Location: set your location

Issue 631

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

God Help the Girl

God Help the Girl

11 Jun 2009

‘You have been warned, I’m going to be contrary,’ sings the beautiful Catherine Ireton on God Help the Girl – the new album written by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian fame. Murdoch could be speaking about himself, for he has always confounded…

Stadium Gigs

Stadium rock in Scotland 2009

11 Jun 2009

Mark Robertson gets out his giant foam finger and keeps his fingers crossed that his topless torso turns up on the big screens as we look at just what this summer’s massive outdoor shows have to offer.

Cycle fashion

Cycle fashion

11 Jun 2009

Speaking plainly here: cycling is really not very cool at all in this country. It usually seems to involve strapping a multitide of bulky Velcro accessories to yourself and donning unflattering skin-tight Lycra costumes, and not even in the privacy of…

Fish Tank

EIFF 2009 - Fish Tank

11 Jun 2009

Andrea Arnold is a director who likes to work on instinct. She makes films that are defined by their acute observation of real lives rather than informed by a movie buff’s love affair with cinema. The point is underlined at the Cannes launch of her new…

Spotlight On Leith

Spotlight on Leith

11 Jun 2009

There they were, defiantly choosing not to choose life. Five years after The Proclaimers put ‘Sunshine’ on it, there were Irvine Welsh’s seminal Trainspotters peeing on Leith’s disused railway tracks, a fitting metaphor for the area’s seedy, debauched…

Kelburn Garden Party

Kelburn Garden Party

11 Jun 2009

It may seem that there were enough stories of big weekenders failing to establish themselves – such as Isle of Skye and Indian Summer – even before the financial downturn, which has this year claimed the scalps of Connect, Dunstaffnage and The Outsider.

EIFF - Roger Corman

EIFF 2009 - Roger Corman

11 Jun 2009

The Hollywood legend Roger Corman is guest of honour at the 63rd EIFF, which is this year hosting a very welcome retrospective dedicated to the man they rightly call the king of the Bs. Given the 83-year-old auteur has written, directed and/or produced…

EIFF - Peter McDougall and John Mackenzie

EIFF 2009 - Peter McDougall and John Mackenzie

11 Jun 2009

Poor, white, Protestant and on the run from Greenock’s shipyards, Peter McDougall may not have possessed the background to execute the first two Reithian tenets of public service and probity, but he certainly knew about universality. The mythology goes…

EIFF - Mark Kermode

EIFF 2009 - Mark Kermode

11 Jun 2009

What are your thoughts on the EIFF? My line has always been that Edinburgh is like Cannes only civilised. Cannes is horrible, genuinely horrible. It’s completely the wrong culture to watch films; it’s a hideous broiling Riviera full of incredibly rich…

EIFF - Wide Open Spaces

EIFF 2009 - Wide Open Spaces

11 Jun 2009

Wide Open Spaces was a co-production between the UK and Ireland. I raised the money from the UK end. Co-productions are becoming much more important for any producer, really just in order to raise enough money to make films. Normally it’s difficult to…

Cycling to work

Cycling to work

11 Jun 2009

Cycling is enjoyable, healthy and makes us feel good. But that’s not why most people in cities do it. Not me anyway. I don’t have ‘reasons’ for cycling any more than I have reasons for walking. Neither do I make use of specialist equipment. ‘Distrust…

The Clyde: Films of the River 1912–1971

The Clyde: Films of the River 1912–1971

11 Jun 2009

As a new exhibition celebrating the River Clyde, as seen through amateur and professional films opens, Paul Dale salutes Glasgow’s cine-camera chroniclers.

Art College Degree Shows

Art College Degree Shows

11 Jun 2009

Edinburgh College of Art Lizzy Stewart: Illustration Stewart’s work adorns record sleeves, editorial pages, zines and books. Her vivid prints, including ‘Giant Bear in a Tiny Village’ (pictured), will be on display alongside illustrations for Dee…

Bike Week 2009

Bike Week Scotland 2009 - Danny MacAskill Inspired Bicycles

11 Jun 2009

The UK’s biggest mass participation cycling event kicks off this issue, promoting the idea of communities bandying together to get fit and have fun. With Bike Week 2009, organisers are encouraging everyone to ‘get more out of life’. To help…

Cycle routes in Scotland with food

Cycle routes in Scotland with food

11 Jun 2009

With its handy bridges and riverside cycle paths, the Clyde is an inevitable focus for cyclists in central Glasgow, so it’s worth keeping in mind that the City Café (0141 227 1010, www.cityinn.com) in the City Inn on Finnieston Quay is a pretty decent…

First word - Shazia Mirza

First word - Shazia Mirza

11 Jun 2009

First record you ever bought? Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. I thought he was really hot but then I was 14 and I’d never seen a man before. I still play it from time to time; it reminds me of school, having a Lady Di hairstyle, and thinking…

Bard in the Botanics

Bard in the Botanics

11 Jun 2009

There are probably fewer people in Scotland more excited about the Met Office’s predicted heatwave this summer than Gordon Barr, artistic director of Bard in the Botanics, Glasgow’s annual outdoor Shakespeare festival. ‘I’m really keeping my fingers…

David Nicholls

David Nicholls

11 Jun 2009

The accepted wisdom that you should ‘write about what you know’ has worked well for David Nicholls. In his debut novel, Starter for Ten, he plundered his time as a student to produce pages of well-observed situations, while in The Understudy, Nicholls…

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

11 Jun 2009

When a daring daylight robbery liberated Edvard Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’ from Oslo’s Munch Museum in 2004, the international art world was in despair. Once recovered, the painting was damaged externally to the extent of being kept out of view for…

Rock Ness 2009

Rock Ness 2009

11 Jun 2009

Starting life as a Fatboy Slim gig in 2006, Rock Ness has staked its claim as a major Scottish festival. This year’s event boasts big names such as Basement Jaxx, Dizzee Rascal, Orbital, Soulwax and The Prodigy. And, while it’s still mainly…

Fugee la la

Refugee Week Scotland 2009 - Fugee la la

11 Jun 2009

Given the recent increase in profile of the BNP across Scotland, the timing and focus of this year’s country-wide Refugee Week are particularly prescient. This year, the multi-artform festival which aims to raise awareness of the issues facing and…

Taste Test - Energy food for cycling

Taste Test - Energy food for cycling

11 Jun 2009

Banana £0.30, fruit shops everywhere. ••••• Good old-fashioned natural food and what all energy products are trying to recreate in their caffeine or carbohydrate pumped products. Combinations of carbohydrates and B vitamins in bananas give a huge…

Roni Horn: The tiniest piece of mirror is always the whole mirror

Roni Horn: The tiniest piece of mirror is always the whole mirror

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY Internationally renowned New York artist Roni Horn exhibits samplings from her oeuvre spanning three decades. Most of Horn’s exhibitions are site-dependent, and this selection too responds to the specifics of the venue. With her tendency…

VHS Special

Buying films on VHS Special

11 Jun 2009

Never mind uploads, downloads, video on demand or any of today’s new fangled methods of seeing films; the cheapest way to see film must be the good, old-fashioned charity shop. With many shops offering five tapes for £1, the credit crunch is an ideal…

Sugar

Sugar

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

DRAMA Premier Baseball’s Latin American slave trade route and the immigrant experience go under the microscope in this offbeat and compelling character study from the makers of 2006’s Half Nelson. Miguel Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) aka Sugar is a…

Edinburgh Festival 2009 - Fringe programme highlights

Edinburgh Festival 2009 - Fringe programme highlights

11 Jun 2009

Roll up, roll up. It may just seem like yesterday that the Edinburgh Fringe packed its bags for 2008 but now it’s back with a vengeance. Against stiff competition from its international and national counterparts, this year’s Fringe line-up looks…

Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle

11 Jun 2009

INDUSTRIAL When Throbbing Gristle issued a communiqué in 1981 announcing that ‘the mission is terminated’, it looked like the last self-destructive flourish by the UK’s premier avant-provocateurs. Sired from underground performance art troupe COUM…

Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker

11 Jun 2009

While many of his Britpop contemporaries are content to drag their increasingly saggy posteriors around the country – reforming for money-making purposes and trading solely on nostalgia – Jarvis Cocker can’t seem to stop re-inventing himself. It’s no…

The Amphetameanies

The Amphetameanies

11 Jun 2009

SKA PUNK Cult Glasgow ska punk veterans The Amphetameanies’ line-up, past and present, includes members of Bis, Belle and Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand. Bassist Gordon Davidson refutes the suggestion that it must be frustrating being in all these…

The Hangover

The Hangover

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

COMEDY It’s worth toasting The Hangover as one of the Hollywood comedies of the year. Todd Phillips’ film is a buddy movie that really delivers with its riotous cocktail of memorable characters, outrageous situations and explicit humour. Two days…

5 Reasons To Go See - Emiliana Torrini

5 Reasons To Go See - Emiliana Torrini

11 Jun 2009

1 She’s hot and cold Thirty-two-year-old chanteuse Emiliana Torrini is half-Italian, half-Icelandic (her full name is Emiliana Torrini Davidsdottir), so you get the fiery passion of the Mediterranean and the icy cool of the Arctic rolled into one. 2…

Food For Thought - Mark Beaumont

Food For Thought - Mark Beaumont

11 Jun 2009

Before a cycling expedition, I try and eat as much as possible and put on some reserves – basically, I try to get fat. So I eat a lot more than the average person, around five to six meals a day adding up to 6000 calories or more. Breakfast is a few…

London in the Raw/Primitive London

London in the Raw/Primitive London

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

DOCUMENTARY The British Film Institute launches its DVD strand Flipside with a pair of salacious dirty delights that certainly fulfil the mandate of the highbrow organisation to rediscover and reappraise overlooked and marginalised material.

Three others to try: Cycling gadgets

Three others to try: Cycling gadgets

11 Jun 2009

HyMini Personal Wind Turbine Comes with a bike mounting bracket and connectors for iPods and most mobile phones. If you are lucky enough to live in a country that’s windy even when you’re not moving, it can charge your goods all the time, so it’s…

The Joy Formidable, Chew Lips and Lemonade

The Joy Formidable, Chew Lips and Lemonade

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

INDIE On the tiny stage in the Art School’s Vic Bar, the roaming audience at this inaugural Glasgow leg of the multi-venue Stag and Dagger festival were treated to a line-up which was young and diverse enough to be mistaken for a possible future NME…

Gardens in Autumn

Gardens in Autumn

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

Anyone who’s seen Monday Morning by the Georgian Otar Iosseliani will know he is a filmmaker with a great sense of drift. He’s not interested in plot, but great on spatial texture, ably explored by the great cameraman William Lubtchansky. In Monday…

Alexandra

Alexandra

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

Few filmmakers do melancholic intimacy better than Alexander Sokurov. Maybe it has to do with his fascination with capturing vulnerability and the presence of death, exemplified by Taurus (about the dying Lenin) and Mother and Son (where a mother passes…

Two Horizons

Two Horizons

11 Jun 2009

The Artist Rooms exhibition occupying the ground floor of the Modern Art Gallery may have taken up most of the headlines, but there’s an equally impressive, if smaller, exhibition tucked away upstairs. Two Horizons features a selection of work by…

The Gossip - Music for Men

The Gossip - Music for Men

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

The Gossip’s extravagant firebrand Beth Ditto has bagged herself stardom in bountiful guises: disco-blues diva, brawling fashionista, feminist defender, media provocateur, political agitator — and, not least, the sexiest catsuit inhabitant since…

Norman Douglas & Company

Norman Douglas & Company

11 Jun 2009

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Norman Douglas isn’t afraid to do his homework. As part of the research for his new triple-bill, the Glasgow choreographer has been digesting some pretty heavy stuff, including a tome on critical theory. ‘It’s taken me a year to…

Vision/Aria

Vision/Aria

11 Jun 2009

VISUAL THEATRE Romantic love, in all its weird and wonderful permutations, has formed the basis for so much theatre, that it is virtually impossible to avoid cliché when taking on this hoariest of subjects. Yet, Palazzo Theatre have come up with an…

Site Specifics: Edinburgh Zoo

Site Specifics: Edinburgh Zoo

11 Jun 2009

What is it? It’s a zoo. In Edinburgh. The name’s a bit of a giveaway, to be honest, but if you’d like some numbers: 82 acres of parkland (mostly on Costorphine Hill), housing well over 1000 animals and birds, and attracting more than 600,000 visitors…

Douglas Rushkoff - Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back

Douglas Rushkoff - Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

POPULAR ECONOMICS Wake up Neo: the matrix has you. For social commentator Douglas Rushkoff, the current perilous economic landscape is only one of various possible versions that could have developed, and the economy’s greatest self-perpetuating myth…

Cooly G

Cooly G

11 Jun 2009

DUBSTEP Cooly G is hard to pin down. Coming from Brixton, she’s often placed within the growing UK funky movement, and her tracks almost always include a dancefloor-ready bassline. Yet she wouldn’t describe herself as part of the scene, even though…

The Electric Circus

The Electric Circus

11 Jun 2009

NEW VENUE/HOUSE There’s been bad news after bad news for the capital’s clubbers as a slew of venues have closed over the last few years. So it’s great to see one premises getting a new lease of life as Massa (formerly Club Mercado) relaunches as The…

T[r]APPED

T[r]APPED

11 Jun 2009

DANCE THEATRE With CCTV monitoring our city centres and vast databases intimately acquainted with our shopping habits, you’d be forgiven for thinking Big Brother was more than just a TV programme. Inspired by this over-zealous information gathering…

5 things you might not know about . . . Russell Howard

5 things you might not know about…Russell Howard

11 Jun 2009

1 Having made a steady name for himself with shows such as Skylarking, Adventures and Wandering, to become an Edinburgh Fringe staple, the Bristolian comic announced last year that he would no longer be doing the August sweatboxes. He felt bad at the…

George Pelecanos - The Way Home

George Pelecanos - The Way Home

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

SOCIAL DRAMA Having long since established his credentials as a chronicler of life on the mean streets of Washington DC, George Pelecanos more recently broadened his fanbase as screenwriter and story editor on The Wire, the Baltimore-based TV show…

Fly - Sky & Country

Fly - Sky & Country

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

Fly are three very well known contemporary jazz musicians, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. That pedigree suggests something special and they pretty much serve up just that – an intelligent, intricate set of…

Siouxsie and the Banshees - At the BBC

Siouxsie and the Banshees - At the BBC

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

This magnificent three-CD set doesn’t really unearth anything brand new but gathers together huge hunks of the quartet’s varied career via radio sessions and live sets, starting with their John Peel debut in November 1977, filled with the poisoned…

GSA Degree Show Street Party 2009

GSA Degree Show Street Party 2009

11 Jun 2009

Over the years, the Glasgow School of Art Degree Show afterparty, where alterna-haired art hipsters take over Renfrew Street for a night-long outdoor bunfest (rather like The Kids From Fame but with skinnier jeans), has become almost as important an…

James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game

James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

A supernatural 12-string axe-slinger, James Blackshaw’s extraordinary muse educes Philip Glass, John Fahey and Peter Walker: he is awesome. The Glass Bead Game, Blackshaw’s first album for Young God, (home to Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family)…

Jason Donald

Jason Donald

11 Jun 2009

Being brought up in South Africa but now living in Scotland, Donald, a graduate of Glasgow UNiversity’s creative writing course has found a way, in his debut novel Choke Chain to communicate those coming of age childhood stories in a new twist, amid the…

Six of the Best - Eating & Drinking around Leith

Six of the Best - Eating & Drinking around Leith

11 Jun 2009

The King’s Wark 36 The Shore, 0131 554 9260 Few things can make a foodie as happy as a portion of homemade fishcakes and frites courtesy of this granddaddy of the Leith eating scene. Oozing olde worlde charm, the Wark’s menu boasts everything from…

Looking for Eric

Looking for Eric

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

COMEDY/DRAMA Could Ken Loach finally be mellowing in his eighth decade? For years the socialist director has been British cinema’s most consistently political filmmaker, illuminating how the dreams of his working class characters are inevitably…

EIFF - Moon

EIFF 2009 - Moon

11 Jun 2009

When Duncan Jones, aka Zowie Bowie, David’s son, premiered his film-directing debut, Moon, at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the critical reception to his cerebral science fiction thriller was ecstatic. Reviewers wasted no time in comparing Moon…

YolanDa Brown

YolanDa Brown

11 Jun 2009

SOUL JAZZ Twenty-six-year-old London-born saxophonist YolanDa Brown is already remarkably successful, winning a MOBO award last year and collaborating with Alexander O’Neil, Mica Paris and The Temptations, all on the back of just two self-released…

EIFF - All Tomorrow’s Parties

EIFF 2009 - All Tomorrow’s Parties

11 Jun 2009

For those who count themselves among its regular crowd, the feeling is that once you’ve been to All Tomorrow’s Parties you can’t go back to just any old festival. Currently held in a Butlin’s holiday camp at Minehead, Somerset, the tri-annual weekend…

News in Brief

11 Jun 2009

The Scottish Government’s ‘One Scotland’ campaign RoAR (Rock Against Racism) campaign kicks off this fortnight with local lads Franz Ferdinand, who’ll be heading to the Scottish Borders for a special RoAR gig in Selkirk’s Victoria Hall on Wed 17 Jun.

Scottish Opera: Cosi Fan Tutti

Scottish Opera: Cosi Fan Tutti

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

OPERA For their keenly anticipated summer week in Edinburgh, Scottish Opera bring a choice of two operas – Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Jules Massenet’s Manon. Neither will disappoint. Both have been deservedly well received by public and press from…

Will Andrews

11 Jun 2009

Although he first tried stand-up as a 17-year-old in Newcastle, Zimbabwe-born Will Andrews established his comedic reputation in Scotland. Performing live as his alter-ego Tony Carter, a dole-sponging Geordie on a government retraining scheme, he…

Labels of Love - Crystal Wish

Labels of Love - Crystal Wish

11 Jun 2009

Based in Edinburgh Roster 7VWWVW, Kyon & Dyems, Albaross, Spells Tower, The Kittens Bosses Crystal Wish is an artist-run group, not ‘a typical company as such’; 7VWWVW’s (pronounced ‘Mammal’) Nick Munro is just one of the group involved in…

LGBT at the Edinburgh International Film Festival

LGBT at the Edinburgh International Film Festival

11 Jun 2009

As ever, the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s ten-day showcase of screenings, talks, interviews and special events, there’s a decent sprinkling of films that are of particular interest to those of an LGBT persuasion. Those interested in a…

Auntie Janet Saves The Planet

Auntie Janet Saves The Planet

11 Jun 2009

Despite perceptions, young audiences can often be the toughest to entertain. But they’re also one of the most open, as writer Mark Robertson is gleefully aware. ‘It’s very liberating,’ he says. ‘Because there’s stuff you can do that you just wouldn’t…

The End of the Line

The End of the Line

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

DOCUMENTARY In Rupert Murray’s documentary about the depletion of fish stocks in our oceans, scientists mention that the decline of cod and other predators due to over-fishing has led to a proliferation of lobster, prawn and shrimp – the very…

Profile - Glasgow Mod Weekender 2009

Profile - Glasgow Mod Weekender 2009

11 Jun 2009

Occupation Although many clubs around the city specialise in the same retro sounds, the Glasgow Mod Weekender is a definitive four-day event that offers a comprehensive celebration of Mod music and styles. This will be its seventh year. For younger…

The Garden of Adrian

The Garden of Adrian

11 Jun 2009

NEW WORK There can be few performers with the immense personal charm of Adrian Howells. His is a theatrical presence that inspires trust, and deservedly so. Perhaps only Howells could carry off this latest piece of performance, which involves a…

Gigantic

Gigantic

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

ROMANCE/COMEDY Having done morose to such great comic effect as a mute Goth kid in Little Miss Sunshine and zealous to fine dramatic impact as the phoney preacher in There Will Be Blood, boyishly good looking American actor Paul Dano graduates from…

Oreet Ashery: Raging Balls & Golani Varanasi

Oreet Ashery: Raging Balls & Golani Varanasi

11 Jun 2009

NEW WORK Even the least articulate among us can suddenly become word-perfect when overtaken by a spasm of rage, often to compelling effect. The performance artist Oreet Ashery is keenly aware of this, and, inspired by the artist David Wojnarowicz’s…

Brand New

Brand New

11 Jun 2009

ROCK Like a dozy-eyed mammal emerging post-hibernation, American rockers Brand New are resurfacing after what has seemed like a slumbersome last couple of years. And it’s good news, for instead of catching up on 40,000 winks and conserving energy…

The Congos

The Congos

11 Jun 2009

REGGAE As mournful tenor trembles above falsetto and baritone amid a bubbling cacophony of bass and effect, the statuesque and trance-inducing ‘Fisherman’ ushers in a cult reggae masterpiece. It is tempting if unfair to say that The Congos have…

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

11 Jun 2009

FOLK The boisterous yet melancholy sounds of Eastern European folk music have long entranced Western musicians, from avant-jazzer John Zorn to indie-pop cosmopolitan Beirut. But few have gone as far as A Hawk and a Hacksaw in their exploration of…

Side Dishes

Side Dishes

11 Jun 2009

The Brand new Hotel Missoni on the corner of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and George IV Bridge is the first collaboration between the Italian fashion house and the Rezidor Hotel Group. The first-floor La Cucina restaurant has a large sharing table, outside…

Red Cliff

Red Cliff

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

Asian action auteur-turned-Hollywood hired hand John Woo hasn’t directed a film since 2003 thriller Paycheck. And Woo hasn’t been home to China to make a movie since 1992. Back behind the camera, Woo’s first Chinese film in almost 20 years is a…

Jordan Baseman & Henna-Riikka Halonen: Commonwealth Suite

Jordan Baseman & Henna-Riikka Halonen: Commonwealth Suite

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

FILM On the high diving board at the Commonwealth Pool weeks before the civic amenity built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games closes for refurbishment, junior members of Edinburgh Diving Club are showing off their air-to-water gymnastic skills. As a…

New Town Killers

New Town Killers

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

Richard Jobson’s Edinburgh-set credit crunch thriller is the best film and certainly his most commercial since his impressive 2003 debut 16 Years of Alcohol. As he did with that film, Jobson makes inventive use of the city he calls home, shooting in the…

Othello

Othello

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

OUTDOOR THEATRE You know summer’s finally arrived when the nation’s brave outdoor theatre companies take to the al fresco stage for that all-too-brief window of long days and (hopefully) fine weather. Borders company Shakespeare at Traquair…

Blue Eyelids (Parpados Azules)

Blue Eyelids (Parpados Azules)

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

Love, naivety and loneliness in a modern Mexican megalopolis are essayed in this charming and quirky bittersweet comedy. When factory worker Marina (Cecilia Suárez) wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two from her employer, she realises that, because of…

Leith Shopping

Leith Shopping

11 Jun 2009

Much like its bars, Leith’s shops tend to have a charm all of their own. Offbeat eco-friendly Shore shop Flux and Easter Road’s Eero and Riley are top spots for unusual gifts and homeware, while Georgian Antiques affords ample opportunity to browse one…

Miss March

Miss March

(1 star)11 Jun 2009

COMEDY 20th Century Fox’s recent decision to abandon their Fox Atomic subsidiary stemmed from the failure of such ghastly teenage fare as The Rocker and Miss March. This leaden buddy comedy features Eugene (Zach Cregger) and Tucker (Trevor Moore…

Little Ashes

Little Ashes

(1 star)11 Jun 2009

‘No Rules. No Regrets. No Returns’ promise the breathless ads for Paul Wondrous Oblivion Morrison’s homage to the Catalonian spirit, detailing the relationships between three of Spain’s greatest creative temperaments, notably playwright and poet…

The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

Given the repellent nature of Wes Craven’s scuzzy little 1972 rape and revenge shocker, it’s a relief to find this glossy remake straying somewhat from the original’s sleazy path. Craven and original producer Sean S Cunningham steer the hand of Dennis…

Also Released - Film

Also Released - Film

11 Jun 2009

Doghouse (15) 88min Comedy horror starring Danny Dyer and Noel Clarke about a group of men stranded in a remote village with a bunch of man-hating female cannibals. Selected release from Fri 12 Jun. Soi Cowboy (15) 116min In Thailand’s capital city…

Player Piano

Player Piano

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

INDIE POP Indiana boy Mr Piano (aka Jeremy Radway) pitched up at Homegame, Fence’s annual music fest in Anstruther, a few years ago, and was welcomed into the prolific collective of Fife musicians for whom folk is not a four-letter word. At this…

Phil Campbell

Phil Campbell

11 Jun 2009

SINGER-SONGWRITER You can tell that Phil Campbell’s a songwriter’s songwriter by the company he keeps: members of Edinburgh’s Aberfeldy and The Gillyflowers have sung around for his set, and they seem to be enjoying what they hear. But then the…

Maeve O’Boyle and Mick Hargan and The Propositions

Maeve O’Boyle and Mick Hargan and The Propositions

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

POP/ROCK Being the venue she was signed at, Oran Mor was always going to be a special one for local singer-songwriter Maeve O’Boyle’s return gig. Opening the show full of energy and charisma, the 21-year-old has the audience’s interest immediately.

Thomas Houseago, Dieter Roth & André Thomkins

Thomas Houseago, Dieter Roth & André Thomkins

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

MIXED MEDIA Sculptures and drawings by Leeds-born, LA-based Thomas Houseago are exhibited alongside those of the late Swiss friends and collaborators Dieter Roth and André Thomkins. Nearly two generations apart, the artists enter into anachronistic…

Lorna Macintyre: Sentences not only words

Lorna Macintyre: Sentences not only words

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

MIXED MEDIA Glasgow artist Lorna Macintyre exhibits silver gelatin prints, copper and wood sculptures, and a short looped video piece. ‘Naïve composition’ is a small black and white photograph which acts as a coda to an installation of four wood and…

An Empress and the Warriors

An Empress and the Warriors

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

A sentimental story about honour and decency, duty and obligation, Tony Ching Siu Tung’s film is perfectly well made on its own terms, and even manages moments of surprising emotion amid the lazily maudlin. When the emperor dies, his upper-crust…

Meet Danny Wilson

Meet Danny Wilson

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

This lesser known 1951 Frank Sinatra film was made at the time his career had stalled, two years after his only role of note at that point, in the Gene Kelly musical On the Town, and two years before he won an Oscar for From Here to Eternity, the film…

Anne Berry - The Hungry Ghosts

Anne Berry - The Hungry Ghosts

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

FAMILY TALE Don’t be fooled by the title: The Hungry Ghosts is more family drama than spooky story. Yet its epoch-hopping tale – in which brutally murdered Lin Shui hangs on to the scraps of life by latching her spectre onto Alice Safford, the…

Curt Sibling - Total Fear: Collection 3

Curt Sibling - Total Fear: Collection 3

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

HORROR COMIC There’s been a resurgence in the world of underground comics in Scotland of late, as we’ve tried to reflect on these very pages over the last few months. Now Curt Sibling is back with more of his effervescent adult’s only humour. Total…

Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

For his second long playing effort Nutini has thrown in so much to the mix no one would fault you for trying to spot the kitchen sink in there. While These Streets showed he was equal parts pop tart, soul boy and apprentice folk troubadour, here we also…

Denis Robert - Happiness

Denis Robert - Happiness

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

EROTIC NOVELLA Published in France around the same time as Catherine Millet’s international hit, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, Denis Robert’s Happiness has waited much longer to make it to the English language world. As a married writer starts an…

Also Published - 5 Paperback Biogs

Also Published - 5 Paperback Biogs

11 Jun 2009

Carrie Fisher - Wishful Drinking A slim but funny and intimate memoir about the Star Wars legend’s mental problems and addictions. Pocket. Simon Gray - Coda A posthumous publication of the prolific playwright’s fourth volume of memories, which…

Refugee Week 2009

11 Jun 2009

The film aspect of this national festival exploring the refugee experience which also includes workshops, art exhibitions, comedy nights, sports events and much more is bigger than ever this year. In Glasgow the UK premiere of Doug Aubrey and Peri…

2Duos - Until The Cows Come Home

2Duos - Until The Cows Come Home

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

An unusual twist on the kind of Euro collaborations that have become familiar on the Scottish folk scene, often with Scandinavian musicians. 2Duos combines well-established pairings from Scotland and Germany as Aaron Jones and Claire Mann team up to…

If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials

If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

This Leeds-based sextet were winners of the Jazz Services Promoters Choice Award for 2008, although I don’t think Scottish audiences have yet had a chance to check them out. On the evidence of this debut CD, they were worthy winners of the accolade.

Simple Minds - Graffiti Soul

Simple Minds - Graffiti Soul

(3 stars)11 Jun 2009

A worthy attempt to reinstate the band as stadium-filling rock contenders (while also marking their glittering 30-year anniversary), studio set number 15 ticks most boxes for fifty-somethings, Simple Minds. Four years on from the fart that was…

If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials

Lord Cut-Glass - Lord Cut-Glass

(4 stars)11 Jun 2009

It’s taken a while to get round to it, but five years since his sometime band The Delgados split, and following collaborations with Aidan Moffat, Alasdair Gray and David Shrigley, Alun Woodward is finally making his album debut under this new alias.

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