A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan

Nicola Meighan
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A Scottish Arts & Culture Podcast with Nicola Meighan

  1. 2h ago

    Val McDermid and Jo Sharp: This Door of the Seas

    Send us Fan Mail I’m hearing from two brilliant women, and minds, who’ve joined forces to explore a wild - and under-documented, and misunderstood - chapter in Scottish history…  In their superb new novella, This Door of the Seas, best-selling writer Val McDermid has teamed up with Geographer Royal for Scotland Jo Sharp - they’re partners in crime, and partners in life - as they trace the journey and tale of the Darien venture…  It saw more than 2000 Scots sail into the unknown at the end of the seventeenth century, toward a horizon of hope and prosperity - but the challenges of Darien’s jungle-coastline, at the junction of North and South America, transpired to offer anything but that.  It would eventually upturn the future of Scotland, bankrupting an already impoverished nation, and propelling it towards political union with England…  This Door of the Seas is the latest in Birlinn’s excellent Darkland Tales, in which some of Scotland’s best-loved writers re-imagine stories from Scottish history, myth and legend through a contemporary lens - Val and I chatted about her Queen Macbeth Darkland Tale on a previous episode of A Kick Up The Arts… Val and Jo’s book is written as a series of letters home from expedition scientist Dr James Wallace - as addressed to his wife Eliza and to Sir Robert Sibbald, the very first Geographer Royal - and as uncovered by his ancestor, Beth Wallace, in the Spring of 2026... Val and Jo came through to Bridge of Allan to tell me all about it...

  2. 1d ago

    30 years of Grid Iron Theatre / Mayflies

    Send us Fan Mail As we charge headlong into a month of madness at the Edinburgh Festivals, I’m joined by Scottish theatre revolutionaries Grid Iron to chat about their Fringe adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies; and about their 30 years - and counting - of bringing brilliant drama to our stages, and beyond… When Andrew launched Mayflies back in 2020, the novel’s tale of friendship, masculinity, youth, getting older and mortality - played out to a glorious 80s indie soundtrack - floored so many of us; as did Andrea Gibb’s TV adaptation, with Tony Curran and Martin Compston in the starring roles, as Tully, and Jimmy - aka Noodles… We meet them as young men in Ayrshire, and then again in later life, faced with a devastating diagnosis - and an impossible choice… As well as raising the roof in venues with shows like June Carter Cash - in cahoots with the National Theatre of Scotland - Grid Iron’s world-renowned site-specific theatre has included underground promenade trips like The Bloody Chamber, while their earlier reflection on young men, friendship and 1980s Ayrshire - Decky Does A Bronco - started life in a Paisley park…  Mayflies is being staged in a converted warehouse, Brown’s of Leith - as adapted and directed by Ben Harrison, produced by Jude Doherty, and soundtracked by the legendary DPJ, aka David Paul Jones.  I caught up with Ben, and Jude, to reflect on Mayflies, and three decades of Grid Iron…

  3. Jul 22

    Michael Pedersen: on Muckle Flugga

    Send us Fan Mail I’m in conversation with one of our most thrilling writers, and humans, Michael Pedersen, live from the wonderful Bookmonger in Bearsden…  Michael’s the Edinburgh makar, and a veritable cultural livewire, whose glorious poetry collections include The Cat Prince and Oyster. His prose calling card, Boy Friends, was published to huge acclaim in 2022, and the paperback edition of his utterly magical debut novel, Muckle Flugga, is out now. It’s stunning and tender, it’s a beacon of hope, it’s brimming with love, and life, and nature;  it’s kindled by friendship, coddled in knitwear, rooted in landscape, charged by starlight.  Just before we get to the chat - and thanks so much if you joined us in the lovely audience - I’m back with The Bookmonger in conversation with the brilliant Damian Barr about The Two Roberts, although we’re breaking out of the bookshop and holding that at Glasgow’s Royal College in St Vincent Street, on September 25th… Before that, Michael’s at Edinburgh International Book Festival with various former A Kick Up The Arts guests and wonders, including Gordon Buchanan and Hollie McNish - I’ll put a link to all the dates online…  And I’ll be at EIBF too, hosting various parties in The Spiegeltent - come for A Kick Up The Arts with live music and conversation from Kathryn Joseph, Kirstin Innes and Lomond Campbell - that’s on August 25th (tickets here), and I’m also variously in conversation with The Beta Band’s Steve Mason, Val McDermid, Justin Currie, and Grant McPhee across the week - I’ll tell you more about that soon… For now though - to the Bookmonger, and Michael, and Muckle Flugga…

  4. Jun 8

    Bloody Scotland 2026

    Send us Fan Mail I’m back in my Stirling local, the Golden Lion, for a whistle-stop tour of this year’s programme for Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, which launched a couple of days ago, and which runs from September 18th to 20th. After Thursday’s big announcements, and a conversation I chaired with the always-entertaining JD Kirk, I sat down with this year’s Bloody Scotland guest programmer, Denise Mina, festival director Bob McDevitt and best-selling author and board member Craig Robertson - along with two of the brilliant writers shortlisted for this year’s prestigious debut prize - Linda Duncan McLaughlin, for Original Sins - and May Rinaldi, for Liar Thief… We had a blether about this year’s line-up, which as ever includes unmissable book events, along with site-specific theatre, karaoke, courtroom drama, and incredible guests - along with new-writing initiatives like Crime in the Spotlight and Pitch Perfect, and the announcement of the gilded debut prize, and the McIlvanney Prize for crime fiction book of the year…  I’m a McIlvanney Prize judge again, and we’ll chat more about all that soon enough, but for now, here’s a sense of what to expect if you come to this year’s Bloody Scotland in September… Which you totally should…

  5. May 27

    Emma Pollock: Begging The Night To Take Hold

    Send us Fan Mail The last 30-odd years of Scottish culture would look, and sound, wildly different - and woefully less thrilling - without musician and songwriter Emma Pollock - co-founder of the Delgados, and the Chemikal Underground label (whose bands included Arab Strap, Mogwai, bis) - and Chem19 Studios, which has welcomed Deacon Blue, Calvin Harris and Franz Ferdinand over the years. Emma's also an incredible solo artist, and we caught up at her kitchen table in Glasgow, to chat about her outstanding latest album, Begging The Night To Take Hold… Or rather, we tried to - but we ended up reflecting on the ritualism of coffee, science and magic, broken songs and silhouettes - and getting by one day at a time.  We sang the praises of female and non-binary collective, Hen Hoose, too - which stars Emma among myriad other musical wonders. They're live at Edinburgh Queen's Hall this Thursday, May 28th - and I'll be onstage in conversation with them as well. There's also a screening of a film by Zoe Patterson Macinnes about the making of their fantastic album, The Twelve… Emma is the most warm, welcoming, insightful guest, and it was a pleasure to chat to her, as always. And also - if you're on the lookout for a song that fuses visual art legends the Glasgow Girls and Madonna's Dear Jessie, then - guess what - we've got you covered...

  6. May 24

    Agnes Owens: Out Of The Margins

    Send us Fan Mail This episode, recorded live, is dedicated to one of Scotland’s most brilliant, singular, and quietly radical voices… One hundred years ago today, Agnes Owens was born, and it was such a joy to be part of her centenary celebrations at Milngavie Town Hall last weekend, reflecting on the writer’s wit and wonder with literary dream team Dani Garivelli, Kirstin Innes, Heather Parry and Kirsty Logan…  They’ve written new introductions to Agnes' first four extraordinary books as part of Polygon’s major reissue campaign - and they discussed Agnes' incredible work, and words… I was also joined in conversation by Agnes' son (and literary executor) John Crosbie , and Sorcha Dallas, who’s the custodian of the Alasdair Gray and Agnes Owens Archives.  Alasdair illustrated some of Agnes’ covers, and is a name often connected to the writer, along with James Kelman - all three featured in the Lean Tales anthology - and the legendary Liz Lochhead… And I’ve always loved the quote from Ali Smith, that revels in Agnes’ “deadpan gothic” qualities… Later on in this episode, Dani, Kirsty, Kirstin and Heather  discuss Gentlemen of the West, Like Birds in the Wilderness, A Working Mother and For the Love of Willie - all published in the 1980s and 90s - but first up, here’s Sorcha and John…

  7. May 8

    All Back To Mine with Neil Forsyth (Guilt, The Gold, Bob Servant, Legends)

    Send us Fan Mail If you're a fan of Dundee burger impresario Bob Servant, Leith-set sibling thriller Guilt, and true-life Brinks-Mat heist drama The Gold - you are in for a treat... My guest on this episode is screenwriter and author Neil Forsyth, who created all of those titles and so much more... The Broughty Ferry native has just launched a brilliant new series, Legends, which stars Steve Coogan and Tom Burke, and is based on an early 90s operation where a gang of civil servants went deep undercover in a bid to win - the war on drugs... We talked about Legends, and truth, and fiction, and Brian Cox's role as Bob Servant, and Neil also gave us an imaginary evening of entertainment round at his place - Midori in hand, I have no doubt - and discussed his choice of a favourite Scottish album, film and book... Spoiler alert - they were Deacon Blue's Raintown, Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting - in all of its guises, including the Danny Boyle film adaptation - and John Niven's blindsiding memoir, O Brother, about the loss of his younger brother, who took his own life when he was 42. We met over a pot coffee in a very fancy hotel suite in Glasgow - which bought back classy memories - for both of us...

  8. Apr 17

    Broken Chanter: This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I'm chatting with David MacGregor, aka Broken Chanter, about his terrific new album... The follow-up to 2024's Chorus of Doubt, it's a rallying cry for empathy, and a call-to-arms, to hold on to each other... it's inspired by the art of Arpita Singh, it's out now on legendary Scottish indie label Chemikal Underground, and it's called This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else. David invited me round for a coffee, and we chatted about the new record, and his bygone days in Kid Canaveral - and if you fancy seeing him live, he's at Vox Box in Edinburgh for Record Store Day (April 18th) along with previous A Kick Up The Arts guest Kathryn Joseph, then he's live in Dundee, Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Leith in the coming weeks - (full details here).

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A Scottish Arts & Culture Podcast with Nicola Meighan

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