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