London The Culture Show

Hello and welcome to the Culture Show. This week, we're coming from

the Barbican in London which has just celebrated its 30th birthday.

Born in the same year as the compact disc, Channel Four and the

song, Come on Eileen, this landmark arts venue instantly became an

Eighties poster child for an optimistic, culture packed future.

The artists that have appeared, performed or exhibited here read

like a who's who of the arts and the latest addition is the

brilliant young composer Nico Muhly who will be talking to Clemency

Burton Hill about his youthful take on classical music. Also tonight:

The not so young but truly brilliant Anthony Caro talks to

Alastair Sooke about his new exhibition at Chatsworth House.

Trainspotting's Irvine Welsh talks politics and punk fiction with

fellow autor Alan Bissett. Arlene Phillips explores 100 years

of dancing in Falkirk. Art critic Richard Cork sneaks a

look at a secret collection of paintings by artist David Bomberg.

Mark Kermode takes a trip down memory lane with Dexy's Midnight

Runners frontman Kevin Rowland. While Michael Smith embarks on an

altogether more cosmic journey with an alternative soundtrack of the

day. But first to Sheffield, once the

home of British steel production, an industrial hotbed of furnaces,

factories. The sculptor Sir Anthony Caro first made his name working in

steel, Sheffield steel. Just 15 miles from the City Centre is one

of Britain's most beautiful stately homes, Chatsworth House. Two very

different locations but forged together by a new exhibition of

some of Caro's work. Alastair Sooke was given a sneak preview.

Steel is the backbone of the modern world. Transforming it into modern

art has been one man's creative obsession for more than five

decades. Back in the early Sixties, Sir Anthony Caro revolutionised

sculpture with his lyrical, very colourful metal constructions. He

forged a new visual language and marriage to induce metal with a

sense of spontaneity and flair. His outlook has changed but he has

consistently challenged what sculpture is and what it might

become. Now approaching 90, he shows no signs of letting up. In a

landmark outdoors exhibition, 15 of his larger pieces are on display

here at Chatsworth House. This grand old man of British sculpture

has agreed to give me a private tour. It seems, initially, that we

are a strange not to be in a usual gallery setting. Were you ever

unsure about how that would play? Until I saw Chatsworth, yes,

because basically, I didn't want them to be like sheep in the

landscape. I wanted them to be something different and I wanted

them to be looked at as sculptures, not as part of a garden. Here,

unfortunately, because of the setting and because of the upkeep

of the place, you find yourself looking at the sculptures, which I

am pleased about. Shall we go and look at some of the earlier pieces?

Yes, let's. Caro studied at the working as an assistant to the

great Henry Moore. He abandoned his own attempts at figurative art

because of a much more radical vision. Totally abstract, metal and

crucially placed directly on the ground and not a plinth. How did

you actually learn that the practicalities of cutting and

welding metal? I knew absolutely nothing, I didn't know what to join

two bits of metal together. I remember asking a friend and he

said, you will them or put them. I didn't have a drill so I used to

cut a hole and there was a hole down there that you can see that I

cut at the cutting torch. I didn't clean things up. Look how rough

that edge is. I wouldn't leave that now like that! They are the thing

about it is that it is bright orange? Yes, it is kind of raw and

I wanted it to be wrong and to stand out. It stood out like a sore

thumb. His major public breakthrough came in 1963 with a

solo show at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London. Sculpture

seven was one of the pieces that grabbed the headlines. Sculpture

seven was about the seven sculptures I had made in the old

days of this sort of material. me why you find and presumably

still find this form a pleasing proposition as a sculpture? What

form? What we are looking at. Why does this arrangement of the steel

girders, painted a certain colour, why did that, for you, do it?

you cannot ask me this, you're asking me how do I know when the

sculpture is right. I can only tell you that it says yes to me. I

cannot give you a formula because if I did, I would be able to make

it each time and I cannot do it. you think all art comes from

instinct? I cannot say what other people do but I think a lot of art

comes from instinct, yes. You are allowing bits of your mind full

play which you don't admit to normally. Like gut feeling. You

cannot describe why you love somebody, you have to open yourself

to sculpture. You have to open your mind to what they are saying and

you don't try and invest what you have seen in front of you with your

thoughts. By the mid-Seventies, instinct had let Caro away from

colour and towards rugged new forms with a more muted finish. These

were also way ahead of their time. They couldn't be shown in England

when they were made because they were too much in-your-face, took

flat. Pieces like this? Yes, I made them in a factory in Toronto.

largest and most recent sculpture on show here is Goodwood Steps.

They are like a tower on its side. You can walk in, you can look at,

you can be among, it is to do with inside and outside and I love very

much that idea of inside and outside. It is something that has a

poetry of its own? It's got to be fair otherwise it is just bits of

material, just bits of steam. you ever start from the point of

thinking, here is the way I feel it's something and I would like to

make a piece of art that expresses that feeling? It is not quite so

much to do with me as you are expressing. It is that two of us

talking to each other and I got to let it have its say. It being the

sculpture? Yes, it has to talk to me. All the time we are having

Interchange. It's sometimes says to you, that is the way I think I

ought to go. You have to listen. One of the things that I most

admire about you is the fact that whenever I talk to you, you refuse

to rest on your own morals. You are now in your late Eighties, do you

feel as creative as you ever did? Every day ago to the studio and

make art and that is great, that is fun. I am not lifting as much as I

used to! But I can still say, let's try that. I went to be there and

watching it. I don't want to go away, I want to watch it and say,

stop, let's hold it there. I think that is the most inspirational

thing about you, you are forever thinking about tomorrow. I shall

keep doing that for another 10 or 15 or 20 years expert I do, too.

The exhibition opens on 20th March and runs until 1st July. From the

undisputed virtuoso of British Shropshire to a young American

composer, Nico Muhly who has been causing a stir with his

contemporary note rose approach. He worked for Philip Glass for nine

years, conducting and editing his own scores and has collaborated

with musical talents ranging from Rufus Wainwright to Antony and

Johnson's. Clemency Burton Hill caught up with him before the world

premier of his new cello concerto. Nico Muhly has found himself in a

pretty enviable position. Only 30, he is frequently touted as the

hottest composer on the planet. This is not composing in the old

mould. Fantastically eclectic, his music jumps from frenetic

individualism to pop ticking in Ballee and Suva music along the way.

He is back in London, this time for the premier of his new cello

concerto at the Barbican. Even better, this kicks off a British

spree for him as an exciting project with the National Youth

Orchestra the summer and a new piece for the Royal Ballet later in

the year. What better time to catch up with him. Welcome back to London.

You have so many influences and you work across so many John Rhys. How

important is it to you that you keep collaborating with people like

Bjork and then writing Cello concerto's? It is a natural

extension of the way my head works which has to have an obsessive

collaborative nature. It is so lonely being a composer that it is

better to reach out and work with your friends if you can. You're

here for the premiere of your cello concerto? I wrote it for her the

Britten Sinfonia and it is a very simple structure. Fast music then

slow music and then very fast music. In a sense, the goal of writing in

the concerto is to make this a last look great. Show of all the tricks.

What is your starting point? What I love about the cello is that there

is this wonderful expressive range. Of all the stringed instruments, it

has the largest technical range. I was thinking about what would be

great is to start in the stratosphere and slowly moved

downwards as a way of slowly unveiling the instrument. I found

this amazing photographer who does these objects breaking. The idea of

something called in its own destruction. You have the cello

concerto at the Barbican and the NY ill? I was working on it this

morning. It is an enormous orchestra. I have an anxiety about

youth orchestras because you want to make sure that everyone has a

great part. Nothing would be sadder than if you have a boring oboe part

so I am trying to make sure everyone gets to participate. The

reason of equestrian gates came up. I threw a bunch of things into it.

I still miss from Tsar bizarre place on the internet but you have

this idea of the most obvious walking gait but then it gets very

complicated with these overlaps and so I thought, it would be great to

invent animals and invent gait patterns for each family of

instruments of. So all the flutes, it is at seven legged think. You

can extract the idea of an orchestra being a community affair.

Like ASDA? -- at the zoo. You have to make chamber-music inside this

larger context so it is a family unit inside a tan. What else is

going on at the Barbican? second have is me and my friends

all play with each other. We are playing music that we all wrote but

we are all playing each other's It is some folk music, it is some

songs. It will be deliberately disorganised to offset the

This looks like random stuff. Used they do founded to on the internet,

is that way you get your inspiration? You just throw things

in. But do you throw it into Google? I just throw it into Google,

obsessively. The minute you get through the top level of it, you

find yourself in some very strange places. With the advent of the

internet, for me, the ability to simultaneously know about

traditional, North Korean food and the gate of horses and historical

flukes making, and then its work, are all existing in multiple tad

browser windows, is how my brain The Britten Sinfonia performs the

premier of Nico Muhly's Concerto at the Barbican tonight.

Reasons To Dance is a theatre project in Falkirk. Who better than

Arelen Phillips to hear their memories and perhaps pick up a few

new moves along the way? I am in Falkirk because for the

last six months, this town has had dancing on its mind. The National

Theatre of Scotland have invited residents to share their memories

and stories of the dancefloor to create a theatre project called

Reasons To Dance. I can think of lots of Reasons To Dance, I am

going to find out theirs. It is the buzz you get, you could be dancing

in your room or on a stage, you still get that amazing feeling.

Over the years I think your reasons change. When you are a teenager, it

all was to get the boys. It makes me feel no one is watching. When

I'm dancing it gives me a buzz. Just running through rehearsals so

if everybody can keep quiet. How of -- how did all of this begin?

started in August last year, gathering stories from people of

all ages and backgrounds. And the title of the show, it reasons To

Dance, what are people's reasons. He had turned these stories into a

scripted drama? Yes, it has been an experience that you don't realise

the public were so willing to tell you their personal stories from the

past, from the present. And for us to breathe life into those with the

community cast, because if we did not have the community cast

performing these stories, we wouldn't have a show.

They always had the same music and the same dances every week. So you

knew what was coming next. If you dance the last dance, the queue in

the cloakroom men's you miss the last bus home. So it had to be

somebody very special who asked you for the last stands because you

have to weigh up if you're going to walk home afterwards. The rules for

the ballroom dancing when you started? They were different rules.

You have to work they tie, no chewing gum. And if you smelt of

drink, you did not get in. Then there was no moon dancing. There

was close dancing. To add gentleman would watch, and it you got too

close for comfort, he would be in there. We met at the dancing, I was

17 and she was 16. It was a blind date. It wasn't a blind date!

was a bloody blind date. 56 years together and we have been dancing

# I wonder should I go or should I stay?

# The band have only one more song to play.

There was a moment towards the end of it, why you lost the thinking

and it you were just dancing together and that it was beautiful.

Two had become one. That was the most incredible feeling as I was

watching that. It is lovely for you to say, thank you. Imagine you are

from the 1950s and somebody has what such -- ask you a question of

York going out routine? I work the same dress every week but to try to

make it look like a new one by wearing a scarf around my neck.

Luckily my mother is a dressmaker so if she comes across some

material she will run the upper dress to go to the dancing, and

that is in the afternoons. Is that unusual? It is not unusual for me

to go out in a dress that has been hanging as curtains in somebody

else's living room that afternoon. We have had them in a football

stadium, City nightclub. Around 5 million people in the UK dance for

funds. And in the last few years, the number of school people's --

pupils choosing dance as a subject has gone up. But it is less than a

fortnight when this nightclub become as a stage.

When the music goes up, I just live it. I would like to see once again,

or would that music louder. Tell me your Reasons To Dance, when you

dance. Bringing together the personal and shared dance memories

of the community is a great idea and his team have got the ambition

and enthusiasm to do this production proud. I think people

will watch it and go, I feel like that, maybe I should start dancing.

But people who feel they cannot act will see people their own age and

think there will do it. We're not very well known and I think it will

put us on the map. For reasons to Dan's runs for five

nights from Tuesday 27th March at Falkirk's City Nightclub.

The golden age of the space race seems to be long gone but we are

poised on the brink of a cosmic first. Michael Smith has been on a

journey into outer space to find out why a record from the 70s and

might be an enduring legacy. Up there, 11 billion miles from

Earth, a bit of 70s technology is hurtling into space. Not much

bigger than a Ford Capri, any day now and will then volleyed Je space

programme be the first man-made object leave our solar system

headed for deep space. Although it did seem destined for the outer

reaches of Patrick Moore's back garden. I was a launched from Earth

in September 1977. I was Owen's Way Jupiter will be in 1979. Roy Joe

was launched from a very different world in 1977. -- Voyager.

Computers were still in black and green. Just like its technology,

the ideology that builds a Voyager looked quaint of its time. An

ideology that some DUP its most ambitious and bizarre cargo, the

Golden Records. It is contained in a box which cover we see here. The

cover may recognise. It tells where the earth is in space. These are

instructions as to what to do with what is in the box. It is a long-

playing record, which it played, produces the best music of earth,

the sounds of our people and produces 116 detailed pictures of

our planet and civilisation. Intended as an introduction to

alien life-forms, the golden record was conceived as mankind's greatest

hits. That is what I call humanity 1977. Compiled by a strong enough

and cosmic visionary, Karl saying, it contains images of life on Earth.

Some of the pictures of bizarre, but I am sure it made sense at the

time. The music is glorious, however. It is incredibly moving

that out of all our human inventions we chose music to define

Personally, I like the thought that Mozart and Chuck Berry are

careering through the solar system, about to pass into interstellar

space. The record contains messages in the 5th D9 most popular

languages. -- 59. In the first words of a mother to a newborn baby.

Come on now. And even a whale gets to say hello. Regardless of the

record's flower-power trimmings, America in the 70s was still at the

high noon of its ascendancy and bold enough to imagine it spoke for

all humanity. But, with the benefit of hindsight, the golden record

looks like an artefact which embodies the specific hopes and

presumptions of the place and time that produced it. Nowadays it is

easy to imagine it might be China that goes out into the cosmos and

less easy to imagine a reactionary of America doing so. Voyager was

born of the utopianism and we can only Miss -- wistfully admired. The

future was a better place, not a scary question or a slow, steady

decline. Now we are here and the future has arrived. But it is a

very different future to the one we might have hoped for back then.

Looking back, the whole project seems hopelessly optimistic,

especially considering Voyager is still nearly 40,000 years away from

the nearest dark. So, was the golden record a folly of its age? A

vanity project, a pompous monuments that said a we were here with bells

on? Maybe, but maybe that is why it is so moving, why it has meaning.

Maybe it was more important for us for a sense of ourselves for any

aliens that might be out there. And who knows, and the last human

artefact after the Earth has burnt to a Kosmix Inda, might be a gold L

P from the 70s. Next, the painter, David Barnburgh,

a brilliant painter of portraits and landscapes, and one of the

great chroniclers of London during the Blitz. He was one of the

outstanding British artists of the 20th century, but has remained

neglected. Except by one important but unassuming fan who spent her

whole life gathering together a vast body of his work. Richard Cork

went to meet her, just as she was about to hand over the collection

They say a profit is never honoured in his own land and it never was a

truer word spoken in the case of David Bomberg. I am perhaps the

most unpopular artist in England, he wrote in the late 1950s towards

the end of his life. He was not wrong. The shift from his early

abstract work towards federation had seen him cast out into the

wilderness. While his contemporaries were courted by the

art establishment, he was shunned, branded a troublemaker. He had no

dealer and was desperately poor. But though during his lifetime he

was never able to enjoy the status he now has as one of the great

twentieth-century Modern the British Masters, there was a small

group of disciples who did recognise the genius of this

talented and visionary man as he worked announce them. They were the

Borough Group, a collection of live young artists who had been told by

him in London in the late 1940s. Bomberg's and conventional teaching

methods, his insistence that students concentrate on feeling,

afforded him a great following among his students. Now more than

50 years after his death, another passionate believer in the

Bomberg's work has come to light. His debts there? Yes, come in.

year-old Sarah Rose has made it her life's mission to collect the work

of Bomberg and a prayer group, amassing over 150 works. It is

wonderful to be here in this magic room, surrounded by extraordinary

pictures. When did it all begin? came to London from Australia in

1951 and by chance, we met Cliff Holden who had worked with David

Bomberg. His master, as he always called him. The baby came close,

didn't they? Yes. Cliff Holden used to say that Bomberg was like a

father. He would tell me when there was anything showing in London. At

the time, and still, they were scattered in twos and threes around

the country so I realised there was a need for a permanent collection

of Bomberg works. Also, the painters who worked with him, they

were hardly represented at all. As you can see, they are wonderful

works. Absolutely, yes. This is a drawing of bed and by a Bomberg.

That is very powerful, isn't it? Very beautiful. It next, a much

earlier drawing which shows what he was doing when he was quite a young

artist. That small David Bomberg was painted in Palestine, wasn't

it? That was a transition between the abstract earlier period and the

later work. The one above his by Dorothy Meade. That is very full of

life. A you can see how much she was inspired by Bomberg. That self

portrait by Bomberg is most beautiful. Did you ever meet him

yourself? No, I didn't. Do you do you feel sorry about that? No, I

have his work and that is the most important thing. I asked if he had

a sense of humour. I was told, not a great sense of humour, he was

more serious and very passionate and intense. There is something

very engaging about him there. This big painting? This painting, I got

from David Bomberg's widow. I was really excited when I saw that.

must be terribly exciting to purchase something that maybe you

thought you would never be able to buy? It was. I just wanted as much

as I could find. I was just very lucky. The collection as a whole is

now worth �500,000. But I couldn't afford to buy them now! Sarah, it

turns out, had a pretty unconventional way of funding her

art had it. I had some financial resources but it wasn't enough so I

did two jobs. I had a nine-to-five job in the week and I drove a Mini

cab three nights. You were a cab driver? Oh my goodness. How long

did you do that for? About two years. It enabled me to buy it more

works than it otherwise could have done. One major give up? One night,

I would have two cars, lamp-posts and a metal protected shop window.

So I really went out with a bang! I haven't driven since. Despite these

mishaps, Sarah continued to come as her remarkable collection that she

has now donated to the London's South Bank University where Bomberg

told his pioneering classes in the late 1940s. This is it. Is this the

space? Fantastic! In return for her generous gift, the university, with

the help of the Heritage Lottery grant, has built this brand new

exhibition space to display Sarah's collection to the public. You must

be really excited about it? A I am very excited, yes. For a long time

while I was collecting, I didn't know where the works would go. It

is one thing collecting, it is another thing to have a permanently

staffed gallery. I thought I might have to sell it and then I had the

idea of bringing it here. Because I knew the history of the work being

done here by Bomberg and the other artists and it just seemed

absolutely the right place for it to be. Absolutely. The works are

not on the walls yet but there is one painting here by miles Richmond

who was a member of the Borough Group. That will be lovely up on

the wall. I cannot wait! I think Bomberg would be pleased. His

spread and must be hanging over the place. I think so.

Sarah Rose's collection goes on display at London's South Bank

University in June. Still to come tonight: Irvine Welsh discusses his

latest novel, Skagboys, and Mark Kermode discovers the all-new

Dexy's. First, Glasgow's International Festival of Visual

Arts will include amending scheme that will allow members of the

public to borrow works of art by up to 50 established artists and enjoy

them in the comfort of their own homes.

The art lending library is a library which loans pieces of art.

The idea behind it is to celebrate libraries, it is free of charge so

anyone can join. You can borrow three pieces of work for three days.

When someone enters a library, a video how to function so having it

in the library seemed like a perfect place. We think they could

be up to 60 pieces of work which is amazing. It would cover any kind of

practice within a contemporary art. Everything from a performance to a

2D work that you could take away and hang on your wall. The idea

behind the project was that we would seek out high-quality works,

artists that have an international reputation as well as artists from

Glasgow. My name is Oliver and this is my studio. I am an artist living

in Glasgow. This is going to be the first time, if someone takes it out,

this is the first time my work will be going into a home setting. I was

thinking that pass the parcel is a beautiful way of articulating that

and it also gives me a chance to mix and beautiful designs for the

wrapping paper, put some nice things in for people to touch and

play with and I think it is a great chance for me to test whether I am

as brave as I think I am with the way that people treat objects.

have just had a quick look at this video which is a play on issues to

do with Scotland which is very intriguing. I think that the deal

would be had quite fun to have sitting around. It is quite

disturbing, not so pleasant to look around but maybe something more

would come out if I had sitting around in my window. It is just a

new way of looking at art. It is the first time I have seen it in

Glasgow and it and it is really exciting. They described the

sculpture as a revolving social sculpture so that the sculpture

changes as works are loaned out. All recruits slot into this and

they act as protection for the work and they are in transport, display

while there in the library and also as a plinth with than the home.

People can't just take the work, we have art handlers that will create

the work at and deliver it to their house so we know where they live,

we will deliver it and collect it. We think the chances of things

being stolen or damaged will be minimal. I think the artwork will

have a different impact in my own kitchen rather than it being in an

art gallery. That said, I think maybe I would switch down the

volume about it was to play all day long. Maybe having its it in the

background. I think it is quite positive, a really bright colours

and it is really eye-catching. I'll wake up in the morning and sit with

my tea and look at it again and may be something different will come

through. I think it is a lot of fun, just to get people to experience

art at close and hopefully if they come here and see that this is a

lot of fun, they might go to other galleries and seek out more art

work. The market galleries lending scheme

runs from 20th April and will 7th May. This time 20 years ago in the

University Library in Edinburgh, a masters student was secretly

writing what would become a cult novel of the Nineties.

Trainspotting. And the process, firing up a generation of young

writers like Alan Bissett. On the eve of the publication of Irvine

Welsh's new novel, Skagboys, Allen met up with him at to find out if

he still is giving a fire in Scottish writing. Due to the strong

nature of the language and his work, Irvine Welsh has agreed we could

adapt some of his rude words. I grew up in a housing scheme in

Falkirk, 20 miles from Edinburgh. The classics of Scottish literature

didn't really speak to me. When I was 18, I read a book that changed

everything. To me, Trainspotting was electrifying, brittle, funny,

sad, almost it gave a voice to people that have never been

represented in literature before, the under class. A generation

before me had the sex Pistols. This, to me, was punched her literature.

Danny Boyle's film made Irvine Welsh and global superstar. A Jew's

life, choose a career. His work goes far beyond it. For the last 20

years, his writing has voiced a troubled relationship between a

Scottish identity and British politics. He burst onto the scene

forcing us to ask questions about what to do to be Scottish. Today we

are interrogating a Scottish identity again so it is just as

relevant. Irvine Welsh is now one of the important writers of the

last 20 years. Reading Trainspotting was at the moment

because the characters you wrote about had never been really

represented in British literature and that was quite shocking and

empowering. Was that a motivation? Yes, one of the first writers that

I really loved was there. Not what I was expecting at all. He was a

massive influence and I loved his sense of character. Yeah idea that

friends can actually despise each other. When I started writing the

characters, I rode in standard English and didn't make any sense

to me. It took away the a sense of culture and the richness. I am down

cast when I reached the library, thinking to myself, how is Murphy

ever going to write about? Walking into the place was weird, weird,

weird. I walked through the big wooden doors and suddenly, my heart

went, bang, bang, bang. Can I help you? The boy asked. I could tell

that he was thinking, tea leaf, ghetto child. It is possible to

feel a social outcast in your own town. I love these regional voices.

I think that richness is fantastic. At that is what should be

Trainspotting is set in the 80s it when this feeling of alienation was

endemic. When Margaret Thatcher came to power, the nation was

seething. There was a sense that British politics at Westminster had

failed Scotland. It alienated the Scots from the Tory party. People

did feel frustrated and had no means of expressing their own

identity. The culture became the political opposition? I think that

is what happened. In the 80s and 90s, writers like Alastair Gray,

and Janice Galloway voiced fury and resentment of the Scots. But it was

Irvine Welsh that marked the peak of Scottish fiction. Writing seemed

dangerous. Edinburgh to meet representatives serfdom. It was the

same situation as Johannesburg. Hassled by the police if we hung

about at night in groups. Edinburgh had the same politics as

Johannesburg. It had the same politics as any city, only we were

By 1997, Scotland's confidence had surged, transforming the political

climate. The nation voted Yes to devolution and got its own

Parliament. But the role of Irvine Welsh has been neglected. He has

stumbled around the scene. As the quality of his work decline, his

earlier achievements were forgotten. His new book, Skagboys, his sequel

to Trainspotting. He is back on form. It is not only how they

became heroin addicts, but how society itself was affected by the

political climate? I think because of the folks income I am more

interested in it now I am Olga. Having got to the point, it became

more interesting. Everyone needs compelling drama in their life and

most of us get that through relationships and work. It just

hasn't been there for people for a few generations now. Of course,

drugs will fill the void, because what else is there? At least I know

I am still here and a light. As long as there is an opportunity, I

will do it. Given we have a Conservative Government in

Westminster again, youth unemployment is rising, the

economic situation seems similar to the 80s, is this one on the reasons

you have brought this material back? It is not a Tory thing, it is

a right wing, kind of pro-business, political consensus that has

emerged in Britain. It is under a lot of stresses. The interesting

thing about Scotland, the two political cultures of Scotland and

England have grown apart. Scottish independence, is it something you

are in favour of? You have to think, what is holding the union together?

Things that's appealed to Scotland, the NHS, education, free education,

it has gone. Politics changed in the 80s and has not changed back.

Skagboys is published by Random House on 19th April. Is there

anyone who has not leapt to their feet to the irresistible opening

bars of come on Eileen? It topped the charts in 1982. Can it be that

long ago? Dexia's Midnight runners have reformed as Dexia's. We met

the frontman, Kevin Rowland. # Come On Eileen.

# At this moment, you mean everything.

# Come On Eileen. Dexia Midnight runners are one of

my favourite bands. Everyone knows come on Eileen, but the breadth and

influence of their music is extraordinary. Each of their albums

have a distinct sound, but they have attitude. At the height of

their success they refuse to speak to the press, fought with their

record company and stole the master tapes of their first album. The

riskiest thing about them is from man, and masterminded, Kevin

Rowland. They were an idea spearheaded and managed by this

charismatic, notorious and inspiring artist. He ruled them

with an intensity, choreographing each phase of their existence,

managing the sound and the style of the band. Looks are everything,

whether it was their denim dungarees, although later look, Ivy

League suits. If thing about the band was, it was the band that even

if you thought you outside fashion, you thought it was OK to like

because you loved the way they looked. I remember thinking I don't

want to dress like that, but they look like they had thought about it

and look like a group as a result? It was important, we were obsessed

with it. Always looking. The first look was a kind of On the

Waterfront, New York dock. That was the idea. That was from the

fugitive. I was about 12, watching it and the always had a holdall.

When the time was right, I thought we could have that. I looked in a

magazine and it was full of romantic band, and then there was a

picture of you stood in a park with the wearing dungarees and nothing

else with your black hair. It stood out a mile because it was the

opposite of what everyone was doing? We were trying to do things

that were the opposite of what everyone was doing. Everyone was

dressing up and wearing gold suits, so we wanted to be different.

every album came a new image. By the time of Don't Stand Me Down,

they neglected masterpiece, the critics turn. His bold new look was

dismissed as being that of a double glazing salesmen and people forgot

about the music. Did it bother you? It did, I felt it was a very good

album and the look was great. I still do. All I was doing was

following my intuition, which is what I always do. Someone said to

me the other day, did you think you would get that reaction? I never

think about that. I think it will be a positive reaction and I was

genuinely shocked. As I was in 199 with the dress thing. They split up

in 1986 and Kevin launched a solo career with the Wanderer.

Then in the late 90s he astonished everyone by releasing an album of

covers calls, my beauty. It or was what Kevin was wearing rather than

what he was singing, but grab people's attention. Were you

surprised people went, he is in drag? I was, I thought they would

just say a man in a dress. What I wasn't prepared for was a people

being freaked. People were actually crossed. They work. Part of the

genius of what you have done is being able to annoy people by what

you were. Isn't that what every teenager wants to do? When you

dress up it is this is who I am, take it or leave it? I loved it. I

have never done anything I don't believe in. Kevin adopted a

disciplined approach to the hard work of making music. But without

the focus of the band around him, he became disenchanted with his

superstar past and fell into drug experimentation and addiction. What

happened, Kevin? You had a difficult period? I was so

disillusioned after the album, Stand Me Down. By the way it was

received? It's was a factor, I was broke, and my manager was gone. I

had been pretty much drugs three through the band. You had the big

don't drink thing I remember that. I think the band was my drugs. I

had put as much as I had into everything I did and that the end

of it I was wiped out. I know of the stories you would go out and

running, come in to rehearsals and I loved the work ethos. You could

hear it in the records and it seems odd that you would fall into

something so opposite what the band was about? When you are so again

something like that, it is trouble, really.

In 2003, they briefly reformed, but it has taken until now for them and

to release their long awaited 4th album, one day I am going to soar.

We went for a performance. And the way that Ali did it, my manager,

everybody said it won't work. A few of the musicians said he will

definitely not be able to do it like that. We did a couple of songs

at a time from start to finish. Recorded live? We did, yes. I can

imagine listening to that driving late and night, it has the 70s funk

thing going on with it. We slaved over the tempo and I feel we have

got it right. Your voice has changed and matured over the years

in a way which is interesting. It does now sound like the voice of

experience, as opposed to the voice of angry youth? Thanks. I know

loads of people have been waiting for it, it is a really big deal.

How do feel about it? I bet you thought it would never happen?

feel completely blessed and lucky. So the first album in 27 years and

the first No 1 in 30. Well done. it No 1? Yes, the first No 1 was

come on Eileen. One day I am going to soar is

released on 4th June. Bass just about it, the last in our current

series. We will be back in tune with cultural highlights from the