NEWS: Police Investigate The BNP Over "Bizarre" Website

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
September 6, 2010, Monday

CITY rocker Edwyn Collins demanded that the BNP remove his song from a "bizarre" party website that is being investigated by police.

The Edinburgh-born star's hit A Girl Like You featured on a Lothians British National Party website behind images of Asian men burning a union flag and veiled women waving banners saying "God Bless Hitler".

The "Lothians BNP Video" site has now been taken off-line and its creator, BNP Central Scotland organiser Mike Coyle, has resigned from the party.

Police are investigating whether any action can be taken against the site. Edwyn Collins' wife and manager, Grace Maxwell, warned the BNP against using copyrighted material on their websites.

Ms Maxwell said: "There are many iffy videos on YouTube using A Girl Like You without permission and we are normally very relaxed about it.

"Whilst we don't believe that viewers would imagine for a moment that Edwyn has sanctioned the use of his track in this bizarre setting, for the removal of any doubt, we will require it to be deleted and will take the necessary steps to ensure that this happens."

The site, which was accessed via a link on the BNP Scotland website, also featured Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World with a montage calling the founder of Islam a "murderer" and "a paedophile", and several original songs by a Whitburn-based heavy metal band called Mott & Bailey.

The tracks railed against "invaders marching through our land, coming in like the night" and "darkness bringing down the walls". Videos accompanying the tracks featured images of 9/11, the London bombings and processions of coffins being carried through Wootton Bassett intermixed with images of British mosques and protesting Muslims.

Mr Coyle initially defended the site, stating that he saw nothing criminal in its content and claiming that "the BNP are not in the business of upsetting people". However, within hours of being contacted by the News, copyrighted content had been removed and the site had been re-branded "The Unofficial BNP Video Site". Mr Coyle then resigned.

The father-of-four said: "My last act as a BNP member was to dismantle this site. I put my head above the parapet and ended up being lied to. I set up this website with the full approval of the Scottish party, but now that my name stands to be dragged through the newspapers they have failed to show me any support.

"When I stood as a candidate in the last election my children were subjected to death threats, but I stood firm. They have lied to me for the last time."

The BNP Scotland website carries contact details for party members, party news and a page of material written by BNP Scotland leader Gary Raikes. But Mr Raikes described it as "an unofficial blog". A line has been added to the site stating, "This is an unofficial BNP site".

He said Mr Coyle's site was set up with his support but was not officially sanctioned by the party.

He said: "We are sorry to lose Mr Coyle over this. Many sites support the BNP and we are glad for that support but cannot be held responsible for content. This would appear to be yet another witch hunt by the left-wing press."

BNP national leader Nick Griffin declined to comment.

Muslim activist Osama Saeed, founder of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said: "The videos show the BNP are stuck in a time warp, laden with images from the Crusades. The far-right always try to isolate and stigmatise particular groups and the latest is Muslims."

A police spokesman said: "Inquiries will be made in order to establish whether any further action can be taken."

NEWS: Brewdog Barking Up The Capital's Tree

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 26, 2010, Monday
1 Edition


The glory days of Edinburgh's beer industry might be in the past, but now it is to get a shot in the arm - or a kick in the teeth, depending on your point of view - as Scotland's most controversial brewery heads for the city.

The owners of Aberdeenshire-based BrewDog are preparing to open a bar in the Capital, and with a range that includes beer bottles inside stuffed animals, it seems unlikely to be a quiet addition to Edinburgh's pub world.

The firm has courted controversy with its high-powered ales, and is planning to offer free drink for life to anyone who gets a tattoo of its logo on the opening night of its first bar in Aberdeen.

Alcohol-awareness campaigners have repeatedly condemned the firm for its super-strength brews: The animal skin-covered End of History, which was launched last week and costs £500 a bottle, is 55 per cent proof ABV.

BrewDog also offers its 41 per cent Sink The Bismarck and 9.2 per cent Hardcore IPA.

Managing director James Watt said he was on the hunt for a suitable site for the firm's first bar in Edinburgh. He said: "I think a site in the Old Town would suit our brand the most but we're open-minded. We would be equally at home in the New Town or Leith."

But BrewDog may face resistance to any city bar if it repeats the marketing gimmick planned for the Aberdeen opening later this year.

Mr Watt said: "We're going to have a tattoo artist in the pub on the opening night and we're offering free beer for life to anyone who will have the BrewDog logo tattooed on their body."

Steve Mudie, president of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, called the stunt "abhorrent", adding: "I would have to question whether such a stunt is entirely legal.

"The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 comes down very strongly on licensed premises that offer incentives to customers that may encourage them to act irresponsibly.

"Think about an 18-year-old going in there on opening night thinking it would be a great laugh to get a tattoo for free beer. He's going to live for the next 60 years or so with this stupid tattoo, provided he doesn't end up with health problems due to the amount of free alcohol he's consumed."

Conservative councillor Jeremy Balfour, who sits on the city's licensing board, called the stunt "irresponsible".

He added: "While I wouldn't want to pre-judge a licensing application before it's even come before the board, I wouldn't think a gimmick like this would do it any favours."

NEWS: Tae Be Or No Tae Be...

Mark McLaughlin
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 21, 2010, Wednesday

IF you find yourself accosted by a barefoot, oddly dressed stranger quoting Hamlet in a voice resembling a cross between Yoda and Braveheart don't panic- they're probably playing Edinburgh Festival Bingo.

A blogger and wannabe-comedienne has designed a bingo card that challenges revellers to carry out dares during the course of the festival.

The dares include ideas like "walk around barefoot", "wear completely irrelevant fancy dress", "recite Hamlet's 'to be, or not to be' soliloquy to the first person you see", "speak like Yoda" or "speak in a bad Scottish accent".

However, some challenges could land you in trouble with the authorities, or leave you with a sore face if you approach the wrong person.

For example, Fringe organisers might take exception to festivalgoers trying to "camp out on the Royal Mile".

Meanwhile, some performers may take offence at players ticking the box marked "heckle a comedian", while it would take a brave person to "ask people to vote Conservative".

The card was designed by 19-year-old student Lolly Adefope, an aspiring comedienne who is hoping to come to the Edinburgh Festival for the first time this year.

She said: "Me and a group of friends were trying to get a theatre troupe together for this year's Festival but it didn't quite come together, but I still wanted to do something.

"I thought it would be a brilliant idea to design something that would allow festivalgoers to engage with the Festival more closely.

"My friends and I had a brainstorming session to come up with some of the dares we could ask people to do and the bingo card was the result.

Miss Adefope, who is originally from Surrey and studies English, has published her card online in her Lols On Comedy section on A Younger Theatre, an arts blog.

A Younger Theatre editor Jake Orr, 22, said: "I think a lot of the dares are supposed to be tongue in cheek. Lolly doesn't actually want people to vote Conservative. The dare contains a bit of irony as it's a reaction to the looming cuts in arts funding.

"There's also a disclaimer at the bottom of the card which advises players that heckling should not be malicious."

The disclaimer goes on to suggest forms of benign heckling such as "random standing up and sitting down, or oinking". A further advisory provides tips on how to "organise a flashmob", a random act of madness carried out in unison by a group of people, with suggestions including the Cha Cha Slide or the Macarena.

Mr Orr added: "There's no overall prize for winning so it will be up to individual groups to decide on prizes, and make up the rest of the rules as they go along."

NEWS: Rod Rage

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 16, 2010, Friday

IT'S the kind of behaviour you might expect from some laddish fans at an Oasis concert â€" boorish and intimidating.

But it was the last thing anyone expected from the droves of middle aged rock fans who flocked to see Rod Stewart at Edinburgh Castle over the past two nights.

Yet for Mercy Breheny, 36, Wednesday night turned nasty when she refused to let some of the old rocker's fans shelter from the rain in her stairwell.

Ms Breheny, 36, called the police after one concert-goer broke into her close and shouted a barrage of abuse outside her door after she shut them out in the rain.

The trouble started after she cycled to her flat in Johnston Terrace shortly before Wednesday night's concert began to find middle aged fans sheltering in her stairwell doorway.

"I pulled up on my bike at around 8 o'clock and they were standing there drinking beer and smoking.

"I asked them to excuse me and let me into my stair, and when I turned around to close the door behind me they blocked the entrance," she said.

"I asked them to excuse me again about five times and they ignored me, so I pushed the door shut at their backs.

"On the way up the stair I could hear shouting and swearing. Then I heard the door being forced by a shoulder, then heard someone racing up the stairs to catch up with me.

"He was shouting and screaming. It was along the lines of, 'Don't f******* shut the door on me, you f******** b****', He sounded really mad.

"I ran into the house and closed my door behind me. I heard other voices behind him and I was worried I had a gang after me.

"I like to think I know how to look after myself but I was really scared that he'd come up and force my door as well.

"I actually thought he would do it. He had riled himself up to an absolutely insane degree."

Ms Breheny changed out of her wet clothes and worked up the courage to go back into the stairwell to see if the way was clear to find a police officer.

She said: "I went back out into the street and explained what happened to a policeman who was directing fans up to the gig, but he looked like he couldn't care less.

"He said, 'Can't you see that we're a bit busy here?'

"Busy doing what? Shepherding other harmless fans up the street while I'm being threatened in my own house?"

A police spokeswoman today said they had investigated the incident in the close, but by the time they arrived the people responsible had already headed to the concert.

NEWS: Rod In The Rain

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 15, 2010, Thursday


"Where the ocean meets the sky, I'll be sailing," sang Rod Stewart last night as the ocean fell from the sky and threatened to send his stage sailing down the Royal Mile.

Torrential downpours soaked Rod's fans to the skin as they watched him belt out his hits at Edinburgh Castle.

"Does anybody want a wet programme," shouted desperate programme seller Kenneth Cameron at the gates prior to the gig, fearing his wares may not make it through the night.

The 20-year-old, who had travelled through from Glasgow, said: "I've only sold about 30 programmes. People just aren't buying them because there's no way to keep them dry. I don't have any bags or anything, and who wants to pay GBP15 for papier mache?"

The tunes on the long, wet walk up Castlehill before the gig didn't belong to Rod but to his adopted countrymen Travis, as the expectant crowds belted out an acappella version of Why Does It Always Rain On Me?.

Rod may have been thinking the same thing as he took to the stage just after 8pm, not that many people at the back would have seen him arrive as the big screens were rendered useless in the downpour.

The singer's ageing sex-god swagger was reduced to a comical Albert Steptoe trot as he struggled to stay on his feet, while his leggy blonde brass section had even more trouble in their short dresses and six-inch heels.

Meanwhile, the poor stagehands danced around like performance artists laying towel after towel in front of the singer to keep his winklepickers firmly rooted to the ground.

Fan Andrew Tait, 47, from Chesser, said: "He did the best he could in the rain, and he still had the people dancing."

Liz Morrison, also 47 from Chesser, said: "He's a great performer but you can't help the weather."

Rod's fans at the front resembled a dancing rainbow in their multicoloured ponchos â€" the most prominent colour being green.

"I'll never wear a blue darker than this," smiled Rod, pulling on his electric blue jacket and pointing at a flag of his beloved Celtic in the front row, to a mix of boos and cheers from the crowd.

It was a reminder that London-born Rod, the son of a Leith master builder, will always have a special place in his heart for Scotland.

FEATURE: Never Mind The Pollocks...Or The Guitars

Mark McLaughlin
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 9, 2010, Friday

'I JUST like doing certain things and painting and making music are two of them," a bored-looking John Squire once told a television interviewer in his Stone Roses heyday, in between fiddling with his shoelaces. "There's no contest between them."

It doesn't seem like 20 years since his paint splattered album covers and psychedelia-tinged guitars defined a generation, but two decades on those famous riffs that saw him lauded as one of the greatest British guitarists of all time have been silenced. Painting, it seems, has won.

John Squire today unveils his first Edinburgh exhibition, Nefertiti, at The Henderson Gallery on Thistle Street Lane, but Roses fans looking for shades of Jackson Pollock or hoping he'll belt out an impromptu rendition of Waterfall will be disappointed.

"The work is inspired by the music of Miles Davis," he explains. "It wasn't a plan of mine, it just sort of evolved from the work I did for Liberty fabrics and Penguin books.

"Liberty make fabrics for clothes and they asked me to do a couple of designs for them. I was working very graphically at the time for the Penguin book covers and I had a desire to do some stuff in lino print - where you take a sheet of lino and cut designs into it for print making. I was listening to a lot of Miles Davis albums at the time such as Nefertiti and ESP, and a lot of these shapes just occurred to me from listening to the music.

"It was the kind of stuff I used to do at school and it seemed like a good way forward for my latest art works. My mum's still got stuff that I did from before school, so I must have been creating some kind of art from an early age. I see it with my own kids. As soon as they're able to grip a pencil or a crayon they're trying to express themselves visually. It's a shame most kids grow out of that. I don't think I ever have - and I hope I never do."

In a sense Squire has come full circle from his childhood drawings and pre-Roses days as prop-maker with renowned Manchester-based animation house Cosgrove Hall, producers of Wind In The Willows and Dangermouse.

"There's a story going round that I was an animator that I need to clarify," says Squire. "I was the worst animator in the building. I was employed as a prop-maker, making little pots and pans, joints of beef and miniature onions, all on commission. I would sit in my bedroom listening to The Clash and making all of the s*** for kids' television, but it was great experience.

"They took me on full time, which was great. The studio was full of all these old hippies, and I created the first Stone Roses covers in the studio at work. They eventually gave me a shot at animating but I was awful. All of my characters looked like they needed a visit to the chiropracter once I'd got my hands on them."

Clearly Squire's poor grasp of the precision art of stop-frame animation was never going to challenge Nick Park, but he soon branched out into a more expressive form art. The first single cover he created at Cosgrove Hall was So Young/Tell Me, the heavily Clash inspired first single featuring a smashed up radio, but he would soon become known for the paint-splattered Jackson Pollock pastiches that would adorn the Roses greatest work.

"The Pollocks were basically just copies," explains Squire. "I knew we were never going to get the rights to use actual Pollocks on the sleeves but I knew this was the look and the sound I wanted for the Roses.

"A few punk albums used that drip paint effect on their covers. I seem to remember a single by Slaughter Joe and a few Clash posters.

"I was also listening to a lot of Jesus And Mary Chain at the time and wanted to emulate some of their sounds and also express it visually and the splatter paints seemed the best way to do it."

Many will be aghast that Squire has hung up his axe in favour of a paint brush but he's no stranger to confounding expectations.

When fans expected the Roses' Second Coming to come packed with more pop-tinged melodies he dropped an album full of Led Zeppelin riffs, dark lyrics and even darker sleeve to boot.

"The dark Second Coming sleeve was unintentional," admits Squire, before coming up with an even more confounding excuse for an album that was five years in the making. "I painted over the collage and intended to wash some of the paint off but I didn't have time."

Then, just as The Roses seemed to find their stride again, he dropped the bombshell that he was leaving the band to go into the studio with a busker and a couple of session musicians to create the first Seahorses album.

"I don't want to be in some sham of a band for one album before splitting," Squire was quoted as saying a little over a year before the band split after one album.

After the Seahorses he embarked on a fairly low-key solo career which yielded two albums, but by his second album, Marshall's House, featuring songs wholly inspired by American realist painter Edward Hopper, he found his heart being pulled towards his art.

"I did a show in London in 2004 featuring a lot of the old Roses stuff but a lot of that work isn't very big - probably only a few feet wide - so I started to really apply myself to create larger works. After Marshall's House I started to realise that maybe that's where my heart lay."

The only guitars in the new exhibition can be found in the canvas in the form of cryptic looking numbers which are actually inspired by printed guitar tablature of Miles Davis tracks.

"I don't read music so my only way into songs is through guitar tab. I transcribed Davis' trumpet for guitar and used the tab in the paintings." says Squire.

"I'm not much of an art historian either really. Most of my stuff is self-inspired. I think it's the kind of work that rewards really close study. I love a textured surface - something you can actually feel - as I think the analogue is becoming more and more important in a digital world."

Sage words from the man who created some of the last great sleeve covers of the LP generation, before they were eclipsed by the CD - compact in every form including the art - before being all but wiped out altogether by the iPod.

Squire may have created his last album cover but his greatest paintings may be yet to come.

Nefertiti: New Works By John Squire, Henderson Gallery, tomorrow - 19 August, 11am-6pm, www.edinburgh.artfestival.com ***

NEWS: Tam White RIP

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
June 22, 2010, Tuesday
1 Edition

TRIBUTES were today paid to legendary bluesman, reluctant actor and great-grandfather Tam White.

Considered one of Europe's greatest blues singers, Mr White was a fixture of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and played on the same stage as some of the world's famous musicians.

Friends said he had recently returned from a holiday in the Canary Islands, and collapsed yesterday after a trip to a health club. The 68-year-old was a heavy smoker, and suffered from emphysema.

Neil Warden, who had played guitar with him since the mid-1980s, said: "I'm devastated but he's left us with some very happy memories. He was the kind of guy that would always perform no matter what health he was in. I played a gig with him about six weeks ago and he was on form.

"He used to keep his work and his family separate but he doted on his grandchildren.

"A 100 per cent professional who always put on a good show, he was a true legend."

Mr White supported a string of stars including BB King, Al Green, Van Morrison, James Taylor, Paul Jones and Charlie Musselwhite, as well as fronting The Tam White Band in a sell-out week of shows at the prestigious Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London in the 1990s.

Despite acting alongside Mel Gibson in Braveheart, Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island and turning down a role with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as making a string of TV appearances in everything from Rebus to River City, Mr White was reluctant to call himself an actor. "I'm always a bit suspect to call myself that," he told the Evening News last year.

Mr White was born in 1948 and brought up in the Grassmarket, where he lived till age 13 when the family moved to Saughtonhall. His mother, Marion, and grandmother, Agnes Sim, enjoyed singing and his great-grandfather was bandmaster in Gilmerton.

He completed a five-year apprenticeship in stonemasonry for James Turner's in Gorgie upon leaving school at 15, but found his true calling after hearing the Ray Charles hit What'd I Say on the car radio while hitch-hiking through Holland in a kilt at the age of 18.

He formed The Boston Dexters in Edinburgh in 1964 and, following a record deal with Columbia Records, moved to London to begin a six-month residency at the Pontiac Club in Putney alongside the legendary John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, featuring Eric Clapton on guitar. The band split after around three years and Mr White went solo.

He got his first acting break in 1987 when he provided the voiceover for Robbie Coltrane's Big Jazza in the BAFTA award-winning BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti, in 1987.

Fiona Alexander, producer of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, had known him since his days on Tutti Frutti.

She said: "We're all devastated. I was only talking to him a week and a half a ago about the jazz festival. He was in fighting spirit. He had a fantastic way of delivering a song which showed that it came from the heart.

"We're going to let things settle for a few days and then start thinking about what we can do for a tribute. His musical presence and wonderful personality are irreplaceable."

Tommy Smith, artistic director and leader of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, said: "All of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra are devastated, shocked and saddened by the news of Tam White's demise.

"A voice much missed already."

NEWS: Rebus Roaming

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
June 4, 2010, Friday


IT DOESN'T take a detective to follow Ian Rankin around Edinburgh but those who need a helping hand will soon be able to follow him on their phone.

The Rebus author is currently recording content for a new online tour of the Capital for the Apple iPhone.

With almost hourly updates of his movements on social networking site Twitter, regular television and newspaper tours and his favourite pubs littering the pages of his Rebus novels, he is not shy of letting fans know where he likes to hang out.

But the new application will give fans another window into his favourite haunts, and those of his most popular character John Rebus.

Mr Rankin said: "When fans visit Edinburgh they will be able to find out more information about the locations in the books while walking around the city.

"I do get a lot of feedback from fans from outside Edinburgh who tell me they want to know more about the places that I write about, so anything that helps them to get a handle on the city is a good thing.

"Not everyone has time to go on the Rebus Walks, so this will allow them to do it in their own time."

The exact locations that will be featured in the Rankin App are still being finalised but Mr Rankin said he would endeavour to take fans where they wouldn't normally visit - such as the quiet banks of the Water of Leith - as well as the most popular destinations in his novels.

Julie MacBrayne, Orion marketing manager for paperbacks, said: "The app is still in the early stages, but we hope to have it up in time for the Festival.

"It's essentially going to be the Ian Rankin tour of Edinburgh. Ian is very much involved and it's going to be driven by his experiences of Edinburgh.

"He will be the unique selling point, especially amongst fans looking for an inside look at the places he visits and a behind the scenes look at his books.

"International fans will still be able to download the app and access its content, but they won't really get the full effect unless they walk the streets with him. We've got such a wealth of material from Ian already.

"It's the first time we've tried this with any of our authors. He's one of our bestselling authors and Edinburgh is the driving force behind all of his work so he was the obvious choice to launch this app."

NEWS: Tom Fleming RIP

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
20 April 2010

City actor Tom Fleming honoured by friends and fans

TRIBUTES were paid today to Edinburgh actor Tom Fleming - one of the most recognisable voices in broadcasting and the voice of The Edinburgh Military Tattoo for over 40 years.

The 82-year-old died at St Columba's Hospice on Sunday night.

A renowned actor and former BBC commentator, his voice had been heard over every Tattoo since 1966.

Capital events champion Councillor Steve Cardownie said: "It's hard to think of the Tattoo without Tom. The narratives he gave were second to none, and the chat he would give at the end of each Tattoo about Scotland made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

"There will be thousands of people out there who have never met him but will have fond memories of him through his voice."

Mr Fleming also voiced commentaries on royal and state occasions including the Coronation, the Silver Jubilee, two royal weddings, ten funerals, the enthronement of two Popes and three state visits by Archbishops to Japan and the US.

In 1995 he was principal commentator for BBC television for the VE and VJ Day celebrations and was well known for his annual commentary on the Cenotaph Service in London.

In 1999, Mr Fleming read The Beginning of a New Song, by poet Iain Crichton Smith at the opening of the Scottish Parliament.

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

"Tom Fleming was a great Scot, who will be much missed."

A deeply Christian man, Mr Fleming was a highly respected member of Canonmills Baptist Church, where he was a regular organist and preacher.

Author and friend Hamish Coghill said: "He will be sorely missed by the people of Canonmills and a wide circle of friends.

"You couldn't ask to meet a better person in your life."

Born in Edinburgh in 1927, Mr Fleming trained as an actor in the city and first appeared on stage at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in a non-speaking part.

When aged just 17, he toured India and Burma playing to the troops with Edith Evans,

and in 1948 he became the youngest ever light programme announcer for the BBC, but quit to pursue an acting career.

He went on to play the leading part in the first full-length drama production from Scotland, The Black Eye, in 1952.

The following year he co-founded the city's Gateway Theatre and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962.

Three years later, he became director of the Lyceum and was director of the Scottish Theatre Company from 1982 to 1987.

He was made an OBE in 1980, a doctor of Heriot-Watt University in 1984 and a fellow of the RSAMD in 1986, all for services to the arts in Scotland.

BBC Scotland head of programmes Donalda MacKinnon said:

"We've lost one of our finest broadcasters and our thoughts are with his family and many friends."

FEATURE: From the ceilings in Leith to dancing on the ceiling in Las Vegas

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
6 March 2010

HE has spent years touring the world as a top dancer but it could all have been very different.

For Paul Devers - aka Don Dorcha, the evil dark lord in popular show Lord of the Dance - spent much of his early life battling a debilitating hip problem.

Born with Perthes' disease, a condition that causes the hip socket to crumble, he was lined up for a hip replacement at a very early age, an operation that could have consigned his professional dancing career to the dustbin.

"My mum was a typical Irish Catholic and believed that faith would see us through," said Paul, 34, who has recently returned to Edinburgh after living the dancing dream.

"My cousin had the same disease and had a hip replacement but my mum refused the operation, so I spent over a year on a traction bed, strapped down with weights on my legs to strengthen them. When I was about five she decided to enrol me in Irish dancing classes to strengthen my legs further."

It was a fateful decision that would decide the course of his adult life.

Leither Paul, who grew up on Montgomery Street and attended St Mary's Primary and St Thomas's High, was thrown into the world of dance competitions when many of his friends were kicking footballs round the park.

It was a life he was sometimes reluctant to accept.

"I often had to be dragged kicking and screaming to dance classes," he says.

"I did come in for a bit of stick from some of the people at school, but I've always been able to take it on the chin. Most of it was motivated by jealousy.

"I started entering major competitions when I was about 11 and was selected for the World Championships every year."

In 1996, Paul was among the top ten dancers in the world, and the following year he auditioned for Michael Flatley's dance sensation Lord of the Dance at the SECC in Glasgow. He was soon launched into a gruelling rehearsal schedule before being whisked off to the States on tour.

"I'd never lived anywhere other than with my mum so it was pretty exciting," he continues.

"We stayed in Reno to prepare for the production, and then it was off round America and Canada throughout the winter of 1997.

"The following year we took a scaled-down version of the show to Hawaii for the centenary celebrations of Pepsi, where I bumped into loads of famous people.

"Ray Charles said he really enjoyed the music in the show, and I shook the hand of George Bush senior.

"It was the year before his son took power. I didn't speak to him, but I'd have a few things to say to him now. We were also treated to a really intimate gig by The Rolling Stones."

The show toured again in 1998, including a St Patrick's Day show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, attended by, among others, Sinead O'Connor.

One night, a few representatives from MGM Casinos in Las Vegas were in the audience, and quickly signed up the show for a permanent run in the Nevada desert. The show ran for eight years at various Vegas casinos, bringing Paul into contact with many more famous people.

"Shania Twain was one of the nicest people I've ever met," he says. "She loved the Irish dancing and even had a few dancers on stage with her. I also became good friends with the boxer Wayne McCullough. Siegfried & Roy came to see us a few times, and I was told Madonna was in the audience one night.

"But my proudest moment was when Pele came up and asked for my autograph. How about that!

"The Lord of the Dance days were just mental. Michael Flatley's a great guy and he's always been really good to me, and really encouraging. Lord of the Dance became so big that he did end up with a few critics, but I have nothing but affection for him. At its height we were outselling U2 15 to one, and Michael Flatley was making something like GBP 1.6 million a week.

"I never saw anywhere near that but we were very well looked after, and as a result I've had a very good life. I've been able to move my mum to Morningside, and I gave her holidays to the States every year. Every time she came over she would come and see the show every day without fail, and still does when it comes to the Playhouse. She can't get enough of it."

It was a far cry from the GBP 200 a week Paul was making as a teenage tiler in Leith.

He currently runs dance classes at St Columba's Church Hall, in Upper Gray Street. He is also planning a series of Irish dancing workshops at Dancebase in the Grassmarket.

He is also indulging in other passions including playing regular gigs with his band Keava, and spending time with a new love which, he says, "is still in the early stages but going very well".

"This city did so much for me in the early days," says Paul. "Now that I'm getting a wee bit older I think it's time I gave something back by teaching the next generation of dancers."

Paul's dance classes are held every Monday and Thursday from 6-8pm at St Columba's. Call 07929 268 223 for information. Keava are playing at The Ark, Waterloo Place, on 26 March.

NEWS: The Journey's Over...But Not Before One Last Tune!

By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
12 February 2010

Pair aim 'The Journey's Over' at those who have lost loved ones

IT IS certainly not the cheeriest album you're likely to buy this year.

But Lothian musicians Bruce Birrell and Juliet Nisbet believe they are on to a hit with what they believe to be the very first album of "funeral songs".

And while the pair say the songs from their album The Journey's Over will appeal largely to those who have lost a loved one, they say it could also make a fantastic gift for Valentine's Day.

Bruce, 61, who is from Dalkeith and works for the estates department of Queen Margaret University, said: "Many of the songs are about death but there are also a lot of sentiments in there that would appeal to those with a bit of romance in their heart, which could be very popular at this time of year.

"We didn't set out to write an album of funeral songs but we write from experience. Juliet is in the medical profession so she sees death from a different perspective than most people and some of her lyrics are just beautiful.

"The title song to the album usually brings tears to people's eyes, especially deeply emotional people, but the lyrics have the potential to give comfort to those who have lost, or are about to lose, a loved one."

The pair wrote all 14 songs together, and have released the album under the name Spirit of Love. Nurse Juliet plays guitar and violin and composed the tunes, while Bruce penned some of the lyrics.

The duo's target markets include undertakers, crematoria, solicitors, hospitals, and church and religious groups.

They have also received a request for copies from Premier Christian Radio, in London, and think their album has the potential to make it big in the American "Bible Belt".

Juliet, 47, from Port Seton, said: "Music can be a great comfort to the bereaved and we hope this will be a hit with many people who are mourning a loved one.

"It fills a gap in the market and we're amazed no one seems to have tackled this before."

Juliet has been staff nurse for 28 years, and currently works at Belhaven Hospital in Dunbar as well as part-time at the hospital which cares for elderly patients.

The pair have road tested some of their songs under their other name The Baseliners, which entertains residents at nursing homes, day care centres and hospitals throughout the Lothians. Bruce added: "No-one has ever said the subject matter is morbid. On the contrary, they find the song very uplifting and emotional.

"Although the album has a strong emphasis on coming to terms with grief and loss, our music is also spiritual and romantic. We believe it will be uplifting as well as reassuring. Some of the songs celebrate finding love as well as losing someone dear."

The Journey's Over is available from selected music shops, online at www.spiritoflove.biz or by telephoning 07948-343822 07948-343822 .

INSPIRATION?

* Going Underground - The Jam

* Cemetery Gates - The Smiths

* Living in a Box - Living in a Box

* Light My Fire - The Doors

* Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie

* Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

* Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

* Knocking on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan

* The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd

* Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum

FEATURES: Unicorn Kid

By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
23 January 2010

'SOME people think I just make noise - but if you're old you probably won't get it," says Oliver Sabin of his hyperactive musical alter-ego Unicorn Kid.

A year ago, the Leith 18-year-old barely had an audience outside his own bedroom; now he is rubbing shoulders with pop royalty.

Having worked with the Pet Shop Boys and the Scissor Sisters, his brand of underground electronic music is winning plaudits from the very top.

"I started making electronic music when I was 15, messing around with the keyboard," says Oliver. "When I was 16 I started to develop Unicorn Kid.

"I wish I could say there was some great tale behind the name Unicorn Kid, but there isn't. It just popped into my head one day."

The likeable teenager recently graduated from Leith Academy, but while most of his classmates were poring over UCAS forms, Oliver has been travelling the country playing gigs. He currently has a contract with EMI.

But he still lives at home in Leith with his family - mother Michelle, a nursing home manager, and father Michael, a health care worker - who, he says, aren't particularly musical. "My mum is my biggest fan," says Oliver. "She's got one of my songs as the ringtone on her phone. My dad's been great as well. When I was trying to get my break my dad would drive me to gigs, stay overnight in a Travelodge and drive me home again. When I make my first million I'll spend it paying back his Travelodge bill," he laughs.

Oliver is the youngest of three. His oldest sibling Adele, 22, has just graduated from Edinburgh University, where she studied social policy.

Only his brother Josh, 20, shares his musical bent, currently studying music production at Napier University.

"We played in bands together when we were younger but I think the fact that both of us went into music was an accident.

"He's more interested in film and television scores, whereas I'm into electronica."

While his parents weren't particularly musical, it was their musical tastes that shaped his formative years.

He says: "The Pet Shop Boys were always on in the car when I was young, so I've always been a fan but I'm an even bigger fan now that I've played with them."

His biggest gig to date was playing alongside the 80s legends at Glasgow's SECC in December, but by that time he was already used to the big crowds.

"I had just returned from the USA where I was touring with an artist called Owl City," he goes on. "He pulled in crowds of around 3,000 people some nights, which was pretty nerve-wracking.

"I got involved with the Pet Shop Boys through a journalist called Peter Robinson. He suggested I remix one of their tracks."

Oliver's remix of their recent single Did You See Me Coming boldly strips out Chris Lowe's plain and rather repetitive synths and replaces them with his own hyperactive sound.

"The Pet Shop Boys are nice guys and it was amazing of them to give me the remix," adds Oliver.

Oliver has also been rubbing shoulders with Jake Spears from the Scissor Sisters.

"He came to my London show in June, and I met up with him. We just made small talk really."

Oliver's sound is known as "8-Bit" - frantic electronica created by antiquated devices such as children's Casio keyboards, first-generation Nintendo Game Boys or old tape-loaded home computers such as the Commodore 64.

"I've had some really positive responses to it from people like Huw Stephens [Radio 1] and particularly Vic Galloway [Radio Scotland].

Of the negative comments, some people think it's just noise but they don't understand it.

"Electronica is my sound so I'm not going to start interfering with it to appeal to a larger audience. I'm no sell-out!".

FEATURE: The One To Watch for 2010?

By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
14 November 2009

IT WASN'T exactly the most auspicious of starts to what Alex Gardner is hoping will be a glittering pop career. Within weeks of leaving his native Edinburgh for the bright lights of London last year, he'd been mugged, was living off beans and was desperately searching for a job.

But then his luck changed thanks to a curious invitation. "I was invited to the house where Alice In Wonderland was written," recalls 18-year-old singer Alex, a former Edinburgh Academy pupil who is being tipped as the music industry's one to watch in 2010.

The invitation came via a band Alex had auditioned for, but he had little idea what he was letting himself in for.

"I was bit apprehensive about being invited to this strange house in the country, but I did my research and found it belonged to pop producer Brian Higgins."

The Kent mansion is the former home of Alice Liddell Hargrieves, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but its present owner is no stranger to spreading a bit of magic himself.

Higgins' production house Xenomania has produced tracks for Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Dannii and Kylie Minogue, Cher, Saint Etienne and now Alex, who is preparing for launch as Higgins' next pop wunderkind.

The passage from Edinburgh to Wonderland has been very short indeed for Alex, whose parents Richard, a solicitor with Drummond Miller, and commercial promoter Janet Gardner still live in Davidson's Mains.

"I left Edinburgh Academy at 16," says Alex.

"I saved up enough money for five months' rent in London and went for it. I had no idea what I was going to do but I was looking for something creative.

My parents were a bit sceptical to say the least."

And his parents' fears were quickly realised. Returning to his Paddington flat with two friends in his first week, they were mugged by six armed men. "They surrounded us and told us they were armed with knives so we gave them everything," says Alex.

"They took all my jewellery and a small amount of cash. One of the other guys was marched to a cash machine and told to enter his pin and they cleared him out."

It was a brutal introduction to the big city, but Alex soon settled in and began looking for work. He spotted an advert for a band and went for an audition. I really didn't fit in. They were twice my age with guitars and all I had was my voice, but we did a couple of songs and then I asked them to record one of my own.

"A few months later I got invited up to the mansion to meet Brian. He told me he had listened to my tape and realised I wasn't right for the band . . . which was a bit of a blow. But then he said I'd do better as a solo act. I was over the moon."

For the last year Alex has been going back to the mansion to write songs with Higgins.

"Although we're writing together, Brian always insists the songs are drawn from my own experiences, so most of them are about girls," says Alex.

Alex has now signed a worldwide record deal with Universal/A&M Records and has just completed a short tour with Paolo Nutini. And last night he played a homecoming show at Cabaret Voltaire in front of all of the friends and family he's been missing.

"The only song I've written that's not about a girl is about Edinburgh," he says. "It's called Where Were You? and it's a message to all my friends not to forget me."

For more info, visit www. myspace.com/alexgardermusic

FEATURE: An American director in Edinburgh

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
October 15, 2009

THE chance to entertain a mysterious American guest turned out to be a thriller for two Old Town tour guides.

Stuart Nicoll and John Baxter were intrigued when the famous Ealing Studios asked to book "a client" on one of their Burke and Hare murder tours.

But they could hardly believe their eyes when film great John Landis - the director of Michael Jackson's Thriller video and a string of hit films including An American Werewolf in London - turned up.

The celebrated director was visiting the Capital to scout for locations for his forthcoming comic-horror take on the famous West Port murderers.

Mr Nicoll, 28, of Abbeyhill, co-owner of The West Port Tours, said: "I clocked him right away because I'm a big fan of Trading Places and Coming to America.

"He said he was only there for the night and he had to fly out to America the following day.

"Obviously the subject matter of the tour is dark and scary, so it was great to show him around.

"John took him up to Greyfriars Kirkyard to set the scene. He explained about the demand for bodies at the medical school that led some to go grave-robbing and ultimately led Burke and Hare to commit their murders.

"He loved the atmosphere of the place.

"We made it clear that Burke and Hare weren't actually grave-robbers, a common mistake that we wouldn't want to see repeated on film.

"Then we took him to the Grassmarket and up to the West Port to show him the site of the old Tanner's Close, where they carried out their murders."

Mr Baxter, 23, of Musselburgh, was a bit less fazed by Landis' arrival - as he wasn't really sure who he was.

He said: "I'd heard the name but the only film I could place him on was Beverly Hills Cop III, and it was only when I Googled him that I released how big he is.

"The tour lasted about an hour-and-a-half longer than usual because the location scouts wanted to take their time, and they couldn't agree on anything.

"Landis was particularly interested in Burke's hanging site on Parliament Square, but there was some talk of them moving it to the Grassmarket in the film."

The tour guides were approached before they had even launched their new Burke and Hare Murder Tours, which are due to start on 26 October, after Ealing Studios found their website.

They arranged a private tour which ended up lasting three hours.

Both men are now angling for a cameo in the film, with Mr Nicoll hoping to portray murder witness Hugh Alston, and Mr Baxter eyeing the role of the Rymer's Bar landlord who unwittingly plied the murderers' victims with drink.

An Ealing Studios spokesman said that pre-production shooting on the film will begin in November, with Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg lined up for one of the roles.

But he dismissed suggestions that Bathgate-born Doctor Who star David Tennant would play Hare to Pegg's Burke as "a rumour".

He added: "John Landis found the recce with West Port Tours really useful and inspiring."

NEWS: The truth is out there?

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
October 9, 2009

IT HAS already become Lothian's most famous X-File - and now it's set to feature on the big screen.

The claims by two Edinburgh friends that they were abducted by aliens while driving in 1992 have become the stuff of legend and fierce debate.

In what has become known as the "A70 Abduction Case" Garry Wood and Colin Wright have stood by their incredible story ever since.

The pair are now working with a London production company which is finalising a script to turn their close encounter into a film.

"It's such a fantastic story and I was attracted to it from the first time I heard it," said film producer Dionne Rose, who is financing the film through her company DBR Entertainment.

"I had seen the film Fire in the Sky [based on the experiences of American logger Travis Walton who was purportedly abducted in 1975] which has similarities but Colin and Garry's experience did have unique elements to it."

The two friends have told over the years how they encountered the flying saucer on the A70 near the Harperrig Reservoir, a few miles west of Balerno. The pair drove beneath it in an attempt to get away, and were enveloped in a shimmering energy beam.

When they arrived at their destination in Tarbrax village, about five miles from Harperrig, they were an hour and a half late and could not account for the time.

Medical checks failed to find a cause for the memory lapse, or the severe headaches both men had developed, but hypnotherapy sessions brought forth memories of alien experiments conducted by a translucent-grey, skeletal creature.

Gilmerton mechanic and car-enthusiast Garry, whose workmates took to calling him "Starman", went on to pass a televised lie detector test, and the men's experiences pre-date the spate of alien abduction claims which were sparked by the X-Files television series in the mid-90s.

Shortly after their experience the pair visited paranormal investigator Malcolm Robinson, who was based in Alloa at the time but now lives in London, and he convinced them to go through hypnotic regression.

"These guys were desperate for anything to explain what happened to them," said Mr Robinson, who is also working on the film.

"Under hypnosis they described tall grey creatures quite unique from standard abductee descriptions of five-foot childlike aliens.

"Garry, who's from quite a tough part of Edinburgh, told me that he was strapped to a table with these things prodding him and he desperately wanted to take a swing at one of them.

"It's such a great premise for a film and we're currently going through script negotiations with Colin and Garry to make sure they're happy with everything. I hope they don't add too much salt and pepper to it and make it another Braveheart, based on fact but 80 per cent inaccurate.

"People have asked me who I would like and I usually say Ewan McGregor, although I had a moustache in those days so he'd have to grow one. Colin and Garry are such down-to-earth guys it's hard to imagine any famous actors playing them."

Neither Colin nor Garry wanted to comment on the film plans.

FEATURE: Guitars V Violins in a Deep Purple haze

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
October 3, 2009

IT was devised as a huge rock-orchestra fusion in the days when terms like "progressive rock" were a statement of intent rather than a buzzword for indulgent muso introspection.

In 1969 a fledgling British rock band called Deep Purple approached the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to accompany them on their grandly named new composition Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

Buoyed by the success of their breakthrough single Hush, Deep Purple's classically trained keyboard player Jon Lord composed an hour-long work that fused classical instruments and electric guitars and led his five-strong band of young musicians - complete with eccentric guitar virtuoso Richie Blackmore and their new falsetto singer Ian Gillan - out in front of a 100-piece orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

Now, four decades on, Lord, below, is set to do the same again with a new band of young musicians from Stevenson College, who will be joining him onstage for a revival of his magnum opus at the Usher Hall on Monday .

"I see echoes of myself in a lot of young musicians I meet and these guys are no exception," says Lord, 58, who was set to arrive in Edinburgh for the final rehearsals this morning.

"I admire the enthusiasm that these guys have shown for the project. They have that clear-eyed belief that what they're doing is right and exciting and I hope these guys go on to have some kind of success from this."

Performing at The Usher Hall with a rock legend and a 100-piece orchestra from Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is definitely an ideal place to be for these seven young men hoping to make their name.

The core of the band comprises teenage prog-rockers Grant Kilpatrick, 19, a guitarist from Mid-Calder, saxophonist Christopher Hartles, 19, from Corstorphine, and Bo'ness bassist Ryan Anderson, 18, who are set to release their debut EP Barriers under the name A Torn Mind later this year.

They will be joined by Bruntsfield singer Grant Barclay, 18, a hard-rock fanatic with a voice - and an ego - big enough to fill Ian Gillan's mighty shoes.

"We let Jon Lord join our band for the day," says Barclay, who's also working to get his own band Backlash off the ground.

"Ian Gillan is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in rock, and after the Concerto we'll be performing Deep Purple classic Child in Time."

While A Torn Mind are influenced by prog-rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Rush and Mars Volta, Barclay is an all out rocker in the mould of Ian Gillan, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and AC/DC's Brian Johnson.

With a combination like that - joined by keyboard player Fraser Mitchell, 18, of Livingston, and second guitarist Thomas Temple, 18, of West Calder - it's going to take a strong backbone to hold it all together.

Luckily, they will be backed by bearded Sardinian drummer Oscar Mannoni, 24, who also pounds the skins for an eclectic mix of city bands.

The band was brought together by Stevenson College head of music and drama Ken Thomson, who came up with the idea of reviving Deep Purple's Concerto as an educational project to introduce rock musicians to classical music.

Lord's Concerto still has a questionable place in rock history as the precursor of the 70s Pomp perfected by acts such as Queen and Led Zep, but which would also spawn a hoard of overblown also-rans that were satirised in 80s mockumentary Spinal Tap.

"I did recognise elements of Deep Purple in Spinal Tap but that was true of most bands of my time," laughs Lord. "The problem with putting young men in the spotlight is that people start to become interested in what you say, and they ask your opinion on things you don't necessarily know enough about to form a coherent sentence on the spot so it usually comes out as pretentious twaddle."

* Jon Lord in Concert, Usher Hall, Monday, 7:30pm, call the box office on 0131 228 1155 0131 228 1155

'Pompous' piece that became timeless

"I HAD no conception that what I had written could be viewed as pompous in 1969," says Lord, who was only 26 when he created Concerto for Group and Orchestra. "I was brought up listening to orchestras as a classically trained pianist, and while rock 'n' roll came along later I never lost that love of orchestral music.

"I mentioned it to the guys on the road and I think they just said yes to shut me up. Three months later we had the Albert Hall booked but Ian Gillan still didn't have any lyrics, so he scribbled them up on the afternoon of the performance.

"Reception to the Concerto was split. Most of the rock generation loved it, but the older classical musicians despised it. It's 40 years old this year and I can't believe how well it's aged. Deep Purple brought it back in 1999 and it was so successful we took on the road.

"People can't seem to get enough of it."

NEWS: How To Kill Friends and Influence People

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
August 25, 2009

HE'S no stranger to raising the dead for laughs.

Now actor Simon Pegg has been lined-up for a role in a new comic-horror about Edinburgh's most famous criminals - Burke and Hare.

Horror director John Landis, the man behind An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller video, will mark his return to filmmaking after an 11-year hiatus with his own black-comedic take on the story.

The film, telling the tale of the 19th century West Port murderers who sold their victims' bodies to Edinburgh Medical College doctor Robert Knox, is due to start shooting next spring in Edinburgh.

Speaking to horror fans at a US Monster-Mania Convention in New Jersey on Saturday, Landis reportedly said that Pegg had already signed on for the role.

Pegg became a household name for his role in zombie spoof Shaun of the Dead, which sent-up a series of zombie flicks by another horror legend George A Romero.

The Gloucester-born star's biggest role to date has been starship engineer Scotty in this year's Star Trek revival, which saw him adopt a Scottish-accent that he practised on his wife Maureen, who is from East Kilbride.

However, historical purists will insist that he doesn't revive the accent for the new Burke and Hare film, as the two killers were both Irish immigrants.

When the movie was first announced last November, Irish star Colin Farrell and Trainspotting actor Ewan McGregor were both tipped for the lead roles.

However, news of Pegg's involvement has kicked the online rumour-mill into gear with fans speculating that his long-term comedy sidekick Nick Frost - who partnered him in cult TV comedy Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, cop-spoof Hot Fuzz and forthcoming comic-geek movie Paul - could be the Burke to Pegg's Hare.

A spokeswoman for production company Ealing Studios said it was too early to comment on casting, while Simon Pegg's agent also declined to comment.

Ros Davis, production liaison manager with council-funded film location advisors Edinburgh Film Focus, confirmed that they had been in consultation with the film's production company about shooting in Edinburgh, but couldn't reveal the details of locations for filming.

She added: "All dealings with movie producers are protected by corporate confidentiality, so we can't reveal anything that we know about the film at this time.

"However, it's Edinburgh Film Focus's job to attract big productions to Edinburgh, first of all for the money that they spend while they're here and also for the knock-on impact they have on attracting tourists.

"Obviously a production like Burke and Hare, which is very much tied in with Edinburgh history, will attract a great deal of tourist interest."

STORY TOLD A FEW TIMES BEFORE ..

The Body Snatcher (1945) - Adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 semi-fictional take on the Burke and Hare legend of the same name, starring horror legends Boris (Frankenstein) Karloff and Bela (Dracula) Lugosi.

* The Greed of William Hart (original title The Crimes of Burke and Hare) (1948) - Censors objected so strongly to this dramatisation of the murders - starring the appropriately named Tod Slaughter - that they demanded costly soundtrack overdubs, changing Burke to Hart, Hare to Moore and Knox to Cox.

* The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) - Hammer-horror stalwart Peter Cushing played Dr Knox alongside Donald Pleasence's Hare. Pleasence will be known to younger fans as psychatrist Dr Loomis in Halloween.

* Burke and Hare (1972) - This less well known retelling of the tale featured several bit-part British actors.

* The Doctor and the Devils (1985) - Timothy Dalton, who starred with Pegg in Hot Fuzz, plays Dr Rock in this Burke & Hare inspired tale, featuring Twiggy.

NEWS: Final curtain for X Factor wannabe

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
August 13, 2009

DEVASTATED family and friends of a young singer who came within touching distance of X Factor fame are looking for answers after he was found dead in his flat.

Jason Pauley, 29, was found at his home in King's Road, Portobello, last week.

Although police say the death was not suspicious, the cause of death will not be known for several weeks until toxicology reports come back.

Mr Pauley's family is keen to trace an unknown acquaintance who was thought to have been with the father-of-one in his flat on the night he died.

Sister Leanne Pipskyj, 32, said: "He was with some unknown character when he died but he seems to have disappeared. The autopsy came back inconclusive so his death is still a total mystery."

Mr Pauley was a well-known face on Rose Street, where he used to busk with his guitar under the name Scot Rogers. He made it through to the second round of auditions for X Factor 2008, but he almost missed his break after an altercation with his partner landed him in court, and he was remanded in custody facing charges of assault and breach of the peace.

Mr Pauley broke down in the dock when the sheriff refused bail, but partner Vikki Harkness, 31, later dropped the charges and he was set free to perform in front of Simon Cowell and his team of X Factor judges.

Miss Harkness added: "He didn't make it through. I think the nerves just got to him. It wasn't just Cowell and the judges he was performing in front of, it was a whole team of cameramen and sound people and he just cracked under the pressure.

"He was a fabulous singer, though. We met at a party about two and a half years ago and he performed for me with his guitar. He taught me a few chords, and he had the gift of the gab so I was totally taken in by his charm."

Miss Harkness will now have to bring up the couple's 10-month-old son Ashton alone.

She added: "How do you tell a ten-month-old baby that his father is dead?

"He'll probably be too young to remember him but I'm going to try to keep him alive through photographs.

"Ashton's already learning that daddy's the man in the photo. Whenever we say to him, 'Where's daddy?', he points to the picture so he'll hopefully get to know him through that.

"He had his faults and we did have a couple of fights, but he was a brilliant dad and he was well liked. He was the best."

Mr Pauley was born in Leicester in 1980, the son of Ronnie Pauley and his Edinburgh-born wife Linda.

Sister Leanne said: "Jason was very much inspired by his dad, who was also a musician and encouraged Jason to pick up the guitar.

"His dad died in tragic circumstances and Jason came back to Edinburgh and made it his home.

"He was a fantastic singer-songwriter and he finally plucked up the courage to get himself down to Rose Street and perform in front of people."

The family described Jason as "the hardest working busker in Edinburgh", and have placed a notice beside his old performing patch outside The Grog pub, on Rose Street, inviting fans and fellow buskers to his funeral at Thomas Brown Funeral Home on Monday, 17 August.

FEATURE: It was acceptable in the 80s

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
July 7, 2009

Simple Minds and Duran Duran play at Edinburgh Castle next week, Spandau Ballet and Frankie Goes to Hollywood have reformed, and leggings and aqua eye-shadow are back in the shops. it's like the 80s never went away. In the first of our three-part look at the decade that taste forgot, Mark McLaughlin examines what was top of the pops in the city, with the help of the musicians and fans who were there.

CLOUDS of dry ice so thick the stage was almost obscured from view, a lead singer with more foundation than the Castle and a band who looked like they were wearing their mums' teatowels around their necks. Yes, it's Spandau Ballet in their 1980s heyday - or their first heyday, that should be.

Because while their hair may be smaller these days, Spandau Ballet - along with fellow 80s icons Duran Duran and Simple Minds - are big news once again, and winning a whole new generation of fans along the way.

Yet while those young fans might be willing to play the music, see the gigs and even wear the clothes - since the shops are full of 80s fashion, they can hardly avoid them - they are unlikely to go the lengths their original counterparts did in the worship of their heroes.

These days, Merle Brown, 37, is a freelance writer living in Marchmont. Back in the 80s though she was a teenager from Roslin with a passion for Madonna.
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"My friend Sam and I used to go into Edinburgh on a Saturday dressed exactly like her, with the same hair, including a bow, gloves, lots of necklaces and leggings underneath tiny mini-skirts.

"I always wore bright red lipstick like her too. I still do actually - that's where that came from, for sure.

"People used to walk by us and say 'Madonna' and we thought it was just brilliant.

"I was also a huge Bananarama fan, I knew all their songs and dances."

Merle still remembers her first gig - it was Howard Jones at the Playhouse.

"I was 15, it was just amazing. I know exactly what I wore - grey, baggy, knickerbocker-type trousers along with a bright pink shirt," she laughs.

In fact, in the early 1980s, Edinburgh, rather than Glasgow, was the place in Scotland for live music.

The Playhouse took all of the big established acts, such as The Who, The Kinks, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, and Eric Clapton - as well as nurturing some younger acts who first cam to prominence in the 80s, like Spandau Ballet and The Smiths.

Before the old cinema on Lothian Road was reborn in its current guide as the HMV Picture House, it had a string of names. Music fans of a certain vintage will best remember it as The Caley Palais, and in the 80s it hosted live shows by such Orange Juice, The Smiths and a young, still-upcoming REM. Over on George Street, meanwhile, the Assembly Rooms, played host to the Associates and New Order.

There were also a host of smaller venues too. La Sorbonne, for example, which later became Subway Cowgate and is currently known as Base, played host to a post-Mick Jones line-up of the Clash back in 1985.

Elsewhere, Coasters in Tollcross - now Lava/Ignite - put on Simple Minds, U2 and some early gigs by US rockers the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The Astoria in Abbeyhill, now the site of a Honda showroom, hosted The Psychedelic Furs, while Tiffany's nightclub in Stockbridge, now demolished to make way for flats, saw the Pretenders and UB40 tread the boards of its stage

It was the Playhouse, however, that Forth One radio presenter Grant Stott, now 41, remembers best, thanks to his days working as a programme seller there. "I got to see a lot of bands there, including the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.

"I also used to go to Coasters in Tollcross a lot, seeing the likes of Squeeze and Simple Minds. I pretty much got to see all the bands there," says Grant, who was also the in-store DJ at TopMan on Princes Street during the 80s.

"I was into everything and although music is so accessible now, which is great, there is a generation that will not know what it's like to save up, go into town, ask for a record and look at it all the way home on the bus."

Independent record shops, however, were showing the first signs of a decline which has only speeded up in recent years.

Renowned 1970s record store owner turned Simple Minds manager Bruce Findlay was forced to wind down his record chain in 1980 the face of fierce competition from the new music megastores of Virgin and HMV.

"Independent record stores were in a state of flux throughout the UK and Simple Minds were starting to take off so I decided to focus my energies on music management," says Bruce, 65, who still lives in Chesser.

"However, some of the last records I sold pointed to some really interesting music on the horizon with people like Tubeway Army, Gary Numan, The Police and Blondie joining more mainstream bands like Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac and the Bee Gees. The new wave/punk scene was also starting to take off."

Edinburgh had its own new wave acts, most notably post-punk band Josef K, who are often credited with influencing a whole raft of modern acts, such as Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party.

"Our main influences in the beginning were Television and the early Talking Heads stuff," recalls one-time Josef K lead singer Paul Haig, who will release his 11th solo album later this year.

Josef K's greatest success came in late 1980 when they supported The Clash at the Odeon, when it was one of the Capital's most popular music venues.

As Haig explains though, playing alongside a wealth of local talent in the Edinburgh music scene was just as enjoyable as playing with big-name acts..

He says: "Once we gained a bit of recognition we started playing more venues such as Valentino's.

"One of the most memorable nights was when we played there in the same bill as The Fire Engines, The Scars and The Associates. I remember it was great to get that kind of exposure."

Some of the greatest bands of the early 80s were managed by Edinburgh-based figures. There was Bob Last, who managed the original line-up of the Human League, along with the Gang of Four and, later, Heaven 17, and also released singles by The Fire Engines through his Fast Product label. Another central figure was Lenny Love, who signed The Rezillos to his label, Sensible Records.

When Simple Minds started to take off, Bruce Findlay also took more bands under his wing including China Crisis, from Liverpool, and the Glasgow-based The Silencers.

Findlay adds: "There were some great Edinburgh bands around at that time.

"The Fire Engines played this really aggressive, full-on, pop/rock sound and they were the hippest band around.

"Goodbye Mr Mackenzie also came out of Bathgate in the later period and had a few minor hits - I remember one song in particular called The Rattler - but they were known as a fantastic live band.

"I think if they had formed a few years later they would have been hugely successful. "

As it stood, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's moderate success was overshadowed by the international fame of former keyboard player Shirley Manson, who went on to front Garbage in 1995, but they're still fondly remembered at home.

Former Mackenzies frontman Martin Metcalfe moved to Edinburgh in 1982 with drummer mate Derek Kelly from his hometown of Bathgate.

"There was only one nightclub in Bathgate and it played all of the usual disco garbage and maybe 15 minutes of punk if you were lucky," says Metcalfe, now with Mackenzies offshoot Isa and the Filthy Tongues, who have just released their latest single, Big Star.

"When I got to Edinburgh we had clubs like The Hoochie Coochie Club, near Tollcross, and Manifestos, which later became Fat Sam's on Fountainbridge.

"Edinburgh was in the grip of the New Romantic scene so everyone was walking round with ruffled shirts and fluffy black hair, or wearing ankle boots and sporting mullets.

"I remember big trousers were in as well. I went to see The Cure in about 1981 and Robert Smith had trousers on with a waistband that came up to his nipples.

"The music was all pretty dire but there were a few bands around like The Fire Engines, The Associates, The Au Pairs and The Pop Group who were playing this post-punk jaggedy guitar sound."

By the time keyboard players Shirley Manson and Rona Scobie came on board, they found themselves part of a string of bands, like The Smiths, who were less Day-Glo and more adolescent angst than Duran and Spandau.

"The Smiths changed my life," says bassist Fin Wilson, who joined the band in 1987.

By then the music world was about to change with the arrival of house music and the rave scene, and with it the end of shoulder pads, mullets and ripped jeans.

Until now, that is.

FEATURE: Rocking Auld Reekie

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
June 17, 2009

Led Zeppelin, U2, AC/DC, REM (not to mention Oasis's previous visits). To be crowned 'greatest' you need to hit the high notes Oasis are the biggest act to hit Edinburgh in 2009 but the Gallagher brothers will have to pull out all the stops to match the greats that have graced the Capital's venues over the years.

As Liam and Noel prepare to take to the stage at Murrayfield tonight, Mark McLaughlin asks some of the city's most notable music fans who their contender would be for the greatest gig staged in Edinburgh . . . ever

IAN RANKIN, author

"THE best gig I ever went to was probably Tom Waits at The Playhouse in 1984.

" I'd always been a big fan of his music but had never seen him live. He put on a good show. It was real vaudeville stuff. The venue was good and the sound quality was perfect.

"I also remember a lot of really intimate, sweaty gigs I went to as a student in the early 1980s, including going to see U2 just before their first album came out at an old venue in Tollcross.

"I'd never heard of them but my mate gave me a ticket and asked me to come along, and they had a real energy about them even then. They knew their stuff from a very early age, and they had the audience eating out of their hands."

FISH, former Marillion frontman

"I went to see Genesis at the Usher Hall in April 1975, at a gig which had been rescheduled from the previous year when [guitarist] Steve Hackett sliced the tendons in his hand.

"He was at an aftershow party and rumours were already circulating that Peter Gabriel was going to leave Genesis.

"Someone mentioned that the Alex Harvey Band would be nothing without Alex Harvey, alluding to the fact that Genesis would be nothing without Gabriel, and he was so incensed he crushed a wine glass in his hand and sliced it open. They rescheduled and played an amazing gig . . . and then Gabriel left them about two weeks later."

BRUCE FINDLAY, music store owner, former Simple Minds manager

"There would be three gigs I'd put up there - all at the Usher Hall. The first was The Incredible String Band in the late 1960s. They were a really folksy band, quite whimsical and not everybody's cup of tea, even though they inspired loads of acts like the Beatles and Led Zep. They weren't big pop stars, even though they were the only Scottish band to play Woodstock.

"The second gig would be Led Zep themselves in 1969. I sold 1,000 tickets at my store but there were no seller's booking fees in those days - I was rewarded with two tickets in the second row, and it was phenomenal.

"The third would be the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They really knew how to name their bands back then, but they really were sensational."

GRANT STOTT, broadcaster

"I used to be a programme seller at the Playhouse in the early 1980s, so I would see a different band every other day and it got the point where I was getting a bit blasé about it.

"That was until I saw AC/DC, and they blew me away. They played two nights in a row and I stood and watched them both.

"I wasn't into them at all before I saw them, but that night I could see that they weren't your usual heavy metal band standing thrashing away. Some of their songs were really melodic, and of course there was wee Angus [Young, guitarist] running around in his school uniform.

"I've seen the Proclaimers loads of times. For me their best gig - and one of the best I've been to - was during their Hit The Highway Tour around 1994. It's my favourite album so I enjoyed the songs.

"I also went to see Barry White at the Playhouse a few years earlier. He was such a great showman. I'm not normally one for dancing at gigs as I tend to feel a bit self-conscious, but he got everyone dancing around like mad - including me."

COUNCILLOR STEVE CARDOWNIE, city events champion

"I went to see Led Zeppelin at the King's Theatre in 1973. It was great to see them playing in such a small venue, and there were a lot of disappointed people in the city who couldn't get tickets that day.

"I remember they played Whole Lotta Love, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were just phenomenal.

"More recently I went to the Rolling Stones at Murrayfield, in 1999.

"There was a cartoon in the Evening News before the gig of them walking around on Zimmer frames, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Their set was really energetic, and packed with classics."

NOBBY CLARK, singer, the Bay City Rollers (1969-73)

"The most outstanding gig I ever saw was Pink Floyd at the Usher Hall in the mid-1970s.

"The light show was fantastic, the music was fantastic - it was just an outstanding gig all round. They had an aeroplane suspended above the balcony that descended during one of the songs and hit a big target behind the stage.

"I also went to see Alice Cooper biting the heads off chickens at the Playhouse. He had a robot on stage which he built up during one of the songs, and then he let it go and it walked around the stage.

"That concert was incredible. Quite gory - but great fun."

MARTIN METCALFE, singer/gutarist, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and Isa and the Filthy Tongues

"I've been to gigs in large venues like Murrayfield before, and I think they're really devoid of atmosphere.

"I went to see David Bowie at the Ingliston Showground in 1990, and it was all right but it wasn't great, and I also went to see Oasis at the same venue when they were really hot and on the up in 1996, but the venue ruined it for them.

"One exception was the Pixies at Meadowbank during T on the Fringe in 2005, which I thought was an amazing gig. It was a really windy day so the sound quality wasn't the best but their playing was top form. I'd been to see them about five times in the early years, and I was really surprised that singer Black Francis could still scream. I also went to see PJ Harvey at the Queen's Hall a couple of weeks ago, which I have to admit was probably one of the greatest gigs I've ever seen.

"She was playing new stuff that I'd never heard before, and it was really cinematic.

"Her voice would go from a really deep, obscene, man-like voice, to being really gentle and childlike, and then she would scream like a woman-possessed. There was something really special about it."

MARK MACKIE, director of concert promoter Regular Music EUNICE OLUMIDE, MC of hip-hop band Northernxposure

"My favourite gig was REM at the Playhouse during their Green tour in the late 1980s, when the band were at their finest. Michael Stipe stood up at a lectern in the middle of gig and started lecturing us about the evils of the Exxon company, right after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, banging his fist and ordering us to boycott a list of products made by the company."

EUNICE OLUMIDE, MC of hip-hop band Northernxposure

"I went to the last Oasis gig at Murrayfield and I thought it was absolutely amazing, even though their music's not my usual thing.

"There was this mass exodus of people heading out of the city centre to Murrayfield. I lost all of my friends and ended up standing by myself in the middle of crowd, and then the place just started going mental. I crowd-surfed to the front and met these totally random people and had a wicked time.

"I've also been to some brilliant nights at the Venue to see people like Roots Manuva, Black Twang and Estelle, which is more my kind of scene."