PART 2
This issue. the second half of our gambol through Scotland‘s hundred individuals and groups who are shaping contemporary Scottish culture. If you missed last issue‘s instalment divulging the first 50 names. then tough. but curb those lamentations and feast your eyes on the concluding 50. featuring our pick of the nation‘s artists. actors. bands and authors. and know. at least. that you‘re clued up on the second half of the alphabet.
BRIAN JENKINS
Jenkins uses his photography and installations to explore his experiences of disability and to convey something of those experiences to the able-bodied observer. At Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. an installation fraught with ramps and obstacles gave visitors an idea of what it is to be disabled in a wheelchair-unfriendly society. In another exhibition he touched upon the ‘secret side’ ofdisability. filling a urine-bag with pot-pourri and pinning it to the wall. Most recently. in Aqua Vitae. he tackles his fear of water. and discomfort with his own body. broadening the theme to take in disabled and able-bodied alike.
THE JOYRIDERS
With a slash and a burn. The Joyriders‘ ‘King Of Gasoline' was heavy. Lead 'Rider Murdo had long been accused of being in the thrall of Hiisker Du when he was in The Cateran. But with their debut EP his new band refined those influences. arriving at a fully-revved power-rock that proved that The Joyriders were more than grunge arrivistes. Following much praise and several high-profile support slots (Mudhoney. Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Mega City 4). a new EP is in the works. This. plus a tour with the Lemonheads in April. will undoubtedly ensure wider appreciation of the legend ‘Joyriders rock like bastards‘.
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- ATE OF THE
JACKIE KAY Co-winner last month of the Saltire Society First Book Award for her
poetry collection The Adoption Papers.
inspired by her experiences as a black child adopted into a white Scottish family. She has also written several plays. most recently Every Bit oflt. a celebration of Bessie Smith's life and work through the story of two women
meeting on a train. As a black. gay. lone parent. she is understandably interested in issues of marginalisation. but allows any social or political comment to emanate through intuitive psychological observation of characters
} and their interaction. An exciting and E still developing young talent.
PHIL KAY
The stand-up who provoked the Daily Record into A Joke Too Far outrage when he made an onstage phone-call to a Dundee woman who'd lost her cat. is by his own admission an unpredictable performer. Catch him off-tempo and his improvisational ramblingsjust miss the mark. See him on form and you'll appreciate why he has become a regular fixture as Fools Paradise compere and a popular TV studio audience warm-up man. He is perhaps the only rising Scottish performer to mould the stand-
up fortn into something uniquely his own.
JOHN KAZEK
For a man who started off pulling pints in Rab C. Nesbitt's local. John Kazek’s horizons have broadened considerably. He played the central character. Hance Gordon. in BBC Scotland‘s dubious sitcom Punch Drunk and has emerged
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relatively unscathed with something of a reputation as a heart-throb. If such lightweight parts suggest he‘s strictly a comedy man, his stage role as Mephistopheles in Pen Name Theatre Company‘s recent production of Doctor Faustus prove otherwise. Whichever direction his career takes in future. he looks set to become one of Scotland‘s staple acting talents.
BRIAN KELLOCK
There are nights when jazz pianist Brian Kcllock not only seems the equal of anyone on the UK jazz scene, but is positively world-class in both his technical command of the instrument. and in the fertility of his musical ideas. His grasp of harmony is his greatest gift. and every Kellock solo is an exciting adventure. invariably brought to a happy ending. The only reservation about his work is that he shows little interest in either leading a band or writing his own material. both considered essential for aspiring young
i
jazzers these days. If his ambitions don't run to that. fair enough. and it might mean that we can hold on to him that bit longer here in Scotland.
JAMES KELMAN
Prime mover in the West Coast renaissance which put Glasgow on the literary map. Kclman has been compared by some to Kafka and Beckett. His novels and short stories (The Buseondmtor Hines. The ('huneer. Not. Not While the (I'm). The Burn) employ an accomplished diversity of styles and forms — shifting inner/outer perspectives. authorial distance. stream-of-consciousness — exploring themes of urban alienation. ordinary people‘s struggles for articulacy. the decadence of orthodox politics. Booker-shortlisted for A l)i.s‘(i[]i’(‘ti()ti. Kclman is an active radical. co-organising the Workers’ City opposition to Glasgow‘s Year of Culture programme. Progress on his next novel is currently being slowed by his work for Clydeside Action on Asbestos.
A. L. KENNEDY
Winner of the Saltire Society First Book award for her short-story collection Night Geometry and the (lament/den Trains; recently included on (irantu's controversial ‘Twenty Best Young British Novelists' list. even before publication of her first novel. [no/(ittgjor the Possible Dance. A deservedly impressive strike rate for the
12 The List 26 February—l 1 March 1993