I’ve done the crime.. but now it’s time to face the music
Top-selling author, 68, set on return to his first love as musician
Peter May was just 17 when he played the first Kelvingrove Free Music Festival in Glasgow with his rock band Harlem Shuffle.
Now 50 years on, the musician turned global best-selling crime writer has revealed his dream of returning to the famous bandstand with old pal Stephen Penn.
For the past 18 months, Peter, 68, has been laying down tracks in his home studio and, although he is not planning an imminent full-time return to music, he said he’d love to rock the bandstand just one more time.
The Lewis Trilogy author, whose latest crime novel A Silent Death is out on Thursday, said: “I’m paving the way for some future retirement with a return to my first love, music.
“I bui lt mysel f a l it t le recording studio in my house in the south of France and Stephen and I spent Christmas and New Year writing and recording music together – just like the old days.
“We were in a few bands together growing up in the southside of Glasgow. The first was The Aristokrats when we were about 13 and then
Harlem Shuf f le, which we performed in throughout our teens and toured with all over Scotland.
“We played the very first Glasgow free concert in the bandstand at Kelvingrove 50 years ago in 1970 in front of 3500 people. That is a memory I will cherish forever. It would be fun to go back and play there.”
Peter, whose books have been published in 32 languages and have sold four million copies, added: “Stephen and I wil l probably come back as Penn and May or May and Penn. We are a bit too old to be rock stars now. It’s all right for the Stones as they have been rocking since the year
dot. You don’t become a rock star in your 60s.
“Some of the stuff we are doing is real rock’n’roll and other tracks are more pop. I’ve also been experimenting with strings and orchestral add- ins. It’s not to make money, it’s just for fun.”
In 1965, after being expelled from Eastwood Senior High and starting a job he hated in the civil service, Peter convinced Stephen and two other Harlem Shuff le members to seek fame and fortune in London.
After 10 days busking and sleeping rough, Peter and Stephen returned home and were met at Central Station by their dads, who congratulated them on having the courage to come back. Before they left London Euston, they spent their last half crown in a photobooth, capturing a road trip they would remember for the rest of their lives and the end of their quest to become rock stars.
Peter, who’s married to writer Janice Hally and has a daughter, 44-year- old artist Carol, said: “I still have the leather jacket I wore in that photo and I might just dust it down. Things might not have gone as planned in London but we learnt a lot about life and came back determined to find jobs we loved – and we did.
“I became a journalist and then went into television before becoming a novelist. Stephen moved to London, where he set up a very successful children’s talent agency.
“Although, we didn’t make it in the music world, we never lost our passion for music and have performed together a lot over the years and now that I’ve got my own studio we can spend even more time doing what we love.”
The multi- award winning writer, whose Hebridean trilogy –The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen – won him a an army of fans, is looking forward to seeing what readers make of his new standalone novel. A
Silent Death is set between the sinister underworld of
Spain’s Costa del
Sol and the UK with intelligent yet socially inept Glasgow detective, John Mackenzie.
He is sent to Spain to help catch expat fugitive Jack Cleland, who has promised to exact revenge on officer Cristina Sanchez Pradell, who gunned down his girlfriend.
Peter, whose UK tour to launch the book starts in Glasgow on January 13 and includes Perth, Inverness and Edinburgh, is bracing himself for a busy 2020. After his new novel , UK, French and US book
tours and recording music, he is off to the Arctic with his wife to research his next crime thriller.
He said: “It’s going to be a bit of a hectic year but I’m looking forward to it, especially our Arctic research trip ahead of my next novel, which I am hoping to write in the autumn.
“Where we are going it is illegal to leave the township without a rifle or someone who is armed and knows how to use it because of polar bear attacks.
“There’s also an interesting project on the go for my China series. An American guy who created a very successful longrunning series has adapted the books for TV. They want me to have an advisory role.” He added:
“Various TV options have been taken on various books but thus far they haven’t come to anything.
“I signed a contract with the BBC for the Blackhouse but I pulled out as I did not like the direction they were taking it. I’m not that bothered about whether things go on telly.”
Peter admits surprise at just how many celebrity fans he has amassed and reveals he’s even been given a royal seal of approval. He said: “It’s nice to know my books are being enjoyed by so many different people including some well-kent faces like Nicola Sturgeon.
“Broadcaster and ex- rugby player John Beattie tweeted from hospital a couple of years back to tell me he was using my Enzo books as an alternative to painkillers after a hip replacement.
“But the biggest shock I got was when I was in Perth last October to accept my honorary doctorate from the University of the Highlands and Islands, presented by Princess Anne.
“I was shocked and delighted when she told me she was a big fan of the Lewis Trilogy. She went on to say she was undecided about whether to read the China Thrillers or the Enzo Files next. You could have knocked me down with a feather.”
We played the very first Glasgow free concert in the bandstand