Michelle Shocked Hits Glasgow.

The wee woman with the huge voice played King Tut's recently.

I hadn't heard much from the L.A. rocker for years and curiosity got the better of me. She was in fine form, but being a self confessed "born again", she drifted into a bit of a sermon halfway through the gig. This didn't go down well with the crowd, me included,
but after a few hints to that effect, she got the message and finished off in fine style.

I had a brief chat with Michelle after the gig and she was charming.

Great gig.

The Redoubtable, Jim Leishman.

Now here is a man that I had wrongly pigeon holed in the great scheme of life.

If you live in Scotland, then you may have heard of him. Jim Leishman is the manager of Dunfermline Athletic soccer team. I have photographed him in this capacity many times and always thought him a bit eccentric.

I was covering a high powered conference on fraud this week and was surprised to see his name on the list of guest speakers for such an event. His subject was motivation. He was brilliant to see and hear in action. I now understand why he has been so successful.

It only goes to show what little we really know about people in public life.

Scotland's Answer To The Spice Girls.

I was doing my bit for charity at a fund raiser on Sunday night at Oran Mor to help raise "Cash For Kids" in conjunction with Radio Clyde and Asda.

Part of the nights event was a guest appearance of Scotland's answer to the Spice Girls. Atlanta.

Now I never got to hear them perform as I ran out of time but they were really nice and I wish them all the best.

More girl power, thank you.

The Totally Charismatic Roddy Frame.

It has been a really busy past fortnight for me so I was delighted to be given a guest AAA pass for the brilliant Roddy Frame's second sell out gig at Oran Mor on Monday night.

What a performance from the former Aztec Camera front man. He played a solo acoustic set which was simply magnificent.

He's one of those guys who just gets better and better.

Special thanks to Gill at Scottish Music Centre and Paul at PCL.

The Things You See In The City.

Byres Road in Glasgow is always good value for unusual things to see.

The other day, I was waiting to cross at the lights on University Avenue when this splendid old machine passed by.

Don't make em like they used to!

Not At All PC For Today.

I have been finding all sorts of archival material in my library of late.

I thought I might share a couple of them with you.

For those of you old enough to remember this old Teachers whisky advert, can you imagine the furore it would cause if used today.

Yes, the guy with the long hair is me. It was taken in 1974 when I was a photography student. If it were full length, I'm sure I would be wearing a pair of flared trousers with huge flares. They were standard student issue back then.

Aye, those were the days!!!

An Appropriate Toast.

My old pal Tom and me, went out for a wee drink on Saturday night. We should have known better!

We started in a pub at the bottom of Byres Road and worked our way back up via several others. Now, Tom being all knowledgeable about whisky, meant that we had to sample a few
en route.

I was somewhat fragile on Sunday but I'm blaming the beer. As you can see by the photo, in one of the bars you could buy a pint of Mongrel. We both agreed it would be an appropriate drink to toast the passing of my wee dog.

Will I ever learn ?

R.I.P. Wee Dug.

I'm always saying to people that nothing in life is forever.

Today was no exception. I had to take my faithful dog Cleo to the vet again as she had taken her most severe fit to date and was unable to walk. I was told by the vet, that there was little chance of her recovering and the most humane thing to do was to put her to sleep. She passed away very peacefully but it was a very emotional experience for me.

I remember getting her for my late mother back in 1990 from the cat and dog home. When mum passed away in 2005, she stuck to me like a limpet. She loved going in the car and especially to the pub. She got on well with everyone, there wasn't a bad bone in her body.

Here she is with some of her chums from the park and on a recent trip to Balmaha.


I hope she's got all the bones she wants now.