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A new place to connect I just published my first note on Substack Notes, and would love for you to join me there! Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like…

The Swilchie – a single-swallow cocktail to calm the raging sea… As usual, you can read the story here (originally published in Discover Scotland Magazine) or listen to it with an hour or so of quite good music inserted by tuning into 60 North Radio on Friday at 7.00pm or streaming on Mixcloud by clicking…

Rough sketch of a new song In the last days of gasoline We drove down to the sea In a German convertible Someone gave away for free Noone would pay the prices They were charging for fuel But that day, on the motorway Nothing ever felt so cool   I loved that car Its lines…

Shetland’s van and truck culture examined in prose, poetry and noisy records As usual, you can read the text below (and extra piece of doggerel) or play the Mixcloud version with me reading it and 12 tracks of (this time noisy and quite obvious) music by clicking here. It also goes out on 60 North…

….and yellow. Past a Ship Called Ambition, flatpack salvation is on offer As ever, this audioletter is available for you to read quietly to yourself, or as a show with music (playlist at the end, below), either 7-8 pm Fridays on 60 North Radio or streaming on Mixcloud always, by clicking on this link. In…

40 years on, it’s still a delight (note addendum, as at 21 March)  In 1983, when the Burrell Collection opened to the public in Glasgow’s Pollok Park, I was a hack interested mostly in guitars, records and religion, with side orders of cinema, Tolkien and those White Gold Wielder books by Stephen Donaldson. I was…

Cutting school swimming lessons in an island community? Makes perfect sense… You can read this as an essay or listen to it along with 15 (even though I say so myself) fantastic songs, mostly from the 60s and 70s on Mixcloud by clicking here. The whole thing goes out as a show on 60 North…

Golf, my secret history. Includes terrible events in Troon bunkers involving bicycles As usual, you can read the piece below or listen to it read by me, interspersed with tunes that may or may not have some sort of connection with the subject in hand…the full playlist can be found at the end. I was…

A story in the ‘Tales from Thin Places’ series. With music if you so desire Originally published as one of Discover Scotland Magazine’s Strange Tales From Thin Places. Listen to me reading this along with a dozen or so road-related tracks on 60 North Radio at 7.00pm on Friday 3 March, or streaming on Mixcloud…

….or Troon. But certainly not by LNER to Reading You can read the text below, or listen to me reading it accompanied by a dozen pieces of music that fit loosely with this week’s theme, which is…trains. Railways, steam engines and the permanent way generally. Music by Danny Wilson, The Clash, the Doobie Brothers, the…