THE HOT 100
100 GORDON FERRIS KILMARNOCK CRIME AUTHOR MAKES GOOD
The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning
talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born scribe whose chosen setting is post-war Glasgow. This year’s The Hanging Shed was his breakthrough publication, picking up rave reviews in the press and avid readers aplenty. (BD)
99 JOHNNY MCKNIGHT ACTOR, WRITER AND GREAT DAME
Random Accomplice co-founder McKnight showed his versatility in 2011, conceiving and co-writing the
portmanteau schlock horror Smalltown, writing and directing pitch black comedy Love Hurts and opening the doors to his Big Gay Madonna-Themed Restaurant. He ends the year in high heels and frightwig as the writer and star of hit macrobert panto Jackie and the Beanstalk. (AR)
98 ELIZABETH BLACKADDER PAINTING LEGEND
Arguably Scotland’s most popular female painter and printmaker, Elizabeth Blackadder celebrated her 80th birthday in 2011 and was honoured with a major retrospective of her work at the National Galleries. The acclaimed exhibition showed off her versatility, including portraits created while a student, botanical works, her interpretations of Japanese Zen art, as well as her much-loved still lifes. A Celebration of the Life of Elizabeth Blackadder can also currently be seen at Falkirk’s Park Gallery. (AR)
97 REGULAR KING OF THE CASTLE (CONCERTS)
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PANEL Three influential projects from these supercool new curators this year. Exhibition The Inventors of Tradition took over a disused shop to examine Scottish fashion history, O! And Other Letters was a fascinating celebration of Optimo’s branding, and they’ve involved FOUND, artist Lucy McKenzie and Tunnock’s Teacakes in their ongoing Scotland Can Make It! competition. (CR)
However, special credit must go to the big gig promoter for staging the great Arcade Fire at Edinburgh Castle. The balustrades, braziers and cannons proved the perfect counterpoints to the band’s achingly beautiful songs of alienation and fragility in the modern world. Tinariwen and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are scheduled in for Regular shows in 2012. (JE)
96 ROBBIE COLTRANE ACTING HEAVYWEIGHT
94 JO CLIFFORD ENLIGHTENED PLAYWRIGHT
92 BILL WELLS JUSTLY PRAISED JAZZ COLLABORATER
For over 20 years one of Scotland’s leading playwrights, Jo Clifford’s creative audacity can currently be experienced First there was a deserved critical love-in for his Aidan Moffat collaboration Everything’s Getting
at the Traverse with Enlightenment drama The Tree of Knowledge, while her adaptation of Anna Karenina formed the basis for an acclaimed show at Dundee Rep in the spring. (AR) Older on Chemikal Underground, then Falkirk’s premier (only?) jazz composer ended up indulging his love for Japanese art-rock with the Tenniscoats and Jim O’Rourke guest-starring Lemonade album on Double Six. (DP)
Money. No other artist tackled this dominant topic as directly as Ellie Harrison in 2011, whose A Brief History of Privatisation summed up decades of government outsourcing in a neat video installation. This year she exhibited at Briggait art fair Vault, and very many other exhibitions (including a Newcastle collaboration with Josie Long). Her statistical simplications put her work in the same clever-but-accessible bracket as David Shrigley’s. (JE)
91 RED NOTE ENSEMBLE FEARLESS CLASSICAL GROUP LOVING NEW MUSIC
Besides touring Infinito Nero, celebrating John Cage and Rory Boyle, playing Brian Eno’s Music for Airports with Bang On A Can at Glasgow’s Minimal festival, and encouraging new music with the ongoing Noisy Nights, they brought to delirious life David Fennessy’s score for the David Shrigley-penned opera Pass the Spoon. National treasure status beckons. (AJ)
The ever-industrious Robbie Coltrane graced screens small and large this year, reprising his role as Rubeus Hagrid
93 ELLIE HARRISON ART FOR THE AGE OF INFORMATION
in the final Harry Potter film and stealing the show as the Inspector in the Comic Strip’s The Hunt for Tony Blair. He topped 2011 in style, receiving the Bafta Scotland award for Outstanding Contribution to Film. (AR)
Public Enemy, Brian Wilson, Wilco, Glasvegas, Mogwai and Primal Scream were just a few of the acts that
95 PANEL EXCELLENT EXHIBITIONISTS
Regular brought to Glasgow and Edinburgh over the course of 2011. See panel (above)
24 THE LIST 15 Dec 2011–5 Jan 2012