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We’re back at Scotland’s Crime Writing Festival, Bloody Scotland, for this episode - which is a whistle-stop blether with three of the many, many excellent writers who’re in my home town of Stirling this weekend…

Tariq Ashkanani’s latest wide-screen Americana novel, The Midnight King, hones in on a best-selling writer, a father, a widower, and a friendly man who - guess what - is also a serial killer. 

It won this year’s McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish Crime book of the year, leading on from Tariq’s 2021 Crime in the Spotlight slot at Bloody Scotland where upcoming writers are given a platform to read their work ahead of lead events onstage… 

The Midnight King also follows Tariq’s Welcome to Cooper, which won the debut prize in 2022. This year, that garland was bestowed upon David Goodman - another previous Crime in the Spotlight guest - thanks to his fab novel, A Reluctant Spy, which sees a man make a bit of a deal with the devil, or MI6 at least, in return for an easier life. Spoiler alert - that’s the last thing that happens.

I caught up with Tariq and Dave on Friday night at Bloody Scotland, and when I got to the green room, I also bumped into the thrilling writer that is Claire Wilson. 

Her debut, Five by Five, is a trip deep into the prison system - and then some - and it transpired we’re also very closely connected through family, because we realised, literally while we were talking last night, that Claire has an incredible tattoo of Kathy Bates on her arm and - guess what, my wee brother did it years ago… Here’s to Tariq, David, Claire - and here’s to Bloody Scotland…

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Recorded live at The Stand, Glasgow...

Scotland’s Crime Writing Festival, Bloody Scotland, kicks off tomorrow - that’s Friday September 12th, we’ll all be there and hopefully you will too… 

Ian Rankin’s the guest programmer, I’m chairing Ian and various actors who’ve played Rebus over the years at the Albert Halls tomorrow, and then I’m in conversation with Mark Billingham and Laura Lippman on Saturday, and there are so many terrific events taking place from Friday to Sunday… 

They’ll also be announcing this year’s winners of the McIlvanney and Debut Prizes, but honestly - just dive into all the nominated books, there are so many murderous thrills in there…

To celebrate all of this, I caught up with a couple of brilliant, best-selling and award-winning crime writers earlier today… We were live with a really lovely audience at The Stand Comedy Club’s gorgeous new home on Glasgow’s Great Western Road…

When I had the idea of trying to launch this podcast from my kitchen table almost exactly this time last year, I got in touch with a few folk that I really love, and I don’t think it would have got off the ground without them - and Chris Brookmyre was one of the first out the gates…

Because along with shining a light on cultural goings-on across the country in arts spaces every week - or thereabouts - I had this idea to run a special series where guests spoke about some of their favourite Scottish albums, films and books…

I called it A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine, and Chris was the first person I asked. Thankfully, he said yes… if you fancy, you can listen back to that chat from last September, along with subsequent episodes with the likes of Barbara Dickson, Justin Currie, Grant Stott, Clare Grogan, King Creosote, Jonathan Watson, Val McDermid and telly and theatre legend Dave Anderson - who was in the audience at The Stand today, like the absolute cultural beacon he’s always been… He’s a huge fan of Chris Brookmyre too…

Chris is an incredible author in his own right, but he also writes fascinating, thrilling historical - best-selling - fiction with his partner in crime - and wife - the writer and consultant anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman, under the guise of Ambrose Parry. 

I’m a huge fan of the Ambrose Parry novels… The latest, The Death Of Shame, came out earlier this summer, and I cannot get enough of Raven and Fisher - and I love chatting to Chris and Marisa. 

And so - in the first of a monthly Thursday afternoon sessions at Glasgow Stand, Chris and Marisa were my very special guests for an Ambrose Parry joint edition of All Back To Mine… 

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This week, we’re looking back at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, where we had a brilliant run of live guests including Barbara Dickson, Gordon Buchanan, Gavin Mitchell, Horse and Justin Currie - thank you so much for joining us, if you came along…

I’ll post those chats, and others, in due course, but this week, we’re hearing from actor and broadcaster Grant Stott, who regalled us with tales about music, showbiz and secretarial studies at The Stand, and he talked about his family and childhood too - which was particularly lovely, as his dad and pals from his primary school were in the audience…

Before we hear from Grant, I’m delighted to say that this week I’m at The Stand in Glasgow, which has just moved into the gorgeous Webster’s Theatre on the Great Western Road, for the first of a few monthly Thursday afternoon shows, and I’ll be joined on Thursday September 11th at half past two by best-selling writers Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman, aka Ambrose Parry - you can get tickets via akickupthearts.org, and it’d be lovely to see you there…

For now though, to a crowded room in Edinburgh just a couple of weeks ago, for a chat about Scottish music, memories, films and books with a TV, stage and radio favourite, the baddest panto villainess, and a former law enforcement officer with a penchant for pot noodles and vinyl… It could only really be one big tidy… And so it was… The legend Grant Stott…

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This week, I’m at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms, for a chat with the goddess - the countess - that is Fay Fife…

The Rezillos and Revillos trailblazer - and the only person in the history of the universe to sing Top of the Pops on - yes - Top of the Pops… is playing at the Voodoo Rooms from August 12th to 17th- so we caught up for a coffee, to chat all about it…

She’ll be raising the roof with her swaggering country insurgents The Countess of Fife, playing songs from the glorious album Star of the Sea, the equally fab recent Betwixt and Between - and who knows - maybe even a few teasers from the forthcoming LP… 

You can also WATCH this episode on YouTube! Just search for A Kick Up The Arts with Fay Fife... and thank you, if you do!

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Recorded at the East Neuk Festival in Fife

This week, I’m hearing from one of our most gorgeous, and inventive musicians, who’s a composer, harpist, singer, songwriter and - as it turns out - a pretty fierce conductor too.

Esther Swift is at Edinburgh International Book Festival tonight (August 15th) - in a collaboration with Jackie Kay - so we talked about that, and Esther’s glorious album Expectations of a Lifetime…

But we met after her superb Zulu Voyage community performance at this year’s East Neuk Festival in Fife - which told the story of a fishing boat; its lives, and loves, and journeys - and so we started with that… 

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This episode was recorded live at the brilliant Portobello Bookshop, in (near!) Edinburgh - thank you so much to Euan and the gang for making us so welcome - as ever - and to everyone at Birlinn. And thanks to the legend Val McDermid - folk singer; football fan; Fun Loving Crime Writer; creator of heroes like Lindsay Gordon, Wire in the Blood’s Carol Jordan and Allie Burns - and a newly-appointed doctor of letters. But we’ll get to that…

To celebrate the paperback edition of her excellent Darklands Tale. Queen Macbeth - and the fact that another of her many terrific protagonists - Karen Pirie -  is back on our tellies, I sat down with Val for a chat about life, and love, and reading, and writing - and she also discussed her choice of a favourite Scottish album, film and book. In fact, she chose more than one almost every time...

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This week, we’re chatting about comedian, writer and director Paul Black's terrific new BBC short film - Govan Fair Queen - which sees nine-year-old Abigail reluctantly roped into entering the annual local pageant by her fired-up granny Linda - played by Elaine C Smith. 

It’s a really warm and funny love letter to family, community and pride, via footballers, flatpack furniture and crufts…

And it also features surely the three greatest-named siblings you’ll ever hear… 

We recorded this episode in the Pearce Institute in Govan, and I also filmed it on my phone, so if you fancy watching Paul and I, you can watch us blethering over on YouTube… 

Before we dive in - quite literally, because, as you’ll hear, we found a bath on my ad-hoc TV set - just a reminder that I’d love you to join me in conversation with Gavin Mitchell, Gordon Buchanan, Barbara Dickson, Grant Stott, Justin Currie and music icon Horse at the Edinburgh Fringe in August - there are tickets and lots more info via akickupthearts.org

But, for now - to Govan! And Paul Black... 

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Before we get to this episode, recorded at the brilliant Glasgow Women’s Library, a reminder that A Kick Up The Arts is live at the Edinburgh Fringe in August…

I’d love you to join me at the Stand, which is only a five-minute walk from Waverley Station, for lunchtime chats with guests Gavin Mitchell on August 18, Gordon Buchanan on the 19th, Barbara Dickson on the 20th, Grant Stott on the 21st,  Justin Currie on the 23rd, and then - on the 24th - the iconic Horse will be celebrating 35 years of The Same Sky with chat and live music… 

Meanwhile, at Edinburgh International Book Festival, we’re having a party in the Spiegeltent on August 10th, with Emma Pollock, Cora Bissett, Chitra Ramaswamy, and Carrie Marshall - with live music from the Hen Hoose Collective’s Cariss Crosbie and more surprises…

You can get tickets and more info on all of those shows via akickupthearts.org - it’d be really lovely to see you there.

And musician and writer Carrie Marshall’s also a guest on this episode of the podcast, to celebrate her fab new book, SMALL TOWN JOY: from Glam Rock to Hyperpop: How Queer Music Changed the Sound of Scotland, which features interviews with Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, and Horse, and so many other incredible voices. 

Her previous book, Carrie Kills A Man, is a tale of growing up in a world that doesn’t want you, how it feels to throw a hand grenade into your life, and ripping it up and starting again - from coming out to navigating parenthood as a trans woman… 

We’re joined by incredible fiddle player and composer Laura Jane Wilkie, whose gorgeous album, Vent, is centred around waulking songs - which were ancient women’s work songs from the Highlands and Islands, often sung while beating and softening tweed - and often infused with gossip, along with a sense of humour, love, safety, power, community - and freedom. 

Laura’s also performed with Man of the Minch - oh, he gets some love in here - along with The GRIT Orchestra, Shooglenifty, Siobhan Miller, and as we speak she’s bidding a fond farewell to the Kinnaris Quintet.

We recorded this at Glasgow Women’s Library, which is an utterly wonderful place that absolutely deserves the sanctuary status that it’s just been awarded… I’ve been a fan for many years, but it was library love at first sight for Carrie and Laura…

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We’re at one of my old places of work for this episode - The Tron theatre in Glasgow, to celebrate a terrific one-man play called Man’s Best Friend - you might have seen the dogs who’re ostensibly at the heart of it all over social media - and it’s there until the 12th of July, before touring Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, Greenock and Inverness in the Autumn.

It’s written by Scottish theatre lodestar Douglas Maxwell, and directed by Tron artistic Director Jemima Levick, who was previously at the helm of Dundee Rep, Stellar Quines and Oran Mor’s Play, A Pie and a Pint. That’s where this production first came to life with Jonathan Watson starring as Ronnie - a man adrift, in the wake of loss and lockdown, save for the leads of the local dogs he takes to the park, and the memories that keep bringing it all back home… 

That role’s now reprised in an expanded version of the play, thanks to Jordan Young, a River City bad guy, panto good guy, and an actor who’s equally adept at physical comedy and quiet tragedy, whether that’s in Black Watch, Chemo Savvy, or right here, in his first one-man play - a comical, heartbreaking meditation on what we have, what we have to lose, and the loneliness of the long-distance dog walker…

I met up with Jordan and Jemima at the Tron this afternoon, and we touched on all of that... But seeing as every podcast I record, I check levels and plosives by asking guests to say A Play, A Pie and A Pint, I did that again today - and it transpires, perhaps to little surprise, that nobody does it better than its former director… 

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Before we get wired into this week’s episode, I’ve just announced that wildlife cameraman, film-maker and rock ‘n’ roll lion tamer Gordon Buchnanan is the latest guest to join me for A Kick Up The Arts at the Edinburgh Fringe… We’ll be at the Stand on August 19th, and we’d love you to join us. 

My other guests that week - so far - are Gavin Mitchell on the 18thl, Barbara Dickson on the 20th, Grant Stott on the 21st, Justin Currie on the 23rd, and I’ll be announcing another guest soon… You can get tickets for all of those, right now, via akickupthearts.org…

And before that - next month - Val McDermid and I are in conversation at the Portobello Bookshop - that’s on July 9th, and you should totally come to that too… same place for the tickets, if you fancy…

I’m also delighted to be coming to Edinburgh International Book Festival, and Bute Noir, and I’ll tell you all about those events soon, or sign up for the newsletter for more - you know… news…

But ANYWAY!

This week, we're at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, as this year's 39th Glasgow Jazz Festival kicks off..

The city's longest-running music festival runs until Sunday June 22nd, and among its wonders, it'll welcome Gil Scott-Heron's legendary collaborator Brian Jackson - a keyboardist, flute-player and vocalist who's also worked Stevie Wonder, Gwen Guthrie and Earth, Wind and Fire…

He joins artists on the programme like Later With Jools favourites the Neil Cowley Trio, Colin Steele and his Quartet reimagining The Blue Nile - and incredible turntablist Mariam Rezaei joining forces with saxophonist Raymond MacDonald... 

With only a mere few hours till the opening events - and fresh from Alan Donaldson's excellent exhibition, The Glasgow Jazz Pictures - I met up with Glasgow Jazz Festival director Jill Rodger, and rising jazz star Marianne McGregor, who won best vocalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards in 2023, and who'll launch her new album - Make Believe - at the festival on Sunday...

Jill, Marianne and I looked forward to some of this year's events, and Jill also looked back on a festival that she's been a part of since 1990... 

I didn't anticipate how much of our conversation would be taken up with Jill's memories of George Benson hanging out in Dorothy Perkins, or her taking soul icon Jimmy Smith underwear shopping - but then again, if jazz has taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected...

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