Issue 642

Alan Cumming, Calvin Harris and Glasvegas among nominees at Scottish Style Awards 2009

30 Oct 2009

Glasgow certainly knows how to do things with class, and this year’s Scottish Style Awards look set to raise the bar even higher. The starry event takes place on Hallowe’en and their stylish cauldron is likely to be spilling over with high profile…

Natalie Merchant, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder set for Celtic Connection 2010

30 Oct 2009

Celtic Connections launched with a suitable level of expectation this fortnight – and it doesn’t look set to disappoint. Comprising 1500 artists, 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, workshops, free events and late-night sessions, the programme of events will…

Scottish BAFTA nominations announced

30 Oct 2009

Peter Capaldi, Richard Jobson and Armando Iannucci are just some of the names nominated at this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards. The awards, to be held at the Glasgow Science Centre on Sun 8 Nov, will see Capaldi fight it out with Stephen McCole and James…

The Dark Things

23 Oct 2009

Ursula Rani Sarma’s first full-length commission for the Traverse offers a fascinating commentary on contemporary attitudes to death, specifically as manifested in the confessional, commercial nature of contemporary art. The central focus of the piece…

David Austen: My love, I have been digging up my own bones in the garden again

23 Oct 2009

The topsy-turvy poetics of David Austen’s exhibition title are in keeping with the tragicomic works of which the exhibition is comprised. At once fragile and striking, this collection of watercolour figures, bold text paintings and a silent film study…

Confessions of a Justified Sinner

23 Oct 2009

Fans of this touchstone of the Scottish literary canon can breathe fairly easy. Mark Thomson’s adaptation of James Hogg’s 1824 novel Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner pulls off the neat trick of being very faithful to the plot of the…

Document 7

23 Oct 2009

The International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival just gets stronger and stronger. This year punters are spoiled for choice with a selection of local and international films dealing with everything from child neglect to women’s rights and endemic…

Dark Nature

23 Oct 2009

Special Hallowe’en screening of this scary Scottish eco thriller about one family’s not so relaxing holiday to a remote Scottish village. Up and coming producer/director Marc de Launey pulls out all the stops for this very low budget production, much…

Starsuckers

23 Oct 2009

Also out this fortnight is Chris Taking Liberties Atkins’ wonderfully mischievous documentary foray into the world of celebrity obsessed media. Atkins and his team hilariously illustrate just how easy it is to plant hoax celebrity stories with an…

Dead Man Running

23 Oct 2009

(15) 91min A loan shark gives an ex con 24 hours to pay his debt. Disappointing thriller from the writer/director of appalling 2004 boxing drama The Calcium Kid. The casting however which includes renta-mockney Danny Dyer, rapper turned self help…

Mike Inglis: Shadows Fade

23 Oct 2009

Inglis’ installation of prints and human scale paste-ups explores spiritualism and attitudes to grief, death and loss through the stories of the artist’s great aunt, a spiritualist in a Fife mining village and his grandmother, who lost her first…

Pigs and Battleships

23 Oct 2009

This very rare screening of Japanese auteur Shohei Imamura’s wonderfully barbed and surreal 1961 military satire brings to an end an excellent season of the great man’s films. If you have missed the others check this one out because it is also the most…

Tricks

23 Oct 2009

(12A) 95min Naturalistic but sweet natured Polish drama about one six-year-old boy’s attempt to change his family’s destiny by meditative will alone. Well observed, performed and directed by promising Kieslowski influenced filmmaker Andrzej…

Beyond Biba

23 Oct 2009

These screenings of Louis Price’s new film about the glamorous and troubled times of swinging London’s most famous clothing boutique, and its creator Barbara Hulanicki, will be followed by a Q&A with the great lady herself. GFT, Glasgow, Tue 27 Oct…

Michael Jackson’s This Is It

23 Oct 2009

Compilation of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage of Jackson as he prepared for his final tour. Unnecessary and largely tedious documentary cobbled together by Kenny Ortega, the man who gave us the High School Musical films. One for the fans.

An American Werewolf in London

23 Oct 2009

(15) 97min Second John Landis directed reissue to be re-released this fortnight. Still good after all these years. Selected release from Fri 30 Oct.

National Lampoon’s Animal House

23 Oct 2009

(15) 108min John Landis’ seminal 1978 frat house comedy on new digital print. Selected release from Tue 3 Nov.

The Cove

23 Oct 2009

(12A) 90min Shocking investigative documentary about Japanese animal and sea life rights abuses. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 23 Oct.

Taste test: Vodka made in Scotland

It's not all whisky here

22 Oct 2009

Grafitti, Pincer, Glen's, Blackwood's, Straight Strawberry, Raspberry Vodka

Profile: Cristian Mungiu

A look at the award winning director before his latest work, Tales From the Golden Age

22 Oct 2009

Name Cristian Mungiu Born 27 April 1968 Background The graduate of the Bucharest Film School became the first Romanian director to win the Palme d’Or with his abortion drama 4 months 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Before becoming a full-time director…

Jeanne La Pucelle: The Battles/The Prisons

Epic Joan of Arc biopic

22 Oct 2009

Following on from Carl Dreyer and Robert Bresson in exploring the story of Joan of Arc, Jacques Rivette offers an account of the martyr that is as political and gender oriented as it is spiritual in this 1995 two-film epic finally available on two…

Colin

No-budget Welsh zombie horror

22 Oct 2009

(18) 97min Young Welsh horror movie fan Marc Price apparently made this zombie flick for just £45 – the cost of keeping his crewmates in tea and biscuits for the 18 months of weekend filming plus a few buckets of red food dye. If true, that makes…

Secret Defense

Menace in every moment

22 Oct 2009

Veteran New Wave filmmaker Jacques Rivette (Paris Nous Appartient, La Belle Noiseuse, Celine and Julie Go Boating) explores the sins of the past. Rivette regular Sandrine Bonnaire plays Parisian research scientist Sylvie Rousseau. When her brother shows…

Night Train to Inverness

Gutsy period curo

22 Oct 2009

Directed by oft overlooked British film and TV director Ernest Morris (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Court Martial of Major Keller), this tight, train-bound 1960 thriller has a lot to commend it. When ex-convict Roy Lewis (Norman Wooland) turns up in…

Playing Away

A 1980s sports comedy to transcend racial stereotypes

22 Oct 2009

This is a very welcome reissue of Horace Pressure Ové’s 1987 comedy of race manners. When a West Indian cricket team from Brixton travels to a Suffolk village to play against the local team as the culmination of the village’s Third World Week, racial…

Tales of the Golden Age (Amintiri Din Epoca De Aur)

Affectionate Romanian cinema

21 Oct 2009

Cristian Mungiu, the Palme D’Or winning Romanian filmmaker of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, would almost certainly find himself in contention with American communications magnate Harold S Geneen’s much quoted belief that ‘We must not be hampered by…

Goodbye Solo

Culture clashing in Queens

21 Oct 2009

Shooting on authentic locations and working with non-professional actors, writer-director Ramin Bahrani makes films about those surviving on the margins of American society. In his debut feature Man Push Cart his protagonist was a Pakistani street…

Halloween Guide: M - S

Yet more spooky goings-on

16 Oct 2009

M is for Movies Perhaps only rivalled by the upsurge in the plastic horn industry around 31 Oct, the annual economic boost for the horror film industry ensures that, every Halloween, there is a fresh crop of dismembered corpse-filled flicks to satisfy…

Interview: Wes Craven

As The Last House on the Left remake hits DVD, we talk to the legendary horror director

16 Oct 2009

The Last House on the Left was your first movie, shot in Super 6 and with a very low budget in 1972. How have you changed since then? I would like to think that I have acquired some wisdom along the way … How did the idea of making a remake come…

Halloween Guide: G - L

The next step in our Halloween runthrough

16 Oct 2009

G is for Ghost Vigil Ghost hunting is a serious business – Derek Acorah has proved that. If you fancy busting some ghosts, then this all night Ghost Vigil aboard the Tall Ship in Glasgow is a good place to hone your skills. Conducted by experienced…

Halloween Guide: A - F

All you need to know about October's most haunted evening

16 Oct 2009

A is for Arachnids Eight-legged creatures are making another notorious appearance this Halloween, with Glasgow Science Centre including them as part of the many horrid things in their children’s Halloween event on Fri 30 Oct. The truth is kids love…

Interview: Greg Dillahunt

Speaking to The Last House on the Left's most vicious villain

16 Oct 2009

Are you a fan of Wes Craven? I have always been a huge fan of Wes Craven! He was on my mental checklist of people I wanted to work with. When did you meet him? I met him just before we started shooting because he had the last word with casting…

Halloween Guide: T - Z

Our final tricks and treats

16 Oct 2009

T is for Tours It’s the eve of Halloween and you’re feeling a bit like an overgrown trick or treater – excited, but not sure what a sophisticated adult like yourself should be doing to celebrate. Chapping on strangers’ doors and singing for sugar…

Manhattan transfer: New York's Jane Hotel

Checking in to the New York hotel that has gone from seamen’s flophouse to celebrity hangout

16 Oct 2009

‘Hey, can you get me in?’ a woman with a brash New England accent squawks at me as I approach the entrance to the Jane hotel in New York’s West Village. Friday night is turning into Saturday morning, and what was a quiet residential street hours earlier…

Songs of Home

We find out about a festival and a screening looking at the darker sides of the Scottish Diaspora

16 Oct 2009

Between the numerous gigs, gatherings and soap carving workshops (we kid you not) squeezing under its umbrella, ‘Homecoming’ itself has become a rather vague concept this year. It’s refreshing, then, that in their 20th anniversary year the Scottish…

Ondine

Roy Brett's new restaurant brings a bit of swagger to seafood dining in Edinburgh

16 Oct 2009

Seafood has always been a Scottish speciality. There’s a line of argument that all the good stuff passes under our noses on the way to Spain, but if you know where to look it’s here alright. If you want to eat local food, then heading to a good seafood…

Africa in Motion: Jean-Stéphanie Sauvaire

The French director on Johnny Mad Dog - his take on Liberia's recent civil war

16 Oct 2009

The use of child soldiers is given a realistic and at times horrifying platform in French director Jean-Stéphanie Sauvaire’s depiction of the civil war that ravaged Liberia for over a decade until peace was declared in 2003. Sauvaire was familiar with…

DVD Round-up: TV/Film soundtracks

16 Oct 2009

Cool just doesn’t quite do the job of summarising the compilation of theme tunes and incidental bits from the Incorporated Television Company’s archive. Even if you’ve never seen the likes of Danger Man, The Saint or Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) – the…

Profile: Donnie Yen

The martial arts expert on playing Bruce Lee's mentor

16 Oct 2009

Name Donnie Yen Born 27 July 1963, Canton, China Background Born to a newspaper editor and a martial arts master, Yen began practising tai chi and wushu at the age of four. At 16 he was sent to the Beijing Wushu Academy, where he studied under…

An Education

Lessons in love

16 Oct 2009

Danish director Lone Scherfig is showing something of a liking for making films in Britain. The director of Glasgow-set Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself returns to the UK for this 1960s romantic drama featuring conmen, generation gaps, young love, swinging…

Profile: Ramin Bahrani

The film-making son of Iranian immigrants

16 Oct 2009

Name Ramin Bahrani Born 20 March 1975, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Background The son of Iranian immigrants to America, Bahrani grew up in North Carolina and studied film at Columbia University in New York, where he made several short films.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ 75th birthday

A festival of events to celebrate the great musician

16 Oct 2009

One of the UK’s best known and loved musicians, Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, celebrates his 75th birthday with a festival of events presented by some of his dearest friends. That they happen to be the country’s leading…

Side Dishes

Bitesize info

16 Oct 2009

Glasgow’s curry scene is as active as ever with the opening of Dining In with Mother India, essentially an expansion of the Mother India Café on Argyle Street, offering takeaway food, a mini Indian deli and a handful of tables serving a simple menu. In…

Tam Shepherd's Trick Shop

Hunting for the perfect Halloween costume in the Glasgow institution

16 Oct 2009

Halloween costumes have not always been my forte, but I vowed this year not to have a re-run of 2002’s ‘bin bag suit’ or 2006’s ill-advised ‘shadow man’ (head-to-toe black body paint is most assuredly not a good idea). This year I needed professional…

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

16 Oct 2009

There’s always been something wistful and longing in the musical waywardness of Oklahoma’s finest ever export The Flaming Lips. Even at their most poptastic and goassamer there was an air of introspection. Nowhere is this more acutely illustrated than…

Glasgow Zombie Walk

Colin Armstrong explains the big idea behind his day out for the undead

16 Oct 2009

Colin Armstrong is a man with a dream, a dream to see a large group of mindless, dribbling corpses slowly wandering through Glasgow’s West End. Not everyone’s cup of tea perhaps, but for zombie movie fans this special Halloween crossover from B-movie to…

Top 5: Africa in Motion

Five films not to miss at this year's festival

16 Oct 2009

My Secret Sky Opening the fourth edition of the Africa in Motion film festival is the UK premiere of this South African film, the feature debut of filmmaker Madoda Ncayiyana. This magical realist tale of Zulu rugs, craft competitions and the need to…

Hitlist: Books

Two weeks of talks, readings and exhibitions

16 Oct 2009

Alasdair Gray, Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair, Ian Rankin, Helen Fitzgerald, James Ellroy, Gordon Burn

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Inspired take on the Dahl classic

16 Oct 2009

Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s much loved book is no straightforward children’s film. Wee ones might enjoy it to a degree, but they won’t get much of the typically arch humour and wanton eccentricities the filmmaker once again…

Also Released: Music

16 Oct 2009

United States - Instant Everything Constant Nothing, Hello=Fire - Hello=Fire, Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves, Air - Love 2, Various - Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill, Daniel Johnston - Is and Always Was

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The jokes are out of gas

16 Oct 2009

‘We’re not going to break the rules, we’re just going to bend them a little bit,’ announces ruthless car-salesman Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) as he and his crack team of ‘car mercenaries’ descend on the small Californian backwater of Temecula. Their…

Jennifer's Body

Winning horror comedy from Juno writer

16 Oct 2009

When it was released in the US, the heterosexual males who ogled Megan Fox’s superstructure amid the heavy-metal chaos of two Transformers movies stayed away in droves from Jennifer’s Body, and it’s not hard to see why. Karyn Kusama’s visceral horror…

9

Two-dimensional dystopian animation

16 Oct 2009

With visionary heavyweights Tim Burton and Nightwatch / Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov amongst the producers, Shane Acker’s feature-length animation, based on his own Oscar-nominated short, promises revolutionary animation, but never delivers the…

Food For Thought: Ashley J Russell

The actress now touring with 'We Will Rock You'

16 Oct 2009

I was brought up with my mum always telling me ‘You don’t have to like it but you must always try it’, so thanks to her I enjoy a wide variety of foods. A typical day’s breakfast for me would be something quite healthy and filling like a poached egg on…

Hitlist: Classical Music

16 Oct 2009

Scottish Ensemble: Side by Side, Scottish Opera: The Italian Girl in Algiers, The New Music Experience

The Horseman

Australian revenge thriller fails to thrill

16 Oct 2009

The template for this Australian murder-revenge drama is clearly Mike Hodges’ classic Get Carter. Writer/director Steven Kastrissios’ film features a tough-as-nails central performance from Peter Marshall as Christian, a revenge-seeking father. The…

Three to try: Seafood stalwarts

Nothing fishy with these choices

16 Oct 2009

Gamba 225a West George Street, Glasgow, 0141 572 0899, www.gamba.co.uk Alan Tomkins and Derek Marshall’s attractive city centre basement dining room has been top of the bill for over a decade now with a reputation for quality ingredients, exciting…

Also Published: Debut novels

Getting off to a good start

16 Oct 2009

Jacqueline Yallop - Kissing Alice, Laleh Khadivi - The Age of Orphans, Nick Stafford - Armistice, Camillia Noli - The Mother's Tale, Jeannette Walls - Half Broke Horses

Requiem Vampire Knight: Resurrection & Danse Macabre/Dracula & The Vampires Ball by Pat Mills and Oliver Ledroit

16 Oct 2009

Veteran British comics writer Pat Mills takes us into hell as Requiem Vampire Knight finally gets printed in English. Originally released in France where, much like the rest of Europe, there’s a burgeoning comics scene that isn’t obsessed with…

Various - Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio

16 Oct 2009

There has already been plenty released to celebrate John Peel’s legacy, and now this expansive four-disc set tries to replicate the magic of a quintessential John Peel show. By that we mean throwing the tough techno of Dave Clarke up against the…

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolution

And evolution too chaps?

16 Oct 2009

It’s all making sense now with Biffy Clyro, since Muse showed that you didn’t need to follow the entirely conventional path and attain rock band enormodome status. And it’s not like with the demise of Oasis there will be a flood of rock geeks filling up…

Miike Snow - Miike Snow

16 Oct 2009

The men behind Miike Snow have got a rep: two of them, Pontus Winnberg and Christian Karlsson, are better known as Bloodshy and Avant, the producer songwriters behind songs for the likes of Kylie, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Kelis and the mighty ‘Toxic…

Invasion - The Master Alchemist

16 Oct 2009

Convinced (quite rightly) that the best metal is about ‘wizards and magic’, this London trio have both applied this logic and set about tearing up the metal rulebook with super short songs, one-take recordings, no bass, no solos, no bullshit – and the…

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

16 Oct 2009

Bodacious noise lords Lightning Bolt pound elemental heaven and hell on Earthly Delights, their mind-melding fifth album. Whether summoning 50s rock’n’roll via the nightmarish turmoil of wah-wah (‘Guardians of Sound’), or thrashing out hypnotic…

Alphabeat

Glasgow gets ready for some wonky pop

16 Oct 2009

It’s always a dubious honour, spearheading a movement or new sub genre, so when Alphabeat were proclaimed the jewel in the crown of ‘wonky pop’ a year or so ago it was a double-edged sword. Especially because wonky pop turned out to be a total chocolate…

Little Boots

Soon to be stomping all over Edinburgh

16 Oct 2009

2009 feels a little like the year that Goldfrapp’s pop offspring all finally grew up and flew the nest with the likes of La Roux, Frankmuzik and, of course, Little Boots all taking mama Goldfrapp’s saucy electro suggestions and rendering them more than…

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

16 Oct 2009

Mildly diverting comedy horror about a 14-year-old boy (Chris Massoglia) who breaks an ancient truce between two warring factions of vampires. Sideshow freaks and creatures of the night come to his aid. John C Reilly, Salma Hayek and Ken Watanabe save…

Efterklang

Danish avant-rock in Glasgow

16 Oct 2009

Efterklangsongs about farts and beer bongs. Their collaboration with the Danish National Orchestra, a retooling of their album Parades into an even more spectral and ambitious listening experience, suggests they work hard and play just as hard too.

Interview: Wes Anderson

The director talks about adapting Fantastic Mr. Fox for the big screen

15 Oct 2009

Texan born director Wes Anderson is renowned for making highly detailed and idiosyncratic films populated with slightly neurotic, child-like characters (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited). Seeing him in person, you realise that he wouldn’t…

Interview: John Irving

Exploring the tragedy and death of the American author's work

15 Oct 2009

In the closing chapter of John Irving’s epic new novel, Last Night in Twisted River, a character struggles to find the opening line for his latest book. He agonises over it for a morning, then puts it to one side – and 24 hours later hits pay…

All Tomorrow's Parties: The Film

An onscreen celebration of the alternative music institution

15 Oct 2009

A young man, at the head of a throng of people, kneels in front of a performing drummer, his hands either side of the drummer’s floor tom. The man is shouting, nay pleading with the drummer through a variety of emphatic hand gestures. Growing more…

Interview: Drums of Death

We manage some time with the reclusive MC

15 Oct 2009

Like Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker and his own favourite comic book anti-hero growing up, Frank Castle (aka Marvel’s vigilante psycho The Punisher), the man known as Drums of Death likes to keep secrets. The members of the new live band he’s formed to…

We Will Rock You

Steve Cramer sets his reservations to one side to make a positive case for the Queen musical

15 Oct 2009

It’s a very queer place indeed on the other side of the looking glass. Within weeks of the Conservative Party staking a claim to be the defenders of the poor and downtrodden, along comes a classic catalogue McMusical, which sets out its stall as the…

Only Connect: Gordon Burn

We pay tribute to the late author and journalist

15 Oct 2009

When Gordon Burn died in July, he left behind a shocked and saddened literary community. In the obituaries, Val McDermid wrote of his work as ‘a masterclass in engagement with society’; Richard T Kelly dubbed him one of the country’s ‘foremost prose…

Interview: Julie Fowlis

The Scots singer on a hectic couple of years

15 Oct 2009

Julie Fowlis is right to describe the past couple of years as being a ‘bit of a whirlwind’. In recent months the crystalline-voiced musician has earned worldwide acclaim for her second album Cuilidh (pronounced ‘cool-ee’), was named BBC Radio 2 Folk…

Theatre of the absurd: Lara Favaretto

Considering the work of the Italian artist and her 'fun machines'

15 Oct 2009

Artistic intervention ‘Confetti Canyon’ lasts a couple of hours during which three hand-triggered canons shower the awaiting crowds with bright clouds of confetti. This, Italian artist Lara Favaretto’s seminal work, offers its viewers an artwork that’s…

First Word: Ryan David Jahn

We give our questions to the exciting, young American writer

15 Oct 2009

First record you ever bought I ordered three at once from a mail-order catalogue. The Beatles’ Revolver, Nirvana’s Bleach, and Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. I didn’t exactly buy them, however: when the bill arrived I ignored it. Last…

Bounce: Insane in the Brain

A streetdance retelling of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

15 Oct 2009

It took the members of Swedish streetdance company Bounce a while to come up with their name – but once you see them in action, you realise it’s the perfect choice. Their energetic re-working of the 1975 film, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest finds the…

Torsten Lauschmann: The Darker Ages

The art of technology

15 Oct 2009

Torsten Lauschmann is an artist’s artist: highly regarded by his Glasgow-based peers, he never fails to impress. This show featuring a new body of work conjures up a cinematic experience as you enter a darkened room and find yourself somewhere between…

Regina

Body of woman, heart of a king - and the legs too

15 Oct 2009

From Glenda Jackson to Cate Blanchett, many an actress has enjoyed the challenge of playing the Virgin Queen. So why not a dancer – and a male one at that? Inspired by the varied portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I, Tom Sapsford has created Regina, a dance…

Profile: Steve Lawler

The Ibiza superstar DJ does the duties in Edinburgh

15 Oct 2009

Name Steve Lawler Occupation King of Space King of Space? OK, I’ve heard of DJs with big egos but this is ridiculous We don’t mean he’s overlord of the cosmos. He’s been resident at Space, the award-winning house superclub in Ibiza, for the last…

Hitlist: Theatre

Get your fill of the stage

15 Oct 2009

The Dark Things, Glasgay, Confessions of a Justifed Sinner, Topdog / Underdog, Othello, Bounce: Insane in the Brain, Bright Black, Kes, The House of Bernarda Alba, We Will Rock You

Singles and Downloads

From Julian Casablancas to Paulo Nutini, with some actual interesting stuff in between

15 Oct 2009

Anticipating the arrival of a new White Stripes or Strokes release? Well, you’ll just have to make do with a couple of self-indulgent solo-projects via respective indie-rawk frontmen Jack and Julian. While the former cult icon and his Dead Weather…

Also Published: US novels

Brian Donaldson rounds up the best of the books reaching us from the US this autumn

15 Oct 2009

Dave Eggers - The Wild Things, Eric Schlosser - Command and Control, James Ellroy - Blood's a Rover, Gin Phillips - The Well and the Mine, Ryan David Jahn - Acts of Violence, Attica Locke - Black Water Rising

The Songbook of Unsingable Songs

Nonsense and surrealism in this show of songs for children

15 Oct 2009

The songs in Stephen Deazley and Matt Harvey’s new songbook may be many things — funny, sad, silly, quirky. One thing they most certainly are not, however, is unsingable. So, why the superb — but cheekily misleading — title? ‘We both wanted to create…

Kes

Romance and realism combine in this classic of Northern England

15 Oct 2009

Billy Casper shares much more than just a Christian name with stage and screen’s favourite pirouetting Geordie rapscallion: there’s the grim northern hometown, the cruel elder brother with a job down the mines, and the unusual passion with the potential…

Hitlist: Clubs

The best nights out this fortnight

15 Oct 2009

Definition, Soul Weekender, Men & Machines, Fortified, Pinup Nights, Come and Playdate, Kreep vs Bleep, Spectrum, Vegas

Simon Amstell

After a successful Fringe stint, the neurotic comedian returns

15 Oct 2009

Simon Amstell is gifted. Gifted with the sort of comedy head-start that many aspiring stand-ups would swap vital organs for, that is. As a Jewish, gay, hapless, neurotic, slender whippet of a thing, with a tendency to stalk famous people he fancies, his…

Fun Size

A look at the Hi-NRG club night in Glasgow

15 Oct 2009

‘I’m a bit bored of being serious,’ says Teamy, co-promoter of Fun Size. ‘New music and clubs and even the political vibe of this decade are all a bit serious, really. So I’m going to channel the five-year-old version of me for Fun Size. That’s when my…

Biffy Clyro

Once again, 'mon the Biffy!

15 Oct 2009

The List has had a long documented love affair with Biffy Clyro. You see, from the moment we first heard stunning debut Blackened Sky in 2002 we knew the trio were onto something very special. So, forgive us for sounding like proud gushing parents when…

Grizzly Bear

Modern American indie heroes show off their brilliant new record, Veckatimest

15 Oct 2009

If the latest album from Grizzly Bear was a photo album, it would be full of those bleached-out, soft focus pictures of sunny beach holidays in the 70s, with good-looking hippies lounging around, grinning into the camera. Named after an uninhabited…

Five Reasons To Go See: Phoenix

Under-rated alt-rock French sorts comed to Glasgow

15 Oct 2009

1. They’re fashionably unfashionable Throughout the course of four staggeringly brief but perfectly formed albums Phoenix have proved themselves masters of a studied laissez-faire and baffling nuanced lyrics rendering them thus far impervious to the…

Curse of the Demeter

Dracula inspired spooky goings-on

15 Oct 2009

This spookily enjoyable tale from Visible Fictions starts with as many questions as it ends with. As we enter the auditorium, the stage is already set – a wooden ship lies bereft of crew, its lonely cargo conjuring up Marie Celeste-style mysteries.

Rahzel and JS-1

Hip-hop on the decks at Cab Volt

15 Oct 2009

This fortnight Cabaret Voltaire welcomes a great hip hop double act: Rahzel and DJ JS-1. Probably the best known beatboxer of all time, Rahzel has been leading the scene for years, having brought the ‘fifth element of hip-hop’ to the world’s attention…

Jealousy by Catherine Millet

15 Oct 2009

The success of her 2002 memoir, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, propelled French art critic Catherine Millet into the spotlight as one of Europe’s most celebrated contemporary sexual libertines. Indeed, this blisteringly honest dissection of her…

That Face

Andy Arnold revives this tale of dark family life

15 Oct 2009

Polly Stenham’s dark, unflattering portrait of a deeply dysfunctional upper middle class family made London theatre goers sit up and take notice on its premiere at the Royal Court in 2007. Andy Arnold’s decision to revive the piece, transferring the…

Bik van der Pol: It Isn't What It Used To Be And Never Will Be Again

Art out of nothing

15 Oct 2009

Dutch duo Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol’s current exhibition at CCA is the culmination of a two-month residency at Cove Park. There’s no beating around the bush here: it isn’t what is used to be and never will be again. Deal with it. Derived from…

Mark McKnight Quartet with Will Vinson

Jazz in the City Halls

15 Oct 2009

Irish guitarist Mark McKnight teams up with New York-based English saxophonist Will Vinson for this gig in Todd Gordon’s Jazz International series, with organist Ross Stanley and the new drummer of the moment on the London jazz scene, James Maddren…

Hitlist: Around Town

The top events in Glasgow and Edinburgh

15 Oct 2009

Bonfire Night Fireworks Displays Remember, remember … that some nasty Catholics didn’t really want James VI to take the English throne? Or just that there will be loud bangs in the Glasgow Green and Edinburgh Meadowbank areas on a certain day, and you…

Exposure: Stereo Decade

Tomorrow’s music today

15 Oct 2009

What do they sound like? They’ve been likened to ‘a wild night out jamming with Caleb Followill, mud wrestling Damon Albarn with Luke Kook tar and feathering Jack Peñate’, but Jonny Romain (lead vocals, guitar) and Joe Harvey-Whyte (guitar) opt for…