The List Issue 786

Reimagining the war movie Steve McQueen

Is Steve McQueen Britain’s finest living filmmaker? There’s a strong case to be made for that when you look through a powerful and diverse CV; any director would be proud to have made films half as landmark as Hunger, Shame and 12 Years A Slave and that’s before you even throw in his epic TV anthology Small Axe. What next, you wonder? Well, he’s only just gone and reshaped the war movie genre with Blitz, his specific take on the 1940s assault on London from above. He talks to us about shifting the lens on the genre ever so slightly and why the process of making this film brought him untold joy.

There’s a different kind of joy to be had through the music of Glasgow-based neo-jazz singer Kitti who talks to us about many things including ignoring her dad’s advice about album cover designs. More obviously sombre but still a project that will result in hearts feeling lifted is the theatrical legacy of Beldina Odenyo who sadly left us in 2021. Friends, family and creative colleagues have all combined to bring her final vision to the stage with Tero Buru

Reviews-wise, this issue is the proverbial mixed bag. No spoilers this early on in proceedings, but just know that we have returned our varying verdicts on Sean Baker’s new film, a stage production which repositions one of Shakespeare’s most tragic heroines, a Scottish Opera double header, Ben Wheatley’s unique and gory TV take on generational divides, the latest funky pronouncements from Bobby Gillespie, and the long-awaited sequel to a classic scary video game. Plus, during this issue we have two mentions of ‘doo-wop’, which in itself is fairly unique in the magazine’s history (surely?). We’re approaching the end of a tumultuous year for culture and the world in general. All that’s left for us to do is reflect on a hectic 12 months for Scottish and Scotland-based talents across the arts. In a few weeks, we’ll reveal our Hot 100. If you think you know who’s going to be number one you might be right. Or you might have to think again . . .

Brian Donaldson EDITOR

Friers

Southam

Laidlaw

Isabella Dalliston

Writers Aashna Sharma, Ailsa Sheldon, Alan Bett, Alekia Gill, Allan Radcliffe, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, Craig McLean, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Dominic Corr, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Eve Connor, Fiona Shepherd, Gareth K Vile, Isy Santini, James Mottram, Jo Laidlaw, Katherine McLaughlin, Kevin Fullerton, Louise Holland, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul McLean, Rachel Ashenden, Rachel Cronin, Rachel Morrell, Rob Adams, Tara Hepburn

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Amouthpiece

t this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival, a mini-revolution was staged. Journalists, myself included, decided to walk out on an imminent interview with director Johnny Depp and two cast members for his film, Modi: Three Days On The Wing Of Madness. Due to the late running of their press junket, the PRs informed us that two separate groups of journalists (six people per group) would be compressed into one. We were promised 25 minutes, but as is often the case that could not be assured. Such occurrences are not uncommon; but for once the disgruntled press pushed back and walked out.

Now, you may be thinking ‘so what?’, but this symbolises a wider malaise in entertainment journalism, where access is getting harder and more controlled in an increasingly shrinking marketplace. At this year’s Venice Film Festival, press who rely on speaking with big stars were shocked to find that nine major movies, including the sequels to Beetlejuice and Joker, were not conducting any interviews there. Perhaps it was a freak year, but it left most freelancers concerned for their livelihoods. Gone, it seems, are the days when studios were willing to court the press for coverage of their latest blockbuster.

In this series of articles, we turn the focus back on ourselves by asking folk at The List about cultural artefacts that touch their heart and soul. This time around, Eve Connor tells us which things . . .

Made me cry: Death Cab For Cutie’s concert at the Hydro warmed my secretly emo heart. I was entirely absorbed by singer Ben Gibbard’s tales of heartbreak, melancholy and nostalgia. This heady and emotional experience culminated in the guy behind me sneezing into my hair, bringing me one step closer to full-blown tears.

Made me angry: News of the closures of Glasgow CCA and Edinburgh’s working-class history museum is upsetting for employees, art lovers, and the whole community. Though both institutions plan on reopening in spring 2025, their struggles highlight how close the arts sector is to breaking point.

Made me laughs: Slow Horses always makes me cackle. Showrunner Will Smith breathes life into novelist Mick Herron’s gang of MI5 rejects with the biting wit he perfected working on The Thick Of It. Gary Oldman’s turn as the caustic Jackson Lamb is an absolute delight.

Made me think: Weird Medieval Guys is my go-to podcast. With enticing episodes such as ‘would a single Dorito really kill a medieval peasant?’, it never fails to amuse and inform.

Made me think twice: In an effort to cultivate more interesting hobbies, I picked up cryptic crosswords. Every morning, I open up minutecryptic.com and try to decipher a puzzling bit of wordplay. Whether or not I solve it can make or break the day . . . it’s been a rough few months.

With movie magazines closing their doors, big films refusing to put stars up for interview, and an increasing use of influencers, James Mottram laments the threat to intelligent film journalism

Further consternation came last month when Future Publishing announced the closure of Total Film after 27 years and 356 issues. One of the major UK magazines to cover both commercial and arthouse cinema, this news spawned plenty of sadness on social media, as readers and contributors alike lamented what a loss it is to the industry. With so few titles left on the shelf that cover movies in-depth, it felt pertinent when the magazine’s features editor suggested in a post on X that he was concerned for the fate of longform film journalism. Together with the increasing reliance by studios on socialmedia influencers to generate publicity, the threat is very real to intelligent film coverage. Perhaps this comes to represent the way we consume film now, where a Rotten Tomatoes cumulative score seems to matter more than considered criticism. But for those who still value cinema, it feels like a moment in time. If we don’t keep fighting, then the entertainment articles you read will become increasingly diluted and bland. Or non-existent if there are simply no outlets left. Thankfully you’ve shown your support for print journalism by picking up The List; now tell all your friends to do the same.

 James Mottram is a freelance film journalist and author.

playLIST

Time to cosy up with a hot beverage and dive into the sounds of our November issue. Expect music by the likes of Idles, Kitti, Niteworks, Charli XCX, Beabadoobee, Kim Deal and The Cure

Scan and listen as you read:

head head2

MEGAN

We’re all familiar with the sinking feeling that sets in when you come to the end of a particularly brilliant book, film or TV show. We spend a lot of time with our beloved fictional characters who, when written well, can feel larger than life. It can be oh so tempting, then, to want to learn more about them: where did they come from and what was their childhood like? These questions are a display of human empathy and I’m all for them. But in reality, knee-jerk prequels to our favourite stories are more incentivised by commercial success, our emotional connection weaponised to make something that is often a less creatively ambitious attempt at recreating the original. We live in a time where ‘the new’ is seen as risky and dangerous, hence a never-ending stream of franchise films and remakes of stories that weren’t even that outdated to begin with. It takes time to grieve the lively presence of an entire cast and world which, for a time, provided us with faithful company and a method of figurative transportation. Sure, prequels are a form of delaying the inevitable sadness of something wonderful coming to an end, but let’s sit with our grief and actually miss something for once.

from the archive

We look through The List’s 39-year back catalogue to see what was making headlines this month in decades gone by

This month’s blast from the past takes us to 1993 when BBC Two’s Wild Palms was the hot new show sparking water-cooler chats on both sides of the Atlantic. Lauded as the most exciting TV drama since Twin Peaks, we featured a comprehensive guide to Oliver Stone and Bruce Wagner’s miniseries. Also inside this issue we spoke to director Krzysztof Kieślowski about Three Colours: Blue, heard from David Thewlis about his Cannes-winning performance in Mike Leigh’s highly controversial Naked, chatted to Steve Coogan about his Paul Calf creation, and previewed the 100 Years Of Modern Art exhibition.

 Head to archive.list.co.uk for our past issues.

With the origin story to murderous drama Dexter splattering across our screens soon, Megan Merino and Kevin Fullerton are divided on the pros and cons of prequels. Is it such a good idea to delve into absolutely everybody’s backstory?

KEVIN

There are certainly more bad prequels than good, but for every Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace there’s a Psycho IV: The Beginning or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. What makes these films fly is their commitment not to rehashing what we already know, but to reframing our knowledge entirely, turning a story on its head with a gamechanging nugget of information. Let’s take Fire Walk With Me as a prime example. Rubbished by critics on its release, this film version of David Lynch’s small-screen phenomenon has since come to be regarded as the don of the prequel. It’s a stroke of genius to show us Laura Palmer (whose death in the opening episode leads the inhabitants of Twin Peaks to project their anxieties onto her) alive but rapidly deteriorating. Her reactions to well-established characters reveal new (frequently ugly) sides of them. More than anything, it gives Laura a sense of agency in her own story, turning her from a richly conceived MacGuffin into a fully fledged, deeply troubled person in her own right. Some may argue that prequels as textured as this are the exception not the rule. But if occasional masterpieces can come from turning the ol’ prequel crank, I’ll happily sit through a hundred duffers.

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It’s been a joy and privilege to be closer to her again

The sad passing of Beldina Odenyo in 2021 left a big hole in the Scottish arts scene. As her unstaged play prepares for its first public performance, Rachel Morrell speaks to the artist’s sister Leah McAleer and the play’s director Julia Taudevin about the task of bringing Tero Buru to life and continuing to champion Odenyo’s artistic legacy

BELDINA ODENYO

Tero Buru is a play that’s unique in its conception and marks the beginning of a long-term showcase celebrating the artistic legacy of Kenyan-born playwright, musician and spoken-word poet Beldina Odenyo. Creating art between the fields of music and theatre, Odenyo was named one of Scotland’s 30 most inspiring women under 30 in 2017, and established a mesmerising presence as a multidisciplinary artist, performing a contemporary fusion of jazz and folk music under the moniker Heir Of The Cursed. She also collaborated on plays such as the acclaimed Lament For Sheku Bayoh, Dear Europe and Blood, Salt, Spring while examining differences and kinship between her dual Kenyan and Scottish heritage through words, music and visual art.

The play she left behind, Tero Buru (named after a funeral ritual of the East African Luo people), explores history, ancestry, resilience and grief. Her sister, Leah McAleer, vividly recalls Odenyo’s urge to uncover their own lineage of creativity and to probe ideas of a liminal space between life and death. ‘I remember her excitement in finding out that our ancestors were storytellers, and that song was built into our DNA,’ says McAleer. ‘It explained a lot about who she was. Originally the play followed the generations of migration from North Africa to Scotland, yet at some point it changed. She anchored it into death rituals, working through her own experience and disconnection with grief, which has created this huge resonance in the play now. Then when she handed the baton over, we were tasked with looking back, retracing her steps and research.’

Central in the play are four women, summoned to the African continent to perform funeral rites for a loved one. While navigating grief in an unfamiliar cultural landscape, they develop their own language and rituals with which to guide the soul into its next state. Finding a world between the living and the dead, they engage with their spirituality and, in turn, discover deities which connect them to their ancestral home and to each other in sisterhood. Using movement and music in her storytelling, Odenyo weaves themes of rebirth into the narrative and asks audiences to embrace the solace found in words and the comfort of community.

Odenyo’s work has, in its own way, created a community through the same motifs. At her request, McAleer and director Julia Taudevin studied the playwright’s recordings, lyrics, compositions and notes after her passing to find the most fitting music, movement, poetry and dramatic monologues with which to bring the play to light and continue her legacy. In doing so, behind the scenes a parallel sisterhood emerged with its own rituals.

In McAleer and Taudevin’s working space, a collection of meaningful objects is an important feature of bringing Tero Buru to the stage. A large piece of obsidian rock from Kenya, sage bought for a birthday cleanse, a shell from one of Scotland’s beautiful beaches and pictures of Odenyo all stand as a monument and guide for the women. They keep her presence and humour in their minds and hearts as they build upon her instructions, taking themselves to a place where they can shift to a lighter mindset to take on such an emotionally demanding

project. Emulating Odenyo’s ability to make art about dark and heavy subjects with a fiery and playful nature, the room is filled with creative discussion, often leading to laughter. They burn sage and shuffle one of Odenyo’s many playlists, letting her choose the tune of the day that they will share a moment of joy dancing to. And in the spirit of keeping her present, Odenyo’s voice also physically enters the world of Tero Buru through recordings.

‘Beldina’s voice features throughout. She plays a key character in the play, the ever-present character,’ says Taudevin. ‘And we’ve been on a journey with that, thinking “who is she? What is she? What’s she doing?” And we’ve reached a conclusion which feels very liberating. She is playing a role, the role of the Goddess. In the play, anything she sings or speaks is allocated to that role. So although we hear recordings of her voice, it is within the world of the play, so she’s slightly removed from the reality of her life. It’s quite a beautiful thing, I think, to have seen the journey that this play has been on and for her to now be performing.’

Odenyo’s presence also reaches into the play’s atmosphere, with former collaborators and musicians working to build on her existing compositions, and live singers furthering the sense of community so integral to these central themes. Tero Buru also reflects on the universal experience of grief, using tools of ritual which feel powerfully accessible and modern. The lighting and visuals include a literal fire pit, drums, textiles and red earth to create the worlds of the living, the long dead and recently departed in a way that feels bold yet restorative.

As the production grows, so does the embodiment of Odenyo’s creativity. Taudevin and McAleer light up as they talk about the vastly talented cast, especially the leading women, the sisters who represent Odenyo’s artistic forms.

From poet Hannah Lavery to vocal talent Kimberley Mandindo, and from award-winning choreographer Chinyanta Kabaso to rising theatre star Jamie Marie Leary, the perfect cast members seem to be drawn in by magic: as the creative team discussed dream hires, they would cross paths by chance with the right person or find powerful moments of artistic connection.

Reflecting on the experience, McAleer shows incredible strength in her own journey, and highlights the impact Odenyo had on those around her. ‘It’s been a joy and privilege to be closer to her again, to be back, to be working with her like that,’ she says. ‘It was hard, but it’s also amazing to have this play, and her album, and now material for a documentary about her life. I think those three elements will stand as a testament to what an incredible human and artist she still is.’

As the community come together to create an intimate portrait of grief, this multidimensional and fascinating production has grown to become more than a play; it’s a way to share Beldina Odenyo’s artistic legacy, which is not only still relevant, but only just beginning.

Tero Buru previews at Platform, Glasgow, Friday 15 & Saturday 16 November; the play’s full premiere is scheduled for early 2026.

BELDINA ODENYO

Pictured left: Beldina Odenyo in Lament For Sheku Bayoh; Tero Buru’s creative team and cast (clockwise from top left): Chinyanta Kabaso, Marie-Gabrielle Koumenda, Edugie Clare Robertson, Leah McAleer, Hannah Lavery, Jamie Marie Leary, Julia Taudevin and (centre) Kimberley Mandindo

I was exhausted with happiness “

With his latest film, Oscar winner Steve McQueen attempts to paint a portrait of World War II London that audiences have never seen before. The pioneering director talks to James Mottram about the pervasiveness of prejudice and music’s power in pulling us through tragedy >>

STEVE MCQUEEN

I‘’m not a cartoon illustrator, I’m a filmmaker,’ states Steve McQueen, with typical confidence, when we speak over Zoom. He’s a lot more than a filmmaker, of course. A Turner Prizewinning artist, for starters. And a knight of the realm since 2020. But it’s through his movies he’s best known. Starting with 2008’s Hunger, about life in the Maze Prison during the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, McQueen brought his distinct visual eye to emotive subjects.

His second film Shame (2011) cast Michael Fassbender as a sex addict living out his pain in New York, but it was his third, the 2014 historical drama 12 Years A Slave, that truly announced him to Hollywood, winning Best Picture at the Oscars. More recently, after remaking British TV show Widows (2018) in Chicago, McQueen has returned to Europe, beginning with his BBC-backed Small Axe TV anthology, which powerfully examined the lives of West Indian immigrants in London across five films.

It’s here where McQueen has stayed for his latest feature, Blitz, a picaresque World War II drama that takes place in 1940 at the height of the Luftwaffe’s air raids on London. Amid dizzying shots of the city being bombed, Saoirse Ronan plays Rita, a factory worker and single mother who faces the prospect of her boy George (Elliott Heffernan) being evacuated. ‘That’s the thing about this movie,’ notes McQueen. ‘It’s about the intimacy as well as the epic set pieces. It’s got to be. It’s got to be hugely emotional as well as hugely spectacular.’

When I ask McQueen what wartime movies he responds to, he shrugs. ‘I wasn’t interested in World War II stories; I was interested in a movie. The fact that this fits in some sort of genre, fine. But for me, what was interesting is that like no other World War picture, as far as I’m aware, you don’t see the enemy. Do you see a soldier? I wanted to focus on the individuals who had survived the narrative, rather than people in khakis somewhere in France fighting.’

Speaking as passionately as he does rapidly, McQueen is the sort of director who is fully engaged with his subject. ‘You can’t detach yourself,’ he insists. ‘You have to be really embedded in it.’ His last work, 2023’s fourhour documentary Occupied City, also took on the conflict, as he turned the lens onto his adopted city of Amsterdam, where he lives with his wife Bianca Stigter. While that film was based on the book Atlas Of An Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940–1945 by Stigter, Blitz comes more from McQueen’s imagination and his days growing up in London, where he’d look up and see vacant, bombed-out buildings.

Additionally, in 2003, he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to create artworks as the Iraq conflict broke out. Ultimately, he produced Queen And Country, commemorating British soldiers killed in Iraq by presenting their portraits as a sheet of stamps. But McQueen was also inspired by his own parents (his mother is from Grenada, his father from Barbados) who migrated to London after World War II; ‘invited’, as he puts it, to help rebuild a country torn apart by six years of conflict.

All of this coalesced in McQueen’s mind as he wrote Blitz, a film that strives to show a diverse and very different portrait of London in this period. Underground jazz clubs feature, as does a Nigerian air-raid warden Ife (Benjamin Clementine), based on a real-life character. ‘When I was researching for Small Axe, I found this image of a boy, a black child who was standing on a railway station with an oversized coat and a large suitcase. And that was the thing that sparked in my head, as far as the character of George is concerned.’

The product of a brief fling Ronan’s character Rita has with a young black man she meets in one of those jazz clubs, George is subjected to prejudice almost routinely through the film, especially from white boys his own age. According to McQueen, he was simply ‘reciting the realities of the day’, and not just for those whose skin colour was different. ‘I mean, there’s a lot of anti-Semitism in England at that time,’ he says. ‘And again, the women did not have a great time either . . . it’s just how it was.’

While the enemy comes from within, Blitz aims to be more a celebration of those who weren’t on the frontlines but were fighting on the home front; in particular, women like Rita who came together to make munitions to fight the Nazis. ‘I wanted to shine light on what they did during that time. I was really honoured to do that . . . it was something which happened and had been neglected, but obviously it’s very, very important.’

What McQueen does well in Blitz is show the wartime spirit, especially through Rita, who entertains her fellow workers by singing. ‘You’d be very surprised what people do during wartime. I think what was interesting for me was the music in Blitz and discovering and finding out how we, as humans, adapt to most things, and how music was such a part of a survival tactic; that camaraderie, that jovial collective singing. If it’s in a pub or if it’s in a shelter:

song made things a bit better.’ In keeping with this, McQueen made the unusual step of casting musician Paul Weller as Rita’s father, Gerald. The former frontman of The Jam is often seen, in the film, noodling away at a piano, although the director was more visually drawn to him. ‘I just thought of Paul and his face. He’s someone who I admire, and I thought to myself “well, if someone could write a song and perform it, they can act. They should be able to act.” I just asked him. And I don’t think he was up for it at first, but somehow I convinced him. His face is so amazing; such a sensitive man.’

Likewise, the four-time Oscar nominee Ronan, currently enjoying a stellar career moment with Orkney-set The Outrun, was a perfect foil. Her authenticity drew McQueen in. ‘I think that’s the most important thing for people looking at someone acting on the screen, that you believe her. There’s no doubt. There’s no “oh, she’s acting. Oh, isn’t she a great actress?” I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work, because she just goes straight into the heart of things, and you’re there with her.’

When it came to casting George, McQueen found Heffernan who had never acted before. ‘What was great with Paul and Saoirse and Elliott, is that all three of them really bonded. They really loved each other. They really appreciated and respected each other. So these generations of a nine-year-old, a 29-year-old and a 66-year-old; they’re these three generations but they really bonded. That’s why the family thing was so strong because they really liked hanging out with each other.’

The project seems to have left McQueen in a blissful state. ‘I was exhausted with happiness. I was making a movie about a subject that I was passionate about, with people I loved. I was making a British epic, and these things hardly ever happen. If they happen . . . what do they call it? Out Of Africa or A Passage To India. The fact that I can make a picture and attempt an epic one about ordinary people made me so happy.’

Blitz is in cinemas from Friday 1 November and on Apple TV+ from Friday 22 November.

Intimate and epic (previous page): Steve McQueen and Elliott Heffernan on set; Saoirse Ronan, Paul Weller and Heffernan in Blitz (this page, clockwise from top): Blitz, Widows, Shame, 12 Years A Slave

MAKING A

SPLASH

With big support slots under her belt and a debut album about to land, jazz singer Kitti is firmly on the rise. She tells Claire Sawers about manifesting her ambitions, channelling pain into songwriting and not taking her image too seriously

W‘e have this funny mantra in my family: “visualise and materialise,”’ says the soulful jazz singer Kitti. ‘My auntie always says it. You have to picture something and believe in magic a bit and make it appear. I mean, we’ve all got to try, eh?’ To be fair, in the week when we chat over Zoom, there is a concrete example of the magic actually coming up with the goods. Teenage Kitti used to write in her diary about things that she wished would happen. ‘I would write these long lists. I put that I wanted to sing at the Usher Hall one day. Tomorrow I actually will, supporting Hue And Cry,’ she says, raising two slightly incredulous dark eyebrows. ‘That’s very exciting. Call me delusional, but sometimes you’ve just got to get in that space. And it does work!’

The Paisley-born, Glasgow-based singer-songwriter (real name Katie Doyle) performed as Katie Doyle Quintet for three years before changing her stage name to Kitty, then dropping the y after that caused confusion with a Norwegian screamo band. Momentum has been building since Kitti won Best Female Breakthrough at the Scottish Music Awards in 2020 and Best Vocalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards in 2022. She supported Rod Stewart last year and Van Morrison the year before that. After growing her fanbase with a weekly, late-night Kickin’ It With Kitti slot at Glasgow’s sadly missed Blue Arrow Jazz Club, plus storming performances at the major jazz festivals in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, Kitti releases her debut album this month.

Somethin’ In The Water features bright, brassy horns and a soaring, big-band sound on lead single ‘Maybe’, and the sighing strings and sultry lounge vibes of second single ‘Everything You Wanted’. One of her oldest compositions, the latter was written when Kitti was 14 and is all about that dreamer’s mindset of manifesting. ‘Dream of it as if it’s true/ Live like it is really happening/ Close your eyes and make it happen/ This is everything you wanted’ she coos, over a lush arrangement of flute, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, violin, viola and cello.

Sounding like an old soul at 28 years old, her voice ripples up and down the octaves, calling to mind Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald in places, with the rich sass of Chaka Khan or Aretha Franklin. Flashes of Erykah Badu come through in some of her noodlings too. Yet, like many jazz and soul artists before her, beneath the album’s swooning, old-timey stylings and slickly polished, radio-friendly arrangements, Kitti’s lyrics often tackle dark matters such as mental turmoil and physical pain.

Though she didn’t fully realise it while writing ‘Must Be Somethin’’, the song was about the frustration of living with suspected endometriosis. Now she looks back on it as a kind of timestamp for that phase in her life, helping her understand it better in hindsight. Meanwhile, ‘Wonderland’ was written about experiencing a disorienting borderline personality disorder episode. ‘I’m really proud of “Wonderland”. BPD is a horrible illness and the song is about the wave of emotions that hit me during a meltdown. I often write songs very quickly. Writing is a great way of getting rid of whatever’s bothering me. I remember my mum saying it was a bad idea to write about my mental health, but I think it’s important to talk about. There is still so much stigma and misunderstanding around both conditions.’

She’s a huge fan of the honesty of singer Chappell Roan, for example, who cancelled festival appearances this year to focus on her mental health. ‘The world needed an artist like her. We’re not robots. I’ve been sober for three years now for my mental health and because of the clarity it gives me as a songwriter; I should have done it years ago.’

If songwriting brings catharsis and release, performing live feels like something that holds Kitti together. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without it. When I’m onstage singing, I have a purpose. Sure, the anxiety still kicks in backstage; I shit myself every time,’ she laughs. ‘But I’ll do my vocal warm-ups and put my stage make-up on which helps. I split myself into two people: the quiet introvert and the singer who loves being onstage. I’ve gained confidence over time and am getting better at gelling those two people together.’

Making music became a safety blanket early on. Growing up, Kitti hated school and remembers it as a tough period. Although she was shy, she’d come out of her shell at home with music. ‘My brother and I loved pushing back the table at my nonna’s and dancing to Louis Prima.’ When she was given an upright piano for her 13th birthday, it became her favourite toy. ‘I was so happy in my solitude, playing away for hours, experimenting. I’ve not been trained; my techniques are ones I’ve just come up with myself.’

She cringes when she remembers some of the vocal renditions that emerged along the way. ‘Ten years ago, some stuff sounded like a bad impersonation of Florence And The Machine. I think that’s what you do; you try on other people’s styles until you hit on something that’s authentic to you.’ Perhaps the combination of her age, struggles with mental health and dark hair have drawn comparisons to another new-jazz singer: Amy Winehouse. Personally, Kitti doesn’t get it. ‘I can’t hear it myself. I’ve

been compared to Macy Gray, that’s so cool; she is incredible. Or Corinne Bailey Rae, I’ll take that; I love her.’

Her album will be accompanied by a film which, if all goes well, should be screened early next year. Kitti is waiting for surgery for abdominal pain and hopes it won’t affect her work too much. ‘We had so much fun filming in this mountain village in Italy and I got in the Mediterranean near Naples in this floaty red dress. We were going for a La Dolce Vita kinda feel and filmed on Super 8. I can’t wait for people to see it. Photos and film are an important part of what I do. I’m not a fan of the prettypretty thing though; I can’t take that side of stuff seriously at all.’

The artwork for Somethin’ In The Water is a black and white photo of Kitti swigging from a bottle with her name on it, water dribbling down her chin. ‘When my dad saw the photo, immediately he goes “you’re no’ using that!” But I wanted something eye-catching that would stand out. If I look different or even ugly, I don’t really care. I’d rather have a bit of a laugh with it.’

As for ambitions yet to be manifested, playing New York’s Carnegie Hall is up there, following in the footsteps of singers she loves such as Marlena Shaw, Frank Sinatra and Blossom Dearie. ‘I’ll be on my own with a guitarist tomorrow at the Usher Hall, keeping it very stripped back and intimate, but I love having a big band of talented musicians around me too, bringing it all to life. I just want to keep playing to audiences and letting the music hit them the way it has ever since I was a kid and I got obsessed with jazz.’

Somethin’ In The Water is released by Rebecca’s Records on Friday 15 November; Kitti plays Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Thursday 23 January.

PICTURE: CALLAI WATSON

MARGO

The biggest buzz of the year in Glasgow’s food and drink scene came with a September Instagram post from @margo.restaurant that simply said ‘now taking bookings’. Margo is the third Glasgow venue from Scoop, the heavyweights behind Ox & Finch (now closed for a lengthy refurb) and Ka Pao. Taking up a glorious big space on Miller Street, butchery, bread and pasta are all made in-house, with a focus on Scottish ingredients, especially seafood: smoked haddock churros anyone? And they’re doing something equally exciting in the basement with Sebb’s underground bar opening soon. (David Kirkwood) n 68 Miller Street, Glasgow, margo.restaurant

eat & drink

bearing fruit

Scottish cider is unburdened by tradition. Think of it like an English whiskey: no rules, no expectations. ‘It’s a very exciting time for Scottish cider,’ says Gabe Cook (aka The Ciderologist), author of British Modern Cider, noting the bubbling up of experimental ciders from across the country. ‘There are more cider-makers than I can keep up with, which is not something you could say just a few years ago.’

Cooler climates and different apple varieties, combined with a range of experimental production, fermentation and maturation processes, mean Scottish cider defies easy characterisation. Regional cider scenes are beginning to emerge and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the fertile orchards of Fife have become a bit of a hot spot.

Naughton Cider Company make an elegant effervescent drink which is now popping up on fine-dining menus as a sparkling wine alternative. Vinified in ex-champagne barrels for ten months, it’s then bottled with champagne yeast for a further two years. ‘My real passion is the cider’s production,’ says founder Peter Crawford, a champagne expert who turned his knowledge to apples. ‘How different that can be depends on how hands-off or on you are in controlling the fermentation and using different types of barrels.’

At Hyrneside Farm by Newburgh, farmers Roger and Rachel Howison discovered monks from Lindores Abbey had made cider on their land in the 12th century. Determined to diversify their farm sustainably, Hyrneside uses alley cropping, planting barley for the whisky industry alongside apple trees for cider, with wildflowers for pollination and biodiversity. Aipple, the resulting cider, is crisp and fresh. Fife is also home to the Aeble cider shop in Anstruther which Cook says is ‘one of the best cider shops in Europe. It’s definitely helped catalyse the interest and bravery of cider producers.’

The list of producers continues: Seidear makes a ‘keeved’ cider, initially wild fermented then bottle fermented; Caledonian Cider Co produces on the Black Isle; and Novar near Dingwall makes spicy citrus-forward tannic ciders. Nithsdale’s Steilhead Cider makes a traditional Hertfordshire style, while Arran’s Lagg Distillery has launched small-batch orchard cider with Ayrshire Riviera Cider (and also has ambitions to make brandy).

‘These products are really boundary pushing,’ says Cook. ‘They’re often presented in 750ml bottles, not trying to be wine, but demonstrating that cider is a drink that can be consumed on the same occasions that wine might be, and enjoyed with food. You can have it out of a wine glass; it doesn’t have to be drunk by the pint. Not that there’s anything wrong with cider by the pint, but there are some ciders that deserve to be savoured and respected.’

Read more about the world of cider at theciderologist.com

Ailsa Sheldon looks at the rise and rise of Scottish cider and finds that, like them apples, things are looking rosy

Core values (from top): Aipple, Peter Crawford of Naughton Cider Company, Novar Cider

TipLIST

Cult dishes

Quirky venues

Our TipLIST suggests the places worth knowing about in different themes, categories and locations. This month, we’re rounding up ‘those’ dishes: the cult favourites that get people talking, posting and, more importantly, eating

Glasgow Edinburgh

EDINBURGH GLASGOW

TANTRUM DOUGHNUTS

CRÈME BRÛLÉE DOUGHNUT

FINGAL

L’ESCARGOT BLEU STEAK TARTARE

Sarah Berardi, Hendrick’s Gin Ambassador, shows us around three of her favourite quirky bars

You’re probably going to want a cult cocktail to go with that cult dish. Calum Fraser, Brand Ambassador for Discarded, shares his top pours

THE ABSENT EAR WW

Brunswick Street, Glasgow, theabsentear.com

The Absent Ear’s drinks list constantly evolves; it’s one of the most interesting this side of the Netherlands. One serve not only has a permanent home on the menu but predates the bar itself: the WW. Created by the excellent team from the much-missed Wheesht, it remains incredibly popular.

Alexandra Dock, fingal.co.uk

7 Old Dumbarton Road, 28 Gordon Street & 20 Minard Road, tantrumdoughnuts.com

All aboard Fingal for dinner on a ship, without having to leave shore. This award-winning hotel is open to non-residents for cocktails, afternoon tea or dinner. It’s a gorgeous space for a celebration, with views of the islands in the Forth.

They’re doing alchemy here with their crème brûlée offering. Available since day one, its silky Madagascan vanilla bean custard snuggled in brioche with a torched sugary top has wowed the crowds, making it their bestseller.

KIM’S MINI MEALS

KIMCHI CULT KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN

5 Buccleuch Street, facebook.com/mrkimsfamily

14 Chancellor Street, kimchicult.com

Towering over Kimchi Cult’s menu is their addictive fried chicken, with a crunchy coating around spicy buttermilk-marinaded juicy thighs. Core sauces are gochujang (the bestseller), soy garlic, honey butter and, for heat-heads, hot numbing.

You’d think early last orders (8.30pm, no exceptions) and a firm policy on reservations and takeaway (neither allowed) would put folks off, but Kim’s is an enduring institution. Show up, queue up and eat up some of the best bibimbap in town.

CRABSHAKK

PABLO EGGSGOBAO

SCALLOPS WITH ANCHOVY BUTTER & SAGE

62 Inverleith Row, eggsgobao.com

1114 Argyll Street & 18 Vinicombe Street, crabshakk.co.uk

Finnieston has changed a lot since Crabshakk opened in 2009, but their menu hasn’t, with the headlining scallops served since opening (in both restaurants). Expertly seared scallops come sizzling alongside delicious anchovy butter with sage.

Quirky name, quirky food, and the bao bun/ breakfast fusion you didn’t know you needed. Refined? Nope. Delicious? Oh yeah. Try the breakfast bao: crispy hash browns, square sausage, omelette and melted cheese with sriracha. Takeaway or delivery only.

PARADISE PALMS

MOTHER INDIA SPICED HADDOCK

Various venues, motherindia.co.uk

41 Lothian Street, theparadisepalms.com

Bright and bold Paradise Palms is the antidote to a grey weather day. It’s a bar, a restaurant, a record shop and a venue, decked in neon lights and kitsch ephemera. Cocktails are a specialty, plus a menu of American-style veggie/vegan soul food.

Mother India’s exquisite spiced haddock has been served for nearly 30 years. It’s a delicate and defined dish: succulent oven-roasted whole fillet coated in spiced yogurt, served, depending on venue, with roasted tomatoes, ginger green peas or lemony puy lentils.

SINGAPORE COFFEE HOUSE

EL PERRO NEGRO TOP DOG BURGER

152 Woodlands Road, el-perro-negro.com

The burger specialist’s signature stack is the rock on which their success has been built. Grass-fed, dry-aged beef is the meaty core, then rich bone marrow and tangy Roquefort butter, crispy bacon, caramelised onions and black truffle mayo. Voted best in the UK in 2019 and 2021. (Jay Thundercliffe)

5 Canonmills, singaporecoffeehouse.co.uk Singaporean food is a fusion of flavour and colour, condensed here into a cheery eight-seat restaurant. Roti canai is deliciously buttery and flaky, served with a rich curried sauce. A cup of kopi with condensed milk completes the authentic experience, powering you with sugar and caffeine for your day.

56 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, lescargotbleu.co.uk

BATTLEFIELD REST

55 Battlefield Road, battlefieldrest.co.uk

L’Escargot Bleu has been the go-to for French food in Edinburgh for fifteen years now, and the steak tartare has never been off the menu. Expect hand-chopped steak, prepared table-side, to exactly your specification and heat requirements.

BRAMBLE BRAMBLE

16a Queen Street, Edinburgh, bramblebar.co.uk

LANNAN BAKERY PAIN SUISSE

This restored tram shelter has a history going back to 1914. Since 1993, its petite confines have housed a quaint Italian with bistro-ish plates (smoked haddock crêpe, black pudding salad) alongside pizzas and pastas. Lunchtime offers particularly good value.

29–35 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh, instagram.com/lannanbakery

HANOI BIKE SHOP

8 Ruthven Lane, hanoibikeshop.co.uk

It’s easy to panic at the front of the queue here. Fear not, you can’t go wrong with the pain Suisse. The laminated layers of toffee-hued pastry are wrapped around rich coffee custard and caramelised milk chocolate. Best get two.

Bramble’s been in the vanguard of UK bars for over 18 years, with plenty of options making it a must-visit at any time. I was partial to a celery sour back in the day. But the Bramble will always be the OG, still atop the menu, as brilliant today as it’s always been.

LEBOWSKIS WHITE RUSSIAN

1008 Argyle Street, Finnieston, Glasgow, lebowskis.co.uk

NOTO NORTH SEA CRAB

Places hidden down lanes always excite. A garland of plants and Vietnamese flags herald your entrance into this canteen-style space of wooden benches and hanging bikes, with vibrant renderings of street foods and hearty dishes. Try the pho, and anything with the homemade tofu.

47a Thistle Street, Edinburgh, notoedinburgh.co.uk

NONNA SAID . . .

26 Candleriggs, nonnasaid.com

The sparse menu says ‘North Sea crab, warm butter, sourdough’. We hear ‘the best, most decadent thing that’s ever happened to crab’. It’s a whole crab shell, the crab meat combined with melted cultured butter to scoop, spread and dunk to your heart’s content. Sharing optional.

This place picks up on our ongoing love affair with all things Neapolitan, throws in some eyebrowraising toppings, and indulges an equally potent crush with old-school hip hop. Munch on fried carbonara bites or a lamb doner pizza, while Biggie blasts out of the speakers.

SHRIMPWRECK SHRIMP BUN

The Big Lebowski may be the definition of a film with a cult following. Inspired by the film’s White Russians, Lebowskis have been serving their variations of The Dude’s go-to beverage since 2007. Not content with the classic? Choose from 25 incarnations of the iconic drink.

THE TIKI BAR & KITSCH INN

214 Bath Street, tikibarglasgow.com

47–49 Figgate Lane, Portobello, shrimpwreck.co.uk

Quirky is kind of the point of tiki bars. Foosball, shuffleboard and popcorn machine downstairs, Thai eatery above and doing some fantastic work on sticky and aromatic curries. You can also order food amid the 50s Americana of the bar while supping on a Zombie from a Polynesian tankard.

We do like to be beside the seaside and you can’t get much closer than this nautical-style street-food shack on Porty prom. The menu may change, but the shrimp bun is ever-present, with its plump battered king prawns on brioche, zinging with pickles and retro Marie Rose sauce.

THE WEE CURRY SHOP

SKUA FRIED CHICKEN

7 Buccleuch Street, weecurryshop.co.uk

49 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh, skua.scot There’s fried chicken and then there’s Skua’s fried chicken. Spicy, crunchy coating; tender marinated meat; fermented peach hot sauce running down like molten lava. It’s the fried chicken holy trinity.

(Ailsa Sheldon, Jo Laidlaw, Paul McLean)

Twenty-odd seats, an open kitchen and the steady stewardship of the Mother India group make for a delightfully quaint ‘front room’ experience where dishes are classically composed but light and modern.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Shrimpwreck

Tantrum Doughnuts

Bramble

Jo Laidlaw rounds up the latest openings and excitements from the wonderful world of eating and drinking. Guess someone’s gotta do it . . .

By now, the clocks are well and truly back and the nights are well and truly in. Hurrah then for The Last Bookstore, a new bar in Glasgow’s Hope Street from the team behind Devil Of Brooklyn. They’re aiming for a ‘dog at your feet’ atmosphere with authorinspired cocktails and cosy vibes. It’s joined by a ton of newbies: as well as openings for Margo and Sebb’s, there’s Vodka Wodka in Merchant Square, while Sauchiehall Street has live music, comedy and what looks like a cracking Sunday roast from Berlinkys Habibi aim to spread the love with a neat little ’babs/bread/bowl menu, while Faim in Lynedoch Street is all French-inspired small plates and natural wines.

Edinburgh has buzz aplenty around Stockbridge Eating House, a weeny new venture (in the former Bells Diner) from Dale Mailley, who’s been quietly putting out some of Edinburgh’s best grub for over a decade at The Gardener’s Cottage. The all-day-to-evening menu looks extremely tasty and accessible. We’ve also got eyes on Marchmont where Nàdair has a neighbourhood feel and five-course set menu, and The Shore which plays host to Mara, a gorgeous cocktail-focused bar with daily brunch until 3pm.

Finally, the long-awaited Lost Shore Surf Resort (near Ratho) is almost ready to catch the wave, and the scran is equally exciting. Canteen features a rotating guest kitchen, with Five March, Civerinos and Mexican specialists Rafa’s in place for the opening. If that’s not a perfect shivery bite, we don’t know what is.

side dishes

good in the hood

We wander through a neighbourhood and tell you where to drop in for food, drink and groceries. This month, Paul McLean takes a stroll around the Edinburgh micro-district of Canonmills

It used to be a loch and Robert Louis Stevenson lived here as a nipper: but that’s enough fun facts. Tucked in a hollow at the foot of the New Town, Canonmills packs a surprising wealth of food and drink destinations into a small loop of streets. Start at The Bearded Baker, serving seriously good bagels and fine doughnuts (plus bread, pastries and coffee); or stroll 71 steps down Rodney Street to, well, Seventy One Steps, their casual brunch spot where you can tuck into those bagels, toasted and filled. The Beerhive off-licence has a cracking selection of brews, wines and spirits, or grab a pew at One Canon or O’Connor’s, both decent neighbourhood pubs. Hata has porridgy goodness and granola for breakfast, with generous sourdough sandwiches at lunch, or continue downhill and squeeze into the minuscule Singapore Coffee House to dunk buttery roti canai into curry sauce. Next to the landmark Canonmills clock is The Tollhouse, an architecturally striking and classy dining joint perched right on the Water Of Leith, while WineKraft (founded by Good Brothers’ Graeme Sutherland) is just over the road and a great place to pick up sustainably produced global wines.

Detour into Eyre Place for dark and moody Cardinal, where Michelin-starred wunderkind Tomás Gormley is kicking the tasting menu in the pants and bringing the fun back to fine dining. Or finish at the foot of Dundas Street, where The Artisan Pasta Maker delivers precisely what it promises. Take away, sit in, or (even better) tuck into their fantastic fresh pasta while supping a glass of something delicious at Bacco Wine, the cosy Italian vino experts right next door.

The Last Bookstore

THE MOTHER SUPERIOR X KING OF FEASTS

Pub pop-ups. Not a new concept, but one that’s building in momentum and quality and one we love to see. Instead of pubs stretching to get the chips on between pouring pints, pop-up kitchens bring in enthusiasm, fresh flavour and, often, a new clientele, while those creating the food get to try a new concept without the stress and cost of launching a restaurant. Everyone wins, especially hungry customers.

In Edinburgh, the pop-up du jour is King Of Feasts, a kitchen concept from chef Rob Casson. For the last few years they’ve been residents at Polwarth Tavern, offering fried chicken, big sandwiches, burgers and hot-plate specials in an area still a little underserved by restaurants. This autumn, with a bigger team, the regent has expanded his kingdom to Leith Walk, opening in the kitchens at neighbourhood favourite The Mother Superior from Thursday to Monday.

The King Of Feasts’ menu is simple: small plates, hot bowls and sandwiches, all seasonal and very tempting. On a cold night the oyako udon hits the spot, available with either chicken thighs or oyster mushrooms that come hot, crunchy and deliciously piled on top of a bowl of Sichuan-spiced noodles with pickles and omelette. The broth is deeply flavoured and a perfect match for a crisp pint of Leith Juice. There’s plenty to choose from and it all looks outstanding, including a big sandwich of burnt corn, squash and miso fritters with pickles, miso garlic mayo and house-made pastrami.

This collaboration makes for a brilliant combo. The Mother Superior is a cracking wee pub, with a great selection of beers including local favourites Campervan, Newbarns, Pilot and alcohol-free Jump Ship from East Lothian. The cocktail list punches way above most and the choice of whiskies is vast. There’s live music, weekly quiz nights and the staff are great too. (Ailsa Sheldon)

 96–98 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, instagram.com/the.mother.superior.bar, instagram.com/king.of.feasts; average price for a main course £10.

SCOTTISH ELEMENTS

Concept menus are having a bit of a moment on the fine-dining scale and the clue is in the name with this one. Nope, not the periodic table, rather the classical starting points of air and earth, fire and water. Gary Townsend is at the helm, with his first solo venture after 20plus years in the industry, including spells with Martin Wishart and One Devonshire Gardens. The crockery is insanely fancy, the wine list hefty and there’s a little stool to put your bag on. It isn’t stuffy, but it’s top-tier stuff.

The amuse-bouche immediately knocks you off-guard, with macarons that scream ‘sweet’ yet sandwich a little layer of the most savoury pâté. A monkfish cheeks starter is pearlescent and scallopesque: surrounded by hazelnuts and puffed wheat, it shreds apart. So too does pork belly, with the interplay of fatty/meaty enhanced by a glistening, deeply robust jus and mustard-seed heat (at the best places, it’s the sauces you notice).

The ‘elements’ notion goes further with the lunchtime paired cocktails which are daft, fun and great value. In Earth, basil pins down a gin sour while yuzu widens its citrus breadth; Fire brings guava, hibiscus and habanero: the spicy Marg all grown up; Water is the finale, a complex riff on a Penicillin, bristling against a mango crémeux dessert, with buttercream and tropical fruit clambering over each other as the kitchen shows off one last time. There’s layers to this and you can lean into them or not. Elements will make you happy either way. (David Kirkwood)

 19 New Kirk Road, Bearsden, Glasgow, elementsgla.com; fixedprice evening menu for three courses £75.

Drinking Games

When he’s not skulking under a bridge frightening children, our regular drinks columnist Kevin Fullerton emerges to howl another drinking game into the void and onto these pages. This month’s challenge . . . find the perfect American bar in Glasgow to entertain a Thanksgiving turkey

Abattoir #45798 was easy to infiltrate, particularly after I recruited a cadre of animal rights activists to assist me. While they released as many turkeys as they could, I chose only one: Turkle the turkey I dubbed it, and it would receive a Thanksgiving pardon for the ages when we hit three American bars in Glasgow. As I cradled it under my arm, my new activist pals promised to catch up later. ‘Go on,’ they said, ‘give that turkey the night of its life.’

Our first gobble-worthy goblet guzzler of choice was Malo, a wine and negroni bar embodying the spirit of smooth American jazz. We chose the most Yankee of cocktails, a Manhattan, to which Turkle responded ‘gobble gobble gobble’. I assumed this meant its cocktail was perfectly formed and the atmosphere relaxed. Turkle downed both my Manhattan and its own and, with a stagger of its supine (some might say sensual) neck, we left.

Next, we found Chinaskis, named after LA literary icon Charles Bukowski’s alter ego. There’s every chance even the symbolic presence of Bukowski will put you off this slice of Americana; depending on your side of the fence, he’s either a masterful underclass poet or a proto-Andrew Tate. Yet Chinaskis remains stellar, a seductive combination of 2010s hipster chic and low-lit romance. Turkle grabbed a Neck Oil (very apt) and made friends while it padded around the outdoor seating area.

We crammed into Campus, a student bar for which the less said the better. I try to be nice in these articles but the deviant-red lighting, plastic glasses and overbearing chart choons were enough to make a thirtysomething geek and his recently jailbroken turkey wilt (though little could dispel the spark between us).

It was a sad end to the night, particularly because it was time to send Turkle back to Abattoir #45798 for slaughter. ‘But we thought you wanted to stop the murder of Turkle?’ my activist pals asked me. ‘No,’ I replied. ‘I just wanted to see what a turkey was like when it was drunk. And frankly, it was hilarious. It let me snog it in Campus and everything.’ With that, my new friends left. For some reason, I never heard from them again.

 No animals were harmed in the writing of this article, except the turkey that features in it.

BAR FILES

Creative folks reveal their top watering hole COMEDIAN KAI HUMPHRIES

Since I’ve moved to the Southside of Glasgow, my wife and I love to venture into Shawlands, celebrating many a special occasion dining at The Dapper Mongoose or, when we both share a day off together, having (kill me for saying the word) brunch at Cafe Strange Brew or Bramble. Our visits always result in a magnetic pull towards Curious Liquids which we treat as a museum for alcohol, admiring all the fantastic artwork on their impossibly infinite ale collection. We buy based on our favourite labels, and the contents of the cans never disappoint, with aptly curious concoctions such as cinder toffee stout or Irish coffee and vanilla. Every can we’ve brought home remains intact and decorates our house, favourite being the puppy-adorned Dog Day Afternoon Kölsch-style beer, which is fitting as we run a soft play for dogs called The Dug And Bone in East Kilbride.

Kai Humphries: Gallivanting, The Stand, Glasgow, Saturday 2 November; Tolbooth, Stirling, Saturday 16 November.

Experience festive magic in Perthshire

TWO NIGHT CHRISTMAS STAY

Our two-night Christmas stay is filled with heartwarming touches, from gingerbread decorating for the little ones to festive ceramic workshops and wine tasting for the grown-ups. Wake up on Christmas morning to a Buck’s Fizz breakfast, followed by a delicious four-course Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. Prices starting from just £485 per person for two nights.

CELEBRATE HOGMANAY IN STYLE

Looking to ring in the bells in style? Our Hogmanay package invites you to a luxurious two-night escape, complete with a seven-course tasting dinner, live music, Champagne, and late-night feasting, all from £560 per person.

NOT STAYING WITH US?

No problem. Join in the celebrations with a festive Christmas Day lunch for £115 per person or make Hogmanay unforgettable with a Piper-led seven-course dinner and Champagne for £150.

4AD MERCH

Alt-rock record label 4AD have marked the release of their first ever merch line with a campaign focused on everyday music lovers. Rather than hire models to flex the new Pleasures & Treasures-branded gear, 4AD called on the people of Glasgow to show off this range. Up stepped a mismatch of listeners including opera singer Ilona (pictured), a doctor and a council worker, making for a stunning showcase of eclectic Glaswegians, united by a shared love of artists such as Aldous Harding, Big Thief and Erika de Casier. Fans of the label can pick up t-shirts, tote bags, socks and stickers, all designed by celebrated graphic and print designer Ross Paul McEwan. (Danny Munro) n 4AD’s Pleasures & Treasures line is available at 4ad.com/store

travel & shop

PICTURE: OLLY GEARY

With a picturesque Old Town and dramatic castle, Heidelberg is one of Germany’s most historic cities. Former resident Megan Merino takes a stroll down memory lane

Before diving into this article, I feel it’s only fair to disclaim that Heidelberg means more to me than most other places I’ve visited and will ever visit in the future. I spent five fond childhood years living in the city, playing in the plentiful playgrounds and mixing with many international families who have also called it home. All bias aside, I do believe it’s one of the most charming spots in Germany to visit as a tourist, especially as part of a wider tour around the country.

Located in southwest Germany, around an hour’s train journey from Frankfurt, this historic city sprawls along both sides of the Neckar River and features one of Germany’s most picturesque Old Towns and prestigious universities. Its old arched bridge and magnificent castle ruins dating back to 1214 are key landmarks in a postcard-perfect skyline, which you can admire from its mostly pedestrianised cobbled streets.

Set within a valley, Heidelberg in its entirety can be observed best from peaks located on either side of the river. On the south side, trek up to the castle for a splendid view over the city (or take the funicular railway from just behind Karlsplatz). A few hundred metres further up on the funicular takes you to the Königstuhl (King’s Seat) which boasts even more magnificent vistas. On the river’s other side, the Philosopher’s Way offers a pleasant hike through the bougie houses in Neuenheim and atmospheric woodland, before depositing you down by the old bridge. Heidelberg’s food offerings, like most cosmopolitan cities, come from its international communities. Middle Eastern eateries are common and delicious; Mahmoud’s on Merianstrasse is my favourite, especially the mixed platter with tabbouleh, roasted vegetables, falafel, hummus and baba ganoush. Italian-run gelato joints are commonplace on every street and while you’ll struggle to stumble across a bad one, Eis Roma on Fischmarkt has successfully endured. From there, wander along Untere Strasse for a selection of boutiques and a lovely little record shop (Musikzimmer) before stopping in at the nearest bar for a pilsner or two (in the summer, you won’t be able to move for outdoor seating).

While summer in Heidelberg is my favourite time (there’s a weekly firework display over the river that brings in quite a crowd), impressive Christmas markets and regular festivals such as Heidelberger Herbst (this area’s answer to Oktoberfest) and a carnival called Fasching add liveliness to every season. A short tram ride to nearby Rohrbach boasts acres of vineyards that produce delicious local wine while a 40-minute bus trip gets you to the quaint town of Schwetzingen, home to a breathtaking eponymous palace and gardens that could give Versailles a run for its money.

heidelberg.de

wanderLIST: Heidelberg

my favourite holiday

Stand-up comedian and newly confessed ‘travel agent nepo baby’, Amy Matthews recalls a surreal one-day trip to Lapland

When I was growing up, my mum worked as a travel agent for Thomas Cook. It’s strange explaining to a teenager today that we used to go into a shop, look at a 40-page brochure about Tenerife, then get a woman called Jill to sort the flights and hotel. And it was always a hotel: Airbnb was nothing but a glint in the eye of the housing crisis. In the 2000s, you didn’t have to take the bins out, readjust a ‘gin o’clock’ wall-hanging, and deep clean a skirting board before leaving for your holiday.

My mum was sent on trips so that she knew how to sell them to customers. It was a different time; jobs often had something called ‘perks’ and you didn’t have to work in finance to have them. They let her bring family on these subsidised trips. I’m sure the financial crash and the internet were leading culprits in Thomas Cook’s ultimate downfall, but shipping families of four to all-inclusives in Lanzarote probably didn’t help.

One of the packages they wanted to sell was a day trip to Lapland. That’s right: A DAY TRIP. To the Arctic Circle. It’s socially acceptable to kidnap a child in the night and send them to -25 degree climes if an old Finnish man with a performingarts diploma gives them a chemistry set. I was told I could have one souvenir from the gift shop. Aged nine, I opted for a reindeer-antler bottle opener, a disturbing artefact that still haunts a shelf in my childhood bedroom. There were four hours of daylight and I got out of a maths test. Smashing.

Amy Matthews: Commute With The Foxes is at The Stand, Glasgow, Sunday 3 November.

on your doorstep

Scotland is full of remote wonders, but you needn’t venture far out of Glasgow or Edinburgh to be immersed in nature. Tara Hepburn picks three top locations for wildlife spotting and reveals what you’ll find there

AYRSHIRE COAST

The Ayrshire coastline has become a surprisingly reliable place for spotting marine life. Dolphins and harbour porpoises can be seen in the waters out to Arran, with the best sightings achieved by hiring a sea kayak. But even from the sands of Irvine beach, it’s possible to glimpse pods of dolphins jumping, splashing and generally showing off.

BASS ROCK

Bass Rock near North Berwick is home to the world’s largest population of northern gannets. The impressive colony can be seen from the mainland (climb to the top of Tantallon Castle for great views) or explored by boat. In the winter, when the gannets have flown south, the area still makes for great bird watching. Rare birds such as cuckoos and yellow wagtails have been reported in the castle grounds. And in the evenings, barn owls can be seen (and heard) overhead.

FALLS OF CLYDE

Scotland’s elusive otters swim in waterways all year round, even showing up in urban areas such as the Clyde and the Kelvin. Tell-tale signs include small, webbed footprints on riverbanks and elegant rippling in the water as they swim. The tree-lined shores of Loch Lomond are popular with otters with early morning the best time to catch sight of them. The same is true for the Falls Of Clyde Wildlife Reserve in Lanark, where otter pups have been spotted with their mothers.

Bass Rock

TIMELESS PIECES

As Carnivàle settles into a newly opened Leith location, Rachel Cronin learns of its founder’s decade-spanning love of vintage fashion

Rachael Coutts resells clothing with the same care and devotion as someone who rehomes kittens. Her primary concern when a beloved item from her shop is sold is whether it went to a good home. ‘We’ve got real emotional investment in this stuff,’ she admits. ‘It’s completely my passion.’

The owner of Carnivàle Vintage opened her flagship store on Bread Street in 2016 before recently launching a second location on Albert Place. Coutts sources a wide range of pre-loved clothing and accessories mostly dating from the 1940s to 1970s, with some special pieces from as far back as 1835.

A glimpse inside a Carnivàle store (or a browse of its website) reveals a great selection of dresses, often sporting lace, frills or a fun collar. ‘I can’t have stuff in the shop that I don’t personally love,’ says Coutts. ‘I’m literally picking it from the public so if I like someone’s wardrobe, I’ll buy everything.’ While her personal taste fuels the majority of items she displays in-store, Coutts’ social-media savvy colleagues keep her in the loop on what decades are gaining popularity online.

‘My employees will drag me into Y2K fashion because that’s trending right now,’ she explains. ‘We had a window display about the year 2007 and I was like “stop! At 41 years old, that’s my youth!”’ The timelessness of vintage style, regardless of passing trends, is why Coutts is so passionate about her work. ‘I’m very aware that my personal style, like 30s and 50s vintage, is not the “in” vintage at the minute. But that’s the point. You can be on trend or you can completely do your own thing.’

Carnivàle Vintage, 21–22 Albert Place, Edinburgh; vintageedinburgh. square.site; instagram.com/carnivale_vintage

shop talk

PLANTIQUE

Plantique has everything you need to make a house a home. Antique curios and retro conversation pieces line one side of the shop, while the other shelves are populated by lush greenery. They even keep a small collection of crochet plants for those of us who’ve never been able to keep a plant alive.

n 286 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow; instagram. com/plantiqueglasgow

MY HOME BAKERY

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to cook but don’t know where to start, My Home Bakery has got you covered. Their pre-loved cookbook corner spans cuisines from across the globe, geared towards people of all abilities and

In this month’s retail round-up, Isy Santini recommends three Scottish fusion shops, where two or more concepts are combined

lifestyles. Don’t forget to grab a sweet treat from their bakery while you browse.

n 59 Hyndland Street, Glasgow; myhomebakery. co.uk; instagram.com/myhomebakeryglasgow

ISLANDER

As autumn settles in, Islander offers the perfect seasonal twist to your outfit with their Harris Tweed handbags and cosy footwear. Alternatively, you can get creative at a bag-making workshop and select your own colour, lid and straps, or simply relax in their café on Edinburgh’s Marshall Street with a nice hot coffee.

n Information on their various stores in Edinburgh and St Andrews can be found at islanderuk.com; instagram.com/islanderukltd

Islander

STILLS SALON

Featuring the work of more than 80 artists, Stills Salon utilises the Edinburgh photography gallery’s analogue and digital production facilities to the max. As well as displaying a diverse and talented collection, this showcase highlights the value of affordable workshop spaces in developing a lively artistic community in Edinburgh and across Scotland. Among the contributing creatives are Evan Thomas, Neil Harman, Kayhan Jafar-Shaghaghi and Beth Moar, whose work ‘Femmergy 08 24’ is pictured here. (Brian Donaldson) n Stills, Edinburgh, until Saturday 30 November.

going out

Christmascrackers

Sick of the sight of your couch-potato family? All the good Quality Street been hoovered up? Can’t face sitting through It’s A Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time? Then come with us, as Rachel Cronin saves you from that fresh festive hell with her rundown of 24 things to do this Yuletide

GLASGOW WINTERFEST

We’ll see a pigeon-infested George Square (plus St Enoch Square) transform into a winter wonderland again, complete with all its classic Christmassy features. The Helter Skelter, 80m Drop Tower and Santa’s Train are all due to make an appearance at this year’s fair.

n St Enoch Square and George Square, Glasgow, Saturday 9 November–Sunday 5 January.

EDINBURGH’S WINTER FESTIVAL

It wouldn’t be Christmas without freezing for 20 minutes waiting for a mulled wine at the markets. But this year’s Winter Festival also includes an impressive line-up of shows and events including Susie McCabe, the StarFlyer, Hot Dub Time Machine, and Shrek cabaret Swamplesque

n Various venues, Edinburgh, Friday 15 November–Saturday 4 January.

CHRISTMAS AT THE BOTANICS

A staple of Edinburgh festivities. The yearly light trail around the Botanics sees the wintery trees and winding pathways of the gardens become a twinkling wonderland. It’s the one time of year that the grounds are prettier to see at night than in the daytime.

n Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Thursday 21 November–Monday 30 December.

CASTLE OF LIGHT

One of Scotland’s biggest projection shows, this festive event illuminates Edinburgh Castle for a fifth year. Learn some of the nation’s history through light shows, music and interactive experiences beamed onto the castle walls.

n Edinburgh Castle, Friday 22 November–Saturday 4 January.

OOR WULLIE

Jings! Crivvens! Help ma boab! Noisemaker present their smash-hit musical of Scotland’s beloved comic strip this Christmas. Celebrating 85 years of this iconic character, the show returns with extra songs and local-adjacent gags. So snag yer tickets noo!

n Dundee Rep, Saturday 23 November–Monday 30 December.

CINDERELLA

Edinburgh’s renowned pantomime is a reliable classic. This year’s extravaganza features Allan Stewart, Grant Stott and Jordan Young once again as Cinders ditches her scullery rags for royal riches. Oh no she doesn’t; oh yes she does, etc and so forth.

n Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Saturday 23 November–Tuesday 31 December.

PETER PAN

In the west, another festive classic takes flight. No panto is complete without its legends and Glasgow’s features the return of Elaine C Smith as Mrs Smee and Johnny Mac as Smee. Also in the cast are Darren Brownlie playing Tink and Blythe Jandoo being Wendy.

n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Saturday 23 November–Sunday 5 January.

WEANS IN THE WOOD(LANDS)

Glasgow audiences will love this original panto by Martin McCormick. Poash lass Corletta Kelvinbridge and her wee (not so poash) pal Shuggy are tasked with saving the world from a baddie who hates children. Pie and pint included in your ticket.

n Òran Mór, Glasgow, Tuesday 26 November–Sunday 5 January.

TREASURE ISLAND

A world premiere of this brand-new musical based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic. The show puts a Christmassy spin on the iconic story, adapted by Orkney playwright Duncan McLean and directed by Wils Wilson.

n Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Thursday 28 November–Saturday 4 January.

WINTERFEST AT DALKEITH COUNTRY PARK

A shiny new ice rink, wreath-making workshops and elf storytelling all feature in Dalkeith this winter. Their opening evening event has Santa Claus himself turning on the lights. Don’t worry if it’s chilly: you can toast your own s’mores and cosy up at their festive fire pit.

n Dalkeith Country Park, Friday 29 November–Monday 6 January.

HELENSBURGH WINTER FESTIVAL

You don’t have to be in the big city to visit a Christmas market. Helensburgh hosts its own, complete with Santa’s Grotto, fairground rides and festive performances. #ThinkLocalFirst and get down to the 12th annual event in ‘The Christmas Town’.

n Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh, Saturday 30 November & Sunday 1 December.

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL

This year, we can leave the battered old DVD in the cupboard and experience this timeless film like never before. The iconic soundtrack to everybody’s favourite version of A Christmas Carol will be performed live by an orchestra alongside a screening of the Disney classic.

n SEC, Glasgow, Monday 2 December; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Wednesday 4 December.

RUMPELSTILTSKIN

A seasonal take on the timeless tale, this festive Rumpelstiltskin will be a top pick for younger audiences. Our hero doesn’t fit in but is doing his best to befriend the popular Princess Bunnyflops. But will he manage to make a new friend for Christmas?

n Platform, Glasgow, Tuesday 3–Tuesday 24 December.

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT

Making an epic return to the musical he received rave reviews for, Donny Osmond stars as Pharaoh in a new rendition of the classic show. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s beloved spectacular is a must for musical-theatre fanatics.

n Edinburgh Playhouse, Tuesday 3–Sunday 29 December.

SCOTTISH BALLET: THE NUTCRACKER

An enchanting rendition of The Nutcracker will grace our stages this winter. Scottish Ballet’s artistic director Christopher Hampson brings the magic of the sugarplum fairies to life in this latest version of an iconic ballet.

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Friday 6–Monday 30 December; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 8–Saturday 18 January.

Festive folk (this page, clockwise from top left): MagicFest featuring Kevin Quantum, Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Oor Wullie (opposite page, clockwise from left): Irn-Bru Carnival, Candlelight Concerts, Treasure Island

SCIENCE LATES: CURIOUS CHRISTMAS

This adults-only offering sees Glasgow Science Centre go festive. The nighttime event will include experiments and demonstrations, and a seasonal science show. The Planetarium promises a show-stopping starry adventure as well.

n Glasgow Science Centre, Saturday 7 December.

JUPITER CHRISTMAS FAIR

The gorgeous grounds of Jupiter Artland hosts a weekend festive fair. Browse artisan gift stalls, listen to live seasonal music and, of course, enjoy homemade mulled wine. The fair also has ‘festive donkeys’, setting it apart from donkeyless winter markets.

n Jupiter Artland, Wilkieston, Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 December.

CANDLELIGHT: CHRISTMAS MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS

There’s nothing like the nostalgic feeling of hearing those classic Christmas soundtracks. Candlelight Concerts have curated an orchestral rendition of everybody’s favourite movie tunes (from ‘Let It Snow’ to ‘Let It Go’) in order to get even the meanest Scrooges among us in the holiday mood.

n The Tall Ship, Glasgow, Friday 13, 20 December.

BEECRAIGS STARRY NIGHTS

A magical illuminated trail that lights up West Lothian’s landscape. Beecraigs Country Park will boast a range of Christmassy light installations and decorations, including Candy Cane Lane, Fairy Forest, Festive Faces and a Christmas Campfire.

n Beecraigs Country Park, Linlithgow, Friday 13–Monday 23 December.

THE GIFT

This award-winning dance show by Barrowland Ballet, back by popular demand, proves imagination is much more valuable than any Christmas present. Discarding their toys for cardboard boxes and wrapping paper, these dancers are sure to prompt wee ones’ creativity this year.

n The Studio, Edinburgh, Saturday 14–Tuesday 31 December.

MAGICFEST

It’s MagicFest’s 15th year, but we know they’ve got plenty more up their sleeve. Kevin Quantum, Tricky Ricky and The Secret Room all appear on this year’s line-up.

n Various venues, Edinburgh, Tuesday 17–Monday 30 December.

VIVALDI FOUR SEASONS AT CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT

This arrangement of Vivaldi’s timeless violin concerto lands in the fittingly festive setting of Glasgow Cathedral. The Piccadilly Sinfonietta play alongside pianist Warren Mailley-Smith and leading violin soloist Ben Norris.

n Glasgow Cathedral, Thursday 19 December.

IRN-BRU CARNIVAL

Europe’s largest indoor fun fair and arguably Glasgow’s most iconic annual event. This year’s Irn-Bru Carnival returns with three new rides as well as beloved favourites. Families with older or younger kids can make a festive day of it.

n SEC, Glasgow, Friday 20 December–Sunday 12 January.

EDINBURGH’S HOGMANAY

You may be used to watching Jackie Bird’s New Year countdown on the telly but if you’re game enough to tackle the capital’s streets, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay will include a headline set from Texas with Callum Beattie as special guest.

n Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Tuesday 31 December.

Seasonal sights (clockwise from above): Science Lates, Jupiter Christmas Fair, Beecraigs Starry Nights, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay

“ Tilda seems to belong to a different

It’s been a year of firsts for Pedro Almodóvar. Spain’s greatest ever filmmaker, the man behind All About My Mother and the Oscarwinning Talk To Her, has finally made his first movie in English. That film, The Room Next Door, won him Venice’s Golden Lion, remarkably his first top prize at a major festival. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, it tells the story of Martha (Tilda Swinton), a New Yorker dying of cancer who implores her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be with her when she takes her own life. The 75-year-old Spaniard talks to James Mottram about mortality, euthanasia and his wilder nights in the 80s

This is your first ever feature in English. Why now? Many times I refused to work in English with a project in Hollywood. But here, put simply, the characters’ lives are in New York, and they are American, and they talk English. I always thought to do it on my own terms. I mean, I made 22 movies before this one, and the way that my company produced my movies is very different. We make them in an artisan way, but it’s the opposite to the way of working in Hollywood.

Is this film a way for you to reckon with mortality and death? Yes, because I feel myself very immature in this sense, because I cannot understand it. Every day, there are multiple demonstrations of death everywhere. I mean, we are living in an awful world at this moment. But for me, as Julianne said at the beginning of the movie, I find it unnatural that something would be alive one moment and gone the next.

Can you talk about the subject of euthanasia. What fascinated you about that? For me, it’s quite basic. I think it’s a fundamental right, and I don’t think that everybody, obviously, around the world, has access to this, as we do in Spain. And I think this is a debate that needs to be ongoing. So, I do think it’s ultimately a question about humanity, right? And even though politics needs to intervene in order to make this possible, I do think that people should be the owners of their own lives, even when it comes to having to decide that it’s time to end one’s life if that life has become unbearable due to pain, for example.

Is this one of your most painful films for viewers to watch? Yeah, I do hope that spectators are not suffering too much while they’re watching it. But in effect, the film is about pain, and how a particular character reacts towards her own pain, in this case cancer.

You’ve worked with Tilda Swinton before on the short film The Human Voice, but not Julianne Moore. Why did you choose her for this? First of all, because she’s a very good actress. And also she has a sense of humour although we don’t use it here; but she has it, and that is important, just to talk with her and to direct her. Also, I admire her a lot in many movies. Tilda is so flamboyant in a way, even if she’s so skinny like she is here. Tilda seems to belong to a different human species. Julianne, by

human species

contrast to Tilda, is very earthy, and she has to confront Tilda’s bravery, and so she’s not quite timid, but perhaps fearful. In the film, she’s terribly scared of death, does not want to accept that, and I felt that Julianne’s physical presence was a good counterpoint to Tilda’s presence.

You won the Golden Lion with this film. Did you find it a little bit ironic that after 23 movies, you had to make one in English to win a top festival prize? It is, in fact, a curious coincidence. And in fact, it also happened to Buñuel in 1968 with Belle de Jour, which was in French. And that’s really just how it is. But as I said in my acceptance speech, ultimately the spirit is still Spanish.

Do you still have the same interest in movies or books as you ever had? I used to go to the theatre to see movies at least once or twice a week. Now, there are not so many wonderful movies to see, or at least movies that I like. But I read voraciously. There is a part that disappears with age: the physical part. Of course, I don’t feel physically as strong as I did in the 80s; I mean, I could be out the whole night partying and after that I’d go shoot a movie. Now I decide to write and to keep on shooting. But there are still quite a lot of sources of pleasure in my life.

The Room Next Door is in cinemas now.

GAELIC CULTURE NITEWORKS

It’s appropriate, perhaps, that as Gaeldom celebrates the Celtic year’s close with Oidhche Shamhna (Samhain Night), Skye-based Niteworks call time with their final tour. The band come back to the Highland home that nurtured them with a gig at Eden Court in Inverness (6 November). But there’s a duality, too, in this farewell tour calling in at London’s Garage (9 November), demonstrating the UK-wide and international appeal that the band have maintained.

I remember my first spin of their début EP Obair Oidhche at a Bishopbriggs Gaelic Medium Education unit and seeing the kids’ faces light up: ‘this is Gaelic!’ They were incredulous at the language coming to life outwith the schoolroom, annual appearances at the Mòd, and their parents’ Runrig CD collection. This is not to denigrate those three cultural antecedents: just listen to Niteworks and Sian’s recent reworking of Runrig’s ‘An Toll Dubh’ to understand that same trajectory. Edified by Gaeldom’s propensity to train and nurture musicians, Niteworks secured a place for Gaelic within the contemporary. Their dancefloor-friendly sound brought fresh vitality to the tradition in the same way that Martyn Bennett did. The legacy continues, embodied by Valtos and Dlù.

The Runrig comparisons stand; not on sound or aesthetics, but on the band’s emergence as role models at the confluence of various post-millennial Gaelic-culture developments, giving young speakers a new-found self-confidence. These final shows give that generation, and all audiences, a chance to say tapadh leibh (thank you), hoping that it won’t be a forever soraidh slàn (farewell).

(Marcas Mac an Tuairneir)

Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Thursday 7 November (plus DJ gig at The Mash House); O2 Academy Glasgow, Saturday 16 November.

PICTURE: RYAN

BUCHANAN

future sound

Our column celebrating new music to watch continues with Glasgowbased hip-hop act Psweatpants. He talks to Fiona Shepherd about the unexpected benefits of cultural collisions and just forgetting your troubles

Payton Campbell, aka Psweatpants, is Zooming fresh from emergency dental treatment, flashing his pearly whites regularly as he contemplates finding his unexpected musical home in Glasgow as a rapper in an indie world. Campbell grew up in Camberwell, a South London borough which oozes grime (the music kind, that is). His Jamaican parents brought him up on reggae and dancehall, and he recalls that local DJs would regularly set up their decks al fresco on his estate for weekend block parties.

At the same time, teenage Campbell was getting into Arctic Monkeys and nu-metal, cultivating eclectic tastes and contemplating a career making music videos. He had no rapping aspirations until encouraged to try by a beat-making friend. Upon reaching his late teens, Psweatpants had manifested.

In case you've been wondering, his nom de rap is pronounced ‘P sweatpants’. No silent ‘p’ here. Campbell got that nickname from a set of bright blue sweats he wore continually to college. He opted to continue his studies in Scotland, enrolling in a media course in Edinburgh and then relocating to Glasgow in 2021 where he has slowly carved a space in a smaller, spirited scene.

Campbell still seems a little perplexed at the comparatively bijou nature of Scottish hip hop but he sees considerable potential, with himself right in the mix. Finding an unlikely home among the city’s indie musicians where he is more likely to appear on gig bills with the likes of Declan Welsh and Vlure. ‘Even though it’s not the same sound, we bring the same type of energy,’ he says. ‘We’re all like-minded people from different walks of life. I can’t even explain why but the two worlds just merge and the crowd gets where I’m coming from.’

The Psweatpants catalogue currently numbers a trio of EPs with South Ain’t That Bad followed by Life Was Shit, It Still Is Now and AM/FM Radio, the latter paying tribute to pirate radio with samples from local community hip-hop broadcasts. His next release, 2 Left Feet, was originally intended to be a standalone track but has expanded to four tunes bringing together Edinburgh’s grime and jungle scene with Glasgow’s undying love of techno for a pan-M8 party. ‘A lot of these tracks are about enjoying the time you’re in and not taking things too seriously. Forget all your troubles for a night and worry about it tomorrow morning; that’s the main take from the EP.’

In yet another cultural collision, the EP has been produced by Finn Freeburn Morrison, guitarist in Perth-bred, Glasgow-based indie rabble-rousers Parliamo. Psweatpants also hints at some guest spots to come. ‘I’ve started to lean into the alternative and my next projects are going to be more of that side of my influence. I don’t think you would hear it in my music but I listen to James Blake when I think about building a track. I’m getting better every year and I think I’m in the process of having something to make people go “what’s happening here?”’

2 Left Feet is released on Wednesday 6 November, with a club-night launch at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh on Thursday 7 November.

THEATRE RUN, REBEL

Currently on its second UK outing, Run, Rebel is the stage adaptation of Manjeet Mann’s award-winning verse novel of the same name. Directed by Tessa Walker, it confronts issues of control and power, questioning how we can break cycles of inherited trauma. Mann, an awardwinning children’s author and former actor, describes her protagonist as ‘a flawed heroine who is questioning the foundations that her family has been built on’. Amber struggles to navigate school, crushes and friendships while dealing with an abusive father. At home, with both of her parents unable to read or write English, she bears the brunt of organising the family and eventually realises that her mother yearns for freedom as much as she does.

‘The character of Mum really resonated with a lot of readers,’ says Mann. ‘She still has a whole life ahead of her and makes people realise that it’s never too late to change. I wrote it for my teenage self and the story that I wish I’d had. You certainly don’t see a strong empowered young Asian girl on stage often.’ As its title suggests, the play focuses on running as an escape for Amber. South Asian women are rarely represented in sports, and Mann believes this is ‘partially to do with being visible. Running means being out in the world. Because of my upbringing of not only being Asian but also being working class, it was always “keep your head down. Don’t look at anyone. Don’t make a show”. Strange that I became an actor . . . my little rebellion!’

COMEDY

After tackling hardships head-on, Run, Rebel is ultimately a story of hope. Mann shows us that you can grab hold of life at any age, that it’s ok to make mistakes as long as you find your path eventually, and that it’s always possible to reverse the narrative. (Alekia Gill)

 Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thursday 7–Saturday 9 November.

MY COMEDY HERO

PAUL BLACK ON LIMMY

I first came across Limmy in high school when my pal’s big brother showed us his Birthday Card sketch on YouTube. We didn’t even fully understand why it was so funny, but we were pissing ourselves laughing. From that point, I was hooked on everything Limmy put out. Perhaps the thing I admire most is the way he assured us you could be pretty surreal at times and still have folk get it. His comedy showed that it didn’t always have to make total sense, or it could be a bit weird, but people would still connect with it.

There’s plenty of stuff similar to what I do, but I’ve yet to come across something that portrays working-class Glasgow like Limmy does: that dark, absurd humour mixed with everyday life, which is exactly the world I grew up in. Last year, I finally read his autobiography and I was howling the whole way through. I could just imagine a posh editor giving feedback on the first draft, saying ‘maybe we can leave out the chapter about having your first wank?’

There’s a bit where he talks about being on a bus coming back from T In The Park, on a comedown as people shouted out quotes from his sketches. That was very relatable and made me shudder. I also really related, like most writers in Scotland, to all the struggles of trying to get stuff made on TV, specifically made the way you want it. Even though it’s on a much smaller scale for me, these experiences were so specifically relatable. I also love how he talks about not wanting to do anything ever again. I think he’s earned that right.

 Paul Black: All Sorts, SEC, Glasgow, Friday 22 November.

Off to a flyer

With her first feature film role, Nykiya Adams has already picked up an award nomination. Katherine McLaughlin caught up with this talented teen at the premiere of Bird to talk rebellion and dad music

Newcomer Nykiya Adams was studying for her GCSEs when casting director Lucy Pardee (Aftersun, Rocks, Fish Tank) discovered her at school in Essex. The upshot is Adams now stars as 12-year-old Bailey in Andrea Arnold’s return to fiction filmmaking with Bird after making the documentary Cow. It’s a tenderly crafted drama that dips into poetic magical realism.

Bailey, who is on the cusp of childhood and adolescence, lives with single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) in a Gravesend squat. His attention is focused on upcoming nuptials with a woman he has known for three months and a get-rich-quick scheme involving a psychotropic toad. It’s somewhat of a chaotic upbringing for the headstrong Bailey whose restless spirit is guided by Bird (Franz Rogowski) who mysteriously appears to her one day as she ponders where she belongs.

Speaking just before the London Film Festival premiere of Bird, teenager Adams (who has been nominated for a British Independent Film Award) is in an excitable mood: ‘I’m nervous but I know I’m gonna look good. My mum is dressing me!’ Her mother Jade sits with us; her warmth and pride at her daughter’s success illuminates the office space in which we meet.

Though Bird explores domestic and gang violence, it also glows with hope. Eschewing kitchen-sink social realism, the film is a vivid portrait of modern youth, family, escapism through creativity and coping mechanisms which pays gorgeous tribute to the pursuit of love. Every character is searching for home in some way. Arnold confided in Adams about her own childhood growing up on an estate in Kent, and Keoghan has likened the family in the film to his own upbringing.

‘The area I live in is similar to the film,’ says Adams. ‘It’s not rough but it’s not great to grow up in. I had a good childhood but the area was a bit questionable. Family in general is a difficult thing to talk about because no one family is the same. I could relate to Bailey in so many ways. She is like a more extreme version of myself. I wouldn’t go out of my way to cut my hair, but I wish I could rebel in the same way she does. I wish I had her braveness; the way in which she’s so confident in sorting things out for herself.’

Adams only met co-star Rogowski (who takes on the titular role of a man who has entered the UK to find his biological family) on set in their first scene together. ‘When Bird is introduced in the film is the first time I met him,’ says Adams. ‘It was a real reaction, not acting. At the time Bailey was getting used to him was the same time I was getting used to him. They found peace in each other. That’s what I found most beautiful about their bond.’

Bailey spends time filming nature and her surroundings on a smartphone and sharing it on social media, while her step-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) uses technology as a way to enact vigilante violence. Adams herself uses TikTok regularly but mostly to film her and her best friend dancing or when she’s socialising with mates in the local park.

Though Bug is a young father, the difference in how he and Bailey engage with the digital world is miles apart, as is their taste in music. Talking of the film’s soundtrack, Adams notes that ‘“Yellow” by Coldplay was my favourite song . . . listening to it reminds me of the film. The rest of the stuff Bug listened to were dad songs!’

Bird is in cinemas from Friday 8 November.

shed a little light

Men can find it tough to open up about their mental health but a new play takes us inside a network which offers a vital release valve. Gareth K Vile talks to writer/director Clare Prenton and actor Billy Mack about the importance of bringing real stories to the stage and tackling social isolation

Men Don’t Talk represents a dynamic trend in Scottish contemporary theatre, engaging with the lived experiences of communities and raising awareness of an urgent concern. Presented as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival and created in partnership with Scottish Men’s Shed Association and Luminate, writer and director Clare Prenton has developed a script (her first full-length play) that explores issues of male mental health by reflecting on an organisation which offers space for men to buck macho clichés and come together to work and talk.

‘I was finding that I was getting employed as a writer/director on mentalhealth projects, engaging with people and putting their stories on stage,’ says Prenton. ‘I was asked to work with the Men’s Shed organisation and to hear from the members about what they get out of it. Why do they believe it is such a good wellbeing facility, as well as being a lot of fun?’ From initial workshops, Prenton created a production that gives voice to their experiences through a three-person cast. ‘It’s a pleasure to work like this, to put real stories on stage: it is stuff that really matters to people.’

By focusing on the shed experience, Men Don’t Talk introduces the audience to a fictional version of a male space where the participants discuss and express their feelings, share their challenges and consider how masculinity can be a positive social force. For actor Billy Mack, it has become an important production both artistically and socially. ‘Clare and I have a good working relationship. She told me about the shed project and I thought it sounded brilliant; a place where you could do some joinery work

or mechanics. Then I went round to a couple of men’s sheds and found that it is so much more; a social gathering where men who find it hard to share emotions could talk about an awful lot.’

Recognising that loneliness and isolation are pressing issues, especially after the pandemic, Mack expresses a belief in the potential of this kind of engaged theatre. ‘If the play gives a message to someone who then gives a message to somebody else, it can only help,’ he says.

‘For me, the community is where the more interesting stories are,’ Prenton adds. ‘There is so much we don’t talk about in mental health that we can put

on stage; to give it a platform to help increase understanding.’ With its tour across Scotland including community halls and even the Scottish Parliament alongside mainstream theatres, Men Don’t Talk is taking its consciousnessraising beyond the usual circuit to energise and further a vital public discussion.

Men Don’t Talk is staged at various venues as part of Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, and tours until Tuesday 19 November.

quiet places

I‘saw the stats around men’s mental health and I felt myself avoiding and getting worse at opening up as the years went by,’ says filmmaker Duncan Cowles ahead of the release of his documentary Silent Men. ‘Making a film seemed like the only way to force myself to address the problem.’ Part road trip and part self-reflective diary, Silent Men follows Cowles as he challenges societal views on what it means to be ‘manly’ and the importance of addressing your emotions, not only for oneself, but for those around us. Filming took place over seven years with the same (mostly willing) contributors, including Cowles’ family. Scripted in such a way that the narration could be taken as improv, and delivered deadpan by Cowles, the film manages to find a lot of humour in dark spaces, and his relaxed interview style lets the viewer feel like they’re part of the conversation. With a BAFTA Scotland award under his belt already for 2016’s Isabella, a

Louise Holland chats to BAFTA-winning filmmaker Duncan Cowles about his debut feature documentary which tackles the silences which can’t be enjoyed and facing up to his own self-doubts

short about dementia, Cowles reflects on moving from short-form to featurelength filmmaking. ‘Features are more glacial-like in the way they move and progress, and this can be incredibly frustrating; it can be hard to always keep up momentum. I underestimated both the funding landscape and how much I’d struggle to really tackle my own personal issues. It was 100% worth it, but there were certainly some real moments of self-doubt.’

Silent Men has various screenings happening across the UK so it’s clear there’s still an audience for documentary features, but what does Cowles want the viewer to take from his work? ‘I’d like it to help people feel less isolated if they struggle with similar issues contained in the film, and maybe even empower them to seek some form of help. I also want it to spark conversation about the topic, make people feel something and think.’

Silent Men is in cinemas from Tuesday 19 November.

GOING OUT FURTHER AFIELD

Get yourself away from the central belt and out into various parts of Scotland where the cultural landscape is just as rich and varied. Among the highlights are an exploration of an iconic garment, a comic actress sharing stories, and a fiesta of brass

ABERDEEN

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ 20th-century staple featuring Stanley Kowalski, Blanche DuBois and ‘Stellaaaaa!’ hits the north.

n His Majesty’s Theatre, Tuesday 12–Thursday 14 November.

KIRI PRITCHARD-MCLEAN

In Peacock, the Welsh comic tells the story of how she not only started a comedy school but has become a foster parent to kids who simply can’t find out her real identity. This show is about social workers, first-aid training and vicars.

n Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, Wednesday 27 November.

DUNDEE

KIMONO: KYOTO TO CATWALK

From samurai style and geisha chic to Jedi knights and pop stars, you have a couple of months left to explore the significance, appeal and influence of an iconic garment.

n V&A, until Sunday 5 January.

DUNFERMLINE

KAREN DUNBAR

Spotted recently hanging out on stage doing Shakespeare with Harriet Walter, the ex-Chewin’ The Fat star goes it alone as she regales a different kind of crowd with stories about her showbiz life.

n Alhambra Theatre, Thursday 7 November.

GREENOCK

SCOTTISH BALLET

A mixed bill features Cayetano Soto’s ‘Schachmatt’ with lots of dazzling wit and movement across a giant chessboard while Sophie Laplane’s ‘Dextera’ celebrates creativity while set to some Mozart.

n Beacon Arts Centre, Wednesday 6 & Thursday 7 November.

INVERNESS

PROJECT SMOK

Blending trad music with contemporary new-age pop influences, the trio of Ali Levack (pipes), Ewan Baird (bodhran) and Pablo Lafuente (guitar) carry on breaking down musical boundaries all around them.

n Eden Court Theatre, Wednesday 13 November.

PERTH

FESTIVAL OF BRASS

The largest brass-music gathering of its kind in the UK features approximately 1000 players from Scotland’s youth bands and 40 senior groups from Scotland and beyond.

n Perth Concert Hall, Saturday 16–Sunday 24 November.

HENRY ROWLEY

If social-media numbers are the barometer by which you choose your evening’s live entertainment, then actor and comedian Henry Rowley’s data will have your head spinning in glee for he has a mere 1.3m TikTok followers as well as some 450k of them on Instagram.

n Perth Theatre, Monday 25 November.

PERTH

BEANS ON TOAST

Ahead of a new album, Wild Goose Chasers (released, as all of his previous 16 albums have been, on his 1 December birthday), Jay McAllister delivers more of his ‘English outlaw folk music’.

n Tolbooth, Friday 22 November.

Kimono: Kyoto To Catwalk (and bottom from left), Scottish Ballet, A Streetcar Named Desire, Kiri Pritchard-McLean

film of the month

The shotgun wedding of an erotic dancer and a Russian oligarch’s son sparks a subversive and hilarious chain of events. With a lead performance that truly lights up the screen, Emma Simmonds dishes out all the stars she can to Anora

Astripper gets swept up in a mad, moneyed fantasy in this radiant, sex-positive film from American indie maestro Sean Baker, which won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes. In keeping with his sympathetic, nuanced studies of sex work (see Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket), Anora is impressively, even majestically humane. Shot with sublime sensitivity, it boasts a star-making turn from its gutsy lead, Mikey Madison.

Baker offers us a subversive take on the classic Cinderella-style story in this very adult fairytale. We view events through its protagonist’s enraptured eyes, before the façade of her shiny new situation is ripped back to reveal a chastening reality far from Pretty Woman’s happy-ever-after ending. It is also hilarious.

Going by the name Ani, Anora is a New York-based, Uzbek-American erotic dancer, who is not averse to throwing in a little light (and, ahem, less light) prostitution on the side. Despite the troublesome aspects of her profession and her financial insecurity, she’s an effervescent character who paints on a smile and is never portrayed pityingly. Employed at a popular strip club called Headquarters, Ani has a strong bond with fellow dancer Lulu (Luna Sofía Miranda) and a fierce rivalry with another colleague, Diamond (Lindsey Normington), who she delights in trash-talking.

When Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), the gawky, immature son of a Russian oligarch becomes obsessed with Ani after they meet at the club, the two

start seeing each other out of hours, eventually marrying in Vegas on a drink-and-drug-addled whim. Ani is totally caught up in the romance of it all and the unfathomably luxurious lifestyle, with the ferocity of Ivan’s parents’ reaction taking her by surprise. They send in some tough guys to get a handle on the situation, before flying in themselves to force an annulment.

As anyone familiar with Baker’s work will know, he loves a sketchy and feisty scenario and, once Ivan’s family have got wind of the wedding, things get increasingly farcical and funny. The hired heavies are thankfully not remotely up to the task, and Ani runs rings around them. And if a woman hoping that a rich guy will save her sounds dispiritingly unempowered, when faced with adversity Ani shows herself to have ten times the fight of her cowardly new husband, something that is noticed by one of the more friendly enforcers, Igor (Yura Borisov from the excellent Compartment No 6).

Following Baker’s nuanced and fascinating portrait of a problematic protagonist in 2021’s Red Rocket, in Ani he gives us someone who’s much easier to root for, irrespective of the societal judgement she attracts. Madison is best known for TV’s Better Things, where she played Max, the eldest daughter of Pamela Adlon’s single mother, while a small role in Once Upon A Time . . . In Hollywood and a more interesting one in 2022’s Scream put her on the film map.

Madison met with Baker early on in Anora’s development process and Ani was ultimately written with the actress in mind. She brings dignity and personality to a character who does an awful lot of bumping and grinding, while she’s lovingly captured by cinematographer Drew Daniels (who did such a great job on Red Rocket and Trey Edward Shults’ Waves), shooting on 35mm and aping a 70s aesthetic, with Madison’s confidence and charisma positively lighting up the screen. There’s lovely work from Borisov, too, whose performance mainly consists of impressed, hurt or bemused reactions, which he relays beautifully. The hysterical supporting cast includes Baker’s regular collaborator Karren Karagulian, playing the put-upon Toros, who acts as a fixer for Ivan’s parents and has to run out of a christening to intervene.

Baker’s portraits of marginalised characters are a consistent delight and he’s really excelled himself here, balancing high hopes and harsh realities, presenting it all in a fun package, with Take That’s sugary ‘Greatest Day’ the film’s unlikely but pitch-perfect anthem. As in The Florida Project, where six-year-old Moonee found magic all around her despite the precariousness of her motel existence, Ani surrenders herself to a dreamworld, daring to imagine that things could be better. Sometimes it’s all you can do.

Anora is in cinemas from Friday 1 November.

THEATRE & JULIET

the atre eht• erta •

The work of unreconstructed misogynist William Shakespeare has regularly been adapted to suit changing times. His tragedies were often performed with happy endings or even sequels if that’s what audiences were anticipating, so jukebox-musical & Juliet belongs to a long tradition of artistic course correction. It’s essentially Romeo And Juliet: Part Two, with Juliet waking up from her potion and heading for Paris to start a new chapter after her lifechanging, almost four-day relationship with Romeo.

In a meta development of the text, & Juliet imagines Shakespeare (Matt Cardle) and his wife Anne Hathaway (Lara Denning) both having considerable input into the creation of this sequel, not only casting themselves in key roles but sparring over the narrative direction and balance of power between the sexes. Hathaway’s initial intention is to create fresh opportunity for her 14-year-old ingénue Juliet (Gerardine Sacdalan) but the Bard’s patriarchal understanding of a woman’s place creates fresh conflict as he looks to revive Romeo (Jack Danson) and bring the star-crossed lovers back together.

Offering an adept spin on the original is Schitt’s Creek writer David West Read, with & Juliet bringing the funny and also featuring a barrage of instantly recognisable pop tunes, showcasing the songwriting of Max Martin. Crowdpleasers like ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’, ‘Roar’, ‘Domino’ and ‘ . . . Baby One More Time’ are artfully dropped in with slight lyrical tweaks wittily reflecting upon the narrative. Sacdalan is a vivacious, energetic lead, and the personable duo of Cardle and Denning provide an agreeably wry commentary on proceedings. & Juliet isn’t a particularly plot-driven or deep show, but it’s upbeat, melodic and tuned into the debate about women’s rights. Bolstered by a non-binary sub-plot to boot, this provides the girl-power twist that Shakespeare never knew he needed. (Eddie Harrison)

 Edinburgh Playhouse, Tuesday 12–Saturday 16 November; reviewed at King’s Theatre, Glasgow.

ART HOLLY DAVEY

Two years ago, Fruitmarket invited Holly Davey to sift through their archive. As an artist whose work explores the forgotten lives of women within collections, it was inevitable that Davey stumbled across evidence of a historical gender imbalance. A survey exhibition titled Scottish Sculpture ’75 piqued her interest because, of 11 exhibiting sculptors, zero women were included.

Taking over Fruitmarket’s warehouse, The Unforgetting is the culmination of all that digging. In the centre, an abstract wooden structure resembling a volcano stands tall, casting a felt shadow on the floor in honour of an artist absent from the 1975 show. Davey suggests that Ann Henderson, who likely taught many of the sculptors at Edinburgh College Of Art, was a key influence unacknowledged by the exhibition.

While the sculptures occupy most space, it’s the soundscape that makes a lasting impression. ‘The voice of the archive’ recites the names of 353 women who have exhibited at Fruitmarket since it opened, with Marina Abramović, Yoko Ono and Louise Bourgeois among them. Tension fills the room when the voice falls silent, indicating the periods in which women were absent from the exhibition line-up.

Dramatically set up like a courtroom, the transcript is laid out on a long, wooden prompt desk, embroiling the reader in curatorial decisions as the art world investigates what is fair representation. Listening out for each name, reflecting on whether you recognise them, or speculating what their exhibitions might have looked like, makes for a satisfying auditory experience that resonates beyond the visual. (Rachel Ashenden)

 Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, until Sunday 17 November.

music of the month

Scottish Opera step up a gear this autumn, with Carol Main revelling in their productions of Don Pasquale and Albert Herring. New talent and seasoned pros merge for two memorably playful classic operas

In Scottish Opera’s programming of two very different comedic operas side by side this autumn, it’s a toss-up as to which has the sillier story.

Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is all about wily duplicity as the means to an end, while Britten’s Albert Herring takes on more poignant innocence with its English rural society quirks and daftness. What they both have in common, however, is money playing a pivotal role in their plots and how it can, if you’ve got it, lead to a very different type of life.

Don Pasquale has more than plenty and nephew Ernesto is directly in line as first in the queue for inheritance. This is all potentially up for avuncular change though if he marries the love of his life, the poor young widow Norina rather than the wealthy match Pasquale has set up for him. Lies and pretence abound, making for some wonderfully well-timed funny moments between Pasquale and Norina, who disguises herself to become Sofronia and fakes getting married to the rich, old and generally unattractive Don.

Stepping in due to illness of the originally cast soprano, Simone Osborne took to the role of Norina/Sofronia as if it had been written for her. Stratospherically high notes never faltered with astonishing vocal control while sassily acting out both her characters completely convincingly. David Stout was likewise a naturally staged Pasquale, his unappealing and eventually quite pathetic personality paving the ground for delicious laughs pretty much all at his own (literal) expense.

At the same time, there’s an affectionate playfulness to creative team Barbe & Doucet’s 1960s Rome setting, which opens with sequences of photos and witty speech bubbles bringing the audience up to speed with the story. It’s intimate too, with Pasquale’s pensione in warm tones of ruby red and lines of endless washing filling out the stage. Tenors Filipe Manu, an impressive Ernesto, and Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as his obliging friend Doctor Malatesta, brought Italianate operatic style to Ruffino and Donizetti’s 180-year old

libretto, with the Chorus appearing briefly, but classily, under the direction of conductor Stuart Stratford.

While the orchestra colourfully romped along in Don Pasquale, sometimes too loudly for those on stage above them, the Albert Herring instrumentalists gave a completely different perspective on how orchestra and singers can intertwine in a score as carefully crafted as Britten’s.

Just 13 of them, they were an ensemble of first-rate soloists from the company’s regular orchestra playing together under the baton of William Cole, making his Scottish Opera debut. On the evidence of this initial appearance, he’s one to watch out for on the Scottish music scene and international opera circuit.

The damsels of Suffolk’s Loxford village are too wayward to befit the title of May Queen, so the local committee decides to have a May King instead: the young, innocent greengrocer, Albert Herring, whose £25 prize buys a night in several pubs and the confidence to stand up to his domineering mum.

In Daisy Evans’ truly delightful production, nostalgia is ever present, whether through the opera’s characters being caricatures of themselves or Kat Heath’s design which propels the work’s 1940s origins into the 1990s, complete with village-hall orange plastic stacking chairs, lurid blancmanges and soprano Susan Bullock’s Lady Billows as a she-who-must-be-obeyed cross between Margaret Thatcher and Hyacinth Bucket. Brilliantly cast across the piece, with Jane Monari’s Florence Pike a strong connecting thread, and Glen Cunningham an endearing Albert, it’s a show that has everyone smiling all the way home.

Don Pasquale (lllll), Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 8, Sunday 10, Saturday 16 November; Albert Herring (lllll), Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 13 November; both reviewed at Theatre Royal, Glasgow.

Dope opera: Albert Herring and (opposite) Don Pasquale

FILM

‘You’re such an adventure,’ Layla’s new partner Max tells them, following some boundary-breaking sexual shenanigans. Although intended as a compliment, it leaves Layla feeling like a novelty in the eyes of this more ‘basic’ bloke. Layla (Bilal Hasna) is a non-binary drag performer living in East London, who is struggling to find acceptance both societally and emotionally, with Louis Greatorex playing Max.

The pair meet when Layla goes rogue at a corporate event at which they have been hired to perform, with straitlaced marketing executive Max in awe of Layla’s courage. The two dive into a relationship which seems founded on mutual respect, but Max gets cold feet about dating this very out-there individual while Layla conforms in response. Further complicating matters is that Layla (formerly known as Latif) has been hiding their true self from their Muslim family, despite efforts to reconnect from a sibling, Fatima (Sarah Agha).

Intended as a love letter to the vibrant community it represents, Layla is the debut feature from writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi and clearly comes from an authentic place. If the script lacks a bit of substance and the visuals require more invention, the film still has a lot going for it. It demonstrates the warm embrace that can be provided by a chosen family, alongside the judgements that exist within the queer community itself, and highlights the devastating loss of nightlife venues which bring marginalised people together. In the absence of an antagonist, Layla instead illustrates the damage internalised prejudice can do, with Hasna giving an endearing performance that switches between vulnerability and audacity. Despite this, the film is perhaps better on celebration than interrogation, showing how wonderful it is to be part of something so daring and freeing as it captures the perks and the power of drag. (Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 22 November.

ART

PASS SHADOW, WHISPER SHADE



A collegiate approach prevails over this group show of six graduates from Collective’s 2024 Satellite Programme of emerging artists. Taking its title from an Irish proverb that loosely translates as ‘people live in each other’s shadows’, Pass Shadow, Whisper Shade is disparate in approach, with shared themes of personal history running throughout. Tellingly, almost all artists make reference to their parents, grandparents or older ancestors.

Emelia Kerr Beale draws inspiration from her father’s now demolished factory with a large-scale grid of graphite drawings of ‘clock’ patterns, parts of a mechanical knitting machine and an industrial soundscape by Clara Hancock that sounds like a factory sampled. Hannan Jones’ looped 16mm-based movingimage piece ‘Hiraeth: Pandy Lane’ looks to Jones’ grandfather’s attempts to buy a suit in a work that resembles a 1970s folk-horror public information film. There is folk horror too in ‘Gastromancy’, Katherine Fay Allan’s digital film that chases some kind of healing in a choreographed call and response ritual by fantastically costumed women.

Clarinda Tse’s ‘Shower Duster II’ puts a shower into a seismic cave-like setting, where ancient objects inherited from Tse’s grandfather illustrate another fantastical world. Rowan Markson’s series of piano-based installations include sheet music translated by her father from Bach’s ‘Prelude In C Major’ for a series of disruptions best summed up by the title scratched into one work: ‘To Poke, To Prod, To Goad, To Incite’.

This attitude is heralded within Josie KO’s ‘Mekle Lippis’, two bright banners draped outside the gallery. With the central figure of a black woman in each, a third banner inside flanks a revolving sculpture in an appealing attempt to put black women’s history to the fore. A cohesive synergy runs across the exhibition that gives Collective the air of a gang hut. Here, hand-me-down baggage is dusted off and transformed into a reinvigorated show-and-tell.

(Neil Cooper)

 Collective, Edinburgh until Sunday 22 December.

THE BRENDA LINE

An emerging playwright often takes a few pieces to find a voice, an identifiable tone or style. Harry Mould’s debut play, The Brenda Line, already ripples with established characteristics that will no doubt echo through later works: a proficiency of language that roguishly toys with the divide between radical anger and refreshing wit. Staged in a simple yet effective set by designer Natalie Fern, Ben Occhipinti’s direction is evenly paced; its two-act structure works surprisingly well, much calmer and less intensive than suspected.

The youngest volunteer in the country, Karen, starts their first shift with the Samaritans helpline, having been paired with Anne, an experienced Samaritan and occasional ‘Brenda’ for what seems a slow night shift. The naturalistic banter of this pair, perceptively portrayed by Fiona Bruce and Charlotte Grayson, gradually extends to an endearing two-hander where the barbs and generational misunderstandings build with Karen’s revulsion at the ‘punctual perverts’, men who call the helpline and ask for Brenda (looking for company with a woman while they masturbate).

The work is balanced with nimble comedic writing, given tremendous welly and weight by Bruce and Grayson’s gorgeously human performances. Neither of the characters is entirely in the right, but both are lonesome; Anne’s humane outlook is as genuine as Karen’s intense vigour and politically charged (and lengthy) monologuing. There is no condemnation in Mould’s writing, giving a face to the women on the end of that telephone, and this is a winsome debut from a playwright with a fair amount to say. Scottish theatre would be daft to miss this call. (Dominic Corr)

 Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 13–Saturday 16 November; reviewed at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

FILM

THE TASTE OF MANGO

Every family has its wounds. With love and hard work, sometimes these can heal as they’re passed down through the generations; other times they remain open. In her debut documentary, The Taste Of Mango, director Chloe Abrahams turns the camera towards her own family’s woes. Her grandmother, Jean, has stayed with her husband in Sri Lanka for 40 years, despite his brutal abuse of Chloe’s mother, Rozana, and the fact that he is a known paedophile. Rozana pleads with Jean to leave him and to come live with them in England, but so far Jean has refused.

With patience and a willingness to listen, Abrahams is able to capture the anger, resentment and grief that has built up over the years, but also the enduring love, longing and even understanding that still exists between Jean and Rozana. When Jean comes to visit for her birthday, she snuggles and laughs with Abrahams and Rozana despite the baggage they all carry. The Taste Of Mango offers little direct commentary or voiceover. It is an incredibly unobtrusive documentary because Abrahams has tenderly cultivated space with her camera for all these complex emotions to reveal themselves.

The picture we come away with is one of three women who love each other deeply and who have been variously shaped and hurt by the society in which they live. Jean has allowed abuse to fester for years, and over the course of the film she says some terrible things. But listening to her, it’s clear that she is a victim of abuse too, afraid to leave and scared to speak out. Patriarchal violence and rape culture have impacted this family deeply, but it’s a genuine honour to be privy to this filmic act of reconciliation and hope. (Isy Santini)

 Screened as part of Central Scotland Documentary Festival, Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, Sunday 3 November, and in cinemas from Friday 15 November.

OTHER THINGS WORTH GOING OUT FOR

If you fancy getting out and about this month, there’s plenty culture to sample such as a pair of experimental festivals, a powerhouse jazz trio, a loveable bear heading back to the motherland, and a post-punk band who don’t like that term

ART

POP LIFE

Figurative drawing and pop culture come together in this travelling exhibition from 13 Scottish and international artists.

n City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Saturday 2 November–Sunday 9 March.

COMEDY

GRACE CAMPBELL

About to depart her 20s, Campbell has made a few big decisions recently: get a dog, ignore internet cowards and change up her sexual behaviour. New show Grace Campbell Is On Heat tells all.

n Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 6 November.

DANCE

MAIDEN MOTHER WHORE

From Theiyā Arts Dance Collective comes this interactive multidisciplinary show about women, power structures and oppression.

n Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, Friday 1 November; Southside Community Centre, Edinburgh, Saturday 9 November; Civic House, Glasgow, Friday 15 November.

FILM

SPIRIT OF MEKAS

Analogue film and experimentation is celebrated in this central-belt mini-fest inspired by the innovative works of Lithuanian-American filmmaker Jonas Mekas

n Various venues, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Tuesday 5 & Wednesday 6, Thursday 21–Saturday 23 November.

PADDINGTON IN PERU

This third film about the South American bear with an English accent that sounds an awful lot like Ben Whishaw’s features the Brown family heading for Peru to visit Aunt Lucy.

n In cinemas from Friday 8 November.

MUSIC

NORDIC MUSIC DAYS

Still plenty fun to be had over the last couple of days of this festival including Swedish ensemble Elefantöra, Vienna-based Chaos String Quartet and Wonders Of The Night Sky at the Glasgow Science Centre’s Planetarium.

n Various venues, Glasgow, until Sunday 3 November.

BLICHER HAMMER GADD

Steve Gadd’s trio mark their tenth anniversary with these gigs which platform a powerful fusion of jazz, blues and soul.

n Adelaide Church, Glasgow, Saturday 16 November; Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Sunday 17 November.

IDLES

They might not like the term post-punk, but hard not to ascribe Idles this title when you listen to them and then also watch them. Art-rock might be a more amenable term for the band whose latest album Tangk most certainly did not (tank). Wonder if Joe will sing the line about fighting a Glaswegian? n OVO Hydro, Glasgow, Saturday 23 November.

THEATRE ARIKA 11

This latest Arika episode is subtitled ‘To End The World As We Know It’ and across five days features experimentations in live film-performance, choreographic interludes, silent rituals and various talks.

n Tramway, Glasgow, Wednesday 13–Sunday 17 November.

Idles (and bottom from left), Grace Campbell, Paddington In Peru, Pop Life

staying in

KIM DEAL

Few people can say they have supported both Nirvana and Olivia Rodrigo, but The Breeders and Pixies rhythm guitarist Kim Deal is one such person. Also, not many artists would release a debut solo album at the age of 63: Deal again. Nobody Loves You More features input from Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinley and the late Steve Albini, and is home to an eclectic range of sounds from punk and country all the way across to doo-wop. (Brian Donaldson) n Released by 4AD on Friday 22 November.

MURDER MOST FOUL

When journalist Carl Miller found himself in possession of a list of people named as potential murder-for-hire targets, he had to figure out a way to warn them. Documenting his endeavours in Kill List, he tells Lucy Ribchester of the burden that knowledge placed on him

There has long existed a rumour that deep in the crevices of the dark web you can hire a hitman. Indeed this was the service being offered on a site which cyber expert Chris Monteiro stumbled upon in 2020. Encountering what ostensibly looked like a ‘kill list’ of people with a target on their head, he contacted journalist Carl Miller to ask what he thought could be done with this information. Their resulting actions led to the podcast Kill List, a wild, heartstopping, 18-episode ride which sees Miller grapple with the responsibility of being the only person in the world potentially able to halt a planned murder.

‘We had no idea what to do,’ says Miller over Zoom. ‘There was no manual. There was no precedent.’ Both Miller and Monteiro twigged early on that the website was a scam, in the sense that the shady figure who ran it (under the moniker Yura) had no intention of ever dispatching an assassin. However, Yura was willing to take money from his ‘clients’, and as the list demonstrated, people were willing to pay. Miller was aware of a 2016 case where a US man had been convicted of murdering his wife after attempting to hire a hitman. Now he could see before him the woman’s name on the list, along with a down payment in bitcoin made by her husband. The site may have been a scam, but the individuals who attempted to use it were deadly serious. Miller decided he had to find a way to let the people on the ‘kill list’ know.

‘For me, the most anxiety-provoking thing was having to make some very hard decisions around triaging all these cases,’ he notes. ‘We thought that payment was going to be a crucial piece of evidence.’ Out of 500 names on the list, 175 had down payments on them and these became Miller’s priority. In the podcast’s first six episodes, he tries to contact the potential victims, first personally, then through journalists in various countries. He involves the police with limited success, until finally the FBI agree to meet him and take the ‘kill list’ off his hands.

‘It was totally surreal, you know, these serious, suited FBI agents,’ recalls Miller. ‘But it was a huge relief.’ Handing over the cases meant the weight Miller had been carrying was finally lifted. ‘Just knowing that someone is trying to kill someone else, and that you are among the only people in the world who know this, is a horrible thing. It’s a horrible power to hold.’

 New episodes of Kill List are available every Tuesday on wondery.com

a smubl • a lbums •

LISTEN BACK

It’s time to rifle through the letter C in our meticulously alphabetised record store of album recommendations

Shoegaze rarely lets in rays of light, but Norwegian outfit Pom Poko could power a thousand solar panels with their second album Cheater (2021), which suffuses squalls of noise with excitable jazz, math rock and sugary note-acrobatics from Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit. At every turn the technical skill is searing but it never threatens to overburden the tangible joy of a band letting loose. One for those that like their art rock with an explosive sensibility.

Sticking with bracing guitar music is Joy Division’s Closer (1980), a claustrophobic post-punk classic that bears the scars of economically depressed Salford. Unlike the leaps of flamboyance offered by their peers Bauhaus, there’s a single-minded focus here from Ian Curtis’ pain-stricken vocals, Peter Hook’s brooding basslines and drummer Stephen Morris’ coldly precise rhythms. Curtis died tragically two months prior to the album’s release, but Closer shows why Joy Division have remained a vital influence on countless other acts. (Kevin Fullerton)

 Other C listens: Candy Apple Grey by Hüsker Dü (1986), Copia by Eluvium (2007), Caprisongs by FKA Twigs (2022).

calmer chameleon smubla

I‘t doesn’t matter if we all die,’ Robert Smith declared in ‘One Hundred Years’, the caustic opening track for The Cure’s fourth album Pornography. Released in 1982, it showed the then 23-year-old’s youthful and insouciant attitude to death, a presiding theme of his work which stemmed from a love of Romantic poets and a desire to inject urgency into his lyrics.

Now the end is in sight for everyone’s favourite eternal goths. ‘I’m 70 in 2029,’ Smith recently told Matt Everitt on 6Music, ‘and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album . . . if I make it that far.’ He’s shifted from fixating on mortality with gusto to making sure The Cure’s legacy receives a worthy testament long after he’s gone.

The contents of that testament are up for debate as, while his bat’s nest hairdo remains eternal, Smith’s band have been chameleonic in their output. To watch one of their notoriously long gigs (which have been known to hit the four-hour mark) is to stand in awe of a back catalogue which shifts and changes without shedding any of their idiosyncrasies. They’ve produced frantic post-punk, helped birth nihilist goth rock, perfected shimmering synth-pop, toyed with novelty ditties like ‘The Lovecats’, and finished the first decade of their career with the panoramic masterpiece Disintegration

Despite changes in style both before and after Disintegration, it’s clear that Smith sees its sweeping romanticism and baroque drama as the defining work of his career, the album to remember him by. It joins Pornography and 2000’s Bloodflowers as a trilogy discussing ageing and loss, revelling in long instrumental sections and production that foregrounds ambience more than hooks. In short, these aren’t works desperate to top the charts.

New album Songs Of A Lost World may mark a fourth entry in this series. ‘This is the end of every song that we sing,’ exhales Smith on lead single ‘Alone’, which begins with an ephemeral swirl of noise recalling ‘Plainsong’ before moving into a stark, heartrending lamentation on grief. Taking inspiration from Ernest Dowson’s 1899 poem ‘Dregs’, death here is not simply a shortcut to grand themes: it is a totality, a mysterious and terrifying void.

The single is as lyrically rich as Smith has ever been, in part because he spent 16 years writing instrumentals until he finally had something to say; he lost both of his parents and his brother while Songs Of A Lost World was being conceived, and their absence hangs heavily over the record. This may or may not be the final album we receive from The Cure (Smith has intimated that two more are in the works), but it may be the last which allows him to be quite so vulnerable.

Songs Of A Lost World is released by Polydor on Friday 1 November.

As Songs Of A Lost World marks the beginning of the end for music’s most successful gang of goths, Kevin Fullerton considers their winding-down process and pinpoints exactly what made The Cure so special

tv times

In this column, we ask a telly person to share their viewing habits and favourite small-screen memories. This month, we hear from Waterloo Road actor James Baxter about Baby Reindeer and Postman Pat

Which programme that’s no longer on screen would you love to see return? The Office (US) with Steve Carell back in the cast. I would say the original British version but that show is too brilliant to risk its ruin. But Carell as Michael Scott is one of the all-time great comedy performances. So funny, so daft, so warm and at times heartbreaking.

What is your first memory of watching TV? I suppose my first memory of watching TV would be Postman Pat, not the coolest of answers, let’s be honest. Postman Pat or Pingu, who incidentally is definitely cooler in temperature than the famed postman and his monochrome feline but alas does not make this answer any more hip.

You’re a primetime chat-show host: what’s your ideal line-up of three guests? Donald Trump so I can kick the living shit out of the man (joking but not really). My ideal three would be Dave Chappelle, Prince (he’d have to play a set) and Jack Nicholson.

Which sitcom have you laughed at the most? The Office (UK and US), It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Only Fools And Horses

When was the last time you felt scared while watching TV? I think because the horrors of the world are so accessible now, it’s difficult to get scared when you know it’s fiction.

What’s the best TV theme tune ever? Me and my partner love the theme tune to Somebody Feed Phil; that man and that show and theme tune is mainlining happiness. The Friends theme tune is pretty iconic. Or Only Fools And Horses (god, I’m indecisive).

What was the last show you binge-watched? Baby Reindeer. Richard Gadd’s writing is sublime. Poetic, funny, brutal, honest. Just a fantastic show.

Who is your all-time favourite fictional TV character? I need ten but can I have three? Michael Scott, Walter White, Dennis Reynolds.

Waterloo Road airs on BBC One every Tuesday; all episodes available on BBC iPlayer.

GAMES MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024

The Microsoft Flight Simulator series was one of the corporation’s most popular products, so it seemed extraordinary when the company shut it down in 2009. A 2020 relaunch was a huge success; with its startlingly accurate rendition of the entire world, this was exactly what gamers and simulator enthusiasts wanted during lockdown. The aim of this new release is to increase its graphical fidelity and immersion while boosting the title’s credentials as a game to play and enjoy.

To that end, it will introduce a career mode with vocations including search and rescue, air ambulance and crop-dusting, and expands its vast hangar with a glut of new aircraft and brand-new transport such as airships and hot air balloons. Other new features include weather systems such as wildfires and auroras, animals with accurately modelled migration and herd behaviour, and real-time ship positioning.

The most fundamental change is to the surface of the Earth itself: rather than a flat texture over a globe, it’ll be fully sculpted in 3D, with vast data populating the map with trillions of accurately placed trees. Featuring huge improvements to the game engine and a new photometric lighting system, this is shaping up to be a significant improvement on one of the most impressive pieces of software ever released. (Murray Robertson)

 Released on PC and Xbox Series X/S, Tuesday 19 November.

breaking the spell

In her new documentary, Elizabeth Sankey opens up on the difficult debate around women’s mental health and how we deal with it. She explains to Katherine McLaughlin why witches on film unexpectedly provided comfort in her own darkest hours

I‘need you to feel how it feels to lose your mind completely,’ narrates Elizabeth Sankey early on in Witches, her brutally honest documentary about postpartum depression and psychosis. The British director has constructed an imaginative and courageous call to arms about the way women’s mental health is treated by speaking about her own personal experience in a mother-and-baby psychiatric ward.

Through the depiction of witches and pregnancy in film, Sankey cannily explores how women are perceived in society and links that to real testimony from witch trials. Together with interviews from experts in the field, and women and men who have been impacted by postpartum issues, she has crafted a sensitive spellbook packed full of vital information and shocking statistics that pays beautiful tribute to the powerful bonds of sisterhood.

‘I had been out of the ward for about two months when I started thinking about making a documentary as a way to process what had happened to me,’ explains Sankey over Zoom. ‘I can’t really remember what my thought process was because I was still very much in recovery. I just know that I really wanted to spend a lot of time watching witch films and finding solace in these women who behaved in ways that society didn’t expect them to. It made me feel comforted. That’s how it all began.’ The list of films Sankey viewed included The Snake Pit, Return To Oz, and her favourite, The Witches Of Eastwick. ‘It manages to sit between being very poppy and aspirational. You want to be the women in the film but also find comfort with them being badly behaved and, by the end, they’re not stripped of their powers.’

Through the shared knowledge and openness of the We Are Motherly Love group (founder Milli speaks frankly in the film about intrusive thoughts), Sankey found the help she needed. After speaking to a psychiatrist who appears in the film, she discovered why there was an increase in mother-and-baby units in the early 00s. The case of Daksha Emson, a psychiatrist who took her own life and that of her three-month-old daughter Freya in 2000, was a major turning point in addressing suicide and the stigma of mental health for NHS professionals. Subsequently, a government inquiry led to changes in the care of post-maternal women. ‘Reading about Daksha Emson destroyed me,’ Sankey explains. ‘I worked out where her husband lived. I sort of wanted to say that although it is a horrific, tragic thing that never should have happened, they have left behind an incredible legacy. They have saved so many lives, and my life was saved because of what happened to them.’

Witches is available on Mubi from Friday 22 November.

In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This month it’s Vogue Williams who sits down weekly with a bunch of people for Never Live It Down (guests so far include Katherine Ryan and Tom Rosenthal) as she delves into their darkest secrets and biggest regrets

my perfect podcast

BOOKS

HARUKI MURAKAMI

The publication of a new novel by Haruki Murakami is a major event. The Japanese author’s large and enthusiastic fanbase is matched by widespread critical acclaim and an impressive inventory of awards. Tickets for his live events sell out in minutes. Yet, where the literary world moves in cycles of fashion, Murakami’s work, like that of Canadian superstar Margaret Atwood, eschews easy categorisation. Since the 1979 publication of his fiction debut, the fragmentary Hear The Wind Sing, this prolific writer has refused to stay in a single lane in terms of style, form and genre.

Norwegian Wood, published in 1987 and the book that made Murakami’s name internationally, marked a deepening of his early concerns; notably, frustrated love and the impact of death on his young characters’ lives, and was loaded with western pop-culture references. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995) starts out as noir thriller, describing the disappearance of a seemingly ordinary woman, only to spiral off in multiple directions. Kafka On The Shore (2002) took the author further into Lynchian territory with its mix of social realism, classical allusions and dystopian fantasy.

For Murakami’s detractors, who find his best-known novels bloated, unresolved and implausible, there are alternative options; namely After The Quake (2000), spare stories exploring the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, and short memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007) which evolved from his love for long-distance running. Now 75, Murakami’s first novel in six years, The City And Its Uncertain Walls, is about to hit bookshops, with his legions of readers primed for the tale of a mysterious disappearance, and a search culminating in a dream-like alternative reality.

(Allan Radcliffe)

 The City And Its Uncertain Walls is published by Harvill Secker on Tuesday 19 November.

Which podcast educates you? The Rest Is History. I struggle to read history books but when someone’s in my ear talking about it, I’m really able to get into it. You can learn a bit of surface level stuff in school but the depth you can get from a podcast is wild.

Which podcast makes you laugh? Shameless plug: Never Live It Down! I’ve had such great guests; it’s really been a dream project. I love hearing people’s most embarrassing moments in their life: maybe not at the time for them but for other people it’s hilarious! And it’s good to laugh at yourself. Talking with or listening to a stand-up comic or someone with such crazy experiences for an hour is just amazing.

Which podcast makes you sad or angry? Probably Psychopedia which is about all these murders and stuff so that makes me sad.

Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? I’d feel too bad calling any of them guilty pleasures. But actually, there is one by my great friend Joanne McNally: her pod Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? I really shouldn’t be listening to whether or not Avril Lavigne has been replaced but it’s such a great listen and Joanne does it so brilliantly. It cracks me up.

Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should? A Kevin Bridges podcast would be unreal.

Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 23 words I would love to do a podcast where people have sex confessions: all anonymous, telling us their weirdest and most wonderful sex stories.

New episodes of Never Live It Down With Vogue Williams are available every Monday on Global Player.

album of the month

ums

bla smu • 4 STARS

LThey’ve never exactly been wallflowers, but Kevin Fullerton thinks Primal Scream’s latest album finally puts their leader’s firebrand energy to good use

ike him or loathe him, Bobby Gillespie has always been able to back up his ego with a knack for innovative genre-hopping. It’s made Primal Scream a trailblazer when he’s ahead of the pack (1991’s Screamadelica), an unexpected chart topper when the world catches up to him (2006’s Riot City Blues), and a curiously redundant figure when he gloams onto styles that are growing mouldy at the back of the fridge (2016’s Chaosmosis, which tried to embrace a brand of indie pop already buckling under the weight of its many adherents).

Stringing these disparate experiments together has always been Gillespie’s blistering confidence and ‘bash the fash’ political sentiments. These are the elements of his music that tend to sit on the sidelines, yet in Come Ahead, Gillespie’s righteous sensibilities finally shine through in a coherent, heartbreaking and vital manner, swapping provocative slogans for fully formed sideswipes at Britain’s institutionalised cruelty. Produced by fellow 90s veteran David Holmes, the album magpies between chintzy disco and funk, swerving occasionally into American gospel and dour minor-chord rock.

At times the effect is almost irrepressible; from the heavy bass slaps of ‘Ready To Go Home’ to the peppy doo-wop of ‘Heal Yourself’, plenty on here could easily be mistaken for a Nile Rodgers curio until Gillespie’s slurring drawl kicks in. The party atmosphere in the first half (all orchestral swells, wahwah pedals and abundant purloining of Sister Sledge’s exuberance) make it easy to miss the political comment flowing through each song. The mask slips when ‘Innocent Money’ finally lets its lyrics breathe, foregrounding Gillespie’s critique of capitalism while backing singers pointedly chant ‘always the wealthy, never the poor’, until a spoken-word interlude digs its claws into both trickle-down economics and political apathy from the working classes.

From there, the left-wing anger Gillespie has been harbouring lets loose. ‘False Flags’ follows a troubled teenager as he enlists in the army, only to be chewed up and spat out when the establishment no longer has any use for him. Meanwhile, ‘Deep Dark Waters’ details the mistreatment of refugees from a nation poisoned by anti-immigrant invective. It soon becomes clear that the ship sailing into those waters represents both asylum seekers searching for safety, and Britain itself, drowning in its own inhumanity.

Come Ahead ends with ‘Settlers Blues’, a nine-minute arpeggio which surgically deconstructs colonialism’s destructive force throughout history, referencing land theft and genocide, and alluding unambiguously to the mass slaughter occurring in the Middle East. ‘The conquered become the conquerors, a murderous diaspora’ Gillespie laments, before a choir sing ‘oh, it’s happening again’ in a mournful repetition, no longer able to stomach the decadent disco this album opened with. It seems unlikely that art can alter any catastrophe happening on the world stage right now, but at the very least Come Ahead is trying to replicate the feeling of protest at a time when the public have every right to feel impotent. This is an era of despair, Gillespie seems to tell us, but at least we can despair together.

Come Ahead is released by BMG on Friday 8 November.

PODCASTS

CRIME NEXT DOOR: DEATH ON THE FARM (BBC Sounds)

The latest instalment of BBC’s Crime Next Door strand investigates the brutal deaths of brother and sister Griff and Patti Thomas on an isolated Welsh farm in 1976. It’s a series that’s already got fine form; earlier this year, Kaye Adams examined the astonishing 1988 attempted assassination of Croatian dissident Nikola Štedul, gunned down in a quiet Kirkcaldy street by a Yugoslav secret-police agent.

Death On The Farm is a more intimate tragedy, focusing on the campaign to clear Griff’s name; a frail elderly man who, according to the police report at the time, supposedly smashed up furniture in the farmhouse he shared with his sister, bludgeoned her to death, inexplicably sustained a head injury himself from a sewing machine (and then somehow placed the cover back on it), before setting a fire in which he laid down to die. As you listen to each of the six episodes, it seems increasingly unbelievable that investigators didn’t consider it plausible that this could be a double homicide, not a murder suicide.

In one of the podcast’s most devastating moments, the minister at the chapel (which these devoted siblings attended all their lives) turns his back on them, refusing to let their coffins enter his church. Guided by the gentle narration of Bettrys Jones, what emerges is the tale of a community and family seeking justice, refusing to let Griff and Patti be forgotten almost half a century on. (Paul McLean)

 All episodes available now.

TV GENERATION Z (Channel 4)

Flesh-eating baby boomers turn on teenagers in Ben Wheatley’s zombiehorror series. With a strong cast including Sue Johnston, Anita Dobson and Lewis Gribben, Generation Z aims to explore intergenerational conflict through the lens of a zombie apocalypse, though its success in doing this is debatable. Set in the fictional town of Danbury, this six-parter’s premise is deliciously absurd: an army truck overturns, spilling a mysterious liquid that turns old people in the town into zombies; a generation of boomers literally feasting on the youth they once nurtured.

The idea feels rich with potential, especially in a time when conversations about wealth inequality, climate change and political inaction pit younger generations against their elders. But it’s an opportunity lost, as characters in Generation Z are drawn with such broad strokes that they verge on caricatures of what people imagine Gen Z or boomers to be. While that might work in a daft parody, Generation Z attempts to be a biting satire as well as serious drama infused with comedy and horror.

Early on in episode three, a character says ‘they see us as monsters. Maybe it’s time for us to be monsters.’ Delivered with an attempted gravity that even the actor seems to struggle with, the line highlights a core problem as the show keeps explaining its attempts at satire. There are flashes of inspiration as the aged turn on their ungrateful offspring, but they’re buried under layers of melodrama. Generation Z tries to deliver social commentary in these moments of shock but in the process forgets to entertain. Ultimately, this is a bold but messy experiment which, if viewed in the spirit of camp, can still offer some fun through over-the-top performances and a ludicrous premise. (Aashna Sharma)

 All episodes available now.

LARS DANIELSSON, VERNERI POHJOLA

& JOHN PARRICELLI

Trio (Act Music)

The simplicity of their album title chimes with the way these three oftenundersung but richly experienced musicians combine. There’s much history here: bassist Lars Danielsson worked for many years with fellow Swede, pianist Bobo Stenson, and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen. Guitarist John Parricelli was a founder member of London big band Loose Tubes and has since featured with trumpeters Kenny Wheeler and Chris Batchelor. And trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, as well as leading his own projects, is the son of Finnish bassist Pekka Pohjola, from the popular band Wigwam.

Fifteen years of recording together accounts for Danielsson and Parricelli’s intuitive understanding and, although this began as the bassist’s idea, Pohjola lends the project its voice on a dozen tracks that, while varied in style, have a unifying, sometimes hymnal quality.

In keeping with the recording’s location (Château Palmer in the Bordeaux wine region), French composers Debussy, Messiaen and Philippe Sarde are referenced as influences, with the latter’s ‘La Chanson d’Hélène’ providing a superbly regretful interlude; there are also touches of flamenco. What makes this such a pleasure to listen to is the tonal quality of each instrument allied to the trio’s graceful, personally expressive musicianship. Danielsson adds cello to the self-explanatory ‘Playing With The Groove’, while Pohjola improvises quicksilver muted trumpet lines, and the perhaps unlikely inclusion of both Ron Sexsmith’s ‘Gold In Them Hills’ and Duke Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo’ somehow emphasises the perfect alignment of three master craftsmen. (Rob Adams)

 Released on Friday 15 November.

smubla • albums •

TV

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

(Sky Atlantic/NOW)

It’s over 50 years since the teenage RAF pilot-turned-BBC war correspondent Frederick Forsyth wrote his debut novel on a typewriter with a bullet hole in it. Edward Fox played the elusive assassin in a 1973 movie adaptation of The Day Of The Jackal, and now Sky has made a ten-part TV series of the classic thriller with Eddie Redmayne as the hitman with a cold heart and impeccable wardrobe.

Redmayne is blessed with chameleonic acting skills where he can win an Oscar for playing a paralysed Stephen Hawking one minute, then convince as a pioneering transgender woman the next. That talent for mimicry made him a shoo-in for the Jackal’s many aliases: we find him effortlessly weeping in German or smoothly negotiating in French, and he’s a natural as the plummy Englishman apologising unconvincingly to his long-suffering wife (the smouldering, suspicious Úrsula Corberó).

He gets across Jackal’s boyish charm and annoying inscrutability; the killer’s constant shapeshifting makes him teasingly unknowable. Among an impressive cast is Lashana Lynch offsetting the macho landscape with her obsessed MI6 officer hunting down the assassin before his next kill; Kate Dickie is excellent too, playing a broken Belfast informant, trapped in a criminal web. In Bond-movie style, the action flips relentlessly between Bucharest, Munich and Paris, with sports cars and yachts all casually deployed. In one preposterously OTT scene, the Jackal flees on a horse, which feels like catnip chucked in for fans of the spy-action genre, and there are car chases, bullet storms and fisticuffs aplenty.

The first five episodes are lavishly made and thrilling, with more prosthetic chins, fake liver spots and dapper suits than you can shake a stick at. Corruption at the higher echelons of state power comes as standard and the show nails the pacey adrenaline of cat-and-mouse games with sniper-like precision. (Claire Sawers)  Starts on Sky Atlantic, Thursday 7 November; all episodes available the same day on NOW.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

Season Of The Swamp paints a vibrant portrait of New Orleans in the 19th century through its virtuosic, jazz-like prose. Alan Bett marvels at Yuri Herrera’s ability to weave an epic tale across so few pages

When writing a speculative history, the smart writer picks a period less documented for the creative space and artistic licence it offers. So, Yuri Herrera embroiders his latest novel, Season Of The Swamp, from the exile of political dissident Benito Juárez, an experience recorded by that individual in just two terse memoir lines.

Here he’s loafing around the coffee houses, bars and salons of 1850s New Orleans. Years later, he’ll return from that purgatory to his native Mexico, to be its first indigenous president. For much of the novel, that all feels incidental. The focus is not inwards onto that man, but looking out onto the city he finds himself in. Juárez is a fresh set of eyes through which to view this brave new world.

A kinetic establishing scene drops us into New Orleans’ chaos without knowledge or preparation, straight off the boat and as naïve to our new surroundings as its central character. The city is a contradiction. It’s a teeming metropolis rotting at the edges; aspirations of civility and modernity decomposing into the surrounding swampland. Juárez has witnessed the American capitalist machine working more subtly in New York and elsewhere, but recognises New Orleans as a city where you more clearly see the blood on the gold. The reason for this is one particular type of commerce: human beings.

Benito’s gradual recognition of this horror comes with a subtle change in the novel’s tone, interspersing floridly told grand-guignol scenes with starker and more spare use of language. Trade takes place on the city’s shore and Herrera lists commodities: ‘linen, spices, wood, wine’, ending abruptly with ‘people’. But there is still space to ridicule the nonsensical hierarchies around ethnicity and ideas of belonging which this melting-pot city holds. Season Of The Swamp is obsessed with language and what this signifies, communicating beyond the words themselves. Creole is viewed as a tongue unhitched from the dictionary and gone out for a stroll. Creoles themselves are broken down further into capital-C or small-c depending on background.

Herrera himself plays with language on the page. This is prose with a pulse, breaking grammatical rules and nodding to a jazz-like beat, at times full of repetition and a narrative voice that questions even itself. Moral blight is foreshadowed throughout, then comes to the fore with a sickness epidemic that terrorises the city and results in wild chapters told through first-person fever-dream perspectives.

All this thematic depth and formal mastery is captured in not much more than a novella. Like writers such as Claire Keegan, Denis Johnson and Andreï Makine, Yuri Herrera has the alchemy to conjure epics out of minimal literary real estate. Season Of The Swamp is a narrative that runs across a mere 18-month period and just 163 pages, yet somehow captures the world and everything in it.

Season Of The Swamp (translated by Lisa Dillman) is published by And Other Stories on Tuesday 5 November.

ALBUMS

MICHAEL KIWANUKA

Small Changes (Polydor)

The last time Michael Kiwanuka released an album, it scooped the Mercury Prize. Five years on from his self-titled third, the Ugandan Londoner is not back with a jazz-hands have-you-missed-me bang but a whisper, as is his modest way. But still waters run deep, as they say, and Small Changes is a quietly inspirational follow-up drawing on the old-school soul and R&B roots which have informed most of his work to date.

Kiwanuka collaborates again with producers Danger Mouse and London hotshot Inflo, both of whom are entirely plugged into those mellow retro-soul vibes. Legendary R&B producer Jimmy Jam and noted session bassist Pino Palladino also drop by to jam, gently. All is understated on Small Changes Nevertheless, the title track is sumptuous, infused with the warming touch of delicate electric piano chords. Its soothing sentiment and sound are an act of reassurance, topped with a burnished guitar solo. If anything, ‘One And Only’ is even more stripped back, comprising languid guitar and percussion alongside Kiwanuka’s peaceful vocals. He testifies with such a subtle ache on ‘Rebel Soul’ that it’s easy to miss the depth of expression.

He revisits his teenage years on the psych-soul nostalgia of recent single(s) ‘Lowdown Part 1’ and ‘Lowdown Part 2’ then rather underplays a strong hand on the repetitive reverie ‘Follow Your Dreams’. Meanwhile, ‘Live For Your Love’ is a joy, its soothing symphonic soul with one foot in the conscious rhythm’n’blues of the late 60s/early 70s, and the other in Soul II Soul’s late 80s metropolitan cool. Penultimate track ‘The Rest Of Me’ also evokes an 80s slow-jam vibe, with the light caress of vocals and reverb guitar. Small Changes may prove too low-key for some but as it fades out on the lastdance sway of ‘Four Long Years’, its feelgood elixir lingers. (Fiona Shepherd)

 Released on Friday 15 November.

smubla • albums •

GAMES SILENT HILL 2 (Bloober Team)

On its release in 2001, Silent Hill 2 was lauded for its suffocating atmosphere, horrific imagery and adult story. Fans have long since clamoured for a remake (ignoring the dreadful 2012 ‘remaster’) and now Layers Of Fear developer, Bloober Team, have delivered a brand-new version for modern systems that is resolutely faithful to the original, for good and for ill.

The 2001 game slathered itself with dense fog to overcome that era’s technical limitations but it also helped establish the game’s foreboding atmosphere. This time round, volumetric fog feels less like a necessity and more like a feature: seemingly alive, it rises and falls and creepily caresses the street furniture. The audio design, also critical to the original, is exemplary. Long before encountering an enemy, you’ll know it’s coming thanks to the crackle of static on James’ radio and the gradual massing of nightmarish tones. There are sparse moments featuring a barely audible inhuman gasp or whisper; elsewhere the soundscape intensifies to a terrifying cacophony that signals immediate danger. Together with the hideous, iconic creature design, at times it almost becomes overwhelming.

There are ways in which the game would have benefited by diverging from its progenitor: it has far too many enemies, while the hospital and prison sections are interminable. But remaking Silent Hill 2 was a mighty big ask and Bloober Team have crafted a fine remake. For fans of the original who want the same experience but shinier, this is an unmitigated triumph, and for newcomers it’s the best way to experience one of gaming’s greatest horror stories. (Murray Robertson)

 Out now on PC and PS5.

MORE THINGS WORTH STAYING IN FOR

A packed month of things to do indoors or consume on your travels include a new edition of the book that outraged France, a spooky podcast about twin girls, and the junior version of a beloved modern game show

ALBUMS

THE BLACK KEYS

Beck, Noel Gallagher and Juicy J all popped up on Ohio Players which came out earlier this year, and now this expanded ‘Trophy Edition’ takes its listeners on a trip from 1960s Memphis through to 1990s Manchester.

 Nonesuch Records, Friday 15 November.

MARY J BLIGE

The irrepressible queen of hip-hop soul shows her Gratitude with a 15th album which she previously claimed would be her final studio record. She has a huge US tour next year and then we shall see.

 300, Friday 15 November.

BOOKS

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

Everyone from Marcel Proust to Patti Smith are fans of Baudelaire, and The Flowers Of Evil is the book that claims to have scandalised Paris and reinvented beauty. Quite a pair of claims.

 Verso, Saturday 16 November.

ANGELA MERKEL

Anyone interested in the shifting sands of Europe’s political landscape over the past half century and more should grab a copy of the ex-German Chancellor’s memoirs.

 Macmillan, Tuesday 26 November.

GAMES

PLANET COASTER 2

A sequel to the 2016 game in which you get to construct your very own waterpark from twisty bendy water slides to towering rollercoasters.

 Frontier Developments, Wednesday 6 November.

PODCASTS

EXTRASENSORY

Actor Will Sharpe (Flowers, The White Lotus) hosts this almost unbelievable pod that tells the story of a man who predicted that his two dead daughters would be reborn. Then his wife gives birth to twin girls, at which point things get weird . . .

 Apple Original Podcast, new episodes available every Monday.

TV JUNIOR TASKMASTER

Rose Matafeo and Mike Wozniak co-present this spin-off to the ‘grown-ups’ series as a set of nine to eleven-year-olds prepare to face a bunch of chaotic and implausible challenges.

 Channel 4, Friday 8 November.

BREAD AND ROSES

This documentary by Sahra Mani (with Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence on producing duties) looks at the impact that the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in 2021 had on women’s rights and lives. You can probably guess.

 Apple TV+, Friday 22 November.

THE MADNESS

Colman Domingo stars as a media pundit called Muncie Daniels who tries to clear his name after he accidentally stumbles upon a murder in the woods. Welcome to your latest addictive conspiracy thriller series.

 Netflix, Thursday 28 November.

Junior Taskmaster (and bottom from left), Extrasensory, The Black Keys, Angela Merkel

back

THE Q& A WITH MILTON JONES

One of the country’s leading practitioners of punnery, Milton Jones is back on the road with more ingenious wordplay. But first, he grapples with this question and answer session in which he reveals various feelings about carwashes, combs, Christmas, Clubcards and keys

Who would you like to see playing you in the movie about your life? Who do you think the casting people would choose? Me or Idris Elba. But casting people would probably go for someone more obvious like Gerard Depardieu or Orinoco the Womble.

What’s the punchline to your favourite joke? Probably ‘so I got up and punched grandma!’

If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? A mayfly. They only live for one day. Not to be confused with one of those ‘24-hour bugs’.

If you were playing in an escape room name two other people (wellknown or otherwise) you’d recruit to help you get out? James Timpson who runs all those key shops. Also, as a child I met Houdini. My lasting memory of him is . . . no, it’s gone!

When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else and what were the circumstances? Several people have said to me ‘hey, are you Milton Keynes?’ I always say ‘yes’. And in a way it’s true, as we both spend a lot of time on roundabouts.

What’s the best cover version ever? ‘Duvet Know It’s Christmas’.

Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? The Tesco self-service checkout. It says things like ‘Clubcard accepted!’ and ‘we just need to approve this’. Although ‘do you want to continue?’ is a bit sinister.

By decree of your local council, you’ve been ordered to destroy one room in your house and all of its contents. Which room do you choose? There is one room I’d like rid of. When I was growing up we only had an outside toilet. Later we moved into a house.

Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? Never put a live bird in the lavatory: a toilet duck is something else!

Describe your perfect Saturday evening? Oh, I just like to stay in and read. At the moment I’m reading The Bluffer’s Guide To Parachuting. Not sure how it ends. Then maybe I’d have a boilin-the-bag-meal; you know, one of those goldfish you get at fairgrounds.

If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? Richard Dawkins. I think he’s the sort of rational scientist who doesn’t believe in them. But then there’s always the danger of him guessing that my existence was merely based on a theoretical question.

If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? Any day I worked as a bouncer. I loved that Spacehopper showroom.

What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? As a teenager I reckon I would have won laziest person of the year. If I’d entered. My brother won a prize for petty burglary. He got silver.

Did you have a nickname at school that you were ok with? And can you tell us a nickname you hated? I was called all sort of things at school. ‘Milkman’ was ok, but ‘Idiot’ and ‘Mr Thickie’ were a bit harsh. I hated being a supply teacher.

If you were to start a tribute act to a band or singer, who would it be in tribute to and what would it be called? I would perform as the diva Pariah Carey. At least the pressure would be off for drawing a crowd. Either that or Odd Stewart.

When did you last cry? When for Christmas my family bought me a voucher for a clinic in Switzerland.

When were you most recently astonished by something? The price of a basic carwash in Barrow-in-Furness: £2.99! Almost worth driving up there from London!

What tune do you find it impossible not to get up and dance to, whether in public or private? The noise the green man makes at a pedestrian crossing. I think that’s what The Beatles were doing on that album cover.

Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? The man who invented Frosties: Alexander The Grrrrreat!

As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact? On his birthday, my nephew shouted ‘these are just large bits of cardboard: an Xbox is something else!’

Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? I have several combs.

What would you say is the most hitech item in your home? I’ve managed to install a smoke alarm that you can put on ‘snooze’.

What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? I’d like to learn how to use a camera properly. I went on a photography course once, but it was all a bit of a blur.

If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your first luxury destination for espionage? I‘ve always wanted to go to Hawaii. Imagine: it’s covered with ham and pineapple!

Milton Jones: Ha!Milton, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thursday 7 November; Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Saturday 9 November.

1 2 3

She may be an Evil, Hate Filled Female (according to her new album title) and has been known to don little devil horns, but we reckon Delilah Bon could safely be invited round for tea and scones without too much mayhem ensuing. Glasgow’s G2 hosts the final night of her current tour (Saturday 16 November).

Rabid fans of stage musical Wicked will no doubt be experiencing a varying level of excitement and trepidation as the first part of the movie version prepares to open in cinemas (Friday 22 November). Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are tasked with not only defying gravity but wowing a legion of passionate devotees.

In 1993, just months before his death, Derek Jarman’s experimental Blue was screened on Channel 4. Blue Now is a revamped version which hits the stage at Glasgow’s Tramway (Saturday 2 November) featuring live work by Russell Tovey and Joelle Taylor. A separate Jarman exhibition runs at The Hunterian until May.

PICTURE:

If you’re looking for the perfect venue to celebrate your festive events, then put Johnnie Walker Princes Street at the top of your list. e xpL ore our festive packages

Let the festivities begin