Talk of the Town: Fish out of water relied on the News

But the former Marillion frontman revealed he went to great lengths to keep up with the rapidly changing situation in 1990 while on tour in Germany.

The lifelong Hibs fan said: "My dad would have to chop up pieces of the Evening News and fax them through to the nearest hotel, probably at great expense at the time.

"We would anxiously wait to get the reports each night as we didn't know if our club was still there.

"It might seem daft now, but it was scary stuff at the time."

It's OK, we don't really hate our plumbers..

THE "Billboard For Edinburgh" art installation carried an ironic message last week when its host gallery was closed by a burst water main.

The prominent Calton Road billboard, which has been confounding Waverley commuters for two years with its cryptic minimalist statements, is run by the presently waterlogged Ingleby Gallery. The current billboard reads: "I hate you, you because, you make me, make me hate you"

The Ingleby Gallery maintains the billboard, by artist Adam McEwen, is inspired by a song by sixties American garage band The Monks – and isn't directed at its plumbers.

This will have you bristling

ANNUAL statistics were released yesterday showing the state of children's teeth across Scotland.

Some areas faired better than others, and in the NHS Lothian area around 66 per cent of primary seven-aged youngsters were found to have no evidence of decay.

It means Edinburgh is above the Scottish average for dental health, but still slightly worse off than other health board zones.

Fortunately the Lib Dems have uncovered a unique, revolutionary way of dealing with this problem, stating in a press release: "Children of all ages must be encouraged to brush their teeth regularly."

Home on the Grange

IT SEEMS that members of the city's planning committee learn a lot on the occasions that they get out on site visits. One such outing was recently arranged to see a house in the upmarket area of the Grange.

The owner of the upper floor of a home at Lauder Road wanted to demolish a garage and replace it with a two-storey extension. But it came as something of a surprise to SNP councillor Stuart McIvor that there were two separate owners living within the one building. "I thought they were too posh in the Grange for that," he said.