Nothing is completely original, but sometimes it is harder to discover some influences than it is others. This is partly because history, cultural or otherwise, is often sold to us in convenient packages of dates, people and places. If you were to read many an overview of Scottish writing in the 20th century you could […]

So here we go. South by Southwest 2013 kicked off today in my adopted home town of Austin, Texas. Scotland will be well represented over the next 10 days or so with around 12 Scottish companies here for the Interactive festival, at least 1 really cool film, and 12 great bands. I’ve tried to list […]

Music and religion. Add in football and you’ve probably got the top three divisive topics in Scotland, even with the Yes/No vote on Independence approaching. In 1994 journalist and broadcaster Tom Morton wrote ‘Red Guitars In Heaven’ a novel which deals with the conflicting nature that a love of pop/rock music and a life devoted […]

Virtually everyone has already written off Scotland’s chances of making the next World Cup. But as I watched us crush Estonia last night I started to wonder what needs to happen for us to make it. I know this is crazy but after crunching the numbers I think we can actually do it. Here’s how:

Scottish writers have had an obsession with the nature of evil since they first placed quill to parchment. ‘Good’ is all very well, but the devil has all the best tunes, and the most charismatic representatives. Much of this interest is a result of culturally deep rooted religious belief clashing with a more folk tradition, […]

Earlier this week, Creative Scotland revealed that they would be supporting five Scottish bands and three DJs to attend this year’s SXSW Music festival in Austin. We can also add The Waterboys’ Mike Scott, Frightened Rabbit and more to the list of Scottish acts who’ll be there. Full list below:

There have been a few novels featured in these columns by writers who are as well known, and sometimes better known, as poets. These include Ron Butlin, Kevin MacNeil, John Burnside, James Robertson, Alan Spence, and this month, Jackie Kay. Re-reading her debut novel ‘Trumpet’ I found myself asking if there are any conclusions that […]

Last week the SXSW Music festival announced a ton of bands for the 2013 event to be held next March in Austin, Texas. Among them are 8 new Scottish bands that will be hoping to be the next big thing of buzz.

This month has seen two of Scotland’s greatest living writers in the news. Alasdair Gray has had his short fiction collected into one impressive volume, while James Kelman won the Saltire Book of the Year award for ‘Mo said she was quirky’, and in time honoured fashion managed to make the newspapers by forecfully restating […]