CULTURE PUBLISHING
Designer’s first foray into the world of events, and he didn’t drop the ball
Launch event for Scottish football periodical Nutmeg shoots. And scores
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN “W
e held a launch party with- out really thinking it
through,” admits Ally Palmer as we discuss his late in life (and possibly brief) transition from publica- tion design to the heady heights of events management. “It was part of our Kickstarter pledge; other than a subscription to the magazine, we thought it would be good to have some kind of launch event as one of the pledges.” And so it came to pass. Last
month, in the rather grand and cerebral setting of the Signet Library, off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, for- mer Scotsman newspaper designer Palmer launched his new venture, a quarterly Scottish football periodi- cal called Nutmeg, to an audience of literary types and likeminded fans of the beautiful game. And everything, in terms of the
event, seemed to go without a hitch; there were no off-the-ball inci- dents, the speeches, patois, social commentary and poetical allusions all chimed with the audience, and there was beer. Good beer. Which was a definite plus point, consider- ing it was the end of the festival season and the city was nigh on dry. “We were lucky, we were able to
call on a friend of a friend,” says Palmer. Te variety in question, Beer 52, went down a storm. “It was very nice, I still have a few in my garage,” he adds.
THE SIGNET LIBRARY itself, although not an obvious choice for a footie event, has a very writerly pedigree: it is home to the presti- gious Society of Writers to her Maj- esty’s Signet (also known as the WS Society), an association of Scottish lawyers and one of the oldest profes- sional bodies in the world. Te Soci- ety’s origins lie in the 15th century as the ‘writers’ of documents sealed
with ‘the Signet’, the private seal of the Scottish kings. It does also have football links, explains Palmer. “Te library has quite a lot of historical documents relating to the advocates, who were also footballers,” he says. Does that explain why the modern game has so many damned rules? “Ha, good point. It might do.” But he’s keen to stress how helpful and enthusiastic the venue’s staff were in hosting the event. “Tey were incredibly supportive of us, through- out; they listened to what we had to
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say, and they were fantastic - from greeting people at the door, all the way through.” So, having no particular ground-
ing in events, would Palmer - whose own daughter is employed as an events organiser (she gave him some “tips” incidentally, which helped) - consider doing another one? It turns out the answer is yes, but
with some qualification: “It was very stressful, more so than the actual publication. We’re thinking of doing something in Glasgow,
maybe in the new year. I’d like it to be a speaking event, and I’d like to be able to do it at another interest- ing venue as well.” Nutmeg’s first issue is out now;
the publication features contribu- tions from writers about Scottish football. Authors include Stuart Cosgrove, Alan Pattullo, Gerry Hassan, Daniel Gray and Michael Tierney.
Subscriptions are available via
www.nutmegmazine.co.uk
Friends in high places. Crime writer Ian Rankin enjoying his Beer 52, pictured centre, at the Nutmeg launch with Ally Palmer, right, and Times columnist Kenny Farquharson. Photograph: Alan McCredie
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