Issue 560

Red Road - feature

Red or dead

2 Oct 2006

In these lean times for Scottish film it is women who are at the vanguard of quality, truth and all that should be right in cinema. Think of Lynne Ramsay, who made Morvern Callar, or Shona Auerbach, who was responsible for Dear Frankie, or Alison…

The Clash

2 Oct 2006

Earlier this year I noticed guerrilla-stickered cartoon bubbles around London that posed the question, ‘What would Joe Strummer do?’ They were trailers, it turned out, for a range of hip babygrows. But this mild absurdity exemplified how, almost four…

Rave - Instal, experimental music

Born free?

2 Oct 2006

Neil Cooper Instal’s now in its sixth year, and has grown considerably since it started. I’m not convinced, though, that bigger is necessarily better.

D'Offay art collection

Sale of the Century

2 Oct 2006

Last week provided an undeniably momentous moment in the history of British art. The landmark joint announcement by Tate and the Scottish National Galleries that Britain’s two largest public collections of contemporary art will join forces to acquire…

Brothers of the Head - interview

I wrote Don Quixote

2 Oct 2006

‘The danger is you mythologise,’ says British screenwriter Tony Grisoni, with reference to promoting his film Brothers of the Head. Prior to its premiere at last August’s Edinburgh International Film Festival Grisoni tells me, ‘During the making of a…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson never thought he’d see it happen a

2 Oct 2006

Fired up with a blaze of publicity, including the less than mysterious tale of some missing tapes (robbing from rich execs at the BBC to give to the poor public?), the £8m production of Robin Hood (BBC1, Sat 7 Oct, 7.05pm) is not exactly money well…

Paul Carter 4 March 1970-12 August 2006

An appreciation of the Edinburgh-based artist Paul

2 Oct 2006

It was with deep sorrow that we heard on 12 August of the death of artist and dear friend Paul Carter, in a tragic accident. Paul encapsulated all that was dynamic and progressive in the visual arts in Scotland, providing an inspirational catalyst…

Vivid Voodoo

Voodoo, doll

2 Oct 2006

The popular conception of voodoo is that of a dark, vengeful cult, where witch doctors stick pins in dolls, evil priests turn their enemies into zombies, and the possessed writhe and jerk to a relentless drumbeat. World-renowned photojournalist Les…

Glasgay!

A doubling in funding means three new productions

2 Oct 2006

There’s one event in the Glasgay! 2006 programme that doesn’t quite fit. Graffiti Brasil, a series of photographs of spray painting from the South American country, showing ‘fanatical vandalism’ and ‘jaw-droppingly elaborate murals’, doesn’t seem to…

Leech

The Leech

2 Oct 2006

Like the MOBOs, but with fewer heckles and as likely to be attended by Beyoncé, the Scottish Comedian of the Year competition in Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket saw Mark Nelson pip Paul Pirie to the coveted title, a £600 cheque, and the not so coveted trophy…

Spend a Penny

The Arches, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Oct

2 Oct 2006

SITE SPECIFIC I suppose toilets, perhaps particularly public ones, are places where we must confront the truth of the body. A good place then, to set theatre, since this too, at its best, confronts uncomfortable truths. Andy Arnold’s deft, witty…

The Devil Wears Prada

2 Oct 2006

Long before Jimmy Choo or Louis Vuitton, the Romans knew the score on couture. Back in 1AD Roman philosopher Seneca warned of the imperilled dangers of living ‘not according to reason, but according to fashion.’ Not that anyone took any notice. A couple…

The Departed

2 Oct 2006

Ghosts are always a problem for Martin Scorsese. Each film he makes is inevitably compared to his own past masterpieces, so let’s start by saying that The Departed (those ghosts are even in the title now) is not as good as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or…

The History Boys

2 Oct 2006

It was no surprise to find that Alan Bennett’s biggest West End hit since The Madness of George III should follow it to the silver screen, given the cash it generated, but one wonders whether its producers might have taken into account other factors…

Merchant of Venice, The

The Merchant of Venice

2 Oct 2006

CLASSIC It’s easy enough to see, in Britain’s current climate of religious intolerance, why Mark Thomson should wish to open the Lyceum’s new season with Shakespeare’s tale of money and racism. It is one of Shakespeare’s trickiest pieces. Our 21st…

Tutti Frutti

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 7 Oct. Seen a

2 Oct 2006

ADAPTATION We travel through life inscribed indelibly with the past. All current experience is informed by regret, guilt, nostalgia and joyful recollection, each crowding our minds in our idle moments and subconsciously influencing our actions when…

St Peter’s architects celebrated

Major Gillespie, Kidd & Coia exhibition announced.

2 Oct 2006

The work of two of Scotland’s greatest living architects, Andy MacMillan (pictured) and Isi Metzstein, is to be celebrated in a major exhibition led by The Lighthouse. Gillespie, Kidd & Coia: Architecture 1956-1987 will open at Scotland’s national…

John Pilger - Documentaries That Changed the World

John Pilger - Documentaries That Changed the World

2 Oct 2006

POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY It’s hard not to feel ambivalence towards anyone who insists on partisanship. John Pilger is a case in point. A genuinely crusading print and TV journalist, Pilger has been fighting for the rights of the poor, the put-upon and…

Stage Whispers

Theatre news

2 Oct 2006

There’s so much happening in the theatre at present that Whispers is once again forced to put aside his usual egotistical ravings to flag up some entertainments that we couldn’t find space for amid our rush of reviews.

Brothers of the Head

(18) 93min

2 Oct 2006

MOCKUMENTARY Brothers of the Head This British mock-rock-doc is something of a curate’s egg. It purports to tell the life stories of Tom and Barry Howe, a pair of conjoined twins who were snatched from the obscurity of England’s southern…

Jason and the Argonauts

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 12-14 Oct then tourin

2 Oct 2006

THEATRE SHOW Harpies, fire-breathing bulls, dragons - Jason and the Argonauts has no shortage of combative characters. Add to that Jason, his family, Medea and over 50 Argonauts and you’ll understand the difficulties facing Visible Fictions…

Losing Louis

Touring

2 Oct 2006

SCOTTISH PREMIERE Anyone with a family knows that much of what we do today is dictated by what the previous generations got up to many years before; it’s simple, practical history. Simon Mendes da Costa’s West End hit, here revived by Borderline is…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the cultural bush

2 Oct 2006

Rumours of his retirement from the rap game have clearly been exaggerated as Eminem has begun on a new D12 album. Plus, Mr Mathers has a new mixtape entitled Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, due out in December, containing six marvellous new tunes... Jake…

Yellow Moon

Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Oct

2 Oct 2006

NEW WORK We live in a world of constructed realities. So-called reality TV shows flood our screens promising an insight into everyday life, airbrushed ‘beauties’ gaze at us from the pages of glossy magazines. Swamped by the media, society loses sight…

Jo Caulfield

The Stand, Edinburgh, Tue 10 Oct; the Stand, Glasg

2 Oct 2006

STAND-UP A few days after Jo Caulfield leaves Scotland to carry on with her nationwide tour, the Grumpy Old Women will be dropping by these parts for a good old whinge. If any of that trio falls ill, they could do worse than giving Ms Caulfield a…

Death of a President

More4, Mon 9 Oct, 9pm; Channel 4, Thu 19 Oct, 9pm

2 Oct 2006

DRAMA DOCUMENTARY Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea. Possibly being added to the candidates listed as America’s public enemy number one is the United Kingdom, when this goes out on air. The international incident sparked by ITV’s 1980s Saudi drama…

My Dark Sky

Tramway, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Sep, then touring

2 Oct 2006

WORLD PREMIERE Hans and Sophie Scholl were voted fourth in a 2003 poll of the greatest ever Germans. There are also four feature films telling their story, which is an established unit in the German school curriculum. This only begins to describe…

Heretic's Tale, The

The Heretic's Tale

2 Oct 2006

NEW WORK Extreme intoxication, wild sexual orgies, incest, cannibalism - I know, you’re thinking of those students who took over the flat next door a couple of weeks back. But these kinds of activities, or at least, accusations of them, have been…

Droopy Met Hal/Degeneration

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 6-Sat 7 Oct & Sat

2 Oct 2006

DANCE The Traverse has long been the home of innovative theatre, but increasingly it’s also the place to catch ground-breaking dance. Two different but equally interesting companies are heading for the venue this fortnight, each with an international…

The Aryan Couple

2 Oct 2006

John Daly is a big man in the filmmaking world. His exec producer credits include Salvador, River’s Edge, Platoon, The Last Emperor and Loach’s Hidden Agenda. So how he came to direct a film this bad is something of a mystery. Based on the not very true…

Drenched

Touring

2 Oct 2006

NEW PLAY There’s something that doesn’t ring true about playwright Gary Young’s portrayal of a disturbed young woman in Drenched. Played by Melanie Wilson in this 60-minute solo, Cassandra sees herself as a victim of an egotistical mother and a…

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

2 Oct 2006

This concert film, combining the two nights Neil Young played at Nashville’s legendary Ryman auditorium in August 2005 finds the Canadian troubadour in rude health and sounding as soulful as ever. Amazingly, Young played the two gigs just a few short…

Idlewild

(15) 121min

2 Oct 2006

GANGSTER There is a tendency in African American cinema and culture (think Chester Himes novels) to romanticise the 1930s, a world depicted in Harlem Nights, Cotton Comes to Harlem and the first hour of Malcolm X as a time of black gangsters that…

Steven Dick

2 Oct 2006

PROFILE Who’s he then? He’s one of those comedy magicians or, depending on your viewpoint, magician comedians. When he’s not making the Queen of Hearts mysteriously appear out of his mouth, he may be busy writing jokes for 8 out of 10 Cats and Mock…

How to Steal a Diamond

Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 5 Oct, then touring

2 Oct 2006

CRIME/COMEDY/DRAMA Oxygen and water, that’s what diamonds are made of. And yet whatever rung of society you are hanging off, the possession of these rocks is an invitation to a world of riches. Inspiring independent theatre company, Vox Motus…

New Police Story

(15) 123min

2 Oct 2006

MARTIAL ARTS THRILLER The fifth instalment of the Police Story series sees Jackie Chan playing an older, less mobile and jagged cop. A gang of hoodlums using hi-tech methods based on a warped computer game are rampaging through Hong Kong, stealing…

News in brief

2 Oct 2006

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival returns to the capital, Wed 25 Oct-Sun 5 Nov. This year, the new Storytelling Centre provides the focus for the festival, whose theme ‘Across the Water’ celebrates Scotland and Ireland’s heritage of…

Countess Dracula

(18) 93min (Network DVD retail)

2 Oct 2006

HORROR Having sunk her fangs into the heaving flesh of Kate O’Mara and other voluptuous beauties in the 1970 Hammer hit The Vampire Lovers, Polish scream queen Ingrid Pitt was immediately cast in another softcore horror. Drafted in to replace Diana…

Rough Cuts

Film news to keep you amused

2 Oct 2006

An era of amateur filmmaking has come to an end. The factory in Lausanne, Switzerland, that processes Europe’s supplies of Kodachrome has shut its doors forever. If you want to get your Kodachrome film developed now, you are going to have to get in…

Medusa Touch, The

The Medusa Touch

2 Oct 2006

THRILLER This 1978 British-French made telekinesis chiller was released the same year as the Australian mind-over-matter thriller, Patrick and Brian De Palma’s psychic shocker The Fury. Jack Gold, who directed The Naked Civil Servant for television…

Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba

De: TALES (Dark Horse)

2 Oct 2006

URBAN MYSTICISM Moon and Bá are Brazil’s answer to Los Bros Hernadnez. Like the Mexican creators of Love & Rockets this pair of young writer-artists are siblings (twins in fact), and like Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez’s comics, Moon and Bá’s strips mix…

Lynne Cox

The Day the Whale Came (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

2 Oct 2006

NATURE TALE One early passage in this book from the author of Swimming to Antarctica reveals just how dangerous a stingray can be. ‘When the barb is injected into the foot, it locks into the skin and the only way to extricate it is to have it…

Dominic Streatfeild

Brainwash (Hodder & Stoughton)

2 Oct 2006

POLITICAL HISTORY From the man who brought us Cocaine comes the richly detailed story of mind control, the full unexpurgated past of truth drugs, hypnosis, Pavlovian experiments and sleep deprivation. Everything from the Moscow Show Trials to…

Y'all is Fantasy Island

This Is Music@Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Wed 2

2 Oct 2006

POST ROCK Falkirk can’t be the cheeriest of places. Arab Strap have forged a ten-year career from gloomy tales of Stirlingshire life. Fellow residents Y’All is Fantasy Island are following a similar course, knocking out tunes with titles as sunny in…

Aardman's Darkside - DVD

Aardman's Darkside

2 Oct 2006

ANIMATION As a company renowned for the sweetly naïve, homely fun of Wallace and Gromit, Morph and Creature Comforts, it’s something of a jolt to the system to discover Aardman’s adult entertainment wing. Like the Sooty pregnancy episode or…

Felicja Blumental - album review

Polish Fantasy (Brana Records)

2 Oct 2006

If your idea of a Polish fantasy stretches as far as smoked sausage washed down by a glass of vodka, then it’s time to listen to Brana Records’ latest release. Despite the recent influx of Poles to these parts, the classical music of their homeland…

It's Nice Up North

(U) 95min (Cadiz Music DVD retail)

2 Oct 2006

COMIC TRAVELOGUE John Shuttleworth is a man with a mission. Can it possibly be the case that the further north in the British Isles you go, the more pleasant people become? This is the kicking-off point for this charming little movie by Graham…

Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham - album review

Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham

2 Oct 2006

FOLK Fiddler Aly Bain and accordionist Phil Cunningham are Scotland’s most celebrated folk duo, and serve up another set of impeccably performed tunes on this new studio disc, their first in four years. They play with a matchless level of…

Jason Moran - album review

Jason Moran

2 Oct 2006

JAZZ Pianist Jason Moran has rarely settled for the obvious, but his seventh disc for Blue Note pushes into even more eclectic and unconventional territory than usual. The music on the record draws on segments from three separate commissions, two of…

Accepted

(12A) 90min

2 Oct 2006

COMEDY Steve Pink the director of Accepted also wrote High School tribute movie Grosse Point Blank, adapted Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity so there was much hope that this film would herald a second coming. Alas, Pink’s movie lacks two vital ingredients…

National Collecting Scheme reveals first artwork

2 Oct 2006

Two Glasgow-based artists, awarded a commission to create an ambitious new work of art for six Scottish museums, are set to unveil the fruits of their artistic labour. ‘Rhetoric Works & Vanity Works & Other Works’ by Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan is a…

Hitlist

The best comedy

2 Oct 2006

Hitlist Howard Marks Special Mr Nice transforms into Señor Nice to tell tales of the Straight Life from Wales to South America. Which is nice. Jongleurs, Glasgow, Thu 5 Oct. Mark Nelson Just crowned Scottish Comedian of the Year, you’ll want to…

Gay Against You

2 Oct 2006

POST PUNK The Subway, Edinburgh, Mon 11 Sep What to do with a sparse audience on a soggy Monday night? If you’re electro-saccharine noise terrorists Gay Against You, you drag all 20-odd onstage with you, thus immediately quelling the venue’s…

Squarepusher - the album

Squarepusher

2 Oct 2006

ELECTRONICA Such are Tom Jenkinson’s skills that he is the kind of muso who can impress stoic Aphex Twin dedicates as readily as famous fans of his bass guitar skills like Flea. For ten albums now he has been carving out some truly single minded…

Larrikin Love - album review

Larrikin Love

2 Oct 2006

INDIE Spawned from the waste The Libertines left in their wake, London four-piece Larrikin Love have taken their dreams of the good ship Albion and sailed into muddy waters. Where songs like ‘Happy as Annie’ are tinged with a charming gypsy-punk…

Hot Club de Paris - album review

Hot Club de Paris

2 Oct 2006

INDIE Modern music’s barmy army has some new recruits. Along with the Mystery Jets and Young Knives, this Liverpool-based trio are the latest act to flaunt their eccentricities with a frenetic debut made up of bizarre song titles, off-kilter…

Lemonheads, The - album review

The Lemonheads

2 Oct 2006

INDIE ROCK (Vagrant) At their peak, Evan Dando’s Lemonheads brilliantly combined the slacker punk power of grunge with perfect pop melodies, and while this is not quite a vintage demonstration of that, it’s still an impressively feisty return…

Various Artists - Plague Songs - album review

Various Artists

2 Oct 2006

COMPILATION My admittedly limited reading of the biblical plagues suggest some pretty nasty and brutal business. Which makes me wonder why this collection allows King Creosote to be so jaunty about swathes of frogs and gives Stephin Merritt the OK to…

Junior Boys - album review

Junior Boys

2 Oct 2006

ELECTROPOP The so far unannounced Depeche Mode revival gets sharply booted into action by these sprightly lads from Canada who claim to be on a cutting edge of ‘Modernist MOR’ which aims to destroy the point of Blunt and co. It still just sounds like…

Trivium - album review

Trivium

2 Oct 2006

METAL Opener ‘Ignition’ is a killer track, all thundering riffs and heavier than thou grooves, if someone told you it was a lost Metallica track you’d have no reason to doubt them. And they count the aforementioned Metallica and Iron Maiden…

Scissor Sisters - album review

Scissor Sisters

2 Oct 2006

GLAM ROCK DISCO POP How does one follow an album that sold more than anyone else’s in the UK in 2004 and seamlessly concatenated every genre from 1972 to 1981, short of heavy metal? On Ta-Dah, there are co-writing credits for Bowie’s 70s guitarist…

Comets on Fire

2 Oct 2006

Picture if you can, a fantastical world where Mudhoney became the global unit shifter and not Nirvana. Instead of hordes of three-chord Montys spewing out their bombastic pop angst rock, we’d have... hordes of three-chord Montys spewing out their…

Juliet & the Licks - album review

Juliet & the Licks

2 Oct 2006

ROCK While Brody Distiller’s busy being broody and all remains quiet on the Courtney front, it’s left to this Hollywood actress turned musician to out-riff the big boys. And she’s done it again with Four on the Floor; her band’s second collection of…

Sergeant Buzfuz - album review

Sergeant Buzfuz

2 Oct 2006

FOLK Folk music will flourish in the harshest of climates - even that big boorish old city they call London. Part of a community based around the Blang label, Joe Murphy, Kate Arnold and a rotating cast of supporting musicians (whichever happens not…

Badly Drawn Boy - album review

Badly Drawn Boy

2 Oct 2006

SINGER SONGWRITER This fifth album from Mancunian troubadour Badly Drawn Boy was, by Damon Gough’s own admission, his hardest to make. And, well, you can tell, because it simply isn’t any good. Having moved from indie label to major, Gough seems…

Mike Stern - album review

Mike Stern

2 Oct 2006

JAZZ A strong outing from the jazz-fusion guitarist, mixing funk, blues and rock with a straight-ahead jazz feel in very effective fashion. Stern himself is in fine form, and the assembled cats that he lets loose crank up a satisfying energy and…

Eric Bibb

2 Oct 2006

It’s no real surprise that Eric Bibb took to playing guitar early in life. He grew up in a musical family (his father was a singer, and his uncle was pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet), and began performing professionally while still in…

Infadels

2 Oct 2006

A fad can be a blessing or a curse. Why didn’t Infadels get picked up as part of all this new rave cobblers? Maybe it’s because they’re a bit of a classier, even deeper proposition. More Chemical Brothers than SL2, more New Order than D-Mob and remind…

Milburn

2 Oct 2006

Friends in high places can be a double-edged sword at times. Sheffield’s Milburn came to prominence after the exemplary live shows supporting their local kin Arctic Monkeys. They may have assisted in an initial leg up, but the quartet remains fixed…

Semtex

2 Oct 2006

Grime is the true sounds of the inner city streets of the UK, rough ripped up hip hop and fast rolling beats as exemplified by names like Lethal Bizzle, Kano, Roll Deep and Dizzee Rascal. Semtex is one of the leading DJs on the scene and drops by…

Stephen K Amos

2 Oct 2006

Word on the street was that Mr Amos was very, very close to getting a spot on the shortlist for that big comedy prize they give out in Edinburgh during August. Whether he had made it or not, his beaming smile would remain a constant feature. The…

Lucy McKenzie

Alexander Kennedy examines the temporal loops, sty

28 Sep 2006

Eternal return The recent programme of exhibitions at the Talbot Rice has dished up some of the strongest and most memorable shows in Edinburgh of late. Pat Fisher, the curator, has managed to create an environment that most artists thrive in. Now…

Surface Noise

Music news that was sure it was down on the guest

28 Sep 2006

Bolstering Glasgow’s live music venue further is the Classic Grand, a brand new venue on Jamaica Street. On the site of a former porn cinema and bingo hall, the 500 capacity venue opens on 13 October with My Latest Novel christening the stage. Acts of…

Taste

As Sunday mainstay Taste moves to Cabaret Voltaire

28 Sep 2006

When God had a rest on Sunday it wasn’t because he was tired. Sure he’d had a tough week creating the universe - Adam and Eve were at each other’s throats, Satan was getting on his tits and he still couldn’t get the moon to sit right. But, like anyone…

Peaches

Electro-political-sexual-pop revolutionaries are d

28 Sep 2006

A couple of years ago in a Parisian café, an elderly man sitting at the next table passed me a note over breakfast. It read, ‘Trust no Bush but your own’. Impeach my Bush, the title of Peaches’ new album inhabits similar territory and continues where…

Harry Hill

Horsing around

28 Sep 2006

Ricky Gervais, Charlie Higson, Nigel Planer: many a British comedian has deviated into the world of children’s literature. Yet none of them seemed quite so born to it as Harry Hill. The question wasn’t so much if the man who created the ‘Badger Parade…

Glasgay! film season

A selection of fine, exciting (and occasionally un

28 Sep 2006

This year’s programme is strong, and though it lacks the big US names (Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki, John Walters) there is still plenty to savour. Check out Argentinean filmmaker Pablo Sofovich’s tale of turkey basters, lesbian parentage and familial farce…

Dispatch, The

The Dispatch

28 Sep 2006

I’ve just been spending some time down in London finishing off a new Idlewild record, which has been, by all accounts, a successful foray back into the world of rock music. I used to live in London, but I hadn’t spent any proper time there really until…

Erase Errata

Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Tue 17 Oct

28 Sep 2006

PUNK FUNK Whether it’s new rave, nu-metal, emo or screamo, scenes invented by lazy hacks and twitchy hangers-on in overly-styled clothing don’t have a habit of sticking around for long. Thankfully the best of the bunch lumped into them do, and this…

Singles & Downloads

28 Sep 2006

Plenty of local interest stuff this issue, so let’s crack on. Forres outfit Dan Against the World show plenty of confidence and gusto, but their ‘As Their Kitchen Sinks EP’ (demo - three stars) sticks too closely to their Yank college rock influences…

Stephen Murray and Kate Orton - New Work Scotland Project

The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 4 Nov

28 Sep 2006

SULPTURE, DRAWING AND INSTALLATION The work of Stephen Murray and Kate Orton shares some startling similarities. Both work in a variety of media - sculpture, drawing and mixed media constructions. Both, too, are interested in postive and negative…

Bad Robot

Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, weekly Sat

28 Sep 2006

ECLECTIC Say goodbye to Club NME and all things indie and hello to Bad Robot, the Art School’s new Saturday night residency brought to you by the people behind the Streetlife parties. Craig Loosejoints and Stevie Elements have taken over the reins at…

Hitlist

The best rock, pop, jazz and blues

28 Sep 2006

New Order They may be heading towards gaining their free bus passes but they remain the most influential of bands. This two-night run represents the biggest indoor crowd they’ve enjoyed in Glasgow since 1989. Carling Academy, Glasgow, Wed 18 & Thu 19…

Billy Nasty

Profile

28 Sep 2006

Name Billy Nasty Occupation Purveyor of fine electro and techno Location London UK Show me the small print! Billy Nasty was one of many DJs to realise that working in a record shop is generally the first stop en route to international DJ…

Orchestra of Scottish Opera

Orchestra of Scottish Opera

28 Sep 2006

CLASSICAL They may not be very visible when Scottish Opera is on the main stage, but the Orchestra of Scottish Opera is not one to shy away from appearing in public on their own so that audiences can get a chance to hear and see them a bit more…

Omar Sosa-Dhafer Youssef Trio

28 Sep 2006

The Scottish Arts Council’s Tune Up touring scheme has thrown up some very intriguing collaborations in its short but influential history, many of them emanating from Big Big World promoter Billy Kelly in Glasgow. His latest offering brings together not…

Women's Nights

Velvet and Fur Burger

28 Sep 2006

EDINBURGH WOMEN’S CLUBS Clublife for lady-loving ladies in Edinburgh has been rejuvenated of late, with a change of DJs for both monthly nights Velvet and Fur Burger, a change of venue for the latter, and the addition of regular live performances and…

Jeremy Deller - Edited Rushes

The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Oct

28 Sep 2006

FILM INSTALLATION What has Jeremy Deller been up to? It’s two years since he won the Turner Prize, so what exactly has the artist-curator-director got to show for himself since this aforementioned institutional stamp of success? With four new…

Dalziel + Scullion - The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Sat 7

28 Sep 2006

INSTALLATION The first major exhibition in the refurbished Kelvingrove will be an artistic collaboration of international standing: visuals from Dalziel + Scullion and music by Craig Armstrong. For ‘The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer’, Dalziel…

Gregor Laird: Lost in the Forest

Brunswick Hotel, Glasgow, Sun 1-Sun 29 Oct

28 Sep 2006

NEW ART TALENT Maybe not a sheep, but definitely dressed in wolf’s clothing, young Edinburgh artist Gregor Laird is taking a trip to where the wild things are for his Glasgay! premiere. Piecing together large collage work for his first show since…

Hitlist

The best dancefloor action

28 Sep 2006

Colours Has it really been that long? Streetrave hits its 17th anniversary with a guest set from house music legend John Digweed (pictured). The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 7 Oct. Trouble MC Ratty B and the Trouble crew return with their usual…

Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion (Bantam)

28 Sep 2006

Like a latter day John Thomas Scopes (the Tennessee biology teacher who was the inspiration for the play and film Inherit the Wind) Richard Dawkins has long been vocal about his belief that all children should be taught the Darwinian Theory of Evolution…

Conversation Pieces

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tue 10 & Thu 19 Oct

28 Sep 2006

TALKS SERIES Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s popular lunchtime talks series returned at the start of October with Joan Bakewell discussing her inspirational broadcasting career and life as a woman in her seventies. This fortnight, strapping lads…

Rapture, The

Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Oct

28 Sep 2006

Punk funk: remember that one? It was a little bit new wave, but quite post punk. Well, more post-post-punk. But pre-new rave. Such is the way the musical terminology merry-go-round rapidly spins (largely care of the people at NME), and on it again…

Hitlist

The most fabulous events this fortnight

28 Sep 2006

Alan Cumming Not content with producing a cologne and having the brass neck to call it Cumming the Fragrance, the actor and X-Men star returns to Glasgow to talk about his career (which began in a Tron production of Macbeth) as part of the theatre’s…

Karl Haendel - Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor

Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Oct

28 Sep 2006

DRAWING There is something so obvious (a reactionary might say philistine) about treating everything with the same level of attention and/or contempt. The ‘high’ and the ‘low’ have been so expertly conflated in the best art and in the worst visual…

Vincent Vincent and the Villains

Exposure

28 Sep 2006

Imagine if The Libertines were formed not by Carl and Pete, but by a young Chuck Berry and Elvis, both high on the intoxicating potential of this new fangled racket, before subsequent generations mucked around with their blueprint. In all probability it…

Word Order: Concrete Poetry and its Influence

The Changing Room, Stirling, until Sat 21 Oct

28 Sep 2006

SCULPTURE, INSTALLATION AND PRINT Although the main space is minimal, the Scottish poet Alec Finlay’s playful wall works adds gusto to Stirling’s Changing Room. Welcoming us to the exhibition is ‘Loop’ (2006), cut out letters spelling the title four…

Funeral for a Friend

Revolution at QMU, Glasgow, Tue 17 Oct

28 Sep 2006

ROCK/METAL/EMO Funeral For A Friend are the latest in a long line of bands from every genre to throw away their instruments for a night and park themselves behind a set of decks instead. People like Peter Hook, Mani and Andy Rourke have all carved…

Raconteurs, The

The Raconteurs

28 Sep 2006

You get one famous dude That’s right, because the American supergroup features none other than the famous daft clowning buffoon and outrageous singer and guitarist Jack Black... oh, hang on a minute... sorry, what?... oh yeah, our mistake. It’s Jack…