John Byrne
BornJohn Patrick Byrne
(1940-01-06)6 January 1940
Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Died30 November 2023(2023-11-30) (aged 83)
Alma materGlasgow School of Art
Notable works
Spouse
Alice Simpson
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 2014)​
    Jeanine Davies
    ​
    (m. 2014)​
    PartnerTilda Swinton (1989–2004)
    Children4, including Honor Swinton
    2013 painted ceiling in the King's Theatre, Edinburgh

    John Patrick Byrne (6 January 1940 – 30 November 2023) was a Scottish playwright, screenwriter, artist and designer. He wrote The Slab Boys Trilogy, plays which explore working-class life in Scotland, and the TV dramas Tutti Frutti and Your Cheatin' Heart. Byrne was also a painter, printmaker and scenic designer.

    Early life and education

    John Patrick Byrne was born into a family of Irish Catholic descent in Paisley, Renfrewshire, and he grew up in the Ferguslie Park housing scheme. His mother, Alice McShane, was married to Patrick Byrne when he was born. He was, however, conceived from incestuous abuse between his mother and her father, Patrick McShane.[1] He did not know the truth about his parentage until he was informed by his cousin in 2002. He was initially angered by the revelation, but eventually reconciled with the truth of his lineage, saying: "I think he gave me that wonderful mixture of genes with his own daughter, the eldest of the family. That's what they do in Ireland. I presume it's what they do in unlettered places and lettered places. It's traditional, and nobody speaks about it."[1][2] His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which Byrne attributed to the incestuous relationship. She was hospitalized several times throughout her life before dying in Dykebar Hospital at the age of 74.[3]

    Byrne was educated at St Mirin's Academy, Paisley and then attended Glasgow School of Art, from which he graduated in 1963.[4] Prior to art school, he worked as a "slab boy" at Stoddard's carpet factory in Elderslie near Paisley, where he mixed paint used in the manufacture of carpets. He later returned as a designer following his graduation from art school.[5] His time there inspired his The Slab Boys Trilogy plays.[4]

    Career

    Art

    Much of Byrne's art was portraits, in a wide variety of styles ranging from fairly conventional oils to what are effectively caricatures. The full stylistic range was applied to his many self-portraits; the 2022 retrospective included 42 of these, and many are among his best known works. Other recurring themes include music; he painted several guitars for musician friends.[6]

    At the start of his career, in an attempt to break in to the London art world, he sent one of his works to the Portal Gallery, claiming it was by his father Patrick Byrne, simply signed "Patrick". A cover letter detailed his father's hard, lonely life, and claimed that there were another 50 works by him at his small house in Dunoon.[7] The hoax was found out, but the exhibition attracted some attention – in particular from the Beatles, who approached him to design the cover of the White Album. They decided against using his work, but it was subsequently used for the 1980 compilation The Beatles Ballads.[8]

    He started work in the theatre in 1972, working on Billy Connolly's The Great Northern Welly Boot Show and then as a house designer for the 7:84 Scotland theatre company.[9]

    From 1964 until 1966 Byrne designed jackets for Penguin Books. Having had his work rejected by various galleries, Byrne had success following an exhibition of works at London's Portal Gallery in 1967. Painted under the pseudonym of "Patrick", Byrne claimed the dream-like paintings were created by his father, an alleged self-taught painter of faux-naïf images.[10] Byrne's career as a professional painter started in 1968, when he left Stoddard's.[11]

    As well as designing the scenery for his own plays Byrne, in collaboration with director Robin Lefevre, also designed the settings for Snoo Wilson's The Number of the Beast (Bush 1982) and Clifford Odets' The Country Girl (Apollo Theatre 1983).[12]

    Some of Byrne's best-known art works in their day were the album covers he created for friend Gerry Rafferty and his former bands The Humblebums and Stealers Wheel, among them the covers for City to City and Night Owl.[8]

    Byrne had an unsuccessful exhibition of his artistic work in 1975 and subsequently kept his work from public view. He began exhibiting again in 1991, with several subsequent exhibitions. He became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2007.[9]

    He illustrated Selected Stories by James Kelman, winner of the 1994 Booker Prize. Several of his paintings hang in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, including portraits of Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connolly, Tilda Swinton (the mother of two of his children), and a self-portrait.[13]

    He received a number of museum retrospective exhibitions, including "John Byrne at 60, The Unsolved Artist", 2000, Paisley, Renfrewshire, "Sitting Ducks", 2014, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, "Ceci n'est pas une rétrospective", 2022, Fine Art Society, Edinburgh, and "John Byrne: A Big Adventure", 2022, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.[14]

    Writing

    In the 1970s Byrne started writing his own work; Writer's Cramp was a success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1977 before transferring to London.[9]

    The following year he wrote The Slab Boys, the first part of a trilogy of plays which premiered between 1978 and 1982 at the Traverse Theatre Club, Edinburgh.[9] A fourth part was added in 2008. The main characters in the first part, The Slab Boys, generally the most popular, are working-class Glaswegian teenagers, and the play launched the careers of several young actors: Robbie Coltrane in Edinburgh, and in the 1983 Broadway production, Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, Val Kilmer and Jackie Earle Haley.[15]

    His writing found much success in the 1987 BBC television series Tutti Frutti starring Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Maurice Roeves which chronicled the final days of a failing rock 'n' roll band. The series received much critical acclaim, including winning six BAFTA awards,[16] the one for Graphic design naming Byrne himself.[17]

    He followed this in 1990 with Your Cheatin' Heart, a six-part series set in the Glasgow country music scene, starring John Gordon Sinclair, Ken Stott and Tilda Swinton.

    Byrne created The John Byrne Awards.[18]

    Year Title Notes
    1977 Writer's Cramp radio play[19]
    1978 The Slab Boys[4]
    1979 The Loveliest Night of the Year subsequently rewritten as Cuttin' a Rug.[20]
    Normal Service[20]
    Play for Today TV version of The Slab Boys[4]
    1980 Babes in the Wood Pantomime.[21]
    1981 Cara Coco[11]
    1984 Candy Kisses Premiered Leicester Haymarket Theatre October 1984[22]
    1986 Scotch and Wry video[4]
    1987 Tutti Frutti BAFTA award-winning series for BBC Television[16]
    Double Scotch & Wry video[4]
    1988 Normal Service Part of The Play on One series[23]
    1990 Your Cheatin' Heart TV series[4]
    1992 Colquhoun and MacBryde[4]
    1993 Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles Part of ScreenPlay series.[24]
    1997 The Government Inspector[4]
    2004 Uncle Varick[4] Adaptation of Anton Chekhov play Uncle Vanya[20]
    2006 Tutti Frutti Stage adaptation for the National Theatre of Scotland, co-produced by His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen [25]
    2008 Nova Scotia[20]
    2010 The Cherry Orchard[4] Adaptation of Chekhov play
    2014 Three Sisters[4] Adaptation of Chekhov play

    Personal life

    Byrne was married to Alice Simpson, whom he met in art school, from 1964 until their divorce in 2014. They had a son and a daughter together.[26] During the filming of Your Cheatin' Heart, Byrne began a relationship with Tilda Swinton. They lived together in London and later in Nairn, northern Scotland. Swinton gave birth to twins, a boy and girl, in 1997. They separated in 2004.[9] He began a relationship with the theatre lighting designer Jeanine Davies in 2006,[9] marrying her in 2014.[4]

    Death

    Byrne died on 30 November 2023, at the age of 83.[27]

    Honours

    References

    1. 1 2 "John Byrne reveals his grandfather was his real father". Herald Scotland. 19 March 2017. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
    2. ↑ "'That's what they do in Ireland' – Tilda Swinton's ex reveals he was child of an incestuous relationship". 18 March 2017. Archived from the original on 22 November 2023. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
    3. ↑ "John Byrne reveals his grandfather was his real father". 19 March 2017. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
    4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Coveney, Michael (1 December 2023). "John Byrne obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
    5. ↑ "BBC Education Scotland 14+ History – Social Change: Employment". BBC.
    6. ↑ Reid
    7. ↑ "Art reviews: John Patrick Byrne: a Big Adventure". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    8. 1 2 "The fabulous cover art of playwright John Patrick Byrne". Dangerous Minds. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
    9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hewison, Robert (17 August 2011). "John Byrne: In from the margins". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    10. ↑ "Byrne biography". Portal Gallery. Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
    11. 1 2 "John Byrne". Faber. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    12. ↑ Bush Theatre programme notes for Candy Kisses, May 1984.
    13. ↑ National Galleries Scotland, 7 works
    14. ↑ Reid
    15. ↑ "Slab Boys – Broadway Play – Original". INDb.com. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
    16. 1 2 "Tutti Frutti at 30: John Byrne on the making of his cult BBC drama". The i. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    17. ↑ BAFTA Archive, "Tutti Frutti"
    18. ↑ "The John Byrne Awards 2020 – no ticket? Watch the live stream tonight". The Edinburgh Reporter. 7 March 2020. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
    19. ↑ Hampstead Theatre programme, 7 August 1979.
    20. 1 2 3 4 "slab boys". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    21. ↑ "Scottish panto is still the best". Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    22. ↑ "Candy Kisses by John Byrne". Malcolm Andrew photography. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    23. ↑ BBC – Radio Times – The Play on One: Normal Service
    24. ↑ BBC – Radio Times – Screenplay: Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles
    25. ↑ "Tutti Frutti". National Theatre of Scotland. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
    26. ↑ John Byrne: the maverick Scottish playwright and artist was a master observer, Mark Fisher, published in The Guardian, 1 December 2023
    27. ↑ Miller, Dale (1 December 2023). "John Byrne Dies aged 83". The Scotsman.
    28. ↑ "John Byrne (1940–2023)". University of Stirling. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
    29. ↑ University of Stirling, list of honorary graduates
    30. ↑ "Freedom of Renfrewshire". Renfrewshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2023.

    Reviews

    • Ross, Raymond J. (1983), Directed Irony, which includes a review of The Slab Boys, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 45 & 46, ISSN 0264-0856
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