#(glasgow.)

Happy Birthday to Scotland’s top comedian Kevin Bridges born 13th November 1986 in Clydebank.

Bridges began performing on stage when he left school shortly after turning 17, doing stand-up comedy gigs at The Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow and then throughout the UK. Bridges said he was inspired to try stand up after reading Frank Skinner’s autobiography. At 18, he reached the final of Channel 5’s So You Think You’re Funny competition at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2006 Bridges performed his first full length solo show at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, to a sold out audience and much critical acclaim. Moving into bigger venues every year.

Dubbed as ‘brilliant’ by one of his comedy idols, Billy Connolly has had an astonishing rise to success .His 2012 tour, Kevin Bridges – The Story Continues… smashed box office records selling a staggering 45,000 tickets on the first day. Kevin went on to sell out an incredible nine-show run at the Glasgow SECC Arena. His epic 136-date tour culminated in a sell out run throughout Australia.

Kevin has been a regular on television for many years now. After staring on such shows as Live at the Apollo and Have I Got News For You, Kevin hosted his own series of shows. Commissioned for the  BBC it saw Kevin hosting a special of his critically acclaimed documentaries Kevin Bridges – What’s The Story and stand up shows on the Commonwealth Games

Kevin’s autobiography, ‘We Need To Talk About… Kevin Bridges’, was released in October 2014 through Penguin Books followed by a 22 book-signing tour of the UK. It went on to become a Sunday Times Best Seller and has since been released in paperback.

Bridges broke box office records when his 2015 tour A Whole Different Story went on sale at the end of 2014, winning awards from Ticketmaster and Ents24 for the Fastest Selling Ticket of the year. The tour saw him sell over 500,000 tickets across 145 dates, including an incredible 16 nights at The Hydro in Glasgow. The  DVD filmed there went onto sell over 300,000 copies; his biggest selling DVD.

Bridges donated all proceeds from Platinum seating at his 2017 tour to charity, with 50 per cent going to St Margaret of Scotland Hospice. The other half of money raised went to the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow. In the past he has also supported the annual Kilt walk. He has been a regular guest on the channel 4 show, The Last Leg.

Kevin continues to tour, he just wrapped up 6 nights in Belfast last night and has 6 nights in London’s  Eventim Apollo next week before finishing up in Leeds  Grand Theatre on December 12th and 15th. Kevin also published hi first novel, The Black Dog, in August, it’s available on Kindle, I’ll need to see if I can afford to splash out on it, the reviews are great;

Flag of Lanarkshire, the most populous county in Scotland and home to Glasgow.

Happy 65th Birthday comedian and actor Gordon Kennedy.

Gordon  was born of February 22nd 1958 in Glasgow but grew up in Tranent, East Lothian, he was educated at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh before studying physical education at Jordanhill College, now part of the University of Strathclyde.

I was a big fan of “alternative comedy” when it started to get going in the early 80’s Kennedy first got together with some friends in 1980 making his debut at the Edinburgh festival in 1980 under the name The Bodgers this led on to the channel 4 show Absolutely, with the same prominently Scottish team, he cut his teeth as an extra in several shows like Russ Abbot, Kenny Everett and Les Dennis beforehand.

Since then, his production company, Absolutely Productions, have made Welcome To Strathmuir, the BBC Scotland comedy starring John Gordon Sinclair, and Radio 4 comedy series Baggage with fellow Scots Peter Capaldi and Phyllis Logan. He went on to become more mainstream and was the original co-host of the National Lottery Lottery show on Saturday nights with Anthea Turner.I suppose those that didn’t follow the comedy scene will know Gordon from his time starring a Little John in noughties incarnation of Robin Hood on BBC 1.

If you’re a bit older you might recall him in the fab Glasgow Kiss with Iain Glenn and Sharon Small at the turn of the millennium or a few years later as Sgt. Bruce Hornsby in Red Cap. He was also the narrator in the first series of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, as well as Mac in oor ain soap River City for 18 months.

Kennedy sent an audition tape for a part Outlander, but missed out, I can’t find out what, if any part he was considered for, he bounced back though appearing in the mini series The Spanish Princess, which just like Outlander is shown on the Starz network in the States, he also appeared in 4 episodes of the British-American period drama  Harlots.

On 7th June 1868 Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born n Glasgow.

As a young boy he was inspired by nature, drawing and painting flowers and driftwood he'd collected in the basement of his home in Townhead  He began attending classes in drawing, painting, modelling and design at the Glasgow School of Art (then on Sauchiehall St) aged 15 and a year later began working as an apprentice to local architect John Hutchison.

It is widely reported that Mackintosh’s name is actually spelt 'McIntosh' on his birth certificate but was misspelt in the 1890s. The error stuck and from then on the young man referred to himself by the surname we are all familiar with.

Many buildings in Glasgow built in the 1890s were described publicly as the work of architects John Honeyman and Keppie; buildings which were either partly, or entirely like the Glasgow Herald building (now the Lighthouse) the work of Mackintosh in his role as assistant within the firm. As he was not a 'partner', he wasn't publicly acknowledged.

Mackintosh was engaged to Jessie Keppie, the youngest sister of the boss of his firm, but called off the engagement after falling in love with fellow artist Margaret MacDonald. Doing so was highly frowned upon at the time, and he risked both his expulsion from the firm and from the Glasgow societal circles he moved in for his choosing to pursue his love, whom he would marry in 1900.

His love for Margaret MacDonald is one of the greatest love stories in art history, and Mackintosh wasn't shy of shouting it across the rooftops. His wife was his "spirit key" who represented 3/4 of all that he had done. And while he had talent, Margaret "had the genius".

After the Glasgow School of Art was completed in December 1909, a local paper branded it an eyesore for the centre of the city, remarking that Mackintosh "have his bare arse whipped" for designing a building that "resembles a prison". Newer generations of citizens even regarded the building as 'queer' and 'decadent'. Remarkable for a building recognised by RIBA journal in 2009 as the finest designed by a British architect in the last 175 years.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was reported to be a heavy drinker, with stories indicating that he was often found in the morning in his studio under the table clutching an empty bottle.

As if his design for buildings wasn't giving him enough stick from some of his peers, Mackintosh even went so far as to design his own tartan, rejecting traditional green and red colours with his own 'Toshie's Tartan' of black and white check.

During WW1 in August 1915, Mackintosh was locked up in jail after begin arrested on suspicion of being a German spy. This was after he had aroused the suspicion of locals while staying in Suffolk by his late night walks along the coast, who thought that his use of a lantern may be him signalling out to see to the enemy.A police raid found letters written in German (to fellow artists) and he was banged up, before begin released after colleagues convinced the authorities of his innocence.

May 2nd May 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition in Kelvingrove opened.

The second of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow was opened on 2 May and ran until 9 November, covering roughly 73 acres of ground in Kelvingrove Park. Among the multitude of temporary buildings was this concert hall on the banks of the River Kelvin, with seating for 3,000 people. A full programme of concerts was organised for the duration of the exhibition, featuring performers from all over Europe.

Its centrepiece was the new Art Galley and Museum which appropriately housed the Fine Art section, including work by the “Glasgow boys” who were by now acknowledged as internationally important artists. But the exhibition’s main building was the temporary Eastern Palace; its architect was James Millar who won an open competition with his design which satisfied the extravagance demanded by the public. This Oriental fantasy, with its strong suggestions of 16th century Spanish Renaissance architecture, was topped by a grand dome adorned by an electric-torch wielding golden angel of light. There were also separate buildings for industrial and machinery displays, concert halls, foreign pavilions, numerous restaurants and cafes, as well as many minor buildings covering subjects such as agriculture and heating and lighting. Some idea of the sheer scale and grandeur of the enterprise can be realised in examining the exhibition plan in the first picture.

It’ hard to imagine the planning that went into this and the scale of the whole thing, for example, a whole Russian village of 7 buildings, there was a model farm complete with working dairy, windmill and grieve’s house, a Grand concert hall with seating for more than 3,000, and a new sports ground at Gilmorehill with a four-lap cement cycle track, cinder pedestrian course, football pitch and stand accommodation for 25,000 spectators. The suggestion of limitless resources was enhanced by the breathtaking electrical illuminations which lit up many of the attractions by night.

Although it lacked the novelty of 1888, Glasgow’s second major exhibition was still enormously popular, resulting in attendance figures of over a staggering 11,000,000.

Thanks to the railways, journeys were now relatively easy and inexpensive, and tourism was growing. Visitors from afar were encouraged to explore further, and the beauty of the surrounding countryside was heavily promoted in the publicity literature.

Glasgow Necropolis.

Glasgow's very own City of the Dead, a monumental testimonial to the Victorian age on a hill beyond the Cathedral of St Mungo.