By Morag Smith An indicative masterplan has been prepared for this teenage Devil’s Playground where gargoyles smile from burrs on trees and lockdown lovers kiss in the patients’ garden, slow-grown, gone in a blink Garlic. Daisy. Hawksbeard. Bluebell. Owners confirm the overgrown buildings are surplus to current operational needs Life overwinters in rubble, dead...
Read MoreBy Roddy Scott She rose up and bit us hard, after Winter’s ices, cracked and bitter shards had closed up pools and puddles over sodden rain-drunk ground, our reflections lost, ‘til melting sun reveals a lonely face in so many collections of a wet embrace. She washed heavy soaking rain straight to brolly-bobbing hands,...
Read MoreThe Ferguslie Tourist By Kevin Muirhead Am a Paisley boy born and bred, Tae a faimly of Fegs with the name Muirhead, They hailed fae a street called Logan Drive, Tae the outsider I suppose it was a bit ae a dive, But embedded within it was a deep burning pride, Filled with people...
Read MoreBy Roddy Scott Aince lang ago, when jist a gleam in ma maw’s een, I was telt the tale o’ Jock the Shepherd an’ his Golden Fleece. In the autumn, he wuid drap a sheep’s fleece intae a burn- a certain burn- oan the Isle o’ Arran, knowing that when the spring cam an’...
Read MoreBy Basia Palka THE TABLE SET a cupful of love a plateful of emotions and a jugful of time from PAINTING WITH POETRY my prayer LETTING GO first anger, then a sort of sadness sets in followed by much weeping, when the eyes have dried out that it’s difficult to open or close eyelids...
Read MoreBy Brian Whittingham Along the path beside the river Cart I saunter down 50 years of memory, you keeping me company. We pass the remains of Tam Mulgrew’s golf range the fairway overgrown with gnarled bushes, its meshed perimeter fence hanging like abandoned cobwebs. These days, I can’t hear, the ‘ting ting ting’ of approaching...
Read MoreLil Brookes, how did you get involved with community-based art projects? Through the whole Paisley 2021 thing. I did an original painting for the cover of one of the documents that went to London. Before that I’d done paintings mostly based on textiles. Because I’m an historian I like to do research beforehand and...
Read MoreWith some help from friends of the magazine, we delve into the halcyon days of Paisley’s spell as an epicentre for nightlife while keeping one eye on its future. For many years, saying that you were heading to Paisley for a night out would be met with scrutinising looks. Seen as an area that’d...
Read MoreWe sat down with Limmy, Scotland’s favourite son to discuss mental health, self-destruction and the dreary challenges of everyday life. This is what happened. Brian ‘Limmy’ Limond is one of the funniest, darkest and most original comedians of his generation. The 44-year-old from Glasgow has achieved cult fame – and notoriety – with the...
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