thumb|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 an incestuous affair between his mother and her father, Patrick McShane. 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: "I think he gave me that wonderful mixture of genes with his own daughter, the eldest of the family. I presume it's what they do in unlettered places and lettered places. It's traditional, and nobody speaks about it." 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. 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. His time there inspired his The Slab Boys Trilogy plays.
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. The hoax was found out, but the exhibition attracted some attention – in particular from the Beatles, who approached him to design the cover of their self-titled 1968 album. They decided against using his work, but it was subsequently used for the 1980 compilation The Beatles Ballads. Up until his death, he frequently signed his works with the name Patrick, most notably, "The American Boy", completed in 1971.
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.
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. Painting 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. Byrne's career as a professional painter started in 1968, when he left Stoddard's.
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.
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.
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.
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, the one for Graphic design naming Byrne himself.
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.
Works
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
!Notes
|-
|1979
|Play for Today
|TV version of The Slab Boys
|-
| Normal Service
|-
| 1981
| Cara Coco
|
|-
| 1984
| Candy Kisses
|Premiered Leicester Haymarket Theatre October 1984
|-
| 1992
| Colquhoun and MacBryde
|-
| 2008
| Nova Scotia
|
|}
Radio
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
!Notes
|-
|1977
|Writer's Cramp
|
|}
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. 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, Xavier and girl, Honor Swinton Byrne, in 1997. They separated in 2003.
Honours
- 24 June 2015 – Honorary degree of Doctor of the University (DUniv), University of Stirling
- 2022 – Freedom of Renfrewshire
References
Sources
- Reid, Gordon, "The Return of the Big Adventurer to Glasgow's Kelvingrove", review of the 2022 exhibition, art mag.
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,