February has been a pretty decent month for me on the ol’ arts front. I broke my gigging duck for the year (48 days in – a new record), saw a whole THREE films at the Glasgow Film Festival and rid my to-read pile of another four books. Oh, and I also started using a […]
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I feel as if I spent most of this (last) year listening to albums, at the expense of falling in love with songs. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s also the thing that I was most afraid of: that, as my relationship with music became increasingly “professional”, I’d lose touch with the thing that made it […]
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Have I mentioned that the period between Christmas and New Year is my favourite time of the year? I’m lucky in that, an emergency period in retail notwithstanding, my last two jobs have been of the sort where there is no need to work. Providers of professional services cannot provide when the professionals are on […]
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2016: the year I stopped listening to men. Unless they were called John. Or Bruce. Or Frank or Ryan or Brian. Yes, of course I’m exaggerating for dramatic effect. But, as I wrote in my last piece for The Arts Desk (until they asked if I could fulfil my traditional Christmas Day duty, anyway): this […]
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Michael Morrison of Book Group introduces a very special Christmas album and book which will be released at a pair of shows in Edinburgh this weekend, with all proceeds going to Shelter Scotland. I think 2010 was the first year I took part in The Christmas Songwriter’s Club. Now on hiatus, the annual get-together really […]
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Anybody who heard “Victory Lap”, the magnificent Gerry Loves-released single by Edinburgh’s Book Group and easily one of the best Scottish indie tracks of 2013, must have known that they were hearing something special. This month, the four-piece were back on it with their delectable new Tantrums EP: four sparkling tracks of meaty indie rock […]
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I’m of the opinion that these things are better late than never, particularly when the music is this good. This year, I’ve once again uploaded what is essentially a three-CD mix into one .zip file, which I hope isn’t too much of a pain for anybody who wants to listen – if it’s too large […]
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