John Gibson: A bell-ter at North Berwick

A proper humdinger. While much palaver has crashed into the papers about the bell at North Berwick’s St Andrew Blackadder Church, the bells of St Mary’s Episcopalian Cathedral in Palmerston Place keep banging away, particularly on Thursday sounds like rehearsal night and, of course, on the Sabbath.

You could go deaf living next door there and I shouldn’t be surprised if residents in the vicinity are by now hard of hearing. Probably best to turn a deaf ear to the St Mary’s racket.

The Blackadder mob, presumably nothing at all to do with the riotous television series, with their 80-feet bell tower that could be squeezed into some nook or cranny of the comparative Episcopalian colossus in Palmerston Place, where on a Saturday late night the locals have been known to fair go their dinger.

The Dalai news

I had to gulp when I misread a headline in the local press – Humperdinck set to play Dalai Lama. One instantly pictured Engelbert shorn of his locks.

The word “for” had escaped my eye. The Great Engel, seemingly indestructible at 76, is on the bill set to perform for the Tibetan icon in New York next month. Roberta Flack is sharing the bill.

The Eurovision Contest was disastrous for the man without love. Surely he’ll raise his game for the New York gig. And maybe they’ll manage to sneak in a wee prayer of remembrance for Max Bygraves.