ScottishNews.com

The actor, writer and presenter is still most closely associated with Navid Harrid, the Craiglang shopkeeper he played across nine series of Still Game and three huge live runs at the Hydro.

His career stretches far beyond Navid. Kohli co-created and starred in BBC Radio 4 comedy Fags, Mags and Bags, played AJ Jandhu in River City and wrote for shows including Chewin’ the Fat and Goodness Gracious Me. More recently, his screen credits have included Department Q, The Rig and Dinosaur.

Music, however, has always been hovering somewhere in the background.

When ScottishNews.com catches up with him at Guitar Guitar on Trongate in Glasgow, Kohli is about to have a guitar lesson. He freely admits his ambitions currently exceed his abilities.

It is appropriate preparation for his next big gig.

Kohli will host the GUITARGUITAR Scottish Music Awards at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom tonight, when some of the biggest names in Scottish music will be celebrated in aid of music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins.

This year’s winners include David Byrne, Susan Boyle, The Fratellis, Big Country, Graham Lyle, Rianne Downey and Valtos.

For Kohli, the chance to host an event inside one of his favourite buildings – and surround himself with musicians – is an easy sell.

We spoke about the Barrowlands, the records he always returns to, an unexpected encounter with Jesus and Mary Chain frontman Jim Reid, why Scottish performers should embrace their own accents and the parallel universe in which Sanjeev Kohli is playing keyboards in a rock band.

You’re about to get your guitar lesson, you’re be hosting the Scottish Music Awards. What can we expect?

We’re in the iconic Barrowlands, the best building in the world, I’m going to say. Certainly the best music venue in the world.

I attended the event last year. I’d never been at a sit-down thing in the Barrowlands and it was like, “Whoa, revolutionary.”

It’s great fun to host it. It’s the cream of Scottish musical talent and I’m a frustrated musician, so it’ll be properly glam.

It will be the best of Scottish talent – and me.

What Scottish music do you always return to?

Always The Blue Nile. Always go back to The Blue Nile. Hipsway, Love and Money.

I’m a big fan of the Rollers. I went to the musical. And glam rock.

I love pop music. People get snobby about it, but S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night? Brilliant.

I’m really, really glad that David Byrne’s getting a shout, because Talking Heads are Talking Heads. They’re just untouchable.

The Associates. Aztec Camera. There are loads.

In your showbusiness life, have you had the chance to meet any of your musical heroes?

Well, this is a true story. It’s quite a long story, and I’ll tell it.

I went to see The Jesus and Mary Chain in the Barrowlands, actually, and this would have been about 10 years ago.

I missed them the first time around. I was about 16 or 17 and they were brilliant. They made a unique noise, that kind of major chord feedback thing, and these two scary brothers from East Kilbride who would pick fights with the audience.

They legendarily went on tour in the States and did, like, 28-minute sets and they would fight the audience if they complained.

They’re from East Kilbride, so they can handle themselves.

I was always slightly scared of the Reid brothers but also really loved them.

I went to see them and they were brilliant. I’m leaving and then the door opens by the side of the stage and the manager – I think he spotted me – says, “Do you want to have a wee drink with the guys?”

Yeah, sure.

So I go in and I find myself with Jim Reid and someone else, and he doesn’t know who I am.

I’m standing there and I said: “Look, Jim, just to say, by the way, sorry you don’t know who I am, but I missed you the first time around and that was religious. You were brilliant. You were every bit as good as I thought you’d be, so thank you for that.”

Jim has this really particular way of speaking. So he says: “I don’t stay in Scotland any more. I stay in Cornwall. I’ve got a pal from Clydebank that comes to see me in Cornwall, where I stay now, and when my pal comes to stay with me and we’re cutting about in Cornwall, they call us the Jack and Victor of Cornwall.”

He knows who I am. He knows what Still Game is.

Jim Reid!

That’s the beauty of being in a sitcom. Travis are fans of the show. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are fans of the show.

There is a rumour that Dave Grohl is as well, because his guitar tech is from Glasgow and apparently turned him on to Still Game.

It’s a great way to meet some of my musical heroes. Jim Kerr was basically, “We’re not worthy,” to me. I’m like: “Mate, no, please. Put it away. You’re embarrassing yourself, Jim.”

Scottish musicians, actors, writers and performers have travelled all over the world. Is storytelling something Scotland is particularly good at?

I just think that we are a nation of storytellers, and you can tell stories in many different ways.

You can tell it through music, comedy, theatre – anything really. So it makes sense to me.

I still think that we’re probably a bit underappreciated as well. Sometimes we’re underappreciated in our own country.

Someone like Craig Armstrong, who’s a friend of mine, is a world-renowned composer. The people he’s worked with – Madonna, Baz Luhrmann, Massive Attack.

Apparently when he walks the streets of Paris, he gets mobbed. He doesn’t get mobbed in Glasgow.

I think sometimes we are guilty of maybe underappreciating ourselves in that Scottish way: “Aye, very good.”

Is it good to see a new generation of Scottish musicians coming through who sing in their own accents and do things their own way?

It’s a massive thing in my business, talking in your own accent, because it’s all about authenticity.

So it’s a brilliant thing to see.

Even the Scottish hip-hop scene now. I think Scottish hip-hop is really coming of age where they’ve maybe rapped out their influences and now they’re actually talking about their reality in their own accent.

It’s really lovely to see because we should never be ashamed of our accent. It’s who we are.

I think for years – and I don’t think I’m being too chip-on-my-shoulder about this – we were told to dilute it down, tone it down.

I know I was when Still Game went on the network. “Say headstone, not heidstone.”

So I love it when bands are singing in their own accent.

I’m a massive fan of The View. Kyle Falconer just sings in his accent and he’s a genius.

And a lot of the newer bands like Brògeal who I’m a big fan of – and I’m in one of their videos, I’m not just saying that – sing in their own accents.

I’m 100 per cent here for it. Let’s stop being embarrassed about singing in our own accents.

We’re sitting in Guitar Guitar and you’re about to have your guitar lesson. After a few more, could we see you on stage at King Tut’s?

I have been on stage – not at King Tut’s, actually. It was the Barrowlands – with Wilco, playing a keytar. You know, like a keyboard on a stick.

It would be a massive dream of mine just to play in a band. It’d be fantastic.

I am a frustrated keys man.

I grew up on the music of Deep Purple and I would love to either be Ritchie Blackmore or Jon Lord or Ian Paice, the drummer, or Roger Glover on bass.

I would love to play any of those things.

I did used to maybe practise moves in front of the mirror when I was younger. I’m not going to deny that..

In another life, in a parallel universe, I took those piano lessons and maybe took guitar lessons – and I’m in a band right now.