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2015 STUDEN GUIDE T

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DOCTOR WHO | CHVRCHES THE LYCEUM AT 50 | TURNER PRIZE JUST JIM | DOUG STANHOPE

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TUE 10 - SAT 21 NOV

MON 11 - SAT 16 APR

atgtickets.com/edinburgh

TUE 15 - SAT 19 SEP

2 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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CONTENTS

FRONT

2

The Realist

4

News

11

FEATURES

3 SEP–5 NOV 2015 | LIST.CO.UK

A

utumn’s here – and that means back to school for all you students. If you’re new to these parts, welcome! Turn to page 95 for our 2015 Student Guide, your essential guide to uni life in Edinburgh and Glasgow, complete with our top picks for bars, cafes, music venues, cinemas, theatres and more across both cities.

For all you non-students, there’s plenty to keep you entertained so the post-summer blues don’t set in. For film-lovers, Michael Fassbender excels as Macbeth (page 16), and we’re also impressed by Craig Roberts’ debut feature Just Jim (page 14).

We’ve also got interviews with local-band-done-good Chvrches (page 24), whose new album Every Open Eye is out soon, and US comedian Doug Stanhope (page 26), who’s over on these shores for his latest UK tour.

And as Glasgow gets set to host the Turner Prize, we take a closer look at this year’s nominees (page 28).

Just Jim

14

Chvrches

24

Doug Stanhope

26

Turner Prize

28

Lyceum at 50

30

Scottish Ballet

34

FOOD & DRINK Henderson’s Craft beer

AROUND TOWN Stirling Fringe

COVER STORY

exeunt stage left, some of the year’s most exciting cultural events will help keep us happy and warm. We interview Scottish snythpop stars Chvrches about that difficult second album, chat to Craig ‘Submarine’ Roberts as he makes his directorial debut, listen in awe as US comic Doug Stanhope plans a pub crawl of the world’s airports and take a peek as the Lyceum’s 50th anniversary launches with Waiting for Godot.

38

95

STUDENT GUIDE

GREAT OFFERS

The season of the witch (plus the vampire and apple-dooker) is here with chills aplenty for tiny terrors and adult scaredy cats via concerts, tours and films that go bump in the night.

As doors open for another year of scholarly endeavours, don’t forget that student life is also meant to be fun. We sketch out the best venues, films, bands, bars and shops.

Win tickets to Waiting for Godot at the Royal Lyceum Theatre

8

Win tickets to Edinburgh Art Fair

Win tickets to The Choir at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow

8

Win tickets to The Lighthouse Late

8

Win tickets to Museum Late: Victorian Sensation

8

8

Win a 15 bottle case of craft beer from Moskito in Glasgow Win tickets to Hogmanay 2016

8 10

Win VIP tickets to Scotland’s only ice bar in Glasgow courtesy of Coors Light

94

51

BOOKS

53 53

Louise O’Neill

54

Highlights

55

COMEDY Frisky & Mannish

56 56

Doc Brown

57

Highlights

58

59 59

Macbeth

61

Legend

62

Highlights

65

KIDS

66

In the Night Garden Live

66

Highlights

68

MUSIC

69

sound lab

69

Foals

70

The Lighthouse Late

74

Highlights

77

Classical Highlights

80

81

Dragon

81

Waiting for Godot

83

Royal New Zealand Ballet

87

Highlights

88

VISUAL ART

89

Hayley Tompkins

89

Nicolas Deshayes

90

Highlights

91

TV

92

Doctor Who

92

This is England ‘90

93

FIRST & LAST Weird Al Jankovic

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51

Dundee Literary Festival

THEATRE HALLOWE’EN

41 48

52

FILM

AUTUMN SPECIAL As the ‘summer’ prepares to

41

Highlights

Take One Action!

Editor

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CONTRIBUTORS Publisher & General Editor Robin Hodge Director Simon Dessain

What we’ve been talking about Ah, student days. A time of learning, boozing, socialising, boozing and watching wall-to-wall daytime TV. And boozing.

All of that somehow crammed in between meeting every single coursework deadline, of course. To coincide with our Student Guide, we asked a bunch of graduates (of various vintages) which song, film or TV programme most reminds them of their college / uni life.

CSI and Murder She Wrote. I really should have studied Criminology and not Textiles.

Afternoon showings at the 501 in Liverpool of Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers and Man Bites Dog. They made pretty funny films in the early 90s.

‘Born Slippy’ by Underworld. Memories of going to Edinburgh Uni in 1995 were Trainspotting, clubbing, and the refrain of ‘lager, lager, lager’.

Now 68 was my unfortunate student soundtrack. It still induces flashbacks and the unmistakable waft of Carlisle’s only Wetherspoons...

I am so old you won’t even of heard of my uni faves: but I loved the new fresh young Blondie in the mid-70s but was mocked for it by most of my friends who tended to punk.

Along with two of my housemates, I developed an almost religious addiction to Supermarket Sweep (don’t laugh). It was the only thing that would get us out of bed before 9.30 (?) every day and I occasionally dip into repeats on Challenge.

When a university pal got a job on one of the ‘checkouts’ in the show, we almost died.

Blur’s ‘There’s No Other Way’. Except there clearly was, given their various members moved into world music, Labour party politics and cheese.

Millionaire Matchmaker (I love a bit of Patti Stanger and her wine mixers) and The Big Bang Theory (‘penny, penny, penny . . . ‘)

Neighbours and playing ten-hour stints of Football Manager! But I won the Champions League with Aberdeen so it was totally worth it!

‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

I was dancing to this in Glasgow with an adulterous lover who would later become my ex-wife. The angst captured something of the moral compromises I was feeling as I bounced up and down in Fury Murry’s.

If I was being honest, I’d say Neighbours because it was on at the right time, and all the time. But instead I’ll say both Peep Show and Green Wing, because both were utterly new and weird at the time, and great to watch with a large group of flatmates.

As much as I would like to say something really pretentious and high-brow, it’s definitely Come Dine With Me.

My friends and I couldn’t afford cable, so we would rewatch my flatmate’s Sex and the City boxset over and over, hating every second of it and hoping we would never be like Carrie Bradshaw.

EDITORIAL Editor Yasmin Sulaiman Senior Writer and Content Editor Scott Henderson Research Manager Kirstyn Smith Senior Researcher Murray Robertson Research Alex Johnston, Rowena McIntosh, Rebecca Monks, Henry Northmore Subeditors Mercy Breheny, Brian Donaldson, Paul McLean, Claire Ritchie Editorial Assistants Claire Flynn, Carolina Morais SALES & MARKETING Media Sales Manager Chris Knox Senior Media Sales Executive Debbie Thomson Media Sales Executive Jade Regulski Sales Support Executive Jessica Rodgers Digital Business Development Director Brendan Miles Partnership Director Sheri Friers !

PRODUCTION Production Director Simon Armin Senior Designer Lucy Munro Designer Jen Devonshire DIGITAL Senior Developer Andy Carmichael Senior Designer Bruce Combe Software Developer Iain McCusker Senior DBA Andy Bowles Newsletter Editor Hamish Brown ADMINISTRATION Accounts Manager Sarah Reddie Events and Admin Assistant Claire Cooke SECTION EDITORS Around Town / Music Kirstyn Smith Books / Film Scotland Yasmin Sulaiman Comedy / Front Brian Donaldson Dance / Kids Kelly Apter Film Reviews Emma Simmonds Food & Drink Donald Reid News Rebecca Monks Theatre Gareth K Vile TV Henry Northmore Visual Art Rachael Cloughton See also: Jobs at list.co.uk/jobs We have vacancies for a Media Sales Executive, Digital Designer and Developer Published by The List Ltd HEAD OFFICE: 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE Tel: 0131 550 3050, Fax: 0131 557 8500, list.co.uk, email editor@list.co.uk GLASGOW OFFICE: at the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD Tel: 0141 332 9929, glasgow@list.co.uk ISSN: 0959 - 1915 © 2015 The List Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the written permission of the publishers. The List does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material.

The List provides this content in good faith but no guarantee or representation is given that the content is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

Use of magazine content is at your own risk.

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2 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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REALIST R E B M E SEPT

PHOTO © DANNY CLINCH

2 Chvrches MUSIC

That difficult second album will hopefully be a breeze to our local synthpop favourites aka Lauren Mayberry (formerly of this List parish), Iain Cook and Martin Doherty. Every Open Eye will be followed up with some Scottish dates in late November. See feature, page 24. Universal.

PHOTO © EOIN CAREY

1 Doctor Who TV

The Time Lord returns in the wonderful form of Peter Capaldi with a barnstorming opening to season nine for an episode which Steven Moffat has described as ‘a blockbuster’. And in a twist to this season, one episode will feature just a single character on screen throughout: no prizes for guessing that it’s the good doctor. See preview, page 92. BBC One from Sat 19 Sep.

3 Lanark

THEATRE

The previously ‘unstageable’ Alasdair Gray book was an EIF triumph and it now gets a well-deserved Glasgow airing through David Greig’s adaptation and Graham Eatough’s direction. See review, page 84. Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 3–Sat 19 Sep.

4 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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So much culture, so little time.

We boil it down to 20 of the best events

PHOTO © NEIL DAVIDSON

4 Scottish Ballet

5 Bloody Scotland

Two exciting works choreographed by Javier de Frutos (Elsa Canasta) and Bryan Arias (Motion of Displacement) kick off Scottish Ballet’s autumn programme. See feature, page 34. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sat 26 Sep; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 29 & Wed 30 Sep.

Another hot weekend celebrating crime fiction with top authors including Ann Cleeves, Denise Mina (above), Ian Rankin and Martina Cole plus events such as Whose Crime is it Anyway?, in which a novel is improvised before your very eyes. See feature, page 55. Various venues, Stirling, Fri 11–Sun 13 Sep.

DANCE

BOOKS

PHOTO © MANUEL HARLAN

6Perpetual Our Ladies of Succour THEATRE

Lee Hall adapts Alan Warner’s The Sopranos into a loud but endearing romp through Edinburgh with a sextet of wild Oban girls. See review, page 84. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 8–Sat 12 Sep; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 25 & Sat 26 Sep.

7 Take One Action!

8 Doc Brown

9 Magic Sho

The campaigning festival tackles issue such as tax avoidance by big business, exploitation of farm workers, and the poor of Paraguay rising up through making music.

See preview, page 59. Various venues, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Wed 16–Sun 27 Sep.

Having largely turned his back on live rapping, the comic born Ben Smith unleashes his Weird Way Round tour before he gets trapped on a film set with Ricky Gervais for the David Brent movie. See preview, page 57. Òran Mór, Glasgow, Thu 24 Sep; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Sep.

Shona Reppe follows up hits such as Potato Needs a Bath, Cinderella and The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean by donning a tuxedo and teaming up with a rabbit for a show about the world of magic. See preview, page 67. Touring from Sat 5 Sep.

FILM

COMEDY

KIDS

PHOTO © SIMON FOWLER

10 Beethoven Weekend

CHOSEN BY VIOLINIST NICOLA BENEDETTI

Beethoven is a name known to most people. His most famous works hold tunes many people could whistle but, needless to say, the breadth and depth of his compositions are a treasure trove waiting to be discovered. Some of the most memorable and visceral experiences I have had as a musician have been at the hands of Beethoven. He’s not always known primarily for his vulnerability but it is precisely this quality that has moved me to tears on innumerable occasions. I would encourage anyone to attend this weekend at least in part and discover more of the subtlety and diversity of this great composer. Beethoven Weekend, City Halls and Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sun 27 Sep, featuring the Elias String Quartet (left), Ll! r Williams and Richard Wigmore; Nicola Benedetti is on tour with Italy and the Four Seasons from Thu 17 Sep; full dates at nicolabenedetti.co.uk.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 5

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R E B O OCT

1Exhibition Turner Prize VISUAL ART

This December, the Turner Prize comes to Scotland for the first time ever and deservedly to a city that has traditionally blessed that award with a plethora of talented winners and nominees. The Turner Prize exhibition runs until early next year showing off some exceptional wares of the four contenders for 2015’s gong. See feature, page 28.

Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 1 Oct–Sun 17 Jan.

PHOTO © TANYA BONAKDAR GALLERY, NEW YORK

2 Waiting for Godot

3 Doug Stanhope

The Lyceum’s 50th anniversary celebrations are kicked off in grand style with a staging of Beckett’s existential classic featuring Vladimir and Estragon played by none other than Brian Cox and Bill Paterson. See preview, page 83.

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Sep–Sat 10 Oct.

Everyone’s favourite gravelly libertarian US comic is the lad from Bisbee, Arizona. He appears to be as excited to be heading to Scotland as we are to be humbly receiving both him and his caustic yet witty wisdom. See feature, page 26. O2 Academy, Glasgow, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Oct.

THEATRE

COMEDY

6 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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REALIST PHOTO © MICHAEL WOOD

4 The Lighthouse Late

5 Spectre

6 Wigtown Book Festival

This very mag hooks up with The Lighthouse once again for an excellent evening’s entertainment, the event’s soundtrack provided by the superb FOUND, Apache Darling, Supermoon and the Spook School (above). See preview, page 74.

The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct.

One of the most anticipated films of any year is a new Bond movie and this 24th affair in the franchise looks set to get 007 fans across the globe shaken but, of course, not stirred. Daniel Craig is our hero with Sam Mendes in the director’s chair once more. General release from Mon 26 Oct.

An excellent programme in Scotland’s National Book Town features adventurer Robert Twigger, KLF legend Bill Drummond and rising star Kirsty Logan (above) while Jamie Byng chats about 21 years at Canongate. See Highlights, page 55.

Various venues, Wigtown, Fri 25 Sep–Sun 4 Oct.

7 Hallowe’en

8 Macbeth

9 Royal New Zealand Ballet

Many of us like a fright, and Hallowe’en is pretty much set up to provide that. Among the spooky highlights is the Children’s Classic Concert entitled Magic and Monsters, scary walks in Mary King’s Close and a screening of The Shining. See feature, page 38. Various venues and dates in October.

It’s the story that refuses to die and no wonder when it can be turned into visceral cinema such as Justin Kurzel’s film, starring Michael Fassbender as the murderous Thane with Marion Cotillard as his manipulative Lady. See feature, page 16 and review, page 61. General release from Fri 2 Oct.

Produced by Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg, former principal dancers at, respectively, the American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet, this new staging of the beloved Giselle certainly has a strong pedigree. See preview, page 87. Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 27–Sat 31 Oct.

MUSIC

FILM

BOOKS

PHOTO © EVAN LI

KIDS / AROUND TOWN / FILM

FILM

DANCE

10 Dundee Literary Festival

CHOSEN BY NEIL FORSYTH, CREATOR OF BOB SERVANT

The Dundee Literary Festival has grown into a vibrant, surprising festival brilliantly run by Anna Day and her team at Literary Dundee. The festival is supported by a warm and engaged local audience, and is increasingly seeing more people make the journey to Dundee from Edinburgh and Glasgow. Festival venues are a short walk from Dundee train station and there are plenty of great places for lunch and refreshments: the Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) cafe is a good pit-stop, as well as legendary record store Groucho’s. So get yourself up to sunny Dundee for what is always an interesting, diverse lineup of authors and events. Ask Bob: Bob Servant’s Guide to a Wonderful Life, Òran Mór, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct; Dundee Literary Festival, various venues, Wed 21–Sun 25 Oct; authors include Janice Galloway (left), Jackie Kay and Jeanette Winterson.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 7

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READER OFFERS WIN TICKETS TO THE LIGHTHOUSE LATE

WIN A 15 BOTTLE CASE OF CRAFT BEER FROM MOSKITO To celebrate the 15th Birthday of Moskito in Glasgow, we are giving 15 lucky readers the chance to win 15 bottles of craft beer!

Cases will contain a selection of 15 bottles from the range of Scottish craft beers sold in Moskito. With beers from Jaw Brew, Cromarty, Fallen, Innis&Gunn, Drygate, and Williams Brothers, you are sure to get a great variety.

Moskito is a multi award winning basement bar on Bath Street, Glasgow.

With a laid back, cosy feel the bar has plenty of comfortable booths to enjoy a quick lunch or spend the night with a bunch of friends. The atmosphere is relaxed and the service friendly. The kitchen is open seven days a week and their menu is available until 9.00pm.

To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

How old is Moskito?

Moskito 200 Bath Street Glasgow, G2 4HG Open until 2am Sun to Thu & until 3am on Fri and Sat 0141 331 1777

@MoskitoGlasgow moskitoglasgow.com

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES WED 30 SEP 2015. ENTRANTS MUST BE OVER 18 AND ABLE TO PROVIDE ID. THE CASES OF BEER WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PICK UP AT MOSKITO IN GLASGOW UPON RECEIPT OF THE WINNING EMAIL. THE LIST’S USUAL RULES APPLY.

The Lighthouse Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture, presents its third Lighthouse Late on Fri 9 Oct 2015 and we are excited to announce the line up: BAFTA award winning FOUND are Lomond Campbell & River of Slime who have stacked up their modular synths, modified drum machines and custom built electronics to create a brooding, post-cataclysmic world of pulsating pop tunes and horror-hooks.

Joining them are Glasgow-based duo Apache Darling whose Eurythmics and Cyndi Lauper inspired music have opened for Simple Minds and played at T in the Park this year.

Also on the bill are Supermoon who are a melancholy folky indie collective who aren’t afraid of adding the odd burst of electronica to proceedings.

Last but by all means not least, there will be fun and empowering, The Spook School brimming full of noisy, tuneful and triumphant queer pop songs about identity and sexuality.

The Lighthouse will transform once again into a late night social space, to celebrate great live music and the theme for this next event is Berlin.

The Lighthouse, in association with The List, is offering readers the chance to win a pair of tickets to this event on Fri 9 Oct, 7.30pm–11pm. To be in with a chance of winning log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

What is the theme of this year’s Lighthouse Late?

The Lighthouse Late The Lighthouse 4 Mitchell Lane Glasgow, G1 3NU Fri 9 Oct 2015, 7.30pm - 11.30pm Tickets £15

thelighthouse.co.uk/late

WIN TICKETS TO THE EDINBURGH ART FAIR The Edinburgh Art Fair returns to the Corn Exchange this November bringing 60 galleries from the UK and abroad to showcase and sell the work of over 500 emerging and established, local and international artists. Now in its 11th year, the Fair has established itself as the foremost event of its kind in the UK outside of London.

The Fair lives by its slogan “Art for Everyone!” and is a family friendly event running a crèche and hosting various activities such as; printmaking workshops, talks and demonstrations, and painting, drawing and creative craft classes to entertain the younger visitors while their parents view the show.

The List are giving away 50 pairs of tickets to The Edinburgh Art Fair. Each ticket admits two people to the Preview Evening and Drinks Reception on Thu 12 Nov from 6.30pm–9.30pm. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

How many galleries will be exhibiting at this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival

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Edinburgh Art Fair Edinburgh Corn Exchange New Market Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1RJ Fri 13 - Sun 15 Nov 2015 (Preview Evening 12 Nov, 6.30pm - 9.30pm) Tickets £3/£5

56%-37358%-39/:&0*&$3;<58

artedinburgh.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES FRI 2 OCT 2015.

MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OLDS. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

8 THE LIST FESTIVAL 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES FRI 30 OCTOBER. NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. THE USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

READER OFFERS WIN TICKETS TO MUSEUM LATE: VICTORIAN SENSATION The legendary Museum Lates returns to the National Museum of Scotland on Fri 13 Nov and we have a pair of tickets to give away. Always a sell-out, this event is not to be missed. Guest-programmed by The List and hosted by Vic Galloway, Museum Late: Victorian Sensation will offer a stellar line-up of live music and the opportunity to explore the enchanting night-time galleries.

Enjoy cultured cocktails from the pop-up bars, live it up in the Silent Disco, and, for those with enhanced tickets, entry to the brilliant exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets to Museum Lates on Fri 13 Nov. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

Which BBC radio presenter is hosting Museum Late: Victorian Sensation?

Museum Late: Victorian Sensation National Museum of Scotland Chambers Street, Edinburgh Fri 13 Nov, 7pm–10.30pm, age 18+ Late only £12, £10 Members & Conc Late plus exhibition entry £20, £18 Members & Conc Tickets on sale mid-Sep: visit the website for event infomation.

nms.ac.uk/lates

WIN TICKETS TO SEE THE CHOIR AT CITIZENS THEATRE A funny, gritty but ultimately heart-warming musical play by Paul Higgins and Ricky Ross about a group of strangers who come together, not always willingly, to sing in a community choir.

Singer/songwriter Ricky Ross, who has written songs for James Blunt, Ronan Keating and Jamie Cullum amongst others, has created the songs for The Choir.

His band, Deacon Blue’s most successful hits include ‘Dignity’ and ‘Real Gone Kid’. The script is

by Paul Higgins, best known for his TV roles in ‘Utopia’ and ‘The Thick of It’.

The Choir wears its heart on its sleeve and opens its arms wide, to share the friendship, solidarity, frustrations and joy that come from singing in a choir.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets to see The Choir on Tue 3 Nov, 7.30pm. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

What Scottish band is Ricky Ross in?

The Choir Citizens Theatre, 119 Gorbals Street Glasgow, G5 9DS 24 Oct 2015 to 14 Nov 2015 Tickets from £8.50 Box Office: 0141 429 0022

citz.co.uk

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES FRI 6 NOV 2015. OVER 18S ONLY. NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES WED 28 OCT 2015.

NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

WIN TICKETS TO WAITING FOR GODOT AT THE LYCEUM “What are we doing here? That is the question” Four of Scotland’s great actors - Brian Cox, Bill Paterson, John Bett & Benny Young - take to the stage together for the first time in Beckett’s masterly black comedy ‘Waiting for Godot’. This exclusive 3 week run is sure to be a highlight of the Scottish theatre year and marks the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company.

In the 60 years since its first UK performance, Waiting for Godot has proved itself one of modern theatre’s great masterpieces.

Deadly serious yet seriously funny, this elusive play continues to provide delightfully entertaining food for thought.

The List are giving away a pair of tickets to see Waiting for Godot on Thu 8 Oct 2015, 7.30pm. To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

For how many years has the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company been present in Edinburgh?

Waiting for Godot Royal Lyceum Theatre, 30b Grindlay Street Edinburgh, EH3 9AX 18 Sep - 10 Oct 2015 Tickets from £10 0131 248 4848

lyceum.org.uk/godot @lyceumtheatre #Godot #lyceum50 TERMS AND CONDITIONS: COMPETITION CLOSES THU 1 OCT 2015. TICKETS ONLY AVAILABLE ON NON-PREMIUM SEATS. NO CASH ALTERNATIVE. USUAL LIST RULES APPLY.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 9

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6 1 20 5 1 0 2 C E D WED 30 AN 2016 – FRI 1 J

hlight Procession From the warm embrace of the Torc winter darkness, (30 Dec), radiating light through the manay Street exhilaration of the Edinburgh’s Hog t Fireworks, Party (31 Dec) and spectacular Midnigh arts programme to the inspiring free New Year’s Day comes alive at throughout the Old Town, Edinburgh as one of the top d Hogmanay and continues to be vote New Year experiences in the world.

Share your Edinburgh’s Hogmanay experience with the world through #Blogmanay facebook.com/edinburghshogmanay twitter.com/edhogmanay

edinburghshogmanay.com

10 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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HR IS

Last year, a sell-out Edinburgh’s Hogmanay welcomed over 150,000 revellers from 70 countries to celebrate at the ‘Home of Hogmanay’, with three days of incredible free and ticketed events, spectacular reworks, music, dance and Street Party extravaganzas. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is THE place to ‘bring in the bells’ and the only festival listed in the Discovery Channel ‘Top 25 World Travel Experiencesí .

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Edinburgh’s Hogmanay welcomes the world to party into 2016 . . .

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WIN TICKETS TO THE WORLD-FAMOUS EDINBURGH’S HOGMANAY CELEBRATIONS! Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and The List are giving you the chance to kick-start 2016 in style with a pair of tickets to the ‘Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party.

To be in with a chance of winning, just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

Visitors from how many countries attended last year’s Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations?

Terms & Conditions: Competition closes 4 Nov 2015.

Usual List rules apply

REGISTER AT EDINBURGHSHOGMANAY.COM FOR REGULAR ARTIST UPDATES AND PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENTS.

012/120/.#$$$.#34!

NEWS

For more news go to

LIST.CO.UK /NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS, LINE-UPS AND OPINION

A TA L E O F T WO C I T I ES City Link Festival is launching in Edinburgh this September. The event aims to link cultural communities from Copenhagen and Edinburgh, focusing on how grassroots and people-led initiatives in the arts can help make fairer, more democratic cities. The festival itself takes place Thursday 24–Sunday 27 September and features a wide programme of events, including talks, debates, workshops, art exhibitions, performances and bike tours, all of which have been co-curated between the two cities.

SMHAFF FTW The Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival which takes place Saturday 10–31 October, aims to celebrate the artistic achievements of people with experience of mental health issues. Highlights include Cora Bissett’s In Her Shadows, UK film debuts like Dancing with Maria, and a live performance from SAY Award winner Kathryn Joseph. Full programme details can be found at list.co.uk

T RAV E L L E R S’ TA L ES A new travelling gallery is currently touring Scotland, in order to celebrate the staging of the Turner Prize in Glasgow later this year.

Entitled Eyes on the Prize, it aims to showcase a selection of contemporary work from past Scottish Turner Prize winners and nominees in advance of the announcement of this year’s

victor at the Tramway on Monday 7 December.

Exhibiting artists include Christine Borland with Brody Condon, Martin Boyce, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Ciara Phillips, Lucy Skaer and David Shrigley.

T H E A RT O F B I G Y I N A selection of artwork by legendary comedian Billy Connolly is being displayed at the People’s Palace in Glasgow. The exhibition, which features over 40 drawings as well as a selection of objects, charts his career as a comic and musician. Speaking about his art, Connolly said: ‘They’re little pals of mine. I’ll always draw, I’ll always do it.’ You can catch his buddies until Sunday 21 February.

W H AT A ST RA M AS H Edinburgh’s new live music venue, Stramash, is due to open on the Cowgate in September. It will take over the building that was once home to Wilkie House, which has also been known as Faith and the Sin Club. It’s set to be operated by Bruce Taverns and has a capacity of 900.

N O M O R E WA I T I N G FO R G O D OT TO STA RT The Lyceum Theatre’s 50th anniversary programme kicks off on Friday 18 September with a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by the theatre’s artistic director, Mark Thomson. The play stars none

PHOTO © WWE 2015

WWE NXT

other than Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, and will be the first event in the specially-curated season to take place at the venue. Altogether, the programme features eight plays, including The Crucible, The Iliad and Tipping the Velvet, and will run until Saturday 11 June 2016. For more details, see page 30.

U K N E XT FO R W W E N XT A selection of lycra-clad wrestling divas and superstars will be coming to the UK in October for the first time, as the WWE NXT tour highspots onto the SSE Hydro. The show seeks out new talent, those young pro-wrestling types with dreams of big ring stardom. As it stands, the tour is set to feature the likes of Samoa Joe, Bayley, Tyler Breeze, Dana Brooke and Emma, although this may change. Ah, the fickle world of wrestling.

AU L D L A N G S I N G -A- LO N G A new Robert Burns musical, written and directed by Tish Tindall, is set to make its debut in a New York Theatre just off Broadway after premiering in Aberdeen earlier this year. The play, entitled Robert Burns the Musical, tells the Scottish bard’s story, and is due to embark on an international tour with a host of performances in Edinburgh this September before going on to New York. The play is set to be performed during the city’s Tartan Week, which celebrates all things Scottish.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 11

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NEWS Queer to stay

COMING UP

Rebecca Monks chats to the organiser of a new film festival celebrating the best of LGBTI cinema

• Unlock the keys to your city, as a selection of buildings open their doors for you to snoop around.

Doors Open Days take place across Glasgow from Monday 14–Sunday 20 September, and Edinburgh on Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 September.

• The Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run is taking place in Glasgow on Sunday 4 October. If you prefer to watch from home, it’s also broadcast live on BBC Two. • Lighthouse Late, curated by The List, takes place in Glasgow on Friday 9 October. Featured artists are FOUND, Apache Darling, Supermoon and the Spook School.

• Hallowe’en and Samhain (the Celtic fire festival marking winter’s arrival) both take place on Saturday 31 October. See list.co.uk for spooky events near you, and to take part in Samhain, contact the Beltane Fire Society which is hosting open meetings.

Dyke Hard

T

his September, Scotland’s first inclusive celebration of queer cinema launches in Glasgow, with a programme featuring more than 30 events over four days, including UK premieres, parties and workshops. The Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF), takes place over the month’s final weekend, with events at CCA, Glasgow Women’s Library, Drygate Brewery, the University of Glasgow and many other venues.

The festival aims to get people ‘watching, talking about and making more queer films’, and organisers have been working closely with the artistic and LGBTI communities in Scotland in order to create an event that is accessible and inclusive for everyone.

Speaking on the aims of the festival, programmer Helen Wright said: ‘our focus on accessibility comes from being an LGBTI and queer organisation, and therefore being focused on challenging inequalities that exist for people in accessing the arts.’

The programme offers ‘a diverse look at LGBTI people’s lives’, with a selection of films offering a range of different experiences and perspectives from within the community. ‘We’re showing a really lovely, funny, and insightful film about older lesbian women in Spain and France telling their life stories and relating what it’s like to be an older LGBTI person,’ says Wright. ‘After the film, we’ll have a discussion led by a group of around 50 LGBTI people in Glasgow, a demographic which is sometimes ignored in queer culture. We’ve also got a strong programme featuring films by and about trans people, which will hopefully allow trans audiences

to feel included and welcome.’

Programme highlights include the UK premiere of Dyke Hard, described as a ‘lo-fi, high-camp battle of the bands romp’, international features such as Frangipani, which tells the story of a love triangle in Sri Lanka, and Dakan, an exploration of forbidden love in Guinea, as well as big-screen showings of classic films from the likes of Monika Treut, Pier Paolo Pasolini, John Waters and Pedro Almodóvar.

There are also free workshops, including one on TransActing performance, scriptwriting for ages 25 and under, and radical filmmaking. Festival-goers can also attend open discussions on everything from feminist porn to queer film in the 21st century, as well as taking in a number of parties from Dive, Polyester and LUYD. Though the films and events are largely LGBTIbased, the programme’s films are not all ‘explicitly queer’ according to Wright, citing movies such as Johnny Guitar, Ghost in the Shell and Maleficent.

‘These are films which are not necessarily explicitly queer but people have done queer readings of them, so we thought it would be exciting for audiences to watch them in a queer context,’ she explains. ‘We aim to create a really fun and friendly environment, which will make people feel part of SQIFF and create the opportunity to meet people and make connections whilst watching loads of amazing films and taking part in workshops and discussions.’

• Edinburgh’s Christmas officially kicks off on Friday 20 November.

2015’s full programme will be announced on Tuesday 22 September, but it has already been revealed that last year’s hit show Stick Man is returning from Friday 20 November–Tuesday 29 December.

• Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens hosts three nights of outdoor film screenings in September: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Friday 4); Mamma Mia! (Saturday 5) and Back to the Future (Sunday 6).

• Scotland’s national day comes around again on Monday 30 November, with a wide range of events taking place in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. To celebrate, entry to many attractions is free, including Edinburgh Castle.

• Tickets to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party are already on sale with a full programme of events being y October. announced in early

Various venues, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sun 27 Sep, sqiff.org

12 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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BIG PICTURE OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL

With its origins in Australia, the Ocean Film Festival’s UK tour drops into Edinburgh for over two hours of short films featuring oceanic environments, marine creatures and coastal cultures. Among the movies are ‘Arctic Swell’ (pictured), featuring the raw beauty in the Arctic Circle, dramatic freediving adventures along the coast of South Africa and Mozambique in ‘Ocean Minded’, and ‘A Small Surfer’, the tale of a six-year-old surfer and skater nicknamed the Flying Squirrel. So, why not take the plunge?

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Sep.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 13

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AUTUMN film

ONLY THE LONELY Playing outsiders is something of a speciality for Craig Roberts, who’s just about to release his directorial debut feature, Just Jim. He tells Katherine McLaughlin that acting the loner comes pretty naturally

C

raig Roberts made a seriously good impression in his breakthrough performance as odd kid Oliver Tate in Richard Ayoade’s first feature film Submarine back in 2010. Five years later and he’s clocked up an impressive CV working with the likes of Mia Wasikowska, Robert De Niro, Timothy Spall, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum and numerous notable filmmakers. This year sees the release of Roberts’ directorial debut, which he has also written and stars in with Emile Hirsch. Just Jim is a dark, cool, striking and strangely moving coming-of-age film about a loner set in Roberts’ hometown in Wales.

He cites fellow filmmakers Ayoade and David Gordon Green as people who have been particularly generous with their time and advice.

‘Richard gave me the role that kick-started my career,’ says Roberts, ‘and he’s definitely someone I would go to for guidance. David Gordon Green is actually the reason Emile is in the film and he’s someone I’m constantly talking to about film. I’m very fortunate that that’s the case.’

The character of Jim is loosely based on Roberts and his time growing up. ‘I was a boring teenager. I wasn’t that much fun to be around. I just played computer games and went to the cinema. I wanted to tell a story about a kid who didn’t really know who he was or where he slotted into the social status.’ At one point in the film Jim throws a birthday party that no one comes to. Roberts confesses that he was drawing from reallife experience for this scene.

Roberts has been acting for 14 years now, starting off in TV shows such as The Story of Tracy Beaker and gradually making his way into film. ‘The Mask made me want to get into acting. I love that movie.

I’ve watched it so many times.’ He can’t pinpoint one particular movie that made him want to direct, though the filmmakers who have inspired him are ‘Kubrick, Hitchcock and Scorsese. Kubrick is like a scientist!’

Roberts exclaims. Paul Thomas Anderson is the director he would most like to work with because he ‘seems like such a normal guy but he’s a genius. His movies are just so well thought-out. That much dedication shows just how much he loves film.’

There are elements of one of his favourite films, Billy Liar, in Just Jim in the sense that ‘it’s about being content in your skin,’ he says.

‘Throughout the whole movie [Billy Liar] he’s constantly lying and he fantasises. At the end you want him to get on the train and go to London but he never does. People have said that’s such a bad ending but there’s happiness in so much as he’s content with staying in that town. I think that’s more powerful. Being content is a very hard thing to find.’

There’s also a Lynchian vibe to Roberts’ debut feature, which starts with the appearance of Emile Hirsch’s chain-smoking, trouble-making, leather jacket-wearing American neighbour, Dean, who befriends Jim and tries to make him cool. ‘James Dean was definitely the main reference [for the character],’ Roberts says. ‘Dean was so far ahead of

14 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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JUST JIM

TOP 10 RELEASES AUTUMN FILM

Film editor Emma Simmonds picks out the season’s best cinematic treats MACBETH

SPECTRE

Snowtown director Justin Kurzel serves up a bold, thrillingly ferocious twist on ‘the Scottish play’, with a barnstorming Michael Fassbender in the title role. See feature, page 16 and review, page 61. Fri 2 Oct.

SUFFRAGETTE

After the record-breaking and emotional Skyfall, Bond is back and expectations are higher than ever. Daniel Craig slips back into the suits, and Christoph Waltz is his shadowy adversary. Mon 26 Oct. You’ll need your hankies at the ready as screenwriter Abi Morgan (Shame) shows how British women battled for the vote against overwhelming opposition. Carey Mulligan plays a young foot soldier, while Meryl Streep pops up as Emmeline Pankhurst. Mon 12 Oct.

STEVE JOBS

CRIMSON PEAK Guillermo del Toro returns with a lavish-looking ‘old dark house’ horror featuring the frighteningly good Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska.

Fri 16 Oct. PHOTO © DEAN ROGERS

his time as a performer.’ On Hirsch’s performance, he adds, ‘he channelled some craziness. We’ve had so many different comparisons. Some people have said he’s like Frank Booth from Blue Velvet.’

Just Jim premiered in the Visions strand at SXSW in March of this year to a good response and Roberts says he ‘stupidly decided to sit in the audience but people laughed and people liked it and it was bizarre. I go in expecting people to hate it. I don’t know why but I just do.’

Considering Roberts has made such an impressive feature, you might expect that he studied filmmaking. He did, but not in the traditional sense.

‘Every set I’ve been on, I’ve been watching and seeing what I can learn,’ he explains. ‘I was looking at it from every different angle, talking to the DPs and to the gaffers and so forth. It’s probably wise to go to film school but you can learn so much from just watching films. I don’t have to show up on set and know about every single lens. I just need to know what I want and what my voice is as a filmmaker.’

Reflecting on how to keep grounded after five years of a prolific acting career and now making his own film, Roberts says, ‘I don’t really listen to too much. I avoid that. I’ve been acting for 14 years and I’m not Daniel Day-Lewis. I don’t change who I am every performance.’ And, he slyly quips, ‘I surround myself with people who think I’m terrible.’

THE LOBSTER

Danny Boyle helms and Aaron Sorkin pens the story of the Apple co-founder. That man Fassbender is the hardly obvious, but hopefully smart choice for Jobs. Fri 13 Nov.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART 2 The end is nigh as Katniss and co take on the Capitol in the final instalment of the superior YA franchise. Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie joins the throng. Fri 20 Nov.

BRIDGE OF SPIES Colin Farrell searches for love in brilliantly conceived circumstances in a black comedy from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth) that’s a genuine one-off.

See review, page 63. Fri 16 Oct.

PAN Peter Pan gets the origin story treatment in Joe Wright’s latest, starring Hugh Jackman, which promises to be another feat of visual imagination. Fri 16 Oct.

Steven Spielberg follows the Oscarwinning Lincoln with an espionage thriller starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. Fri 27 Nov.

CAROL Todd Haynes’ Patricia Highsmith adaptation blew everyone away (including us at The List) when it premiered at Cannes, with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara looking like definite Oscar nomination material. Fri 27 Nov.

Just Jim is on general release from Fri 25 Sep. 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 15

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AUTUMN film

SOMETHING WICKED

‘It was the vision of Michael Fassbender as Macbeth that first intrigued me’

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acbeth. The Scottish play. One of Shakespeare’s most famous and bloody tragedies. An epic story that has been adapted time and time again on stage and screen (most notably by Orson Welles in 1947 and Roman Polanski in 1971). Nearly everyone has either studied it at school or seen at least one version over the years. Somehow, Australian director Justin Kurzel has managed to make this 400-year-old text feel fresh in his new adaptation starring Michael Fassbender in the title role and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. The leads are backed up by a strong British and Scottish cast with Sean Harris as Macduff, David Thewlis as Duncan, Paddy Considine as Banquo and David Hayman as Lennox.

Screenwriters Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie and Todd Louiso streamlined the play, stripping it to its bones. ‘I started seeing it as a western; there’s something very interesting about these characters being isolated and brutalised by the environment and the times,’ adds Kurzel. ‘The badlands of 11th-century Scotland and how hard it was to survive. What it was to be a warrior in this place.’

Intrigued by the psychology behind the characters, grounding it in the real world, they explored concepts of post-traumatic stress, obsession and neurosis. Fassbender’s Macbeth is an honourable man driven to violence and insanity, corrupted by his thirst for power.

Unsurprisingly it’s a muscular, formidable performance from a magnificent Fassbender. ‘Desperate is a really great word,’ says Kurzel. ‘I always saw these characters as reaching for something unattainable, filling a void and filling their grief with ambition, but it’ll never be enough. The witches are an extension of his psychology, his state of mind at the beginning of the film.’

Director Justin Kurzel talks to Henry Northmore about his gritty, bloody adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy

Kurzel cleverly switches from intimate close-ups to stark longshots.

‘You can bring the camera close and the verse can be like whispers or secrets. That became a very interesting dynamic, where you could be in the heat of a conversation between characters then burst out into the landscape and make that conversation feel small and almost irrelevant.’

Kurzel and his team were looking for the truth behind the story. They wanted to capture the grim reality of life in Scotland during the Middle Ages, and referred to Cameron Taylor and Alistair Murray’s book On the Trail of the Real Macbeth for guidance. The imposing Scottish geography would become integral to the film, as would the grime, dirt and harsh conditions of the time. ‘I didn’t want to do a remake or set it in modern day. I was very excited by the idea of doing it in his homeland and embracing that landscape,’ says Kurzel. ‘My first trip to Skye was unbelievably beautiful but frighteningly majestic and ancient; you could imagine spirits and witches. It all made sense.’

However the experience of filming in the Highlands inevitably threw up its own challenges: ‘It was unbelievably horrendous. It’s an unforgiving landscape. We were shooting in the middle of winter. I did the location scouting in the middle of summer and it seemed so charming and awe inspiring. Then we arrived and you are watching your production designer flying across the camera, literally picked up [by the wind], or Marion Cotillard disappearing in a bog . . . it was really formidable. But it was also what we were getting most inspired by, this unforgiving land that we were just trespassers on.’

Macbeth is on general release from Fri 2 Oct. See review, page 61.

16 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Sat 17 Oct | 8pm | Cert 12A usherhall.co.uk | 0131 228 1155

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AUTUMN family

ZONE Paper Planes

Matthew Turner rounds up the best family-friendly cinema fare coming your way this autumn, from Pan to Star Wars

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his autumn offers a variety of treats when it comes to family films. First up is feelgood sports drama McFarland (25 Sep). Based on a true story, it stars Kevin Costner (making a welcome return to sports movies) as a former football coach who moves to the impoverished town of McFarland, California and attempts to turn a group of no-hopers into one of the USA’s best cross-country running teams.

If it’s fantasy escapism you’re after, look no further than Pan (16 Oct), directed by Joe Wright. Essentially a prequel to JM Barrie’s classic children’s tale Peter Pan, it tells the story of an orphan boy (Levi Miller) who’s spirited away to Neverland where he joins forces with adventurer James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) and colourful warrior Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) in order to defeat the sinister pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman).

Animation fans are also in for a treat this autumn. Spooky comedy Hotel Transylvania 2 (16 Oct) sees Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his monster friends (including Kevin James as Frankenstein and Steve Buscemi as Wayne the Wolfman) trying to bring out the monster in his half-human, half-vampire grandson, so that his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) won’t leave the horror hotel.

And Asterix and Obelix: The Mansions of the Gods (23 Oct) is a CGI animated adventure based on the popular French comic book series by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, in which Roman emperor Caesar attempts to absorb the rebellious Gaulish village by tearing down the surrounding forest and erecting a giant housing estate. Needless to say, plucky warrior Asterix and his best friend Obelix fight back, aided by the druid Getafix and his magic potion.

If live action is more your thing, check out charming Australian drama Paper Planes (23 Oct), in which a young boy (rising star Ed Oxenbould) decides to enter the world junior paper planes championship, hoping that the competition will snap his widowed father (Sam Worthington) out of his depression.

Young adults are also well catered for in the autumn season, with the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part Two (20 Nov), which sees Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) turning revolutionary and attempting to take down President Snow (Donald Sutherland). This is the concluding half of the final book in the Hunger Games series.

If you prefer your fantasy a little less Earth-bound, there’s always Star Wars: The Force Awakens (18 Dec), JJ Abrams’ eagerly-awaited continuation of the Star Wars saga, set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi and featuring the return of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher).

Finally, as Christmas approaches, there’s a pair of animated adventures that are certain to bring plenty of joy to the world. First up is The Good Dinosaur (27 Nov), the latest film from the geniuses at Pixar, in which a young dinosaur named Arlo forms an unlikely friendship with a young human child. This is Pixar, so bring tissues.

And Charlie Brown and Snoopy: The Peanuts Movie (21 Dec) is a gorgeous-looking CGI animated comedy based on the popular comic strip characters created by Charles M Schulz, the trailer for which is an absolute treat.

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THE BEST FAMILY DAYS OUT THIS AUTUMN From Vikings to an enchanted forest, there are plenty of ways to entertain the whole family this season, as Rowena McIntosh reveals

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FORT VIKING FESTIVAL

EXPLORATHON AT EDINBURGH ZOO

A Viking-centric day with interactive entertainment from the Glasgow Vikings.

Enjoy falconry, a hog roast, storytelling, jewellery making, demonstrations and craft activities.

■ Fort Community Centre, Edinburgh, Sat 12 Sep, joininedinburgh.org/fort

A mini science festival celebrating discovery. Join scientists from Heriot-Watt University to extract DNA from strawberries, watch protein crystals form, see inside your belly with mini-robotic sonopills and get creative at cartoon stations.

■ Edinburgh Zoo, Fri 25 Sep, edinburghzoo.org.uk

GLASGOW DOORS OPEN DAY

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

A chance to learn more about the history of the city. Events specifically aimed at youngsters include George Square Statues, where kids can draw and photograph statues before they come alive to tell their stories, and Glasgow’s Animal Magic, an architectural safari of animal sculptures around the city.

■ Various venues, Glasgow, Mon 14–Sun 20 Sep, glasgowdoorsopenday.com

A stunning sound and light show that transforms Faskally Wood near Pitlochry in Perthshire, using dazzling visuals and innovative design set against an original music score. Visit the Storytelling Yurt and marvel at the aerial artists performing in the treetops.

■ Faskally Wood, Pitlochry, Thu 1 Oct–Sun 1 Nov, enchantedforest.org.uk

CYCLEFEST

GREAT SCOTTISH RUN SUPER SATURDAY

Under 15s go free to this weekend celebration of cycling. Check out the Savage Skills Stunt Team, Matti Hemmings BMX Flatland Display and Harry the bagpipe playing unicyclist. Kids activities include a bouncy castle, face painting, soft play and bubble football.

■ Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Sat 19 & Sun 20 Sep, cyclefestedinburgh.com

A chance for younger runners to earn some race swag. Under fives can test out Usain Bolt’s favoured distance in the free 100m toddler dash while children aged 3–8 can join their parents or guardians in the Family Mile. There’s also ‘come and try’ sports, music and giveaways throughout the day.

■ George Square, Glasgow, Sat 3 Oct, 10am, greatscottishrun.com 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 21

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BOX SEATS Hen Northmore rounds up some Henry of tthe best reasons to spend your aut autumn in front of the TV

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raditionally autumn is the best time for new television series. An early highlight is Doctor Who (BBC One, 19 Sep, see preview page 92) as Peter Capaldi retur as the world’s favourite time traveller. Staying with returns sci-fi, Amazon has confirmed their Nazi parallel universe mind bender The Man in the High Castle (20 Nov) has been greenlit for a full season, and drifting into the horror genr Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) fight against the genre, und undead continues in The Walking Dead season 6 (Fox, 12 Oct while Lady Gaga headlines American Horror Story: Oct) Hot (Fox, Nov).

Hotel It seems like the public’s appetite for superheroes is refu refusing to wane and following on from their excellent Dar Daredevil, Marvel and Netflix team up again for Jessica Jon (Nov). It stars Krysten Ritter in the title role as an Jones exex-superhero turned private eye. Perhaps not a character fam familiar to non-comic geeks, but Brian Michael Bendis’ 28 28-issue run on Alias – the comic series that spawned Jon Jones’ character – really was something special. You can also catch up with Bruce Wayne before he became Ba Batman in Gotham on Channel 5 (date tbc).

IIf you’re looking for comedy, The Muppets (Sky 1, O is a surprisingly mature mockumentary take on your Oct) fa favourite fuzzy friends. There’s also 80s-set coming of ag drama in Red Oakes (Amazon, 9 Oct) starring Craig age R Roberts and directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Ex Express / Eastbound & Down); Peter Kay’s 70s sitcom C Cradle to Grave (BBC Two, 3 Sep); the second season of Golden Globe-winning transgender comedy drama T Transparent (Amazon, 4 Dec) and the ninth and last sseries of Peep Show (Channel 4) should be with us bbefore the year is out.

Finally a quick run through some of the best drama hheading your way. BBC have a new adaptation of DH L Lawrence’s once controversial Lady Chatterley’s L Lover (BBC One, Sep), with Holliday Grainger and R Richard Madden as brooding gamekeeper Oliver M Mellors. The surprisingly decent TV adaptation of the Coen brothers’ Fargo returns on Channel 4 (date tbc) as does Homeland (Oct) as Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) heads to Berlin. There’s also the eagerly anticipated third season of the original Danish version of The Bridge (Broen) on BBC Four plus Idris Elba is back on the beat as tough cop Luther (BBC One).

Lady Chatterley’s Lover And don’t forget about the sixth and final series of cosy costume drama Downton Abbey (ITV, Sep).

22 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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STEPHEN KING 29 & 30 September FESTIVAL THEATRE

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AUTUMN music

HEAVENLY PURSUITS Chvrches are back with that notoriously difficult second album. David Pollock talks to Lauren Mayberry about meeting expectations, avoiding pigeonholes and facing up to internet trolls

W

hatever you do, don’t call Lauren Mayberry a pop star. It’s easy to mistake her for one, especially when Chvrches’ debut album The Bones of What You Believe and its sublime roster of heartfelt synth-pop singles helped write the soundtrack to 2013, putting her and bandmates Martin ‘Dok’ Doherty and Iain Cook all over TV and radio.

But on the eve of the follow-up Every Open Eye’s release, the former List writer isn’t having it.

‘We were overwhelmed by how much the first album connected with people, but I wouldn’t put us in the “pop star” realm,’ she says. ‘And I wouldn’t view myself as separate from Iain and Martin in that regard. Just because I front the band or we play bigger stages now, it doesn’t mean we somehow suddenly changed the way we approach things. We all still view what we do as indie and alternative in terms of how we execute it, even if the actual music we make is more pop than our previous projects. I like that Chvrches treads that line and is difficult to pigeonhole.’

This record has been a year in the making. ‘We started talking about the hows and wheres of writing a second album in the middle of 2014,’ recalls Mayberry. ‘It quickly became evident that we all wanted to go back to our studio in Glasgow to make it. We rent a basement flat on the Southside which has been converted into a studio, the same place we recorded The Bones of What You Believe. As amazing as the past couple of years have been, it was really important for us that we remove ourselves completely from that world in order to make new material.’

There is, of course, that old cliché about the second album being hell for a band trying to stamp their identity on the world as a known quantity, but Chvrches don’t seem to be sweating it. ‘Moving from a first to a second album is an incredibly transitional time for any band because you never get to make one in a vacuum like you did with your debut,’ says Mayberry.

‘People have a pre-existing idea of what your band is going to be, so we just wanted to make sure this record was completely ours by self-producing again. No one has a better idea of what Chvrches is than we do.’

24 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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PHOTO © DANNY CLINCH

CHVRCHES

5 TOP TOP 10 GIGS

AUTUMN

Music editor Kirstyn Smith rounds up the best gigs of the season

While the comeback single, ‘Leave a Trace’, doesn’t show a significant departure, that’s no big problem. Chvrches is a band with a clear vision of their own sonic aesthetic, while Mayberry’s words are rich in a suggestive, storytelling quality.

‘The sketch of “Leave a Trace” was done in one afternoon and that song felt so much more definite from earlier on than some of the other tunes,’ she says. ‘Lyrically, I think this record contains some of the most assertive and aggressive words we’ve ever written, but also some of the most hopeful. ‘‘Clearest Blue” is, I think, my favourite song on the album, because to me it balances the hopefulness and fear that everyone feels when they embark on something new and unknown. The closer, ‘‘Afterglow”, is one which took us all by surprise. It existed in many different forms and we could never agree on it, and it was only on the second last day of recording that we revamped the whole song. I think it works really well.’

It was disappointing to note, though, that Mayberry was being trolled on Twitter within hours of the ‘Leave a Trace’ video appearing.

Her crime? The way she was dressed and the fact she appeared without her bandmates made her outspoken feminism hypocritical.

Not to mention the usual, depressing threats of sexual violence which any woman in the public eye experiences. Typically on the subject, her response is an example to us all, male and female.

‘None of the band regrets the stand we’ve made on those issues,’ she says. ‘Someone said that I needed to get better at handling threats, but for me the issue isn’t how I handle them; the issue is the culture surrounding those ideas. When people tell us to ignore it or make apologies and allowances for arguments like, “if she didn’t want those comments, she shouldn’t have worn a minidress / had wet-look hair / fronted a band”, I want them to think about what that says to young women and the men who persecute them. That’s a mentality women come up against every single day; it’s victim-blaming rape-culture apologist bullshit. We won’t be intimidated into changing the way we do what we do. No one’s going to determine my narrative as a musician, as a performer or as a female, apart from me.’

Frankly, it makes you want to punch the air when she comes out with things like that. Chvrches played 364 shows in two years around The Bones of What You Believe, and Mayberry says the experience has helped them all grow. ‘We’ve made an album we’re incredibly proud of, but where it will take us, we can’t say. I think one of the things people like about our band is that we’re authentic, as people and in our writing, so I hope people can hear that in this music.’

Every Open Eye is released on Fri 25 Sep by Universal; Chvrches play Music Hall, Aberdeen, Mon 23 Nov; Fat Sam’s, Dundee, Tue 24 Nov.

TENEMENT TRAIL

Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott (Conquering Animal Sound) tout smart hip hop and eccentric pop in their own off-kilter fashion. Their debut features songs about pizza and Mr Whippy which sounds like the perfect combination to us. See album review page 70. The Glad Café, Glasgow, Sat 12 Sep.

Gig crawl, promoted by Tenement TV, taking in Nice’n’Sleazy, O2 ABC, Broadcast, Flat 0/1 and King Tut’s.

You can see WHITE, Man of Moon, Young Aviators, Atom Tree, Be Charlotte, The Van T’s and hordes more along the way. Glasgow, Sat 3 Oct.

VICTORIA SANDERS

‘We won’t be intimidated into changing what we do’

CARBS

HONEYBLOOD The Glasgow-based crunch pop duo featuring Cat Myers on drums and Stina Tweeddale on guitar and vocals were nominated for this year’s SAY Award for their eponymous debut album. Art School, Fri 18 Sep.

JOANNA GRUESOME Joanna Gruesome met on a winetasting holiday, which is definitely the best place to decide to form a band, and they play noisepunk, indie-pop fuzz, chock full of chunky guitar and right-on lyrics.

Summerhall, Edinburgh, Wed 23 Sep.

HEATHER PEACE

BILL WELLS & AIDAN MOFFAT The gruff former Arab Strap man Moffat and gentle jazz man Wells tour their new album The Most Important Place in the World, their long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s Everything’s Getting Older.

Arts Centre, Paisley, Sun 11 Oct.

SLEAFORD MODS Nottingham’s punk / spoken word duo Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn provide a soundtrack to modern Britain. La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Oct.

YO LA TENGO The New Jersey-based trio explore the extremes of feedback-heavy rock and sweetly melodic pop.

The Garage, Glasgow, Fri 16 Oct.

GHOSTPOET Mercury-nominated Obaro Ejimiwe performs his unique and intoxicating blend of hip hop and electronica. Art School, Glasgow, Wed 25 Nov.

BILLY BRAGG The legendary singer-songwriter and political activist still has plenty to sing and shout about. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 1 Dec.

DJANGO DJANGO Also a successful actor, a singer Peace is just as accomplished, lending her voice to everything from Motown-infused tracks to heartwrenching ballads. St Andrews in the Square, Glasgow, Thu 1 Oct.

Six months after the release of second album Born Under Saturn, the four piece pop back up to Scotland for this Barras date. We’re expecting a storming, tropical rave.

Barrowland, Glasgow, Thu 3 Dec.

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AUTUMN comedy

ANARCHY IN THE UK Doug Stanhope insists that he’s side-stepping politics for something entirely different on his upcoming UK tour. Claire Sawers chats to the US libertarian comic as he prepares to embark on an epic pub crawl

I

t’s around 11.30am, Arizona time. Doug Stanhope is at home, dealing with another fresh hangover in his own special way. He’s applied eye drops, he’s on his second cigarette, and he’s explaining a new coping mechanism that he’s developed: an evolved version of hair of the dog.

Tonight, the stand-up comedian will head to Tucson airport so that he’s fully in position when the airport bar opens at 6am. From there he’ll begin an #airportpubcrawl (it’s a thing, apparently). He’ll board a plane to Tokyo (with stops at Salt Lake City and Portland), drinking vodka grapefruit juices and Manhattans in the airports along the way, not venturing outside until he gets to Honolulu where he’ll use the 12-hour layover to visit one of his favourite Tiki bars, and maybe read a book. ‘I’ll be back home in 48 hours,’ he mumbles.

It could seem like an elaborate way to unwind, but as with so many things, the logic, when explained

by Stanhope, makes astonishingly good sense. ‘As soon as I’m onboard, I’ll take a Xanax, maybe have a couple of cocktails. I get the best sleep when I’m flying. I think it’s because you’re moving, going forward or something. Plus at home you’re surrounded by your shit; the dog wants fed and the cats are crying. Fuck that. This is the kind of thing you can do when you live below your means, and you don’t have kids. I live in a town where you can buy a house for $60,000, so I have disposable income, and a bunch of air miles. Plus my wife is away so I’d probably just be bored if I hung around here.’

Stanhope’s #airportpubcrawl will also provide a breather from writing his upcoming book, focusing on life with his mother, Bonnie, who committed suicide at the age of 63. ‘She was the one who told me to do stand-up. She was this angry, crazy, miserable, awful person, with a truck-driver mouth,’ he says, with a wheezy laugh that belies his obvious affection. ‘Writing this book makes every day feel like the day after taking ecstasy. Plus my memory is such dogshit that I have to call up friends I’ve not spoken to in years to check the facts.’

Besides looking at their relationship and casting a backwards glance over his days as a Las Vegas stand-up and then a Los Angeles barfly, the now 48-year-old Arizonian will presumably get a chance to expand on some of his libertarian views too. He’s rattled a few cages in the past with his rightto-die opinions, an issue that’s understandably close to his heart after being present at his mum’s death when she chose to overdose on morphine while suffering from emphysema.

A quick Google search for ‘Allison Pearson’ should cover the key points to Stanhope’s argument on end-of-life care.

But he recaps today, calling the Daily Telegraph journalist with whom he had an online spat in 2012, ‘ruthlessly crass, uneducated, with a poorly thought-out op ed piece’. He still feels just as strongly. In fact, this morning’s hangover is from last night’s city council meeting, where they were discussing right-to-die legislation, and Stanhope was speaking.

‘I happen to live in a very progressive town [Bisbee, Arizona] in a state with a lot of redneck retards. Elsewhere they dress it up; they’ll do anything to avoid buzzwords like “mercy killings” or “euthanasia”. But some people require physician-assisted suicide, or maybe even farmer-assisted suicide; maybe they just want to be taken out back and put down like Old Yeller.’

While Stanhope is candid and willing to air his anarchist, libertarian views (his regular podcasts, Twitter feeds and Facebook posts are full of them), he says his upcoming UK tour won’t focus on politics. ‘Fuck, no.

Who cares? It’s so boring. It’s this circular argument. Talking about Donald Trump: what does that do? It’s the Kardashian effect; talking about them just makes the problem worse.’

He’s deliberately not revealing what the content will be for his UK shows, but claims material-wise, ‘I have a loaded gun. Usually before I do dates in the UK, I have ulcers and worry that this shit won’t work for British audiences.’

This time, three years after his last UK visit, he’s been able to accumulate plenty new material, and doesn’t have the usual panic. He even confesses to having a soft spot for Scotland, owning up, slightly shamefully, that he recently discovered his great-grandmother was born here.

‘I know, I know; American douchebags talking about their family history in the same way people talk about their astrological sign . . . But apparently I’m part Scottish and some English, with German rising, or something. I really do enjoy being in Scotland. I’m sure it’s psychological; like, maybe if you told me I was in Scotland when I was really some place in England, I’d just feel better. I don’t know why I like it; you guys still don’t have proper condiments and everything’s made of that ugly stone everywhere. But I usually have a good time there.’

‘I’m part Scottish and some English, with German rising’

Doug Stanhope, 02 Academy, Glasgow, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Oct.

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DOUG STANHOPE

TOP 5

AUTUMN COMEDY

Comedy editor Brian Donaldson selects his funny favourites from this autumn

BILL BAILEY In Limboland, everyone’s favourite hippie materialist pokes around the zone where our reality converges with the life we imagine we lead. Sounds heavy but fear not, there’ll be top mashed-up tunesmithery from the talented chap. SECC, Glasgow, 21 & 22 Oct; Edinburgh Playhouse, 30 Nov.

ONE MAN BREAKING BAD The promise of ‘60 episodes in 60 minutes’ was made when this show was on the Fringe. Now Miles Allen gets a chance to extend the BB universe, with his impersonation repertoire no doubt getting broader, wider and deeper. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 1 Nov.

HARRY ENFIELD & PAUL WHITEHOUSE Here comes the first volley of 90s British comedy legends touring the nation this year as Harry ’n’ Paul deliver crowd-pleasing updates on the likes of Smashie and Nicey, the Scousers and the Old Gits. SECC, Glasgow, 3 Nov.

VIC REEVES & BOB MORTIMER They just wouldn’t let it lie. A mere quarter of a century of semi-surrealist comic lunacy is marked with some Poignant Moments covering the period from when they first bulldozed into the public psyche with Big Night Out to their recent House of Fools business. SECC, Glasgow, 11 Nov; Edinburgh Playhouse, 31 Jan.

NOEL FIELDING There’s little doubt that the work of Vic ‘n’ Bob has rubbed off in some way upon the Boosh boy who is now out on his tod with a solo tour. Live animation and crrrrazy characters can be expected in this An Evening With . . . affair. EICC, Edinburgh, 14 Nov; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, 15 Nov.

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AUTUMN art

ART BEATS As the Turner Prize exhibition prepares to arrive in Glasgow for the very first time, David Pollock looks at what this year’s shortlist might have in store PHOTO © GREENGRASSI, LONDON AND CATRIONA JEFFRIES, VANCOUVER

Janice Kerbel ‘DOUG’

PHOTO © ASSEMBLE

ASSEMBLE

T

The first ever design studio to be nominated for the Turner Prize, Assemble is a London-based collective which blurs the lines between art and architecture. Its practice seeks ‘to actively involve the public as both participant and collaborator in the ongoing realisation of the work’.

One of these projects focuses on the Granby Four Streets in Toxteth, Liverpool. A series of former workers’ cottages dating back to the start of the 20th century, they were seen as local symbols of urban deprivation after their abandonment following 1981’s Toxteth Riots.

Working with the local community, Assemble have transformed these buildings into community-owned houses and the surrounding area into public space. It’s a similar approach to the one they’ve used in playfully renovating public spaces around London, and in their Baltic Street Adventure Playground project in Dalmarnock, Glasgow, completed as a permanent artistic commission for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

BONNIE CAMPLIN Assemble

here’s no slight irony in the fact that this year’s Turner Prize is coming to Glasgow for the very first time with none of the four artists on display hailing from the city. That’s an absence that bucks recent trends: three of last year’s nominees were Glasgow School of Art alumni, including winner Duncan Campbell. But the fact that it’s coming to Glasgow at all remains a validation of the city’s standing in the contemporary UK art scene. Presenting new work from each artist in Tramway before the winner’s presentation in December, the prize will eventually be awarded to one of three competing female artists or an 18-strong design collective.

A lecturer in fine art at Goldsmiths College in London, Camplin creates complex multimedia works that explore a variety of themes around the subject of ‘the invented life’, which translates as the myths which we all select for ourselves and draw inspiration from in the name of developing our personality and sense of self, both public and private. In an age where the internet allows exposure to myths and the curation of our own selves, it’s an extremely relevant conversation.

Her broad-ranging practice has included creating drawings, film, music, performance and text, while she formerly worked in a manner akin to a theatre producer, dancing and creating live work for experimental club nights in Soho. Her nominated work, ‘The Military Industrial Complex’, is an archive-room installation comprised of various books, films and so on, which looks at what we consider to be ‘consensus reality’ and how we collectively perceive that as being a threat.

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TURNER PRIZE

TOP 5

PHOTO © ARTIST CABINET LONDON AND SOUTH LONDON GALLERY

Bonnie Camplin ‘The Military Industrial Complex’

AUTUMN EXHBITIONS Visual Art editor Rachael Cloughton picks out five exhibitions we’re looking forward to this autumn

The Shock of Victory

THE TIES THAT BIND One year on from the Scottish Referendum, this pivotal event has inspired two reflective exhibitions: the first, The Ties That Bind, presents a collection of photographs taken by the Document Scotland Collective at the time, capturing the multiplicity of views and subtle nuances surrounding the larger debate. See preview, page 90. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Sep–Sun 24 April 2016.

THE SHOCK OF VICTORY Nicole Wermers, Infrastruktur ‘Untitled Chairs’

JANICE KERBEL

Janice Kerbel’s nominated work ‘DOUG’ was commissioned in Glasgow, by the Common Guild gallery, and shown in May of this year. Like Bonnie Camplin, the Toronto-raised Kerbel lectures in fine art at Goldsmiths, and is notable for the breadth and variety of media she uses. Her works tend to construct narratives around imagined places using existing media as a storytelling form; for example, her 1999 ‘Bank Job’ was a detailed (imagined) manual describing how a bank may be robbed; 2006’s ‘Deadstar’ planned and created a Wyoming ghost town, complete with ghost stories; and 2011’s ‘Kill the Workers!’ was a ‘play’ told entirely using stage lights.

Originally blogged in 2012 as part of an online project reacting to the work of Charles Dickens, dubbed Our Mutual Friends, ‘DOUG’ was commissioned by the Common Guild as a one-off performance held in the Mitchell Library.

It featured nine songs for six unaccompanied voices, each telling of another catastrophic event in the life of the title character.

NICOLE WERMERS

Born in Germany and now based in London, Nicole Wermers creates work which operates as a form of response and comment upon the role of design in society.

She creates seductive, beautifully textured forms and then, for example, binds them together with heavy chains, roping them off from use, or allows them to be used as an ashtray. Wermers also uses fashion magazines to create all-new decorative forms.

Her Turner nomination is for the show Infrastruktur, held at London’s Herald St gallery, which looks at ‘the structures of ritualised social relations in general and at the material objects through which these relations are communicated in particular’. It contains two elements: ‘Untitled Chairs’, a series of chairs upholstered with a woman’s fur coat draped over the back, and a series of clay reliefs in the form of torn-off scraps of paper.

Turner Prize 2015 Exhibition, Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 1 Oct–Sun 17 Jan. The winner will be announced on Mon 7 Dec.

The Shock of Victory is the second of those Referenduminspired exhibitions. It will concentrate on a post-referendum landscape, proposing artistic approaches, techniques and provocations that have departed from Scotland since. See preview, page 90. CCA, Glasgow, Fri 18 Sep–Sun 1 Nov.

MODERN SCOTTISH WOMEN | PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS 1885–1965 This long-awaited exhibition will celebrate the significant and often overlooked contribution made by women artists to Scottish art history. The exhibition focuses on works produced between 1885 and 1965 – the period when Fra Newbery became Director of Glasgow School of Art, until the year of painter Anne Redpath’s death. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Nov–Sun 26 Jun 2016.

THE TURNER PRIZE 2015 One of the art world’s most significant prizes will be coming to Glasgow this autumn. This is the first time the show has been exhibited in Scotland, despite the increasing number of Scottish artists that have made up the shortlist in recent years. See feature, left. Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 1 Oct–Sun 17 Jan 2016.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER BY LUC TUYMANS The Talbot Rice Gallery has organised an impressive programme to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and this exhibition of work by the acclaimed and influential contemporary painter Luc Tuymans is eagerly awaited. The show has strong ties to the university collection: much of the artist’s recent work was inspired by a visit to the collection last year, particularly its portraits by Henry Raeburn. Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, Oct–Dec 2015.

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AUTUMN theatre

BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT

Mark Thomson is going out with a bang with his final Lyceum season.

David Pollock talks to the artistic director about Homer, Godot and Victoriana

T

hirteen years, says Mark Thomson, is a long time to be in charge of a big theatre like the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, which he leaves next summer. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the theatre company, his final season starts with a new version of Waiting for Godot starring Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, and directed by Thomson. Now he’s allowing himself time to reflect.

‘I’m very privileged to have worked with the Lyceum,’ he says, having been appointed from his old job at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh as replacement for Kenny Ireland.

‘It’s a special place and company. You could say the work of an artistic director is like a dating agency, joining up creative people with other creative people and then bringing together work and audiences.’ He told himself that if he ever programmed a predictable season then he’d failed, and so the work of theatre makers like Matthew Lenton, Vox Motus and Amanda Gaughan sat alongside ‘the Millers and Shakespeares’.

There’s a way to go before he’s done with it all, though, and some of the most exciting Scottish theatre productions of the next 12 months will happen under the Lyceum’s proscenium arch. ‘I have four actors in the room right now, all of whom have had a keen relationship with that stage for more than 40 years,’ says Thomson, deep in Godot rehearsals. ‘Having Brian Cox and Bill Paterson as the central duet means we have two of our finest actors working on Beckett’s great play for my audience and that’s a thrill. It feels like a brilliant 50th anniversary present for the Lyceum, but it’s not nostalgia.

They are only here because they want to create a unique Godot for Edinburgh and Scotland.’

His excitement is tangible as he lists some more highlights. ‘Our co-production with the Lyric Hammersmith has two of the UK’s most exciting theatre artists in Lyndsey Turner and Laura Wade adapting Tipping the Velvet, which is a wonderful Victorian story of sexual and political discovery, very human and theatrical in our Victorian theatre. John Dove has made

several excellent Millers and his production of The Crucible is a fitting finale in that series.

Liz Lochhead has been writing for the Lyceum since her Dracula in the 80s and both she and Tony Cownie have a long history of creating Scottish Molières, so Thon Man Molière about the man himself promises to be vibrant, funny and revealing.’

Thomson’s last production as artistic director of the Lyceum will be Homer’s The Iliad. ‘It’s always fascinated me how certain types of work or writers suddenly become very present,’ he says. ‘I commissioned Chris Hannan to adapt The Iliad when it hadn’t been done for many years, and suddenly within the last two years, The Globe, Liverpool and Derby are all creating Homer adaptations. I think that means we realise something has gone wrong in our thinking, and that going back to the Greeks – who talk of the nature of basic human drives and being alongside social and political thinking – might offer perspective for our times.’ It sounds like some way to go out.

30 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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WIGTOWN BOOK FESTIVAL 25TH SEPTEMBER - 4TH OCTOBER 2015

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Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections on Girl, 1990, Lithograph, screenprint on paper and metalised PVC on paper ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Lent by The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Collection 2015. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2015.

National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland SC003728

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 31

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AUTUMN theatre

PLAYS FOR TODAY Gareth K Vile reports on a selection of shows in the coming months that cover Scotland’s wide range of theatre

A

longside the Lyceum’s anniversary year, the autumn seasons in both Glasgow and Edinburgh – not to mention Dundee – reveal the wide range of theatre that exists beyond the Fringe. From lavish musical adaptations to experimental live art – via the revival of a seminal Scottish script – September and October have something for most tastes.

AS PHOTO © PAUL COLT

For the spectacular, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels comes to the Edinburgh Playhouse (15–19 Sep). Based on the film with Michael Caine, it stars Michael Praed, best remembered for Robin of Sherwood, and adds a swinging soundtrack to the story of two conmen at large on the French Riviera. Despite memories of his role as ITV’s mystical medieval outlaw, Praed sh shows tremendous comic skills and the songs evoke th the 1950s before rock’n’roll changed the world and Sina Sinatra and Sammy Davis were still idols.

With the Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard (picture (pictured) arriving at the Playhouse (29 Sep–10 Oct) in musical musical-theatre form and Shrek touring, film adaptations seem se set to take over from the jukebox musical. Glasgow has a rrevival of Britain’s Got Bhangra, first produced in 2011 and now given a new version by Sell a Door Theatre Theatre, a company which is restless in its enthusiasm for all sorts of scripts, and who recently ran an entire venue during the Edinburgh Fringe.

Davi David Hutchinson, Sell a Door Theatre’s artistic directo director, is keen that the show will ‘reach out to new and rreturning audiences’. Unlike many musicals, Britain Britain’s Got Bhangra reflects the UK’s cultural divers diversity. ‘The writers have created a fantastic celebr celebration of dance and culture within the modern narrat narrative of a talented artist aspiring to fulfil their dream notes Hutchinson. ‘In the reality TV age, this dreams,’ story taps into the aspirations of so many, against the colou colourful backdrop of the British-Asian community.’

On a smaller scale, Peter Arnott is presenting his new script, Ensemble, in a series of readings across Scot Scotland from late September. Looking at the effects on ttheatre-making in East Germany during the com communist era, it asks pertinent questions about the relat relationships between creativity and control, and how a community can develop in adversity. Given the arts’ obsession with ‘community orientation’ – whi which can often be an attempt to impress funders rath rather than develop a group of people who have a m meaningful connection – Ensemble might be a cha challenge to simplistic thinking about theatre and pol politics.

It It’s a bold move by Dundee Rep to revive The Ch Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil (9–26 Se Sep) as 7:84’s production is an iconic script and film that inspired a generation of writers. Harshly co condemning the destruction of the Scottish co countryside, and its communities, The Cheviot w was the first ‘ceilidh play’ that went out into rural co communities and a new production will have to co confront its massive influence.

Aby Watson’s There’s no point crying over spilt m milk at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre (14–17 Oct) has ggraduated from earlier incarnations at the Arches, aand is perhaps as far away from the grandeur oof Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as you can get. A m meditation on childhood, with live music and a ssubtle glance at how memories shift with time, tthis piece is a duet for performer and musician that leaves a melancholic feeling and a sense of how childhood delight and fear are tamed by maturity.

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AUTUMN dance

UP STEP

Donald Hutera chats to the choreographers behind the triple bill kicking off Scottish Ballet’s Autumn season

J

avier de Frutos’ dance career has taken him from Caracas (his birthplace) to London’s top international dance house Sadler’s Wells (where his Pet Shop Boys collaboration The Most Incredible Thing premiered in 2011) to the West End (where he nabbed an Olivier Award for choreographing a 2006 revival of Cabaret). His big, darkly fruity and hugely stylish ensemble work Elsa Canasta is one of the main attractions of Scottish Ballet’s upcoming triple bill.

Created by de Frutos for Rambert Dance Company in 2003, and staged upon a glamorous sweeping silver staircase, Elsa Canasta is a ripe, bubbling, 35-minute evocation of the peerlessly witty yet romantic songs of Cole Porter. De Frutos considers this version for Scottish Ballet ‘not a revival but a revisit, with hindsight, and completely reinvigorated by a new company.’ Referencing both Elsa Maxwell, an American socialite and gossip columnist at her zenith in the 1940s, and a complicated card game, the title is a nickname de Frutos gave to the production that just stuck. Unlike the Rambert original, this restaging sees five great Porter tunes performed live by a male singer. De Frutos explains the gender switch: ‘I thought it would be closer to the original story, which is about Cole Porter. Nick Holder, who is extraordinary, is playing a composite of Porter and me.’

Despite 20-odd years of experience, de Frutos isn’t grabbing all of the limelight. Bryan Arias is a young American dancer, formerly a member of Nederlands Dans Theater but now performing with Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot. Having won the sixth Copenhagen International Choreography Competition in 2013, this Scottish Ballet commission, Motion of Displacement, marks Arias’ UK debut. Featuring a cast of ten moving to the music of Bach and John Adams, and lasting just under half an hour, Arias’ Motion of Displacement is said to explore the causes and consequences of storytelling. Arias’ inspiration was childhood memories of his mother’s journey from her native land (El Salvador) to

America for love. ‘It was a journey filled with determination, conflict, struggle and fear,’ he says, ‘emotions we all face at some point in our lives. I’m just using them as a means of expression in the work.’

Born in Puerto Rico but raised in New York City, Arias regards time spent in the studio with dancers to be a case of collaboration rather than creative dictatorship. ‘We use the tools of our trade to serve one another, and become extensions of each other. It gives a feeling of me choreographing through the dancers rather than on them.’

Scottish Ballet’s mixed bill is rounded out by Maze, a new 15-minute quartet by Sophie Laplane. A company member since 2004, the Frenchborn dancer is thrilled to be part of a tour that’ll hit some sizable stages.

The title of the work certainly hit home during Laplane’s creation process. ‘Finding a way to link the different elements and ideas I had was a real puzzle,’ she admits. ‘Sometimes it felt as though we were in a maze, hitting dead ends and having to go back and rework our moves.’

Laplane says her dance ‘concerns the willingness of youth to take a step forward into the unknown, by trying different experiences and paths to find a way through.’ Making it has been an education. ‘I’ve learnt that it’s okay not to know exactly where you’re heading. You don’t have to have a fixed idea about the end result. That’s what makes it so exciting.’

Given the preponderance of men at the top of the British dance tree, it’s heartening to see a high-profile company giving a leg-up to a woman. ‘It would be nice to see more female choreographers,’ says Laplane, ‘but I believe things are changing and we’ll see even more in the future. I’m ready to take any opportunities that come my way.’

Elsa Canasta & Motion of Displacement, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 24–Sat 26 Sep; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 29 & Wed 30 Sep. Student tickets £10, see scottishballet.co.uk

34 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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AUTUMN books

GOOD READS As the autumn book festival calendar kicks off around Scotland, Yasmin Sulaiman takes a closer look at the best upcoming literary celebrations

T

hought book festival season was over? Think again. The huge Edinburgh International Book Festival’s just finished, but there’s a veritable feast of literary celebrations in a town near you this autumn.

First up, Bloody Scotland (Fri 11–Sun 13 Sep) returns to Stirling for its fourth year. Set up by novelists Alex Gray and Lin Anderson, it’s Scotland’s only festival dedicated solely to crime writing. After a record breaking year in 2014, the festival this year welcomes a broad range of local and international names, including crime writing superstars and debut authors.

Opening the festival this year will be Val McDermid and Peter May in conversation (Fri 11, 6.30pm). May’s event was one of last year’s most popular; renowned as the writer of the Lewis trilogy, this year he released a standalone book called Runaway, which is very loosely based on his own experience of running away from Glasgow to London in the 1960s. McDermid, fresh from her hit EIBF event with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has just come out with Splinter the Silence, a new book in her Tony Hill series.

On the Saturday, there are some big events from feted Swedish author Arne Dahl (1.30pm) and worldwide bestseller Martina Cole (6.45pm), who’s in Stirling to talk about new novel The Good Life. And that evening, the winner of the Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year award will be announced too. This year’s six nominees include Louise Welsh’s Death is a Welcome Guest, Christopher Brookmyre’s Dead Girl Walking and Ann Cleeves’ Thin Air. On the Sunday, Bloodyy Scotland wraps up withh events from Sophie Hannahh (1.30pm), Ian Rankinn (3.15pm) and finally Linwood Barclay (5pm), who’s here to talk about his latest release, Broken Promise. Throughout the weekend, look out for appearances from firsttime authors too, including Lucy Ribchester, SJI Holliday (both Sat 12, 11.45am) and Simon Sylvester (Sun 13, 1.30pm).

Over in Dumfries and Galloway, Wigtown – officially Scotland’s

National Book Town – hosts the annual Wigtown Book Festival from Fri 25 Sep–Sun 4 Oct. Among this year’s highlights are author and feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez (Sat 26, 4.30pm), 2014 Booker nominee Neel Mukherjee (Sun 27, 1.30pm), Glasgow’s copturned-crime writer Karen Campbell (Sun 27, 3pm), The Gracekeepers author Kirsty Logan (Fri 2, noon), Fishnet writer Kirstin Innes (Sat 3, 10am), Janice Galloway (Sun 4, 1.30pm), who’s just released new collection Jellyfish, and Matt Haig (Sun 4, 3pm), who’ll discuss his non-fiction book on mental hhealth, Reasons to Stay Alive.

Away from its author events, Wigtown Book Festival tthere’s a variety of nightly bbookish activities to keep yyou entertained while you’re iin Wigtown. Stuart Kelly’s L Literary Pub Quiz returns to t the Ploughman Hotel (Tue 2 29, 8pm), while literary c cabaret night Rally and Broad t takes over the Festival’s McNellie tent (Fri 2, 8.45pm) and is free to under-25s. And for the first time, the festival will host The Midge (Thu 1, 7.30pm), a storytelling event inspired by New York’s legendary night, The Moth, in which people – including, throughout the years, several celebrities – appear on stage to tell real stories from their lives.

Up in Tayside, the Dundee Literary Festival kicks off in October too (see preview, page 53), though Jeanette Winterson pops up in town for a Literary Dundee event before the festival, on Wed 7 Oct. And in Edinburgh, Word Power Books once again hosts the Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair (Wed 28–Sat 1 Nov) at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street.

Fancy an island getaway this autumn? There’s two particular treats in store if you’re a book lover. First, there’s Faclan (Wed 28– Sat 1 Nov), the Hebridean Book Festival in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis; one of the highlights of their programme this year is an appearance by H is for Hawk author Helen MacDonald (Fri 30, 5pm). And much further north, there’s Shetland Noir (Fri 13–Sat 15 Nov). Held in association with Iceland Noir, confirmed authors so far include Denise Mina, Arne Dahl and Alex Gray, but look out for full programme details closer to the festival.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 37

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HALLOWE’EN

SPIRITED AWAY Zombie Zoo

The Shining

Hallowe’en is a time for dressing up and enjoying the thrill of being just a little bit scared.

Rowena McIntosh picks some film screenings, club nights, ghost hunts and activities for tiny terrors to help you celebrate All Hallow’s Eve

D

o the monster mash: it’s a graveyard smash and it’s about to get its yearly outing. We’ve rounded up events in Edinburgh and Glasgow where you can don your fancy dress, bingewatch scary flicks and hunt some ghosts, all in the name of Hallowe’en.

Fans of horror films can attend All Night Horror Madness at Glasgow’s Grosvenor (Sat 10 Oct) or Edinburgh’s Cameo (Sat 17 Oct) for back-to-back screenings featuring blood, guts and other nasties throughout the night. If you can’t handle that much popcorn, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is showing at the Cameo (Mon 19 Oct), while GFT has John Carpenter’s Halloween (Fri 30 Oct), the first and best in that slasher franchise. Glasgow’s Panopticon is hosting a Horror Classic Film Night (Sat 31 Oct) with a silent movie set to live music and sound effects by Gladstone’s Bag. If you’re looking to entertain tiny terrors, Edinburgh Zoo is home to Zombie Zoo (Sat 31 Oct). Don’t worry, there are no undead meerkats, instead you can help make Hallowe’en-themed items to go in the animals’ enclosures and watch how they interact with their new toys.

The Panopticon is hosting a family-friendly Hallowe’en Cabaret (Sat 31 Oct) with spooky song, dance and comedy while Children’s Classic Concerts: Magic and Monsters offers a Hallowe’en special featuring the RSNO Junior Chorus and a guest appearance by James Mackenzie of CBBC’s Raven. Catch it at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall (Sat 31 Oct) and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall (Sun 1 Nov).

The capital offers plenty of chances to get your fright on in tourist

attractions. Join the Mary King’s Close Ghost Hunt (Fri 30 Oct) or Hallowe’en Terror at the Edinburgh Vaults (Sat 31 Oct) and try to detect paranormal activity under the city. If you don’t fancy giving up your whole evening to ghost hunting, Edinburgh Dungeon extends its opening times until 10pm on Hallowe’en, perfect for some scares before a night out. Back up on street level, the Samhuinn Fire Festival (Sat 31 Oct) celebrates the Celtic New Year, welcoming the onset of winter with a torchlit procession down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile featuring acrobatics, fireworks, performances and beautiful costumes.

If you want to dress up in Edinburgh on Sat 31 Oct, Betamax’s night of mutant disco, post punk and new wave occurs at Studio 24, while the Liquid Room hosts Madchester, a celebration of late 80s and early 90s alt.rock with discounted entry for costume wearers. Or you can go even more retro with VEGAS! at the Voodoo Rooms, a swinging night of jumping jive where you can play roulette while Nikki Nevada & the Vegas Showgirls shake their tail-feathers.

For those looking to ghoul up and bust out their best ‘Thriller’ impression in Glasgow, Classic Grand hosts Monster-A-Gogo: Hallowe’en Party, a night of live music, monsters, drag, burlesque and party games with a DJ set from The Cave’s Jambug. Over at O2 Academy, there’s the iconic Club Noir: Hallowe’en Masked Ball. Billed as the biggest Hallowe’en night in the country, some 2000 revellers enjoy two burlesque shows depicting gory fantasies featuring aerial artists, striptease, pole dance, escapology and live music from the Shiverin’ Sheiks.

38 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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FOOD & DRINK

For the latest news, listi n reviews, ggs and o list.co.uk to /food&dr ink

HENDERSON’S Henderson’s, Edinburgh’s veteran vegetarian restaurant, deli and café, is setting off in a couple of spritely new directions. In late July they opened up Henderson’s Vegan, the capital’s only vegan-specialist restaurant, in the premises on Thistle Street previously used for their Bistro.

This was followed by a Festival pop-up called Henderson’s Holyrood in the former Foodies at Holyrood site near The Tun building on Holyrood Road. The pop-up pops down for a refurb in September, but will reopen as a permanent fixture later in the year.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 41

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FOOD & DRINK

DRINKS NEWS

NEWS & REVIEWS

Glasgow is putting on some rare drinks events in September, with the ubercultured Craft Beer Rising happening at Drygate on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September. The next weekend sees Ooshka, an ‘experimental festival’ celebrating Scotland’s drinks, on board The Tall Ship.

What could go wrong?

In Edinburgh, David Robertson, former Master Distiller at The Macallan, has designs on setting up the Holyrood Park Distillery in the former Engine Shed building.

If approved, it would be the first working single malt whisky distillery in the capital for 90 years.

FLOCKING SOUTH Glasgow’s Southside dining credentials continue to rise, as Andrea Pearson discovers a chef spreading his wings in Shawlands

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Lamb rump with carrot purée and shelled broad beans

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Al dente pasta can be challenging for the unwary

BLACK DOVE 67 Kilmarnock Road, Southside, Glasgow, G41 3YR, 0141 231 1021, blackdovedining.com, @BlackDoveDining

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SIDE DISHES

News to nibble on The latest in the Arches ‘takeover expanding to incorporate a wine makeover’ series of pop-up restaurants Johnny McKnight’s bar at street is level serving Franco/ tribute Madonna’sand True Blue Scottishtocharcuterie cheese album, released 25 year ago.On The as well as some great drinks.

80s-themed menu currently Dundas Street, chefisSean Clarke running at the Arches Café Bar has opened The Table, which has and Restaurant in Glasgow, with just ten seats overlooking an open special performance. kitchen where two chefs prepare a seven-course tasting menu each evening. Just down the hill, in the former Appetite Direct, Nova Pizza is, essentially, a small vegetarian Italian kitchen-café and takeaway, and there’s more new pizza on Rose Street, where Dough fires out pizza slices, panini and saltimbocca.

It’s not just drinks festivals in Glasgow, but the food celebrations are getting gallus too. Let’s Eat Glasgow, happening at SW3 in Finnieston on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, is a restaurant festival and pop-up market put on by the new Real Food, Real Folk co-operative under the leadership of Colin Clydesdale of Stravaigin (pictured). It sees many of the city’s more progressive

and engaged restaurants and producers serving up plates of food alongside produce stalls, social enterprises, entertainment and even livestock. Then on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, Streat Glasgow comes to the Briggait for another celebration of the city’s energetic street food scene.

In Edinburgh’s West End, Fred Berkmiller’s L’Escargot Blanc is

A couple of places to look out for around Edinburgh are the emergence of a café and probably more at Checkpoint, a Malcolm Innes project in the former Forest Café premises on Bristo Place, and the Leith Chop House, a ‘bar and butchery’ from the team behind Monteiths, Sygn and the West Room. It plans to open its doors in the former Leith Lynx site at 102 Constitution Street sometime in September.

In Glasgow, the restaurant on the move is Burger Meats Bun. It’ll be doing some itinerant popping-up for a few months while owners Ben Dantzig and James Forrest hunt down larger premises in the city centre. The original venue at 48a West Regent Street has been transformed by the pair into Bó Kantina, which will serve Korean cooking as well as other East-Asian dishes. The Seoul food doesn’t stop there, however, with street fooders Kimchi Cult taking up permanent residence at 14 Chancellor Street off Byres Road, serving bao, burgers, bibimbap and Korean fried chicken.

CAPITAL CUISINE Claire Flynn looks at what the second Edinburgh Restaurant Festival has to offer

A

fter a successful debut in 2014, the Edinburgh Restaurant Festival (organised by This Is Edinburgh) will once more take over the city this October, showcasing the diverse range of food available in the capital. Restaurants across Edinburgh will offer hungry customers £15 lunches and £25 dinners (per person for three courses). Eateries taking part include Tower Restaurant, Prestonfield House, Contini Ristorante, No. 8 Lister Square, Kyloe and Cucina.

Launching the festival is Chef’s Table, an event that sees three of Edinburgh’s top chefs work together to create a meal that captures what the capital has to offer. Taking place at the Hub on the Royal Mile, tickets cost £25 and attendees will get the opportunity to speak to the culinary connoisseurs about their creations afterwards.

Plenty of other events will take place across the capital during the gastronomical celebration. On 10 Oct, the Grassmarket will transform into a family-friendly foodie haven, providing tasters, demonstrations, classes and early evening music. Eat Walk Edinburgh will return with their food tours, allowing diners to sample five tasting plates in some of the city’s finest restaurants and Harvey Nichols are planning to screen the film Chocolat (starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp), accompanied by a three-course meal and themed cocktails.

Plus, the Kiltr Street Feastival will take over St Andrew Square Gardens from 16–18 Oct to close the festival. The pop-up event brings together a hand-picked selection of street food, cultures and styles, with music provided by local DJs. For more information about the Edinburgh Restaurant Festival, the set menus and event listings, visit thisisedinburgh. com/edinburghrestaurantfestival and follow @edinburgh and #edrestaurantfest on Twitter for the latest news and updates.

■ Various locations, Thu 8–Sun 18 Oct, times and prices vary.

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THE BEER KITCHEN BY INNIS & GUNN 213 Hope Street, City Centre, Glasgow, G2 2UW 07981 753192, fireinbabylon.squarespace.com Average price two-course meal: £12 (lunch/dinner)

The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.

Glasgow ISLENA

SPANISH ‘CHIRINGUITO’ 51 Bell Street, Merchant City, 0141 552 3530, islenaglasgow.co.uk, £18 (lunch/dinner) What was the stylish champagne-and-oyster bistro Central Market has had a change in owners and a serious change in direction, moving deep into Spanish territory. The previously Parisien-style décor has been given a blast of Iberian warmth with a ‘chiringuito’ (beach shack bar-diner) vibe, especially when the sun streams through the immense windows. Making up around half the menu, the tapas dishes from the visible kitchen offer good-looking, well-prepared plates, including a stand-out salted pork bruschetta.

Wines are extremely well considered, as expected from owners who also run Boudoir Wine Bar nearby.

OSTERIA DEL TEMPO PERSO ITALIAN 17 John Street, Merchant City, 0141 552 6009, osteriadeltempoperso.info, £17 (lunch/dinner) With a mother restaurant in Lazio and sister in Edinburgh, this Glasgow branch brings authentic flavours and impressive ingredients cooked with flair and passion. It’s a pretty place with high ceilings, soft lighting and relaxing Italian music. A fairly large menu features a sharing board loaded with quality Italian meats and cheeses, and outstanding handmade pasta – try with a variety of sauces, many vegetarian. If the

mood is for meat, saltimbocca alla romana stands out. Wine is taken seriously – all Italian and many unusual.

SMILE CAFE CENTRAL ITALIAN PANINOTECA 121 Douglas Street, City Centre, £8 (lunch) Following their first café, a popular paninoteca near the Botanics, Smile’s Italian owners have spread their specialist sandwiches to the city. It’s a much bigger proposition, in an attractive spot, with big windows overlooking a busy corner. Over two dozen freshly prepared fillings for panini dominate, split into hot and cold options. Smile are masters of the sandwich and the move hasn’t stretched them, with top quality, deliciously authentic panini served up.

There are also soup and salad options and one or two specials including pastas. They also do mean sweet treats and the Kimbo coffee is outstanding

Edinburgh

ILLEGAL JACK’S TEX-MEX GRILL TEX-MEX RETURN 43–45 St Patrick Square, Southside, 0131 629 2722, illegaljacks.co.uk, £8 (lunch/dinner) Making a welcome return after flood damage forced the closure of their Lothian Road site, the city centre’s original fast food Tex-Mex bar has stepped back into a different scene, one in which similar establishments are springing up over the city. So the new Illegal Jack’s dual selling points are its repositioning on a Southside back street, just a stone’s throw from the university, and a makeover which is plush bordering on elegant. Understated red, white and black and a hint of dark wood accompanies a familiar menu of pick-your-own-filling (the Perthshire steak and West Lothian haggis is local) tacos, quesadillas, fajitas and burrito, the size and quality of which suggests they’re going for that market leader position once more.

AKVA SWEDISH BAR 129 Fountainbridge, West End, 0131 290 2050, bodabar.com/akva, £6 (lunch) / £10 (dinner) From lowly corner-bar beginnings with Boda on Leith Walk, Edinburgh’s Swedish pub brand has expanded into its fifth and largest space yet, taking it away from the realm of cosy little locals and into the kind of bar that welcomes students and office workers in numbers. The former Cargo is a bright, modern space with two spacious levels and a large outdoor seating area, looking out over the canal. There’s craft beers and jars of savoury nuts, while reclaimed furniture warms the place up. The menu will be familiar to those who have been to Boda; a hearty selection of homemade burgers, varied continentally influenced breakfasts, sharing plates and smorrebrod open sandwiches. Dogs and kids are also welcome.

KNIGHTS KITCHEN PAN-AFRICAN 126 Nicolson Street, Southside, 667 7278, facebook.com/knightskitchen A fixture around Edinburgh food markets, Christine Longstaff’s Knights Kitchen has graduated to its own permanent premises. Its African street food style encompasses sharing plates which are taken from the Kenyan tradition Longstaff grew up with, and other African influences. This cosy restaurant presents dishes which can’t be found anywhere else in the city, like variously topped cinnamon and corn pancakes for breakfast and brunch, okra fritters on the side and sharing plates of Masai Mara meats or African curries.

Well-priced daytime deals until 5pm also include a boerewors sandwich and a ‘bunny chao’, a type of African chilli served on a bun.

Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at list.co.uk/food-and-drink 46 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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*20% off valid on advance Adult and Over 65s tickets only (excluding VIP). Offer expires midnight 08.11.15. £15.40 is based on a discounted advance Adult Super ticket, Fri & Sunday, saving £3.85 (Sat discounted tickets cost £15.80, saving £3.95).

Standard Supertheatre seat included with all advance Super tickets subject to availability. Upgrade to Gold seat for £3 extra. 20% discount also available on Value tickets which exclude Supertheatre, entry from 11am only.

Prices include all admin and transactional fees. Not valid with any other offer. Calls to 0844 581 1353 cost 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge. Not all celebrities appear on all days, check the website for details.

The Good Food word mark and logo are trademarks of BBC Worldwide Limited. Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited. The BBC Good Food Shows are organised and presented by River Street Events.

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CRAFT WORK

The craft beer revolution is now firmly on trend. But what actually is craft beer?

David McPhee discovers that definitions can be hard to pin down

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K, put down that pint of flat lager and check this out. There’s a new type of beer experience out there. It involves something called craft beer. Which, to its champions, is shorthand for beer with flavour. Those who make craft beer will, it’s believed, scour land, sea and air to find the next great ingredient to achieve flavour.

They will happily spend hours, days, weeks and months researching it, testing it, tasting and brewing it to get it just right. As this phenomenon has grown, so have levels of consternation within the industry about the term ‘craft beer’.

‘We’ve painted ourselves into a corner,’ suggests beer writer and blogger Melissa Cole. ‘We needed clearer communication within the industry early on.’ Her feeling is that an initial strong and concise message from brewers may have headed off those who might wish to appropriate the term for their own financial gain.

Before ‘craft’ came along there was, of course, ‘real ale’. A rallying call for true beer lovers in the late 20th century, in more recent times real ale had undoubtedly been suffering from a mild image problem (think of John Major supping on a flat warm pint and you get the picture).

Yet those who brewed real ale share similar objectives to those who now produce craft beer and many are happy with the definition. ‘We brew beer in which flavour is the overriding consideration and that is true to itself,’ says Jamie Delap, director of Fyne Ales. ‘Craft beer as a term does mean something to our customers or else they wouldn’t be using it. Presently it’s the only term that makes sense.’

Brewers commonly use definitions such as ‘authentic’ or ‘honest’ when describing their processes and products which clearly suggests there are ethical considerations associated with them. However, this doesn’t help the humble enthusiast much in understanding what the true essence of craft beer really is. Fortunately there are ways to navigate

the lack of a true definition and, to an extent, there is a consensus in the industry as to what ‘craft’ should mean.

Daniel Rowntree of the Craft Beer Rising festivals maintains that ‘flavour is directly related to the human influence associated with the product’, and many agree that a mass-produced beer masquerading as ‘craft’ is easily identifiable through taste.

It’s impossible to have this discussion without mentioning BrewDog. Their scale of operation certainly doesn’t appear to interfere with the quality of their product and the process in which it’s made but their constant use of the term ‘punk’ and their claim to be ‘sticking two fingers up’ to what has come before does not sit well with the integrity associated with the craft beer philosophy. For many of their ‘punk’ devotees (and individual investors), the revelation that BrewDog supplies to Tesco surely provoked similar reactions to those witnessing Iggy Pop’s foray into insurance sales.

If craft beer, as an entity, is simply clever marketing, then it can understandably leave the consumer somewhat bemused. What does it really stand for? Gavin Meiklejohn, director at Tempest Brewing Company, contends that pride in your creation is part of the overall process. ‘You need to be in complete control of your product,’ he states.

‘It should be small-batch and should have production and quality control right down to packaging and the best quality ingredients possible.’

As the obvious dichotomy present between passion and profit is unlikely to be resolved, it’s intriguing to see some are now considering alternative definitions such as ‘hands-on brewing’ or ‘hand-crafted beer’. Whether you’re carving – or crafting – out a niche or redefining the public’s understanding of what they drink, the name game is an ongoing challenge.

■ Craft Beer Rising is at Drygate, Glasgow, Fri 4 & Sat 5 Sep.

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Go behind the scenes at Scottish Ballet The List and Scottish Ballet are bringing you the chance to go behind the scenes at Scottish Ballet’s headquarters on 15 September.

You’ll be able to watch the dancers rehearse and hear personally from choreographers Bryan Arias and Sophie Laplane on their works as part of Scottish Ballet’s Autumn season.

To enter this amazing competiton visit

list.co.uk/offers

T&CS: Competition closes 10 September 2015. The List’s usual rules apply.

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AROUND TOWN

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STIRLING FRINGE As the Edinburgh Fringe closes, Stirling’s own festival gets underway Now in its third year, Scotland’s ‘other Fringe Festival’ offers a mix of comedy, music, theatre and storytelling. Taking place from 18–26 September, the city that sleeps will spring to life during Stirling Fringe with entertainment for all ages and all tastes.

From the comedy circuit there’s Custard Cream-loving Ray Bradshaw, who Frankie Boyle has described as ‘funnier than a falcon’ (we think that’s a compliment). There’s also a chance to see Street Fighter on the big screen – with a twist, as comics Billy Kirkwood (pictured) and Joe Heenan are around to provide laugh-out-loud commentary.

For the kids, there’s regal storytelling by

Robert the Bruce and his wife Queen Elizabeth as they come to life in full costume, while the Crime and Punishment tour is a goer for all ages – the charismatic (yet undeniably sinister) guide will take you down the city’s streets, engrossing onlookers with old tales of the bad and the punished. There’ll also be an abundance of music to dance to, from Scottish hip hop by Stanley Odd to South African folk songs from Simply Soweto Encha.

Unsure how to round off the festivities in style? Bridge of Allan’s Beer, Cider & Sausage Festival on 25 September is bound to have some of, if not all, the answers. (Tina Koenig) ■ Various venues, Stirling, Fri 18–Sat 26 Sep.

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AROUND TOWN | Reviews MOTOR AND AIR SHOW

THE WHEELS AND WINGS SHOW

National Museum of Flight, North Berwick, Sun 27 Sep Adrenaline junkies can get their kicks in a number of ways.

Sure you can hang glide or go white water rafting but, for those of a safer disposition, there’s the Wheels and Wings Show. Taking place at the National Museum of Flight in North Berwick, you can enjoy planes, bikes and automobiles from the comfort of the ground.

As well as the 200-plus cars on display, there’s also a Wheels Zone, where audiences can enjoy motoring demonstrations, including the likes of Ferraris, Jaguars, Aston Martins and Formula One cars. If fewer wheels are more your thing, you can test your mountain bike skills, check out the motorbikes on display and further explore the weird and wonderful world of two wheelers. As far as wings go, the usual air shows have been cancelled out of respect for recent events, but there are plenty of static exhibitions of all kinds of flying machines, from the RAF and the British Army among others, as well as engineers and transport experts on hand to explain the how, why and where behind getting up in the air.

There are plenty of gentler pursuits, indeed there are 32 acres of family-friendly attractions, including birds of prey shows, military re-enactments, aviation and motoring simulators, a fairground, interactive car shows and a retail village of more than 80 stalls selling all your winged and wheeled needs.

(Kirstyn Smith)

HIGHLIGHTS HITLIST STIRLING FRINGE FESTIVAL Various venues, Stirling, Fri 18– Tue 29 Sep, stirlingfringe.com See preview, page 51.

THE WHEELS AND WINGS SHOW National Museum of Flight, North Berwick, Sun 27 Sep, nms.ac.uk/ flight See preview, above.

LEITH LATE Various venues, Leith, Thu 3–Sun 27 Sep, leithlate.co.uk September events at the art festival include open studios at St Margaret’s House, Wasps Albion Road and Process Studios as well as an artist exchange between Edinburgh and Copenhagen at The Biscuit Factory.

CO≠P ROMOTION

GLASGOW IMAGINATION FESTIVAL Various venues, Fri 4–Sun 6 Sep, imaginationfestival.co.uk Scotland’s first festival of ideas exploring politics, history and culture.

Richard Holloway, Kirstin Innes, Alan McKinlay and Will Hutton all appear in the programme of music sets, discussions and speakers.

GLASGOW TIGERS SPEEDWAY Ashfield Stadium, Sun 6 Sep–Sun 4 Oct (Sun only), glasgowtigers. org Watch fast-paced motorbike action, on bikes that have no brakes.

Yes, that sounds very dangerous to us, too.

GLASGOW COMIC MART Britannia Panopticon Music Hall, Sat 3 Oct, britanniapanopticon.

org Get your paws on comics, memorabilia, collectibles and original artwork.

GREAT SCOTTISH RUN George Square, Sun 4 Oct, greatscottishrun.com Take to the streets of Glasgow for a 10k or half marathon starting in George Square and finishing at Glasgow Green.

EDINBURGH FIREWALK West Parliament Square, Thu 10 Sep, samh.org.uk A firewalk with SAMH in recognition of World Suicide Prevention Day , where participants aim to walk across 20 feet of wood embers, without getting burned.

CYCLEFEST EDINBURGH Corn Exchange, Sat 19 & Sun 20

Sep, cyclefestedinburgh.com Two days of exhibitors, stalls, displays and presentations aimed at cycling and bike enthusiasts. Check out the Savage Skills Stunt Team and hear talks from professional cyclists.

THE CAKE AND BAKE SHOW Royal Highland Centre, Fri 30 Oct– Sun 1 Nov, thecakeandbakeshow. co.uk The UK’s biggest baking show, delighting all sweet-toothed cake connoisseurs with celebrity chefs, demos, workshops and markets.

SAMHUINN FIRE FESTIVAL The Royal Mile, Sat 31 Oct, beltane.org Hosted by Beltane Fire Society, the Samhuinn Fire Festival celebrates the Celtic New Year. It takes the form of a stunning torchlit procession with acrobatics, fireworks, beautiful costumes and performances.

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Thu 10: Fuck Up Night in Akva Sun 6 & 27: Becc’s Bath Club 1920’s Blues @ Joseph Pearces, 6pm

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BOOKS

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /books

DUNDEE LITERARY FESTIVAL Tayside’s premier book festival returns this autumn The Dundee Literary Festival programme isn’t announced until 14 September but the sneak preview we can reveal here makes for typically exciting reading. With Dundee recently designated the UK’s first UNESCO City of Design the festival will be taking a special look at book covers and production. As home to the Dundee International Book Prize, some great bookshops (like Madigan’s, pictured), and a creative writing MLitt at the city’s university, it will also be championing debut authors including alumni Oliver Langmead, alongside Lucy Ribchester, Malachy Tallack and William Goldsmith.

In the birthplace of Desperate Dan, comics will also be celebrated with debut stars such as 2000AD’s Tom Foster and towering figures

like UK Comics Laureate Dave Gibbons.

Jeanette Winterson will make a special prefestival appearance on Wed 7 Oct, while there will also be an event with Janice Galloway, poetry and music from Rally & Broad, and a showcase of new work produced by The HaVeN Dundee in conjunction with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Neu! Reekie! and the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. ‘We have theatre, film, poetry, workshops, kids events, the 100th birthday of Ladybird books, an exploration of the human body, censorship and cakes,’ sums up manager Peggy Hughes. ‘There’s something for the curious, whatever it is you’re curious about.’ (David Pollock) ■ Various venues, Dundee, Wed 21–Sun 25 Oct.

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BOOKS | Reviews YOUNG ADULT

LOUISE O’NEILL

Asking For It (Quercus) ●●●●● Louise O’Neill’s first novel, Only Ever Yours, shook up the YA scene so much that it was granted the rare accolade of a separate adult edition. Her new book, Asking For It, will surely follow suit.

Based loosely on the Steubenville High School rape case of 2012, Asking For It follows mean girl Emma O’Donovan after she’s had one too many at a party one night. She blacks out; when she wakes up in pain, she can’t remember a thing that happened. However, recordings and photos of the events that took place have been circulated throughout her school and online. And she soon realises it won’t be possible to pretend that nothing happened.

The story unfolds with some triggering detail and a chilling lack of empathy from her family and community, showing exactly how tough it can be for a girl who doesn’t fit the mould of perfect victim.

Though the book doesn’t pull punches when it comes to discussing Emma’s rape, the most devastating passages describe the way in which Emma, her friends and their mothers, speak about and to each other. In a book dealing with acts of violence and misogyny, it is surprising that the most sympathetic characters are Emma’s brother and her childhood friend Connor. The women in the novel seem to have no hope of seeing above the rising tide of hatred against women.

Asking For It is both a brutal presentation of the internalised and institutionalised misogyny that affect women’s lives every day, and a difficult look at what happens when no one, not even yourself, really believes you deserve to be helped.

(Sasha de Buyl) Out now.

TIME TRAVEL

YA FANTASY

FICTION

FICTION

The Immortals (Old Street Publishing)

The Alpine Casanovas (Freight)

Undermajordomo Minor (Granta)

●●●●●

The Rest of Us Just Live Here (Walker Books) ●●●●●

The concept of time travel is hardly unique in literature. SE Lister’s The Immortals, while interesting, does not particularly distinguish itself from other works on the subject, exploring the same themes witnessed time and again: identity, the notion of belonging, and the importance of a time period’s culture.

When we meet Rosa, she is frustrated that she cannot leave 1945, and Lister succeeds in portraying her exasperation, painting a vivid picture of the war and victory. Things soon change, however, and along with ‘time-gypsy’ Tommy, Rosa cannot seem to stay in a period long enough to call it home – that is, until she meets soldier Harding, who, it’s hoped, will be the key to Rosa staying put.

As an adventure story, The Immortals works well. Lister has created a fastpaced plot filled with strong characters and witty, energetic dialogue. Her style is charming, but the problem here is in the premise: everything feels familiar, and like Rosa, it leaves you wanting to be taken somewhere entirely new.

(Rebecca Monks) Out Thu 17 Sep.

From Buffy to The Hunger Games, ‘chosen one’ tales predominate fantasy fiction. Patrick Ness’ latest is an antidote to this vein of storytelling, and a charming one at that.

Mikey’s an ‘ordinary’ guy at a high school with a few extraordinary students. All he, his sister and their best friends want to do is get through their last few months and graduate, free of drama. But as weird lights begin to shine from the sky, and dead animals come back to life, the Apocalypse looks disarmingly close.

The novel’s Buffy-like events are peripheral to Mikey’s tale. Instead, it focuses on his neglectful parents, his love for his sisters, his yearning after one best friend and his fear of growing distant from the other after high school.

Just as with More Than This and his acclaimed Chaos Walking trilogy, Ness shows he’s a master at creating nuanced, rounded male protagonists and captivating tales with realistic young characters. The Rest of Us Just Live Here is an excellent addition to his canon. (Yasmin Sulaiman) Out now.

SE LISTER

PATRICK NESS

TONI DAVIDSON

PATRICK DEWITT

●●●●●

●●●●●

Dual protagonists, Amerasian Beat and Eurasian Quyn, live in different countries but share a common heritage – both half Vietnamese, neither was raised by their Vietnamese parents or knows their mother tongue.

Beat is a disillusioned actor, typecast in generic Asian roles and living a debauched lifestyle until he decides to fake his own death and isolate himself in a mountain chalet. Raised in a barn, Quyn lives quietly in the mountains, a caretaker to wealthy holiday retreats.

The story flashes through their pasts, from youngsters aware of their different appearance, to adults who feel like tourists to their own culture. Davidson skillfully creates an exploration of what happens to identity when war fragments a race across the globe.

The prose is lyrical. Terse phrases capture the beauty of the mountains, the commotion of Saigon and the hedonism of parties, while the men’s outlooks favour the pragmatic. As their worlds hurtle towards each other Davidson builds the tension into a blistering finale. (Rowena McIntosh) Out Mon 14 Sep.

An ambitious yet lost young Lucien (Lucy) Minor leaves his humble and depressing beginnings in Bury, to the enticing position of undermajordomo in the Castle Von Aux. Befriending a pair of enigmatic thieves, and falling for a local village lass, he soon settles into a quirky life in the castle and its surrounding village.

Part bildungsroman, part gothic fairytale, Undermajordomo Minor is hard to pigeonhole. Charming in its uniqueness, at times it feels like a Wes Anderson creation, with eccentric, characters behaving awfully, and wordy chapter titles such as ‘The location, apprehension and return to normality of the Baron’. But it’s difficult to find a character, or even an overarching theme, to cling on to.

Maybe this was DeWitt’s intention – to give the impression of a pastoral piece of theatre disguised as a novel. If you’re a fan of Brechtian tragicomedy, it will bring as much pleasure as DeWitt’s previous Booker-shortlisted endeavour, The Sisters Brothers, a much more intimate and melancholy affair. (Jessica Rodgers) Out now.

54 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Highlights | BOOKS

HITLIST

ASK BOB: BOB SERVANTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GUIDE TO A WONDERFUL LIFE Ă&#x2019;ran MĂłr, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct, oran-mor. co.uk Readings from Bob Servantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new book, presented by creator Neil Forsyth, accompanied by his trusty sidekick Frank.

DUNDEE LITERARY FESTIVAL

Various venues, Dundee, Wed 21 OctSun 25 Oct, dundee. ac.uk/literarydundee A mix of events including

internationally renowned authors, local names, childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authors and the Comic Conference which features graphic novelists.

See preview, page 53.

the literary macabre and celebrating crime writing by bringing together leading Scottish and international writers. See feature, page 37.

BLOODY SCOTLAND Various venues, Stirling, Fri 11 Sep-Sun 13 Sep, bloodyscotland.com An innovative festival drawing on Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s love of

WIGTOWN BOOK FESTIVAL Various venues, Wigtown, Fri 25 Sep-Sun 4 Oct, wigtownbookfestival.

com An established and celebrated feature in the Scottish literary calendar attracting many big names. For ten days Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Book Town buzzes with book events as well as theatre, music and visual arts, sitespecific events in quirky venues and a ceilidh. See feature, page 37.

BOOKS HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

GLASGOW MCM SCOTLAND COMIC CON Byre Theatre, Fri 25-Sat 26 Sep, secc.co.uk A US-style comic con and celebration of superheroes, sci-fi, TV, gaming, trading cards, toys, anime and more. Guest of honour is anime director Shingo Natsume.

GEORGE THE POET Queen Margaret Union, Tue 6 Oct, qmunion.org.uk George Mpanga is known for his sociopolitical verse and urban beats.

GLASGOW COMIC & CRAFT FAIR Walkabout, Sat 31 Oct & Thu 5 Nov, 0141 332 8209 The Big Glasgow Comic Page presents a day of assorted geekery complete with 40 vendors selling back issues, graphic novels, original art, fan art, toys, t-shirts, jewellery, crafts, cupcakes and loads more.

Discover the worldĂ­ s Best Cinematic Destination* with The List & the National Trust for Scotland â&#x20AC;˘

Visit backdrops and film locations of TV Dramas, Documentaries, Photo Shoots and Hollywood Blockbusters

â&#x20AC;˘

Follow the Outlander trail and reenact scenes from Skyfall

â&#x20AC;˘

Explore more than 100 National Trust for Scotland properties

Find your free copy inside

EDINBURGH THE EDINBURGH OUTLANDER EXPERIENCE Mercat Cross, Saturdays, weekly, until Sat 31 Oct, mercattours.com See locations from Diana Gabaldonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Outlander novels as visited by Claire and Jamie.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT PANICS WITH RICHARD HOLLOWAY Looking Glass Books, Wed 23 Sep, lookingglassbooks.com An evening

of debate and discussion, with writer and broadcaster Richard Holloway, Viviene Cree, Gary Clapton and Mark Smith â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the three editors of a new book on the topic of moral panics in society.

EDINBURGH INDEPENDENT RADICAL BOOK FAIR Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Wed 28 Oct-Sun 1 Nov, outoftheblue.org. uk Five days of free readings and discussions plus bookstalls with an emphasis on small and independent presses and writings from outside the mainstream.

FREE IN THIS ISSUE

g n i t t e J t Se in cotland S

nal Trust for A Guide to Natio locations Scotland lm INSIDE:

EXCLUSIVE COMPETITION, MAP, WHERE TO STAY

Visit nts.org.uk/filming for more & film.list.co.uk for film listings near you *as voted by USA Today

3 Sepâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 55

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COMEDY

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /comedy

FRISKY & MANNISH Pop-comedy mash-ups from Corcoran and Jones For those who think that the comedy world is merely folks holding onto a mic while hanging on to their nerves as they proceed to tell jokes, stories and puns, Frisky & Mannish are the kind of act who dispel all such myths.

For one thing, there’s their own description of their shtick: it’s a (deep breath) ‘popmusicy, seriocomic, mashparodic, stereophonic, LOUD, vaudevillian, sketchcabaret, throwback, current, oldfangled, newfashioned, bapsbotty infotainment’. Well, it simply has to be in the comedy genre as the Fringe programme hasn’t invented a section with that name just yet.

Formed in 2008, legend has it that F&M tore the roof off a friend’s fundraising gig with four musical pastiches they’d knocked up on the hoof and the rest is musical-comedy history.

Their new show, Just Too Much, is believed to be ‘packed tighter than Robin Thicke’s crotchal region’ which bears little thinking about. Frisky (Laura Corcoran) and Mannish (Matthew Floyd Jones) claim to be all grownup with a barely conscious recoupling which marks the beginning of a new pop-comedy era. Those are bold claims, people.

(Brian Donaldson) ■ Òran Mór, Glasgow, Mon 21 Sep.

56 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Previews | COMEDY

PHOTO © GAVIN EVANS

list.co.uk/comedy

STAND-UP

STAND-UP

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 30 Oct

The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 27 Sep; The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 30 Sep

JENNY ECLAIR

Describing herself coyly, perhaps flirtatiously, as ‘semi-bearded and suffering from outbreaks of gout and hysteria’, comedian Jenny Eclair wants to seduce her crowd with the brand new show, How to Be a Middle Aged Woman (Without Going Insane).

As the title self-explains, south Londoner Eclair will be tackling issues of ageism by asking the (arguably also slightly ageist) question, ‘why are so many young people idiots?’ and ‘is swearing better than crying?’ By way of an answer to her own last question, she reveals that ‘swearing doesn’t leave your face looking like a massive swollen football with measles; I’m a very blotchy crier.’

Embarking on a UK tour in September, ‘to explore some of the bollocks that surrounds the ageing process’, Eclair’s 25-year career boasts such highlights as being the first solo female winner of the Perrier Award in 1995, writing three novels, starring in stage shows Grumpy Old Women and The Vagina Monologues and coming third in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Eclair isn’t just back for a right old moan. She insists that there are also plenty of positive sides to getting older. ‘You can spend your tampon money on pickles and relishes.’ (Claire Sawers)

DANIEL SLOSS

Daniel Sloss is a little fed up. He’s had it up to here (imagine someone gesticulating towards their neck area) with people calling his comedy ‘dark’, to the extent that his new show takes this adjective for its title and sees him cutting a swathe through the topic of taste and offensiveness in modern culture.

‘I talk about death, God (or the lack thereof, if you have any common sense), drugs, sex and lots of other things, and I’m comfortable talking about them.

People who get offended by comedy are idiots. You don’t get to listen to a comedian’s joke and then say “he / she wasn’t joking”. I think people see that comedians like Jim Jefferies, Louis CK and Amy Schumer are really funny but also genuinely honest about themselves and their insecurities. A lot of people are too scared to be honest with themselves, so seeing someone else do it freaks them out.’

Admitting that ‘tampons, chilli and your mum’ are other areas he’ll be touching on in Dark, Sloss states that politics is firmly not on his agenda. ‘I just can’t pretend to give a shit. It bores me and I don’t know enough about it. I like talking about things I’m passionate about and I feel nothing for politics because I’m an out-of-touch moron.’ (Brian Donaldson) STAND-UP

DOC BROWN

Òran Mór, Glasgow, Thu 24 Sep; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Sep When pressed to say what he would like to do if anything was possible, Doc Brown muses, ‘apart from play for Crystal Palace?

That’s the only childhood dream that hasn’t yet come to fruition.’

Now in his 30s, he’d probably be looking at playing in goal, but given his versatility you’d be daft to put it beyond him. This rapper, stand-up and actor clearly has a love of language. It’s possibly even in his genes given that his sister is Zadie Smith.

‘When I was six I was desperate to be in school plays, choirs, wherever I could use my voice. My dad was old-school workingclass London, born in the 1920s, and my mum was firstgeneration Jamaican. So I had two very distinctive and different voices around me as a child and I loved the nuances.’

He came onto the comedy scene via rap having been attracted to it by ‘rude words then humour. Then I saw actual rappers battling and it was the most awe-inspiring, intimidating thing.

I realised these guys from the ghetto were unsung geniuses, ‘hood Einsteins.’

His latest show, The Weird Way Round, has Brown moving away from rap, instead exploring straight stand-up. ‘I’m not a kid any more, so I can’t keep rapping about dumb stuff. My kids are nearly at rapping age, for Christ’s sake! I think everyone just wants me to be “The Comedy Rapper” because that’s a category they can understand. When I start talking about insecurity, parenthood, depression, religion, race, class, philosophy, art and death, people are like, “no, that’s for grown-up white comedians: just do the tea rap”.’

With Empty Threats, his first comedy album, now out and the David Brent film Life on the Road about to go into production, Crystal Palace might just have to manage without him.

(Marissa Burgess) 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 57

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COMEDY | Highlights

HITLIST

FRANKIE BOYLE: I’M BETTER THAN THIS King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 3–Sat 5 Sep, atgtickets.com/ venues/kings-theatre We thought he’d gone into retirement, but seems he just can’t stay away and we thank him for it. More dark, dangerous and damn funny stuff from Mr Boyle.

KEVIN BRIDGES: A WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Mon 21–Sat 26 Sep & Thu 1–Mon 5 Oct, thessehydro.com The biggest name in Scottish stand-up continues his reign with another show packed with astute observations. Also The Edinburgh Playhouse,

Wed 14–Sun 18 Oct. DOUG STANHOPE o2 Academy, Glasgow, Fri 2 & Sat 3 Oct, o2academyglasgow. co.uk The leading light in intelligent American comedy takes a brutal look at the stupidity of society and politics today. See feature, page 26.

BILL BAILEY: LIMBOLAND SECC, Glasgow, Wed 21 & Thu 22 Oct, secc.co.uk The master of surreality airs his qualms about the world via religious debstep, horntallica and more.

JENNY ECLAIR: HOW TO BE A MIDDLE AGED WOMAN

(WITHOUT GOING INSANE) The Brunton, Musselburgh, Fri 30 Oct, thebrunton.co.uk Jenny Eclair is younger than Madonna, but you won’t catch her falling down any stairs at the Brit Awards. She has lots to say about ageing here.

See preview, page 57.

COMEDY HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

JEREMY HARDY Carnegie Hall, Sun 1 Nov, onfife. com/venues/carnegie-hall/ overview Mr Hardy is a stalwart of BBC Radio 4 comedy including The News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Now’s your chance to see Jezza out on his own, peddling his intelligent satire and gentle musings across the country.

GLASGOW STAND UP FOR THE GREENS The Rum Shack, Fri 18 Sep, facebook.com/ therumshackglasgow Bruce Morton, Viv Gee, Ally Houston, Elaine Malcolmson and Andrew Learmonth are among those making you laugh in order to raise support for the Scottish Green Party.

FRISKY & MANNISH: JUST TOO MUCH Òran Mór, Mon 21 Sep, oran-mor. co.uk A brand new show from the musical cabaret comedy duo. See preview, page 56.

DOC BROWN: THE WEIRD WAY ROUND Òran Mór, Thu 24 Sep, oran-mor. co.uk A tongue-in-cheek take on hip-hop culture. Also, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Sep. See preview, page 57.

DANIEL SLOSS: DARK The Stand, Sun 27 Sep, thestand. co.uk A darker show from Daniel ‘excuse me while I smash the system’ Sloss. Also, The Stand, Edinburgh, Wed 30 Sep; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, Sat 17 Oct. See preview, page 57.

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC o2 ABC, Fri 9 Oct, abcglasgow. com Weird Al parodies popular rock songs in the most amusing and goodnatured ways. Think ‘Eat It’, ‘Amish Paradise’, ‘Another One Rides the Bus’, ‘Polka Face’ and ‘Word Crimes’.

See First & Last, page 128.

THE RETURN OF FRANCIE & JOSIE Pavilion Theatre, Sun 11 Oct, paviliontheatre.co.uk Liam Dolan and Johnny Mac take on the roles

FALKIRK

made famous by Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy in this tribute act to the iconic duo.

STEWART FRANCIS: PUN GENT The Old Fruitmarket, Tue 20 Oct, glasgowcityhalls.com Surreal and deadpan one-liners from the Scotlandbased Canadian stand-up and TV regular, as seen on Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo.

ALAN CARR: YAP, YAP, YAP SECC, Thu 29–Sat 31 Oct, secc. co.uk The camp face of Chatty Man proves his status as the king of bitchy comedy.

ONE MAN BREAKING BAD Theatre Royal, Sun 1 Nov, atgtickets.com/venues/theatreroyal-glasgow One man. Sixty minutes. Sixty episodes. Shedloads of knowledge. Miles Allen (pictured) brings TV smash Breaking Bad to life, all by himself.

HARRY ENFIELD AND PAUL WHITEHOUSE: LEGENDS SECC, Tue 3 Nov, secc.co.uk After working together for a mere 25 years, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse are packing up their characters and

sketches and taking to the road.

Expect Loadsamoney, the Old Gits, Smashie and Nicey, Kevin the teenager and plenty more. Rolling back the years, they call it.

EDINBURGH JOE LYCETT: THAT’S THE WAY, A-HA A-HA, JOE LYCETT The Stand, Sun 18 Oct, thestand. co.uk Mr Lycett’s latest show is all about the ability to be a wee bit useless in life while trying to figure out what it’s all about. He talks about his home town (it’s actually Birmingham, doncha know?) and about the time he met Kim Kardashian, which is bound to be an interesting story if nothing else. Also, The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 19 Oct. SHIRLEY GHOSTMAN: SPOOKTACULAR ON ICE Queen’s Hall, Sat 24 Oct, thequeenshall.net Absolutely real psychic medium and definitely not Marc Wootton taking the piss out of Derek Acorah et al, Shirley Ghostman makes contact with your deceased love ones. For reals.

DUNFERMLINE

FUNNY IN FALKIRK Various venues: Falkirk, Thu 15–Sun 25 Oct, funnyinfalkirk. com Falkirk delivers the mirth via live comedy, films and art with a top-notch line-up of familiar comedy faces, covering both boundary-pushing contemporary comedy and familyfriendly appeal. The first headliner act to be announced so far is the splendid Ardal O’Hanlon. Keep your peepers peeled for more news on other top comedy treats.

HAMILTON HA HA HAMILTON COMEDY GALA The Town House, Fri 25 Sep, sllcboxoffice.co.uk A comedy gala in aid of the STV Appeal, featuring Des Clarke, Robert Florence, Greg McHugh, Janey Godley, Tom Stade and many more.

STIRLING JAMIE MACDONALD: THAT FUNNY BLIND GUY Macrobert Arts Centre, Fri 25 Sep, macrobert.org Jamie MacDonald talks about the lighter side of being blind.

JASON BYRNE: 20 YEARS A CLOWN Macrobert Arts Centre, Thu 15 Oct, macrobert.org The immensely popular Fringe fave takes to the stage for an evening of his raucous stand-up, reflecting on two whole decades as a top-flight comedian.

58 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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FILM

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /film

TAKE ONE ACTION! FILM FESTIVAL Leading the charge in social change through film and pedal power Corporate tax dodgers, labour exploitation and whistleblowers; Take One Action! Film Festival returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow in September with more great documentaries designed to investigate social issues and instigate change.

The festival opens with The Price We Pay, Harold Crooks’ acclaimed doc tackling white collar crooks and their Cayman island accounts in the first of 12 Scottish premieres.

Star power comes in the form Food Chains, a UK premiere exploring the deplorable conditions faced by US farm workers, narrated by Forest Whitaker and featuring Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and actress Eva Longoria (who also serves as exec producer). Also look out for the UK premiere of The Shore Break (pictured), in which two cousins are on opposite sides of the

development debate in South Africa.

Elsewhere, the festival brings some innovation to its screening programme this year with two bike powered events at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens, including the documentary Bikes vs Cars on International Car Free Day (22 Sep).

‘We want people to feel empowered to help make the world a fairer, more sustainable place by taking practical action alongside others in Scotland,’ says festival director Simon Bateson.

Screenings take place in Glasgow at the CCA, GFT and Glasgow University, in Edinburgh at Filmhouse, Out of the Blue, the Pleasance and the Botanics, and are accompanied by filmmaker and guest talks.

(Scott Henderson) ■ Various venues, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Wed 16– Sun 27 Sep.

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60 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Reviews | FILM

list.co.uk/film

MUSICAL COMEDY

BIOPIC – DRAMA

COMEDY

(12A) 101min ●●●●●

(15) 111min ●●●●●

(12A) 95min ●●●●●

RICKI AND THE FLASH Meryl Streep is a blast in a film from writer Diablo Cody (Juno) about an unrepentant rock chick who, decades earlier, left her family to pursue her dream of stardom. It never happened but Ricki still rocks out a suburban LA bar every weekend with bandmates The Flash, while struggling to survive on her cashier pay cheque. When her wealthy ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline) rings with dramatic news, she nervously returns home to face the music.

It’s fun but slight, with too many musical numbers and too little incident. There’s magic between Streep and Kline, a brilliant dinner-table meltdown and a catty confrontation between Ricki and Pete’s second wife (Audra McDonald). But there isn’t enough for the high-calibre cast to work with. What a shame McDonald doesn’t get to sing; she’s only a Broadway megastar, with a record number of Tonys to prove it. And the disdain that greets Ricki on her quest for redemption is preposterous; Indianapolis is a rock’n’roll city, not the village that time forgot.

You expect more texture from Cody and director Jonathan Demme. Still, there are some laughs and the climax is sweetly joyous. (Angie Errigo) ■ General release from Fri 4 Sep.

LIFE

IRRATIONAL MAN

Anton Corbijn sets himself a tricky task with his fourth feature, taking on that icon of disaffection James Dean – who shone so brightly during his short spell in the spotlight – with the former photographer approaching events from a personal angle. Life depicts the capricious Dean (an impressive Dane DeHaan) in the run-up to the release of his big break, East of Eden. When he meets prickly snapper Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) at a party, Stock sees his potential, envisaging him as the subject of a Life magazine spread. In keeping with Dean’s distinctive screen persona, DeHaan is effeminate, mischievous and edgy; he plays him as if a ghost already, a spirit guide to the visibly-in-crisis Stock.

Life spends enough time away from Hollywood not to get bogged down in a series of distracting impersonations. Unfortunately it purports to be about the process of finding one’s artistic ‘voice’, yet neglects to explore the conceit. It also suffers from a floundering focus; uncertain of who it wants its protagonist to be it plumps for Stock for the most part, but is unable to tear itself away from Dean in the closing moments. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 25 Sep.

Looking at Woody Allen’s recent record, he’s alternated precisely between critical hits and misses: Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine were excellent; To Rome with Love and last year’s Magic in the Moonlight were pretty hideous. Using that rationale, Irrational Man should fall into the former category. If only it were that simple. Allen’s latest is a campus tale set in a leafy Rhode Island college.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Abe, a boozy, maudlin philosophy professor who still has a way with the ladies, sleeping with Parker Posey’s married lecturer and attracting the attention of student Jill (Emma Stone), but depression clouds his reasoning. Until, that is, he and Jill overhear a conversation about a corrupt judge, inspiring Abe to take direct action.

Allen has conjured up one of his more interesting plots, wrestling with the notion of theory versus practice; but in execution, the film never quite gels.

Phoenix doesn’t seem comfortable here, while Stone and a wayward Posey grapple with flimsy characters. Indeed, too much of the film feels onenote – like a cursory sketch rather than a developed idea. After Allen’s good / bad films of late, file this one under indifferent. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 11 Sep.

SHAKESPEARE

MACBETH

(TBC) 113min ●●●●● The list of those who have attempted to leave their distinctive imprint on ‘the Scottish play’ stretches from Orson Welles to Roman Polanski, via a notoriously ill-judged stage collaboration between director Bryan Forbes and Peter O’Toole. Snowtown director Justin Kurzel displays little sense of feeling intimidated by the hand of history as his Macbeth strides into view with a swagger worthy of an ambitious, untamed force of nature.

Significantly trimming the text, Kurzel’s briskly paced adaptation places the emphasis on brutal, bloody conflict in which the spectre of death informs every act and consequence.

He offers old-fashioned spectacle through the prism of a modern psychological understanding of trauma, whether it stems from the horrors of battle or the grief of a lost child. The death of an infant is front and centre from the start, and a prime motivation for the blood lust that follows.

The tone is as savage and inhospitable as the atmospheric Scottish locations. This is a Macbeth of mud and guts, mist and murk, in which the oppressive crimson of fresh-spilt blood becomes the dominant colour employed by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom). It is a production of primal energy in which dialogue is often hard to catch and there seems an almost indecent haste to rush through the most famous speeches and return to the battlefield.

An impressive cast includes Sean Harris as Macduff and Jack Reynor as a callow Malcolm, but Kurzel’s approach seems to leave Marion Cotillard’s Lady Macbeth short-changed. She is outshone by Michael Fassbender’s warrior King, who has all the fury and impact of Al Pacino in his prime. This Macbeth has a raw, haunting power that is hard to deny. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 2 Oct. 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 61

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FILM | Reviews

MELODRAMA

MIA MADRE

(15) 107min ●●●●●

BIOPIC – CRIME

LEGEND

(TBC) 131min ●●●●● ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’ So says reporter Maxwell Scott (Carleton Young) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and it’s advice that American writer-director Brian Helgeland applies to his biopic of gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who ran roughshod over London’s East End during the 50s and 60s.

That it is based on biography The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins by John Pearson – an author hired by the pair in 1967 – goes some way to explaining the reverential tone. Both screenplay and camera often flinch from the worst of the violence, most notably of the domestic kind, and the fights we do see – including a transformative one between the brothers – are choreographed, bizarrely, to knockabout circus music. It could be that the film is intended as a snapshot of the Krays as they saw themselves, but putting such a sheen on their crimes strikes an uncomfortable chord.

Legend’s main point of interest lies in its casting of Tom Hardy as both men, a risk that pays dividends. While Hardy’s portrayal of Ronnie borders on caricature, blurring the line between eccentric and psychopath, he is magnificent as the swaggering Reggie. And though the practicalities of bringing the two together on screen results in necessarily restricted camerawork, the editing is flawless.

For all its technical and dramatic achievements, however, Legend has one insurmountable flaw: it’s just too glossy. The Krays were not a couple of ambitious businessmen forced to break a few rules, but violent opportunists determined to get their way at any cost. Their story is not one of legend but notoriety – a distinction the film ignores to its ultimate cost. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Wed 9 Sep.

Italian director Nanni Moretti is a master at sensitively mapping the heartbreak of personal tragedy. His Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room captured a family’s guilt and grief following the death of a beloved son. The death of Moretti’s mother during the filming of We Have a Pope is the direct inspiration for Mia Madre but this understated, reflective melodrama is less about loss and more about an artist struggling to reconcile life and art, reality and make-believe.

The Moretti-inspired character is Margherita (Margherita Buy), an earnest, self-absorbed film director trying to cope with a crumbling private life, and her dying mother Ada (Giulia Lazzarini). Moretti co-stars as Margherita’s dutiful brother Giovanni, and the film offers a thoughtful study of family dynamics in the face of looming tragedy. If it sounds a bit glum then there’s extravagant comic relief in the shape of John Turturro’s larger-than-life American actor Barry Huggins, who arrives to join the film. Insecure, conceited, disarmingly charming and full of tall tales, Turturro is an exuberant, scene-stealing hoot, adding fireworks to the quiet colours of this absorbing, affecting take on the many burdens of being human. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 25 Sep.

CRIME CAPER

DOPE

(15) 103min ●●●●● ACTION-THRILLER

SICARIO

(15) 121min ●●●●● Emily Blunt is superb in Denis Villeneuve’s meticulous action-thriller which takes us into Juárez, Mexico, a lawless land of drugs and guns. When her FBI tactical team leader, Kate, is offered a new interagency assignment, her mettle is tested by a secretive CIA taskforce willing to adopt any means necessary to take down a cartel kingpin. Kate is the kind of dogged female investigator we read about in crime novels and see on TV but that appears less on the big screen. We’re right with her as she’s led unknowingly, then unwillingly into danger. As she slowly learns the troubling details of her mission, so do we, adding to the stifling sense of dread and confusion so brilliantly cultivated by Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score.

Kate is surrounded by a male team, led by wise-cracking asshole Matt (perfectly judged work

by Josh Brolin) and Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro – on subtle form as a quietly intimidating ‘adviser’).

She becomes a pawn in a game of horribly corrupt international relations, but challenges every move. Sicario (meaning hitman) masterfully explores the strength it takes to question those in command when you’re immersed in a volatile environment. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 9 Oct.

Coming on like ‘Geekz n the Hood’, Dope follows a nerdy trio as they nervously negotiate their dicey Inglewood neighbourhood. Malcolm (Shameik Moore) and his thinly drawn pals (Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons) wangle their way into a local thug’s birthday bash, where Malcolm pursues his wafty dream-girl (Zoë Kravitz). When it descends into a shoot-out, they end up hanging with and trying to duck a procession of crooks.

From here on in, writer-director Rick Famuyiwa plumps for a crude caper. Careful avoidance of the criminal path is surrendered too blithely, and the cartoony presentation of gangbangers and seductresses is at odds with the initial sensitivity and subversion. Nevertheless, Dope is lively and likeable, with a protagonist who resists easy definition, plenty of visual pop and a propulsive, evocative soundtrack. Yet any truthfulness struggles to survive the contrivances and Moore’s nuanced performance feels suffocated by the sheer flipness of it all. There’s a serious point here about what it takes to escape the ghetto but it’s preachily imparted; that Famuyiwa has to spell out his message in a concluding speech suggests that he knows the film hasn’t done its job. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 4 Sep.

62 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Reviews | FILM

PHOTO © GULLANE FILMES

list.co.uk/film

BIOPIC – ADVENTURE

COMEDY DRAMA

ACTION

(15) 104min ●●●●●

(15) 112min ●●●●●

(15) 103min ●●●●●

A WALK IN THE WOODS Trekking to enlightenment seems to be turning into a sub-genre: Tracks, Wild, and now one for the wrinklies, from director Ken Kwapis, in which Robert Redford and Nick Nolte lace up the hiking boots and hit the great outdoors. Redford plays Bill Bryson, although the author was in his 40s when he took on the famous Appalachian Trail. For those of us who still find Redford good company that’s okay.

In this version, his anxious wife (Emma Thompson) won’t let him go unless he has a companion. Enter Stephen Katz (Nolte), the schoolmate with whom the young Bryson backpacked around Europe.

While Bryson is fit, reflective and sarcastic, Katz is a fat, unhealthily florid slob and recovering alcoholic who doesn’t look like he could walk to the corner.

It’s amiable stuff, with the interplay between its stars engaging, but it isn’t eventful enough to qualify as a thigh-slapping misadventure or journey to redemption. There’s a slightly scary bear, a very scary trekker chick, a scarier still, amorous motel manager (Mary Steenburgen) and the odd brushwith-death, but it comes down to two guys walking, talking and testing themselves to amusingly modest limits. (Angie Errigo) ■ General release from Fri 18 Sep.

THE SECOND MOTHER

NO ESCAPE

Brazil’s class system is scrutinised and satirised in this hugely charming film from Anna Muylaert that focuses on Val (brilliantly played by Regina Casé), the indispensable housekeeper of a wealthy family, who’s like a second mother to Fabinho (Michel Joelsas). His biological mother (Karine Teles) is aloof and clueless, with the needy Fabinho soaking up Val’s attention like a sponge. The kicker is that she’s abandoned her own family to care for theirs and, when her estranged daughter Jéssica (Camila Márdila) comes to stay, this disobedient, questioning young woman shakes things up by refusing to play by the established rules, or stay in ‘her place’. Her mischief exposes the hypocrisies of the household and forces Val to confront her own blind acceptance of the status quo. It’s a terrifically effective premise, allowing for great humour and pin-sharp, yet lighttouch social commentary, while Val is a character to cherish. This wonderful film recalls the middleaged misbehaviour of Gloria and The Maid, and there’s a touch of Pedro Almodóvar as it thrills in gossip, borderline caricatures and domestic drama; it’s a work of great warmth, formidable insight and infectious rebellion. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 4 Sep.

When he takes a new job in Asia, Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) expects it will be the start of a happy new life for himself, wife Annie (Lake Bell) and their young daughters. Such optimism is violently dashed when the family find themselves in the middle of a coup. The premise brings with it a degree of hope that co-writing brothers Drew and John Erick Dowdle (the latter also directs) have attempted to inject this end-of-summer actioner with brains, as well as brawn. Such hope is short-lived, with any political commentary rendered toothless by the fact that the whole thing plays out in an unnamed country, and the civil uprising is explored no further than the threat to an American family.

Wilson brings his everyman charm and Bell takes the action in her stride; Pierce Brosnan has tremendous fun hamming it up as a cockney tough guy who helps the Dwyers, but the wild veering of tone between his scenery-chewing, their desperate predicament and the often brutal violence is disorienting. And, despite the film’s exotic location and political pretensions, there’s no escaping the fact that this is a standard fish-out-of-water tale; albeit one taken to extremes. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 4 Sep.

SCI-FI COMEDY

THE LOBSTER

PHOTO © DESPINA SPYROU

(15) 118min ●●●●●

As Pat Benatar so wisely observed in the 80s, love is a battlefield or, in the case of Greek ‘Weird Wave’ director Yorgos Lanthimos’ English-language debut, it is a bizarre hunting ground with a strict code of conduct. This surreal black comedy, which takes on dehumanisation and lack of spontaneity in the online dating age, as well as the pressure to couple up, is truly idiosyncratic.

In a dystopian near-future where being in a relationship has become compulsory, the recently dumped David (a moustachioed and brilliant Colin Farrell) checks into a hotel where he must find a mate within 45 days, or be transformed into an animal of his choosing and released into the wilderness.

Employing the deadpan style we’ve come to expect from Lanthimos (the man behind Dogtooth and Alps), the director gifts his stellar cast – including Ben Whishaw and John C Reilly – dialogue that could be cribbed straight from the profiles of people registered to many a dating site. Olivia Colman appears as the humourless head of this romantic purgatory, completely stealing the show with a rendition of Gene Pitney’s ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’ in the style of hellish British holiday camp entertainment.

David’s story gets progressively darker when he enters the world of the Loners – woodland-dwelling singleton transgressors who are hunted by the hotel guests – led by a fantastic Leá Seydoux. The final act comes with a shift in tone which forgoes the hilarious one-liners in favour of emotional heft and introduces Rachel Weisz’s affecting ‘Short Sighted Woman’. The Lobster is as weird and wonderful as it sounds and will make you think twice before asking the dreaded question, ‘Are you still single?’ (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 16 Oct. 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 63

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FILM | Reviews

COMEDY

THE D TRAIN

(15) 101min ●●●●●

DRAMA

99 HOMES

(15) 112min ●●●●● ‘Don’t get emotional about real estate,’ warns Michael Shannon’s relentless Rick Carver, the man at the centre of Ramin Bahrani’s nail-biting, recession-themed drama 99 Homes.

It’s advice he certainly lives by; far more pitiless than Shannon’s fairly underwhelming portrayal of supervillain General Zod in the recent Man of Steel, rarely, outside of serial killers, has a character as cruelly dispassionate as Carver been seen on screen.

Set in Florida, the sunshine state brings little warmth to the Orlando residents of Bahrani’s tale, which focuses on those who are failing to keep up with their mortgage repayments and face foreclosure. Carver, an entrepreneurial and corrupt real estate broker, arrives like a sharply attired Angel of Death to deliver the bad news: they only have a matter of minutes to collect their things and leave.

His latest victim is Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), a construction worker whose trade has taken a particular hit during the economic downturn. Ejected from his childhood home, with his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) and young son Connor (Noah Lomax) in tow, Nash has no choice but to relocate to a motel that’s overrun with families in the same dire straits. When Carver offers Nash a job, this everyman finds himself in a soul-selling moral quandary.

99 Homes is rarely subtle and the ending feels a touch too contrived but this largely excellent effort is a step up from its director’s earlier, similarly socially conscious films like Man Push Cart and At Any Price. Aided by electric performances, Bahrani stirs his provocations into a fiercely dramatic cauldron. Bubbling over with anger at the everincreasing wealth divide, it’s searing, sensational stuff. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 25 Sep.

The directorial debut of screenwriters Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul (Yes Man), this engaging indie impactfully subverts the standard bromance narrative. Set in Pittsburgh, The D Train stars Jack Black as Dan, a happily married consultant who has never been able to shake the stigma of having been an unpopular teen. Tasked with co-organising his high school reunion, he hits upon an idea after he spots former school stud Oliver (James Marsden) in a commercial: he’ll travel to LA and convince Oliver to attend, thereby guaranteeing that all their former classmates will show up, and that he’ll be lauded for his efforts.

Mogel and Paul’s witty script cleverly distracts you with escalating layers of traditional farce, so that when the film takes a decidedly unexpected direction, it provokes uncomfortable laughter. The fallout is brilliantly acted, with Black conveying a cocktail of confused emotions and Marsden giving his almost-past-it pretty-boy a complex, troubled undercurrent. It doesn’t always convince and wastes the wonderful Kathryn Hahn as Dan’s wife but, overall, this is an enjoyably awkward, ambitious black comedy that goes where other bromances dare not reach. (Matthew Turner) ■ General release from Fri 18 Sep.

KIDS

PAPER PLANES (U) 97min ●●●●●

COMEDY DRAMA

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (12A) 105min ●●●●●

If Wes Anderson met John Hughes and they made a weepy, this would be it. A heady Sundance hit, this predictable / unpredictable dramedy sees a friendship blossom in the shadow of imminent death.

Seventeen-year-old Greg (Thomas Mann) is sent by his anxious, sort-of-boozy mom (an excellent Connie Britton) to befriend his dying neighbour Rachel (Olivia Cooke) in her final days. As their reluctant friendship develops, Greg’s carefully built defences start to crumble. They’re joined by Earl (confident, mostly silent newcomer RJ Cyler), less Greg’s friend and more his co-worker. The pair have been making shoddy homages to famous films for years; with titles like ‘Rosemary Baby Carrots’, ‘A Sockwork Orange’, ‘MonoRash’ or ‘The 400 Bros’ they are, understandably, unshowable, yet they come to play a pivotal role in Rachel’s fight for life.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not perfect. It’s twee, manipulative and a little too aware of its own sub-genre: films about terminally ill youths. Adapted by Jesse Andrews from his own YA novel, this is the second feature by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Although it’s quite a bit more than a fresh-faced landmark, you’ll either love it or want to punch it. (Karen Krizanovich) ■ General release from Fri 4 Sep.

These days kids’ films are largely confined to computeranimated adventures or YA fantasy, so Australian director Robert Connolly’s day-dreamy drama provides a cheering alternative. Its hero is Dylan (Ed Oxenbould), a 12-year-old who, following his mother’s death in a car accident, watches his father (Sam Worthington) sink into a depression. School proves a distraction – not least when an origami expert arrives to give a demonstration in paper plane folding, and Dylan becomes enamoured with this old-fashioned art form. Soon enough, he’s made it to the regional heats, where he meets Jason (Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke), a competitive rival.

David Wenham is smartly cast as Jason’s pro-golf father, who isn’t nearly as win-at-all-costs as his son. Meanwhile, Worthington’s grief-stricken dad lends the film just the right amount of edge, ensuring it never tips toward the sicklysweet. While there are minor hiccups along the way, the outcome is never in doubt, as Dylan aims to reach the World Championships in Tokyo. Still, it’s hard to resent a film for hitting obvious beats (or for the rather second-rate CGI in the plane-flying scenes) when its heart is so firmly in the right place. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 23 Oct.

64 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Highlights | FILM

JUST JIM Selected release from Fri 25 Sep. A Welsh teenager will become the cool kid in town if a deal is made

PHOTO © DEAN ROGERS

HITLIST

SPECTRE General release from Mon 26 Oct. Sam Mendes returns to direct Daniel Craig as James Bond in this follow-up to the hugely successful Skyfall. with his new American neighbour. See feature, page 14.

SCOTTISH MENTAL HEALTH ARTS AND

FILM FESTIVAL Various venues, Scotland, Sat 10–Sat 31 Oct. Arts and film festival which combines highlevel programming with a worthy aim: to challenge and change attitudes towards mental health.

The programme probes deeper questions while maintaining an exciting and varied line-up.

TAKE ONE ACTION FILM FESTIVAL Various venues, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Wed 16–Sun 27 Sep. A film festival with a political slant, founded on the belief that ‘cinematic experiences can inspire lasting change’ and offering a series of talks and programmes showing how films can be used to empower

communities on an international stage. See preview, page 59.

MACBETH General Release from Fri 2 Oct. Australian director Justin Kurzel significantly trims Shakespeare’s drama, placing the emphasis on conflict and primal energy.

See feature, page 16, and review, page 61.

FILM HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

Spectre

BEYOND BORDERS FILM FESTIVAL Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 3–Sat 5 Sep. A film festival exhibiting documentarystyle films and offering the chance for audiences to engage with the people who made them. This year’s festival focuses on women and conflict.

DOPE General release from Fri 4 Sep. Three self-confessed nerds are about to graduate from their Inglewood high school when a shoot-out draws them into the world of drugs and guns. See review, page 62.

THE SECOND MOTHER (QUE HORAS ELA VOLTA?) Selected release from Fri 4 Sep. When the estranged daughter of a hard-working live-in housekeeper suddenly appears, the unspoken class barriers that exist within the home are thrown into disarray. See review, page 63.

PASOLINI Selected release from Fri 11 Sep. A look at the last day in the life of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.

SICARIO Selected release from Fri 25 Sep. After expertly handling a tough case, an FBI agent is placed with a CIA task force fighting a dirty war against a Mexican drugs cartel. See review, page 62.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: CORIOLANUS Various cinemas, Thu 24 Sep. Josie Rourke directs Shakespeare’s infamous Rome-set tragedy of politics and revenge about a war hero who must face an angry people threatened with famine. Starring Tom Hiddleston in the demanding title role.

MIA MADRE Limited release from Fri 25 Sep. A film director is in the middle of an existential crisis and, on top of that, has to deal with the death of her mother. See review, page 62.

99 HOMES Selected release from Fri 25 Sep. A father struggles to reclaim his home after being evicted by a greedy real estate broker. See review, page 64.

ROGER WATERS THE WALL Various cinemas, Tue 29 Sep. Documentary about Roger Waters who originally wrote ‘The Wall’ for Pink Floyd based on his own experiences growing up in post-war England.

Described by Waters as a ‘protest movie’ the film includes concert footage from his three-year solo tour and his visits to European war sites.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: HAMLET Various cinemas, Fri 9 Oct. Couldn’t get tickets to the play? Here’s a chance to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Shakespeare’s great tragedy on the

big screen.

BOLSHOI BALLET: GISELLE Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Film Theatre, Sun 11 Oct. The Bolshoi presents the romantic ballet based on work by Heinrich Heine and Victor Hugo.

DISCOVER INDONESIA ON SCREEN CCA, Glasgow, Wed 9–Thu 10 Oct. A showcase celebrating the work of independent filmmaker and sound explorer Vincent Moon, who has been making extraordinary short films in Indonesia for the past six years. See also Discover Indonesia preview, page 80.

CRIMSON PEAK General release from Fri 16 Oct. Fantasy horror from Guillermo del Toro set in the aftermath of a family tragedy.

PAN General release from Fri 16 Oct. Another origin story for Peter Pan, starring Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara.

THE LOBSTER Selected release from Fri 16 Oct. Recently dumped David checks into a hotel where he has 45 days to find a mate, or be transformed into an animal of his choice and released into the wilderness.

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY: HENRY V Various cinemas, Fri 16 Oct. A performance of Shakespeare’s historical drama starring Alex Hassell as the King.

SUFFRAGETTE General release from Fri 30 Oct. Film exploring the lives of suffragettes, who were key players in the early feminist movement.

AFRICA IN MOTION Glasgow & Edinburgh, Mon 23 Oct–Tue 1 Nov. The annual African film festival marks its 10th year in 2015. The programme hasn’t been announced yet, but it usually promises a varied and interesting selection of new releases and classics.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 65

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KIDS

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /kids

IN THE NIGHT GARDEN LIVE CBeebies favourites drive the Ninky Nonk back to Scotland Ordinarily, it’s part of the winding down process. One of the final shows of the CBeebies day, In The Night Garden is a fun but gentle aspect of many a bedtime routine. But when Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and the rest of the Night Garden dwellers walk on to the stage in Glasgow, they’ll be met with excitement, not drowsiness.

Back on tour, to entertain a whole new set of fans, the live show features all the characters we know and love – plus some high-tech digital projections to help everyone feel as though they’re actually inside the Garden.

Directed by Royal Ballet choreographer, Will

Tuckett, the show takes place in a purposebuilt inflatable show dome. And recognising that it’s the whole experience, not just the action on stage, that matters to young families, everyone is guaranteed a great view and somewhere to park the buggy.

‘Parents tell us that children as young as a few months old engage with the live show,’ says producer, Andrew Collier, ‘and the looks on the faces of the children and parents in the audiences are absolutely amazing. It’s a huge responsibility and enormous privilege to give so many children their first experience of live theatre.’ (Kelly Apter) ■ Queen’s Park, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Sep.

66 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Previews & Reviews | KIDS

list.co.uk/kids

REVIEW DANCE

PREVIEW PUPPET SHOW

macrobert, Stirling, Sat 26 Sep ●●●●●

Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 12–Sun 13 Sep; Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 19–Sun 20 Sep

WE ARE THE MONSTERS

First comes anticipation, then delight, followed by laughter and finally a big dollop of cuteness. That’s pretty much the running order of audience experience at We Are The Monsters – a clever and imaginative new dance show for young children and their (equally entertained) adults.

The anticipation comes via a stage full of cardboard boxes ripe with potential.

Because although they’re motionless at first, it seems a fairly safe bet there’s something lurking inside them. That’s where the delight comes in, when one by one, the ‘monsters’ emerge from the packaging, each one more bizarre than the last.

Choreographer Colette Sadler and costume designer Philine Rinnert must have had an absolute blast coming up with the outfits which turn four dancers into the strangest looking monsters ever created. Stretchy Lycra onesies with no arms, padded jackets sewn together and over-sized jeans are just some of the costumes paraded before us, as the characters meet each other cautiously outside their boxes.

The initial sight of them is hilarious, but then their actions keep the laughs coming throughout – until it’s time for the cuteness, when everyone is invited to give them a hug at the end. Gentle, funny and inventive, We Are The Monsters gives young audiences an introduction to movement they’ll probably never forget. (Kelly Apter)

DINOSAUR ZOO

The creatures themselves may have been extinct for over 60 million years, but Dinosaur Zoo still calls itself a ‘live animal presentation’, much like the ones in ordinary zoos or wildlife parks. Information on how to look after the prehistoric beasts, what to feed them, and how to avoid becoming food yourself, are all part of this popular show.

Presented by a host and two puppeteers, Dinosaur Zoo relies heavily on audience participation, with youngsters invited on stage to help the keepers. ‘That’s actually my favourite part of the show,’ says director, Scott Wright, ‘because it’s unrehearsed. People’s reactions are very real and unpredictable, so it makes for some wonderful moments.’

Those too timid (or too far from the stage) to get involved during the show, can stay behind for a ‘meet and greet’, where you can stroke the creatures and pose for selfies. But despite the friendly approach, Barney the dinosaur, this most certainly isn’t.

‘I find the commercialisation of dinosaurs perplexing,’ says Wright. ‘So none of our dinosaurs speak, wear clothes or teach children to count. But we hope Dinosaur Zoo imparts some valued lessons about the true nature of animal behaviour, whilst having some fun and a good laugh too.’

(Kelly Apter)

PREVIEW THEATRE

MAGIC SHO

Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Sat 5–Sun 6 Sep; The Brunton, Musselburgh, Wed 14 Oct Despite being widely regarded as one of Scotland’s best-loved and most skilful children’s theatre makers, Shona Reppe isn’t one for resting on her laurels. In recent years, her gorgeous and intricate productions of Cinderella, Potato Needs a Bath and The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean have delighted both young audiences and their grown-ups – but now it’s time for a new challenge: magic.

The cleverly titled Magic Sho finds Reppe teaming up with a smart rabbit who never misses a trick, but is inexplicably sad.

A puppeteer by trade, did Reppe have to learn actual magic tricks to create her new show?

‘Yes!’ she says, excitedly. ‘I do my best although it’s not easy – I realised during rehearsals that I’d taken on a lot making a new show and learning a completely new skill to boot. But it’s a magic show, so I had to go for it – and the good thing is that unless you know how a trick is done, I have the element of surprise on my side.’

A fine puppeteer and storyteller, Reppe has also been designing her own highly imaginative sets since forming her company almost 20 years ago. Inspiration for the Magic Sho set came from immersing herself in the world of magic, where she also established what kind of magician she wanted to be (should she succeed in her new quest to join the Magic Circle).

‘This set is based on the idea of a travelling magician,’ explains Reppe. ‘I went to Blackpool Magic Convention and soaked up all the different styles I saw. So I’m channelling both David Copperfield (smoke and lights) and Paul Daniels (giant playing cards and gloss paint). I also wear a tuxedo. I’m definitely trying to present the traditional magic show format – there’s nothing David Blaine about me.’ (Kelly Apter) 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 67

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KIDS | Highlights

HITLIST

WE ARE THE MONSTERS Macrobert, Stirling, Sat 26 Sep, macrobert. org Meet some scratchy, shimmering creatures and multi-coloured mini monsters in this humorous dance performance. See review, page 67.

DINOSAUR ZOO Theatre Royal,

like Jurassic creations on tour with an opportunity for children to get right up close in this imaginative live show. See page 67.

Glasgow, Sat 12 & Sun 13 Sep; Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 19 & Sun 20 Sep, dinosaurzoolive.com Dinosaur Zoo takes its life-

IN THE NIGHT GARDEN LIVE Queen’s Park, Glasgow, Thu 3–Sat 12 Sep (not Tue), nightgardenlive. com The people behind the popular children’s TV

show bring Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka to life in a live show with puppets, music and projections. See preview, page 66.

MAGIC SHO Macrobert, Stirling, Sat 19 Sep, then touring, shonareppe.co.uk Play for ages 5–8 about a rabbit who never misses

a trick and a magician who sometimes forgets to say the magic word. See preview, page 67.

SHREK THE MUSICAL Edinburgh Playhouse, Tue 20 Oct–Sun 8 Nov (not Mon), atgtickets. com Shrek, Donkey and the gang return in this musical based on the award-winning film.

KIDS HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

OUTSIDE THE CITIES Botanic Lights CHALK ABOUT Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, Wed 9 Sep, then touring, curious-seed.co.uk Curious Seed present a performance featuring dance, chalk and chat that asks big questions about identity and the meaning of life.

GLASGOW BABY LOVES DISCO Hummingbird, Sun 6 Sep, Sun 4 Oct & Sun 11 Nov; Electric Circus, Sun 25 Oct, babylovesdisco.co.uk A chance for preschoolers and their parents to get their respective grooves on and enjoy some dayclubbing with real club DJs.

PIRATES AND PRINCESSES Falkirk Town Hall, Sat 26 Sep, then touring, funbox.co.uk Fans of the Singing Kettle rejoice! Three members of the gang are back, along with Bonzo the Dog and a collection of new characters.

POP LOCK-IN Hummingbird, Sun 6 Sep, Sun 4 Oct & Sun 1 Nov; Electric Circus, Sun 25 Oct, babylovesdisco.co.uk Afternoon lock-in for 4–11 year olds with resident DJs spinning the very latest chart tunes, a streetdance instructor, karaoke and jewellery making.

HAIRY MACLARY’S CAT TALES Macrobert, Stirling, Wed 14 Oct, macrobert.org Nonsense Room return with a new set of stories featuring Hairy Maclary, Bottomley Potts, Schnitzel Von Krumm, Slinky Malinki, and Scarface Claw.

GREAT SCOTTISH RUN SUPER SATURDAY George Square, Sat 3 Oct, greatscottishrun.com A chance for younger runners to bag some race swag. There’s a toddler dash for ages 0–5, Family Mile for 3–8 and 2.5k Junior Run for 9–15.

KIDO Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Fri 9 & Sat 10 Oct, also touring, scottishopera.org.uk Scottish Opera brings a world of sound to children aged 3–4. The show features live singing, opera and body percussion to create exciting rhythms.

CHILDREN’S CLASSIC CONCERTS: MAGIC AND MONSTERS Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 31 Oct; Usher Hall, Edinburgh Sat 1 Nov, childrensclassicconcerts. co.uk Owen and Olly are back with a wickedly fun Hallowe’en special, conducted by Jean-Claude Picard and featuring the RSNO Junior Chorus.

OOR SCOTLAND Paisley Art Centre, Thu 15 Oct, renfrewshire.gov.uk A retelling of Scotland’s history by storyteller Andy Cannon and musician Wendy Weatherby. Ages 6+.

DISNEY ON ICE: WORLDS OF ENCHANTMENT Braehead Arena, Thu 5–Sun 8 Nov, braehead.co.uk Disney characters from Cars ,The Little Mermaid, Frozen and Toy Story besport themselves upon the ice for your family viewing pleasure.

EDINBURGH FRIENDS ELECTRIC Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 3 Oct, then touring, visiblefictions. co.uk A magical story by Visible Fictions about what it means to be human, featuring robots. Ages 7+.

HOW THE KOALA LEARNT TO HUG The Brunton, Sat 10 Oct, ptc.org.

uk Learn about the power of a good hug with a host of animals including Karen the koala bear and Natalie the wombat. Ages 4+.

FARMERS HELPERS WORKSHOPS Gorgie City Farm, Mon 12 Oct, gorgiecityfarm.org.uk Hands-on farm work sessions for ages 8–12, with plenty of opportunities to get up close to the animals – and their mess!

BOTANIC LIGHTS Royal Botanic Garden, Thu 29 Oct– Wed 11 Nov, rbge.org.uk Follow a magical trail of light through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and experience the sights and sounds of the Garden after dark.

BEAR & BUTTERFLY Macrobert, Stirling, Mon 12 Oct, macrobert.org The story of two bezzies – a bear and a caterpillar, told using live music and puppetry.

WITCHES FAMILY FUN DAY Dundee Rep, Fri 23 Oct, dundeerep.co.uk Drama, storytelling and art suitable for children aged 3–10 and their adults.

DISCOVERY FILM FESTIVAL Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, Sat 24 Oct–Sun 8 Nov, discoveryfilmfestival.org.uk Film festival for young audiences (3+) combines the best youth cinema from around the world with a series of creative workshops and events.

68 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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MUSIC

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /music

SOUND LAB AUTUMN SEASON MacGillivray curates autumn concert series of ‘Scottish stormscapes’ ‘Shattered chandelier glass, bad sunbed neon, Freudian trees and wolf carcasses . . . ’ Welcome to the world of Highland poet, performance artist and musician MacGillivray, aka Kirsten Norrie. She opens sound lab’s autumn season, the weekly concert series showcasing Scotland’s experimental, improvised and electronic music scene.

Recorded with Nico collaborator James Young, MacGillivray’s latest album Once Upon a Dirty Ear submerges dark pop and folk in abyssal reverb and grainy noise. The result, she says, is ‘something you can’t quite hear unless it’s from a place of tender disquiet’.

For sound lab, Norrie will be ‘cooking up Scottish stormscapes’ with percussionist Toby Mottershead of the Black Diamond Express and Ben Chatwin of Talvihorros on electronics (Wed 30 Sep). Her concerts, she

says, are ‘a different kind of altercation’ to her performance art, with health and safety a consideration on a stage full of live wires.

‘I long ago realised electrics are unforgiving in terms of saliva, tears, glasses of raw egg, urine or water, so all the tension of what might be performative in terms of live art becomes concentrated in voice.’

Support comes from Gayle Brogan’s lo-fi psych-pop project Pefkin. Subsequent sound labs feature collaborations between experimental guitarist Matthew Collings and folk singer Esther Swift plus Lives as omens (Wed 7 Oct), and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald and Danish pianist Helle Lund (Wed 4 Nov). There’s also the return of electronic duo Integra TV (Wed 14 Oct) and Electroscope’s Hallowe’en spooktacular (Wed 21 Oct). (Stewart Smith) ■ City Halls, Glasgow, various dates.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 69

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MUSIC | Records INDIE POP INDIE

FOALS

What Went Down (Transgressive) ●●●●● Of the plethora of spotty-faced indie bands that swarmed in the genre’s mid-noughties boom, few have been able to progress from the paint-by-numbers ALBUM riffs, chantable lyrics OF THE and teenage angst that characterised ISSUE the period. Other than a few stragglers (see the Cribs / Kaiser Chiefs et al), it was only really the Arctic Monkeys, the Maccabees and Foals that made the necessary modifications, adopting new but different types of lyrical sophistication and a grander, more intelligent sound.

For their last two full-length releases, Foals have consistently pushed forward into the unknown, honing an increasingly cinematic sound. What Went Down feels like the Oxford five-piece have reached that place on the horizon that we could hear them reaching for on previous albums. The journey that Foals have been on is encapsulated in ‘A Knife in the Ocean’, where the lyric ‘what became of the things I once believed?’ seems to serve as a point of reflection among swelling synths and guitar lines. The awareness of their own musical process has meant that all the skills learned on the way – the cascading guitar riffs, philosophical lyrics, and quiet introspective lulls – are all on shining display on opener ‘What Went Down’.

This sense of arrival poses a question one might never have associated with Foals. For a band that has rightfully prided itself on innovation with each release, where can they go from here? Each and every addition to the Foals discography since 2008’s Antidotes has tried and tested new waters, yet this exploration has led them directly to this point. What Went Down is Foals’ finest moment, and it’s hard to see how it can get any better. (Will Moss)

THE SPOOK SCHOOL

Try To Be Hopeful (Fortuna POP!) ●●●●● Edinburgh’s Spook School are a band who have to exist. Much will be written of the fact that singer Nye Todd identifies as transgender (it already has been, in fact, in Rolling Stone, no less), but would the group deserve our attention if they weren’t producing music that was interesting, exciting and emotionally precise?

Fortunately, the quartet’s bright indie-pop – sometimes breezily cheerful, sometimes dramatic, always steeped in the best traditions of their nation’s indie history – is addictive. On Tracks like ‘Richard & Judy’ there’s the sense that Postcard records and its attendant heroes were of influence.

They address gender issues in succinct, well-communicated bursts of DIY guitar, with the careening ‘Burn Masculinity’ taking down male privilege on behalf of every woman, transgendered person and man who rejects it (‘I’ve got to accept that I’ve inherited a history of persecution and abuse,’ it spits), and ‘Binary’ revels in diversity (‘let it be complicated and hard to understand’).

It’s a confident, even a political record, but not one which is one-note.

‘August 17th’ is a great ode to not feeling possessive just because you’re attracted to someone, the title track is a swooning song of positivity for the future, and ‘Only Lovers’ speaks boldly of first love with a character of deliberately indeterminate genre while what sound like Dexy’s horns blast away in the background.

Musically it’s raw, but there’s a pleasing degree of lo-finess in that; after all, it’s not like this quartet don’t know exactly what they’re doing in terms of constructing pristine pop choruses and messages which are perfectlyweighted for the medium. ‘The future is another place,’ hollers Nye on ‘Books and Hooks and Movements’; it’s theirs if they want it. (David Pollock) ■ The Spook School play The Lighthouse Late at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct & Book Yer Ane Fest at Buskers, Dundee, Fri 27–Sun 29 Nov.

SCOTTISH RAP

INDIE ROCK

Joyous Material Failure ●●●●●

Contradictions (Billingham) ●●●●●

CARBS

If you’re looking for an act that can stop people laughing at the phrase ‘Scottish rap’, then you’ve come to the wrong place. Nevermind, because Jonnie and James – better known as their respective superhero DJ personas Jonnie Common and MC Almond Milk – are one hell of a duo. Take the inter-species bromance of Han and Chewie, mix it with the gumption of Gibson and Glover and the balls-out stage presence of Jay-Z and Kanye and you might have something like Joyous Material Failure.

Gauzy, deep-fried electronica provides a brightly flashing backdrop upon which odes to transfats and beyond-bedtime television viewing are daubed in precise strokes. This is hip-hop for people who spend too much time on Wikipedia.

Catatonic, eccentric pop music that satisfies like a guilty midnight snack. Opener and lead single ‘Stick A Flake In Me (I’m Done)’ is an absurdist triumph while ‘Pizza Time O’Clock’ is a strangely heartfelt medley about shared carbohydrates by way of almost-there rhymes and drunken synths. Rapping about Margaret Thatcher and Mr Whippy in the same breath should be a recipe for disaster, but the combination works somehow – much in the same way that those ersatz deathtraps on Scrapheap Challenge always came together in the end without maiming anyone.

Carbs play Potterow in support of Young Fathers in September, and on the back of this indulgent, heady record, it could go completely tits-up or it could be amazing. At the risk of testing the reader’s tolerance for fast-food similes, I’d liken the experience of listening to Joyous Material Failure to the way that your chest starts to beat at an unnatural pace after scoffing a deep-fried double cheeseburger, except that unlike the latter delicacy, I want to try this one again and again and again.

(Sam Bradley) ■ Carbs play The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, Sat 12 Sep & Potterrow, Edinburgh, Tue 15 Sep (supporting Young Fathers).

PAUL SMITH AND THE INTIMATIONS Paul Smith, the erstwhile frontman of noughties indie darlings Maximo Park, has climbed out of his comfort zone and wandered far from indie rock’s happy hunting grounds – where, one presumes, migrating herds of quirky Northern pixie girls roam free, followed by their bookish underdog suitors. A pity then, that after a four-year period in the wilderness he returns with only a handful of hunting trophies to show for his sojourn rather than a collection of original pop songs. This decent but indistinct solo record fails to amount to much more than the sum of its influences, instead proving more akin to a guided tour through the last half-decade’s musical fads.

To be fair, Smith has attempted to create a decent album of literate indie rock songs, and to that end he tries to keep a respectable distance from Maximo Park’s own brand of energetic pop. The same can’t be said for the pioneers of surf-rock, jangle pop or doo-wop, genres which Smith happily plunders with the air of a museum visitor lacking boundaries. On ‘Coney Island’ we revisit surf rock by way of The Drums and flirt with Real Estate-esque slacker rock on lead single ‘Break Me Down’, all while referencing the Go Betweens and Felt via jangle-pop guitar moments scattered throughout.

Contradictions is not without its highlights: lead single ‘Break Me Down’ is a strong, if unchallenging entry while ‘The Golden Glint’ is a pared-back melancholy gem, a rare exception to the busy, frantic songs on the rest of the album. Meanwhile ‘Reintroducing the Red Kite’ is an oddball earworm with lyrics which talk about his socially reserved girlfriend in the same terms as a common airborne predator.

Cluttered with influences and weighed down by tracks like ‘Before the Perspiration Falls’ that could serve as b-sides for his main band, it would have been for the best if the workingsout of Smith’s equations had not been left so obviously at the bottom of the page.

(Sam Bradley)

70 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Records | MUSIC

list.co.uk/music WORLD

ALIF

Aynama-Rtama (Nawa Recordings) ●●●●● Bringing together some of the most acclaimed and exploratory young musicians in modern Arabic music, Alif offer a tantalising, beautifully balanced mix of the traditional and the experimental.

The five players, of Egyptian, Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi origin, bring a range of disciplines with them. Vocalist Tamer Abu Ghazaleh is a renowned songwriter. Maurice Louca is an experimental electronica artist, soon to appear in solo guise at the CCA, Glasgow. Bashar Farran provides low-end for a live, improvised drum’n’bass trio. Percussionist Khaled Yassine performs traditional Arab music and jazz fusion. And celebrated oudist Khyam Allami has had stints as drummer and bassist for the prog and noise-rock bands Knifeworld and Art of Burning Water, respectively.

This diversity imbues Aynama-Rtama (Wherever it Falls) with a great deal of breadth, depth and richness. Superb opener ‘Holako’ sets the tone: an instantly hooky, twanging oud riff crackles at the edges due to electronic manipulation, Ghazaleh soars and flits as he recites Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus’ dreamlike account of the 13th-century Mongol invasion of the Middle East, and the whole thing blossoms into a lithe, irresistible lurch.

While rooted in various Arabic traditions, Alif’s music is also open-minded and fiercely contemporary, taking in everything from slinky, dub-infused grooves (‘Yalla Tnam’) to hypnotically circling riffs (‘I Tiraf’). Of particular note are ‘AlKhutba Al-Akhira’, the muscular desert stomp-psych of which is incrementally obliterated by Louca’s gliding cosmic synth; and the climactic closing track ‘Eish Jabkum Hon’, in which Ghazaleh’s elegance and poise give way to a more ecstatic mode.

Sensuous, smart and sonically lavish, Aynama-Rtama is a thrilling debut that owes as much to classic poetic forms and traditional instrumentation as it does to new technology and electronic textures. (Matt Evans) GUITAR POP

DARWIN DEEZ

DOUBLE DOWN (Lucky Number) ●●●●● On Songs for Imaginative People, Darwin Deez took risks, eschewing the simple structures of the fantastic Darwin Deez with mixed results. If anything its successor, Double Down, suffers from exactly the opposite condition. It feels overly safe, yet doesn’t deliver the same pop perfection that marked their 2010 eponymous debut.

That’s not to say there aren’t glimpses. ‘Time Machine’ and ‘Kill Your Attitude’ (both earmarked as singles) are skilfully crafted and layered, showing off frontman Deez’s guitar playing at its inventive best, aided by an expanded tonal range, while the stadium rock drums of ‘Rated R’ are a pleasing departure from the drum machine beats that have become something of a trademark.

‘Melange Mining Co.’ is another slight departure, with a meandering riff reminiscent of John Frusciante. It starts out promisingly, but, despite some deft soloing, continues to meander. This is the story of the album in microcosm: well constructed with an abundance of talent, but seemingly lacking intent. Compare to the outro of ‘The Suicide Song’ for an example of the compelling songwriting that remains the high water mark for Deez.

Lyrically, the album covers familiar territory – predominantly ruminations on relationships past and present. Still in evidence are the extended metaphors that marked earlier work, with ‘Last Cigarette’ comparing one relationship to smoking cessation, but it’s not until the penultimate tune, ‘Right When it Rains’, that Deez’s joy in stream of consciousness rhymes – shown in his self-confessed ‘love letter to Das Racist’ Wonky Beats mixtape – come to light.

These elements, combined with some perfectly serviceable, if slightly b-sidey, songs make for an enjoyable listen with a few great moments. Taking this and Songs . . . together, you can’t help but feel that there’s the potential for something truly special in Darwin Deez: perhaps this is a step along the road that needed to be taken.

(Joe McManus)

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regularmusicuk 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 71

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MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World

JAZZ & WORLD

ALSO RELEASED

MDOU MOCTAR

Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Sahel Sounds) Jerusalem in My Heart

●●●●●

A Saharan homage to Purple Rain and The Harder They Come, Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai is the world’s first Tuareg language feature film. Its star is the young Agadez guitar hero Mdou Moctar, who also provides the soundtrack. The relatively clean production opens up more space for the psychedelic shimmer of Moctar’s fluid Stratocaster licks, behind which drummer Aboubacar Ibrahim Mazawadje works up driving syncopated grooves. Short guitar interludes are interspersed with full band performances which range from the panoramic desert rock of ‘Iblis Amghar’ to the fiery rave-up ‘Jagwa’.

SK KAKRABA

Songs of Paapieye (Awesome Tapes From Africa) ●●●●●

SK Kakraba is a master of the gyil) a traditional Ghanaian xylophone. The sound is warm and woody, with strange overtones of buzzing insects and twanging rubber bands. Listeners could be forgiven for thinking there’s some Konono-style electronic processing involved, but the gyil is entirely acoustic. Kakraba’s mesmeric interpretations of traditional Lobi songs make the most of the gyil’s sound, with bass patterns gently throbbing under the gorgeous melodies and polyrhythmic improvisations.

VARIOUS

Highlife On The Move: Selected Nigerian and Ghanaian Recordings from London and Lagos 1954-1966 (Soundway) ●●●●●

EDITORS

GOLDEN TEACHER

Once again it’s best not to grudge Editors their own existence, such is their excellent range of influences and obvious passion.

‘No Harm’ sounds like Nick Cave crooning over Tangerine Dream, ‘Life is a Fear’ is a kind of goth Communards, and the influence of club music rings through ‘Our Love’ and ‘All the Kings’. However, efforts to involve Coldplay in the mix are less inspiring. (David Pollock)

The latest 12” from the mighty Golden Teacher is a belter: tropical club music dragged into a dank Glasgow basement. Breaking glass and metal-on-metal effects punctuate the stark dancehall riddims of ‘Shatter’, while ‘No Hemos Vivido’ and ‘On The Street’ are trippy re-imaginings of Afrofuturist Portuguese electronica.

(SS)

In Dream (PIAS) ●●●●●

LUSHES

Service Industry (felte) ●●●●● Brooklyn duo Lushes have created a sort-of concept album about quitting your job. It starts off in pleasingly cathartic fashion, with the churning riffs of ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ seeming to promise that when singer James Ardery says ‘this will hurt’ you won’t even feel it. Despite an ode to housework in ‘Bleach’ and some more similarly tortured riffs here and there, the urge to get stoned and curl up on the couch appears too great. (DP)

BATTLES

Sauchiehall Enthrall EP (Self-released) ●●●●●

JERUSALEM IN MY HEART

If He Dies, If If If If If If (Constellation) ●●●●● Montreal-based Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s innovative take on traditional and modern Arabic music continues to impress and beguile. ‘A Granular Buzuk’ is a resonant dialogue between lute and pulsing electronics, while ‘Lau Ridyou Bil Hajiz’ sounds like an abstract Lebanese take on the moody R&B of The Weekend. (SS)

JOHN LEMKE

Nomad Frequencies (Denovali)

La Di Da Di (Warp) ●●●●●

●●●●●

Battles inject that most strenuous of genres, math-rock, with a healthy dose of fun. La Di Da Di might not feature anything as infectious as the aspartame chipmunk choruses of 2007’s Atlas, but it positively fizzes with day-glo synths and fidgety guitars, all underpinned by John Stanier’s athletic drumming.

(Stewart Smith)

The second album from GlasgowBerlin producer John Lemke is an elegant, if slightly dated, take on ambient. Lemke’s best when he stretches himself: the breakbeats and sighing synths of ‘Grass Will Grow’ recall LTJ Bukem’s classic ‘Atlantis’, while the echoing seagull saxophones of ‘Corroder’ bring an ECM jazz feel. (SS)

Soundway’s latest compilation documents the movement of Highlife between Lagos and London between 1954 and 1966, as Ghana and Nigeria transitioned to independence. The three early Fela Kuti tracks are a major draw, but they’re only the tip of a very funky iceberg. By capturing a period of evolution in West African pop, Highlife . . . is of historical interest, but it’s also a joy to listen to, as Cuban and jazz influences blend with African traditions.

SONS OF KEMET

Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do (Naim) ●●●●● Sons of Kemet’s 2013 debut Burn minted a fresh UK jazz sound, blending Barbadian and Jamaican traditions with elements of grime, gospel and fiery free jazz. Lest We Forget continues their exploration of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, with drummers Tom Skinner and Seb Rochford cooking up trance-like grooves under Shabaka Hutchings’ reeds and Theon Cross’s sinuous tuba. While bursting with memorable tunes and irresistible rhythms, the album has serious cultural and political intent.

AMIR ELSAFFAR

Crisis (Pi Recordings) ●●●●● Cultural hybridity also animates this outstanding new album from trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, an American of Iraqi descent. A non-hierarchical fusion of Iraqi maqam and jazz, Crisis is a work of rare beauty and power. Tareq Abboushi’s buzuq and Zafer Tawil’s oud add tension and bite to jazz pieces like ‘Flyover Iraq’ and delicacy to ‘Aneen (Weeping)’ and ‘Love Poem’. The solo trumpet lament ‘Taqsim Saba’ is followed by ‘El-Shaab (The Prophet)’, a driving group performance which pays oblique tribute to the Arab Spring.

SNJO & MAKOTO OZONE

Jeune Homme (Spartacus Records) ●●●●● Makoto Ozone’s re-imagining of Mozart’s 9th Piano Concerto benefits from a lightness of touch in both the playing and arrangements. Ozone is a graceful and witty pianist, whose bluesy twists on Mozart sound natural. While there are occasional lapses into syrupy Romanticism, the 15-piece Scottish National Jazz Orchestra comes to life in the third movement, ‘Rondo/Presto Be-Bop’.

(All reviews by Stewart Smith)

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Records – Singles | MUSIC

list.co.uk/music

SINGLES

The 1990s are alive and well in this month’s Singles & EPs pile, with new singles by artists including former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes with ‘Matador (De Capo)’ (●●●●● Hot Fruit/ Caroline International, out 18 Sep), the reworked title track of his last album, which is rich in the kind of pastoral but not dead yet act-your-age guitar rock which his solo career has done so well. Also present are Ash with ‘Machinery’ (●●●●● EarMUSIC, out 9 Oct), another one chalked up in an already healthy repertoire of driving rock songs, and Liverpudlian one-hit wonders Space with ‘Strange World’ (●●●●● Ocean Waves, out 19 Oct), a moody, Lynchian thing with very light shades of New

Orleans gumbo jazz about it.

Anyone with a preference for classic rock which is closer to the vintage of this very century, meanwhile, will be looking in the direction of Mumford & Sons’ new track ‘Ditmas’ (●●●●● Gentlemen of the Road/Island, out 11 Sep), which is a fairly understated entry in their recent canon of middle-of-the-road arena-conquerors. Memory Man’s ‘In Praha’ (●●●●● Turnkey Music, out 7 Sep), meanwhile, features ex-Snow Patrol bassist Mark McClelland and former members of FO Machete and Grim Northern Social, and does a good job of impersonating Gene (ask the ’90s), who did a good job of impersonating the Smiths.

It’s a pleasure to report that Lost Map HQ out in the wilds of Eigg has come up with two new releases this time out, and they’re high quality ones as ever. Seamus Fogarty’s ‘Ducks & Drakes’ (●●●●● Lost Map, out 4 Sep) is a sparse, gossamer-like electro-acoustic journey, and Rozi Plain’s largely instrumental ‘Best Team’ (●●●●● Lost Map, out 18 Sep) makes a feature of her affecting vocal texture.

Or if you’re in the mood for something more earcleansing, Autopsy Boys’ B-movie tribute ‘Song for Debbera’ (●●●●● Mondo Tunes, out 2 Oct) and Black International’s ‘A Fence to Keep People Out’ (●●●●● Good Grief, out now) are more noisily cathartic. (David Pollock)

EXPOSURE APACHE DARLING ‘Apache’ is taken from the first song one half of the band, Stefanie Lawrence, learned on the guitar, while ‘darling’ relates to what New Yorkers called the duo when they played their first Stateside show. So that clears that up. We interrupt Lawrence as she’s in the process of buying a flat in Glasgow with the other half of the group, Andrew Black, to talk T Break, being in a band with your boyfriend and the future.

On their music We describe ourselves as The New Pop, classic songwriting with analogue synths and vocals. So if you were comparing it to things, think Eurythmics, Cyndi Lauper, Sia, Phoenix. Stuff like that. We are a duo, but we work with a live band. That’s a big part of our sound – we’re a live electronic pop band. It’s got a rock show theme to it.

On T Break It was amazing. We opened the tent on the Friday.

We were a little bit on edge about exactly how busy it was gonna be, but it was brilliant. By the end of the set we had about 300-odd in the tent. It was a great show. I liked the lay-out of it [T in the Park] being smaller. I think that just caters to my laziness.

On working with your boyfriend It’s a really immersive thing to be around each other all the time. Although we write together, we don’t write in the same room as each other. We tried to write together and it doesn’t work very well cos we’re both really abrasive.

On playing Canada We did NXNE in Toronto. North American audiences are well up for a party. It had a real underground feel – we played a punk rock club, we played a burlesque

bar. It was a step away from what we were doing before. We’d just made the switch from using laptops and tracking to going full live band and at that point we knew we’d made the right decision.

On the future Who knows? The main thing for us is to go and

record again. We’ve had a great year, but it’s been off the back of two tunes. It’s kind of nuts. We’ve got two albums worth of stuff, so we’re planning on a November recording. (Kirstyn Smith) ■ Apache Darling play The Lighthouse Late on Fri 9 Oct at The Lighthouse, Glasgow.

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MUSIC | Previews ECLECTIC FESTIVAL

EASTERN PROMISE / GOLDEN TEACHER

Platform, Glasgow, Fri 18 & Sat 19 Sep

GREG NEATE, NEATEPHOTOS.COM

A gem in the Scottish festival calendar, Eastern Promise brings an eclectic mix of indie, noise rock, folk and electronica to Easterhouse. In addition to sets from the incredible Georgian singer Asiq Nargile and the extraordinary Newcastle bard Richard Dawson (to name but two), the weekend is headlined by Falkirk pop maestros Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, and Glasgow’s mighty Golden Teacher.

An eerie dance party soundtracked by mutant disco, dub and Afro-futurist club sounds, Golden Teacher’s new Sauchiehall Enthrall EP is perhaps their best yet. As multi-instrumentalist Oliver Pitt says, ‘part of the joy of making music with five other people is that there’s always six different ideas and six different directions the music’s being pulled in. One person might want to make a dubby disco track whilst someone else is trying to turn it into industrial techno.’

No two Golden Teacher shows are the same. As Pitt explains, ‘there’s always a plan but within that there’s lots of scope to change things from gig to gig. We intentionally keep things open ended, or play unfinished tracks to keep it fresh and fun. If it’s exciting and new for us it’s usually the same for the audience.’

(Stewart Smith)

EVENT

THE LIGHTHOUSE LATE

The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct Set a reminder to find your dancing shoes and Google Map The Lighthouse, cos we’re having a party and the lineup is a blinder. We’re not even just saying that. That’s how good it is. The third in our series of The Lighthouse Late nights sees the crew here at The List team up with the Glasgow venue – Scotand's centre for design and architecture – for live music and dancing until the wee hours. We’ve asked some of our faves to join us by providing the soundtrack and managed to secure none other than FOUND, Apache Darling, Supermoon (pictured) and the Spook School. Which is, even if we say so ourselves, a pretty decent scoop.

FOUND are an Edinburgh-based collective who create lovely experimental noises with an art-pop edge. AKA Ziggy Campbell and Kev Sim, they stack synths on drums on electronics to create horror-hooked soundscapes. They’ve won a BAFTA, too, so you know they’re legit.

Glasgow’s Apache Darling are self-described #thenewpop, think Eurythmics, Sia and Cyndi Lauper, with analogue synths and beautiful vocals. A duo on record, but backed by a live band in person, they will be bringing you rock show aesthetics. Supermoon, the artist formerly known as Meursault, plays uplifting folky melancholia. Neil Pennycook was brave to leave behind Meursault’s superfans, but that’s just a sign of his constant evolution. Finally, but by no means least, the Spook School are making global tidal waves with their tuneful and triumphant queer pop songs about identity and sexuality. (Kirstyn Smith)

ALBUM / INSTALLATION

CONCRETE ANTENNA

Album released Mon 14 Sep via Random Spectacular, installation runs until Thu 31 Dec Recently, Newhaven’s skyline has been remoulded. Jutting out of the ground like the prow of a sunken wreck is the landmark tower constructed by the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, a 28 metre-high triangular prism built out of brick and concrete. The space holds strange sonic properties – the opening at the top channels the wind and nearby sounds of the sea inside, creating a kind of resonating chamber. It was this that catalysed the making of Concrete Antenna, a new sound installation and album from Rob St John, Tommy Perman and Simon Kirby.

St John has worked on similar projects before, in particular, 2013’s Water of Leith album. He says that for each member of the trio, the project is a progression from their previous work.

‘Tommy and I share an interest in making work based on Edinburgh’s urban environment, particularly where nature finds gaps and cracks in the fabric of the city.’

Sparse piano, field recordings and archived samples of found sound combine with warm organic drones and minimal electronica to create a diverse record that complements and reflects the original installation. St John says that the installation is a kind of live performance of the album. ‘The record is a fixed version of some of the elements of the installation, without the endless permutations of environmental chance influencing what you hear. Tommy’s artwork, the essays, and the films we’ve made about the project are all part of situating the record back in the landscape, without necessarily giving a “correct” way of interpreting it.’ (Sam Bradley) 74 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Highlights | MUSIC

HAYLEY MADDEN

HITLIST

FOO FIGHTERS Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Tue 8 Sep, murrayfieldexperience. com Big boisterous rock from the nicest man

in music – and former Nirvana sticksman – Dave Grohl and co. Royal Blood and Honeyblood provide support.

his Simon & Garfunkel back catalogue and his subsequent solo career, including the immortal ‘Bright Eyes’.

ART GARFUNKEL Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 24 Sep, usherhall. co.uk An evening with the sweet-voiced Art Garfunkel, who will be running through hits from

DARWIN DEEZ Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sun 18 Oct, theelectriccircus. biz New York indie troupe with added cheesy choreography

and ‘nice’ hair. See review, page 71.

KATHRYN JOSEPH Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Thu 22 Oct, theelectriccircus.biz Fundraising music event with SAY Award winner Kathryn Joseph, plus Yusuf Asak and the Son(s).

Money raised goes to Edinburgh Carers Council.

DEATHCRUSHER TOUR Barrowland, Glasgow, Sat 24 Oct, glasgowbarrowland.com Ridiculously heavy tour of death metal, grindcore and other head-crushing noise pollution, featuring masters of the extreme Carcass, Obituary, Napalm Death, Voivod and Herod.

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

BARENAKED LADIES O2 ABC, Thu 1 Oct, o2abcglasgow.co.uk Canadian quirky popsters who inject their songs with lashings of humour. Also Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 3 Oct, thequeenshall.net

Future Islands

GLASGOW PAUL SMITH & THE INTIMATIONS Òran Mór, Wed 2 Sep, oran-mor. co.uk Solo project from the Maxïmo Park frontman. See review, page 70.

HEATHER PEACE St Andrews in the Square, Thu 1 Oct, standrewsinthesquare. com Concert from singer and actress Heather Peace, star of Lip Service, London’s Burning and Waterloo Road.

TAME IMPALA Barrowland, Tue 8 Sep, glasgowbarrowland.com The award-winning five-piece from Perth, Australia perform a mixture of alternative rock, neopsychedelia and ethereal dream pop.

GRANDMASTER FLASH Audio, Fri 2 Oct, musicglue.com/ audioglasgowWidely regarded as the man who invented the genre, the Bronx hip hop legend is behind the decks.

GIRLPOOL Broadcast, Wed 9 Sep, broadcastglasgow.com Raw, stripped-back guitar and bass duo Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad.

ALVVAYS Òran Mór, Wed 9 Sep, oran-mor. co.uk Canadian fuzz-pop quintet.

FUTURE ISLANDS Barrowland, Wed 9 Sep, glasgowbarrowland.com Joyous electro and synth pop from the Baltimore trio.

CARBS The Glad Café, Sat 12 Sep, thegladcafe.co.uk Aka Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott’s (Conquering Animal Sound) off-kilter pop / rap outfit launching their new album. See review, page 70.

HONEYBLOOD The Vic Cafe Bar, Glasgow School of Art, Fri 18 Sep, theartschool. co.uk Glasgow-based grunge rock duo featuring Cat Myers on drums and Stina Tweeddale on guitar and vocals.

B DOLAN Stereo, Sat 19 Sep, stereocafebar. com American rapper and spoken word artist, B Dolan, known for working with Scroobius Pip, Dan le Sac and Sage Francis as well as records The Failure,

Fallen House, Sunken City and Kill the Wolf. Also Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Sep, theelectriccircus.biz JOANNA GRUESOME The Glad Café, Thu 24 Sep, See Wed 23, thegladcafe.co.uk Noise punk, indie-pop fuzz five-piece from Cardiff. Also Summerhall, Edinburgh, Wed 23 Sep, summerhall.co.uk.

JOHN LEMKE Mono, Thu 24 Sep, monocafebar. com Intricately woven electronica from Lemke. Nomad Frequencies album launch.

BRIAN WILSON The SSE Hydro, Sun 27 Sep, thessehydro.com Former Beach Boy and solo artist Brian Wilson sets off on an arena tour with America (‘Horse with No Name’) and Edwyn Collins (‘A Girl Like You’), in support of latest album No Pier Pressure.

WHEATUS O2 ABC, Thu 1 Oct, o2abcglasgow.co.uk Whiny American fratrock combo who scored a massive hit with ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ in 2000 and are still touring on the back of it.

TENEMENT TRAIL Various venues, Sat 3 Oct, tenementtv.com/tenement-trail The likes of WHITE, Atom Tree, Crash Club, Monogram, Pinact, Other Humans, Team Player, Lisa Mitchell, AmartArt, Be Charlotte, The Van T’s, Declan Walsh and Aylee play this Tenement TV-promoted gig crawl, which takes in Nice’n’Sleazy, O2 ABC2, Broadcast, Flat 0/1 and King Tut’s. Latest additions to the lineup include Neon Waltz, Man Of Moon, Holy Esque, Pronto Mama, Nimmo, Young Aviators, Laura St Jude, ULTRAS, Medicine Men, The Ravels, Harry & The Hendersons, Tribal High, WOMPS, Kelvin, Our Future Glory, The Bar Dogs and Evil Edison.

ROZI PLAIN The Hug & Pint, Mon 5 Oct, thehugandpint.com Enchanting understated music from Fence Records’ Plain.

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC O2 ABC, Fri 9 Oct, o2abcglasgow. co.uk Weird Al parodies popular rock songs in mostly amusing and goodnatured ways. Think ‘Eat It’, ‘Amish Paradise’, ‘Another One Rides the Bus’, ‘Polka Face’ and ‘Word Crimes’.

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MUSIC | Highlights

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS THE LIGHTHOUSE LATE The Lighthouse, Fri 9 Oct, thelighthouse.co.uk/late A fabulous celebration of fashion, design, music and cinema sprawling across all five floors of the Lighthouse. This time around, the night features Edinburgh experimental electro poppers FOUND and synth pop duo Apache Darling, with more super special guests tbc.

See preview, page 74.

Sleaford Mods

SLEAFORD MODS The Vic Cafe Bar, Glasgow School of Art, Sat 17 Oct, theartschool. co.uk Shouty punk / electro duo. Also La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Oct, la-belleangele.com MAJOR LAZER O2 Academy Glasgow, Thu 15 Oct, o2academyglasgow.co.uk Mississippi-born producer Diplo’s gun toting electro-house, reggae-fusion, dancehall and Moombahton renegade alter ego.

HOT CHIP Barrowland, Fri 16 Oct, glasgowbarrowland.com Quirky uberdanceable electronica and poignant electro ballads from the classy ‘Over and Over’ collective.

YO LA TENGO The Garage, Fri 16 Oct, garageglasgow.co.uk New Jerseybased trio who explore the extremes of feedback-heavy rock and sweetly melodic pop. Acoustic show.

JAMIE XX O2 Academy Glasgow, Sat 17 Oct, o2academyglasgow.co.uk Abstract hip hop beats, minimal house, dubstep and more from the founding member and producer of the xx.

MENSWE@R Flying Duck, Sat 17 Oct, flyingduckclub.com Britpop and indie rock band, back together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Brit Pop classic ‘Nuisance.’

EDITORS O2 Academy Glasgow, Sun 18 Oct, o2academyglasgow.co.uk Dark and brooding Brum indie outfit. The Twilight Sad support.

The Wakefield-born Jarman brothers performs their energetic brand of indie-rock, with its strong post-punk and garage-rock influences.

SONGHOY BLUES SWG3, Thu 22 Oct, swg3. tv The group from Mali, led by guitarist Garba Toure, performs its desert blues material.

FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES The Cathouse, Fri 23 Oct, cathouse.co.uk Raw punk rockers led by former Gallows frontman, Frank Carter.

HECTOR BIZERK Òran Mór, Fri 23 Oct, oranmor.co.uk Scot-hop sounds from Hector Bizerk, a stripped back drum and rap duo. Fun, rhythm-filled times. Or as the band itself so eloquently puts it: ‘DRUMS. RAP. YES.’

KID INK O2 ABC, Mon 19 Oct, o2abcglasgow.co.uk LA-based rapper, aka Brian Todd Collins.

BATTLES O2 ABC, Sun 25 Oct, o2abcglasgow.co.uk Quirky but addictive experimental rock three-piece from New York.

THE CRIBS Barrowland, Tue 20 Oct, glasgow-barrowland.com

THE STAVES The Old Fruitmarket, Mon 26 Oct, glasgowconcerthalls.com/

old-fruitmarket English sister act blending beautiful harmonies with a Laura Marling-like folkiness.

RANDY NEWMAN Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Fri 30 Oct, glasgowconcerthalls. com Wonderful observational singersongwriter famous for his sardonic wit and film soundtracks.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE O2 Academy Glasgow, Mon 2 Nov, o2academyglasgow.co.uk College rock from Bellingham, Washington, in the same vein as Elliot Smith, Quasi and Superchunk, known for their energetic live shows and for their heavy rotation on The OC.

EDINBURGH THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Liquid Room, Thu 10 Sep, liquidroom.com Tim DeLaughter’s Dallas-based mass member choral symphonic rock collective.

KING CRIMSON Usher Hall, Thu 17 & Fri 18 Sep, usherhall.co.uk Robert Fripp’s pioneering intense psych-rockers return with a new seven-piece, threedrummer lineup.

JOHNNY MARR The Liquid Room, Wed 14 Oct,

liquidroom.com Former Smiths guitarist, who’s stuck to his indie credentials by gracing the stage with the likes of he Cribs, Dinosaur Jr and Modest Mouse.

AN EVENING WITH SIMON & OSCAR FROM OCEAN COLOUR SCENE The Queen’s Hall, Fri 30 Oct, thequeenshall.net The twopiece performs acoustic versions of the band’s Britpop hits.

KILMARNOCK GERRY CINNAMON Bakers Nightclub, Fri 2 Oct, facebook.com/ Gerrycinnamonmusic Acoustic singer-songwriter from Glasgow mixing folk, blues and loop pedals.

PAISLEY BILL WELLS & AIDAN MOFFAT Paisley Arts Centre, Sun 11 Oct, boxoffice.renfrewshire. gov.uk Gruff former Arab Strap man Moffat and gentle jazz man Wells tour their new album The Most Important Place In The World, their long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s Scottish Album of the Year winner, Everything’s Getting Older.

Part of Spree Festival.

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MUSIC | Classical

L A C I S AS

CL

FESTIVAL

DISCOVER INDONESIA

Various venues, Glasgow, Wed 9–Sun 13 Sep With more than 13,000 islands, about 300 languages and a population of over 250 million people, it’s hardly surprising that Indonesia is a country with a rich and diverse heritage.

Yet, how much do we in Scotland know about Indonesian culture? For those of us whose answer is ‘not much’, things are about to change. Bringing the largest curated showcase of Indonesian arts ever presented in the UK, Cryptic is a key partner in an initiative which covers London, Cardiff and Glasgow. Discover Indonesia celebrates 70 years of Indonesian independence and the vibrantly coloured programme includes music, visual art, traditional dance, film, theatre and, of course, some of the delicious cuisine for which the country is famed.

‘We are always interested in cultures of other countries,’ says Cryptic artistic director, Cathie Boyd. ‘We started to reflect on the work we’ve been programming over recent years and wanted to introduce work from a different culture, and that part of the world is really changing at the moment.’

Following a British Council visit to an arts market in Jakarta, Boyd was hooked and determined to bring her experience to Glasgow. Gamelan is, of course, part of what is on offer, both through Gamelan Untethered, a futuristic fusion of gamelan and western instruments, as well as with Javanese dancers from the Mangkunegaran Royal Palace. More avant-garde is Senyawa, who push the boundaries of Javanese tradition.

‘The two guys are just incredible,’ says Boyd. ‘Rully Shabara’s voice goes from falsetto to deep, deep bass. And they are also pretty crazy.’ For Boyd, it’s deeply important to look at other people’s cultures. ‘Discover Indonesia is a pilot to see how the people of Glasgow and Scotland respond and to ask whether they want more.’ (Carol Main)

CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS HITLIST SCOTTISH OPERA: CARMEN Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wed 7, Fri 9, Sun 11, Tue 13, Thu 15, Sat 17 Oct, atgtickets.com; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 3, Fri 6, Sun 8, Thu 12, Sat 14 Nov, edtheatres.com Scottish Opera open their new season with one of the world’s most popular operas, Bizet’s Carmen, with a couple of rising stars in New York-born tenor Noah Stewart and Lithuanian mezzo Justina Gringyte, in the title role.

!

MR MCFALL’S CHAMBER: SOLITUDES – BALTIC REFLECTIONS The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 12 Oct, thequeenshall. net Not only celebrating their 20th anniversary but the launch of a new CD with the awardwinning Delphian Records, this quirky Edinburgh-based ensemble kick off their special season with an exploration of the music of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania plus a taste of Finnish tango.

EDINBURGH RSNO: MAHLER’S RESURRECTION Usher Hall, Fri 2 Oct, usherhall. co.uk The RSNO season opens in style with Mahler’s epic Symphony No 2. In the solo mezzo role is the superb Sarah Connolly, joined by international soprano Valentina Farcas.

SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO 1 Usher Hall, Thu 8 Oct, usherhall. co.uk The opening concert of SCO’s 2015-16 season is conducted

by Principal Conductor, Robin Ticciati, who puts the emphasis rather firmly on Brahms, whose music is a feature of this year’s programmes. For this first concert, it’s the Symphony No 1 and Academic Festival Overture.

DRESDEN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Usher Hall, Sun 11 Oct, usherhall.co.uk Don’t miss a chance to hear the superb Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta in Elgar’s Cello Concerto. That she plays it with the impressive Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra is even better.

GLASGOW NYCOS NATIONAL GIRLS CHOIR City Halls, Sat 12 Sep, glasgowconcerthalls.com Songbirds seems to be exactly the right title for this concert from NYCoS Girls and their patron, world-renowned Scottish mezzo Karen Cargill,who collaborate in the rarely performed Snowbirds by Michael Head, the neglected British composer from the period around World War 1.

BEETHOVEN WEEKEND Glasgow Royal Concert Hall / City Halls, Glasgow, Thu 24, Fri 25, Sat 26, Sun 27 Sep, glasgowconcerthalls.com The last weekend of a three-year project devoted to the music of arguably the greatest composer who ever lived.

Get to know Beethoven up close through different stages of his life in the company of artists who have a deep understanding of his music, including the Elias Quartet and pianist Llyr Wiliams.

PERTH DIE WALKÜRE Perth Concert Hall, Sun 6 Sep, horsecross.co.uk Concert performance of the most well known

of Wagner’s quartet of operas which make up the Ring cycle. With staged lighting and image projection, Jonathan Dove’s re-scoring for 15 players is a remarkable take on the usual opera orchestra.

COCKENZIE CELLOS AT SETON Seton Collegiate Church, Seton Mains, Sat 12 Sep, lammermuirfestival.co.uk With the venue at least as interesting as the music, Lammermuir Festival offers the opportunity to experience the medieval acoustic of one of the finest historic collegiate churches in Scotland.

Should be ideal for solo and duo music for cello.

DUNBAR STEVEN OSBORNE Dunbar Parish Church, Queen’s Road, Wed 16 Sep, lammermuirfestival.co.uk Just one of the many delights of this year’s Lammermuir Festival, Scottish pianist Steven Osborne’s concert is a solo recital featuring two of the finest composers for the piano, Schubert and Rachmaninov.

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THEATRE

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /theatre

DRAGON National Theatre of Scotland favourite returns to breathe fire and warm hearts

PHOTO © PETER DIBDIN

Having completed a successful run at the Edinburgh International Festival, Oliver Emanuel’s much-loved creation returns for an autumn tour.

In collaboration with masters of visual theatre Vox Motus, National Theatre of Scotland and Tianjin Children’s Art Theatre, Emanuel eschews a conventional narrative for a visual feast of physical storytelling.

Fusing incredible puppetry with bold scenography, Dragon tells the tale of Tommy, a teenage boy who navigates a painful path through isolation when his mother dies.

Emanuel’s script, however, does not use verbal language, but relies on movement and Vox Motus’ magical use of the stage set to suggest

a young man’s world that is full of fear, anger and isolation. A phenomenal young ensemble including Martin McCormick, Gavin Jon Wright and Scott Miller in the title role provide a defiantly unsentimental look at loss, love and the resilience of self-belief, which has already appealed to all ages, bar the really wee ones.

Guy Bishop and Jamie Harrison’s gorgeously designed puppets breathe fire into a unique, beautiful and moving show, which takes Tommy through the stages of grief and towards a final redemption. And barely a word is spoken until the final moments. (Lorna Irvine) ■ Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 1–Sat 10 Oct; Dundee Rep, Wed 14–Sat 17 Oct.

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Previews | THEATRE

list.co.uk/theatre REVIVAL

WAITING FOR GODOT

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Sep–Sat 10 Oct

PHOTO © GEMMA BETTS

PHOTO © BRIAN HARTLEY

If 50 really is the new 40, then life surely begins now for Edinburgh’s prestigious Royal Lyceum Theatre, celebrating its half century in grand style with two of Scotland’s best loved actors teaming up to bring back Samuel Beckett’s celebrated tragi-comedy Waiting for Godot. Lyceum founding member Brian Cox and Bill Paterson will be donning the white pan stick to play Vladimir and Estragon, the hapless, cypher-like down and outs whose philosophical meanderings are as sharply relevant today as when Beckett first brought them to the stage over 60 years ago.

Outgoing artistic director Mark Thomson believes that the play’s enduring appeal lies in the timeless complexities and enigmas of Beckett’s text. ‘The play never becomes outdated because it never belonged to any place and time,’ he argues.

‘Its ideas, playfulness and bleakness have been around since “the dawn of’’ and will hang around as long as we’re here. I don’t think Godot or Beckett was part of any “Theatre of the Absurd”.

I’m not so arrogant or stupid to reduce a marvellously funny, dark and complex slice of theatre art by presuming to know its secrets.’

Thomson adds: ‘But there’s an overwhelming sense that we’re watching something which has its teeth buried deep in truth. Bill and Brian will find their Didi and Gogo through rehearsals and both they and the audience will find out the meaning of the play, here, now, maybe on any given night when they do it. They are extraordinary people as well as actors and this is what makes the prospect exciting, because they are these real people – just as Johnny Bett’s Pozzo and Benny Young’s Lucky are.’

He continues: ‘It just happens to be that the poor buggers find themselves on Beckett’s road, day to day, waiting for this guy called Godot. Wonder if he’ll come?’ (Lorna Irvine)

FESTIVAL

CLASSIC DRAMA

ADAPTATION

Various venues, Scotland-wide, Thu 1–Sat 31 Oct

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 22–Sat 26 Sep

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Sep–Sat 3 Oct

LUMINATE

Theatre, unlike fickle fashion or the ‘yoof-chasing’ music industry, is not predominantly a young person’s game. With over-50s making up 18.5% of the British population, the stage is an ideal platform to bring voices of senior citizens to a wide audience. Luminate festival, which takes place across October, is dedicated to creating vivacious, thought-provoking theatre, film, workshops and performance featuring older people.

In Donna Rutherford’s Broth, soup making becomes not only a symbol of nourishment, but a shared experience. It is an exploration of community and the many voices of the ageing generation, of hard-earned wisdom, storytelling and ritual. Glas(s) Performance, meanwhile, have Old Boy, a work-inprogress featuring grandfathers and their grandsons based on real life stories of Scottish families.

Once Upon A Time is a unique collaboration between Theatre Bristol and the Polish Cultural Institute and features trapeze artists and dancers aged over 65. This incredible dance-theatre piece is an unflinching look at the effects of time on bodies, but also strength, beauty and resilience.

Such performance is a defiant riposte from an often dismissed generation, proving their stories are as vital as those of younger people. (Lorna Irvine)

ALL MY SONS

Michael Emans, through his Rapture theatre company, has developed a reputation for taking serious works – in this case from iconic American playwright Arthur Miller – and giving them an accessible and immediate production. ‘Rapture has always been committed to producing great plays,’ he says, ‘either classics deserving another viewing or plays never seen in Scotland before.’

Set in the aftermath of WWII, All My Sons demonstrates the interconnectedness of society, and challenges the belief that capitalism, with its respect for profit, can avoid moral responsibility.

It is also an important anniversary: ‘This is the centenary of Arthur Miller’s birth,’ Emans continues. ‘As one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, he has a great deal to impart on the human condition.’ With a second Miller play from Rapture touring in October, The Last Yankee, Emans is offering a chance for audiences to get a flavour of his range. ‘These plays represent classics of both his early work and his later writing,’ he says.

And while All My Sons may be familiar, Emans explains that it has not lost its relevance: ‘We can all identify with having to face up to the tragic results of decisions, made in a moment, which have longlasting consequences.’ (Gareth K Vile)

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Aldous Huxley’s novel stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 as a classic dystopian text of the 20th century. Describing a society built on eugenics and consumerism, and lashings of promiscuous sex, it imagines a totalitarianism maintained by pleasure rather than oppression.

The choice of These New Puritans – a band blessed with a rare, expansive musical vision – to provide the soundtrack emphasises how James Dacre’s production is determinedly contemporary.

The casting of Sophie Ward (pictured, the ill-fated love interest in the film Young Sherlock) as the Controller of Western Europe reveals how the writer, Dawn King, wanted to create a modern dystopia.

‘I felt that having a female controller of Western Europe is more representative of our world today,’ she says (in the novel the controller is male).

Aside from the intriguing feminist implications of this gender swap, Brave New World, unlike 1984, does not revel in the violence of oppression but explores how a population can be manipulated by the promise of freedom from religion, morality and aspiration. While the hero may be a ‘savage’, his noble impulses challenge the optimism that science and the market can set the human free.

(Gareth K Vile) 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 83

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THEATRE | Reviews ADAPTATION

LANARK

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 3–Sat 19 Sep. Reviewed at Royal Lyceum Theatre, at the Edinburgh International Festival ●●●●●

PHOTO © EOIN CAREY

Long held to be an unstageable piece of work, Alasdair Gray’s novel Lanark, originally published in 1981 after nearly 30 years in the making, arrives at the Royal Lyceum Theatre with the great weight of expectation on its shoulders. Nearly 600 pages long, bringing this cult classic to life is an ambitious undertaking. Yet what has been produced is a bold, bonkers and brilliant production that should please even the most die-hard of Gray fans.

Comprising three acts – arranged in the order of two, one and three – and set in the disintegrating cites of Unthank and Glasgow, we follow the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan, as we journey through youth, death and the afterlife in the fantastical imagination of Alasdair Gray.

Directed by Graham Eatough from an adaptation by David Greig, Lanark is loud, large and visually stunning, from dragons to hellish clubs and nightmarish worlds.

Backed up by a tremendous cast, with Sandy Grierson excelling at the centre of it all as the lead character, the laughs come in thick and fast. Yet the show never loses its darker edge or deviates from its larger core themes.

The production does run for nearly four hours, which may be a bit much for some people – though there are two intervals which will ease the pressure on weary bottoms. However, time passes very quickly thanks to the dazzling entertainment before our eyes.

Wildly surreal and beautifully executed, the staging of Lanark appears to be a risk that’s paid off. (Alex Eades)

ADAPTATION

OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR

PHOTO © MANUEL HARLAN

Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 8–Sat 12 Sep; The Brunton, Musselburgh, Fri 25–Sat 26 Sep. Reviewed at Traverse Theatre, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe ●●●●● Based on Alan Warner’s excellent novel, The Sopranos, this new production from the National Theatre of Scotland and Newcastle’s Live Theatre has an electric energy to it. That’s largely thanks to the all-female cast, who sing with the youthful carefree abandon of their characters: six Catholic schoolgirls from Oban, who visit Edinburgh for a school choir contest and duly go wild.

In the language it uses, it’s an uncompromising adaptation. Some of the play’s best lines are delivered in such thick Scots that non-locals might find more than a few jokes pass them by.

But in refusing to alter the broad patter of Warner’s voices, writer Lee Hall not only preserves the story’s locality but also its universality – these girls are loud, crude, endearing and utterly recognisable. As we follow their epic bender, Our Ladies is soundtracked by a mix of live renditions of popular and choral music and a live band on stage adds to the party atmosphere.

But while it’s gleeful, it’s certainly no angelic musical. Hall’s script is rude, crude and everything in between, and revels in its dirtiness – so keep away if expertly timed swearing isn’t your idea of fun. Directed by former NTS (now Royal Court) artistic director Vicky Featherstone, the pace is slick throughout but the opening scene is particularly fantastic – maybe the funniest of the year so far. While the ending meanders a little, Our Ladies is a glorious piece of theatre and a poignant comedy about growing up and breaking free. (Yasmin Sulaiman) NEW WORK

SPECTRETOWN

Platform, Glasgow, Thu 10 Sep; The Brunton, Musselburgh, Sat 12 Sep. Reviewed at Assembly Hall, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe ●●●●● We are all haunted by ghosts of the past. In SpectreTown, they become more vivid than ever.

This dark and sinister play set in rural Scotland defies the time-space continuum: it begins with a young couple Dodie (Mark Wood) and Meg (Elspeth Turner, also writer and artistic director) being caught up in social conflicts and struggles for power, before arriving in the present, where their tragedy is still felt and very much alive.

Now, the secrets of that story are kept by an old-woman Izzy (Bridget McCann) in a chest. But until it is unlocked, it’s completely up to the audience to figure out how both narratives intertwine.

Performed entirely in Doric, SpectreTown is an incredibly well-written and produced piece, with the shifts in time beautifully enhanced by lighting effects.

It is mentally challenging, visually stimulating – ghost shadows often state their presence in the background – and musically compelling, with live music from Matt Regan empowering the script.

Sometimes, however, the excessive use of sound effects distract from the main dialogue.

Founded by Elspeth Turner, Scottish theatre company Stoirm Òg has been trying to find its place at the Fringe (they brought The Idiot at the Wall in 2012), but this work expresses a grand ambition. A play is worth watching when it gets you emotionally involved, when you’re drawn into its universe and the story makes you rethink life. SpectreTown has all that. (Carolina Morais) 84 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Previews | DANCE

list.co.uk/theatre

BALLET

FESTIVAL

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 27–Sat 31 Oct

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 12 Sep, then touring

ROYAL NEW ZEALAND BALLET: GISELLE It’s one of the oldest French ballets in the classical canon, but in the hands of an American and a Dane, working in New Zealand, Giselle has received an international makeover.

Co-created for Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) by Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg, the popular narrative dance has retained its traditional feel, but found some new choreography.

As dancers, both Stiefel and Kobborg performed the lead male role of Albrecht many times in the past. And for Kobborg in particular, Giselle has a special place in his heart, having been the first production he performed in as a young dancer in the Royal Danish Ballet. So both men had an understanding of the cad who betrays innocent village girl Giselle, leading to her death (although Albrecht more than gets his comeuppance in Act Two, when Giselle and the famous ‘wilies’ haunt him from beyond the grave).

At the time of its creation, back in 2012, Stiefel was the current artistic director of RNZB and keen to work with former Royal Ballet principal dancer Kobborg. ‘In addition to being an exceptional dancer and actor, Johan is a gifted choreographer,’ says Stiefel of his decision to choreograph with Kobborg, ‘and Giselle is one of the great romantic ballets. So it was truly inspiring to collaborate with my good friend, and we were delighted to have the chance to present our version of a ballet we both knew so well.’ (Kelly Apter)

PIONEERS OF PERFORMANCE

Living in the Central Belt, opportunities to see live physical theatre and dance are plentiful. But travelling around Scotland, Laura Eaton-Lewis discovered that not everybody was getting their dance fix.

Years of planning later, and Pioneers of Performance is finally ready to go on the road, touring all over the country. At each stop on the journey, four shows will be performed during a ‘one day festival’ of dance.

‘Pioneers of Performance is the result of five years of work with artists and venues all over the country,’ says Eaton-Lewis. ‘We wanted to create a daylong platform for vivid performance work for everyone, from young children up to adults. Inspiring joy and bringing people together to have a great time around four thought-provoking and compelling shows.’

Starting in the morning with Colette Sadler’s superb show for ages 4–9, We Are The Monsters (see review, page 67), the day continues with Curious Seed’s Chalk About, aimed at ages 8+, before moving on to grown-up work, Douglas

by Robbie Synge and Anna Krzystek’s Face On. Ensuring the work is accessible, both practically and artistically, for audiences has been paramount to Eaton-Lewis.

‘The strength of all of these works is that the musical and visual elements are so vivid, there’s nothing alienating about them for kids or for people who’ve never seen this kind of work before.’ (Kelly Apter)

BALLET

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO

PHOTO © ZORAN JELENIC

Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 20–Wed 21 Oct A trip to the theatre holds few guarantees, but if you’ve bought a ticket for the Trocks, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll be laughing out loud within the first five minutes. And, by the time Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo takes its final bow, you’ll be as impressed by the dancers’ technical ability as their comic timing.

Regular visitors to Edinburgh, the New Yorkbased company of male ballerinas is once again heading for the capital, where it will perform Act Two from Swan Lake, Merce Cunningham’s Patterns in Space, and Don Quixote among other works.

A dancer with the Trocks for 15 years, what does Raffaele Morra think the male physique can bring to those female roles?

‘Power,’ he says, ‘a lot of power. We bring the attack of the male dancer, even in roles which are really lyrical. In a romantic ballet, the female dancers are soft and whispering, well we don’t whisper – we scream the steps.’

Those well versed in the Trockadero style will get the jokes straight off, which is great for the dancers – but sometimes, Morra and his colleagues have to wait for the penny to drop.

‘We really feel the reaction from the audience, and that changes all the time,’ he says. ‘Sometimes the audience knows what it’s coming to see, other times it takes a little longer for them to laugh. Of course, by the end, they all love it.’ (Kelly Apter) 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 87

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THEATRE | Highlights

HITLIST

DRAGON Citizens Theatre, Sat 1– Mon 10 Oct, citz.co.uk The return of Dragon, created by Vox Motus, the National Theatre of Scotland and Tianjin Children’s Art Theatre. See preview, page 81.

THERE’S NO POINT CRYING OVER SPILT MILK

Tron Theatre, Wed 14– Sat 17 Oct, tron.co.uk Juxtaposition of childhood glee and the harsh realities of adulthood. Created

by Aby Watson with Alexander Horowitz.

SCOTTISH BALLET: ELSA CANASTA AND MOTION OF DISPLACEMENT Theatre Royal, Thu 24–Sat

26 Sep, atgtickets.com/ venues/theatre-royalglasgow. Also Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 29 & Wed 30 Sep, edtheatres. com/festival Double-bill featuring Javier de Frutos’ Elsa Canasta set to Cole Porter, and the world premiere of Bryan Arias’ Motion of Displacement, set to music by Bach and John Adams.

BRAVE NEW WORLD King’s Theatre, Tue 29– Sat 3 Oct, edtheatres. com/kings James Dacre directs Dawn King’s adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, in which a genetically engineered class system has brought order and stability to the world. See preview, page 83.

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 20 & Wed 21 Oct, edtheatres. com/festival The popular all-male ballet company returns with another lineup of hilarious, but beautifully performed, classical and contemporary works. See preview, page 87.

THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

GLASGOW OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR Tron Theatre, Tue 8–Sat 12 Sep, tron.co.uk. Also touring around Scotland. Based on Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos, this musical play follows six Catholic schoolgirls dealing with love, lust, pregnancy and death on a school trip to the capital. Directed

by Vicky Featherstone and adapted by Billy Elliot author Lee Hall. See review, page 84.

SPECTRETOWN Platform, Thu 10 Sep, platformonline.co.uk. Also touring around Scotland. A new play inspired by the bothy ballads of the North East. Written by Elspeth Turner and presented by Stoirm Òg. See review, page 84.

WHAT GOES AROUND Tron Theatre, Thu 17–Sat 19 Sep, tron.co.uk Liz Lochhead’s contemporary sex comedy featuring two actors playing seven characters.

MUSIC HALL MEMORIES – THE MOST VINTAGE SHOW IN TOWN Britannia Panopticon, Sat 27 Sep, Sat 24 Oct, britanniapanopticon. org Variety show harking back to the good ol’ days, with music, magic, comedy, sing-a-longs and novelties.

THE BIG SHOWCASE Wild Cabaret & Wicked Lounge, until Sat 28 Nov, wildcabaret. com Evening show featuring cabaret, comedy, circus and more.

EDINBURGH PIONEERS OF PERFORMANCE Traverse Theatre, Sat 12 Sep, traverse.co.uk. Also touring around Scotland. A festival

of thought-provoking theatrical performances and dance theatre created by independent artists working in Scotland. See preview, page 87.

ENSEMBLE Traverse Theatre, Thu 24 Sep, traverse.co.uk It’s January 1990 in a provincial East German theatre. This is a time between things, between the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, a time when no one knows the rules.

As the theatre practitioners try out material for their new show, old wars, suspicions and accusations rise to the surface. Rehearsed reading.

ALL MY SONS King’s Theatre, Tue 22–Sat 26 Sep, edtheatres.com/kings.

Also touring around Scotland.

Rapture Theatre, in association with The Beacon in Greenock, present the multi-award winning American masterpiece. See preview, page 83.

THE DEVIL’S LARDER Custom House, Edinburgh, Sun 18–Sat 24 Oct. Interactive, sitespecific theatre from Grid Iron. An examination of envy, love, hypocrisy, loss and lust. Involves walking.

Oct, edtheatres.com/kings To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, one of the author’s best-selling thrillers is performed – a tale of murder on a remote island.

SHREK THE MUSICAL Playhouse, Tue 20 Oct–Sun 8 Nov, http://www.atgtickets.com/ venues/edinburgh-playhouse Musical comedy about an odious green ogre who falls head over heels in love with a princess.

ROYAL NEW ZEALAND BALLET: GISELLE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 27– Sat 31 Oct, edtheatres.com/festival Classic narrative ballet, telling the tragic tale of lovers Giselle and Albrecht. See preview, page 87.

RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sat 24 Oct, edtheatres.com/festival One of Britain’s finest contemporary dance companies celebrates its 20th anniversary with Martin Lawrance’s popular Liszt-inspired work, Burning.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE King’s Theatre, Mon 26–Sat 31

DUNDEE PLAN B FOR UTOPIA Dundee Rep Theatre, Fri 18 Sep, dundeerep.co.uk. Also touring around Scotland. The superb debut outing from newly formed Dundeebased company, Joan Clevillé Dance, mixing humour, pathos and emotive choreography. Highly recommended.

88 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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VISUAL ART

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /visualar t

ELECTRIC MAGNETIC INSTALLATION Eclectic installations in new solo exhibition from Hayley Tompkins Hayley Tompkins is known for creating eclectic installations with found objects ranging from house plants and old clothing to discarded mobile phones and bottles. She often paints over these objects to distort them or give them a new identity, or juxtaposes them with photographs of other items to complicate their original meaning. Her new solo exhibition at Glasgow’s Modern Institute continues in this experimental vein. ‘The show will be a mix of works in vitrines and wall-based pieces,’ Tompkins explains. ‘The installation draws together photographs, watercolours on paper, and painted objects such as sticks.’

The objects Tompkins exploits in her installations often relate to the human body and the ways it can be extended through everyday items. This new installation will take these concepts into a wider field, as she tells us: ‘The exhibition will reference phenomena of the natural outer world, waves and the land with ideas about the inner world of the body and invisibility.’

Tompkins is also acutely aware of the ways the constituent parts of her installations relate to one another and to the space around them. She says of this new work ‘will have an emphasis on the artificiality of display and ways of seeing’. (Rosie Lesso) ■ The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Sat 12 Sep–7 Nov.

3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 89

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VISUAL ART | Previews SCULPTURE

NICOLAS DESHAYES

Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Sun 26 Sep–Sat 12 Dec

ARTHUR MELVILLE

JEREMY SUTTON-HIBBERT

London-based artist Nicolas Deshayes has had a recent string of successful exhibitions, commissions and residencies both nationally and internationally, gathering a reputation for combining industrial production methods with elements of human error. He reminds us of the conflict between our desire for a pristine, polished existence and our imperfect, uncontrollable bodies. Most recently he was the Tate St Ives artist-in-residence in 2014, creating new work for their current group exhibition, Images Moving Out Onto Space, where his work features alongside some of the 20thcentury's artistic giants, including Barbara Hepworth and Dan Flavin.

Deshayes will produce an entirely new body of commissioned work for this solo exhibition at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. He will present a series of sculptures inspired by radiators, distorting their coils, bulges and folds so they take on a more human quality. The sculptures will be plumbed into the heating system at GSS, allowing heat to travel between them. He has referred to this installation as ‘an anatomy for the space’, connecting his individual sculptures together with the gallery’s internal systems, much like the interconnected organs of the human body. (Rosie Lesso)

WATERCOLOUR

ARTHUR MELVILLE

Scottish National Gallery, Sat 10 Oct–Sun 17 Jan An apprentice grocer in East Lothian in the 1860s who gave up his job to study art, Arthur Melville went on to become one of the great artistadventurers of the Victorian age, and the most radical Scottish artist of his generation.

Perhaps because, at first glance, his works look traditional, as does his choice of medium (watercolour), Melville’s achievements are somewhat under-celebrated today. A major exhibition of his work at the Scottish National Gallery this autumn, the first for 35 years, aims to put the record straight.

Melville studied in Paris and loved Spain, where he painted many important works, but he didn’t stop there. In the early 1880s, he crossed North Africa and the Middle East. Curator Charlotte Topsfield says: ‘He really went off the beaten track.

He was attacked by robbers in the desert and left for dead – it’s the stuff of adventures.’

Melville’s travels inspired him to invent new techniques in watercolour, painting with gouache on to wet paper. And though this radical approach attracted criticism from traditionalists during his lifetime, he was influential on the contemporary artists of his day, including the Glasgow Boys.

(Susan Mansfield)

PHOTOGRAPHY

DOCUMENT SCOTLAND – THE TIES THAT BIND

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Sep–Sun 24 Apr One of the main legacies of the 2014 Scottish Referendum will be the multitude of images that document the passions and the pains of the country’s most pivotal political moment of the 21st century so far. With this in mind, it’s only fitting that some kind of collective response is gathered.

Step up photographers Colin McPherson, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Sophie Gerrard and Stephen McLaren, who as Document Scotland have pulled together some images of Scotland and its people from the front line to commemorate the first anniversary of this seismic event.

A collection such as this reminds us how documentary photography is so evocative of moments great and small, as the human hearts behind those moments are framed in a way that both historicises and mythologises them in the best senses of both words.

While a patina of politics is inherent in such an undertaking as The Ties That Bind, there is no polemic here. The artists showcase a range of viewpoints that hang together in a style that goes some way towards capturing the messy diversity of a mongrel nation in flux. (Neil Cooper)

MIXED MEDIA

THE SHOCK OF VICTORY CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Nov

Featuring artists from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Palestine and Greece, The Shock of Victory uses the first anniversary of the independence referendum to create a dialogue about political change. Consisting of an exhibition, a symposium and a digital publication, the programme looks beyond activist tactics, trying to imagine what ‘victory’ would mean through artistic practices.

Scotland’s post-referendum reality is mapped in Edinburgh-based poet and artist Alec Finlay’s A Better Tale to Tell, a found poem drawn from public responses to the Smith Commission on devolution.

‘Smith was a kind of mass observation project for our era – 12,000 plus letters, all forgotten about and ignored, and yet they are, in many ways, the true history,’ says Finlay. ‘What I wanted to preserve, and show respect for, was the registers of all those written voices, all of these people seeking to express themselves . . . there’s humour and sadness, hesitancy, ambition, and desire.

‘In their letters “The People” went further than Smith, because people are now ahead of the political class and the parties. I don’t think it matters that their views are still divided; the language itself shows a new politics is now possible, and required.’

(Stewart Smith)

90 THE LIST 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015

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Highlights | VISUAL ART

NICOLAS DESHAYES

TURNER PRIZE Tramway, Glasgow,

Sun 1 Nov–Wed 30 Dec, tramway.com The biggest award in British art, with £25,000 going to the winner. See feature, page 28.

DOCUMENT SCOTLAND Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Sep 2015–Sun 24 Apr 2016, nationalgalleries.org

ASSEMBLE

HITLIST

Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow, Sun 4 Oct–Sat 28 Nov. See preview, page 90.

THE SHOCK OF VICTORY CCA, Glasgow, Sat 19 Sep–Sun 1 Nov, ccaglasgow.com Exhibition, symposium and film screenings conceived as a response to the Scottish Independence Referendum. See preview, page 90.

Images of Scottish people from the photographic collective founded in 2012.

The show is designed to reflect the multiplicity of views and challenges associated with last year’s Referendum. See preview, page 90.

ARTHUR MELVILLE Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh,

Sat 10 Oct–Sun 17 Jan, royalscottishacademy. org A comprehensive survey of the work of the Victorian painter (1858–1904), whose work was influenced by his travels in Persia, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire and who went on to be a major influence on the Glasgow Boys. See preview, page 90.

VISUAL ART HIGHLIGHTS Events are listed by city, then date.

Submit listings for your event at list.co.uk/add

A CENTURY OF STYLE: COSTUME AND COLOUR 1800–1899 Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Fri 25 Sep–Sun 14 Feb, glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/ kelvingrove A look at the glory and diversity of 19th-century clothing, with examples from leading Glasgow department stores and dressmakers and a beaded couture dress from Paris.

EDINBURGH THE ARTIST AND THE SEA City Art Centre, Sat 26 Sep 2015–Sun 8 May 2016, edinburghmuseums.org.uk/ venues/city-art-centre Images of the sea by generations of Scottish artists, drawn from the Centre’s collection.

HAYLEY TOMPKINS: ELECTRIC MAGNETIC INSTALLATION The Modern Institute @ Aird’s Lane, Sat 12 Sep–Sat 7 Nov, themoderninstitute.com Work by artist whose installations often include found elements. See preview, page 89.

PHYLLIDA BARLOW: SET Fruitmarket Gallery, until Sun 18 Oct, fruitmarket.co.uk Major solo exhibition by veteran artist who, after decades of teaching, had her first major public exhibition in 2010. This show features work made specially for the gallery. See review, list.co.uk JOHN CHAMBERLAIN: SCULPTURES Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Thu 1–Sun 4 Oct, rbge. org.uk Sculpture by the late American artist who’s credited with having made Abstract Expressionism threedimensional. See review, list.co.uk BAILEY’S STARDUST Scottish National Gallery, until Sun 6 Sep, nationalgalleries.org If there had been no David Bailey, Austin Powers would have had to invent him. The great British celebrity photographer of his era, Bailey has taken numerous iconic portraits over a 50-year career. This touring exhibition features over 250 portraits, arranged thematically. See review, list.co.uk HERMANN NITSCH: DAS ORGIEN MYSTERIEN THEATER Summerhall, until Mon 5 Oct, summerhall.co.uk Work by the Austrian artist fascinated with ritual and extreme experiences, whose performances often contain nudity and animal blood; the title translates as ‘Orgiastic Mystery Theatre’. See

MICHAEL WILKINSON: SORRY HAD TO DONE The Modern Institute, Sat 12 Sep– Sat 24 Oct, themoderninstitute. com New work from the Glasgowbased artist.

Phyllida Barlow

feature, list.co.uk ORTONANDON: THREE GO ADVENTURING AGAIN Summerhall, until Mon 5 Oct, summerhall.co.uk Two video installations from three-sister art partnership of Katie, Sophie and Anna Orton: How to Die and Family Patterning. See feature, list.co.uk

GLASGOW LAURIE FIGGIS The Briggait, Fri 18 Sep–Wed 21 Oct, waspsstudios.org.uk A shop window display made from the artist’s own collages and drawings.

SYBREN RENEMA: PLEASURES OF A GRAVE DESIRE CCA, Fri 2–Fri 16 Oct, ccaglasgow.com Work looking at the connections between the personae of the addict and the wanderer.

MATTHEW BRANNON, MILANO CHOW, ALAN REID: I HOPE TO GOD YOU’RE NOT SO DUMB AS YOU MAKE OUT Mary Mary, Sat 26 Sep–Sat 7 Nov, marymarygallery.co.uk New work from US artists, as well as a collaborative work called Public Intellectuals.

JIM ALLEN ABEL: UNIFORM CODE Glue Factory, Thu 10 Sep–Sun 4 Oct, thegluefactory.org Work

by Indonesian artist exploring how uniforms reinforce the image of authority.

JOMPET KUSWIDANANTO: GRAND PARADE Glue Factory, Thu 10–Thu 17 Sep, thegluefactory.org Installation from the Indonesian artist consisting of humanlike figures with drums and weapons.

SURFACE TENSION Street Level Photoworks, until Sun 8 Nov, streetlevelphotoworks. org Work by artists who use different materials to produce tactile and multilayered artworks: Lorna Macintyre, Susanne Ramsenthaler, Karen Vaughan and Catherine Cameron.

DUNDEE OLIVER BRAID, ANOUCHKA OLER: THINGNESS Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Fri 18 Sep–Sat 10 Oct, dundee.ac.uk/djcad New work concerning objects and their definitions, made as part of a residency during July 2015.

HIDEYUKI KATSUMATA: USODEHONTOU Dundee Contemporary Arts, Sat 3 Oct–Sun 15 Nov, dca.org.uk Murals, prints and videos in the Japanese artist’s largest solo exhibition to date.

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TV

Fo the latestr n listings a ews, reviews, g nd o list.co.uk to /tv

DOCTOR WHO Brace yourselves, season nine is coming Doctor Who shouldn’t be this good. It’s the longest running sci-fi TV series in the world, after all, having started way back in 1963. Russell T Davies’ relaunch in 2005 reinvigorated the show and we now find ourselves in the capable hands of showrunner Steven Moffat. Peter Capaldi has proved himself in the lead role, taking the reins as an older, wiser, darker incarnation of the Gallifreyan time-traveller than his predecessor, Matt Smith.

Season nine of the rebooted Doctor Who features a meeting of two of fantasy TV’s biggest brands as Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams (aka Arya Stark) makes a guest appearance. And

she’s not the only intriguing guest star, as Reece Shearsmith will be popping up in one of Doctor Who’s semi-regular horror-theme episodes written by his old cohort from The League of Gentlemen. Prepare to quake behind your sofa.

‘I am absolutely thrilled to be filming Doctor Who, as Mark Gatiss has written a fantastic role for me in a very scary episode,’ explains Shearsmith. ‘It has been so exciting to be part of a very singular episode, which I can say with authority will be unlike any previous episode of Doctor Who. It’s a joy to play a part in the show, a badge of honour.’ (Henry Northmore) ■ BBC One, Sat 19 Sep, time tbc.

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Previews | TV

list.co.uk/tv

HIGHLIGHTS STRICTLY COME DANCING BBC One, Sat 5 Sep, 7.15pm Get ready for another round of glitz, glamour and sequins with the biggest TV talent show in the UK. Professional boxer Anthony Ogogo, granny’s favourite Daniel O’Donnell, Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine and celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott are amongst this year’s contestants. Well it’s better than X-Factor.

BALLERS

Sky Atlantic, Tue 8 Sep, 10pm New comedy about American football stars created by Stephen Levinson (In Treatment, Entourage, Boardwalk Empire) and starring The Rock! Awesome!

DRAMA PREVIEW

THIS IS ENGLAND ’90

Channel 4, Sun 13 Sep, time tbc Shane Meadows’ 2006 film This is England followed the lives and loves of a group of young skinheads in 1983 with the gang returning for TV spin-offs This is England ’86 and This is England ’88. ‘A 90-minute film sounds like a lot of time,’ notes writer / director Meadows. ‘But weirdly, when you’ve got all these incredible characters, you can’t follow ten lives. Whereas a series is a beautiful thing, in so much as you can look at a lot of different people. One person can have an arc through one episode; it’s like their own feature film.’

The follow-up, This is England ’90, was originally slated for 2012 but delayed by three years while Meadows got side-tracked. He had taken the opportunity to indulge in one of his musical passions, making Made of Stone, his feature-length documentary charting the Stone Roses’ reunion. ‘There’s a blessing and a curse to the gap,’ says Meadows. ‘The curse could be that people might not be interested any more, but it feels like the opposite has happened. The blessing is that we’ve had a bit of reflection time, to look at all the stories and figure out how to do justice to the last series. If this is the last one, it needs to fulfil its promise. That brings with it a certain pressure.’

This is England always felt like a project very close to Meadows’ heart. There are elements that mirror his own life growing up in the West Midlands while ‘90 continues to chart British youth culture. A new decade is dawning and the characters have embraced the baggy sounds of the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and early 90s club culture.

Meadows specialises in capturing the drama and comedy of everyday life as showcased in early features A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002). At its core, This is England is about friendship and Meadows has created an incredibly realistic and likeable ensemble cast (headed by Joseph Gilgun, Vicky McClure, Thomas Turgoose and Michael Socha), many of whom hadn’t acted before the original film.

Meadows is renowned for his relaxed directorial style, coaxing naturalist performances from his performers. ‘I’d never been to film school,’ says Meadows. ‘When I was first directing, and I didn’t have any money, I was directing people who I’d been with at college, or people who lived near me. They weren’t actors. I gained a massive amount of confidence from getting them to act.

They didn’t have any preconceived ideas, so I then felt that working with people who didn’t really know how to do it was actually a kind of benefit to me, because I don’t really have a recognised technique.’

Even though Meadows has stated this will be the final This is England series, he’s finding it hard to close the door completely. ‘Well, if it finished here, I’d have absolutely no regrets. But I can’t say never. It’s impossible to say never . . . but this feels like an end. It has a full stop, even if it’s only in pencil.’ (Henry Northmore)

DOCTOR WHO BBC One, Sat 19 Sep, time tbc Expect more hard sci-fi mixed with thrills, chills and a cheeky wink as Peter Capaldi returns.

Guest stars include Maisie Williams, Reece Shearsmith, Rufus Hound, Rebecca Front and Michelle Gomez. See preview, page 92.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD DVD, Mon 5 Oct Perhaps the greatest action movie of the last ten years. Cars collide with a crunching visceral impact in this postapocalyptic road movie starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

THE WALKING DEAD FOX, Mon 12 Oct, 9pm Have Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his band of survivors really found a safe haven in Alexandria? With the Wolves and zombies biting at their heels we somehow doubt it.

THE LEFTOVERS DVD, Thu 15 Oct Bleak sci-fi-ish drama The Leftovers passed many people by so catch up here before season two starts on Sky Atlantic.

Justin Theroux is fantastic as troubled cop Kevin Garvey in a world where 2% of the population has mysteriously vanished.

THIS IS ENGLAND ’90 Channel 4, Sun 13 Sep, times tbc The final chapter in Shane Meadows’ drama as Lol, Woody, Shaun and the gang go clubbing. See preview, left.

HALO 5: GUARDIANS Xbox One, Tue 27 Oct The fifth instalment in the world-conquering first-person shooter has Spartan Locke on the hunt for Master Chief.

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REFRESHING SCOTLAND’S FRESHERS’ WEEK FRIEND! coorslightuk

@coorslightuk

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2015 STUDEN T GUIDE CONTENTS CALENDAR DATES FOR YOUR CULTURAL DIARY

96

EAT & DRINK BARS: TIGHT BUDGET AND BIG GROUPS BARS: ACTIVITIES AND FREE LIVE MUSIC CAFES STREET FOOD AND GLOBAL DINING

98 99 101 102

IN ASSOCIATIO N WITH

SHOPPING VINTAGE AND VINYL

104

MUSIC GIG VENUES NEW BANDS

107 111

FILM CINEMA BARGAINS COMING ATTRACTIONS

112 115

CLUBS VENUES

116

LGBT ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

118

VISUAL ART TOURS GALLERIES

119 120

THEATRE STAGES CHEAP SEATS

123 124

COMEDY CLUBS

125

BOOKS LITERARY NIGHTS

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REFRESHING S SCOTLAND’S FRESHER

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We are delighted to be supporting the annual List student guide this year. We’ll be giving Scottish student drinkers the chance to enjoy a refreshing Coors Light at freshers nights across Glasgow and Edinburgh as we bring the cold, fresh experience of our Rocky Mountain home straight to the heart of Scotland.

Coors Light is a beer that refreshes your body like a blast of cold mountain air. There’s cold beer, then there’s Damme Cold beer. Each bottle of Coors Light features an ice cold indicator.

It’s simple: when the mountains turn blue your beer is Damme cold and ready to drink my friend.

Coors Light’s mission is to bring ice cold refreshment to the lips and hearts of drinkers all over the world to show that no matter what you do, you haven’t experienced real cold until you’ve had the ice-cold refreshment of a Coors Light.

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Student Guide

CULTURAL It’s festival-time all-year round over here – so where do you start?

Rowena McIntosh rounds up

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL EDINBURGH’S CHRISTMAS & HOGMANAY

Six weeks of winter wonderland with open-air ice rinks, European markets, a programme of live entertainment and lashings of glühwein. The legendary street party welcomes 2016 with music and fireworks. Edinburgh, November-January.

A rich programme of European and world premieres, international releases and cult classics as well as unique screening events. 2015’s line-up included a 1970s roller disco and a sell-out cat video festival.

Glasgow, February.

AYE WRITE!

Glasgow’s book festival celebrates Scottish and international writers and writing with a packed programme of talks, panel discussions and workshops. 2015 featured authors Irvine Welsh and Michel Faber, as well as comedian Karen Dunbar.

Glasgow, March or April.

GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL

Venues all over the city morph into comedy clubs as stand-ups from across the UK and beyond arrive for Europe’s largest comedy festival. Last year the first live stage appearance of cult sketch show Burnistoun was a highlight. Glasgow, March.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The oldest continually running film festival in the world, the EIFF presents new features, documentaries, retrospectives, shorts, panel discussions and educational workshops, with a few high-profile premieres thrown in.

Edinburgh, June.

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

CALENDAR WICKERMAN

T IN THE PARK

The behemoth of the Scottish festival scene now at its new home in Strathallan.

Big-name headliners are guaranteed while the T Break stage showcases the best unsigned Scottish bands.

Strathallan, Perthshire, July.

One of the best value-for-money music festivals with a rep for chilled times, multiple genre stages and eclectic entertainment, including the burning of giant wicker man.

Dundrennan, Dumfries & Galloway, July.

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE

WEST END FESTIVAL

Each August, the city hosts the largest arts festival in the world with masses of comedy, theatre, dance and music. See big names debut their latest show or catch new artists just starting out.

Edinburgh, August.

Offering a great music line-up as well as film, exhibitions, dance, local gala days and a carnival-style street parade where Byres Road becomes a pedestrian hub with food stalls and outdoor bars.

Glasgow, June.

PRIDE GLASGOW FESTIVAL

Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest LGBT Pride festival offers a weekend of live music, club nights, stalls, a dog show and a technicolour parade through the city.

Glasgow, August.

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EAT DRINK

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BEST FOR: TIGHT BUDGETS GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

VODKA WODKA

BAR SOBA

31 Ashton Lane, vodkawodka.co.uk Situated among the plethora of drinking and eating spots on Ashton Lane, it is easy to overlook this quirky little bar. Offering a selection of £3.50 cocktails, including cosmopolitans, mojitos and French martinis, plus house bottles of wine for a tenner, this is the place to go when you’re nearing the end of your overdraft.

104 Hanover Street, barsoba.co.uk This pan Asian restaurant is a haven for students, generously providing anyone with a matriculation card 2-for-1 meals during the week. However, it’s the tasty £3 apple and ginger mojitos, £2 spirit mixers and £2.50 pints of Carling that really draw in the bargain-savvy. They also have three bars in Glasgow.

ALSO TRY: Flat 0/1, Bread & Butter, Driftwood, Moskito.

ALSO TRY: The Chanter, Thomson’s Bar, The Greenmantle, The City Café.

BEST FOR: LARGE GROUPS GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

DRYGATE BREWERY

AKVA

85 Drygate, drygate.com The craft beer company’s vast premises in the East End allows them to host a restaurant, beerhall, terrace and bottle shop. The Vintage (restaurant) offers small plates ideal for sharing and there is an equally impressive range of beer to keep you satisfied.

129 Fountainbridge, bodabar.com/akva With the ability to host up to 250 people for parties upstairs and one of the largest beer gardens in the capital, this Swedish bar is ideal when you need to find a drinking spot to fit you and a lot of your friends. Plus, when the weather is nice enough to sit outside, you’ll be treated to a wonderful view over the Union Canal.

ALSO TRY: Brel, West Brewery, Coopers, Sloanes.

ALSO TRY: Hemma, The Beehive Inn, The Caley Sample Room, Le Monde

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

STUDENT GUIDE | EAT & DRINK

FIRST ORDERS There’s more to drinking in Scotland than Tennent’s and whisky. Claire Flynn picks out some of the best bars in Glasgow and Edinburgh for a range of occasions

BEST FOR: ACTIVITIES GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

PHOTO © STEPHEN ROBINSON

THE FLYING DUCK

BRASS MONKEY

142 Renfield Street,flyingduckclub.com Hidden in the bustling city centre, this bar not only offers cheap drinks, but a weekly pub quiz, performance evenings and club nights too. They’ve also had a go at hosting graffiti jams, life drawing and film screenings, so it’s definitely the place to head when you fancy more than just sipping a pint.

14 Drummond Street; 362 Leith Walk Screening classic movies every day from 3pm and serving affordable drinks, this well-known Drummond Street haunt is very popular with students. It now has a sister venue in Leith as well, complete with its own big screen, weekly pub quiz and jam sessions.

ALSO TRY: The Butterfly and the Pig, Firebird, Òran Mór, Lebowskis.

ALSO TRY: Frankenstein, The Tron, Clerk’s Bar, The Three Sisters.

BEST FOR: FREE LIVE MUSIC GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

BLOC+

WHISTLEBINKIES

117 Bath Street, bloc.ru An independent pub renowned among the city’s music aficionados for the free alternative concerts it provides (before midnight). It also offers a wide range of deals on food during the week, so you can get a good meal from as little as £3.

Better still, they serve food until 3am, so it’s ideal for a post-gig snack.

4-6 South Bridge, whistlebinkies.com Featuring bands every night of the week and offering free entry (before midnight on a Friday and Saturday), this bar is ideal for music lovers short on cash. They aim to host four bands per night Sun-Thurs with more on at the weekend. Plus, they have a wide selection of beers and whiskies.

ALSO TRY: Waxy O’Connor’s, Blackfriar’s, Babbity Bowster’s, The Rio Cafe.

ALSO TRY: The Royal Oak, Finnegan’s Wake, The Black Bull.

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Kurdish & Middle East Restaurant Located in Edinburgh city centre (next to the University) we are open every day from 12noon until late, offering unique homecooked kurdish and middle eastern cuisine.

- Two course lunch menu from 12-3pm every day - £7 - Pre-theatre menu from 3pm to 6pm - Shisha in different Ø avours is available -£10 - We can accommodate a large party up to 60 people - See our website for special offers on kurdish feast - Bring your own bottle to make a cheaper dinner out

Tel. : 0131 667 2299 26-30 Potterrow, Edinburgh EH8 9BT contact@nawrozrestaurant.com www.nawrozrestaurant.com

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

STUDENT GUIDE | EAT & DRINK

BEST CAFES We pick out some of Glasgow and Edinburgh’s best spots for a coffee, cake and for working in Sara amago

GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

W

W

ith a wide range of independent cafés across the city, you’ll never need to spend money in Starbucks again. Instead save your pennies for Glasgow’s West End branch of Artisan Roast, which offers great coffee in its quirky, chilled-out Gibson Street venue. Or pop next door and sink into the deep comfy couches of Offshore; a perfect studying alternative to the library, with great snacks and free wifi.

Then again, you could head round to Byres Road and try Avenue G’s top-quality coffee and locally sourced food, before wandering along to test Smile Café’s award-winning marocchinos. Let’s not forget about Great Western Road’s Papercup Coffee Company (pictured above, left), which roasts only the finest beans on the market, and Cottonrake, which only has a few seats but provides delicious baked goods.

Moving into the city centre, Riverhill Coffee Bar is an easy-to-miss gem, with some of the best cakes in the city and a variety of coffees and hot chocolates. Or walk along to Duke Street, where the stripped back McCune Smith Café offers stimulation for the mind as well as the taste buds – each sandwich is inspired by a figure of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Over the river in Glasgow’s Southside, Tapa Coffeehouse’s focus on the local, organic and ethical will allow you to feel good about tucking into a bacon and eggs breakfast. There’s also No Way Back, owned

by DJ Kenny Grieve, which serves a range of tacos, sandwiches and drinks, including coffee from local roasters Dear Green.

(Claire Flynn)

herever you go in Edinburgh, its cafés and coffee shops are filled with dreamy nooks and crannies for reading, working or just cosying-up. In the Old Town, you’ll find long-standing student favourite Black Medicine on Drummond Street; grab a window seat for the perfect people-watching spot. Across the road, BrewLab is the local coffee connoisseur’s choice. Look out for its cold brew coffee on a hot day too.

Wander a little further south and you’ll find Kilimanjaro, another longtime student haunt; there’s a wide-choice of excellent teas here, so it’s a great café for non-coffee drinkers too. Nearby, the relatively new and already much-loved Filament Coffee keeps it simple, with a small menu that’s divided into Coffee and Not Coffee.

Over in the New Town, Edinburgh’s own branch of Artisan Roast on Broughton Street does good coffee in relaxed surroundings – but there’s no wifi here, so leave your laptop at home. Further west, the Caffeine Drip on Melville Place offers affordable coffee too, with an excellent South African-influenced food menu. And near Haymarket, Milk is an excellent choice for coffee in bright, fresh surroundings.

Looking for something sweet on the side? West Port’s Lovecrumbs offers some of the city’s finest coffee and cake, with cosy window seats for lone readers and large tables for big groups. And on the few occasions that the sun appears, get in line at Mary’s Milk Bar for some first-rate gelato. They also do a mean line in hot chocolate, so you’ll win there at any time of year.

(Yasmin Sulaiman) 3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 101

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EAT & DRINK | STUDENT GUIDE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

From innovative street food and cool cafes to transglobal dining and ubiquitous burgers, there’s plenty of budget-friendly eating to be done in Edinburgh and Glasgow, writes Claire Ritchie

Scoff

EDINBURGH

Tupiniq u

im

T

he capital’s university quarter is home to a multitude of global dining options, most with prices to suit the student populace. For a cracking lunch deal, try a bento box from Bonsai or the buffet at all-vegetarian Kalpna. Other delights from the Indian subcontinent can be found at Kebab Mahal, the Mosque Kitchen, and 10 to 10 in Delhi, all low on frills but big on flavour. Just up the road, Kampong Ah Lee is a canteen-style Malaysian delight serving up huge portions of laksas, satay skewers and rotis for a not-so-huge price. Meanwhile, across Bristo Square you can indulge those Bangkok street food cravings at Ting Thai Caravan. Newly transplanted from the West End to the Old Town, Illegal Jack’s offers attractively priced Tex-Mex burritos and tacos with your choice of fillings, in fresh new premises thanks to a hugely successful crowd-funding project.

When you don’t have time to stop but still need fuel to keep you awake in that psychology seminar, you need some food on the go. Packing a huge amount of flavour and skill into a tiny former police box on the edge of the Meadows, Tupiniquim serves up gluten-free crepes with a Brazilian twist. A short walk away on Forrest Road, Union of Genius keeps the hungry hordes going with their daily selection of tasty globally inspired soups and salads. Across on Cockburn Street, the venerable Baked Potato Shop serves whopping portions of the humble tattie filled with your choice of over 20 fillings – all of which are vegetarian or vegan.

There are a handful of mobile food trucks worth tracking down at one of the city’s regular markets where you can pick up some freshly cooked

delicious street food for little more than a fiver. Whether it’s vegetarian dumplings from Alplings, venison pastrami sliders from Ròst or a Cullen skink tattie scone from Scoff, you’re sure to find some tasty treats to eat on the hoof. Check out their social media sites to find out where they’ll pop up next.

Dining with a conscience isn’t always easy on a budget, but a good place to start is at the Forest Café in Tollcross, a not-for-profit joint with a charming bohemian vibe. Now in its sixth decade of business, vegetarian institution Henderson’s recently opened a vegan bistro on Rose Street to add to their ever-popular restaurant, deli and cafe outlets. For fastfood without the guilt factor, head to Burger in Fountainbridge for an independent take on the beef patty, or Oink on Victoria Street for a hog roast sandwich direct from the producers.

Looking for high-end food without the luxury price tag? For a chance to be cooked for by the top chefs of tomorrow, head for EH15 or The Apprentice, the training restaurants of Edinburgh College, where eating like royalty costs almost nothing.

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

STUDENT GUIDE | EAT & DRINK

Smile Cafe

GLASGOW

I

n the West End, Glasgow’s Saramago student heartland, it seems you can hardly move for hip cafés, restaurants and bars, covering the Far East to the good old American burger and almost everything in between. Taco Mazama Mexican Kitchen serves up hearty burritos and tacos with a variety of fillings for low prices, while for a tasty lunchtime sandwich you can’t go wrong with a banh mi (Vietnamese take on the baguette) from the Hanoi Bike Shop. In the cluster of good eateries along Great Western Road, BRGR stands out among Glasgow’s omnipresent burger joints, and you’ll also find a branch of the popular sandwich shop Piece. Over on Queen Margaret Drive, Smile Café is a very lovely spot serving Italian delicacies, now with a second branch in town.

South of Kelvingrove Park there’s a bunch of excellent high-end dining options in flashy Finnieston that might be best for when your parents are footing the bill, but there are still some affordable options to be found too.

Within the stark interior of Dumbarton Road’s Banana Leaf is a talented kitchen serving up flavour-packed South Indian dishes. Meanwhile, across in Kelvingrove Park itself, An Clachan is a go-to spot for a warming burrito or cooling ice cream, depending on the weather. And for something completely different, head for Restauracja U Jarka for terrific Polish stews, dumplings and pancakes without a hefty price tag.

Glasgow’s city centre is bursting with chain restaurants and burger bars,

but there are more than a few gems worth seeking out. The Vic Café Bar is a great-value spot inside the Art School, serving student-union fare of burgers and pizzas as well as jerk chicken and Chinese savoury buns.

Babu Bombay Street Kitchen serves up Indian street food in pleasingly ramshackle surroundings, while Riverhill Coffee Bar is playing its part in Glasgow’s artisan coffee revolution, complete with some of the best cakes in town. Martha’s serves up healthy, tasty fast food, while the multiple branches of Cook & Indi’s World Buffet offer unrestrained allyou-can-eat dining at prices you’ll barely notice.

Special mention should be made of Glasgow’s superior vegan offerings, which has seen the city awarded PETA’s recognition of most veganfriendly city in the UK. Mono, Stereo and The 78 serve up animalfree delights that leave the mung-bean-and-lentil image of veganism far behind, while Saramago, the CCA’s cafe-bar, boasts an innovative allvegan menu that keeps everyone happy.

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SHOPPING | STUDENT GUIDE

SHOPPING

SPENDING SPREE For everything from vintage clothing to vinyl records and secondhand books, these independent shops have you covered, says Rebecca Monks

EDINBURGH

It’s vintage, darling. Or at least it could be. With that in mind, your first port of call should be Armstrongs. This independent clothing shop sells everything from leather jackets and kilts for men to ball gowns and classic-cut jeans for women, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the main branch located on the Grassmarket, fear not: there are two more stores in the city, which you can find on Teviot Place and South Clerk Street. Other good vintage and vintage-style stores include Godiva on the West Port and Those Were The Days on St Stephen Street (pictured).

For charity shops, you’d do well to head down to Nicolson Street.

There, you’ll find a group of stores (the likes of Shelter and Oxfam) selling everything from pre-loved clothing to books. Another good bet is to take a bus down to Stockbridge, where you can scope out the selection of charity shops such as Barnardo’s and Cancer Research. Plus, once you’ve snapped up a bargain, there are plenty of cafes to relax in, as you bathe in the unique satisfaction that only a £2 cardigan can bring.

Bibliophiles should become well-acquainted with the used book stores around Edinburgh’s Old Town. Edinburgh Books on West Port is perhaps the best known in the city (well, it is named after it), while other good options include Southside Books on South Bridge and the Old Town Bookshop on Victoria Street.

DJs and vinyl enthusiasts can find records at VoxBox on St Stephen Street, Vinyl Villains on Elm Row, Elvis Shakespeare on Leith Walk, or from Avalanche Records, which has moved about the city a wee bit, but now has a stall in the Tron Kirk market most weekdays.

GLASGOW

If you’re after retro clothing in Glasgow, an obvious first stop would be Retro on Otago Street. It is one of Britain’s longest-established vintage clothes shops, and has a reputation for its high-quality merchandise. Other strong choices include Vintage Guru on Byres Road, Mr Ben Retro Clothing on King Street and The Glasgow Vintage Co on Great Western Road.

One of the best-loved bookshops in Glasgow is Voltaire & Rousseau (pictured), and if you think the name is cool, wait until you hear more about the shop itself. It’s been around for over 40 years, and stocks everything from fiction to rare secondhand books.

You can find it on Otago Lane, should you be bitten by the book bug. Other stores worth visiting include Thistle Books (also on Otago Street) and Kelvin Books Antiquarian and Secondhand on Maclellan Street (funnily enough).

Glasgow is known for its music scene, so it only makes sense that some of the best stores in the city are dedicated to selling vinyl.

Mixed Up Records on Otago Lane (that place again) is a good shout for this, as is Love Music on Dundas Street, Insularis Records on Brook Street and Record Fayre on Chisholm Street.

For a wholly unique shopping experience in the city, make sure you stop by the Barras. A mixture of street markets, indoor markets, shops and pubs, it’s one of the best places to grab a bargain in the East End of Glasgow, whether you’re after antiques for the house, vintage furniture or even something that’s younger than you are.

Once you’ve finished haggling with the old-fashioned traders, you can also check out what the arty folk are up to at the Barras Art and Design Centre.

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

MUSIC

STUDENT GUIDE | MUSIC

GLASGOW’S BEST GIG VENUES BEST FOR: BUDGET

BEST FOR: POP

BEST FOR: ROCK

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS

SSE HYDRO

BARROWLAND BALLROOM

27 Renfield Lane, theoldhairdressers.com From free gigs to those costing a mere fiver, this independent arts centre offers a cheap way of getting into the Glasgow music scene. Acts set to play in September include two-piece girl group Brataklis and psych pop band the Bellybuttons.

36–38 Blair Street, thessehydro.com If you’re the kind of person that likes to spend money on seeing chart-topping acts, you will be spending a lot of time at at this 13, 000 capacity venue. With concerts scheduled from Duran Duran to One Direction, this is Scotland’s ultimate pop music hub.

244 Gallowgate, glasgow-barrowland.com The Barrowlands is one of the most renowned rock venues in Scotland, and has recently played host to FFS, the collaboration between art rockers Franz Ferdinand and Sparks. The Cribs, The Lafontaines and Idlewild have dates lined up before the year’s out.

ALSO TRY: Stereo, The Hug and Pint, Mono.

ALSO TRY: O2 ABC, O2 Academy, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

ALSO TRY: The Art School, The Garage, Òran Mór.

BEST FOR: DJs

BEST FOR: ACOUSTIC

BEST FOR: UP-AND-COMING

SUB CLUB

NICE’N’SLEAZY

KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT

22 Jamaica Street, subclub.co.uk Offering fans of electro and house music a place to spend almost every night of the week, Sub Club hosts several wild club nights and regularly invites guest DJs to spin the decks. Richy Ahmed and Erol Alkan both play sets this month.

421 Sauchiehall Street, nicensleazy.com Famous for its cheap but delicious White Russians and popular for its gigs, this Sauchiehall Street bar provides music lovers with an acoustic night every Monday, hosted by Gerry Lyons. It’s also got some of the best burgers in Glasgow, so arrive hungry.

272a St Vincent Street,kingtuts.co.uk One of the most iconic music hubs in the UK, this was the place where, legend has it, Oasis were signed by Alan McGee back in 1993. It continues to host new acts, with upcoming highlights including State Champs and Raleigh Ritchie.

ALSO TRY: Star Folk Music Club, Tchai-Ovna, Glad Café.

ALSO TRY: The 13th Note, CCA, Box Glasgow.

ALSO TRY: La Cheetah, SWG3, Broadcast.

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MUSIC

MUSIC | STUDENT GUIDE

EDINBURGH’S BEST GIG VENUES BEST FOR: BUDGET

BEST FOR: POP

BEST FOR: ROCK

CABARET VOLTAIRE

BT MURRAYFIELD STADIUM

LIQUID ROOM

36 Blair Street, thecabaretvoltaire.com Basically an atmospherically well-lit cave, this live music haunt is known for its cheap and cheerful tickets. Londoners Charles Howl and classicallytrained singer Kirsten Adamson both have live sets scheduled in the next couple of months.

EH12 5PJ, murrayfieldexperience.com Glasgow’s Hydro has pop sewn up but in Edinburgh, the home of Scottish rugby is transformed occasionally into a live music venue for big-name acts. One Direction performed last year, and Foo Fighters are due to play a gig this month.

9c Victoria Street, liquidroom.com After closing for refurbishment, the Liquid Room returned better than ever a few years ago. Dead Kennedys, Stiff Little Fingers and Vampire Weekend are among the acts to have graced their stage.

Dundee rockers the View are set to play in October.

ALSO TRY: The Caves, The Mash House, Voodoo Rooms.

ALSO TRY: Edinburgh Castle, Queen’s Hall, Corn Exchange.

BEST FOR: ACOUSTIC

SNEAKY PETE’S

OUT OF THE BEDROOM AT THE KILDERKIN

BEST FOR: UP-AND-COMING PHOTO © TREVOR HALL

BEST FOR: DJs

ALSO TRY: Summerhall, Electric Circus, Opium Alternative Bar.

73 Cowgate, sneakypetes.co.uk This tiny bar, club and venue hosts a range of live music acts, but it has become especially well known for booking popular DJs. Daniel Avery and David Barbarossa are scheduled to appear in September.

ALSO TRY: The Bongo Club, Studio 24, 99 Hanover Street.

67 Canongate, outofthebedroom.co.uk Every Saturday, this Royal Mile pub offers new and emerging artists the chance to be heard at open mic night Out of the Bedroom. So if you fancy something acoustic, then make sure to drop in.

ALSO TRY: Sandy Bell’s, Royal Oak, The Jazz Bar.

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR 202 Cowgate, henryscellarbar.com This independent, late night music club proclaims to play host to ‘the acclaimed and the obscure’. Many up-and-comers opt to play this intimate wee venue, with the Head Henchmen, Numbers are Futile and Garden of Elks having appeared here recently.

ALSO TRY: The Wee Red Bar, Bannerman’s, Pleasance.

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STUDENT GUIDE | MUSIC

ASCENDING ORDER New music’s everywhere you look in Glasgow and Edinburgh. David Pollock selects some of the best new bands to look out for, east or west

PHOTO © MICHAEL WOOD

WHITE

THE SPOOK SCHOOL

GOLDEN TEACHER

C.DUNCAN

Formed by members of the Low Miffs and, ahem, Kassidy, White are an unexpected revelation, a partystarting fusion of LCD Soundsystem and fellow Glaswegians Franz Ferdinand and Simple Minds. ‘Future Pleasures’ has so far been the unsung song of the year; expect to hear more of them in future. White play the Tenement Trail, Glasgow, Sat 3 Oct. facebook.com/calledwhite

‘We try to play pop music,’ runs the slogan on the website of Edinburgh’s Spook School, although it’s tricky to just focus on that when singer Nye Todd is transgender and unafraid to explore issues around that in eloquent, unabashed style. Rolling Stone have already featured them, as much for the bloody great pop music as the essential discussion. See review, page 70. thespookschool.com

Just…what a band. If there’s one thing (okay, one of many things) a proper music-loving student should do with their time in Glasgow, it’s see this enthrallingly wild sextet live. Their punk-disco beats have been released on Optimo Music, but somehow they don’t quite measure up to the full live experience. See review, page 72. facebook.com/ goldenteacher

The son of two classical musicians who studied at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, Chris Duncan is the latest in a line of Scots successes on FatCat (see: Frightened Rabbit, Twilight Sad, Honeyblood). His sun-kissed psychedelic beat-pop sounds like nothing else out there, so catch him before copycats come along. facebook.com/mrchrisduncan

PHOTO © JANNICA HONEY

PINACT

KATHRYN JOSEPH

MAN OF MOON

KLOË

A racket making Glasgow duo who conjure mental images of Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth and Evan Dando, Pinact are pleasingly DIY and have some fine tunes. One of them is also in Catholic Action; consider them recommended too. Pinact play Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Sep; Tenement Trail, Glasgow, Sat 3 Oct; Stereo, Glasgow, Thu 22 Oct. pinactband.bandcamp.com

The unexpected but very welldeserved winner of this year’s Scottish Album of the Year Award for Bones You Have Thrown Me and Blood I’ve Spilled, Joseph is a singer-songwriter from Aberdeen with an impossibly crystalline fragility to her voice. Kathryn Joseph plays Glad Café, Glasgow, Sun 6 Sep; Spree Festival, Paisley, Thu 15 Oct; Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Thu 22 Oct. athrynjoseph.co.uk

Grizzled and gothic Edinburgh psych-rock duo have built a sound that’s at once fuzzy and perfectly tuned to its underlying current of pop choruses. The NME love them, which is always nice when you’re a band on the up, isn’t it? Listen to single ‘The Road’ on SoundCloud for a taste.

Man of Moon support the Twilight Sad at Barrowland, Glasgow, Sat 12 Dec. manofmoon.net

Eighteen years old and with a mature pop sound which fuses R’n’B and breathy electro-swing balladry, Glaswegian singer KLOË is already in the ‘bound to be famous soon’ category. Drawing comparisons with Chvrches (see feature, page 24), she played her first gig at Glasgow’s Garage in February and her single ‘Grip’ was an instant online hit. facebook.com/mynameiskloe

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FILM | STUDENT GUIDE

FILM

BIG SCREEN BARGAINS Who says going to the cinema has to be expensive?

Carolina Morais reveals the best way to save on film outings

S

tudent life is financially exhausting at times. But if you’re one of those incurable film lovers, why not take advantage of the cheap tickets and deals made especially for you by some of the best venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow? Right in the heart of the capital you can find the Cameo Cinema, which normally will charge you £9 per ticket (£8 before 5pm and £6 on Mondays), but also offers an annual student membership for only £15, including two free tickets, up to £2 discount on film tickets for a year and 10% discount on food and drinks. Edinburgh’s Filmhouse can be a bit more generous though, offering matinee tickets for £5.70 (Mon-Thu) or £4 (Fri), and evening / weekend screenings for £7.20 for students.

In the long-term, you can always choose their £30 annual package, which includes £1.50 off ticket purchases and 10% discount on DVD’s, merchandising, food and drinks. They sometimes have student offers on membership at the start of the year too, so look out for details of that at your local freshers fair.

There are also plenty of bargains to keep an eye on for those living near Glasgow Film Theatre. A standard student ticket costs £7, but if you’re aged between 15 and 21 years old, the Youth Card will give you access to the best and most recent films for only £4.50 (not to

mention 20% off food). There’s also the Grosvenor Cinema in the West End, which is full-licensed – good news for those of you who like your films with a side of beer or wine. Student tickets cost £6 (£7 at weekends). And if you’re a horror film buff, don’t miss their All Night Horror Madness events (the next one’s on Sat 10 Oct).

In the multiplex world, Cineworld’s Unlimited Card is the most appealing treat out there: for a set price of £16.90 per month, you can watch all the movies you want, as many times as you want, and even get 10% discount on all in-cinema food and drink.

Vue Cinemas offer a standard student discount, but their Super Tuesday deal is even more irresistible: you can get a third off the standard ticket and all you have to do is fill in an online form. Odeon is also known for its bargain Mondays. However, a standard 2D ticket costs either £5 (off peak) or £6 (peak) and you’re not charged any booking fees if you do it online.

Don’t forget to check out your university film society too.

Throughout the year, you can count on plenty of affordable film screenings hosted by the likes of Edinburgh University FilmSoc, Napier University Film Society and Glasgow University’s SCREENS, among others.

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Films, food, fi! tness and fun all under one roof in the heart of Edinburgh Follow us on Facebook for great deals

A bite to eat and so much more

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WIN! The List and Coors Light are offering you and a mate, an exclusive chance to win VIP tickets to Scotland’s only ice bar at ‘Baltic Ice Bar Glasgow’

VIP TICKET S

Earlier this year Coors Light and Snow Factor launched a cold, fresh experience of their Rocky Mountain home in the heart of Glasgow in the form of an icequisite bar, where temperatures reach minus 5C and the walls, bar top and even the glasses are made of ice!

We will be offering winners the chance to enjoy a super cool session on the snow slope while the beer chills ready for your arrival in the Ice Bar for a 45 minute Coors Light apres ski experience, and of course a Damme Cold goody bag.

To be in with a chance of winning just log on to list.co.uk/offers and tell us:

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STUDENT GUIDE | FILM

COMING SOON Carolina Morais previews the next ten months in film

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

One year after the release of chapter one, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (10 Sep) arrives on the big screen with more mysteries than ever. The Martian (30 Sep) is out this month as well, with Matt Damon in the role of astronaut Mark Watney, who is left alone on Mars and desperate to find a way back to Earth.

Here’s another chance for you to visit Neverland with Pan (16 Oct) and Hugh Jackman in the role of Captain Hook. But expect things to get much darker and more sinister with the release of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (23 Oct), the fifth film in the horror franchise.

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson get some closure with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (20 Nov). Pixar, on the other hand, releases their second film of this year, The Good Dinosaur (27 Nov), following this summer’s lovely and very profitable Inside Out.

May the force be with sci-fi enthusiasts, as one of the most anticipated films of the year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (18 Dec), is finally out. Elsewhere, the documentary Snowden (25 Dec) will bring you back to reality and get you inside the NSA document-leaking scandal.

Following 2012’s Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino is back with The Hateful Eight (8 Jan). Elsewhere, Silver Lings Playbook’s Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro are back together on screen with Joy (1 Jan), the story of a family across four generations.

Fifteen years after Derek Zoolander seduced us with Blue Steel, Zoolander 2 (12 Feb) reunites Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell, with Justin Theroux as director. There’s also, inexplicably, another Alvin and the Chipmunks film, The Road Chip (12 Feb), in which the trio head to NY.

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

After box office hits Divergent and Insurgent, Shailene Woodley and Theo James return in The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Part 1 (18 Mar). There’s some early, pre-summer superhero action too, from Batman v.

Superman: Dawn of Justice (25 Mar), starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Ben Affleck.

A cultural classic is reincarnated as a live action film. In The Jungle Book (15 Apr), we’ll see Mowgli’s journey of self-discovery anew, with Scarlett Johansson and Ben Kingsley starring. And there’s thrills on the way with Captain America: Civil War (29 Apr), which picks up where this year’s Avengers film left off.

As the summer starts kicking in, more superheroes take the spotlight. The much-anticipated X-Men: Apocalypse (19 May) finally arrives, two years after the previous film of the saga was released. And don’t forget to look out for Angry Birds (20 May), based on the addictive videogame.

Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael will kick off the blockbuster season with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (3 Jun). And Disney strikes again with The Secret Life of Pets (24 Jun), the perfect movie for anyone who has ever wondered what their pets are really up to when they’re alone.

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CLUBS

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

GLASGOW

From chart to obscure techno, Glasgow and Edinburgh’s club scenes cater to every dancer’s taste. Rosie Davies reveals our essential student clubber’s guide

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

THE GARAGE

Like cockroaches, The Garage has been and will be here until the end of time. Proudly open 365 days a year, it’s a big, cheap, reliable, threefloored, six-room affair with enough different bars and dancefloors to cater for the sort of massive raucous groups only first years hang around in, as well as the obligatory foam parties. Think of this as your town centre student union.

■ 490 Sauchiehall Street, garageglasgow.co.uk

CREDIBLE FUN

THE BUFF CLUB

A midway point between your union and the sort of clubs you hear about on the news, Buff offers a laid-back, amicable night out which doesn’t take itself too seriously yet is home to some seriously good local DJs. Mid-week nights each neatly cater for a different genre of music, so you’ll find your niche – and a sense of community – very quickly.

■ 142 Bath Lane, thebuffclub.com

SERIOUS CLUBBING

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

SUB CLUB

SWG3

■ 22 Jamaica Street, Glasgow, subclub.co.uk

■ 100 Eastvale Place, swg3.tv

If you’re serious about either house or techno, you will and must go to Sub Club, Glasgow’s deservedly world-renowned bunker of debauched, cutting-edge electronic cool. Regular Tuesday night i AM is the perfect introduction, offering cheaper drinks and entry prices without compromising on quality of guests or width of minds.

For those who like their post-midnight socialising to take place down long alleyways under damp railway arches next to a dark motorway – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? – SWG3 is a real gem, hosting a real variety of DJs from big name EDM to more niche house and disco to hard techno in an atmospherically industrial setting.

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SHUT UP AND DANCE STUDENT GUIDE | CLUBS

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY STUDENT UNION

Put your hands up for the biggest night at the Edinburgh uni union, The Big Cheese. It’s been a favourite with successive waves of Edinburgh students, and continues to do shameless pop and cheap drinks every Saturday better than any other joint in town. Perfect for those keen on a no-frills night out with tunes they know and love, and chips on the way home.

■ The Venue, Potterrow, eusa.ed.ac.uk

CREDIBLE FUN

CABARET VOLTAIRE

Mixing solid local DJ talent with bigger names imported from Europe, this is one of the capital’s best known and prime spots for a good time. It’s got enough novelty perks to satisfy the less musically-driven clubbers – guestlist, private booths, queue-skip drinks packages – but enough of a basement vibe and hefty soundsystem to make everyone feel they’ve had a proper night out.

■ 36-38 Blair Street, thecabaretvoltaire.com

SERIOUS CLUBBING

SNEAKY PETE’S

A tiny, rammed little haven for people who really like their music and appreciate an open-minded space for dancing. Student-friendly enough to be ‘open and busy every night’, with excellent mid-week regulars, their diary is also spotted with big name guests when the place becomes a brilliant, buzzing sweatbox.

■ 73 Cowgate, Glasgow, sneakypetes.co.uk

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

POP-UP CLUB NIGHTS

If you want a really special time in and around Edinburgh after dark, your best bet is to keep your ears to the ground in terms of one-off, pop-ups and good old fashioned raves. Some of the best parties are the impromptu ones which make the most of the city’s weird, dark spaces and beautiful open air nooks. Good luck – and let us know if you hear anything.

EDINBURGH

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

LOUD AND PROUD Sasha de Buyl rounds up the best of Glasgow and Edinburgh’s LGBTQIA+ spaces, activities and events

S

tarting out at university is a scary and exciting time, and no less so if you identify as LGBTQIA+. It’s a time to meet new friends, to experiment with yourself and your self-image and to spend some time discovering who you really are. Whether you’re fresh out of the closet, or out and proud, we’ve got you covered for LGBTQIA+ action in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

First stop on the gay train in your LGBTQIA+ community has to be your student union. Each university has its own freshers fair with info on more societies than you imagined possible (Quidditch, anyone?).

All the Glasgow and Edinburgh universities have their own variation on a LGBTQIA+ society (with varying takes on the acronym) but each is a good starting point if you’re looking for an inclusive space to make new friends.

Glasgow has GULGBTQ+, as well as groups for PhD students, staff and students in STEM subjects. Edinburgh University represents with BLOGS, and Napier, Heriot-Watt, QMU, Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian and Glasgow School of Art also all have student groups If you want to grab a bite to eat or a quiet pint in Edinburgh, you can’t beat The Regent – lovably billed as Edinburgh’s gay real ale pub. The Street or Elbow are also great venues for a bite or a boogie. In Glasgow, The Flying Duck is a go-to bar, as are the (vegan but still delicious whatever your eating habits) sister establishments, Mono and Stereo.

If it’s dancing you’re after in Edinburgh, don’t miss CC Blooms – a longstanding bastion of gay culture – and its smaller, trashier

cousin, Planet, just a few doors down. Glasgow features DJ nights like Polyester and Hot Mess as well as larger venues like The Polo Lounge for a night out.

Luckily for LGB, trans and non-binary folks, the spaces to play sports are expanding all the time. Leading the charge for inclusivity is roller derby. Played on roller skates and as much fun to watch as it is to take part, both Edinburgh and Glasgow boast men’s and women’s teams. The Auld Reekie Roller Girls of Edinburgh have a commitment to providing a safe space for trans and non-binary folks to participate and have recently been nominated for a Scottish LGBTI Award (full disclosure: I’m a member myself). Each of the teams also welcomes people to join as non-skating members, so if you have a disability or would rather not play, you can still take part.

Across the cities you’ll also find LGBT basketball, women’s American football, the United Glasgow football club and Glasgow Parkour Girls, who welcome all women and non-women trans people.

If you’re transitioning or have questions about gender identity, you can contact your university student support to help with counselling, as well as more practical support like where to find a gender-neutral bathroom on campus. Wider than that, the LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing has trans support groups and sessions across both Glasgow and Edinburgh, but are a great first port of call for any LGTBQIA+ person.

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VISUAL ART

STUDENT GUIDE | VISUAL ART

WALKS OF LIFE From the National Gallery to the Kelvingrove, there’s plenty of great art to admire in Edinburgh and Glasgow. But the cities themselves are works of art too. Our Visual Art editor Rachael Cloughton discovers some of the city’s best walking trails for art lovers

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART WALKING TOURS

GLASGOW WOMEN’S LIBRARY: HERITAGE AUDIO TOURS

Swiss curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist termed Glasgow’s transformation from post-industrial malaise to a leading contemporary arts and culture hub as ‘The Glasgow Miracle’. These walking tours, led by student guides, reveal the story behind the ‘miracle’, exploring the pivotal sites and projects that turned Glasgow into the cultural hub it is today. You’ll visit the Third Eye Centre’s community arts projects in Garnethill from the 1970s to the grassroots galleries in Merchant City from the 90s. The walks take in a huge stretch of the city and frequently veer off the beaten track to uncover artworks installed down hidden lanes. This is a great way to discover Glasgow; and they even provide the umbrellas.

■ £16.00 for students with valid ID www.gsa.ac.uk/visit-gsa/city-walking-tours

Glasgow Women’s Library is a vibrant information hub on Landressy Street dedicated to increasing the knowledge and understanding of women’s history, lives and achievements. Over the last few years, the organisation has developed heritage audio tours so that people can explore outside of the library and across the city by walking in the steps of women who have shaped Glasgow’s history.

There are two audio tours so far, covering the West and East Ends of Glasgow.

The West End tour traces the lives of pipe-smoking forewomen and revolting schoolmistresses. In the East End you’ll find out about the women who worked in the Templeton Factory, suffragettes who were held in Duke Street Prison and the woman who set up the Barras.

■ Download for £3 from womenslibrary.org.uk/product-category/audio-tours/ Audio tours have been developed in English, French, Polish and German.

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VISUAL ART | STUDENT GUIDE

COLLECTIVE GALLERY’S OBSERVER WALKS When the Collective Gallery relocated from Cockburn Street to the City Observatory on Calton Hill, it commissioned a series of downloadable audio guides inspired by the extraordinary character and history of its new location. Three eclectic guides have been created by leading artists: Memorialmania by Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston focuses on the monuments and geology of the hill revealing the stories behind its glaciated landscape and the rocks placed upon it; Outwith is series of stories created by artist Bedwyr Williams, set in a local hotel which is visible from Calton Hill; The Artist and the Gravedigger: After DO Hill, by Tris Vonna-Michell, centres on the pioneering calotype photography of David Octavius Hill, who worked with Robert Adamson at Rock House, which overlooks Waterloo Place on the south-west side of Calton Hill. Each guide invites the listener to rethink this iconic Edinburgh landmark and its panoramic views over the city.

■ Download free from collectivegallery.net/programme/observers-walks

GAYFIELD CREATIVE SPACES’ WALKING PROGRAMME Gayfield Creative Spaces is interested in the intersection between art and health and wellbeing. In 2015 it launched ‘Walks by Design’, a creative mapping project encouraging people to explore the beauty and creativity of contemporary Edinburgh, guiding them to art venues and green spaces across the city. Three maps have been developed so far in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, covering the east, west and south of Edinburgh.

Inside Gayfield Creative Spaces is a ‘Pace Postbox’ where participants on the walks can send ideas, stories, sketches or pictures inspired by their journeys.

These will form part of an interactive map set to be launched later in the year.

You can also contribute to the project using the hashtag #walksbydesign on Instagram or Twitter.

■ Gayfield.co.uk/creative-programmes/pace-walking-by-design #walksbydesign

SIX GALLERIES YOU MUST VISIT GLASGOW: GALLERY OF MODERN ART

GoMA is Scotland’s most visited modern art gallery and its exhibitions draw on its huge collection. It also hosts major touring shows, has a massive library, and the GoMA blog is an informed and regularly updated overview of what’s going on in Scottish art.

CCA

ARCHITOURS Travel writer Andrew John Rainnie has posted some fabulous themed city walks around Glasgow on his site ‘Discover Glasgow’. Our favourites are the Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson Tours, which navigate the city by following the 19th-century architect’s austere, neo-classical buildings. There are three tours altogether, covering the city centre, west and south sides of the city, demonstrating Thomson’s extensive contribution and influence on Glasgow’s identity. Rainnie has also created a Charles Rennie Mackintosh tour, which takes in the architect’s most iconic buildings such as the Glasgow School of Art and Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street, to the lesser-known sites he inspired. These include Liz Peden’s series of works in the Townhead area, where Mackintosh spent much of his youth.

■ discoverglasgow.org/crm-walk

The Centre for Contemporary Arts is descended from the 70s’ legendary Third Eye Centre, and besides programming major Scottish and international artists also has strong programmes of film, performance and live music. Plus, its Saramago café offers some of the tastiest vegan food in the city.

TRAMWAY

Another multi-purpose venue, Tramway maintains strong links with some of Scotland’s most interesting art organisations such as Edinburgh’s Arika and Glasgow’s Cryptic, whose annual Sonica festival is based here.

In 2015, Tramway hosted the Turner Prize.

EDINBURGH: SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERIES OF MODERN ART ONE & TWO

Essentially one excellent gallery split into two buildings across the road from each other. Modern One features Martin Creed’s mockingly reassuring Work 975 on its portico, and you can contemplate it from the grassy slopes of Charles Jencks’ Landform.

RHUBABA GALLERY AND STUDIOS

The friendly, artist-run Rhubaba bucks the tendency of serious galleries to be cool and neutral. Besides its programme of exhibitions and events it also provides studio space for 19 artists, and even has its own choir.

SUMMERHALL

Edinburgh’s major art space is a former veterinary hospital, and with so many rooms at its disposal it can host multiple exhibitions at once and have space left over for live music. Its visual art programme is dynamic and exciting and you can even get (very good) beer brewed on-site, in its Royal Dick bar / café.

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GET INSIDE THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY EDINBURGH!

UB

Open Days 26th & 27th September Free entry

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www.roe.ac.uk/vc Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Tel: 0131 668 8404 Email: vis@roe.ac.uk Follow us on Twitter @RoyalObs

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THEATRE BUMS ON SEATS

STUDENT GUIDE | THEATRE

Want to know where to get your fix of all things theatre in Edinburgh and Glasgow?

Our theatre editor Gareth K Vile offers an overview Citizens Theatre

GLASGOW T

Lanark

EOIN CAREY

he closure of The Arches earlier this year – described as an act of cultural vandalism – will certainly cause considerable change in the landscape of Glasgow’s student culture. Not only was it one of the city’s most popular nightclub venues, it offered opportunities for young performers to make their own work, and presented exciting grassroots theatre from across the world. However, with rumours that the artistic team are reconvening to pursue other avenues and a plethora of small and collective groups positioned to rescue at least some of the venue’s activities, Glasgow is unlikely to feel bereft for long.

In the meantime, both the CCA and the Tron are havens for the kind of work that won’t ever translate to the Hydro. The CCA’s open programming policy, which means that most events are planned by outside organisations, prevents it having the same cohesive brand identity as other venues but ensures that live art, emerging companies, music theatre and avant-garde experimentation is always on the menu – alongside the vegan treats in the Saramago bar.

Andy Arnold, artistic director of the Tron, explains his vision for the theatre: ‘It has always been my ambition for the Tron to be not just a place to see shows but also a creative meeting place and natural home for local artists and theatre makers.’ The rather nice bar helps, but Arnold’s main stage productions – either from the in-house company or touring shows – are a cunning mixture of contemporary classics and new work. Recently, the upstairs space has been welcoming artists who tend towards the more experimental, including graduates of the Contemporary Performance Practice course at the Royal Conservatoire.

Just south of the river, the Citizens Theatre is becoming a national powerhouse. Beginning the autumn season with Lanark (see review, page 84), it is known for the bold direction of Dominic Hill. For theatre students, his style is like a brief history of theatrical strategies; for everyone else, he combines a sharp wit and an accessible attitude.

Further south, Tramway has been relatively quiet in the last few years, although its recent Dance International festival brought back audiences, and Tim Nunn’s programming is beginning to reflect the venue’s glorious history of supporting international and challenging theatre. The performance space itself is worth a visit – featuring a wall built for renowned director Peter Brook – as are the Hidden Gardens, although the café is less impressive.

The Theatre Royal and the King’s share the commercial duties: check them out for regular juke box musicals, West End shows on tour, Scottish Ballet and Opera, as well as visits from the National Theatre (Scottish and British) and even the Globe. The Theatre Royal has recently had a facelift, making it one of the most elegant places in Glasgow, with fancy cakes and coffee and a staircase that begs the appearance of Fred Astaire tapping his way to the foyer.

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THEATRE | STUDENT GUIDE

PHOTO © BRENDA

MACNEILL

Traverse Theatre

EDINBURGH M

uch of Edinburgh’s theatre is concentrated in the ‘cultural quarter’ – the Lyceum and the Traverse are back-to-back with the Usher Hall between them, just off Lothian Road. The Lyceum, which is celebrating a half-century of productions, has a mixture of classic scripts and more contemporary work (Tipping the Velvet arrives in October, an adaptation of the book that became the sensational television series), while the Traverse is Scotland’s new writing theatre.

The Traverse’s history reaches back to the 1960s, when it became one of the ‘fringe’ venues that challenged traditional ideas about theatre. It has been evolving ever since: it currently hosts touring companies, and mixes up the new writing with new choreography, the wonderful Manipulate festival of visual theatre and, of course, a powerful August Fringe programme. Stef Smith is currently the associate artist, and Orla O’Loughlin has encouraged a strong female presence in both commissions and programming. A counterblast to the overall male dominance of theatre, it continues the Traverse tradition of poking at the status quo.

Although Edinburgh is less well served for alternative spaces, Summerhall and Assembly Roxy have, in recent years, taken on some of the more intriguing theatremakers, including the mighty 85A collective from Glasgow (a team of visual, film and performance artists who have established a dynamic DIY aesthetic). There is the Leith Pub Theatre, which is constantly generating new scripts, and Dive and Polyanna offer cabaret that is equal parts queer live art and bracing entertainment.

Cabaret in the capital is vibrant: the Voodoo Rooms puts on regular burlesque and vaudeville nights, and even the clubbing scene has a more theatrical edge, with Confusion is Sex adding a spot of performance art between the beats.

Edinburgh and Glasgow do offer distinctive scenes, and travelling between them is easy (Megabus sells advance tickets for as little as £1). In general, Glasgow has edgier work, but Edinburgh boasts an array of venerable institutions. The Festival Theatre and the King’s in Edinburgh both invite the top international companies, and the Playhouse offers long runs of West End musicals. The actual numbers who do shuttle between east and west coasts is limited – Edinburgh and Glasgow pride and rivalry does extend into the arts. But between the two, most styles of performance are covered, enough to exhaust even the most ardent theatre enthusiast.

Summerhall

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

STUDENT GUIDE | THEATRE & COMEDY

(NEARLY AS)

CHEAP AS CHIPS Think you can’t afford to go to the theatre? Think again. Carolina Morais rounds up the best ways to grab a cheap seat at Edinburgh and Glasgow’s theatres

M

ost theatres across both cities offer standard concession prices for students. However, some go the extra mile with specific offers for theatre-loving uni-goers. Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre (which celebrates its 70th year in 2015) is one of the best places to take advantage of your student status. You can get a ticket for any seat in the house for just £9 – and if you’re really quick off the mark, there are 100 50p seats up for grabs for any Citz production, on sale the Saturday before the show kicks off (10 tickets per performance, 10 performances per run).

In Edinburgh, the Festival Theatre offers a

Student Standby discount, with £10 tickets available for most shows even on the day of the performance. Depending on which production you go to, the Traverse Theatre also grants you access for a modest cost.

And if going to the theatre is an experience you like to share with all your friends, it’s definitely worth considering their group tickets offer (valid with the standard student price), where for every 10 tickets purchased you get one free.

Theatre Royal and King’s Theatre in Glasgow also offer student discount ticket prices on most productions, although it is show dependent. If you’re really keen, it’s

worth asking for an ATG Theatre Card for Christmas: it’s £30 a year, but gives you access to impressive discounts, fee-free bookings and discounted drinks at the theatre bar. You can also use an ATG Theatre Card at the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Elsewhere, if you fancy a night at the opera and you’re aged under 26, you can snap up £10 tickets for Scottish Opera performances (a heavy discount, considering opera tickets can sometimes cost upwards of £50).

And if you’re a sucker for ballet, national company Scottish Ballet invites students to watch their sophisticated and graceful manoeuvres for just £10 too.

COMEDY COMEDY FU NNY FEELING Comedy editor Brian Donaldson rounds up the best comedy clubs and nights in Glasgow and Edinburgh

THE STAND The behemoth of the country’s comedy scene with two purpose-built venues attracting big names as well as regulars on the Scottish circuit.

Among the various staples are the Red Raw open mic nights, Bright Club comedy from some of the nation’s funniest academics (yes, we know), Improv Wars, Comedian Rap Battles and Stu and Garry’s Free Improv Show. Some top acts appearing this autumn include Chris Ramsey, Joe Lycett, Zoe Lyons and Hardeep Singh Kohli. ■ Woodlands Road, Glasgow; York Place, Edinburgh.

WILD CABARET & WICKED LOUNGE A brand spanking new comedy night at this exciting venue will bring together a host of names for your Thursday evening entertainment. Just Comedy is lucky to have the ‘godmother of Scottish comedy’, Janey Godley as its host. ■ Candleriggs, Glasgow.

EUSA Edinburgh Uni students are treated to some quality touring names in the Pleasance Theatre this autumn such as local-boy-done-good Iain Stirling and Abandoman, while the Improverts do their regular adlibbing thing at the Bedlam Theatre. Every Tuesday night, Grassroots Comedy (‘the freshest comedy Edinburgh has to offer’) takes place in the legendary Cabaret Bar. ■ Pleasance, Edinburgh; Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh.

YESBAR This bijou venue brings us some Yesbar Virgins each Thursday night with an opportunity for those at the very beginning of their comedic career to shine while the Comedy Sunday School aims to ‘put the audience in control of the fun’. Which sounds just a little bit terrifying. Both nights have Graham Barrie on MC duties. ■ Drury Street, Glasgow.

BEEHIVE INN This popular boozer is now an established venue at the Edinburgh Fringe hosting the Scottish Comedy Festival. Through the year, the Grassmarket pub houses the Friday night Monkey Barrel Comedy with a series of upand-comers topped off by a headline act. Proceedings are kept in check

by Rick Molland. ■ Grassmarket, Edinburgh.

GILDED BALLOON The Edinburgh institution (30 years young this year) has made westerly in-roads with a regular Friday night extravaganza at Drygate but they’re certainly not forgetting their east coast roots with a capital residency at the Festival Theatre Studio. Among the names showing up before Christmas are politics guy Matt Forde, Australian wag Felicity Ward, rising Sheffield newbie Jonny Pelham, Hull’s finest Lucy Beaumont and ‘French’ icon Marcel Lucont. ■ Drygate, Glasgow; Festival Theatre Studio, Edinburgh.

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STUDENT GUIDE | BOOKS

SPOKEN INK

From Glasgow’s Aye Write! in spring to the Edinburgh International Book Festival in summer, there’s plenty of bookish goings-on. And outside of festival time, the two cities have a spoken word scene that’s in rude health. From regular open mic nights to curated literary cabarets, Rebecca Monks finds there are plenty of events to speak up about

Broad Rally and

EDINBURGH RALLY & BROAD Here at The List, we’re big fans of Rally & Broad (pictured left): a spoken word duo who regularly put on ‘a magnificent cabaret of lyrical delight’ in the city (Bongo Club), featuring a range of different poets, writers and artists. The pair, also known as Jenny Lindsay and Rachel McCrum, champion poetry and spoken word in their performances, but mix in a little bit of music and dancing each time. They also regularly play at Stereo in Glasgow.

CAESURA On the second Friday of every month, an eclectic and experimental night of poetry, performance and spoken word known as CAESURA takes place.

Like Rally & Broad, there are different guest speakers each time, and the events usually take place at either the Saltire Society or Summerhall.

NEU! REEKIE! Described as ‘a monthly headfuck of poetry, animation and music’, this is one of the freshest nights in Auld Reekie. It was founded in December 2010 by poets Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson, and nowadays, there are regular events held in different locations across the city.

GLASGOW WORD PLAY The Word Factory hosts this event, which churns out five-minute slots of everything from poetry and prose to acoustic music. It takes place monthly at the Tron Theatre, and play time almost always happens on a Wednesday.

ST MUNGO’S MIRRORBALL Does this event have a slightly unusual name? Yes. Is it one of the best spoken word nights in the city? Yes. This event, which is held at CCA, aims to support poets, and regularly showcases those with new work to present.

BLIND POETICS Taking place on the second Monday of the month at the Blind Poet bar, this well-established spoken word and poetry night is run by Alec Beattie and Roddy Shippin. If you’ve got something you’d like to share, get in touch and take the mic.

10RED Organised by Kevin Cadwallender, this poetry-packed night takes place at the Persevere Bar. The formula is very simple: ten poets get ten minutes on stage, and there’s a mixture of emerging voices and big names.

LOUD POETS ‘The spoken word revolution is here’ according to Loud Poets (or their Facebook at least). This is a slam-style, say-what-you-feel event, with monthly shows taking place at Broadcast on Sauchiehall Street.

INN DEEP This event takes place on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 445 Great Western Road. It features a wide range of performers and poets every time, and you can contact the organisers if you are interested in performing yourself.

GLASGOES POETIC Glasgow is so good for spoken word, it even has a festival dedicated to it.

Glasgoes Poetic takes place from Mon 28 Sep–Sat 10 Oct, and celebrates all things versified, from slam-style spoken word to on-point poetry.

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BACK PAGE FIRST!LAST

First movie you ever went on a date to

First film you saw that really moved you

The Jerk.

The Maltese Bippy.

WEIRD AL JANKOVIC

Last time you cried at the movies

Last lie you told

First thing you think of when someone says the year ‘1985’?

Dare to Be Stupid: that was my album that came out in 1985.

Last thing you want to be reminded of about 1985

I should have put all my money into Apple stock back then.

The Maltese Bippy really moved me.

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I avoid karaoke like the plague.

Play games with my daughter.

Last time you exploited your position to get something

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A couple weeks ago, I was standing on the kitchen counter and I figured since I was already up there, I might as well get the salad bowls down.

I make a pretty darn good bean burrito.

First crush

Marilyn Juanita Vukelich.

First time you realised you were famous

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The day after ‘Eat It’ went into heavy rotation on MTV, I noticed people pointing at me as I waited in line at a fast-food place.

Mo’ Meta Blues by Ahmir Thompson.

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Don’t pick that, it’ll never heal.

Last time someone criticised your work

Meeting Paul McCartney.

My concerts get reviewed pretty much every night and they’ve been really positive.

FM & AM by George Carlin.

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Delegate my authority to much more competent people.

‘Well, Al is . . . ’

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Grande soy caramel macchiato.

WED 4 NOV

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Last meal on earth: what would it be

Panipuri and strawberry cobbler.

Last time you made an impulse buy and regretted it

LLOYD SMITH

Back in 1985, when The List was a mere magazine toddler being gently encouraged into the print world, Weird Al Jankovic was releasing his third comedy album. Now back on tour, he tells us who he’d thank when he wins that inevitable Oscar . . .

Watching the ending of Inside Out.

NEXT ISSUE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY We have a jam-packed issue out in November in which we celebrate 30 years of The List and take a look at the Scottish movers and shakers in 2015 with our much-discussed Hot 100.

Can Peter Capaldi top our chart for the second year in succession and third time in total or will there be a new champion for us to hail? Plus, we have full coverage of the goings-on at Christmas and New Year across the country.

I did NOT need that iron lung.

First concert you ever attended Firs

Elto John at the Los Angeles Elton Fo Forum, circa 1975.

First book you read for a second time

If I Ran the Circus by Dr Seuss.

Last song at your funeral

La time you bought someone Last flowers flo

My wife, for Mother’s Day. Firs object you’d save from First your burning home you

My computer hard drive.

‘Karn Evil 9’ by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

First person you’d thank in an award acceptance speech

The brilliant casting director that had the foresight to hire me for that Oscar-winning movie.

Last funny thing you saw online Las

My friend Mike just posted a hila hilarious video on Instagram.

Last thing you recommended to someone

Flossing.

First job Firs

Accordion teacher and repo man.

Acc

First thing you think of when you wake up in the morning

Last person you fantasized about Las

Where am I?

My wife.

First word you spoke Firs

Can remember, but I’m going to Can’t gue guess ‘ostensibly’.

Last crime you committed Las

Jaywalking.

Jayw

Last thing you think of before you go to sleep

Did I remember to floss?

Weird Al Jankovic: Mandatory World Tour, O2 ABC, Glasgow, Fri 9 Oct.

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