A Kick Up The Arts with Nicola Meighan

Available Episodes

5 of 39

Bloody Scotland with Tariq Ashkanani, Dave Goodman and Claire Wilson
Send us a textWe’re back at Scotland’s Crime Writing Festival, Bloody Scotland, for this episode - which is a whistle-stop blether with three of the many, many excellent writers who’re in my home town of Stirling this weekend…Tariq Ashkanani’s latest wide-screen Americana novel, The Midnight King, hones in on a best-selling writer, a father, a widower, and a friendly man who - guess what - is also a serial killer. It won this year’s McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish Crime book of the year, leading on from Tariq’s 2021 Crime in the Spotlight slot at Bloody Scotland where upcoming writers are given a platform to read their work ahead of lead events onstage… The Midnight King also follows Tariq’s Welcome to Cooper, which won the debut prize in 2022. This year, that garland was bestowed upon David Goodman - another previous Crime in the Spotlight guest - thanks to his fab novel, A Reluctant Spy, which sees a man make a bit of a deal with the devil, or MI6 at least, in return for an easier life. Spoiler alert - that’s the last thing that happens.I caught up with Tariq and Dave on Friday night at Bloody Scotland, and when I got to the green room, I also bumped into the thrilling writer that is Claire Wilson. Her debut, Five by Five, is a trip deep into the prison system - and then some - and it transpired we’re also very closely connected through family, because we realised, literally while we were talking last night, that Claire has an incredible tattoo of Kathy Bates on her arm and - guess what, my wee brother did it years ago… Here’s to Tariq, David, Claire - and here’s to Bloody Scotland…
--------
23:58
--------
23:58
Ambrose Parry (Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman): All Back To Mine
Send us a textRecorded live at The Stand, Glasgow...Scotland’s Crime Writing Festival, Bloody Scotland, kicks off tomorrow - that’s Friday September 12th, we’ll all be there and hopefully you will too… Ian Rankin’s the guest programmer, I’m chairing Ian and various actors who’ve played Rebus over the years at the Albert Halls tomorrow, and then I’m in conversation with Mark Billingham and Laura Lippman on Saturday, and there are so many terrific events taking place from Friday to Sunday… They’ll also be announcing this year’s winners of the McIlvanney and Debut Prizes, but honestly - just dive into all the nominated books, there are so many murderous thrills in there…To celebrate all of this, I caught up with a couple of brilliant, best-selling and award-winning crime writers earlier today… We were live with a really lovely audience at The Stand Comedy Club’s gorgeous new home on Glasgow’s Great Western Road…When I had the idea of trying to launch this podcast from my kitchen table almost exactly this time last year, I got in touch with a few folk that I really love, and I don’t think it would have got off the ground without them - and Chris Brookmyre was one of the first out the gates…Because along with shining a light on cultural goings-on across the country in arts spaces every week - or thereabouts - I had this idea to run a special series where guests spoke about some of their favourite Scottish albums, films and books…I called it A Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine, and Chris was the first person I asked. Thankfully, he said yes… if you fancy, you can listen back to that chat from last September, along with subsequent episodes with the likes of Barbara Dickson, Justin Currie, Grant Stott, Clare Grogan, King Creosote, Jonathan Watson, Val McDermid and telly and theatre legend Dave Anderson - who was in the audience at The Stand today, like the absolute cultural beacon he’s always been… He’s a huge fan of Chris Brookmyre too…Chris is an incredible author in his own right, but he also writes fascinating, thrilling historical - best-selling - fiction with his partner in crime - and wife - the writer and consultant anaesthetist Dr Marisa Haetzman, under the guise of Ambrose Parry. I’m a huge fan of the Ambrose Parry novels… The latest, The Death Of Shame, came out earlier this summer, and I cannot get enough of Raven and Fisher - and I love chatting to Chris and Marisa. And so - in the first of a monthly Thursday afternoon sessions at Glasgow Stand, Chris and Marisa were my very special guests for an Ambrose Parry joint edition of All Back To Mine…
--------
1:04:12
--------
1:04:12
All Back To Mine with Grant Stott (live from Edinburgh Fringe)
Send us a textThis week, we’re looking back at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, where we had a brilliant run of live guests including Barbara Dickson, Gordon Buchanan, Gavin Mitchell, Horse and Justin Currie - thank you so much for joining us, if you came along…I’ll post those chats, and others, in due course, but this week, we’re hearing from actor and broadcaster Grant Stott, who regalled us with tales about music, showbiz and secretarial studies at The Stand, and he talked about his family and childhood too - which was particularly lovely, as his dad and pals from his primary school were in the audience…Before we hear from Grant, I’m delighted to say that this week I’m at The Stand in Glasgow, which has just moved into the gorgeous Webster’s Theatre on the Great Western Road, for the first of a few monthly Thursday afternoon shows, and I’ll be joined on Thursday September 11th at half past two by best-selling writers Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman, aka Ambrose Parry - you can get tickets via akickupthearts.org, and it’d be lovely to see you there…For now though, to a crowded room in Edinburgh just a couple of weeks ago, for a chat about Scottish music, memories, films and books with a TV, stage and radio favourite, the baddest panto villainess, and a former law enforcement officer with a penchant for pot noodles and vinyl… It could only really be one big tidy… And so it was… The legend Grant Stott…
--------
54:00
--------
54:00
The Countess of (Fay) Fife
Send us a textThis week, I’m at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms, for a chat with the goddess - the countess - that is Fay Fife…The Rezillos and Revillos trailblazer - and the only person in the history of the universe to sing Top of the Pops on - yes - Top of the Pops… is playing at the Voodoo Rooms from August 12th to 17th- so we caught up for a coffee, to chat all about it…She’ll be raising the roof with her swaggering country insurgents The Countess of Fife, playing songs from the glorious album Star of the Sea, the equally fab recent Betwixt and Between - and who knows - maybe even a few teasers from the forthcoming LP… You can also WATCH this episode on YouTube! Just search for A Kick Up The Arts with Fay Fife... and thank you, if you do!
--------
19:27
--------
19:27
Esther Swift at the East Neuk Festival
Send us a textRecorded at the East Neuk Festival in FifeThis week, I’m hearing from one of our most gorgeous, and inventive musicians, who’s a composer, harpist, singer, songwriter and - as it turns out - a pretty fierce conductor too.Esther Swift is at Edinburgh International Book Festival tonight (August 15th) - in a collaboration with Jackie Kay - so we talked about that, and Esther’s glorious album Expectations of a Lifetime…But we met after her superb Zulu Voyage community performance at this year’s East Neuk Festival in Fife - which told the story of a fishing boat; its lives, and loves, and journeys - and so we started with that…
--------
38:25
--------
38:25