A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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It’s the first in a weekly series of round-table conversations with Nicola Meighan and guests, in some of our best-loved arts spaces, with some of our most exciting and enlightening voices. And who better to kick things off than the glorious double-header of writers Chitra Ramaswamy and Hannah Lavery – recorded at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. Did Hannah lead the way for Taylor Swift at Murrayfield? Did Chitra pre-empt Nan Shepherd on all of those bank-notes? Could this be, as Chitra speculates, "A very delusional podcast"? Listen on...

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It's the first of our monthly 'A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine' specials, with fab guests giving us a virtual night in, round at theirs: they'll choose a Scottish album to play us, a Scottish film to show us, and a Scottish book for some bed-time reading, and they'll chat about all of that with Nicola Meighan. They might even chuck in a snack or two.

The first of these is here, right now, and it's thanks to the excellent Chris Brookmyre, who's just picked up the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Fiction Book of the Year - for the second time - for his current novel, The Cracked Mirror, which is equal parts cosy village murder mystery, fired-up 80s LA cop thriller, and affectionate upending of our expectations at every turn...

We recorded this at Stirling's awesome vinyl haven Europa Music, during crime writing festival Bloody Scotland. What movie inadvertently influenced Chris' latest novel? What book got him through a nightmare train journey? And what's his guacamole recipe? Listen on...

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The second of our weekly round-table discussions with fab guests in arts spaces around the country is here right now! It's thanks to singer, songwriter and - let's face it, total legend - Horse McDonald, and the brilliant actor and musician Hannah Jarrett-Scott.

Following trailblazing hits like Careful, and The Speed of the Beat of My Heart, Horse is currently touring her outstanding new album, The Road Less Travelled - a joyous and fired-up rallying cry that navigates life, love, the ghosts of those we leave behind, the loneliness / solace of the night sky - and the super-power of finding your own path, in spite of its obstacles. Who could help but be won over?

There's also quite a lot of kissing in it. Just an academic observation.

Hannah starred in glorious BBC Scotland TV drama Float, and hugely-loved comedy Two Doors Down, and she's joining that show's Elaine C Smith in Peter Pan at Glasgow's King's Theatre later this year - not to mention theatre credits like Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) and Medea on the Mic at A Play, A Pie, and A Pint. Her gorgeous band, CLR Theory, have just released a live EP; and their debut album, Waves, is sublime.

We recorded this at the National Galleries of Scotland's Women In Revolt exhibition at Modern Two in Edinburgh, which is a righteous call to arms, a constant eye-opener, and an absolute joy.

So, if you want to hear about Linder's meat dress (decades before Lady Gaga), and three-minute screams via the Raincoats, and leotards via Throbbing Gristle - not to mention Horse's new-found life manifestos - and whether Hannah's going to rock a moustache when she plays Captain Hook in the panto this Christmas - well, it's all here...

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It's the second of our monthly 'A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine' specials, with fab guests giving us a virtual night in round at theirs: choosing a Scottish album to play us, a Scottish film to show us, and a Scottish book for some bed time reading, and they'll chat about all of that - and their own work - with Nicola Meighan. They might even chuck in a snack or two.

This time, it's courtesy of a swashbuckling, accordion wielding, heartbreaking pop voyager all the way from Fife…

His albums include his possible epitaph, I, Des - with musical sidekick Des Lawson - and Diamond Mine, in cahoots with Jon Hopkins; and From Scotland With Love; not to mention another few hundred records, including the 2014 live album that we were allowed to bootleg, called My Nth Bit Of Strange…

He’s Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, and we recorded this at Anstruther’s Dreel Halls, in Kenny’s native East Neuk of Fife, where he’s cast a DIY spell as KC, and via the Fence Collective, for 30 years…

He’s been joined by pals like HMS Ginafore, Gummi Bako, and Kenny’s younger twin brothers, Pip Dylan and the Lone Pigeon, whose exploits include the Aliens and the Beta Band… His dad’s a ceilidh legend too, but I’ll let Kenny tell you all about that… 

For now - Kenny’s put the kettle on, and he’s taking us back to his coastal digs to play us some music, and a movie - and to read us a story, for one night only…

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This week, we're at Dundee’s Cooper Gallery, celebrating the city’s She-Town history with two local legends…

Gayle Anderson’s a writer, broadcaster and the producer of the stunning Looking For Esther podcast, which is absolutely vital listening, and back in the day she worked at Dundee’s DC Thomson as the pop editor, and agony aunt, of Jackie Magazine… 

Be Charlotte is a songwriter, performer and pop star on the rise, who makes music and runs her own record label from the city, and who’s just released a new single with DJ Arielle Free. 

Charlotte’s glorious debut album, Self Help and Fictional Doubts, was released earlier this year, and has led to her crashing the American album charts - she’s currently at Number Two - thanks to Rod Wave’s sampling of its closing track, Will Anybody Be Out There…

We had a wander round a fab exhibition called The Ignorant Art School / Sit In 4 / Outside The Circle, which celebrates feminist and LGBT resistance, collective action and the power of art…

It features work from Audrey Lorde, Derek Jarman, Sam Ainsley and Maud Sulter, alongside grassroots media, tapestry, video footage, and some really fascinating archive material documenting radical, brilliant Dundee women like Ethel Moorhead and Mary Brooksbank…

But I started with Charlotte - and this brilliant chart success… After all, it’s not every day you’re in the Billboard Top 200, ahead of Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift…

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This week, Nicola Meighan is joined by stage and TV legend Gavin Mitchell, aka Still Game's Boabby the Barman for a date at Glasgow's Theatre Royal, thanks to Scottish Opera's revival of Donizetti's comic masterpiece, Don Pasquale... 

Gavin's starred in John Byrne landmarks Tutti Frutti and The Slab Boys, worked with Robin Williams and David Tennant, and he also featured in David Shirley Opera, Pass The Spoon. His fab show, Look Who It Isnae - A Boabby Unwrapped is touring; keep an eye out for live dates.

They're joined for a pre-show chat by David Stout, who utterly bosses the opera's title role, and then afterwards they catch up to chat about their thoughts on the production, and to meet another of its stars - namely, Bridget the Chihuahua...

Come for David in his slippers talking Italian; stay for Gavin serenading Bridget with Donna Summer songs…

Don Pasquale runs at Glasgow's Theatre Royal then travels to Inverness, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in the coming weeks...

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This week, Nicola Meighan is joined by Scottish punk / pop legends Grahame Skinner (Hipsway, Jazzateers, The Cowboy Mouth) and Bobby Bluebell - of the Bluebells, among other wonders, for a chat about their collaborative project, The Golden Tree, and much besides, recorded at Glasgow's Street Level Photoworks. 

Bobby's the man behind hits like Young At Heart and Cath, and Texas co-writes like Summer Son and Black Eyed Boy - and he’s also responsible for the podcast's first ever theme song... how about that… Absolute legend. You can hear it on this episode!

We also touched on Secret Coast Songwriters, the legend that is Johnny McElhone of Altered Images, Hipsway and Texas - and the time when Grahame was Candi Staton’s very dapper driver… 

It’s all right here…

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The third in our weekly round-table discussions with fab guests in arts spaces around the country is here, right now! And it's thanks to two of our best-loved writers and musicians...

James Robertson is the Booker Prize nominated author of Scottish landmarks like The Testament of Gideon Mack - which is being adapted for theatre as we speak - and blindsiding state-of-a-nation epic, And The Land Lay Still…

His daily, year-long writing challenge - or madness, call it what you will - 365, saw him create a short story with that exact number of words every day for 12 months - and that, in turn, galvanised fiddler and composer Aidan O’Rourke to create a musical response for every one of them. 

And James’ musical odysseys don’t end there: he reimagined Joni Mitchell’s Hejira in Scots, for a packed show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2016, as part of Celtic Connections, and he’s collaborated with the other equally lovely and quiet superstar who’s with me on today’s podcast…

Andrew Mitchell, also known as Andrew Wasylyk, has variously played in The Hazey Janes and Idlewild, with Michael Marra and Liz Lochhead, he’s been nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award several times, and his latest record, in cahoots with artist and musician Tommy Perman is a mesmerising, and gently psychedelic, trip called Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On…

We recorded this at the brilliant V&A Dundee - and our conversation roves across the wonder of Liz Lochhead, Michael Marra, Karine Polwart and Aidan Moffat - not to mention the unsung Scots poet and Burns influencer Robert Fergusson in a month that’ll pay tribute to him with events across the country - along with the distinctions between lyrics and poetry - and the fact that Andrew put the bins out before he came to see us. You can’t say we’re not keeping it real…

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This week, I'm at Glasgow’s Oran Mor, with gilded stars of stage, and screen - and Taggart - Blythe Duff and Colin McCredie... 

We chatted about Blythe’s musical adventures with Lacunas, and Colin’s forthcoming telly and theatre work, and then we bumped into former podcast guest Bobby Bluebell, of The Bluebells - who wrote and recorded the podcast's theme song, which you can of course hear on this very episode.

Blythe told us about Lacunas Music Society - her collaboration with singer-songwriter Yvonne Lyon, and composer Malcolm Lindsay, who’s worked with members of Deacon Blue and The Blue Nile - while Colin looked forward to having an out-of-body experience watching Harry Mould’s awesome play The Brenda Line - it’s at the Traverse in the coming weeks…

But needless to say, we got a bit sidetracked, so there’s also chat about 20 years of A Play, A Pie and A Pint - and Glen Michael’s Cavalcade, and Shallow Grave - and highly competitive ten pin bowling…

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Before I go any further, I want to tell you that A Kick Up The Arts is coming to a venue near you, very soon! 

If you’re in Aberdeen, I’ll be at Granite Noir on February 23rd, which is a Sunday afternoon, with a very familiar face from your telly - she’s a legend, and she’ll join me for an afternoon chatting about her life, and work, and her choice of a favourite Scottish album, film and book. 

If you’re in Glasgow, we’re having a similar shindig with the brilliant poet and author Michael Pedersen at the Glad Cafe on the 1st of March… Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe will play some live music, I’ll spin tunes to soundtrack your Saturday afternoon, we’re all going to hang about for a blether, and sign books and records, and it’d be lovely to see you…

And in Edinburgh - this hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the absolute literary fever dream - and conjuror of This Is Memorial Device - David Keenan will be launching his collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at the Portobello Bookshop on the 27th of March. 

I’ll put ticket links to all of those on my website somewhere - if I can work it - but you should hopefully be able to find those events online via my social media quite easily too…

ANYWAY! On to this week’s episode, and as the mighty Celtic Connections kicks off for another epic year, I’m joined by two absolute musical l…

Writer, performer, singer and musician Karine Polwart is an award-winning folk star, a pop and theatre visionary, and a storyteller whose reflections on landscape, and nature - and human nature - have sent ripples - and sometimes fired shockwaves - across stunning theatre work like Wind Resistance, and myriad gorgeous albums - get them all, every one of them, right now - and that’s not to mention her show-stopping Celtic Connections opener a few years back - I Burn, But I Am Not Consumed… 

Karine’s about to release a collaborative LP called LOOKING FOR THE THREAD, with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Julie Fowlis - and Julie also features on Dialogues, which is the debut album from legendary cellist and Scottish Chamber Orchestra live-wire Su-a Lee…

Su-a’s worked with everyone from Jack Bruce and Mr McFall’s Chamber, to the Grit Orchestra - she’s with them this weekend - and Eric Clapton, who lured her into his studio, thanks to her musical saw…

Her debut album is called Dialogues, it’s just been reissued on vinyl, and that sense of conversation, and collaboration, rings out throughout the record - as songs come to life with guests, and friends, like Duncan Chisholm, Jenna Reid, Phil Cunningham, Donald Shaw, one Karine Polwart - and Su-a’s husband and fellow musical trailblazer Hamish Napier…

We talked about collaboration, community, and the power of coming together through music - Karine’s brought 300 voices into a rallying cry at this year’s Celtic Connections - alongside memories of being recruited by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and recollections of making Eric Clapton change his schedule - not to mention Sheryl Crow’s backstage rider… It’s all right here…

But we met at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, which means one of the city’s greatest vintage clothing shops is just across the road, so we started with that, which led lovely Karine to pay me a compliment… Take them where you can, right?