Al's Festival fringe receives cut

I love talking about the old days as a kid growing up. Whether it was playing monopoly or later on going to bands. Standing outside the Astoria when the Only Ones were playing for 50p and I'm the wrong age or enjoying the stage at La Sorbonne in the Cowgate before heading along to the Hoochie Coochie. I didn't earn much when I was at school but by 17 I could go out for a session in Coppers and then back home via the Avon. Nowadays its the Monopoly money that makes me chuckle. I remember to make the game fairer we'd give the loser an extra £100 for the next game. It grew arms and legs until a game where we gave the player who drew the boot £2000 to start the game off and we had to see who would last the longest before going bankrupt. We didn't know we teaching ourselves about finite resources, asset acquisition and the money supply. We were rolling a dice. Nowadays everyone who has a kid is rolling a dice. Whenever they go to the ballot box, they're rolling the dice. What they dont know is how loaded it is. The growth in poverty has been inversely matched by the concentration of wealth.

Its not just the food banks that have seen growth in the last 15 years. Property rentals and prices in the city during the fringe have spiralled. The higher they go the lower the turnouts. Student accomodation continues to appear the biggest housebuilder and asset managers are the jobs of the future. Venues however and the town are showing a calming of the waters. We still get loads of sell out tours, like Oasis and Kanpur1857 to name but two. For many of us though, its the free fringe. Enjoy a £7 pint in the white Hart or £6 in the Auld Hundred, then listen to the vibe, its not all North American nor is it locals nowadays. Hear about what the visitors and up to even if you cant make the shows and support them. Its a shame but if you've only got £1000 for your trip to the Fringe it cant compete with those on loftier budgets. If you're on the bus coming through for the day its hard to keep it under £100 just ask anyone who live's in the town its still an expensive business. The biggest plus in Edinburgh is outdoor drinking doesn't need to involve a £7 pint. You can sit, jakey style, in the meadows with a £1 bottle, or if you like, on a hot day, a £2 bottle. You can sit in the meadows, on the steps of George square, in Princes Street gardens or along the Water of Leith listening to Oasis. I'm often asked why its so expensive and where does the money go. I think I wrote during COVID that Edinburgh University buildings are an asset that the Finance dept sweat. They need the money to support what they do. Whether its £30-£40million I dont konw but its a sizeable amount. The Council will also get some favourable sums from allowing permits for this that and the other. No idea how much that's worth, I really wouldn't want to start thinking about it. All of it adds up to most acts dont make money and we all just throw a whole lot into the kitty and get badly poured pints in plastic glasses. Tasteless overpriced food from average kiosks. Poor students trying to make enough money to be able to go for some shows after their shift. Its a circular economy and all the moeny earned goes back into providing pals with free tickets and good times. Free pints and the odd pizza. Its not the Fringe or the performers that are pricing it out, its just the expected weight of cash generation. This is available to fewer people, unlike 50p to see the Only Ones. At the time 50p would get you a pint. Now you nearly get two pints for £12. I dont need to equate it to paper rounds or house prices. Inflation is not a problem when we all do it together. Wages, pensions, pints and printing Deadbeats. The problem as I found with charging 10p is that shops took 2p or 3p so if I didn't double it to 20p I couldnt afford to do it. I think the same of the Fringe sadly. They need to double the prices of drink, shows and accomodation, but I'm not sure I can afford to pay. Luckily I can still wander around and enjoy the buzz, oh and the buzz cut, only £15. Glad my hair's sorted, it really was irritatingly hot and sweaty. PS Inflation explained Many people think inflation is a one of increase but its the rate at which everything continues to go up. What's worth is it's the basket of goods you randomly choose to represent inflation. We all have our own inflation. Home owners regard house price inflation as good if its their last large house purchase. THereafter if you're downsizing its a good thing if house double in price over 5 or 6 years. Similarly, but opposite, those who rent have no great interest in the house price other than hoping for a crash so they can afford one. If prices continue to go up they will have to seek to live in another location, or even country. If housing costs exceed half your income then you must leave. Chronic shortages make the NHS weaker as the lower paid staff cant afford to live and work in the NHS, particularly in cities like Edinburgh. While house prices and rents are the major expenditure for the majority of people their impact on the inflation figures can often not be as significant owing to vast parts of the country where there is still very low house price inflation, even deflation. Run down areas have lower rents and trailer parks can drag the UK average away from the reality. In presenting statistics there is explanation and caveats. If you cant understand the distribution its easy to arrive at a conclusion of your choosing. I like the pension statistic for UK average of claimants. In short how long will everyone life to claim their UK pension. All those who die before reaching pension age will not apply for a pension, leaving more for the rest. All those women who got their telegram from the Queen got 40 years of pension. At that stage the men got 35 years. The laugh being, the split was about 80/20 when I went down this rabbit hole during covid. The problem with understanding statistics is you have to immerse yourself in the data to draw conclusions. Most people dont want that, they want a glib, binary, yes or no answer. It would for example be easy to have a battle of the sexes debate over pensions where people load up their guns with various aspects of the statistics they like. What policy makers need to do is undersyand it but, of course, they like to win debates, which means ignore the data. Ah, I've done my circular argument, time for the allotment.

Make it Happen - Cheek by vowel - fandom gone mad

This audience blew me away. It was as if the cast had waved a spell and we had split into two camps. One lot loving the panto season while the other lot were confused about the treatment.

Music, comedy, tragedy, incongruity it was like a game of Wordle. Sometimes I loved it sometimes I felt there was a language divide, a generational split, a seismic shifting of societal plates, off message, on message, loud, bright, dark, quiet, burke, hare, old and new Edinburgh.

A Paisley buddy interloper is presented to us, joining the refined masonic establishment. 

I knew some of the people the cast were playing. I identified with some and not with others, but this is theatre, it's panto, it's designed to do everything and from a musical perspective all we were missing was Status Quo "Rocking all over the world", Life Support's "the penny drops as the mushroom rises" and Orange juice's "Rip it up."

I can picture the young Fred going along to the Bungalow bar in his late teens watching the punks overspill from Glasgow in 77, then Orange juice, Aztec Camera and so many more. As an introverted wee baddie oops, laddie, I'm sure he had it all growing up and yet it wasn't enough.

It's not well documented just how many bad decisions were made by boards up and down the country. Judging by one old gentleman who left at the interval, they were happy to keep it that way. The faceless wonders who move the pawns around the board have always held fascination for a wee boy like me with a love of torches. 

"Shine the light" wasn't one of the songs but there were a lot of songs making this a borderline panto musical.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS

In my mind there was a wee guy with one lie, that he used ruthlessly to climb the tree. When he looked up and saw there were no branches ahead he had a Damascean moment. He went from finding folk with no perceived value and binning them to finding folk who  perceived value. It's like the emperor's got no clothes, do you know any emperors like me. Finding me a bunch of naked people. Yep no problem boss. 

So a guy who cared only about the bottom line then changed to only caring about what people thought the bottom line meant.

It's true that Gold varies in price. The momentum behind gold makes it look unstoppable but what use is it. It's perceived value and Fred works out it's even easier to show higher profits if you alter perception.

This was used by Carrillion, Maxwell and many others. Higher dividends often signal a business growing so one in freefall can hide among the column inches as it's profits tumble if it keeps putting it's dividend up. They have letters for it and not all are vowels. EBITDAM was popular during the Enron years.

So in short, Fred only had one truth on the way up so he needed a new one.

Had he been worshipping profit or listening to false prophets? We'll never know but he stopped believing in profit and started to believe in the perceived prophecies. This new religion proved the cult it was and by now, he was, of course, the count of Gogarburn.

Not happy with worshipping he decided the worshippers should follow the one true disciple. He was Adam Smith's biggest fan. This was indeed a stalkers sad and tawdry tale.

What makes it sad is not that his God is dead some 200+ years, many religions like to have grave to visit. What makes it sad is that it had become fashionable finance to choose chunks of the wealth of nations in front of people as financial fact, as political economy, an ideolgy.

Hubris is weaved into the narrative at the beginning and the end. Gently placed to remind us where he came from, not where he'll return.

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Fred had neither and he found that out, like Maxwell before him, as Michelle Mone is now. Prophet's of perception. Fred might've demanded the Queen open Gogarburn but I'm sure she would've taken more pride in closing it as i'm sure Charlie's private office will find a way to make it part of his wee portfolio.

Washed up at 50 and clearly confused by what just happened. From my side of the table I could tell him.

The crowd loved seeing Brian Cox play himself. Something about an old grumpy bastard telling it as it is appeals. Some of the lines were so well set up they tripped over them laughing. It was hysterical watching it, befuddling too. You can't keep complex thoughts going when there's such a big joker wearing a clown hat and appearing in a puff of smoke.

When it was sinister it really left me confused. I'm 62 now and had real problems keeping up. I asked afterwards whether I'm just too old and not any good at theatre. Happily I got as mixed a reaction as the audience had displayed.

I'll hopefully find out in the coming weeks if the standing applause was for Brian Cox coming over from his home in LA to give the Dundee Rep a formal and fun time farewell. It certainly will give them a boost. The cast all looked very happy at the encores. They should be, it was a  long hard and busy night. I found it mesmerising as the scenery seamlessly slid off the stage with a silvery sleight of hand. I really did like the loolipop gag. I do want to try and understand why we had Franz Ferdinand one minute and Fred singing Mr Blue Sky in Fingers the next. Are we back into taking artistic licence. I really do savour my theatre experiences, with digestion lasting easily a month. It can't just provoke a frivolous thought in the moment for me. I do want more.

I'll also be happy to find out why the gentleman left at the interval. Edinburgh is indeed a village and these stories get out. If they don't, we just make up another, it's Edinburgh.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

The first commandment from the prophecy of perceived profitability.

Deadbeat exhibition

I love nosing through the back issues. They're so full of memories of a childhood of dreaming and doing. At the drop of the hat I'd jump a bus to Glasgow, Perth or Dundee to pick up some cash from one of the shops selling Deadbeats, go to the pub watch a gig, get pissed with the band, sleep on a bus home or someone's floor.

What's not to like. 

They were great times. I remember interviewing slaughterhouse 5 in a pub near Queen Street station. By then they were called the Floor and their manager wasn't happy with me as I wouldn't interview wet wet wet. It was personal I just figured I really liked the company of the band, I'm just one person and Wet Wet Wet seemed to be getting plenty of publicity and we at Deadbeat were too insignificant for them, surely. Ha ha, oh how I laugh. It was around this time that the wheels off my life were spinning towards yet another car crash. I was happy in my confusion one day and completely suicidal another. As sure as night follows days I'd rise or fall. Deadbeat was just so much fun and most of the people we met were brilliant. 

Our first real interview was with Roddy Frame on the bedroom floor in the hotel in Dundee. Aztec Camera had just blown away the crowd at the Dance Factory gig.

Sex n drugs and Sausage Rolls was our first headline. Not sure we hit those heights again. It didn't matter we were there party, provide a platform for new bands to acquire an audience.

Go out and party while the country culturally was under siege.

4 years later, the end of Deadbeat was in sight. I tried to put out a 4th birthday free issue but it hit the cutting room floor.

It's still there in the archives and on the blog somewhere.

This year I want to update the bibliography page so bands or their fans can look back and see those early days.

We were so lucky to have people contributing from all over. Some issues we'd have a lot of time to put it together and others it seemed like work or hangovers got in the way. Many reviews or interviews just never got typed up. It was as chaotic as it should be. It was our childhood. I'm becoming that child again, and now I've got the time I realise I couldn't work without a deadline and I was pretty shit when I had one. 

More to work on then. Interviews with where are they now for our YouTube channel. That's 2025.

We weren't capable of being snotty, we were 

Working on the exhibition - probably find some pictures of the Camino...oops!

Just lately, I realised I've got to get it together. Anyone remember the Slider, a great wee club from 1983. The same year Keith and I traipsed up to Inverness icerink to watch Mr Echo and his bunny men before interviewing Will Sergeant on the freezing ice about themes from the grind and all things Arctic Ocean Rain. Very topical it was and 40 years on we wished we'd put more in about the icebergs.

The clock's always been ticking but you feel the impending explosion.

The Deadbeat is 40 project has a new name. 45 is the new 40.

So what I want to do is showcase some of the best stuff and then take it from there.

It seems to me these are genius wee artefacts from time and after the spell in the museum humana evolution the past 40-45 years are fairly insignificant. 

They are however the only bit of time I've got to draw on. More specifically 1982-86 and the history of the music industry.

When we interviewed Big Country and Roy was with his hero Stuart Adamson we had no idea 40 years on that he'd be dead and have missed the last 20 years. That his sound would continue to carry on says everything about his pals. It resonates, the past really does resonate.

When we saw then interviewed the Smiths, we had no idea in those 4 years that Morrissey's chat would be to do a Cilla number on the b side of Girlfriend in a coma. Little things like that really resonate with me in capturing how big is now.

So its time to plan an exhibition.

Camino Norte Castro Urdiales to San vicente de barquera - posted on Deadbeat should be fatal-bananas blog...it's an age thing

Yes, a few steps and a few buses. It's how we roll. Two nights in Noja and some of the most amazing beaches ever.

Our Camino included the fun associated with power cuts as the Iberian peninsula lost it's electricity for a few hours. I'm sure there are theories but sometimes you just leave them, parked at the door, wander to Isla and walk around the headland again, this time, the tide is out.

Wow, I thought when I saw why nobody was riding the surf on this beach yesterday afternoon, it's a bed of nails. 

when we arrived it looked a pure sandy beach as far as the eye could see.

It really is breathtaking indeed. The coastal erosion is stunning. The distance between high tide and low tide is about 200 to 300 metres.

The battle between the land and the sea. 

The humans side with the land and try to hold back the sea. 

Nature is a wee bit bigger than that and I think the Greek gods can teach us a few things. You might not believe in blood sacrifices to these gods but the power of nature is as self evident now as back then. If we can think Socrates and all those other duffers had a story to tell them you have to listen to their gods. In economics we talk about everything gliding into equilibrium in the long run. We ignore it at our peril and I loved thinking as we strolled. 

Nature will find equilibrium, it's in its nature. It's evolution and as all those Darwin fans will know species evolve and disappear. We may be missing a trick by counting them as they become extinct. That's a bean counter talking too. We do measure a bit too much but rarely before we cut. We just keep measuring like it's the job, it's the purpose, but it's not. It's why billionaires continue when it's pointless acquiring any more beans. You just need a bigger bean counting machine. Like Carnegie they get it nearer death and try to build that legacy. 

Create a myth about themselves to make them feel better about dying as their own wee battle with nature comes as quick as the surfers splash. 

The truth is they could've cured poverty, homelessness, produced free power, even sorted AIDS back in the day not wait until it fitted the corporate schedule that concludes with death. Aw, wha's like us, gie few.....

Spiking on the rocks in a sandy cove. I'm lucky as I sort of got it as I turned 30.  Stu and I sat in a farm house in France and said retire by 40. Caitlin had just been born so the pressure was on.

When the seagulls follow the trawlers....it takes me back....   ..  There's so much of life can pass you by but then again not everyone wants the same things and plenty still want other people's things. I'm more a sharer, I like to give my stuff away. I like a museum especially a free one. It teaches what value really is.

That's the game.

Value, that's a great word. What is value. Diamonds on the souls of your feet? A house to live in or a money pit to pay for. A company with a FTSE valuation or the company of good people.

The museum in Burgos dedicated to Human Evolution is such a beautiful if head spinning place.

I've waxed lyrical about my ancestors from Atapuerca for years. I feel such a warmth towards them. 28000 years ago Neanderthals finally gave way to Homo sapiens who couldn't help it, they just had to keep expanding.

It was a peaceful extinction by all accounts. A bit of interbreeding according to our DNA, or maybe I've made that up. I love how it's a wall of people that just keep coming. The surge into exploiting resources isn't new, we've been doing it for years. 

Were like the four tops, we just can't ourselves.

I took loads of pictures but by the end my brain was positively frying. We sneaked off to the peaceful CAB balcony on the other side of San Lorenzo.

We spent 2 hours and it's absolutely wonderful. I'll go back again and pay next time. Being retired Jackie and I got in for free. 

She certainly hadn't age as well as austro.....podicus.....

It's just bewildering for my chemo brain to consume.

It's all about the economics of evolution, or should I say the natural evolution of the monetary system. Finite resources mean we can't all win unless we work together. Not easy when slowly our whole world has moved it's attention to winners. 

I've moaned about Olympic programmes targeting the medal winners only. Football that refuses to acknowledge the necessity for feeder leagues to prosper for the people. I'm not a huge rugby fan but that's another sport where natural selection is everything and participating is neglected. It used to be a naive concept of mine that team games introduced concepts of being aware of strengths and weaknesses. Knowing you need a little help from your friends and one person is not an island. Specialists exist so they can trade with other specialists. We all have a role to play. Well not if you change the rules and play a new game.

Thankfully there are still fun runs of togetherness, ramblers, community minded people but it's getting tougher.  As more "Glazer'esque" solutions grip the global sporting world we are told what to like and the push back gets harder. How can you atop.likimg your team just because they change the model. Buying glory not building it. The Man united tale is a salutary lesson of how bad it can get. A global brand of the kings new clothes. 

Each generation often rebels against the last so how can we prevent this version of cultural aka coastal erosion.