NOW this must have been a cracking night out - the Evening Times organised a Riverboat Shuffle in May, 1957, on the ship the Duchess of Hamilton which sailed down the Clyde on a four-hour cruise with jazz bands and skiffle groups playing on board for the 1800 passengers. It must have been mayhem.

The Evening Times the next day noted that the ship sailed through a thunder storm with the reporter remarking: "For once the bearded, arty types found a use for the hoods of their duffles." Now that's a bit sneering, if you don't mind me saying so.

Here is the top attraction on the cruise - the Clyde Valley Stompers, formed in 1952, who went on to become a full-time professional band with a big following, before disbanding in 1963. They still look cool even today. Apart from the banjo player. You can never look cool playing a banjo.

The Evening Times reporter also recorded that members of the Dundee Jazz Club came by car which broke down at Stirling. They had it repaired, but it broke down again outside Glasgow where they sold it at a profit and finished the journey in a taxi. As I say, it sounds one memorable occasion, daddy-o.

AH the tartan bunnet. Yes it is Scots funnyman Chic Murray who is pretending to puff on a pipe once owned by Sir Harry Lauder which is being auctioned by the lady on the left, Valda Grieve, the widow of Scottish writer Hugh MacDiarmid. Why Hugh MacDiarmid ever owned a Harry Lauder pipe seems a bit of a mystery as the acerbic MacDiarmid often railed against populist acts such as Lauder whom he described as a "pedlar of hokum."

Not sure why Chic is here, but it gives me a chance to throw in a Chic one-liner: "The police stopped me when I was out in my car. They told me it was a spot check. I admitted to two pimples and a boil." Brilliant.

THE Kelvin Hall in Glasgow was used for all sorts of shows, and this is a live-stock show at the Hall in November, 1947. The photographer wisely got some lads to hold up a couple of cute puppies, although the dogs themselves seem a bit blasé about the whole event. And they should have got their hands under the dogs' backsides to give them a bit of support, for goodness sake.

The lads are named in the photograph as Ian Russell and Frank Sutherland. Ian is wearing a school cap so he must have been more of a posh boy compared to tousle-haired Frank. Still, they look like dog lovers, which is all that matters.