June 2026
-
Thoughts on an all-Scottish music show: (not) putting a kilt on it Full playlist at the end of this essay Almost a quarter of a century ago, I was involved in an unholy row which made the front page of The Herald, still a power in the land at that time. It was my fault, sparked…
-
Del Amitri are currently on tour in the USA, playing sold-out theatres and travelling, I assume, in comfort and style. Which befits their status and maturity. A summer of big outdoor gigs and festivals awaits. Their drummer these days is one Jim McDermott, a fine practitioner of the percussive arts, and wee brother of Kevin…
-
And so they left, the guests last week at our holiday cottage, driven from their beds by the scratching, rustling and rattling, the just-discernible whine of the plug-in deterrents that don’t actually work. Not against the Shetland mouse, aka ‘da hill moose’, viking-Pict hybrid among rodents. Elvis the monster cat, who used to patrol the…
-
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves… You can listen to me reading this article, or download the audio here: There’s a record I’m pretty certain the late Dave Hewitt held that’s rarely mentioned…
