Hands up for Lau's seal boy at Towersey

Lau played a transcendent set in the Big Club at Towersey last night and also took the opportunity to raise the flag for local journalism, in particular Aidan O'Rourke's local rag in the west highlands.

"I'm from an island called Seil," he said, pronouncing it "seal".

Martin Green stepped in. "When Aidan won best musician in the folk awards earlier this year The Oban Times ran a story about it. And the article had a headline - I'm not joking - the article had a headline that read 'Hands up for Seil boy'."

Much laughter from a packed audience whose collective imagination had clearly turned to flippers.

"And I've been in show business long enough to know that there's more money in a seal boy than there is in a fiddler," Green deadpanned.

* You may also be interested in this from Towersey on Saturday, which is an interview with Ashley Hutchings about the film being made about Shirley Collins, his ex-wife. This, in which Blair Dunlop wrestles with the existential condition of being himself. And this interview with the delightful Nancy Kerr, in which I veer extremely close to calling her a genius.

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