Katy Lironi has a couple of book launches for Matilda in the Middle, which is published by Into Books. Alistair Braidwood will discuss Katy’s book with her at the Glasgow event, which will also feature Katy performing an acoustic C86 set with The Secret Goldfish.
The Edinburgh event will be chaired by Nicola Meighan and will also feature a chat with Grant McPhee about his Postcards From Scotland book. Katy and Grant will chat with Nicola about the C86 scene in Edinburgh that circulated around Fizzbombs, Shop Assistants, Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes. The Secret Goldfish will also perform an acoustic C86 set.
Tickets:
Mono, Glasgow – Thursday 24th October / https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/matilda-in-the-middle-by-katy-lironi-glasgow-book-launch-tickets-1001732748617
Edinburgh College of Art (Wee Red Bar) Saturday 26th October / https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/matilda-in-the-middle-by-katy-lironi-edinburgh-book-launch-tickets-1001773821467
MATILDA IN THE MIDDLE
Katy Lironi
Matilda in the Middle is first and foremost a musical, family memoir. Both parents come with their own lives immersed in the Scottish music scene of the 1980s – Katy is enmeshed in everything that was Edinburgh based C86 indie pop while her bandmate and future husband, Douglas, embraces the Scottish post-punk era.
Matilda in the Middle charts Katy’s childhood in a Scottish new town of the 70s as she tries and fails to follow in her musical brothers’ footsteps. Leaving home at 18, she seizes the chance to shine on the indie pop stage of the mid 80s as part of the C86 scene burgeoning in the capital at the time – specifically in the Publishing class where she finds herself. She is swiftly signed up to C86 band The Fizzbombs and suddenly a life filled with snakebite, rehearsals, recording, DIY pop, touring and BBC Radio 1 sessions presents itself, until foreign lands beckon at the end of the college years.
Music makes many appearances during her foreign travels but it isn’t until her return to Scotland in the mid 90s that singing in a band becomes the mainstay once again. The Secret Goldfish grows in tandem with Creeping Bent, the record label founded by Douglas on the cusp of their lives together. Years fly by in a flurry of song writing, rehearsals, recording albums, radio sessions and gigs. Then, at the turn of the century, just as the Secret Goldfish, and their independent record label Creeping Bent, are in the midst of a creative overload, children start to appear at an alarming rate.
6 years and 5 children later, SandFest is born – an ongoing fundraising concert drawing on their past musical collaborations that raises thousands of pounds over the next decade for Down’s Syndrome charities, and offers all their children, not least their middle daughter with Ds, a taste of the musical limelight.
This memoir tells the story of a family, functioning just, and how music is always there to save the day and create a level playing field. At the centre of this family saga is the indomitable spirit that is Matilda. This is at its heart the story of a family’s love of music and how it has provided purpose, forged relationships and created harmony in every aspect of their lives, with Matilda in the middle.
Fretsconcerts.com 