Dear Scotland

With the end of summer approaching, Swatrick takes a break from animating this week to go and cool off in his pool. No big deal.

For those who enjoyed reminiscing about the Barrowland Ballroom in Parts One & Two, this is a more personal look at Alec’s favourite Barrowland gigs. It was going to be a top ten before he got lost in memories of laughs, tears, hugs and flying cups of pish and it became a magical top 50. Enjoy.

Franz Ferdinand will finish out another massive year with a UK tour, three shows in Japan and then European dates which will see them visit Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria and Russia where they will play at the RAMP Awards. Ticket details below.

This week in SEAN, Saba has the latest on Henry Ian Cusick’s Darwin film, video of Craig Ferguson on chat shows as a guest, John Barrowman and David Tennant’s latest projects and another clip from another new Gerard Butler film.

The Pictish Trail (Johnny Lynch) is currently on tour in Europe with former Arab Strap Malcolm Middleton. Tonight the Pictish Trail are in Koln Germany and Vic highlights that gig along with their other shows in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway as his pick of all the Scottish gigs abroad this week.

Each Sunday we present some of the best new photos of Scotland in the gloaming, the magical time before sunrise or after sunset. This week featuring images of Fair Isle North Lighthouse, Aberdeen, Loch Katrine and Edinburgh.

A huge number of people I know in Edinburgh engaged in making what I guess you’d loosely call alt-folk seem to be refugees from a metal past.  I don’t get it.  How in the hell do you go from listening to death metal to wanting to make music that sounds like this?

Colin MacIntyre aka Mull Historical Society will be in New York early next month to play a couple of shows ahead of a full UK tour. Colin spoke exclusively with Dear Scotland earlier this week about being a Scot abroad, his new album “Island” and how he taught The Strokes to drink whisky.

Last week, Mrs Williamson – a medical professional – educated me on the “Glasgow Coma Scale”.  This is used by doctors worldwide to assess the level of consciousness of a patient and is named because of its invention in the University of Glasgow.  Surprised that Glasgow has expertise in head trauma?  No, me neither.