Episode 2 Edinburgh Nights


Episode 2

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Welcome back to Edinburgh where we're halfway through

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the world's largest celebration of arts and culture,

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and we're still going strong.

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Coming up - roll over, Beethoven.

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We talk to the musicians staging a coup at this year's Festival.

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Performers probe the signs of sexual attraction

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and rope audiences in to the dating game.

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Booker Prize-winner James Kelman

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on a grief-laden journey through America's Deep South.

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And dazzling dance from Scottish Ballet.

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Opera and classical music have always been mainstays

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of the International Festival,

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but this year, Mogwai and Sigur Ros

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have muscled in alongside Mahler and Schubert.

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We've been speaking to some of the artists taking the Festival

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out of its comfort zone and making Edinburgh rock.

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One of the things that I kind of wanted to make really clear

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when we started this programming was this isn't an either/or thing.

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This is in no sense about replacing what currently exists

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or what currently did exist within the Festival.

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It is more about how do you reflect

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the overall cultural geography that we live in today.

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# Come here and do the right thing

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# Get up and have a party

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# Get up

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# Get up, get up, get up... #

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All art festivals I think can be a wee bit off-putting

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to a lot of people because they don't seem very inclusive.

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I think for a festival

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as major as the Edinburgh International Festival,

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it's important that the culture is accessible to everyone.

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Good for the Festival, I think.

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I guess, in some ways, our music,

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it kind of fits into so many categories,

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it's easy to put us on a bill with anyone, really, I think.

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There's no reason why all of us shouldn't be brought together

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because it is all music, after all.

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# And I don't want your future

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# I'm never, never coming home

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# I don't want your future

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# I'll be born before you're born... #

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This year's Festival includes a really broad range of

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international artists, like Anohni and Sigur Ros,

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and then a really wide range of Scottish artists,

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like Young Fathers, Aidan Moffat, Mogwai, Emma Pollock.

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# The light we see is from times unknown.

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# But in the place the troubles we are shown... #

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What's interesting about the Edinburgh International Festival

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is it brings an international audience.

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Artists spent most of the year travelling about in a van,

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or a bus if they're lucky, and they go find the audience.

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But with a Festival circuit, it's entirely different.

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# That's just the sounds up in your mouth

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# So that the word... #

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Her recent album, In Search Of Harperfield,

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is extraordinarily nuanced and is kind of the voice of someone

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who has lived one hell of a life,

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but the lyrical strength of Scottish popular music,

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this is a great example

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of the poetry that exists within the lyrics.

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# To write our own page of history... #

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There's definitely a sense of it being one of the avant-garde sounds.

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I mean, it would be pretty easy to put happy Scottish bands on

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and everybody have a dance,

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but it does seem to be

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that it's somewhat more pensive and thoughtful music.

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# Leave me suspended like this

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# While the world does its bitching... #

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Our evening with Aidan Moffat is a film and then concert

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called Where You're Meant To Be

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and the film is a documentary about when Aidan went around Scotland

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with a very famous folk singer called Sheila Stewart.

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And they didn't really get on at all.

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# The taxi rank grows

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# There's another wee ned

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# With another bust nose... #

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You've changed the verses, that's not on.

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That's the tradition of these songs though, you know,

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we often add bits, take away bits,

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-make them your own.

-Never heard of that.

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You know, ultimately it's about death, it's about legacy

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and why people hold on to these things and what you leave behind.

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I make it sound quite miserable, actually.

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I mean, it is quite entertaining, you know, it's funny.

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And usually at the expense of me, I should say, as well.

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# ..Sent by a mutual mate

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# So I wrote to her to try and woo her

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# Still she didnae reciprocate... #

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There's always been a really strong presence of Scottish music

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throughout the Festival, that may be more traditionally

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through the prism of classical music and occasionally folk.

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Thankfully, the artists involved really have an international view,

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and not all of them live in Scotland.

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So I don't think it seems parochial.

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There's nothing like the live experience of a Sigur Ros show.

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Our music has a visual side to it.

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You know, and our live show is a show,

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it's nice to be able to do something more than only the music.

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It's kind of nice to have a big show so we can just fall in the back

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and people just look at something else other than yourself.

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I think it's more geographical and attitude-wise, I think.

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Icelanders have something in common with Scotland.

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I think so, yeah, you know, it's a hard winter sometimes.

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It's miserable, so you have to have something to do.

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I'm pretty sure we grew up with a lot of the same records that Sigur Ros did,

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and yeah, they've definitely got a lot of epicness.

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This year at the International Festival,

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we're going to do a couple of performances,

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doing the live soundtrack to the film Atomic,

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directed by Mark Cousins.

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About turn.

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Atomic is a film both kind of celebrating and investigating

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the effect of the atom and the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.

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There is something in the music of Mogwai which has sort of

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a bubbling kind of optimism,

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combined with an anxiety, which really, really suits it.

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I think as Mogwai's career has progressed,

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I've began to think of them as contemporary composers.

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The way they write is akin to the approach

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that you might find a composer take when they are perhaps using

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more traditional orchestral instrumentation.

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The complexity behind the music and the richness of what they do,

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it's...it's just extraordinary.

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When we make our own music, when we make our own records,

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we have a complete free rein,

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so really it's just us expressing ourselves,

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whereas with a project like this, it's very specific.

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We were working alongside Mark, we were sending music to him,

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he was coming back with feedback about it,

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he was challenging us by asking for pieces

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that might be up an avenue that we wouldn't normally go.

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I think when you collaborate with people,

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you see how other people work and it also gives you

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a different way of looking at what you do.

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To collaborate with someone who's not a musician,

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I guess the artist really has to find themselves

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in a comfortable spot with something that inspires them

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and then let something happen as a result of that.

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The beauty of it is that you don't know what it's going to be.

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The worry of it is that you don't know

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if it's going to be good or bad.

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I think it's important, but we're a pretty isolated entity, Sigur Ros,

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and we don't trust anybody else.

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Cos everybody else sucks.

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I think they've chosen some really great artists.

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There's definitely a strong line-up.

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They've all got a singular vision as to what it is they're doing.

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We are certainly attracted to artists like Sigur Ros, Mogwai,

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Emma Pollock, Aidan Moffat,

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because they are genuinely pushing boundaries, they are genuinely

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finding a voice which is their own, but is a new voice in popular music.

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Now, wading through piles of Festival programmes

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and mountains of flyers can be a thankless task.

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Ever helpful, we've done some of that work for you.

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So here's our guide to some of the hottest tickets in town.

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Brooklyn-based theatre ensemble, The TEAM, joins up with

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the National Theatre of Scotland in Anything That Gives Off Light,

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a musical exploration of national identity and personal politics.

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# I don't think there's anything better

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# Worth more than a song and a whisky bottle

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# I don't think there's anything

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# Nothing worth more than a song and a whisky bottle. #

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Three young playwrights based in Scotland are among this year's

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Fringe First award winners.

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Kieran Hurley's Heads Up is an apocalyptic monologue

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set in a city on the verge of destruction.

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You stand on a train flicking through the unwieldy pages

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of a broadsheet newspaper that you hate but buy anyway.

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More blah about Europe.

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Something about Syria, some pictures of foreigners,

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something about a famous person who has died, another one.

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Something about something else,

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the man next to you smells of cheese and onion crisps

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and you want to get off.

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Faslane, by Jenna Watt, is a timely insight

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into the debate over nuclear weapons.

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And there she is.

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In the dock.

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Trident.

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This is the first time I've seen her.

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I'm in awe.

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And Adura Onashile's Expensive Shit

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is the story of a nightclub toilet attendant

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and her parallel lives in Nigeria and Glasgow.

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I never think this is going to be what I become.

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You hear me?

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Never.

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Alice Neel, The Subject And Me, at the Talbot Rice Gallery

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is the first solo exhibition in Scotland

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of the American artist's striking portraits

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of friends and acquaintances.

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And tributes to the much-loved David Bowie continue

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with Sven Ratzke's glittering cabaret performance in Starman.

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# We could be heroes

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# Just for one day... #

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Time to share the love now

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as a raft of writers and performers take to the stage

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to explore romance, relationships and the laws of attraction.

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And as ever on the Fringe, the audience gets in on the act.

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Anyone in the audience at Rob Drummond's dating show,

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In Fidelity, might find themselves part of an experiment

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exploring the science of romance.

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If you're single and looking for love,

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this just might be the start of something beautiful.

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But if you're happily coupled, we need you too.

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Your job is to watch and advise as our new couple embark on

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their very first date right here, right now.

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-Rob.

-Kirsty, I take it. Hello, how are you?

-Very well.

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-Got you a glass of wine.

-Thanks very much, you look nice.

-Thank you.

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-Rob, you are happily married.

-Yeah, very happily.

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So why did you want to interrogate that marriage?

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Tell me what you wanted to do with this show.

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Well, I love working with audience members, first and foremost.

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And then I got to thinking, well, the perfect reason for having

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two people on stage, an inherently dramatic reason, is a date.

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Then I realised I'm coming up for ten years married, this is perfect,

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let's do a show about love and monogamy

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and why we're together and why we stay together.

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We ask people who are single and willing to come up on stage

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to put their hand up. Then we get a bunch of people.

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Some nights it's 15, some nights it's 3,

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and yeah, then we just ask them some questions.

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Do you find it hard to say, "I love you"?

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LAUGHTER

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-You don't find it hard to say "I love you," Anthony?

-No.

-No, not to anyone?

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Well, it helps if I love them.

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LAUGHTER

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Just instinctively, who I could picture as a couple

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and who answer the same types of things

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and maybe who's making eye contact.

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Yeah, sometimes I get it wrong,

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but usually we have a pretty decent day up there.

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So this is the story of Helen and Anthony. This is their beginning.

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Their end might be in one hour...

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or it might be in 40 years.

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Or Helen and Anthony may last for ever.

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In the course of your research for this, you went on to match.com.

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-What happened?

-Yeah, I thought, I've never dated, really,

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so I must become a dater.

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And then slowly, I became more and more involved in it

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and that's when the drama started.

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"We seem to have a lot in common...#

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Immediately I call my wife and tell her what I've done.

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LAUGHTER

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That's part of the narrative of the show,

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what do we tell and what we not tell and why do we not tell.

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There's this little pebble of doubt as well,

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that I want people to think about what monogamy is,

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why they do it, whether they do it to be nice or because they

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couldn't live with being infidelitist.

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So it's just to get them thinking a little bit,

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but overall it's just to celebrate love.

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-Do you think we make a good couple?

-Ask for audience feedback.

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-ALL:

-Yes.

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But you send two people out of the door with the possibility.

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-Right, yeah.

-Have you any idea if that possibility has been acted on?

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There was a couple who met and they're on their third date already.

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They met last week, so it can work.

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Also investigating the power of attraction

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is Stephanie Ridings' one-woman show, The Road To Huntsville,

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based on stories of women who look for love behind bars.

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You just want to break down the glass and get them out of prison.

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Some people are just supposed to be together, whether there's a cage

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and a lawman between you...

9:00:339:00:35

People fall in love all over the world for all different reasons.

9:00:359:00:39

I just decided to fall in love with a man on death row.

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Tell me why you're interested in the first place in death row.

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I watched a documentary and couldn't quite get my head around it,

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why women would want to go

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and have these relationships.

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And I think those are the things that interest me

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as a writer and a theatre-maker,

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to then want to go and explore it and try to understand it better.

9:01:009:01:03

I started to look at forums and find websites

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that you can write to men all over the world, and women.

9:01:069:01:10

Christopher is excited

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about the chance of an encounter with a stranger.

9:01:119:01:13

Randy's a 12½ and unlike any other brother.

9:01:139:01:16

12½ what, Randy? I think he needs to be clear about that.

9:01:169:01:20

Troy wants a shot, Franklin wants a photo. Of course he bloody does!

9:01:209:01:25

Douglas is innocent...

9:01:259:01:26

As a performer, you took on the kind of persona

9:01:269:01:30

of a woman contacting somebody on death row

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and then also the impact that had on your relationship with your partner.

9:01:339:01:36

What did you want to achieve by doing that?

9:01:369:01:39

I think to just show how easy it is actually to be very judgy

9:01:399:01:44

and like, "Oh, look at these women!" and being slightly unkind

9:01:449:01:48

and then actually how easily she fell into it

9:01:489:01:51

and how easily that could happen to anyone.

9:01:519:01:53

Me?

9:01:539:01:55

I have a one-eyed house cat who only goes outside on supervised visits.

9:01:559:01:58

Sometimes on a lead.

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Him.

9:02:009:02:02

"I haven't seen the stars for years and years and years.

9:02:029:02:06

"And I miss the rain...

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"And really good food, such as burger, steak, ribs."

9:02:099:02:14

In the show, you talk about why you think some women...

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you know, correspond with men.

9:02:189:02:20

The relationship that actually is incredibly, bizarrely,

9:02:209:02:23

incredibly safe for the woman.

9:02:239:02:25

There's something about the fantasy of it.

9:02:259:02:27

So they can make that relationship anything they want it to be.

9:02:279:02:30

They don't have to live with them, they're not cleaning up after them

9:02:309:02:33

and it's almost like the Romeo and Juliet, isn't it?

9:02:339:02:36

The star-crossed lovers. They can't be together.

9:02:369:02:38

"I haven't touched another human being in 14 years.

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"Can you imagine the sensory deprivation that causes?"

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"I feel I could tell you anything. You just seem to get it.

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"Get me."

9:02:579:02:58

From love steeped in fantasy

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to the reality of the awkward first meeting.

9:03:009:03:03

The improvised Blind Date Project plunges its actors into the unknown

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with a different date each night.

9:03:079:03:09

-Sorry I'm late.

-Oh.

-Sorry.

9:03:099:03:12

-Hi.

-I'm Alex.

9:03:129:03:15

Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry.

9:03:159:03:17

Oh, my goodness, I love it.

9:03:179:03:19

Every night, my date is a different performer, male or female.

9:03:199:03:23

Um...I don't know who it is until the moment that they arrive.

9:03:239:03:26

So the character that plays your date has no idea

9:03:269:03:29

what he or she is actually getting?

9:03:299:03:31

No, all they know is an online profile that I've created.

9:03:319:03:34

No, I wanted to ask you something.

9:03:349:03:36

So, "I'm an easy-going, friendly guy, blah, blah, blah.

9:03:369:03:39

"I love movies, music, reading." Yeah, just like everybody else.

9:03:399:03:43

-"And I like to build PCs."

-Er...

9:03:439:03:46

What does PC stand for? I know what it is, but what does it stand for?

9:03:469:03:49

-It stands for personal computer.

-Personal computer, that's it...

9:03:499:03:52

'Once the director's spoken to the guest about what kind of character'

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they want to play, then we decide what is going to match that best

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to create a really good show.

9:03:599:04:01

We have our mobile phones with us on the bar.

9:04:019:04:04

We get text messages with directions.

9:04:049:04:07

I've played assistants to executive producers, two executive producers,

9:04:079:04:10

hairdressers,

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geeks, psychic healers - that's one of my favourites.

9:04:119:04:16

What's the, um...?

9:04:169:04:18

Oh, I went out with a Serbian guy once, so I got this Serbian tattoo.

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What does it say?

9:04:219:04:23

It says "Far from the sea",

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because I was far away from him and I missed him.

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-SHE GIGGLES

-I don't miss him any more.

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I just see him every day.

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It's just an adventure every single evening.

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This feels like a little bit of a date with you.

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Good, I'm very happy to be a date.

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Digging deep into my soul, I love it.

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You didn't know that I was, you know... Well, you should have known,

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I'm 35 and single and obviously there's a reason for it.

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But that's all right, don't worry about it.

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Definitely, I guarantee people walk away

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thinking about their own lives and their own connections

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and, if they're on a date, they feel so blessed

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that it's not going as badly as my date went, you know?

9:05:029:05:05

The Booker Prize-winning writer James Kelman is regarded by many

9:05:059:05:09

as Scotland's greatest living author.

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His new book, Dirt Road, is a moving account

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of a grieving father and his teenage son

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who travel from the west coast of Scotland

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to the Southern states of America.

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Ahead of a sell-out appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival,

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I spoke to him about family bonds and the emotional power of music.

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Dirt Road is Kelman's ninth novel and draws on

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his own experiences of spending time as a teenager in America.

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It's set in Alabama where 16-year-old Murdo Macarthur

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and his father, Tom, retreat to stay with family after the untimely death

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of both Murdo's sister and mother from cancer.

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On the trip, Murdo discovers zydeco music

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and picks up an accordion for the first time since his mother's death.

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An aspiring musician, he dreams of a life on the open roads of America,

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while his father fears letting him go.

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Why did you choose to set the novel in the Deep South?

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The reality is that I know the South better than I know the north.

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My brother has lived in New York City for 45 years,

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but I've lived in Texas a couple of years and California a few months.

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And I feel that I know the South more.

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So Murdo and his father go to America

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ostensibly for a two-week holiday,

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making a very long, tortuous journey to get there,

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with a few wrong turns on the way.

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But on the way, they come across a zydeco band. Tell me about that.

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Murdo blunders all the time.

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He blunders in a small town in Mississippi

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and therefore they miss the bus.

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That's why they have to stay in this town.

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And the next morning, Murdo goes to try and get some food.

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He's walking down the road

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and he hears this beautiful accordion playing.

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This character Queen Monzee-ay playing this waltz, accordion waltz.

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"The old lady and the girl, it was great seeing them.

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"Something just beautiful about it.

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"Seeing the two of them there in their music.

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"The accordion itself, cream coloured

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"and as fancy as you ever would see.

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"Light glinting in the morning sun and that brilliant sound.

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"What a sound. That was special.

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"That was so special."

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Does this come out of your own deep love of music?

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Well, zydeco and Cajun music, yeah, that type of stuff

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has always interested me since I was a young fellow, that music.

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I mean, I love blues, like most people do.

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And I like some... quite a lot of country music.

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So that whole thing was a way

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of bringing my own knowledge of music to bear,

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but I'm writing this as a guy who was in his mid-to-late 60s,

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so, you know...

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and having spent a couple of years in Texas,

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I was very, very fond of Conjunto music, Tex-Mex music

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and the music around Lafayette, I know that music too.

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I get the sense in the novel that music -

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for Murdo and as a kind of generality -

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is a redemptive thing and it will help him through his grief.

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I actually wonder now - I didn't think of it the time -

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whether Queen Monzee-ay intuits that at that time.

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When Queen Monzee-ay sees Murdo listening,

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and he's listing behind a tree

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and he get spotted by Queen Monzee-ay's grandson,

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she says, "I know he's listening to music." That song.

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And it was enough for her to see the quality of concentration

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and how he was watching her that he was the player.

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And of course he gets drawn in and eventually he gets discovered

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and he plays and she invites him to play a bit of music for us.

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And this is Queen Monzee-ay, who's a great character.

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-I say that... I created her.

-Yes, you're allowed to say that.

9:09:009:09:05

"Queen Monzee-ay had appeared at the backstage doorway.

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"The old bartender held her accordion and waited with it.

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"She was wearing a type of gown that made you think of Africa.

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"When she came forward, she did it like a march.

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"Hands at her side and pausing only by the step up onto the stage.

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"This was one of the greatest moments in Murdo's life.

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"He felt this as strongly as ever he could feel anything.

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"And Queen Monzee-ay, she settled at the front of the stage,

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"still in her march, gazing out at the audience.

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"And now the bartender stepped up and he handed the accordion to her,

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"her accordion, the fanciest ever you saw.

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"Just as beautiful, beautiful, amazing, amazing thing."

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You've been so influential in modern Scottish writing.

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You know, Irving Welsh, Alan Warner, and he pays respect to you.

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When you started out, were you aware that you were moving

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into a completely new phase of Scottish writing?

9:10:059:10:08

Even though you were drawing from tradition.

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In a way, I didn't discover I was drawing from tradition

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until I was much older.

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At that time, I really didn't have much time for English literature.

9:10:159:10:19

For me, it was just class-based

9:10:199:10:21

and biased against Scottish working-class people,

9:10:219:10:24

so I had no interest in it.

9:10:249:10:26

The writers and the art that I was interested in was

9:10:269:10:30

the Russian writers and French writers.

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These were most important for me.

9:10:339:10:35

You were aware of the right to be a writer.

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You didn't have to go and think, "Oh, God, I'm going to be a writer."

9:10:389:10:42

Because of the nature of UK society,

9:10:429:10:45

people tend to blush and be kind of ashamed and embarrassed, you know.

9:10:459:10:50

"What do you do?" "Oh, I think I'm a writer," you know?

9:10:509:10:53

They're kind of scared to say, "I'm going to be a writer."

9:10:539:10:56

In America you go, "I'm a writer."

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You know. Whereas if you're Scottish,

9:10:599:11:01

"Well, I'm going to be a writer."

9:11:019:11:03

So did the award of the Man Booker

9:11:039:11:05

make any difference to you in that regard?

9:11:059:11:08

Well, the marginalisation became much more complex.

9:11:089:11:13

I would say...or the hostility... kind of continues.

9:11:159:11:19

If you were to ask my publisher or ask my granddaughter.

9:11:199:11:22

My granddaughter and friends...

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My granddaughter went into a Waterstones down south

9:11:259:11:28

and asked for this new novel about a week ago.

9:11:289:11:31

Being a feisty young girl, she said, "Where is Dirt Road?"

9:11:319:11:36

And he said, "Well, you'd have to order it."

9:11:369:11:39

At which point, she said, "Six copies, please."

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She said, "Do you have anything else by James Kelman?"

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-And what was the answer?

-The answer was, "No, we don't have anything.

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"But we'll order it for you."

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I'm interested in this.

9:11:529:11:53

Given that I absolutely accept that your granddaughter

9:11:539:11:56

obviously as an investigative journalist is doing extremely well,

9:11:569:12:00

but as a writer, you still feel marginalised?

9:12:009:12:03

It's not that I still feel marginalised,

9:12:039:12:05

I don't feel one thing or the other, the fact is that I am marginalised.

9:12:059:12:09

These things are not really questions for myself,

9:12:099:12:12

in a sense, these are things that I find...

9:12:129:12:15

It's interesting when you hear about it, you know, I mean,

9:12:159:12:21

my work is always well reviewed,

9:12:219:12:24

so...and this novel is probably better reviewed

9:12:249:12:28

than most of them were, but at the same time you think,

9:12:289:12:32

why would a bookseller not have your work?

9:12:329:12:34

But some of it's not to do with me personally,

9:12:349:12:37

it's to do with the perceptions of Scottishness.

9:12:379:12:40

I have been described as being too Scottish, you know.

9:12:409:12:43

So being too Scottish means, I suppose, that you don't assimilate.

9:12:439:12:47

If you assimilate, you're OK.

9:12:499:12:51

If you use Standard English literary form,

9:12:519:12:54

then your work will appear in WH Smith.

9:12:549:12:56

That's just about it for this week.

9:12:589:13:00

Next time, I'll be meeting the comics

9:13:009:13:02

who have completely rewritten their shows

9:13:029:13:05

as a result of the vote to leave the EU.

9:13:059:13:07

And the writer and broadcaster Bidisha

9:13:079:13:09

will be exploring stories of refugees and migration.

9:13:099:13:12

And there's much more besides at...

9:13:129:13:16

We leave you with a spine-tingling performance

9:13:179:13:20

from Scottish Ballet, who thrilled audiences this week

9:13:209:13:22

at the International Festival. Goodnight.

9:13:229:13:25

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