Peter McDougall is a bit of a forgotten man these days, but, for a few years in the 1970s, he pretty much was modern Scottish drama. His TV plays Just Your Luck, The Elephant's Graveyard, Just a Boy's Game and especially the controversial Just Another Saturday, which included real footage of an Orange Walk and all that goes with it, are outstanding, and feature some of the first acting roles for the likes of Billy Connolly, singer Frankie Millar and comedian Hector Nicol as well as having a regular coterie of actors who appeared in his work, including David Anderson, Ken Hutchison, Eileen McCallum and Jon Morrison. These plays dealt with class, knife culture, sectarianism (at a time when this was hugely controversial and brave), and what it means to be a 'man'. Like his plays, the answers he offers are sometimes difficult to warm to.
His film of Jimmy Boyle's life A Sense of Freedom is shocking in its intensity and has an incredible central performance from David Hayman as Boyle. In the 80s McDougall returned to his home town of Greenock for Where The Buffalo Roam (see Harvey goes to Holy Loch...) which starred Harvey Keitel as a US Marine who is stationed at Holy Loch and has married a local lass. Both of these are really worth seeing as they capture aspects of the West Coast of Scotland that have become familiar, but at the time were unusual to see on screen.
His last, at least to this date, TV play was Down Among the Big Boys. It is a Glaswegian tale of cops and robbers which stars Ken Drury, Alex Norton, Maggie Bell and, as the Romeo and Juliet of the piece, a young Douglas Henshall and Ashley Jensen. They are newly engaged and it is time for the families to meet. His father is a high ranking policeman, her's a successful bank robber, played by McDougall's old friend and welding colleague Billy Connolly. A marriage made in heaven.
Some performances are stronger than others. Norton, Bell and Drury are reliably excellent, but Henshall and Jensen struggle. However, they have both gone on to bigger, although not always better, things. Jensen has become a talented actor, both dramatic and comic, but I'm afraid I still don't get Henshall. I find his technique too mannered. However, it's Billy Connolly who steals the show as the career criminal Jo-Jo Donelly, a role which is a hint at what was to come in 1999's The Debt Collector (see Connolly Collects...) where he is superb as the Boyle-esque Nickie Dryden. In Down Among the Big Boys he is always one step ahead of the police, and seems to fall on his feet. The clip below includes a classic scene where a job which looks as if it is going to have to be abandoned is saved by an unlikely source:
There are a few interesting cameos here from Rab Affleck, Gary Shaw, the ubiquitous Freddie Boardley and, in a blink and you'll miss it appearance, young Hobbit Billy Boyd. Here he is:
McDougall has recently been concentrating on stage plays, writing three in 2004 for A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor and which starred Robbie Coltrane and Sean Scanlan He was apparently working on remakes of the Ealing comedies Whisky Galore! and The Maggie but fell out when the film company refused to go with his choices for lead actors. McDougall's work has been dismissed by many as Scots Noir, contributing to the prevailing image of 'No Mean City' etc, but his plays were always poignant, and often comic, and surely it's time for his work to grace, and sometimes disgrace, our screens once more.
Three very different bands have new material for your delight and delectation. Three bands who once again show the diversity of music on offer at this moment in time. Three bands who are, to borrow from Mugatu in Zoolander, 'So hot right now'. Three bands who make my world, and I'm willing to bet yours, a better place.
First we have unfinished business with one of my favourites; The Seventeenth Century (see It's Time For The Seventeenth Century...). They are back with the The Seventeenth Century (Part II), the second of a pair of EPs which showcase their accomplished songwriting and playing. The two parts make a whole that is remarkable for its consistency and quality. Part I has been a constant companion to me this year so it's exciting to finally meet its sibling. If you associate the term folk with music that is wan or fey then you are in for a delightful shock. This is folk music that is played as if their life depends on it, with layer upon layer of drums, violin, guitar and horns behind Mark Brendan Farmer's vocals. There is an intensity here that cannot fail to move you. They mean it, man.
The Seventeenth Century are a band who should be seen live and you can do just that this Friday (29th April) at Glasgow's Oran Mor where they will launch Part II, and considering they are going to be supported by another bunch of Scots Whay Hae! favourites, The Scottish Enlightenment (see The Scottish Enlightenment...), it promises to be a right good night. You can learn all you need to know about the band by going to theseventeenthcentury. Here they are playing for the legendary Glasgow PodcART. This is Farmer's Son:
Next we have two bands who are new to me, and their songs are simply terrific. First is Marianna by the Imagineers, a single released last year. This is psychedelic pop with a Latin twist and a love of harmonies. You can hear shades of bands such as Love, The Association, The Zombies and even XTC's side project The Dukes of Stratosphere in their sound. There's a new EP, See As I Say, coming soon and a UK tour in April and May and you can find all the details here the-imagineers. The Imagineers are a band confident in both sound and look, as is in evidence in the video below. This is the aforementioned Marianna:
Now for a taste of summer in the form of a five minute and fifteen second pop song. An email popped into my inbox last week with a link to this video by Aberdeen's The Little Kicks (Seinfeld fans perhaps?). Like The Seventeenth Century and The Imagineers their sound is from another age, but a much more recent one than that of the former two. It reminds me of the joyous sounds of Orange Juice and The BMX Bandits, but the band they most remind me of is The Go-Betweens, and I don't think I could pay a higher compliment. The Little Kicks also have a new album in the offing and tour in May. This is their new single Call of Youth which you can get for free from thelittlekicks.bandcamp .
Great music from three great bands. Reasons to be cheerful, 1,2,3...
Here's an oddity. An adaptation of Muriel Spark's terrific and troubling novella The Driver's Seat. It stars the late, great, Elizabeth Taylor as the enigmatic and troubled Lise, Iain Bannen as a man obsessed with macrobiotics and sex, Italian idol Guido Manneri and, in an unexpected cameo role as an unnamed English Lord, it's only Andy Warhol! This is as cult as cinema gets.
Made in 1974, and with an alternative title in the US of Identikit, The Driver's Seat is about a woman making plans to control her death as she has failed to do with her life. Many people miss the darkness in Muriel Spark's work, but it is never more in evidence than in this tale. Although it is never specified there is little doubt that Lise's journey is about mental illness and challenges our atitudes towards, and tolerance of, people who have psychological problems and beliefs which are different to what is perceived as 'the norm'.
Liz Taylor was always a natural screen performer but she became a much more interesting actor as she grew older and her life became more complex. As with her more famous turns as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Ellen in Night Watch her pain, both that of Lise and Liz, is palpable. There is a real lack of ego in these roles as Taylor is prepared to put aside her star reputation to play unattractive, and often downright ugly, characters. In The Driver's Seat she is mesmerising, capturing the apparently cold and unfeeling woman that Spark essayed so brilliantly in her book. Bannen's performance is equally impressive, his obsessive-compulsive Bill is an unhinged mess of neuroses and is the hyperactive counterbalance to Lise. These are over the top performances, Taylor's hair alone is terrifying, and they may be too much for some viewers but they are what the film demands. There are also some lovely cameos, particularly from Gino Giuseppe and Mona Washbourne, but they are all just bystanders as the camera follows Lise to the bitter end.
Here's a short clip of Liz as Lise to give you a taste of the film, followed by the whole film! That's right, you get your money's worth at Scots Whay Hae!:
(For those of you who just fancy seeing that Warhol cameo, you can find it at 25:31)
The Driver's Seat is not a great film, but for any fan of Muriel Spark, Elizabeth Taylor or cult cinema it really is worth a watch. It has the feel of a Fellini movie that has been edited by David Lynch and it all makes for a really unusual and unsettling experience.
During my recent chat with Cargo's Mark Buckland (see Publish And Be Damned: In Conversation With Mark B... ) he bemoaned the lack of opportunities for new writers to be published in Scotland, although he did see that situation slowly improving. As if to prove him right this Thursday (21st April) at Mono in Glasgow sees the showcase evening for the new literary journal Valve which has been put together by fourth year students from Strathclyde University's Journalism and Creative Writing course. This is exactly the sort of night that anyone interested in writing should support. 'What's it all about Ali?' I can just about hear you cry. To find out I thought it best to go straight to the source and ask those involved:
Scots Whay Hae! meets Valve
SWH: What is the thinking behind Valve?
V: The whole project began as a new 4th year option for Journalism and Creative Writing students at Strathclyde Uni offered by Rodge Glass (Creating a Literary Journal). As opposed to a tutor led class of lectures and seminars, the running and direction of the class was very much up to us. The minimum requirement of the class was to produce an online version of our Literary Journal, but as a group we decided that we wanted to really challenge ourselves and produce a journal we could hold in our hands and leave behind as our legacy. We originally set out with a loose theme of control, but as the project developed and the editing process began, we realised that the theme was no longer necessary, as the quality and diversity of the journal was our identity and we didn’t really need to define it in such terms. As a peer group we have overseen and directed the project ourselves from start to finish, from writing and editing, to fundraising and publicity, with the help and advice Rodge and many others have had to offer to us, and we are very proud that since January 2011 we have successfully written, edited, designed, publicised and fundraised for a project which we will be able to hold in our hands on June 16th at Waterstones, knowing that we are responsible for something unique.
SWH: It has been a collaborative project. What do you think that adds to the final publication?
V: Through out the whole process, we had two weekly meetings as an editorial board to discuss everything from content to fundraising. At these meetings it quickly became clear that everyone in the class had very different views on what they imagined for the journal, and we enjoyed a lot of debate and discussion along the way. The fact that everyone’s views were so different meant that many perspectives were available on everything from how we should publicise our journal to the content of the journal itself and this diverse mix means that our final journal is entirely unique to our peer group. The content of the journal is of the highest quality, but there is also a broad spectrum of interests and topics. Valve contains not only fiction and poetry, but non fiction pieces and illustrations. There are short stories about out of body experiences, people with OCD, moths and sex which sit alongside poems about subway stations, toothbrushes and giants and non- fiction pieces about anorexia and Hunter S Thompson. The final publication took a long time to pull together, the majority of which time was spent editing and polishing our work to the very highest standard it could be through individual editorial boards which specialised in either Fiction, Poetry or Non-Fiction. We are very proud of our finished product as it is a showcase of our class, who were are and what we have to offer.
SWH: Did you have a model in mind as a template for Valve, and how much did the style change as you progressed?
V: To begin with, we looked at other literary journals such as Gutter, and many others to get an idea of what a literary journal should be. However, we always maintained from the beginning that while we would happily use these for guidance or inspiration, we wanted something which was a bit different from the norm, and things were constantly changing throughout the process. In terms of style, our art and design team designed a logo for Valve and this became synonymous with us from the very beginning. As our fundraising efforts throughout the project were so successful, we decided to approach Freight Publishing to publish Valve, and the publishing process is currently well under way, which is new to most of us and has been a great learning experience.
SWH: What events are forthcoming involving Valve?
V: Since January, we’ve had some excellent fundraising events, including a school disco night and a ‘Ned’s v Goth’s’ night. These events were a huge success in terms of raising funds for Valve, but we are now looking forward to our showcase event which is all about raising awareness of our fantastic project. The Valve Showcase night will take place in Mono on April 21st from 7.30pm and will feature readings of fiction and poetry from several of Valve’s contributors and acoustic music. The event is free of charge, and all the contributors will be there to talk about Valve and their experiences, so we hope to attract a lot of people who are interested in this innovative project. Our final event is our launch night which will take place on June 16th in Waterstones Saucchiehall Street from 6pm! We welcome people to come along to join us in an evening of readings, drinks and mingling with the Valve team – as well as seeing Valve in the flesh for the first time! Keep up to date with events on www.facebook.com/ValveJournal or www.twitter.com/ValveJournal
SWH: Why should people read Valve?
V: Because there has never been anything like it and there never will be again! Valve is unique, groundbreaking and is a testament to the passion of each and every writer who has contributed. We are very proud to have been part of such an excellent project which has given us all a chance to try new things and contribute to something which we hope will make a long lasting impact.
There are many bands who are versatile enough to change their styles over their careers, but few have the confidence to do it over the space of one album. The Beatles with The White Album, Prince's masterpiece Sign of the Times and Lou Reed's Transformer are three that spring to mind. Often the confidence is unjustified as anyone who heard Boy George's 1995 album Cheapness and Beauty would testify (although you should check out his version of Iggy Pop's Funtime. It just may be the most nuts record ever made). Such diversity can be found on Night Noise Team's new album Slow Release, which is available from the 16th of May, and in their case it's a very good thing.
There was a tendency in the 1980s for music journalists to talk about 'well crafted pop', usually about bands such as Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions and Talk Talk. The inference was that there was a serious, almost academic, approach to making this music, that the music was not the bubblegum that many people would normally associate with 'pop'. In short, they stopped pop being a dirty word and there was critical admiration for such bands that had previously been the preserve of indie, rock and soul music. Slow Release feels like a throwback to these times. There is real craft involved and each song has been constructed with care. Don't misunderstand me, this is not a nostalgic trip. These songs are completely for and about the here and now, but at a time when many favour an 'organic' approach to music making, Night Noise Team are unafraid to use the studio to its full effect and have made an album that is for the city rather than the open spaces that are favoured by many of their contemporaries.
There are the driving guitars on Menolick, the Looper-like Redemption 81 with its spoken lyrics, the gentle piano breaks on All Brutal Common Sense, the slow, almost ambient, build and beautiful guitar of Broken Kingdom, the gentle acoustic interlude of Rideau and the fuzz and funk of Doors Are Closed. What unifies the album is Sean Ormsby's tremulous and tremendous vocals which put me in mind of Pete Murphy, Ian Curtis and Nick Cave and which lend a lovely darkness to the album, even when the music moves you to clap your hands and stamp your feet. This is one of my favourite tracks, it was one of my songs of last year (see Top 5 Scottish Tracks That You May Not Have Heard ... ). It's dark, angular and atmospheric. This is Burning:
I'm going to follow with the closing track You Won which shows much better than I can explain the differing styles of music Night Noise Team have to offer. This is, to borrow terminology from Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, a real ear-worm, one which sounds as though its been mixed by Nile Rodgers. I just can't get it out of my head:
Night Noise Team are a class act who are confidant in their own ability. If you are a fan of big tunes and pop music which is thoughtful, literate and still encourages good times then Slow Release is for you. It's an album I'll be playing again and again, one where each track has been carefully considered. This noise may be for the night, but would also work on day time radio if it could find its way there. There are bands who make, in parts, sounds which are similar, you could point to Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Gayngs, but no one sounds quite like Night Noise Team right now, and that alone makes them worthy of your attention.
To learn more about Night Noise Team, including where to catch them live, take yourself over to nightnoiseteam
After reading and reviewing Doug Johnstone's excellent Smokeheads (see For Peat's Sake: Doug Johnstone's 'Smokeheads'...) I thought a man who loves writing, whisky and music would be the ideal person to appear on these pages. Mr Johnstone not only writes some of the most thrilling fiction coming out of Scotland, he fronts the band Northern Alliance, writes and resides at Stratchclyde University and his reviews and articles appear regularly in publications such as The List,The Herald and The Independent on Sunday. As if this wasn't enough he has a previous life in nuclear physics which is, to be frank, just showing off. He was kind enough to answer a few questions. Anyone interested in writing, or reading for that matter, should read on:
SWH: Your latest novel Smokeheads is soaked in whisky and blood, two of Scotland’s more famous liquids. Do you see yourself as writing in any ‘Scottish tradition’?
DJ: I don’t really see myself as writing in any kind of Scottish tradition, at least I don’t think about that consciously, and certainly not when I’m writing. I’m much more concerned with storytelling than prose style (that’s not to say I don’t take the prose very seriously), and I guess there is a long tradition of that from Hogg through Stevenson to John Buchan and more recently the likes of Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh. On the whole, I’m probably more influenced by American writers though, although whether that’s reflected in the kind of things I write, it’s hard for me to really say from the inside.
As for the whole Scottish thing, like I say, not sure about any tradition per se. My books aren’t overtly dealing with politics or class in a way that some Scottish writing has been, although I do think that I’ve tried to look at Scottish cultural identity in the twenty-first century with each of my books, most obviously with The Ossians. Hopefully that hasn’t been too heavy-handed though. That was at least part of my thinking in writing a book based around the whisky industry, to look at our relationship with our national drink in more detail, but overall I’m just more concerned with telling a great story and keeping the reader hooked than anything else.
SWH: How difficult is it not to be overly influenced by your favourite novelists in term of writing style? Does it take time to find your own voice?
DJ: Again, that’s something that’s quite hard to judge for yourself – I’m sure other readers of my work would be better placed to comment on how much my work is in thrall to my influences. I think it does take some time to find your own voice as a writer, a fact that is increasingly being ignored by a traditional publishing industry that is always looking for the next big new thing, at the expense of nurturing writing talent through a number of books.
To begin with when I started writing seriously, I didn’t really have a fucking clue what I was doing. I read a few ‘how to write’ books, but only took from them the stuff that I felt resonated with my own ideas about writing. I certainly didn’t have much idea about plot and stuff like that, something which I hope is improving as I write more books. I feel like the books are getting better as I go along, but whether that’s because I’m ‘finding my own voice’, I dunno really.
SWH: When you start a novel do you know where it’s going to go, or do you take it a page at a time and see how the story develops?
DJ: I can’t think of anything worse than starting a whole novel, a project that’s going to take up maybe a year of your life, and not knowing where it’s going. I spend quite a bit of time before I start writing planning stuff out, although I don’t nail everything down by any means. I tend to have a beginning to the book well mapped out, and I know where I want to get to by the end, but I like to leave a small grey area in the middle, give my characters room to manoeuvre.
I tend to go through it almost like you do in screenwriting, and have it planned out scene by scene, although I don’t go into quite that much detail, and it’s always a malleable plan, in that I revise and revise it as I’m going along and as new things occur to me to add in or take out, or the characters change a little while I’m writing and what I originally had planned is no longer relevant or believable for them.
SWH: Scottish writing seems to me to be in a particularly healthy state at the moment. There are new, varied, writers finding places to publish and live events allowing their voices to be heard. Do you agree with this, and if so why do you believe this to be the case?
DJ: I do agree, I think that the Scottish writing scene is incredibly vibrant at the moment, with a real sense of community and a great spirit. I’m particularly impressed with the big recent increase in live event possibilities, something which absolutely seems to be happening at a grass roots level with things like Words Per Minute, Discombobulate, Golden Hour etc, etc. These events help to nurture new talent and bring everyone along, we all have to raise our game to impress live audiences and each other, but at the same time the people coming along to these events are clearly very appreciative of the stuff they’re being exposed to.
As for the reasons for all this, I think it’s at least partly because of the panic in traditional publishing. The London publishing world seems very narrow-minded at the moment (my own publisher excepted of course!), and Scotland hasn’t been flavour of the month with them for a long time, since Irvine Welsh and all that. I think more and more young and not so young writers coming through are realizing that there are other ways of getting exposure, other ways of working within a writing community. So we get Gutter magazine, Fractured West, Cargo Publishing, and all the spoken word nights I mentioned, people realizing that if they’re going to get anywhere they’re going to have to do it themselves.
As far as I can see, this is only going to get bigger and bigger, especially with the huge surge in digital self-publishing, where writers are able to cut out the middle man of a conventional publisher entirely and get their work out there directly to the readers. There is still a problem with getting noticed in that environment, of course, but that’s where the supportive writing community comes in, hopefully if enough people shout about each others’ work, we’ll all benefit.
SWH: You have been the writer in residence at Strathclyde University. At a time when all the arts are under attack, can you explain the importance, if you believe that is the case, of there being a strong creative presence in the academic world?
DJ: I’m not entirely sure what you mean by a strong creative presence in the academic world, to be honest.[SWH: admittedly not the greatest phrasing. I simply meant the importance of the arts in universities. If only I'd said that.] I don’t know much about the academic world as my position at Strathclyde is not a formal teaching post, but I do believe that creative writing deserves its place on the curricula of universities. The benefits of such courses tie into my previous answer, in that they give prospective writers encouragement and support, and hopefully gives them a clearer idea of how they can develop not only as a writer, but as a promoter of their own writing, which I think is vital in this day and age.
I think the Strathclyde course is particularly interesting, because it’s a joint undergraduate program in Journalism and Creative Writing. In the current financial and cultural climate, I think it’s vital that writers have as many strings to their bow as they can, and if they can view writing in as wide a way as possible, that’s all to the good. Hopefully some of them will actually be able to make a living out of doing what they love and being creative, in whatever form that takes.
SHW: Can you talk about what you’re going to be working on next?
DJ: Well, if you’re talking about writing, I’ve actually finished the next novel after Smokeheads. I’m just going through the copy edit stage with Faber at the moment. It’s called Hit and Run and it’s even more fucked up than Smokeheads. Actually, it’s not as violent, but it’s more psychologically disturbing, I think. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s about a hit and run. I’m obsessed with car crashes at the moment, have been for the last few years, and this is really a culmination of that. It’s also, stylistically, a culmination of my move towards a stripped-back, bare bones prose style, heavily influenced by the classic American noir writers of the last seventy years.
Basically, three young professionals hit someone when they’re driving home from a party, drunk and loaded. They panic, move the body and drive off. The whole book is the fallout from that decision, which backfires and comes back to haunt them fiercely. It’s my first novel set entirely in Edinburgh, I figured it was about time for my take on the city I’ve lived in for the last twenty years. Two of the main characters are journalists, so it’s also a wee comment on the state of journalism in the twenty-first century. But mostly it’s just (hopefully) a white-knuckle piece of storytelling, a psychological thriller that makes the reader really squirm.
Since that novel is finished, I’m in the planning stages of the next one, but very early, nothing concrete yet. I’m also about to release a solo EP in May (I’m in a band, Northern Alliance, who are kind of hibernating at the moment). There will be another EP later this year, as well. I’m also working on a screenplay adaptation of Smokeheads. Kind of.
SWH: Finally, and this is a purely selfish question, can you recommend an underrated or little known Scottish writer, and an unsung malt whisky, deserving of more attention?
DJ: Whisky – Not sure if it’s ‘unsung’ exactly, but I’ve got a great bottle of Japanese whisky in the house at the moment that I’m firing through, Yamazaki. It’s won lots of awards, but I guess outside of the whisky drinking community most people might not realize that Japanese whisky is actually really fucking good, and the best of it is easily up there with the best Scotland has to offer. Apart from that, I’m a real Islay man, the peatier the better. Ardbeg is a real doozy, though my heart is always with Laphroaig.
Writer – again, not sure how underrated she is, but I think Helen FitzGerald is an amazing writer, and deserves much more recognition. OK, she’s Australian, but she’s lived in Glasgow for the last umpteen years and is married to a Scot, so we’ve adopted her. She writers brilliantly dark thrillers which are always laced with comedy, which I think is part of the problem for her in terms of recognition – her books are impossible to categorize. They’re like chick lit for really fucked up sick women, or brilliantly written noir thrillers for people with a nasty sense of humour, or I dunno, they’re just great.
Fans of more literary fare tend to be quite snooty about the kind of thing Helen writes, but like Chris Brookmyre, it takes real skill to walk that high wire, balancing the darkness and the comedy, and to make it convincing. She is a really succinct prose writer, really to the point, which I also appreciate, and her characters are always morally complex, she comes up with real moral dilemmas in her plots which always have the reader wondering what they would do in those circumstances. That’s a pretty neat trick, if you can pull it off. More power to her.
Scots Whay Hae! and Doug Johnstone 16/4/2011
That's the long and involved way to conduct an interview, here's the succinct and fun way. Critically acclaimed writer Ewan Morrison talks to, and abuses, critically acclaimed writer Doug Johnstone in the form of animated animals:
Scottish comedy is on a real high at the moment after years where barely a smile was raised, at least in terms of TV. Second series for Limmy's Show!, Burnistoun and the still underrated Gary Tank Commander proved that their initial successes were not flukes and that things are on the up. These shows have been matched on the radio where there have been great series such as Fags, Mags and Bags, The Bob Servant E-mails,Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard and A.L. Kennedy's Laverock Findo Speaks.
This renaissance is reflected on Scotland's stages and in comedy venues. Some of the UK's best stand ups, and some of the most popular (rarely the same thing I tend to find), are from north of the Border. I think this is partly down to the success of the Glasgow Comedy Festival (see Funny How?: Glasgow Comedy Festival...) which tends to have a better balance of home and international acts than Edinburgh's Fringe and the growth of comedy nights in pubs and clubs cannot be overlooked. You can find someone to laugh at/with every night of the week. Personal recommendations include Susan Calman, Miles Jupp, Des Dillon, Bruce Morton and the hardy perennial who is Phil Kay.
But it is Limmy's Show! and Burnistoun which are the two big comedy hits of the Spring. Scotland has a strong history of sketch based comedy. Laugh I Nearly Paid My License Fee, Naked Video, Absolutely and Chewin' the Fat; these are the shows that Limmy and Burnistoun's Robert Florence and Iain Connell are following. Absolutely is the closest in terms of sensibility as all three play with realism and surrealism and challenge peoples' ideas of what is funny.
Limmy takes this further than most, and it is no surprise that his show splits opinion into lovers and haters. He often uses visual techniques to create a dream like feel to many of his sketches, and a uniting trait in all his characters, including that of Limmy himself, are that they are paranoid and uneasy about life, a feeling which is transmitted to the audience. It is the comedy of cruelty to an extent, but viewer's of Limmy's Show! are not just made to feel uncomfortable, but also unsettled. Thomas Hobbes described laughter as "nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or wit our own formerly" (well it was the 15th century), but Limmy takes this further by not only asking us to laugh at unfortunate incidents or grotesque characters. He points a finger at his audience to say 'that could happen to you'. Limmy's Show! is at times as poignant as it is funny. This first clip is a terrific example of this, followed by one of his greatest creations, the 'Ravenesque' Falconhoof:
The boys from Burnistoun have, in the space of two series, managed to create a world that is very familiar, but also completely unreal. There sense of absurdity is not as dark as Limmy's, although there is black comedy there. Spoon fights in pants, Reginald P. Bartholomew Esquire the Breville toaster, and Jolly Boy John's wee chocolate bananas all had me in stitches and that was just in episode one. You can catch the current series on iplayer by going to Burnistoun_Series_2 but if you want a taste of what they do here is what is fast becoming their 'Dead Parrot Sketch', the 'Elevator Voice Recognition' sketch from Series 1:
Not all recent Scottish shows have been successful. Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights appeared to be deliberately unwatchable and the less said about last years Happy Holidays the better, but the BBC Comedy Unit in particular has come on for a lot of stick over the years, some of it much deserved. This recent upturn in fortune hints at a better things to come.
This Thursday night (14th April) at The Arches sees Opium Magazine's Literary Death Match cross the Atlantic and storm into Glasgow to oversee a literary square go involving some of Scotland's finest writers. These events, which are now held all over the world, are hosted by Opium's Todd Zuniga and are, well let me allow Cargo Publishing supremo and friend of Scots Whay Hae! to explain:
"Each episode of this competitive, humour-centric reading series features a thrilling mix of four famous and emerging authors (all representing a literary publication, press or concern — online, in print or live) who perform their most electric writing in seven minutes or less before a lively audience and a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readings, the judges — focused on literary merit, performance and intangibles — take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary about each story, then select their favourite to advance to the finals".
Cargo are co-hosting the evening, and true to form have put together an impressive line-up. Here's a brief tale of the tape:
Alan Bissett is one of Scotland's best novelists whose debut Boyracers has just had a 10 year anniversary release (10 years!!) He is also one of the most natural live performers around.
Kirstin Innes is one of the people behind Words Per Minute, the excellent monthly live literary event that has found the perfect home at The Arches. Her first novel Fishnet is on the way.
Helen Fitzgerald is an Australian born novelist who is often described as a crime writer but who is so much more. She has worked as a social worker in Glasgow's infamous Barlinnie prison so has likely picked up a few tips.
Tim Turnbull is a performance poet who also has experience of the 'jugg', working as writer in residence at HMP Castle Huntly. If you fancy checking out his work try his 2004 collection Caligula on Ice.
The judges for the evening include one of the greatest living Scots, our very own Makar Liz Lochhead, comedian and writer Iain Macpherson, and ex-pugilist, US Senate botherer and feline impersonator Gorgeous George Galloway. This is going to get lively. To give you a better idea of what will occur here's a clip from a 2009 match in New York:
Hopefully see you down The Arches. Doors open at 8pm and it all kicks off at 8.35pm. As a slightly excitable chap said to me in Rutherglen one day; 'Bring yer mates and bring yer dinner'.
To learn more about Literary Death Matches, and to see if they are coming to city near you, go to literarydeathmatch .
Times are often defined by the new, or at least the most prominently hyped, music that is around and it gives us a skewed version of history overlooking some of the great music made that doesn't fit such easy, and lazy, categorisation. The same is true about the present day, with music that embraces a folk aesthetic, and the seemingly ever present 'indie' rock, being the current darlings of the music critics and Sunday supplements. Some of the protagonists are great, and have been celebrated on these pages, but focusing on one or two styles is not only boring, it stops people from discovering something they didn't know they liked. I'm interested in the quality not the style, and, to paraphrase Mr Wonder, there is good and bad in every one. It is important that people know that there is a great breadth of music as well as depth. All tastes are catered for if you look hard enough, you just have to look harder for the bands who won't be easily boxed.
Which brings me to You Already Know, otherwise known as YAK, who are about to release their new album Petrol Money. They are a force of nature who don't bother with pesky words, something more bands should seriously consider, and who make music that is heavy, melodic and which gives more with each listen. Think Explosions in the Sky without the quiet moments but with Killing Joke's rhythm section and heavier guitars. This is riff driven rock, but with a musical sensibility that cannot be ignored. Songs such as Goliath, The Gush and Business Class have a real symphonic, rhythmic, quality that is almost hypnotic.
The people who are aware of YAK will know all this, but they deserve to be more widely appreciated and hopefully this is the album that will find that larger audience. It's an incredibly strong collection. If you like a bit of quality noise, and who doesn't, then Petrol Money is for you. This is the rather awesome video for Lets Fuck which is the opening track and is a real statement of intent. For all of you that care about such things (which sadly includes me) it gets its name from the final words from Stanley Kubrick's hugely underrated film Eyes Wide Shut. Here you are:
If you want to catch YAK live then they are launching Petrol Money at The Cathouse in Glasgow on 22nd April where they will be joined by Bloodlunch and What the Blood Revealed. I haven't seen them face to face as yet, but since the album was recorded as live I've a fair inkling it'll be epic. See you there.
Petrol Money is available to buy on CD or download from the 18th April.
To learn more about You Already Know pop over to youalreadyknow where you can tune into YAK TV.
Soft Top Hard Shoulder was Peter Capaldi's second screen play after Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life which he also directed. Although it hasn't quite got the magic of Bill Forsyth's best work, which it is clearly inspired by, Soft Top, Hard Shoulder has bags of charm and is a lovely way to spend and hour and a half.
In the film Capaldi moves on from his innocent turn as Danny Oldsen in Forsyth's Local Hero to play someone more cynical, the struggling artist and ice-cream heir Gavin Bellini, and the flashes of temper which occasionally appear give a hint to what was to come in his masterful performance as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In The Loop.
But it's Capaldi's real life wife Elaine Collins who is the star, perfectly cast as the unlikely hitchhiker Yvonne. It is unthinkable that such a likable screen presence has been involved in so few films. I presume this was by choice, but her absence is TV and cinemas loss. Some folk might remember her from the first series of BBC Scotland's late 80's sitcom City Lights where she played the frustrated girlfriend to Gerard Kelly's likable loser Willie Melvin, but she has appeared in little since Soft Top, Hard Shoulder.
Also involved are pre-Victor Meldrew Richard Wilson, the lovely Frances Barber, Jeremy Northan, Simon Callow and the always excellent Phyllis Logan. However they are only passengers, this is Capaldi and Collins film and their chemistry is obvious from the off. There are shades of Hepburn and Tracy, or Robert Donet and Madeline Caroll in The 39 Steps, and although you know where things are going the warmth of the leads, and the direction of Stefan Schwartz, ensure that you enjoy the ride.
The film itself takes the form of an Odyssey, with Gavin racing to get home and being way laid by all sorts of characters and his own failings. The variety of cameos stay on the right side of easy stereotypes, and the film shows long forgotten parts of the countryside as they travel the b-roads of England and Scotland. A particular pleasure for those Glaswegians of a certain age (you know who you are) are the final scenes in the city, including some in George Square from a time when it had beautiful trees and grassy areas. The councillors who decided to wipe the square clean should be tarred and feathered for making The Dear Green Place slightly less so.
But I digress. Highly recommended, with a wonderful supporting cast, Soft Top, Hard Shoulder is one of those rare films that appears every now and again; a British comedy that is genuinely funny.Here's the video for the theme tune. Warning: Contains scenes of a Chris Rea nature (I presume Mark Knopfler was otherwise engaged):
Third novels, like third albums, are notoriously difficult. It's usually the point when a writer either runs out of ideas or they really discover their voice and move forward. Doug Johnstone's third novel Smokeheads moves forward with such momentum that it fair takes your breath away.
I enjoyed his debut Tombstoning and the follow up The Ossians, but Smokeheads is a step up from those. As always the story rattles along. Few writers take you through a book at the pace Johnstone does. You are just coming to terms with what you've read when the next twist in the tale comes and quickly goes.
Smokeheads is about four friends whose bonds were formed by university and a shared love of single malt. The title refers to whisky lovers who prefer smokier and peatier flavours in their glasses such as those distilled in the southern part of Islay, the place where the action takes place. Johnstone's own passion for whisky is palpable and I can imagine a few people's drinking habits changing after they've finished reading.
The gang of four, Adam, Roddy, Luke and Ethan, have continued to meet up over the years despite appearing to now have little in common apart from shared history and hangovers. They undertake a road trip to visit the best distilleries and batter some expensive and rare malts. What starts out as a boozy do soon descends into a terrifying tale involving police and thieves who happen to be one and the same. Along the way they add local distillery guide Molly to their motley crew, and she initially holds out hope that at least one of the four's life is about to improve. But Johnstone isn't going to allow sentiment, and he pulls the rug out from under everyone's feet, reader included, with indecent haste.
The first few chapters introduce the characters of the main players, making sure that our sympathies are in the right place, and then we're off. It's the literary equivalent of a Die Hard movie, with action unrelenting until the final scenes (although happily avoiding the Hollywood 'tidy' ending). It makes sense that Smokeheads has a trailer to accompany its publication (see below) as Johnstone is one of the most cinematic of writers. Some scenes are so vivid that you can almost feel the heat off the page. Here is that trailer:
It's perhaps unsurprising that I enjoy Doug Johnstone's writing. So far he has written about whisky, indie music and jumping off cliffs; three of my favourite things. With Smokeheads he has written the very definition of a page turner. I read it in two sittings, with only sleep getting in the way. Scotland has lots of great thriller writers such as Christopher Brookmyre, Louise Welsh and the Ia(i)ns Rankin and Banks. In terms of sheer enjoyment this is the company that Johnstone is heading towards, and with Smokeheads he is knocking loudly on their door. Any novel that makes me go out and buy a bottle of Laphroig quarter cask is all the recommendation you should need. Slange.
Two bands have new releases to promote, and the lovely thing is they're both rather fine. I don't mean to sound surprised, just relieved. I'm always banging on about how much good music is out there at the moment, you may have noticed, and it's always heartening to have fresh ammunition to back this claim.
First up are Viva Stereo, a band who are celebrating their 10th birthday this year but show no signs of fatigue. Their latest album is Endure the Dark to see The Stars, which comes out on De-Fence records (the home of the excellent FOUND and HMS Ginafore) on the 9th of May, and it's a belter.
Strangely, as I listened to the opening track Vultures, I was reminded of Richard Jobson's post Skids band The Armoury Show, who I haven't thought about for at least 15 years. This is a good thing by the way, and I think it's the vocals and drums what did it. But this is a much more subtle affair than Jobson mustered in his musical career. There are varied styles on show, from jangle guitar, through 80's influenced blues/rock, to post rock and the spirit of Spiritualized, all done in an individual style. My favourite tracks are Endure the Dark to see the Stars,Good Friend and the Durritti Column sounding closers Nocturne and We Set Sail, but the album really works as a whole, and is free of filler, a rare thing these days. I highly recommend to anyone who likes their rock music classy. Viva Stereo have class to spare.
If you order from the De-Fence website before the 1st of May you can get a free album from their impressive back catalogue. To do so go here de-fencerecords.com .
And so to The Darien Venture, surely one of the best names around. They have not been going for quite as long as Viva Stereo, but long enough to have understood what makes a band work. References? Well there are a lot of familiar names to juggle with, including Vampire Weekend, Frightened Rabbit, and perhaps this is just me, but the loose rhythms and playing had me in mind of early Public Image Limited. The Darien Venture's new E.P. Indications is now available from Overlook Records, the latest in an increasingly impressive number of independent record labels that are allowing such great music to be heard. Visit them here overlookrecords.com
In one of my favourite films, Robert Rossen's The Hustler, Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Felson is told that he won't win anything until he develops 'character'. Well The Darien Venture sure have character. There is a confidence in Indications that some bands never discover, and it's justified. This is a great taster of what to expect. From Indications this is The Whydah, which is not perhaps typical of their sound, but it's my favourite track and it's a rather nice vid:
Two more examples, as if they were required, that Scotland's music scene is fair bursting with talent. I'm off to listen to the new Night Noise Team album Slow Release which I'm very excited about, and which you can read about here sometime soon. Night night everybody, night night.
