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Issue 600

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Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky

10 Apr 2008

At 65 years of age, it’s good to see that Mike Leigh has learned nothing about handling the press. By turns blustery, crabby, contrary, humourless, paranoid and evasive, Leigh belongs to that generation of no nonsense, taciturn northern men epitomised…

Alisdair Gray

Glasgow International Art Festival

10 Apr 2008

‘What we’ve tried to do this year is suggest a loose theme of ‘public and private’, which runs through many of the curated shows,’ says Francis McKee, director of the biannual Glasgow International, talking me through the 70 plus exhibitions, public…

Portishead

Portishead

10 Apr 2008

In today’s stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap, drop ‘em even quicker music industry where the write-record-release-tour hamster wheel is king, the return of Bristolian trio Portishead back into our lives is a cause for celebration for some and relief for…

Brendan Gleeson

Brendan Gleeson & Martin McDonagh - In Bruges

10 Apr 2008

Between filming the twin swords and sandals epics Troy and Kingdom of Heaven in Malta and Morocco in 2004, much-in-demand Dublin-born actor Brendan Gleeson nipped home to Ireland to make a short film called Six Shooter. A comparatively modest project in…

The Soundhaus

Soundhaus 10th birthday

10 Apr 2008

Located in an industrial unit near Anderston, on the other side of the M8 from the city centre, Glasgow’s Soundhaus has blended all the comforts of a mainstream club with the off-the-beaten-track allure of a warehouse party for ten years. The club has…

Glasgow Subway Festival

Glasgow Subway Festival

10 Apr 2008

The weather might, finally, be on the upswing, but underground at the Clockwork Orange they’re praying for rain. The first ever Glasgow Subway festival is set to launch on Thursday 10 April, with a packed out programme of events, underground in the…

Karine Polwart

Karine Polwart

10 Apr 2008

FOLK Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Fri 11 Apr; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Apr; Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Wed 16 Apr; Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr; Tollbooth, Stirling, Fri 18 Apr The life of a self-employed musician can be complicated at the…

RZA

Triptych - RZA

10 Apr 2008

After eight years of blowing minds with wild weekends of brave new sounds, Triptych will soon be no more. To celebrate the final instalment of the music festival, we talk to some of the most exciting acts on this year’s bill including soul brother Jamie…

Dressed to thrill

Dressed to thrill

10 Apr 2008

‘Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.’ Mark Twain’s wit might make a mockery of a favourite truism, but there’s much to be gleaned from the sentiment he satirises. From Macbeth’s alarmed cry to the witches, ‘Why do…

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 thriller finds its way back on to the big screen courtesy of a new digital cinema and 35mm print. Scottish author and unionist politician John Buchan’s novel has been filmed three times, but this, the first version made…

Triptych - Eight Ball

10 Apr 2008

Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes DJ, and one seventh of Belle & Sebastian Candi Staton played Renfrew Ferry and ended a triumphant show by passing the mic into the audience as her band played endless choruses of ‘Young Hearts Run Free’. It gets passed between…

Jamie Lidell

Triptych - Jamie Lidell

10 Apr 2008

Jamie Lidell ‘I was awakened by Matthew Herbert really, in a magic kind of moment.’ Just how much credit Herbert can take is open to debate, but only a quirk of fate could have led to the doggedly leftfield technocrat Jamie Lidell’s staggering…

Black Watch

Black Watch

(5 stars)10 Apr 2008

WORLD TOUR Rothes Hall, Glenrothes, until Sat 5 Apr, then touring While many Scots disagree with the continuing troop presence in Iraq, there remains an undeniable sense of pride in and anxiety for our troops overseas, and it’s this sense of a shared…

Correcto

Triptych - Correcto

10 Apr 2008

Correcto They don’t do many gigs, so the fact that the Triptych bigwigs have managed to ensnare this Glasgow-based art rock gaggle for three in a row is really quite an achievement. Not to be outdone, The List tracked down hard-to-get-hold-of frontman…

Model 500

Triptych - Model 500

10 Apr 2008

Model 500 There are few living artists in the pantheon of contemporary music who can claim to be as influential as Juan Atkins. Growing up in 1970s Detroit, the young musician was inspired by the cosmic funk of George Clinton’s Funkadelic and…

Annie Nightingale

Triptych - Annie Nightingale

10 Apr 2008

Annie Nightingale Last month, Annie Nightingale was giving a lift home to Slyde, two breakbeat DJs who she’d just showcased on her BBC Introducing Tour. She got a weird pang of pride when they started talking about their cover of ‘Sex and Drugs and…

Tobias Schmidt

Substance

10 Apr 2008

TECHNO Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 12 Apr Perhaps the greatest thing about electronica is that it’s a forward thinking genre that reaches for the future, combining man and machine into new forms of sound. Techno in particular has always looked…

James Blackshaw

Triptych - James Blackshaw

10 Apr 2008

James Blackshaw In only five years, James Blackshaw has earned a reputation as Britain’s most brilliant young composer-guitarist, wowing the avant-garde and folk underground with his acoustic 12-string reveries. Like contemporary US pickers Jack…

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

DRAMA (15) 118min The social realism-orientated cinema of British filmmaker Mike Leigh takes on a slightly different tone with Happy-Go-Lucky, his most recent foray into a kind of filmic anthropology of (to use the great filmmaker’s own words) ‘how we…

Street Kings

Street Kings

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

THRILLER (15) 107min Writer-director David Ayer is no stranger to LA’s mean streets and actors often flourish in his company. Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Training Day, while Christian Bale (Harsh Times) and Kurt Russell (Dark Blue) ate up his…

RememberRemember

Triptych - RememberRemember

10 Apr 2008

RememberRemember The Royal We and Sexy Kids bassist, Multiplies synth wiz, Mogwai auxiliary, Flying Matchstick Men axe-smith, Graeme Ronald’s musical CV is impressive to say the least. But it’s as RememberRemember that Ronald has come into his own…

In Bruges

In Bruges

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

CRIME/COMEDY (18) 107min A pair of mismatched professional hitmen are sent to the picturesque titular Belgian city to lie low after a job in London goes wrong. There, young philistine Ray (Colin Farrell) and older, cultured Ken (Brendan Gleeson) argue…

Sebadoh

Triptych - Sebadoh

10 Apr 2008

Sebadoh In mastering the lo-fi aesthetic at the turn of the 90s, Sebadoh did their part to keep the four-track recorder industry flourishing with a host of sparse, barely tuned DIY albums. Plus, in shaggy-haired Lou Barlow they had an unlikely style…

Pam Ann

Pam Ann

10 Apr 2008

CHARACTER COMEDY King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 13 Apr Catching up with the jet-setting alter ego of bitchy flight attendant Pam Ann, it soon becomes apparent that she has other things on her mind to do with Glasgow rather than the opening of her brand…

Don Letts

Don Letts

10 Apr 2008

DUB/REGGAE Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 12 Apr What would you do if a voice of a generation ran off with your girlfriend? In the case of Don Letts, who introduced reggae to snotty nosed punks during his year zero residency at The Roxy, he…

Assembly

Assembly

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

WAR (15) 123min Chinese director Feng Xiaogang delivers an impressive anti-war epic based on a true story from the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950). The story begins in the winter of 1948 in northeastern China, where Captain Gu Zidi (Zhang Hanyu) leads…

Trumpets and Raspberries

Trumpets and Raspberries

10 Apr 2008

REVIVAL Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Apr–Sat 10 May Even winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature have bad days at work. It might surprise you to know that Dario Fo felt he’d had one of these after the first preview of what, subsequently…

Paul Haig

Paul Haig

10 Apr 2008

INDIE Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Apr When Josef K named their solitary album The Only Fun in Town in 1981, it was as dry a statement on Edinburgh nightlife as a band named after a Franz Kafka character could muster. Almost 30 years on, ex-Josef K…

Shine a Light

Shine a Light

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

DOCUMENTARY/CONCERT (12A) 122min It was customary in early Greek and Roman books to have the portrait of the author on the opening page. Martin Scorsese brings this tradition to his Rolling Stones concert movie. The opening exchanges depict the…

Alex Frost

Alex Frost

10 Apr 2008

‘I was asked to do a solo exhibition at the Collins gallery for Glasgow international,’ says Glasgow-based sculptor Alex Frost, ‘but the idea of putting a group show together just seemed more interesting.’ Frost and Sorcha Dallas have brought together a…

EJ Major

EJ Major: Try to do things we all can understand

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTS AND FILM Street Level, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May Photographs capture nothing. Portraits are even more successful at framing the absence at the core of subjectivity and how this can be signified through the image. This is neither as…

Flashbacks of a Fool

Flashbacks of a Fool

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

DRAMA (15) 113min Between Bond outings Daniel Craig has made good use of his greatly increased clout to get this interesting, if not outstanding drama about the repercussions of childhood folly, green-lit. Set in present-day California and an English…

Micky Slim

Fantasylands

10 Apr 2008

Fantasylands is undeniably the biggest dance event in Scotland this month. With five live acts and 40 DJs, if you love trance, hard house, old skool and house you’ll be in hog heaven with Fantazia, Tidy, Musika, Luvely and Kissdafunk hosting arenas…

Alice Thompson

Alice Thompson - Author Interview

10 Apr 2008

A very relaxed-sounding Alice Thompson has just returned to her Edinburgh home after a short stay in Glen Artney, the rural retreat that provided the main inspiration for her eerie latest book. She is eager to explain what it is about the atmospheric…

Joe Humphreys - Foul Play

Joe Humphreys - Foul Play

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

SPORT HISTORY (Icon Books) With the protests surrounding the Beijing Olympics going into overdrive, disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers seeking a new career in rugby league and the integrity of referees, umpires and line judges being called into…

The Emperor’s New Kilt

The Emperor’s New Kilt

10 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 12–Sat 19 Apr, then touring When Hans Christian Andersen first penned The Emperor’s New Clothes in 1837, he was issuing a veiled attack on the excesses of the Danish church. Many years later…

A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle

A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle

10 Apr 2008

ADAPTATION Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 21–Sat 26 Apr Grappling with questions of Scottish identity, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is acknowledged as Hugh MacDiarmid’s finest work, and an integral part of the modern Scottish Renaissance movement. Now…

Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press

Remote Control

10 Apr 2008

Nostalgia is currently big business, and television producers have always been quick to take advantage of our romantic yearning for times gone by, whether endlessly revisiting classic programmes or winding the clock back to our political and cultural…

Scottish Surfing

Scottish Surfing

10 Apr 2008

Even when the surf’s up in Scotland, chances are the temperatures won’t be. But with advancements in wetsuits over the past few years, it’s now possible to surf the Scottish coastline year-round. Fuelled I suspect by seeing one too many photos of…

The Dogs

The Dogs

10 Apr 2008

There’s a little place I know – great spot for a bite to eat, glass of wine, right in the centre of town, up a staircase, not the most obvious. A little place I know... and so does the rest of Edinburgh, despite the fact that the launch party was held…

Barri Gotic, Barcelona

Barcelona

10 Apr 2008

Everywhere you look in Barcelona, you see Ronaldinho. Reproductions of the FC Barca hero fill the shelves of each tourist tat-peddling stall and storefront, even in the shadow of Antoni Gaudi’s mighty Sagrada Familia cathedral, which emphasises the…

A Night at the Chinese Opera

A Night at the Chinese Opera

10 Apr 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 11 & Sat 19 Apr, Tue 20 & Thu 22 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 25 & Fri 27 Jun Pick up any newspaper these days and the chances are that a story about China will be making the headlines. Whether it’s the…

Hairdressers

Hairdressers

10 Apr 2008

Family of hair Claire Fleming set up Claire Frances in Glasgow in 1997 ‘We’re a family business – our mother has been in the industry for over 40 years, and that’s a lot of hair cuts! I’ve been doing this for 20 years now and I really love my job…

Cereal snack bars

Taste Test - Cereal snack bars

10 Apr 2008

Gillian McKeith's Living Food Energy Bar (Soil Association approved) 70g/£1.59 (•) Yikes. An ‘organic superfood bar’ that smells of wicker chairs and is definitely the least tasty on test. It even looks unappetising. It has a fruity, malty, heavy…

Tarkovsky

Film Books Round-Up

10 Apr 2008

The debate about US cinema from the late 1960s continues with Yale graduate Mark Harris’ Scenes from a Revolution (Canongate ••••). It starts with the fairly flaky premise that the 1967 Academy Award ceremony was the night that the new Hollywood was…

Attic Lights

Singles & Downloads

10 Apr 2008

Life’s shit enough, so this issue we’re only gonna review good stuff. So, no Libertines-influenced jangle monkeys, no dodgy hip hop, no execrable manufactured pop or R&B, no po-faced nu-metal (you have no idea). Only quality, original tunes will make it…

The Wasp Factory

The Wasp Factory

10 Apr 2008

REVIVAL Tron, Glasgow, Thu 17–Sat 26 Apr The remarkable aspect of Iain Banks’ disturbing Grand Guignol first novel is its capacity to continue to fascinate 24 years after its first publication. The story revolves around alienated Frank, a teenager…

Jaume Balagueró

Profile - Jaume Balagueró

10 Apr 2008

Name Jaume Balagueró Born 2 November 1968, Lleida, Spain Background Having studied media at university in Barcelona, Balagueró worked in radio before cutting his filmmaking teeth on several shorts. His feature film debut came in 1999 with an…

Can Film Festival

Can Film Festival comes to Glasgow

10 Apr 2008

Green movie event shows new Leonardo DiCaprio documentary Forget Cannes and start queuing up for your tickets to the inaugural Can Film Festival. Leonardo DiCaprio’s green documentary 11th Hour is to be shown at three locations, including Glasgow…

Elph

Interview - Elph

10 Apr 2008

Rosie Lesso You have an established reputation as a graffiti artist, so how do you feel about exhibiting with Recoat Gallery? Elph Over the last few years I’ve done quite a few exhibitions in small galleries, so I felt fine about showing the work in…

Marcello Mastroianni

Film Season - Marcello Mastroianni

10 Apr 2008

The son of a carpenter, Mastroianni trained as a draughtsman and served time in a Nazi labour camp during the war. Upon his release, he became involved in amateur dramatics. He made his film début in Riccardo Fredda’s I Miserabili (1948) and, at around…

Enrico David

Enrico David: Ultra Paste

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE AND PAINTINGS Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 10 May It’s hard to believe the ejaculatory inference of the title of this exhibition is unintended, because the whole purpose of ‘Ultra Paste’ (the show’s key work) seems…

Spit Fire

Re-introducing . . . Spit Fire

10 Apr 2008

Residents Spit Fire mainstays Keith Martin, Scott McCluskey and Colin Cameron. Guests ‘We’ve never had any guests,’ says Martin. ‘We just get on with it. We think our taste’s good enough without trying to use a name to sell the club.’ Music…

21

21

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

ADAPTATION (12A) 123min Robert Luketic’s unfaithful adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing Down the House: The Inside story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas For Millions can’t decide whether it’s high stakes or high school. In real life a…

Educating Agnes

Educating Agnes

10 Apr 2008

CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 23 Apr–Sat 3 May Take a step back and it’s easy enough to see the vanity and self deception of those around you. A second step back might well reveal them in yourself. It’s this semi-conscious awareness that…

The Quest for the Lost Art

The Quest for the Lost Ark

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Mon 14 Apr, 9pm As Harrison Ford prepares to dust off his fedora, khaki shirt and bullwhip for the belated fourth instalment of Steven Spielberg’s swashbuckling Indiana Jones adventure series, a documentary about a non-fiction…

Eurobeat

Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision

10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Apr The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a beast of wild contradictions. The annual competition is regular derided for its middle-of-the-road compositions, political voting and the never-ending…

[REC]

[REC]

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

HORROR (18) 85 min Pan’s Labyrinth and The Orphanage have proved that Spain is a hotbed of horror talent whose filmmakers can strike a chord overseas. [REC] easily joins these ranks (it already has an American remake, Quarantine, scheduled). Yet…

Eating & Drinking Guide 2008

Side Dishes

10 Apr 2008

Our brand new Eating & Drinking Guide will be launched on Tuesday 22 April this year and you can get your copy with a special edition of The List, out the following day and priced at just £3.50 (a saving of £2.75 on the cover price of the Eating…

Nederlands Dans Theater 1

Nederlands Dans Theater 1

10 Apr 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 11 & Sat 12 Apr Although Nederlands Dans Theater’s ever-excellent youth company paid us a visit in May 2007, it’s been almost two years since principal company NDT1’s memorable, award-winning…

Pete and the Pirates

Exposure - Pete and the Pirates

10 Apr 2008

A rag tag band of five Reading songwriters press-ganged into service as a functioning indie pop group after a gig down their local, Pete and the Pirates are presently leading a stealthy campaign to become your new favourite band. Melodic, upbeat…

Also Released - Music

10 Apr 2008

USSA - The Spoils (Fuzz Artists Inc) Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison and Ministry’s Paul Barker join forces in a new four-piece which is reminiscent of their previous endeavours but throws in added Killing Joke-esque bombast. Damn fine. Quentin Harris…

Selina Boyack

Gods are Fallen and All Safety Gone

10 Apr 2008

NEW WRITING Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 14–Sat 19 Apr The moment when a parent descends from their all-powerful pedestal to become a person just like everyone else can be shocking. Yet, the horrifying thought, as childhood dwindles, that our parents are…

The Raconteurs

The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

ROCK (XL Recordings) When Jack White and best bud Brendan Benson teamed up for their debut it was very much a meeting of minds: pop craftsman meets blues rebel, uptown. The results were explosive, both players breaking from familiar constraints to…

Study from the Coutyard

From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted House

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

PAINTING/WORKS ON PAPER NGMA, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 Jun This exhibition celebrates the lives of Bobby and Natalie Bevan, whose Essex home Boxted House contained numerous works by prominent 20th century modernists. It also showcases the work of…

Heelie-go-Leerie

Heelie-go-Leerie

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 11–Sun 13 Apr Clichéd though it sounds, kids often get more fun out of the box something comes in than the expensive product within. Imaginary play with cardboard tubes, dressing-up clothes and…

Myth

Myth

10 Apr 2008

DANCE Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 17–Sat 19 Apr According to Jung, the self is only created when the conscious and the unconscious unite, and a failure to embrace our unconscious brings on fragmented turmoil. It’s this notion of ‘finding a balance within…

Strange Wilderness

Strange Wilderness

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

COMEDY (15) 84min Dude, where’s my countryside? From Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison company, Strange Wilderness is another stoner-meets-nature comedy from director Fred Wolf, writer of the similarly low-rent male-bonding opus Without a Paddle. Peter…

Edwyn Collins

5 Reasons To Go See - Edwyn Collins

10 Apr 2008

The Scottish troubadour’s career has spanned 30 years, during which time he’s been a relentlessly original and innovative artist, redefining pop music first with his band Orange Juice and then as a solo artist of great renown. Three years ago Collins…

Botched

Botched

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

COMEDY/CRIME/HORROR (15) 94min If characters explode like tomatoes in microwaves, you’re probably witnessing the continuing rise of British splat-core comedy horror that’s had as many hits (Shaun of the Dead, Severance) as misses (The Cottage), the…

Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

ADVENTURE/ROMANCE (12A) 112min All that glitters is not gold is indeed the case with this witless, plodding rom-com romp that reunites How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days pretty pair Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson as estranged husband and…

Amy Whiten

Food For Thought

10 Apr 2008

Breakfast is usually crunchy nut cornflakes and I must have a cup of tea. I’m horribly addicted. At weekends, health goes out the window and me and my boyfriend and business partner, Ali, opt for the classic fry-up on a roll – egg, bacon and tatty…

Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia!

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL SECC, Glasgow, until Sat 27 Apr Truly global phenomena are becoming something of a cliché: there’s a McDonald’s on every street corner, a Nestlé product in every home, and a production of Mamma Mia! running in every country in the world…

Leatherheads

Also Released - Film

10 Apr 2008

Leatherheads (PG) 113min •• Directed by and starring George Clooney, Leatherheads is a wannabe Preston Sturges-style romantic comedy set against the backdrop of the burgeoning American football league in 1925. Dodge Connolly (Clooney) is a cocky but…

Four Minutes

Four Minutes

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

DRAMA (15) 115min How about this for an enjoyably overwrought contemporary German melodrama? Traude Kruger (Monica Bleibtreu) suffered the trauma of seeing her female communist lover hung by the Nazis during WWII, and has spent the last 60 years…

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

(5 stars)10 Apr 2008

INDIE/RAVE/GRIME/PUNK/ELECTRO The so-called new rave scene has been responsible for spewing out a load of old meaningless tosh since it was coined by desperate music journalists two years ago, but its latest wrong comes in the form of the debut album…

Hadouken!

Hadouken! - Music for an Accelerated Culture

(1 star)10 Apr 2008

INDIE/RAVE/GRIME/PUNK/ELECTRO (Atlantic) The so-called new rave scene has been responsible for spewing out a load of old meaningless tosh since it was coined by desperate music journalists two years ago, but its latest wrong comes in the form of the…

Naked Youth

Naked Youth

10 Apr 2008

TEEN DRAMA (15) 97min (Yume DVD retail) As Noel Burch in his key tome on Japanese cinema, To The Distant Observer, has noted, the disaffected youth film was popular in the aspirant years of the late 50s and early 60s. This film, Nagisa Oshima’s 1960…

Ipanema Beach

City Beaches

10 Apr 2008

The busy beach and Old Port at Barceloneta (head to the bottom of La Rambla and keep walking past Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Barcelona Head’) is one more reason to fall for Barcelona, although it’s not the only city where visitors can find sand and surf within…

Three others to try: Beach sports

10 Apr 2008

Body boarding If kids can catch waves by standing in the water with a polystyrene board and waiting, so can the most clumsy of adults. This is an ideal introduction to surfing, as body boards are smaller, lighter and cheaper than surf boards. Coast to…

Eagleowl

Eagleowl

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

INDIE Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Thu 20 Mar Not to be confused with the vicious bird world nasty they’re named after (who loves a bit of dog eating and deer biting), the Eagleowl live experience is a very gentle thing, like watching clouds dragged at a…

Kathryn Williams

Kathryn Williams & Neill MacColl

(5 stars)10 Apr 2008

COUNTRY FOLK Classic Grand, Glasgow, Wed 26 Mar You can hear the smile in Kathryn Williams voice, an almost effortless, laconic talent that soars high, floats and then falls down to a blusey bellow. Williams sings about the simple but ineffable…

Take Three: Animal Magic

10 Apr 2008

The Butterfly and the Pig 153 Bath Street, Glasgow 0141 221 7711, www.thebutterflyandthepig.com The name is a whimsical send up of traditional pub names and matches the gentle, eccentric nature of the place. Decorated like the Mad Hatter’s front…

Le Reno Amps

Down The Tiny Steps, Le Reno Amps and Doug Johnstone

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

INDIE FOLK 13th Note, Glasgow, Thu 20 Mar A little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll. And, to kick off, some acoustic folk from sometime author Doug Johnstone who, confusingly, is premiering the back catalogue of The Ossians, a band invented for…

Natty

Natty

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

REGGAE Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Tue 1 Apr ‘You’ve made my night very enjoyable,’ says Natty at the end of his infectiously sunny set, before needlessly adding: ‘I hope I have yours.’ It’s a suitably charming signing off from this Londoner; fresh from…

In Memory of Me

In Memory of Me

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

DRAMA (U) 114min (Artificial Eye DVD retail) What happens when life no longer tastes so sweet? One option is to undergo a period of spiritual training that will eventually lead to the priesthood. As with much of the best Italian cinema in recent…

Clemens en August

Clemens en August

10 Apr 2008

The thing about fashion is it’s just too readily available these days. When everybody’s wearing the same labels, how can you really be sure you’re setting yourself apart from the crowd, eh? Answer: by buying from a label that only sells for three days a…

REM - Accelerate

REM - Accelerate

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

ROCK (Warners) Returns to form don’t come much better or more surprising. Written off as an increasingly irrelevant force this millennium (particularly following 2004’s mediocre Around the Sun), REM now breeze in with a startlingly youthful record.

A Very British Gangster

A Very British Gangster

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

DOCUMENTARY (15) 98min (Contender DVD retail) A strange amalgam of fiction film devices and impressive access, Donal MacIntyre’s look at the life of infamous Manchester gangster Dominic Noonan is compelling viewing. As he follows the Noonan crime…

Judge Dredd

John Wagner & Colin MacNeil - Judge Dredd: America

(4 stars)10 Apr 2008

DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI (Rebellion) Neither a part of the Hollywood-friendly American comic book market nor as established in the British psyche as he was during the 80s heyday, it’s an oft neglected fact that Judge Dredd has become the focus of one of the…

Batman

Brian K Vaughan & Various - Batman: False Faces

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

SUPERHERO (DC/Titan) Now better known for his Y: The Last Man, Pride of Baghdad and Ex-Machina titles as well as being one of the keys writers on TV’s Lost, Brian K Vaughan started off as a jobbing writer. With his star now well and truly established…

Joanne Proulx - Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

Joanne Proulx - Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

TEEN DRAMA (Picador) Hot on the heels of Academy Award-winning comedy Juno comes another enjoyable tale of a smart-mouthed North American trying to make sense of the adult world. Joanne Proulx’s debut centres around Luke Hunter who, in the opening…

Mary Ann Winkowski - When Ghosts Speak

Mary Ann Winkowski - When Ghosts Speak

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

SPIRITUAL MEMOIR (Hodder Mobius) Mary Ann Winkowski has spent the last 50 years assisting earthbound spirits in their passing into The Light, and has more recently acted as a paranormal consultant for popular TV show Ghost Whisperer. In this book she…

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis

(5 stars)10 Apr 2008

AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Vintage) In advance of the Persepolis feature-length animation to be released at cinemas at the end of this month (25 April if you want to note it in your diary) comes this welcome two-in-one paperback edition of Satrapi’s seminal…

Chris Hannan - Missy

Chris Hannan - Missy

(2 stars)10 Apr 2008

HISTORICAL DRAMA (Chatto & Windus) Missy is the first novel by award-winning Scottish playwright Chris Hannan but on this evidence, he should most definitely return to the theatre. Set in 1860s California, we follow the trials and tribulations of Dol…

London & Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras

London & Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras - Separately & Together

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

JAZZ (Emanem Records) For reasons both practical and aesthetic large ensembles have been the exception rather than the rule in the world of free improvisation. Both the London and the rather younger Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras have happily flown in…

Patience Agbabi - Bloodshot Monochrom

Patience Agbabi - Bloodshot Monochrome

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

POETRY ANTHOLOGY (Canongate) There’s definitely something about the label ‘radical feminist bisexual performance poet’ that conjures up images of a woman with multiple axes to grind. Luckily, Patience Agbabi, a former Eton writer-in-residence and…

5 Debut Novels

10 Apr 2008

Héddi Kaddour - Waltenberg A bumper espionage thriller between World War I and the Berlin Wall’s collapse featuring a German author, an American singer and a French journalist. Harvill Secker. Jane Kotapish - Salvage Narrated by a woman who has…

Ally Kerr

Ally Kerr - Off the Radar

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

SINGER-SONGWRITER (Much Obliged Records) Off the Radar is the second album from one of Scotland’s brightest rising stars, Ally Kerr, whose debut set Calling Out to You from 2005 was hailed by critics from as far afield as Tokyo; the Glaswegian can be…

Heidi Talbot

Heidi Talbot - In Love and Light

(3 stars)10 Apr 2008

FOLK (Navigator Records) It seems folk singers just ain’t content with being plain old folk singers these days. Admittedly, the boundaries between folk and the singer-songwriter game have long been fairly blurred anyway, but more and more of the…

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