Jonny Ensall

Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake

1 Feb 2010

Nick Drake’s popularity has only increased in the years following his death in 1976, and this concert, curated by Drake’s producer Joe Boyd for Celtic Connections, was one of the most anticipated of the festival programme. The main appeal was…

Pet sounds - Frightened Rabbit interview

7 Jan 2010

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…

Hot 100 2009 - Peter Capaldi intervew

17 Dec 2009

‘You cannot fuck me. You cannot fuck me. I am unfuckable. I have never been fucked.’ The penultimate episode of The Thick of It, series three, ends with this classic rant from Malcom Tucker, played with psychotic intensity by Peter Capaldi. Tucker has…

Florence and the Machine - Florence Welch interview

2 Dec 2009

Florence and the Machine’s frontwoman Florence Welch is a surprisingly normal 23-year-old, albeit one blessed with the looks of a 19th century beauty and the best singing voice of her generation. So why is she so mired in doom and gloom? Jonny Ensall…

Best of a decade: Music

2 Dec 2009

Arcade Fire – Funeral, The Knife – Silent Shout, Radiohead – Kid A, Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago, The White Stripes – White Blood Cells, Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand, Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To…

Bunny and the Bull - Julian Barratt interview

From Mighty Boosh to feature canine friend

18 Nov 2009

Bunny and the Bull may well be the British comedy of 2009: quirky, hilarious and with a striking visual sensibility comparable to the best work of Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze. A talent for assembling richly detailed, dreamlike shots was not the only…

Public Interest - Edinburgh Royal Mile pub crawl

24 Sep 2009

Between the sprawling concrete shapes of the Scottish Parliament and the historic heights of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile covers some of the best and worst aspects of the city. Plenty of tartan tourists and Australian backpackers stroll aimlessly up…

Confined Human Condition

23 Sep 2009

Comprising song, acting, dance and original musical scores, the two compositions that make up Confined Human Condition are both, evidently, Theatre Cryptic, but otherwise make strange bedfellows. The first, ‘Baghdad Monologue’, is an examination of…

Easy Ryders - Kasabian interview

10 Sep 2009

It’s taken a while, but Kasabian are finally as big as they always thought they deserved to be. Jonny Ensall chats to singer Tom Meighan and finds out that fame and critical validation have calmed one of the biggest egos in rock

Monsieur Montpellier: Entertainer Extraordinaire!

Derren Brown he ain’t

24 Aug 2009

In a well-trodden Fringe tradition, Monsieur Montpellier is a cabaret performer who just can’t help getting things wrong. Aided by his show-stealing assistant Le Cabaret, the grand monsieur waxes lyrical about his many life experiences (meeting Bernard…

Exposure: exlovers

6 Feb 2009

Quiet is the new loud. It's an old adage that has once again come to be true, this time via the talents of lovely band exlovers. This London-based troupe make wistful, melody-led guitar pop of the highest order - acoustic guitar hooks and perfect…

Exposure: Ben Butler and Mousepad

5 Feb 2009

The geeks will inherit the earth. So it was prophesied that men wearing big glasses and bright jumpers, and carrying around portable Yamaha keyboards in their backpacks, would come to replace posturing rock stars as the myspace heroes of a new…

Exposure: zZz

30 Jan 2009

Let's get the bad out of the way first: zZz are from Holland, they have a name that sounds like sleeping and their music has appeared on a car advert (and surprisingly also a Japanese mayonnaise commercial, although that's neither here nor there).

Exposure: Popolo

29 Jan 2009

Existing under the slightly dubious banner of math-pop, Popolo are a Dundee outfit who make tight, methodical, indie-dance in between studying at various Scottish universities. Having successfully avoided both their coursework for the last year, and…

Exposure: Meursault

23 Jan 2009

Meursault are a beguilingly diverse operation, with a noisy sound that skips lightly across genres, and evokes great bands from Arcade Fire to the Postal Service, without really sounding like anyone else. The music has got folk roots. At its heart is…

Exposure: Broken Family Band

21 Jan 2009

The Broken Family Band are something of an anomaly. They're a British band (from the heart of folksy Cambridge no less) that have the educated Americana sound of such stateside alt superstars as Calexico or The Decemberists. Lead singer Steven Adams…

Exposure: Jesus H Foxx

20 Jan 2009

Jesus H. Foxx is not the likeliest name for an Edinburgh-based indie 6-piece; it'd perhaps be better suited to the Latin American uncle of someone from CSS. That new rave double 'x' is somewhat misleading however. Jesus H. Foxx's real musical…

Exposure: David Grubbs

19 Jan 2009

Stupidity has become something of a trend. The charts are awash with artists who tread a finely ironic line between affected emotional naivety and actual brain dead sexual emptiness. David Grubbs, on the other hand, is a Brooklyn-based musical…

Just what is a Midgie anyway?

1 Oct 2008

For those who have recently arrived in Scotland - as opposed to residents who know these blood-sucking terrors all too well - the midgie (or midge) is a small biting insect that swarms across the Scottish countryside, delivering sharp nips to anyone…

Bloc Party - Intimacy

1 Oct 2008

Bloc Party’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, has been a definitive album of the noughties, laying a sonic template for spiky indie-dance with a thumping beat that’s been well observed by bands ever since. Their latest offering, Intimacy, displays many signs…

Men with Bananas

21 Aug 2008

Hairy men Dave (the Chameleon) and Mark (the Bear) have bananas. The bananas are not really necessary, but they're squidgy and look like penises, which is more than enough to qualify them for this endearingly stupid show. The whole thing is carried off…

Chris Cox

21 Aug 2008

An amiable young man, Cox makes behavioural predictions about his audience by reading their body language, using neuro-linguistic programming and sometimes just peeking when his eyes are supposed to be closed. Frequent mistakes and bad guesses make this…

Strippers & Gentlemen

21 Aug 2008

This show does little to illuminate the dark truths of the stripper's lifestyle, but a lot to emulate their writhing dance moves and skimpy outfits. Good multimedia elements and promenade staging make the atmosphere genuinely exciting, but its ability…

P.I.E

21 Aug 2008

Velvet and Hatcher are female private detectives. Together they crack bad puns and attempt to stage a full-scale murder mystery with just two actors. This is endearingly silly at best, drawing heavily on existing noir spoofs and lacking the originality…

The Riot Showgrrrls Club

Cabaret fun with an anti-porn message

14 Aug 2008

A polemic against mainstream pornography is not what you’d expect from two be-corseted cabaret performers, but as the Riot Showgrrrls say themselves, there’s a difference between taste and morality, and this show aims to celebrate the flamboyant…