The List Issue 787 by List Publishing Ltd

Debate has been had. Votes have been cast. Who came top in our Scottish cultural poll?

CALLUM BEATTIE ON BEING MISTAKEN FOR LEWIS CAPALDI

Finally, we arrive at arguably our most contentious issue of the year. The one where 100 (or so) people are placed in order and designated spots ahead of or below their peers. When the mag rebooted in 2022, our first Hot 100 of the new era was met with howls of pain from a particular tabloid over the exclusion of a Capaldi. It was our view that master Lewis hadn’t quite done enough to merit a spot that year, but he did fine in the 2023 poll (cue silence from said red top).

After literally months of chats, discussions and debates, we now reveal the person who follows in the footsteps of Young Fathers and Ncuti Gatwa to nab the number one slot in our countdown of Scottish (or Scotland-based) cultural figures. Just as important is who will bookend the poll at numero 100, a spot that we reserve for someone who has done good stuff this past year but is sufficiently famous enough not to be too troubled at residing at the bottom of our pile (feels a little off to have an up and comer holding up the rest).

The Proclaimers and Paolo Nutini were 100 in the past two years and their careers haven’t exactly stalled in embarrassment.

Looking at what’s behind as well as in front of us is a big part of this issue in other ways, as a number of our critics pick their cultural high of 2024 for an Insider special, plus we gather up a number of clear highlights in the coming year for those who will be Going Out as well as those who are Staying In, and pick some Future Talent that look set to break through in 2025. We also pay tribute to the late and truly great Janey Godley. The presence in our Hot 100 of her talented daughter Ashley Storrie is just another cultural legacy that Janey leaves us.

Brian Donaldson EDITOR

Friers

Brian Donaldson Art Director Bradley Southam Subeditor Paul McLean

Jo Laidlaw

Megan Merino

Designer Isabella Dalliston

Writers

Aashna Sharma, Ailsa Sheldon, Alekia Gill, Allan Radcliffe, Becca Inglis, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Donald Reid, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Fiona Shepherd, Greg Thomas, Isy Santini, Jay Richardson, Jay Thundercliffe, Jo Laidlaw, Katherine McLaughlin, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Marissa Burgess, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul McLean, Rachel Ashenden, Rachel Cronin, Rachel Morrell, Sean Greenhorn

front

That time of year again when we all have a good old reflection on what’s come down the cultural pipes these past 12 months. A bunch of our critics pick their numero uno for 2024

MURRAY ROBERTSON

It was an absolute privilege to watch Amy Gledhill perform her show Make Me Look Fit On The Poster just a few hours after she won the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Despite having had ‘some prosecco’, she put on a stunning hour of comedy and cemented herself as one of my favourite comedians.

EMMA SIMMONDS

Unleashing an avalanche of well-crafted absurdity, Rumours is a must-see comedy from Guy Maddin and Evan and Galen Johnson which turns the G7 summit into a batshit survival situation featuring marauding bog creatures and socially awkward characters. Cate Blanchett headlines but Roy Dupuis steals the show as the hunky and heroic Canadian PM.

KELLY APTER

If you could have bottled the feeling inside Murrayfield during a memorable weekend of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, world peace would be within our grasp. Swapping friendship bracelets, singing along to every single word, dancing so hard we caused an earthquake, and all united in our adoration of this unfeasibly talented performer: Scotland’s Swifties have been on a comedown ever since.

KEVIN FULLERTON

Gangrenous flesh, make-up smeared across faces, blood fire-hosed over an audience of smiling idiots. These are just a few of the grotesque spectacles in The Substance, clawing their way out of the cinema screen in a litany of delighted obscenities. That Coralie Fargeat has made this a mainstream hit is testament to her talent.

MEGAN MERINO

Director Jane Schoenbrun insisted that her sophomore feature I Saw The TV Glow (a Buffy-coded, coming-ofage story dripping in angst and queer awakenings) would have ‘the best original soundtrack ever’. Created by artists spanning Caroline Polachek, Yeule and Phoebe Bridgers, this standalone masterpiece of an album also becomes its own character in the film’s dark static world.

CLAIRE SAWERS

I loved Miranda July’s wise, strange novel All Fours so much that when I finished the paperback, I downloaded the audiobook which comes with July’s deadpan voice: even better. I didn’t want to leave that fortysomething character as she presses pause on motherhood, reflects on creativity, dances, has crushes, and flips patriarchal notions of ageing and relationships on their head.

the insider 2024 special

PICTURE:

RACHEL MORRELL

My wholesome highlight comes courtesy of @indipine who, inspired by famous baby hippo Moo Deng, has encapsulated characteristics of King Arthur’s knights in an assemblage of chunky endangered species to make Knights Of The Rotund Table. Animal charities are benefitting, and you can even find Scotland’s own stout superstar, Baby Haggis.

ISY SANTINI

Premiering at Weird Weekend, Castration Movie proved to be a refreshing and utterly unique piece of LGBTQ+ cinema. The film comes in at a whopping four and a half hours (and that’s just Part I!) but with its frank and humorous look at trans life, it’s sure to become a celebrated cult classic.

PAUL MCLEAN

The Motive And The Cue relived the turbulent gestation of a 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, which starred Richard Burton under the direction of John Gielgud. In a funny and ferocious production, watching Johnny Flynn as Burton was like a firework going off on stage, but Mark Gatiss stole the show as waspish theatrical legend Gielgud.

Clearly, this drips with cultural privilege, but standing on a windswept beach gazing up at Jacob Nash’s monumental whalebone set, witnessing the extraordinary Baleen Moondjan at the Adelaide Festival was utterly unforgettable. Maybe the purpose of art is to show us the things we don’t know we don’t know? This opened my mind and shattered my heart.

EDDIE HARRISON

For many, the premium rush experience of 2024 was taking part in the phenomenon of mass internet migration. With Threads a false dawn, arriving at the calm sanctuary of Bluesky felt serene. Most online oases become a dystopian hellscape eventually, but ditching toxic influences soothed like shared communal zen.

BRIAN DONALDSON

Finishing off a long-running series is an onerous and often thankless task but Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith got it note perfect with their finale of Inside No 9. Lots of delicious inside jokes and cross references elevated their denouement (of nine series, naturally) as it all came full circle by smartly mirroring the very first episode, ‘Sardines’.

DANNY MUNRO

After more than a decade and a half of consistent innovation, pop pioneer Charli XCX finally captured the zeitgeist with her sixth studio album, Brat. The collection of club-ready bangers and moments of vulnerability were marketed tactfully thanks to the instantly iconic lime-green branding, and listeners were left feeling as though they were finally hearing Charli’s pièce de résistance.

JO LAIDLAW

PICTURE: HARLEY WEIR

PICTURE: MARK DOUET

PICTURE: BBC

STUDIOS/JAMES STACK

Cream of the crop, pick of the litter, top bananas. Call them what you will, but here they are: our Hot 100 countdown of those who made their mark on Scotland’s cultural scene over the last 12 months. Despite the sustained financial pressures facing artists and businesses, from the cost-of-living crisis to under-attack arts budgets, the resilience and abundance of talent based in and from Scotland continues to astonish. So join us and raise a glass to the awardwinning, genre-bending, mind-expanding creatives who have helped shape the cultural face of our nation in 2024

Writers: Ailsa Sheldon, Allan Radcliffe, Becca Inglis, Brian Donaldson, Carol Main, Claire Sawers, David Kirkwood, Donald Reid, Eddie Harrison, Fiona Shepherd, Isy Santini, Jay Richardson, Jo Laidlaw, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Marissa Burgess, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Rachel Ashenden, Rachel Cronin

100

DAVID TENNANT

ISOBEL

Macbeth

Hot off his highly successful return to Doctor Who late last year, Tennant also reprised his Scottish king in at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Bestowed with the Celebrity Ally Award at the British LGBT Awards, he also made time for Disney+’s hugely entertaining adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals as the devious TV boss, Lord Baddingham. (MR)

& IMOGEN

ARMSTRONG

95

These co-directors and sisters have breathed new life into the herb gardens of Midlothian’s Secret Garden Distillery. Botanical gins Wild, Summer, Pinot Noir and Lemon Verbena have won a bouquet of awards, while a rm commitment to reducing their environmental impact prompted a gorgeous rebrand and more sustainable packaging. (AS)

BRIAN LOGAN

Many know him as The Guardian’s comedy critic, but the Fife-born director has serious theatre credentials. Before his recent takeover of Glasgow’s A Play, A Pie And A Pint, he cultivated new talent at Camden People’s Theatre for 13 years and, before that, with his own company, Cartoon De Salvo. (MF)

PSWEATPANTS

Camberwell-born rapper Psweatpants (with a not-silent P) has forged links across musical genres since moving to Scotland, performing and collaborating with the likes of Declan Welsh, Parliamo and Vlure. In November, he followed up his Life Was Shit, It Still Is Now mixtape with the more optimistic party vibe of the 2 Left Feet EP. (FS)

JOAN CLEVILLÉ

The artistic director of Scottish Dance Theatre lled our lives with fascinating and joyful movement. Having presented The Life And Times online during covid, Clevillé transformed it into an unforgettable live event. The company also lit up venues across the UK with a gorgeous double bill of The Flock and Moving Cloud. (KA)

OLA WOJTKIEWICZ

Creative Edinburgh’s executive director spearheaded the Creativity And Innovation Project which helped engage over 15,000 creatives in adopting more sustainable practices, and oversaw many creative partnerships and mentoring initiatives across the capital. (BD)

94 TALLULAH GREIVE

An alumna of Edinburgh’s Strange Town Agency, Greive delivered an impressive performance as Beatrix in BBC Three’s Boarders which has deservedly nabbed a second series, while on stage she appeared in Chichester Festival Theatre’s adaptation of Jamila Gavin’s Whitbread-winning Coram Boy. (BD)

PETER ALLISON, NICK RAVENHALL & DUNCAN MCRAE

Proving that taste has no borders, the team behind Leith’s Woven are shaking up blended whisky, rising to number 29 on Drinks International’s most admired whiskies of the world. Woven also launched a 20th limited edition, Friends In The North, and opened up a second blending studio in London. (AS)

DANIEL GILLESPIE

Gillespie overcame the odds to bring back Tiree Music Festival (with a line-up including Heisk, Aoife Scott and Beinn Lee) after it was cancelled last year due to extreme weather. Gillespie’s own band Skerryvore wowed audiences across Europe and were shortlisted for the Legend Award at the Scottish Live Music Awards. (MMT)

91 TWEEDY

Aberdeen-born clown Tweedy (aka Alan Digweed) temporarily swapped the Big Top of Giffords for a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe with a lauded act in which his freewheeling character attempts to persuade everyone that he’s performing in a Massive Circus when in fact his whole world has shrunk dramatically. (BD)

90 COINNEACH MACLEOD

The Hebridean Baker continues to rule the scone-based waves. Inspired by his island life, The Scottish Cookbook is no doubt heading for Christmas stockings up and down the land. A bit of an LGBT+ icon, he hosts a podcast for CalMac and also has the good people of the interweb learning Gaelic. (JL)

89 KARL JAY-LEWIN

The creative director of Dance North ensures that the beautiful town of Findhorn is a hotbed of contemporary dance year-round. But the company’s annual dance festival, Rise, always cranks things up a notch and was once again a powerful, life-af rming weekend of performance and participation. (KA)

88 KHALID ABDALLA

Opening the past 12 months with a sympathetic performance as the tragic Dodi Fayed in the nal series of The Crown, he ended it as tech billionaire Ulle Dag Charles in The Day Of The Jackal. In between, the Glasgow-born actor starred in Complicité’s Mnemonic at the National Theatre. (BD)

87 IONA FYFE

The multi-award winning folk singer and Scots language advocate was as industrious as ever, organising the rst ever Huntly Ceilidh Day, releasing her Scots language version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ to mark The Eras Tour arriving in Edinburgh, touring North America, and being elected rector of Aberdeen University. (FS)

86 COLIN BURNETT

Following his short story collection A Working Class State Of Mind, Bonnyrigg author Burnett published the sequel, Who’s Aldo? Written in east coast Scots, it’s like The Sopranos set in Leith, and among the black humour, bampottery and violence of Aldo’s criminal escapades, there’s real sympathy and solidarity with Scotland’s most deprived and vulnerable. (CS)

ILIYANA NEDKOVA & WENDY TIMMONS

Pomegranates, Scotland’s traditional dance festival, was back for its second year, led by curators Nedkova and Timmons. A mark of the festival’s success, they were able to sign up dance legend Jonzi D as choreographerin-residence and keynote speaker. (LR)

84 NORMAN BOWMAN

The Arbroath-born musical-theatre stalwart has spent most of his career in London’s West End, but he hit the Edinburgh Fringe with quirky song-fest The Scot And The Showgirl Performing alongside real-life partner Frances Ruffelle, Bowman made us laugh, cry and marvel at his smooth delivery. (KA)

83 SEAN WENHAM

There’s the old Jean-Luc Godard quote that ‘all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl’ and then there’s The Sims. Glasgowbased designer Wenham has ingeniously combined those two disparate concepts into the feature-length game Apartment Story, an innovative thriller brimming with potential. (KF)

ISIS HAINSWORTH

Edinburgh-born Hainsworth starred in National Theatre Of Scotland’s adaptation of The Outrun as Woman, her curly haired, confident, ebullient and vulnerable take on Amy Liptrot’s character. She also shone brightly opposite Harriet Walter in National Theatre’s The House Of Bernarda Alba as directed by Rebecca Frecknall. (CS)

CHRIS YOUNG

Young founded the Sean Connery Talent Lab, which this year gave 26 talented filmmakers the chance to develop their skills to a professional level. His efforts to provide a ‘national film school experience’ may help an industry in need of more Scottish voices both in front of and behind the camera. (KF)

RODNEY WAGES

Bringing a little Californian sunshine to Edinburgh, Wages uprooted his Michelinstarred restaurant Avery (furniture and all) from San Francisco to Stockbridge. He and his team fuse seasonal Scottish ingredients (including seafood, game and foraged produce) with global techniques to create dishes that dazzle, in an unforgettable multicourse dining experience. (AS)

79 EYVE

Glasgow-based rapper and singer Eyve Madyise released her Sista! Beyond The Sky Isn’t The Limit EP, featuring songs of identity and healing. She rounded off the year with a tasty nomination in the Best Hip Hop category of the Scottish Alternative Music Awards. (FS)

78 NICOLA BENEDETTI

Benedetti notched up a very successful second stint as Edinburgh International Festival director, with highlights including the evocative light and sound extravaganza, Where To Begin, and the top-secret Up Lates events which featured a hush-hush appearance by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. (BD)

77 RUTH BOREHAM

Historian Boreham has been shining a light on the forgotten stories of Edinburgh’s women for almost two years now. Her Women’s History Walking Tours cover individuals overlooked by the city’s traditional narratives, from miniaturist and calligrapher Esther Inglis to mathematician and scientist Mary Somerville. (LR)

76 STUART BRAITHWAITE

Mogwai’s multi-hyphenate added another string to his bow this year with Big City, a festival in Glasgow featuring a melange of psych rock, anxious indie, goth pop and literary talks. To our count, Braithwaite appeared onstage no less than four times, acting as the glue for a day brimming with community atmosphere. (KF)

75 EVERLYN NICODEMUS

Based in Edinburgh, Tanzania-born artist Nicodemus makes vibrant art in response to the global oppression of women. Her rst retrospective is now on display at Modern One, an exhibition that was made possible by the acclaimed Freelands Foundation Award which Nicodemus won in 2022. (RA)

74 JOE CLANCY

First there was fear and then there was relief: while father John and uncle James were moving on from The Laurieston, Joe Clancy was staying put, his hands rmly at the helm. The pub many say is the best in Britain has lost not one jot of the alchemy that’s made it thus. (DK)

73 KITTI

In the year that soulful singer-songwriter Kitti nally gave us her much anticipated debut album, Somethin’ In The Water, she was also nominated for Best Vocalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards, wrote ‘Viva Palestina’ to raise funds for Palestine, and supported Hue And Cry on tour. (CS)

ARRAN HOWIE & ALEX BIRD

Co-directors of theatre company Tortoise In A Nutshell, Howie and Bird brought Norse mythology to life with Ragnarok, a multimedia theatrical experience incorporating puppetry, lm and live music. The show explored themes of displacement and climate change, and received rave reviews. (IS)

71 LEN PENNIE

It’s not often that poetry books nd their way onto bestseller lists, but Airdrie-born Pennie has amassed a huge following as a performance poet and social-media phenomenon. Her punchy debut collection, Poyums, showcased characteristic passion and humour as well as her delight in the Scots language. (AR)

70 JO MANGO & LIAM HURLEY

Musician Mango and playwright Hurley headed the team of good souls who conceived A Giant On The Bridge, a gigtheatre show platforming the voices of those affected by the criminal justice system (from prisoners to support services to victims of crime) which grew out of the Distant Voices community songwriting project. (FS)

69 MARK COUSINS

Based in Scotland, documentary-maker Mark Cousins released A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, his visual essay on modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. That doc took the Crystal Globe prize at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and received a nomination at our own inaugural Edinburgh Festival Awards. (EH)

SIMON DONALDSON

Island

MIKE BAXTER

Scotland’s second House Of Gods hotel opened up on Glasgow’s Glassford Street. Behind its doors, the creative outré brand’s co-founder Baxter has conjured up another empire of decadence celebrating Golden Age travel. This summer, the group also announced plans for two further hotels, in London and Manchester. (LR)

As Long John Silver in Scottish Theatre Producers’ touring production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s seafaring classic Treasure , Simon Donaldson effortlessly captured the villain’s seductive charm. He also attracted strong notices for his comic portrayal of Rick in the revival of Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut at Perth Theatre. (JR)

SOPHIA YADONG HAO

NAVIDA GALBRAITH

Leading the charge to reopen The Pitt on Granton’s West Shore Road, Galbraith and her team’s plans began in July with a successful crowdfunder. They’ve now rapidly converted the space from a warehouse complex into multi-arts venues, food and drink hotspot, and community hang-out. (KF)

warehouse complex into multi-arts venues,

Principal curator at Dundee’s Cooper Gallery, Hao is recognised for her feminist and decolonial curatorial methods. She cocurated The Scale Of Things which examines human-nature relationships through three moving-image artists, including Scotland’s lm poet, Margaret Tait. (RA)

ESTHER SWIFT

DARCIE MAHER

Having opened Lannan Bakery in Edinburgh last year using the time-honoured marketing tools of Instagram, TikTok and an hour-long queue out the door, baker and pâtissier Maher scooped an award this year for her stylish Stockbridge outlet from prestigious French good food guide La Liste (good name). (DR)

The release of this composer-harpist’s debut album Expectations Of A Lifetime furthered her reputation as a multi-faceted artist. Swift successfully combines her vocal and instrumental abilities with a love of folk, classical, jazz and dance music to beautifully explore themes of womanhood, metamorphosis and nature. (MM)

62 SAM GOUGH

In what has proved to be an especially challenging year for Summerhall, the work of its chief executive still shone through. Highlights included Fringe hits Weather Girl and June Carter Cash, with his summer duly topped off by scooping our Spirit Of The Fringe Award. (BD)

EMMA BOA & PAUL RIDD

With limited funding, reviving the Edinburgh International Film Festival has been no easy task, yet the new production team of Boa and Ridd still managed to deliver a signi cant programme, from gritty opener The Outrun to a popular closing lm, girl-band documentary Since Yesterday. (EH)

60 FERGUS MCCREADIE

Scotland’s favourite jazz pianist released the follow-up to his Mercury-nominated album Forest Floor with Stream, a collection of epic compositions equally inspired by Scotland’s nature but with more free-jazz crescendos than its folkier predecessor. He also featured on corto.alto’s Mercury-nominated Bad With Names. (MM)

STUART MCPHERSON

With Some Laugh staging its biggest live show yet at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre, McPherson’s podcast with Marc Jennings and Stephen Buchanan has established itself as the place for local and touring comics to promote themselves. He also returns in BBC sketch show Queen Of The New Year and has announced his rst UK tour. (JR)

58 PAM BRUNTON

Between Two Waters, Brunton’s clear-eyed dissection of contemporary food culture and systems, is an accomplished and comprehensive debut. That she wrote it while continuing to helm the stove at revered restaurant Inver, holder of Scotland’s only green Michelin Star, makes her a true force of nature. (JL)

57 DARA DUBH

The Irish-born, Edinburgh-based harpist has thundered into ‘one to watch’ territory with her promising EP In My Element, which showcased a dynamic pop sensibility. Already selling out small venues, we’d be surprised if Dubh isn’t higher up this list in a few years’ time. (KF)

56 MHAIRI MCCALL

Deciding Scotland’s most well-kent monarch needed a musical as fabulous as Six, McCall and company Pretty Knickers brought Mary, Queen Of Rock! to the Edinburgh Fringe. A punk take on Mary’s life, it cleverly balanced an examination of misogyny in the music industry with wit and belting tunes. (LR)

55 ROSCO MCCLELLAND

McClelland had us howling with Sudden Death, his animated and emotional Edinburgh Fringe hour. Offloading about his lifethreatening heart condition, this hilarious and sometimes serious show earned several plaudits. The Scots comic also cropped up on Sam Lake’s podcast, I’ve Had A Rosé, Let’s Talk About Feelings. (RC)

ANDREW WASYLYK & TOMMY PERMAN

Two of Scotland’s most progressive contemporary composers came together on Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On, an album created using random Fluxus-style guidelines to spark ideas. The evocative results harmonised Wasylyk’s pastoral piano melodies and Perman’s percussive instincts with bonus guest vocals by Aidan Moffat. (FS)

53 IZUKA HOYLE

There’s no letting up for the Edinburgh-born actress as she made three notable screen appearances. Hoyle returned as no-nonsense Corinne for Channel 4’s second batch of Big Boys, showed up as a friend of the main character in The Outrun, and was DS Alice Finch in the new David Mitchell-helmed BBC ‘tec drama Ludwig. (BD)

VALTOS

Valtos soared with their Julie Fowlis collaboration ‘A’ Chuthag’ while the sales figures for their Celtic Connections show were indicative of a growing domestic and international appeal. Meanwhile, the Valtos & Friends project culminated with ‘Hò Rò’ alongside Peatbog Faeries. (MMT)

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51 WILL COOPER

The Wyllieum, a new gallery in Greenock led by Cooper, opened in honour of the late sculptor, George Wyllie. Dedicated to preserving his art and influence, the gallery houses Wyllie’s collection and exhibits artists whose work resonates with his playful and provocative practice. (RA)

50 BLAIR FERGUSON

Few have demonstrated the heights that can be reached from your own room better than Glaswegian prodigy Ferguson. Also known as producer BLK Beats, he picked up his first Grammy win for SZA’s chart-topping hit ‘Snooze’ (named Best R&B Song). Flowers are also due for Ferguson’s contribution to her SOS, which won Best Progressive R&B Album. (BI)

49 MARJOLEIN ROBERTSON

The Shetland stand-up followed her breakout 2023 Edinburgh Fringe hit Marj with O, the second show in her deeply personal storytelling trilogy, earning a further clutch of starry reviews. Robertson also signed up with the same agency that hosts Michael McIntyre and Kevin Bridges. (JR)

TONY MILLS

Dance Base continues to be one of our favourite Fringe venues and this year’s programme did not disappoint. Artistic director Mills secured some brilliant choreographers and artists who wowed us with four and five-star triumphs from Australia, Ireland and Taiwan. (LR)

JAMES MACMILLAN

Featured regularly in these pages not just for his music but for The Cumnock Tryst, the innovative festival he founded in 2014, MacMillan recently became a Fellow Of The Ivors Academy. This accolade was followed by the Tryst winning the Sky Arts Award For Classical Music. (CM)

ROBERT SOFTLEY GALE

As artistic director of Birds Of Paradise Theatre Company, Softley Gale celebrated the company’s 30th anniversary year with a tour of Rob Drummond’s comic play, Don’t. Make. Tea. After more than a decade in post, Softly Gale has helped take the pioneering disabled artist-led company into the theatrical mainstream. (NC)

ANDRÉS N ORDORICA

Poet Ordorica released his debut novel, How We Named The Stars, to great acclaim. The book tells the story of two boys falling in love after meeting at college and earned Ordorica a place on the prestigious Observer’s Best Debut Novels list. (LR)

AIDAN THOMSON

Swinging open its doors on Edinburgh’s increasingly bustling Easter Road, Interval has become one of the capital’s trendiest and most aesthetically pleasing running retailers. With goals far beyond just selling shoes, founder Thomson has organised regular social events and track nights. (MM)

ROBERT FLORENCE & RYAN MACLEOD

Florence and Macleod revitalised their longrunning gaming show Consolevania under a new guise. CVXX, a podcast-style romp through media from yesteryear, gave them licence to chat about movies, music and telly (along with their usual idiosyncratic reviews of games), combining off-the-wall humour with incisive conversation. (KF)

ANNA HEPBURN

The creative force behind Glasgow’s Spot Design Market, Hepburn has established her Southside shop as a permanent and premium makers’ retailer, giving artisans from Scotland and beyond a place to display and present their creations to the right audience yearround and in quarterly market events. (MM)

ROLAND WOOD

A favourite British baritone, Wood has wowed audiences with numerous operatic roles for Scottish Opera and was most recently seen in Edinburgh International Festival’s Oedipus Rex playing Creon, and as the iconic thinker for a new production of Jonathan Dove’s Marx In London! (CM)

AMY MATTHEWS

With her third show, Commute With The Foxes, Matthews cemented a reputation for hugely insightful and exquisitely penned comedy. She’s also co-hosted Snookered on BBC Sounds, appears on Radio Scotland’s Breaking The News and this autumn embarked on a solo nationwide tour. (MB)

RODY GORMAN

Heralded as ‘a masterpiece’ by poet John Glenday, Gorman’s Sweeney: An Intertonguing included poetry and translation in three Gaelic languages and English, as well as the poet’s self-created lingua gadelica. Another Gorman collection, Sa Chnoc, won the poetry award at Na Duaisean Litreachais (Gaelic Literature Awards) as well as the Wigtown Gaelic poetry prize. (MMT)

LARRY DEAN

A fresh-faced veteran of the stand-up scene, Dean sold out his Edinburgh Fringe run with Dodger, a beautiful and hilarious tribute to his grandma. He also made his feature film debut in This Time Next Year, a title perhaps prescient about his own meteoric ascent in the world of comedy. (MR)

HAMISH HAWK

Edinburgh’s dandy music man was on a roll with third album A Firmer Hand. This audacious indie-pop study of masculinity was released to admiring notices, hit the top of the Scottish album charts, and became Hawk’s first UK Top 40 album. He’ll wrap up an exultant 2024 supporting Travis at the Hydro. (FS)

PICTURE:

PICTURE: JAMES BELLORINI

JANE MACSORLEY

Veteran investigative journalist MacSorley continued her impeccably researched interrogations into justice and the human capacity for evil in two gripping BBC podcasts. Worse Than Murder revisited the heartbreaking story of Muriel McKay, while Inside Murder Trial: A Deadly Affair analysed a 46-year-old cold case. (LR)

CRAIG GROZIER

With a ferocious focus on seasonality, Grozier has been an in-demand presence as consultant and bespoke dining chef for over a decade. Now, with Fallachan Kitchen, anyone can savour his curated evenings of precision and provenance from a railway arch near the SWG3 complex. It’s a unique offering for Glasgow. (DK)

FERN BRADY

Brady released her first Netflix special, Autistic Beauty Queen, and won the Nero Award for non-fiction with her memoir Strong Female Character. She also signed up for Channel 4’s Celebrity Bake Off, her efforts to engage with Prue Leith inspiring an uproarious routine in her confessional standup, I Gave You Milk To Drink. (JR)

DOUGLAS MAXWELL

Maxwell’s play So Young was a Fringe highlight: a tender, wry exploration of the impact of grief on a group of friends, bringing both tears and laughter, often in the same beat. A Play, A Pie And A Pint effort The Sheriff Of Kalamaki also netted him Best New Play at the CATS. (JL)

32 FORBES MASSON & ALAN CUMMING

Masson excelled in a one-man Jekyll & Hyde and began rehearsals to play Caliban opposite Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest, while Cumming made waves when he was announced as the next artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Together they published a meander down memory lane as Victor & Barry, adding celebrity clout to 404 Ink’s excellent indie roster. (BD)

31 FLANNERY O'KAFKA

O’kafka’s exhibition For Willy Love And Booker T: Blue Babies Do Whatever They Want made full use of Sierra Metro gallery’s space during its Edinburgh Art Festival run. The show’s mix of photography, lm and a cosily carpeted environment saw Glasgowbased O’kafka win a List Festival Award. (NC)

30 ALISTAIR MCAULEY & PAUL SIMMONS

Together, McAuley and Simmons founded Timorous Beasties back in 1990, a design and print studio specialising in wallpapers and fabrics. They’ve recently opened a showroom in Edinburgh, which is home to all their bold and ornate designs, as well as some ceramics exclusive to the capital. (IS)

29 CHRISTOPHER HAMPSON

Scottish Ballet’s artistic director continues to take the company in unexpected directions: in Cinders!, the central character is played by either a male or female dancer, the identity only revealed at curtain-up. Hampson’s ongoing support for emerging choreographers led to three short lms and brand-new sections in The Nutcracker. (KA)

28 AIMEE BALLINGER

Alternative Glasgow bookshop Burning House Books was founded by Ballinger in 2016 to promote texts with a focus on art, experimental writing, counterculture and queer history. Ballinger engages her community of socially conscious readers with regular newsletters, in-store events and a personable social-media presence. (MM)

27 ELLE MACHRAY

Edinburgh-based author Machray’s debut novel Remember, Remember was one of the year’s buzziest books. An alternative history about one woman’s quest to end transatlantic slavery, the novel has been universally praised for its boldness and was nominated at Scotland’s National Book Awards. (LR)

26 ARMANDO IANNUCCI

This master of satire is a producer on new HBO show The Franchise, a vigorous takedown of comic-book movies. Meanwhile, in theatreland he directed a production based on Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove which reunited him with Steve Coogan, and he gave us the Tory-pummeling Pandemonium. (EH)

25 REDOLENT

Facing off against established acts such as Arab Strap and Rachel Sermanni, these energetic rock upstarts nabbed the SAY Award for their debut Dinny Greet. It’s no wonder as this four-piece crafted an album to be proud of, striking a satisfying balance between buoyant indie and homespun electronica. (KF)

AMY LIPTROT

Both film and stage adaptations of this Orcadian writer’s memoir The Outrun received glowing reviews. Nora Fingscheidt’s big-screen version starred Saoirse Ronan, premiered at Sundance and came to Edinburgh, with Liptrot taking breaks from writing her upcoming book about seaweed to walk those red carpets. (CS)

23 RAY BRADSHAW

Alongside hosting Off The Ball and broadcasting from Germany during the Euros, amiable, bald, red-headed stand-up Bradshaw toured Doppelginger in which he sought to find his one, true scarlet likeness. He also recorded his three previous shows for soon-to-be-released specials. (JR)

CHARLENE BOYD

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music And Me marked a career-high for Boyd. Turning in a tender yet barnstorming performance (drawing on her experience of performing in a Carter Cash tribute act), her intelligent, complex script made for a gorgeous piece of theatre. (JL)

21 LORN MACDONALD

Fife-born actor Macdonald very much showed off his range with more Albion Finch in Bridgerton and starring in Tummy Monster as a creepy tattooist who wages psychological war with an inked celebrity. But he especially caught the eye with his bittersweet role as loveable rogue Lee in Ashley Storrie’s Dinosaur. (BD)

20 DANIELLE JAM

A true rising star, the Aberdeen actor is getting used to leading roles and she excelled once again as a conflicted Chris Guthrie in Morna Young’s adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song. (MF)

19 MAIRI KIDD

Author of Gaelic and English books, Kidd took up the role of director at the Saltire Society and published her chilling debut novel, The Specimens, examining the Burke and Hare story through the women involved. (LR)

ADE ADESINA

Aberdeen-based prize-winning artist Adesina has been making waves in the Scottish art scene for years, and his Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition Intersection marked a fresh direction as he explored his heritage and travels through a blend of new techniques and bold colours. (LR)

PICTURE: SALLY JUBB

PICTURE: LEE GARSON

17 ABI LEWIS

Sett Studios, the artist-run Leith Walk gallery and studio space, produced a huge turnover of exhibitions and events over the last year as well as winning a Creative Edinburgh Award. Founded by a core group led by Lewis, there are currently 17 artists on board. (NC)

16 KIMBERLEY TESSA

Scooping up the Scottish Jazz Awards’ Rising Star prize, this saxophonist, flautist and vocalist also performed at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. A key player on the Dundee scene, Tessa is also one third of The Vintage Girls trio and plays with fusion ensemble Milhouse Collective. (MM)

15 ROBERTA HALL-MCCARRON

This year, Hall-McCarron opened Ardfern, quickly becoming a favourite wine bar/casual dining spot in Leith. Sister restaurants The Little Chartroom and Eleanore continue to go from strength to strength, and the awardwinning chef has just released a beautiful first cookbook, The Changing Tides: Seasonal Recipes. (AS)

14 CARLA J EASTON & BLAIR YOUNG

First-time feature filmmakers Easton and Young garnered huge acclaim for Since Yesterday, their film about Scotland’s lost girl bands which premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Eight years in the making and inspired by Easton’s own experience in all-woman band TeenCanteen, the duo created a vital document of hidden history. (NC)

ASHLEY STORRIE

Continuing to showcase an eclectic playlist of tunes and chat on her late-night BBC Radio Scotland show with sidekick Silent Paul, Storrie achieved mainstream recognition with BBC sitcom Dinosaur. She wrote and starred in the endearing comedy about an autistic Glaswegian, with the series winning two Scottish BAFTAs. (JR)

12 K PATRICK

The Isle Of Lewis-based writer cemented their reputation as a talent to watch, scooping the Best Rising Scottish Author prize at The List Festival Awards for the erotically charged novel Mrs S and poetry collection Three Births. The latter also won a spot on the Saltire Poetry Book Of The Year shortlist. (AR)

11 CORTO.ALTO

While touring the world with a wildly talented ensemble, Liam Shortall’s masterfully produced, jazz-fusion, bangers-heavy debut album Bad With Names earned him both a Mercury Prize nomination and a spot on the SAY Award shortlist. (MM)

10 GARY MCNAIR

It was an audacious thing to do. How could a shaggy-haired entertainer get away with putting on a show about the most beloved shaggy-haired entertainer in the country? In his tribute to Billy Connolly, Gary McNair brilliantly pulled it off. His trick in Dear Billy was not to embody the comedian (although he shares something of Connolly’s demeanour and love of a good yarn) but rather to re ect what the Big Yin meant to Scottish people.

Staged for National Theatre Of Scotland and revived after its initial sell-out success, Dear Billy was a joyful collage of voices which, in all their everyday surrealism, created a moving sense of how much Connolly means to us. It was funny, of course, but also touching.

Funny too was McNair’s second Edinburgh Fringe collaboration with fellow writer Kieran Hurley, returning to Hammerston High School to catch up with Stevie and Max, the youngsters we rst met in Square Go. Standing for ‘virgin lips’, VL was another raucous comedy performed by Scott Fletcher and Gavin Jon Wright about the trials and torments of growing up male in an aggressive playground culture. All this in a year that began with McNair’s witty and clever adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde, excellently performed by Forbes Masson at Edinburgh’s Lyceum. (Mark Fisher)

9 SUSIE MCCABE

Susie McCabe was in an ambulance when her agent received a sel e captioned: ‘suspected heart attack. Next year’s show shaping up well!’ As it transpired, the Glaswegian was still able to perform the Edinburgh Fringe run of her show, The Merchant Of Menace, less than a week later, after an operation. ‘It was the best Fringe I’ve ever had,’ she enthuses. Sales stayed strong and the 44-year-old focused on getting better.

Yet as she continues to tour this show (about her honeymoon and a chance encounter with Theresa May), McCabe is already developing her next one, Best Behaviour. Set to debut at Glasgow International Comedy Festival in March, it nods to some lifestyle changes but isn’t de ned by them. ‘It’s important to share this stuff,’ she argues. ‘Three minutes in that ambulance, I knew I wasn’t going to die. Tablet in my mouth. Spray up my nose. I felt like I was back in a gay club in the 90s. It’s the most serious thing to ever happen to me; and the most ridiculous. Everyone asks if I’ve had a stent: there are so many heart-attack authorities in Glasgow.’

The last 12 months have been a ‘bon re’ for people close to McCabe. Even her Billy Connolly Award, presented for epitomising Glasgow’s gallus spirit and humour, is now bittersweet. ‘I’ll be bathing in that glory for the rest of my life,’ she re ects. ‘It was special having that special man know my name and know my jokes. And so much more poignant receiving the trophy from Janey [Godley], the inaugural winner. I don’t think she ever truly appreciated the impact she had, how instrumental she was in so many people’s careers.’

Alongside Bad Behaviour, McCabe is bringing a rst live recording of Here Comes The Guillotine to GICF. The cult podcast, which she hosts with Frankie Boyle and Christopher MacArthur-Boyd, wasn’t the easiest listen as she was convalescing. ‘I was getting all these messages going “Susie, get back in that studio! They’re running amok!” They truly went rogue without me there. I feel like a mum who’s been away. It’s lovely though, we attract such a broad spectrum of listeners.’ (Jay Richardson)

8 BARRY CAN’T SWIM

Since turning heads with his sun-dappled jazz-house hybrid EP Amor Fati, Barry Can’t Swim has risen to become one of today’s most widely celebrated producers. With the subtle tinkling sound of piano as his trademark, and a collection of quietly insistent beats, the Edinburgh-born artist treads a line between introspective headphone listening and the enraptured heights of the club floor. You could place his productions in the same lane as Jamie XX, TSHA or Romy.

We don’t make these comparisons lightly. The release of Barry Can’t Swim’s debut album garnered an astonishing hoard of accolades. First breaking into a top 15 position in the UK Albums Chart (and first place in the Dance Albums Chart), When Will We Land? went on to earn its maker spots on the Mercury and SAY shortlists, a BRIT Awards nomination, and a win at the DJ Mag Best Of British Awards which named him Best Breakthrough Producer.

Barry has struck a chord in the dance-music community, selling out his first ever Warehouse Project curation and three shows at London’s Brixton Academy. More recently, he shared the giddy single ‘Still Riding’ (built around a sample from ColombianAmerican R&B artist Kali Uchis), signalling a creative well that hasn’t even begun to run dry. In answer to the question posed in his album’s title, we can confidently assert: not any time soon. (Becca Inglis)

8

KIRSTY FINDLAY

When Kirsty Findlay finishes up playing the lead role in The Sound Of Music at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in late December, it will be the end of a very special year for this Glasgow-based actress. Prior to becoming the solution to the problem of Maria, Findlay appeared in three Pitlochry productions over the Perthshire theatre’s summer season.

While she shone in both Sense And Sensibility as Elinor, and as small-town bad girl Ariel in Footloose, it was her magnificent embodiment of singer/songwriter Carole King in Beautiful that showed off her full range as actress, singer and musician. Findlay was on stage throughout in Sam Hardie’s production of Douglas McGrath’s play, and despite playing piano in front of an audience for the first time ever, rarely has an actor looked so at ease with what she was doing in a bravura performance that might just be the best of 2024.

‘I never thought in a million years I would get to do all the shows I’ve done over a season,’ Findlay says, catching her breath between rehearsals, ‘but doing Beautiful and The Sound back-to-back is just a total dream. Beautiful was just one of those shows where it felt like the stars aligned. I’m the right age and I’ve got the right type of voice to be able to sing Carole King, but I never thought I’d get it.’

’s title song has an extra resonance for Findlay, whose singer mum and drummer dad played in a band on the club circuit. Findlay’s mum even appeared on 1970s and 80s TV New Faces. ‘She sang “Beautiful” on TV,’ a proud Findlay recalls. ‘She’s retired now, but she’s this incredible singer. We sound quite different, but when I first learned that I’d got that part, because that specific song means so much to me, it was this huge full-circle moment. The fact that it was the final song in the show and that my mum had sung it was just pure magic.’

(Neil Cooper)

6 MARC BREW

Australian dancer Marc Brew was just 20 years old, gearing up for a career in ballet and enjoying his first contract with South Africa’s national dance company, when a drunk driver ploughed into the car he was travelling in. Three of his friends were killed while Brew was left with life-changing injuries. He could no longer walk, and his career as a ballet dancer was over. However, rather than giving up on dance, Brew began to develop new ways of moving, both in and out of a wheelchair. Gradually he gained a reputation as a choreographer and dance artist in disabled performing arts communities, eventually forming his own company in Scotland in 2008.

It hadn’t occurred to Brew that the story of his accident could become a subject for his work. But that changed in 2020 when he began collaborating with Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. ‘One day Larbi asked if I would feel ok to tell him about the accident,’ Brew says. ‘At the beginning, I didn’t think my story would be of interest or worthy but, as our conversations continued, my story became more prominent.’

The result of their conversations became the dance theatre piece An Accident/A Life which had its UK premiere at Tramway. The piece narrates Brew’s accident in forensic detail, combining cold facts with surreal and unexpectedly comic sequences. Touring Europe this year, it picked up a slew of five-star reviews lauding its extraordinary candour and innovative storytelling.

‘I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone and to make something important that may evoke change or make people think differently,’ says Brew. ‘I have never been challenged in a work as much as this; physically, emotionally and as a performer.’

An Accident/A Life is set for more dates in 2025, and Brew also hopes the piece can travel further afield. ‘My dream would be to tour the work more in Scotland and the UK as well as take it back to Australia.’ (Lucy Ribchester)

5 NCUTI GATWA

This was the year in which it was nearly impossible to avoid Ncuti Gatwa, whether in a certain sci-fi series on the small screen, in classic stage parts or serving gorgeous looks on red carpets. Having built up a fanbase for eye-catching roles (on television in four series of Sex Education and in the Barbie movie), the Rwandan-Scottish actor made the leap onto the A-list with his casting as the legendary Time Lord. Gatwa brought an endearing boyish energy, empathy and vulnerability to the role, not to mention a touching chemistry with co-star Millie Gibson and establishing a promising partnership with returning showrunner Russell T Davies.

As if making such an iconic role his own were not achievement enough, Gatwa also squeezed in an appearance in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks-produced World War II miniseries Masters Of The Air. Having cut his teeth as an actor on the graduate programme at Dundee Rep a decade ago, he’s currently treading the National Theatre’s boards as Algernon Moncrieff in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest. (Allan Radcliffe)

3 JACK LOWDEN

The transition from stage to screen wasn’t easy for Jack Lowden. Having spent his youth performing in theatres, finding himself in front of a camera provoked a visceral reaction. ‘I hated it for years,’ he says, ‘and found it difficult to get my head around. I now know it’s because I’d spent so long on stage since I was a kid; it was as simple as the lack of an audience.’ Happily, Lowden has since grasped the small and large screen with both hands, delivering stand-out performances in Benediction, The Gold and Slow Horses to name but three.

This year, however, the Scottish Borders-born actor went back to his roots, in more ways than one. Not only did he take on a producer role for acclaimed film The Outrun (starring Lowden’s wife Saoirse Ronan), but he made his Edinburgh International Festival debut in The Fifth Step Alongside Sean Gilder, Lowden brought David Ireland’s new play vividly to life and, for once, used his own accent. ‘I miss acting in my own accent; it’s one less thing to think about and you can delve a little bit deeper,’ he says. ‘And being involved in anything in Scotland is of the highest importance for me.’ (Kelly Apter)

4 TAMARA SCHLESINGER

Hen Hoose has spent a long time fostering a space for female and non-binary musical talent to create, collaborate and skill-share. Led by CEO Tamara Schlesinger, this vintage year for Hen Hoose saw the opening of the Beldina Odenyo Bursary, intended to provide mentorship opportunities for an unrecorded artist. With arts funding in sharp decline, this was a fountain in a desert and a worthy honour to the performer who bears its name (Odenyo passed away in 2021).

Showcasing the depth of the collective’s talents was EP2, featuring the likes of Karine Polwart, Kathryn Williams, Amunda, Carla J Easton and Shears. With a trim 18-minute runtime, it’s nonetheless a worthy calling card for Hen Hoose, weaving together folk, pop, R&B, dance, electronica and indie rock with a dynamic verve.

Whether you watched Since Yesterday: The Untold Story Of Scotland’s Girl Bands, witnessed Elisabeth Elektra prowl the stage at Big City, delved into Siobhan Wilson’s Flowercore album series, or enjoyed the SAY Award-nominated Kathryn Williams and Withered Hand album Willson Williams, you’ll have encountered Hen Hoose’s enriching influence. Schlesinger has founded a collective that gets more creatively fertile with every passing year. (Kevin Fullerton)

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2 2 JASLEEN KAUR

Following the success of her Alter Altar exhibition, Glasgow-born artist Jasleen Kaur finds herself on the 2024 Turner Prize shortlist. She tells Rachel Ashenden what this nomination means to her and what the future holds for her community-inspired work

In early December, Glasgow-born Jasleen Kaur will learn if she has won the 2024 Turner Prize, an award given to a British artist who has created an outstanding exhibition of their work. If victorious, she’ll join a lineage of groundbreaking artists (including Chris Ofili, Gillian Wearing and Lubaina Himid) who are predicted to shape the direction of contemporary art.

Known for her exploration of identity, migration and historical narratives, Kaur caught the Turner Prize jury’s attention with her 2023 solo show at Tramway. Titled Alter Altar, the exhibition reimagines tradition through a series of installations and kinetic, sonic sculptures. Created with objects full of cultural and personal resonance (like litre bottles of Irn-Bru, a football scarf and family photographs), Kaur looks to the everyday to find new meaning in old myths and customs. Perhaps her best-known work, ‘Sociomobile’ (on display at Alter Altar), is a sonically enhanced Ford Escort covered in a giant crocheted doily, linking her dad’s first car to ‘his migrant desires’ through the tactile nature of cotton and its complex ties to the legacies of Empire.

‘Growing nationalism and populism are making anti-imperial histories feel more urgent,’ Kaur reflects in the days following Trump’s election. It’s in this increasingly divisive political moment that the press, public and judges can encounter Alter Altar for a second time, re-staged as part of the 2024 Turner Prize showcase at Tate Britain in London, the city where Kaur has lived since a child and where she has found a sense of community.

This period is personally intense for Kaur as well, as she returns from maternity leave after the birth of her second child. ‘Going through the Turner Prize process is so different from watching it from the outside,’ she admits. ‘There’s a difference between the private and public perception that’s hard to square.’ When asked what’s next, Kaur states that her studio work is on pause for now; she’s reading lots of ‘trippy, dystopian fiction’ that mirrors real life, by authors such as Isabel Waidner, while also working on a new kinetic public sculpture for Thamesmead, a project that will draw directly from materials and histories of the local area. Turner Prize winner or not, there’s a sense that Jasleen Kaur’s practice will always be deeply rooted in community.

PICTURE: ROBIN CHRISTIAN

Richard Gadd 1

IKing of the hill in our Hot 100 countdown is Richard Gadd, who emerged as one of the biggest stories of 2024 with his phenomenally successful Netflix hit Baby Reindeer which ultimately triggered a swirl of tabloid-fodder controversy. Gadd talks to Lucy Ribchester about winning Emmys, the show’s impact on survivors of abuse, and how the good folk of Wormit are keeping his feet firmly on the ground

t would be beyond understatement to say that 2024 has been an extraordinary year for comedian and writer/actor Richard Gadd. Success in the entertainment industry comes in many forms (awards, chat-show appearances, invitations to Hollywood), but the global reception of Netflix’s adaptation of Gadd’s solo theatre piece Baby Reindeer (which resulted in all of the above) has been near unprecedented. It made the Fife-born comedian a household name overnight, catapulting him to a level of fame that is as exposing as it is validating.

‘I really believed in Baby Reindeer and thought it would create a lot of debate and public interest,’ Gadd says. ‘I anticipated it would be a success. But to this level? No chance. I never thought for a second about Emmy wins and 240 million views since its release, or being number one in 80 countries around the globe.’ Gadd wrote the stage show eight years ago, to process the traumatic experiences he’d had while working as a fledgling stand-up, bartending to pay the bills. You’d have to have been living under a rock not to be aware of the fallout that has emerged from the show’s billing as ‘a true story’, but Gadd has always maintained it is a blend of fact and fiction.

His character Donny is stalked and harassed by one of the pub’s regulars, a lonely woman named Martha. Meanwhile, after networking his way into the comedy writing scene, Donny is sexually abused by an established screenwriter purporting to help him break through in the industry. With its harrowing scenes, knotty moral ambiguity (Donny freely admits to indulging Martha in the beginning) and edgy cinematography, it doesn’t scream ‘mainstream hit’. And yet the response, Gadd says, has been ‘beyond my wildest dreams’.

The biggest surprise, he says, has been seeing it hit number one in countries such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Oman; places Gadd points out he would not be able to safely visit as a bisexual man. But by far the best thing about the show’s success has been its impact on survivors of abuse and stalking.

We Are Survivors, the sexual-abuse charity for men, has seen an 80% rise in referrals since Baby Reindeer’s release, while The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports survivors of stalking, has seen a 47% increase. ‘Having such an impact on people’s welfare and motivating them to seek help is without a doubt the part of the show’s reach I am most proud of.’

Being cast as Macbeth in his school play first gave Gadd the acting bug. He was also a huge fan of noughties sitcom The Office (‘still my favourite television show of all time’). Learning that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant wrote, produced and performed in that show cemented his desire to do the same. He is currently in production for a new series, Lions, which explores masculinity, but after eight years of writing autobiography, this one is purely based on fiction. ‘I think shaking it up and making sure you challenge yourself in different ways is a good thing to do as an artist. To get out of your comfort zone.’

Meanwhile the Fife village of Wormit, where Gadd’s parents still live, has also had to contend with its new-found fame. ‘When the show was at its height of popularity, my parents were getting people turning up on the doorstep all hours of the day and night,’ Gadd says. ‘I am sure the town is happy for me. It is a small town and everyone knows everyone, so I will bloody well hear if not!’

CONTINI

It’s been quite the year for Team Contini, with milestone anniversaries for two of their restaurants: ten years for Cannonball, 20 for Contini George Street. Co-owner Victor Contini was also recognised by the Italian state, becoming Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight Of The Order Of The Star Of Italy) for his contribution to hospitality, sustainability and showcasing Italian culture in Scotland. Finally, Carina Contini has a new book on the shelves: The Contini Cookbook includes 100 tried and tested family recipes. With all that going on, let’s hope they get some time off for Christmas. Buon Natale! (Jo Laidlaw)  contini.com

eat & drink

come together

Behind the gates of Edinburgh’s beloved Royal Botanic Garden, Paul McLean discovers a whole eco system of outreach and community programmes aiming to tackle loneliness and exclusion

C‘ooking makes that vital connection between the wellbeing of people and the wellbeing of our planet,’ says Amy Leach, community engagement manager at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Her statement captures the philosophy behind RBGE’s outreach projects, work that may surprise many visitors to the 70-acre garden who are only aware of its horticultural and conservation remit.

In fact, RBGE’s Engaging Gardens initiative offers a host of growing and cooking opportunities, supported by People’s Postcode Lottery. Leach says the aim is for people to feel safe and welcome, making the garden an accessible and inclusive space for everyone. Working with partner organisations, they invite community groups and individuals to immerse themselves in activities that make people feel involved.

Food Social is a strand where individuals (referred by link workers, GPs and others) come together and cook, often using produce grown in the veg garden. ‘It’s for anybody who is facing social isolation for any reason,’ states Leach. ‘And the kind of big, amazing beneﬁt we see is that sharing a meal, contributing to that meal, and being part of the cooking can be a powerful experience. It’s something that I think a lot of us enjoy but we don’t all get the opportunity to do.’

While Food Social mainly deals with individuals, RBGE also cook up a storm with community groups through their Edible Gardening project. Young people’s homeless charity Rock Trust, refugee and migrant organisation The Welcoming, Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council, and in-house group Move More (for folk living with cancer) are just some of those taking part. As winter rolls in, they all gather to cook together. As Leach says, ‘it’s a lovely way of celebrating the end of the year.’

There’s also huge demand for their dementia-friendly sessions (indoor social gatherings, as well as growing groups). ‘It gives an opportunity for someone living with dementia and someone close to them (whether it’s a child, sibling, partner or a carer) to make lovely emotional memories, enjoy new experiences and stay connected.’

Skill-sharing workshops such as composting and pruning have proved a hit too. ‘They help community growers do what they do and then pass on these skills to allow this amazing network of growing across the city to keep going.’

The team at RBGE are rightly proud of their impact. ‘We get a lot of satisfaction in seeing people who, when they ﬁrst come to the garden, maybe feel unsure,’ adds Leach. ‘Seeing people relax, be at ease and enjoy their time in nature is what it’s all about.’

For more info on all RBGE’s community engagement programmes, visit rbge.org.uk/visit/royal-botanic-gardenedinburgh/engaging-gardens

good in the hood

TWe wander through a neighbourhood and tell you where to drop in for food, drink and groceries. This time around, Jay Thundercliffe heads to St Enoch in Glasgow

his area was once home to Glasgow’s biggest railway station, with a grandiose hotel attached. After demolition in the 1970s, today’s shopping centre (also earmarked for the chop) appeared, partly obscuring some great dining and drinking options in the older, peripheral streets.

It’s shawarma central here, with great examples of the popular Levantine food. Howard Street has a branch of Hajar Shawarma, one of several in town, plus the excellent Lazord Syrian Street Food. In a King Street railway arch sits the virally popular Shawarma King, an early player in Glasgow’s shawarma craze. You’ll also find two of Glasgow’s most venerable pubs. The Scotia Bar is as historic as it gets, going back to 1792, with live music and a leftleaning vibe. There are daily gigs at The Clutha Bar nearby, with a rollcall of famous appearances, and an admirable recovery from the 2013 tragedy.

Music is also big at Mono, a founding father of Glasgow’s vegan-friendly reputation, with enticing plant-based food and live gigs plus resident record shop, Monorail Music. Bakery-café TheDorkyFrench on Parnie Street is also vegan, specialising in croissants and other delectable pastries. Nearby, Daddy Marmalades serves pizzas with serious cocktails, while Super Bario has arcade and pinball machines alongside interesting beers.

Classy curry-houses include Namaste By Delhi Darbar in the shopping centre, with a flamboyant interior, familiar dishes and spiced-up afternoon tea featuring ‘grandad’s masala chai’, a three-star Great Taste winner in its own right. On Howard Street is award-winning Madras Café, skilfully blending regional food, with sister restaurant Kinara By Shabu Natarajan on King Street doing sophisticated seafood, tandoori and slow-cooked dum pukht dishes.

Jo Laidlaw scans the horizon for what’s new on the scene as we head into 2025

December tends to be a quieter month for openings, as most places will have tried to get the paint on the wall and the menus on the blackboard in time to catch that all-important Christmas trade. Still, Edinburgh has a few new spots to look out for (and handily, they might not already be booked out with office parties). Stuart McCluskey, of Paz Taqueria fame, has opened the doors to Little Capo on Howe Street. The menu will evolve as things bed in but expect home-style ‘Italian-ish’ cooking and, obviously, great cocktails. Manahatta, a mini-chain with NYC vibes, has landed in Rose Street, bringing piano nights, boozy brunches, small plates and burgers to the party. The Pitt officially re-opens this week, creating a new hub for community groups as well as street-food fans in Granton. And just in case it passed you by in the autumn buzz, Cabo is now on Hanover Street, fusing Mexican food with Latino inspiration.

Glasgow has a couple of great pop-ups to check out. Tagliotello will be operating out of Serendipity West for the foreseeable; and yes, the pasta looks amazing, but have you seen that mozzarella in carrozza? Smokey Trotters have taken over Inn Deep’s kitchen, as well as opening Smokey’s Dairy in Ibrox for BBQ deliciousness all round. The chefs are busy an’ all: Roberta Hall-McCarron has a new cookbook, The Changing Tides, out just in time for Christmas, while Cail Bruich’s Lorna McNee is off to judge Great British Menu, which she won in 2019.

side dishes

Manahatta

MODERN BRITISH MARGO

Miller Street was already pretty solid, with pizzeria Paesano and American bar/diner Thundercat next door to each other and The Spanish Butcher’s top-end steaks a few steps away. But with the arrival of Margo (and brand-new basement sibling Sebb’s), it’s become the street for Glasgow dining.

Margo is slick. The person who takes care of your table is different from the person who delivers starters and the person who talks you through the wine list (although they all have matching cornflower-blue Frenchstyle workwear jackets). Margo is big. Well over 100 covers big. There are tables for four and booths for ten. You can sit at the counter or you can sit upstairs on the mezzanine that runs the entire length of the space. From the team behind perennially booked-out Ox And Finch, you can almost feel their satisfaction at being able to accommodate those big numbers, as well as perhaps even some walk-ins on a Friday night (can you imagine?).

Margo is also very good. Thin shreds of cold roast lamb are zigzagged with streaks of black garlic and bright green saag reductions, intense flavours that dance from Japan to India to Sunday dinner. It’s complex yet utterly simple, a bit of the ‘modern take on a classic’ about it (this pops up often). Pork and apple sauce is reimagined with earthy notes of shiitake and chestnut mushroom and a brisk sauce of Breton cider, while a faggot (lamb again) has some North African heat sneaking out behind a piercing salsa verde: it could easily be an Ox And Finch dish. Not so the skate wing, where a punchy kumquat sauce should overpower everything, but trout roe holds the taste of the sea until mild, sweet skate itself plays out. Margo’s kitchen is the real deal, and Margo’s arrival is a big deal.

(David Kirkwood)

n 68 Miller Street, Glasgow, margo.restaurant; average price for three sharing plates £35.

SCOTTISH STOCKBRIDGE EATING HOUSE

Food provenance has always been a non-negotiable for Dale Mailley (of The Gardener’s Cottage and The Lookout fame). That’s no different at his latest venture which has seamlessly settled into the former Bells Diner space in Stockbridge. What is different though is the casual vibe, both in setting and cooking. With white walls, a few prints dotted around, red-and-white checked tablecloths and a concise blackboard menu and wine list, the room has just three communal tables (each seating six) plus a handful of window seats. There’s not a gel, foam or smear in sight: just the best produce cooked superbly.

The pared-back, flavour-first approach hits every mark. Singing with capers and smoky bacon, tender squid zings with lemony, salty notes, while there’s textural contrast from linseed and pumpkin seeds. The menu really does change daily, based on what’s available and in season. It could be richly gamey roasted grouse, with veal jus, girolles and celeriac purée, or maybe a grilled half-lobster with a lovely hit of lovage. The next day, a dark-as-sin hare stew oozes into mash, or there’s simple sparkling mackerel with pink fir potatoes.

Just two options round things off: smooth, nutty alp blossom cheese with a sticky dollop of honeycomb, or the flaky gorgeousness of bramley tarte tatin with honey ice-cream. Don’t debate: have both. The best bit? For this quality, it’s super-affordable, and with breakfast and lunch on offer too, it’s the kind of place any neighbourhood would absolutely kill to have on their doorstep. (Paul McLean)

n 7 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh, stockbridgeeatinghouse.co.uk; average price for two courses £34.

TipList

Our TipList suggests the places worth knowing about in different themes, categories and locations. To round off the year, we’re taking a look back to bring you 2024’s best new openings

Best new openings 2024

Quirky venues

Glasgow Edinburgh

EDINBURGH GLASGOW

313 DETROIT PIZZA

51 Cochrane Street, instagram.com/313gla

FINGAL

Alexandra Dock, fingal.co.uk

Detroit pizza that nails all the traits. A hefty crunch at the base gives way to fluffy focaccia bubbles above, the sauce is deep and sweet and the caramelisation of the cheese round the edges is masterful. Plus, it’s a mere stone’s throw from George Square.

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.

ELEMENTS

ARDFERN

10–12 Bonnington Road, ardfern.uk

BATTLEFIELD REST

The relaxed cafe and wine bar Leith was waiting for, Ardfern has become part of the fabric of the neighbourhood. Big breakfasts and brioche buns with coffee segue into long lunches, then onto delicious wines by the glass and small snacky plates later in the evening.

55 Battlefield Road, battlefieldrest.co.uk

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.

AVERY

19 New Kirk Road, Bearsden, elementsgla.com

KIM’S MINI MEALS

5 Buccleuch Street, facebook.com/mrkimsfamily

Gary Townsend has fun with fine dining in his first solo venture. His pedigree shows (Martin Wishart, One Devonshire Gardens) in a menu that combines classical elements of earth, wind, fire and water to inform delicate plates of food and equally wellconceived cocktails. It’s top tier, but never stuffy.

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.

HENRY’S

54 St Stephen Street, averyedi.co.uk

HANOI BIKE SHOP

8 Ruthven Lane, hanoibikeshop.co.uk

Dining at Avery is quite the experience. Dinner is ten to 14 courses: think raw razor clams with caviar and kuzu dumplings, langoustine with fermented pineapple and pickled cherry blossom, and eel sandwiched in nettle tempura. Experimental, delicious, and a lot of fun.

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.

MONTROSE

PABLO EGGSGOBAO

5 Abbot Street, instagram.com/henrysglasgow

62 Inverleith Row, eggsgobao.com

Henry’s speakeasy-level dim lighting, elegant cocktails and brasserie-style small plates have proven to be an immensely popular combination. The snacks are interesting enough to keep you going or settle in for the evening with some of the more substantial plates.

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.

MADURAI

NONNA SAID . . .

26 Candleriggs, nonnasaid.com

1–7 Montrose Terrace, montroserestaurant.co Built as one of Edinburgh’s first pubs, baronialstyle Montrose House is home to wine and revelry once more. The ground-floor wine bar is a brilliant place to pop in for a glass of natural wine and a few oysters, or book a table upstairs for the fourcourse set-menu.

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.

SOTTO

PARADISE PALMS

142a St Vincent Street, madurai.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.

This open, contemporary diner serves regional cuisine like papery dosas, biryanis, grills and coconut curries. They’re not afraid to heat things up, but also deftly handle tamer spices. Veggie choices are decent, prices are competitive and it’s all gluten-free.

THE TIKI BAR & KITSCH INN

214 Bath Street, tikibarglasgow.com

28–32 Deanhaugh Street, sottoedinburgh.com Italian wines and big plates of pasta; what’s not to love? Sotto has a relaxed wine bar (hosting regular tasting sessions) upstairs, and an elegant trattoria downstairs serving homely Italian favourites. Try the courgette and sage fritti, followed by rigatoni alla norma with a glass of Barbera.

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

Dougal Gordon, Glenﬁddich Brand Ambassador, joins in the new-opening fun with his pick of the best bars of 2024

THE LAST BOOKSTORE

157 Hope Street, Glasgow, thelastbookstore.co.uk

A bookworm’s delight: 8000 books line the walls of this spot that combines antique décor with modern mixology. With a delicious selection of small plates, it’s ideal for those who enjoy cocktails with a touch of intellectual flair, as the menu takes inspiration from famous authors.

LITTLE CAPO

18 Howe Street, Edinburgh, instagram.com/little__capo

This beautiful new bar/restaurant lies in the heart of the New Town. Serving classic Italian cocktails with Italianinspired cuisine, it’s perfect for date night or after-work drinks. The dining counter makes it feel intimate and there’s a real sense of community when full. I highly recommend if you feel the urge for a Golden Martini or beef shin ragù.

RUMA

39–41 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, ruma.bar

It takes bravery to open a rum bar in the home of scotch, but Stevie Aitken and Jamie Shields certainly knew best. The staff stand out: they’re incredibly knowledgeable about the liquids they offer. Whether you’re a novice or a rum geek, they’ll help you find something to suit you. Be it a rum flight or exquisite cocktail, this is a great place to try.

MARGO

SINGAPORE COFFEE HOUSE

68 Miller Street, margo.restaurant

5 Canonmills, singaporecoffeehouse.co.uk

It’s early days for Margo, nonetheless all the signs point towards another hit from the Ox And Finch team. It’s effortless cool in an accomplished, gigantic new space: classics are playfully reimagined, pasta and butchery is done in-house and Miller Street has become the new Finnieston. (David Kirkwood & Jay Thundercliffe)

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.

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.

STOCKBRIDGE EATING HOUSE

7 St Stephen Street, stockbridgeeatinghouse.co.uk

THE WEE CURRY SHOP

7 Buccleuch Street, weecurryshop.co.uk

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.

Dale Mailley (Gardener’s Cottage/The Lookout) goes casual and hits the bullseye with his new venture. The daily-changing menu (think roasted grouse with girolles or grilled half lobster and chips) is first-rate, the vibe intimate and the bill super-affordable. (Ailsa Sheldon & Paul McLean)

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Montrose

The Last Bookstore

Drinking Games

No more than a speck of dust in our mortal realm, Kevin Fullerton’s final column comes to you howled from the void and onto these pages. This month’s challenge . . . entertain a demon from the nether world in Portobello

No one has ever met Eat & Drink Editor, nor do they receive emails from them. The entire freelance pool experiences telepathic inferences about which bars and restaurants to attend before filing their copy atop the Braid Hills on a pyre that has burned since the dawn of time. So it was an honour when Eat & Drink Editor summoned me to Portobello; yet I was somewhat surprised to discover that they were a demonic entity who devoured the scabrous phrasings of hospitality journalism for sustenance. Drenched in smoke with eyes of blinding white, theirs was the face of horrific eternity. Still, who am I to judge? ‘I CALL YOU HERE ON OFFICIAL BUSINESS,’ they told me. ‘COME. DO WHAT YOU DO, TRIVIAL MAN. REVIEW YOUR LITTLE BARS.’

I did as I was told, surveying Portobello Tap as the amorphous cloud held a smoky claw at my throat. The bar was that rare thing; a busy space more relaxed than hurry-scurry. ‘A ONESENTENCE SUMMARY,’ Eat & Drink Editor howled. ‘SO BRIEF YET SO FILLING.’ It yawned my words into its smoky belly and emitted a rat-howl of terror. ‘WHAT A SHAME IT WILL BE ONE OF YOUR LAST.’ My last? We moved on.

We entered Portobello Bar, an auld-man haunt where the regulars size you up as you enter. ‘LITTLE BEARDED BOY,’ exclaimed my nebulous pal. ‘SIT.’ We lurked in the corner, observing the Sunday calm of a pub that had no doubt been chaotic the night before: the lighting even, the drinks pleasantly cheap, Scooter playing at record-breaking volume. Then, a sudden blinding tension, a fiery migraine from the depths of hell. I looked into my selfie camera and saw a target had been etched onto my forehead like some diabolical scrawl. The smoke demon stared back at me with a rictus grin. ‘This ’un’s a wild card,’ I thought. ‘The crazy pranks people play on a night out.’

‘DRINK UP,’ Eat & Drink Editor salivated, spitting black bile from its gaping maw as we sat in The Espy, a long-standing bar and restaurant on the promenade that has retained its ramshackle charm. ‘ENJOY YOUR FINAL SUP.’ My drink finished, the eldritch monstrosity led me to the beach. ‘What a great staff night out,’ I thought, staring towards the sea as smoke enveloped my entire body. ‘I can’t wait to write these articles for another year . . . ’

n This column was found underneath a pentagram-shaped rock on Portobello Beach. Celebrity drinks journalist Kevin Fullerton remains missing, presumed dead.

BAR FILES

Creative folks reveal their top watering hole

IDLEWILD DRUMMER COLIN NEWTON

If you ever find yourself wandering the beaches of North Berwick lusting for a pint in a pub from simpler times, then I’d recommend seeking out The Auld Hoose on Forth Street which, as luck would have it, is literally across the road from the beach. It’s a classic smalltown Scottish pub, just not one where you’d get your head kicked in by over-territorial locals. Instead, the old stalwarts who prop up the bar here are happy to ignore any incomers as they have seen it all in the 40 years they’ve been sitting there while the young regulars are happy to chat and get beaten by you on the scuzzy pool table through the back (they take the darts a bit more seriously though).

There’s a blazing log fire to warm yourself by and the bar has a couple of cask ales to accompany the usual Scottish pub offerings. The jukebox is full of the usual pub shite but if you’re lucky you may stumble in and catch some live music which, when it happens, is not the usual pub shite. I once saw the local RNLI crew perform a rescue on the floor of the bar and then, after the ambulance had left, return to their stools and their (non-alcoholic) drinks. Anywhere that is good enough for those legends is good enough for everyone else.

n Idlewild play the Night Afore Concert at Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Monday 30 December.

Colin Newton (second right)

YOUR NEW BRUNCH SPOT

Saturday 09:00 – 16:00

Discover Canopy, Edinburgh’s latest brunch spot in the iconic Old Royal Infirmary, now home to the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Dine in a beautifully designed biophilic space that brings nature indoors, with views over the leafy Meadows Walk—a perfect setting to catch up with friends and family or simply enjoy a relaxed weekend treat.

Sunday 10:00 – 16:00

Canopy Kitchen & Courtyard 1 Lauriston Pl, Edinburgh EH3 9EH

www.canopyedi.com

PIEUTE

Slotted into a cosy unit just a stone’s throw from Greyfriars Bobby, the creative minds at Pieute have kept Scotland’s skaters looking fresh since 2012. Describing themselves as ‘just a daft clothes shop’, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether it’s the local skate jams the brand puts on or a commitment to incorporating Gaelic language into clothes, there’s a strong feeling of community attached to everything Pieute releases. In a world of fast-fashion consumption, these skater boys appear content with prioritising good people and top-quality products over proﬁt. (Danny Munro)  19 Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh; pieute.scot, instagram.com/pieute

travel & shop

Copenhagen may be a cosmopolitan hotspot, but it’s still filled with many opportunities for calm. Kevin Fullerton explores the quieter side of Denmark’s capital

The centre of Copenhagen is extraordinary, but it isn’t exactly built for relaxation. Leave the train station and you’ll immediately encounter the sensory overload of whirling rollercoasters in Tivoli Gardens, the world’s second oldest amusement park. Further on, you’ll find the busy shopping district of Strøget or, west of the station, the equally packed food and drink haven of the Meatpacking District.

Vibrant though these areas are, it was only when I ventured to Christiania that I appreciated the need for a breather amid the bustle. Formed in 1971, in the remnants of an abandoned US military base, the artist colony of Freetown Christiania exists in the city’s centre but plays by few of its rules; until April 2024, drugs were freely available (though still officially illegal) from the town’s Pusher Street.

Since those utopian beginnings, Christiania has transitioned from flower-power province to tourist hotspot, a point of contention for those who moved there to escape convention. Tours start after 11am in the small town (about the same time that its various restaurants, cafes and gift shops open their doors) but an early morning visit will let you see it in the way its many residents might prefer: as a bastion of peace. The lake at its centre, surrounded by dirt tracks, artists’ residences and herons paddling about in its shallows, could rival a nature park for its unaffected beauty.

Further afield is Louisiana Museum Of Modern Art, a 50-minute train ride from Copenhagen to the sleepy town of Humlebaek, and replete with an awe-inspiring collection of art housed in modernist architectural splendour. Louise Bourgeois’ powerful sculptures and sketches rub shoulders with Gerhard Richter’s numbing patterns, Francis Bacon’s grotesques, Andy Warhol’s postmodern nihilism, and Yayoi Kusama’s obsessive dots. Even surrounded by these riches, the sculpture park and its gardens remain the draw, a stretch of manicured lawns, maze-like walkways, nooks to hide in, and a café overlooking the Øresund strait. It may seem like a schlep if you’re only in Copenhagen for a mini-break, but the journey up north is worth a full day of your time.

Within the confines of the city is Nørrebro, teeming with backstreet cafes like vegan hotspot Kaf, craft-beer bars such as People Like Us, and a slew of indie shops (for me the indie gaming treasure trove Nintendopusheren, for my partner the gothic jewellery in Dark Crow Tattoo). It’s a testament to how removed it is from the city’s tourist pull that most residents assumed we were Danish. This is a neighbourhood in the real sense of the word: sedate, independently minded and built for the people that live there rather than fly-by visitors like me.

visitdenmark.com

WanderList: Copenhagen

my favourite holiday

Comedian Liam Withnail recalls how a dreaded stag adventure in the world capital of hedonism took a playful turn

There are few things more frightening to a man in his thirties than the sudden invitation to a WhatsApp group titled ‘STAG’. The next word I saw sent a chill down my spine: ‘Vegas’. No, surely not. I gave up drink and drugs ten years ago, after spending years as one of their most enthusiastic ambassadors. Could I go on a debauched lads’ holiday to Vegas sober?

And then I remembered: these were my school friends. We weren’t, you might say, the alphas of our secondary school. We were the nerds, bound together by teenage acne and our lack of sporting ability. Dweebs as teens, dweebs as adults. This group of lads had now graduated to the nerds of adulthood. They work for tech firms and IT departments. This wouldn’t be a rowdy affair.

‘Remember to bring your Nintendo for the Mario Kart tournament,’ one message read. This was the speed I was happy with. The itinerary included laser tag (where we demolished a group of ten-year-olds) and bubble football (different ten-year-olds, same result). It was wholesome.

Our last night was the gear shift I’d been nervous about. ‘Let’s take some edibles and go and see Blue Man Group.’ I declined, and went to see Jerry Seinfeld instead, anxious that my sobriety was excluding me from the fun. I needn’t have worried: the group’s lack of experience in drug-taking meant the edibles made them immediately fall asleep, missing the show entirely, but well rested for the flight home.

Liam Withnail performs two filmed recordings at Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, Saturday 14 December; work-in-progress at The Stand, Glasgow, Thursday 30 January.

Don’t let the winter chills get you down. Jo Laidlaw finds you don’t have to venture far to warm up in these three super-snug saunas

SOUL WATER SAUNA

City beaches like Portobello are all things to all people, from the early dog-walkers to teenagers celebrating around a bonfire at night. That can make it tricky to find a sense of peace. Enter Soul Water Sauna. A simple woodfired hut, it aims to help people reconnect with nature by carving out a little me-time on one of our busiest urban beaches.

n soulwatersauna.com; instagram.com/soulwatersauna

CELLARDYKE SEASIDE SAUNA

Before wild swimming, there were tidal pools: humanmade or natural structures that trap the rising tide and, if you’re lucky, warm it up a little. Cellardyke Seaside Sauna is slap-bang beside a newly renovated tidal pool for poststeam dips, with gorgeous views across to the Isle Of May and incredible sunsets to boot.

n cellardykeseasidesauna.com; instagram.com/ cellardykeseasidesauna

BRAAN SAUNA

They’ve thought of everything at Braan Sauna in Dunkeld. There’s a fire pit, plunge pool, changing area, and cold shower as well as pretty lights and community discounts. Make a night of it given it’s operated by the folk behind The Taybank Hotel which is a gorgeous retreat at any time of year.

n thetaybank.co.uk/sauna

Braan Sauna

WAXING LYRICAL

DIY label owner Stephen McCaffrey tells Megan Merino how a Glasgow pizzeria provided the creative spark for his latest musical project

What do pizzas and records have in common? Their circular shape, certainly. But for Stephen McCaffrey it’s much more than that. His latest independent record label, Errol’s Hot Wax, owes its very existence to a pizza shop in Glasgow’s Southside. ‘My version of the story is that a good friend of mine runs Errol’s Hot Pizza on Victoria Road. I convinced him to start a record label that I would help run in order to promote our other friend’s band. He was up for it but then didn’t really have the time to commit so I ended up doing it myself.’

Glasgow-associated musicians reign supreme on his roster: Jacob Yates And The Pearly Gate Lockpickers and guitarist Christopher Haddow’s solo project formed the first releases before US-based Herald completed the trio. ‘I have a lot of enthusiasm for the Glasgow music scene and I would like to keep the focus of the label there,’ McCaffrey reflects.

A loose thread of alternative folk ties acts together, but their overall approach and sound varies hugely. ‘The label isn’t going to have one sonic identity. I release music that’s in the style of my record collection at home,’ he explains. ‘This spans Tom Waits, Mogwai and a brilliant new band called Dancer.’ Imagining McCaffrey working on these releases while pizza dough is thrown around and hungry customers wait outside may be tempting, but a corner of his home living room is Errol’s Hot Wax HQ. ‘I do love the pizza-shop association,’ he says. ‘But this is a labour of love, not my full-time job. So keeping the costs down allows me to put more albums out.’ Meanwhile an original wooden unit behind the bar at Errol’s Hot Pizza proudly displays the label’s paraphernalia, including all of their releases to date. ‘Euan owns Errol’s and his partners John and Claire are really nice people and great friends. There’s definitely potential to do some releases together in the future. But for now I’m happy in the little corner of my living room.’

errolshotwax.com; instagram.com/errolshotwax

shop talk

MIDNIGHT LUNAR MARKET

For those who prefer a less traditional Christmas, look no further than the Midnight Lunar Market which specialises in the alternative and quirky as well as the ethical, only accepting vendors with vegan and sustainable products. Taking place from 5pm until midnight, it’s also perfect for night owls or weekend workers.

n Voodoo Rooms, 19a West Register Street, Edinburgh, Sunday 22 December; midnightlunarmarket.bigcartel.com; instagram. com/midnightlunarmarket

WINTER ARTISTS AND MAKERS MARKET

Run by Scottish charity Wasps Studios, Winter Artists And Makers Market platforms independent artists from across Scotland. It’s the perfect

The terror of Christmas-shopping season may be upon us but fret not. Isy Santini rounds up three independent makers’ markets that will solve all your gifting woes

place to find a unique gift whether you’re looking for textiles, aromatics, ceramics, prints or a miscellaneous surprise.

n The Briggait, 141 Bridgegate, Glasgow, Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 December; waspsstudios.org.uk; instagram.com/waspsstudios

CHRISTMAS AT LEITH MAKERS

This December, Leith Makers will have 50 stockists selling exclusively handmade homeware, jewellery and accessories. They’re also hosting a range of crafting workshops throughout the month where you can create your own wreaths, baubles, banners, or even a Polish paper-cutting piece to take home.

n Leith Makers, 105 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, Wednesday 4–Tuesday 31 December; leithmakers.co.uk; instagram.com/leith_makers

Relaxed festive lunches and

JACOB ALON

Imbued with shades of Tim Buckley, Anohni and Nick Drake, Fife-born Jacob Alon looks primed for glory in the coming years. An eye-catching recent appearance on Later . . . With Jools Holland and counting Elton John as a fan sealed a ﬁne 12 months which featured two evocative singles, ‘Fairy In A Bottle’ and ‘Confession’. Alon explodes onto the live circuit across Europe and the UK in January, including a headline show at Celtic Connections. (Brian Donaldson)

 The Caves, Edinburgh, Wednesday 29 January; King Tut’s, Glasgow, Friday 31 January.

going out

STRIP CLUB

The arrival of an analogue photobooth in an Edinburgh gallery has created quite a stir. But as Rachel Ashenden discovers, it’s not all about sentimentality for the past: this booth and the images it creates have artistic merit as well as providing a vital financial lifeline in cash-strapped times

Almost a century after its invention, the analogue photobooth is experiencing a renaissance. A nostalgic alternative to the instant gratification of the iPhone selfie that has become synonymous with contemporary culture, Stills in Edinburgh has opened the only one in Scotland. With just 200 analogue photobooths surviving across the globe, amid a sea of digital knock-offs, its arrival has been hailed as some kind of miracle. Artists and influencers are flocking to it in the name of art and content respectively, which begs the question: in a capture-everything culture, where does analogue photography belong?

Think of the photobooth as a miniature, curtained theatre, or even as a confessional. The bright, seductive light is an invitation to reveal all; be that bold and daring, silly or sexy. You have four shots to adopt an alternative persona, and what emerges from a mysterious chemical and mechanical process is a strip of inky, sepia-toned poses. There’s no preview, no filter: this is photography in its most immediate form.

From the moment of its invention, the photobooth attracted the world’s most radical, avant-garde artists. In 1929, La Révolution Surréaliste published ‘I Do Not See The Woman Hidden In The Forest’, a collage comprising a painting of a naked woman by René Magritte surrounded by 16 portraits of male surrealists with their eyes closed. The story goes that surrealism founder André Breton convinced his contemporaries (Salvador Dalí included) to take these self-portraits in a photobooth, which he then used to frame the painting. In doing so, Breton reimagined the booth’s purpose, elevating it from a device for practical identification into a philosophical and artistic realm.

Following in the surrealists’ footsteps, artists across generations have adopted the photobooth as an investigative self-portraiture medium. For Andy Warhol, who is hailed for popularising the photobooth as an accessible art form, it epitomised instant celebrity and represented a clash between entertainment and self-indulgence. Cindy Sherman, now famous for disguised self-portraits, began experimenting in photobooths as a young student in the 1970s, as she inhabited alternate roles through costumes, wigs, make-up and props.

As Warhol recognised, in the seat of such an accessible, alluring medium, there appears to be scarcely any distinction between what non-artists and artists can produce. In its democratisation of art, all it requires is an original idea and some coins in your pocket. Traditionally found in pubs or on street corners, by its nature, these curtained theatres attract the wandering soul, or the flaneur if you will. Open all hours, there’s not much in place to protect them from damage or drunken hook-ups. By contrast, Stills is intrigued to find out what visitors will produce in a serene gallery environment, where photographs by professionals hang as inspiration on the walls.

Before the news was revealed to the public, Stillsautomat stood hidden in plain sight, waiting in the gallery foyer. Out of hours, Stills challenged artists to create strips for an exhibition to celebrate the machine’s public unveiling. The resulting collection features intriguing mug shots, artful nudes and still lifes that have been blown up for display. One stand-out is an intoxicating diptych by Daisy (@scottishdaisylove) who used a latex mask and gloves to simultaneously reveal and conceal parts of her identity. In the second shot, only her poised, gloved hand reaches into white space.

Elsewhere, an anonymous creator is nowhere to be seen in the frame, as an eerie strip captures subtle shifts and movement in the curtain. But beyond the display, I’m told that the patron who funded Stillsautomat brought in a bunch of pears to capture, while an influencer cat (@weeposie), who probably has more followers than any of us, is due to make an appearance any day now.

A quick search on social media reveals that the Stillsautomat is somewhat of an Edinburgh phenomenon. And although I’m guilty of making a huge fuss about it online, there’s something ironic about scrolling past a photobooth strip that cannot be deleted or retouched. Why would you destroy a keepsake that represents a fleeting moment in time? I can only imagine if it were disastrously unflattering or if you went through a break-up after snogging your lover in the booth.

Throughout the year, Stills hosts free exhibitions and low-cost production facilities that even Londoners travel up to use because it’s too expensive in the big smoke. But it’s no secret that the Scottish arts and culture sector is at a crisis point, which is partly why Stills had been in search of an analogue photobooth for a year, after development manager Caitlin Serey identified it as a possible constant income stream. Once the booth was located and restored, Stillsautomat travelled all the way from New York, its arrival in Edinburgh a shiny beacon of hope for Scotland’s creative scene.

Stills, Edinburgh, stills.org/events/stillsautomat

“ I’m just doing what I love to do, which is hiding from the world

Singer-songwriter and author James Yorkston is gearing up for a busy 2025 after taking some time out this past year. He’s back with live solo gigs, more dates for his much-loved multi-artist Tae Sup Wi’ A Fifer evenings, plus a new novel. Yorkston chats to Fiona Shepherd about solo touring, stolen avocados and creaky old hotels

How was 2024 for you? It’s been about family, that’s the truth of it. Family going and family growing. Unfortunately, this year my father died which was obviously very hard. Against that, it’s been great having a year at home after the previous year when I was touring almost non-stop with Nina [Persson of The Cardigans], which was fantastic but tiring.

What can we expect from your run of solo Christmas shows? This Christmas tour is supposed to be easy and fun and that’s all I want from it. I don’t have a setlist which means I can interact more with the audience. With the last record, we played with eight or nine of us on stage: The Second Hand Orchestra and me and Nina. It’s great fun but it’s stressful touring with that many people. When it’s solo, it means that the soundchecks are six minutes long rather than two hours. You can chill out, there’s space in the dressing room and no one steals the last avocado.

What was it like working with Nina Persson? It was amazing. She’s a great singer, she’s very professional and she never stole the last avocado. I love working with her, just being onstage with someone who’s so good is a privilege. We get on very well on and off stage. Travelling with someone who knows how to travel and not get stressed out really helps touring. They are not in your face all the time, and then we still get to show off every night.

You start 2025 with the publication of your latest novel, Tommy The Bruce; tell us about the title character If you look at the characters in most of my novels, the main guy seems to be this harmless chump who’s floating around the world doing the best he can, even though he has no understanding of the world whatsoever. And you can point that at me quite easily. I don’t particularly understand what’s going on, I just try to make my way through it.

Tommy ‘runs’ a fleapit family hotel in rural Perthshire which unwittingly attracts a felonious clientele. What inspired this non-cosy crime setting? As a child, we used to travel around the Highlands and Perthshire and see these places. I love these old hotels. I love when I’m doing a show and you get put up in a hotel which isn’t a Travelodge and you can see the faded grandeur and imagine what’s gone on there over the years. I just placed a story in one of them and the further away it was from my own life meant I could dream on slightly; I could put the baddies in and see how the characters react to that kind of outside influence.

The novel was written a few years ago, before 2022’s The Book Of The Gaels. What was it like returning to edit it? It comes down to trusting yourself as a writer but also trusting yourself as an editor; the second part of that is really important. All these years later, I edit without any fear. It’s the same story I wrote seven years ago but I’ve taken out any paragraphs that were just there to show off. There are authors like Lewis Grassic Gibbon who was a master of writing incredible spiralling prose that can take you to other places. It’s tempting to go down that route when it’s not always the best thing for the story, so I cut out a lot of the unnecessary thorns. I try to trust my creative voice so

and creating

I don’t approach books saying ‘this is going to be like this’. It’s more about accepting what’s coming out and letting it happen. There is a lot of grief in the book, but then there seems to be a lot of grief in most of what I write.

Your travelling songwriters’ circle Tae Sup Wi’ A Fifer is back on the road in February with something of a school reunion line-up of Fife friends, including KT Tunstall and Johnny Lynch aka The Pictish Trail I know Kate from when she played in St Andrews when we were teenagers, and she and Johnny are great friends. The three of us did an album in 2014, The Cellardyke Recording And Wassailing Society. I’ve been asking Kate to do Tae Sup for years and this time she said yes which I am over the moon about. And she’ll probably be pleased too as it means I will finally stop nagging her about it.

What are your plans for the rest of 2025? There is a new album coming out next year. Nina’s on it but so is somebody else. I can’t announce who it is yet. I’ve got two albums ready to go and right now I’m editing a collection of short stories. Basically I’m just doing what I love to do, which is hiding from the world and creating.

James Yorkston plays Montrose Playhouse, Tuesday 3 December and Futtle, Bowhouse, St Monans, Saturday 7 December; Tae Sup Wi’ A Fifer, Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Saturday 8 February; Tommy The Bruce is published by Oldcastle Books on Saturday 25 January.

GAELIC CULTURE CELTIC CONNECTIONS

Hebridean voices are set to feature heavily at Glasgow's annual roots festival Celtic Connections. Mischa Macpherson from Lewis performs ahead of Uist’s Julie Fowlis joining musicians from Ireland and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Skye harpist Ciorstaidh Beaton is one of this year’s New Voices while Gaelic-medium events include Cèilidh a’ Bhaile Mhòir with songs, stories and Gaelic Glasgow folklore from the past, present and future.

Share in Scotland’s rich tradition of plants, with renowned folklorist Margaret Bennett who explores their uses and lore through song, and for something equally intimate, coorie down with host Deirdre Graham as she and festival musicians share stories behind Gaelic songs in a continuation of her Gaelic Song Stories podcast.

Ainsley Hamill returns to her west coast roots to launch Fabel, a brand new suite of songs. She says that the new release ‘embodies the essence of storytelling’, often with a moral to the tale. Sharing a double bill with Rachel Newton, Hamill will preview tracks (produced by Sam Kelly), promising ‘a sonic adventure like no other’.

Arts centre An Lanntair will ‘relocate’ from Stornoway to the Royal Concert Hall to mark its 40th anniversary. Gaelic language and culture are central to An Lanntair’s work and the celebration concert will reflect this by showcasing some of the finest Hebridean traditional singing talent. (Marcas Mac an Tuairneir)

Various venues, Glasgow, Thursday 16 January–Sunday 2 February; visit celticconnections.com for full listings

Ainsley Hamill

Cobbles

future talent

COMEDY DEAN T BEIRNE

A finalist in the 2023 BBC New Comedy Awards, Glasgow-based Dean T Beirne has only been performing stand-up for three years but has already featured in Rosie Jones’ Disability Comedy Extravaganza on U&Dave. Raised in foster care in Aberdeen and brought up by mixed-faith adoptive parents in Dubai where he attempted to start a boyband, this relaxed, engaging comic is debuting his first solo show, Fated To Pretend, at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival in March. An autistic, queer, openly nerdy act, entirely comfortable with his intersectionality, he will also be confessing to his horror at playing The Wizard Of Oz with annoying musical-theatre kids. (Jay Richardson)

We shine a light on people across the Scottish arts scene who are predicted to do big things in 2025

ART MV BROWN

Glasgow-based performance and make-up artist MV Brown uses the human body and technological advances to play with constructions of gender and sexuality. Their eerie explorations with AI probe the performance of daily life, citing cyberfeminism and transhumanism to challenge the concept of ‘IRL’ in a post-internet world. In 2024, Ponyboy Glasgow invited Brown to perform ‘Living Lipstick’ as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, a sculptural act in which they smothered themselves with a giant anthropomorphic red lipstick. Looking ahead to 2025, Brown will participate in Jerwood Survey III, a prestigious touring exhibition that arrives at Edinburgh’s Collective in February and a showcase of the UK’s best emerging artists, all of whom have been nominated by established figures. Brown was chosen by Hanna Tuulikki, a continued collaborator and champion of their strikingly unconventional practice. (Rachel Ashenden)

FILM/TV RUARIDH MOLLICA

If 2024 was the year in which Tuscany-born, Edinburgh-bred Ruaridh Mollica made a significant breakthrough, this coming 12 months should see him kick the doors down between himself and the big time. Among his credits for the past year, he was named as part of Screen’s Rising Stars Scotland (a ten-strong line-up of ones to watch), was hailed for his lead role in Sebastian which stormed Sundance, nabbed a comedic role in the Armando Iannucci exec-produced The Franchise, and cropped up in BBC’s The Jetty and Paramount’s Sexy Beast. In terms of how his 2025 will look, things are being kept under wraps for now, but we can reveal that he’ll be holed up filming a TV project until the spring.

DANCE HARVEY LITTLEFIELD

When he signed up to Scottish Ballet’s associates programme for school-aged children, did Harvey Littlefield ever imagine that he would one day end up dancing professionally with them? It’s been a super year for the dancer, who joined Scottish Ballet officially in 2021 and was promoted to First Artist two years later. In 2024, he starred alongside Principal Evan Loudon in the beautiful and haunting dance film Breathless, a duet filmed inside the strange, barrel-like surroundings of Glasgow’s Revelator. 2025 will be an exciting year for Littlefield as he tours in productions of The Crucible, Twice-Born and a secret project Scottish Ballet are keeping under wraps for now. Ultimately, Littlefield says his dream part would be ‘a gender fluid role, free of judgement, encouraging authentic expression.’ (Lucy Ribchester)

MUSIC SARAH/SHAUN

Edinburgh-based husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan) blend the starry-eyed pop of Sonny & Cher with the electronic experimentation of Chris & Cosey. Their debut EP It’s True What They Say? was released in 2024, rooted in a love of classic songwriting as much as an obsession with dark, dreamy synth soundtracks. Shaun has previous form in dream-pop outfit Delta Mainline but Sarah was a relative novice when their first collaboration, the sonorous love song ‘Starbed’, fell from the heavens. More recently, the EP’s melancholic electro-pop lead track ‘Dust Tears’ has been remixed by, among others, their label boss Hobbes and producer Jaguar Eyes (aka Shaun’s Delta Mainline wingman Ali Chisholm), and they have been on live manoeuvres such as Hidden Door’s Paper Factory launch party. A new EP, Someone’s Ghost, is primed for release in March 2025. (Fiona Shepherd)

hello daylight

Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend understands connection. Speaking from the comfort of home, on a break from the band’s Only God Was Above Us tour, he is thoughtful and engaging as he reﬂects on how the band link with their past and present along with an enduring fanbase, night after night. Vampire Weekend emerged during a period when major labels were confused between Napster and Spotify. This confusion allowed indie bands to rise, and Vampire Weekend, known for their bright, catchy sound, became one of the biggest.

They delivered three albums before taking a break in 2013. Looking back, Koenig admits he valued the chance to pause, to ask why and how they should continue: ‘I’ve always been existential about the band.’ In 2019 they returned with an expanded seven-piece live act and the sunny, shaggy 18-track album Father Of The Bride. ‘It felt like there was more to say,’ Koenig says of their new phase, which revelled in smashing together the polar opposites of jam band and indie rock.

This new era of the live band has continued with their latest tour. Whereas they used to get off stage as quickly as they could, shows now can go on for over two hours. Playing Madison Square Garden recently, they covered Billy Joel, which had the band feeling 14 again. For Glasgow, they’ve recruited local legends Teenage Fanclub to open for them. These bespoke touches make the whole experience more alive, not just for the audience but for the band too.

In the studio, Koenig aimed to make the yin to Father Of The Bride’s yang. When they trailed Only God Was Above Us, they stated that it would be ‘ten tracks, no skips’. Although Koenig thought this might be easier than doing 18 tracks, the density of what they were trying to achieve made it even harder. ‘We are exploring layers and referencing older music,’ he says. This meant referencing some of their older songs while also bringing together totally disparate sounds. Koenig mentions how he wanted one song to sound like ‘psychedelic Gershwin’, while other moments reference 70s rock or 90s grunge, and even incorporate samples.

When pushed on the album’s themes, Koenig revisits his existentialist tendencies. He describes how the album reﬂects the passage of time and mistakes of the past, while also exploring how age and perspective give us the opportunity to improve our connection to what is important. ‘The goal is not to pretend that there is no darkness or decay or change in life,’ he says. ‘The aim is to recognise it’s real but also that we have the potential to transcend it.’

Though their music has clearly matured, live shows remain looser and even more fun than before. It goes back to the idea of connection; Koenig and the band don’t deny getting older but that won’t stop them from seizing the moment and connecting to their fanbase every night.

Vampire Weekend play OVO Hydro, Glasgow, Sunday 8 December.

m u cis • m u sic •

Indie-rock big guns Vampire Weekend returned earlier this year with a new album and a more aggressive sound. With an accompanying tour about to land in Glasgow, Sean Greenhorn chats to frontman Ezra Koenig about existentialism, new eras and transcending the darkness

KIDS

THE GIFT

It’s a scene familiar to most parents: Christmas morning, the deafening rasp of tiny claws, clouds of paper flung into their air as children race to uncover their gifts. But what about the wrapping that gets discarded? What possibilities for creation and invention lie in all those cardboard boxes, tubes, scrunched tissue and ribbons? These were the questions choreographer Natasha Gilmore began asking herself, after her three children were sent a bumper gift of second-hand toys, books and clothes from their babysitter during lockdown. ‘What was immediately clear,’ Gilmore says, ‘was that the most exciting element of this was the huge cardboard box the “gifts” had arrived in. This box was fiercely contested and had many iterations as a home, a vehicle, a canvas for art, a den, a chill-out zone, and the centre of many games.’

The experience of watching her children draw inspiration through the wrapping rather than the gifts also sparked Gilmore’s imagination. She began thinking about creating a show that celebrated these tossed-aside materials. The result is The Gift, a dance duet for Barrowland Ballet that tells the story of a girl who tears open her presents on Christmas morning, only to discover the toys inside have no batteries. ‘What develops is a celebration of the power of the imagination,’ says Gilmore. The little girl realises she can create a whole world of characters and landscapes through the discarded paper. ‘I wanted to make a Christmas show that emphasises the importance of play and connecting with your children, over the need for the latest toys.’ (Lucy Ribchester)

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

OBITUARY

JANEY GODLEY

Janey Godley, the stand-up comedian and writer, and irresistible force of storytelling, died in early November, aged 63. Opinionated and outspoken, Godley had an irrepressible stage presence, robust sense of justice and keen nose for bullshit. She leaves a treasure trove of raucously funny tales shared in clubs and theatres across the UK, a powerful memoir about her tough 1960s upbringing in the East End of Glasgow, countless viral online videos, and the indelible image of her raising a placard on Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course, reminding the returning US president that he is, and always will be, ‘a cunt’.

Like her idol Billy Connolly, Godley never had a setlist. Given to introducing herself as an ‘over-friendly cleaner’, she honed, polished and drew upon classic anecdotes of her deprived childhood, of the gangster family that she married into, of meeting celebrities such as Prince, and ultimately, of coping with the cancer that robbed the British comedy scene of her once-in-a-generation talent. Like Connolly, she was also a sexual-abuse survivor. And if her time on social media was defined by the hugely popular voiceover videos she produced of gossipy animals and her friend Nicola Sturgeon, it was also there that she established herself as a staunch ally of the trans community.

Often pugnacious and occasionally intimidating, Godley had a fierce intelligence and exceptional drive, was unfailingly emotionally honest, and could be devastatingly candid. She held her hands up to mistakes and had a rock-solid sense of her audience, which was still growing in the fourth decade of her career, even as she passed. Indeed, those final years were marked by a creative flurry, featuring the well-received release of her first novel, radio series and an intimate documentary about her life, even as she maintained a relentless commitment to touring that would have broken lesser spirits and talents.

She is survived by her husband Sean, and her daughter, the comic and writer Ashley Storrie who, to the family's great credit, was for so long an inextricable part of Godley’s career but has flourished as an entirely distinct and successful performer in her own right.

(Jay Richardson)

Mulled Winter Warmer is the authentic Scottish festive tipple, made by infusing Innis & Gunn Original Beer with Monkey Shoulder Scotch Whisky, spices and orange zest. Delicious, warming, and sure to put you in the mood for the festivities.

AVAILABLE AT ALL THE EDINBURGH CHRISTMAS MARKET BARS.

“The minute there’s any doubt about creative freedom, I’ve walked away

Despite decades of critical acclaim, Mike Leigh still has to fight to get his films made. As his latest prepares to arrive in cinemas, the veteran filmmaker talks to Katherine McLaughlin about insecurity, the state of cinema and the death of his long-time cinematographer

Following period films Mr Turner and Peterloo, 81-year-old British director Mike Leigh returns to his contemporary tragicomedy roots to tell a story about two sisters mourning the death of their mother. In Leigh’s 1996 Palme d’Or winner, Secrets & Lies, Marianne Jean-Baptiste played a wonderfully warm optometrist who goes in search of her birth mother. In Hard Truths, she plays irascible, agoraphobic housewife Pansy who seems to dislike everyone and everything. In contrast, her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) is embracing life and trying to show Pansy how much she is loved.

As we sit together in an office round the corner from where he lived after moving to London from Salford in the 1960s, Leigh considers this interpretation. ‘It wasn’t an intellectual decision,’ he says, ‘it’s a much more organic thing of exploring characters and finding the subtleties and nuances and putting them together.’ It’s fascinating to see a hygiene-obsessed character like Pansy negotiating a post-pandemic world. ‘We could have made a film about lockdown and it did occur to me at some stage that it could be interesting, but actually, is it?’ Leigh asks. ‘I’m more interested in the human condition and the way we are. It is primarily about Pansy’s condition and the way she deals with other people. Her obsessions with hygiene did not come into existence because of the pandemic. She would have been like that for years.’

Leigh, who famously works from improvised scripts, has also spoken about how he finds inspiration for projects on hearing snippets of conversations from passers-by. So how did he cope over lockdown? ‘One doesn’t struggle for inspiration,’ he says. ‘The only thing I struggle for is backing. I’ve gotten away with it over the years but it’s got tougher. The mantra one hears is “we respect what you do, we like what you do, but it’s not for us.” “Not for us” is code for “we can’t get involved with something where we can’t interfere with it and generally screw it up.” The minute there’s any doubt about creative freedom, I’ve walked away.’

Surprisingly, Cannes and Venice both turned down the opportunity to screen Hard Truths. ‘Nobody is above feeling insecure,’ reflects Leigh. ‘We started to think maybe we’d made a crap film. The French distributors loved it and thought it would be a shoo-in at Cannes.’ Turns out that the festival actually turned it down twice: once before Christmas last year and then again a few months later.

Leigh is never happy to talk about autobiographical elements of his films. But he’s not quick-tempered, like Pansy, even if he comes across a little closed. He opens up more as we discuss his relationship with cinematographer Dick Pope, who passed away in October, shortly after Hard Truths was shown at the London Film Festival. It was the final film the duo worked on together, having collaborated on 19 projects in total. ‘He was a genius,’ says Leigh. ‘It was a Siamese-twins type of collaboration. We were on the same wavelength.’

On the overall state of cinema, meanwhile, Leigh’s indefatigable passion is never in doubt. ‘It’s a tragedy that cinemas are closing down. It’s also a tragedy that it’s so tough, especially for young filmmakers, to make independent films without the kind of freedom I fought for all my working life.’

Hard Truths is in cinemas from Friday 31 January.

art of the issue

There’s no dearth of information on how the years between 1914 and 1918 reshaped the world. The Great War, as it was called then, is memorialised across the Western world. Yet hidden within this chapter of history is a forgotten story of resilience, sacrifice and heroism. A history that was never told, a perspective never recognised, because the people who experienced it weren’t seen as people.

Millions of African, Indian and other colonial soldiers answered the call to arms in 1914. Their journeys stretched across continents. Wrenched from their homes, from the plains of Africa, from the humid shores of India, and from other colonised nations, they were pushed straight into the rain-soaked trenches of the war in Europe. Western powers such as Britain and France drew approximately two million Africans into the conflict, with an estimated one in ten losing their lives.

The Indian Army contributed over a million troops, serving in all major theatres of war. Altogether, more than four million African and Asian men were mobilised into the armies of Europe and

John Akomfrah’s haunting new film installation highlights the contribution of millions of colonial soldiers who fought for the Allies in World War I.

Aashna Sharma finds it a confronting experience that immerses its audience in the harsh realities of warfare

America during the war. They were part of every single aspect of the conflict, from actual fighting to essential support roles, including transporting supplies, building infrastructure, serving as labourers, and performing duties that kept the war effort operational.

John Akomfrah’s Mimesis: African Soldier is a step toward preserving the legacy of these forgotten men, reminding us that the Great War was not just a European struggle but a global effort, with herculean participation from people across the world. Projected across three screens that shift between different perspectives, walking into this immersive world is like stepping into a living memory, one woven together with powerful, visceral imagery.

The visuals unfold like fragments of a story, each scene a window into the lives and sacrifices of those WWI soldiers. Akomfrah blends archival footage with newly filmed visuals, creating a striking contrast that brings moments of the war to life while offering a profound insight into its emotional and psychological toll. He bridges past and present, allowing us to experience the weight and texture of history.

Across three screens with shifting images and perspectives, we see figures gazing out at the vastness of the sea or over an endless landscape, their expressions heavy with questions of destiny. The flags of their occupiers surround them (the ones they were simultaneously battling against and fighting for), fluttering like silent witnesses almost mocking their journeys. These are paired with pictures, blurred by the steady flow of water, evoking memories that refuse to remain static.

A young African man stares at his empty village, as if for the first time wondering what was won. A turbaned Indian man bows his head and folds his hands in greeting his wife, now a stranger. Another screen contrasts this with the visuals of soldiers marching, while the visceral sounds of cannons bring the war to life, contrasting with the deadened, isolating sounds of the colonial soldiers’ homecoming. The men often stand

alone with their backs to us, staring out at sprawling views, by the sea, in forests, and in meadows. Skeletons appear at their feet or blown across the branches of trees surrounding them; stark reminders of the ultimate cost, its weight almost tangible. Through it all, you experience a rude awakening, a confrontation with forgotten truths and unacknowledged sacrifices. The visuals of Mimesis: African Soldier take the audience through the trenches of history, enveloping us in its sorrow and resilience, its despair and fleeting hope. This is a journey that leaves you feeling haunted and shaken, still hearing the echoes of those who endured so much, so far from home, only to be erased.

John Akomfrah: Mimesis – African Soldier, Gallery Of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sunday 31 August.

FESTIVE MOVIES

FILM NIGHTBITCH 

Amy Adams gives in to her inner animal in the latest from director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood), based on Rachel Yoder’s superb yet slender 2021 novel. With its attention-grabbing title and sensational star, Nightbitch is a deliciously deranged prospect, taking a recognisable story of domestic drudgery and running wild with it.

Adams plays a character known merely as Mother, an artist and gallery manager turned stay-at-home mum, now slave to the whims of her two-year-old son (played by Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) and nothing much else. Struggling to find meaning in her new existence, when she starts to notice strange changes in her body, this mother is surprised to find herself with the ability to transform into a dog.

For such a long time, screen stories about raising children were sanitised and unrecognisable. These days the curtain has been well and truly pulled back, with Tully, Motherland and The Letdown among the finest examples of telling it like it is. Nightbitch certainly had the potential to join them and there’s much to savour here, especially Adams’ raw, unselfconscious and very un-Hollywood turn, which perfectly captures the intensity of her character’s identity crisis. Meanwhile, the idea of childrearing as originating from the violence of birth and evolving into something feral gives the film a distinctive flavour.

Pointedly, Scoot McNairy as Adams’ husband is little more than a feckless and oblivious male, but supporting characters struggle to make an impression too. And, despite its interesting ideas, Nightbitch doesn’t nail it tonally, failing to fully get to grips with its outlandish conceit. The film never quite feels savage enough, struggling to balance the darkness, fire and rage with its desire to make gags, be likeable, and remain positive about motherhood. (Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 6 December.

ART

LEANNE ROSS

Leanne Ross’ new exhibition, Dirty Dancing Flowers, is a joyful celebration of community and collaboration. The artist, who is developmentally disabled and assisted by other creatives, combines bold, graffiti-ish text-and-image pieces with paintings of coloured flowers arranged at lively angles, overrunning their frames. There’s also an installation area evoking Ross’ making environment, featuring painted and glitter-covered plates, and plastic biscuits and flowers scattered across wooden benches.

Ross is known for her ongoing Shout Out series, in which phrases recorded into her journals are written against backgrounds of multi-coloured rectangles, reminiscent of oversized Post-it notes. Her new works in that style are especially pleasing, partly celebrations of everyday activities that bring sensory pleasure (‘Smells Nice’, reads one). But they also play on our expectations of binary pairings (‘Colour In’ and ‘Eat Out’ appear next to one another, each carrying with it the ghost of its more exact opposite) and of match-ups between text and image. The title words ‘Purple’, ‘Pink’, and ‘Orange’, for example, appear on differently coloured backing squares.

There’s a fascinating ritual, score-like element to these pieces, whose constituent phrases are intended to be shouted out three times, inviting the viewer to have an embodied, vocal response to the work’s visual stimulus. That same idea carries across into the flower-shaped karaoke stage at the centre of the room, where visitors can holler along to songs playing over the sound system (the Dirty Dancing soundtrack is key). A recommended pick-me up at a time of spectacular geopolitical misery. (Greg Thomas)  Tramway, Glasgow, until Sunday 23 March.

theatre of the issue

When you’ve got a stone-cold classic of stage and screen, how do you shake it up for a new production? The answer is you don’t. Kelly Apter finds Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s take on The Sound Of Music retains all her favourite things about the show

There was a time when The Sound Of Music was as inextricably linked to Christmas as the Queen’s speech. And while the plethora of content available on streaming platforms has changed the shape of our festive viewing, the musical still holds a place in many a heart. Which is one reason you don’t mess with it, or at least Elizabeth Newman hasn’t. Her final show as artistic director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre (before moving to pastures new in Sheffield) is a straightforward rendition of the original 1959 Broadway stage show (with the addition of one song from the 1965 film).

But the other, more fundamental reason Newman hasn’t attempted to rework this iconic classic is, why would you? Set in 1938, on the eve of World War II, The Sound Of Music is a tale of love, loss, family, persecution, conflict and, ultimately, hope. Newman didn’t need to labour the point to make the show as relevant today as when the real-life Maria von Trapp wrote her memoir in 1949. So all we’re really looking for is a strong cast (especially when it comes to the von Trapp children), great vocals and musicianship, and a set that transitions believably between the abbey, the Austrian hills and the family’s opulent home. Tick, tick, tick.

The songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein are so beloved and, much like Christmas, so inextricably linked with Julie Andrews, that when Kirsty Findlay walks on stage singing ‘the hills are alive . . . ’, the stakes are high. So much is wrapped up in the musical’s titular song, capturing Maria’s spirit, the freedom of the mountains, and the love of music that runs through this narrative like a stick of rock. Last seen embodying the legendary Carole

King in Beautiful, Findlay is no stranger to carrying a tune, but her delivery here goes beyond vocal prowess. Yes, she can hit the notes (albeit in a lower register than Andrews), but it’s Maria’s warmth, sense of fun and desire to do good that she captures so well.

Findlay leads a strong cast that, in Newman’s capable hands, is encouraged to play to their strengths. Kate Milner-Evans as the Mother Abbess is suitably operatic during ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’, Christian Edwards is hilarious as theatrical impresario Max Detweiler, and if there was an award for cuteness, Leva Stewart as Gretl is taking it home. Each of the seven von Trapp children demonstrate commitment and authenticity, and when they sing together in perfect harmony, they make a definite play for our hearts.

But perhaps the strongest selling point of this enjoyable production is how wonderfully homespun it feels, without ever compromising on professionalism. Due to its repertory nature, most of the cast doubles up as the band, so it’s not uncommon to see a musician dressed as a nun one minute, a maid the next. Indeed, when they’re not centre-stage, we see Liesl von Trapp pick up a violin, Captain von Trapp sit at the drums, and his love interest Elsa Schraeder is on the French horn.

Light-hearted and fun when it needs to be, the show also knows how to pack a punch. And when the von Trapp family head for the hills in fear of their lives, surrounded by Nazi soldiers and swastikas, you may find yourself reaching for a tissue as those hopeful harmonies soar.

The Sound Of Music, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, until Sunday 22 December.

FILM

NICKEL BOYS

Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is brought to the screen in bold, strikingly cinematic fashion in Nickel Boys, the first narrative feature from RaMell Ross (director of the remarkable, Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening). Relayed with great warmth and compassion, this is a kaleidoscopic, confident vision of all the love, hope, hate and horror that make up two young black men’s lives.

Set in Jim Crow-era Florida, the film unfolds in brutal reform school Nickel Academy, a fictionalised version of the notorious Arthur G Dozier School For Boys. Following a montage of childhood memories, we follow a bright and wide-eyed teenager Elwood (Ethan Herisse) as he sets off for his first day at community college, having been encouraged to apply by his kind high-school teacher (Jimmie Fails). Sadly, he is arrested after accepting a lift from a charismatic stranger who it transpires is driving a stolen vehicle, with Elwood unfairly implicated in the crime.

Once in Nickel, this earnest and optimistic lad befriends the jaded and more cynical Turner (Brandon Wilson), whose perspective the film alternately adopts. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Origin) plays Elwood’s devoted and determined grandmother Hattie, who fights to free him despite being denied contact, with Hamish Linklater and Daveed Diggs also appearing.

Nickel Boys is movingly performed, stunningly shot by Jomo Fray, and boasts a palpable sense of injustice without getting mired in misery. Elwood and Turner’s trials are powerfully explored as we experience events through their eyes, with Ross for the most part favouring snapshots and impressions rather than long, protracted scenes. The film unapologetically asks us to find our feet with its absence of explanation and idiosyncratic POV visual style. However, once you settle into its rhythms you won’t be able to tear your eyes away. (Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 3 January.

COMEDY ALFIE BROWN

Cancellation in comedy is such a wretched concept that even the idea that’s it’s overblown, with supposedly disgraced stand-ups continuing to win awards and sell tours, is fast approaching a cliché. When Alfie Brown screechingly impersonates Russell Brand, it’s about undesirable associations. Yet Brand’s shameless survival strategy barely needs much satirising for a clued-up crowd. And the consequences of Brown’s own cancellation, for ill-judged historical routines in which he recklessly played with racist terms, have been significant. Open Hearted Human Enquiry belongs to that same slim sub-genre of stand-up as Seann Walsh’s Kiss, a thoughtful mea culpa seeking redemption, which also skilfully deconstructs and kicks back at the taking of offence.

Not being easily likeable is a release for a comic of Brown’s selfdestructive impulses and too-clever-by-a-third intelligence. And his unwillingness to pander, contrariness, and commitment to original thinking can be abrasive, with the early audience interactions of this afternoon show attritional and stop-start. Brown’s plea for a fully rounded appreciation of empathy is persuasively argued and he has considered his transgressions from every angle. Moreover, for all of that contrition, he’s not sunk by it, remaining committed to provocative devilry.

In narrative terms, it doesn’t hurt that he’s coming off the back of an absolute annus horribilis of a year and more, with his cancellation bound up with depression, grief, the strains of being a partner and father, copping to his nepo-baby privilege, and the full, middle-class horror of Center Parcs. Whatever else he is, Brown is a gifted storyteller, with the closing half hour of this show bruisingly funny and emotionally moving, an artistic triumph snatched from the jaws of successive personal defeats. (Jay Richardson)

 Reviewed at The Stand, Glasgow.

MUSIC IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE

Afro-funk meets electronic dancehall with Ibibio Sound Machine. The London-based eight-piece bring their disco-esque tunes to life with upbeat trumpet, saxophone, drums, guitar and synth, tied together with lead-singer Eno Williams’ bold vocals. The band takes its name from the Ibibio language, native to Nigeria and passed down to Williams by her mother. Musical influences also come from West African funk, blended into 90s beats to create a unique sound.

The whole set is immersed in joy, spurred on by Williams’ connectivity and synergy with her audience. Though she has amazing stage presence, this is very much a group effort. Renowned Ghanaian guitarist, Alfred Kari Bannerman, makes complex riffs look easy, while Afla Sackey on percussion ensures every beat is felt.

Some music is just made to be heard live and Ibibio Sound Machine inject life and soul into their already vibrant songs. It’s a real joy watching them on stage, delivering clean-cut rhythms and thoughtful lyrics. Following latest album Pull The Rope and 2022 collection Electricity (produced by Hot Chip), the band continue to hone their multiplicitous talents; when witnessed live, they turn even the coldest Scottish Monday evening into a lively party. (Alekia Gill)  Tramway, Glasgow, Saturday 1 February; reviewed at La Belle Angele, Edinburgh.

FILM ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

The poetically titled Cannes Grand Prix winner from writer-director Payal Kapadia made history this year as the first Indian film to win that prize. All We Imagine As Light is an enchanting and melancholy drama that celebrates female friendship as it explores the bonds and boundaries between three women who work as nurses in Mumbai. It’s also an electrifying portrait of a changing city that subtly interweaves political issues and conjures up an ambience of dreamy romance, restlessness and mischief.

Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) and Anu (Divya Prabha) are tirelessly working to make ends meet, all while dealing with the uncertainty of love. Hindu Anu is secretly dating a Muslim man. Prabha is pursued by a doctor who tries to woo her with questionable poetry while she is haunted by her estranged husband in Germany who sends unwarranted gifts. Parvaty, the eldest of the three, is in a dispute over her property due to gentrification. They all attempt to assist one another with varying degrees of success, and in these intimately filmed scenes of connection a warming light begins to flicker.

Kapadia has a strong hold on mood, capturing excitement, alienation, quiet and chaos through the juxtaposition and layering of sounds and colours. A pervasive blue covers the rain-soaked Mumbai scenes while red erupts on the screen as the women spend time by the coast in Ratnagiri. The film possesses a French New Wave-like energy, with characters in constant flux and the jazzy music by the late Ethiopian pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou evoking a woozy beauty. Aparna Sen and Satyajit Ray’s portraits of political and personal transformation also spring to mind, with Kapadia’s insightful characterisation and vivid use of location making this a truly mesmerising cinematic experience. (Katherine McLaughlin)  In cinemas now.

PREVIEW OF 2025

There’s an awful lot to go out and see in the coming 12 months but we’ve narrowed it down to 25 highlights, including an awardwinning comedian, a mod ballet, a bonkers-sounding sci-ﬁ comedy, a slew of musicals and bumper gigs by everyone from Oasis to Eilish

ART

IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

The centenary of this celebrated Scottish artist is marked with a major (and free) exhibition at Scottish National Galleries. A renaissance man extraordinaire, Finlay was a poet, sculptor, printmaker and gardener who rarely left his home in the Pentland Hills.

 Modern Two, Edinburgh, March–May.

SOLANGE PESSOA

Brazilian artist Pessoa’s work draws inspiration from archaeology, prehistoric cave paintings, traditional craft, Brazilian baroque, and poetry. She brings all that to bear with a rare exhibition in the UK.

 Tramway, Glasgow, April–September.

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

Renowned for his work with natural materials, the Scotland-based artist’s Fifty Years will showcase some 200 artefacts such as photographs, sculptures and new installations created in the RSA.

 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, July–November.

COMEDY

ATSUKO OKATSUKA

She once performed through an actual real-time earthquake but hopefully things will be on a more even keel when Okatsuka tours the UK. This Taiwanese-American comic spent her childhood in Japan and now lives in LA, so you could say that she has plenty of cultural touchstones to draw from.

 O2 Academy, Glasgow, February.

AHIR SHAH

If you missed Shah’s Edinburgh Comedy Awardwinning show at the time in 2023 and his re-run earlier this year, you very lucky people get another chance to sample the majestic and moving Ends, a story of family, politics and culture

 The Stand, Glasgow; Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, March.

RHYS DARBY

Not too many people can get away with calling their show The Legend Returns, but this New Zealand comic has absolutely gone straight for it, no holds barred. In the past (obviously), you’ll maybe have seen him on Flight Of The Conchords’ TV show or even further back when he did a heap of physical comedy on stage such as impersonating dinosaurs.

 Theatre Royal, Glasgow, June.

CHRIS MCCAUSLAND

We’ll say it again, the man of the moment is out and about in his post-Strictly life and touring the heck out of that new-found appeal. His tour Yonks! has suddenly added a huge list of extra dates and who can blame him.

 Theatre Royal, Glasgow; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, September.

DANCE

BALLET BC

Canada’s leading contemporary dance group return to the UK after their debut here six years ago, this time performing works by Crystal Pite and Johan Inger: ‘Frontier’ and ‘Passing’.

 Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, May.

QUADROPHENIA, A MOD BALLET

The cult ﬁlm of 1979 is given a dance twist while retaining the spirit of the original movie, including the lead character’s troubled life plus the sharp fashion, rebellious music and cool two-wheeled modes of transport.

 Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, June.

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

Much excitement greeted the ﬁrst news of this coming year’s Edinburgh International Festival programme as helmed by a Scottish Ballet work about a truly iconic ﬁgure from Scottish history.

 Edinburgh International Festival, August; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, September.

FILM

BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY

Inevitably released on Valentine’s Day, original author Helen Fielding and Abi Morgan are among the screenwriting team, as Renée Zellweger reprises her most famous role. Leo Woodall, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Isla Fisher are also in this one.

 In cinemas from February.

BLACK BAG

This spy thriller is directed by Steven Soderbergh and has a killer cast led by Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela and Pierce Brosnan. The story is very hush-hush.

 In cinemas from March.

MICKEY 17

One of the most heavily anticipated films of 2025 will be this sci-fi black comedy from Bong Joon-ho (of Oscar-winning Parasite fame) which stars Robert Pattinson as a man who wants to escape Earth so signs up for a project where that person dies while a new body is regenerated. That doesn’t quite work out when an altogether different version of him suddenly appears, so there’s now two of them. Confused? You’re meant to be.

n In cinemas from April.

SUPERMAN

It’s taken a while to get here but the new Superman movie jets in this summer, with David Corenswet now in the role of Clark Kent and his alter ego, while Rachel Brosnahan (Marvelous Mrs Maisel) becomes Lois Lane.

n In cinemas from July.

TRON: ARES

Screen and stage writer Jack Thorne seems to get everywhere and he’s co-scripted the screenplay for this third part of the Tron sci-fi action franchise. It stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson and Jodie Turner-Smith while Jeff Bridges reprises his role from both movies to date (the first one being all the way back in 1982).

n In cinemas from October.

MUSIC

MICHAEL KIWANUKA

The Mercury Prize winner just goes about his business with as little fuss as possible, letting the music speak for its wonderful self. His new album, Small Changes, keeps that momentum going, garnering all the plaudits you’d imagine it would receive.

n Usher Hall, Edinburgh, March.

LAUREN MAYBERRY

Taking time out from her Chvrches duties, Mayberry goes it alone with her Vicious Creature album and tour. Singles so far are ‘Crocodile Tears’ and ‘Something In The Air’.

n Barrowland, Glasgow, March.

PUNK ALL DAYER

Who said punk’s not dead? This Glasgow Summer Sessions gig should satisfy many an acolyte’s tastes with appearances from Sex Pistols (Frank Carter still takes the lead role), The Stranglers, Skids, The Rezillos, Buzzcocks, and The Undertones.

n Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, June.

BILLIE EILISH

The Hit Me Hard And Soft bandwagon rolls into Glasgow to begin its UK leg having conquered the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. One American critic reckoned Eilish played ‘the adoring audience like a well-tuned instrument’.

n OVO Hydro, Glasgow, July.

OASIS

Last summer, Taylor Swift and her pals took over Scotland’s national rugby stadium, and this time around the Gallagher brothers put all their troubles behind them (every single one) in a moving show of sibling solidarity to give fans all the hits just one more time.

n Murrayfield, Edinburgh, August.

LANG LANG

Star of The Piano and a leading light in today’s classical music field, Lang Lang brings the work of Schubert, Schumann and Chopin to life. Nothing short of a piano odyssey awaits.

n Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, April; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, October.

THEATRE

KINKY BOOTS

With music and songs by the wonderful Cyndi Lauper, this award-winning musical is led by Strictly guy Johannes Radebe and rising musicaltheatre star Dan Partridge in which a lad inherits his family’s failing shoe factory but events take a dramatic and fabulous turn when he meets drag queen Lola.

n Edinburgh Playhouse, February.

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF

Not short of a success or two to his name, James Graham’s latest critical and box-office triumph has him going back to the early 1980s and revisiting Alan Bleasdale’s landmark BBC drama about Yosser Hughes and his unemployed pals in broken Liverpool.

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, March.

WILD ROSE

Nicole Taylor’s musical introduces us to the freespirited Rose-Lynn, just out of jail and determined to flee Glasgow and make it big in Nashville. Country music may be her calling, but she also has a family to raise. Can she have it all? Dawn Sievewright is in the lead role and Blythe Duff has just been announced as playing her mother.

n Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, March & April.

DEAR EVAN HANSEN

Garlanded with Tony Awards, a Grammy and an Olivier, the 2015 Pasek/Paul/Levenson musical reaches Scotland for the very first time to tell its sad story of a high schooler with social anxiety who becomes an undeserving hero as a tragedy unfolds. There's a lesson to be learned in all of this.

n King’s Theatre, Glasgow, February & March; Edinburgh Playhouse, July.

Coming attractions (from left): Oasis; Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy; Atsuko Okatsuka; Mary, Queen Of Scots

CHRISTMAS TV

OK, sure, it’s not exactly what you’d call perfect Christmas viewing, but the long-awaited return of Squid Game will be on many people’s to-watch list over the festive period with the scary tournament commencing on Boxing Day. Much more wholesome content is dished up with the next Wallace & Gromit film (Vengeance Most Fowl), there’s the inevitable Doctor Who festive special, Bad Tidings has man-ofthe-moment Chris McCausland teaming up with Lee Mack to save Christmas, there’s a second season of Severance, and an all-new kind of crime solver hits town in ‘tec drama Patience. (Brian Donaldson)

staying in

Derek Jarman, Et in Arcadia Ego (Aids Memoir Prospect Cottage), 1992

Keith Collins Will Trust and Amanda Wilkinson, London

HISTORY REPEATING

Theatre critic Fergus Morgan has embarked on what seems like an ambitious task: covering the history of Scottish drama by examining just six plays. He explains his logic to Neil Cooper and why he believes a lack of knowledge about the past impacts the future of Scottish theatre

Scottish theatre has millions of stories. Some of them can be heard in A History Of Scottish Drama In Six Plays, theatre critic Fergus Morgan’s boldly named six-part podcast. Developed with a bursary from the Scottish Society Of Playwrights’ @50 Fellowship Awards, Morgan’s take comes from a desire to discover for himself the sometimes lost history of the world he is now steeped in as The Stage’s Scottish theatre critic.

‘The idea was to tell a history, not the history,’ states Morgan. ‘Obviously you can’t tell a definitive history when there are so many different strands to each story, but I wanted to try and tell a hopefully fairly comprehensive history of Scottish drama, principally from the point of view of playwrights, but weaving in all sorts of things along the way.’

To this end, Morgan bookends his series with A Satire Of The Three Estates (1540) (or Ane Pleasant Satyre Of The Thrie Estaitis if you will) and Black Watch (2006), and it’s not difficult to spot stylistic links between David Lyndsay’s medieval morality romp and Gregory Burke’s game-changing look at army life on the frontline.

In between come four very different 20th-century works. The second episode focuses on Ena Lamont Stewart’s Men Should Weep (1947), the third on John McGrath’s The Cheviot, The Stag, And The Black, Black Oil (1973), the fourth on Losing Venice (1985) by Jo Clifford, and the fifth on Passing Places (1997) from Stephen Greenhorn. A bonus seventh episode, recorded live at the Traverse Theatre launch of the series, may bring Morgan’s list up to date, as well as perhaps bringing in some of the names not on it.

‘When I moved here in 2019 I didn’t know anything about Scottish theatre,’ Morgan admits. ‘But I don’t think I was alone in that. I think half the people working in Scottish theatre don’t know its history. And if you don’t know about the things that have been tried in the past and the mistakes that have been made, and the achievements that have been realised, then how are you ever going to develop as a culture? And I think Scottish theatre could do with a bit of development today. If people were more aware of this stuff, they would have shoulders to stand on.’

 All episodes of A History Of Scottish Drama In Six Plays will be available at traverse.co.uk from Monday 2 December.

a smubl • a lbums •

LISTEN BACK

It’s time to hit the clubs with the letter D in our aural alphabet of album recommendations

When cock-of-the-walk deck-botherers like Fred Again, Skrillex and Four Tet can headline Coachella with a passable mega mix, it’s a relief to see a DJ maintain the noble tradition of neutering their ego in favour of surprising beats. Canadian producer Jacques Greene ﬁts that particular bill, his 2019 break-out Dawn Chorus offering a masterclass in depth, darkness and danceability. Favouring a hectic yet sombre palette, each track is a fevered collage of ideas, rabbiting forward without ever letting pace usurp form.

Revelling in dance of a very different kind is Björk’s Debut (1993), which eschewed The Sugarcubes’ oddball indie in pursuit of nightclub shimmers and house-inspired pianos, merging the Icelandic singer’s limber imaginative leaps with eclectic compositions that transcend genre. Its slavish adherence to four-four rhythms sounds quaint today, but album outliers such as ‘Human Behaviour’, ‘Venus As A Boy’ and ‘The Anchor Song’ remain timeless, a precursor to the woozy otherworldliness Björk would explore in later work. (Kevin Fullerton)

 Other D listens: Debutante by Femme (2016), Dusk by The The (1993), Dream On Dreamer by Shocking Blue (1973).

PICTURE:

Dubbed ‘Saltburn meets The Secret History’, Kate van der Borgh’s dark debut novel immerses itself in a world of class prejudice and shadowy academia. She talks to Kelly Apter about art imitating life and the importance of platonic relationships

Arriving at Cambridge University to study music, with a northern accent and oblivious to the societal norms of elite education, the protagonist of And He Shall Appear is a proverbial fish out of water. Surrounded by privately educated students for whom eating breakfast in an opulent dining hall is the norm, he strives to fit in. An outsider at secondary school, due to working hard and learning two instruments (one of which is a bassoon), he thought he’d finally belong, only to discover an impenetrable tribe he’ll never quite be a part of.

Although the above paragraph describes the central character in Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel, it transpires that the words also apply to her. ‘I grew up in Burnley,’ she says, ‘and I had a very broad accent when I ﬁrst arrived at Cambridge. I also studied music, played the same instruments as him, and had a slightly hard time at school for being a bit nerdy. I think you have to take the advice about writing what you know with a pinch of salt, but there was something very helpful about being able to walk down those corridors in my mind and remember details that add colour.’

Lived experience enabled van der Borgh to build a vivid picture of the colleges and halls of Cambridge. That, however, is where reality ends and imagination begins: And He Shall Appear is most definitely a work of fiction. The young man at the centre (who remains nameless throughout) is van der Borgh in situation only. In thrall to wealthy fellow-first year Bryn Cavendish, our narrator pulls out all the stops to infiltrate his inner circle. Cavendish’s interest in the occult makes him an irresistible showman, turning everyone around him into acolytes. ‘I wanted to say something about the power of platonic relationships,’ says van der Borgh, ‘and the idea that the breakdown of a friendship can be just as devastating as the breakdown of a romantic relationship. I wanted there to be a strong magnetism between these two characters, but for it not to be a romance.’

During drink-fuelled parties, where the lines between inebriation and magic blur, van der Borgh’s protagonist neglects his studies and genuine friendships in a desperate bid to climb the class ladder. So alongside ghostly undertones, which leave the reader guessing until the very end, the novel also captures the feeling of being outside looking in. ‘His great fear is that he’ll never shake off his personal history and move into this glorious new world he’s skirting the edges of rather than really inhabiting. He’s done everything he’s been told to do, but it won’t quite make him one of them. What he sees in Bryn is not just someone who’s charming, funny and attractive to women, but someone who is completely in control. And that control is absolutely linked to his privilege and background.’

Having incorporated her ﬁrst-hand knowledge of the architecture and classism of Cambridge, it seems only right that van der Borgh also injects her musical knowledge into the book. ‘I tried to ﬁnd a balance and not get too technical,’ she says. ‘You can sprinkle in musical terms and allow your reader to just gloss over them. So I can say he’s on the way to a harmony and counterpoint lecture and you don’t need to know what that means. But all the musical things I mention are the lens through which the narrator sees the world and how it makes him feel. And everyone knows what it’s like to be moved by music; it’s an emotional resonance we can all relate to.’

And He Shall Appear is published by Fourth Estate on Thursday 16 January.

visible ﬁ ction

National Theatre Live: The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde, directed by Max Webster

Max Webster (Life Of Pi) directs this hilarious story of identity, impersonation and romance, filmed live from the National Theatre in London. Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy is reimagined in this flamboyant, joyful and provocative production starring Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education, Doctor Who), three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke (Ellis) and Hugh Skinner (W1A, Fleabag).

National Theatre Live give audiences the best seat in the house. For over 15 years they have filmed unmissable theatre live from Britain’s most exciting stages and screened it in thousands of cinemas around the globe.

Coming to a cinema screen near you from Thursday 20 February 2025; find your venue at ntlive.com.

In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This time, it’s rising star Tobias Turley (winner of ITV’s Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream) who hosts Scene Stealers alongside Henry Calvert, a podcast where guests share insights into the world of musical theatre

GAMES INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE

Given the abundance of Star Wars games that have been released over the past 40-plus years, it’s strange that George Lucas’ other big franchise has barely had a look-in. Apart from a few fondly remembered 1990s text adventures, Indy’s absence has been so great that it’s opened up a whole industry of knock-offs, most notably the Tomb Raider and Uncharted series. Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, from MachineGames (developer of the recent Wolfenstein series), is hoping to reclaim the adventuring throne with this globe-trotting, puzzlesolving action-adventure set between Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Last Crusade

Our hero is yet again tasked with saving the world from evil-doers who this time are aiming to harness the vast power of a geographical ring connecting some of the world’s greatest historical sites (this is the sort of pseudo-archaeological feature that keeps Graham Hancock in books). Troy Baker (familiar to gamers as the lead in The Last Of Us and BioShock Infinite, and for playing Nathan Drake’s brother Sam in Uncharted 4) will take on voice duties as Indiana Jones, and from the previews it seems he’s pretty much nailed Harrison Ford’s laid-back, laconic style. (Murray Robertson)

 Out on PC and Xbox Series X/S on Monday 9 December and on PS5 in spring 2025.

po pdcasts•

my perfect podcast •stsacdop

Which podcast educates you? I’ve been lucky enough to have some brilliant opportunities in my career with musical theatre, but I also really love ﬁlm. Pulp Kitchen is the one that really gets me thinking. The chats are just so full of detail and new ideas; it’s helped me see cinema in a whole new light.

Which podcast makes you laugh? The Basement Yard is the funniest thing I’ve ever listened to. Proper laugh-out-loud stuff.

Which podcast makes you sad or angry? I tend to steer clear of anything that’s too sad or anger-inducing. I get a lot of joy from theatre, though, and there are some brilliant podcasts for that. I’d recommend Amber Davies’ Call To Stage or The West End Frame for some brilliant interviews with West End performers. For more of an industry chat, Just Get A Real Job and The Stagey Place are great.

Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster. It’s just pure joy. Two comedians talking about food and life with their guests. It’s the kind of podcast where you can just relax, laugh, and not take anything too seriously. Plus, who doesn’t love talking about food?

Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should. And why do you think their one would be amazing? Steven Spielberg. Imagine the legend himself breaking down his own ﬁlms! He could talk about all the behind-the-scenes magic that made those ﬁlms iconic. I’d love to hear him tell those stories. He is someone I dream about working with.

Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 17 words Toby’s Training Talk. A podcast set in the gym, where the host helps the guest through a work-out while having a good chinwag about ﬁtness and lifestyle.

All episodes of Scene Stealers are available now.

TV of the issue

Sticking to your guns in the light of hostility and estrangement would test the hardiest of souls.

Meet Penny, lead character in the excellent After The Party, a drama which Brian Donaldson believes creates a scenario that no one would ever want to experience

We’re all encouraged to report things on the railway network that seem suspicious. But if a human interaction looks not just a little bit off but downright dodgy, would you have the courage to see it, say it and get it sorted in the middle of a family party, accusing your own partner of an abusive act on a vulnerable young person? In the New Zealand-set After The Party, that’s exactly what Penny (Robyn Malcolm) does when she believes she has just witnessed her husband Phil (Peter Mullan) acting inappropriately towards their daughter’s friend Ollie (Ian Blackburn) when he’s pretty much passed out on a bed after imbibing a little too much. Phil insists that he was merely comforting the boy.

The action flips back and forth, reviewing this incident from various angles and different players’ perspectives, and jumping ahead five years to Phil’s return to the scene of his alleged crime after holing up in Glasgow (yes, Mullan does his specifically Scottish charming-one-minute, malevolent-the-next thing that he has perfected down the years). To Penny’s shock, he literally swans back into town, taking up a job at a school and immediately becomes responsible for the welfare of young boys; she teaches at a different institution, showing off a no-nonsense, thick-skinned attitude which seems to be the only way she has managed to fend off her own demons. Though downing lots of wine at home and cycling around enforcing justice on a gang who are breaking nautical laws also seems to keep her mind occupied.

In the middle of all this is their daughter Grace (Tara Canton) who, it seems, believes her dad’s side of the story. It turns out that half the town is also sick of Penny’s ongoing and now increased insistence of her husband’s nefarious act, her own belief galvanised as she ponders previous incidents which at the time seemed merely curious but now perhaps hint at something much darker. Throughout the six parts, Malcolm’s performance as the ﬂawed but impassioned Penny holds everything together, her face and eyes silently suggesting a lifetime of strife which has been further invaded by disturbing thoughts about the one man she thought she could fully trust. As the ﬁnale approaches, your own verdict is likely to switch and swerve as new evidence comes to light and the pressure to conform and comply is heaped upon Penny. The question of what the audience would do if they were in Penny’s shoes is one which no person ever wants to confront in their own life.

The ﬁnal two episodes are shown on Channel 4, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 December.

ALBUMS

WALEED

Magdalena (City

Slang)



If it’s true that you are the company you keep, then Waleed has fallen in with a good circle indeed. Since it first surfaced three years ago, his sleeper hit ‘Se Rompen’ has pricked up listeners’ ears in both Ben UFO’s and Four Tet’s essential mixes (which place the producer in the same camp as Joy Orbison, Overmono and Two Shell) and in Floating Points’ sets, its sinewy Latin vocals matching each artist’s love of an understated earworm. This winter brings his EP-length follow-up, Magdalena, a cooing, glittering, yet also downright vigorous debut that should spark further intrigue about this emergent producer.

Born in Washington DC to Iraqi and Puerto Rican parents (and now an adoptee of Berlin’s clubbing traditions), Waleed periodically mines his own globetrotting heritage for sample material. It’s what unites ‘Se Rompen’ and the EP’s titular ‘Magdelena’, the most obvious successor to his break-out track for its shared hat tip to contemporary Latin folk music. This time around, Waleed pitches up a vocal from Colombian tambora artist Martina Camargo’s ‘Guataquí (Berroche)’, its sing-song melody adding a new giddy edge to his sound. The garage shuffle is here again too, though more hyperactive and with far more clout on the drums.

This is a running theme throughout Waleed’s EP. His attention to texture and percussion already established, he takes this opportunity to present the hard with the soft, steering sighing synths into a bed of industrial clangs and booms. ‘Salve’ goes the hardest, with furious pounding offset by discordant keys and jubilant ululations. In a move not unlike Overmono, ‘Tonight’ weaves choppy breaks into a wistful hum and pattering guitar strings. ‘Storytime’ darkens at the halfway point, snippets of bass skittering over a sharpened snare. But before we freefall completely into the moodier end of dance music, Waleed pulls us back with baby babble on ‘Now Go Be A Kid Again’, a reminder of the sense of play and curiosity that permeates his music. (Becca Inglis)

 Released on Friday 6 December.

PODCASTS DREAM SEQUENCE (Blumhouse/iHeartPodcasts)

This co-production is a heady mix of bygone horror, science fiction and family dysfunction that examines primal fears and conspiracy theories. It also very much taps into trauma, a theme that haunts modern horror almost to the point of oversaturation. While listening to the atmospheric synth score and narrative of an isolated research team investigating nightmares, John Carpenter’s chilling The Thing springs to mind, but there are also touches of HP Lovecraft in how the tale unfolds.

The two main characters in Dream Sequence are estranged sisters, Sadie (Alice Kremelberg) and Kay (a brilliant Jessi Case). One night Sadie calls Kay out of the blue and offers her a huge sum of money to work on her top-secret invention: a dream machine. The show plays out with Kay meeting multiple researchers and patients, listening in on their dreams and making shocking discoveries about her sister and family history. To say too much about the core mystery would be to give the game away. It has distinct creepypasta vibes, and the use of static as infection of the mind is reminiscent of Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool crossed with Brad Anderson’s Session 9. The way sleep deprivation and nightmares are depicted also recalls A Nightmare On Elm Street

The ten-part series, created by Andrew Martin Robinson and directed by David Beazley and John Brooks, is suspenseful, with cliffhangers galore. Each episode clocks in at around 20 minutes, so it’s a quick listen even if it all feels a bit too familiar. (Katherine McLaughlin)

 All episodes available now.

ALBUMS

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Dream Requiem (Warner Classics)

Holed up in Laurel Canyon during lockdown while California was beset by its worst wildfires in generations, Rufus Wainwright threw himself into an ambitious classical work. Channelling the formative influence of Verdi’s Requiem, he created a 21st-century requiem mass for those lost during the pandemic and through climate change.

Dream Requiem was premiered earlier this year in Paris, with Mikko Franck conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Its text draws on the Latin Mass for the dead punctuated by extracts from Lord Byron’s Darkness, narrated by the redoubtable Meryl Streep. Darkness was originally written in response to another natural disaster, the deadly 1815 eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora which lowered global temperatures, causing harvest failures and famine in 1816 which was dubbed the Year Without A Summer. Streep imbues its apocalyptic lines with authority, urgency and sorrow, while the choir mourn against brass fanfares, hesitantly plucked strings, melancholic woodwind and the energising clatter of timpani.

Soprano soloist Anna Prohaska arrives like the dawning of hope, wreathed in twinkling flutes, before the massed voices are unleashed. Streep sounds on the verge of desperation on ‘Sequentia V: Confutatis’ while the male and female voices in the choir engage in heightened dialogue over swirling strings, all rushing to a sudden thunderous climax.

The waves of contrasting emotion keep coming. Forlorn solo violin emerges from the storm in ‘Offertorium’, hearty tenors skip over ‘Sanctus’ with soprano voices fluttering over a propulsive backing. ‘In Paradisum’ spotlights an eerie children’s choir against a backdrop of pattering percussion, and the booming baritones pay solemn monastic tribute on ‘Agnus Dei’ before the whole choir comes together in angelic exultation. With further performances taking place around Europe in 2025, Dream Requiem is shaping up to be the biggest hitter in Wainwright’s classical armoury. (Fiona Shepherd)

 Released on Friday 17 January.

smubla • albums •

semag • games •

GAMES DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD (BioWare)



The Dragon Age series is an odd beast. Beginning with 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, it has sharply tacked with each entry: initially very D&D focused, then starkly linear for its sequel, before the third entry broadened the scale with a more open-world design. The Veilguard selects choice cuts from what’s come before (plus elements from other recent fantasy RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate 3) to create the most accessible entry in the series; this is a spirited, colourful adventure with a style of tactile combat that hues much closer to sci-fi studio stablemate Mass Effect.

This approach may alienate D&D purists but there’s no denying that The Veilguard’s fights make for thrilling encounters. Enemies must be tackled using a variety of attack methods, with no single mechanic able to bring them down. Levelling up opens the door to new game-changing spells and abilities, and while you can’t fully control companions, you can tactically direct them to use their most powerful skills. The story, about an incursion of demonic forces pouring into the world of Thedas, is punchy, twisty and neatly altered by player choices.

Surprisingly, the game’s aesthetic is rather cartoony. Character models, while expressive enough, are disconcertingly smooth and would have seemed a bit austere even a decade ago. While the design choice sits fine within the narrative, and there are many spectacular vistas to explore, it does seem like an odd decision for one of the biggest games of the year in an industry that’s forever striving for greater graphical fidelity. Looks aside, The Veilguard is a worthy addition to the roster of superb recent fantasy RPGs that together represent a stunning renaissance for the genre. (Murray Robertson)

 Out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

PREVIEW OF 2025

The next 12 months throws up a volley of treats for you to enjoy without stepping outside the house including albums by Gaga and Lana, books about dystopias and remote living, and TV prequels, adaptations and finales

ALBUMS BDRMM

Microtonic is the Hull shoegazey band’s third album and was launched by the single ‘John On The Ceiling’ which the band insisted was all about ‘confusion and doubt’. One album track is called ‘Clarkycat’ which simply has to be a callback to a classic moment in Chris Morris’ Brass Eye n Rock Action, February.

MAX COOPER

Across two years, audio-visual artist Cooper collected hundreds of anonymous quotes which posed questions such as ‘what would you like to express which you cannot in everyday life?’ and ‘what is it like to exist inside your head?’ The aim, and the resulting album On Being, is to understand what it means to be human right now. n Mesh, February.

SAM FENDER

The Geordie legend and singer-songwriter supreme (those of you sniggering at the back have almost certainly never won an Ivor Novello Award) returns with new album, People

Watching, another set of tunes which are likely to elevate his profile to a whole new level.

n Polydor, February.

LADY GAGA

You don’t have to be an Enigma codebreaker to work out that LG7 marks the seventh album of Lady Gaga’s career. She may have been highly focused on her acting these last few years but the music comes back to the fore, headed up by lead single ‘Disease’.

n February.

THE DARKNESS

Those comedy rockers are back with Dreams On Toast, four years after their last collection, Motorheart. In typical form, lead man Justin Hawkins dubs their new songs as ‘wallowing in an aromatic aural ragù, served atop the charred remains of our envious contemporaries’.

n Cooking Vinyl, March.

BOOTSY COLLINS

Perhaps confusingly, ‘Album Of The Year #1 Funkateer’ was a single in 2024 ahead of a new album which boasts the same name. The former Funkadelic and Parliament bassist follows up his 2020 collection The Power Of The One in fine funky style.

n Bootzilla Records, April.

THE FARM

Let The Music (Take Control) is likely to win the title of ‘longest gap between studio albums’ in this coming year as it plugs a 30-year hole left after Hullabaloo came and went in 1994. The Liverpool band are still led by frontman Peter Hooton who was there on day one in 1983.

n Modern Sky Records, May.

LANA DEL REY

Del Rey promises us more than just a slice of country with Lasso, having tested the waters in 2024 with a cover version of ‘Stand By Your Man’. Expect something pitched more towards raw Southern Gothic than her usual dark Americana pop.

n Polydor/Interscope, month tbc.

CLIPPING

Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson return with another experimental album after their ‘horrorcore’ success in the pre and mid-covid era, with this next one dabbling in ‘hip hop and cyberpunk’.

n Sub Pop, month tbc.

BOOKS

SUZANNE COLLINS

Set some 25 years before the events which unfolded in The Hunger Games, Collins’ Sunrise On The Reaping has the author dipping into the philosophy of Edinburgh’s David Hume and his ideas of implicit submission while also exploring the power of state propaganda.

n Scholastic, March.

STEPHEN KING

The horror master returns to his character Holly Gibney for a new crime novel entitled Never Flinch. As the prolific author told the Talking Scared podcast earlier this year, the inspiration for this new book came from the Lady Gaga dognapping case of 2021.

n Scribner, May.

CHIKA UNIGWE

Exploring ideas of motherhood, agency and forgiveness, Grace is the US-based Nigerian

writer’s fifth novel and is told through the eyes of a successful young woman with a hidden past. n Canongate, May.

MICHAEL PEDERSEN

Muckle Flugga is the eponymous rugged and remote isle in the Edinburgh Makar’s debut novel, populated only by a lighthouse keeper and his otherworldly son. When a chaotic writer from the big city arrives as a lodger, the trio’s worlds are turned upside down.

n Faber, May.

RF KUANG

The Yellowface author brings us Katabasis, in which two Cambridge academics are pitted against each other ahead of a trip to hell in order to rescue a particular individual’s soul. Getting there turns out to be the easy bit.

n HarperCollins, August.

GAMES

DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH

Hideo Kojima has written, produced and directed this sequel in which the US is still destabilised after a cataclysmic event which led to nasty creatures roaming the planet. Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker are back lending their voices and likenesses while Elle Fanning is among the new cast membership.

n Sony Interactive Entertainment, month tbc.

DOOM: THE DARK AGES

This eighth entry in the Doom series is a firstperson shooter prequel in which we follow the rise of the series’ protagonist Doom Slayer, as he becomes our last hope in fighting off the demonic forces of hell. No pressure.

n Bethesda Softworks, month tbc.

GRAND THEFT AUTO VI

Twelve years was a long time for GTA disciples to wait but finally the eighth main game will soon(ish) be here. Set in the state of Leonida and the Miami-inspired Vice City, the plot is likely to follow the criminal activities of Lucia and her unnamed male sidekick.

n Rockstar Games, autumn.

TV THE STUDIO

Seth Rogen plays a movie executive who has just been appointed head of a big studio. This is his chance to finally get proper films made, except the studio isn’t quite so keen on that notion. Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz co-star while Bryan Cranston, Paul Dano and Martin Scorsese crop up in guest roles, sometimes even playing themselves.

n Apple TV+, March.

KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS

Just when you might have thought that the Game Of Thrones universe may well be done with all that prequel stuff, Mr George RR Martin has returned to his Tales Of Dunk And Egg fantasy novel series as we dip into some origin stories of the Targaryen crew.

n HBO, June.

DEAR ENGLAND

James Graham had another stage hit with this story about the England men’s national team led by Gareth Southgate across three different tournaments and the changes he made within his squads with regard to mental health and notions of masculinity. Graham adapts his work for TV and Joseph Fiennes is back as that nice man Gareth.

n BBC One, month tbc.

IT: WELCOME TO DERRY

Not a sequel or spin-off to the raucous Channel 4 sitcom, instead this is a prequel all about the rise of Pennywise The Clown from the Stephen King book It and those various big-screen iterations. Bill Skarsgärd is back as the ancient malevolent entity that can’t stop preying on the good folk of Maine.

HBO, month tbc.

STRANGER THINGS

Now a huge stage hit in London’s West End, fans are about to savour the fifth and final smallscreen slice of their favourite 80s-inflected sci-fi drama. What will become of Eleven and the rest of the town’s young uns?

n Netflix, month tbc.

RIOT WOMEN

Seasoned TV showrunner Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack) has created a drama about a gang of middle-aged women who enter a local talent contest as a makeshift punk band discovering that this is the best (or only) way for their voices to be heard. Joanna Scanlan, Amelia Bullmore and Tamsin Greig are among those wielding metaphorical Mohicans.

n BBC One, month tbc.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

The true and pretty awful story of Belle Gibson who, at the dawn of Instagram, manipulated untold numbers of people to believe that she would help cure them of cancer. After all, she had managed to alleviate her own terminal illness. Except she hadn’t. That’s what we mean by saying this is an awful story. The always excellent Kaitlyn Dever stars.

n Netflix, month tbc.

Coming soon (from left): Clipping; RF Kuang; Death Stranding 2; The Studio

back

THE Q& A WITH CALLUM BEATTIE

Singer-songwriter Callum Beattie is back on home soil with a coveted special guest slot supporting Texas at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, as well as headlining a couple of big pre-Christmas Barrowland gigs in Glasgow. Before all that, he takes on our hard-hitting Q&A and talks missed sporting opportunities, wasp terrors and ﬂower-ﬁlled holidays with Elton

Who would you like to see playing you in the movie about your life? Who do you think the casting people would choose? Well, I’ve just worked with two legendary Scottish actors, Sam Heughan and Richard Rankin, who were absolutely brilliant. I learned so much from them both. Obviously, most people are going to say Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt but I’d want someone with a great sense of humour, so Bob Mortimer will be my choice. Comic genius.

What’s the punchline to your favourite joke? ‘To cover their butt quacks’.

If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? An elephant. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with elephants in Thailand a couple of years ago, although being a panda looks like it would also be a lot of fun.

If you were playing in an escape room, name two other people (well-known or otherwise) you’d recruit to help you get out? My go-to in any crisis is always my manager Dave. He’d be sure to broker us a way out! Second, I’d pick Stephen Fry. He’s intelligent enough to get me out of any room.

When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else and what were the circumstances? Someone did think I was Lewis Capaldi once. I completely went along with it.

What’s the best cover version ever? I absolutely love the Hendrix version of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’. In actual fact, we will be paying homage to it in our December shows and rehearsed it today.

Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? James Earl Jones, closely followed by Snoop Dogg.

If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? That’s a hard one but I’m going to say bathing with elephants in Thailand, which I hope I can do again next year.

Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? I am absolutely petriﬁed of wasps. My manager nearly crashed a bus once because a wasp got in the window and I totally freaked out.

What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? I would absolutely love to have learned properly about production, like the technical aspect of it, as sometimes it’s very hard to explain to people what is in your head when it comes to recording and songwriting.

Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? Sobriety and the beneﬁts that come with it. Boring, I know, but I’ve become a passionate advocate for mentalhealth charities, and I had never realised how much making the right choices helps with my own mental health, and how much of a massive impact alcohol has on it for me personally.

Describe your perfect Saturday evening? These days, it’s a Chinese takeaway and a great movie. A far cry from the days when I’d be out all night, and then in a casino until they ﬂung me out! Although we do a lot of gigs on Saturday nights, so I suppose my perfect Saturday night is a sold-out Barrowlands.

If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? That’s an easy one: Margaret Thatcher, all day and all night, 365 days a year.

What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? Before I was writing songs, I was a very keen footballer and won a few trophies, which was great. Sadly though, when I was a kid I was devastated to ﬁnd out that a few of my mates had got trials with big clubs and I hadn’t. A few weeks later I told my granny about it and she said ‘aye son, they phoned, but I told them you already had a club’. True story!

Did you have a nickname at school that you were ok with? No. I’ll just leave it at that . . .

If you were to start a tribute act to a band or singer, who would it be in tribute to? I think it would have to be Bowie, who is one of my favourite artists of all time. But I would never try to impersonate him; it’s just too hard to recreate his genius.

When were you most recently astonished by something? Last year my manager called to tell me we had sold out Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in 90 seconds. I still actually ﬁnd it very hard to believe! Especially given that three years ago I couldn’t sell 50 tickets.

When did you last cry? I cried when we made the video for my current single ‘Something In My Eye’. That’s the one with Richard Rankin and Sam Heughan. It’s a song about mental health to support the charity Mikeysline, and it was a hugely emotional day.

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? Awww, I absolutely love my house, so that’s a hard one. I’d go for my living room as I’m happy to spend most of my spare time in my bedroom watching bad TV.

What tune do you ﬁnd it impossible not to get up and dance to, whether in public or private? We’ve done quite a few dates this year with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who is genuinely the most lovely person; so I’ll say ‘Murder On The Danceﬂoor’. A brilliant pop song, written by one of my favourite songwriters.

Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? I quite fancy going on holiday with Elton: imagine how amazing the hotels would be?! Fresh ﬂowers everywhere; sounds good to me. Or maybe Bruce Springsteen. I’d spend the whole holiday grilling him about his writing process until he kicked me out.

As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact? My manager and I do as much charity work as we can, so I’ve had the privilege of spending a lot of time with kids who are terminally ill, and some of the insights that I’ve had from those kids far outweigh anything any adult has ever said to me.

What’s the most hi-tech item in your home? I’m an absolute technophobe. My phone is the highest tech thing I have, and I can barely work that.

If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your ﬁrst luxury destination for espionage? Deﬁnitely Thailand: my favourite place in the world. Then the Maldives.

Callum Beattie plays Barrowland, Glasgow, Friday 20 & Saturday 21 December, and appears at Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, as part of Concert In The Gardens, Tuesday 31 December.

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hot shots ( film special )

Bored and stressed during lockdowns, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen spent their time playing an iconic video game and wondering if a Shakespeare classic could live in that world. Cue the birth of the experimental Grand Theft Hamlet, a big hit at SXSW and coming to our cinemas on Friday 6 December.

It caused quite a stir when unveiled as the surprise movie at the 2003 Edinburgh International Film Festival, but Spirited Away has proved its longevity as a cult classic. The Studio Ghibli movie gets a nationwide re-release on Boxing Day, a perfect time to see huge sumo babies and parents being turned into pigs.

For such a silver screen legend, it seems strange that Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes is the first official documentary of the man who was deemed to be masculinity personified but whose story (on and off screen) was shaped by the women in his life. A nuanced tale of a 20th-century icon is available digitally from Monday 9 December.