Talk of the Town: Flashing at the National Museum

VISITORS to the revamped National Museum of Scotland have plenty to delight them.

But as if the new displays weren’t enough, Forth Valley Chorus gave them an extra treat when they performed a “flash sing” in the atrium.

Members of the chorus mingled inconspicuously with museum-goers until a given signal, when they all piped up with an uplifting performance of Bill Withers’ classic Lean on Me.

Catch it yourself by visiting their www.forthvalleychorus.org. The expressions on the onlookers faces alone will bring a smile to your face.

Stand and deliver takes on a new meaning

OOPS! Comedian Richard Herring grumbled online recently that he’d received notification from the Post Office of a letter awaiting him at their depot with insufficient postage.

His options were to let it go, or to pay £1.58 to retrieve it – which he eventually did, out of curiosity. But there were red faces in Edinburgh when he revealed to his 66,000 Twitter followers where it had come from – The Stand comedy club in Queen Street.

Holyrood whispers

THE Scottish Parliament is having trouble with its new £280,000 state-of-the-art sound and voting system, installed in the debating chamber over the summer.

The Evening News revealed yesterday contractors will be coming back during the October half-term recess to carry out more work so MSPs can see a countdown clock on the display screens.

But the problems don’t stop there. During business in the chamber yesterday, North East Fife SNP MSP Rod Campbell could not get his microphone to work. Presiding officer Tricia Marwick had to advise him: “Just shout.”

The best laid planners

WHEN filming of the Halle Berry movie Cloud Atlas took place at the City Chambers, the last thing the producers wanted was a crowd that would get in the way.

Many details of the locations were kept top secret, while photographers were kept away from the City Chambers by burly security men.

So credit to housing leader Paul Edie, who appears to be one of the few people to have got a snap of the action – including one picture of a stunt man shimmying down a drain pipe.from planning leader Jim Lowrie’s office window.

Councillor Edie: “Participants in meetings just couldn’t resist hanging out of the window to see what was going on.”