Issue 571

Edinburgh Fringe names new boss

Edinburgh Fringe names new director

26 Mar 2007

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has named Jon Morgan (pictured), executive producer with Contact Theatre in Manchester, as its new director, following the resignation of Paul Gudgin earlier this year.

P Diddy Glasgow gig to go ahead

26 Mar 2007

Snoop Dogg has had his UK visa application rejected so is unlikely to go ahead with his Glasgow gig this Friday.

Comics - Captain Britain Volume 1

Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe

14 Mar 2007

SUPERHERO It may have stemmed from a slightly cynical, ‘lets see if we can cash in on the British market with a thinly disguised take on Captain America’ but Chris Claremont may well be one of the greatest comics story tellers of his time (admittedly…

Comics - The Blackest Gnome

Malcy Duff

14 Mar 2007

ABSTRACT/SURREAL More dreams, schemes and half remembered memories from Edinburgh based cartoonist Duff. This, his 31st comic book is, according to the press notes, ‘inspired by the cancellation of the last black and white minstrel show in Scotland…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds some new dramas about madnes

13 Mar 2007

Without wishing to be cruel, Jessie Wallace isn’t the kind of actress you’d associate with roles which anyone could dub as ‘classy’, not in the stereotypically glamour sense of the word anyway. Maybe feisty, shouty and boozy, but never ever classy. The…

Kate Dickie & Pol Heyvaert

Beyond the news

13 Mar 2007

Whenever a murder occurs, particularly that of a child, there’s often an understandable outcry of grief, sometimes fuelled by sensational media coverage. We can name these unfortunate children as if we ourselves knew them. As part of the news coverage…

Malcolm Middleton

The future’s bright

13 Mar 2007

It was a truly miserable day when the mighty Arab Strap called it quits last year but this grey cloud did, in fact, have a silver lining of sorts: it shifted the spotlight onto the solo work of Malcolm Middleton. Never the most talkative of characters…

Zach Snyder

Spartan battlefield

13 Mar 2007

Zack Snyder’s blockbuster adaptation of graphic novelist Frank Miller’s fantastical visualisation of the battle between a handful of Spartan warriors and the whole of the Persian Empire is wilfully divorced from reality. So it must have come as…

Kate Dove & Victoria Morton

Light and Dark

13 Mar 2007

Kate Dove is a sculptor turned animator, who paints. Victoria Morton avoids representation but insists she does not paint abstract canvases. Luckily, this slightly confusing cross pollinated bouquet of disciplines cannot be felt in their work shown at…

Records - Singles & Downloads

Singles & Downloads

13 Mar 2007

There’s good and bad to be found in every country, and so as not to waste too much of your precious time let’s just concentrate on the music for the time being... So for every Super Furry Animals in Wales there is a Kelly Jones, in Ireland an Ash and a…

Also Released

13 Mar 2007

Premonition (12A) 96min (2 Stars) The deeply unemployable Sandra Bullock attempts to resuscitate her diseased career with this blatant but uncredited remake of Norio Tsurutu’s 2004 J-horror (based on Jirô Tsunoda’s manga series). For what it’s worth the…

Interview - Nuri Bilge Ceylan

The Changing Man

13 Mar 2007

‘I was on holiday with my wife Ebru, and we were discussing ideas over lunch for a film about a marriage. We went to the beach and did some test shots with ourselves playing the parts of a husband and wife. I liked our performances so much in these…

Bad Jazz

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 21-Sat 24 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK It’s hard not to feel a certain resistance to the term ‘play within a play’ these days. After over 20 years of those pieces which hide behind the terms ‘postmodern’ and ‘meta-narrative’ in order for members of the profession to talk about…

Profile - Gerard James Butler

Profile

13 Mar 2007

Name Gerard James Butler Born 13 November 1969, Glasgow, Scotland Background Raised by his divorced mother in her hometown of Paisley, and Canada, Butler studied law at Glasgow University but allegedly gave up on that career after losing his job…

Interview - Mads Mikkelsen

Mad As A Dane

13 Mar 2007

It’s been a little over a decade since Mads Mikkelsen terrorised his way into public consciousness playing the violent enforcer Tonny in Pusher. It was his debut film and the start of a career that now has him commonly touted as the face of Danish…

Playlist

13 Mar 2007

The point of the monthly Playlist column is to gently guide you towards material you’re unlikely to find by chance. These films may currently be importable on expensive DVD, or as grainy bootlegs for hardcore connoisseurs, but they’re now available on…

Hughie

The Arches, Glasgow, until Sat 17 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEGLECTED CLASSIC An ageing New York gambler lords it over a luckless hotel night clerk, spinning unlikely tails of his continuing prowess in gambling and womanising. Both the gambler and the hotel have seen better days. Such is the scene in this…

Interview - Katrina Brown

Alexander Kennedy talks to Katrina Brown, who retu

13 Mar 2007

Alexander Kennedy Why did you become involved with The Common Guild?

La Femme de Nulle Part - Group Show

Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 28 Apr

13 Mar 2007

FILM, SCULPTURE AND PRINTS In the past, any woman who wandered from the respectable path, or whose intelligence dared question the male forces that be, was usually then classified as an unholy hysteric, and was either excommunicated or ‘treated…

Climates

(15) 101min

13 Mar 2007

DRAMA/TRAGEDY Written and directed by the Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Climates charts the breakdown of a relationship between a middle-aged university professor Isa (played by Ceylan) and his younger girlfriend Bahar (the director’s real-life…

Tim Berne's Paraphrase

The Lot, Edinburgh, Thu 29 Mar

13 Mar 2007

JAZZ Tim Berne is a leading light on New York’s so-called Downtown jazz scene. This very rare opportunity to catch him live in Scotland sees him in the familiar setting of Paraphrase, a trio with two of his most compatible collaborators, bassist Drew…

Strangers, Babies

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 17 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK Does our behaviour depend upon where we’re from, or where we are now? That hoary old chestnut, the nature versus nurture debate still rages on in every field of human knowledge. So it is that while it emerges quite plainly that the woman at…

Nick Evans: Rational Slab

Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Apr

13 Mar 2007

SCULPTURE Nick Evans’ last exhibition at Sorcha Dallas was one of the highlights of 2005. But the new work on show at Mary Mary, created after his enormously successful residency and exhibition at Tate St Ives in 2006, further develops many of the…

Old Joy

(15) 73min

13 Mar 2007

DRAMA Less is more in this rueful and sensitively observed study of male friendship undermined by the passing of time. Written and directed by Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass, Ode), and accompanied by a melancholic Yo La Tengo soundtrack, Old Joy…

Scottish Dance Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 27 Mar

13 Mar 2007

MODERN DANCE Diversity is fast become the calling card of Scottish Dance Theatre. Visiting Edinburgh as part of its UK tour, the company will perform three works which, although choreographically distinct, have one common factor - an emotional…

Exposure - The Sounds

Exposure

13 Mar 2007

Like Debbie Harry in a dance-off with Roxette, this sexy Swedish pop-punk band set tongues wagging with last year’s synth-heavy hit, ‘Tony the Beat’. Their debut, Living in America, established them in the States, and Pharrell Williams and Quentin…

Monks

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 16 Mar-Sat 7

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK I expect at times we all wonder what life is all about. Beyond all the ceaseless trudging on and on, the struggle with mortgages, the hassles at work, the stress of supermarket queues and so on, there’s surely some greater purpose. Whether…

Little Howard's Kids Show

13 Mar 2007

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL Never work with children or animals goes the surely outdated cliché. But what about an audience of children? Or a crowd of animals? Could you tell the difference? In his dual life as a grown-up’s and children’s…

Iraq In Fragments

(15) 94min

13 Mar 2007

DOCUMENTARY Photographed, edited and directed by the American filmmaker James Longley over a two year period following the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003, this haunting documentary doesn’t take the familiar perspective of the occupying forces.

*Hitlist

Hitlist

13 Mar 2007

The Wonderful World of Diisocia Anthony Neilson’s brilliant commentary on mental illness, looked at from the points of view of both the sufferer and those around her is as richly comical as it is moving. The NTS is to be congratulated on its revival of…

!!!

ABC, Glasgow, Mon 19 Mar

13 Mar 2007

AVANT PUNK !!! don’t like to make things easy for themselves. Choosing a name that’s not just unpronounceable (‘Chk Chk Chk’ is the most popular method) but also un-Googleable (try it), was always likely to cause complications for one thing. Then…

Sleeping Dogs

(18) 89min

13 Mar 2007

COMEDY A sexual indiscretion - and that’s putting it mildly - kicks of this tasteless but sweet natured comedy about a girl who’s hiding a traumatising secret (again, mildly put) from her fiancé. But although this consistently amusing and frequently…

Europe

Dundee Rep, Wed 4-Sat 7 Apr

13 Mar 2007

REVIVAL Reviving a play that is old enough to merit revisiting but too young to be called a classic carries a certain risk. What seemed timely and topical a decade ago might now seem tired and trite. The remarkable thing about David Greig’s Europe…

Catch A Fire

(12A) 101min

13 Mar 2007

THRILLER/TRUE STORY Just a decade before South African State President FW de Klerk un-banned the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990…

The Trap

BBC2, Sun 18 Mar, 9pm

13 Mar 2007

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY Writer and director Adam Curtis gained waves of acclaim and acres of flak for his Power of Nightmares series which suggested that the threat to the West from a network of Arab terrorist cells is nothing short of a…

5 Reasons To Go See

Jackie Leven

13 Mar 2007

1 He’s an underground legend The 56-year-old singer songwriter from Fife has spent a lifetime on the periphery of various music scenes and genres, but has influenced generations. His 1971 debut, Control, is considered a psychedelic folk classic and his…

Ice Cream Dreams

Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 28-Sat 31 Mar

13 Mar 2007

NEW WORK When writer Martin McCardie, currently best-known for his work on Channel 4’s Shameless, was approached to write a play set during the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars of 1983, he resisted the ready-made plot of drug-dealing and unsolved murder. ‘I…

Michael Clark Dance Company

Tramway, Glasgow, run ended

13 Mar 2007

MODERN DANCE Bare breasts and the Sex Pistols - it could only be Michael Clark. Over the past 20 years, Clark has invented his own mini genre; a style of dance that pushes boundaries, dancers’ abilities and audience expectations. Performed as part…

Body Parts 3

RSA, Edinburgh, run ended

13 Mar 2007

PERFORMANCE The essence of performance art is its unpredictability. From the medium’s rise in the 1960s and 70s with early shock tactics, such as artist Chris Burden’s infamous ‘Shoot’ where the artist was shot in the arm at close range, to work like…

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus

(15) 121min

13 Mar 2007

BIOGRAPHY/DRAMA Director Steven Shainberg broke plenty of taboos a few years ago with his sado-masochistic love story Secretary, and he’s clearly been emboldened to create an even more outré romance in Fur. It’s hard to imagine, however, that the…

Ceilidh Culture

Various venues, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Mar-Sun 15 Apr

13 Mar 2007

ROOTS FESTIVAL Edinburgh’s Ceilidh Culture, the council-led celebration that runs for three weeks around Easter, brings together the city’s traditional arts under one umbrella. Eclectic sounds range from the percussion-driven dance grooves of the…

Esma's Secret

(15) 95min

13 Mar 2007

DRAMA The past haunts the present in this coming-of-age drama from Bosnian writer-director Jasmila Zbanic, which won the a prize at last year’s Berlin festival. The film’s original title Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams refers to a Sarajevan suburb…

Trenton Doyle Hancock: The Wayward Thinker

Trenton Doyle Hancock:

13 Mar 2007

PAINTING DRAWING SCULPTURE Trenton Doyle Hancock is a storyteller and mythmaker - a highbrow comic book artist struggling with a complex psyche and an unruly inner child. His conviction is admirable, developing a narrative based on characters that…

Rob Churm

Sorcha Dallas Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Apr

13 Mar 2007

DRAWINGS Crying roses, knitted clouds, bare lightbulbs, Japanese symbols and hand drawn texts are among the fantastical images found in Glasgow-based artist Rob Churm’s surreal, layered monochromatic drawings. At the root of Churm’s works is a…

Simon Carroll

Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgo

13 Mar 2007

CERAMICS, PAINTING AND PRINTS The alchemy and leap of imagination that’s involved when throwing, decorating and firing a humble pot is not to be underestimated. Each glaze - whether ice-cream pink or emerald green - begins life as inert grey swill…

*Hitlist

Hitlist

13 Mar 2007

Thea Gilmore A country rock troubadour in the best sense, Gilmore’s a poet and album Harpo’s Ghost is dark, expressive beast. Now we know what KT Tunstall’s imaginary older, smarter, slightly twisted sister might sound like. King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 26…

*Hitlist

Hitlist

13 Mar 2007

Nick Evans: Rational Slab A group of large sculptures, developing themes and techniques which the Glasgow-based artist had developed whilst being artist at residence at Tate St Ives. The sculptures continue Evans’ examination of philosophically…

Hitlist - The best film releases

13 Mar 2007

Old Joy Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Will Oldham, plays ageing stoner Kurt in this seamless, minimal Brokeback Mountain-ish tale. A tiny joy. See review. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 23-Thu 29 Mar only.

The Wonderful World of Dossocia

Seen at Tron Theatre, Glasgow, run ended. Now tour

13 Mar 2007

REVIVAL As children we’re enthralled by adventures to far off lands with tin men, talking animals or witches and wizards, where good overcomes evil. Anthony Neilson’s play appeals to both our childhood imaginings and our adult sensibilities. Lisa…

Reviews - Peepshow Launch

Peepshow Launch

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Already inundated most nights of the week, cynics might say that Glasgow needs a new band night like it does another rainy day. Peepshow, refreshingly, is a showcase with a difference, however. On the last Wednesday of every month at The…

Amazing Grace

(PG) 118min

13 Mar 2007

BIOPIC/DRAMA Amazing Grace tells the story of how William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) persuaded the House of Commons after a series of attempts to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Alas, the subject matter is far more interesting than the…

Stomp The Yard

(12A) 114min

13 Mar 2007

DRAMA/ROMANCE After the death of his younger brother, LA street dancer DJ (Columbus Short) avoids blame and recrimination by enrolling in the historically African-American Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. Once there, however, he finds a whole…

Reviews - The Twang

The Twang

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Never underestimate beery lads in big jackets. While it’s easy to believe that they’re all still swaggering to the sound of the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses et al, many are (if this sell out crowd was anything to go by at least) entirely…

Records - Various - Ballads of the Book

Various

13 Mar 2007

POETRY POP Of course, just because dozens of the county’s finest bands and authors have collaborated on this album, doesn’t guarantee it’s going to be any good. But thankfully it is, it’s really very good indeed. The end product is unsurprisingly…

Reviews - The Greenman Bluegrass Boys

The Greenman Bluegrass Boys

13 Mar 2007

BLUEGRASS Out of the ashes to scratch Edinburgh’s leftfield itch, Octopus Diamond has inherited much of the feel (as well as the previously flouted constrictive license) of its predecessor The Left Bank. It is early days and for now the decorative…

The Scottish Enlightenment, The Debuts and Callel

Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Mar

13 Mar 2007

The crowd are still filtering in when the openers take the stage, but are slowly drawn towards The Scottish Enlightenment (●●●●●) - a Dunfermline four-piece with the menace of Joy Division and the slacker indie cool of Pavement. Whether it’s their…

Neil Bartlett

Skin Lane (Serpent’s Tail)

13 Mar 2007

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER Author and theatre director Neil Bartlett explores the link between repressed sexual desire and social envy in this disappointing follow-up novel to the Whitbread-shortlisted Mr Clive and Mr Page. London, 1967. Mr F is a…

Records - Also Released

Also Released

13 Mar 2007

Brett Anderson Brett Anderson (Drowned in Sound) Debut solo venture from the former Suede daddy has glints of his former glories but is, well, like Suede without the fun, glam bits, so fairly hard work for the most part.

Rhona Cameron

The Naked Drinking Club (Ebury)

13 Mar 2007

AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE In 1979, the chronicle of a year in Cameron’s teenage life, she’s an adopted Lothians lassie who fixates on girls, lets the boys take advantage of her, and watches her father die. In her first novel, The Naked Drinking Club, the…

Records - The Aliens

The Aliens

13 Mar 2007

ROCK POP After two songs of the Aliens’ debut long player (an outdated description, but at 72 minutes, a justified one), you might be praying for invasion by some little green ones to take you away from it all. The hackneyed and tuneless 60s funk…

Augusten Burroughs

Possible Side Effects (Atlantic Books)

13 Mar 2007

SHORT STORIES It’s queerly satisfying to know that other gay men lead equally uninspiring and uninspired lives, where mopping up dog pee, checking on eBay bids and having bad dates are the highlights of the day. Augusten Burroughs’ new book, a…

Will Davis

My Side of the Story (Bloomsbury)

13 Mar 2007

COMING-OF-AGE TALE The horror, uncertainty and exasperation of being a teenager are supposed to be character-building. And so the horror of coming out, the uncertainty of running away to Brighton on a binge of pills and powder, and the…

Records - Take a Worm For a Walk Week

Take a Worm For a Walk Week

13 Mar 2007

SCARY NASTINESS Far from sitting on the fence TAWFAWW choose to unceremoniously hack down the fence, stamp it into little pieces, collect it up and feed it to a pack of hungry dogs. Well, that’s what it sounds like. To be honest this sounds like…

Records - Pomegranate

Pomegranate

13 Mar 2007

ELECTRO POP With a background in futuristic theatre productions and distant cinematic electronica, Pomegranate (duo Stef McGlinchey and Vanessa Rigg) certainly know how to put a layered, nocturnal soundscape or two together (not for nowt is the…

Records - The Primary 5

The Primary 5

13 Mar 2007

COUNTRY POP Given that The Primary 5 are the band of ex-Teenage Fanclub drummer Paul Quinn, it’s not surprising to find they’re in a decent amount of hock to The Byrds. Go! or Pure Pop For Now People to give the record it’s full, swingin’ title is a…

Records - Unkle Bob

Unkle Bob

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Like the newest member of an inbred family, Unkle Bob’s debut album has numerous musical baby daddies. Like Snow Patrol they formed in Scotland; like Keane they are prone to stirring emotional anthems and singer Rick Webster’s voice performs…

Records - Unkle Bob

Unkle Bob

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Like the newest member of an inbred family, Unkle Bob’s debut album has numerous musical baby daddies. Like Snow Patrol they formed in Scotland; like Keane they are prone to stirring emotional anthems and singer Rick Webster’s voice performs…

Records - The Cinematics

The Cinematics

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Well, here’s a band with an identity crisis. On the one hand, Glasgow quartet The Cinematics clearly have a knack for crafting catchy wee pop gems, the unashamed Britpop forays that are ‘Sunday Sun’ and ‘Chase’ being stacked to the gills with…

Records - Odeon Beat Club

Odeon Beat Club

13 Mar 2007

INDIE This has been a long time coming. The List has sat quietly, collecting up demos and singles in a tidy pile until this unassuming quartet finally got a long player out. Thankfully this is worth the wait: a dozen brittle tunes that alternately…

Records - Rubens

Rubens

13 Mar 2007

AMBIENT ELECTRONICA It really is a terrible shame to always be likening fresh Scottish electronica to the all-conquering Soma stable, but Rubens possess that same jittery, emotive quality in spades. Christ knows how the title relates to the contents…

Records - The Midden

The Midden

13 Mar 2007

FOLK Considering the recent leaps forward in folk music made by the likes of Karine Polwart and Seth Lakeman, it simply isn’t enough these days to be a proficient traditional band with a few decent tunes. Scottish fivesome The Midden suffer by such…

Records - 102 Miles

102 Miles

13 Mar 2007

PUB ROCK Despite having a guitar-playing singer called Bob Mould, this Shotts-based five-piece are sadly not imbued with the spirits of American hardcore more’s the pity. What they are instead is a tediously ordinary pub rock outfit with precious few…

Feature - Travel Special

The Great Escape

12 Mar 2007

In desperate need of a holiday but desperately short of cash? Take inspiration from our two adventuring writers who were given the task of getting as far away from Scotland (and back) as they could in 24 hours for under £50. Read on to discover what…

Life & Style - Shop

Glasgow styles better

12 Mar 2007

Saville Row, Champs Elyseé, Buchanan Street... Designer labels are to Glasgow what coals once were to Newcastle. As the first ever Glasgow Fashion Week struts its stuff all over George Square, Kirstin Innes speaks to three up and coming young designers…

Feature - Sean Hughes

Renaissance man

12 Mar 2007

After 40, the old joke goes, everyone gets the face they deserve. Sean Hughes has had the same hangdog expression for years but he maintains that he hasn’t lost the drive which made him a star in his 20s. ‘When I started out I was full of young comic…

Feature - Ashley Jensen

Funny lady

12 Mar 2007

Who would have thought that Ashley Jensen, the mild-mannered, meek Maggie from Extras, would have a guilty secret from her dark past as a student in Edinburgh? ‘I got banned from a pub on the Grassmarket,’ she admits with a barely hidden mix of remorse…

Feature - Polish culture

The Pole position

12 Mar 2007

Pictures: Jannica Honey ‘If they wanted to, a Pole could live a whole year here without ever speaking English,’ says Iwana Zurawska, who moved to Edinburgh from Malbork, North Poland in 2003, a year before the country entered the European Union. ‘The…

Feature - Dolly Parton

Hello Dolly

12 Mar 2007

‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.’ This oft-repeated line from Dolly Parton’s onstage repertoire has been heard from Nashville to Newcastle. But just because Parton can laugh at herself doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be taken seriously. She is in…

Joe Hill

Heart of darkness

12 Mar 2007

One of the biggest skeletons in literature popped out of the cupboard earlier this year when Joe Hill’s true identity as Stephen King’s son was unveiled. Having ploughed away secretly for over a decade as writer and editor of short stories (most notably…

Deerstalker

Rural rat race

12 Mar 2007

If you go down to the woods this month, be sure of a big surprise. Unless, of course, you are one of the 500-plus loons who have already signed up for the Deerstalker, an assault course through the countryside, forests and hills around the Borders…

Mark Nelson

Raw energy

12 Mar 2007

Mark Nelson’s mouth has been getting him in trouble for quite some time now. Back in his day as a Dumfries schoolboy, he was indulging in between-song banter while appearing with local band Evac-Chair, named after the vehicle which transports an…

CJ Bolland

Wild horses

12 Mar 2007

CJ Bolland is a very busy man. DJing, collaborating, remixing and even recently turning his hand to screenwriting. The Yorkshire-born, Belgium-based lad is a one man creative machine who shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Bolland started his…

News - Extra

One hell of a Ness

12 Mar 2007

Following a fantastic inaugural beano starring Fatboy Slim last year, Rockness returns to the bonny banks of Scotland’s most celebrated loch with some of the world’s biggest names in the world of electronic, dance and rock music in tow. The Chemical…

French without tears

Life & Style - Eat

12 Mar 2007

Could Edinburgh be at the zenith in its history of dining out? It is now home to three Michelin star-holding operations, while several others at the top end of the market have their own share of accolades and loyal custom. The choice is rich, from…

Life & Style - Play

To boldly go . . .

12 Mar 2007

Has your choice of gaming console ever been so varied? Where once fanboy teenagers scrapped over minor hardware differences, now gamers must choose their console with care. It’s a tricky decision, exacerbated by the PS3 release.

Life & Style - Play - Reviews

THE BOOK OF GAMES (VOLUME 1)

12 Mar 2007

BOOK (gameXplore, 3 stars) Given how popular videogames are, there’s a strange lack of books on the subject. Indeed, it’s hard to think of a bookshop with a gaming section. Beyond the walkthroughs and gaming guides that proliferate at…

Miso Funky Market

Sun 18 Mar, Oran Mor, Glasgow; Sat 24 Mar, The Cav

12 Mar 2007

FAIRS 'We just got fed up with craft fairs where all they sold was knitted egg cosies,’ says Claire Brown, co-founder of the Miso Funky Market, the Shangri-La of Glasgow’s growing hipster craft community, which branches out into Edinburgh this month.

News - In Brief

Mister Tramp rock the boat for Shelter

12 Mar 2007

Record label Mister Tramp is bringing together an impressive line-up of musicians for a special gig in aid of Shelter Scotland on Saturday 24 March at The Ferry. The cross-genre line-up includes Evan Crichton, The State Broadcasters, Afterchristmas and…

Comics - 300

Frank Miller & Lynn Varley

12 Mar 2007

EPIC Re-reading Frank Miller’s graphic novella in its landscape format hardcover edition (it was originally serialised as a five-issue comic book in 1998/99), it’s clear just how perfectly suited 300 is for the Hollywood blockbuster film…

News - Gaelic culture

Opera for the masses

12 Mar 2007

Words: Allan Radcliffe One of Scotland’s most spectacular locations is to be celebrated in a unique European theatre production. Five simultaneous performances of St Kilda - A European Opera (Mac-Talla Nan Eun) will take place in France, Belgium…

Obscene Fifth Birthday

Ego, Edinburgh, Fri 23 Mar

12 Mar 2007

DRUM & BASS Although Obscene hasn’t had much luck with venues since opening five years ago in Edinburgh, it is still going strong as a showcase for the best new and local D&B talent and is an essential flipside to the big-name guests who are a staple…

Timo Maas

Motel at Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Mar

12 Mar 2007

TRANCE/HOUSE ‘I’m having the best time ever as a DJ from a personal point of view. I can play what I love and the people go crazy, what more can you want?’ Timo Maas is one happy bunny and remains fully aware that he’s still living the dream after…

*Hitlist

Hitlist

12 Mar 2007

Mark Watson Your last ever chance to see the superb I’m Worried That I’m Starting to Hate Almost Everyone in the World, inspired by the time the Bristolian was mugged by a young hoodlum type. The Stand, Glasgow, Thu 15 Mar.

Edwin Morgan

A Book of Lives (Carcanet)

12 Mar 2007

POETRY COLLECTION Every so often, a collection of poems comes along which warrants closing the door, leaving emails unopened and the phone unanswered to read it from cover to cover. A Book of Lives is one such publication. As Scotland’s Makar, it’s…

*Hitlist

Hitlist

12 Mar 2007

Steven Hall A cult legend in the making, The Raw Shark Texts somehow connects the missing link between The Matrix and Jaws with guile and panache. This is your chance to discover how the author managed it. Borders Books, Glasgow, Thu 15 Mar.

Phil Nichol

ABC, Glasgow, Sat 24 Mar; the Stand, Edinburgh, Su

12 Mar 2007

STAND-UP Many comedians bare all on stage but precious few take it quite as literally as Phil Nichol. Although born in Glasgow, his accent is Canadian, and his wide-eyed, manic, positive energy most definitely not a product of the Central Belt.

Introducing . . .

The best new nights in town, this month: Club Anti

12 Mar 2007

Residents John Goucher, Craig Harper and Sean Clinton.

*Hitlist

Hitlist

12 Mar 2007

Access Luke Slater showcases his considerable grasp on the electronic form, running through the best in techno and electro with a few leftfield asides. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 16 Mar.

News - One Minute Wonder

One Minute Wonder Film Competition

12 Mar 2007

Dust off your imaginations and reach for those sharpened pencils. The List One Minute Wonder Film Competition deadline is on Friday 16 March, so if you’re harbouring a burning desire to try your hand at film writing, there’s no better time than the…

Hitlist - The best events, talk and sport

12 Mar 2007

Election Question Time Lesley Riddoch Paxmans-up to chair a Question Time-style debate with a veritable throng of Scottish Parliament luminaries: MSPs Tommy Sheridan, Colin Fox (SSP), Margo MacDonald, Sarah Boyack (Labour), Murdo Fraser (Conservative…