THE HOT 100
5 NEW HOT SCOT WRITERS
WITH WORDS PER MINUTE
1 ALLAN WILSON His brilliant debut collection, Wasted in Love, pulls together spare, twisted stories from Glasgow's young and wasted. He's a great reader of his own work, too.
2 NEIL BUTLER Two great books of short stories by young Scottish gents in one year? The Roost has made me simultaneously fascinated by and determined never to visit Shetland. We really want to have him on at WPM in 2012.
3 KIRSTY LOGAN OK, this is cheating a little as she's a WPM co-host, but as she doesn't know I'm submitting this: Kirsty's dark, sexy fairytales have made her a favourite on Radio 4 this year, and drawn comparisons to Angela Carter. 4 WILLIAM LETFORD Sometime poet, sometime roofer (pictured), with a debut collection coming out next year, and one of the most electrifying live performers around. Buy the book, and don't ever turn down a chance to see him live.
5 SIMON SYLVESTER He's best known for his Twitter-length short stories (check them out at @Simonasylvester) with a book, 140 Characters, out this year, but as his longer work in Gutter Magazine has shown, this Invernesian is a major talent. (Chosen by Kirstin from WPM)
32 THE LIST 15 Dec 2011–5 Jan 2012
49 DOUNE THE RABBIT HOLE BEAUTIFUL LINE-UP
45 GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL CINEMA CITY’S SILVER SCREEN SHINDIG
Waving a two-fingered furry salute at mammoth music festivals and their corporate sponsored- ways, this non-profit
festival near Dunblane was one of the summer festival season’s highlights. Performers included The Vaselines, Trembling Bells, Remember Remember, Dam Mantle, Sweet Baboo, Ben Butler & Mousepad, RM Hubbert, Conquering Animal Sound and more, with well picked ale and food stalls, magic, and comedy to further sweeten the deal. (CS)
48 FISH & GAME FRINGE THEATRE INNOVATERS
The long-running Glasgow-based theatre/live art company proved that persistence pays off this year. Alma Mater, a gorgeous, haunting reworking of the innovative iPad theatre technique they originally premiered at Scotland Street School, was one of the biggest critical successes of the 2011 Fringe. (KI)
While Edinburgh’s film fest faltered in 2011, the GFF strutted confidently onwards. Local hero Mark Millar (last year’s number one, this year’s 36 – see page opposite) headed an excellent comics- and-movies strand, while prog-horror legends Goblin played a glorious one- off gig. (NB)
RENAISSANCE MAN 44JOHN BYRNE
The playwright and painter continues to work at an enviable pace, with a major retrospective at Edinburgh’s Open Eye gallery in August, to coincide with the launch of a biography and children’s book, Donald & Benoit: The Story of a Cat and his Boy. Byrne’s work also appeared in Shadows of the Divine at Edinburgh’s New College, and he is the subject of a rather fetching likeness in the newly reopened Scottish National Portrait Gallery. (AR)
acting ensemble, Ann Louise Ross has mostly appeared on the Royal Lyceum stage this year, turning in two terrific performances, as no-nonsense suffragette Mary Barfoot in Stellar Quines’ excellent Age of Arousal and as a punk rock La Corbie in the revival of Liz Lochhead’s Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off. (AR)
MUSIC PROMOTERS 41 PCL
Ok, inhale. Bright Eyes, Com Truise, Josh T Pearson, Girls, Vivian Girls, Warpaint, Matthew Dear, Bon Iver, Yo La
Tengo, Stag & Dagger festival . . . Running out of breath yet? No? United Fruit, The Vaccines, Spiritualized, CSS, No Mean City Festival, St Vincent – all gigs and artists put on this year in Glasgow and Edinburgh thanks to the concert promoting services of PCL. And, exhale. (CS)
40 ALAN BISSETT RENAISSANCE MAN HAS A RIOT
47 CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND GREAT TUNES FOR A BEAR HUNT
43 ANDREW DIXON CREATIVE SCOTLAND’S MR BIG
For the Falkirk-born playwright, author, scriptwriter and teacher, this was another frenetic old year headlined by
The main man at Creative Scotland (the body created from the merger of the Scottish Arts Council and Pack Men, his review-friendly follow-up to 2001 debut Boyracers. Bissett’s short film The Shutdown was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA while he’s recently nabbed best writer in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards. (BD)
39 DANIEL SLOSS FIFE COMIC COMES OF AGE
Turning 21 on 9/11 might not be seen as an achievement per
se, but playing the biggest gigs of his life (such as the Glasgow
Pavilion) on his The Joker tour
surely can. His
continual rise to superstardom was furtherly announced with a strong four-star Fringe showing and scooping Best New Comedian at
the Scottish Variety Awards.
(BD)
Jamie Scott and Anneke Kampman produced one of the loveliest albums of the year in 2011 without much fuss whatsoever. Kammerspiel is the perfect record to take with you if you’re ever planning to get lost in a deep forest. In between doing Björk better then Björk they played a gig in The List's very own office courtyard as part of Detour’s Wee Jaunt, and Scott released a solo EP as The Japanese War Effort. (JE)
46 WORDS PER MINUTE ECLECTIC MEDIA PLATFORM GOES AMAZEBALLS
The Arches-based spoken word, music, film and performance showcase was on fire this year. Highlights
Scottish Screen) made a solid start to his tenure at the top, encouraging interaction between business and the arts, and self-sustainability within cultural organisations. Good ideas for austere times. (JE)
42 ANN LOUISE ROSS A VERY GOOD TURN
included an event as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Unbound strand and a Sex Special in November. They were also namechecked on Radio 4 as a leading UK literary salon. See panel, left, for their favourite writers of 2011. (BD) A long- serving member of Dundee Rep’s permanent