Issue 594

Out of the west

2008 Glasgow Film Festival programme launched

24 Jan 2008

On the day the 2008 Oscar nominations were announced, the stars and main players of Scottish film and media gathered at Glasgow Film Theatre’s Cinema One to hear some much more significant film news. On Tuesday 22 January the programme for the fourth…

Tight Budget

17 Jan 2008

Going for a song January is a great time to check out up-and-coming bands for free. Remember, even the most unpromising nights can be historic. On the west coast, Mono, Stereo, 78, the Liquid Ship and Tchai Ovna all have exciting free line-ups. In…

Manga

17 Jan 2008

It’s not always easy being a pioneer, something Neil Armstrong, Christopher Columbus or Marie Curie would have no doubt attested to. The same can be said for George Macdonald, lesser known perhaps, but equally forward thinking in his field: the world of…

Eat - No 1 Sushi Bar

17 Jan 2008

THE MEAL Stories of fine Scottish wild salmon being caught, frozen and flown to high end restaurants in Japan are closer to the truth than you might think. Why then does sushi remain such niche cuisine in this country? In Scotland, Japanese…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

KIDS’ WORKSHOPS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 19 Jan (percussion) & Sat 26 Jan (singing) Given that most children derive pleasure from a) making lots of noise and b) hitting things, a drumming workshop for kids seems like a match made in…

Holocaust Memorial Day

17 Jan 2008

For most of Scotland, the end of January means Burns Night. Whisky, tradition and rousing renditions of ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’; a time for national nostalgia and a noisy assertion, however fleeting, of equality. Perhaps it’s fitting then that a…

Josh Brolin

17 Jan 2008

Josh Brolin has arguably been the most industrious American actor of the past year. In Robert Rodriguez’ Grindhouse homage Planet Terror, he was full of ticks and outlandish gimmicks as Dr William Block. In American Gangster Brolin acted Russell Crowe…

Duty Free

17 Jan 2008

2008 heralds the arrival of a brand spanking new bunch of bands for us to sink our teeth into. But which ones will re-invent new rave, who will outdo The Horrors in the hair department, out-kook Kate Nash or beat the Arctic Monkeys in a pithy lyric…

Ever So Sweet launch party

17 Jan 2008

Now that we’ve got your attention, how exactly to describe this event? There are cakes, there are bands, there’s an auction. The cakes are very, very, very good, one of the bands is called Dick Dangerous & the Love Bastards (we’re, like, so there), and…

Headspin's 10th Birthday

17 Jan 2008

It was the winter of 98, and, inspired by fellow leftfield institution Messenger Sound System, Allan Dunbar and Steve Austen landed themselves a brand new club night at the old Bongo, determined they were going to put on something a little different…

No Country For Old Men

17 Jan 2008

THRILLER (15) 122min After the public ambivalence and critical lambasting of their last two films – Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers – the Coen Brothers return to form with this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, which features many…

The Savages

17 Jan 2008

DRAMA (15) 114min Nine years after her 1998 feature debut Slums of Beverley Hills, writer-director Tamara Jenkins returns with this richly observed and terrifically acted character study. The Savages of the title are a pair of intellectual…

Derrick May

17 Jan 2008

TECHNO Pressure at the Arches, Glasgow, Fri 25 Jan ‘Trying to save the world from bad music.’ That’s the motto Derrick May lives by these days. Arguably he’s already done that though, given that, alongside his old Belleville, Detroit high school…

Alex Metric

17 Jan 2008

ELECTRO-HOUSE Sugarbeat at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jan. His star has been rising through a selection of remixes and self-productions for the last couple of years now, and it seems entirely possible that Alex Metric’s first date of 2008…

Introducing . . . Weak at the Knees

17 Jan 2008

The best new nights in town. This month: Weak at the Knees Residents Perry Louis (Jazz Café, Point 101, the JazzCotech Dancers) Guests Ronnie Coldsweat, London funk aficionado and devotee of all things Prince, Cameo and Leroy Burgess.

Alan Grant

17 Jan 2008

We’ve passed several science fiction milestones in the last 25 years with George Orwell’s 1984, Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 and the speculative 1997 proposed in Predator 2. And, while the exact facts within these fictions may not have come to pass, there are…

Edward Bond

17 Jan 2008

Steve Cramer A lot of your work involves the use of violence, both physical and psychological. Why do you think this is so prevalent in society? Edward Bond Human beings have a capacity, but not a need to be violent. In our society we have a basic…

Andrew O’Hagan (Ed) - A Night Out with Robert Burns: The Greatest Poems

17 Jan 2008

POETRY COLLECTION (Canongate) Robert Burns has been ‘sainted, painted, tormented and toasted’, as the book blurb playfully informs us. He is also a source of boredom for schoolchildren, linguistic perplexity for non-Scots and undiluted pleasure for…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

Music isn’t what it used to be. This is something we have to be thankful for as the constant evolution, recycling and re-fashioning of music means there’s always someone out there trying to do things a bit differently. While there’s been much carping…

Pharoah Sanders

17 Jan 2008

JAZZ The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan The chance to hear jazz patriarch Pharoah Sanders in a small venue doesn’t come around often, and should be a memorable experience. He first came to wide notice when his acerbic, free-blowing saxophone…

Stars

17 Jan 2008

POP Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 27 Jan Stars describe their music as ‘melodramatic popular song’, an accurate if tongue-in-cheek description of the grandly-monikered In Our Bedroom After the War, released last year. But Stars’ emotional rawness and…

Plain White T's

17 Jan 2008

ALT.ROCK Barrowland, Glasgow, Fri 25 Jan Dave Tirio is asleep. Fifteen minutes after the interview is scheduled to start he’s probably dreaming about number ones and sell-out tours. But these things are fast becoming more than dreams for the…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

17 Jan 2008

CLASSICAL City Halls, Glasgow Fri 18 Jan; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan From the familiar tunes of Vivaldi’s pre-Christmas Four Seasons to four saxophones performing a brand new piece of music is quite a leap. Four is also the number of…

Pete Firman

17 Jan 2008

MAGIC The Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan Can you actually imagine anything less appealing in the theatrical sphere than a magic act? All that showing off with handkerchiefs and bunny rabbits and saws and tasselled ladies is simply…

Play Ball

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Jan Nina Rajarani is not afraid to mix things up. In her latest show, the London-based choreographer has merged a typically female Indian dance style with two largely male domains: the…

Singles & Downloads

17 Jan 2008

Destiny’s Child alumnus Kelly Rowland ’s ‘Work’ (SonyBMG) ••• might be one for the ladies, but by endlessly declaring, ‘Put it in, do it do it’, she’ll no doubt be fuelling chauvinistic male debate on whether one would oblige, fearing it lessen the…

Explosions in the Sky

17 Jan 2008

POST ROCK Barrowland, Glasgow, Sun 27 Jan What’s in a band name? In the case of Explosions in the Sky, a pretty accurate description of the mental images conjured up when they play. The intense and intelligent four-piece band from Austin, Texas…

The Futureheads

17 Jan 2008

INDIE Strathclyde University Students’ Union, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan The Futureheads could quite easily have ended up on the rock’n’roll scrap heap when the angular impulse in British guitar music faded circa 2006. In the two years prior, the…

Act One

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan When you talk about battles on the dancefloor, it usually involves a hip hop crew and some fairly heavy beats. But when Charlotte Vincent, artistic director of Vincent Dance Theatre, created…

Barry

17 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Jan Feminism in its various guises has been around for many years, but Rowan Tree Theatre Company’s new production of Frederic Mohr’s one woman show Barry hints that women haven’t advanced quite as…

Great Expectations

17 Jan 2008

ADAPTATION The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 31 Jan–Sat 9 Feb, then touring ‘What is it that makes a person? How possible is it to escape your past? Are you trapped by it or does it give you a platform from which to move forward?’ These are the…

Manipulate

17 Jan 2008

PUPPET ANIMATION FESTIVAL Dundee Rep, Tue 22–Thu 31 Jan Even for hardened theatre goers, a performance that plunges the dark depths of the human psyche using puppets is pretty exceptional. Manipulate, a new festival promoting puppetry, shadow…

Translations

17 Jan 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 23 Jan–Sat 2 Feb The nearest thing we have to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha county on our side of the Atlantic is another fictional place with an anchor in reality, Brian Friel’s Ballybeg, a made-up small…

5 Reasons To Go See - British Sea Power

17 Jan 2008

1 Do You Like Rock Music? British Sea Power do, so much so that the Brighton foursome have called their rambunctious third album Do You Like Rock Music? In the case of the album, the answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’. 2 You can wave a flag The band’s new…

Alan Michael: Touch Void

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan–Sat 1 Mar Graduating from Glasgow School of Art’s MFA course in 1998, 40-year-old painter Alan Michael, who remains based in the city, has built a steady reputation, with last year’s solo shows…

Aliens Vs Predator – Requiem

17 Jan 2008

SCI-FI/HORROR (15) 86min In the ongoing saga of a faceless corporation which creates a monster it doesn’t know how to handle, there are obvious parallels between the universe featured in the Alien films and Fox’s treatment of the franchise itself.

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

17 Jan 2008

Cathy Kelly - Lessons in Heartbreak Izzie has broken her own rules about having affairs with married men while her ageing aunt has just discovered her husband’s infidelity. HarperCollins . Monty Don - Around the World in 80 Gardens The presenter…

Beerjacket and Kate Sutherland

17 Jan 2008

ACOUSTIC Brel, Glasgow, Thu 20 Dec Katie Sutherland’s motivation for picking up a guitar was, she explains: ‘I wanted to do more than listen. I wanted to play. So I bought a Jim Deacon and taught myself guitar.’ It proves to have been a very wise…

Celtic Connections - Mindy Smith

17 Jan 2008

Two albums in, Mindy Smith is solidifying her reputation as one of America’s most affecting songwriters. 2006’s Long Island Shores showed her gentle touch and growing prowess as a writer. Her ethereal vocal style at first brings to mind Joni Mitchell…

Clarinda

17 Jan 2008

MUSIC THEATRE Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jan–Sat 2 Feb, then touring Of the many sensations that surround the life of Robert Burns, one of the most notable was his close friendship with Agnes McLehose in Edinburgh. Although…

Collage City

17 Jan 2008

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, PRINTMAKING, PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 24 Feb This latest offering from the Dean Gallery has drawn a number of key works out from the Gallery of Modern Art’s permanent collection to create an unassuming and…

Damian Thompson - Counterknowledge

17 Jan 2008

HISTORY (Atlantic) Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, creationism and the like are all notions consigned largely to the outer reaches of societal thinking, right? Wrong, according to Damian Thompson. Having spread – largely care of the…

Donald Urquhart

17 Jan 2008

While this exhibition of drawings by Edinburgh-based Donald Urquhart, who is more commonly associated with sculptural public art projects such as ‘The Sanctuary’ at Edinburgh’s New Royal Infirmary, is billed as covering the period 1977–2007, that’s…

DVD Round-Up

17 Jan 2008

Lovely late January. It’s dark, cold and you’re broke. Illness and recovery have become your best friends. Not to worry, there’s always the N oel Coward Collection (Second Entertainment •••) to get through. This is a star-studded collection of BBC…

Eagle Vs Shark

17 Jan 2008

COMEDY (15) 84min (Optimum DVD rental/retail) With its sweet soul and crumbly heart, you’d think that Eagle vs Shark would only be fit for shooting out of the sky or being drowned at birth. But in the hands of writer/director Taika Waititi and…

Findo Gask, Someyoungpedro and How to Swim

17 Jan 2008

ELECTRO-POP/PUNK/ROCK Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 21 Dec ‘Twas a few nights before Christmas, and all sorts were stirring. How to Swim firstly – an eight-piece who have been bigged up by this publication plenty of times for their wailing…

Finniston - Organised for Hi-Fi

17 Jan 2008

GUITAR POP (Ruby) This is the debut album from Glasgow-based guitar pop outfit Finniston, and maybe they’ll get better with time, but at the moment they sound as if they’re struggling to find their own distinctive voice. This is all reasonably…

Fleming centenary

17 Jan 2008

Details of 007 creator Ian Fleming’s centenary year celebrations have been announced. As part of the festivities, acclaimed Birdsong writer, Sebastian Faulks, has written new James Bond tome, Devil May Care, due for publication this Spring. Penguin will…

In the Valley of Elah

17 Jan 2008

WAR THRILLER (15) 121min Having had his projects garlanded with Oscars for writing (Million Dollar Baby) and direction (Crash), the wheels finally come off the Paul Haggis bandwagon with In The Valley of Elah, a well-acted but deathly dull…

Interview - Matthew Buckingham

17 Jan 2008

Alexander Kennedy talks to Matthew Buckingham about his new film installations at DCA AK Tell us about the work you are showing at DCA. MB The three larger projects on view at the DCA are each organized around some of the questions that arise…