Issue 635

Days Out Hitlist

The best books, talks and LGBT

7 Aug 2009

Fringe in the Park, Alien Wars, Bratchy and the Wee Man’s Comedy Pub Quiz, Anja Kirschner and David Panos ‘in conversation’ with Francis McKee, Critical Applause 6: Will Holder.

Over the sea to Skye

6 Aug 2009

Brad Pitt may be somewhat lacking but as we clamber Thelma and Louise-style into my old knackered banger, a miraculous sunny spell sets the mood for the days to come. Heading north out of Edinburgh, we leave behind us the traffic jams and daily grind of…

Cult Fiction Movies shop opens in Edinburgh

6 Aug 2009

To a certain type of movie fan, Newington’s newly-opened Cult Fiction Movies is a magical store where a litany of grindhouse double features, BFI Classics and films from America’s Criterion Collection which remain currently unavailable on this side of…

Scottish Islands: The essentials

6 Aug 2009

Go in search of the fairies The Isle of Mull’s MacKinnon’s Cave is believed to be the deepest in the Hebrides. A winding path leads towards a waterfall just before the mouth of the Cave and folklore suggests that it offers a passage to the underworld…

Tom Kitchin - From Nature to Plate

Kitchin confidential

6 Aug 2009

All cookbooks reveal something of their author; first cookbooks are often most revealing of all as chefs justify their status by retelling formative experiences. As with the opening of their own restaurant, it’s both a statement and a landmark. Tom…

The gathering of the bribes

6 Aug 2009

We don’t like to call it bribery, that’s a dirty word, but now that the Festival’s starting to roll into town the standard of, er, unsolicited gifts arriving here at List Towers is definitely on the up. And we don’t mind it one bit. It might not…

The Bratchpieces reinvent the Humble Pub Quiz

A family guffaw

6 Aug 2009

The Bratchpieces (faither Mark, elder brother David, or Bratchy and younger scion Neil, aka the Wee Man) are well known as Scotland’s only family of stand up comedians. They’ve taken that dynamic into all-Bratchpiece stage shows, and the logical next…

First Word - Allegra McEvedy

6 Aug 2009

First record you ever bought Ian Jury and the Blockheads’ ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’. Last time you were chatted up I don’t think I’ve ever been chatted up. I’m more of a predator. First film you saw that really moved you I think it…

Velvet Elvis & Amore Dogs

How to beat the neighbours as a restaurateur

6 Aug 2009

As a restaurateur you’re always interested in what’s going on around you. Who’s busy, who’s not, who’s hiring, who’s lost their chef. When Allan Mawn opened up Pintxos two years ago he had no such issues. He was so far west along Dumbarton Road there…

Site Specifics - Alien Wars

6 Aug 2009

What is it? Imagine stepping into the world of Alien and Aliens (as created by Ridley Scott and James Cameron respectively) as you are guided round the Arches’ basement with extra terrestrials leaping out to scare you at every turn. ‘A ghost train on…

Five festival over-achievers

6 Aug 2009

Robin Ince One can only assume that Robin Ince sits in a thick blue funk for that small portion of the day when he isn’t A) hosting a ‘lunchtime celebration of science and the wonderful’, B) being a ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ or C) opposing ‘the moral…

Conversation Pieces at Royal Concert Hall

Bill includes Michael Palin, Kenny Logan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

6 Aug 2009

Michael Palin, Kenny Logan and Sir Peter Maxwell are just a clutch of the names rocking up to the Royal Concert Hall as part of their Conversation Pieces season. The talks, held in September and October, boast talents from across the board, including…

Music hitlist

The best music from the festival

6 Aug 2009

The Bang Bang Club, David Byrne, Dub Syndicate, The Edge, Rough Cut Nation, Rough Cut Nation, Shooglenifty, The Stranglers, Time(less) Machine

Side Dishes - The Yard, Gourmet Glasgow and Villeneuve Wines

6 Aug 2009

The main feature of The Yard, a new family restaurant and bar off Bonnington Road near Leith, is a large enclosed courtyard for outdoor eating with a decent chunk of it given over as a children’s play area. Run by the family behind Molly’s play area in…

Busta Rhymes - Back on My BS

6 Aug 2009

In a sea of pouting, posturing wannabe players, Busta Rhymes has always stood out as a true rap individual. Never afraid to play for laughs, he broke through in the early 90s as an affiliate of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Solo, he’s been one of…

Minibeast Safari & A Wander With Bugs and Butterflies

Ugly Bug Ball

6 Aug 2009

If you’re already bored of staring at comedians, why not spend a little time investigating a very different kind of wild and unpredictable beastie? Summer is excellent bug-spotting time, as both Cammo Visitor Centre, who are offering A Wander With Bugs…

Product of the Month

6 Aug 2009

As part of our ongoing partnership with the Glasgow Craft Mafia, we’ll be taking an occasional look at some of the excellent Scottish design on offer at their monthly markets. We really like the look of this leopard print clutch by Sarey Poppins for £27…

Bruce Morton’s Pick of the Fringe

6 Aug 2009

Lanky Londoner, Ava Vidal (pictured) joins the Friday night line-up at The Stand, where host Bruce Morton gives a bite-size taster portion of Fringe comedy shows going on at the other end of the M8. The Stand, Glasgow, Fri 7 Aug.

Nashashibi / Skaer: Our Magnolia

Collaborators tackle controversial subject compellingly and powerfully

5 Aug 2009

The artistic careers of Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer have followed parallel courses. Born two years apart, the pair studied at Glasgow School of Art, exhibited at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, and have collaborated as Nashashibi/Skaer on five…

The Discovery of Spain

Fascinating exhibition of British and Spanish art demands a long look

5 Aug 2009

Besides proffering a coloured selection of chapters from an intriguing art historical narrative, this major exhibition presents some seriously affecting works of art. Didacticism aside, simply gazing at these terrifically moving paintings – Goyas, El…

Tartan Clef Awards, Reclaiming the Rainbow and We Will Rock You

5 Aug 2009

The Homecoming Scotland Tartan Clef Awards will this year take place on Fri 27 Nov at the SECC in Glasgow, in a bid to create a bigger profile for the event. Last year Peter Kay attended to award Sharleen Spiteri with her Outstanding Contribution to…

One More Tune turns two

The folk behind the sound talk to David Pollock about difficult beginnings

4 Aug 2009

It’s overplaying things to describe it as a rags-to-riches tale, but Matthew Craig’s career as a DJ and promoter on the Glasgow circuit has come a long way since he started putting on One More Tune (alongside Ralph Thomson, who he DJs with as Define…

Fictionalised history

A review of David Peace's Occupied City

4 Aug 2009

The theme of defeat has been central to the work of David Peace but has never been more potent in this, the second of his Tokyo trilogy. The Damned United featured loss at the heart of Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United while GB84 probed…

Five Biographies

Newly published non-fiction

4 Aug 2009

Roland Chambers, The Last Englishman The all-true story of Arthur Ransome, who was caught up in the Russian Revolution while working for British intelligence and became a double agent. (Faber) J Randy Tarborelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn…

Poorboy Playroom bring creative chaos to museum

Scottish collective bring site specific improvisations to Fringe

4 Aug 2009

Scotland’s mighty collective, the Poorboy Playroom, are bringing a creative flurry to this year’s Fringe. The popular posse, best known for their multi-sensory site specific improvisations, are heading indoors to occupy space in the National Museum of…

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

The King of Pop at the Gates of Heaven and Hell in Edinburgh

4 Aug 2009

It was bound to happen but still we at List Towers couldn’t help but raise a smile at the news that Michael Jackson at the Gates of Heaven and Hell is rocking into town and landing at the Big Belly. In a series of sketches, audiences will hear from…

Online Clubbing

Be At TV at the EH1 Music Festival

4 Aug 2009

Having established itself as the destination for virtual and vicarious clubbing, free web TV community Be At TV (www.be-at.tv), featuring some of the world’s best venues and festivals – from Space to Matter via Global Gathering – and backed by DJ’s…

These Colours Productions win the Dupliquick Zebra prize

Edinburgh Fringe poster design competition

4 Aug 2009

These Colours Productions, the team behind King of Gypsies have started their festival season in style by winning the first award of the year, the Dupliquick Zebra prize for poster design. The company won £500 in cash plus £500 worth of printing.

Alastair Sim season calls at Filmhouse

A season of films celebrating the Scottish actor

4 Aug 2009

The films of (arguably) Scotland’s greatest stage and screen actor (sorry Sir Sean) are celebrated in this superb season. Things kick off with the 1954 adaptation of JB Priestley’s celebrated play An Inspector Calls with Sim masterful in the titular…

Cine Cuba

Fifty years of revolution on film

4 Aug 2009

This season celebrating ‘50 Years of Revolution on Film’ hits its stride with Pavel Giroud’s ageing gangster drama Omertà and the queer politics of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate. Also showing later in the season are Manuel Pérez’s…

Stories from the Spanish Master Juan Cruz

Mensch via Bluetooth accross Edinburgh

4 Aug 2009

Ten individual Bluetooth delivered stories from Spanish master Juan Cruz’s new commission Mensch will be available on phones at The Hub, Edinburgh Festival Centre, Royal Mile; Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street; King’s Theatre, Leven Street…

Alistair MacLeod, Libby Purves and more Carol Ann Duffy

New events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

4 Aug 2009

New events added to the Edinburgh International Book Festival line-up include Alistair MacLeod on Fri 28 Aug, who arrives to discuss No Great Mischief and renowned broadcaster and novelist Libby Purves. Following great demand, more tickets are also up…

Words and Pictures

David Peace and Garrison Keillor celebrate fiction and adaptation

4 Aug 2009

Writers David Peace and Garrison Keillor will both be making an appearance at this short season celebrating fiction and adaptation. Peace will be talking about The Red Riding Trilogy and Keillor will be talking about A Prairie Home Companion. There…

Jenny Éclair for one night only

Laughter saves lives at the Hot Pink Breakthrough Balloon Show

4 Aug 2009

Funny lady Jenny Éclair will host the one-night-only premiere Hot Pink Breakthrough Balloon Show to raise money for Breast Cancer. The comedy benefit will be happening on Saturday 22 August from 3pm–5pm in the Debating Hall, in the Gilded Balloon.

Am I Black Enough For You?

Philadelphia soul legend Billy Paul in a film by Goran Olsson

4 Aug 2009

Taking its title from his most impassioned and radical tune, the life and formidable times of Philadelphia soul legend Billy Paul are celebrated in Goran Olsson’s engaging, well-researched documentary. GFT, Glasgow from Mon 10-Wed 12 Aug.

Looking For Eric

Ken Loach does love, delusion and footballers

4 Aug 2009

Last chance to catch Ken Loach’s pleasing comedy of love, delusion and platitude-quoting retired footballers on the big screen. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 7-Mon 10 Aug.

Andy and Mike's ... Big Box of Bananas

CBeebies guy goes bonkers

3 Aug 2009

To the nation’s children, presenters on CBeebies and CBBC are practically like gods, bringing great programmes, reading out birthday cards and generally acting the fool. Currently enjoying his place in the sun is Andy Day, a regular smiling face on the…

Lighter Than Air

Balloon comic capers

3 Aug 2009

As any parent of a six-year-old will confirm, kids love watching adults making total balloons of themselves. So, if you take one adult, arm him with a cupboard full of actual balloons, you’re probably on to a winner. ‘The bit where I walk my inflatable…

The Legend of Magnificent Moon & A Most Curious Quest

Double helping of African tales

3 Aug 2009

Having discovered two great stories ripe for adaptation, Mara Menzies of Toto Tales was torn between which show to deliver at this year’s Fringe. But help was at hand. ‘I was deliberating for weeks, when my 7-year-old niece piped up, “Why don’t you do…

Tap Kids

High school hoofing

3 Aug 2009

Long before Troy and Gabriella took the world by storm in High School Musical, dancer and choreographer, Lisa Hopkins was putting together her own show about the teen years. Starting life as a tap dance workshop in upstate New York, Tap Kids soon…

The Red Room

19th century decadence and decay

3 Aug 2009

For years, the Traverse has been synonymous with ground-breaking, innovative theatre. And while it regularly shows dance throughout the year, when it comes to the Fringe, it’s drama all the way. Until now. When the David Hughes Dance Company delivers…

Lost World

Cinematic expedition

3 Aug 2009

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s swashbuckling adventure, Lost World is brought to life by The Paper Cinema. Using angle-poise lamps, black-and-white ink illustrations and laptops, a DIY-film takes shape before your eyes. ‘The Paper Cinema is an illustrated…

100 Wounded Tears

Powerful Czech dance theatre

3 Aug 2009

One of the most moving pieces of dance on last year’s Fringe came from young Czech company Dot 504. Holdin' Fast was a beautiful investigation of the mathematics of human relationships, and was one of the biggest successes at Zoo Venue. The dazed…

Kataklo Athletic Dance Theatre - Love Machines

Art-inspired precision

3 Aug 2009

Nearly five hundred years after his death, the creative genius of Leonardo da Vinci continues to exert influence. Most recently on Italian company, Kataklo, who blend athletic physical dexterity with an appreciation of art. ‘I’ve always had a great…

Ludus Baroque

Indulging in Alexander’s Feast

3 Aug 2009

His fame these days may be mainly due to his commanding role as conductor of The Really Terrible Orchestra, but there is a much more serious side to Richard Neville-Towle’s pursuits with a baton. Having founded the baroque chamber orchestra, Ludus…

Libera

Boys in fine voice

3 Aug 2009

Think English choirboys and centuries of choral tradition in vast cathedrals spring to mind. Libera is somewhat different. The South London boys, aged seven to 16, who make up the internationally chart-topping group, would rather think of themselves as…

Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal

Double dunt of local folk talent

3 Aug 2009

While performers and musicians jet into the capital this August ready to ply their trade amongst the city’s myriad venues, Edinburgh-based folk duo Eilidh Steel and Mark Neal are broadening their horizons by embarking on a European sojourn instead. But…

The Chair

Family, death and narrative dance

3 Aug 2009

Over the past couple of years, Zoo Venue has got increasingly good at giving opportunities not only to the most interesting international dance companies, but exciting younger companies from the UK. In that slot this year is C-12 Dance Company…

Piping Live! – Family Fun Day

3 Aug 2009

As this little lady ably proves, you’re never too young to pick up a pipe. ‘Come and try’ sessions are just one aspect of the Family Fun Day, organised as part of this year’s Piping Live! You can also try your hand at drumming and Highland dancing…

Baptiste Trotignon

3 Aug 2009

Sometimes the setting is everything, and for one of the real Edinburgh Jazz Festival highlights this year, the programmers have taken the ingenious step of putting French pianist Trotignon in the hallowed environs of Rosslyn Chapel. Trotignon has shown…

5 questions: Melvin Brown Brown

Channelling the spirits of Ray Charles and Sammy Davis Jr in his singin’, dancin’ and joke-packed sh

3 Aug 2009

5 words to describe your show Soulful, upbeat, entertaining, energetic, magic. 4 shows you’re looking forward to seeing in Edinburgh this August Soweto Gospel Choir, Flamenco Jazz Late Night, Stephen K Amos, Mervyn Stutter. 3 things you love…

Kilmarnock Edition Festival

3 Aug 2009

Kilmarnock might not be the first place you think of as Scotland’s musical Mecca, but the Kilmarnock Edition Festival is aiming to redress the balance. Centring around Dean Castle there are free gigs (featuring the likes of Pearl & the Puppets and El…

Seth Troxler

3 Aug 2009

‘Once upon a time, Satan shat out a crystal, squeezing it through a body cavity resembling Chinese-restaurant pork. That crystal, glowing red with embers, was Seth Troxler.’ It’s certainly an interesting way to start your offical bio. Now based in…

Unspoken Lines

3 Aug 2009

For this exhibition at the new Henderson Gallery Scottish artist Joyce Gunn Cairns showcases a key strand of her work: portrait heads of key figures in Scottish life. Inspired by Kaethe Kollwitz, Pat Douthwaite and Rembrandt, Cairns’ original subjects…

The Heptones

3 Aug 2009

Formed in Jamaica in 1965 The Heptones were one of the top vocal groups of the rocksteady era. Working with names like Coxsone Dodds and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry back in the day they reunited in 1995 and have been bringing real reggae back to the live…

Walden

Magnetic North adapt Henry David Thoreau’s classic

3 Aug 2009

Henry David Thoreau’s classic experimental, unclassifiable autobiographical novel is adapted for the stage by up-and-coming young company Magnetic North. Catch it during this brief run in Glasgow before it gets absorbed into the theatrical melting pot…

Plastic Fantastic - GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra

The action figure is now a movie star. But why stop there?

30 Jul 2009

It’s all come a little too late for me. It’s been a long time since I put my armless and legless Action Men (or GI Joes as they were called in America) in a shoebox and sent them back to Palitoy Ltd for repair. You could do that kind of thing in those…

Stone Roses - Stone Roses (20th anniversary re-issue)

30 Jul 2009

Here’s a thought no one who bought The Stone Roses’ debut album on the morning it was released 20 years ago will want to be alerted to – The Album That Changed Your Life is as old today as Abbey Road was in 1989 on the day you shelled out your pocket…

Mesrine: Killer Instinct (l’Instinct de Mort)

30 Jul 2009

Tracing a line from Mesrine’s disillusioning military service during the Algerian war to the beginning of his notoriety in 1972 (when he graduated to murder), the first instalment of this epic crime tale is derivative, energetic and hugely…

Clubs Hit List - Glasgow

30 Jul 2009

Edinburgh too busy for you? Here's our pick of the best nights to be had out in Glasgow

Kids Hitlist

Our pick of shows for the little festival goer to enjoy

30 Jul 2009

Andy and Mike's Big Box of Bananas, Giraffes Can't Dance,Rapunzel and the Tower of Doom, Room on the Broom, Wind in the Willows, Patrick Monahan's Stories and Fables for Kids that like to sit at Tables!

Giraffes Can't Dance

Uplifting story for little ones

30 Jul 2009

With so many shows to choose from on the Fringe, parents have to be canny about what they take their young charges to. In recent years, the wise money has been spent on a ticket to see Blunderbus Theatre Company. Specialising in musical tales for…

Still Breathing

Hip hop and contemporary melting pot

30 Jul 2009

If there’s one thing that’s consistent about 2FaCeD DaNcE Company, it’s that it is never the same twice. Each year, the Hereford-based company heads to the Fringe with yet more ammunition in its belt. What started life as a fairly humble youth project…

5 Questions: Doc Austin

30 Jul 2009

Charged with making science funny, Doc Austin tells us why we should check out his Fringe show, Doctor Austin & Doug Safety’s Time-Tastical Time Tale

5 Questions: Margaret Robertson

30 Jul 2009

5 people to watch out for in the UK gaming industry Rob Yescombe, creative director, Crytek UK: unconventional, unpredictable, unstoppable. Christian Donlan, an astute, eloquent writer. The smart, savvy Sean Murray, co-founder of Hello Games. Dan…

Circa

Emotionally-charged circus

30 Jul 2009

It’s circus, but not as we know it. Australian company, Circa takes the jaw-dropping, spine-bending moves every good acrobatic outfit should have – then injects them with something special. Although as far as Circa’s artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz…

The Ugly Truth

30 Jul 2009

This by-the-numbers romantic comedy from director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster in Law) pairs Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, 27 Dresses) with alpha male Gerard Butler (300, PS I Love You) for a mindless run through of familiar genre…

Dance Hitlist

All the shows that have got The List moving

30 Jul 2009

Capoeira Knights: The Boys from Brazil, Circa, Flhip Flhop: Everything Happens on the Break, Still Breathing, Tap Kids

Taste test: Food at the Fest

Brian Donaldson picks five shows which dabble in the grubby territory of food

30 Jul 2009

The Fudge Show Set in a genuine fudge shop on the Royal Mile, this show promises ‘two top stand-ups, free fudge for all, and a multimedia exploration of what it takes to be a top fudgeman. The Fudge Kitchen, 07841 194 222, 10–29 Aug (not 17), 8.45pm…

Side Dishes: The Yard, Gourmet Glasgow & Villeneuve Wines

What's going on in Scotland's restaurants?

30 Jul 2009

THE MAIN feature of the Yard, a new family restaurant and bar off Bonnington Road on the way to Leith, is a large enclosed courtyard for outdoor eating with a decent chunk of it given over as a children’s play area. Run by the family behind Molly’s play…

The Meerkats

30 Jul 2009

There’s something about meerkats. Maybe it’s their little beady eyes, or their curiously stiff, upright posture that makes them appear to be striving to be human. Whatever that quality is, the camera clearly loves them, making the humble meerkat an…

Lola: The Life of Lola Montez

Biographical flamenco drama

30 Jul 2009

During the 19th century, Irish-born Lola Montez plied a career as an unlikely Spanish dancer across Europe, Australia and the US while bedding the likes of King Ludwig I of Bavaria along the way. Her story is one of scandal and celebrity. ‘Lola is a…

Jumping Mouse

A rodent on a quest

30 Jul 2009

Like its previous Fringe successes – Funeral Games and No Obvious Trauma – Unpacked’s first show for children, Jumping Mouse, has a darkly comic feel. ‘Not that it will be frightening or unappealing,’ says the show’s director, Darren East, ‘but there’s…

Ice Cream Man and the Jelly Incident

Fun with food for kids

30 Jul 2009

Writer Jonny Berliner certainly knows how to create an attention-grabbing show title. After the huge success of Dude! Where’s my Teddy Bear? – which went from Edinburgh sell-out in 2003/4 to runs at festivals nationwide, including Glastonbury…

Flhip Flhop: Everything Happens on the Break

Breakdance in overalls

30 Jul 2009

Bursting onto the hip-hop scene with their first fully fledged production as Rannel Theatre Company, Joey D and Matt Bailey make their Fringe debut with a show that came about after a chance encounter in a night club. Working as a DJ, Bailey approached…

Film: Also released

30 Jul 2009

It's not all wizards and misogynistic headtrips - what else is on at the cinema? Orphan (15) 122min Diverting evil child horror from House of Wax director Jaume Collet-Serra. Grieving parents Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) decide to…

5 Questions: Martha and Arthur

30 Jul 2009

Cabaret duo, Martha & Arthur prepare to make you howl with laughter while they hoof their hearts out in A Lot of Nerve. But first they answer our five questions

Comrades

30 Jul 2009

It’s criminal that the late, great Edinburgh-born filmmaker Bill Douglas’ epic account of the Tolpuddle Martyrs should remain largely unseen two decades after it was released. Perhaps a three-hour long, slow-moving drama that mixed two apparently…

The Red Shoes

30 Jul 2009

Martin Scorsese proclaimed Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s masterpiece ‘truly the most beautiful Technicolor film ever made.’ Marty should know, given he oversaw the restoration of the 1948 classic through his Film Foundation and then premiered…

Parade

30 Jul 2009

Released in 1974, the final film by the great French silent comedian Jacques Tati is a typically playful, though also extremely eloquent ending to his quarter-century film career. On the face of it nothing more than a series of circus acts compered by…

George Dawes Green - Ravens

30 Jul 2009

It has been 14 long years since we were gripped by George Dawes Green’s best-selling novel The Juror, so this follow-up has plenty to live up to. Thankfully, Ravens delivers – and then some. Set in the deathly quiet US town of Brunswick, it tells the…

Tank Girl: Three - Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin

30 Jul 2009

Back in the 90s there was one woman who encapsulated the spirit of the age, the epitome of cool that was Tank Girl. This irascible, boozing, bonking and brawling babe who took no shit from nobody sprang from the fevered minds of writer Alan Martin and…

AL Kennedy - What Becomes

30 Jul 2009

Glasgow writer and sometime comedian AL Kennedy does nothing to overturn her reputation as a miserablist in this latest collection of short stories. Through a litany of everyday tragedy, marriages crumble, feelings are trampled on and lives are lost as…

Mathias Malzieu - The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

30 Jul 2009

Perhaps the most fantastical thing about this book is its depiction of an Edinburgh where a tumble-down old house owned by a woman who births the children of prostitutes and unfaithful women sits at the top of Arthur’s Seat. In any event, it’s the…

Edinburgh Mela

Edinburgh's most multicultural festival

30 Jul 2009

The 15th Edinburgh Mela is something of a milestone for the massive multicultural music, art, theatre and food festival celebrating Asian Scottish culture, and not just because it is returning to its original home of Pilrig Park. ‘This year, we’re…

Dance Base

30 Jul 2009

Scotland’s National Centre for Dance in the Grassmarket is always a hotbed of diverse movement – but this year it has excelled itself. In this first round of Fringe excitement (there’s more to come later in the month), it is offering ten individual…

Room on the Broom

30 Jul 2009

If it’s innovative storytelling, great characterisation and witty dialogue you’re after, then Tall Stories theatre company should tick all your requisite boxes. The same could easily be said of children’s writer, Julia Donaldson – so it’s great to see…

Man versus machine: Sambor Dudzinski

The Polish musician is gearing up for his Fringe debut. He meets Anna Docherty

29 Jul 2009

‘I sing, but I’m not a singer; I play piano, but I’m not a piano player; I act, but I’m not an actor,’ says Polish conceptual artist, Sambor Dudzinski. By way of alternative explanation he simply says: ‘I am timeless.’ And he’s not being deliberately…

Bag of tricks: Piping Live!

As the annual piping festival kicks, The List finds plenty of fans of the maligned instrument

29 Jul 2009

In Germany they’ve got the doodlesack; in Sweden, the säckpipa; and in Italy, the zampogna. Nearly every country in Europe has some version of the bagpipe, giving the instrument a range and diversity that stretches way beyond that lone piper standing in…

One More Tune - Here we go again

29 Jul 2009

It’s overplaying things to describe it as a rags-to-riches tale, but Matthew Craig’s career as a DJ and promoter on the Glasgow circuit has come a long way since he started putting on One More Tune (alongside Ralph Thomson, who he DJs with as Define…

Spin on This

Talitha Kotzé hears the graphic details about the Recoat Gallery’s birthday bike bash

29 Jul 2009

Aficionados of the fixed-gear bike – or fixie – are wheeling into the Recoat to make new work in honour of the Glasgow gallery’s two-year anniversary. Taking inspiration from Kirkpatrick MacMillan, the Scottish blacksmith who built the first…

Breast in show: WitTank

Among the best new sketch acts around, WitTank are more than just a dodgy pun.

29 Jul 2009

When you’re gathering up your all-shiny new comedy group, a few key questions have to be posed. Do we go for silly or scary sketches? How many members are too many? And most crucially of all, what the hell do we call ourselves? Whatever you may think of…

Mike Wozniak

Portsmouth Pole ponders perspective, pressure, penis pain

29 Jul 2009

Whether you happened to be members of Mike Wozniak’s family or complete strangers, there’s a chance that on viewing his debut solo set last August, much of your time would have been spent clenching or crossing some part of your body. The Wozniaks would…

Theatre Hitlist

Our recommends on the pick of the festival's theatre

29 Jul 2009

Barflies, Beachy Head, Girls of Slender Means, Orphans, Precious Little Talent, Tartuffe, Trial, Trilogy, White Tea

One man army: Billy Childish

Stewart Smith salutes the singular genius of Billy Childish

29 Jul 2009

‘Your paintings are stuck. You are stuck. Stuck, stuck, stuck!’ said Tracy Emin of former boyfriend Billy Childish. In response the artist, writer and garage rocker founded the Stuckist art movement, rejecting the conceptual practice of his erstwhile…

Figures of Fun

Number shows at the Festival

29 Jul 2009

Brian Donaldson is counting on you to see these five numerically-challenged shows. 2 Left Hands. Acclaimed actors, writers and presenters, Leila Hackett and Charlotte Hudson return with more of their silly yet cerebral sketches, with a show entitled…

Mini Profile: Simon Munnery

29 Jul 2009

He's been a fringe regular for 15 years, and lauded by Stewart Lee amongst others, but he's yet to break through into the mainstream. Just who is this hidden talent?

Tonite - The Modern Institute, Glasgow

29 Jul 2009

Mixed-media Tonite is a hit-and-miss show featuring the works of Hany Armanious, Martin Boyes, Martin Creed, Mark Handforth, Richard Hughes, Jim Lambie, Torsten Lauschmann, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Sue Tompkins, Cathy Wilkes, Klaus Weber…

Comedy Hitlist

Who's making us laugh at the Fringe?

29 Jul 2009

Die Roten Punkte - Robot/Lion Tour, Janeane Garofalo, Laura Solon: Rabbit Faced Story Soup, Mark Thomas: The Manifesto, Rhys Darby: It's Rhys Darby Night, WitTank

Visual Art Hitlist

What's getting us excited in the visual art world.

29 Jul 2009

Andrew Ranville, Bob and Roberta Smith This Artist is Deeply Dangerous, The Discovery of Spain, Eva Hesse: Studiowork, Jane and Louise Wilson, Milestone, Peter Blake: Venice.