The List Issue 773

GOING OUT

COVER PICTURE: SOPHIE WEBSTER

EMMA SIMMONDS ON PIXAR’S ELEMENTAL

” Animation worth savouring on the big screen

Everyone loves a good old face-off, right? As long as no one gets hurt, a critical argy bargy is fine. Which is just as well given that we’re pairing up a few folks to see who emerges victorious, who lands bottom of the heap, and who’s happy to call it a draw. Two of the contemporary art world’s most lauded concerns have just opened blockbuster retrospective shows in Edinburgh (Peter Howson with his musclebound men) and Glasgow (Banksy with his kissing coppers), but is it all surface with these guys? A duo of outspoken old-school broadcasters come to terms with the podcast age as Jonathan Pie is reluctantly in receipt of his own live-radio talk show, and Alan Partridge is soon back with more episodes From The Oasthouse. In the meantime, we have his increasingly blurry commentary on the coronation to savour.

Blur and Pulp might have both been four-letter acts at the forefront of Britpop’s golden era, but did they get on? Doesn’t really matter as we’ve kept them apart by a whole 66 pages, as we review Damo and the gang’s first album in eight years, and explore the legacy of Jarvo and his crew as they prepare to launch themselves, reunion style, upon TRNSMT.

Music festivals take up a large part of our focus this issue as we score interviews with Dream Wife, Jockstrap and Chat Pile, explore the soul appeal of Olivia Dean, and knock up an essential (if we may be so bold) A–Z of acts appearing up and down the country between now and early September (that feels a long way away, doesn’t it?).

Elsewhere, there’s a different kind of park life to be found near the Scottish Parliament when around 300 Kate Bush fans will be turning Holyrood red in tribute to the elusive singer’s debut single (or more specifically the video that accompanied it), with The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever. It’s unlikely anyone would ever gather in a public space to perform an interpretive-dance tribute to J Robert Oppenheimer (the theoretical physicist who plunged us fully into the atomic age) but he probably wouldn’t be too fussed now that Cillian Murphy is playing him in Christopher Nolan’s latest tech-wielding extravaganza.

All that plus you can jump into an epoch-definingly brilliant Q&A from Caitlin Moran, while we enjoy a laryngitis-free Alex Turner as he and his Monkeys entertain Glasgow, pass judgment on the new Pixar movie, wonder if Jack Whitehall can bounce back after his last lukewarm tour, and hear PJ Harvey at her haunting best.

Brian Donaldson EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHING

CEO Sheri Friers

Editor

Brian Donaldson

Art Director Seonaid Rafferty

Sub Editors

Paul McLean

Megan Merino Designer Carys Tennant

Writers

Becca Inglis, Brian Donaldson, Claire Sawers, Claire Stuart, Craig McLean, Danny Munro, David Kirkwood, Donald Reid, Eddie Harrison, Emma Simmonds, Fiona Shepherd, Greg Thomas, James Mottram, Jay Richardson, Kelly Apter, Kevin Fullerton, Lucy Ribchester, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, Malcolm Jack, Mark Fisher, Megan Merino, Murray Robertson, Paul McLean, Rory Doherty, Sean Greenhorn, Shona McCarthy, Suzy Pope

Social Media and Content Editor Megan Merino

Senior Business Development Manager

Jayne Atkinson

Online News Editor Kevin Fullerton

Media Sales Executive Ewan Wood

Digital Operations & Events Manager Leah Bauer

Events Assistant Eve Johnston

PJ HARVEY

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

PICTURE: STEVE GULLICK

PICTURE: BRINKHOFF-MOGENBURG

mouthpiece

Shona McCarthy, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society’s chief executive, highlights how the organisation aims to put Fringe artists at the heart of it all this August

Supporting artists is more vital than ever. Many are continuing to face massive challenges postpandemic, and taking part in the Fringe is a huge investment for an artist; often a real financial risk and a test of mental and physical resilience.

The Fringe Society doesn’t control the festival (we don’t choose or produce the shows or run the venues) but we do encourage collaboration around issues facing the Fringe community, provide tools to help audiences discover work and, crucially, support artists; the people making this festival happen.

The respect and admiration my team and I have for Fringe artists is immense. It’s why we do what we do. So to those artists, it is your participation which is the most incredible thing about the Fringe. Our highest priority is supporting you, and while we don’t always get it right, we are here for you. We want to support you in making the most of your time here.

We’ve developed Fringe Marketplace, a tool to platform your work to programmers and producers and extend the future life of your show. It’s one of the best ways to get your work in front of the right people and we’re so excited about it. Our Fringe Central: Artist Hub at Quaker Meeting House is open every day until 6pm; our team is ready to

offer you a cuppa and a calm space to recharge and take a break, alongside access to our tailored services: media and marketing advice, support to connect with industry, and an expert-led events programme. It doesn’t matter if this is your first Fringe or your 50th: if you’re a registered artist, we’re here for you.

We’re partnering with local mental-health charity Health In Mind, giving Fringe artists access to free wellbeing support via one-to-one in-person sessions (bookable and drop-in) and a dedicated phoneline.

Our team can help when things go wrong; we also love to hear when things are going right. If you’re having a hard time or just need advice on growing your audience, we’re here for you. And if we can’t help directly, we can connect you with someone who can.

After all, we really love and believe in this festival, and without you, it doesn’t happen. You are the Fringe, and we’ve got your back. Have the best August and thank you for being here.

 Contact the Fringe Society online through connect. edfringe.com and marketplace.edfringe.com, in person at Fringe Central: Artist Hub (Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Street) or email their team year-round at artists@edfringe.

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, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir tells us which things . . .

Made me cry: Happy tears, but as a self-confessed 90s kid, I was excited to see the release of Louise Redknapp’s Greatest Hits. I was a massive Eternal fan growing up and one of my lasting childhood memories was shutting myself away in my bedroom and listening to their tapes. As a queer kid, their hooks, harmonies and the diversity they stood for was pure escapism.

Made me angry: The furore around Phillip Schofield has taken folk on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I didn’t really think I was that invested, but all the analysis has been inescapable. There are frankly more important things to report and it’s also shown how the media pillory members of minoritised groups with a specific kind of frenzy which heteronormative shaggers seem to escape entirely.

Made me laugh: Having split up with my partner after four years, not much is making me laugh at the moment. For some reason TikTok is force-feeding me tarot readings from women connected to the beyond. TikTok remains anathema to me, but I do enjoy it. It is getting me out of the house every day as I record a one-minute history documentary about places of historical and cultural interest.

Made me think: A recent film project in the Hebrides, Cinema Sgìre, has reminded me of the moving image’s power. The films being showcased give an aperture into life in the middle of the last century. It makes me consider how we’ll reflect on the audio-visual overload of the 2020s in 50 years time.

Made me think twice: Seeing Polaris nominated for the Saltire Society’s Scottish Poetry Book Of The Year award last year (and recently for a Saboteur Award) has questioned my own multilingualism and how I previously positioned myself solely as a Gaelic writer and singer. The book saw me work harder on my English-language versions than ever before and embrace Polari [coded slang used by gay men in the 1950s & 60s, with Romany origins]; a new palette to paint word-pictures with.

playLIST

Wrap your ears around the sounds of Scotland’s biggest summer music festivals with Dream Wife, boygenius, Pulp, Jockstrap and many more. Plus discover new music from Blur, corto.alto, PJ Harvey and Meursault.

Scan and listen as you read:

head head2

MEGAN

There are many reasons the internet is losing all its marbles over Barbie: a star-studded cast, its pleasing saccharine colour palette, good old-fashioned nostalgia. Personally, it’s Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s attachment to this film that piques my curiosity. How on earth will the Barbie and Ken of American indie movies interpret and intellectualise this best-selling doll to a mass audience?

A recent tour of Gerwig’s Barbie Land set, posted on Architectural Digest, revealed lifesize replicas of original Mattel designs against expressionist fake-sky backdrops, inspired by 1950s soundstage musicals. Citing Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli movies as key references, Gerwig said she also wanted Barbie to inhabit ‘wonderfully fake and emotionally artificial spaces’ but ones you want to reach out and touch.

The more I ponder Barbie as a concept, the more ripe for Greta Gerwig’s playful directorial style she becomes. She is a multi-billion dollar business; a contradictory symbol of capitalism, conservatism, feminism and progressiveness. I remain hopefully optimistic that Gerwig will succeed in communicating something complex and human through the fantastically plastic world Barbie inhabits.

from the archive

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

We travel back to issue 231 in 1994 when Scotland’s largest music festival, T In The Park, was about to make its debut. Craig McLean writes of organisational difficulties facing many UK festivals at the time (still pretty relevant stuff) and the rare promise shown by this new kid on the festival block. Björk, Manic Street Preachers and Blur took headline spots, while a young Oasis played the King Tut’s stage. Perhaps, most interestingly, Primal Scream and Pulp also feature on the inaugural bill, a pairing who will headline 2023’s Connect and TRNSMT festivals respectively. More on those in the following pages . . .

 Head to archive.list.co.uk to read past issues of The List.

Once again, 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. This month, these intellectual titans cage-fight to the death over . . . Barbie

KEVIN

Hollywood is a black hole. It sucks in talented directors and spaghettifies their creative vision until they’ve barely got enough cultural cachet to direct an ad for Fixodent. The problem is this: corporate structures demand that even arthouse darlings make franchise-worthy gumph.

Chloé Zhao wins an Oscar for Nomadland and is sent to the Marvel gulag to helm The Eternals. Sarah Polley hits a home run with Women Talking and becomes trapped on Disney’s live action adaptation treadmill with Bambi. And quirkster-in-chief Greta Gerwig, fresh from the one-two punch of Lady Bird and Little Women, is talked into bringing the plastic piffle of Barbie to the silver screen.

This vomitorium of pink may well be decent (wonky jokes aside, the trailer was at least OK), but it’s dispiriting to watch every promising director seduced by those demands of the blockbuster big-time. A few decades ago, successful filmmakers were allowed to make grand follies, fascinating works of indulgence with artistic merit. Now they play with Barbies.

Blast off

Featuring revolutionary new film stock and focusing on a real-life individual, Oppenheimer is a landmark movie for Christopher Nolan. James Mottram considers how this biopic fits into the director’s unique cinematic worldview

The clue to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was there all along. In Tenet, his 2020 time-travel/espionage drama, John David Washington’s nameless spy is lectured on the Manhattan Project (a top-secret development of the atomic bomb during World War II) which was overseen by one J Robert Oppenheimer. ‘As they approached the first atomic test,’ he’s told, ‘Oppenheimer became concerned that the detonation might produce a chain reaction.’ Coincidence? In Nolan’s universe, anything is possible.

In fact, it was Charles Roven who first planted the seed. The veteran producer who worked on Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises), convinced him to read the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography that this new film was ultimately based on. Published in 2005, Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin’s American Prometheus: The Triumph And Tragedy Of J Robert Oppenheimer was a book some 25 years in the making. Sherwin spent two decades meticulously researching the world of Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who changed the 20th century.

Clocking in at three hours, Oppenheimer marks the first biopic of Nolan’s singular career, one that’s seen the British-American filmmaker turn his cerebral mindset into cinematic spectacle; films like Inception, with its espionage-tinged tale about a group that penetrate dreams, or the time-bending sci-fi Interstellar, which saw him collaborate with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kip Thorne. Increasingly, Nolan’s interest in the science that underpins our world has come to dominate his work, culminating here in Oppenheimer

In the film, Cillian Murphy plays Oppenheimer. A Nolan regular (dating all the way back to his villainous Scarecrow in 2005’s Batman Begins), this acclaimed Irish actor now steps up to play his first lead for the director. Around him is a fabulous cast, including Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty; Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer’s mistress; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project; Josh Hartnett as physicist Ernest Lawrence; and Gary Oldman as President Harry S Truman.

When Nolan presented footage at CinemaCon, the Las Vegas-based event where studios showcase upcoming movies, he said, ‘like it or not, J Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived . . . he made the world that we live in, for better or for worse.’ Within a month of the Trinity test (the first ever detonation of a nuclear weapon, held in the New Mexico desert), the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Killing thousands, it effectively brought World War II to an end, but ushered in a new era of nuclear paranoia.

When he witnessed the Trinity test, Oppenheimer famously said, ‘now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’, quoting from Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. What makes his story so fascinating is how, in later years, he became a critic of such weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, in 1954 at the height of the Communist witchhunts, he was turned on by his own government. The United States Atomic Energy Commission, led by Lewis Strauss (played in the film by Robert Downey Jr) subjected him to a hearing that ultimately resulted in his security clearance being revoked.

If all of this offers Nolan huge dramatic possibilities, Oppenheimer also throws enormous visual challenges at its director. Ever since The Dark Knight, he’s shot sequences with IMAX cameras, providing the richest images you can possibly achieve for a big screen.

This time, Nolan and Hoyte van Hoytema (his cinematographer dating back to 2014’s Interstellar) are breaking new ground, shooting IMAX sequences in blackand-white as well as colour. No major movie has shot in IMAX black-and-white before, simply because the film stock didn’t exist. Kodak manufactured it specifically for Oppenheimer

Nolan last shot monochrome scenes for Memento, his 2000 breakthrough film which cast Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a vengeance-fuelled man with short-term memory loss. Intriguingly, the colour segments were the more subjective scenes inside Shelby’s fractured world; when it turned to black and white, it offered a more objective look at this character.

Nolan is again using the same technique for Oppenheimer, suggesting this might yet be the most complex character study of his career to date. In another summer of sequels and comic-book movies, his film will surely be the brainiest kid on the block.

Oppenheimer is in cinemas from Friday 21 July.

Punk trio Dream Wife landed on our cover in 2018 as they prepared to play Hidden Door. Five years later and floating atop their third album’s glorious success, the Brighton band kick off our look at Scotland’s summer music festivals by meeting Megan Merino to talk patriarchy, playfulness and puns

sleep soundly

SUMMER MUSIC: TRNSMT

DREAM WIFE

As Le Tigre make a comeback on the festival circuit, you may well wonder: who are this generation’s post-riot grrrl royalty? Look no further than Dream Wife, a Brighton-formed trio of shes and theys who aptly opened for the American band at their Troxy London show last month. Known for energetic, rage-filled punkrock bangers concerned with systemic misogyny and fuelled by anti-capitalism and radical sensuality, hits like 2017’s ‘Let’s Make Out’ and 2020’s ‘Hasta La Vista’ capture the cutting yet romantic point of view from which this band writes music. Now, with two successful albums under their belt and a growing reputation for delivering fizzingly spectacular live shows, their latest record Social Lubrication is out in the world, showing real technical refinement and self-assurance.

‘Lyrically, I think this new record is an amazing body of work,’ confesses the band’s guitarist and producer Alice Go rather bashfully. The album’s name alone, Social Lubrication, holds just the right amount of intrigue and ambiguity. ‘It’s very . . . fluid,’ agrees bassist Bella Podpadec, chuckling at their own pun, before snapping into earnest mode to explain its meaning. ‘I think it came to represent systems and mechanisms that we use to gloss over issues present in a society that just isn’t serving most people. It’s like the ways in which we’re polite when we shouldn’t be; it’s the ways in which we’re pushing for representation rather than reshuffling power structures; it’s adding oil to the gears of a machine that is actually kind of designed to hurt us.’

‘The gatekeepers, the so-called legends/You boys gonna let the girls play?/Or are they merely ornaments on display?’ asks lead vocalist Rakel Mjöll in ‘Leech’, the album’s first single, before repeating the line, ‘just have some fucking empathy,’ again and again over sustained chugging bass and guitar from Go and Podpadec. Mjöll’s signature commandeering voice lulls you into a false sense of security with its obsequious tone, before melting your face off with a death-growl scream: ‘THE LEECH IS OUT FOR BLOOD!’

It’s precisely this type of killer one-liner that the trio are known for landing, thanks to lyricist Mjöll’s ability to distil concentrated drops of fury and wit into small, snappy doses. ‘She’s amazing at weaving in different perspectives and things going on in the current social climate, as well as our own conversations and conversations she’s had with others,’ says Go of her blushing bandmate. Nodding in agreement, Podpadec adds, ‘yeah, like this ability to be able to take incredibly personal, individual feelings and talk about them in ways that are really relatable and far-reaching. We’re always pendulating between the micro and the macro.’

Aside from its dense lyrics, a strong emphasis on visuals (created by artist and friend-of-the-band Maisie Cousins) gives the record a cohesive, bold aesthetic, from its album artwork through to music videos.

‘Maisie’s art just made so much sense for what this album was about,’ says Mjöll. ‘It’s sticky. It’s sensual. But also something’s off and not quite as it seems.’

‘We all studied different strands of Fine Art at uni, so I think, for us, the visual world has always been so tied into music,’ continues Go. ‘It mirrors the album in the sense that it’s dealing with serious issues, but also it’s playful, sexy, kind of steamy rock’n’roll. And I think all of those things come into the visuals. The red, the blood; it’s bold but there’s still a sense of humour.’

Dream Wife are known for creating inherently political music, but this never comes at the expense of their signature silliness. Cheeky satire and in-jokes heard in a song like 2020’s ‘Sports!’ (‘Height is time, time is money, never apologise/These are the rules!’) remain a fundamental part of this band’s style. Their new album may show creative maturity but a playfulness remains. Just look at a song such as ‘Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)’ which was born out of advice from Mjöll’s wellintentioned grandmother asking her to ‘stop bringing home musicians’, and suggested she try dating someone from another profession. ‘That song is super funny to us,’ the singer admits. ‘We’re poking fun at ourselves. We’re basically saying we are undatable.’

When first performing ‘Hot’ live, Dream Wife were shocked at the crowd’s response. At a particularly memorable gig in Glasgow’s ‘iconic’ St Luke’s, Mjöll recalls ‘people were cracking up and really wanted to sing along!’ Despite this reception, Go chimes in to remind her bandmates that ‘Hot’ wasn’t deemed singleworthy at first by their label. ‘We were like, “wait, what!? This song has to be a single”. The audience response, the way people were screaming along to it before they even knew the track; if you don’t see it in the live setting, maybe it’s easy to dismiss.’

With their live shows being the band’s beating heart, no one knows their audience better than Dream Wife themselves. ‘Our fans are the truest barometer of knowing what matters to people and why it matters,’ believes Go.

Luckily Scottish fans need not wait long to share their thoughts on Social Lubrication as Dream Wife prepare to hit TRNSMT’s King Tut’s stage. ‘We always love Glasgow; the music scene is incredible,’ Mjöll gushes. ‘It’s definitely a rowdy crowd but a crowd so full of love. There’s such a sense of security in the mosh pit.’ A serious compliment from a band who coined ‘bad bitches to the front’, a ritual to ensure their gigs are a safe space for all. But even so, in such physical conditions both performer and fan alike require some serious stamina. ‘Rock’n’ roll is an extreme sport!’ insists Go. ‘We go to the gym, we’re in training. We have to treat our bodies like we’re athletes.’ Sounds like Dream Wife are fighting fit and ready for battle. Let’s hope Scottish crowds can stay in the ring.

Dream Wife play TRNSMT, Glasgow Green, Sunday 9 July; Social Lubrication is out now on Lucky Number.

It’s sticky. It’s sensual. But also something’s off

“

the common touch

Malcolm Jack pays homage to all-returning, all-conquering Britpop icons

Pulp as the Sheffield outfit get set to prove they’re still different class

‘Do you remember the first time?’ sang Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker back in 1994. Nearly three decades on, a dwindling number of people will. As the Sheffield indie legends return for a third innings, following a previous shortlived reunion from 2011 to 2013, their original, unlikely journey from art-pop misfits to Britpop giants recedes further into collective memory. When they take to the stage at TRNSMT on a Friday-night bill alongside George Ezra and Niall Horan (both of whom were only just born the year Pulp’s breakthrough fourth album His ‘n’ Hers came out) what are the youth of today to make of a band fronted by a 59-year-old man with the look of a highly sexual geography lecturer, singing songs about pills, porn and partying like it’s the millennium?

Somewhere between the blokey bravado of Blur and the androgynous glam-sleaze of Suede, Pulp finally found their place in the mid-90s after more than a decade of rattling around the British music scene trying to trade promise for purpose. Did they bend to the zeitgeist or did the zeitgeist bend to them? Who can say. But beyond dispute is that by spring 1995 they’d given Britpop one of its first, and best, breakout chart anthems in ‘Common People’, a song about sex, class and voyeurism which seemed to capture a lot of what was in the cultural ether at the time, not to mention rocked like an absolute bastard.

Between Candida Doyle with her retro keyboards and jumpers and, on bass, the sharp-suited Steve Mackey (who sadly died earlier this year), Pulp had style in spades. None more so than bespectacled, snake-hipped frontman Jarvis Cocker. A thinking man’s pop star for sure, with his witty kitchen-sink lyrical dramas from the seamier side of British life, like Alan Bennett getting down and dirty at the disco.

But he was a game working-class lad at heart too, who leaned in gladly (all too gladly, at times) to the drugs, shit-talk and scandalry of the day. A lesser, or at least less interesting star would never have been able to live down drunkenly clambering onstage to join Michael Jackson at the BRITs in 1996 and wiggling his arse in absurdist protest at the King Of Pop’s messiah complex. Cocker’s subsequent media crucifixion only made fans love him more.

Pulp quit somewhere still close to the peak of their powers in 2002 and have wisely left their discography alone since (albeit Cocker continues to write and record music in a similar oddball idiom, both solo and in other projects). But as a live band onto their now second reunion, they continue to roll back the years, with exhilarating mass singalongs to undying outsider anthems that somehow keep finding traction with new generations. Whether or not you remember the first time, you’ll definitely remember the last.

Pulp play TRNSMT, Glasgow Green, Friday 7 July.

SUMMER MUSIC: TRNSMT PULP

PICTURE: TOM JACKSON

Alex Hodgson Bugsy Malone Christine Bovill

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PIPE BAND

Georgia Ellery knows where she’s going, even if she hasn’t always taken the most direct route. That might mean barring her mum from involvement in her violin tuition aged 12 or applying to study jazz at the prestigious Guildhall School Of Music & Drama despite no previous experience in the form. Or it could be starring in Mark Jenkin’s stylish, arresting feature debut Bait, filmed in gorgeous grainy black and white back in her native Cornwall. Or choosing the cheeky mismatched name Jockstrap for the quirky alt.electro duo she formed with fellow Guildhall student Taylor Skye.

She has also been seeing other musicians, specifically playing in eclectic ensemble Black Country, New Road, who performed at the Edinburgh International Festival’s socially distanced edition in 2021. Now she returns to the city to play Connect as part of a full summer diet of shows with Jockstrap, who have blossomed as a live proposition, keen to flaunt their sensual debut album

I Love You Jennifer B

‘We make all the music before we arrange it for live and it’s always in Taylor’s room or my room, and it’s not very lively,’ says Ellery. ‘We don’t jam or anything; it’s very concentrated. But I do feel like the way I’m singing on this album is more flashy and less bedroomy.’

Ellery and Skye initially bonded over a shared love of rave bangers as well as the artier end of the UK dance scene when they were in their first year of studies on separate courses. Ellery surprised herself by wanting to go to music school at all. ‘I was always the person sitting at the back of the second violins, yapping away,’ she says. ‘It was a social thing as much as artistic. I decided I wanted to do a different sort of course to

classical, where it’s nine hours in the practise room every day. Being on the jazz course allowed me to have the side hustle and there were so many fantastic people and creatives in our year. It was hard not to get stuck in. I definitely tried to write songs at the piano when I was a teenager,’ she continues, miming scrunching up her callow efforts. ‘I’m one of those people who if I can’t do it as well as I’d like to, I get very frustrated. But I felt pretty galvanised by all the music going on; I was inspired by everyone and surrounded by people who were very supportive.’

Ellery and Skye clicked from their first collaboration, when she sent him her first ‘proper’ songwriting effort. ‘And he sent me back something which felt exactly what needed to be there. Coming from Cornwall, I’d never met a producer, let alone worked with one, but I immediately wanted to work with someone like that.’

The duo released a debut EP, Love Is The Key To The City, in 2018 while still students, with Skye applying an anything-goes patchwork of styles, instrumentation and references to Ellery’s light vocals and pop melodies. Having followed that up with a 2020 EP Wicked City, their first full album, released last autumn, is the most refined collision of their instincts and music education to date. ‘I like a song that has a special moment that makes your tummy flip,’ says Ellery, reflecting on her jazz training. ‘I particularly like when a harmony describes what the melody or lyrics are saying, how the three of them can say the same thing as different cogs in the wheel of the song. I like music that moves me . . . says everyone, ever.’

Jockstrap play Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Friday 25 August.

Fiona Shepherd gets chatty with one half of Jockstrap as the alt.electro duo bring music training nous and light pop melodies to the fore

belt up

Becca Inglis considers the rise and rise of Olivia Dean, an R&B star whose destiny was mapped out very early on

It’s testament to how far Olivia Dean has already come that she’s re-released ‘The Hardest Part’, a single that only three years ago helped to catapult her into the limelight. Now embellished with vocals from Leon Bridges, her R&B and soul inflections deepened and rounded out, the track carries a new weight and maturity, signalling an artist who is increasingly finding her voice.

‘The Hardest Part’ appears on Dean’s debut album Messy, which dropped in June, though you would be forgiven for thinking she’s a more seasoned act. Tickets for her 2023 show at Camden’s KOKO sold out in under a minute with another date hastily arranged at Roundhouse, only for that to sell out too. She’s lent her honeyed timbre to Loyle Carner’s ‘Homerton’, been recruited as a Chanel ambassador, and was named Amazon Music’s Breakthrough Artist in 2021. Evidently, her gently sung, kitchen-sink meditations on matters of the heart have hit a nerve.

All this feels a world away from Dean’s first big break, backing the drum & bass band Rudimental. Yet, joining them onstage in locations as diverse as V Festival in England and Sziget Festival in Hungary, Dean’s rafters-shaking vocals stood out, giving her an early taste of singing as a touring artist. She would crave that gigging life when lockdown hit and so, in 2020, she packed herself and her band into a sunshine yellow van and hit the road. They billed themselves as a roving, socially distanced venue, which offered sanctuary amid the chaos.

Soul drips from every note of Dean’s music. She cites Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin and Carole King as influences, while her parents imparted a love for Lauryn Hill (her full name is Olivia Lauryn Dean).

‘When I was in [my mum’s] tummy she was listening to her,’ she told the Evening Standard. ‘Her spirit runs within me.’ Just as Hill put her neo-soul spin on hip hop, Dean is twisting pop hooks. Where she takes them next remains to be seen.

Olivia Dean plays Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Saturday 26 August.

SUMMER MUSIC: CONNECT OLIVIA DEAN

HERE’S TO A LONG COLD SUMMER

THEM PEOPLE HEAVY

Named after toxic waste, Chat Pile barnstorm into Scotland for the inaugural Core festival. Greg Thomas speaks to this Oklahoma band about getting into character and losing their religion

I‘‘ve only been to Scotland once, when I was 16, with my church youth group,’ says Raygun Busch, singer of Oklahoma City noise-rock terrors Chat Pile. ‘We flew into Inverness and then spent a week painting walls on this youth-group building in Dornoch,’ he adds with a faint, mischievous smile. ‘But we’ve never been to the UK as a band before,’ adds bassist Stin (none of the band members have revealed their real names to the press).

Chat Pile, named after the toxic piles of lead-zinc mining waste that scar the Oklahoma landscape, come to Scotland in August to headline Core, a new heavy music festival at Glasgow’s Maryhill Community Central Halls and The Hug And Pint bar. It’s interesting to hear that somewhere in the abyss of the group’s creative psyche (which spans depths of existential angst, self-inflicted tragedy, and societal breakdown) is a little puritan mission-building in the Scottish Highlands. The band has, after all, spent four years channelling the cultural id of its own hyper-Protestant region of the world.

‘You and I talked for years about making what we called American nightmare music,’ Stin recalls to Busch, across separate Zoom connections. ‘Music from the perspective of monsters who walk amongst us,’ the vocalist adds. Musically, the influences underpinning this idea extend well beyond the standard metal/industrial/ noise pantheon (The Jesus Lizard, Swans, Godflesh). ‘I listen to metal, like, never,’ says Busch. ‘Pere Ubu, PiL: that’s more what I’m trying to do,’ he goes on, alluding to a particular strain of funky, jagged, Dada-ish post-punk.

The band are big cinema buffs, too, and their lyrics often come across like the set-up for some claustrophobic psychological thriller, or edge-lord slasher flick. In ‘Dallas Beltway,’ the narrator (in a typically addled speak-shout) implores us: ‘listen, I’m normally a reasonable guy’, before continuing in a traumatised burble: ‘you wanna see what ordinary hands can do to something fragile?/there’s no forgiveness for parents who take their children’s lives.’

The band’s debut album God’s Country (2022) alights on all-American themes such as addiction, gun violence and cannabis psychosis (‘purple man get out of my room . . . I’m trying to kill myself if you don’t mind,’ [from the track ‘grimace_smoking_ weed.jpeg’]). It might seem a bit hammy if it weren’t for the searing urgency of delivery and the thread of pitch-black comedy that runs throughout, in the vein of, say, Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads or Big Black’s Atomizer (both key influences).

Much like Cave, Busch is always ‘telling stories, getting into character’. Often the aim is to channel a social conscience, to get inside stories the group haven’t directly experienced. ‘As far as the vision for God’s Country goes, we had a lot of things in mind,’ Stin remembers. ‘We wrote it at the height of the pandemic and height of racial tensions in America; not to mention the local politics we deal with as Oklahomans.’

The band’s most overtly political song, ‘Why?’ finds the singer asking in a crazed bellow: ‘why do people have to live outside, in brutal heat, or when it’s below freezing/ when there are buildings all around us with heat on and no one inside?’ This question might seem crass if its directness didn’t simply reflect the mind-bogglingly unnecessary nature of the USA’s homelessness crisis.

‘I thought, if we never make another album, I’m going to get that off my chest,’ Busch recalls. ‘We have so many people that clearly have serious mental-health issues just walking around Oklahoma City. And then we have all these fucking churches everywhere. We’ve got a god-damn statue of Jesus with his head in his hands downtown. And you just think: fuck you guys.’

The band’s star has been on the rise recently, with major touring plans announced and work underway for a second album. Earlier this year, they played international metal festival Roadburn in the Netherlands. But success aside, the music will likely remain strongly rooted in friendship and an open-ended approach to genre. ‘I can’t say we’ll make another song like “Why?” but at the same time don’t rule it out,’ Stin says. ‘We’re just going to see what happens and let each record evolve out of the last.’

Chat Pile play Core, Maryhill Community Central Halls, Glasgow, Saturday 19 August.

summer music festival highlights to relish

summer festival acts a-z

you an alphabetical smorgasbord of Scottish

ANASTACIA

The ultimate early 2000s pop diva is coming to Glasgow as part of the Summer Nights outdoor gig series. Hear her belt out hits like ‘I’m Outta Love’ and ‘Left Outside Alone’ into the open West End air as you reminisce about the original days of low-rise jeans and tinted shades.

 Summer Nights At The Bandstand, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, Wednesday 26 July.

BOYGENIUS

In their only Scottish tour date this year, indie starlets Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker will take to Connect’s main stage. While aboard that platform, the trio will perform songs from their latest album the record, as well as a few oldies, and tunes from their respective solo discographies.

 Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Sunday 27 August.

CORTO.ALTO

Hot on the heels of a new album announcement, jazz producer Liam Shortall will perform live at George Square Spiegeltent with his band of virtuosos which includes Mercury nominee Fergus McCreadie on keys and STRATA boss Graham Costello on drums.

 Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, George Square Spiegeltent, Saturday 15 July.

DEAD PONY

You’ve seen them in our Future Sound column and on BBC Introducing stages. Now catch this emerging four-piece serving up some of their indie post-punk-flavoured tunes at Belladrum.

 Tartan Heart Festival, Belladrum Estate, near Inverness, Thursday 27 July.

ECLAIR FIFI

This seasoned Edinburgh-born DJ is one of Scotland’s finest selectors. She delivers groovy beats and seamless blends in her expertly paced sets, fusing house, breakbeat, jazz and techno to ensure revellers can dance the night away.

 Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Saturday 26 August.

FRED AGAIN..

It’s not quite got the intimacy of a community centre in the Hebrides (where the Grammy-nominated artist undertook a mini-tour earlier this year), but DJ du jour Fred again.. will certainly deliver a showstopping performance full of impressive light design, visuals and, of course, stone-cold bangers.

 Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Saturday 26 August.

GEORGE EZRA

Merino, Danny Munro and Kevin Fullerton bring

Whether it’s taps aff or plastic ponchos on, Megan

Who knew ‘G’ artists were so thin on the ground? Thankfully, pop’s favourite nice boy swoops in to save the day. Enjoy Ezra’s saccharine melodies and sonorous tones at Glasgow Green. It’s that or ceilidh duo Gunna Sound at Tiree Music Festival the same weekend. Your choice!

 TRNSMT, Glasgow Green, Friday 7 July.

HEARTWORMS

Fronted by arresting vocalist Jojo Orme, this post-punk outfit will be closing off peak festival season as part of Edinburgh’s inaugural Psych Fest. Having worked with producer Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Squid, Kae Tempest) on singles such as ‘Consistent Dedication’ and ‘Retributions Of An Awful Life’, if Heartworms aren’t already on your radar, they will be after this.

 Edinburgh Psych Fest, Summerhall, Sunday 3 September.

From top: boygenius, Dead Pony, Eclair Fifi

IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE

Offering a refreshing fusion of electronic funk and distinct Afro-inspired rhythms, this talented octet ensure that no two live performances sound the same. One for those in search of boundary-pushing jazz.

n Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Queen’s Hall, Thursday 20 July.

JASMIN JET

Rising star Jasmin Jet is poised to make a return to Callendar Park, having picked up plaudits for her appearance on the Breakthrough Stage in 2022. Vibration Festival is a homecoming affair for the Falkirk native who has already racked up an impressive collection of nods, including Best Vocalist at last year’s Scottish Young Musicians awards.

n Vibration Festival, Callendar Park, Falkirk, Saturday 2 September.

KATIE GREGSON-MACLEOD

A year on from her moment of TikTok-takeover stardom, the singer has avoided losing her footing in the industry, while crafting herself a space as an important new voice in bedroom pop. Lush melodies and chilling one-liners can be expected.

n Tartan Heart Festival, Belladrum Estate, near Inverness, Saturday 29 July; Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Sunday 27 August.

LAFONTAINES

Following a relatively quiet couple of years, The LaFontaines re-emerged on the anniversary of 2019 album, Junior, to announce that recording on their fourth full-length release was officially complete. For the best chance of hearing some new material alongside the hits, get yourself down to this headline slot.

n ButeFest, Ettrick Bay, Isle Of Bute, Friday 28 July.

MODERN STUDIES

The only mugs at Strathallan Castle will be those who don’t take the opportunity to watch Modern Studies flex their genre-bending, folk-pop muscles. Fit for any occasion, from dancing to dealing with a break-up, the quartet have been quietly slaying the Scottish indie scene for several years now.

n MugStock, Strathallan Castle, Auchterarder, Friday 4–Monday 7 August (festival dates).

NUALA KENNEDY

Approaching traditional music with a unique modern flair, Kennedy is a seasoned performer, expertly proficient at the flute and whistle with a striking singing voice to match. Stonehaven attendees can expect a blend of Irish and Scottish-inspired styles, reworked to suit a 2023 crowd.

n Stonehaven Folk Festival, Town Hall, Friday 7 July.

OPTIMISTIC SOUL

Having plied his trade at the likes of the Berkeley Suite and Sub Club, Optimistic Soul is swapping underground nightclubs for country air at Kelburn. Optimistic by both name and nature, he’s set to deliver a positive, high-energy set, packed with a few Afro-house bangers.

n Kelburn Garden Party, Kelburn Castle, near Fairlie, Sunday 2 July.

PROJECT SMOK

Providing a much-needed modern take on the Scots sound, Project Smok are pioneering the neo-trad movement, an effort that appears to have been appreciated judging by the ever-growing following they’ve attracted in just three short years.

n Tiree Music Festival, Tiree, Friday 7 July.

QUEEN OF HARPS

Mixing strings with killer beats and perceptive lyrics, Queen Of Harps is fast becoming one of the more compelling rappers in Scotland. Delve under the surface of her danceable tunes and you’ll find songs defined by sincerity and emotional openness.

n Sunny G Radio 50th Anniversary Of Hip Hop, Queens Park Arena, Glasgow, Saturday 8 July.

From top: Ibibio Sound Machine, Jasmin Jet, Project Smok

ALISON GOLDFRAPP

RÓISÍN MURPHY

The former Moloko lead has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, for the simple reason that her last few albums have been very good. She’s cornered the market for instantly accessible synth-pop, and her live gigs showcase this dance legend’s raw and powerful vocals.

n Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Saturday 26 August.

SAM FENDER

The current heartthrob of lyrically astute indie bangers, Big Boy Fender (as nobody’s calling him) has been hard to avoid over the past few years. Hits like ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and ‘Dead Boys’ have shown that he can craft festival chant-a-longs crammed with melancholy and substance.

n TRNSMT, Glasgow Green, Saturday 8 July.

TONY HADLEY

‘You are GOLD, gold, always believe in your so-o-o-ul,’ etc and so forth. Spandau Ballet’s former frontman has transformed himself into a Radio 2-friendly balladeer over his past few albums, but he’ll almost definitely belt out some of the classics that made him and his pals famous.

n Rewind Festival, Scone Palace, Sunday 23 July.

ULRIKA SPACEK

Mope-rock afficionados will be well served by Ulrika Spacek, who mix grunge and noise-pop to create a blistering wall of sound. One for the Gen X crowd.

n Edinburgh Psych Fest, Summerhall, Sunday 3 September.

VISCERAL NOISE DEPARTMENT

Sitting somewhere in the Venn diagram between grunge and off-beat metal, Visceral Noise Department aren’t afraid to turn the volume up to 11. Think Queens Of The Stone Age by way of Alice In Chains, with a light soupçon of Runrig, and you’re halfway there.

n MugStock, Strathallan Castle, Auchterarder, Sunday 6 August.

WUNDERHORSE

Dependable indie guitar tunes for those who enjoy The Walkmen or Band Of Horses. Wunderhorse’s debut album, Cub, came out last year and combined a splash of darkness with enough sing-along choruses to reel in the festival crowd.

n Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Sunday 27 August.

XCERTS

Fans of Bring Me The Horizon, Frank Carter and Sum 41 will love the poppunk stylings of The Xcerts, an emo screamo concoction from Aberdeen who’ve built a diehard following among those who love guitar music that wears hearts on sleeves.

n Tartan Heart Festival, Belladrum Estate, near Inverness, Saturday 29 July.

YOUNG FATHERS

Young Fathers’ latest album Heavy Heavy (their best work to date) has brought them a new generation of fans. The album may in part be about getting older, but nothing has dulled the incredible energy they bring to their live shows.

n Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, Saturday 26 August.

ZUTONS

The band who wrote ‘Valerie’ and, erm, probably some other songs, hit Scotland on the comeback trail. Due to a lack of Z festival-act competition, they may be here by default, but those hankering for some mid-00s indie nostalgia could do a lot worse.

n Tartan Heart Festival, Belladrum Estate, near Inverness, Thursday 27 July.

From top: Sam Fender, Ulrika Spacek, The Xcerts

Kate expectations

As she prepares to don a red dress and fling herself into The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, Kelly Apter speaks to those helping turn Holyrood Park into a wily, windy moor

When Kate Bush decamped to the countryside in 1978, to sing and dance in her inimitable style in a field surrounded by trees, little did she know that 40-odd years later people would indeed try to imitate her. One of two official videos for Bush’s debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’, this homespun piece of audio-visual pop history has given birth to a most unexpected legacy; an event so bizarre, maverick and creatively brilliant that, while she has no connection to it and may even be completely unaware of its existence, it would slot neatly into her oeuvre.

Inspired by a ‘happening’ at the 2013 Brighton Fringe, when performance collective Shambush attempted an unofficial world record by assembling hundreds of Kate Bush lookalikes, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever now has legs around the world; and they are all covered in red tights.

For if you venture into Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park around 1.30pm on Sunday 29 July, that’s what you’ll see: people of all ages and genders dancing to that iconic song, wearing a red dress and tights, black shoes and a red flower in their hair. Some might be wearing a long brown wig. All of them will be wearing a smile.

‘When I got home last year, my face hurt,’ says participant and volunteer Kat Aydin. ‘I said to my husband, “I can’t remember the last time I laughed and smiled so much”.’ Along with 300 other people, Aydin, a former dance teacher in Croatia who now runs Karma Yoga in Edinburgh, has the musical timing and flexibility to mirror the floating arms, high legs and back bends that populate Bush’s video. But what about the rest of us? ‘It doesn’t matter if you mess up; I’m a dance teacher but I can still get lost in the moment,’ she says. ‘Everyone can dance, and this is such a safe space with like-minded people. If you’re shy or a bit introverted, this is an amazing event to get outside your comfort zone.’

This sentiment is echoed by organiser, Elspeth Spalding. ‘Make it your own,’ she says. ‘If your arm goes a different way it doesn’t matter; all that matters is that you’re there and you’re participating. I think if Kate was there, she’d tell you to make it your own as well. And we’ve got instructional videos on our Facebook page that show how to simplify or adapt it, so if you don’t want to do the back bend, you can just wave in the wind.’

Spalding first took part in her native Melbourne before moving to Dublin and joining in there. When she moved to Edinburgh in 2019, she was ‘gobsmacked’ that nobody had heard of it. ‘Here, of all places,’ she laughs. ‘Edinburgh is the capital of crazy things that happen in the arts, and you haven’t done this? So I thought, “I’m going to make it happen”.’

Covid put paid to the 2020 event, but in 2021 a limited number were allowed to dance in Holyrood Park; 2022 saw it edge back up to full strength. Spalding is hopeful of topping last year’s figure of 300, given that the following day is Bush’s 65th birthday (there are plans to record everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday’ during the post-dance picnic and send it to her). Every participant counts, not just to create the ‘sea of red’ which this event is known for but because most of the modest entry fee goes to Scottish-based charities The Joshua Nolan Foundation and Health In Mind. At just shy of four and a half minutes, the ‘Wuthering Heights’ routine isn’t easy to remember, which is why both Spalding and Aydin will be out front keeping everyone right. Plus the last 60 seconds is a free-for-all. ‘That’s probably my favourite bit,’ says Spalding. ‘Once we’ve finished the last chorus, everyone just does their own thing; people start dancing with each other and it’s actually quite lovely. The whole thing is pure magic. It’s like a moment in time.’

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Saturday 29 July.

KIERON REDMOND

What do a re-breathing cowboy, vintage wrestlers and Totoro all have in common? Enter the curious and colourful world of graphic designer and artist Kieron Redmond. Originally creating work for family and friends, he’s started making prints inspired by things he loves, be that retro cycling posters or generous bunches of honey mangos.

In uenced heavily by mid-century children’s book illustrations, East European matchbook art, cinema, and his hometown of Glasgow, Redmond’s striking designs have a timeless sense of play and wonder.

(Claire Stuart)

 kieronredmond.co.uk

eat drink shop

BLAZING A TRAIL

The covid years saw a surge of interest in both local food and the phenomenon known as staycations. Donald Reid finds their combined legacy being nurtured in the growth of food networks around Scotland

One of the odd things about both the spike in demand for local food provision during the pandemic and the enforced concept of staycations was that neither were particularly novel. Strange though it seems, not everyone went abroad for their hols before covid, and the local food reawakening in Scotland has really been underway for two decades, partially as a response to a previous public health challenge, the footand-mouth outbreak in 2001.

The reminder brought by lockdown’s limitations, however, was that we could be pleasantly surprised by what could be discovered and enjoyed not so far from our own doorsteps. As we continue to climb out of covid, it’s noticeable that both local food networks and ‘home’ tourism in Scotland are displaying new-found confidence and prominence.

By way of evidence, industry leadership organisation Scotland

Food & Drink are currently working with no fewer than 18 regional groups established around the country, from Dumfries & Galloway to Shetland, and Outer Hebrides to East Lothian. These groups generally aim to support food and drink businesses with commercial advice, training and collaborative opportunities along with a stronger digital presence, and other marketing and promotional support.

According to Martha Bryce, co-ordinator of Food From Fife, their group of around 70 businesses (ranging from big resort hotels to kitchen table food producers) ‘not only captures the diversity of food tourism industries in the region but is a genuinely useful place to share expertise. At our regular networking events, I’ve found that members rate these local connections one of the most valuable

aspects. Through seemingly small and informal conversations, great ideas and new directions take shape.’ For the public, meanwhile, the appeal is increased opportunities to tap into interesting food with stories and connections, food that engages with the places you visit and plays a part in circular local economies and thriving communities.

For Carolyn McGill, project development co-ordinator of Forth Valley Food & Drink Network, there are clear benefits from her work with businesses for both local and visiting consumers. ‘Our campaigns and initiatives are aimed at boosting the profile of our members but that’s good for the Forth Valley region as a whole: from food festivals and picnic trails pointing out the best spots for eating alfresco to gluten-free training and eco-cup schemes.’ The result is that if you want to find decent food and drink, once you start to pick up on the food trails in the Forth Valley, or other places with active networks such as Angus, Arran and Orkney, one discovery tends to lead to another. Find yourself in a nice wee café and that’s where you see a poster about a weekly market; go to a restaurant and spot the name of a nearby farm stall; visit an artisan baker and catch them chatting about a pop-up food trailer they supply.

For those staycationing in Scotland this summer, the prospect is tantalisingly similar to something you might have been more familiar doing overseas: seeking out good local food and drink as an essential part of your holiday. You just need to know where to look.

For links to Scotland’s regional food and drink groups, check out foodanddrink.scot/helping-business/services/ growth/grow-regionally/regional-food-groups

Donald Reid reports on the latest news and openings as the summer food festival season swings into action

Clutch your pearls firmly, Glasgow. There’s a new Asian street-food outlet beside Barrowlands called, ahem, Ho Lee Fook (it means ‘good wealth luck’, supposedly; check @holeefookglasgow for menus and opening hours). Also offering a bit of wordplay are the owners of Non Viet and Non Viet Hai with the opening in Partick of their third spot in Glasgow, this time with an all-vegan menu, to be called Non Viet Ba (hai is two, ba is three in Vietnamese).

Expansion is also on the cards from Glasgow-based Chaakoo Bombay Café, which has taken up in a prominent spot just along from Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Lothian Road, with their Indian-Iranian menu and upbeat Anglo-Indian décor. Also going bigger is UK chain The Alchemist, augmenting its presence in Scotland with a new 90-cover bar and restaurant on George Street in Edinburgh.

There’s a summer residency for top burger purveyors El Perro Negro at Vault City Brewery’s new Porty Vault taproom on Portobello High Street, with the partnership in place until the end of September. And expect plenty of festival action coming up in Edinburgh, with the Scottish Street Food Awards taking place from 19–23 July at the Neighbourgood Market in Stockbridge; Edinburgh Food Festival with a great range of trailers, stalls, pop-ups and events at Assembly George Square Gardens from 21–30 July; and Foodies Festival at Inverleith Park over the weekend of 4–6 August (also at Rouken Glen Park, south of Glasgow, from 11–13 August).

side dishes

street food

We choose a street and tell you where to eat.

David Kirkwood explores brilliant bistro cooking and the flavours of Mexico, Italy and Vietnam as he heads south of the river to Glasgow’s Victoria Road

SACRED TUM

Glasgow’s taco game has never been very strong, but Southsiders are lucky to have this place. Hand-pressed corn tortillas surround the usual suspects, with lots of coriander and pops of citrus. Standouts are the fried fish with lemon aioli, and a lamb taco with little sweet pink onions and hot sauce. Takeaway only.

ERROL’S HOT PIZZA

‘Thin’ and ‘crispy’ are taken to supreme levels here as vigorously seasoned pizza stamps all over your tastebuds in the best possible way. Football, movie and bar paraphernalia dress the space. Sharing is the vibe, it’s walk-ins only and BYOB: so laid-back it’s horizontal.

BIG COUNTER

A quiet destination spot for foodies in the know, where refined bistro cooking not found elsewhere in Glasgow is celebrated. There’s intensely rich sauces, lesser-known cuts of meat, exciting combinations like clams with mortadella and leek, or just the basic, utter joy of an expertly cooked half chicken and chips.

LITTLE HOI AN

Flavours are big, bold but marvellously balanced at this little Vietnamese streetfood spot, just round the corner from Victoria Road on Allison Street. Meat is sticky and juicy, the coconut curry has a lovely zing, and the owners are always chatting away with suggestions and banter. Booking advisable.

BAR VINI

A neighborhood pasta restaurant with just enough of a nod to aperitivo culture. Pop in for a quick Spritz after work, or for simple pasta and antipasti plates. Think gigantic arancini with a subtle smoky heat, beef shin ragù with mounds of fluffy parmesan, or sweet, chewy pumpkin tortelloni in an elegant broth.

El Perro Negro

Indian Street food, tandoori grill, curry’s, fresh mocktails and more.

10 Antigua Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3NH

BYOB | PRIVATE FUNCTION SUITE

BOOK NOW 0131 558 1947

WWW.KAHANIRESTAURANT.CO.UK

SCOTTISH CURRY AWARD WINNERS 2023

BEST IN EDINBURGH

7 South St David St EH2 2BD

kahaniindianrestaurant

SANDWICH SHOP ALBY’S SOUTHSIDE

Three words sum up Alby’s precision menu: Big. Hot. Sandwiches. After a successful few years trading on Portland Place in Leith, the beloved sandwich masters have opened a second venue in Edinburgh’s Southside.

The Leith original has accrued a loyal band of followers, raving about the generously sized focaccia sandwiches. Alby’s Southside opened on Buccleuch Street in May; a smaller joint with a handful of sit-in spaces and a big open kitchen. You can watch in rapt anticipation as your charred hispi cabbage is doused in umami mayo and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The sunshine-yellow exterior suggests good times inside, where a tropical-pink motif and upbeat pop-punk on the stereo welcome diners with open arms and a kicky beat. Of course, for take-out, the Meadows-adjacent locale is ideal.

Four sandwiches and four sides make up the menu, with one vegetarian and one vegan option on rotation. Chicken caesar salad is rarely the most appealing thing on a menu; but when the chicken is fried and coated in a million spices vying for the attention of your tastebuds and the ‘salad’ is crispy cos lettuce and some softly pickled cucumber, all slathered between two huge, fluffy wedges of focaccia, you can’t help but salivate as you order. Those that prefer something with a spicy hit can opt for halloumi with sharp pomegranate seeds and a fermented chilli yoghurt that somehow punches and soothes at the same time. Prawn toast might not sound like the obvious accompaniment to big hot sandwiches, but slathered in soya and honey, it’s the highlight of the sides.

There’s also a selection of merch for sale; totes with big gooey sandwiches emblazoned on the front, as well as slogan caps and mugs, suggesting Alby’s already has a cult following. It’s only going to get bigger as it breaks out into the Southside. (Suzy Pope) n 94 Buccleuch Street, Edinburgh, albysleith.co.uk

RESTAURANT SEVEN21

In Glasgow’s West End, the restaurant Eighty Eight and the coffee shop Hinba next door (at number 86) have a shared space that becomes a cocktail bar in the evening. Now, at 721 Pollokshaws Road (you see the nomenclatural theme) they’ve collaborated again. Until 4pm it’s Hinba, then it’s seven21. The evening offering is, quite frankly, most impressive.

So it’s a tasting menu. Five courses, £30, in and of itself potentially a great deal, made greater still by the optional wine matching that, for the same sum again, gets you a glass with each course. It’s all very chill. Everything from the table set-up to the service and décor is modern and informal without trying too hard (because you shouldn’t for that price). Both the beef cheek croquette and its mushroom counterpart on the vegetarian tasting menu have a satisfying depth of flavour for their one mouthful; not a ‘course’, really, more of a nibble. The mimolette ‘custard’, served instead of butter with the bread, gives a solid hit of savouriness. There’s much that’s quirky, but nothing that’s daft or overreaching. Dishes aren’t perfect: the mackerel with beetroot ‘gazpacho’ veers into ceviche territory with its diced mango, dominant citrus and (perhaps unnecessary) green chilli. But for any detail you’d quibble about, there are several which are delightful: the ravioli’s gloriously full-on sauce of pecorino and butter, for example, with sweet little chunks of charred corn evoking modern American cuisine. Dexter beef, served rare, is intense and irony, the accompanying potato crisped with polenta crust; elsewhere, tomato confited in olive oil oozes potency. Every single plate is tasty and, as the meal concludes, you’ve likely had lots of punchy little courses, some interesting combinations, five glasses of wine and you’ve paid £60. Seven21 is a bit of a treat. (David Kirkwood) n 721 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, seven21glasgow.co.uk

Researched and compiled by The List’s food and drink team, our tipLISTs suggest the places worth knowing about locally in different themes, categories and locations. This time we’ve ventured beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow with recommendations for some of the best places to eat at coastal fringes on both sides of the country

Firths for food

tipLIST

Grab a bite near . . .

Glasgow’s Barras Market

AROUND THE FIRTH OF FORTH

BAERN

Bowhouse, St Monans, bowhousefife.com/producer/baern

Baern’s café and bakery lunch menu sings of the East Neuk’s seasonal larder. Cakes flavoured with foraged meadowsweet, scones laden with local cheese, and soups and sandwiches made with finesse. With a butchery, brewery and market garden on the doorstep, everything is ultra-local.

DRIFT

Quarrel Sands, near North Berwick, driftalong.co.uk

A converted shipping container with huge windows, perched on a cliff edge overlooking Bass Rock, Drift serves brunch and lunch packed with East Lothian farm produce: try the homemade sausage roll with celeriac slaw. Worth visiting for the views alone, the food is delicious too.

THE SHED AT THE HARBOUR Crail, Fife, instagram.com/reillyshellfish

In July and August, this harbourside lobster shack extends weekend-only opening to weekdays (though only until the daily catch of lobster and crab is sold out). There’s nothing quite like a bit of claw cracking and shellfish savouring in the sun.

THIRTY KNOTS

2 Newhalls Road, South Queensferry, thirtyknots-southquensferry.co.uk

This crowd-pleasing new opening is the starting point for many a weekend night out, but its huge, sunny terrace really draws the crowds. With all three bridges in your eyeline, it’s a dramatic spot to tuck into a huge plate of fish and chips.

THE WEE RESTAURANT

17 Main Street, North Queensferry, theweerestaurant.co.uk

In the pretty village of North Queensferry, this place has been quietly doing its thing for almost two decades. They know their way around a steak, but seafood is the real joy here; their specials are always worth checking out.

AROUND THE FIRTH OF CLYDE

THE FISH WORKS

3 The Promenade, Largs, thefishworks.co.uk

This family-run, award-winning takeaway has a lot going for it beyond serving up excellent chipshop classics. It is literally beachside, looking out to the islands, plus there’s plenty of local sourcing and a serious eco policy.

GLENAPP CASTLE

Near Ballantrae, South Ayrshire, glenappcastle.com

Dining in Ayrshire doesn’t get much fancier than at this five-star baronial hotel. Bask in the elegant dining room or try the recently opened Azalea, set in a Victorian glasshouse, for a classy afternoon tea (with produce from their extensive gardens).

ISLAND GOURMET

Sandbraes, Isle Of Arran, island-gourmet.com

At Whiting Bay, Robin Gray (revered grower and former chef) does a takeaway service from his back door. His own produce and uber-local seafood go into a succinct menu, with choices such as fish supper, venison burger or monkfish curry to enjoy with views across to Holy Island.

MCCASKIE’S BUTCHERS AND CAFÉ

Shore Road, Weymss Bay, mccaskiebutcher.co.uk

Opposite one of the great train stations is one of the great butchers (current Butcher Shop Of The Year). McCaskie’s long ago perfected the haggis and black pudding that grace the café’s butcherfriendly menu, featuring breakfasts, steak pies, stir-fries, pastas, cakes and ice-cream.

PECKHAM’S

1 East Princes Street, Helensburgh, peckhams.co.uk

Helensburgh’s old municipal buildings are an attractive setting for Peckham’s, featuring a cosy bar, a restaurant serving an eclectic global offering, and an ex-courtroom venue space (with regular comedy club).

OUTLIER

38 London Road, instagram.com/outlier.gla

Prepare to wait for a table at this bakery/ café. Sandwiches are served on house ciabattas and focaccias, and there’s (almost) always a posh fried-chicken option (think hot honey or XO sauce).

SMOKEY TROTTERS

233 London Road, smokey-trotters-kitchen.business. site

There’s hip hop and rock’n’roll on the walls and the stereo, while all things loaded, topped and pimped come from the kitchen: patty melts, dirty fries, katsu sauce. Guilty, beautiful stuff.

SCRAN

239 London Road, scranglasgow.co.uk

Old-school café staples are made to sit alongside the sexy stuff here (scampi rolls, pea and pickle toasties) as well as a reliable eggs benedict with onion and burnt bacon crumb.

ST LUKE’S/THE

WINGED OX

17 Bain Street, stlukesglasgow.com

A big old church that’s been fantastically repurposed into a venue and bar, serving exactly the sort of dirty Americana food that lines the stomach, from nachos and wings to chorizo and shrimp gumbo.

WEST ON THE GREEN

15 Binnie Place, westbeer.com

With its massive beer garden on Glasgow Green, WEST also has a pretty formidable beer and food offering, including well-executed hearty Bavarian classics like schnitzel and currywurst.

Thirty Knots The Fish Works

Drinking games

Like a scrawny alcoholic Hercules, consummate liquid guzzler

Dr Kevin Fullerton is undertaking a series of challenges in bars across the central belt. This month’s challenge . . . finding drinks for the refined gentleman

Igraduated from the University Of Dundee with a doctorate in philosophy this month, so I’ll no longer be able to make puerile jokes about farting into bin bags or snogging the bald head of Jason Statham like a lucky Buddha belly (for example). Instead, I’ll casually toss off phrases like ‘bildungsroman’ and ‘verisimilitude’ while donning the trademark monocle worn by all doctors. I’m a refined gentleman and, as such, I’ve headed to Glasgow’s Merchant City to find drinks that will sate a pretentious annoyance like me.

First on my sozzle-making sojourn was Gin71, which offers 71 botanical masterpieces in a cosy courtyard. Placing my thesis on the table in the hope that a server would ask me about it (no one did), I ordered a Caorunn Blood Orange with a blood orange tonic. The drink may have had the ‘basic bitch’ look of an Aperol Spritz but its balanced mixture of spice and sweetness made for a dynamic ride.

Next Metropolitan, a restaurant and cocktail bar with party-time music and an ersatz glam feel. While asking random customers if they’d like to hear about my thesis (they didn’t), I ordered a Limoncello Spritz that was overly sweet, a sugar rush with booze that I was glad to be rid of. The music felt too loud and the atmosphere too crowded. As it was unlikely that anyone would respond to my inquiry, ‘would you like to know about my doctorate?’, I soon left.

The final spot on my tipsy traipse was 1802 @ Hutchesons Hall, a low-lit fortress of solitude with a diverse menu befitting a man of letters. The breakfast martini presented to me was blissfully citrus in scent and a head-blaster to drink, a supercharged slap across the face with every sip. This bar had the atmosphere of an old gentleman’s club, a space where 19th-century explorers might meet to discuss their latest expedition through the wilds of Guatemala, and for the first time all day I felt refined. I asked the patron next to me if they’d like to hear about my thesis, my monocle clasped on my eye in desperation. Reader, they did not.

BAR FILES

Creative folks reveal their favourite watering hole SINGER-SONGWRITER ANT THOMAZ

I love living in Glasgow. It has a buzz that follows you; it’s contagious and so alive and present, especially in everyday conversations. There is no better place to capture the buzz than popping into a local pub; you’re guaranteed a laugh and it constantly inspires me to write new songs. With that being said, I do enjoy a good watering hole for a pint. At the moment, The Dockyard Social is ticking all my needs. A great weekend spot to enjoy a cold brew or a quirky cocktail, and an excellent selection of diverse street food from topclass vendors. DJs spin hip tunes in an airy space with big tables, so lots of friends can join you.

n Ant Thomaz’s EP 520 is released on Friday 7 July; he plays Kelburn Garden Party on Sunday 2 July and STREETrave Summer All Dayer, SWG3, Glasgow, Sunday 20 August.

DRINK

Lady And The Bear-necessities of life

Edinburgh’s new cafe Lady And The Bear is centred around community, coffee and culture, serving up organic pastries inspired by the fresh flavours of Greece. Claire Stuart spoke to founders Eleni and Filippos to learn more

It was a month before opening, and Eleni and Filippos still didn’t have a name for their cafe. Nothing was clicking. ‘One morning we woke up, we said you are my lady, you are my bear, and for thirty seconds we stayed still. That’s the name’ and The Lady And The Bear was born.

Edinburgh isn’t short of great places to eat, which is why with any new opening, you’ve got to be exceptional. The Lady And The Bear joins Edinburgh’s bustling culinary scene with their Mediterraneaninspired cafe and art hub close to the meadows. Large windows look onto the street, perfect for people watching, while the bright cafe transforms from a buzzy brunch spot to a multi-purpose art space and bar, with a selection of spritzers, signature cocktails, local draft beers and mocktails available.

Partners Eleni and Filippos always knew they wanted to do something that combined their love of cinema, theatre and art with great food, and they began working on the cafe during the pandemic. ‘From the moment we met, we said that we would love

to open a multi-art space that has quality coffee and organic food; a place to spend some quality time. Edinburgh is a vibrant and multicultural city. It couldn’t be anywhere else,’ insists Eleni.

Spinach filo pies, focaccia, cinnamon tsoureki and pistachio praline tsoureki (a Greek bake similar to brioche) are all freshly made on site by the team (plus birthday cakes can be freshly made to order). ‘Making food from scratch using organic ingredients means to us that you care about other people. The smile of a friend or a customer and the satisfaction on their face mean everything to us.’

Lady And The Bear’s approach isn’t just about great food; it’s also about the stories and community that we build around it. ‘When we travelled to Zagorochoria in the Epirus mountains in Greece several years ago and we tasted an authentic Spinach pie with Feta made on the spot, a new world opened up for us,’ says Filippos. ‘Imagine waking up every day as a child to the smell of a fresh pie in the morning. The freshness of the mint, the crunchiness of the filo, the taste of the fresh spinach, and the tangy authentic feta from a barrel beat everything.’

While the food is important, the sense of community is as much a part of The Lady And The Bear’s DNA: ‘We started with some live events with authentic Rebetiko nights and some Jazz nights, which proved successful. After August, we are planning to introduce cinema screenings and theatre and cinema workshops.’

TELLING TALES

As Glasgow Zine Fest celebrates its ten-year anniversary, Claire Stuart speaks to Glasgow Zine Library’s director about building a sense of community, festival highlights and how best to support the organisation

From making and collecting their own zines to hosting over 1000 self-published zines in their library in Govanhill, Glasgow Zine Library is a community driven love-letter to DIY culture and creating accessible spaces by and for a diverse range of storytellers. While the library has only had a permanent space in Govanhill since 2018, their Glasgow Zine Fest celebrates its tenth anniversary this year as it descends on the CCA for a two-day programme celebrating zines and their makers. The festival started out as a small market in The Old Hairdresser’s bar, but quickly grew into a collaborative programme bringing artists, performers and publishers under one roof. ‘Over the years there have been too many highlights,’ says LD, the library’s director. ‘TYCI and Butch Archive’s talks, Josie Giles’ discussion on trans literature, Travis Alabanza’s performance. We’ve done mural making with Recoat and poetry writing with RAUM and SPAM.’

In this landmark year, the team will welcome over 50 makers to set up shop alongside a programme that explores tactile aspects of zines and how they work in a digital landscape. Themes of slow journalism will be explored, in an attempt, according to LD, to be ‘intentional, lo-fi, temporal, restful and analogue, responding to changes in technology that give us greater access to each other and more ways of making. That’s going to lead to a lot of awesome events including a show from comedian Josie Long, thoughts on

ambition and deceit in influencer culture by Symeon Brown, and workshops related to rest.’ Outside the festival, Glasgow Zine Library has become a stalwart of Glasgow’s DIY scene with an open-source approach to programming. ‘Our community can come to us with ideas that they want to see come to life,’ LD insists. ‘We’ve had some amazing things delivered this way, including accessible-theory reading groups, queer nature discussion groups, LGBTQI+ open-mic nights, and zine-making workshops.’

Their robust series of community events is flanked by an upcoming heritage programme which has required a team deepdive into the archive. It’s a project that LD hopes will involve participants ‘engaging in some community cataloguing, as well as hosting events with some amazing writers and storytellers, to talk about the voices within zines, who makes them, and how we think about and use them.’

Besides attending this year’s festival and paying the community hub a visit, how else should we be supporting our local zine library? ‘Donate your zines!’ says LD. ‘If you don’t have any zines, make one. If you don’t know how, come along and find out. Anyone at the library would be happy to teach you all about them.’

Glasgow Zine Fest, CCA, Glasgow, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 July; Glasgow Zine Library, 636 Cathcart Road, Glasgow, @glasgowzinelib on Instagram.

what’s in the bag? what’s in the bag?

AFTERSHAVE, NAIL CLIPPER,

MOISTURISER AND DEODORANT

Sometimes the working day is long. Your state of grooming can deteriorate wildly from when you proudly left the house to when you finish work. It’s always good to have some emergency restorative measures at hand. As for the nails, I can go from perfectly manicured to London’s American Werewolf in a matter of hours.

DIARY

Never leave home without it, and if it’s a performatively leftwing brand, then all the better. There’s nothing actually in it, but if I’m out and about and a friend says, ‘I’m having a dinner party on the 18th,’ I look inside, turn the smile into a frown and say, ‘sorry it’s a no from me. I’m hosting the Vacuum Cleaner Awards in Chepstow.’

Comedian and Chaser

Paul Sinha opens up his bag to reveal a random assortment of daily essentials to Megan Merino

BANANA

My husband insists, ‘if you get hungry, don’t eat a bacon sandwich, keep a banana spare.’ The banana always returns home uneaten.

SPARE GLASSES

I have a hi-tech pair of varifocals and a pair of cheap ones from Boots. I always have one of each on me at any time.

shop talk

HOUSE PARTY

QUIZ REVISION

I feel naked without it. Perfect for Tube journeys, long train trips or visits to the theatre.

FRESH FACE MASK AND COVID TEST

Let’s be honest, while we’re all relieved to be living in ‘postpandemic times’, we know that we’re not technically postpandemic. I wear this face mask on the underground or other heavily populated areas. I guess the dream is to be photographed by a right-wing Twitter account, asking, ‘who’s this dick?’ As for the tests, the last time I realised I’d caught covid, I was out in Camden on a Sunday afternoon. It was very useful to be 25 minutes away from a confirmed diagnosis. Especially when you’re looking for an excuse to leave Camden on a Sunday afternoon.

SIGNED PHOTOS

You wouldn’t believe just how many times members of the public walk up to me in the street and ask, ‘you don’t happen to have a signed photo for my gran? You’re her second favourite Chaser!’ None. It has never happened. But it is good to be prepared for the eventuality.

Paul Sinha: Pauly Bengali is at The Stand’s New Town Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 4–Sunday 27 August.

Shop til you drop as Claire Stuart recommends three trusty independent retailers

Launched by long-time friends Adam and Richy, this newly opened boutique focuses on highlighting queer-founded brands. The cosy Southside space is designed to feel like stepping into your best friend’s house with a diverse range of lifestyle products, from self-care goodies to homeware accessories.

 525 Victoria Road, Glasgow, @houseparty.gla on Instagram.

DICK’S EDINBURGH

Buy once, buy better is the core ethos behind this independent clothing boutique. The team have been bringing beautiful, well-crafted clothes to Edinburgh for over ten years now, with a focus on style over trend. Their carefully curated collection

of brands bring to the forefront contemporary, characterful and effortless design made to last a lifetime.

 3 North West Circus Place, Edinburgh, dicksedinburgh.co.uk, @dicksedinburgh on Instagram.

AJOUTER

A playground for the pastel maximalist, Ajouter is part Pinterest board, part dressing table. Expect things you didn’t know you needed, from candles shaped like croissants and cowboy-boot match strikers to swirly cocktail cups. Looking to buy a gift for the person who has everything? This cornucopia of trinkets and treats is perfect.

 17 Kilmarnock Road, Glasgow, ajouterstore.com, @ajouterstore on Instagram.

Dick’s Edinburgh

YDANCE

Seeing the passion and energy that goes into any dance career just as it’s starting to ourish is always special. And even if the young dancers on stage eventually go down different paths, right here and now you can see that dance is the centre of their world. So there’ll be no shortage of commitment when Project Y (YDance’s performance programme for dancers aged 16–25) delivers two brand new works by exciting young choreographers Taylor Han and Divine Tasinda. Populating the evening with yet more burgeoning talent will be the National Youth Dance Company Of Scotland, Dublin Youth Dance Company and the outcome of YDance’s Hothouse course for young choreographers.

(Kelly Apter)

 Tramway, Glasgow, Saturday 15 July; YDance also appear at Assembly @ Dance Base, Friday 4–Sunday 6 August.

going out

PICTURE: PAUL WATT PHOTOGRAPHY

MAGGIE O’FARRELL

Kelly Apter analyses the work of an author whose painstaking research always pays off with remarkable results

For many years, Maggie O’Farrell wrote about subject matters not dissimilar to her own life. Modern-day couples falling in love, sibling relationships in Irish families, and young people finding their place in the world all wove their way into her novels. And, of course, with 2017’s remarkable autobiography I Am, I Am, I Am (featuring her Seventeen Brushes With Death), it really was all about her.

In 2006, The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox hinted at O’Farrell’s talent for historical fact-finding but gave no real indication of what the Derry-born, Edinburgh-based author had in store for us. Readers were already gripped by her ability to tell a compelling tale and craft characters worthy of emotional investment, but it wasn’t until Hamnet in 2020 that we recognised O’Farrell’s capacity for incredible, painstaking research.

Having brought Shakespeare’s wife and children front and centre, out from the shadow of one of history’s most famous men, the author once again worked her magic with The Marriage Portrait. A teenage Italian duchess, long forgotten and buried beneath the public profile of her husband (the Duke Of Ferrara) at last had her story told. Much of what happens to Lucrezia in the novel is, inevitably, made up. But the finely-drawn aspects of life in the 16th-century Italian courts are so vivid, it’s as if O’Farrell had actually walked among them. Hearing her talk about the real-life process behind this book will no doubt be just as fascinating as the fictional output.

 Lodge Stage, North Berwick, Sunday 6 August.

fringe by the sea

DARA Ó BRIAIN

Brian Donaldson hears from a beloved Irish comic who is considering a dramatic U-turn in his comedy career. Maybe . . .

‘I don’t think I’m the hot new thing in comedy anymore.’ Dara Ó Briain is being both terribly humble and pretty realistic. A fixture on stages and screens for more decades than he may care to admit, his love of performing in front of a live crowd is unquenchable (and let’s face it, audiences have been reciprocating for all those years).

‘I just keep coming back to stand-up. It turns out that this is what I do because this is what I love. That said, at some point, the temptation may be to burn it all down and do something risky, like a totally improvised character show or silent clowning. Take 25 years of goodwill with the audience I’ve built up and dynamite it with an hour and a half of me miming being trapped in a box. That could be my new direction now . . . ’

It's fairly certain that this is not where Ó Briain’s career is headed. He is, however, taking a slight diversion in his new show by replacing a chunk of the more nonsensical and definitely partly improvised material for something a little bit more personal.

‘I’ve never told this story before outside of the third bottle of wine at a dinner party,’ he notes of a long routine which centres on a very personal revelation. ‘The story is full of revelations. You’ll be reeling from surprise after surprise, each one more surprising than the last. After one show recently, someone said to me, “that’s a lot more personal than you’ve done in the past”. Well, I haven’t got any other stories because nothing has happened; I’d love to tell you funny stories from the road, but I’ve just been sitting at home for the last two years.’

 Big Top, North Berwick, Thursday 10 August.

fringe by the sea

Kids stuff (from top, clockwise): Alien Species, Hamza Yassin, Maps, Friends And Traitors, Hedgewitch, Rockpool Ramble, Think Circus Takeover

With the coast as its backdrop, and a Fringe By The Sea programme packed with art, circus, music and books, Lucy Ribchester finds that North Berwick is the perfect place to soak up some family-friendly culture

If the thought of dragging kids through the flyerpacked gauntlets of Edinburgh in August fills you with dread, you might fancy heading east to an altogether calmer and more picturesque Fringe. In its 16th year now, North Berwick’s Fringe By The Sea is filled with family-friendly fun from theatre shows to children’s authors.

If your youngsters are showing an interest in the great outdoors, CBeebies environmentalist and Strictly superstar Hamza Yassin will be talking about his life and work (Sunday 6 August). For more hands-on marine biology, you could also check out the Bioblitz Mini Rockpool Ramble (Friday 4 August). And Vivian French’s Maps (Friday 4 August) sounds like a great way to introduce very little ones (4–7) to the concept of navigation.

For kids who love to keep on the move, there are a number of workshops exploring creative ways to exercise. The Think Circus Takeover workshop (Saturday 12 August) promises accessible fun from Edinburgh’s social circus; over 5s can try their hand at juggling, hula hooping and more. For little ones who just can’t get enough of the Latinflavoured music of Disney’s Encanto, an Encanto Dance Workshop (Friday 11 August) will have them grooving away (though absolutely not talking about Bruno). And for budding skaters and surfers, there’s the Surfskate Sessions (Saturday 5, Tuesday 8 August), which aim to help you get to grips with the balance and basics needed for both sports.

If you have aspiring writers or insatiable bookworms in your family, there are author events galore. Skye McKenna will be talking about her enchanted tale Hedgewitch (Saturday 5 August), full of magical fungi and fairy tricks, while Helen Peters, author of World War II middle-grade mystery Friends And Traitors, will be giving the lowdown on spitfires and secrets (Tuesday 8 August).

And at the end of the day, if you just want to sit (or stand) back and watch some theatre as a family, there’s fantastic open-air company Dudendance’s Alien Species (Thursday 10–Sunday 13 August) which explores the damage plastic is doing to the environment by conjuring waste materials into alien life. And who can resist the lure of everyone’s favourite ogre? Shrek Junior: The Musical (Monday 7, Thursday 10 August) is being performed by The Haddington Musical Mill Company.

Fringe By The Sea runs from Friday 4–Sunday 13 August.

The kids are alright

Since 2000, French actress Anaïs Demoustier has collaborated with the cream of European cinema, including Michael Haneke (Time Of The Wolf), François Ozon (The New Girlfriend) and, most significantly, Quentin Dupieux. After featuring in his earlier films Keep An Eye Out and Incredible But True, she’s back in Smoking Causes Coughing, a superhero parody in which she plays Nicotine, a world-saving vigilante. James Mottram talks to her as she considers a big question: who said smoking was bad for you?

Smoking Causes Coughing marks your third movie with director Quentin Dupieux. What do you like about him? He’s one of the most interesting directors in France. First, because I really like comedy and it’s very hard to find a good director of comedy. Quentin is very precise. And it’s like a music score when you read the script. He has a sense of rhythm, a sense of text and a really good sense of aesthetics. Comedies sometimes are not beautiful movies to look at. And with Quentin, there is this research of costume and sets; his wife, Joan Le Boru, is his artistic director and she’s so talented.

It’s such a crazy film. What do you think Quentin was inspired by? He wanted to make a superhero film with the references he had; they weren’t my references because we’re not from the same generation! I was thinking about Power Rangers

Did you ever think you’d be in a superhero movie? I didn’t think about it before but it was a pleasure to try this kind of character. It was so fun. And we all have this imaginary life. When we were children, we all played a superhero.

What was the costume like? Very uncomfortable. We were shooting in autumn in the south of France and it was very hot. And it was kind of leather, so not very easy, and I had this wig which is warm too. But it was a perfect way to enter into the movie with the other actors. We didn’t know each other before. And to be wearing these ridiculous wigs and suits, it was immediately a way to connect to each other, and to have fun and say, ‘OK, we are here to laugh!’

Do you smoke? No, I don’t. I quit. Three or four years ago. I was addicted. And now, I don’t care; I like the smell of smoking. I don’t know why. It’s not a problem for me when people are smoking. I love when you are allowed to smoke in a restaurant. To me, it’s a pleasure.

So what are you addicted to in life? If I had to choose something . . . I’m addicted to work. I think it’s the only addiction I have, which is not a bad one. But, yeah, I need to work. But I think it’s a problem for all actors. We’re dependent on the desires of others. So it makes a kind of insecurity in life, and if you don’t work, you panic!

You could very easily be a control freak and always disappointed by how you look

Given your character is quite shallow, how important is your look to you as an actor? You have to deal with your face, your body. It’s a part of the work. You have to deal with the obsessions; not to be too crazy with how you look and how you’re getting older. I think the most important thing is not to become crazy. It’s really easy to be obsessed with social media, with pictures of you all the time. I think you could very easily be a control freak and always disappointed by how you look. So I’m trying to put some distance with this; I don’t have social media. And I am trying to make it like a game. To go to the Cannes Film Festival, let’s dress like a princess. But in real life, I’m kind of natural and not obsessed by my image. The most important thing for me is to make movies with big directors. That’s the point.

Talking of which, you just worked with Cédric Jimenez on November, playing an anti-terrorist investigator involved in the Paris attacks. How was that? A very different experience but very fascinating. I really need both. I need comedy and I need serious films!

Smoking Causes Coughing is in cinemas from Friday 7 July.

ARTS

GAELIC CULTURE

Summer Music Festival season is fully up and running now, and returning in mid-July is HebCelt at Stornoway’s Lews Castle grounds, featuring DLÙ and Kim Carnie (14 July), and Niteworks (15 July). Over at An Lanntair, there’s a première of the Hebridean Pipers project (13 July) and a showcase entitled Hebridean Women (14 July), including Fionnag NicChoinnich and Anna Murray.

Between 7 and 9 July, Trail West and Skerryvore return to Tiree Music Festival while Speyfest gives us Norrie MacIver (21 July), Mànran (22 July), Skerryvore and Kinnaris Quintet (23 July). Piping Live! in Glasgow features Canntaireachd (15 August), a new collaboration between Kathleen MacInnes, Kim Carnie, Brìghde Chaimbeul and Ailis Sutherland alongside the Staran collective. In Edinburgh, join Còisir Ghàidhlig Dhùn Èideann for a workshop with Joy Dunlop on 15 July at the Quaker Meeting House, while Peatbog Faeries play Queen’s Hall on 13 August.

Lovers of literature should check out the Cruinneachadh Book Tour, which visits The Waverley Bar in Edinburgh (1 July) and Stirling Central Library (4 July), platforming poetry and translation in Gaelic, Scots and English. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival is an event called Languages Of Poetry (17 August), featuring myself and Sam Ó Fearraigh. Your summer reading list needs Crann-Fìge by Duncan Gillies, a short-story collection which just scooped the Highland Book Prize. (Marcas Mac an Tuairneir)

Niteworks

KIDS WINNIE THE POOH

You could spot that gorgeously squishy yellow tummy, barely contained by its red crop top, at a hundred-acre distance. Winnie The Pooh has become such a cultural icon that even if you’ve never read the original AA Milne stories, you can probably still name Pooh’s gang (Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Tigger and Christopher Robin) and hum along to ‘Rumbly In My Tumbly’. While so many children’s characters are now being reassessed in light of their dubious origins, Pooh is a beacon of tubby innocence, universally recognised as a bear, but really much more like a toddler; gloriously calamitous, relatably gluttonous and always obsessed with his next honey fix.

Winnie’s journey to stardom began in 1925 when the London Evening News commissioned a Christmas story from Milne. Legend has it that his creation’s bizarre name is a mash-up of a bear the writer had seen at London Zoo (Winnie) and a pet swan (Pooh) who had featured in an earlier story. But it wasn’t until American comics creator Stephen Slesinger bought the franchise that the image of Pooh with the red shirt we all recognise was born.

Now having survived censorship in China and banishment in the Polish town of Tuszyn for his inappropriate clothing, Pooh is a multibillion dollar bear. But fame has its dark side, as Winnie found out the hard way last year when he came out of copyright and was subjected to the indignities of ‘unofficialdom’, such as being made to star in horror film Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey. As Pooh himself might say, ‘oh bother’. (Lucy Ribchester)

 Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 July; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday 20–Saturday 22 July.

oin us as we celebrate the joy of words – written, spoken, sung, and illustrated.

There are over 180 events in our fun-packed Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme, so if you are a parent of a tot or a teen, there’s something for everyone. Ticketed events in the Children’s Programme are £5, and there are lots of free events daily throughout the Festival.

Visit edbookfest.co.uk, or pick up a copy of our programme, and we’re sure you’ll find your own bliss.

COMEDY MY COMEDY HERO Andy Parsons on Peter Cook

I had just finished university and had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. By day, I was working at what was known, not particularly endearingly, as a ‘gopher’ for an architects’ firm in Camden, spending a lot of my spare time (and a lot of my supposed ‘gopher’ time) naively sending off letters and scripts to addresses grabbed out of the various ‘how to get on in acting/producing/ writing’ guides. They were almost certainly written by people who hadn’t got on in acting or producing, and this was the only writing they had ever done.

The only thing that kept me sane during this time was a tape a friend at the firm had given me: Derek And Clive, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s boozefuelled mixture of classical education and pure filth. I was in the mood for some unremitting swearing, and I loved it. When recorded in the 1970s, the police had wanted the duo prosecuted for obscenity but it was dismissed by the Director Of Public Prosecutions as ‘fourth-form lavatory humour’.

Peter Cook grew up in Torbay (where I also grew up) and was a supporter of Torquay United, regularly turning up at Plainmoor in the Gulls’ League Two glory days. The first paid writing job I eventually got was BBC Radio 4’s Week Ending. Producers were still talking then about That Was The Week That Was which had been a TV show 30 years earlier, for which Peter Cook had made a TV pilot based on his comedy club, The Establishment.

Monologues criticising authority were how Cook made his name. If we hadn’t had Cook, we wouldn’t have had Monty Python or Brass Eye or Frost/Nixon. He was a major shareholder in Private Eye, loved long lunches, supposedly had a fling with John F Kennedy’s missus, and hung out with The Beatles. Comedy is not the new rock’n’roll. But Peter Cook was.

 Theatre Royal, Dumfries, Wednesday 12 July; Glasgow Glee, Thursday 13 July; Andy Parsons: Bafflingly Optimistic, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Monday 14–Sunday 27 August.

SHOWS FROM DENMARK

August 2 – 27

future sound

Our column celebrating new music to watch continues with Brenda, a DIY rock trio whose ‘loosey-goosey’ approach is fuelled by both anger and joy. The band talk to Fiona Shepherd about unconventional vocals and ropey customer service

Dolly Parton was once asked how she could play the guitar with her long acrylic fingernails. ‘Pretty well,’ she replied, parrying the ingrained sexism of the question with her usual disarming wit. Litty Hughes, self-taught guitar shero in Glasgow-based electro-punk trio Brenda, has followed Dolly’s lead, partly as a riposte to a Noel Gallagher comment that women don’t make good guitarists because they’re too busy thinking about their nails. ‘It’s cos I can’t use a plectrum properly,’ she explains. ‘I’ve been using one finger the whole time.’ Hughes has been playing the same guitar since her teens but was thoroughly discouraged in her music aspirations by rejection from a succession of lad bands. Her route into jubilant DIY rock’n’roll was to play socially with other women. Her future bandmate Flore de Hoog, meanwhile, was also meeting with a degree of resistance closer to home. ‘I’m very lucky to have a supportive family,’ she says, ‘but they always taught me to absolutely never sing cos I don’t have a conventional voice. Then I was listening to The Velvet Underground songs sung by Moe the drummer and I thought, “it’s allowed to sound out of tune”.’

Along with drummer Apsi Witana, de Hoog played in the short-lived but most entertaining indie quartet Wet Look. When lockdown and, quips Witana, ‘internal politics’ put paid to that pop wheeze, they hooked up with Hughes to form Brenda, named in honour of their favourite non-friendly neighbourhood hardwarestore assistant. ‘Very badass, very butch,’ says Hughes. ‘She doesn’t care about customer service.’

De Hoog characterises the Brenda approach (the band, not the scary retail worker) as ‘loosey-goosey’. By accident more than design, there is no bassist nor rhythm guitarist in the line-up, but de Hoog compensates to some degree by playing two synthesizers, one with each hand, like a femme punk Rick Wakeman. ‘You need those low-end bass tones,’ she says. ‘When we first started, it was quite nervewracking because we didn’t even have endings to our tunes. It took ages to create structure and finally now we’ve got something that’s presentable. I’m quite chuffed with the album.’

And rightly so; their self-titled debut is a short but perfectly formed calling card for their idiosyncratic blend of post-punk attitude, new-wave synth pop and haunting harmonics, fuelled by anger but delivered with joy. Recent single, and album highlight, ‘Microscopic Babe’ is accompanied by a blast of a video, an homage to B-movie schlock shot on the hoof during a trip to Los Angeles. ‘We got to choose our own props from a huge medical warehouse in LA,’ says de Hoog.

‘Maybe we could have just used a Super 8 filter and did it ourselves,’ concedes Hughes, ‘but it was fun to go to LA; when you get that opportunity, you do it. My 15-year-old self would be so proud. You can’t shelf women in their thirties . . . you can’t shelf women full stop.’

Brenda’s album launch party is at The Glad Café, Glasgow, Friday 28 July; their eponymous album is released the same day by Last Night From Glasgow.

Net gains

A new play about football, men and mental health, Moorcroft has been promoted to theatre’s premier league. Mark Fisher talks to writer Eilidh Loan about family honour and taking full control of her vision

When National Theatre Of Scotland artistic director Jackie Wylie saw Moorcroft for the first time, she recognised it as exactly the kind of play her company should be backing. What better way to reach out to the people of Scotland than with a piece that spoke the national language of football? All the better that it was funny, tender and sad, and was a debut from dynamic Renfrewshire writer Eilidh Loan.

Wylie has put her money where her mouth is and, after Moorcroft enjoys a second home run at Glasgow’s Tron (where it kicked off in February 2022), NTS will take it on a series of away games throughout the autumn. The play is modelled on the formative years of Loan’s father Garry who, as this version has it, gets together with his workingclass pals in Renfrew and sets up an amateur football team. This acts as a Tuesday-night alternative to life in Thatcher’s Britain (the play relishes its 80s references) until things sour, and optimism gets swamped by personal tragedy.

Moorcroft is a comedy about camaraderie and male bonding. It is also about mental health, poverty and physical illness. ‘I carry the responsibility,’ says Loan. ‘At the heart of it is my dad and his friends. It can never be anything but truthful. I’m proud of opening up conversations and changing the view he has of the world.’ Due to her dyslexia, Loan did not initially consider becoming a writer. But as part of her course at Guildford School Of Acting, she had to make a short film. The idea for Moorcroft began to emerge and, inspired by the multitasking Michaela Coel, she refused to limit herself. ‘It highlighted how writing and creating my own work are as important as being an actor.’

Andy Arnold, the Tron’s artistic director, had intended to co-direct the play, but when he saw how able Loan was, he left her to it. ‘I was so passionate talking about the set, the design and the sound that he said, “Eilidh, this is your show; you have to direct it”.’ In the new production, Martin Docherty returns to the role of Garry, a 50-year-old wondering where his life has gone, and is joined by most of the original all-male cast.

‘At the heart of it are vulnerable people talking about their life and mental health,’ says Loan, who has recently lost several family members to cancer. ‘I don’t think Moorcroft would have been the same play had I not gone through those experiences. It made me re-evaluate what was important to tell. That’s why it resonated. The moment that the boys lose each other . . . I felt that in my own life and it was so raw.’

Moorcroft, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday 13–Saturday 29 July.

FILM SAFAR FILM FESTIVAL

Arab cinema has always responded to the socio-political climate of the many connected and independent countries producing films. So it’s no surprise that the eighth edition of SAFAR Film Festival carries a mission statement to take control of how the region is mapped out on-screen. Documentary and fiction (both historical and urgently modern), the films selected promise to recalibrate Western understandings of Arab filmmaking. With satellite screenings across the country, including four at Glasgow Film Theatre, SAFAR (Arabic for ‘journey’) intends to make good on this year’s theme, A Journey Through Space And Time.

Winning top awards at the Cairo Film Festival, Alam (The Flag) offers a necessary counter-perspective on Israel’s Independence Day from the Palestinians who mourn the future their people were denied; in this authentic and incisive coming-of-age story, high-school pupils get involved in an illicit flag operation. On a grander scale, The Last Queen stages a battle between Algerian ruler Zephira (Adila Bendimerad, who also co-writes and co-directs) and the fearsome pirate Barbarossa in a movie that’s packed with daring heroism, rich production design and electric fight scenes.

Also, for the first time at SAFAR, a family screening is available. This inaugural child-friendly film is the animated Dounia And The Princess Of Aleppo, which shows refugees leaving war-torn Syria through the perspective of a child whose sole comforts are stories of magic and myth which her family tell her. The eye-catching, hand-drawn characters demand the attention of all ages.

Ahead of its 7 July release date, SAFAR will be showing the charged family drama The Damned Don’t Cry, a story about fraught relations between a mother and her son as they’re forced to relocate every time scandal and secrets intrude on their lives. A tale about the discomfort of addressing the past fits perfectly in SAFAR’s wide-ranging programming, and caps off a compelling quartet for Glasgow audiences. (Rory Doherty)

 Glasgow Film Theatre, Saturday 1, Thursday 6, Saturday 8 July.

Dounia And The Princess Of Aleppo

DANCE ANTON & GIOVANNI

Ten years ago, when professional dancer Giovanni Pernice moved to the UK from Italy, everyone’s favourite Bruce Forsyth and Rob Brydon look-and-soundalike, Anton Du Beke, took him under his wing. The Strictly stars have grown to be such good pals that they got their own TV spin-off series, Adventures In Sicily, where Pernice showed Du Beke around the island where he was born and raised.

The Strictly judge and 2021 champion began touring Him & Me in that same year, their live show featuring sequins, glitter and high-energy routines. Nicknamed The Ballroom King and The Jive Master (Du Beke has specialised in ballroom dance since he was 17 and Pernice has the Guinness World Record for most jive kicks), it’s not just their dance moves that audiences seem to love; it’s the genuine, unmacho rapport they have with one another.

The charismatic pair will be joined on stage by a troupe of singers and dancers for a step extravaganza. Expect lots of warm father/ son banter onstage, a whole lot of slick footwork, and perhaps the return of A&G’s drag act, dubbed by one critic as The Strictly Sisters. (Claire Sawers)

 Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 7 July; Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Saturday 8 July; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Monday 10 July.

art of the issue

Major retrospectives from a pair of contemporary British art heavyweights leave Greg Thomas pondering how Peter Howson and Banksy have used their platforms. Drama and spectacle are in abundance but insight and revelation may not be so prominent

Edinburgh’s City Art Centre and Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art offer close encounters with two giants (let’s not say dinosaurs) of British art. Both Peter Howson and Banksy have periodically expressed disdain for the intellectualism and institutions of contemporary art; both now have major shows running at publicly funded modern art galleries over Scotland’s crowded festival season. But rather than grumbling at this irony, let’s pick apart what each artist has done with the platform they’ve been given; a platform that might have been offered to any number of figures from Scotland’s exciting and diverse contemporary arts scene. The answers are very different.

‘Too much of art today is an intellectual game,’ Peter Howson announces in a statement accompanying When The Apple Ripens (lllll) at the capital’s City Art Centre, a broad retrospective which traces his passage from painter of Scotland’s social underbelly to Bosnian War artist and Christian convert. For the Ayrshire-raised, Glasgow-trained painter, art should be ‘an open window into the wonder and mystery of existence’. But this show seems as concerned with rubbing our noses in the visceral horrors of reality as with unfolding any possibility of insight or revelation. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily.

There is much about Howson’s work that is arresting, if not exactly edifying to behold. He is a compelling conjurer of flesh and bone, of huge, contorted limbs and big, bull-like skulls. There is an influence here from the emotive distortions of expressionism, particularly in its seedier, Weimar-Germany formulations: Max Beckmann or Otto Dix, as one caption suggests. His approach to scene-setting, meanwhile, is unmistakeably Bruegel-esque. Landscapes teem with bodies, often completely blocking out ground and sky, engaged in various sordid and profane activities.

The artist’s thematic concerns range from the traumas of military life (he had a brief, unhappy spell in the army, processed in horrendous works like 1985’s ‘Regimental Bath’) to working-class urban experience: 1991’s ‘Blind Leading Blind’ series explores the lot of the poor in a class-riven society. Other pieces depict Howson’s lifealtering experiences as an official war artist during the Bosnian genocide of 1992–95. Mutilated bodies abound and women harvest fields of corpses.

The respite Howson offers his viewers from all this horror is in Christianity. The second floor contains works made after his 21st-century conversion. There are some affecting pieces, like those little panels showing the stations of the cross. But it’s vaguely disheartening to find that a painter avowedly determined to circumvent the academy and communicate with a wider mass of humanity (often by documenting the grimmest corners of our culture) is only able to provide solace in the form of submission to an invisible deity. One piece of exhibition copy describes Howson as an ‘apolitical’ artist. Well, quite.

The atmosphere over in Glasgow is very different. Nightclub-style aluminium barriers have been erected to process the huge crowds flocking to the extravaganza that is Banksy’s Cut And Run (lllll). During my allotted time-slot I mingle with tourists, teenagers, families and workers on their lunchbreaks. Reactions are uniformly and hyperbolically positive: out-loud guffaws plus audible cries of ‘oh, that’s clever’ and ‘he really doesn’t care, does he?’ Crowds pore over recreations of the Bristol-born artist’s stencil workshop and teenage bedroom. If one job of a civic arts venue is to draw in new audiences, then against that metric, GOMA has passed with flying colours.

But what of the art itself? Banksy’s work has never been my particular brew but that’s a question of taste rather than ethical judgement. And he is undeniably a master of the pithy visual pun that codifies a political sentiment (generally commendable, if sometimes simplistic) in arresting and memorable terms. A first

set of rooms contains recreations of his famous spray-can creations. There are the wiretappers outside a phone-box near GCHQ, a young boy catching ash from a binfire in his mouth, and the recent work of a little gymnast balancing on rubble in Ukraine.

One graffito first created in the US alters a no-trespassing sign to show a stony-faced Native American holding it up. In GOMA’s central hall, a set of large-scale installations, including a cattletransport vehicle filled with mewling fluffy toys, make up what the artist calls ‘The Dismaland Bemusement Park’. The malaise and moral hypocrisy of contemporary consumerism is nicely skewered, albeit the world of IRL spectacle being sent up feels a little retro in our age of online misinformation.

I leave with some questions as to the true radicalism of Banksy’s craft. His first-person captions make much of the ‘criminal’ status of his activity. But does anyone seriously believe he has been at risk of prosecution for the last several years? Stories of stealing and defacing paintings with Keith Allen as sidekick have a hint of Bullingdon Club entitlement about them (there are better reasons to deface artworks than just for the hell of it, as young climate protestors are showing us).

And the graffiti painter’s assertion that he ‘expected the buyer to pull out’ after he used a remotecontrolled shredder to cut up a work following its sale at Sotheby’s seems questionable. This was a publicity-savvy piece of performance art, which was always going to puff up the market value. Questions like these aside, Banksy’s work has a political and ethical astuteness that is laudable for a blockbuster public artist. Ultimately, his work is about empathy, love and a healthy scepticism for authority, and it might just leave new audiences feeling that contemporary art could, after all, be for them.

Peter Howson: When The Apple Ripens, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until Sunday 1 October; Banksy: Cut And Run, Gallery Of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Monday 28 August.

ART JALA WAHID Conflagration 

Jala Wahid’s first solo show in Scotland includes a sculpture, light-work and soundtrack evoking the historic relationship between western Europe and Kurdistan. These regions are bound together by stories of colonial extraction and, particularly, by the geopolitics of oil. Conflagration focuses on the striking of the Baba Gurgur oil well in 1927, a site steeped in mythology whose ‘eternal fire’ had featured in religious lore for millennia, and whose discovery cemented imperial interest in Kurdish lands. A hazy, polluted pink orb of light glows on one wall, a monument to the exact time oil was first tapped at Baba Gurgur. Casting Tramway’s front gallery in a pallid haze, ‘Sick Pink Sun (03:00 14.10.1927 – )’ may allude to the clouds of poisonous gas that spread over the nearby landscape for days afterwards. It shines upon a slick, fetishy plume of a sculpture, with a glowing pink heart. Both petroleum gush and floral bloom, the shape is partly that of Salvia spinosa, the only flower known to survive amid the shale of Baba Gurgur’s fields. Meanwhile, a soundtrack rings out across the space, drilling and plaintive, consisting of a traditional funereal maqam (Arabic melody) interspersed with field recordings and the artist’s voice. A thematically precise show that requires a bit of contextual reading to unlock, Conflagration is an arresting prospect nonetheless. (Greg Thomas)

 Tramway, Glasgow, until Sunday 10 September.

THEATRE THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

(Directed by Katy Rudd)

It’s not surprising to learn that Neil Gaiman was unsure his 2013 book, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, would work on stage. So filled is it with fantastical beings, locations and scenarios, you’d be forgiven for thinking it could exist only in our imaginations or in a big-budget CGI film. Yet Joel Horwood who adapted the text, and Katy Rudd who directed the show, had other ideas; big, swirling, dream-like ideas that a book such as this demands and deserves.

Gaiman was initially inspired by his own boyhood, spent living near a thousand-year-old farm. What if its occupants had lived there since it was built? It’s an intriguing starting point, from which all manner of things can burst; and they do. The show might open with a very human event (a funeral) followed by a very ordinary scenario (a family breakfast), but from there, most of the action in this clever and compelling production takes place in a realm outside our own.

A mighty creature from ‘the edges’ finds a way to creep inside a boy’s life in a bid to destroy it, and can only be thwarted by his newfound, farmhouse friend who hails from who knows when. Fifteen performers bring Gaiman’s words to life: half as named characters, half as a black-clad ensemble that embodies puppet monsters, trees and even the ocean itself. All beautifully lit and soundtracked, this is delivered with a simplicity that belies the hard work and ingenuity behind it.

Visual trickery and otherworldliness aside, here is a tale laden with metaphor and subtext. Money, loss, memory, family and friendship are among the emotional big-hitters Gaiman laced his book with, all of which are handled sensitively. There are nods to Harry Potter, Stranger Things and Gaiman’s own Coraline along the way, but ultimately this ocean has its own unique current. (Kelly Apter)

 King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tuesday 29 August–Saturday 2 September; reviewed at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh.

Pixar’s latest, dazzlingly rendered animation is a moving, star-crossed love story directed by The Good Dinosaur’s Peter Sohn. Starting with the idea that elements don’t mix, it’s a story that riffs on racism and the immigrant experience, a simple but effective tale that will resonate far and wide.

Events unfold in and around Element City, where imaginative manifestations of fire, earth, air and water live in their own separate communities. Fiery protagonist Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis from The Half Of It) is the daughter of Ronnie del Carmen’s set-in-his-ways immigrant Bernie, who reluctantly left his homeland following environmental devastation. Bernie now runs a convenience store in Fire Town which Ember is being trained to take over, with little thought for her own desires.

Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion) lends his voice to Ember’s water-element love interest, Wade, a goofy city inspector who is sucked into the Lumens’ store during a water leak, leading to him writing Ember up for several building code violations. However, when the pair work together to prevent further flooding to the area, it results in romantic sparks. Wade is from an affluent and artistic family of flamboyant weepers, led by matriarch Brook (the inimitable Catherine O’Hara) who encourages Ember to explore her creative side, while Bernie’s resistance to Ember and Wade’s burgeoning romance proves a major obstacle.

The animation can be astonishing and is worth savouring on the big screen while the film combines its own elements enjoyably, boasting a textural diversity that sees flatter yet constantly fluctuating protagonists (who feel full of life as they flicker, splosh and bubble before our eyes) inhabit more rounded and realistic environs. A contrasting depiction of the earth and air characters (including Wendi McLendon-Covey’s puffed-up sports fan Gale and Joe Pera’s scruffy, overgrown bureaucrat Fern) adds further visual variety. Taken together, it really is a sight to behold.

Playing the endearing couple at Elemental’s centre, Lewis and Athie are easy to root for, but the film might have benefitted from a few other interesting characters. And it does feel familiar, with the pressure one generation puts on the next, and the importance of ploughing your own path already well-explored across Pixar’s canon (most recently in Turning Red). Plus, there are shades of Disney’s Zootropolis here too, which shone due to a smarter, funnier script.

If Elemental’s take on racial divisions is hardly subtle and it lacks the narrative ingenuity of, say, Inside Out, the sincerity of its sentiment results in some genuinely stirring scenes. Vintage Pixar this ain’t, but it’s still a valiant attempt at reaching across boundaries and touching young hearts and minds.

Elemental is in cinemas from Friday 7 July.

Elemental is the latest addition to Pixar’s glittering canon. Emma Simmonds enjoys the stunning visuals while not being wholly convinced about its ideas or script

FILM L’IMMENSITÀ (Directed by Emanuele Crialese) 

Penélope Cruz’s memorable depictions of mothers have started to feel like a sub-genre in themselves, with highlights over the years including her roles in Volver, Parallel Mothers, Pain And Glory, Ma Ma (not to mention her pregnant nun in All About My Mother). Now, L’Immensità joins them as Cruz puts in another ravishingly entertaining performance playing a woman on the verge.

Featuring an expressive and unforgettable use of colour, this immaculately designed film from Italian director Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, Terraferma) combines style and substance as it plays out in 1970s Rome. Cruz is Clara, the mother in question, a trophy wife imprisoned by her miserable marriage to Vincenzo Amato’s cruel and faithless patriarch, Felice. Luana Giuliani impresses as the eldest of Clara’s three children, the gender-questioning Adriana. Born female, the 12-year-old has started to wear his hair short and introduce himself as Andrea, feeling so uncomfortable in his own skin and surroundings that he thinks of himself as an alien from another galaxy.

Seen through the eyes of her adoring and powerless-to-intervene offspring, the tragic Clara is held at something of a remove. She has clearly been diminished by domestic drudgery and oppression; however, we see poignant glimpses of the free-spirited woman she once was when she throws caution to the wind on a coastal trip, while love for her children forms the film’s heart and soul. With her combination of impossible glamour and compellingly conveyed torment, the charismatic Cruz once again shows herself to be a screen siren in the mould of earlier icons such as Sophia Loren. L’Immensità satisfyingly blends stiff period style with a modern sensibility that’s sympathetic to Clara, and to Andrea’s even more difficult situation, with his dream of being able to embrace his true gender identity a devastating distance away.

(Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 11 August.

COMEDY JACK WHITEHALL Settle Down

Jack Whitehall’s last tour, four years ago, was the epitome of an arena comic going through the motions. With unremarkable observations failing to bolster the weakest of anecdotes, his creative and personal wellspring had seemingly run dry after so long in the spotlight. Settle Down is bedevilled by some of those same issues, with the relentless spin of his current publicity campaign ensuring that several stories he shares will be familiar to even the most casual observer of his career. His audience interaction and drop-ins of local references are clunkily scripted and never come close to convincing as spontaneous. Elsewhere, interval videos he appears in with his parents and celebrity friends like Jamie Redknapp aren’t the only moments that feel suspiciously like product placement, with a couple of routines lightly teasing brand names. So what’s changed? Well, despite Settle Down being a straightforward portrait of Whitehall supposedly growing up as he prepares to become a father, he’s rediscovered that youthful, peppy blend of entitled irreverence and animatedly camp self-deprecation that helped build his reputation. He appears energised at being back on stage, while this show’s stand-out (a dubious moment where the comic, unused to being overshadowed, becomes the most famous alumnus of his privileged school in screeching tabloid headlines) finds him in an entertaining bluster of spluttering outrage.

It’s certainly preferable to the foppish popinjay persona he consistently lays on so thick, with the contrast he depicts between himself and pretentious LA types or boorish Midwesterners an attempt to claim common ground with fellow Brits. His discombobulating, interpretative-dance response to aggressors doubting his manhood is a little too reminiscent of a classically absurdist Phil Nichol bit. But the pressures and ups and downs of his personal life push Whitehall to share some hitherto unglimpsed, actual vulnerability, tangible emotion that really does connect and endows his performance with more than the marionette of his posh-boy caricature. (Jay Richardson)

 Edinburgh Playhouse, Sunday 20 & Monday 21 August; reviewed at OVO Hydro, Glasgow.

gig of the issue

Putting all voice problems behind him, Alex Turner and his Arctic Monkeys deliver a live show that covers all their bases. Kevin Fullerton wonders if this eccentric leader might well be the most dynamic star in modern rock

If you were worried that the weirder end of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino and The Car might infect an Arctic Monkeys set list, fear not. The band’s 80-minute show at Bellahouston Park was more akin to a greatest-hits celebration than a trek through their latest (incredibly divisive) record, and it shows just how many styles Alex Turner and co have managed to perfect across three decades.

The noisy squall of ‘Brianstorm’, the militaristic freakout of ‘Crying Lightning’, the hard-rock pastiche of ‘Arabella’, the psychedelic mosh pit-maker of ‘Pretty Visitors’: all that is intact and untouched by the string arrangements or slower pacing of the band’s latest work. When songs from The Car finally do appear halfway through, it’s the obvious stadium fillers of ‘Body Paint’ and ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’ that set this crowd alight, while the quieter and more textured ‘Perfect Sense’ is largely shrugged off.

It points to the problem of an act as large as this shifting their tones so massively from album to album; eventually, as has happened with The Car, songs start to bristle rather than complement each other. Still, that barely matters when you’ve got a back catalogue as strong as this, and a frontman as strange

and magnetic as Turner. With a shock of hair that makes him look like Scott Walker circa 1968 and a penchant for shouting nonsequiturs during songs (‘release the birds!’ he demands during the guitar solo of ‘Crying Lightning’), he manages to be a dynamic rock star while remaining deeply suspicious of his own charisma. The videos circulating online of Turner deliberately slowing down or speeding up his vocals to throw off people trying to singalong at shows might make him seem overly obtuse when viewed on TikTok, but it adds another layer of charm to his eccentric persona; he’s a man both within the rock bubble and completely aware of its inherent ridiculousness. No matter the ironic distance of Turner or the past two records’ experimentation, the tracks from Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and Favourite Worst Nightmare are still clearly the most beloved: the singalongs of ‘Mardy Bum’ and ‘505’ are highlights of any Monkeys set. The constant joke about Alex Turner that he’s been trying to get away from his fans for the past decade might be true on the albums, but this is a set that gives them exactly what they want.

Reviewed at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.

DELIVERS BEYOND ALL EXPECTATIONS... THE STAGE

on stage until 30 September 2023

...this staging of Gypsy emerges as a show to remember...

THE SCOTSMAN

THE HERALD

WEST END BEST FRIEND

SCOTS REVIEWER

on stage until 30 September 2023

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on stage until 29 September 2023

THE SCOTSMAN

THE GUARDIAN

THEATRE BRIEF ENCOUNTER (Directed by Elizabeth Newman) 

There’s absolutely no point in updating Brief Encounter. This story of a couple who put a potential romantic relationship aside for the good of everyone else is very much of its era. Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production wisely decides to burrow into its old-school setting, using contemporary music (‘Mad About The Boy’) and tracing the roots back to Noël Coward’s original play, Still Life, from which the popular Trevor Howard/Celia Johnson film was developed.

Emma Rice’s adaptation is largely set in Milford Junction railway station tearoom; it seems to have a house band (à la Sam Mendes’ Cabaret), but that’s a nice change from the potential drabness. We also zero in on Laura, the married woman who gets a bit of grit in her eye, swiftly removed by Alec, a GP who has a family and children of his own. Things develop, with our couple going boating in the rain and even enjoying illicit meetings at the house of Alec’s friend. But the course of true love doesn’t run smooth when there are friends and strangers who begin to notice their flirtation, and Laura has to make a difficult decision that will work for them both.

Brief Encounter is often considered to be a very English rather than British story; the cut-glass accents in the film are replaced here with something less posh, and this incarnation of Alec and Laura is exhumed from the past to good effect. There’s also more of an ensemble, with an expanded universe featuring tearoom staff, preWWII soldiers and the previously mentioned band. That combination gives this version more energy than you might expect, and Laura more agency. Setting aside a little of the play’s stuffiness, this Brief Encounter brings the text to vibrant life. (Eddie Harrison)

 Pitlochry Festival Theatre, until Friday 29 September.

FILM SCRAPPER

(Directed by Charlotte Regan) 

Defying the notion that tough-luck tales have to be depressing, the directorial debut of Charlotte Regan comes out fighting. Throwing comedy, energy and positivity at an ostensibly grim story and swapping social realism for the magical variety, Scrapper is built on a star-making turn from Lola Campbell, staunchly supported by one of the actors of the hour, Harris Dickinson.

Permanently clad in an oversized West Ham shirt, Campbell plays Georgie, a savvy schoolgirl living alone on an East London estate following the death of her mum. Georgie has scammed social services by inventing an uncle and nicking bikes with partner-in-crime Ali (Alin Uzun) to make ends meet. Her world is rocked by the re-emergence of her estranged father, Jason (Dickinson), who has been living large in Ibiza; yet, little by little, they let each other in.

The portrayal of social workers and teachers feels a little unkind for such a big-hearted film, and a sharper script could have helped some of the comic flourishes truly pop. Although it lacks the emotional punch of the excellent, similarly themed Rocks, Scrapper stands apart from its more dour peers without ever feeling too pie-in-the-sky. And the lovability of its lead pairing is something to savour. (Emma Simmonds)

 In cinemas from Friday 25 August.

PICTURE: FRASER BAND

OTHER THINGS WORTH GOING OUT FOR

ART DECOY HOUSE 2.0

A two-person exhibition showcases the work of interdisciplinary poet James Alexander McKenzie and multidisciplinary artist Astrid Batts. Adding to the fun are daily performances from McKenzie and an open-mic night hosted by Batts.

n Sett Studios, Edinburgh, Sunday 23–Saturday 29 July.

COMEDY

RUSSELL HOWARD

Expect politics with a dollop of sauce as the Tigger-like comic bounces back on stage for his first touring show since he gave us all Respite

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thursday 6 & Friday 7 July.

DANCE EQ DANCE

Sanctuary is a production exploring what it means to search for sanctuary and maintain it. This is a story of individual journeys, rebuilding your own self and connecting to communities.

n The Studio, Edinburgh, Saturday 8 July.

FILM

WHILE WE WATCHED

How to live in a spiralling world of disinformation is at the heart of this acclaimed documentary which follows the story of truth-seeking broadcast journalist Ravish Kumar as he attempts to stay sane and keep reporting in a chaotic India.

n In cinemas from Friday 14 July.

BLUE BEETLE

About time we had a new superhero film . . . and here’s the latest in the DC Extended Universe. A lad returns home after graduation, only to have his summer plans scuppered when he’s chosen as a symbiotic host to an ancient alien biotechnological relic called the Scarab. Hate when that happens.

n In cinemas from Friday 18 August.

MUSIC DIFFERENT TRAINSPOTTING

A new night comes in the shape of a locally curated series of contemporary performances with the opener featuring the Tesseris String Quartet and ‘nonsensical guitar duet’ GAMBOC.

n Leith Depot, Edinburgh, Thursday 20 July.

BONOBO

The Grammy Award nominee has seven albums under his belt since emerging at the bitter end of the 90s. Alongside his samples and beats are bits of jazz and slices of traditional Indian music.

n SWG3, Glasgow, Wednesday 23 August.

THE WAR AND TREATY

This award-winning Nashville-based husband and wife duo offer a bluesy yet joyous hybrid of gospel, soul, country and rock, and recently performed in front of a huge audience at the Academy Of Country Music awards.

n Òran Mór, Glasgow, Thursday 31 August.

THEATRE SIX

The show which proves that taking a chance on the Fringe can sometimes reap enormous benefits. This Edinburgh hit musical of 2017, which tells the story of Henry VIII’s wives from their perspectives, is now a global success and back on a UK tour.

n Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tuesday 29 August–Sunday 3 September.

If you fancy getting out and about over the next couple of months, there’s plenty culture to sample such as a beetle-based superhero movie, Tigger-like stand-up, truth-seeking in India, and a new kind of music night

Decoy House 2.0 (and bottom from left), The War And Treaty, Russell Howard, Blue Beetle

staying in

SPARKS

achievements such as upstaging

Annette lm

Tonight’, ‘Not That Well-De ned’ and ‘Gee,

Still being avour of any month is no mean feat when you’re a band of brothers who rst came to the world’s bemused attention in the mid-70s. Yet Ron and Russell Mael are continuing to keep themselves in music lovers’ peripheral visions with eye-watering achievements such as upstaging much-feted Glastonbury headline acts (partly thanks to Cate Blanchett reprising her besuited role from the music video for ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’). Across the last decade, they’ve teamed up with Franz Ferdinand to become art-rock supergroup FFS, been the subject of an Edgar Wright documentary, and co-wrote the frankly bonkers musical. And now they’ve just slammed into the top ten with their 26th album featuring tracks with typically idiosyncratic titles such as ‘The Mona Lisa’s Packing, Leaving Late Tonight’, ‘Not That Well-De ned’ and ‘Gee, That Was Fun’. (Brian Donaldson)

 The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte is out now on Island Records.

LOST IN MUSIC

What Goes Around has been reeling in listeners with its enthusiastic and engaging conversations about music past and present. Kevin Fullerton

For Eamon Murtagh and Deb Grant, most music podcasts rarely hit the right notes. ‘American music podcasts tended to be really reverential and serious,’ Murtagh says. ‘They’re always like, “when David Bowie landed in Berlin, the world changed”, and it makes my skin crawl when I hear stuff like that. We didn’t want a super serious approach. And we didn’t want the kind of combative one-upmanship that you often hear on podcasts about music.’

What Goes Around grew from a desire to make a music pod that was an unpretentious celebration of the musical world. ‘We wanted to celebrate what it feels like to be a fan of music,’ said Murtagh. ‘A lot of the podcasts we’ve listened to were very much about the artists while we’re more about music lovers.’ Their enthusiasm has attracted some very special guests, including Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson, comedian Jo Caulfield and punk polymath Lydia Lunch, inviting them to discuss how music has made them laugh, cry and altered their outlook on life.

‘If you can get someone talking about their memories of music then their guard comes down. You’re tapping into their fandom. An interview becomes less like an interrogation and more like a discussion. That’s what we wanted.’ Despite booking some real heavyweights, Murtagh still has a dream guest on his own hit parade. ‘I’ve yet to find a way to contact her, but I’d love to interview Emily Eavis, the co-organiser of Glastonbury. Here’s a woman who’s grown up immersed in all this music, met all these incredible people and taken over the biggest show on earth. She’s steered Glastonbury in new directions and taken flak for it. She must have had so much pushed into her brain from different angles after all the experiences and acts she’s heard for decades.’

In a recent episode, Grant discusses relistening to heavy metal with her new partner and feeling as though a ‘door had opened in her mind’. It sums up the modus operandi of What Goes Around: the white-hot joy of discovering a new genre or deep diving into the songs you love with open-hearted eagerness. ‘We never try to talk down, and we try not to be mean about music,’ enthused Murtagh. ‘We’re there for the fans. If you listen to people talk about something they love, it gives you that same warm feeling.’

 New episodes of What Goes Around are available monthly.

BINGE FEST

Our alphabetical column on viewing marathons reaches R

A brutal spin on Groundhog Day, the two batches of Russian Doll (Netflix) have helped make a star of Natasha Lyonne. She plays Nadia, a gravel-voiced games coder who is trying to figure out why she’s in a constant time loop which never lets her get beyond her 36th birthday party. A quirky and compelling affair, we might not have needed a second season but we got it anyway, featuring more Chloë Sevigny and an injection of Annie Murphy.

Long before he was the daft but dangerous Tom Wambsgans wreaking havoc in Succession, Matthew Macfadyen was a somewhat more sympathetic character in Ripper Street (Prime Video). As the tormented DI Edmund Reid, he and sidekick DS Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) dashed around Whitechapel in an attempt to finally nail Jack The Ripper (later seasons focused on other scandals and investigations of the period) while wrestling, au naturel, with their own personal demons. (Brian Donaldson)

 Other R binges: Red Dwarf (BBC iPlayer), Rizzoli & Isles (Prime Video), The Real McCoy (BBC iPlayer)

sat down with co-host Eamon Murtagh to chat dream guests and the infectious effect of fandom

first writes

In this Q&A, we throw some questions about ‘firsts’ at debut authors. For this issue, we feature award-winning journalist Yomi Adegoke, author of The List (not us, obvs), a tale of secrets, lies and our lives online (oh, maybe it is about us)

What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? It was either The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister or Elmer The Patchwork Elephant by David McKee. I loved art as a child and these were really visually stimulating, vibrant books. I loved the stories of these two brightly coloured animals and all the quirky illustrations; The Rainbow Fish had shiny foil scales throughout the book and I was obsessed!

What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer? I wouldn’t say any particular book made me want to be a writer, but I read Holes by Louis Sachar in primary school and it was one of the first books that really made me appreciate writing as a skill and craft. It was quite elevated for a children’s book and I remember being blown away by it on a technical level, as well as not being able to put it down.

What’s your favourite first line in a book? It might be basic but it doesn’t get better than 1984 by George Orwell: ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ Banger.

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? I’ve said it multiple times but Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid had a huge impact. It was longlisted for the Booker and was a searing social commentary whilst being super accessible and funny. I interviewed her after reading it and told her I was struggling with writing ‘serious’ literary fiction, and that I’d used her book as an example of the fact that literary works can still be propulsive and engaging whilst being smart. The book really inspired me during writing The List, not just tonally but in terms of writing an empathetic dual perspective.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? I try to eat breakfast as soon as I’m up. I don’t always manage to do so on non-writing days, so it’s important for me to try to when I am working because I tend to write through lunch and not take many breaks.

What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? Probably eat again, as I wouldn’t have eaten most of the day! So it’s usually a late, huge dinner to make up for the lack of food while writing.

In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? I don’t believe in burning even the worst books but do suspect a lot of men would be better off if The 48 Laws Of Power [by Robert Greene] didn’t exist. But I guess it’s good it does; it’s a useful red-flag detector!

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Done is better than perfect. I spent such a long time trying to perfect the early chapters that I didn’t even finish the book before it went to auction. I had to let go of my perfectionism when writing the rest of it and remind myself that I could go back and edit extensively, which I did. Getting the words down is the most important element; an editor’s sole job is to fine-tune your work, so don’t waste time fixating when you could be writing.

The List is published by Fourth Estate on Thursday 20 July.

TV THE BEAR

A man walks into a Chicago sandwich shop called The Beef. It could be the set-up for a chronically awful joke but is in fact more like the elevator pitch for 2022’s prime sleeper TV hit, The Bear. The rest of this joke/pitch would relate how a fine-dining chef (Carmy, played with a subtle power by Jeremy Allen-White) reluctantly moves back home to inherit the business from his older brother who recently died in tragic circumstances. Almost inevitably, Carmy is not exactly walking but stumbling into a whole heap of trouble including serious debts, a dilapidated kitchen, and staff on the verge of mutiny.

That could easily be the summary for an indigestion-inducing food documentary series but instead, out of an unpromising premise came an innovative and ultimately very affecting comedydrama; you can almost feel the heat of a claustrophobic kitchen sizzling off the screen as you’re taken deep into the heart of red-blooded chaos. Camaraderie and loyalty just about keep everyone intact but when Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), a new sous chef, enters proceedings and rubs the more veteran members of this crew all the wrong ways (particularly uber-alpha Richie played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach), tensions quickly escalate to, you guessed it, boiling point.

If you haven’t caught its first season, don’t even consider simply jumping in to the new episodes; this is a story best savoured from the top. Not much is being given away about plot details but after its early success, the list of actors arriving for season two tells its own tale: Olivia Colman, Sarah Paulson, Will Poulter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bob Odenkirk have all signed up for the ride. (Brian Donaldson)  Starts on Disney+, Wednesday 19 July.

PICTURE: MOLLANA BURKE

Neil Pennycook’s Meursault project has found a way to navigate the demands of producing new music while spending long spells on the road. As a new album and live dates loom, he tells Sean Greenhorn that his band thrives with a little help from their friends

Play mates

Meursault’s music flits between genres and styles, incorporating synthesised beats, noise, acoustic guitars and piano. It has been described, seemingly oxymoronically, as ‘lo-fi epic’, a sort of maximalist approach to telling intimate stories. Similarly, live shows are amorphous. At a Meursault gig, you might encounter leader Neil Pennycook playing solo or as part of a larger band; it all depends on the occasion.

Meursault’s latest album, notably self-titled, started out as a linear story set in a dystopian world. At one point, Pennycook considered making this story into a graphic novel rather than an album. However, his storytelling naturally pointed him in the direction of music, and the songs organically developed into their own thing. In prior Meursault projects, Pennycook has created characters and worlds to communicate his ideas. For this album, he is instead looking inwards. ‘I found myself gravitating towards my actual self rather than the caricature version,’ he insists. As such, the new songs represent different stages on his own creative journey, tallying what Meursault means to Pennycook.

While this is not a lockdown-specific record, he acknowledges the profound impact those years had on his craft. Finding himself essentially using Bandcamp as a sketchbook, he released three EPs that he considers ‘essentially demoing the album in public’. Yet, the most significant impact of lockdown on Pennycook’s process was finding himself writing solely for piano for the first time. ‘My main push as a musician at the time, lockdown aside, was to make myself more confident and competent with the piano, each morning bringing with it the question, “what are we going to get better at today”?’

For his upcoming live shows, Pennycook has recruited some familiar faces, including Robyn Dawson, Calum MacLeod and Reuben Taylor while the other spots have been filled out by people that he worked alongside during the pandemic: Drew Boyd, Fionnbarr Byrne, Emma Capponi and Graeme Young complete what has become known as The Geist Collective. ‘It is a different kettle of fish to the band before,’ Pennycook notes. ‘Everyone now involved in Meursault has their own project and is a solo artist in their own right.’

The decision to perform under a collective name gives the group much more scope to switch up and support one another on each of their individual pursuits. It’s clear that at least one of the keys to Meursault’s longevity is how Pennycook cares about his fellow musicians and the scene he is a part of. This compassion allows for an openness, leaving behind the escapist lyrics of yore to embrace the new reality.

Meursault is released by Common Grounds Records on Friday 7 July.

Katherine Rundell: John Donne, Undone

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Event

Tuesday 22 August at 5.00pm Edinburgh International Book Festival, Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court

Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell’s wondrous biography of John Donne, won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction last year. This deeply thoughtful work enables the reader to scale the cosmic heights of the poet’s original mind and to understand the times in which he lived. At this event she discusses a new essay for the Book Festival, introducing Donne’s main themes and close reading one of his poems.

To view the full programme and purchase tickets visit edbookfest.co.uk

Chaired by Gavin Francis.

semag • games

my perfect podcast

GAMES THE EXPANSE: A TELLTALE SERIES

Originally a series of novels, The Expanse is best known as a cult scifi TV show about an interplanetary conspiracy played out across the solar system. On top of numerous comics and a boardgame adaptation, its multimedia path is about to take yet another turn in the form of a videogame prequel published by the resurrected Telltale Games.

The original studio was behind some of the most popular gaming adaptations of all time, including Game Of Thrones, Minecraft and Batman, and it arguably re-established adventure gaming as a viable genre. That is until one day in 2018 when the company suddenly collapsed, sending shockwaves through the industry. Its audacious business model of releasing titles episodically, often months apart, was unsustainable; many players would wait until all episodes had been released and buy the games at a discount. Ignominiously, its most anticipated release, The Walking Dead: The Final Season, had to be completed by a different studio.

But it seems that lessons have been learned. For The Expanse, Telltale promise to release each episode fortnightly. And, crucially, they’ve brought on board Deck Nine as co-developer. Responsible for Life Is Strange: True Colours (a winning combination of relatable characters, twisting narrative and gorgeous environments), Deck Nine should help Telltale to reach for the stars. (Murray Robertson)

 Released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on Thursday 27 July.

In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This issue, it’s India Rakusen, creator and presenter of Witch, which explores the legacy of witch hunts, the place they hold in our imagination and what it means to be one today

Which podcast educates you? I’m enjoying Pod Save The UK at the moment, which has recently launched and is presented by Nish Kumar and Coco Khan. It’s made by Crooked Media, the creators of Pod Save America. It’s got the same irreverent tone; it’s cheeky but also explorative and keen-nosed. And Today In Focus at The Guardian is my go-to for news and current affairs.

Which podcast makes you laugh? I’ve been forced to listen to Three Bean Salad by most people I know and I do love it. Three comedians (Mike Wozniak, Henry Paker and Benjamin Partridge) just kind of talk absolute nonsense; it’s utterly ridiculous and wonderful for it.

Which podcast makes you sad or angry? The series Dear Daughter for the BBC World Service is incredibly moving. It’s letters from all sorts of people across the world to their daughters on the theme of growing up as a woman. There was an episode on baby loss that was so raw and powerful that I had to sit on the floor for about 30 minutes. The other podcast that always moves me is Heavyweight which takes a moment in someone’s life that they wished they could change, and then helps them change it and explore it. It’s full of laughs and very often a tear-jerker.

Is there a podcast you’d describe as a guilty pleasure? A brilliant series which made me laugh a lot was The Walkers Switch. It’s a forensic investigation from Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf into the popularly held belief that Walkers switched the colour of the packets for cheese and onion, and salt and vinegar crisps. Even though, get this, Walkers deny it happened! It’s not a guilty pleasure to listen to it, but the fact I’ve listened to it, I think, maybe 2.5 times is certainly an admission of guilt.

Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should Wait. What? Someone doesn’t have a podcast?! ARE THEY OK?! Joking. Sort of.

Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 25 words Why Does My Bum Hurt? (my dad and I came up with this at Christmas). Real reasons your bum might hurt (medical and otherwise) plus a look at our historical and societal relationship with bottoms. Taboo busting. Fun. Fascinating facts.

All episodes of Witch are available on BBC Sounds.

•stsacdop podcasts•

TV HIJACK (Apple TV+) 

Things turn sour onboard a flight from Dubai to London, when criminals take over the plane at gunpoint. Updating those classic 1970s disaster films like The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno, Hijack goes for a similar one-big-team-in-major-danger approach as we watch the manure hit the fan in real time, over seven tense episodes.

A smooth Idris Elba leads his terrified fellow passengers through strategic attempts to survive, using his handy skills as a charming, wily negotiator. The cack-handed hijackers vie for control with power struggles unravelling left, right and centre, among themselves or from have-a-go-heroes in Economy or anxious couples in Business. Max Beesley plays a London detective busy getting a tough time from his new stepson before he gets embroiled in the drama, and Archie Panjabi is a harassed counter-terrorism officer. As is often the way with action plots, some details are pretty implausible, including a few extremely convenient connections among folks helping out on the ground. But suspend your disbelief from a high altitude about those storytelling tricks and brace (brace!) yourself for a thoroughly thrilling game of wits as everyone tries to outsmart one another without being attacked by snipers, jets, a crazed gunman or that very irritable woman travelling with the rowdy kids. (Claire Sawers)

 New episodes available every Wednesday.

BOOKS SHOJI MORIMOTO Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir (Picador)

Have you heard what that Shoji Morimoto does for a living? He does nothing. And doing nothing has proved to be such a success that he’s written a book about how he came to be the famous Rental Person Who Does Nothing. Morimoto describes himself as a ‘delicate’ person, and he’s certainly sensitive to the needs of others. Asking for only travel expenses (although he won’t say no to a gift-card reward), Morimoto allows himself to be hired out to strangers.

He might be found standing at the finish line of a marathon, or in the arrivals hall at an airport; whether his client wants him to share a coffee, show up in a courtroom or be around another person as part of their rehabilitation, Morimoto plays his role, with Twitter being the social medium through which he’s hired, and then shares his experience. So Morimoto isn’t really doing nothing at all; he’s providing a valuable function, and that kindness seems to be appreciated.

Written in a flat, dispassionate and yet serene prose, his memoir demonstrates an original, professional approach to social interaction. Midway through the book, Morimoto makes an analogy to creatures such as peacocks or jewel beetles that have structural colour rather than pigmentation: ‘maybe that’s what Rental Person is like; someone whose appearance varies according to the viewer’s angle or wavelength.’

Mention is made in passing that Morimoto’s sister killed herself after failing to get the job she wanted, and while no direct catharsis for this loss is suggested, it’s clear that his dislike of exams, occupations or labels reflects an evolved point of view. This is a slight yet thoughtprovoking book. If Morimoto can achieve so much by doing almost nothing, what results are the rest of us getting for our endless activity?

(Eddie Harrison)

 Published on Thursday 6 July.

album of the issue

Get up, get on up, they feel like being an Essex machine. Again.

Towards the end of May (the coronational month which meant that, for 2023 only, bank holidays don’t, as their canonical lyric had it, ‘come six times a year’), Blur reconvened in their old monkey-booted stomping ground.

On a sunny Friday evening, the band were in Colchester, where three-quarters of them spent their teenage years. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Dorset boy Alex James were kicking off their reunion run (their latest, after previous comebacks in 2009 and 2015) with a first show in eight years. The gig venue was the 400-capacity Colchester Arts Centre, scene of a show by an early, not-quite-quorate proto-Blur (Idle Vice, Rowntree’s teenage band with Coxon). This time round, it was the opening night of a four-date, club-sized English tour, the cobweb-shaking preamble to a summer of international arena and festival shows.

First, though, a press conference in one of the Essex town’s premier historical attractions. ‘It was billed as a warm-up and it’s turned into a global news event. No pressure!’ puffed James, cheerfully, as the four members lined up on a low stage. Rowntree was even less thrilled at being back back back in such a manner, albeit specifically at Colchester Castle, number-one contender for ‘the most boring school trip’. Albarn, though, appropriately enough, stood up for this well-preserved ancient monument: visiting here was ‘transformational in my love of history, so thank you very much Colchester Castle’. Still, the gathering of some two-dozen international media was entirely their fault. The previous day, Blur revealed the existence of a new album, The Ballad Of Darren, teasing its contents with the release of a single, ‘The Narcissist’. It’s a comforting, very 90s reminder of Albarn’s easy way with a moody pop song, that paint’s-still-wet comeback being sent into the world just eight days after it was fully finished.

That ‘spontaneity’, said Albarn, really appealed; although when James playfully pointed out that said spontaneity only took eight years (the period since their last album, The Magic Whip), Albarn’s truculence simmered. The brains behind Gorillaz, solo projects galore and The Good, The Bad & The Queen, has been rather busy, you know.

Some of that busyness occasioned the creation of Blur’s ninth album. Albarn mostly wrote the ten songs during Gorillaz’ autumn 2022 tour of North America. Bedrooms, backstages and hotel conference rooms were his playpen, the ideal at-several-removes context in which to dream up a Blur comeback. ‘The only way I really could do this was totally divorced from all the import that making a new record would have,’ he explained. ‘I wanted to just not think about it and write from the heart.’ That feeling was maintained back in the UK, when Blur ‘literally just crashed into the studio’ with James Ford, the Arctic Monkeys producer who’d previously worked with Gorillaz and Cox’s band The Waeve, and thereby a ‘dream co-conspirator’.

That ease (and no little unease) is all over The Ballad Of Darren, which Albarn has described as ‘an aftershock record, reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now’. It opens with the Bontempi beat-driven nominative determinism of ‘The Ballad’, Albarn’s first words being, ‘I just look to my life and all I saw was that you’re not coming back.’ ‘Far Away Island’ is a drifting, synth-and-keys-drenched lament, Julee Cruise by way of Joe Meek. And it ends with ‘The Heights’, a Neil Young-doing-country farewell to someone or something, which climaxes in an onrushing wave of feedback and static.

‘I feel Iike I’m fairly direct emotionally on this record; for me,’ Albarn said at the castle, but declined to clarify those themes. ‘I prefer people to listen to it and draw their own conclusions. I find it quite constricting, saying, “this song is about this”.’ He will say that the Darren of the title track is a real person, a longstanding member of the band’s inner circle who’s been asking Albarn for 25 years to finish a song about him. Some people have imagined that Darren is Banksy (he isn’t) but he is real. ‘The song isn’t really about him, although he’s referenced in it. But it seemed the perfect summary of what the record is about. Somehow.’

That night in Colchester, Blur began with another new one, ‘St Charles Square’, its first line part shrug, part confession: ‘I fucked up’. Hearing its gonzo guitar chug in the studio was the moment James thought, ‘oh my god, we’re back’. The bassist was even roused from his preferred studio playing mode (supine on the sofa) to actually stand up. ‘I had a little moment, and jumped up and down, and kinda lost it. It was wonderful.’

Elsewhere on the album, the perky bounce of ‘Barbaric’ belies a chorus lyric that also speaks of a midlife wilderness: ‘I have lost the feeling that I thought I’d never lose, now where am I going?’ That sense of a man, or a country, adrift (physically, emotionally, existentially) is shot through the laconic tempo of ‘Russian Strings’, the folky elegance of ‘The Everglades’, and the woozy elegy that is ‘Goodbye Albert’. Dislocation, dislocation, dislocation.

That feeling is there, too, in the sleeve art, based on a Martin Parr photograph. This is Gourock lido and its heroic lone swimmer’s moment in the (partly obscured) sun. In Colchester, Albarn dropped another breadcrumb, saying the image is a ‘pretty good signifier of what is to come on the record’. As Rowntree added, ‘there’s quite a bit about that image which is about overcoming some sort of physical situation, and there’s something about the safety of this lido when it’s . . . right next to the sea . . . there are stories of this place where this guy will go down and exercise and there will be sharks that have been washed in by the sea.’

Or, as the swimmer himself, Ian Galt, said in a 2014 interview, ‘people do occasionally get bombed by seagull poo, especially while they’re eating their sandwiches.’ The peak 90s Blur of ‘Girls & Boys’ this is not. But in an inventive, intriguing, occasionally troubling and always thought-provoking way, middle-aged Blur it very much is.

The Ballad Of Darren is released by Parlophone Records on Friday 7 July.

Britpop bastions Blur are back after eight years during which each member was off doing lots of other things. Craig McLean consumes their new album and revels in a ten-song cycle of folky elegance, drifting laments and middle-aged intrigue

ALBUMS ALUNA

MYCELiUM (Mad Decent/Because Music) 

Aluna Francis first came to prominence as the sweet-voiced half of dance duo AlunaGeorge, before opening a separate account with her 2020 solo debut Renaissance. Her second album, MYCELiUM, may begin with the sort of sultry self-help voiceover which has graced many a pretentious perfume ad, but Francis has created something with earthier roots. For here she celebrates 90s house-music culture with a posse of queer, Black collaborators from the global electronic music community including Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar, Panamanian producer Roofeeo, South African DJ Kooldrink, and Canadian DJ/producer Jayda G. Even in this sterling company, Francis takes a while to rev up. ‘You got me underwater’, she trills on pleasant banger ‘Underwater’. Is that a good thing? It sounds like it’s supposed to be, but her girlish vocals remain in the shallows. Fortunately, guest vocalist Kaleena Zanders shines with soulful heft on the disco pop of ‘Supernova’ while Vittar and MNEK are in their fabulous element on ‘Oh The Glamour’. DJ/producer Chris Lake brings the reggaeton bounce to the otherwise functional, flinty techno of ‘Beggin’’ with Aluna keeping up the pace with added squelchy bassline and disco strings on ‘Kiss It Better’. (Fiona Shepherd)

 Released on Friday 7 July.

BOOKS JESSICA ZHAN MEI YU But The Girl (Jonathan Cape)

Girl is experiencing freedom for the first time, leaving her Malaysian-born parents and grandmother at home in Australia to travel on a scholarship to the UK. She’s meant to be writing a ‘post-colonial’ novel (though admits she doesn’t really understand quite what that means) while also working on a PhD about her beloved Sylvia Plath. After a stop in London, much of the story unfolds in the unlikely setting of Arbroath, where she has an arts residency (Yu attended one herself at Hospitalfield in the Angus town).

But instead of being energised by her new-found liberation, Girl is plagued by self-doubt and persistent questioning of her identity. Thrown into this fragile mix is an uneasy friendship with the slightly appalling Clementine (a confidante in private, but cruel in front of their fellow scholars). She dominates Girl’s time, using her as an art model, while Girl procrastinates and questions the worth of her own work.

Yu offers sharp insights into the crisis of cultural identity experienced by immigrants and their offspring, as well as familial pressures to succeed academically and friction with parents who have grown up in a different way of life. She also shines an unflinching light on the complexities of assimilating into a sometimes-racist society, and on Girl’s cultural cringe about her Australian homeland.

But Girl’s sense of powerlessness and weakness doesn’t always engender empathy; it creates a disconnect which makes the rare occasion she stands up for herself all the more thrilling. Elsewhere, a bizarre tragedy on a rail platform and a potentially deadly confrontation both feel a little unconvincing. Yu’s prose, however, is sharp, flecked with glints of bone-dry humour, and as the book moves towards its climax with Girl’s return to family turmoil in Melbourne, it’s compellingly poignant. But The Girl is a debut that heralds a skilled and singular new talent. (Paul McLean)

 Published on Thursday 10 August.

podcasts of the issue

Listening to the often awkward political and social musings of Alan Partridge and Jonathan Pie leaves Kelly Apter wondering just how meta they can go

When it comes to radio broadcasting, the line between reality and parody can be cringingly thin, especially where phone-in shows are concerned as the opinions of the great British public are unleashed. So when Jonathan Pie, a fictional character played by comedian Tom Walker, engages in conversation with LBC talk-show host James O’Brien, it all starts to feel a bit meta.

Those familiar with Pie’s off-air rants as a TV news reporter will know that outrage doesn’t come more oven-ready than his. Regardless of the topic, he’s inspected and dissected it, packaged up the facts and figures, and is ready to give politicians, football fans and anyone else who’s angered him both barrels; albeit when they can’t actually hear him. Except with Call Jonathan Pie (lllll), they mostly can. Dragged kicking and screaming (until he hears the fee) into a new role of radio phone-in host, Pie now has an audience to vent his spleen to. Race, comedy, ‘women’s issues’, online activity, Brexit, money: all the big-hitters are up for debate in this frequently hilarious ten-part podcast.

At least half the time, Pie is on the money and says exactly what needs to be said. But when his drawer of dusty opinions needs its runners oiled, his sparky young producer (played brilliantly by Lucy

Pearman) is there to drag Pie into the 2020s. The other cast members, portraying production staff and callers, all do a sterling job. But, as you might imagine, Walker’s voice takes the biggest slice of this pod pie.

Long before Jonathan Pie was a twinkle in Walker and co-writer Andrew Doyle’s collective eye, Steve Coogan had the airwaves covered. Watching Alan Partridge’s long, slow descent down the broadcasting hill from self-titled chat-show host to BBC localradio disc jockey, digital radio host and now podcaster, has been a masterclass in awkwardness that only John Cleese could match.

The debut batch of From The Oasthouse found Partridge in situations that made you both guffaw and feel genuinely sorry for him. Its sequel didn’t quite reach those dizzying heights, and his Coronation Commentary (lllll), a free teaser ahead of the new Oasthouse, is a smile-a-long experience rather than belly-laugh inducing. But Coogan on average form is still more brilliant than most, and his increasingly champagne-soaked boredom during King Charles III’s big day is well worth lending your ears to.

Call Jonathan Pie is available now on BBC Sounds; From The Oasthouse season 3 can be heard from Thursday 31 August on Audible.

PODCASTS RUINED (Crooked Media) 

Ruined is a recent addition to the roster of Crooked Media, progressive hosts of Pod Save America and other liberal-leaning brands. This horror-movie podcast chooses not to target genre fans, but instead takes a rather more chatty, genial path. Posting new audio episodes every week, hosts Alison Leiby and Halle Kiefer fill more than 90 minutes with conversation that’s both well-informed and not informed at all.

Kiefer is the horror fan, and she knows her stuff; Ruined has covered nearly 150 films to date, ranging from popular blockbusters to fan-favourite obscurities like 1981’s Possession. The unphasable Kiefer relates her experience of watching each film while scaredy-cat Leiby asks pertinent questions from the POV of a non-genre fan.

Horror can sometimes seem arcane to the mainstream viewer, and while this pod is probably best consumed by acolytes, the rambling bonhomie and scatological detail help make it a lot of fun. Ruined doesn’t spoil the films involved but offers an option of humour to the process of consumption. The hosts are clearly having a good time, and listeners curious about horror but with zero stomach for gore might just feel the same. (Eddie Harrison)

 New episodes available every Tuesday.

GAMES LAYERS OF FEAR (PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) 

Rather than a straightforward remake or sequel, this Layers Of Fear is an anthology featuring the original game (from 2016), its DLC and follow-up. All have been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 with each story threaded by a new overarching chapter. The gameplay for each title is broadly similar (and hugely influenced by Hideo Kojima’s short game demo PT): players must walk through a haunted environment solving simple puzzles while avoiding ghosts, contact with which brings about a short hop back to the last checkpoint.

After a relatively gentle start, the original game, set in a haunted house, is unrelenting in its shocks. It skilfully combines creepy imagery (furniture moves impossibly, ghostly figures appear but vanish the moment you see them) with a precision-engineered soundtrack to keep players on their toes. At times, the perpetual attack on the senses makes protracted sessions feel exhausting.

Compounding matters, the game frequently plays tricks with perception and, due to its first-person camera and tight field of view (at least on PC), there are sections where an iron stomach may come in handy. On those few occasions when the infamous ghost appears, it does get really tense as you flail around in the dark, searching for an escape.

Thankfully, its sequel is a calmer affair. Set aboard an ocean liner, it relies on a more subtle creepiness and is much less reliant on clichéd tropes such as thunderstorms, dolls and toy clowns. Away from the constraints of the first game’s mansion, it presents a more imaginative mise en scène and the path forward is mercifully clearer. Overall, this is a good package with plenty of scares, although at times it can feel a bit much, like being bludgeoned by a haunted fairground ride. (Murray Robertson)

 Out now.

TV THE TROUBLE WITH KANYE (BBC iPlayer) 

The Trouble With Kanye. Well, where do you start? White Lives Matter t-shirts; slavery was ‘a choice’; the virulent antisemitism; hanging with alt-right monsters. Weird to think now that the most appalling thing he had done before he became Ye, was being a total cad to Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards. How could he have gone from accusing George W Bush of not caring about Black people after Hurricane Katrina to donning a MAGA hat (yet they say Kanye has such great fashion sense . . . ) and hugging Trump in the White House?

Award-winning documentary-maker Mobeen Azhar is determined to get some answers to the Kanye conundrum. The catch-all alibi of his bipolar disorder is given short shrift by one interviewee who has her own history of manic episodes, while everyone from saddened former friends to the homeless man who West has picked as campaign manager for his 2024 presidential run are equally as bemused. Azhar is a likeable frontman for this largely thankless gig as he eventually resorts to writing actual letters to be passed on to the object of his hot pursuit.

Putting himself front and centre as he confronts a variety of extremists ranging from white supremacist Nick Fuentes to the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement, he comes across as a less bumbling Nick Broomfield. Though, amusingly, he’s not averse to leaving in smalltalk chit chat and a couple of compliments he’s paid for his own dress sense. (Brian Donaldson)

 Available now.

ALBUM PJ HARVEY

I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan)

The chilling upper register of PJ Harvey’s voice has gone largely unused since 2007’s White Chalk, but I Inside The Old Year Dying finds new textures in her quivering falsetto, emphasising the melancholy of this pitch-dark fairytale she’s created. Her first album in seven years has Harvey eschewing the socio-political canvas of her previous two records in favour of a magical realist melange of folklore, Anglo-Saxon phrasing, Dorset vernacular, literary allusions, and enduring pop idols.

Adapted from her epic poem ‘Orlam’, the intricate and at times elusive lyricism of Harvey sit at the fore of the album. Archaic lines such as ‘hark the greening of the eth’ are followed by discussions of Pepsi and Elvis Presley, whose song ‘Love Me Tender’ acts as a quasi-spiritual refrain. These are explorations of the unforgiving malevolence of both the natural world and human nature, a metaphysical otherplace where morbid tales of the past connect with icons from our present.

Within this strange spectral plain, phrases recur like ghosts haunting each song: chalky children, the shepherd, the soldier. Where Harvey could once be compared with Nick Cave, here she breathes the air of TS Eliot or Don Paterson (who mentored her while working on ‘Orlam’). Harvey’s collaborations with John Parish and Flood, creative partnerships which have lasted decades, lend these poems a musical weight that never compromises their rhythm and meter.

The dark trudge of ‘A Child’s Question, August’, the panicked acoustic strum on ‘I Inside The Old I Dying’, the confused fuzz of ‘August’, and the insistent fruit machine-like loop of ‘A Child’s Question, July’ all combine to create a world both completely our own and entirely alien, adhering to its own seductive internal logic. Listeners will be uncovering new meanings from this atmospheric collection for years to come. (Kevin Fullerton)

 Released on Friday 7 July.

OTHER THINGS WORTH STAYING IN FOR

A packed period of things to do indoors or consume on your travels include a bracing memoir from one of the country’s top authors, a TV film about a cult 90s toy, a cutesy videogame, and an inferno-influenced album

ALBUMS

A MAN CALLED ADAM

This iconic electronica duo and Balearic legends are back after four years away with the vinyl version of The Girl With A Hole In Her Heart, an ambient house album rooted in the pair’s beloved Teesside.

n Other Records, Friday 21 July.

HOZIER

The Irish guy who made an absolute mint while singing about being taken to church is back with Unreal Unearth, an album written during the pandemic and triggered by our hero’s fascination with Dante’s Inferno. Might not be a barrel of chuckles.

n Island Records, Friday 18 August.

CUMGIRL8

Six-track EP phantasea pharm (it’s meant to make you think of a ‘fantasy farm’) is this New York City quartet’s debut release which they insist was inspired by Ella Fitzgerald’s version of ‘Old MacDonald’.

n 4AD, Friday 18 August.

BOOKS

CATHERINE CHIDGEY

This award-winning New Zealand writer gives us Pet, a psychological thriller set in the 1980s, seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old whose life is rocked when a thief targets her school.

n Europa Editions, Friday 14 July.

PAUL DALGARNO

The former Herald scribe publishes A Country Of Eternal Light, his novel about a woman reflecting on her life and the historical events that she lived through. She has plenty time to do this as she is now dead. But what is she able to remember and what is she desperate to forget?

n Birlinn, Thursday 3 August.

JENNI FAGAN

Ootlin: A Memoir tells the story of this acclaimed author who was born into care and lived in 14 different homes before she was seven. Unsurprisingly, her life was miserable but she somehow managed to find a purpose through a fascination with words.

n Hutchinson Heinemann, Thursday 24 August.

GAMES DISNEY ILLUSION ISLAND

Just to show that videogames aren’t all about tearing someone’s head straight off, here’s a wholesome little adventure to get your thumbs buzzing, as Mickey and pals go on the hunt for three mystical books that will save the world.

n Nintendo Switch, Friday 28 July.

TV THEN YOU RUN

A crew of teen pals are off on a jolly to Rotterdam when things take a turn for the nasty, and they wind up being hotly pursued across Europe by a series of deadly criminals.

n Sky Max/NOW, Friday 7 July.

BEANIE BUBBLE

Ever wondered what Shiv Roy did next? Or, at least, the actress who played her? Well, here’s Sarah Snook cropping up with a totally unrecognisable Zach Galifianakis (he’s had a shave) in a film about Beanie Babies, the 1990s toys that sent the world into quite a frenzy.

n Apple TV+, Friday 28 July.

Then You Run (and bottom from left), cumgirl8, Beanie Bubble, Hozier

Broadcaster, author and journalist

Caitlin Moran returns with a new book all about the challenges and dangers of modern masculinity. In our Q&A, she talks about misty existential hinterlands, beautiful harmonic revenge, and picking up poo with Chris Packham

Who would you like to see playing you in the movie about your life? Well, obviously (and aware I sound like a cunt), this has already happened: 2020’s How To Build A Girl was basically the story of my life (fat teenage council-estate girl becomes rock journalist, experiences many penises, learns that ‘being nice’ is generally more useful and soothing than ‘being constantly legendary’) and the very great Beanie Feldstein, from Booksmart and Lady Bird, played me. I went to her wedding last month; she married the producer of the film! They met on set!! Their relationship is the single-greatest by-product of

me being alive, apart from my children and my invention of The Cheese Lollipop (a lump of cheese on a fork. Eat slowly).

If you were to return in a future life as an animal, what would it be? I think I answered this question whilst in the misty existential hinterland between incarnations with the word ‘dog’, as when I look at my life in its entirety, I really do seem to have lived the life of a dog. I wouldn’t describe all my choices over the last 47 years as ‘100% human’, up to and including jumping up and licking people’s faces from excitement.

PICTURE: ALEX LAKE@TWOSHORTDAYS

If you were playing in an escape room name two other people you’d recruit to help you get out? Obviously, Ray Mears and Chris Rock. Ray Mears would practically get us out with his peerless survival skills, and Chris Rock would give a running, sarcastic commentary on the whole thing.

When was the last time you were mistaken for someone else? I’m sporadically asked to ‘go on the red carpet’ and always decline, because 101% of the people there will be more famous than me. But the one time I was ‘made’ to do it, the first photographer shouted, ‘OVER HERE, PALOMA!’ because we have the same hair. All I could see was my mate Sali behind them literally collapsing with laughter.

What’s the best cover version ever? There’s a nine-minute full work-out of ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ by Santa Esmerelda which is absolutely fucking barking. But my tricksy answer would be Fleetwood Mac’s 2004 live version of ‘Silver Springs’, essentially a cover of their 1976 original. Stevie Nicks’ voice is a full, husky key lower than the studio version, and she’s singing ‘I’ll follow you down til the sound of my voice will haunt you’ to former lover Lyndsey Buckingham, in the decades-long knowledge that her original lyrics predicted the future perfectly: he HAS been haunted by her voice for half his lifetime. He should never have screwed her over. And every night, she sings it to him; salt in the wound. Long, beautiful, harmonic revenge.

Whose speaking voice soothes your ears? Definitely not mine. I will run out of any room where I hear it. Difficult, given that it comes out of me.

Tell us something you wish you had discovered sooner in life? Silicone powder for hair. Instant root-life, without back-combing. A Spanish friend calls it ‘hair cocaine’, in that it makes your hair high. Fully four inches higher.

Describe your perfect Saturday evening?

Chickpea stew and four episodes of Nothing To Declare, the documentary series about customs at Sydney Airport. A Canadian woman once tried to smuggle a cat in her handbag into Australia. When asked why, she replied, ‘it’s my emotional support cat. I suffer from anxiety and I have come to Australia to hang glide, so needed my cat with me.’ So many questions . . .

THE Q& A WITH CAITLIN MORAN

If you were a ghost, who would you haunt? Trump. My greatest dream is to see him shit himself live on TV, and maybe ‘a ghost’ could help with that.

If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be? I probably would go back and relive the birth of my children. As they both happened over 20 years ago, I can’t believe these two now-adult women actually came out of my toilet-area. It all still seems so very unlikely.

What’s your earliest recollection of winning something? I won a tin of coloured pencils at school for ‘best cupcakes’. All the other children had quite obviously got their parents to help them as their cupcakes were very neatly iced. Mine just looked like a mad bag of shit.

Did you have a nickname at school that you were ok with? ‘Fatty’, a nickname no fat person has ever enjoyed.

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?

Kate Bush, and it would be me and 12 other similarly Kate Bush-obsessed middle-aged women, and we would be called Mothering Heights. Time to invent Mum Rock.

When were you most recently astonished by something? The government committee that’s supposed to be tackling the sewage crisis in our rivers and seas revealed they’d only met once in the last year. Yeah, no rush; we live in a world of poo where otters are chewing used Tampax like Winston Churchill with a red cigar, but don’t break into a sweat, guys.

Which famous person would be your ideal holiday companion? Chris Packham. We’d go on a nature walk and he’d tell me everything we’re looking at, and we’d pick up poo and identify it, and I’d tell him that I love him.

As an adult, what has a child said to you that made a powerful impact?

Well, when my daughter told me she had an eating disorder and was ‘too scared’ to drink water in case it made her ‘fat’, that was powerful in the same way a nuclear explosion is ‘powerful’. She had to fight hard over the next four years to get better. But she’s amazing, and she did, and she’s fully recovered now.

Tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise people? If I couldn’t write, I’d want to be a town planner? I’m obsessed with how where you live dictates how you live.

When did you last cry? At Beanie Feldstein’s wedding. She and her new wife, Bonnie, wrote the most beautiful, intense, honest, loving vows.

What’s the most hi-tech item in your home? Technically, the human brain is still, to our knowledge, the most sophisticated, advanced and complex thing in all of time and space. So, I guess it’s me.

What’s a skill you’d love to learn but never got round to? I’d love to speak several languages or, more specifically, think in different languages. That’s got to be transformative; we are so shaped by the words in our heads and how we use them. I’d love to be able to take a driving lesson without screaming, ‘I KNOW I’M GOING TO CRASH AND TAKE THE LIVES OF SEVERAL INNOCENTS.’ And I’d love to be able to do modern street-dance, and just pop a Worm without throwing my back out.

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? Now we’ve got a telly in the kitchen, the living room could go. So long as you’ve got a telly somewhere, you can technically do without a sofa. Just sit on the table instead.

If you were selected as the next 007, where would you pick as your first luxury destination for espionage? Venice. I want to see it before cataclysmic global warming makes it sink, once more, beneath the waves; a testimony to how humanity still hasn’t realised it will have to change to save the things that it purports to adore and value. Nice cheerful note to end on! Actually, I can’t end on a sad note; it’s against all my core values. So I’m going to say Wolverhampton, because I want to see 007 try and be a flash prick when up against one of my admirably dolorous hometown people, who would look at his Aston Martin and tell him, ‘to be fair, bab, I wouldn’t leave that in the Lidl car park: you’ll get keyed.’

What About Men? is published by Ebury on Thursday 6 July; Caitlin Moran talks about the book at Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Saturday 15 July.

hot shots

When some friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand (never a good idea), they become hooked on the thrill. One of them takes it too far and supernatural forces are inevitably unleashed. Directed by the Philippou brothers, the Talk To Me terror arrives on Friday 28 July.

Half a century of boundary-pushing new wave synth-pop, deadpan kitsch and matching outfits is over as Ohio legends Devo hit the farewell tour trek with a stopoff at O2 Academy Edinburgh (Thursday 17 August). Whip it, folks!

He may have been donning a gator onesie the last time you saw him on these pages, but here James Acaster is back playing that idiosyncratic version of himself we know and love. The Kettering lad will perform four dates of his Hecklers Welcome show at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal (Sunday 13–Wednesday 16 August).

EDINBURGH’S FAVOURITE FREE TO ENTER FOOD FESTIVAL

FRIDAY 21 to SUNDAY 30 JULY, GEORGE SQUARE GARDENS

OVER 25 OF SCOTLAND’S BEST STREET FOOD TRADERS

ARTISAN PRODUCERS MARKET

New for 2023 is the Artisan Producers Market, where Scotland’s most interesting specialist food and drink producers will sell their wares. With a revolving line up of extraordinary vendors and award winning produce, visitors can taste and sample the best produce from Scotland’s larder. Vendors include Hungry Squirrel Nut Butters / Rhyze Mushrooms / Kama’s Comfort Food Vegan Sushi / Panther M*lk/ Cannoli Get Better, and many more.

LIVE COOKING DEMONSTRATIONS / WORKSHOPS / TALKS

The event programme starts daily at 12:30pm, and includes free children’s activities, such as Rhyze Mushroom’s Mini Mushroom Alchemy workshop. Afternoons feature Live Cooking Demonstrations from top Scottish chefs including Sarah Rankin and Ka Pao’s Sandy Browning, plus Talks, Workshops and ticketed events such as Kimchi and Kraut Masterclasses from Edinburgh Fermentarium. All activities seek to engage attendees whilst exploring this year’s festival key themes of Ethical Eating / Seasonality / Soul Food / Plant Based Living / Mood Impacting Foods and the Zero Waste Kitchen.

Alanda’s Gelato / Alanda’s Seafood and Grill / Bacchus Sangria Bar / Bellfield Brewery / Cargo Kitchen / Chick + Pea / Chix / Delhi’s Winter / Jarvis Pickle / Kebabbar / Mana Poké / Moskito Spanish Bites / Okanda / Paddle and Peel Pizza / Panther M*lk / Prime Street Food / Stranger’s Point Gin / The Caravan of Courage / The Falafel Stop / The Funnel Cake Co. / The Peruvian / We Sell Dumplings / Wholly Waffles

BUYTICKETSNOWAT FRINGEBYTHESEA.COM

220+ MUSIC, COMEDY, FAMILY, LITERATURE, WELLBEING & EXPLORATION EVENTS ACROSS TEN DAYS IN NORTH BERWICK

TRAVIS • SISTER SLEDGE • GROOVE ARMADA (DJ SET)

PEAT & DIESEL • ELKIE BROOKS • K.O.G

ALY BAIN & PHIL CUNNINGHAM • BOMBSKARE

GENO WASHINGTON & THE RAM JAM BAND • GOBY • CORTO.ALTO • SOUND EFFECTS

PHILIP CONTINI AND HIS BE HAPPY BAND • WILD WOMEN DON’T HAVE THE BLUES

SOUNDS OF SCOTLAND • JONNY WILLIAMS & THE LAST RANGERS • BEMZ & THE HONEY FARM SPIRIT OF SKIFFLE • HAMISH MCGREGOR’S JAZZMEN

DARA Ó BRIAIN • DYLAN MORAN • ANDY CATO • ADAM FROST

MAGGIE O’FARRELL • HAMZA YASSIN • PATRICK GRANT • VIGGO VENN

ALISTAIR DARLING • SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON • MARK BEAUMONT

SUSIE MCCABE • DENISE MINA • CAL MAJOR • WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

HOLLIE MCNISH, MICHAEL PEDERSON & WITHERED HAND • JEAN-LUC BARBANNEAU

BOOZY BOOK CLUB – KAREN CAMPBELL • SEAN LUSK • MEGAN MCCUBBIN • ELEANOR TUCKER

GRAEME MACRAE BURNET • SALLY MAGNUSON • GILES & MARY ON COUNTRY LIFE

SPLASH TEST DUMMIES • DICK V DOM DJ BATTLE

INTERNATIONAL FILM ORCHESTRA PRESENTS THE SPECTACULAR MUSIC OF HARRY POTTER • ARTIE’S SINGING KETTLE

ROALD DAHL’S THE THREE LITTLE PIGS ON TOUR

MR BOOM • SKYE MCKENNA • ALEXANDER THE GREAT • HELEN PETERS • ABI ELPHINSTONE MONSKI MOUSE BABY DISCO • SILENT DISCO • THINK CIRCUS TAKEOVER

KEVIN QUANTUM: AND FOR MY NEXT TRICK • MISS GOOGIEPANTS • CEILIDH KIDS

PLUS: WOOL SCHOOL WORKSHOPS • SURFSKATE SESSIONS • YOGA & MINDFULNESS

COASTAL WALKS • DUDENDANCE • MAKE MESS MATTER • MASK MAKING • DANCE WORKSHOPS

EZEE RIDER BIKE TOURS • BIOBLITZ BY THE SEA • WANDERWOMEN • FANTOOSH SKETCHING

WE GOT NUTS CINEMA • ROCKPOOL RAMBLE • GLENMORANGIE MASTERCLASSES... and much more!

All nestled in the beautiful Lodge Grounds, North Berwick, with delicious street food, Coulters Makers Market and the Lighthouse Live music stage.

MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO EDINBURGH