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My life isn’t all glamorous launches and rock concerts, you know. Sometimes I’ll stay in and read a book, usually a music one. Here are a few recent reads: Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out by MARTIN ASTON This is incredible. It’s the queer equivalent of Revolution In The Head, an… [more]
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One of the weird things about doing creative things is that your feelings oscillate wildly. One minute you’re the greatest, most talented human being who ever lived; the next, you’re in a corner weeping about how worthless you are as you set fire to your latest creations. There’s rarely any middle ground. I don’t write… [more]
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I went to the launch of SWIM yesterday. SWIM, Scottish Women Inventing Music, is a collective of women from across the music industry: performers and promoters, managers and marketers, DJs and drum techs. It was brilliant. The day was a mix of formal panel discussions, informal networking and the presentation of a lifetime achievement award… [more]
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It’s International Women’s Day today. As someone who’s played for both teams, transitioning has been a major eye-opener: when you’re living life in the body of a straight, white, middle-class man you don’t realise how privileged you are. Privilege doesn’t necessarily mean you have an easy life. But it means that your life is not… [more]
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This rather poor quality photo is from October 1998, long before decent digital cameras or smartphones. It was taken on stage at Glasgow’s legendary Barrowland, where my band had been picked as the local support for Mansun. I’m the skinny guy in the middle of the shot (lead guitarist Mark Clinton, now of The Lonely… [more]
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The Guyliner’s Justin Myers has written a good piece about sex and relationship education for British GQ: Trust me: children deal with far more puzzling concepts than the existence of same-sex couples, gender-queer people or trans men and women. Think of the mindblowing fact we’re a rock revolving around a huge ball of fire and… [more]
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More good news from the TIE campaign: 318 women across the country & counting have now signed @RhiannonV open letter supporting the trans community. Politicians, lawyers, campaigners, psychologists, writers, academics, women’s support workers, teachers, journalists & more form the collective: https://t.co/QiSFK20F8U pic.twitter.com/cU9qSfXWeD — TIE (@tiecampaign) 6 March 2019  And entirely predictable news from one of… [more]
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After ongoing protests, a Birmingham primary school has suspended its “no outsiders” programme, which teaches children about equality. The protesters have done the usual religious thing, accusing the school of “promoting gay and transgender lifestyles.” It’s been reported as a muslim protest but many of the parents protesting are christians; the lessons have been reported… [more]
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Writing in New Socialist, Pete Mitchell does a thoroughly entertaining demolition of two books making the culture war argument that “the left” is somehow silencing free speech. The whole thing’s worth a read but I particularly liked these bits: In Lukianoff and Haidt’s account, college students aren’t distressed because they’re facing unprecedented debt and insecurity,… [more]
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More than 70* notable women including politicians, representatives of vulnerable women’s groups, businesswomen and journalists have written an open letter to the Herald about the despicable coverage of trans women it and other newspapers publishes. In the Scottish Government’s recent public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act (2004) a majority of respondents supported gender… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
