THE WHO at the HYDRO GLASGOW

After the last Quadrophenia Tour the band promised a final visit playing their best hits from the last 50 years.This was the first night of the tour and their last ever visit to Glasgow.

This review from The Telegraph seems to be highly impressed and underwhelmed at the same time , though the quote about "thugs" is not how i heard the comment made on stage by Daltrey.

"A hits tour was promised, and that is exactly what a loud, ecstatic crowd got. Opening with the barrage of I Can’t Explain, Substitute and The Kids Are Alright, Daltrey and Townshend threw out classics like confetti.

The Who’s music lives or dies on its energy, and that can pose a problem for songs written in the flush of adolescence and played on a pension-boosting 50th anniversary tour. So while Substitute had a syncopated groove, the breathy barks of Daltrey’s vocals deprived it of its natural swagger, and I Can’t Explain was lively but too polite for its own good.

It was the slightly later material which flourished. I Can See For Miles was just loud and leery enough, but demonstrated just how much harmonic invention they sneaked into pop songs. Townshend didn’t look like a man desperate to call time on his touring career. Teasing Daltrey, flattering the crowd with the assertion that “Glasgow has a better class of thug” and conducting the band with nods and twitches of his loping, still-rangy body while throwing in a good number of windmills, he seemed in his element."

It was odd to see people looking at facebook on their mobiles whilst The Who were performing hit after hit in front of their face.The poor guy next to me got no likes despite game attempts , any many posts.
The video below i have included because it is quite close to the view i got ( it features "Wont Get Fooled Again"


And this is my all time favourite Who song called Baba O'Riley"

KATSURA SUNSHINE at GLASGOW UNIVERSITY

Katsura Sunshine is the only non-Japanese performer of the historical theatre tradition in Japan called Rakugo.It is a 400-year-old tradition of comic performance storytelling done in a one man minimalistic performance style dressed in kimono, kneeling on a cushion,  using only facial movements to play a whole host of characters , engaging the audience with a comic monologue describing a traditional story.

 According to his publicity Sunshine was born in Toronto, Ontario, to parents of Slovenian origin. In 2008, Sunshine was accepted as an apprentice to the great Rakugo storytelling master, Katsura Bunshi VI (then named Katsura Sanshi), and subsequently received the name Katsura Sunshine. Sunshine received his professional debut in Singapore the following year, and completed his three-year Rakugo apprenticeship in November, 2012. Sunshine is the first ever Western Rakugo storyteller in the history of the “Kamigata” Rakugo tradition, based in Osaka, and only the second ever in the history of Japan. He is the only Western professional Rakugo storyteller at the present time. Sunshine is also the Cultural Ambassador for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Japan.

There is a whole lot more information and history in Sunshines Official website  of the Rakugo tradition with its various protocols and a very demanding three year apprenticeship in which the pupil has to sit with and serve the Master for every day without fail as he learns the craft which is only performed by 700 performers who have graduated to become formal storytellers when " In order to become a recognized professional Rakugo storyteller, one must apprentice to a Rakugo master, from whom one receives a stage name. The apprenticeship lasts for three to four years, and is very strict. Depending on the master, the apprentice may not drink, smoke, or go on dates, and is subject to a strict curfew during the apprenticeship period. The apprentice cleans the master’s house, does laundry, cooking, preparing and folding kimonos, and other chores, and learns the art of storytelling by watching the master perform and imitating. Throughout one’s career, one is only allowed to perform a given story once permission to do that story has been granted by a master storyteller."

 "Every Rakugo story is preceded by a comic monologue which consists of the individual storyteller’s “material”, and can be about almost anything, much like stand-up comedy. The storyteller often takes advantage of this monologue to present hilarious explanations of how to enjoy and appreciate Rakugo stories, so that even the uninitiated can easily follow the story once it begins. Traditionally, the storyteller uses the monologue to “feel out” his audience, and actually decides which story to launch into once he can see what kind of audience he has."

The video below has Sunshine performing to a Scottish audience following his run at the Edinburgh Festival



And the video below traces the journey that made Sunshine into the first foreign performer of the Rakugo tradition

IS SECESSION IN THE AIR? THE CASES OF CATALONIA , SCOTLAND AND FLANDERS

The recent referendum on independence in Scotland has focused attention on the question of secession and sovereignty in other places , there are more than 60 Secessionist movements with the EU alone at this time.

The title "Secession" had been chosen by Prof. Brian Girvan over Independence or Self-determination as the term "Secession" is recognised by International Law whilst Independence or Self-determination are not.

Dr.Tom Lundberg , Brian Girvan and guests , it has to be said , came across on this occasion as the worst kind of Academics , self-absorbed Pub bores pontificating in a dry county.But there was some information and insights worth relating.

In the case of Belgium we have an example of how far Devolution can go without full Independent Statehood in the separation of Wallonia and Flanders , there is almost no interlap between the two communities where even the Socialist and Trade Union Movements are split by language and region.Flanders has a budget larger than the Belgian State.This is all possible because Secession  can be achieved under the umbrella of the EU  without the need for Wars from old style States.The EU also deserves credit for taking out the military component to the once deadly State issues of the Northern Ireland , Basque and some Regional Italian tensions which no national Parliaments in London,Madrid or Rome could ever have resolved without EU regulations giving the individual rights to non-discrimination and equality which have made the Eurozone into a region of rights for all rather than patronage of highly centralised National Governments which , in the case of the Major Government in the UK with the Ulster Unionists holding the balance of power, relied on entrenched reactionary local parties that would not allow equality legislation encroach of their historical positions of power.

Santiago Pérez-Nievas explained the historical issues concerning the Catalonia attempt to hold a referendum.Historically Spain has always been weak in terms of national cohesion for many centuries.The idea of a centrally governed Iberia has never set in any great force , even less so than a unified Italy.Spain  has a history of connections and alliances , always fluid, of Kingdoms and Cantons .20% of todays Spain does not have Castilian as a national language.Institutional development of Spain as national State has been haphazard between the centre ( sometimes not even the richest , or institutionally most developed , province of Spain) has had to respect the older , sometimes more established ,Kingdom states of Catalonia,Aragon, Basque and Andalusia .

Even when Spain had the first central parliament , The Basque National Party ( as the name implies it was not a pan-Iberian party )was the second oldest political party in Spain providing the first elected officials in 1910.Even the Spanish nationalist parties were basically trying to create a Central Northern Plain domination of executive decision making from traditional Royalist heartlands from Madrid.

Catalonia before the civil war was a highly developed self-sustained State which even had imperial interests in Cuba and the Spanish Caribbean.Having gone through an Industrial revolution and many local banking and credit interests able to fund its own development.

Francos dictatorship has to be seen as a Castilian Spanish Nationalist movement which was all about complete centralisation of all power , as well as culture , denying the regions even the right to their own language and ancient patron saints , yet alone political or economic power.Even now the call for autonomy or independence is seen as an attack on the very concept of Spain in the elite power circles of Madrid.This is why every legal and constitutional objection is being raised to prevent a break-away referendum.

Under Zapatero , the PSOE passed legislation in 2008 setting limits to integration , and conversely the ceiling to devolvement for Catalonia from Spanish rule.This meant the Rajoy Government could use constitutional arguments to limit the level of devolvement as well as restrict calls from the Catalan parties for a binding poll on Independence , a position which was backed by the ruling on the Spanish Constitutional Court nullifying the proposed November 9th referendum.

Despite this set back the 2nd generation of post Franco Catalan youngsters is growing.The Catalan Education system , which was allowed to officially use the language , as well as the National TV is locally based , giving a strong case for the pro-Independence movement which is unlikely to be lessened by the current stand-off between the secessionists and the centre creating a more hardline approach by both parties.

In the case of Scotland the real victory was when Cameron posed the West Lothian Question from the English point of view , which is the only real way Scotland can get Independence from London Control, which is if the Scots want more powers and accountability from elected officials closer to home then why should Scots we able to vote on English only matters in Westminster.A move which Conservatives , quite rightly , believe will mean Labour are in opposition for many years if not a generation because they cant have the 40-plus MPs which swing the balance of losing an Election in England to winning an Election in the UK.

It looks like New Labour could face wipe-out in Scotland as well as a backlash in England because of their conservative stance which the electorate of both Scotland and England believe was a betrayal of each other for the lust of temporal power , in Scotland because their stance could mean another long spell of government in London by parties not voted for by the Scottish Electorate and in England for allowing Scots to vote for policies that directly effect England even the MPs are not English.It is a fate New Labour entirely deserve for standing shoulder to shoulder with the BNP,UKIP,Orange Order and the Conservatives to deny Scotland an historic opportunity to control their own affairs from Home rather being locked into a  London-Centric cycle in which the Regions are the last to feel impacts of a boom and the first to taste recession in policies geared to look after London interests at the expense of the Regions.

TOM DEVINE at GLASGOW UNIVERSITY

Tom Devine is the leading authority on modern Scottish history and through his books (among them, 'The Great Highland Famine' and 'The Scottish Nation 1700 to 2000') that for most people Tom Devine will be best known.
Professor Tom Devine contends that the English created the British Empire , but the Scots ran it through the provision of Bankers, Administrators , Generals , Soldiers , Governors , Missionaries that England , which at the time only had Two Universities ( both Schools of Divinity) when Scotland had Four ( Mostly producing Technocrats , Lawyers , Engineers and Skilled Captains of Industry and Commerce) , more or less the ingredients of vast Imperial expansion and maintenance.
Sir Tom Devine has recently declared himself in favour of Independence for Scotland.

In this lecture entitled "An Empire of Commerce: Three Centuries of Scottish Enterprise in the East" we are told of the dry statistics and telling contributions of the massive Scottish presence that made the English Empire into the International dominating force in the 18th , 19th and most of the 20th Century.



The "High Noon" of Unionism , according to Devine , was in 1957 when Scotland was a nation returning more Conservative MPs than at any time before or since.Even though the final outcome of the referendum was 45-55% against Independence , he is adamant that the momentum away from staying in the Union from the high point of the late fifties is getting shorter and the option of Devo-Max will no longer be able to appease the drive towards full Independence.

In this lecture he tells the story of Scotland in The Union and also his conclusions about the present and future of Scotland.



In this lecture ( he comes on at the 4mins 30sec mark) he explains Scottish over-representation of the architects and cognitive drivers of the Empire meant to North America and the development of the Superpower of the late 20th and early 21st Century.