MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 31, 2010, Saturday
IT was a decision that split public opinion, sparked fierce debate and prompted strong displays of emotion from proud Leithers.
Should the port be merged with Edinburgh? That was the question of the day 90 years ago.
On August 3, 1920, the official answer became "yes" as the Edinburgh Boundaries Extension and Tramways Bill received Royal Assent, moving one step closer to its implementation in November of that year.
But it was not a decision ever favoured by the majority of Leithers, who in a referendum voted overwhelming 26,810 to 4340 against the planned merger with the Capital.
Despite this, they were defeated by the authorities of the day, as a decision was made to incorporate not only Leith, but Corstorphine, Colinton and Liberton into Edinburgh as officials argued it was in the public interest.
Unsurprisingly, the controversial decision still sparks debate today.
The boundaries of Leith have clearly changed dramatically over the years. Back in 1920, the borders of the new Leith local authority ward mirrored the old borders of the Municipal Borough of Leith, straddling Pilrig Street before cutting a straight line to the south-west corner of Lochend Loch and heading out to sea.
Crucially, the old borders encircled Easter Road Stadium, but by the 1950s the borders shifted up Hawkhill Avenue.
At that point, Hibernian FC ceased to be part of Leith and became part of the old Calton ward, but to its fans Hibs remained - and still remains to this day - a Leith club.
Today, it sits in the Edinburgh City Council ward of Leith Walk, well outside the heavily contracted council ward currently known as Leith.
One of Leith's most famous landmarks, the former Boundary Bar, straddled the original boundary between the port and Leith, with the official dividing line running through the middle.
Showing posts with label FEATURES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FEATURES. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
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.
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: Help For Haiti
MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 9, 2010, Friday
'IMAGINE how difficult it would be trying to run Edinburgh when all of the MSPs, councillors, and police were living in tents because their houses and offices had crumbled to the ground," says Sciennes-based charity fund-raiser John Cunningham.
"The Capital would be gone and the whole country would fall apart. There would be no food, no water, dead people piling up...and nowhere to turn for help."
This was exactly the scenario facing relief charity Mercy Corps when they landed in Haiti six months ago in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
Within hours the charity had boots on the ground offering instant aid to thousands of people, and setting up bases that would help in the reconstruction in the months ahead.
"We wouldn't have been able to do it without the support the readers of the Edinburgh Evening News," said Mr Cunningham, director of fund-raising at the charity.
Residents in the Capital raised more than GBP430,000 in the first six months of the Evening News-backed appeal, with more than half of the money spent already on Mercy Corps ongoing projects.
With the money raised Mercy Corps has been able to provide:
Mr Cunningham said: "I deliberately didn't go out there myself as it became clear that we needed someone to stay behind to coordinate the massive fund-raising effort."
However, programme officer Carrie Beaumont, 29, from Granton, was one of the people sent out. She fed regular reports back to headquarters, and the picture she painted was grim.
"All the schools in the city came down and many thousands of people were crushed," said Mr Cunningham.
"We worked closely with the United Nations [UN] but they were badly affected. Their offices collapsed and they lost a large number of their staff."
In the early days of the relief effort many non-governmental organisations [NGOs] were criticised for a reportedly poorly coordinated response to the crisis.
However, Mr Cunningham said that - from the Mercy Corps' point of view at least - this lack of coordination was a symptom of the chaos that the country was in rather than a failing of the aid effort.
Mr Cunningham is full of praise for the people of Edinburgh, who rallied round their locally-based charity to help.
"There was an instant response," he said. "Personal donations came rolling in, and we had six people manning the phones six days a week.
"Amongst the biggest responses we received was from local schools. We put together a Power Point presentation for schools showing photographs about the earthquake, and what we did to help.
"The most interesting questions we got back was from primary school children, who are a lot less reserved than secondary schools so their questions came from the heart. They asked questions like: 'Where are they living now?'; 'What do they have to eat?' and; 'Have any of them lost their arms and legs?', personal questions that many adults might be too sensitive to ask.
"Six months on, the mood in Haiti is resolute. It was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and before the earthquake many people were depressed and frustrated at the state that the country was in, but now they see it as an opportunity to rebuild the country."
Mr Cunningham pulls out a copy of Mercy Corps six-month report, and points to a quote by 23-year-old displaced student Moïse Mackendy.
"Before the earthquake I was disappointed with how things were going in Haiti, but now I understand I must be one of the people who will make Haiti different."
HONOURS FOR DONORS
03/01/10 Itihaas restaurant, Dalkeith Charity Night
16/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Bhangra Ceilidh GBP 5,200.00
17/01/10 The Rotary Club of Corstorphine Collection GBP 2,000.00
20/01/10 Raj Restaurant, The Shore Fundraising Appeal
23/01/10 Rotary Club of Currie Balerno Airport Collection
23/01/10 Living and Giving charity shop, Stockbridge Donation
27/01/10 Artemis, Melville Street Donation GBP 10,000.00
27/01/10 Zest Restaurant, St Andrew Street Charity Night GBP 610.00
27/01/10 Hair and Image for Men, Andy Murray racquet auction GBP 500.00
27/01/10 RBS / Royal Mail Brussels L'Atelier hotel fundraiser GBP 6,354.00
30/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh City Centre Collection GBP 5,665.95
31/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Jubilee Charity Fund
07/02/10 Traverse Theatre Comedy Fundraiser
07/02/10 The Queen's Hall, Clerk Street Edinburgh Bands Together for Haiti
19/02/10 Cinnamon Indian Restaurant 8.5 stone fish curry auction GBP 500.00
26/02/10 Middle East Festival Donation
28/02/10 The Queen's Hall, Clerk Street Poets For Haiti
25/03/10 HMV Picture House Edinburgh Schools Battle Of The Bands
23/04/10 Voodoo Rooms She-Bang Rave Unit
*where donations were disclosed
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 9, 2010, Friday
'IMAGINE how difficult it would be trying to run Edinburgh when all of the MSPs, councillors, and police were living in tents because their houses and offices had crumbled to the ground," says Sciennes-based charity fund-raiser John Cunningham.
"The Capital would be gone and the whole country would fall apart. There would be no food, no water, dead people piling up...and nowhere to turn for help."
This was exactly the scenario facing relief charity Mercy Corps when they landed in Haiti six months ago in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
Within hours the charity had boots on the ground offering instant aid to thousands of people, and setting up bases that would help in the reconstruction in the months ahead.
"We wouldn't have been able to do it without the support the readers of the Edinburgh Evening News," said Mr Cunningham, director of fund-raising at the charity.
Residents in the Capital raised more than GBP430,000 in the first six months of the Evening News-backed appeal, with more than half of the money spent already on Mercy Corps ongoing projects.
With the money raised Mercy Corps has been able to provide:
Mr Cunningham said: "I deliberately didn't go out there myself as it became clear that we needed someone to stay behind to coordinate the massive fund-raising effort."
However, programme officer Carrie Beaumont, 29, from Granton, was one of the people sent out. She fed regular reports back to headquarters, and the picture she painted was grim.
"All the schools in the city came down and many thousands of people were crushed," said Mr Cunningham.
"We worked closely with the United Nations [UN] but they were badly affected. Their offices collapsed and they lost a large number of their staff."
In the early days of the relief effort many non-governmental organisations [NGOs] were criticised for a reportedly poorly coordinated response to the crisis.
However, Mr Cunningham said that - from the Mercy Corps' point of view at least - this lack of coordination was a symptom of the chaos that the country was in rather than a failing of the aid effort.
Mr Cunningham is full of praise for the people of Edinburgh, who rallied round their locally-based charity to help.
"There was an instant response," he said. "Personal donations came rolling in, and we had six people manning the phones six days a week.
"Amongst the biggest responses we received was from local schools. We put together a Power Point presentation for schools showing photographs about the earthquake, and what we did to help.
"The most interesting questions we got back was from primary school children, who are a lot less reserved than secondary schools so their questions came from the heart. They asked questions like: 'Where are they living now?'; 'What do they have to eat?' and; 'Have any of them lost their arms and legs?', personal questions that many adults might be too sensitive to ask.
"Six months on, the mood in Haiti is resolute. It was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and before the earthquake many people were depressed and frustrated at the state that the country was in, but now they see it as an opportunity to rebuild the country."
Mr Cunningham pulls out a copy of Mercy Corps six-month report, and points to a quote by 23-year-old displaced student Moïse Mackendy.
"Before the earthquake I was disappointed with how things were going in Haiti, but now I understand I must be one of the people who will make Haiti different."
HONOURS FOR DONORS
03/01/10 Itihaas restaurant, Dalkeith Charity Night
16/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Bhangra Ceilidh GBP 5,200.00
17/01/10 The Rotary Club of Corstorphine Collection GBP 2,000.00
20/01/10 Raj Restaurant, The Shore Fundraising Appeal
23/01/10 Rotary Club of Currie Balerno Airport Collection
23/01/10 Living and Giving charity shop, Stockbridge Donation
27/01/10 Artemis, Melville Street Donation GBP 10,000.00
27/01/10 Zest Restaurant, St Andrew Street Charity Night GBP 610.00
27/01/10 Hair and Image for Men, Andy Murray racquet auction GBP 500.00
27/01/10 RBS / Royal Mail Brussels L'Atelier hotel fundraiser GBP 6,354.00
30/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh City Centre Collection GBP 5,665.95
31/01/10 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Jubilee Charity Fund
07/02/10 Traverse Theatre Comedy Fundraiser
07/02/10 The Queen's Hall, Clerk Street Edinburgh Bands Together for Haiti
19/02/10 Cinnamon Indian Restaurant 8.5 stone fish curry auction GBP 500.00
26/02/10 Middle East Festival Donation
28/02/10 The Queen's Hall, Clerk Street Poets For Haiti
25/03/10 HMV Picture House Edinburgh Schools Battle Of The Bands
23/04/10 Voodoo Rooms She-Bang Rave Unit
*where donations were disclosed
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 ***
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 ***
Sunday, 4 July 2010
NORWAY: "Man eating fish and sea-mammal eating men..."
MARK McLAUGHLINEvening News (Edinburgh)
2 June 2010, Friday
“I’LL have seal to start and whale for the main course,” I said to the smiling Norwegian waiter, conscious of the fact that this was a phrase I had never uttered before.
Norway is a land of firsts, a genuinely unique place where it’s possible to pack in more exclusive experiences in one long-weekend than you would probably have in a month elsewhere. Majestic landscapes, well-stocked fjords, midnight sun, quirky architecture and taboo menus and are just some of the experiences on offer in Norway this summer.
However, make no mistake that such distinctiveness comes at a price. The Arctic freezes-and-thaws that created the dramatic landscape is evidence that summer temperatures can fluctuate from below freezing to upwards of 30 degrees; the preservation of its centuries old tradition of whaling attracts persistent condemnation from conservationists; while the high taxation that maintains its efficient infrastructure means it’s a very expensive place to eat and, more especially, drink.
The extortionate price of a pint in Norway is, as my friendly tour-guide pointed out in the hope I wouldn’t mention it, probably the only thing that many booze-loving Scots know about this exciting country. However, he did point to a recent survey by Edinburgh-based flights comparison Skyscanner which found that Norway is cheaper than many popular destinations including France, Spain and Italy when factoring in a cup of coffee, beer, meal, accommodation and car hire.
I have to admit that prior to my visit in early June Norway wasn’t top of my travel plans, but after three days sampling some of the best the country has to offer I’ll definitely be back. Shortly after boarding the Wideroe plane to Bergen Airport I decided to learn my first Norwegian.
“Takk means ‘thank you’,” said the attractive blonde air hostess as she handed me a coffee (attractive blondes are an abundant feature in Norway). “Tock,” I replied, to her obvious amusement. “No, Takk!” she said, stifling her giggles. “Took!!” I attempted again before she lost interest and moved on...this was going to require some practice.
Flying over the coast of Bergen was unlike anything I have ever seen. Tiny islands dot the coastline, not so much rising from the sea as appearing to float upon it like moss on a still lake. I disembarked to the most unexpected site – sunshine – which was not entirely unsurprising in a city little more than 400 miles north-west of Edinburgh but remained most welcome on an excursion where I had been advised to pack waterproofs and sturdy shoes. The warm sunshine also allowed me to see much more of those attractive Scandinavian blondes than I had envisioned.
The climate isn’t the only similarity that Bergen shares with Edinburgh. It is home to the centuries-old trading port of Bryygen, a UNESCO World Heritage site which, like our Old Town, features row-upon-row of tightly packed medieval-style housing, but unlike the brick fortresses of the Royal Mile these houses are made out of wood, a tradition that has resulted in them being burnt-down and remade several times.
Bergen has also recently reinstated its tram network after 40 years, to a similarly mixed reception.
“The people are about 50/50 for and against it,” explained our Bergen-By-Expert history guide Eirik Brudvik. “It’s a bit like marriage. Norway has a 50 per cent divorce rate. Norwegian women are very hard to live with. Demanding...but very rewarding,” he added, with a wink.
Bergen’s most famous son is Edvard Grieg, a composer who had only crossed my consciousness as the guy who wrote the soundtrack to Alton Towers and seminal ‘80s platform game Manic Miner over a century before either had been invented. Grieg, of course, is famous for much more than my limited cultural scope and the best place to discover his legacy is at Troldhaugen, Grieg’s former home overlooking the spectacular Lake Nordas which has been preserved for posterity.
Following an overnight stay at the Bergen First Hotel Marin, it was back to the airport and onwards to Tromso, the world’s northernmost city lying 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle.
Tromso isn’t much to look at from the ground. Its architecture is largely grey and functional, with the exception of a few eccentric buildings such as the split-pyramid-shaped Arctic Cathedral and the fallen domino architecture of the Polaria aquarium. However, its real charms become apparent when either looking up at the sky, or looking down on the city from the surrounding peaks.
Tromso is a key destination for viewing two of the world’s most startling natural phenomena – 24-hour-sunshine in the summer and the eerie aurora borealis in the winter.
It is also home to some amazing restaurants including the mountaintop Fjellheisen, which is accessible only by cable-car but worth it to sample the panoramic views of Tromso harbour and perfectly cooked lamb, and the traditional Acatandria Seafood Restaurant which offers up a truly unique Norwegian menu including reindeer, seal and, most controversially, whale meat.
As a fish-allergy sufferer much of the non-mammalian menu was closed to me so it was with relatively little guilt that I took my first bite of seal, which is so abundant that their numbers are regularly culled. After sampling the seal, which tasted a little like rich bacon, I do admit to some trepidation at trying my first whale.
Whale meat tastes like an impossibly lean and tender beef steak, and it soon became clear why these animals are in such high demand in the whaling nations of Scandinavia, Russia and the Far East.
The waiter’s assurances that my minke whale came from a large extended family and was hunted sustainably, with a view to ensuring that only a few hundred more of its unlucky mates would make it onto Norwegian plates, placated my palate but my guilt soon returned when I related my dinner to some horrified friends who reminded me of the inhumane way the animals are hunted – almost exclusively from a canon-fired harpoon.
A visit to Tromso Museum further exacerbated my guilt when I was able to examine a full-size skeleton hanging from the ceiling, and discovered just how mammalian these aquatic creatures are. Its pectoral fins are powered by a five-digit paddle that looks remarkably like a large hand, while its cavernous ribcage, shoulder blades and spine resembles a scaled-up human torso. I’m clearly not the only visitor who has questioned their right to hunt these animals for food, with an interactive poll revealing that 60 per cent of English-speaking visitors would advocate a ban on whaling, compared to a moderate 45 per cent of Norwegian-speaking visitors.
Thankfully, very few whales venture into Lyngen Fjord, around two hours drive from Tromso and home to Lyngsfjord Adventure’s summer fishing expeditions, so I was spared the indignity of having to explain myself to my dinner’s buddies. However, I did encounter an altogether less-elegant but no less controversial animal.
Casting my line to the bottom of the Fjord, it wasn’t long before I felt a powerful tug on the hook. Struggling with the reel, I peered over the starboard side to come face-to-face with a grotesque grinning monster baring a fearsome looking row of teeth. The skipper immediately came to my aid warning me not to go anywhere near its mouth.
“It’s a wolf fish,” exclaimed my excited Lyngsfjord tour guide Morten Pettersen. “Its jaws have a very powerful reflex action that’ll have your hand off, even after it’s been dead for more than an hour. Very tasty though. I’ve never caught one before.”
Morten could barely contain his delight when he learned about my fish allergy and realised I wouldn’t be fighting him to take the beast home (which is prohibited anyway - or so my hungry looking guide claimed). Also, with my whale still giving me moral indigestion, I was in no hurry to sample another increasingly rare delight. The wolf fish, or seawolf, is currently listed on the US National Marine Fisheries Service’s “species of concern” list. Three days in Norway and I had already become a conservationists nightmare.
While I would have no hesitation in returning to Norway it was clearly time to leave, and thankfully the exits were clearly marked. The exit sign above the departure gate door said “Ut” – and after a weekend of high mountains, freezing fjords, man-eating fish and sea-mammal-eating men I was glad to make it “oot” alive.
• Free international flights are available to anyone buying Widerøe’s Explore Norway Ticket between June 22 and August 27 ranging from one-zone for £289; two zones £350; and all three zones, £415, with an additional week costing just £180. Children from two to 11 enjoy a 25 per cent discount when travelling with their parents or grandparents.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
FEATURE: Flesh Eating Infection And A Child Without Hope
MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
30 April 2010
Viki O'Donnell says the warning signs were there before her daughter's tragic death two days after birth.
Despite being a rare condition which is deeply frightening for the parents of newborns, most babies make a full recovery from NEC. But not all.
MARK McLAUGHLIN speaks to one mum who is still coming to terms with the death of her daughter six years on and why she is still seeking answers
'I LOOK at photos of Tilly now but I couldn't at first," says Viki O'Donnell, reflecting on the child she held for just 48 precious hours.
The photographs are now all she has of her daughter, and while she cherishes the opportunity to see her face every day, the pain that once caused her to hide the photos away has never faded.
Although Viki carried her daughter to full term, Tilly was born underweight, underdeveloped and with a range of illnesses commonly associated with premature births.
Chief among these was necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), an inflammation of the bowel that can cause its contents to leak into the abdomen.
NEC is rare in full-term babies. As Andy Cole, chief executive of Bliss, the charity for premature and sick babies, explains: "NEC is a very serious condition which most commonly affects premature babies. However, ten per cent of NEC cases are found in full-term babies. These cases are often associated with an underlying health issue. It is often difficult to diagnose but can usually be successfully treated either medically or with surgery."
Usually, but not always.
It was a cruel turn of fate for Viki, who had already seen her fair share of heartache since she learned she was pregnant in December 2003.
Viki was only 20 when she met the father of her tragically short-lived daughter on an internet chatroom earlier that year.
"I wasn't looking for a relationship," says Viki, who is now 27 and lives in Penicuik. "We were just chatting but one day he asked to meet up. I wasn't too sure but we had been chatting for a good six or seven months, so I agreed and we met on 27 September, 2003. We really hit it off.
"On 17 December that year, I found out I was pregnant. I was absolutely shocked. It obviously wasn't planned. We weren't serious about each other, we were just having fun.
"I texted him - which probably isn't the best way to tell someone they're going to be a dad - but I didn't receive a reply."
Aside from a couple of apologetic texts and a few vague promises over the term of the pregnancy, Viki never heard from the boy again.
Despite the emotional trauma of facing life as a single mother, the pregnancy went off without a hitch until about three weeks before term when she noticed a watery green discharge.
In two separate tests over the next week, nurses dismissed the greeny liquid first as normal pregnancy discharge and then thrush, but after two weeks the discharge still hadn't stopped.
"I finally got to see a doctor on 16 August, 2004 and he told me that I was 3cm dilated and that I was about to go into labour. When the baby was born, there were no waters.
"The midwife was shocked that it was a dry birth, but Tilly was crying so I thought everything was all right."
Everything was far from all right. Despite her full term, Tilly was found to have a gestation age of just 31-34 weeks and an inflammation of the bowel that required an urgent operation.
Despite the doctors' initial hopes that the operation was a success, her condition soon deteriorated.
"A nurse and two doctors came into my room," Viki continues. "They sat me down and said that they had some bad news. One doctor told me that they didn't think Tilly was going to make it. I wasn't prepared for that.
"He asked if I was in contact with Tilly's dad. I still had his mobile number, but it just went through to answer phone.
"I left him a message saying that if he wanted to see his daughter he better hurry because she was dying, but I never received a reply and he didn't make any effort to be there.
"My own midwife came in to see me and I gave her a big cuddle. I wanted my family with me to come and see Tilly before she died, but my brother-in-law only had a two-seater car so the midwife went all the way from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to the other side of Edinburgh to collect them.
"We took Tilly to be baptised and after that she passed away."
It was a devastating blow for Viki, who had to undergo counselling to come to terms with the loss and still feels aggrieved that the early warning signs she presented in the weeks before weren't picked up by the nurses.
She says: "The cause of death was put down to the hole in her bowel and necrotising enterocolitis. They did a full investigation and found that no-one was at fault, but I'm convinced that the discharge I had for weeks was my waters slowly leaking out.
"I think Tilly must have been inside me for about two weeks without any fluid, which is why she was so small when she was born because she hadn't developed properly.
"We would just like someone to turn around and say 'I'm sorry, we were wrong' but no-one admitted any fault even though I had been telling them something was wrong for weeks.
"The warning signs were there. I just want an apology."
An independent consultant was brought in to review the case and found no evidence of negligence.
The consultant stated: "Tilly had several risk factors associated with the development of NEC in a full-term baby.
"She was of low weight for her gestational age. She had polycythemia [a rare blood disorder], a recognised association of intrauterine growth restriction.
"There was also prolonged rupture of the membranes . . . I am unable to determine from the case notes whether the paediatricians who were at the delivery were aware that there was the possibility that the membranes had ruptured at 38 weeks or indeed that the obstetric and midwifery staff attending Tilly's delivery considered this likely.
"It is my opinion that Tilly's post-natal management was reasonable. The treatment was given expeditiously. I can find no evidence that failure to apply any treatment might have changed the outcome."
Six years on, NHS Lothian maintains that the treatment Tilly received after she was born was reasonable.
Maria Wilson, chief midwife at NHS Lothian, said: "I would like to express our sincere condolences to Miss O'Donnell. It is always difficult to revisit a case six years on, especially when a formal complaint has never been received. We met with Miss O'Donnell and her family at the time to discuss the circumstances in greater detail, but if any issues remain unresolved or Miss O'Donnell has any unanswered questions, we would be happy to meet with her again."
When Viki's sister Kay-Leigh had her own child, a son called Tyler, a few months later, it was a bittersweet moment for Viki.
She says: "When she had her baby I was glad it was a boy, because a girl would have reminded me too much of Tilly. Even then I couldn't go near him without feeling a lot of pain, but I had to push through it because it was important for us to bond."
It was a bond that seemed to transcend death, for Tyler didn't only bond with Viki but also with the late cousin who could have been so close but who he never got to meet.
"Tyler used to ask for Tilly when he learned to speak. He would say, 'Where's Tilly? Why can't I see her?'.
"We saw him sitting on a step one day apparently talking to himself. We asked him who he was talking to and he said, 'I'm talking to Tilly'."
WHAT IS NECROTISING ENTEROCOLITIS?
NECROTISING enterocolitis, or NEC, happens when the tissues in the intestine become inflamed and start to die. This can lead to a hole in the gut developing, allowing the contents of the intestine to leak into the abdomen and cause a serious infection.
According to Great Ormond Street Chidlren's Hospital in London, NEC can be difficult to diagnose although the condition is becoming more common - most likely because more premature babies are surviving.
Just 10 per cent of cases of NEC are found in full-term babies. Symptoms include problems feeding and a swollen and sore abdomen. NEC is the reason for most surgical emergencies in newborn babies. Operations to close the hole and remove the dead tissue take between 30 minutes and four hours. The vast majority of NEC cases are treated successfully with children going on to lead normal lives.
There is no specific support group for parents of babies with NEC but Bliss, the charity for premature and sick babies, may be able to help. Contact the national family support hotline on 0500 618140 or Bliss Scotland, PO Box 29198, Dunfermline, KY12 2BB, 0845 157 0077 or scotland@ bliss.org.uk.
Edinburgh Evening News
30 April 2010
Viki O'Donnell says the warning signs were there before her daughter's tragic death two days after birth.
Despite being a rare condition which is deeply frightening for the parents of newborns, most babies make a full recovery from NEC. But not all.
MARK McLAUGHLIN speaks to one mum who is still coming to terms with the death of her daughter six years on and why she is still seeking answers
'I LOOK at photos of Tilly now but I couldn't at first," says Viki O'Donnell, reflecting on the child she held for just 48 precious hours.
The photographs are now all she has of her daughter, and while she cherishes the opportunity to see her face every day, the pain that once caused her to hide the photos away has never faded.
Although Viki carried her daughter to full term, Tilly was born underweight, underdeveloped and with a range of illnesses commonly associated with premature births.
Chief among these was necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), an inflammation of the bowel that can cause its contents to leak into the abdomen.
NEC is rare in full-term babies. As Andy Cole, chief executive of Bliss, the charity for premature and sick babies, explains: "NEC is a very serious condition which most commonly affects premature babies. However, ten per cent of NEC cases are found in full-term babies. These cases are often associated with an underlying health issue. It is often difficult to diagnose but can usually be successfully treated either medically or with surgery."
Usually, but not always.
It was a cruel turn of fate for Viki, who had already seen her fair share of heartache since she learned she was pregnant in December 2003.
Viki was only 20 when she met the father of her tragically short-lived daughter on an internet chatroom earlier that year.
"I wasn't looking for a relationship," says Viki, who is now 27 and lives in Penicuik. "We were just chatting but one day he asked to meet up. I wasn't too sure but we had been chatting for a good six or seven months, so I agreed and we met on 27 September, 2003. We really hit it off.
"On 17 December that year, I found out I was pregnant. I was absolutely shocked. It obviously wasn't planned. We weren't serious about each other, we were just having fun.
"I texted him - which probably isn't the best way to tell someone they're going to be a dad - but I didn't receive a reply."
Aside from a couple of apologetic texts and a few vague promises over the term of the pregnancy, Viki never heard from the boy again.
Despite the emotional trauma of facing life as a single mother, the pregnancy went off without a hitch until about three weeks before term when she noticed a watery green discharge.
In two separate tests over the next week, nurses dismissed the greeny liquid first as normal pregnancy discharge and then thrush, but after two weeks the discharge still hadn't stopped.
"I finally got to see a doctor on 16 August, 2004 and he told me that I was 3cm dilated and that I was about to go into labour. When the baby was born, there were no waters.
"The midwife was shocked that it was a dry birth, but Tilly was crying so I thought everything was all right."
Everything was far from all right. Despite her full term, Tilly was found to have a gestation age of just 31-34 weeks and an inflammation of the bowel that required an urgent operation.
Despite the doctors' initial hopes that the operation was a success, her condition soon deteriorated.
"A nurse and two doctors came into my room," Viki continues. "They sat me down and said that they had some bad news. One doctor told me that they didn't think Tilly was going to make it. I wasn't prepared for that.
"He asked if I was in contact with Tilly's dad. I still had his mobile number, but it just went through to answer phone.
"I left him a message saying that if he wanted to see his daughter he better hurry because she was dying, but I never received a reply and he didn't make any effort to be there.
"My own midwife came in to see me and I gave her a big cuddle. I wanted my family with me to come and see Tilly before she died, but my brother-in-law only had a two-seater car so the midwife went all the way from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to the other side of Edinburgh to collect them.
"We took Tilly to be baptised and after that she passed away."
It was a devastating blow for Viki, who had to undergo counselling to come to terms with the loss and still feels aggrieved that the early warning signs she presented in the weeks before weren't picked up by the nurses.
She says: "The cause of death was put down to the hole in her bowel and necrotising enterocolitis. They did a full investigation and found that no-one was at fault, but I'm convinced that the discharge I had for weeks was my waters slowly leaking out.
"I think Tilly must have been inside me for about two weeks without any fluid, which is why she was so small when she was born because she hadn't developed properly.
"We would just like someone to turn around and say 'I'm sorry, we were wrong' but no-one admitted any fault even though I had been telling them something was wrong for weeks.
"The warning signs were there. I just want an apology."
An independent consultant was brought in to review the case and found no evidence of negligence.
The consultant stated: "Tilly had several risk factors associated with the development of NEC in a full-term baby.
"She was of low weight for her gestational age. She had polycythemia [a rare blood disorder], a recognised association of intrauterine growth restriction.
"There was also prolonged rupture of the membranes . . . I am unable to determine from the case notes whether the paediatricians who were at the delivery were aware that there was the possibility that the membranes had ruptured at 38 weeks or indeed that the obstetric and midwifery staff attending Tilly's delivery considered this likely.
"It is my opinion that Tilly's post-natal management was reasonable. The treatment was given expeditiously. I can find no evidence that failure to apply any treatment might have changed the outcome."
Six years on, NHS Lothian maintains that the treatment Tilly received after she was born was reasonable.
Maria Wilson, chief midwife at NHS Lothian, said: "I would like to express our sincere condolences to Miss O'Donnell. It is always difficult to revisit a case six years on, especially when a formal complaint has never been received. We met with Miss O'Donnell and her family at the time to discuss the circumstances in greater detail, but if any issues remain unresolved or Miss O'Donnell has any unanswered questions, we would be happy to meet with her again."
When Viki's sister Kay-Leigh had her own child, a son called Tyler, a few months later, it was a bittersweet moment for Viki.
She says: "When she had her baby I was glad it was a boy, because a girl would have reminded me too much of Tilly. Even then I couldn't go near him without feeling a lot of pain, but I had to push through it because it was important for us to bond."
It was a bond that seemed to transcend death, for Tyler didn't only bond with Viki but also with the late cousin who could have been so close but who he never got to meet.
"Tyler used to ask for Tilly when he learned to speak. He would say, 'Where's Tilly? Why can't I see her?'.
"We saw him sitting on a step one day apparently talking to himself. We asked him who he was talking to and he said, 'I'm talking to Tilly'."
WHAT IS NECROTISING ENTEROCOLITIS?
NECROTISING enterocolitis, or NEC, happens when the tissues in the intestine become inflamed and start to die. This can lead to a hole in the gut developing, allowing the contents of the intestine to leak into the abdomen and cause a serious infection.
According to Great Ormond Street Chidlren's Hospital in London, NEC can be difficult to diagnose although the condition is becoming more common - most likely because more premature babies are surviving.
Just 10 per cent of cases of NEC are found in full-term babies. Symptoms include problems feeding and a swollen and sore abdomen. NEC is the reason for most surgical emergencies in newborn babies. Operations to close the hole and remove the dead tissue take between 30 minutes and four hours. The vast majority of NEC cases are treated successfully with children going on to lead normal lives.
There is no specific support group for parents of babies with NEC but Bliss, the charity for premature and sick babies, may be able to help. Contact the national family support hotline on 0500 618140 or Bliss Scotland, PO Box 29198, Dunfermline, KY12 2BB, 0845 157 0077 or scotland@ bliss.org.uk.
Saturday, 13 March 2010
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.
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.
FEATURE: It's Never Too Late to get and Education
MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
5 March 2010
A mother and daughter turned to education as a way to kick-start their lives and put their troubles behind them Consigned to the scrapheap at 15, life can turn out tough for the young tearaways who leave Lothians schools with nothing. But, just like the stars of STV's new television series on adult learning, many are finding out that "It's Never Too Late" to catch up, as Mark McLaughlin reports
ONE thing is certain about Viki O'Donnell's school days: she and her teachers simply didn't see eye to eye. The former teenage tearaway and her mum Beth have different recollections today of exactly how it all ended up going so badly wrong
but both agree that those days were an unmitigated disaster.
"I was never at school," admits Viki, 27, as she recalls leaving St Augustine's High at the age of 15 after years of truancy.
"I originally went to Craigroyston but I moved school when I was 13. I was diagnosed with dyslexia so I always had trouble reading, and I was told that I was a couple of years behind the rest of the class, but I just didn't feel the teachers were giving me the support I needed, so I wanted out."
Beth, 56, remembers things differently. "The change of school was a last resort. There was just nothing I could do to get Viki to go to school. You can't drag a 13-year-old down the street by the hand and throw her into school, although I did try. I thought maybe if she went to a different school she'd take an interest."
But the truancy continued and mother and daughter soon found themselves in front of the children's panel. "They threatened to put me into care but I didn't believe them," says Viki. "I knew that it was just an empty threat."
Eventually, Viki was allowed to leave school at 15 and within a few months she left home.
"I thought I was all grown up and ready to make my way in the world," adds Viki. "I found a hostel on North Bridge that would take you in if you could prove that your parents had thrown you out, so I had to get my mum to sign a letter saying she'd disowned me.
"It was a bit unfair on her but she knew that if she didn't sign it I'd throw a tantrum, so she just let me get on with it."
Eventually, she found a flat in Davidson's Mains and took on a series of dead-end jobs, as well as volunteering for after school clubs and a disability charity.
Viki became pregnant aged 21 but her baby died at just three days old, and she spent the best part of her early 20s battling anxiety and depression.
Today, Viki has woken up to the fact that there are few prospects without qualifications. Her mother realised this many years ago, after falling into a succession of low-paid jobs when she left Queen Anne's High School, Dunfermline, at 16 with no qualifications.
Mother and daughter have both now embarked on a new life of learning together, after enrolling first on an English course equivalent to standard grade English.
"I used to hate writing at school," says Viki. "Because of my dyslexia I was scared to write because I was worried people would laugh at my spelling, but one thing my tutor has taught me is that it's not the spelling that's important but the ideas behind it. I'm not embarrassed when I misspell a word now."
Beth's experience is similar. "Most of the jobs I did throughout my life didn't involve much reading or writing," she says. "I worked in restaurants, as a live-in chambermaid at the Caledonian Hotel, and as an au pair.
"I used to shy away from any job that involved paperwork because I didn't have confidence in my reading. When I reached my 40s I started volunteering for a few charities, manning helplines.
"There was quite a bit of paperwork involved in some of these jobs, and I'd often be setting up appointments for people with difficult names, so I got used to using the phrase, 'can you spell that for me'. I'm not afraid to say that now, whereas in the past I'd be worried people would think I was stupid.
"I took a few classes to help me with the work, such as relaxation classes, and I finally realised I wasn't as stupid as people made me out to be.
"Now I enrol in any course I have time for. I've done a psychology course, a counselling course and a childcare course. I suffer from spina bifida so I doubt I'll have the energy to put all of these courses to use in the world of work, I do it for the love of learning."
Viki, meanwhile, has even embarked on creative writing. "I used to write poems when I was really depressed, and I've started writing my first book," she says proudly. "It's about a dancer in New York City who has an accident and loses her leg, and has to rebuild her life from scratch."
The story of mother and daughter rebuilding their lives is one father-of-three Steven Gaffney, 28, from Haddington, can relate to. He too is embarking on journey of personal discovery after years of jail, alcohol and drug misuse.
His problems started at school. He would regularly bunk off at Dunbar Grammar to smoke cannabis with his friends.
"My mum would get me dressed for school and off I'd go, but I would meet up with my mates and smoke weed, kick a ball around the park or go shoplifting.
"I was hauled before the children's panel a few times but I was young so I didn't realise how serious it was. I was just counting down the days until I was 16 and I could leave school."
Steven enrolled in an NC business course at Jewel & Esk Valley College but it felt like school, and his interest soon waned.
He started worked for a landfill creation company but struggled with alcohol and drugs.
His chaotic lifestyle landed him prison several times, for breach of the peace, possession of an offensive weapon as well as several charges for non-payment of fines and failure to attend court.
"I'd been wasting my life so much, and doing so many physical jobs, that I decided to sort myself out and use my intelligence for a change," he says. "I now take maths classes on a Monday morning, and English classes in the evening. Unlike some people, I'd always been able to read quite well but I never had the qualifications to prove it. You don't realise when you're younger how important that piece of paper is.
"The classes are nothing like school, where you're under pressure to learn. You walk into a friendly atmosphere where you can learn at your own pace, and you have a cup of tea and a chat in the break, and it's all really positive.
"I'm going to enrol in an access course at Newbattle Abbey College, and after two years I'll be able to enrol in university. I've not decided what I'm going to do, but there are interesting options such as history, politics or sociology.
"One job I'd really like to do is become a drug and alcohol counsellor. I think I'd be well suited to that with my background."
It's Never Too Late is on STV on Thursday at 7.30pm
FREE HELP AVAILABLE
TWENTY-THREE per cent of adults in Scotland have difficulty with reading, writing or using numbers - around 800,000 people.
As well as limiting opportunities to find a job or to get a better job, the problem can also affect personal relationships.
Many people are embarrassed to talk about it or to ask for help. The Big Plus is Scotland's campaign to promote the free help available.
When people call The Big Plus number - 0808-100 1080 - they are put in touch with tutors in their area.
The support the tutors offer is based on what the individual wants to achieve. This could be help with application forms, their kid's homework, or how to deal with household bills.
It's not like being back at school and it's not a course. It's relaxed and friendly and it can take just a couple of hours a week - which can be arranged to suit work or personal life.
Edinburgh Evening News
5 March 2010
A mother and daughter turned to education as a way to kick-start their lives and put their troubles behind them Consigned to the scrapheap at 15, life can turn out tough for the young tearaways who leave Lothians schools with nothing. But, just like the stars of STV's new television series on adult learning, many are finding out that "It's Never Too Late" to catch up, as Mark McLaughlin reports
ONE thing is certain about Viki O'Donnell's school days: she and her teachers simply didn't see eye to eye. The former teenage tearaway and her mum Beth have different recollections today of exactly how it all ended up going so badly wrong
but both agree that those days were an unmitigated disaster.
"I was never at school," admits Viki, 27, as she recalls leaving St Augustine's High at the age of 15 after years of truancy.
"I originally went to Craigroyston but I moved school when I was 13. I was diagnosed with dyslexia so I always had trouble reading, and I was told that I was a couple of years behind the rest of the class, but I just didn't feel the teachers were giving me the support I needed, so I wanted out."
Beth, 56, remembers things differently. "The change of school was a last resort. There was just nothing I could do to get Viki to go to school. You can't drag a 13-year-old down the street by the hand and throw her into school, although I did try. I thought maybe if she went to a different school she'd take an interest."
But the truancy continued and mother and daughter soon found themselves in front of the children's panel. "They threatened to put me into care but I didn't believe them," says Viki. "I knew that it was just an empty threat."
Eventually, Viki was allowed to leave school at 15 and within a few months she left home.
"I thought I was all grown up and ready to make my way in the world," adds Viki. "I found a hostel on North Bridge that would take you in if you could prove that your parents had thrown you out, so I had to get my mum to sign a letter saying she'd disowned me.
"It was a bit unfair on her but she knew that if she didn't sign it I'd throw a tantrum, so she just let me get on with it."
Eventually, she found a flat in Davidson's Mains and took on a series of dead-end jobs, as well as volunteering for after school clubs and a disability charity.
Viki became pregnant aged 21 but her baby died at just three days old, and she spent the best part of her early 20s battling anxiety and depression.
Today, Viki has woken up to the fact that there are few prospects without qualifications. Her mother realised this many years ago, after falling into a succession of low-paid jobs when she left Queen Anne's High School, Dunfermline, at 16 with no qualifications.
Mother and daughter have both now embarked on a new life of learning together, after enrolling first on an English course equivalent to standard grade English.
"I used to hate writing at school," says Viki. "Because of my dyslexia I was scared to write because I was worried people would laugh at my spelling, but one thing my tutor has taught me is that it's not the spelling that's important but the ideas behind it. I'm not embarrassed when I misspell a word now."
Beth's experience is similar. "Most of the jobs I did throughout my life didn't involve much reading or writing," she says. "I worked in restaurants, as a live-in chambermaid at the Caledonian Hotel, and as an au pair.
"I used to shy away from any job that involved paperwork because I didn't have confidence in my reading. When I reached my 40s I started volunteering for a few charities, manning helplines.
"There was quite a bit of paperwork involved in some of these jobs, and I'd often be setting up appointments for people with difficult names, so I got used to using the phrase, 'can you spell that for me'. I'm not afraid to say that now, whereas in the past I'd be worried people would think I was stupid.
"I took a few classes to help me with the work, such as relaxation classes, and I finally realised I wasn't as stupid as people made me out to be.
"Now I enrol in any course I have time for. I've done a psychology course, a counselling course and a childcare course. I suffer from spina bifida so I doubt I'll have the energy to put all of these courses to use in the world of work, I do it for the love of learning."
Viki, meanwhile, has even embarked on creative writing. "I used to write poems when I was really depressed, and I've started writing my first book," she says proudly. "It's about a dancer in New York City who has an accident and loses her leg, and has to rebuild her life from scratch."
The story of mother and daughter rebuilding their lives is one father-of-three Steven Gaffney, 28, from Haddington, can relate to. He too is embarking on journey of personal discovery after years of jail, alcohol and drug misuse.
His problems started at school. He would regularly bunk off at Dunbar Grammar to smoke cannabis with his friends.
"My mum would get me dressed for school and off I'd go, but I would meet up with my mates and smoke weed, kick a ball around the park or go shoplifting.
"I was hauled before the children's panel a few times but I was young so I didn't realise how serious it was. I was just counting down the days until I was 16 and I could leave school."
Steven enrolled in an NC business course at Jewel & Esk Valley College but it felt like school, and his interest soon waned.
He started worked for a landfill creation company but struggled with alcohol and drugs.
His chaotic lifestyle landed him prison several times, for breach of the peace, possession of an offensive weapon as well as several charges for non-payment of fines and failure to attend court.
"I'd been wasting my life so much, and doing so many physical jobs, that I decided to sort myself out and use my intelligence for a change," he says. "I now take maths classes on a Monday morning, and English classes in the evening. Unlike some people, I'd always been able to read quite well but I never had the qualifications to prove it. You don't realise when you're younger how important that piece of paper is.
"The classes are nothing like school, where you're under pressure to learn. You walk into a friendly atmosphere where you can learn at your own pace, and you have a cup of tea and a chat in the break, and it's all really positive.
"I'm going to enrol in an access course at Newbattle Abbey College, and after two years I'll be able to enrol in university. I've not decided what I'm going to do, but there are interesting options such as history, politics or sociology.
"One job I'd really like to do is become a drug and alcohol counsellor. I think I'd be well suited to that with my background."
It's Never Too Late is on STV on Thursday at 7.30pm
FREE HELP AVAILABLE
TWENTY-THREE per cent of adults in Scotland have difficulty with reading, writing or using numbers - around 800,000 people.
As well as limiting opportunities to find a job or to get a better job, the problem can also affect personal relationships.
Many people are embarrassed to talk about it or to ask for help. The Big Plus is Scotland's campaign to promote the free help available.
When people call The Big Plus number - 0808-100 1080 - they are put in touch with tutors in their area.
The support the tutors offer is based on what the individual wants to achieve. This could be help with application forms, their kid's homework, or how to deal with household bills.
It's not like being back at school and it's not a course. It's relaxed and friendly and it can take just a couple of hours a week - which can be arranged to suit work or personal life.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
FEATURE: Beggar For A Day
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
26 January 2010
As a top hotel boss claims Edinburgh is too tolerant of beggars, reporter Mark McLaughlin goes undercover to get the view from the street
'HERE you go," said the attractive young blonde as she dropped a pound in my cup and handed me a hotel chocolate.
"God bless you," I replied, feeling thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed - I had been homeless for ten minutes and had just received my first donation.
Armed with a traditional "hungry and homeless" cardboard sign, I had nervously taken to the streets to test Balmoral Hotel general manager Ivan Artolli's assertion that city is too "tolerant" of beggars.
He said they make his guests "uncomfortable" and that out of 15 European cities he has worked in, Edinburgh is the worst of for begging.
That may be true, but as I found, it is certainly not because the Capital's streets are paved with spare change.
Dozens had already hurried past without giving me a second look before the young woman dropped the first coin in my cup. Two hours later, the fruits of my labour amounted to barely GBP 3, a chocolate and a blueberry muffin.
While it may not be profitable, during my spell on the streets yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the kindness and concern showed by the people of Edinburgh. At no point was I asked to move on, or reprimanded for my activities. Other beggars left me alone.
I began by wrapping up warm, piling on the layers for what turned out, thankfully, to be a relatively mild day.
I ensured the final outer layer had a hood to hide my shame, but I was conscious of the fact that had I been on the streets for real, I would not have the luxury of a full wardrobe.
Taking up my spot outside the Balmoral, with nothing more than a flattened cardboard box for a seat, I adopted my downtrodden persona. I kept my head down, lest people guess that I was in fact well fed, well rested and pampered by the luxuries of a roof and a bed.
I had been there about 20 minutes when I was approached by a man who asked me if I had approached the council for housing. I spotted the council logo embroidered on his top.
"I'm on the housing list," I muttered. He offered to help me find somewhere quickly. ". . . with another council," I added hastily. "I just came through on the bus to make some money. I'm not from round here."
I then clocked two policemen standing by the Duke of Wellington eyeballing me, and feared I was going to be moved on, but they soon lost interest.
According to the city council, there is no specific bylaw banning begging, but aggressive beggars can still be charged with breach of the peace or causing fear and alarm. I was in no mood to be aggressive, preferring to keep my head down and let my sign do the talking.
I decided to shift and headed up to the West End, taking up a position outside Frasers where an elderly woman handed me a pound, doubling my takings.
A middle-aged couple walked by and exchanged a glance. "They're just everywhere," said the woman.
I decided to move again and parked up outside Burger King, opposite the Balmoral, where I was approached by a homeless woman called Claire.
"The Balmoral used to be all right with us," she said. "But recently the manager has started moving us on. I'm from Fife originally. I was living with a guy that used to hit me, so I moved to Edinburgh and ended up on the streets."
I later parked up on the Waverley Steps and my cup was soon rattling with small silver and coppers. Commuters, it seems, are the most generous.
After two hours on the streets I had collected a total of GBP 3.24, hardly the king's ransom that some claim the beggars make on the streets. Some say it's an easy life but in reality it's no life at all. After just a couple of hours, I felt thoroughly depressed, wretched and pathetic. Imagine how it must be for those doing it for real.
All the money Mark collected will go to housing charity Shelter.
Edinburgh Evening News
26 January 2010
As a top hotel boss claims Edinburgh is too tolerant of beggars, reporter Mark McLaughlin goes undercover to get the view from the street
'HERE you go," said the attractive young blonde as she dropped a pound in my cup and handed me a hotel chocolate.
"God bless you," I replied, feeling thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed - I had been homeless for ten minutes and had just received my first donation.
Armed with a traditional "hungry and homeless" cardboard sign, I had nervously taken to the streets to test Balmoral Hotel general manager Ivan Artolli's assertion that city is too "tolerant" of beggars.
He said they make his guests "uncomfortable" and that out of 15 European cities he has worked in, Edinburgh is the worst of for begging.
That may be true, but as I found, it is certainly not because the Capital's streets are paved with spare change.
Dozens had already hurried past without giving me a second look before the young woman dropped the first coin in my cup. Two hours later, the fruits of my labour amounted to barely GBP 3, a chocolate and a blueberry muffin.
While it may not be profitable, during my spell on the streets yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the kindness and concern showed by the people of Edinburgh. At no point was I asked to move on, or reprimanded for my activities. Other beggars left me alone.
I began by wrapping up warm, piling on the layers for what turned out, thankfully, to be a relatively mild day.
I ensured the final outer layer had a hood to hide my shame, but I was conscious of the fact that had I been on the streets for real, I would not have the luxury of a full wardrobe.
Taking up my spot outside the Balmoral, with nothing more than a flattened cardboard box for a seat, I adopted my downtrodden persona. I kept my head down, lest people guess that I was in fact well fed, well rested and pampered by the luxuries of a roof and a bed.
I had been there about 20 minutes when I was approached by a man who asked me if I had approached the council for housing. I spotted the council logo embroidered on his top.
"I'm on the housing list," I muttered. He offered to help me find somewhere quickly. ". . . with another council," I added hastily. "I just came through on the bus to make some money. I'm not from round here."
I then clocked two policemen standing by the Duke of Wellington eyeballing me, and feared I was going to be moved on, but they soon lost interest.
According to the city council, there is no specific bylaw banning begging, but aggressive beggars can still be charged with breach of the peace or causing fear and alarm. I was in no mood to be aggressive, preferring to keep my head down and let my sign do the talking.
I decided to shift and headed up to the West End, taking up a position outside Frasers where an elderly woman handed me a pound, doubling my takings.
A middle-aged couple walked by and exchanged a glance. "They're just everywhere," said the woman.
I decided to move again and parked up outside Burger King, opposite the Balmoral, where I was approached by a homeless woman called Claire.
"The Balmoral used to be all right with us," she said. "But recently the manager has started moving us on. I'm from Fife originally. I was living with a guy that used to hit me, so I moved to Edinburgh and ended up on the streets."
I later parked up on the Waverley Steps and my cup was soon rattling with small silver and coppers. Commuters, it seems, are the most generous.
After two hours on the streets I had collected a total of GBP 3.24, hardly the king's ransom that some claim the beggars make on the streets. Some say it's an easy life but in reality it's no life at all. After just a couple of hours, I felt thoroughly depressed, wretched and pathetic. Imagine how it must be for those doing it for real.
All the money Mark collected will go to housing charity Shelter.
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!".
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!".
FEATURES: Hope for Life
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
22 January 2010
IT WAS the day Anna Thomson and her fiance Garry feared they would never see.
As the childhood sweethearts walked down the aisle between seated rows of their family and friends at The George Hotel, it was hard to keep their emotions in check.
Then, Anna took Garry's hand and began the traditional vows that the couple had decided upon, only stopping after the words "in sickness and in health".
And there the vows ended. Somehow, the final words - "till death us do part" - didn't seem necessary.
Three months earlier, doctors had told Anna that she had at most two years to live, and that she may be lucky to survive more than a few months. What had begun as unexplained exhaustion in late 2007, eventually turned out to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
"It all started in my final year at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen," recalls the friendly 23-year-old.
"I was just so tired all the time. By the time I'd finished the ten-minute walk to uni I was knackered. I had to have a nap at my desk.
"I went to the doctor and she said it was probably just stress. I was in my final year at uni, preparing a dissertation and working part-time as a home-help so I could see where she was coming from, but I've been stressed before so I knew that wasn't it.
"I kept going back to her saying something was seriously wrong, but she just prescribed me anxiety tablets."
But during a visit home in early 2008, she went to see her family doctor in Edinburgh, who suspected there may be more to her illness and recommended an X-ray.
"I went back to Aberdeen and asked my doctor to schedule an X-ray but she just laughed at me and gave me more tablets."
Anna's health though was going from bad to worse and soon she had no choice but to return once more to her GP.
"I was being sick every half an hour, and the only thing that stopped the vomiting was sleep. Then I developed a rash on my leg. There was a meningitis scare at uni at the time so I went to the doctor to check it out.
"It was a different doctor this time and he told me that I didn't have meningitis, but that there was something wrong with my chest.
"He couldn't locate my heartbeat."
On 7 April 2008 Anna finally got her X-ray - and it uncovered a tumour the size of a cigarette packet nestling between her ribcage and her lung. It was so large that it had pushed her heart out of position.
"When they first told me about it they didn't say I had cancer," she goes on. "They used the name Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which I actually thought was a bug.
"They said a really high percentage of people recover from it after treatment so I didn't think it was a big deal.
"Then they started talking about chemotherapy and radiotherapy and I asked, 'isn't that what they use to treat cancer?', and they were like, 'well...yeah!'. I felt numb."
Anna went on to endure three courses of therapy in the following year, each one more painful and sickening than the last.
But each time the tumour returned, and in February last year she was presented with an agonising ultimatum.
"They offered me another course of chemo and I asked them if it was going to work this time," she says, choking back the tears. "They said I was going to die either way.
"The doctors said there was a 20 per cent chance it would work, and even if it did, the longest I would be expected to survive is two years.
"If it didn't work I was told I may only have a couple of months."
Anna went home to talk it over with Garry, 23, a music engineer, who she started seeing when they were 15-year-olds at Trinity High.
Garry took her for a picnic in the Botanics and proposed.
"I felt happy," she says. "I knew he wasn't doing it because I was dying because we'd been going out since school. It was the right time.
"I had my reservations though as we both knew there was a big chance that he would soon become a widower."
With Garry's support Anna decided to go for the last ditch chemotherapy, in the knowledge that it may do little more than fill their last few months together with yet more misery and sickness.
But then something wonderful happened.
The treatment began to work, better than anyone could have hoped, offering a glimmer of hope.
On 3 May last year, thanks to Garry's organisational work and the patience and understanding of hotel staff, they got married.
"It must have been hard for them to plan a wedding around my treatment but they were fantastic," says Anna.
"We had the ceremony and did the wedding photos, and then they scheduled time for me to go for a nap before the reception.
"We said the traditional vows but we dropped the phrase 'till death do us part', because we didn't want death to be anywhere near us that day."
Today, the couple live in Inverleith, close to the spot where Garry professed his undying love. Anna sits watching their cats Charlie and Misty chase shadows on the floor, and fidgets, dissatisfied, with her pixie-cut hair. "It's not a style I would have chosen," she admits, despite its elegance.
"My hair is still growing back from the therapy. I just want to be able to tie it up again."
It is a sign of progress though that she can style her own hair after months wearing wigs. "I've got ten, including a pink one, a short red one, a bob, a straight wig, a wavy wig and a long curly wig that I wore to my wedding," she says. "I've got a wig for every occasion."
Anna is currently enjoying the longest spell of good health she's experienced since university.
"I've been doing so well recently that my consultant says that there's a chance I could make a full recovery," she beams, with a glint of hope in her eyes.
"I don't want to say that I feel totally fine now in case something bad happens, but I don't feel sick and tired any more. I haven't had a scan in a while but the doctors said as long as I continue to feel good it's probably best to avoid it in case it throws up some bad news.
"I just want to enjoy our life together for the time being without worrying about what the future may bring."
'I THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD CAUSE, SO I WENT FOR IT'
ANNA is currently in training for Edinburgh's Cancer Research UK Race for Life on Sunday 13 June.
Race for Life 2010 is the UK's largest women-only fundraising event series where all the money raised goes to fund Cancer Research UK's life-saving work.
Anna says: "I first did the Race For Life in 2007, not long before I started getting sick strangely enough.
"I wasn't really running it with anyone in particular in mind. A few friends were doing it and I thought it was a good cause, so I went for it.
"I wanted to do it again in 2008 but I was far too sick, but I managed to walk it last year. Garry and his family came along to cheer me on, and it was a great atmosphere.
"All of the money raised through the Race For Life helps to fund research into cures. It's hard to say how the Race For Life has impacted me directly but I suppose all of the treatment I received developed as the result of research funded through charities like this."
Women in Edinburgh can enter Cancer Research UK's Race for Life at www.raceforlife.org or by calling 0871-641 1111 0871-641 1111 .
Edinburgh Evening News
22 January 2010
IT WAS the day Anna Thomson and her fiance Garry feared they would never see.
As the childhood sweethearts walked down the aisle between seated rows of their family and friends at The George Hotel, it was hard to keep their emotions in check.
Then, Anna took Garry's hand and began the traditional vows that the couple had decided upon, only stopping after the words "in sickness and in health".
And there the vows ended. Somehow, the final words - "till death us do part" - didn't seem necessary.
Three months earlier, doctors had told Anna that she had at most two years to live, and that she may be lucky to survive more than a few months. What had begun as unexplained exhaustion in late 2007, eventually turned out to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
"It all started in my final year at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen," recalls the friendly 23-year-old.
"I was just so tired all the time. By the time I'd finished the ten-minute walk to uni I was knackered. I had to have a nap at my desk.
"I went to the doctor and she said it was probably just stress. I was in my final year at uni, preparing a dissertation and working part-time as a home-help so I could see where she was coming from, but I've been stressed before so I knew that wasn't it.
"I kept going back to her saying something was seriously wrong, but she just prescribed me anxiety tablets."
But during a visit home in early 2008, she went to see her family doctor in Edinburgh, who suspected there may be more to her illness and recommended an X-ray.
"I went back to Aberdeen and asked my doctor to schedule an X-ray but she just laughed at me and gave me more tablets."
Anna's health though was going from bad to worse and soon she had no choice but to return once more to her GP.
"I was being sick every half an hour, and the only thing that stopped the vomiting was sleep. Then I developed a rash on my leg. There was a meningitis scare at uni at the time so I went to the doctor to check it out.
"It was a different doctor this time and he told me that I didn't have meningitis, but that there was something wrong with my chest.
"He couldn't locate my heartbeat."
On 7 April 2008 Anna finally got her X-ray - and it uncovered a tumour the size of a cigarette packet nestling between her ribcage and her lung. It was so large that it had pushed her heart out of position.
"When they first told me about it they didn't say I had cancer," she goes on. "They used the name Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which I actually thought was a bug.
"They said a really high percentage of people recover from it after treatment so I didn't think it was a big deal.
"Then they started talking about chemotherapy and radiotherapy and I asked, 'isn't that what they use to treat cancer?', and they were like, 'well...yeah!'. I felt numb."
Anna went on to endure three courses of therapy in the following year, each one more painful and sickening than the last.
But each time the tumour returned, and in February last year she was presented with an agonising ultimatum.
"They offered me another course of chemo and I asked them if it was going to work this time," she says, choking back the tears. "They said I was going to die either way.
"The doctors said there was a 20 per cent chance it would work, and even if it did, the longest I would be expected to survive is two years.
"If it didn't work I was told I may only have a couple of months."
Anna went home to talk it over with Garry, 23, a music engineer, who she started seeing when they were 15-year-olds at Trinity High.
Garry took her for a picnic in the Botanics and proposed.
"I felt happy," she says. "I knew he wasn't doing it because I was dying because we'd been going out since school. It was the right time.
"I had my reservations though as we both knew there was a big chance that he would soon become a widower."
With Garry's support Anna decided to go for the last ditch chemotherapy, in the knowledge that it may do little more than fill their last few months together with yet more misery and sickness.
But then something wonderful happened.
The treatment began to work, better than anyone could have hoped, offering a glimmer of hope.
On 3 May last year, thanks to Garry's organisational work and the patience and understanding of hotel staff, they got married.
"It must have been hard for them to plan a wedding around my treatment but they were fantastic," says Anna.
"We had the ceremony and did the wedding photos, and then they scheduled time for me to go for a nap before the reception.
"We said the traditional vows but we dropped the phrase 'till death do us part', because we didn't want death to be anywhere near us that day."
Today, the couple live in Inverleith, close to the spot where Garry professed his undying love. Anna sits watching their cats Charlie and Misty chase shadows on the floor, and fidgets, dissatisfied, with her pixie-cut hair. "It's not a style I would have chosen," she admits, despite its elegance.
"My hair is still growing back from the therapy. I just want to be able to tie it up again."
It is a sign of progress though that she can style her own hair after months wearing wigs. "I've got ten, including a pink one, a short red one, a bob, a straight wig, a wavy wig and a long curly wig that I wore to my wedding," she says. "I've got a wig for every occasion."
Anna is currently enjoying the longest spell of good health she's experienced since university.
"I've been doing so well recently that my consultant says that there's a chance I could make a full recovery," she beams, with a glint of hope in her eyes.
"I don't want to say that I feel totally fine now in case something bad happens, but I don't feel sick and tired any more. I haven't had a scan in a while but the doctors said as long as I continue to feel good it's probably best to avoid it in case it throws up some bad news.
"I just want to enjoy our life together for the time being without worrying about what the future may bring."
'I THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD CAUSE, SO I WENT FOR IT'
ANNA is currently in training for Edinburgh's Cancer Research UK Race for Life on Sunday 13 June.
Race for Life 2010 is the UK's largest women-only fundraising event series where all the money raised goes to fund Cancer Research UK's life-saving work.
Anna says: "I first did the Race For Life in 2007, not long before I started getting sick strangely enough.
"I wasn't really running it with anyone in particular in mind. A few friends were doing it and I thought it was a good cause, so I went for it.
"I wanted to do it again in 2008 but I was far too sick, but I managed to walk it last year. Garry and his family came along to cheer me on, and it was a great atmosphere.
"All of the money raised through the Race For Life helps to fund research into cures. It's hard to say how the Race For Life has impacted me directly but I suppose all of the treatment I received developed as the result of research funded through charities like this."
Women in Edinburgh can enter Cancer Research UK's Race for Life at www.raceforlife.org or by calling 0871-641 1111 0871-641 1111 .
FEATURE: The Torso Murder
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
15 January 2010
When the scattered parts of a woman's body were discovered around the city, Edinburgh's murder squad swung into action. In the last of our series on Lothian murders, MARK McLAUGHLIN looks at how city police tackled one of their toughest cases - the Torso Murder
In one of the most gruesome cases Edinburgh's police have faced, it came down to inter-force cooperation to finally solve the Torso Murder
BACK in the 1960s, deep in the bowels of police HQ on the High Street was a basement office with a makeshift sign reading "Murder Squad" sticky-taped to the door.
"They are too busy for the niceties of interior decoration," observed an Evening News reporter as he made his way down those "bleak tunnels" to the office manned by Edinburgh CID's major incident team. In 1969 they were indeed very busy - as those officers began one of the biggest inquiries Scotland has ever seen.
On 24 March 1969 a railway plate layer examining the track under a flyover in Broomhall found a partially stockinged leg wrapped in a brown paper parcel. Within the hour the Murder Squad, led by Detective Superintendent Ronald Clancy, was on the scene.
Nine hours later, another horrifying discovery was made. A second leg was found after a woman reported a parcel lying in the Water of Leith in Balerno.
Det Supt Clancy informed the press: "We are treating this as a murder inquiry".
Every police force in Britain was ordered to check their files for missing women. Police leave was cancelled, forensic "battle wagons" were primed, frogmen were drafted in to search the length of the Water of Leith, bricks were thrown from bridges to estimate the trajectory of hurled body parts and locals were put on alert for any more suspicious parcels.
It was one of the most curious as well as grisly cases in Scottish history and Det Supt Clancy, the man in charge of the investigation, had been head of Edinburgh CID for less than a year when the case landed on his desk. However, the man described as a "lean, ebullient ex-Londoner" had been 22 years with Edinburgh Police, 18 of them as a detective, and he had very clear ideas about how the investigation should proceed.
"You've got to keep basic facts in mind," said Clancy. "Maybe it sounds a bit Irish, but this woman belonged somewhere. That is the starting point.
"You can get lost in theories. Two and two can make anything you want if you care to think about it for long enough. A policeman's experience tells you this. No - we are probing facts. Realities."
To that end, the foreshore at Leith and Cramond was searched, the Union Canal dredged, extra police were drafted in to scour the Water of Leith westward of Balerno bridge and the River Almond, and railway wagons and abandoned cars were investigated - but the reality, by the end of the first month, was that little progress had been made.
Blood-stained clothing found in Dalry, a package in Slateford, a parcel of clothes found at Dunblane Station and reports of a severed hand in Aberdeenshire all proved to be red herrings.
An appeal was screened at 29 cinemas across the Lothians and police even started asking children to look out for body parts while out during the Easter break. At the end of the holidays a fresh appeal was put out to returning university students who, in the days before 24-hour news channels, may not have heard the news.
As the weeks passed, the lack of any new information led police to fear that locals were afraid of being branded "busy-bodies" for coming forward. An increasingly frustrated Clancy identified a further 20,000 households for questioning and vowed to spend the next 30 years knocking on doors. He said: "I don't care if we get only two houses a day done but the investigations must be thorough".
However, it would ultimately fall to another force to put together the last few pieces of the gruesome jigsaw.
By 16 April, 32-year-old Elizabeth Keenan from Lanark had not been seen for nearly a month. Edinburgh Police maintained that Mrs Keenan was just one of the 500-plus missing women reported to them in their hunt to identify the body parts, but their counterparts in Lanarkshire had already formed suspicions about Mrs Keenan's husband James, who didn't report her disappearance for five days and only came forward when the severed legs were found 30 miles from his home.
The breakthrough came on 2 May, 1969, when a travelling scrap metal dealer William Townsley, 35, found the torso, with arms and hands still attached, of a woman in woods on the site of a former PoW camp about a mile from Thankerton village in Lanarkshire.
Chief Superintendent William Muncie, head of Lanarkshire CID, confirmed that they were exploring the possibility that the body parts may belong to Elizabeth Keenan. The fingerprints quickly confirmed their fears and her husband was arrested.
The following day, Mrs Keenan's head was recovered one mile east of the Lanarkshire village of Carnwath and her husband James Joseph Keenan, 34, a lorry driver's mate, was led under cover of a blanket from police cells to Lanark Sheriff Court, where he was charged with Elizabeth's murder.
After 44 days of intense police inquiries it took Muncie just a few hours to break Keenan down to a confession.
Keenan told how on 19 March he had killed his wife with an axe and sawed her body into several pieces.
Working behind curtains he washed his axe and hacksaw, scrubbed the blood-stained house, parcelled up the body in separate blankets and put them in the boot of his car. Eighty miles and four stops later the head, torso and both legs were scattered throughout south-east Scotland.
For the next month and a half Keenan carried on as if nothing had happened. He concocted a story that his wife had run away to London after a row, and he continued to drink and play dominoes in the local pub.
Realising that he had to keep up the pretence of the concerned husband, he helped organise a nationwide appeal to find his wife and told friends that he hoped the body parts didn't belong to Elizabeth.
However, by the time her torso was discovered there was a large body of evidence against him.
Remnants of the blankets that were wrapped around the body parts matched another blanket produced by Mrs Keenan's mother, and police found woollen fibres that matched Keenan's clothes.
In his confession Keenan told how he killed his wife because she threatened to leave him and take their daughter away.
The couple met at a dance hall in 1955, when Elizabeth was just 15, and within two years they were married. Neighbours described them as "a couple of lovebirds" but Elizabeth had difficulty conceiving and had to have several operations to help her get pregnant. Their one and only child Veronica Jane was eventually born in early 1968.
However, by that time the relationship was turning sour and rumours abounded that James was having an affair - or was at least hoping for one - with a pretty young clerk named Ray Shankley.
Following Keenan's arrest Miss Shankley strenuously denied the gossip. She said: "There was no suggestion of having a relationship. He did write to me once. He wanted to make more of the situation and I said no."
Friends described how Keenan was known as Mr Kindness - for his efforts to win friends by offering lifts and odd-jobs around town - and Tarzan, for his love of fitness and bodybuilding.
Despite his 5'1" frame Keenan's friends also described him as "small but tremendously strong" and said his biggest ambition in life was "to be a big man".
Keenan's head barely reached above the dock when he appeared at Lanark Sheriff Court on 27 May, 1969 and pleaded guilty to murdering his wife. A week later he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Senior Advocate-Depute Ronald King Murray QC said the conviction was "brought home by very thorough and painstaking police inquiries".
The Torso Murder was the most gruesome case Edinburgh police had been involved in for decades but it would not be the last time they would be called upon to hunt for discarded body parts.
In 2003, schoolteacher Alan Wilson, 51, was hacked up by former friend Ian Sutherland and dumped in a Merchiston garden. Sutherland was convicted of murder in 2004 and is currently serving life. On Hogmanay last year the head of 44-year-old Heather Stacey was discovered on a path in Hawthornevale. A man is currently awaiting trial charged with her murder.
However, the Torso Murder of 1969 has a special place in Edinburgh lore, according to an Evening News editorial of the day, "not only because it was a particularly gruesome crime but because the subsequent investigation was a model of cooperation between different police forces, forensic experts and the public".
TIMELINE
19 March 69 Last known sighting of Elizabeth Keenan
24 March 69 Two severed legs found in Broomhall and Balerno
2 May 69 Torso of a woman found in the woods near Thankerton village in Lanarkshire. Fingerprints confirm identify it as the remains of Elizabeth Keenan. Husband James Keenan arrested
3 May 69 Mrs Keenan's head is recovered close to Carnwath in Lanarkshire. James Keenan is charged with Elizabeth's murder
10 May 69 Keenan makes second court appearance
27 May 69 James Keenan pleads guilty to killing his wife with an axe, chopping her up with a hacksaw and distributing her body throughout south east Scotland
4 June 69 Keenan is sentenced to life imprisonment
Edinburgh Evening News
15 January 2010
When the scattered parts of a woman's body were discovered around the city, Edinburgh's murder squad swung into action. In the last of our series on Lothian murders, MARK McLAUGHLIN looks at how city police tackled one of their toughest cases - the Torso Murder
In one of the most gruesome cases Edinburgh's police have faced, it came down to inter-force cooperation to finally solve the Torso Murder
BACK in the 1960s, deep in the bowels of police HQ on the High Street was a basement office with a makeshift sign reading "Murder Squad" sticky-taped to the door.
"They are too busy for the niceties of interior decoration," observed an Evening News reporter as he made his way down those "bleak tunnels" to the office manned by Edinburgh CID's major incident team. In 1969 they were indeed very busy - as those officers began one of the biggest inquiries Scotland has ever seen.
On 24 March 1969 a railway plate layer examining the track under a flyover in Broomhall found a partially stockinged leg wrapped in a brown paper parcel. Within the hour the Murder Squad, led by Detective Superintendent Ronald Clancy, was on the scene.
Nine hours later, another horrifying discovery was made. A second leg was found after a woman reported a parcel lying in the Water of Leith in Balerno.
Det Supt Clancy informed the press: "We are treating this as a murder inquiry".
Every police force in Britain was ordered to check their files for missing women. Police leave was cancelled, forensic "battle wagons" were primed, frogmen were drafted in to search the length of the Water of Leith, bricks were thrown from bridges to estimate the trajectory of hurled body parts and locals were put on alert for any more suspicious parcels.
It was one of the most curious as well as grisly cases in Scottish history and Det Supt Clancy, the man in charge of the investigation, had been head of Edinburgh CID for less than a year when the case landed on his desk. However, the man described as a "lean, ebullient ex-Londoner" had been 22 years with Edinburgh Police, 18 of them as a detective, and he had very clear ideas about how the investigation should proceed.
"You've got to keep basic facts in mind," said Clancy. "Maybe it sounds a bit Irish, but this woman belonged somewhere. That is the starting point.
"You can get lost in theories. Two and two can make anything you want if you care to think about it for long enough. A policeman's experience tells you this. No - we are probing facts. Realities."
To that end, the foreshore at Leith and Cramond was searched, the Union Canal dredged, extra police were drafted in to scour the Water of Leith westward of Balerno bridge and the River Almond, and railway wagons and abandoned cars were investigated - but the reality, by the end of the first month, was that little progress had been made.
Blood-stained clothing found in Dalry, a package in Slateford, a parcel of clothes found at Dunblane Station and reports of a severed hand in Aberdeenshire all proved to be red herrings.
An appeal was screened at 29 cinemas across the Lothians and police even started asking children to look out for body parts while out during the Easter break. At the end of the holidays a fresh appeal was put out to returning university students who, in the days before 24-hour news channels, may not have heard the news.
As the weeks passed, the lack of any new information led police to fear that locals were afraid of being branded "busy-bodies" for coming forward. An increasingly frustrated Clancy identified a further 20,000 households for questioning and vowed to spend the next 30 years knocking on doors. He said: "I don't care if we get only two houses a day done but the investigations must be thorough".
However, it would ultimately fall to another force to put together the last few pieces of the gruesome jigsaw.
By 16 April, 32-year-old Elizabeth Keenan from Lanark had not been seen for nearly a month. Edinburgh Police maintained that Mrs Keenan was just one of the 500-plus missing women reported to them in their hunt to identify the body parts, but their counterparts in Lanarkshire had already formed suspicions about Mrs Keenan's husband James, who didn't report her disappearance for five days and only came forward when the severed legs were found 30 miles from his home.
The breakthrough came on 2 May, 1969, when a travelling scrap metal dealer William Townsley, 35, found the torso, with arms and hands still attached, of a woman in woods on the site of a former PoW camp about a mile from Thankerton village in Lanarkshire.
Chief Superintendent William Muncie, head of Lanarkshire CID, confirmed that they were exploring the possibility that the body parts may belong to Elizabeth Keenan. The fingerprints quickly confirmed their fears and her husband was arrested.
The following day, Mrs Keenan's head was recovered one mile east of the Lanarkshire village of Carnwath and her husband James Joseph Keenan, 34, a lorry driver's mate, was led under cover of a blanket from police cells to Lanark Sheriff Court, where he was charged with Elizabeth's murder.
After 44 days of intense police inquiries it took Muncie just a few hours to break Keenan down to a confession.
Keenan told how on 19 March he had killed his wife with an axe and sawed her body into several pieces.
Working behind curtains he washed his axe and hacksaw, scrubbed the blood-stained house, parcelled up the body in separate blankets and put them in the boot of his car. Eighty miles and four stops later the head, torso and both legs were scattered throughout south-east Scotland.
For the next month and a half Keenan carried on as if nothing had happened. He concocted a story that his wife had run away to London after a row, and he continued to drink and play dominoes in the local pub.
Realising that he had to keep up the pretence of the concerned husband, he helped organise a nationwide appeal to find his wife and told friends that he hoped the body parts didn't belong to Elizabeth.
However, by the time her torso was discovered there was a large body of evidence against him.
Remnants of the blankets that were wrapped around the body parts matched another blanket produced by Mrs Keenan's mother, and police found woollen fibres that matched Keenan's clothes.
In his confession Keenan told how he killed his wife because she threatened to leave him and take their daughter away.
The couple met at a dance hall in 1955, when Elizabeth was just 15, and within two years they were married. Neighbours described them as "a couple of lovebirds" but Elizabeth had difficulty conceiving and had to have several operations to help her get pregnant. Their one and only child Veronica Jane was eventually born in early 1968.
However, by that time the relationship was turning sour and rumours abounded that James was having an affair - or was at least hoping for one - with a pretty young clerk named Ray Shankley.
Following Keenan's arrest Miss Shankley strenuously denied the gossip. She said: "There was no suggestion of having a relationship. He did write to me once. He wanted to make more of the situation and I said no."
Friends described how Keenan was known as Mr Kindness - for his efforts to win friends by offering lifts and odd-jobs around town - and Tarzan, for his love of fitness and bodybuilding.
Despite his 5'1" frame Keenan's friends also described him as "small but tremendously strong" and said his biggest ambition in life was "to be a big man".
Keenan's head barely reached above the dock when he appeared at Lanark Sheriff Court on 27 May, 1969 and pleaded guilty to murdering his wife. A week later he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Senior Advocate-Depute Ronald King Murray QC said the conviction was "brought home by very thorough and painstaking police inquiries".
The Torso Murder was the most gruesome case Edinburgh police had been involved in for decades but it would not be the last time they would be called upon to hunt for discarded body parts.
In 2003, schoolteacher Alan Wilson, 51, was hacked up by former friend Ian Sutherland and dumped in a Merchiston garden. Sutherland was convicted of murder in 2004 and is currently serving life. On Hogmanay last year the head of 44-year-old Heather Stacey was discovered on a path in Hawthornevale. A man is currently awaiting trial charged with her murder.
However, the Torso Murder of 1969 has a special place in Edinburgh lore, according to an Evening News editorial of the day, "not only because it was a particularly gruesome crime but because the subsequent investigation was a model of cooperation between different police forces, forensic experts and the public".
TIMELINE
19 March 69 Last known sighting of Elizabeth Keenan
24 March 69 Two severed legs found in Broomhall and Balerno
2 May 69 Torso of a woman found in the woods near Thankerton village in Lanarkshire. Fingerprints confirm identify it as the remains of Elizabeth Keenan. Husband James Keenan arrested
3 May 69 Mrs Keenan's head is recovered close to Carnwath in Lanarkshire. James Keenan is charged with Elizabeth's murder
10 May 69 Keenan makes second court appearance
27 May 69 James Keenan pleads guilty to killing his wife with an axe, chopping her up with a hacksaw and distributing her body throughout south east Scotland
4 June 69 Keenan is sentenced to life imprisonment
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
FEATURE: The Most Stylish Woman in Edinburgh?
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
17 November 2009
This article is proof that could make a Grazia style writer one day. After the week I've had putting corsages on Christmas trees and writing about handbags I really need some beer, steak and football.
SHE'S living proof that it can pay to get dressed to the nines for an afternoon stroll.
When Megan Cunningham pulled on her leather-look leggings, strappy shoes and exclusive Alexander McQueen scarf for an afternoon's shopping on Princes Street, she turned some very influential heads.
The 20-year-old hairdressers' receptionist from Morningside has just been voted one of Britain's most stylish women, following a chance encounter with women's magazine Grazia.
The glossy sent a team of "style hunters" to 11 UK cities in August, and Edinburgh hunters were won over by Megan's bold but understated style.
Megan, who works at Cheynes hairdressers in Bruntsfield, said: "It was completely random. They just came up to me and started asking questions about my look, and taking some photographs.
"I thought it was just market research but I was surprised when they called me two months later and said I'd made it through to the regional finals of a competition and had to get people to vote for me.
"I didn't expect to win. People always say that while I look really glamorous I wear too much black, but I think it looks good on me."
The former James Gillespie's girl was inspired by her mum Donna, 46, a Standard Life receptionist, particularly in the shoulder-padded Warehouse top she was sporting on the day.
She said: "I love shoulder pads. I used to laugh at pictures of my mum in the 1980s but they're totally back in fashion.
"The rest of my outfit was quite simple.
I like to call the bag I'm carrying 'vintage Warehouse' because I bought it so long ago but I still use it all the time.
"I did get some really negative comments on the website about the leggings. A lot of people said they looked trashy and cheapened the outfit, but everyone's got different tastes, I suppose.
"While most of her outfit is high street fashion, the genuine Alexander McQueen scarf would normally set you back more than £350.
Megan added: "My cousin brought it back from the States. It was only £120."
The 11 winners of the first Grazia Style Hunter Awards are featured in today's Grazia.
Grazia's Editor-in-chief Jane Bruton said: "We were overwhelmed by the number of super-stylish women we discovered and Megan is an outstanding and well-deserved winner."
Edinburgh Evening News
17 November 2009
This article is proof that could make a Grazia style writer one day. After the week I've had putting corsages on Christmas trees and writing about handbags I really need some beer, steak and football.
SHE'S living proof that it can pay to get dressed to the nines for an afternoon stroll.
When Megan Cunningham pulled on her leather-look leggings, strappy shoes and exclusive Alexander McQueen scarf for an afternoon's shopping on Princes Street, she turned some very influential heads.
The 20-year-old hairdressers' receptionist from Morningside has just been voted one of Britain's most stylish women, following a chance encounter with women's magazine Grazia.
The glossy sent a team of "style hunters" to 11 UK cities in August, and Edinburgh hunters were won over by Megan's bold but understated style.
Megan, who works at Cheynes hairdressers in Bruntsfield, said: "It was completely random. They just came up to me and started asking questions about my look, and taking some photographs.
"I thought it was just market research but I was surprised when they called me two months later and said I'd made it through to the regional finals of a competition and had to get people to vote for me.
"I didn't expect to win. People always say that while I look really glamorous I wear too much black, but I think it looks good on me."
The former James Gillespie's girl was inspired by her mum Donna, 46, a Standard Life receptionist, particularly in the shoulder-padded Warehouse top she was sporting on the day.
She said: "I love shoulder pads. I used to laugh at pictures of my mum in the 1980s but they're totally back in fashion.
"The rest of my outfit was quite simple.
I like to call the bag I'm carrying 'vintage Warehouse' because I bought it so long ago but I still use it all the time.
"I did get some really negative comments on the website about the leggings. A lot of people said they looked trashy and cheapened the outfit, but everyone's got different tastes, I suppose.
"While most of her outfit is high street fashion, the genuine Alexander McQueen scarf would normally set you back more than £350.
Megan added: "My cousin brought it back from the States. It was only £120."
The 11 winners of the first Grazia Style Hunter Awards are featured in today's Grazia.
Grazia's Editor-in-chief Jane Bruton said: "We were overwhelmed by the number of super-stylish women we discovered and Megan is an outstanding and well-deserved winner."
Monday, 16 November 2009
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
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: Gift Wrapping Boot Camp
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
13 November 2009
This was genuninely the most stressful story I've written this year. Despite an intense gift wrapping boot camp I'll still be mummifying my mum's perfume
'NOOOO!" shrieks the elegant woman as she pulls my fingers away before they and the sticky tape I'm holding can do any damage.
We are in Jenners, that grand dame of retailing in Edinburgh, and I'm brandishing a large strip of Sellotape, which could cause trouble if I was about to stick it on a designer mohair jumper, but as I'm wrapping a Christmas present, it's not the reaction I'd expect.
Mummifying my mum's bottle of perfume with Sellotape has always been part of my traditional festive build-up. I think I'd describe my method of gift- wrapping as "abstract".
Apparently, too much sticky tape isn't just a festive faux pas though, as Jane Hardie, of Jenners' gift wrapping service, explains: "One of the major sins of gift wrapping is covering your nicely folded paper in ugly strips of Sellotape."
A sin? Yikes! Well, Christmas is all about religion, I suppose, so I'd better listen up.
I'm in Jenners because the store is offering Christmas master-classes for anyone that doesn't know their bows from their baubles. The focus is firmly on all things festive and shoppers can learn how to dress the perfect dinner table, decorate the perfect tree, cook the perfect turkey, wrap a wonderful gift and how to dress to impress as the perfect host or hostess.
It seems it's the male of the species who may benefit the most from such expert advice.
"Men's lack of Christmas decoration skills probably stems from their student or bachelor days," explains Jenners' visual merchandiser Ewan Carmichael as he places an ornate golden corsage in the centre of his beautifully decorated tree.
"When you're a young guy you don't tend to bother with all the frills of Christmas as long as you've got a couple of cans of lager in the fridge, but it can pay off knowing how to spruce the place up in time for Christmas.
"It could be a chance to impress the new girlfriend and show off your sensitive side by bringing her home to a flat with a well decorated tree, a well set table and presenting her with beautifully wrapped presents."
So learning where to place my baubles could improve my pulling power? Hmmm.
But first there's that present to finish. "Gift wrapping isn't just something to throw round your presents like chip paper. They've got to sit in your living room for a couple of weeks in the run-up to Christmas so you want them to look nice," says Jane, as I learn to disguise that sinful sticky tape - double-sided is best but you can fold a piece of ordinary tape over to stick down the edges.
I didn't mention that I generally use a ready-made bow with more dreaded Sellotape when Jane moves on to the ribbon.
"I've been to crime scenes that have been less stressful," I tell Jane as I tie myself in more knots than the bow as I try to create something presentable. I think I've pulled it off.
"Beautiful," says Jane, to my visible relief - but my work is not yet done. I've got the Christmas tree to decorate now.
"Decorating the tree is not as straightforward as some people think," he tells me. Great!
"The first thing that goes on is the lights and it's important to start from the bottom and work your way up. A common mistake is starting from the top and finding that you've run out of wire half way down the tree." I want to ask what happens if you run out of wire halfway up the tree. But I don't.
"Also, the choice of lights is quite important. If you have a tree in the lounge you're not going to want dazzling flashing lights in the corner of the room as this could easily get on your nerves by the time Christmas arrives, so you might want something more subtle.
"On the other hand, if you keep your tree in the hall you might want something a bit more flashy to impress the visitors when they arrive."
Jenners has a Christmas tree starter pack for around GBP 80 that has everything you need to get your first stars and baubles on the tree, but it can take years to build up a decent collection of decorations.
"The most important thing is to personalise your tree," adds Ewan. "You don't just want an identikit tree that you would see in a shop window."
With that advice in mind I set about decorating my tree - a 6ft artificial pine.
Within half an hour my lights are twinkling, my baubles and white roses are in position and my golden corsage has pride of place at the front.
"That's not a bad job," said Ewan. "You've still got one decorative white rose left though. Perhaps you could wear it in your hair on Christmas morning?" Perhaps not, Ewan.
Christmas, Jenners-style, two-thirds done. I just had the Christmas table to tackle, which is always a challenge.
"You should always make room for everything you need at the Christmas table because the last thing you want to do in the middle of Christmas dinner is keep getting up to fetch things," said visual merchandiser Ruth Kennedy.
"This is where a centrepiece can serve a really useful purpose. Some people might think the centrepiece is just there to be decorative, but what it's actually doing is saving the space for the food to arrive.
"When the turkey is ready the centrepiece is removed and the bird and trimmings take pride of place at the centre of the table."
"Overall," she adds, "it's important to keep all of the colours matching or complimentary, with reds and greens the traditional colours of Christmas."
I get the impression my safe default attire of "all black" won't cut it as a Christmas colour scheme, which is a shame as I could have saved myself even more time by keeping the Hallowe'en decor up.
So, having invested in some festive red and green tablecloths, I'm now fully prepared for an elegant and tastefully decorated Christmas. All I need is a guest list - sadly something Jenners can't help me with.
Oh well, there's always a catch.
Top Ten Tips
1 Arrange the tree lights from the bottom up to ensure you've got enough length to reach the socket.
2 Start with the biggest tree baubles first andwork downto fill in all of the empty gaps.
3 Don't be afraid to personalise your tree with tasteful homemade baubles.
4 Have a sharp pair of scissors to hand on gift-wrapping day.
5 Size your paper first before you start to wrap.
6 Keep your folds neat andmake a quarter-inch seamon rough edges to keep them straight.
7 Use double sided or folded tape to stick your folds on the inside. Never cover your parcel in tape.
8 Use matching colour-schemes for your Christmas table-cloths and napkins.
9 Cover mismatched chairs with matching material, bows and ribbons to give them a uniform feel.
10 Create or invest in a Christmas centrepiece to put on the table
Edinburgh Evening News
13 November 2009
This was genuninely the most stressful story I've written this year. Despite an intense gift wrapping boot camp I'll still be mummifying my mum's perfume
'NOOOO!" shrieks the elegant woman as she pulls my fingers away before they and the sticky tape I'm holding can do any damage.
We are in Jenners, that grand dame of retailing in Edinburgh, and I'm brandishing a large strip of Sellotape, which could cause trouble if I was about to stick it on a designer mohair jumper, but as I'm wrapping a Christmas present, it's not the reaction I'd expect.
Mummifying my mum's bottle of perfume with Sellotape has always been part of my traditional festive build-up. I think I'd describe my method of gift- wrapping as "abstract".
Apparently, too much sticky tape isn't just a festive faux pas though, as Jane Hardie, of Jenners' gift wrapping service, explains: "One of the major sins of gift wrapping is covering your nicely folded paper in ugly strips of Sellotape."
A sin? Yikes! Well, Christmas is all about religion, I suppose, so I'd better listen up.
I'm in Jenners because the store is offering Christmas master-classes for anyone that doesn't know their bows from their baubles. The focus is firmly on all things festive and shoppers can learn how to dress the perfect dinner table, decorate the perfect tree, cook the perfect turkey, wrap a wonderful gift and how to dress to impress as the perfect host or hostess.
It seems it's the male of the species who may benefit the most from such expert advice.
"Men's lack of Christmas decoration skills probably stems from their student or bachelor days," explains Jenners' visual merchandiser Ewan Carmichael as he places an ornate golden corsage in the centre of his beautifully decorated tree.
"When you're a young guy you don't tend to bother with all the frills of Christmas as long as you've got a couple of cans of lager in the fridge, but it can pay off knowing how to spruce the place up in time for Christmas.
"It could be a chance to impress the new girlfriend and show off your sensitive side by bringing her home to a flat with a well decorated tree, a well set table and presenting her with beautifully wrapped presents."
So learning where to place my baubles could improve my pulling power? Hmmm.
But first there's that present to finish. "Gift wrapping isn't just something to throw round your presents like chip paper. They've got to sit in your living room for a couple of weeks in the run-up to Christmas so you want them to look nice," says Jane, as I learn to disguise that sinful sticky tape - double-sided is best but you can fold a piece of ordinary tape over to stick down the edges.
I didn't mention that I generally use a ready-made bow with more dreaded Sellotape when Jane moves on to the ribbon.
"I've been to crime scenes that have been less stressful," I tell Jane as I tie myself in more knots than the bow as I try to create something presentable. I think I've pulled it off.
"Beautiful," says Jane, to my visible relief - but my work is not yet done. I've got the Christmas tree to decorate now.
"Decorating the tree is not as straightforward as some people think," he tells me. Great!
"The first thing that goes on is the lights and it's important to start from the bottom and work your way up. A common mistake is starting from the top and finding that you've run out of wire half way down the tree." I want to ask what happens if you run out of wire halfway up the tree. But I don't.
"Also, the choice of lights is quite important. If you have a tree in the lounge you're not going to want dazzling flashing lights in the corner of the room as this could easily get on your nerves by the time Christmas arrives, so you might want something more subtle.
"On the other hand, if you keep your tree in the hall you might want something a bit more flashy to impress the visitors when they arrive."
Jenners has a Christmas tree starter pack for around GBP 80 that has everything you need to get your first stars and baubles on the tree, but it can take years to build up a decent collection of decorations.
"The most important thing is to personalise your tree," adds Ewan. "You don't just want an identikit tree that you would see in a shop window."
With that advice in mind I set about decorating my tree - a 6ft artificial pine.
Within half an hour my lights are twinkling, my baubles and white roses are in position and my golden corsage has pride of place at the front.
"That's not a bad job," said Ewan. "You've still got one decorative white rose left though. Perhaps you could wear it in your hair on Christmas morning?" Perhaps not, Ewan.
Christmas, Jenners-style, two-thirds done. I just had the Christmas table to tackle, which is always a challenge.
"You should always make room for everything you need at the Christmas table because the last thing you want to do in the middle of Christmas dinner is keep getting up to fetch things," said visual merchandiser Ruth Kennedy.
"This is where a centrepiece can serve a really useful purpose. Some people might think the centrepiece is just there to be decorative, but what it's actually doing is saving the space for the food to arrive.
"When the turkey is ready the centrepiece is removed and the bird and trimmings take pride of place at the centre of the table."
"Overall," she adds, "it's important to keep all of the colours matching or complimentary, with reds and greens the traditional colours of Christmas."
I get the impression my safe default attire of "all black" won't cut it as a Christmas colour scheme, which is a shame as I could have saved myself even more time by keeping the Hallowe'en decor up.
So, having invested in some festive red and green tablecloths, I'm now fully prepared for an elegant and tastefully decorated Christmas. All I need is a guest list - sadly something Jenners can't help me with.
Oh well, there's always a catch.
Top Ten Tips
1 Arrange the tree lights from the bottom up to ensure you've got enough length to reach the socket.
2 Start with the biggest tree baubles first andwork downto fill in all of the empty gaps.
3 Don't be afraid to personalise your tree with tasteful homemade baubles.
4 Have a sharp pair of scissors to hand on gift-wrapping day.
5 Size your paper first before you start to wrap.
6 Keep your folds neat andmake a quarter-inch seamon rough edges to keep them straight.
7 Use double sided or folded tape to stick your folds on the inside. Never cover your parcel in tape.
8 Use matching colour-schemes for your Christmas table-cloths and napkins.
9 Cover mismatched chairs with matching material, bows and ribbons to give them a uniform feel.
10 Create or invest in a Christmas centrepiece to put on the table
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
FEATURE: From Cannabis to Chaos
Anyone who thinks cannabis use isn't harmful should read this and take note. Whether you believe it causes psychological damage or not, you're bound to run into some dodgy and often desperate people who are selling it at some point along the chain, just like Nicole.
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
21 October 2009
A SUNNY day during the summer holidays and a group of giggly teenagers squash together on a park bench. As they chat – about boys, teachers, fashion – one produces a cannabis joint and lights it, before offering it around.
Laughing, they all take turns having a puff. Just another rebellious rite of passage, like that first sip of alcohol or drag on a cigarette, given a slightly more delicious edge because it is illegal.
But for Nicole Carter, then 14 in the summer of 1989 and one of the teenagers in that park in West Linton, that first smoke was the beginning of a 20-year mental health nightmare from which she is only just emerging. Later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, characterised by violent mood swings and deep depression, she is in no doubt that cannabis is to blame.
"I can't emphasise enough the damaging effect that cannabis had on my life," says the 34-year-old, originally from Penicuik. "It was just so easily available when I was growing up.
"That first time when I tried it made me feel quite sick at first, but I persevered because being bad was an extreme sport for me. My dad was a policeman and my mum never touched anything like that."
Up until then, she'd had a happy childhood. Her father Harry served in The Royal Scots Greys under soldier and adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, before becoming a policeman. Her mother Rosina was a playground assistant at Mauricewood Primary, her first school, and a community centre volunteer.
"She was always around in the playground playing games like dodgeball and hockey, and after school she'd take me and my younger brothers, twins Iain and David, to the community centre so we always had loads of friends," she says.
But relations with her family went rapidly downhill after that first puff of cannabis. Nicole, by then a pupil at Beeslack High School, began smoking the drug every weekend. "I started to become aggressive and paranoid. I remember one time in third year when I thought there were sharks in the school swimming pool. I eventually managed to rationalise but I'll never forget the feeling of imminent fear I had in the pool.
"I started losing interest in school and when my mum found out she wasn't pleased to say the least.
"Things weren't going well at home and then my dad left, which didn't help matters but it wasn't the source of my problems. By that time I just didn't care any more."
She began to enter a murky world. "The cannabis also brought me into contact with a drug dealer. He was about 21 and he had a bit of a reputation as the kind of guy you don't mess around with. I passed him in the street one day and he asked if he could walk me home.
"I should have wondered why a 21-year-old guy wanted to walk a 15-year-old home, but I was flattered that he noticed me. He knew exactly what he was doing – and we kissed on the way home.
"About a week later I was at a party and there was only me and another girl and whole group of guys. He took me up to the bedroom and I have to admit I was a bit curious about sex because of all the things we had been taught about.
"I was a virgin at the time and while I was curious I didn't want to have sex, but when he got his hands on me he started ordering me around. He was very dictatorial and I was scared of him so I just did everything he told me to do."
At the time she didn't tell anyone what had happened. "I had to go to rape counselling and get pregnancy and HIV tests by myself, which is a lot to handle when you're 15. I stopped smoking cannabis after that."
Within a couple of years her mother remarried and her new stepfather, Bill Cargill, began to reintroduce some stability in her life. She retook some of her highers at college and got a steady job at Standard Life. However, life soon began to unravel again.
"I had already started smoking cannabis again in an effort to get my life into some kind of perspective. I began to feel angry at all of the things that happened in my teens, almost like delayed post-traumatic stress, so I quit my job and ran away to Amsterdam.
"Ironically, I smoked less in Amsterdam than I did in Scotland because I was holding down two jobs as a kitchen porter in an Irish bar and a cleaner at a hostel.
"I came back in 1997 but rather than return home to my parents I decided to become homeless. I checked into the Cranston Street hostel, which was . . . interesting.
"Most of the women in there had drug and alcohol problems, and had been abused or raped.
"It sickened me how prevalent rape seemed to be and how many men seemed to get away with it, so I finally reported my own rape, but the police said too much time had passed. They questioned the dealer but he denied it, so that was that."
Nicole got a job as a silver service waitress and ended up working as a waitress at the Queen's garden party at Holyrood House.
"I still laugh at the irony of this homeless waif handing out hors d'oeuvre to the guests."
By now she was using cannabis again. "I've rarely ever paid for cannabis because it's always been so readily available. There were always guys offering me joints and most of the time it was their way of making girls easy.
"I started getting paranoid again and I used to think people were either angels or demons, and that I was able to see it in their eyes.
"I got a job at the Edinburgh Rock cafe around this time too and I had to be restrained from throwing myself off the roof. I was just standing on the edge and I decided I would just let myself fall, but someone pulled me back. It was a suicide attempt and I put the blame solely on cannabis.
"I wasn't eating and I became seriously malnourished, so on top of my bipolar disorder I was suffering from hallucinations and I was admitted to hospital.
"When I got out I started a university degree in applied bio-sciences and I starting seeing a guy called Steven. We weren't really right for each other and shortly after we split up he died of complications related to his diabetes. He was only 21.
"Even though I'd only been seeing him for a week I began to get terrible feelings of guilt.
"I dropped out of the course and . . . " She stops mid-sentence and her face suddenly drops. She puts her hand to her face. What she's trying to say is that at the age of 23 she was sexually assaulted again and spent the rest of her 20s going from hospital to hostel.
She adds: "One thing I've noticed about every psychiatric hospital I've ever been to is that they seem to put the predatory men in the same ward as the vulnerable women, and the horrible women in with the vulnerable men.
"I've raised it with the staff and they all give me the same excuse – there's not enough beds. I just want to break out of this vicious cycle."
Now, though, she's hoping she's done just that. She's staying at the city council's Colinton Mains House, supported temporary accommodation.
"Some of my worst periods in life were brought by my desire to have children. One of the side-effects of my medication is the risk that it will give my child spina-bifida if I was ever to become pregnant, so I kept taking myself off the medication and then end up at square one.
"The staff at Colinton Mains House have been amazing. They've helped me realise that my medication is necessary and helped me cope with the side effects."
She is also writing poetry, with the inspiration drawn from some of her most troubled times and has just had some work published.
"Now I'm looking forward to the future. But anyone that says cannabis doesn't cause mental illness doesn't have a clue what they're talking about."
Poems By Nicole Carter: Volume One is available from Colinton Mains House on 0131 441 2719.
BAD INFLUENCE
CANNABIS – also known as dope, grass, marijuana, hash or pot – is the most widely used illegal Class-B drug in Britain, either as parts of the herb, or as the resin, hashish. It is harvested from the plant cannabis sativa, and the main active compound is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Researchers estimate there were about 321,352 recreational drug users smoking or ingesting cannabis in Scotland in 2006, and the number continues to rise. In recent years drugs hauls worth millions have been discovered in the Capital. About 100 cannabis farms have been closed across the country in the past 12 months.
Some of those who use the drug, which has a strong and distinctive smell, can become anxious, panicky, suspicious or paranoid.
It also affects coordination, which is one of the reasons why driving under its influence is just as illegal as drink driving.
As it is usually smoked, often mixed with unfiltered tobacco– and is frequently adulterated with other chemicals – it can cause lung disease, and cancer in the case of long-term or heavy use.
Cannabis itself affects many different systems in the body. It increases the heart rate and can affect blood pressure.
Those with a history of mental health problems are especially advised not to smoke cannabis. It can cause paranoia in the short term and spark a relapse for those with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia.
It is also thought that frequent use of cannabis can cut a man's sperm count, reduce sperm motility, and can suppress ovulation in women.
By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
21 October 2009
A SUNNY day during the summer holidays and a group of giggly teenagers squash together on a park bench. As they chat – about boys, teachers, fashion – one produces a cannabis joint and lights it, before offering it around.
Laughing, they all take turns having a puff. Just another rebellious rite of passage, like that first sip of alcohol or drag on a cigarette, given a slightly more delicious edge because it is illegal.
But for Nicole Carter, then 14 in the summer of 1989 and one of the teenagers in that park in West Linton, that first smoke was the beginning of a 20-year mental health nightmare from which she is only just emerging. Later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, characterised by violent mood swings and deep depression, she is in no doubt that cannabis is to blame.
"I can't emphasise enough the damaging effect that cannabis had on my life," says the 34-year-old, originally from Penicuik. "It was just so easily available when I was growing up.
"That first time when I tried it made me feel quite sick at first, but I persevered because being bad was an extreme sport for me. My dad was a policeman and my mum never touched anything like that."
Up until then, she'd had a happy childhood. Her father Harry served in The Royal Scots Greys under soldier and adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, before becoming a policeman. Her mother Rosina was a playground assistant at Mauricewood Primary, her first school, and a community centre volunteer.
"She was always around in the playground playing games like dodgeball and hockey, and after school she'd take me and my younger brothers, twins Iain and David, to the community centre so we always had loads of friends," she says.
But relations with her family went rapidly downhill after that first puff of cannabis. Nicole, by then a pupil at Beeslack High School, began smoking the drug every weekend. "I started to become aggressive and paranoid. I remember one time in third year when I thought there were sharks in the school swimming pool. I eventually managed to rationalise but I'll never forget the feeling of imminent fear I had in the pool.
"I started losing interest in school and when my mum found out she wasn't pleased to say the least.
"Things weren't going well at home and then my dad left, which didn't help matters but it wasn't the source of my problems. By that time I just didn't care any more."
She began to enter a murky world. "The cannabis also brought me into contact with a drug dealer. He was about 21 and he had a bit of a reputation as the kind of guy you don't mess around with. I passed him in the street one day and he asked if he could walk me home.
"I should have wondered why a 21-year-old guy wanted to walk a 15-year-old home, but I was flattered that he noticed me. He knew exactly what he was doing – and we kissed on the way home.
"About a week later I was at a party and there was only me and another girl and whole group of guys. He took me up to the bedroom and I have to admit I was a bit curious about sex because of all the things we had been taught about.
"I was a virgin at the time and while I was curious I didn't want to have sex, but when he got his hands on me he started ordering me around. He was very dictatorial and I was scared of him so I just did everything he told me to do."
At the time she didn't tell anyone what had happened. "I had to go to rape counselling and get pregnancy and HIV tests by myself, which is a lot to handle when you're 15. I stopped smoking cannabis after that."
Within a couple of years her mother remarried and her new stepfather, Bill Cargill, began to reintroduce some stability in her life. She retook some of her highers at college and got a steady job at Standard Life. However, life soon began to unravel again.
"I had already started smoking cannabis again in an effort to get my life into some kind of perspective. I began to feel angry at all of the things that happened in my teens, almost like delayed post-traumatic stress, so I quit my job and ran away to Amsterdam.
"Ironically, I smoked less in Amsterdam than I did in Scotland because I was holding down two jobs as a kitchen porter in an Irish bar and a cleaner at a hostel.
"I came back in 1997 but rather than return home to my parents I decided to become homeless. I checked into the Cranston Street hostel, which was . . . interesting.
"Most of the women in there had drug and alcohol problems, and had been abused or raped.
"It sickened me how prevalent rape seemed to be and how many men seemed to get away with it, so I finally reported my own rape, but the police said too much time had passed. They questioned the dealer but he denied it, so that was that."
Nicole got a job as a silver service waitress and ended up working as a waitress at the Queen's garden party at Holyrood House.
"I still laugh at the irony of this homeless waif handing out hors d'oeuvre to the guests."
By now she was using cannabis again. "I've rarely ever paid for cannabis because it's always been so readily available. There were always guys offering me joints and most of the time it was their way of making girls easy.
"I started getting paranoid again and I used to think people were either angels or demons, and that I was able to see it in their eyes.
"I got a job at the Edinburgh Rock cafe around this time too and I had to be restrained from throwing myself off the roof. I was just standing on the edge and I decided I would just let myself fall, but someone pulled me back. It was a suicide attempt and I put the blame solely on cannabis.
"I wasn't eating and I became seriously malnourished, so on top of my bipolar disorder I was suffering from hallucinations and I was admitted to hospital.
"When I got out I started a university degree in applied bio-sciences and I starting seeing a guy called Steven. We weren't really right for each other and shortly after we split up he died of complications related to his diabetes. He was only 21.
"Even though I'd only been seeing him for a week I began to get terrible feelings of guilt.
"I dropped out of the course and . . . " She stops mid-sentence and her face suddenly drops. She puts her hand to her face. What she's trying to say is that at the age of 23 she was sexually assaulted again and spent the rest of her 20s going from hospital to hostel.
She adds: "One thing I've noticed about every psychiatric hospital I've ever been to is that they seem to put the predatory men in the same ward as the vulnerable women, and the horrible women in with the vulnerable men.
"I've raised it with the staff and they all give me the same excuse – there's not enough beds. I just want to break out of this vicious cycle."
Now, though, she's hoping she's done just that. She's staying at the city council's Colinton Mains House, supported temporary accommodation.
"Some of my worst periods in life were brought by my desire to have children. One of the side-effects of my medication is the risk that it will give my child spina-bifida if I was ever to become pregnant, so I kept taking myself off the medication and then end up at square one.
"The staff at Colinton Mains House have been amazing. They've helped me realise that my medication is necessary and helped me cope with the side effects."
She is also writing poetry, with the inspiration drawn from some of her most troubled times and has just had some work published.
"Now I'm looking forward to the future. But anyone that says cannabis doesn't cause mental illness doesn't have a clue what they're talking about."
Poems By Nicole Carter: Volume One is available from Colinton Mains House on 0131 441 2719.
BAD INFLUENCE
CANNABIS – also known as dope, grass, marijuana, hash or pot – is the most widely used illegal Class-B drug in Britain, either as parts of the herb, or as the resin, hashish. It is harvested from the plant cannabis sativa, and the main active compound is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Researchers estimate there were about 321,352 recreational drug users smoking or ingesting cannabis in Scotland in 2006, and the number continues to rise. In recent years drugs hauls worth millions have been discovered in the Capital. About 100 cannabis farms have been closed across the country in the past 12 months.
Some of those who use the drug, which has a strong and distinctive smell, can become anxious, panicky, suspicious or paranoid.
It also affects coordination, which is one of the reasons why driving under its influence is just as illegal as drink driving.
As it is usually smoked, often mixed with unfiltered tobacco– and is frequently adulterated with other chemicals – it can cause lung disease, and cancer in the case of long-term or heavy use.
Cannabis itself affects many different systems in the body. It increases the heart rate and can affect blood pressure.
Those with a history of mental health problems are especially advised not to smoke cannabis. It can cause paranoia in the short term and spark a relapse for those with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia.
It is also thought that frequent use of cannabis can cut a man's sperm count, reduce sperm motility, and can suppress ovulation in women.
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