Books - The Ginger Quiff

Scottish Music Collective Halloween Bash with Sister Madds

November 1, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All Hallows Eve in Glasgow and the streets were filled with orange jumpsuited convicts, pirates and zombies… so no change there then from any other night… Who can really tell anyway? The post apocalyptic wasteland that is Sauchiehall Street these days looks like the Zombie apocalypse has already come to pass. Anyway, having fought my way through the hordes of the undead I made it to Scottish Music Collective’s sold out Halloween spooktacular in Nice n Sleazy, a fearsome four band bill headlined by the unstoppable force that is Sister Madds.

Before the headline act we were treated to a smorgasbord of diverse bands in the shape of Naked Actress, Vigilanti and Sean Choon & the Prawn Monsoon.… Read the rest

Julie Hamill – June – Book review

October 13, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

In the latest in an occasional series of book reviews on the Ginger Quiff blog, it is the third book in Julie Hamill’s series of Life and Soul novels, June, that features. The follow up to Frank and Jackie, June picks up the story of this close knit family and their group of friends as they deal with the trials and tribulations of life, touched by tragedy and sadness, but also filled with love, hope and happiness.

As the series title, Life and Soul, suggests, once again Julie has packed her novel full of situations that are entirely relatable, circumstances we can all empathise with, because what Julie writes about is real life.… Read the rest

Brenda – Brenda – debut album review

July 12, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Glasgow is awash with new music talent these days, at the forefront of the bands trading their wares comes the unique synth sounds of Brenda. To avoid any confusion, Brenda is a band, not a person, the coming together of the wonderfully unconventional trio of Litty, Apsi and Flore (also a member of another of the bands at the forefront of the current crop of extraordinary bands mined from this particularly giving seam – Water Machine).

While not exactly shrinking violets or introverted wallflowers, the band are modest in their own descriptions of their talents and musicianship, but in the opinion of this listener, their debut album is up there amongst my favourites of the year to date.… Read the rest

Music – A Matter of Taste

January 14, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Good morning from this “wank stain” and my “shite blog”, apparently I’m a waste of “sperm and an egg” but I’m here anyway, so I’ll just have to live with the fact that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life as a “cock”.

Interesting how some people respond to flippant throwaway comments about a band or their music. As if I’d murdered their whole family and pissed on their graves.

I’d seen a few posts on social media about the anniversary of a gig played by Ocean Colour Scene, a band who, from the off, I had no clue why they were so popular.… Read the rest

Review of the Year – 2022

January 7, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

If I don’t get my arse in gear, it’ll be February before I publish my round up of 2022. To be honest, I’ve still got a (virtual) pile of albums still to review… as a result, some of my favourite records of 2022 will be in the lists but remain unreviewed!

Singles of the Year

I already published my top 15 singles of the year (well actually I published a list of 80 songs…. but my top 15 were as follows:

15 – Dumb Poets – Magic Happens

14 – Dream Wife – Leech

13 – Syvdoh – As I Lay Dying

12 – The Bobby Lees – Monkey Mind

11 – Collars – Baby I’m Bored

10 – Keeley – Shadows on the Hill

9 – His Lordship – All Cranked Up

8 – Brontes – First Hand Arrogance

7 – Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something Easy Peelers

6 – Sacred Noise – Part of Me

5 – Junk Pups – Miss Behave

4 – Horsegirl – Anti Glory

3 – Pizza Crunch – Wilting Youth

2 – Water Machine – Hot Real Estate

1 – Monica Queen – What is Home?

… Read the rest

Return to Returned from Sea – Sister John live in the Glad Cafe

September 24, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

glad (adjective) “feeling pleasure or happiness”

I have to say that after a few weeks of feeling little pleasure or happiness, last night, The Glad Cafe was an appropriately named venue for the fifth birthday celebration of Returned from Sea, the gloriously emotional debut album from Sister John. Nights like this should be available on prescription. the power that live music can have over me cannot be emphasised enough.

I think I can be fairly sure I’m not just speaking for myself when I say how special this night was. A quick scan around the venue during Sister John’s set and I observing rapt faces entirely transfixed by the perfect performance from the effortlessly cool quartet of Jonathan (complete with broken finger), Amanda, Sophie and Heather.… Read the rest

Marianne Dissard – Interview

July 26, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Marianne Dissard

Marianne Dissard is a French born singer/songwriter, who spent a large part of her life living in Tucson, Arizona. She started her career as a film-maker before taking up singing, and releasing her first album in 2006.

I am making up for lost time listening to her wonderful back catalogue having been introduced to her music through her sultry re-working of Richie Valens Come on Let’s Go and the remarkable Prisencolinensinainciusol by Adrian Celentano. These were initially planned to be part of a covers album, although having now released several of her covers as singles, the album might not materialise imminently.… Read the rest

Lockdown Ramblings

December 10, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I recently almost killed the Ginger Quiff website. I had reached a point where it wasn’t giving me any joy, it wasn’t serving the purpose I first started it for. It felt like a chore and I was putting myself under stress and pressure to get some content up. I began to see it as an unimportant “nice to have”. And in many ways, it is. Nothing I write is going to change the world or have a massive effect on anyone’s life. Well, that’s not entirely true, it has made a massive difference to my life since I started writing.… Read the rest

Black Lives Still Matter

August 30, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve started writing this blog several times and ended up deleting it every time. The reason? I was constantly doubting myself. Was I the right person to comment on the topic? Did I have a right to write about it? After all, I’m a white West of Scotland male, what do I know about being at the end of sharp end of racism?

Recently, the more time I spent on Facebook, the more time I spent feeling exasperated and incensed. Yes, I know Facebook isn’t the real world, and I should let it wash over me, but there seems to be an unabated increasing level of unsavoury types commenting on news stories or posting frankly exasperating statuses on social media.… Read the rest

The Destination

May 29, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Even the recent past felt like a lifetime ago. Life had been unrecognisable for so long, being out on the streets was disquieting. On previous occasions when he had ventured out, he had flinched every time another human approached. He wasn’t really sure why, or what he was expecting them to do. Maybe he’d watched too many zombie movies and the eerily quiet streets had unearthed visions of a dystopian future. The words “go for the head” kept repeating over in his mind.

Hearing anyone approaching was a challenge, what with having headphones in and walking along hands plunged deep in his pockets staring at the ground to avoid eye contact with the world around him, the refrain of the song he was listening to – “anytime, anytime, anytime, anytime….illuminate… Read the rest