Snack - Issue 06

ISSUE 06 HONEYBLOOD UNKLE ANNIE BOOTH SCARLETT RANDLE JOE PENNA MUSIC FILM FOOD AND DRINK TRAVEL LGBT+ VISUAL ARTS WORDS

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CONTENTS WHAT’S ON MUSIC FOOD & DRINK TRAVEL EVENTS | PAGE 07

HONEYBLOOD, UNKLE, ANNIE BOOTH . . . | PAGE 14

VILLAGER, FLYING DUCK, VEGAN TRAVEL | PAGE 36

JAPAN | PAGE 43

Disclaimer: Snack Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reproduction of this magazine in part or in whole is forbidden without the explicit written consent of the publishers. Every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content of this magazine but we cannot guarantee it is complete and up to date. Snack Publishing Ltd. is not responsible for your use of the information contained herein.

E: hello@snackpublising.com Editor/Sales: Kenny Lavelle Food and Travel Editors: Emma Mykytyn and Mark Murphy LGBT+ Editor: Jonny Stone Words Editor: Leona Skene Designer/Illustrator: Fionnlagh Ballantine Spine Quote - Jenny Holzer Sales: Kiril Kirilov

LGBT+ FILM VISUAL ARTS WORDS EUROVISION, TOM HARLOW, NEWS | PAGE 47

ARCTIC | PAGE 53

DOMESTIC BLISS | PAGE 56

THE RETURN | PAGE 58

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Hello. Welcome to the sixth edition of Snack.

When the idea for the magazine was in its infancy, a few of us got together to compile a list of who we thought would be ‘Snack’ type artists, who we’d like to feature, something of a wishlist at that point.

In our first five issues we’ve been lucky enough to have ticked off a good few on that list (a decent

sign that we’re sticking to the plan) and I’m glad we’re continuing this run with Stina Tweeddale and James Lavelle. They’ve more in common that might be immediately apparent, both having chose to evolve their main project in the wake of key members leaving and both slightly weary of answering questions about the change. There’s a metaphor for current day UK in there somewhere.

As always, I’m sure you’ll find your way around.

Kenny Lavelle

WHAT’S ON GUIDE DAMMIT-FEST

Bloc, Glasgow – 18th May Bloc’s beloved club night “Dammit” will be making a guest appearance this May in Glasgow’s “Nice n Sleazy’ for an epic all-day session of music and melding. Phil Morton, the architect of this event, has arranged for 10 bands to play throughout the day in order to raise money for Rape Crisis Scotland. Representatives of RCS will be making an appearance and bands will be selling merchandise throughout the day. All donations welcome. 10 bands for a tenner, nae bad!

AWRITE HEN! Flamingosaurus Rex, Edinburgh – 6th-30th April Ever think about the language we use to describe women? Enter Maria Stoian and Natalie J Wood with their exhibition on “chicks”. Featuring a combination of illustrated ceramics, prints, decorative plates, other tableware, and nudes, it is guaranteed to make you laugh and think.

Fancy a chat about lady language, a drink, and wee chocolate egg? You can catch them at Edinburgh’s Flamingosaurus Rex for the whole month of April.

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The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow – 7th-8th May GOTHeatre Productions presents an 80’s throwback comedy horror musical about a strange girl named Amanda who is kidnapped by an inept serial killer. Inspired by classic horror slasher films and promising a night filled with laughter, shock, and fright, and an epic twist that is really not a twist at all, but we won’t know until we go. Book and lyrics by Joseph Traynor and music by Luke Barratt. Tickets are only a fiver, well worth a shot.

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GLASGOW COFFEE FESTIVAL The Briggait, Glasgow – 4th-5th May Dear Green Coffee Roasters are bringing back Glasgow’s coffee festival. A massive two-day celebration of the coffee community and culture in Scotland. This year’s event will be held at The Briggait and will feature local roasters and cafes, competitions sanctioned

by Specialty Coffee Association UK, masterclasses, and demonstrations. Why not enjoy a freshly brewed cuppa while viewing the many artwork, film and presentations from local coffee extraordinaires.

METROPOLIS Britannia Panopticon, Glasgow – 4th May “The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart”. He was referring to the people, or rather the different classes of people, and a mediator to bring them together. Metropolis is the long loved expressionist science fiction masterpiece by German directory Fritz Lang, and Glasgow’s Britannia Panopticon recognise that it is a film to be celebrated. Join them in hosting another wonderful movie night with live music and sound effects from Gladstone’s Bag.

PIA CAMIL: BARA BARA BARA Tramway, Glasgow – 12th April-23rd June Tramway will be welcoming the Mexico-City based artist Pia Camil for her first solo exhibition in Scotland. The name which stems from the Spanish word barato, meaning cheap, refers to the cry of street vendors trying to lure in potential buyers. The massive and highly immersive parachute-type installation is comprised of t-shirts that reflect the street markets where they were purchased in Iztapalapa. Definitely worth a visit!

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Edinburgh – 11th May Get ready for the world’s biggest inflatable 5K run. With enormous inflatable obstacles, such as slides and massive spikey balls, placed in different locations around the city participants are guaranteed to have an absolute blast. Anyone can also pay more and run the course as many times as they wish to raise money for charities including Children In Need. Participants are provided with commemorative t-shirts and wrist-bands

The Modern Institute, Glasgow – 16th March-11th May 2004 Turner Prize winner, Jeremy Deller, famous for his re-enactment of the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ uses sculptures and screens to explore the social make-up of Britain in the mid 80’s and its relationship to the ‘Second Summer of Love’.

Deller utilises rare and unseen archive footage to illustrate the initial knee-jerk wave of tabloid and government hysteria to acid house and the late 80’s underground raves and highlights their role in bringing us together at a time of political turmoil.

Will no doubt offer some perspective.

BREAKOUT – SHORT FILM FESTIVAL Cameo, Edinburgh – Saturday 4th May Every year Cameo Picture House in Edinburgh holds a very excellent short film festival full of work by independent film- makers. This year’s festival boasts quite the collective of award winning, local and international directors, presenting an array of thrillers, dramas, romance, auto-biographical accounts, suspense, and LGBT content! All shorts will be screened on the night, where the winner will be announced, and trophy awarded.

What’s on by Sarah McCombe Page 11

WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF

DUNDEAD HORROR FILM FESTIVAL Dundee Contemporary Arts centre – 25th April Dundee is no stranger to a film festival. This year the city is taking bank holiday weekend to a bloody new level with this year’s horror film festival. Hosted by Dundee Contemporary Arts it is guaranteed to send shivers down your spine with a mixture of previews of rare titles, cult classics, comic horror and some family friendly frights! It will kick off with its legendary Dundead Film Quiz with a chance to win fantastic prizes and promises of eternal Dundead glory!

PAISLEY FOOD AND DRINKS FESTIVAL Paisley Abbey – 26th-27th April Not all foodie weekends are created equal!

Paisley is teaming up with PLATFORM to bring us this year’s (definitely more equal than others) Food and Drink Festival. Stretching over two days and featuring more than 40 vendors plus 10 taste laden street food trucks, courtesy of Platform.

There’s even a dedicated vegan section. Gin 71 and Renfrewshire CAMRA beer tents will be on site to keep you lubricated. Music over the weekend will be provided by the good people from The Bungalow.

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh – 16th-20th April Traverse Theatre presents Cora Bissett’s award winning Fringe performance. Based on her teenage diaries comes the true story of the journey Bissett took, from a young girl in a small town in Fife in 1992, to the woman she has always wanted to be.

Celebrating life’s highs and lows from a schoolgirl in Glenrothes to a rock star in the music biz, pondering the wisdom we should pass on to the next generations and considering the mistakes we should let them make. Set to be moving and hilarious!

RENEE RILEXIE – INNERVERSE Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh – April 10th-27th London based mixed media artist Renee Rilexie focuses on synaesthesia and the emotional power of colour frequencies. Her art reflects sounds, colour, emotions, and links together her work telling the story of her personal journey.

Edinburgh’s Dundas Street Gallery will play host to her first large scale installation, which will occupy the entire gallery space. She uses a respectable 10,000 yards of wool to convey a conversation resonating the inner self, dreams, thoughts, and connection with life, Pretty intense.

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What’s on by Sarah McCombe Page 13

HON EY B Honeyblood are back with a bang and a tour itinerary that will make hardened rock n rollers wince. We caught up with Stina to chat about changes, shows and new record ‘In Plain Sight’.

Are you ready for months of questions about who the songs are about and what happened with Cat? Yes, it’s alright, I’m prepared!

You’re on a new record label and you’re more front and centre than you’ve ever been – is this a clean slate for you?

I think it is. I didn’t even think about that, there have been a lot of changes in my life recently. I think people know what the deal with Cat was, if you care about someone, you let them go. Cat had an incredible opportunity with Mogwai, and that has led on to other stuff.

It’s scary but it has been so liberating for me, having Honeyblood as my own thing. Maybe calling it a band was a delusion of grandeur, it wasn’t really was it?

I really like the idea and majesty of a band though.

Yeah, me too, I love that. I always

“IT’S SCARY BUT IT HAS BEEN SO LIBERATING FOR ME, HAVING HONEYBLOOD AS MY OWN THING.”

MUSIC wanted to be in a band, I never wanted to be a solo performer. When I started, I was writing songs but I was wanting to play the bass and do backing vocals, not be front and centre but that’s how it turned out and you can’t ask others to live your life for you.

Last year you racked up a few solo shows and you had a collaboration with Carla J Easton – did that free up possibilities for the new record?

Yeah, do you know, Carla was one of the first people I spoke to about the solo thing.

LOOD Music by Andy Reilly Page 15

She was sitting in my house and the same thing happened with Teen Canteen, where the drummer had a baby, so they’re on hiatus and Carla went out by herself.

It was interesting to have the perspective of someone I know who had done that in her career, and successfully as well. Her new record is brilliant.

How nervous were you before the lead track, The Third Degree, was released and how do you feel the response has been?

I’m always nervous when the first song comes

“SOMEONE ASKED ME WAS IT THE SAME EX-BOYFRIEND I HAD FROM SUPER RAT AND I WAS LIKE NO, IT’S NEW PEOPLE.”

out because it’s the first taste of the album for other people.

I was a bit worried because Babes Never Die was such a rock guitar driven record whereas this new record doesn’t play on those rock traits as much. The feedback has been really good and it’s always lovely to have 6 Music on side, that was really nice.

Glimmer and Gibberish seem to be the tracks that long-term Honeyblood fans will latch on to most readily, while there will be plenty of surprises in store. Have you always had an evolution of sound in mind?

Definitely, even before I started writing the first album or Babes Never Die, I wanted to make a record that was based on our live show and which showcased a rock band. When I started writing this record, one of my aims was making guitars not sound like that classic guitar sound.

It became a bit of a free for all, so I started branching out. I bought a piano and the synths came in, and that allowed me to do something different.

You’re A Trick and Twisting The Aces seem to take your sound to very different places, how was the recording process for these songs?

For those two songs, it was surprisingly easy and they came together quickly. In fact, we recorded the whole album in nine days.

John works speedy, I’ve never met anyone who works as fast as him. He was like “whatever comes to you straight off the bat, that’s fine, let’s lay that down.” We had 12 days booked so we had three days left! I was texting him asking can I come in and redo that vocal or this guitar and he was coming back to me saying, “no, go away, stop worrying about it”.

There appears to have been a lot of people fucking you over in the build-up to the writing process for the record, are you going to have to look at finding a new set of friends?

Oh no, they’re all fine, they know me well enough! Someone asked me was it the same exboyfriend I had from Super Rat and I was like no,

it’s new people.

Also, I like to write things for other people, it’s not always my own personal perspective. I like to be that little voice in people’s heads where they think things but maybe don’t say them, and I’ll say it for them. That’s why The Third Degree was written, I wrote that for my best friend.

Have you given much thought to the mix of old and new songs in the upcoming tours?

Yes I have, I’ve made a setlist already but I’m still taking requests. It’s nice to hear about album tracks that people really love and then I’m like, oh yeah, I forgot about that. I now have three albums worth of stuff to pick from, and that’s a lot! I’m maybe going to change it up a bit as we move along.

In 2014, you played two sets at Stag & Dagger and now in 2019, you’re a headliner. Is that a good reminder of how far you’ve come and perhaps set new goals for you?

Yeah totally, I never even thought about that.

We played twice in 2014, the first gig in a hairdressers’, that I don’t think exists any more. I remember it being absolutely sweaty as well.

It was dangerously overcrowded. It was fun at the time…

Yeah, and then we played Broadcast. As did Courtney Barnett, imagine that now, Courtney playing Broadcast! It is a pretty big thing, it stares you in the face doesn’t it? I’m excited about Stag & Dagger, think I’ve been to every single one, it’s a great day out.

Honeyblood play Stag & Dagger on Sunday 5th of May. New album ‘In Plain Sight’ is released on Friday 24th of May, with a Mono in-store show on the same day. The tour also features Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh shows.

HONEYB Music by Andy Reilly Page 17

UNKLE When we speak to James Lavelle, his new UNKLE album The Road: Part 2 (Lost Highway) has been out for just over a week and he’s getting prepared for its live premiere at the Southbank Centre, London.

He’s looking forward to bringing it all back to where it began for him by DJing with Milo, originator of the The Wild Bunch collective, one of the people James says inspired him to start DJing back in his teenage years.

Members of The Wild Bunch went on to start Soul II Soul and Massive Attack, so that group was a basis for a lot of the things that Lavelle has been involved with in his career. Shy One will also be DJing. ‘It’s going to be an interesting joining of the dots.’

He’s hoping to take the show on the road with gigs in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England, as well as abroad. But for the moment his focus is on getting the Southbank Centre show where it needs to be, and to celebrate the culmination of what was two years work in bringing the album together. ‘I’m trying to split it into sections, do something a bit different. If you imagine a club set and then an after hour set within the venue, it’s slightly different from what I’ve done before.’

Lost Highway is the second part of the trilogy Lavelle started in 2017 with The Road: Part 1.

I’m thinking about why he would lay it all out from the start, the plan of dividing it into three parts? I ask him, why put that pressure on himself?

It was something I’ve wanted to do for a while, as an idea. I didn’t think of it that way, in fact in

Music by Kenny Lavelle Page 19

a weird way it has decreased a certain amount of pressure, mentally. In a sense of splitting things up and having time to invest in one thing, this main idea. But actually then doing the second record, the pressure definitely did go on. You’re going between records that you’ve worked on that you’ve started a while ago, bringing in new things and trying to make sense of it all. But I think that’s generally the daily grind of it all anyway, of making records. I just wanted to do something that there was a bit more of a story to. I like the idea of doing something that’s over a trilogy in the same way that I like films that have done that. And growing up reading books like The Odyssey and people like Joseph Campbell and stuff like that.

What does The Road, as an idea, mean to you?

I think it’s two things for me, it’s sort of the creative journey that one leads. And along this

UNK

road, you meet people and you collaborate with them and you do things in different ways.

Sometimes it might be for a film, sometimes it might be for an exhibition, sometimes it’s just making records, making music for yourself. In a lot of ways, it’s creating a diary. Also, it’s a sort of metaphor for life’s journey. And so the way I’ve broken the record up, the first one is sort of leaving home, the second record is more going off on your journey, going off on your different tangents of experience and then the Freudian last part of coming back home.

With a lot of your work and throughout the new album, you reference previous work by yourself and others, either as full-blown covers, in the spoken word parts or in little audio clues.

I always like when in hip-hop records especially [when they] skip narratives, within the records, these things would join tracks and give space for tracks. It works in being able to ambiguously express something vocally but also to give a narrative between things, especially on a record like The Road: Part 2, where it’s very eclectic.

How do you go from one track to another without it being too jarring?

Is it a struggle to find cohesion, working on a project for such a long time and all of the different collaborators involved?

Only in the sense that you go from certain tracks to other tracks. Generally, a lot of records tend to be sonically in one place and you explore that place and that’s what the record becomes.

You might make a more lo-fi record, or electronic record or a more heavier record or a stadium record. Depending on what your objective is, the record tends to sit within a certain sound. This record doesn’t, so it’s trying to find a way that you can go from americana to hip-hop to house.

I think you get the cohesion because you have a certain style and a certain kind of emotional style that one works within, but that was my objective.

I was thinking more in the way of how I would do a radio show or an eclectic DJ mix, or how you

KLE

listen to records when you’re in a car. There is a context to why the record is eclectic, and the way it is, and putting that in place, people seem to understand it in a different way.

So, with Part Three, the theme is going to be ‘coming home’?

I found myself in the last few years, going back and listening and referencing, going back to the beginning a little bit. In the sense of reflecting on those times, and those things that are the place where you were at mentally when you first started.

For me, and a lot of my friends, we desperately tried to get away from where we grew up. We grew up outside of London. And then you go to London, and you have that journey within the different worlds. A lot of it being very sort of city, very club, very nocturnal, very urban. Then you find yourself moving back in to somewhere more country and akin to where you grew up.

And I think it is that kind of Freudian thing, how you eventually come back to where you started.

I don’t want to go and make Psyence Fiction or The Time Has Come, it’s not about that. It’s certain emotional things, sonic references that, I think for me, I went away from for a long time that I’m coming back to a lot more in the last few years.

What’s your take on streaming and how instant things are at the moment? Is some of the magic or the joy of discovery being lost?

For me, it’s not that. I don’t think the magic of discovery is lost. It was a different process back in the day. It could take you two or three years to find a record, and there was a joy in that experience.

That had a very social experience within it. It became that journey with your contemporaries, trying to find things. Pre-internet, it’s your way of culturally connecting with people through, in my world, collecting. Whether it was records, or clothes or toys. I think that with digital, the idea that I can access music quickly, in the sense of ‘I hear something, I Shazam something’, you can follow up on things quicker in a sense. It can be brilliant if you’re trying to find an Israeli marching band record, or a Turkish psychedelic record or whatever.

I think, culturally, streaming is also something that depends on your age. How you engage with music and art. When you’re 16 and music is just free to most people, you don’t really consider it. Your mum and dad might be paying for your Spotify account, or whatever and music is essentially this free thing. That becomes a very different debate. And I think that it’s tough in the sense that if physicality didn’t exist for certain kinds of artists, I don’t know how you’d make records, which would mean a great deal of beautiful music not being made.

Streaming is interesting. For instance, music streaming, for the major record companies, if you are Drake or Rianna or I don’t know… Fishermen’s Friends, whatever it may be, it’s fantastic. They just clean it up. The investment is different and they can make huge amounts of money and they’re all back in the game. The only thing that I find, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently, is that it doesn’t work in the same way that a streaming platform like Netflix works. Let’s say UNKLE is a film, and I make it, I can go sell it to Netflix, recoup my money. Netflix or Hulu or whatever can just say ‘we’ll spend X amount of money and make your movie or your TV show’, right? So, they are investing in you. Apple doesn’t do that, for me or any sort of alternative artist. So actually it depends on the way streaming works.

I’ve just worked with Alfonso Cuarón. Netflix doing Roma, what fucking result. You get this very alternative, beautiful, independent art. A piece of cinema, paid for, supported, marketed, and then it becomes a great success. Everybody wins in that situation.

I think when you’re independent and you get in the top 40 or whatever, which for me on a personal level is quite an achievement when you think of thousands of records coming out a week, you don’t really see anything back for it.

Whereas 10 or 15 years ago, if you had that, then you had an economic living out of your records.

We are engaged in a computer digital era, and yes, we have to move forward in those ways.

I just think music always seems to be this sort of strange place in the way that it never balances out appropriately.

That starts from the bottom, it’s from the grassroots all the way up.

Yeah, there is a culture from the grassroots up.

I look back at my Mo’ Wax days, I never made a penny. Some people have done very well and that’s brilliant, but there has always been, from the grassroots of it, this sort of slightly dodgy way of how money works. All the record execs move around and make millions of pounds, some of the artists do well, but a lot of them come and go.

Spotify, they’ll invest in Billie Eilish or somebody.

But so does everybody else. I’m not having a dig at her as a musician, she’s great. But it’s not like the investment goes into the alternative side of the music business. Where are we without that world?

Then the commercial world doesn’t exist, because there’s no juxtaposition.

Have you any production work or remixes coming up?

Yeah, there are going to be remixes of some of the tracks coming. And I just worked on the visual piece to accompany the film which is going to be coming out soon. I’m sort of going to have to catch my breath a minute before I get back into Part Three and see what else is on the horizon, really. I really just want to tour. I’ve got a Psyence Fiction reissue and other stuff that’s more back catalogue orientated as well.

The Road: Part 2 (Lost Highway) is out now on James Lavelle’s Songs For The Def label

ANNIE BOOTH Annie Booth is in an in-between time. “I’ve just had my last shift in the post office”, she tells me. I’m surprised; not that she works in a post office, or that she no longer works in the post office, but that I’d caught her at quite the inbetween time of leaving a job to talk about an EP which chronicles getting jobs and leaving them, and all the general confusion that getting older guarantees. It’s just one of those things, though, isn’t it? “Yeah, definitely” Annie says. “It can be quite a complicated path, can’t it? I’ve just always loved music, so I’ve never really stopped.” Maybe it doesn’t need to be as complicated as people think.

Annie Booth released her debut album, An Unforgiving Light, in 2017. Now she is returning with a four-track EP Spectral, to be released jointly

by Scottish Fiction and Last Night From Glasgow, working with Chris McCrory – who has previously produced the likes of Catholic Action and Siobhan Wilson.

“I started off doing open mic nights and got asked to do more established gigs from then” Booth tells me. “I met the band on the album from uni. I’d written these songs I’d had for a while, it was the first time playing something that I’d written with a band.”

Playing with Mt. Doubt, Booth met Neil from Scottish Fiction, and things snowballed from there. It’s an origin story common to the Scottish music scene, where small pools of artists create echo chambers of opportunity and sound. “I love everything that comes with the Scottish music scene, and there’s a lot of support for live music. It’s championed, I think, and it seems to be especially appreciated in Scotland.”

I tell Annie that I think working with Scottish Fiction suits her sound. Her music isn’t troubled by

the hallmarks of a Scottish musician’s existence – at least, not in any obvious way. There are no tartans or bagpipes, but technical riffs and soaring vocals that sing of the troubles of ageing and learning as we age. Like Scottish Fiction and LNFG, it feels homegrown; like you can hear the artists Booth has worked with and the people she’s met, rather than the places she’s been or seen. It feels like she’s grown into her music.

“It’s really lovely how small the networks are; you can make so many friends”, Booth laughs.

“Even in this phone call, we have so many mutual friends. I feel that it’s so nice the way that people meet each other and that we have a home-grown environment. It’s really nice.”

“I think sometimes people forget how multifaceted being a musician and working in the industry can be. There are lots of different strands that are all really important to do your job, lots of cross-over.”

I ask Annie if she thinks that writing and creating in a situation so rooted in Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, influences her sound. “Naturally, it does. It’s not intentional. Being inspired by Mt. Doubt, watching the guys make music… I’m also really inspired by the likes of Kathryn Joseph, Hamish Hawk, C. Duncan. Whether they’re Scottish or not it is part of their sound. I like that they’re all really pushing the boundaries of their genres and they’re very good at emotionally connecting with audiences, that’s what I strive for.”

Spectral is a more vulnerable, close record than An Unforgiving Light before it. In tracks such as ‘Magic 8’ and ‘Still’, Booth both sonically and lyrically lays herself bare, creating a sparse and atmospheric landscape, on top of which she lays her rawest self. It’s music that can see seen as both a saviour to and a relic of time spent by someone

in need of being saved; reminiscent of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers or even PJ Harvey.

“We all struggle with mental health and issues in our day-to-day lives. As someone who… I really think that music….” Booth tails off, laughing about rambling in her answers. “It might not fix people but it definitely alleviates stuff and soothes you in ways that other things don’t. A lot of Spectral is written from that point of view. When I wrote it, it was just after the album. The local support was really lovely to see, but I was in the ‘what-now’ period. I think I’m expressing feelings that come from feeling slightly disconnected from my surroundings.”

Spectral displays a more mature sound from an artist who is clearly growing into herself. I ask Booth how she thinks it compares to An Unforgiving Light . “The album had a rocky, driving sound. The band fleshed it out a lot, with cool riffs and ideas that enhanced the sound. It was quite upbeat.

Spectral is more introspective and stripped back. I wanted it to be an experience to the listener rather than a collection of songs… I booked the recording before writing the songs. There were days I didn’t

feel inspired by anything, and I’d have a week with nothing, and then in minutes I’d have something.

It was a cool way of challenging myself to create the songs.”

I mentioned that Booth reminds me of the likes of Bridgers and Baker, artists who write into their sadness, choosing to talk about emotions in a contemporary voice that situates their feelings in the present. “It’s nice to see stronger female voices in music, especially in Scotland” she tells me. Booth is just fresh from gigging for International Women’s Day, something that she feels quite strongly about.

“I want to see equality in music. It’s attainable, but there’s still a bit to go. I want to be even footed with men.”

It’s happening, we agree. Spectral might channel the confusion and listlessness of a growing maturity, but Booth’s voice is sure of one thing, at least: it is a voice that should be heard.

Catch Booth at the Blue Arrow, Glasgow on 26th of April.

Spectral EP releases May 10, 2019 on Scottish Fiction and LNFG Records.

Music by Carla Jenkins Page 25

SCARLETT RANDLE

SCARLETT RANDLE

What are your origins in music? When was the moment you realised, ‘Yes, I can be a singer songwriter’?

You know, I don’t think there was ever really a poignant moment where I thought ‘you know, I’m gonna do this music thing’. I played violin in school, and I moved down to Glasgow from Aberdeen. I would get my guitar out in the flat and my flatmate was laying listening to me singing and he was like ‘play some songs for me’ and he really enjoyed

my music. So it kind of snowballed from there. I just knew that I really enjoyed it. It kind of crept up on me and from out of nowhere, oh all of a sudden I’m a singer-songwriter. I’m a musician.

Where did you take musical inspiration from?

I think my favourite music is music that’s not burdened by a genre. I think when you write a song you need to write to the song and hear where that’s going rather than try and think ‘oh, where does this fit in with my sound and my image?’ What’s important to me is being myself.

When I was younger I was really into The Beatles.

Now there’s Maggie Rogers and Christine and The Queens but I wouldn’t say I tried to write like them. I just try and do my own thing and see where that takes me.

Let’s talk about your new single, ‘Her’.

What was the writing process like?

I write a song differently every single time, but for this one, my flatmate and I were recording in the evening and he’d just gotten this 80s drum machine and was playing a beat. It sounded a bit like the intro to Africa but with more stuff going on and I realised how cool it would be to have something juxtaposing that.

Then we couldn’t get anything to work in the song and I was like ‘this is really annoying!’ We sat on it for a really long time; it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. But I heard the rest of the song in my head and we tried it without the drum track and the rest fell out of me, which was really cool.

“I BELIEVE GENDER IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT AND WE’VE BEEN EXPLORING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FEMININE AND TO BE MASCULINE IN OUR SONGWRITING”

What about the lyrics to ‘Her’, what’s the story behind them?

My flatmate and I had an argument a few years back about Sam Smith and how he wasn’t using pronouns in his music. The song was about a girl and I think I asked ‘why should you have to put pronouns and make a statement?’ but then I was like, ‘hang on, it’s not making a statement.’ It’s 2019, there are still folks that make comments about it and it is putting another thing about yourself out there to be criticized. At first, that was a bit scary, but now I know this is who I am.

I remember when I was younger there weren’t any kind of songs that would just openly say things I wanted to hear. There was Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’ and I remember I was really interested in that but I didn’t know why. But that song isn’t quite what I needed. It did really help me but I wish there had been more representation. It maybe would have been a bit easier and it would have helped me realise how I feel and that it’s normal.

I want other people to feel like that.

I believe gender is a social construct and we’ve been exploring what it means to be feminine and to be masculine in our songwriting. I’m really excited to explore that and talk about it because I think fear makes people act in a certain way and a lot of people are just scared of change. I think that’s the way society works, to put fear into people rather than having open discussions. It’s just making the point that not everybody feels the same and the world is not black and white.

Do you think the trans movement will be accepted and people will be accepting as they were with the gay movement?’

I think the reason that the gay movement was accepted so quickly was because the gay movement was led by white men who have more privilege than most. Whereas, the trans movement is currently being led by trans women of colour, whose voices are often dismissed.

Music by Peter Greenwood Page 27

STEPHEN MALKMUS

into a track listing that seems to dive straight into electronica then, three tracks in, gives up any sort of electro pretence. The instruments continue to sound synthesised but you’re not going to catch Limmy’s Da character unbuttoning his shirt to anything here.

The opening track might be my favourite.

Belziger Faceplant starts with a marimba-like synth following a loop one measure longer than the drums – such audible weirdness immediately evokes Aphex Twin and Add (n) to X. The synth disappears and an effects-heavy vocal enters with Stephen doing his best Bowie-lite, octave-skipping yelpings. On the minute mark, the whole thing crashes together and is pretty banging with layers of synths fighting with each other to dominate the driving groove.

A Bit Wilder channels a fair chunk of Gary Numan – all chorus-soaked bass and electronic snares complete with uneven delay effects.

Although the vocals are very different from the first track, there’s a theme in the first few tracks of the album that you’ll do an audio doubletake every so often. The delivery is a lot less loquacious than we’ve come to expect from Malkmus. Less conversational and wearing more eyeliner.

Third track and lead single Viktor Borgia has an intro eerily similar to the spaceship’s communication coda from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It bounces along as the bleeping synth steadily sounds less like an interplanetary visitor and more like the main riff from Pocket Calculator by Kraftwerk. When you include the very 80s vocals, it feels like a club floor filler being played at 33 RPM. Disorientating yet groovy and slightly uplifting.

It’s at this point, to my ears, the album abandons the guy-in-a-basement-for-six-months vibe and just straight reverts to the registered trademark of The-guy-from-Pavement. Come Get Me could be a Pavement or Jicks song. It’s not a bad thing, in fact, the song is a cracker. There’s a shamisenlike twang throughout it and the stabbing rhythm

DEN Groove Denied – Track by track.

There were rumours of an album written by Stephen Malkmus in Berlin doing the rounds for a few years – enough time for it to gain a small bit of notoriety – it had supposedly already been recorded and was being held back from release as it was either so ludicrously leftfield or too club-orientated for his usual audience. The notion of the latter probably tickled most – Ravement, if you will So, following the release of last year’s broadly brilliant Sparkle Hard with his now regular band, The Jicks, Groove Denied is now here.

Sparkle Hard is worth mentioning in context as it was a decidedly structurally tight affair for The Jicks leading to the idea that Groove Denied would be a kicking antithesis to this – rambling, experimental and alien.

Singer songwriters usually seen with guitars going to Berlin, buying an 808 and a sequencer and recording something (relatively) experimental could be seen as a cliché done by everyone who either had Low as their favourite Bowie album or spent their formative smoking years listening to Can and Neu! However, Malkmus’ work has always reflected wide influences and if anyone can pull off an indulgent grand one-off statement album, it would be him.

So, is it a platter of dancefloor-filling bangers?

A Postal Service style melodic marrying of electronic music to traditional songwriting? A bleak, introspective soundscape evoking graffiti covered tenements? It’s none of these things and neither is it a straightforward Malkmus post-Pavement album. It lands somewhere in between familiarity and personal innovation. It’s an enjoyably incoherent collection of songs put

guitars produce a real swaggering, staggering rhythm befitting any headphoned head going somewhere at their own pace.

Forget Your Place snaps you back into the virtual Berlin basement for three minutes with a swirling synth pattern that pulses like a TARDIS taking off. The modulated vocals, again, would be hard to identify as Malkmus if you heard it in the background somewhere. The latter 90 minutes of the song see mellotron type synth tracks appear and disappear over the TARDIS throbbing in the manner of Plastikman’s black

album without being as time consuming.

Rushing the Acid Frat is a bass-led jaunt complete with faux horns and yellow submarine style promo video. “No persuasion needed, No big loss” is the chorus’ repeated refrain with the word loss stretched into 8 catchy falsetto syllables.

Love The Door’s intro threatens a “guy mucking about with a drum machine” type track but echoing reverb-soaked guitars take over and are the closest the entire album comes to Krautrock. All the while, it remains reminiscent of an attempt to fuse Bacharach with a slowed surf guitar riff. It’s a swinger.

Bossviscerate is the album’s most obviously acoustic-led song albeit accompanied by a relatively harsh drumbeat. The vocals and lyrics are in very traditional Malkmus territory – broadly impenetrable while the odd line jumps out with meaning “Get off your high horse, let me on”. Indeed.

Ocean of Revenge seems to be a tale of outdoor labour in the Southern US before the surprise couplet of “Keep yourself in debt in Scotland, There’s nothing there, it’s already rotten” in the last verse.

Grown Nothing is a sombre sign-off full of rimshot and busy bass fills. There are two guitar solos which add a note of optimism to the busy yet mournful arrangement. The country twang of the guitar solos sound almost out of place on this album and more fitting of a Jicks song.

As an album with more good songs than bad and more worthwhile ideas than not, it’s extremely worth your time and money. If you buy this expecting some legendary lost concept album, it’s not quite going to fulfil your needs but I’m willing to bet you’ll enjoy it along the way. If you approach it expecting Ravement, I’m sorry but that album still hasn’t been made.

NIED “THE INSTRUMENTS CONTINUE TO SOUND SYNTHESISED BUT YOU’RE NOT GOING TO CATCH LIMMY’S DA CHARACTER UNBUTTONING HIS SHIRT TO ANYTHING HERE. ”

Music by Stephen McColgan Page 29

SOUTHSIDE FRINGE The Southside Fringe is back with their 2019 installment, again aiming to highlight the best of what this once overlooked part of the city has to offer.

It’s not just that some areas of the city have become too expensive or, in a couple of instances, progressively sterile and soulless, the southside

has in recent years been steadily gaining popularity on its own merits. It has cracking venues in The Glad Cafe, The Academy and The Rum Shack. The Tramway is rightly regarded as one of the country’s best contemporary art spaces, its principal exhibition space is one of the largest in Europe. There’s top notch food from Cafe Strangebrew and Julie’s Kopitiam and the brand new Civic Square at Langside Halls [pictured] to show off. It’s not just about Shawlands and Strathbungo though, there’s loads going on all over the southside this spring.

#KEEP IT This year’s launch weekend will see the first Southside Fringe Community Procession to the new Civic Square in Shawlands. In keeping with the Fringe’s ethos of community collaboration it’s being run in conjunction with Baldy Bane Theatre Company and Shawlands Business Improvement District with the aim of highlighting local diversity.

This will be a great opportunity to bring everyone together, showcase the best in independent local businesses and a carnival atmosphere is guaranteed. The annual summer parade is something that the West End Festival has sorely missed, maybe the southside can grow this event to fill the gap?

10th of May, the festival’s opening night will see the launch of their still top secret brand new music initiative. Details are being kept firmly under lock and key but we’re told that it’s all about supporting local grassroots talent and we can definitely get behind that.

The finale weekend of the festival (25th & 26th of May) will see Southside Fringe and Park Lane transform this Shawlands lane for the closing weekend of the festival. Expect lots of awesome entertainment from the Fringe family of acts along with tasty food and lots of good times.

“THIS WILL BE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BRING EVERYONE TOGETHER, SHOWCASE THE BEST IN INDEPENDENT LOCAL BUSINESSES AND A CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE IS GUARANTEED”

With music, art, comedy, walking tours, local markets, theatre, literature and more, the festival programme is as deep as it is wide. Pick up your copy of the programme from hundreds of locations around the city, grab a highlighter and get planning.

The Southside Fringe runs from 10th till 26th May with over 140 events at locations around the southside of Glasgow.

Find out more at Southsidefringe.org.uk

SOUTH Southside Fringe Supported Page 31

DOUNE THE RABBIT HOLE In a summer where certain festival line-ups have raised a few eyebrows, and even some laughs, DTRH have just kept on doing their thing, confidently putting together one of the strongest and musically diverse gatherings of the year.

The headliners this year are, again, top drawer.

We’re talking The Wailers, The Damned, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Battles, John Grant, Sister Sledge, Blanck Mass, Hawkwind and Simian Mobile Disco, here. But, to me, what makes DTRH special (apart from the stunning setting and community atmosphere) is the depth of their lineups. Have a look down the small fonts over the years and you’ll find a who’s who of the best up and coming Scottish acts. Hairband, The Ninth Wave, Happy

Meals (now Free Love), Fallope and the Tubes, BDY_PRTS, The Vegan Leather and Jackal Trades all played at the 2017 event.

So, on this year’s lineup, who are the Scottish acts that are worth leaving the campsite early for and bagging a few “I told you so’s” for the future?

Tom McGuire & The Brassholes have recently been building a reputation as one of the country’s most entertaining live acts. Their brand of accessible and good time funk and infectious hi-energy performances will surely see them as festival stick ons for years to come. Their set will be perfect for blowing away those campsite cobwebs.

Melisa Kelly and the Smokin’ Crows will draw a decent sized crowd, pulling people towards

them throughout their set. They’ve got an allages friendly blend of blues, soul and funk that will bring the crowd together, expect plenty of nodding, smiles and kids running about daft having a good time. Edinburgh based Chango Munks will happily fill your obligatory ska quota for the weekend.

By contrast, both Burd Ellen and Heir Of The Cursed will offer something more intense, not to mention a touch of gravitas. Heir Of The Cursed in particular is a perfect festival fit, allow yourself to switch off and let her truly great vocals wash over while brooding music swirls around.

If you’re looking for the latest act to show that the Scottish rap scene is in rude health, The Honey Farm are living up to the buzz that’s been building around them. Check out their hilarious video for L.A.D.S if you haven’t already done so.

Broken Chanter have their debut album coming out in September via Olive Grove Records and will be responsible for the most “oh aye, that guy” remarks when he appears on stage and starts to sing.

Dunbar’s Callum Easter released his sparse and darkly atmospheric Here or Nowhere LP on Lost Map Records at the beginning of April to pretty much universal acclaim. If you haven’t caught him before as support act to Young Fathers then Doune is your perfect opportunity.

It’s unclear whether Yoga Classes is an activity or the hottest new band made up of Nice N’ Sleazys bar-staff, with a bit of luck, it’ll be both.

Doune the Rabbit Hole 19th-21st July.

Tickets available at dounetherabbithole.co.uk

“TO ME, WHAT MAKES DTRH SPECIAL (APART FROM THE STUNNING SETTING AND COMMUNITY ATMOSPHERE) IS THE DEPTH OF THEIR LINEUPS”

Doune the Rabbit Hole Supported Page 33

PLAYGROUND With an almost too good to be true lineup, out of nowhere, a new festival appeared.

Questions. What is Playground? Surely we’re not going to have Hot Chip, Django Django, Anna Calvi and Groove Armada playing in Rouken Glen Park? What, Lauryn Hill too?

Taking place over 3 days starting on Friday 2nd August, Playground is set to be one of the highlights of the summer, so what can we expect?

Let’s start with the setting. Rouken Glen Park is easily one of the best greenspaces in and around Glasgow. A stunning mix of airy open fields and shady woodland pathways, complete with a mesmerising waterfall - it’s perfect for the getting away from it all without leaving civilisation behind vibe. There are easy transport links to the festival site, with plenty of bus services from Glasgow city centre stopping outside the park and Whitecraigs railway station is just a 10 minute walk away.

Fun fact: In the original Trainspotting movie, Sick Boy’s Unifying Theory of Life scene, where Renton shoots the dog with an air rifle, was filmed exactly at the festival site.

Friday night welcomes the magnificent, Groove Armada, headlining for their only full live Scottish show of 2019. They’re a perfect summer band by design and their big shiny anthems are a sure fire way to kick everything off in the most positive fashion. We’re especially looking forward to hearing ‘Paper Romance’ and ‘I see you Baby’ over the big speakers.

Multi Grammy award winner and all round legend, Ms Lauryn Hill tops the bill with her Saturday night slot. She’s on her The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 20th Anniversary Tour this year.

Miseducation was without doubt one of the key

albums of the 90’s, bringing hip-hop, soul and pop together in a timeless package that shows its influence on the likes of Cardi B and Drake, today.

Word is that she’ll be also playing tracks from The Fugees’ six time platinum album, The Score.

Who better than electro pop’s most cuddly boys, Hot Chip to close off the final day of the weekend? You just want to hug them, right? Their back catalogue is peppered with outright anthems and is undoubtedly one of the deepest around.

We can’t wait to groove along to Ready For The Floor, Over and Over, Boy From School and How Do You Do?, again. They’re just about to release their seventh album, A Bath Full of Ecstasy, the follow up to 2015’s, Why Make Sense? If their new single Hungry Child is anything to go by we’re in for a treat with the LP. They’ve recently taken to playing an, astoundingly true to the original, cover of Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’, all fingers crossed that they have that on their setlist for the Sunday night.

It’s not just about the headliners though: Swedish serial collaborators Little Dragon, goth rock virtuoso Anna Calvi, Maribou State and the inimitable Craig Charles make up the cream of a quality undercard along with adopted Scots and genre mashers supreme, Django Django.

Throughout the three days the Big Feed Street Food Market will be on hand to serve up the finest in street food from their artisan trucks, while plentiful cocktail and craft beer bars will serve up premium drinks.

See you up the Rookie!

Tickets are priced from

“A STUNNING MIX OF AIRY OPEN FIELDS AND SHADY WOODLAND PATHWAYS, COMPLETE WITH A MESMERISING WATERFALL IT’S PERFECT FOR THE GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL WITHOUT LEAVING CIVILISATION BEHIND VIBE” TICKETS £45 + bf and available from www.playgroundofsound.co.uk

Playground Supported Page 35

VILLAGER

seems to know where it is - it’s opposite the *Harry Potter* cafe. So don’t stand in line for food and drinks prepared by the hands of a muggle. Instead cross the road and into the Villager for some real magic.

Lunch is served 12 - 5pm with sandwiches The Villager has been, as far as we’re aware, making up the bulk of the menu (look out for on George IV Bridge for years and years the two for tenner sandwich deal). Most have but we’d never ventured in. It just didn’t a musical ring with gems such as Bohemian grab us. But last year it was taken over by Wrapsody (Scottish smoked salmon, avocado, Old Town Pub Co. and recently underwent a refurb complete with lemur wallpaper, homemade labneh, spring onions in a spinach wrap), We Jammin’ (Spicy Caribbean style jerk which we now want in our living room. And chicken, slaw, garlic sauce) and Piggie Smalls probably the bedroom too. Maybe even (BBQ pulled pork, emmental cheese, pickled the bathroom as well. Anyway, we’ve now cucumber, slaw). Each is served with salad or you been there twice in the space of a few days can have chips for an extra £1.50. The rest of the after walking past for so long and now feel menu is levelled up pub grub like veggie haggis the need to big it up to our friends but no one

Scotch eggs with homemade brown sauce and shareable dishes like BBQ chicken wings coated in aioli and salsa verde, halloumi with a tahini dip, and pub favourite nachos.

A seafood chowder is on the menu permanently as well as Soups Up, a seasonal soup of the day, which was lentil, pea and rosemary on our visit, and was promptly ordered. This was a thick, chunky soup made with, unusually, unblended lentils and peas with a fresh rosemary aroma. Unusually, served with toasted sourdough rather than bread.

There’s lots of cheese on the menu, which is music to my ears, so we couldn’t resist arguing over a plate of So Cheesey, lightly coated halloumi fingers for our other starter. The cheese was spot on - squeaky and salty and came with a

“WE MARVELLED AT THE MELTED CHEESY GOODNESS DRIBBLING DOWN THE SIDE!”

FOOD AND DRINK really thick tahini dip, which again is a bit different to the tomato or sweet chilli dips of elsewhere.

That’s what cheese said is a sourdough stack of smoked cheddar, gruyere and Parmesan, onion jam and tomatoes. We had this as our first sandwich and it really is a thing of beauty.

We marvelled at the melted cheesy goodness dribbling down the side!

We also devoured a Great balls of meat panini.

Venison meatballs in a marinara sauce coated in smoked cheddar. This was a hearty sub made all the more interesting by the inclusion of crunchy almonds and cashews in the meaty meatballs.

Desserts include apple and currant pie, sticky toffee pudding and a chocolate and hazelnut brownie. Unfortunately, we did not have room for dessert!

To wash down your food there are cocktails aplenty with some unusual craft beer cans and bottles in the fridge. There’s also a good selection of soft drinks but we were most interested in the gin selection which included Sweetdram Escobar, which technically isn’t a gin but a botanical spirit infused with raisins, vanilla and saffron.

Open from 12 noon until 1am for late night drinking all week. You can find further details on their Facebook page. Toilets are downstairs and were still having work done during our visits so we can’t fairly comment too much on that.

IN BRIEF High quality pub grub with a few unusual flourishes Cheese - and lots of it!

Great gin, beer and cocktail selection

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, foodieexplorers.co.uk Page 37

FLYING DUCK The task - write about a vegan lunch when you aren’t vegan...hmm well, it’s actually quite easy to do after a filling lunch at The Flying Duck! It’s not one of the first places us Foodie Explorers think of for food, being at basement level hidden away from the main road and somewhere we’ve been at night for gigs and clubbing so yeah, maybe it was about time to actually eat there!

The menu at Flying Duck has mains including chorizo and Scotch bonnet jambalaya with home baked ranch and chive biscuits, New England style Jackfruit Crab cakes made with jackfruit and sweet potato and served with 3 chilli piccalilli. If these don’t grab you then there’s a range of burgers and even a classic Berlin style doner kebab - which you can also get to take away for that authentic Berliner experience! Since we were feeling that Berlin dive bar feel, we ordered a beer and a Fritz Cola rhubarb spritz. Memories of Friedrichshain and summer days listening to good music and drinking inexpensive German beer...

Still believing that we were in Germany we decided to live life dangerously and eat a doner kebab sober. Generally made for that time after a few drinks when you don’t really care what’s in it or what it tastes like. But would a vegan doner kebab still hit the spot? And would that feeling of guilt, wondering what exactly we are eating, still hit us as we munched our way through? Well, what exactly is it if not meat? Well it’s seitan - that probably doesn’t help either! What is seitan then?

Also known as ‘wheat gluten’ it is very definitely not gluten free! Eaten predominantly in Asia, for centuries, it’s made by rinsing and cooking wheat dough to remove the starch, which results in seitan.

High in protein and calcium and low in fat so perfect for anyone looking for a non-greasy kebab alternative. When the kebab arrived the ‘meat’ was mixed with both chilli and garlic sauces with a side of crunchy slaw and salad. We must admit, it did look good and quite a healthy portion. And I mean healthy in the other sense too! Crispy seitan with lots of flavours, we honestly couldn’t tell you that it was vegan! A hit for both of us so definitely one to get when visiting again.

We also ordered the New England Jackfruit crab

cakes with chunks of Jackfruit and sweet potato mixed together in a falafel-style dish. The 3 chilli piccalilli was hot, maybe too hot as the sauce was needed for the three large cakes with not enough moisture to go round them all. The cakes themselves weren’t dry so much but they were really densely packed so after two of them, more sauce was needed (we took the final one home in a ‘ducky’ bag).

Our toilet checking of venues is well known, and we won’t talk about that here...it’s a bit of a dive

bar and place for gigs so expect accordingly. ;-)

IN BRIEF Didn’t miss the meat at all.

Rumour has the doner kebab is tastier here than at Vöner vegetarian restaurant in Berlin!

Like a late night kebab but way nicer and you don’t hate yourself at all afterwards.

A must visit for the veggie, vegan and foodcurious out there.

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, foodieexplorers.co.uk Page 39

VEGAN TRAVEL Vegan travel can be difficult at times and there are definitely locations where it’s tricky to get some decent nosh. Maybe you are one of the 3 million who will attempt to go vegan this year and you want to know how to fit it in with summer travels? Maybe I can help?

Here’s how I like to travel – vegan.

Air travel isn’t the nightmare it used to be, most airlines now cater for vegans but check ahead, order your meal and remind them again at check in. I take tons of snacks just in case. Make sure you have some nut free options as there’s always the risk someone will have an allergy on your flight.

When choosing which places to visit, I start by looking for something with authentic flare.

In Lisbon for example, I just had to hunt down some vegan Pastel de nata, well worth the effort.

Sometimes this involves looking up what’s famous where and then searching for this in reviews. Lots of places will have been visited by vegan food bloggers and they tend to be a good starting point.

The tourism industry worldwide, is becoming more vegan aware, but often hotel breakfasts are overpriced and options are limited, especially when you consider what you can actually find locally with a bit of exploring. Opting for selfcatering gives you more control on what to stuff your face with. Make sure to always filter for kitchen on Airbnb, you’ll be surprised how many don’t come with access. I scan the reviews for tips or message the host to see how well equipped it is. I’m not gonna lie, for my next trip, my booking may have been swayed by a comment which mentioned vegan banana bread.

Renting a car and road tripping means you can easily stock up on food. It’s great if you are

somewhere remote as often there really isn’t much choice outside the main cities. I’m not complaining as I have a weird obsession with foreign supermarkets. When planning our road trip in Canada we made sure to hit the areas in Vancouver close to Wholefoods, knowing it would save time and we’d have tons of vegan treats. Don’t get the pickle flavoured peas though – what was I thinking?!

We made sure to find the Beyond Burger and got it in ‘MeeT’ Vancouver. It’s literally worth the £300 air fare for their burgers and poutine.

Canada had tons of options but, with data expensive and WiFi scarce, finding them on the hoof without a phone is challenging.

“TRYING TO EAT AN AVOCADO WITH NO CUTLERY ON A BEACH WAS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE” I love Italy, and have visited several Italian cities as a vegan, a quick ‘sono vegano’ will tell the waiter all he needs to know. Most pizza dough is vegan, so a Marinara is doable and always amazing, but you don’t often get vegan cheese.

Focaccia however sometimes contains lard (its recipe varies by region) so make sure to check where you are. If you want a relatively less touristy version of Italy then try Turin, it’s the vegan capital of Italy! I feasted on cannoli, arancini, tiramisu, gelato, carbonara and lasagna. It’s worth a trip just to experience fine dining restaurant Chiodi Latini New Food, its tasting menu is incredible.

The chef was famous for meat specialties until he read The China Study and completely rethought his approach to food. Everything here is whole food plant based, totes healthy but you’d never know it. Restaurants like this make me excited for the future of veganism, It doesn’t have to be endless hummus (as much as I love hummus).

Next on my vegan radar is Berlin and Tel Aviv, both places renowned for their vegan fare.

I’ve also heard there’s a vegan Michelin starred restaurant in Vienna. I’m not sure what I would have to book first, the restaurant or the flights!

Vegan travel can be easy, but taking some time to plan can make it amazing. I don’t think being vegan would stop us going anywhere, but we are aware some locations will be harder. Trying to eat an avocado with no cutlery on a beach was a learning experience. Luckily for us there’s still plenty of places we want to explore that are having their very own vegan revolution.

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Food and drink Laura Woodland Page 41

JAPAN As astounding a city as it is, there’s a lot more to Japan than the bright lights of Tokyo. You’d be missing out if you only visit the capital. We seriously recommend getting a Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass) for high-speed rail access to the whole country. Discover a floating Torii gate, visit the Hiroshima bomb dome, watch the snow monkeys (all year round!), or chill with the feral cats on Ishinomaki (Cat Island).

There’s also a lot more to Japanese food than sushi and ramen!

Speaking to others who have visited Japan, we always hear the same things - the amazing toilets, outdoor vending machines and reliable Shinkansen bullet trains. The bullet trains are a must do for travelling long-distance and with a JR Pass,

you can get up to 1, 2 or 3 week’s unlimited travel across the entire national rail network visiting cities such as Hiroshima, Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto. You also get free seat reservations, the carriages are split for those with reservations and those without.

People tend not to pay the extra, meaning a reservation can mean a quieter, more spacious coach! Just remember that you can’t buy a JR Pass within Japan, you must purchase it online before you go and then pick it up from a designated location (e.g. Narita airport, where you will most likely land).

Along with your JR Pass you can also order a pocket WiFi device so that you don’t pay through the nose for internet. We ordered ours along with our JR Pass.

The main restrictions with the JR Pass are that you can’t travel on the two fastest trains, Nozomi (top speed of 186 mph) and Mizuho (185 mph) or on private railways. The Hikari is the fastest Shinkansen you can take using the pass. With a top speed of 168 mph, it beats the 125 mph possible on the Pendolino, so it’s still very fast!

You can also use your pass on the Miyajima Ferry (more on that later!) and the N’EX (Narita Express) train from the airport into central Tokyo.

There is so much to write about Tokyo that it deserves its own guide but we’ll give you our highlights. Underneath the main train station is an immense mall filled with restaurants and shops look out for Character Street where you will find shops dedicated to Studio Ghibli, Hello Kitty, Lego and others. At street level you’ll find one of the many chocolate wafer outlets selling exotic flavours (many are regional so look out for more on your travels). Also look out for the Ekiben bento box shops selling lunch boxes designed for long-distance eating! Again, the flavours you’ll find in the stations are regional. Shinjuku is where you will find the famous Golden Gai, alleyways crammed with tiny pubs and a possible inspiration for Blade Runner! If you want to get a view of Tokyo from up high for free then visit the Metropolitan Government Building. The South Tower is open during the day while the North Tower is open all day for

“THE SOUTH TOWER IS OPEN DURING THE DAY WHILE THE NORTH TOWER IS OPEN ALL DAY FOR NIGHT TIME PANORAMAS”

TRAVEL

night time panoramas. Between Shinjuku and Shibuya is Takeshita street and Harajuku district, where you’ll find many boutiques, quirky cafes and teenage girls dressed like dolls! Shibuya is worth visiting but the world’s busiest crossing is really... just a big crossroad. There are good bars, shops and places to eat around here. The first of many themed restaurants, Alcatraz E.R. opened here but has now closed. We preferred the Ninja restaurant in Akasaka anyway. Locate the entrance, watch for trap doors and let your ninja server guide you to your secret den where a scroll will be slipped to you….it’s actually the Travel by Mark & Emma, foodieexplorers.co.uk Page 43

menu! Great fun but expensive, though the food is of high quality. In nearby Roppongi, known for its nightlife, you’ll find Ms.Bunny. One floor is a rabbit cafe, the other is a hedgehog cafe (watch out, hedgehogs are nippy!)

The 52nd floor of the five-star Park Hyatt hotel’s New York Bar, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and views to Mount Fuji is well-known from its starring role in Lost in Translation.

Cocktails are surprisingly reasonably priced considering its iconic status. Look out for the L.I.T. cocktail, said to be pink to match the knickers Scarlett Johansson wears in the film!

Yokohama can be visited as a day trip from Tokyo and here you will find the world’s largest ChinaTown. Nikko is also a popular day trip destination but we recommend staying over to visit the Shinkyo bridge, Kanmangafuchi abyss and Mizo statues, Rinno-ji temple, as well as the Futarasan and Tosho-gu shrines - where you will find the original three wise monkeys (“see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”). We stayed at Stay Nikko Guesthouse, which we thoroughly recommend - you may even see monkeys in their garden! It’s a short walk from

the train stations, but note that there is both a JR and non-JR line to Nikko so make sure you use the right one to avoid being charged!

Osaka was once the capital of Japan, but nowadays it’s the street food capital and so we headed here for Takoyaki (octopus balls), Okonomiyaki (like a savoury pancake) and Kushikatsu (deep fried skewered meat or vegetables). We also ate fugu (puffer fish) here in a restaurant which only sold puffer fish in various guises - with sushi, tempura etc. Don’t worry, it isn’t actually dangerous, unless you insist on eating the poisonous parts which are not used in cooking, or try preparing it yourself!

Another of Japan’s former capitals, Kyoto is just what comes to mind when thinking of Japan. The city escaped the destruction of the Second World War, so there are still temples, shrines and history aplenty. Memoirs of a Geisha was partly filmed here, including the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine where the young Sayuri runs through the famous red torii gates. It gets extremely busy with tourists so arrive early. Also, wear comfortable shoes and expect to do a lot of walking! Look out for the many fox statues; the shrines here are dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice and foxes are thought to be Inari’s messengers.

Pontocho alley is full to the brim with great (and cheap) street food. Nearby Nishiki market also sells food and everything else you’d expect to find in a good market.

Polite deer are the draw in Nara which, again, was an ancient capital of Japan! Nara Park is one of the oldest parks in Japan and is home to over 1,200 wild sika deer as well as the Tōdaiji, Kōfuku-ji and Kasuga Shrines. Todai-ji, the largest wooden building in the world, houses a 50 ft tall statue of Buddha! Buy a pack of Shika Senbei (deer crackers) and the deer will bow for you in return for a cracker! Watch your bags, as the deer aren’t shy searching for extra snacks!

A visit to Yudanaka can cross off two Japanese to-dos. Snow monkeys and hot springs. The monkeys, Japanese macaques, live in Jigokudani Monkey Park which isn’t far from the onsen (hot spring) town of Yudanaka. On the walk to the man-made pool where the monkeys gather, you may encounter monkeys walking past, or sitting by the way. They don’t seem to mind their human visitors. The monkeys are around all year, but the best time to see them for that monkey chilling in a hot tub photo is between December and March when the snow is lying. After a long day of monkey spotting, relax in a Japanese bath.

Some ryokans (traditional guesthouses) have their own. We visited Shimaya Ryokan which had two communal pools (one male and one female) as well as a dinky private pool. If you stay here they’ll also drive you to/from the monkey park free of charge! We took the railway from Nagano to Yudanaka, where there is a Snow Monkey express train, but note that the line here

isn’t operated by JR so you’ll need to buy a ticket separately. We also recommend the food and beer selection from Hakko, mid-way between Shimaya and the train station.

Growing up during the Cold War and being terrorised by the film Threads when we were younger, meant we had to visit Hiroshima. First stop for us was the A-Bomb Dome, also known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. This area, once the bustling centre of Hiroshima is now filled with trees and lawns - a place for reflection. The former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall was one of the few buildings to remain standing. There is also a Peace Bell, Children’s Peace Memorial and Memorial Cenotaph with over 200,000 names listed. Hiroshima Castle is a 15-minute walk away and was reconstructed after the bomb, though you wouldn’t know it. You can also find a tree which somehow survived the bombing.

40 minutes outside Hiroshima, take a short ferry ride to visit the iconic Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima (Shrine Island). At high tide, the giant red torii gate appears to float in the sea and at low tide you can walk out to it. Take the JR Ferry for free with the Japan Rail Pass and the Miyajimaguchi JR station is a 4-minute walk from the port (there’s another non JR station beside, so beware). If you can’t make it to Nara, then you can get your deer fix here instead. Wild deer wander around the island and can be found snooping about the shopping area in the evening.

We were smitten with Japan, from the trains to the toilets via the polite animals. Japan can be as relaxed or as crazy a break as you make it.

There really is something for everyone!

Mark & Emma, foodieexplorers.co.uk Page 45

EUROVISON Looking back on our lives, at the ripe age of [you fill in the blank], there are a plethora of indicators of undeniable homosexuality that I can neither confirm nor deny apply to yours truly. After all, who didn’t have a fixation with the Pink Ranger, Chun Li and Mel C (in short, women who can perform backflips), sport a Gwen Stefani-inspired bindi at Christmas dinner 1997 or insist that their sister’s Barbies simply had to help Action Man on his current mission? However, the mark of a true queen is their historic attitude to the Eurovision Song Contest – the most next edition of which takes place in Tel Aviv, Israel on Sat 18th May. Of course, I am no exception, revelling in an era in which Ireland ruled with a glittery fist.

Great Britain will be represented by Michael Rice; though I’m sure he himself is aware of how likely he is to be taking the trophy home.

The UK could present national treasure Julie Andrews as its representative and still not take home the trophy. It’s not going to happen. But where’s the fun in winning, anyway…?

There is a lot to enjoy about Eurovision, but it is important to remember that what makes it so special, is that it is largely terrible. The production and performances are so absurd, so camp, it makes for compelling television. When life gets me down, I turn to ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’ Ukraine’s 2007 entry, or Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2008 entry, which has the power to lift even the darkest depression (if there’s anyone who can make sense of this performance, please get in touch with suggestions). Each year we see cringe-inducing presenter fails, absurd stage production and if all goes to plan, a plethora of drag queens: ingredients for perfect a gay television experience.

Eurovision has cemented its status as the gayest party on the world stage. I once read the ceremony described as ‘The Gay World Cup’, and why not?

At its heart, beneath the polyester and confetti, Eurovision is targeted at people from all walks of life. This translates nicely as a progressive, anythinggoes celebration of songs, fun and something distantly related to glamour. Plus, the Eurovision stage has been the home to a gaggle of gay icons like ABBA, Conchita Wurst, and Céline Dion. The very notion of celebrating what makes people special and unique, must have inspired an entire generation of gay youth.

But my allegiance to Eurovision has not necessarily been consistent. Until about 12, I earnestly watched Eurovision every year, with a sincerity and reverence I can only find adorable. My enthusiasm peaked in 2003 when my present-day unashamed favourites t.A.T.u represented Mother Russia. My interest in Eurovision soon waned, perhaps as I strategically distanced myself from what is undoubtedly the gayest event in the world. After all, what was to follow was a long-term, inevitably futile masquerade of heterosexuality. That very sentence can inform you of how successful this campaign would be.

For a closeted teenager, avoiding the very mention of Eurovision, unless in a sardonic cutdown, is surely essential in preventing any notions of homosexuality. For nearly ten years, Eurovision was not on my radar at all, either out of embarrassment or fear of getting ‘caught out’. Such is the rationale of an insecure, closeted teenager. However, over time and with much self-acceptance, 2012’s Swedish entry ‘Euphoria’ was a real game changer.

It rejected the cheesy guff I had grown to hate about Eurovision and is, simply, as perfect as pop can get. And with that, I fully embraced Eurovision

as something to be celebrated and admired (firmly tongue in cheek).

There are a host of songs I am excited to see performed at this year’s event in Tel Aviv: bookies are keen to tip the likes of Holland, Switzerland and even Malta to perform well. But, as always, I will be waiting with bated breath for when, inevitably, things go wrong. And that’s inherently what makes Eurovision the best: it’s a chance for us to remember that, in our current political climate, it is actually still possible to look on the bright side. When it feels like the world is one enormous toilet, perhaps Eurovision has the power to bring us together for one super gay night of diversity. And Lulu.

DIY EUROVISION PARTY: We can’t all be jet setting to Tel Aviv; allow us to advise and help bring Tel Aviv to you, ensuring you throw the queen of Eurovision parties. For starters, you should encourage your guests to choose a country out a hat and swear die-hard allegiance to said nation until the bitter end. Everybody loves the underdog, and in a competition where worst is somehow best, you might find yourself the reigning queen of the party. Face paint for your new given nation is always to be encouraged,

LGBT+ and with our quintessential drinking game rules, even the dourest of naysayers will enjoy the world’s biggest, gayest party.

Take a drink when the presenters insist on maintaining sexual chemistry that simply does not exist.

Take a drink at any prop/wardrobe malfunction, lighting or sound delay.

Take a shot during any attempts at a political statement. I would include broad platitudes about ‘love’.

Drink every time someone cries, authentically or otherwise.

Down your drink at a stage invasion: last year’s ‘F**k the British Nazi Media’ during the UK’s performance was something to behold.

Each time someone doesn’t sing in English, try and sing along. As soon as you find yourself struggling, take a drink. This may result in blacking out very early, so approach with caution…

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 47

TOM HARLOW SOUTHSIDE

FRINGE If you have experienced any cabaret or burlesque in Glasgow worth its salt, odds are you have been introduced to the incredible boylesque star and award-winning show-boy Tom Harlow. MC, stripper, singer: there is no end to the range of Harlow’s talents, and he has cemented himself as the country’s most compelling, exciting burlesque performer.

Aside from his residency at The Riding Room, Tom has been busy producing several fabulous events as part of The Southside Fringe Festival, a 16 day annual festival held in May across the Southside of Glasgow, hosting between 100 200 art, drama, cabaret, comedy, music, food and drink events.

On Sat 11 May, join Tom at “Harlow’s Hideaway,” a cabaret house party he is hosting exclusively for the fabulous and fierce filled with captivating cabaret, beautiful burlesque, marvellous magic and so much more. Expect the unexpected. The doors swing open at 7pm where you can grab a drink, soak in the sheer decadence of The Savings Bank and tap your toes to live music from vinyl DJ Paul Puppet. The party kicks off at 8pm with live shows popping up throughout the night when you least expect it. Tom will be joined by a plethora of special guests, such as Agatha Frisky, recently voted in the top 100 burlesque performers in the world, Glasgow’s fiercest and most fabulous burlesque troupe Temple of Tease, Rachel Atlas and many more. Nothing beats a night of burlesque, and Harlow’s events are to be seen to be believed.

The next day, Harlow brings his brand of glamour and fantasy to the masses in “Under the ABC,” an inclusive event of story-telling and cabaret just for kids. Tom will read some empowering diverse stories for kids as well as singing some of his favourite Disney songs. This will be a show for kids aged 10 and under to bring along their parents/guardians for an afternoon of fun and music. Doors open at 1pm with the show kicking off at 1.30pm. Afterwards, the merfolk are invited to get their “shellphones out for a mertastic shellfie with Merman Tom.” I love everything about this. This is a safe space for kids and adults to express themselves and be as creative as they want, and in the spirit of the event, costumes are actively encouraged.

Friends of Dorothy, you are invited to celebrate the life of Judy Garland as Tom pays homage to

the legend, looking at Judy’s most famous, highly celebrated and penultimate 1961 concert Judy at Carnegie Hall. This concert – the live album of which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year – was one of her last performances before she died and is noted as “the greatest night in showbiz history.” Harlow will be singing all of her greatest hits such as “Over the Rainbow,” “The Trolley Song,” “Get Happy,” “That’s Entertainment,” and so many more in this 90 minute musical extravaganza accompanied by a live pianist.

For the shamefully unfamiliar, Judy Garland is the quintessential queer icon. Vaudeville child star turned musical darling, Garland is one of Hollywood’s most important stars. Despite her colossal success, Judy’s personal life was marred with tragedy: however, Garland has remained the gay community’s most enduring and revered icon. And she gave birth to Liza Minelli. So bring your best Judy and join Tom as he pays tribute to a woman whose influence and legacy in our

community is still felt today.

So whether you are intrigued by a night of magic and cabaret, a glittery storytelling spectacle for the family or a fabulous tribute to a true gay icon, Tom Harlow has got you covered. Let’s be honest, in 2019, we could all use a bit more glamour and glitter in our lives. Few other artists are as inclusive, talented and fabulous as Harlow, and these events are not to be missed.

Harlow’s Hideaway takes place at The Savings Bank on 11 May 19, 19.00-1.00, as part of the Southside Fringe Festival. £15.

Under the ABC takes place at The Savings Bank on 12 May 19, 13.00-15.00, as part of the Southside Fringe Festival. £6 admits 1 person; £12 admits 2 people; £20 admits 4 people Tom Harlow sings Judy Garland takes place at The Savings Bank on 12 May 19, 18.0020.00, as part of the Southside Fringe Festival. £10-12.

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 49

LGBT+ NEWS SULTAN OF BRUNEI

POSE Months after its success in its native USA, Ryan Murphy’s ball drama Pose finally makes its way to British shores. Debuting on BBC, Pose follows a group of gay men and trans women of colour in the late 1980s who form their own splinter house, the House of Evangelista, in the midst of New York’s iconic drag ball scene. Inspired by legendary houses like Corey, Xtravaganza and Labeija, the show celebrates their glorious success and hardships, as well as following them as they navigate the woeful world of HIV/AIDS in full swing. But Pose is more than a tribute to a world often referenced and rarely appreciated: the show has an unprecedented cast of trans women of colour actually playing trans women of colour – something largely unheard of in Hollywood – as well as boasting a writing staff of trans icons like Our Lady J and Janet Mock (who has become the first trans woman to write and direct a TV episode). This is how it’s done! Is it perfect, or depict the lives of every trans person of the era? Of course not. But it is a really positive step in depicting such an important era in LGBT+ history with authenticity and respect. Catch it if you haven’t already on BBC iPlayer.

The most pertinent and concerning piece of LGBT+ news from across the world, of course, is the recent decision from the Sultan of Brunei to ban gay sex, an act now punishable by stoning to death. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s reforms impose penalties of amputations for theft, whipping for adultery and stoning to death anyone who engages in “sexual intercourse…done against the course of nature.”

Homosexuality was already illegal in Brunei ahead of this announcement, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The former British colony has retained the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1957. According to BBC News, these discriminatory laws apply mostly to Muslims, who make up about two-thirds of the country’s population of 420,000. This story has received worldwide coverage and a host of celebrities are supporting campaigns to boycott the Sultan’s chain of hotels, as well as some UK politicians like shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry. There is further concern that such draconian reforms will spread to other South East Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, both Muslim-majority nations. Signing petitions and boycotting Brunei on a global business scale may be the most effective forms of resistance, but it is Somehow the LGBT education debate is still still harrowing and happening; with discourse remaining over the deeply concerning existence of a queer-friendly curriculum in our to once again see schools should exist. Pink News contends that homosexuality more than 30 charities and campaigners warn considered a deviant, that protests against LGBT-inclusive education inhumane act by key “echo the damaging rhetoric that surrounded the international introduction of Section 28.” Groups opposing figures.

LGBT-inclusive education remain strong in cities like Birmingham and Manchester, particularly over the banning of the No Outsiders bullying

LGBT EDUCATION DEBATE

resources implemented by a progressive head teacher in Parkfield School, Birmingham. The fact there is a debate at all is offensive in itself: surely we are past the point of neglecting an entire minority group and its interests, and any sense of “debate” about whether young people should be taught about us serves only to validate homophobic and exclusive rhetoric.

While Scotland is the first country in the world to embed the teaching of LGBTI rights in the school curriculum, clearly there is still much to be done to ensure the rest of the UK follows suit.

CORONATION STREET Coronation Street is making history on its own cobbles by introducing its first black family. You are probably asking the same question I asked myself, which was something akin to “How are they only just doing that now, in 2019?” And as well as this, the family includes a gay footballer, which is quite an exciting prospect. 19-yearold footballer James Bailey, played by Nathan Graham, will keep his sexuality secret from his family and his football teammates, which is fine because secrets are never shared on Coronation Street and everyone simply goes about their own business and everything’s fine. There are, of course, parallels to be drawn between James and real life footballer Justin Fashanu, who was both the UK’s first black footballer worth £1 million and the first footballer to come out as gay while still playing at a professional level. As of 2019, he remains the only footballer to do so, while others have since come out post-retirement. He was a victim of his era, and his legacy is tarnished not by his sexual identity but by the cruelty with which he was treated. Hopefully this progressive storyline in such an influential soap can help alter attitudes towards homosexuality in men’s football for the better.

UNITED AIRLINES In more positive news, United Airlines has announced that they will be the first US airline company to offer customers the option of booking tickets using a non-binary gender prefix and the title “Mx.” According to the company, customers “now have the ability to identify themselves as M(male), F(female), U(undisclosed) or X(unspecified), corresponding with what is indicated on their passports or identification.”

United Airlines has also collaborated with the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project to train their employees about gender identity discourse, from preferred pronouns and the harmful impact of gender norms. Important steps like this should be taken by every company in order to make life more accessible for those who fall out with the gender binary, and while United Airlines have not always had the best history with minorities (United 3411…), this is a really positive step that will hopefully have a ripple effect on other airline companies. PS you should definitely hit up the National Centre for Trans Equality website to read their “Airport Security: Know Your Rights” information. Informative and helpful!

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 51

“I FOUND AN IMAGE OF WHAT MARS COULD LOOK LIKE ONE DAY. IT WAS HALF-TERRAFORMED WITH TREES AND SO ON, BUT IT WAS STILL A DESOLATE-LOOKING PLACE. I THOUGHT IT WAS AN INTERESTING SETTING FOR A MOVIE, A SURVIVAL MOVIE.”

JOE PENNA – INTERVIEW With Arctic, first-time director Joe Penna does far more than survive to make his second, with the great Mads Mikkelsen delivering an astounding performance in this survival tale with minimal dialogue and maximal impact. Native Brazilian, Penna, took an unconventional route to making feature films, starting with his youtube channel MysteryGuitarMan over a decade ago. The channel currently has 2.8 million subscribers (in the top ten for the site) and has amassed over 400 million views. He’s well known for his quirky music-based videos, once of which has even been screened in the Guggenheim Museum. From there he moved into commercials and shorts, including the Ron Howard and Brian Glazer produced Instant Getaway (2014). We caught up with Penna at the 2019 Glasgow Film Festival.

Can you tell us about your origins as a youtuber?

I started doing YouTube 12 years ago, just doing it for fun. I was going to school and was planning to be a doctor. I was working really hard, but was always thinking “there must be something to this YouTube thing”. When I moved on and quit school, I really thought my father was going to kill me. I’d decided to try and make YouTube a job, even though at that time that wasn’t really possible. I started doing branded videos for stuff like phones, water brands things like that, well over a hundred of those. Then I moved into commercials for companies like Coke and Sony, which naturally progressed into music videos. Over time these became more and more narrative-based. After making some shorts, I felt ready to move to features.

What was the inspiration for Arctic?

I found an image of what Mars could look like one day. It was half-terraformed with trees and so on, but it was still a desolate-looking place. I thought it was an interesting setting for a movie, a survival movie. Myself and my writing partner Ryan Morrison wrote a screenplay and took it to our agents. My agent said, “This is great, but maybe go on YouTube right now and check out a trailer for The Martian!” So we ended up changing the location to the Arctic, with the same exact story.

Mads Mikkelsen is fantastic in the film, as usual. How did you go about casting him, and what was it like working with him?

It was tough finding the right person, we had to find an actor who was right for me creatively speaking. I mean, to me, there were only five people in the world who could pull this off. So we made a list, Mads was the first one on that list. We knew the executive producer of Hannibal, and that’s how we got him. The shoot was tough, he’s in every frame of the film, so there was no time for him to rest. We only had 19 days to shoot this film

FILM and the winds were as high as 40 mph. Everything Mads experienced in the film, the crew did too.

There’s a great scene in the movie with a Polar Bear, how did you film that scene?

It’s funny I saw a review, it was auto-translated, but the review seemed to be complaining about the digital polar bear. I wanted to send him an email and say: “Hey! Here are some pictures of our shoot with a real polar bear!” Her name is Aggie, she’s 22 years old. She’s the only semitrained polar bear in existence. Mads was shooting a movie called Polar at the time, so I had to be the stand-in for him. We shot 3 hours, then she went back to her 40-foot trailer and swam in her little pool. She’s a loving bear!

As someone who started off making YouTube videos, what would you say this taught you about filmmaking?

My producers didn’t even know I had the channel until we started pre-production. They came up to me and said, “what’s this magic guitar thing you have on Twitter?” What I found was that taking things from conception to upload gives you an understanding of your audience, especially audience retention. YouTube gives you a graph so you can see when people leave. Touching every aspect of production was so important for me to learn.

What’s your next project?

It’s called Stowaway. The leads of that film are Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette. It’s set in a ship on its way to Mars. I’ll get there somehow!

Arctic is at Cinemas and on Digital from 10th May Film by Martin Sandison Page 53

COLAB What does it take to regenerate the old into the new? Today it would seem that in some circles, ‘regeneration’ substitutes ‘gentrification’ for a softer blow. A change of appearance, a sweep into the darker corners and a little rearranging of the furniture, one would think. For the more sophisticated of the city cats, it’s the addition of art, coffee, vegan street-food and independent clothing retailers. A perfect example of this being COLAB. COLAB is the name of the new “incubator” space in the old Savoy centre, a “hub” in which to home and foster artistic creativity. Natalia Codona was head-hunted by Savoy owners, Seymour Holdings Ltd., to create a new concept that will “breathe life back into the much loved, but neglected Glasgow institution.”

The physical regeneration of the Savoy has been gentle, in contrast to the exuberant launch of the project which projected the colourful letters ‘COLAB’ onto the building’s exterior.

It’s outside remains largely unchanged, which may explain the initial confusion once arrived.

Within, there are new signs and a bright opening into the new Kohi, an Asian-fusion coffee shop, which is the most obvious difference on the market floor, and probably because it is the largest. The COLAB units are light and airy, adorned with art or plants on the walls. It is colourful and fun. COLAB’s vendors are ontrend and fashionable; the opposite of the original Savoy vendors, found upstairs, which

are traditional, practical, comfortable. To reach the pearly gates of these vendors one must climb a broken escalator – which, currently apart from the lift one can only reach when escorted by security is the only route available, like a tongue-in-cheek example of audience-interactive-performance-art.

The Savoy Centre was built in the 1970s as a home to still-existing vendors and traders from the city; complete with cafes, restaurants and a nightclub. At one point (like many places around the Sauchiehall street area) it was the Glaswegian aficionado’s place to be. Recently – and at least before COLAB – the centre served as a relic to those bygone days. You can still walk around the upper levels of the centre and feel accompanied by ghosts of Glasgow’s past; your path lit by the gentle light of puggie machines and soft-coloured reams of wool and baby clothes. Groups of ladies and men from generations above my own sit sipping tea feeling, presumably, at home. It would be wrong to say that the centre is entirely without hallmarks of our technological age, as iPhone repair shops and electronic vendors are dotted about, sitting side-by-side with bakeries and podiatrists. Still accumulating plentiful amounts of foot traffic from those who use it as a passage through to Sauchiehall Street, it would seem that the time is now for the street’s inevitable confrontation with gentrification. Invisibility within plain sight is no more.

One five-letter name replaces another. So what really has COLAB changed about the Savoy?

Mandy Birnie of Faceplant Food describes COLAB as a “facelift” for the Savoy. “I used to come in here when I was 10, and it looked very different to what it did now. I think it’s going to bring a breath of fresh air to the place.”

As always with modernisation, there are teething issues; mumbles and grumbles of those who prefer the ‘old ways’. COLAB is no stranger to this: one only needs to enter to see the confusion on the faces of regular clientele of the Savoy. “It’s all changed in here”, exclaimed one woman as she walked armin-arm with her girlfriend. Another woman, as I sat

in KOHI, walked straight into a glass window she remarkably (but understandably) missed entirely – it hadn’t been there before, and she knew the building so well as to walk the same path without observation of direction.

A question poised on the lip of many customers as well as other vendors is what to do with the old, when the new move in? Sometimes, there isn’t room for both. Scotland is going through a definite period of regeneration (or, maybe, gentrification) – it’s not just reserved for Glasgow, but also Leith Walk in Edinburgh – and how could we forget the establishing of the V&A up in Dundee? And, of course, there is the question of how to fill the voids that are created without warning, such as those left by the Art school fire which has decimated not only again The Mackintosh Building, but also the ABC. Bringing COLAB to the Savoy definitely makes the landscape that little bit healthier, lighter, and more balanced as it walks a tightrope between almost three generations of Glasgow’s children.

For how long it will remain a fusion of the modern and the traditional is an answer left slightly vague.

Codona’s answer to my question about expansion was to inform me that “having acquired the full asset, we are looking to further develop the market over time.”

Codona assures me that “COLAB is not about interrupting the existing retail community”. “Our intent for COLAB in the Savoy Centre is not gentrification but rather regeneration. We are looking to create a traditional central market incorporating community, art, culture & cuisine. A space that attracts all demographics.”

The Savoy is one of the few institutions remaining that lays bare a spirit of old Glasgow. One thing that COLAB proves is that Glasgow belongs to the many, not the few, and that her future lies in how we navigate the ways in which we can share her. Perhaps, we should replace the words “regeneration” and “gentrification” with “collaboration”. Perhaps, those in more powerful positions than us already have.

Opinion by Carla Jenkins Page 55

DOMESTIC BLISS Open now till 31st Dec 2020 GOMA, Glasgow

VISUAL ARTS

Works on show by 27 artists, including Niki de Saint Phalle, Grayson Perry, Jessie M. King, Alasdair Gray and Jacqueline Donachie, the exhibition examines domestic labour and feminism, public and private space, intimate relationships and historical narratives.

Home Ornaments (credit: Home Ornaments, (2002 – 2005), Daphne Wright, mixed media, Š the artist and courtesy of the artist and Frith Street Gallery)

Visual Arts Page 57

THE RETURN I remember the day vividly.

I remember because it was the day the pineapples washed up on the shore.

This foreign thing. It’s colour drawn and its shape sunken.

Not the exotic fruit that had fallen into the sea some months before But still recognisable. still quite beautiful.

I remember the news bulletin from nine, ten months or ago, the boat that lost two 40ft crates brimful with pineapples and bananas, Imagine fruit flying from their boxes, crash landing with the waves then bobbing up through the ripples as they’re pushed further and further out to sea.

They said they’d end up here.

They said, they’d wash up on some beach in the Scottish Highlands and I thought, How would you know?

Some stones? Pips?

It’s fleshy insides half eroded away?

Surely after all this time after all they’d been through, there would be nothing left of them.

But here they were.

Quite unmistakable, It’s darker than tan skin like a shadow rolling in on the beach and it smears across the sand and I touch it to feel its journey, I touch it to sense all the waters its seen And then, You. Out of nowhere. walking towards me making large purposeful footprints in the sand and smiling, smiling at me like it was nothing.

Like it was any given day.

Like you had just washed up with the pineapples.

By Jennifer Adam

DOUNE THE RABBIT HOLE 10TH ANNIVERSARY

19 – 21 JULY 2019

FRI 19 JULY

THE DAMNED • HOT 8 BRASS BAND LEE SCRATCH PERRY SKERRYVORE • MONO (JP) • BEANS ON TOAST STEVE DAVIS & KAVUS TORABI • PAWS

YAMA WARASHI • BOMBSKARE • THE HONEY FARM • SCALPING PADDY STEER • BURD ELLEN • MELISA KELLY & THE SMOKIN’ CROWS • KAPUTT • THE TRAD PROJECT MR BOOM • FOLK SESSIONS (THE AULD REEKIE STRING BAND) • BAND OF GOLD ‘THE PURPLE STARDUST FAT BOTTOMED ‘TROPICANA CLUB’ FT FANTASTIC MAN (DJ SET)

SAT 20 JULY

SISTER SLEDGE • JOHN GRANT BEAK> • ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO DJ • JOHN COOPER CLARKE NITEWORKS • THE SKIDS • C DUNCAN • GWENNO

LANKUM • FAT SUIT • SAVAGE MANSION STEVE IGNORANT (CRASS) • TOM MCGUIRE & THE BRASSHOLES COLONEL MUSTARD & THE DIJON 5 • MARTIN JOHN HENRY (DE ROSA) TORIA GARBUTT • YOKO PWNO • HEIR OF THE CURSED EXTINCTION REBELLION • BROKEN CHANTER • SONNET YOUTH THE COBALTS • ALEX REX • STMARTIINS • SERAFYN • MEGAN AIRLIE IRIE YO-YO • FAITH ELIOTT • BELL LUNGS • ADVANCE BASE • CHUCHOTER CHRISSY BARNACLE • RUN INTO THE NIGHT • THE AULD REEKIE STRING BAND • MEDICINE MEN THE GIROBABIES • SUPER INUIT • ROMEO TAYLOR • DJ SCRATCH & SNIFF COMPERE BBC’S VIC GALLOWAY

SUN 21 JULY

THE WAILERS • BATTLES • HAWKWIND BLANCK MASS • KATHRYN JOSEPH

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR • SHONEN KNIFE • TINY RUINS FREE LOVE • SAMEDIA SHEBEEN • WILL VARLEY KAKATSITSI DRUMMERS • CALLUM EASTER • CARLA J EASTON THE MURDER CAPITAL • THE LOCAL HONEYS AVOCET • THE AULD REEKIE STRING BAND • CURRENT AFFAIRS FLEW THE ARROW • LUNA NEPTUNE • BUSKER RHYMES GLAD COMMUNITY CHOIR SING PAUL SIMON • LUKE LA VOLPE CROOQ • SUPA & DA KRYPTONITES • AWRY (PSYCHEGAELIC CEILIDH) THE BANJO LOUNGE 4 • MARANTA

CARDROSS ESTATE STIRLINGSHIRE

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

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