Get BACK

Abbey Road Reception

It’s been a while since I had the time or energy to write anything here, however sometimes things stop you and make you think about how best to digest them. The new documentary by Peter Jackson around The Beatles recording of ‘Let it Be’ did exactly that to me.

From the very start, I was captivated by this footage that until now was never seen by the general public. So hilarious, so candid and so unlike most of the stories we’ve been told about this time in the phenomenal career of the best band in the world. In my mind this was a negative time full of fallouts, and arguments around Yoko Ono, money and songwriting royalties. Clearly this was not the case.

Lady Madonna Piano

A few things i noticed that struck me:

• The moment John Lennon was chatting to Billy Preston about the Martin Luther King speech “I Have a Dream”, and it dawned on me that they were in fact living that dream in that very room by playing together almost being those ‘children walking hand in hand regardless of race’.
• Paul writing the main melody for Get Back where you can see in the inner workings and how well he crafts a melody from a germ of an idea.
• Mal Evans, who is almost an unsung hero in the whole thing who does everything from transcribing lyrics, making tea, organising the instruments and buying bow ties.
• There is no getting away from Yoko Ono’s strange presence around the entire thing, unusual at points where she reads a newspaper and files her nails during the whole rehearsal whilst things are very tense and rapidly approaching a deadline.
• Paul McCartney and John Lennon at this stage seem to work better when the other is not there, a few examples of this where they take the lead role and things begin to become more organised.
• Amazing to see some of the songs that would later appear on Abbey Road, The White Album and even John Lennon’ solo career (Jealous Guy) being written as drafts around this time.

I was lucky enough to visit Abbey Road while a friend was recording an album and we sat in Studio 2 for two days recording which was a treat I will never forget.

Goo Goo G’Joob! :-)

Abbey Road street sign

Scotland Panorama

Ben Vane, Loch Lomond

Kilpatrick Hills, looking towards Loch Lomond

Duncolm Hill, Kilpatrick Hills

Cochno Loch, Kilpatrick Hills

Ben Vorlich, Loch Lomond

Climbed my 2nd Munro today, I chose to go a tricky route up due to taking the train through to Ardlui and so had a damp, steep walk up – took the scenic route down via Loch Sloy Dam.

There’s always the hills

A weekend of hillwalking to take advantage of the decent weather and just getting outdoors. For a few weeks I’ve been trying to get out more, and with the Kilpatrick Hills on my doorstep, its relatively easy. A good friend of mine recently told me about the hills around the Clyde Muirshiel Park and so we decided to tackle a few of those at the weekend. I also took the full family up and over the Cochno Hill and adjoining loch at the weekend too. A fabulous time for all.

Self Isolation WEEK-1

We are all very aware of the virus sweeping the world, country by country, city by city, people are being infected with Covid-19 and its having a horrible impact on elderly people and people who have existing health conditions.   We’re all working from home, pubs, cafes, gyms, leisure centres and libraries are all closed down, we are trying to get used to home schooling the kids as they have now been at home for a week.   No one seemed prepared for this, and some people are clearly in denial that it will affect them and continue to go about their daily business; riding on public transport, visiting friends and family, and other ‘normal’ activities.

Trying to summarise how i feel around this is quite challenging, at first it seemed like it was something that was happening ‘over there in China’, but as the weeks moved on and Italy had such an increase in cases, i admit i began to fear the worst.    We’re now in a very serious pandemic that i hope i never again see in my lifetime.     Even trying to explain it all to the kids is difficult, it makes no sense to them.  And why should it?

So, as a result we’re at home in isolation from the rest of the world as we all should be, i’m taking the kids out once a day for a walk or a cycle.  They need the air and so do I.  We live very close to the countryside and also a crematorium with very quiet grounds and excellent birds and rabbits etc, so its a quiet place to wander.

I do hope this will pass quickly, but lets not rush back into normality where there is no need, we can function like this, we just need to adapt.   We are learning to be more digital in our thinking and our daily lives, so let’s do that.   Stay at home and ride it out.   I also hope by the end of the pandemic we will be so sick of social media that it fades into the background and we learn what is actually important again and try to be more present with one another and remember the time in 2020 when this wasn’t possible.