Issue 633

Sighthill - The Estate

A new Channel 4 series of short films seeks to dispel the myths surrounding one of Glasgow’s most notorious housing estates. Kirstin Innes meets the director.

Moon: interview with director Duncan Jones

Cerebral science fiction thriller Moon heralds the arrival of an impressive new filmmaking talent in Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie. Miles Fielder meets him.

Scottish Books - Irvine Welsh, Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison

Irvine Welsh inspired a generation of young Scottish writers and showed there was literature to be found in the lives of the Scottish underdog. Two of the leading lights of that next generation are Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison. Both authors boast…

Bruce Springsteen

You saw him at Glastonbury, he played for ages, everyone loved it. Now he’s coming to do the same for us at Hampden. Revel in our bluffers’ guide to Bruce Springsteen.

T in the Park: Paolo Nutini

Paolo Nutini is a star in charge of his own destiny, arriving at this year’s T, flying high on his success. Mark Robertson gets an insight into life behind the scenes of an errant pop star.

Brüno

Poor Brüno! The 19-year-old presenter with the really hot body from Austrian TV fashion show Funkyzeitung has been ‘schwarzlisted’ following an unfortunate incident involving his all-Velcro suit at a Milan catwalk event. Leaving behind his pygmy Asian…

Your Healthy Living Show

Ah, the great Scottish diet. (You can make up your own joke involving the words ‘deep’, ‘fried’ and possibly ‘Mars Bar’ here, or just recycle one of the thousands already out there.) People who like to mourn such things will often mourn the fact that we…

Moon

Cleverly conceived, evenly paced and consistently intriguing, this old-school science fiction thriller is a very welcome repost to the numbing spectacle of what passes for sci-fi these days. Taking his cue from genre classics from the late 1960s through…

Bruce Springsteen - Brucie Bonus

11 Number of current members of the E Street Band 19 Number of grammys won. 2 Number of Golden Globes won. 1 Number of Academy Awards won. 7 The age Bruce was when he knew he wanted to become a musician after he saw Elvis…

Sighthill - The Estate: episode guide

Sifiso Forced to leave Zimbabwe because she opposed Robert Mugabe, Sifiso has been living in Sighthill for four years, watching her children grow up with broad Glasgow accents, and worrying about their sense of identity. Episode 1: My Home. Airs Mon…

Site specifics: Deep Sea World

What is it? Dah-duh. Dah-duh. Dah-duh dah-duh dah-duh … That was a textual rendering of the Jaws theme, right? Right! Because this fortnight we’re focusing on Scotland’s own shark haven, Deep Sea World! You’re chipper today We just really…

T in the Park: Virgins & Veterans

Veteran Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai It’s Mogwai’s first T in ten years. What brings you back? We’re doing a lot of festivals this summer. We hadn’t actually done any for a while until we did Connect two years ago and it was great. So we’re…

Slam dunk: The Slam Tent at T in the Park

‘It’s nerve-wracking, as it is with any gig we’re involved in. We have such a headstrong booking policy; we’re so close to the scene and have very strong ideas about who we want to play. One of the reasons we got involved in the first place is because I…

T in the Park: The Horrors

Forget about the big barnets for a second, because The Horrors are back; having weathered the hype and the haters to come up with one of the best records of the year in the form of atmospheric second effort Primary Colours. As the Southend quintet gear…

T in the Park: Info

Amy Taylor provides you with all manner of sensible information to take the hassle out of the weekend

True Blood

The TV schedules have succumbed to a plague of bloodsucking parasites ever since Buffy staked her first vampire. But have vamps lost their bite? True Blood puts the allegorical power back into the fangs of the undead, and triumphs over the genre’s other…

Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins

‘I witter on like a budgie, as my mum would say.’ Lanarkshire-born writer Grace Maxwell is chuckling as she talks about Falling and Laughing, her story of partner Edwyn Collins’ miraculous rehabilitation from two devastating brain haemorrhages in 2005.

New York Dolls

Having burned brightly for just a few short years in the early 1970s, seminal glam-punk band the New York Dolls reformed 27 years later for what was supposedly a one-off gig at the Morrissey-curated 2004 Meltdown festival. A rapturous reception from the…

Cooking with Elvis

Lee Hall might be best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot, but long before Jamie Bell’s dancing feet captured the public imagination, Hall scored a hit with the acclaimed comedy Cooking with Elvis. First performed in Newcastle’s…

The Discovery of Spain – British Artists and Collectors: Goya to Picasso

Spanish holidays have come a long way from the sun, sea and sangria of the 1970s and having it large in Ibiza in the 90s. Yet, the pop cultural memorabilia of both eras remains in the bullfighting posters and maracas many brought home as jet-age…

Café Fish

For a nation surrounded by sea, we can get ourselves into a right fankle over fish. There are the sustainability problems (explicitly set out in the recent film The End of the Line), the langoustines that are flown off to a more appreciative Spanish…

Spotlight On Morningside

Surely almost all Edinburgh inhabitants harbour a healthy respect for the Morningside Lady, for whom, it is often surmised, nothing is worth having if it cannot be bought in Jenners. Stereotypes aside, the average Morningside resident does have much to…

Taste Test: Cider

Thistly Cross Cider Belhaven Fruit Farm, from Edinburgh Farmers’ Market and Cornelius Beers and Wines, 18–20 Easter Road, Edinburgh, £2.70 •••• Scotland’s first cider from the makers of Belhaven Fruit Ice, this cider is described as ‘Scottish and…

Singles & Downloads

Time was that the onset of summer beckoned a slew of novelty singles, courtesy of cartoon pop ingénues, often replete with carefree dance moves. You know: The Vengaboys’ ‘Going to Ibiza’; Los del Rio’s ‘Macarena’; Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’. Ah, happy…

The Death of Michael Jackson: Funny?

The only sure thing in life is that one day we will all die. The next sure thing is that if you happen to be famous, jokes about your death will be zooming across the internet while your corpse is still lukewarm. Though in this 24-hour newsiverse, it’s…