Issue 602

Honeydripper

8 May 2008

DRAMA (PG) 124min God may have given rock’n’roll to us but Alabama gave us the electric blues. The story of its genesis is one that writer and director John Sayles (Lone Star, Matewan, Silver City) sets out in his latest film treatise in search of the…

Nova Scotia

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 24 May Next time you’re trapped behind an oldie trying to use a cash point, quietly contemplating the benefits of euthanasia, you might want to reflect on Phil and Spanky, and buy yourself some patience.

As You Always Do

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 21–Sat 24 May Behind the stories of the media there are truths that we will never see. When we view reports of murders, disappearances and wars, our perspective is controlled by the scripting, editing and camera…

Iron Man

8 May 2008

SUPERHERO (12A) 125min The mighty world of Marvel superheroes continues to receive the big screen treatment with this blockbuster adaptation of just about the last of the comic book publisher’s original creations from the 1960s (Matthew Vaughn’s…

The Wasp Factory

8 May 2008

REVIVAL Regal Theatre, Bathgate, Thu 15 May, then touring Our fractured, alienating and individualist society is bound to produce some disquieting anomalies among its youth. In a world where the first priority is self, our capacity to empathise with…

Jeremy Raison - The Sound of My Voice

8 May 2008

Perhaps it’s merely a coincidence, but it seems somehow appropriate that the Citizens’ Theatre production of The Sound of My Voice should premiere exactly 40 years after the Paris disturbances of May 1968. For this great outcry was not about a lack of…

Tigerfest

8 May 2008

This year’s Tigerfest once again brings some of the most exciting Scottish acts to Dunfermline and Fife, but also branches out with gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Names like Twilight Sad, Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Paul Haig will all be gracing…

Property special - City guides

8 May 2008

EDINBURGH HOTSPOTS Leith How much: Average one bed £126,540; two bed £164,420 What: For better or worse, the Leith of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting is almost unrecognisable as new cafés, restaurants and bars jostle for space alongside the…

Property special - Rental guide

8 May 2008

Know what you want Where do you want to live and who with, if anyone? What are your expectations? Be realistic but don’t settle for something which, in a few weeks, won’t make the grade. Go it alone or agent Consider if you want to scour the…

Property special - Do it yourself

8 May 2008

A survey by online listings company Gumtree found that nine out of ten people do not think estate agents justify their high fees, while 40% told the Office of Fair Trading they offer poor value for money. So the recent explosion of people deciding to…

LGBT TV Special

8 May 2008

Televised gay kisses may have come a long way since Beth Jordache on Brookside but mainstream programming still lacks fair representation (for the supposed 10% of us) with only the occasional out and proud offering, mainly The L Word and Queer as Folk.

Property special - Old versus new

8 May 2008

For many property buyers these days, draughty old flats in need of repair just won’t cut it. Luckily there are plenty of shiny new options available across Scotland’s central belt, from swanky waterfront developments such as Coalhill in Leith to sleek…

Property special - Sarah Beeny offers some advice

Moving on up

8 May 2008

Sarah Beeny may have flirted with the idea of a different career path but property was definitely in her stars. ‘My father is an architect and I grew up around building sites so they didn’t seem daunting,’ she explains. As her then-boyfriend (now…

Singles & Downloads

8 May 2008

Get ready, kids, it’s New Morrissey Single of the Fortnight time! And this one’s a stormer, all taut and driving, and laced with that familiar austerity which, you suspect, hides a well of uncertainty somewhere just below the surface. And it’s got these…

Grand Theft Auto IV

8 May 2008

Typical, isn’t it? You wait two years for the most anticipated videogame of all time and it turns out all wrong. What have Rockstar being doing with their time? The driving feels different. They’ve changed the shooting. And Liberty City is only a…

Property special - Beat the credit crunch

8 May 2008

If you are looking for a new mortgage, consider the issues around affordability, the tie-in period of the deal, the loan to value percentage available and other conditions. Do not focus on the published headline rate and assume that is the deal for you.

Heartbeat Detector

8 May 2008

DRAMA (12A) 135min Visually spare, leisurely in pace, wordy and featuring an eclectic, occasionally jarring soundtrack, this French corporate thriller is demanding and rewarding in equal measure. Adapted from François Emmanuel’s novel La Question…

Chinese Contemporary Art - Asking for It

8 May 2008

China has become something of a cause célèbre in contemporary art market circles. Tales abound of international collectors swooping in to snap up entire bodies of work, leaving artists with empty studios and considerably enriched bank accounts. Whether…

The Curve Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala

8 May 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May ‘I thought if I were to have a party to celebrate ten years of the Curve Foundation, who would I invite?’ says Ross Cooper, artistic director of Curve Foundation. ‘Who has been relative to our…

John Burnside - Glister

8 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) It’s safe to say this latest novel from Fifer John Burnside won’t be sparking a tourism boom on the east coast anytime soon. But his bleakly beautiful tale digs beneath the surface of the everyday to do what he does best…

XXY

8 May 2008

DRAMA (15) 90min What would you do if your only child was a hermaphrodite? Would you let this anomaly of nature lie or would you welcome the intervention of major surgery? This is the dilemma at the centre of Argentinean screenwriter Lucía Puenzo’s…

The Stranger

8 May 2008

THRILLER (PG) 95min (Eureka) Having failed to turn a profit on either Citizen Kane or its follow-up The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles directed this relatively conventional film noir for RKO in 1946. In the process, he proved to the studio that…

Mark E Smith with Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

8 May 2008

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…

O Lucky Man!

8 May 2008

COMEDY/SATIRE (15) 169min (Warner Home Video) Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 masterpiece is long overdue a proper DVD release, particularly since it’s rarely shown on our television or cinema screens. In O Lucky Man!, Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell…

The Shore Bar & Restaurant

8 May 2008

Leith is one of those hologramatic places that’s both new and old at the same time, depending on which particular angle catches your eye. Weathered sandstone or flash flats, docking cranes or design studios, venerable eating spots and new Michelin…

Eating & Drinking Guide Launch Party

8 May 2008

At Cabaret Voltaire, four excellent restaurants received Eating and Drinking Guide Best Newcomer awards, with two more receiving our inaugural Readers’ Awards in association with Taste of Edinburgh. Attendants sipped a range of refreshments courtesy of…

Skin Piel (Without Sin)

8 May 2008

NEW WORK The Arches, Glasgow, Tue 20-Thu 22 May Morally questionable animal testing aside, in vivo research has proven its worth through centuries of scientific study, with experimentation on, or dissection of, entire systems providing valuable…

Property special

8 May 2008

Though she may have started house-hunting before the credit crunch hit the headlines, it took a quick look at the property market to tell Michelle Davies, 29, a software engineer who had lived in a rented flat since arriving in Edinburgh from Australia…

Anne Donovan - Being Emily

8 May 2008

I first saw Anne Donovan in 2001 on the underground ‘stage’ of Glasgow’s 13th Note Café, surrounded by beer bottles, graffiti and posters advertising upcoming gigs by the punk and metal bands that usually played there. People were crammed into the tiny…

Speed Racer

8 May 2008

FANTASY/ADVENTURE (PG) 134min Having taken a break from directing since completing The Matrix trilogy five years ago, the Wachowski brothers (who wrote and produced but didn’t direct their last film, the abysmal V for Vendetta) are back in the driving…

Romeo and Juliet

8 May 2008

When the curtain falls on Scottish Ballet’s new production, it won’t just be the performers who deserve a round of applause. Sitting in the audience, it’s easy to forget the months of planning, preparation and perspiration that go into staging a…

Willard Grant Conspiracy

8 May 2008

Willard Grant Conspiracy, the disparate alt.country band led by the gravel-voiced Robert Fisher numbers in excess of 40 musicians from all over the world. Since Fisher started it all off in 1996, the group’s output has been prolific: seven full albums…

Renaissance for superclub culture

8 May 2008

Has it been just long enough since the superclub was declared dead that we can start to look back on them with something approaching nostalgia? Or maybe we all know that the superclub will never, ever die; it’s just that the whole culture has been…

O2 Undiscovered

8 May 2008

Tell ya, kid. These days, everybody wants to get into showbiz. O2 Undiscovered, which lands in Glasgow this fortnight, is the latest in a fast-growing succession of hands-on networking events offering the public a chance to meet and get advice from…

Records Played Backwards

8 May 2008

GROUP SHOW The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May Just like the teenager in the 80s playing his or her Iron Maiden records in reverse while hoping to hear Satanic messages, the artists in this group exhibition busy themselves trying to find…

Melanie Gilligan

8 May 2008

PERFORMANCE AND INSTALLATION Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May This exhibition by London-based artist and writer Melanie Gilligan takes place not in the usual Transmission gallery, but in an upper Wasps studio space opposite. The…

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

8 May 2008

FOLK Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 9 May; ABC, Glasgow, Sat 10 May It’s a decidedly domestic vibe at chateau Unthank when Rachel comes to the phone. ‘I’ve just been doing a bit of gardening and I had to go into town to pick up a new cello case,’ she…

Gregory Isaacs

8 May 2008

REGGAE Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May Born in Kingston Jamaica in 1950, five years after Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs’ musical trajectory offers a fascinating counterpoint to the beloved Rastafarian musician. While Isaacs’ early inspirations came…

The Song from the Sea

8 May 2008

CHILDREN’S THEATRE Platform, Glasgow, Wed 14 & Thu 15 May In these hectic times, rarely do you hear a child complain of having nothing to do. On the contrary, moments of calm are in short supply for most children. Tapping into this modern phenomenon…

Exposure - No Age

8 May 2008

Set to be the breakthrough band from Los Angeles arts space The Smell, No Age have unleashed a scuzzy noise-pop masterpiece in their Sub Pop debut Nouns. Guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/singer Dean Spunt crank out a joyous racket that suggests a…

Jonathan Monk

8 May 2008

INSTALLATION, SCULPTURE, PAINTING Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 18 May ‘Something No Less Important Than Nothing’ and ‘Nothing No Less Important Than Something’ are the first Scottish shows by Jonathan Monk in a decade, though actually it’s the same…

Eilidh MacAskill and her Daily Ukulele Ceilidh

8 May 2008

MUSICAL COMEDY Last year, one woman set out on an incredible journey. There were tears. There was laughter. There were good times, there were bad, and there were midnight YouTube sessions in front of her cat, as Eilidh MacAskill attempted a…

Cadence Weapon and J-Live

8 May 2008

HIP HOP Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Mon 19 May; The Ivy, Glasgow, Tue 20 May In the space of two albums, Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon) has cut a compellingly maverick path across the hip hop landscape. His first record, Breaking Kayfabe, set…

Educating Agnes

8 May 2008

NEW TRANSLATION Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, run ended; Perth Theatre until Fri 9 May When Molière’s L’école des femmes was translated as Let Wives Tak Tent by Robert Kemp in 1948, it set in motion a half-century tradition of Scottish reworkings of…

Limbo/Zarraberri

8 May 2008

TRANSLATION Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 12 May–Sat 17 May In the 14th century, Dante described limbo as the ‘first circle of hell’ in The Divine Comedy. This 800-year-old concept of limbo, in which unbaptised babies who die are said to be stuck between…

MGMT

8 May 2008

PSYCHEDELIC ROCK The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Fri 9 May A lot of bands take themselves too seriously, but not MGMT. For evidence, get yourself to YouTube and check out the video for fantastic recent single ‘Time to Pretend’, a song satirising the…

Death Story

8 May 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, until Sat 10 May The thriller format that we’ve come to associate with Alma Cullen’s film and television work in such programmes as A Touch of Frost and Inspector Morse is abandoned in her latest play for a more reflective…

Sonic Boom Six

8 May 2008

PUNK Barfly, Glasgow, Sun 18 May Less than ten years ago, bassist/vocalist Barney Boom’s only audience were the people who showed up to parties he was MCing at. These days, he’s touring internationally, as part of the Manchester-based quartet, the…

Interview - Zatorski

8 May 2008

David Pollock Why do you both refer to yourselves just as Zatorski, and not speak about your relationship? Zatorski We like the anonymity of it, really. There’s a pair of us, we work together, but otherwise we like the sexlessness and impersonality…

Food For Thought

8 May 2008

Because of my job, I need to keep fit and flexible. If I ate too many crisps, I wouldn’t fit into my straitjacket anymore. Breakfast is Weetabix Minis and a cup of green tea. I never eat fruit; I’m allergic to bananas, melons and strawberries. If I eat…

Colette Sadler: The Making of Doubt

8 May 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 9 & Sat 10 May She has danced throughout Europe, won a Creative Scotland award and choreographed for Belle and Sebastian. Yet the inspiration for Colette Sadler’s latest work was found practically on her…

Mary King’s Ghost Fest

8 May 2008

Back once again with the paranormal behaviour! The annual scary celebration of ghouls, ghosts, things that go bump in the night and (even more terrifyingly) perma-tanned television psychics, resurfaces through the ectoplasm. Night vigils in Edinburgh’s…

Feist

8 May 2008

One of the founding members of Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and former flatmate of Peaches, Leslie Fiest is now best known for that video ‘1234’ as featured so ubiquitously in the iPod advert. However this takes nothing away from the simple…

Ladytron

8 May 2008

Cool electronic pop as Ladytron once more stride into the live arena, testing the waters before the release of new album Velocifero in early June. Effortlessly crossing the club/live divide they’re in demand as DJs and musicians, even going on to remix…

Tinariwen

8 May 2008

Formed in 1982 in Muammar al-Gaddafi’s camps of Tuareg rebels, Tinariwen mix their traditional music Tishoumaren (‘music of the unemployed’), with electric guitars to create world music at its most thrilling aided by a distinct 70s rock edge.

Remote Control

8 May 2008

It’s difficult not to come round to the conclusion that the BBC is utterly obsessed with teenage pregnancy. In recent times, we’ve had Baby Borrowers, Britain’s Youngest Grannies and Adolescent Brunette Mothers on Crack with Guns. OK, maybe one of those…

Earthy Food Store

8 May 2008

Despite the very best and utterly wholesome intentions to stock up on organic cheeses at the weekly farmers’ market, or to take a drive to the country to buy veg with the soil still hanging off it, sometimes a long lie or a busy week gets in the way.

Hammer on the web

8 May 2008

The internet has irrevocably changed the way we consume media. ‘Instant’ has become standard and even institutions like the BBC have taken to OnDemand in a big way. Access to downloadable films old and new is increasing and, of course, piracy and…

Mathieu Amalric

8 May 2008

It’s quite fitting that on the seat next to Mathieu Amalric is his motorbike helmet. Having dashed across London from Pinewood Studios, where he is currently shooting the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace, the French actor knows that come the autumn…

Summer trends

8 May 2008

Blame Status Quo. Blame grunge. Above all, blame Christopher Kane’s continuing fascination with the clothes his babysitters wore circa 1989. But how will a summer full of bleached denim and ra-ra ruffles work on our streets? We ask the experts...

Honeydripper - John Sayles Interview

8 May 2008

‘Some of the plot of Honeydripper comes from this rock’n’roll legend called Guitar Slim who was a New Orleans guitar player in the early 1950s. He had a huge hit with a song called ‘The Things That I Used to Do’ which was arranged by Ray Charles when he…

Interview - Steve Barker

8 May 2008

Steve Barker, the 37-year-old, Blackpool born director of new Scottish horror Outpost is in an affable mood. Self-effacing, charming and just a little bit geeky Barker (pictured, right) has succeeded where so many have failed. Outpost is a pared down…

Taste Test - Muffins

8 May 2008

Blueberry muffin £1.65 •• Tinderbox, 14 Ingram Street and 189 Byres Road, Glasgow Flatters a bit to deceive this one, with its generous size and nicely shaped top, as well as the purpley-blue interior. When tasted, however, the actual fruit is…

DVD Round-Up

8 May 2008

Not only does Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950 (BFI) •••• provide fascinating insights into a bygone age, this four-disc collection of 40 films totalling 13 hours of viewing also showcases the groundbreaking talent of the…

Edinburgh International Film Festival line up revealed

8 May 2008

The Edinburgh International Film Festival took a step closer to positioning itself as June's must-see event this week, with the launch of next month's much-anticipated EIFF programme. The festival's artistic director, Hannah McGill, caused a stir late…

Scottish Opera: Falstaff

8 May 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 13, Thu 15, Sat 17, Wed 21 & Sat 24 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 18, Sat 21, Thu 26 & Sat 28 Jun Long before any government directives on obesity, Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff knew all about the challenges…

Cotton Cake

8 May 2008

TECHNO The Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 16 May Although it’s been a fixture of the Glasgow scene for three years now, Cotton Cake has only recently discovered what it wants to be. Launched at the Glasgow School of Art by Mehdi Dadrass and Jamie Young as a…

Profile - Cajmere

8 May 2008

Name Cajmere Also known as Green Velvet, Curtis Jones (his real name), many others. Occupation Godfather of what broadly, briefly, became the electroclash sound, alongside Felix Da Housecat, Fischerspooner, Larry Tee, etc. Recently rediscovered…

Leith Festival announces line up

8 May 2008

Leith provided further evidence of its status as one of the city's most vibrant areas with the launch of its annual festival. Organisers revealed that the Leith Festival would showcase its trademark brew of home grown talent, alongside big name…

Dumb Waiter - A guide to food terminology

8 May 2008

brochette skewer think kebab, but not that kind of kebab. bruschetta Italian toast, served with olive oil and tomatoes (rather than marmalade). capon castrated cockerel. caponata a Sicilian speciality of aubergines with tomatoes, olives…

The Air I Breathe

8 May 2008

THRILLER/ROMANCE (15) 95min Taking its cue from an old Chinese proverb that says life is composed of four emotions – happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love – this ensemble drama featuring an A-list cast and four intertwined plotlines is reminiscent of…

Midnight Man

8 May 2008

CRIME DRAMA STV, Thu 8 May, 9pm Were James Nesbitt to be handed a script featuring the worst excesses of humanity, it would be difficult not to imagine him desperately looking for the jokes. Asides from his role as Ivan Cooper, the real-life civil…

The Last Mistress

8 May 2008

DRAMA (15) 114min Despite suffering a cerebral haemorrhage in 2004, the French filmmaker Catherine Breillat has returned with her most entertaining and accessible work to date. Based on the 19th century novel by the controversial writer Jules-Amédée…

Caramel

8 May 2008

DRAMA (PG) 95min Dedicated ‘to my Beirut’, the charming, bitter-sweet debut feature of writer-director Nadine Labaki centres upon the ‘Si Belle’ beauty parlour in the Lebanese capital. The 30-year-old proprietor Layale (Labaki herself) is guiltily…

Outpost

8 May 2008

HORROR (18) 89min Beefy mercenary DC (Ray Stevenson) has just made a bad decision. He’s taken a job from shadowy businessman Hunt (Julian Wadham). DC and his band of professional soldiers have to get Hunt into an abandoned bunker in an Eastern…

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

8 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY (12A) 89min Having successfully supersized his career by eating way too many Big Macs, Morgan Spurlock has let fame go to his head or maybe he’s just contracted a bout of mad cow disease. His new documentary sees the campaigner try to do…

Willie Nelson

8 May 2008

COUNTRY Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Thu 8 & Fri 9 May There is a certain evergreen enthusiasm about Willie Nelson that makes him unmistakably a country musician. They all have it, or had it: Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash. It’s the blinding…

Balkanarama

8 May 2008

BALKAN/FOLK Studio 24, Edinburgh, Fri 9 May Saska Haramina, who organises Balkanarama, tries to sum up the night: 'It evolved out of a celebration of the Balkans' cultural diversity reflected in its musical diversity; upbeat riotous gypsy brass…

Doomsday

8 May 2008

HORROR/ADVENTURE (18) 108min In Neil Marshall’s derivative, dystopian fantasy, Scotland 50 years on is a no-man’s land ravaged by disease, cut off from England by a rebuilt Hadrian’s Wall, and presided over by streetwise gangs of cannibals driving…

Also Released - Music

8 May 2008

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (4AD) This was recorded in a remote cabin in the wilds of Wisconsin and it sounds like it. A gloriously minimal and spectral solo debut from Justin Vernon. Jack Marchment - Corydon and Manjrekar (Benbecula) Inspired…

5 Reasons To Go See - King Creosote

8 May 2008

1 He’s royalty Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote) is a local legend responsible, along with his label Fence Records, for a renaissance of Scottish folk, lo-fi, electronica and rock. All done from a bolthole in the East Neuk of Fife. Clever, eh? 2…

Cashback

8 May 2008

In the words of Faithless’ Maxi Jazz, art student and late night supermarket shift worker Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) ‘can’t get no sleep’. Ever since he split up with his girlfriend Suzy (Michelle Ryan) he’s been wandering around in a daze. While his…

Side Dishes

8 May 2008

The harlequin group of restaurants, best known for their curry houses, now have a second Spanish-themed tapas restaurant in their portfolio after Las Ramblas in Bearsden with the opening of Torres at 327 Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. Tapas dishes are…

Under the Bombs

8 May 2008

DRAMA/ROMANCE (15) 98min This heartfelt road movie from Lebanese writer-director Philippe Aractingi was filmed during Israel’s 33-day bombardment of Lebanon in the summer of 2006. It follows a wealthy Shiite woman Zeina (Nada Abou Farhat) and a…

Welcome to the Sticks

8 May 2008

COMEDY (12A) 106min Dany Boon’s box-office hit is the most successful French movie of all time. In just seven weeks on release, it broke 1966 comedy La Grande Vadrouille’s record for the highest ever attendance for a French film on home soil with 17…

Manufactured Landscapes

8 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY (U) 86min Beginning with a bravura eight-minute lateral tracking shot through a giant Chinese factory, Canadian director Jennifer Baichwal’s thoughtful documentary explores the work of the photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose large-scale…

Smart People

8 May 2008

COMEDY DRAMA (15) 94min Another week and another dysfunctional American family comedy. Scripted by novelist Mark Poirier and directed by newcomer Noam Murro, Smart People examines the improbable rejuvenation of widowed, middle-aged English professor…

Madonna - Hard Candy

8 May 2008

POP (Warner Bros) While acts much younger than her construct entire careers around trading on former glories, Madonna clearly doesn’t give two figs for nostalgia. Eleven albums on and pop’s most famous magpie and queen of reinvention is as sonically…

Charlie Bartlett

8 May 2008

DRAMA (15) 96min In a crafty move that befits its wheeler-dealer anti-hero, teen comedy Charlie Bartlett arrives on the coat-tails of the highly publicised Iron Man, which also features Robert Downey Jr. The star gives a pleasing supporting…

Streamers

8 May 2008

THEATRE ADAPTATION (15) 104min (Metrodome) The vexed issue of how to turn stage plays into cinema has haunted the movies for as long as the technology to make film has existed. This 1983 attempt by Robert Altman to film David Rabe’s noted mid-70s…

Take Three: Old favourites, new regimes

8 May 2008

A kitchen fire in late 2006 might have spelt the end of this venerable restaurant, but Ryan James, who was already running a brace of Two Fat Ladies restaurants in the city, took it on, enhanced many of the original features and coupled it up to his…

The Phantom Band

8 May 2008

ROCK Is This Music? @ 13th Note, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr Back in early 2005, few people were shouting about Mother and the Addicts, ditto De Rosa in early 2006, yet both of these bands went on to promptly release cracking debut albums through Chemikal…

The Vaselines and Emma Pollock

8 May 2008

INDIE Mono, Glasgow, Thu 24 Apr ‘We’re The Vaselines,’ chirps Eugene Kelly by way of introduction. And perhaps, given that he and Frances McKee are backed by four members of Belle and Sebastian, this is as much to prevent any confusion. The…

Indómitos

8 May 2008

ROCK Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Sat 19 Apr From the moment they take the stage with a dry ‘goodnight, we are Indómitos’, to when they amble off the stage having delivered a pitch-perfect set of rattling, rumbling and reverb-drenched garage punk, it’s…

Televised Crimewave

8 May 2008

GARAGE ART-PUNK Fast @ the Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Apr No band of skinny-jean art-punk terriers wants to appear like they’re trying too hard, but that doesn’t work when your audience are simultaneously reclining away from looking like they give…

Richard Cowdry & Various - The Bedsit Journal No 2

8 May 2008

COMPILATION (Bedsit Journal) Marshalled together by the artist and writer Richard Cowdry whose previous comic seed bombs include Kartoon Cuts and Knucklehead, this funny, bitter and vulgar collection of new comic book talent proves what can be done…

William Sutcliffe - Whatever Makes You Happy

8 May 2008

FAMILY COMEDY (Bloomsbury) William Sutcliffe, Edinburgh-based spouse to Maggie O’Farrell and schoolmate of Ali G, is still best known for his 1997 coming of age debut Are You Experienced? Eleven years and three more books later, his fifth novel…

Pink String and Sealing Wax

8 May 2008

DRAMA (PG) 86min (Optimum) This is the debut feature from Robert Hamer, the talented but troubled (by the bottle) filmmaker who went on to make the superb Kind Hearts and Coronets and terrific School for Scoundrels. Having contributed a segment of the…

Also Published - 5 Travel Books

8 May 2008

Daniel Kalder - Strange Telescopes Following up his Lost Cosmonaut, this intrepid Fifer goes on the hunt for some more offbeat individuals in the former Soviet Union. Faber. Susanna Clark - A House in Fez Subtitled ‘Building a Life in the Ancient…

John Miller - Secret Agent: Chronicles of Doom

8 May 2008

SPY SATIRE (Small Press) You can see the work of Edinburgh cartoonist John Miller on posters and adverts hanging in the city’s Deadhead Comics, but none hint at his proclaimed double life as the template for James Bond, with inspiration imparted to…