The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Wot – No Joe Jordan Handball?

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Belle & Sebastian have released a Scotland World Cup song and, to be fair, it’s heavier on Stu’s flat cap than adrenaline-pumping highlights. The recent magical night against Denmark looms larger than past delights provided by wee Gordon, Archie or David Narey – although those Wembley posts must come down once more. As stirring as the chorus is, it just has to finish with the line “We’re playing Morocco in the heat”. But is it any good, Afterworders?

World’s Oldest Football Record

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Hi, I am a first time poster but a long time record collector and thought I would kick off my account on TAW with a question. Does anyone here have an older football (soccer) related record? The reason I ask is because I would love to know if one exists older than the one I found a few years ago and just showing the disc here may interest other collectors to get in touch. I found it in an auction lot a couple of years ago and it dates from 1907. The audio on the link is an Englishman doing the commentary on a Scottish match on a one sided 78 that was reproduced in German 115 years ago! Curious facts include Celtic referred to as The Celts on the label and that radio football commentary didn’t start until 20 years later. I hope someone has a similar old football related record and even though I have quite a few I am always pleased to see others I don’t have.

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BBC Scotland’s ‘Travelling Folk’ – Colin H on Bert J

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I was asked to do an interview on Bert Jansch, on the theme of the ‘Bert at the BBC’ box set, for BBC Scotland’s ‘Travelling Folk’ a couple of weeks back. It was broadcast tonight- here it is. It was a real pleasure talking with presenter Anna Massie, and cannily edited by Emma Gryczka. They make me sound coherent… 😀 For anyone interested, the Bert bit starts at 1:17.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fffx

Can Scotland Really Stay In The EU?

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Nicola Sturgeon is behaving in a statesman-like manner, holding talks with all and sundry, polishing the silver in her official residence so it gleams under all those lights and cameras and saying things in calm and assured tones. She is displaying exemplary ‘leadership’ qualities as defined by the world of politics. However, can she really retain Scotland’s place in the EU?

As far as I understand it, the UK is the member country of the EU. The UK remains in the EU until article 50 is invoked and the negotiations are completed. This process will take roughly two and a bit years. Scotland, as part of the UK, is intimately involved and would no longer be in the EU at some point deep into 2018.

Scotland could become independent from the UK. To achieve that there needs to be another referendum with the opposite result to last time. A referendum can only be triggered with the agreement of Westminster, which may take some time. Victory may well depend on the price of oil at the time of the referendum. Once the vote is for independence, there will be a period of negotiation to agree the terms of separation from the » Continue Reading.