Winning numbers

Such is the impact of technology on business that even resolutions at annual meetings are increasingly being voted for electronically rather than on good old paper and pen. To prevent any embarrassing hiccups at its meeting last week, SSE sensibly carried out a test vote, which saw chairman Richard Gillingwater ask shareholders to ‘vote’ on a multiple choice question.

Testing their knowledge on the company, the question was on how many homes were supplied electricity by SSE. Revealing that 82.4 per cent of respondents chose the correct answer, Mr Gillingwater quipped: “Let’s hope the actual resolutions do better than that.”

Metal guru

THE Bottom Line was in its element interviewing Andy Mooney, the LA-based Scot who runs Fender. H even managed to squeeze in a spot of guitar playing on his recent trip to Glasgow.

Mr Mooney, who hails from Whitburn, performed in an impromptu super group with Deacon Blue’s Dougie Vipond, Danny Wilson’s Gary Clark, Simple Minds’ Ged Grimes and Chris van der Kuyl of Entrepreneurial Scotland, at city venue Saint Luke’s.

Asked which songs the band would perform, Mr Mooney said: “We’ll cover Layla, Summer Breeze – The Isley Brothers’ variation – and Sara Smile by Hall & Oates. None of these songs are really in my repertoire because I’m a serious heavy metal guy!”

Guitar legends

STICKING with Andy Mooney, The Bottom Line - a stickler for rock and roll lore - was thrilled to hear Mr Mooney drop into the conversation that one of his closest friends is Pete Townshend’s long-standing guitar tech. And he gave us a fascinating insight into the Fender which was customised for the legendary guitarist of The Who.

Mr Mooney said: “He has a signature guitar that has a modification in it that Alan Rogan and he worked on that enables the guitar sonically to go from electric to acoustic, just with the rotation of the switch. It’s a very unique guitar and he still uses it to this day.”

Mr Mooney added: “It is an interesting that Pete got his first Stratocaster as a gift from Eric Clapton, who bought half a dozen of them from this one store in Nashville, and gave one of them to Pete.”

We could have talked to him all night.

The rub of it

There is nothing quite like an epic bike ride to raise money for charity and while staff from The Lounge salon at Chapelton, near Newtonhill,won’t be donning the lycra for this year’s Chapelton Bike Ride, they will be providing complimentary massages to cyclists.

Taking place on September 3, the 12 or 42-mile ride is held in aid of North East Sensory Services (NESS) and lolls over the Aberdeenshire countyside. Last year, more 250 cyclists took part, raising more than £6,500 .

On completion, weary cyclists will be treated to a variety of treatments from The Lounge to help their muscles recover. They will also receive a gift bag containing discount vouchers and other goodies, which is all very charitable stuff.