SPOILERS: John Illsley will publish a book about Dire Straits

[dustyvalentino]

Kudos to John for not telling this horribly annoying journalist to fuck off!  What a bunch of bad questions, and how rude of her to doubt him. He isn't offending anybody, he is telling what he saw. Phil Palmer writes about the SanRemo fastival too, and I don't doubt they are telling the truth.
I can't believe how bad this journalist is, it is some of the worst I've read!...And this probably is NOT the worst one he has met..

He is offending me, saying Scotland couldn't pay its bills, that all we have to offer is "whiskey" (sic) and that we have a language that no one can understand!

[Elin N]

Sorry, I was referring to the Italian thing, where she seems to deny history.

[quizzaciously]

I was referring to the Italian thing 

To be honest, I thought John was pretty harsh on Italy in his book, though he has a point that it was a different country back then. But any country was a different country half a century ago, nothing new here. Russia was a completely different country even 20 years ago, so you have to take that into account. The journalist also has a point, so it's a fair game to me.

[Elin N]

Exactly, every country was different then, and I can't understand how she can question something that he experienced for himself, while she wasn't born yet (as far as I understand from the text). But I am not Italian, and wasn't born either, so I can't say much about it 

[jbaent]

I was referring to the Italian thing 

To be honest, I thought John was pretty harsh on Italy in his book, though he has a point that it was a different country back then. But any country was a different country half a century ago, nothing new here. Russia was a completely different country even 20 years ago, so you have to take that into account. The journalist also has a point, so it's a fair game to me.

She's not acting like a journalist, but as a mafia bully. She's not asking questions regarding what he wrote about Italy, she is attacking him about it.

[jbaent]

Kudos to John for not telling this horribly annoying journalist to fuck off!  What a bunch of bad questions, and how rude of her to doubt him. He isn't offending anybody, he is telling what he saw. Phil Palmer writes about the SanRemo fastival too, and I don't doubt they are telling the truth.
I can't believe how bad this journalist is, it is some of the worst I've read!...And this probably is NOT the worst one he has met..

He is offending me, saying Scotland couldn't pay its bills, that all we have to offer is "whiskey" (sic) and that we have a language that no one can understand!

The way she attacks John, I don't believe a single word that she wrote, maybe she made all up or exagerated to make him looks like an assole, when she was the assole clearly.

[Banjo99uk]

Crikey she sounds like a right charmer.

[hunter]

Generally a terrible interview, but those were some tough questions, and the journalist just kept hammering them. Pretty disrespectful actually. I'm surprised John agreed to have it published.


As for the Scottish speaking a language no one can understand, I'm sure that was said jokingly. Obviously jokes (irony) don't come across well in writing. That said, Scottish is difficult to understand for foreigners who are not accustomed to the accent. I remember first time I was in Scotland. I took a taxi from Glasgow airport to Greenock. I had to ask the driver to repeat himself constantly LOL Good times.

[superval99]

Generally a terrible interview, but those were some tough questions, and the journalist just kept hammering them. Pretty disrespectful actually. I'm surprised John agreed to have it published.


As for the Scottish speaking a language no one can understand, I'm sure that was said jokingly. Obviously jokes (irony) don't come across well in writing. That said, Scottish is difficult to understand for foreigners who are not accustomed to the accent. I remember first time I was in Scotland. I took a taxi from Glasgow airport to Greenock. I had to ask the driver to repeat himself constantly LOL Good times.

I agree it was a terrible interview - an interrogation actually!

Regarding accents, the Glasgow accent is something apart from other Scottish accents.   Sometimes it is almost impossible to understand and needs subtitles, a bit like the Liverpudlian accent, which even myself, a Liverpudlian, finds difficult to understand at times in dramas on TV!     I think John was talking about Scottish Gaelic, though, when he said it was "a language nobody can understand".

[hunter]

Generally a terrible interview, but those were some tough questions, and the journalist just kept hammering them. Pretty disrespectful actually. I'm surprised John agreed to have it published.


As for the Scottish speaking a language no one can understand, I'm sure that was said jokingly. Obviously jokes (irony) don't come across well in writing. That said, Scottish is difficult to understand for foreigners who are not accustomed to the accent. I remember first time I was in Scotland. I took a taxi from Glasgow airport to Greenock. I had to ask the driver to repeat himself constantly LOL Good times.

I agree it was a terrible interview - an interrogation actually!

Regarding accents, the Glasgow accent is something apart from other Scottish accents.   Sometimes it is almost impossible to understand and needs subtitles, a bit like the Liverpudlian accent, which even myself, a Liverpudlian, finds difficult to understand at times in dramas on TV!     I think John was talking about Scottish Gaelic, though, when he said it was "a language nobody can understand".

True, Glaswegian is a lot harder to comprehend compared to the Edinburgh accent or up in the Highlands.


As for English accents, I find people from Leeds rather difficult to understand.

[superval99]

As for English accents, I find people from Leeds rather difficult to understand.

I have lived in Leeds for 56 years and I have no problem, generally, except for some strange colloquialisms. 

[hunter]

As for English accents, I find people from Leeds rather difficult to understand.

I have lived in Leeds for 56 years and I have no problem, generally, except for some strange colloquialisms. 

Being British and having lived there for 56 years, might have helped you 


English is not my native language, and as a foreigner I was mostly exposed to some variant of BBC English, or Standard American English.

[dmg]

Generally a terrible interview, but those were some tough questions, and the journalist just kept hammering them. Pretty disrespectful actually. I'm surprised John agreed to have it published.


As for the Scottish speaking a language no one can understand, I'm sure that was said jokingly. Obviously jokes (irony) don't come across well in writing. That said, Scottish is difficult to understand for foreigners who are not accustomed to the accent. I remember first time I was in Scotland. I took a taxi from Glasgow airport to Greenock. I had to ask the driver to repeat himself constantly LOL Good times.

I agree it was a terrible interview - an interrogation actually!

Regarding accents, the Glasgow accent is something apart from other Scottish accents.   Sometimes it is almost impossible to understand and needs subtitles, a bit like the Liverpudlian accent, which even myself, a Liverpudlian, finds difficult to understand at times in dramas on TV!     I think John was talking about Scottish Gaelic, though, when he said it was "a language nobody can understand".

True, Glaswegian is a lot harder to comprehend compared to the Edinburgh accent or up in the Highlands.


As for English accents, I find people from Leeds rather difficult to understand.

Some accents up in parts of the highlands and islands are very strong.  In the Glasgow area you can travel 5 miles and hear a different accent.  Some Aberdonians have the strongest accents in Scotland.  Just hope big John isn't playing there any time soon! 

I think it's nice to hear an accent because they're dying out now.  People are moving around the country a lot more, living in different places and the younger generation generally don't have strong local accents any more. 

[mjhadlick]

What an awful interview! I'm surprised that John didn't get up and leave!

I haven't been to Scotland (yet), but I have been to parts of Nova Scotia, Canada where Scottish Gaelic is spoken in some regions. Road signs are in both English and Gaelic. I can't understand it much either, especially if they are speaking fast.

[MagicElliott]

Aware I’m late to the party but I have just finished reading it. Took me a few weeks as I’m a slow reader and also find it hard to make time to stop and read (I’m a teacher so bring work home with me, plus my wife is 12 weeks pregnant and so has really struggled with tiredness recently.)

I did the thing of slowing down towards the end as I was enjoying it so much I didn’t want it to finish. I admire his honesty about the ups and downs and his mistakes. I wish there was more detail about the later shows and tours but, as he says, I guess all the shows merge when you’re doing that many of them. Much as I’d have loved more about MK as a character, I do appreciate they’re good mates and so John probably had to be careful about what he shared.

All in all, an interesting read…..and the teacher in me spotted a grammatical error or two.