Articles

5 Rip-offs

18 Mar 2010

As Tarantino faces Kill Bill plagiarism accusations, we re-cap on five alleged rip-offs...

5 Things You Might Not Know About... Pam Ayres

18 Mar 2010

1. Her first job was as a clerk in the Civil Service, before joining the Air Force, where she was posted to Singapore. It was there that Ayres first started performing poetry for her mates and when she came home she kept her schtick up by doing shows in…

The Kreutzer Sontana

18 Mar 2010

(18) 99min Having discarded cumbersome period trappings for his superb, stripped down, contemporary Los Angeles-set Tolstoy adaptation Ivansxtc, writer/director Bernard Rose does the same with another story by the Russian master, the second in a…

Bernard Rose: Russian Studies

18 Mar 2010

London-born, Los Angeles-resident filmmaker Bernard Rose talks to Miles Fielder about Russian authors, classical music and drug dealing...

Perrier's Bounty

18 Mar 2010

(15) 88min After an accidental shooting, charismatic Dublin gangster Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy) goes on the run with his fey neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker) and his coke-snorting, hypochondriac father Jim (Jim Broadbent). Together they have…

The Spy Next Door

18 Mar 2010

(PG) 94min Some years after Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop and Vin Diesel in The Pacifier, Jackie Chan is the latest action star seeking to reinvent himself for a younger generation by portraying himself as a put-upon babysitter to bratty…

Storm

18 Mar 2010

(15) 110min Last time out director Hans-Christian Schmid directed the psychological horror Requiem based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a young Catholic epileptic sufferer who believed that she was possessed by demons. Schmid has a long…

Old Dogs

18 Mar 2010

(PG) 88min Having earned his rubbish comedy spurs on Walt Becker’s biker comedy Wild Hogs, John Travolta returns on a fool’s errand to partner Robin Williams in the same director’s follow-up Old Dogs. Via a series of arch plot contrivances that…

Kick-Ass

18 Mar 2010

(15) 117min Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book series is a hilarious, hip twist on the superhero genre. Gone are the superpowers, the 100 inch chests and holier than thou attitude. Instead our hero is an awkward teenager, Dave…

Reasons why Edinburgh is resplendent (and Glasgow is radge)

17 Mar 2010

So, Edinburgh's better than Glasgow, right? Better arts venues, better eating & drinking, better architecture, more civilised residents, why would you ever want to get on the train to Queen Street? We want to hear your reasons why Edinburgh is miles…

Reasons why Glasgow is brilliant (and Edinburgh is baws)

17 Mar 2010

So, Glasgow's better than Edinburgh, right? Better clubbing, better music, better shopping, cheaper travel, why would you ever want to get on the train to Waverley? We want to hear your reasons why Glasgow is miles ahead of its neighbour. Remember…

Corinne Bailey Rae set for Glasgow date - interview

10 Mar 2010

First record you ever bought? A 45 of Prince’s ‘Thieves in the Temple’. I got it from a ‘Boyes’ [bargain department store] in Scarborough. First film you saw that really moved you? E.T. First movie you ever went on a date to? The English…

Polymath drummer Charles Hayward plays CCA, Glasgow

10 Mar 2010

He’s a drummer, but, like jazz percussionist Han Bennink, Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and improvisational drummer Chris Corsano, he’s so much more, as this solo show should prove. 2: He was in This Heat In 1976, Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth…

Autechre - Oversteps

10 Mar 2010

(Warp) Manchester duo Autechre haven’t so much been breaking boundaries for the last two decades as searching for them, like two astronauts blasting off into space, charged with finding the edge of the universe. Oversteps, their tenth album, isn’t…

Goldfrapp - Head First

10 Mar 2010

(Mute) Today’s pop charts may be awash with female vocalists and 80s synth-pop, but a decade ago, our prevailing sounds were bloke rock (David Gray) and maudlin MOR (Eva Cassidy). It was onto this bland, unsuspecting landscape that electro-pop siren…

Lourdes

10 Mar 2010

(U) 99min Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner’s debut feature takes a thoroughly anti-mystical approach to the phenomenon of miracles. The action centres on a pilgrimage made by a group of invalids to the eponymous French city during which a…

The Unwinding Hours

Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 5 March 2010

10 Mar 2010

The pin-drop silence that fell on Stereo at points during this first ever headline show by The Unwinding Hours – the new venture from Craig B. and Iain Cook, formerly of the much-revered Aereogramme – reflected the stock of goodwill the pair amassed…

Lady Gaga

SECC, Glasgow, Mon 1 Mar 2010

10 Mar 2010

Lady Gaga returns to Glasgow (she debuted here opening for Pussycat Dolls last summer) to showcase her very own kink-pop juggernaut, equal parts high-end fashion experiment and ingenious pop alchemy. The sheer stupidity of the scale of this production…

Benni Hemm Hemm plays Glasgow and Edinburgh dates

10 Mar 2010

Perhaps you missed the folksy melodic pop of Benedikt Hermann Hermannsson at this year’s Fence Collective Homegame? No need to beat yourself up – the man (and accompanying band, which can range between three and forty others) better known as Benni Hemm…

Bonobo - Black Sands

10 Mar 2010

(Ninja Tune) Brighton producer, Simon Green brings delicate oriental orchestral arrangements, and lovely big bass-heavy, jazz-tinged melodies, in the lush, Fly-Lo mould.

Cincinatti three-piece Why? set for Glasgow date

10 Mar 2010

Humorously blunt lyrics accompanied by sumptuous melodies, tender harmonies and the occasional hip-hop edge – sound like your cup of tea? Us too. You may care to check out this beardy three-piece from Cincinatti – whose interracial lovelorn rap ballad…

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance

10 Mar 2010

(Sunday Best) Like listening to Russell Brand or Simon Amstell rapping about Britain’s flaws, and preaching about safe sex over uninspiring drum & bass beats. Painful polemics. Light years away from ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’s glory.

Exposure: Egyptian Hip Hop

10 Mar 2010

This teenage Mancunian quartet – singer Alex Hewett, guitarists Louis Miller and Nick Delap and drummer Alex Pierce – are at the forefront of the new wave of bands emerging from their city, but don’t expect a history lesson from them. Miller brings us…

Isa & the Filthy Tongues - Dark Passenger

10 Mar 2010

(Neon Tetra) Bunnymen echoes from Isa (real name, Stacey Chavis, from Portland, Oregon) and those Filthy Tongues, including ‘New Town Killers’ used in the Richard Jobson film of the same name.

New Young Pony Club and Is Tropical set for Glasgow King Tut's date

10 Mar 2010

Besides the appeal of a date with kinky-popsters, New Young Pony Club (they of ‘Ice Cream’ fame), the support, Is Tropical, promises an added dose of throbbing electropop. A new London three-piece, they play on whatever instruments they can scrounge off…