Scotland's Music
Here's a tip: never drive down the A9 in the middle of December without checking you have enough screen-wash for the journey. Otherwise you'll find yourself parked in a layby at Drumochter, trying to melt snow into an empty cola bottle. And all this while the dawn came up over the mountains.
Still, I made in into Glasgow in time for the informal press launch of Scotland's Music 07...it's our big cross-platform project for next year and involves, radio, television, online and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
John Purser is presenting the 50-part series on radio and he had to correct me when I announced that his research told the story of Scottish music from the Bronze Age to the present day.
"No," he said, "it's actually from the stone age."
Well, it had been many months since I last spoke to John so my information was a bit out of date. Indeed Scotland's Music was one of the first big commisioning decisions I made when I became Head of Radio. The series has been in production for more than a year and I'm told they've recorded almost thirty half hour programmes, with work continuining at the start of next year.
Among the reporters who joined us for lunch at the City Halls was Fergus Sheppard from The Scotsman. He recalled that I'd taken his photograph for this blog the last time we met. I assured him that I didn't have a camera with me this time.
He almost seemed disappointed.
