The Skinny Scotland June 2016

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June 2016 Scotland Issue 129

MEET THE RISING STARS OF SCOTTISH MAKING THEIR NAMES IN SHORT FILM

ANIMATION

MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | TECH | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | FASHION | TRAVEL | FOOD | DEVIANCE | LISTINGS

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P.28 SAY Award Preview

P.29 Matteo Garrone, Tale of Tales

P.34 Lauren Eliza (Heriot -Watt Fashion Graduate)

P.30 Kate Leth, Glasgow Comic Con

June 2016 I N DEPEN DENT

CULTU R AL

JOU R NALI S M

Issue 129, June 2016 Š Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business.

Get in touch to find out more.

E: sales@theskinny.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher.

Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle ABC verified Jan – Dec 2015: 30,875

printed on 100% recycled paper

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Contents

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Music & Deputy Editor Editorial Assistant Art Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Deviance Editor Events Editor Fashion Editor Film & DVD Editor Food Editor Theatre Editor Travel Editor

Rosamund West Dave Kerr Will Fitzpatrick Adam Benmakhlouf Alan Bett Claire Francis Ben Venables Kate Pasola Kate Pasola Alexandra Fiddes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Emma Ainley-Walker Paul Mitchell

Production Production Manager Lead Designer

Sarah Donley Sigrid Schmeisser

Sales Sales Executives

General Manager Publisher

George Sully Sandy Park Grant Cunningham Kyla Hall Sophie Kyle

THE SKINNY

Contents Welcome to the magazine: Get your 06 fix of last minute news! Learn what the future holds, courtesy of Mystic Mark’s Crystal Baws! And check out the other amazing things you can read online at theskinny.co.uk!

Heads Up: Since we’re all trying to 08 ignore the alarming fact that we’ve reached the halfway point of the year already, why not distract yourself with some important news about lovely cultural happenings? There you go, much better.

31 Two remarkable tales: Wolfgang Bauer went undercover with Syrian refugees, while Jürgen Todenhöfer negotiated a dubious promise of safety from the Islamic State.

LIFESTYLE

32 Showcase: Photographer Alice Myers

shares some images from her new book documenting the lives of refugees in Calais.

34 Fashion: Heriot-Watt student Lauren

FEATURES

10 Edinburgh International Film Festival

is back, and what better way to celebrate than by looking at the rising stars of Scotland’s short film scene?

12 As EIFF's wide-ranging Focus on Finland strand gives audiences a chance to get a flavour of the nation's cinema, we speak to some of the filmmakers breaking out beyond its borders.

Eliza explores gender fluidity in her Autumn/Winter collection – we sneak a peak at the results.

37 Food and Drink: Food on TV? Food

programmes on the internet? Whatever will they think of next? EDIT: they’ll think of noodle art, according to our Phagomania column.

39 Deviance: Whether censoring nippes or ignoring reports of misogyny, it’s clear that Facebook is failing feminism.

15 Parquet Courts divided opinion with

last year’s experimental diversion – here Austin Brown tells us about pushing for progress with this year’s sublime Human Performance.

REVIEW

41 Music: Chilling with Kindness and his

as we discuss the triumphant return of Wolf Parade.

favourite records (note: contains lots of Missy Elliott); Kaspar Hauser’s hymn to goth makes up our new blood; plus reviews of this month’s records, including Deerhoof, DJ Shadow and WOMPS.

18 De La Soul' Posdnuos reminisces on

49 Clubs: Andrew Weatherall in Edinburgh.

What’s the link between chicken wings 16 and immortality? Dan Boeckner explains

discovering rap in his youth, the secret to the group’s endurance and Kickstarting their first album since 2004.

19 With her new book Animal already on

the shelves, comedian Sara Pascoe talks sexual evolution and education as she brings her show of the same name to Scotland.

21 The first of the year’s graduate show-

cases, Dundee Degree Show presented a wealth of talent and a focus on the personal.

Leith was swallowed up by Edinburgh in 22 1920, but its artistic community retains an individualistic flair. Join us as we explore the importance of LeithLate in its sixth year. your chance to have your (cough) 28 It’s ‘say’ in this year’s SAY Award! Allow us to refresh your memories of a mighty longlist featuring Young Fathers, CHVRCHES and more.

fairy 29 Director Matteo Garrone talks Tale of tales ahead of the release of Tales.

30 Marvel’s righteous Kate Leth explains how the battle is being won for women in comics, ahead of her appearance at this year’s Glasgow Comic Con.

June 2016

Theo Kottis in Glasgow. Summer Skank Out. What more could an enthusiastic clubber want? Well, here’s a load of ace events anyway.

50 Competitions: Win tickets for Mugstock!

51 Art: June’s exhibition highlights, and

reviews of Sol Calero and Akram Zaatari.

52 Film: Reviews include The Nice Guys,

Studio Ghibli’s When Marnie Was There and The Last Command DVD release.

55 Comedy: Fred Fletch surprises us all

with a thoughtful look at the comedians volunteering in the Calais Jungle.

54 Theatre: Performing all 38 Shakespeare

plays is a mammoth task, but Kirk Bage is on his way to completing it. He tells us about the ongoing success of Bard in the Botanics.

55 Books: The poetry column talks to Jenny Lindsay about life after Rally & Broad, plus reviews including Neu Reekie’s Untitled 2.

56 Listings: What’s on and where in June, NB there's loads.

63 Travel: A traveller who visited a Bangkok ping pong show considers the brutal implications of the Thai sex trade.

Contents

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Editorial

‘T

is the season when everyone starts commenting on the fact that the year is half over and what have you done? In this June edition of The Skinny you will find various mentions of this timely reminder of your lack of productivity in 2016. Please enjoy the existential crisis – it’s what summer was invented for.

Our cover story this month ties in with Edinburgh International Film Festival, arriving in the capital for its 70th edition from 15-26 June. We’ve focussed on the short filmmakers who’re making some of the most exciting work coming out of Scotland right now, and quizzed them about how their creative scene functions in this new era of Vimeo and YouTube liberating artists from the previous inevitability of moving to London to make a fortune. i.e. you can live up here and still have a successful career these days. BAFTA winners Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson discuss their impending early career retrospective – if you don’t know their work you should head to the internet and watch Scroogin on a Greg for a taste of the lighter side of their output. You will not be disappointed.

In further exploration of EIFF, our Film editor flew to Helsinki to bring you a closer look at the wealth of Finnish cinema, one of the focusses of the Film Fest 2016. Our pun department are considering options for the title as I type, so that’s something to look forward to. We’ve also had some words with the director of new twisted fairy tale Tale of Tales, Matteo Garrone, while on our website you will find an interview with Eva Husson, whose debut film Bang Gang concerns a group of high school kids who decide to start their own private orgy club. Salacious.

In Music this month, New York’s Parquet Courts talk about their most successful release to date, Human Performance, ahead of their live date in Edinburgh’s La Belle Angele. As Wolf Parade return from a five-year hiatus, guitarist and vocalist Dan Boeckner reveals the true glory of having a chicken wing named after you. Kindness – producer and musician Adam Bainbridge – guides us through a shuffle selection of his music collection, which turns out to be heavily into Missy Elliot.

Finally, the Scottish Album of the Year award will

be announced in Paisley at the end of the month and they want you to get voting for your favourite.

We take a look through the longlist and offer some unbiased thoughts on the varied selection.

If it’s June then it must be degree show time for the art world. Dundee’s already happened and Edinburgh is in progress as we go to print. Our Art editor offers his thoughts on the DJCAD class of 2016 here, and you will find extended reviews of ECA and GSA popping up on our website in the coming weeks (theskinny.co.uk/art). LeithLate is also back this month, with a weekend of events on Leith Walk and the surrounding area culminating, fittingly, in an afterparty in the Hibs Supporters’ Club. We spoke to a couple of the organisers to get the lowdown on the night and the project as a whole.

Finally, the centre of the magazine takes a look outside our locality at the world beyond.

In our Showcase you will see the photography of Alice Myers, which documents the experience of refugees. It’s launching as a book this month, so we present a short extract of her attempt to trace the painful reality of the human experience.

In Books, we speak to two journalists committed to reporting on the catastrophic events playing out in North Africa. Wolfgang Bauer went undercover to share the journey of Syrian refugees fleeing the terror of war, while Jürgen Todenhöfer confronted that terror, spending ten days as a guest of the Islamic State alongside his photographer son. We spoke to each, and the resulting interview is a fascinating read. [Rosamund West]

Win Tickets To Take Part In Rough Runner!

Win tickets to take part in Rough Runner!

Rough Runner is a gameshow-inspired obstacle event – the UK's only such event, no less. Inspired by the likes of Gladiators and Wipeout, it features distance options ranging from 5-15km, plus 20 epic obstacles along the way. It is, we’re assured, ‘the most fun you can have in running gear!’

Wanna win tickets to take part? You and a team of three pals could be racing up The Travelator or climbing through The Wringer – simply head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and tell us which celebrity you'd most like to put through The Wringer and why. The best or funniest answer will take home the prize, and our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Edinburgh Art Festival commissions, and Ingleby Gallery on the move The EAF has revealed the details of its commisJacky Sheridan is a Belfast based illustrator who sions for 2016, with new work from Graham Fagen, specialises in hand drawn typography, editorial & Roderick Buchanan, Bani Abidi, Jonathan Owen, branding work, and generally drawing the obscene. Olivia Webb and Sally Hackett alongside the preShe is a walking Irish stereotype and her dream viously-announced Dazzle Ship from Turner Prize illustration job would be commissioned to design nominee Ciara Phillips. This year’s EAF runs from beer bottle labels. You can find more of her work 28 Jul to 28 Aug, but the Dazzle Ship is on display at jackysheridan.com, or as JackySheridan on now at Leith Docks.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In further art news, Edinburgh’s Ingleby Gallery is moving – from 1 June, the gallery is moving from Calton Road to its new home at 6 Carlton Terrace.

JUNE'S COVER ARTIST

Le Guess Who? reveals first bands for 2016 Swans, Dinosaur Jr and Cate Le Bon are among the first bands confirmed for the festival in the Dutch city of Utrecht this November. LGW will also feature artist-curated line-ups chosen by Wilco, Savages, Julia Holter and Suuns; the festival runs from 10-13 Nov, keep up-to-date this festival season at theskinny.co.uk/festivals T Break bands for 2016 announced The sixteen acts making up this year’s T Break stage at T in the Park have been announced, with 2016's line-up including Edinburgh power rock trio Miracle Glass Company, alt-folk outfit Foreignfox, art pop four-piece The Vegan Leather and Glasgow-based songwriter Declan Welsh.

Read the full list of bands and catch up on all the latest T-related news at theskinny.co.uk/festivals – T in the Park 2016 takes place from 8-10 July at Strathallan Castle, Perthshire.

Edinburgh Fringe and Edinburgh Book Festival It’s festival time! Well, almost. The full programme for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe hits the streets on 8 June, with the Book Festival programme launching the following day. Head to theskinny.co.uk/news for all the details.

Online Only theskinny.co.uk/travel Our Living Abroad series continues over on the website – this month we have guides to life in Delhi, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Mexico City for your perusal. theskinny.co.uk/food Get braced for summer (if it ever arrives) with our pick of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s best beer gardens; we’ve also knocked together a fool-proof guide to drinking in Edinburgh’s various green spaces. You’re very welcome.

jockmooney.co.uk

theskinny.co.uk/clubs Soundtrack your reading with a trio of expertlycurated playlists: Francois K and Luke Vibert present their Guest Selector lists, and our Skinned mix series continues courtesy of Kickflip Mike.

Edinburgh and Glasgow's Best Beer Gardens

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Chat

THE SKINNY

Crystal Baws With Mystic Mark

ARIES This month your flatmates bring up the issue of you flushing your empty beer cans down the toilet. After a heated exchange, culminating in them drawing you detailed diagrams on how both toilets and the refuse collection infrastructure work, you are forced into a compromise, agreeing you’ll at least try to refrain from doing it on weekdays, but only if they stop storing all their bloody food in the fridge.

TAURUS Having sex on a train is worth two wanks in a helicopter. Mark it off on your score sheet.

GEMINI After suffering from coughing fits for the best part of six weeks you finally cave in to advice from friends and butt chug a bottle of cough medicine. Although it doesn’t seem to work for your cough,

you do rid yourself of your fits of dry, tickly farts. Your days of putting your hand over your arse when farting to prevent the spread of germs are over.

LIBRA It’s lovely to think that tattoo you just got will one day decorate your bloated corpse.

CANCER The Bullingdon Club visit your local foodbank, ostensibly to deliver a single can of Tesco Value baked beans, sniggering and guffawing as they do so. The staff accept it warily and add it to the inventory before turning to see the floppyhaired leader defecate noisily on the counter prior to the group running off tittering into the night brandishing bottles of Bollinger Special Cuvée.

SCORPIO This month you are uncovered as one of Britain’s most notorious paedophilephiles. After a police raid on your home your hard-drives, containing over 50,000 graphic mugshots of paedophiles, are found. The headlines shock the public, with allegations that you lurked outside the school gates to get a glimpse of the paedophiles waiting outside the school gates, wanking at them from the bushes, chanting your now-infamous motto: “The hunter has become the hunted.”

LEO This month you sue the council for that chlamydia you got from the park toilet glory hole they had neglected to plaster over.

VIRGO Poo comes out of top celebs like Kylie Minogue and James Bond on a regular basis.

SAGITTARIUS Your newborn looks a lot like you. Small and fat with a fat, bald, blood-covered head, scrunched up toothless grin and confused, barely-sentient gaze, unable to even make out shapes while it shits itself twice a day, crying because it can’t locate a pair of tits.

CAPRICORN You keep picking the small scab on your face until the entire face itself is one huge scab. If you keep it up you’ll achieve full body scab coverage by the end of the year and earn the glory of entering the Guinness Book of Records. You can do it.

AQUARIUS This month you hand out leaflets on the high street detailing your conspiracy theory that the SEA LEVEL RISES AREN’T CAUSED BY THE MELTING ICECAPS AS THE ILLUMINATI SHILLS AT NASA WANT YOU TO BELIEVE, BUT ARE INSTEAD CAUSED BY THE OUT OF CONTROL GROWTH OF FISH PUBES. PISCES Taking out your sex robot’s anal cavity you bang a load more processor chips and RAM up there. That way, while not being used for its primary purpose, the robot can perform menial, yet equally important tasks like accounting. Your personal assistant-slash-bangbot. twitter.com/themysticmark facebook.com/themysticmark

Shot Of The Month Tacocat, Electric Circus Edinburgh, 3 May by Rita Azevedo

Spot the Difference TWO MAPS OF SCOTLAND Politics, eh? It’s the toughest game in the world – so much sitting around, so many discussions, with only your constituents’ mail and blue-ticked Twitter account for company. This month sees the EU referendum, but for now we’re looking at two identical images, each showing the electoral map following last month’s Holyrood elections BUT HANG ON! There’s something about these two maps that we can’t quite locate; a tiny,

imperceptible difference between these two images that could have enormous political consequences if we can’t work out which one’s the real map. Do you want that to happen? Of course not.

If you can spot the difference between these two maps, head on over to theskinny.co.uk/ competitions and let us know. The best/ funniest answer wins a copy of I’m Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti, courtesy of the top lads at Canongate.

Competition closes at midnight on Sun 26 Jun. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found attheskinny.co.uk/about/terms

June 2016

Opinion

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Queer Theory cabaret returns to Glasgow, on the first day of June, enlisting musicians, comedians, performance artists and poets to geek up on queerness and flip a couple of birds at The Man. Head along to Sleazys to get involved, exploring what’s ‘beneath the belt and deep inside the heart’ with the likes of Black Doves, Scott Agnew and Anna Secret Poet.

Nice ‘N’ Sleazy, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £5 Sundara Karma

Mon 6 Jun

Today we wave g’bye to Imaginate Festival, a programme of theatre and dance for children in Edinburgh. If you’ve got a small-fry you fancy treating to some live entertainment, try The Bookbinder, a fantastical tale in which a bookbinding apprentice is drawn into a fantastical turn of events. Expect paper sculpture, puppetry, shadows, music and lashings of charm. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 11.30am, £8-12

Go and get stuck into some delicious surrealism at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Opening on 4 June, Surreal Encounters brings together works of art from four collections, those of Edward James, Roland Penrose, Gabrielle Keiller and Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch. Even bloody lobster telephone makes an appearance – worth your dollar indeed if tripping balls is up your street. Until Sep 2016, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, £8-10

The Bookbinder

Rene Magritte, Le Modèle rouge III (The Red Model III), 1937, Oil on canvas, 206 x 158 x 5cm

Sat 11 Jun

Sun 12 Jun

Mon 13 Jun

Ladies and Gentleman. It’s World Gin Day. WAIT – let’s plan this properly so you don’t end up clutching sliced limes and sobbing Bombay Sapphire tears.

What today needs is structure, and there’s no better way to achieve that than with Edinburgh Juniper Festival (10-12 June). With over 30 gins, street food, cocktails anad crafts, it’s the perfect way to spend a gin-filled day. Summerhall, times vary, £17.50-21.50

Whet your appetite for Edinburgh International Film Festival this weekend with Film Fest In The City as St Andrew’s Square is transformed into an outdoor cinema with screenings of 15 movies, featuring everything from Mad Max to The Breakfast Club. And, of course, they’ll be showing Grease – a perfect opportunity to wail Sandy at the top of your lungs in the most fitting of settings.

St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh, times vary, free

Glasgow's West End Festival (3-26 Jun) continues, squeezing 400 events into around 80 venues. As part of the fest, Belle and Sebastian are treating ‘weegie crowds to a string of shows. If you can’t make their Sunday Social at Òran Mór with Teen Canteen and The Johnny 7, try again today at GUU. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Plenty B&S to go round! GUU Debating Chambers, Glasgow, ticket prices vary

Juniper Festival

Credit: Collection: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (Formerly collection of E. James)

Sun 5 Jun

Anna Secret Poet

After four tremendous years stirring hearts and tickling funnybones, spoken word duo and cabaret organisers Rally & Broad have announced their final shows. Get yourself down to Bongo to see Lindsay and McCrum do their thing along with a belting line-up of performers in Once More, With Feeling.

Glasgow dwellers can get their fill on 19 June in an afternoon show at Stereo.

Bongo, Edinburgh, 7pm, £5

We really, really hope you’re not trying to embark on some sort of antibooze detox this month. It’s just not happening. Here’s yet another liquor-specific event (aw, c’mon, you love it!); North Hop Glasgow.

Head down for the holy summer triad of tunes, food and booze, with brewers, market vendors, chefs and cocktail makers all making the trip over to SWG3 for your consumption. SWG3, Glasgow, 12pm, £15-17.50

Eddie Izzard seems quite worried we’re going to screw ourselves over in the European referendum, so he’s getting all proactive about it and bribing the public with his new show Force Majeure 333. He’s promising three hours of material, in three languages, for three hours, because three truly is a magic number. (Know what else is a magic number? 23 June, the date of the referendum.) The Stand, Glasgow, 7pm, £16

Credit: Chris Scott

Sun 19 Jun

North Hop Glasgow

Thu 23 Jun

Fri 24 Jun

LeithLate returns with a (mostly) free programme of events, kicking off with its famous artcrawl. Embark on an art-gandering marathon with over 50 artists showcasing their work in around 20 venues, before heading over to the afterparty at The Hibernian Supporter’s Club where Nice Church and She-Bang Rave Unit will be on hand to help you celebrate what a lovely time you've had.

Leith Walk, 6pm, afterparty tickets £7

The annual GSA degree show swells into action between 18-25 June, so take your chance to see the blossoming artists exhibit the product of their toils while you can. The exhibition will showcase works from a variety of disciplines in spaces across the Glasgow School of Art, the Reid and Bourdon Buildings and the Tontine Building. 18-25 June, free, 11am-5pm daily

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Chat

Thon Man Molière

Belle and Sebastian

Sat 18 Jun

Ian Gouldstone, Nearest Neighbours, Multi-channel Installation, 2015

Liz Lochhead’s new play Thon Man Molière is borne of the former makar’s passionate interest in playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. However, her play isn’t some sort of dusty old bio-play telling the tale of the man known by his moniker Molière – far from. It’s actually a cackle fest, written with the intention to delight and surprise. But that’s all we’ll tell you… Until 11 June, The Lyceum, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £10-30

Film Fest In The City

Fri 17 Jun

Rally & Broad

Tue 7 Jun

Clara Hastrup (Painting & Printmaking), 2016

Credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

It's officially the middle of 2016.

Just let that sink in, and then mourn the bittersweet passing of time with this freakin' divine line-up of shindigs and festivals. Have fun! it'll be Christmas before you know it

Might be a Tuesday, but it's also the last day of May, meaning you're well within your rights to treat yourself to a midweek gig.

Fortunately, indie quartet Sundara Karma are set to visit Òran Mór as part of their UK tour, bringing with them a trunk full of exhilarating arena-ready treats. So that works out nicely, doesn’t it? Òran Mór, Glasgow, 7pm, £9

Credit: Stuart Moulding

Compiled by: Kate Pasola

Wed 1 Jun

Sun 19 Jun

Eddie Izzard

Ewan Hooper, The Glasgow Gastronomy Athenaeum (Architecture Stage 4)

THE SKINNY

Credit: Karon Maskill PR

Heads Up

Tue 31 May

Cross-platform arts festival Hidden Door continues its nine day residence at its renovated King’s Stables haunt right through to 4 June, but we’ve got our beady eyes on today’s line-up, headlined by downtempo electronica and r'n'b artist Rosie Lowe and brought to Edinburgh by Glasgow feminanarchists TYCI. The daytime also features visual art, performance, poetry and film, so make sure to go explore. Kings Stables Road, Edinburgh, 12pm-12am, £13-15

The men in suits shut down plans for the return of the Cowgate Pop Up Market back in April, but don't you worry, don't you worry, reader. The Pop Up's got a plan for you. And that plan consists of relocating the cancelled event to Custom House Leith and inviting you down to get a load of the crafts, design, clothing, vintage, music and food on offer. Custom House, Edinburgh, 10am, free

Hidden Door Festival

La Fontaines

Cowgate Pop Up Market

Fri 10 Jun

It's a big month for Invershnizzle as XpoNorth also takes grip between 8-9 May, bringing speakers, artists, musicians, publishers, film-makers and crafters together for a grand old time. You'll have the chance to sit in on talks and workshops from industry leaders before heading on down for a corker of a live music programme including The Pictish Trail, Catholic Action, Breakfast Muff, WOMPS and American Clay. Various venues, Inverness, free

Mid-May saw the release of a new post-apocalyptic tale from Joe Hill (aka Joseph Hillström King). The novel, entitled The Fireman followed up his previous hits Horns and NOS 4R2. Luckily for you, Hill’s got plans to visit both Glasgow and Edinburgh for a good ol’ chinwag about his terrifying tale. Go wag that chin.

Waterstones, Glasgow, 1pm and Blackwells, Edinburgh, 7pm

This weekend The Fruitmarket fills two whole floors of exhibition space with its annual Design Market.

For two days you’ll get to peruse prints, jewellery, fashion and homeware from the likes of Caroline Dowsett, East End Press, CSWA_, Fiona Luing Jewellery and The Lindström Effect. There’ll also be workshops and events to get you one step closer to realising your ambitions as an extremely successful crafter. Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, 10am, free

Joe Hill

Wed 15 Jun

Thu 16 Jun

Fan of a good printed canvas bag? Sick of touting someone else’s message on your tote? Between Paradise Palms and Pop-Up Scotland, you’re sorted, pal.

As part of their Pub Craft Club series, The Palms are hosting a DIY tote-printing session, where you’ll learn the basics of screenprinting and get all the materials necessary to print the EDGIEST of totes. Paradise Palms, Edinburgh, 6.30pm, £15

Glasgow gets all nerdy with its tenth annual Science Festival from 9-16 June, boasting a programme more banging than the squeaky pop test. Today’s offerings include an interactive space-age art show called Space for Art, a live podcast recording with Simon Watt called Level Up Human exploring what it is to be a homosapien, and an ice cream making / bug-eating workshop with leading Food Bioscientists. Times, venues and prices vary

Now onto their third studio album, Parquet Courts prove a keen eye for the creation of clever, stimulating but morish rock. Human Performance, released via Rough Trade boasts the playful poesy of Ought and escapist seashore riffs of Mac Demarco. However, the whole – far more than the sum of its parts – is well worth seeing in the flesh.

La Belle Angèle, Edinburgh, 7pm, £12.50

Pub Craft Club

Credit: m_culnane (flickr

Tue 14 Jun

Glasgow Science Festival

Wed 22 Jun

...Sticking with the theme of rib-tickling, today’s recommendation will also bring forth some hearty lols, courtesy of Sarah Pascoe’s Animal. Turning her attention to history, Pascoe’s latest show is loaded with stories of Tony Blair, Oedipus Rex and Jason Donovan.

The show is a follow-up to her book of the same name, released in May. Read an interview with the woman herself on p19. The Stand, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £12

Happy World Music Day! All aboard the celebratory bandwagon, there’s tonnes to do. Head to CCA for a Jamathon with Paragon followed by an inclusive performance of music, dance and theatre. Get crooned at by Sun Kil Moon in the glorious setting of Glasgow’s St Luke’s. Failing that, dose up on The Billy Walton Band at Edinburgh Blues Club. Times, locations and prices vary

After kicking off on 15 June, the 70th annual EIFF continues today, filling Edina’s filmic venues with a handsome programme bookended by Scottish talent.

Along with Trainspotting and Highlander galas, there’s the usual short film strand, mountains of new feature films and an impressive line-up of documentaries. Head over to page 10 to read up on this year’s celluloid offerings. Times, prices and venues vary

Credit: Ed Moore

Tue 21 Jun

Trainspotting

Sun Kil Moon

Sun 26 Jun

Mon 27 Jun

Visit Tramway today to see choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's company Rosas perform Fase, a menacingly repetitive and hypnotic sequence of dances including one solo and three duets performed to the music of Steve Reich.

The piece is one of De Keersmaeker's most famous works to date and isn’t to be missed if you’re into avantgarde dance. 24-25 June, Tramway, Glasgow, 7.30pm

Okay, last booze fest. We promise. You’d hold it against us if we didn’t share this information. Today is Dundee’s turn to jubilate over brews with Dundee Beer Festival.

Dozens of brewers including Black Wolf, William’s Bros, Green Jack and Thistly Cross, loadsae live tunes and it’s all in aid of The Archie Foundation. Cheers. 24-26 June, Forthill Community Sports Club, Dundee, 12pm, ticket prices vary

Catch the tail end of Glasgow Jazz Festival (24-28 June) with majestic sax prodigy Kasami Washington at Queen Margie’s. His unapologetic triple album aptly entitled Epic received critical acclaim after its release on Flying Lotus in 2015, so go and forget what you think you know about Jazz and blow your own mind, one saxy scat at a time.

QMU, Glasgow, 8pm, £17.60

June 2016

Credit: Dom Kelly

Sat 25 Jun

Fase

Design Market

Parquet Courts

Mon 20 Jun

Sara Pascoe

Credit: Joe Hill

Thu 9 Jun

Credit: VERBALS PICKS

Wed 8 Jun

Credit: The Bongo Club 4

Sat 4 Jun

Time to scrape that mud off your wellies and optimistically purchase some sunscreen – IT’S FESTIVAL SEASON. Best kick things off than with Inversnecky’s Brew at the Bog, featuring the likes of Idlewild, C Duncan, White, Paws, Eliza Shaddad and De rosa.

There’ll also be an outdoor cinema, tonnes of art and comedy and the chance to rent out a yurt if you’re a fancy wee fuck. 3-4 June, Bogbain Farm, Inverness, £40-65

Kasami Washington

Chat

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Credit: Stuart Moulding

Fri 3 Jun

Credit: Sony Music

Thu 2 Jun

Short Stories This year, EIFF is brimming with home-grown feature films including its opening and closing galas, but it’s in the short animation category where you’ll find the most exciting innovations. We take the temperature of this vibrant indie film scene

T

hree years ago, The Skinny ran a cover story celebrating “a new dawn” of Scottish cinema.

Looking back with 20-20 hindsight, perhaps that was too bold a claim – but can you blame us for getting over excited? It was around the time Jonathan Glazer’s hallucinatory Glasgow-set sci-fi Under the Skin was doing the rounds on the festival circuit, David Mackenzie had just made Starred Up, his best film in years, and a trio of fine Scottish films (black comedy Filth, musical Sunshine on Leith and Paul Wright’s wildly audacious For Those In Peril) were released in UK cinemas within weeks of one another, each proving that Scottish film could be more than dour tales of alcohol-soaked misery.

Suffice to say, mainstream Scottish cinema couldn’t match this flood of great films. But it doesn’t mean we were wrong; we were simply channeling our ardour for home-grown moving image makers into the wrong medium. Recent Scottish feature films may not be able to hold a candle to Glazer’s feverish nightmare, but there have been films made in Scotland that get close.

It’s just that their run times are so brief they could be used to time the hard boiling of an egg.

We’re talking, of course, of short films. So far this year, no Scottish feature has emerged to match the mini-masterpieces we found at this year’s Glasgow Short Film Festival, and we’ll be amazed if, by the end of the year, we find a home-grown feature length work as visceral as Bryan Ferguson’s Flamingo, as humane as Scott Willis’s Dear Peter or as moving as Ross Hogg and Duncan Cowles’ Isabella, to name three of the best Scottish works we saw at GSFF. The latter, a heartbreaking study in memory and identity, won best Scottish Short at GSFF and audiences have a chance to see this evocative documentary-animation hybrid again at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it’ll compete for the McLaren Award, the festival’s

annual animation prize. Another fantastic animation that screened at GSFF also competes for the award, Cat Bruce’s elegiac stop-motion No Place Like Home.

The festival’s annual animation retrospective, meanwhile, is given over to the undoubted stars of Scottish short film of the last few years, Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, who between them have amassed over 50 festival awards, two Baftas and both have taken home the McLaren Award, Anderson winning for The Making of Longbird in 2012 and Henderson last year with Stems.

We could add to this list of film animator directors to emerge over the last few years, names like Claire Lamond, Kate Charter, Gavin Robertson, Ross Butler, Lewis Bolton… With EIFF approaching, now seems like a perfect time to take the temperature of this bubbling short film scene.

Creating a scene

Isabella co-director Duncan Cowles agrees that Scottish short film has been flourishing of late. “I think it’s always been strong,” says the Edinburgh filmmaker, “but I think a lot of talent has chosen to leave in the past. So filmmakers may have made a short and then moved away to London or elsewhere. What’s great at the moment is that a lot of filmmakers are beginning to choose Scotland as their home, and base for work.”

Should we thank London’s extortionate rents for stemming this mass exodus of talent, then?

Ainslie Henderson thinks there’s more to it. “Maybe being part of a community online with sites such as Vimeo and Twitter makes it feel like where you actually live matters less?” he suggests. “Not that it ‘mattering less’ is a reason to live in Scotland, but, maybe we’re starting to realise that a quality of life that lets you make good art is more important than being around people you need to schmooze.”

Crucially, this increase in filmmakers choosing

to base themselves in Scotland and build their practice here has proliferated a dynamic scene in which to work and be inspired. “I think I’m lucky to be part of a tight-knit group of filmmakers who generally want the same thing: to continue making work which we find exciting, important and thoughtprovoking,” says Ross Hogg, who studied at Glasgow School of Art but is now based in Edinburgh. “I have a studio space at Summerhall and there are a few other animators and filmmakers based there, which can sort of act as a support network,” he says.

“We don’t always work together or collaborate, but we do often share ideas, share equipment, and give each other feedback on projects – which can be a massive help!”

Cat Bruce shares similar sentiments: “A lot of the filmmakers are good pals: directors, cinematographers, animators, sound designers, producers etc. We all support each other and many people are happy to offer advice from their particular area of expertise.” As for professional rivalry, she says it doesn’t come up. “I think everyone is genuinely happy to see it when others succeed.”

Art schools to die for

Someone well placed to comment on Scotland’s short film scene, particularly its depth and breadth of talented animators, is Iain Garner, EIFF’s animation programmer. He sees a critical connection between all of the filmmakers mentioned above.

“What links them all is that Scottish art colleges are still promoting an ethos of critical thinking,” he says. In other words, art schools like Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh College of Art are not in the business of creating cookie-cutting practitioners who serve industry. “This is a bugbear of industry,” explains Gardner, who lectures at ECA. “It keeps saying, ‘We want graduates to come out that can do the jobs that we want done,’ but I think part of the reason we do have a rush of graduate success is that they’re critically enga-

Interview: Jamie Dunn

ged within the culture of what they’re doing and they haven’t just been trained to switch on a machine and do 3D modelling.”

This is certainly the case for Will Anderson.

“I have an art school background, and not a film one,” he tells us. “There you are encouraged to speak your mind and talk about things that are important to you. Personally, I can’t really make a film that I don’t understand or empathise with.

So maybe it’s to do with education in some way.”

He also adds, patriotically: “It’s also probably because Scotland is awesome.”

Bruce has a theory that ties Scotland’s low cost of living, its venerable art colleges and the current purple patch of short filmmaking all together. She suggests the relative affordability of Scotland not only keeps talent here, it’s what allows our most gifted young people to take a chance on entering the arts in the first place, and they in turn make the arts scene more vibrant. “Perhaps when there are little or no tuition fees, more people go to study something like film, from various walks of life, making a diverse learning environment, which is educationally beneficial,” Bruce says.

“People become used to being faced with ideas differing from their own, which would encourage more wide-ranging thoughts and ideas.” Pair this with the much discussed ‘democratisation of filmmaking’ thanks to the affordability of digital filmmaking hardware and software, and you start to see a wide talent pool develop.

Getting films on the scene seen

Cinema history is littered with new waves, but none yet have been born online; for this lively film scene to exist you have to convince audiences to watch the movies, to join you in the darkened auditoriums.

Lydia Beilby, EIFF’s short film programmer and founding member of moving-image collective Screen Banditas, knows there’s an audience for these films. “Because of our relative small size,

No Place Like Home (Cat Bruce)

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there is able to be that network of support in terms of venues in which to make your work or to show your work,” she explains. And from her own experience with Screen Banditas, she’s found that “people are hungry for cultural representations and there are a lot of grassroots organisations who are showing films or putting on theatre throughout the year.” These events bring artists and filmmakers together to talk and have ideas. “There are always people who are keen to see new work and speak to the filmmakers about it,” says Beilby, “so there’s this really interesting process of communication between artists and audience that’s going to-and-fro all the time.”

Walk through Filmhouse in Edinburgh during EIFF and you’ll see this to-and-fro in action – usually over a pint. “That’s another thing a lot of the short animation filmmakers have in common,” says Hogg, “they have screened their work at EIFF. Iain Gardner is immensely supportive of Scottish animation filmmakers and I think his input has really nurtured the animation talent and been a significant contribution to the scene.” You can see this nurturing with a quick glance of the McLaren programmes, which sees Gardner throwing a trio of ECA graduates – Dominica Harrison (Illusions), Muqing Shu (The Last Day) and Robert Duncan (Record/Record) – in with the established filmmakers.

It’s a similar story on the west coast. “The growth of Glasgow Short Film Festival over the past few years has been substantial,” says Cowles, “and should also be credited as a festival that has supported Scottish short filmmakers incredibly well.

They were the first festival to ever show my work, in 2012, and they gave me the confidence to submit and push my work internationally. Five festivals later and they’re still supporting what I do and helping me forward in my career.”

“Matt Lloyd and Morv Cunningham [GSFF’s director and producer] seem to be growing

Glasgow into something greater and greater every year,” adds Henderson. “A lot of their screenings highlight local talent; it’s a good sign. It feels like there is a buzz, collaboration happening between different artists and beautiful work being made.”

“ A quality of life that lets you make good art is more important than being around people you need to schmooze” Ainslie Henderson

Is the future feature length?

The question is, can this indie film scene be sustained? Money didn’t come up very often when we were chatting to these filmmakers, they seem to be getting by by doing the odd corporate video here and there to fund their personal projects.

As for the prospect of a long form animation emerging from this group, Iain Gardner isn’t keen on the insinuation that these filmmakers need to ‘step up’ to features. “It makes it sound as if short film is a lesser form, or a stepping stone to making a feature film,” he says, “and I think it’s important to remember that short film is an artform in its own right in the same way as a poem is an artform, or a short story is an artform; nobody ever says to a poet, 'When are you going to write a novel?'”

The filmmakers themselves, however, are more open to the suggestion. “Will and I have always talked about trying to make something low budget, using new technology and innovation in order to be creatively unburdened by other people’s expectations,” says Henderson. They’re both interested in making films with spontaneity – “we want to make unusual films that defy genre” – but raising money for these kind of inventive projects can be difficult. “That’s why there’s a gulf between shorts and features,” says Henderson. “You can make a great short with no money, but it seems much more difficult to make a feature that way. You have to start trying to raise cash, bringing all that into the equation complicates things. The Scottish Film Talent Network is a great scheme, and hopefully should help some of us make the transition into making features.”

Five Years of Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson: Why now?

Anderson and Henderson’s upcoming retrospective is perhaps the strongest indication of the Scottish short film scene’s strength. But as talented as they undoubtedly are, it’s still surprising to see filmmakers receive a retrospective so early in their careers. For Gardner, it was perfect timing.

“There was a nice circularity to them both winning our festival award,” he says. “In addition to that, they come out of college and they both win a Bafta.

There aren’t many people in our practice, even after many years, who’ve got a Bafta on their shelf.”

The fact that they’re hoping to develop a feature is also a factor. “I think it’s just an interesting time to see what they’ve been up to, and to try and get them to talk a little bit about what they’re going to do next. I’m sure that there’s always going to be these personal shorts, these little gems that they make, but I think their careers will be chan-

I Am Tom Moody (Henderson)

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ging from this point forwards.”

Gardner confesses that the duo weren’t thrilled at the prospect of the retrospective when he first put it to them. “They were quite embarrassed with the original title,” he recalls, “which was basically to consolidate the series that we’ve been running since the last few festivals, which is the Masters of Animation.” We can understand their trepidation. The other filmmakers to have recent EIFF retrospectives are a who’s who of animation greats: names like Ralph Bakshi, Ray Harryhausen, the Quay Brothers, Don Hertzfeldt, and Scotland’s greatest ever animator, Norman McLaren, after whom EIFF’s animation competition takes its named. “They might blush to be put on that pedestal with those very esteemed animators,” says Gardner, “but they more than deserve it. We did have to amend the title to suit their modesty, but I think it’s really important to make the statement that they have very firmly arrived in the animation circuit.”

What about the animators themselves – what do they think of the accolade? “It feels a little daunting,” admits Henderson, “but it depends how you look at it. We’re not pretending to be ‘masters of animation’ looking back over an illustrious career, like these things often are. We’ve just had a pretty eventful first five years, and we’ve done a lot in that time.” For Anderson, the feelings are more mixed: “It feels strange. I feel like a charlatan. I also feel honoured. I feel like an honoured charlatan.”

EIFF takes place 15-26 Jun Isabella and Illusions screen in The McLaren Award: New British Animation 1, Filmhouse, 22 Jun No Place Like Home, The Last Day and Record/Record screen in The McLaren Award: New British Animation 2, Filmhouse, 23 Jun Five Animated Years of Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, Filmhouse, 24 June

Isabella (Hog and Cowles)

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The Finncredibles As EIFF’s wide-ranging Focus on Finland strand gives audiences a chance to get a flavour of the nation’s cinema, which is little known on these shores beyond the work of Aki Kaurismäki, we speak to some of the filmmakers breaking out beyond its borders

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n the first floor of Helsinki’s Ateneum Art Museum, home to the largest collection of classical Finnish art, hangs The Fighting Capercaillies by Ferdinand von Wright. An oil painting, painted in 1888, it depicts a hazy forest clearing where two of the eponymous birds (they look a bit like pheasants) are squaring off against each other. The bigger of the two birds is on its back foot, squawking (if that’s the noise capercaillies make?), hesitant. The smaller one’s gaze is steady, its footing solid, its head thrust forward ready to attack; the smaller bird might be winning.

Von Wright’s symbolism wasn’t lost on the Finnish people, who were at the time ruled by the iron fist of the Russian Empire and for the previous six centuries had been lorded over by the various kings and queens of Sweden. To this day, 99 years on from winning independence, it’s the nation’s most reproduced painting.

On a recent trip to Helsinki, to speak to members of its small film industry, we found this same pugnacious spirit blended with a deadpan fatalism that should be all too familiar to local readers.

“Finns are a bit – how do I say this nicely? – a bit grumpy,” says Ulla Junell, producer of the recent Finnish animation Angry Birds The Movie, as she shows us around Rovio, the video game developers who created the popular game on which the film is based. “They’re quite honest. It’s not the Finnish way to hide one’s feelings; we’re quite direct.” Not too different from Scotland, we’d say.

The headquarters, situated in Espoo, one of Helsinki’s neighbouring cities, looks like it’s been airlifted from Silicon Valley. Bearded computer nerds are playing a Raiders of the Lost Ark pinball machine in a lounge just by reception while others are curled up on brightly-coloured sofas, hunched over their MacBooks. Red, Chuck, Bomb et al loom over us on every wall.

It may look like America but the vibe is distinctly Finnish. Angry Birds’ world premiere is days away, journalists are in their presence, but the film’s producers can’t bring themselves to be too optimistic. “It would be foolish to put yourself out there and say ‘Everything’s going to be great,’” says Junell. She needn’t have worried: at the time of writing, Angry Birds sits perched atop the US box-office, having toppled Captain America.

Few Finnish films, much to the disappointment of the filmmakers we speak to in Helsinki, will enjoy even a fraction of Angry Birds’ impact internationally. “Finnish movies tend to be made for Finnish audiences,” says director Timo Vuorensola, a tattoo of David Lynch protruding from his beefy bicep. “Anything that comes on top of that is a nice bonus, a little festival here or there, but to really get anything outside of Finland it take something very special.” Vuorensola hit upon that special something back in 2012 with Nazisin-space movie Iron Sky. Its sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, is forthcoming.

To put the cult franchise’s popularity in perspective, The Coming Race’s current teaser trailer has been viewed 23 million times on YouTube; X-Men: Apocalypse, currently the UK’s number one film at the box-office, has had just 22 million hits.

Their ambitious plan – based around innovative marketing, a pioneering crowdfunding campaign, and tight control of distribution to minimise piracy (“On the first Iron Sky, the piracy numbers were fucking tremendous”) – is to create a Star Warsstyle cinematic universe for the series. “We’re

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trying to create a franchise that’s not just one film, it’s a whole world.”

Finland’s only other internationally-known asset is its greatest ever filmmaker: Aki Kaurismäki, whose singular style, part deadpan miserablist, part exuberant daydreamer, is a perfect fit for his nation’s dual sensibilities. Fellow filmmaker Aleksi Salmenperä is Kaurismäki’s friend and neighbour.

“We play football together,” says the 43-year-old, who’s come directly from painting the outside of his house in Karkkila. “I’m always complaining to him that I’m waiting for my passion to wake up, and he said that he buried his passion for filmmaking ten years ago,” he says dryly. Salmenperä notes that Kaurismäki, despite standing apart from the Finnish film industry, looms large over his generation of filmmakers. “Maybe there’s something similar to the Bergman trauma that Sweden has,” he suggests. “Aki is probably the only one that people [outside of Finland] actually know, but then of course it’s only the world of the film industry that knows him, nobody else does.”

Kaurismäki has so dominated Finland’s international representation over the last few decades that his style has become synonymous with Finnish filmmaking. “I think whenever a film of somebody else’s has Aki’s elements, they are respected. This is annoying. If you have something that reminds – even though it’s not intentional – the international audience of Aki’s films, they are delighted.”

Audiences at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival get the opportunity to correct this ignorance thanks to the eclectic selection of Finnish films screening in the festival’s country focus strand, Focus on Finland. Eight films screen altogether and none bear Kaurismäki’s hallmarks, from a joyous doc about morose Finnish cheerleaders (Cheer Up) to Mika Taanila’s stunning avantgarde piece Tectonic Plate.

Salmenperä’s new film The Mine screens and is the pick of the narrative features, but he’s not doing the best of jobs selling it. “It was very well received by the critics but audiences didn’t want to go see it,” he says bluntly, “which I understand, basically – it’s not good enough entertainment.”

Finnish audiences do have a huge appetite for home-grown movies, he explains, with the boxoffice share for domestic cinema around 30%.

France is the only nation in Europe who can boast better, with most European nations’ own movies lucky to get around 10% of their market. The problem for filmmakers like Salmenperä, however, is that arthouse films don’t play well here.

“The films that get the most viewers in this country are about people partying, fucking, dancing, those are the key elements,” he says. “We’re only five million people. It would need at least ten for this type of film to make an impact.” For Finnish filmmakers like Salmenperä who are keen to work outside these narrow borders of mainstream cinema, international success becomes not just a “bonus”, as Vuorensola described it, but essential for survival.

One way to do that is make a splash on the international festival circuit. Many of the people we speak to have pinned their hopes on 37-yearold filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen doing just that.

His debut film, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, was the only Finnish work screening at Cannes, where it played in the Un Certain Regard competition.

His film, a graceful boxing drama chronicling the build-up to the 1962 world featherweight championship title fight, is a knockout. Shot in beautiful black and white 16mm, it has the look and feel of a British kitchen-sink film of the 1960s (it would make a beautiful double bill with The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner), and tells how country baker and amateur boxer Olli Maki has a nation’s

Interview: Jamie Dunn

hopes pinned on him when he’s railroaded into a fight with world champion Davey Moore.

“This guy has this chance of a lifetime and then he fears that it’s going to turn out to be a catastrophe,” says Kuosmanen of his title character, “and at the same time he can see the newspaper headlines that are hoping for him to be the next champion and he doesn’t feel the same way.”

Kuosmanen certainly knows that feeling. “I think it was easy to relate because I knew that this film would be screened in Cannes in some section – The Painting Sellers [Kuosmanen’s graduate film] won the first prize in Cinéfondation [Cannes’ short competition for emerging filmmakers] and part of the prize is an invite to Cannes, so it was a nice situation but also it was very scary.”

As we chat over lunch ahead of Cannes he doesn’t look like a man with a nation’s hopes on his shoulders, but he’s used to these expectations. “When I was studying film, all you would hear was, ‘Swedish films and Danish films, they go abroad so what’s the matter with Finnish film?’ So they were trying to make us aim for success by trying to figure out what things you should do to gain that success, but it doesn’t work that way.

The only way is to set yourself totally free from those pressures and find your own path.”

Kuosmanen has, and do you know what? He won, beating international auteurs like Hirokazu Kore-eda and David Mackenzie to the top prize.

By our reckoning that’s one international smash (Angry Birds), one viral hit (Iron Sky), and this Un Certain Regard prize makes one festival breakthrough. Like with Von Wright’s capercaillies, this small but feisty nation is winning.

EIFF runs 15-26 Jun The Mine screens 19 Jun, Odeon & 21 Jun, Filmhouse; Cheer Up screens 20 Jun, Odeon & 22 Jun, Filmhouse; Tectonic Plate screens 22 Jun, Filmhouse; Angry Birds The Movie is on general release now

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Evolve or Die After ambitious experiments and “vitriolic” reviews, Parquet Courts aren’t about your approval. Austin Brown tells The Skinny about the band’s push for progress

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othing lasts but nearly everything lingers in life,’ sings Andrew Savage, sagely, on Parquet Courts' recent single Berlin Got Blurry.

That wisdom certainly holds true for reputations.

Since the New York band’s album Light Up Gold took off in 2013, a ‘slacker’ genre tag and comparisons to Pavement have lingered with the persistence of a particularly pungent whiff.

Usually a Malkmus-endorsed Pavement reference is a wonderful thing; the only problem is that Parquet Courts find their influences by looking forwards, not back. In a 2014 interview with The Skinny, co-vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown spoke of the band – himself, brothers Andrew and Max Savage, and Sean Yeaton – as taking “more deliberate” steps to throw off any prescriptive expectations from fans or critics. Later that year, a brief name change to Parkay Quarts for an album experiment titled Content Nausea provoked the NME to ask, “Who are [they], and what have they done with the real Parquet Courts?”

More recently still, the band released two records in the space of six months. Between the divisive EP Monastic Living (Nov 2015) and their most commercially successful album to date, Human Performance (April 2016), Parquet Courts have taken affirmative action in “putting those expectations to bed.”

Revisiting these questions of representation, Brown remains admirably patient. “We never try to describe ourselves in a way that means we have a mission statement,” he explains, steadily. “Or, to have like, an ultimate version of Parquet Courts that means we define ourselves in certain terms, or release certain kinds of records – we’ve done all kinds of songs and records! But for me, that makes it interesting.”

He firmly reiterates that the band have never been interested in “deliberately trying to confuse people, or making any kind of statement.” They work within a simple brief: “We try to stay interesting, we just try to make sure that each song, each record we write is developing and evolving, and moving in a certain direction. Maybe they could just call us a good… or even great, interesting band! With good songs! That’s how I’d liked to be described.”

When the Monastic Living EP dropped with little warning last November, it was received with excitement – which rapidly boiled over into

June 2016

a steamy serving of disapproval. A scathing Pitchfork review (“wordless... also tuneless”) became the go-to judgement on the largely instrumental, aggressively ambient record. Brown hesitates slightly when the conversation turns to the EP, with understandable caution. “We really didn’t consider that it would be reviewed, honestly,” he says. “We didn’t really make it under the impression that people would be… upset.“We were trying to clean the slate a little. Do some experiments, have fun. We like music that is instrumental and droney and noisy. I felt that people that like the same kind of music that we do, or like the same bands that we do would get it, and be into it?”

Brown laughs, a lot. “But what we found was that it drew a really interesting line in between the fairweather indie rock fans and people who maybe understand us on a deeper level. I really appreciate [Monastic Living] for that reason, because I thought it was hilarious when people hated it. It wasn’t some grand statement – it was something we made that we liked, and we felt was right in our wheelhouse. But when people hated it I realised that it was actually important. The vitriol that was written about that record is really what defines it as a success for me.”

It’s easy to see how a listener expecting more of the same band that made Light Up Gold, or the early 2014 follow-up Sunbathing Animal, would have found it a turbulent change in atmosphere.

Parquet Courts’ earlier releases are punk in ethos, with brutal but immediate interplay between raw guitar lines and observational, blunt vocal delivery.

Tough in spirit, but still moreish in delivery, they offer a considerable contrast to Monastic Living’s lack of discernable hooks. But, as a snapshot of the band’s sonic experiments and considerable ambition, the EP stands firm as a valuable, important milestone.

What’s more, Monastic Living’s crowd-splitter isn’t as removed from Human Performance’s commercial success as some fans would have you believe: it was recorded in many of the same studio sessions. The band’s fifth LP took an entire year to write and record, a task of a whole different stature than their usual couple-of-weeks process, and as Brown describes it, that decision was entirely intentional.

“We’ve learned how to write a Parquet Courts song. And how to write a Parquet Courts record.”

Brown pauses, for comedic effect. “And I think a lot of other bands have learned how to write a Parquet Courts song, too! I’ve heard a few that are getting a little too close for comfort. But it’s hard to know what the next step to take is. It’s not easy, going into the studio and saying, ‘Alright, we’ll write a new kind of song.’ We wanted to evolve the sound of the group. We wanted to not repeat ourselves. We took the amount of time that we did because we were trying to do something new.

Through time, you gain perspective.”

“ It’s not easy, going into the studio and saying, ‘Alright, we’ll write a new kind of song’” Austin Brown

The end result of all that time and space is Parquet Courts’ most melodic, most ambitious record to date. A discussion of identity, human behaviours and the transience of New York City told through spaghetti western balladry, echoing soundscapes, experimental percussion and savvy, spoken-word rock’n’roll, Human Performance rings with the sound of a band firmly avoiding their own expectations. As Brown remembers, “It was all about understanding that it’s okay not to be comfortable with the kind of song that you’re making. So many songs we’d record, and it was like, ‘I like it… but it doesn’t sound like us.’ But when the record was done, I was like, ‘Okay, this sounds like us on a different trip’ – but it still sounds like Parquet Courts.”

Asking Brown which songs felt particularly dangerous results in a list comprising nearly half of the album: “Dust, and Captive of the Sun. One Man, No City. It’s Gunna Happen. Already Dead…

Steady On My Mind! Yeah, these are all songs that have a very different kind of instrumentation, and it was risky to go with them – for me that became very important. I think we realised that you can

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Interview: Katie Hawthorne

be clear with the lyrics, and not miss the point of the song.”

Human Performance portrays the many faces of New York, from the serious subject matter of Two Dead Cops to the comedic frustration of a favourite take-out having closed shop on I Was Just Here. Rather than examining the city, though, it takes a closer look at the humans swarming its streets.

With such a title, it seems obvious to ask if the band are avid people watchers? Brown laughs.

“Weeelll... you’re not wrong! A human performance is something that people do every day. It’s about a person performing as human – the way that you perform the act of being yourself, and the way that you perform for other people because you want to be perceived a certain way. Sometimes you believe you’re acting sincere, but maybe noone believes you? You can start to question a lot of things… Who am I? I’m not the person they’re telling me I am, I’m not the asshole they’re seeing… so how do I act good? You can find it on a song like One Man, No City – what am I, if I’m not my home and what I surround myself with? Where do I belong, if I don’t feel like I belong at home?”

Sometimes such acute self-scrutiny results in introspection; in Parquet Courts it manifests as formidable, brilliant ambition. “You know, when we first started the band our goal was to write and record a record, have that record released on a label – release it ourselves, and go on a tour we booked ourselves. We did that. That was Light Up Gold.” Brown pauses for breath. “Our most recent goal was to spend a year making a record, and have it be a different kind of record, and have it be more successful than our previous records. We did that. Continuing to evolve the group, to stay interesting – to ourselves, most of all, but ideally to other people listening… that’s really it. I wish I could say that we hope to write a classic record; I don’t know if that’s really possible, but, I mean, that’s what’s always in the back of my mind. But in the forefront of my mind? It’s just about moving forward.”

Playing La Belle Angele, Edinburgh on 16 Jun Human Performance is out now via Rough Trade parquetcourts.wordpress.com

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Recall of the Wild As Wolf Parade return from hiatus with a new EP and their first live shows in five years, Dan Boeckner gives us the lowdown on reunions, ghost-hunting and immortality Interview: Will Fitzpatrick

t’s an overstated point in music that certain bands or records are ‘timeless’. It’s usually little more than a deferential acknowledgement of their classic status in received pop wisdom, or at worst an aggressive attempt to talk up their importance. But surely it’s a more accurate description of the acts who never quite fit into any era.

The ones whose music feels bound to whenever you first heard it, rather than being weighed down by the trendy tropes or production techniques of their time.

Wolf Parade are one such band. When they first emerged in the midst of the post-OC indie explosion, they had little in common with the noises made by contemporaries and labelmates like The Shins or, at the noisier end of the alt rock spectrum, the similarly-named Wolf Eyes. Their music is cold yet warm-blooded; constantly tripping up the listener with deceptively complex puzzles that only reveal themselves over the course of time.

And now, following a period of hiatus that began in early 2011, they’re back, refreshed and renewed.

We speak to guitarist and vocalist Dan Boeckner down a crackling phone line, fresh from loading into Manhattan’s Bowery Ballroom for a five-night residency. The night before, the band filmed a performance for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and this month they’ll head to Europe for more shows ahead of a more expansive tour of the US and Canada. It’s an indication of the hectic schedule Wolf Parade have always thrown themselves into, not least because of Boeckner and fellow frontman Spencer Krug’s litany of side projects. For now, however, we want to know about how it feels to be reunited, particularly in the wake of their recent secret shows at unlikely venues in Vancouver Island, under the name of Del Scorcho.

“It was pretty funny to play such notable locales as Cobble Hill, Nanaimo and Powell River,” he says. “We played a community centre; we played a very small bar that was having a chicken wing night… It was kinda nice to get thrown into that.

We figured if we can pull it off in that environment then we can do it anywhere. The owner was sceptical at first because he did not know Wolf Parade, but at the end of the night, he said, ‘That’s the best Thursday night we’ve had in 33 years!’ I think they’re gonna name a chicken wing after us.”

He laughs. “I feel like this is success, y’know?

A chicken wing in a small pub. I can retire now.”

Originally based in Montreal, Wolf Parade (competed by drummer Arlen Thompson and multiinstrumentalist Dante DeCaro) originally burst into the public eye in a blur of web-built hype in 2004, and swiftly signed to Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop label. Debut LP Apologies to the Queen Mary subsequently appeared to a strong critical reception the following year, as a dedicated fanbase grew steadily. Their next two albums (2008’s dense, proggy At Mount Zoomer and 2010’s strident Expo 86) gave new reasons to fall in love with a band seemingly hellbent on developing their craft rather than furthering their careers. Eventually, and inevitably, they ran out of steam.

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Credit: Shawn Mcdonald

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“We decided we were going on hiatus in 2011,” Boeckner remembers, “in Maidstone, UK – we didn’t have the money to stay in London. We had a band meeting and it was like, ‘Probably time to take a break, everybody’s pretty tired.’

“I think the constant touring had started to strain relationships in the band. Not in the way that we were fighting with each other, we never got to that point. Wolf Parade is this sort of Marxist collective, where we all have to be emotionally connected to make it work. The potential for us to start fighting and eventually not be friends… it was gonna happen if we kept going. Also we didn’t want to start sucking!”

And was the time off beneficial? You could say that. The tirelessly prolific Krug had already released four albums with his Sunset Rubdown project during Wolf Parade’s lifetime, also working with the bands Frog Eyes and Swan Lake before exploring his own grand vision in the guise of Moonface from 2010 onwards. Boeckner, meanwhile, played with Handsome Furs before teaming up with Spoon’s Britt Daniel to form Divine Fits.

To keep 2016 appropriately busy, April saw the release of the first album by his new band Operators. They’re no slouches, that’s for sure.

“I got to devote a lot of time to travelling to places people don’t usually go on tour,” Boeckner remembers, “like Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, and Spencer got to do the same with Sunset Rubdown. I learned a lot about songwriting in the intervening years. We both just kind of honed our craft, and probably learned to take it a little bit easier on the road.”

Were they previously hedonistic on tour?

“It was pretty hedonistic up until the Expo 86 tour. At the time we released that record, it reached some excessive heights. But it wasn’t really like excess of drugs or anything. Whenever the band was on tour, it seemed like something insane would happen – we would find ourselves in these surreal situations that were 50% our fault, 50% sort of blind luck.

“Actually, I’ll be honest, that is still happening.

During that last run of shows, a series of events brought us to drinking with a bunch of friends in an abandoned diner at a haunted hotel, and then

breaking into the top floor of said hotel, wandering around, looking for ghosts.”

In a sense, we suggest, that must have seemed like a pretty good metaphor for returning to an old band.

“That’s true,” he says, “except I’d like to think the attic of Wolf Parade is full of good things, and not rooms full of broken furniture.”

Their return has also meant another trip to the studio, and the resultant EP4 is a solid collection of twisted glam-pop curios that feel very much like Wolf Parade have picked up where they left off.

“ I think they’re gonna name a chicken wing after us” Dan Boeckner

“I think that’s the thing with this band,” agrees Dan. “The sound of the band only happens when the four of us are in a room together. We didn’t really overthink it; we didn’t sit down and plan what the record was gonna sound like. We just thought, ‘Let’s write songs together in a room and see what happens.’”

Appropriately – and happily – it sounds like a group of old school friends meeting up for the first time in years, and falling back into their old character roles.

“Yeah! I totally agree with that. Even just our personal interactions – when we did this mini-tour… this is gonna sound totally stupid, but the band has always really enjoyed dumb, surreal jokes; stupid in-jokes…We rented this van and the display was like an LCD screen. Every time you opened the door, there’d just be this floating geometrical mess of cubes, so we started riffing on this joke that we were watching a television show called Cubes.

The car alarm was the soundtrack, and then we started doing the voiceover… It was just really

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nice. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re still idiots!’” Again, he laughs. “Like you said, we get back together and maybe it doesn’t matter how much we’ve progressed intellectually or emotionally, it’s still Wolf Parade at the end of the day. And there’s something comforting about that.”

Were there any fears that it might not work out after five years apart?

“Oh yeah, totally! If it was bad, we were just gonna shitcan the whole thing. The whole thing was predicated on having new music. If we didn’t come up with at least six songs then these shows would not have happened.”

So if everything goes well, are there plans for the band to continue beyond these gigs?

“We’re doing a year’s worth of shows and then we’re making a record in the winter. We’re doing a full-length and then we’ll tour that in 2017 – yeah, we’re back together! And it feels pretty fucking good. But at the same time, Spencer’s got two Moonface records coming out in the next 18 months, and I’ll have another Operators album in 2017, so we’re just gonna be really busy.”

Has the reunion changed Boeckner’s perceptions of what Wolf Parade is?

“You know, I’ll be honest. My perspective on Wolf Parade in 2011 was very narrow, and I think inaccurate. I didn’t have enough distance from it.

Spending five years away and watching people come to the shows, or write us when we were coming back, it really solidified something for me about this band. We were always kind of a weird band and we were very difficult in a lot of ways for Sub Pop. But having people write to us through social media, that’s put the band in a really nice context for me. It makes me proud of what we did, and proud of us now.”

And if nothing else, there’s always the chicken wing thing.

“Fuckin’ A, man!” Boeckner laughs one last time. “Immortalised as a chicken wing!”

Well, quite. Truly timeless.

The Apologies to the Queen Mary reissue is out now via Sub Pop. Wolf Parade’s EP4 is also available as a self-release The band play two nights at London Scala on 14-15 Jun wolfparade.com

THE SKINNY

June 2016

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Still Rising Before they appear at Kelvingrove later in the month, De La Soul’s Posdnuos reminisces on discovering rap in his youth, the secret to the group’s endurance and Kickstarting their first full album since 2004

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t’s been a while, it’s been a while…” Kelvin ‘Posdnous’ Mercer acknowledges that a confluence of paralysing circumstances have delayed De La Soul’s full-blown return to a more conventional album format for some time; label issues, sample clearances and not least their own perfectionism. Although the Long Island trio has toured extensively and recorded in numerous formats in the 12 years since hitting us with their last full studio LP (The Grind Date), he alludes to a certain hesitance to go all out. Until now.

“I think we sometimes get stuck into trying to make something that might make us feel the way we did when we heard the first Stevie Wonder record,” he concedes. “We need to make room and just allow the fans or an objective listener to feel like that. I watched this documentary where Michael Jackson was saying every time he heard Thriller he’d think about things he could’ve done better. That’s how I look at my music; you continue to sculpt, but I understand my experience is different to the listener. We have so much music to give to you; we just need to start letting it out.

Tonnes of stuff, man. It’s ridiculous. We’ve got to just... let it go.”

From its humble beginnings as a high school group that quietly observed and later became a uniquely integral part of hip-hop culture’s global rise, the influence of De La Soul cannot be overstated. Nearly 30 years into a career where so many peers rose and fell along the way, their exhilarating live shows remain pure fire. Pos attributes a decision they made (a quarter of a century ago) to escape the zeitgeist and torch the values of the band’s earliest incarnation as the reason they’re still standing today. Here, he reflects on the journey…

On his motivation to pick up a microphone in the first place I’ve always been into music; from growing up, standing next to my father who’d play his doo-wop records, Motown 45s and all these different labels.

He was – and still is – an excellent singer. He’d sing in church and I’d try to mimic him, but I couldn’t sing well at all. When hip-hop came across – and this was our music – it was like breakdancing, everyone did it. I guess the people who were really good stayed at it. I always loved to write. I was into comic books; my favourite class in school was English, where I could write stories. So when rapping came along, I felt like, ‘Hey, I can write pretty well’ – stories like Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash or Kool Moe Dee were writing.

Me and Dave from De La were kind of closeted; we weren’t out in the park every week. By the time we came with De La Soul a lot of people were shocked; they didn’t know me for rhyming. They knew Mase for DJing. I really gravitated to it; writing and rhyming about things that weren’t necessarily in the timeline of where we were standing.

On the trio’s first full-length album release in 12 years The new album is called And the Anonymous Nobody.

It’s a really great record, man, I love it. I’m honestly not sure what it’ll do. Funnily enough, for me, that’s what’s so great about it. Previously with a record I’ve maybe had this feeling of ‘OK, so I know what this is going to do because it fits within this lane or fits with what’s going on.’ You can miscalculate.

This time I’m not sure how the fans we’ve amassed over the years will take to every song, but I do feel like it’s quality music. There’s something here for everyone, quite honestly. In that regard, I put it near 3 Feet High and Rising. We didn’t know what it was going to do. Like that first album, once

again, I feel the same way. We have fans that came along during Stakes is High and a lot of times just want us to do rhymes and beats, then we have fans who have a lot of love for the older stuff and perhaps miss the playing around. This has a good balance of all of those aspects.

On And the Anonymous Nobody’s unexpected guestlist That, once again, is a big thing I love about this album. It would have been so easy to say, ‘Let’s put Common Sense, Talib Kweli and Mos Def on this record.’ We didn’t do that. Snoop’s on this one, 2 Chainz – nobody would have expected that, but when you hear the song you’ll get it. The idea there was: you’ve never seen 2 Chainz in this light.

We always take care to marry the correct feel to each musician we choose to work with, so it doesn’t just come off as, ‘OK, we’re taking advantage of who this person is so we can sell some records.’

These are musicians who at the end of the day realise we’re all artists. In that realm alone, we can come into sync. So there’s a song with Usher, one with Jill Scott, another with Little Dragon.

I personally feel we’ve struck on some amazing moments here, particularly with David Byrne from Talking Heads. It has these moments that feel magical.

On abandoning record labels to embrace the Kickstarter age We were like, ‘Let’s just give it straight to our fans who love us for the music we do and are willing to accept the fact that we’re trying to go against the machine, they’ll be there in our corner.’ We humbly thought we should be able to raise a certain amount of money, then we raised that amount within just a few hours. It’s truly a blessing.

Interview: Dave Kerr

On what to expect from a De La Soul live show in 2016 Pretty much the fundamentals of what we’ve been blessed to learn from those who came before us – taking the temperature of the crowd and making sure they have as much fun as possible. Treat it more than just them coming to see a show but make them a part of it. We’ve always tried our best to do that. Obviously with us having new music coming up, we’d like to introduce people to some of that. We’re still figuring out a show that’s going to consist of more of the new music when the album drops because that has more of a live band feel. We’re hoping to put that together. But this June we’re going to premiere some of the tracks we can with Mase playing them. That mixed up with the classics, and of course it’s the De La Soul is Dead anniversary... we’ve got to represent that.

“ We have so much music to give to you; we just need to start letting it out” Posdnuos

On why De La Soul is Dead gave life to De La Soul It was an accomplished album in my mind. What we set out to do we did successfully. We planted the seed that we’re bigger than daisies and hippies, that we’re artists who want to continue to grow.

The way we looked at it, death was an evolution from this plain to the next plain. It wasn’t a continuation of 3 Feet High and Rising. A lot of people at the time thought, ‘Well, there’s some great music on here but how could you depart from that?’ We meet people to this day who say, ‘We didn’t know if it was necessarily smart at the time, but here it is, we still see you standing when a lot of other loved and respected groups are no longer here.’

It was the right thing to do. That’s why De La Soul Is Dead remains important to us. We were leaving a place where we could’ve comfortably stayed. We left it because we understood that at some point that visual would die and overshadow our talent – that moment where it’s not cool to have dreads, dashikis and peace no more. We needed an edge.

So we said, ‘De La Soul as you knew it is outta here.’ We departed from it, and that’s why we’re still standing.

On the possibility of De La Soul – The Movie I feel like our lives are too boring! They’re not juicy enough to be on the screen. It’s funny though, I was talking to somebody about the N.W.A. film recently and they seemed shocked to hear that, within that movie we were there for a lot of that. A lot of the shows that you see in the movie, they were on the Nitro tour with us and LL Cool J. We were there when the cops tried to get ‘em in Detroit. As regards a film about our lives as De La Soul? There’s not enough rock’n’roll, drugs and sex, y’know what I’m saying? Not enough!

De La Soul play Kelvingrove Bandstand on 25 Jun. And the Anonymous Nobody is released on 26 Aug via AOI Records wearedelasoul.com

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THE SKINNY

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex Sara Pascoe picked up an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination in 2014 for a show themed on sexual evolutionary history. Now she’s written a book on the same theme, as she brings the follow-up show to the stage Interview: Jenni Ajderian

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t base we are all nothing but mammals, but we’ve learned to pretend that we’re not.

Through thousands of years of development in our customs, norms and laws, we’ve chosen which animal instincts to repress and which to embrace.

This distinction is one which writer and comedian Sara Pascoe has had to consider for her new show, Animal, and debut book of the same name.

“I think with all of them there is a seesaw between consciousness and instinctual drive,” she says. “We can’t really use instinct to excuse anything, because we have another mechanism going on – just because something’s instinctual doesn’t mean we can’t change it.”

Time and again as a species, we prove this, for better and for worse: we diet, we refrain from hitting people even when they annoy us, and we construct complex legal and social systems to try to stop people having sex. This sexual instinct has baffling implications throughout our lives: after all, with us humans it’s not a simple matter of reproduction; engaging in the no-pants dance can be just for fun. Both the science and the emotions of sex get a good going-over in Pascoe’s book, and it’s a panoramic vision: the blood, the babies, the insecurities, the crimes, the consequences and even a couple of intimate handdrawn diagrams are within its pages.

Animal combines autobiography and anthropology with keen analysis and comedy. Pascoe introduces us to ideas on sex and genetics which were accepted as true and without question for years, only to then blow them out of the water with our old friend rationality. Throughout history, writers and researchers of a particular race, gender and sexual orientation made discoveries which mostly reinforced their existing worldview, and which in turn could be solidified in law. “Sometimes you kind of have to read between the lines,” Pascoe says, on these kinds of biases. “A lot of times in the book I was going, ‘Obviously, this means heterosexual people, not all people’. Other books weren’t doing that. They often [made] these huge sweeping statements that didn’t include a huge portion of our society. It kind of baffled me that often there wasn’t even a question mark.”

Pascoe presents her life story as many of us see our own: sometimes as if through a camera lense, often through dialogue, mostly as part of a narrative heavily affected by our expectations and views on the world. By setting these pieces of autobiography alongside the research she presents, Pascoe gives us concrete and relatable ways of accessing that research and seeing how it affects our lives, both consciously and subconsciously. We learn about pair-bonding and oxytocin release through her tales of loves lost and found, and then look at how dodgy science is used to justify infidelity or obsession.

Any autobiography can delve into a writer’s inner secrets, and here Pascoe talks in detail about her experience of abortion: “I’ve never talked

June 2016

about it in stand-up because it isn’t something that I already had an angle on. But when I knew I would be writing about the female body and how it works, one of the first things that came to my mind was, well, I got pregnant and I felt very betrayed by my body.” With time to look back and analyse her own life, Pascoe presents us with a rounded picture of growing up in a highly sexualised world full of expectations of how people should act. “I knew I wanted to write about hating my mum’s boyfriends and that process of looking at an adult and really judging them, and then becoming an adult and understanding my mum.”

It would be easy to get lost in either the personal or scientific detail of such topics, but Pascoe manages to interweave her different aims in a way that amplifies them all. The science is interesting because it affects our lives in such serious ways; the autobiography is honest and often dark, but doesn’t feel like an over-share because Pascoe herself has managed to see the ridiculousness of so much of it and turned it partially into comedy.

“ Just because something’s instinctual doesn’t mean we can’t change it” Sara Pascoe

Keeping the book accessible while still being informative was her top priority: “I thought if I can’t explain this in real life, it can’t go into the book.

It has to be a lay-person’s book, because there are other books that are written by scientists and have that information in them. The balance I had to have was how much would be too much information if I was expecting a 15-year-old girl to read this, or a 15-year-old boy. My idea was that it could be a sex education book.”

Teenager or not, judging from the amount of misinformation bandied around, we could all use a bit more – and more accurate – sex education.

Pascoe notes of her own upbringing: “I didn’t have the internet when I was 15 or 16, so my research was restricted to those books you get about periods and basic sex education.”

The UK government’s recent rejection of compulsory sex ed in schools has potentially hampered our knowledge once again, and where these classes are still taught they are often focused on the mechanical, physical aspects, and otherwise are found wanting. “They don’t teach you about emotions, and they don’t teach you the difficult bits of sex. Children and young people can have really

specific knowledge about the extremes of sexual behaviour [thanks to porn], but haven’t heard much conversation about how much the emotions can hurt.”

For the most part, Animal the book aims to educate and pose questions, not preach. The show is similarly reflective, focusing on empathy and our capacity to care about things outside ourselves. “The underlying question is how to be good,” she tells us, “so has our evolution meant that we are selfish and self-interested, and we won’t ever really care about climate change?”

Empathy is another consequence of us ignoring or repressing our basic instincts – this time overwhelmingly for the better. “I think it’s like a muscle,” Pascoe explains, since there are many instincts, like selfishness, which aren’t seen in such a good light these days. “Those things actually, in terms of evolution, are very healthy things that have kept you alive, but now you don’t need them in the same way as your ancestors did.” We can tip that seesaw over with our consciousness and intelligence, she explains: “You can work, I think,

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like a muscle, and train yourself to do different things.”

Armed with information as unbiased as possible and with the knowledge that we have power over our in-built desires, we can embrace our sexual instincts and reject our selfish ones. As Terry Pratchett once put it, humans need to be allowed to be ‘the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.’

We can keep learning and updating our expectations of other people, as is already happening in some parts of society: “People who are teenagers now,” says Pascoe, “really grasp the idea of gender fluidity and sexual fluidity much more than my generation.” Overall, despite discussions of neurotransmitters, morning sickness and consent, we can come away from Sara Pascoe’s Animal with a feeling of hope.

Sara Pascoe: Animal, The Stand, Edinburgh, 19 Jun, doors 7.30pm, £12 and The Stand, Glasgow, 20 Jun, doors 7.30pm, £12.

Sara Pascoe: Animal, published by Faber, RRP £12.99, out now. thestand.co.uk

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THE SKINNY

Polished-Up and Getting Personal It’s the first Scottish degree show of the year, and the Duncan of Jordanstone graduates are taking it seriously, with ambitious and well-produced work Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

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here’s been no expense spared as Duncan of Jordanstone class of ‘16 start the degree show season with an impressive level of finish. See the carpentry skills of Thomas Stephenson’s wooden wood burning stove, or Jamie Watt’s huge metal cattle brand, that threatens to burn the word ‘temple’ in foot-high letters, with a crushing scale.

Besides an attention to detail there are a few other moments of resonance between the three distinct courses and all the multimedia work. There are plenty of emotionally charged, personal and moving anecdotes, a concern with the workings of language and writing and – weirdly – two separate instances of anatomical drawings of hearts on glass.

Bolshy text work, writ large is another thematic connector within the otherwise welcome diversity of media and content. Look at Claire Conner and Naya Mafalios-Soulen, exhibiting in neighbouring rooms. They both go bold and include enough sensitive content, c- and f- words to merit the pre-warning plaques on the door. For Conner, it’s all about the protest placard, blazoned with ‘IT’S AW FUCKED’ in caps and with comically timed enjambment before the last ‘-ed.’

As direct an address as it is detached, from Time Based Art Louise McCusker’s installation work speaks with a passively imperative tone through carefully arranged speakers. Cushions are set out for lying on, with the audio set-up designed to be listened to from the horizontal. Shining through the blinds, there’s the clean purple of a virtual sunset, accompanied by ambient music that’s the tense filler of long pauses between the advice 'Don’t worry, this is not a simulation' and the more sinister 'You said nothing, you made me come here' – voiced with icy objectivity.

Atmospheric absence again with the mechanised swingset, by Gentian Rose Meikleham.

Though allusions are made to the loss of a close relative, there’s a deliberate effacing of specifics.

Without the resolution of narrative or satisfying disclosure, Meikleham references the cool but cutting lyricism of a certain school of installation

work that appears dry though housing an intensely personal and hard-to-descry personal symbolism. Only telling enough to make clear there’s much more to be said. Whether in the deliberate weighting of 5.5 tone of an oversized pillow, or the pile of blurred-out newspapers, Meikleham is productively and effectively referencing (for example) artist and photographer Felix Gonzalez Torres.

“ There’s plenty of ellipses, moments of thoughtful ambiguity and loaded silence across the exhibition” Personal significance turns to free association for Fine Art student Kieran Milne. Along with the first students mentioned, he’s made the most of the workshops to fabricate a large kissing gate – along with prints, paintings and publications.

There’s a printed text, that recounts the long, wordy and overly cerebral responses of a fumbling man to a woman he has penned in the gate, asking one-line questions. In the space, the sculpture is spindly and gangly and without being a door becomes a clumsy enclosure.

On the walls, Milne makes cross-media rhymes as different parts of works are repeated to signal an importance or relevance, though without resolution. There’s the 'pragmatic green' as Milne terms the hue of exit signs, then the house plants and their own sap colour, all with the MDF mount boards’ background of warm sienna of MDF. In

Esther Farrell

June 2016

Jamie Watt

one work, he lists ‘Avert/ overt/ au vert,’ seeing etymological potentials not in the given roots of words but leafing and vining together tenuous and poetic relationships.

Conversely, working with a strategy of a manifest presence, one of the tallest and heaviest works comes from Helen King, a student from the same course as Meikleham (Art, Philosophy and Contemporary Practices). She can also be counted among the students who have spent time and money executing an ambitious concept.

Sculpturally excerpting from brutalist architecture, King has built a concrete monument, braced and weighted on bright orange straps that extend around it and over the far newly whitewashed wall.

It’s leaning back precariously, with another little health and safety card on the floor as a reminder to take care – lest you be crushed.

Alongside the large sculpture, and in a deadpan humour, King includes three accompanying blueprints for curators, of potential installations of the individual blocks that make up the monolith. Using cyanotype, there’s a nod to this print method’s early 20th century heyday use as a means of reproducing plans. Except here, the instructions are to scatter them artfully on the floor or pile carefully. There’s a physical tension set up, with the taut supports, setting up a place for ambivalence neither celebrating nor denigrating its impact and influence.

Softening slightly, at least in materials, Esther Farrell offers some respite from the neat sheen of the majority of this year’s degree show.

Thinking of necessarily makeshift home decoration, or maybe a little of priming canvas material, a dingy mattress has been painted white. Leaving a rectangle (only about a half square metre) of its original surface on show, there’s insight into the stains and muck sealed by the paint.

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Mounted on the wall, Farrell has carved into 35 pillows. Each one’s stuffing bulges out into a different word. Beginning ‘don’t leave me,’ the next 31 pillows lose this first grammatical sense, and finish ‘love stress sleep’ – desperate and disjointed.

Without the same concern for looking professional or gallery-ready as a lot of the others, there’s an affecting disarray to the media used (cut pillows and painted mattress) and a fretting disorganisation.

There’s a different kind of disquieting logic to the wallpapered and furnished space of Sandra Schneider. With wooden furniture and golden wallpaper, the environment is made to feel staged – the kind of set you’d find in a local rep play. Disrupting the easy antique feel, there are little transparent tongue sculptures in clusters on the walls.

With the same kind of patterning as mould that’s turned to mushroom, there’s the surreal crossing of the means of language, decay and all the odd feeling of the word ‘lick.’

In the space, there’s a sound work of a speaking voice. There’s a familiar excess of spit and lip- smacking noises that comes with over sensitive microphones picking up the clicks and off putting noises of a wordless mouth. Even when the text is read out, it’s written to make a feature of the noise of saliva, lips and tongue, with an accompanying script giving direction like ‘spoked as inhaled.’

While the work might come across as sophisticatedly well put-together, there’s plenty of ellipses, moments of thoughtful ambiguity and loaded silence across the exhibition. What it means to make personal work, how to consider the limits and potential of language, or the politics of confrontation, there’s plenty of provocation and insight, but – most exciting of all – they’ve only just begun.

DJCAD Degree Show, Fri 20-Sun 29 May

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Dennis and Debbie Club

Ain’t Leith Grand LeithLate producer Morvern Cunningham and commissioned artist Rabiya Choudhry talk LeithLate ‘16, the arts and making money Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

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n 1920, citizens of Leith were invited to take part in a referendum on whether to join Edinburgh.

They voted no, but nevertheless were swallowed by the capital and given Leith theatre as a kind of consolatory gift, LeithLate Event Coordinator and Festival Producer Morvern Cunningham tells us.

This month, on the night of the latest referendum to come to Leith, last minute voters making the big EU decision will be joined on the street by artcrawlers on Thursday 23 June. That’s when art festival LeithLate – for the sixth year running – does its annual takeover of local shops and the street to begin its four-day programme of exhibitions and events.

Thinking of her own relationship with Leith, it was here that Cunningham moved after graduating, to an area of “low rent studios and grassroots art spaces, and that’s how LeithLate came about. It showcases the creativity that’s going on in this part of town.”

Now in its sixth year, the festival has gone from a one-night event to last year’s four month edition, and is now in a Thursday to Sunday slot.

For Cunningham, the idea is to extend “the fun of an opening, using local business and putting site-specific work into the spaces.”

Building the festival around one big opening night, and condensing it to four days is intended to bring “the bigger crowd to come all at once,” rather than being dispersed across months of

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Walk and not have been in half the shops and pubs, not knowing what goes on inside them – maybe being afraid and having these grey areas in your local knowledge.”

It’s for this reason that Ian Gouldstein’s commission will be in the front window of Pat’s Chung Ying Chinese supermarket. He’ll be displaying one of his video game inspired animations of lots of little characters. “He wants them to be quite stationary, then every now and again to do something special.” In the window, he’d like to use "stock from the supermarket” to dress the installation and have “people questioning if it’s for sale.”

Including London-based Gouldstein in the programme came out of a visit by Cunningham to Deptford in London. Also an old dock town, there’s a similar series of events as LeithLate, though it’s now in its 20s and the longest running contemporary art festival in London. “We’d just got the okay from Creative Scotland to visit the White Nights in Paris, then I thought, actually can we just go to Deptford.” It was the right decision, and has been the start of a productive twinning of the two organisations.

Thinking of Gouldstein’s work brings out a trend for LeithLate ’16 that wasn’t entirely intentional, “that just came about in an organic way which is nice.” That’s to say, there’s a prominence of digital work, which as well as being present in Gouldstein’s contribution, is also in another commissioned part of the programme by the Dennis and Debbie Club. For their work The Improvement of Invalid Youth, they will set up “a multi-projection audio-visual installation revisiting the history of the Gayfield Creative Spaces site.”

Another accidental theme is work that is gifted to the audience to take away. For instance, sculptor Julianna Capes is presenting a “suite of street works around the theme of luck.” This includes the “piece Annul which is made up of coppers put in the cracks in pavement. She says people always take them, but she always wanted that.”

Also giving souvenirs to visitors, in Settlement Projects, there is a poster exhibition with free zines from the Poor Art Collective.

Continuing the giveaway, painter Rabiya Choudhry has designed a special banknote for the occasion. About the size of a tenner, along with Cunningham they’ve planned a print run of a few thousand to be distributed to visitors for free.

Joining in the conversation, Choudhry looks back on how her interest in drawing money came about. On a cycle of working jobs to get by, then taking time off when possible to focus on her practice, she remembers, “‘I started painting fivers

activities. Cunningham is cautious that this might be a good strategy for LeithLate, but then jokes that for the Edinburgh Festival, “if everyone turned up on the same night Edinburgh would disappear into its own volcano.”

Bringing in live music is also an important part of LeithLate, so there are performances on the Thursday from country duo Bear Necessities and The Joker and the Thief, Hailey Beavis, Nice Churh and Carbs (the name of Jamie Scott and Jonnie Common’s project) and on Sunday, The Previous Penny Pluckers.

Going beyond the galleries like this, “It’s not just an art crowd, and it’s not just a music crowd either. There’s also poetry and spoken word involved as well. We’re mixing these audiences up and putting people in places they haven’t been in before.”

Thinking more about the rationale of LeithLate, Cunningham was reminded during a chat with exhibiting artist Ian Gouldstein of an old video game Faxanadu. One of the first video games with save points, it was “vast. When you went to a village you’d go into every shop because you’d want to know what’s in there, what they sold, if they could give you something or maybe you could find a tool for your quest.”

Bringing in the analogy, “That’s not how we operate in everyday life. You could live on Leith

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and swapping them with friends (normally for drinks), and did quite well.” Having a laugh about how it came about, Choudhry mentions, “Things always start as fun for me, but digging deeper there’s always another side.”

For one, she thinks about the misunderstanding that’s come up lately when she’s been asked how her art’s going while she’s been making the LeithLate commission. “I tell people I’m making money, and people say ‘That’s great’. They take it literally.” Thinking more generally, “when you’re making money [literally] out of art, people treat you differently. How it’s more valued economically.”

“ Things always start as fun for me, but digging deeper there’s always another side” Rabiya Choudhry

The actual note will be decorated with bananas, which came out of casual conversation between Choudhry and Cunningham. “They’re loaded symbolically,” and have connections to the risograph printing process (which is used to make Choudhry’s note and whose paper is called “banana paper”), as well as the banana flats in Leith. In this way, “work is always like a journey through symbols to get to the destination of an artwork.”

Giving an insight into this process, in the LeithLate ’16 hub the Out of the Blue Drill Hall will host some of the miniature drawings and gouache paintings Choudhry has made in preparation for the final print.

For Choudhry, LeithLate’s a way of “building a bridge.” Cunningham continues the thought – “Hopefully what Leithlate does is break down the boundaries between old and new Leith. So you don’t have to be an art person to come, but you don’t have to be local either. Find something or somewhere maybe you’ll go to again, look closer at the environment. It’s about getting in amongst it, getting in about it, putting something on people’s radar they’re blind to in everyday life.”

LeithLate 2016, 23-26 Jun leithlate.co.uk

Rabiya Choudhry

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A Deliveroo Guide to Glasgow & Edinburgh's Best Restaurants

We take a whistle-stop of some of the best restaurants and cafes in Edinburgh and Glasgow, in association with Deliveroo

Glasgow

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etting your hands on restaurant-quality food used to be a labour-intensive activity.

You had to work out where you wanted to go, check that it hadn’t started raining yet, get everyone together, head outside, get soaked by a sudden catastrophic rain shower, go back inside for your umbrella, and so on. Thankfully, for the last year Deliveroo have been helping to cut out all the faff, bringing the food from your favourite restaurants direct to your door, leaving you comfy and dry.

Good lads.

To celebrate Deliveroo’s first year in Edinburgh and Glasgow, we’ve put together this guide to some of our favourite spots in Scotland’s two biggest cities, pointing out a few hidden gems and handy tips along the way.

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GLASGOW CITY CENTRE

We’ll start off in Glasgow city centre – the actionpacked land of shops, gigs, galleries... and statues with traffic cones on their heads. There is one other recurring theme that sets Glasgow city centre apart, and that’s meat. The past few years have seen umpteen barbecue and burger joints spring up around the city centre, making it tricky to know which ones to check out as well as giving a distinct Flintstones vibe to some city centre streets.

Luckily, Deliveroo can help, offering delivery of a host of food and drink from some of the city centre’s best restaurants, saving you the trouble of traipsing up and down the deceptively hilly streets in search of some scran. To show the scope of what’s on offer, let’s zoom right in on the city centre’s barbecue and burger spots, and find that even when focussing on a small section of the map there’s plenty of detail to appreciate.

We’ll start off proceedings in the Doghouse.

Brewdog’s barbecue spot in the Merchant City serves up low-and-slow-cooked meats by the fistful, with a menu inspired by the various barbecue traditions of the United States. There’s North Carolina-style pulled pork, Kansas-inspired burnt ends, and specially-made smoked hot link sausages, all ready to wing their way to you in a flash. What goes better with large piles of meat than beer?

Nothing, we say, and luckily Doghouse seem to agree. They offer up a range of Brewdog beers all available for delivery alongside your barbecue, allowing you to have the full barbecue cookout experience without the pesky business of sitting like a chump waiting for the food to cook.

Heading west across town, but with flavours from south of the US border, Pinto on Hope Street serve up a mighty fine burrito. In our 2015 Food and Drink Survey, Pinto came out as one of our

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readers’ favourite places to go when they’re on the move, which makes sense; when it comes to packing a host of flavours and textures into a shape handy enough to eat while trying to catch a train, the burrito’s hard to beat. Well, thanks to Deliveroo you can enjoy all the tastiness of Pinto’s pulled pork or grilled steak burrito without the attendant panic over missing the 12:12 to Partick, or the worry that you might end up with corn salsa down your leg from trying to eat and run at the same time. Just log on, pick your burrito, customise it with your favourite beans, salsa and extras just like you would at the counter, then wait for your food to arrive.

No fuss, no mess. Well, not to begin with anyway...

If you want a dinner with more of a South American vibe, call on Argentinian steakhouse Carne Argentina Unica (or CAU for short). The Ingram Street restaurant offer a whole host of Buenos Aires-inspired fare, but the Argentinian

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food buffs among you will know that red meat is king round these parts. Put it this way; if you feel like you’ve earned yourself a payday treat, but you can’t face joining your workmates at the pub or even getting back up from the sofa, CAU are the folk to get in touch with. They’ll wing a 320g rib-eye steak your way – cooked how you want – along with some crunchy triple-cooked chips for less than £20, and it’ll be at your door via Deliveroo in under half an hour. Throw in a bottle of wine from Mendoza, Argentina’s premier vineyard region, or a couple of bottles of the de facto national beer Quilmes for good measure – you’ve earned it.

From the country that’s responsible for some of the world’s best steaks to a venue responsible for some of Glasgow’s best burgers (and in a city packed to the gunnels with red meat that’s saying something). Bread Meats Bread on St Vincent Street has built a fanatical following since opening its doors four years ago, thanks to delicious and exciting burgers and dishes of poutine big enough to float a sailboat in. That said, BMB can get a bit busy at times, so being able to have your food brought to your door is a godsend. As for what to get, there are a few options to work through; the Black Label menu features a host of classics including the smashed patties of the Cali burger (order it mustard-fried for the full experience), or the signature Wolf of Wall Street topped with cheese, bacon and pulled pork. The Red Label menu features patties made from a blend of beef and ‘nduja Italian sausage, the Green Label presents an impressive range of veggie and vegan burgers, and the aforementioned poutine is a must.

Then there’s Smoak in the Merchant City, who take something of a pan-global approach to barbecue. A kitchen team with classical European-style training, using American barbecue techniques, but guided by the five tastes found in Asian cookery (sweet, sour, bitter, salt, and umami). What this means in practice is an intriguing range of burgers and sandwiches, and a host of barbecue-based mains from blackened chicken with avocado and cajun rice to the Smoak Stack of the restaurant’s brisket and pork belly with cornbread and coleslaw. Truly, something for everyone.

GLASGOW WEST END

While the city centre can be a bit full-on and meat-centric, the West End is an altogether more diverse foodie eco-system. OK, you’ve still got a good range of red meateries, but there’s also a host of exciting and interesting neighbourhood cafes as well as cuisines from right around the world – there are even options for vegetarians and overly-serious ‘healthy’ people. It takes all sorts, we suppose, so here’s a look at what’s on offer in the west of the city.

“No longer must you walk from place to place getting increasingly irate and peckish; just log onto Deliveroo and browse away” Piece on Argyle Street are all about the sandwich; clue’s in the title, we suppose. These are no ordinary sandwiches either, for Piece are among Scotland’s leading bread-filling-bread specialists.

One of our readers’ picks in our 2015 Food and Drink Survey, the sandwiches at Piece are true works of art. From the home-baked falafel sandwich complete with harissa mayonnaise to the aptly-titled Smackdown featuring smoked mackerel, beetroot, gherkin and horseradish, Piece’s sandwiches are eclectic, electric, and about as far away from a supermarket meal deal as it’s possible to get.

If all that sandwich chat has you inspired, but you fancy something a little more exotic, take a look at Po’ Boyz behind Victoria Park. Again, the name gives away a fair chunk of the menu, with

The Juice Garden

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a Louisiana-inspired sandwich selection on offer including the classic fried prawn po’ boy as well as pulled pork and steak variants. It’s when you take a deeper dive into the menu that things get really, really interesting – battered catfish, creole jambalaya and slow cooked barbecue chicken are the kind of dishes you often really want, but don’t have the ingredients or wherewithal to put together yourself. Well, Po’ Boyz have it all.

The Juice Garden on Byres Road is another West End spot with a somewhat self-explanatory name, with the chief attraction here being an astounding array of juice blends and smoothies packed with healthy ingredients and antioxidants.

First up are the botanical juices and smoothies, loaded up with fresh fruits and herbs to help you power through the day when you’re stuck at your desk yearning for freedom. For the more advanced juice fans the Kitchen have a range of ‘health and beauty’ juices and cold-pressed concoctions featuring ingredients like activated charcoal and Himalayan salt, and that’s before we even get onto the salads, sandwiches, raw desserts and herbal teas further down the menu.

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, things don’t go as planned. You have visions of a productive day out, of cantering around the neighbourhood meeting old friends and high-fiving dogs. Then you wake up, see that it’s half 12, and realise that the only food you have in the flat is half a jar of olives and three different types of jam. That’s where Roasters Deli come in, with four of the finest words in the English language: all day breakfast, delivered. And this is far from your standard ‘bowl of cereal and slap in the face’ brekkie; the American-style deli serves up a huge range of pancakes, french toast, eggs in a whole host of configurations, as well as a US-inspired take on the

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classic cooked breakfast. No need to leave the house to get it either.

HIDDEN GEM

Of course, one of the joys of Deliveroo is that it makes browsing through the city’s choice of restaurants and cafes so easy. No longer must you leaf through drawers full of paper menus, or – god forbid – walk from place to place getting increasingly irate and peckish; just log onto the site or app and browse away until you find something delicious. This makes it that much easier to discover a hidden gem or unknown treasure that you may have otherwise overlooked.

Treasures such as Siempre Bicycle Cafe in the West End. A popular haunt for the West End’s cyclists, it’s also a great spot from which to order in breakfast or lunch regardless of your feelings on drop handlebars or your position on the fixed gear vs single speed debate. Arguments about correct bipedal technique can wait when you get your hands on one of Siempre’s Croque toasted sandwiches, filled with cheese, bacon or haggis, or try one of their juices and smoothies. There are lunch platters packed with deli meats, preserves and chutneys, a surprisingly extensive beer and wine selection available for delivery, plus a host of breakfast and brunch options. The biking can wait, but those sandwiches won’t eat themselves.

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Edinburgh

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t may have something of an all-or-nothing relationship with the performing arts, and it does tend to get overrun by tourists for large parts of the year, but if there’s one thing Edinburgh does have in its favour, it’s the food. Edinburgh is a great food city, from exciting Michelin Star restaurants to great local beers, via an enormous sweep of topnotch coffee shops and cafes. There’s something for everyone, and sometimes the biggest problem can be navigating the scene. Luckily, Deliveroo’s first year has seen that problem mitigated to a large extent – a directory of some of the city’s finest restaurants delivering food straight to your door, it’s certainly taken away the need to physically navigate the city; just bash your order into the app or website and it’s on its way. At the end of year one it’s time to take stock, so we’ve put together this guide to some of the best venues in Scotland’s capital, focussing on the Old Town and Stockbridge.

Expect incredible cakes, surprising drinks, and some unpronounceable but delicious food.

UNIVERSITY & OLD TOWN

Curries are exciting, intriguing and packed with flavour – the problem is that they take a lot of effort, require genuine skill at matching flavours and blending spices, and you always find yourself battling curry envy when you see your friends’ dinner.

No-one wants to end up in a public scrap over the last piece of saag aloo, but that’s what sometimes happens, or so we’ve heard. Luckily, V Deep can help solve these problems, with an extensive range of dishes to choose from and order via Deliveroo.

Meat-lovers can head for the Ox Cheek Bhuna or Hipster Vindaloo – don’t worry, it’s made with slow braised pork shoulder, rather than slow braised moustachioed fellas in flat caps. Meanwhile veggies are more than catered to with a lengthy list of plant-based options including Gobi Kali Mirch (a peppery cauliflower curry) and Sabut Bhindi (hot and sour okra curry), the side dishes include bewildering arrays of both naan breads and fried chicken, and you can even order in beers from Williams, Augustiner and Brooklyn Brewery to wash down all that spice.

In the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, The Holyrood 9A present a mouthwatering array of burgers to suit all palates. Beef burgers range from the Blue Murder topped with mushroom, bacon and cheese to the signature Holyrood burger which features Hereford Hop cheese, beer mustard and caramelised onion mayo. For vegetarians there’s an extensive range of options including a tandoori mushroom burger topped with beetroot and carrot raitha or a falafel burger with chilli ‘slaw and habanero pepper ketchup, while the more adventurous among you can try out some of the Holyrood’s ‘alternative’ burgers starring such ingredients as wild boar, haggis and venison. Throw in some beers from Galashiels-based brewery Tempest with your order and you have all the fun of a pub dinner, but without the worry of not finding a seat at which to eat it.

For a more refreshing option, Tempo Tea Bar features a terrifyingly extensive menu of hot and cold variations on Taiwanese bubble tea, all of which can be customised to your heart’s content.

There are literally hundreds of combinations on

Patisserie Madeleine

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the Tempo menu, making it ideal for a lengthy browse on your phone rather than a prolonged umm-ing and ahh-ing with a queue slowly growing behind you. Want an iced Watermelon redbush tea with some strawberry boba pearls, or a Japanese matcha tea with green tea jelly? Just fire up Deliveroo and it’ll be with you shortly, no need to write incredibly specific instructions for your co-workers to ignore or forget to explain correctly.

Staying with the Asian theme, Sushiya on Dalry Road offers up a bewildering array of sushi and other Japanese fare. The sushi is the main event here, with plenty of choices to fight over when it all arrives at your front door. The Sushiya menu features a huge host of temaki hand rolls, sashimi, nigiri and maki, from your standard salmon and tuna to more exciting options like surf clam and eel. For the full effect, order up some of Sushiya’s roll sushi – the futo maki (Japanese pickle, avocado, sweet egg, cucumber and kampyo) and rainbow roll (tuna, salmon, cucumber, avocado and crab egg) present a blend of flavours and textures you’ll struggle to knock together with the contents of even the most well-stocked kitchen cupboard.

Over in Haymarket, Ola Kala serve up an impressive range of traditional Greek dishes with the nomenclature to prove it. Among your choices are Kefalotiri Saganaki (seared sheep’s milk cheese), Bougiourdi (grilled feta with tomatoes and green chilli), Mpifteki (veal patties not too dissimilar to your classic burger) and Chicken Souvlaki (skewered meat marinated in lemon, olive oil and garlic). Deliveroo comes in doubly handy here – it allows you to order your dinner direct from your phone or computer, and keeps you from making hamfisted attempts at Greek pronunciation that confuse and embarrass all concerned. Those of you with sweet teeth can even get your hands on one of a range of intriguing Greek soft drinks, from GR8 Cola – we’re convinced, it has ‘great’ right there in the title – to Mple gazoza, which we gather is something of a hybrid between lemonade and cream soda.

Speaking of a sweet tooth, Mallow Valley Cheesecake’s range of cheesecakes has something for everyone. A selection of the Valley’s cheesecakes are available by the slice, but for the full Mallow Valley experience you’d be better off with a full cheesecake. There are literally dozens of

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flavours to choose from, with your options ranging from the potentially healthy raspberry and lemon or mango and coconut to the definitely decadent Piña Colada and Guinness cake flavours. You’ll need to find some friends or colleagues to split your cake with; it might be a good time to check in on your coffee chums from earlier on, as a slice of this stuff should help everyone make their way through the rest of the day on a wave of sugar and cream cheese. Wait for the office to lose its mojo, fire up Deliveroo, and wait for productivity and morale to soar through the roof.

BROUGHTON & STOCKBRIDGE We’ll start with a comparatively straightforward proposition – street food stand Barnacles and Bones. There are two principal menu options – fresh crab dressed in a homemade lemon mayonnaise topped with smoked paprika (that’s your Barnacle) or slow-braised beef short rib in a sherry gravy (that’ll be the Bones). Once you’ve made your mind up, your chosen B comes to you either on a roll with yoghurt ‘slaw; as a quinoa, bulgur and rocket salad; or served on a bed of tarragonsalted fries. We know which one we’d pick, and the fact that you can have two of them for exactly £15 makes the maths incredibly straightforward.

Nobody wants to do long division while eating a delightful sandwich, so it’s best to just keep things simple. If you fancy branching out from the two main dishes, Barnacles and Bones also serve up a host of smaller dishes showcasing their main ingredients including crab-stuffed avocado, crab fritters, and beef-filled risotto balls or arancini.

Oh, and if you order on a Monday or Tuesday, they’ll even throw in a free dessert.

If you’re in the market for a pay day treat, look no further than The Olive Branch. The menu at this Broughton Street spot is packed with exciting Mediterranean dishes and interesting takes on classic meals. Beef short rib makes its second outing in this round-up, this time accompanied by sweet potato chips and a side of kale, while elsewhere you’ll find a host of shareable small plates, pasta dishes, veggie options and intriguing puddings.

THE SKINNY

When it comes time for a sweet treat, instead of nipping out into the cold to pick from numerous identically shaped chocolate bars at the corner shop, head to Patisserie Madeleine. The French bakery in Stockbridge has an impressive array of classic patissiere to outshine any supermarket counter or cartoon-endorsed candy. If you fancy something light, order in a box of delicate macarons filled with chocolate ganache or jam, while chocolate-lovers can pick up a box of three rochers (wafers surrounded by chocolate and hazelnut ganache) that will please even the pickiest of ambassadors. Pastry fans will be impressed by Madeleine’s choux eclairs topped with crunch and filled with creme patisserie, while the pièce de résistance, as they say, comes in the form of entremets – your classic ‘cake shop window’ treats which come in the form of domes, pastries, gateaux and tartes. Make your choice, place your order and stick the kettle on – you’ve earned it.

WINE TIME

Now we know what you’re thinking: “I’m ahead of the curve; I always have my fridge and cupboards stocked with the best produce, and I actually enjoy cooking. What can Deliveroo offer me?” To you, dear reader, we ask this simple question: what do you have to go with your meal? Wait, don’t panic and run to the shop, we can help!

When lugging shopping down the road, the last thing you want is to be weighed down by clinking bottles, so the temptation is always to ‘pick something up later’. The only problem with that plan is that you might end up with a dramatically reduced range of drinks to choose from, or simply find that the weather’s changed since you sat down and it’s now raining sideways outside.

Deliveroo can get you out of that bind though, with a pair of specialist wine shops that offer delivery of top-notch drinks across Edinburgh.

“All the fun of a restaurant meal, without the worry over finding a seat” First up is the Great Grog Bottle Shop, with an extensive range of European and new world wines. Their Deliveroo menu is nice and straightforward, with whites and reds arranged by country, and their tasting notes are intuitive enough that even the most vacant wine novice can understand them. Prices are reasonable, the selection is interesting, and a bottle your way in as little as 30 minutes, you can start on dinner safe in the knowledge that drinks are in hand.

From a wine shop with a global range to a store that focuses its energies on one country’s produce, Bacco Wine on Dundas Street have made it their mission to import the best wines from independent producers from across Italy.

The result is an intriguing selection of drinks, each with its own character and personality. From Castello Bonomi’s Franciacorta, a sparkling wine from Lombardy made from hand-picked chardonnay grapes, to the Diano d’Alba organic red from the Mario Giribaldi winery near Turin, each of the bottles at Bacco has its own story to tell. When we put it like that, it seems a shame to leave them all alone in the shop, but that’s nothing a quick trip to the Deliveroo app won’t fix.

V Deep

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Pop and Circumstance A victor for the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year Award will be announced in Paisley on 29 June. But before that, the longlist of 20 albums must be whittled down to 10 – and you can play your part. We cast an ear over the hopefuls

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f the average length of an album is half an hour, the 20 LPs which make up the 2016 SAY Award longlist comprise some 600 minutes of recorded music. That’s a lot of tunes for even the keenest fan of the Scottish pop scene to digest. But Joe Public – that’s you and us – will next week be given the chance to vote on which of these collections are most deserving of a place on the final shortlist.

From 13-15 June, aficionados will have 72 hours to pick their favourite album. The LP receiving the most votes will be guaranteed to make the cut, with the rest chosen by a 12-strong panel of judges. Only 10 records will be shortlisted, with the successful artists announced on 16 June. They’ll then be invited to attend the awards night on Wednesday, 29 June at Paisley Town Hall, where the overall winner will be announced.

It’s appropriate then to consider why this competition is worth all the bother. The SAY Award is not just another corporate bauble. It was established to promote the music industry’s annual output north of the border – a firm reminder that bands do not need an N1 postcode to find commercial success – and offer a platform to established as well as up-and-coming artists based in the country. Of course, most groups will tell you awards don’t matter when it comes to music. Integrity and art are all that count. But that doesn’t mean they won’t want to win.

Unlike the BRIT Award for best international male, this is not a trophy destined to become a door stop in a record executive’s Hollywood condo.

The inimitable Kathryn Joseph wasn’t accustomed to full-page newspaper articles on her debut before she was named the 2015 winner. It boosted the songwriter’s profile immeasurably and provided a handy £20,000 towards the recording of her next work. When The Skinny asked her how she felt moments after the announcement, she jumped up and down for a solid 10 seconds. It certainly beats Alex Turner nonchalantly dropping his microphone on ITV. There’s also the satisfaction of knowing your work is valued by your peers. Musos might be renowned for indulging in a spot of mutual backslapping given the slightest opportunity, but the

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camaraderie on display at the SAY Award is genuine.

Paolo Nutini, one of the shortlisted artists in 2015, may not be short of a bob or two but still couldn’t hide his delight while attending last year’s event at Glasgow’s ABC. As you would expect from any longlist, there’s a broad range of established bands, familiar faces and newer artists who work across a variety of styles – from jazz to art-rock. Some of the albums selected have prompted raised-eyebrows. But who wants to see an awards ceremony devoid of talking points?

Primal Scream’s inclusion has perhaps attracted the most scorn – and not just because they’ve been proudly based in London for more than 20 years. Bobby Gillespie himself would be unlikely to claim Chaosmosis is the band’s best effort; but then they have released 11 studio albums over a 30-year career. The LP – garish cover and all – is however another reinvention of sorts for the shapeshifting group, with a focus on upbeat synthpop rather than the hypnotic krautrock they took inspiration from around the dawn of the century. If nothing else, Bobby G and co have been banging the drum for Scottish music longer than most of the other bands longlisted have been alive.

When the Scottish Album of the Year Award was launched in 2012, few could have predicted that one day it would include the Mael brothers – Los Angeles’ finest purveyors of art-rock for more than 40 years. But when Sparks teamed up with Franz Ferdinand, the FFS supergroup was born.

Their self-titled debut remains one of 2015’s most intriguing releases. If FFS do make the eventual shortlist, their presence at the awards night could bring some pop royalty glamour to proceedings.

And there’s no doubting Franz frontman Alex Kapranos would want to win. “I have an ego the size of the Greek national debt, as do all musicians I’ve ever met,” he told The Skinny last year.

The SAY Award wasn’t around when The Delgados were still releasing music. But Emma Pollock, once the linchpin of the Glasgow group, is on the longlist for In Search of Harperfield – probably her best solo work to date. It’s among the early favourites for the title, and with stand-out

Words: Chris McCall tracks like Parks & Recreation, it’s easy to see why.

“The fact is I’ve been doing this 20 years and people are still willing to listen to me,” she told us back in April. “It’s reaffirming to know you can be a bit older in the industry, and a female, and still put a record out and have people want to listen.”

Electronic music is also well represented. A longlist nomination has capped a stellar 12 months for Brian D’Souza, aka Auntie Flo. The Glaswegian producer’s latest work, Theory of Flo, was recorded over two years in Havana, Glasgow and London, with musicians from the likes of Ghana as well as Cuba. Consequently, this is a record with a global sound and reach. Like FFS, it’s a rich example of the benefits collaboration can bring to artists looking for new paths to explore.

Skinny regulars CHVRCHES, Steve Mason and 2014 winners Young Fathers are also on the longlist and likely to feature in the final 10. But the award is as much about promoting the work of upand-coming artists as established players. Hoping to go one better than his 2015 Mercury Prize nomination will be Glaswegian virtuoso C Duncan – an artist who few people had heard of this time last year. The multi-instrumentalist’s debut, Architect, won praise across the board – not bad for something he recorded on his tod over 12 months. “It was me just using whatever stuff I had in my bedroom,” he revealed to us last September. “All my spare time I just spent doing that; I had real highs and lows, because obviously I was kind of isolated for a year.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based electronic composer Anna Meredith only released her debut album – the genre-bending Varmints – in March but already stands on the brink of winning national exposure if she makes the shortlist. Her live show, which we recently rated as “a fusion of classical stylings with glowing, electronic pulses... with an added sense of maximalist discipline,” is sure to win her new fans regardless.

One notable stand-out on the longlist is Dunedin Consort, an Edinburgh-based Baroque ensemble. Their recording of J.S. Bach’s Magnificat won rave reviews in the classical world for placing the work in its original liturgical context. Cut

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from very different cloth, but just as open to tackling difficult compositions, are Hector Bizerk.

The hip-hop duo wrote The Waltz Of Modern Psychiatry as an original score for Nicola McCartney’s play Crazy Jane.

Former BBC Young Folk Award winner Jarlath Henderson is in the running for his first solo album Hearts Broken, Heads Turned, while the fourth full-length release from folk group Lau has already proved popular among residents of Scotland’s largest city. The Bell That Never Rang borrows its title from the story behind Glasgow’s coat of arms.

Producer Miaoux Miaoux displayed his growing songwriting skills on School Of Velocity – which claimed a full 5/5 review from this very publication. The electro-pop maestro, aka Julian Corrie, is known for his work with other artists but his solo efforts could see him make the top 10 cut.

With this being a Scottish album award, it would be strange not to see the traditional music made famous in our country represented. Iain Morrison – once a member of indie band Crash My Model Car – was inspired by the melodies of traditional Highland piping for his sixth solo album, Eas. It was named album of the year by Roddy Hart’s BBC radio show and could enjoy more success in Paisley.

Graeme ‘The Revenge’ Clark makes the longlist for Love That Will Not Die, a serious collection of original house compositions, while singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni will be able to call on her sizable online following to ensure her album of folk-noir ballads, Tied to the Moon, stands a chance of winning the popular vote.

With the likes of folk-pop veterans Admiral Fallow, Kanye-collaborating producer Hudson Mohawke and art-rock masters Django Django also in the running, cutting this longlist down to size will be a difficult task. But you can play your part in this fiendishly hard task by casting your vote online from 13 June. As any cliché-ridden football manager will tell you – you’ve got to be in it to win it. sayaward.com

THE SKINNY

The Princess and the Flea Italian director Matteo Garrone discusses his passion for reinventing fairy tales with a contemporary twist

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ale of Tales features Salma Hayek devouring a bloody heart and Toby Jones nurturing a monstrous pet flea – probably not images you expect to see in a new fantasy film. But Tale of Tales isn’t your average Hollywood fairy tale.

It’s directed by Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who came to UK audiences’ attention with his thrilling Neapolitan crime drama Gomorrah.

His next feature, Reality, a satirical take on the Italian version of Big Brother, took a different direction, exploring a man’s obsession with obtaining fame at all costs – it won Garrone the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012. Tales of Tales, which marks Garrone’s English-language debut, shows the director’s versatility going in yet another new direction, presenting a fantastical, interwoven trio of grotesque, often humorous fairy tales.

Garonne’s source material is a relatively unknown fairy tale collection written by 17th-century Neapolitan aristo Giambattista Basile. The tales are a weird and wonderful blend of lesserknown and famous fables that have been passed down through the years and include versions of classics like Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel – beating the Brothers Grimm to the punch by 150-years. “The stories were so full of action and perfect for cinematic adaptation,” begins Garrone, who is talking to The Skinny over the phone from his home in Rome. “I was surprised, when I read Basile’s book, by the power of the stories and the visual possibilities.”

Basile’s stories were introduced to Garrone by an artist friend and he felt that they were perfect for his next feature. The challenge was whittling down the 150 plus stories into a cohesive narrative.

“We started developing the script with six or seven and then we decided to choose the point of view of women who are at different ages [in life].”

June 2016

The women that Garrone is referring to are played by a stellar cast of actors from around the world including Salma Hayek, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael and newcomer Bebe Cave. Being in the English language afforded the director a greater pool of talent to pick from, and also would allow him to get his work seen by a wider audience. He also managed to snag a worthy male cast, which includes the eclectic talents of Vincent Cassel (appropriately cast as a lothario king with dubious morals), Toby Jones (flea exit stage left) and John C. Riley.

“People

often ask, ‘How is it possible for you to make a movie so different from your other films?’”

Matteo Garrone

The film may be set in a magical kingdom far, far away, but the stories chime with many contemporary issues. Gender politics abound, as does a critique of society’s ongoing obsession with youth, stretching farther afield to universal themes of loss, longing and fear. For Garrone, this is where the appeal lay: he was able to explore contemporary problems within a fantastical setting but also hold on to the reality that made them relatable to modern audiences.

“What I like about these stories,” says Garrone, “is that the moral is sometimes utterly unpredictable. You never know how it’s going to end.” Garrone, like Basile, wanted to showcase the full range of human experiences, balancing the comic and tragic. “For me, it is how Basile mixed the grotesque aspects [of his stories] and, at the same time, manages to show the humanity of his characters.”

Tale of Tales isn’t for the faint of heart and is as far from the family friendly fare of Disney’s Frozen or Tangled as you can get. Garrone has retained the grisly nature of the original material because it inherently captures the broad reality of life, albeit presented in an extreme version.

“Basile took tales that were popular in the Medieval period, which explains why they are so dark because it was a violent world.” Actions in this world have horrible consequences, and human fallibility is everywhere. It is a world where princes are far from charming and old crones will stab their sister in the back for the chance of bedding a king.

Garrone’s approach to the material wasn’t all that different to how he tackled Gomorrah and Reality, although he admits that viewers may not see the link so easily. “People often ask, ‘How is it possible for you to make a movie so different from your other films?’” he chuckles down the line. “I used to start from the observation of reality and then bring this reality into a fantastical dimension.

For instance, Gomorrah was a type of dark fairy tale that talks about violence against kids. Reality starts like a fairy tale with a carriage that goes into a castle. In this movie, I began with fantastic and magical tales and tried to bring them a dimension of reality.”

In other words, Garrone is wrestling with the same themes he has always wrestled with. “Human problems and human conflict are universal and

FILM

Interview: Joseph Walsh

modern themes. When I made this movie, the setting was the 17th century but, for me, the themes are now. I shot it like it was a movie talking about me, and the people I know.” For Garrone, he’s more interested in the psychological journey that his characters are on, not their historical context.

Basile wasn’t Garrone’s only source of inspiration. Within this collection of stories, he knew the potential of their inherent theatricality, and references how Italian author Italo Calvino saw Basile as the ‘Neapolitan Shakespeare.’ “As a writer of the 17th century, Basile is connected, in a way, to Shakespeare. The stories are very theatrical; you can feel the theatre behind it.”

This sense of theatre was as important to Garonne as the inner journey of his characters.

“We wanted to show audiences that what they are seeing is believable, but also, at the same time, is a type of theatrical, artificial representation.”

While the dramatic element was key, Garrone is a visual director and he turned to his other passion, fine art, for inspiration. “If I had to name one inspiration it would be Goya,” he says.

“The drawings of Los Caprichos were always in front of me in preparation for this movie, because I found in these pictures the soul of the tales of Basile – the supernatural dimension and its link to realism.”

After discussing the various directions his work has gone in, we finish on where his next project will take him. “I would like to make another movie in this direction, but at the same time doing something different, keeping it connected to this experience.” Garrone is a director who always keeps us guessing. We look forward to seeing where his next flight of fancy takes us.

Tale of Tales is released 17 Jun by Curzon/Artificial Eye

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Women in Comics The illustrated world is maligned for its depiction of women on the page. Ahead of her appearance at Glasgow Comic Con, celebrated comic author and artist Kate Leth explains what’s changing and why

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recent exhibition at London’s House of Illustration celebrated and showcased Comix Creatrix, with art from around the world showing women’s involvement in graphic art since the 1800s. Newspaper comic strips, politicallycharged graphic novels and even the UK’s first regular superhero have been imagined, penned and inked by women for over 150 years, yet the image that comes to mind with the phrase ‘women in comics’ is usually one of someone in a tight suit falling over.

The misconception is a popular one, and stretches out past the people on the page: women working in comic book shops have often found themselves feeling isolated in a world full of chiselled jaws and misogyny. It’s something writer and illustrator Kate Leth – appearing this year at Glasgow Comic Con – was determined to stop.

Leth has written, drawn and consumed comics for years: starting out with her own weekly online comic KateOrDie, she has since gone on to write the full-length Adventure Time graphic novel Seeing Red, and is now the lead writer on Marvel’s Hellcat.

As with any long-running series, the likes of Adventure Time and Marvel’s comic universe present a stock of characters, places and backstories that writers and artists get to manipulate.

This means that, while a character may play on the sidelines of one story by one writer, they can be thrust into the limelight by another. Marceline of the land of Ooo was one such character, and in her contributions to the Adventure Time universe, Leth brought characters like Marceline increasingly into the foreground.

“I actually had a surprising amount of freedom on all of the Adventure Time books,” Canadianborn Leth informs us from her base in California.

“I did whatever I wanted! I’m done working on Adventure Time projects, but there will always be other projects I want to do and stories I want to tell!”

“As for Hellcat, our editor Wil Moss and I talk a lot and he’s very involved with the book, but all for the best. I think great editors make a huge difference.” Another incarnation of Hellcat appeared as Trish Walker in recent Netflix series Jessica Jones, and we can’t talk comics without talking about those huge Hollywood adaptations, reboots and re-castings that have filled box offices and emptied pockets over the last few years. Of course, most of those reboots have been focusing on male, and increasingly obscure, comic book characters – we simply couldn’t delay giving Antman, Green Lantern or Deadpool their own films, but we’re still waiting on a Wonder Woman feature, and Marvel recently forced writers to change the villain in Iron Man 3 from female to male for no reason other than merchandise sales. Is there a chance that these blockbusters have just been bringing in cash for the same old franchises, and fans for the same old characters?

Leth is largely optimistic. “It’s brought a lot of people into comics who might not have tried them before,” she says, “although single issues and pull lists are still not as prevalent as, say, graphic novels and collections. I think comic publishers could benefit tremendously from really embracing the book market, especially in YA [Young Adult].”

More and more young people are certainly becoming interested in comics, as Sha Nazir, Festival Director for Glasgow’s Comic Con, has noted.

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“We’ve seen a shift from the early years to a progressively younger female audience,” she explains, and as comics in general experience a revival, both new and older audiences alike are being offered different kinds of stories. That shift towards female audiences is striking in terms of stats: last year, over half of Glasgow Comic Con’s attendees were female; in attendees under 30, only a quarter were male. Various factors, from social media to increased representation in other forms of media, have brought women out of their Batcaves and into conventions.

A couple of years ago Leth founded the Valkyries, a ‘girl gang’ for women working in comic book stores. Starting out life as a Facebook group that grew exponentially, it now has the strength of 700 women across the world. The group encourages discussion between members for a number of purposes, from socialising and networking, to sharing ideas for how to welcome more and more people into their stores – and, when necessary, to act as a support network for people in a similar position, privy to the same prejudices.

“ We’ve focused on female creators... it is a true reflection of the immense talent found in the comics industry”

sed on female creators because it’s the honest thing to do,” Nazir says. “It is simply a true reflection of the immense talent found in the comics industry.”

As well as Leth, this year’s Glasgow Comic Con welcomes international headliners Marguerite Bennett and David Aja alongside home-grown heroes like Tom Foster and Clare Forrest. The programme is a blend of panels and workshops, looking at breaking into the industry and networking, right down to the nitty-gritty of drawing or plotting out a story, and even discussions of our good old friend feminism and its place in the comic book world. This conversation is always going to be an interesting one: even the listing for this event in Glasgow Comic Con’s guide is placed opposite a picture of a scantily-clad damsel in the arms of Swamp Thing.

“We chose to do a panel focusing on feminism in a feminist space,” says Nazir, “to make clear that the first half of the panel won’t be a debate over whether sexism exists, but rather how feminists in the industry handle the problems it raises.” Not just creators, then, but publishers, editors and managers in the world of comics have a chance to openly discuss the hurdles that still exist in the industry, and how to overcome them.

Women have been in the world of comics for years, but by actively encouraging us to take part,

Interview: Jenni Ajderian Illustration: Terri Po

the Valkyries and the wider world of comic book art can draw out more and more talent and stories.

The more people are involved, the more diverse, representative, and more generally interesting any artform can be; from the kinds of bodies we see on the page to the kinds of protagonists we follow and the types of stories we tell.

As a hundreds-strong group of industry employees, with a knock-on reach of thousands when their customers are considered, it is no surprise that the Valkyries receive preview copies of comics from all the biggest names in the industry.

With a unified and measurable group to cater to, publishers and creators can be more aware of their readership, and often receive direct feedback from the Valkyries and other similar groups.

A group for enthusiastic amateurs, Valhalla, has also started to bring together female comic fans in a similar way.

It seems like the battle to bring in more readers, young and old, male and female, is being won. Does it feel that way in stores and conventions? “We still get asked this question,” Leth laughs, “so there’s a long way to go.”

Glasgow Comic Festival runs from 28 Jun-3 Jul at CCA, including Glasgow Comic Con on 2-3 Jul gccon.wordpress.com

Sha Nazir

High up on the agenda is making women feel comfortable coming to comic book shops, with meet-ups and ladies’ nights set to show individuals that they are not alone in their love of caped crusaders and Amazonian goddesses. “It’s not as hard as people think to make a space feel safe and welcoming,” Leth explains. “If it’s bright, clean, well-stocked and comfortable to be in, that helps.

If you make sure all of the staff are open and kind rather than aloof or condescending, even better.

Listen to customers, engage them, ask what they want. Work with libraries and local events, make it known that you’re a friendly spot.”

Working with libraries is precisely what the organisers at Glasgow Comic Con have done to bring in a centrepiece exhibition of women in comics. “Glasgow Women’s Library have brilliant archives showcasing zines and comics,” Nazir tells us. “The comics collection is growing bigger every day and the zine collection has just recently been catalogued. The archive features works from the early 1990s to the present day, and there will be an event on 14 July at the library to celebrate.”

Just as convention attendees have gotten younger and more female, so too has the convention line-up arrived very nearly at a 50-50 gender split. The exhibition at its heart is a celebration of talent which often gets sidelined. “We’ve focu-

BOOKS

THE SKINNY

Immersed in Danger Two journalists who walked into the lion’s den: Wolfgang Bauer went undercover to share the journey of Syrian refugees fleeing the terror of war, while Jürgen Todenhöfer confronted that terror, spending ten days as a guest of the Islamic State

“I

asked a judge, ‘Will there be an amputation or an execution in the next few days?’ And the judge said ‘No… because our amputations have been such a deterrent that nobody’s stealing anymore.’ Then, at this moment this German terrorist said, ‘Oh, if you want to film that I’ll arrange it, I’ll do it myself. Our prisons are full of people.

An amputation or a beheading? As you like.’”

Jürgen Todenhöfer was in the Islamic State, shielded by a single sheet of paper – one signed and stamped by the office of the Caliph. A guarantee ‘of safety for the German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, so that he can travel safely in the territories of the Islamic State with his worldly goods and his travelling companions.’ It was a promise negotiated over six months, yet a group who behead journalists make promises few reporters would test in practice.

“I was thinking about this problem – if I would come back alive,” admits the 75-year-old Todenhöfer; author, politician and former judge in his native Germany. “They published the guarantee on the internet as a state, so as a state they would have [incurred] huge damage if they had beheaded me.” He conveys these thoughts over the phone to The Skinny, matter-of-factly, as if discussing just another technicality of the journey he and his photographer son Frédéric embarked upon in 2014, to spend ten days with ISIS – as reported in his new book My Journey into the Heart of Terror.

“They kept their promise, we came back alive.”

Setting off on an equally significant journey that same year, journalist Wolfgang Bauer hoped for the same outcome. He and his photographer Stanislav Krupar had constructed false identities as English language teachers from the Caucasus regions of Russia. They were in Egypt, their departure point for being trafficked across the ocean into Europe, to experience first-hand the journey across which 1,500 people drown each year. That

June 2016

specific danger was relegated, however, beneath slipping from character.

“In the beginning we feared most the time on the boats,” Bauer admits, Skyping in from a safe middle class home in rural Germany, “because of the claustrophobic situation, and because of my colleague and his camera and iPhone, that somebody would notice that he takes pictures. Our scariest imagining [was] that the smugglers would just throw us to the ocean because they would have assumed that we were agents from the CIA, from Mossad, from European Border Protection.” Bauer shrugs. “You have to stay in character, absolutely.

You’re an actor, acting for your life.” His performance bore feature-length reports, published in the German newspaper Die Zeit, and now compiled into the devastating book Crossing the Sea with Syrians on the Exodus to Europe.

So what do these dangerous, immersive experiences offer that traditional reporting cannot? “I think it’s difficult for any media to report correctly because you cannot go there [ISIS-controlled territory],” explains Todenhöfer in his instance. “The propaganda videos have nothing to do with the reality of Mosul. I can’t criticise the journalist who says, ‘I don’t want to take the risk to go to the Islamic state,’ so we have a problem.” Without his journalistic offering we must choose between myopic external reports or ISIS propaganda.

“For example, in the videos you always see those masked fighters on convoys with machine guns, but this is show,” says Todenhöfer. “In the real life of Mosul you never see that.” His is a rare insight into “how they tick, how these people think.

What is their reasoning?”

As an experienced international reporter, Bauer’s reasoning is immersed in logic as much as aspiration; a logic which starkly highlights the plight of Syrian refugees. “In Aleppo you can’t protect yourself because of all the bombing,” he says.

“Which is the reason why so many people prefer

Interview: Alan Bett

the boat. It’s much more dangerous to work in Aleppo than to accompany refugees crossing the ocean.”

His book itself is an immersive experience, the reader inhabiting the role of refugee, empathising in a way that is impossible through mere statistics. Tragically, it is easier for European readers to comprehend this journey when undertaken by a German journalist, just as Hollywood generally views Third World suffering through a western lens. “If you just interview refugees who make it successfully to Europe, it has a different effect on people because it’s not first-hand experience,” admits Bauer. “It’s drawn by people from different cultural backgrounds, from places you don’t know. If you go as a reporter on behalf of all the others in your home country and you see it with your own eyes, then it has a much stronger effect on your readers. You had so many interviews with the refugees, and I’ve seen an increasing lack of understanding from the German population.”

His first-hand experiences meant that Bauer could draw out the characters of the refugees on the page. He could humanise the statistics. “Yeah, it’s the soul of the genre,” he says. “You put all the figures and statistics away and you focus on one specific life with all the contradictions that belong to an individual in biography. And that makes it closer to us because figures don’t mean anything to anybody.” In September 2014 a boat of 500 refugees was rammed by smugglers following a dispute.

It sank. Nearly all the men, women and children on board drowned in the Mediterranean. Bauer knew one of these 500 personally, a man who had brought him clean clothing while he was in an Egyptian jail after a failed crossing. This single life resonates far more than a faceless 500. “That’s the reason why I do features,” says Bauer. “Features bring people who don’t know each other, and who are separated by thousands of kilometres, as close as possible by language.”

BOOKS

Historically, conflict reporters had carte blanche, until overstepping the mark in Vietnam by reporting the truth. Michael Herr, in his peerless work Dispatches, recounts the Generals who understood that the media was the primary battlefield; who would say, ‘My Marines are winning this war, and you people are losing it for us in your papers.’ While in the Islamic State, untethered access proved to be Todenhöfer’s challenge, one he decided to confront head on. “If you go with the Americans as an embedded journalist you see just one thing,” he says, critical of this form of journalism. “The thing they want to show you. Here it was different.”

But there remained a requirement to confirm roles and relationships with his armed charges.

Especially with the mysterious driver, who they began to sense was more than he initially appeared to be. “This masked driver, who I think was Jihadi John, I realised that he wanted to dominate us. In the first moments, in the first hours you have to show that you won’t accept this, otherwise you’ve lost.” This sparked tense and potentially deadly confrontations, with Todenhöfer demanding freedom to report. Yet on the whole his subjects felt there was little to hide “They told me, ‘If you say we are brutal, that’s correct. If you say that we kill people, that we are beheading people, that we enslave people, you can write this because it’s true.’

Brutality is their USP. They said of course you can write this.”

The accusation related to his open reporting is that it offers a platform for ISIS’ views and beliefs, especially as the book publishes largely unedited Q&A sessions with the terrorist Abu Qatahda and a Jihadist Salim. These and similar accusations have earned Todenhöfer death threats from all sides of the political spectrum – many online – and an expertly tied hangman’s noose was left at the door to his office. “No, I didn’t give them a platform,” Todenhöfer quickly retorts when our conversation moves in this direction. “If you say that we shouldn’t have the possibility to show horrible things, you could stop most TV information every evening. You would only have 20% left.”

‘If you want to find the truth you must speak to both sides,’ he claims in the introduction to his book. His actions speak as loudly as those words, having met with members of Al Qaeda, The Taliban and even with the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

“I spoke with him several times… and I was tagged a friend of dictators. Then I met ISIS and they said I’m a friend of the terrorists. They have to take a decision. Am I a friend of a dictator or his worst enemies, the terrorists?”

“ You have to stay in character, absolutely. You’re an actor, acting for your life” Wolfgang Bauer

Both his and Bauer’s brave and unique journalistic works navigate a minefield of moral and theoretical issues. Yet their reasoning remains unadulterated. “When you go into a hospital,” states Todenhöfer, “you forget the big words about war.

You see dying rebels, you see suffering civilians, you see suffering soldiers. We should do whatever we can to stop wars and to find other solutions.

To see what war is really, you [need to] see the hospitals in these war zones.” Wolfgang Bauer’s book concludes, simply, ‘Have mercy.’

My Journey into the Heart of Terror is out now, published by Greystone Books, RRP £17.99 Crossing the Sea with Syrians on the Exodus to Europe is out now, published by & Other Stories, RRP £15

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Alice Myers Nothing is Impossible Under the Sun

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SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

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or two years between 2012 and 2014, photographer Alice Myers traveled backward and forward to Calais, where she worked with migrants and refugees who were attempting to cross the Channel, those who were helping them cross and those who had given up trying. There were only a few hundred people there then, living in squats and makeshift camps near the centre of town.

Aware that migrants and refugees are often presented as either victims or criminals, Alice attempted to use the camera as a starting point for interaction and negotiation. In her new book, Nothing is Impossible Under the Sun – which takes its title from an Arabic proverb – collaborative portraits, writing, drawings and interviews combine with photographs from refugees’ smartphones to form a complex representation of those who are legally invisible. Alice is constantly aware of her role as photographer, and the project poses pertinent questions about the power dynamics that accompany every photographic interaction. facebook.com/nothingisimpossibleunderthesun Launching at Street Level Photoworks, 24 Jun, 5.30-7.30pm, free alicemyers.net

June 2016

SHOWCASE

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Degree Collection Blurring the lines between fashion and art, Heriot-Watt Graduate Lauren Eliza takes gender fluidity as the focal point for her new collection Words: Mona Lisa McLean

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t’s the most exciting time of the year for fashion students – finally all their hard work and stress is coming to an end, culminating into the final shows of the academic year. From degree shows around the country to Graduate Fashion Week, there are plenty of opportunities to scout fresh, young fashion talent. One designer who is due to be attending graduate fashion week caught the eye of photographer Igor Termenon with her collection Crux: Lauren Eliza, who hails from the prestigious Heriot-Watt University. Situated in the picturesque Scottish borders, Heriot-Watt has long been considered one of the best fashion schools in the country, with unrivalled facilities and an innovative syllabus of textile and fashion programs specifically designed to (in their own words) “match the needs of the global, and increasingly fast-moving textile and fashion design industries.”

Eliza’s work aims to investigate the area of “urban reality; of maturing in a rough, concrete surrounding.” Using her own photography, which she then turned into digital prints, she presents her urban wear purposefully towards unisex.

“Materialising from the idea of strange beauty,” she explains, “photography uses the lens as a personal narrative to visualise looking past the harsh and ugly surface of the city, and finding attraction in areas that would be otherwise overlooked.”

Another strong concept investigated by this collection is the idea of gender fluidity. Avoiding the rigidity of what are becoming dated views of gender norms, Eliza’s collection aims to be

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accessible to all spectrums of gender identity, marrying ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ elements to create contemporary garments that are not bound to traditional ideas of gender. She examines personal identity by drawing on “emotive and conceptual stigma to take a documentarystyle approach.” Her urban-appropriate palette of greys and pops of green merge with her vibrant digital prints to create a genuine representation of city life, contrasting urbanisation and slithers of nature. Creating an almost utilitarian aesthetic, Eliza draws from her Glasgow upbringing, citing the influence of “brutalist architecture and chaotic colours to portray a modern interpretation of both masculinity and femininity,” informing her signature urban aesthetic. Striving to not be bound to a single category, she states: “I would neither categorise myself as solely a women’s or menswear designer, more of a creator of things.”

Shoot Credits Photographer: Igor Termenon igortermenon.com Make Up & Hair Styling: Shaun Lavender Model: Vendela Gebbie & Stevie Newall @ Superior You can see Eliza’s work at the Heriot-Watt degree show, 30 May–2 Jun. Her portfolio will be on show at Graduate Fashion Week 5-8 Jun, and on 24 Jun she will be taking part in the Height of Fashion show at Holyrood House laureneliza.co.uk

FASHION

THE SKINNY

April 2015

FASHION

Lifestyle

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Cocktail Column

I

n the world of cocktails, it’s standard form for the origin stories to be a bit... well, hazy. Dozens of people all claiming to have ‘invented’ the same drink, multiple locations claiming ownership of a particular beverage, and the sneaking suspicion that some or all of those making the claim can’t quite remember where they got the idea from in the first place.

The frozen margarita is different though, as not only are its roots fairly recent, but the very first machine ever used specifically to make the cocktail can be found in one of the most prestigious museums in the United States. In 1971, Mexican American restaurateur Mariano Martinez enlisted the help of chemist John Hogan to convert a soft-serve ice cream machine into the world’s first frozen margarita machine.

It took a lot of tinkering, and a fair amount of (delicious) trial-and-error, but eventually Martinez’ machine and the frozen margarita became the talk of Texas. At the end of a very successful three decades in service, the machine was acquired by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, living on as a monument to boozy ingenuity.

When it comes to devising your own frozen margarita recipe, The Basement’s advice is to get your foundations right first. Start off with some lime, a good-quality tequila and a sweet ingredient of some sort. Next, look to add complementary flavour pairings to build up the taste and make it your own. The Very Berry draws a sweetness and richness from blackberry liqueur and a handful of fresh blackberries, and the measure of Chilean red wine helps bring everything together. Give it a go; maybe your recipe will end up on the walls of a museum one day. As we’ve seen, stranger things have happened...

The Very Berry INGREDIENTS: 25ml El Jimador Blanco tequila 25ml Crème de Mures 25ml San Abello Merlot 25ml Lime 10-12 Fresh blackberries 5ml Gomme ETHOD: M Add the ingredients to a blender jug with one cup of crushed ice. Blend, and serve with a mint and blackberry garnish.

10a-12a Broughton Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3RH basement-bar-edinburgh.co.uk

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THE SKINNY

From Harben To Hipster We delve into the brave new world of online food video, where personality is king and a canine sidekick is your ticket to stardom Words: Martin Guttridge-Hewitt Illustration: Jess Ebsworth

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ccording to author and general truth-speaker Douglas Adams, the world is normal when you’re born. Everything that’s invented between you turning 15 and 35 is new and exciting, and anything that comes along after that time is against the natural order of things. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author wasn’t talking about TV chefs (as far as we know), but he may as well have been.

A young, and in some instances, untrained digital guard has, over the last decade or so, revolutionised what we expect from food on screen.

They make cooler, shorter, more direct cooking shows that are broadcast online. Your average TV viewer might not necessarily ‘get’ them, but legions of online fans do. Basically, the old landscape of cookery shows has been devoured by a newer model. Whether this is good or not may boil down to your age, but one thing’s hard to deny – things have changed a lot in the last few years.

This revolution is partly down to time, timing and usefulness. Our attention spans have never been shorter, and there has never been so much to watch across hundreds of TV channels and millions of websites, not to mention the never-ending visual buffet that is social media. At the same time, we’ve never been busier – probably because we have so much stuff to watch. So who wants a 30-minute cooking lesson, or to spend ten minutes learning how to make something out of bits already in the fridge?

Life was very different back in the 1940s when our first proper TV epicure was introduced. God only knows what that man, Philip Harben, with his staunch Britishness, would have to say about someone like Matty Matheson, the Toronto chef and star of VICE’s food video channel Munchies.

One of the new breed’s archetypal players, Matheson’s lack of RP might be balanced out by his talent and flair for ‘kitchen stuff’, but we’re not sure how Matty’s tattoos would go down on Harben’s cunningly-titled show Cookery.

Although refined over the years, Harben’s formality set a blueprint for food on TV that has hardly changed since. Professional foodies as expert hosts and tutors, audience doubling up as students, television’s staged atmosphere putting distance between the two. We may learn their traits – Gordon’s the angry one, Heston is the experimenter, Hugh partakes in earthy pursuits, and Nigella has a highly suggestive nature – but we never really get to ‘know’ them. Even Jamie ‘Open Book’ Oliver, whose breakthrough television show The Naked Chef was arguably a precursor to the ‘online approach’, isn’t someone we feel would ever really be our friend.

Things are different for the contemporary crop. Matheson invites us into his home and life on a regular basis, or at least the parts he wants us to see. Elsewhere, Sorted Food’s ‘four lads in a kitchen’ claim over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers with a heart-on-the-sleeve stance. They are not restaurateurs or chefs, and it’s no secret that only one of the quartet has any previous culinary experience at all. They could easily be us; we could be peers. For want of a better word, it’s more ‘real’, or at least we perceive that to be the case.

June 2016

Bitchin’ Kitchen’s Nadia G takes the idea further. The Canadian comedian specialises in pairing recipes with life’s big events; post one-night stand breakfasts, the perfect dinner for break-ups.

In doing so she alludes to having these experiences herself, rather than living a hermetically-sealed ‘on telly’ existence. She becomes almost threedimensional, and suddenly you’re cooking with an honest (if somewhat full-on) sister.

Vegan Black Metal Chef, Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time, Epic Meal Time, Cupcake Jemma – the list goes on. In each case there’s food on the menu, but also dollops of personality and a sense of stepping into someone’s world, as they come into ours via laptop, tablet or phone – all somehow more intimate than the television. Perhaps it’s the connection we all subconsciously (if incorrectly) make between digital content and DIY ethics that creates this zeitgeist of a two-way relationship; maybe it’s the fact that this new breed of hosts are proper characters. Whether those characters are real or not is apparently irrelevant.

Even the most insane example fits this model.

Japan’s Cooking With Dog features a female chef, known as Chef, and a little dog, Francis. Francis ‘narrates’ (via a guy speaking in English with a fake French accent), while his human co-host cooks.

Occasionally the dog falls off the work counter or the woman makes it look like the dog is rolling out pastry, but on the whole it’s that simple.

The anonymous Chef has a Twitter and Facebook feed dominated by pictures of her with food in different places. She’s a real person who exists, doing things and visiting destinations that her audience can be a part of. The whole format – cute canine and silent skilled epicure tirelessly toiling while a strange man narrates – is like stepping into an alternate reality dreamed up by hungry Studio Ghibli animators.

A (surreal) universe has been shown to us and it’s possible to dive right in if that universe represents or at least speaks to us. From tattooed chefs with beards to ladies with canine companions, anyone can host their own food show. It’s their combination of personality and individualism that gets us hooked, and that’s before we even find out what’s on the menu.

Our Favourite Food Web Series From charismatic hosts to chefs accompanied by dogs, six of our favourite online food series...

How To… with Matty Matheson

Covered in tattoos and rarely seen without a trucker cap, Matheson is best described as a ‘big sweary Canadian.’ Matty’s ‘How To’ videos for Vice’s Munchies channel see him explain his dishes in the manner of a cool (if slightly terrifying) uncle.

Start with his recipe for ‘Cheeto Macaroni Cheese’ – Matty spends a good chunk of the runtime in the bath, then uses a block of cheese as a puppet.

Food, eh? What’s it like?

Dining on a Dime

Eater and New York Times columnist Lucas Peterson speaks multiple languages, knows everything there is to know about food, and gets on like a house on fire with everyone he meets. You should want to slap him, but you don’t; he has ‘charisma,’ we believe it’s called. Dining on a Dime visits food trucks, backstreet eateries and small restaurants across the US, showing off the incredible (and incredibly cheap) food on offer if you only know where to look. And now you do.

You Suck at Cooking

A show that combines genuine instruction with top-notch piss-taking, You Suck at Cooking features snarky advice from a pair of disembodied hands. The trick is to take the actual advice with a grain of salt, and learn from the overall themes of the show. In this case, that means making sure your salsa has a good mix of ingredients, but not mixing your salad with a power drill.

FOOD AND DRINK

Words: Peter Simpson

Cooking with Dog

Never has a three-word pitch been more accurate. The web phenomenon couldn’t be simpler; a chef cooks, while a dog sits nearby. Will the dog do anything? Almost certainly not. Is this all a joke? Nope, this is a serious cookery show. Will you all go and watch an episode now? Of course you will – it’s called Cooking with Dog.

Food Lab

Science time! The Food Lab series takes kitchen problems we all face – ‘Why has my hollandaise split?’ ‘Why can’t I cook a steak?’ – and looks for scientific answers that make use of the electrical gadgets you never use. Follow their advice and you’ll be making suspiciously good food in no time, leaving a trail of kitchen equipment in your wake.

Fuck, That’s Delicious

Rapper Action Bronson bounds around the world eating, smoking, swearing and performing in Fuck, That’s Delicious. As telly ideas go, ‘big man go travel’ is one of the oldest in the book, but this is all about the delivery. It’s basically a modernday foodie version of Whicker’s World, only with more weed-smoking and big sandwiches – and you don’t get that from your precious Hairy Bikers, do you?

Lifestyle

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Food News June’s food events guide features a host of festivals, the chance to get creative in the pub, and masked Mexican wrestlers...

Words: Peter Simpson

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une kicks off with the return of the West End Festival in Glasgow – foodie highlights include a ‘meet the maker’ chat with the folks behind the delicious Caorunn Gin at The Hyndland Fox (7 Jun, 7pm) at which you’ll taste the gin, learn about its story and recipe, and find out once and for all how to pronounce the word ‘Caorunn’. Also on the West End Festival line-up is a battle of the brewers at Munro’s, with four Glasgow craft breweries squaring off against each other in what’s been dubbed ‘The Royal Rumble’. Incredibly, that isn’t the last professional wrestling reference in this month’s rundown. 22 Jun, 7.30pm, 185 Great Western Rd, £6 Also making a return this month is the Glasgow Science Festival, with a host of foodbased events to sink your proverbial and literal teeth into. Among our favourites are Casks, Coats & Chemistry (9 Jun, Kelvingrove Café, £25) which charts the story of Harris Tweed’s development through the magic of whisky-based science experiments and delicious canapes, and Bugs in the Pub (16 Jun, Admiral Bar, free) which sees a flock of scientists discuss the ever-evolving world of microbial life while you hold a pint and try to look like you know what’s going on.

Our pick of the GSF events is the Cheesy Science Chewtorial, and not just for the name. It’s a deep dive into cheese history and the chemistry of food, exploring and explaining the many vagaries of the world of cheese. There are also eight different cheeses to try on the night, so you’ll get plenty of ‘hands-on’ insight as well. Also, we love the name. 10 Jun, Siempre Bicycle Cafe, 162 Dumbarton Rd, £15 Over in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Juniper Festival returns to Summerhall for a weekend of gin-based hijinks just in time for World Gin Day. There’s plenty going on, although the fact that the press notes mention ‘OVER 30 GINS TO TRY’ is really all you need to know. Gin fans – it’s your time to shine. 10-12 Jun, various times, £17.50-£21.50 Back in Glasgow, the North Hop beer festival makes its west coast debut at SWG3. Expect a wide array of breweries from across Scotland to put in appearances, with festival specials from Drygate, Tempest and Spey Valley among others. There’s also a host of live bands and DJs to watch if you can’t face the classic beer festival game of ‘Explain What You’re Drinking’. 18 Jun, 100 Eastvale Pl, £17.50 Next, an all-too-rare chance to enjoy the dual pleasures of tacos and Lucha Libre-inspired surf rock. The dream combo is in place to help launch The Mexican Wrestlers Cookbook – the new book from Rolando Cardenas and Dougie Bell of much-loved Mexican deli Lupe Pintos – at the Citrus Club in Edinburgh. The tacos are from top-notch New Town taqueria El Cartel, the music is from US outfit Los Straitjackets, and Cardenas and Bell will be signing copies in character as Kankun Luchador and El Cocinero respectively.

Colour us intrigued. 20 Jun, 40 Grindlay St, £15, tickets via Lupe Pintos, 24 Leven St How do you follow that? By getting everyone together in the pub for a sketch-off, of course!

Part of this year’s Glasgow Comic Festival, Drink ‘n’ Draw is a chance to get together with some likeminded artists and comic types with a pint in one hand and a sharpie in the other. Sketch something up, compare it to your colleagues, then celebrate or drown your sorrows with a tasty pint. 29 Jun at 8pm, CCA Saramago Bar, 350 Sauchiehall St, free theskinny.co.uk/food

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Lifestyle

Phagomania: Using Your Noodle Behind one of this year’s hottest food trends – noodles – lurks a plethora of artistic inspiration. Who knew?

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hen this Phagomaniac was a boy, there was only one kind of noodles – we just called them ‘noodles’. These days, noodle fans are presented with an entanglement of different spindly options: udon, vermicelli, sen lek, soba, ho fun and the reigning king, ramen. One of 2016’s hot food trends is the Asian noodle soup, and there is a good chance that you’ve recently slurped over a hot ramen soup, Vietnamese beef pho or spicy Malaysian laksa.

Of course, Phagomania had its finger firmly on the ramen noodle pulse back in 2013, when we reported on the mighty ramen burger – the burger with a ramen noodle bun. Since being conceived by a single guy in one single shop, the creation has gone global with its imitators including US chain Red Robin. Just think of us as weird food talent agents.

And with the rise in popularity of ramen and his soupy noodle brethren, noodles are making a comeback in the form of both food and art. Early

experimenters in noodle art created celebrity portraits with the likes of Amy Winehouse and Russell Brand, with a Super Noodle-based portrait of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant among the highlights.

Things then got serious when posh instant noodle makers Kabuto campaigned for #noodledoodle artworks of more celebrity portraits including ‘Ramen Gosling’, ‘Miley Soyrus’ and ‘Harry Styles of Wok Direction’. Somebody was really using their noodle on that one. Using their... Oh, never mind.

Ramen’s resurgence has taken noodle art to a dark, weird place when a Instagram account popped up named ‘celebrities_in_ramen’. It delivered as promised, with a relentless brigade of perplexing and surreal images of various celebrities recontextualised in bowls of noodle soup. Its creator, Josh Jones, admits “there’s really no reason why I’m doing this to be honest.” Nihilistic noodling, we’ll call it; we’re still trying to work out what the celebrity/noodle connection is in the first place.

FOOD AND DRINK

Words: Lewis MacDonald

Turning to fine art, it will be unsurprising to hear that many an artist has tried their hand with noodles as their medium. The most triumphant use of noodle in art is French artist Theo Mercier’s piece The Loner. A monolithic character, nearly 10 feet tall, sits oozing on a regular-sized chair with a sorrowful gaze of a person who lives a life of only eating the number of instant packet-noodles necessary to construct such a monster. Who knew ramen noodles could have such a powerfully visual effect, or that they could so successfully communicate such bleakness?

So it’s off we go, to huddle over a warm bowel of noodle soup and contemplate the core meaning of our existence. As it turns out, said existence is entirely constructed from masses of one dimensional noodles in quantum soup, if we are to believe string theory. No wonder noodles keep turning up everywhere. theskinny.co.uk/food

THE SKINNY

How Facebook is Failing Feminism Words: Kate Pasola Illustration: Veronica Grech

From censoring nipples to ignoring reports of violent misogyny, Facebook’s policies are bad news for feminism

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t’s 7pm on a Thursday night and you’re really bloody tired. You’ve spent the whole day passing for a functioning human to a moderately successful degree, and now you’re in the mood to relieve your little brain of if its duties for an hour or so.

You’re in the kitchen, pan of penne on the boil, absent-mindedly scrolling down reams of newsfeed.

Maybe you’re looking out for an unnecessary hype article about an impending wasabi sauce shortage. Or perhaps you’re in the mood for a vine of a stupid fucking penguin being inexplicably reunited with a labrador after 16 years spent estranged. Even just a face-swap between Donald Trump and a portion of scrambled egg would do – that sort of thing. And you’re sure you’ll find it; mind-numbing chic is Facebook’s forté, after all.

And then it happens. You see something you definitely didn’t sign up for, festering away in your newsfeed, awaiting your discomfited attention. Not again. Not tonight. Not straight after work, before you’ve even opened your pesto.

Depending on your friend list bigot-culling skills, the post in question could range from the exasperatingly ignorant to the traumatically misogynistic. A racist status about Nicki Minaj’s arse.

A slut-shamey meme comparing Kim Kardashian to Princess Diana. A horrific GIF trivialising domestic violence under the guise of ‘dark comedy’. A joke encouraging anal rape. Do you click ‘report’ and grapple with Facebook’s frustratingly vague reporting procedures? Or do you cast it to the back of your mind and crack on with that of bowl of pasta, throwing on a little extra pity-cheddar

to mitigate your blaring disappointment in the human race? It’s a toughie, for sure.

I used to be a serial reporter. That tragic LADBible post erring its way onto my feed due to a misguided algorithm? Report. A transphobic rant from some dude I only keep as an online acquaintance because HuffPost guilt-tripped me into surrounding myself with ‘diverse political opinions’?

Report. Katie Hopkins on Beyoncé’s Lemonade?

Report, report, report, report. Like the act of searching through a misplaced wallet for the owner’s contact details or scowling at a stranger for kicking a dog, using Facebook’s report function used to feel like a tiny deed I could do to help change my immediate environment for the better. Perhaps they’d get a notification, I’d naïvely think, or a warning – something that’d finally challenge their hatred and force them to be better.

But more recently it began to dawn on me that almost everything I reported was falling on willingly deaf ears. With every report I filed, Facebook would respond, robotically thanking me for my input and notifying me that the rape jokes, the slut-shaming, the advocating of violence against my gender didn’t violate ‘community standards’.

Those GIFs and memes and comments and posts would live merrily on, without a single other human knowing that Facebook had the opportunity to remove hateful, discriminatory content and enthusiastically abstained. Every. Single. Damned. Time.

And, of course, with a single Google search, I realised I wasn’t alone in my frustration. In 2013, the EverydaySexism project launched a campaign

to put pressure on Facebook to reconsider its tolerance of content that advocates rape and genderbased violence. A relatively successful effort, the campaign bombarded advertisers like Dove cosmetics, demanding that they suspend their accounts with Facebook until the social networking giant took action. In what must have seemed like a landslide victory in May 2013, Facebook responded to the campaign via a post on their ‘Facebook Safety’ page.

The statement, signed by Facebook’s VP of Global Public Policy Marne Levine pacified the debate momentarily, quite brazenly citing ‘free speech’ and the difficulties involved in defining ‘hate speech’ as their reason for openly giving the thumbs up to offensive, sexist and hateful posts.

And, though the statement dedicates a fair few paragraphs to defending Facebook’s policies of ‘openness’, ‘connectedness’ and anti-censorship, the statement neglected to address their ongoing censoring of the female body. The company currently exerts a disproportionate amount of effort removing images of breastfeeding mothers and post-mastectomy breasts from the site. That in mind, using ‘free speech’ to checkmate feminist activism is more than a little hypocritical.

It’s three years since Facebook’s response to EverydaySexism’s campaign, and very little has changed. Recently, I posted about the problem in (somewhat ironically) a Facebook feminist community called Cuntry Living, made up of over 13,000 Facebook users. Hundreds of feminists responded expressively, sharing stories, screen-

shots and frustrations which I’ve compiled in a blog called Facebook Likes This. “The extent to which this is possible for Facebook is based on obscurity,” a group admin commented. “They can do what they like because it’s really difficult for individuals to hold them accountable – they provide no reasoning for rejections.”

Another user pointed out that the problem lies in a place far darker than sheer ignorance or hypocrisy. The task of responding to reports and moderating content is a gargantuan one for any largely populated site, and one which, according to interviews and research carried out by Wired, is often assigned to labourers in developing areas of the Philippines and India for paltry salaries.

Sometimes these workers are not subjected to appropriate background checks, and the traumatic elements of a working day spent watching gory, pornographic and terrorising images aren’t factored into the employee’s workload. Not only is this gruesome news for human rights, fair trade and data protection, but it explains how certain reported content might just slip through the net, depending on context. It’s conceivable that when you’re assigned the task of stripping a giant networking site of beheadings, revenge porn and animal murder, a sexist slur could, unfortunately, appear low on the list of moderator priorities.

But, if these moderation conditions are true for the likes of Facebook, they are not an excuse for ignoring the demands of women who’ve had enough. Greater, more culturally nuanced moderation systems are needed, and the dedicated labourers should be given thorough training and salaries which reflect the emotionally, intellectually and philosophically exhausting task of scrubbing the floors of Facebook.

“ A racist status about Nicki Minaj’s arse. A joke encouraging anal rape. Do you click ‘report’?”

Sounds expensive, sure, but let’s not forget that Facebook boasts the back pocket dollars to try and buy out Snapchat for 3 billion dollars. It’s a leading multinational company with the time to automate personalised photo collages for each of its users, to integrate colossal banks of GIFs into conversations, to unroll software which allows users to track every movement of their friends.

They can afford to do better than this. And, what’s more, a virtual environment with more users than the population of any country on Earth should feel a responsibility to do better than this.

Female-identifying people make up half of Facebook’s usership, and overlooking this fact is a dangerous move. We forget, mindlessly scrolling and desperately sighing, that we’re able to revoke the site’s access to our lives at any time, granted that we’re able to summon the willpower to click ‘deactivate’. But the longer demands for an environment less hostile to women are ignored, the more tempting it feels to click that button, opting out of Zuckerberg’s 1.65 billion strong ‘global community’ for good.

June 2016

DEVIANCE

Lifestyle

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Learn to code in 16 weeks

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on’t know your HTML5 from your Node.js?

Think ‘VPN’ sounds like an American sports channel? Looking to change your career but despairing at the job prospects in this climate?

Things aren’t as hopeless as they appear.

There are 11,000 new jobs created every year in Scotland’s booming tech industry – and something new in Edinburgh designed specifically to tackle the skills gap. And it’s open to anyone.

The country’s first digital skills academy, CodeClan, was launched in October 2015 with the express aim of equipping anyone and everyone with the tools and know-how to participate in this burgeoning marketplace. Scotland has always been at the forefront of science, technology and industry; access to cutting-edge learning like CodeClan means that pioneering legacy can be maintained. Since its launch late last year, the academy has seen 32 students graduate, with 70% of them being hired within five weeks of finishing their course. Average starting salary? £24,500.

And the fact these students have come from such varied backgrounds – translators, caterers, retailers, engineers, and others – proves that it hardly matters what you were doing before. The full-time course – just 16 weeks, an intensive, collaborative programme informed by the latest in teaching principles and techniques – is designed to retrain anyone by providing a grounding in the fundamental programming skills tech companies are looking for. Classes are run on a 5:1 instructor-to-student ratio, meaning that each individual student receives optimal attention and care throughout this fast-paced course.

CodeClan isn’t acting alone, either; both the Scottish Government (along with its educational award-accrediting body SQA, the Scottish Qualifications Authority) and ScotlandIS (the nation’s digital technologies trade body, a vocal advocate of the industry being key to Scotland’s economic survival) support the academy.

That’s the kind of seal of approval that might explain why 25 employers have already signed up to pledge hands-on involvement with the academy.

And the list is growing, with more and more companies keen to provide more than just a job at the end of the road, but also guest speakers, site visits, and personal attendance at employer fairs. They even contribute to the ongoing moulding and remoulding of the curriculum itself, ensuring that the skills being trained are precisely those required by the industry.

CodeClan, along with the governmental bodies which support it, believes the country hosts untapped potential, with thousands of unfilled roles waiting to be claimed by talented programmers, coders and technicians. And after just 16 weeks at this growing academy, that could be you.

Total course cost is £4,500, applicants must be 18 or over.

Full application details can be found at codeclan.com/apply/

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RE V IE

Gig Highlights

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With stadium rock Gods swooping in from on high, plus Glasgow’s West End Festival and Edinburgh’s Hidden Door in full flow, neither coast should struggle for a decent night on the skite this June

ather than dwell on the part-bewildering, partperplexing, part-terrifying realisation that we’ve somehow reached the midway point of 2016 already, the month of Jun laughs off any perceived existential blues with a bill fit for the Gods.

Live shows quite literally don’t get much bigger (or longer) than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who bring the jubilance and woe of seminal opus The River to Hampden Park for a victory lap. Every available hotel room within a 10-mile radius of Glasgow city centre was booked out when The Boss last came to town, and we imagine similar logistical chaos will ensue on 1 Jun. If you’re one of many to miss out on briefs, then what better way to console yourself than by losing it to Joanna Gruesome’s inimitable brand of ‘dissonant wimp music’ (disclaimer: their words, not ours)? Cardiff’s finest bring their much vaunted live show to Stereo that same night, and if our five-star review from last year is anything to go by, attendees will not be walking away with a hungry heart.

Singer-songwriter BC Camplight was one of the big comeback stories of 2015, and you can see the alt-folk revenant up close when he heads for The Hug and Pint (2 Jun). Also on the comeback trail is Kate Jackson, formerly of The Long Blondes, whose stride was tragically cut short when guitarist Dorian Cox suffered a stroke in 2008. Kate returns to the same venue (3 Jun) with her solo project Kate Jackson & The Wrong Moves, a day before Alex Chilton’s old pal brings his current iteration of Tav Falco and The Panther Burns to the CCA (5 Jun); thankfully negating the possibility of a Warriors-esque, Panther Burns vs Wrong Moves showdown.

London duo Big Deal’s pastel-hued filtration of grunge is purpose built for summer nights, and you can treat yourself to one, possibly two, fruit-based ciders when catching them at King Tut’s (7 Jun). Don’t go too heavy on the ale, however, because it’s from thereon in where the month’s listings truly hit their stride. First up: Berlin’s favourite enfant terrible Anton Newcombe and The Brian Jonestown Massacre head for Barrowlands (9 Jun), followed by chameleonic indie supergroup The Proper Ornaments, who are due to smash up The Old Hairdressers (10 Jun); before reformed heroes of the Hebrides Astrid find terra firma at Tut’s (11 Jun); and Danish punks Yung square off with Icelandic electrominimalists Samaris in the respective Sauchiehall Street battlegrounds of Nice N Sleazy and Broadcast (12 Jun) for what is arguably the biggest Nordic clash of the post-Viking era.

Glasgow’s West End Festival turns 21 this year, and it’s marked with a celebratory bill at Òran Mór (12 Jun). Although they’ve programmed the day, Belle and Sebastian won’t be playing at this one (that’s left to the likes of The Johnny 7, TeenCanteen, The Tron Community Choir, Snowgoose and The Wellgreen), but you’ll be able to see them when they take up a three-night residency at Glasgow University’s hallowed debating chambers (13-15 Jun). Calgary art-rock threepiece Braids then roll into town at the less grand, but much cosier surroundings of The Hug and

June 2016

Pint (17 Jun), while St Luke’s (21 Jun) is on hand to ensure the East End also has its fill with a huge booking in the form of Mark Kozlek’s Sun Kil Moon.

Is Ty Segall the hardest-working man in music today? Probably, but for this tour the fuzz shaman will be given a helping hand by garage rock all-stars The Muggers (comprising members of King Tuff, Wand and Cairo Gang). They play The Art School (22 Jun) in what will be a typically raucous night of crowd surfing, stage diving and mosh pits, and we can only hope the place is ready for St Etienne and The Pastels’ altogether more genteel affair, which takes place the next night (23 Jun). If it isn’t, then fear not, for Will Toledo’s Car Seat Headrest are also in town five minutes across the road at Broadcast, where they’ll be touring Teens of Denial – the brilliant new album which touches on reference points as disparate as DMT, Nike Jordans, Vincent Van Gogh and William Onyeabor. Something for everybody, aye?

Winding up our Glasgow coverage we start with PAWS; fresh from a European tour and all set to embrace the warm comforts of Scotland when they play a neat domestic one-two at Edinburgh’s Summerhall (24 Jun) and then Stereo (25 Jun).

And then let's not forget, there's the long-awaited live return of French dream-pop crusader M83 to the O2 ABC (27 Jun) and loveliest-god-damn-person-in-the-whole-of-music-right-now Julien Baker at Broadcast (28 Jun).

As June begins over in Edinburgh, multi-arts festival Hidden Door will already be in full swing at its 2016 residence on King’s Stables Road.

Of particular note are upcoming nights hosted by Glasgow collective TYCI, who bring Rosie Lowe, Nimmo, HQFU and WOLF across to the east (2 Jun). Long-serving Edinburgh promoters Limbo offer a showcase of regulars and new faces as veteran Liverpudlian songwriter Jane Weaver coalesces for the night with Law Holt, Neon Waltz, Callum Easter and Delta Mainline (3 Jun). Who says nothing ever happens here?

The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn when The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster’s Furious Five play The Liquid Room (4 Jun). Titus Andronicus’ 93-minute, 29-song, five-act rock opera epic The Most Lamentable Tragedy was one of 2015’s stand-out records, with some going one step further and describing the New Jersey four piece’s live adaption of the album as ‘life-affirming’. See if that’s true for yourself when they play Summerhall (5 Jun), and then check out posipunks Beach Slang – one of the other break out live acts of the year – at Electric Circus (10 Jun).

PiL’s recent world tour in support of 11th album What the World Needs Now has seen them visit places far-flung as Kharkiv, Santiago and... erm, Falkirk Warehouse (10 Jun). They’ve also sold out The Liquid Room (12 Jun), but there are still tickets to be had for Orchids’ Sneaky Pete's show (17 Jun) and the long overdue return from Mercury Rev at La Belle Angele (21 Jun).

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Big Deal

Do Not Miss The Melvins, Art School, Glasgow, 21 Jun When The Melvins last brought the sludge to Glasgow it was on a wet February Thursday at The Garage back in 2006. On support duties that night were underground punk legends Flipper, who turned up with a certain Krist Novoselic on bass. Perhaps proceedings wouldn’t have been so sparsely populated then if a) word had got out about the ex-Nirvana’s man surprise attendance, and b) folk had known it would be the last chance they’d have to see the oddball outsiders play Scotland for a decade.

Now the wait is over and King Buzzo’s men (ever-prolific in the studio) return with Basses Loaded, an album that does what it says on the tin with guest contributions from six different bass monsters including Steve McDonald, J.D. Pinkus, Jared Warren, Trevor Dunn, Dale Crover (who moonlights from his drum kit, as per the band’s 1983 iteration), plus Novoselic. Even if your fourstring knowledge only extends as far as the Seinfeld interlude, this one will be worth it for the usual selection of batshit cover versions alone. You’ve heard them do Station to Station, right?

The Melvins

MUSIC

Preview

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Credit: Mackie Osborne

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Credit: Richard Manning

Credit: Sam Huddleston

Words: Graeme Campbell

St Luke’s, 13 May

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twitter.com/GhostfaceKillah

Restless Natives: Future of the Left St Luke’s, 14 May

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Rolo Tomassi's set is almost heroically perfect.

It’s not like they’re the only band out there meshing all-guns-blazing hardcore with bursts of anthemic beauty, but the way they do so offers a singular synaptic shock, jarring and pummelling even as it sends euphoric shivers shooting down the spine.

Highlights from last year’s Grievances LP make up the majority of the set, and whether teasing us with the soft chords of Prelude III (Phantoms) or simply raging with the full-pelt assault of Stage Knives, it’s impossible not to find yourself carried away by the perfectly measured waves of sound; the calm and the storm. By the time they wheel out a mighty All That Has Gone Before, with its gentle piano-led mid-section flowing into deft yet muscular blastbeats before exploding into cacophonous melody, the room is well and truly theirs.

You’d pity any band that had to follow them, if only that band didn’t happen to be Future of the Left. Picking up the gauntlet laid down by Rolo Tomassi’s astonishing mess of scintillating contradictions, they plough into a devastating set of riff-heavy noise-rock delivered with a typically gleeful sense of menace. Frontman Falco is on great form, lambasting a malfunctioning keyboard (“It’s a racist piece of shit”) and snarling the likes of Miner’s Gruel and The Limits of Battleships like a man possessed.

Old fans get a treat too: a handful of Mclusky classics are dusted off (notably Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues and a squalling, sensational To Hell With Good Intentions) while Robocop 4 Fuck Off Robocop unites the crowd in laughter and head-spinning riffola. If you’ve heard latest offering The Peace and Truce of..., you’ll probably already have an idea, but let’s summarise just in case: furious, funny and fun as fuck. [Will Fitzpatrick] futureoftheleft.net

Restless Natives: Happy Meals Collective, 14 May

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It’s Saturday night and the Calton is bouncing.

The bars in and around the Gallowgate are stowed out. An Easter Rising commemorative march has finished just as the penultimate night of the Restless Natives festival is getting underway – a fine example of old and new traditions existing side by side in the East End. In the Glasgow Collective studios, a stone’s throw from the Barras, Pentecostal Party is having sequencer issues. The stage name of Newcastlebased artist Dawn Bothwell, she’s forced to call short her opening set. It’s a shame, as the crowd were just beginning to congregate in numbers and nod in appreciation of her deconstructed pop.

The Modern Institute prefer a more industrial approach. The trio’s sub-bass rhythms are fleshed out by a live drummer, creating a dense aural spectacle that echoes around the studio. A theatrical

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Review

element is provided by a plaster-masked wearing frontman, who mumbles a few inanities in a voice resembling a stoned Genesis P-Orridge. The ideas are definitely there; but the execution requires work.

Tonight’s headliners are more polished but still comfortably the most exciting act on the bill.

Happy Meals have enjoyed a rewarding 12 months – they justifiably earned a SAY award nomination for their 2015 mini-album Apéro, and their brand of minimalist synthpop is finding favour with increasing numbers. The Glasgow-based duo have since returned with another extended EP in the shape of Fruit Juice, which fills much of tonight’s set.

This confidence extends to their live show – bigger in sound and scope and altogether more pleasing. Suzanne Rodden’s fluent French vocals, the billowing dry ice and pounding bass lines create the impression you’ve stumbled across the coolest club in downtown Montpellier. On the night of the Eurovision song contest, Happy Meals bring a slice of the continent direct to Calton. [Chris McCall] facebook.com/hahahappymeals

Photo: Rita Azevedo

Photo: Claire Maxwell

“I want to see ONE THOUSAND PHONES,” bellows ol’ Ghost with regal expectation. “I’m not kidding.

Put them UP.” The converted church is packed to its rafters with sweaty, Wu-apparelled punters brandishing their smartphones – he looks more than satisfied by the frantic response he and his crew, headed by Wu affiliate Killah Priest, are receiving.

This night started out very differently, though.

Law Holt’s earlier slot, like the headliner’s own, was built on attitude – but via understated drama and dry ice, rather than bravado. Law posesses a voice that could move mountains; the set mixes eerie harmonies with drone beats, left-field experiments and hushed pauses. Far removed from your typical hype/support slot.

The clock’s well past 10pm by the time

Ghostface Killah shows. A roadie endlessly readjusts piles of towels under showers of booing.

The congregation is restless, drunk and tense.

When Ghost finally throws open the stage door, the bass is painful and Priest yells lyrics totally undecipherable – for a couple more minutes, we hang on the brink of disaster. Then Bring Da Ruckus crackles into being, and the atmosphere flip-reverses.

Ghost cruises through certified favourites, from Can It All Be So Simple through Chessboxin’, ODB’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya to Toney’s own Mighty Healthy – a nostalgic trip and double-punch reminder of his legendary influence. Minds are truly lost when the crew pick out three Wu nerds to take verses on Protect Ya Neck; a tiny man from the Gorbals slays it, and the room explodes. From there on out, Ghost layers cement on the fact that he – and his work – will always hold victory lap status. [Katie Hawthorne]

Photo: Vito Andreoni

Photo: Ryan Johnston

Restless Natives: Ghostface Killah

Tacocat

Electric Circus, Edinburgh, 3 May

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“If you close your eyes, it’ll sound like there’s three of us.” Niall Strachan looks a little lonely on the Electric Circus stage tonight, and while no explanation is offered as to the absence of his Garden of Elks bandmates, he soldiers on, drums and bass replaced by a backing track. The first of a punk triple bill, the solitary Elk sets the tone for the evening’s thrashy energy, and though his vocal wobbles a little here and there, it’s a solid set.

The way is paved for Riot Grrrl acolytes Tongue Trap, formed at Edinburgh’s Girls Rock School and the perfect support for tonight’s headliners: fun, poppy punk, sparkling with the right doses of playful gusto and pointed, feminist lyricism. And among songs about celery and buttplugs (“It’s about assholes”) they drop a cover

of Grimes’ Oblivion so perfect it feels like Claire Boucher should start a punk band. The crowd is already on board; guitarist Kim Grant ripping off her rainbow skirt to reveal her “period pants” climax pretty much sets us on fire.

To fan those flames, on walk everyone’s favourite palindromic almost-all-girl rocktivists Tacocat, sporting more glitter and tropical hair than a 90s cartoon. Taking the evening’s chuggy rock down more melodic roads, the Seattle quartet deliver hit after hit to an increasingly blissed-out moshpit. Punk’s not known for its dawdling songs: there’s plenty of time here to squeeze in such crackers from recent LP Lost Time as FDP, You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit, and a gleefully welcomed Men Explain Things to Me. The band’s inclusive warmth – though still driven by a fierce had-enough-of-thisshit message – renders the night a memorably joyous love-in. [George Sully] tacocatdotcom.com

THE SKINNY

Raised by Wolves When is a goth band not a goth band? We meet Glasgow’s Kaspar Hauser in an attempt to find out Interview: Duncan Harman Photography: Anna Wachsmuth

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his is the worst possible day to meet a band like us,” chuckles Andy Brown, sipping at his beer. “It’s nice and sunny, and we’re sitting outside having a lovely time.”

Well yes; we had tried to hire the necropolis and a few dozen dry-ice machines to aid the ambiance, but this being springtime (and rather pleasant with it), the terrace of a city centre bar will have to suffice.

We’re here to talk Kaspar Hauser – and in particular, the way in which a band’s name is indicative of sound. “I like that it’s a person,” Anne Kastner (bass, vocals) admits. “A stranger that comes into a town and unsettles everybody; that’s the feel that you kind of want.”

“I think the vibe and feeling that people are getting… I would like it to be unsettling.” Which is certainly the case when accosted by the band’s debut EP; a mal-illuminated descent of claustrophobic, post-punk malevolence, unafraid to visit the darker recesses of vaguely retro abrasion.

Named after the 19th century charlatan who gained notoriety by claiming that he’d been raised by wolves, or imprisoned from birth by a mysterious hooded figure (his tales varied) in order to integrate himself into polite society, there’s something ‘other’ to both the story and the trio’s sound.

“I thought that was a good name for a band,” drummer Brown says. “I came to it from the Werner Herzog film” – 1974’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.

“I like Werner Herzog films because I’m pretentious,” he laughs. “But even on a weird, aesthetic level it works; the way the words look together.”

“It looks good on posters,” agrees Josh Longton, who shares the trio’s vocal duties alongside his distinctive, churning riff-work.

“Especially when they spell it right,” Brown continues. “It’s not Casper the Friendly Ghost! But in relation to Kaspar Hauser the film or even the person, it’s that idea of having something that’s very cold and European. If you want to have a metaphor about it, the whole myth of Kaspar Hauser – and it pretty much was a myth – was disregarded as the guy being a fraud, but what lives better, the myth or the reality?”

“Everyone wants to believe this boy who was imprisoned who came to live with the highest of Bavarian society; it’s the idea of someone being so mysterious, which feeds in to how we wanted to sound – dark and aggressive and noisy. A European sound; it’s not American. It’s not indie rock.”

‘Not indie rock’ being a theme that runs through the interview; not necessarily a surprise when you consider the threesome’s past work, Longton and Kastner having previously been members of The Downs, Brown – currently one-half of the equally dark Ubre Blanca – a former mainstay of experimental noise merchants Divorce.

“The music was quite complementary,” Kastner remembers of the line-ups both Divorce and The Downs featured. “I think we were a wee bit more tuneful, and you were more noisy. So now it’s like the two elements have come together.

It’s like that’s the way it should be.”

“When I heard that you had stopped doing stuff, I was bugging you, wasn’t I?” recalls Brown. “‘Let me be your drummer.’ And I was like that for another year. It was chatting at first, obviously, then it was: let’s make a go of it, because I’ve started a

June 2016

million bands with people down the pub that only exist for that night.”

Haven’t we all been in idealised bands that exist for one night only?

“Well, I’ve been in the best band in the world at least five times,” Longton wisecracks, leaving Brown to explain in a different fashion.

“It’s a whole different way of doing music. It’s instantaneous. It’s like punk rock.”

Like punk rock, but also very different. In fact, there’s something of the G word to Kaspar Hauser.

The creeping skeins of darkness amidst the attitude. Yes; it’s time for goth to intrude into the conversation.

“I suppose that with the guitar sound, people associate it as that thing but I don’t listen to a lot of goth bands,” Longton explains of both the music and his lyrics. “I like Siouxsie and I like the Cure, but outside of that I don’t listen to any of the stuff that’s similar to that. It’s not about trying to sound like Bauhaus.”

“ 90% of white guys with guitars have got fucking nowt to say; I blame The Beatles for all of it” Josh Longton

Brown: “We were deliberately starting a band that said: ‘You know how I sound, I know how you sound, and we’ll just work out how we will complement each other.’”

Longton: “It’s got associations about certain types of words; but you’re not going to hear me sing, ‘Oh, my heart is black as stone,’ or anything like that.”

Brown: “There is definitely music that we like instinctively rather than it being chasing after a certain sound.”

Longton: “I am aware that there’s a lot of bands around at the moment where they sound like something from the ‘80s and a lot of them don’t do it that well. Some of them are really good, but I’m not sure why they’re doing that, if you know what I mean.”

Brown: “As in trying to work out their intentions?”

Longton: “Yeah. I don’t know if it’s a fashion thing, but for me I don’t really like – for example – putting a chorus pedal on because I didn’t like how the guitar sounds when it’s just straight in.

Then it becomes blues-tinged rock.”

Blues-tinged rock not gaining favour in this particular corner of Glasgow. “90% of white guys with guitars have got fucking nowt to say,” Lancastrian Longton adds. “And I blame The Beatles for all of it.”

So don’t expect Kaspar Hauser to be gurning it up on The Ed Sullivan Show anytime soon. Instead, a handful of Glasgow gigs showcasing the debut EP – a get-up-and-go compulsion that speaks of devotion to momentum. Not that you’ll get much truck from the concept of DIY. Brown, again: “This is going to sound counterintuitive but I’m kind of sick of people making a big deal of the DIY aesthetic being an aesthetic. It’s not a fucking aesthetic, it’s a method. You’re a band – all you’re doing is putting your own shows on – you’re still a shite band or a good band. When did DIY become a sound or a genre?”

Kastner: “It was ‘DIY equals cool’ for a while.

Just stick DIY in front of it and it’ll sound brilliant.”

Brown: “I genuinely think that if you’re talking about DIY it’s just a means to an end. I don’t know why some people think it’s some dark art to put on a show. You can do it yourself as long as you’re prepared to put the legwork in. We did some recording ourselves and stuck them up on SoundCloud, and that’s how things got moving. If you hold on

Music

too closely to your recordings and think that’s where you’re going to earn money from, well, it’s the internet now. No-one makes money from recordings, but it’s currency; it gets you out there.”

Longton: “I just want as many people to hear it as possible. I don’t care if loads of people like it or not, but I’d rather it was out there for consideration.”

Brown: “The best thing is: we did it, we were in control of it, and we made it sound as good as it possibly could.”

And with that: more laughter, the subsequent photoshoot (complete with a bunch of flowers press-ganged into action as if some Morrissey homage) subverting notions of gothdom. Dark and foreboding Kaspar Hauser certainly are, but there’s a knowing wink amid the dry ice.

Kaspar Hauser support Kate Jackson at The Hug and Pint, Glasgow on 4 Jun. Kaspar Hauser’s debut EP is out now on limited edition cassette via Soft Power Records facebook.com/kasparhausermusic

Review

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Album of the Month Minor Victories

Minor Victories [Play It Again Sam, 3 Jun]

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Considering the attention around what is after all a debut album – something to do with the identity of the protagonists, we’re guessing – Minor Victories is surprisingly and deceptively slow-burning, its many cadences revealing themselves over a number of listens. Not in a Mogwai fashion (nor Slowdive, nor Editors for that matter); instead, each strand, every icy shard of synth and pedal-blasted guitar arrive submerged – almost restrained – Rachel Goswell’s vocals fern-like in the breeze.

Pieced together over a number of months by Editors guitarist Justin Lockey and his brother James, Stuart Braithwaite and Goswell

contributing remotely, it’s a record that speaks of collectivism but also distance. Opener Give Up The Ghost begins slowly, cultivating atmosphere beneath its contorted drum-beat and brooding synth chords. A Hundred Ropes reclines across its retro pulses seductively, whilst Folk Arp drifts in a shoegaze sheen, Goswell sounding vulnerable and delicate.

With additional assistance from James Graham (Scattered Ashes) and Mark Kozelek (For You Always), Minor Victories is frequently beautiful, and it’s the subtle application of the abrasive (on tracks such as Out To Sea) where this project really comes into its own; a few listens in, and captivation becomes its own reward.

[Duncan Harman] minor-victories.com

Big Deal

SUMAC

PAWS

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Say Yes [FatCat, 10 Jun]

What One Becomes [Thrill Jockey, 10 Jun]

No Grace [FatCat, 17 Jun]

After a disasterous home robbery in 2014, the band lost a laptop containing the record’s demos and were forced to re-write from scratch, losing their label in the process. It feels trite to spin a silver-lining story, but a fraught, focussed tension is stitched into every seam – Say Yes is an assertive, cathartic shout of independence. An understandably grittier attitude drives even the most understated of tracks, but blows full force on Avalanche: Alice Costello’s vocals let rip, piercing the gloom, countered by a super glam guitar solo of Bond-theme proportions.

2013’s June Gloom was a dazed take on all-consuming romance, and Say Yes sees those rose-tinted specs crunched underfoot: ‘I won’t tell you / that everything works out,’ the duo warn, vocals twinned, on the title track. Almost-ballads Idyllwild and Lux offer razorsharp examples of the band’s newly developed dramatic muscle, but it’s when Big Deal turn in a legitimately sky-scraping indie anthem on V.I.T.R.I.O.L. that you know for sure this band have serious guts.

[Katie Hawthorne]

Having released one of 2016’s most ethereally beautiful albums in the form of Mamiffer’s The World Unseen, former Isis dude Aaron Turner crops up again with one of its heaviest. And boy, do we mean heavy. The five mini-epics that make up What One Becomes are absolute spine-crushers; real hole-in-the-surface-of-the-earth stuff, and their density and duration make for a punishing listen.

You’d think Turner’s guttural roar plus the unrelenting darkness of the music might be overpowering, but there’s subtle textures at play here too – Rigid Man’s switches suddenly from blood’n’thunder to a wash of sensual, near-ambient tonality, lending exhilarating release to its inevitable return to the sounds of iron fists and tumbling walls. Meanwhile, Clutch of Oblivion’s locked-groove riffing even manages to sound hopeful before heroically falling in on itself.

There’s real heart buried underneath SUMAC’s furious, deafening bleakness; it can just feel like a serious excavation job to locate it.

[Will Fitzpatrick]

Funny that a band like PAWS can sound so of their time and yet so far removed from it. On one hand their brand of pop-punk sounds positively archaic compared to the anodyne hi-jinx of Neck Deep et al; on the other you can tie their indie-centric sounds to the 90s-referencing powerpop of, say, Cheap Girls or Beach Slang. By this third album they’ve pretty much mastered their craft too – their bass-propelled fuzz zips entertainingly by, with a sterling production job from Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus amplifying the sunny melodicism of Gild The Lily and Gone So Long.

So far so modern-punk-by-numbers, of course. What makes No Grace feel most like a breezy treat is its fatalistic slant, as Phillip Taylor’s lyrics weigh up life’s daily struggles before concluding that they’re just not worth the worry. “We are all impermanent,” he sings, summing up bands and people alike, and the sense of joyous relief is instantly contagious. [Will Fitzpatrick]

Playing King Tut’s, Glasgow on 7 Jun and Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh on 8 Jun facebook.com/weareabigdeal

facebook.com/SUMACBAND

wehavepaws.com

Moonface and Siinai

WOMPS

My Best Human Face [Jagjaguwar, 3 Jun]

moonface.ca

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With lean trebly riffs over whines and wails, hummable hooks, and precise rhythms, Our Fertile Forever marks the official birth of a band that’s already earned plenty of fans at home in Glasgow and abroad. WOMPS’ debut ranges widely, from thunderous tracks to tunes that tap into a sort of post-angst introspection, indicating a group averse to churning out safe singles all of one style.

Guitarist and vocalist Ewan Grant – previously established as Algernon Doll – has taken some heat for moving on, but his continued alliance with drummer Owen Wicksted is a reason to rejoice.

Plasticine, the LP’s opening track, establishes this group’s melodic craftsmanship right away, and they keep delivering.

Our Fertile Forever proves the duo can write the kind of songs that play as well in a basement club as they do a car stereo: cranked, to battle the wind. [Aidan Ryan] Playing Brew at the Bog, Inverness on 3 Jun; Stereo, Glasgow on 11 Jun and Electric Circus, Edinburgh on 12 Jun

Puberty’s a time of peak emotions but it’s also one of chronic navel-gazing, making it dangerous territory for musicians.

Fortunately, Puberty 2 is the rare breed that evokes all the angst and drama of adolescence but also its sublime passion.

Featuring crunchy guitars, squeals of feedback and masterful melodicism, comparisons to Pinkerton are inevitable, but there’s more nuance and maturity at work here.

For one thing, Best American Girl issues a sharp corrective to the dubious orientalist fantasy voiced on Weezer’s classic: Mitski (of American-Japanese descent) expresses the difficulty of fitting in when your difference is constantly reflected back at you, with a combined ferocity and tenderness that’s simply heartbreaking.

Then there’s the production, full of deft hiccups and quirks. Crack Baby’s queasy key change is a prime example, turning a hook already destined for greatness into something downright devastating.

[Andrew Gordon]

Papier Tigre

Psychic Ills

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Weaves smashed a hole in the wall of Toronto’s DIY scene in 2014 with an EP of sweet’n’sour pop-rock gems, and have spent the intervening months on a nearconstant tour. Vocalist Jasmin Burke claims to compose ideas on her iPhone, and although this first record’s been in the works for several years, not one second of Weaves feels overthought.

Tuck in for bountiful, weirdo distortions, whip-smart riffs and generous portions of tumbling, rambling breakdowns that almost – almost – end in disaster.

Weaves can flick between breezy, cute pop hits to tight-fisted punk snarlers in the blink of an eyeball, and the record’s best tracks are a combination of both: Two Oceans is a thumping, brassy outburst of drunk sentiment and late-night loneliness: ‘Please tell me about yourself? / You’re looking sweet with your... slices of pizza.’

Weaves are flying so, so close to the sun and they want you to feel the burn, too. [Katie Hawthorne]

The Screw [Function, 17 Jun] Riveting Nantes trio Papier Tigre have been pedaling their post-hardcore chops for ten years now, and from Fugazi to Faraquet, their fourth album feeds on the cerebral twitches of latter-day Dischord Records with gusto. There’s a serrated funk that props up their gleeful caterwauling, and a hella good time it is too – in a clenched-teeth sorta way.

Mood Trials catches ‘em at their most tense, with Eric Pasquereau’s wiry bon mots taking root in an addictively spacious groove, while elsewhere they wrench fearsome scree from their guitars and tease us with electro-pop synthery amidst undulating discoball spasms. On centerpiece A Matter of Minutes, a mechanistic, single-note beat flickers like flames in a gale over the course of nine challenging minutes. In fact, so dizzying are the twists and turns of The Screw that it seems a shame to tie it down to mere genre: ‘excellent’ does the job just as well. [Will Fitzpatrick] papiertigre.com

Playing Electric Circus, Edinburgh on 10 Jun and Nice ‘N’ Sleazy on 17 Jul

Review

Puberty 2 [Dead Oceans, 17 Jun]

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Weaves

Weaves [Memphis Industries, 17 Jun]

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Mitski

Our Fertile Forever [Displaced Records, 10 Jun]

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First there was Wolf Parade’s unexpected return, with a flurry of gigs added to the calendar and an EP of new material to boot. Now another of Spencer Krug’s many musical alliances is resurrected in the form of My Best Human Face; a second full-length collaboration with Finnish act Siinai that quickly reaffirms the partnership’s potency.

Though Siinai are given equal billing this time out (Moonface and..., not Moonface with... as on predecessor Heartbreaking Bravery), Krug still seems to hold creative sway, most transparently when heard corralling his bandmates into a revved-up rerecording of City Wrecker (from his 2014 solo EP of the same name).

That said, the impact of songs like The Nightclub Artiste owe as much to their sweeping instrumentation as to Krug’s typically resonant lyrics and vulnerable vocals, making this a two-way artistic exchange in which everyone wins, musicians and listeners alike.

[Chris Buckle]

Playing Brew At The Bog Festival, Inverness on 3 Jun; Conroy’s Bar, Dundee on 22 Jun; Summerhall, Edinburgh on 24 Jun; Stereo, Glasgow on 25 Jun

Inner Journey Out [Sacred Bones, 3 Jun] For all that somebody has forgotten to affix the warning ‘This is NOT a Spiritualized record’ to the album’s artwork – the Farfissa organ, the gospel flourishes, the languid, almost horizontal vocals straight out of the Jason Pierce guide to stagecraft – Inner Journey Out is not pastiche.

While the New York duo have always sounded somewhat selfmedicated, their songcraft travels far beyond druggy introspection – never more so on I Don’t Mind, its hazy undercurrents swirling, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval providing vocal uplift alongside the pedal steel guitar.

Elsewhere there’s a discernible country influence, Coca-Cola Blues road-weary, opener Back to You floating amidst Mojave textures. Jazz cadences pop up too in the psychedelic cloak of Ra Wah Wah; in other words, perhaps a wee bit too derivative for some.

Still, there’s enough here to trigger intrigue should you make the effort. [Duncan Harman] psychicills.com

RECORDS

THE SKINNY

Deerhoof

The Mystery Lights

Margaret Glaspy

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The Magic [Polyvinyl, 24 Jun] So you’re one of your generation’s most hypercreative and hard-to-pin-down acts, riding a hot streak that lasts well over half of your 22-year existence. Why not try to compress that creativity into a seven-day blur of writing and recording? Works for Deerhoof. Whether soaking up dizzying, kaleidoscopic noisepop with ragged chunks of R'n'B or simply encasing gnarly riffs in supersweet bubblegum, The Magic is yet another triumph.

If the band’s two previous full-lengths twisted their rapid-fire experimental pop into evermore idiosyncratic shapes, these 15 songs see them following Charles Shaar Murray’s suggestion that The Clash should’ve been locked in a garage with the motor running. Except the exhaust endlessly pumps out Pop Rocks and Coke, and the band are too busy setting off firecrackers to notice. Too much? How’s this: they’re weird and wonderful. They sound like no-one but themselves, and they’re still getting better. [Will Fitzpatrick]

The Mystery [Lights Wick, 24 Jun] Positives: expertly played, genuinely soulful and more grooves than Sandanista! on vinyl. Negatives: we’ve been here before. And haven’t we just? The New York-based garage act display sharp legacy chops, for sure, but more and more the raw power of late 60s rock’n’roll feels like an all-too-easy stopping off point for the next generation.

Is that The Mystery Lights’ fault? Well, no (it’s probably The Black Keys’ – let’s blame them anyway). The allure of an unprocessed, unspoilt scene is hard to deny. History, after all, is there not to be gawped at, but to be toyed with and explored. And the songs are solid enough, particularly Candlelight (a dead ringer for The Sonics) and Follow Me Home, which has the swagger and punch of Van Morrison’s Them. If that whole milieu is to your taste, definitely worth seeking out. [Gary Kaill]

Those of us who’ve followed Glaspy’s development these past few years via a series of self-produced live YouTube performances might find her long-awaited major label debut something of a jolt. Dirtying up her clean, soulful guitar pop is a move as brave as it is smart: Emotion and Math is powered by guts and guile. Glaspy’s lyrical eye is unflinching and much of this record documents stark self-doubt alongside a series of dead-eye recriminations.

‘I’ve been sitting silent because I thought you liked me quiet,’ she sings on Pins and Needles. On the towering title track, she’s ‘shivering in an ice-cold bath of emotion and math.’ These songs are raw and beautiful. Glaspy’s voice is roughened, tremulous and hypnotic. Her guitar playing is characterful and advanced. Be sure to leave a space on those end-of-year lists. [Gary Kaill]

facebook.com/TheMysteryLights

margaretglaspy.bandcamp.com

DJ Shadow

The Mountain Will Fall [Mass Appeal, 24 Jun]

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Two decades on from the immortal Endtroducing, Josh ‘DJ Shadow’ Davis remains a shape-shifting enigma, determined to throw us off the scent. Accordingly, The Mountain Will Fall’s lead single – a Run the Jewels-featuring boom-bap explosion called Nobody Speak – is rendered sheer misdirection in the context of its textured and disorienting parent album.

Having delivered what he recently dubbed his “goodbye letter” to sampling with 2011’s The Less You Know, the Better, Shadow’s new Ableton game chimes more with HudMo’s neon fantasies and Death Grips’ darkest speaker-bursting bass explorations.

Long-time followers will still find plenty to praise, from a playful spar with Nils Frahm on Bergschrund to Ghost Town’s devastating reminder that our maestro can contemporise the mood of a track like Stem any old time he likes. The methods have changed but Shadow’s unorthodox sense of rhythm remains reassuringly familiar.

[Dave Kerr] Playing O2 ABC, Glasgow on 20 Jul | djshadow.com

Emotion and Math [ATO, 17 Jun]

Amber Arcades

THROWS

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Fading Lines [Heavenly , 3 Jun]

THROWS [Full Time Hobby, 10 Jun]

Dutch musician Annelotte de Graaf releases her debut album as Amber Arcades. And it is dreamy.

Pinch yourself before faded, silky hooks and sun-bleached vocals lull you into a false sense of dozy serenity; there’s an ironclad core within these clouds, and de Graaf navigates the potentially turbulant skies of dreampop with a firm hand.

A legal aide in human rights law by day, and a supremely focused songwriter by night, de Graaf assembled a crack team of studio band mates (inc. Real Estate drummer Jackson Pollis and famed punk producer Ben Greenwood) to record an album as determined as it is dizzying.

Give in to Fading Lines’ understated dreamworld and drown in the title track’s pushing, persuasive guitars, the old-fashioned romance of Perpetuum Mobile or the woozy storytelling borrowed from Teen Dream-era Beach House on I Will Follow. Single Right Now is intimate euphoria, and the record’s stripped-back closer White Fuzz is perfectly pitched, bitter-sweet melancholia. Blissful, elegant records like this do not come about by chance. [Katie Hawthorne]

Reykjavík-based duo Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders arrive with warm-hearted indie rock designed to thaw your cold, cold heart. The former Tunng associates take a genre-spanning approach, inspired by their studio’s view onto the city’s industrial harbour. Songs of self-improvement, silence and changing sheets are illustrated by frosty natural imagery, choral vocals, strummed ballads and some serious, ambitious theatrics.

The melodrama barometer spikes high on mid-record break-up track Sun Gun, and High Pressure Front steadily becomes increasingly, impressively glam as their vocals pitch high; ‘No-one told me this would be so hard.’

Bask takes an unexpectedly thumping, industrial turn and there are moments of proper brilliance in the sparse dramatics of Knife and Learn Something. The spoken-word closer Under the Ice – an eerie tale of wintery metamorphosis, albatrosses and nudity – is a step dangerously close to the edge, but the orchestral backing is cinematic enough to round out this record of overblown emotion and chilling natural phenomena. [Katie Hawthorne]

amberarcades.net

facebook.com/wearethrows

The Kills

Ash & Ice [Domino, 3 Jun]

Rick Redbeard

Robert Coyne & Jaki Liebezeit

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Awake Unto [Chemikal Underground, 17 Jun]

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I Still Have This Dream [Meyer Records, 3 Jun]

Five years can be an eternity when it comes to what we feed into our ears; that which sounded daring and inventive quickly grows passé when vogue starts looking elsewhere. Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince may have hinted at a radical departure from 2011’s Blood Pressures – a hand injury forcing Hince to play guitar in a completely different way – yet the predictable scuzziness behind Ash & Ice reinforces the impression that The Kills are merely slumming it at the sleazy end of the spectrum.

The sound may be a little fuller, the bleary angst more reflective, yet even singles Doing It to Death and Heart of a Dog suggest that we’ve travelled this way before. Far more successful is when the duo leave trope behind; the sly urgency of Siberian Nights; the 3am cabaret of piano-led ballad That Love, Mosshart a web of dispassion. Such moments however are all-too infrequent, and while this isn’t a bad album, it does feel like a safe one (which is perhaps even worse). [Duncan Harman]

In some ways, Rick Redbeard’s second solo album is a neat bridge between his debut and his more fleshed-out work with The Phantom Band. No Selfish Heart was stark and elegant, a world away from the often rollicking output of the Phantoms.

Awake Unto, on the other hand, ventures boldly into folk-rock territory more than once: neither of the full-blooded Golden Age and In My Wake would seem out of place on Strange Friend, while the 50stinged The Night is All Ours strays further still from the beaten path.

But it’s when Redbeard’s clear-as-a-bell voice is allowed to resonate boldly through the reverb and the subtle strings that this record finds its finest moments. Unfound, the Field Years and Yuki Onna are a haunting, ethereal trio, while the gothic What Fine People is one of the finest in his canon. The plaintive air of the debut remains, but is elevated by the occasional harmony and wheeze of reed. [Finbarr Bermingham]

The third collaboration between alt-folk doyen Coyne and the revered Can percussionist is deliberately gentle and low key, each acoustic trail leafy, every drumbeat emphasising the space such stark metronomy bequeaths. It’s not an especially immediate listen – and it certainly isn’t incendiary – but that’s very much the point, Coyne’s vocal delivery is a warm filter through which his frequently playful lyrics (‘I am the Cockney mystic, I take the biscuit, and I’m healing your cat tonight’) arrive.

Ball of Light skips across the oohs of its backing vocal, Tough to Love leans towards melancholia without ever coming close to wallowing, while the duet representing the title track glides with an intimate, introspective tenderness. Liebezeit’s percussion (as always) represents the monochromatic backdrop across which colour is draped, and although I Still Have This Dream won’t blow socks off, its subtle mischief speaks of a vernal confidence. [Duncan Harman]

Playing O2 ABC, Glasgow on 30 Sep | thekills.tv

chemikal.co.uk

meyerrecords.com

Fatherson

Mourn

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Open Book Easy [Life / Sony RED, 3 Jun] 2014's I Am An Island established these Kilmarnock lads as a competent indie outfit – not trailblazers, no, but in like-minded company among recent Scottish standardbearers Frightened Rabbit or Admiral Fallow. Open Book, unfortunately, makes few strides from their debut, and feels limited despite its ambitions.

The moodier moments – Always’ dark drumfills, Younger Days’ minor-key atmospherics – give some much-needed texture to an otherwise twee record, and the titular track’s thumping chorus and metronomic percussion are glimpses into what Open Book could have been.

The rest is aspirational anthemics, let down by samey midnoughties guitar chords (Stop the Car, Forest), saved only by frontman Ross Leighton’s unimpeachable vocal. For an indie record, Open Book does what it does well, and with charm, but there’s an unshakeable sense of wasted potential here. [George Sully]

Ha, Ha, He. [Captured Tracks, 3 Jun] There are moments on Ha, Ha, He. – the youthful Catalonian quartet’s sophomore LP – when there’s a distinct impression of listening to several House of Love tracks played at the same time. Which is no bad thing; short and snappy it may be – its 12 tracks are done and dusted within half an hour – yet the band still manage to cultivate dramatic intent amidst the jangly guitars and posturing hooks. This is, in essence, a photogenic record, forming patterns from anger but also vibrancy.

Opening with spiky instrumental Flee, its overture feel leads us down ill-lit corridors as the core of the album is revealed, Carla Pérez Vas’ vocals fleeting and indistinct, the musical Americanisms contextual (I Am A Chicken in particular wearing its Pixies influence with pride). The highlight: Irrational Friend, a frenzy of shouted aggression above hanging riffs – it’s material such as this that hints strongly at a promising future. [Duncan Harman]

The Top Five 1

Minor Victories

Minor Victories

2

3

Amber Arcades

Fading Lines

DJ Shadow

The Mountain Will Fall

4

Deerhoof The Magic

5

Rick Redbeard

Awake Unto

facebook.com/ohmourn

Playing O2 ABC, Glasgow on 4 Jun | fathersonband.co.uk

June 2016

RECORDS

Review

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#6 Earth, Wind & Fire

Runnin’ I work with a bass player who’s a huge fan, he’s always pushing them on me. I’m slowly coming around to it. I get the hits, and I get the musicianship, and as a group they are incredible. When Frankie Knuckles died, people were putting up links to all these old school soul and funk tracks, stuff that doesn’t necessarily have a constant 4/4 beat, but it was all in this danceable zone, which is what Earth Wind & Fire were doing. Having sections that were one tempo, one kind of groove, and then it switches suddenly and it’s something else completely.

“I can’t think of many people that are making solid hits 20 years into their career” #7 Jay Sean

Maybe (Sunship Remix) This is just me loving all UK garage. Jay Sean is also an example of a British artist that comes from an Asian background, and maybe wasn’t sure he was getting the breaks he wanted in the UK, so came to the States. I was lumped in with a UK indie underground, because I have long hair and was in the same shows as Ariel Pink. As soon as it was apparent I wasn’t being ironic about a love of funk and soul, and R’n’B, and not just British black music but an American black music heritage, I think the UK music press was somewhat confused. I do work more in the States now, and there isn’t any part of the music world here that would work in those genres ironically.

Under the Influence: Kindness

#8 Green Mamba

Before Kindness – aka producer, musician and collaborator extraordinaire Adam Bainbridge – returns to the UK for a string of DJ dates, he hits shuffle on his arsenal and talks us through the first ten tracks, Missy Elliott trilogy and all

#1 Keith Frank ft. Lil Boosie

Haterz I remember being in Louisiana, working with Solange Knowles. We were going to a rodeo that evening where there would be local Zydeco bands playing, and I remember just quickly trying to teach myself the basics, who was who – and I came across this track. It sounds somewhat old school because of the accordion, but then you have this guest verse from Lil Boosie, and hearing a well-known rapper on this arrangement is interesting to me.

People love this hook, as well. It has a similarity to ska almost, but it’s just really compelling; you couldn’t stay still.

#2 Missy Elliott

Red Lights (demo) So I think we should roll all the Missy tracks into one… there’s a lot of Missy on my laptop. I recently interviewed Tweet, who works a lot with Missy, and I also worked with Jimmy Douglass who was Missy and Timbaland’s engineer for a long time.

He home mixed [Kindness’ second album] Otherness. Jimmy would have been one of the engineers on these [demo] sessions, too, and it’s just amazing to see that she has her innate talents on display, so early on. It’s just been refined, and taken to a place where it really connects with a huge audience.

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Feature

#3 Missy Elliott

Izzy Izzy Ahh I would see these Timbaland records at the store where I lived – we’re talking mid-90s, and I think people were a little more snobbish about straight up R’n’B, at least in Peterborough. Hip-hop and R’n’B instrumentals would be stocked, but they weren’t getting that many cuts in. It was only when Missy hugely crossed over into the mainstream that you could actually listen to and buy it. She’s just always been someone you can’t help but be inspired by, especially in terms of diversity of sound, all of these different eras of progression, the longevity of her career… I can’t think of many people that are making solid hits 20 years into their careers.

#4 Missy Elliott ft. Lil’ Kim

Throw Up Your Hands We’re looking at these leaps, from ‘94, ‘97, and then this Lil’ Kim interlude is 1999. I think Missy, Tim and the journey that whole group – the Basement Crew – made is just really inspiring. I have so much respect for Missy as a woman in the industry, and people forget that Missy is also a producer, at the same time as being an artist and bringing other artists along with her... and that visual aspect she always has. And just generally being an amazing person! Did you see the viral poem that was going

Words: Katie Hawthorne

around? The poet’s theme was how empowered Missy made her feel. Missy saw it, and turned up at the poet’s house the next day. You can just sense that there’s a real generosity there, and a willingness to share talents.

#5 Kindness ft. Robyn

Who Do You Love (Joakim Remix) It’s lucky for me this wasn’t more embarrassing!

Robyn and I ended up playing this track to [legendary producers] Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, and because of the off-kilter nature of the beat on the original – everything’s a little bit wonky – I remember Terry raising an eyebrow, saying, ‘You do make things difficult.’ I hadn’t worked with someone who was as high profile as Robyn before; she hadn’t worked with someone so left of centre. I wanted to see if I could bring something a little less precise and Scandinavian to her songwriting, and I remember saying, ‘This is literally the weirdest thing I could imagine you singing on.’ Joakim’s a good friend of mine, and this remix is a really good example of someone finding what was already euphoric about the song, and taking it up another couple of notches.

MUSIC

Busiku Bwanduuma Another Joakim link! A museum in Paris invited the two of us to DJ one of their afternoon family sessions with music from their archive – we had full access to all of their CDs, tapes & vinyl. This is one of hundreds of tracks that made it to my final playlist for the day.

#9 Touch and Go ft. Barbara Roy

Ecstasy, Passion & Pain Featuring Barbara Roy. She founded the group, she ought to be getting the credit! This is also the song that the [JX track] Son of a Gun sample is from, which I guess most British people knew before the disco record. There’s another amazing version of this song by Danny Krivit, which just loops that opening with the piano and the hi-hat for a really long time! That, to me, is the most exciting part of the song, this drawn out intro, just quietly building… I don’t want to sound old-fashioned or nostalgic, but we’re kind of losing that in this weird post-EDM era.

#10 Naoya Matsuok

ワクワクソンゴ Record shopping in Japan can be a bit of a headfuck, especially since every sleeve looks amazing, and the music’s invariably good too. I think I came across this LP in a YouTube wormhole of 80s jazz influenced funk. What I never realised until last night is how similar it is to Bernard Wright’s song Who Do You Love. I wonder if it may have been a direct influence?

Kindness plays Broadcast, Glasgow on 10 Jun and Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh on 11 Jun kindness.es

THE SKINNY

June 2016

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THE SKINNY

Clubbing Highlights Green Velvet in Glasgow, Andy Weatherall in Edinburgh... and that’s before we get to Summer Skank Out in Dundee – another busy month for your clubbing calendar

Words: Claire Francis Illustration: Ailsa Johnson

GLASGOW It’s a big month ahead for the west coast, and first up there’s a colossal party in store when legendary Chicago native Green Velvet, aka Curtis Jones, takes over SWG3 for a non-stop night of deep house and electronic funk. Ever since Jones’ breakthrough DIY hit Coffee Pot (under the moniker Cajmere) way back in 1991, the self-taught musician and producer has consistently refined his unique house sound through experimentation with home-recorded vocal samples, electro punk and live instrumentation. After last year’s exciting Get Real collaboration with Claude VonStroke, it’s a thrill to have the big man back in these parts.

Warm-up duties on the night will be undertaken by none other than local rising star Theo Kottis; having already DJed alongside the likes of Nicolas Jarr, Tale Of Us and Seth Troxler since his debut on the scene in 2014, there’s currently no up-and-comer more worthy of such a serious supporting slot (4 June, £16).

Moving from the sounds of Chicago to the beats of Detroit, American born DJ Eric Cloutier brings his deep, atmospheric grooves to the La Cheetah basement on Friday 3 June. Across the breadth of his almost two-decade-long career, Cloutier has played in some of the gran-

dest electronic venues across the globe, counting Berlin’s Berghain and Tresor, and NYC’s The Bunker on his esteemed CV. Melding elements of house, dub and techno, and flipping enticingly melodic tracks with harder-hitting selections, after some years since Cloutier’s last appearance in Glasgow, he certainly makes a welcome return via this month’s Missing Persons Club (£5-8).

Elsewhere in Glasgow, The Berkeley Suite hosts popular Panorama Bar resident Tama Sumo and DJ partner Lakuti on 10 June, in what’s sure to be a righteous techno extravaganza (£5-7). Meanwhile, if you’re still lamenting the loss of his late, great, royal Purpleness (and let’s face it, who isn’t) then get yourself Southside for The Rum Shack’s Prince Celebration on 3 June. Originally planned as a knees-up for what would have been the diminutive singer’s birthday, the event will now go ahead as a celebration of his iconic career, with Pro Vinylist Karim, Dirty Larry (Wrong Island) and the Hollywood Boulevard DJs on hand to drop back-to-back Prince bangers. Advance tickets have all been snapped up, but there will a limited number on the door – and if you needed any further encouragement, the event is also a fundraiser for MacMillan Cancer Support (£4-5).

EDINBURGH There’s an education in classic Detroit techno to be had in the capital this month when the one and only Juan Atkins heads up The Mash House on 3 June. Atkins is a bonafide techno legend, widely credited as one of the originators of the genre, alongside Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May (the latter of whom Atkins taught to mix back when the three were starting out). A key figure in the Detroit scene, Atkins founded the famed Metroplex label in 1985 and has also released material under the name Infiniti with Dutch DJ giant Orlando Voorn. No further elaboration necessary, just mark this one as a must-see, with Main Ingredient, Jelly Roll Soul, The Bidler Room and others rounding out the party (£10-15).

Also in Edinburgh this month, Scotland’s moveable techno feast Bigfoot’s Tea Party rolls into Sneaky Pete’s on 10 June, bringing together a revolving but always reliable rota of banging tunes (£5); while back at The Mash House, iconic stalwart producer Andy Weatherall and partner-in-crime Sean Johnston’s A Love From Outer Space residency will be a special summer party drawing on the duo’s extensive talents across the sounds of Madchester, British techno, acid house and big beats (24 June, £13).

DUNDEE You know warmer weather is on the horizon when festivals start springing up across the country – one such summer offering is Junglism’s Summer Skank Out held at the stately Mains Castle in Dundee. The DJ collective responsible for providing

June 2016

CLUBS

some of Scotland’s freshest drum’n’bass and jungle beats have assembled a summer showcase featuring Special Ed, Jamin Nimjah, Hex and Calaco Jack, and a raft of other beat-heavy acts to ring in the promise of sunnier skies with an epic 12-hourlong party (Saturday 18 June, £13-20).

Do Not Miss Agoria

Sub Club, Friday 24 June French DJ/Producer and InFine label founder Agoria (real name Sébastien Devaud) brings a touch of je ne sais quoi to Sub Club this month; think hypnotic, deeply melodic tracks as exemplified by the Frenchman’s acclaimed albums Blossom (2003), The Green Armchair (2006) and Impermanence (2011), with rumours currently doing the rounds of a new record in the works.

As well as his InFine platform, Devaud (who has cited techno heavyweight Kevin Saunderson as a pivotal influence in his early career) is also the founder of Nuits Sonores, touted as one of the best European electronic festivals, and has also released inspired remixes of both Moby and Metronomy. Expect a heady, hefty night of eclectic, jazz-and-Detroit techno inspired minimalism.

Preview

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Credit: Martin J Windebank

Win tickets to MugStock!

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cotland’s friendliest wee festival returns for another outing: MugStock is back! A boutique multi-arts festival in the spectacular natural surroundings of Mugdock Country Park, a mere 10 miles north of Glasgow city centre, this year’s line-up boasts a diverse array of new and familiar faces, including Edinburgh hip-hop crew Stanley Odd and disco-flecked party band Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5.

It’s an intimate affair offering an alternative to larger festivals, and includes a diverse array of music, arts and activities – from nature walks to hula-hoop workshops, with much more besides.

And for those of you concerned about wetting your whistle, there’s also bars courtesy of the good folks at Williams Bros Brewing Co and Thistly Cross Cider. Fun, as they say, for all the family… and we’ve got a pair of weekend tickets (with camping) to give away to one lucky reader!

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COMPETITIONS

To be in with a chance of winning, simply head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions with the correct answer to the following question: In which East Dunbartonshire country park is MugStock held?

1) Mugdock 2) Yellowstone 3) Jellystone

Competition closes at midnight on Sun 24 Jul. Winners will be placed on the guestlist, and can collect wristbands at the main box office from Friday 29 July. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

THE SKINNY

Art News Degree show season is here, and there’s plenty to do besides.

Transmission and Embassy open the floor to their members, and outside the city Jupiter Artland and Hospitalfield are just as busy Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

Sol Calero

David Dale Gallery

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Stereotypically thought of as required viewing for the lonely and/or old, the telenovela genre is kitsch in high contrast. Sol Calero absorbs its styling and tropes into her latest exhibition at Glasgow’s David Dale Gallery.

Calero has constructed her own domestic film set environment to make her own take on the Spanish-language soap opera, Desde el Jardín. Scenes from in front of the camera are blurred with those from behind; props lie in wait, anticipating the drama to come. Although designed to be viewed from fixed points, this is a fully immersive experience reminiscent of the experimental London company Punchdrunk.

The two focal points to the installation are both video works. An episode of Desde el Jardín is shown on a monitor within one of the rooms of the set. Another monitor shows behind-­the­-scenes footage where members of the production company Conglomerate, of which Calero is a member, move around with equipment that

remains present within the set.

It is unclear if the bunk beds littered with tissues are for the film crew or cast members.

This is an ambiguity that resonates throughout the installation: what is staged, what is real? All in rich, luscious colour.

Setting off some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, Calero’s set-up and video work bring to mind the late comedy writer and actor Victoria Wood’s comedy soap opera Acorn Antiques (1987).

Although the tone and subject matter differs, the use of humour as a vehicle to explore other topics is intelligently employed.

Desde el Jardín is a more risqué and busy exhibition than, for example, La Escuela Del Sur, a recent solo show by Calero in London. On the surface this work is more titillating and tantalising than previous outings, but this only bolsters Calero’s sharp insight into issues of wealth and poverty in her native South America. The aspirations of those less fortunate, their façades and their dreams of grandeur are worked into an immersive, engaging and entertaining whole.

[James Harper] Run ended.

Installation View

Akram Zaatari

The Common Guild

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Comprising drawings, two videos (16mm and digital) and archival photographs, Akram Zaatari’s exhibition The End of Desire is a sensitive and unconventional take on romanticism, intimacy and the archive.

On the first of two floors, the 16mm film is shown with a selection of homoerotic drawings made from screenshots of pornographic videos.

The fragility of pencil lines (sometimes erased and redrawn) dampen and perhaps censor to an extent the explicit origin of the images. In this way, an allusion is made to the intent intimacy of sex and the tenderness of porn.

In the video The End of Time, there is something of a ritual as three different actors take different roles in a series of two-person choreographies. In non-naturalistic movements and poses, there’s a sense of vulnerability and exposure.

Upstairs, the digital video titled Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright presents a lovers’ dialo-

June 2016

gue as a text message conversation. The sentences are as sparse, candid (‘Are you hard?’) and laconic as instant messaging can be – intensifying the sense of the speaking couple’s difficult and loaded relationship history.

After the typed dialogue between two lovers, there’s a video from a driving car. The subtle, glitch-like stops generate a seemingly-accidental photography. Ending with two images of the sunset – when the lovers first met – the lowquality home video shots strike at the sentimental familiarity of the ubiqitous.

In the same room, there’s a series of archival photographs: pictures of uncomfortable, samesex kissing and boys posing with a cardboard woman. The stagey set-ups draw an immediate sense of warm, easy humour, sliced by a sense of historical taboo.

Whether from text messages, clunky choreography, an unremarkable car journey or XTube, Zaatari strikes in a series of surprising, sharp and impactful pinpricks of insight and poignancy.

[Kristina Žalyt ] Run ended.

Ditte Gantriis, TRUST, 2015, Installation View Kunsthal Charlotteborg, Copenhagen

J

une’s always a big one with the majority of degree shows happening. From the get-go, there’s the ECA degree show which continues until 5 June. As always, all of the various Fine Art, Design and Architecture courses will be on show, and this year is particularly busy with Grays School of Art in Aberdeen and Glasgow School of Art also going up against each other between 18-25 June. Read our complete guide to ECA’s degree shows here.

Winding back to the beginning of the month, there’s Adam McEwen’s exhibition Tinnitus in The Modern Institute, previewing 3 June, 7-9pm.

Known for a certain sharp sobriety, McEwen’s work ranges from maps marked with chewing gum to signal German cities bombed during WWII, to graphite sculptures of banal objects like watercoolers and lockers. This latest exhibition continues through the summer until 27 August.

In Dundee Contemporary Arts, Duncan Marquiss’ exhibition Copying Errors continues through June until 3 July, with two events scheduled this month. First, on Thursday 16 June, DCA launch a new publication on Marquiss’ work, and he’s planned a night of improvised music and performance from 6.30-9pm – free tickets are available from the DCA website. Continuing the events surrounding Marquiss’ work on 23 June, local artists present their takes on the exhibition to prompt a discussion from 7pm. This evening’s titled (((echo))), and it’s free with no need to book.

Now well into its spring programme, on Saturday 4 June Jupiter Artland presents exhibitor Ditte Gantris as she discusses her glass and woven basket works, while later in the month (23 June) Celeste Boursier-Mougenot discusses his room of zebra finches and electric guitars.

See their website for admission prices.

In Glasgow, artist and writer Sarah Rose presents a solo show in SWG3 from 10-29 June.

Looking for material ways of dissolving her sense of individuality, she presents a sculptural work made by fabricators of medical glass instruments to her instruction, and a sound piece that originated in Rose donating her voice to a charity for the speech impaired. The show’s called Compassionate Truth, Dirty Truth and as well as the sculptural and audio work, there will be a programme of

ART

workshops, late night broadcasts and a new publication. Keep an eye on the weekly column at theskinny.co.uk for details of the opening.

Embassy and Transmission both hand over their spaces to members during June: Embassy present their Annuale, which will include talks, screenings, performance, workshops and anything else applicants have come up with. 2016’s programme is still TBC, but the Annuale runs from 17 June to 3 July. Transmission host their annual Members’ show from 25 June to 23 July, with all work being exhibited from an open call.

“ Embassy present talks, screenings … And anything else applicants have come up with” Anyone interested in The Common Guild’s current exhibition by Akram Zaatari should head to the talk by Dartmouth College’s Professor of Art History, Dr Chad Elias. On Sunday 18 June at 3pm, he’ll discuss Zaatari’s work and the importance of collecting and archiving photography from the Middle East. Book free tickets via Eventbrite.

Rounding off June for art, there’s LeithLate from 23-26 June. Turn to page 22 for an interview, explaining what to expect for the 2016 edition.

That same weekend, there’s the Hospitalfield Open Weekend from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 June. Here you can find work by painter and collage artist Lubaina Himid, as well as Tamara Henderson, whose recent work in Glasgow International consisted of pinhole photography, fabric sculpture and a video to be watched from the skeleton of a car. theskinny.co.uk/art

Review

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Credit: Courtesy of The Artist and Frutta, Rome (4)

Installation View

Film Event Highlights With EIFF (15-26 Jun) dominating the film scene in Edinburgh this month, we're dedicating June's column to the great film events happening on the west coast Words: Jamie Dunn

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he mighty Africa in Motion are heading to CCA in June to shed some light on pertinent and contemporary issues facing Africa with film tour African Hopes, Beats and Dreams.

First up in the trio of screenings is The Dream of Shahrazad (7 Jun), a beautiful doc examining the Arab Spring through epic fairy tale collection One Thousand and One Nights. That’s followed

by Beats of the Antonov (10 Jun), a doc about the people of the Blue Nile’s inspiring response to Sudan’s civil war. And then there’s Hope (18 Jun), a touching migrant story following a young Nigerian woman and a Cameroonian man battling brutal odds to reach the shores of Spain.

When Marnie Was There

Nice Guys

When Marnie Was There

The Nice Guys

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Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi Starring: (English voice cast) Hailee Steinfeld, Kiernan Shipka, Geena Davis, Kathy Bates, John C. Reilly, Catherine O’Hara Released: 10 Jun Certificate: U

When Marnie Was There is being billed as the final in-house film from animation giant Studio Ghibli. A European co-production, The Red Turtle, has just premiered at Cannes but Marnie is, for the foreseeable future, the last full feature to come entirely from the Japanese studio.

The previous Ghibli film from director Hiromasa Yonebayashi was Arrietty, based on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, and Marnie is similarly based on the work of a late English author who wrote for children, this time Joan G. Robinson. A far cry from the fanciful set-pieces of Spirited Away, this tale still flirts with the fantastical – even the Gothic – with its story of a troubled adolescent becoming obsessed with an abandoned mansion and the similarly aged girl who lives there; a girl who may be a spirit from decades past. If this is indeed a farewell for the studio, it’s fitting that this modest, bittersweet treat is so concerned with deriving strength from the past.

[Josh Slater-Williams] When Marnie Was There will screen in both English language and Japanese versions.

Director: Shane Black Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Kim Basinger Released: 3 Jun Certificate: 15 Although he directed Iron Man 3 in 2013, it has been over a decade since the last true Shane Black film – 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – and The Nice Guys wastes no time in reminding us what we’ve been missing. The first hour of the film finds Black on peak form, delivering all of the wisecracking dialogue and sudden explosions of violence that we could hope for, as deadbeat private eye Holland March (Gosling) and gruff bruiser Jackson Healy (Crowe) are reluctantly united in the hunt for a missing porn star.

The second half is less satisfying, with the increasingly slapdash and murky plotting becoming more of a problem, but Black recovers with a climactic sequence of escalating slapstick action, and the actors are always a treat. Crowe and a particularly hilarious Gosling haven’t been this engaging or energised on screen in years, while teenager Angourie Rice is a real find as Gosling’s character’s daughter. The film might be called The Nice Guys, but it’s the nice girl who gives Black’s trademark darkly comic perspective a crucial moral centre. [Philip Concannon] Released by Icon

The Dream of Shahrazad

Cinema-goers of a revolutionary inclination won’t want to miss GFT’s screening of Nightcleaners, a landmark work of British political cinema and feminist filmmaking. The film documents the fight by women who cleaned office blocks at night in London to fight for better pay and working conditions. Don’t go along expecting a straightforward blow-by-blow account: shot by the Berwick Collective in grainy B&W 16mm, the film began as conventional agitprop but morphed during the editing stage into a doc whose form is as radical as its politics. It’s a screening to stimulate, enrage and challenge.

Long before he became Tim Burton’s go-to composer, Danny Elfman gave a wild performance as the Devil in a cult film much weirder than anything his regular collaborator could ever come up with. Directed by Elfman’s brother Richard, Forbidden Zone (16 Jun) is a wild brew of sci-fi musical, bawdy comedy and badshit dada adventure following a family as they one-by-one enter the 'sixth dimension' through a door in their basement. Presented by Matchbox Cinemaclub, it’s their final screening at The Old Hairdressers before moving to pastures new at CCA. They’re leaving with a bang!

Meanwhile… Comic Con returns to CCA, and they’re screening a trio of comic book movies just pulpy enough to counteract the bombast of Batman v Superman, Captain America: Civil War et al and remind us to not take these films too seriously. There’s the 90s shoestring version of Captain America (29 Jun) before he turned into dull super-hunk Chris Evans, the pun-tastic Batman & Robin (30 Jun), and the surprisingly endearing Swamp Thing (1 Jul), from the late Wes Craven.

Finally, Blueprint returns to GFT for its 4th edition (16 Jun) with another line-up of microbudget shorts. Expect an exploration of mental health in the wake of personal trauma shot on a mobile (Divulgence), a love story set in an Orwellian future (The English Lesson), and the delightfully named Reservoir Dugs, a shot for shot film remake of Tarantino’s debut film’s opening diner scene, with its trademark dialogue given a Glasgow twist.

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Review

Cemetery of Splendour

Tale of Tales

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Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Starring: Jenjira Pongpas, Banlop Lomnoi, Jarinpattra Rueangram, Petcharat Chaiburi, Tawatchai Buawat Released: 17 Jun Certificate:

Director: Matteo Garrone Starring: Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave Released: 17 Jun Certificate: 15

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has by now established himself as one of the world’s pre-eminent filmmakers, but the unsung hero in his work is Jenjira Pongpas, the actress with the wry expression and uneven gait who has appeared in four of his features. She gives her most moving performance yet in Cemetery of Splendour as a nurse treating soldiers stricken by a mysterious sleeping sickness, and being drawn to one slumbering man in particular.

As ever in Apichatpong’s films, the past and the present have a habit of overlapping, with both the spiritual and corporeal worlds existing sideby-side. When Jen is visited by the ghosts of two princesses or taken on a tour of a palace that no longer stands, she doesn’t bat an eyelid, and neither does the audience, so immersed are we in the world Apichatpong has created. His films look, sound and feel like nothing else; the stillness and inviting beauty of his frames exert a hypnotic pull. If Cemetery of Splendour is to be the last film the director makes in Thailand, he is saying goodbye with a masterpiece. [Philip Concannon]

Once upon a time, fairy tales were sinister allegories of dogma-like wisdom preaching lessons in morality. Sadly, today they’re best remembered in a more anaesthetised form as animated family films. With Tale of Tales, Italian director Matteo Garrone looks to re-appropriate the genre, creating a triptych of lurid fables of blood curdling violence that would never make it past the Disney censors.

Drawing its influence from the 17th century Neapolitan fairy tales of Giambattista Basile and boasting the type of baroque production design Italian cinema was once famous for, Tale of Tales sees the rulers of three neighbouring kingdoms tested by magic. Despite abandoning the heightened social-realism of Gomorrah and Reality for a world of ogres, soothsayers and gigantic fleas, Garrone’s gloriously mad excursion into this magical realm is rife with pertinent lessons about inequality, patriarchy and society’s growing obsession with youth and beauty. A phantasmagoria of magic and wonder, Tale of Tales cast a strange yet seductive spell that audiences will be powerless to resist. [Patrick Gamble]

Where You’re Meant To Be

Suburra

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Director: Paul Fegan Starring: Aidan Moffat, Sheila Stewart Released: 17 Jun Certificate: 15

Director: Stefano Sollima Starring: Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano, Claudio Amendola Released: Out now Certificate: 18

Paul Fegen’s soulful documentary follows former Arab Strap frontman Aidan Moffat as he tours a set of contemporary ballads based on old folk songs around Scotland and on the road he faces off against famed traditional folk singer Sheila Stewart. Clocking in at a mere 76 minutes, Where You’re Meant To Be’s lively style and bawdy songs could easily have resulted in a far slighter work had it not been for Stewart’s presence as antagonist.

As it stands however, Stewart, whose death post-filming provides Fegen and Moffat with a poignant focal-point, looms large as she fiercely defends the lyrical integrity of the songs she has been singing since childhood. Should these songs be preserved intact, passed down from generation to generation? Or can we adapt them to resonate with new generations and might this actually be necessary to ensure their survival? Moffat is endearing and game throughout (he happily dresses up in chainmail and suggestively toys with a plush Nessie), providing the film with a lilting, selfreflective narration that nimbly explores these questions of custodianship.

[Tom Grieve]

FILM

Taking its name from the Suburra quarter in Ancient Rome – a place populated with taverns and brothels where criminals and politicians met to conduct business – this stylish crime thriller aims to show just how little has changed in the city in the intervening years.

It’s 2011 and Italy is on the brink of economic collapse. With an initially disparate and convoluted narrative, taking in a slimy politician, a gypsy loan shark, one amoral PR manager, an ambitious local gang boss and the Mafia, Suburra drops the viewer directly into a miasma of corruption with little preamble.

Perhaps too much material for one film to properly cover – it will likely thrive as the ten-part series soon to be adapted by Netflix – it nevertheless remains compelling throughout thanks to shimmering nocturnal cinematography, intense performances from a solid cast and an ominous soundtrack by French duo M83.

Directed with terse muscularity by Stefano Sollima (TV series Gomorrah), Suburra will command your attention all the way to its bloody and operatic finale. [Michael Jaconelli]

THE SKINNY

Journey to the Shore

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Starring: Eri Fukatsu, Tadanobu Asano Released: Out now Certificate: 12

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The Firm

The Last Command

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Director: Alan Clarke Starring: Gary Oldman, Lesley Manville, Phil Davis, Andrew Wilde, Charles Lawson, Released: Out now Certificate: 18

Japanese master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (The Cure, Pulse), known particularly for his chilling horrors and meditations on the metaphysical, has talked of his struggles of working in post creditcrunch Japan’s increasingly Americanised film industry, in which money for films relegated to ‘genre’ has all but dried up, and only those with demonstrable fan bases win that all-important green light, leading to endless franchises and live-action anime adaptations. Similarly, international festival culture cultivates a certain kind of indie cinema from Japan, in which classicist aesthetics and modestly bankable art house dramas rooted in traditional Japanese cultural concerns are preferable to the ‘lowbrow’ pursuits of horror, science fiction and crime thrillers.

These twin economic factors largely explain Kurosawa’s abandonment of his more experimental cinema for the risk-averse fare of drama and romance in Tokyo Sonata (2008) and Journey to the Shore respectively. Both picked up awards in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section – proof of the efficacy of his current strategy.

Journey to the Shore centres on the middle-aged Mizuki (Fukatsu). The unexplained disappearance of her husband, Yusuke (Asano), has kept her in a death-like stasis for three years while exhausting every possible avenue to find him, however heartbreaking (correspondence with a mistress) or irrational (copying out a Shinto prayer 200 times). Going through the motions like a ghost, Mizuki one day discovers Yusuke in her apartment, not alive but well. With gentle geniality, he euphemistically explains his suicide in the Toyama Bay and asks Mizuki to journey with him back there.

Some viewers may be frustrated by this meandering plot device (the journey, as much literal wandering as it is figurative self-reflection) and its whimsical tone, yet Kurosawa manages to render his canonical obsessions of haunting, mourning and existentialism with deft, sublime cinematography that ameliorates the film’s paucity of logic.

Since his untimely death in 1990 at the age of 54, Alan Clarke has been something of a perennially underrated figure in the landscape of British cinema history, perhaps partially because the majority of his work was made for television. Thanks to the efforts of a massive restoration project, the BFI has made the complete collection of Clarke’s BBC output available via Blu-ray box-set, with 1989’s The Firm, perhaps the most famous of this lot outside of Scum, also getting a separate release of its own.

At the centre of Clarke’s portrait of hooliganism and men failing to outgrow violent fantasies is one of Gary Oldman’s finest performances as the ferocious Bex, who projects outward respectability (nice house, estate agent job, seemingly stable family) under which lurks a barely suppressed creature of fragile masculinity and senseless rage; fighting not for an actual cause of note, just for the ‘buzz’. Clarke is very keen to emphasise that the sport of football actually has nothing to do with the tribal sparring, as memorably and chillingly hammered home by one Steve ‘Phil Mitchell’ McFadden in an almost fourth-wall breaking finale: ‘If they stop it at football, we’ll go to boxing, we’ll go to snooker, we’ll go to darts...’

DVD Extras: The accompanying booklet containing a statement from Kurosawa on the film and a sharp essay by critic Anton Bitel.

[Rachel Bowles]

Released by the BFI on a special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD

DVD Extras: As this individual release of The Firm is essentially a replication of one disc from the BFI’s big box set, the package also features a few special features unrelated to the film’s making. Chief among these is Clarke’s haunting Elephant from the same year. An undeniable influence on Gus Van Sant’s Columbine massacre drama of the same name, it depicts a series of abrupt murders in Northern Ireland with no clue as to exactly who is responsible, and is virtually wordless for its entire 39-minute runtime; a succession of brutal killings depicted with Kubrickian Steadicam. Danny Boyle and Mark Kermode provide a commentary for Elephant, while among a pair of commentaries for The Firm is one with Gary Oldman for Clarke’s previously unreleased director’s cut. [Josh Slater-Williams]

Director: Josef von Sternberg Starring: Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent, William Powell Released: Out now Certificate: Once an internationally famous star, Emil Jannings’ filmography is tainted by his subsequent complicity in the Nazi propaganda machine. Audiences always delighted in his ability to convey defeat and abject humiliation, but his roles seem like premonitions in hindsight.

The Last Command casts him as Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, cousin of a dethroned Tsar and former commander of his armies, now living out his exile as an extra in Hollywood. Feebly embodying a discredited, outdated ideology, the character is quintessential Jannings. We watch him arrive trembling on a film set where he endures abuse at the hands of crew and fellow extras, before a lengthy flashback finds him clinging to his old way of life in revolutionary Russia.

Director Josef von Sternberg shies away from making any kind of political statement here, instead presenting us with a melodramatic character study. While the Duke is capable of brutality, his unbridled patriotism is enough to impress even the most committed Bolshevik. “From now on you are my prisoner of war,” he tells one such opponent, “and my prisoner of love.” She melts into in his arms.

When defeat comes later in the film, it is as a force beyond anyone’s control. Though the action moves in a predictable direction, Jannings’ anguished breakdown makes for a compelling pay off.

DVD Extras: Having already been presented by Criterion alongside two other silent classics from Sternberg, this Masters of Cinema issue encourages viewers to consider The Last Command an important work in its own right. The print is consistently clear, if worn in places, while all bonus content is informative and engaging. At the very least, questions relating to the plausibility of an elderly man afflicted with PTSD finding his way to Hollywood are soon put paid by the suggestion that these experiences really happened to an acquaintance of cinema great Ernst Lubitsch. [Lewis Porteous]

For more DVD reviews, go to theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews

Welcome to the ‘Jungle’ The migrant crisis might seem too serious a topic for a comedy section, but Fred Fletch explains how comedians and initiatives such as #HelpRefugees can help make sure we don’t look away from human suffering

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ack in the 1980s, I’d watch The A-Team liberate sweatshops, save refugees and occasionally drive a converted van through an illegal melon factory. Subsequently, I have high expectations of how we should deal with a humanitarian crisis.

Earlier this year, clashes broke out in the French port of Calais, demolition teams dismantled huts in part of the migrant camp known as the ‘Jungle’, and riot police fired tear gas at refugees.

I kidded myself some form of heroic intervention would arrive.

But TV lied.

Instead, governments have continued to debate exactly how to ignore the situation. Casualties are rising and many children have gone missing from the camps under sinister circumstances. If all this wasn’t depressing enough, our own Parliament voted against granting child refugees sanctuary in our country. While no-one said these decisions are easy and free of consequence (and the government have made a partial u-turn) we may as well turn to Dracula when it comes to taking a lesson in ‘doing the right thing’. And, on a global level in politics, we might be sleepwalking towards a frightening, dark future, where a racist human-yam is elected to build a wall around tequila, jalapeños and Salma Hayek.

But what can we do?

It’s understandable we sometimes feel powerless: work is tough and hard to come by, economic cuts are harsh and living costs get higher. The poli-

tical complexities underpinning such a crisis are so hard to fathom that indifference is a seductive response. On the other hand, the situation is oversimplified: think of the The Daily Mail and their picture of rats running across borders and the language tabloids use such as a ‘plague’ or a ‘swarm’.

Then again, our problems amount to little compared to those who are suffering in the camps.

People have been forced to escape their countries of origin for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a choice between a theocratic or totalitarian dictatorship. Many of their homes have been turned into craters, in a country where beheadings still take place. The worst thing that happened to me this weekend was when the power went down on my Kindle and I had to read an actual book.

That contrast might seem crass, but it’s a contrast of the world we live in.

It’s said journalism is a serious business, but as a writer for the Comedy section, I never have to think too much about how I’d approach an indepth article on Medecin Sans Frontieres’ response to the largest displacement crisis since the Second World War. Nope, I’m just inundated with offers of nice, comfy features on the bloke who played Bungle in Rainbow.

And perhaps that’s how it should be. Until MSF’s Doctors put on a medical student revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe I doubt they’ll be asking anything of this particular misanthrope.

But it does mean a blind spot can form if we only

write about artists putting on a show. Sometimes comedians are involved in something as important and interesting as an initiative set up to offer practical help to those affected by global conflicts.

“ Going out there you’re suddenly able to help towards providing practical solutions – however small” Help Refugees is just such an initiative and grew out of the #helpcalais campaign on social media. Started by various writers and presenters such as Lliana Bird, Dawn O’Porter, Josie Naughton and Heydon Prowse, it has a straightforward aim: raise funds and collect goods to take to the migrant camps. Camille Ucan and James McNicholas, of the respective comedy sketch groups Birthday Girls and Beasts, travelled with donations to the camps in both Calais and Dunkirk this February.

Catching-up with Ucan, she found a huge dis-

Words: Fred Fletch

tance between the real horror of the world and the glossy media lens we see it through; a distance far greater than the journey across the Channel.

“The reality of the situation hits home straight away,” she says. “You’re no longer able to distance yourself from it via a screen.

“There is a real benefit to that,” adds Ucan.

“At home, you feel powerless to help. When you see something on the television or in newspapers, you’re generally presented with the problems. The refreshing thing about going out there was that you’re suddenly able to help towards providing practical solutions – however small."

Comedians have often rallied around good causes, to perform and be a light in the shadow of tragedy. However, Ucan and McNicholas weren’t there to perform, they went simply to take a load of helpful stuff to people who needed it. One thing all comedians have is courage and they aren’t afraid to look squarely at any situation. By knowing what is funny, they also know what is serious. They show us we don’t have to be indifferent or feel helpless.

The child inside all of us, who grew up dreaming of being the hero, is going to have to wait a long time for inspiration via the government or our TV screen. We’d do better to take our lead from others, perhaps those in the most difficult circumstances: “It’s a depressing situation,” says Ucan, “but the resilience of the people living there – and the enthusiasm of those volunteering – is amazing." helprefugees.org.uk/

June 2016

DVD / COMEDY

Review

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Vaulted Ambition The certainly ambitious Kirk Bage discusses the possibility of performing in all 38 Shakespeare plays, and why he and audiences alike keep returning to Glasgow’s Bard in the Botanics year in and year out Interview: Emma Ainley-Walker

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very year as the sun starts peeking out its face, then retreating back behind a cloud, maybe throwing down some torrential rain before hopefully coming back again, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens bloom, not just with flora, but with theatre too.

Now in its 15th year, Bard in the Botanics has been pulling in audiences time and again despite the fickle Scottish summers; The Skinny remembers last year’s promenade performance on Love’s Labours Lost still causing hilarity and heartbreak through a torrential downpour, and a few years previous the brief cancellation of The Tempest due to ‘inclement weather.’

It’s not just the audiences who return to the festival, but much of the cast. Having first appeared in the festival in 2002 as Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi, actor Kirk Bage is now performing in his tenth festival. Though they may not be consecutive years, Bage can’t stop extolling the virtues of the festival, his co-workers and the botanical environment as he chats to The Skinny over the phone, a week before the 2016 rehearsals begin.

“It’s a wonderful place to work, you’re working in an environment that’s so beautiful in the Botanic Gardens every day. It’s like no other theatre experience because you’re rehearsing in public so the people that are going to end up being your audience can see the whole process if they want to, walking past, walking their dog or having

a picnic. They can see the whole play develop from start to finish.”

It’s certainly a different way to work, and a different way to consume and enjoy theatre when a quiet evening stroll can give you an insight into the play and maybe pique interest enough to purchase a ticket. While a loose dog running through the workplace might be a dream for many, it sure could get in the way of a rehearsal, though this doesn’t seem to be a worry for Bage, who loves the variety working outside brings, though he does not personally mention the possibility for stray dogs.

“People really appreciate when the language is spoken well outside and wearing these beautiful costumes as well,” he says of the seemingly universal success of high-quality, outdoor Shakespeare festivals. There is something about the flowing language that lifts a warm summer evening to a new level of perfection. “It’s a really nice experience, and it changes with the weather as well. If it’s a really sunny evening you’re probably going to get a happier audience and if it’s a bit overcast and darker you can get a really intense experience. So actually you can come to the gardens and see the same play three times and it will be different every time. Shakespeare’s writing allows for that, you can perform it a hundred times and it will always be different.”

Bage knows what he’s talking about when

2015 Bard in the Botanics

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Review

Kirk Bage as Falstaff in Henry IV (Bard in the Botanics 2014)

it comes to the Bard, having performed now in 20 productions, and about half of Shakespeare’s oeuvre. “I never set out to be a Shakespearian actor, it just turns out that that’s what’s happened,” he laughs, obviously pleased with how it has ‘just happened.’ When asked if he ever thinks he’ll make it to the full 38, he’s hopeful. “I guess if Bard in the Botanics keep producing them there’s every chance. That would really be something, I’d like to aim for doing that.”

With so many roles under his belt, is it possible that there’s a clear favourite? “I think some of the more challenging roles don’t end up being your favourite because you feel like with a two week run you haven’t got to the bottom of them and you’d have liked more time to try and develop it a little more,” he says. But there are still two standout roles for him. Quite fittingly for his career, one is tragic and one is comic. “I loved playing Marc Antony in Julius Caesar, and I loved playing Jacques de Boys in As You Like It. Those are my favourites.”

This year, he takes on more contrasting roles as the titular character in Macbeth and Sir Toby Belch in what is otherwise an almost exclusively a gender-bent Twelfth Night.

“I played Sir Toby before in 2010 and this time it’s a different director and it’s a different idea of the production. We’re aiming for it to be like a Dennis Potter musical, and we’ll be miming to 1950s music,” Bage informs us of the show’s direction. Difference and new ideas seem to be a theme of the festival as Macbeth, too, will undergo some alteration. “There’s only five of us in the play, it’s a very, very different draft – it’s not the traditional script from start to finish. It’s been edited and different scenes and speeches have been taken and mixed up a little bit so we’ll be trying to do something that people haven’t seen before,” says Bage. “[for Macbeth] I’m working with Nicole Cooper who I’ve worked with for several years and she’s playing Lady Macbeth. It’s the first chance that we’ve had to play leads together. We usually play leads but in different plays or crossover and don’t meet so that’s exciting.”

However, he has his slight reservations about some of the differences. Namely, and perhaps confusingly, his own role as leading man.

“I’m not Scottish, I’m English and playing such a traditionally Scottish character in Scotland is a

THEATRE

really big challenge. It might be something that puts people off or that they would question, ‘Why are we having an English actor playing a Scottish role in Glasgow?’ I would just encourage people to come along and keep an open mind about it,” he says, although it seems that anyone who has seen Bage’s performances in previous festivals is going to have little doubt about his ability to pull this role off.

“ I never set out to be a Shakespearian actor, it just turns out that that’s what’s happened” Kirk Bage

Each of Bage’s productions will be taking place on the main stage, open to the elements. The season also boasts a female-fronted Coriolanus and a three-handed Doctor Faustus, which will be seen in the Kibble Place glass house.

This is part of a new strand of alternate Renaissance theatre the festival is embarking on this year, with the devilish Mephistopheles played

by Stephanie McGregor.

“Shakespeare didn’t write that many female roles as he was restricted by the fact they were played by young boys, but there’s no excuse nowadays not to explore what female actors can bring to these iconic roles and start to shift the blueprint of what these characters can be,” says artistic director Gordon Barr. It is certainly true that theatre needs more strong female roles, and exciting to see where Bard in the Botanics takes its Vaulted Ambition season. May there be another 15 years of festivals ahead and a chance for Bage to lay claim to all 38 of the Bard’s productions.

Bard in the Botanics, 22 Jun-30 Jul, Botanic Gardens Glasgow, shows and times Vary. bardinthebotanics.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Bard is a Four-Letter Word

This month we speak to Jenny Lindsay about the end of Skinny favourite Rally & Broad, and the projects to rise from its ashes, before looking at the work of comedy-poet-libertine Mark Waddell

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his month marks the end of an era – after four years of events, workshops, masterclasses and spotlighting new stars alongside the established on the poetry and performance circuit, Rally and Broad are taking a final bow on 19 June.

Jenny Lindsay, one of its curators alongside Rachel McCrum, explains that the decision to move on was not a hasty one. “Rachel and I have known for some time that we’d be wrapping things up this June,” she says, “so it’s almost a relief that we’ve finally announced it. We couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved with R&B but all good things must come to an end!”

As the two have many other exciting solo projects lined up, Lindsay says they felt it was the right time to finish: “Rachel is going to be working between Canada and Scotland for the next while, on really exciting translation and bilingual projects, and she is also going to be taking up residency in France as part of the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in November. I’ve been working away for the last few months setting up my own spoken word production company, Flint & Pitch Productions.

“The thing I next want to focus on as a programmer is the crossover between spoken word and theatre,” she continues, “but I also want to retain the kind of late-night revue style shows that are so popular, and can be an ace way to mix spoken word and music in an accessible and

entertaining way. Flint & Pitch will be programming the spoken word and music acts for the new Lyceum Variety Nights, as well as running smallerscale revue shows on an ad-hoc basis. However, one of my major ambitions is to be able to programme longform spoken word shows, and this is where the Flint & Pitch Presents shows come in.”

Lindsay explains how part of the trigger for this new venture was a gap waiting to be filled on the Scottish spoken word scene: “From my own experiences, I’m aware of how difficult it is to tour a solo show as a spoken word artist. In Scotland, what with the loss of the Arches alongside the lack of a dedicated spoken word venue, we not only struggle to showcase our own work in our own country, but we rarely get to see the solo shows of the fabulous spoken word artists elsewhere in the UK, because we have no programmers, save the odd literary festival who are dedicated to programming them. I’d like to make a start in changing that! Watch this space…”

As well as programming, producing and promoting, Lindsay is also busy creating solo material.

She wrote her first show, Ire & Salt, in 2015 and hopes to complete her latest by the end of the year.

“It follows the trials and tribulations of a new teacher called Brodie, struggling with the contradictions in the Scottish education system. I was a teacher for three years and it was the best thing I have ever done, and also in many ways the

The Girls

Three Craws

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By Emma Cline

loneliest job in the world. You can’t talk about it, the public barely understand what is involved in it, and yet it’s one of the most important jobs in society. As I am no longer a teacher, I am freer to talk about the reality of the role in a way that I couldn’t really before.” As a fellow teacher, I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

“ We couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved with R&B but all good things must come to an end!”

Jenny Lindsay

This month’s focus collection has southern roots, for a change – On the Cusp of Greatness

by Mark Waddell (Valley Press), a self-professed ‘comedy-poet-libertine’ who has long been entertaining the inhabitants of Kentish Town with his own brand of street signs, the collection’s

Young Soul Rebels: A Personal History of Northern Soul

By James Yorkston

By Stuart Cosgrove

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Emma Cline’s much-anticipated debut shows its hand immediately: ‘They herd everyone into the living room. The moment the frightened people understand the sweet dailiness of their lives is already gone.’ But there is no mystery to track in The Girls and little to spoil. 14-year-old Evie Boyd’s clear-sighted narration, her chilling account of the California summer of 1969, eventually reveals the grotesque details of its pivotal act of violence. Cline’s real achievement is not so much the dread-filled journey to the book’s harrowing climax, however, but her vividly drawn central character and how she stumbles from invisible, impressionable bystander to unwitting accomplice.

Evie is an atypically ordinary American teenager, forgotten by her parents, misunderstood by her friends and eager to infiltrate the drifting band of the title. This tight group (‘sleek and thoughtless as sharks breaching the water’) are led by the fearless Suzanne and in thrall to their talismanic leader Russell. Their squalid existence at a remote woodland camp is Branch Davidian with a film of gothic grime. Cline is excellent at capturing the complex negotiations and compromises of girlhood and the unfathomable damage caused by weak men when they select their prey with ruthless precision. The Girls is a horror story for our times, a gripping and richly poetic account of young lives needlessly abused and snuffed out. Its ambition and its reach are immense. [Gary Kaill] Out 16 Jun, published by Vintage, RRP £ 12.99

They say write what you know, and James Yorkston clearly understands the terrain of his debut novel Three Craws, set in the East Neuk of Fife. Biographical detail bleeds into his narrative of a young artist returning to rural origins and reuniting with a friend left behind, whose life remains inherently connected to the land.

It’s a corner of the country which was home to the Fence Collective, to which Yorkston was of course attached. So you would expect his debut novel to adopt a certain musicality and the author plucks a fine melody here from phonetic Scots, unrecognisable from the lazy generic variety often found elsewhere. This work is filled with precise teuchter terminology: authentic and refreshing.

Yet with any debut you expect error, and of course it’s present. While Yorkston’s two central characters are believable in themselves, their loyalties occasionally are not. The reader is a casual observer rather than closely intimate to their relationship. The third ‘Craw’ – essentially the dramatic catalyst – is underused and undefined; noticeably further from Yorkston’s sphere of experience.

Yet the tragi-comic Three Craws rarely offers less than an enjoyable read, while providing comment on a modern generation’s relationship with their land and culture, and touching upon grander themes of friendship and belonging. Yorkston has a ready-made readership in his loyal musical fanbase, but his post-kailyard treatment of rural Scots’ lives deserves to be read beyond only them. [Alan Bett]

A familiar voice for many, Stuart Cosgrove looks into the enigmatic Northern Soul music scene in his latest book. From the musicians who echoed over the speakers, to the men and woman that danced all night in front of them, Young Soul Rebels charts in effortless detail the cosmic freedom that music provides.

Aptly opening with an inspiring quote from Maya Angelou, Young Soul Rebels is an exhilarating education into the music scene and culture that somehow transformed Britain. From the Wigan Pier of George Orwell’s infamous social commentary, to the ‘energetic scrum’ it became under the electricity of the Northern Soul scene, this book follows the rise of what would become the club scene in Britain, alongside youth growing into a commercial force to be reckoned with.

Standing on the sweaty shoulders of these wasted youth is present day art and culture in Britain. As unstable a foundation as that may seem, its unexpected stability has fostered a soulful lineage that has defied the law, defied the charts and somehow defied time. You may just find yourself unable to resist making a playlist to accompany this book. In fact not so much a book, but an LP with pages and pictures. Cosgrove gives Northern Soul the loud, upbeat voice it deserves.

[Rosie Barron] Out now, published by Birlinn, RRP £14.99

Words: Clare Mulley

title being one of them. I went to its launch in a North London pub, which was suitably mad, complete with velvet-clad tap dancers and masked, punkish singers as part of the warm-up acts.

Mark is a charming guy – friendly with an un-edgy sense of mischief – and his poems have a definite stand-up flavour, full of quirky punchlines and raspberries at the establishment, and with a nifty combination of the lofty, humdrum, scary and irreverent thrown in. My favourites are the premature ejaculation appointment (‘of course / he arrived / early’), the blizzard, 2 columbian girls and a cake in my bed and the sound of a falling possum.

Other topics include finding the end of the sellotape to put the world together, slipping and freezing to death in a supermarket, a fistful of assholes, crying in space, a ferris wheel in Chernobyl, Pringle-triggered sex and a writer who starts a trend of burning his own work and house in order to inspire a bestseller. It’s all very entertaining. At one point, he uses the title I’ve gone completely blank and proceeds to leave the page exactly so. Not a completely new trick in the arts world, perhaps, but one which still affords a good giggle.

Rally & Broad’s final shows are on 17 Jun in Edinburgh (The Bongo Club) and 19 Jun in Glasgow (Stereo) Mark Waddell’s On the Cusp of Greatness is out now, published by Valley Press, RRP £7.99

#UntitledTwo

Editors: Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson

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Neu! Reekie! – well, they’ve done it again. The sumptuous gold cover of #UntitledTwo is a gorgeous, shimmering temptation. Pause to admire the cover illustrations, read from the very beginning – or dip into it, flick through idly or assuredly until your eye is caught. There’s no wrong way to experience this book (or matching musical download of bands such as Hector Bizerk and White).

Described in Kevin Williamson’s Mission Statement as ‘a selection of poetry that reflects our own curiosity about the world and everything in it’, #UntitledTwo takes you through politics, sex, death and washing machines. It’s like an evening in the pub with articulate friends.

Makar Jackie Kay has four poems in the collection, all attesting to her brilliance – the loving celebration of April Sunshine, the witty poniard of Extinction. A new favourite Helen Mort cuts to the core with Advice: ‘You can lead beautiful to water/ but you can’t let it drink’. Alight for a moment on Kathleen Jamie’s perfect, poignant Ben Lomond; sigh or smile in recognition at Polly Clark’s Hedgehog, ‘a living flinch’. Remember to exhale after Michael Pederson’s Deep, deep down.

At times touching, rallying, insightful, playful, funny and shrewd, #UntitledTwo is a triumph, where Michael Pederson and Kevin Williamson prove once again their ability as curators and creators. If you did want to judge a book by its cover, judge this one. This anthology is gold.

[Ceris Aston] Out now, published by Neu! Reekie! and Polygon, RRP £12.99

Out now, published by Freight, RRP £9.99

June 2016

BOOKS

Review

55

Glasgow Music Tue 31 May BLAENAVON

KING TUT’S, 20:00, £6

Fledgling Hampshire trio built on soaring choruses and the manic energy of yoof.

LYNCHED

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £14

Shockingly not FWD playing heavy metal, as much as the moniker would have you believe. In fact, Lynched are a traditional folk group from Dublin, with ditties made of uilleann pipes, concertina, Russian accordion, fiddle and guitar.

SUNDARA KARMA

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £9

Sundara means ‘beautiful’ in Sanskrit, and this quartet live up to their blissful name with some epic and anthemic indie rock, gaining comparisons from Arcade Fire to Bruce Springsteen.

Wed 01 Jun STEVE VAI

O2 ABC, 19:00, £30

Triple Grammy award-winning guitar virtuoso brings the fruits of three decades in the industry to Glasgow’s O2 ABC. SEAFRET

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £9

Hailing from the small town of Bridlington, Jack Sedman and Harry Draper, AKA Seafret, have just released their debut album entitled Tell Me It’s Real. Acoustic soul-food that’s easy on the ears.

MOON HOOCH

O2 ABC, 19:00, £8

Peddlers of ‘cave music’, a jagged, raw take on house music featuring sax and drums, apparently.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND

HAMPDEN PARK, 16:00, £61.50 - £137.50

The Boss treats Scotland to his staggering back-catalogue of Americana.

FLEWTHEARROW (ESPERI + LUTHERTHEBHEAR + LOUIS JENKINS) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £5 - £8

Contemporary folkster Lee McGilvray, aka Flewthearrow launches his debut EP If You’d Only Care To Listen.

JOANNA GRUESOME

STEREO, 19:30, £8

The Fortuna POP! signed indie-pop troupe play a set at Stereo.

QUEER THEORY : BLACK DOVES (KATY DYE + ANNA SECRET POET + SCOTT AGNEW) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00, £5

Queer Theory cabaret enlisting musicians, comedians, performance artists and poets to geek up on queerness and flip a couple of birds at The Man. BOB LOG III

BROADCAST, 19:00, £11

The one-man blues punk dynamo and slide guitar legend that is Bob Log III takes to the stage, most likely avec crash helmet.

Thu 02 Jun SINGLE BY SUNDAY

KING TUT’S, 20:00, £8

Pop from a ‘wegian four piece with support acts from Inverness and Larkhall.

THE STAIRS

O2 ABC, 19:00, £15

90s Liverpool rock band channelling everything from cosmic psych, r’n’b and 60s West Coast garage.

BC CAMPLIGHT (BABE)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £6

GILLIAN FRAME THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £7.50 - £9.50

Founder of Back of the Moon Gillian Frame launches her first solo album in fifteen years, entitled Pendulum. She’ll be joined by multi-instrumentalist Mike Vass, guitarist Tia Files and bassist Euan Barton.

MAN MADE ORIGIN (THE PARADIGM COMPLEX + STORM OF EMBERS)

13TH NOTE, 19:30, £5

13th Note hosts Dundee progressive rock-metallers Man Made Origin as they play their recent melancholic release on Contagion records, entitled The Divine Soulless.

ROCK IT! (SUBJECT UNKNOWN + EMPIRE DECLINED + THE BIKINI BOTTOMS + SISTERKIND)

VÉLONIÑOS

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £7.50

Glasgow based rock’n’rollers.

ASHLEY COLLINS (SEAN KEAVENEY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00, £5 - £7

Feel-good pop from Ashley Collins who you might recognise, oddly, from BBC Scottish soap opera River City.

Fri 03 Jun MICK HARGAN

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £8

Glasgow singer-songwriter for whom no two shows are ever the same, depending on whether he plays a solo show with his loop pedal, a full band, or even as a string quartet.

LAURA STEVENSON

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 18:30, £8

American singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson continues her international tour with The Cans.

ZYNA HEL (HAUSFRAU + ZORYA)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £6

Zyna Hel, aka Elisabeth Oswell enchants a Glasgow crowd with her subversive and seductive songs.

KIDUM

CLASSIC GRAND, 21:00, £10 - £15

Award winning songwriter, Burundian and East Africa singer, composer and drummer JeanPierre Nimbona (aka Kidum Kibido) plays a set at Classic Grand.

SUPA & DA KRYPTONITES (THE CUT THROAT RAZORS)

STEREO, 19:30, £5 - £8

Supa & Da Kryptonites swing

by Stereo for hip-hop, funk, grime, soul and whatever’s found between.

ORA CLEMENTI (GÜNTER ‘BABY’ SOMMER + RAYMOND MACDONALD)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £6 - £8

Experimental, unorthodox sounds employing recordings, voice electronics, percussive tools and organ/piano. Pretty much an ASMR fan’s dream come true.

STARSHIP NICOLA (THE OLIFANT COLLECTIVE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00, £5

Sort yourself out with some transatlantic folky goodness courtesy of AJ Meadows and Harry and the Hendersons.

COLONEL MUSTARD AND THE DIJON 5

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £10

A ginormous blend of genres, indie to flamenco, gypsy to hip-hop, new school to North Lanarkshire ska.

And probably the best fun you’ll have this month.

THE SUGARHILL GANG (GRANDMASTER’S FURIOUS FIVE) HARD ROCK CAFE GLASGOW, 19:00, £20

Legendary hip-hop pioneers and superstars The Sugarhill Gang swing by Hard Rock Cafe, with support from Grandmaster’s Furious Five.

BROADCAST, 19:00, £7

CHARLOTTE MARSHAL & THE 45S

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £12

An eight-piece groove band which draw influences from New Orleans funk, Mississippi blues, 60s jazz and soul.

YOLANDA BROWN (LEMAR)

THEATRE ROYAL, 19:00, TBC

Reggae Love Songs draws from YolanDa’s Jamaican roots and will be an infectious journey of reggae rhythms from the caribbean, peppered with supreme Jazz-flavoured inflections and sensibilities.

Sun 05 Jun

TAV FALCO & THE PANTHER BURNS

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:00, £12.50

Performing since 1979, Tav Falco & The Panther Burns are ramshackle, raw and unholy, mixing equal parts of primal, early rock’n’roll, deviant hill country blues and avant-garde art.

SLOPES (EASY)

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6.50

Rap rock straight outta Kilmarnock.

Mon 06 Jun NELLY LIVE IN CONCERT

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 18:00, £24.50

It’ll probably get hot in there. And you’ll probably feel the impulse to take off all your clothes. Don’t.

RACHAEL DADD (ICHI)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £10

Experimental multi-instrumentalist Rachael Dadd plays a set at H&P with support from Japanese one man pop band ICHI.

Tue 07 Jun BIG DEAL

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £8

VISION OF DISORDER (ONE BLOOD + CONDUCT)

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 18:30, £15

Hardcore metal five-piece from Long Island, NY.

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE

BARROWLANDS, 19:00, £16

Psychedelia and rock from BJM, a San Fran band formed in the 90s.

FLESH

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6

Local Manc band tapping into their city’s musical legacy with… some more Britpop.

ADAM HOLMES & THE EMBERS

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 20:00, £13

With his own take on folk melded seamlessly to Americana, Adam Holmes visits CCA with his band The Embers.

TIGRESS

Chris Martin and co. stop by Glasgow on the European leg of their A Head Full Of Dreams Tour.

JAMES LEG

BROADCAST, 19:00, £8

TELEVISION

O2 ABC, 19:00, £25

Influential rock band from the US-of-A – part of the 70s New York rock scene along with Blondie, The Ramones and Talking Heads – taking to the stage to perform their debut LP, Marquee Moon, live and in its entirety.

ACXDC (BOAK + DROVES + DEATHWANK + LEECHER + OLD GUARD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £8

L.A based hardcore band who claim to be ‘killing it and smashing cunts’ faces, yas. Don’t just take their word for it, though.

OLIVE GROVE RECORDS SHOWCASE ORAN MOR, 19:00, £7

The Moth & The Mirror, The Royal Male, Ette and Call to Mind showcase their recent work on Olive Grove at Oran Mor.

Sun 12 Jun WILLIWAW

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , 18:00–20:00, FREE

Expect ukulele mayhem as Williwaw brings his merry cavalcade of melodious din to a live setting once more.

THE CALIFORNIA FEETWARMERS

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 20:00, £15

Masters of ragtime and early swing, The California Feetwarmers played to 1000 revellers when they sold out Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket during Celtic Connections 2015.

MCKELLAR

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £5

INTER- 6: EXPERIMENTAL SOUND WORK FOR LOUDSPEAKERS

STEREO, 18:00, £5

INTER- is a new event series bringing ‘sonic and spatial interventions’ to local venues which accepts proposals across aesthetic, conceptual and technical boundaries.

AIDAN CONNELL & GREGG SUTTON

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £10

Unlikely pair Aidan Connell and Gregg Sutton met while sitting in on a session at Hollywood’s Piano Bar. Now on tour, they combine their respective blues and songwriting smarts to an Oran Mor audience.

Fri 10 Jun

Actor and singer, who you might recognise from The Vampire Diaries series. If you’re into that kinda thing.

KEVIN P. GILDAY & THE SEA KINGS

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £5

A spoken word and psychedeliarock collaboration presenting a treatise on Glasgow.

YUNG (SAVAGE MANSION + AMERICAN CLAY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £7 - £9

Rock outfit from Aarhus, with support from Savage Mansion and American Clay.

SAMARIS

BROADCAST, 19:00, £9

The electronic Icelandic trio take their new LP on a wee jaunt.

CATCHER

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6.50

Alt rock with big, melodic choruses, scuttery rhythms and robust vocals.

A SUNDAY SOCIAL (THE JOHNNY 7 + SNOWGOOSE + TEENCANTEEN)

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £10

Glasgow contemporary countryfolk duo made up of Paul Bain and Claire McArthur.

The everlovin’ Belle and Sebastian help Glasgow’s West End Festival to celebrate their 21st year in an events series which includes Oran Mor’s Sunday Social.

THE HUG AND PINT, 20:00, £5

Mon 13 Jun

RAINTOWN

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £13.50

ULTRAS (HQFU)

Ultras is a word European young’uns use to describe pride and solidarity in their place of origin.

It’s also the name of a promising indie/kraut-rock band from Glasgae.

AAM EVENTS SHOWCASE

CLASSIC GRAND, 18:00, £8

The Virginia dream-pop project of musician Jack Tatum tours in support of 2016 album Life of Pause.

NORMA JEAN

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £12 - £15

Atlanta’s post-hardcore giants make their usual racket; expect nowt less than sonic bedlam.

TOM WALKER

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £7

Raised in Manchester on his father’s extensive record collection, multi-instrumentalist Tom Walker has developed a unique style that blends J Dilla -nspired hip-hop beats with electronic sounds, layered atop of his soulful and gritty vocals.

MICHAEL MALARKEY

STEREO, 19:30, £12.50

A set at H&P from Glasgow’s own David McKellar, who’s supported the likes of Shed 7 at the O2 and Barrowlands.

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:00, £10

Cali-based underground rockers Tomorrows Tulips play their first headline show in Scotland.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 19:00, £10

The Bristolian four piece bring their eponymous EP our way.

WILD NOTHING (FEAR OF MEN )

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £8

The Brighton-based troubadour (and, interestingly, the man behind #IamSpartacus) plays a gig at H&P.

COASTS

Wed 15 Jun

TOMORROWS TULIPS (THE BELLYBUTTONS + MORDWAFFE)

CHRIS T-T (BILLY LIAR + LOVERS TURN TO MONSTERS)

Indie rock quartet who released their debut EP, Human in 2015.

O2 ABC, 18:30, £8

TREMONTI

O2 ABC, 19:00, £17.50

Guitarist and singer Mark Tremonti brings his band to Glasgow following the release of his new solo record, Dust.

THE VIRGINMARYS

STEREO, 19:00, £10

MONO, 19:30, £7

The stars of TV show Nashville perform a mix of hits from the series and original material.

CAMPFIRES IN WINTER (JUTLAND SONGS)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £7

The alternative Croy indie-rockers play amidst the usual melodic wall of post-rock and experimental noise.

LUCK FACTORY (MACKLIN + SWEARWOLVES + GLYN JONES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £5

Pop duo who’ve just released a frothy new record entitled Rule The World.

JAZZ CHOIR SCOTLAND: JAZZ UP THE WEST END – LET'S DO IT AGAIN!

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £10

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £10

Sat 11 Jun KING TUT’S, 20:30, £12

After forming in the 90s then taking an eleven year hiatus in 2014, Astrid return as one to King Tut’s with their best material yet.

DAVE ACARI (LEE PATTERSON)

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £8

Expect gravel laden vocals accompanied by bottleneck National steel guitar, banjo and stomp box.

Apparently, Dave’s a bit of a hell-raiser.

MAN MUST DIE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £7

Death metal band. If you’re into Cryptopsy, Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse, this’ll be right up yer street.

TREACHEROUS ORCHESTRA

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:30, TBC

Hot melodies, chunky grooves, a mighty wall of acoustic-driven sound that’ll leave your chest bone throbbing. This band have the sonic ammunition to finish off any festival. You have been warned – miss them at your peril.

OLGA BELL

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £6.50

Raised in Alaska, born in Moscow, based in Brooklyn, Olga Bell is a New England Conservatory graduate who went on to pursue a career in electronic composition.

Tue 14 Jun LADYHAWKE

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £14

The introverted New Zealander delights with her 80s-inflected pop grooves and propelling bass beats.

BARRY MANILOW

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30, £22.40 - £97.35

A final tour from Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning artist Barry Manilow, with special guest saxophonist Dave Koz. ROYAL HEADACHE (THE #1S)

BROADCAST, 19:00, £12.50

Optimistic post-punk band whose soulful and passionate latest record, released in 2015, is called High.

WEST END FESTIVAL ALL DAYER (PRIDES + ERRORS + WITHERED HAND + DE ROSA + CRASH CLUB + CATHOLIC ACTION + THREE BLIND WOLVES + MARTHA FFION + PRONTO MAMA + BE CHARLOTTE + MARK MCGOWAN + TOY TIN SOLDIER + LITTLE FIRE) ORAN MOR, 15:00, £15 - £20

Returning for a fifth year, West End Festival brings 14 Scottish acts to three stages in Oran Mor. And would you just look at that line-up? Delightful.

Mon 20 Jun THE OFFSPRING

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00, £32.50

THE DESLONDES (TWAIN)

New Orleans group mining from the rich history of American music.

Tue 21 Jun

PARAGON JAMATHON FOR WORLD MUSIC DAY

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 18:30, £1

Paragon invite the people of Glasgow and beyond to join in an all-day jam at CCA on World Music Day. EARTHEATER (MACGILLIVRAY )

THE GLAD CAFE, 20:00, £7 - £9

Alexandra Drewchin’s solo project which she describes as ‘medieval, cyborg and folk’.

THE MELVINS

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00, £20

After forming in Scotland in 2013 to provide a space for jazz harmony singing, Jazz Choir return with a bunch of West End faves.

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6

GEORGE BENSON

SAFIA

Ozzie trio bringing poptronica to the Wah Wah Hut.

Fri 17 Jun IRN BARZ

SWG3 GLASGOW, 19:30, £10

A bunch of rappers go head to head for your viewing pleasure. Expect mean bars and deep disses.

BRAIDS

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £11

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £5

FEDERAL CHARM

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £7

Nottingham-based psychedelic four-piece.

The Art School welcomes rock veterans The Melvins for a night of heavy, hardcore, experimental punky stuff.

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £8

Singer-songwriter and producer, whose previous credits include being backing vocalist for Damon Albarn and Mary J Blige, among others.

THE CULT OF DOM KELLER (HELICON + BLUEBIRDS)

BROADCAST, 19:00, £12

NASHVILLE IN CONCERT

CLASSIC GRAND, 18:30, £14

Indie rocker quartet hailing from Lawrence, Cansas.

STEREO, 19:00, £15

The alt country icon brings sneak peaks from his next album to Stereo, Glasgow.

CLYDE AUDITORIUM, 18:00, £31.20 - £51.10

Montreal-based art rockers touring their third album, last year’s Deep in the Iris.

ALA.NI

HOWIE GELB

Nobody’s too cool for McFly. Not even you.

MCFLY

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00, £32.50

Macclesfield-born rock trio with their sights set on America, drawing on influences including Nirvana, Mudhoney and Screaming Trees.

THE APPLESEED CAST

Sun 19 Jun

The veteran pop-punkers continue to try and turn back the clock to fondly remember days of wearing dubious Hawaiian shirts, three quarter lengths and soundtracking Sega Dreamcast games.

Thu 16 Jun

Music events company AAM, known for their promotion of artists under the age of 21, host a showcase in Classic Grand.

ASTRID

COLDPLAY

Wed 08 Jun

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £7

Thu 09 Jun

HAMPDEN PARK, 16:00, £49.50 - £71.50

O2 ABC, 19:00, £12

THE BAY RAYS

A night of pop, synth-pop, house and r'n'b, rounded off with a tasty DJ set from Happy Meals.

Manchester quartet spanning all your favourite classic rock ‘n’ roll influences.

Sat 04 Jun FATHERSON

STEREO, 20:30, £8.50 - £10

Big Deal portray the gamut of romantic and sexual longings with the honesty, poise, melodic nous and a musical maturity that doesn’t forsake youthful vitality.

The frontman of Black Diamond Heavies brings his guttural vocals and bittersweet growly blues to Broadcast.

STEREO, 19:00, FREE

Listings

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00, £20

The Polish rapper treats Classic Grand to some mean bars.

A richness of voice; a depth of emotion; wisdom beyond her years; with brand new record entitled Listen To Formation, Look For the Signs.

A night of free live music at Glasgow’s Box.

Three piece from Kent who specialise in catchy beats and sky-high vocals.

56

DONGURALESKO (DJ KOSTEK)

NADIA REID (ANTHONNIE TONNON)

The Kilmarnock trio do their alternative rock-meets-powerpop thing.

A Q&A at Stereo on the topic of getting ahead in the music industry, followed by live performances from Miami Monroe and Battle Angel.

Former frontwoman of Sheffield faves The Long Blondes plays set at The Hug and Pint with a brand new album, British Road Movies and her brand new band, The Wrong Moves.

BOX, 20:00, FREE

The Bella Union-signed songwriter completes his ascension from being down and out in Philadelphia to riding critical acclaim, for the skewed pop of 2015’s album, How to Die In The North.

MUSIC INDUSTRY QUESTION SESSION

KATE JACKSON & THE WRONG MOVES (KASPAR HAUSER) THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £8

MOLLY NILSSON + GENEVA JACUZZI + LIBERATION + APOSTILLE + HAPPY MEALS (DJ SET)

THE BURNT BRIDGES (MONOFLY + OCEAN ZEN)

Wed 22 Jun

SYNTONIC (MAIRI CAMPBELL + SHIORI USUI + LEAH GOUGH-COOPER + SYNTONIC) THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £8 - £10

Groove-purveyor duo Syntonic host and headline a night of music dedicated to showcasing the triumphs of women in music.

JUNZO SUZUKI (THE COSMIC DEAD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £5 - £7

Expect noisy drones and experimental psychedelia from Japanese guitarist Suzuki Junzo.

CAR SEAT HEADREST

BROADCAST, 19:00, TBC

American indie rock band from Virginia, now based in Seattle with latest album, Teens of Denial.

Fri 24 Jun THE BLIZZARDS

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £7.50

Irish band The Blizzards are back in action. See them live this June.

CW STONEKING

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:00, £15

Australian-born blues singersongwriter, guitarist and banjo player CW Stoneking plays CCA as part of a UK tour.

AUDACITY

THE HUG AND PINT, 19:30, £7.50

Cali garage rockers Audacity play H&P after releasing their new Ty Segall-produced album, Hyper Vessels.

THE WEST END FESTIVAL FIESTA (BILLY OCEAN + REBECCA VASMANT + FAT-SUIT + CHRIS ASTROJAZZ) KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, 17:00–23:00, £29.50 - £35

A delicious programme of music at the Kelvingrove Bantstand.

Sat 25 Jun DON HENLEY

THE SSE HYDRO, 20:00, £55 - £85

The multi award-winning artist, vocalist and songwriter performs songs spanning his entire career.

MAMMAL HANDS (VELS TRIO)

THE HUG AND PINT, 20:00, £9

A Glasgow Jazz Festival gig from two talented jazz trios.

CAROL KIDD

SAINT LUKE’S, 20:00, £20

The jazz songstress presents a brand new show celebrating the works of American Songbook royalty, George and Ira Gershwin.

TRASH BOAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 18:30, £7

R’n’b and jazz-straddling musician whose career spans some five decades.

Five-piece from St Albans who’re touring following in support of their concisely named new record Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through.

THE HUG AND PINT, 20:00, £8.50

STEREO, 19:00, £10

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30, £45 - £65

PETE JOSEF

Pete Josef gets in on the Jazz Festival action, treating the Hug & Pint to his unique combination of jazz, soul, pop and electro ahead of the release of his debut album, Colour.

QUANTIC

O2 ABC, 19:00, £17.50

PAWS

Glasgow noisemakers of the poppunk thrash variety.

KING HARVEST & THE WEIGHT

THE GLAD CAFE, 20:00, £7

Halifax-born rock musician Ben Adey takes to the Stereo Stage with his new album, Maps.

TINKY DISCO (VICTOR POPE BAND + PABLO ESKIMO)

Glasgow-based rockers who formed in 2015 and will be launching their self-released debut LP on 17 June.

Will Holland, aka Quantic takes to the O2’s stage with a backcatalogue of downtempo jazz, Columbian-based cumbia and Latin soul.

Mike Daniel and Victor Pope host a midsummer shindig for Tinks and Tinkettes of the world.

BROADCAST, 19:00, £5

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £8

BROADCAST, 19:00, £5

SUSPIRE

Scottish rock from a four-piece Glasgow-based outfit.

SUNSHINE SOCIAL ALBUM LAUNCH

ORAN MOR, 19:00, £7

An album launch at Oran Mor from multi-instrumentalist collective Sunshine Social, headed by the Billy Kelly Award-winning Calum McDonald.

LIFE IMITATES ART

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6.50

Also known by their initialism LIA, Life Imitates Art are known for their fusing of d’n’b, synthpop and electronica.

Sat 18 Jun MCFLY

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, 19:00, £32.50

Nobody’s too cool for McFly. Not even you.

CEÒL ‘S DRÀMA

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 19:45, £10 - £12

Gaelic super-group Dàimh are long-established favourites at folk festivals in Scotland, Ireland and across Europe.

BIG BOY BLOATERS (THE LIMITS)

THE LEOPARDS

A Glasgow Jazz Festival gig at Stereo with punk / surf trio The Leapards.

TY SEGALL & THE MUGGERS

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00, £15

Ty Segull is a California-based garage rock revivalist whose most recent album, Mugger, heralds a stylistic move back toward noisier garage rock roots.

Thu 23 Jun

MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £14

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Colin MacIntyre re-embraces both the urban and his former alias, Mull Historical Society, as he releases seventh album, Dear Satellite.

BEN MACDONALD’S ANIMUS QUARTET

THE HUG AND PINT, 20:00, £7.50

Another Jazz Festival gig at H&P, this time from Ben MacDonald’s Animus Quartet

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, FREE

DOMICILES

All consuming psychedelia with both a futuristic and retro edge.

SINDERINS

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £8

Surreal folk and crafted pop from a band who take their name from a well-known junction in Dundee.

THE WEST END FESTIVAL FIESTA (DE LA SOUL + DJ FORMAT + STANLEY ODD + PRO VINYLIST KARMIN + KEV STEVENS)

KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, 15:00–23:00, £29.50 - £35

A delicious programme of music at the Kelvingrove Bantstand.

Sun 26 Jun

HELENA KAY (DAVID INGAMELLS + CALUM GOURLAY)

THE HUG AND PINT, 20:00, £8

Jazz saxophonist Helena Kay plays a Jazz Fest gig with support from David Ingamells and Calum Gourlay.

THE MILK

SAINT LUKE’S, 20:00, £15

Essex rock’n’rollers led by Rick Nunn, throwing some soul, pop, dance and R’n’B into their mighty mix.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30, £5 - £7

Rocky r’n’b from a band celebrating the release of their delicatelytitled album ‘Luxury Hobo’.

THE SKINNY

VIC GODARD CLUB LEFT & JAZZATEERS CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, 20:00, £15

Glasgow Jazz Festival, in association with The Creeping Bent Organisation, present Club Left with Vic Godard & The Subway Sect, with special guests Jazzateers.

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ SUMMER JAMBOREE

CLASSIC GRAND, 16:00, £15 - £18

A summertime shindig at Classic Grand featuring Scotty Baker and The Delta Bombers.

DIRTYGIRL (MOLAR + PALE KIDS)

MONO, 19:30, £6 - £7

DIY, punk and rock from Londoners Dirtygirl with support.

DESTRUCTION UNIT

BROADCAST, 19:00, £10

Desert dwellers from Phoenix, Arizona, heading our way as part of their European tour.

GEORGIA SMITH

TRON THEATRE, 14:00, £8

Accompanied by The Euan Stevenson Trio, Georgia shares her effortlessly indulgent vocals with The Tron’s Sunday Jazz audience.

THE WEST END FESTIVAL FIESTA (SISTER SLEDGE + DISCO’S REVENGE + THE MARCO CAFOLLA BAND + MELTING POT DJS + AL-KENT) KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, 15:00–23:00, £29.50 - £35

A delicious programme of music at the Kelvingrove Bantstand.

Mon 27 Jun M83

O2 ABC, 19:00, £18.50

French musician Anthony Gonzalez tours on the back of last year’s dreamy double disco opus, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

KAMASI WASHINGTON

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, 19:00, £15.50

Inimitable jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader.

RIHANNA

HAMPDEN PARK, 16:00, £61.75 - £83.50

Badgal RiRi gets to work for the benefit of bonny Scotland.

Tue 28 Jun LOST IN STEREO

KING TUT’S, 20:30, £6.50

Pop punk from four men residing in Glasgow who take influence from Neck Deep, All Time Low and State Champs.

LUKE WINSLOW-KING

BROADCAST, 14:00, £7

An eclectic mix-up of rock’n’roll, ragtime, classical composition and pre-war blues from a lyricist, composer and guitarist known for his slide-guitar work.

Edinburgh Music Tue 31 May SEAFRET

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00, £9

Hailing from the small town of Bridlington, Jack Sedman and Harry Draper, AKA Seafret, have just released their debut album entitled Tell Me It’s Real. Acoustic soul-food that’s easy on the ears.

Wed 01 Jun

COLD IN BERLIN (RUSTY G’S + DELUDED BUDAHS)

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £8 - £10

3 top bands, covering a doomgaze, dream punk dance element

Thu 02 Jun SCOTT MATTHEWS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £17

Scott Matthews has garnered serious critical acclaim in his ten year career and has taken this time to nurture his craft as a singersongwriter.

NOAHNOAH (TEEK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £4

A new band from Edinburgh responsible for a fine blend of indie, electro, pop and rock with close harmonies and tight, driving synth.

BANSHEE

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £5

Scottish alternative electronic rockers formerly Life On Standby

HIDDEN DOOR: ROSIE LOWE (NIMMO + HQFU + WOLF) KINGS STABLES ROAD, 19:30, £13 - £15

Rosie Lowe and Nimmo take to the late night Hidden Door stages.

Fri 03 Jun THE BAY RAYS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00, £7

Three piece from Kent who specialise in catchy beats and sky-high vocals.

GIRLS ROCK SCHOOL

WEE RED BAR, 19:00, £3 - £5

A kickass evening of riot grrrl music brought to you by the infamous Girls Rock School Edinburgh.

MICRO PARTY IN YOUR SPACE PANTS (RADIO PACHUCO + SEA BASS KID + KONKOMA MEDIUM LOVE GARDEN ORCHESTRA + THE MICRO BAND + EARFATHER) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19:00, £5

A fifth ‘micro party’ at Henry’s, celebrating local bands in a showcase night dedicated to raising money for charity.

PETER & THE TEST TUBE BABIES (P.M.T. + THE EDDIES + SUNDAY PUNK CLUB) BANNERMANS, 19:30, £10 - £12

Punk Rock and comedy legends in their only Scottish Show of 2016.

KING EIDER

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £20

Pioneering rap band whose track Rapper's Delight was the first ever rap song to hit the top 40 charts.

LAURA STEVENSON (RUTH GILLIES)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £8.50

American singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson continues her international tour with The Cans.

LOST IN VANCOUVER (SHAMBOLICS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £6

Lost In Vancouver launch their EP with the help of Jamie and Shoony.

MOSSFEST: FURY (DOG TIRED + NEST OF VIPERS + A RITUAL SPIRIT + GOOD HUMAN + MISS LUCIE- FURR)

BANNERMANS, 18:45, £5

A night of classic rock to celebrate the birthday of Mossy.

LAURA MARLING

THE PLEASANCE, 19:30, £20

The Hampshire-born nu-folkster moves from slow-burning tales of forbidden love to building barnstormers, as is her merry way.

HIDDEN DOOR: ROZI PLAIN (THIS IS THE KIT + LUKE ABBOT + SUPERMOON + RAZA)

KINGS STABLES ROAD, 19:30, £13 - £15

Day nine of the Hidden Door festivities.

Sun 05 Jun

BUSWELL & NYBURG’S 10 DAY ORCHESTRA CHALLENGE (NICOLETTE MACLEOD) ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £5 - £7.50

Shaun Buswell & Erik Nyberg have formed orchestras from strangers on the London Underground, Edinburgh Fringe and Glasto and in 2015 they performed with 101 different musicians in 10 days.

Next up? Ten pop-up orchestras in ten cities in ten days.

NADIA REID

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £7

A richness of voice; a depth of emotion; wisdom beyond her years; with brand new record entitled Listen To Formation, Look For the Signs.

LORNA BROOKS AND JENNIFER JOHN

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, 10

Established singer-songwriters in their own right, Edinburgh-based Lorna Brooks and Liverpool-based Jennifer John come together for a unique intimate evening of clever musicianship.

ELLOQUENT (GUS HARROWER + THE SERUMS + O.J TURBITT + THE BLACK SHADOW)

THE MASH HOUSE, 18:45, £5 - £6

Singer-songwriter Gus Harrowerr joins 19 year-old Edinburgh-based rapper Elloquent for a show at Mash House with support.

LAURA MARLING

THE PLEASANCE, 19:30, £20

Talented five-piece who create a modern acoustic sound using traditional musicianship.

The Hampshire-born nu-folkster moves from slow-burning tales of forbidden love to building barnstormers, as is her merry way.

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00, £4

Mon 06 Jun

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, 6

THENUMBER9S

TheNumber9s launch The Black Canvas, their first release in over three years at the Mash House.

JUAN ATKINS (MAIN INGREDIENT)

THE MASH HOUSE, 20:00, £10 - £15

A man widely credited as the creator of techno awings by the Mash House for the night, with Main Ingredient, Jelly Roll Soul, The Bidler Room, Five Thirty and Foundation.

KAREN MATHESON

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00, £18 - £25

The woman known as the voice of iconic Gaelic folk group Capercaillie plays a solo show at Queen’s Hall in support of her recent album Urran.

HIDDEN DOOR: JANE WEAVER (SONS + DELIGHTED PEOPLE + DELTA MAINLINE + CALLUM EASTER + NEON WALTZ + LAW HOLT) KINGS STABLES ROAD, 19:00, £13 - £15

A Limbo x Hidden Door night at King Stables Road.

PRIMITIVE MAN (SEA BASTARD)

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £8

Big night of doom at Bannermans.

GET ORGANISED

USHER HALL, 13:10, £4

100 points to organist John Kitchen for top notch punning, and 100 more for bringing the art of organ playing to lunchtimes of Edinburghian citizens.

SOUNDHOUSE: OLD BLIND DOGS

TRAVERSE THEATRE, 20:00, £11

Wed 08 Jun

THE PARADISE BANGKOK MOLAM (INTERNATIONAL BAND + RHYTHM MACHINE DJS) SUMMERHALL, 20:00, £12

Born out of the legendary Paradise Bangkok sessions run by DJs Maft Sai and Chris Menist in Thailand, this band play vintage molam music from Isan with a 21st century twist.

BIG DEAL

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £8

Big Deal portray the gamut of romantic and sexual longings with the honesty, poise, melodic nous and a musical maturity that doesn’t forsake youthful vitality.

WHISKEYDICK

BANNERMANS, 19:30, FREE

The southern rock acoustic duo are back with some serious yeeeehaw.

AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH RICKIE LEE JONES

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00, £25

The double Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter brings her thirteenth studio album The Other Side Of Desire to The Queen’s Hall.

Thu 09 Jun

HACKNEY COLLIERY BAND

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30, 15

L.A based hardcore band who claim to be ‘killing it and smashing cunts’ faces, yas.’ Don’t just take their word for it, though.

Fri 10 Jun

BEACH SLANG (WEAVES + MUNCIE GIRLS)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £10

American punk rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who formed in 2013.

COPPER LUNGS (EXIT THE THEATRE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £5 - £7

Dundonian purveyors of indie rock make their La Belle debut with support from Edinburgh’s own Exit The Theatre DAVE ARCARI

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £8

Expect gravel laden vocals accompanied by bottleneck National steel guitar, banjo and stomp box.

Apparently, Dave’s a bit of a hell-raiser.

SOAPGIRLS

BANNERMANS, 19:30, FREE

Pop, grunge and sleaze from two talented women.

RSNO CLASSIC FM HALL OF FAME

USHER HALL, 19:30, £12 - £38

A concert starring BBC Young Musician of the Year Jennifer Pike and the Classic FM Orchestra. Prepare for some absolute bangers.

SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA: THE MUSIC OF STEPS AHEAD (MIKE MAINIERI)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30, £5 - £22.50

A live show with SNJO and the award-winning vibraphonist, producer, arranger and composer best known for his work with jazz fusion group Steps Ahead.

MAIN STREET BLUES (LIGHTS OUT

BY NINE)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00, £12

A night of blues, funk and soul.

Four-piece indie rock band from Glenrothes, Fife.

SERGEANT

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

THE RHEMEDIES (FRANTIC CHANT + LINDSAY CRAIG)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

Four-piece Edinburghian indie rock band who sound like a monster mash-up of Black Rebel and Arctic Monkeys.

UNKEEPABLE (SHOOT THE POET + GEORGIA GORDON)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00, £28.50

Single launch night from everunderground band Unkeepable.

Support from George Gordon and the Hartlepool lads Shoot the Poet.

DR JOHN COOPER CLARKE

Charity fundraising event in aid of Noah's arc Children's Home.

UPSTAIRS (HAGANA + BLACK DOVES + STEPHEN MCLAREN + SIMON PRATCHETT) LEITH DEPOT, 19:00–23:30, £5

A new bi-monthly gig night in Leith featuring music from Edinburgh and beyond

Sun 12 Jun PIL

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £26.50

Innovative and influential band fronted by UK punk icon John Lydon. Sold out (sorry).

WOMPS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

Nihilism and jaded optimism converge as Ewan Grant and Owen Wicksted compose angst-driven, melodic and hook heavy pop songs with garage sensibilities.

NIGHT MUSIC: PALMBOMEN II, EARFATHER, (LOCKAH)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 21:00, £8

Sneaky’s Night Music welcomes one of their favorite acts of the past year, electronica act Palmbomen II. Transcendental house and hefty groove. Midnight curfew and free entry to Coalition for afters.

EDINBURGH ACADEMY CHOIR AND CHORAL SOCIETY

USHER HALL, 19:30, £13 - £15

TRAVERSE THEATRE, 19:30, £8.50 - £16.50

ACXDC (BOAK + ENDLESS SWARM)

Tue 07 Jun The triple Tony, triple Drama Desk and Golden Globe Award-winning champ of Broadway brings a solo concert our way.

CINDERELLA CHARITY CLUB NIGHT

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 20:00–01:00, 10

BANNERMANS, 19:30, FREE

Sat 11 Jun

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 19:30, £25 - £60

Alternative rockers play an early warm up for Wildfire festival.

A concert featuring Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Chaminade’s Concertino for Flute and Sullivan’s Festival Te Deum.

Continuing its weekly gig residency at Trav, Soundhouse welcomes roots revivalists Old Blind Dogs.

BERNADETTE PETERS

PARQUET COURTS (HOUSEWIVES) LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £12.50 - £15

Formed in 2008 out of a desire to play music that appealed to the feet as much as to the ears, the Hackney Colliery Band is east London’s unique take on the brass band.

Sat 04 Jun

Following his recent release Anthologies, part-poet, partmusician, part-comedian and all-genius Dr John Cooper Clarke treats us to his talents.

June 2016

SUGARHILL GANG & THE FURIOUS FIVE

BLACK NEVADA BANNERMANS, 20:00, £7

LA BELLE ANGELE, 18:30–22:00, £6 - £8

Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

HEBRIDES ENSEMBLE: THE IRIS MURDER

One of Scotland’s renowned chamber ensembles celebrate their 25th birthday with a concert at the Trav.

Mon 13 Jun

LOVE MUSIC COMMUNITY CHOIR IN CONCERT 2016

USHER HALL, 19:00, £3 - £5

Usher Hall is graced with the presence of the UK’s largest community choir crooning some beauties by Ben Folds and Lou Reed, along with some gospel, Gaelic and traditional gems.

Tue 14 Jun

TREMBLING BELLS (BIG HOGG + THE EASTERN SWELL)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £8

Ever-adored five piece lineup, fronted by the entrancing Lavinia Blackwall.

COFFEA STRANGE (ROSS ARTHUR + THE GOLD ROLLERS)

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £5

British Stoner rock band head this eclectic bill.

BEN FOLDS AND YMUSIC

USHER HALL, 19:00, £27.50 - £38.50

Multi platinum-selling singersongwriter supports the release of his album, So There, with a special live show alongside NYC six-piece yMusic.

MR MCFALL’S CHAMBER: MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30, £5 - £14

A live show at Queen’s Hall marking the 20th anniversary of Mr McFall’s Chamber.

Wed 15 Jun SERENDIPITY

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £5 - £7

A cocktail of live music and art blended together for a new monthly Wednesday at LBA. THE EMPTY PAGE

BANNERMANS, 20:00, £6

Debut Scottish date for this alt-fuzz trio.

Thu 16 Jun TOM WALKER

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £7

Raised in Manchester on his father’s extensive record collection, multi-instrumentalist Tom Walker has developed a unique style that blends J Dilla inspired hip-hop beats with electronic sounds, layered atop of his soulful and gritty vocals.

Parquet Courts prove a keen eye for the creation of clever, stimulating but morish rock. Human Performance, released via Rough Trade boasts the playful poesy of Ought and escapist seashore riffs of Mac Demarco. See it live this June.

Fri 17 Jun FROST*

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30, 15

BAFTA nominated and Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter Jem Godfrey formed Frost* in 2005 after five years spent writing number 1 records for the likes of Holly Valance and Atomic Kitten.

PATRIOT REBEL (RABBIT PUNCH)

BANNERMANS, 20:00, £5

The scuzz favourites return to promote their latest release.

MT DOUBT (A SUDDEN BURST OF COLOUR )

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00, £7

An evening of live music as Edinburgh-based musician Mt Doubt (aka Leo Bargery) launches his new album.

RALLY & BROAD: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING

THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00, £5

A final show from Rally & Broad after four tremendous years stirring hearts and tickling funnybones with their variety nights.

Sat 18 Jun

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (MORELAND AND ARBUCKLE + BLACK CAT BONE) THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, £15

Regular blues club taking in touring blues acts from the UK and beyond.

AVEC SANS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £8

London-based duo, on the up after their electro cover of Bon Iver’s track Perth hit the number one slot on Hypemachine, touring in support of their debut abum, Heartbreak Hi. MOONLIGHT ZOO (BENEDICTUS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00, £5

Ferocious Dunfermline four-piece who combine three part harmonies and primal funk rock into a fusion of feral grooves and untamed rhythms.

THE PORK DUKES

CITRUS CLUB, 19:00, £7 - £10

See the one and only Scottish live date from The Pork Dukes as they embark on a farewell mini tour of the UK.

PUNK ROCK RUINED MY LIFE ALL DAYER (IN EVIL HOUR + DOGFLESH + MANY MANY MORE)

BANNERMANS, 19:30, FREE

All-day celebration of Gibby’s ten years spent gigging.

THE SCOTTISH FIDDLE ORCHESTRA SUMMER CONCERT

Mon 20 Jun GET ORGANISED

USHER HALL, 13:10, £4

Glasgow boys Twin Pines take their indie pop sound, peppered with psychedelia to Dundee’s Buskers.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30, £3 - £10

Heavy DIY hailing from Canada.

Tue 21 Jun

An alternative rock band who cite Thin Lizzy, Tom Petty and The Band as primary influences, as well as contemporaries like Rilo Kiley and Wilco.

ST MARY’S MUSIC SCHOOL: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Guest conductor David Watkin leads St Mary’s Music School orchestra in a concert of choral, orchestral traditional and jazz music with a Shakespearian theme.

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (THE BILLY WALTON BAND + CHARLOTTE MARSHALL + THE 45S )

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, £13

Regular blues club taking in touring blues acts from the UK and beyond.

HANNAH ALDRIDGE AND LILLY HIATT (HANNAH ALDRIDGE + LILLY HIATT) THE VOODOO ROOMS, 20:00–01:00, £10

A double bill featuring two fiery and talented chips off the old blocks.

Alt rockers on a steady rise to the top hit Bannermans for the first time.

Wed 22 Jun

NEST OF VIPERS + VICE + APRIORI

BANNERMANS, 20:00, £5

A Wildfire warm up for three of the festival’s top rock and metal bands.

THE AWFEY HUGE VARIETY SHOW

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 19:00, £12

The first of its kind, The Awfey Huge Variety Show slams into Festival Theatre with dance, film, comedy, animation, live music and the odd celeb cameo, too.

Thu 23 Jun

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £7 - £8

Awesome psych from Mike Vest.

Fri 24 Jun

BOMBSKARE (JOHNNY CAGE AND THE VOODOOGROOVE + SUPA & DA KRYPTONITES)

STUDIO 24, 20:00–03:00, £10 - £12

Edinburgh’s original nine-piece ska juggernaut – known for reaching zero to 60 in the space of three chords, or something impressive like that.

PAWS

STEREO, 19:00, £10

Glasgow noisemakers of the poppunk thrash variety.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

DIALECTS (WE CAME FROM THE NORTH + OSA +GLACIER)

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £7

JACK HINKS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–01:00, £5

GUTTERSNIPE

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:30, £5

Blitzkrieg noise rock and electronics from West Yorkshire, ft. guitar squeal blended and grinding mini-drum chaos.

Sat 25 Jun

KEEP IT STEEL: SUMMERSLAM! (CERTAIN DEATH)

SUNDAY CLASSICS: THE PLANETS AN HD ODYSSEY

Alt band Certain Death slam you into summertime with the help of a free BBQ and entry to Keep It Steel for every audience member.

TOMMY SMITH YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 14:30, £12

An evening of jazzy triumphs, ranging from classics to big band numbers, courtesy of the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Dundee Music Wed 01 Jun

CAIRD HALL ORGAN CONCERT 2016: HANNAH GIBSON

CAIRD HALL, 19:00, £2 - £5

Graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music plays her first solo concert at Caird Hall.

Thu 02 Jun LISBON

BUSKERS, 20:00, £5 - £6

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00, £5

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–01:00, £10

A multimedia event in which Gustav Holst’s The Planets is performed by an orchestra while a film created in collaboration with NASA and director Duncap Copp is screened above the stage.

The Soundhouse takes up its Monday residency at the Trav, this time showcasing Macmaster/Hay (aka Mary Macmaster and Donald Hay), an eclectic duo combining electro harp, percussion and organic sampling.

HAI KAI NUKU (GIRL SWEAT + SKELETON GONG + BRITNEY)

A young Edinburgh based singersongwriter.

USHER HALL, 15:00, £12 - £32

SOUNDHOUSE: MACMASTER/HAY

TRAVERSE THEATRE, 20:00, £11

Sat 04 Jun

CANONGATE KIRK, 19:30, £7 - £9

Big Boy Bloater is a British r’n’b and blues guitarist front man who has toured the world.

Mon 27 Jun

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–01:00, £12

Batshit, bubblegum and bonkers garage and psychedelia.

A post-rock and math-rock four band belter at Bannermans.

BIG BOY BLOATER AND THE LIMITS

KING HARVEST AND THE WEIGHT

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, 7

The alt-pop almost-Geordie fourpiece take a trip up to Dundee.

The Meadows Chamber Orchestra close their season with a Hungarian / Czech programme, featuring Bartck’s Divertimento for String Orchestra and Dvorak’s Czech Suite.

Sun 19 Jun

BANNERMANS, 19:30, £10

KID CONGO AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS

MEADOWS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Calton Consort mark Jason Orringe’s last concert as Music Director of Calton Consort, with Vaughan Williams' Five English Folk Songs and Michael Berkeley’s sumptuous Farewell.

DOPETHRONE (GURT + SKELETON GONG + LUCIFERS CORPUS)

THE ELEGANT CHAOS

Indie rock trio from Edinburgh playing pretty melodies entwined with bright chords and an experimental rhythm section.

DESIRE OF ANCIENT THINGS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00, £8

BANNERMANS, 20:00, £5

THE VIOLET KIND

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:45, £1 - £11

TWIN PINES (THE REBEL WESTERNS)

100 points to organist John Kitchen for top notch punning, and 100 more for bringing the art of organ playing to lunchtimes of Edinburghian citizens.

USHER HALL, 19:30, £12 - £22

The SFO return to Usher Hall to delight Edinburgh audiences with their fiddle-based musical wizardry.

Sun 26 Jun

STUDIO 24, 18:30–23:00, £5

BUDAPEST CAFE ORCHESTRA

SAHARA

Cerebral, mathematic indie rock from London and Brighton.

Sun 12 Jun

SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA: THE MUSIC OF STEPS AHEAD

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30, £0 - £19.25

A live show with SNJO and the award-winning vibraphonist, producer, arranger and composer best known for his work with jazz fusion group Steps Ahead.

Thu 16 Jun SANDI THOM

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30, £15

The Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist plays an intimate set.

Fri 17 Jun

ROCK CHALLENGE FINAL

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:00, £13

Schools from around Scotland compete with eight-minute highscale productions following their success in regional heats.

Sat 18 Jun SSAFA CONCERT

CAIRD HALL, 19:00, £5

The Sailors, Soldiers, Airman & Families Association perform their annual showcase of talent at Caird Hall.

ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30, £22

The vocalist of Amen Corner and Eric Clapton and George Harrison collaborator takes his current band on tour.

Fri 24 Jun TWIN PINES

BUSKERS, 20:00, £6 - £7

Glasgow boys Twin Pines take their indie pop sound, peppered with psychedelia to Dundee’s Buskers.

SUMMERHALL, 20:00, £15

Led by jazz violin superstar Christian Garrick, the Budapest Cafe Orchestra play gypsy and folk-flavoured music from all around the world. Get your tickets sharpish, it’ll probably sell out.

THE BLIZZARDS (FERRIC)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £8

Irish band The Blizzards are back in action. See them live this June at the Leccy-C.

Listings

57

Glasgow Clubs Tue 31 May

Sat 04 Jun

BUFF CLUB, 23:00, £3 - £5

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

KILLER KITSCH

Eclectic midweeker playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

I AM (JG WILKES)

NU SKOOL

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

Hip-hop and rap brought to you by Notorious B.A.G and pals.

SUB CLUB, 23:00, £5

GREEN VELVET (THEO KOTTIS)

Wed 01 Jun

House and techno legend Green Velvet (aka Cajmere) takes to SWG3, with support from Theo Kottis.

Forward thinking electronic music for the masses.

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic midweeker playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

Thu 02 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mashup.

TAKE IT SLEAZY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

Non-stop disco pop hits.

PVC: FALSE WITNESS

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00, FREE

Thursday nighter at The Art School playing R’n’B, pop, hip-hop and more, plus live dance and performance.

Fri 03 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off the week’s stressors in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

MISSING PERSONS CLUB (ERIC CLOUTIER)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5 - £8

Detroit-born, time-honoured DJ Eric Cloutier brings his deep, hypnotic and diverse sound to the basement.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

A NIGHT WITH...DANIEL M

SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00, £12 - £16

BOOM MERCHANT

STEREO, 23:00, TBC

The fresh house/electro chappie mans the decks at Stereo.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

LOVE MUSIC: MAGIC NOSTALGIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

SONGS YA BASS XI

BUFF CLUB, 19:00–23:00, FREE

A ‘pre-request’ early club night where you choose the tunes.

LET’S GO BACK... WAY BACK (AL KENT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5 - £7

The return of Scotland’s king of disco with rare cuts and Al’s own re-edits.

SIXTEENTH LEVEL (JAMIE PATON)

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00, £3 - £5

New electronic selections from Jamie Paton, a DJ, keyboardist and, according to Flying Duck themselves ‘a genuine marvel to look at’. Cute.

Sun 05 Jun I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

CHAOS CONTROL

STEREO, 18:00, £8

A DJ and producer duo bringing a techno-laden, deep house rave to Glasgow’s Stereo.

Mon 06 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 07 Jun #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £0 - £4

New rotation of DJs that represent the best of what Glasgow’s underground has to offer.

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

Wed 08 Jun

THE FLYING DUCK, 21:00, £3

GLITTERBANG!

Exactly what it says on its sparkly tin - a dazzling night of disco Europop.

ASTRAL BLACK 3RD BIRTHDAY

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00, £3 - £5

Critically acclaimed Glasgow club / grime / rap label Astral Black celebrate three years in the game with a night at their Glasgow spiritual home.

THE RUM SHACK’S PRINCE CELEBRATION

THE RUM SHACK, 23:00, £5

Exactly what it says on the tin.

58

Listings

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic midweeker playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

Thu 09 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

DARK PARTIALS PROJECT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

Mixed bag of house and techno obscurities.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mashup.

PVC: BOSSY LOVE (FEMME FRESH)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00, FREE

Thursday nighter at The Art School playing R’n’B, pop, hip-hop and more, plus live dance and performance.

Fri 10 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off the week’s stressors in true punk style.

COMMON PEOPLE

THE FLYING DUCK, 21:00, FREE

Coupl’a hours of bingo followed by a 90s disco. What’s not to like? Get your dabber ready.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR (ANA HELDER)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00, £4 - £6

Art School monthly featuring weird, enthralling disco music ‘from the dark side of the disco ball’. This month, NOTJ showcase the subversive, dark and uplifting music of Helder.

STEREOTONE (THE BURRELL CONNECTION + WHEELMAN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5

It?s a family thing this time round, with a bunch of Stereotone regulars making for a wee belter of a night.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £6

WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE (ARRAN POOLE + KG BLACK) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5

Shahaa Tops and Alan Panther are joined by Arran Poole and KG Black for an evening of scintillating summer selections.

LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

Red-hued adventure travelling through 70s funk, motown and 80s r’n’b, highlighted with glorious rays of disco sunshine. Or summat.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

LOVE MUSIC: ULTIMATE POWER

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

Sun 12 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

Mon 13 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 14 Jun #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 15 Jun KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic midweeker playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

A disco fundraiser at The Gladdy with DJ George.

THAT PARTY RIGHT NOW

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

The NOTJ crew drive the party bus to the dark side of Berlin via Ibiza.

Musically speaking.

HEALTHY (TAMA SUMO + LAKUTI)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00, £5 - £7

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

IN THE BASEMENT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

STEREOTONE (WHEELMAN ARCHIE LAMONT + YAN + ROSS CRAMMOND)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £3 - £5

It's a family thing this time round, with a bunch of Stereotone regulars making for a wee belter of a night.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mashup.

Fri 17 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Sat 11 Jun

CATHOUSE, 22:30, £5 - £6

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

NITRIC 14: CRACKDOWN AT SUNDOWN (BRUTALONE + HEX + P-MAC + D. FLEMING)

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00, £4

Dark twisted techstep and experimental hardcore beats from local bass-noise nutters.

OFFBEAT X KUNST

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5

Offbeat and Kunst return yet again for their kunst beat collaboration, throwing a full residents’ party in the height of the summer.

PROPAGANDA: CLUB FONTAINE

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

RAVE OF THRONES

SWG3 GLASGOW, 21:00, £10 - £16

A GoT themed party featuring themed visuals, light shows and more Dothraki Warriors, Whitewalkers and dragons than a castle siege.

GSA DEGREE SHOW STREET PARTY (2 ISLE + BAKE & RYAN MARTIN + PUSSY MOTHERS + ICHI PINKS + BRASS AYE + APEIRON CREW + MR TC + SAMRAI + DEEP BRANDY ALBUM CUTS + SYCOPHANTASY + L.A.P.S.) THE ART SCHOOL, 17:00–04:00, £8 - £10

Glasgow School of Art Street Party returns in 2016 with a full programme of live music, dance entertainments, installations and decorations delivered as only the hypercreative melting pot of the art school and its club venues community can deliver.

Sat 18 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

SINGLES NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

Tue 21 Jun #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 22 Jun KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic midweeker playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

DRUG STORE GLAMOUR

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

Trashy, tacky, glamorous and ridiculous. Oh, and fun, too. Very fun.

Thu 23 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mashup.

DOMESTIC EXILE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

Gone are the days of So Weit So Gut. Witness the birth of something new.

Fri 24 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off the week’s stressors in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

ISLE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

A bitta techno-house madness to get your weekend off to a belting start.

GIMME SHELTER

The Gimme Shelter crew move to a new mid-month slot, powering through all the rock’n’roll from Bo Diddley to Brian Jonestown.

PARTIAL (ALEX FROM QUEENS)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £4

Club resident and boss of the Capriccio night Alex from Queens expertly blends a mixed bag of cold-wave rarities, banging electro and Ron Hardy Chicago-style belters.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

LOVE MUSIC: NOWT BUT NORTH

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

Sun 19 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

Mon 20 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

An annual night that celebrates Jamaican music in all its forms.

DIVINE

THE ADMIRAL, 23:00, £5 - £7

A top quality vinyl mix of classic and rare 60s and 70s psych, soul, freakbeat, ska and funk dug deep from Andrew Divine’s vinyl archives.

WEST END COMMUNICATIONS (RYAN MARTIN + KRIS + FRANKIE KUNST + ADLER + EUBO PARTIAL)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £5

A fine band of the city’s selectors bring their best to the La Cheetah basement.

SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, £0 - £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

Sun 26 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

Mon 27 Jun BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

CATHOUSE, 22:30, £5 - £6

Tue 28 Jun

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off the week’s stressors in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

#TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30, £4 - £6

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £6

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

NU SKOOL

FRESH BEAT

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00, £5

The married DJ duo take control of the decks all night long on an E&S rotary mixer.

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

Thu 16 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

Thursday session of the finest in northern soul and rock’n’roll.

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30, £8

COSMIC STUDIO 24, 21:00–03:00, £4 - £7

Golden Teacher and Dick 50 DJs spinning outer-national sounds.

STEREO, 23:00, £8

SCOTTISH ACTION FOR REFUGEES: NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE

BUCKY SKANK THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00, £6 - £8

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Stereo and F:rmat brings producer and Noise Manifesto boss Paula Temple to Glasgow.

BARE MONDAYS THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00, £3 - £4

Andy Divine and Chris Geddes’ gem of a night dedicated to 7-inch singles from every genre imaginable.

NOT MOVING

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

PAULA TEMPLE

WTF FRIDAYS SHED, 22:30, £4 - £6

FRESH BEAT

Edinburgh Clubs

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

Wed 01 Jun

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00, £0 - £5

WITNESS (JON 1ST) (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS)

EZUP (SOUL TRAIN PARTY)

Ezup residents joined by a couple local selectors to celebrate summer in style with their soul train party.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Midweek student night with local DJs and the biggest beer garden on the Cowgate.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Studio 24’s very last Cosmic before the summer season begins. Residents DJs and special guests from Glasgow will be stirrin’ up a range of psychedelic sonic pleasures complete with visuals and decor.

HEADSET

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £2 - £6

Fledgling night mixed up by a selection of Edinburgh DJs, including the chaps behind the Witness, Coalition and Big ‘n’ Bashy nights.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

THE FUN HOUSE

SUMMERHALL, 23:00, £7 - £10

One dark circus you won’t want to miss, with performers, DJs and live singers, face painting, ball pits and dancing.

HIDDEN DOOR AFTERPARTY

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00, FREE

The Limbo lads take the reigns after they hosting the main stage at Hidden Door festival.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 23:30, £5

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

CLOUDS AND GENERAL LUDD (CLOUDS + GENERAL LUDD + LEZURE ) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £5

A night of techno organised by Party For The People, a ticket selling platform that donates its profits to charity. This event supports The Joshua Nolan Foundation and Streetwork.

Sat 04 Jun THE GO-GO

STUDIO 24, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Soul, mod, garage, beat, rock’n’roll, along with DJs Tall Paul and Big Gus. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

SOULSVILLE

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £5

Raw, high energy r’n’b from DJs Francis Dosoo and Cameron Mason.

SPEAKER BITE ME

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

A night of indie, pop and R’n’B from the Evol DJs. Everything from Madonna, Snoop Dogg and Rihanna through to Belle & Sebastian and The Smiths. If a tune’s sure to get you dancing, you bet your bottom dollar it’ll get a play.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN (GLOBAL ROOTS SOUNDSYSTEM)

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00, TBC

Samedia returns to the steamy, rum soaked hot-house of Paradise Palms for another wee session of Afrobeat, salsa, cumbia and dancehall.

QUEENS: PETE HERBERT

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £8 - £10

The eccentric new club night welcomes Pete Herbet to the booth.

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Leicester scratch DJ and producer Jon 1st was a UK DMC Finalist in 2011. Catch him at Sneaks armed with a bag full of tricks and a bunch of mad edits.

OSMOSIUM

Thu 02 Jun

MEADOWS FESTIVAL AFTER PARTY FOR THE REFUGEES

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Live music and DJs at Henry’s Cellar bar in aid of raising funds for a space in which refugees can learn to play musical instruments and hold jamming sessions.

PROPAGANDA: WE LOVE POP

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30, FREE

A night of high quality italo, pop and disco.

AGORIA (HAMMER + JUBÉ)

SUB CLUB, 23:00, £10 - £12

French DJ, Producer and InFine label founder Agoria brings a touch of je ne sais quoi to Sub Club this month with his hypnotic, deeply melodic tracks.

Sat 25 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

HI-SOCIETY

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

Fri 03 Jun PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

EVOL

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £0 - £5

Edinburgh's original rock‘n'roll party, mixing indie, pop, electro, hip-hop and alternative styles to make one hell of a party playlist.

BALKANARAMA (FAITH I BRANKO + ERRICHETTA UNDERGROUND)

THE CAVES, 22:00–03:00, £10

Balkanarama celebrates nine big ones with belly dancers, brandy, baklava, bespoke visuals and a boutique. Brill.

LIQUID NIGHTS

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £5

Brand new club night featuring up-and-coming DJ talent from the capital.

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23:00, £4 - £6

HIDDEN DOOR FESTIVAL AFTERPARTY

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Hidden Door Festival ends with an afterparty at La Belle with DJs and live tunes.

TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30, £0 - £5

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

HEAL YOURSELF & MOVE #3 (PANORAM + HOUSE OF TRAPS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £7

A little raw 80s funk held down by synthetic Badalamenti synths, Panoram’s music is unique and celestially ecstatic.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Clubs

POP ROCKS (TALCOLM POWER)

SURE SHOT

MAZE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £2 - £4

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 23:00, FREE

Crackin’ indie, pop and dance from the 80s and 90s. If you don’t hear Kelis or Wheatus at least once, sue us! (Don’t.)

DECADE

Sun 05 Jun THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED + SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

Mon 06 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

NU FIRE (DJ FUSION + DJ BEEF)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

Hip-hop and bass since 2008.

Tue 07 Jun I LOVE HIP HOP

MIDNIGHT VOL 2 THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00, £4

A night of heavy, dark noise and trap in which the first 60 punters get a free balaclava. Yep. PARTIPETS

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00, FREE

Three ladies go back to back all night. Expect party pumpers, electro dumpers, world music wobblers, 90s humpers, dancehall fillers and stone cold classics.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 23:30, £5

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. BIGFOOT’S TEA PARTY (CHRIS + WRICK + GEORGE + JAMES)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Big techno from up north. With a successful Sub Club residency already added to their Aberdeen activities, it makes sense to tackle the capital in the venue that always reps authentic music.

Sat 11 Jun REWIND

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £5

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

Classics from the past four decades – From Abba to Gaga – mixed by The Liquid Room’s best selectors.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

THE CAVES, 21:00–03:00, £21

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £3

TRASH

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 08 Jun COOKIE

TORTURE GARDEN

Infamous fetish club spread over three dungeon-themed playrooms in the cavernous surrounds of The Caves. Dress code: all the PVC you can slither into.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

BEEP BEEP, YEAH! (AT THE HOP + BE-BOP-A-TALLAH)

TRIBE

Expect only the best pop tunes from the 50s, 60s and 70s at this retro pop club night.

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Midweek student night with local DJs and the biggest beer garden on the Cowgate.

WITNESS (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS + SQUELCHY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

House, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

Thu 09 Jun HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £2 - £3

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

JUICE (KA MI + DAN JUICE + DECLAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan & Kami make weird waves through house and techno.

Fri 10 Jun PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

SUBSTANCE

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £5 - £7

An Edinburghian outpost of bass, house and techno based in beautiful Bongo.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

DANCE DIVISION: PROJECT DANCE

STUDIO 24, 19:00–03:00, £8

Dance Division crew showcase dance groups from 19:00 – 23:00, with proceeds going to Dance Division Sri Lanka Project. Followed by an 18+ after party.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS 7TH BIRTHDAY PARTY (BELLE & SEBASTIAN (DJ SET))

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5

Electric Circus celebrate their 7th year as one of the forefront musicfocussed venues in Edinburgh. Join them for a lively clubnight featuring live bands and a extra special DJ set from Belle & Sebastian’s Richard Colburn.

PULSE X KAPITAL

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £6

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £6 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem.

Thu 16 Jun HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £2 - £3

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

JUICE (YOUNG MARCO)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Young Marco has a reputation for ballsy, genre-defying eclecticism, playing sets that join the dots between tropical rhythms, Afro gems and quirky Middle Eastern disco, along with proto-house, throbbing techno and industrial-strength jack-tracks.

Fri 17 Jun ASYLUM

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00, FREE

Samedia returns to the steamy, rum soaked hot-house of Paradise Palms for another wee session of Afrobeat, salsa, cumbia and dancehall.

ELECTRIKAL

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £5 - £8

Sun 12 Jun THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED + SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

Mon 13 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, r’n’b and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE (DJ FUSION + DJ BEEF)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

Hip-hop and bass since 2008.

RUMBLE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £0 - £5

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

LA BELLE ANGELE, 20:30–03:00, £5 - £6

A first birthday bash for The Midnight Hour featuring the usual funk and soul with an infusion of high energy live performance.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Midweek student night with local DJs and the biggest beer garden on the Cowgate.

WITNESS (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS + SQUELCHY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Hailing from Lisbon’s burgeoning electronic scene, Violet (together with a plethora of female talent) recently covered Underground Resistance’s Transition and Mike Dunn’s So Let It Be Houze for International Woman’s Day.

Sun 19 Jun THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Mon 20 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED + SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

NU FIRE (DJ FUSION + DJ BEEF)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

Tue 21 Jun I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £3

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

Wed 22 Jun COOKIE

House and techno courtest of Loco & Jam. PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 23:30, £5

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. ORCHIDS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £5

Arty, intimate, dark, and sexy, Orchids promises to bring something new to Sneaky Pete’s whilst paying homage to the parties and lifestyles that inspired it.

THE EGG

A salad of genres: 60s garage and soul plus 70s punk and new wave, peppered with psych and indie for good measure.

MUMBO JUMBO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £3 - £7

Funk, soul, beats and mash-ups from the Mumbo Jumbo regulars and pals.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

THE GREEN DOOR

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 - £5

Surf, blues and rockabilly from the 50s and early 60s, plus free cake.

Job done.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 23:30, £5

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

ANYTHING GOES: PSYCHEDELIC (NAUGHTY NOMS + DISCOBAW + JONRAX + DJ SYNOPSIS) STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £5

Anything Goes enlist the likes of Naughty Noms and Discobaw to chuck on a night of psytrance and psychedelic music.

FWDK: INKKE (THE BLESSINGS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £5

A real southern rap night. One of GSA’s best clubnights holds an Edinburgh show. Look out for the super litmited edition tapes only available on the night.

Sat 25 Jun BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

MAGIC NOSTALGIC (JP & DANNY)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £7 - £9

At Magic Nostalgic every half an hour a crowd member is invited up on stage to spin a wheel. Wherever it lands determines what kind of music gets played for the next 30 mins, be it Britpop, power ballads or Prince vs MJ. Oh, the delicious spontaneity.

MADCHESTER

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Long running Edinburgh club night celebrating the baggiest beats from the late 80s and early 90s.

BIG ‘N’ BASHY

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £4 - £6

Mighty mix of reggae, grime, dubstep and jungle played by inimitable residents Brother Most Righteous, Skillis, Era and Deburgh.

BETAMAX

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £5

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

New wave, synth, electro and the best of the 80s in the Studio 24 overpass.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

TRIBE

Midweek student night with local DJs and the biggest beer garden on the Cowgate.

WITNESS (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS, SQUELCHY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

HULLABALOO

LOCO & JAM

WEE RED BAR, 23:00, £3 - £5

COOKIE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £5

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00, £8

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Wed 15 Jun

WASABI DISCO (VIOLET + NICK STEWART)

House, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

Sat 18 Jun

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

Tue 14 Jun TRASH

TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30, £0 - £5

Hip-hop and bass since 2008.

TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30, £0 - £5

Dance icon Marc Kinchen brings good vibes, eclectic samples and infectious beats to Edinburgh.

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £8

DILF

50s rock’n'roll, disco, sleaze, dirty blues, soul, garage rock and live bands – all jam packed into the last Friday of the month. Aren’t you lucky?

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £20

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

STUDIO 24, 21:00–03:00, £10

The high energy, unhinged and musically extravagant The Langan Band return to Albatronics, taking traditional acoustic idioms and delivering with punk abandonment and flair.

MK

Soundsystem party-starters, part of a music and art collective specialising in all things bass.

Scotland’s newest club night tailored to gay men, brought to the Edinburghian public by Hudgie and Studio 24 resident DJ Eddy Murf.

ALBATRONICS: THE LANGAN BAND

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 - £5

Decade collaborate with Manchester’s own Deadbolt for a power house night featuring the best in pop punk, metal and party. Oh, and beer pong.

Golden age hip-hop and R’n’B night hosted by two bearded men with an equal love of food and music; The Skinny's Food Editor Peter Simpson and one half of Edinburgh's Kitchen Disco, Malcolm Storey.

Thu 23 Jun THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £2 - £3

Mash-up of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

JUICE WITH SNEAKY’S BOSS NICK (NICK STEWART + KA MI + DAN JUICE + DECLAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan & Kami make weird waves through house and techno and welcome club boss Nick Stewart to join their quest.

Fri 24 Jun FOUR CORNERS

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £3 - £5

DJs Simon Hodge, Astrojazz and Johnny Cashback bring tunes from all over the globe to your Edinburgh-based eardums.

KARNIVAL

Residents night from one of Edinburgh’s favourite club nights KEEP IT STEEL: HEAVY METAL CIRCUS

STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £5

The big top for metal-heads is coming to the ‘burg! Expect fire breathers, circus acts and general oddities.

TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30, £0 - £5

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern.

RIDE (LAUREN DJ K + CHECK YE OOT)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, £0 - £5

Hip-hop and r’n’b jams all night.

Sun 26 Jun THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

SUCH A DRAG (GROUNDSKEEPER FANNY + FRIENDS)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, FREE

Queen, queer or just straight up crazy, it matters not to Such A Drag’s groundskeeper Fanny (nor to her friends). Leave your judgements and dignity at the door and get involved in the live acts and dancing.

ROCK N ROLL PING PONG

THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00, FREE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 - £5

Bongo’s Sunday night social ft. ping pong games, delightful beers and an amateur tournament. Oh, and not forgetting the Rock ‘n’ Roll, of course...

ANIMAL HOSPITAL

PARADISE PALMS, 19:00, FREE

PROPAGANDA

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, Primal Scream and the like.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

The Animal Hospital troops continue to medicate Edinburgh with their unique blend of techno, house and minimal.

Resident night from two of Edinburgh’s techno heavyweights

House, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

June 2016

Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

COPACABANA NIGHT

A themed night at Paradise Palms in aid of breast cancer awareness.

Residents The Captain and Der Kaiser sling the latest and greatest disco, house, electro and techno into the Maze.

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED + SKANKY B)

Sat 18 Jun LOCARNO

READING ROOMS, 22:30, TBC

A night dedicated to the 50s and 60s that’s been running for over half a decade.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

Mon 27 Jun

JUNGLISM’S SUMMER SKANK OUT

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

MIXED UP

Mon 20 Jun

Art Glasgow 1 Royal Terrace SUB PLOT

4-12 JUN, 12:00PM – 7:00PM, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00, FREE

The DJ collective responsible for providing some of Scotland’s freshest drum & bass and jungle beats have assembled a summer showcase featuring Special Ed, Jamin Nimjah, Hex and Calaco Jack, and a raft of other beat heavy acts.

Drawing on his professional training as a menswear tailor on Saville Row, Anthony Brotheridge explores tailored garments in relation to Fine Art Installation, demonstrating an interest in the relationship between the two dimensional and three dimensional.

I LOVE HIP HOP

Fri 24 Jun

Art Pistol

KAGE, 23:00, £4

1-12 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

Tue 28 Jun

NU FIRE (DJ FUSION + DJ BEEF)

Hip-hop and bass since 2008.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00, £3

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

MAINS CASTLE, 14:00–02:00, £12.50

WARPED

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Sat 25 Jun ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Dundee Clubs Fri 03 Jun JON1ST (DUNC4N)

READING ROOMS, 22:30, £5

Acclaimed DJ Jon1st brings his eclectic bend of genres to Reading Rooms for a northerly night of champion disc-spinning.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Sat 04 Jun FOOLS GOLD (BEZ)

BUSKERS, 21:00, £6

Buskers’ indie club night welcomes none other than Bez of Happy Mondays and Madchester fame. He’ll be on stage for an hour before getting stuck in with the rest of the crowd ‘til the early hours.

AUTODISCO (SELVAGEM)

READING ROOMS, 22:30, £8 - £10

Brazillian duo Selvagem take a break from throwing legendary parties the world over and treat the Dundonian public to a slice of sunshine at Autodisco.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

Fri 10 Jun

MAIN INGREDIENT (KEN SWIFT)

READING ROOMS, 22:30, TBC

The M.I folk, naughty as they are, started life running illegal warehouse parties in Edinburgh’s outskirts. They now tour nationally, taking their drum machines, synths and interactive visuals countrywide with them.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Sat 11 Jun ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

Fri 17 Jun

PHAZED (CORRELATE + MR FUDSON + PATHEW + WALKER + TEDDY HANNAN) READING ROOMS, 23:30, £5 - £8

Residents Correlate and Teddy Hannan share the RR booth with Mr Fudson, Pathew and Walker.

Seatbelts on.

Best of selection of techno, minimal and bass to get your Saturday night movin’.

HOT WAX NEVER FELT SO GOOD

In a new solo show, Lynn Gibson captures organic shapes through colourful wax paintings.

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art BORROWED TIME

1 JUN-10 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Two moving-image works by artists Karen Kramer and Alice May Williams, developed with funds from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and FVU. The works engage with the theme of borrowed time and the unsustainability of deferring costs to the future.

VOICING THE ARCHIVE

1 JUN-31 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

MAP presents a series of audio recordings of past MAP contributions, voiced by their authors and installed at a listening station in the CCA foyer and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

MARIE-ANDREE PELLERIN

1-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Marie-Andrée Pellerin’s work uses the volcano as a metaphor for the temperament of society at current, and also the the ongoing re-articulation of matter. She is a CALQ artist in residence at CCA. VALIS

1 JUN-1 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

CCA/CALQ/PRIM artist in residency Robbie Thomson develops his new project which, inspired by Philip K Dick’s novel VALIS, investigates boundaries between sciencefiction, mental illness and artificial intelligence.

THE WOMEN’S UNIT

1-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Women’s Unit was founded by Mandy McIntosh as a feminist space for women to attend and create art. During a three week residency at CCA, it brings its practice to the gallery space, along with an evolving exhibition, talks and demonstrations.

BUZZCUT: DOUBLE THRILLS!

22 JUN, 7:00PM, £6 - £8

Buzzcut, with their usual chaotic charm and warmth, bring a double bill of performance by radical artists from Scotland and beyond.

EAVESDROPPER: HANNA TUULIKKI

23 JUN, 6:30PM, FREE

Artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki works with voice and gesture to create immersive spaces that unearth relationships with places, exploring mnemonic topographies, lexicons of signing voice and singing body and vocal androgyny.

City of Glasgow College IRON HANDS, VIVID PINKS & A PLETHORA OF BRICKS

10-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Contemporary Art graduates at the City of Glasgow College host their Final Degree Show, featuring everything from two dimensional to multi-media and immersive installations.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as it goes.

Listings

59

Compass Gallery Hunterian Art 90 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL FILM Gallery POSTERS 9 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Planned to coincide with the Edinburgh Film Festival 2016, Compass exhibits a series of rare, collectible and international original film posters from 1915 to the present day.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art SUMMER SHOW 2016

1-6 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

WILLIAM HUNTER TO DAMIEN HIRST: THE DEAD TEACH THE LIVING

1 JUN-5 MAR 17, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

An exhibition curated by students on GSA / University of Glasgow’s students of Curatorial Practice, featuring objects and art which explore moments of synergy between the fields of art and science.

COMIC INVENTION

1 JUN-17 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Glasgow Print Studio

A showcase of comic works spanning genres and centuries, featuring modern collections, works by Lichtenstein, Warhol, Picasso and Rembrandt, and manuscripts from throughout the ages. Also includes unseen work for Batman, New X-Men and All Star Superman.

11 JUN-31 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Leiper Fine Art

19th-21st Century British paintings, drawings & sculpture including works by scottish contemporaries and modern masters.

THE VIEW FROM THE TRAIN

A collection uniting artists who span several generations and share an interest in landscapes. The exhibition will feature both paintings and prints, and artists include the likes of Elizabeth Blackadder, Barbara Rae, Claire Forsyth, Bronwen Sleigh, Toby Paterson, Carol Rhodes, Calum McClure and Willy Rodger.

Glasgow School of Art GSA DEGREE SHOW 2016

18-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Undergraduate degree show featuring work by Glasgow School of Art students across a wide variety of disciplines, showing across the Glasgow School of Art, the Reid and Bourdon Buildings and the Tontine Building.

Glasgow Sculpture Studios

YOU BE FRANK, AND I’LL BE EARNEST

1-4 JUN, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Soviet-born, New York-based artist Alisa Baremboym and Canadian artist Liz Magor present their first institutional exhibitions in Scotland and the UK. Their works share a dialogue about the human body and the interaction of the organic and the inorganic.

GoMA

WOLFGANG TILLMANS: PICTURES FROM NEW WORLD

1 JUN-7 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Turner Prize-winning Wolfgang Tillmans brings an exhibition of photographs from his series Neue Welt (New World) to the GoMA. After ten years spent abstracting and conceptualising, Tillmans exhibits a re-enchantment with seeing the world for what it is.

WHO’S EXPLOITING WHO IN THE DEEP SEA?

1 JUN-7 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Cosima Von Bonin analogises the human condition via a series of works from 2006 onwards, all relating to a theme of ‘under the sea’.

From textile to music, sculpture to performance, video and painting, the exhibition is a charmingly multi-platform affair.

PAINTER’S TABLE

1-12 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Tessa Lynch’s GI exhibition which combines sculpture and script in order to examine and narrate the her own daily commute through the city of Glasgow; emphasising the mundane and ultimately creating a self portrait of sorts.

Hillhead Library DEPARTURES

1 JUN-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

New Photographers Guild, led by mentors Claire Stewart and Elaine Livingston, present work from nine participating artists, each responding photographically to the theme of ‘migration’.

SIMON LAURIE

1-12 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Still-life and landscape painter Simon Laurie displays a selection of work influenced by the St Ives School and Scottish Colourists. His acrylic paintings employ bold and vibrant colours in simple forms.

This is his second exhibition at the Leiper.

Mary Mary BODY CORPORATE

4-30 JUN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Body Corporate is an exploration of the idea of an abstract body through a group of sculptural works. It is Gerda Scheepers’ third exhibition at Mary Mary.

11 JUN-10 JUL, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A collaborative exhibition by Hamish Chapman, Joanne Dawson and Hannah Reynolds which references Glasgow’s history as a ‘cinema city’ and explores how cinemas facilitate people’s needs for ‘third spaces’ and escapism.

Tramway

PEHCHAAN: ART FROM ANOTHER INDIA

18 JUN-30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Common Guild THE END OF TIME

1-19 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Drawing, photography and film

by Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari as part of his first exhibition in Scotland. The works reflect Zaatari’s interest documentarymaking as an art form and its role in shaping both personal and collective history.

The Glue Factory

MFA DEGREE SHOW 2016

16-26 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Annual exhibition of work from the Master of Fine Art postgraduate programme at The Glasgow School of Art.

The Lighthouse WEATHER FORMS

1-26 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Seeking to challenge the notion that ‘people make places’, Stallan-Brand present a selection of paintings, installations, found objects and collages, all of which are inspired by, are a response to or have been affected by climate.

GETTING THINGS DONE

1-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A touring showcase of Vorarlberg architecture, made up of more than 230 projects and approximately 700 photographic illustrations.

OPULENT FOLK

1 JUN-17 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition and collection of surface patterns and textile productions by artist and maker Rosie Shepley.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane A new exhibition from Northern Irish Turner Prize-nominated artist Cathy Wilkes at The Modern Institute.

1-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Edinburgh College of Art present their annual graduate student round-up, showcasing the fruits of more than 500 budding graduating artists, filmmakers, designers and architects over an e’er-eclectic programme.

Edinburgh Printmakers SPECIES OF SPACE

10 JUN-24 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Gayfield Creative Spaces

THE INDIA STREET BAZAAR

The tale of global production, trade and influence is told through an exhibition of seven products created in India by artists responding aesthetically to the Turkey Red archives.

iota @ Unlimited Studios WHAT’S IN A MILE 2016? - YOUR HOME!

4-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new exhibition investigating the essence of how people live in 2016, taking entries from a mile radius of iota,

Transmission MEMBERS SHOW 2016

Platform

An exhibition linking the resilience and post-industrial decline of the shipyards of Govan, Glasgow and Gdansk, Poland through photographic works from Michal Szlaga, Raymond Depardon, Nick Hedges and Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert.

ECA DEGREE SHOW 2016

1 JUN-16 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

4 JUN-31 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

GOVAN / GDANSK

Edinburgh College of Art

A collaborative project showcasing a vibrant new collection of North Indian art commissioned for Glasgow Museums, featuring folk art, textiles and contemporary works.

Street Level Photoworks

CATHY WILKES

Listings

APART TOGETHER

25 JUN-23 JUL, FREE

2 JUN-27 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

60

The Telfer Gallery

Transmission present their annual members show for your delectation.

PROJECT ABILITY

9 JUN - 31 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Project Ability return with their annual showcase of work created through the Aspire programme.

Edinburgh Art City Art Centre

MAKING IT: SCULPTIRE IN BRITAIN 1977-1986 1 JUN-3 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition examining an episode of ingenuity in the history of design. Making It illustrates how the design practices of 1977-1986 were influenced by conceptual and performance art from earlier generations and by sculptural inspiration from overseas.

STEPHEN COLLINGBOURNE: DON’T BE AFRAID OF PINK

1 JUN-3 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Stephen Collingbourne, previously a lecturer of sculpture for over two decades at ECA has now diverted his practices towards oil painting.

The title of this exhibition refers to advice he received as a student – to work with the colour he most disliked.

Collective Gallery

MARK BLEAKLEY: A NUDE DESCENDS INTO A LUMP

1-19 JUN, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Mark Bleakley exhibits his latest project, comprising a simple score, cyclical choreography and gestures performed by four dancers and an audio-work which invites patrons to imagine performances taking place in the nearby park.

Dovecot Studios

THE SCOTTISH ENDARKENMENT: ART AND UNREASON - 1945 TO THE PRESENT

1 JUN-29 AUG, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

A showcase of over 40 diverse works which range from the satirical to the dark, aiming to give insight into the range of provocative topics capturing the minds of Scotland’s artists. Features exhibits from David Shrigley and Steven Campbell.

Robert Powell’s meditation on the notion of the city as a physical artefact, taking the form of a cardboard sculpture of a city, clad in screen-printed laser-cut wood veneers.

FLOP CULTURE

18-21 JUN, 10:00AM – 6:30PM, FREE

Expect celebrity scandals, politics, tragedy, drama, iconic TV moments, viral sensations, embarrassing crushes and more. Flop Culture is a group show inspired by an ongoing public obsession with celebrity culture and social media.

Artists include Devin Wallace, Poster Girls, Paul Kindersley, Peter James Field and Scott Baxter.

Ocean Terminal STRINGS

14-26 JUN, 10:00AM – 8:00PM, FREE

Strings exhibition is part of the Open Programme of the Refugee Festival Scotland (14-26 June). It will take place in The Image Collective Space, on the 2nd floor of the Ocean Terminal.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA UN:REALISED

1 JUN-13 FEB 17, TIMES VARY, FREE

RSA showcases the architectural plans, sketches and competition entries detailing plans for buildings that never came to be. Have a wander and wonder ‘what if?’

JOHN BUSBY

4-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition which presents elements of oil painting by the late Academician John Busby, a wildlife and landscape artist. Busby’s work was often executed in bold colours and in a style ranging from the representational to the abstract.

THE CURIOUS EYE II

4-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

To complement their exhibition of his Busby’s work in oil, RSA reprises an exhibition entitled The Curious Eye, which he proposed and co-curated to showcase moments in which artists ‘lost’ themselves to detail and form in the natural world.

Scottish National Gallery ROCKS AND RIVERS: THE LUNDE COLLECTION

1 JUN-31 JAN 17, TIMES VARY, FREE

Long-term loan from one of the finest private collections of 19thCentury Norwegian and Swiss landscape paintings, American collector Asbjörn Lunde, taking in 13 works by artists including Johan Christian Dahl, Alexandre Calame and Thomas Fearnley.

VISIONARY PALACES

1-12 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition featuring the designs of Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) for two palaces, one on the Acropolis in Athens and the other at Orianda on the Crimean coast, neither of which were realised.

INSPIRING IMPRESSIONISM: DAUBIGNY, MONET AND VAN GOGH

25 JUN-2 OCT, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A showcase of the full artistic output of nineteenth-century French landscape painter Charles François Daubign, who influenced many practices associated with impressionism, yet who has never been the subject of a major international exhibition.

RUBENS & COMPANY 18 JUN-28 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A showcase of Flemish paintings, including famous pieces by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.

The exhibition is accompanied by an impressive illustrated catalogue.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

MODERN SCOTTISH WOMEN: PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS 1885-1965

1-26 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £9 (£7)

Showcase exhibition of work by Scottish women artists, concentrating on painters and sculptors, covering the period from 1885 to 1965.

BY THE BOOK: SCOTTISH WOMEN ILLUSTRATORS

1-26 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £3.50-9

Celebrating the treasure trove of books illustrated and designed

by Scottish women in the early twentieth century, this exhibition shines a spotlight on Jessie M. King and Agnes Miller Parker – along with slightly lesser known names, too.

BRIDGET RILEY: PAINTINGS,1963-2015

1 JUN-16 APR 17, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A focused display of selected paintings from the works of Bridget Riley, born in 1931. The exhibition chronicles her earlier, iconic use of monochrome, her transition into using a grey palette, before an expansion into using an array of colour.

SURREAL ENCOUNTERS: COLLECTING THE MARVELLOUS

4 JUN-11 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8-10

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art showcases surrealist works from the legendary private collections of Edward James, Roland Penrose, Gabrielle Keiller and Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch.

LAUREN PRINTY CURRIE AT PIG ROCK BOTHY

1-26 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Lauren Printy Currie brings an exhibition entitled Devices, individuals and events to Pig Rock Bothy, which comprises segments of an epic poem displayed as pieces of visual art among a selection of her personal belongings.

Stills

LEWIS BALTZ WITH WORKS BY CARL ANDRE AND CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE

1 JUN-9 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Stills presents an exhibition of photographs by Lewis Baltz (19452014) alongside artworks by Carl Andre and Charlotte Posenenske, curated to reflect the affinity that Baltz showed between his photography and the work of his Minimalist peers.

Summerhall UNDERGROUND

1-5 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A multi-artform exhibition which includes performance responses to specific locations both rural and urban, sound, and text, and are presented variously as installation, single monitor works and screen projections. Brought together by artist Su Grierson.

1 JUN-28 MAY 17, TIMES VARY, FREE

Artwork featuring and commissioned by the Tweeddale family, a highly influential dynasty at the heart of Scottish society in the latter half of the seventeenth century who were known best for contributions to politics and the military.

SCOTS IN ITALY

1 JUN-5 MAR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A showcase of the Scottish experience of Italy in the eighteenth century, a time when artistic, entrepreneurial and aristocratic fascination with the country was reaching boiling point.

TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2015

18 JUN-2 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

One of the leading photographic portrait competitions exhibits a selection of traditional and contemporary portraits capturing a range of moods, styles and subjects, shots of photographers’ families to portraits of the Obamas.

OUT OF THEIR HEADS: BUILDING PORTRAITS OF SCOTTISH ARCHITECTS

11 JUN-5 FEB 17, TIMES VARY, FREE

An opportunity to peer into the minds of some of Scotland’s greatest architects via The Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s collection of portraits and designs.

BUILDING SIGHTS

11 JUN-25 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

A series of photographic portraits

by Tricia Malley and Ross Gillespie (aka Broad Daylight), each featuring a celebrity and their favourite building. The exhibition will showcase the magnificent architecture and design to be found in Scotland.

COLLABORATIONS WITH THE REP IN THE 1960S AND 70S

1-24 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

DJCAD has a rifle through their archives, presenting an exhibition of posters designed by final year Graphic Design students at DJCAD between the 1960s and 70s for productions at the Dundee Repertory Theatre. Exhibition located in Gallery entrances.

The McManus CHARTING NEW WATERS

1 JUN-23 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition introducing two major acquisitions to Dundee’s collection, including Scottish artist Frances Walker’s dramatic icescapes of Antarctica, created after she was granted the James McBey Travel Award in 2007.

1 JUN-13 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Summerhall exhibits Imagining Faith, Isabel Rocamora’s film triptych (a work split into three panels) which observes the act of worship in three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem. The exhibition is contextualised by a series of photographic stills.

STATUSSIGNAL

1 JUN-13 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition in which Hamish Chapman, Jordan Munro and Jordan Pilling use sculptural gestures, minimalist digital works and social intercourse to engage with notions of digital identity, surveillance, and the idea of a ‘self’ in Western society.

The Fruitmarket Gallery CHANGE-THE-SETTING

1-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

In an exhibition tailored to the Fruitmarket Gallery’s own exhibition spaces, Sara Barker combines painting, drawing and sculpture in order to engage with the notion of space and the ways in which it can be imagined.

Whitespace SMALL TRACKS

10-16 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition of new oil on board works by Jane Murray.

Sean Lee presents a new series of 22 works. The paintings, a single figure against a dark background, are the product of what the artist calls ‘closed-circuit drawing’, whereby a painting is redrafted many times to achieve a final result.

Glasgow Comedy Tue 31 May RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Wed 01 Jun

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

STAND SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH (ROSS LESLIE + GARY FAULDS + DEVIN WALLACE + STUART MCPHERSON + BRIAN MORTON + ELAINE MILLER + STEPHEN BUCHANAN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5

The Stand’s new Spotlight monthly invites six of the finest up-andcoming comics to shine a light on a topic relating to the charity theme.

This show will focus on health, with proceeds donated to charity Cope Scotland.

Thu 02 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (SUSIE MCCABE + PAUL CURRIE + DAISY EARL + STEPHEN HALKETT + BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–00:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 03 Jun

Dundee Art

THE FRIDAY SHOW (SUSIE MCCABE+ PAUL CURRIE + DAISY EARL + STEPHEN HALKETT + BILLY KIRKWOOD) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £6 - £12

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts DUNCAN MARQUISS: COPYING ERRORS

1 JUN-3 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Former student of DJCAD and recipient of the 2015 Margaret Tait award Duncan Marquiss presents his largest exhibition yet, comprising a selection of paintings, drawings and videos.

Generator Projects

THEY HAD FOUR YEARS 2016

2-26 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Annual exhibition featuring new works by recent graduates selected from across Scotland, this year featuring Alice Chandler, Tanith Marron, Eleanor Paul and Rachel Turner.

GLASGOW KID’S COMEDY CLUB THE STAND GLASGOW, 15:00, £4

An afternoon of giggles for the wee ones, without a single sweary in sight.

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

Mon 06 Jun MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £4 - £6

Two teams of comics battle it out for the biggest laughs under the watchful eye of ‘Improv Warlord’ Billy Kirkwood.

Tue 07 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

IMAGING FAITH

Scottish National Portrait Bongo CONSTELLATIONS 31 MAY-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY Gallery THE TWEEDDALES: POWER, POLITICS AND PORTRAITS

Matthew Gallery

Wed 08 Jun COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–00:00, £4 - £6

Ro Cambell and The Wee Man’s comedian rap battle-off, where a select batch of comics compete to see who’s got the most swagger when it comes to hippity-hop wit.

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

Thu 09 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (TANYALEE DAVIS + MIKE MILLIGAN + JAMIE MACDONALD + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 10 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (TANYALEE DAVIS + MIKE MILLIGAN + JAMIE MACDONALD + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sat 11 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (TANYALEE DAVIS + MIKE MILLIGAN + JAMIE MCDONALD + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–00:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

LAUGHTER EIGHT

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sat 04 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (SUSIE MCCABE + PAUL CURRIE + DAISY EARL + STEPHEN HALKETT + BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–00:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sun 12 Jun YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

AL MURRAY THE PUB LANDLORD: LET’S GO BACKWARDS TOGETHER

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £15

More philosophising and opinion sharing from the mainstream comedy scene’s favourite pub landlord.

Mon 13 Jun

BRIGHT CLUB: SCIENCE SPECIAL

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5

Sun 05 Jun

A selection of comedic academics do a stint of stand-up for your entertainment and enlightenment.

Laughs and learning in one neat package = tick.

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £1 - £6

Tue 14 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his handpicked guests.

RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

THE SKINNY

Comedy Wed 15 Jun BBC COMEDY PRESENTS

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £4

BBC Comedy and The Stand bring you an eve o’ sparkly new comedy talent at Glasgow’s Stand outpost.

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

Thu 16 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (SIMON MUNNERY + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAMIE DALGLEISH + RICHARD BROWN + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 17 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (SIMON MUNNERY + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAMIE DALGLEISH + RICHARD BROWN + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sat 18 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (SIMON MUNNERY + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAMIE DALGLEISH + RICHARD BROWN + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sun 19 Jun

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

EDDIE IZZARD: FORCE MAJEURE 333

THE STAND GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £16

Eddie performs his Force Majeure show three times in three languages (English, French and German) over three one hour shows. The show is in support of the 'Stronger In Europe' campaign.

Check out the Stand's website for individual show times.

Mon 20 Jun SARA PASCOE: ANIMAL

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–00:00, £12

Following the May release of her book of the same name, Sara Pascoe visits The Stand with Animal, a show featuring a mixture of ‘completely true’ stories about Tony Blair, Oedipus Rex and the wildlife of Lewisham.

Tue 21 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Wed 22 Jun

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BENEFIT IN AID OF VISION AID OVERSEAS (GARY LITTLE + JAMIE DALGLEISH + ROSS MCLELLAND + KAVITA BHARDWAJ + SCOTT GIBSON ) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £8 - £10

The Stand hosts a fundraiser for Vision Aid Overseas, a charity who help to fight poverty by providing optometric service to people in developing countries whose sight is unnecessarily impaired.

Thu 23 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + STEPHEN CARLIN + JIM SMITH + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 24 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + STEPHEN CARLIN + JIM SMITH + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

Edinburgh Comedy Tue 31 May

BENEFIT IN AID OF PUBLIC & COMMERCIAL SERVICES UNION THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £6

A Public and Commercial Services Union fundraiser in support of National Museum of Scotland members taking strike action.

Wed 01 Jun

STUART MITCHELL + LARRY DEAN FRINGE PREVIEW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £1 - £4

Beat Edinburgh’s August-time crowds and get a taster of Stuart Mitchell and Larry Dean’s Fringe sets at The Stand.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + STEPHEN CARLIN + JIM SMITH + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

Sun 26 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his handpicked guests.

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Fri 03 Jun

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £6 - £12

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY FRIDAY SHOW

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sat 04 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARK NELSON + TONY BURGESS + CHRIS RUTTER + JAY LAFFERTY)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY SATURDAY SHOW

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sun 05 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s ‘Comedy Sunday School’.

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

Mon 27 Jun

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30, FREE

TOPICAL STORM

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £5 - £7

Incisive political satirical comedy in which team behind the 2014 and 2015 Fringe sell-outs Aye Right?

How Now? and So That’s What We Voted For? take a look forward to the EU referendum, and a nervous look towards the US elections.

CHUNKS 23

THE GRIFFIN, 20:30, FREE

A big night out entirely comprised of variety acts, sketches, monologues, character bits, animations, inanimations, contemporary dance, readings, or just anything silly, alternative and funny.

Tue 28 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

JOE LYCETT: THAT’S THE WAY, A-HA A-HA, JOE LYCETT

CITIZENS THEATRE, 20:00, £13 - £15

Charming and fresh faced young thing, gaining extra points for the supremely daft show title.

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £1 - £6

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 06 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Wed 08 Jun VIVA LA SHAMBLES

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £4 - £5

The Stand hosts a monthly evening of total joke-pandemonium as Edinburgh’s top comics join forces.

Thu 09 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (PHIL NICHOL + MICHAEL REDMOND + GARRETT MILLERICK + ALUN COCHRANE + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 10 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW ( PHIL NICHOL + GARRETT MILLERICK + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

June 2016

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY SATURDAY SHOW

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Sun 12 Jun

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

Sat 25 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (PHIL NICHOL + GARRETT MILLERICK + SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £5 - £10

THE THURSDAY SHOW (MARK NELSON + TONY BURGESS + CHRIS RUTTER + JAY LAFFERTY)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £10

Sat 11 Jun

Thu 02 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00, £6 - £12

Regular comedy slot kicking off at, aye, 8pm? Manned by a selection of hot talent from the local circuit.

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARK NELSON + TONY BURGESS + CHRIS RUTTER + JAY LAFFERTY)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY FRIDAY SHOW

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

NICK REVELL: GLUTEN-FREE CHRIST; SEVEN EASY STEPS TO MINDFULNESS...

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 17:30, £1 - £4

A work-in-progress show from Nick Revell, whose triumphant Fringe set is inspired by a shocker of a year which threw ‘near-death experiences’, ‘bricolage living’ and ‘holistic quantification’ in his path.

DARREN CONNELL: TROLLEYWOOD

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £7 - £8

After a ridiculously successful debut at the Fringe last year, Darren Connell (you might know him as Bobby from BBC’s Scot Squad) returns to the venue where his comedy career began.

Mon 13 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Tue 14 Jun

BENEFIT IN AID OF THE CYRENIANS (VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + KEIR MCALLISTER + JAY LAFFERTY + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £6 - £10

The Stand hosts a fundraiser for The Cyrenians, a charity which works with vulnerable people to help them transform their lives.

Wed 15 Jun WORK IN PROGRESS

SUMMERHALL, 19:30–21:30, £3

Headline comedians treat us to brand spanking new material. Not for the cupboard-lover comedy fan, this night showcases material which is most definitely a work in progress.

STAND SPOTLIGHT: MENTAL HEALTH (DAISY EARL + BIG MENTAL ROSS + PETE GWYNNE + JAKE DONALDSON + KEVIN CARR + CHRISTOPHER KC + CHRISTOPHER MACARTHUR BOYD ) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–00:00, £5

The Stand’s new Spotlight monthly invites six of the finest up-andcoming comics to shine a light on a topic relating to the charity theme.

This show will focus on mental health, with ticket proceeds going to charity Penumbra.

Thu 16 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (ROB DEERING + KEIR MCALLISTER + JULIA SUTHERLAND + PAUL MCDANIEL + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–00:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 17 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (ROB DEERING + KEIR MCALLISTER + JULIA SUTHERLAND + PAUL MCDANIEL + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00–00:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Listings

61

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY FRIDAY SHOW BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY SATURDAY SHOW BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sat 18 Jun

Sun 26 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (ROB DEERING + KEIR MCALLISTER + JULIA SUTHERLAND + FERN BRADY + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY SATURDAY SHOW

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-towork blues.

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30, FREE

2 JUN, 7:00PM – 12:00AM, £3

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 27 Jun

Sun 19 Jun

Tue 28 Jun

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 13:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

SARA PASCOE: ANIMAL

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–00:00, £12

Following the May release of her book of the same name, Sara Pascoe visits The Stand with Animal, a show featuring a mixture of ‘completely true’ stories about Tony Blair, Oedipus Rex and the wildlife of Lewisham.

FERN BRADY: MALE COMEDIENNE

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 17:30, £1 - £5

Fern Brady follows up her critically acclaimed sell-out debut People Are Idiots with a new show about gender, class and Catholicism.

Mon 20 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Tue 21 Jun

BENEFIT IN AID OF EDINBURGH CND ( KEIR MCALLISTER + DAISY EARL + PHIL O’SHEA + LIAM WITHNAIL ) THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £5 - £7

A fundraiser in aid of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament featuring a gang of top notch comedians.

Wed 22 Jun TOPICAL STORM

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £5 - £7

Incisive political satirical comedy in which team behind the 2014 and 2015 Fringe sell-outs Aye Right?

How Now? and So That’s What We Voted For? take a look forward to the EU referendum, and a nervous look towards the US elections.

Thu 23 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + BRUCE FUMMEY + RAY BRADSHAW)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 24 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + BRUCE FUMMEY + RAY BRADSHAW)

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY FRIDAY SHOW

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:45, £10

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

Sat 25 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + BRUCE FUMMEY + RAY BRADSHAW)

Glasgow

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £1 - £6

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. See Facebook on the day for line-ups.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

Theatre

RED RAW

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30, £2

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

BRIGHT CLUB

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 20:30–00:00, £5

A selection of comedic academics do a stint of stand-up for your entertainment and enlightenment.

Laughs and learning in one neat package = tick.

AWAY FROM HOME

Kyle is comfortable with his life as a male escort until the day he is hired by a premiership footballer and finds himself falling in love. An edgy, moving and subversive oneman show laced with sharp humour, tackling football’s last taboo.

CRYPTIC NIGHTS: THEREFORE 2 ANNA LUCIA NISSEN

2-4 JUN, TIMES VARY, £5 - £8

An immersive audio-visual experience combining sculpture, video projection and live music devised by artist Anna Lucia Nissen and featuring remixes from Luke Fowler, Guy Lee and Richard Youngs.

MEMORIES OF A LULLABY - THE NEED TO REMEMBER AND THE WISH TO FORGET

19 JUN, 6:30PM , £7 - £9

A one woman show based on a true life story about growing up in Venezuela between horror and beauty, desperation and hope. Told with storytelling, physical theatre and visual arts.

PRISON

18 JUN, 1:00PM, FREE

A show devised by children from CCA’s Acting Up drama workshops.

MEMORIES OF A LULLABY - THE NEED TO REMEMBER AND THE WISH TO FORGET.

19 JUN, 6:30PM, £7 - £9

A solo physical theatre performance peppered with visual art elements which explores how political conditions shape us as individuals.

Citizens Theatre OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER

31 MAY-4 JUN, 7:30PM , £9.50

An iconic war play by Frank McGuinness which traverses powerful themes like mortality, love and loss. Matinees available.

Oran Mor

FOOTBALL IN FIVE IMAGES

5 JUN, 7:00PM, £14

Theatre and discussion on the topic of the state of fitbaw in Scotland.

The Glad Cafe A THOUSAND KINDNESSES

22 JUN, 7:30PM, £10

A one woman show by Rachel Jury based on interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow.

HOME HELP!

17-18 JUN, 7:30PM, £8 - £10

A touching comedy about three elderly men who’ve known one another since childhood, each battling with illness, old age and loneliness.

The King’s Theatre FOOTLOOSE

13-18 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Crowd-pleaser of a musical, complete with singalong pop-rock score and nifty dance moves a-plenty.

AMERICAN IDIOT

31 MAY-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

In an age where almost anything is prime fodder for musical-making, Green Day are in on the action with American Idiot. Cast includes Newton Faulkner and Amelia Lily off of the X Factor.

MOTOWN’S GREATEST HITS: HOW SWEET IT IS

12 JUN, 7:30PM, £20 - £30.40

Motown mania at King’s theatre with a live band, choreography GUYS AND DOLLS

7-11 JUN, 7:30PM, £15 - £64.50

Expect sequins, New Yawkers and sit-down-you’re-rocking-theboat galore in the King’s Theatre run of Guys and Dolls.

Edinburgh Theatre

1-4 JUN, 7:15PM, £18 - £80.50

21-25 JUN, 7:00PM, £3.50 - £25

21-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

31 MAY-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, £8 - £12

HORRIBLE HISTORIES: INCREDIBLE INVADERS

21-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, £12.75 - £19.65

The folk at Horrible Histories bring Incredible Invaders to the Theatre Royal, using a troupe of actors and 3D special effects to bring alive the histories of the Celts, the Romans, the Vikings and the Saxons.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

1-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A frothy extravaganza featuring hits from the 40s and 50s. Matinees available.

DANCE SCHOOL OF SCOTLAND 2016

17-18 JUN, 7:30PM, £11.25 - £21.50

The Dance School of Scotland returns to the Theatre Royal for its annual showcase of talent.

Tramway THE END

10-11 JUN, 7:30PM – 12:00AM, £7 - £10

A choreographic work engaging with the topic of endings, the end of good and bad to the apocalypse itself. By acclaimed Scottish choreographer Jack Webb, performed with three talented dancers.

BLOOM: NEW DANCE

3-4 JUN, 7:30PM, £8 - £12

A programme of dance works from dance artists Julie Cunningham, Charlotte Jarvis, Rosalind Masson and Eve Mutso.

NO WHERE // NOW HERE

8-9 JUN, 7:30PM, £6 - £8

The Scottish premier of FK Alexander’s provocative new work, an ‘action based performance’ integrated with moving image collages and soundscapes. Originally commissioned for SPILL Festival.

A BIT OF BITE

31 MAY-11 JUN, 7:30PM, £10 - £29.50

A pick for the wee ones – high energy dance theatre with live music and rhythms for clapping.

Festival Theatre

Take the alliterative route back through the ages, allowing Horrible Histories to enlighten you on all things Groovily Greek, savage Sparta to angry Athens.

THON MAN MOLIÈRE

Wildly in debt, in bother with church and state and besotted with the wrong wife, Thon Man Molière’s desperate circumstances lead him to write brilliant comedies.

Only problem, the autobiographical nature of his work could land him dead.

Theatre Royal

HORRIBLE HISTORIES: GROOVY GREEKS

Royal Lyceum Theatre

IMAGINATE FESTIVAL: POGGLE

SCOTTISH OPERA: THE MIKADO

CONNECTIONS 500

After making operatic splashes with The Pirates of Penzance back in 2013, director Martin Lloyd-Evans and Choreographer Steve Elias bring alive The Mikado at Festival Theatre. Matinees available.

The National Theatre return with newly commissioned playwriting for young actors between 13-19.

See performances from the likes of Lyceum Youth Theatre, RCS Young Theatre Company, Fife Youth Arts and Glasgow Acting Academy.

8 JUN, 7:00PM, £16

The Edinburgh Playhouse

RSC LIVE SCREENING: HAMLET

Catch the Bard’s Hamlet as directed by Simon Godwin screened live from the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh TEN

23-25 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

The MGA Academy of Performing Arts showcase song and dance from their first decade of productions.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S

31 MAY-4 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Truman Capote’s classic story of Holly Golightly’s fantastical existence in 1940s NYC, swapping The Inbetweeners’ Emily Atack into the role made famous by Audrey Hepburn.

CROSS CURRENTS

17 JUN, 7:30PM, £18

Cross Currents pay homage to the Tony Awards in their 2016 production which takes the form of a choreographic collaboration between their staff and student body.

FUNBOX

18 JUN, 1:00PM, £15

A children’s show featuring Gary, Anya and Kevin (formerly of Singing Kettle fame) as they partake in a quest to find a set of keys which unlock the ‘Funbox’.

IMAGINATE FESTIVAL 1-5 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY

Imaginate fest hits The Trav, bringing a nine day extravaganza of performance, live music and drop-in activities designed for 0-12 year olds. Times and prices vary according to individual show – check out the Trav’s website for more details.

TALES OF A GRANDSON

31 MAY-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, £8 - £12

One man’s re-telling of Scotland’s history, told by Andy Cannon (formerly of Wee Stories). A family show full of legends, myths and battles galore.

THE GREAT ILLUSIONIST

3-4 JUN, TIMES VARY, £8 - £12

An orchestrated production about a young boy and his dream to make it in the world of magic. Go get spellbound. Literally.

WHAT NEXT?

10-11 JUN, 7:00PM, £8.50 - £20.50

A 30th anniversary special from nostalgia-fest That’ll Be the Day, packed full of tunes from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Strange Town Youth Theatre collaborate with Alan Gordon to present two complementary plays which explore the passions, worries and ambitions of a new generation.

9 JUN, 7:30PM – 12:00AM, £27.25 - £30.15

10-11 JUN, 8:30PM, £8.50 - £20.50

THAT’LL BE THE DAY

10 JUN, 7:30PM, £24.50 - £28.40

THE DRIFTERS

A production showcasing the velvety four-part harmonies and extensive discography of The Drifters.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

1-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A frothy extravaganza featuring hits from the 40s and 50s. Matinees available.

CHICAGO THE MUSICAL

WHAT NOW?

Strange Town Youth Theatre collaborate with Alan Gordon to present two complementary plays which explore the passions, worries and ambitions of a new generation.

Usher Hall

AUDIENCE WITH IAN WAITE AND NATALIE LOWE: TOUCH OF CLASS

13-18 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

3 JUN, 8:15PM, £24.20 - £28.60

Broadway and West End musical set in the 20s, featuring cell blocks, smokin’ guns, pinstripe trousers and and all that jazz (sorry).

Ian and Nat off of Strictly strap back into their dancing shoes for what’s probably going to be a sickening showcase of tremendous talent.

Traverse Theatre

11 JUN, 6:00PM – 12:00AM, £10.50 - £13.50

FLUFF

1-5 JUN, TIMES VARY, £8 - £12

One for half-pint humans, this charming wee show tells the tale of a kindly family called the Ginghams who travel to rescue lost toys, told through a combination of vocal sounds, movement, music and audience sampling.

Dundee Theatre Dundee Rep

EXPERIMENT 01: ABANDONED

23-25 JUN, 7:00PM, £5 - £7

A piece of site-specific theatre featuring original, live music and performed by a cast of 40 11-18 year olds.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

9-25 JUN, 7.30PM £9-10

The Dundee Rep Ensemble perform one of the Bard's wittiest plays about words, loyalty and searching for love.

OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR

30 JUN-2 JUL, 7.30PM £15-19

A play about singing, sex and sambuca adapted from Alan Warner's brilliant novel about six girls on the cusp of change, when love, lust, pregnancy and death all spiral out of control in a single day.

The Gardyne Theatre

RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET

1-2 JUN, 7:30PM, £6 - £8

An amateur production of Bob Carlton’s hyperspace theatrical journey, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

LES MISERABLES

22-25 JUN, 7:30PM, £15

School edition of the ever heartbreaking, ever rousing Les Mis, set in 19th century France.

ATRONOMICAL 2016

An Astro Gymnastics West Lothian showcase of high level acrobatics, tumble and dance.

21-23 JUN, 7:30PM, £6 - £8

Junction 25’s brand new show about passion, power and the role of young people in contemporary politics.

FASE

24-25 JUN, 7:30PM, £8 - £12

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s dance company Rosas perform Fase, a menacingly repetitive and hypnotic piece – and one of De Keersmaeker’s most famous works to date.

Tron Theatre EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON

2-4 JUN, 7:00PM, £6.50 - £10

Following the unsettled lives of three sisters (one a politician, the second heavily pregnant and the other a rebellious teenager), Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London has been described as a ‘rampaging panorama of the UK in the 21st Century’.

THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

2-4 JUN, 8:00PM, £7.50 - £10

A play set in the gymnasium of a village school on a night where heavy snow leaves travellers, school staff Santa Claus himself(!) stranded and left to confront one another. Adapted from the Polish novella by Szymon Bogacz.

Matinees available.

IMAGINE THAT!

9-11 JUN, 7:30PM, £7 - £8

A performance from Tron Youth Theatre Juniors as they explore the tales we spin and characters we fabricate as the everyday raconteurs that we all are.

ADULTING

16-18 JUN, 8:00PM, £7.50 - £10

A company-devised piece the struggles of life as a single twenty-something living in the family home (aka the vast majority of Generation Y).

THE STAND EDINBURGH, 21:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

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THE SKINNY

dream. And yet I was rooted to the spot.

As I looked around the room, I began to wonder how many people, like us, had been lured into coming. I wondered whether anyone was truly enjoying the experience and if so, why. This wasn’t art. It wasn’t entertainment.

“ A night at a ping-pong bar, it seems, has become as much a rite of passage as riding an elephant through the jungle or drinking Mai Tais on Haad Rin Beach”

An Honest Insight into Thailand’s Sex Industry One traveller discovers the shocking reality of a Bangkok ping-pong show

W

ith a sharp snap the tuk-tuk turned left, taking us away from the neon lights of Patpong and into the depths of an unlit alley.

We had stopped outside a building which, on first glance, gave little away. You could have been forgiven for thinking it was a disused factory, had it not been for the tell-tale gasps of music which escaped as the door opened and closed.

A throng of men guarded the door, swigging from unmarked bottles and smoking fat cigars.

They stared at us knowingly.

How had we ended up here? I wondered as the cold – so rarely felt in Bangkok – seemed now embedded beneath my skin. Just an hour before we had been sipping cocktails on Khao San Road, laughing as we were goaded on by the touts, determined to sell us tickets to a night of cheap thrills in the city’s infamous red light district.

“Remember our faces!” I had joked to a police officer as we boarded the tuk-tuk, finally giving in. It didn’t seem so funny now, and I pleaded with our driver to turn back. With his somewhat selective English skills kicking in, he placed a hand on my shoulder and steered me into the building. There we were met by a burly man, wearing a thick, leather jacket. He eyed us up and down before stretching out his palm.

“500 Baht,” was his command. It was much more than had been agreed.

We entered the theatre, a cavernous room, where the smell of stale sweat hung in the air and red lights flickered tellingly above. Scantily-clad bar girls circled around the punters like swarms of bees; oblivious to our hesitation, they led us straight to the edge of the circular stage, before thrusting lukewarm glasses of prosecco into our hands. I very much doubted they were complimen-

June 2016

Words: Izzy Gray Illustration: Sarah Bissell

tary, and yet I had bigger things to worry about; we had been placed in the front row. Right, as they say, in the firing line.

“This was not part of the agreement...”

I hissed to my friend as the lights began to dim.

There was no time for a witty response.

Music – cheap 90s house – began to fill the air.

A Thai girl entered, unannounced, and took her place on the stage. Dressed only in a G-string, she wrapped her hand around the pole which pierced the heart of the stage like an arrow and began swaying her hips to the music. With a surprisingly swift move, she lifted herself up on to the pole and circled it, before lowering herself, snakelike, to the ground.

Her hand slid slowly down the length of her body. She removed her underwear, exposing a deep, purple scar which ran the length of her midriff. It went unnoticed by the crowd.

Another girl entered, proudly displaying a balloon in one hand and a dart in another.

“You don’t think…” I began, before being interrupted by an announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Would you like to see a magic trick?”

“Oh dear god, no…” I pleaded, as the balloon was handed to a member of the audience, and the dart to the nude girl. She lay down on the floor before bringing her knees to her chest. The dart disappeared from view.

“Surely she can’t…”

A loud POP! resounded through the room, and I was proved wrong. A stunned silence, and then the crowd roared into life, swelling with delight and baying for more.

Over the next twenty minutes, darts were fired, strings of handkerchiefs were drawn, and of

course, ping-pong balls soared through the air.

Throughout it all, I scanned the audience, desperately trying to establish their reactions; some, like us, looked genuinely shocked. Others were disturbingly calm, their minds numbed by a mixture of alcohol and life experience.

Finally, the act came to an end. The girl came to her feet and took a bow. It was as though she had just pulled a rabbit from a hat.

Sensing the opportunity, we grabbed our bags and attempted to make a speedy exist.

Our path was blocked by a buxom bargirl, who promptly redirected us to our seats. The show, it seemed, was not over yet. A voice echoed through the hall: “Ladies and gentlemen! Please welcome our very special guest, Mr Dong!”

Mr Dong?! Who the hell is Mr Dong?

I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Mr Dong entered the room, wearing only a smug grin and a back-to-front baseball cap. My mind went into overdrive as I began wondering what tricks might be included in his repertoire.

Please don’t let there be darts…

There were no darts. In fact, Mr Dong was not there to perform any tricks at all. He was there for one thing and one thing only. Without so much as a ‘how-do-you-do?’, he positioned himself over the ping-pong starlette and began thrusting away, all to the tune – I kid you not – of Britney Spears' I’m Not a Girl (Not Yet a Woman).

The cold feeling I had experienced in the street began to wash over me again. This all felt so wrong.

I longed so badly to run away. I wanted to wash my eyes out and burn my clothes and pretend that the night was nothing other than a bad

TRAVEL

As Mr Dong continued his ‘act’, the girl hung her head, her face hidden by a wall of dark hair. I longed for her to look up, to catch my eye as if somehow she might be able to read my mind and know that I was sorry; sorry to be there; sorry that this place existed; sorry that her life for whatever reason had led her to be up on that stage, her body a mere rag doll to the situation.

She didn’t look up.

The helplessness I felt in that moment is hard to explain and has stayed with me ever since. The sad truth, and I think I knew it even then, is that what we witnessed that night was a mere drop in the ocean when it comes to Bangkok and the corruption of its sex industry.

By law, ping-pong shows are actually illegal in Thailand. They fall well outwith the country’s seemingly strict ‘obscenity’ laws. Somehow, though, they are still tolerated. Because there is such little regulation over the issue, it’s impossible to know how many there are across the country. You only have to walk a few hundred metres through backpacking havens such as Khao San Road, however, to get an idea of the scale of the problem, and to see how easy it is to get swept up in the experience.

Despite their evident popularity, it seems that little is being done to regulate the venues, or to ensure the safety of the girls who work there.

Many are trafficked in from poorer neighbouring countries like Laos and Cambodia on the promise of a decent wage; in reality, few earn more than £100 a month.

What worries me more, however, is the blasé attitude that travelers have towards the shows.

A night at a ping-pong bar, it seems, has become as much a rite of passage as riding an elephant through the jungle or drinking Mai Tais on Haad Rin Beach. Most of the backpackers we met across the country had either been to a show or knew somebody who had, and their stories, by comparison, made ours seem as tame as a night in with the grandparents. I’ll never forget the night that I listened to a coked-up Aussie describe in detail how he watched as a woman produced a succession of live bats from her nether-regions.

Of course, it could have been the drugs talking; worryingly though, it could just as easily have been true.

The physical risks these women are putting their bodies through are vast, the scars insurmountable. As travellers we cannot change the way Thailand’s officials choose to handle the problem, but we can control our contribution to it. My advice is simple; stay far, far away… …and never, under any circumstances, play Britney Spears in my presence.

Lifestyle

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THE SKINNY