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  4. I really enjoyed that Niall. Thanks. As a fan of Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame’s solo stuff, Edwyn’s solo stuff and the Go-Betweens, this was a fascinating read.

    In 1993 I was a social work student doing a work placement that required me to get the first train from Kensal Rise every morning. Sometimes the only people on the platform were me and Edwyn Collins. Presumably he was on his way to West Heath Yard. I was aware of it through a weirdly niche Channel 4 reality-ish show based in the studio around that time. I was a big fan dating back to early Orange Juice and there were times when we sat opposite one another on the train while I listened to his great Hope and Despair album on my Walkman. I never plucked up the courage to talk to him. Years later I got him – post stroke – to sign a copy of the You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever album. It felt like eternity while he signed it with his left hand while Grace chatted to my pregnant wife but I was delighted. He saw the RoughTrade price tag and lit up telling me with glee that his son William worked in that shop. It has pride of place in my den.

    • Reading this back the morning after I’m amazed at how coherent it is. I was on a long bus journey home after attending an event called “Whiskey Live”, where my notes tell me I sampled 27 different spirits with a beer beforehand and a few pints afterwards. I’m glad it’s only once a year! About the only thing I’d add was that I saw Edwyn play a great gig in Dublin just before Covid and his son was on the merchandise stand. Edwyn was in such giddy form that he cajoled him up on stage for a song or two. It was a joy to see. I used to see Edwyn pushing this lad around the neighbourhood in his baby buggy back in my London days. I bought some plectrums with Edwyn’s bird drawings from the merch stand. They came in a little paper bag with “hide the biscuits, it’s Edwyn Collins”, printed on it.

  9. Roddy Frame is one of the greats – when I saw The Fountains of Wayne at the Garage in Glasgow, they were beyond thrilled to have walked along Killermont Street in Glasgow, and gave their version of this, one of the encores, a delighted “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED” introduction :

    (of course, as someone who grew up here, it was BONKERS to see people whose American heritage filled pop music be delighted about BUCHANAN STREET BUS STATION)

    Naturally, I have also visited the Diplomat Hotel in East Kilbride, which was, in the local vernacular “going down the dip”, and was full of people wearing clothes from FLIP, drinking Pernod and Blackcurrant, DESPERATE TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF EAST KILBRIDE.

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