Robin Lee

School of Comedy

16 Aug 2007

In this age of Asbos, hoodies and teenage gang warfare it’s probably illegal to encourage youngsters to swear and be rude in front of adults, but this is exactly what the grown-ups behind School of Comedy plan to do. The show is billed as ‘an adult…

Fear of flying

1 Aug 2007

She came largely unscathed through the first series of Survivor, but a quivering Zoe Lyons tells Robin Lee about the thing that terrifies her the most

Activity Sports - Mountain Biking

Easy Rider

27 Mar 2007

In Glentress forest, in the Tweed valley, a series of mountain bike runs have been created on Forestry Commission land, just outside Peebles. At the bottom of the hillside, the ‘Hub in the Forest’ is an activity centre that services the needs of the…

Rhona Cameron

The Naked Drinking Club (Ebury)

13 Mar 2007

AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE In 1979, the chronicle of a year in Cameron’s teenage life, she’s an adopted Lothians lassie who fixates on girls, lets the boys take advantage of her, and watches her father die. In her first novel, The Naked Drinking Club, the…

Phil Nichol

ABC, Glasgow, Sat 24 Mar; the Stand, Edinburgh, Su

12 Mar 2007

STAND-UP Many comedians bare all on stage but precious few take it quite as literally as Phil Nichol. Although born in Glasgow, his accent is Canadian, and his wide-eyed, manic, positive energy most definitely not a product of the Central Belt.

Zeus

Mariners, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Mar

28 Feb 2007

CLUB NIGHT While some clubs wind down due to changing tastes, and others change venue in an attempt to rejuvenate, one Edinburgh club is expanding its remit, with a new night aimed at the boys. Velvet, based at Mariners (a classy banqueting…

Out of the Bedroom - Out of the Closet

The Canon’s Gait, Edinburgh, Tue 20 Feb

12 Feb 2007

MUSIC The acoustic musician is a sensitive soul, and according to James Whyte, who runs the Out of the Bedroom open mic nights, not all of them are writing love songs about the opposite sex. ‘Quite a lot of the regular performers at Out of the…

Rage - A good deal these days is hard to find

A good deal these days is hard to find

16 Jan 2007

RAGE Departs Newcastle, 20:40, say the tickets. I glance up at the departure board. Newcastle, 20:40, platform two, it says. Five minutes before, we shuffle up to the tracks. A train arrives at 20:38 - destination Edinburgh - and three weary…

Fit for 2007

All venues, all year, times vary

15 Jan 2007

HEALTH AND WELLBEING As I write, the sun kisses rain-damp pavements outside my window, but it’s likely to be only a respite in a month of cashless gloom and bad weather-induced misery. Indeed, University of Cardiff psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall…

Various, The Book of Boy Trouble - comic review

Various artists

9 Jan 2007

GAY Edited by two of its contributors, Robert Kirby and David Kelly, The Book of Boy Trouble brings together selected highlights of the first ten years of the alternative fanzine of the same title (minus the ‘book’ bit). It’s a collection whose…

Bildwechsel - feminist film collective

Bildwechsel

20 Dec 2006

FEMINIST FILM COLLECTIVE A Hungarian lesbian-transgender Western and the recurrent story of two Lebanese lesbians are the highlights of the latest Bildwechsel screening night, showing short films and celluloid vignettes involving women from all…

Gaydar - bar news

Gaydar

27 Nov 2006

The garish but loveable Cuban-themed decor of Habana has been replaced, with a bright style bar interior of cream walls and chunky dark wood furniture. Gone is the elaborate metalwork staircase and balcony, to be replaced by new steps with a toughened…

Luxembourg - album review

Luxembourg

27 Nov 2006

INDIE SCHMINDIE Sitting as comfortably in the mid-90s as a Queen Anne chair in Morrissey’s parlour, or a La-Z-Boy in Martin Rossiter’s boudoir, Front is a curious period piece. Neglecting to take on board that Mozza gets away with muscular pub-rock…

Scottish Mining Museum

Life at the coal face

27 Nov 2006

There’s a yellow canary called Bev that lives in a well-appointed cage at the Scottish Mining Museum. He’s been there five years, and is named in honour of Ernest Bevin, Minister for Labour during World War II. Bevin’s the one who decided that 10% of…

Shortbus - review

Shortbus

27 Nov 2006

GRAPHIC ROMANCE Part love letter to New York and part exploration of the birth, sustenance and death of intimate relationships, Shortbus is replete with graphic, unsimulated scenes of all combinations: men, women, men and women, threesomes, group…

Shortbus - review

Shortbus

27 Nov 2006

GRAPHIC ROMANCE Part love letter to New York and part exploration of the birth, sustenance and death of intimate relationships, Shortbus is replete with graphic, unsimulated scenes of all combinations: men, women, men and women, threesomes, group…

AA Gill

Previous Convictions (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

23 Nov 2006

COMIC TRAVELOGUE Enthusiastic wildlife-slayer, owner of a canary yellow Bentley, close friend of Jeremy Clarkson: AA Gill is enough to give the more mung bean-minded a coronary. Indeed, after a foreword encomium to criticism, he begins Previous…

Casino Royale - comment

Spybound

13 Nov 2006

‘How many actors have played James Bond on screen?’ goes the old chestnut of a pub quiz question. Barry Nelson was first to play him, on US TV in 1954, and Bob Holness played him in a radio adaptation two years later. Then Connery, Moore, Lazenby…

A Right Royal Rumpus

Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 23 Nov

11 Nov 2006

CHARITY CLUB NIGHT Even those who can’t stand her music might have felt a twinge of concern when it was announced that Kylie Minogue had breast cancer, and it’s heartening to hear she’s in remission, out and about, and getting back to normal. Yet…

St Andrew's Day

Various events, Glasgow & Edinburgh

11 Nov 2006

PATRON SAINT CELEBRATION Andrew was not Scottish, and what we know of his life comes from religious texts. Born a Jew in Bethsaida, Galilee, he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen, and when Jesus came calling, he became one of his first (and…

Be With Me

(12A) 93min

30 Oct 2006

ROMANCE Dominated by static shots, and sparse in dialogue, Singaporean director Eric Khoo’s third feature follows a frustrating arc which is resolved unevenly in the last half hour. Ostensibly it’s three intercut stories - Meant to Be, where an old…

Gaydar

News and events

26 Oct 2006

A new Scottish Executive initiative combating bullying in schools will involve LGBT Youth Scotland, the Edinburgh-based charity that works with young gay people. The Better Futures programme will be run in partnership with the Scottish Association for…

Martha @ Tramway/What Tammy Needs to Know

Tramway / CCA, Glasgow, both runs ended

26 Oct 2006

DANCE & THEATRE Glasgay’s live strand begins with two meditations on the nature of performance: one a more direct essay, and the other reflected through the prism of an homage to a great figure in contemporary dance. Each is warm and appealing, yet…

Bank of Scotland Museum

A million on the Mound

11 Oct 2006

It’s creepy, discovering that someone was murdered right outside your office; even more chilling when you find out that it’s unsolved. Yes, a man named William Begbie, a porter for the British Linen Bank, was stabbed to death and robbed of £4,392 of the…

Glasgay!

A doubling in funding means three new productions

2 Oct 2006

There’s one event in the Glasgay! 2006 programme that doesn’t quite fit. Graffiti Brasil , a series of photographs of spray painting from the South American country, showing ‘fanatical vandalism’ and ‘jaw-droppingly elaborate murals’, doesn’t seem to…

Scissor Sisters - album review

Scissor Sisters

2 Oct 2006

GLAM ROCK DISCO POP How does one follow an album that sold more than anyone else’s in the UK in 2004 and seamlessly concatenated every genre from 1972 to 1981, short of heavy metal? On Ta-Dah, there are co-writing credits for Bowie’s 70s guitarist…

Conversation Pieces

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tue 10 & Thu 19 Oct

28 Sep 2006

TALKS SERIES Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s popular lunchtime talks series returned at the start of October with Joan Bakewell discussing her inspirational broadcasting career and life as a woman in her seventies. This fortnight, strapping lads…

Women's Nights

Velvet and Fur Burger

28 Sep 2006

EDINBURGH WOMEN’S CLUBS Clublife for lady-loving ladies in Edinburgh has been rejuvenated of late, with a change of DJs for both monthly nights Velvet and Fur Burger, a change of venue for the latter, and the addition of regular live performances and…

Gaydar

18 Sep 2006

Glasgay! may not begin in earnest until 14 October, but several exhibitions open this fortnight. In Graffiti Brasil, the country’s spray scene is shown through photographs of works by daredevil pichadores and the internationally renowned Os Gemeos…

HIV - The Comeback Tour

All venues, Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond

18 Sep 2006

HEALTH & RELATIONSHIPS Remember that disease that was big in the 80s? You know - AIDS it was called - all over the telly at the time. They said it would be absolutely massive in the UK, but it never quite happened. You don’t hear much about it now. I…

The Truman Capote Talk Show

Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 12-Sat 16 Sep

1 Sep 2006

THEATRE In Murder By Death, the daft 1976 spoof whodunnit based on a Neil Simon screenplay, five sleuths arrive at the mansion of eccentric millionaire Lionel Twain. He plans dinner, and then a murder, which they must solve. Aided (and hampered) by…

Phil Nichol

21 Aug 2006

The Walker Brothers once crooned that breaking up is so very hard to do. It must be tougher still when it’s because you bit one of your girlfriend’s bunions during sex. But hey ho, Phil Nichol drugged the pain away on a four-day bender in Amsterdam…