We would have stayed longer but the house is calling and we have lost a lot of momentum. As I had to go to Helensburgh and Rothesay immediately after we came back to coach school debating teams for a renewables competition we have only spent one day in eight on the plot. Such are the demands of the day job. Even so we have now blocked ten corners out of 33 - and it is exacting work triangulating every 150ยบ corner as we have only 10mm tolerance out of 25 metres for the kit.
Anyway, got to thinking about what makes us rich. It's easy at Celtic Connections to understand that the true wealth of the Scottish nation might owe more to Scottish arts and culture than to the Royal Bank of Scotland or the 'wee pretendy parliament' at Holyrood. (Quote courtesy of the Big Yin) It is an utterly fantastic festival of joyous music and song. It is a real celebration of Scottish culture and its links with the world. Musicians, poets and singers have much more to offer us than bean counters, investment bankers and politicians. So .... world turned upside down ! We'll substitute musical notes for pound notes and be governed by those who make us happy, make us think and give us the huge pleasures of music, dance, words and song. Let's have our Makar, Liz Lochhead as First Minister (she's a republican socialist by inclination btw) and Donald Shaw,the artistic director of Celtic Connections, with his fantastic juggling skills in organising this event as well as his self effacing musicianship really would do a great job of running the Scottish economy. (Donald Shaw played at Gigha Music festival last summer with Karen Matheson and James Grant in a singularly beautiful set). Instead of bankers bonuses we'll settle willingly for encores by Capercaillie, Blazing Fiddles, Jack Bruce, Aztec Camera, Paulo Nutini, even Nazareth.... Instead of the primary school points scoring of First Minister's Questions these and other public debates in the Scottish Parliament will be worthy of being downloadable, released on DVD and will sell in thousands.
There will be queues for the public gallery. At least there is a good acoustic in the very expensive debating chamber but we'll just have to rip oot the seats in the public gallery so we can dance.... Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham will be our envoys at the United Nations. Edwin Collins will uplift us and Paul Buchanan move us. Imagine a nation whose currency is culture - not necessarily high brow - but not poor ersatz fakes and forgeries like the pop products of manufactured 'talent' shows. Scotland has phenomenal musical and creative talent. RSAMD would be our wealth generator not Gogarburn. There will be statues of Stuart Adamson, Gerry Rafferty and John Martyn in George Square.
We saw another storming set from Blazing Fiddles on Saturday . Now I don't know why four or five fiddlers can really rock but they do. Our friend Fiona saw them when she was pregnant with Alex who kicked like hell all through the show. Alex is now 8 and learning the fiddle herself...
For any of you who love guitar and guitarists then Rick Holmstrom is your man - a perfect foil for Mavis Staples and one of the best players I have even seen.
The final weird thought I had was that I'd love to hear Paul Buchanan of the Blue Nile sing with Kathleen MacInnes. Two of the most moving voices singing together might just work, if the language issue can be resolved - but then Tommy Smith did play a sax solo on 'Mi te M'Uillin', Karen Matheson's lilting Gaelic song. The best Scots musicians really do know no boundaries.
