Round-up

New historical books round-up

Kate Summerscale, Paul French, Andrew Martin, Sarah Fraser and John Romer all to release new works

24 Apr 2012

How do you follow up a mind-blowing success like The Suspicions of Mr Whicher? Well, if you’re Kate Summerscale, you understandably get right back onto that period saddle with Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury).

Crime books round-up – March 2012

Doug Johnstone, Alex Gray and Mari Jungstedt deliver new crime novels this month

17 Feb 2012

As if to show that fiction readers love a good bit of murder and mystery, death and deceit, blood and booze, there’s acres of it about to be scattered around the nation’s book shelves. Doug Johnstone (of this parish) parks his Hit and Run (Faber) at our…

Rules of Civility, Queen of Kings, Spartan, The Submission and America Pacifica

Debut novels round-up

21 Jul 2011

Described by David Nicholls as ‘a smart, witty, charming Dry Martini of a novel’, Rules of Civility (Sceptre) veers from a photographic exhibit in 1966 to a jazz bar on the last night of 1937. In this fizzing debut by Amor Towles (pictured), both places…

Bare Behind Bars, Sea Purple, Here Come the Girls 3 and Dare

LGBT DVD Roundup

27 May 2011

If it’s a quiet night on the sofa you’re after, beware Bare Behind Bars (Arrow Video ●●●●). Described as a ‘chicks in chains grindhouse explosion’, we’re given sadistic lesbian guards, a permanently aroused screwball nurse and convicts with cabin fever…

New music books: Luke Haines - Post Everything, Andy Kershaw - No Off Switch,

Simon Reynold - Retromania, Scott Weiland - Not Dead & Not for Sale

23 May 2011

Semi-absent fans of former Auteur and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines might have received something of a jolt on suddenly Googling him. The words on the second entry would have immediately caught the eye: ‘It is with deep regret that we have to…

Books from Mark Thomas, Emma Kennedy, Jon Richardson, Andy Riley and Paul Barker

Comedy books round-up March 2011

15 Mar 2011

With the annual Glasgow comedy beanfeast having its last laughs, there are a bunch of opportunities to seek solace in book form. Extreme Rambling (Ebury) by Mark Thomas is the paper version of his current touring show in which he walks the entire length…

Comedy DVDs round up - The best and worst

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

23 Dec 2010

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…

TV personalities make their way to the Book Festival

A set of small screen heroes gather up to chew some telly fat

17 Aug 2010

Stephen Poliakoff, Nicholas Parsons, Elaine C Smith, Niall Ferguson, and John Simpson are coming to the Edinburgh Book Festival to talk about their life experiences in the world of television.

Festival Briefing 2010

Some things we think might help you at this year's festivals

30 Jul 2010

Here's a short briefing about some things to look forward to during the Book Festival, the Fringe, in Music events, and Shopping opportunities in Edinburgh

5 Debut Novels for July 2010

24 Jun 2010

Deborah Kay Davies - True Things About Me Welsh poet and short story writer with a debut novel about an unnamed woman whose life is unravelling through a tale of lust, obsession and violence. (Canongate) Jean Kwok - Girl in Translation Based…

Five paperback memoirs published in July 2010

10 Jun 2010

Buzz Aldrin Magnificent Desolation The never-dull story of the moon landing and Buzz’s subsequent struggle to cope. Bloomsbury. Alex Marsh Sex & Bowls & Rock and Roll A terribly witty blog-to-book affair about a disillusioned househusband who…

Comedy DVD roundup

19 Jan 2010

They might not quite be the small screen equivalent of The Broons or Oor Wullie annuals, but live DVDs from Jimmy Carr and Russell Brand are close to becoming a festive staple. Indeed, no Christmas morning seems complete nowadays without 75-odd minutes…

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…

DVD Round-up: Horror

The films that want to make you scream

2 Oct 2009

Sexy Killer, Dr Chopper, Mr Halloween, Staunton Hill, Smash Cut, Death of a Ghost Hunter, The Books of Blood, Wasting Away, I Sell the Dead, Rogue

Also Published: Short-story paperbacks

Keeping it brief

2 Oct 2009

Janice Galloway - Collected Stories, Sarah Waters - Dancing With Mr Darcy, Annie Proulx - Fine Just the Way It Is, Catherine O'Flynn - Roads Ahead, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The Thing Around Your Neck

Hip Hop Round Up

17 Sep 2009

Given the lightweight folly of his ‘comeback’ album, 2007’s Kingdom Come, the idea of Jay-Z adding a third chapter onto his already substantial Blueprint series promised much, but in reality, The Blueprint 3 (Universal) ●●● doesn’t deliver like the…

Also published: Books

It'd be criminal to miss out on these

17 Sep 2009

Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest The third volume of the bestselling Millenium Trilogy has Lisbeth Salander fighting corruption as she is set to face trial for three murders. Maclehose Press. Ruth Rendell The Monster in the…

Also published: 5 Unit-Shifters

26 Aug 2009

Dan Brown The Lost Symbol You may have heard of his last book, The Finchley Coat or something. Bob Langdon is back with more ‘history, codes and intrigue’. Some copies are expected to be sold. Bantam Press. James Patterson Alex Cross’s Trial…

5 paperback thrillers

12 Aug 2009

Burial by Neil Cross, Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell, Death Trip by Lee Weeks, Hit and Run by Lawrence Block, The Clayton Account by Bill Vidal.

Glasgow homegrown events round-up

23 Jul 2009

So, apparently there’s this … festival thing, happening in Edinburgh? Whatever. While the gallons of international acts pouring into the Capital at the beginning of August do traditionally tend to hog the headlines at this time of year, with loads of…

LGBT Edinburgh Fringe Highlights

23 Jul 2009

This year’s Fringe features a good scattering of shows for those of an LGBT persuasion. Theatre pleasures range from dramatic monologues such as Jeffrey Solomon’s Mother/Son (Sweet Grassmarket, pictured above), which charts the writer/performer’s…

Summer Horror DVD round-up

9 Jul 2009

First stop on our journey into the sinister world of horror is Arrow’s new ‘Masters of Giallo’ DVD imprint, launching with three decidedly depraved titles from a trio of Italian auteurs. Lamberto Bava’s Macabre (Arrow) ●●● is a dark psychosexual study…

Scottish Books - Scottish Summer reads

9 Jul 2009

Craig Russell: Lennox In the first of a new crime series, Russell combines atmosphere, action and a pleasing pitch-black sense of humour in 1950s Glasgow. Dodgy PI Lennox has just lived through one war but is being flung into another, more local one.

Film Book round up

25 Jun 2009

Former stand-up comedian Robert Sellers hops across the pond to detail wild and fast times of Hollywood’s original bad boys with Bad Boy Drive (Preface) ●●●. Following on from his previous opus Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard…

Also Published: 5 Upcoming Novels

28 May 2009

David Peace Occupied City Back home in his native Yorkshire, the Damned United author delivers the second of his Tokyo stories with Japan now in its third year of US occupation. Faber, 6 Aug. Thomas Pynchon Inherent Vice The reclusive scribe…

Various: Khaki Shorts

28 May 2009

More underground comics action pierces your mind as Khaki Shorts returns after a two-year hiatus. It’s a distinctly Glaswegian title (with just a dash of Edinburgh wit) packed with acidic humour ranging from sci-fi pastiche to police action with…

Also Published: 5 Paperback Biographys

14 May 2009

John Peel The Olivetti Chronicles Chosen by Peely’s wife and kids, this mix of early journalism, diaries, letters and odds ‘n’ sods pretty much amounts to a second memoir. Corgi. Richard Madeley Father and Sons Judy’s fella turned to a distinctly…

Also Released - 5 History Books

16 Apr 2009

Robert Wallace & H Keith Melton with Henry Robert Schlesinger Spycraft One of these guys is a former director of the CIA, so this look at the organisation’s top gadgets should be on the money. Bantam. Max Arthur The Real Band of Brothers Subtitled…

Also Published - 5 True Crime Paperbacks

2 Apr 2009

Peter Woolf - The Damage Done Woolf grew up as a kid in London’s criminal underworld and is now dedicated to helping others avoid the deadly pitfalls. Bantam. Mazher Mahmood - Confessions of a Fake Sheik This investigative journo has helped expose…

In a League of Their Own - the best sports movies ever

19 Mar 2009

The release this month of controversial documentary Tyson and Michael Sheen football drama The Damned Utd reminded us just how unreliable the sports movie can be. So here, in no particular order, are some gold medal contenders and some first round exits

Aye Write! - Highlights

5 Mar 2009

Alan Bennett Everyone’s favourite northern talking head chats about The Uncommon Reader which speculates on the daring books HRH might flick through. Fri 6 Mar, 6pm. Willy Maley on Muriel Spark The man who co-edited the 100 Best Scottish Books Of…

LGBT interest DVDs

19 Feb 2009

ROUND-UP The re-release on DVD of Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (Artificial Eye) ●●●● is cause for celebration. The award-winning film follows the fortunes of a gay couple from Hong Kong, who part company shortly after arriving in Argentina, leaving…

Hitlist - Books

19 Feb 2009

● Jason Donald Born in Dundee and raised in South Africa, Donald came back to Scotland to study creative writing at Glasgow. See the spectacular results at the launch of his debut novel, Choke Chain, a gripping tale of growing up in the threatening…

Books - Also Published

19 Feb 2009

5 CRIME NOVELS Alex Gray Glasgow Kiss DCI Lorimer opens the file on a schoolteacher accused of rape who then goes missing. ‘The most dynamic Scottish detective since Rebus’ we’re told. Sphere. Natasha Cooper Life on the Edge Psychologist…

DVD Round-Up

22 Jan 2009

Two great documentaries, available for the first time on DVD, get co-opted into the advertising campaigns for big cinema releases Valkyrie and Milk (reviewed on pages 42 and 43 respectively) this fortnight. Rob Epstein’s excellent Oscar winning 1984…

DVD Round-Up

8 Jan 2009

It’s January and the party is over. Months of belt-tightening and couch surfing lay ahead for those of us bankrupted by seasonal (or more international financial) excess. But let’s keep in mind Jean-Paul Sartre’s eulogy that ‘to read a poem in January…

Songs of the Year 2008

11 Dec 2008

‘Skinny Love’ Bon Iver One man’s heartbreak becomes our joy from the album of the year. ‘Like the Rest of Us’ Atmosphere The leftfield dwelling purists may sneer but this is beguiling, introspective hip hop brilliance. ‘Run Run’ Those Dancing Days…

Gigs of the year 2008

11 Dec 2008

It was packed but we loved the Electric Feel of MGMT in February (Beat Club), while in March Casiotone for the Painfully Alone ’s (Nice N Sleazy’s) geeky synthesiser ballads charmed us, The Twilight Sad (King Tut’s) moved us, and Neil Young (The…

Film books round-Up

11 Dec 2008

‘Tis the season to settle down with a good old-fashioned film book. Having a stack of cinema related tomes on your bedside table is essential for any aspiring cineaste at this time of year. So after many hours of sifting through recent releases this is…

Comedy of the Year

11 Dec 2008

In the past 12 months, America was at long last able to give itself a good hard slap on the back. Not only did they dispense with Bush and give McCain the elbow, they allowed some of their finest comic minds to invade these shores in a non-violent…

Also released - 5 Poetry Books

13 Nov 2008

● Vera Brittain Because You Died A collection of poems and prose from the author of Testament of Youth, all about the men she loved who perished in the First World War. Virago. ● Dennis O’Donnell Stepping Stones This one features interviews with…

DVD Round-up

30 Oct 2008

The much threatened, barely still breathing DVD industry has had little to celebrate in the last few years. The current modus operandi seems to be: ‘let’s release as much old, new and rubbish stuff as we can before the bubble bursts and new technology…

4 Boutique Shows

16 Oct 2008

1 To Kill A Kelpie In Matthew Smith’s eerie family drama, two grown brothers relive the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their uncle, talking to the children they once were about the climate of fear they endured at their abuser’s tales of a…

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…

Film Books Round-up

17 Jul 2008

In terms of wealth of research and weightiness of tome Richard Brody’s biography of Jean-Luc Godard, Everything is Cinema (Faber) ••••, should be a masterpiece. Yet for all its detail Godard remains an enigma, and this seems neither for want of research…

Edinburgh Fringe - LGBT Highlights

17 Jul 2008

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

5 Travel Books

17 Jul 2008

Ellie Nielsen Our Own Piece of Paris Subtitled ‘How We Fell in Love with the City of Light’, this follows one woman’s quest to find an apartment that oozes Parisian chic. Atlantic. Kapka Kassabova Street Without a Name Subtitled ‘Childhood and Other…

DVD Round-Up

3 Jul 2008

The time has come to celebrate British cinema. Not the British cinema of Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, David Lean or Robin The Wicker Man Hardy, but the cinema of subsidies and struggle, the results of which have barely seen the inside of a cinema…

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.

DVD Round-Up

8 May 2008

Not only does Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950 (BFI) •••• provide fascinating insights into a bygone age, this four-disc collection of 40 films totalling 13 hours of viewing also showcases the groundbreaking talent of the…

DVD Round-Up

24 Apr 2008

Horror has to be one of the most prolific genres, particularly on the direct to DVD market, so as per usual there’s plenty to get through this issue. For the true aficionado Mother of Tears (Optimum) ••• (pictured) is the sequel you’ve been waiting 28…

Triptych - Eight Ball

10 Apr 2008

Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes DJ, and one seventh of Belle & Sebastian Candi Staton played Renfrew Ferry and ended a triumphant show by passing the mic into the audience as her band played endless choruses of ‘Young Hearts Run Free’. It gets passed between…

Film Books Round-Up

10 Apr 2008

The debate about US cinema from the late 1960s continues with Yale graduate Mark Harris’ Scenes from a Revolution (Canongate ••••). It starts with the fairly flaky premise that the 1967 Academy Award ceremony was the night that the new Hollywood was…

Film Season - Marcello Mastroianni

10 Apr 2008

The son of a carpenter, Mastroianni trained as a draughtsman and served time in a Nazi labour camp during the war. Upon his release, he became involved in amateur dramatics. He made his film début in Riccardo Fredda’s I Miserabili (1948) and, at around…

DVD Round-Up

28 Feb 2008

March waddles into sight with a couple of movie behemoths. First up there’s the Stanley Kubrick Special Edition Box Set (Warner Home Video ••••), which includes special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining…

DVD Round-Up

14 Feb 2008

It’s that time of year when everything goes a little bit box set crazy. If you go on the right website (I suggest www.moviemail-online.co.uk) you can pick up newly released The Complete Coen Collection 1984-2004 (Spirit ••••) for around the £50. With…

Playlist

14 Feb 2008

The huge, mildly nauseating US box office returns of the new Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D concert film put PlayList in mind of some of cinema’s greatest ersatz bands and non-existent singers. So, let this faux guide help you differentiate between your…

DVD Round-Up

17 Jan 2008

Lovely late January. It’s dark, cold and you’re broke. Illness and recovery have become your best friends. Not to worry, there’s always the N oel Coward Collection (Second Entertainment •••) to get through. This is a star-studded collection of BBC…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

17 Jan 2008

Cathy Kelly - Lessons in Heartbreak Izzie has broken her own rules about having affairs with married men while her ageing aunt has just discovered her husband’s infidelity. HarperCollins. Monty Don - Around the World in 80 Gardens The presenter…

DVD Round-Up

4 Jan 2008

As Carly Simon sang, ‘we’re coming around again’. As this column marks its one-year anniversary, there are some great standalone DVDs hitting the shelves. 2008 is going to be a great year to rediscover the brilliance of the McCarthy-blacklisted US…

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…

Also Published - 5 US Crime Dramas

29 Nov 2007

Otto Penzler (ed) Dead Man’s Hand A collection of newly written poker-based tales from crime writers such as Jeffrey Deaver, Michael Connelly and Walter Mosley. Quercus. James Lee Burke The Tin Roof Blowdown A cache of stolen diamonds has floated…

Cinema’s most unconventional families

The ties that bind

15 Nov 2007

Wes Anderson has made much of the dynamism of the dysfunctional family in his films. Mark Robertson presents some of cinema’s other most unconventional families The Griswolds from National Lampoon’s Vacation The farcical events of the National…

Music DVD Round-Up

15 Nov 2007

Oasis show their capacity to entertain remains undiminished on Lord Don’t Slow Me Down (Sony) ••• which follows Noel and Co round the world on the tour to support Don’t Believe the Truth. More accurately it shows the relentlessness and tedium of touring…

DVD Round-Up

18 Oct 2007

Hallowe’en is almost upon us so let’s delve into the DVD dungeon. We have to start with Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (Starz) •••••. Much imitated but rarely bettered, John Carpenter set the groundwork for every slasher film that followed and this…

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…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

18 Oct 2007

• Jackie Collins Drop Dead Beautiful A psycho on the internet stalks Lucky Santangelo after she opens a flashy hotel complex in Las Vegas. Simon & Schuster. • Patricia Cornwell Book of the Dead Kay Scarpetta opens a private forensic pathology…

DVD Round-Up

20 Sep 2007

On hearing of Marilyn Monroe’s death, the filmmaker and actor John Huston said: ‘It’s a terrible pity that so much beauty has been lost to us.’ Forty-five years on, the first of two definitive DVD collections dedicated to her are coming out. Marilyn…

Also Published - 5 Travel Paperbacks

6 Sep 2007

• Robert Carver - Paradise with Serpents The author follows in the footsteps of his great uncle as he finds adventure and intrigue in the lost world of Paraguay. Perennial. • Felipe Fernandez-Armesto - Pathfinders This one is a 'history of…

Also Published

16 Aug 2007

• Marie Phillips - Gods Behaving Badly Aphrodite is a phone sex operator while Apollo peddles a living as a TV psychic. Only their cleaner Alice can help save these fallen Greek gods. Jonathan Cape. • Adrian Hyland - Diamond Dove Set in central…

Top 5 - Fiction Finales

9 Aug 2007

With rumours that the next Inspector Rebus adventure may be the very last one, we look at books which waved a fond farewell to some legendary creations Jeeves & Wooster In 1974, PG Wodehouse gave us Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (a title which requires…

Kids Events

9 Aug 2007

When you say ‘comic’ to a kid they might think of the Beano or Roy of the Rovers (if you’re a kid over 35) but the event with Alan Grant & Cam Kennedy will open up the eyes of teenagers and any young at heart adults in tow. Graphic novels are something…

Also Published - 5 Food Books

9 Aug 2007

Sid Owen - Life on a Plate Ricky from EastEnders shows off yet another of his many talents with this tome, subtitled ‘The Journey of an Unexpected Chef’. I’ll say. Century. John Dickie! - Delizia The author of Cosa Nostra brings us a book which…

Round-up

DVD

16 Jul 2007

DVD ROUND-UP Is death the beginning or the end? Who knows? Who cares? Unless, of course, somewhere on the other side there is a home cinema where one could watch Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby’s 1971 morbid comic gem (Paramount, 4 STARS) about…

Round-up

DVD

16 Jul 2007

DVD ROUND-UP Two very different DVD releases for you this issue. First up is Tan Lines (Peccadillo Pictures, 2 STARS). Have you ever watched the vacuous beach bum blondes of Home and Away and wished the storylines were slower, more full of…

DVD - Round-up

19 Jun 2007

‘Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.’ The great American writer, actor and boxing analyst Al Bernstein wrote that. But then he also said, ‘A fool and his money get a lot of publicity’ so perhaps we shouldn’t pay too much attention to…

Remote Control

18 Jun 2007

Reports from the US are suggesting that the demise of the sitcom is virtually complete. I suppose we should have guessed something was going badly wrong when NBC remade Coupling for an American audience and word is that the networks will soon stop…

Remote Control

22 May 2007

They don’t make ‘em like they used to back in the good old days, do they? The nostalgia industry is showing no sign of abating and, frankly, why should it when it consistently throws up some fascinating television. The clutch of shows about the past…

Singles & Downloads

26 Apr 2007

Dancing girls galore this fortnight. Sophie Ellis Bextor kicks things off with 90s dance throwback, ‘Me and My Imagination’ (Fascination - 1 star), all sunny Ibiza beats and disco strings, but sadly low on charm. Crazy London girls, Duloks have more…

Also Released

Straightheads

23 Apr 2007

(18) 79min (1 Star) More dire vigilante antics from the oeuvre of Danny Dyer. This time he’s one half of a middle class couple (the other half is a slumming Gillian Anderson), at the beginning of their romance, who embark on a violent killing spree…

Also Published

5 AUDIOBOOKS

23 Apr 2007

Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves Set in the wilds of Canada during the 1860s, a man has been brutally murdered while a 17-year-old boy disappears. Siobhan Redmond reads this romance/thriller. Quercus.

French Flm Festival Round-up

11 Apr 2007

It’s that time of year again when the great and the good who coordinate the national French Film festival unleash their wares on those Francophiles among us. Taking in four Scottish cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen) this three week…

DVD - Round-up

DVD Round-up

11 Apr 2007

‘When April winds/Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush’ - (that’s American poet William Cullen Bryant in case you wondered) - our thoughts turn to female space warriors. Well, just one really, the one they call Ripley. The proto feminist hammerhead…

Bollywood Round-up

11 Apr 2007

Set in Mauritius Ajay Chandok’s Nehlle Pe Dehlla (12A) 125min (1 Star) is a reworking of the 1989 US comedy hit Weekend at Bernie’s. Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt mark time amongst the slow motion shots of lycra clad Bollywood babes, practising aerobics…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds that with modern comedy ther

9 Apr 2007

The folk at ITV were not too keen on letting episodes of Get a Grip (STV, Wed 18 Apr, 10pm, 1 Star) find their way into journalists’ hands before the first episode went on air. The reason given was that the show was so darned topical that Ben Elton and…

Records - Singles & Downloads

Singles & Downloads

9 Apr 2007

(Herman Dune) It’s compare and contrast week at List Towers, so first up are a brace of female singers, and there couldn’t be more contrast between Amy Winehouse and Melanie C. The former’s ‘Back to Black’ (Island, 4 Stars) is a gorgeous, melancholic…

Also Published

5 Historical Fictions

9 Apr 2007

Isabel Allende Inés of My Soul Based on true events, this is the story of the first Spanish woman to arrive in Chile with the Conquistadors of the 1500s. Fourth Estate.

Records - Also Released

Also Released

9 Apr 2007

Blonde Redhead 23 (4AD) Disarming, gossamer melodies get fuzzed out in this slightly more geeky (if that’s possible) take on My Bloody Valentine bliss.

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds a bunch of shows with famili

27 Mar 2007

Instead of mucking about in casinos and getting pointlessly on the nerves of the once-famous, Louis Theroux is back making the kind of show which forged his reputation in the late 90s. Within five minutes of The Most Hated Family in America (BBC2, Sun 1…

Records - Singles & Downloads

Singles & Downloads

27 Mar 2007

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad month and first up is a bonkers, skiffle-surf cheese dream offering from Thomas Truax called ‘Have We Been Left Behind?’ (Anarkhy, 4 Stars). I’m not sure exactly what’s happening on the cover of ex-Sugababe Siobhan…

Activity Sports - Ten...

Ten Energetic Sporting Activities in Scotland

27 Mar 2007

Indoor kart racing at Scotkart, Cambuslang (www.scotkart. co.uk, 0141 641 0222)

Records - Also Released

Also Released

27 Mar 2007

Tony Visconti The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy (HarperCollins) Here’s a cat who lived his and a few others’ nine lives, having produced and played on some of the greatest rock’n’roll records in history and lived to tell the tale.

DVD - Round-up

Round-Up

26 Mar 2007

The Bigas Luna Boxset (Tartan, 4 Stars) is a filthy, compelling collection of the great Spanish filmmaker’s best films, Golden Balls, Jamon Jamon, The Tit And The Moon and The Ages of Lulu. One of cinema’s great living erotic iconoclasts Luna was also…

Gaydar

26 Mar 2007

Not long after club night Velvet closed its doors in the wee small hours of Sunday 4 February, a fire broke out at the venue, Mariners, in Leith, and destroyed the interior. The inferno was so intense the roof fell in. Alas, the next week’s gay club…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson finds some new dramas about madnes

13 Mar 2007

Without wishing to be cruel, Jessie Wallace isn’t the kind of actress you’d associate with roles which anyone could dub as ‘classy’, not in the stereotypically glamour sense of the word anyway. Maybe feisty, shouty and boozy, but never ever classy. The…

DVD Round-up

28 Feb 2007

Highlights this fortnight include, of course, the very quick turnaround release of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Fox, 4 stars). As you may have noticed we try not to focus on the really big releases…

10 Great Films

From the Berlin Film Festival 2007

28 Feb 2007

Away From Her (pictured) Atom Egoyan’s favourite actress Sarah Polley’s debut feature delivers a powerhouse drama concerning the effects of Alzheimer’s on a 50-year-old marriage. Julie Christie stars; no doubt she’ll be up for an Oscar nomination come…

Also Released

28 Feb 2007

Ghost Rider (12A) 109min (2 stars) Wild man Nicolas Cage and wonder woman Eva Mendes go almost completely over the top in this spirited, special effects heavy and somewhat throwaway adaptation of the Marvel Comics supernatural superhero who’s a…

Bollywood Round-up

27 Feb 2007

Historically Bollywood has reflected an innate ‘Indian’ morality. Themes may be modernised and customs challenged, but the basics are stagnant and laughable. This month’s releases are therefore a refreshing change, atypical of the highly moralistic…

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Laugh A Minute

LAUGH A MINUTE

27 Feb 2007

Stewart Lee Quite probably the most intelligent stand-up on the comedy circuit which means he often leaves people behind with his erudite musings. For those in tune with such convolutions, the effort is worth it. The Stand, Fri 9 Mar.