Loading
  • HELP?
    • LOGIN / SIGN UP
    • CONTACT
    • NEWSLETTER
    • FAQ
  • ISLAY
  • TERROIR
  • TOURS
  • 0Shopping Cart
Bruichladdich Distillery
  • PHILOSOPHY
    • Progressive

    • Hebridean

    • Distillers

  • BRUICHLADDICH
  • PORT CHARLOTTE
  • OCTOMORE
  • THE BOTANIST
    • THE BOTANIST GIN

    • WILD. FORAGED. DISTILLED.

    • FORAGED GIN COCKTAILS

    • THE 22

  • NEWS
    • Laddie Whisky News >

    • The Botanist Gin News >

  • EVENTS
    • Whisky Tasting Events >

    • Foraged Gin Tasting Events >

  • SHOP
  • Search
  • Menu

Whisky Island – A Tribute to Bob Simon

IN Laddie People 4th May 2015/by Carl Reavey
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Google+
  • Share by Mail

Bob Simon was a veteran US news correspondent who had reported from conflict zones in 67 countries around the world in a journalistic career that spanned 47 years.  He covered some of the most dramatic events in modern history – beginning in 1969 with ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and then the Vietnam War.  Simon was one of the last Americans to leave Saigon by helicopter in 1975.  He also reported from Yom Kippur in 1973 and was present during the Chinese student protests of 1989 that centred on Tianamen Square, Beijing.  In 1991 he and his TV crew were captured by the Iraqis during the first Gulf War and subsequently held prisoner for 40 days.  Simon won three Peabody Awards and 27 Emmys for journalism.

In 1996 Bob Simon joined the team at the CBS News magazine program “60 Minutes” which has been described by the The New York Times as “one of the most esteemed news magazines on American television”.

In 2014, 60 Minutes decided to develop a feature about the island of Islay, with Bob Simon as the correspondent.  The style of 60 Minutes leans heavily on the personality of the presenter, being very reporter-centred.  The station initially sent a camera crew to cover Bruichladdich Day at Feis Ile, and then a producer, Vanessa Fica, spent a week on the island doing further research.  A second camera crew, accompanied this time by Bob Simon and veteran producer Harry Radliffe then came for the main shoot in September.

Tragically, it was to be Bob Simon’s last assignment.  He was killed in a car crash while being driven in a limo in New York on February 11th 2015.

The shock to Bob’s colleagues was considerable, and with Harry Radliffe also facing serious health issues which could have prevented his return to work, it was assumed that the Islay piece would  be lost.

Happily however, Harry made a good recovery and it was decided to try and make the Islay programme as a tribute to Bob.  It was finally broadcast as “Whisky Island” on Sunday 3rd May 2015 with Steve Kroft stepping in to co-narrate the piece with Bob Simon.

The programme features a lot of interesting shots of Islay, of Bruichladdich and of other distilleries.  It is perhaps particularly memorable for the evident rapport between Bob Simon and Jim McEwan.

A fitting tribute to one of the finest, and bravest, American journalists of our times.  Slainte!

 

Popular articles from the newsdesk

VIEW ALL 12 /Barley 3 /Bruichladdich Whisky News 0 /Collaborations 0 /Edible Plants 0 /EVENTS 0 /Exploring history 0 /FAQ 0 /Flavour Science 0 /Foraged Gin Cocktails 0 /Foraged Gin Tasting Events 0 /Foraging 0 /Laddie People 2 /Making Whisky 1 /New Releases 0 /People 0 /Real Food 0 /Sustainability 0 /Terroir 0 /The Botanist Gin News 0 /The Distillery 4 /Transparency 2 /Whisky Tasting Events 0
#LaddieMP7
Transparency

#LaddieMP7 and changes to #LaddieMP8

20th September 2017/by Christy McFarlane
Augustus Hare
The Distillery

The malt whisky reviews of Augustus Hare

13th June 2013/by Carl Reavey
Damage by Greylag Geese
Barley

Damage by Greylag Geese

22nd October 2015/by Carl Reavey
Craig and Tony Archibald - Tillering in Islay barley
Barley

Tillering in Islay barley

7th August 2015/by Carl Reavey
The Africa Trust Well - AquAid
The Distillery

Our support for AquAid

20th April 2015/by Carl Reavey
micro provenance drams #LaddieMP3 nosing
Transparency

Introducing #LaddieMP3 Digital Whisky Tasting

16th October 2015/by Jane Carswell
Distillery Tours 2014 - Welcome!
The Distillery

Distillery Tours 2014 – Welcome!

1st May 2014/by Carl Reavey
A Research Project into Whisky Maturation
Making Whisky

A Research Project into Whisky Maturation

8th December 2012/by Carl Reavey
DIALOGOS Debate: Greg Dillon
The Distillery

DIALOGOS Debate: Greg Dillon

4th February 2019/by Christy McFarlane
Harvesting Bere in 2002
Barley

Bere Pioneers – The Agronomy Institute of Orkney College-UHI

19th December 2017/by Carl Reavey
Jeremy Salvesen
Laddie People

Jeremy Salvesen

14th April 2014/by Carl Reavey
Jim McEwan with Simon Coughlin
Laddie People

Distilling legend Jim McEwan to retire in July

22nd April 2015/by Carl Reavey
Load more
You are here: Home / News / Bruichladdich Whisky News / Laddie People / Whisky Island – A Tribute to Bob Simon
© BRUICHLADDICH DISTILLERY, ISLAY.Triman Logo
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Mail
  • CONTACT
  • TRADE
  • TERMS
  • PRIVACY
Bruichladdich Day at Feis Ile 2015 – “Hoe Down” Bruichladdich Day - Feis Ile 2015 Hoe Down The wash stills and wash safe - Maintenance Essential Maintenance Period
Scroll to top
Bruichladdich Distillery
Due to regulations in your own country of residence, you cannot access this website

By entering you accept the use of cookies to enhance your user experience and collect information on the use of the website. Find out more

WMD – THE STORY OF THE YELLOW SUBMARINE HAS BEEN FULL OF CHARACTER AND CHARACTERS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.

It started with our friend ‘Demolition Dave’ helping Duncan McGillivray and his gang to demolish the old Inverleven distillery – buying up all the old equipment for scrap and loading it onto barges on the Clyde. All so Duncan had some spares to keep Bruichladdich running in the days of No Money.

As this odd flotilla was being towed round the Mull of Kintyre and up to Islay, Laddie MD Mark Reynier received an email from the Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in the USA who had been monitoring distillery webcams on the grounds that our processes could have been ‘tweaked’ to produce the dreaded WMD. ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.

Never one to allow the opportunity for a good story to pass him by, or to get his beloved distillery in the news, Reynier embellished the tale, which soon grew to involve spies and the CIA and visits by weapons inspectors. All of which made great headline-grabbing copy in the febrile media atmosphere then prevailing around WMD.

One of the stills from Inverleven was dutifully set up outside the old Victorian buildings, and became an iconic sight, with a pair of Duncan’s old wellie boots sticking out of the top to represent those weapons inspectors searching for dangerous chemicals deep in its copper bottomed interior.

A special bottling was commissioned (of course) and dubbed the ‘Whisky of Mass Distinction’ (geddit?) and much hilarity ensued. At least among the Laddies, the rest of the whisky industry having long since given up on the noisily irreverent rebels.

WMDII: A YELLOW SUBMARINE

Things were about to get even more eccentric because, shortly afterwards, Islay fisherman John Baker was heading home to Port Ellen when he spotted something awash in the sea off the bow of his boat. Being a resourceful man, he attached a rope to said object and towed it into the pier where Gordon Currie lifted it out of the water. It proved to be a very beautiful yellow submarine.

Very conveniently, the yellow vessel had ‘Ministry of Defence’ and a telephone number stencilled on it, which was of course immediately called. What happened next was to become the stuff of legend. He was connected to the Royal Navy. “I have found your yellow submarine” said John. “We haven’t lost a yellow submarine” said the Navy. Which was an odd response as the evidence to the contrary was overwhelming.

John and Gordon then loaded the submarine onto a lorry and took it to a secret location in Port Ellen (actually fellow fisherman Harold Hastie’s back garden). The local newspaper was called, then the nationals, and the following day the red-tops were full of pictures of the two friends astride the lethal-looking machine, carrying fishing rods, and asking: “Has anybody lost a yellow submarine?”

Hilarious… unless you were the Royal Navy – who did eventually admit to it being theirs. HMS Blyth, the minesweeper that lost it, eventually came to pick it up, slipping into the pier at dawn to winch it aboard. By that time, Bruichladdich had (of course) commissioned another bottling, WMD2: The Yellow Submarine, and a box of lovely liquid was graciously offered, and accepted by the captain as a goodwill gesture.

JOIN US FOR EXCLUSIVE NEWS & WHISKIES

STAY IN TOUCH WITH US HERE ON ISLAY - NEW & EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS, LOCAL EVENTS, DIGITAL TASTINGS AND OTHER LADDIE MAGIC.
Email address
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. You are free to unsubscribe at any time.

Terms & Conditions | Privacy
MENU
  • PHILOSOPHY
      BACK
    • Progressive

    • Hebridean

    • Distillers

  • BRUICHLADDICH
  • PORT CHARLOTTE
  • OCTOMORE
  • THE BOTANIST
      BACK
    • THE BOTANIST GIN

    • WILD. FORAGED. DISTILLED.

    • FORAGED GIN COCKTAILS

    • THE 22

  • NEWS
      BACK
    • Laddie Whisky News >

    • The Botanist Gin News >

  • EVENTS
      BACK
    • Whisky Tasting Events >

    • Foraged Gin Tasting Events >

  • SHOP