A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan

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Live from Granite Noir: A Kick Up The Arts with Dawn Steele
Send us a textBefore we dive into this week’s episode - recorded live at Aberdeen’s Granite Noir festival - a reminder that if you’re in or around Glasgow on the afternoon of March 1st, we’d love to see you at the Glad Cafe for A Kick Up The Arts live with award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen - Alan Cumming loves him, Shirley Manson from Garbage loves him, Nicola Sturgeon loves him - everyone loves him, and little wonder…Michael will be chatting about a favourite Scottish album, film and book along with his wider life and work, and we’ll also have live music - playing covers from his chosen album - from the brilliant Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe. We’ll be there from half two onwards, Michael and the gang will hang around afterwards for a drink, and to sign books and records, and I’ll be DJing too - it’ll be a lovely afternoon, and we’d love to see you… But onto this episode, and the wonder that is actor Dawn Steele, who joined me and a glorious audience - thanks so much if you were with us - at Aberdeen Music Hall on Sunday…Dawn first arrived onto our screens, and into our hearts, as Lexie in Monarch of the Glen, followed by starring roles in Wild at Heart, Holby City, Shetland, and Aberdeen’s own Granite Harbour - and that’s not to mention various film and theatre credits, including John Byrne’s Cutting A Rug AND Tutti Frutti - and myriad connections to Aberdeen - but we’ll come to all of that…We were in the Music Hall’s Big Sky Studio, but Dawn whisked us away to her home - virtually speaking - for an A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine special, choosing us a Scottish album to play us, screen classic to show us, and a Booker prize-winning novel no less, for some bed-time reading…We also touched on Dorothy Paul, Paolo Nutini, hyenas, crisps, and lemon trees - obviously...Anyway... What a woman… here she is - and thanks so much again, if you were in our fabulous audience…
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58:33
Glasgow Film Festival special with Allison Gardner and Chris Kumar
Send us a textThanks so much if you joined us at Granite Noir in Aberdeen on Sunday, for a lovely live recording with actor Dawn Steele - that podcast is coming soon!And don’t forget, if you’re in Glasgow, I’m joined by writer Michael Pedersen and musicians Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe for A Kick Up The Arts live from the Glad Cafe, that’s on Saturday afternoon, March 1st - and then, the mighty David Keenan will be in conversation about his new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop on March 27th…Right now though, in this episode, we’re celebrating the 21st Glasgow Film Festival - they grow up so fast - which runs from the 26th of February to the 9th of March…It’s Scotland’s biggest celebration of local and international cinema, and this year it’ll showcase 92 world, UK and Scottish premieres from 39 countries…It opens with the world premiere of Tornado, the latest epic from Fife’s John Maclean, who made huge waves with Slow West, following his time in pop voyagers the Aliens and the Beta Band. Tornado stars Tim Roth and Jack Lowden, and features gold heists, criminal gangs, and travelling puppet shows, played out in 1790s Britain…The festival closes with another world premier with distinct Scottish roots, thanks to Martyn Robertson’s incredible Make It To Munich, which follows teenager Ethan Walker’s charity cycle from Scotland to Germany, just months after almost losing his life…And in the countless screenings between those movies bookending the festival, there are worlds of possibility - from a free 'Coming of Age' strand with classics like Gregory’s Girl, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Lady Bird and Boys in the Hood, to a retrospective of Swedish actor, director and pioneer Mai Zetterling, including her 80s borstal drama - Scrubbers - starring Kathy Burke and Pam St Clement…There’ll be In Conversation events with icons Jessica Lange AND James McAvoy - and outwith the Glasgow Film Theatre, you can lose yourself in The Craft and Muriel’s Wedding at Cottiers; and Coyote Ugly at the Grand Ole Opry… And - this coming Saturday evening, that’s March 1st - I’ll be chatting to directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard about their stunning new performance film, The Extraordinary Miss Flower, which digs deep on a hoard of lost letters, and the music of Emiliana Torrini, and stars Richard Ayoade, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Caroline Catz and Nick Cave - who Iain and Jane previously explored in their film about him, 20,000 Days On Earth…When the programme was revealed last month, I caught up with programme co-ordinator Chris Kumar and Festival Director Allison Gardner - it’s her final fling in the role, after 30 years at GFT. I’d hosted the launch that morning, so was really excited to hear more from them about this year’s films - and we got a bit nostalgic too…
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32:04
Liz Lochhead & Steve Kettley
Send us a textI promise I’ll stop going on about this soon, but I’m still very excited about the first three LIVE episodes of A Kick Up The Arts - at Aberdeen’s Granite Noir on February 23rd with actor Dawn Steele, at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st with writer Michael Pedersen AND musicians Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe…PLUS - on March 27th, I’m joined by David Keenan to celebrate his new book of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop… you can get tickets online for any or all of them, or email [email protected] now though, listen on for a blether with a woman I’ve loved for as long as I can remember - for her poems, her plays, her performance, her absolutely brilliant spirit - and she is just the best company too... Former Scottish makar Liz Lochhead’s work includes groundbreaking theatre productions like Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off and Medea - though she’s not so keen on looking back on the sprawling, experimental Burns and MacDiarmid-inspired Jock Tamson’s Bairns - while an anthology of her poetry to date - over 50 years’ worth - A HANDSEL - was published last year…Liz studied at Glasgow School of Art, but music’s also been at the heart of so much of her work, from an early love of Joni Mitchell to her time with The Lost Poets, and titles like BAGPIPE MUZAK and IN PRAISE OF OLD VINYL, to collaborations with Michael Marra, Hector Bizerk, Andrew Wasylyk and Andrew’s indie harmonists, the Hazey Janes…Liz’s album with the Hazey Janes, The Light Comes Back, also featured her legendary saxophonist, Steve Kettley - you might have caught their fab show together, Somethings Old, Somethings New, among other adventures… Steve’s also played with Salsa Celtica and the Cauld Blast Orchestra, and worked with Niki King and Savourna Stevenson, along with enlivening countless theatre shows from Wildcat and Communicado, among others… The three of us got together in Glasgow’s Mitchell library to chat about all of that - over coffee so hot it was tantamount to a biohazard - ahead of Steve’s Captain Beefheart-inspired gigs at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on February 16th, and Newcastle Globe on the 20th - and Liz’s appearance at Pitlochry’s Winter Words Festival on the 22nd…And spoiler alert for any potential promoters listening: they’re totally up for more shows together...
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59:53
Alan Bissett & Sorcha Dallas on Alasdair Gray
Send us a textJust a reminder that I’d love you to join us for A Kick Up The Arts live in Aberdeen at Granite Noir festival with the fab actor Dawn Steele, that’s on February 23rd - then award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen will join me at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st, with live music from the sublime Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe - and THEN literary livewire David Keenan launches his new new collection of music writing, Volcanic Tongue, at The Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh on March 27th…ANYWAY! Onto this episode, and we’re celebrating the fantastical Glasgow polymath, Alasdair Gray. The writer, painter, playwright and poet has mapped out the city in vivid murals, the recent Hollywood adaptation of his novel Poor Things starred Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, and his landmark epic, Lanark, exists in a brilliant realm like no other - and it’s been a huge influence on many of the special guests who’re appearing at this year’s Gray Day celebrations, at Oran Mor on February 25th.The annual event takes place in what would be Alasdair’s 90th year - and it’s all beneath his celestial mural in the auditorium… Performers include comedians Ashley Storrie and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, and writers Alan Bissett and Sara Sheridan, not to mention new animations and the involvement of composer, musician and visionary Scott Twynholm…I’ll be hosting proceedings, and if you move fast you can still get the remaining tickets.Gray Day is thanks to the terrific Alasdair Gray Archive, helmed by custodian and long-term friend of Alasdair’s, Sorcha Dallas - and in this year it’s in cahoots with Glasgow International Comedy Festival…Sorcha and she warmly welcomed Alan Bissett and I into that magical archive - as she always does - and plied us with coffee in Gray-inspired mugs, and we chatted a bit more about his legacy, his imagination, his roving work - and what’s coming up…
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46:37
Maud Sulter: You Are My Kindred Spirit
Send us a textJust a reminder that there are a few live events coming up, and I’d love to see you there - actor Dawn Steele - who’s starred in Monarch of the Glen and Shetland among others - joins me at Granite Noir in Aberdeen on Febrary 23rd, award-winning poet and writer Michael Pedersen’s with me at Glasgow’s Glad Cafe on March 1st - Siobhan Wilson and Raveloe will play some live music at that one too…And then, on March 27th, David Keenan will introduce us to his superb new collection of music writing, Vocanic Tongue, at Edinburgh’s Portobello Bookshop. There are tickets online - and we’d love you to join us…In the meantime, onto this episode, which celebrates the work, and living legacy, of Scottish-Ghanaian artist, photographer, film-maker and writer Maud Sulter, thanks to a brilliant - and free - exhibition that’s running at the Tramway in Glasgow until the end of March…Titled Maud Sulter: You Are My Kindred Spirit, it’s an immersive experience of moving image and spoken word archives, alongside photographs, montage and written works like her Alba Sonnets - and her voice rings out across the building…Maud was born in the Gorbals - not far from the Tramway - in 1960, and died after a long illness in 2008. She began her career as a writer, and award-winning poet, before expanding her practice to include photography and visual art, often addressing the erasure and representation of Black Women in the histories of these disciplines - and giving a voice to the marginalised.Along with the brilliant exhibition itself, there’s a live events programme, curated by Pelumi Odubanjo, which includes poetry evenings, collective readings, presentations, conversations and a rare screening of Maud’s play Service to Empire in the coming weeks.The live programme launched with a screening of Natasha Ruwona and Tomiwa Folorunso’s excellent short film, Maud, which invited Black women making art in Scotland to reflect on her life, and work, and influence. Many of them also feature in the superb PASSIONS publication, which revisits and responds to Maud’s seminal 1990 book PASSION: DISCOURSES ON BLACKWOMEN’S CREATIVITY.I caught up with Natasha, and Tomiwa, and Pelumi, after the screening, to chat a bit more about Maud, and her work…
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36:32