Win Nick’s Voucher [Extended]

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Welcome to the weekend.

It’s time for another music competition, so light the fire and pour yourself a stiff one.

This week I want to know: What’s your favourite song by a Scottish artist?

Here’s mine.

Reply below to be in with a chance of winning a thistle tickling €25 Golden Discs voucher.

The winner will be chosen by my cousin Dougie.

Please include video links if possible.

Lines close at 11am Saturday.

Nick says: Good luck, hen.

Last week’s winner here

Golden Discs

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Related posts:

Win Nick’s Voucher Win Nick’s Quarantine Voucher Win Nick’s Voucher Win Nick’s Voucher [Extended]

137 thoughts on “Win Nick’s Voucher [Extended]”

    1. GiggidyGoo

      There’s a strong connection of Celtic music to Arabic music. Makes you wonder how far the ties go?

    1. Micko

      Ha – I was gonna pick that too – went for Little Bird instead

      Actually this has sent me down a bit of an Annie Lennox rabbit hole.

      I’d forgotten how brilliant she is – and when John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie are in your music vid – you’re doing something right ;)

        1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

          haha that works, it’s an unknown world to me, I wasn’t allowed to watch it as a kid because it would ” rot my brain ” ;)

          1. GiggidyGoo

            Prefer Jameson myself. Best Irish Coffee I had was in Christy’s Hotel in Blarney (Blarney Woolen Mills). in 1990’s.
            Was there by myself on business, and I finished my meal in the hotel restaurant (not what passes for the bar/restaurant there these days mind you ) and asked for an Irish Coffee. The waitress (polish I think) brought a small stand to my table, placed the glass with whiskey on it – at an angle – and put a nightlight candle underneath and heated the whiskey. She then lit the whiskey, and made right before my eyes a really fantastic Irish Coffee.

            Slightly different from the sloppy ones that are thrown up in supposedly 4 and 5 star hotels these days. Although I must say that Monart does exceedingly good ones, almost reaching the standard of that waitress in Blarney.

            Nowadays, the Hot Irishman is an acceptable substitute if there’s no whiskey in the cupboard.

          2. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            We can’t be friends anymore if you’re ok with the hot irishman ;)
            I like the powers myself because it has a higher oil content, better for the hot drinks, it’s also closer to the whiskey that would have been available for the original recipe :)

          4. Slightly Bemused

            My Dad’s advice was to use Bushmills for an Irish Coffee, Jameson for a hot Whiskey, and Powers for when you were caught in the desert and needed fuel.
            Then apologise to the car.

            My Grandad (other side) was of the belief you added water to a grain whiskey, ice to a blend, and never touch a malt!

            My mother thought I spent too much time with whiskey drinkers. She was married to one, and the daughter of another. Maybe she knew what she was talking about.

            But one time I got a tour of the Bushmills distillery, and one thing they do is try to show you how much better their whiskey is than others. If you have ever done any kind of taste test, they have a group of them, all anonymous. You try the first two. Choose the one you like Then it and the next. Choice. An so on until you get to the last, at which point, surprise, it is their chosen whiskey.

            I think I disconcerted them when I blind named every one they gave me. Except the Chivas Regal- I had not had that before.

            Maybe my mother was right!

  21. Andy Pipkin

    Never really like this tune when it first came out, then went too see EMF (remember them? Unbelievable!!!)
    And the support was a DJ and he played this absolute banger,

    KLF – Last Train……

    https://youtu.be/_hnYKTys8rU

    It was what happen after with them burning a million quid and so forth that made them elusive, but what a tune when played loud!!!!!

    1. Slightly Bemused

      Correction: Amy MacDonald.

      Amy Madigan is an actress I greatly admire, but I do not want to lessen Amy MacDonald’s talent or achievements

  28. Rosette of Sirius

    Gawd, where to start…. what decade, even…?!

    We’ll, let’s go with one of the greatest opening lyrics of all time…. in my opinion that is….

    On a morning from a Bogart movie
    In a country where they turn back time
    You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
    Contemplating a crime
    She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
    Like a watercolor in the rain
    Don’t bother asking for explanations
    She’ll just tell you that she came
    In the year of the cat

    Al Stewart’s masterpiece

    Year of the Cat

    https://youtu.be/Yxy1eF_w7sU

    1. Slightly Bemused

      That was my now dear departed brother’s favourite song. My sister and another brother were with him as he slipped away, and had this on for him so he would go to his favourite music.

      I remember once this was on the radio as I studied in my room (amusingly on a portable radio cassette player he had given me) and he came storming in thinking I had pinched his record. He was immediately apologetic, but would not leave until the song was over.

      I cannot hear this without thinking of him, and for that I do thank you.

      1. Rosette of Sirius

        I did not grow up in a house gifted with musical ability. My dad could play the piano but the rest of us were tone deaf as they say. Save for one thing. We all love music. And between us we grew up In a house what was open to new ideas, genres, sounds, artists and that in turn left an indelible mark on me. On my taste, appreciation and desire to grow as large a repertoire of artists as I could.

        My father was an opera and classical buff. He also appreciated the great crooners and jazz musicians of the last century. My mother lived for the Beatles and 60’s pop. I possess today most Beatles original singles releases and all all their albums as heirlooms. Not all in the best of shape, but none the less original. And mine.

        My two older sisters introduced

        1. Rosette of Siriu

          Apologies for cutting that off short. The mobile app is not very forgiving.

          Anyways. My elder sisters were the most influential. One consumed by pop – Bay City Rollers, the Jackson Five, the Osmonds, Abba and later the sounds of Disco.

          The other, and the biggest musical influence was more artsy. It was Bowie, bolan, Roxy Music and later punk and early new wave that was my foundation and her record collection that I treasure.

          She died about fifteen years ago now from cancer.

          It’s a very, very strange thing when a sibling dies so young. It’s a thing you’ll perhaps never come to terms with. I haven’t. It really affected me in many ways and I’m humbled that a simple song I suggested from the 70s evoked such an emotion because I get it. I really do…

  30. Slightly Bemused

    Honourable mention to 007 himself, Sean Connery. He did an incredible spoken version of the Bealtes song In My Life. Not a fan of the Beatles themselves, but they did have some great songs, and allowed artists to interpret them. Some songsters are a little primadonney and insist that covers are identical.
    One of the few Lennon songs I actually like

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ4LJE9PktY

      1. eamonn

        A song by a Scots person, named after a Welsh person, who for some reason is held dear by Irish perons – glad you like it.

    2. Slightly Bemused

      Oh Please do!

      I always try for a six-pack of entries. Not so I can win, but so I can share. I think music and poetry are two of the greatest things to share, and I love hearing other songs I ever heard before.

      Like this one, but I will follow up on the band. Thank you!

  51. Stephen Moran

    Songs in the key of Fife. “Bats in the Attic” by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins. Creosote aka Kenney Anderson puts Culloden aside and joins forces with Sassenach keyboard egghead Hopkins for a goosebumps & shivers inducing fusion of of electronica and Scottish folk to a otherworldly melancholic ethereal effect
    Vive Le Caledonia Libre !
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAt4sk8znk4

  53. GiggidyGoo

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-sFeoJPwZaA
    Dougie McClean. “Talking with My Father”. Saw him perform solo in Cork last year (or was it the year before). (He wrote ‘Caledonia’ as well). Worth an evening on Youtube. His voice hasn’t changed one bit in all the years.

    Worth also looking in general at Transatlantic Sessions on Youtube. Search Karen Casey with James Taylor ‘The Kings Shilling’ for example.

    Nice to relax with online friends and ‘combatants’ on a Friday lads and lassies.

  54. Joe cool

    Oh it has to be wet wet wet goodnight girl. wowed my girlfriend now wife to it. Such a simple little romantic number

  55. Clampers Outside

    So many great tracks mentioned already.
    It’ll be a great morning going through them :)

    For me though, there can be only one…

    https://youtu.be/baAOfQbcuDM

    The First Weekend by Arab Strap

    A song that takes you, gently at first, with a monologue…

    “So that was the first big weekend of the summer…
    Starts Thursday as usual with The Canteen quiz and again no-one wins the big cash prize
    Later I do my sound bloke routine by approaching Gina’s new boyfriend to say that he shouldn’t feel that there’s any animosity between us and then I even go and make peace with her: shouldn’t have bothered

    Then on Friday night we went through to the Arches”

    Then the music kicks in… and you’re off on a hedonistic weekend of booze, parties and drugs.
    A steady beat kicks in at this point and keeps you nodding no matter what energy level you have.
    It’s a track you can listen to before going out, when out, or chill to when you get home after a night out :)

    The first weekend of the summer starts on Thursday June 13th 1996 (the lyrics give that away at a later point in the song) and continues all summer.
    I always imagined “the Arches” to be some fantastic club spot, but it wasn’t, not that that mattered. It’s how the lyric delivery punctuates the song. Sets you up for the story as it unfolds, just like those “roll over” weekends from my own twenties in the 90s when the moment was all that mattered…. And I cannot let this go without mentioning Aidan Moffet’s beautiful accent. As the song is pretty much spoken, its easy to appreciate it :)

    Good Times, enjoy! :)

    1. Rosette of Sirius

      Great band and actually got to see them play with with perhaps my fav Scottish band, Belle and Sebastian.
      They, apparently, weren’t too please to be names in their album, The Boy with the Arab Strap….

      But the thing is, I really love the song ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’

      Gas thing is that Stuart Murdoch didn’t know what an Arab Strap was when penning the song and naming the album!

      https://youtu.be/gnvhhvzAvSM

      1. Clampers Outside

        Aw Rosette that’s deadly!… to see both those bands on the one night, super cool! Sadly, I’ve not seen either live…

        Great trivia bit, and love that track :)

  62. V AKA Frilly Keane

    No contest
    Only one band worth knowing from Scotland
    The Bay City Rollers

    The hardest problem was picking one for ye

    So I went the track
    (And the bits) I tried to sing on BS.tv one night
    BS.tv pre hiatus and recast

    Well we sang shang-a-lang as we ran with the gang
    Doin’ doo wop be dooby do ay
    We were all in the news
    With our blue suede shoes
    And our dancin’ the night away

    Everyone needs to just Shang-a-Lang a bit more anyway

    https://youtu.be/ytii7-bUxuk

    I dare ye to not sing and dance-alang

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Was there a rumor at the time that another group of fellows sang on all of their records, and the BCR’s mimed everything, on stage and all?

      As well, wasn’ there the Bray City Rollers and some legal confuffle happened.?

  77. johnny

    ..as the brits crash and burn,welcome to Dead Mans Island.

    “I heard the ghost
    Heard the ghost moaning
    Like the wind
    That howls in the glowing
    I heard them groaning
    Groaning over
    Dead man’s island”

    Legendary and revered cult Scottish folkie Alister Roberts & Bonnie Prince Billy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OriZIpHuF4Q

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