Scots and music are a combination that’s as old as the hills.
Whether singers and groups in the charts today, heading back to the eighties with Simple Minds, the sixties with Lulu, and before that with traditional verse, there is definitely something in our water that makes us musical.
The GG and Me is the story of Kenneth Thomson, from Kelvinside in Glasgow, who has spent nearly 40 years of his life conducting the Glasgow Gaelic Musical Association.
The book reveals how he became involved by accident, as he and his girlfriend Valerie – later his wife – were visiting a friend whose father was president of the local choir. Kenneth was asked to cover on his native Campbeltown’s choir for just six weeks, when he was just 18 – and so began Kenneth’s love of the language.
Those six weeks have developed into some 50 years, and he commemorates them in this book. Valerie was a native Gaelic speaker but Kenneth learned the language in a crash course at Glasgow University.
The book chronicles Kenneth’s life in his professional capacity, working as a manager in the NHS, and touches on his brief brushes with potential fame for the choir with legendary producer Trevor Horn and Rod Stewart, as well as the fun and sad events of being involved in the choir.
Written with warmth and wit, this is a fascinating read by someone whose love of music is there to behold.
The GG and Me, by Kenneth Thomson, published by The Lumphanan Press, £5.
[review rating=”4″ align = “left”]
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