The List Issue 776 by List Publishing Ltd

NOVEMBER 2023 | ISSUE 776

LIST.CO.UK FREE

Push The Boat Out Eddie Izzard Lannan Bakery King Creosote Anatomy Of A Fall Beagles & Ramsay The Skewer Claire M Singer Panto Season

From Sunshine On Leith to the darkness of Femme

GEORGE MACKAY

4 THE LIST November 2023

Mouthpiece The KLF prove they are far from RIP

Head 2 Head There’s madness in some actors’ methods

FEATURES Panto Reactionary toss or progressive theatre?

Push The Boat Out Edinburgh’s poetry festival sets sail once again

contents

FRONT

8 9

EDDIE IZZARD EXPRESSES SURPRISE AT BEING MISTAKEN FOR JULIAN CLARY

EAT & DRINK Lannan Bakery

How pastry caused an unseemly stramash

Drinking Games

What’s occuring in Glasgow’s student bars?

TRAVEL & SHOP Bologna

Far more than just a sauce factory

Lunch

”

He was much prettier than I am

Made-to-order is the future

GOING OUT King Creosote

One person’s drone is somebody else’s pop song

Sarah Hopfinger

Finding a way to live with chronic pain

Simon Murphy

Capturing Govanhill with startling photography

Al Seed

A feverish and mystical return to the stage

STAYING IN Bodies

A murder mystery goes time travelling

Colin Burnett

The Sopranos relocated to Leith

BACK Hot Shots

A cinema special with Bottoms and the Filmhouse COVER PICTURE: KOSTAS MAROS

November 2023 THE LIST 5

welcome

CONTRIBUTORS PUBLISHING

Christmas is looming over the horizon which means panto season is getting close. Everyone knows the punchline to this set-up, so I’m not going to feed it to you (it’s in our feature which analyses the importance of panto. Go read it there). Whether you think the swathes of Cinderellas, Aladdins, Peter Pans et al are a good thing for our culture or not, well, it barely matters, for they’re not going away anytime soon. Someone who is also hanging around for a long spell (though maybe not the 300 years it has been since the first panto by John Rich) is our wonderful (and wonderfully humble) cover star George MacKay. You can tell a good actor by the variety of roles they take on and this Londoner with the Scottish name (we will happily try to claim the 12.5% of him that’s pure Caledonia) lives and breathes diversity. Sunshine On Leith, Pride, True History Of The Kelly Gang, How I Live Now and 1917 have all brought him to this point as MacKay delivers a blockbuster performance in Femme as a tattooed and violent wide boy with a secret he’d rather was kept from his similarly inked and equally thuggish pals. Our interview reveals him to be a gentle man with a firm eye on big things within his industry. Elsewhere, we dip our toes into this year’s Summerhall-set poetry festival Push The Boat Out, speak to baker Darcie Maher about the Pastry Wars of summer 2023, take a trip to saucy city Bologna, hear from King Creosote about what constitutes a drone (the sonic kind), and chuck some questions at Eddie Izzard who flings back a pile of answers. Coming under the reviewing microscope are the Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall, multi award-winning The Skewer as it takes a brief detour away from radio and onto television, a theatrical and very Scottish take on Great Expectations (Nae Expectations, obviously), and rising literary star Colin Burnett’s latest slab of contemporary Scottish working-class life. Folks, it’s another packed issue. Oh yes it is (damn! Sorry).

Brian Donaldson EDITOR

CEO Sheri Friers Editor Brian Donaldson Art Director Seonaid Rafferty Sub Editors Paul McLean Megan Merino Eat & Drink Editor Jo Laidlaw Travel & Shop Editor Megan Merino Designer Isabella Dalliston Writers Ailsa Sheldon, Brian Donaldson, Claire Sawers, Claire Stuart, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Donald Reid, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Fiona Shepherd, Greg Thomas, Isy Santini, James Mottram, Jay Thundercliffe, Jo Laidlaw, Jodie Hagan, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Neil Cooper, Paul Dale, Rachel Ashenden, Rachel Cronin, Rebecca Crockett, Suzy Pope Social Media & Content Editor Megan Merino Senior Business Development Manager Jayne Atkinson

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Online News Editor Kevin Fullerton Media Sales Executive Ewan Wood Digital Operations & Events Manager Leah Bauer Events Assistant Eve Johnston

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6 THE LIST November 2023

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front

mouthpiece The KLF are back and announcing a world tour. Kind of. As a collection of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s artistic chaos is brought together, long-term K watcher Neil Cooper considers the audacious legacy of these cultural provocateurs

023: WTF is going on? As The KLF come into view once more by way of the BFI’s forthcoming DVD collection of assorted videos and films from the self-styled ‘Stadium House’ duo of Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, you might well ask. After all, Cauty and Drummond (aka Rockman Rock and King Boy D) gatecrashed the pop charts in the 1980s with their epic brand of conceptual rabble-rousing before self-destructing at the 1992 BRIT Awards. As The K Foundation, they rebooted late 20th-century pop culture as we knew it, burning a million quid as they went. 23 Seconds To Eternity: The Collected Films Of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, The KLF And The Timelords (1988–1992) brings together video clips for assorted smash hits including ‘Justified And Ancient’, ‘3 A.M. Eternal’ and ‘What Time Is Love?’ The collection also features rarely seen ‘ambient road movie’ The White Room (1989), plus restored or previously unreleased shorts, all directed by Bill Butt. For long-term K watchers, this is a treasure trove, as are the quartet of digital playlists of long-deleted greatest hits posted in 2021 by KLF Communications. Given Cauty and Drummond’s self-imposed moratorium on working together for 23 years, as announced in 1995, and the deletion of their entire musical back catalogue, this spate of activity is especially thrilling.

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

Made me cry: Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters Of The Dust is one that has really stuck with me in the weeks since I watched it. It’s a loving but melancholy look at a turn-of-the-century Gullah community and their then rapidly disappearing culture. The pervading sense of loss created by the dreamy cinematography and lovely score moved me to tears more than once. Made me angry: The ‘girl math’ trend on TikTok. It bothers me that so many self-proclaimed feminists would even jokingly suggest that being financially irresponsible is a womanly trait, as if that hasn’t long been a misogynistic trope. Made me laugh: I’ve been revisiting some of my favourite fabliaux (a type of bawdy medieval comedy). I’m most fond of Dane Hew, which follows a naughty monk who ends up in a very strange situation after propositioning the tailor’s wife. It’s amazing that what was considered funny nearly a millennium ago still has the power to make us laugh now. Made me think: Having been hooked on House Of The Dragon, I’m now rereading the Song Of Ice And Fire series. Even if the final books are never published, the series is so detailed and thematically rich that theorising about what’s to come is satisfying in and of itself. Made me think twice: I watched Johnny Guitar last month, and it completely changed my view of Westerns. I had previously dismissed the genre as one that wasn’t interested in women, but I was absolutely enamoured with the brash, powerful women in this, especially Joan Crawford’s character.

the insider 8 THE LIST November 2023

The signs were there in 2017 when, after two decades of largely music-free solo artistic endeavours, this detente ended with the publication of a novel, 2023: A Trilogy. This coincided with Welcome To The Dark Ages, a three-day spectacle that took place in Drummond’s former stomping ground of Liverpool. It was here back in 1976 that a young Drummond was co-opted into designing the set for Illuminatus!, maverick theatre director Ken Campbell’s audacious nine-hour staging of Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s sci-fi hippy conspiracy trilogy. This was pretty much responsible for everything Drummond and Cauty in their various guises have done since. In true conceptual style, there is even a KLF world tour. Sort of. A poster is advertising 23 dates that look set to take place on the 23rd of each month. In 2323. These dates take in a series of seminal venues that closed years ago, alongside a dozen totemic wonders, including the Jura Boathouse where The KLF torched that mighty loot. Immortality moves in mysterious ways. Still justified. Even more ancient. Mu Mu Land is within sight.  23 Seconds To Eternity: The Collected Films Of The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, The KLF And The Timelords (1988–1992) is released by BFI on Monday 6 November; find more of Neil’s writing at neilcooper.substack.com

Get in amongst the era-spanning rhythms of our November issue, featuring songs by Eurythmics, Hamish Hawk, Rebecca Vasmant, Black Grape, Billy Porter, Beirut and many more . . . Scan and listen as you read:

FRONT

from the archive

play LIST

We look through The List’s 38-year back catalogue to see what was making headlines this month in decades gone by

Grab your shoulder pads and leg warmers because this month we’re back in 1986. Ahead of a sold-out Eurythmics show at Glasgow’s SECC, Annie Lennox spoke to us about her jetsetting lifestyle and a sidestep into acting. Also inside, director John McGrath revealed all about his film Blood Red Roses and we examined photographer Oscar Marzaroli’s exhibition at the Third Eye Centre (now CCA) which captured Glasgow through the late 1950s.  Visit archive.list.co.uk to read our past issues.

hea d MEGAN

hea d

Hollywood and its many disciples have long been obsessed with the mysterious concept of method acting. Although we may associate it with behaviour that leans into the extreme (losing half your body weight, not showering for the entirety of a run, only eating food caught with your bare hands etc), method acting at its core asks for actors to immerse themselves in the reality of whichever character they play in order to ground their performance in the truth of the moment. Reading into Lee Strasberg’s methodology with a level head, it all seems like necessary research to be done before stepping into the shoes of someone with a wildly different lived experience. Being a taxi driver for a month before starring as the lead in a film called Taxi Driver, for example, seems like the least you could do to understand the fictitious world you’re inhabiting. Does that give a person license to lash out at colleagues and family members under the guise of ‘not being themselves’? Absolutely not. Nor should actors win awards on the basis of putting themselves through the most amount of personal pain or strife. A method is a means to an end; the end being a good performance. As far as I’m concerned, however an actor gets there is none of my business.

We sit Megan Merino and Kevin Fullerton down in front of a contentious bit of current culture and ask them to write about it straight from the heart. As Joaquin Phoenix no doubt goes the full Waterloo to give us his Napoleon at cinemas this month, our disputatious duo debate the merits of method acting

KEVIN

The ‘method’ has fostered a bevvy of flawless performances since its popularisation in the 1950s. Marlon Brando toying with a woman’s glove in On The Waterfront, Robert De Niro in an insomniac stupor throughout Taxi Driver, or Meryl Streep’s acid-tongued wit in The Devil Wears Prada all exhibit a chameleonic intensity that are showy only insofar as complete habitation of a role is in itself a thrilling spectacle. Then there’s the method equivalent of a dodgy RADA ham murdering King Lear, tarnishing the name of practitioners of the craft everywhere. Jared Leto is a prime case in point, amplifying the worst tendencies of method actors to emphasise facial ticks and costume accoutrements over, well, good acting, while sledgehammering films like Blade Runner 2049 into overwrought bilge. And he’s one example of many (yes you, Bale). I’m not saying I could expunge all of Brando, De Niro and Streep’s work in return for a world where I didn’t have to endure another Leto-steered car crash (from his deeply offensive Dolmio puppet impersonation in House Of Gucci to his tin-eared turn as Joker in Suicide Squad) but I’d certainly sympathise with someone who could. November 2023 THE LIST 9

27 Oct to 19 Nov, 2023 wondrouswoods.com

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10 THE LIST November 2023

PANTO SPECIAL

I Nothing like a dame

They’re pillars of our festive cultural scene, but what place does the pantomime hold in today’s society? Probing further into pantoland, Mark Fisher argues that, far from being reactionary, it’s a liberating and transgressive art form

f the culture wars were an actual thing rather than the delusions of some Tory sociopaths, where would pantomime be in the battle? By rights, this curious British tradition should be a godsend for the illiberal and a nightmare for the wokerati. ‘Pantomime does NOT need to be politically correct, says Christopher Biggins,’ trumpeted the Daily Express a few years ago with evident glee. And it would be easy to side with the newspaper’s implication that panto is the most conservative of artforms. When Cinderella marries into money, does she not reinforce the patriarchal view of women as powerless damsels and men as ﬁgures of authority? Isn’t the cross-dressing dame a sexist assault on femininity, a grotesque parody designed to put women in their place? Doesn’t every pretty young girl who kisses a beast, transforming him into a handsome prince, make it so much worse for those who reject conventional ideas of beauty and ugliness? Such objections are not just theoretical. Last year, one Scottish website took action and refused to review any production of Aladdin that did not feature a ‘diverse cast’. The site argued that however good a story it was, the pantomime was ‘built upon racist and dated stereotypes’. Whether exoticised or debased, this was not a vision of China the editors were willing to accept.

November 2023 THE LIST 11

Panto season runs from late November to early January.

12 THE LIST November 2023

PICTURE: MATT PEREIRA

PANTO SPECIAL

Aladdin is not the only dubious show in this regard. One reason for panto’s longevity is its magpie-like capacity to steal from popular forms. You don’t need to go too far back to find ‘coconut dances’ performed by Black slaves, and homophobic routines being performed by end-of-the-pier comics. This is not because there is anything inherently regressive about pantomime, merely that it absorbs the culture around it. As a consequence, it always walks a line between acceptance and offence. Being a live artform, it acts as a cultural barometer, so what works one year might shock the next. The Express interview with Biggins came after producer Michael Harrison, responsible for a raft of Qdos pantomimes, cut any gag involving a male character looking up a female character’s skirt. This was in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and at a time when stories of upskirting were becoming prevalent. A routine that had seemed innocent when played by Morecambe And Wise now seemed creepy. ‘There’ll be no looking up skirts and nobody’s going to be slapping anybody on the bottom,’ said Harrison. In 2023, it is hard to imagine anyone this side of Jerry Sadowitz disagreeing with him, still less finding it funny. Harrison was doing what producers have always done, responding to the prevailing mood and staying in step with audience tastes. In recent seasons, we’ve seen how theatres have reacted to the call for greater diversity among casts (a job that continues) in an age when an all-white company seems anachronistic. It is one reason pantomime should not be dismissed as reactionary. Despite the weight of tradition, it is fluid and ever-changing. To return to Aladdin, look at the description of Perth Theatre’s new production. It makes no mention of China, clichéd or otherwise. According to the blurb, Barrie Hunter’s show is set in the Pass Of Killiekrankie where the residents include (in true rhyming fashion) Abigail McTwankie. It is the same along the road in Stirling, where Johnny McKnight’s Aladdin features Marge O’Reen McTwank in the town of Discotopia. On paper, at least, neither show could be accused of orientalism. Indeed, the reverse is more likely to be true. Behind the big laughs, McKnight’s superb pantos are slyly subversive. With Louise McCarthy playing the dame in the revival of his Aganeza Scrooge at Glasgow’s Tron, for example, everyone in the cast is female. More than once in his panto scripts, McKnight has put a same-sex love affair centre stage. He is also a believer in well-constructed stories. Pantomime narratives work because they tap into archetypal forces that you tinker with at your peril. Take Cinderella’s progress from servant to princess. You could choose to read this literally as an endorsement of a hierarchical class system where nobility call the shots and the poor know their place. But really, it is a metaphor. Cinderella is a story about self-realisation, one that describes the process all of us go through from childhood uncertainty to adult agency. The prince is a symbol of the thing each of us most desires. Likewise, the cross-dressing is more about anarchy than gender. It goes back to the earliest days of pantomime in the 18th century when Italian commedia dell’arte was given a British twist. John Rich, a dancer, acrobat and mime artist, took on the shape of animals (exotic and familiar) and established a tradition that leads us all the way to Daisy the cow: audiences marvelled at the transformations. The pantomime horse, like the cross-cast principal boy and the Ugly Sisters, is part of an off-kilter world, a place of chaos and disorder. Far from being reactionary, pantomime is liberating and transgressive. Oh yes it is!

PICTURE: NISBET & WYLIE

Main page: Snow White 2022; clockwise from top: Snow White 2015, Beauty And The Beast 2020, Sinbad 2009, Cinderella 2010, Aladdin 2013

November 2023 THE LIST 13

PANTO SPECIAL

CURTAIN RAISERS

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Inverness Eden Court Theatre (6 Dec–7 Jan)

WIZARD OF OZ

Dunfermline Alhambra (7–28 Dec)

TREASURE ISLAND

Glasgow Pavilion (30 Nov–14 Jan)

ALADDIN

Stirling Macrobert Arts Centre (1–31 Dec)

ALADDIN

Glasgow SEC (21–23 Dec)

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

Glasgow King’s (2 Dec–7 Jan)

CINDERELLA

Ayr Gaiety Theatre (1 Dec–7 Jan)

AGANEZA SCROOGE

Glasgow Tron (29 Nov–7 Jan)

14 THE LIST November 2023

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Kilmarnock Palace Theatre (24 Nov–29 Dec)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Glenrothes Rothes Halls (14–16 Dec)

SLEEPING BEAUTY

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Kirkcaldy Adam Smith Theatre (9 Dec–6 Jan)

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Dundee Whitehall Theatre (14–23 Dec)

ALADDIN

Perth Theatre (1–31 Dec)

CINDERELLA

St Andrews Byre Theatre (30 Nov–31 Dec)

CINDERELLA

Musselburgh Brunton (20–30 Dec)

CINDERELLA

Edinburgh Church Hill Theatre (15–23 Dec)

THE PANTOMIME ADVENTURES OF PETER PAN

Edinburgh Festival Theatre (25 Nov–31 Dec)

CINDERELLA

Dumfries Theatre Royal (1–16 Dec)

From Sleeping Beauty to Snow White, and Scrooge to Cinders, classic panto figures are all over Scotland this Christmas. For your visual pleasure, here is a cute map detailing what’s on where and when as you search for the goodies, the baddies and the Ugly Sisters November 2023 THE LIST 15

PANTO SPECIAL

Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre (2 Dec–7 Jan)

16 THE LIST November 2023

Cold comforts love a villain origin story (in musical form, of course), Wicked at Edinburgh Playhouse is a given. This modern epic never gets dull, no matter how many times you’ve seen it (or how many buckets of green face-paint the cast have gone through). A ﬁve-week Edinburgh run is the ﬁrst stop on Wicked’s UK tour. Now, we said no pantos, but Boy George playing a glammed-up Captain Hook while parading around on a life-size pirate ship? Say no more. Jon Conway’s Peter Pan isn’t a pantomime, but rather a full-scale big-spending spectacular (think giant animatronic crocodile). Hollywood star Dorit Kemsley (Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills) makes an appearance as the mermaid for an added sprinkle of festive fairy dust to Glasgow Hydro’s high-budget, high-energy and high-camp show this December. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh will be treated to Scottish Ballet’s groundbreaking new rendition of a much-loved tale with Cinders! This trailblazing imagining of Cinderella will some nights feature a woman dancer as the prima ballerina while half of the shows will introduce a male Cinders who falls in love with his Princess Charming. The real magic? Whichever version an audience is seeing remains a secret until the curtain comes up. See list.co.uk for full details.

PICTURE: MIHAELA BODLOVIC

It’s November, which officially begins this year’s long-haul of nonstop festive theatre. Rachel Cronin rounds up some of the plays, ballets and musicals across Scotland that’ll keep show-goers booked up into January

hile panto season nabs much of the theatrical attention at this time of year, there’s a whole heap of productions which veer away from that genre’s tropes. In that vein, a new adaptation of The Snow Queen will be icing out Edinburgh’s Lyceum. Morna Young’s fresh Scottish reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s story will no doubt cast a frosty spell over audiences. Can wee Gerda save her friend (and the world) from eternal winter? Another for those keen on classics is Guy Masterson’s transcendent production of A Christmas Carol at Assembly Roxy. The Old Town church surely houses some ghosts of Christmases past, and Masterson is just the man to bring them to life. This Olivier Award-winner is bound to deliver Dickens’ original performance text with enough spirit to win over any Scrooge. Meanwhile, Dundee Rep will also lay on a sharp musical version of the tale, directed by Andrew Panton. North of the central belt, two green-ﬁngered bunnies might have done too good a job of growing their root veg. The Enormous Christmas Turnip at Eden Court in Inverness invites families with young kids to sit down for an unforgettable Christmas dinner. Created and performed by Ivor MacAskill and Rosana Cade, this playful piece is sure to reel in the wee ones. For those who

PICTURE: GAVIN SMART

PANTO SPECIAL

Spreading the festive cheer (clockwise from left): Wicked, The Snow Queen, Cinders!, The Enormous Christmas Turnip, Guy Masterson’s A Christmas Carol

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November 2023 THE LIST 17

GEORGE MACKAY

the gentle touch 18 THE LIST November 2023

GEORGE MACKAY

A world away from his conflicted and violent character in Femme, humble George MacKay has been in the acting game since he was ten. As James Mottram discovers, not even a rejection from RADA has blocked his unstoppable rise

n actor as modest as he is versatile, it seems entirely apt that George MacKay’s journey to the top has been entirely by stealth. The British film star has been rising, seemingly, for years, featuring in films such as Sunshine On Leith, How I Live Now and Captain Fantastic. But it was only when he played the message-delivering lance corporal in Sam Mendes’ World War 1 drama 1917 that the world took proper notice. The film was nominated for ten Oscars, winning three. But typical of MacKay, he wasn’t seduced by Hollywood and instead went off to make Munich: The Edge Of War, another wartime drama, based on the Robert Harris novel and co-starring Jeremy Irons. ‘You’d get lost, especially in this business, trying to please someone’s definition of you,’ he says, when we speak during the Berlin Film Festival. ‘You just have to stick true to what speaks to you, what excites you, what inspires you in terms of the opportunities that come your way. And if it goes well, fantastic; if it goes terribly, you know why you did it. That’s the only thing that you can control.’ A case in point is his new film Femme, a risky but rewarding British drama from debut directors Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping that plays with issues of sexuality, homophobia and power play. MacKay is Preston, a lad from London’s fringes who has previously

been in jail. Out with his mates one night, he mercilessly beats up Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a young Black man dressed as his alter-ego, drag queen Aphrodite. But the twist comes when, months later, Jules encounters Preston in a gay sauna, proof that the latter has deeply repressed his sexuality. When Preston doesn’t recognise his victim, Jules begins to play a dangerous game with his tormentor. The brash Preston, with his yellow hoodie and ﬂash motor, feels a light-year away from the articulate, gentle MacKay, who still looks an innocent with light blonde hair and baby-blue eyes. But what a character to wrestle with. ‘Preston’s quandary is so rich; the dual nature of his personality. And his sexuality, of course, is at the core of that. But for me, it was as much about masculinity, because his sexuality inside of that masculinity is the thing that jars with him.’ Femme features some explicit sex scenes, made extremely visceral by MacKay and Stewart-Jarrett, with the two actors working with intimacy coordinator Robbie Taylor Hunt. ‘He was really amazing,’ says MacKay. ‘He worked hand in hand with Sam and Ping, and with Nathan and I. And we created such a safe space. Also, the sex scenes are not just sex scenes . . . they’re an integral part of the storytelling of the character journeys. The nature of the sex, what each person is feeling, were like dramatic scenes. And so we dug into them dramatically in the same way.’

GEORGE MACKAY

From top: 1917, Pride, Sunshine On Leith, True History Of The Kelly Gang

As MacKay has got older (he’s now 31), he admits to loving the idea of not just playing a character but understanding the whole process of making a film. He cites Justin Kurzel’s 2019 True History Of The Kelly Gang, in which he played Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. ‘Justin got me to really research the role. And I spent time living with Justin and Essie [Davis, Kurzel’s wife and MacKay’s co-star], and it was one of the most invigorating, creative experiences I’ve had.’ From that, he went into 1917. ‘We rehearsed for months, and I sat in on head-of-department meetings where they’re discussing special effects . . . I was almost like acting head-of-department.’ He says the all-encompassing experience of making Femme was the same. ‘It’s just made me hungry to try as much as I can to operate in that way, moving forward with everything.’ Admittedly, it’s taken 20 years for MacKay to reach this point: he’s been acting since he was ten when a talent scout spotted him at school and asked him to audition for PJ Hogan’s 2003 movie Peter Pan. He won the role of Curly. Five years later, he was acting opposite Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell in World War 2 drama Defiance. But remarkably, when he auditioned for the prestigious Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art shortly afterwards, he didn’t get in. Their loss, you might say, especially given he went on a fine and diverse run with Private Peaceful, Pride and Marrowbone. As for MacKay’s Scottish-sounding surname, his connection to the country is twice removed. His grandfather’s family moved to Australia where his father was born. MacKay, however, was born in Hammersmith and raised in south-west London, but he holds a special affection for north of the border. ‘I love Scotland,’ he says. ‘If I didn’t live in London, I’d live in Scotland. The people there are so warm, and just so human and lovely. I’ve worked there before on Sunshine On Leith and For Those In Peril, which was on the east coast, by Stonehaven.’ He’s also in a relationship with Scottish make-up artist Doone Forsyth, whom he met while making 1917. Recently, he’s stretched himself further, starring opposite Léa Seydoux in The Beast, a forthcoming French take on Henry James’ story The Beast In The Jungle. Speaking a fair few lines of French in the film, it was, he says, ‘amazing to work on a fully French production. It was a real lesson in so many ways.’ And he’s recently wrapped The End, a musical with Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon set around the last family on Earth. ‘That’s a beautiful kind of strange project,’ he hints. No kidding: it’s directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, famed for the acclaimed Indonesian death-squad documentary The Act Of Killing. As for moving to Hollywood, MacKay has no plans to do so. But he did get a taste of it when he went to the Oscars with the 1917 team. It was just a blurry dream, it seems. ‘I remember going to one dinner, and Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx were there. I didn’t meet that many people, but you just kind of see them: “oh, wow, that’s them!” I remember I had a really bad tummy. And I was thinking, “well, if I’m in this room and I’ve got the shits, you might have the shits”. It was a leveller and suddenly everyone becomes real.’ Femme is in cinemas from Friday 1 December.

20 THE LIST November 2023

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November 2023 THE LIST 21

PUSH THE BOAT OUT

Steering group

To launch our Push The Boat Out coverage, Claire Sawers meets poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams. This Nigeria-born, London-based crossdisciplinary artist talks about the joy of interactive events and his love for Scottish writers

ack in 2009, writer Inua Ellams won a Fringe First award in Edinburgh for his one-man play, The 14th Tale. This story, featuring a soundtrack by Fela Kuti, about a mischievous kid from Nigeria who moves with his family from Africa to Europe was based on Ellams’ own life. Over two decades, the 39-year-old has written poetry, plays, short stories, TV scripts and essays about immigration, identity, the African diaspora, homosexuality, football, capitalism, language, and what it means to be a Black male in the UK today. As part of international poetry festival Push The Boat Out, Ellams invites an audience to delve into his rich and broad back-catalogue through a Search Party. The concept is simple: Ellams steps onstage with an iPad containing all his writing so far, including unfinished fragments. The audience shout out words and he searches his personal archive to see what comes up. It makes for an interactive, fun evening with no two shows the same. ‘We steer the night together,’ he says. ‘Sometimes it’s joyous and illuminating, occasionally it has got really dark. If someone calls out something I don’t have, we can negotiate a close alternative with a synonym. If someone called out Palestine, for example, I could read something I’ve written on conflict or extremism, or make parallels with Nigeria, a country which has experienced a lot of sectarian violence.’ Having performed around the world (Malaysia, Libya, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and America) as well as closer to home at London’s Barbican and Shakespeare’s Globe, Ellams always tries to find links between his work and the places he’s visiting. ‘Only if I know the local culture well enough,’ he insists. ‘I love the work of Scottish poet and novelist Jackie Kay, who is also of Nigerian heritage. I’m very inspired too by the mind and politics of Tom Leonard,

22 THE LIST November 2023

a fantastic champion of Scots vernacular and a great, forthright, anti-colonial writer.’ The relationship between Scots language and English interests Ellams, together with notions of class, identity and nationality with which everything becomes entangled. Coming from Nigeria where there are over 500 languages and dialects, Ellams has seen how attitudes to Nigerian pidgin has changed in his lifetime. ‘There has been a recent explosion in the use of pidgin, in films and literature,’ he states. ‘With so many dialects, pidgin is the connective tissue; it is no longer looked down upon as it has been in the past, but spoken by the wealthiest and most intellectual people.’ As someone who is usually working on six or seven projects at a time, Ellams finds live audiences helpful to his creative process. ‘I often host writing workshops and live events; those interactions help me build confidence to be more open as a writer.’ A cross-disciplinary artist, Ellams is a big fan of hip-hop music and culture, and has curated his own R.A.P (Rhythm And Poetry) Party events, inviting poets and DJs to share tunes and lyrics that they love. Ellams will also be taking part in an afternoon Songwriters Circle with Edinburgh singers Hamish Hawk and Karine Polwart, discussing the importance of poetry and songwriting, and giving insights into their own work. ‘There is a musicality to my writing, something mellifluous,’ Ellams explains. ‘I’m working on an opera about migration, tracing the journey of unaccompanied minors from places like Eritrea, Sudan and Libya across the Mediterranean to mainland Europe. I’m looking forward to a discussion because musical matters are definitely at the forefront of my brain right now.’ Songwriters Circle, Saturday 25 November; Inua Ellams: Search Party, Sunday 26 November; both events at Summerhall, Edinburgh.

PUSH THE BOAT OUT

PICTURE: PETE MESSUM

November 2023 THE LIST 23

PUSH THE BOAT OUT

3 More To See

at push the boat out

Chatter and verse

‘N

Writing a poem may be difficult enough, but getting on stage and delivering it in front of an audience is a whole different ball game. Catherine Wilson Garry tells Danny Munro how she aims to help budding poets conquer performance anxiety

o one is great on their first try,’ assures Edinburgh-based poet Catherine Wilson Garry ahead of her open-mic workshop at Push The Boat Out. With over a decade and a half combined experience in performance poetry, Wilson Garry and former St Albert’s Poet Laureate Julia Sorensen are aiming to help budding performers take that daunting first step towards the stage. ‘No matter how much you practice at home, it takes being in front of an audience to learn certain skills,’ says Wilson Garry of the importance of open mic. The feeling of intimidation attached to live poetry performance is one that the London Library’s Emerging Writers selectee knows all too well, having attended open mics for over a year before putting her name down to perform. ‘I wanted my first performance to be really impressive,’ Wilson Garry explains. ‘In reality, it was a good poem, but I still had so much to learn about being on stage.’ Wilson Garry stresses that the poetry community is a supportive one, filled with audience members who are ‘engaged and ready to be taken wherever a poem is going.’ But potential attendees should be wary of a light push towards the deep end, in a 90-minute workshop that will be hands-on in its approach. Attendees can expect a crash course that begins with the very basics such as mic holding, and concludes with a performance to your peers in which original poems are encouraged, but not a necessity. Those who go along and believe they may have found their calling are invited to sign up for a three to five-minute slot at the festival’s closing party, an environment that will provide the perfect opportunity to demonstrate your newfound form of expression. Preparing For Your First Open Mic, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Saturday 25 November. 24 THE LIST November 2023

THE CAT PRINCE Admired by everyone from Stephen Fry to Shirley Manson, the author of Boy Friends heads to this feline-friendly venue to read from his recent work featuring all manner of gothic wonders and evocative nature. n Maison De Moggy, Edinburgh, Friday 24 November.

COCKTAIL HOUR WITH JOELLE TAYLOR A heady mix of verse and cocktails as mixologists from specialist rum bar Ruma help the work of this TS Eliot Poetry Prize winner go down even more smoothly. Keep an eye out on Taylor’s debut novel due for arrival in February. n Summerhall, Edinburgh, Saturday 25 November.

TRANSLATION SENSATION Edwin Morgan’s ‘At Eighty’ is the poem which gave this festival its name (opening line: ‘Push the boat out, compañeros/Push the boat out, whatever the sea’). The event has four poets (Esa Aldegheri, Annie Rutherford, Peter Mackay and Nasim Rebecca Asl) attempting a live translation of this work into different languages. n Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sunday 26 November.

November 2023 THE LIST 25

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MONKEY SHOULDER’S BRAND AMBASSADOR MONKEY SHOULDER’S Jody Buchan SHARES HIS KNOWLEDGE OF SCOTLAND’S FINEST WATERING HOLES, SO YOU’LL NEVER BE SHORT OF A PLACE TO GRAB A DRAM As brand ambassador for Monkey Shoulder, the 100% malt whisky that’s made for mixing, it’s my job to shout about our nation’s spirit to anyone who’ll listen. It’s a job that takes me all over, and since 2020 I’ve noticed a huge change in the landscape. Many venues failed to reopen after lockdown, some cut their hours and an estimated 10% of remaining hospitality sites are facing closure. We need the buzz of a random night out or the comfort of a familiar bar but how can you help? Simple – support your locals! This month I’m focusing on where you’ll receive the most gracious welcome, the cosiest atmosphere and cocktails that will warm the cockles of your heart. It’s another perfect opportunity to try new bars, restaurants or even just a different cocktail than your usual. To show my support, I jumped on the Monkey Shoulder motorbike and toured Scotland on my

The Last Word @thelastword_bar This cosy neuk is a short walk into Stockbridge, and it’s a great place to escape the noise of the city and indulge in a cocktail or a whisky by the open fireplace. With a wealth of cocktail and whisky knowledge, the team offer a welcoming as warm as the hearth. This is no mere pub; however, they carve their block ice with chainsaws! Dog-friendly, to boot, The Last Word – or Tee Dubs as it’s affectionately known to its regular patrons – is one of the top spots in Edinburgh year-round, but is especially enchanting in the colder months.

Random Adventure to Interview Local Legends (aka Speed RAILL), to visit some of the best bars I know, talk to some of the best bartenders you’ll ever meet and have them show off their favourite cocktails. Not only can you read about my encounters here, but you can check them out on my YouTube channel ‘SpeedRAILL’ or on my Instagram @_the_moto_monkey. In this article, I’ll point you towards some of my favourite hangouts across Scotland. To keep the party going, here are three of the best places to enjoy a drink or two in Edinburgh this winter. Edinburgh has a wide range of incredible independent bars, restaurants, and music venues. Keep your eyes peeled for my next round of recommendations in future issues and scan the QR code for videos of venues and more across Scotland.

Devil’s Advocate

@thedaoldtown On Advocates Close in a pump house from the 1800s lies Devil’s Advocate, a restaurant and bar where the food and cocktails are competing to see which can be more delicious. With a curated back bar, seasonal Scottish ingredients, and mixed drinks to help you kick your night off in style, Devil’s is a must-visit establishment. That said, it is in a VERY old part of the city, so prepare for a few steep stairs to venture there. It’s been said that you’re always walking uphill to go anywhere in Edinburgh – at least the steps’ll give you a helping hand.

Dragonfly @dragonflyedinburgh Arguably Edinburgh’s oldest cocktail bar, Dragonfly is located just off Grassmarket. It re-established itself in 2018 under new ownership and thankfully it hasn’t lost any of its charm or skill behind the bar. The drinks are carefully curated by the in-house team ensuring there’s something for everyone, be it the novice drinker or the seasoned cocktail imbiber. It played host to the 2023 grand final of Monkey Shoulder’s Ultimate Bartending Championship, and one visit to the bar will tell you why. The team are friendly, knowledgeable and aren’t afraid to flex if you order off menu, although the amazing mixes they have to offer will give you little reason to. 26THE THELIST LISTMarch November 1 20222023

drinkaware.co.uk for the facts

eat & drink

FLIGHT CLUB Darts? Cocktails? Darts and cocktails? 180! Move over Jocky Wilson (ask your dad), because Flight Club is aiming to make a night at the oche the next big thing for you and your pals. After flying into Glasgow’s North Frederick Street in October, they’ll be bringing their own special twist on throwing the arrows to Edinburgh in November too. Offering regular boozy brunches with darts sampler thrown in, an easy-going sharing menu, cocktail slushies, and endless options for big and small groups, we reckon you’ll be diddling for the middle (ask your dad again) in no time. Game. On. (Jo Laidlaw) n Flight Club Glasgow, 32 North Frederick Street, Glasgow; Flight Club Edinburgh opens at St James Quarter on Friday 17 November. November 2023 THE LIST 27

EAT

Line of fire L

Have you joined the Lannan queue? Ailsa Sheldon catches up with baker Darcie Maher to peel back the layers on summer’s most-hyped Edinburgh opening and find out why some people lost their cool over a bit of pastry

annan’s blockbusting queue has been a familiar sight in Stockbridge since July. Baker-patron Darcie Maher initially put it down to opening-day excitement. ‘But the next weekend the same thing happened and it’s been happening every weekend since. It’s completely mind-blowing,’ she says. ‘I think the queue is now a maximum of an hour and a half. When we first opened, it was two and a half, which is mad. I think people now know what they’re letting themselves in for.’ Darcie launched Lannan in partnership with ex-employers James Snowdon and Lloyd Morse (of The Palmerston) plus Chloe Black from The Edinburgh Butter Company (smart move: Lannan now uses about 110kg of butter a week). Inside, the bakery has a timeless old-fashioned feel: the hush of cream-panelled walls, white tiles and warm wood. ‘I love everything traditional, so having the food tie in with the space is important. I think it’s a real experience to come here.’ A polished glassfronted cabinet displays the day’s treats: a gorgeous glossy array of golden pastries, buns and tarts. If you get there in time . . . In late summer, tempers erupted as the cabinet emptied. ‘It was absolutely mad,’ recalls Maher. Somebody said it was the worst disappointment of their life; they walked into the bakery and shouted at me. Thankfully we’ve not had any of that recently; it’s been a lot nicer.’ And the queue has become an integral part of the Lannan experience. People take (and post) photos in the line, through the big windows, inside the bakery, and of their pastry haul. It might sound like every new business owner’s dream but the constant surveillance is actually challenging. ‘It’s such a funny culture, which obviously I’m part of as well, but it’s odd,’ says Maher. She and the bakery have an engaged social media following, but ‘it wasn’t ever the plan for me to be quite as forward facing.’ And it’s not always benign. One recent early morning, after a thwarted attempt to enter the closed bakery, Maher recalls: ‘A guy was taking photos of me at every window, following me around the bakery and I just got so upset. It’s become such a huge thing to come in and take photos, but it’s sometimes a bit much.’ The desire to capture the perfect shot of morning light falling on golden pastries is understandable. Feeling entitled to follow a woman around her workplace with a camera without permission? Far less so. ‘We’ve created this perfect storm, somewhat unintentionally, and it’s uncontrollable now. But I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who’s been coming in. Lannan is exactly what I always dreamed of,’ she insists. ‘The vision and the design has never changed from when I was five. It’s exactly how I’ve always wanted it.’ And while she loves developing new recipes and rolling croissants, Maher ultimately craves a quiet life: ‘I just want to be able to come into a nice space and bake each day.’ Lannan Bakery, 29–35 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh, @lannanbakery on Instagram.

28 THE LIST November 2023

Researched and compiled by The List’s food and drink team, our tipLISTs suggest the places worth knowing about around Edinburgh and Glasgow, in different themes, categories and locations. With autumn sliding towards winter, this month’s selection picks out the bars and restaurants in each city that glow as a welcoming beacon of warmth, cosiness and hospitality in these darkening, chilly days

tipLIST

Places to get warm and cosy Café Gandolfi

Roseleaf

Grab a bite near . . . Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

JOLLY JUDGE

THE BELLE

7 James Court, off Royal Mile, jollyjudge.co.uk Despite its location, this timber-beamed hideaway avoids feeling like a tourist trap. Those who do venture down James Court to the dinky subterranean pub will find a litany of real ales, craft beers and an impressive selection of whiskies. At its cosiest when the fire is blazing.

617 Great Western Road, @the_belle_glasgow You go to The Belle for its magical mix of an atmosphere that’s warm and relaxed, a crowd that’s old fashioned but studenty/arty, a keenly priced malt of the month, plus good Scottish and German beers. No food, but this strip has plenty of eating alternatives.

NOK’S KITCHEN

CAFÉ GANDOLFI

8 Gloucester Street, nokskitchen.co.uk It’s hard to walk past the warm glow from Nok’s windows on a blustery night and not envy everyone inside. An enticing scent of lemongrass and cinnamon drifts from this 17th-century townhouse-turned-Thai restaurant, promising fragrant red curries and zesty pad thai. Melt-inthe-mouth beef massaman is a real heartwarmer on a cold day.

64 Albion Street, cafegandolfi.com The dark-green colour palette, stunning wooden furniture and portraits on the walls give a reassuring permanency to Gandolfi: you can relax here. Dishes balance simplicity with details that elevate (kedgeree arancini with curry mayo, Cullen skink with Arbroath smokies’ cream).

ORIGANO 236 Leith Walk, origano-leith.co.uk Handmade pasta and gourmet pizza are on the menu at this casual spot which radiates Italian rusticana. A stone pizza oven roars away and the mood is complemented by flickering candlelight. Start with a piled-high meat or cheese board, then tuck into spinacio pizza topped with oozing egg.

ROSELEAF 23–24 Sandport Place, roseleaf.co.uk Cheery neighbourhood favourite for a slap-up brunch or a hearty pub meal: their ‘Big Yin’ full cooked breakfast is legendary. Dishes and drinks are inspired by Leith: try the Banana Flat cocktail, a vegan flat-white martini with oat milk, Kahlúa, espresso and banana liqueur.

UNDER THE STAIRS 3a Merchant Street, underthestairs.org It’s easy to miss the entrance to this homely, shabby-chic bar, but that would be a mistake. Under The Stairs somehow manages to pull off a neighbourhood bar feel in the middle of tourist central, with good cocktails, a compact but thoughtful wine list, and an interesting menu.

REDMOND’S 304 Duke Street, @redmondsofdennistoun Dennistoun’s favourite neighbourhood bar does its best work in the winter, with the lights down low and the vinyl nudged up. ‘East-Asian soul food’ is the vibe (pork belly ramen, steamed bao, banh mi) alongside 150 craft beers and a great pint of Guinness.

STRAVAIGIN 28 Gibson Street, stravaigin.co.uk Glasgow’s original gastropub has got its mojo back, with their ‘think global, eat local’ mantra rendering comforting plates loaded with flavour, from leek and potato soup with mustard and brown butter, to Sri Lankan chicken thigh curry. Everything lands, mainly very close to the target.

UPSTAIRS AT THE CHIP 12 Ashton Lane, off Byres Road, ubiquitouschip.co.uk Everyone talks about the courtyard below, but where you’ll find a snug experience is up the stairs in the wood-lined bar and adjoining brasserie. Peat smoke lingers, and the menu encourages you to have a dram of Old Pulteney with your oysters. Sharing platters of charcuterie, cheese or fish are very popular.

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EAT AND DRINK

GLASGOW

PICTURE: SCOTLAND’S GARDENS SCHEME

EDINBURGH

DI GIORGIO 1 Brandon Terrace, digiorgio.homesteadcloud.com There’s always a buzz at this Italian-run café. Sandwiches are full to bursting with garlicky mortadella, piquant salamis and gooey cheese, and are almost as substantial as the handmade pasta dishes.

KREM KARAMEL 68 Inverleith Row, kremkaramel.co.uk Part bookshop, part café, this corner spot has a handful of outdoor seats that catch the mid-morning sun. Brunch classics such as avocado toast dominate the savoury section, but home baking is the highlight.

MANA POKÉ 10 Rodney Street, manapoke.co.uk For a grab-and-go bite, Mana Poké offers rice bowls topped with sushi-fresh fish (or tofu and avocado) and a rainbow of veggie options.

THE ORCHARD 1–2 Howard Place, theorchardbar.co.uk A classic pub with big windows and a smattering of outdoor seats, The Orchard has been serving elevated gastro-pub fare for years, with plenty of real ales and craft beers on tap.

THE TOLLHOUSE 50 Brandon Terrace, tollhouse.scot Suspended above the Water Of Leith, The Tollhouse is a fine-dining spot with a surprisingly laidback feel. Dishes are seasonal and signature cocktails can be enjoyed on the alfresco terrace by the

November 2023 THE LIST 29

street food

EAT AND DRINK EAT

We choose a street and tell you where to eat. David Kirkwood’s recce of Bath Street in Glasgow finds noodles, Greek classics and modern Middle Eastern all rubbing shoulders

BLOC+ Basement bar with food that’s a little bit trashy and a big bit bonkers. Think hotdog with ramen noodles and gochujang ketchup, or salt and chilli tater tots. Half the menu is vegetarian or plant-based and they take it seriously.

MAKI & RAMEN Handmade noodles, punchy broths and a solid sushi offering have Maki & Ramen locked-in as Glaswegian favourites, to the point that they’ve now got a second site less than a minute up the road in Renfield Street. For ramen, try the black garlic tonkotsu or the rare steak tataki.

NOODLE BAR It’s all about the taste at this simple spot that’s perfectly suited for solo diners and quick munches. Dishes are soup and dumpling-heavy, driven by brisk broths, sharp dipping sauces and noodles made in full view of the diners.

ROYÂ In a market increasingly over-populated with ‘Middle Eastern small plates’, precision sets this place on nearby Elmbank Street apart. Slow cooked lamb is tasty and (nicely) fatty, with a gentle backbone of saffron. They’re not afraid to be bold and modern with combinations either, such as the beetroot and burrata salad elevated by sprinkles of sweet pistachio.

YIAMAS GREEK TAVERNA Quirky Greek spot doing all the classics and getting them right. Thick, juicy gyros have a perfect wee crunch on the exterior. There are also dishes with less common types of Greek sausage, and lots of feta and halloumi-based options.

30 THE LIST November 2023

Jo Laidlaw reports on the latest news and openings, as Edinburgh welcomes a big-name chef from the US

f you like sampling freshly opened places, then Glasgow is the city for you this month. Billed as a hula hut and chicken shack, Rum Bongo brings the fun to Byres Road, with a pool table, darts, arcade games and mahjong (check out this issue’s Drinking Games to see what our Kevin thought of the vibe). Bar & Tender on Woodlands Road is a goodlooking spot with a commendably clear focus on cocktails and steak, plus Ryan’s Bar has opened in Govanhill. Sister venue to The Old Toll Bar, it has a similar combo of craft beer, cocktails, live music and DJs. If that’s not enough beer in your life, check out the new Glasgow Beer Trail, a self-guided map to some of the city’s best indie brewers. It’s all change for Edinburgh’s café scene (not all of it good). Eteaket’s tearoom in the city centre has closed, as has Cairngorm Coffee’s Frederick Street shop (though its Melville Place arm is still going strong). There’s better news from Fortitude Coffee who are busy fitting out a new spot on Abbey Mount. Slightly further afield, the much-missed café in Saughton Park has reopened as a social enterprise venture, while cult coffee-slingers The Milkman have gone all the way to Peebles for their new venture. Finally, in what’s been the worst-kept secret in town, Michelin-starred American chef Rodney Wages is moving to Edinburgh. Avery Edinburgh opens in Stockbridge early next year, with a soft launch in December.

side dishes Drygate Brewery, part of the Glasgow Beer Trail

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November 2023 THE LIST 31

KOREAN

EAT

BIBIMBAP Named after the Korean comfort food, Bibimbap on Edinburgh’s Hanover Street delivers food just like its namesake. Fast, filling and full of flavour, it’s an ideal spot for a quick dinner that doesn’t scrimp on quality. With two popular branches in Glasgow, the rainbow of umbrellas that line the ceiling, a wall of green botanica, and glowing neon lights are the calling cards of this now mini-chain. There’s no doubt it’s an aesthetically pleasing place to plant yourself for a short spell as you wolf down a bowl of flavour-packed homely food. The menu headlines with three different types of bibimbap (a Korean rice bowl usually topped with an egg and as much spicy sauce as you can handle) and KFC (Korean fried chicken) which is crispy and tender with a sweet and spicy dip. Classic bibimbap, topped with marinaded beef and veggies as colourful as the décor, comes sizzling in a stone bowl. There’s a satisfying snap to the al dente vegetables while the fried egg on top is still gooey. You’re supposed to mix up bibimbap so the flavours and textures meld together; the other half of the menu is dedicated to deopbap, which is meant to be eaten as presented. Spicy pork deopbap carries a punch of spice with still-juicy pork. Those squeamish about raw fish can get a sushi fix from gimbap, seaweed-wrapped rice rolls with cooked fillings such as ground beef, carrot and Korean barbecue sauce. A wide selection of soju-heavy cocktails accompanies the food menu, each more photogenic than the last, and a healthy flurry of takeaway orders keeps things buzzing inside. While it’s not a place to linger for an entire evening, the experience is speedy and delicious, with those cocktails topping it all off. (Suzy Pope)  96 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, bibimbap-edinburgh.co.uk

PIZZERIA

CIVERINOS PICTURE: WWW.IAIN.STUDIO

32 THE LIST November 2023

Edinburgh’s renowned pizza specialists Civerinos have brought their New York-slice operation to Finnieston. Setting up close to Kelvingrove Park’s outdoor skatepark is a good fit for Civs’ embrace of US skater-punk-rap culture, with its posters of Thrasher mag and Public Enemy on the walls, and plenty of graffiti (‘Death Before Domino’s’). Curved plywood (redolent of skateparks) sweeps around the place, wee rails on top. It’s a fun setting, where a bit of wear will help grunge it up and help avoid the faint whiff of Saturday-morning kids’ shows, an air bolstered by children and dogs milling about. The vibe is casual: slices on paper plates, sides in plastic baskets. Staff bustle in baggy branded clothing between dining area and kitchen side, where multiple ovens churn out the goods, including through a takeaway street hatch. If you come here, you’re coming for pizza. New York-style dominates (thin, foldable, chewy, big crispy crust, very satisfying). There’s nothing too outthere (margherita, pepperoni, barbecue chicken) with veggies and vegans welcomed. All pizzas are 14 or 20 inch and about half come in generous slices which, with some sides action, will content most appetites. Detroit deep-dish pies feature too: Sausage Squared is an airy solid slab, a punchy aromatic treat, potent with rosemary, satisfying with Italian sausage and potato slices. Sides are fried and frivolous. A giant mozzarella stick is fun for sharing. Arancini feature, as do their Scottish cousins, mac and cheese bites (chunky balls of gooey pasta, breadcrumbed and deepfried), while crust bites are serious salty, garlicky whacks. (Jay Thundercliffe)  9–13 Radnor Street, Glasgow, civerinos.com

Drinking Games Like a depressed werewolf humping a bar stool, Kevin Fullerton is howling another drinking game into the void and onto these pages. This month’s challenge . . . find a studenty bar in Glasgow that doesn’t make me feel like an ancient trainwreck

‘Y

DRINK

ou’re not too old to do this. Age is a just a number,’ I bellowed into the toilet mirror before attaching clothes pegs to my forehead in an ill-advised facelift attempt. Soon, I conceded defeat to the ageing contours of my balding, bearded appearance and left the bathroom of The Record Factory to continue my review of studenty bars in the West End of Glasgow. Who knows, maybe I could pass for a fresher in the right light. ‘How do you do, fellow 20-year-old?’ I asked the barman as I ordered my Blue Moon. He handed me the drink and avoided eye contact, presumably intimidated by my incredible youth. Yet the décor, harsh lighting and limited drink selection of this establishment made me feel geriatric, as though I had wandered into a cheap and cheerless student union. On the plus side, the beer garden was perfect for a late Sunday, with ideal lighting to selfadminister Botox before the next bar. My freshly botulinumed swagger drew me to Rum Bongo, a Hawaiian-themed haunt replete with student offers and more fake palm trees than a Lost Lockdown Reunion Special. Behind the bar, a flatscreen TV looped various surfing videos, incongruously interspersed with footage of 1950s pin-up girl Bettie Page. Despite these lithe surfers making a mockery of my flabby ageing frame, I enjoyed my time at this chintzy hangout which exuded warmth and kind-heartedness. And, alongside table football and darts, it played host to an arcade cabinet loaded with 90s classics. ‘Remember the 90s? I do!’ I shouted to no one in particular. And, dutifully, no one answered. And then there was Vodka Wodka on Ashton Lane, and lo I was in true student country, where alcohol slushies were cheap and shots were plentiful. With a Belter Colada in hand, I prepared to hang with the youth. But it was getting after 8pm, I was a tired man in his 30s, and this was a bar for people on a mission to pass out. With that, I decided to leave Vodka Wodka, unable to recommend its punchable name or its ‘get wasted or get out’ atmosphere.

BAR FILES Creative folks reveal their favourite watering hole

MUSICIAN KAPIL SESHASAYEE

PICTURE: SEAN PATRICK CAMPBELL

My origin story with whisky is an amusing one. Near the end of one messy night out, a friend got me the smokiest dram they could find in a bid to make me recoil; but instead, I ended up being sent into an obsession with everything Islay. It has made me incredibly selective about where I drink: I need that reliable selection of peated whiskies but I also want the option of being more adventurous with my next round. It’s just as well that such a place exists in the heart of Glasgow: The Pot Still on Hope Street. There are not many places that feel just as versatile for entertaining friends from abroad (back when I worked as a promoter, my tour of Glasgow for American acts often began there) or just heading for a couple after work with colleagues who have also grown up here.  Kapil Seshasayee, Mono, Glasgow, Saturday 11 November.

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travel & shop BUNGO SIGN CO Sign painters Rachel E Millar and Hana Lindsay are behind some of the most recognisable shop fronts in Glasgow, including Verse, Rude Cookies and Black Pine Coffee. Now the duo have set up a shop of their own, taking over an old fishmongers in Glasgow’s Southside. The transformed shop and studio offers merch and painting workshops for those looking to try their hand at the long-standing craft of sign painting, something Bungo Sign Co are proving isn’t just alive and well but in fact thriving. (Claire Stuart) n 6 Springhill Gardens, Glasgow; @bungosignco on Instagram.

picture-perfect medieval old centre and the birthplace of iconic Italian dishes, Bologna isn’t exactly under the radar. Yet, it still feels far from the Disneylandesque tourist hubs of nearby Florence (a 45-minute train ride away) and Venice (an hour and a half on the train). If, like me, you’re in Italy for the food, Bologna is an essential stop. From the airport, it’s a cramped but quick journey on the new Marconi Express, a two-cabin monorail that sees you at Bologna Centrale station in seven minutes. Timeworn pavements lead along Via dell’Indipendenza, the city’s main shopping street where seating from casual tabaccheria cafés and panini shops spills out beneath Bologna’s signature porticoes. Piazza Maggiore is where folk gather in the evening to sit beneath the rose-hued Palazzo d’Accursio’s clock tower, which opened as a viewing platform in 2022. I chose to climb the 498 rickety wooden stairs to the top of Asinelli Tower instead, one of two ancient towers that have presided over the city since the days of noble families feuding for power. Half a day can be dedicated to following the Portico di San Luca to the imposing fifth-century monastery atop a forested hill. Over 600 porticoes shade the paved walkway and it’s nice to get a breath of fresh air at this quiet sanctuary, with views over Emilia-Romagna’s farmland. Bolognese sauce was born in Bologna, and the original

TRAVEL AND SHOP

wanderLIST: Bologna

Home to Europe’s oldest university, Bologna is also famous for a particular sauce. While in this historic Italian city, Suzy Pope climbed an ancient tower and indulged in a mouthwatering foodie adventure

dish (not the tomato-heavy spag bol dished up outside Italy) is still served in the city’s cosy trattorias. Here, it’s a simple medley of hand-cut tagliatelle and ragù topping (and definitely not served with spaghetti). A few streets from the centre is the more graffitied but still beautiful student quarter, home to Europe’s oldest university. Here, the bars are cheaper and livelier, and Bologna meal staples are served at the iconic Osteria dell’Orsa. For something lighter in the early evening, the square by Santo Stefano church is a popular place for aperitvo as golden light hits the piazza (you can visit the peaceful cloisters inside too). I picked up a platter of peppery salami and garlicky mortadella from La Salumeria di Bruno e Franco, and took it to Osteria del Sole, Bologna’s last remaining wine bar where you can bring your own food. Cavernous walls and refectory-style tables have stood the test of time since the 14th century, and so has its signature frizzante wine which is produced by the osteria itself. Once you’ve had your fill of the city, day trips can take you to the parmesan warehouses and vineyards of Emilia-Romagna or the foodie towns of Modena (for Ferraris and balsamic vinegar) and Parma (for ham and football). In the centre of Italy, surrounded by farmland, Bologna is an ideal food-lovers’ getaway, or as part of a longer, slower journey by train. bolognawelcome.com November 2023 THE LIST 35

on your doorstep Seasoned Munro-bagger Donald Reid recommends three Scottish peaks accessible by public transport BEN VORLICH There are two separate hills called Ben Vorlich that qualify as Munros (hills in Scotland over 3000 feet in height). Set among the Arrochar Alps, this one overlooks Loch Lomond and can be accessed from Ardlui, a stop on the West Highland line between Glasgow and Crianlarich.

TRAVEL

BEINN DORAIN The sneaky secret of this intimidating peak north of Tyndrum on the way to Fort William is that you don’t have to tackle the pyramid-like south face to reach the top. From Bridge Of Orchy station, a good path heads up towards an obvious saddle (or ‘bealach’) on the skyline. Reach this, hang a right, and you’ll get to the summit via a much less daunting route.

CARN LIATH This is the first of three tops that qualify as Munros on the majestic massif north of Pitlochry called Beinn a’ Ghlo. It’s a major expedition to bag all three, but Carn Liath is achievable from Blair Atholl station on the Perth to Inverness line. From the village, follow the route past Monzie and Loch Moraig.

my favourite holiday

n Check weather forecasts and obtain detailed route information from sources such as walkhighlands.co.uk

Ben Vorlich

DJ, producer and label boss Rebecca Vasmant shares a mind-expanding experience from a recent club night in Berlin

recently had a ground-breaking holiday in Berlin. While I’ve visited the city before, I did something outside of my comfort zone by going to the infamous, sex-positive KitKatClub. I have to admit that I was dragged there kicking and screaming by my friend. But now I am so glad that I went. Here are some things I took from the experience, both as a DJ and club-goer: 1) Having phones in a club is so limiting. They keep you from being present. I danced non-stop from 2–7am, which is one of the only times I can remember being so completely immersed in music in that way. I was shocked when they put the lights up at the end of the night! 2) Feeling safe in the club is more important than I realised. Having a diverse range of people who hold no judgement towards others makes for a much safer club environment. Knowing no one has the ability to film or take photos (due to our phones being taken) plus the strict no-touching rule contributed too. 3) We are brought up in Britain to have a lot of shame and embarrassment around bodies and their sexualisation. Other people’s bodies are not for anyone to sexualise unless it’s decided by the person themselves. 4) Just because you don’t understand someone’s reality does not mean you aren’t equal or that you can’t exist in harmony. Always be kind to others, ask for consent and don’t judge: whether you’re in the KitKatClub or not.

Rebecca Vasmant’s new remix of ‘Tio’ by TC & The Groove Family is out now on Worm Discs. 36 THE LIST November 2023

Hungry for success PICTURE: ALEKSANDRA MODRZEJEWSKA

Speaking with Lunch co-founder Bethany Grace, Megan Merino discovers this retail platform’s origin story and why made-to-order is the future

SHOP

hree years ago, during lockdown, two fashion students embarked on a new creative project. Combining their joint skill sets across photography, styling, editorial curation and fashion marketing, Bethany Grace and Tamara Turnbull created Lunch, their own online boutique which now showcases over 60 emerging international designers. ‘I’m really a jewellery person, and Tamara is very much a clothing person so we curate everything together,’ says Grace from the Rotterdam flat where she’s now based. ‘One of our core beliefs is that we want to support designers through their processes, remain authentic to them, and advise them wherever they need to be advised. We also wanted to be ethical and environmentally friendly with this project because we know that fashion is over-consumed.’ By opting for seasonless styles (‘something that can be worn for a very long time or be just a core piece in your wardrobe’) that are made to order or have very small-batch production, Lunch can stock unique designer items with minimal waste. ‘With a made-to-order model, we also have a no-return policy because most of that stuff is also made to measure,’ says Grace. ‘That means you have an amazing fit and you’re getting a piece that’s a bit more special. I don’t understand why the bigger fashion houses aren’t doing made-to-order. It’s the way forward.’ To give customers a taste of the Lunch stock quality, the team hosts regular pop-up events across Edinburgh and Glasgow. Sounds like a lot of work for three part-timers (Grace, Turnbull and their assistant Graham) straddling Glasgow and the Netherlands? ‘It’s harder to grow something when you can’t give it all of your time, that’s for sure,’ admits Grace, ‘but if you have a strong intention and put in as much energy as you can during that time, then anything is possible.’ To shop at Lunch and follow future pop-ups and events, visit lunchconcept.com; @lunchconceptstore on Instagram.

shop talk SPOT DESIGN MARKET This Southside market has opened a bricksand-mortar shop and gallery, championing the very best of Scottish crafts. Previous market traders include Irregular Sleep Pattern, Saskia Pomeroy and Juno General Store so expect an excellent collection of Scottish design in their new permanent home. n 1139 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow; @spotdesignmarket on Instagram.

FINNIESTON CLOTHING Good clothes are built to last, and Finnieston Clothing design with sustainability, style and social good in mind. More than half of their collection is made within 60 miles of the store

Records, clothes and Scottish designer pieces star in Claire Stuart’s latest indie shop round-up and a portion of their profits go towards mental, physical and environmental health charities. Following the success of the West End establishment, a Southside location is opening this month. n 305 Byres Road, Glasgow; @finniestonclothing on Instagram.

UMBRELLA VINYL This second-hand record shop has a broad collection bound to appeal to crate diggers across the genres. With prices starting as low as £2, you’ll definitely want to drop by for a browse of their impressive catalogue. n 20 Valleyfield Street, Edinburgh; @umbrellavinyl on Instagram.

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Sri Lanka-born, Australia-based artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran was once dubbed ‘the bad boy of ceramics’. Something to do with various organs cropping up in his sculptures; but his work is just as likely to reference religion, monuments and nationalism as it will cover sex and gender. His new show, Idols Of Mud And Water, is constructed with repurposed materials such as timber, scaffolding and bamboo to create, in his own words, ‘a buzzing mythological playground’. (Brian Donaldson)  Tramway, Glasgow, Friday 24 November– Sunday 21 April.

going out

RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN

Exhibition. 28.10.23–28.01.24

Free

Open Daily 11am — 6pm

Zarina Bhimji Flagging it up

45 Market Street 0131 225 2383 Edinburgh fruitmarket.co.uk

Supported by

Shortlisted for the Freelands Award 2022

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ZB_ListAd_Fullpage.indd 1

25/10/2023 12:20

If you’re not sure what to do over the festive period, chances are you’ve not looked hard enough. Here are a mere 23 things to see and do, in alphabetical order, across the looming holiday season

ABBAMANIA CHRISTMAS PARTY

This top Abba tribute quartet do, as you’d expect, all the hits from ‘Waterloo’ to ‘Fernando’ and all the way back round again.  Perth Concert Hall, Friday 22 December.

BBC SSO: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS

Singer Jamie MacDougall presents some songs, hymns and general good cheer to get you deep into the festive spirit.  Town Hall, Ayr, Wednesday 20 December; Music Hall, Aberdeen, Friday 22 December.

BEECRAIGS FESTIVE FOREST

An illuminated trail, storytelling from Mrs Claus (she must have a tale or two to tell), the Elf Rollercoaster and a Silent Disco are among the treats unfolding in Linlithgow.  Beecraigs Country Park, Linlithgow, Friday 1–Saturday 23 December.

CASTLE OF LIGHT

With ‘Magic & Mystery’ as its intriguing subtitle, Castle Of Light is back with more dramatic projections onto this historic monument’s impressive walls.  Edinburgh Castle, Friday 24 November–Wednesday 3 January.

PREVIEWS

The Yuletide is nigh

BAY CITY ROLLERS

Another band that epitomise the festive side of the 70s charts but with a tartan spin, as Woody gets the band back together (albeit with three younger new members).  Bungalow Bar, Paisley, Friday 15 December; Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, Saturday 16 December; OGV Podium, Aberdeen, Saturday 23 December.

CHRISTMAS AT THE BOTANICS

PICTURE: SNS FOR GLASGOW LIFE

From top: Castle Of Light, MagicFest, Glasgow Loves Christmas

Will you glimpse Father Christmas as you make your way across a lawn of glowing crocuses and through sparkling tunnels while stopping to admire the rainbow colours projected onto Inverleith House?  Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Thursday 16 November–Saturday 30 December.

CHRISTMAS AT THE CONSERVATOIRE

The RCS students lay on an annual festive treat with a show that aims to get everyone in the seasonal mood.  Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland, Glasgow, Wednesday 13 & Thursday 14 December.

CHRISTMAS FAYRE

This houses a showcase of handcrafted gifts such as glass, candles and cards, plus there are speciality foods and art works up for grabs.  House For An Art Lover, Glasgow, Sunday 26 November.

CHRISTMAS QR CODE SCULPTURE TRAIL

A tempting trail makes its debut in Aberdeen alongside carol concerts, a market and Ferris Wheel.  Various venues, Aberdeen, Friday 1–Sunday 24 December.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FAYRE

With a brass band creating an evocative atmosphere, this is your chance to stock up for the big day (and beyond).  Stirling Castle, Tuesday 5 December.

>> November 2023 THE LIST 41

>> DUNDEE’S WINTERFEST

A Big Wheel, vintage funfair and traditional Bavarian bar are among the draws at this Tayside treat.  Slessor Gardens, Dundee, Saturday 25 November–Monday 1 January.

EDINBURGH’S CHRISTMAS

The capital does its Christmas thing with another hot selection of funfair rides, traditional markets, ice skating and the Big Wheel.  Various venues, Edinburgh, Friday 17 November–Saturday 6 January.

ERIC THE ELF

Left all alone in Santa’s Grotto on his first day at work, Eric ends up with a sizeable task: save Christmas . . .  Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, Tuesday 5–Sunday 31 December.

GLASGOW LOVES CHRISTMAS

Among the many highlights for visitors and locals alike is the Style Mile Christmas Carnival on Sunday 26 November featuring cheeky elves, dancing snowflakes and a larger-than-life Santa.  Various venues, Glasgow, from Sunday 19 November.

Clockwise from bottom: RSNO Christmas Concert, Christmas At The Botanics, Phil Cunningham's Christmas Songbook, Jurassic Live, Oban Winter Festival PICTURE: SHEILA MCINTYRE

IRNBRU CARNIVAL

Europe’s largest funfair flings its doors wide to the great Glasgow public for coconut shys, inflatables, the Extreme Ice Blast and plenty more.  SEC, Glasgow, Friday 22 December–Sunday 14 January.

JURASSIC LIVE

This top-notch dinosaur extravaganza barnstorms into Glasgow with a jawdropping feat of tech which also has an actual story running through it all.  SEC, Glasgow, Friday 29 & Saturday 30 December.

MAGICFEST

The capital’s International Magic Festival has the likes of Kevin Quantum, Vincent Gambini and Elliot Bibby up to their old tricks. And some new ones.  Various venues, Edinburgh, Wednesday 20–Sunday 31 December.

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MORRISON’S ACADEMY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

A welcome return for this traditional concert featuring singers and players from across the Crieff school’s talented community.  Perth Concert Hall, Thursday 14 December.

OBAN WINTER FESTIVAL

Kicking off with a parade led by giant puppet Breeze (designed by Vision Mechanics), the following ten days and nights feature a winter roller disco, the Hebridean Baker, a paper wreath workshop and Holly Jolly Playtime.  Various venues, Oban, Friday 17–Sunday 26 November.

PHIL CUNNINGHAM’S CHRISTMAS SONGBOOK

RSNO CHRISTMAS CONCERT

SUMMERHALL BIG CHRISTMAS WEEKEND

There will be 90 stalls of local business interests here over this first weekend of December, plus Adrenalism Theatre’s A Very Crypto Christmas and the intriguing sounding Crispmas Confessional.  Summerhall, Edinburgh, Friday 1–Sunday 3 December.

VIENNESE CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR BY CANDLELIGHT

A symphonic feast awaits as the London Concertante perform a programme featuring pieces by Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Brahms.  Paisley Abbey, Sunday 3 December.

42 THE LIST November 2023

PICTURE: MARTIN SHIELDS

Get those hankies (or maybe even a scarf you’re fine with getting sodden) at the ready as the RSNO do their thing with Raymond Briggs’ animated classic The Snowman, as narrated by Hugh Dennis.  Caird Hall, Dundee, Wednesday 20 December; Music Hall, Aberdeen, Thursday 21 December; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Friday 22 December; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Saturday 23 December.

PICTURE: MATTHEW ANDREWS

Phil and his fabulous gang (including Eddi Reader, John McCusker and Karen Matheson) lay on a banquet of festive tunes both modern and trad.  Music Hall, Aberdeen, Sunday 17 December; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tuesday 19 December; Perth Concert Hall, Wednesday 20 December; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thursday 21 & Friday 22 December.

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB “One of the finest spaces in the world to do and see comedy”

-THE LIST

EH1 3EB

EST. 1995 Since 1995, The Stand Comedy Club has been keeping Edinburgh and its visitors in stitches. Set in a historic New Town basement, this modest club has an international reputation as one of the best places for comedy.

Thai-inspired street food served as selected shows including Christmas Specials

It’s where the likes of Frankie Boyle and Kevin Bridges got started –and it has played host to the best comics from across the globe. Christmas Specials begin on December 14th and the festivities continue into January with The Best of Scottish Comedy Hogmanay Specials. We don’t do big groups, stag or hen parties. But if you fancy the best in contemporary comedy in an intimate candlelit club, then The Stand is for you. More info online at thestand.co.uk or by scanning the QR code.

Photo credit: Jay Dawson

November 2023 THE LIST 43

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PICTURES: CALUM GORDON

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I can’t even please everybody that plays on my records, let alone everybody else With his first album in seven years, DIY pop royalty King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) returns with I DES, a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and producer Des Lawson. Danny Munro caught up with the Fife troubadour to talk motivation, mortality and being miserable

It has been said that you’ve recorded over 100 albums prior to I DES. Do you ever struggle to stay motivated enough to continue innovating new, experimental music, or do you find you have access to a constant source of creative motivation? Up until about 2015, to combat writer’s

PREVIEWS

block, I would look through old notebooks of half-finished ideas and rejects, and work on them a bit more. In 2016 I discovered the last pile of A4 pages in the bottom of a drawer; odd lines and short paragraphs of utter rubbish which, when cut up and stuck back down again in a different order, still read like rubbish. I persevered and gleaned enough lines to sing over a load of drones and loops. Another creative full stop averted. Since August 2020, I’ve been buying up modular synths, cutting up quarter-inch tape, recording loops and modular patches, and have recently started reading back through the daily outpourings of angst I wrote during the first half of 2021. This past five years I’ve been swapping (and adding to) cassette tapes with Keny Drew (East Neuk stained-glass artist), and for a year improvising alongside Mat Fowler of Jam Money, both of whom keep me on my toes. I DES is a reference to the album’s co-creator, Des Lawson. How important was his input on the album, and what do you think it would have sounded like without him? Simple: we’d have to wait a lot longer for the next, shonky

King Creosote record, I KEN. Des unearthed ‘Walter De La Nightmare’ from a session recorded on Mull in 2018, changed all the chords, and we were off. Albeit two songs at a time. My usual budget for a studio album averages 14 days, mostly long days, so 140 hours max from the first recorded drum click to playing the finished album on the car journey home. Des spent 140 hours mixing the closing track ‘Please Come Back’, and I disliked it so much that I axed entire sections and asked him to start again. Conservatively, Des has put in ten times as many hours as the budget allowed to complete this record. Having spent a quarter of a century navigating the Scottish music industry, in what ways would you say it has changed since you started releasing music, and are you hopeful for its future direction? Sorry, I’ve not being

paying any attention to what’s been going on since, um, 2012? Des Lawson keeps me up to speed with the bands he records, and I hear all the indie label goings-on from Lomond Campbell and Dan Willson [Withered Hand] from time to time. I’d say it’s the highly skilled trad folk lot who seem to be busiest. I hear from Mat Fowler that there are lots of smaller festivals and events popping up all over the country that are a mixture of different art forms, run by folks who’ve turned their backs on promoting themselves and their records. Bread And Butter, a 44 THE LIST November 2023

local café here in Anstruther, puts on a live music night once a month, early doors for punters to order off the food menu; and along near St Monans there are regular gigs at the Futtle organic brewery. I doubt either count as music industry. During one of the many lockdowns, an old woman in Crail asked if I was busy. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘Everyone needs music!’ Very humbling. In short, I think the direction of Scottish music ought to be inwards: smaller gigs, more of them, and much closer to home for all ages. Remember, the punks are in their mid to late 60s now.

our ‘Drone in B#’ might sound too much like a pop single, but you’re right: for fans of the pop single, our drone might be more annoying than the sound of their neighbour’s lawnmower. I don’t give it much thought anymore, for I can’t even please everybody that plays on my records, let alone everybody else! I DES, more than any previous record, was worked on as the last KC record in the belief that things would never quite get back to normal. I’m 55: other than a dunt in star ratings, what is there to lose? Lucky to be putting out a record at all.

The following lyric on ‘Blue Marbled Elm Trees’ has quite a morbid feel to it: ‘I had the best time laughing with my girls / I had the best life offered up / By this blue marble or any alien world.’ Is this feeling a recurring theme throughout the album? Would you believe that chorus line

is meant to be the uplifting moment to counter all the morbid stuff of the verses? Tracks two, three and four (‘Blue Marbled Elm Trees’, ‘Burial Bleak’, ‘Dust’) are dubbed ‘The Death Set’, but whilst I was typing up the lyric sheet for the CD booklet, it dawned on me that other songs aren’t exactly full of joy either. I invite anyone to send me a record of their own thoughts as they approach the Big 5-0.

Moonwake: “the moon’s reﬂection on a body of water”

speaks to the brewery’s Leith Shore location. We brew with mindful intent to create balanced beers for a wide range of people to enjoy. We believe there is a beer out there for everyone.

SAVE 20% ONLINE EXCLUSIVELY WITH THE LIST USE CODE ‘LIST20’ AT CHECKOUT OR SCAN THE QR CODE For use by those 18+ only, excludes sale items, events and gift cards.

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And, finally, what do you think King Creosote fans will come away with after listening to I DES? That there may

well be life after 50.

King Creosote plays Monorail Music, Glasgow, Friday 3 November (solo acoustic); Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Saturday 4 November; Assai Records, Edinburgh, Sunday 5 November (solo acoustic); I DES is released by Domino on Friday 3 November.

@MOONWAKEBEER

MOONWAKEBEER.COM

November 2023 THE LIST 45

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Some people would say that including a 36-minute drone on an album is something of a risk, though clearly, you are not ‘some people’. At what stage did you shake the feelings of anxiety that can come with taking such creative risks, or were those feelings never present in the first place? For fans of Tony Conrad’s Slapping Pythagoras,

und

future so

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Our column celebrating new music to watch continues with Former Champ, a tantalising collective of Glasgow indie stalwarts. The band talk to Fiona Shepherd about the supergroup tag, meaningful lyrics and unsexy jobs

ormer Champ are fresh contenders, a veritable Venn diagram of Glasgow indie movers and shakers comprising past and present members of Savage Mansion, Catholic Action, Secret Motorbikes and one actual Martha Ffion (though for this outing you can call her by her birth name, Claire McKay). She and husband Craig Angus are the songwriters of the operation, while drummer Ryan Clark, guitarist Andrew Macpherson and bassist Paul McGinness go back to teenage schooldays. ‘So it’s been tested before,’ says Clark. ‘We’ve been friends for so long and spoke about doing this project, and over the last year it’s actually happened.’ Lockdown was the catalyst, as McKay and Angus found a home for a batch of material which didn’t quite fit with Martha Ffion and Savage Mansion. To date, they have released three tracks (‘Grenade’, ‘Beginner’s Luck’ and ‘Motherwell’) with more primed and on the way. Unsurprisingly, given their pedigree, they have already been welcomed at a number of Scottish festivals, including Hidden Door, Tenement Trail and Connect, with an appearance at The Great Western to come. Clark, McKay and Angus are prepared to tolerate the suggestion that Former Champ is a Glasgow indie supergroup. ‘It feels we’re all bringing a bit of maturity and experience so that’s our supergroup superpower,’ says McKay. ‘Everybody’s there for the right reasons; we’re not 21, thinking that we’re going to be on Top Of The Pops.’ They might bring collective experience but Former Champ is still new territory for its members. ‘I’ve never been in a band before; it’s always been my solo project with friends or session musicians helping out,’ says McKay. ‘But this is an outright democracy. There’s a real sense of equal partnership in everything, and that includes the unsexy jobs like doing admin and booking transport.’ Angus, meanwhile, is relinquishing vocal duties for the first time and embracing a poppier cut and thrust than previously, with particular inspiration taken from a certain classic Minneapolis punk-pop outfit. ‘We’re always trying to think about how to make these things as sharp and brief and to the point as possible,’ he says. ‘The rule is everything has to have meaning, so none of the song lyrics are throwaway,’ adds McKay, ‘but we’re trying to use plain English and not get too flowery with the language.’ ‘The Replacements are the gold standard in that regard,’ reckons Angus. ‘The great Replacements songs are heartbreaking and powerful and evocative and specific, but also packed a proper anthemic punch. I think if you can do both you are on to something.’ Former Champ are already taking it international with a slot at Rotterdam’s Left Of The Dial festival, appropriately named after a Replacements song. But what of Former Champ’s own favourite supergroups? Clark plumps for ‘that one with Johnny Depp in it’ [Hollywood Vampires] while McKay ventures ‘my cool answer is The Travelling Wilburys . . . ’ ‘That’s my answer as well,’ chimes Angus as his wife continues ‘ . . . but my real answer is McBusted.’ Former Champ play The Great Western, Glasgow, Saturday 4 November.

46 THE LIST November 2023

PREVIEWS November 2023 THE LIST 47

GOING OUT

FILM

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MY COMEDY HERO

KEVIN P GILDAY ON STEWART LEE Before it was a ubiquitous social norm with non-compliance punishable by death, liking Stewart Lee was actually a bit weird. I remember getting the DVD of Stand-Up Comedian which was recorded live at The Stand in Glasgow, a legendary but modest room: not the kind of grand theatre or city arena that most post-millennium acts were recording their material in. It was 2006 and I had never seen anything like it. I watched it over and over again trying to deconstruct the alchemy of it; the fine line he walked between inclusion and antagonism; the sense that he was playing with the audience; and the intangible nature of the character he was portraying (giving away just enough of himself to allow genuine connection). But mostly what I learned was that it’s OK to assume your audience are smart. That they can follow the threads, that you can let a piece breathe without having to hold their hand with a gag every 30 seconds. If you trust your audience then they’ll repay it. Not only that but they’ll feel smug as fuck doing so, like they’ve been rewarded for their patience with something far more valuable than a disposable routine. He returned to The Stand in 2008 to record his next special, 41st Best Stand Up Ever!, and this time I was in the audience (you can hear my apparently very distinctive laugh throughout the recording). Whenever I’ve been lucky enough to perform at The Stand, I muse on how I’m walking the same stage as the show that shaped me as a teenager. And yeah, there’s a large portion of my ego that hopes I might have the same effect. n Kevin P Gilday: Spam Valley, Dunoon Burgh Hall, Friday 3 November; The Stand, Glasgow, Wednesday 22 November.

48 THE LIST November 2023

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PICTURE: RHIANONNE STONE

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‘In the last few years, I’ve been trying to understand what love is,’ says Athens-born filmmaker Christos Nikou (Apples) about his new movie Fingernails. ‘Why love is so difficult and why people, especially the younger generation, are going through dating apps in order to find love. People are swiping right or left with their fingers in order to find the perfect match.’ In Fingernails, a low-fi sci-fi romance akin to Nikou’s fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster or the Charlie Kaufman-scripted Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, people become obsessed with a test that determines whether a couple is perfectly matched. Each lover must donate a fingernail, painfully yanked out by pliers, which is placed in a microwave-like gizmo to determine their compatibility. The film stars Jessie Buckley as Anna and Riz Ahmed as Amir, two colleagues at the lab where these tests take place, though Nikou originally intended to cast Carey Mulligan in the female lead until schedules clashed. ‘But it was for the best because I really loved working with Jessie Buckley, and I cannot imagine the movie with another actress.’ Nikou was also courted by Cate Blanchett who ended up producing the film with her husband, Andrew Upton. After premiering in Toronto this year, some critics balked at the movie’s more squeamish elements, even if Nikou never shows any gore. ‘We didn’t try to create it in a horror way,’ he protests. ‘We tried to create it more in the mind, to create a feeling of being uncomfortable. Because when you are in love, you feel a little bit uncomfortable. I know that it feels like a body horror. But for me, it’s more allegorical.’ And after all, love can be the most painful thing in the world. (James Mottram) n In cinemas and on Apple TV+ from Friday 3 November.

A DF CONCERTS PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH NEIL O’BRIEN ENTERTAINMENT

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“ GOING OUT

PREVIEWS

They’re letting us do some crazy things in there

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Anything goes at Voices In Buildings, a new series of quarterly social happenings where audiences are encouraged to become active participants and experience performances from every angle. In June, Greg Thomas immersed himself in its debut outing and spoke to coproducer Ben Owen about conflict and chaos

like to bring people together who would never normally mix,’ says Ben Owen, the Edinburgh-based sculptor and filmmaker whose new performance series Voices In Buildings (co-produced with Dougal Marwick) will bring performance art and improvised music to unexpected places. Greyfriars Charteris Centre (a former churchturned-community hub) will play host to the latest instalment. ‘If you look at the audience at our first event, there was a really good mix there of visual arts people, folk into performance art, guys from the free improv scene, all finding common ground,’ adds Owen. ‘And there were also these little points of frisson and conflict that I find just as valuable.’ The inaugural Voices In Buildings event (for which Jennie Temple joined the team as graphic designer) was held in June at Dissenter For Space Studies, an artist studio and events complex based in the former headquarters of Royal London insurance company in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge. The site is one of dozens let out by an innovative charity, Outer Spaces, which offers abandoned or temporarily vacated corporate buildings for creative use. In an amusing twist to proceedings, guests entered through office-style glass security barriers after clearance from

a doorman, like tired underwriters on a Monday morning. ‘I’m in awe of those security guys,’ Owen laughs, ‘because they’re letting us do some crazy things in there.’ The blueprint for Voices In Buildings is a bit like that of a deconstructed gig, with the band and stage broken up into their constituent parts and stretched out in space and time across the evening. In June, it all unfolded in the former Royal London canteen, which featured a beautiful, fully removable interior design element by architects WoodcockEllis, including a cylindrical enclosure of curtains in the middle of the floor. This is where double bassist Seth Bennett kicked off proceedings with ten minutes of sinuous, jittery free jazz, before attention shifted to a separate corner of the room. There, sound artist Hannan Jones and percussionist Firas Khnaisser performed a graphic score with the Rhubaba Choir; audience participation was encouraged. Things carried on in the same meandering spirit all night, with attention always toggling to a new spot: vocal soundscapes from Ceylan Hay, a performance-essay from writer and broadcaster Ben Kritikos (with an admirable touch of Hyde Park Corner mania, as he rose above some audience chatter) and delicate, scratched cello from Semay Wu. At one point she was interrupted by free-improv stalwart Ali Robertson, whose hilarious turn was delivered in character as Royal London’s pelican mascot (or rather, as his shoe-bill stand-in, courtesy of a trainer attached to the face). Each new ‘stage’ was secreted in a different place in among the pot plants, plush-cushioned snugs, and sleek service counter, with new segments timed to start just as the last ended (or, indeed, to overlap with it), creating moments of tense or comic dissonance. By the close of proceedings, a form of dialogue had developed between the different acts, with some performers choosing, at Owen’s invitation, to play or perform alongside those that followed, adding little peaks and troughs of emphasis from forgotten nooks and crannies. The effect of all this for an audience is exciting and disconcerting. We

were constantly shifting viewing position. The front row became the back. People who had been sitting talking in an out-of-the-way spot suddenly find themselves at the centre of things. This, Owen hopes, will encourage people to think about the different ways in which they might experience a performance event, and to become active participants rather than passive recipients. ‘I wanted people to be able to walk around and experience the thing from different angles; that cubist sensibility,’ he states. ‘They can sit by the drum, or they can put their head by the violin, or they can look at the sound desk, or they can stand behind the curtain and hear everything muffled.’ There’s another layer to the event too; something to do with occupying a vacated corporate space to explore new ways of interacting and communicating with one another. If not politically subversive, there’s at least some deliciously anarchic quality in reinhabiting the kind of soulless noughties office environment many of us remember, in order to hear and participate in a weird, multi-faceted noisescape. A related quality of dissent and satire came across in Shona Macnaughton’s show-stealing performance, with Casey Miller’s unsettling improvised electronic accompaniment. Performance artist Macnaughton herded different segments of the audience around the canteen floor like a haughty dog-trainer, tossing chewed-up squeaky toys around while yapping at us to be more civicminded, engage better with local and national government, but not to show our teeth. It’s a whip-smart takedown of the pseudo-economic jargon that pervades public arts funding. What’s next for the Voices In Buildings series? ‘I want to keep taking this kind of thing into unusual, maybe even sensitive settings,’ Owen says. Let the din commence! Voices In Buildings, Greyfriars Charteris Centre, Edinburgh, Saturday 11 November.

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GOING OUT

Sarah Hopfinger’s extraordinary, multi-disciplinary work, Pain And I, took six years to create before it premiered last year. As Lucy Ribchester discovers, this deeply personal piece continues to evolve thanks to a brand-new immersive installation PICTURE: BRIAN HARTLEY

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PREVIEWS

ntense and personal, research artist Sarah Hopfinger’s piece Pain And I explores in detail her relationship to the chronic distress she lives with every day. It’s a piece you might imagine would be exhausting to perform, and challenging to re-immerse yourself in after a year’s break, following its 2022 premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe. Nevertheless, returning to the work in advance of a Scotland-wide tour has the feeling of coming back to a friend. ‘It’s often a relief just to perform it, to reconnect with it,’ says Hopfinger. ‘I made this with the intention for it to be good for my body: that intention to be like, what would I make if I made something that was caring, or that was pleasurable, that would allow me to work with my body as it is?’ As well as being a live performer, Hopfinger also works as a researcher, and brought the discipline of investigation into this piece from the start. ‘I began without necessarily thinking I was going to make a show,’ she says. ‘I wanted to explore my practice in a way that would embrace or work with my chronic pain, and so it really was a kind of research question.’ Her constant physical pain had got to an almost unbearable stage. ‘It was a moment where I just went, “I literally can’t carry on unless I change how I relate to my pain.”’ Having a body that doesn’t conform to society’s norms has also made Hopfinger mindful of the way she creates her art. One of the most striking and original aspects of Pain And I is its integration of accessibility into the creative vision of the piece itself. Hopfinger opens by inviting us to be comfortable in the space, whether that involves sprawling out, moving around, stimming (selfstimulatory behaviour) or using the ear defenders that are supplied. There is an audio version of the show (which predates the live performance), and now a brand-new installation that will accompany the piece to some of its tour venues, combining audio elements with its score. Hopfinger wanted the accessible parts not to feel as if they were being added on to accommodate people with different bodies, but to be woven into the heart of the show. ‘It’s not about inclusion,’ she says. ‘It’s about how does the form change? It’s about different bodies and minds making work and experiencing work. How does the actual artistic and aesthetic form shift? And how is that really going to change art forms in interesting, needed ways, rather than it just being about adapting to people.’

PICTURE: TIU MAKKONEN

Pain And I, Tramway, Glasgow, Wednesday 8 & Thursday 9 November.

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Opening 17th November

ST JAMES QUARTER FLIGHTCLUBDARTS.COM

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Crafted Selves (and bottom from left), Kieran Hodgson, The Barber Of Seville, NATI.

PICTURE: SALLY JUBB PHOTOGRAPHY

GOING OUT FURTHER AFIELD Get yourself away from the central belt and out into various parts of Scotland where the cultural landscape is just as rich and varied. Among the highlights this month are an English comedian musing on his life in Scotland, a Fife jazz piano hero, and a one-man Buffy machine ABERDEEN

HIGHLIGHTS

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Scottish Opera take this revival of their 2007 production on the road as Rossini’s comedy and larger-than-life characters get a fresh spin. n His Majesty’s Theatre, Thursday 23, Saturday 25 November.

KIERAN HODGSON

FERGUS MCCREADIE Scotland’s Mercury-nominated jazz piano hero and SAY Award winner (he had quite the 2022) gives his band a night off to deliver a solo performance that will cement his reputation as a key player in the genre. n Marryat Hall, Tuesday 28 November.

GLENROTHES

JOHNNY LEE MEMPHIS

Fresh from yet another Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination, the Two Doors Down star lets the rest of the country know that he is Big In Scotland. Having moved north from Englandshire in 2020, Hodgson now has a unique perspective (or ten) on his former home and current residency. n Lemon Tree, Sunday 5 November.

Recent victor at the Australian Ultimate Elvis Championships, Mr Memphis (can that be his real name?) dons the jumpsuits and pays tribute to the King Of Rock’N’Roll. n Rothes Halls, Saturday 18 November.

DUNDEE

BUFFY REVAMPED

DIVERSITY

The former Britain’s Got Talent winners dance their way into Dundee for the Supernova tour which follows in the quite literal footsteps of their crowdpleasing Connected set. n Caird Hall, Wednesday 1 November.

INVERNESS

All seven seasons and 144 episodes (even the musical one) of the cult 90s vampire-slaying show are squished into 70 minutes by one-man Buffy machine Brendan Murphy as audiences are taken back to the corridors of Sunnydale High. n Eden Court, Tuesday 14 November.

PERTH

GRAYSON PERRY The lovable modern-art scamp continues his tour of A Show All About You, which aims to make audiences (and maybe critics) reconsider exactly who they are. Sounds heavy but will be as lightweight as a funny feather. n Perth Concert Hall, Friday 10 November.

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CRAFTED SELVES

Programmed by Fife Contemporary, dual identities are at the heart of this group exhibition featuring the likes of Alberta Whittle, Ashanti Harris, Sekai Machache and Rae-Yen Song. n St Andrews Museum, until Thursday 29 February.

ST ANDREWS

NATI.

Pushing forward with a new name, the Fife-based singer-songwriter dynamo who became an overnight sensation in her late 20s takes her justreleased Older EP out and about. n Tolbooth, Wednesday 15 November.

PICTURE: JAMES GLOSSOP

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Pee-Culiar Experience Uncover the secrets of 17th-century medicine with a hands-on workshop led by Dr Arnott.

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REVIEWS

film of the month

Director Justine Triet’s award-winning thriller finds a marriage and a family in the spotlight when one couple’s dirty laundry is aired in court. Emma Simmonds praises Anatomy Of A Fall as a riveting, complex and ultimately chilling tale

writer’s life is placed damningly under the microscope in this Hitchcockian thriller which, following another excellent Gallic courtroom drama, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, makes much of the idiosyncrasies of France’s legal system. Helmed with an unflinching, interrogatory eye by filmmaker Justine Triet, Anatomy Of A Fall was the recipient of the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The phenomenal Sandra Hüller (best known for Maren Ade’s unforgettable comic epic Toni Erdmann) plays German novelist Sandra Voyter, the woman at the centre of this story. Sandra lives an unhappily secluded existence in the French Alps with her morose teacher husband Samuel (Samuel Theis, who appears in photographs and flashbacks), and their blind, 11-year-old son Daniel (the excellent, fully sighted Milo Machado Graner). As an act of compromise, the trio have settled in Samuel’s hometown and, when the film opens, we witness Sandra complaining of her isolation to a student who has dropped by to conduct an interview about her work.

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When an unseen Samuel begins childishly cranking his music up and playing it on repeat (the track in question is an instrumental version of 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’, a choice which will come under comical scrutiny later), this interview falters and the student departs. We then see Daniel take the family dog for a walk, returning to find his father dead, face down in a blanket of snow, having mysteriously plummeted from a third-floor window. Following an investigation, the enigmatic Sandra emerges as a suspect and most of the film takes place during her ensuing trial. She’s represented in court by an old friend, Vincent (Swann Arlaud), who clearly has romantic feelings for her, and there’s amusing work from Antoine Reinartz as an annoyingly self-righteous, thin-skinned and patronising prosecutor. An audio recording made without Sandra’s knowledge could be the prosecution’s trump card, while poor Daniel is torn this way and that, and starts to distrust his mother. Sandra has been granted bail, so Daniel is assigned a guardian (Jehnny Beth’s very matter of fact Marge) to protect his interests and shield

PICTURE: YANN RABANIER

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him from his mother’s influence for the duration. Although he’s inconsistent in his initial recollection, his evidence will eventually prove crucial. The title nods to Otto Preminger’s 1959 classic Anatomy Of A Murder, though the film boasts a distinctly modern sensibility, with Sandra’s career accomplishments and disinterest in domesticity a bone of contention with a dissatisfied Samuel. There are other interesting dimensions to the story: Sandra is forced to defend herself in her third language, French, limiting her ability to put across her side of things. And, despite his tender years, we see how Daniel ends up confronting the reality of his parents’ miserable marriage. When he chooses to remain in court during some very frank disclosures, he unintentionally becomes privy to some harsh home truths. As it takes us meticulously through the legal process over 180 riveting minutes and combines this with uncertainty over Sandra’s guilt, Anatomy Of A Fall weaves a complex web and, though the conclusion is satisfying, to an extent it leaves us to make up our own minds. By poring over the titular fall, Triet

(whose previous films include Age Of Panic and Sibyl) and her co-writer Arthur Harari draw a parallel between the fatal descent of Samuel’s body and what appears to be a terminal decline in the couple’s relationship. They zero in on the minutiae of domestic life, with the smallest details reframed as damning, including heated but hardly extraordinary feuds, while Sandra’s fiction is brought controversially into play too, as the prosecution take her words and twist them. In many senses, it’s a classic filmic depiction of the material, fuelled by the mystery at its core and reserving its biggest reveals for late in the game. However, Anatomy Of A Fall also thrives on its relatability and the chillingly mundane context in which Samuel plunges to his death. By lifting a veil on every aspect of the couple’s relationship and showering it in public shame, it’s both fascinating and appalling, and makes us wonder how any of us would survive under such scrutiny. Anatomy Of A Fall is in cinemas from Friday 10 November.

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Do we really need a Glasgow version of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations? For his 40th and departing production as director, Andy Arnold and his Tron Theatre company make a strong case for a cheeky, verging-on-gallus cultural re-nose of this classic tale of misunderstood wealth and mysterious benefactors. A timeless story of class conflict, it truly lends itself to pawky Glesga humour, from a script adapted by Gary McNair (some way ‘after Charles Dickens’) which makes the big emotional moments count but also sends itself up nicely. Arnold sticks to the classic story beats: Pip (Gavin Jon Wright) and Joe (Simon Donaldson) make nails on their forge and enjoy some larks until Pip runs into ex-convict Magwitch (Gerry Mulgrew) escaping the prison hulks. The production is kept in period Dickensian garb, although there are sweet anachronisms like Miss Havisham (Karen Dunbar) singing a couplet from ‘Copacabana’, Barry Manilow’s tale of romantic missed opportunity (Dunbar makes for a wonderfully blowsy Havisham, and her blazing exit is quite something to behold). The shifting of gears works throughout; self-awareness creeps in with a knowing pub quiz plus self-deprecating comic asides about extras offstage that the audience must imagine due to ‘budget’ restrictions. The doubling and tripling up of key roles provide ample opportunities for a versatile cast to shine. Jamie Marie Leary is as haughty as Estella as her Mrs Joe is brow-beatingly down-to-earth; Donaldson manages quite a transformation switching between humble Joe and pretentious Kelvin Pocket; and Mulgrew makes a fearsome Magwitch while Grant Smeaton’s Mr Pumblechook is a classic Glasgow snob. As a cover version of a beloved narrative front-loaded with iconic scenes, Arnold and his company breathe real life and laughs into this freewheeling, inventive adaptation that’s every bit as great as you might expect. (Eddie Harrison)  Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Saturday 4 November.

MUSIC

THE PRETENDERS 

Hard though it may be to imagine, imperious rock diva Chrissie Hynde admitted to feeling overwhelmed as she surveyed the Barrowland masses. ‘This is the most famous gig in the world,’ she declared (wearing her Barrowland t-shirt) with just a touch of awe in her voice. ‘All the bands say it.’ Mostly, the awe was flowing in the other direction as an all-ages audience witnessed an evergreen rocker with an unimpeachable voice getting on with the job. If Hynde was feeling her age, she was only showing it lyrically in opening number ‘Losing My Sense Of Taste’. One of the most seductive voices in rock was in fine purr, showcased most stunningly on a strippedback ‘You Can’t Hurt A Fool’. Her guitar wingman James Walbourne was also responsible for some sweet sonics, emitting all shades of rock’n’roll, from the utter strut of ‘Turf Accountant Daddy’ to the ultracool ‘Talk Of The Town’. He messed up the start of ‘Kid’ but Hynde was all over those husky legato notes. Her requests (orders?) to lower phones and savour the moment were mostly ignored in a rush to capture Hynde in action; eventually, she reached an entente cordiale with the crowd. Gig etiquette has changed, but Hynde remains a rock’n’roll constant. (Fiona Shepherd)  Reviewed at Barrowland, Glasgow.

F A E

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mark across generations, a diverse and disparate energy and attitude has developed organically in a way that those behind institutional attempts at social engineering will never fathom. That energy and attitude pervade throughout these pictures. Having lived and worked in Govanhill for years, Murphy taps into them the same way he did when he held ad-hoc exhibitions on the streets where those in his photographs ran free. The end result of the mutual trust this created is a set of defining images of a population forever on the go, each subject stopping off for a moment before they get on with their day. What you see is very much what you get, whether it is a beatific Bob, eyes closed and lost in private reverie, or Vinny with his hood up and a broken nose. Much of this area’s vibrancy stems from its constant state of flux as the neighbourhood evolves. In Govanhill, Murphy has managed to pin down some of that vigour before things change. What is left is a vital collective portrait of a world in motion in all its messy glory. Simon Murphy: Govanhill, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until Saturday 27 January.

Simon Murphy has been photographing Govanhill and its residents since 1999. As a new exhibition of these portraits arrives at Street Level, Neil Cooper finds a collection that is vibrant, vigorous and wonderfully messy

very face tells a story in Simon Murphy’s frontline portrait of assorted communities in Govanhill, the neighbourhood on Glasgow’s Southside that he once called home. This is the case whether it’s Paisley wearing a ‘No More War’ badge on her camouflage jacket, hands on hips as she blows bubblegum bubbles, or tattooed Jim wielding an artfully poised cigarette. Then there is Sahar, his hands in fur-lined pockets as he leans against a car with studied cool; Dylan hanging tough on roller skates; and Cassidy swathed in matinee idol paisley-patterned scarves. And what about Eliza, on the way to the shops with a cat wrapped round her neck; or Callum and Marek, the epitome of couldn’t-care-lessness as they loiter outside a corner shop looked down on by a sign declaiming ‘Today’. As one young lad brazenly sucks on a fag, the other fails to hide his laughter. Most fantastical of all is Seamus, a street entertainer who looks like he’s on his way home from some surrealists’ ball. ‘This is me,’ each seems to be saying to the camera. ‘Take it or leave it.’ Govanhill is one of those places where things like this can happen. As the crosswinds of internationalism leave their

FILM

HOW TO HAVE SEX

(Directed by Molly Manning Walker) 

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2:22 A GHOST STORY

(Directed by Matthew Dunster & Isabel Marr)  Replete with atmospheric fog, moving furniture, and ominous warnings, Danny Robins’ 2:22 is a classic ghost story. After moving into an east London home with their newborn, couple Jenny (Louisa Lytton) and Sam (Nathaniel Curtis) host a house-warming party for their friend Lauren (Charlene Boyd) and her new boyfriend Ben (Joe Absolom). Jenny has been hearing footsteps in the baby’s room at 2.22am each night, but Sam refuses to believe her. Things come to a head, and the group decides to stay up until that exact time to discover the truth. As a giant digital clock above the door ticks on, tension slowly builds between this quartet, with secrets revealed and relationships re-examined. The character drama complements the supernatural fare in a way that feels coherent and satisfying without being too on-the-nose. Jenny assumes that the ghost was married to the previous owner, a Cockney woman whose furniture they burnt and whose wallpaper they stripped while renovating. Rather than simply adding flavour to the haunting, this detail is used to provoke a nuanced discussion of gentrification. One particular highlight is the monologue from Ben, himself a Cockney, in which he reveals the humiliation of having to sell his mother’s home to a rich couple who mocked her taste. 2:22 has the potential to be bone-chilling. The script and performances succeed in building real terror, but this is somewhat overshadowed by the gratuitous jump-scares and flashing lights that punctuate every scene. A major plot twist also cheapens both the horror and social commentary, the latter having been the show’s biggest strength up until that point. 2:22 is both scary and interesting. It’s just a shame that the play never quite trusts itself. (Isy Santini)  King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 21–Saturday 25 November; reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. November 2023 THE LIST 61

REVIEWS

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The dark side of hedonistic, rite-of-passage holidays is explored in this authentic and unnerving consent-themed drama, featuring a gutsy, star-making turn from lead Mia McKenna-Bruce. Winner of the Un Certain Regard award at this year’s Cannes, How To Have Sex is the formidable feature debut of Molly Manning Walker, who worked as a cinematographer on another recent British gem, Scrapper. When Tara (McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake, who worked with Walker on TV’s Mood) and Em (Enva Lewis) take a trip to Malia ahead of receiving their GCSE results, they can’t wait to get cracking on the fun in the sun. Getting laid is a vocal priority, particularly for virgin Tara. After holding each other’s hair back over toilets and bonding with cheesy chips, the girls join up with another trio in an apartment across the way, including Samuel Bottomley’s Paddy and Shaun Thomas’ Badger, before things take an ugly turn. The actresses don’t exactly pass for wide-eyed teenagers, but they make a likeably lairy bunch, with the luminous McKennaBruce conveying a heartbreaking vulnerability, as we see this effervescent chatterbox nervously negotiate the meat market before crushingly shrinking into her shell. The film is strikingly lensed by director of photography Nicolas Canniccioni and features an appropriately banging soundtrack; the way it fluidly captures the exhilaration and recklessness of youth recalls Andrea Arnold’s masterful American Honey. Walker manages the shift in tone well, from the girls’ initial, carefree hi-jinks to the grotty and distressing reveal, aligning us closely with Tara’s woozy, increasingly disillusioned gaze as she drinks and dances through the discomfort, and finds herself isolated in rooms heaving with bodies. Beautiful, euphoric and tragic, How To Have Sex is brimming with compassion about how tough it is to be a teen. (Emma Simmonds)  In cinemas from Friday 3 November.

Festival Theatre Edinburgh 3 - 11 November Eden Court, Inverness 16 & 18 November His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen 23 & 25 November

The Barber of Seville The Scotsman

Bachtrack

Book now scottishopera.org.uk

62 THE LIST November 2023

Rossini

Registered in Scotland Number SC037531 Scottish Charity Number SC019787

‘spectacularly good fun’ The National

FILM

NOBODY HAS TO KNOW

(Directed by Bouli Lanners)  The tourist gaze is a conspicuous presence in Belgian writerdirector Bouli Lanners’ latest work, which pours romanticism into its Outer Hebrides setting with the passion of an outsider. From its immaculately framed beaches to pebble-dashed houses that litter the island, Nobody Has To Know’s lush cinematography feels in keeping with the themes of this slight drama, which revolves around Belgian émigré Philippe (played by Lanners himself) as he recovers from an amnesia-inducing stroke. When his shy and retiring carer Millie (Michelle Fairley) falsely tells Philippe that they were lovers before his illness, the pair begin an intense affair based on a foundation of lies. Lanners fails to capitalise on the appealing poetic flourish of protagonists who are both outsiders to themselves and to the land they live on; a shame given his previous success exploring such ideas in films like Eldorado (2008). Superfluous side characters exacerbate the film’s messy feel with inconsequential subplots too fleeting to add substance to the whole yet dominant enough to seem underdeveloped. When the central story does pull into focus, it skirts the surface of Philippe and Millie’s interior lives. Greatness is hinted at here, but it feels a redraft or two away. (Kevin Fullerton)  In cinemas from Friday 3 November.

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A pure white stage, tantalising with its bright emptiness, sits waiting to be filled. To the left, a grand piano, shiny and expectant, sits waiting to be played. As for us, we’re waiting to see how Elisabeth Schilling will bring these two factions together in her choreographic love letter to György Ligeti. More specifically, his 18 études for solo piano, composed between 1985 and 2001, and overflowing with virtuoso technical challenges for any pianist brave enough to tackle them. Which, in this case, is Cathy Krier, whose contribution to Hear Eyes Move: Dances With Ligeti cannot be overstated. While she pounds the keys, crosses her hands and moves her fingers at a lightning pace, sending a ferocious volley of notes flying into the air, five dancers attempt to catch them with their bodies. Schilling spent years fixating on the études, searching for a way to capture them in movement. The result is 70 minutes of stylish contemporary dance that inhales Ligeti’s music and breathes out an assortment of sharp angles, sudden drops, choreographic canons and gentle sways. Each outstretched arm, meaningful pause, quick-footed side step or point of connection feels like the perfect embodiment to this complex score. Whether they’re dancing in brief solos or finding solace in each other’s arms, the performers match Krier’s playing every step of the way. Bearing some of the hallmarks of contemporary dance’s postmodern giants, this may not be an entry-level piece for newcomers needing a narrative or deep emotional resonance. But for those with an appreciation for cleverly constructed, beautifully articulated movement with musicality at its core, Schilling’s latest work once again seals her status as a proponent of thoroughbred contemporary dance. (Kelly Apter)  Reviewed at Byre Theatre, St Andrews. November 2023 THE LIST 63

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NHOTB & RAD 

Inside GoMA, art duo Beagles & Ramsay reveal ‘three new NHOTB & RAD fashion lines’. Against an atmospheric sound and lightscape, 50 laser-cut flatpack mannequins with accessories clutter the otherwise majestic space. Some dissembled mannequins lie broken on the floor, perhaps dispelling the short-lived allure of consumer capitalism. But, given the mess, it takes a while to realise that this is intentional and not a conservator’s nightmare. There are mirrored, headless mannequins which supposedly encourage the viewer to self-reflect on their own consumerist ways, but it’s so on-the-nose that it loses all its metaphorical impact. One saving grace of the sculptural bodies is that they’re made of recycled office furniture and reclaimed display materials. This mass transformation into art objects begs the question: what is their next destination, after serving Beagles & Ramsay’s spikey take on consumerism? The space is also filled with clothing and accessories, nondescript in style to emphasise the futility of buying products for the sole intention of owning more. The immense scale of objects created for this exhibition seems to mimic mass consumerism rather than cunningly undermining it. Their strategy, in which the art duo produce strange replicas of the original products, is flawed. While the accompanying video work is not exactly gripping, the digital avatars of the sculptures do have an unavoidable dark essence which will resonate with those bogged down by thin façades of workplace culture. Ultimately, this satirical take on contemporary consumer culture is perplexing, lo-fi and haphazardly organised. It is an exhibition which sadly accentuates the gap between those who ‘get’ contemporary art and those who don’t. There is no shame in falling into the latter category, particularly when faced with an exhibition of this ilk. Given the extraordinary potential of GoMA’s temporary exhibitions, such a visitor experience is a tad disheartening. (Rachel Ashenden)  GoMA, Glasgow, until Sunday 28 April.

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Plinth 

PICTURE: TOMMY GA-KEN WAN

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Out of the darkness, sandbagged like a flood plain dwelling, there appears a platformed trench shack. Atop stands a demented figure in rags, equal parts Robinson Crusoe and Hiroo Onoda (the Japanese lieutenant who continued to fight for 29 years after World War II was over). What unfolds next is bizarre and dystopian. Returning to the stage for his first live tour in six years, actor, dancer and visual-theatre maker Al Seed (The Factory, Oog, The Spinners) reunites here with co-producers Vanishing Point, with feverish, fetid intent. Appearing alone on stage for the duration, Seed’s choreography unravels through the major tenets of contemporary dance: alignment, breathwork, gesture, flow and intention. He perverts robotic movements to an evocative soundtrack that hisses and grinds, and occasionally melts into something sweeter and more mystical. Seed’s bravura performance is matched every step of the way by the grimy set and soundscape design. There’s method in the madness here, however. Plinth is allegedly an attempt to examine the weaponisation of statues; their power and truths in this age of decolonisation and deconstruction. The myths of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur are examined through a lens of violent complicity. There are longueurs and moments of misjudgement here for sure, but the sections that work have a weird energy that propels and ultimately echoes the words of liberator and anti-slavery activist William Lloyd Garrison: ‘the apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.’ (Paul Dale)  Tramway, Glasgow, Saturday 11 November; reviewed at Dundee Rep.

Wooze, part of The Great Western (and bottom from left), Amy Gledhill, Aladdin, The Royal Hotel

OTHER THINGS WORTH GOING OUT FOR If you fancy getting out and about this month, you won’t be stuck for choice: there’s a movie about misogyny in the Australian Outback and an all-day music extravaganza across Glasgow, while a beloved Disney classic hits the Edinburgh stage MUSIC

TALKS

SPACE

SCOTTISH WRITERS’ CENTRE

Here is one man who doesn’t mind being called a clown, as he takes his Britain’s Got Talent-winning schtick across the nation.  Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 14 November.

It’s as though the 90s never died, as another band from that decade head out on a 25th anniversary tour. ‘Neighbourhood’, ‘The Ballad Of Tom Jones’, ‘Female Of The Species’ and all that.  The Caves, Edinburgh, Thursday 2 November; Stereo, Glasgow, Saturday 18 November.

Glasgow Review Of Books and Strathclyde Uni collaborate for this literary evening. Among those performing some live poetry are Janette Ayachi, Gray Crosbie and Tawona Sithole.  CCA, Glasgow, Tuesday 14 November.

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ALADDIN

Another all-day fiesta of new music across Glasgow features the likes of Wooze, Chubby And The Gang, LYNKS and Warmduscher while Lost Map Records will host a specially curated line-up.  Various venues, Glasgow, Saturday 4 November.

With one lamp, a trio of wishes and ‘A Whole New World’, this Disney musical gets in and out of Edinburgh before panto season brings a slew of other versions.  Edinburgh Playhouse, until Saturday 18 November.

AMY GLEDHILL One half of The Delightful Sausage, Gledhill takes her 2022 Fringe show out on tour. Great title, too: The Girl Before The Girl You Marry.  The Stand, Glasgow, Monday 20 November; Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, Tuesday 21 November.

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THEATRE

THE ROYAL HOTEL

DEEP TIME

THROUGH THE MUD

Starring the never less than excellent Julia Garner, this Australian film is based on a true story of two young Canadian backpackers who take jobs at a bar in the Outback before events take a rather sinister turn.  In cinemas from Friday 3 November.

Experimenters and improvisers unite for this inaugural festival which includes performances by Plus Minus Ensemble, pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam and cellist Simone Seales.  Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, Thursday 16–Sunday 19 November.

Apphia Campbell co-stars in this larger scale reimagined take on her earlier Woke, focusing on two women separated by almost half a century but both involved in the same civil rights struggle.  Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Thursday 2– Saturday 4 November.

PICTURE: MATT CROCKETT

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HIGHLIGHTS

COMEDY

VIGGO VENN

The Printmaker’s Art Rembrandt to Rego 2 December 2023 – 25 February 2024

Book now at nationalgalleries.org #YoursToDiscover

Ciara Phillips, Calculated Risk, 2018. National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the Iain Paul Fund 2019. © Ciara Phillips. National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland (No. SC003728)

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26/10/2023 11:45

staying in BILLY PORTER Known best as a multi award-winning musical theatre performer and television actor, Billy Porter has blown us away with that gorgeous raspy voice in Kinky Boots, Pose and countless other on and Off-Broadway shows over the years. His fifth studio album, Black Mona Lisa, sees Porter working with prolific songwriter Justin Tranter (who has written for the likes of Britney Spears, Dua Lipa and Kelly Clarkson) on 12 original pop songs delving into autobiographical territory. If latest single ‘Children (What Time It Is)’, featuring jazz singer Lady Blackbird, is anything to go by, expect vibrant disco-led queer anthems with theatrical key changes and soaring vocals. (Megan Merino) n Black Mona Lisa is released by Republic/Island on Friday 17 November.

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As Gaelic Song Stories completes another succesful series, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir talks to host Deirdre Graham about her mother’s influence and the importance of song in keeping language alive

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BINGE FEST Our alphabetical column on viewing marathons makes its third and final visit to the letter S Arguably the dictionary definition of a mixed bag, Search Party (BBC iPlayer) is well worth a visit to see how something so good can turn absolutely dire across its five seasons. What starts as a delightful ensemble indie comedy about a bunch of self-centred New York friends who are (in the main) innocently embroiled in an awful crime completely reeks by its later instalments as it warps into a wholly unfunny satire about social-media influencers and cults. You can almost see the fear in the eyes of Alia Shawkat and John Early as they try desperately to ignore how bad it becomes. Spaced (Channel 4) was a comedy that never outstayed its welcome, bidding farewell after just 14 episodes of fast-paced fun completely laden with visual gags and film references. It might be a little too embedded in its late 90s/early 00s setting for some tastes, but director Edgar Wright will surely have nothing but fond memories of his breakthrough moment. And the central pairing of Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes were in their comedic prime as mismatched flatmates Tim and Daisy. (Brian Donaldson)  Other S binges: Still Game (Netflix), Sean’s Show (Channel 4), Supernatural (Prime Video).

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took the podcast to where each of the participants live,’ Deirdre Graham says, as we chat over Zoom about the second series of Gaelic Song Stories. Funded by Creative Scotland, the podcast’s return has been hailed as one of the key Gaelic successes of 2023. Set free from the pandemic’s travel restrictions, its first episode, featuring Rossshire-born singer Fiona J MacKenzie, allowed Graham to visit a place that had long been on her bucket list. Bringing the podcast to the singers and collectors of Gaelic songs has meant recording in some spellbinding locations, including a billiards room in Canna House, the former home of celebrated folklorists Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell. Listening to the conversation unfold with MacKenzie, it emerges that Graham, who comes from a musical family on Skye, grew up with views across the sea to Canna, but (until now) had never had the chance to visit. The second series provides listeners with an opportunity to get more intimately acquainted with songs, both ancient and modern, via the medium of English. In this way, Graham has used digital means (and a lingua franca) to bring the storehouse of Gaelic culture that is the song canon to communities who may never have experienced it before. ‘We had Gaelic at home, but dad doesn’t speak it. It was natural to speak it to mam though,’ she says. Graham praises her mum Kirsteen for the impact she had on her children’s creative lives, and the pair’s work demonstrates how they have come to be seen as champions of both the language and its music. Graham argues that a love of song can be a real catalyst, supporting new speakers of the language to be part of the inter-generational transmissions that communities (like her native Lower Breakish) really need. Alongside her mum, other heroes featured include Margaret Bennett and Rachel Newton. This series demonstrates the almost sacred role of women within the Gaelic tradition as standard bearers and keepers of culture. Episode four features Lochaber-based Rachel Walker and two songs from her album with Aaron Jones, Despite The Wind And Rain, tracks which foreground the lived experience of women marginalised by society. ‘We need to recognise women,’ notes Graham, ‘without being apologetic.’  All episodes on deirdregraham.com

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first writes In this Q&A, we throw some questions about ‘firsts’ at debut authors. For November, we feature Mira V Shah, author of Her, a psychological thriller about being careful what you wish for What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? The Very

Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Not the most intellectual choice but I have very fond memories of this book.

What was the first book you read that made you decide to be a writer? I am (and will always be) a reader ﬁrst and foremost. Unlike most writers,

I never dreamt of becoming one. For me, writing was a need (a means of processing grief and trauma) rather than a want.

What’s your favourite first line in a book? The opening line of Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn: ‘When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.’ In just one sentence, it tells you everything you need to know about the protagonists.

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? Take

It Back by Kia Abdullah. A compelling and unique debut crime novel, which inspired my own debut thriller to be centred on themes of identity, race and prejudice.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day?

Write down any ideas that came to me in my dreams; then I walk the dogs and let the ideas percolate. What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? Breathe. And then cuddle my dogs. In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? Can I burn e-books instead?!

Actually, this is easier than I thought: any book where women are described by men as mere objects rather than people and where under-represented characters don’t have agency. You’ve heard of the phrase ‘write what you know’. Whilst there is a lot of truth to this, if you’re serious about getting published, make sure you do your market research as well; know where your book would sit on a shelf, read well in your chosen genre, look out for any trends.

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Her is published by Hodder & Stoughton on Thursday 23 November.

PICTURE: MARK SOLON

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist?

GAMES

ROBOCOP: ROGUE CITY Considering the huge cultural impact of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 dystopian movie RoboCop, it’s somewhat surprising that this cybernetic sleuth has barely made a dent in the gaming landscape. Aside from a venerated 1988 arcade game (and its numerous successful 8-bit conversions), the only notable release since was a strange hybrid adaptation of the execrable RoboCop 3. Set between the second and third films, RoboCop: Rogue City is a faithful recreation of the sights and sounds of Old Detroit. The titular character’s every footstep is accompanied by its trademark thud and his pistol sounds are on point; meanwhile, its game features are faithful recreations of the films’ famous settings, including a fully explorable facsimile of the police precinct. Although it’s played in first-person (which allows some neat HUD and cracked screen effects), cutscenes play out in third-person to show off RoboCop’s authentic modelling. While its mid-budget limitations are sometimes obvious (particularly its script which is a world away from the part comedy/part searing antiReaganomics of the first film), it helps that they’ve coaxed Peter Weller back in the title role, even if his performance isn’t quite as nuanced as it once was. Combat is punchy, although it’ll need to scale up the difficulty to present a decent challenge. If fans temper their expectations then this should prove to be a nice retro blast. (Murray Robertson)  Released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on Thursday 2 November.

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Download the et app now

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PICTURE: SEÀN ANTLEYS

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Composer Claire M Singer takes a somewhat unconventional approach to playing the organ. She tells Neil Cooper how the Scottish mountains have influenced her musical style and fed directly into a new album

Saor is released by Touch on Friday 3 November.

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PICTURE: SEÀN ANTLEYS

hen Claire M Singer was told about an organ in Forgue Kirk, close to the Aberdeenshire village where she was brought up, it carved open a world of possibilities for the composer who also works as organ music director at Union Chapel in London. Drawing inspiration from her walks in the Cairngorms, she created Saor, the first of a planned triptych of albums released on Touch, an experimentally inclined label. Having begun her musical life as a cellist and composition student, Singer fell for the organ after experimenting with stops and pedals in a way that saw her manipulating air rather than playing the instrument in a conventional fashion. Instead of producing something wilfully arid or austere, there is an emotional warmth to Singer’s work on both Saor and her previous Touch releases that began in 2016 with Solas. This reflects her response to the source of her inspiration. ‘The most natural thing for me to do when I get home is to get in the car and drive to Lochnagar and Loch Muick and just walk around,’ Singer says. ‘Being in that area, I just feel completely myself. That has always been the fuel for me to survive. Obviously that place, and the Cairngorms, and climbing, just inspires me most of all.’ Tracks on Saor (pronounced ‘sieur’, as in ‘monsieur’) are named after Munros that Singer has climbed, with little interludes between to explore the mechanics of her instrument. The album’s title track, meanwhile, is a just shy of 25-minutes epic that translates from Scottish Gaelic as ‘Free’. This was a commission by arts and music charity, The Richard Thomas Foundation, and was recorded in one take at Orgelpark, the Amsterdam-based concert hall for organists. With the centre containing numerous organs, Singer ran between five instruments to create the piece. ‘I think I got my steps in that day,’ she says of the experience in a place she describes as ‘Disneyland for organists’. Singer is possibly best known to many for her soundtrack to Annabel Jankel’s 2018 film Tell It To The Bees, based on Fiona Shaw’s novel of the same name. ‘It was probably the steepest learning curve of my life musically, just because I had to learn on the job; also it was such a different kind of ball game because I’m such a longform composer, and then I was given 30 seconds. I’m usually just taking breath at this point.’ It is Saor, however, on which Singer literally pulls out all the stops. ‘In my studio in London, all I’ve got on the walls are pictures of Munros and photos that I’ve taken when I’ve been walking. It’s just in me, and I feel like my music that comes out is completely informed by those experiences, and by those memories of being on top of them, looking out all by myself and having that feeling of being free.’

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A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Which podcast educates you? I only get to pick one?! There are so many! Putting

It Together is a fantastic podcast showcasing the breadth of talent in the world of theatre in Scotland and beyond. Every episode I learn something new about the industry and the craft. I’m always super-inspired by the conversations about creativity. Brian O’Sullivan is an excellent interviewer and he features so many incredible guests.

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Which podcast makes you laugh? I love Out, Out! with Aarti Joshi, Laura Boyd and

guest presenters chef Julie Lin and DJ Cassi. No-holds barred blethers about their antics on wild nights out, it has me chuckling away to myself every time. With brilliant banter and feel-good vibes, it’s always my go-to pick-me-up podcast.

Which podcast makes you sad or angry? Griefcast with Cariad Lloyd has had me in tears

for sure. It’s a real rollercoaster of all the emotions associated with loss, and I really admire guests’ openness to share what they’ve gone through in order to help others on their journey with grief.

Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? Can I say my own podcast? Cringe! All

the other podcasts I listen to are phenomenal so I feel no shame in listening to them. Occasionally tuning into my own one feels a bit self-indulgent but it’s always to marvel at the brilliant guests I’ve been lucky enough to chat to over the years. I just have to ignore the bits when I talk: hate the sound of my voice.

Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should, and why do you think their one would be amazing? Billy Connolly. I mean, how

tremendous would his podcast be? He’s such an incredible storyteller; his podcast could literally be about anything and I’d tune in faithfully just to hear that voice and his way of describing life in all its absurdity. For me he’d be the ultimate podcast guest.

Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 25 words Dog In A Catsuit which unpicks

the weird and wonderful things people are overheard saying, in an attempt to make sense of the utter daftness.

New episodes of The Braw And The Brave are available weekly on Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts. 74 THE LIST November 2023

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In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This issue, it’s Lisa Kennedy who hosts The Braw And The Brave, a podcast about people and their passions where she interviews folk from all walks of life about the things that make their souls sing

There are some general rules in life that almost go unsaid. Christmas comes earlier every year; no matter what you vowed beforehand, you’ll want to replace that dearly departed beloved pet almost immediately; any week now Morrissey is going to say something awful to dilute his legacy even further. New seven-part mini-series A Murder At The End Of The World tackles another classic life staple: if a reclusive billionaire invites you and an octet of seemingly unconnected people to his remote luxury compound in a snowy location . . . Just . . . Say . . . No. Even if said cashunstrapped individual is Clive Owen. In a cream turtleneck. Before you can utter the words ‘Agatha Christie knock-off’, chances are one of these ‘randomly selected’ guests is going to croak, unleashing a mystery where everyone is a suspect and no one is safe etc blah blah. However, this series perhaps has a few things flying in its favour to avoid being a total cliché. Natty knitwear aside, the main star is Emma Corrin playing Darby Hart, a Gen Z amateur sleuth with a possibly troublesome backstory, and it has been co-created by Brit Marling (Babylon) and Zal Batmanglij (Wayward Pines) whose previous collaborations have included The OA and The East. But above and beyond all that, it’s obvious that no one carries off a dodgy mullet quite like Harris Dickinson. (Brian Donaldson)  Starts on Disney+, Tuesday 14 November.

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tv of the month

Channelling a little bit of Chris Morris and a fair smattering of Cold War Steve, the TV version of The Skewer is a silly and surreal delight. But, Brian Donaldson reckons, creator Jon Holmes truly hits the target when he gets serious

he Skewer announces its switch from radio and podcast for a one-off TV version by slapping itself hard on the back. Showing the many awards it’s received since a 2019 pilot episode reassures the viewer that no matter how odd, how disorientating, how bafﬂing, how disturbing, and possibly how tricky to follow these 19 minutes will be, you’re ultimately in safe (prize-winning) hands. Those gongs will reside mainly in the household of Jon Holmes, the writer, comic and broadcaster who was previously best known for being ﬁred from Virgin Radio (for a prank item called Swearword Hangman which resulted in a small child saying lots of rude words on air) and being let go by the BBC (he claimed it was in the name of furthering diversity, the corporation insisted it was a result of his contract running down and new opportunities being pursued). Meanwhile, rumours that he was sacked from his gig at XFM London for urinating in a famous colleague’s desk drawer appear to be pure mischief-making conjecture. Clearly, some kissing and making up occurred now that Holmes has been producing The Skewer on BBC Radio 4 over the past four years and, let’s face it, it’s a win-win for all sides. If you’ve accidentally or even deliberately found the show on its late-night slot, chances are you’ve been drawn in by its fast-paced cut-andpaste hatchet jobs on (mainly) politicians having their actual words spliced together to make it seem as though they’re saying

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something very silly, coarse or surreal. It all moves so speedily with various sound effects washing over each other that a second and possibly third listen is required to catch every snippet of content that’s being chucked into the mix. There’s a lot of Chris Morris in here (especially the trippy collage-style euphoria of Blue Jam), and some slices of Charlie Brooker and Adam Curtis; making the move to the small screen, these dazzling, loopy, dynamic visuals are the kind of thing Cold War Steve might come up with if he was given a TV deal. Images of apocalypse and devastation play out to bland or barmy statements from Truss, Sunak and Johnson, while many of the headline-grabbing stories of the last 36 months are given a satirical battering (Brexit, Trump, Meghan, Wagatha). Three Twisted Years ends with a moving visual representation of Iran’s war against women, the names of those who have been killed or imprisoned or gone missing in recent times ﬁlling the screen and redacted to the accompaniment of Chase Holfelder’s take on ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’. For all its hilarious stupidity, The Skewer delivers a proper knock-out punch when it pulls back from delirium and makes poignancy its goal. The Skewer: Three Twisted Years is on BBC iPlayer with weekly episodes available on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

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(Netflix)  Comic-book adaptations nowadays often feel like a last-ditch attempt to save the spoils of a once-flourishing dynasty. As studios constantly churn out carbon copies of last summer’s cash grab, it leaves many wondering whether the golden age of comic books is over. Enter Bodies, Netflix’s take on the late Si Spencer’s unique time-warped whodunnit that redefines what graphicnovel adaptations can be. When the same body is discovered on London’s Longharvest Lane in 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053, one detective from each period must investigate the mysterious John Doe. Switching rapidly from decadent mysticism at the 19th century’s end, all the way to a not-so-distant dystopian future, this show should struggle tonally. But writers Paul Tomalin and Danusia Samal carefully layer each piece of the puzzle, culminating in an intricate miniseries that is as seamless as it is smart. Coming off his high-intensity performance in Boiling Point, Stephen Graham once again proves that anything he touches is gold. His role as the mysterious political leader Mannix sets him at the centre of this tale and highlights his star power. Starring alongside him are our four detectives played by Amaka Okafor, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Kyle Soller and Shira Haas. This quartet are adept at finding the person behind the badge, whether it’s Okafor as DS Hasan, protecting the very protestors that look at her hijab in disgust, or Fortune-Lloyd as DS Whiteman, a copper that’s found a way to scam the antisemitic system he is part of. Core to its intelligence is how the show lulls you into a false sense of security, with Bodies steeped in dramatic irony as we follow each detective on their journey. We hear the same post-mortems, run into the same brick walls, and come up with the same empty theories in each century. So, when we’re suddenly left scrambling around in the dark for answers, nothing feels safe anymore. Bodies is not what you think it should be as it moves from your average police procedural to a mind-bending conspiracy thriller, deadset on luring you in with shocking twists. (Rebecca Crockett)  All episodes available now.

BOOKS

HUMA QURESHI

Playing Games (Sceptre) 

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Through the guises of sisters Mira (a messy, creative type) and Hana (the defensive and uptight foil), author Huma Qureshi explores the quandary of whether our nearest and dearest can be sources of inspiration for fiction. As Mira copy and pastes Hana’s marital struggles into playwriting, this novel presents a pleasant but predictable meditation on the ethics of writing. Playing Games alternates between characters chapter by chapter, with some scenes overlapping and, therefore, repetition is rife. The novel’s echoing nature is accentuated by Mira’s unoriginality when it comes to writing her play, as we relive a major plot point through her drawn-out creative process. Given the novel’s two distinct perspectives, as told by an omniscient third-person narrator, the structure sometimes lacks muchneeded distance between these two sisters. The implication is that there is little room for anticipation over what might happen next. While not revolutionary in its various storylines, and somewhat rushed secondary characters, Playing Games is saved by an underlying warmth. Amid sibling rivalry and resentment, its narration illuminates unspoken affection in moments of outward tension. Although Mira and Hana might not like to vocalise it, they do ultimately have each other’s backs. Bringing comfort to her readers, Qureshi sheds light on how communication can sometimes be trickiest with those who matter most to us. (Rachel Ashenden)  Published on Thursday 9 November.

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Hadsel (Pompeii Records)  Despite his Albuquerque roots and the Lebanese reference of his band name, Beirut mainman Zach Condon is a musical Europhile. Now based in Berlin, he was initially seduced by Balkan traditions on 2005 debut Gulag Orkestar and later by the Italian town after which he named 2019 album Gallipoli. Latest album Hadsel was recorded on, and named after, a Norwegian island in the far north-west of the country. Hanging on by his fingertips, Condon found healing in a pre-covid Arctic winter of dramatic storms and northern lights displays, lugging his portable studio to the community church to play its antique organ. That instrument huffs and puffs at the album’s heart, showcased to characterful effect on its opening title track before Condon layers on some harmony vocals and his signature mournful brass sound. ‘Arctic Forest’ is a dreamy choral devotional embellished with shakers and wooden percussion while ‘Melbu’ comprises a melancholy pump organ drone. Elsewhere on this solo odyssey, Condon applies lashings of synthesizer, from the ethereal ecclesiastical ‘Spillhaugen’ to the cute analogue quirks of ‘January 18th’, and breaks out the baritone ukulele on the whimsical ‘Süddeutsches Ton-Bild-Studio’ to expand his charming chamber pop repertoire. (Fiona Shepherd)  Released on Friday 10 November.

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JUSTIN TORRES

Blackouts (Granta) 

REVIEWS

‘Not all ambiguities need to be resolved,’ claims the narrator in the postface of Blackouts, Justin Torres’ latest literary triumph. By this point, the reader has likely been left breathless and disorientated by a fragmented style, the novel’s beauty lying in a collage of loose ends. In a fading institution out in the desert, our narrator tends to his elderly friend Juan. During their last days together, the younger man promises to continue his dying companion’s important project involving a real-life 1941 study entitled Sex Variants: A Study Of Homosexual Patterns. This study began as a work of activism by queer researcher Jan Gay, but an external committee quickly turned it into an attempt to pathologise homosexuality. The names of participants were removed and their faces blurred out. Blackouts seamlessly blends fact and fiction to mine lost stories. The real-life research and its authors provide a historical framework, but it is the fictional conversations of our two main characters that provide a human face to dark history. An inspiration for Torres was Manuel Puig’s Kiss Of The Spider Woman, a novel (then play and film) which depicted daily conversations between two cellmates. Torres cleverly mirrors that work through the relationship of Juan and the narrator who spend time swapping anecdotes about gender, class and race. Torres’ 2011 debut We The Animals is widely celebrated, but this second novel is far more experimental as he plays masterfully with style and form. At one point the men begin telling their stories in the form of screenplays, interrupting each other to suggest music choices. Later, Torres flawlessly inserts a short story that was previously published in The New Yorker, while the pages themselves are punctuated by redacted sections of the original Sex Variants study. At first, this blackout poetry appears to be an act of censorship, but by erasing the scientific jargon, Torres tries to recapture humanity and emotion. This determination to rewrite corrupted history encapsulates the spirit of a wonderful novel. (Jodie Hagan)  Published on Thursday 2 November.

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Leith hardman Aldo is back, scamming and chancing his way through life in Colin Burnett’s latest book. But amid the drug dealing and gangsters, Claire Sawers finds that this Scottish author gives the most vulnerable in society a much-needed voice

Who’s Aldo? is published by Tippermuir Books on Thursday 30 November.

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REVIEWS

onnyrigg author Colin Burnett drew comparisons to James Kelman and Irvine Welsh for his debut short-story collection, A Working Class State Of Mind, which was written in east coast Scots. His tales of underdogs, duped and defeated by life, often shared a theme: ‘life’s jist yin big fuckin joke oan gadgies like us,’ he wrote, echoing the on-point writings of Glaswegian rapper and activist Darren McGarvey in Poverty Safari. Burnett returns with the sequel Who’s Aldo?, which reads a bit like The Sopranos set in Leith’s Newkirkgate Shopping Centre. Aldo is a 34-year old, drug-dealing hardman who has done time in Saughton Prison and remains proud of his ‘reputation fur extreme violence’. But he’s trying to clean up his act. And love is in the air. We follow him on various escapades: scamming a benefits assessment, stepping in when bullies rough up a kid, training down the boxing gym, clowning around at Mortonhall Crematorium. The love of Aldo’s life is a wee staffy named Bruce, although a comedy passage describing his absolute mortification at his dog’s flight rather than fight response works as a good caricature of Aldo’s toxic masculinity. Among the bampottery and Aldo’s fantasy of doing a jobby on the pitch at Tynecastle, there’s real sympathy and solidarity with Scotland’s most deprived and vulnerable. Burnett believes not only that working-class voices should be heard, they should be respected and lauded. Within his farcical tales of chancers and wideos, details of the routine indignities and injustices suffered by the proletariat are crushingly well observed, time and again. From the ‘restless natives still trapped in the NHS’s cutbacks’ as they wait anxiously in health-appointment purgatory, to those shoplifting to eat or reoffending for three square meals a day, Burnett doesn’t sugarcoat his views on the horrors of Broken Britain and Tory legacies. Aldo’s descriptions of women usually reveal an everyday misogyny that matches his old-fashioned, nasty gangster view on the world. The macho banter makes our anti-hero pretty unlikeable, but then a woke schoolgirl holds a mirror up to Aldo’s 1950s sexism. When she switches him on to things like bodily autonomy and the right for her to wear what she likes without fear of being hassled, he’s all ears and we start seeing this nutter in a totally different light (a bit like when Dr Melfi finds herself being charmed by psychopath Tony Soprano). Can Aldo see the error of some of his knuckle-dragging ways and evolve into not-quite a pillar of the community but at least someone trying to use his powers for good? In answering that question, Burnett delivers quality male soap opera with a heavy Leith twang.

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ALBUMS

BLACK GRAPE

Orange Head (DGAFF Recordings)  Returning from a six-year hiatus, Black Grape’s fourth studio album largely succeeds in its endeavour to keep the party going strong long after The Haçienda has closed its doors. Orange Head gets off to a slow start with ‘Dirt’, a downbeat, gritty opener, though the pace is soon picked up on the jubilant-sounding ‘Button Eyes’, a Latin American-inspired number that will soundtrack a fair deal of dad-dancing on their upcoming tour dates. Staying true to Black Grape’s genre-bending principles, Orange Head ebbs and flows between grungier, industrial sounds of the morning after, without failing to account for those eccentric highs of the night before. And while the likes of ‘Quincy’ and ‘Loser’ fail to leave much of a lasting impression, shortcomings are accounted for on the revealing ‘In The Ground’, which sees Shaun Ryder and his companion Paul ‘Kermit’ Leveridge glossing over their respective traumas in a jovial manner only they could get away with. ‘It’s sleazy and they’re greedy and nobody’s pretty,’ cries Ryder on penultimate track, ‘Self Harm’, offering a rather succinct summary of the things he’s seen on his travels during 40 years spent rattling around the music industry. Clearly somewhat weathered by his extended, tumultuous time in the limelight, Ryder makes no effort to sugarcoat his experiences as he shudders at the thought of enduring ‘too many relapses’ (‘Panda’), and playfully quips ‘I find it funny that I can’t sing’ (‘Button Eyes’). Like the vast majority of Madchester alumni, Black Grape have never fully succeeded in attempting to replicate the euphoric feel of their early output, but that’s not to say there isn’t replay value in Orange Head. Whether the album’s contents will warrant an updated version of their greatest hits remains to be seen, but there’s more than enough here to keep crowds on their feet for the foreseeable future. (Danny Munro)  Released on Friday 3 November.

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MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS

(Apple TV+) 

It seems fitting that ever since director Gareth Edwards rebooted the Godzilla saga in 2014, successive entries have grown ever bigger in scale, if not necessarily in ambition. After four bigscreen adventures, the ‘Monsterverse’ has now made the leap to live-action TV, a reduction that will alienate much of its fanbase. Monarch takes some inspiration from Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island (2017) which mixed up the formula with a novel historical setting. Opening with a brief cameo from John Goodman set in 1973, the plot hops between the 1950s and the 2010s, much of it focused on the antics of adventurer Lee Shaw (played, in a nice touch, by father and son Kurt and Wyatt Russell). Much of the ‘modern era’ focuses on a familial scandal, doubtless to address the series’ notorious inability to humanise its drama, but at the expense of everything you’d expect in a story about skyscraper-sized monsters. Things perk up enormously once Kurt Russell appears; now in his 70s he’s really grown into that grizzled, world-weary disposition and he gets some of the choicest lines. Hopefully his inclusion will give the rest of this series the boost it needs, not to mention some actual, you know, monsters. (Murray Robertson)  Starts on Friday 17 November.

STAYING IN

GAMES

ASSASSIN’S CREED MIRAGE

(PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S)  Assassin’s Creed fans tend to fall into one of two camps: those who enjoy the heavy combat and RPG mechanics of recent entries such as Odyssey and Valhalla, and those who yearn for the stripped-back stealthy sandboxes of Unity or Brotherhood. Mirage is very much a paean to those earlier games, wisely discarding vast amounts of feature creep. Its campaign, set in 9th-century Baghdad, is nothing special but its depiction of the Islamic Golden Age is divine. These city streets are teeming with life (characterised for the first time by authentic Arabic voices) and its connection with the natural world is beautifully realised, something that Origins also achieved with its lush portrayal of Ptolemaic Egypt. The game’s insistence on stealth is initially disconcerting: when a sneaking player is discovered it leaves them widely exposed, and enemies are too strong to tackle in groups. Parkour has also been weakened (another victory for the purists), making traversal trickier and sometimes more cumbersome. But, as is always the case with Assassin’s Creed, the setting really makes it stand out. A built-in codex features a treasure trove of historical research, all of which has fed into Mirage’s immaculate creation. While various systemic changes will annoy some, there’s no denying that its representation of historical Baghdad is a joy to explore. (Murray Robertson)  Out now.

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PODCASTS

SIDETRACKED WITH ANNIE AND NICK

(BBC Sounds) 

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REVIEWS

Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus’ latest audio project is a loose and riotous debrief on the week’s pop-culture affairs. Covering topics spanning Doja Cat’s volatile tweets to the newly opened Sphere arena in Las Vegas, the former Radio 1 DJs embellish headlines with personal anecdotes only granted to those who have spent decades in and around celebrity culture. Sidetracked avoids being a time capsule of the 2010s and instead showcases the breadth of each host’s interests and knowledge acquired over years spent with their thumbs firmly on the pulse of mainstream music and entertainment. From being invited backstage to meet Elton John after his London O2 show to getting stuck in conversation with Lady Gaga on an all-night bender, Sidetracked is full of tea-spilling tales and quippy backand-forth between two very funny friends. Warning: don’t be sipping on any liquids when Grimshaw does his impression of Lil Wayne unless you want to risk spraying a stranger on the bus. And if BBC Sounds productions are sometimes too sterile and polished for you, a hilarious tale of Macmanus being hungover on Radio 4 when promoting the show, and good use of archive audio (they open the series with their first ever on-air appearance together from 2007’s Switch) should debunk any of those concerns. Not interested in taking itself too seriously, this podcast isn’t preoccupied with offering academically backed surgical dissections of pop-culture moments. Instead, Macmanus and Grimshaw are safely operating in ‘let’s debate the difference between a fan and a stan’ or ‘is vinyl the future’ territory. Interesting takes do come out of their discussions though, and most importantly, listeners are in great company with the two hosts, whose long-standing friendship is as entertaining as it is genuine. (Megan Merino)  New episodes are available every Thursday.

dcast

STAYING IN Marram (and bottom from left), Richard Walters, The Day Before, Quiz Lady

OTHER THINGS WORTH STAYING IN FOR Another packed month of things to do indoors or consume on your travels include a video game about robotic civilisations, a film concerning the healing qualities of quiz shows, and a rock album by an evergreen country icon ALBUMS

RICHARD WALTERS A member of the group LYR (featuring Simon Armitage), Walters brings us his sixth solo album, Murmurate, a collection of tunes about the human need for real-world connection. n Nettwerk, Friday 17 November.

DOLLY PARTON Rockstar is the country legend’s 49th album (yes, you read that correctly), and features collaborations with a bunch of rock types on their own songs, such as Sting with ‘Every Breath You Take’, and ‘Wrecking Ball’ alongside Dolly’s goddaughter Miley Cyrus. n Big Machine, Friday 17 November.

Shot Of Crimson will be a delight for fans of Alfred Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier as a killer stalks the Hollywood set of Rebecca. The answer may track back to a house which inspired the author. n Faber, Thursday 2 November.

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PODCASTS

SLAYERS: A BUFFYVERSE STORY Buffy fever returns (assuming it ever went away) with this all-new drama featuring some of the original cast such as Charisma ‘Cordelia’ Carpenter and James ‘Spike’ Marsters. n Audible.

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A first-person puzzle experience to savour, set in a time when robots can barely recall when humans roamed the earth. Your mission: to investigate the meaning behind a mysterious megastructure. n Croteam, Thursday 2 November.

Filmed in North Uist and Edinburgh, this short film follows a family on a Hebridean island as they try to understand and revive a beloved son who hasn’t spoken in months. The score comes from Gaelic electronica duo, WHYTE. n BBC Alba, Thursday 2 November.

THE DAY BEFORE

QUIZ LADY

Set in a post-apocalyptic version of the US, the world has been overrun by zombies after a pandemic. The question is, can you survive the hordes of flesh-eaters in this multiplayer horror affair? n Fntastic, Friday 10 November.

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh star in this film about a dysfunctional family and the game show which, weird as it seems, might be the key to their salvation. Directed by Jessica Yu, it also features Will Ferrell, Jason Schwartzman and Tony Hale. n Disney+, Friday 3 November.

HIGHLIGHTS

BOOKS

NICOLA UPSON

BEN MEZRICH A character-driven narrative, Breaking Twitter looks beyond the headlines to find out what actually went on between Elon Musk and powerbrokers at the social-media battlefield now called (yuck) X. n Macmillan, Thursday 9 November.

ELIZA CARTHY AND JON BODEN’S WASSAIL

BORIS AND SERGEY’S CHRISTMAS CABARET

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GUY MASTERSON A CHRISTMAS CAROL

GUY MASTERSON - A CHRISTMAS CAROL - 27 Nov-01 Dec, 19:30 FOLKSVILLE CHRISTMAS SOCIAL - 09 Dec 19:30 AERIAL CHRISTMAS CABARET: ALICE IN WONDERLAND - 10 Dec BORIS AND SERGEY’S CHRISTMAS CABARET - 12-21 Dec, 19:30 ELIZA CARTHY AND JON BODEN’S WASSAIL - 22 Dec, 20:00 LALDIE HOGMANAY CEILIDHS - 29-30 Dec, 20:00, 31 Dec, 20:30

Theatre & Cabaret at Christmas

Book your tickets today! www.assemblyroxy.com November 2023 THE LIST 83

back Surreal stand-up, versatile actor and Labour Party activist Eddie Izzard is set to hit the road with The Remix, effectively a greatest-hits show featuring the comic’s own favourite bits across a 26-year live career. She’s also popping up in cinemas with Dr Jekyll, a fresh new spin on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of dual personalities, and on small screens with heist drama Culprits. In our Q&A, the Yemen-born entertainer discusses a bonkers song that always gets her on the dance floor, that time she won a blue football, and why Anthony Hopkins is so good

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WITH EDDIE IZZARD

Who would you like to see playing you in the movie about your life? Who do you think the casting people would choose? Jessica Chastain. That’s my choice. The casting people choose, I think, Jessica Chastain, because they’d be very sensible casting producers. What’s the punchline to your favourite joke? Do you have any carrots? If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? Tiger. Because I was born a water tiger in the Chinese Zodiac in February 1962. If you were playing in an escape room, name two other people you’d recruit to help you get out? Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. They are my spirit guides in the political world. So I would recruit them.

What’s the best cover version ever? Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? I think Anthony Hopkins is fantastic. He has a great voice for acting and anything else he wants to put his voice to.

If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? Is this positive or negative haunting? Because for good haunting it would be Marilyn Monroe. I think she needed a spirit guide. It’d be nice to be a good spirit to try and help someone like her. Bad haunting: Hitler. If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? My sixth birthday. I didn’t know it was the last one with my mother. She died just under a month later. What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? I won a blue football in the St John’s school sack race. I was six. I won it by a country mile. Did you have a nickname at school that you were OK with? And can you tell us a nickname you hated? I didn’t really have a hated one. I used to argue so much that people didn’t really pick on me. But I was called ‘Wizz’ occasionally by one kid, which I thought was quite nice.

Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? Enjoy every positive moment.

When were you most recently astonished by something? The positivity to marriage equality. Some people are quite transphobic but a lot of people are really positive. The general positivity around the world from lots of countries has been a wonderful thing. It’s for love; you can’t get enough love in the world.

If you were to start a tribute act to a band or singer, who would it be in tribute to and what would it be called? The Beatles. Why don’t we call it The Pale Imitation? Because it’s The Beatles, you could only be a pale imitation.

As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact? A young girl said she liked my dress. I just thought it was very simple, accepting and powerful. When I came out 38 years ago, I never thought I’d get to that place.

What tune do you find it impossible not to get up and dance to, whether in public or private? ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ by Deee-Lite. It’s bonkers so I like it. Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? Anthony Hopkins again. He’s just got a great sense of humour. I love the fact that he’d already gone to bed when he won his second Oscar. Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? I can fly a plane. I had a fear of flying so I learned to fly and got my pilot’s licence 20 years ago. When did you last cry? The last good movie I watched on an aeroplane. I don’t remember what it was. I get emotional at 30,000 feet. It’s all to do with air pressure. What’s the most hi-tech item in your home? A present from last Christmas: a small dog that sings ‘Jingle Bells’ when you press its paw. What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? I would love to be able to blow glass. In your senior years you should be learning new skills, learning new languages and doing crosswords. 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? Can I choose the toilet? If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your first luxury destination for espionage? Kathmandu. It’s just an amazing place to be. Eddie Izzard: The Remix, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wednesday 8–Saturday 11 November; Dr Jekyll is in cinemas now; Culprits starts on Disney+, Wednesday 8 November. November 2023 THE LIST 85

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When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else and what were the circumstances? People used to occasionally mistake me for Julian Clary. And I thought that very surprising because he was much prettier than I am.

Describe your perfect Saturday evening? Watching a classic black-andwhite movie. With dinner before. So dinner and a movie, and they could be in or could be out.

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hot shots (film special) If you’re still suffering withdrawal symptoms from The Bear, Emma Seligman’s Bottoms may ease your pain slightly given that it stars Ayo ‘Sydney’ Edebiri. This highly anticipated comedy revolves around two queer high-school students who concoct a unique plan to hook up with cheerleaders. From 2–6 November, Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre hosts the Central Scotland Documentary Festival. Among the many intriguing delights is The First Film (pictured) which explores the man who may (or may not) have recorded the very first moving image. The battle to fling Edinburgh’s Filmhouse doors open to movie fans once again continues apace with its Crowdfunder remaining live until 9 November. To whet appetites about future possibilities, here’s a classic programme front cover from November 1987.

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