Quizzes Tonight:

7.30pm – Ship Inn, Musselburgh. Jackpot £90. Cheat answer: Jean-Michel Jarre (music round) – Currently Closed for Refurb. (should be re-opened before Christmas)

9pm – The Newsroom. Jackpot £50. Cheat answer: Roxie (music round).

Cheat Clue

Here is the cheat clue for tonight’s music round at the Newsroom. The song comes from the film version of Chicago starring Renee Zellweger as Roxie singing a song about herself and how great she is (or is going to become, thanks to her part in her husband’s death).

Actually, the whole music round tonight is based on songs with girls’ names in the title – so there’s an extra clue for you.

One of my favourite showbiz moments ever involved ‘Chicago’.

I went to see a production of the show at the Kings in Glasgow – in September 2004.

Despite living in the Big G for many years, I wasn’t particularly a Marti fan at this time, I’d never really loved Wet Wet Wet and the fact that the Clydebank legend was playing Billy Flynn was incidental to me – I just wanted to see the show again which I’d seen in London before and loved.

Anyway – the rest of the audience felt differently.

They were proper Glasgow, Marti-mental and jacked up on Pellow-anticipation.

Billy Flynn doesn’t appear until half way through the first act and as the show started you could tell by the vibrations in the room that excitement was building towards the Marti moment.

When he finally appeared on the stage, the show literally stopped. This is the only time I’ve seen something like this happen. It was phenomenal.

Women were crying.

People were shouting, usually variations on “I love you Marti” and there was simply too much bedlam and chaos for any acting or singing to take place.

Instead, Marti Pellow just came to the middle of the stage, grinned like a bastard and lapped it up, arms wide apart, accepting and catching all the love.

This fed-back on itself and the women screamed more. It seemed to go on for a while.

“Fucking hell”, I thought to myself, “this Pellow fellow has GOT IT. They love him. And he loves them loving him…”

Eventually, after a few over-hyperventilated Glaswegian women were removed, order was restored and Marti began to sing.

And at that point I was blown away.

The thing which I’d never known previously was that Marti Pellow was seriously good.

He could really properly sing. He was not just good, he was really good. The acting and the timing and the dancing weren’t bad either.

In fact, he was the best thing about the show and I came away with a lot of new respect, having not expected too much.

So as they say pretty much anywhere West of Harthill, If there’s No Marti – there’s No Party

NEW QUIZ NEXT THURSDAY

By the way – next Thursday sees the launch of a new Thursday night early quiz (7pm) at the Strathie, just off Leith Walk. Full details next week.

Cheers,

Dr Paul

If you have stuff to say, you can always say it on the Dr Paul Quiz Group on the FACEY.

Also: Dr Paul on Twitter = pithy posts, brutal facts and quiz info plus there’s Dr Paul Instagram for visuals. Enjoy.