Lothian withdraws four services

Lothian has announced that it has withdrawn four bus services from Captain’s Road and Lasswade Road following instances of antisocial behaviour.

The company has advised that they adopt a zero tolerance approach to all instances of antisocial behaviour.

https://twitter.com/on_lothianbuses/status/1846285082828365902

Tickets for Celtic Connections go on sale today

Yes it is a Glasgow thing but there are many reasons why you might want to book tickets for Celtic Connections. (Last year the great Paul Buchanan was given a standing ovation before he had even sung one note at the Concert Hall.)

There will be 1,200 musicians and artists performing many different kinds of music including Americana, indie, jazz and blues, at around 25 venues from 16 January to 2 February. Peat and Diesel will play at the Emirates Arena in the east end, the first band ever to play there.

And the fabulous Grit Orchestra – who had the whole audience at Edinburgh Playhouse on their feet on the last night of the Edinburgh International Festival – will play at the Royal Concert Hall on 18 January.

Tickets on sale here on 16 October.

Donald Shaw, Creative Producer for Celtic Connections, said: “As a forward-thinking festival which always looks to embrace new opportunities and spaces for performance, we’re very excited to be staging a pilot music event in the Emirates Arena, creating a new experience for audiences and extending our reach into the east end of the city.

“In the last 20 years traditional music has entered the mainstream, it’s embraced in our pubs and biggest venues, and we will once again drive the genre’s appeal, profile and potential forward in our 2025 artistic commissions. 

“If you think Glasgow in January isn’t the place to be – you just haven’t ever been to Celtic Connections.”

GRIT Orchestra at EIF © Jess Shurte

Push the Boat Out

Push The Boat Out will be going ahead next month (22-24 November) in several venues in Edinburgh including Pleasance, Dance Base, The Scottish Storytelling Centre and Dovecot Studios. Wait for more news after a press conference on Thursday of this week. The festival was to be held at Summerhall, but has been moved to other venues to allow it to proceed.

A spokesperson said: “We give poetry a new platform by creating an environment where all variations of this vital art form are encouraged to grow, evolve and even collide as we bend boundaries across artistic forms. We explore fresh, inventive ways to bring poetry and audiences together by challenging perceptions of what poetry is, how and where it can be enjoyed and who it is for.”

Poets Ever Dundas, Imogen Stirling and RJ Hunter helped to launch the 2023 programme for Push the Boat Out, Edinburgh’s international poetry festival (24-26 Nov 2023). Tickets via Summerhall box office. PHOTO Neil Hanna

The Comet

Tom Duffin is usually up late capturing photos of the moon – but on Monday evening he caught the comet trailing across the city sky. And this is the last time it will be visible as it will now disappear for around 80,000 years.

He said: “Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS showed itself over Princes Street. It only comes around every 80,000 years so I was glad to catch it at a distance of approximately 71 million kms.”

Tom Duffin

Edinburgh,14th October 2024. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS shows itself over Edinburgh’s Princes St. It only comes around every 80,000 years so I was glad to catch it at 71 million km distance (approx). Photographer Tom Duffin.

Commons remembers the late Alex Salmond

On Monday the House of Commons used parliamentary procedure to allow some discussion of the late Alex Salmond who died on Saturday, aged 69.

There are some interesting recollections gathered here by some of those who knew him well.

The last contribution was from Torcuil Crichton the newly elected Labour MP who said: “…that great communication skill, and that ability to forgive, if not forget, and to have political opponents but not political enemies, was one of his great legacies to his party, to all of us in this Chamber and to Scotland.”

Read the contributions in full here.

It is expected that The Scottish Government will make an announcement on Wednesday about the repatriation of Mr Salmond’s body to Scotland.

Alex Salmond talked to the press as he left the High Court in Edinburgh a free man cleared of all allegations of sexual assault and rape in March 2020
PHOTO Alan Simpson
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.