A total of 224 projects from across the country will benefit from more than £20 million in funding to drive forward Scotland’s equality agenda in 2016-17. The projects will work with individuals, families, children and communities to address inequality and discrimination. Continue reading £20 million to support equality initiatives
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(High) rise in tenement recycling!
Hinds welcomes improved recycling figures
Two pilot projects to improve recycling provision for city tenements and flats have seen the amount of some materials recycled increase by up to 300%. Continue reading (High) rise in tenement recycling!
Celebrating our magnificent MoonWalkers!
Thousands ‘Swing Their Tartan’ to support cancer charity
Thousands of women and men wearing bras decorated with a “Swing your Tartan” theme Power-Walked through the streets of Edinburgh at midnight, raising money and awareness for breast cancer charity Walk the Walk.
Among the throng was Walk the Walk Founder and Chief Executive Nina Barough CBE, who appeared on stage before the start of the walk (above).
Wearing decorated bras adorned with all things Scottish – from Highland Coos to Thistles, Saltires to Scottish food, plus of course, lots and lots of tartan – walkers set off from Holyrood Park at Midnight to take on a quarter, half, full or double marathon, raising money and awareness for breast cancer. Before the first step had even been taken, more than £400,000 had been raised.
These amazing people joined in a huge hooley led by rock Ceilidh band Bahookie. Women, men and children from the age of ten upwards showed off their fabulous Scottish costumes – knowing that most of the money raised by The MoonWalk Scotland stays in Scotland to help improve the lives of people with cancer.
Legendary Scottish tartan rocker Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers met a team of fans taking on The MoonWalk – the Boob City Strollers – and offered his support: “The MoonWalk is an amazing thing for people to do. I’ve lost a few very good friends to breast cancer myself and I want to wish good luck to everyone taking part.
Nina Barough CBE, Founder and Chief Executive of Walk the Walk said: “It’s been a magnificent night! We had lots of children taking part in the quarter marathon New Moon and it was great seeing the children getting their medals! All our walkers have done magnificent times and everyone came through smiling and enjoying the experience. We had more people taking part than last year and it’s very special to see people in Scotland uniting together to make a difference.”
More pictures on our Facebook page
Power of Food Festival: visit Granton Community Orchard Garden
Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 June
Granton Community Orchard Garden
Save the date !
Granton Community Orchard Garden’s Open Day’s & Host (one of 16 Gardens) to the Power of Food Festival ….
Sat & Sun June 18th & 19th from 12 ’till 5…
Guest & Demonstrations
No Strings Attached …Wind Band playing – Saturday
Love Food/Hate Waste…Bicycle Powered Smoothie Maker – Saturday
Bug Explorer Adventure – Sunday with Ashley Buchan – PhD Student
Food & Drink, Kids Activities & Much Much More ..
Save the Date!!
Pink Floyd: Royal Mail issues special stamps to honour rock legends
Royal Mail has revealed images of a set of ten stamps that will be issued to mark 50 years since Pink Floyd turned professional and became the ‘house band’ of the London Underground movement of music and arts.
The stamps are now available to pre-order at
and will be available to purchase from 8,000 Post Offices from 7 July 2016.
Six stamps feature iconic album covers: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; Atom Heart Mother;The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals and The Endless River.
The band is renowned for its innovative album covers, many of which have become design classics. Through working with leading graphic designers and photographers, they established a body of work that is instantly recognisable, with album cover art considered among the most iconic ever created.
Most of the band’s album covers were devised by Hipgnosis, co-founded by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson in 1968. They were at the forefront of album cover design, using experimental techniques in photography and multiple exposures, and retouching to create the startling images.
A further four stamps within a miniature sheet celebrate the live performances of the band. Arguably the most visually literate band of all time, as well as being one of the most successful, their live appearances were renowned. They were among the first groups to make extensive use of light shows and projection of films for their appearances, increasing in ambition over the decades.
The four images convey the experience of these live performances, from the appearances at the influential UFO Club, London in 1966 where they invented the ‘psychedelic’ light show; to the extremely ambitious staging for albums such as The Wall and the Division Bell tours.
Pink Floyd were formed when the founding trio of bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright were augmented by original guitarist Syd Barrett. In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band shortly before Barrett’s departure.
Few bands in the history of rock have managed to carve out a career as rich and expansive as that of Pink Floyd. From their blues-based psychedelic roots, the members of the outfit have created some of modern music’s most totemic and inspirational albums, with ground-breaking live performances to match.
STAMP-BY-STAMP
THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (EMI Columbia, 1967)
Pink Floyd’s psychedelic debut is named after Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows, one of frontman Syd Barrett’s favourite books. Photographer Vic Singh shot the cover image using a prism lens given to him by George Harrison some weeks earlier.
ATOM HEART MOTHER (EMI Harvest, 1970)
Pink Floyd’s fifth album provided them with their first UK Number One. It was also the first of their LPs not to feature the band’s name on the front of the sleeve, setting the tone for subsequent albums. Hipgnosis, co-founded by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, designed the cover – the cow’s name is Lulubelle III.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (EMI Harvest, 1973)
With sales in excess of 40 million copies worldwide, The Dark Side Of The Moon remains in the Billboard chart in America over 40 years after its release, and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-charting album. Created by Hipgnosis, with graphics by George Hardie of NTA, the prism device is a classic.
WISH YOU WERE HERE (EMI Harvest, 1975)
With a theme of ‘absence’, the Hipgnosis design message was summarised by Storm Thorgerson as ‘not being present in a relationship or conversation’. The concept even extended to the album being shrink-wrapped in opaque black plastic which had to be slit or removed to access the music and images.
ANIMALS (EMI Harvest, 1977)
Animals was released as punk raged. While Johnny Rotten wore a T-shirt with the slogan ‘I Hate Pink Floyd’, Nick Mason busied himself producing The Damned’s Music for Pleasure. The photograph of Battersea Power Station features the now legendary floating inflatable pig designed by Roger Waters.
THE ENDLESS RIVER (Parlophone Warner, 2014)
Ostensibly a tribute to the late Richard Wright and described as a ‘headphones’ album by David Gilmour, The Endless River beat all records for volumes of online pre-orders. For the album cover, Aubrey Powell discovered 18-year old graphic designer Ahmed Emad Eldin’s enigmatic work, which was recreated by design company Stylorouge and photographer, Simon Fowler.
PINK FLOYD LIVE
While their studio work has always been important, Pink Floyd have been defined by their live performances. Their early shows in 1966 at London’s UFO Club married the use of pioneering liquid light effects that matched the psychedelic quality of the music itself.
By 1973, the band’s stage set was further expanded to mirror the dramatic sensibilities of the music: the tension that pervades The Dark Side of the Moon was reflected by lighting director Arthur Max’s innovative work, which included a 15-foot model plane flying over the audience, crashing on stage in sync with the explosion during the track On the Run. The In The Flesh Tour (aka The Animals Tour) of 1977 continued that pattern of spectacle through the use of inflatables, including the now famous pigs, and saw Pink Floyd make US stadiums their own.
Next came the Wall, Roger Water’s ambitious theatrical concept base on alienation which saw a physical wall built between the audience and the band.
Some 14 years later, spectacular stadium shows had become the norm, with Floyd underlining their status as pioneers during The Division Bell Tour, captured to great effect on the p.u.l.s.e DVD and beating all records in terms of gate receipts.
1st Class UFO Club, 1966. The UFO Club opened on Dec. 23, 1966. Pink Floyd were booked for the opening along with Soft Machine.
1st Class The Dark Side of the Moon Tour, 1973. This show included the special effect of a plane crashing into the stage at the end of the song On the Run.
£1.52 The Wall Tour, 1981. Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters designed a series of animations for the Wall Tour. These animations were projected onto a 40-foot high wall of cardboard bricks which was gradually built between the band and audience.
£1.52 The Division Bell Tour, 1994. Over 5.3 million tickets were sold for this tour and it grossed approx. 100 million US dollars.
Stamps, eh? Wonder what Syd would have said?
Hampden pitch invasion: Furious Rangers call for independent investigation
Investigations into the aftermath of Hibs Scottish Cup victory at Hampden on Saturday are ongoing and police are appealing for the support of spectators to help their inquiries. Continue reading Hampden pitch invasion: Furious Rangers call for independent investigation
More cycle parking spaces across the city
The city council is set to install hundreds of new cycle racks across the capital. Over the coming months, 400 racks will be introduced to city streets, creating up to 800 spaces for cyclists to secure their bikes. Continue reading More cycle parking spaces across the city
Drylaw Telford CC meets next week
Drylaw Telford Community Council will meet on Wednesday 25 May at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre off Groathill Road North. All welcome.
See below for agenda
Election results: Edinburgh
Edinburgh results in full:
EDINBURGH CENTRAL
RUTH DAVIDSON (CON) 10, 399
Alison Dickie (SNP) 9789
Sarah Boyack (LAB) 7546
Alison Johnstone (GRN) 4644
Hannah Bettswoth (LD) 1672
Tom Laird (SLD) 119
Majority 610
CONSERVATIVE GAIN
EDINBURGH EASTERN
ASH DENHAM (SNP) 16,760
Kezia Dugdale (LAB) 11 673
Nick Cook (CON) 5 700
Cospatric D’Inverno (LD) 1 264
Majority 5087
Turnout 56.3%
SNP HOLD
EDINBURGH NORTHERN & LEITH
BEN MacPHERSON (SNP) 17,322
Lesley Hinds (LAB) 10 576
Iain McGill (CON) 6 781
Martin Veart (LD) 1779
Jack Caldwell (IND) 1344
Majority 6746
Turnout 55.2%%
SNP GAIN
EDINBURGH PENTLANDS
GORDON MacDONALD (SNP) 13, 181
Gordon Lindhurst (CON) 10 725
Blair Heary (LAB) 7 811
Emma Farthing-Sykes (LD) 1 636
Majority 2456
Turnout 60.4%
SNP HOLD
EDINBURGH SOUTHERN
DANIEL JOHNSON (LAB) 13, 597
Jim Eadie (SNP) 12 474
Miles Briggs (CON) 9 972
Pramod Subbaraman (LD) 2 216
Majority 1123
Turnout 64.2%
LABOUR GAIN
EDINBURGH WESTERN
ALEX COLE-HAMILTON (LD) 16, 645
Toni Giugliano (SNP) 13 685
Sandy Batho (CON) 5 686
Cat Headley (LAB) 3 750
Majority 2960
Turnout 64.5%
LIB DEM GAIN
LOTHIAN LIST MSPs (7)
Jeremy Balfour (Con)
Miles Briggs (Con)
Kezia Dugdale (Lab)
Neil Findlay (Lab)
Alison Johnstone (Grn)
Gordon Lindhurst (Con)
Andy Wightman (Grn)
Local schools to stay closed until after summer holidays
Council confirms local schools will be closed for months
Parents and carers worst fears were realised with the announcement this afternoon that local primary schools Craigroyston, Forthview, Pirniehall and St Davids are to remain closed until after the summer holidays. Rowanfield, too, will stay shut until August. Continue reading Local schools to stay closed until after summer holidays