For true grimness, visit the ex-mining villages of East Ayrshire, places like Cumnock or New Cumnock (they're imaginitive with the names round here!) Situated about 50 miles south of Glasgow, there hasn't been any coal mining there since the sixties, and some villages have entirely dissappeared apart from ruins on the hillside. Every second shop in the main towns are boarded up, too. Very depressing. Very grim. Since moving to Ayrshire (a nicer bit that where I've just described) I've visited the North of England a few times. I think most of the places I've been to have been a bit "posh" (Lancaster, Carlisle) - but we did stop at Tebay on the way back up the M6 about a month ago. There was an investigation into a rail crash there in the news a few weeks back. It felt very unfriendly - the place is covered in "NO WINDFARMS HERE" placards, and people did not seem very pleased to see visitors (particularly one miserable sod of a bus driver) ... Talking of cars and visiting places, that reminds me ... hopefully soon I'll be visiting Newton Stewart, childhood home of Kingboy, where his Dad used to preach, and where "The Man" album was recorded in the Macmillan Hall in 1986 (I also seem to remember the bagpipes in "America No More" were recorded there too). I was thinking of taking some photos, especially in I can find the Hall. Would people be interested? John ----- Original Message ----- From: Jez Rothwell To: All bound for Mu-Mu Land. Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 12:24 AM Subject: Re: [KLF] Where does the expression "It's Grim Up North" come from? On 20 Mar 2006, at 23:47, Mark Weston wrote: Hi John I expect the phrase was first used many years ago when we realised just how bad the North of England was......I mean who else puts gravey on fish and chips and if you notice when the northerners speak they always miss words out............flat caps.ferrets .........come on the list is endless Best Wishes Mark It really is terrible up north. Cheap beer, cheap food, cheap houses, fresh air, open spaces and the best looking girls in the land. Makes me want to move to Kent at the drop of a flat cap. Anyone want to buy a 4 bedroom detached house for 120,000 so i can get my self a des res wardrobe in Bexley Heath. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ KLF mailing list KLF@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/klf Report list abuse to list-abuse at studio-nibble.com