At Random
Bring it on
IT HARDLY feels like that time of year yet, but excitement is already building about the prospect of Oban Live 2018.
This week we have a brilliant offer exclusively for readers of The Oban Times which discounts even early bird tickets by an extra 20 per cent.
That is a serious saving for what has become a highlight of the calendar in the Oban area. Indeed, Oban Live has established itself so successfully in such a short time that it is already attracting fans from all over the world, never mind just Oban or even Argyll and Scotland.
Sadly, I have no advance knowledge of who might be in the 2018 line-up of musical acts but if the past couple of years are anything to go by, we’ll be in for a real treat.
Hopefully, the organisers will again do the well-received promotion introduced for this summer’s event, Oban Unsigned, which gave Oban Times readers the chance to vote for an otherwise little known act to appear on the Friday night.
One of the highlights of this year’s Oban Live for me was the performance of the Oban Unsigned act, K9 Kev (aka Kevin Irvine) and Rory O’B (O’Byrne), a couple of local rappers and hiphop artists.
I was also pleasantly surprised as I would not have in a month of blue moons called myself a rap or hip-hop fan. But the two guys, with their backing band of somewhat more seasoned local musicians were stars.
I can’t wait to hear who will be appearing at 2018 Oban Live. I only wish it were sooner.
Worthwhile cause
I WAS intrigued last week by the story we published about a young woman named Claire Gerrard, who has launched an initiative called Goth on the Croft to raise awareness of hate crime.
Claire, also known rather mystically as Spectra Vox, has put together a calendar featuring photos of herself and her goth friends posing on her croft on the isle of Lewis.
It raised many smiles in the Oban Times office last week but there is, unfortunately, a serious side to the story.
Funds raised from the calendar’s sales will go to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, set up following the 2007 murder of the 20-year-old who was attacked in a park in Lancashire.
I’m not sure I know anything about goths, other than that they plump for an off-the-scale dark appearance featuring much black make-up and clothing.
Nor do I know the significance of goth pseudonyms such as Spectra Vox.
But one thing I do know is that they most definitely do not deserve to be abused, threatened or subjected to violence simply because of the way they look and choose to dress. We would not tolerate – indeed, we would rightly be outraged – if people were targeted because they wear the kilt.
I do not understand hate crime in any of its forms, so I wish Spectra Vox and her friends every success with their fundraising calendars.
Good for Laura
WASN’T is heart-warming to read last week that Laura MacIntyre, the Barra teenager so cruelly caught up in the Manchester Arena bombing earlier this year, has returned to school?
What happened to Laura and her best friend Eilidh MacLeod, who so tragically lost her life, remains beyond comprehension for the vast majority of us.
I can’t begin to imagine what these families have been through. For Eilidh’s nearest and dearest, there will never be and end to their suffering.
For Laura, I hope fervently that going back to school can be the next step on what I’m sure will be a very long road, but at least the journey has begun.
What do you think?
WRITE to me at mlaing@obantimes.co.uk or The Oban Times, Crannog Lane, Oban, PA34 4 HB.