‘I’d hate to see T In The Park go’, says author and former Tennent’s brand manager Gordon Brown

GORDON BROWN rubbed shoulders with some of music’s biggest names in his marketing role at T In The Park.

But it was an encounter in a Glasgow pub that provided the inspiration for a trilogy of crime novels he’s written, the first of which is released this month.

Gordon, 55, was brand manager at Tennent’s – main sponsors of the shelved music festival – for six years and believes it would be a real loss if it disappeared from the calendar.

“I came in the door at Tennent’s just as the first one happened in 1994,” Gordon, from Glasgow, said.

“It would be sad if it was to stop, as it’s part of Scotland’s culture.”

T In The Park bosses announced a sabbatical after two tumultuous years at the festival’s new home in Strathallan, Perthshire.

While Gordon believes a music festival would be the perfect setting for a crime novel, it was a bar brawl that sparked new novel, Darkest Thoughts.

“There were five of us in the pub – me, my mate, two brothers and a guy in the corner reading a book.

“The brothers started fighting, knocking over the furniture.

“The bloke reading the book never looked up once, even when the police turned up.

“It got me thinking, what if this guy is the catalyst for bringing the bad out in people. He doesn’t know how and he can’t control it, but wherever he goes, he can turn the darkest thoughts of those around him into reality.”

Gordon created the character of Craig McIntyre and began writing the books while he was travelling the world in a consultancy role.

The second book is released in the autumn and the final part in spring next year.

Gordon, a founding director of the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival in Stirling, admits his name can cause confusion at book signings.

“People turn up, thinking they are getting the ex-Prime Minister,” he laughed.

“My first book came out shortly after the Blair and Brown situation. I was trying to punt a book called Falling by Gordon Brown, and people would turn up, thinking it was an autobiography he was putting out!”

Darkest Thoughts is released on April 27.