PERFORMERS

When Allan Ramsay founded a theatre in 1736, magistrates saw this as an outrageous act and summarily closed it down. It was only in the late nineteenth century that performers were to move back into prominence in Edinburgh. The first of these, Sir Harry Lauder, soon left for London, where he dressed as Sassenachs thought Highlanders dressed, and was a great music-hall success, performing comic turns and songs. Scots and comedy became linked in the public imagination.

Alastair Sim followed as the headmistress of the mythical St Trinian's, and later Ronnie Corbett would tell convoluted stories, often at his own expense. Sean Connery was an actor rather than a comedian, but his James Bond films enjoyed double entendres and were not to be taken entirely seriously.

Others have combined two or more careers in the public eye. Moira Shearer started off as a ballet dancer, then turned to acting. Magnus Magnusson was initially a journalist before finding fame as the presenter of the television quiz show, Mastermind.

Edinburgh is perhaps best known for its musicians, especially those connected with the folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s. Among those who were in at its beginnings were Roy Williamson, Aly Bain and Dick Gaughan. They combined superb musicianship with commitment, playing and singing their own compositions, interpretations of traditional ballads and the music of contemporaries. At the other end of the musical spectrum were the Bay City Rollers, Edinburgh's 1970s answer to an English group of four mop-top pop stars.

Today's crop of pop singers includes Shirley Manson, an alternative rock star, who combines singing with writing music. The actor Ken Stott is most closely connected with the television version of the glowering Inspector Rebus, the Ian Rankin detective who keeps Edinburgh safe from criminals.

Edinburgh has been the backdrop to many performances, not only in films such as Chariots of Fire and Burke and Hare, but also as a venue for comedians, actors and singers who returned to play in the old Empire Theatre, now the Festival Theatre, or one of its many other venues. Not to mention the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Film Festival, the Book Festival, the Jazz Festival, etc., where thousands perform each year. The eighteenth-century magistrates would be apoplectic to discover that their attempts to separate Edinburgh from theatre, music and other performance have been completely in vain. Hosting the biggest arts festival in the world, Edinburgh and its many performers have happily overturned the archaic idea that it was all the work of the devil.

The Usher Hall, where many musicians and actors have plied their trade Map p124 M14.

ALY BAIN

1946-, MUSICIAN

Alistair Bain was born in Shetland, the son of a cooper. At the age of eleven, he asked his parents to buy him a fiddle, which he initially learned to play from neighbours and the radio. From 1959 his teacher was Tom Anderson, who formed the Shetland Fiddlers Society. Bain's first public performance was in the following year for the Hamefaring, the homecoming for Shetlanders.

After leaving school at fifteen to become an apprentice baker, he was briefly a joiner, but left Shetland in 1968 with the aim of becoming a professional musician. He first stayed with his brother in Glasgow, where he formed the Humblebums with two other unknown musicians, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly. In 1969 he moved to 47 Forrest Road Map p124 Q15 (EH1 2QP), Edinburgh, and performed at the nearby Forrest Hill Bar Map p124 Q15 (now Sandy Bell's Bar, 25 Forrest Road, EH1 2QH), where he enjoyed the beginnings of the folk revival. In the same year he formed the instrumental group, Boys of the Lough, with three other musicians. Various members came and went, but the group, which was committed to traditional music, started to tour and had an album by 1972. International tours followed, with New York's Carnegie Hall the high point.

Bain is known for his virtuoso fiddle playing, with fast and difficult pieces his specialty. He has the ability to play with many different musicians, put brilliantly to use in the four series of Transatlantic Sessions, in which he played with traditional, classical and country musicians of every ilk. With Phil Cunningham, he is the mainstay of the BBC's annual Hogmanay programme from Edinburgh, broadcast from West Princes Street Gardens Map p124 N13 (EH2 2HG). They also performed at the 1999 opening of the devolved Scottish Parliament Map p118 U12 (Horse Wynd, EH99 1SP). His own record label is Whirlie Records Map p122 Q9 (14 Broughton Place, EH1 3RX).

Bain has helped younger generations of musicians by conceiving the idea for the Heritage of Scotland Summer School at Stirling University and has played with young, new musicians on tour. He has received many honours for his work.

Sandy Bell's, where many folk musicians including Aly Bain have honed their craft Map p124 Q15.

BAY CITY ROLLERS

1969-78, POP GROUP

The Bay City Rollers were a pop group formed by Eric Falconer, Stuart 'Woody' Wood, Les McKeown, and brothers Alan and Derek Longmuir. They were born respectively at 11 Arthur Street Map p118 T6 (EH6 5DA), 4 Marchmont Street Map p128 N18 (EH9 1EJ), 8 Broomhouse Medway (off map, EH11 3RP), 5 Caledonian Road Map p120 J15 (EH11 2DA) and 20 Smithfield Street Map p128 E18 (EH11 2PQ). They chose their name by throwing a dart, which landed near Bay City, Michigan, on a map of America. Most popular with fourteen-year-old teenyboppers, they wore characteristic outfits featuring short, wide trousers, often with tartan cuffs, tartan scarves, striped socks and platform shoes. Their most famous hits were 'Keep on Dancing', 1971, and 'Shang-a-Lang' in 1974.

The Longmuir brothers, who started their musical career at Tynecastle High School Map p128 F17 (2 McLeod Street, EH11 2ND) had founded a band called The Saxons in about 1969, with Alan, who became a plumber, on guitar and Derek, a joiner, on drums, and a school friend, Nobby Clark, on vocals. Clark and others joined and left the group until, by 1974, the 'classic line-up' of the five was settled. They played at Edinburgh clubs until they were spotted by Tom Paton, who became their manager and was instrumental in branding and promoting them. Their squeaky-clean image, with innocent good looks, were soon subject to teen hysteria, when they would be mobbed by screaming girls.

After their singles went to number one, they went on international sell-out tours and had their own television show, Shang-a-Lang. Many of their hits were covers, but they also wrote their own songs, including 'Money Honey'. Although the height of their success was in the mid-1970s, when Rollermania meant that they were worldwide stars, their albums continue to sell into the twenty-first century. The band split up in 1978, but versions of it continued with names such as The Rollers, New Rollers and Les McKeown's Legendary Bay City Rollers. Estimates of their total sales range from 70 to 300 million records. The National Museum of Scotland Map p124 Q14 (Chambers Street, 'Scotland, a Changing Nation', level 6, north-west section, EH1 1JF) has memorabilia.

Detail of tartan trousers made by a fan in homage to the Bay City Rollers, National Museum of Scotland Map p124 Q14.

SIR SEAN CONNERY

1930-, ACTOR

Thomas Sean Connery was born at 176 Fountainbridge Map p120 K16 (since demolished, now 2 Melvin Walk, plaque near Fountainbridge, EH3 8EQ). His impoverished family sent the young boy to work delivering milk by horse-drawn cart for the St Cuthbert's Cooperative Society Map p120 L16 (92-98 Fountainbridge, now café, EH3 9QA). He attended Bruntsfield Primary School Map p128 L19 (Montpelier, EH10 4NA) and Darroch Secondary School...