Issue 580

Planet B-boy

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

Loung Ung

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

Lucy Hawking

19 Jul 2007

What do you do when your father is one of the world’s most respected theoretical physicists, author of the bestseller A Brief History of Time and you want to be a writer? The answer was obvious to Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen: write a book…

Rachel Whiteread

19 Jul 2007

Rachel Whiteread’s works are in a direct lineage with late 60s and early 70s minimalist sculpture, where the literal ‘objectness’ of art was emphasised. When some sculptors removed the plinth that was once used to present their work to the viewer – a…

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…

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

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…

Trisha Brown Dance Company

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

From rejection to reverement, Trisha Brown has seen it all. Kelly Apter speaks to the woman whose career began almost 50 years ago, and who is playing the Festival for the first time

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

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…

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

Kate Adie

19 Jul 2007

Kate Adie talks to Allan Radcliffe about her career in the frontline of news journalism and her refusal to let sentiment undermine the pursuit of facts

Rebecca Drysdale

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

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

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

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…

La Didone

19 Jul 2007

For over 30 years, the most unlikely elements have been combined in the Wooster Group’s work. Everything from creaky old B-movies to cutting edge technology have been spliced together to create arresting pieces of theatre.

Neil Boorman

19 Jul 2007

To the casual observer, burning £20,000 worth of expensive designer gear to cinders in a central London park might not seem like the wisest of actions. For lifestyle journalist Neil Boorman, this ritualistic, highly public destruction of his worldly…

Two Days in Paris

19 Jul 2007

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

Tender Scene: Group Show

17 Jul 2007

SCULPTURE, PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND DRAWING TENDER SCENE - GROUP SHOW The Changing Room, Stirling, until 11 Aug (Image: Gregor Wright) Maybe it’s the red and white gaffer-taped maze of scaffolding in the Victorian shopping arcade that…

Katja Strunz: Lazy Corner and The Suicide Walls

17 Jul 2007

SCULPTURE AND PRINT KATJA STRUNZ: LAZY CORNER AND THE SUICIDE WALLS The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until 4 Aug The best avoided gallery text informs the ‘reader’ of Berlin-based Katja Strunz’ work that her sculptures and prints should be…

Tam Dean Burn

17 Jul 2007

He’s your Venus Steve Cramer talks to Tam Dean Burn, sole actor in an adaptation of Luke Sutherland’s Venus as a Boy, about love, sex, childhood and forgiveness How does one pitch the story of a dying transsexual prostitute to the relatively…

Deathkill4000

16 Jul 2007

ELECTRO POP DEATHKILL4000 The Loft, Glasgow, Sat 28 Jul After settling in nicely to their new home at The Loft, Deathkill4000 are gearing up for the third visit of their beloved kindred spirit Smatka - a lady who could easily be the…

Flying Duck

16 Jul 2007

Kitchen clubbing Sandra Marron checks out yet another quality independent club venue, as the Flying Duck opens for business in Glasgow The Flying Duck is the type of club you will be hard pushed to find anywhere else in our fair city.

Andy Warhol

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

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

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…

Jardins Publics

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

Jason Manford

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Edinburgh Festival Fringe Marissa Burgess finds a very contented Jason Manford living off the spoils of his barnstorming Fringe debut. Piers Morgan is the only fly in his soup

Knocked Up

19 Jul 2007

Writer, director and producer Judd Apatow honed his skills on The Larry Sanders Show, winning a couple of Emmys for his writing. What he took from the experience was that the best comedies are not made up of jokes, but of observations on the ways people…

Picasso on Paper

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

Alexander Kennedy explores the enduring mass appeal of Pablo Picasso as two major new exhibitions of the great 20th century artist’s work come to Edinburgh

The Container

19 Jul 2007

Clare Bayley’s play, The Container, depicts the journey of five people seeking asylum in Britain, stuffed into the back of a freight lorry, desperately struggling to survive a gruelling journey. The site-specific experience will involve five actors and…

Tom Tom Club

19 Jul 2007

Director Scott Maidment has reason to be cheerful. His latest show from Australia, Tom Tom Club, is currently re-defining the circus genre. ‘It seems to appeal to everyone, from 14-year-old girls on MySpace to highbrow physical theatre lovers,’ he says.

Tommy Smith and Courtney Pine

19 Jul 2007

Kenny Mathieson finds two British sax greats paying tribute to Coltrane

Alexandre Perigot

17 Jul 2007

Long live the king Alexander Kennedy trips over a pipe, bangs his head and temporarily goes to magic America with Alexandre Perigot The memory of a pathetic fat man in a tight, spangled costume walking aimlessly in his little castle is…

Dominic Hill

17 Jul 2007

NEW APPOINTMENT DOMINIC HILL Steve Cramer talks to Dominic Hill, who has just been appointed artistic director at the Traverse Theatre, replacing Philip Howard, who leaves in December Steve Cramer One of the things people will ask…

Rupert Everett

Film Special

17 Jul 2007

FILM SPECIAL A man of many faces Innocent, plotter, maniac or queen? Rupert Everett claims to be all of the above but Kaleem Aftab finds the actor in sanguine form Rupert Everett just gets better and better. The actor and now producer of…

Michael Dracula

16 Jul 2007

ROCK MICHAEL DRACULA Optimo, Sub club, Glasgow, Sun 1 Jul After countless line-up changes and an absence for a year or so from playing live, Michael Dracula made a long overdue return to Glasgow with a tight set at the Sub Club’s Optimo.

Northern Alliance

16 Jul 2007

INDIE NORTHERN ALLIANCE 13th Note, Glasgow, Thu 19 Jul; Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Jul They’ve released just three albums in five years (two of them mini ones), and as yet never played a full band live show. What’s been the hold…

Hitlist - The best film & dvd releases

16 Jul 2007

• The Seventh Seal New print reissue of Ingmar Bergman’s iconic 1957 medieval road movie about one knight’s search for divine truth. See review . Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Jul. • Private Fears in Public Places Eighty-five-year-old French New…

Round-up

DVD

16 Jul 2007

DVD ROUND-UP Is death the beginning or the end? Who knows? Who cares? Unless, of course, somewhere on the other side there is a home cinema where one could watch Harold and Maude , Hal Ashby’s 1971 morbid comic gem (Paramount, 4 STARS) about…

Firehouse Dog

16 Jul 2007

FAMILY/COMEDY FIREHOUSE DOG (PG) 111min Rexxx is a pampered pooch star in the Rin Tin Tin mould, apparently known and loved by millions as the star of blockbusters such as Jurassic Bark. But when a stunt on his latest film, Terrier at…

Hairspray

16 Jul 2007

MUSICAL HAIRSPRAY (PG) 110min Director Adam Shankman appears at last to have found his niche after bestowing clangers The Pacifier and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on this world. With his feeling for good choreography (in a previous life he…

Hitlist - The best books, comics & events

16 Jul 2007

• Harry Potter Week Regardless of whether you love or loathe JK Rowling’s teenage wizard and his fearsome chums, the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the culmination of the most successful children’s book franchise ever, is cause…

A Light-Hearted Look at Murder

16 Jul 2007

BLACK COMEDY MARK WATSON A Light-Hearted Look at Murder (Chatto & Windus) (Image: © Emilie Fjola Sandy) Mark Watson has been described as ‘a Will Self with dignity’. Admittedly, it was in his spoof biography for the BBC2 comedy Time…

Lin Anderson

16 Jul 2007

Flight of fancy Edinburgh crime writer Lin Anderson tells Allan Radcliffe that living in Nigeria and feasting on the news have both influenced her latest novel Lin Anderson has tended to get lumped in with the Tartan Noir squad of Scottish…

Hitlist - The best events, talks and sport

16 Jul 2007

• Cut the Carbon rally Soweto Kinch, local hobbit Billy Boyd, Harry Potter snogger Katie Leung (pictured) and musician Amy MacDonald are part of a star-studded line-up at the Edinburgh leg of this Christian Aid-run rally to raise awareness of…

Ukulele Ceilidh

16 Jul 2007

She’s performed in clubs, in taxis, for crowds of hundreds, and in front of her cat. Kirstin Innes meets the woman behind Eilidh's Daily Ukulele Ceilidh.

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

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…

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.

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…

Leitmotif

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

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

Nathan Coley

Edinburgh International Art Festival

19 Jul 2007

‘It’s a big sculpture talking about the invisibility of things, and I think that’s beautiful,’ says Nathan Coley. He is talking about his 2006 work ‘There Will Be No Miracles Here’, a six-metre high structure with the title phrase illuminated across…

On Danse

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

The Bacchae

Edinburgh International Festival

19 Jul 2007

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

The Bad Plus

19 Jul 2007

He’s already familiar to Edinburgh audiences as the drummer in the Bad Plus, alongside pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Reid Anderson. But Dave King is also featured in another equally unconventional jazz-rooted trio, Happy Apple, featuring saxophonist…

World Press Photo exhibition

Festival of Politics

19 Jul 2007

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

Penny Thompson

News

17 Jul 2007

Penny Thompson 1950-2007 We were saddened to hear of the death of Penny Thomson, regular List contributor, film producer and former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF). Born in Manila, Penny led a peripatic…

Performers at Fringe Collaborate on Website

News

17 Jul 2007

• Performers at this year’s Fringe are collaborating on a website called showcasefringe.tv, which will feature eight-to-ten minute segments as well as news, sketches and a behind-the-scenes insight into the festival. The site also aims to highlight the…

New Artistic Director at the Traverse

News

17 Jul 2007

TRAVERSE APPOINTS NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Scotland’s new writing theatre, the Traverse, which launched the careers of playwrights such as John Byrne, Liz Lochhead and Gregory Burke, has announced the appointment of Dominic Hill as its new…

Edinburgh Film Festival New Writing Awards

News

17 Jul 2007

Best in show The List launches the Edinburgh Film Festival New Writing Awards. Words: Allan Radcliffe Since 2005 The List has collaborated with the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain to present awards for the best new writing in comedy and…

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Film Special

17 Jul 2007

FILM SPECIAL Hey baby Victoria Hammett talks to Maggie Gyllenhaal about fame, families and why she enjoys playing apparently hopeless characters From her sexy masochist in cult film Secretary to her trailer trash ex-junkie in upcoming…

Hitlist - The best exhibitions

17 Jul 2007

• Alexandre Perigot: Pipedreams Silver scaffolding delineates the outer edges of a diminutive mansion, bringing Elvis’ Graceland to Glasgow. Alexandre Perigot presents an installation that subtly comments on celebrity, collective memory and the…

Remote Control

17 Jul 2007

Remote Control Allan Radcliffe finds that, while reality doesn’t necessarily suck, it often lacks bite The old adage that the truth is stranger than fiction appears more crucial to programme-makers now than ever before. While reality shows…

Into The Woods & After Juliet

17 Jul 2007

YOUTH THEATRE Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 20-Sat 21 Jul It’s that time of year when, as the Festival looms, there’s a certain hiatus in the theatre. The big companies are busy preparing their showcase events, and all seems quiet. But…

Hitlist - The best rock, pop, jazz & folk

17 Jul 2007

• A Band Called Quinn, Maxi Geil! and Playcolt Glasgow’s very own up and coming indie kids Quinn are joined by Brooklyn’s finest arch-camp art-rockers Maxi Geil and Playcolt, who are playing in Scotland for the first time. Classic Grand, Glasgow, Tue 24…

Pale Carnage: Group Show

17 Jul 2007

SCULPTURE, INSTALLATION, FILM PALE CARNAGE: GROUP SHOW DCA, Dundee, until Sun 2 Sep (Image: This Drinking Alone by Tom Burr) Pale Carnage takes its title from Ezra Pound’s poem ‘April’, written in 1915. Michael Bracewell’s catalogue…

Dean Owens

Album

16 Jul 2007

ROCK DEAN OWENS Whisky Hearts (Vermillion Road Records) Dean Owens is a genuine one-off. His exploration of songwriting has taken him through the heart of Americana, where he has found many opportunities to show his skills as a songwriter…

Also Released

Records

16 Jul 2007

ALSO RELEASED Sam Baker - Pretty World (An Independent Release) Baker’s dense lyrics reflect life and near loss, and the artist is clearly determined to make sure every single moment counts. Vocals are country-nasal and a little limited, yet the…

Miracle Fortress

Album

16 Jul 2007

EUPHORIC INDIE MIRACLE FORTRESS Five Roses (Rough Trade) Miracle Fortress is really just one man, the sickeningly talented 23-year-old Graham Van Pelt. Actually, ‘miracle fortress’ is a good way of describing what debut album Five Roses…

Lethal Bizzle

Album

16 Jul 2007

GRIME LETHAL BIZZLE Back to Bizznizz (V2) The ailing Grime scene too often forgets that it was spawned from dance music, not hip hop, with many MCs eschewing potential club hits in favour of brainless trigger talk. Lethal Bizzle, on the…

Reverend and the Makers

Exposure

16 Jul 2007

EXPOSURE Tomorrow’s music today. This issue: Reverend and the Makers Ex-call centre worker Jon McClure, all Gallagher swagger and Mike Skinner rhymes, wants his indie funk to make people think - and dance. The band’s single, ‘Heavyweight…

The Beats

16 Jul 2007

Beats international Miles Johnson raps about hip hop with Example and Professor Green, two of the acts on The Beats, the label set up by Streets frontman Mike Skinner With the emergence of Mike Skinner and Dizzee Rascal, British hip hop is…

Round-up

DVD

16 Jul 2007

DVD ROUND-UP Two very different DVD releases for you this issue. First up is Tan Lines (Peccadillo Pictures, 2 STARS). Have you ever watched the vacuous beach bum blondes of Home and Away and wished the storylines were slower, more full of…

Transformers

16 Jul 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI TRANSFORMERS (12A) 144min In 1984 toy manufacturer Hasbro released the Transformers, and as part of its marketing strategy, commissioned a Marvel comic strip and an animated TV series that became an instant…

Private Fears in Public Spaces (Coeurs)

16 Jul 2007

DRAMA PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC SPACES (COEURS) (12A) 125 min What is it about those French New Wave filmmakers? Godard, Rivette, Chabrol and Rohmer all continue to make films, and here 84-year-old Alain Resnais returns with this elegant and…

The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet)

16 Jul 2007

NEW PRINT/REISSUE THE SEVENTH SEAL (DET SJUNDE INSEGLET) (PG) 92min Swedish film and theatre director Ingmar Bergman’s hugely iconic and sustained 1957 meditation on the inevitability of death and suffering in the Middle Ages makes a…

Playlist

16 Jul 2007

PLAYLIST This month’s PlayList is dedicated to Mystery Science Theatre 3000, a Minneapolis television show which broadcasted commentaries on 198 obscure films between 1988 and 1999. Now uploaded onto the internet by the show’s dedicated fans…

The Simpsons

16 Jul 2007

Springfield tales As The Simpsons Movie finally hits cinemas, Paul Dale tracks its journey to fruition with creator Matt Groening Occasionally procrastination can be the mother of invention. No one knows this better than 53-year-old…

Hitlist - The best comedy

16 Jul 2007

• Stewart Lee The 41st funniest stand-up is at the top of his game. See preview . The Stand, Glasgow, 30 July. • Comedy Club 4 Kids Will the grown-ups manage to not swear? How will they cope being shown up by the kids? It could get messy. The Bongo…

Karen Bayley

Profile

16 Jul 2007

PROFILE KAREN BAYLEY Who’s she then? The lovely Ms Bayley is a favourite on the circuit, particularly in her own clubs in Sutton Coldfield and Solihull. She’s up here to preview her show The More You Pee, the Less you Cry. Peeing and…

Secrets

Comics

16 Jul 2007

BATMAN SAM KEITH Secrets (DC/Titan) Sam Keith is a another singular and distinctive talent in comics. The unlikely co-creator of The Sandman with Neil Gaiman, he’s more famous for his own series The Maxx. His rough, exaggerated painted…

Also Published - James Lee Burke, Denise Mina ...

16 Jul 2007

Also Published CRIME PAPERBACKS • James Lee Burke - Pegasus Descending The daughter of Detective Dave Robicheaux’s dead best friend is going off the rails and he is keen to save her. Especially when she starts behaving similarly to another…

All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

16 Jul 2007

DEBUT NOVEL TOD WODICKA All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well (Jonathan Cape) What an exceptionally odd yet utterly compelling debut novel this is, quite unlike the typical…

Let the Right One In

16 Jul 2007

HORROR DRAMA JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST Let the Right One In (Quercus) Swedish magician turned stand-up comedian turned novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s first book features numerous sleight-of-hand tricks and sly jokes. In the opening chapter…

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

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…

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

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…

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

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

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

Komma, Ex Drummer

19 Jul 2007

A pair of Belgian movies at the EIFF will showcase the talents of Flemish superstar composer and actor Arno Hintjens. The 59-year-old’s surprisingly mature acting (for a pop star) can be sampled in Martine Doyen’s engrossing personality theft drama…

Orpheus X

19 Jul 2007

It is a brave man who takes on the darkest echelons of the underworld, electric guitar in hand. For performer and composer Rinde Eckert it was like poetry in motion.

Ravenhill for Breakfast

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Perhaps if he hadn’t been asked to write a column for the Guardian, Mark Ravenhill would never have set himself the challenge of Ravenhill for Breakfast. For each of the 17 morning performances, the author of Shopping and Fucking and, er, Dick…

Score

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe A question of sport Allan Radcliffe talks to Quentin Ogier of 2002 Fringe award-winners Au Cul du Loup about their games-themed show