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4 weeks ago | 
pressandjournal.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Karen Roberts
Rehearsals lasting 12 hours at a time demonstrates the dedication behind one of Aberdeen’s most popular amateur musicals. The annual student show, which has been a feature of the Granite City’s arts scene for over a century, makes its return next week with Seagully Blonde, a cheeky Doric parody of the 2001 American film comedy and later stage hit Legally Blonde. Gavin McKay, the fund-raising production’s director, tells me how much has gone into putting everything together ahead of opening night.
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4 weeks ago | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Fife songstress Nati is in ebullient mood following a spring jaunt to Skye to play a warm-up show ahead of her latest tour. She’s talking about her latest recorded offering, which perfectly distils her folk-inflected power pop vibe across five life-affirming new songs. “Golden is the title track because it’s the simplest and most lovely song on the EP, which is all about healing,” explains Kirkcaldy-raised Nati.
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1 month ago | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Bringing it back home is important to Fay Fife. The legendary Rezillos frontwoman has been busy lately working on the second album for her other band – with the Kingdom right in the thick of it. “We’re just under halfway through recording a new album for The Countess Of Fife,” she tells me. “We’re recording at least some of that in Fife.
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1 month ago | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Impassioned, witty and disarmingly honest – chatting to David Hennessy certainly makes for a welcome change. The Dundee rocker was at his lowest ebb five years ago when his riotous three-piece The Delinquents hit the skids — and he hit the bottle. But now he’s working on a debut album to spotlight the infectious brand of pop punk mayhem that’s getting his new band noticed.
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2 months ago | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Despite first treading the boards almost seven decades ago, acting legend Lesley Mackie admits to feeling a few nerves as she prepares to return to her beloved Perth Theatre. Feted for an Olivier Award-winning West End turn as Hollywood legend Judy Garland in the 1980s, she’ll be sharing memories from her life and work in an intimate presentation at the High Street venue.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Dundee’s Metal Fest is back again to turn up the volume for the second time in 2024. The winter edition of Metal Fest is being staged at Beat Generator on December 7 – and that represents a chance to sample a diverse range of high-volume acts from Scotland and beyond. Devised by talented Dundee shred guitarist Drew Cochrane, the twice-a-year headbanging extravaganza has become the city’s essential all-dayer for metal followers since it launched in April 2023.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Skids frontman Richard Jobson is set to celebrate his little-known Dundee ties in the city. The Fife-born songsmith, who leads the Into The Valley legends to Church on their latest tour, says he has long relished the short trip across the Firth of Tay. “I’m very fond of Dundee,” Jobson, 64, tells me. “My mother was from there so I’ve got a connection with the city, which I don’t think people know.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Gaz Coombes has an indelible memory of Dundee. The Supergrass frontman’s played all over the world during his stellar 35-year career, but a night at the city’s Session Street stays with him. “I remember playing Lucifer’s Mill there, probably in ’94 or ’95, and it was nuts – an insane gig,” he tells me. “We started playing and then everyone started moshing, then the PA stack fell down and we had to get people to try and hold it in place.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
thecourier.co.uk | Andrew Welsh |Rebecca Baird
Once feted for his forthright opinions, Paul Weller’s happy to let his music do the talking as he celebrates his own swinging 60s. Some still refuse to forgive him for breaking up his first band The Jam at the height of the punk-meets-mod trio’s fame in 1982, a move that led to the Surrey-raised songsmith’s decades-long estrangement from his former cohorts Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
shorelinemedia.net | Andrew Welsh
The two historic venues in Ludington — White Pine Village and the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum — are closed for the season. The museums will reopen in May. The Haunted Trick or Treat at White Pine Village was the final large-scale public event of the season, drawing around 600 kids and their families.
