Issue 561

All the King's Men

(12A) 127min

17 Oct 2006

DRAMA Sean Penn steps into Broderick Crawford’s Oscar winning shoes in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel, which was inspired by the infamous Louisiana governor and Senator Huey ‘Kingfish’ Long: a politician so mired in corruption and…

An Hour and a Half Late

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 24-Sat 28 Oct

17 Oct 2006

SCOTTISH PREMIERE My father once gave me a piece of advice, the wisdom of which magnifies as the years pass. ‘Son,’ he said, ‘never try to get the last word in an argument with a woman - it’ll last the rest of your life.’ It’s a dilemma that Mel…

Beck - CD review

The Information (Geffen)

17 Oct 2006

Convenience is everything nowadays and there is a particular kind of music which nails the rumble of great hip hop to the insistency of great electro and squeezes the nonchalant twang of the blues up against the comely beauty of perfect folk music and…

Big Big World

The world at your feet

17 Oct 2006

This month, Big Big World returns to Glasgow. The well-established, and, to be fair, excellent series of live shows showcases talent from all around the world, this year’s attraction coming from Scotland, Iran, Canada, Cuba, India, the US and all over…

Children's Classical Concerts

Children's Classical Concerts</h3>

17 Oct 2006

CLASSICAL MUSIC Whether it’s the latest picture book by Julia Donaldson or a juicy storyline in EastEnders, we all love a good yarn. Young or old, a well-told narrative always hits the spot, but there are as many ways of delivering a story as there…

Colours Are Brighter - CD review

Colours Are Brighter

17 Oct 2006

INDIE FOR KIDS 1. Four Tet feat. Princess Watermelon ‘Go Go Ninja Dinosaur’ ‘My friend Douglas is a dinosaur expert. He’d love this! I like the voices.’ 5 stars 2. Rasputina ‘A Skeleton Bang’ ‘This would be good for Halloween. It makes me…

Curve Foundation

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 20 & Sat 21 Oct

17 Oct 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE The Curve Foundation is the rainbow of the Scottish dance scene - rarely seen but well worth the wait when it finally arrives. The company has been creating quality dance for over eight years now, despite struggling to secure the…

Dispatch

The Dispatch

17 Oct 2006

There has always been manufactured pop. As soon as the business-types worked out that they could market music at all, that art form became fair game for exploitation by those who cared little for art. But in the past a high president in songwriting was…

Havoc

(18) 85min

17 Oct 2006

COMING OF AGE DRAMA Seemingly developed around Chomsky’s theory that ‘unlimited economic growth has the marvellous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege’, Havoc is a film awash with promising ideas which its filmmakers proceed to…

History Boys, The

The History Boys

17 Oct 2006

WEST END TOUR There might be a couple of points of added interest to this reappearance of Alan Bennett’s 2004 classic on Scottish stages. The first of these has to be the recent release of the motion picture version of the play, directed here, as at…

Hitlist

The best theatre and dance

17 Oct 2006

The Tempest The Tron Theatre Company’s first outing of the season is a return to Shakespeare’s enchanted island. Will Caliban be as harshly treated as ever, will Miranda still fall in love with the first adult male she meets, will Prospero still have…

Hitlist

The best rock, pop, jazz and folk

17 Oct 2006

King Creosote It may have been last year that his incredible KC Rules OK album came out but there’s still plenty who haven’t had the chance to catch Kenny Anderson’s joyous sound live. Now here’s the perfect chance. ABC, Glasgow, Sat 21 Oct. (Rock & Pop)

Hitlist

The best comedy

17 Oct 2006

Rob Deering The manic chap with a nice line in musical analysis aims to rock your comedic world. The Stand, Edinburgh, Thu 19-Sat 21 Oct.

Hitlist

The best exhibitions

17 Oct 2006

Callum Innes - From Memory An excellent exhibition of abstract canvases painted by the Edinburgh-born artist. The paintings demonstrate a solid awareness of the history of abstract art, drawing on the best elements of abstract expressionism, post…

Hitlist

The best film & DVD releases

17 Oct 2006

Red Road Andrea Arnold’s voyeuristic Glasgow-set thriller stalks it’s way into cinemas. One of the best films of the year without a shadow of a doubt. Selected release from Fri 27 Oct.

Hitlist

The best books, comics and events

17 Oct 2006

Hitlist Jeremy Paxman The toughest talker on the BBC block gets all mouthy about the Royal Family. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 19 Oct.

Isobel Campbell - CD review

Isobel Campbell

17 Oct 2006

INDIE FOLK No sooner has Isobel Campbell collected a Mercury nomination for her Mark Lanegan-assisted Ballad of the Broken Seas album, than she’s back with a new record. A significant departure from Ballad, it’s a collection of traditional and…

Jason and the Argonauts

Gilmorehill G12, Glasgow, Thu 2-Fri 3 Nov, then to

17 Oct 2006

NEW WORK There’s something about myth that short circuits history and defines an immediacy almost regardless of the historical moment you’re in. These are stories told and retold through the ages that capture defining human dilemmas about love, war…

Marie Antoinette

Cherchez la femme

17 Oct 2006

Let her eat cake: Kaleem Aftab 4 stars Sofia Coppola proved with The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation that she’s incredibly adept at showcasing female alienation. In his book A Cinema of Loneliness Robert Kolker notes that not only are all the…

Mary Stuart

The History Girls

17 Oct 2006

There are a few moments in history where complex disseminations must be made about the personal and the political, where the particular personality of an individual might actually influence events which would otherwise chug along under their own mighty…

Mother Courage

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 27-Sat 28 Oct, t

17 Oct 2006

CLASSIC Ask any critic, or for that matter, any regular theatregoer for their top ten pieces of political theatre, and surely all would put Brecht’s classic of war, gender and class up there. The reasons? Perhaps they’re far too complex and…

Music DVDs round-up

17 Oct 2006

The Police Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out (Universal) Police drummer Stewart Copeland carried a Super8 camera with him from the band’s inception and captured some 50 hours of footage to make a revealing fly on the wall film, which captures the…

One Hour Before Sunrise

Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh, until Sat 14 Oct

17 Oct 2006

NEW WORK Over 400 people of 35 different nationalities remain held without charge or trial at the infamous Guantenamo Bay. We’re just beginning to question the involvement of our government, whereas for some nations torture has long been an…

Peter Sellers Collection, The - DVD review

The Peter Sellers Collection

17 Oct 2006

COMEDY Master or monster? Idol or idiot? Genius or jackass? The debate still simmers upon which side Peter Sellers’ legacy should fall, but it would be a shame if his reel life was tainted by his clear failings as a husband or father. Just prior to…

Rambert

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 25-Sat 27 Oct

17 Oct 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE There aren’t many octogenarians who can do the splits, leap high in the air or charge around at speed for thirty minutes flat. But then Rambert isn’t your average 80-year-old. The London-based dance company started life in 1926…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds a slew of iconic women on th

17 Oct 2006

Honestly, you wade through acres of telly for one strong female to pop by and all of sudden you can’t bleedin’ move for them. This fortnight alone, we have a president, a high-ranking police chief, a notorious killer, the first celebrity chef and the…

Rough Cuts

Film news and giveaways for beautiful cineaste typ

17 Oct 2006

Don’t miss an early chance to see new Edinburgh-based feature film Night People. The film is actually not released until 3 November, but there will be a screening at Filmhouse, Edinburgh on Tuesday 31 October as part of the Reel 2006 season of recent…

Scottish Dance Theatre

Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 27 Oct

17 Oct 2006

CONTEMPORARY DANCE David Attenborough would be proud. Not only has Scottish Dance Theatre produced an accessible, fun and thought-provoking new work ?" but they do some pretty nifty animal impressions too. Watching the dancers stalk, strut and gambol…

Spare Snare

Garden Leave (Chute Records)

17 Oct 2006

POP FOLK Snow Patrol lead guy Gary Lightbody loves them. The List readers had them down as the 46th best Scottish band of all time. So, why are they still recording albums from home? Well, maybe they just like it that way. And there is indeed a lot…

Stage Whispers

17 Oct 2006

Whispers is sure you all know the feeling, and it gets more powerful as the winter months draw on. The one comfortable place to be is your pit, and as the weather gets colder, that superhuman effort it takes to haul your watusi into the cold needs to be…

Steg G & the Freestyle Master - CD review

Steg G & the Freestyle Master

17 Oct 2006

HIP HOP Regional hip hop is a natural progression from a style that was so specific to the streets of New York where Kool Herc originated it in the 70s. That said, it’s still a bit of a stretch to get your head around the concept of Glaswegian hip…

Stray Dogs

(12A) 93min

17 Oct 2006

DRAMA Samira Makhmalbaf’s At Five in the Afternoon can legitimately claim to have directly inspired two other films. Firstly, there was her sister Hana’s shrewd behind-the-scenes portrait Joy of Madness, and now her stepmother Marziyeh Meshkini’s…

Surface Noise

Music news that has bought Morrissey tickets alrea

17 Oct 2006

The just announced shows this issue include Morrissey at the SECC on 2 December, R&B soul man John Legend at Carling Academy on 19 December, gangsta rap numpties The Game at the same venue on 6 December, Lily Allen, Carling Academy, 8 March, My Chemical…

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

17 Oct 2006

A LIGGER'S GUIDE TO Surely Tennessee wasn’t his real name? No, he was born Thomas Larnier Williams. His pen name was originally a nickname accorded him by his college friends, who gently mocked him for his Southern Gentleman’s accent. He was…

Torchwood

BBC3, Sun 22 Oct, 9pm; BBC2, Wed 25 Oct, 9pm

17 Oct 2006

SCI-FI DRAMA It could all have been such a disaster. Revamping an old TV series tends to end in calamity and/or tedium (Randall and Hopkirk, The Basil Brush Show, The Price is Right for just three) but the all-new Doctor Who has defied nature and…

Ultimate Hammer Box Set, The - DVD review

The Ultimate Hammer Box Set

17 Oct 2006

HORROR That the words ‘Hammer’ and ‘horror’ are synonymous is testament to the British production company’s significance in cinema history and to the enduring appeal of the films it produced. Although Hammer Film Productions Ltd had been making films…

Capital developments

Edinburgh’s cultural life is set for further uphea

16 Oct 2006

After months of wrangling, the City of Edinburgh council’s planning committee has green-lit the £200 million ‘Caltongate’ development. The controversial proposal will see the area around the old New Street bus depot transformed to accommodate a new…

Eat, drink and be merry

16 Oct 2006

We all know how to organise a party. But what if you want to do something a little different, a little more ambitious than a piss up in your front room? We’ve put together a guide to the best party ideas, from great venues to amazing costumes. And to…

Edinburgh vigil for Politkovskaya

Amnesty to request investigation into death of Rus

16 Oct 2006

The Scottish branch of Amnesty International is to hold a vigil in memory of Anna Politkovskaya in the capital. The campaigning Russian journalist and tenacious critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in the stairwell of her apartment earlier…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the culturla bush

16 Oct 2006

The hottest hotseat is showbusiness keeps on hotting up with fervent rumours about the replacement for Des Lynam in the reclining Countdown chair. Carol Vorderman is still refusing to be considered a candidate while Stephen Fry is the latest name to get…

Leech

Sucking the blood of popular entertainment

16 Oct 2006

Top entertainment and listings magazines might pulp entire rainforests trying to make you go organic. But when the Leech goes, it won’t be to the nutrients of the soil, it’ll be to the fridge freezer, stuffed behind the leftover bubble and squeak and…

New directions

Philip Howard, the longest-serving artistic direct

16 Oct 2006

As Philip Howard walks towards my booth in the far corner of the Traverse bar, I am reminded, not for the first time, of an Englishman abroad, at least in that sense that we foreigners are taught to think of them. There’s something undemonstrative…

No more multicoloured mud

It’s hard to please The List’s art critic, but one

16 Oct 2006

Is there a place for High Modernist Art in Scotland? Was there ever? ‘New York stole the idea of Modern art’, we are told hyperbolically by various writers, ‘and Scotland got left with the Scottish Colourists and their ilk.’

Vote for the best (and worst) Scottish singles

16 Oct 2006

That age-old, heated pub argument about whether the best seven-inch record to hail from north of the border is The Proclaimers’ ‘500 Miles’ or Andy Cameron’s ‘Ally’s Tartan Army’ is about to be definitively settled. Music website www.jocknroll.co.uk has…

Agatha Christie

Ripping yarns

12 Oct 2006

When The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published 80 years ago, the leftfield plot twist and unreliable narrator left her readers and the wider crime fiction community feeling betrayed. Only the tie-breaking vote of Dorothy Sayers prevented her from being…

Aim

Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Thu 26 Oct; King Tut’s, Gl

12 Oct 2006

ECLECTIC Having cut ties with the now defunct Manchester hip hop label Grand Central, Andy Turner as Aim has found a new creative freedom on his own ATIC Records. His new album Flight 602 furthers a journey into excitable syncopation and lush…

Billy Bragg

The Progressive Patriot (Bantam)

12 Oct 2006

SOCIAL HISTORY Billy Bragg has been so outspoken over the years that it comes as a surprise that this is his first ever book. Conceived as a reaction to the rise of the BNP in his hometown of Barking and the 7 July bombings, this is a heartfelt yet…

Calexico

12 Oct 2006

Residing as they were for many years, in a world where indie rock was the dominant music form around them, Joey Burns and John Convertino did well to resist, instead, digging themselves out a very particular groove with the ever evolving Calexico sound.

Classical hitlist

Hitlist

12 Oct 2006

Mr McFall’s Chamber Tribute to piper and fiddle player Martyn Bennett, who was a great friend of the group up until his death a year and a half ago. His hallmark combinations of electronic bass lines and beats with folk tunes, whether original or…

Dears, The

The Dears

12 Oct 2006

On first listen a band like The Dears sound so alarmingly familiar it’s worrying. They evoke the spirit of early Smiths, Blur and rosier periods of The Cure. It is easy to confuse this familiarity with unoriginality, in fact, despite sounding remarkably…

Ed Byrne

12 Oct 2006

We’ll grant you that Ed Byrne is prone to standing up. But falling down? Not this consummate writer and performer. So, his show, Standing Up and Falling Down might not fully work as a title, but the guy’s stirring confidence and natural verve ensures…

George Burt-Raymond Macdonald Sextet - CD review

George Burt-Raymond Macdonald Sextet

12 Oct 2006

JAZZ Boohoo Fever (Leo Records) This disc comes out of the same performance-plus-recording project at An Tobar in Mull as last year’s A Day for a Reason, centred on the Tobermory clock and the two women closely associated with it, the…

Grudge 2, The

The Grudge 2

12 Oct 2006

HORROR With four Japanese Ju-On: The Grudge films under his belt, a fifth in the works and now a pair of US remakes to his name, writer-director Takashi Shimizu has rung a lucrative career out of his simple idea of a malign ghost that haunts one…

GSA Annual Staff Show - Christine Borland, Thomas Joshua Cooper and Peter McCaughy

GSA Annual Staff Show - Christine Borland, Thomas

12 Oct 2006

PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO AND INSTALLATION This slick little show continues the annual ‘outing’ of the talents of GSA staff members. The exhibition is pared down this year, which means that there is space to consider the objects, enough room to look for…

Guardian, The

The Guardian

12 Oct 2006

ACTION/ADVENTURE The élite rescue swimmers of the US Coast Guard were the only administrative body to surface from the debacle that was ‘the response’ to Hurricane Katrina with any credit. As a reward they’ve been given the Hollywood badge of honour…

Hazy Janes, The

The Hazy Janes

12 Oct 2006

What is it with folk from Dundee this month? First it was The View, now more Taysiders are at it, this time the altogether less twisted prospect of this feel good foursome. More concerned with inducing singalongs than sparking a mosh pit anguish they…

Hitlist

The best dancefloor action

12 Oct 2006

Mind The Gap Another tasty line up from this still rather young clubnight. Marc Romboy and Elektrochemie (Get Physical) do the business. Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 20 Oct.

Hitlist

The best rock, pop, folk and jazz

12 Oct 2006

King Creosote It may have been last year that his incredible KC Rules OK album came out but there’s still plenty who haven’t had the chance to catch Kenny Anderson’s joyous sound live. Now here’s the perfect chance. ABC, Glasgow, Sat 21 Oct. (Rock & Pop)

Ian Pattison

Looking at the Stars (Black and White)

12 Oct 2006

COMEDY DRAMA Judging by the predicaments experienced by the anti-hero of his third novel, Ian Pattison looks to be exorcising his Rab C Nesbitt ghosts. Tucker, a fortysomething one-time screenwriter, currently reading scripts to make a living, lives…

Jim Davidson

12 Oct 2006

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . 1 He failed the audition to play the part of the Artful Dodger in the movie Oliver! 2 Later on in life, he managed to nab roles in Peter Greenaway’s A Zed and Two Noughts and in last year’s Colour Me…

Killers, The - CD review

The Killer

12 Oct 2006

ROCK If any band had ‘stadium fodder’ tattooed across their skinny asses from day one, it was The Killers. This second album is supposed to secure their place as true festival headlining prospects, which it will of course, but overall, Sam’s Town is…

Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick - CD review

Straws in the Wind (Topic Records)

12 Oct 2006

A return to a famous collaboration featuring two doyens of the English folk scene that began in the 60s and has recurred all too occasionally in the intervening decades. The songs chosen for this set are largely drawn from AL Lloyd’s seminal collection…

Michael McIntyre - My Hero

Michael McIntyre

12 Oct 2006

MY HERO The nominations for my comedy hero are Billy Connolly, Larry David, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor . And the winner is . . . Woody Allen. But it was close. Connolly is fantastically naturally funny and a benchmark for my own comedy while David…

Moutin Reunion Quartet

12 Oct 2006

The Moutin twins - François on bass and Louis on drums - are well known on the French jazz scene, and now make their UK touring debut with their own band to coincide with the release of their third album, Something Like Now. The brothers are joined by…

New York Dolls

12 Oct 2006

New York Dolls Some things just aren’t supposed to happen. How David Bowie, Lou Reed and most shocking of all, Iggy Pop still live and breathe on earth is something of a scientific anomaly. In contrast, the mighty New York Dolls had their share of…

Peter Kay

The Sound of Laughter (Century)

12 Oct 2006

COMEDY AUTOBIOGRAPHY Since Peter Kay has built his career almost entirely upon a shared sense of nostalgia, it is only to be expected that his autobiography might contain a few ‘an’ then it were all back ‘ome for Manimal’ style anecdotes. But…

Roddy Doyle

Paula Spencer (Jonathan Cape)

12 Oct 2006

SOCIAL DRAMA Epic historical trilogies must be a hell of a grind. So, you can forgive Roddy Doyle for taking his eye temporarily off the ball of his Last Roundup series (two down: A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play that Thing, one to come in, probably…

Traverse

New directions

12 Oct 2006

As Philip Howard walked towards my booth in the far corner of the Traverse bar, I was reminded somehow, not for the first time, of an Englishman abroad, at least in that sense that we foreigners are taught to think of them. There’s something…

View, The

The View

12 Oct 2006

Talk may be cheap, but all the bumping of gums about Dundonian quartet seems to have been good value for money. Coming out with the same homely, organic sensibility that made Arctic Monkeys such a naturally appealing proposition, they apear here with…

Bank of Scotland Museum

A million on the Mound

11 Oct 2006

It’s creepy, discovering that someone was murdered right outside your office; even more chilling when you find out that it’s unsolved. Yes, a man named William Begbie, a porter for the British Linen Bank, was stabbed to death and robbed of £4,392 of the…

Dalziel + Scullion

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, until

11 Oct 2006

FILM INSTALLATION The new exhibition The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer by Dalziel + Scullion at Kelvingrove continues their use of a minimal, ‘hands off’ approach to whichever medium they employ. This attitude is one of the most successful aspects…

Nomo

Fish Fry at the Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 21 Oct

11 Oct 2006

JAZZ FUNK How they’re going to fit everyone on stage we don’t know, but this set by Detroit octet (plus guest players) Nomo should be one to look forward to. Continuing the new Jazz Bar’s ever-growing resurgence as the home of jazz, funk, Latin and…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Naked Classics

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 26 Oct

11 Oct 2006

STANDARDS REVISTED AND REWORKED Naked and orchestras are two words which (probably thankfully) don’t usually appear in the same sentence. The RSNO’s new Naked Classics series is set to change that, albeit the collective body of the orchestra that is…

Scottish International Storytelling Festival

5 REASONS TO GO TO...

11 Oct 2006

1 It’s not just for the ankle-biters Kids love opening up their imaginations to a well-told story, and adults should indulge that same impulse. The festival’s evening events are suited to majors rather than minors, with a storytelling club each Friday…

Singles & Downloads

11 Oct 2006

Unlikely as it seems, a certain contingent of megastars might be too big to read their own press. This is a good thing, because we get to lay the boot into their ever more ham-fisted efforts without fear of hurting anyone’s feelings. Like cuddly old…

Sue Spark - Confection

The Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu No

11 Oct 2006

PAINTING A carved frieze high on the exterior of the Corn Exchange building shows the stages between planting and harvesting grain and its eventual route to market. The exuberant quasi-Baroque narrative is populated by putti-esque figures - small…

Timo Maas

11 Oct 2006

Name Timo Maas Occupation DJ/Producer Location Hanover, Germany What’s the script? Unlike many of today’s producers who spent their playtimes twiddling knobs and became superstars before the school bell rang, Timo Maas took a longer path…

Your Sound

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sun 1 Oct

11 Oct 2006

INDIE Launched earlier this year by the King Tut’s venue, Your Sound is a networking opportunity for local acts to come face-to-face with industry figures. Part-indie club night, part-networking soirée and part promo shindig, Your Sound launched Term…

Zoe Rahman

Ramshorn Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 27 Oct; The Lot, Ed

11 Oct 2006

JAZZ Pianist Zoë Rahman was philosophical about being this year’s jazz representative in the Mercury Prize short list. Like all previous contenders from the jazz sector, her album Melting Pot didn’t scoop the prize, but she not only refused to moan…

Andrew Sunley Smith - Migratory Projects

Andrew Sunley Smith - Migratory Projects

10 Oct 2006

INSTALLATION, PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM Migratory Projects, by Australian artist Andrew Sunley Smith, loosely explores migration and survival, via records of journeys through Australia. Along with documentary photographs, items from the journeys are…

Bent Double

10 Oct 2006

Zoe Lyons won the Funny Women competition in 2004, and with residencies in Brighton and London, she’s much in demand. After gaining a degree in psychology she turned to acting, and now finds herself in the even less serious business of comedy. Bent…

Boyfriends, The - album review

The Boyfriends

10 Oct 2006

INDIE This London-based foursome reckon they make ‘good boyfriend material’ (hence the monicker) and if you like your chaps unashamedly foppish, then you’re certain to agree. The band’s potential suitor rating is enhanced by their dreamy debut…

Classic Grand

Back to the floor

10 Oct 2006

Next door to the Sub Club - one of Scotland’s most revered clubbing institutions - a new venue has just opened its doors to an eager public. One of Glasgow’s oldest cinemas and formerly the Coco Club, The Classic Grand on Jamaica Street is a newly…

Cooper Temple Clause, The

The Cooper Temple Clause

10 Oct 2006

ROCK Admit it, you’d forgotten this lot existed . . . or at least presumed they’d been banished along with the likes of Gay Dad and Ultrasound to the giant, death-by-hype scrapheap in the sky. After all, it was back in 2000 that they were first…

DAM - album review

DAM

10 Oct 2006

HIP HOP Being Palestinians residing inside Israel, and one of the first breakthrough acts to rap in Arabic, DAM’s are truly unique in the hip hop world. This might have been more curse than blessing - there was always the risk that their novel ouevre…

David Lloyd

Kickback (Darkhorse)

10 Oct 2006

CRIME NOIR Well-established comic book artists usually get around to writing their own material at some point in their careers. Veteran British artist David Lloyd, who remains best known for his collaboration with Alan Moore on the virtuoso V for…

Diane Torr: Donald Does Dusty

Drag king and performer Diane Torr explains why sh

10 Oct 2006

My brother, growing up in Mastrick on the outskirts of Aberdeen in the late 1950s and early 1960s, aware of his sexuality but with no representation of gay identity in the neighbourhood, focused on Dusty Springfield. It was Dusty and him on the queer…

Douglas Gordon

Opposites attract

10 Oct 2006

I’m sitting in front of a blank screen, worrying about writing a piece on Douglas Gordon. I’m clear what I want to say: I hope to persuade sceptics and wavering readers that Gordon is one of the most interesting artists working anywhere in the world.

Duke Special - album review

Duke Special

10 Oct 2006

INDIE POP Judged on its own merit, this second release from the dreadlocked ‘boho-chic’ Belfast lad (bet you don’t get many of them) Peter Wilson has some fine moments. Opener ‘Wake Up Scarlett’ is a giant of a song, while ‘Everybody Wants a Little…

Gogol Bordello

10 Oct 2006

5 REASONS TO GO SEE 1 Everyone needs some gypsy punk in their lives and that’s exactly what Gogol Bordello are. Formed in NYC’s Lower East Side at the arse-end of the last millennium, the eight-piece loonfest is made up primarily of Eastern…

Good Year, A

A Good Year

10 Oct 2006

COMEDY DRAMA On the page it sounds like a bloody cheek. Knackered from directing his Moroccan medieval epic, Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott takes a paid holiday in the south of France (where he has a house) and tosses off a film adapted from a novel…

Guy Delisle

Shenzhen (Jonathan Cape)

10 Oct 2006

TRAVELOGUE Canadian animator Guy Delisle spends a lot of time in the far east overseeing animation projects. In his first travelogue he visited North Korea; this time around he spends interminably dull days, weeks and months in china’s economic…

Hitlist

This fortnight's highlights

10 Oct 2006

Donald Does Dusty Bittersweet tribute to the life of actor, dancer, antiques dealer, property magnate and Dusty Springfield obsessive Donald Torr, who died of AIDS in 1992, by his sister Diane, a performer and drag king herself. CCA, Glasgow, Wed 25-Sat…

Hitlist

10 Oct 2006

Ghost Walk Follow in the footsteps of camp TV spook-chaser Derek Acorah and hunt out the ghost of the Tall Ship’s lost soul, William Pedvin. Including the usual gruesome tales of death and disease. Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour, Glasgow, Thu 26 Oct.

James Yorkston

Chapter and verse

10 Oct 2006

The best musicians and writers have a lot in common. Lonely years spent trying to create something artistic which has a modicum of truth and originality about it, only for it to get routinely ignored as the latest offering from Dan Brown or The Crazy…

Joe Sacco

But I Like it (Fantagraphics)

10 Oct 2006

AUTOBIOGRAPHY/COLLECTION Containing some of the same material as previous Sacco collection Notes from a Defeatist, this new selection is a more focused attempt to archive and give order to the reams of material he amassed as a music mad young man who…

Kinky Afro

Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 27 Oct

10 Oct 2006

Techno/Dub-step Kinky Afro turns seven this month. Not bad for a night that started out by accident. Matt Roberts, DJ and one half of the club’s promotional team (along with Dougal Pearman) explains all. ‘We were trying to raise money to send a…

Last Kiss, The

The Last Kiss

10 Oct 2006

DRAM-ROM-COM This reworking of the 2001 Italian film L’Ultimo Bacio, scripted by Paul Haggis hot from his back-to-back Oscar wins for Million Dollar Baby and Crash, is a smug dram-rom-com that isn’t nearly as smart, original or true to life as its…

Latin lessons

10 Oct 2006

A collision of Hispanic hoedowns hits Glasgow this fortnight, with the Centro Español Lorca’s annual celebration of Spanish culture, La Feria Latina, following Dance House’s Argentinian Tango in the City festival. The former is an open day of music…

Lilly Allen

ABC, Glasgow, Mon 23 Oct; Studio 24, Edinburgh, We

10 Oct 2006

POP There are two renditions to the Lily Allen story. The first casts her as a hopeful potty-mouthed princess, effortlessly posting her calypso-pop tracks on Myspace and flashing two fingers at the record industry as she cruises to the top of the…