NUALA Naughton's book on Glasgow's rowdiest music venue, entitled Barrowland, A Glasgow Experience, is published this month.

In it she tells of the chap selling T-shirts for Del Amitri at the Barrowland who had copied the Del Monte fruit logo with the slogan "The man from Del Amitri says Yes".

As a prank the Del Amitri crew got two off-duty policemen to take the merchandiser aside and question him on copyright fraud. The poor chap almost collapsed with worry as it turned out he was carrying substances which were not entirely legal and was worried his copyright infringement would lead to a search. Oh how the crew watching from the sidelines laughed.

Only a game?

AND Nuala also reveals that the Barrowland's own stage crew always challenged bands to a game of football which legend says they never lost. Says Nuala: "They were not for the faint-hearted. One American tour manager was so shocked that he tried to break up what he thought was a full-on fight until he was pulled back and told, 'It's OK. They've got a ball'."

Shoulder charge

JIMMY Manson tells us: "I parked my car at Ayr Hospital and an official said to me: "You can't park there, it's for badge holders only.' I replied: 'Well I'm here to see about my bad shoulder'."

It was murrrder

SCOTLAND of course lost to an extremely talented Belgium side the other night. But as James Thomson, who was at the match, tells us: "After the second goal went in, the Belgian fans went wild. The kilted man in front of us turned towards the away support and shouted: 'Aye well, Taggart's still better than Poirot.'"

Taxing times

A SOCIETY has been formed to raise awareness of remarkable Scottish politician and writer Robert Cunninghame Graham, who not only helped found the Scottish Labour Party, but was also first president of the Scottish National Party before his death in Argentina in the 1930s. What we like about Robert is what he said more than 100 years ago with remarkable prescience. Arguing for a Scottish Parliament all those years ago he declared that what he wanted was a "national parliament, with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes are wasted in Edinburgh instead of London."

Barking mad

TENEMENT tales continued. Recalls Derek Manson-Smith in Glasgow: "My abiding memory was when the dog on the top floor spotted the postman making his way down the street, and the barking started. The pitch continued to rise as the postie made his way up the stairs until it stopped when he reached the top floor and the dog put all his energy into throwing himself at the other side of the door. Of course that was back in the days when the post was delivered before I left for work."

Don't know?

AND our tale of election canvassing reminds Tom Law of delivering leaflets for the SNP years ago in a dodgy part of Renfrewshire. A potential voter threw the leaflet out the first-floor window and suggested Tom race it down before he released his dog on the count of five. "Fortunately I was a lot younger then," says Tom. "I put him down as undecided."