Edgar Meyer and the Scottish Ensemble – Perth.

The Scottish Ensemble were joined by the grammy award winning double bass player Edgar Meyer for their most recent concert in Perth.
Double basses don’t get much of a serious profile in the classical world, although most will know the famous “Elephant” from Carnival of the Animals.     
Meyer shambled onto the stage with his bass, and set himself [...]

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Little Voice – Perth Theatre

Seen in preview, this was the first venue of what will be an extensive tour for Jim Cartwright’s show about a dysfunctional mother with a shy but vocally talented daughter.
Famous, and much loved for their panto performances, Elaine C Smith and Andy Gray starred as the mother and boyfriend/agent.    They played this in a knockabout [...]

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Romeo and Juliet – Dundee Rep

What is it about Dundee Rep that makes its Shakespeare productions really come alive?     Romeo and Juliet directed by James Brining was a magical tale, thrillingly told by a strong and enthusiastic cast.  
We have had strong casts before at other theatres in Scotland who seem to so often miss the mark with Shakespeare.     But here, [...]

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Five:15 Scottish Opera

Scottish Opera’s Five:15 project of commissioning five brand new pocket-sized 15 minute operas was a bold an innovative move.      It captured the imagination, and resulted in ’sold out’ houses.   I really enjoy chamber opera, so I was looking forward to this immensely.    There was lots of pre publicity on the radio and in newspapers – [...]

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EARL and the Edinburgh Trams

John Swinney MSP told a meeting in Perth a couple of weeks back that the EARL project was not technically feasible.    He said that the proposed gradient for trains was not possible for existing rolling stock to negotiate, and that tunnelling under the airport runway was too risky.    I actually found that rather hard to [...]

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Tree Lines

Perthshire lowground is famous for tree lines within field boundary hedges.    It is an attractive landscape feature.    However, dutch elm disease killed off the elms over the years, and the existing trees – mainly ash, oak and sycamore are getting older.    Each year, more are lost to storms, and bits blow off them.   Farmers tend [...]

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Holyrood

I have been to the Scottish Parliament before on several occasions. It is a much nicer building inside than out, with many very unique and unusual features. The main chamber is particularly stunning. From the outside the building can look very severe, and less than inspiring.
Recently, I was asked to give evidence to a Parliamentry [...]

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