Graham Coxon
Pity Graham Coxon's guntar collection. You can imagine the abuse those beautiful instruments suffered during the making of this solo album. See, Bliir's etcentric guitarist is one of our mOre notorious imbibers and The Sky Is Too High was, according to Coxon, ’written during a period of teetotalism ll: 1997 It is a rough Journal of the wanderings of an abstainer’s mind unilergorng quite heavy stress whilst touring almost non-stop for one year.’ Boy, y0u can hear those strings taking the strain, be it on the stirring acoustic folksiness of 'Hard And Slow' or the insistent electric riffing of 'That’s All I Wanna 00', which sounds like Placebo as sung by Jilted John. There’s the occasional maudlin dirge which sounds like it should have been drowned at birth but on the whole The Sky Is Too High makes a worthwhile advert for Alcoholics Anonymous. (Fiona Shepherd)
The Sky Is Too High is released by Transcopic on Mon 70 Aug.
..o/lH'[lH'
Isle of Arran Distillery
Scotland’s feistiest new addition to an age-old heritage — that's the Isle of Arran Distilleries’ 1995 Lochranza Single Malt. The Spirit officially became whisky last week after three years of careful preparation, and Ewan McGregor was on hand to open the first-ever cask (no, the workload hasn’t been taking its toll — that isn’t him on the right). The product of the island's only (legal) distillery for 150 years, the single malt will go on sale inl 2001 — although for now the distillery shop has plenty of other exclusive whiskies on offer. The List was one of a few to sample a tipple along with Ewan. Our opinion? A beautiful nip With a sweet toffee taste on top and fire in its belly. Order it by the case or the cask on 01770 831264. (Alan Morrison)
127 THE L!ST~