The Playlist Episode 25
25 January 2012
8 Scottish Bands for Burns Night
I really like the current wave of Scottish bands – several of which are in this list. Most of these tunes could only come from up there. Nice country, pity about the weather. Burns night is one of our less bonkers feasts that the rest of us should be into – eating ethnic food, drinking whisky, singing a bit and blokes dressing up in skirts – what’s there not to like? The man had some wisdom, too.
Biffy Clyro
The Captain
Two days running. A blistering live act, they look awful though it’s not really aimed at the likes of me, they don’t make much sense lyrically, but boy do they sound good.
Franz Ferdinand
Take Me Out
Art school rock meet Joy Division with a smile on its face. Pastiche, but good pastiche and good guitar work.
Big Country
Big Country
Something of a one hit wonder, I always thought – I can’t name another one after all, fine tune though.
Glasvegas
Daddy’s Gone
The first Glasvegas album oozes with misery and angst, like much good pop music – this one more than most. They try something different – love the drum sound.
Rab Noakes
Clear Day
A lesser known spoke of Steelers Wheel doing his own thing in the 70s – an underrated song writer and reformed participant in the Scottish national sport of drinking.
Orange Juice
Rip It Up
Edwyn Collins one hit wonders from Bearsden. Bearsden sounds really rough, but it’s actually quite upmarket – for Glasgow.
The View
Same Jeans
Bright eyed and bushy hair youths from Dundee who produced a fine first LP and a below par second.
Calvin Harris
Burns Night
You really have to include this just because of its title, but pretty much anything by Calvin Harris sounds good to me.
_______________________________________________________________________
Sue came with me of course. She helped me to dress. I needed the toilet several times before we set off. I shook with the cold. I think I may have slept on the journey, though Sue says I didn’t. Either way I don’t remember the M40.
After the identification they took us to Paddington Green. I don’t know what I had expected but I remember feeling faintly disappointed that it looked like the average cop shop. We were taken to a small room with low soft chairs and a small sofa of the sort you might see in a dentist or optician’s waiting room. Sue and I sat on the sofa. We were joined by a plain clothes cop.
“Professor Madison, Mrs Madison, I am Detective Sergeant Sohal. First may I say how sorry I am for your loss. I would understand if you thought I was being insincere, but I do this quite often and it doesn’t get any easier.”
“I’m sure. No, thank you”, Sue replied. I didn’t speak.
“Would you like some water?”
Sue said, “Actually that would be practical help, I think.”.
DS Sohal filled two plastic cups from a water cooler.
“We believe that your brother Peter…”
“It’s Pete”, Sue corrected.
“I’m sorry, we believe that Pete died in the early hours of Saturday 5th January 2013, or possibly late on Friday evening. I’m afraid we won’t be able to say precisely when until we have the findings of the post mortem. He was found in a room at the London Hilton which is on Park Lane at approximately 11.30am yesterday.”
“But it’s Sunday, why …”
“Please, I’ll explain what happened. An ambulance was called to the scene, but it was clear to the Paramedics that Mr Madison …”
“Pete, call him Pete.”
“It was clear to the Paramedics that Pete had been dead for some time. We were then called. We arrived at 12:15 and were able to examine the crime scene. As I have already said there will be a post mortem examination and until we have the pathologist’s report we can’t be sure of the cause of death. At this stage we do not believe there are suspicious circumstances but, as I have said, we must wait for the pathologist’s report before we can come to any conclusions. I am sorry for your loss.”
“Why?”
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure what you are asking, Professor.”
“I’m asking why you say there are no suspicious circumstances?”
“I shouldn’t go into too much detail before we have the pathologist’s report, but there we no sign of a struggle. He was found on the bed. We know he checked into the hotel around five. We know he ate dinner in the restaurant on his own at 7 and that he left around 9.30. He made the reservation for dinner and the room in mid-December.
“But it’s Sunday.”
“Yes, sorry. We had to find out his address from the credit card company. The hotel’s systems were down and we didn’t have any information to work with other than a single credit card and your card which Pete had in his wallet, so we only had your college details. By the time we were able to establish that you were probably the next of kin and track down your address we felt it was too late to contact you and TVP Oxford were rather stretched, it being Saturday night.”
“It’s out of term time. It’s quiet, but it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t have brought him back.”
“No.”
“But it seems suspicious to me.”
“In what way?”
“Why would a man who lives in Fulham check into a Park Lane hotel for dinner on his own?”
“That we don’t know, but that in itself doesn’t constitute a suspicious circumstance. People do things that others can’t explain. It doesn’t make it suspicious.”
“What does?”
“Usually blood, to be honest. As I said, there don’t appear to be suspicious circumstances, nothing like that. Professor, Mrs Madison my colleagues will take you home now. We will inform you as soon as we know more.”
We sat in the back of the car. It was mid-afternoon and already getting dark.
I sat with my head on Sue’s shoulder.
“I love you Marty”, she whispered several times before I replied.
“I know you do. But you know what I thought when I saw him? I thought ‘thank fuck it wasn’t Jules’. Does that mean I’m evil?”
“No ma darlin’, it means you’re normal.”
To be continued …