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Jonny Ensall

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Summer Festivals 2012: Community

Summer Festivals 2012: Community

Solas, Leith and West End Fests among the best community-focused fests around Scotland this summer

25 May 2012

West End Festival Where: Various venues, West End of Glasgow, 1–24 Jun, westendfestival.co.uk Price: Free–£20 for bigger gigs Line-up: James Yorkston, Howard Marks, Suzanne Vega, Michael Marra, We Were Promised Jetpacks You want to learn Gaelic in…

Summer Festivals 2012: Best dance music live shows

Summer Festivals 2012: Best dance music live shows

Which of this year's superstar DJs have visuals to match their beats?

25 May 2012

Picture the scene. Dusk has fallen on the festival site. Tens of thousands of inebriated and euphoric festivalgoers have assembled at the main stage. They’re waiting for the headliner, whooping and hollering in anticipation. Then it happens: a guy…

Summer Festivals 2012: Ones to watch

Summer Festivals 2012: Ones to watch

A selection of industry experts and List writers choose their musical highlights for this summer

25 May 2012

Lanterns on the Lake Chosen by Jonny Ensall, Editor, The List What does that name bring to mind? Boats on the water? A night to remember? An ethereal choir of knitting together a sense of the magical past and the optimistic future? You’re spot on with…

Austra and The Unthanks set for No Direction Home 2012

Austra, The Unthanks and Richard Hawley set for No Direction Home 2012

New festival with focus on quality from team behind End of the Road

23 May 2012

End of the Road has been the latte-drinking, glam-camping Guardian reader's weekender of choice almost since it's inception in 2006. Picking up plaudits from The Times and The Guardian (of course) as well as an award for 'Best Small Festival' last year…

Friends - Manifest!

Friends - Manifest!

An insidiously hooky album that's sometimes brilliant, sometimes bloomin’ annoying

(3 stars)22 May 2012

There are songs you can’t get out of your head, and then there are songs you wish you could get out of your head. In the latter category: ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi. In the former: Friends’ ‘Friend Crush’ and ‘I’m His Girl’. The Brooklyn band’s well-blogged…

Video: street art animation at Newhaven Harbour

Video: animated street art at Newhaven

Edinburgh artist Spaceboy animates a 150 metre-long mural along fishmarket shutters

4 May 2012

Edinburgh artist Mike Inglis, aka Spaceboy, has collaborated with Red Stripe on transforming the shutters of Newhaven fishmarket into a Jamaica-inspired animation. The first cut of the video can be seen below. Spaceboy pasted his illustrations…

Major Lazer - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 22 Apr

Major Lazer - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 22 Apr

A ballsy and daft neo-dancehall party that wasn't shared enough with the audience

(3 stars)26 Apr 2012

‘Make some noise for all the asses!’ encouraged super-producer, and one half of Major Lazer, Diplo, midway through the band’s dancehall blitzkrieg of a live show. A dozen Glaswegian girls had been hoisted from the audience onto the O2 ABC stage to…

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

Reasonably consistent album of simple, emotional music from multi-instrumentalist smartypants

(3 stars)22 Feb 2012

(Bella Union) There are signs on Break It Yourself that multi-instrumentalist and genre-hopping smartypants Andrew Bird has mellowed out somewhat. The album is reasonably consistent and settles in a gentle neo-folk groove that shows off Bird’s…

GFF 2012 - Kid With a Bike and On The Ice

GFF 2012 - Kid With a Bike and On The Ice

Dardennes brothers film strikes a chord but Inuit thriller fails to excite

20 Feb 2012

Before the Film Festival began, when talking to people about highlights, one of the picks that kept coming up was the Dardennes brothers' Kid With a Bike. The Dardennes (Jean-Pierre and Luc) are the Belgian filmmaking pair responsible for La Promesse…

GFF 2012 blog - Opening Gala: Your Sister's Sister

GFF 2012 - Opening Gala: Your Sister's Sister

Mumblecore director Lynn Shelton introduces her latest film at the opening of the Glasgow Film Fest

17 Feb 2012

Director Lynn Shelton was at the Glasgow Film Theatre last night to introduce her opening gala feature, Your Sister's Sister. She seemed ecstatically happy to be there, hugging co-director Allison Gardner ahead of the screening. Then, after the usual…

Five reasons to go see . . . The GZA

Five reasons to go see . . . The GZA

The GZA of Wu Tang approaches the Arches

1 Feb 2012

He’s a genius The Genius, to be precise. GZA, aka The Genius, (Gary Grice to his mum) is a founding member of Wu Tang Clan, along with his cousin, producer The RZA, and gravelly-voiced rap heathen Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP). The Clan emerged out of New…

Azari & III - Azari & III

Azari & III - Azari & III

Credit due delivering a straightforward house music manifesto with compelling four-to-the-floor forc

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Island) This self-titled debut is actually a major label re-release of an album that, until recently, was widely available as an import – including on Spotify. It’s getting a reboot in the UK in CD form (you remember CDs right?) though really the…

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Blues and country influence from son of legendary Malian guitar player

27 Jan 2012

Farka Touré. Where have you heard that name before? Vieux is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, one of the true stars of the world music scene. Farka Touré senior passed away in 2006, but junior has picked up where he left off…

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

To these new gods of French electronic music, we say Salut!

27 Jan 2012

The hair; the crotch-hugging denim; the ‘tude - everything about Justice’s demeanour screams metal. And with good reason. The band, comprising Xavier de Rosnay (monobrow, flaired nostrils) and Gaspard Augé (hair of Robert Plant, moustache of a Deep…

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Featuring the Cultural Olympiad, The Dark Knight Rises, WU LYF, Glasgow International and more

9 Jan 2012

It’s 2012, but fear not, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Before you decide to occupy government property, or smash a brick through Dixons, take heart in the folklore of a simpler age. For when times are black, you can always rely on the comfort of…

Edinburgh gets first IMAX screen

Edinburgh gets first IMAX screen

Cineworld Fountain Park to launch IMAX cinema with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

20 Dec 2011

Cineworld Fountain Park is to introduce Edinburgh's first IMAX screen from 21 December. The new cinema promises, 'ground-breaking, crystal clear digital projection, cutting edge audio technology and one of the largest screens around'. With 3D…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-40

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Hot 100 2011 - 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Hot 100 2011 - No. 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Festival debut marks beginning of major creative space in Edinburgh

16 Dec 2011

Before this August it seemed the Edinburgh Festival was already home to every sort of show and venue imaginable. So, when an entirely new major space sprang up, it was difficult to see what it might offer above the usual. On the programme at…

The Hot 100 2011 - 32: Remember Remember interview

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 32: Remember Remember interview

Graeme Ronald’s complex compositions get the full-band treatment

16 Dec 2011

‘Steve Reich on acid,’ is how one List critic described Graeme Ronald’s second album as Remember Remember, released this year. True, it has Reich’s trademark repetition – albeit combined with melodies that could only be Scottish – but Ronald is unsure…

Django Django - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 24 Nov

Django Django - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 24 Nov

Infectious fun from band with no agenda other than having a good time

(3 stars)13 Dec 2011

Django Django’s music could be described as folk-rave, or math-beat, or perhaps contemporary hoedown. It’s hard to explain, really, why the combination of American West, Merseyside and East London rhythms should sound so good, meaning that, joyously…

It's Funtime - Edinburgh pub quiz that thinks it’s a 70s gameshow

It's Funtime - Edinburgh pub quiz that thinks it’s a 70s gameshow

The all-singing, all-dancing brilliantly twisted world of It's Funtime

18 Nov 2011

All across the country this coming Saturday night families will sit down in front of the TV to watch people be mocked and derided in the name of entertainment. They’ll gawp at the outrageous outfits worn by the mentally unstable on X Factor. They’ll boo…

The List Hot 100 Awards to honour the best and brightest in Scottish arts and culture

The List Hot 100 Awards to honour the best and brightest in Scottish arts and culture

List Award and List Newcomer Award celebrate artistic achievement

16 Nov 2011

It’s stating the obvious to say that Scotland is full of great artists and performers. Our cultural stars dominate the Turner Prize every year, grab lead roles in Hollywood films, and write epoch-defining novels and poetry. We publish an annual Hot 100…

Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat - interview

Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat - interview

Moffat and Middleton are set to team up again to celebrate Nice'n'Sleazy's 20th birthday

7 Nov 2011

The mid-90s Arab Strap song ‘I Saw You’ was inspired by The List’s lonely-hearts feature of the same name. Do you remember using I Saw You at that time? That I Saw You feature had just started, and it was quite exciting and cool. I did attempt to use…

The best Hogmanay holiday ideas

The best Hogmanay holiday ideas

The best ways to bring in the New Year

28 Oct 2011

Get on the farm Forget Carry on Camping, the crew at Comrie Croft in Perthshire know how to do camping in style, with this eco-friendly farmstead conversion. Located in Crieff, surrounded by gorgeous vistas, bring in the bells around a campfire…

James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors

James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors

National Theatre show treats audiences, but reveals craft behind magic

(4 stars)27 Oct 2011

One Man, Two Guv’nors is no longer a play that needs much of an introduction. It’s one of the most critically and commercially successful productions of the 21st century, now on tour from the National Theatre, and gathering more momentum, column inches…

Toronto-based Azari & III favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics - just don't call them house revivalists

Azari & III - Don't call them house revivalists

Toronto-based act favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics

21 Oct 2011

Is it too soon for a house music revival? That’s the question The List is mulling over ahead of speaking to self-proclaimed ‘house music aficionados’ Azari & III. The Toronto-based band, comprising producers Dinamo Azari and Alixander III and vocalists…

The Salon Project

The Salon Project

An interesting stab at reviving the art of critical discussion, undermined by technology

(3 stars)21 Oct 2011

‘A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge.’ So says Wikipedia – the significant choice of source that The Salon Project uses to define…

Remember Remember and Miaoux Miaoux - Glasgow Science Centre planetarium, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Remember Remember, Miaoux Miaoux - Glasgow Science Centre, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Fantastic electronica double-bill in impressively apt surroundings

(5 stars)19 Oct 2011

It’s a simple enough idea. Two nights of live music (Saturday and Sunday) inside the Glasgow Science Centre planetarium, with the performances broken up by lectures from Simon, the centre’s laser pen-wielding resident stargazer. Simple but brilliant.

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

Overly saccharine quirk-pop from the Finnish/French duo

(2 stars)12 Oct 2011

(Village Green) There’s so much charming naivety on The Dø’s second album it makes you feel nauseous. The French/Finnish boy/girl duo can write a catchy song but lack any kind of mettle, sounding like a summer school recording project, complete with…

Tim Key interview: the poet discusses Edinburgh, Alan Partridge and 'sexy baths'

Tim Key interview: the poet discusses Edinburgh, Alan Partridge and 'sexy baths'

Comedy Award winner brings his Masterslut show to the 2011 Fringe

21 Sep 2011

The List has just presented Tim Key with two pages of facts about himself. ‘This is a very good piece of research,’ he says, commending the 16-year-old work experience person who compiled them. ‘I didn’t get to do anything like this on work experience.

Photographer Elad Lassry to bring video work Untitled (Ghost) to Tramway

Photographer Elad Lassry to bring film Untitled (Ghost) to Tramway

Scottish appointment follows artistic recognition in Venice and Germany

21 Sep 2011

What does modern mean? Does it mean commerical, bright, and futuristic? Or is modernity simply something to do with how our view of the past changes over time? These aren’t new ideas to occupy the mind of an up-and-coming visual artist, but Elad…

Arcade Fire - The Castle, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Sep 2011

Arcade Fire - The Castle, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Sep 2011

Band's enthusiasm helps suck in swirls of Edinburgh spookiness

(4 stars)16 Sep 2011

Any band gigging at Edinburgh Castle is going to feel a sense of occasion. Arcade Fire more so than most. Frontman Win Butler, his wife Régine Chassagne and the rest of the Montreal outfit are obsessed with the fragility of the modern world. Playing in…

Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica

Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica

David O’Doherty in very funny piece that risks becoming one-note in tone

(3 stars)30 Aug 2011

Rory Sheridan is a lovesick man, who inadvertently ends up on an Antarctic expedition to win his bride. Sheridan is no Scott or Shackleton, he complains too much for a start – about the penguins, about the cabbage he has to eat, about the farts that…

The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding

The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding

A cure for loneliness?

(3 stars)26 Aug 2011

This one-on-one hotel room experience is Adrian Howells’ attempt at total care for a single audience member. It starts with a warm bath filled with rose petals. I undress and step in. ‘It’s my honour to bathe you,’ Howells says, with no hint of…

The Drums - Portamento

The Drums - Portamento

Second helping of summery indie pop from the darlings of the hipster set

(4 stars)24 Aug 2011

(Island) On this, their second album, The Drums have made no effort to grow out of summery guitar riffs and meaningless lyrics full of innocent joy. In fact, these 12 sprightly indie-pop tracks are so similar, and so slight, that Portamento could be…

David O'Doherty

David O'Doherty is Looking Up

Immaculate content delivered with furious enthusiasm

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

David O’Doherty used to work in a German sausage factory. This might sound like a crass comedy set-up, but it is in fact true. His role was to drive a giant Hoover designed to suck up the smashed, sausage-filled jars that tumbled off the conveyer belts.

May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?

May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?

Champagne, slow dancing and loneliness

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

Adrian Howells is a warm and empathetic character and a captivating speaker. This helps to explain why he’s been picked to be a best man six times. However, in this one-man show he’s facing up to some cold facts. Like how, at 50 years old, he’s still…

The Pajama Men

The Pajama Men

Both brilliantly silly and brilliantly clever

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

In The Middle of No One is one of the most inventive, thoughtful and well-performed comedy shows on the Fringe, a whisker away from five-star glory, let down only by a slight lack of energy on the night of the performance. This, however, is…

Josie Long: The Future Is Another Place

Josie Long: The Future Is Another Place

Stand up for the left

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

Josie Long is ready to rubbish a stock right-wing idea when a heckler interrupts. ‘Hear hear!’ the grumbler shouts back at the suggestion that a cleaner shouldn’t have to pay tax towards funding liberal arts degrees. Long looks shocked, uttering…

Futureproof

Futureproof

A fairly unshocking freak show

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

In the world of the freak show there is, Lynda Radley’s play informs us, a hierarchy. At the top are the ‘reals’ – people like bearded lady Countess Marketa (Irene Macdougall), Siamese twins Lillie and Millie (Ashley Smith and Nicola Roy, mirroring each…

Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD

Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD

Funny and heart-wrenching show on Disney films and painful break-ups

(4 stars)16 Aug 2011

There are two themes in Tuck’s show: straight to DVD Disney films and severely painful break-ups. The connection isn’t immediately apparent, but Tuck’s brave finale combines both strands with some genuinely dark humour, while simultaneously his stage…

Hotel Medea

Hotel Medea

A killer night out

(5 stars)15 Aug 2011

Spend a whole night in the company of a murderer. See her history retold, eat with her, dance with her, bathe and clothe her, listen to her problems, understand them if you possibly can, and, ultimately, be party to her gruesome crime. This is the…

The Horne Section

The Horne Section

Toe-tapping jazz-and-comedy combo from Alex Horne and friends

(4 stars)15 Aug 2011

Imagine how much funnier you could be if you had your own backing band to play along to your jokes; sing back your best one-liners; hit drum fills after your punchlines... Such is the set-up that three top acts are treated to c/o Alex Horne’s ensemble.

Mark Thomas: Extreme Rambling (Walking the Wall)

Mark Thomas: Extreme Rambling (Walking the Wall)

Following a dangerous tourist trail

(4 stars)12 Aug 2011

The problem with political comedy is that, in sharing a joke with a person simultaneously making a serious point, you can easily become confused about what it is you’re signing up for. Added to this, Mark Thomas has an enviable rhetorical tool at his…

Lounge Room Confabulators

Lounge Room Confabulators

Aussie troubadours paying home visits

(4 stars)11 Aug 2011

‘Hello! It’s the Lounge Room Confabulators.’ A voice chimes cheerily through the intercom. The Confabulators – a pair of bearded Australians in Del Monte suits who will be performing an hour-long storytelling show in my home – ascend the stairwell…

John Peel’s Shed

John Peel’s Shed

Intimate musings on the joy of radio

(3 stars)8 Aug 2011

In 2002 author John Osborne won a competition to write the best two-sentence description of John Peel’s radio show and win a box of the DJ’s records. ‘Songs you want to hear. Played by a man who wants you to hear them.’ earned Osborne the prize, and he…

Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still

Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still

Monologue that’s less than straightforward

(3 stars)8 Aug 2011

'This is true.’ Comedian Phil Nichol implores you to believe in his story midway through this experimental monologue, seemingly trying to inject a moment of clarity into a deliberately fractured and confusing play from Royal Court young writer Dave…

Nathan Dean Williams

Nathan Dean Williams

Twisted pick ‘n’ mix

(2 stars)8 Aug 2011

A clown accidentally sending a child into anaphylactic shock. A bullied teacher forcing chocolate cake into the mouth of a sex doll he calls ‘mummy’. A put-upon husband dressing up like Velma from Scooby Doo to meet the demands of his dominatrix wife.

Doris Day Can Fuck Off

Doris Day Can Fuck Off - Greg McLaren interview

2011 Edinburgh Festival show based on singing to strangers

26 Jul 2011

It’s a sunny Saturday in Stoke Newington, North London, and I’m competing in my very first ‘allotment Olympics’. Specifically, a shot putt event that swaps the usual metal balls for hefty, organic potatoes. The games have been organised by Stoke…

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