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59 Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells

Award-winning duo
It may have come out in 2011, but the duo’s Everything’s Getting Older release was injected with fresh life by becoming the first ever Scottish Album of the Year, and they took their beautifully sonic message on tour to places as diverse as Dundee and Dunfermline. (BD / Photo: Sarah Bowden)

58 Screen Bandita

Breathing new life into old film
Those self-confessed ‘cinema outlaws’ have had a top year, finding increasingly inventive ways of bringing to life old film. The past 12 months included an event exploring rituals with William Bennett and another with a specially commissioned soundtrack by The One Ensemble inspired by road trips. (GT)

57 Optimo

They still love your ears
The format might have changed, but Twitch and Wilkes remain two of the most respected and exciting DJs in Scotland, bringing their Optimo (Espookio) Hallowe’en bash and Glue Factory-based Hogmanay party back once more. Add to this a bi-monthly Sub Club residency and the continuing presence of Twitch’s production career and Optimo Music label. (DP)

56 Woodlands Community Garden

Reaping the rewards
This public garden continued to flourish in 2012 thanks to commitment from local growers and artists. As well as hosting various food, art and music events across the summer, the folks behind the garden published a downloadable eco-cookery book Taste Not Waste. (NB)

55 Kevin Bridges

Chirpy comic delivers
The world still appears to be the Clydebank comic’s oyster as he played to more sell-out crowds in vast auditoria across the country, brought out his second live DVD and appeared in his own six-part BBC documentary series, Kevin Bridges: What’s the Story? (BD)

54 Janice Galloway

Anti-memoir hit
The popular Ayrshire author scooped the Scottish book of the year prize, announced at the EIBF in August, for All Made Up, the ‘anti-memoir’ of her teenage years, while a TV production of her two autobiographical books to date is underway. (BD)

53 Timberyard

Reclaimed restaurant
The much anticipated return by Andrew and Lisa Radford (and family) with an idiosyncratic but assured restaurant hewn from a disused timber warehouse. Its continental credentials, engaged food ethos and contemporary verve offer a further dimension of quality to Edinburgh’s distinctive dining scene. (DR)

52 Alan Bissett

Yarn-spinning Renaissance man
He’s not been phobic of good reviews for his various literary, filmic and dramatic works in the past, but critical acclaim went off the scale for Bissett’s solo Fringe and touring show, The Red Hourglass, in which he plays ‘several species of spider’. (BD / alan bissett Photo: David Bryce)

51 Billy Connolly

Comedy icon honoured
At the ripe young age of 70, the Big Yin was handed a lifetime achievement award from BAFTA Scotland and was announced as an ambassador for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. A poll for Dave TV voted him the most influential stand-up of all time while his voice appeared in Brave as the boisterous King Fergus. (BD)

50 Maureen Beattie

Class act
One of the country’s finest stage performers, Beattie landed another plum role as the obsessive note-taker in Stellar Quines’ fine Fringe production of Jennifer Tremblay’s The List. Her powerful performance came hot on the heels of an acclaimed turn in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Enquirer and a CATS nomination for her part as the mercurial nun in Abi Morgan’s 27. (AR)