Issue 565

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…

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…

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…

Bugsy Malone

Razamataz and splurge

11 Dec 2006

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Dark Horse

11 Dec 2006

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 are trying to impress…