Issue 559

A personal history of clubbing at the Arches

Arche de Triumphe

18 Sep 2006

I first stepped into the cavernous spaces of the Arches in the year 2000 to hand in an application form for a press position. I remember Andy Arnold taking me on a tour of the building (works) and showing me a massive hole in the floor (the Café Bar…

Andrew Maxwell

18 Sep 2006

While it’s clear that this Dublin-born stand-up (or clown, as he prefers to call those in the comedy trade) lives to make people laugh, his priority during most of September was surely catching up on some kip. In August, he performed a hilarious daily…

Andy Riley - Loads More Lies to Tell Small Kids

Andy Riley

18 Sep 2006

COMIC ILLUSTRATIONS I suppose anyone who has worked closely with Armando Iannucci, Dylan Moran and Dom Joly must have a naturally devilish streak in them. But only the most brutally callous would imagine a bloodbath involving the Tweenies, have a…

Antiques Roadshow

18 Sep 2006

Raid the attic and dust off your priceless heirlooms, the BBC’s antique experts are in town! You won’t be allowed in unless you have something to be valued. And no, taking your granny along just because she fancies Michael Aspel, doesn’t count.

Arches Live

Arches, Glasgow, Thu 21-Sun 30 Sep

18 Sep 2006

MINI FESTIVAL I’m aware that you’ve read plenty about The Arches in our features, but there’s so much more to say. This youthful and creative hub, enjoying its 15th year putting ideas into spectacular practice, has the treat of its Arches Live…

Artbeat

Gossip, chat and rumour from the gallery floor

18 Sep 2006

Congratulation to Craig Mulholland for being awarded the Scottish Arts Council and Screen and Artists Film and Video Award. The money will go towards developing his successful experiments with digital film, evidenced in his exhibitions at last year’s…

Autumn music special - Jay-Z

President Carter

18 Sep 2006

1. With more pseudonyms than Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Sawn Carter’s Jay-Z alias is an abbreviation of his neighbourhood nickname Jazzy, appropriated for his smart dress sense. His Reebok S Carter was the first line of non-athlete training shoe and remains…

Autumn music special - live highlights

18 Sep 2006

Jurassic 5 More of that proverbial classic rap, in spades. Carling Academy, Glasgow, 6 Oct.

Autumn music special - live highlights

18 Sep 2006

Jurassic 5 More of that proverbial classic rap, in spades. Carling Academy, Glasgow, 6 Oct.

Autumn music special - Sparklehorse

Why the long face?

18 Sep 2006

It’s been five years since alt.country troubadour Sparklehorse last released a record, the atmospheric genius of It’s a Wonderful Life. Instead of bearing a grudge for the delay, we should be grateful Mark Linkous (for Sparklehorse is he) ever got round…

Autumn music special - The Fratellis

Rock follies

18 Sep 2006

In the wake of Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys it seems that record companies have adjusted their tactics. Every year now sees a selection of hatchling bands being signed, tooled up and sent over the parapet to face the artillery of the Top 40.

Autumn music special - The Fratellis

Rock follies

18 Sep 2006

In the wake of Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys it seems that record companies have adjusted their tactics. Every year now sees a selection of hatchling bands being signed, tooled up and sent over the parapet to face the artillery of the Top 40.

Autumn music special - your new favourite bands

18 Sep 2006

Dot to Dot sound like the bastard sons of Orange Juice and Lloyd Cole and their aim seems to be to get you dancing. They like their jangle, and they sometimes shamble, but their shows are always worth catching, and with their debut single, ‘Dusty…

Badly Drawn Boy

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 9 Sep

18 Sep 2006

ROCK ‘Glasgow, you are the best audience we have had in years!’ So shouts Damon Gough, his bass player nodding in acquiescence. All in all, it’s been a successful gig for Badly Drawn Boy. Such is the popularity of the band that King Tut’s could have…

Bed, The

The Bed

18 Sep 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE How does sleeping with 40 strangers in one night grab you? Well, the mother of all one night stands is about to arrive in Glasgow, so dig out your best pyjamas. Despite how it sounds, The Bed is in fact a perfectly respectable…

Black Keys, The - album review

The Black Keys

18 Sep 2006

ROCK’N’ROLL When The White Stripes’ take on garage minimalism went global it fucked over a whole bunch of duos pushing their own bottled blues moonshine. With four long players under their snake belts now the Jack’n’Meg comparisons are like water off…

Black Sun

70min

18 Sep 2006

DOCUMENTARY French artist, documentary filmmaker and author Hugues de Montalembert describes his life after he was attacked in his apartment in New York and blinded with paint stripper. This is less the story of an artist coming to terms with his…

Brendan McCarthy - Solo (comic)

Brendan McCarthy

18 Sep 2006

COMICS As a child brought up on the surreal and sometimes vicious images of British artist Brendan McCarthy, it’s a pleasure to report I don’t feel nearly as damaged as I should. Once a regular on 2000AD - where he forged an ahead-of-its-time…

Callum Innes - From Memory

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 30 Sep-19 Nov

18 Sep 2006

PAINTING Abstract painting initially appears to have had a tempestuous and polarised history of either obsessively concealing or proudly parading its own creative process. From Mondrian’s sleek matrix paintings, to Pollock’s grandious splatterings…

Children of Men

(15) 114min

18 Sep 2006

DRAMA/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI It’s 2027, and various crises relating to immigration, terrorism and biological insecurities are just the minor symptoms of a larger problem facing mankind; no children have been born worldwide for nearly two decades. When…

Clerks II

(15) 97min

18 Sep 2006

COMEDY ‘With no power comes no responsibility,’ declares the tagline on the poster for Clerks II, neatly summarising the minimal progress made by Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) as they leave behind their jobs as time wasting…

Colin Towns & NDR Big Band - album review

Colin Towns & NDR Big Band

18 Sep 2006

JAZZ Recorded live at the Moers Jazz Festival and released simultaneously with Lend Me Your Ears, a fine studio album of Towns’ own compositions also featuring the NDR Big Band, this exuberant disc celebrates Zappa’s idiosyncratic music while…

Davey Graham

Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 24 Sep

18 Sep 2006

FOLK Lauded by Bert Jansch and Eric Clapton, Davey Graham is the guitar hero’s guitar hero. But despite his revolutionary impact on acoustic guitar playing and British folk music in the early 1960s, Graham has remained a relatively obscure figure. So…

David Icke: Was He Right?

Five, Mon 2 Oct, 11pm

18 Sep 2006

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY When a mound of grass in Peru started talking to David Icke, his life was never to be the same again. Having plied his trade as a goalkeeper for Coventry City before introducing snooker coverage for the BBC, his overnight…

Devendra Banhart

ABC, Glasgow, Sat 2 Sep

18 Sep 2006

FOLK The reasons you loved a live show don’t always match the reasons you went along in the first place. Those who dropped by to sample the artful folk of this Texan troubadour and his band (considering their bank of guitars and that woodland of…