Tuesday, May 25, 2010

THE BEATCROFT BLOG MOVED...and then moved back here!

From May to late August 2010, The Beatcroft was in residence at Wordpress.

No longer.

I'm moving the blog back to its original home, namely Blogger. which is to say, right here.

This summer's posts will essentially be held, with a full archive (until yesterday) of The Beatcroft's past postings, at

http://tommorton.wordpress.com...

but...

all future posts will be here.

Sorry for the confusion. It's a learning process.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Kayaking at sunset, Hillswick



One of those uncannily still nights when you just have to separate yourself from the land...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Motorcycle sunshine



You know you're getting old when...you can't face the wind-in-teeth 12-mile pedal cycle run you used to do with James and without breaking sweat (nearly). So James went off for a lightning fast velocipedal sprint around the Ollaberry circuit, and I watched the Grand Prix. And then, as befits a man of my age and girth, I huffed and puffed my way aboard the Glorious Suzuki GS1000G and headed off to Brae to collect barbecue makings.

The old Suzi started, despite being left outside in all weathers, first time. It really is a wonderful machine, an American import dating back to 1979 but carefully restored. That inline air cooled four sounds immense, too, through an aftermarket exhaust.

However...later in the year I'll be riding at least a couple of thousand miles on a borrowed Moto Guzzi (see http://www.fairpley.com/the_barnard_challenge.html) and thoughts of a new motorcycle have been heavily provoked by the news (the last Labour Government did this! Take a bow, Alistair Darling!) that self employed workers can buy brand new motorbikes and claim the entire cost against tax. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/may/15/tax-deductable-motorbike-scooter-self-employed

A Harley Electroglide as my sole business transport? It might just work...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Victors...The Passion Singers...at the ABC2




A DVD arrived today from Mr Stewart Cunningham containing 230 photographs taken on Saturday night at the Victors 30th Anniversary gig. Here's one showing Victors lead singer Brian McGlynn during the encore, with some of The Passion Singers. I feel sure that what Brian's doing with his right hand in the second snap is NOT intended as the heavy metal 'devil's horn' sign!

Victors keyboard player Alan Cameron has posted his thoughts on the gig and some more pictures on his blog here.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Thirty Years After...Duffin, Morton and (a much younger) Morton




I know, I know. There's been an election and I haven't said a word about it. Partly, that's because I'm not really allowed to make public political pronouncements, on pain of having the BBC whip withdrawn. But also, it's because my mind has been on other things. Namely, Saturday night's 30th Anniversary reunion gig by gospel-rock-reggae band The Victors.

Support acts were the excellent Passion Singers and, also marking a 30th anniversary (the release of the album Out of the Harbour)myself and Graeme Duffin.

Graeme is the man whose production, arrangement and guitar playing skills made Wet Wet Wet the mega success they were. We hadn't played together for, well, 28 years at least until we met for a brief rehearsal (with my son James on bass) last Friday. Although Graeme's daughter Esther (O'Connor)has been a guest several times on the Tom Morton Show and indeed (ain't life complicated?) used to be in the band Ashton Lane with another of my sons.

The excellent Stewart Cunningham took these pictures. There are lots more of The Victors and the Passion Singers which I'll post, with Stewart's permission, in due course. The gig (at the 02 ABC2) in Glasgow was busy, about 200 folk in attendance. It raised £1300 for the upcoming Solas Festival.

It was a difficult gig for me in many ways, and maybe I'll write about the reasons for that in another post. There were many folk there I hadn't seen for 25-odd years during which our various paths had, let's say gone in different directions. Still, the reception was warm, I thought we played pretty well. We played some old songs, some middle-aged ones, and some new stuff too. No lightning bolts fell.

Monday, May 03, 2010

May Bank Holiday, Glasgow.



A wee walk before breakfast. Beautiful spring morning in the west end. Manfully resisting the blandishments of The North Star, sustenance was acquired from home-made porridge (with raisins and salt). Plus lashings of Canderel.

Interesting psephological fact: On a walk from Hillhead Underground to the shops at Queen Margaret Drive, I saw one Labour window poster and four for the Lib Dems. Nothing Tory or SNP related. Seems a bit paltry. In my young day there would have been a corncucopia of posters, including SWP and RCP stuff, not to mention people (possibly among them Lord George of Galloway) bellowing in the street...