And here's a hand my trusty friend, and tumptey tumptey tum

[f4f3]

So I wasn't forced to turn on my heel and stalk off Glasgow Green last night, the strains of "Rule Brittania"" breaking on my republican back. Instead the Glasgow version of Last Night Of The Proms had a "Scottish" finale, albeit pieces by Arnold (Two Scottish Dances) and Korb (Highland Cathedral). Although they went well with the second dose of fireworks of the evening, they didn't have the anthemic feel of Pomp and Circumstance or Jerusalem. On the other hand, Auld Lang Syne will always do for a Scottish Anthem in a pinch, and I've a feeling we sung it with a bit more vigour than it would have gone over in London, Cardiff or elsewhere (despite a fair bit of tum-tey-tumming in the second verse). Lots of joined hands and circling at speed...

In fact, there was a fair amount of dancing going on - Salsa Celtica played a marvelous set of Spanish tunes with Scottish pipes, Offenbach's Can Can (damned if I can remember the proper name for the piece - The Devil's Dance"?) raised cries of "Bad Manners!" from someone near me, and a real danger of trampling.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening - lots of kids around, very mild, a very chilled vibe, which carried over to the underground going home. I think I'll go next week...

Comments

[psychochicken.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that both England and Scotland have adopted slightly less 'contentious' anthems of late - England seems to have finally formally adopted Jerusalem (which incidently never fails to raise my emotions in ways that Pomp and Circumstance or God Save the Bint never have) and Scotland has the likes of Highland Cathedral and Auld Lang Syne. Even slightly more modern tunes such as 'Caledonia' are creeping in. Frankly I think it's a good thing.