LGBT

Glasgay! Film Strand

2 Oct 2008

From heart-warming and cheering to heart wrenching and chilling, the film strand at this year’s Glasgay! could be seen as a nod to the glory of diversity. Featuring only five feature films (three of them accompanied by shorts) it’s a small collection of…

Cryptic Productions

2 Oct 2008

Cathie Boyd takes her research seriously. She wasn’t comfortable directing a modern opera set in the Caribbean without getting a proper sense of the place. So, at the start of this year, she took a trip to Haiti. ‘I wanted to know what Haiti looks and…

Gregor Laird: Plastic Pastorals

2 Oct 2008

ART GALLERY SHOW ‘Living in Edinburgh,’ says artist Gregor Laird, ‘I’m kind of surrounded by the romantic ideal of Scotland on a daily basis, all the picture postcards with this beautiful scenery on them.’ Sending up these chocolate box images…

Profile - Paul Sinha

2 Oct 2008

1 The doctor is out He is indeed. Sinha might not be the UK’s only gay GP, but he is the world’s only gay Bengali GP who moonlights as a stand-up comic. This situation, as you might imagine, gives him plenty of material to go on. 2 He’s a Fringe…

Glasgay! - Tennessee Williams

18 Sep 2008

Some years ago, I attended a conference where a debate about the work of Tennessee Williams came very nearly to blows. The bone of contention involved Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which the character Brick confesses an attraction to a friend that surpasses…

Glasgay! - Highlights

18 Sep 2008

David Trullo’s Ecce Homo & Gregor Laird’s Plastic Pastorals These two rising stars of the European art circuit display their wares at the Q! Gallery. Spanish photographer Trullo unpicks the enduring Western obsession with beauty while Scot Laird…

LGBT DVD Round-Up

18 Sep 2008

International interest in the sciences may have been piqued by the recent, less-exciting-than-it sounds Big Bang experiment but let’s face it – the most important question is: ‘If time and space are curved, where do all of the straight people come…

Licence Pending

4 Sep 2008

Drew Taylor, compere and promoter of the Tron’s Licence Pending night, is outlining the ideas behind the event when he stops and checks himself. He’s just used the words ‘performance poetry industry’ and he feels the urge to add the caveat ‘if you can…

Glasgow Pride

Out and proud

21 Aug 2008

It’s that time of year again. Dig out the cowboy hats, the feather boas and anything whatsoever with a rainbow on it. Oh, and dig out your conviction about your sexuality because this is one of the best days of the year to make a statement, celebrate…

Tropical Malady

14 Aug 2008

DRAMA/FANTASY (12A) 118min (Second Run DVD retail) Thai architect, artist, writer and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul has made a handful of experimental documentaries and fictional films that are so wayward and quirky in structure that they…

Social networking

Single files

31 Jul 2008

Recent Pixar smash Wall-E imagines a future in which lumpen humans only engage with each other through computer screens. Worryingly, this seems all too plausible a prospect. Online interaction and social networking are two of this year’s Fringe hot…

Hard times - Gladder to be Gay?

Festival of Politics

22 Jul 2008

Simon Callow is heading our way with both Stonewall and Dickens on his mind. Anna Millar chats to one of theatre’s hardest working men about his love of acting and support for gay rights Mere minutes out of London rehearsals for The Magic Flute and…

Edinburgh Fringe - LGBT Highlights

17 Jul 2008

Allan Radcliffe selects the best the Fringe has to offer in comedy, theatre and music

LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering 2008

3 Jul 2008

YOUNG PEOPLE’S EVENT Westpark Conference Centre, Dundee, Sat 5 & Sun 6 Jul This year’s LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering, ‘In Control, Your Life. Your Choices’, is a Scotland-wide event for LGBT young people up to the age of 26, their friends and…

Tick Tock Lullaby

3 Jul 2008

DRAMA (15) 72min (Peccadillo DVD retail) In one particular scene of this film, a good looking thirty-something notices that he’s been trailed by a couple of ladies, and comments that it’s the first time he’s been cruised by two gay women, and that…

Bang Bang

19 Jun 2008

CLUB NIGHT The Ivy, Glasgow, Thu 19 Jun Ladyfest has a lot to answer for. The annual celebration of female achievement in the arts drew enthusiastic crowds to its club nights and gigs when it pitched its tent in Glasgow last month. Once the circus had…

Edinburgh International Film Festival - LGBT

5 Jun 2008

LGBT-INTEREST CINEMA Various venues, Edinburgh, Wed 18–Sun 29 Jun This year’s EIFF programme includes a handful of intriguing films featuring gay characters or themes. If it’s a mix of high camp, glamour and drama you’re after, look no further than…

Painted Eggs

22 May 2008

THEATRE St Bride’s Centre, Edinburgh, Thu 29–Sat 31 May Gay-themed theatre is a rare beast, but drama based around the experience of transsexuals is even more exceptional. This fortnight, The Luvvies, Scotland’s LGBT community theatre company, are set…

LGBT TV Special

8 May 2008

Televised gay kisses may have come a long way since Beth Jordache on Brookside but mainstream programming still lacks fair representation (for the supposed 10% of us) with only the occasional out and proud offering, mainly The L Word and Queer as Folk.

Glasgay! announces Tennessee Williams Festival

1 May 2008

The Glasgow-based LGBT festival Glasgay! has announced a new Tennessee Williams Festival for Autumn 2008, to commemorate the author on the 25th anniversary of his death. Among the events scheduled for the Williams Festival are four UK premieres of…

Kalup Linzy

24 Apr 2008

FILM, PERFORMANCE AND PAINTING Washington Garcia, Glasgow, until Sun 27 Apr New-York based Kalup Linzy is more Vaginal Davis than a ‘Paris is Burning’ starlet, more Judy la Bruce (Bruce’s alter-ego) than Hedwig. But it cannot be denied that all of…

Profile - Gus Van Sant

24 Apr 2008

PROFILE Suzanne Black considers the work of one of Queer cinema’s great auteurs as two of his key films are released on DVD Gus Van Sant is one of a handful of directors to have crossed from arthouse credibility to mainstream pennies and back again.

Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision

10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Apr The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a beast of wild contradictions. The annual competition is regular derided for its middle-of-the-road compositions, political voting and the never-ending…

Four Minutes

10 Apr 2008

DRAMA (15) 115min How about this for an enjoyably overwrought contemporary German melodrama? Traude Kruger (Monica Bleibtreu) suffered the trauma of seeing her female communist lover hung by the Nazis during WWII, and has spent the last 60 years…

Jaime Hernandez - The Education of Hopey Glass

10 Apr 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Fantagraphics) This 24th collection of the three decades – and counting – run of Los Bros Hernandez’s seminal comic book series Love & Rockets, archives in handsome hardback 15 short stories focusing on the supporting and peripheral…

The Gossip - Live In Liverpool

27 Mar 2008

LIVE ALBUM (Columbia) The Gossip may have been catapulted to fame on the back of an advert for E4 teen-soap Skins, but they’ve been playing spine-tingling gigs on the underground for years, and this live performance, recorded in Liverpool’s Carling…

Wotever

13 Mar 2008

CLUB, FILM & WORKSHOP Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 27 & Fri 28 Mar The name may bring to mind the nonchalant brush-off of disaffected youth, but Wotever is in fact a lively, long-running London-based club and arts movement run by LGBT performers and…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Lesbian comedians

28 Feb 2008

Stand-up comedy has always provided a platform for historically oppressed minorities. From the self-deprecatory Borscht belt humour of Mel Brooks and Rodney Dangerfield through Richard Pryor’s fearless exploration of racism to the feminist material of…

From Saturn to Glasgow: a celebration of Edwin Morgan

28 Feb 2008

POETRY EVENT Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sun 9 Mar While the guid folk of Edinburgh are enjoying Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this year’s Glasgow City Read focuses on a new poetry collection, From Saturn to Glasgow: Fifty Favourite Poems by Edwin…

Glasgow Film Festival - LGBT

14 Feb 2008

LGBT CINEMA Various venues and times, Thu 14–Sun 24 Feb From early, openly queer flicks such as Victim, through the work of landmark filmmakers Derek Jarman, Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant, to the recent mainstream success of Ang Lee’s Brokeback…

OurSpace

31 Jan 2008

What better way of rescuing the neglected history of the nation’s LGBT community than through the great Scottish tradition of storytelling? OurSpace: Making Inner and Outer Space for LGBT Lives presents a wide array of LGBT lives through oral histories…

Queer Mutiny

17 Jan 2008

ALTERNATIVE GAY NIGHT Forest Café, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Jan The dark nooks and free’n’easy hedonism of gay venues such as the Polo Lounge and CC Blooms aren’t for everyone. Queer Mutiny and Queeruption groups are springing up across the world. Their…

LGBT-Friendly Sports Clubs

4 Jan 2008

ACTIVITIES ROUND-UP Bloated from the Christmas blow-out? Struggling to downsize following excessive festive feasting? Instead of adding your name to the waiting list for an emergency tummy tuck why not fight the flab and extend your social network by…

Christmas Clubbing

13 Dec 2007

Various venues, Glasgow and Edinburgh ROUND-UP It’s a sad and oft-remarked fact that the original meaning of Christmas is often eschewed in favour of rampant consumerism and institutionalised gluttony. We at The List feel it’s time to redress…

World AIDS Day

29 Nov 2007

AWARENESS-RAISING Various events, Sat 1 Dec Now in its 20th year, World AIDS Day is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic and related issues. The event, which takes place annually on 1 December, is the culmination of a year-round…

GHQ

15 Nov 2007

NEW VENUE Allan Radcliffe savours a gay venue with a difference in the capital According to a recent study by Washington’s Urban Institute, which highlighted indicators of a city’s economic success, one of the marks of a thriving urban economy…

Hitlist - The best LGBT events

1 Nov 2007

Scott Capurro’s Premature Gift The San Francisco funnyman is back with a huge comedy gift for Glasgow. The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 11 Nov. Robopop Trendy Wendy and pals visit Edinburgh’s newest gay venue every Thursday with a bag-full of records. GHQ…

Funny lady

1 Nov 2007

The Glasgay! comedy wagon rolls back into town this year with a cargo of comedic talent for your pleasure. Wicked Wenches features Lucy Porter, AL Kennedy, Susan Calman and the utterly charming Zoe Lyons, a finalist on Channel 4’s So You Think You’re…

Palmstar Poppy

1 Nov 2007

Composer, pianist and vocalist David Paul Jones returns to his roots as a solo artist with his new piece for piano and voice, Palmstar Poppy as part of Glasgay! The title of the piece is inspired by a fleet of Norwegian oil tankers individually named…

Amy Lamé’s Mama Cass Family Singers

18 Oct 2007

THEATRE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 25–Sat 27 Oct ‘I came up with the idea of a misremembered memoir which is what the show is,’ says Amy Lamé of her one-woman show Mama Cass Family Singers. ‘A lot of it is real, some of it’s made up, but it’s all…

Film Round-up

18 Oct 2007

Gay screen Sandra Marron casts an eye over Glasgay!’s film programme Glasgay!’s film programme is a much smaller affair this year. Specialist releases have been replaced by a handful of more mainstream movies. This is due to low audience figures and…

Hitlist - The best LGBT events

18 Oct 2007

• Beyond the Surface An exhibition by Andrew Printer, whose work addresses issues facing the queer community including the nature of intimacy in a community still reeling from the AIDS epidemic. Street Level Photo Works, Glasgow, until 27 Oct.…

Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical

18 Oct 2007

Random Accomplice’s Julie Brown and Johnny McKnight have resurrected the loveable, if diminutive anti-hero of Little Johnny’s Big Gay Adventure, the deserved hit of Glasgay! in 2005. This time out they bring us an all-singing, all-dancing escapade as…

Venus as a Boy

18 Oct 2007

THEATRE Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 30 Oct–Sat 10 Nov Tam Dean Burn is no stranger to Glasgay! and certainly no stranger to adapting explosive and controversial tales for the stage. After bringing Louise Welsh’s The Cutting Room as part of the…

Colette: The Secrets of the Flesh

Glasgay!

4 Oct 2007

Glasgay! 2007, Scotland’s annual celebration of queer culture, features four exciting weeks of new contemporary boutique theatre from emerging artists at the new studio space at the Q! Gallery. Opening this mini-season is a new play written and…

Glittering Shadows

Glasgay!

4 Oct 2007

Dani Marti studied fine art in Sydney before gaining an MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in 2006. His exhibition, Glittering Shadows, which is being presented as part of Glasgay!, is essentially a series of portraits brought to life through the media of…

Hitlist - the best LGBT events

4 Oct 2007

The Bubble A beautiful love story set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Noam lives and works in a secular, prosperous Tel Aviv suburb. On military service he meets attractive Palestinian, Ashraf. The political divide is the least…

Kylie – The Exhibition

20 Sep 2007

EXHIBITION Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Fri 21 Sep–Sun 23 Jan 2008 ‘The interesting thing about Kylie is that she represents that world of glitter and glamour and sparkle that so many gay people wrap around themselves as a form of…

Rebecca Drysdale

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Bits & pieces An award-winning show with nudity, lesbianism and racial politics sounds like pretty standard Fringe fare these days. But Brian Donaldson reckons Rebecca Drysdale has quite a few cheeky tricks up her sleeve

Music With a Twist

2 Jul 2007

Earlier this year mammoth record label Columbia sprung the offshoot Music With A Twist, which styles itself as ‘a home for gay artists of all genres to experience mainstream success without having to compromise any part of their identity.’ The label has…