PRODUCT of a musical family (my dad had drums in his ears), I knew I'd heard that tune before somewhere and, by jingo, I had.
I was in the Signet Library in Parliament Square, guest of Bonhams to preview their summer sale, and the Rose Street Quartet were tangling gallantly with Mozart's Divertimento in B Flat.
These old ears, it turned out, had been letting me down (too
much Black Sabbath in middle age). I was confusing Mozart's masterpiece with Chopin's Bolognese. Lowering the tone somewhat in the sumptuous Signet, John? You can depend on me.
You're wondering, the Rose Street Quartet? Nice, civilised people bent on upper-class music for a living. They busked in the street for several summers, outside the Mussel Inn, who fed and watered them, before they turned professional.
The pickings are lean but promising. The quartet play a charity gig in the Canongate Kirk on August 1 and have a Fringe date in Greyfriars Kirk on the 17th. To hear them in the Signet over asparagus spears and Ladera Verdi, a Chilean sauvignon blanc, was an ideal introduction.
The sale, incidentally, included a 1911 gold sovereign. Perfect for little Lord Fauntleroy's piggy bank.
Not very sharp Send for Mack the Knife. We look to this hopelessly befuddled government to do something about the knife strife that's gripped the nation and what great wheeze does Jacqui Smith conjure?
Force the adolescent stabbers to confront their victims face to face in hospital. The best our Home Secretary can do. God help us.
Now they're talking about having convicted knifers publicly sweep the streets with "I Stabbed Somebody" splashed across their backs.
We've got Jacqui Smith and grossly overpaid bunglers like her sitting round the Cabinet table with the Great Clunking Fist in the chair. Beggars belief, so it does. Since you ask me, I'd much prefer Cyril Smith to his blithering namesake every time.
Afterwords . . . . . Michael Winner telling it like it is: "Food critics are the lowest of the low. No insult can be too great for them."
The full article contains 349 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
