THE SUNDAY POST

While I'm running the 45 45s at 45 series, I'm going to use the Sunday Post to round up a few things that I would like to draw to tour attention.

Last Tuesday night, I was one of a couple of hundred folk who went along to the Glasgow Arches to catch the debut solo gig by Aidan John Moffat. I wasn't sure quite what to expect - I'd bought his new CD which is immensely entertaining, if not the sort of thing to have playing when your parents come to visit. There's an awful lot of swearing on it for one....and in places its rather graphic about sex.

The CD is called I Can Hear Your Heart, and is largely a spoken-word effort that has 24 tracks that last in total just over 38 minutes. One of the tracks however is 10 mins long, while the others are anything between 7 seconds and 2 minutes in length. The CD is brilliantly packaged, complete with a narrative that has to be read before the first listen.

So, I wasn't sure if what we would get would be a faithful rendition of the CD or something different. In the end, it was a bit of both...

We got most of the album, which was very much Aiden speaking while fingering his portable organ (oo-er missus), then after a very short interval of five minutes, he returned to the stage accompanied by a guitarist (and I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten his name) and played half a dozen or songs including a handful of covers, including tracks by Glen Campbell and Kate Melua.

The third part of the night saw Aiden return and indicate he would recite some of his other unreleased work, but he would make up tunes and melodies using the portable organ on the basis of keys shouted out by the audience.....

Now if this all sounds like a recipe for a night of torture, tedium and unadulterated chaos, then you couldn't be more wrong. It was a great show - far from perfect as Aiden himself would admit with one or two mistakes made along the way (possibly the result of nerves) - but the 75 minutes or so flew in.

I hope Aiden does repeat the experience, as I wouldn't hesitate to head back again. And if he does bring it to a town near you, then I'd recommend it as a great night out.

If you haven't already purchased I Can Hear Your Heart, then I would suggest you do something about it ASAP. Click here for starters.

And to encourage you, here's something from Aidan's old band:-

mp3 : Arab Strap - Stink

I've spent most of the week immersed in a book, and its something I'd also recommend that you check out.

Now I'll declare a personal interest in this one - the author is a friend and former work colleague of mine, and its her debut novel.

The book is called The Twilight Time and the author's name is Karen Campbell.

The book has been lumped into the crime-genre, mainly because the main characters are in the police (or married to someone in the police), and there are crimes to be solved. As a crime-novel, it is superbly-written, with enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you intrigued to the end.

But this is a book that is so much more than a run-of-the mill crime novel. It is every bit as much about the tedium of domesticity and the politics of the workplace as it is a crime novel. It is a every bit an alternative travelogue of Glasgow as it is a crime novel. It has characters that are so multi-dimensional that one moment you will admire them and the next you will pity or despise them.

The Twilight Time is available most bookshops in the UK, but if you're having trouble finding a copy, you can always buy it here.

And finally, thanks very much to all of you who have been submitting comments and views on the 45s series. Its going to be running Monday-Fridays for the next few weeks until I go off on holiday, and then I'll be counting down the Top 10 in the months of June, culminating in the #1 track on the day of the 45th birthday.

I mentioned about 10 days or so ago when I posted Joe Jackson at #42, that I had lost that particular single along with some 499 others a few years back. Well.....I found it a copy again in a second-hand shop in Glasgow for 50p. Both the record and the picture sleeve were in superb condition. It's fate....

As ever, when I post something by Paul Quinn, there's usually a bundle of requests for something else. This is for Phil from Tel Aviv.

mp3 : Paul Quinn - Corrina, Corrina

This track is taken from the 12" release of the 1995 single Ain't That Always The Way on Swamplands Records (SWX 6).

Ciao for now