Hello!
Thanks for dropping in. Let me introduce myself.
My name is Alastair Turnbull and I’m a performer, podcaster, and author - but this wasn’t always the case…
I started out over 25 years ago as a technician working with sound, lights, staging, big screens and cameras. I worked in the world of corporate events - conferences, meetings, road shows, the list goes on. It wasn’t long before I started travelling all over the UK with work, then farther afield over to Europe and beyond. I eventually reached the giddy heights of technical event manager, but always found myself drawn to being on the stage, not working at the side of it.
For as long as I can remember I’ve played guitar and during my years as a technician I also played in bands, I even found time to play pubs and clubs as a solo performer under the name ‘Art Nouveau’, (it was the nineties, please don’t name shame me). I’ve always loved being creative but found my will to live being ripped away during the long hours of monotonous corporate nonsense. To survive with my soul intact I found myself researching ideas for books, books I wanted to read, but didn’t exist yet.
This led firstly to me creating a web site called ‘The Drinking Mans Guide to Scotland’ and then to my first book, ‘The Tartan Pint’. My love of Robert Burns spilled out into three books, ‘Robert Burns – Women’, ‘Robert Burns – Nature’ and ‘Robert Burns - Food & Drink’.
On my travels around the world I saw, and happily took part in, a lot of different drinking cultures. This left a big impression on me as I went on to write a book called ‘Toasts & Toasting’.
My last book, which took YEARS of painstaking research is called ‘100 Great Scottish Pubs’. If anybody is up for researching volume two, ‘Another 100 Great Scottish Pubs’, I’m ready to join you…
In the last ten years the balance of my work has shifted. It’s moved from technical event manager who likes to write and perform. To performer, podcaster, writer who still does the occasional technical / stage management gig, if it’s in an interesting country!
My love of the poet Robert Burns continues to grow. This has led me to create a successful podcast called ‘Burns Banter’ which is just about to start its third series. The podcast is there to bring the life and works of Robert Burns to a new audience in a fun, easy to understand way. I also travel across Scotland performing live shows about Robert Burns, including two runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, one in 2024 and one in 2025.
I love performing live and currently have in development my biggest show yet - watch this space…
In the meantime, I am available for weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs. Okay, what I meant to say is, if you would like me to perform at your event, talk about Burns, be a compare, or collaborate in any other way please contact me.
Thanks!
Alastair