Book Review: The Ossians
James Urquhart - The Independent
Apr 07, 2008
The Ossians By Doug Johnstone
On the cusp of a successful career, fictional indie guitar band The Ossians play barnstorming nationalist anthems to their Edinburgh faithful. Their menacing frontman, Connor Alexander, laps up the adulation while posing as the cliched tortured artist. They set out on a two-week tour of Scotland that could end with the grail of a label signing at their Glasgow finale. However, Connor's drunken taunts result in him getting punched out by punters in each of their first three gigs. Kate, The Ossians' bassist and Connor's twin sister, is unsurprised, given how much he provokes the band members: "He acts up, I slag him off, and round it goes."
Shambolic drinking fuels much of this aggression. Kate, Danny the drummer and Connor's long-suffering girlfriend Hannah on guitar, habitually hit the stage after a skinful of bevvies and a few joints. Connor tops this up with double chasers, a few Es and the odd line of coke, frequent clandestine dips into a "sherbert dab" wrap of speed in one pocket and covert slugs from a pop bottle filled with scarcely diluted gin. While his three bandmates drink to loosen up, alcohol coils Connor like a spring. Nasty coercion from Con's dealer to deliver secret packages en route tops up the paranoia as they hit the road.
"It's both shite and great being Scottish, often simultaneously," Connor proclaims in one of his mouthy interviews. Quite what that Scottishness might be proves more elusive. With his frontman railing against sentiment and myth-making (despite the band being named after a third-century Scots Gaelic poet of dubious provenance), Johnstone cleverly floats the red herring of national identity over the deeper anxiety of Connor's 24 years of "pampered, middle-class living, with scarcely a story to tell down the pub".
Johnstone swiftly rectifies that lack. Furtive drug drops, a mystery stalker, armed robbery and the unhinged carousing of some Russian submariners marooned in Ullapool give the novel plenty of anecdotal pep. The tension ratchets up between the musicians whose shifting relationships form the vital, energised core of Johnstone's roustabout second novel. The schedule of 10 gigs sets a relentless pace. Packed with seedy, sticky bars, sullen punters and morose reflections in deteriorating weather, there is an atmospheric beauty to The Ossians that offsets its harsh environment. All Johnstone's characters are strongly defined, but as any maverick rock star should, Connor fills the page magnificently with "a knowing self- destructive streak and a cowardly self-importance" that both fascinates and repels.
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Copyright 2008 by The Independent
