IRREGULAR with Alasdair Gray November 2, 2010

Also featuring Liz Lochhead and Louise Welsh
Music from Roddy Woomble, Lord Cut-Glass and My Latest Novel
DJ set by David Shrigley

Canongate’s literary clubnight to launch Alasdair Gray’s autobiography A Life in Pictures.

On 2nd November, Canongate’s IRREGULAR will travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow’s Oran Mor, to celebrate the long-awaited publication of A Life in Pictures, the autopictography of author and artist Alasdair Gray. Gray’s work adorns the ceiling and walls of the converted church, now a celebrated arts venue.

Presenting a stellar line-up of performers from art, music and literature, the event will be a worthy tribute to one of Scotland’s best-loved figures. As well as readings by Gray himself, it will also feature award-winning poet Liz Lochhead and gothic literature from Louise Welsh. Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble, the lyrical Lord Cut-Glass (aka Alun Woodward of Chemikal Underground), and indie folk four-piece My Latest Novel will provide the music, with a DJ set from artist David Shrigley. The evening will be compered by renowned performance poet Jenny Lindsay.

Canongate has been hosting IRREGULAR since 2009. Each event brings together authors, poets, musicians, DJs and audience in a blend of entertainment, escapism and culture. Each Irregular is unique in format.

Doors open at 8pm for an 8.30pm start. Tickets cost £6 and available on Ticketweb.co.uk, or from behind the bar at the Oran Mor, Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8QX.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Alasdair Gray is a Glasgow-born writer and artist. His debut novel, Lanark, had reviewers comparing him to Orwell, Joyce, Kafka and Dante, and was described by the Guardian as ‘one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction’. His novel Poor Things won the Whitbread Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize. His artwork is currently being exhibited in the prestigious British Art Show, as well as in exhibitions at the Talbot Rice Gallery and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.

Liz Lochhead was trained at the Glasgow School of Art, and published her first collection, Memo for Spring, in 1971. Her poems, prose and drama escape the boundaries of each genre, using the speech she hears around her, poignant and humorous. Her collections of poetry include Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems 1967-1984, True Confessions & New Cliches, and The Colour of Black & White: Poems 1984-2003.

Louise Welsh is the bestselling author of The Cutting Room, Tamburlaine Must Die, The Bullet Trick and, most recently, Naming the Bones. She was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists of 2002 by the Guardian. Her awards include the Crime Writers’ Association Creasey Dagger and the Saltire First Book Award.

Roddy Woomble is the lead singer of Scottish rock band Idlewild, and a solo contemporary folk musician. To date, he has released five albums with Idlewild, and one critically acclaimied solo album, entitled My Secret is My Silence. Woomble also curated the Ballads of the Book project, released in 2007. His latest album, Before the Ruin, is a collaboration alongside Kris Drever and John McCusker.

David Shrigley has worked as a sculptor, photographer and ‘environment artist’ and, most famously, as a cartoonist and illustrator. His work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the MoMA in New York, and in Paris, Berlin, Melbourne and beyond. He has published over twenty books, most recently What the Hell Are You Doing?, and has animated a music video for Blur and produced another for Bonny Prince Billy.

Alun Woodward was a founding member of Glasgow's much loved band The Delgados. He is also a director of Chemikal Underground Records, home of some of Scotland's greatest bands. In 2009 he released his eponymous debut solo album Lord Cut-Glass, described by Scotland On Sunday as "Unconventional yet strangely compromising, one of the year's best".

My Latest Novel are a four piece band, made up of Gary, Chris, Paul and Ryan Deveney. Their music has been compared to various others in the past, but is best summarised by saying that it can sound big and small and beautiful and quiet and loud, angry and subtle and bold and bruised. They’ve released two critically acclaimed albums (Wolves [2006] and Deaths & Entrances [2009]) and are working on a third. They cited Alasdair Gray’s work as a major influence on their second album.

Jenny Lindsay started performing poetry in 2002 and is now one of Scotland's leading performance poets. She has appeared at many different festivals, events and cabarets, including Latitude, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival. Through promoting live poetry with The Big Word (2002 - 2008), and more recently with Is This Poetry? (2010), she has been instrumental in creating a thriving live poetry scene in Edinburgh and beyond.

Official Website: http://www.oran-mor.co.uk/show_whatson.php?id=918