Issue 672

The best places to buy Christmas trees in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Real Christmas trees, fake trees, wreaths, firewood and flowers

Caring Christmas Trees has outlets for their sustainably-farmed Nordmann Firs in various locations around the country, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Musselburgh, Paisley, Livingston and Fife. The ‘caring’ part of the title comes from…

Glasgow club institution Divine reaches 20th birthday

The Retro perspective from Glasgow’s longest running club night

‘Twenty years ago I was a student at the Art School,’ recalls Andrew ‘Divine’ Symington. ‘One day a newsletter went round all the departments saying that the students’ union was looking for a DJ. I’d run a few clubs and I could design posters, so I…

Christmas Carnival - Concert for children combines percussion with the orchestra

Children’s Classic Concerts strike balance between music and mirth

Faced with the sound and power of a full orchestra, it’s hard not to be impressed, whatever your age or musical persuasion. When you’re hovering between 4 and 14, however, you sometimes need a little spice in your sonata to stay occupied. For years…

Portrait of The Composer - Chopin in Glasgow

Chopin retrospective includes recital of pieces from composer's 1848 tour of Scotland

As part of Svend Brown’s remarkable vision in his first season as artistic director of Glasgow’s Concert Halls, the Portrait of the Composer series is one that stands out. Throwing fresh light on the work and lives of some of Europe’s greatest…

Robert Burns Birthplace Museum set for Alloway in Ayrshire

£21m building celebrating Scottish poet opens Wed 1 Dec 2010

As part of the Robert Burns Heritage Park trail, a new museum dedicated to the Scottish icon will be opened in Ayr in December. The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum will be opened on 1 December in Alloway, by Burns Cottage, where the poet was born. The…

Comedy DVDs round up - The best and worst

The verdict on DVDs from Richard Herring, Greg Giraldo, Tommy Tiernan and Kevin Bridges

The former Popworld and Never Mind the Buzzcocks host proves that behind the barbed sarcasm, he’s a vulnerable little soul. Over the course of 80 minutes, he chats about his inability to find a good man and his oddball family. A tortured Jewish lad…

Scottish Parliament building hosts exhibition exploring Jacobites' international legacy

Rare chance to see historic artefacts from University of Aberdeen

The Scottish Parliament building hosts an exhibition of historical pieces from the University of Aberdeen's Jacobite collections for the next month.

RockNess announce Kasabian, The Chemical Brothers and Paolo Nutini as headliners

RockNess will once again be returning to the banks of Loch Ness with a heady mix of dance beats and indie rock. And they’re building on last year’s award winning line-up with the announcement of Kasabian, dance dons The Chemical Brothers and Paisley’s…

The Day John Lennon Died - Cast of characters recount the events of 8 Dec 1980

Channel Hopper - Only Yoko Ono emerges from this documentary with dignity intact

John Lennon. Devoted husband and father. Pioneer of peace. Writer of landmark pop songs. Had a thing about round specs. Loved a good manly embrace. ‘I remember he immediately put his arm round my shoulder and said thanks for coming,’ notes Andy Peebles…

Monsters

Astonishing science fiction thriller betters both Cloverfield and District 9

(12A) 94min Young British filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ astonishing science fiction thriller combines the immersive excitement of Cloverfield with the astute political allegory of Distrtict 9, and, far from being a rip-off, is actually a much better film…

Sofia Coppola's minimalist masterpiece Somewhere explores LA hedonism

Sofia Coppola on Californian hedonism, buddy movies and working with family

To describe Sofia Coppola’s career as one of extremes is no exaggeration. Lambasted as an actress when she appeared in her father’s lamentable The Godfather Part III, she’s been celebrated as a director – not least for 2003’s Lost in Translation, which…

Twin Sister - All Around and Away We Go - Single of the Fortnight

Singles and Downloads - 30 Nov 2010

Wow. Whisper it, but we might just have stumbled upon one of the most half-decent months of Singles & Downloads in recent memory. Where to start? How about in the most unlikely of places, with Plan B ’s ‘Love Goes Down’ (679) ●●● and the continuing…

A Bay of Blood

Mario Bava’s 1971 film one of the most influential and imitated horror films ever made

(18) 80min (Arrow Video) Out of all Arrow’s lush new DVD and Blu-ray issues of films from the American and Italian masters of horror, this is the one I have been looking forward to most. I was first introduced to Mario Bava’s 1971 film by friend…

Of Gods And Men (Des Hommes Et Des Dieux)

(15) 121min ‘It goes beyond religion: the film is about men,’ is how French writer-director Xavier Beauvois has described his serenely controlled drama Of Gods and Men. Inspired by real-life events from the mid-1990s, it chronicles the experiences of…

An Ordinary Execution (Un Execution Ordinaire)

(12A) 105min Adapted from his own novel by French writer/director Marc Dugain, An Ordinary Execution unfolds in Moscow in the winter of 1952, where it imagines a series of encounters between an ailing Joseph Stalin (André Dussollier) and a young…

Somewhere

Sofia Coppola's quiet and meditative film returns to familiar thematic territory

(15) 97min Sofia Coppola returns to familiar thematic territory in her latest take on the dull realities that lie beneath the hedonistic lifestyle of the pampered and the privileged. Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), a permanent resident of LA’s…

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Finnish off-the-wall horror fantasy explores wild side of St Nicholas folklore

(15) 82min From Finland comes this bizarre Christmas tale, an off-the-wall horror fantasy pitched halfway between The Polar Express and Let the Right One In. Evil Father Christmases are a rarely mined cinematic seam, but not since Edmund Purdom…

Denise Mina & Antonio Fuso - A Sickness in the Family

Scottish crime novelist creates concise and claustrophobic take on the graphic novel genre

(Vertigo Crime) After a successful run on Hellblazer in 2006, Scottish crime novelist Denise Mina returns to the ninth art, with this her first graphic novel. While there are hints of the supernatural here, A Sickness in the Family is essentially a…

Why Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom is as startling and prescient as ever

50th anniversary re-issue of film that dissects vicarious thrill of the audience

Peeping Tom, which this month celebrates its 50th anniversary, is a film that was truly ahead of its time, writes Niki Boyle. Upon its release, Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was regarded as an abomination in celluloid, denounced by critics with a…

Arcade Fire - unlikely contenders for one of the world’s biggest bands

The Suburbs cements solid indie rock credentials without compromising bleak vision

Arcade Fire are, on the surface of it, unlikely contenders to be one of the world’s biggest bands. Thirty-year-old singer-songwriter Win Butler, his wife Régine Chassagne and the rest of the Montreal eight-piece produce songs of spiritual yearning and…

The best books to give for Christmas 2010

A look at some leftfield seasonal offerings - no celebrity autobiographies or TV annuals

When bestselling memoirist Augusten Burroughs was a kid, he had something of an identity crisis. For him, Jesus Christ and Santa Claus were the same person. He couldn’t quite figure out which one of them came down the chimney on Christmas Eve and which…

Underground scare attraction Ghosts of Christmas bring tidings of discomfort to Glasgow

'Interactive, theatrical scare attraction’ brings slay-bells to the Arches

Christmas time. Misteltoe and wine. Spiders and gore and murder most foul. No, I’ve not got my national holidays in a twist. While things that go bump in the night are more traditionally associated with Hallowe’en, an enterprising Glasgow couple have…

Monsters reclaims visual effects from the blockbusters - Gareth Edwards interview

Paul Gallagher talks to the director and stars of brilliant new sci-fi horror Monsters

‘Doing visual effects for a living is like being a gynaecologist’, says Gareth Edwards, ‘when you do it every day at work, it doesn’t turn you on any more.’ So he decided to stop staring at pixels and pick up a camera. The result is Monsters, one of the…

Robinson in Ruins offers playful commentary on state of the nation - Patrick Keiller profile

'As the 2008 banking crisis unfolded, the film gained a very specific context.'

Name Patrick Keiller. Born Blackpool, England, 1950 Background A graduate of art and architecture, Keiller was inspired to make films by Chris Marker’s unconventional art doc, La Jetée. Keiller’s films, beginning with the 1981 short…

50th anniversary re-release of Peeping Tom - Anna Massey profile

'Peeping Tom wasn’t cosy; it was very ugly'

Name Anna Massey Born 11 August 1937, Thakeham, West Sussex Background In the second volume of his autobiography A Life in Movies, the great British filmmaker Michael Powell recalled why he wanted the then inexperienced and unknown (in…