Sunday, December 23, 2012

Three songs from The Whisky Companion - a work in progress

As Christmas looms, and the consumption of what Para Handy called 'Bruttish Spurrits' reaches a seasonal high, I thought I'd post a link to three songs from a proposed show called The Whisky Companion, currently at the planning stage.

https://soundcloud.com/thebeatcroft/sets/the-whisky-companion

This will involve, I hope some top singers and musicians, and possibly an act-orr, or someone who can speak loudly and with a resonant twang.

The more perspiciacious among you may note some similarities to The Malt and Barley Revue, which, in  various forms, has been performed across Scotland over the past three years. But there will new songs, new people, new poems and more and better whisky to taste.

At the moment, the show, which I hope will be sponsored by either one of the independent whisky bottlers or one of the distillers with a variety of drams in their portfolio, has  three sections:

 ‘The Country and the Cratur” is about place, language, names of distilleries, how landscape affects whisky, how whisky is the soul of Scotland. 'The Scottish international' is a light hearted look at Scottish identity - with samples of Scottish foods to try with whisky Stories, too, about everything from elopement to Japan and English and Welsh whisky. Finally, ‘We are all Connoisseurs Now’ looks at how you drink whisky, how to appreciate it, some jokes about pretentiousness, and a final celebration of  how Scotch whisky IS Scotland.

Poems, stories and plenty of banter to tie it together. Plus, of course, every audience member gets three whiskies to nose and taste, under expert guidance. Sort of.




Sunday, December 16, 2012

My Shetland Times Spaekalation column: Mareel's finances - more transparency please, and some remorse


SPAEKALATION 14 December 2012

As printed in The Shetland Times

I didn’t count the exact audience numbers at last weekend’s Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells gig. But the Mareel auditorium, its magical electrical seating in place, was a long way from half full. I’d say 50-odd paying customers. Insufficient to cover even the cost of press advertising for what was one of the most powerful and moving performances I’ve seen by a visiting act here.

We really enjoyed our night out in the metropolis of Coalfishreek last Saturday. Susan had a day off and was able to go Christmas shopping, fail to buy a bed (though she could have stolen it, as no living sales staff were in evidence at the store in question) attend the launch of the excellent Kollifirbolli’s album and consume coffee in at least three different outlets. A fantastic meal at Monty’s and then we were off to Mareel - again, in her case, as the Kollifirbolli album launch was held there.

But inevitably, talk in the Squinty Box was all about the £600,000 council lifeline to ShetArts  (”what do you get when you cross a grant with a loan? Answer  - a groan”) whether it was meant to cover capital expenditure or running costs, and what was going to happen next.

That major issues remain  for Mareel is not in question. I have already made my position clear: It is crucial for the future of arts education, cultural development, for the social and indeed economic future of Shetland that Mareel remains open and becomes the thriving, vibrant fulcrum of  the arts it can be. But it remains under threat, and some developments over the past week have not been encouraging.

There is great goodwill in the isles for the Mareel project, but Shetland Arts seems dangerously close to taking that for granted. Because there is also - and a look at any of the comments pages or online messageboards will confirm this - rage, confusion and virulent hatred. The statement issued by ShetArts in the wake of the council’s groan award, in which DITT’s  handling of the building contract was attacked in not so much forthright words as abusive ones, was terribly ill-advised. It has been explained to me that it was a strategic move aimed at establishing ShetArts’ legal position in the dispute with DITT, and that the aim is to recover all money which may be owed to the council, pay it back and stand, so to speak,  in glistening triumph at the North ness  with DITT’s decapitated bonce in hand: We axe for what we want.

But that statement also alienated a lot of people disposed to support Mareel. Because what people in Shetland want from ShetArts at the moment is a bit of remorse, a bit of straightforward openness. Maybe thrashing and bashing about in the public arena is good legal posturing, but  ShetArts  is suppposed to serve the public, not threaten the livelihoods of building workers.

And there is a lack of openness. Rumours are flying about the real state of the ShetArts finances, and in relation to the council, what needs to be dealt with is how much ShetArts really owes, on top of the infamous groan. Alan Wishart is the only person so far to publicly refer to this, on BBC Radio Shetland’s Public Platform . In response to a question from Jane Moncrieff, Alan first of all confirmed that it was the council which has been paying Mareel and indeed Shetland Arts staff wages. Asked if  ShetArts was repaying this money, he replied “they are now.”

The council has traditionally handled the administration of  the trust payrolls. It would seem that Shetland Arts has been using this as an informal loan facility. I am relieved that it is now paying the money back, but it should have been open about what it was doing and we should be told, right now, how much money is involved. Openness, honesty, transparency: we should be able to trust a Trust to be all of those things, even when it’s fighting a battle in the courts. How could councillors, at that private meeting, be objective about the request for £600,000 when they knew - presumably -  how much in hock to the SIC ShetArts already was?

Because then we go back to my night out last weekend: the cinema seemed quite busy, but the gig lost money. It is utterly pointless for ShetArts to spin their cinema ticket sales  as financial salvation when - incredibly worthwhile- events such as the Moffat/Wells show are so financially unviable. And when between 30 and 70 per cent of cinema income goes to the film distributor.
The vultures are circling. Informal meetings about a private takeover of Mareel have been held, and if the council ends up owning the building, a lease to someone who will promote nothing but henny nights,  Jim Davidson comedy, live darts and tribute bands could end up being irresistible to those councillors in thrall to redneckdom.

The  solution may well be for the Shetland public to take action. Would you be prepared to spend £100 of your own money in, say, sponsoring a cinema or auditorium seat? More? I would, if I could be confident in the methodology and basic ideology of those running the place. Could a body of concerned folk be set up to monitor and advise on what happens at what is, what has to be an arts centre, not a dance hall, not a club, not a money-making repository for falling-over drunkenness and worse? Yes, surely. It could be a kind of…a kind of…arts trust…

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Low Winter Sun at Hillswick, Shetland

Just a wee nod to @KidCanaveral, seeing as it's such a nice, if snowy morning...



Sunday, December 02, 2012

'This house believes Mareel is a sound investment': speech from Althing Debate, Tingwall, 1st December 2012


THE CONTEXT...new readers start here!

Mareel is Shetland's new, and very impressive, music venue and cinema complex, arts and multimedia centre, dancehall, cafe, recording and video hub. Owned and operated by Shetland Arts, a local trust formed originally by  Shetland Islands Council to enact arts policy, it has always been controversial, opened a year late and cost £12.2 million, around 10 per cent over budget. Legal wrangling with the main contractor, local firm DITT, continues.

Shetland Arts has asked the council for around £600,000 to match emergency funding from other bodies so that the (so-far) agreed capital overspend can be met. The council will meet in private in the coming week to make that decision.

***   ***   ***

Kevin Learmonth and I spoke in support of the motion, that 'Mareel is a sound investment'. We were opposed by Martin and Margaret Tregonning. Chair was Chris Bunyan, and there were around 30 people in attendance. There was a spirited and good-natured discussion after the excellent 8 o'clocks (great bannocks). As is traditional at the Althing, which has been going since 1947, a vote was taken on the motion before and after the speeches, discussion and summings-up. My memory tells me that the first vote was 15 in favour of the motion, four against and seven abstaining. And the second was 21 in favour, four against and 1 abstaining. But I could be wrong!


By way of introduction, I'd remind us all that tonight's Althing Debate here at Tingwall, site of the ancient Shetland parliament, is to be, apparently, the only forum for open public discussion on the funding of Mareel. We are told that the coming week's SIC meeting on the subject will be held in private. This is disgraceful.

***   ***   ***

I’ve been asking myself lately:

What are the things about Shetland, about being in Shetland, that I love?

That in particular, you can’t get anywhere else

Why did I come here in first place? Apart from the fact that there was this girl who was renting a house from the Health Board for £12 a week and who seemed quite interesting. And interested in me. And that I was being pursued by three angry Glaswegians who had taken offence at something I’d written.

There's a surprise.

Well, the things I loved, and learned to love about Shetland were first, the mutton. Roast mutton. Boiled, I'm still not so sure. Reestit? Well, it's fine as long as it hasn't been 'reestit' above a Rayburn along with a year's worth of drying clothes, mainly underwear. That is an acquired taste. But I still remember the first Foula mutton I ever ate. someone told me it tasted that way because the sheep had to swim to the mainland. Which seemed just as  unlikely to a city boy as them eating seaweed.

I loved the visiting, the socialising, the music. I loved the darkness, cosiness, what the Duthc call the gezillich of the winters, and then there was the extraordinary winter light…and of course the spring and the summer and the simmer dim to follow. 

The sea. Boats. The sense that money, how much you had or how little, was not as important as who you were, and how you conducted yourself. The sense of a community.

Now,

I  don’t love Mareel. How could you love a building that looks like a corrugated iron shoebox God has inadvertently stepped on? Built to block the view from every house in Brown’s Road, and already weathering badly on the its corrugated iron side?

I don’t love it  and I opposed it being built. I resented and still resent the way that Shetland Arts seemed unwilling to be accountable to the public for the way the project was being run. In many ways, it’s the last tangible outcome of a redundant policy, that of the arms lengths trusts. Proper, strategic thinking would have seen recreation, education, musuem and arts facilities economically integrated by now. Instead we have a haphazard collection of little/large fiefdoms in the form  of council departments and trusts, over-managed and eating into each other’s resources.

So Mareel sits there, the Squinty Box, 10 per cent over budget and demanding a further investment of just over a million pounds to clear its decks and pay off  what it is agreed DITT are owed. At least we think that's the situation. It's all apparently a commercial secret. Of that million or so pounds, there’s a promise of 600k from HIE and Creative Scotland, if, Shetland Islands council, already into this for 6m, provide half a million.

Is it a sound investment? I believe it is. It has to be made.

Unpopular in some circles? Yes. Embarrassing? Yes. For some councillors, probably unacceptable But, if  we’re talking about a loan here - perhaps a  loan at commercial rates, and I understand that this would be acceptable as 'matched funding' - It is a sound investment. It is the right investment. It is a good thing to do. 

Now, you may ask yourself, isn't this the Tom Morton who has questioned in print how Mareel could ever make money? It is the very same. and I still don’t believe Mareel will make money. I think Shetland Arts are  understandably, and desperately spinning their - on the face of it  impressive cinema ticket sales, trying to gain traction in the fight for more funding. Sales are one thing, profits quite another. And my own experience of  live music in Shetland is that bringing bands up from south always had to be subsidised by Shetland Arts. 

So it's not going to make money. When you buy a Mareel ticket online you're asked to make a charitable donation. It's a charity. Charities are not meant to make money. The Arts does not make money.

But do you think the Clickimin Centre makes money? Do you think any of the sports centres in the isles do? Bonhoga? The museum? The 52 community halls scattered throughout Shetland? One for every 400 people. In Northmavine alone there are five.

But have these facilities been sound investments? That depends on what we mean by an investment. In financial terms, probably not. Have they been good for the bodies of the people, the soul and spirit, the communities of Shetland? The answer would have to be yes. Those facilities may not have actually brought people and business here to work and live and have their being, but they have certainly made it easier to keep them here. Are they underused? Yes. Do they lose money? Yes they do? Are they worth it - yes they are. 

Will there be cutbacks and closures in the face of the current economic crisis? Probably. Roofs will remain unrepaired. Unless of course, we get together and repair them ourselves.

Mareel then. As good an investment as  our 47 Olympic swimming pools, our 19,000 football pitches, the state-of-the-art trap nuclear powered trap shooting facility, the horse racing course built secretly in North Roe and a major centre for international betting, doubtless sponsored by Paddy Power. The Bog snorkling circuit in Yell…so little used...


You may not have heard of some of these...

Is Mareel a good, a sound, investment? Well, I didn't think it was. I didn’t think it was when I toured the building before it opened, then after. I didn't think it was when I went to see Skyfall, one of the worst James Bond movies ever made. And realised I would have to drink coffee from cups without handles.  

But then I went again, as I’d been asked by a group that promotes remote learning in further education to do a presentation to the Scottish parliament, from Shetland, using digital technology. And I wanted to see if Mareel could help with that. It was then I met some of the young students who are assigned to Mareel from the Shetland College, who are perfecting their talents and learning all about not just recording, but the whole business of music. Studying for degrees up to a BA Honours level. It was then I saw the hidden stuff in Mareel. The recording and broadcast studios, the way it’s wired into the fibre optic Shetland Telecom cable. Not just so we can see a big boxing or football match in the cinema, but  so music, drama, speech, video and radio can be made and broadcast from almost any part of the building. To anywhere in the world.

In fact it was so advanced, so capable, that the technical team at the Scottish Parliament had to hurriedly upgrade their own systems to cope.

And so, over a fortnight, the technical team at Mareel and Shetland College enabled us to put together a seamless presentation to the Scottish Parliament. We had live music from the auditorium, live video interviews from the 60 North Studio, all mixed through the main sound studio. Afterwards, I received this email from the organiser, Gerry Dougan of Scotland's Digital Futures.

Yep - absolutely brilliant!  There was a real buzz in the parliament to be connected to Shetland so clearly, vision and sound The audience clearly understood that, where the technology exists, there should be more exploitation of it - perhaps Shetland could position itself, or already is, a leader in this respect.  And, of course, where there is no, or little technology, there should be more!

 Perhaps we can think of something else around learning, community, connectivity etc.?  The technology and associated skills are there - all that's needed is an idea (and some funding :-)).

“All that’s needed is an idea and some funding.” 

We have the people. Mareel is crucial to Shetland College’s courses and is helping to hone the skills and talents of a new generation of musicians and music producers. Is that a sound investment? I think it is. Without Mareel the proposed Creative Industries Chair for University of the Highlands and Islands will not come to Shetland. Would that be a loss? A huge one.

Because there is more to Shetland than swimming pools and squad dances. There is more to Shetland than beautiful boats hanging from a ceiling. There is more, dare I say it to Shetland than Vikings and Up Helly Aa. More than mutton. There is talent, ability and artistic brilliance and Mareel can be -  will be, I hope - a focus in developing that; in sharing it with the rest of Scotland and the world.

A loan of half a million pounds. Not to a salmon farmer who will sell off their assets to a multinational. Not to a fishing boat that may clear half a million pounds a trip. Per shareholder. Maybe those have been 'sound' financial and social investments in the past. 

But Shetland Island Council, I say make that loan. Make this sound investment - and sure, if you like co-opt three members of the Charitable Trust onto Shetland Arts to knock them into shape. In fact, if you like, move to bring the Amenity Trust, the Recreational Trust and Arts Trust more firmly under the council’s control, get rid of unnecessary duplication and inefficiency. Insist on safeguards. Demand interest.

I believe that would be a sound investment in Shetland’s culture and community. I believe it will reap dividends in the future. And someday Mareel might even be able to afford proper cups for the cafe. 

Ones with handles.