LINE-UP: JOHN HEGLEY - DOUGLAS DUNN - JAMES YORKSTON - CRAIG LITHGOW AND COMPANY
John Hegley (wtih musical accompaniment)
Mr Hegley was born in Newington Green, North London, and was educated in Luton, Bristol and Bradford University. His first public performance monies came from busking his songs, initially outside a shoeshop in Hull, in the late Seventies. He performed on the streets of London in the early Eighties, fronting the Popticians, with whom he also recorded two sessions for John Peel, and has since been a frequent performer of his words, sung and spoken, on both local and national radio. He has produced ten books of verse and prose pieces, two CDs and one mug, but his largest source of income is from stages on his native island. An Edinburgh Festival regular, he is noted for his exploration of such diverse topics as dog hair, potatoes, handkerchieves and the misery of human existence. He is an occasional DJ, dancer and workshop leader, using drawing, poetry and gesture. He has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts from what is now the University of Bedfordshire, and once performed in a women's prison in Columbia.
http://www.facebook.com/John.Hegley
Douglas Dunn
Dunn is a major Scottish poet, editor and critic, whose Elegies (1985), a moving account of his first wife’s death, became a critical and popular success. His books – including ten collections of poetry and two of short stories, and a translation of Racine’s Andromache – are consistently well reviewed in the national press, while his work has been the object of much academic attention and has been extensively translated (there are editions in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Slovak, Armenian and Japanese, at least). Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire. He was educated at the Scottish School of Librarianship, and worked as a librarian before he started his studies in Hull. After graduating with a First Class Honours degree from the University of Hull, he worked in the Brynmor Jones Library under Philip Larkin. He was a Professor of English at the University of St Andrews from 1991, becoming Director of the University's Scottish Studies Centre in 1993 until his retirement in September 2008. He is now an Honorary Professor at St Andrews, still undertaking postgraduate supervision in the School of English. He was a member of the Scottish Arts Council (1992–1994). He holds an honorary doctorate (LL.D., law) from the University of Dundee, an honorary doctorate (D.Litt., literature) from the University of Hull and St Andrews. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Terry Street, Dunn's first collection of poems, appeared in 1969 and received a Scottish Arts Council Book Award as well as a Somerset Maugham Award.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Dunn
James Yorkston
A native of Fife, James Yorkston was an integral early member of the Fence Collective whose reach across contemporary music continues to lengthen: King Creosote,The Aliens, KT Tunstall, The Beta Band and The Pictish Trail. Yorkston is primarily a singer-songwriter, although he also tackles a variety of traditional songs, learned from singers such as Anne Briggs, Dick Gaughan, Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Lal Waterson, John Strachan, and Adrian Crowley. His quoted main influences are Anne Briggs, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Michael Hurley, Can and the Malagasy D'Gary.........................His fifth album, When the Haar Rolls In, was released through Domino Records on 1 September 2008. Guests include Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe, Norma Waterson and Mike Waterson. A special edition was released featuring an album of remixes and an album of James Yorkston covers by artists such as King Creosote, U.N.P.O.C. and Cathal Coughlan. In August 2009, Yorkston released his sixth album on Domino Records, entitled Folk Songs. This is an album of traditional songs, arranged and performed by James Yorkston and The Big Eyes Family Players. In March 2011 The Domino Press published Yorkston's debut book, "It's Lovely to be Here: The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent". In 2011, Yorkston collaborated with The Fruit Tree Foundation, appearing on its debut album, First Edition. In August 2012, Domino Records release Yorkston's 7th album "I Was a Cat from a Book".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Yorkston
Craig Lithgow and Company
Craig the driving force behind Emelle and Moscow Madhouse comes back to us with full fervour and some friends in tow. This lad never fails to stun. Welcome home laddie!
We'll have Magma back in attendance as our featured publication, represented by Rob A. Mackenzie - who might just introduce you to a range of Salt Poet products too.
Team includes Sound Diva Mike Lithgow and Spotlight Captain Gavin Fraser.
Tickets £7
Neu! Reekie! is supported by Creative Scotland.
Tickets on the door - or by phoning the Summerhall Box Office