AMY Winehouse is in the ascendant. She is in a lift, going up to her dressing room from the concert hall, where she will later perform. “Don’t worry about my voice,” she says. “I’m only croaking ‘cos I just woke up.” It is 4.15pm. The lift doors ping open and we walk into the dressing… Read more »
The 500th Hawick Common Riding
First published July, 2014 in The Independent
“COME in,” says Ronnie Nichol, opening the door to his home. “A rum and milk for your breakfast?” It isn’t really a question. Not today. Not in Hawick. So Nichol, nodding with satisfaction, busies himself pouring the traditional beverage, first milk then a tot of dark spirit. It is 5.30am on Common Riding Friday –… Read more »
One soldier and his dog
First published October, 2012 in Scotland On Sunday
THE end, when it came, came quickly; death arriving shortly after dawn. At approximately 8:30am on the 1st of March last year, a team of soldiers from the Irish Guards were advancing towards a meeting with US troops through the northern part of the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Among them were Lance… Read more »
Scotland’s mod scene
First published November, 2012 in Scotland On Sunday
IT is the last Friday in April, the day of the Royal Wedding, and all over Britain people have been watching it on television. Paul Molloy, perhaps Scotland’s most ardent mod, was not among them. His mind has been on other things. Important matters. Like what to wear that night at Friday Street, the monthly club he co-runs in Glasgow…. Read more »
Scotland’s rockin’ scene
First published March, 2013 in Scotland On Sunday
SATURDAY night. Edinburgh. Tojo, a stocky, kindly-eyed 49-year-old Fifer wearing vintage peg-trousers, an Argyle shirt and a Jay Gatsby cap, reaches into his box of seven-inch singles and places a record, reverently but without hesitation, on the turntable, a diamond horseshoe ring on his left pinky sparkling in the dim, buttery light of the… Read more »