Acclaimed songsmith Boo Hewerdine is excited about returning to Dundee this weekend – but admits he won’t be able to stick around for long.
The former Bible frontman, who’s been one of Brit Award-winning Scots songstress Eddi Reader’s key collaborators for over three decades, is playing the city’s Westfest on Sunday afternoon.
“But I’m going to have to get home as soon as I’m done,” he explains.
“My missus has gone away and I’ve got to go home and look after the dog, so I’m going to miss out on the Funkin’ Idiots. I bet they’re brilliant but I can’t see them on kiddies’ TV, can you?” he laughs.
Already a familiar face on the Scottish music scene, Cambridge-raised Boo moved from East Anglia to Glasgow around six years ago.
It’s a move that’s paid dividends with the already prolific performer and producer apparently busier than ever.
So busy, in fact, that it seems his trip to Dundee on Sunday could be something of a nail-biter.
“It’s going to be quite a dash about because I’ll be coming up from Yorkshire, so it’s going to be like a Mission Impossible thing – I hope all the trains work,” he chuckles.
‘No setlist’ for WestFest solo gig, says Boo
Boo will be armed with just an acoustic guitar for his strictly solo set at Sunday’s Magdalen Green event, where other performers on the bill include Celtic outfit Gleadhraich, folk veterans Watt Nicoll and Andi Lothian, and Dundee’s Schools Rock Band.Â
Looking ahead to his Westfest appearance, he says he’s planning to take a relaxed approach to the occasion.
“Every gig is completely different and one of the nice things about playing solo is you get there and you adapt, and I love it,” he tells me.
“I don’t have a setlist or anything, I just go up there and see what happens and you can’t do that when you’re in a band.
“I love all the people I play with, of course, but there’s a special thing about doing a gig all by yourself, and I’ll just play what feels right in the moment.”
An unlikely source of writing inspiration
Asked if he has time for any interests outside music, his eyes light up. “Doing the prize crossword on a Saturday, that’s my pleasure,” he reveals.
“It’s really good for lyrics because it takes your mind off at tangents and it’s like going to the gym with your brain.
“My favourite setter is a man called Paul – that’s his pseudonym.
“Where I used to live down south there was another guy who used to write them, he was called Shed and he was like the god of crosswords.
“Someone pointed him out one time and he was like a really scruffy looking bloke in a pub – never meet your heroes.”
Boo’s ‘Patience of Angels’ promise
Boo’s just finished his second album with Squeeze legend Chris Difford – his third record already this year following earlier efforts with Williams and Lyon.
But it’s his work with Reader that he remains best known for, in particular a song the Fairground Attraction star adopted in 1994 that has become such a signature theme that Boo says many people don’t actually realise he wrote it.
“I’ll do Patience Of Angels in Dundee, because if I don’t things could get ugly,” he quips.
“I only play songs I enjoy playing and I don’t think I’ve ever been fed up playing that one.
“A few years ago I was doing a gig in Portsmouth and there was a review in the local paper and they said it was good, but it’s just a shame I did so many covers.”
Following Westfest he’ll be back out playing a handful of gigs with Reader, including a show at Dunfermline’s Alhambra on June 5, before a short tour with his Outliers cohort Jenny Sturgeon in June.
WestFest takes place at Magdalen Green from 12pm-8pm on Sunday June 1. Admission is free.
Conversation