First things first - today is Alice Cooper's 58th birthday - so Happy Birthday, Alice! Here he is late last year - still rocking...
Up late today, around 9 or so and breakfast was taken “in house” and comprised coffee, toast and marmalade....
The postman arrived and, just as I uttered the immortal line (whilst gazing on the paltry two letters which had been delivered) “so much for the replacement CD”, a further two packages came flying through the letter box, almost catching Meg the Black Cat right on the nose (but she was too quick of course)...
The replacement Uriah Heep solo albums CD is perfect this time, not a hint of Freddie Mercury to be heard – and Ken Hensley’s voice on his first solo album is uncannily like Dave Byron’s so it’s almost like a long lost Heep album – great stuff...
The other package was the Françoise Hardy 3CD box set, arriving from China. You may recall I paid around £6 for the CDs and £9 for postage...
Unfortunately the book/box is in pretty bad condition – partly due to the world’s postal services I think – it’s covered in bashes, is torn in places and the booklet itself has become unattached from the hard cover....
Oh well at least the music’ll be good....
I called Jamie around 9:45 to firm up our arrangements for attending Jim Park’s dad’s funeral today and he said he’d pick me up at 10:30. Meanwhile, as the mighty Heep blasted out through Crispycat Towers, Anne headed off into town....
At 10:30 Jamie arrived. It was a beautiful bright early Spring morning as we made the 20 minute trip down to South Queensferry although, as we arrived at the church, a bit of a mist had rolled in off the Firth of Forth and turned conditions slightly chilly....
I recognised many of the faces in the church including of course Jim, his brother Gavin, his sisters Ann and Janie, Janie’s husband Max, Jim’s step-sister Margaret and Jamie’s mum and dad and our old chum Donald Mitchell...
It was an excellent send off in which Ann and Jim both played significant parts, Ann playing a lament on violin to open the service, then joining Jim in the recital of one of their dad’s favourite poems, “The Blue Doo”, which had the whole congregation laughing...
Jim’s dad’s best friend also recited a few poignant and pertinent lines by Robert Burns...
There were some interesting stories about Jim Snr – for example the fact that, like the Queen, he had two birthdays due to his dad having gotten so drunk to celebrate his birth that, if he wanted the date registered correctly as 25 January, he’d have to pay a fine – so he registered it as close as possible without being punished (31 January).
Having never seen his birth certificate, Jim Snr always celebrated his birthday on 25 January as his dad had always said he shared his birthday with Robert Burns. Later in life though, he needed a copy of the certificate and was very surprised to discover he appeared to have been celebrating the wrong day all along, for the certificate said he was born on 31 January - but of course 25 January was in fact the righ day...
In the end, he just ended up celebrating both...
The service was a true celebration of Jim Snr’s life and not maudlin in the least....
Afterwards the congregation followed his coffin from the church and lined the street outside as the hearse and cortege drove slowly off, led by a lone piper...
On the street, Jamie and I met up with a few old friends – Donald Mitchell, Nicky and Robert Hind, David Bann and Ralph Masterton...
Jamie gave Mitch, me and a former neighbour of Jim’s, Elspeth, a lift to the Warriston Crematorium back in Edinburgh, for the short committal service. There we met more familiar faces in brothers Greg and Dom, both past regulars in our five-a-sides squad...
By 1:15 we were back at South Queensferry for the post funeral buffet and drinks and we had a chance to catch up on old times....
The food was good - particlarly the Haggis Balls - and the drinks were just the ticket...
At 3:45pm the hotel staff were trying to get rid of us so we all made our way up to Jim’s dad’s house for “a cup of tea”...
As I walked in, memories from over 25 years ago came back to me. While at college with Jim’s sister Ann in 1979, I formed a trio with her on electric violin, her brother Jim on drums and me on bass....
Ann went off to University and the band ended up with me, Jim and Jamie Frain (James Jamieson) along with two guitarists from Bonnyrigg, Gus Bolton and Eric Merrill – who had been in punk band The Noise with Donald Mitchell on drums...
Over the next year, I spent many a happy time hanging out at this house and in the pubs of South Queensferry...
When Eric left we recruited Jim’s best mate Nicky Hind on guitar and the Midlothian/Queensferry axis continued...
Over that first year or so the two sets of friends from Midlothian and Queensferry formed a strong relationship – with the epicentre being the flat I shared with Gus and Jamie in St Mary’s St in Edinburgh....
When I went to live on Germany for a year the “gang” continued and Mitch ended up going out with Janie - Ann and Jim’s younger sister...
By 1984 the group had widened considerably, with Mitch’s various flats becoming the focuspoint. Eventually this group metamorphosed into the five-a-sides squad, starting off as the Old Codgers (including me and Jim) against the Young Pretenders (including Mitch even though he was only a year younger than us)...
And over 20 years later, Jim and I are still playing football – though I think I’ll be retiring now after the ankle break – and Jamie and I are once again musicking together....
But nowhere near as well as one of Jim’s late mother’s friends who was playing the piano this afternoon, with the highlight being a rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, which brought the room to a hush and elicited rapturous applause from the assembled masses at its conclusion....
Just before 5 we drove back to town with the promise of a call from Jim if anyone was meeting up for a drink later on since Nicky had flown over specially from his home in California, while Robert had made the trip up from London...
In the Scottish Cup, Hearts had thrashed Aberdeen 3-0 and city rivals, Hibs, had managed to beat Rangers on their home turf by the same margin. So, for the first time since Hearts in 1998, there will be a winner of the cup from outwith Rangers and Celtic this year...
Anne had enjoyed the Hearts match and, as a kind of celebration, we ordered a Chinese Takeaway for tea. Then, while Anne watched “Dancing on Ice” I listened to the first two CDs of the Françoise Hardy Box Set...
Unfortunately the second disc has a big mark on it, rendering the last 8 tracks unplayable. Fortunately I have seven of the eight tracks already and can burn a replacement, missing just one track – it’s still disappointing though and doubly so when combined with the sorry state of the cover....
At 8:45 we got a call from Jim to say he, Nicky, Robert and a couple of others would be in the Hotel over the road from his flat if we were up for a drink. We were – and we called Jamie to let him know what was happening...
It took us 25 minutes to walk down to the bus stop (normal time is 10 minutes but my leg was playing up) and we arrived at the Hotel bar just before nine to join Jim, Robert, Nicky and Jim’s artist friend Pete Swanston...
A couple of drinks later Jamie arrived and, shortly after that Mitch joined us too, which was a pleasant surprise...
Despite the sad circumstances which had brought us all together today, we had a good time recalling the old days and discussing, amongst other things:--
Youngsters nowadays
Jim and Nick’s fanzine “Unlimited Edition” from 1978/9 The merits or otherwise of the music of Abba and the Bee Gees
Capital Models – the band me, Jamie, Jim and Nick were all members of at one point
The various serious injuries people had had over the years The merits or otherwise of various films including Brokeback Mountain and CrashMy career as an artist
And so, much drinking was done, with only Pete tea-totalling...
The owner appeared to be allowing a lock in as, before we knew it, it was 1:30 in the morning and so Anne and I left for a taxi home...
....where we discovered we’d programmed the wrong channel on the video and so missed CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent not to mention the highlights from the Hearts match...
But we had had a good day despite the sad circumstances which brought old friends together once again...
Bed at 2:10
Highlight of the Day : Meeting old friends again
