Political Spin: Gillian Martin

What was the first record you ever bought?

Heart of Glass by Blondie. I bought it from Boots in Aberdeen and it was scratched and I took it back, and then I got another copy and it was scratched in exactly the same place. I couldn’t be bothered taking it back again so to this day whenever Heart of Glass comes on I expect a skip at a certain point. Still a good song though.

What record will always get you on the dance floor?

I’m notoriously difficult to get on the dancefloor, but if ever I was in a situation where they played something like Toots and the Maytals or The Specials I would find it very difficult to resist. Something like Pressure Drop, but that’s so rare. I spend quite a lot of my time at the Holyrood Garden Party running away from Ash Denham trying to get me on the dance floor. I don’t like dancing in public, private’s fine, public’s really something special.

Now you’ve told us what it is we can make sure Stuart Cosgrove gets it lined up for the next Holyrood Garden Party.

I reckon Stuart Cosgrove will be absolutely up for playing Toots and the Maytals.

Do you have a go to karaoke song?

Again, I’m not a singer. Well, I’m not a singer that anybody enjoys listening to. But, and this tends to be only when I’m in a foreign country and there’s nobody that really knows me, and it’s just my family, I will do You’re So Vain by Carly Simon, and I’ll probably direct it at my husband for the lols. I have actually sung on stage a couple of times in the past. Years ago, before the children and social media, my husband John’s band did a Christmas show in [Aberdeen pub] Ma Cameron’s and they performed Fairytale of New York and I did the Kirsty MacColl bit.

Oh wow.

They didn’t ask me back the next year.

Ah. What was their first dance at your wedding?

Weather With You by Crowded House. Friends of ours, a duet called Green, played that as our first dance because John had bought that for me as a single when we were first going out.

What song do you want played at your funeral?

We always joked, my husband and I, that the best song to have played at your funeral would be If You Don’t Know Me by Now. That will not be the song I want played at my funeral but if I go first, the bugger will probably put it on. The music that I would like played, probably as my coffin goes into the furnace, is Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi.

Is there a song guaranteed to make you cry?

Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell and the line, ‘And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time’. I honestly feel my nose stinging at that every single time.

Is there a song you absolutely hate that gets stuck in your head?

Walking Back to Happiness by Helen Shapiro. If it comes on, it’s got that neh-neh-neh-neh-nehnehnehneh and that’s it, it’s in my head.

Is there a record you’re embarrassed about having?

There was a joke in my university household about how a Johnny Hates Jazz record got into our flat and we used to hide it in each other’s record collections. And I remember when we left that flat I found it underneath my rug as a final insult. So I think that’s prob-ably still in my record collection, but it’s not mine!

What was the last gig you went to see?

It was Alison Krauss at the Playhouse in Edinburgh and it was prob-ably just before the pandemic. My mum and dad came down to see it and I managed to get a last-minute ticket and it was beautiful, it was wonderful. She is amazing. It was such a lovely night and it’s not often on a weeknight and a school night that I get to go and see music.