Garyswordz

A week ago today myself and Jane Osborne were setting off with expectation and apprehension to our first Scottish UFO and paranormal conference.

Jane specialises in Past Life Regression and Alien Encounters so we hoped to meet some kindred spirits, those hopes were realised  in spades.

Glasgow is a magnificent place , the University imposing, and the atmosphere in the city was bouncing with the national football team opening the Euros in Munich, what a treat it was to watch the game in the Merchant Quarter.

The Queen Margaret  Union auditorium worked particularly well, the University setting casting a welcome air of credibility upon proceedings. The roster of speakers was continuous from 10am onwards, with the stands at the back offering plenty of background material and information.

In Shakespeare’s “As You Like it”,  Duke Senior declares: “Sweet are the uses of adversity”. The first speaker, Karen Strang embraced that principle.  Karen is a visual artist and painter whose opening slot was hamstrung initially by  the visual display screens, and microphones,  not functioning. With time slipping away because of the delayed start Karen eschewed the need for visuals and amplification by simply launching into an impassioned talk on her subject- and triumphed.

The audience wanted her to succeed, and succeed she did with a brilliant, engaging, informative and humorous  talk on her work and interest in the Scottish Witchcraft Trials. Her studio is by the Cunninghar in Alloa and is well worth exploring further.

Polymath  Rev  Alyson Dunlop Shanes was a delight. The technical issues had been resolved and her first hand experience of Psychic attack was compelling.

Gordon  Rutter somehow managed to interweave the Day of the Triffids, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the myths and legends of plants and trees into  a fascinating  cohesive package.

I particularly enjoyed Ron Halliday’s trip to Ancient Aliens, a talk which could easily have  had double the time allocated to it. Doyen of  ghosthunters, Linda  Whiteford, took us to the  Ghosts of Culross, a talk neatly complimented by Alan Murdie’s fascinating exploration of the  ubiquitous  white lady tradition.

Founder of SPI Malcom Robinson was the star of the show delivering a riveting  examination of Scottish UFO encounters. His geographical pointers to us Anglo’s in the audience as to where some of these locations were was much appreciated, as was the detail of his subject matter.

It was a wonderful day, and well worth the ten hour round trip drive from the English Midlands. We were made to feel so welcome by the fellow audience attendees and the  presenters who gave freely of their time when not performing . Their website with further information is:

scottishufoandparanormalconference.wordpress.com

This was my first experience of this rock festival in a holiday camp, guaranteeing no weather interrupted performances, and food and drink, and toilets on tap.

I offer this as a record rather than as a  review,

On Thursday evening  at:

 8pm  “Mr Spanky &  The Hipthrusters” featuring the wonderful Rev Kenny Petrie whose romp through classic rock covers was well received, and well done ,the ideal festival opener.

9.25 “ Telegram Sam” serviceable but too reliant upon imploring the crowd to Boogie. Not as good as T Rexstacy

10.50pm The Upbeat Beatles who were surprisingly good majoring on their 3 minute hit singles from the early years. You forget what a great pop band they were.

Friday

 12.30pm Money for Nothing, had the thankless task of opening proceedings to a just assembling and hung over crowd. Totally proficient,  but included a sax player – which is anathema to all die hard fans. An odd set list eschewed  the first two albums and Expresso love. Opening with Sultans of Swing and closing with Brothers in Arms. Enjoyable but a mis fire, wrong time slot, wrong running order.

5.40pm Sex Pistols Expose the hour long set exposed the thinness of the Pistols material with a slew of covers unnecessarily thrown in and “ Belsen was a gas” unforgivably given an airing, Just because you can doesn’t men you should. Visually strong, musically adequate, but short of decent material.

9.20 Boot led Zeppelin were magnificent, Great set list, great performance. Awesome.

9.45 Maet Live. A preposterous Meat Loaf tribute which the crowd loved and I didn’t.

Saturday

12.30pm Straighten Out suffered the same challenges as Money for Nothing the day before. An initially thin crowd,  hung over and unresponsive . The  boys compounded this by a lacklustre performance of a set list which on paper should have been  brilliant, but performed,  was insipid. Very disappointing, I would not see them again

1.50pm  Fleetwood  Bac  Outstanding.

The one hour slot was totally insufficient and shamed straighten out by energising the crowd.

3.10 Green Days  I don’t like Green day and enjoyed their tribute clones even less, unlike the rest of the audience, who loved it

4.30 The Kinks Experience. Fronted by an energetic young band they were terrific with a shrewdly chosen mix of the hits and the best  of the rest. Outstanding. They played as if their lives depended upon it.

8.40 Rainbow in Rock. Exceptionally wonderful with a scintillating “Catch the rainbow”.

Sunday

12.30 Sack Sabbath – who cares about the early slot they blew the place apart!

A fantastic weekend full of fantastic music and fantastic people. A special shout out to the stage crew who unbelievably kept the show times on point and the tech working.

The whole point is to experience a smorgasbord of music. Some will be from tributes where you barely remember the originals, some from much anticipated tributes, and some original music. They will delight, frustrate and entertain in unexpected and unequal measure, but will always leave you with a smile on your face.

Roll on 2025

Our adventure started in a still warm Malaga , Spain on 27^th Nov 2023.

Our first voyage on Explorer 2. The weather was fine and pleasant enough to sunbathe on the pool deck.

Our first stop was Gibraltar which we had visited twice before, so we disembarked to stretch our legs only, having done the sights before.

We were disappointed to be informed that our scheduled stop at Madeira was cancelled due to industrial action at the port, but delighted to learn that had been replaced with a  visit to Las Palmas Gran Canaria, which we had not visited before.

Having previously turned my nose up at the Canary Islands I was very pleasantly surprised, and impressed.

We had visited Antigua earlier on in the year and were delighted to visit again. It did not disappoint.

This was my first visit to the Dominican Republic, a highly prosperous ex Spanish colony sharing an island with the chaotic and anarchic Haiti. Amber Cove, Puerta Plata was a purpose built cruise stop, and felt it, an artificial commercial stopover. We could have been anywhere and felt like a Florida style Disney creation

Next stop should have been  Grand Turk , an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory, tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies,  the largest island in the Turks Islands. Unfortunately bad weather meant we could not dock there so we proceeded to Ocho Rios Jamaica which I was pleased about as it gave us a full day on an island I had not previously visited.

And finally the magnificent Montego Bay, Jamaica, the highlight of which was an armed escort for our coach through the stationary local traffic to the airport. A marvellous trip the only downsides were losing an hour a day as we headed west- it catches up with you after a week and the long flight home after a short flight to spain.