Issue 567

January Clear out

12 Jan 2007

COMMUNITY EVENT ‘I just liked the idea that people could get together and do something for free,’ says Bob Hamilton, organiser of the January Clear Out at the recently refurbished Pearce Institute in Govan. The Clear Out is a whole day of films…

Will Hutton

The Writing on the Wall (Little, Brown)

12 Jan 2007

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Taking complicated economic arguments and turning them into coherent and accessible reading is no mean task. But Will Hutton has long been a master of making the difficult easier to digest. His previous books have looked at…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

12 Jan 2007

Niven Govinden The second novel from Govinden, who’s been cruelly dubbed as the new Hanif Kureishi, is Graffiti My Soul, a fizzy, witty, horrific take on being a British youngster. Canongate Read review

Hitlist - The best events, talk and sport

12 Jan 2007

Holocaust - and After? Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, 556 9579. 10am-6pm. Free. In connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish colourist Myer Lacome’s exhibition looks at the implications of the Holocaust, and celebrates life in…

Niven Govinden

Graffiti My Soul (Canongate)

12 Jan 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA When a book claims that in its setting that ‘nothing bad ever happens’, you can rest assured that many different variants of excrement will be hitting the fan. With Niven Govinden’s zingy second novel, the disaffected youth of Surrey are…

Will Elliott

The Pilo Family Circus (Quercus)

12 Jan 2007

HORROR DRAMA If anyone, anywhere still finds clowns anything other than deeply sinister, this book is the one to change your mind. Excessively violent and twisted, it’s like some garish cross between The Magic Faraway Tree and Stephen King’s worst…

Ruth Thomas

Things to Make and Mend (Faber)

12 Jan 2007

FRIENDSHIP TALE Edinburgh-based author Ruth Thomas has garnered a reputation as a skilled, award-winning writer of short stories and makes a convincing transition to novel writing with her archetypal story of two women whose friendship is brought to…

Daljit Nagra

Look We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber)

12 Jan 2007

POETRY COLLECTION Daljit Nagra’s parents moved from the Punjab to Britain in the 1950s and it’s no real surprise that his poetry should be knitted together from bits of his cultural heritage and present environment. So, in the opener ‘Darling & Me!…

Glasgow Science Centre

Going up

12 Jan 2007

Have you ever wanted to take in the whole of Glasgow at a glance? Scotland’s tallest building, the 127m high Glasgow Tower adjacent to the Science Centre at Pacific Quay, has reopened to the public, offering some of the most beautiful views over the…

Word Up - club news

Word Up

12 Jan 2007

Some sad news from Mixed Bizness: unfortunately Kid Koala has had to postpone his tour until further notice, so for now the 4 February date at The Arches has been cancelled. More news as we get it.

Departure Lounge

The Caves, Edinburgh, Fri 26 Jan

9 Jan 2007

Despite being more than capable of aligning a cosmic jam with their resident DJs Astroboy, Mr Zimbabwe and percussionist Cammy, Departure Lounge have in three and a half years brought a boggling array of backward looking and forward thinking guests from…

Ed Brubaker & Trevor Hairsine - comic review

Ed Brubaker & Trevor Hairsine

9 Jan 2007

SUPERHERO Comics have embraced and pioneered the ret-con more that any other artistic medium. For the less geeky amongst us, a ret-con is ‘retro continuity’, the art of going back and retelling the past so it vaguely makes sense with what’s gone…

DJ Craze

PROFILE

9 Jan 2007

Name DJ Craze Occupation master turntablist, DMC award magnet Why should we have heard of him? Originally from Nicaragua, but now settled in Miami in a continental shift which Tony Montana would be proud of, Arith Delgado (for Craze is he) has…

Lorna Macintyre

Mary Mary, Glasgow, Sat 20 Jan-Fri 23 Feb

9 Jan 2007

INSTALLATION It’s advisable that when the figurative and the abstract meet they should do so in the clear empty spaces of the latter, otherwise the aesthetic object falls into the cheap embrace of anthropomorphism. The man-made material and the…

Kerrang! Tour 2007

Kerrang! Tour 2007 featuring Biffy Clyro, The Bron

9 Jan 2007

ROCK An army of kohl-eyed kids may shake their dyed fringes in disagreement, but rock music these days isn’t just about American emo. By way of proof our nation’s beloved Biffy Clyro return, taking time out from working on their forthcoming fourth…

Malcolm Ross

Ego, Edinburgh, Wed 13 Dec

9 Jan 2007

INDIE The sad but true fact of Edinburgh’s current music scene is that, unless you have local knowledge of the great bands bubbling under the radar, there is no major scene going on which might capture the imagination of the nation. But it wasn’t…

Spare Snare

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 28 Dec

9 Jan 2007

INDIE Once proudly crowned the 46th best Scottish band in history by this very organ (one lower than Dogs Die In Hot Cars, but one above The Average White Band), Dundee’s Spare Snare are finally getting round to cashing in on the accolade with this…

Jason - comic review

Jason

9 Jan 2007

HORROR France-based Norwegian cartoonist Jason’s last graphic novella, The Left Bank Gang, was a witty, wacky crime caper featuring zoomorphic versions of modernist literature masters, canine Ezra Pound, James Joyce, etc. His new novella is an…

Various, The Book of Boy Trouble - comic review

Various artists

9 Jan 2007

GAY Edited by two of its contributors, Robert Kirby and David Kelly, The Book of Boy Trouble brings together selected highlights of the first ten years of the alternative fanzine of the same title (minus the ‘book’ bit). It’s a collection whose…

One Book - One Edinburgh campaign

One Book - One Edinburgh campaign Kidnaps The List

9 Jan 2007

The Edinburgh City of Literature Trust’s Citywide Reading Campaign launches its One Book - One Edinburgh campaign on Wednesday 31 January at Edinburgh Castle. The campaign runs for the whole of February 2007 and aims to get the whole city reading the…

Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris

9 Jan 2007

Freaked out space disco from Calvin Harris, officially branded ‘one to watch in 2007’. And he kicks the year off in style with a live show at Death Disco alongside the Gucci Soundsystem (Riton and Ben Fat Trucker). Check www.calvinharris.tv and the…

SkinnyMan

SkinnyMan

9 Jan 2007

One of the best MCs the UK has to offer, SkinnyMan is crashing the first Soul Biscuits of the year. And the hip hop night hasn’t just got SM on stage but he’s bringing the Whole Mud Fam with him, featuring among its many attractions his son Little Jiggs…