Fall for a summer of love, music and friendship

FESTIVAL

DOUNE THE RABBIT HOLE, CARDROSS, JULY 14-17

For the first time since the pandemic, the popular independent music festival returns to Cardross Estate and with quite a line up, including headliners Amy MacDonald, above, and Belle & Sebastian, Patti Smith and Band and Teenge Fanclub. But, bear in mind this is also “seven festivals in one”, and host to Yard Act, Orbital, Sleaford Mods, John Cale, Camera Obscura, and 10cc, not to mention non-music events including yoga sessions and Douniversity talks. Worth dusting off the tent for.

BOOK

BOY FRIENDS BY MICHAEL PEDERSEN, FABER & FABER, OUT NOW

The poet and Neu Reekie cofounder’s prose debut is a love letter to his dear friend Scott Hutchison, the singer from Frightened

Rabbit who took his own life in 2018. It’s a tender tribute and story of good times shared, but also a contemplation on male friendship, and celebration of those relationships that have transformed Pedersen’s life. It’s full of life and emotion. “I always found friends who wanted to love too much,” he writes, who collided rather than simply met.”A tale of grief and romance to wallow and delight in.

MUSIC

NICOLE CASSANDRA SMIT, THIRD IN LINE, LILJEKONVLJ RECORDS OUT NOW

Craig Charles featured Edinburghbased Smit’s Strong Woman, repeatedly on his Radio 6 show, and now the Swedish-Indonesian singer-songwriter’s debut album is out, a delicious blend of smokey, blues voice and country ballad lyrics. Touches of trip-hop, R ‘n’ B, jazz and blues, plus guest vocals from Kameelah Waheed and Edinburgh’s Joseph Malik. There’s a narrative here too – Smit’s “third in line” refers to her being the third generation of woman in her family to have been uprooted and found a home elsewhere. Irresistible.

CONCERT

GERRY CINNAMON, HAMPDEN, JULY 16 AND 17

A belter of a weekend arrives in Glasgow – and reports are that hotel prices have already gone up ahead of the gigs. The Castlemilk-born singer-songwriter’s rise has been unstoppable. A good global fame indicator is there in the fact his song Sometimes has been used in the first scene of season three of the Umbrella Academy. He’s playing to a home crowd here, though and his anthems are prefectly made for Hampden. Saturday’s gig sold out in days. But it’s still possible to grab a ticket at resale or a ticket for Sunday.

BOOK

1001 OUTDOOR SWIMMING TIPS BY CALUM MACLEAN, VERTEBRATE PUBLISHING, OUT NOW

Maclean is probably most famous for his Scottish water temperature guide – “Baltic”, “no bad” and “roasting”-– as well as his BBC

Alba series, Dhan Uisge (Into The Water). He was cracking the ice and dipping in cold water long before Wim Hof hit our screens, and he’s the go-to guide for anything you need to know about outdoor swimming in Scotland, or indeed, anywhere. Here, he gives

1001 tips, ranging from safety through to how to best do a night swim. Get it while the water’s still warming.

VICKY ALLAN