SIMPLE MINDS at the SECC

Veteran Rockers were performing with support from OMD.

My favourite album is Real Life , here are two hits from it:

See the lights:



and Real Life:



Like most bands with vast archives they cannot perform everything , this included the brilliant Mandela Days.

STEVE EARLE at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

The last time i saw steve earle was at the celtic connections festival in 2007.He looked lot different from his mid-eighties persona , clean shaven and determined looking.

This time round he is sporting a huge beard ; excess mass , but , and this is very important , he looks more content and at tranquility with his state than he has been at any point in his life.

The songs were mostly from his latest tribute album to his youthful hero and inspiration Townes van Zant.

This wonderful song captures just about everything Townes meant to Steve:




He did perform a very inspirational version of Someday.It is very hard to capture quality acoustic resonance in the audio available of mobile cameras these days and videos posted on youtubeistan either has good visuals and poor sound or nice sound with jumpy visuals , below is about the best i could find on the net.



He had a lot to say about the wave of disappointment about Obama and his foreign policies , the first artist to be forthright about the dissipation of early promises.

On Afghanistan , he said he hoped Obama was only bullshitting when he made campaign allusions to increase troop involvement in the region and would think better of it once in office.

Steve rightly postulated this will have a bad ending for the US , as previous experience shows the British Empire in its zenith failed in afghanistan , the soviet empire collapsed in the region and even Alexander " the fuckin" Great ( his words , not mine) suffered defeats there and had to turn back without establishing permanent long term influential roots.

MERCURY FUR at the Ramshorn

An extraordinarily intense power packed play went on for two hours straight without any letup , brilliantly acted by a fine young dynamic caste.

The the genre has been explored in a last few years , notably in Cormac mccarthys The Road , this play was written in 2005 , at just about the first time in which questioning the direction and moral depth of progressive western values in the mainstream media was on the brink of establishing itself from the self-imposed guideline censorship imposed by self elected moral guardians operating in the cultural field.The history behind the writing and performing of the play ,in which the writer lost friends and was almost friendly-blacklisted from his publishing house which refused to publish it , a very odd counterbalance to those who preach over the right to publish when it come to Rushdie but then refuse to publish anything that questions if the western world is going in the right direction.

The play itself has two emerging themes , the state can not look after the citizen from cradle to grave , if it ever could , and will ultimately let everyone down , and , there is always hope with family bonds finally picking up the pieces and delivering and ultimately saving those let down and betrayed by current transient civilisation.

THE PROCLAIMERS at the SECC

We had a fine Fish Pie and sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream before setting of for the venue.

I had seen the proclaimers musical two years back and loved the songs.Rather than an overtly acoustic set they have a band which can rock quite hard when the need arises.
A very good concert full of masterfully constructed catchy songs overflowing with lofty meanings.Not that a portion of the crown with Scotland strips ; kilts and half to quarter jaked would have got much of the finer subtle points that make proclaimers music such a meaningful sublime joy.

Here is an example of what they do best , a track from the new album:





And a superb version from a stunningly spiritually romantic song:




As a counterbalance they season things with songs about romantics being brought down to earth and breaking teeth on a hard bitten reality sandwiches , but always hope is ever there.



I would love to have included 500 miles and letter to America.but there are just no versions on tubistan which capture the feeling engendered for those at the gig

GLASGOW SLAVERY WALK by Stephen Mullen

As part of the GARA commemoration of The Black History Month there have been a series of walks with Historian Stephen Mullen guiding participants through the sites and locations of Glasgow link to slavery through the massive wealth accumulated via the Tobacco trade.
Glasgows link to the trade was established by a set of circumstances and a much denied pro-active participation from the Scots in colonisation and empire building.A history that runs counter to the narrative in which Scotland was seen as the first victim of English hegemony.A unique blend of the primacy of Scottish education , with some of the most established and innovative Universities at the time , and a superb business acumen enabled Scottish graduates to become able administrators of the Empire and Scottish entrepreneurs to become the architects on the efficient management and processing of the newly acquired wealth to be found in the colonies.Glasgow , in particular , benefited by becoming the major port for the shipment and distribution of the highest grade tobacco from the Americas and Sugar from the Caribbean.Newly built state of the art constructed Ports like Port Glasgow handled over 98% of the trade in Scotland and about 60% plus for the entirety of the UK.

The reason for the primacy of the trade in Glasgow was the better standard of education and administrative skills as well as a much better system of interlocking trading.Glasgow used a system developed by Scottish entrepreneurs called the Store system , this made masterful use of the triangular trade of weapons and refined goods to Africa; slaves to the colonies; and the highest grade sugar and tobacco from Jamaica being brought into Europe.The store system was effective because the traders were permanently stationed point men ( called apprentices , something which Rabbie Burns nearly became) in the New World who would personally deal with the plantation owners to get the highest quality yields.The English traders dealt with a system called the Distribution system which would be more adhoc and less well administered than the superb streamlined Scottish one.Another vital component to the Scottish lead in this field was a highly established Scottish Banking system which fully understood the Store system therefore allowing the scope for longer term loans with big yields as opposed to the Boom -Bust short term constraints of the Distribution model.

The walk itself began inside the Glasgow Cathedral , the first time i have been inside there despite growing up in the vicinity , in which guide Stephen Mullen pointed out 2 large stain glass windows funded by and honouring Families with links to the Tobacco trade.One has the depiction of a negro receiving the sacraments from a priest , the other shows a scene which may resemble plantation type buildings from the Caribbean with mottos highlighting the "civilising mission" which is the reputation the traders would like to ascribe to themselves , and be known in prosperity as having undertaken.

Then we were shown the burial plots of the Oswald Family inside the Cathedral and a portion of the plot belonging to the Buchanan Family.

Further on we were shown the original site of Glasgow University halfway down High Street.One of the many paradoxes is that the University was not only churning out the administrators and architects of this trade but also some of the primary Moral Advocates which , in time, would become the most outspoken and effective voices for action that would challenge the process.One important aspect in this was the University was highly established , receiving most of its funding from ecclesiastical sources and was not , as we perturbingly find today , wholly dependent on funding from the Trading Lords ( todays corporations) with the ultimate ability to use this as leverage to temper any radical trends the University may produce to counter the moral points of the trade.This is very important to remember because Universities today are funded by the Modern day version of the Lord traders in the form of multi-national Corporations to such an extent some University departments even bear the name of the sponsor.The Independence the University enjoyed a couple of centuries ago does not exist today , which will mean that it will not churn out the radicals it did in the past to counter negative global trends.One of the great claims to fame Glasgow University has to its credit is that it produced the first Black graduate from the slave colonies.This student was rejected in every University in the Americas , but received entry in Glasgow.

Further along , not far from the street i grew up in , we saw the Ramshorn Cemetery , where many Tobacco Lords are buried and the Glasgow City Halls , a place that became a major platform for articulators of the abolition of slavery , playing host to many speakers at the time including a visit by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Then we saw some locations of the Mansions of the Tobacco Lords , including the Glassfords.Stirling Library , now the MOMA Museum is one of the former Mansions ( it is the middle segment of the building which you can clearly deduce if you look at the side of the Museum).

Finally the walk ended with a symbolic full circle with the statue of a latter day Oswald in George Square , he was a descendant of the former highest placed Tobacco Lords.In a very British way he was a major player in bringing the end to this formal Slave Trade , though cynics would argue the slave trade had run its course and Banking had taken over the role of the efficient extraction of wealth in the Americas.

To his very great integrity and credit Stephen Mullen categorically states that , unlike Liverpool , Glasgow is in denial about its links with the Slave Trade and has to do more to acknowledge its role and to accept its place in the colonial empire rather than hide behind the veneer of victimhood.

For example , there is no mention of the slave trade in this years Homecoming celebrations and a recent commissioned report of the trade had nearly two hundred alterations enforced upon it by government officials much to the outrage of the academics who produced it.

SLINGSHOT HIP HOP by Jackie Reem Salloum

" The Culture of Hip Hop and Rap is at its most Powerful and yet its most tender in Slingshot HipHop" , This quote by Public Enemy rapper Chuck D just about sums up the eloquence and quality of not only Palestinian Rap but also this high calibre multi-international award winning film.

Palestinian rap is not to be confused with some of the US variety.The Palestinian version would never be calling a Woman a "bitch" nor making explicit physical references.The Palestinian rapper is a poet using the beat to speak for his People.A cross reference at the Palestinian rap concert will include an audience from 6 year old grandchildren to grandparents over 80.It is not in a flippant way many consider if Darwish was starting out on his poetic career today he would be heavily into making rap anthems for his People.Translators for the arabic lyrics into english are constantly taken aback by the depth and sophistication of the language used by rappers and readily approve of comparisons to the vast heritage of national and international poets of this region in the far and near past.

Below is a trailer for the film which records the story of Palestinian Rappers in present day Israel ( always referred to as 48s or the originals) and Gaza and the West bank.



One of the remarkable things is the plight and degradation of the Arabs in present day Israel , one can be forgiven for only noticing the repression of the People in the Occupied Territories without realising Arabs in Israel proper are a highly victimised and discriminated against long deprived community compared to their Jewish neighbours.

Below is the song "Who is the Terrorist" which exploded the popularity of rap throughout the Arab world.




And this is an interview with the group DAM ,giving an insight to the beginnings of the movement which has continued to snowball.



After the film we had a post-showing talk from the director and DAMs Suhell Nafar.The director told of the difficulties with the Israeli customs , including the vandalism and smashing of her equipment , resulting in her getting her Jewish friends to bring in stuff which she would then use before they would then smuggle out for her.Suhell also told of the craziness of the militarised Israeli mind , including tales of Israeli schoolteachers teaching kids with guns in their holsters.

One illuminating story was the reason she has not made a film about rappers both Israeli and Palestinian doing joint ventures across the boundaries.The reason is , she said , the number one selling Israeli rapper has song titles and and lyrics to the extent " Kill Arabs".

PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS by Shohei Imamura

Having just read Nemesis by Chalmers Johnson , it was an intriguing coincidence to have the exquisite pleasure of seeing Imamuras 1961 depiction of the shady goings on in a US naval base town with a black underworld economy based around the waste and needs of the base infrastructure and personnel.

Petty crime and madcap schemes of a local mafia living off the needs and requirments engendered by the dynamics of the base are interspersed with the code of honour of traditional family way of life.A split personality culture is very much in evidence as the market orientated way of life in the basetown erodes all the values that sustain a community over a long period of time.In the end the director comes up with a compromise of sorts with things ending up in a continuous farce.

A nice symbol is portrayed in the end when the surviving character is forced to get on a train to get away from the place to a location more blessed with values and tradition than this war economy dependent ravaged town.

FORGOTTEN TRANSPORTS TO LATVIA by Lukas Pribyl

It will be a very sad day when one becomes so completely desensitised to the brutal events of the experience of the ordinary victims of the Holocaust that it does not raise any harrowing emotions.When that happens the countdown to the next Holocaust has already begun.It will happen in its subtle , imperceptible slow manner.First we will get extreme race and ethnic based right wing views becoming fashionable in the mainstream , then we will get these views being expressed as free expression and the right to articulate ideas in an open society , then we will get extreme parties winning sizable votes and seats in local and national elections and then , well , we have a track record in Europe.

Then again , watching a documentary about the Holocaust is never any fun.But it is something that has to be watched or we will fail to learn the lessons of the past and walk into a future that has already brought us , in Europe , a rise in the right , especially in countries that never went into a process of de-nazification and Atonement like Germany.

This film draws of the testimony of victims drawn from all over the world talking about their experience from being collected and hounded out of their ghetto in Czechoslovakia and sent to Latvia.The disconcerting aspect is the tacit meek approval as well as full blown participation of the neighbours of the Jewish population and the enthusiastic participation of the Latvians in the extermination process at the other end.The Germans may have been the facilitators , like the British in International slavery , but the Holocaust was a pan-European extermination in which many communities and nations were willing and pro-active enthusiastic participants.

History is not static , supporters of Justice need to be alert and this film is a timely reminder telling us we all have responsibilities , if we dont defend lessons learned from it then others will take advantage of it to bring back times we thought we had moved on from for ever..

One has to be careful in this and age , and take the advice carried in this song:

CHRISTY MOORE at the Barrowlands

From previous experience i have found going to a gig early and getting right at the front is very well worthwhile.Even being 10 yards away , rather than at the very front, seriously diminishes the quality and enjoyment of the experience.My pal also concurred with this sentiment , though only after the concert when he reflected on the difference it would have made had we not been able to have an unobscured close up view of Declans fingering on the guitar or the sweat on christys brow.

The lady next to me was enjoying this first time Christy concert as a special birthday treat from her son.What a special gift to give to your Mother.We chatted a little and i assured her she would she a unique world class performance and would be permanently hooked to the ever growing band of Christys merry followers.Another set of ladies enjoying a group party for the birthday of their pal were members of the 4711ers club , the official name for the interactive forum on Christys website.He was to later dedicate a song to them and gave the songlistsheet to the special birthday girl as a souvenir after the concert.

The Barrowlands is a very special venue , so special Christy has written a song about it , you dont get many songs about specific venues.A Christy Concert at the Barrowlands is more raucous;crisp;fresh and full of raw energy than you get with the sedate pace of things at the Royal Concert Hall.The fans are also younger and more boisterous , without in any way being less sophisticated or appreciative of the quieter reflective songs Christy sings.

We were treated to a fantastic delight of catchy , yet meaningful lyric songs , here are some highlights ,each is a magical self-contained performance in its own right.

Victor Jara:




Viva La Quinta Brigada:



Natives:



No Time For Love:



We also had a delightful cameo appearance from Willie Page , the writer of smoke and strong whisky and the universal anthem Biko Drum.What a fantastic ; strong piercing voice he had.

TIGER SPIRIT by Min Sook Lee

The state of War between the artificially separated Koreas has split families for nearly 6 decades.Very few get to hear news about their loved ones , yet alone to hear them or even one day to get a fleeting face to face meeting.

Canadian based Min Sook Lee follows the trails and plights of several families trying to meet with their loved ones , always beholden to becoming victims of reunions being suspended or postponed depending on how relations and negotiations are with the two States.

The DMZ is a emotional broken heart between an ancient unified People.To Koreans the country is said to look like a Tiger about to Spring if you look at its shape on a map.The Japanese reshaped the mentality of the Koreans by re-labelling the country as resembling a tame cowered rabbit.In the long history of Korea the split is a short stain on a continuous long history that will be overcome in time.

Here is a short portion of the beginning of the wonderful documentary:



In the South of Korea any defector from the North is made to sign a declaratory document making themselves available for any propaganda opportunities the South may wish to utilise them for , on pain of losing any state support and benefits.They are also assigned an intelligence officer for life who will keep a permanent eye on their activities.Restrictions in the North are even more stringent.

CHRISTY MOORE at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Christy Moore is one of the finest , if not the finest , folk singers on the circuit today.We in Glasgow have been spoilt lately with having the pleasure of seeing him grace our stages for the past 3 years.Such exposure to a genuinely world class exponent of his field is what makes a city the size of Glasgow punch well above its population in the cultural and artistic scene.

Christy is not only a superb artist but he is also a fine Human Being who has given expression to the inner voice of many unjustly treated and oppressed individual and communities the world over.He is a heritage to only only his Irish roots , his music transcends his celtic upbringing and is a gift to all Humanity.

His colleague and co-performer Declan Sinott suffered an appalling tragedy only a few weeks back when his Brother and Son were killed in a boating accident while on holiday in America.It was great to see him playing brilliant guitar and singing with the finest voice ive heard in all the times i have had the unquestioned pleasure to see him.

Here are versions of 3 songs from the concert that were special highlights:

Missing You:



North and South:




And my Wifes favourite , Black is The Colour:




Alas Christy cant perform every song in his vast repertoire , but this one is such an evocative song i feel obliged to include it as it is just a beautiful song :

IN THE HOLY FIRE OF REVOLUTION by Masha Novikova

Legendary former World Champion chessmaster Garry Kasparov stood against Bono-hugging Vladimir Putin in the 2007 elections.

This documentary traces the tribulations and more tribulations of the campaign against the mass forces ranged against any opponent of Putin.Some of the stunts are plain old fashioned petty , like withholding Kasparovs passport for spurious reasons for examination , only to hand it back once the plane to a conference in a distant region has finally taken off.Others are more sinister and threatening with beatings and mass denial to the media apparatus controlled by the state or its oligarch backers.

The actual coalition which Kasparov is part of , The Other Russia , does not help itself with one of the principle parties , from what we see the lead party as far as policy dissemination is concerned , has insignia on the flags which are too close to the emblems of the Nazi party for comfort or non-association.The leader , and what appears to be the left hand man to Kasparovs public face led campaign , gives a very unconvincing explanation the insignia is not nazi but the copy of the german Communist Party symbol in the 1920s ( it has to be said that Hitler was quite close to the Communists at the time ).This is a highly suspect looking excuse not unalike the Rangers Nazi saluting fans claiming it is a red Hand of Ulster salute in no way connected to fascists.

Kasparov is also followed by a bunch of indefatigable Putin Youths who lay on the slanders and charges thick and fast.Their persistence and ability to have the means to follow the campaign trail on a budget that could only be in the league of a very high class Russian certainly shows where their butter comes from.

Kasparov can never quite shake of the charge , which appears to stick , that he is a US aligned candidate charged with bringing the Orange revolution and Violet revolutions of Ukraine and Georgia into Russia.The fact that he is a Contributing EDITOR of The Wall Street Journal certainly helps to weaken the non-US influence protestations he meekly offers in his defence.

KORTNEY RYAN ZIEGLER at the GFT

Kortney was born in Compton and grew up with an inspiring relative who encouraged her hobbies and early interests allowing an active fertile artistic mind to develop.In this series of lectures which are well attended because the students get course credit for simply turning up , a great system to fill out venues , Kortney give a lecture of her early film making development and plans for the future.

Kortneys approach is a zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination.It is an always consistant and highly sincere element in all her work. Her work and Art should be seen in this light.You can see a couple of clips from her current award winning documentary called still black.

An especially interesting project for her future film is a study of crying.It looks to be a very important contribution when it eventually comes out.You can see an emotional preview in the clip below:

END OF POVERY by Philippe Diaz

This is a very emotionally engaging and draining documentary that one has to watch to see world poverty is not an accident but an enivitable policy driven byproduct of the globalised system driving a long history of capitalism and exploitation of the worlds resources as well as populations.This is an old continuous process which is leaving levels of efficiency which are resulting today in the deaths of 1000 children every hour,every day through either stravation or denial of basic medicines for easily curable conditions.

Following on Eduardo Galeanos brilliantly written history of the european exploitation of South America the director films what should be the most notorious lanmark to the lows of Human Civilisation , the vast Silver Mountain mone at Potosi , which is the scene of emence european wealth ( the amount of silver produced from this mine complex alone resulted in the silver reserves of europe increasing by a factor of 4 from all the reserves aquired and held in Europe for all the centuries before) and monumental Human Suffering ( the number of People to die at this mine is estimated at no less than 8 Million , more than died in the Holocaust and with a Rwanda thrown in for good measure) , all dying not as the result of war or ethnic cleansing , but to the efficient transfer of resources and wealth to Europe.

Even today , the transfer of wealth from the Poor ( South World) to the Rich ( G20)is to the tune of 200 Billion dollars going from the poor to the rich.GATT ; World Bank ;IMF are a membrane which has allowed this type of negative flow to occur as they encourgae poorer countries to open up thier markets to established corporate companies of the G20 thus suffocating domestic cottage industries than could provide wealth for the local communities.On top of that poor countries are made to privatise large vital resouurces such as the utilities and water , as well as give away natural resources at bottom basement rates , in order to qualify for debt and aid which these countries would not need if they had favourable non-subsidised access to the very Western Nations that preach non-tarrif barriers.

In the video below the director gives an interview outlining some of the barriers and disadvantagious processes which the Richer nations impose on the Poor:



And below is an example from Kenya of the practises that dis empower the People on the ground with a mixture of unfair trading practises and using corrupt methods to pay an unscrupulous elite to build large scale projects that are of little value to the sustenance of the local population.

GLASGOW HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL

There is no more a cut-throat business than the Human Rights Solidarity scene.If triple crossing and blacklisting is your modus operandi then joining a Human Rights campaign is the choice for you.

Even amongst Human Rights solidarity activist the Glasgow scene is a class above/below the rest , here the activist dont stab you in the back , looking on square in the eyes and stabbing in the neck is the way to function here , if you can bandy the words "unity" and "freespeech" whilst you do it , all the better.

But there are supreme People , individuals and organisations that rise supremely above the cock-fighting ( if you are a male); knitting ( if you are a female)and mud-wrestling to achieve the very best in making Glasgow punch well above the sum of its parts in actively promoting and supporting Universal Human Rights the World Over , making the city a centre for activists throughout the globe persuing and seeking out best practice models to take back to their own communities.

At the Very apex and all that is the very best in promoting the causes of the damned and oppressed in this world is the Glasgow Human Rights Documentary Festival , now in its 7th year.I am very honoured to be associated with this Festival in a latent background capacity.

This Festival is a genuine World Class event which elevates Glasgow to an Internationally renowned position well above the size of the City in a field so noble as the acknowledging and promotion of Justice for all unfairly treated People the world over.

GREEN DAY at the SECC

You wont get better bands with the verve and raw blistering energy as Green Day.

One odd observation was Green Day are turning into a Family Band , there were many parents taking their teenage kids.Cant think of a better debut for anyone starting out.

From the very start they were scurrying around keen as you can get to get cracking into the groove.

They were on for two and a half hours , never relenting from the high octane fever pitch heights you can only get from the very best.

Major highlights of a spectacular evening included:

When i come around:



Minority:



And a video included from last night concert ive included as the person who took it was in the same part of a arena as me:

THE GRAPES OF WRATH at the Edinburgh Kings Theatre

Simple intrigue , if nothing else , made a trip to see a dramatised theatrical adaptation of the classic profound John Steinbeck Novel worth missing a dire display of unimaginative ill-motivated cacophony of over-paid guys being offside on occasion and missing gilt edged chances in between.Watching Celtic is an experience best enjoyed at great distances and preferably well without eyeshot.

The best balanced review of the production is this one from the Telegraph.The production is faithful to the plot , especially the ending , though you always get the impression this Book is not transferable , whilst at the same point giving the productions its due in that there will not be any that will better it.So dont be put off if ever it comes your way.

Ma Joad comes across best , and also confirms a feeling ive had for a while she is a counter-balance to the superficial female character that is portrayed in Cormac MacCarthys " The Road".My view has always been in times of grave crisis it is the Mother that will carry the Family through the toughest of crisis and out into the other side.Though i do find both Books are ones of great hope , somewhat counter to those who fine The Road to be a harrowing tale with a pessimistic ending.

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN at The Barrowlands

The Barrowlands is a legendary venue in the East End of Glasgow , there is no better place to see your favourite band.One world class popular folk singer , Christy Moore ,has even written a song about it and bands such as Simple Minds and U2 still recall concerts at the venue performed decades ago.I , myself , recall many fine nights seeing the likes of Robert Cray,The Alarm and REM before they became a Stadium band.

The part of town where the venue is located contains some of the oldest continuous institutions in Glasgow , it was the oldest chip shop in the City established 1884 , which was shut and the oldest pub in the city , established 1775 , which was shut , the only place that was open was Bairds bar , the kind of place you do not want to go to even if it is open unless you ascribe to the concept that dingy and under-invested is synonymous with traditional and romantic.Though one should never rubbish anyones livelihood and should have respect for genuine regulars of the pub , it is a place where 9-5 weekday workers who meekly follow the dictates of some corporate lackey suddenly turn up enmasse as posses of plastic paddys and weekend provos.

The members of the band represented a cross section of what one gets from the groups of yesteryear re-forming for todays gigging , one had the bloated look of enjoying the age of sedentary comfort ; another had the emaciated look of one who has the fondness of weed over a healthy diet ; another had the wizened look of a Keith Richards; the lead singer himself had grown older tastefully and of course the drummer was a new face replacing a member that is six foot under.

The Concert itself was very good , Echo have a precise ; economic; controlled manner of intensity which gets the job done with a tautness , no need for histrionics or showboating.The new material is of a very high calibre which sits well with their archive if not giving a new fresh value added to the material , so much so it was ironic as well as instructive the crowd were shouting for new songs from an album which is only released on the night of the gig as much as they were hankering after the sounds of the mid-eighties , a very heartwarming situation which bodes well for the bands future development.

Here is nice laid back version of Killing Moon in the manner played at the concert:



And here is version of a track from the new album:

MARY SEACOLE LECTURE by Jane Robinson

At the time Florence Nightingale was being made into a legend of the establishment classes in the form of the lady with the lamp , an amazing career running counter to all the points and directions of civilised prevailing values as well as accepted social norms was acted out by an extraordinary character born in the plantation colony of Jamaica in circa 1805.History thereafter brought out the life of Florence Nightingale to the apex of standard historical educational curriculum height of discourse , and covered the story of the half-caste illegitimate child from a colonial outpost who rose to the very top of the public social status only to be submerged by the debris of time from the very point she died in 1881.

Only now is the special place of Mary being given the recognition it deserves , including a set place in the national educational curriculum for all primary schools in England.This lecture by the feminist orientated historical scholar Jane Robinson helped to put the neglected story of a remarkable industrious Woman into the mainstream place it deserves in the UK today.

Jane Robinson has written a biography of the unsung Mary tale of her tremendous will to achieve her goals despite systematic and stinging rejections from society and influential individuals alike.Seacole wrote a Book at the time that is widely regarded as a superbly crafted story effusing the undaunted spirit of a person that refused to be pigeon-holed or blocked by a society that was blatantly racist and well as inherently restrictive to allowing woman to use their talents to contribute to the greater good of collective society.The story is now published within the Penguin 20th classics series.

Below is a newspiece about the campaign to have a statue made in the honour of Mary Seacole on the banks of the Thames facing the Houses of Parliament.




Some Historians of the Marxist persuasion may raise an eyebrow , or go apeshit , whilst others that prefer to look at a situation from the hindsight vantage point of a century or so may look to the experience of Mary in the slightly false prism and light of her being a helpful cog in the very entity that materially and systematically forced up the very ingrained prejudicial attitude which kept her and her community from progressing to the next level , her desire to go and serve for the military in the brutal and callous suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 being a disconcerting example engendering uncomfortable feelings of one victim of imperialism giving aid to the same imperial entity subjugating another set of victims , but the story of Mary Seacole should be seen in the light of an individual surmounting barriers and severe prejudicial discrimination to achieve their particular calling to the very best of their ability in a difficult restrictive age.

Certainly , as a member of a minority community will relate to very tellingly from their own experience , the journey of Mary having to freelance and privately fund her ambitions , usually from her own entrepreneurial schemes in order to achieve goals without the debilitatingly excruciating glass ceilings of a mainstream career is something all minorities in the UK will understand very deeply.Mary Seacoles contribution to where we are today should be understood and appreciated on that level.

And finally a moving tale on the discovery of the only known portrait of Mary which was unearthed at a car boot sale:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH LAUNCH EVENT at THE CITY CHAMBERS

GARA , thats the Glasgow Anti Racist Alliance , had a do at the vastly impressive Victorian Masterpiece that is the Glasgow City Chambers.The Home turf of the Lord Provost and Glasgow City Council and lurid corrupt venal politicians.

Entering into the Grand Front Door opposite the cenotaph in George Square one is immediately struck by the imperious array of textures of marble of many hues and the redblock sandstone full size statues holding aloft the many grand icons of domination and symbols of the unchallenged confidence of empire , a perfect place corrupt venal politicians to hide behind a cloak of respectability.Look up and you see shimmering mosaics and white and ishfahani turquoise offsetting the austere Victorian hardbuild rock with the vibrancy of imperial Pompeii lushness.Look slightly around and come into view an elegance one finds in the Venetian Quarter of Galatasary District of Istanbul.Look to the other side and you see the Ochre textures you find only in Rome , yet made of solid marble , giving a perennial continuous feel to the exuberant ebullience topped , yet again , with an almost musical counterpoint of a domed roof interspersed with a blue one only find in the finest Chinese pottery.And yet you realise you have merely entered the Reception waiting Room area where a most friendly and helpful official will take your name and direct you to the portion of the building in which your stated business is taking place.

It is no wonder that many a committed class conscience Labour Politician has entered this building , only to be taken in by the imperious and beguiling oozing of power emanating from the masonry only to become afflicted with the urge to retain this elite privilege for all time and become the very part of the establishment that the voters gave them the mandate to dismantle.

The event itself was taking place in the Grand banquet Hall , a place that is reached by several levels of grandiose fleets of pure stone steps , giving views of a different level whenever you turn from one flight to the next , with small catches of what literally become corridors of power as you rise higher and higher , you see the "Assistant to the Lord Provost" Door , eventually the "Office of the Lord Provost" Door and ultimately the massive Doors of the Banquet hall give way to an expanse the size of a modern day theatre , all round are mosaics , this time adorned with gold , that give the feel of the Great churches of the Slavic east , the centre piece is a large white background mosaic above a stage at one end of the vast hall that shows a British Regal Official receiving vast stores of gifts from a whole host of natives , no doubt grateful to the imperial British Empire for giving them the kind of civilisation that can only be appreciated by giving them vast amounts of gold;spices;tobacco and precious minerals that the indigenous lands may happen to possess.

The event itself was well hosted with full protocol being given , upto and including a gold chains of office weighed down privy convener giving the address on behalf of the Lord Provost who was clearer to busy to be present in person.We also have a delicious buffet laid on containing an array of hot and cold vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes along with copious amounts of Ginger Beer.

The one event in this years Black History Month is a lecture by the biographer of Mary Seacole ( the lady pictured above) who was around at the same time as Florence Nightingale as a nurse in the Crimea War , though she never became quite as famous.But the good news is she did receive the 2004 award for the most significant Black Person in British history and the Scottish Branch of the Royal College of Nurses are collecting funds to build a long overdue statue in her honour.

MICHAEL PALIN at The Royal Concert hall

At this moment i am currently reading Michael Palins diaries covering the years 1969-1979 called collectively the Python years.So it was a very welcome , refreshing coincidence when i got wind of an appearance from Michael as part over the ever-growing , increasingly popular Conversation Pieces.It must be over a decade this format has been gracing Afternoons at the Royal Concert Hall.The very first person i saw was the charming John Suchet ( the ITN news anchor ) who appeared twice in successive years in the late nineties promoting biographies of Beethoven.These were wonderfully relaxed lunchtime engagements , yet highly informative occasions , including exclusive first time piano performances of recently unearthed Beethoven sonatas.

Most events are held in The Strathclyde Suite , a large windowless ante-room within the Concert Hall with a capacity of about 400.This particular event was held in the Main Concert Hall itself , with a Capacity not much short of 3,000.From what i could tell it was near enough a complete sell-out.Quite an achievement for one o'clock in the afternoon.

I have recently admired Michael Palin all the more as he made what must in the field of commercial future commissions , especially from the US , risky , brave and highly commendable trip to the Palestinian Literary Festival held in Ramallah and illegally Occupied East Jerusalem earlier this year , an event in which the Israeli Army showed their true merit by storming one of the functions pointing guns at organisers;guests and attendees.it seems the Israeli Army has caught the bug of never missing an opportunity to embarrass and show themselves of in full view of the Worlds glare.

We were perched on the second tier of the arena when Michael came onto the large sofa -to-sofa setting along with the interviewer.I noticed from my birds eye view he has a very full crown of hair , a lovely brown soft chestnut colour.Impressive for a gentleman of 66ish.

The conversation , itself , revealed what is pretty apparent in the diaries.Though the career of Palin can be seen as a seamless linear path of one success after another , the diaries reveal the anxieties; insecurities ; worries ; concerns and fears of a freelancer who perpetually finds himself facing a void every time a project ends.One constantly finds in the diaries the detach from the popularity of various Monty Python activities co-insiding with the lowest ebbs of inter-relations of the individual members as they are struggling with the job (or lack of jobs) in hand.For example the timelag from the making of the Holy Grail to it being a box office smash in about 18 months.When the film is at the height of its popularity we find the Python team on the point of break-up as they have run out of fresh ideas and find their are little or no takers of the projects they are trying to proffer.We also find that Python breaks bigtime onto the US market just at the point when the team are on the verge of total collapse caused by mistrust of each others commitments to the Python project.

Palins take on The Meaning of Life does reflect what one notices in the Film itself , after the glorious successes of The Holy Grail and extraordinary achievement of the Life of Brian which were due to the team working cohesively in what turned out to be single narrative continual bona-fide films , the estranged and territorial break-up of team working made The Meaning of Life into the disjointed series of sketches , albeit some very good ones , that marked the end of the road.Michael , himself , who was always the linkman in the team , the person all the members would talk to when they would not be talking to each other , said that the team probably stuck around two years more than they should and by the end all the innovation and freshness had gone stale.

Lastly Palin talked about his own venture into projects on his own , things really picked up when he stared in the Great railway Journeys series for the BBC, though Around the World in 80 Days really sky-rocket his career into the status he enjoys today.Apparently , though he was never told this at the time , he was 4th choice for the role , behind Alan Whicker and Noel Edmonds among others.

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN at THE CITY HALLS

Amazingly , this was the first time ever in Scotland we had the all time lauded classic Eisenstein film featuring the original score by Edmund Meisel written for the Berlin Performance in 1926 , a thunderous , piercing , relentless piece composed in only twelve days, about an year after the film originally come out in Moscow.

The propaganda film has achieved legendary status from many varied admirers from Goebbels to the English painter Francis Bacon.It is sometimes easy to forget in our glib times just how innovative , pioneering and emotionally sweepingly engaging it was to audiences barely prepared for such an interactive media onslaught of moving intensity.

It is a wonder to the passion and radical outpourings the film generated that it was an "X" rated film in the UK until as recently as 1978.The film was banned in many places including the US authorities fearing it would encourage rebellion in the ports and naval bases as it 'gives American sailors a blueprint as to how to conduct a mutiny'.France ; Nazi Germany and the UK until 1954 also banned the film.

In pre-Nazi Germany itself the film was banned in many places owing to Meisels musical score rather than any overt content in the film itself, this prompted Edmund to lament "This, generally speaking, is the first time that political charges have been brought against a musical composition."

Guest principal conductor Ilan Volkov expertly conduction a hard driven ; thunderously relentless piece of music with suppressed tones of the Marseillaise at points of glory in the revolutionary fervour.The New York herald tribune quite rightly described Meisels score as "powerful, as vital, as galvanic, and electrifying as the film".Once one has seen it like this it would be a disingenuous travesty to view Battleship Potemkin in any other way.Which , considering this was the first time the film has played in Scotland to Meisels accompaniment by a live Orchestra , may not be something that is seen around these parts for a generation to come.


For what its worth the full film can be viewed below):

MODERN TIMES by Charlie Chaplin

This 1936 Film was the last silent movie featuring the classic mime image of Charlie Chaplin.It was initially slated to be a talking movie until Chaplin decided the mystery and imagination would be lost.The title as well as the plot has a timeless appeal as each generation succumbs to the stress and pressures of the working experience.

The theme of Modern Life is the loss of Human Dignity to the all pervading power of the machinery of Capitalism.The characters turn into cogs in a never ending conveyor belt that never seems to lose the ability to keep on sucking the last vestiges of life , the harder the People work the faster the belt becomes.

The film has many underlying social and political themes , though the comedy is paramount at all times.One of the universal appeals of the silent mime was the accessibility to all movie-goers including the vast emigrant non-english speaking populations.This made Chaplin films instant hits not only in the US but all over the world.

Tellingly ,the only voice in the film is the bellowing of the architect running the whole show , an uncanny resemblance to a younger Roosevelt , the other protagonists are made to do with silent long suffering groaning.

A plot of this type , in the political and social climate of the time , could only have been made by an artist that was not American.The potential independence of a filmmaker that had an option to go back to the UK if things became too intense , as they ultimately did for Chaplin , could not have been forborne by a homegrown artist.Even in the late 80s we had a smaller scale , though equally instructive , example when the brilliant and penetrating Mississippi Burning was made by the British Director Alan Parker.An American director would have had a very difficult time in the pre and post production arrangements to pull off a project that asked such soul searching questions of the direction and satisfactions of the American Dream.Take for example the initial reaction to the Steinbeck classic Grapes of Wrath ( published a considerable while after Modern Times ) , it was banned in quite a number of places in the US and on two occasion copies of the Book were burned in Steinbecks home county of Salinas.

There is a very good review from the Guardian from the time the film first came to the screens.

As the review mentions the plot of the film borrowed heavily from a french Film by the director Clair , the director himself was flattered the great Chaplin copied the film , responding disappointingly when the production company sued Chaplin in the early 50s , a case that was settled out of court.

Below is an excerpt from the end of the film: Some have reflected the end has what Anthony Burgess was declare an Augustan end to the work , as opposed to a Pelaglian ending more suited to the dream turned nightmare which the pursuit of digging oneself out of debt that many today can empathise with.

The whole film can be seen in 9 parts in the youtube link below:



The official Chaplin website also has this superbly crafted tribute to the legendary Chaplin:

LETS MAKE MONEY by Erwin Wagonhofer

In this full feature length Documentary multi award winning Austrian Film Maker Erwin Wagenhoffer examines the world of high finance , from the exorbitant hubris laden attitudes of its wheelers and dealers to the wretched experiences of the people who have to bear its worst excesses on the ground.

The forthrightness of the makers and shakers of a system they clearly recognise as being unjust and repressive is quite shocking , it reminds me of the observation Solzhenitsyn made in the Gulag Archipelago about fairly intelligent and lucid individuals driven to do the most ghastly acts because of ideology.And there is no more a beguiling or tempting ideology than Full blown Capitalism.

Neo-Liberalism is self-critiqued by one of the participants as having brought about the establishment of Four goals 1) the deregulation of financial restrictions 2) the removal of all barriers to the flow of capital from one country to another 3) the circumventing of national policy to corporate global enterprise and 4) the systematic removal of trade barriers that could help local economies maximise local resources to provide vital services to the host population.

An eyeopening film that deserves all the awards and plaudits it receives.A Chilling reminder of a system that has got the world in its debt.

JOHN MARTYNS MUSIC at the GFT

From the blurb on the GFT website entry to the concert one gets an odd expectation for this memorial commemoration of the late John Martyns Music , especially information that we are to get songs written by Davy Graham , Sandy Denny and Nick Drake.

The blurb goes on to say:

"It was with extreme sorrow that we all heard of the loss of John Martyn in January 2009. His powerful and often lamenting songs, his seductive guitar style and enigmatic voice have drawn a devoted audience spanning two generations. Keith and Rick have performed hundreds of successful concerts, of both the music of Nick Drake and the poetry of Lorca, in the intimate format of voice, acoustic guitar and double bass. They were approached by countless fans of both their work and John’s, along with many venues across the country, to play some concerts of John’s music. It is with a humble heart and a profound sense of responsibility that this concert is presented."

Certainly no complaints there , makes for an evening in which the poignancy and richness of the music may be enhanced as it is deconstructed from the clutter of too many instruments.

Reassuringly on Keith James website we get a more precise picture , namely:

"For the past 40 years the ingrained body of music and somewhat tempestuous life of John Martyn OBE has been ever present in all of us who have appreciated the work of acoustic singer songwriters.

It is not surprising that a significant amount of Keith & Rick's audience, John Martyn's audience and music venues across the UK gave voice to the possibility of Keith & Rick performing concerts of his most beloved music in its original format: that of voice, guitar and double bass.

It is therefore, with the most personal respect and the humblest of hearts that this series of concerts are presented. The focus will be on the central integrity of the songs in their pure form on acoustic instruments only. Also included will be music by Davy Graham, Sandy Denny, and Nick Drake."

In his later years live performances by John Martyn were very much a hit or miss affair , depending on the various states of his tempestuous and shaky relationship with the ever empty solace found in a bottle.I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Renfrew ferry a few years back on scintillating form , one of his best performances before ill health really took the best out of him , a deep and profound mix of emotion from the very heart along with a soultouching reverie emanating from his dexterous cultured guitar.The only regret that night was he did not perform my very favourite , The Hurt in your Heart , and no wonder , it is such an emotionally draining song he himself said he could only perform it on very rare occasions , it just took so much out of him.

The Concert was a wonderful eclectic mixture of fine acoustic guitar with an evocatively haunting double bass accompaniment.

The first song was Bless The Weather:



The highlight of the evening was an acoustic version of Angeline , stripped of all the mid-eighties clutter of synths and drum machine , to bring out the depth and feeling only a live acoustic version can bring.



The evening was interspersed with beautiful musical adaptions of the Poems of Lorca , with Diamond and Going to Santiago being especially brought to a new ethereal life.You can get a little background of the eventful tragic life of Lorca in the documentary below:

MARGARET ATWOOD at Edinburgh Festival

Margaret Atwood came across as a very eccentric lady indeed.
She is a very sharpe;perceptive ; astute and extremely funny person.This event was an early phase of an extraordinarily ambitious and very long tour.One facet , performed earlier in the day involved a musical programme set to the various poems in her new Book The Year of the Flood.I managed to read the first 3 pages , it gets straight to the point and seems to be shaping up into a cracking entertaining read.Im hoping to get a loan of a copy sometime later in the year.

Atwood has also recently written a wide ranging and exhaustive , and astonishingly highly entertaining , Book about the topic of debt called " Payback: Debt and the shadowside of wealth" and how it shapes society.It is based on a series of very well received lectures she gave , the timing could not have been better for the publication date as the first signs of a major debt crises began to manifest themselves.

Hear her discussing the issues in the video below:


At the end we managed to worm our way through the snakelike crowd to get the Book autographed.

GILLIAN SLOVO at Edinburgh Festival

Gillian Slovo comes from a highly politicised Family.Her father was a very prominent member of the ANC , participating as a leading member of the military wing.Gillians mother was executed by the South African secret police when she opened a letter bomb which exploded in her face.The influence of her parents have rubbed of on her strong commitments to social justice and state oppression political stands.She co-wrote along with Victoria Brittain a chillingly brilliant play about the mistreatment of captives at Guantanamo Bay , a hugely impacting successful play which was a smash hit in the UK and also enjoyed a successful run on Broadway.Gillian is also a signatory on the Jews for Justice for Palestinians based in the UK , also amongst the signatories are the late Harold Pinter and Will Self , along with over 1500 others.

She has also written Books about the South African Truth Commission ( The Red Dust)and a superb story of a womans survival during the siege of Lenningrad ( The Ice Road).

She gave a very sharp and alluring performance , relating her specific techniques to get a feel for the environment she is writing to capture , describing Sri Lanka ( the part location of her new novel) to a paradise.It looked for a while the meeting would get an entirely non-political account of the Island until the gifted Scottish Poet Jim Aitken asked a question concerning her on the ground understandings of the situation involving the Tamils.Suddenly Gillian burst forth like an orchid , which forms the title of her current Book , and gave an intricate ; fully detailed precise account of the situation that showed of her political senses to a rapturous degree.

Her main point was the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict started during the time the British were training a Sinhalese only elite to gain the reigns of power when they ultimately left.The Sinhalese , for their part , made the cardinal folly to elevate the Sinhalese language as the official language to be used by the state bureaucracy and the school system.This virtually relegated the Tamil Language and culture to an inferior sub-status , hence creating the roots that led to a bitter conflict making the paradise landscape Gillian describes in her Book into a living Hell for the People in the North.

Here is a interview she gave recently on Al-Jazeera:



Near the end she made an observation that many immigrant children could heartily agree with , when she went to South Africa in the 90s the phenomenon of feeling a stranger in the land of her birth and a stranger in her adopted home , a feeling many can entirely understand and empathise with.

NOT SPAIN by Sheffield Firemans Room Theatre Company

Not Spain is based in the Balkans at the height of the media interest in the conflict.The director mentions the myriad of understandings which the break up of the region fostered.Each based on heartfelt nuances of various ethnic groupings relations with others , some working to forge a multi-ethnic society capable of thriving into the new century, others led by ancient bitterness , making fertile pleas for a situation nothing short of ethnic cleansing.

A Man suffering Balkan style meets a Western reporter he assisted by , apparently, relieving her of the camera she carried ,at a checkpoint where the possession of a camera at the time may have resulted if her being relieved of her life had she been spotted by the gun-totting guards.She , herself, is suffering in a very Western way , everything is waiting for her at home materially ( including a boyfriend) , but emotionally and spiritually all in empty inside , a void that no material possessions can fill.

He relates a situation that occurred in Littlehampton.A Macedonian restaurant he was working in at the time Karadzic was standing trail at the Hague for the massacre of several thousand civilians at Srebrenica he was most surprised whenever the name of the war criminal was mentioned the staff would chant in a pro-patria manner "Serbu!, Serbu!".This makes the director wonder , not surprisingly , why Macedonians would be so partial to Serb nationalists killing members of non-Serbian populations in Bosnia.The director is caught between wondering if colleagues have a more nuanced sensitive understanding of the region. Maybe it is a parallax-mystery , or maybe still that the colleagues the director worked with were appreciative of any , even non-Macedonian that killed and murdered Muslims was worthy of the highest acclamations and cheerful appreciation.

The playwright , in his case, seeks to explore the pornography of suffering style intrusion for voyeuristic purposes the western media engaged in as well as the condescending lack of depth analysis of the conflict , this exploration is summed up when the local admits to having given the journalists an account that is closer to the "story" the media editors want as opposed to the truth " You want to me to tell you that the way you live is right , the way we live is wrong , and if only we were more like you , everything is right.".The drama also looks at the hypocritical attitude of Western Democracies which allowed a situation in which large European cities were surrounded by armies enacting world war 2 style bombing and sieges for over 2 years whilst the entrapped population appealed for rescue to much public empathy , though no political will.I wonder how long it would have took the West to mobilise if a Christian city of a quarter of a million was being besieged by a Muslim Army?

The set is sparse , as one would expect , and the acting is constrained by the audience forming a large arc around the stage.This makes the standing positions the gallant actors are compelled to adopt extremely difficult to affect the closeness between them the play demands.Though crueler persons than i would say this play would have been ideal to stage in mid-December , so that the actors could be chopped up to make a warm homely fire , i have nothing but admiration of these fine students performing a piece in trying circumstances.

THERESE at Edinburgh festival

A quite remarkable and sharp rendition of the classic Zola tale of betrayal and guilt by a highly talented and superbly marshaled bunch of girls from The Cheltenham Ladies College.

A highly innovative production which shows a level of sophistication that would be a challenge for a professional drama company is carried of superbly.The degree of difficulty of the delivery of lines , each participant is required to deliver a clause at a time to narrate the story,makes hard work for the students , the few occasions where the metronome was slightly awry was glossed over with delicate grace, thus the actresses never allowed the odd missed note to faze their performance in the least.

The story itself is one of the punishment for the crime is the crime itself , the protagonists can never rationally come to terms with the action taken , guiltridden and emotionally weighed down by crippling remorse, they suffer a miserable existence instead of the harmonious escape the action initially promised ,which they can only escape by killing themselves.

DIARY OF A MADMAN at Edinburgh Fringe

This one man play had an excellent pedigree , having won a best play of 2007 award.

The dialogue faithfully follows the Gogol short story.As with one man plays the acting is intense , with rich flowing movement.The simple set and touchingly emotive lighting also give a wonderfully complimentary emotional garment to the piece.

The St.Petersburg of Gogols day was an artificial town populated by a vast hierarchy of bureaucracy.An environment of craven social progressing laced with a deadening void of alienation.Certainly not a place to Gogols taste.

The Pain and suffering , both within and outwith , for the poor unfortunate plaintiff , of a deliberately grinding and mindnumbingly perpetual stalled bureaucracy designed to be a barrier to any trends challenging the status quo of the ruling order is also examined in mindsplitting irony.

The story itself is said to be one of the first recorded cases of schizophrenia , the real question is whether it is a disease of chemical imbalance or a disease of modern living.A question that seems to come up today with an added urgency as contracts take over from careers.

TARIQ ALI at the Edinburgh Bookfest

Tariq Ali is a very Charismatic and Engaging Speaker.Always stimulating , challenging.

This was a rare occasion to see his analytical skills applied to Literature and how it can never be detached from the political currents of the time.The definition of a classic work is one that articulated the sentiments of its time and managed to break out to universal appreciation.He perceptively identified the literature of today has a difficult task to express itself politically because of the corporate nature of publishing , leading onto the requirements to fill mass markets.An opposite reading to Zafons understanding that writers like Cervantes or Dickens were popular in their time.The faultline in the two theses appears to be the definition of being popular , as regards to being populist.Todays market can stifle the former and manufacture the later.

Tariq started , after a few ubiquitous ribald observations of the Festival sponsor the RBS , by mentioning post-reformation poets such as Milton were very much Politically active , even , like Schiller enjoying roles in the post-revolution cabinet.

Tariq thought Miltons dismissing of Shakespeare on the very narrow grounds that he tolerated the Monarchy , or rather the systems of Monarchy , was somewhat ungenerous if not extreme as , in Shakespeares day there was no other system that could even come close to a viable stable coherent alternative.Such a narrow parameter to dismiss the work of a master was unkindly unkind.Marxs , certainly , was a great admirer of Shakespeare , heavily quoting the Bard when describing the excesses of elites of his day.

The historical conditions in the time of Cervantes were also cited to allay the false understanding his work was non-political charades.Cervantes was operating at a time when Jews and Muslims had recently been ethnically cleansed , yet others had been made to forcibly convert , yet still the inquisition was diligent with an astonishing zeal to find and discover those that had converted , though not quite enough to convince they did not closetly retain the old Semitic beliefs.Cervantes was one such forcibly converted citizen and , according to Tariq , his work has to be seen in that light to get a full appreciation of his work.Even to this day , the relevant Spanish Ministries are very touchy about even acknowledging , yet alone admitting , the Semitic ancestry of Spains greatest literary figure.

He also discussed the French figures Stendhal and Balzac , The Scarlet and the Black was highly praised by Balzac in public though he confided to Friends in private that Stendhal mentioned everything except the one those mattered to French society most at the time...Money.

Having chided Milton, albeit mildly , for dismissing Shakespeare on a very narrow margin , Tariq then seemed to use the Milton Doctrine to fault Tolstoy portrayal of Kutuzov.Tariq main objection is that Kutuzov owned Serfs.It has to be said in those days , just like in Shakespeares days Monarchy was the system , even the lower middle class had Serfs.Dostoyevski's wedding dowry contained an allowance of serfs.It is ungenerous to find fault with Tolstoy on that narrow point as it was unkind of Milton to do so about Shakespeare.Tolstoys portrayal of Kutozov had to reflect the unassailable fact he was the Commander-in-Chief , and he was placed to defend the Slavs from a foreign invasion.Tolstoys real political contribution is that he replaced the genuinely hagiographical history taught in Czarist Russia with a realism merging events and narrative to try get inside the heads of the protagonists in order to understand and explain root causes to such things as War without exciting the censor.

HILARY SPURLING at Edinburgh Book Festival

If there was reincarnation Hilary Spurling would certainly come back as a bunny , not only has she written a quite superb biography of Henri Matisse , she also mastered the Art of rabbiting on and on.She had the skill so well honed , even the masterful , experienced Chair Ruth Wishart was unable to interrupt for the first 40 minutes of the talk.The special quality in the technique of Hilarys soliloquy is that she seems almost at the point of hitting the punchline at any time , though that time ,like catching your shadow , never quite comes.

But that is merely an observation and should at no point detract from the remarkable achievement of a biography which helps Henri Matisse to claim his rightful place as a genuine and highly influential Master Artist.

She explained the difficulty of hunting down the story of Matisse , an endeavour of Sherlockian investigative proportions with , in typical French style , of little assistance and a lot of stinging snooty objections.But to her eternal credit she delivered something vital ; correcting a mass of misinformation masquerading as fact and most importantly digging Matisses reputation from the six feet of mud and dirt laid on him by foe and so called friends alike in what was an early use of negative spindoctoring.

It did not help for the case of putting Matisse back to his rightful place , that some of his finest work was only known as titles , but never seen for many decades,in some cases not until the 1990s.This was because a mass of his early work was bought by Russian collectors based in St.Petersburg , after the revolution their collections ended up in Soviet Archives , viewed very rarely.Another massive archive of his work was bought by an eccentric billionaire called Barnes , he stipulated when making his Foundation very strict criterion that more or less made the works owned by him to be keep from public view.

One slight disappointment was , unlike her informative biography , there was not a presentation of his work with vignettes of the background history behind them.This is covered in glorious detail in her two volume biography , along with breathtaking print quality.

Strangely , Matisse is not regarded with the respect and honour one would expect in France even today.It may well be that a French Translation of Spurling is what changes that appreciation.

So to honour Matisse here is a mini-gallery of some of his astonishing work.

CARLOS RUIS ZAFON at Edinburgh Book Festival

Carlos is a very modest looking and unassuming Man.He gives an air of comely grace mixed with an effervescent manner.A casual easy-going insouciance is shown with his arrival wearing the same rugby style top in the picture attached.

His attitude is to be a teamplayer with the interviewee , giving full anecdotal answers , though never crossing the point of surfeit.He is an Excellent English speaker as well as Spains biggest selling author since Cervantes.

He declares himself a storyteller , in as much as storytelling is a craft, a craft which Carlos determined to master from a very early age.Execution of a marvelous story is the goal , substance is most desired , but a well executed story with limited substance is what matters in the end,If it is told well, it is a good story.

His Father had a very eclectic taste in Books ranging from Penny Dreadfuls;Gothic Thrillers and the works of Steinbeck , sitting cheek to jowl with Harold Robbins.From that grounding Carlos learned the craft which has led to his recent big sellers and also an early appreciation there should be no snobbery in Stories/Books.

He paid his dues in the field of writing with jobs scribbling advertising material , which helped him sharpen the need to capture the reader early on , screenwriting , which he enjoyed a lot more and then established popularity as a writer of older schoolchildrens Books.Being a professional craftsman he stock to the only rope available in a world in which fellow writers would find a degree of success only to be wiped away like a short-lived pitiful patina on the shores of an unforgiving industry.Eventually he managed to elevate his readership and fame with the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Shadow of The Wind.

The very strengths which made Shadow a universal best seller , imagination; innovation ; re-packaging an older classical genre and a slow fuse thriller are being used for what will be a Four Part Quadrilogy from " four differing entry points" , this , according to Carlos , makes the second part The Angel' Game a prequel and sequel at one and the same time.There are concerns the strong points of Shadow can become the very weaknesses in the rest of the coming parts , yielding to lack of imagination ; repetitiveness and a parody of an old genre. .Heres hoping he can pull it off.

To his credit Zafon is adamant that he will never allow the Shadow Books every be made into Films, " over my dead body " he says.

To exemplify his down to earth humble approach , as we were leaving Charlotte Square , we saw Zafon sitting at an outside Restaurant sipping a Pint.