Saturday 15 September 2018

WEEKLY ROUNDUP: FRANZ FERDINAND, YOUNG FATHERS, EDEN HAZARD AND MORE



FRANZ Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson flew into Glasgow airport just in time for The Scottish Album of The Year Awards - but he admitted he was there by mistake.
Long haired muso Paul picked up the bands shortlisted award for album Always Ascending.
I caught him standing outside the trendy gender neutral toilets at Paisley’s Town Hall.
He said: “We’re actually officially on tour. We just played in Holland in a place called Haarlem at a beach resort called Woodstock 69. We have a group calendar and somebody had put the dates wrongly in the calendar and I thought we had two days off so I thought just I’d come home but it turns out I’ve got a gig tomorrow in Milan. Fortuitously this is happening so I turned up to represent.”
Paul also revealed he and the band never set out for fame or dosh when they started their band.
He told me: “We just did it for fun and that’s what your motivation should be. You see a lot of great places but it just doesn’t compare to being here. As soon as I fly into Glasgow I just think thank God.”


MARTIN Compston was thrilled to get hold of Scott Browns shirt after his charity football match at Celtic Park over the weekend.
But the Line Of Duty star who ended up playing the game in his converse trainers after giving away his boots to a fan midmatch, admitted the shirt was slightly worse for wear.
The memento was covered in Scott’s blood as well as his sweat (and probably tears of joy)
Marin said later: “I’m over the moon to get Captain invincibles Scott Brown’s tap the day straight up on the wall. His literal blood and sweat on it, granted the  blood resulted from him volleying the ball off his own face but still.”

Clyde 1’s Cassi squeezed in a wee Friday lunchtime catch up with me this week.
The talented gal who teams up with George Bowie in the morning tried out some of the North Indian dishes at The Dhabba as we chatted non stop.
We actually picked a table near the back because we knew we’d end up making lots of noise as we laughed at each other’s stories.
She revealed she’s about to get her own afternoon show on Sundays on Clyde 1.
It means she gets a wee lie in after all her DJing commitments on a Saturday night but she will now be working seven days a week.
Sometimes she plays as many as three sets in one night! Busy lady.



YOUNG Fathers bandmember Alloysious Massaquoi says the band are now chilling after being awarded Scottish Album of The Year for their third studio offering Cocoa Sugar.
A suited and booted Alloysious, who was posing with his posse outside Paisley town hall when they asked if I would take some pics for Instagram, told me he’d recently been in New York for a catch up with friends after touring with Massive Attack.
He revealed he had a good laugh with the dance legends behind the scenes.
He said: “We got Daddy G and Rob(Del Naja)  to try out the Dele Alli challenge (where you put your hand over your eye in an upside down OK sign like The Spurs strikers goal celebration) and it was hilarious. They were steaming.”
If you’ve not tried it yet you’ve missed the craze, but it’s always good for a laugh.
Alloysious told me he always finds it hard getting back to normality after big tours. He said: “For me it’s always about finding balance and the kind of razzmatazz stuff I always take with a pinch of salt. The guys and I, we are local lads, so spending time with family and friends and regulating friendships is important. A lot of the time I come back everybody is working and the reality  is a lot of the time I just go to the cinema by myself. Or I got tomy mums house.”




CHELSEA players Eden Hazard and his teammates checked out the fine dining at Brian Maule’s Chardon D’Or restaurant during their trip to Glasgow.
The lads who were staying at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel worked up an appetite after a busy time of it during their victorious stay here.
While Eden, his brother Thorgan and some of his teammates headed to Braehead for some ten pin bowling at Soar on Saturday, the other half of the team went to the circus!
The Belgian lads had a great time at Ovo by Cirque du Soleil and on Sunday they all headed out for their meal at the prestigious Chardon D’Or before jetting home at eleven pm.



I had one of my weirdest meals this week at Mharsanta restaurant in Merchant City - as I celebrated Christmas with them.
The Scots food venue invited a posse of food bloggers and events organisers along to their festive menus launch night.
There was a tree - with baubles aplenty, Christmas songs galore and even delicious mince pies and turkey, not to mention the potent mulled wine (half a glass did it for the lightweight that is me)
I thought it was pretty unique, but I’ve now seen signs of the Chrimbo holidays pop up in a few other haunts...including The Village Hotel, The Hilton hotel, Chaophraya and David Lloyd.
Does Santa send out a memo?


Brilliant news that our very own Hardeep Singh Kohli did so well on Big Brother.
He’s an intelligent guy who is always great to chat to - and he’s a fab cook.
Hardeep, of course is now home in Scotland, and remains as down to earth as ever.
Instead of posing in flash restaurants and negotiating big endorsement deals like some of his reality peers he could be found immediately in one of his ‘offices’ in Dennistoun.
The first place he visited off the train was ...Redmonds bar and food venue for some... poached eggs and coffee.

Look out for Mogwai Satan beer.
The Scots band revealed of me that they are actually releasing the real stuff in a bottle very soon. It’s named after their song of a similar name, substituting the word Fear for Beer. It’s not the first time they’ve dabbled with booze - they’ve released limited editions of whiskey and rum before too.
In Japan they’ve also had cardboard effigies made of themselves.






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