Putting the 'R-A-G. E.' into 'T-H. E-G-A. R-A-G. E.'
Greg Proops has a great routine about the difference between American and British audiences. Essentially, in America you can generally get on the crowd's good side by mentioning the town you're in, in a nice way. This does not work in Britain, for very fundamental reasons.

The Venue Songs album by They Might Be Giants backs this up. Amongst all the wild yelps of enthusiasm from stateside venues, one particular track uses the audience-less soundcheck version. That would be the Glasgow track and it is for a very good reason.

Now, the gig was being played at the Garage on Sauchiehall Street. John F was doing really well. He'd not fallen into the standard American trap of pronouncing the 'w' at the end of Glasgow and had even used 'Glaswegian'.

Unfortunately, announcing you have a song composed especially for that night only gets you so much credit in the empire's second city. Apparently it isn't enough to avoid getting shouted at for saying 'gar-AAAGE' instead of 'GAR-age'.

Not by me I hasten to add, but it does highlight the surprising fact that Glaswegians are sticklers for proper pronunciation. Glaswegians. Pronunciation. I'll let you chew on that one for a bit.

So, if you go to the TMBG site and click on the video for the Glasgow song, don't be too upset with the Deranged Millionaire's description of the dear green place as 'the angry city'. Because for one mispronounced moment - it was.

Also, John L was about this far from losing the audience completely during 'Violin'.