COCTEAU TWINS DEEP CUTS IN EDINBURGH’S BLACK CAT

July 2025. Edinburgh.

Last Edinburgh post, promise.

I left the Argyle Bar just after 4pm, almost five hours till the train back to Darlington, but was already approaching 30,000 steps,

and worried I’d just get distracted by Bow Bar, Halfway House, Oxford and the rest and undo all those calories walked off.

So I slowed down to smell the roses, and admire the art going up ahead of Festival,

and wondered if I could persuade Mrs RM to return (actually, this week) and see Magic Man’s Bear.

Mrs RM was getting hungry by the time she was getting kicked out of the Scottish Parliament for asking too many questions about the Barnett Formula, and I suggested the bar with Mango Lassi Pale (bad idea),

but she’d already set up camp in Holyrood 9A (top service) and ordered her Campervan,

so the Scotsman burger (with wild haggis) awaited me at half-five.

With a 5.30 am start that morning we were both feeling the heat now, though I’d have happily walked to Musselburgh for a pint of autovac in the Staggs to get to 50k steps.

Instead, we walked the length of the Royal Mile and then to Rose Street,

where I could at least complete Edinburgh’s mighty GBG contingent for another year.

The Black Cat (top) is a charmer of a craft bar, not quite Old Shoe crafty, so I’ll steal Rich B’s comparison with Margate’s Fez.

Office workers are about to give way to young professionals prepping for Quiz Night (it’s always Quiz Night somewhere) and a couple on a date (I hope) are doing whisk(e)y tasting.

My notes say “Obscure Cocteau Twins deep cuts“, but then this comes on,

and everyone knows Aikea-Guinea, surely ?

The beer, from Spey and Williams and Pilot, is good…enough, but Mrs RM isn’t moving so I have a half of Stewart’s 7.1 Dipadelic. And don’t leave until Toto’s “Africa” replaces the Cocteaus.

We have 90 minutes to get back the quarter mile to Waverley Station. We nearly don’t make it.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

14 thoughts on “COCTEAU TWINS DEEP CUTS IN EDINBURGH’S BLACK CAT”

  1. My best mate being from Portobello means I know Edinburgh’s pub stock as well as any city I’ve actually lived in. Anyway, while Black Cat wouldn’t make a list of my favourite 10 (or 20, wen I think about it) Edinburgh pubs, felt compelled to post because last time I was in the Black Cat would’ve been 2019ish and he and I were the only late-20’s/early 30’s-somethings doing the quiz amongst a load of students/youths. AND WE GOT BOOED WHEN WE WON. Admittedly gentle boos, so fun vibe, and remember cask being serviceable.
    Alex

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  2. The Lacings Never Lie…mine today on my HPA looked like those on the Campervan. All a bit Wittgensteinian …”Wherefore we cannot speak, we must remain silent” and all that.

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  3. The Barnett formula is like the Schleswig Holstein Question.
    Only two people have ever understood it and one is dead and the other one went mad

    PS I am not Reg Smeeton .

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  6. If Mrs RM is now ticking all the legislatures of Britain and surrounding islands, there’s a handy list on the BIPRA (not to be confused with BRAPA) website. It’s the British-Irish Parliamentary Reporting Association and, as I work on Wales’s equivalent of Hansard, my colleagues and I get to attend jollies conferences at our counterparts’ places of work. I’d gladly welcome her on the steps of the Senedd, although, as our toilets flush with rainwater, best visit during autumn or winter months (I imagine there’s a mains backup).

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      1. Ooh, such a cruel question, like asking which one of my children do I like best! But in seriousness, nothing excited me that much over the past year. The big one is Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024, which includes increasing the number of elected Members. Considering the current feeling towards politics and politicians, it couldn’t have been timed any better… The method that Members are elected by could also lead to interesting results.
        Most legislation during the period seemed like tinkering and tidying up previous legislation. Two others that could be far-reaching are the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 and the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025.

        As for an exciting job, I’m mainly a glorified typist (until AI takes my job) and the only really creative bit is tweaking what gets said in order to put down legible sentences – which is a bit rich of me considering my ramblings here.

        Like Westminster, the interesting stuff happens in the committees rather than the Chamber. There were a few Ukippers in the last Senedd, at the beginning at least before they fell out and split into different groups. Some of those were interesting characters.

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      2. Thanks Rhys.

        I miss the coverage of the UK committees like NHS and Public Accounts which seem to have been forgotten about this last decade. One of those committees should have been scrutinising the replacement of GPs with physician assistants, for example.

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      4. Has there been anything to equal the French-English translation in the European Parliament, which resulted in “The French dairy industry has been saved by Norman wisdom”, Rhys?

        If BBC subtitles are anything to go by, then I wouldn’t worry too much about Authentic Idiocy…

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      5. Around 30% of contributions in the Chamber and 10% in committees are in Cymraeg, so there’s plenty of opportunity, but the simultaneous translators are such pros, that never happens (they’re in my unit, so I have to say that, but it’s true!).

        I was transcribing something recently, using MS Word to tidy something up, and it kept suggesting changing ‘Tonypandy’ (an actual place) to ‘Pontypandy’ (a fictional place from Sam Tân children’s programme), which put my mind at rest a bit.

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