Issue 565

Aladdin

King’s Theatre, Glasgow

13 Dec 2006

The pitch Rather more the story of Wishee Washee, a redundant shepherd trying to break into his mother’s laundry business, than of his brother Aladdin who falls foul of the wicked Abanazar after failing to get a magical lamp out of a cave. Amid flying…

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

In with a bang

13 Dec 2006

It will come as no surprise to learn that for director, Adrian Noble the starting point for this stage musical was the film. The original Chitty got so much right, it’s hard to imagine anyone changing it for the better. The film had it all - love…

Cinderella - King's Theatre, Edinburgh

Cinderella

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch Poor old Cinders (Carolyn Gibb), she’s a decent sort of lass, but much put upon by her sisters Trinny and Susannah (Jo Freer, Julie Coombe), who suffer from a chronic inability to confront their own mauketness. Along comes a Prince who talks…

Cinderella - Perth Theatre

Cinderella

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch Pity poor Baron Hardup, as feeble as a bowl of watery broth with a dicky ticker to boot, blitz-fully wedded to arch shrew Dodda Mutton, stepfather to a pair of hideous harpies who could give Lucrezia Borgia a run for her money in the…

Dick McWhittington

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, until Sat 30 Dec

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch All Alice (Katrina Bryan) has ever longed for is Dick. He (Robert Jack) feels some affection for her, too, but he’s got his hands full with his mum (Graham Cramond) who, unusually, has a Pinkie Winkie - Jack’s little brother (Aaron Usher). And…

Festive listings

13 Dec 2006

Go to the what's on listings , click 'gay', choose your city and date and marvel at your festive options.

Green Whale

Green Whale

13 Dec 2006

The pitch Three Edinburgh children stow away on the ‘Big Betty’ whaling ship, hoping to raise money for their poor family. Onboard they meet Nin the merciless hunter, Crill the eccentric captain, Isabella the former Queen of Spain and a mysterious girl…

Hansel and Gretel - Dundee Rep

Hansel and Gretel

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch A kindly but impoverished woodcutter, with aspirations of becoming the next Gordon Ramsay, dwells on the edge of a forest with his hideously deformed, flatulent wife and two children, inch-thick Hansel and plucky Gretel. Keen to get hubby's…

Hansel and Gretel - The Arches

Hansel and Gretel

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch Hansel (Helen Mallon) and Gretel (Isobel Joss) are abandoned in the forest by their evil stepmother (Julie Brown), so that herself and the father (Stewart Ennis) have two less mouths to feed. However, the children prove astute when caught by…

Hitlist

The best theatre

13 Dec 2006

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Delight at the adventures of the marvel car, its winsome passengers and their tuneful voices while you hiss the Childcatcher. Spectacle combines with comedy and music, and the addition of some well-kent Scottish faces makes for a…

Peter Pan

Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, until Wed 24 Jan

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch Thirty-five-year-old man Pan (Cameron-Big Brother-Stout), who definitely won’t be doing more growing, flies into the Darling sibling’s (Stephen Purdon and Laura McMonagle) window and whisks them, Nanny Clyde (Dean Parks) and Nana the dug off…

Pinocchio

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 30 Dec

13 Dec 2006

The Pitch Total ASBO case Pinocchio (James-Anthony Pearson) is a pathological bullshitter, who’s perfectly willing to see Gepetto (Simon Scott), the coffin dodger who fashioned him from wood, do chokey for his ills. He’ll never turn from wood to flesh…

Review of the year

13 Dec 2006

For a good three years before its first shows opened in February of this year, the possible merits and demerits of the NTS, were hotly debated.

Scottish Zine Explosion

13 Dec 2006

Wullie Whittington

Tron Theatre, Glasgow

13 Dec 2006

The pitch Young Wullie Whittington is ready to take the leap from being last year’s understudy to this year’s romantic lead in the self-referential world of the Pantosphere. His chief obstacle is that his singing’s as flat as a pancake and it looks as…

Hogmanay

Another year over

12 Dec 2006

Glasgow, 31 December The Fratellis Homegrown indie anthemics You know you’ve finally arrived when your songs become chants for the intoxicated. Just as the ‘ner-ner ne-ne ner-ner-ner!’ of ‘Take Me Out’ became ubiquitous two years ago now the…

Pick of 2006 - Hot 100

100 to 51

12 Dec 2006

I can admit it now: I was a fool to set up the Hot 100. When you think of the broad spectrum of cultural activities that we cover in The List, from film and music through to eating out, shopping and occasionally sport, it’s clear that the number of…

Pick of 2006 - Hot 100

Top 50

12 Dec 2006

The List’s Hot 100 celebrates the people who have made the biggest impact on cultural life in Scotland over the past 12 months.

* Hitlist

Hitlist

11 Dec 2006

The Wizard of Oz Victor Fleming's evergreen 1939 adaptation of L Frank Baum's book gets a brand new print so it can be seen as was always intended. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 15 Dec. Read review

A year in the life of Canongate

Turning over a new leaf

11 Dec 2006

2006 has proven to be a tumultuous year for Scotland’s leading independent publisher Canongate. On the plus side, the company became the first Scottish publisher ever to have two novels on the Booker shortlist, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and…

After Thomas

STV, Tue 26 Dec, 9pm

11 Dec 2006

FAMILY DRAMA It may well be the season to be jolly, but that has never stopped the humbug-riddled TV schedulers from dumping misery, fear and despair upon us from a great height. So, in fine Christmas (and ITV all year round) tradition, After Thomas…

Beano Annual 2007

(DC Thompson)

11 Dec 2006

COMIC ANNUAL It’s pretty much business as usual in Beano-land, you’ll be glad to hear: we open at the ‘Softies Fashion and Fabric Show’ where Walter and a couple of equally flamboyant chums vie for the lead in The Naked Civil Servant. Inside…

Black Sun: The Nankin Massacre - DVD review

Black Sun: The Nankin Massacre

11 Dec 2006

HISTORY/HORROR This is a very weird amalgam of sub-standard video nasty style gore and sanctimonious documentary footage of the Nanking massacre of 1937. The film might have been a genuine exploitation classic, or a horrifically reflective…

Broons 1939 Annual, The

The Broons 1939 Annual

11 Dec 2006

COMIC ANNUAL Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a Broons Annual under the tree and this reproduction of the very first annual from 1939 finds Dundee’s favourite family getting caught in the same situations they have been re-living over and…

Bugsy Malone

Razamataz and splurge

11 Dec 2006

You’ve cracked it this time Captain Schmowlski! 4 stars

Dark Horse

(15) 106min

11 Dec 2006

COMEDY/ROMANCE/DRAMA The first hour of Icelander Dagur Kári’s follow up to Nói Albínói is just as good as his quirky debut. Daniel (Jakob Cedergren) is a graffiti artist who makes money by taking commissions to write girls’ names on walls for men who…

Deep Water

(PG) 93min

11 Dec 2006

DOCUMENTARY This cogent and authoritative documentary feature recounts the sad, regrettably true story of a British eccentric and loser. In 1968, amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst decided that he would take part in The Sunday Times’ first Golden Globe…

Deja Vu

(12A) 126min

11 Dec 2006

SCI FI/ADVENTURE/THRILLER A massive explosion, a slow-mo on our hero arriving on the scene of a terrorist attack, and within the first ten minutes it’s clear that we’ve entered the destructive cinematic world of Tony Scott. But, unlike with the…

Deuces ex Machina

11 Dec 2006

Merging the theatrical term ‘deus ex machina’ with the game of double solitaire called deuces, Deuces ex Machina plays on the idea of artists as god-like creators who re-create the world within their own contexts. NY artists include Jaishri Abichandani…

Dispatch - Roddy Woomble

The Dispatch

11 Dec 2006

It’s a wonder this Dispatch made it at all; I thought I’d missed it. Not a very rock star confession I know, worrying about missing your column deadline, but there you go. I’ve been away on tour with Idlewild. Not a long tour - our days of those are…

Do You Remember Dolly Bell? - DVD review

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?

11 Dec 2006

COMEDY/ROMANCE Emir Kusturica usually works a combination of nostalgia and rumbustiousness, but often the former loses out to the latter and many of his films (like Underground, Black Cat, White Cat) end up like crazy multiple circus acts. Which is…

DVD round-up of 2006

Film Editor Paul Dale picks his DVD releases of th

11 Dec 2006

As internet rental services continue to dent the once all-consuming (not to say exorbitant) high street video shop, interesting patterns seem to be emerging.

Festivals Edinburgh director announced

11 Dec 2006

Faith Liddell, one of the hardest working figures in the Scottish arts world, has been announced as the inaugural director of Festivals Edinburgh. The organisation was created by the directors of Edinburgh’s festivals with the aim of co-operating around…

Friedrich

11 Dec 2006

An exhibition by a group of artists using Casper David Friedrich's darkly Romantic landscapes as subject matter. Artists include Marcus Amm, Helene Appel, Eva Berendes, Ellen Gronemeyer Alex Heim, Karin Ruggaber and Nicole Wermers.

Glasgow School of Art Postgrad Fashion Masters

Glasgow styles better

11 Dec 2006

Eley Kishimoto, Julien Macdonald and Matthew Williamson all trained in textile design before they began putting together fashion collections. GSA’s postgraduate fashion Masters is one of the only textile-based fashion design courses in the country, and…

Hitlist

The best exhibitions

11 Dec 2006

Douglas Gordon - Superhumanatural A major retrospective of one of Scotland’s most internationally successful artists. The various exhibitions around the city bring together Gordon’s video works, installations, film projects and text pieces that have…

Jerkbeast - DVD review

Jerkbeast

11 Dec 2006

MUSIC COMEDY The people at Videosyncratic are so painfully desperate to prove their really cool independent credentials that they remind us of them in this DVD’s accompanying brochure and at the beginning of this ‘film’. But the definition of…

Jim Mullen Organ Trio - album review

Jim Mullen Organ Trio

11 Dec 2006

JAZZ The organ trio is one of jazz’s canonic formats, but can easily slip into clichéd recycling of standard soul-jazz licks. No such danger in this band. The Glaswegian guitarist and his collaborators, Hammond organist Mike Gorman and drummer Matt…

Kate Lawler

Exposure

11 Dec 2006

Colours and Hed Kandi are joining forces once again this Hogmanay for a huge glam house party with names like Tom de Neef, Rob Wilder and 2 Many DJs (Edinburgh only - sorry Glasgow). But one of the more unusual names appearing is Big Brother’s Kate…

Kyle Eastwood - album review

Kyle Eastwood

11 Dec 2006

JAZZ It is hard to avoid the feeling that the bassist has tried to push as many commercially attractive buttons as possible in the course of this disc. The prevailing ambiance is a cool chill-out vibe with a distinct jazz-lite feel, underlined by…

Leech

Sucking the blood of popular entertainment

11 Dec 2006

The Leech was in London’s BBC Television Centre when news of Celtic legend Henrik Larsson’s loan to Manchester United broke. Spectacle-wise, the SPL has really suffered since the twinkle-toed Swede left and Larsson has endured the ignominy of signing…

Monster Street Party

The monster is loose

11 Dec 2006

As the sun sets on another spectacular series of Hogmanay parties the length and breadth of the land, the January blues won’t bring determined party animals quite as low as usual. Highland 2007, Scotland’s yearlong celebration of Highland culture past…

Off the Wall

11 Dec 2006

A major new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, highlighting some of the gallery’s impressive recent acquisition of work that uses the floor as its plinth or works that hang from the ceiling. Artists involved include Martin Creed…

Oor Wullie Annual 2007

(DC Thompson)

11 Dec 2006

COMIC ANNUAL ‘Wullie and his pals still look nifty, They still live in 1950’ As a nation, we Scots take great pride in the technological achievements of our forebears: John Logie Baird, inventor of the TV, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of…

Pimp my sneakers - DIY trainer design

Pimp my sneakers

11 Dec 2006

You don’t know me, but in the interest of authenticity, I should tell you that I really like sparkly shoes and I last owned a pair of trainers when I was about 14. So, faced with the challenge of customising a Puma shoe in the sportswear brands’ Glasgow…

Red Well and Player Piano, The

The Red Well and Player Piano

11 Dec 2006

ROCK The last time The List caught Player Piano, American main man Jeremy Radway was tinkling the ivories in a threesome. This time round he’s playing crunchy guitar with just a drummer for company. However he dresses his tunes, Radway’s innate pop…

Remote Control - documentaries round-up

Brian Donaldson uncovers some fine documentaries a

11 Dec 2006

One of the stories of the year had to be the big whale that swam to London. So, the cryptically titled The Whale that Swam to London (Channel 4, Thu 21 Dec, 8pm) launches upon us dividing opinion between those who thought that it was a natural…

Remote Control - TV round-up

Remote Control

11 Dec 2006

It may well be set in the Big Smoke and had a working title of ‘London’, but Dominic Savage’s Born Equal (BBC1, Sun 17 Dec, 9pm) explores such universal and painful truths that it would be wrong for it to have been fully metropolised. With Robert…

Review of the year

Mark Robertson and The List music writers pick the

11 Dec 2006

Jarvis ‘Running the World’ His first post-Pulp declaration was a sublime synth pop call to arms.

Review of the year

11 Dec 2006

This is all relative. I’m well aware, as a film critic and man who has lost all his friends since recommending the complete works of Bela Tarr to them, that what might be right for me, may not be right for some. The films released in 2006 that reminded…

Review of the year

11 Dec 2006

The Sopranos We haven’t half banged on about this in 2006, but with valid reason as the sixth season took Tony’s good/evil dichotomy to new zones as he tried to handle a gay captain, a loopy uncle and an unruly son.

Review of the year

Art editor Alexander Kennedy looks back at the yea

11 Dec 2006

It’s difficult to have a balanced opinion about a year where all the big names came back to roost in the large galleries and museums in Scotland, and what is usually referred to vaguely as ‘up and coming’ work by younger artists was mostly unimpressive.

Skygreen Leopards - album review

Skygreen Leopards

11 Dec 2006

FOLK COUNTRY Ever heard a record which somehow seemed less than the sum of its parts? Cos that’s the inescapable feeling when listening to Skygreen Leopards. Across this record are spread gently strummy country melancholy, whispering psychedelic folk…

Storytelling

Tell me a story

11 Dec 2006

FESTIVE YARN-SPINNING We don’t have much time for folklore these days. The oral tradition of storytelling, while it has contemporary parallels in performance poetry and the sprawling narratives of rap, seems anachronistic in an age of YouTube and…

Tales of Beatrix Potter - DVD review

Tales of Beatrix Potter

11 Dec 2006

DANCE Dance on screen rarely captures even half the magic of seeing it live on stage. Which is why this adaptation by the Royal Ballet is so successful - it doesn’t even try. Instead the action takes place in a variety of locations, from the green…

Tattoos

Written on the body

11 Dec 2006

A glorious butterfly is gazing up at me. It has a cutesy, cartoon face and curled lashes. Its larger than life wings are a dazzling explosion of pop-art colour and bubble dimensions. Flowerheads, blasted with vibrant, glowing blocks of green and red ink…

The cultural revolution

As The List’s editor puts the finishing touches on

11 Dec 2006

As The List’s editor puts the finishing touches on his last issues before taking up his new post as director of The Lighthouse, he argues that since he started editing the magazine, Scottish entertainment has undergone bigger changes than we might…

Various - Blue Skies Up - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

INDIE With a manifesto aiming to ‘save pop’, Dogbox Records have certainly set themselves a tall task. Most of the ‘pop’ on this compilation is as likely to hit the charts as a duet from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Michael Barrymore, but this reflects far…

Various - New Orleans Christmas - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

FESTIVE JAZZ Some festive traditions are truly immovable: gluttony, credit card bills, tension between in-laws, you know the script, but others are there to be monkeyed around with. Hence forth, Mum’s Aled Jones carol CD can be tossed onto the fire…

Various - Pulp Fusion - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

FUNK The first in a veritable trove of stellar, themed retro-comps, Harmless celebrate Pulp Fusion’s 10th anniversary with a two-disc selection from NY crate digger, DJ and journalist Monk-One; and presumably his brief was ‘It ain’t broke . . .’ Cue…

Various - Soma Compilation 2006 - album review

Various

11 Dec 2006

ELECTRONICA If weird soundscapes, which fall somewhere in between the territory of ambient, glitch and trance, are your thing, you’ll be very pleased with this latest Soma compilation. Unless you’re baked on a weird cocktail of theoretical drugs in a…

When the Levees Broke

BBC4, Mon 18 & Tue 19 Dec, 9pm

11 Dec 2006

DISASTER DOCUMENTARY ‘Only in America’ is often a phrase you hear when some weirdness occurs or a mad technological advance has been made. But surely only in a Bush America could hundreds of thousands of people (the bulk of them black and poor) be…

Where to eat at Christmas

Festive feasting

11 Dec 2006

GLASGOW L’Ariosto 92-94 Mitchell Street, City Centre 0141 221 0971 www.lariosto.com From the tall doorway to the knowingly efficient and dapper waiters, there is a sense of grandeur at L’Ariosto. The menu focuses on strong combinations of…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

7 Dec 2006

Freq Spanish techno whizz kid, Alex Under brings his own brand of electronica and jazz-infused techno house-scapes to the Sub. Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 15 Dec. Read review Mothergroove Ultragroove and Motherfunk give you a great excuse to miss the…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

7 Dec 2006

Janey Godley The toughest dame in Scottish comedy is joined by Jason-John Whitehead, Tony Woods and Geoff Boyz in setting up the boisterous gathering for a pre-Christmas treat. Jongleurs, Glasgow, Thu 14-Sat 16 Dec.

* Hitlist

Hitlist

7 Dec 2006

Snow Patrol and Elbow Who would have thought that they’d end up packing out this joint? Not them, that’s for sure. Couldn’t have happened to nicer fellas. SECC, Glasgow, Fri 15 Dec. (Rock & Pop)

Alex Under

7 Dec 2006

Freq have secured a live set from CMYK label manager Alex Under. His output spans the world of techno from minimal to hard, fast and aggressive. There is a depth and intelligence at work here, creating complex beats, which draw on elements of jazz and…

Bollywood Round-Up

7 Dec 2006

Vivah - A Journey From Engagement to Marriage (PG) 166min (1 star) harks back to an innocence that hardly, if ever, existed in Bollywood cinema. Prem (Shahid Kapoor) the eligible young son of a business tycoon agrees to an arranged marriage to Poonam…

Books of the Year

Books editor Brian Donaldson selects his favourite

7 Dec 2006

Alan Warner The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven One of his less ‘difficult’ books, the Oban-born, Dublin-based writer’s return was a metaphysical lurch into desperation with a Spanish protagonist living in the shadow of HIV. A typical gallery of Warnerian…

Bring in the House

7 Dec 2006

Once again Ocean Terminal will be reeling to the sounds of the best in house this Hogmanay. This time around the team from Progression link up with Ministry of Sound to glam it up down in Leith. Sebastian Ingrosso (pictured) and Chris Lake provide the…

Container - profile of Lukas Moodysson

Profile

7 Dec 2006

Name Lukas Moodysson Born Malmo, Sweden, 17 January 1969. Background Moodysson came to prominence with his debut film, Show Me Love (for some reason the much better Swedish title Fucking Amal was not used in the UK). In a country starved of…

Container - review

Container

7 Dec 2006

EXPERIMENTAL DRAMA Lukas Moodysson continues his cinematic journey into the abstract with the beguiling Container. Since his striking debut Show Me Love, his films, Together, Lilya 4-ever and A Hole In My Heart have become less and less centred on a…

Derren Brown - Tricks of the Mind

Derren Brown

7 Dec 2006

BIOGRAPHY/MANUAL What’s the first rule among magicians? Surely it’s the one about never ever divulging the secrets of your chosen profession. So, what on earth is Derren Brown doing here telling the humble general public how to develop useful…

Flags of Our Fathers

(15) 132min

7 Dec 2006

WAR/EPIC At 76 years of age, Hollywood living legend Clint Eastwood crowns his glorious career with his most ambitious film to date. Flags of Our Fathers is not his best film, but it’s an impressively epic endeavour, the first of two grand scale…

Fred MacAulay

7 Dec 2006

5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT . . . 1 He was the first ever Scottish compere at the Comedy Store. Which is a famous club in London apparently. 2 In 1998, The List interviewed him deep within the bowels of Ibrox Stadium for a feature on the…

Frightened Rabbit

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 21 Dec, Barfly, Glasgow,

7 Dec 2006

FOLK POP With all the hype-hungry types currently clogging up the industry, modern pop can seem pretty contrived at times. A refreshing alternative, however, is this Glasgow-based trio who cater in catchy melodies, scratchy riffs and compellingly…

I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed

(15) 102min

7 Dec 2006

CRIME/THRILLER Ex-Cahiers du Cinema critic-turned-director Serge Le Péron revisits the intriguingly murky circumstances surrounding one of Gaullist France’s greatest political scandals. On 29 October 1965, an exiled Moroccan dissident Mehdi Ben Barka…

John McGahern - Creatures of the Earth

John McGahern

7 Dec 2006

SHORT STORIES In his best-known novel, 1990’s Booker shortlisted Amongst Women, John McGahern’s protagonist Michael Moran reflects: ‘The best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is…

Patti Smith - Auguries of Innocent

Patti Smith

7 Dec 2006

POETRY In the recent Punk Night documentary on ITV4, John Lydon was being characteristically, boringly dismissive of the New York acts (Ramones, Television, Patti Smith) who arrived as the British wave exploded. They were just too educated, too…

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

(15) 147min

7 Dec 2006

ADAPTATION/THRILLER The most daunting task facing director Tom Twyker (Run, Lola, Run, Heaven) when adapting Patrick Suskind’s novel Perfume was how to stimulate the olfactory senses onscreen in the scintillating way the author managed on the page.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - profile of Ben Whishaw

Profile

7 Dec 2006

Name Ben Whishaw Born 14 October 1980, Bedfordshire. Background Whishaw grew up in Bedfordshire where he attended the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre before transferring to RADA. He first started making waves on the London stage, first in His…

Review of the year

Comedy editor Brian Donaldson digests the best com

7 Dec 2006

Reginald D Hunter Breezing into Glasgow in March with his warm-up show for August, Reg D positively stormed through the Edinburgh Fringe with Pride and Prejudice and Niggas, which helped him lift this magazine’s comedy writing award. On the downside, he…

Snowman, The

The Snowman

7 Dec 2006

KIDS THEATRE The EastEnders Christmas special might be a ratings winner, but for most of us The Snowman is the real symbol of festive TV. Raymond Briggs’ tale of the little boy who wakes at midnight to find his snowman has come alive, has an old…

Stephen Carlin

7 Dec 2006

When Stewart Lee speaks, the comedy world tends to listen. And so when he announced Scottish comic Stephen Carlin as one to watch, many took notice. And sure enough, after supporting Lee on his 90s Comedian tour, Carlin took his own show to the Café…

We Are the Physics

Exposure - Tomorrow’s music today

7 Dec 2006

Comprising three Michaels, one Chris, more angles than a box of Rubik’s Cubes and a fascination for horror B-movies, meet self styled ‘mutant science punk rock’ Glasgow four piece We Are The Physics. Fusing Devo’s geekish proficiency to the all out…

Wizard of Oz, The

The Wizard of Oz

7 Dec 2006

NEW PRINT/CLASSIC The Wizard of Oz is about a girl called Dorothy (Judy Garland) whose neighbour, Miss Gulch, threatens to take away her dog, Toto, but they run away. A hurricane hits the house and the house gets blown away. Suddenly the hurricane…

Word Up - club news

Word up

7 Dec 2006

Thankfully, unlike 2005, this year has been a far happier time in clubland. Of course there was the closing of the legendary Venue in Edinburgh, a club that has shaped the entire dance (and live music) scene in Scotland. We’ll miss it like crazy, but at…

Adrian Crowley, Doogie Paul and Rob St John

Tracer Trails @ Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 9 N

6 Dec 2006

FOLK A rare Edinburgh appearance from Irish singer songwriter Adrian Crowley always promised to be special, particularly in combination with an even rarer (if slightly chilly) choice of venue and a pair of fine local supports. Rob St John was…

Catherine Sullivan

An exhibition of two new works by LA-based artist

6 Dec 2006

INTERVIEW Alexander Kennedy Could you tell us about the work on show at the CCA? Catherine Sullivan ‘Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land’ (2003), which is a five channel projection work short on 16mm film and shown on video, and ‘The Resuscitation of…

Charlie Higson - Young Bond 3

Charlie Higson

6 Dec 2006

ADVENTURE TALE Although his previous two Young Bond adventures have been successes in their own right, the franchise’s revival thanks to Casino Royale should ensure that this third adventure by Charlie Fast Show Higson eclipses those predecessors.

Christine Borland: Preserves

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 28 Jan 2

6 Dec 2006

INSTALLATION In Kos, Greece, there is a tree that stands in front of the Castle of Knights. Apparently planted by eminent physician Hippocrates, the town’s locals optimistically put it at about 2400 years old, and its frailty has generated a reliance…

Christmas comedy DVDs

Comic cuts

6 Dec 2006

DVD Jimmy Carr Live Collection The show A double-whammy DVD set with an absolute avalanche of top-notch one and two-liners on topics including overweight and pregnant women, Geordies and gypsies, freak accidents and fuck buddies. 4 stars The extras…

Eragon - Edward Speleers profile

Profile

6 Dec 2006

Name Edward Speleers Born 21 December 1987, Chichester, West Sussex. Background Likeable toff Speleers got a taste for acting at the private boarding school in Eastbourne which he still attends (he’s due to leave after his A-levels later this…

Gabrielle

(15) 90min

6 Dec 2006

DRAMA/ROMANCE ‘I love her as a collector does his most prized possession’, announces Jean (Pascal Greggory), a wealthy publisher in pre-WWI Paris, of his socialite wife of ten years Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert). The husband’s arrogant self-regard is…

Hot chip interview

Salt & sauce

6 Dec 2006

Optimo at New Year is always a safe bet, securing some of the most interesting acts on the circuit, and this year is no exception. Not only will Twitch and Wilkes be manning the decks, with a bit of help from Death Disco’s Mingo-Go with ‘spoken…

I Think the Nurses Are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith

6 Dec 2006

CD Once voted the wittiest living person by Radio 4 listeners, Linda Smith’s death in February of ovarian cancer robbed the UK of one of its highest regarded satirical voices. Best known for appearances on The News Quiz, Just a Minute and Have I Got…

Iron Maiden

6 Dec 2006

5 REASONS TO GO SEE 1. Over 70 million sales Humungous sales are often wrong - just look at Celine Dion - but not in this case. The legendary heavy metal outfit have shifted gargantuan numbers of albums, and are rightly considered the biggest metal…

John McGahern - Creatures of the Earth

John McGahern

6 Dec 2006

SHORT STORIES In his best-known novel, 1990’s Booker shortlisted Amongst Women, John McGahern’s protagonist Michael Moran reflects: ‘The best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is…

Manatees

Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 7 Oct

6 Dec 2006

METAL Let’s call it the Isis effect. But nowadays with the Boston group gaining mainstream exposure thanks to a recent support with Tool, the number of bands playing epic, shoegazer, soundscape rock is a lot more than it used to be. Thankfully…

Minus the Bear

ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 29 Nov

6 Dec 2006

INDIE When was the last time you saw a pop band mosh? And I mean, a full-on shred fest, not a choreographed McFly star-jump. That’s precisely what you get with Minus the Bear. A band that spent their formative years slugging it out in pioneering…