The Rathbone Appreciation Thread

[rathbone]

Keep up the good work - your efforts are much appreciated.

Sorry.... I can't hear you for the very loud music.........

[Epykat]

Keep up the good work - your efforts are much appreciated.

Sorry.... I can't hear you for the very loud music.........

Even on a Sunday? Do your neighbours get no respite?

[ecm]

The things one can learn from your fascinating history threads, Rathbone.

On 7 September two band competitions were held under the auspices of the Scottish Amateur Band Association. These were the eighteenth annual championship competition open to second section bands and the eighth annual competition open to third section bands which are affiliated with the Association. Test pieces were set for each section, namely Madame Butterfly for the second class bands and Beethoven’s Macbeth for the third class bands. There was a large muster of bandsmen.

I hadn't ever heard of Beethoven's MacBeth before. I knew he had only ever written one opera and it seems, from what I found out from a quick google, that he only got as far as the overture for MacBeth which was to have been his second. It's a very rarely performed piece according to what I read.
I'm now curious to hear it.

[Puerto bella]

Admin: moved to this thread

The chief attraction during July was balloon ascents and parachute descents. Four members of the accomplished Spencer family of aeronauts had come from Hendon, bringing with them two large balloons, one used for captive ascensions with passengers who desired a bird’s eye view of the district from the altitude of 1000 feet and the other in connection with Miss Spencer’s daring parachute drops.

Each evening before a large group of spectators Miss Spencer made a flight from the sports arena to a great height and when over the waters of the Firth of Forth cast off in her parachute which came slowly and gracefully down. When she touched the water a quarter of a mile or so from the shore there was a considerable splash. Provided with a cork jacket, the lady floated till picked up by an attendant motor boat, while the released balloon, caught at a high altitude by a current of air from seaward, drifted across country to Niddrie before an automatic deflation device brought it to earth, to be safely retrieved by a party of assistants who had chased it in a motor car. Miss Spencer (who had been engaged in this daring profession for three years) returned with as little delay as possible to the Gardens and was heartily congratulated.

What a wonderful spectacle.

[Bob Jefferson]

From the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, 20 July 1910:

[Skeely]

I'm enjoying the turn the Marine Gardens thread is taking (not being a great footie fan). I've been inspired to Google...

Here's Drew McQueen (from this page)



And KidCurtis (from this page)



And here are some lovely '30s speedway bikes.

Keep up the good work Rathbone

[rathbone]

Thanks Skeely....... great pictures.

I was getting a bit bored with the football as well ..... but you can't change history (or so they say )

[cocoa]

Subject: Rathbone's Ramblin'

How is the current economic climate affecting your creative juices? There has been a lot of hand wringing in some art circles about Arts Council grants being cut because of the recession.

I was a reading a piece by Phil Poynter in Dazed and Confused where he said : “ Out of recession comes creativity. You’re pushed to find a way to present your ideas if there’s no financial support. People come together at those times and challenge each other, and that always turns into something.”

Fair enough, I will buy that as far as it goes, but I hope it wasn’t coming from some nostalgic view of bad times past. Nor will I accept the view that people only come together and challenge each other when times are bad. Creative collaboration goes on all the time. If a project’s worth its salt most people will get it to work some way, some how.

The vast majority of creative people are just like the rest of us. They struggle most of the time. Most artists, musicians and writers that I know are operating financially well below the national average wage. There are only a very few David Hockneys, Adele’s or J.K. Rawlings in this world. Being creative doesn’t recognise the norm. Inspiration doesn’t come along on a 9-5 programme, so artists’ work runs on its own timetable which isn’t conducive to making money. In my experience, and I’ve had lots, it’s a load of tosh to claim that trying to produce something to a deadline brings out the best in you and produces good work. It doesn’t. It leads to cut corners and compromise.

It’s also tosh to say that good art comes out of adversity. Some times it does but most times it doesn’t. For most people art is impossible without at least a degree of stability. You need the time to think and you don’t have that if all your effort is going into simply surviving.

Nor should we confuse the content with the source. The Boys From The Blackstuff didn’t come out of the dire economic conditions in Liverpool under Thatcher, it was inspired by them. It was created by people on comfortable BBC salaries. Good art comes out of good artists.

Art and money have always been closely connected, and there have probably been a few artists who have given up because their Arts Council grant has been stopped. But for most of them it won’t have mattered a jot. They never received subsidy in the first place.

Nor should we be deluded into thinking that the average man in the street gives a toss. Art rarely impinges on Britain’s Got Talent.

How the economy is affecting the arts is obviously a subject close to my heart. Most of the musicians and artists I know are seriously struggling.
Traditionally the way that most professional musicians eat, pay their bills etc. And 'subsidise' their creative work is either by teaching or by playing any gig that comes their way. When times are hard the first thing to go is the band, so the pub gigs have all but dried up and there are hardly any corporate gigs. Even weddings are thin on the ground with people getting a dj instead.
Yesterday I heard about a well-known Scottish guitarist who after only having 20 gigs last year is now teaching more or less full time. Which on the one hand is great (he can feed his family) but on the other hand when he is offered gigs now he is unable to do them because of his teaching responsibilities?
The arts and sport are funded from the same pot so with the Olympics and the commonwealth games coming up you can guess where most of the funding is going! The little money there is left over is mostly directed into teaching. So we have a budding generation of educated young musicians, brilliant, but there is nowhere for them to play so the best of them have to move away to London, America, Europe.
As far as great art being born out of hardship I don't buy that either, it's not that difficult to be a starving artist in your garret when you're 20, but when you're 35 with kids it's impossible. So if you think that only the young can produce great art....
and yes you are right the average man on the street doesn't give a monkeys, but economically the arts bring a massive amount of money into Scotland and are one of our biggest exports, as well as being, in my opinion, essential for the emotional and intellectual health of all people weather they know it or not!
Sorry about the rant, I think you may have pushed my buttons

[cocoa]

Hi, I really look forward to the weekly poem. Some I've loved, non I've loathed,I've been moved, I've laughed and I've even gasped with shock (WFA GAES BY NICHT GAES YIL HIS DAITH Robert Garioch) I have often wanted to comment but don't want to spoil the flow from one poem to the next (for me it's the same with your ramblin's,if I posted there I would feel like I was interrupting). I used to like poetry, but had somehow forgoten and got out of the habit of reading any, so thanks for rekindling the spark.

[Franck]

Yup, Rathbone makes this forum worth a daily stop.I've tried to link those flickr accounts for Portobello Harbour with no joy, can anyone provide a source please?I'm intrigued.

[magbagpuss]

Day has not started til I've had my Rathbone fix.

[cocoa]

Beautiful, moving poem today. thanks.

[Porty]

Top stuff from Rathbone it always is .

[Epykat]

The post about the talc made me feel a bit sick - too much info about what's going on in your trousers bro.....

[rathbone]

Enough of your nonsense - get back to the Play Pen!

[cocoa]

I also had the pleasure of working with lol on a number of occasions when he came to play in my club. The sound tec had a theory that the more "out" and difficult the music, the nicer the musician, because they got all of their "badness" out in the music. Lol was one of the nicest, and most layed back people I ever met.

[cocoa]

Whilst understanding why,I am sorry to hear about your decision to remove the “poem of the week” thread. It has given me great pleasure and re-kindled a dormant interest. I hope your “ramblin” isn’t going to be adversely affected!

[cocoa]

Wellcome back,I was begining to worry about the size of your hangover after the 'BIMBO' meeting.

[SoupDragon]

Thanks for the info on Flintoff fight.
I'd heard it as he was going head to head with Richard Dawkins.


Not that I'd think that The Greatest Show on Earth

[SoupDragon]

Well I never knew about the Clarkes and Jamaican connection
To me the getting measured and buying a new pair was the first hint of the start of a new school term.


It may have been noted my choice of footwear is now either Crocs or Doc Martens
Sadly for a while Doc were associated with dubious skinhead types but gladly much as ska went two tone Docs are now a mainstream product
They have now brought out "the ultimate festival boot" basically a Doc welly ( Drench)-rather comfy they are too and can stand several inches of slush as I found out the other morning