Onstage is where Rock lives. The charts can go away.

Let me first wish happy birthday to Natalie Portman. Her latest film, ‘Black Swan’, is about a “deranged prima ballerina” in a “delirious, over-the-top melodrama directed by Darren Aronofsky” (quote: the Guardian). I haven’t seen it, but if you’re a fan of dancing and leotards, I’d say give it a go.
Actually, I’m fibbing. It’s not Miss Portman’s birthday, but nevertheless, a dancer’s birthday, who’s also called Natalie, albeit being much less famous and much closer in the circle of people I know. Well, many happy returns to her.
Anyway, a long time ago at the tender age of 14 I posted an article in a preceding publication, wondering if Rock music is still the voice of youth. After a rather un-researched chronology of the timeline of Rock’s development, I concluded that it still is, but also for the older population, who were of course around the time that those bands were active.
4 years on and I realize that I was more or less blindly glorifying the legends from the ‘golden age’ of Rock’s creativity. I was really only listening to Zeppelin and Floyd. Since then I’ve spread out a lot. In fact, despite still highly regarding the above bands, I don’t actually listen to them much anymore. After becoming a self-proclaimed music nerd, I’ll listen to most things. Unless it’s Justin Bieber.
In that article I wrote years ago, I referred to an encyclopaedia of music that we had in the house. It said that “At the turn of the 21st Century, Rock keeps dividing and reinventing itself...due to this mutation process, it lacks freshness and originality. Whether it can once again become a predominant creative force remains open to question.” On the day of writing this, Sam Leith wrote in The Guardian that “Rock is dead”. In it, he asks “Who are the iconic rock fans in popular culture? They are Beavis and Butthead, Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth, and Jack Black’s character in School of Rock. Rock has given us the worst clothes, and the worst dances of all time. It has given us Billy Idol. It has given us people who shout “Rock’n’ROOOLLLL!””
This being on the internet, you can imagine the sorts of comments on the comments section. I don’t think anyone has yet accused him of being a fan of Marilyn Manson. He’s either just having a laugh and taking the piss out of Rock’s cultural pastimes, or he’s failing to realize that most genuine rock fans do that about themselves anyway. That’s why Jack Black’s Dewey was a bit of a nonce. Spinal Tap? Strange Fruit (who featured in the film ‘Still Crazy’)? Opinionated, arrogant tossers with a distinct lack of common sense, etc. So what? That’s how it was, or at least how the mass media saw it. And that’s what made those films so brilliant. Like most things, if you take it too seriously, it becomes boring, and even annoying; for example, Axl Rose. After all, making and playing music is meant to be fun; for example, Slash.
Sam does eventually say he’ll lament Rock’s passing: “I’ll shed a tear for all those roadies released abruptly into the wild and muttering “One-two...one-two...one-two” as they struggle to make sense of an existence without sound-checks and Marshall Stacks.” To be frank, he’s wrong. In fact the whole article’s pretty pointless. I ventured onto the comments page with my own opinion, and found that someone had already posted my thoughts: Rock is not dead; it’s just gone back underground. It’s because these days there’s a massive amount of new genres that weren’t round or big at the time of Rock’s peak. Considering that styles like Dubstep won’t make you deaf like Rock will, little wonder why a health-paranoid world seemingly prefers less shouting and distorted guitars and more comparatively ear-friendly thumping beats and low-frequency ‘wob-wob-wob-wob’. I don’t care if Rock music doesn’t make into the charts these days. It is likely that, to quote the right-thinking gentleman on the comments section, it goes “back to the live venues, where it originated.”
Good for it. Because that’s the best way to enjoy such a genre. And for those of us living on and near the Isle of Arran, be sure to check out bands such as the Usual Suspects, playing the best moments from Classic Rock’s history. I’m also currently in a punkier band called ‘My Name is a Dirty Word’ (it’s probably ‘Nick Clegg’ or ‘Tony Blair’ or some other thing that will have you shot at sight upon mentioning it in the street), playing Glasgow later this month. Set your ears to 11 and break open the box of beers, because live Rock music, in all its varied sub-genres, is where it really flourishes. Singles charts can (...politely?) Go Away.
John Tilbury

String road closure.

String Road Closure - A Mixed Blessing

The opinions about the necessety for the repair works on the String Road are undivided in favour of them. And I'm sure everyone who has tried to dodge the potholes between Shiskine and Brodick will agree that roadworks are badly needed. Having used the bus service from Blackwaterfoot to Brodick quite a few times, I have to admit that my teeth and my backbones are literally begging for a smoother surface on the String. The journey feels like a mixture of zero gravity training and bobsleigh run gone crazy...

A total closure of the road for two months on the contrary is met with mixed feelings. Regular bus users, particularly those who do not own cars are used to ten busses on weekdays going from Blackwaterfoot to Brodick and back.They will have to adapt to fewer connections around the Southend.

People living between Dougarie and Sliddery who have to journey to the East coast of Arran will have to live with higher petrol costs if they have to rely on their cars and car sharing is not an option. The additional time factor might ask for organisational skills.

Angus Cameron from Blackwaterfoot Garage has one of those businesses which will have to put big effort into organising themselves and working tight schedules to make sure that e.g. the MOT service of cars will carry on as smooth as usual. Many of the cars to be serviced and ordered spare parts will need more time for their way to Blackwaterfoot and back.

On the other hand Christine Cameron, Angus' wife expects that she might see more business since much more traffic will go through Blackwaterfoot. Her supplies will not experience any change since the delivery routes of most companies follow anyway the coastal road where most businesses are.

So far we have heard of one cancellation due to the road closure which concerns a young couple who will be wed in Blackwaterfoot and had booked their first two honeymoon nights at the Kilmichael. And a lady who lives near Machrie will not be able to continue a course at the Learning Centre in Lamlash because of the so much longer journey. How many people
from the Blackwaterfoot area will not sign up for the Mai/June courses for the same reason is of course not predictable.

To avoid frustration for the holiday makers, announcements of the road diversions will be made on all ferry sailings.

Still, quite a few inhabitants along the Southend roads are concerned about the road safety as the holiday season brings more car, bike and cycle traffic to the island which will now squeeze through the bendy and narrow roads, many of which are not in good condition either.

Considering the long light days at this time of the year, some people raised the question whether it would not be possible to work much longer hours (6am - 9pm was suggested quite a few times) on the String Road to get the work done in less weeks. We will follow this question up before next week's Voice.

The best advertisement rates you’ll find anywhere

The best advertisement rates you’ll find anywhere

Our simple ads system of £10 for a basic sixteenth of a page, available to be doubled or quadrupled as you wish, offers a marvellously advantageous advertisement opportunity. To make it even better, any business taking out a single annual subscription of £35 gets six free 1/16 adverts. Voluntary organisations can have the same benefit for a subscription of only £20 a year. In both cases, editorial coverage of any event put on by subscribers is guaranteed throughout the year, at no charge, providing you let us know about it. (We’re very nearly clairvoyant, but not quite.) Lineage ads are a mere pound apiece – see the adverts page for an easy entry form and secure payment system.

We are still beavering around in search of the best way to make Voice for Arran available to those who don’t have computers. If you are reading this online and could print off a copy for someone who isn’t in the cyber-world, it would be a great kindness. And if you are reading it as a free in-the-hand paper, please hand it on to someone else rather than bin it straight away.
We’re here for your news and photos. If you need publicity or would like to air a view or sell that unwanted birthday present, just e-mail info@voiceforarran.com

A new Voice for Arran starts next week

Next Thursday’s issue will see the launch of a new Voice, completely free to the people of Arran and the wider world. The date, April 1st, seems a good one to us, full of cheerful possibilities.

Voice for Arran, the new title, will appear every Thursday as before, on a new website, www.voiceforarran.com . It will offer free publicity and editorial cover for all events we hear about, and it will accept your adverts for next to nothing. (Details will follow very soon – we’ve a new team of people busy working out an astonishingly cheap deal.)

JUST ONE REQUEST

If you are an Arran-based online reader, could you print off a few copies of the paper each week and give them to your local shop or Post Office? Or hand them out at any club or society you belong to? That way, the new Voice will be available on paper to those who don’t have a computer, and it can come back into being seriously (and frivolously) useful. The weekly issue will print out at about three A4 sheets. Voice for Arran is in full colour online, naturally, but we suggest you print in black-and-white, to keep your cartridge costs minimal. We are asking for this help as a start-up, because voluntary circulation is the only way to get round the problem of colossal printing costs. Nobody needs to do very much, but if enough people give a hand in a small way, we can make the Voice available again to the whole island, in print as well as online. It will of course be smaller than the old paper, but it can grow very quickly if it is used and contributed to. The way it is managed will grow as well, with constant new possibilities. Anyone who would like a hand in its development is most welcome to join the rapidly expanding team. Contact us on info@voiceforarran.com or phone 700 574 or 820 361.

We have no paid staff. This is truly a community enterprise, dependent on goodwill and the wide sharing of a few simple tasks. Expert professionals have with immense generosity offered their free services in accountancy and marketing, and help with editing and distribution is starting to fall into place. Further offers of help in any form will be warmly welcomed. Just e-mail or phone, on the address and numbers given above.

Voice for Arran will of course maintain a high standard of editorial comment, together with an irreverent eye for whatever seems ludicrous. Its Voicemail section will publish ALL letters that come in, subject only to the laws of libel and obscenity. We are there to air your views and convey your needs. Let us know what you want, and we’ll do our best to provide it. Voice for Arran is free – and it is in your hands.