GURNERS

I wanna talk about Gurners. “About what?!!” you may well ask. Gurners first came to my attention as odd, distorted faces showing up at odd halucinogenic moments throughout the Beatles’ movie, Hard Days Night, and I got the impression that I had witnessed another of the elements of magic that seemed to follow the four lads where e’re they went. It turns out that it is an ancient Scottish art more prevalent in the days when anyone over fifty had probably lost all their teeth and were able to make faces their youngers could only gawk at. Nowadays gurning still goes on at rural county fairs but has been reduced to simply making the ugliest possible face with your teeth still in. I like the idea just because it gives the elders an edge for age, it seems wisdom is not quite so ensured.
Here's a few of the real mccoys, with one of myself practicing in case I magically find myself at a folk festival in Scotland by some wonderful happenstance.