Emma Newlands

Shazia Mirza

23 Aug 2007

Most notorious for her line about the name on her pilot’s licence, Brummie comic Mirza here conjures up plenty more where that came from. The point she makes is as important as the quality of her material, lampooning the audience for choosing to see…

Tanyalee Davis

16 Aug 2007

She may be 3ft 6in, but describing herself as ‘low to the ground and kind of racy’ reflects that that there is definitely nothing small about Tanyalee’s personality. Her self-deprecating humour provides a fair few laughs detailing the trials and…

Stephen Carlin

16 Aug 2007

Examining and dissecting popular culture is a hurdle that has felled many a stand-up, but the very dapper Carlin has some aces up his sleeve with a seemingly laid-back delivery revealing extremely shrewd and highly amusing observations. Technical…

Jim Bowes

9 Aug 2007

Whether WMDs can be launched within 45 minutes may be debatable, but a far safer bet would be to spend that length of time in the company of Bowes. An affable and enthusiastic host, he guides us along the journey from polite to increasingly assertive…

Stuckey and Murray

9 Aug 2007

A musical comedy act is a tough tightrope to walk at the best of times, and although the camaraderie of this duo is impossible to fault, it proves that a song doesn’t automatically become funny because it contains the word ‘douchebag’. One to avoid if…

The Queef of Terence

9 Aug 2007

The insincerity and superficiality of daytime TV make a ripe target for lampooning, and the three stars of Queef start out promisingly in this supposed pilot for a show. With a finely-tuned sense of character acting and comic timing, they deserve a…

Stephen Grant

1 Aug 2007

‘Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely,’ Woody Allen once said. He didn’t, however, reckon with Stephen Grant whose self-proclaimed mission this August is not only to ‘obliterate untruths and punish inaccuracies’, but to solve…

The Be Good Tanyas

16 Jul 2007

ROOTS THE BE GOOD TANYAS City Halls, Glasgow, Sun 22 July ‘We approach music simply, very simply,’ says Sam Parton of Vancouver-based trio The Be Good Tanyas. ‘In terms of production, we don’t tend to stray too far from what our capacities…

Summer in the City

3 Jul 2007

It’s summer. Well, as close as it gets to summer in Scotland. Sunshine is carefully rationed so when it does make an appearance you’d better be prepared to make the most of those breaks in the cloud. Here we present some of the best ideas for enjoying…

Candie Payne

21 May 2007

MELANCHOLIA Phil Spector’s name may now be more likely to be linked at the moment to incarceration than innovation, but the eccentric New Yorker’s influence still casts a powerful shadow over the performance by diminutive Scouse songstress Candie…

Amy Macdonald

King Tut’s, Glasgow, Tue 13 Mar

27 Mar 2007

ACOUSTIC POP I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar, a wise man once said, then it meant that you were a protest singer. Quite what he’d make of 19-year-old Amy Macdonald is difficult to predict; her lyrical targets include reality TV, ‘the…