Issue 569

Rage!/Rave! - Mika

To believe or not to believe the hype

14 Feb 2007

Doug Johnstone: Mika is not the next big thing. He is merely the latest creation of the music industry’s marketing machine.

The Leech

Sucking the blood of popular entertainment

14 Feb 2007

All you need is love. Love and the trademark rights to your music. In a deal that will have at least one soon-to-be divorcee hopping for joy, computer giant Apple and The Beatles reconciled their long-running dispute over the Apple name, with the best…

News Extra

14 Feb 2007

Lonely Planet is making a jaunt north of the border to host screenings of the 1969 cult classic The Italian Job and offbeat French romantic comedy Amelie on Thursday 22 and Wednesday 28 March at Edinburgh’s Cameo cinema. The films are being shown as…

News - The View play Edinburgh Castle

A view from the castle

14 Feb 2007

Words: Allan Radcliffe It’s a venue usually reserved for MOR rock royalty. Rod Stewart and Lionel Ritchie have both graced the main stage in front of vast audiences, while Elton John and his entourage transformed the Great Hall into a…

Five things

Websites where you can get something for nothing

14 Feb 2007

Whoever said you can’t get something for nothing was clearly lying. Here are the websites that should be in every cheapskate’s favourites.

News in brief

14 Feb 2007

Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer are making a rare visit north of the border for the next series of Channel 4’s Location Location Location. The straight-talking property gurus will be in Glasgow at the end of February and are keen to hear from anyone…

Music promoter Billy Kelly dies

14 Feb 2007

We at The List were saddened to hear of the death from cancer of Billy Kelly, who was a driving force in Scotland’s live music industry. Kelly was perhaps best known as the visionary behind Glasgow’s Big Big World and Big Big Country showcases through…

Love!/Hate!

Love!>>Lost

14 Feb 2007

Ignore the criticisms. Lost, which returns to UK screens this month, is the best soap opera on television, the kind that keeps you awake wondering what a polar bear is doing on a desert island. It has more layers than a deep-fried Mars Bar, and always…

Protect the human

14 Feb 2007

Darius Danesh stands in a swimming pool, Courtney Love sprawls on the floor of the Dorchester Hotel, newspaper in one hand and placard in the other. Terry Jones mugs as he loads the dishwasher and protests about control of the arms trade and Dougray…

Singles and downloads

Singles and downloads

13 Feb 2007

An almighty Single of the Fortnight has this reviewer’s eager digits already itching to rattle off their glowing textual praise. But first credit where it’s due to some of the largely stiff short-playing competition coming your way in the next 14 days…

Grapevine - showbiz news

Grapevine

13 Feb 2007

Expect many cries of ‘there’s been a murder’ with news that more episodes are to be filmed of ITV ScotCop dramas Taggart and Rebus. Four new 90-minute mysteries of the former start filming in April and further adventures for Ian Rankin’s world-weary…

Idlewild - album review

IDLEWILD

13 Feb 2007

ROCK (Sequel) Around the time of his folky solo project’s first release, Roddy Woomble hinted at a return to heavy music for his main band Idlewild. And boy was he right. Make Another World sees the Edinburgh quintet get back to blasting out…

The Decemberists - album review

THE DECEMBERISTS

13 Feb 2007

INDIE (Rough Trade) It is increasingly difficult to find records that are pure in their intentions. The Decemberists wear their ambitions on their (record) sleeves, wishing to create an album filled with quirks that remains welcoming. It recalls…

Kris Drever - album review

KRIS DREVER

13 Feb 2007

FOLK (Reveal Records) Folk music is not the usual field of activity for this label, but they were so impressed with singer and guitarist Kris Drever playing live that they snapped him up to record this debut album. It has been eagerly anticipated…

Miles Davis - album review

MILES DAVIS

13 Feb 2007

JAZZ (Rhino) A single disc selection from the final phase of the trumpeter’s career, drawing on the music he released after his switch from Columbia in 1985. It is billed as the Very Best of Miles Davis, but is well short of meeting that claim.

Preston Redd - album review

PRESTON REED

13 Feb 2007

JAZZ (Outer Bridge Records) Guitarist Preston Reed continues to elude precise genre classification in his his distinctive style of solo guitar music, but this ballad-oriented set is the closest he has come to a straight jazz outing. In his insert…

Endrick Brothers - album review

ENDRICK BROTHERS

13 Feb 2007

POP ROCK (Hypertension) Wearing your heart on your sleeve has always sounded like a painful and messy sacrifice to me, while displaying your musical influences like a big clanging medal round the neck is nothing short of a grave mistake. So…

MSTRKRFT - album review

MSTRKRFT

13 Feb 2007

EVIL ELECTRO (Modular) You probably know this Canadian duo as Death From Above 1979, or perhaps from their stellar remixes of Kills, Gossip, Metric and Bloc Party. But scrap all that: ‘MSTRKRFT, purveyors of the most thrilling dance music around…

GusGus - album review

GUSGUS

13 Feb 2007

HOUSE (Gung Ho!) Starting out life as a sprawling 12-strong Icelandic art/film/music collective in 1995, GusGus have mutated over the years. At their heart has always remained a soulful electronic throb wrapped in alternately soothing and wanton…

Explosions in the Sky - album review

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY

13 Feb 2007

POST ROCK (Bella Union) Girls’n’stuff bothereth not Texas post-rock rangers Explosions in the Sky. On their fourth long player, they have infinitely more important thematic fish to fry. Take opener, ‘The Birth and Death of the Day’ for instance…

Amy Winehouse interview

Life and soul

12 Feb 2007

It’s the morning after the tabloid outrage the night before. The weekend before we meet, Amy Winehouse was due to perform at GAY, the full-on, no-holds-barred club institution in the heart of London. Kylie’s done it with her sister Danni, McFly dropped…

Science of Sleep, The - feature

Sleep talking

12 Feb 2007

A love story set in Paris might not sound like terribly promising material, but Michel Gondry lets his feverish imagination run riot in The Science of Sleep. The resulting romantic fantasia is undoubtedly one of the most original films of the past year.

Toni Davidson

Eight years on from the publication of Scar Cultur

12 Feb 2007

So, what’s in a name? Quite a lot as far as Toni Davidson is concerned. The author of 1999’s cult classic Scar Culture wants you to have his characters ingrained on your memory. And if giving them a title which will leap out at you from the relative…

Michael Clark interview

Dancing with demons

12 Feb 2007

It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts, as the saying goes. And from an early age, Michael Clark had beauty. A beautiful face, a beautiful spirit and a beautiful style that other dancers tried, and failed, to emulate. And what he…

William McIlvanney interview

The big man

12 Feb 2007

The publication of William McIlvanney’s novel Weekend was like welcoming an old friend home after a very long holiday, and finding that the time away has left them in extremely rude health.