Issue 580

Hallam Foe

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Edinburgh International Film Festival A walk across the rooftops Alan Morrison meets the director and stars of Edinburgh-set Freudian fairytale Hallam Foe, which opens this year’s EIFF

Andy Warhol

Edinburgh International Art Festival

Novelist and Goldsmiths graduate Niven Govinden charts the enduring appeal of pop artist Andy Warhol

Happy Mondays and James

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Step on, sit down Happy Mondays and James hailed from very different sides of the Manchester musical fence. As the two bands get set for T on the Fringe, Paul Morley says hallelujah to the returning heroes and considers their legacy

Ricky Gervais

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Take a letter Ricky Gervais has gone from being part of a failed New Romantic duo to achieving distinction as the first British writer to have scripted a Simpsons episode. Along the way he only went and created one of TV’s…

Free stuff

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This year’s Fringe programme includes a record 304 free shows. Kirstin Innes looks at why a lack of funds needn’t hinder your Festival experience

Alan Warner

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival The man who talks Alan Warner may no longer be the wild man of Scottish literature. But he still has plenty to offload on Adrian Turpin about the press, his image and a looming mid-life crisis

Debut writers

Edinburgh International Book Festival

This year’s batch of debut authors is rich and varied. Suzanne Black finds that while some of them may be escaping from a successful parent’s shadow or scripting identity dramas, they ultimately have one thing in common

The Bacchae

Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival Countdown to ecstasy There’s more to me than fluff and frivolity, insists Perthshire lad Alan Cumming, as he prepares for his most hedonistic role yet. Mark Fisher raises a glass to the god of good times

Benny Golson Quartet, Al Foster Quintent, Jeff 'Tain' Watts Quartet

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival Roll with it Jazz goes back to its roots in the Festival’s ‘American Icons’ strand, as Kenny Mathieson discovers

Dance Base

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Teenage boys, a footballer’s wife, a sprightly septuagenarian and a man in a dress. Kelly Apter talks to artistic director Morag Deyes about this year’s Dance Base programme

Loung Ung

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival Surviving the peace Author, campaigner and victim of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, bestselling writer Loung Ung talks to Allan Radcliffe about how she managed to carry on after the hell of the killing fields

Two Days in Paris

Edinburgh International Film Festival A woman for all seasons Julie Delpy talks to Kaleem Aftab about her feature film directorial debut and tells him why she finds it hard to sit still

Breaker Morant

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

After the success of Talk Radio, the Comedians Theatre Company returns to the Fringe with a hard-hitting courtroom drama. But as the Australian leads tell Steve Cramer, the play is not without its bawdy elements

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival Bittersweet symphonies Carol Main meets Gustavo Dudamel, the young maestro behind the world renowned Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, which has transformed the lives of many underprivileged young people in its native…

David Batchelor

Edinburgh International Art Festival

Edinburgh International Art Festival Colour in David Batchelor thinks we live in a culture that’s scared of bright and vivid hues. That’s why he’s filling his own artistic world with waves of chromatic pleasure. Nick Barley looks at his work and…

Rebecca Drysdale

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Bits & pieces An award-winning show with nudity, lesbianism and racial politics sounds like pretty standard Fringe fare these days. But Brian Donaldson reckons Rebecca Drysdale has quite a few cheeky tricks up her sleeve

On Danse

Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival Animal attraction Merging choreography and video imagery does not always make for hugely successful dance productions. Kelly Apter finds French duo Montalvo and Hervieu showing the rest how it should really be done

Jardins Publics

Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival The Outsiders The idea of a public garden might stir up images of lurid flowerbeds and incontinent pigeons, but Lucy Sweet finds somewhere altogether more highbrow to get fresh air

Leitmotif

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Andrew Dawson went on a deeply personal journey for his last Fringe hit. Kelly Apter discovers that his new dance show goes straight for the entertainment jugular

Tommy Smith and Courtney Pine

Kenny Mathieson finds two British sax greats paying tribute to Coltrane

World Press Photo exhibition

Festival of Politics

Festival of Politics Life through a lense Ruth Hedges introduces this year’s World Press Photo exhibition, which runs throughout August at the Scottish Parliament and powerfully documents people and places from across the globe

Planet B-boy

Edinburgh International Film Festival

Think breakdancing died out in the 80s? Think again, says Mark Edmundson as he talks to Benson Lee, the writer-director of Planet B-boy which charts its epic resurgence

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Odd Couple Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan talk to Doug Johnstone about the unlikely collaboration that produced their Mercury-nominated Ballad of the Broken Seas