Issue 569

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…

Life drawing meets burlesque erotica

Gothic horror picture show

12 Feb 2007

It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m loitering outside the entrance to Edinburgh’s newest art class trying not to look too much like a pervert. Some passing tourists catch sight of the Dr Sketchy’s poster advertising ‘Drawing & Drinks & Dames & Dudes’ and I…

Charlie Hammond

Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 3 Mar

12 Feb 2007

PAINTINGS, SCULPTURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY There is both an undeniable sense of conceptual precision and a wicked sense of humour informing the work of Charlie Hammond at Sorcha Dallas. The selection of work on display bears the marks of its making - but…

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…

Pirates!

Arrr, Jim Lad!

12 Feb 2007

Filthy, rum-soaked blaggards prone to shaving people’s chests with rusty razors they might be, but there’s something romantic about pirates, salt air and the lure of the high seas that keeps us Hooked. Robert Louis Stevenson created the granddaddy of…

Profile - Annette Bening

Profile

12 Feb 2007

Name Annette Bening Born May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, US. Background Bening’s acting career began when she played the lead in her high school’s production of The Sound of Music. After graduating from San Francisco University she took to the…

Peter Howson - Andrew: Portrait of a Saint

City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, until Sun 4 Mar

12 Feb 2007

PAINTING DRAWING Peter Howson’s recent works have carried a strong religious theme. This exhibition is evidence of that, featuring as it does a large number of paintings, drawings and sketches, all dedicated to the Scottish patron saint. Howson…

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.

To Kill a Mockingbird

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 20 Feb-Sat 24 Feb

12 Feb 2007

ADAPTATION To Kill A Mocking Bird was the pretty near universal novel for teenagers at school. The film version saw Gregory Peck turned into an icon of integrity and justice. So much so, in fact, that Peck would later do his Atticus Finch in front of…

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…

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…

Annie Mac

Mixed Bizness at The Sub Club, Thu 22 Feb

12 Feb 2007

ELECTRONICA According to promoter/DJ Ben Coghill (Mixed Bizness), ‘Annie Mac is the first person in a long time that I have heard on national radio that has made me ‘shoosh’ those in the room. She strikes a perfect balance between pushing exciting…

Gay movie round-up

Gay screen

12 Feb 2007

The Glasgow Film Festival programmes five films with a queer bent this year. It’s unbearably hot in The Wayward Cloud , where Taiwan’s heatwave causes the sales of watermelons to shoot up. Hsiao-Kang tries to hide the fact that he’s a porn actor from…

Group show: Delia Baillie, Iain Sturrock, Jessica Harrison, Karen Kirkwood, Sophe McKay Knight

Amber Roome, Edinburgh, until Thu 8 Mar

12 Feb 2007

PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY Given that Amber Roome is a small-scale gallery space, and that five artists are involved in this show, one can assume it will be a rather intimate affair. The five artists are not thematically linked, but there do seem to be…

Kitchin restaurant - interview

Star turn

12 Feb 2007

I’m in the restaurant speaking to Mr and Mrs Kitchin. It could be a game of Happy Families. It certainly has been for the team at The Kitchin in Leith who, for the last couple of weeks, have been basking in the glory of their newly acquired Michelin…

Out of the Bedroom - Out of the Closet

The Canon’s Gait, Edinburgh, Tue 20 Feb

12 Feb 2007

MUSIC The acoustic musician is a sensitive soul, and according to James Whyte, who runs the Out of the Bedroom open mic nights, not all of them are writing love songs about the opposite sex. ‘Quite a lot of the regular performers at Out of the…

Patrick Wolf

Do you believe in magic?

12 Feb 2007

Vicious little Dorothy Parker got it right when she said that the term ‘artist’ is overused, and that the category of ‘art’ is not elastic. It isn’t fashionable to say this, of course, where a restrictive version of ‘inclusion’ has meant that we can all…

Sophistifunk

12 Feb 2007

John Hutchinson (Tokyoblu) has been in charge at Sophistifunk over the last three years. A party week in week out with its mix of funky house, disco, electro, accessible remixes and mash-ups. However on Saturday 17 February they up the glamour and glitz…

Steven Hall

The Raw Shark Texts (Canongate)

12 Feb 2007

ADVENTURE TALE There are not many authors who can say their first novel had such an effect on Nicole Kidman she begged to be allowed to star in a movie adaptation. That’s the impact Steven Hall’s debut is having. Already hailed as an ‘instant…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

* Hitlist

Hitlist

12 Feb 2007

Souled Out The Opal Lounge host two quality guests in the guise of hip hop master Qool DJ Marv (Thu 15 Feb) and Good Times architect, Norman Jay MBE (Thu 1 Mar). Opal Lounge, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Feb & 1 Mar.