Letters
Compliments
of the season
Re: 'Complementary medicine' letter (issue 404)
Hal J. Robertson wants to get him/herself a good dictionary. Upon looking up the word complimentary in my trusty Collins, I note that, among other things, it means ’given free, especially as a courtesy or for publicity purposes’. The word complementary, on the other hand, means ’forming a complement’ (ie, person or thing that completes something), 'forming a satisfactory or balanced whole', or ’involvmg or using the treatments or techniques of alternative medicine'.
Thus spelling complimentary with an ’e‘ as J. Robertson suggests would only be correct in this instance if The List felt that its readership badly needed the Drambuie offered in order that their lives would form a satisfactory or balanced whole; or perhaps they’ve developed a complementary medical technique involving said libation? Either of these possibilities seems less likely than it being a free gift as a courtesy or for publicity purposes. Eh?
Jane McCardel via email
A complement to the last letter
Re: 'Complementary medicine' letters (issue 404)
There's nothing more obnoxious than a self-righteous pedant who’s in the wrong. Especially one who tries to be funny. J. Robertson writes to complain that his ’nut' was ’done in’ by your alleged misspelling of complimentary with reference to the Hogmanay offer of free Drambuie.
Of course, The List is correct. The reader's suggested spelling of the word - complementary - means to go well with something. Robertson would be complemented by a dunce’s cap.
Sorry this letter is such a terrible bore. Peter Ross via e-mail
Cradle rocked
Provost takes on Tower
As reported in The Sunday Mail, Tower Records in Glasgow was recently the subject of a police raid after a customer complained that we were stocking Cradle Of Filth T-shirts. Cradle Of Filth are a shock rock band whose subversive use of Christian iconography has attracted much publicity over the years. The T-shirt in question this time bore the slogan ’Jesus Is A Cunt’.
Glasgow’s Lord Provost commented, ’I have written to the head of Tower Records to convey my disgust and to underline that material like this must not be put on sale again'. However, Tower Records as the world's largest independent retailer is viewed by our customers as an alternative record store. As such we stock a wide variety of merchandise covering every imaginable genre of music. We pride
Write to:
React, The List, 14 Hi h Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE or React, The List, McLe Ian Galleries, 270 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3EH or e-mail react@list.co.uk
ourselves on offering the largest range of products available and leaVing it to the customer to choose whether they wish to purchase them. Andy Lown
Tower Records Managing Director
Nicked
Re: clubs (issue 404)
Your club correspondent has never heard of Nick Rappochli. It would help if it was spelt Rapaccioli: a recent inclu5ion to the Leftfield production team. Hardly a nobody.
Biggest fuck up though: Privilege didn’t get its license, so all club listings are wrong including the quarter page pic of Kilkie. Uh oh. Mistake Spotter via e-mail Sorry for the misinformation, but the details were correct at the time the club listings were compiled in the run- up to Christmas.
Reel life
Re: Why the musical hang-up? (issue 404)
Why indeed? Stan Reeves puts a very good question but I am not sure if there is a simple answer to Scotland’s seeming indifference to the great wealth of great traditional music that we have.
You can blame an education system which seems to consider a knowledge of the nation's history, culture and languages as an optional extra. It is a mere matter of months since a senior civil servant in the Scottish Executive Education Department assured me that everything was fine with teaching traditional music in Scotland’s schools as Standard Grade Music pupils had to know the difference between a jig and a reel!
You can blame the media for being largely ignorant of the native culture. Critics who were less than a twinkle in their mother's eye when Andy Stewart was in his heyday use The White Heather Club as a constant putdown, oblivious that when it started the programme was a revolt against the grand piano/velvet jacket style of presentation. Television executives think that entertainment and artistry are mutually exclusive. When I was recently in China all the concerts in the Nanning Festival were broadcast live on the local and regional stations with the main concerts being shown nationally. That didn’t stop thousands of enthusiastic peOple packing every venue we played. How much television coverage, apart from previews, will Celtic Connections get?
You can blame the traditional musicians, singers and dancers for not being pushy or pretentious enough. You could blame the pernicious Scottish weather that often makes a night by the fire seem more appealing than even the best live music.
But, hey, it’s not all dool and wael Balnain House didn’t close because its music wasn’t popular; it was the upkeep of all the other bits that caused the problem. There are pubs
and restaurants, a good few of them in Fife, which welcome a good 5e55ion, which will take the chance of putting on good traditional music, song and story events. Traditional musicians are being asked into places
where we weren't asked before. I
think we have established now that major Scottish political and historic events require to have a traditional singer or two and at least one fiddler and an accordionist in addition to the time-hallowed piper.
The product is great — but we have to keep showing people just how bloody good it is.
Sheena Wellington Leven, Fife
Celtic sold
Re: internet page (issue 404)
We are disappointed not to be featured in your on-line guide to folk. Our website has been in operation since 1998 before musicscotland or scottish-irish, in fact. We regard ourselves with justification as the premier folk and traditional shop in Scotland and have satisfied customers' requests, enquiries and purchases all over the world. We have received many compliments on the look of our website www.codamusic.co.uk. Our staff are bearded and have Celtic or Nordic names as a matter of course and are regarded as folk gurus in the depth and extent of their knowledge.
The author of your piece is aware of our shop which prominently displays our website address in store and on our bags and your folk writer, Norman Chalmers, both visits and contacts the shop for CDs as part of his reviewing. At present we are the only source in Edinburgh for the Celtic Connections programme because of our prominence in this field.
We sell and recommend The List magazine to visitors looking for a comprehensive what’s on guide to music and other events in Scotland. It's a pity there’s no reciprocation in this case.
Coda Music via e-mail
Coffee shops roasted
Scottish cafes threatened by big chains Edinburgh’s Cyberia Café has closed abruptly due to its customers now going to Costa and Easyeverything. I am sure I am not the only one to mourn its passing. Glasgow, meanwhile, has just been gifted Scotland’s first branch of the London- based Pret-A-Manger chain and another US chain has recently announced plans to open up here. Independent businesses, such as Cyberia or the Bookstop Cafe, have their own individuality which lends them vitality and makes them a far more valuable asset to Scotland. Why are we allowing Scotland's cafe culture to become swamped by clinical, corporate, money-raking machines? Jonathan Muirhead via e-mail
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02001 The List Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the written permission of the publishers. The List does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material. Printed by Scottish County Press, Sherwood Industrial Estate, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian.
l8 Jan-l Feb 2001 TIIE W111