Explore every episode of the podcast A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chitra Ramaswamy and Hannah Lavery | 26 Sep 2024 | 00:42:20 | |
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... | |||
| All Back To Mine with Chris Brookmyre | 27 Sep 2024 | 00:43:24 | |
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. | |||
| Horse McDonald and Hannah Jarrett-Scott | 03 Oct 2024 | 00:42:05 | |
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... | |||
| All Back To Mine with King Creosote | 04 Nov 2024 | 00:46:33 | |
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. 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… | |||
| Be Charlotte and Gayle Anderson | 01 Nov 2024 | 00:41:15 | |
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… | |||
| Gavin Mitchell, David Stout & Bridget the Chihuahua | 23 Oct 2024 | 00:36:33 | |
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... Come for David in his slippers talking Italian; stay for Gavin serenading Bridget with Donna Summer songs… | |||
| Bobby Bluebell and Grahame 'Skin' Skinner | 18 Oct 2024 | 00:59:07 | |
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. It’s all right here… | |||
| James Robertson and Andrew Wasylyk | 11 Oct 2024 | 00:42:35 | |
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… 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… | |||
| Blythe Duff and Colin McCredie | 07 Nov 2024 | 00:50:08 | |
This week, I'm at Glasgow’s Oran Mor, with gilded stars of stage, and screen - and Taggart - Blythe Duff and Colin McCredie... | |||
| Karine Polwart and Su-a Lee | 17 Jan 2025 | 00:57:46 | |
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? | |||
| All Back To Mine with Jonathan Watson | 30 Dec 2024 | 00:47:01 | |
Before I go any further, I want to remind you that A Kick Up The Arts is coming to a venue near you, very soon! I've got some really lovely events to announce in Glasgow, and Edinburgh - and elsewhere all over the country - but, for now, I'm delighted to be coming to Aberdeen's fab book festival, Granite Noir, on the 23rd of February, which is a Sunday afternoon, with special guests, and all sorts of chat, and it'll be great fun. I'll tell you all about it in good time but, for now, I'd love you to join us, if you fancy... you can get tickets via Granite Noir… But anyway - back to this episode, and if you fancy some festive company, or a friendly first-foot, then I have the perfect guest… Jonathan Watson’s known and loved as Colin from Two Doors Down, and he was on our tellies at Hogmanay for decades, in the hugely-loved sketch show Only An Excuse? - which first came to life almost forty years ago… He's also starred in Dr Who - with Jodie Whittaker at the helm; and as Frank opposite Brian Cox's Bob Servant, and as the brilliant Brian in City Lights, alongside the likes of Gerard Kelly, Dave Anderson and Elaine C Smith. His theatre work includes stints with 7:84, and in John Byrne's adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters... He was also in Local Hero - he's got the jumper to prove it - but we'll come to that... Jonathan's giving us a virtual night in round at his - or maybe he's turning up on our doorsteps, just like Colin in Two Doors Down... Either way, he's armed with a Scottish album to play us , film to show us, and some bed-time reading for the end of the night... You'll also hear about the time he played football with prog-rock titans Yes - and the gig he played with Ally McCoist, and Mel Gaynor from Simple Minds on drums... We caught up at Glasgow's Oran Mor, where everyone knows him, and everyone loves him - and little wonder... | |||
| All Back To Mine with Dave Anderson | 21 Dec 2024 | 00:37:29 | |
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! I've got some really lovely events to announce in Glasgow, and Edinburgh - and elsewhere across the country - but, for now, I'm delighted to be coming to Aberdeen's fab book festival, Granite Noir, on the 23rd of February, which is a Sunday afternoon, with special guests, and all sorts of chat, and it'll be great fun. I'll tell you all about it in good time but, for now, I'd love you to join us, if you fancy... you can get tickets via Granite Noir... But anyway - back to this episode of A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine, where a special guest gives us a virtual night in, round at theirs, choosing a Scottish album to play us, and film to show us, and a book for the end of the evening… This time, I'm joined by a man who's starred in just so many things I've ever loved - from films like Local Hero, Restless Natives and Gregory's Girl, to TV landmarks like Tutti Frutti - and who can forget him as the suave - or smarmy - and womanising bank manager, Mr McLelland, in City Lights... The brilliant actor, writer and musician Dave Anderson has variously been a livewire in revolutionary theatre ventures 7:84, Wildcat, and a Play, A Pie and a Pint - often with his long-time, and much-missed sparring partner David MacLennan - and among his myriad songwriting charms, he soundtracked Tony Roper's iconic Glasgow play, The Steamie. We caught up at Glasgow's Oran Mor - you'll hear the clattering of our teacups, and the busy road outside - and we touched on at least some of Dave's amazing work... But he also offered us a virtual night in, round at his, choosing us a Scottish album - courtesy of his some-time Wildcat theatre comrade, Michael Marra - and a book, thanks to the superb Chris Brookmyre. He picked a film to show us too, and - spoiler alert - it's one that he starred in, thanks to a fateful pint in the West End of Glasgow. Dave's an absolute legend in our cultural landscape, and it was such a joy to meet him - and to interview him - for what I'm shocked and appalled to say was the first time. I really hope it's not the last... | |||
| Malachy Tallack: That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz | 12 Dec 2024 | 00:44:48 | |
This week, I’m revisiting the very first place I ever worked, with one of my very favourite writers… Malachy Tallack was raised in Shetland, so you might think that we’d meet up there - and I’ll hopefully get there soon enough - but we actually caught up in Cupar Library, what with Malachy living in Fife these days. I had a Saturday job there when I was at primary school, so it was a lovely, if slightly unsettling, experience going back after more than 35 years, but it hasn’t changed that much at all, and I was just so thrilled about that. We need our libraries more than ever… Malachy’s latest book, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, is a gentle, lilting meditation on landscape, love, home - and loss - that centres on a man called Jack, whose quiet life is upturned by a small and quite surprising thing - and then another - and maybe one more… It’s also an unhurried love letter to the power of a song, and to country music, and there’s a gorgeous accompanying album from Malachy, via Jack - and both are absolutely worth your time… But seeing as That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz is also a reflection on memory, and the myths that tend to wind around it, I started by taking Malachy back to my bygone days in Cupar Library - as far as I remember them… | |||
| All Back To Mine with Clare Grogan | 29 Nov 2024 | 00:59:30 | |
Come in, take your coat off, ruffle your hair, and thanks for bringing that bottle of wine. The fire's on, get your feet up... It's time for an A Kick Up The Arts: 'All Back To Mine' special with one of our best-loved actors, and pop stars, thanks to her starring role in Gregory’s Girl, and her brilliant songs with Altered Images, and really that is not the half of it. Clare's also starred in Skins, Red Dwarf and Father Ted, and written a series of young adult novels, and her magic with Altered Images continues apace - they’ve just finished a 40th Anniversary tour of Bite, and still riding high on the love shown to their latest album - even if they kept us waiting almost 40 years for it - Mascara Streakz… We met at the music industry conference Resonate, held at Platform in Glasgow, which is where the legendary club, theatre space and arts haven the Arches used to be - so before Clare told us what LP she’s playing us, what movie she’s showing us - and what book she’s offering for bedtime reading - we got a bit nostalgic about that lively old place… You’ll hear the trains, you’ll hear fridges buzzing, and you’ll hear the tale of Clare and Bobby Bluebell playing out in the street as primary school kids - forever young at heart… | |||
| Barbara Dickson and Fionna Carlisle | 14 Nov 2024 | 00:46:38 | |
This week, I'm at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery with artist Fionna Carlisle and the legend of stage, screen - and music - that is Barbara Dickson… Fionna’s glorious painting, Eleven Red Roses, was shown in the gallery in the 1980s, and - as such - she features in Holly Davey’s exhibition, The Unforgetting, which is a role-call of the 354 women whose art has been shown there since the mid-1970s, from Tracey Emin to Yoko Ono. Holly dug deep on the Fruitmarket’s archives, giving a voice to many female names that had fallen silent, and been forgotten, along the way - and also giving each of them a physical presence with clay figurines. Barbara Dickson has recently had her portrait painted by Fionna - who splits her time between Scotland and Greece - as part of Fionna’s ongoing Women With Form project, that’s also seen her paint the likes of writer Val McDermid, playwright Jo Clifford, force of nature Judy Murray and Glasgow blues queen Maggie Bell… So the three of us caught up, and had a wander round The Unforgetting, and Barbara remembered her days in 60s folk pubs and clubs with Billy Connolly and The McCalmans - and being on Top of the Pops with Strawberry Switchblade - while Fionna recalled her early shifts working in the Fruitmarket, and being charged with taking Jean-Michel Basquiat out partying, when he was in town… | |||
| Live from the Glad Cafe with Michael Pedersen | 07 Apr 2025 | 00:55:31 | |
Before we get wired into this episode, I’m delighted to tell you that the podcast is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe this Summer! I’ll be at The Stand, which is a five minute walk from Waverley Station, with very special guests every lunchtime, from August the 18th to the 24th… So far, I can tell you that I’ll be joined by Barbara Dickson on August 20th, Grant Stott on August 21st, and Del Amitri’s Justin Currie on August 23rd - and I would love you to join us… I’ll be announcing other guests soon, but get your tickets for these shows in the meantime - they’re on-sale now, I’ll stick a link everywhere I can - within reason... Their chat’ll be a bit like the one you’re about to hear, as they take us to a virtual party round at theirs, with a choice of Scottish album, film and book - along with a wider conversation about their life, and work… Right now though - back to an earlier live event for A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine - promoted by the excellent Sufrecs, and recorded at the Glad Cafe in Glasgow… If you were here for this - thanks so much for being such a fab audience… and you’ll already know that Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe played some stunning renditions of songs from my guest, Michael Pedersen’s chosen Scottish album… Spoiler alert, it was a classic from Garbage - so you’ll hear snippets of those through our chat, but follow Siobhan online to hear the full versions... Michael’s a brilliant writer, and person, who’s a poet, an author, and a cultural rabble-rouser… He’s also the Edinburgh makar, and the writer in residence at Edinburgh University, and he took to the stage beside me rocking the greatest top I have ever seen. Picture this - a painted shirt with pink and green love-hearts, orange and yellow smiling cats - and of course there was glitter. It was neon, in fact. I have never seen anything like it… Michael’s published three poetry collections, including Oyster and the Cat Prince, his prose debut, Boy Friends, was published to huge acclaim in 2022, and his forthcoming debut novel, Muckle Flugga, is a revelation. It’s stunning and tender, it’s a beacon of hope, it’s brimming with love, and it’s powered by starlight. I asked myself, and the audience, what more I could ask for… And then I answered my own question… * * * Tickets! A Kick Up The Arts with Barbara Dickson at Edinburgh Fringe (20/8) here! A Kick Up The Arts with Grant Stott at Edinburgh Fringe (21/8) here! A Kick Up The Arts with Del Amitri's Justin Currie (23/8) here! Get in touch with me any time - I'd love to hear from you - nicola@akickupthearts.org | |||
| Ricky Ross & Lorraine McIntosh: Deacon Blue's The Great Western Road | 21 Mar 2025 | 00:50:47 | |
Just before we get wired into this episode, a quick reminder I’ll be in conversation with the brilliant writer David Keenan - whose hallucinogenic books include Xstabeth and This Is Memorial Device - about his new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, live from Edinburgh's Portobello Bookshop, on March 27th - there’ll be loads of tunes too - and we’d love you to join us… But onto this episode, and it's with a band I've loved madly since I was at primary school... | |||
| On Derek Jarman: with Gavin Mitchell & Matthew Arthur Williams | 13 Mar 2025 | 00:43:48 | |
Just before we get wired into this episode, a quick reminder that I’ll be in conversation with the brilliant writer David Keenan - whose hallucinogenic books include Xstabeth and This Is Memorial Device - about his new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, in Edinburgh later this month… It raves about, and roves across, artists like The Pastels, Nick Cave and John Martyn, and we’ll chat about all that for A Kick Up The Arts, live from the Portobello Bookshop, on March 27th - there’ll be loads of tunes too - and we’d love you to join us… Right now though, we’re in Glasgow for the terrific exhibition, Digging In Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature. It’s inspired by the visionary English film-maker, writer, artist and gay rights activist’s diary entries of the same name - which detail his 1989 performance-installation at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre, now the CCA - replete with two men in a bed, caged in by barbed-wire - and the planting of his radical, beautiful garden at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, established in the aftermath of his HIV diagnosis. He died in 1994. Alongside the artist’s own visceral paintings, and photos, and audio-visual wonder - and walls of homophobic tabloid coverage - the exhibition also features responses from contemporary artists, including a film by Tom Walker that digs into footage of Jarman talking at the Third Eye Centre, alongside thrilling work by Sarah Wood, Luke Fowler, Andrew Black - and a forthcoming live performance from Jade De Montserrat… It’s curated by Dominic Paterson, it runs until Sunday the 4th of May, and it’s free… There’s also a fab-looking programme at the city’s GFT over the coming weeks, including screenings of extraordinary Jarman films like The Garden, starring Tilda Swinton; Caravaggio - with Robbie Coltrane and Dexter Fletcher - and the stunning, revolutionary Blue, which features a Q&A with Derek Jarman’s long-term friend and collaborator, Neil Bartlett… I’ve been to the exhibition three times now - I love it - and last time, I was joined by actor Gavin Mitchell - who worked closely with John Byrne, is a household favourite as Still Game’s Boabby The Barman, and who spent time with Derek Jarman in Glasgow in the 1980s. We were also joined by the brilliant Glasgow-based artist photographer and DJ Matthew Arthur Williams, whose own response in the exhibition - a house with no walls - reverberates with the life, and death, of buildings, and people, and histories, and their connections… It enlivens a line between Derek Jarman and the queer American avant-garde composer Julius Eastman, who worked with Arthur Russell, and Meredith Monk, and whose recorded concert from the Third Eye Centre in the 1970s - the only one of its kind - was only discovered recently within the archive. We had a wander round the show - at the Hunterian Art Gallery - then sat down for coffee and a chat at the nearby Kelvin Hall... | |||
| Live from Granite Noir: A Kick Up The Arts with Dawn Steele | 28 Feb 2025 | 00:58:33 | |
Before we dive into this week’s episode - recorded live at Aberdeen’s Granite Noir festival - a reminder that if you’re in or around Glasgow on the afternoon of March 1st, we’d love to see you at the Glad Cafe for A Kick Up The Arts live with award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen - Alan Cumming loves him, Shirley Manson from Garbage loves him, Nicola Sturgeon loves him - everyone loves him, and little wonder… Michael will be chatting about a favourite Scottish album, film and book along with his wider life and work, and we’ll also have live music - playing covers from his chosen album - from the brilliant Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe. We’ll be there from half two onwards, Michael and the gang will hang around afterwards for a drink, and to sign books and records, and I’ll be DJing too - it’ll be a lovely afternoon, and we’d love to see you… But onto this episode, and the wonder that is actor Dawn Steele, who joined me and a glorious audience - thanks so much if you were with us - at Aberdeen Music Hall on Sunday… Dawn first arrived onto our screens, and into our hearts, as Lexie in Monarch of the Glen, followed by starring roles in Wild at Heart, Holby City, Shetland, and Aberdeen’s own Granite Harbour - and that’s not to mention various film and theatre credits, including John Byrne’s Cutting A Rug AND Tutti Frutti - and myriad connections to Aberdeen - but we’ll come to all of that… We were in the Music Hall’s Big Sky Studio, but Dawn whisked us away to her home - virtually speaking - for an A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine special, choosing us a Scottish album to play us, screen classic to show us, and a Booker prize-winning novel no less, for some bed-time reading… We also touched on Dorothy Paul, Paolo Nutini, hyenas, crisps, and lemon trees - obviously... Anyway... What a woman… here she is - and thanks so much again, if you were in our fabulous audience… | |||
| Glasgow Film Festival special with Allison Gardner and Chris Kumar | 25 Feb 2025 | 00:32:04 | |
Thanks so much if you joined us at Granite Noir in Aberdeen on Sunday, for a lovely live recording with actor Dawn Steele - that podcast is coming soon! And don’t forget, if you’re in Glasgow, I’m joined by writer Michael Pedersen and musicians Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe for A Kick Up The Arts live from the Glad Cafe, that’s on Saturday afternoon, March 1st - and then, the mighty David Keenan will be in conversation about his new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop on March 27th… Right now though, in this episode, we’re celebrating the 21st Glasgow Film Festival - they grow up so fast - which runs from the 26th of February to the 9th of March… It’s Scotland’s biggest celebration of local and international cinema, and this year it’ll showcase 92 world, UK and Scottish premieres from 39 countries… It opens with the world premiere of Tornado, the latest epic from Fife’s John Maclean, who made huge waves with Slow West, following his time in pop voyagers the Aliens and the Beta Band. Tornado stars Tim Roth and Jack Lowden, and features gold heists, criminal gangs, and travelling puppet shows, played out in 1790s Britain… The festival closes with another world premier with distinct Scottish roots, thanks to Martyn Robertson’s incredible Make It To Munich, which follows teenager Ethan Walker’s charity cycle from Scotland to Germany, just months after almost losing his life… And in the countless screenings between those movies bookending the festival, there are worlds of possibility - from a free 'Coming of Age' strand with classics like Gregory’s Girl, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Lady Bird and Boys in the Hood, to a retrospective of Swedish actor, director and pioneer Mai Zetterling, including her 80s borstal drama - Scrubbers - starring Kathy Burke and Pam St Clement… There’ll be In Conversation events with icons Jessica Lange AND James McAvoy - and outwith the Glasgow Film Theatre, you can lose yourself in The Craft and Muriel’s Wedding at Cottiers; and Coyote Ugly at the Grand Ole Opry… And - this coming Saturday evening, that’s March 1st - I’ll be chatting to directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard about their stunning new performance film, The Extraordinary Miss Flower, which digs deep on a hoard of lost letters, and the music of Emiliana Torrini, and stars Richard Ayoade, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Caroline Catz and Nick Cave - who Iain and Jane previously explored in their film about him, 20,000 Days On Earth… When the programme was revealed last month, I caught up with programme co-ordinator Chris Kumar and Festival Director Allison Gardner - it’s her final fling in the role, after 30 years at GFT. I’d hosted the launch that morning, so was really excited to hear more from them about this year’s films - and we got a bit nostalgic too… | |||
| Liz Lochhead & Steve Kettley | 15 Feb 2025 | 00:59:53 | |
I promise I’ll stop going on about this soon, but I’m still very excited about the first three LIVE episodes of A Kick Up The Arts - at Aberdeen’s Granite Noir on February 23rd with actor Dawn Steele, at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st with writer Michael Pedersen AND musicians Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe… PLUS - on March 27th, I’m joined by David Keenan to celebrate his new book of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop… you can get tickets online for any or all of them, or email nicola@akickupthearts.org For now though, listen on for a blether with a woman I’ve loved for as long as I can remember - for her poems, her plays, her performance, her absolutely brilliant spirit - and she is just the best company too... Former Scottish makar Liz Lochhead’s work includes groundbreaking theatre productions like Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off and Medea - though she’s not so keen on looking back on the sprawling, experimental Burns and MacDiarmid-inspired Jock Tamson’s Bairns - while an anthology of her poetry to date - over 50 years’ worth - A HANDSEL - was published last year… Liz studied at Glasgow School of Art, but music’s also been at the heart of so much of her work, from an early love of Joni Mitchell to her time with The Lost Poets, and titles like BAGPIPE MUZAK and IN PRAISE OF OLD VINYL, to collaborations with Michael Marra, Hector Bizerk, Andrew Wasylyk and Andrew’s indie harmonists, the Hazey Janes… Liz’s album with the Hazey Janes, The Light Comes Back, also featured her legendary saxophonist, Steve Kettley - you might have caught their fab show together, Somethings Old, Somethings New, among other adventures… Steve’s also played with Salsa Celtica and the Cauld Blast Orchestra, and worked with Niki King and Savourna Stevenson, along with enlivening countless theatre shows from Wildcat and Communicado, among others… The three of us got together in Glasgow’s Mitchell library to chat about all of that - over coffee so hot it was tantamount to a biohazard - ahead of Steve’s Captain Beefheart-inspired gigs at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on February 16th, and Newcastle Globe on the 20th - and Liz’s appearance at Pitlochry’s Winter Words Festival on the 22nd… And spoiler alert for any potential promoters listening: they’re totally up for more shows together... | |||
| Alan Bissett & Sorcha Dallas on Alasdair Gray | 11 Feb 2025 | 00:46:37 | |
Just a reminder that I’d love you to join us for A Kick Up The Arts live in Aberdeen at Granite Noir festival with the fab actor Dawn Steele, that’s on February 23rd - then award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen will join me at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st, with live music from the sublime Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe - and THEN literary livewire David Keenan launches his new new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at The Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh on March 27th… ANYWAY! Onto this episode, and we’re celebrating the fantastical Glasgow polymath, Alasdair Gray. The writer, painter, playwright and poet has mapped out the city in vivid murals, the recent Hollywood adaptation of his novel Poor Things starred Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, and his landmark epic, Lanark, exists in a brilliant realm like no other - and it’s been a huge influence on many of the special guests who’re appearing at this year’s Gray Day celebrations, at Oran Mor on February 25th. The annual event takes place in what would be Alasdair’s 90th year - and it’s all beneath his celestial mural in the auditorium… Performers include comedians Ashley Storrie and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, and writers Alan Bissett and Sara Sheridan, not to mention new animations and the involvement of composer, musician and visionary Scott Twynholm… I’ll be hosting proceedings, and if you move fast you can still get the remaining tickets. Gray Day is thanks to the terrific Alasdair Gray Archive, helmed by custodian and long-term friend of Alasdair’s, Sorcha Dallas - and in this year it’s in cahoots with Glasgow International Comedy Festival… Sorcha and she warmly welcomed Alan Bissett and I into that magical archive - as she always does - and plied us with coffee in Gray-inspired mugs, and we chatted a bit more about his legacy, his imagination, his roving work - and what’s coming up… | |||
| Maud Sulter: You Are My Kindred Spirit | 03 Feb 2025 | 00:36:32 | |
Just a reminder that there are a few live events coming up, and I’d love to see you there - actor Dawn Steele - who’s starred in Monarch of the Glen and Shetland among others - joins me at Granite Noir in Aberdeen on Febrary 23rd, award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen’s with me at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st - Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe will play some live music at that one too… And then, on March 27th, David Keenan will introduce us to his superb new collection of music writing, Vocanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop. There are tickets online - and we’d love you to join us… In the meantime, onto this episode, which celebrates the work, and living legacy, of Scottish-Ghanaian artist, photographer, film-maker and writer Maud Sulter, thanks to a brilliant - and free - exhibition that’s running at the Tramway in Glasgow until the end of March… Titled Maud Sulter: You Are My Kindred Spirit, it’s an immersive experience of moving image and spoken word archives, alongside photographs, montage and written works like her Alba Sonnets - and her voice rings out across the building… Maud was born in the Gorbals - not far from the Tramway - in 1960, and died after a long illness in 2008. She began her career as a writer, and award-winning poet, before expanding her practice to include photography and visual art, often addressing the erasure and representation of Black Women in the histories of these disciplines - and giving a voice to the marginalised. Along with the brilliant exhibition itself, there’s a live events programme, curated by Pelumi Odubanjo, which includes poetry evenings, collective readings, presentations, conversations and a rare screening of Maud’s play Service to Empire in the coming weeks. The live programme launched with a screening of Natasha Ruwona and Tomiwa Folorunso’s excellent short film, Maud, which invited Black women making art in Scotland to reflect on her life, and work, and influence. Many of them also feature in the superb PASSIONS publication, which revisits and responds to Maud’s seminal 1990 book PASSION: DISCOURSES ON BLACKWOMEN’S CREATIVITY. I caught up with Natasha, and Tomiwa, and Pelumi, after the screening, to chat a bit more about Maud, and her work… | |||
| Bethlehem Calling | 24 Jan 2025 | 00:35:51 | |
Firstly! A reminder that A Kick Up The Arts is live in Aberdeen, at Granite Noir book festival, where my guest will be the fab Dawn Steele, star of Granite Harbour, Monarch of the Glen, Shetland and more - that’s on the 23rd of February, it’s in the afternoon, and we’re love you to join us. We’re doing another live recording at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on the 1st of March with award-winning writer Michael Pedersen, and there’ll be live music from Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe - and then the awesome David Keenan will be chatting about his new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at The Portobello Bookshop on the 27th of March. I’d love you to join us for one of those dates - or all of them! You can get tickets online… Anyway, onto this episode, and I'm thrilled to be joined by some of the team behind the Scottish-Palestinian collaboration Bethlehem Calling, which is an evening of stories, music and pipers coming to Celtic Connections this weekend... It's based on the diaries of teenage girls who were encouraged by a teacher to write about their experiences of growing up in the West Bank during the second intifada (early-mid 2000s). Some of those women are also revisited in this latest production of a show that was first staged by the pupils themselves, and there are also present-day testimonies from current students at the same school. The resulting musical, audio-visual and verbatim theatre show features artists like Paul Thomson - who's played with Franz Ferdinand - and theatre makers Ben Harrison, Zoe Hunter and Reada Ghazaleh… And that’s not to mention audio visual designer Dav Bernard, and the spirit of the Palestinian Arab Orthodox Scout Pipers of Beit Jala, who formed 100 years ago - originally taught by Scots Guards - and whose skirling will ring out across the performance, despite several visa rejections this week... Bethlehem Calling's at Glasgow Tramway this Saturday, January 25th, but I snuck into rehearsals a couple of days ago, and was already thrilled by what I saw... Before they headed home for the night, Raeda, Zoe and Ben shed more light on the project, and what it means to them - with special thanks to Reada, who'd just touched down in Scotland only a few hours earlier… | |||