Turbo Folk shortlisted for a CAT

Just to let you all know that my most recent play “Turbo Folk”, which was shown at Glasgow’s Oran Mor in April, has been shortlisted at the the Critics Awards for Theatre in the category of Best New Play. This is something of a surprise, especially given Death of a Ladies’ Man was shortlisted for Best Fiction at the Scottish Arts Council Awards earlier in the year (it didn’t win….). Winners of the CATs will be announced on June 13th.

Just to remind you that the Moira Monologues is touring Scotland throughout this year, including a run at the National Library of Scotland in August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. Next date is the Bathgate Regal Theatre on the 11th June. Moira is going great guns at the moment, so it’d be great to see you along to help her celebrate.

Exclusive deal on first editions of Ladies’ Man

Get a first edition hardback of Death of a Ladies’ Man at the exclusive web price of £9.99 (RRP £19.99) plus Free postage

Telephone: 01235 827702 or Email: mailorder@bookpoint.co.uk Quoting ALAN for the offer

Phone lines are open Monday-Friday 9-5. Payment by debit/credit card or cheque/postal order – made payable to Bookpoint Ltd.

The Moira Monologues on tour

My one-woman show, The Moira Monologues, went down really well in its run at the Citizen’s Theatre in February. I also acted in Gregroy Burke’s play, Battery Farm, at the Oran Mor in Glasgow and the Traverse in Edinburgh last month. So now I am all geared up for touring Moira. Here are some things the press had to say about it:

‘A roaring theatrical success. This is brilliant stuff, an exhilaratingly fresh take on the whole business of class and culture in Scotland. It’s also so funny that some in the audience were literally shouting with laughter; over a character and a performance that will surely have a long continuing life, after this week’s brief run in Glasgow.’ – Joyce Macmillan **** The Scotsman

‘By playing it fearlessly straight, Bissett makes for the most believable of neighborhood gossips’. – Neil Cooper **** The Herald

“One of the undoubted highlights of the Aye Write! Festival.” – The Skinny

And here are the dates, commencing this Saturday…

IRVINE, Harbour Arts Centre – April 10th

NR GLASGOW, Eastwood Theatre – May 7th

ULLAPOOL, Book Festival – May 8th

BATHGATE, Regal Theatre Bathgate – June 11th

DUNFERMLINE, Carnegie Hall – June 30th

EDINBURGH FRINGE, National Library of Scotland – August 10-21st (not 14/15th)

ST ANDREWS, The Byre Theatre, 24th – 28th August

BANCHORY, Woodend Barn – September 1st

ABERDEEN, The Lemon Tree – September 17th

Also, my new play, Turbo Folk, will begin a week’s run at Oran Mor in Glasgow, each lunchtime from Mon 26th April.

Death of a Ladies’ Man will also be released in paperback next month. It will be promoted in the 3/2s in Waterstones and in travel outlets of WH Smith’s.

More updates soon, folks. x

postponed gig at Firkins

Hi all, my gig with Tippi Hedron at Firkins in Falkirk this Thurs has had to be postponed til April 29th. Sorry about this, gang. Hopefully we’ll see you in April though?

In other news, things have gone a bit mental on the back of the Moira Monologues/Ching Room at the Citizen’s Theatre earlier this month. Exciting news to follow…

Upcoming Action

Hello groovers!

Thought I’d let you know what I have coming up soon. It’s a massive month – featuring a double-bill of my plays The Ching Room and The Moira Monologues at the Citizens Theatre – but there’s more. And I thought you might like to hear about it. If I’m wrong, then come along to any of these and slap me.

Golden Hour

Wed Jan 20th – Forest Cafe, Edinburgh, 8pm. Admission free.

Will be reading at the Golden Hour spoken word night, along with many talented new writers and bands, including Maple Leaves and the incredible Kirstin Innes. Bonus: Bring Your Own Booze! More info here

The Shutdown

Bo’ness Hippodrome, Thurs Feb 4th – near Falkirk, 8pm.

A short film which I wrote and narrated, about an industrial accident at Grangemouth which nearly killed my father, has gathered prizes and acclaim at festivals throughout the world. This beautiful, restored building will play host to a night of film, music and readings from myself and director/musician Adam Stafford. This is a unique event. More info here

The Ching Room and The Moira Monologues

Citizens Theatre, Tues Feb 9th – Sat Feb 13th, Glasgow, 7.30pm.
£12 (£7 on Tues). Concessions available.

A special double-bill of short plays. The Ching Room played at Oran Mor and the Traverse last year to tremendous acclaim. A pitch-black comedy set in a toilet cubicle, it secured a CAT award nomination for Andy Clark (Best Actor). The Moira Monologues is my ‘one-woman show’, performed by myself and featuring the hypnotic, dangerous and hilarious central character of Moira Bell, Falkirk’s hardest woman.
Info and booking here

“Exudes the same sort of self-assurance as Gregory Burke’s debut, Gagarin Way. ****” – Metro

“…riddled with priceless back-alley gems. Zen and the art of powdering one’s nose has never looked like so much fun. ****’ – The Herald

“Has subtle depth as a meditation on drug culture…The character of Darren is a demon for our times.” **** – The Scotsman

“Bissett’s creation was so well-drawn and acted that you had to remind yourself it wasn’t actually Moira on stage.” – The Skinny

Bissett meets the Hedrons

Thurs Feb 25th – Firkins bar, Falkirk, time tba

I will be reading from my novels and performing a special collaboration with Tippi Hedron from Scotland’s finest all-girl punk band, The Hedrons.

Aye Write Festival

Fri Mar 12th (7.30pm) and Sat Mar 13th (5pm)
Mitchell Library, Glasgow. £7/£6

Am appearing onstage with the sparkling Dan Rhodes to read from my latest novel, and the next day will be talking about which book changed my life in a Scottish Book Trust event with Ewan Morrison and Sara Sheridan. Info and booking

That’s probably enough for me to be getting on with! Hope to see you at some of these events, where we can practice our handshakes on each other afterwards. Unless I mess any of them up, in which case bolt before you have to look me in the eye and kid on it was fine!

aw ra best
Alan

Spoken Word jamboree!

Death of a Ladies’ Man has had a great reaction so far! Thanks so much to those of you who are buying it and liking it in such numbers.

If you wanna say hi in person, there are two spoken word nights coming up that I thought I’d alert you to. Both will be crackers.

Sat 29th Aug – BLETHERHEADS @ Electric Circus, Edinburgh, next to the Fruitmarket Gallery, behind Waverley Station. Yours truly will be hosting, and the stellar bill includes AL Kennedy, Rodge Glass, Ewan Morrison, Tam Dean Burn, Anneliese Mackintosh, Kirstin Innes, Kevin Williamson and Iain Heggie, with music from Maple Leaves. 7pm, £7 entry.

Tues 1st Sept – DISCOMBOBULATE @ The Arches, Argylle St, Glasgow (under the railway bridge behind Central Station). This includes an appearance from Britain’s most famous performance poet, the great Luke Wright. Also features playwright Douglas Maxwell, Ewan Morrison, as well as Discombob regulars Ian Macpherson, Ian Heggie, Anneliese Mackintosh, et moi. 8pm, £4/£2.

I’m also appearing at the Milngavie Book Festival on Sat 5th Sept at 3.30pm in Milngavie Public Library on Allander Rd with Ewan Morrison.

And finally, you can listen to myself and Ewan live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (with a truly flabby photo of me from years ago!)
here

And read my latest blog for The Guardian, on sex in fiction (with a truly demonic picture of me from the present day!) here

Ciao, cats!

Death of a Ladies’ Man to be launched this month!

As you might have gathered, I have a new novel out this month, my first for four years. Darker, sexier, funnier, more complex and ‘out there’ than any of my previous books, DEATH OF A LADIES’ MAN will be onsale in the shops from 23rd July. Waterstones will be price-promoting the book, but it will also be onsale everywhere else. Oh, and it’s fantastic.

The book will be launched at the following places:

FALKIRK, Behind The Wall, Thurs 23rd July, 7pm

GLASGOW, The Arches, Thurs 30th July, 7pm. Feat. Zoey Van Goey and Adam Stafford (from Y’all is Fantasy Island)

I’ll also be appearing at the following festivals:

WEST PORT BOOK FESTIVAL, Edinburgh, Under the Stairs bar, 3a Merchant St, Aug 15th, 3pm.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL, Aug 17th, 8.30pm w/Ewan Morrison.

WORDPOWER RADICAL BOOKSTORE, Edinburgh, Aug 18th, 2.30pm, w/Gregory Normington

MILNGAVIE BOOK FAIR, 3.30pm, w/Richard Mason.

In between times, I will be in writing jail to get the sequel to BOYRACERS done, and then in October I’m off to Canada to promote LADIES’ MAN.

Look out also for interviews soon with The List (8th July), The Herald and The Scotsman (both 18th July). I’ll also be appearing on BBC Radio Scotland’s Book Cafe on 20th July at 1pm.

And Blur are back. Whoo, and indeed, hoo!

It’s alright being me just now. Come along to one of the gigs and enjoy being you.

poster for Death of a Ladies' Man launch @ The Arches 30/07/09

Spare a thought for the fascists

Some people threw eggs at the BNP last week. Eggs, people! I don’t care if they represent something that tens of millions of people died to defeat, you have no right to throw eggs at democratically-elected politicians! Eggs have sharp bits of shell that can seriously hurt a person. It’s like whirring shrapnel. And that happened in front of his wife, who has supported him through his many long years of championing poor, downtrodden white supremacists. And think about the unborn chickens! You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms Lauren Laverne…

Can I just say, everyone, sorry about the Cabaret Voltaire gig that was cancelled last month, which I was supposed to be doing with Pop-Up and the Futuristic Retro Champions. Basically, the bands pulled out. I’m sure they had good reason to do so, but I don’t know what they are, so I can’t speak for them. Anyway, we’re rescheduling for July, when the new novel is going to be out. Sorry for anyone who turned up to find the thing shut. It was only cancelled that day. Come along to any reading of mine and I’ll bow uncomfortably, then buy you some sort of liquid. Don’t get too excited, mind. It might only be Tizer.

But seriously, my apologies. I hope no-one was too disappointed.

In a week in which the entire British public realising that the ENTIRE upper layer of society – private and, clearly, public – has been ripping the pish out of the electorate all along, this seems like a teensytinyminiscule thing to mention. But I only release books every four years, so it feels like an event to me, at least. Forgive. But word reaches me that Lauren Laverne – yes, THAT one – has read my forthcoming novel, Death of a Ladies’ Man, and likes it! I am bouncing up and down like tigger! Cos I think she’s GREAT! And so is AL Kennedy! And they’re both saying nice things on the cover of my book!

I am a happy boy today. Anyway, if nobody minds (well, you’ll all see it on the cover of the book anyway) here’s what she said:

“Fucked-up, funny and fantastic.”

Is it alright if that puts me in a very good mood? Is it? I promise to feel bad about myself somehow further down the line, I promise.

Meanwhile, MPs’ expenses. Anyone care to start the bidding for a ringside seat to watch the rich eating themselves? I am loving listening to Joyce McMillan shaking the British political system between her teeth live on the radio today. Scotland’s teeth are being bared.

And Zoey Van Goey’s debut album is finally out and that makes things okay. Just for now.

Hey Groovers

Hello beautiful people,
Since this is My Big Year I figured I’d get my website all reduxed, so thanks to the most spiffing Chris Dooks for sorting that out for me. There’s lots more on the site than there used to be, including video footage and new pics, and that’s mainly cos I’ve been very busy recently. In March I performed my ‘one-woman show’, The Moira Monologues, which was a blast. If you didn’t catch her at the Aye Write festival in Glasgow, you can still hear more from Moira next year. There’s a film version planned with Cora Bissett (no relation) in the lead role, and I intend to perform Moira myself at the Fringe in 2010.
Also in March, my other play, The Ching Room, opened at Oran Mor before moving to the Traverse Theatre. This starred Andy Clarke and Colin McCredie, who were both cream crackers. People seemed to really like it, so I suppose I’ll write some more plays. Will be chucking myself into that in 2010.
Worry not, readers, there’s a novel due this July too. I’ve been working on Death of a Ladies’ Man for quite a while, so I really hope you all like it. I think it’s definitely my best book. Darker and more adult than my previous novels, but that’s no bad thing. Details of it as they come, but I’m loving this advance quote from AL Kennedy:
“A remarkable book. An insane, hallucinatory mosaic of sexual dysfunction, humour, pathos and narrative energy.”
That sums things up pretty well, I think!
Also happening (told you I’m busy! like a midge in a sandstorm!) is that a short film which I wrote and narrated about the Grangemouth chemical plant in Falkirk, entitled The Shutdown and directed by Adam Stafford (of Y’all is Fantasy Island), will be shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June and the Silverdocs in Washington DC, where it has been shortlisted for an award. And there’s the small matter of the Boyracers film, for which a script is currently being hammered out by the writer of High Times, John Rooney. I’m looking forward to seeing that when it’s ready.
And I’m currently working on some new plays and a follow-up novel to Boyracers, catching up with those guys 8 years down the line, which will be out summer 2010.
Whee!
In the meantime, make sure you check out Sons and Daughters and Y’all is Fantasy Island at Hinterland on May 1st. I wrote a scene in Death of A Ladies’ Man where those two bands appear on the same bill in Glasgow, and lo and behold it taketh place. Hey, does this mean I have special powers? Where things I write come true? Maybe I should write a story about the economy being magically fixed. Or lions who walk on two legs like humans and organise a Pride parade down Sauchiehall Street?
Ciao, pop pickers. Check the blog regularly for more news. Speak soonsoonsoon.
A.x