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…

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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…

*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…

*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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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?

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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 - 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 - 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 - 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…

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 - 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…

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 - 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…