In November 2005, we asked you again for a set of questions to put to Colin. We send a selection of them to Colin, and here’s what he had to say.


The big question really. Please tell us all about the new album.

•What made up your mind to bring in a producer?

•Have you finished recording?

•When do you think we will see the album released?

I’d like to start (I’m well into a bottle of red wine so bare with me…) by saying that I hope you ALL know what you mean to me and how cool it feels to make music for you. I appreciate that. As I said to the guy in Sainsbury’s who came up to me the other day…I’m the lucky one.

I want you all to know that this site will be developing more and you ARE the site. My music is for YOU.

Okay, here goes. I’m working with another producer for several reasons…..by the way, his name is Nick Franglen, and you’ll know him as being in Lemon Jelly.

My new manager suggested it, and I think we’ve met creatively and it made sense to me. I’ve thrown myself in and it’s working. That’s the main thing – that you connect and feel like you’re on the same page, and we are, and I do. It adds some objectivity really, which is only a good thing and a positive thing for me at this stage. It’s not that different really, it just means that there is a bit less of a workload for me and I can concentrate on my performance more – especially on the vocals.

I remember Stuart Murdoch from B&S telling me that, after he had worked with Trevor Horn, and it’s true. I have definite sonic aspirations for this album and I think it’s started off in the right direction. I think at this stage it made sense to get somebody in, on a programming level, who could help me make that happen. I’ve produced 3 albums so far, so I’ve learnt loads, but you can learn from other people as well. But it’s still just me doing my music. Sticking ideas to tape and working instinctively.

I don’t know what else I can say about the album without you hearing it! The songs are just another step on my journey. I want to keep moving, closer to the truth, and take you with me - and hopefully there’s a few new songs that will make you want to dance! I want to make you dance!

No, I haven’t finished recording it yet. I’d say you will all hear it next year. I don’t want to make any predictions because – as you know – the “Business” got in the way of the promotion & release of my last album – and from now on I want you only to hear info on my music from me, and without any promises from others that they, and subsequently I, cannot keep (i.e. a cancelled tour & a cancelled Download Single – but read on, because there is another chance at that for you…). That will never happen again on this website.

Lets keep fingers crossed for you hearing it by the first half of next year though. The songs feel right and taking me where I should be heading next. It’s good fun.

 

Do you prefer writing straight-up pop songs (like WX, I Tried etc) or do you prefer writing the more ambitious/epic songs (such as Minister For... and Death of a Scientist) Do you feel you HAVE to strike a balance between the two in order to keep people/labels happy or do you just like it that way?

There’s no guidance or targets for me to hit from any other sources – I write what I feel, what makes me satisfied; what I want to express; what pisses me off or makes me sad or happy or want to scream from a roof. I don’t really have a preference, but I want a few pop songs on this album.

There is another epic song though among the new batch I have – it’s bloody epic! It will be the title track. Might need trimmed a bit – like my hair. I like writing both those types of songs. I know what you mean though, I don’t seem to hit much in the middle..

I think with the pop songs – and I reckon I have a few in this new batch – they’re very immediate. They hit me and I have to document them like a dream, if you don’t tell somebody quickly enough it will vanish. They are usually little ideas/thoughts/melodies that appear in my mind like nursery rhymes, you think: “That CANT be any good, it was too easy?” That can sometimes make it seem throwaway and not valuable – Watching Xanandu was so immediate that I sung it out of my mouth at my kitchen table as though it had been planted there.

“Famous For Being Famous” is like that. I feel like I’m slicing cheese with a knife when I play it – it’s all angular guitars and handclaps. I’m glad I got up and turned on my Dictaphone at 2am for that one. They drive me crazy sometimes. It can make you very anti-social.

 

On This Is Hope we had Gospel singers, preachers, beer kegs and conversations regarding Hitler’s nationality amongst other things. Can we expect any more interesting samples on the new album? (Hitler certainly is Austrian, btw)

None of those were actually samples…they were all real recordings…but I take your point! Maybe I’ll research Mussolini’s origins, I don’t know. The Austrian girl just arrived outside of the Strongroom studio in East London while I was hitting a big drum (used in ‘Next Life, Scientist & Tob Zoo) – it was late and I was standing in the courtyard for extra reverb – the tape was rolling, I hadn’t hit the beer kegs yet – I think she stumbled out of the Strongroom Bar – and the conversation ensued. In no way was it planned. But I’m glad I liked History at school, otherwise I wouldn’t have known so much about her fellow Austrian. She spent the other 5 minutes, which isn’t on the album, trying to imitate my Scottish accent.

My Gran tells me that I have too many “twideley” bits on my records…she’s the best spotter I know of a hook– even if she was one of the twideley bits herself on the last album! So, maybe I’ll go with less Austrians on the next album.

I don’t know…I’ll wait and see what else develops. I have some ideas for a school choir for one song and maybe a guest co-vocalist on one of the tracks.. There’s already some pretty strange percussion on “The Water” – car keys, kids toys, glasses, cheese graters etc, and I hit a cardboard box which is a kind of bass drum – but it works, there’s no point in doing things for the sake of it, they have to work, The Water is that type of song – you have to imagine it being sung around a campfire and all these percussive touches start to join in. Ray Mears would hopefully approve. The Water is a survival song right enough. The only thing missing are the effects of the baked beans off ‘Blazing Saddles’.

Kitchens have all the best percussive instruments. Much better than music shops. Music shops on the other hand do not sell kitchen appliances, so it’s important to know where to shop for what you want. Sometimes it takes two trips. Maybe that applies to life as well as kitchen shopping? I’ll think I’ll bring this metaphor to an end.

 

How much do you change songs from their inception to the final product?

Well there’s no hard and fast rule. I think I’ve always had a pretty clear idea of songs before I record them. Because I write and layer up playing the instruments myself I kind of have to be that way – quite organised and clear before enter the studio.

But this album will have more programming, and another producer, so the door is ajar. I feel a bit more like trusting my instincts this time. My brain seems to be All Right-side, so I try to make up for it by being organised and setting a clear plan for each song, documenting all my original ideas from my MD player and my mobile phone recorder etc etc, but I think if I threw it all away somehow it would still resurface in my mind in the studio. Maybe I should throw it all on that camp fire.

Again, it’s all about a journey and trying different things out, throwing ideas in the air. But I’ve got a pretty good feeling where they’re going to land. It feels good. Great even! I’m very excited by what could happen next year.

 

Will a tour follow the release of the new album?

Of course. I can’t wait to get out there again. I think I’m going to really appreciate the live thing more than ever – my first few years of recording and releasing and promotion and touring sometimes seems like a blur, but I can’t wait to savour it now. It was all happening at once for me. It was a lot to learn, especially as I hadn’t been gigging for a few years before that.

But in the past I used to like a bit of glamour on stage. Try and wear clothes that no one in the audience would have on. I’d go to second hand stores and fancy dress shops. I want to look different on stage. Freshen things up a bit. I’ve been shopping. Not for kitchens.

 

Have you missed touring in 2005?

Yes, but I needed to take some time to write and find a home. I’ve pretty much made 3 albums while continuing to tour so its no big deal to take a year off the road. Some artists take 2,3,4 years – so I’m not doing too badly with just one. It’s been cool to spend some time off the road, watch TV, read books, write songs, attempt to write books, play football, go to gigs, and wash the socks. Actually, I need to buy some socks..

 

Is there a particular venue you dream of playing but haven’t? (Anywhere in the world.)

The Royal Albert Hall? Or Radio City Music Hall in New York. I love the name – its quite poetic and other-worldly, and every time I see it in NY I dream of seeing my name in lights. Never been in it though, so it’s a shot in the dark.

 

Which current groups/ artists are you most enjoying listening to?

Franz Ferdinand (the band). Hard-Fi. Neil Young’s new album. Radio 3 (the station, trying to educate myself on classical music more). Rufus Wainwright, Gorrilaz, Bob Dylan, White Stripes, Martha Wainwright, and still putting on the Arcade Fire album a bit. I’ve got access to an i-pod now, which is great and has 5000 songs already burnt on there; I can never listen to a full album or anything for too long so now I can dip in and out which is great.

I was in France last week and I confess to scrolling down through the “M’s” to have a look, and then putting on The Final Arrears as I had a wander through the village. Sad, I know. It was for the sake of research. I walked through a cemetery listening to it.

 

Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to writing? (Song-writing or novel writing)

People & places & things & emotions & feelings & 28,265 other things.

 

What is your novel about and when is can we read it?

See my journal/diary on the site – there’s a full, and I mean full, update now there. Can’t say exactly what its about or it would ruin it, but check out my diary. Is anyone reading my “book of the months?” There’s been a few crackers recently.

 

Do you ever feel paranoid about how much of your emotions you put into your song? Does it feel weird letting strangers in on some of your deepest emotions?

No, it doesn’t feel weird now. I’ve done it since I was a child. It’s just what I do. Not to do it would be weird. It’s a need to express. It’s my way of doing it. There’s probably some ego in there as well.

I think if you’re an artist of any form you have to mean what you say/sing/paint/write etc. If you skirt around the edges then you’ll get found out. That’s when blandness and dry rot sets in. How can I expect you to believe in my music if I’m not honest about these things? The hope is that if I express myself in my songs honestly and from the core then somewhere out there somebody else is listening who feels the same way or has been through the same feelings/emotions/situations.

 

I do lay myself pretty bare in my songs I suppose, but I sometimes hold back and save some things for myself when I talk about them in interviews. Sometimes I wish the songs could just speak for themselves and you didn’t have to say another words about them.

 

I was really, really inspired by the "Greyhound bus" musings in the This is Hope booklet and felt I could really relate to some of the ways you described the creative process. This leads me to two questions: At what point did you realise that you could actually make a career out of your creativity, and what is the strangest thing ever that has inspired you to write a song?

Thanks, it’s not an easy process to explain or to grasp between your hands, or ears. I’ll never forget that bus journey. I was riding high (literally, through the Catskill Mountains, and also emotionally, having finished the recording process for the album – and it was Spring turning into Summer also) and I hoped my musings didn’t seem a bit indulgent, but fuck it, it was the way I was feeling and I saw no reason not to say it, or write it. It’s no wonder I lost a few apples with all this going on upstairs!

You should read Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles, Vol 1”, for some cool ways to describe the creative process. He sums it up so well, so clearly. I’ve always been interested in reading how other artists “made it”; I’ve always, since I was a kid, liked to read about their stories and journeys, imagining that I could do the same one day. So if my story can help anyone do the same I’d be chuffed.

The point I realised that I could make a career out of music was when the Bank of Scotland gave me a £15,000 loan (offset by a small publishing offer of the same amount which I decided at the time not to take, I wanted a better deal, but it could be used as a security for the bank against my loan). I used the money to buy equipment and enable me to give up my job for a year. A record deal followed about 8 months later. I was confident that I finally had the songs I suppose, which was as valuable, or not more, than the bank loan.

I’d had years of writing and honing, trying to find my style – thank god the Bank of Scotland recognised it, even before Warners did! (I sent my business mgr at the bank a copy of “Loss” when it came out, with an invite to come to any of my gigs.)

I just needed to MAKE it happen, but having the time and money for that year helped – it was a gamble. Alasdair Gray, the Scottish writer (the man who wrote “Lanark”) says it best – “Money is important to an artist, especially when you haven’t got any.”

The strangest thing that’s inspired me? I’d have to think about that…some of the initial sparks of inspiration for songs have just floated off into the ether I’m afraid (I was amazed at Bob Dylan’s clarity in recollecting this kind of thing).

Not sure how strange this is but I have a new song called “I Have Been Burned”, which was inspired by watching Ricky Gervais on TV. I wrote the song instantly after watching the last episode of his “Extras” programme. I hadn’t seen any of the other shows in the series but something touched me. It was dark in my house and my guitar was close to hand and I was alone – that’s usually a good recipe.

I suppose writing Public Service Announcer while being stuck on the London Underground was a weird one (and I’m now realising that I had a dream about that last night also!) Remember…you have to tell your dreams quickly or they go – like songs, and buses, and underground tubes.

I’m sure I’ll think of something better when this email has already gone, lost into the digital ether.

Oh, the road-sweepers in Tobermory on Mull once inspired me, watching them at work at about 5am as I stumbled home from a party. The song was called “Lines”, a favourite among my mates at the time – who were my audience before all of you arrived! I’m sure I told them once about it, the road-sweepers. God, now I’ve started there’s loads of songs that have been inspired by passing moments like that, often at 5am as well. I’m that close to going upstairs and getting all of my old songbooks out (they’re all in order – very sad!) and checking through them for weird inspirations. We could be here a while tho..

 

You once said that you wanted to write a musical. I have always thought that “In The Next Life” would be a terrific finale or first half closer to a musical – have you got any further with this plan yet?

I have loads of songs written for a musical, but no real plot tied down. I have a massive white board in my house with all these song titles, ones that I’ve written over the past 10 years which are not right for me now, but could work on a stage. I like working on last pieces of paper, wallpaper rolls are the best.

Yeah, I think “In the next life” could work. Thanks for the tip. All the songs that I’ve got put aside are more stage-Musical though, in a song and dance musical sense. Somebody suggested that the hidden track on “Us” would work, so I’ve made it into a full song. It’s definitely on the back burner at the moment though. I get the feeling that it would be a fuck load of work. But one day…

I went to see Billy Elliot in the summer (the night before the Flight 5065 gig on the Millennium Wheel..it was a fantastic couple of nights when London felt like it was on the Mediterranean) and it was amazing. I love the fact that the miners’ strike could inspire a musical – that’s what they should be about: real life. It was stunning.

I’ll just let the ideas fester more. I think with an album and a novel I’ve got enough plates spinning on knitting needles already. Although, I want to write a good play. Some nights I come in and I feel, right, I’m ready… and then I back off, not sure. It will happen. I admire artists that can cross into other areas creatively, that’s what I want to do.

But music – and this album - comes first, no doubt. That’s my main focus. Other than eating Green & Blacks chocolate.

 

Have you ever considered writing songs for other acts?

Yes. I do think I could write for other people. Hopefully that will come as my career develops.

I do write a lot of songs and often I discard them because they’re not right for me, so they’re always around for somebody else. I wrote a song for a film last year but it didn’t quite come off. But I think it will happen. I’ve got a few ideas on that front. I wrote a song with the kids from Tobermory High School on Mull last year. I also have a song which I think is written for Morrissey…so who knows. I think that’s what a really good publisher can do – open up these doors, as can writing good songs and sticking around long enough!

 

What will happen with the unreleased songs from the Hope sessions, especially This Is Hope? Will they ever be released?

Yes, they will be B-sides. As will a few I still have left over from “Us” & “Loss”.

I’ve just decided that “This Is Hope (The birth of Prometea)” I’m going to give away this Christmas as a free download on the site. It was the first song I write for “Hope” and it set me off on the course for the themes of the album – I found the newspaper article in Italy (it was in English) and it told the story of the world’s first cloned horse (it’s not easy to get something to rhyme with “DNA”). I chopped up the article and made a song from the words. Death of a Scientist I constructed in a similar way, albeit more from researching online.

So, Prometea is yours. It will be on the site in the coming weeks. As will a few other extras…sessions/live stuff/demos etc.

 

Do you have a thing for Pigeons? You’ve done two songs regarding the romantic escapades of that particular species, and may be the only songwriter in the world to have managed this feat.

Should it be inflatable pigeons we bring to gigs from now on?

Yes, I hate them! Simple. I probably have about 2 or 3 other songs about them that you wont have heard somewhere in my demo vaults. (There’s another weird inspiration for song writing…when I saw a show on TV about a pigeon fancier…)

I’m possibly the leading recording artist that there is around at the moment on pigeon subject matter. You think they’d be more appreciative and leave me the fuck alone!

You can bring inflatable anything you want to the gigs. Just nothing live please.

 

Do you ever get homesick for Mull, what do you do to cure it?

Yes. I used to sit in an office in Glasgow and try to imagine the air from Mull, for some reason I always bottled the image from an October evening, around the car rally time. Everyone goes out late at night to sit on hillsides and drink carry-outs and wait for the cars to whiz by. It’s an excuse for a piss-up and it’s usually so dark you’re not sure who or what you’re sitting next to. It can get messy. Especially in lambing season..

Now, I just pluck “Calgary Bay” (my favourite place on the Island) or even better watch Balamory (only kidding..). Or just head up there.

 

Who should've had the top 5 places in The List Scottish Top 50?

These things are always subjective. They would be different on any given day. But “The Wave Band” – my uncle’s band from Mull – should have been up there though. I think B&S are great and were a fair enough choice on that day.

 

Who’s the most famous person on the contacts list in your mobile?

Alex Hurricane Higgins – the snooker player. Or my Gran? Or Irvine Welsh? It depends on where the fame is taking place.

Hurricane Higgins was my obsession for a bit when I was a kid. He was so charismatic, he was a lovable rogue - always doing things differently and putting 2 fingers up to authority. For the front cover of “I Tried” I wanted to use a famous photo of him and the record company tracked him down, but he wanted to speak to me. He would only negotiate with me for some reason. So I called my childhood hero on his mobile and he was in a bar (he’s not doing so well now) in Belfast. It was sad really, he was barely legible and wanted too much money for me to use it. He kept calling me “Mr MacIntyre”.

But he is still a legend as far as I’m concerned. And I kept his number.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know more musicians & other creative people this year – it has been one of the good things about not being away so much – so my contacts book is more healthy these days. If these people are famous then it’s because they do something worth it. I think we all look for respect from our peers no matter what you do, whether it’s playing snooker or sweeping roads or writing songs. So it’s good to know a few.

 

Who would you go on as if you were forced at gunpoint to go on Stars In Their Eyes?

Frank Sinatra. I’ve got the hat. And I’d know the right people to sort out that guy with the gun..

 

What ambitions do you still have to fulfil in life?

Phew…loads probably. Number 1 single and album. Have a novel published. Write a musical. Win the Mercury Music Prize. Have a Play of mine brought to stage. As well as many personal ambitions, which are private I suppose.

But I don’t really live my life that way. If you dream and want things enough, they’ll happen. I think fate is the leader.

I suppose I’d like to find a home for the giant “Trudie”. I think I’ll be moving away from the dog. It’s time she retired.

Oh, and I’d like to one day win the Tobermory Highland Games long jump competition.

 

"Mull are a beacon of originality in a tiresome sea of dross", was a quote from Time Out regarding Loss. What would you like their quote for the next album to be?

I’ve always been treated pretty kindly by the press, so I don’t want to tempt any bad fate! And the guy who wrote that is also now a friend, but that means nothing when it comes to reviews!

But if I can indulge a bit I’d like to share an album review of mine that you wont have read anywhere. It’s from a man from Mull who used to run the youth club when I was a kid – he’s one of my mate’s dad - and he sent me this email when he heard “Loss”. I’ve been carrying it as an inspiration in my silver briefcase, which contains the songs/ideas/lyrics for my next album.

Before you read it, I should explain that on Mull, to say to someone: “What a head”, is a compliment…and Calgary Bay is a beautiful beach on Mull. I don’t think he’ll mind me posting his email:

Hi colin, it’s a bit like listening to Calgary bay inside a cathedral, let me explain…..very fresh but contained….it’s a bit like silk with rust on it…you know, soft nice but with balls as well…kind of like a colourful scrotum…its full of contradictions…at one point I though I was listening to PET SOUNDS (probably one of the best bits of music put together in the last century) then the grindy insides of some garage somewhere when a kid gets to putting his music to tape for the first time…nice one, colin. What a head!

 

Finally, I know that you are having a Christmas get-together for some members of the site. I’ll be in America otherwise I might have turned up with my acoustic guitar and my Santa beard. But I will have a few surprises there for you…including a few things that you can try and win…my Final Arrears silver jacket being one. Then you can sit at your xmas family dinner in a silver jacket like I had to do in the video. Hopefully none of your family look like the people in the video, if they do, then drink more wine.

p.s. Maybe I’ve said this before somewhere on here, but in the video for The Final Arrears the director wanted to film an alternative ending…it was like a horror film ending. I was made up to look like some crazed freak (obviously very little make-up was needed).

I hadn’t seen myself during the make-up application, as they turned me into this freaky persona, but then after the filming I saw myself in a mirror – it was fucking scary! Horrible, it looked like my face had been pumped up with air and then melted. Then I had to sit in the back of a car as I was driven down to another building to a toilet to scrub it all off – that’s the only journey in my life when I’ve known what it was like to be the Elephant Man. I’m not totally sure what the director had in mind.

The ending was considered not likely to get on MTV, it’d scare too many kids, so the director went with the ending as you’ve seen it.

But near the end of the video as you see it the director stuck my head (with the scary face make up, as was) very quickly in the corner of the screen – have you spotted it?)

Cheers!!

 

More info will be on the site ASAP on my recording. Speak up if there’s anything else you’d like to see on here. Looking forwards to next year and seeing you all and hearing you all and you hearing me.

 

Colin xx

 

 

 

 

Interview Archive:

 

 

In July 2004, Members Of The Society, were given the chance to ask Colin some questions. They asked, he answered!

yossarian1
With 'Us', you had fourteen tracks, which is quite a lot for an album, but now you've gone back to the more...normal 11-track format. Was that an unconscious decision or just not wanting the album too long (you mentioned in the recording diary there are two nine-minute songs on 'Hope')?

it was a conscious decision. like most things with the evolution of this album, it just seemed right. i didn't want too many

tracks on there. i wanted the album to be punchy. death of a scientist was initially 9 and a half minutes long but i edited it

without losing anything from it. in the next life is the other long track. i'm not sure if it was ever 9 minutes long(although i may have said that!), but those songs were always the epics. i've already done a 14 track album as you say, so i wanted this one to be different. as i had written on the side of my sheep in the studio - less is more. (or more is less..)

Maria
from 'Loss' to 'hope'... What did you lose? What do you hope for? Are you more optimistic than you were?

well the inspiration behind loss is pretty well documented now - but it was about the loss of my father. but it was also about moving on positively. i hope for lots of things. i hope that george bush doesn't get re-elected(this is the hebrides), i hope that i'm re-united with those that i've lost close to me(in the next life), i hope xanadu continues to be peculiar(peculiar..), i hope that community values can continue(tobermory zoo), i hope that the political machine slows down and catches the deceivers(death of a scientist), and i hope that i have milk in(breakfast).

koriordan
The extra tracks "You asked her to marry you" and "MHS lady" on "Us" are some of my favorites, why did they not make it as album tracks?

Is "you asked her to marry you" about someone who's gay? It sounds very much like a song about a guy who marries in haste to avoid facing up to his sexuality.

mainly because i had too many songs, and this was a way of getting them on the album in some capacity. it was hard with Us to select the songs in the end, but i'm happy that the cd rom songs will always be on there. that's a good take on "you asked her to marry you" - i suppose it could be interpreted that way. it was more in my mind about missing a chance with somebody and choosing a course in life as a result. it isn't autobiographical.

teenagefanclubfanandmhstoo
what did you nearly say and would have done if you'd had 5 more minutes

i suppose these sentiments apply to everyone in relationships with friends and parents and family.

StevesSociety
I would like to ask Colin if he would consider making a lengthy track from the amazing piece at the end of the Us album. I totally love that trumpet tune right at the end and wish he would do a full vocal track using it!

i'll think about it. i'll let you into a secret..it was a piece of music that i wrote about 7 years ago called, "the whiting of the people". it was about walking through

snow. the rest of the song sounds a bit like a stage musical, and was similar to a lot of music that i was writing around that time. my plan is to put a musical together some day of all those types of pieces that i have. i've been using it as an outro piece at the live shows. but i WILL do something with it. well prompted.

Latka
If you were to be stranded on a desert island what would you take if you were limited to 3 items??

Me and Miss Latka-to-be are getting married in a cave and want a Mull Historical Society song to walk out of the cave to, which one do you think would be best??

the cave song is definitely "Peculiar". although it's no direct comment on you and mrs ladka(is that what she'll have to answer to!..). i can recommend a cave also - on mull(surprisingly..)there's a cave called the whisky cave, and its on the west coast of the island on the atlantic and its where in the 19th century they used to illegally distil whisky and sail it over to ireland(there might be a picture of it on the "about mull" section of the website. anyway, its worth a visit. i could organize a pa system for you. cant marry you though..

my 3 items would be. my piano. my guitar. my mobile phone, so that i could be reunited after a while, and also so that i could order pizza and chocolate.

editbitch
I hear you are taking the giant dog in a wig on tour......
would it please be possible for it to be available before or after the gig so we can have our pictures taken in it???

good idea. at the T on the Fringe gig at the edinburgh festival in august it will be sitting outside the venue for this purpose. i'm also taking it to V festivals and will try to arrange a similar thing. maybe we could run a competition for someone to be sitting in it and being towed behind the tour bus on the next tour?? on second thoughts, maybe the insurance claim would wipe out the tour budget..(which includes industrial quantities of dog food on the rider..).

Lady Georgia
How are the new members of the band fitting in and is it hard to adapt to a new line up? I thought Ross the drummer was really cool and pulled funny faces.

they're fitting in fine. i only use them when i'm playing live, so after i've rehearsed them like a maniac they fit in just fine. better than fine. they're good guys and good players.

empathy
What's on your Tour Rider, and what items on your rider do you usually not get? ie. hard to find items etc....

see above...also, i like peaches. they clear my throat from gunk if i've been eating the wrong things. i have food allergies and they can affect my throat. inflatable sheep are sometimes a problem. i was a big egg mayo sandwich fan until i realized that they added to the gunk.

durpworth
I was reading through your diaries and in one you said you wanted a bacon bagel... although you've also said your vegetarian in the past. If you are a vegetarian, what influenced you make that decision? My friends all blame me being one on Morrissey... lol.

i like morrisey, but it wasn;t him. in fact, i'm not really a vegetarian. i eat bacon and chicken occasionally. my decision was based not on philosophical or moralistic grounds but mainly on the thought of what i'm eating. it started when i stopped eating haggis(sheep's guts). then black pudding(blood..) and i've gradually cut things out since then. i think it may be connected to my bird phobia. sometimes i can close my eyes and eat meat. but red meat is definitely off the menu. and pigeon.

this is another me
If my information is correct your sun sign is Aries THE RAM.
Arians typically cannot help putting themselves first, their personality is fiery and passionate with an urge to act NOW!
Would you say that's a fair description of you ??
However, Arians are likely to put off what really must be done - what is that you have been putting off ?

yes, my birthday is in april. i think its a fair enough description, apart from i'm not sure i always would put myself first though. i've been putting off booking a holiday. i have BA complimentary club class tickets to anywhere in the world. i should get onto it. maybe i could take the dog and get some sun on its wig.

just gill
if you were a chocolate cake, would you have the self-restraint not to eat yourself?

no. i would eat myself. i love chocolate.

mrsp
So if you happen to become stranded on a desert island with ur crew. Would you rather survive with a select few of the Tobermory population or brave it with the Balamory residents?

select few of the tobermory residents. tv characters will only let you down..although, we'd maybe need pc plum to police the desert island.

djshuggg
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

togas

AlasdairDukeWardrop
Hi, I was just wondering what was your opinion on the removal of the direct ferry service from Tobermory to Coll and Tiree? Is it a sad consequence of the decline of small Highland communities and the role of the sea in sustaining Hebridean society, or is it a happy consequence of developments such as air transport and macro-economic change, which mean that small islands are now less reliant upon so-called 'lifeline' ferry services to connect them to the outside world?

If you think that questions rubbish, then: where do you see yourself, the dog and MHS in five years' time? (oh and what's the dog called?)

mull doesn't have an airport - not if you don't count the football pitch where the emergency helicopter lands - so i'd say its the former answer in your question. in 5 years time i see myself and the dog(trudy2) sailing back and forward endlessly from mull to tiree - blissfully - pondering the answer to your question of island economics in relation to transportation.

milli
you get all white sheep
you get all black sheep
you get white sheep with black heads (the whole head rather than the spot)
so, why dont you get black and white patchy sheep?
only you can enlighten me as you are the only person that i know of who might know (or care)

milli. i went online. i did try to research your answer, but this is all i could find...so at least you can make one, and maybe your answer will be revealed.

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Baa, baa, black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Provide each student with the body of a sheep (similar to the pattern below) photocopied onto cardstock or a similar stiff material. Have the students cover the sheep's body with white cotton balls and color the face, ears, and tail black. Have each student paint two wooden string-type clothespins black. These will be the legs of the sheep. When the sheep's body and legs are dry, clip the clothespin to the bottom of the sheep in the appropriate place to form legs.

If you want to make your sheep totally black, shake the cottonballs in a gallon ziploc bag with black dry tempra paint. Shake off the excess paint.

invisiblesquirrel
What do you envy?

the lifestyle of the shepherd

vari w
what is it like to fall in love with love again?

lovely

Paul M
If you could be in any other band in the world, past or present, who would it be? Which member of this band would you be and why?

tobermory from the wombles

muileach
This could be a load of shite but my parents insist it's true-
About 10 years ago, my parents (Guy and Sophie Bolton) had a house warming party and said Colin played at it, dressed as a red indian. Is this true?

its true. i think i was on bass guitar for the evening. it was a big jam.

say hello to your mum and dad from me. or maybe "how" would be more appropriate.