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Issue 619

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The Hot 100 2008

The Hot 100 2008

11 Dec 2008

It’s been a helluva year. 2008 has been a time of significant global change, socially, politically and culturally, with Scotland no exception. So here, for your delectation, is The List’s pick of the 100 people, places and things that rocked our world…

Songs of the Year 2008

Songs of the Year 2008

11 Dec 2008

‘Skinny Love’ Bon Iver One man’s heartbreak becomes our joy from the album of the year. ‘Like the Rest of Us’ Atmosphere The leftfield dwelling purists may sneer but this is beguiling, introspective hip hop brilliance. ‘Run Run’ Those Dancing Days…

Gigs of the Year

Gigs of the year 2008

11 Dec 2008

It was packed but we loved the Electric Feel of MGMT in February (Beat Club), while in March Casiotone for the Painfully Alone ’s (Nice N Sleazy’s) geeky synthesiser ballads charmed us, The Twilight Sad (King Tut’s) moved us, and Neil Young (The…

Hogmanay 2008 - Clubbing

Hogmanay 2008 - Clubbing

11 Dec 2008

‘It’s on’ is the simple motto which Glasgow überclub Optimo are using to promote their famous Hogmanay special – it’s at the Fruitmarket again, and will see Twitch and Wilkes joined by Glasgow Italo-punks Den Haan and laptop-wielding Parisian show-offs…

TV - Remote Control: Christmas TV

TV - Remote Control: Christmas TV

11 Dec 2008

Christmas is a time when TV goes mad for the long-awaited comeback. Alongside Rab C, Vic ‘n’ Bob and Stanley Baxter in making a welcome return is Alan Davies’ duffle-coated sleuth with Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (BBC1, Thu 1 Jan, 9pm ●●●●). And…

Christmas Comedy DVDs

Christmas Comedy DVDs

11 Dec 2008

With one recent internet poll naming Peter Kay as the funniest British comedian who has ever lived while Michael McIntyre steamrolls up the DVD charts, it seems that comedy is not unlike the other genres when it comes to ‘popular’ ‘opinion’. There was a…

Hogmanay 2008 - Paolo Nutini

Hogmanay 2008 - Paolo Nutini

11 Dec 2008

Reports of Hogmanay’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Certainly Edinburgh’s event, which suffered all manner of gloomy speculation pretty much since the bells finished ringing us into 2008, has returned with perhaps the strongest line-up in memory.

Idlewild

Hogmanay 2008 - Glasgow Highlights

11 Dec 2008

If the live gigs from Idlewild (pictured below), Bleachie and Paolo Nutini don’t grab you, we’ve got some other suggestions for how to get your Hogmanay kicks around town. Glasgow racks up its cool points (and not just the temperature ones) with…

Robbie Williams

Christmas books

11 Dec 2008

One question is eventually brought up about Christmas by the more inquisitive elements within the community of children. Just how in blazes does Santa manage to get round all the kids of the world in one night? Logical responses about shifting time…

TV: Rab C Nesbit: Christmas Special

TV: Rab C Nesbit: Christmas Special

11 Dec 2008

BBC2, Tue 23 Dec, 9pm With his dishevelled demeanour and manky string vest, Rab C Nesbitt may look exactly the same as he did when we last eyeballed him staggering from our screens in the summer of 1999, but the wise old nutter fae Govan is a…

Ines Gennuso: Theatre Sets

Ines Gennuso: Theatre Sets

11 Dec 2008

‘I think in a lot of ways, there’s a very fine line between documentary and fine art,’ says photographer Ines Gennuso. ‘So much so that there sometimes isn’t even a line at all.’ The work of the 30-year-old Italian is a case in point. In this exhibition…

Malcolm Middleton

The Burst Noel Christmas Party

11 Dec 2008

Like microwaveable turkey dinners, borderline alcoholism and falling out with your siblings, Malcolm Middleton is in danger of becoming something of an unhappy seasonal institution. The ex-Arab Strap guitarist’s bid for a Christmas number one last…

Christmas and Boxing Day Clubs

Christmas and Boxing Day Clubs

11 Dec 2008

There’s not much reason to get excited about Christmas this year, or at least so the briefest exposure to the nation’s media would have us believe. Now we’re not advocating the senseless squandering of cash here, but hey, it’s Christmas, right? And what…

Framed

Framed

11 Dec 2008

Theatre in the UK is largely built around a middle class audience, so its capacity to represent the experience of people from outwith this demographic can seem limited. Theatre audiences are also largely composed of older people, so the idea of theatre…

LGBT Christmas Clubbing

LGBT Christmas Clubbing

11 Dec 2008

XMAS ROUND-UP For those of an LGBT persuasion who would rather burn up the dancefloor than roast their chestnuts on an open fire, the Central Belt plays host to a wheen of special club nights to take you right through the Christmas…

Jolly Jango Christmas

Jolly Jango Christmas

11 Dec 2008

CHRISTMAS CLOWN SHOW As a first class juggler and slapstick comedian, Clive Andrews knows a lot about good timing. So it seems appropriate that his route to becoming a clown was due to being in the right place at the right time. Working as an…

Twilight

Twilight

11 Dec 2008

The Twilight books, we are reliably informed by sources close to the material, are not just for teenage girls. As the first installment of a film franchise starring undead fop Cedric Diggory hits screens across the UK, commune with your fellow, eh…

Culinary year

Culinary year

11 Dec 2008

Donald Reid digests the culinary year in view. That the most widely used phrase to describe the current economic downturn has a culinary connotation is a crumb of comfort to the restaurant world. You can’t dwell on the credit crunch for long without…

TV: Christmas Documentaries

TV: Christmas Documentaries

11 Dec 2008

There used to be a programme on Channel 4 about the worst jobs in history. These tended to be dodgy careers forged in medieval or Roman times, but the modern day equivalent of leech collector could well be the department store Santa. Chris Diamond has…

Christmas Events

Christmas Events

11 Dec 2008

In Glasgow, as ever, the Winterfest hubbub centres around George Square, gleefully decked out with the traditional mass of clashing, colourful lights. As well as the huge outdoor ice rink, the Big Stage is keeping stressed shoppers calm with a whole…

Christmas cake alternatives

Taste Test - Christmas cake alternatives

11 Dec 2008

Stollen Margiotta, Edinburgh, www.margiotta.co.uk; also available at the Glasgow and Edinburgh Christmas markets, £4.69 per cake. A traditional German bread-like fruitcake, this loaf represents baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. A strong…

Frank Miller interview

Frank Miller interview

11 Dec 2008

‘At first I found it too daunting, because Will Eisner had been my mentor. But after three minutes of careful thought I decided that nobody else could touch it. So I went from protecting The Spirit to exploring what I perceived as Will’s intent, which…

Biffy Clyro headline Rockness 2009

Biffy Clyro headline Rockness 2009

11 Dec 2008

If all the world’s a stage, there are an impressive amount of players lining up to showcase their wares in Scotland over the coming months. Local lads, Biffy Clyro will take to the stage as one of the headliners of RockNess, setting out their stall in…

Film Books Round-Up

Film books round-Up

11 Dec 2008

‘Tis the season to settle down with a good old-fashioned film book. Having a stack of cinema related tomes on your bedside table is essential for any aspiring cineaste at this time of year. So after many hours of sifting through recent releases this is…

Film - Also Released

Film - Also Released

11 Dec 2008

White Christmas (U) 120min New digital print of this Christmas staple. GFT, Glasgow and Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 12-Wed 24 Dec. North Face (12A) 121min Exciting historical adventure recounting the dangerous ascent of the Eiger in 1936 by two…

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Day the Earth Stood Still

11 Dec 2008

(12A) 105min As remakes go, Scott Derrickson’s re-imagining of Robert Wise’s 1951 sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still has more contemporary resonance than most. By substituting the threat of nuclear war for that posed by global warming, the…

Fred Deakin

Profile - Fred Deakin

11 Dec 2008

Name: Fred Deakin Also known as: One half of the now defunct Lemon Jelly Occupation: Successful DJ, music-maker and arty type, Deakin is also Creative Director/Founder of London-based design company Airside. Where is he from? Deakin started…

Frightened Rabbit

Singles & Downloads

11 Dec 2008

By the time you read this there will be no escaping it: the country will be brainwashed and swamped by X Factor mania, swaying in a zombified state to a bland and inspid version of ‘Hallelujah’ and I’ll have attempted to eat my own ears. Again. So…

Glasgow School Of Art Goes Pop

Various - Glasgow School Of Art Goes Pop

11 Dec 2008

INDIE With such recent exports as The Pigeon Detectives and Kaiser Chiefs, it’s no wonder the smart new music-lovers of Leeds are looking elsewhere for the really interesting stuff. In celebration of some of Glasgow’s finest young noiseniks, widely…

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Christmas at the Movies

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Christmas at the Movies

11 Dec 2008

CHRISTMAS CONCERT SPECIAL There are Christmas concerts for everyone this festive season, from Milkshake! Live, My First Carol Concert (see Kids) to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in its annual candlelit airing by Ludus Baroque and Dunedin Consort’s…

Comedy of the Year

Comedy of the Year

11 Dec 2008

In the past 12 months, America was at long last able to give itself a good hard slap on the back. Not only did they dispense with Bush and give McCain the elbow, they allowed some of their finest comic minds to invade these shores in a non-violent…

Side Dishes

Side Dishes

11 Dec 2008

Just two months ago we featured an interview with an ambitious young chef, James Stocks, who was about to open his own place in Edinburgh just a few months after revelations of an over-egged CV had led to his resignation from his high-profile post at…

Boyle tipped for Oscar with Slumdog Millionaire

Boyle tipped for Oscar win for Slumdog Millionaire

11 Dec 2008

Adopted as one of our local heroes, Danny Boyle helped put Scotland on the Cool Britannia map with his witty, stark portrayal of heroin addicts in 1996 film, Trainspotting. Now, with such well-received silver screen successes as The Beach and 28 Days…

The Reader

The Reader

11 Dec 2008

(15) 123min In a West German town at the end of the 1950s, 15-year-old Michael (David Kross) starts a passionate affair with Hanna (Kate Winslet), a tram conductor more than twice his age. The relationship is sweet as well as sexually charged…

Dolby Anol

Dolby Anol

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO ‘It seems like everywhere else cares more about us than Glasgow, especially Europe and London,’ says Graham Peel, one half of Glaswegian DJ and production duo Dolby Anol. He’s laughing, but he’s got a point. In their home city, the pair are…

Hitlist - Visual Art

Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction

11 Dec 2008

REVIEW DRAWING, PAINTING AND SCULPTURE Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 15 Feb In 2004 artist Charles Avery began charting the creatures, topology and cosmology of an imaginary island. This exhibition presents his…

Australia

Australia

11 Dec 2008

(12A) 165min Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge) gets more and more ambitious with each film he makes. With it’s sweeping vistas, debt to Gone With the Wind, World War II backdrop and romantic pairing of Nicole…

Idlewild

Idlewild

11 Dec 2008

ROCK RESIDENCY It’s a good time to be an Idlewild fan. For one thing there’s a new album on the way, set to be released in April, and before that we have this one-off run of King Tut’s shows – that’s six brilliant records delivered live, across five…

The Vaselines

The Vaselines

11 Dec 2008

INDIE ‘No-one would be listening to us now if Nirvana hadn’t covered our songs,’ says The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly with disarming honesty. ‘We’d just be another band who released an album, broke up and then disappeared. But the Nirvana connection…

Jay McInerney - The Last Bachelor

Jay McInerney - The Last Bachelor

11 Dec 2008

SHORT STORIES The vice that spices up this short story collection by Jay McInerney – a peeping tom on modern, urban American life – is not the overtly debauched or instantly shocking kind. Instead, his characters toy with taboos, flirt with socially…

Grooverider

Grooverider

11 Dec 2008

DRUM & BASS Street Knowledge’s ‘Drum & Bass Legends’ series has served up exactly what it promised with Andy C in September, while part two weighs in with the return of one of drum & bass’ founding fathers Grooverider (aka Raymond…

Ming Ming and the Ching Chings

Exposure - Ming Ming and the Ching Chings

11 Dec 2008

They’ve been around a couple of blocks on the Glasgow scene together, but guitarist and vocalist Craig Wilson, bassist Gordon ‘G’ Gillespie, drummer Davey Miller, and saxophonist and backing vocalist Chet have created a raw post-punk meets rockabilly…

Lemon Tree

Lemon Tree

11 Dec 2008

(PG) 106min Based not so much on a single true story as a number of similar real-life events, this powerfully affecting Israeli-German-French drama uses the tale of a battle of wills between a Palestinian widow and an Israel politician as a parable…

Che: Part One

Che: Part One

11 Dec 2008

(15) 126min At Cannes, Steven Soderbergh’s diptych of films about Che Guevara were shown consecutively, but British audiences are being asked to spend a month pondering The Argentine (original title) before we see Guerrilla (part two) – a wise move…

The Beauty of Sleeping Wood

The Beauty of Sleeping Wood

11 Dec 2008

CHRISTMAS SHOW With the ubiquitous run of Aladdins, Sleeping Beauties and Cinderellas doing the rounds at this time of year, it’s nice to see somebody mixing things up a little. The Beauty of Sleeping Wood is in fact based on the well-loved tale of…

Eva Rothschild

Eva Rothschild

11 Dec 2008

The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 19 Dec REVIEW SCULPTURE AND MIXED MEDIA You may experience a frisson of excitement upon entering Eva Rothschild’s exhibition at the Modern Institute. At first glance, it may seem that you’ve stumbled into…

To Get to Heaven You Have to Die (Bihisht Faqat Baroi Murdagon)

To Get to Heaven You Have to Die (Bihisht Faqat Baroi Murdagon)

11 Dec 2008

(15) 95min Tajikistani writer/director Jamshed Usmonov’s macho but engaging, quirky and darkly humourous tale of impotence and mafia initiation is his first since 2002’s equally measured and memorable Angel on the Right. Set, like that film, in and…

Cecil B Demille: American Epic

Cecil B Demille: American Epic

11 Dec 2008

More4, Thu 25 Dec, 1.55pm; Fri 26 Dec, 1.20pm Martin Scorsese perhaps hits the nail on the head when he admits finding it difficult to watch the movies of a number of his director heroes without experiencing pangs of regret about the political…

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S Thompson

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S Thompson

11 Dec 2008

(15) 119min Alex Gibney’s informative new documentary about the photojournalist and socio-political chronicler’s turbulent life and work obviously involved a lot of extra-curricular activity. Mapping Thompson’s trajectory from Twain and…

The Skatalites

The Skatalites

11 Dec 2008

SKA Well, you could hardly propose a less festive gig, but ska pioneers The Skatalites make their triumphant return to Scottish shores this month for another round of spot-the-founding-member. There ought to be three, namely Lloyd Knibb, whose…

Food For Thought

Food For Thought

11 Dec 2008

Normally, I’m off out for a swim before my daughter Heidi wakes up, so breakfast doesn’t happen, and by the time I’ve paused for breath, it’s lunch. This typically involves miso soup or a vanilla bean and honey smoothie, along with a brie, grape and…

Mum & Dad

Mum & Dad

11 Dec 2008

(18) 85min If you appreciate black humour and have a strong stomach there’s much to be admired in Steven Sheil’s low budget British horror. Exploiting the ongoing trend for torture porn, it transports the sadomasochistic splatter-fest of the Hostel…

Twilight

Twilight

11 Dec 2008

(12A) 121min ‘I hope you enjoy disappointment,’ murmurs surly vampire-next door Edward (Robert Pattinson) in Catherine Thirteen Hardwicke’s adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s vampire-romance novel, but Twilight is likely to be a matter of extreme…

The Silence of Lorna

The Silence of Lorna

11 Dec 2008

(15) 105min Compassionate chroniclers of those struggling to exist on the margins of society, Belgian sibling auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return with their first feature to focus on a female protagonist since 1999’S Rosetta. The Lorna of…

Alasdair Gray & Alasdair Taylor: The Two Alasdairs

Alasdair Gray & Alasdair Taylor: The Two Alasdairs

11 Dec 2008

Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow School of Art, until Sat 10 Jan REVIEW PAINTING AND DRAWING Underrated for many years, Alasdair Gray is now rightly hailed as an artist of note. This exhibition will bring him further plaudits, but what about the…

Far North

Far North

11 Dec 2008

(15) 89min After an auspicious debut with The Warrior, writer-director Asif Kapadia went to Hollywood with disastrous results in the form of super-lame Sarah Michelle Gellar horror flick The Return. Adapted from the short story True North by Sara…

Hitlist - Visual Art

Hitlist - Visual Art

11 Dec 2008

● Charles Avery, The Island: An Introduction A visually arresting, provocative and playful introduction to Avery’s ongoing project, charting the creatures, topology and cosmology of an imaginary island. Highly recommended. See review, page 104. Scottish…

New Found Glory

New Found Glory

11 Dec 2008

ALT.ROCK It’s really not often you get a band who nail pop punk live. Really nail it. The three supports tonight all try, and fail for various reasons – primarily horrendous sound – but New Found Glory have their own equipment, own sound guy and a…

Rozi Plain - Inside Over Here and Pictish Trail - Secret Soundz Vol 1

Rozi Plain - Inside Over Here and Pictish Trail - Secret Soundz Vol 1

11 Dec 2008

FOLK-POP-ROCK These two wonderful offerings from the ever-expanding Fence Collective serve to highlight just how diverse and ambitious the East Neuk’s musical cottage industry has become. Rozi Plain is a young Bristol-based singer-songwriter, and…

Inkheart

Inkheart

11 Dec 2008

(PG) 106min Christmas may not have been cancelled, but the withdrawal of the latest Harry Potter instalment left a gaping hole in the festive cinema schedules, with Iain Backbeat Softley’s long-shelved adaptation of Cornelia Funke’s children’s novel…

Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu

11 Dec 2008

SHOEGAZE One thing people weren’t doing a lot of during Ladytron’s support slot, a shimmering, feedback-drenched set from New York’s Asobi Seksu, was gaze at their shoes. Frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, a stony-faced dainty doll of a girl, kept her small…

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

11 Dec 2008

FESTIVE DELIGHT Sally (Julie Heatherill) is the bonniest lass in the whole of the Honest Toun, but her bitter and twisted auntie Grizzlebone (Lori McLean) is having none of her 18th birthday. Instead, she plans to impose a few more than 40 winks upon…

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

11 Dec 2008

FESTIVE FAIRYTALE Dundee Rep ensemble’s take on the ultimate love-triumphs-over-adversity fairytale is a bit of a mixed bag. The story takes a while to warm up, with an overlong preamble leaving you longing for the star to hurry up and make his…

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen

11 Dec 2008

CHRISTMAS KIDS SHOW Playing to an audience of primary school kids, each clutching a bag of sweets, the cast of this Arches Christmas show were always going to struggle for attention, and the din of rustling throughout confirms this suspicion. But…

Babes in the Wood

Babes in the Wood

11 Dec 2008

LUNCHTIME ENTERTAINMENT A panto couldn’t really call itself a panto without imparting a stream of unadulterated nonsense upon its audience, and Dave Anderson and David MacLennan’s Glaswegian retelling of Babes in the Wood does just that, albeit to…

Dean Owens

Dean Owens

11 Dec 2008

ACOUSTIC ROCK Every singer-songwriter has their holy trinity; those singers who inform what they do at the very core. During this intimate evening, the one-time Felsons’ head honcho, Dean Owens gives away Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash straight off…

I'm Not Rappaport

I'm Not Rappaport

11 Dec 2008

(12) 129 min There’s a quiet, mirthful kind of charm to Herb Gardner’s Broadway hit of 1985, here transposed to the screen in this 1996 version directed by the writer. It tells the story of two old men who meet in Central Park on a daily basis, one…

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

11 Dec 2008

ADAPTATION If you’re in doubt about the Christian allegory lurking behind the Narnian fantasy of CS Lewis, just look at the treatment meted out to Daniel Williams as Aslan in this stage adaptation. Relinquishing power to Meg Fraser’s scarily…

The White Planet

The White Planet

11 Dec 2008

(E) 86min French Canadian filmmakers Thierry Piantanida and Jean Lemire’s 2006 documentary attempts to bridge the gap between an National Geographic style infomercial documentaries and the visual ambitiousness (and ambiguities) of more experimental…

Alex Cornish

Alex Cornish

11 Dec 2008

SINGER-SONGWRITER After the recent openings of the Picture House and Sneaky Pete’s, here’s another new Edinburgh venue that’s ripe with potential. Owned by Edinburgh University, the Bowery lies in the basement of the formerly underused Roxy Art…

Role Models

Role Models

11 Dec 2008

How adults can benefit from relationships with children has been explored cinematically since before Charlie Chaplin met The Kid. One good recent example of this type of story was The School of Rock where Jack Black’s inner-child was flattered by a…

The Guard Post

The Guard Post

11 Dec 2008

(18) 120min (Cine Asia) South Korea certainly has a healthy film industry. As the American magazine Film Comment mused when the wave of their films first crashed on American shores – ‘is there actually more bilge than brine in the splash?…

James Bond 007: Polestar

Jim Lawrence, John McLusky & Yaroslav Horak - James Bond 007: Polestar

11 Dec 2008

SPY THRILLER Amidst the furious modernism of Daniel Craig’s James Bond incarnation, it’s becoming easier to forget just what a retro thrill the character was for so many years. This collection celebrates a vision of the character from the most sadly…

Charles Berlitz - The Bermuda Triangle

Charles Berlitz - The Bermuda Triangle

11 Dec 2008

MYSTERY RE-ISSUE Christopher Columbus was the first recorded individual to find something peculiar about the area dubbed Devil’s Triangle, writing in his log about ‘strange dancing lights on the horizon’. Five centuries on and Barry Manilow remains…

Little Dorritt

Little Dorritt

11 Dec 2008

(U) 380min Released to coincide with the BBC transmission of Andrew Bleak House Davies’ new adaptation of Dickens’ great political novel, Christine Edzard’s low-budget 1987 beauty is an intimate six-hour epic split in two halves. The first focuses…

Tim Blanning - The Triumph of Music

Tim Blanning - The Triumph of Music

11 Dec 2008

MUSIC HISTORY Make no bones about it, The Triumph of Music is a heavy read, but it’s also a hugely fascinating one. Penned by Tim Blanning – a Professor of Modern European History at Cambridge – this book has the academic turning his attention to…

Martin Greig - The Zen of Naka

Martin Greig - The Zen of Naka

11 Dec 2008

SPORTS BIOGRAPHY Timing is everything when it comes to sport biogs. As Celtic tumble out of Europe in a flurry of missed opportunities, and with rumours rife that Shunsuke Nakamura may part company with the club in January, it seems Martin Greig’s…

Aladdin

Aladdin

11 Dec 2008

3D SPECTACLE Where would the King’s panto be without Allan Stewart? All pantos rely heavily on their dame, but Stewart as Widow Twankey carries this show like a tireless packhorse. Which isn’t to say that Grant Stott’s baddie isn’t as deliciously…

The Wizard of Never Woz

The Wizard of Oz

11 Dec 2008

FESTIVE SPECTACLE Adapting a much-loved film for the theatre is always tricky. At the Citz, led by Helen McAlpine giving gutsy, note-perfect Garland, they’ve opted for a live recreation of the experience of the 1939 movie. Whatever the format lacks…

The Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme

11 Dec 2008

(E) 74min Originally released in 1916, right in the middle of World War I, this important documentary might not be known to viewers in its entirety, but individual moments will probably be familiar: its images are regularly ransacked for various…

Roy of the Rovers

Various - The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers

11 Dec 2008

FOOTIE Splitting your defences with a timely ‘gosh’, ‘heck’ and ‘thunderation’, this collection of Roy Race’s adventures from the years 1958-71 should send a tingle down the spine of anyone who ever picked up the comic. Melchester Rovers’ most famous…

Claude McKay - Banjo

Claude McKay - Banjo

11 Dec 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA ‘A story without a plot’ is not the most promising strapline for a novel you’ll ever come across, but there’s enough character, spice and joie de vivre in this deceptively intelligent meander to pull the reader through. Serpent’s Tail…

TV of the Year

TV of the Year

11 Dec 2008

Dexter The Miami serial killer with a heart wins Best New US Drama category with Mad Men, Damages and John Adams just behind. The Fallen An unbearably moving three-hour documentary about the British lives lost fighting the War on Terror, told by…

Mother Bruce

Mother Bruce

11 Dec 2008

PANTO CLASSIC The Tron pays its annual visit to the Pantosphere, a magical dimension of convention-conscious panto characters, where this year Mother Bruce (wife of the long lost King Robert The …) can’t pay the rent on her council house. Luckily her…

Cinderella

Cinderella

11 Dec 2008

SEASONAL FAVOURITE Man-hungry Ugly Sisters making fart gags? Check. Drippingly wet Cinderella and Prince upstaged by every other member of cast? Check. Carriage pulled by Shetland ponies? Check. Gerard Kelly in capri pants? Check. Obligatory ‘haunted…

David Heatley - My Brain is Hanging Upside Down

David Heatley - My Brain is Hanging Upside Down

11 Dec 2008

AUTOBIOGRAPHY Its not unusual for an artist to use their life as source material, David Heatley has taken this autobiographical conceit to an altogether more meticulous end: he has taken entire hunks of his life and reproduce them in their entirety…

Lorna Reid - Gypsy in My Soul

Lorna Reid - Gypsy in My Soul

11 Dec 2008

JAZZ Jazz singers are not in short supply these days, and there is plenty of competition in the kind of straight-ahead standard repertoire that Edinburgh singer Lorna Reid tackles in this self-produced debut release on her own label. I can’t say that…

Aidan O'Rourke - An Tobar

Aidan O'Rourke - An Tobar

11 Dec 2008

FOLK The music on this excellent disc was commissioned and first performed by An Tobar Arts Centre on Mull, and is characteristic of the fiddler’s lyrical synthesis of traditional folk roots with a much more contemporary and exploratory musical…

TV: Also on at Xmas

TV: Also on at Xmas

11 Dec 2008

Doctor Who The Cybermen stalk Victorian London as the Timelord comes face to face with another Doctor. BBC1, Thu 25 Dec, 6pm. The Royal Family Two years after Nana passed away, the couch potatoes are back to have just another regular Christmas.

Doorley/Fowlis/Martin/Nic Amhlaoibh - Dual

Doorley/Fowlis/Martin/Nic Amhlaoibh - Dual

11 Dec 2008

FOLK Julie Fowlis has been the most prominent success among the new generation of Gaelic singers, and her award-winning exploits have done much to help raise the profile of Gaelic song. On this session, though, she takes equal billing with her…

Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema

Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema

11 Dec 2008

JAZZ The Seattle-born, New York-based pianist’s debut for Blue Note is an impressive one. Jazz piano is a currently crowded field, but Parks makes his mark in convincing fashion. All but three of the tracks also feature the guitar work of Mike…

Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

11 Dec 2008

INDIE From Tigermilk to their most recent set, The Life Pursuit (2006), Belle and Sebastian have spent a decade establishing themselves as the purveyors of sublime post-Nick Drake indie tweeness. These delightful, if not overwhelming BBC sessions…

Books of the year

11 Dec 2008

Gordon Burn - Born Yesterday Another remarkable literary achievement from Burn as he re-imagines the epochal news events from the summer of 2007. Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff A beautifully crafted yet typically grotesque portrayal of the porn industry…

Angil and Hiddntracks - Ouliposaliva

Angil and Hiddntracks - Ouliposaliva

11 Dec 2008

AVANT-GARDE POP Introduced to Chemikal Underground by shared acquaintance Jim Putnam of Radar Bros, Angil and Hiddntracks are a quality addition to the roster, a bizarre but still indefinably soulful combination of chamber pop and jazz. While Mickaël…

The Complete Ro-Busters

Pat Mills & Various - The Complete Ro-Busters

11 Dec 2008

SCI-FI Starting out in 2000AD’s sister mag Starlord (before jumping ship when Starlord folded to its more successful sibling), Ro-Busters was a more cynical version of Thunderbirds. They are an all robot search and rescue team run by Mr 10 Percent, a…

Jon Savage - Dreams Come True: Classic First Wave Electro 82-87

Jon Savage - Dreams Come True: Classic First Wave Electro 82-87

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO After disco went saccharine and mainstream, producers returned to the stark optimistic futurism of the blueprint to make a new music, the spirit of which would later reach the mainstream via Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys. Jon Savage is a…

Le Le - Flage

Le Le - Flage

11 Dec 2008

EUROPOP What do you get if you put together a cult graphic designer from Amsterdam’s red light district, an ex-writer from uber-arch Vice magazine and a Dutch electro-funk producer? A euro-trash, piss-take, party-mix of half-hilarious, half-horrific…

The Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol 1

The Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind Vol 1

11 Dec 2008

PSYCHEDELIA The electronic two-team of Gaz Cobain and Brian Dougans, aka Future Sounds of London, share their love of what they call ‘cosmic space music’ on this compilation – a trippy swirl through the 60s up to the present day, taking in Devendra…

Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir

Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRONIC FUNK Times change, beats get faster, slower, heavier, funkier, but Tom Jenkinson will forever be the geeky spiritual little cousin of Aphex Twin who synergised breaks and virtuoso bass playing into one monolithic Level 42-crushing funk…

Trost - Trust Me

Trost - Trust Me

11 Dec 2008

ELECTRO POP The sound of Berliner angst then, is a woman saying over and over and over again how things are wrong. Her shoes are wrong. Her apartment is wrong. Her cheap lipstick is wrong. That particular track, then, is entitled ‘I Was Wrong’.

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