Issue 646

2010 preview: Fashion

Fashion, with its strictly observed seasons marked by the various equinoxes of London/New York/Paris/Milan Fashion Weeks, is a cyclical beast. It likes to understand a decade as a fixed unit of time with a distinctive identity, defined sharply against…

St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold

(12A) 100min More naughty girl’s adventures in this revived Ealing comedy franchise starring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Lily Cole and various members of Girls Aloud. This time the girl’s go in search of hidden treasure. General release…

Danny and the Champions of the World - Streets Of Our Time

(Loose Music) It’s fitting that Oxford’s Jericho Tavern and the Farmhouse in Canterbury feature in Danny’s upcoming touring schedule. Banjos, harmonicas and pedal-steel inform you that this is goodtime folk and country territory, and you’re welcome…

Pet sounds - Frightened Rabbit interview

With an obscene amount of expectation surrounding the March release of their third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit look set to be the Scottish sound of 2010. Jonny Ensall visits front man Scott Hutchison in a snowy studio outside…

2010 preview: Great expectations

Favourite things are ending, exciting things are beginning and old things are coming back. 2010 is already shaping up to be a thrilling year and here are the 30 good reasons why we can’t wait

Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie set for Celtic Connections

With Alasdair Roberts, The Low Anthem and Buffy Sainte-Marie all featuring, the Celtic Connections festival just keeps going from strength to strength, says Ninian Dunnett

2010 preview: Courses and activities

There are a few standard rules of healthy eating: low carb intake; five-a-day etc. But instead of advocating these shallow mantras and (supposedly) quick fixes, we’re opting for the ‘eat well’ approach. There are numerous establishments equipped to help…

First word - Natty Brooker interview

First record you ever bought It’ll be some rubbish from the 70s. I had good exposure because I had an older brother to give me music at an early age like Pink Floyd. I was listening to that when I was like ten: Roxy Music, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.

IndigoSilk offers spiritual retreat in East Lothian

New Moon

January is traditionally the month for decluttering. Your cupboards, your insides, your bad habits; the start of the year is a perfect time to fling out the old and welcome in the new. But what about getting rid of bad juju? Detoxing your emotional…

Ryan Crosson interview

Detroit rock city

Among techno devotees of a certain age, it’s a real brand of quality when a DJ tells you they’re from Detroit. In the case of Ryan Crosson, though, there are one or two qualifiers. ‘Well, I actually grew up in a suburb north-east of Detroit,’ he says…

Public Image Limited

‘Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?’ Those were John Lydon’s last words as Johnny Rotten at the close of The Sex Pistols’ chaotic 1978 San Francisco swansong. It was a sentiment echoed this September when the first live dates in 17 years by…

New York state of mind

Nestled at the heart of Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City is a duality. Leading with the tagline, ‘Lethem does Manhattan’, the Brooklynite’s latest owes much to a slight, yet significant switch in New York perspective. ‘Manhattan has a quality of being far…

Back to the future - Toby Paterson interview

It’s amazing what you find when you’re clearing up old debris. While rummaging through materials for his forthcoming retrospective alongside new work at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, former Beck’s Futures winner Toby Paterson discovered a Super 8…

Return of the King

When it comes to living legends of the theatre world, they don’t come much more distinguished than Peter Brook. Having helmed his first play in London in 1943, the hugely influential experimental theatre and film director rose to prominence in the 1950s…

Blipfoto, Channel 4, NTS and Scottish Screen launch photography competition

With the New Year’s resolutions now in full swing, daily photo blogging community Blipfoto has teamed up with Channel 4, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Screen to create a unique international photography competition. With followers and…

Music highlights of 2009

Best bit of something for nothing When Spotify let UK users sign up for free this February, the floodgates were open for hours of random music searches. (Beatles, Fugazi, Metallica, no; Battles, Can, Phantom Band, yes) Non-stop, customised radio – and…

The Yummy Fur

‘There’s no rhyme or reason to this,’ says Jackie McKeown of his first notable band’s forthcoming reunion. ‘There’s no tie-in or media event window we’re trying to sneak into. We’re getting back together for a week, it’s purely for our own amusement and…

Stewart Francis hits the Stand

Stewart Francis used to open his set with, ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of you either.’ Between hosting schlocky gameshow You Bet Your Ass in his native Canada, then moving to Spain, his memorable one-liners were an itinerant treat on the UK circuit to…

Tracy Beaker Returns

Anyone who tunes in to CBBC from time to time might not know it, but it’s five years since the last new episode of the show featuring the abandoned and shouty Tracy Beaker. But that constant loop of archive 20-minute snapshots of life within the…

Barbera Ehrenreich - Smile or Die

(Granta) What’s wrong with positive thinking? Anyone who’s been forced on a team bonding day or made to sit through the platitudinous drivel of a ‘motivational guru’ by their employers will tell you exactly what’s wrong with it. And that culture of…

Mark Thomas set for gig at The Stand

1 Mark Thomas was born in South London, to a midwife mother and a self-employed builder dad who was at one point a lay preacher at Clapham Junction’s Nazarene Church. Thomas declared himself to be an atheist at the age of 12. 2 While he was trying…

Restaurant review - pickledgreen

Rose Street is a right hotch-potch when it comes to its eating and drinking scene: from bland chain restaurants to venerable old boozers, unadorned Japanese noodle-bars to buzzy seafood bistros. Into this unlikely setting, and fired with the optimism…

Curtain up

The National Theatre of Scotland has launched its programme for 2010, with highlights including a new piece of work by the team behind worldwide hit Black Watch. In line with the company’s ethos of working with a variety of art forms, in February and…

Food culture: What to expect in 2010

The new vegetarianism Nigel Slater Tender and Simon Hopkinson The Vegetarian Option made the Christmas bestseller lists with books giving much more respect to vegetables. It’s not about going completely veggie, but eating less meat, of better…

Five health books

Susan Hepburn Hypnodiet Subtitled ‘Lose Weight, Feel Fabulous the Stress-Free Way’ this claims to help reprogramme your mind into making the right choices about grub. Should you care, Lily Allen is an advocate. Piatkus. Paul McKenna I Can…