I blame this on the lack of a motor vehicle, but I could get the bus.
5. Seeing ‘the craw woods’ at the end of the street, remembering that we could spend entire days exploring and playing in the trees and realising how ridiculously small the woods seem now.
1. I think it was a Smash Hits poster of either Roger Taylor or Paul Young. I’ve never been remotely cool.
2. A pair of black & white Vincent Van Gogh prints called ‘Woman Gleaning’ and ‘Peasant Reaping Corn’. Not lovely but they used to hang outside my bedroom so when maw & paw threatened to chuck ‘em I snatched them up and they will soon hang in my kitchen. I like them even though I don’t actually ‘like’ them.
3. Meringues with Dream Topping, scotch pancakes and always, always a massive pot of homemade lentil soup which was so thick you could practically cut it when it got cold. Brilliant.
4. I’m the Good Daughter these days, which is much less stressful than being the Disappointing Daughter with the Terrible Mental Boyfriend.
5. I always get ridiculously nostalgic just driving up the road I used to walk home from school/drunkenly stumble along back from underage pub visits with my mates, none of whom I’m in touch with any more.
My rebellion knew no bounds, I put up a picture of Toyah with one breast hanging out. hers not mine.
My mum has a wall of thimbles, her own fault for buying one and then everyone else kept giving her them
Grans stew is legend. You also get some to take home in an old beetroot jar.
Only and good, but it’s easy when you live on the other side of the country to them
THe thing that gets me is that all the trees in the street look so much bigger than I remember them. For a bit of nostalgia and a look at your old house try this…its cool
http://thewildernessdowntown.com/
back to the beach
1. No idea. I do remember my Dad painted a massive He-man mural on my bedroom wall when I was about 5 or 6 though which was awesome.
2. My parents have had one of those huge limited edition artist samplers from Royal College of Art that has been in the hallway of whatever house they’ve lived in over the years.
3. There were two things my Gran used to cook and I miss so much: the most amazing fry ups in the morning and a chocolate cheesecake. I got very fat staying there…
4. No, my older sister’s a doctor and basically married. I’m not a particularly bad son, but am just not the good child by comparison.
5. Long walks in the countryside and days spent doing crosswords and playing scrabble. Beautifully boring.
1. I wasn’t allowed posters till much later, but when I finally got my own bedroom at about 12 I painted Egyptian murals everywhere, with secret messages in hieroglyphs on them. Now I appear struggle to even spell the word Egyptian.
2. Nothing much of home, but my Gran and Grandad’s front room carpet was everywhere about ten years ago.
3. Potted meat sandwiches, and cheshire cheese and beetroot sandwiches, along with her homemade vegetable soup. White pepper was the key. Nom.
4. I spent many years being the bad daughter with an endless queue of dreadful, dreadful boyfriends and bad nu metal music, but I feel I am finally redeeming myself. Once I have any vague semblance of financial independence that is! My younger sister has a house and a cat and doesn’t live halfway across the world though, so I think she still wins in the good daughter stakes.
5. Dad’s very limited food choices, and having to cook three meals everytime I’m home to cater for him, my Mum and I who like our food to taste of something, and my veggie sister.
1. A kitten in a deckchair. Look, I was about 5, OK?
2. My dad’s an artist, so there was always quite a lot of his work on the walls. He did portraits of us three kids when we were each about 5-6, which my mum’s still got hanging up now.
3. Broth. Legendary. And never, ever vegetarian, despite what she used to try and get me and my brother to believe in our veggie phase.
4. My out and out badness during adolescence / teenagehood still elicits a collective ‘sucking in of air through teeth’ from my entire family. I am, however, the only daughter, which gets me extra points. And I’ve just moved to within a few miles of my mum’s, so I’m pretty much golden girl at the moment. I doubt it’ll last.
5. Oh, loads. Too many to pin any one thing down. Photos of old pets, my gran etc rank pretty high, but I’ve just been given the old coffee table we all spent our childhoods drawing at, complete with scratches, dents and stains, and I love it beyond belief.
Yeah, Corrie, I can be good son for a week or two at a time from time to time, but as Ben correctly points out, I just don’t really have the raw materials to stay there.
I saw that Guardian article last week and it said that “today was moving day” for Avalanche. As it happened I needed to get a CD for a birthday present so I had a wander down to the Grassmarket a couple of days later – just an empty shop! Assuming the article got it wrong I ambled along to Cockburn St – fucking shut til it moves!! I Tried Fopp etc – they didn’t have it (Withered Hand incidently).Ended up going all the way back home to read online that Red Dog are stocking a limited seclection of Scottish bands on behalf of Avalanche while they move, so I was faced with walking all the way back to the Grassmarket. Not impressed!!! I basically full-circled Edinburgh
I can’t listen to the last song, grasping for thoughts, says file not found.
Fixed now – well, sort of!