Issue 588

Shop - Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop

18 Oct 2007

I’ve picked the worst possible time of the year to interview Julia Walton. It’s 12.30 on a Sunday afternoon, just before Hallowe’en, and the door of Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop is constantly jingling. ‘Yes, it’s definitely our busiest time,’ she says…

Eat - Oysters

18 Oct 2007

It’s a homecoming, of sorts. The Loch Fyne Oyster Bar in Argyll is revered on the Scottish food scene, in modern times a place much more worthy of the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ tag than the hill summit a few miles away. The chain of Loch Fyne Restaurants…

Amy Lamé’s Mama Cass Family Singers

18 Oct 2007

THEATRE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 25–Sat 27 Oct ‘I came up with the idea of a misremembered memoir which is what the show is,’ says Amy Lamé of her one-woman show Mama Cass Family Singers. ‘A lot of it is real, some of it’s made up, but it’s all…

Sarah Chang

18 Oct 2007

GUEST PERFORMER Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 24 Oct Glasgow’s International Classical series has some impressive names attached to it this season. Alfred Brendel, Kurt Masur, Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano are just a few of those who are in…

Roisin Murphy

18 Oct 2007

ELECTRO Overpowered (EMI) A love or hatred of Roisin Murphy’s former band aside, there’s no arguing with the fact that this ex-Moloko vocalist currently makes some of the most sophisticated electro pop around. Boasting catchy melodies, demonic…

Russell Howard

18 Oct 2007

A regular panellist on BBC2’s Mock the Week, with a Sunday morning radio show and an if.comeddie nomination to his name, Russell Howard recently played the biggest gig of his life, and at 27, his comedy future seems assured. ‘We just almost crashed on…

Vegas!

18 Oct 2007

Vegas! has topped The List’s poll of the best clubs in Scotland more than any other night, revellers embracing its big band stylings, Rat Pack cool and unheard classics. As the club reaches its tenth birthday Henry Northmore talks to the people who…

Ed Robson

18 Oct 2007

Even Hollywood has turned, of recent times, to the subject of extraordinary rendition. But if the somewhat glamourised approach to the subject promised by the film Rendition, looks like creating a moral simplicity to the subject which threatens to bury…

Desire Under The Elms

18 Oct 2007

AMERICAN CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 25 Oct–Sat 17 Nov According to Jeremy Raison, artistic director of the Citz, theatre is about conveying ideas through stories. ‘I think now there’s a need for great stories and to see huge passion…

Sexy Kids

18 Oct 2007

INDIE Mono, Glasgow, Mon 8 Oct Glasgow’s Sexy Kids are so brand new they don’t even have a Myspace yet. But trust us, we’d tell you if we knew it. After all, they’ve blessed themselves with just about the last name you want to go googling in good…

Rosemary Goring (Ed)

Scotland: The Autobiography (Viking)

18 Oct 2007

Frankly, I’m not usually one for tomes about the past, but this remarkable and ambitious piece of work is no ordinary history book. An incredibly diverse collection of writings spanning 2000 years, it tells the story of this country through the people…

Paul Barker

18 Oct 2007

FAMILY GUIDE The Book of Dad (Fourth Estate) According to Paul Barker, Journalist Dad lives on pork scratchings and cigarettes, drives a second hand Saab and dreams of hanging out with Hollywood’s finest at the Dorchester Hotel while actually…

Alasdair Gray

18 Oct 2007

A compelling selection of drawings, prints and paintings by one of Scotland’s most successful authors and illustrators of the late 20th century. The work on display spans 50 years or more, and includes designs from some of the front covers of Gray’s…

Once

18 Oct 2007

If you thought all musicals were kitsch, cheesy and dated, then think again. At this year’s Sundance festival, Once – a small Irish indie film about a Dublin busker who falls for an East European immigrant cleaner – turned everyone’s preconceptions on…

Dance: Film Festival

18 Oct 2007

In 1980 the nation went wild for legwarmers; in 1983 dance classes were filled to bursting; and in 2000 boys took to ballet like never before. Such is the power of the dance film, that Fame, Flashdance and Billy Elliot gripped the public’s imagination…

Eastern Promises

18 Oct 2007

THRILLER/DRAMA (18) 100min Friedrich Nietzsche once asked ‘if evil men have no songs, how is it that the Russians have songs?’ A similar tone of revulsion and envy runs through Steven Dirty Pretty Things Knight’s script for David Cronenberg’s new…

Radiohead - In Rainbows

18 Oct 2007

ROCK In Rainbows (www.inrainbows.com) So you’ve registered, paid what you thought your download might be worth (in our case £3.03 plus 45p admin fee – who are you calling cheap?), downloaded, burned, copied it and generally stuck it to ‘The Man’ in…

The Witnesses

18 Oct 2007

AIDS DRAMA (15) 114min The lively opening chapter of André Téchiné’s (Wild Reeds, Alice et Martin) engrossing new ensemble piece captures the bright, colourful look and fruity feel of the Gallic comedy of manners as the love lives of a group of…

Travel - Finland

18 Oct 2007

When I first started making plans for my weeklong trip to Finland, I began the requisite process of droning on to anyone and everyone who would listen about my upcoming travels. However, on completion of my I’m-going-to-Finland-(ha ha you’re…

Stardust

18 Oct 2007

FANTASY (PG) 127min Matthew Layer Cake Vaughn’s scrupulous adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel looks set to take a space at the same box-office graveyard as several other recent fantasy pilots (Eragon, The Dark Is Rising). Vaughn quit his first big…

Africa in Motion

18 Oct 2007

Mark Cousins In the 90s, when I first fell in love with African movies, I’d jump on a cheapo train or plane to London or Paris if either city was showing the classics. Films like Ousmane Sembene’s astonishing satire on impotence, Xala, or his pioneering…

Rendition

18 Oct 2007

THRILLER (15) 122min In a project which feels like it was hastily conceived at an Academy Awards afterparty, Oscar-winner Gavin Tsotsi Hood marshals a cast of worthy talent in the shape of Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep for an…

Sicko

18 Oct 2007

DOCUMENTARY (12A) 123min The best and worst of Michael Moore are on display as he sets about attacking the way that healthcare is managed in America. The first line of attack exemplifies Moore at his maverick best. Instead of basing a documentary…

José González

18 Oct 2007

He’s responsible for one of the biggest albums of last year, yet nobody seems to recognise José González as he sits sipping his beer in the corner of a hip London hotel bar. In fact, the Swedish singer-songwriter is so softly spoken that it is almost…

Iron & Wine

18 Oct 2007

ALT.COUNTRY Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 29 Oct It would be difficult to find a location more at odds with the music of Sam Beam than the London hotel lobby I meet him in. Swanky, super modern and decked out in stark white clinical decor and…