Living in China these past few years has been a cultural education for me.  I’ve given red packets of ‘lai see’ money to my employees at Chinese New Year (always crisp, new notes); I understand why a large apartment block on a hillside was designed with a hole in the middle (it’s so the spirits […]

It’s not often that I post about artists on major labels, however, in The Boy Who Trapped The Sun’s case I am more than happy to make an exception. It was the session that he recorded for Vic Galloway last year that first brought him to my attention.

This week in SEAN, David Tennant’s Einstein film gets a premiere date on HBO, Ewan McGregor considers how his life would be as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s boyfriend and Kevin McKidd demonstrates incredible patience when fielding inane questions about Scotland on ‘Chelsea Lately’.

This week is almost certainly the biggest week of the year for Scottish international gigs. 14 Scottish bands are heading to the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas and Vic will be there too. Here is his preview together with a listing of more than 80 Scottish gigs around the world this week:

Each Sunday we present some of the best new photos of Scotland in the gloaming, the magical time before sunrise or after sunset. This week featuring images of Loch Nan Umah, the Kinghorn Cliffs, Carlingnose Point and Loch Shiel.

Our week of interviews with the Scottish artists attending South by Southwest concludes with a chat with Unicorn Kid. Edinburgh teenager Oli Sabin already toured the US last year with Owl City and he spoke with Dear Scotland yesterday about that experience and his upcoming SXSW gigs.

Though the first official day of the South by Southwest Music festival is Wednesday next week, the first Scottish gig will actually be Unicorn Kid’s Tuesday night gig at the UK SXSW Interactive party. For a full listing of all Unicorn Kid’s SXSW gigs see below:

Tommy Reilly is a young Glaswegian singer-songwriter with a big future. After SXSW he’ll play his first ever New York gig before heading out on tour with The Proclaimers in the UK. The other day Tommy spoke to Dear Scotland about why next week might be the best week of his life so far:

Tommy Reilly’s first ever gig in America will be to open the Scottish Showcase night on Wednesday featuring Codeine Velvet Club, Frightened Rabbit and more. So make sure to get there early to see this talented Glaswegian. All Tommy’s SXSW gigs are listed below: