Just The Ticket
Before I explain why the woman in this photograph is holding a small, naked artificial Christmas tree, I need to reveal some of the awful things my parents used to say about the ´óÏó´«Ã½. Step into this handy time-machine while I whisk you back to, say, 1975 and you can see the Zycinski family gathered around the television set watching the Hogmanay programme on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 1. On the screen you will see tartan-clad collection of singers and dancers and a live studio audience enjoying the festivities, probably in a cabaret-style setting and probably with drinks on the tables.
"I wonder how you get to be part of the audience?" I ask, squeakily.
At this point my parents would go in to rant-mode and, without any inside knowledge of television production, would explain that the studio audience were all friends or friends of friends of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff, or else had secured entry because of some Masonic conspiracy, or else there was some kind of scam involving the backroom crew selling tickets in local pubs. In others words, there was no chance of folk like us getting invited to the party even if we had written to ask for tickets which, needless to say, we had not. A self-fulfilling prophecy, they call it.
All of which brings me to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland's own Hogmanay show which, once again, will come live from the rooftop restaurant at Pacific Quay. This year Robbie Shepherd and Bryan Burnett will be hosting the party alongside Cathy MacDonald. There will be live music and, we hope, a lively audience.
But I'm afraid the free tickets are all gone. Sorry.
Producer Barbara Wallace told me that Bryan and Cathy told listeners about the tickets on their shows last night. Bryan on Radio Scotland and Cathy on Radio nan Gaidheal. The Audience Line opened at nine o'clock this morning and by ten o'clock all 170 tickets had been snapped up.
"That's amazing," I told Barbara, "now hold that wee Christmas tree and I'll take a photograph and write about it on my blog."
So she did. Not sure why.
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