Issue 580

Hallam Foe

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

19 Jul 2007

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

Happy Mondays and James

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

Free stuff

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

Ricky Gervais

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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…

Alan Warner

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

Alex Hartley

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

This year’s Festival will see the Fruitmarket Gallery boarded up by a giant poster-style replication of the real façade hidden underneath. The screen-printed faux frontage has been created by artist Alex Hartley, and comes with seven climbing routes…

Alyn Cosker Trio

19 Jul 2007

Alyn Cosker has emerged as the top young drummer on the Scottish jazz scene, handsomely fulfilling the promise he showed as a teenager in the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra. He has gone on to work in a variety of other contexts, from the Tommy Smith…

Anita Loos retrospective

19 Jul 2007

Anita Loos was an intellectual brunette who wrote about dumb gold-diggers. As a major retrospective of her work hits the Festival, Paul Dale explores her legacy

Auto Auto

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Christian Von Richthofen likes a vehicle to sound good. ‘In Germany it’s the Opel,’ he says. ‘The way the bonnet swings is like an Indian drum. On one side, the mudguards sound like a bass drum and on the other, a conga.’ None of this would interest…

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Festival Blazing squad A pair of unassuming middle-aged men are behind the explosive spectacle of the annual fireworks concert. Karin Goodwin meets the acceptable face of pyromania

Ben Okri

19 Jul 2007

Impoverished student, witness to the Nigerian civil war, paint shop employee, poetry editor for West Africa magazine, and BBC broadcaster, Ben Okri is now a much-lauded writer. Five years in the writing, his latest novel Starbook is a tale of slavery in…

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

19 Jul 2007

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

Breaker Morant

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

Capriccio

19 Jul 2007

Richard Strauss’ final opera Capriccio, which received its premiere in 1942, is described by the composer as ‘a conversation piece for music’. A young countess cannot choose between two lovers, one a musician, the other a poet.

Charles Kennedy

Festival of Politics

19 Jul 2007

Festival of Politics The knowledge Hounded by the press and bullied by his own party, it’s no surprise to discover that Charles Kennedy is enjoying his political sabbatical. Ruth Hedges catches up with him and finds a man at ease with the world again

Charlotte Hudson & Leila Hackett

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Charlotte Hudson and Leila Hackett aim to bring audiences a much needed breath of fresh sea air with their show Two Left Hands. The duo derived inspiration for this collection of breezy vignettes from what Hackett describes as ‘the faded seaside towns…

Children's books

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

Anna Doherty (14), Lotte Fisher (13), Keira O’Sullivan-Robertson (13) and Archie Fisher (10) take their pick of the Book Festival’s exciting children’s programme

Dance Base

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

David Batchelor

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

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…

Debut writers

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

England

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Art of the matter Tim Crouch tells Mark Fisher that England is about many things, but they don’t include warm beer and nostalgia

Francesca Martinez

19 Jul 2007

The last time Francesca Martinez turned up in Edinburgh for a full Fringe run, it was a revelation in more ways than one. Her 2002 show I’mperfect introduced us to a bright young comedian whose fame has only increased to this day. Naturally, though, the…

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

Jacqui Dankworth

19 Jul 2007

Fans of Jacqui Dankworth’s solo work should expect a totally different experience when the jazz crossover singer performs with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland. ‘With a big band behind you, it’s like a steam train pushing you along,’ she…