Burns supper
Yarns were spun at Southend’s superlative 61st Burns supper.
WHILE ploughing up ideas for his Immortal Memory speech in a bookshop, a Southend farmer was told if he wanted the ‘complete works’ he’d need to visit a massage parlour too.
David Barbour’s opening line was one, among many, which had Campbeltown’s packed Argyll Hotel dining room in fits of laughter, at the 61st Southend Burns Supper last Friday.
Setting the scene for the evening after describing Burns’ womanising and charm, Mr Barbour spoke of the bard’s familiarity with farming. Something he explained was missing in many communities today.
Mr Barbour said: ‘I was giving an urban SWI a tour round and a member asked why one of the cows had no horns.’ He explained various reasons before finishing the explanation with: ‘The reason this one has no horns is it’s a horse.’
Dunblane specialist, Duncan McCall, gave the night’s ultimate performance with his Tam O’Shanter, at a hectic pace, in the round.
Erin Ferguson, the first singer, set a high bar for those who followed, including the general company.
Campbell Anderson said that he was pleased to be invited to Southend Burns supper, and retitled the immortal bard for Kintyre as: ‘A whorra man’, during his speech to The Lassies and concluded: ‘His last child was born on the day he died.’
Moyra Jane Paterson started her reply by saying it was only her second ever Burns supper and said she certainly did not do jokes, before saying men have a vocabulary of 7,000 and women 24,000 words.
Mrs Paterson added: ‘It shows something wonderful about this country that we have chosen a man of letters to be our national hero, over a warrior.’
In Malcolm Ronald’s address to the artistes and chairman, he thanked them for the beautiful night and the Argyll hotel and its staff for the wonderful food.
Mr Ronald said: ‘We learned quite a lot from Mr Anderson but Mrs Paterson changed the mood of the moment by managing to find a wee bit of good in the men.’