CANNONBALL FUN

The Breeders, Glasgow ABC 8/4/08

by Kate Smail

SquareOne Entertainment

Girls with guitars get a bad press. Unfairly shunned by men who think they don't rock hard enough, and often side-lined by women who prefer a lead singer worth throwing their underwear at.

However, judging by the packed audience at the ABC in Glasgow last night, The Breeders are band that transcend stereotypes. Men and women in equal numbers crowded in to see the legendary rock outfit fronted by the inimitable Kim Deal, of Pixies fame, and her merry cast of oddballs.

Deal took to the stage wearing a man's jumper and no make-up, looking a lot like a wholesome mother earth type. That is, until she opened her mouth and a gravelly stream of expletives rolled out followed by a raucous, infectious laugh.

The set consisted mainly of tracks from their first new album in six years, Mountain Battles and keen not to disappoint, a few tracks from their most famous offering, Last Splash, were thrown in for good measure.

The crowd were a little restrained for the first few songs, especially by Glasgow standards, until the first few chords of No Aloha rang out. The mood changed, and a healthy exchange of banter between Deal and the audience ensued. It's not easy to win over a Glasgow crowd with wit, but Kim and her sister Kelly had the audience lapping it up with their dry humour and sharp one liners.

By the time Cannonball arrived their work was done. The venue was rocking, despite the fact that it was full of professionals in their thirties and forties, clearly reliving their misspent youth.

My only bugbear with an otherwise flawless set? Their new material is so much softer than The Breeders of yesteryear. Why is it as bands age that they feel the need to experiment with folk and country influences? Some of us still want to rock out. Even if we are old enough to know better.

ARE THE BUSINESS PAGES BORING?

by Christopher Mackie

SquareOne Business


What would happen if the BoE refused BAE’s Triple-A rating on the basis of some dodgy CDOs or PERLS owned by a Non-Dom employee?

Well, let me tell you that the FTSE, the NASDAQ and the ONS might have something to say about it. And, FYI at the COB each day, every CEO is concerned with their OD, HR and KPI. And, as if that doesn’t take up enough time, all company directors love to check with R&D to ensure that the ROI allows for their core values to be facilitated. From VAT to ITV, the business world loves to abbreviate. And if they can’t abbreviate it, they love to invent some jargon to replace it.

Perhaps it is because everyone in a pinstripe suit is just so darned busy to be bothered by full names. Perhaps managing directors across the globe can shave valuable seconds from their working day by abbreviating every name that comes their way. Or maybe they can only remain upright and awake whilst poring over company accounts by inventing spurious allegories to make their business sound more interesting. Well, what would you rather hear – that a company’s new venture into Indonesia was a “major, success following a period of hard work in a difficult market” or that “management’s success in this pathfinder project is a real home run”?

It’s because of this fog of confusing jargon that the business pages of any newspaper run the risk of being viewed as dull, filled with esoteric rhetoric and obsessed by numbers ahead of stories.

At first glance this seems to be true. The business sections carry vast reports showing unit trust performance, or complicated tables displaying interest rate comparisons. Most will carry a graphic showing the stock market performance of the day, which is interesting and important to those in the know but somehow distant and irrelevant to most. There are stories about company restructures and gloomy pieces about underperforming bosses. Company accounts are examined and interpreted and tax regulations explained.

But, increasingly the business agenda is creeping onto the front pages, and our thirst for perceptive analysis increases faster than you can say ASAP. Ignore the detailed lists of pension fund performance or share price indices and focus on the stories. Most of them concern real people and the money in their pocket, and in the hands of a skillful reporter can be as compelling as the most devious politics and as dramatic as real hard news.

Far from being boring, the business pages deal in such Shakespearean themes as; deceit (Enron), incompetence (Northern Rock) and egomaniacal high folly (Societe Generale). But aside from the backstabbing and high drama of vast industry deals, coverage of the economy is vitally important to all of the UK’s citizens. As the world flirts with recession, and ordinary people begin to worry about their mortgage payments or credit card debt, they rely on trusted industry journalists to put things in plain English.

So, if you’ve managed to reach this point without resorting to a dictionary or a stiff drink and you feel like finding out who Fannie Mae is, look beyond the initials in the business sections and you’ll find some real gilt-edged stories.


Unlock the secrets of the business jargon here - Business Glossary