August 2025 - The Diary

August began with more roleplay work at Glasgow University and a lovely monologue film by writer Glen Dickson, recorded at home and entered into a competition in America. With the release of Irvine Welsh's latest book MEN IN LOVE, I was asked to comment by The Sun's Matt Bendoris, which you can read here: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/15165447/trainspotting-simon-weir-irvine-welsh-trigger-warning/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMjktFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHk6loloOJk-QApzZ1Gqv8IZI6-TuYvPYNrAOQRfeDgUsLgtOf_LA54qsuT9N_aem_UuI5NnyU89PR9EKpQ6PIfw 

Short Film WHY ME? was screened at my old local cinema The Ritzy In Brixton this month as part of the ITAV Film Festival and great to see this wonderful film still on the festival circuit and playing to full 

houses. More auditions and work booked in for September and caught up with Tony Curran and Cal Macaninch to watch Celtic's opening league match against St Mirren at Parkhead. A fun night!

pictured above! Then to the excellent BAAD venue at The Barras Market as a guest of Paul John Dykes as he hosted The Stone Roses & Primal Scream bass player Mani for a brilliant Q&A event. Lovely to meet Mr Mounfield, whose Insect Royalty track was the opening to our short film The Granton Star Cause in 1997. We had a great chat and another brilliant night and again, great company with lots of old friends

    

in attendance, including James McAnerney, as well as musicians Paul Quinn and Dillon Squire, all pictured below. Thanks to all at ACSOM for a brilliant night and to all the staff at Barras Art & Design for hosting this event. August was as usual crammed full of events, and delighted to attend the EIFF final

night of Awards and the Premiere of Director Paul Sng's brilliant documentary on writer Irvine Welsh at The Cameo Cinema, REALITY IS NOT ENOUGH. Delighted to appear in this brilliant film very briefly at the beginning, as the team from LS/Velvet Joy Productions filmed our final performance of PORNO

during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at The Pleasance. This film is a masterpiece and deservedly is already winning awards and another fantastic night at the Edinburgh Film Festival, back at the very cinema where we first screened The Acid House all those years ago. 

Another packed audience and a great reaction to the film, followed by more celebrations afterwards at two after parties, which were again another opportunity to meet up with old pals and colleagues from my career and a real joy to spend time with the likes of Irvine & Emma, Paul, Tam Dean Burn and Jason Connery and lovely chatting with T2 Trainspotting's Producer Andrew MacDonald.

Here are a selection of photos from this wonderful evening, pictured above with the brilliant Paul Sng and below with Tam and Andrew, and brilliant to meet up with our former Granton Star barman, Hibs legend

Pat Stanton at the Premiere, pictured below, along with Jason Connery who was presenting Best Film and Short Film Awards on the night. Always great fun with Irvine and this night was no exception as he took charge of the decks for a DJ set later, following a second sold-out screening of the documentary film!

An honour to be involved and eternal thanks to Paul for sorting out a ticket for me and thanks to everyone at EIFF and The Cameo for supporting this brilliant occasion. REALITY IS NOT ENOUGH will be out in selected cinemas from the end of September 2025. Go see it! Also great fun catching up with my screen

daughter Olivia Caw and her mum at the film, as Olivia is one of the brilliant cast of voice actors in the documentary and my co-star from the recent PIECE IN DAL RIATA, which also screened this month at the Skye Community Cinema Festival, to an excellent reception! 

Here we are before the film on the red carpet! Such a fun night and a 7th appearance in an Irvine Welsh project, having worked on TRAINSPOTTING, THE ACID HOUSE, T2 TRAINSPOTTING, CRIME, PORNO, CHOOSE IRVINE and REALITY IS NOT ENOUGH. This doc was a celebration of his life and work and is a brilliant and clever film and captures the essence of a man I am proud to call my friend.

Popped by Mayors in Scotstoun and great fun with Yati, pictured above,who gave me my first job in the old shop when I was just 11 years old! Mayors is a Scotstoun institution and I spent many fun years working there since I started in 1984 and the reason why I still have a fashion store to this day! Then

to my brother Robin's for his 50th birthday party with the family, Happy birthday wee brother! Pictured above with my siblings Tim, Rob and Lucy. Back to the football and another fun night with actors Tony Curran and Colin McCredie and musicians Bobby Bluebell (The Bluebells) and Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai) at Tennents Bar but a disappointing result as Celtic lost to Kairat on penalties and crashed out

of The Champions League., pictured above at half-time when there was still hope! Great bunch of talented people and lovely company. And really nice to catch up with Colin again, having worked with him on TAGGART and feature film NIGHT IS DAY. Finally this month it was announced that our short film

BURIED is to be screened as part of the HB Film Festival in Glasgow this year, alongside some great films. Loved making this film in Tyndrum with Stephen Kerr and looking forward to seeing it on the big screen for the first time! 

July 2025 - The Diary

 More roleplay work with Glasgow Uni to kick off July, with the OSCE4 and OSCE3 exams in Glasgow. Then to the Glasgow Film Theatre to watch the RCS BA Filmmaking Showcase, in which our short film SUPER SPLIT went down really well. Great to catch up with Director Sam Loiza and my former HIGH

ROAD co-star Snonagh Price, pictured above. Really impressed with all of the films shown this evening and lovely to see our film on the big screen at my favourite cinema in Scotland. Great fun and lots of real talent on show. Back to the university and more medical roleplay work. 

The 12th of July was the 20th anniversary of the debut of Des Dillon's SINGIN IM NO A BILLY, HES A TIM at The Pearce Insitute, Govan and this was celebrated by the Sun On Sunday's Matt Bendoris as ex-players Simon Donnelly and Charlie Miller join the cast again for The Edinburgh Fringe and was

delighted to be asked along to the press launch by Producer Scott Kyle for a great feature article on the show, pictured above. We were joined by Broadcaster Rob McLean at Rutherglen Town Hall for the interview and photo shoot and lovely catching up with the team again. You can watch the full interview

here: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/15126318/rangers-celtic-rivals-careers-actors/ Huge thanks to Matt and to Scott for inviting me along.  Next up this month was a reunion with Dropshack Films for the Inverness 48Hour Film Challenge and a shoot in beautiful Oban. A brilliant cast and crew again

for this one as we were joined by Goldie Luck Productions. This was one of the funniest experiences I have ever had on a film shoot and the script & storyline were hysterical. definitely our best film yet and again, I played the recurring character of 'Tammy Ness' for the 10th year in succession, this time as 

King Tammy, King Of Dal Riata in an historical spoof about the invention of sliced bread! Love working with Olivia Caw, Ryan J Mackay and Catriona Faint once again, and Director Jack Willison to come up with PIECE IN DAL RIATA. An amazing shoot and great achievement and the film was then shown at

Eden Court Theatre and went down a storm! We won 11 separate awards that night, including Best Film, despite really stiff competition and some really outstanding shorts screened that night. Delighted to see this brilliant wee film once again on the move to various festivals before we head to Lisbon next year

for the Filmapalooza film Festival. Got back from Argyll in time to squeeze in another fun voice-over job on Operation Followthrough video game before more roleplay work and auditions and zoom rehearsals this month for shoots in November and again, all exciting stuff and great roles ahead! Nice to be back

doing more voice work as well this year. Delighted to be invited along to the record and book launch of Irvine Welsh's sequel to Trainspotting, MEN IN LOVE this month at Assai Records and then at the fab Mackintosh Queens Cross Church, followed by a brilliant club night at SWG3, hosted by Ricky

MacGowan's Streetrave. Great fun meeting Carl Loben and Steve Mac and catching up with Irvine again at these amazing events as the Men In Love tour rolled into town. And great to catch up with writer Marc Pye and Chris Brookmyre once again! We are pictured below in advance of the brilliant, sold-out  Q&A.

A fantastic night and great to see so many old pals at all 3 events and huge thanks to all of the staff at each venue for looking after us. Oh, and the book and album are superb!! Following this night of disco and laughter we had a week-long screening of PIECE IN DAL RIATA which was really popular and received more press coverage in the Inverness Courier, read it here: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/highlands-and-islands-48-hour-film-project-winner-is-best-t-388360/?fbclid=IwY2xjawL-nilleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiKo-LvWBysSi3d8HYVjil1tDlMVjvXAa2bn2g_pJ5xHEco9ZyotYBIvNhEo_aem_kRmwzd2uB2sqzmzGS5KpkQ Again, huge thanks to Goldie Luck for the continued promotion and support for this film.

And on a separate note, huge thanks to the Glasgow Herald for 3 days of features on the revamping of The Barras Market and lovely to have our wee shop Zico Fashion Boutique included. We had a great month with sales and footfall all up and again, our Granton Star FC t-shirt as our No1 Best Seller. This is my

first piece of 'Official Merch' and will soon be available to buy online, but is in store now at our Moncur Street shop, open from 10am - 4pm every weekend. And again, thank you to Irvine Welsh for granting us permission to produce this design, based on the football jerseys we wore in the film all those years ago!

You can find our fashion store on all socials under @ZicoGlasgow. Thank you for reading and catch up again next month as things hopefully continue to get busy!

June 2025 - The Diary

 Back to Birmingham in early june for another COLOPLAST UK workshop and great fun again with the usual team and a great bunch of nurses to work with as a 'simulated patient' and a really enjoyable stay at the lovely Hyatt Regency Hotel once again. Than back to Glasgow for CITY BUILDING roleplay gigs

and Zoom meetings regarding a project we recorded during the Covid lockdown, which is set to be released this year on TikTok, which promises to be good! Lots of my previous work is now getting an airing on Amazon Prime, Netflix and at various film festivals at the moment and the sequel to anotherof my feature films is now funded and set to go ahead later in the year. Then another long drive, this time

for another film shoot for EPIC Global Solutions. A lovely project, directed by the brilliant Rob Barker and shot at Slough Town FC in London. A brilliant few days in amazing weather and a really enjoyable and fun team to work with, see pic above! Huge thanks to all at Slough Town for a great shoot and was

another fun football shoot for me, and another excellent role as the Manager. Loved working with Henry Davis, pictured above and a great cast and extras. Authentic, realistic and brilliantly written script and a cracking gig to get. Looking forward to working with Rob and the team again in the future. Then back

up to promote the  Beyond Trainspotting documentary I worked on and which is finally released on the 14th of July. Then into more Glasgow University Medical School roleplay work, more indie film auditions and rounded off June with the release of another of my previous work, the short film UP/DOWN

which was directed by Michael Cooke that we shot at the end of last year. Delighted with the look and feel of this excellent short film and it will now travel to film festivals as well. An excellent month full of travel

and really fun jobs. Managed to book another voice-over job for July as well as another feature film and back in the mix for a couple of Bollywood movies shooting here in the summer. Am really enjoying my work this year despite the endless hours in the car and have plenty of exciting projects to come in 2025.

And that includes this one! Delighted to announce I shall be joining the cast of EMINENT as Brehon, another dark character in this feature film, shooting late 2025 in the Highlands. Great script, great people involved and a fab role. An excellent end to June!

May 2025 - The Diary

 Drove down to a sunny Corby for the next leg of our BILLY & TIM tour and two nights at The Core Theatre. Another brilliant venue and another great audience on both nights. Again both shows were great and went down a storm with the largely ex-pat audience! Back to Scotland for another job with the Medical School at Glasgow University and then back to the tour and drive to Cairnryan and the ferry

to Belfast for the next leg of the Billy & Tim tour. Our accommodation was in a lovely farmhouse in Portadown and we travelled to Derry for the first gig I've done in Northern Ireland for years. Great to be back and another full house and a standing ovation, which was lovely. I then took the opportunity to

visit my Boylan ancestors village of Mullabrack in County Armagh, where my g-g-grandparents were married in 1865, before migrating to Greenock a few years later. Their son, Patrick went on to play football for Arsenal and Morton FC and guested for Blackburn Rovers in a fine career. 

The following day we moved to Armagh itself and again a lovely venue, and a great audience at The Market Place Theatre. Delighted to report that the show was a huge success here and been a brilliant experience being a part of this fab show after all of these years.

The audience feedback was great and the show much improved with the addition of lighting and sound effects we have added of late. Scott and I collaborated well on this project and there are more changes to come! It is amazing that this show continues to fill theatres across the United Kingdom and delighted

to be involved and proud of the fact it was the first show I ever produced back in 2005. We first performed SINGIN I'M NO A BILLY, HE'S A TIM at the Pearce Institute in Govan on the 12th of July 2005 and then toured Scotland and Northern Ireland, The Edinburgh Fringe and took it to The Glasgow comedy Festival,

The Merchant City Festival and The Cathedral Quarter Festival, Belfast and toured schools up and down the country and provided anti-sectarianism workshops, funded by The Scottish Executive and Sense Over Sectarianism. The original cast were Gordon Brown, Andy Cameron & myself. And it is still touring!

On arrival back in Glasgow we headed to Firhill Stadium to record new dialogue for the show with football presenters Rob McLean and David Tanner, alongside former players Charlie Miller & Simon Donnelly and this went in to the show this month. Back into rehearsals for the next show and another

opportunity to play Ronnie this time at the famous Glasgow Pavilion Theatre, as a part of SINGIN SHE'S NO A BILLIE, SHE'S A TIM, with an all-female cast, joined by the commentary team and Hawaii 50, and we are all pictured above in rehearsals at Vivace Theatre School. Lovely working with my former HIGH

ROAD co-star Rachel Ogilvy once again too! Having never actaully performed at The Pavilion, this was another wee box ticked for me as I opened the show in a quick wee scene we added this month and another full house who loved the show. Huge congratulations to the cast who learned the changes and

were all brilliant. It was the first show to unite all 3 versions of Billy & Tim, with The Legends cast joining the ladies cast and The Young Offenders cast as well. A great night and a big success. Below is the new show poster featuring all three different casts. Then back to another series of roleplays with both

Glasgow Dental School and City Building in Glasgow, another couple of successful castings and more film work now booked in to the diary for November. I also turned 52 this month and had a great time with the family at Ronzo in Broomhill, below pic! Also this month our wee short film HERE COMES THE

NUN was screened at Cannes 2025 and was well received. Congratulations to the cast and crew who headed to France for a fun time. Richly deserved. And thus my time in BILLY & TIM has come to an end but really pleased to have been back involved. The show will head to Edinburgh for the Fringe 2025

and will no doubt be still touring for the next 20 years! An excellent month of good work, great fun and lots of opportunities opening up for the remainder of 2025. Thank you to Scott Kyle, James Miller and Colin Little for making me feel so welcome back into the show. Much appreciated.