John Gibson: Does Sadie owe it all to her dad?

She sang at her dad's 60th birthday party. And she sang in tune. Which was expected of her. Sadie Paton's father is David Paton and for sure he's been around in the music business.

Twice round the world on bass guitar touring with Elton John. That was a long time ago. And he was a founder-member of chart toppers Pilot. But that's history.

Sadie is 37. She was weaned on the best of quality pop music. None of your garbage, What, exactly, is garbage, her father might ask, never having been associated with it.

Growing up, she frequently was within earshot of some of the top quality singers in popular music. They'd come to his production studio to benefit from his know-how as a producer.

Says Sadie, who works for a prominent legal firm in central Edinburgh: "It's not as though I hadn't the urge to sing in public until now. I must have been too shy. You might say the bug's caught up with me at last. Seriously.

"I've been gigging around town for over a year and the diary's looking good for the rest of lively for the rest of the summer. The jobs I've been getting with the resident band and dad at the Jam House in Queen Street have been especially enjoyable."

She is part of a group called Soulussion and the Soul Power Horns. Singing in tune because David Paton has kept an ear open for her over the years. She studied cello and piano at school.

Afterwords . .

. . . Give the man his own talk show on British television. Ever controversial, endearingly outrageous. American best-selling author PJ O'Rourke has said of the deathtrap: "The motorcycle is a device created by the team of God and Darwin to rid the world of useless young males."