Talk of the Town: How Fish flopped as king of the jingle

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 08:40

ROCK star Fish admits there are several moments from his recording career he would prefer to forget.

The ex-Marillion frontman, who lives in Haddington, says one of his worst ever jobs came after leaving the group – when he became a jingle writer. He said: "I was absolutely skint and I got a chance to earn a couple of hundred quid demoing a jingle for the Saatchi brothers, who were trying to get the contract for M&M's! I just hope all the tapes were erased!"

He also decided against pursuing a career in children's TV, saying he hoped all the out-takes from a one-off appearance had been binned.

He told fans on his website: "I would probably say my appearance on the Children's Channel playing Daniel, the religiously persecuted homesteader in an episode of Zorro, was pretty bad. I saw it with a French translation and it was hysterical!"

Crunch debate not worth listening to, eh councillor?

WHEN a council debate attracted around 300 people to the City Chambers last week, it seemed that everyone was gripped by the issue.

The 10am meeting raged on until 7:30pm as the issue of re-tendering contracts for the care of vulnerable people sparked some of the most intense debate seen for some time in the City Chambers.

As the meeting dragged on into the afternoon session, the main chamber resembled a pantomime performance, with Labour councillors such as Ewan Aitken and Lesley Hinds getting standing ovations when calling for the re-tendering to be put on hold, while administration councillors like health leader Paul Edie were roundly booed.

However, not everyone was focused on the debate. For much of the afternoon session, one councillor flicked through the pages of a newspaper. To make matters worse, it wasn't even Edinburgh's finest!

Gibson's back in party mode

EVENING News columnist John Gibson is not one to take a snub well.

Last year he was not invited to the annual bashes hosted by the Labour and Conservative groups on the city council. And he let the two groups know of his anger at the lack of an invitation, saying he suspected that Labour's party would be "a relatively mundane affair, with the party in the throes of a bleak mid-winter".

In the Tories' case, he said his lack of an invite was likely down to the "limp hand" of group leader Iain Whyte.

However, the Tories have made sure this year that Mr Gibson gets an invite, after calling up the Evening News to ask for his e-mail and direct telephone number. Party officials admitted to getting into "a bit of trouble" last year when he didn't receive an invite. They insist that, this year, his name will be on the guest list.

It remains to be seen how comfortable the conversation will be when he "talks turkey" with Cllr Whyte, after last year's comments.