lETTERS
Mhor, mhor, mhor
Just a note to rave about the opening of the new acoustic venue in Edinburgh, Club Mhor. on Tuesday night. I went along in some trepidation ofyet another folky venue where the audience sit like statues and hate any attempt to make them join in or enjoy themselves. Not so Club Mhor. Ceolbeg provided some great music, and although the sound system left something to be desired — using a mike on bagpipes in a small indoor space is just a touch ofoverkill — they got the audience up on their feet dancing to great tunes from as far afield as Galicia and Bulgaria. We were also treated to an impromptu demonstration of Irish step-dancing and a singer called John Malcolm who filled the interval with some very good songs. As well as its interesting line-up of bands and participative atmosphere. the bar is usually provided with a 1am licence, and really the only drawback to the venue is its awful wallpaper. which appears to have been designed by a demented Ophelia getting carried away on the flower front. All in all a great night out which deserves to be a sell-out. David Ford Polwarth Gardens Edinburgh.
But did you have a good time? And have you ever considered a career as an advertising copywriter? Just for your cheek. you win the prize forthis issue's best letter. a Jose Cuervo tequila T-shirt.‘
The best letter next issue will win a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila, the drink which, mixed with a mockingbird, won Harper Lee a Pulitzer prize. Letters, which may be edited for publication, should be sent to The List, Old Athenaeum Theatre, 179 Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1 2J Z, or 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE, not later than Friday 5 July.
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MOIRA NICOI.
Shutyergub
As the ‘gubbing the bastard English’ controversy continues to rage (see letters page last issue) , the cognoscenti will no doubt have noted that. in his article, Mr Parsons was. in fact, referring to Jonathan Watson and Tony Roper’s seminal work on the subject, ‘Only An Excuse’ (Radio Scotland, 1986).
In the course of their painstaking sociological research Watson and Roper discovered that, for the football follower. there was ‘a duty of great national importance — giving the bastard English a right good gubbing’. Far from being racist, Mr Parsons was merely acknowledging the work done by experts in the field. Tom McAweaney Fountainhall Road Edinburgh.
Bennie for your thoughts
Re last issue’s letters page: 1. Why single out Sheena ‘Big Time’
Easton for special criticism at the Big Day thrash — just because she’s developed an Ascension Island accent? It’s not as ifshe’s a Glaswegian either; she comes from Bellshill. Is she supposed to live in Castlemilk rather than California? 2. I‘m grateful to Paul W. Hullah for making me reconsider Ross ‘Mengele' Parsons’ World Cup preview. On first perusal it appeared facetious and ironic, but upon re-reading it the piece is undoubtedly a thinly disguised call for eugenics, the author being an obvious race supremacist. Once the boffins at Glasgow Yooni solve the mystery of the double helix and DNA, Scottish foetuses can be genetically programmed to ensure that all Scots males are born alcoholic and arterio-sclerotic, rather than having to consume vast quantities of Heavy and black pudding suppers over a period of forty-odd years to reach this level of racial purity.
3. I can well believe that Laura Braunstein has read numerous reviews of Gregory’s Girl which describe the movie as ‘a charming film set in Glasgow, South Dakota’. It may have been shot in sunny Cumbernauld, but it’s an understandable confusion. I mean, they’re both cultural deserts in the middle of nowhere.
Finally, why do American girls always have such brilliant names, a la Laura Braunstein (if that’s not a racist question)?
David M. Bennie
Haddington Place
Edinburgh.
Bad Bennie
What absolute and utter tat your reviewer, the nearly ubiquitous David M. Bennie, writes about Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy. Anyone who has read further than the cover would realise that it is a work of great perspicacity and one of the few books with a relevance which increases over time. Hoggart recognises in the 50s the onset of a subtle subversion of working-class culture which has since been completed.
Ask yourself, for example, how far the Sun reflects its readers’ attitudes, and how far it creates them. Hoggart has the answers. How can a work which recognises the operation of such sinister forces be sentimental? Or is it that David M. Bennie hasn’t actually read a book he purports to know so much about?
Julie Rugg
Falcon Avenue
Edinburgh.
Of course he’s read it. David Bennie is not only ubiquitous, he’s omniscient too.
Wild child
I am compiling a book covering the tours made in Scotland by the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show, which made several tours from 1891 to 1904. I would like to obtain as much information as possible about these shows, and am particularly interested in the Indians, their acts, and, if possible, their personal names and the tribes from which they came.
I would also like to know where and with whom they stayed. Information about local reaction, newspapers and other publications mentioning anything at all about the shows would be very much appreciated. It would be especially valuable if there is information about any Indians who stayed on in Scotland and of their descendants. Barry Dubber . The British North American Indian Association 20 Grampian Street Sandyhills Glasgow.
100The List 29June— 12 July 1990
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