Sunday with Sally Magnusson

Somehow dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am today for a live interview at BBC Radio Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday Morning with Sally Magnusson. Given the hour, Sally thankfully went a whole lot easier on me than all the politicians she grilled during the recent Scottish elections. In fact we meandered our way through a very convivial half hour of music and chat, touching on some of the more spiritual/personal aspects of Urban Worrier, including childhood faith, fatherhood, and that eye-watering moment at the Garden of Eden naturist colony…  

After Friday’s generally positive but slightly misleading Daily Mail review, it was also good to put the record straight that its report of the death of my faith were, to borrow Mark Twain’s phrase, greatly exaggerated. In fact I’m still following that tantalising scent of the transcendent, and probably always will, for reasons I tried to outline to Sally.

I also got the chance to play a favourite song from by my friends Lies Damned Lies and another from the Indigo Girls, which felt nicely subversive given the news item that the Kirk general assembly is about to get its knickers in a twist over gay ordination again. The chorus line runs: “We’re better off for all that we let in.” I’ll second that.

Anyway, the whole programme is up for a week here on Iplayer (my bit is between 08’00 min and 36.00 min) or conveniently topped and tailed here on my radio archive page. Enjoy.