Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind blowing artist. Take everything you think you know about singer songwriters….and rip it up. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with a huge far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. Be it to two hundred people or twenty thousand, he blows the crowd away night after night.
After being signed to Sony Music in the early ’90’s, for whom he recorded 2 albums and achieved Top 40 chart success, Martyn became a trailblazer for independent musicians. He launched his own record label in 1999 forging a successful career using the internet, ahead of many other artists.
In July 2024 he was invited by BBC Radio 2 for a second time to write a song as part of their brand new award winning “21st Century Folk” project, following on from the success of his 2023 track, “Albert’s Place”, which featured in the original series, and which included appearances on BBC Breakfast TV, the Jeremy Vine and Ken Bruce shows on BBC Radio 2 along with Radio 4’s World at One.
At just 24, Jamie Duffy has emerged as one of Ireland’s most compelling new artists, blending folk, classical, and contemporary influences into a sound that’s both intimate and cinematic. His debut single Solas became the most streamed debut by an Irish artist since Hozier’s Take Me To Church, with over 135+ million streams on Spotify, 27 million YouTube views, and 7.3 billion views on TikTok.
In 2024, he released his debut EP On A Wing, sold out his first Irish headline tour (2,600+ tickets), and supported Andrea Bocelli and Hans Zimmer at BST Hyde Park.
In October 2025, he released his highly anticipated debut album Jamie Duffy. Crafted over two years between wild coastlines and still nights across the two awe-inspiring landscapes of Ireland and Iceland, the album reflects Jamie’s rural Monaghan roots, shaped by changing environments, Irish folklore, love, light and trepidation. It is a true labour of love and effort rarely known by those in their early twenties, but for Jamie, it was a journey he’s been working towards for some time. While evident themes of nature, journey, light and hope spring forward from early listens, the messages within the album, will hopefully, be different for everyone.
Alongside the album, Jamie has scored his first feature film 500 Miles, (starring Bill Nighy and Maisie Williams) due to be released in 2026. Reuniting with his album producer Atli Örvarsson at his home studio in London, the project highlights the creative strength and synergy between the two collaborators.
With over 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and sold out dates across Ireland, UK and Europe, Jamie is cementing his status as a formidable and rapidly rising global artist whose music continues to resonate with a massive and expanding international audience.
A working horse and cart carry native trees from the Whisky Bond, by the canal and Applecross, to Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve, where they are planted with friends, collaborators and the community. A new project by Reiko Goto Collins.
Horse
With support from Easterton Farm Park, Darkness, Tim and Reiko began learning to work together through carting. Lee Valentine, a carriage-driving instructor, guided them step by step in helping Darkness become comfortable pulling a cart. Their journey progressed from the farm’s indoor and outdoor arenas to the surrounding countryside, Mugdock Park and, finally, the Claypits.
Performance and tree planting
There are two performances, on Sunday 18 October and Sunday 15 November 2026, one each month. Darkness will carry native trees by cart between the Whisky Bond, the canal, Applecross and HCLNR. At the reserve, friends, collaborators and community members will help plant the trees. HCLNR volunteers and board members have supported site preparation, and Scottish Canals granted permission for the planting.
The trees, including pine, rowan, oak, ash, hawthorn, birch, hazel and aspen, come from the gardens of Glasgow Women’s Library and Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS), where the artist has been collecting and caring for them. Through shared learning, movement and planting, the project explores human and animal labour, ecological care, inherited histories and the possibilities of working together towards a shared future.
Sunday 18 October 2026 and Sunday 15 November 2026
11am – 1pm: starts at the Whisky Bond, 2 Dawson Road, Glasgow G4 9SS (the gate next to the canal)
Then moves into the Claypits for tree planting. Enter from the greenspace at the corner of Firhill and Garscube Street, or from Applecross way, and walk to the pond area.
Exhibition at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society
The exhibition explores the history of equine labour in Glasgow through historical images, publications and archival research. Mitchell Library introduced the artist to its collections of images, articles and books. Willy Maley, poet, writer and professor of English literature at the University of Glasgow, shared more than 400 historical images of Glasgow from 1850–1950, including images of working horses, alongside his research project Animal Study in the 17th Century. His contributions have helped shape the exhibition, connecting histories of working horses with the project’s contemporary performance and ecological concerns.
The exhibition also features documentation of the Claypits performance and tree planting, with a final video by Helena Öhman.
More information about the project is available here
Adam Holmes is a Scottish BBC award-winning songwriter whose work has found a distinct and enduring place in the UK folk landscape.
His songs have been broadcast across BBC Radio and featured in television and film, including Outlander and Apple TV productions.
In recent years, his music has reached a global audience, drawing in a new generation of listeners while staying close to those who have followed his work over time.
Raised in Portobello, the second youngest of eight children, Holmes grew up surrounded by music. The slow airs and church hymns of his childhood continue to shape his melodic sensibility, alongside early exposure to Edinburgh’s folk scene and long nights listening and learning old fiddle tunes by ear.
At 19, on the same day he was offered an apprenticeship on the building site, Adam received a call confirming his place in the semi-finals of the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year. He chose music and has followed that path since.
In the years that followed he played a thousand times wherever he could. Small rooms, quiet corners and the kinds of spaces where a song either holds or it doesn’t.
He has shared stages with artists including Martin Simpson, Karine Polwart and John Prine and appeared on bills alongside Laura Marling, Van Morrison and Jason Isbell.
His work is defined by songs that reward attention. Songs that don’t always reveal themselves immediately but stay with people long after they’ve been heard.
From 14 – 31 January 2027, the festival of folk, traditional, roots, world, jazz, orchestral, electronic, Americana and indie music will welcome musicians from over 20 countries, including from across Scotland, Ireland, the US, Canada, Spain, Senegal, Australia, Pakistan, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Sudan, India and Portugal, for its 34th edition.
The forward-thinking festival, which embraces tradition as something alive and constantly evolving, is aiming to build on a buoyant year, with the festival enjoying record ticket sales in 2026 as it welcomed 1,600 artists and saw attendances of 114,000 at 300 events across 25 venues.
Celtic Connections will continue to inspire and push boundaries in 2027, with 18 days of unique events, special collaborations, world premieres, and intimate shows, all celebrating music’s power to transcend borders, cultures, generations and genres.
An incredible wave of music is set to hit the city as the festival readies itself to stage gigs in venues for the first time, like the Tall Ship Glenlee, make a welcome return to spaces like the O2 Academy, continue its pioneering use of Glasgow International Arena – formerly the Emirates Arena – for live music, and fill the city’s best loved venues such as the Old Fruitmarket, SWG3 and Mackintosh Queen’s Cross.
Currently with twelve gigs on the calendar, over the course of the eighteen days, Mackintosh Queen’s Cross is delighted to welcome back this great festival to our door.
You can check the Mackintosh Queen’s Cross listings here
Mackintosh Queen’s Cross Welcomes back Grouper for the first time since 2018.
Grouper is the recording moniker of American ambient folk and drone musician, artist, and producer Liz Harris.
Working under the name Grouper since 2005, Harris creates intimate, haunting music characterised by heavily reverbed vocals, hazy guitar loops, field recordings, and tape decay.
Aside from Grouper, she has recorded under monikers like Nivhek, Raum, Helen, and Mirrorring (a collaboration with Jesy Fortino). She also runs her own imprint, YELLOWELECTRIC, and has released acclaimed records through labels like Kranky.
Support comes from Joanne Robertson. Joanne Robertson is an experimental British multidisciplinary artist.[1] She is best known for her collaborations with British avant-garde musician Dean Blunt on albums such as The Redeemer and Black Metal, as well as her 2025 album Blurrr, which was featured on several year-end lists
Roger Billcliffe is the Honorary President of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and has been a significant figure in the Scottish art world for over fifty years. He was in charge of the art collections at the University of Glasgow, before becoming Keeper of Fine Art at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. He was Director of the Fine Art Society for more than two decades and is the author of ten significant books about the Glasgow Boys, Scottish Colourists, and Mackintosh, including the definitive catalogue of his furniture. From 1992 until his retirement last year Roger ran the eponymous Billcliffe Gallery, which exhibited and sold contemporary and 20th century Scottish art, and was at one time Scotland’s largest private gallery.
This event will see Roger in conversation with Stuart Robertson, former Director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society. It is an opportunity to hear from Roger about his life in art; the collections overseen, the discoveries made, his connections with artists and professionals in the Scottish art world, and the impact of bringing Scottish art to wider public acclaim.
Proceeds from the event go to Art in Healthcare, a charity working across Scotland to improve health and wellbeing for individuals and communities by providing opportunities to experience and engage with high-quality visual art, artists and creativity – particularly within community, health and social care settings.
A new celebration of contemporary making is launching in Glasgow this October, bringing together some of the city’s jewellers, metalworkers and makers within one of its most extraordinary architectural landmarks. MADE in Glasgow will take place at Mackintosh Queen’s Cross on Saturday 10th October, combining a curated selling exhibition with live making, conversation and the opportunity to experience the only church fully designed by Mackintosh, in 1899. Created by Vanilla Ink CIC and the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, MADE will bring together close to 20 carefully selected jewellers, metalworkers and contemporary makers, celebrating the vibrancy, skill and range of craft being created in Glasgow and across Scotland. Visitors will be able to discover and buy work directly from the makers, meet the people behind the objects and experience making first-hand through a programme of live jewellery and metalworking demonstrations.
SCOTT McINTYRE, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF VANILLA INK CIC, SAID:
“Glasgow has always been a city of makers, but we don’t always create enough opportunities to put that work in front of people and properly celebrate it. MADE is about changing that, even if we start small. “We want to bring brilliant contemporary makers together, let people see the skill behind the work, meet the people who make it and hopefully take something home. The ambition is that this becomes something Glasgow looks forward to every year.”
PAMELA McCLEAVE OF THE CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH SOCIETY SAID:
“Mackintosh Queen’s Cross feels like a natural home for MADE. Mackintosh’s work was rooted in craftsmanship, materials and the relationship between art and design, there is something very special about filing the building with people continuing that tradition of making today. “It allows us to celebrate Mackintosh’s legacy while also giving the building a living, contemporary creative purpose.” WHY MADE? Regardless of the medium, craft is distinguished by one very specific characteristic: the hand of the maker. MADE celebrates that act of making. Whether jewellery, metalwork or contemporary craft, every piece on display has been created with skill, creativity and purpose.
Saturday 10th October 11:00am – 4:00pm – Free Entry
Singer/songwriter Haley Heynderickx draws from a wide array of influences, citing her religious Filipino-American upbringing, the folk music of the 1960s and ’70s, jazz radio, and the idiosyncratic acoustic guitar styles of Leo Kottke and John Fahey. All of those ingredients find their way into her music, which pairs deft fingerpicking with lyrics that flirt with levity but hew toward introspection. Her first album, I Need to Start A Garden saw release in 2018. Following years of heavy touring, Heynderickx unveiled her 2024 album, Seed of a Seed.
Coming November 21st 2025, Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover partnered again for their second collaborative album, What of Our Nature via Fat Possum Records. The pair spent a year sharing songs from opposite corners of the country while reading Woody Guthrie’s words and biographies, slowly exploring a patchwork of Americanism to see where their stories fit. The result is a collection of music about profound friendship, the legacy of colonialism, generational identity, commercialism, and the slippery target of addressing social equity in song.
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