The Christmas Special 2008 of Rab C Nesbitt was wonderful!!Having already cited our string-vested Bard o' Govan as a fine example of blason populaire, it was great to have another listen to the wit and wisdom of the Glaswegian scumbag that we all know and love!
Rab has gone on the wagon! Shock! It was so clever though, how Mr Nesbitt's lyrical ramblings were so very posh, not addled by drink! Rab has the evangelicalism of a newly dry alcoholic and the world's fed up of it, until he realises he isn't perfect. His fellow alcoholics at his temperance meeting turn up at his flat and sing Nae Regrets - no, not the Martyn Bennett track, but bascially the Glaswegian version of Edith Piaff's song.
Reminded me of the drunken singers in Edinburgh in the summer!!
Meanwhile, Mary-doll realises she'd rather be the next Kim (or Aggie) rather than run off to London with her Range-Rover-driving old flame, Brian. The whole message of the show was that you may not be perfect, but home is where you can be accepted for what you are. (Well done, creator, Ian Pattison, you're a genius!)
The two folkloric aspects of the character of Rab C are the self-deprecating humour, and the whole issue of temperance, which leads me rather cleverly to advertise the Annual Temperance Walks in Inverallochy (Xmas Day), Cairnbulg (New Year's Day) and St. Combs (2nd Jan) - the three fisher villages on the 'knuckle' of NE Scotland. A survival of the 1840s protest against the licencing of pubs in the villages to prevent the fishermen wasting their wages on drink, the walks today are a celebration of identity and faith in the villages.
The Flute Bands, accompanied by bass and tenor drums and triangle, play Sankey's hymn tunes (those in Ira D Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos Collection) as well as a number of folk tunes including The Skye Boat Song, Bonnie Charlie, and Rowan Tree, which is really the signature tune of all the walks.
Plenty has been said by others in Elphinstone, so all I'll do here is share a very funny story told to me by a New Toun fluter (i.e. someone from St. Combs).
He said that the collective name of the band when they perform during the year with members from each village, is 'Inversaintcairn' Band, and the reason was that Inverallochy and Cairnbulg, who have always been bitter rivals cos the villages are split only by a stream in the middle of the road - now culverted - they needed a 'Saint' between them, i.e. St. Combs!!
Bruce Buchan, the leader of Inverallochy Flute Band, proceeded to tell everybody the story at the Tarves Concert Party where I'd invited the collective band to play! They got it.
Village rivalry is of course yet another source of blason populaire! And we in the North East have it in spades. Fraserburgh vs Peterhead, Fittie vs Torry, Macduff vs Banff, very many rivalries all with their attached origin legends. But, as is the season's requirement, we will forget our differences for a bit and as folk rockers Jethro Tull extoled Ring the Solstice Bells.
