My Festival: Mairi Campbell

I’m told my show is a tonic if you’re feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the busyness and bustle of Edinburgh during the Fringe. I’m a local Edinburgh lass with roots on the West Coast of Scotland. Whether you’re drawn by traditional music, environmental themes, ancestral storytelling or visual art, Living Stone roots you back into yourself, all in an hour!

What will we learn from your show that we didn’t know before?

You’ll learn how to make a stone pendulum should you ever wish to! How a 400-million-year-old stone became my stage companion and exactly how our band aims to sound like Jimmy Shand.

Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show?

The stone, which was found at my great grandmother’s croft on the island of Lismore. It’s been on stage with me since 2016, since the first trilogy show and it’s always there when I perform. It grounds us all in the room. The profound quiet on Lismore when I’m living there is pretty inspirational. These shows wouldn’t exist without my director and co-creator Kath Burlinson. She’s inspired and helped me to do the thing I could only dream of. We did it!!

What’s the best review you’ve ever had, and the worst?

Best: the Scotsman Fringe First Award in 2024 for Living Stone.

Worst: Guildhall final year recital 1988: nearly failing for playing a piece I wrote myself. They wouldn’t mark it because they said it didn’t count, but I argued that it was written after 1944 which was the only criteria in that contemporary music category. Anyway, I’m over it. Really, I am.

Who or what are you most excited about seeing this year?

My run finishes on the 17th August so after that I’m going to see my friend Michelle Burke’s show Mind How You Go at ZOO Playground, which is irresistibly described as ‘the Angelus Bells meet Murder, She Wrote’. I also want to see the other shows at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. I like the way the show makers in the venue all pull together and support each other. We have WhatsApps and all sorts of friendly communications to keep us afloat.

Who do you most like spending time with in Edinburgh?

I live in Edinburgh from July to January and I live on the island of Lismore from January to July, so I’m just back. My daughter Ada recently moved back to Edinburgh so I like spending time with her and my other lass Ellen. We recently went to the Granton sauna, which was great. Hope to go there more regularly. I like to swim in the sea at Portobello, but not after the rains!

Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

I cut my own hair. Actually I don’t think you’d be surprised if you looked closely at it.

What are the best and worst things that have happened to you at a festival?

Worst: one year I had to do on-street flyering. It was horrific. I’ll never do it again. It was exhausting and way too much rejection for a sensitive person like me.

Best: the audience response to the shows in general is wonderful. The cherry on the cake was our Fringe First last year.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?

Well, it’s pretty late right now, but I’m listening on repeat to Simon Thoumire’s recently written viola sonata played on the concertina. I’ll be learning it so it’s cool to listen to his take on his music. It’s got a very Scottish feel, old and yet new. Love it.

Oh yes, mornings and nights…um, I get out of bed and then I get into bed.

Thanks for the interview! We’d like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking?

We’re going to the Espy on Portobello prom and we’re drinking cocktails. Gaun Yersel!

Mairi Campbell performs her Pendulum Trilogy (Pulse, Auld Lang Syne and Living Stone) at the Storytelling Centre, 5pm, until 17 August, with a different show on each date.

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