{"id":632036,"date":"2025-12-14T14:06:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T14:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632036\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T14:06:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T14:06:28","slug":"martin-compston-on-billy-connolly-ahead-of-hoolie-in-the-hydro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632036\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Compston on Billy Connolly ahead of Hoolie In The Hydro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The legendary comedian, 83, was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 and later announced his retirement in 2018.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Compston, who is co-hosting a Hoolie In The Hydro on Saturday dedicated to the Big Yin, said the Scottish comic had battled the disease \u201cwith a smile on his face and cracking jokes that only Billy can\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The actor, who was born in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk\/local-news\/greenock-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Greenock<\/a>, said he was \u201cchuffed\u201d to be asked to present the night of traditional music in Glasgow, despite admitting he is \u201cnot a fan\u201d of public speaking.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25693734.not-good-enough-bbc-urged-issue-correction-question-time-error\/?ref=ed_latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>&#8216;Not good enough&#8217;: BBC urged to issue correction after Question Time error<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cBut it\u2019s a big Christmas ceilidh night out and a salute to the Big Yin,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019m glad about all the murals [of Connolly] that have popped up. I think sometimes legends can leave us and then it seems after they\u2019re gone there\u2019s an outpouring of grief and they don\u2019t really know.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019m glad the last few years it\u2019s been made abundantly clear just how much Billy is loved and cherished.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cSo I think having that salute to him, it\u2019s lovely.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img  \/><\/p>\n<p>\n  Murals celebrating Connolly have popped up in recent years, usually painted on to the side of traditional Glasgow tenements.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Compston said Connolly is \u201cthe best at being Scottish\u201d, which is why he is \u201cglobally loved\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He added: \u201cObviously, Billy\u2019s been battling Parkinson\u2019s but he\u2019s been battling incredibly bravely and again he\u2019s done it with a smile on his face and cracking jokes that only Billy can.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI\u2019m hoping he\u2019s with us for a long time to come.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/25693348.primal-scream-reported-police-antisemitic-imagery-london-gig\/?ref=ed_latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Primal Scream reported to police over &#8216;antisemitic imagery&#8217; at London gig<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Organisers of the Hoolie In The Hydro say it will honour Connolly\u2019s \u201cimmeasurable\u201d contribution to Scottish comedy, music and culture.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The annual \u201cHoolie\u201d is considered to be one of the biggest events of the year for Scottish traditional music.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Acts performing this year include Elephant Sessions, Trail West, Manran, and Beluga Lagoon.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Compston said the night will honour Connolly as a musician, but added: \u201cThere\u2019s kind of nothing he can\u2019t do and he\u2019s done it all with a humility and obviously a humour that you just have to love.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWhen I say to anybody what would be the best way to describe what it\u2019s like being Scottish or being from the west coast of Scotland, you say Billy Connolly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legendary comedian, 83, was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 and later announced his retirement in 2018.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-632036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115718311923841041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}