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List Hot 100 2023 x 6 - Hazel Johnson / Fred Deakin / Joseph Malik / Neil Forsyth / Simon Murphy / Douglas MacIntyre

27 Hazel Johnson

Hazel Johnson spent the first outing of her tenure as incoming director of Edinburgh’s Hidden Door festival, transforming the former Scottish Widows building into an expansive hive of artistic activity. Leading a tireless team of volunteers, Johnson aims to open up even more of the city’s hitherto unexplored spaces.

 

29 Fred Deakin

Fred Deakin’s very personal rewind on his past in Club Life, a smash hit autobiographical excavation of the uniquely styled club nights the designer and one half of Lemon Jelly ran in Edinburgh in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More big nights out may follow.

 

32 Joseph Malik

Joseph Malik’s heroic musical renaissance has been a thing of wonder. After several years out, the Edinburgh singer/composer/producer returned to become a favourite of Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul Show. With Proxima Ebony the latest of five albums in five years, Malik has truly found his time.

 

35 Neil Forsyth

The final part of Neil Forsyth’s TV trilogy, Guilt, put a full stop on Forsyth’s tale of two brothers in epic style. Forsyth also penned The Gold, a brilliant six-part drama inspired by the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, marrying 1980s free marketeering to working class aspiration in a trail of dirty money that stains the Thames still. 

 

51 Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy’s Govanhill exhibition of photographs brought into focus the people of one of Glasgow’s liveliest neighbourhoods Murphy’s exhibition showed off some of the community’s unique individuals with a sense of empathy and trust. A book of the exhibition captures the full power of those pictured. 

 

78 Douglas MacIntyre

Douglas MacIntyre was already a one-man art-pop cottage industry before putting Strathaven on the musical map with FRETS, a series of bespoke acoustic concerts in the bijou confines of the Strathaven Hotel, where MacIntyre has tirelessly hosted kindred spirits including Lloyd Cole, Callum Easter and Robert Forster.


The List, December 2023, featured as part of the annual Hot 100 list, of which there are another 94 not by me.

 

ends

 

 

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