The Skinny Scotland November 2014

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INDEPENDENT FREE

CULT U R A L

J O U R N A L I S M

Scotland Issue 110 November 2014

MUSIC The Knife Mastodon Hookworms Sleaford Mods Ballet School Deerhoof FILM The Possibilities Are Endless Jemaine Clement The Skeleton Twins French Film Festival UK CLUBS Perc Trax DJ Milktray ART Suttie Arts Space Cuban Revolutionary Art Maeve Redmond COMEDY Noel Fielding BOOKS James Ellroy Lawrence Block Michel Faber FASHION Isolated Heroes Scotland Re:Designed

BEYOND B EYOND SONIC YOUTH MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | TECH | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | FASHION | TRAVEL | FOOD | DEVIANCE | LISTINGS

Photo: Richard Manning

P.20 Poster from the Cuban Revolution

P.24 What we do in the Shadows

P.30 Ballet School

Photo: Sophie Allen

P.15 Hookworms

November 2014

Issue 110, November 2014 Š Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 3 Coates Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7AA 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 2013: 32,104

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Music & Deputy Editor Art Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Deviance Editor Events Editor Fashion Editor Film & DVD Editor Food Editor Games Editor Tech Editor Travel Editor Intern

Rosamund West Dave Kerr Adam Benmakhlouf Alan Bett Ronan Martin Vonny Moyes Tasha Lee Anna Docherty Alexandra Fiddes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Darren Carle Cathleen O'Grady Paul Mitchell Kate Pasola

Production Production Manager Lead Designer

Eve Somerville Maeve Redmond

Sales Commercial Director Sales Executives printed on 100% recycled paper

Company PA Chief Operating Officer Publisher

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Contents

Nicola Taylor Tom McCarthy George Sully Gillian Brown Kyla Hall Lara Moloney Sophie Kyle

THE SKINNY

Contents 06 Chat & Opinion: Stop the Presses; Spot the Difference; Online Only; and Crystal Baws unveils your glorious future. Plus Shot of the Month, What Are You Having For Lunch? and cover star Thurston Moore salutes a personal hero.

08 Heads Up: Remember, remember, all the

28

29 Greg Saunier is in a jovial mood to

discuss his avant-garde pop band Deerhoof’s homage to Madonna (okay – not quite), La Isla Bonita.

30

Ballet School’s Rosie Blair discusses the Berlin trio’s love of pop, the Cocteaus and Bella Union.

31

“I can’t believe the rich still exist, let alone run the country:” An angry, passionate Jason Williamson of Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods calls it like it is.

other dates in November: ffs, the 5th, it’s not all about you.

10

On fine form, Thurston Moore meets us in his adopted hometown of London to speak with brio of his new band and unfailing zeal for new sounds.

12

What does it mean to be a socially conscious pop band in the 21st century? Before they pack it all in for good, Swedish siblings The Knife consider their position.

15

As Hookworms follow up their storming debut Pearl Mystic with The Hum, frontman MJ tells us why he’ll probably never listen to it again (aw c’mon guys, it’s pretty mint).

16

A decade into his industrial-leaning techno label venture Perc Trax, Ali Wells AKA Perc discusses its hard-edged sound and looks to the future with the Slowly Exploding compilation

19

Edwyn Collins documentary The Possibilities Are Endless is a poetic portrait of the singer’s post-stroke recovery – we find out more about the film from those in front and behind the camera.

20

A new gallery opening in a Grampian hospital, Suttie Arts Space offers an original approach to art in healthcare.

Plus a closer look at GSA’s exhibition of Cuban Revolutionary Posters.

22

Kohl-eyed mischief-maker Noel Fielding is as surprised as we are that it’s been ten years since The Mighty Boosh. So what’s he been doing in the meantime? A million bazillion things!

23

Under the Skin author Michel Faber gives a frank interview at the time of publication of his affecting new novel, The Book of Strange New Things – and explains why it may be his last.

24

25

SNL alumni Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader show off their dramatic chops in bittersweet drama The Skeleton Twins – director Craig Johnson gives us the lowdown.

Plus, Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement on his new vampire comedy What We Do In the Shadows, and why the undead need to invest better.

With Teknowomen, a film series celebrating women in sci-fi happening at Glasgow Film Theatre this month, we consider the outlook for female sci-fi heroes in today's cinema climate

26 In a hardboiled US crime double wham-

32

We meet bestselling author Lawrence Block in a New York diner to hear about film adaptations and A Walk Among the Tombstones.

November 2014

LIFESTYLE Showcase: Our designer Maeve Redmond is cruelly abandoning us this month for the glamorous world of freelancing. Here are some of the exciting projects she’s been working on of late.

35

Fashion: Scottish label Isolated Heroes tell us about latest collection BELIEVE, and we look forward to local showcase Scotland Re:Designed.

37

Deviance: This month we look at the magical worlds of foot fetishism and periods.

39

Food & Drink: Phagomania looks at some coffee foam sculptures, and we continue to entreat you to VOTE in our FOOD SURVEY 2015.

43

REVIEW Music: A preview of forthcoming releases from Ariel Pink, Stanley Odd, Deerhoof and many more. We take in Goat, Black Rivers and DFA1979 live. Plus, Brann Dailor of Mastodon waxes poetic on a clutch of albums by some of the Atlantan monoliths’ touring mates from across the years.

48

Games: After an eternity in deep space cryogenic stasis, Elite: Dangerous finally jolts into hyperdrive. We speak to its questing developers.

51

Clubs: Highlights of this month’s nights in Edinburgh and Glasgow, plus DJ Milktray introduces the ludicrously titled All Because the Lady Loves...

52

Books: Introducing our new monthly literary events column, plus reviews including the new Michel Faber and This Is Scotland.

53

Art: We’ve also got a new monthly news column for visual art, complemented by a weekly round-up that can be found on our website. Plus reviews of Gregor Wright at CCA and Josh Faught at Kendall Koppe.

54 Film: The Best Film winners from Cannes (Winter Sleep) and London Film Festival (Leviathan) come to cinemas.

55 DVD: Silent film icon Louise Brooks is

luminous in the classic DVD reissue of Diary of a Lost Girl, while Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are hilarious in 22 Jump Street.

Theatre: Looking back at 2014’s Arika programme.

my, we talk to LA Confidential author James Ellroy about new novel Perfidia

27

French Film Festival UK returns with another tantalising line-up of contemporary Francophone cinema. Here are a few of our highlights.

56

Listings: Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow’s cultural calendar for November – your definitive guide.

Contents

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Editorial

Hero Worship: Tom Raworth

Thurston Moore pays homage to a prolific English poet who has bridged the void between the punk and hippy

W

e had a few strong contenders for our cover this month. As you can see, Thurston Moore won out with an insightful interview offering a glimpse of life with his new band, the legacy and possible future of Sonic Youth, and an assessment of creativity on the margins of commercial success. Also vying for supremacy were The Knife, who have given us probably-theirlast-interview-but-maybe-not-for-who-knowswhat-the-future-holds in which they scrutinise the current state of the music industry, from Spotify to advert soundtrack success. Finally, our Northwest edition’s cover stars Hookworms gave them all a run for their money, as mainman MJ introduces their sophomore effort The Hum and discusses the intimidation of knowing that there is an eager and expectant audience waiting for the new release.

Elsewhere in Music, Berlin’s Ballet School talk about the laser precision of a drive for success, and share the love for the Cocteaus and pop. Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier marks the release of new album La Isla Bonita with a discussion of the latter-day influence the group have found in the 80s pop queens. Nottingham’s Sleaford Mods provide some frank opinion on the state of British politics, the rubbishness of Jake Bugg and the lunacy of UKIP supporters.

Books this month offers up a touching interview with author Michel Faber, discussing

his latest (and, he says, last) novel The Book of Strange New Things, in the immediate aftermath of bereavement. We also take a detour into the world of hard-boiled US crime fiction, with twin interviews with bestselling authors James Ellroy and Lawrence Block.

In Film, we’re most excited about a new vampire flatshare comedy from Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, set in Wellington, New Zealand. The man himself dropped by to elaborate on the making of What We Do in the Shadows. We also spend some time with director of The Skeleton Twins, Craig Johnston, who pays tribute to his SNL alumni stars and their dramatic capabilities.

Continuing a comedic tip, we’ve got an interview with Noel Fielding, who’s been punting his new live show all over town. He talks about returning to the reality of stand-up, ageing eccentrically and why he’ll happily be that weirdo in the cape that kids point at in the street. In Art, we look north to Aberdeenshire, where new gallery project Suttie Arts Space introduces a new approach to art in healthcare. We also look back at the Cuban Revolutionary Posters recently displayed in GSA, and bid a tearful farewell to our designer Maeve, whose recent portfolio you can peruse in our Showcase section.

[Rosamund West]

Shot Of The Month

om Raworth is a writer who came out of the 60s, this scene of underground poets dealing with different ideas of using language and ideas in a way that was really correlative to experimental music like AMM or Pink Floyd.

Raworth was this British poet coming out of an Essex University scene from which emerged radical activist poets: there was also this woman Anne Mendelssohn whom I reference in the song Detonation [on new album The Best Day] – she was part of the Stoke Newington Eight and a poet who used the pseudonym Grace Lake which is one of the instrumentals on the record – a contemporary of Tom Raworth’s.

But Tom was someone who really championed a lot of work that was going on around the world even if it was like language poetry, or confessional poetry, or a hybrid of those genres.

He was really prolific and would do small press publishing with American underground publishers and also in the UK. He had friendships with all these heavyweights in the scene like Anselm Hollo, Allen Ginsberg, Piero Heliczer, the Velvet Underground and Gerard Malanga and I’m really interested in that subterranean history coming out of New York and what all that means. There is this connection to England which people don’t really realise exists and Tom Raworth is this really interesting conduit and his work is really curious to me.

The first time I met him was in Chicago, he was giving a reading there and I was very excited as I had read his books and he was reading in conjunction with Peter Brötzmann and Peter would play for a couple of minutes and then Tom

would read something and they would trade off.

There were maybe twenty people in this gallery in Chicago but it was really great and we became friendly. I went to visit him a couple of times in Hove and I know he’s been struggling but he’s exemplary in being this figure who always was devotional to his vocation of being a writer regardless of any empty value of being a celebrity or famous.

He just did his work and he did it all the time. To him, it was just being engaged in what you want to be as a creative individual and trying to make ends meet as best as you can.

His work has a lot of energy and it is always in question to the imbalance of power that exists within the social and political system and with a dash of biting humour to it as well. A very astute poet who was neither totally working class nor intellectual class, he had a very admirable way of being completely liberated from having to be an adherent to any political correctness. There’s a certain wildness there, he certainly came out of hippy culture but he had this edge to him that was interesting to me in terms of punk culture. The poetry community right now that has come out of the 1960s and 1970s recognise Tom Raworth as being extremely important and I think about him because of his consistent engagement with ideas. He has this very exciting voice for England, and in a way I learn a lot about England through his work. He’s not doing so well these days, he’s in his eighties and has been in and out of a hospice due to health reasons so I’m also just hoping he’s okay. matadorrecords.com/thurston_moore

jockmooney.co.uk

Phantom Band at the Pleasance Sessions, Sat 18 Oct, by John Duncan

T

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Chat

THE SKINNY

Game Masters exhibition launches in National Museum of Scotland in December Originally conceived by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Games Masters will make its only European stop in the National Museum of Scotland next month. The showcase of over 100 playable games from over 30 designers, encompassing arcade heroes and gamechangers through to indie pioneers and Scottish superstars – will set up camp from 5 Dec-20 Apr. Among those featured will be the figures behind various legendary titles, such as Ed Logg (Asteroids), Warren Spector (Deus Ex), Shigeru Miyamoto (Donkey Kong), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), Tim Schafer (Monkey Island), Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man), Peter Molyneux (Populous),

Yuji Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog) and Tomohiro Nishikado (Space Invaders).

manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, 30 Jan-8 Feb 2015.

Of the indie strand, the more current work of Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja), Markus Persson (Minecraft), Rovio (Angry Birds) will be explored, as well as the more monolithic likes of the Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings franchises, which will be traced back to their roots at Dundee's DMA design. For ticketing details see nms.ac.uk and pick up the next issue of The Skinny for our rundown on the event.

ONLINE ONLY Head to the website to all the latest cultural news and commentary from across Scotland, the Northwest of England, and beyond. Includes weekly bulletins from the worlds of music, film, visual art and more, plus video exclusives, playlists and mixes from your favourite artists. theskinny.co.uk/latest/news

Puppet Animation Scotland’s Innovative International Festival of visual Theatre and film, manipulate, returns in 2015 for its eigth instalment; featuring two world, one European, three UK and two Scottish premieres from Europe, USA and Russia! The full programme won’t be announced until 19 Nov but as a festival partner we can exclusively reveal to you, dear Skinny reader, that stalwart of the puppeteering world Eric Bass will be bringing world renowned performance Autumn Portraits to the Traverse Theatre.

Alongside this we can reveal that artist and performer Ramesh Meyyappan will be bringing his new show Butterfly to manipulate which has been directed by Ramesh and assisted by Scotland’s own Tortoise in a Nutshell's Artistic director Ross MacKay. Register for more manipulate news as it develops over at manipulatefestival.org

Spot the Difference

Making club-ready productions with a live band feel, young Dane Uffe contributes some lovely grooves to Tartelet’s latest EP. He chats about the scenes in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, and sacking off piano lessons.

After a quarter-century of bringing fine contemporary art and arthouse cinema to Manchester, the Cornerhouse leaves its iconic building early next year to move to the new HOME development.

On the eve of its final exhibition, Playtime, artistic director Sarah Perks looks to the future.

Danilo Plessow aka Motor City Drum Ensemble brings us some specialist favourite albums in a Guest Selector – answers on a postcard for the asking price of the rarest on Discogs – and Krystal Klear warms up for his fresh Labour of Love party at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen.

LIKE US> We’re on Facebook, Twitter (@theskinnymag), YouTube (youtube.com/theskinnymag) and Instagram (@theskinnymag) posting daily exclusive content.

Crystal Baws With Mystic Mark ARIES In November you are accepted as an astronaut on Mars One, a privatelyunderfunded one-way suicide mission to slam the first three ghosts into the surface of Mars.

TAURUS It is said that goldfish only have a three second memory, which in fact is precisely the amount of your life actually worth remembering.

GEMINI With the benefit of hindsight you can now see how shitting out the sunroof was never going to work out the way you’d planned.

CANCER Children are humanity’s most valuable resource. We should mine them.

LEO You never thought you believed in goats, but sitting around the campfire as your friends tell chilling goat stories, you start to wonder, what if goats are real? As the tales go on, you hear about the grandad who came back as a goat because goats aren’t allowed into heaven.

Others insist it’s possible goats become trapped in our realm because they have unfinished business, like Patrick Swayze in that movie, Goat.

Still, the whole time your sceptical friend scoffs that despite all this there’s still no scientific evidence for the existence of goats.

VIRGO You want Jesus to be inside you so much. You’re actually gagging to accept Christ’s love right up to the hilt, rammed so far up inside you you can feel him tickling your rib cage.

LIBRA People who say that humans only use 10% of their brain are usually correct about themselves.

Games Master exhibtion

TWO PAIRS OF CATS Would you like to win a pair of John Lennon books? Then tell us the difference between these two pairs of cats. Our pals at Canongate are offering one lucky reader the chance to win copies of A Spaniard in the Works and In His Own Write, which could just possibly make the perfect gift to palm off on a loved one in the run up to Christmas. To be in with a chance of nabbing them, head along to theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and tell us what sets these two pairs of cats apart.

Competition closes midnight Sun 30 Nov. 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. Full Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

BEST IN SHOW Here are a few of our favourite responses from September’s owl-based conundrum. If you’ve got some animals you’d like us to spot the difference between, email them to competitions@theskinny.co.uk.

The one on the right is a shy but determined yes voter (it's trying to conceal the well thumbed SNP whitepaper behind it) and the one on the left is a proud and staunch no voter just trying to protect his massive estate (in the background) from the anti-capitalist machinations of the Nationalists.

November 2014

SCORPIO You have a big heart. Seriously, it’s actually far too big, you have cardio-giganticism and should see a professional cardiologist immediately.

Oh, and the one on the right's a fucking cat. – AM There is no difference. We are all essentially part of the same owl and nothing matters. – CJ

The one on the left prefers Radiohead's earlier material, while the one on the right leans towards the proggier stuff from Kid A onwards. – PD

Only one of them knows what's going on. – ET

Hahaha. one purrs a lot and the other is a Hoot at a party. (cat and an owl in case you need me to be more specific!!!) I stay in Scotland – SR One is a cat... – HR

CAPRICORN It’s not the third eye, it’s the second bumhole.

AQUARIUS As one of the four Water Signs, you have a remarkable affinity for water.

For instance, if someone were to push your car into a lake, you will immediately be presumed dead, only to emerge several minutes later floating on the surface completely dead.

Scotland, Day 36 – no one suspects fowl play.

The cat outfit is fooling everyone. – AO The owl on the left is hard as fuck, the one on the right is a bit of a pussy. –M

SAGITTARIUS Life is a party, one that you were never invited to in the first place and won’t take the hint to leave.

ON THE COVER This month’s cover was shot by Euan Robertson, a portrait and music photographer based in Glasgow, via Ayrshire. He mostly likes taking photographs of interesting people and has pretty dodgy hearing after spending too much time at the front of gigs. euanrphoto.com @euanrphoto

PISCES To celebrate your birthday you invite all your friends for the party of a lifetime back where it all started, in your mother’s uterus.

Excited, you squeeze in a few bottles of vodka, disco ball, cake, party hats, balloons and about half a shoe before the party is cancelled by the indignant venue.

twitter.com/themysticmark

Opinion

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Just over a year since the release of debut LP The Bones Of What You Believe – and fresh from touring the hell outta the US-of-A – Scottish electropop buzz band CHVRCHES briefly return to the home soil of the Barrowlands, before hitting far flung shores again later in the month. Also playing Edinburgh's Corn Exchange the following evening. Barrowland, Glasgow, 7pm, £16

Thanks to some damn fine scheduling, this day finds multi-instrumentalist Graeme Ronald and his Remember Remember cohorts pitch up for a 'Bonfire Night Laser Show' (as in, Remember Remember, playing on the 5th of November, rejoice), dipping into their glorious third LP, Forgetting The Present. Support comes from Clip Art and Tangles. Stereo, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £7

With their debut LP Contour Lines getting five shiny stars fae us, Manc duo Shield Patterns (aka Claire Brentnall and Richard Knox) kick off their UK tour up 'ere in Scotland – splicing beautifully emblematic song-craft with plump'n'dreamy electronica to suitably magical effect. Also playing Edinburgh's Assembly Roxy the following evening. 13th Note, Glasgow, 8pm, £5

Remember Remember

Tue 11 Nov

Wed 12 Nov

Multi-format comic/musician Vikki Stone pitches up with her noise-fest of a new show, Instrumental, using a collection of blagged, stolen, and borrowed musical instruments – some she can play well, others she can play, not so well – to underscore her humourous tales of love, loss, and music. Also playing Edinburgh's The Stand on 16 Nov. The Stand, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £12 (£10)

Sonic Youth and Chelsea Light Moving guitarist Thurston Moore hits the road with his all-new touring band, The Thurston Moore Band, featuring Debbie Googe of My Bloody Valentine, former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, and Chrome Hoof guitarist James Sedwards – out and touring in celebration of their new LP, The Best Day. The Art School, Glasgow, 7pm, £15

Originally produced in 2006, Untitled Projects stage a new version of Slope – their no-holdsbarred exploration of the affair between 19th century poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, and its impact on Verlaine’s young wife Mathilde, looked at a-fresh from a 2014 perspective.

Also at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre 26-29 Nov. Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 12-22 Nov, £12 (£8.50)

Vikki Stone

Thurston Moore

Photo: Trent McMinn

Mon 10 Nov

Sun 16 Nov

Mon 17 Nov

Now in its 22nd year, the French Film Festival UK makes various stops across Scotland this month, with a highlight of their programme of tributes to late lamented director Alain Resnais being a screening of his very first feature, Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Also showing at Glasgow's GFT (19 Nov) and Edinburgh's Filmhouse (23 Nov). DCA, Dundee, 4.15pm, £6 (£5)

American-Canadian songstress Martha Wainwright (aka sprog of the late Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and sister to Rufus) takes to Glasgow's Òran Mór as part of her European tour, dipping into her fiery folkrock arsenal, before her and bruv play a trio of their Noël Nights festive shows in NYC in December, back after a three year hiatus. Òran Mór, Glasgow, 7pm, £22.50

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Thu 20 Nov

Fri 21 Nov

Sat 22 Nov

Still riding high on the release of their debut EP on Lost Map Records, female-fronted Glasgow trio Tuff Love cart their wares to Dundee for a set of their delightfully fuzzy lo-fi guitar tunes, built on wispy soft vocals and extra-loud instruments, belying their unabashed love of popular music. Support comes from Wozniak and Luna Webster. Beat Generator Live!, Dundee, 8pm, £5

Warranting a wee jaunt to the wilds of Stirling, Strange Behaviours festival spreads its wares across two days (21 & 22 Nov) – with The Phantom Band and Miaoux Miaoux respectively headlining either day, plus another 25-odd bands split across a trio of stages, including Hector Bizerk, Fat Goth, United Fruit, and Conquering Animal Sound. Tolbooth, Stirling, 6.30pm, £10

Tuff Love

The Phantom Band

As part of the Alasdair Gray season of exhibitions celebrating the great artist's 80th year, the GSA host Spheres of Influence II – an alternative reading of his visual work through the prism of others, both historical and contemporary, including examples from Gray’s personal archive. Showing alongside Spheres of Influence I at the GoMA. Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, 22 Nov-25 Jan, free

Shield Patterns

Slope

Martha Wainwright

Alasdair Gray, 1977 artwork

Thu 27 Nov

Fri 28 Nov

As part of the Book Week Scotland celebrations (24-30 Nov), The Glad Cafe invite playwright, author, and all-round literary chameleon Alan Bissett into their cosy wee lair for summat they're calling Desert Island Discs... and Books – with Bissett discussing the records and books that have changed his life, in Q&A with Craig Smillie.

The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £5

Lau host the Edinburgh outing of their 'Lau-Land' curated mini fest over three consecutive evenings – the first manned by the chaps themselves (joined by Elysian String Quartet), before Joan As Police Woman takes charge on the Friday (28 Nov) and Capercaillie and Dick Gaughan man proceedings on the Saturday (29 Nov). The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, various times and prices

The Kapital crew and their reliably beefed-up soundsystem take to their regular cavernous setting in celebration of their 7th birthday, marking the special occasion with not one, but two fine purveyors of UK wonky techno: King Creosote-collaborating master producer Jon Hopkins, and Norfolk electronic chappie Nathan Fake. The Caves, Edinburgh, 11pm, £15

8

Chat

Joan As Police Woman

Photo: Markus Thorsen

Wed 26 Nov

Alan Bissett

Photo: Luke Winter

CHVRCHES

Jon Hopkins

THE SKINNY

Photo: Ricahrd Manning

As winter sneaks e'er closer, the cultural calender throws up all kinds of goodies – including Book Week Scotland, the French Film Festival, RSA Open, Lau-Land, the Creative Edinburgh Awards, and a gig from our cover star, Thurston Moore...

Thu 6 Nov

Photo: Ioan SPence

Compiled by: Anna Docherty

Wed 5 Nov

Photo: Eoin Carey

Heads Up

Tue 4 Nov

Sun 9 Nov

The Glasgow institution that is Stereo gets into party mode for its 7th birthday – holing up for the evening with musical guests including improv pop scamps Smack Wizards, and Sue Tompkins reuniting her Life Without Buildings crew, plus DJ sets from David Barbarossa, Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, and more.

And the best bit? It's free entry for all! Stereo, Glasgow, 8pm, free

Favourited Edinburgh gig-in-a-club night Limbo turns seven this month, marking the occasion by inviting two of their favourite 'burgh-dwelling bands – Snide Rhythms and Birdhead – to play a special double headline bill, with the exact running order to be decided by cointoss on the night. Support comes from local noiseniks Wozniak. The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 8pm, £5

The A Spoonful of Vintage pop-up lot return for autumn, taking over their favourite haunt of upper-level scran spot Spoon with a selection of handpicked vintage fashion, accessories, homewares, furniture, and collectibles from the 50s-70s. And, quite literal icing atop, there'll be cake-shaped homebaking served up throughout. Spoon, Edinburgh, 11am-4.30pm, free

Smack Wizards

Birdhead

Thu 13 Nov

Fri 14 Nov

Sat 15 Nov

Providing support for Edinburgh's creative communit, the talent incubator that is Creative Edinburgh takes to a party setting for its annual awards and birthday bash combined – featuring a live music showcase curated

by Song, By Toad (with Numbers are Futile and Kitchen Disco), plus a silent disco, interactive party games, and piñatas. Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 7pm, £9 (£5)

Providing one of the biggie draws of this year's Glasgay!, bad taste director John Waters brings his This Filthy World Vol. 2 tour to Glasgow – a spoken laughathon taking in stories of childhood and early influences, through to his Hollywood highlights and (hopefully) some Divine reminiscing. Cry Baby also gets an airing at GFT the same evening. O2 Academy, Glasgow, 7pm, £25

David Hughes Dance's Trialogue brings its UK tour to a close at the Trav, taking in a trio of works spanning three decades of dance – with new work from Hughes himself, plus Rafael Bonachela's brooding 4:Freeze-Frame from 2004, and Lucy Guerin's revival of Soft Centre from 1999. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £16 (£13/£8)

Creative Edinburgh Awards

A Spoonful of Vintage

Trialogue

John Waters

Wed 19 Nov

When it comes to experimental music, there's few bands with a pedigree as strong, or back catalogue as revered, as Ohio rockers Pere Ubu. They hit Scottish soil with 18th LP, Carnival of Souls – inspired by their live soundtracking of Herk Harvey's classic 1962 B-movie of the same name.

Also playing Glasgow's CCA the following evening.

The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £17.50

As part of a unique exchange project, the Trav welcome three Quebecois writers from La Licorne Theatre – Fabien Cloutier, Catherine-Anne Toupin, and Francois Archambault – for a special New Writing From Quebec showcase, with each writer presenting a rehearsed reading of their latest work, translated for a live audience. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 18-20 Nov, 8pm, £4 (£6)

Pere Ubu

Photo: David P Scott

Tue 18 Nov

Mon 24 Nov

Tue 25 Nov

A singer/songwriter both simultaneously shy and fearless, experimental Seattle-based muso Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius) plays tracks offa his angrier and tougher-sounding new LP, Too Bright – with his emotive vocal delivery so intense and intimate it's been known to induce a pin-drop stillness in't crowd.

The Caves, Edinburgh, 7pm, £10

Following her debut Wasted and the follow-up Brand New Ancients, Mercury Prize nominee (and our Northwest England October cover star) Kate Tempest returns to the stage with Hopelessly Devoted – a prison-set story of love and redemption, told with her trademark lyrical fireworks. Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 24 & 25 Nov, £15.50 (£12.50)

For the first time, David Hockney has given access to his personal archive of photographs and film – with Randall Wright's documentary Hockney: Live from LA charting his life from working class upbringing to flourishing artistic carrer in Hollywood, beaming across the UK for one-night-only with a live satellite Q&A from Hockey's LA studio.

Various cinemas, 7pm, UK-wide

Kate Tempest

Photo: Julia Maloof Verderosa

Sun 23 Nov

Perfume Genius

Photo: Kat Gollock

Sat 8 Nov

Photo: Kenny McColl

Fri 7 Nov

Fabien Cloutier

David Hockney

Sat 29 Nov

Sun 30 Nov

Mon 1 Dec

The Royal Scottish Academy adorn the gallery walls with myriad diminutive works for the annual RSA Open – a collective exhibition taking in small artworks (with a max size of 80cm in any direction) sourced by open submission from artists across Scotland, again with a room dedicated solely to architecture. Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 29 Nov-20 Jan, free

Following an Edinburgh outing earlier in the month (21 Nov), the literary lovelies at Rally & Broad take to Weegieland for part deux of their 'Eureka'-themed edition – with guests Aidan Moffat, The Strange Blue Dreams, Rosie Garland, Martin O’Connor, and Chrissy Barnacle exploring where inspiration comes from. The Tron, Glagsow, 3pm, £tbc

Self proclaimed 'improv warlord' Billy Kirkwood returns to brighten our Mondays with his improvised comedy sketch show, Improv Wars. Built on an anything-goes attitude, he'll be joined by team captains Gary Dobson and Stu Murphy, leading a select team of guests who'll do their best to sculpt laughs from whatever the audience throw at 'em. The Stand, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £4 (£2)

November 2014

RSA Open

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THE SKINNY

Speak to the Wild After three decades at the helm of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore sets about finding his groove with a new band and explains why he craves more than consistency

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his record is fairly safe,” says Thurston Moore of his new solo album, The Best Day. “I think the record’s good… but it’s just this initial foray of songs.” Wait a minute. Safe? Good?

Hardly standard talk from an artist promoting his new album. But, then again, this is Thurston Moore speaking. The man has a catalogue – nay entire discographies – of genre defining and genre deconstructing art rockww meisterwerks.

His band Sonic Youth – the current status of which we’ll come back to – had an undying belief in the redemptive power of rock music and their long-suffering guitars performed coruscating pop cultural autopsies on everything from Sean Penn and Madonna to bubblegum pop and Baudrillard. Sonic Youth were the ultimate metaband: a totemic symbol of rock ‘n’ roll’s vanguard annexed to the art world. So, would Moore be disingenuous in churning out the clichés to promote The Best Day? The album certainly is that: good, safe, sometimes exciting, other times familiar.

But the spectre of Sonic Youth looms large over our conversation in Moore’s adopted home town of Stoke Newington, north London.

Perhaps this is to do with the band’s longevity, one which is quite staggering in comparison to their contemporaries in the New York No Wave/ Noise scene from whence they emerged some thirty-odd years ago. While the likes of Swans subsequently re-emerged, rejuvenated and intensified, Sonic Youth maintained their position at the head of that vanguard until the collapse of Moore and Kim Gordon’s marriage in 2012. The details of that have been well-documented elsewhere but it’s undeniably an issue, a very present issue yet one which Moore himself brings up. “Are Sonic Youth on hiatus? There’s nothing official,” he laughs. “No paperwork has been signed. It’s completely personal. We are not in a place where we can work together. So… it’s not something that weighs on me because Sonic Youth made a massive amount of music. And it could continue, but it doesn’t have to continue.”

There’s a distinct sadness to witness such a crucial, iconoclastic band implode in such a manner. Yet, irrespective of the breakdown of Moore and Gordon’s relationship, had Sonic Youth – as a musical entity – run its course? The band’s final few albums certainly adhered to their patented gush of free-associating images, atonal guitars and concussed vocals but the advanced lexicon of noise, which the band had honed and developed since their conception, appeared to have peaked. Every Sonic Youth album was just that: another Sonic Youth record, as if the band were eternally caught in a moment from which they could never escape. The addition of Jim O’Rourke and, latterly, Pavement’s Mark Ibold, served to only briefly re-energise the band. By the time of 2009’s The Eternal, Sonic Youth were an

November 2014

Interview: Colm McAuliffe Photography: Trent McMinn

increasingly introverted-sounding proposition, which is an assertion Moore agrees with.

“Just with that last record, which, like all the records, I feel strongly committed to, I never felt like we were making a record just to make a record. It was always a very serious concern about the record being really reflective of what was going on with the band musically. I don’t think it was until we were touring that record that I felt there was a plateau that was happening, there was not much we could do about it unless there was some fluke of a radio hit or a movie hit which brought in a different element, which wasn’t something I desired at all. I did feel like we were sort of a very well known entity at that point and whatever factor of surprise or newness seemed to be dulled a bit. But how much can you change it? Do we all go out playing pianos? Go out and do a chainsaw orchestra? That would be disingenuous.

“We were gigging around the countries and it was pretty much the same amount of people each time and I felt gracious for it, I certainly didn’t bemoan it, but there was this level of acceptance and recognition that was unnerving for me to the point where I found myself leaving the stage a lot, going to the audience and molesting people with my guitars to get some reaction! And you can only do that for so long… and you know, of course, my personal life decisions changed with the band and one thing led to another but Sonic Youth is sacred to me, I would never want to say I was through with it or tired with it. I didn’t think there could be too much more to gain from it in terms of getting more popular. I felt like we had done so much work that there was nothing wrong with putting it to rest for a bit and the way it got put to rest is not exactly what I meant. It didn’t help – let’s put it that way.”

Moore left the United States to move to London in early 2013. His presence in the city is unmistakeable: a towering, hooded, eternallyboyish faced figure checking out – and occasionally playing with – innumerable bands across the city. Moore has effortlessly calibrated himself with living in the UK, a smoothness he attributes to his years poring over imported music papers and devouring post-punk sides of the late 1970s. “The first Scritti Politti release [Skank Bloc Bologna] was genius and that kind of aesthetic was what it was all about,” he reflects. “That’s all I wanted music to be like – as good as that Skank Bloc Bologna seven inch! Nowadays, I have more of an understanding of the aesthetic of the British personality, which is not singular at all.

It’s actually incredibly dynamic for such a small geography. I find that reveals itself to me through time. There’s all these different layers. It was really interesting reading Viv Albertine’s memoir [Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music.

Boys, Boys, Boys], it really gave me a sense of

what that life in 1970s London was like: the night buses, how it was almost these warrior gangs that existed and I can only imagine what that was like.”

Sonic Youth’s eventual ascent into the experimental jet set of the 1990s was perhaps inevitable considering their unique, open-ended record deal with Geffen and their anointment by the nascent grunge scene as trailblazers for the alternative rock world’s acceptance by the mainstream. Yet Moore always felt peripheral to this paradigm shift despite his band’s crucial role in opening the parameters. “We never had any success that brought anything, there was no hit single, there was no record that was a hit record for us,” he admits. “Our records had critical acclaim but it was never something that we had to repeat for an adoring audience. There was always this hope that we would have records that would push us into the R.E.M. world or even the Nirvana world but at that time, there was a realisation, certainly for me, that the interesting work was being done in the margins of that. The early recordings of Pavement, Sebadoh, Royal Trux, all of that, for me, was the culture and music that I feel more inspired by and attuned to, rather than what was happening with the commodification of grunge. Much to the displeasure of our record label and our management! They asked ‘Why don’t you do more hard rock tunes, and become the performing act you can become in that respect?’

We didn’t have an articulate decision about, like, ‘we must be true to the avant-garde area’ – that wasn’t a decision, that was a genuine feeling.”

“Sonic Youth is sacred to me, I would never want to say I was through with it” Thurston Moore

One of the most invigorating aspects of Sonic Youth was the band’s ever-present zeal for new found sounds. This fervour is still very much part of Moore’s make-up; whether it’s a jazz and poetry slam in Chicago or an improv gig in some minuscule pub, he speaks with unbridled brio of this constant search for a ‘vibe,’ a search which inadvertently led him to current guitarist, James Sedwards who subsequently brought My Bloody Valentine’s bassist Debbie Googe into Moore’s new set-up. Completed by long-term Sonic Youth powerhouse drummer Steve Shelley, the band is quite startling in terms of individual talent

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but, as Moore assures, one not inclined towards democracy. “There’s no question about who’s calling the shots in my new band. In Sonic Youth, I might have been the forefigure of it in a way, just by dint of where the band started from, as a forum for what I wanted to do musically, but I allowed it to be a democratic concern from the outset. Certainly with Kim, then Kim and Lee and then when Steve Shelley came in – his involvement really elevated the band – he really did become like no other drummer beforehand. A real fourth voice.”

“I knew Debbie from My Bloody Valentine, we first played with them in Glasgow in the 1980s and they were still figuring out their vibe.

It wasn’t until a year later when I was reading reviews of them in the newspapers saying how fabulous they were, I was like ‘what are you talking about?!’ and then I heard Isn’t Anything, and that was a game changer. They came to New York just then and we hung out, they played every little rat’s nest in New York City, just killing it. It wasn’t as ballistic as it became, it was this transition into becoming this monster on stage. And that was my favourite period of them, because you could still stand there and be enveloped as opposed to being obliterated! For this new band, I was talking about different ideas with an expanded situation live on stage, double percussion, keyboards, thinking it might be a cool thing to do, but the more I looked at the songs I was writing, they seemed to be more attuned to a more minimalist, traditional rock'n'roll setup of two guitars, bass and drums. Steve offered his services, which was really exciting for me as he had spent a few years playing this longer, motorik sound with Michael Rother.”

The Best Day was recorded in London during the past year and, despite the difficulties within Moore’s personal life, the album is unerringly upbeat, referencing Stoke Newington activists and poets, replete with a quite beautiful picture of Moore’s mother on the cover. The man seems galvanised by his new geography, a new career in a new town. So, has this been reflected in the new band?

“Well, once Steve arrived from the US, the band recorded immediately. The first song on the record – Speak To The Wild – was the first thing we recorded. These are just the first rudimentary songs in a way, I feel like now we are somewhat established, I can get down to preparing some material for the band, and take it to other places.

This potential that exists is super exciting for me, but I want to take it away from more standard ground. I don’t mind that it’s fairly safe… but I also want to jump off the map.”

The Best Day is out now via Matador. Thurston Moore plays Glasgow School of Art on 11 Nov matadorrecords.com/thurston_moore

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Love Among the Ruins Ahead of The Knife’s latest and perhaps last ever tour, the Swedish siblings talk to us about their roots, Shaking the Habitual live, and what it means to be a socially conscious pop band in the 21st century ontemporary music culture is riddled with strange contradictions. Piracy is outlawed, but Spotify – from which almost all artists receive effectively nothing – thrives. The ‘top ten’ is peppered with four-to-the-floor identikit EDM, yet the underbelly of music culture has never been more diverse – the internet ushering in a world in which every taste can be catered to, where niches and genres are birthed and assassinated as quickly as you can restart your router.

It’s as if the musical ecosystem is being starved of one crucial nutrient from above – investment, money – while being force-fed another from below – mass digital information, musical heterogeneity.

It’s why bands seem to explode and die out instantly, why music at the low end has never burned more brightly or variously. Meanwhile, high-end pop – increasingly designed to appeal to all ‘world’ markets at once – has been lulled into a kind of Eurodance death-trance, pseudodubstep competing with occasional auteurs (Beyoncé, Kanye) for increasingly meagre spoils.

In fact, 2014 might be the first year in modern history where no one artist shifts a million album copies.

Beyond this, it’s easy to see how the turmoil in the industry reflects that of wider society.

Technology has outstripped the capacities of popular culture under capitalism – the internet has given us a glimpse of a world where all culture is available for free all the time, yet the profit-motive shackles the possibilities of this digital future to a subservience to sales. Just as the bailout of the banks introduced ‘socialism for the rich,’ so the higher echelons of artists – U2, Radiohead – are able (albeit for different reasons) to give away their music for free, while everyone else scrambles for the crumbs at the foot of the table. In a world where music performance is increasingly bankrolled by corporate endeavour how does a socially conscious artist tackle and reflect upon this new world?

The Knife’s 2013 album Shaking the Habitual was just such an attempt. Each track quivered with an army of information behind it, African rhythms juxtaposed alongside Western pop, fractured lyrics that dealt with both commonplace love (see Without You My Life Would Be Boring) and macrosocial angst (lyrics like, ‘I’ve got a story that money just can’t buy / Western standards / Poverty’s profitable’). The record was teeming with contradiction: an album from a band with a certifiably huge pop hit which featured in an advert – Heartbeats – that expressed left-wing political anger and railed against corporate culture. It was an occasionally abrasive record that placed joyous contemporary dance at the centre of its live performance. It was fronted by a woman who renounces what the image of a woman in pop music is meant to be. It was an album full of oblique references, yet its title stated an intention clearly – to challenge what we should expect from a pop record.

Swedish brother and sister Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer can trace their time as The Knife back to 1999, but Karin traces her formative experiences of the industry further back. “In 1994, when I started to approach the music industry, while playing in an ‘indie-rock band,’ the only way to put out your music was either on homemade cassettes or through a record label. In Sweden there was one record label and one A&R – the person on the label deciding which artists to sign – that had the most credibility, where all bands wanted to be. This person was of course a man, the bands that he signed

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were mostly men and the very few female artists had very limited ways to act, if they wanted to be accepted.”

The group’s conversion to queer theory politics has been well-documented, and has bled over into a live show that aimed to challenge – to ‘queer’ – the nature of live performance itself.

For their Shaking the Habitual tour, the band have employed an array of live dancers, as well as multiple vocalists – leaving it difficult to ascertain which one Karin is. Instruments themselves are often totally absent, the show reduced to pure performance rather than a display of musical proficiency; all this from a band that only started playing live shows in 2006. Karin attributes their desire to ‘disrupt’ expectations to a deeper need to challenge the corporate commodification of what live performance means. In 1994, she explains, “recording music was very expensive in comparison to today. And the way to make your music heard was very narrow and extremely difficult to get through. On the other hand, the connection between music makers and the corporate world wasn’t the only way to go, which very few artists and listeners question today. There was still the idea that music was an art form that shouldn’t compromise or sell itself to corporate powers. There was a line between art and commercialism. Today it’s a mess, making ads seems to be status symbols for music artists.”

The need to ‘shake the habitual,’ stems from the school of thought which argues that, under capitalism, culture has become an extension of mechanised work. At the end of the Second World War the German philosophers and theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer wrote that, ‘Amusement under late capitalism is the prolongation of work. Pleasure hardens into boredom because, if it is to remain pleasure it must not demand any effort and therefore moves rigorously in the worn grooves of association. No independent thinking must be expected from the audience.’

“We are in desperate need of politicians talking about the redistribution of income and wealth and acting upon it” Olof Dreijer

It’s this necessity to shake off the ‘worn grooves of association’ that The Knife attempt in a live show that has left fans breathless and bewildered in turns. Olof explains that, “what we do in our show is very much a reaction to the context we are active in. We react towards the power-norms in our scene, so it’s not intended to say much about what is outside that. But you can always see things and interpret things from the show – for example, it’s a strong collective atmosphere, there are no hierarchies on stage.” In this world the ‘writer’ or ‘performer’ efface themselves; the ‘hierarchy’ of ‘artist’ and ‘consumer’ is challenged so that we can become involved in the music more directly, or at least start to think about what it means when we expect to see a

Photo: TerriLoewenthal

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Interview: Sam Lewis

‘traditional’ live performance.

Of course there’s always the risk that audiences will be alienated by this approach rather than challenged. No one likes to be talked down to, and no one should be ashamed to feel the thrill of old-fashioned entertainment. A postmodern approach to music can slip into the trap of punishing audiences for their ‘complacency,’ rather than bringing them on board in an attempt to do things differently. Olof accepts that the group could have been more welcoming in their earlier shows. “With the Shaking the Habitual show we wanted to be generous, inclusive and fun. For some people, we were totally that and for some people, we were not.

With the new version of the show that we did for the US tour in April and May 2014, which we will now do in Europe, we were able to get a couple of weeks of rehearsals where we realised many of the ideas that we didn’t have the time for in the original version. So now it’s even more collective and collaborative – dancers are singing and playing instruments, Karin and I are dancing, it’s more colourful and less mysterious. So I think the original ideas that we wanted to include are now simply communicated better.”

In a world where the traditional dichotomies of trained performance and quiet consumption are deeply ingrained, Olof embraces any art form – be it pop, dance, or rap – people without formal training can thrive in. Does economic austerity threaten the possibility of cultural diversity in popular music? For him, the answer is yes. “This is something we talk a lot about and always have in mind when making choices. I’m very happy to be active in the dance music/pop/hip-hop field – I

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also make beats for rappers – because it’s usually self-taught people that are active in this scene and there is not that ‘gatekeeper’ of education like there is in classical music or contemporary dance or visual arts. But still we have to work a lot on having as many different kinds of people having access to making music. We do what we can in terms of having workshops and sharing knowledge. We are in desperate need of politicians talking about the redistribution of income and wealth and acting upon it.”

Of course, in a world where state subsidies for the arts have dried up, corporate sponsorship is a way to gain access to funds that allow you to do great things. The Knife used the money José González’s cover of Heartbeats generated to start their own label. It’s when that corporate structure goes unchallenged – or undermines people’s ability to act critically – that problems arise. Karin sees music as “a good tool for playing, working, stretching and questioning ideas.

That triggers me and can make me super excited.” What does it mean to be a ‘pop’ artist today?

“I don’t really know what pop music is today, but I sense it’s something you can relate to and you can recognise, which makes ‘pop’ very meaningless to work with, since our different experiences and references, depending on background, class, gender, ethnicity, geographic places, make it impossible to agree on an overall, generalized definition of ‘pop.’ I have a passion for rhythmic music.”

The Knife play Manchester’s O2 Academy on 5 Nov. ShakenUp Versions is released on 8 Dec via Brille Records theknife.net

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

teamtrackr provides fan engagement apps for professional sports teams, organisations and sponsors. Founder Duane Roft explains how Starter for 6 was key to his business

“t

eamtrackr came about because sports teams at all levels can be really poor at engaging their fans and creating a better experience for them. The relationship fans have with their team is almost sacred, but it’s very one directional – at some point due to technology and social media it’s going to have to change.

“Despite all the money you hear about in football, it’s actually a very backward industry technologically – a few major clubs still don’t have websites that work on mobile phones! teamtrackr cut across all levels by offering something of genuine value for fans, while providing commercial benefits to clubs at a relatively low cost.

“At present we’re focused on creating mobile products that add value to a fan’s experience at a game, initially by rewarding them for going and saying they’re there. As connectivity improves at venues and technology allows we want to evolve into something that offers fans everything they need – wherever they’re watching a game from.

“We did the classic tech start-up thing of trying to solve a problem and create a great product, rather than form a business. You can only get so far with that approach without it becoming problematic, so we understood that we had to define a business model.

“Starter for 6 provides a very useful way of looking at your business from a different perspective. This enabled us to focus on particular areas and re-think our business model, both in the immediate and longer term. We’ve used this to further our market testing, proof of concept and adapt as necessary.

“Starter for 6 is totally unique in the way it approaches things and really challenges you to look at things from different angles. It offers a simple way of understanding key finance issues and the story behind getting there, rather than just putting numbers on a bit of paper.”

Starter for 6 is Scotland’s premier investment programme for creative industry start-ups.

Applications open on Thursday 6 November 2014 and close at midday on Monday 12 January 2015 www.teamtrackr.co.uk www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk

November 2014

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Gut Feelings With second album The Hum on the horizon, Hookworms’ MJ explains why he’ll never listen to it again

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hen the first pressing of Pearl Mystic sold out and a second, much larger run was ordered, Hookworms had one important request. “One of the only things we asked [thenlabel Gringo Records] was ‘Can we not put them together ourselves this time?’” says singer, producer and keyboardist MJ, speaking over the phone from his home in Leeds. The weeks leading up to their debut’s release, he reminisces, had involved “evening after evening, just sitting here putting the LPs into their little cases, and then putting stickers on, and then putting download codes in them,” and the band were more than ready to leave this particular aspect of DIY music culture behind.

A little over 18 months later, Hookworms are readying the release of album number two; a tensely strung, densely textured creation entitled The Hum. This time, the band have Domino taking care of the stickers-assembly line, having signed to the label’s Weird World imprint in July last year. “It’s been interesting, definitely, doing it through Domino,” says MJ, when invited to compare then and now. “It’s been quite a positive experience but definitely very different – mainly because, for me personally, I’ve never made a record before where I’ve known that there’s a small amount of people who actually wanted to hear it.

That’s been kind of strange and, you know…” He takes a quick breath. “It’s made me very anxious, I guess. Before I’ve only ever made a record because I wanted to make a record, whereas this was the first time I’d ever started making an album and thought ‘there’s going to be something at the end of this that some people are going to want to hear.’”

Considering the plaudits pinged Pearl Mystic’s way, this feels like an understatement.

A genuine slow-burn success, interest in that album’s hypnotic, lysergic jams grew steadily across the last calendar year, stoked by rhapsodic reviews and capped by prominent placement in a swathe of end of year lists (including a top 10 placing in these pages). The Hum looks set to follow suit: from The Impasse’s furious palpitations and feedback squalls right through to the metronomic pulse of closing track Retreat, it whets and sharpens the traits that made Pearl Mystic so intoxicating.

“I think we have more confidence in ourselves in the way that we play music,” says MJ of their approach this time round. “We understand

November 2014

Interview: Chris Buckle Photography: Richard Manning

our roles in the band better. On Pearl Mystic we were still kind of feeling it out and trying to work out what people do, and everyone kind of plays a bit of everything, whereas this time it’s very specific: there’s a guitar down the left, a guitar down the right, an organ, vocals, bass and drums, and everyone is playing their instrument on the record as it is when we play it live. But we’re very self-deprecating people and I don’t think we can ever be entirely happy with something, so it was definitely a weird strain knowing that people were interested in hearing it – especially since we were finishing [The Hum] around Christmas, when there were a lot of those ‘albums of the year’ things. People were very kind about Pearl Mystic which we didn’t really expect, and that added to the pressure.” The list of acts that have gone from dazzling debuts to sophomore slumps is long, and Hookworms were adamant they wouldn’t join its ranks. “I’m really intent that this new album is, you know, the second album of seven or eight or whatever, rather than just being the album that followed Pearl Mystic that people didn’t like as much. That’s really important to me – that it’s just another album.”

By this point in our conversation, it’s not a surprise to hear MJ anticipating future albums rather than reflecting on the present one. He repeatedly expresses an inherent urge to keep moving Hookworms forward (as a tweet back in September indicated, the band have already returned to MJ’s Suburban Home studio to start work on album number three), and he finds revisiting past work an uncomfortable experience.

“When we signed to Domino and they re-released Pearl Mystic worldwide, I had to listen to a test press and I found it excruciating,” he winces, stating a wish to never have to listen to it ever again. Same goes for its successor. “I was obsessed with The Hum when we were doing it,” he caveats, “but as soon as it was finished that was it for me. I haven’t really thought about it since… I’m just really not that interested in looking back. I’d rather just say that something’s finished and then move on, and try and do something better. I think The Hum was the best record we could have done at the time, right now, and I’m definitely proud of it. I’ll just never listen to it again, I don’t think.”

An exception to this unofficial policy of finish up, move on and never look back is Radio Tokyo, first released as part of a Too Pure 7" last year and re-recorded for inclusion on The Hum.

form of fans thanking him for opening up about an often invisible issue. Towards the end of our interview, talk turns to another under-examined subject that’s close to his heart. “Only something like 5% of audio professionals are non-male and I find that very difficult,” he says, highlighting acute inequalities within his metier as a producer and sound engineer. “It’s strange because I think a lot of people that are audio professionals aren’t particularly masculine or macho alpha male characters, yet there is a really horrible train of thought through that industry.”

He focuses his ire on a recent issue of trade magazine Sound on Sound, “where there was a naked woman being used to sell a microphone.”

At the time, the band used their Facebook page to urge fans to write to the magazine’s editor and protest the presence of such retrograde imagery, and MJ’s own displeasure is still apparent. “It kind of blows my mind that half of the populaMJ tion aren’t engaging with this field because it’s so uncomfortable for them, and I felt like the way Sound on Sound reacted to having a sexist adverThe Hum also contains a call back to Radio tisement in their magazine was, basically, fear – Tokyo B-side On Returning, in the form of the that if they upset the people who put adverts in correlatively titled On Leaving. “They’re very their magazine then they’re going to lose funding. personal, both of those songs,” says MJ when I understand that, but I also think it’s about time asked how the two relate: the former is “litersomeone said something – if you actually want ally about depression, and coming out the other any women, or non-males, to engage in the reside and finding a way to deal with relationships cording industry. Because there’s so much scope with people who you might have grown apart for people to do amazing stuff but people are too from, unintentionally,” while the latter “is really scared because it’s such a horrible masculine about being on the other side of that, where the environment.” other person has somehow grown apart from While MJ also stresses that Hookworms have you.” Such acutely serious and emotionally thorny “never tried to set ourselves out as a political themes are typical of MJ’s lyrics, which confront and purge first-hand experiences of loss, depres- band,” neither will they downplay or suppress sion and a cluster of related tumults. The precise their convictions. “I guess we realise that we’ve words are only intermittently and foggily discern- got a little bit of a soapbox for a short amount of time,” he says, “so if it gives us a chance to talk ible under trademark Space Echo distortion, but the stricken delivery speaks volumes of their about things that matter, then I think that’s an important thing to do. So when people ask me for cathartic origins.

“I always find it quite difficult,” says MJ, when my opinion on something, I’m not going to shut up about it – because even if it only affects one asked about baring all on tape. “It was harder person and the way they’re thinking about somewith Pearl Mystic, when people started asking thing, then that’s cool. I can at least be proud about depression and mental health problems a that I didn’t keep quiet.” If albums three-throughlot… because I hadn’t quite come to terms with eight can maintain the quality of the first two, it myself. But I think I’m a lot better at dealing Hookworms should be able to hold on to that with that now. I still find it hard to discuss what the songs are about, but at least now I know what soapbox for some time yet. happens so I can kind of prepare myself for it.”

The Hum is released on 10 Nov via Weird World Being frank about mental health has also parasiticnematode.blogspot.co.uk had unforeseen but welcome side effects, in the

“I think it was important to us that that song was on the album because it was the first time we’d ever consciously tried to write a pop song,” he explains. “I’d just read David Byrne’s book How Music Works, where he talks about the way context informs an aesthetic, and I was quite interested in the idea of purposefully writing for a 7".

I think that was quite a successful piece of work for us, and it kind of informed how we went on to work on the rest of the album.”

“I still find it hard to discuss what these songs are about”

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Beneath the Label: 10 Years of Perc Trax A decade into his industrial-leaning techno label venture, Perc discusses its hard-edged sound and looks to the future with the Slowly Exploding compilation

Interview: Ronan Martin

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n the day we catch up with him via a rather troublesome Skype connection, Ali Wells AKA Perc is back in the UK and sounding pretty chilled out after one of his busiest weekends of the year. Having performed at Amsterdam’s ADE festival, Unsound in Krakow as well as squeezing in smaller club gigs in places likes Zagreb and Venice, it’s safe to say Wells is in high demand far beyond his London base.

One of the key figures during a resurgent period for what many might term ‘proper techno’ – characterised as it is by much more grit than was offered by the deluge of inadequate records that saw the minimal movement reduce itself to nothing – Perc has seen his reputation and that of his label, Perc Trax, grow significantly. Initially launched in 2004 as a platform for his own productions, the label has now developed to accommodate a small family of artists and has amassed a considerable following.

Yet, reflecting on the decade long history of his outlet, Wells recalls a sense of uncertainty in the earliest days of the venture. “It definitely hasn’t gone the way I anticipated,” he admits. “I never really expected the label to last more than two or three releases.

“It’s not a case of not taking it seriously, because I was very serious about what I was doing, but I wasn’t really thinking of the bigger picture and the business side of things. I was just putting out music and seeing what sticks and what people liked. As the label continued through to about 15 to 20 releases, in my DJing and in my production and with the label itself, a certain sound was solidifying and the techno/industrial crossover kind of thing was where the label was going.”

That pulverising sound is one of the most recognisable features of the label in recent years. With a growing back catalogue of releases from Wells himself, as well as from a core group of other contributors such as Truss, Forward Strategy Group and Sawf, Perc Trax has advanced a particularly hard-hitting and murky style of techno. Kick drums fit to bore holes through your chest frequently form the backdrop for tracks that evoke the darkest of 5am basement club scenarios.

“It’s not some kind of reflection of my emotional state or my mood,” says Wells when asked about the dominance of gloomy atmospherics in both his own tracks and those he puts out on the label. “I go into the studio and the tracks I make come out like that; it’s just the way I am. In terms of the label, a lot of stuff is dark and moody, but that’s just the way I like it.”

Though he favours that particularly fierce brand of techno, Ali is clear about the potential for diversity within the genre, when asked about its lasting appeal and its current renaissance.

“More than any other kind of dancefloor music – compared with house or garage or drum ‘n’ bass – I think techno is quite a wide-ranging thing.

“There’s not such a defined formula, and if you’ve got a 4/4 kick and maybe some percussion at a suitable tempo then the range to experiment on top of that is pretty wide. People in the club or the people buying the records are, for the most part, fairly open-minded to new ideas – especially if they are sort of strapped onto that basic engine.”

For sure, Wells can hear the seeds of Regis and his early Downwards sound in many new producers’ work and evidence of cross-generational allegiances can be found in the recent collaborations between Surgeon and Blawan. But Wells is full of praise for the way in which the new generation of techno producers are adapting the form, rather than aping past work. “It does go through

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cycles and you can hear trends come and go but I think, unlike the way house is right now – which is going a bit backwards with the whole deep house revival and things like that – techno hasn’t had a stage like that. People aren’t just ripping off those old tracks. I think that’s what keeps techno fresh, whereas in house [right now] there are people just making exact copies, with the exact same equipment as the tracks that were coming out in the early 90s. Thankfully, techno doesn’t do that too often.”

What’s immediately clear from prolonged listening to the Perc Trax catalogue and from observing the way in which it has developed is that the label isn’t locked in to one particular course; it’s not resistant to evolution. Particularly in Perc’s recent collaborative work with Truss, there is evidence of more colour finding its way into the label’s trademark opaque sound, and Ali tells us this will only continue in the coming years.

“It’s [about figuring out] how to get hooks, riffs and synths and things like that into your music without doing anything too clichéd. I like a bit of energy and some sort of hook – not just a kick drum and a drone.”

As part of the celebrations around the 10 year anniversary of Perc Trax, this month sees the release of Slowly Exploding, a blistering double CD compilation put together by Wells. Rather refreshingly, he shuns picking out landmark records from the label’s history in favour of presenting new work from some of its key players.

“It’s really about looking forward,” says Ali. “The label has had a lot of releases so if I was going to do one or two CDs of either my favourites, or the best-selling, or the most popular in terms of club play, or anything like that, I think it would never be fully satisfying and it would exclude certain people and certain tracks.

“I wanted the core group of artists on the label to contribute something and then other people that I’m really into at the moment. I wanted them to be part of it, and if they go on to release their own EPs on Perc Trax that’s great and if they’re just going to be on the compilation then it’s still nice to have had them on board for the one track. I didn’t want to do a retrospective

thing or take a bunch of tracks from five years ago and do a whole bunch of new remixes. I think that would have been a waste.”

For the second CD on the compilation, Ali admits he “couldn’t resist” doing a mix, and the resulting effort is an expertly sculpted voyage through the work of the label’s main ambassadors, alongside some tracks from less frequent contributors. “It took quite a lot of planning and going through tracks,” he explains.

“There’s people who haven’t contributed a track [to the first CD] but that I wanted to somehow feature in the 10 year celebration so it was important for me to include them in the mix – people like Dead Sound & Videohead. Then there’s the Ancient Methods mix of one of my tracks. That’s the only thing Michael from Ancient Methods has ever done for Perc Trax but it was really important to have that connection there.

It’s the same with the LUCY mix of Go Hiyama; I wanted both of those guys in there. There was a lot of going through tracks and grouping them by how intense they were – so deeper tracks at the start and tougher ones at the end. The actual mix itself came together [quickly] but it took a long time to choose what I wanted to include in it.”

As an artist, Perc has shown increasing versatility in his own output over the years and he has made comfortable strides into producing work not squarely aimed at the dancefloor.

His interest in industrial music – not just clubfriendly techno interpretations – led him to release an EP of reworks of tracks by German group Einstürzende Neubauten, longstanding pioneers of the industrial scene. For these kinds of projects, Ali launched the Submit sub-label in 2013, meaning Perc Trax is likely to keep a fairly dancefloor-focussed remit for the foreseeable future. That’s not to say we cannot expect fresh approaches though. “Going into next year the sound of the label will develop a bit,” Perc confirms.

“I think the kind of intensity and the distortion and noise of the industrial stuff will stay, but maybe some of the more metallic sounds and some of the murkier atmospheric sounds which are quite common in industrial techno right now will go away and maybe the label will push more

CLUBS

stuff that has a slightly more electronic edge. I know everything that Perc Trax releases is considered electronic music but maybe, instead of murkier atmospheres, there will be more synths and things like that.”

When pressed on specifics and details of who may contribute, Wells explains that there are no grand plans laid out but that we can expect more from the elusive Sawf, whose new track on the Slowly Exploding compilation has given Ali great confidence in the Greek producer’s future potential. As well as this, he is keen for Scottish based duo Forward Strategy Group to continue their close association with the label. “In terms of releases, I’d like to just do maybe five or six really beautifully packaged 12 inches,” says Wells on his decision to avoid releasing any more albums for the time being.

“I never tell people what to do and what sort of music to make but if people want to move their music forward and try something slightly different from what they’ve been doing for the last year or two, then I’m definitely up for listening to it. Hopefully there will be an EP from Truss and one from myself. It would be nice to do strong artist EPs - no remixes, just each artist making a statement for the future. If they are really well packaged and they are really collectible then that would be a good year for me.”

Given the way in which Perc Trax has developed over the years, it seems Slowly Exploding is a rather fitting title for the upcoming compilation. The label arguably emerged with little fanfare and took time to establish its identity and forge roots within a techno scene at that time still in need of some resuscitation. Ten years on, and with those roots firmly established, there is a sense of confidence in the way the label is run, evident by the decision to look to the future with the anniversary release. Retrospective collections can all too often herald the end of a label, as past glories are rehashed in the absence of any fresh vision or ingenuity. Even the most cursory dip into next month’s double CD proves that Perc Trax faces no such problem.

Slowly Exploding – Ten Years of Perc Trax is released on 10 Nov perctrax.bandcamp.com/

THE SKINNY

FASHION | INTERIORS | ACCESSORIES

Scotland Re:Designed is a platform from which Scottish fashion designers and textile companies can build, establish and secure business relationships with industry, media and consumers.

This year’s showcase runs from 19th - 21st November and includes a static exhibition of 12 designers selected by industry experts as well as presentations and a fashion show. Find us at SWG3 in Glasgow.

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SO YOU WANT TO BE A DESIGNER?

NOV

Chris Hunt and Alex McCluskey take you through the next steps

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SR:D FASHION & TEXTILES SHOWCASE

NOV

See the best Scottish Fashion Talent and meet the designers

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TRENDY, OR CREATING TRENDS FOR A NEWGENERATION?

NOV

Melanie Rickey helps ensure you’re an influencer

View our full event schedule and get your free tickets at

SCOTLANDREDESIGNED.COM WE WELCOME YOU TO A NEW DAWN OF DESIGN AND CREATIVITY IN SCOTLAND. @scotredesigned

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THE SKINNY

So Far, So Good In 2005, a stroke robbed Edwyn Collins of his memories and words.

One phrase that stuck was ‘the possibilities are endless’ – a maxim that now gives its name to a documentary portrait of his recovery.

We find out more from those on either side of the camera

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ext year marks a number of milestones in Edwyn Collins’ life: 30 years since he called time on Orange Juice from the stage of the Brixton Academy; 20 years since A Girl Like You gate-crashed the top 5 and gave him the biggest hit of his career; and 10 years since he suffered two life-threatening cerebral haemorrhages, from which he has been in steady recovery ever since.

New documentary The Possibilities are Endless (which takes its name from one of the handful of phrases Collins was able to speak after the stroke) creatively explores the trials and tribulations of that last decade. Utilising extensive interviews with the singer, it narrates an emotional but meticulously unsentimental story of restoration and readjustment, as Collins and his wife Grace Maxwell adapt to a condition that has impaired his speech but not his spirit. Structurally, the film eschews many typical hallmarks of the music documentary form, using archive footage sparingly and doing away with talking head testimonies. Instead, the filmmakers have crafted something strikingly cinematic and formally inventive, whether conveying the isolation and disorientation of aphasia through murky underwater scenes, or pictorialising Collins’ emerging recollections with bucolic tableaux featuring his son Will, shot near the family’s new home in the Highland coastal town of Helmsdale.

“It’s a beautiful film,” says Collins over the phone, speaking a few days before the film’s UK premiere at the London Film Festival. Also on the line is Maxwell (the story is, after all, hers also), who proffers her own admiration for the finished work. “It’s amazing what they’ve done,” she enthuses, emphasising how well the film translates aspects of Collins’ illness and recovery to the screen. “I think the boys wanted to convey what it was like for him when communication was…”

Before she can finish, Collins steps in and finishes the sentence (“Impossible!”) – this small exchange is typical of the touching back-and-forth rapport that recurs throughout the interview in both directions, and which speaks to the tightness of their bond. Maxwell continues: “Yes – and to my mind, they did it perfectly. They’re young guys and I don’t know how they managed it, but they really have captured it very accurately.”

The “young guys” in question are directors Edward Lovelace and James Hall. Though both

November 2014

Interview: Chris Buckle

were fans of Collins’ growing up, they only considered him as a potential film subject when seventh solo album Losing Sleep was released “out of the blue” back in 2010. “That was after a time when, well, no one was sure if he could even write songs again,” says Hall. “So that was the first inspiration, where we realised that it had hints of a guy coming to terms with who he was, or who he is today.”

With the seeds of a project in mind, the duo emailed Maxwell asking to meet, and all four immediately hit it off. “We got on with them, up in the studio,” says Collins about the initial introductions. “That was the main thing.” As a result, Maxwell says, “Edwyn decided to put a kind of implicit trust in their ability to make an interesting film.” At no point did either side suggest that Collins and Maxwell might want any degree of editorial oversight. Instead, there was an unspoken agreement that all directorial decisions would come from Hall and Lovelace alone. “My opinion was ‘get on with it lads,’” says Collins. “No interfering, just get on with it.”

From the very start, the filmmakers wanted to enable Collins to “tell his own story.” Ensuring he had the necessary opportunities to express himself fully was therefore paramount. “Near the start, I was, let’s say, hesitating a lot because of my stroke,” Collins recalls. “But I relaxed and it started to flow. I remember, back in the studio, it coming back clearer and clearer – ‘Oh aye, I forgot that’, and ‘Oh yes!’ and so on.” To pre-empt any temptation to assist or paraphrase her husband, Maxwell was ejected from the room during these early audio interviews, and Collins was encouraged to take the conversation in whatever direction his memories returned. “They had a very clear idea of how they would go about the process of recording Edwyn,” says Maxwell (who, Collins laughs, resorted to listening in from the corridor), “and it was really miraculous, because they were so quiet, so still. They never hurried him and they never prompted him.”

“He was getting better all the time, and there came a point where he was actually able to tell us everything that was important to him,” says Lovelace. “But we were never like, ‘Right, we need to tell a certain story point, so let’s really try and make Edwyn say something about it.’ For instance, Edwyn didn’t really talk about his six months in hospital at length, because I think it

was just a really intense period for him and something that he doesn’t want to dwell on. Therefore the film doesn’t either.”

At this stage the directors wrote a script of sorts, drawn exclusively from their interview transcripts, and began conceiving of ways to visualise Collins’ tale. The results are awash with natural imagery and themes, from the drowning symbolism that opens the film to the painterly shots of Highland wildlife. “Everything really was led by Edwyn, [and] we just kind of intuited things from what he was telling us,” says Hall. “[For instance], that kind of ravaged landscape seemed like a great metaphor for his brain, and the way memories would flow, almost like from one field to the next with a blow of the wind.”

“The ravaged landscape seemed like a great metaphor for Edwyn’s brain” James Hall

While Hall and Lovelace worked on the structural and visual aspects, Collins (along with collaborators Seb Lewsley and Carwyn Ellis) was left to contrive an original score – something he did without the benefit of viewing rough cuts or rushes, let alone the finished film. “We told Edwyn what we were shooting and tried to explain the style and atmosphere that we wanted to create,” says Lovelace, “but we hadn’t really discussed specific references.” A rigid brief was deliberately avoided because, as Hall notes, “how do you tell someone like Edwyn Collins what direction to take musically? It’s Edwyn Collins, so we just wanted him to do his own thing…

Obviously we were quite apprehensive when we went in to listen to the score, because it was going to be so important [to the film]. But when we heard it, it was totally amazing. It didn’t really sound like anything else we’d ever heard him record.”

Collins and Maxwell first saw the film just a

FILM

few weeks before its international premiere at South by Southwest. “James and Ed were very nervous, weren’t they?” says Maxwell, sharing an anecdote that still tickles both her and Collins.

“We hadn’t seen a foot of it, nothing, not a bit. So the film starts and of course it’s very quiet and quite emotional at the beginning. You can feel the nerves in the room, and about five minutes into it Edwyn pipes up and shouts ‘So far, so good, lads!’”

His vote of confidence proved to be just the first of many glowing reviews: amongst other praise, the Guardian called it ‘remarkable,’ while The Hollywood Reporter went with ‘inspirational.’

How does that latter epithet feel, we ask Collins; to be considered an inspiration? “It’s up to the audience I guess,” he replies, “but I’m not an inspiration at all. I worked on my speech and language, and Grace helped me… but I’m not inspirational at all. It’s kind of the audience to say so, but come on!”

“Edwyn does all this entirely for his own ends, if you get my drift,” says Maxwell. “He’s not looking to be a figurehead – it’s purely to get back to work. That’s what matters to you, isn’t it – getting back to work? Because without your work…”

Edwyn interrupts with a final burst of dry wit, laughingly declaring “You’re nothing!”

Currently, Collins, Maxwell, Hall and Lovelace are touring the UK, hosting post-film Q&As and acoustic performances. Beyond that, we ask where the directors plan to turn their cameras next. They’re not ready to offer specific details quite yet, says Lovelace, “but we definitely want to make sure our next project has the same kind of… Er… ” He hesitates, as if searching for the right wording before alighting on the obvious.

“Well, the same kind of unlimited possibility to it.” In cinema, as in life, the possibilities are endless after all.

The Possibilities are Endless is released across the UK on 7 Nov by Pulse Films As well as the general release, The Possibilities are Endless will tour across the country. On the road will be Edwyn along with his wife Grace Maxwell, and musical collaborator Carwyn Ellis. The film’s directors Edward Lovelace and James Hall will also be making appearances and each tour stop will include a screening of the film followed by Q&A’s and acoustic performances For full details go to thepossibilities.co.uk

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¡Viva la Revolution!

Curating the Cure

The Glasgow School of Art’s exhibition of Cuban Revolution Posters was poignant, beautiful and raised issues of contemporary political communication

This month, a radical new initiative comes to fruition as Suttie Arts Space opens its doors in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

Interview: Franchesca Hashemi

Photo: Alan Dimmick

Words: Franchesca Hashemi

W

hen Fidel Castro announced to citizens of the Revolution, “our enemies are capitalists and imperialists, not abstract art,” he unleashed one of the most effective propaganda beasts known to man.

The bold and provoking Posters of the Cuban Revolution at Glasgow School of Art has unfortunately come to an end, however the creative and political techniques used to create the 70-plus works offer post-Referendum Scotland an empowering if bitterly nostalgic message.

Placing an internationalist perspective at the heart of every poster shows the magnitude of Cuba’s agenda. It is a direct reference to Lenin’s theory, where socialism prevails only if performed on a global scale. With this in mind, the Organisation in Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) – the political body founded in 1968 who commissioned the decades-old posters involving graphic designers, printers and artists alike – waged a visual war against their capitalist aggressors.

It is one of few fights that can be described as beautiful, and starts with a multilingual significance. From captions written in Spanish, English, French and Arabic to illustrations of citizens of every colour, age and gender, Posters of the Cuban Revolution signpost their universal goal.

This intentionally dangerous side-effect suspends the audience’s morals from midair.

Just like René Mederos’ 1971 print of President Dick Nixon ripping the heart out of Cambodia, it serves as a global representation of political plight, the one which entices the underdog to break from his master’s chains. The background uses a thin, parchment-esque map to pinpoint Cuba’s confrontation in the country. Nixon, depicted as a vulture soaring over the anaemic Asian land, grips the bloody red organ with crawling talons as his nutty head peeps from the predator’s body. It’s militant; it’s guerilla-like yet it shows little more than what’s acceptable today. Does this prove Cuba was ahead of its time? Not necessarily, but the image highlights the frightening and uncompromising nature of OSPAAL in delivering their anti-Capitalist

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message.

It should be recognised that these Posters are not a stand alone feature, rather they are part of the wider propaganda project which used traditional print media, like the internationally circulated magazine Tricontinental. Could today’s equivalent for the accompanying role be Twitter and Facebook? Undoubtedly so. The combined efforts relied on a pro-art government. And as the popularity of graphic-based and scorchingly bright images grew, Castro and leaders involved in OSPAAL began to fund the silk screening print methods, which created the perfect finesse for their scathingly apt show.

Adorning the walls of the Reid Gallery were the palpable faces of Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara, pharaohs, tribesmen, spiritual gods and most importantly ordinary people nursing the wounded. The photographic quality is almost surreal, and proves a vital component throughout the exhibition. Of course, there are depictions of American soldiers looking less than glorified: military uniform cut to represent a shooting range’s target while the man’s face snarls expectantly.

Even the posters without severely explicit intention – the simple graphics, happy colours and DIY undertone – are equally and sometimes more disturbing. Standing before a pure black backdrop is the curved stick figure of a solider bearing arms. The orange-peel velocity of his stance, narrow lime green eyes and bandy, unsymmetrical legs exude a menacing and realistic message.

Like the Medero’s work, the wealth of Posters of the Cuban Revolution combine astounding graphics, explicit text, harrowing images and a conflictingly creative abutment of postmodern positioning. Pop Art vibrancy seeps from the sheets while sharp lines separating fore and backgrounds would be better placed in the doorways of Glasgow’s music shops. This undeniable resemblance to the Avant Garde is emblematic yet ideologically difficult to comprehend. If art transcends morals, where does that leave Posters of the Cuban Revolution?

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rim colour schemes; the jaundice terrine of a waiting room wall, cheap leather chairs and oddly strewn health posters are the most likely connotations when you think of art displayed within a hospital. Challenging this stereotypically bleak medical atmosphere is Suttie Arts Space, opening on 29 November. The Suttie proposes an artistic alternative with pioneering site specific sculptures and film screenings. Situated in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, this newly built and contemporary venue is, as far as the literature goes, the only one of its kind in the UK. Boasting 24/7 access, an open door policy and ergonomically surpassing itself so porters pushing patients in beds can easily pass through, this new gallery should not be bypassed.

“A driving ambition in the context of Aberdeen and shire is to help realise this region as attractive and interesting to artists and audiences” The venture is a collaboration between NHS Grampian and Grampian Hospitals Art Trust (GHAT) – an organisation which has brought artwork to healthcare since 1985. On a weekly basis, the Art Office at GHAT take works from their 4,500 strong collection and peddle the hospital corridors, generating interest and discussion about art more generally. Feedback from the public, patients and staff has amazed project coordinators who commission, collect and display the predominantly wall-based works across NHS Grampian but also look to collaborate on numerous large-scale one-off pieces for the hospital grounds. Between GHAT and NHS Grampian, Suttie Arts is formed in the view of contextualising art within healthcare, rather than healthcare

ART

becoming the basis for the development of art.

The grand opening on 29 November sees a multimedia group show from artists Oliver Laric, Stephanie Mann and Lotte Glob, all of whom will fill the dynamic venue with film, print and sculptural pieces. Laric is known for quirky 3D productions which remix ancient and modern images before turning them into moving pictures, while renowned ceramic artist Lotte Glob plays on her affinity for the Scottish Highlands to create mesmerising sculptural works. Already the unorthodox relationship between creative process and hospital surroundings is apparent, however the artist who could prove the pinnacle in the environment is Stephanie Mann.

Mann recently received acclaim with Inherit This Mango at Summerhall, an exhibition that wanted to make the audience’s “eyes tickle.” Her brightly coloured and domestically fastidious compositions are wholesomely stimulating and will offer a positive interlude for any person frequenting Suttie Arts Space.

Another poignant feature of the opening night is the accompanying exhibition library which aims to inspire visitors with other artists and ideas associated with the initial display. It all ties in with the Suttie’s pioneering principles.

Fraser MacDonald, Programme Coordinator with GHAT, says, “We are aware that art is not here to save people’s lives, but it can ease the patient, staff and visitor experience within the hospital, which has a positive impact on healthcare…

Hospitals are emotionally charged places in which many patients, and staff, are placed under significant stress. Experience of arts within this context can not only improve their wellbeing, but can also be the start of an interest and longer term engagement with art beyond the hospital.”

Presently the universities around Aberdeen have the chance to involve their students with the venture in creative events or group projects.

Encompassing the massive student population of the region is another fundamental and organic aim of the new arts space. As Fraser MacDondald says, “A locally focused, long-term ambition of the Suttie Arts Space is to immediately support and contribute to the retention of creative talent within Aberdeen. A driving ambition in the context of Aberdeen and shire is to help realise this region as attractive and interesting to artists and audiences, and to signpost audiences to further cultural activity in the North-East.”

THE SKINNY

November 2014

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Fielding Questions It’s ten years since Noel Fielding’s androgynous elf Vince Noir baffled our screens in cult TV hit The Mighty Boosh. He talks to us about getting back to the roots of comedy, and why he’s quite happy to become the eccentric old guy kids point at in the street

Interview: John Stansfield Illustration: Studio Monik

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t’s hard to think of Noel Fielding as a veteran of the UK comedy scene – the boy prince of surreal fascinations still has a youthful look and a glint in his eye that intones mischief is about to be made. But at 41 years old (forty one?!) he must take his place as one of the elder statesmen of British comedians. When asked about his age, he is as incredulous as anyone you might mention it to. “Forty one. I know! How did that happen? I’m one of those Peter Pan figures.”

Indeed, when you look at his career so far – spanning some 20 years – you realise he’s achieved quite a lot, ergo he’s been about for some time. “Hang on a minute, he’s just done a series, then he did a series before that, then he’d done a tour and then he’d done a Boosh tour, then a Boosh show, then a radio show, then three Edinburgh shows. All those things take about a year, you go, ‘Yeah he’s gotta be getting near 40,’” he wistfully remembers. “Unless he was a child when he started doing it.”

Fielding shows little sign of ageing, however – he still has an infectious positivity about him, meeting every sentence with an “awesome” or “amazing” as if everything is new to the man who was Vince Noir. After such a long time bringing new and baffling comedy to stages and screens it is refreshing to hear someone be genuinely excited about their next project, especially when he’s spent the last few hours on press calls.

With his new tour An Evening with Noel Fielding, the title is the kind of name Bob Monkhouse might have chosen, or Les Dawson.

Not the man who popularised the art of crimping.

Though the real reason behind the title of the show is less a settling down, and more his usual anarchic self. “I had no idea what it was going to be,” he says. “It’ll be an evening with me, but I had no idea what that was. I thought it was quite [an] old school [idea] as well. It’s not the sort of thing that I would do but I thought it just might be funny. Also, I had no ideas so thought I’d best be as vague as possible.”

Having now written and trialed the show he has a clearer vision of what he might be putting in front of people’s eyes and minds. “Some of it’s stand-up, some of it’s characters, some of it’s stories, some of it’s animation, so it’s quite complicated putting it together. It’s not just a standup show. Got a lot of elements to it, so it’s quite a bugger. Some bits can’t really be rehearsed.”

An Evening with Noel Fielding reflects his career so far, taking in little bits of everything to make something new and different. He is looking forward to touring again, though the hedonistic days of The Mighty Boosh tour of 2008 may have to be toned down. “The Boosh tour was 100 dates and we partied massively. It was like being on an Aerosmith tour or something. It was great and I would never change it but it was very full on.”

Now, he says, he’s happy to be getting back to what he loves – stand-up (of sorts). That buzz of a live audience that TV work can’t duplicate “feels a bit more like returning to your roots,” he says.

“When you first start it’s always in front of an audience. You spend years doing a TV show and it’s not the same. Even panel shows, there is an audience but it’s not quite the same as stand-up either. You end up having to remind yourself of what comedy is in its basic form, which is just you in front of a bunch of people.”

After two series of Luxury Comedy that have split critics and fans alike, it’ll be refreshing to see Fielding taking to the stage for the immediacy of live performance. “The first [series] was quite Marmite,” he admits. “The people who hated it, really hated it. Or really loved it, there was

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nothing in between.” It was the first time Fielding had faced such criticism for his work, but rather than recoil he went about putting it right. “I knew there were good elements of [the first series] but just needed to house it in a way that people could get into.” The second series was much better received thanks to the tinkering by Fielding and co – “weirdly this time we were ready for battle after we’d made it and everyone went, ‘Yeah that’s pretty good,’” he says. “And we were like, oh, okay, really? The people of the internet were even kind and you know what the internet’s like. They hate everything.”

When asked if he’s looking to do more Luxury Comedy, he starts to wander off into the other possibilities available to him at present, like a child who hears an ice cream van while discussing his day at school. “Could possibly do another series, or just do Fantasy Man, or do a film, I’m quite excited about this live tour, I’ve not been on tour for a while, but this feels quite different.”

As his mind draws him away, the elder statesman brings him back to the subject at hand – the tour – and he’s excited to be back performing to crowds in contrast to the process of making TV behind closed doors and then hoping people like it: “It’s like a sort of secret,” he says of TV. “Until we first started doing Boosh shows we just couldn’t believe how many people would come

dressed as Boosh characters and we were like wow. We weren’t sure if anyone was watching this and yet they came dressed as the characters and they would give us little presents.”

“The Boosh tour was 100 dates and we partied massively. It was like being on an Aerosmith tour or something” Noel Fielding

The Mighty Boosh was the show that launched him into the headspace of many a fan, and gave him such a loyal base – but it is ten years since Howard Moon and Vince Noir first stepped on to our screens to become the alternative comedy duo of the day. “[Boosh] were on Gold the other day. Which blew my mind. That

COMEDY

means I am old. It’s like Last of the Summer Wine.

It happened. Deal with it.”

“You never really feel old in your head,” he says, unworried. “I sometimes worry about, ‘How long can he wear make-up for?’” He breaks into laughter. “You go from being slightly trendy to being someone who’s eccentric. I’m happy with that.

The one the kids point to in the street and go ‘That guy who wears a cape, I think he used to be on the telly. He’s a bit weird.’” He chuckles to himself. If anything, he feels that with comedy, the older you get, the better you get, provided you keep pushing yourself – “The more you do it, the better you get. Rich Hall. He’s just like a master, he’s been doing it for years. God knows how old he is. He used to write for Letterman. Gigs gigs gigs. Joan Rivers [was] 81, still doing gigs every week. Incredible really.”

The comedy world needs more role models like Fielding: getting older and maybe even a little bit wiser, but still excited, eager to learn, looking for the next thing that might make him, and by association those around him, laugh.

And after all, don’t our heroes usually wear make-up and capes?

Noel Fielding plays The Kings Theatre, Glasgow, 8 Feb, and EICC Edinburgh, 10 Feb luxurycomedy.com

THE SKINNY

Unto The End Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things is with us. A haunting imagining of love divided by an endless void, completed in the most unbearable personal circumstances and significantly inscribed – I am with you always, even unto the end of the world

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ithin minutes of meeting Michel Faber – at the tram stop outside Media City in Manchester, where he has spent the morning recording his part on the Radio 4 show, The Verb – he tells me that his wife, Eva, died only two months previously. It stops me in my tracks.

“What are you doing?” I say. “Doing this?” – meaning the interview. “Eva would have wanted it,” he answers. “She helped me to connect with people and I want to honour the influence she had on me.”

We take a seat in the Lowry, the vast, bizarre temple to all things art and entertainment, and I ask him about his tremendous new novel, The Book of Strange New Things, an intricate, involved piece of science fiction that follows a minister called Peter as he travels to a new world on the other side of the galaxy. At the behest of a shadowy organisation he provides teaching to a race of alien creatures known as the Oasans, leaving his wife Beatrice behind on Earth.

“I wanted to do something different,” Michel tells me. “I wanted to challenge myself.” With The Crimson Petal and the White, the large, bestselling historical novel he wrote over a twenty year period (published in 2002), “I had it planned out so that I knew what I would write each day. With The Book of Strange New Things I didn’t do that – I wanted to go on the same adventure as Peter, and discover things as he discovered things.”

I tell Michel that when I first received the proof of the book, it was entirely white without any clue as to what the story was about. At that time there was nothing on Amazon by way of a synopsis. So I read blind, read the book in much the same way as he wrote it, knowing only that this was a book by Michel Faber. He seems extremely pleased by this. “I would love readers to come to the book without knowing anything about it, to just start reading because they knew

November 2014

it was a book by me and they trusted me to take them on a journey.”

We talk about the way in which the book is as much about a marriage and the strain of separation as it is about life on an alien world. I ask if it helped him at all, to work through his feelings about Eva’s illness as he wrote. “Writing a novel requires intense concentration and the freedom to vanish into an imaginative space. I found that almost impossible because I was caring for Eva. By 2013 I was reconciling myself to the fact that this book would never be finished. Then Eva pleaded with me to write just six lines a day. Six lines, you can do that, she said. For a long time that’s all I managed, but then it gained momentum. Eva got to see me finish the book, helped me edit it, knew that it would come out.”

I say to Michel that it’s possible, given the success afforded by Jonathan Glazer’s recent adaptation of his 2000 novel, Under the Skin, that there will be readers who come to The Book of Strange New Things and think he is only a science fiction writer. “For a long time,” he answers, “with the success of The Crimson Petal and the White, lots of readers thought I was a historical novelist.

Publishers would send piles of terrible historical novels looking for cover quotes from me.” The implicit suggestion is that being thought of as a science fiction writer wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

We talk some more about Under the Skin, a film that was developed over a long period, and was at one point a double header between Scarlett Johansson and Brad Pitt, both of whom were deeply committed to the project. After various ups and downs and financial setbacks, the script was finally reframed to focus only on Scarlett Johansson’s character – and was all the better for it, according to Michel. “Obviously it’s very different from my book but when I saw it – I got Eva out of hospital for one night to attend the screening

at the BFI, and we looked at each other at one point in the film, as it sank in what an amazing thing we were watching.” I tell Michel that when I saw it people walked out of the cinema. “At what point?” he asks, seemingly pleased and enthusiastic for my answer. “All the way through,” I reply, and he laughs gently.

“I would love readers to come to the book without knowing anything about it, to just start reading” Michel Faber

I ask Michel where he feels he is in terms of his career and he looks at the copy of The Book of Strange New Things on the table between us.

“This will be my last novel,” he says. Again, I’m shocked. “What? No!” He explains that he had a certain number of novels in him, and those are now done. In any case, losing Eva – the person he most wanted to share his work with – has made him feel that an era is over. Which isn’t to say that he doesn’t have plans. “I’ll no doubt write the odd short story now and then. Also, Eva was a tremendous artist in her own right,” he enthuses, showing me photographs and artworks she produced during her illness. “She wrote a lot of fiction too, some of which is pretty much final draft and some of which is more sketchy. I’d like to collaborate with her on those stories. I’m

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Interview: Peter Wild Illustration: Luke Brookes

also writing poetry.” I interject to say that Hardy stopped writing novels and concentrated on poetry, after the terrible critical reception afforded Jude the Obscure. Michel admits that he doesn’t know how The Book of Strange New Things will be taken. “It’s been a long time since my last book,” he says. “I’ve had a number of very kind early readers and reviewers but I don’t know if it will be a success or not.” I try to reassure him, I think the book is tremendously good, easily as good as anything he has written before, and he asks me if I think the book is “even” – I say that I think it is.

Of course it is.

He reads me a selection of the poetry, which is profoundly moving, focusing as it does, on Eva’s illness and Eva’s death and the misplaced kindnesses people offer in the circumstances. He tells me about a 12" he worked on with Andrew Liles, of Nurse with Wound, showing me a story of a Pope walking amongst a field of newborn babies that has been read aloud by a small child. He also digs out a copy of Ohrwurm, a collaboration he worked on with Andrew and Eva. He shows me many photographs he has taken recently in San Francisco, of a pair of Eva’s red shoes in a variety of backdrops. He is, then, keeping himself busy at an incredibly difficult time. For his readers, there is a substantial new book that repays repeated readings, just as The Crimson Petal and the White did, just as Under the Skin did, just as Some Rain Must Fall and The Courage Consort and, indeed, all of his books – nine other books as different from one another as can be, as distinctive and rewarding as a reader could want. “I think that’s enough,” Michel says.

The Book of Strange New Things is available now, published

by Canongate, RRP £18.99

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The Old Ones

From SNL to Sibling Hell

Jemaine Clement’s preoccupation with vampires reaches its zenith with undead houseshare comedy What We Do In the Shadows. The Flight of the Conchords star explains where this fascination started and why being immortal would have its disadvantages

During their stints on SNL, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig proved themselves expert comic performers. In The Skeleton Twins they reveal substantial dramatic chops too. The film’s writer-director, Craig Johnson, discusses channeling their dark sides

Interview: Jamie Dunn

Interview: Jamie Dunn

“I

was in the university library and I saw this guy across from me – he was chatting up this girl and pointing to the pictures in a book” Jermain Clement is recalling the first time he set eyes on Taika Waititi, fellow Kiwi comic and director of Boy, the highest grossing New Zealand film at the local box office. “He looked like one of those overly confident guys – you know, one of those guys in their early-20s who’s more confident than they deserve. He had a crochet hat on, and I instantly disliked him.” Luckily for all of us Clement warmed to Waititi when he saw him auditioning for a uni sketch show he was also taking part in – “I remember reluctantly finding the stuff he was doing funny” – and they became fast friends. If they hadn’t, the world wouldn’t have What We Do In the Shadows, the pair’s inspired comedy, in which they both direct and star, which centres on a vampire house-share.

The Flight of the Conchords star is speaking to us down the phone from New York, where he’s holed up between wrapping his latest film and travelling to Europe to promote What We Do In the Shadows (“I do still live in New Zealand,” he says, “but it’s not very handy”). It transpires these creatures of the night have interested Clement from an early age. “I used to be preoccupied with vampires: I would dream about them a lot.” These nightmares, brought on by watching movies like Salem’s Lot and Hammer’s Scars of Dracula, were far less traumatising than what followed, however. “When I was nine or ten I started a gang at school called The Vampires,” he says. “We would all wear those cheap, plastic hinged vampire teeth and we’d go around talking in Transylvanian accents trying to scare smaller kids.” Did it impress the girls at school? “Not so much.”

What We Do In the Shadows also follows a vampire gang of sorts, and they’re similarly pathetic. The premise is that a TV crew are making a documentary following four vampires who share a dilapidated house in the suburbs of Wellington. “Any drama that a vampire has can go over a long period of time – it’s all amplified,” says Clement. “We were just imagining what it would be like if you’d been flat sharing for hundreds of years. What would the relationships be like after the strain of all that time living together?” To give you a picture, house meetings

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mostly involve domestic discussions around oldest housemate Petyr’s (aged 8,000 years) habit of leaving his victims’ rotting corpses strewn about the place and arguments about whose turn it is on the five year long washing up rota.

Perhaps the most tragic of the four bloodsuckers is Clement’s own character, Vladislav, aged 862, whose glory years are long behind him.

“The idea was that [Vladislav] was going to be very mysterious and cool, but a guy who’s going a little bit senile because he’s been alive so long,” he explains. But part way through filming – the script was semi-improvised as they went along – Clement realised he needed to take a different approach. “Maybe he used to be cool and powerful, but he’s gradually lost all that. I mean come on: now he’s sharing a crappy flat with three other vampires.” In the world of fictional monsters, vamps have always been the sexiest, the most glamorous, the most bourgeois. Not so with this quartet. “These guys have not invested well,” deadpans Clement. “They just get by basically: if you live for eternity you’ve got to budget.”

The humour comes from the disconnect between vampire mythology we’ve learned from movies and books, and realities of the modern world that make life as a vampire emasculating. Clement pulled a similar trick with Flight of the Conchords, where the chief joke is they’re a rock’n’roll band with only one fan and a lifestyle that makes Cliff Richard look hedonistic. Is this self-deprecating style of comedy a mode that’s central to the New Zealand sense of humour?

“I’m told that there is [a particular New Zealand sense of humour], but I’m not sure what it is,” he says. “I’ve often heard that New Zealanders aren’t reputed to have one at all, actually.”

Where have you heard that?

“I’ve heard it from different people all over the world. It could be that sometimes New Zealanders are joking and people don’t realise it. That’s what I get a lot: I joke to people and they just keep on talking as if I’m totally serious.

Sometimes it takes a microphone for people to realise.”

Judging by the reaction of the audience we watch What We Do In the Shadows with, he should have no fear on that score.

What We Do In the Shadows is released 21 Nov by Metrodome

F

amilial relationships have proved a rich source of inspiration for filmmakers over the years; Oedipal tensions, Electra complexes and sibling rivalries are cinema staples. Movies dealing with a brother-sister dynamic, however, are about as common as a Béla Tarr rom-com. This is just one of the reasons to cherish Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins (another is that it’s very good), which sees a pair of maladjusted siblings, Milo and Maggie (played by SNL pals Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), thrown back together after a decade estranged.

We put this question to Johnson when he was in Edinburgh for The Skeleton Twins’ UK premiere at the city’s film festival: why has the brother-sister bond been so rarely explored on film? “I think people take it for granted,” he suggests. “It doesn’t feel like a flashy premise for a movie.” It is, however, a universal one. “I still experience it when I go back for the holidays” – he has a sister two years his junior – “if you’re with your sibling you just revert to that childlike relationship and find yourself getting bitchier and winier and less mature. And then you catch yourself and you go, ‘Wait, I’m 38 years old, why am I acting like a 12-year-old?’”

The reason for the twins’ reunion is not a happy one: the film opens with Milo, a gay, wannabe actor, slitting his wrists in the bathtub. Maggie, a dental hygienist bored with her conventional life, persuades her brother to move back with her to the upstate New York town where they grew up ‘til he finds his feet. The pair do regress to childhood behaviours, but there are benefits too. “I feel like often one can be oneself around your sibling,” points our Johnson, “like your truly goofy self. You just strip away all the masks you wear in everyday life.”

The masks this pair wear are many. When Milo returns he surreptitiously rekindles a sexual relationship he had with a teacher while at high school. Maggie has secrets of her own: chiefly she habitually cheats on her square husband (charmingly played by Luke Wilson). So as well as suicide and depression, that’s infidelity and child abuse in the mix. The joy of Johnson’s film, though, is that these heavy themes are worn lightly. If you were to be waiting in the wings of the theatre in which The Skeleton Twins is playing, listening to the audience reaction, you’d never have guessed

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it wasn’t a straight up comedy, given its abundance of LOLs. “I love set-pieces in movies – I love me a good car chase,” reveals Johnson. “All movies need big blasts of entertainment, no matter what kind of movie it is.” The Skeleton Twins is full of these ebullient moments: a visit to Maggie’s dental surgery plays like an inspired improv session; a section set during Halloween showcases the film’s lyrical, autumnal beauty; and, best of all, there’s a scene where Milo drags Maggie out of a funk by lip-syncing to Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now that swells into a dance routine worthy of Astaire and Rogers. Crucially, Johnson explains, these moments are more than just nuggets of revelry. “I think people want movie moments to remember, but they can’t just exist outside the story: they have to be implemented, integrated, in a way that’s all part of it.”

This kind of nuanced, character driven storytelling is relatively new to Wiig and Hader, who’ve spent most of their careers playing outrageous comic creations on SNL or in Judd Apatow comedies. They’re more than up to the task, however, equally credible in dramatic moments as in funny ones. They’re part of a long lineage of comedians – Bill Murray, Jim Carrey, the late Robin Williams to name a few – who’ve proved impressive in dramatic roles. “Comedic actors tend to be really smart,” suggests Johnson, when we bring up this tradition of comic actors channeling their darker sides. “And when you’re intelligent you’re a good observer of all aspects of life, the funny, the dark, all of it. And often you find humour in laughing in the face of darkness, which is really what this movie is about.”

Even acknowledging this tradition of comics seamlessly moving into drama, audiences are still likely to be bowled over by these two performances, Hader’s in perticular, who up until this point hadn’t played the lead in a comic vehicle, never mind one as emotionally wrought as The Skeleton Twins. Johnson, unsurprisingly, is full of praise: “Bill was a revelation to me. He’s like Peter Sellers, or maybe even someone like Gary Oldman. He could go off and play a James Bond villain, or play a scary cockney hitman if he had to. And he could play a nice guy who lives next door. He is that kind of actor.”

The Skeleton Twins is released 7 Nov by Sony Pictures

THE SKINNY

Space Sisters With a film series celebrating women in sci-fi happening at Glasgow Film Theatre this month, we consider the outlook for female sci-fi heroes in today’s cinema climate Words: Eleanor Capaldi Illustration: Rachel Davey

E

xplorations across time and space, the otherworldly, and the intergalactic all convene as part of Days of Fear and Wonder, a widereaching sci-fi season from the British Film Institute running throughout the UK until the end of the year. Screenings abound, with one of its highlights being Glasgow Film Theatre’s Teknowomen, a strand focusing specifically on the depiction of women in sci-fi. The programme features outings for Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon (which was produced with wife Thea von Harbou), Tilda Swinton in Teknolust, and cult fem film Born in Flames. In collaboration with Glasgow Women’s Library, the programme will also include a screening and panel discussion on seminal sci-fi film Alien. Famously featuring Sigourney Weaver in the lead role that was originally written as male, Weaver’s portrayal of Ellen Ripley sent ripples across the cosmos, reaching audiences and filmmakers alike. In deepest darkest space, where no-one can hear you scream, it was whispered that it was OK for a film to feature a woman saving the day.

Author Kirsty Logan will appear on the Alien discussion panel, alongside critic Hannah McGill and professor of feminist media studies Karen Boyle, to discuss Ripley’s feminist credentials.

“No matter how many times I watch Alien, I never get tired of Ripley,” Logan confesses. “She’s an onion. She’s got layers. It’s not impossible to

November 2014

think of a tough, attractive, sensitive, nuanced woman in film before Ripley, but she crosses gender boundaries in such a fascinating way.”

With a ship computer system named ‘Mother’ and an iconic entrance by the eponymous Xenomorph via an unconventional birth, Alien’s concern with women-centric themes reaches far beyond its female protagonist.

“Without a doubt, Alien is a film about women’s issues – fears of pregnancy and maternity, physical invasion, the changing body – but people of any gender can identify with Ripley’s struggle and eventual triumph. She’s universal.”

While traditional hero-led films demoted women to relatively powerless roles, the reversal in Alien proved a landmark moment. The degree to which it may have been a turning point, however, remains up for debate. Was Ripley’s ingenuity and bravery not ultimately undermined by parading around in her pants? Not necessarily. Logan suggests that we would be “…hardpressed to find an entirely positive role model of any gender in popular culture.” She goes on to note that “…in real life, a woman can be strong and also sexual, or caring and also aggressive, or intelligent and also emotional. So too with fictional characters.”

The debates will continue, as the season will also include a discussion on female comic heroes. Following the screening of Wonder Woman!

The Untold Story of American Superheroines, author Zoe Strachan and comic artist Gill Hatcher will take to the floor to dissect the evolution of the female superhero. With the news that a Wonder Woman movie is due in 2017, there is a suggestion that a confluence of progressive attitudes and demand is bringing about a further shift in the landscape. The subversion of The Avengers’ poster, for example, which saw the male heroes (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor et al) posed as the lone female Avenger (Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow) was on the original poster, with their lycra-clad buttocks on full display, is a prime example of the vocal (and visual) disdain for such outdated concepts.

However, in a world where the previous female-led superhero movie was released almost ten years ago (Elektra in 2005), and with no

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announced plans for any others, it brings about the question of how much progress is being reflected. Even with a film like Wonder Woman, how the superheroine will be portrayed leaves room for concern. “I think [the portrayal of women in sci-fi and comic book movies] will always be problematic to some extent,” Logan suggests.

“There’s no perfect ‘end point’ at which women’s portrayal in the media will be completely problem free. The problem comes when we passively consume. I just want people to keep thinking – keep watching films, keep having opinions, and keep discussing those opinions.”

Tecknowomen runs 23 Nov–6 Dec at Glasgow Film Theatre and Glasgow Women’s Library. See website for full details: www.glasgowfilm.org Part of BFI’s Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder

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Hard Boiled: US Crime Hits Scotland's Streets L.A. Confidential author and ‘demon dog of American crime fiction’ James Ellroy discusses his new book Perfidia, alongside kilts, addictions, Beethoven, and exactly why James Franco will not be adapting his work for the big screen

“C

omplete bullshit. People say the stupidest things.” Ellroy’s response to The Independent’s recent comparison of his latest book to Finnegans Wake is, in some ways, a surprise. After all, there aren’t many authors who’d reject a comparison to James Joyce. The reaction of this legend of American crime fiction, however, is apt: the book in question, Perfidia, is far removed from Joyce’s seminal masterpiece. The language in the 700-page crime noir is certainly avant-garde, but there is a wide dichotomy between the books. “The Finnegans Wake comparison is just a way of saying it’s hard to read.

It [Perfidia] is the most explicated in style of any book of mine. Okay, it’s not brutally concise, but it’s much more opened up and people need to come to it with this in mind,” he says.

This is the first in the much-anticipated second L.A. Quartet, the prequels to the original quartet which spawned Hollywood blockbuster adaptions L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia. Tossing aside the Finnegans Wake comparison, Ellroy has different ideas about what lies at the centre of the genre-spanning book. “I merged the crime novel with the historical. Perfidia is a historical romance – it’s about big ideas, big betrayal, big politics and big romance.” Alongside these grand themes, the novel depicts an alternative history of World War II America, one in which the bitter taint of racism enveloped the country. A wave of anti-Japanese sentiment swept the US in the wake of Pearl Harbour and over 80,000 Japanese-Americans were interned, without trial, in primitive conditions at Camp Manzanar. Against this backdrop, a Japanese family are savagely disembowelled in L.A., and it is left to the corrupt and the forlorn to solve the case. This is the anti-American novel.

It is less American dream, more American nightmare. For Ellroy, it was a story that needed telling – the inescapable shadow of WWII has hung over him since childhood. “As a kid, I believed it was

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all still going on,” he says. “I lived through the Korean War, and the adults were always talking about ‘the war.’ My mother had to take me aside and tell me it ended three years before I was born.”

Ellroy’s self-possession does not waver as the conversation turns to his mother. Her overarching influence on his work is irrefutable; he has spent years exorcising the demons left behind by her brutal murder, committed when he was just 10 years old. The body of Jean Ellroy was discovered dumped in a lane, her stockings tied tight around her neck. As an adult he wrote a searing memoir about his search for her murderer, but the crime has never been solved. Few could reproach Ellroy for the years of drug addiction, petty crime and homelessness that followed her death. Comparisons have been drawn between his early life and the disturbing criminal world of which he writes, yet, at the age of 66, he has found a form of absolution. “The murder of my mother doesn’t drive me anymore.

Her death is what precipitated it all, but now it’s more a striving love of history that pushes me forward,” he says. And the years of alcohol abuse and sleeping rough? “They forged me and gave me a tremendous will to survive,” he says, but knows too well that the struggle is never entirely over for the erstwhile addict: “I’m a sober alcoholic. I know the thirst very, very well,” he says The author has also sought solace in religion – an unusual place, perhaps, for a writer who inhabits such dark terrain. Yet beneath the insalubrious underworld of crime and immorality in his novels, there lies a bigger message of redemption and salvation. Ellroy believes this is his most religious book, and at its core it’s all about “belief and allegiance.” “I’m not a nihilist. My books have a religious basis and morality to them. Some people find it hard to comprehend that I have these beliefs or that I actually despise squalor,” he says. As Ellroy points out, his novels are

Interview: Rosie Hopegood Illustration: Eva Dolgyra

peppered with heroes and villains of biblical proportions. Yet it is never clear cut: cops are often corrupt, criminals are sometimes saviors. Faith is woven deep into the narrative, as the author creates inexplicable links between characters.

As in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, the theme of interconnectivity permeates Perfidia. “Everything is connected. This is the obvious truth: we are all connected as one soul. Throughout my work, characters glimpse one another but do not meet.

They pass each other by, but they’re all connected, somehow,” he says.

“Who am I kidding... I wanna be the big cheese, I wanna be the grand fromage.”

James Ellroy

This complex relatedness of characters spawned a process in which Ellroy penned a 700 page plan for the novel: he painstakingly reread the preceding seven books, creating detailed fact files for each character, scrupulously noting dates and filling in all the principal plot blackouts. “I’m trying to create a seamless verisimilitude and unify the previous novels as a coherent set. What I’m actually doing is writing a history of L.A. that spans 31 years,” he says.

Ellroy still lives in L.A., but nowadays it is a quiet life. He has no television, computer or mobile phone. He shuns mainstream culture, and has even given up reading fiction. His novels are written out on yellow legal pads as he blasts out his beloved Beethoven (whom he refers to as “the key to all my work”). Yet he places little

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importance on his unorthodox, low technology lifestyle. “I live in my imagination – for me it’s WWII at the moment. Right now, it’s New Year’s Eve 1942 because I’ve got to start my next book so that’s where I’ve got to be – I live in it. It’s all in the imagination, people are capable of anything.” Living within this mental terrain has its perks for the author – ideas come suddenly and acutely in what he calls “synaptic flashes.”

“The idea for the new L.A. Quartet came to me when I was gazing out of the window at my backyard. I had a sudden flash of forlorn Japanese-Americans in the back of a truck, driving past snow-capped mountains on the way to Camp Manzanar. Within a heartbeat I had a sudden vision of the bulk of plot and overall historical setting and the basis for the whole of the L.A. Quartet.” The original quartet changed the face of crime fiction: his terse, telegrammatic prose breathed life into a genre that is too often riddled with the clichéd and formulaic. After an eloquent rebuttal of the praise, he backtracks somewhat. “Actually, who am I kidding: I’m happy for it! I wanna be the big cheese, I wanna be the grand fromage. And if I’ve helped out other writers along the way, I’m happy,” he says.

In fact, Ellroy‘s writing has ‘helped out’ Scottish writers rather a lot; he is widely credited with coining the term Tartan Noir. According to the author, however, he was merely repeating a phrase Ian Rankin had used earlier. “I do have a kilt though. And I love my British fans!” he says. And that rumour that James Franco is adapting American Tabloid for the big screen? “I’ve never even met Franco. You know what? I wouldn’t even know Franco if he walked through the door right now.”

James Ellroy will be in Glasgow on 6 Nov for a special Aye Write! event at The Mitchell Library. Perfidia is out now, published by William Heinemann, RRP £18.99 ayewrite.com jamesellroy.net

THE SKINNY

With Liam Neeson bringing booze beaten ex-cop Matt Scudder to the screen in A Walk Among the Tombstones, we have coffee with bestselling author Lawrence Block in the New York diner which doubles as his fictional series setting, The Flame Interview: Russel McLean

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rom the outside, The Flame Restaurant seems like a typical New York diner. It’s at the corner of 58th Street and 9th Avenue, just down from the Church of St Paul the Apostle. The menu is a mix of American classics and Greek specialities. It’s been there a long time, resistant to the gentrification that’s built up around it. It’s the kind of place you hope never changes.

I’m sitting in a booth at the far end of the floor when veteran crime writer Lawrence Block walks in. In common with many New Yorkers he took the subway across town to get here. New Yorkers don’t use cabs as much as you think, something we discuss later. When we talk – over a simple lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and coffee that is quietly refilled – Block chooses his words with care, speaking at a measured pace. His humour is dry and occasionally self-deprecating.

Block, now in his seventies, was recently the recipient of a Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America and many of his books have been bestsellers. He started his career writing for the pulps but is best known for creating several long running crime series characters, the most famous of which is Matthew Scudder: Private Investigator, ex-cop and ex-alcoholic. Scudder is the focus of the new film, A Walk Among the Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson.

The character has featured in 14 books and several short stories, the most recent of which was 2012’s A Drop of the Hard Stuff. The books are as much about the changing face of New York and Scudder’s journey through alcoholism as they are

November 2014

about solving crimes.

The Flame is where Scudder and his fellow AA members gathered after meetings. Half a block away on 58th street is the Hudson Hotel, where Scudder lived during the late 80s and early 90s. As the series progressed, so the city – and Scudder – changed with the times. The Hudson is now revamped, remodelled and home to a younger, hipper crowd. Block has been in once.

He likes the changes, but the place isn’t what he remembers.

Talking about Neeson’s casting in the new movie, Block is thrilled to have the actor playing his detective. When the author visited the set – “Although, in the main, watching a film getting made is a little like watching paint dry” – he told Neeson that the actor had been his own first choice for the part ever since he played Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. “In an interview, [Neeson] refers to that and says he thinks I was shining him on a little… but actually I can prove it! In Everybody Dies, there’s a conversation between Matt [Scudder] and Mick Ballou talking about the film, Michael Collins…”

Block has seen the film already in final cut. He’s delighted with the adaptation, and with Neeson in particular. “You want the sense that the character really has an inner life… that there’s something going on beneath the surface.

And Liam certainly brings that to the table.” The film has been in development for over a decade and back in the late 90s, Harrison Ford was attached to star. While Block respects Ford as an actor, he thinks that Neeson perhaps has that

edge that Scudder really needs.

Scott Frank is the man who brought the novel to the screen. His screenplays for Get Shorty and Out of Sight, both based on novels by Elmore Leonard, gave Block hope that this time, Scudder’s character would be done right. “One of the aspects in which [the adaptations] are extraordinary is the way in which they reflect the author… Not necessarily in terms of plot, but in terms of tone. The movies felt like Leonard’s writing. And that’s unusual. So I had a feeling that I was in good hands.”

Scott sent over a draft of the screenplay for A Walk Among the Tombstones to Block in 1998.

“I read a couple of pages, and realised I didn’t want to read it.” He had to accept that changing a story is inevitable in making a picture. “I figured the changes would not bother me on the screen, but they would on the page.” So he waited. And now he’s seen the movie, “...and I like it very, very much.”

Of all the changes made on screen, there’s one that definitely amuses Block. “[A Walk Among the Tombstones] is a book that makes quite a point of the fact that Scudder takes the subways to get around. He doesn’t get a cab to Brooklyn, because you’re faster on the train. Why take a cab when you’re in a hurry? But they couldn’t film anything on the subway. In fact even to just film him walking out of the subway onto the street is prohibitively expensive. You have to get permission and the budget doesn’t support stuff like that. When you make your picture, it’s cheaper to put him in a taxi!” Native New Yorkers, and even regular visitors, know that getting a cab just gets you stuck in traffic.

But despite that small detail, Block is happy with this new film. He implies that it’s the closest anyone’s come to the gritty, hardboiled feel of the Scudder books, and more than that, it’s the first time that a film adaptation has had any effect on sales. Two previous movies failed to engage with readers who didn’t already know Block’s work. “With A Walk Among

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the Tombstones, it’s had an enormous and very visible effect on sales starting months before it even came out!”

We discuss his early pulp writing, when he wrote almost anything he could, including several sex novels, something he returned to recently with Getting Off, written specially for the modern pulp imprint Hard Case Crime. He admits that he wrote under so many pseudonyms, he has to re-read some books to be sure that they were definitely written by him.

Block claims he never had a career plan, that he’s just done whatever appealed to him at the time. But I get the impression that he’s smarter than that. He’s a grafter, someone who delights in the work and the joy of being a writer.

“Because I was fast and wrote good prose and dialogue,” he says, “I was able to write for a living from the beginning… And because I had nothing to offer a prospective employer, it was either write for a living or bag groceries for fifty cents an hour at the Safeway…”

He briefly mentions his attempts at retiring. “A couple of times it seemed to me that I was done writing novels… A contemporary of mine pointed out a few years ago that we had both reached the stage in our respective careers where the higher moral act was not to write the book, but to spare the tree… that was quite a few trees ago!”

Crime fans should be glad Block resisted the siren call of retirement. His most recent books have been every bit as exciting as many of his early crime novels. If the movie of A Walk Among the Tombstones achieves anything, hopefully it is in bringing his work to the attention of a wider audience. Because Block’s not finished yet. As we end our lunch he hints, cheekily, that a new novel may be on the way. Crime fans should rejoice.

The publication of a new Lawrence Block book is always something to be celebrated.

A new edition of A Walk Among the Tombstones has been published by Orion, out now, RRP £7.99

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Channel Hopping From established auteurs to mint fresh greenhorns, the French Film Festival UK returns with another tantalising line-up of contemporary Francophone cinema. Dip your toe in its eclectic programme and you’re sure to find a gem – vive le cinéma!

Words: Jamie Dunn

Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language 3D

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rench cinema lost one of its greats this year.

Aged 91, Alain Resnais shipped off to that great cinema auditorium in the sky leaving behind some of the most mysterious, idiosyncratic and hauntingly beautiful films of the French canon.

Although most well known for his early features like 1961’s Last Year at Marienbad, made during the heady few years that the Nouvelle Vague was redefining cinema, Resnais never rested on his laurels. His most recent films like Wild Grass (2009) and You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (2012), which embraced CGI and green screen technology, were equally as inventive as his early masterpieces; it became a cliché for critics to note that these sparky films felt like the work of a whiz-kid straight out of film school, not someone who’s been prolifically working for six decades.

Fittingly, the French Film Festival’s tribute brings together his alpha and omega, debut feature Hiroshima Mon Amour and swan song Life of Riley, which The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called “one of cinema’s most lighthearted and free-spirited farewells.”

Talking of Nouvelle Vague figures still bursting with vigour: Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language 3D might be the best film he’s made in decades. It’s certainly the most impish. It takes the form of multi-layered collages of images and sound, with Godard’s trademark text and slogans appearing on screen in stereoscopic 3D. If you’re looking for a character to invest in, your best hope is the film’s canine star – played by the director’s own dog – and for much of the film we’re seeing the world through his eyes. Like all Godard films it’s a provocation, but in this rare case it’s as playful as it is contemplative.

Several other great auteurs bring new films to the festival, including FFF favourite André Téchiné with the typically elegant French Riviera, starring Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Canet, and New German Cinema legend Volker Schlöndorff, whose historical drama Diplomacy, about the political brinksmanship that saved Paris from destruction during the Second World War, garnered rave reviews when it premiered at

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the Berlin Film Festival. But we know what you’re thinking: enough with these old farts! What about the new blood? On that front FFF have it covered too.

We’re particularly excited about Love at First Fight, a delightful romantic comedy from first time director Thomas Cailley. It centres on an easy-going young man who forms a deep and unsettling attraction to a combustible tomboy when she beats him up at an army recruiter’s self-defence class – think of it as a meet-brute.

The film is pleasingly spiky, full of abrasive humour, sly subversions of traditional gender roles and allusions to the economic and emotional struggles facing today’s young adults.

Another great-looking title in FFF’s Discovery Horizon’s strand is Welcome to Argentina, which follows two brothers (played by Philippe Rebbot and Nicolas Duvauchelle) as they drown their sorrows on a road trip through South American wine country. FFF regulars will be sure to catch Camille Chamoux’s followup to her charming debut The Hedgehog, a favourite at FFF’s 2010 edition: it’s a riotous comedy called Gazelles that’s based on Chamoux’s own one-woman stand-up show. We’d also urge you to seek out intimate two-hander Not My Type – a clichéd but beautifully acted romantic drama starring Émilie Dequenne and Loïc Corbery.

There’s also the opportunity to see plenty of films that have made rumblings on the international festival circuit – Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room – and we’re keen to see The Finishers to find out if Nils Tavernier, the son of Bertrand (Rounding Midnight), is a chip off the old block. But most of all we’re excited to find some hidden gems, and FFF’s wide and eclectic programme is sure to have plenty on offer for those who want to go hunting. Bonne chance!

The French Film Festival runs 7 Nov-7 Dec, with screenings taking place in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, London, Aberdeen, Inverness, Kirkcaldy, Cambridge, Newcastle, Warwick and York See website for full screening details: frenchfilmfestival.org.uk/FFF2014

THE SKINNY

The Possibility of an Island With the imminent release of thirteenth album La Isla Bonita, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier explains why they’ve found latter-day inspiration in 80s pop queens

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wenty years. That’s how long Deerhoof have been around – a helluva landmark. Even drummer Greg Saunier seems surprised, as he casually shrugs, “I don’t imagine we’ll be around for year twenty-one.” He leaves the remark hanging mysteriously in the air, as though teasing us with the threat of his band’s imminent demise, before cheerfully laughing it off. “Every show feels like one more show that logically should never have happened. Same with the records. There was no reason to imagine this was meant to be long-lived – how can we stand the sight of each other any more? And yet we’re really more close knit than we’ve ever been.”

That’s certainly borne out by their thirteenth album La Isla Bonita, a typically messy coagulation of wracked rock’n’roll and screwy semblances of R'n'B. As ever, they sound like an avant-garde band who found pop but lost the plot – despite the risky mixture, it all fits together perfectly. As with the record’s predecessor Breakup Song, the sense of cohesion is somewhat remarkable given the band’s current living situation, with the four members stretched out across different cities. Having formed Deerhoof in San Francisco, and lived there for the majority of the band’s existence, it was something of a surprise for Saunier that he should find himself moving out to the East Coast: “I’ve been living in Brooklyn for four years,” he explains. “I never really liked New York, but we’d come to play shows, and we had so many friends there who I never got enough chance to chat to, so I realised it was the only place to move. It can be kind of intimidating, but it was so easy for me. The second I arrived, everyone was already like, ‘let’s get together and play sometime!’ And then I was playing improv shows all the time.”

A compulsive musician of multiple disciplines, Saunier continues to involve himself in the DIY venues that dominate Brooklyn’s busy scene – the sort of art spaces that nurture the outré sensibilities of bands like Deerhoof – and laments the continued march of progress that has doomed some of these places in recent times: “A place called 285 Kent closed earlier this year, and now Death By Audio – which I’m a big fan of. I was there all the time, playing shows, seeing shows…

They’re getting kicked out of the building after ten years because a magazine wants to move in.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the DIY scene won’t exist, it’ll just move into other places.

Williamsburg has become too expensive and too populated by people who are not so interested in DIY spaces.”

Is gentrification to blame for this process?

“I guess gentrification’s not a problem if you’re in real estate, or the field of boutique-y shops that sell olive oil or something. Amazing, truly amazing prices. It really feels surreal. New York is at a level where prices are so insane that it feels like its own bubble.”

This, it turns out, is one of the major themes of La Isla Bonita: “It’s about the clash between this inflated idea of what paradise is, and its ability to wield power over everywhere else. The reality of the decline – that’s what we were trying to talk about with this record.”

So how does that tie in with the Madonnareferencing album title?: “That song [Madonna’s 1987 hit La Isla Bonita] seems particularly ludricrous – the words, the romanticism of it… we picked a title very late in the game, but we’d already hired an artist who was making the cover; this erupting volcano island… we just thought they worked really well together. It could be

November 2014

Interview: Will Fitzpatrick

Manhattan, or it could be the United States, or it could be the entire globe – we meant it sarcastically, you know? It advertises itself as being a beautiful island, but what is it really?”

Unlikely as it may seem to long-term fans of Deerhoof’s gleeful skronk, ol’ Madge was actually one of several reference points that the band drew from 80s pop. The Skinny brings up the press release’s assertion that La Isla Bonita germinated amid an argument “over whether to try and sound like Joan Jett or Janet Jackson,” and Greg laughs uproariously.

“It’s like R'n'B gone wrong – well, it’s not like we set out to make R'n'B gone wrong; we set out to make R'n'B, and it went wrong! But that’s exciting – losing whatever your plan was when you started out. That’s how it often works; we aren’t very successful at talking about music with each other, so the reference points are really a starting point.”

“My idea, which I was absolutely sure was gonna take Deerhoof to the top of the charts, was to do a cover of What Have You Done For Me Lately by Janet Jackson. Eventually I realised that everybody thought it was a really stupid idea, but I’d made a demo and there was something about it that I liked, so I made a new song out of that.

That’s how [album opener] Paradise Girls started – my second draft of trying to make a Janet Jackson song, that failed.”

“As far as I’m concerned, girls are much smarter than boys; they’re always sizing up the world in a very clever way” Greg Saunier

Not that Saunier had been a particular fan of Madonna or Janet Jackson beforehand, of course.

“I didn’t listen to them in the 80s. I heard the hits off Madonna’s first record, and then at that point I started tuning out, so everything she did after that was completely lost on me.”

“A few months ago, before we recorded anything, I was just casting about in the dark, thinking of things that I wanted to write songs about. I knew Satomi [Matsuzaki, Deerhoof singer/guitarist] had been a fan of Madonna and Janet Jackson when she was a teenager, so I was like, ‘OK, well let me see what this is about.’ It was so inspiring to me to hear all these songs, and it really struck me that – particularly with Janet Jackson – they were capturing what was to become the Zeitgeist.

It was before the time when cynicism took over culture – in 2014, it’s not just some sort of teenage misfits listening to Nirvana that are cynical about culture; culture is cynical about culture; it’s extremely bleak. Like just before the fall of the Habsburg Empire; the upper classes were more concerned than ever with their own pleasure, because they knew that world was about to end. An entirely new modern world was about to take place with all kinds of innovations, but also all kinds of incredible evil… something about Janet Jackson just hit me that way. It somehow

predicted civilisation’s demise.”

Intense. So how does Joan Jett fit into this equation? “Oh, I had also watched The Runaways movie before we recorded anything. I really was crazy over the Kim Fowley character played by Michael Shannon, because his advice seems so apropos and genius. I completely bought into the manifesto, you know? That the bad girl and the bubblegum girl might be the same thing – it cuts across the usual definitions and completely makes sense. Because bubblegum is bad. Too much candy is bad. If you look at it in a metaphorical way, the idea of someone who has an evil streak or an irresponsible side, and then someone who’s addicted to sugar or pleasure… it’s not a contradiction at all.”

This brings us back to the aforementioned Paradise Girls, an ode to “girls… who are smart… who play the bass guitar.” Was it inspired by

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anyone else, beyond the three we’ve already mentioned? “Well, honestly, I made up those lyrics, and one big inspiration for me was Satomi. I thought it would be fun for Satomi to sing a song written by me about her. As far as I’m concerned, girls are much smarter than boys; they’re always sizing up the world in a very clever way. I guess I was wanting to pay tribute to that whole half of the human race, and merely a certain clever and somewhat sassy spirit that really could apply to anyone, whether they’re a girl or not.”

Our time runs short, and with that in mind, we ask Saunier if he has any anniversary celebrations planned. A hearty guffaw follows. “No, the publicist had to tell me that it was twenty years.

I had no idea!” Fair enough. Seems like Deerhoof have plenty on their minds already.

La Isla Bonita is released on 3 Nov via Polyvinyl deerhoof.net

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Dreamweavers Ballet School’s Rosie Blair discusses the group’s roots as Berliners, their relationship with Bella Union and why the ambient trio has found there to be no pain in pop

Interview: Katie Hawthorne

osie Blair, the vocalist and general mastermind behind Berlin’s avant-pop trio Ballet School, is relentless. Over the phone, her strong Northern Irish accent only emphasises the fact that she’s quick to swear and even quicker to laugh. Although she’s by all admittance completely exhausted, her steely determination is an intimidating, impressive tour de force. The three-piece, completed by guitarist Michel Collet and drummer Louis McGuire, released their first full-length album, The Dew Lasts an Hour, this September as a result of signing with famed indie label Bella Union. It follows last year’s Boys Again EP, which brought Ballet School onto the international stage, introducing their 80s infused, left-field pop that’s dressed up in pastel but delivered with bite.

Bella Union, co-founded by Cocteau Twins’ Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie, although now run solely by Raymonde, is the definitive spiritual home of any band that conjures otherworldly, abstract music. However, Rosie is quick to resist any suggestion that this matching of minds is anything other than the culmination of a long, hard slog. “It’s been such a journey, man. I don’t know how it is for other bands, but this has been a colossal effort, a Herculean effort.”

Moving from her native Northern Ireland to Berlin in a determined bid to make music more than a ‘hobby’, she met Collett in a U-Bahn station – fittingly, they bonded over a shared love of the Cocteaus – and then tried out several local drummers before finding the perfect match in McGuire. “If you really want it, you’ve got to have laser precision,” she sighs. “You’ve got to be so fucking driven. Your life comes to a halt, it comes to a fucking halt, and everything else is just nonexistent. You’re just your band. I’ve been living like that for so long.”

So if Ballet School come across as glossy, that’s the product of a whole lot of elbow grease.

When she talks about the vision the band have for their future, Rosie’s language shifts between perfectionism and pragmatism. For the rest of the week, Ballet School will be working day and night in a new studio hired in Berlin’s trendy, converted Spittelmarkt, which she describes as an “ex-commercial, really expensive office building that’s become completely derelict. It feels a bit like being in a museum.” Ahead of an extensive US and European tour which kicks off a few days after we speak, the trio are reworking their set to include material from Dew... and “just the shit that makes it a full show.” This is no small task in itself, but Ballet School are constantly, obsessively preoccupied with smoothing the edges: “The songs can always be better, the writing can be better, the singing can be better, the set can be better…”

Thanks to Rosie’s intricate, sky-high vocal gymnastics, there’s been no shortage of comparisons to a certain Elizabeth Fraser, and she gushes that working with Raymonde “is still just not normal to me. I get almost… embarrassed?

I can’t handle it, I’m just such a fan.” But Bella Union is proving to be a haven: far from feeling intimidated by the label’s incredible heritage and current roster, which includes the likes of John Grant, MONEY and The Flaming Lips amongst many, many more, Rosie gratefully enthuses that their support network is “extremely nurturing.”

“It’s just wonderful to be in that environment,” she says. “You feel safe, and there’s so few times in this business when you can really feel safe. To be on a label where you really feel that, no matter what happens, ‘Simon [Raymonde] will know what to do!’ … I really, really, really need that in my life,

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Photo: Tonje Thilesen

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that… pastoral care.”

It turns out that Raymonde even took on the track listing for The Dew Lasts an Hour; the trio, feeling far too close to their project, asked for his “completely objective opinion.” Rosie managed to set aside her ‘fan’ attack to overrule the label mogul just the once, though, describing that “he wanted to put a single up front, but I insisted.

When we wrote [Slowdream] we were like, ‘we’ll open our album with this, set a vibe.’” And it’s true, the track sets the scene for an album that builds in pace, strength and self-assertion.

Ballet School are supremely conscious of their own place within the industry: far more underground than mainstream, for now at least.

Rosie questions, “if I’m not going to be the arbiter of, um, obscure but wordsy music, then what role do I have to play?” It’s unsurprising, then, that when trying to ask if Ballet School would be keen on collaborating with “pop princesses,” the question’s barely finished before she leaps in: “Yes! Yes, definitely. That would definitely be completely a number one objective. Without a fucking shadow of a doubt, number one.” She puts on a sugary, high-pitched voice, “You want songs? You can have songs. I got songs!”

Their adopted hometown of Berlin has a long-established reputation as a melting pot, an artistic haven. Cheap rent, cheaper beer and an overwhelming number of DIY venues render it the perfect place to experiment with the weird and wonderful – as Rosie puts it, “No-one bats an eyelid at anything.” Ballet School have enjoyed a rapidly growing local fan base for several years Rosie Blair already, assisted in part by their interaction with the underground scene. They’re a fixture in Biographies on Facebook, Twitter and Bella line-ups for festivals in the capital, like the recent Union’s website situate the band as self-identiBerlin Music Week, and regularly bounce off the fied pop, with Rosie resolutely declaring “I never work of other similarly avant-garde local artists. thought pop was a lower form of art.” Noisily pas- Rosie name-drops the spectral electronica of sionate about her love for artists like Whitney, Better Person as a particular favourite, and then Mariah and “an artist we all know is about to excitedly remembers that a recent Ballet School cross over,” Grimes, she elaborates on her “own remix of another adopted Berliner, DENA, has just personal theory” of contemporary pop: “I just feel become available on Soundcloud. “Being in Berlin like it’s a free-for-all: you really can recreate pop just means I can really retreat into my imaginain your own image right now. It is whatever you tion,” she concludes. But it’s not only the music say it is.” Talk then turns to Miley Cyrus collaboscene that she finds inspiring: the band’s aesrating with The Flaming Lips, and the pin-point thetic is a constant work in progress that’s ever precision of artists like Kanye West who “cherryopen to adaptation. She half-shyly explains her pick” the talent of underground musicians, “mak- current obsession with YouTube beauty vloggers ing quite obscure references, being influenced by – “There’s a whole subculture going on, it has its quite credible things.” own lexicon, its own observances and rules. I’m

“I don’t know how it is for other bands, but this has been a Herculean effort”

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very outside of it, but I’m fascinated by it.”

As Rosie tells it, both their album title and Ballet School as a band name itself operate as metaphors for the loss of innocence.

Connotations of freshness and grace overlay the realisation that age is accompanied by a necessary trading in of naïvety. Whether conjuring the heart-fluttering anxiety of a crush in Heartbeat Overdrive, or knowing exactly when to get down with Lux, the trio are writing from a place of sharp intent and acute self-awareness.

“The thing that art should do is extract meaning from experience,” posits Rosie. Over the last few years she’s endured family heartbreak, having lost her mother to cancer: “It really changed me as a person. Watching someone I love go through something so horrible, and yet remain so full of love…” she says, steadily. “It was so humbling. When you’re in your early twenties, what do you know about life? Not very much, really. I just felt that I’d got given one of life’s secrets… something that you’re going to need to know. I just wanted to make music from that point, using that information, using that pearl I’d been gifted with. This is what it’s all about, so… let’s go.”

Ballet School may sound – and look – delicate, but that pastel-shaded façade belies an iron core. They see their recent success as a challenge, a reminder to work harder, to experiment further. Rosie summarises, “it’s actually quite confrontational to be soft, and to be gentle. I don’t want to have to smash someone’s face into the wall to get respect: I’d rather just ask you.”

Ballet School play Glasgow's Broadcast on 12 Nov The Dew Lasts an Hour is out now on Bella Union facebook.com/balletschoolband

THE SKINNY

Untying the Notts Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods is not afraid to call things as he sees them.

In an agreeably frank interview, the lyricist calls out the lunacy of UKIP voters, the lack of political opposition and “embarrassing” 60s throwbacks like Jake Bugg t has been a hectic week for Jason Williamson.

He’s days away from leaving his role as a benefits adviser in Nottingham to concentrate fulltime on Sleaford Mods, the visceral project he has poured his creative energies into for the past eight years. When finished at the office, he heads straight to the studio to work on the duo’s latest album, which must be completed before heading off on an extensive tour, beginning this month.

Then there’s the small matter of his daughter’s third birthday party to think of.

The latter is not a chore, he explains to The Skinny over the phone while en route to the studio. He always takes weekends off to spend time with his family – gig commitments allowing.

What’s more dispiriting is his current workplace, where he sees first-hand the harsh realities of life on benefits in an era of government austerity.

We are speaking days after another round of cutbacks were announced at the Conservative Party conference, and Williamson is predicting things are going to get a whole lot worse for some of the country’s most vulnerable. “It is tough for people.

If you’re going to depend on benefits, then it’s going to be a really hard time for you,” he explains, matter-of-factly. “You’ve got the Universal Credit coming in. I probably won’t be here when it arrives, but it’s really, really going to fuck things up.

There’s going to be more people getting mugged on the streets; people are going to be desperate. It’s just fucking state murder, really. These fucking cunts at the conference, raffling on like they’re helping humanity. I’m surprised none of them have been shot, d’you know what I mean?”

Sleaford Mods are an unlikely success story.

Their music is shaped by producer Andrew Fearn, whose minimalist beats, basic bass guitar riffs and spartan synths are the canvas on which Williamson spits his lyrics; caustic observations of working life, dismissals of posing musicians, blackly humorous vignettes of his friends and enemies, red-eyed reflections on half-remembered nights out, frank descriptions of his bodily functions, raw disgust at the powers that be. “I can’t believe the rich still exist, let alone run the country,” he vents on Divide and Exit, their most recent album, released in April to great acclaim.

It’s led to a “year’s worth” of live bookings and a support slot with The Specials. Intriguingly, The Prodigy have also announced the completion of a collaboration with the duo entitled Ibiza, which will feature on the dance legends’ new album, due out next year.

There are no stylistic tics or hidden agendas here. Sleaford Mods pile their world on a plate and shove your face in it. You’ll either pull back and grin or retch and run away. There’s no air of fakery, or suggestions of the middle class going slumming. This is music that people can relate to in a straightforward manner, a product of a time when around a third of workers in the UK earn less than £15k a year and employment rights are evaporating.

Even if you’re fortunate enough to be on firmer financial footing, there’s much to savour.

Sleaford Mods recall such English belligerents as John Cooper Clarke or Ian Dury, or plain-talking Mike Skinner at his Original Pirate Material peak, but with a much tougher edge – you could never imagine Williamson singing about pulling on holiday, for example. That’s partly because, at 44, as a father with a young family, his priorities are different to when he was a raver in the early 90s or a face in the Mod revival scene.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t still enjoy the prospect of leaving behind the 9-5. “I did agency work, factory work, lots of that stuff,” he explains.

November 2014

“Then I worked in slightly better jobs, like clothes shops, stuff like that. But I always fell back to menial work, because it’s easy. If you’re doing music, the last thing you want is a job you have to fucking think about.

“I’ve worked hard for this, so I don’t feel so bad about getting out. It’s got its claws in all of us, whether you are claiming benefits or not, you know? The belt’s tightening around everybody.

It’s just so oppressive; the hatred you feel for the people running the country, and the hatred you feel for the opposition, who are just absolutely nothing. At least there used to be an opposition, at least you felt like you could trust somebody before. Now, there’s no trust at all.”

Sleaford Mods have not arrived out of nowhere. While Williamson was still switching jobs at regular intervals, he released four albums which received little attention outwith Nottingham. Things “began to get interesting” when Fearn got involved. “I met him in a club, at a gig I was doing one night, and he was DJing,” he recalls. “I was outside having a cigarette, listening to this music coming from upstairs, and I just went up and approached him and asked him who it was, and he said it was him. So I just propositioned getting together some time. He was a bit hesitant about it, but eventually we met up and that’s how it started. He liked my stuff, he didn’t have a problem with it. I think he was a fan of it before, to be honest. It was more of a problem getting a sound together, and coaching him in the sense of what I wanted, the ideas I had, and then he came round to it.”

“Anything to get away from the Conservatives.

Anything.”

Jason Williamson

Sleaford is 15 miles from Williamson’s hometown of Grantham in Lincolnshire, and Mods is a reference to the culture he first fell in love with as a teenager. He retains some affinity towards it, but stresses that he has no time for retrograde guitar music or 60s haircuts. “I like it for what it should be, and not for this Brighton Beach image that it’s got.”

What does Mod mean to him? “Forward thinking. Unassuming. Something you can identify with. You should be able to take bits from it, but not come out looking fucking laughable. Like people like The Strypes – fuck off, it’s shit. I might really like it, but it’s useless because it’s been done to death. It’s just a shit plateau. Fuck off, and try again. It’s really hard to find someone with a 60s haircut, posing with a guitar, doing some kind of blues lick, inspiring. People have just grown so bored with that image. People like Jake Bugg – he’s just laughable. He’s not even 25 and he’s embarrassing. These people are wheeled out and they act up to the stereotype. People have a go at us, but at least we’re doing something different.”

A day later and The Skinny calls back to complete our interview. Williamson sounds relaxed after a productive evening in the studio, but is also vexed at the big news story of the day – UKIP’s triumph in the Clacton by-election. “I was listening to the radio just now and people were talking about how they normally voted Labour but had switched to UKIP, and the reason

Photo: Simon Parfrement

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Interview: Chris McCall

was ‘immigrants, immigrants, immigrants.’ It’s all you hear. It’s a fucking joke. It makes you want to spit in people’s faces.”

The rise of right-wing media in times of financial hardship is one of the themes explored on the Mods’ new EP, Tiswas. While some dismiss the power of the press in an increasingly digitised world, Williamson isn’t so sure. “You would be surprised at how many people take it in. People really do think there is a problem with immigrants. It’s unbelievable, they’re just people.

We have to face up to the fact that the world will become more and more intermingled as it goes on. It’s not going to become this country, or that country, it’s just going to be fucking places where people are. I think Sleaford Mods is more humanist than political. I find it really offensive when people think that the ills of the world are brought on by a certain group of people coming over from a certain country just to work in a certain

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country.”

Williamson had hoped Scotland would back independence in an act of defiance against Westminster. “At a Manchester gig, half-way through I said: ‘It’s a fucking Yes vote up here!’ and half the crowd went mental and the other half booed. People have their own ideas about it, but anything to get away from the Conservatives.

Anything. We played up in Glasgow and we were talking to people there, and they were like: ‘We don’t really care about independence, we just want to get away from the Coalition.’ And you nearly did it! It’s a real shame.”

He gives a short laugh. “We’ll all go down the swanney together, eh?”

Tiswas EP is out on 24 Nov. Playing Broadcast, Glasgow, 5 Nov and Electric Circus, Edinburgh, 8 Nov sleafordmods.com

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Maeve Redmond Maeve Redmond is a freelance graphic designer who works primarily with Scotland’s artists, writers and cultural organisations. She has worked as our lead designer at The Skinny for the last two years and redesigned the magazine in spring 2013. This is her last issue with us.

Work featured in this spread includes; poster designs for Romany Dear’s Dance is a Language that We Speak, The Skinny RSA Award Showcase, CCA, 2013; poster and type design for Emmie McLuskey’s Systems to Perform, 2014.

Work in collaboration with Sophie Dyer includes: three screen prints and exhibition view of Barrie Girls, with Fiona Jardine, curated by Lucy McEachan and Catriona Duffy of Panel, 2013; cover and spread of The Burning Sand Vol. 2, edited by Dr. Sarah Lowndes, 2013. Work in collaboration with Sophie Dyer and Sebastian Gorton; the campaign for Tomorrow is Always Too Long by Phil Collins, comissioned by The Common Guild, 2014.

Maeve is working on an upcoming publication with Glasgow Women’s Library, as well as work for Govanhill Baths and a research project for 2015 with previous collaborators Sophie Dyer, Fiona Jardine and Panel. She has been selected

by Hospitalfield Arts to design the campaign for Graham Fagan’s exhibition at Scotland + Venice in next year’s Venice Biennale. maeveredmond.co.uk

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Clockwise from top left: Dance is a Language That We Speak poster for Romany Dear, 2013; poster for Tomorrow is Always Too Long by Phil Collins, comissioned by The Common Guild as part of Festival 2014; poster for Systems To Perform by Emmie McLuskey, 2014; The Burning Sand Vol.2, cover and spread, 2013; Exhibiton detail of Barrie Girls 2013; Three screenprints produced for Barrie Girls.

All photography by Tian Khee Siong.

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SHOWCASE

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FASHION

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Are you a BELIEVER? Isolated Heroes designer Samantha McEwen introduces their latest collection

Photo: David Macaffer

Interview: Fern Logue

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fter studying Fashion Design for Industry at Heriot Watt University, Samantha McEwen officially launched her brand of luxury, unisex street wear, Isolated Heroes, in 2012. Since then, the brand has quickly expanded globally from its base in Dundee, with a sell-out range of accessories on ASOS, a host of celebrity fans and a Scottish Fashion Awards nomination for Scottish Young Designer of the Year in 2012, as well as coverage in an array of publications including Grazia, Hunger and Vice. After graduating, McEwen took things into her own hands and established a brand based on ideas of ‘empowerment’ and ‘avant-garde primitivism’ which produces the wardrobe of, “a kaleidoscope tribe of cyber Barbies and lost boys.”

Isolated Heroes garments are definitely not for the shy or faint-hearted. McEwen herself admits: “I am obsessed with all things tacky and I absolutely hate minimalism!” – an assertion which is extremely evident throughout her collections. There’s certainly no minimalism to be seen amongst beautifully garish (but beautiful) faux-furs, bold prints and yards upon yards of metallic fabrics and sequins. The latest collection certainly does not disappoint in terms of extravagance, opulence and bright colours.

The designs seem rooted in the atmosphere of McEwen’s studio, and the extensive process of researching and seeking new inspiration. “Our studio is such a lively, chaotic place and always full of laughter. As soon as you open the door you are hit by colourful garments, textures and walls and walls of research.” For the Isolated Heroes ‘family’ inspiration can come from anywhere from “witch doctors and voodoo practitioners in Haiti to Kosovo Brides and Russian folklore,” and the whole team are, “one hundred per cent committed and invested in the brand vision” of clothes

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having the ability to empower and transform the wearer. Samantha particularly enjoys the challenge of in-depth research into culture and traditions, which often sees her, starting from a dark, sinister or really serious topic and turning it into wearable clothing which radiates a sense of fun – a feeling that seems to resonate throughout Isolated Heroes’ various collections. This is particularly evident in the latest collection, BELIEVE – in our opinion the brand’s strongest yet.

Throughout every Isolated Heroes collection, there is an emphasis on the story – the underlying idea that has informed the garments.

With BELIEVE they have produced a colourful retrospective infused with glitter, sequins and sass, which has been influenced by the 90s “third wave feminism, girl power and our generation’s current obsession with ‘self-help.’” With the influence of feminism, the fashion topic du jour, McEwen sees the BELIEVE collection as a “semi-autobiographic look at girls in their twenties,” girls who would have been formed by the ‘girl power’ movement. The collection makes feminism feminine with shimmering garments of full sequin fabric adorned with hand beaded motifs and embroidery creating a sense of luxury. With slogan embroidered sequin jackets, party dresses and logo emblazoned coats, the collection reflects the change or ‘metamorphosis’ represented in the phases that young women go through, with what Samantha refers to as a, “colourful, tongue in cheek satire.” With the slogans ‘Believe’ and ‘Be Happy,’ McEwen sees the garments as a challenge to the “stereotypes and perceptions of what is the norm and what we aspire to be.” She addresses “our need to better and prove ourselves with unrealistic ideals.” The collection seems to echo an idea that runs throughout the brand – an emphasis on non-conformity and disassociation

with ‘trend-led seasonal collections’ in favour of ‘mini collections’ which each have a story and mean something in their own right.

Always aiming to champion originality, Isolated Heroes have looked towards luxurious and unusual fabrics and materials in their new collection, to create extremely covetable garments – cosy oversized coats in hand-dyed boiled wool, brightly coloured Mongolian lambswool collars and crinkle effect metallic sheepskin leather biker jackets. McEwen says: “I wanted to work with more luxurious fabrics this season and take a step out of my comfort zone.” Despite these extravagant materials, she has still kept the use of technology minimal, “keeping things pretty basic” by focusing on hand-embroidery and needle work, with occasional laser-cutting and digital prints.

“I am obsessed with all things tacky and I absolutely hate minimalism!”

Samantha McEwen

In terms of the growth and development of the brand, McEwen reflects on the influence of working with ASOS on the increasing success of the business and brand. In addition to being stocked on ASOS Marketplace and the accessories collaboration with ASOS.com, Isolated

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Heroes won a competition to be mentored on an ASOS business and development programme by fashion guru Alison Lewy. Samantha has gained “invaluable advice and support in terms of growing her business, wholesale and international markets.”

October saw another exciting project for Samantha McEwen and the brand – collaboration with the hugely influential Australian bloggers How Two Live at Mercedes Benz Tokyo Fashion Week. The blog How Two Live is run by two super-stylish sisters who have a penchant for bold, quirky and matching outfits – their style seems a perfect partner for Isolated Heroes.

And future plans? McEwen teases, “we are currently designing some pieces for one of our favourite celebs!” The brand can already count Lily Allen and Foxes among their famous fans, so it will be exciting to see who sports Isolated Heroes next. As for more collaborations, McEwen is open to working with other designers and artists but loves teaming up with “photographers and stylists on editorials, seeing the collection styled to a completely different story which is so far away from the original concept and research that the collection stemmed from. This sort of work further contributes to the transformative nature of the garments themselves.”

It seems like things are only on the way up for Samantha McEwen and Isolated Heroes with the launch of the new collection, their growing success and recognition, and a variety of exciting collaborative projects in the pipeline.

Collections are stocked on Isolated-Heroes.com and ASOS Marketplace, and from this month you will also be able to buy items from Asos.com and Nylon Store. We BELIEVE! facebook.com/ISOLATEDHEROES isolated-heroes.com

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Scotish Design in Focus Since 2012, Scotland Re:Designed has provided both an international and national platform for the best of Scottish fashion design. This November it will return to Glasgow for its third annual showcase

Interview: Alexandra Fiddes

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oused at the contemporary arts venue SWG3 in Finnieston, Scotland Re:Designed will run a programme of workshops from 19-21 November, which will offer free support and advice to Scottish fashion designers and small businesses (the sessions will also be open to members of the public). These workshops include: That don’t impress me much – what are the dos and don’ts when approaching buyers?

A discussion with Sarah Murray, owner and buyer for the award winning luxury Edinburgh boutique Jane Davidson, offers her views on how designers should approach buyers and potential stockists.

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free Marcus Tullius Cicero – legal basics you should know. Loretta Maxfield, from Thorntons Law LLP IP, IT and Media Team, will present an overview of which rules and regulations should be implemented and followed when starting up or growing a business.

Collaboration – are two heads better than one? Designer Kestin Hare of menswear label Common People will share his experience of collaborating with another designer on a limited edition range – examining its pit-falls and triumphs, and also whether collaboration strengthens or dilutes the brand identity.

Are you simply trendy, or are you creating trends for a new generation? One of the founding editors of Grazia and panellist for the British Fashion Council NEWGEN new talent initiative, Melanie Rickey, discusses the idea and importance of designers walking their own paths rather than following trends and emulating others.

There will also be a further three workshops covering subjects such as business economics, and advice on creating and developing a fashion business, which will be announced on the SRD website soon.

As well as the programme of constructive talks and presentations, on Thursday 20 November, Scotland Re:Designed will present

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its annual showcase event which will include the work of 12 Scottish designers. In previous years this showcase was held in cities such as Chicago, New York and London. This time however, Glasgow is the focus.

Founder and Director of SRD Chris Hunt explains the decision. “As a podium for fashion and textile designers to extend their reach in the industry and afford them as many opportunities as is possible, SR:D takes the platform to as many new locations and audiences as possible, as we’ve done in previous years. However, with 2014 being such a monumental year for Glasgow our home city felt like the only choice to invite and bring everyone in to; why go anywhere else when there’s so much to shout about on our own turf?”

Industry experts from the fashion sector judged the work of hundreds of designers and up-and-coming labels who applied for the chance to receive support and mentoring from the Scotland Re:Design programme. The expert panel comprised of notable names such as Sarah Curran MBE (managing director at Very Exclusive), Melanie Rickey (founder and editor in chief fashioneditoratlarge.com), Simon Carter (designer and owner Simon Carter Ltd), Sarah Murray (buyer and owner Jane Davidson), David Watts (fashion business advisor), William Knight (director of 100% Design) and Susanne TideFrater (fashion director farfetch.com).

The lucky (and extremely talented) 12 who have been selected cover the disciplines of menswear, womenswear, interiors and accessories. In the menswear category are Edinburgh based brand Common People, premium knitwear label ESK Cashmere and the award-winning Ten30 designed by Alan Moore. ECA graduate Fiona Summerville, Glasgow based Mairi McDonald and knitwear label Cats Brothers founded by Anna Wilkinson and Lindsay McKean all represent womenswear. Selected interiors designers are Dana Finnigan who specialises

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group create everything from knitwear to footwear, accessories to homewares and apparel.

The participating designers and brands will also be available in-store and will be able to share their stories and answer any shoppers’ questions about their work and how it’s made.

Additionally, there will be presentations and mini events taking place such as mini fashion shows, a live photoshoot, expert Christmas buying guides, styling tips and more. Check the SRD website for more details. facebook.com/ScotlandReDesigned / @ScotReDesigned / commonpeopleclothing.co.uk / eskcashmere.com / ten30.co.uk / fionasomerville.co.uk / mairimcdonald. com / catsbrothers.com / danafinnigan.com / ionacrawford.com / hattipattisson.com / euanmcwhirter. com / strathberryofscotland.com / helenruth.co.uk / scotlandredesigned.com/

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Photo: Anette Schive

in surface pattern design, artist and designer Iona Crawford and Fife born Hatti Pattisson.

In the accessories category, Euan McWhirter who creates stunning jewellery, bag producer Strathberry of Scotland and Helen Ruth who makes digitally printed silk and wool scarves. All will be showcasing their latest work at the event on the 20th.

If you just can’t wait until then to see local, independent design, on 1 November the (very) busy people of Scotland Re:Designed are also launching a luxury department store within Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal called Limited Edition, which will run until 31 January 2015 – the perfect time for a bit of festive shopping! 20 Scottish brands including Belinda Robertson, Eribé, Katie Lees and Obscure Couture who as a

Confession of a Foot Fetishist Where do our fetishes come from?

Words: A. H. Chamberlain Illustration: Jayde Perkin

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’ve known people who claimed that their individual sexual tastes were the result of specific significant experiences, often in childhood or puberty, which caused them to associate certain behaviours or body parts with arousal. I’ve known others who claim no such explanation, and that even their first exploration of such behaviours was foregrounded by an innate fascination or fixation that they could not reasonably trace to any previous state of affairs; it just sort of happened.

I remember being 14 and going to a cool kids’ party, in a big house, in a small village, just outside the small town where I grew up. We had Kerrang! TV and a bottle of sherry lifted from the host’s parents’ liquor cabinet. We mixed it with coke. There was a girl there who had recently broken up with her boyfriend and asked me if I wanted to make out with her, which I did. So we did, and afterwards, while she regaled me with details of how awful her ex was, I gave her a foot massage.

This was, in fact, my first kiss and the foot massage that followed it, thinking about it now, was no more than an awkward attempt to maintain a level of intimate physical contact without having to admit to myself or anyone else that I wanted to get my rocks off. I had no idea what I was doing.

Porn did not help with this. Masturbation is a right, but good porn is a rarity. And while almost all porn is in some sense caricatured, fetish porn, more often than not, is basically MTV in the 80s. I’ve watched a wide variety of fetish porn, but none have extended beyond that simulated sexual experience to any of my actual sexual experiences. Except feet.

And I honestly can’t explain why. But then again I don’t feel like an explanation is necessary either.

Busting Some Period Myths There’s a whole bunch of misconceptions about menstruation out there. Here’s how to tackle some

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e don’t talk about periods, or rather menstruation, in many circles I’m part of.

However, when we do, I hear the most inaccurate myths about the female reproduction cycle as well as the actual workings of the female vagina. I can do nothing but laugh.

The first myth I encountered was that somehow my period would be like scenes in Carrie or another horror film. Once a month, every woman’s period is just a sea of blood mixed in with horrific mood swings like those of a werewolf. Men and women should beware: stay away from your girlfriends, wives, sisters, mothers and friends! Blood will spew out of their pants without the proper precautions. Right. My period is not a horror film.

Nor do I go crazy and want to maul anyone who looks at me when I’m menstruating.

The second myth is that I can’t have sex on my period. There’s such a thing as period sex, just many people don’t want to talk about it, probably due to the connotations that the very natural process of menstruation is seen as disgusting – apparently period sex is icky and disgusting, therefore, due to the blood. Bet you

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didn’t know that having an orgasm on your period can actually decrease cramps and other pains.

Then, of course, there’s the infamous ‘I can’t swim or bathe on my period’; the idea that I can’t do any sort of exercise on my period seemingly because women are too fragile to bleed and soldier on. The reason is, supposedly, cold water can increase your cramps – but at the same time there’s the tip that you should exercise throughout your period to ease general aches and pains.

“I hear the most inaccurate myths about the female reproduction cycle” Fourth, suddenly the male cis-gender population think it’s okay to give me advice about my

DEVIANCE

Words: Rachel Munford Illustration: Jayde Perkin period or think it’s okay to use my ability to have periods as an insult or joke. Right, okay, whenever giving advice, what should everyone remember, irrespective of the situation? Two questions: ‘Am I a doctor or academic expert on this situation?’

‘Have I experienced this myself?’ If your answer is ‘no’ to both, then do not give me tips on how to deal with my period. No, jogging it off won’t help (sometimes). No, I’m not lazy (sort of). No, I’m not addicted to painkillers – I am actually in pain.

Therefore shut up!

Lastly: I’m a hormonal bitch on my period. I could be and I may well be. Yet it really shouldn’t be assumed that when I’m an emotional wreck it’s because I’m a woman. Seemingly my period is the only reason I would be upset or stressed at any point of time because why would I, as a woman, have any stress? It’s not like I work, attend university, write for publications, socialise or have arguments. No, not at all. When I’m not on my period, I am a saint. I have no qualms with anyone, I always say please and thank you, and I never, ever lose my temper. Right.

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Phagomania: Milking It Phagomania comes over all giddy at the sight of a cat made of milk jumping out of a coffee cup, as we look at the work of Kazuki Yamamoto Words: Peter Simpson

Food News This month in food news, there are high-brow burgers, duelling street food sellers, documentaries about the art of selling fish, and there’s even a vegetarian option

Words: Peter Simpson

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here’s plenty going on across Scotland this month so we’ll get going quickly, starting with that enticing aroma wafting over from the west.

It’s coming from the direction of the Scottish Coffee Festival, which will bring together producers, baristas, street food vendors, musicians and enthusiastic beardy types for a day of sniffing, quaffing and latte art admiration. A portion of every ticket sold goes to the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, which is nice, and the event is set in the shiny surroundings of the Drygate Brewery, which is also nice. All round, a solid day of food, drink and fun, with enough caffeine to see you through to 2015. 29 Nov, 11am-6pm, Drygate, 80 Drygate, £8, scottishcoffeefestival.com Next, vegetables. Yotam Ottolenghi helmed the ‘New Vegetarian’ column in the Guardian for over a decade, and his cookbooks Plenty and Jerusalem have scooped up awards by the armful.

The man, quite literally, knows his onions. Pick his brains as he introduces his new book Plenty More at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, and find out just how rewarding and delicious a veggie diet can be. Not as rewarding as a diet laced with bacon sandwiches and cheeseburgers, obviously, but Yotam can get pretty close. 10 Nov, 7:30pm, Lyceum Theatre, 30b Grindlay St, £12.50.

Speaking of cheeseburgers, Burger Meats Bun have got something pretty special lined up.

In the latest of their ‘Meat Up’ events (someone call the pun police) they’ve cajoled chef Mark Donald, formerly of Danish experimenters Noma and the two Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, to try his hand at burgers. There’s lobster mayonnaise on the burgers and cronuts for dessert – we think he may have got the hang of it.

Ironically, this all takes place at exactly the same time as Yotam’s talk on the joys of eating those weird flowery things called vegetables at the other side of town. Guess it’s time to pick sides offee’s great, isn’t it? It’s full of dairy and whatever you come up with onto a cappucino. silence. It is literally incredible, in that you may after all. 10 Nov, various times, Burger Meats Bun, caffeine, so it makes you feel full and hyped- not believe that this is a thing. Trust us, it is.

His coffee art reflects a Japanese culture 1 Forth St, £22.50, tickets from facebook.com/ up at the same time. Image-wise, it’s developed packed with iconic characters and imbued with To give you an idea of what we’re dealing burgermeatsbunedi the same ‘grown-up’ too-cool-for-school vibe with here (if the pictures hadn’t already given you a love of needless cuteness and nonsensical comHaving dealt with meat and vegetables, that craft beer had about a year ago, so you can a clue), just head to YouTube. The first video that plexity (tendencies displayed by the robots which let’s move into the middle ground – fish. The stroll around with a cup in your hand and people comes up on a search for Kazuki’s name is a five patrol the country’s shopping centres, beaming Sturgeon Queens, playing as part of the UK will think you’re a hip, happening kind of person. minute opus in which the barista begins with two out information and offering up unflinching and Jewish Film Festival’s programme in Glasgow, Yet it’s still perfectly acceptable to put whole cups of coffee. He pours a little foamed milk into faintly terrifying smiles). We got in touch with the documents the family behind the New York instihandfuls of sugar into your drink without being man himself, and with the help of some garbled one and begins to craft out some shapes, drawtution that is Russ and Daughters. Get an insight shouted at. Nice coffee is brilliant. That said, the ing a fish in the foam using what appears to be a Google translations we discovered one more key into what it takes to run one of the city’s most relatte art that sits on top of your nice coffee can thing – he likes to mix things up. Yamamoto told prison shiv. It’s all very intricate and impressive, vered food shops, and find out how to work with be a bit lame. us that it’s more fun to make a new piece of art and looks not too dissimilar to painting. After a your siblings for a serious length of time without If your drink isn’t adorned with a bloody fern, few intricate details are added, he starts to add in a new style than it is to just do the same thing reverting to adolescent name-calling and telling the ubiquitous mark of the technically-proficient some apparently random blobs of foam around over and over, and that’s an argument we can get on each other. 15 Nov, 8pm, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall barista that doubles up as a reminder that it’s on board with. the edge of the cup. Before you know it, a threeSt, £8. nearly Christmas, then you’ll be staring into a cup dimensional cat made entirely of frothed milk is After all, a tulip or a fern says very little It seems fitting to end this month’s food topped with a heart or an abstract swirl or some jumping out of the second cup and into the first. about the barista behind the pour, other than news with a culinary scrap, and the latest ediother bullshit no-one wants. Sure it’s impressive, It’s surreal, it’s nonsensical, and it’s brilliant, not they might be taking their coffee a little bit too tion of the Southside Street Food Showdown is but it isn’t exciting. It’s impressive in the same seriously. And if there’s one thing we can’t stand least for the knowledge that someone then had just the ticket. Glasgow mainstays Babu Street way that civil engineering or internet banking are to try to drink around a cat. at Phagomania, it’s people taking things seriousKitchen square off against Malaysia-inspired impressive – you’d probably make a mess of it if Yamamoto has built up an incredible library ly. From now on, no more ferns on our coffee – Beep Beep Tuk Tuk Street Eats in a four-course you tried to do it yourself, but you rarely feel like of coffee-based reproductions of anime stars, unless it’s part of a ‘Between Two Ferns...’-based battle at the Glad Cafe. No matter which side applauding it. latte art request featuing a giant Zach Galfianakis comes out on top, you’ll get some cracking Asian your favourite characters from film and TV, and That is where Kazuki Yamamoto comes in. made of warm milk. a full menagerie of milk-made animals on his street food, so you’re the real winner here.

Yamamoto’s latte art, which he produces in his Twitter account and blog. He’s pulled in hundreds Congratulations – you’ve earned it. 7-8 Nov, variFollow Kazuki on Twitter at @george_10g cafe in the Japanese city of Osaka, is the mindof thousands of fans with his work, and regularly ous times, Glad Cafe, 1006A Pollokshaws Rd, £5 ameblo.jp/cafe-10g/ blowing kind of impressive, the sort that leads makes appearances at events across Asia where (£15 payable on night), tickets from streetfoodto whiplash-inducing double-takes and stunned you too can stand in line and ask him to put showdown.bigcartel.com.

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Food Survey 2015: The Final Countdown As voting in our annual Food and Drink Survey reaches its closing stages we recap the final four categories and politely encourage you, for the last time, to name your favourites

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ur work here is nearly done. Having launched our fourth annual readers’ Food and Drink Survey back in September, voting closes at the end of the month, then it’s time to put the feet up and wait for the results to roll in. That goes for you lot, anyway – here at The Skinny we still have to go through the process of tallying up your votes and then relaying them back to you in our usual ‘hilarious’ manner.

There is still time to let us know which food and drink spots are your faves by firing over to bit.ly/skinnyfoodsurvey and filling in the form.

So whether you’ve been holding off voting until the very end, like you’re filling out a tax return or dodging a trip to the dentist, or you just plain didn’t know about this survey situation, fear not. We broke down the first half of this year’s categories last month, so let’s smash through the second while we’re all here.

‘ON THE GO’ In an ideal world, meals would be long, luxurious affairs with multiple courses and multiple anecdotes told by a coterie of friends and

well-wishers. Sadly, we don’t live in an ideal world, and often resort to the modern mode of eating – ‘grabbing a bite.’ That is to say, ‘grabbing’ something in a panic, and ‘biting’ it to make sure it is actually food and that you haven’t accidentally bought a pillowcase to eat on your way from work to the gig.

But being in a hurry doesn’t mean sacrificing quality or innovation – maybe you know a favourite sandwich place that makes theatre out of putting stuff in bread, or a street food stand that can throw you a great bowl of food in the time it takes to walk past. There are no real boundaries on this one – if you can eat or drink it ‘on the go’ or ‘in a hurry,’ it’s a valid choice.

BEER Back in the day, beer was yellow, and kind of fizzy.

That’s about all there was to it. Thankfully, the craft beer boom has seen great breweries, big and small, pop up right across the country. From tiny microbreweries in sheds and on industrial estates, to craft brewers who’ve graduated to huge operations without sacrificing their quality

and style, there’s a beer for everyone. We want to know which of Scotland’s breweries is your favourite, so… tell us. Please. Cheers.

FOOD SHOPPING We all do it – traipsing around grim supermarkets absent-mindedly putting stuff in the trolley while trying to maintain consciousness. But then there’s that other shop, the deli or bottle shop or specialist store, where we go to get the stuff we actually want.

Exotic fruit and veg that ‘the big shops’ didn’t know existed, whole alphabets of alcohol under one roof, imported treats in bizarre languages that’ll blow your taste buds clean off your face – this is the kind of food and drink shopping we actually like doing. So which is your favourite food and/or drink shop? Let us know – we promise not to go in and buy everything.

INTERNATIONAL To make life easier for you, we’ve amalgamated our world food categories from last year’s survey under one ‘international’ umbrella. That’s the

good news. The bad news is you now have to think about all the great world food on offer in Scotland, and pick one place. And it’s the last question too. Ouch. Sorry ‘bout that.

It’s not as if you’re short of options – Scotland is home to hundreds of restaurants, bistros, holes-in-the-wall, cantinas, cafes and other eateries bringing the whole world’s cultural palette right to your doorstep. European, American (North, Central and South), African, Asian (South-Eastern, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and many more subcategories than can really fit inside this bracket); it’s all here. We need your favourites. It is a tricky task, but someone’s got to do it, and we reckon you’ll do a damn good job.

Voting in The Skinny Food and Drink Survey closes on 28 Nov. Vote at bit.ly/skinnyfoodsurvey, and share your selections on the #skinnyfoodsurvey hashtag The results will be published in our January 2015 issue bit.ly/skinnyfoodsurvey

Win £200 to Spend at Cass Art!

Win Studio Recording Time!

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ass Art is now open in Glasgow. To celebrate creativity in the city, Cass Art has teamed up with The Skinny to bring you an exclusive prize draw.

The prize consists of £200 to spend on your favourite art materials in store at Cass Art 63-67 Queen Street, Glasgow G1 3EN, or online at www. cassart.co.uk. For your chance to win, head along to theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and follow the links.

Mark Cass opened his first shop in 1984, next to the National Gallery in London, and they currently have five shops in London and one in Kingston. The launch of their shop on Queen

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Street will not only see the opening of their first shop in Scotland, but their first step in opening affordable art shops across the country.

The new Glasgow shop includes an art space that will be used to support and celebrate the local artist community. Cass Art Glasgow 63-67 Queen Street G1 3EN Competition closes midnight Sunday 30 November. 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 www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

o celebrate the opening of their new recording studio and rehearsal rooms in Edinburgh, The Rec Room and The Skinny have teamed up to offer readers a chance to win eight hours of studio recording time! The Rec Room offers a professional recording studio with large live room complete with full back line. The studio is kitted out with the latest equipment and two fully qualified and experienced sound engineers at hand. The control room and live rooms have been professionally soundproofed and acoustically treated for the best possible sound. Check out previous recordings on The Rec Room's website the-rec-room.co.uk.

FOOD AND DRINK / COMPETITIONS

To be in with a chance of winning just go to theskinny.co.uk/about/competitions and answer the following question: What does mp3 stand for? a) Mega Phat 3 b) Moving Pictures Expert Group Layer-3 c) Music Player 3 Competition closes midnight Sunday 30 November. 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 www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

THE SKINNY

November 2013

Lifestyle

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www. glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com facebook/glasgowimprovisersorchestra @GIO_Glasgow #giofest7

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THE SKINNY

Gig Highlights

N

ovember’s an odd one, isn’t it? If it weren’t for the unrelenting omnipresence of pumpkin spice permeating every facet of your existence, you could almost kid yourself we’re nowhere near winter, let alone the C-word (not that one, you dirty rascal!). Yet, here we are.

You’ve only just sweated out the Dutch courage it took to debut your ‘home-made’ (read: shit) Halloween costume, and suddenly we’ve crashed into the penultimate month of 2014 before you’ve even had a chance to scrape the pound-shop face-paint out of your eyebrows. But time waits for no man...

Claire Brentnall’s siren-esque voice is reason aplenty to be lured into Shield Patterns’ aquarium of sounds at 13th Note in Glasgow. After a chance meeting with Gizeh Records boss Richard Knox in 2012, the pair began performing together, before deciding to weave their musical talent into the auditory wonderland that is Contour Lines. It’s wide-eyed and atmospheric, a ruminating sound punctured only by its own rhythmic stirrings; go and get engulfed (6 Nov).

Living proof that Sub Pop can do hip-hop with the best of them (see this past summer’s kaleidoscopic opus, Lese Majesty), Seattle-based retro-futurist rap duo Shabazz Palaces swing by Glasgow to submerge Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’s basement in Tendai Maraire’s fractured beats and Ishmael Butler’s stargazing flows. A squeegee for your

third eye on 7 Nov. It’s hard to write about Sleaford Mods’ Divide and Exit without imagining Jason Williamson himself reading every word and quickly letting you know he thinks you’re an utter prick. The duo’s latest record is exactly the kind of unadorned vexation that’ll scratch an itch for everyone who’s just realised they’re in the 99%.

It’s what Arctic Monkeys might have become before they volunteered themselves for the role of rock-messiahs. Or what Mike Skinner might be if he could manage to stop crywanking over fit girls he met in kebab shops. The mods have taken the indirect poesy of Jim Cartwright, slapped some beats underneath and poured curry sauce on top. And it’s brilliant. Electric Circus, 8 Nov. In a world where Sinatra is covered and appropriated by every smarmy devil who can get his hands on a pinstripe suit and metallic micstand, it’s spectacular to hear a record which notes Frank himself as an influence, and actually does the man justice. A relief in its modernity and ingenuity, Hamilton Leithauser’s Black Hours showcases the Walkmen frontman’s divine, crackly vocals alongside lucid and gorgeous instrumentation. And not a drop of sleaze in sight.

Edinburgh’s Electric Circus, 12 Nov. Hip-hop artist, film star, motivational speaker – everyone wants a piece of Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (known to the common man as eh... Common) these days, so make sure you get

The Wytches

a rare live serving of the Chicago MC at O2 ABC (12 Nov), bringing with him Nobody’s Smiling, the tenth release from a discography which spans some two decades of acclaimed releases.

Poor Little Dragon have had a knackering few years after touring the circumference of the globe with Gorillaz, while simultaneously drumming up their 2011 LP Ritual Union. But after two years spent working on new material in their Swedish studio, this year we’ve seen the return of a silkier, sulkier iteration of the Gothenburg quartet, brandishing their most introspective and intelligent work yet. Worry not, Nabuma Rubberband’s still got the same old bouncy-ball bass and playful percussion, just this time underscoring lyrics like “you’re gonna make me put my fist through this mirror” chanted through gritted teeth. And it really works. Glasgow’s O2 ABC, 23 Nov. From the first quivering chant of Too Bright, it’s a given that Perfume Genius is going to give us no less than eleven tracks of chilling pleasure.

Mike Hadreas’ voice swells and shrinks between fulsome and feline, hostile and haunted. It’s a side-step in style from his previous work, and he attributes the shift to “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since age ten and has just begun to bubble up.” If the catharsis that has manifest itself so handsomely in Too Bright is equally present in his upcoming dates, Perfume Genius may have found another way to keep us

Photo: Sam Huddleston

Walkmen

Photo: James Gray

Words: Kate Pasola

thrilled. Edinburgh Caves, 23 Nov. It’s understandable that Alfred WeisbergRoberts took his stage name from the mythological inventor Daedelus when he began to produce electronica. The Light Brigade, released this past September, is a picture-book of magnificent noise. From the charming acoustic stutters in Baba Yaga to the lilting Onward, Daedelus remains a gifted producer who demonstrates a firm grip on thematic consistency while skimming the cream of a wide range of styles. Sneaky Pete’s, 25 Nov. Brighton three-piece The Wytches write the kind of music that chills your blood and warms your guts simultaneously. More than just postironic guitar shredding and musical melodrama, Annabel Dream Reader is a psychedelic, gothy treat. If you’re in the mood to take on something massive and fancy some grimy rock and general melodrama, drink it all in at Glasgow’s Stereo on 29 Nov. Sharon Van Etten is the sort of artist who doesn’t succumb to the pressure to re-invent with every record in order to engage the attention of distractible fan-bases. Instead, she has evolved alongside the changing musical landscape and enriched her folky sound in the process. As a result, Are We There feels like the successful culmination of three years’ experimentation; we’ll wage it’s worth witnessing in the flesh at Glasgow Art School on 25 Nov.

Do Not Miss

If there was one band whose records were most qualified to teach that patience is a virtue, it would be Montréal export Ought. Refusing to deliver a rhythm any less than sublime, they execute a pull-and-release throughout the whole record that’s exhausting and exhilarating. Each track feels like a project between Ought and listener, and that will only be intensified live.

Even if it’s just to hear the marvelously layered soundscapes. Even if it’s for the smirky syncopation. Even if it’s to be whipped into frenzied jig by Beeler’s worship of banality in Today More Than Any Other Day. Just go already.

November 2014

Ought

MUSIC

Preview

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Photo: Brett Davis

OUGHT, GLASGOW CCA, 16 NOV

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“Can we turn this smoke machine off?” requests guitarist/vocalist Shehzaad Jiwani midway through Greys’ set, gesturing towards a headlevel generator that’s been puffing out vapour throughout. “I don’t want to give you the illusion that we’re anything but four total nerds from Toronto,” he deadpans – though it’s unlikely any amount of smoke could disguise the band’s affable wholesomeness, which helps win round the crowd’s early arrivals. Their friendly exterior belies a ferociously noisy sound; a post-hardcore squall played at an unyielding pace that leaves the room energised, exhilarated and expectant.

A smoking ban is re-requested during the headline slot when Sebastian Grainger complains that the constant fog is making it hard to breathe, noting “you guys don’t have to see me through smoke for this to be awesome.” He’s got a point; in fact, very little could diminish the unadulterated thrill of seeing Death From Above 1979 in action again, close to a decade since their last Glasgow visit. From the moment Turn It Out shrieks and gallops forth the power duo are riotous and relentless, with the sound of Jesse

Black Rivers

King Tut’s, Glasgow, 25 Oct

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For a band who’ve released only two singles, Black Rivers are received pretty rapturously from the moment they’re illuminated under the lighting rig. Frontman Jez Williams’ opening “Y’alright?” is met with glee by a room of Gallagher-cuts and cheery blokes demonstrating a premature pride matched only by a man at his son’s first five-a-side match. It’s a pride which, however, is entirely understandable – Jez, along with brother Andy, famously constituted two thirds of the immensely popular pre-hiatus Doves. No need for crowd-schmoozing here, but in return there’s an underlying expectancy that the siblings won’t stray from their old home.

But stray they do, and initially it’s excellent.

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Review

Helmet

Keeler’s distorted bass muscling into Grainger’s powerhouse drums and vocals still proving highly visceral.

Right On Frankenstein follows – the first salvo from The Physical World and a forceful notification that tonight isn’t an exercise in midnoughties nostalgia. As the lurching coda ignites, it’s clear that there’ll be no You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine-favouritism from either band or audience tonight (indeed, classic cuts like Blood On Our Hands and Black History Month are unceremoniously dropped to give new material a prolonged crack of the whip). By interweaving songs from either side of the hiatus, both eras sound invigorated: 2004 supplies the familiar rush, while 2014 spikes it and keeps it fresh.

Aside from the comparatively down-tempo (but still muscular) White Is Red, there’s little let-up: Crystal Ball stands out by dint of its interminable catchiness; Virgins’ brawny riffs sound absolutely colossal; You’re A Woman…’s title track pushes the gig to peak octane, while Romantic Rights’ bullish come-ons raise the room’s temperature to “a million fucking degrees”. Together with the incessant smoke, the overbearing heat speaks to an undeniable fact: the revived Death From Above 1979 are on fire. [Chris Buckle]

The Cathouse, 29 Oct

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Since an eleventh hour power cut delayed our chances of seeing Helmet’s ‘92 breakthrough Meantime brought to life in all its aggressive glory the last time they blew through town, Page Hamilton’s men and The Cathouse have a bit of making up to do here. Better than a dozen roses, they proffer a one-off live demonstration of two game-changing epics for the price of one as Betty, the album that blew their genre-blurring potential wide open to the MTV generation, reaches its 20th anniversary. Like a jackhammer missing a safety switch, there’ll be no slow ballad filler to justify your piss break here tonight.

Venue packed to the gunnels, the industrial post-punk jazz-metal fusionists (because nobody ever knew what the hell to call this) blow the dust off Wilma’s Rainbow with ease, putting minds to rest straight away that this post-Bogdan/Stanier incarnation of the group can’t afford to recline into some half-arsed exercise in retromania.

With the element of surprise largely left out of the equation until the encore – other than the news that we’ll be hearing Meantime in reverse

deathfromabove1979.com

Black Rivers

They’re swung by Andy’s gigantic drumming into dynamic performances of Ships and Voyager 1; a tidy equilibrium of writhing guitar and fittingly understated vocals which are fortified by glimmering, ominous synth. And then it unravels, the percussive slamming undermined by a sudden absence of electronic effects, leaving Jez to substitute with vocals that initially aspire to the stadium before quickly wilting. Balance is episodically restored, yet the set’s remainder plays out like a race to the Doves stuff. That said, when the crowd get to explode into a communal performance of Rise, that midway slump is happily forgotten. There’s a lot to be said for loyalty to listeners, but the twinkles of what we could be hearing from Black Rivers in their own right is reason to hope they’ll cut the apron-strings when the album lands. [Kate Pasola] facebook.com/BlackRiversOfficial

sequence later on – fans engrossed in the ritual (and a slowly widening circle pit) pre-emptively cheer on tracks like Biscuits for Smut and immortal rock club staple Milquetoast before a note has even been struck.

As the point where the band’s often buried pitch black humour became most apparent, Betty ’s rarely aired anomalies are also given a spotlight here; Beautiful Love, The Silver Hawaiian and Sam Hell each intermittently recall a time that the the country-flecked insanity of old contemporaries like Primus and The Butthole Surfers ran rife through the pages of Melody Maker. Hamilton’s wide smile confirms we’re not the only ones appreciating the moment.

“Now we’re gonna play this other shitty old album…’ Meantime still arrives like a suckerpunch – Turned Out’s stuttering groove is a monstrous highlight, Hamilton roaring himself hoarse to its perpetually climaxing chorus. Unsung, as ever, is greeted like an old friend at the bar holding out a pint of snakebite. Familiar? Yes. But still a tall plateau for forward-thinking hard rock, and a visceral reminder that nobody marries melody to mayhem quite like these boys. [Dave Kerr] helmetmusic.com

Goat

Goat / The Lay Llamas / Trembling Bells SWG3, 28 Sep

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“Psych” comes in many flavours tonight, with each act on the bill proffering a different strain of heady experimentation. We begin with the medieval-tinged psych-folk of local practitioners Trembling Bells, who pair paisley-and-capes apparel with a similarly flamboyant musicality.

Vivid guitar work-outs, prog-rock curlicues and Lavinia Blackwall’s immaculate vocals all add up to a typically bewitching performance.

Things take a cosmic turn next, as Sicily’s The Lay Llamas summon star-gazing drones to a visual backdrop of planetary rotations. Nature samples, pulsating bass lines and mantric chants whip up a dense atmosphere that occasionally threatens to overplay its new age intimations, but which is ultimately kept in check by Archaic Revival’s noisily forthright groove (beefed up

MUSIC

Photo: Les Ogilvie

Helmet

from its recorded incarnation).

Concealed behind a motley array of pseudoexotic masks, headliners Goat are every bit as bizarre and brilliant as their preceding reputation has promised. Front of stage, shamanic vocalists yell inscrutable verse from behind their ornate headdresses, dancing like dervishes and jabbing feathered staffs outwards as if attempting to physically pry open SWG3’s collective mind’s eye.

The duo barely pause for breath as the rest of the anonymous band members flow from one hypnotic jam to the next, driven onwards by the persistent rhythms laid down by both trap set and hand drums. From this intoxicating melange, highlights materialise – the twirling riffs of Talk to God; the heavy groove of Gathering of Ancient Tribes; the tabla-Sabbath bite of Run to Your Mama – each contributing to an oddball aura that, cumulatively, is entirely Goat’s own.

[Chris Buckle] goatsweden.blogspot.co.uk/

THE SKINNY

Photo: Stuart Moulding

The Garage, Glasgow, 22 Oct

Photo: John Graham

Death From Above 1979 / Greys

Photo: Elliott Hatherley

Death From Above 1979

Under the Influence: Brann Dailor Heavyweight bills are what Mastodon do best. As the Atlantan monoliths return to our shores with Big Business and Krokodil in tow, drummer Brann Dailor offers a personal tip of the bunnet to ten landmark releases by a handful of their touring allies

Interview: Dave Kerr Photography: Emily Wylde

1. Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind [1983] The first record I ever bought; I was eight years old when this came out. There was something about that Iron Maiden record that blew my dress up, so to speak. I just loved it – listened to it constantly and tried to draw Eddie over everything at the time. That started a long love affair and set me on the path of being the metalhead that I was back then. At eight, I was into Judas Priest because my mum was, but I felt like Iron Maiden was my own discovery. It’s like walking into my childhood home when I put this on now; there’s something very comforting about it.

2. Metallica – Ride the Lightning [1984] The influence that came from Cliff Burton – when you look at a track like The Call of Ktulu, where there are all these movements and it goes through all of these changes before it links back up at the end – it just sounds like classical music. Those tones – it’s very dark. At this point they were slowly becoming the band they were gonna be, but this record is just the pinnacle. It’s a huge leap from Kill ‘Em All – there’s a maturity to it that wasn’t there before. To me, it sounds very adult, when you consider how young they were at the time.

There’s something sophisticated about Ride the Lighting, I think.

3. Slayer – Reign in Blood [1986] When I first heard Reign in Blood it pretty much rendered the rest of my album collection obsolete. This is the first Slayer record I heard back in 1988, right around that time there was a Geraldo special called ‘Exposing Satan’s Underground.’ I recall being excited that Slayer and King Diamond were going to be featured on there – all these bands that I liked. It definitely provided a vehicle for a young kid at 13 years old to feel evil – it made a defiant teenager out of me. You wear the t-shirt, you get the looks at the grocery store – they know not to mess with you. Clearly you’re into evil shit and darkness. ‘Don’t mess with that kid!’ Which was so far from the truth – there wasn’t anything evil or dark about me. But with Slayer playing you kind of felt that way – it was fun to pretend.

‘Learn the sacred words of praise, Hail Satan.’

That was a mainstay at every backwoods party I was at. From start to finish, a brilliant piece of work – an undeniable thrash classic that still holds up.

4. Clutch – Passive Restraints EP [1992] So I’d go to the record store each week to see if they had the Clutch record – I didn’t know when it was coming out and neither did they. Finally I go in one day and they have this EP, which had three songs on it – it was just totally different and just what I was looking for at the time. Me and my little group of friends played that nonstop, then when the record finally came out we caught them on their first tour which came through Rochester, opening for Voivod and Damn the Machine. We were there to see Clutch though, the four of us; we all

November 2014

slam danced through their set and bought the t-shirt. I remember Neil Fallon coming out and gathering us four up and saying ‘hey man, I think the ink on those shirts is fucked up – here’s my address. If you wash it and the logo fades away then mail it back to me and I’ll mail you a new one.’ Every time I get drunk around those guys I tell them that story. When we first started touring with Clutch that blew my mind.

5. Alice in Chains – Dirt [1992] This was a game-changer. They were so mysterious and just the shot of cool that the rock and grunge world needed at the time. They were a little heavier and melodic but they were so slow and had this Sabbath thing going on too. Almost death metal style riffs going on there sometimes – like Obituary sounding stuff. The vocal harmonies between Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell were key with those boys, it’s really a trademark. I liked the variety that they encompassed, but you always knew it was Alice in Chains. They’re one of those true original bands.

6. Melvins – Houdini [1993] Melvins were a common denominator for Mastodon from early on; one of the bands – especially for Bill and Brent – that we could agree on. They’ve been a barometer for us, a place to look and see where we wanted to go and how we wanted to conduct our business, artistically. My introduction was Houdini, which I heard around the time it came out. There was a record store called Record Time in Rochester and there were these two cool dudes who worked in there. I’d just turned 18 and used to be in there almost every day to see what was new. Those guys introduced me to Houdini. Some of my favourites – Hooch, Sky Pup, Night Goat, Goin’ Blind – that KISS cover.

That was on a million mixtapes I made – always on the ‘must’ list.

7. Deftones – Around the Fur [1997] When Deftones first erupted with Adrenaline, I wouldn’t even listen to them. I was adamant that they were just another in a long line of Korn imitators and this nu-metal scene that had popped up was something I had no interest in listening to. So I sorta wrote them off. Then one night I ended up at this party at a friend’s house and he’d put on Around the Fur – loud. So I sat down on the bed and just started listening to and falling in love with it – it’s kinda dark, like ‘What the hell is this?’

He says Deftones. I’m thinking ‘Fuck!’ Oh man, I can’t deny this... so good.’ They’ve maintained that cool ever since. There’s so many different influences that they’ve somehow woven together – they’ve got this whole Cocteau Twins/4AD vibe coupled with super-heavy guitar. It works so well – from Chino’s voice to Abe’s drumming. His style’s so unique and he’s got all that groove. I love that band beyond belief; I’ll fanboy those guys to death every time I’m around them.

They’re like ‘Okaaay, security – get this guy out of here.’

8. Neurosis – Times of Grace [1999] When Bill and I were in Today is the Day, we toured with Neurosis while they were on the road with this record.

They played most of it every night – just to be able to experience the sheer power of Neurosis at close quarters like that was really incredible.

The intensity, the places they can go musically – it definitely taught me that there’s a deeper place you can go. At the time, I wanted to go there but I just really didn’t know how. That was Bill and I’s first tour of Europe; they’d been at it for ten years plus and taught us a lot. That lineup of Today is the Day broke up over there, and that was the catalyst for Mastodon starting. It had a lot to do with that tour and mainly Scott Kelly, he was really supportive of us and said ‘You don’t need anyone else; just go start your own band.’ A good mentor – that’s why we try to include him on most of our records.

MUSIC

9. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium [2003] I’d never really heard At the Drive-In, but I remember a lot of people were excited about them; they got really big and broke up as soon as they got huge. I thought that took a lot of balls.

People were always going to be interested in what those two guys did next. We were setting up at this club in Georgia and someone had demos of the first Volta album playing over the PA – it hadn’t even come out yet. I said ‘Goddamn, who is this band?’ Oh, it’s the guys from At the Drive-In. Volta were the only modern day prog band breaking through to the mainstream. I can’t remember the names of every drummer, but they always had someone ridiculous sitting back there. Like Jesus, where do you find these guys? I picture Omar in a van with tinted windows parked outside of a musician’s institute. It inspired us to go out on a limb a little bit more.

We’ve always had the prog thing in there, but The Mars Volta definitely set us off. This is just a monster. It’s non-stop and it’s a beautiful piece of music – all of these intricate compositions, while also maintaining true songs that blossom out of the madness. That’s hard to do. We were driving around in our van listening to this record nonstop for some time.

10. Baroness – Yellow and Green [2012] We consider Baroness a sister band, cut from the same cloth, and this is an incredible record. They really have come into their own with this one; it’s gorgeous… a really beautiful piece of music. This is another group where you can hear some of that old 80s 4AD influence shining through – like This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. It’s not an area of music I feel is talked about often enough, at least not in the context of heavy metal. Baroness are back up on their feet, out there doing it and they’re about to make a new record. I’m excited about that. John’s voice and guitar playing is amazing. mastodonrocks.com

Feature

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Album of the Month Hookworms

The Hum [Weird World, 10 Nov]

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Surely an ironic title – for all the persistent drones of Hookworms’ second album, there’s nothing as soft or dull as an actual hum. For all their adeptness at textured subtlety, the Leeds quintet operate best at fever pitch. Storming opener The Impasse plunges wildly into choppy waters, rattling manically like The Fall gnawing off their own limbs, before collapsing into the dubby kosmische of On Leaving.

Undaunted, they get back up to deliver hypnotic psych antilullabies (Off Screen) and giddy scuzz (Retreat): a welcome flex of their impressive muscle. But whether resembling The Modern Lovers trapping Lou Reed in a headlock, or see-sawing between

Ariel Pink

Deerhoof

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pom pom [4AD, 17 Nov] This double album magnum opus from the onetime king of lo-fi haunted graffiti is essentially an Ariel Pink best-of, albeit with an entirely new batch of songs. And the whole affair is as tremendously enjoyable as you might expect from an album with song titles such as Nude Beach A G-Go, Exile on Frog Street and Goth Bomb.

Ariel Pink manages to be both highly reverent and irreverent towards his 70s and 80s FM radio touchstones, straddling the line between outright pastiche and retro-futurist mystique, crashing together in a Technicolor alchemy of pervy pop brilliance. Pom pom is a minefield of hooks and delightful detours, awash in an admittedly modest but thoroughly effective production; these songs are aiming for an ultra slick sheen but don’t need them. It’s this sense of the uncanny that elevates Ariel Pink into a different league and pom pom is teeming with the eerie echoes of musical ghosts past and future. Crucially, the album is also jubilant, exuberant and a hell of a lot of fun. [Colm McAuliffe] 4ad.com/artists/arielpinkshauntedgraffiti

bloodshot pop and hazy soundscapes, there’s a sneaking sense of foreboding that reverberates strongest throughout The Hum; the sort of thing that shreds nerves and accelerates heartbeats.

Creepy, but impressive.

If their debut showcased a tendancy to shroud vocalist MJ’s deranged squeals in obfuscating reverb, this time he’s foregrounded, giving proceedings a cleaner focus – indeed, songs take precedence this time, rather than exercises in slowly-mounting tension and delirious release. Those qualities haven’t been abandoned, of course; just further absorbed into Hookworms’ still-evolving concoction of intelligent noise and glorious psychosis. Get excited: one of the UK’s best bands just got better. [Will Fitzpatrick] parasiticnematode.blogspot.com

Adrian Crowley

La Isla Bonita [Upset The Rhythm, 3 Nov] Fifteen seconds into the scuffed R‘n’B of Paradise Girls, you might be forgiven for assuming you’ve got the gist of Deerhoof’s 13th album.

After all, this sort of lunatic glitch-pop formed the backbone of previous effort Breakup Song, and the funk underpinning Satomi Matsuzaki’s ever-delirious vocals seems to suggest more of the same. Guess again though; it won’t prepare you for the gently evocative Mirror Monster, with its guitars that shimmer and crash like waterfalls, nor the grazed-knuckle wonk-punk of Exit Only.

Primarily, La Isla Bonita is a record of contrast.

Bloody-minded as ever, they run the listener ragged over ten tracks of imperfectly-formed noise fragments, pushed spectacularly into shapes that feel curiously familiar yet deeply out-ofwhack. Last Fad, for instance, conjures The Shangri-Las backed

by Bogshed – a fusion of ideas guaranteed to mess with your mind while forcing unspeakably wonderful gyrations from the rest of your body. Business as usual for avant-pop’s finest, then.

[Will Fitzpatrick]

Some Blue Morning [Chemikal Underground, 10 Nov]

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The world through the eyes of Adrian Crowley is a wonderful, textural place. His deep, sonorous voice seems at first almost portentous, but carries a quiet and patient sense of wonder, one that meditates on everything it describes. From the leaves on a railway track, to the tusks of a hog and the guile of a magpie, Some Blue Morning repaints the everyday hues of nature in marvellous splendour.

The record’s heart is The Wild Boar, a spoken word masterpiece; a short story, really, told over a soundtrack of minimalist post rock, that will stop you dead in your tracks. There are more ornate and orchestral moments here – lush and earthy strings, like the seasons they evoke, return naturally throughout. But at its very core, this is a simple album; one which toasts the small things on this planet in lovely style. It’s a fine record from a talented songwriter. [Finbarr Bermingham] chemikal.co.uk/artists/adrian-crowley

deerhoof.net

Dean Blunt

Axes

Deptford Goth

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Black Metal [Rough Trade, 3 Nov] Preparing yourself for the unexpected from Dean Blunt is almost a given, and Black Metal is yet again another fascinating sidestep. Despite previous intimations of swerving ‘sexless’ record buyers, Blunt’s first LP for Rough Trade at times sounds exactly that; a first half of heartfelt Britpop meets slowcore (LUSH, 100) drifting into minimal dub and experimental soul (X) courtesy of the unnerving FOREVER acting as the album’s pivot. However, due to the lack of thematic arc compared to The Redeemer, Black Metal falls short of the complete picture that Blunt’s indescribable genius can typically paint.

Perhaps it’s best to compare this album, if you must, to Blunt’s previous work under Hype Williams; many of these tracks don’t sound like they really care what you think, and all for the better. Black Metal is the most raw Blunt has been in years, yet again reinforcing his reputation for consistently intriguing listeners both familiar and new. [Jon Davies] roughtrade.com

Glory [Big Scary Monsters, 3 Nov] After years of wallowing in textured slow-builds and delicate sparseness, when exactly did postrock gain muscles and shed its attention span?

London-dwellers Axes may not be pioneers of its current tropes – mountain-high riffs, stop-start rhythms, a tendency to ponder ‘in which direction shall we take this song?’ and decide ‘ALL OF THEM’ – but they’re certainly amongst its most thrilling proponents. Second album Glory takes its cues from similar sources to contemporaries Brontide and Alpha Male Tea Party, resulting in a Technicolor melee that’s as thrilling as it is exhausting.

The hi-octane headrush of Junior seems to compress the entirety of pop-punk into one blurry mosh, before Plan Américain tumbles headfirst from the idea factory into a tangled mess of countrified maths. Other highlights feature luscious twinklecore explorations amidst cavernous power chords, but most beautiful is the soothing subtlety of Your Two: like goodnight kisses from the stars themselves. Glory then? Yep, just about covers it. [Will Fitzpatrick]

Songs [Bella Union, 3 Nov] There’s life after Life After Defo: Deptford Goth returns with sophomore album Songs and it’s a much more, er, lively affair. Behind the moniker is Daniel Woolhouse, a London based musician and producer whose ethereal, soulful electronica isn’t usually a sunny side up kinda situation. However, while Songs is just as polished and spacious as first album ...Defo, it’s hesitantly, tentatively optimistic and far less abstract.

Woolhouse’s glitch and shiver creates a typically glittering landscape, but there’s an uncharacteristically danceable rattle and shake, and a recurring almost-up-tempo beat that adds a welcome touch of warmth. Lyrically it’s less opaque, too. Vocals have taken on a leading role, guiding the listener through otherwise arctic seas. Understated but not to be underestimated, here’s an album that can’t be rushed. It’s a slippery, elusive listen – in the best sense. “The rhythm of life is an irregular beat,” croons Woolhouse, “listen to it slow.” [Katie Hawthorne] deptfordgoth.com

facebook.com/weareaxes

The Wharves

Arca

Piss Vortex

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At Bay [Gringo Records, 3 Nov]

Xen [Mute, 3 Nov]

Despite their London postcode, there’s an aching for space in The Wharves’ neatly put together vocal harmonies and muddy guitar chug. At Bay takes a largely minimalist route to attaining its encompassing sound; the pressing drumming of Marion Andrau is clutter-free, with guitar and vocal happy to chase each other around the same melodic paths on The Grip and Scarlet for Ya. It’s maybe a coincidence that a mention of the city (“city has a faultline” in Faultline) yields their densest-sounding moment, the fleeting escape of earlier tracks pulled out like stuffing. Elsewhere, Ode A Jimmy has a touch of the pastoral, akin to Broadcast and The Focus Group’s investigations into 70s progressive folk, as The Wharves seek to coax the maximum from their basic elements. Unfortunately they don’t quite explore enough to warrant the record’s length of 13 tracks, although a rousing Mother Damnable towards its end does reward the extended journey of a debut with much to enjoy. [Simon Jay Catling]

Having spent two years as hip-hop’s secret weapon, Arca’s leap into the spotlight showcases the auteur at his most sensual. Xen, named after Arca’s female alter ego, reflects a schizophrenia of influences, from booty-shaking soca to Aphex Twin-esque balladry that bewilder and enrapture equally. The album is a slow starter, however once immersed there’s no point of return, with the title track exploding before your ears, while the world of Slit Thru carves a scene where drowning and dancing are one and the same.

What shines through most are his more introspective moments: take the detuned forlorn of Held Apart, the beautifully paced Sisters and the weary Failed for examples. Certain moments of Xen fail to live up to Arca’s ethereal creations; Family Violence fake strings feel laboured, whereas Tongue misses a vocal line to grasp to. However the only expectations Arca lives up to are the ones he sets himself; Xen is often beyond the imaginations of his contemporaries. [Jon Davies]

thewharves.bandcamp.com

arca1000000.com

Piss Vortex [Indisciplinarian, 3 Nov] Rock journo problems: sometimes the adjectives you planned to use to review a metal band are already laid out perfectly neatly in the press release. Brutal? Abrasive? Uncompromising? C’mon, this stuff is all par for the course, especially when writing about a subgenre as emblematic of all those terms as grindcore. What’s a poor hack to do?

Luckily, Piss Vortex’s eardrum-shattering debut amounts to much more than stylistic typicalities, with strips torn violently from different yet similarly wild beasts – the stuttering sludge of Beaten Womb, for instance, owes much to The Jesus Lizard’s teeth-clenched mania. Blizzard-like blastbeats cut right through the core of Simon Stenbæk Christensen’s guttural roar, with nods to black metal and even the spasming rush of Lightning Bolt audible amid these juddering thrills. But most impressive is the way album closer Our Maker’s Invisible Hand regurgitates the album’s opening riff, making Piss Vortex seem so cyclical as to imply the inevitability of repeat plays. [Will Fitzparick] pissvortex.bandcamp.com

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RECORDS

THE SKINNY

The Flaming Lips

Stanley Odd

Bloodbath

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A Thing Brand New [A Modern Way, 10 Nov]

With a Little Help From My Fwends [Bella Union, 3 Nov]

Grand Morbid Funeral [Peaceville Records, 17 Nov]

Here’s one you genuinely couldn’t make up: The Flaming Lips bash out their own bonkers take on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with a little help from a starry, decidedly eclectic supporting cast that includes Moby, J Mascis, Tegan and Sara, Maynard James Keenan and Miley Cyrus.

With all proceeds going to The Bella Foundation (a non-profit organisation in the band’s hometown of Oklahoma City that assists low-income, elderly, or terminally ill pet owners with the cost of veterinary care), the motivation is unquestionable.

If only the same could be said for the music. At times, the rampant sonic buffoonery makes the original sound positively humdrum. A tender reading of She’s Leaving Home, featuring Julianna Barwick and Phantogram, is as restrained as it gets.

Replay value? Minimal, sad to say. Big of heart but, ultimately, low on art, these fwends deserve support, nevertheless. But hey, fuck it, because caring is cool, take an extra star. [Gary Kaill]

Stanley Odd MC Solareye is known for a refreshing lack of pretension in a hip-hop world still associated with big egos and outlandish boasting. He exudes a laid-back confidence based on a firm moral code; empathy for others flows from A Thing Brand New, the Edinburgh collective’s third album. The honesty of closing track I Voted Yes has already proved an internet hit in the raw weeks following 18 September. Hook candidly explains his reasons for backing independence but never blames those who chose not to follow the same path.

His hackles are raised on the stand-out A Walking Dead, which rails against the post-Thatcherite mess of the 21st century and asks why more are not speaking out. “Who says she’s been laid to rest / In austerity and flawed excess / The lady lives on,” he intones over a hook-heavy backing. Musically tight and lyrically surprising, A Thing Brand New is a confident step forward despite its MC’s aversion to swagger. [Chris McCall]

It starts with the longest scream in history.

That’s your man, Nick Holmes. By name alone he might sound like an estate agent who once spammed you on LinkedIn. But no, this is one Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost, death metal titans and a key influence on Bloodbath, the Swedish act which he fronts here on their fourth album. Death metal, eh?

The musical genre delivered with face straight and, you suspect – hope – tongue firmly in cheek.

The titles alone are as compelling as the songs: Let the Stillborn Come to Me; Mental Abortion; Beyond Cremation; Unite in Pain; His Infernal Necropsy. An “organic collection of filthridden tracks straight from the grave” is the greatest slice of PR blurb in history. Lovers of earnest reflection or social commentary should probably look elsewhere. Grand Morbid Funeral is undoubtedly grand, unremittingly morbid but anything but funereal: with a fair wind, it could wake the fucking dead. [Gary Kaill]

flaminglips.com

Playing Edinburgh Liquid Room 21 Nov

bloodbath.biz

Golden Fable

Slice of Life

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Ancient Blue Full of Joy Records, 10 Nov

Love and a Lamp-Post [Overground Records , 17 Nov]

Life in Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam must have been difficult for Rebecca Palin. As well as the carpal strain of filling out that protracted moniker on forms and such, it was presumably stifling not being able to utilise her classical vocal training in what was predominantly an instrumental act; a situation that offshoot Golden Fable rectifies to a fault.

Formed in 2011 with Tim and Sam bandleader Tim McIver, they quietly impressed with debut Star Map, on which Palin’s pristine pipes floated above and around a charming combination of placid electronica and dreamy indie-pop. Unfortunately, second album Ancient Blue leans too heavily on the former chorister’s crystalline soprano, which this time barely strays from the highest registers. The angelic tone is initially striking but pales with overexposure, distracting from variety elsewhere in the mix – though taken in discrete doses, songs like Lifeline remain capable of raising goosebumps. [Chris Buckle]

A change of pace from the turbulent mind of Steve Ignorant. 2011 saw him resurrecting Crass material under the moniker The Last Supper, which largely served to draw a line under his former outfit’s anarcho-punk legacy. It also provided the jumping-off point for new project Slice of Life, and as such, pals were gathered to display the veteran’s softer side.

Ignorant claims that Love and a Lamp-Post is an attempt to channel the atmosphere evoked by Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, and the spoken-word rumination of You and the Home Coming certainly echo that novel’s mournful sentiments: moral decay amid the homely shabbiness of English towns.

Unfortunately, the majority of the album feels tastefully bland; piano and acoustic guitars backing uncomplicated sing-songs like Killing Time, which fails to ignite despite the righteous heart burning among the lyrical embers. A well-intentioned deviation, then, but crucially not a particularly diverting one. [Will Fitzpatrick]

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steveignorant.co.uk

The Orchids

Dan Bodan

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Beatitude #9 [Acuarela, 24 Nov] The indie pop classicists return with their fifth album in an on-off, quarter century career. As with much of the smarter Scottish guitar pop that emerged in the late 80s, Beatitude #9 has a reflective, melancholy tone. Switched on but dialled down, it’s lovingly understated and The Orchids, as ever, favour simple arrangements, rimshots and gently strummed guitars. The clipped grooves and whispered vocals of Someone Like You recall prime Belle and Sebastian.

They’re as dreamy as they ever were on Your Heart Sends Me, the ringing guitars and blissful harmonies more Teenage Fanclub than, say, The Field Mice, the Sarah Records poster boys, seemingly forever mythologised as the exemplars of fey indie pop.

Indeed, the hardcore have long argued that The Orchids, with their striving and longevity, are more deserving of that crown than their original label mates. On this new evidence, they have a point.

[Gary Kaill] theorchids.net

Soft [DFA, 17 Nov] Before a breathily sighed note’s been uttered, Berlin-based Canadian Dan Bodan has set the tone for his debut full-length by titling it Soft, drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell’s Blue in actively encouraging pre-conception. Where Mitchell sought melancholy, Bodan’s emotional intentions are of a more gooey, loved-up nature, with Soft a series of caramel sweet mediations on matters of the heart portrayed through a prism of digitally-mutated R’n’B cuts.

If last year’s subdued, shuffling single Anonymous placed the producer awkwardly among the rest of DFA’s typically brash roster, then the sickly balladry of For Heaven’s Sake – more Sinatra than Shit Robot – and the over-sugared crescendo of saxophonesmothered Jaws of Live only isolates him further. However, there’s an admiration to be found in the conviction of such wilfully gaudy moments, and at his best – amid Romeo’s spectral trip-hop groove and the gradually welling creak and moan of Rusty – he proves an affecting gift for the genuinely evocative. [Simon Jay Catling]

Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Rhythm [The Leaf Label, 3 Nov]

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Founded on a primal combination of vocals and percussion yet full of imaginative arrangements and production twists, Swedish duo Wildbirds and Peacedrums’ fourth LP pulls both forward and back, sounding simultaneously ancient and thrillingly modern.

It follows four years spent separately pursuing other projects, and makes an explicit recommitment to the restricted (but, in their hands, never restricting) drums and voice framework that made earlier works like The Snake so beguiling.

Opener Ghosts and Pains instantly exhibits both partners’ strengths: as Andreas Werlin builds rhythms from soft shakers and hollow echoes, Mariam Wallentin delivers a soulful vocal that glides up and down octaves, augmented by loops and layering.

Other tracks take more time to reveal themselves, and this furtiveness occasionally threatens to douse Rhythm’s fireworks in a low dose of monotony. But excellence elsewhere counteracts the odd slump, with highlights ranging from Mind Blues’ curious clangs to Soft Wind, Soft Death’s jittery gospel. [Chris Buckle]

The Top Five 1 2 3 4 5

Hookworms

The Hum

Deerhoof

La Isla Bonita

Ariel Pink

pom pom

Stanley Odd

A Thing Brand New

Adrian Crowley

Some Blue Morning

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EP Reviews Atom Tree

September Girls

Machines in Heaven

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Clouds EP [Hotgem, 21 Nov]

Veneer EP [Fortuna POP!, 24 Nov]

Where Tide of Thorns established prodigal producer Shaun Canning as an artisan of sparkling, sweeping electronica, blending dark bass with colourful highs, Atom Tree’s second EP Clouds is an upgrade from bedroom production to promising dreampop.

Finally bringing Julie Knox’s vocal nectar to the fore – a fixture in live performances since their debut – complements Michael Robertson’s drums and Canning’s rich compositions so well that by comparison, the mostly vox-less ToT feels naked without her.

With Knox, the wordlessly poetic backing of Hearts or Hold On is bestowed extra emotive whallop. That said, a highlight of the four-track bundle is the addictive ping-pong synth – and eventual ecstatic, seismic climax – of the instrumental title track Clouds: six minutes of simple bliss. [George Sully]

Eleven months after debut album Cursing the Sea established a September Girls-sound hewn from heavy reverb, fuzzy melodies and a moody noir complexion, Veneer steers the Dublin quintet into marginally darker and more turbulent waters. Though the title track buzzes with signature feedback, its mien is murkier and its hooks less immediate, suggesting the successes of the last year have had an emboldening effect.

Black Oil follows with a blizzard of distorted guitars and fevered, semi-spoken vocals, before Melatonin slinks into view with a nursery rhyme cadence that lurks just shy of the shadows. Only closing track Butterflies is found wanting, rounding out the EP in solid rather than exemplary fashion; otherwise, Veneer reveals a band seemingly growing in confidence by the day. [Chris Buckle]

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November 2014

RECORDS

Hindu Milk EP [Hotgem, 14 Nov] After making waves with their Glasgow Jihad EP and follow-up full-length debut bordersbreakdown, Glaswegian glitch gang Machines in Heaven offer another tantalising glimpse into their future as a three-piece. There are punchy bass synths here that have more in common with the 80s videogame vibes of Kavinsky than the interstellar ambience of their LP; Edge of the Middle, Hindu Milk and Feel Slow throb straight out of Tron, vocoder verses aplenty.

The latter coupled with closing track Holy Particles forms a yin and yang of dark and light, abundantly layered with shimmering, bewitching motifs. Voodoo Mechanics, however – inspiringly titled, and with a promising popcorn refrain – is the only discordant moment on an otherwise engrossing EP. [George Sully] facebook.com/machinesinheaven

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Dangerous Expectations Thirty years after Elite redefined what a videogame could be, Frontier Developments are returning to the iconic space simulator with Elite: Dangerous.

As the long-gestating project prepares for take-off, we speak to producer Adam Woods about playing God in your own universe Interview: Darren Carle

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f the phrase ‘fitting a gallon into a pint pot’ ever needed an accompanying picture then a screenshot of the 1984 space-trading videogame Elite would probably suffice. By cramming an entire, procedurally-generated universe onto a BBC microcomputer, Elite bagged its status as one of gaming’s greatest technical achievements while its open world gameplay further marked it out as a pioneering title, one whose reverberations are still being felt today.

Not least of those influences is, unsurprisingly, Elite: Dangerous, the upcoming fourth game in a series now spanning thirty years.

1993’s Frontier: Elite II and 1995’s Frontier: First Encounters are the connecting dots, yet they still leave an unbroken nineteen year line of static in the Elite universe. Changing tastes and safer publishing deals may be partly to blame but, if the apparent upsurge in sales of PC joysticks is an indicator, it seems Elite: Dangerous is a sign of a changing tide.

“We always believed there was a market for space-based games and our Kickstarter campaign certainly proved it,” says producer Adam Woods. Raising £2.1 million via the crowdfunding site last year ensured the roadblocks stopping Elite: Dangerous becoming a reality were bulldozed down overnight. However, according to Woods it’s not just the money that has helped spur on the team at Frontier Developments.

“We’ve been surprised just how much support we’ve received since the Kickstarter finished,” he explains. “The sheer joy we see on players’ faces makes the commercial argument for us; everyone gets excited by the chance to explore the Milky Way from the cockpit of their own ship.”

As with the original game, players of Elite: Dangerous are faced not just with the prospect of a whole universe to explore, but with a multitude of ways in which to do so. It’s also, understandably, the first in the series to be an online, massively multiplayer experience, something that opens up even more possibilities. “You can choose to play alone or in a fully multiplayer galaxy,” explains Woods. “Either way, you’ll experience your own story, whether you want to become a pioneer charting undiscovered star systems, steal loot as a pirate, hunt other players like an assassin or just make an honest living as a goods trader.”

Yet while players can become ensconced in their own little skirmishes and trading routes, the overarching universe will be overseen by Frontier themselves, and they are not planning on acting like ambivalent deities. “Everyone’s story is their own, but however you choose to play, your story will be impacted by the galaxyspanning events we control at the studio,” says Woods. “Whether that’s interstellar war or market crashes, those events will affect allegiances, goods prices and your relationships with other players.”

However, while Frontier may have a degree of control over the universe they’ve created, that’s not to say that their loyal subjects are likely to behave according to their galactic rulebook.

Players testing the current Beta version have put

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the studio’s mooted ‘role creation’ opportunities to the test. “One of our star systems erupted in civil war,” recalls Woods. “We expected players to exploit the trade in weapons and medicine, but never expected one faction of players to blockade and demand protection money from traders hoping to sell goods at the starport. Those kinds of emergent behaviours are only possible in a connected galaxy, and we’re constantly surprised by the things players do with the game’s systems.”

“The sheer joy we see on players’ faces makes the commercial argument for us; everyone gets excited by the chance to explore the Milky Way from the cockpit of their own ship” Adam Woods

In this way, Elite: Dangerous is living up to its legacy. Those who sat hunched over their keyboards fathoming out Elite’s complex world back in the 80s may well have been privy to some ludicrous playground rumours on how to connect their game to that of other friends. Sometimes a synchronous phone call would suffice, other stories told of an in-game space station that held magical capabilities. It was testament not just to childhood naïvety but to the sheer technical scope of Elite that these seemed like possibilities.

Now, Elite: Dangerous is delivering those fantasies to earnest backers with a full roll-out of the game expected this month. It may be some nine months behind its initial schedule, but Woods believes the extra processing time will speak for itself. “We’ve been developing Elite: Dangerous alongside our community and I think they’ll testify just how much the game has grown,” he states. “We released the Alpha to select backers and have since advanced through three Beta stages on our way to launch, with each step adding new ships, starports, star systems and game-changing features. The game that players will receive could never have been so complete without support from our testers and the time to implement their feedback.”

So, thirty years after the original game frazzled minds and, very nearly, frazzled circuit boards, can Elite: Dangerous live up to the expectation that has inevitably come with it? The Skinny’s hands-on time with it certainly seems to say so, with everything from the mundane thrill of docking to the boundless enthusiasm

of exploration and the tense dogfighting all accounted for. Coupled with the new persistent online universe, Elite: Dangerous feels redolent with the kind of possibilities you could only imagine in the original game.

Woods is well aware of the challenge, but feels Frontier are on the cusp of delivering what’s needed, and then some. “Elite is the original 3D space adventure so we have a lot to live up to,” he acknowledges. “(It) redefined what gamers expected from the old BBC Micro back in 1984, and of course it’s a challenge to have the same impact thirty years on. More than anything I hope Elite: Dangerous meets the expectations of everyone who backed our vision two years ago and everyone who’s joined us for the journey since.

With luck, we’ll blaze a trail of our own and see the game last, grow and thrive for years to come.”

Elite: Dangerous’s beta 3.0 is available now. A full release is expected by the end of the year elitedangerous.com

A Rift In Space As if Elite: Dangerous wasn’t looking immersive enough, Frontier Developments are currently working on a fit for Oculus Rift, the upcoming virtual reality headset looking to revolutionise home gaming. Yet whereas other developers have categorically stated that Rift will be an uneasy bedfellow with their particular games, Frontier’s Chief Operations Officer Dave Walsh feels far more confident in the union. “As soon as we played the game with the Rift we knew it was a great fit,” he told The Skinny earlier this year.

“First off, you are seated flying your ship, which plays to the current strengths of Oculus Rift.

The freedom and extra information about the game you get simply by moving your head to look around and follow other ships during combat is a revelation; it transforms your perception of the experience. Elite: Dangerous offers players the chance to live on their wits in a gigantic, aweinspiring galaxy. Oculus Rift adds another amazing layer of immersion into the mix.”

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THE SKINNY

November 2014

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Clubbing Highlights Illustration: Raj Dhunna

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e begin in Glasgow where the Art School hosts FOAM, a collaborative effort which brings together an impressive line-up across a pleasingly broad spectrum – from the deep, spellbinding sounds of Mathematics boss Jamal Moss AKA Hieroglyphic Being, to the meandering acid grooves of Posthuman and a DJ set from Warp legends Plaid. This expansive multi-room collaboration between different promoters is definitely looking like an early tip for one of the best nights of the month (Sat 8 Nov, £5/6).

Next up, we’re headed to the Sub Club where Rubix are set to host the artist formerly known as Ramadanman. A producer who uses rhythm like few others, David Kennedy AKA Pearson Sound has made massive strides since he emerged in 2006 with a particularly engaging brand of dubstep in what was then a vibrant period for the scene generally. In the years since, Kennedy has developed his sound significantly and is cofounder of Hessle Audio, possibly one of the most influential British labels around right now. Expect a varied set, with that hallowed bass-driven Sub Club system sure to be used to full effect (Thu 13 Nov, £5/7).

If you’ve made it through Rubix on the Thursday unscathed and you’re in the mood for an upping of the tempo on Friday 14 November, we can’t recommend the visit of Don’t boss Jerome Hill enough. A veteran of the UK scene and prone to mixing up rave, techno, jungle, hip hop and whatever else takes his fancy, Hill is a DJ of the highest calibre and one who undoubtedly

deserves more recognition – as FACT pointed out just last month in their list of DJs who “deserve more shine.” This is the second outing for new night Wax Factory and also features appearances from Nomad Spectrum and 3Phazegenerator (69 Below, £5 early bird).

Another option for that evening, and our final Weegie pick for this month, is the ever reliable confines of La Cheetah and the last event of their sprawling 5th Birthday celebrations. For this one they have invited a true pioneer and possibly one of the most interesting electronic artists to emerge from the UK. For many, Matthew Herbert wrote the deep house rule book with his early self-titled releases, sampling everything including the kitchen sink in the process. Despite having gone on to work on a dizzying array of other projects – devising operas and working for the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop among the most impressive – Herbert this year decided to return to his house roots with parts six and seven of his eponymous series. With DJ outings very rare these days, we suggest you catch him while you still can (Fri 14 Nov, £10 adv).

Moving on to Edinburgh and if you fancy a cheeky Thursday night outing, Sneaky Pete’s on Thursday 13 November looks like a no brainer as Juice welcome Miami-bred resident of NYC, Anthony Naples. The US producer has turned plenty of heads in recent years with his releases for the likes of Mister Saturday Night and The Trilogy Tapes. Equally as comfortable producing grittier techno leaning productions as he is

dropping jazzy house jams, Naples has already established himself as an artist very much in the ascendancy (£6).

The following weekend sees Pulse celebrate their 5th Birthday in fine fashion with the visit of Dutch techno master Steve Rachmad, appearing under his brilliant Sterac guise. Exploring the deeper side of Rachmad’s musical sensibilities, Sterac has been the name under which he has released some of his finest work. Dating back to the mid 90s, this moniker has always focussed on hypnotic and richly layered minimal techno – sometimes light and airy as in much of his landmark Secret Life of Machines album, at other times dark and penetrating in a similar style to Detroit legend Robert Hood. With more recent releases on Klockworks and Delsin to his name, Rachmad has proven he is still very much on top of his game (Fri 21 Nov, Studio 24, £10).

Finally, we doff our hat to Nightvision as they present one of the most appealing nights of their series so far. Long beloved and thankfully reopened venue La Belle Angele hosts the visit of super duo KiNK & Neville Watson. Always tooled up with a gratifying array of buttons, pads and percussive devices, Bulgarian Strahil Velchev and his UK counterpart have become one of the most in demand live acts in house music and are able to draw from a wealth of material released through such sterling labels as Snuff Trax and Rush Hour. They are joined on this occasion by local talent in the shape of Kirk Douglas – no, not that one! (Sat 29 Nov, £10). [Ronan Martin]

All Because the Lady Loves... DJ Milktray As Glasgow’s Astral Black prepare to release their own grimey take on R’n’B, producer DJ Milktray and label head Jon Phonics discuss the venture

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hat is it about R’n’B circa MSN Messenger that means it can still blow the roof off?

Thinking about it, much of what it meant was sitting around, sifting through playlists built up over months via WinMX, waiting for 7pm (surftime!) when the shitty 56k dial-up could finally be plugged in, in the vain hope of ending up in a group chat with the one girl I liked. It never happened bruv, and in time the tunes became imbued with the very stuff of youth – total inadequacy, traceless guilt, L’Oreal Studio Gel. No wonder it still sounds so charged.

Glasgow’s DJ Milktray shares similarly underwhelming experiences. “I remember just being a bit of a loser, glued to MTV Base and Channel U and that. I used to have to go to my mate’s sometimes though to use his telly because I didn’t have Sky. The production and videos for tunes were on a different level back then. I mean, R Kelly’s pink ensemble in the Hotel video says it all.”

In fact, Milktray’s upcoming EP on Astral Black features his own tightly sprung grime edit of Hotel, the god-bothering Cassidy’s 2003 single with the most revolting man in R’n’B. It’s not hard to see how the Glasgow producer has worked himself into such regular rotation in such a short time – like many of his peers in the instrumental new wave he’s stripped back his sound, but whereas some have done this for muggy spatial effects and that ‘you’re-about-to-get-murked’ type tension, Milktray’s made room for a cleaner punch. “Taking songs apart and choosing specific

November 2014

Interview: Jean-Xavier Boucherat

noises that jump out at me is a lot of fun. The songs I normally choose to flip are ones that I can never really fit around an [up-tempo] set, so it’s about me selecting certain parts and arranging it in such a way that can work in the club.”

Astral Black label head Jon Phonics agrees that this deconstruction element is key. “I think that’s the string that ties everything we release together. Whether it’s Jaisu making hip-hop with a 70s prog rock sample, or Milktray chopping up a Justin Timberlake song for the club, it remains the same art form.”

Milktray’s release sees Astral Black keeping up a Scottish theme that’s been going for some time. Last summer saw the release of A Short Album from Edinburgh based MPC-wizz Jaisu, and Inkke’s Faded with da Kittens landed earlier this year. “Jaisu, Opal Block, Sivey, S-Type & I used to meet every other month in Birmingham for beat battles. That’s where we all met each other,” explains Jon. “I moved to Glasgow last summer to work with Jaisu on his first project for us, and it’s grown from there.”

These beat battles, along with a shared love of hip-hop and throwback production, appear to have informed the early vision of the label without going on to constrain it. “Our roster is split pretty 50/50 between guys doing club music and guys making rap beats. We sort of exist at the fork in the road where the two meet, and the releases we have on the way from Dressin Red, It’sNate & JD Reid and Bushido Brown are perfect examples of that crossover.”

Interestingly enough, Jon is quick to call me out when the questions get too grime specific, reflective perhaps of the refreshing messiness that many young labels are opting for, as opposed to catering for niche crowds and potentially getting bogged down with particulars – “We just wanna give people a mix of stuff they know and

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love, alongside music they haven’t heard yet and just don’t know they love yet.”

All Because the Lady Loves by DJ Milktray is out this month You can catch DJ Milktray at the record’s launch party alongside Skepta at the Art School, Glasgow, Fri 21 Nov astralblack.bandcamp.com/

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Book Highlights With autumn upon us and leaves dying, words are coming to life. This season promises Scotland so many on page, on public walls and in the air around us, so we’ll keep it brief Words: Alan Bett

ook Week Scotland takes place from 24-30 November with The Scottish Book Trust delivering its diverse programme of book-related events, projects and activities across the country. In an age where libraries are under threat, we’re asked to declare our true feelings for these temples of words and ideas through Love Letter to Your Library, with authors and celebs revealing their own throughout the week. The Trust will bring things to a close by revealing the nation’s favourite character from Scottish books – get involved by voting online from a shortlist of 50, or by suggesting your own favourite.

You may have noticed Waverley – the world’s only train station named after a work of literature – wrapped in the words of Sir Walter Scott during October. It marked a celebration of the 200th anniversary of his book which shares its title, alongside the 10th of Edinburgh’s designation as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Auld Reekie looks to another great name in November with Robert Louis Stevenson Day on the 13th, a ‘tache twirling day of walks, talks, tales and teas in his honour. On this day the National Library of Scotland will hold a special talk, looking at Stevenson’s time in the South Seas and the stories it generated. Then on the 14th you can experience a one-off performance of The Laird of Samoa, the play that brings Stevenson’s travels to life. There are many more

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By Nnedi Okorafor

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events throughout the month.

For those who prefer their words breathed full of life, the news of Rally & Broad’s combined October launch (Glasgow, Stereo) and re-launch (Edinburgh, Bongo Club) was cause to party – I dropped by the Bongo, it was immense.

November is their month of ‘Eureka’ moments at both venues, with performances from the lyrical ladies themselves alongside Aidan Moffat, AJ McKenna and many more.

Finally, The Saltire Society announced its literary awards shortlist in October, to be presented on 11 November at Dynamic Earth.

Director Jim Tough tells us that this year “Scotland’s most prestigious literary awards are being taken to a new level.” There are new catagories for Poetry and Literary Book of the Year while their regular First Book Award boasts an ever exciting line-up. Kirsty Logan’s highly acclaimed The Rental Heart sits in a tight field alongside friend of The Skinny Anneliese Mackintosh and her stunning emotional debut Any Other Mouth. rallyandbroad.com saltireawards.org.uk/ scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland cityofliterature.com/whats-on/rls-day-2014/ Fergus John McCann enjoys a copy of the free Great Scott! Book at Waverley Station Edinburgh

This is Scotland: A Country in Words and Pictures

By Night the Mountain Burns

By Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

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The Book of Strange New Things

By Michel Faber

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By Daniel Gray and Alan McCredie

rrrrr Nnedi Okorafor has previously suggested that Nigerian storytelling requires no separation of the mystical and the mundane, perhaps explaining the potent blend of sci-fi, fable and social commentary here. In the troubled lagoon that is Lagos, aliens arrive with a sonic boom and the waters inexplicably rise, at one point reaching out to snatch a chosen three – Adaora, Agu, Anthony – for purposes unknown. Either way, Lagos burns.

Okorafor is fearless in tackling taboos – corruption and sexuality two of many – but while these issues would exist deep within subtext for the sadly silent genre greats Bradbury and Matheson (RIP), Okorafor brings them into sharp focus. Their forefront position imposes such function on characters it detracts from their fluidity. The book’s flaws exist as side effects of the author’s great strength – a hugely fertile imagination – which overloads the narrative with more theme and technique than it can hold. Changes in format and tense overlap at times in an unruly Rashomon effect, and while designed to add texture and insight they eventually disjoint. This still leaves a vibrant, magical tale, never less than enjoyable and not once dull; its targets neither weak nor easy – government and religion take heavy body blows. Lagoon is a love letter to a city and a society still bearing the scars of colonialism and civil war, here confronting the very relevant fears of alien otherness and the beast within themselves. [Alan Bett]

This reads a bit like a short story cycle. An episode swells and lapses, another swells in turn. By Night the Mountain Burns is told orally, through some literate intermediary, from Annobon, a tiny and remote Eqautoguinean island. The speaker’s family history stands as surrogate for a people’s history, for a culture cloistered by the Atlantic Ocean. His is a boyhood populated by a grandmother, a silent grandfather and several mothers. Many of the island’s men, his father included, have disappeared across the water.

As a brutal mob assault lapses, a cholera epidemic swells. Island traditions and local lore – canoe building and ‘she-devil’ women – blend with the banality and scarcity of the day-to-day.

All are related in the same clear, sparse voice.

Avila Laurel laces Burns with repetitions and deferrals, presumably in an attempt to create a more authentic oral style. These can become frustrating though. A promise to reveal the contents of the grandfather’s room is spun out interminably.

The book’s blurb compares Ávila Laurel to Achebe and García Márquez, which is unfair.

There are tinges of magic realism, yes, and the spectre of colonialism whispers throughout, but Ávila Laurel’s prose doesn’t stand up to that sort of hype. Whose could? ...Burns is more intriguing than fascinating. It’s more likely to draw an interested ‘hmm’ than an astonished gasp. It draws plenty of the former, though. [Angus Sutherland]

Photographer Alan McCredie and writer Daniel Gray have merged talents to bring you the travelogue This is Scotland. It’s a flirty glance at a dozen areas around the country – setting off in Leith and making tracks to both Highlands and Borderlands. Along the way they encounter the re-awakened Dundee with never-ending talk of the new V&A Museum, the ‘chaos’ on Skye, and Govan, where apparently you can get just about anything – including an STI. This collection of photography accompanied by context and history doesn’t claim to be exhaustive or academic, but is an honest account of real places and people, often captured in poetic prose.

Despite a past of tough times, in Leith people plough on – some are drug-dependent, some aren’t. All hope to avoid the dog-mess on the pavements. People in Pitlochry munch chips in a café which claims to have sold one million fish suppers. McCredie and Gray capture the affection between an elderly gentleman and his new walking stick. In Galashiels, the pair manage to communicate a lingering sadness, showing a town now overshadowed by massive superstores, local businesses gone bust.

Searching through Scotland what did they hear? Laughter. What did they smell? Mainly chips. This book has uncovered a country that is lived and living. It’s a refreshing journey which makes you wonder, what is Scotland to you?

[Tina Koenig]

Out now, Published by Hodder Paperbacks, RRP £8.99

Out 6 Nov, Published by And Other Stories, RRP £10

Out now, Published by Luath Press, RRP £9.99

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Review

BOOKS

Michel Faber’s latest and, according to the author, last novel, following Under the Skin, which was recently adapted into a celebrated film starring Scarlett Johansson, and The Crimson Petal and the White, is in some ways as different from his previous books as can be imagined.

Like Under the Skin, you would say that this is science fiction, in that it concerns a man, Peter, travelling to a planet a huge distance from Earth to minister to the alien population there. At the same time, it is as much about a marriage – and the strain that separation can place upon two people who love each other – as it is about the discovery of a strange alien world and the mastering of an alien tongue. Juggling the challenge of bringing the word of God to a new species, known as the Oasans, with the responsibility of being there for his wife, even though she is many millions of miles away, makes for a haunting and unsettling read that can be both savage and heartwarming.

Faber has already said that this is to be his final novel. If that is the case, whilst that would be a great shame, it would mean that he has quit writing novels on an absolute high. Undoubtedly one of the standout books of 2014. [Peter Wild] Out now, Published by Canongate, RRP £ 18.99

THE SKINNY

Photo: Chris Scott

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Gregor Wright CCA

rrrrr Is it weird to say the dinosaurs were down on their luck when the meteor hit? Prehistory and its misfortune come into contact in Gregor Wright’s Dinosaur Expert: I’m Feeling Lucky, along with the elements of a sci-fi narrative.

Taking place across three rooms, in the largest there are Styrofoam figures amongst rubble and handmade earthenware dinosaurs. There’s the expectation that these standing roughhewn figures with their arms at their sides should be eerie, or that the plastic bottles in their eye sockets should be grotesque . Yet the lightness of the material and their undetailed form lifts them from the usual heavy flesh of monsters. Instead, they come entirely without confrontation as they face all directions, disorganised and blind.

Whereas the previous room with empty white walls feels overexposed, the final room comes as a bunker without windows and with a

purple light behind a blind. There’s the sense of the artificial windows that decorated the underground offices in PlayStation zombie favourite, Resident Evil.

In the last silver room, small rocks or debris have been sprinkled onto sticky resin and set in several trays, the edges becoming the protruding frame. A gap is there, giving the sense that something more substantial was glued there, leaving only the shiny dried adhesive. They feel at the same time accidental and precious. With more pouring than painting in the latter, they come across as industrial, all with the same alluring title, Custom Colour Super Dream.

While there might be a narrative of disaster and going underground, each stage arrives differently than what might be expected. Though the rooms are set up as scenes, the works are by no means props. Instead, there’s an upending of the usual moralising and associations of predictably pitched ‘what if’ narratives, leaving something much more difficult to distinguish.

[Adam Benmakhlouf]

Courtesy of the Artist, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow and Lisa Cooley, New York

Josh Faught Kendall Koppe

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There’s a familiar attraction to Josh Faught’s textile work: that of the well arranged colour palette of a high street shop. Even though there are only seven works, in the density of their weave and the weight that is connoted by the way they shrug against the wall, it feels like enough wool to make a mall’s worth of knits.

The deep purple, rich dark blues, and burnt oranges all speak to a certain maudlin romanticism. Yet their sincerity is given a sharp edge by their selection from Panatone colour projection, designed for marketing decision-making. Just the same coolness as the humour of the badges that are pinned on the fabric works throughout the show. ‘Just when I thought I was winning the rat race more rats showed up,’ says one.

With their handles, they could be political banners, except they’re knitted. So slowly made, there’s attention to detail that slows down any potential revolution. At the same time, their

authenticity comes through most in the hanging threads. There’s the ambivalence of a reluctant revolutionary that slows down his descent to the street by knitting all of his banners. And homage to domestic space, clocks, leather bound books and striped cats.

All of this labour, though, speaks against an easy cynicism. There might be a cool irony perceived in the mantle clocks, cats and leathbound books. Yet there’s a seriousness of intent, as it seems almost impossible to sustain an ironic gesture through the entire weaving or crocheting process.

There’s a hurdle to seeing the last piece of Faught’s installation. Through the partition between the gallery and gallerists – overheard, as they negotiate emails and online portfolios – is Interiors, the final handwoven hemp. It’s necessary to interrupt the administrative workspace, the request to be excused taking away any opportunity for a passive, comfortable blasé nonchalance. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

From Easterhouse to Inverleith House This month, there’s a variety of exhibitions and events from young to well-established artists across Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

Tony Conrad, Band Aid Box Stereo Oscillator, ca. 1969 Courtesy of the Artist, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne and Greene Naftali, New York

November 2014

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cottish painter Christopher Orr will receive his first solo show in his home country this month at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh.

Orr is a well-known, successful artist whose work comes from his experimental arrangement of images from his vast collection of National Geographics, scientific manuals and art historical images. Working with projection and collage, the exhibit will also include Orr’s sketchbooks, which have never before been exhibited. Keep an eye on The Skinny for an interview with Orr. Renowned American artist Jim Campbell is bringing his immersive light installations to Dundee Contemporary Arts, with an exhibit open from 22 November. Campbell translates films of everyday actions like commuters walking or birds taking flight into large light sculptures.

One of the works on show uses several lights and text to construct a fictional recounting of the last day of the artist’s brother’s life. Working with an efficient economy of information and detail, the work is evocative with bare means.

Coming from one of Glasgow’s most exciting institutions, the Women’s Library’s exhibition 21 Revolutions will find its latest configuration in Platform in Easterhouse. As a celebration of its 21st birthday the Glasgow Women’s Library commissioned 42 internationally renowned women artists and writers to create new works inspired by the GWL’s collection, including Corin Sworn, Karla Black and Ciara Philips.

Again in Glasgow, but this time across the city, Kate V Robertson will install her audio art project converse from November 8-16. converse will be located across sites that correspond to the recent events of the referendum and the Commonwealth Games. Physically-speaking, converse will take the form of twin speakers slung over telephone wires, playing recordings taken from

ART

conversations and the Commonwealth Games. A full archive of the tracks and map of the locations can be accessed here. converse will be launched on Saturday 8 November at South Block, 4-6pm.

And across the road from one of the converse works, on Dixon Street in Mary Mary from 15 November Chicago-based painter Jonathan Gardner will exhibit in the UK for the first time.

His stylised domestic sized work focuses on representational and figurative imagery. However, there’s a broad field of interpretation that would be more conventional for abstract painting. The exhibition preview will take place on Saturday 15 November 6-9pm, and the exhibition will be open until 15 January.

During November and December in Inverleith House, there will be events taking place to accompany Tony Conrad’s exhibition.

Conrad’s highly influential and experimental work spans from the second half of the 20th century and across avant-garde music and film. In Inverleith House, Conrad will present for the first time in the UK the musical instruments he has made. On Sunday 9 November at midday there will be a drinks reception, after which Conrad will play some of his invented instruments. For details of other events, see here.

Back in Glasgow, also continuing through November, the fruits of the Art Fund will be on display in the Gallery of Modern Art. This Fund has allowed regional museums otherwise unavailable opportunities to purchase works from important international artists. Art from Elsewhere now on in the Gallery of Modern Art, is a touring exhibition that will travel across the UK. In Glasgow, among the artists featured are Kara Walker, Ana Mendieta and Amar Kanwar.

Please send details of future events to adam@theskinny.co.uk

Review

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Photo: Max Slaven

Photo: Alan Dimmick

Gregor Wright, Dinosaur Expert I'm Feeling Lucky

November Film Events

Winter Sleep

Stations of the Cross

Winter Sleep

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Director: Dietrich Brüggemann Starring: Lea van Acken, Franziska Weisz, Moritz Knapp Released: 28 Nov Certificate: 15

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Starring: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbağ, Nejat İşler Released: 21 Nov

Stations of the Cross is made up of 14 segments, each filmed in a single long and often static take, where meticulous compositions and dry performances drive a biting look at fundamentalist Catholicism and domineering parenting, as well as the surrounding secular society that fails to properly intervene when one young girl takes the notion of sacrifice for following God’s will too far.

It opens with a priest instructing Maria (Van Acken) and other 14 year-olds on the meaning of sacrifice, and then follows the girl’s progress through a stubborn, initially vague journey as the already withdrawn and wilting child becomes even more isolated and dangerously weak. Each segment is named after one of the Stations of the Cross, a series of artistic representations of Jesus’s crucifixion. The exact tragic reasoning behind her intended sacrifice is best left unspoiled, though what lingers most from the film is its darkly comic register. Notably, Brüggemann achieves this without mocking his film’s subjects. The serious handling of each character’s rationalisations is what both amuses and unsettles.

[Josh Slater-Williams]

Arriving with a Palme d’Or win and an ample 196-minute running time, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest contemplative drama from the Anatolian steppes sounds like a rarefied prospect. In fact, Winter Sleep is seductively mounted, with universally relatable resonance about age, class, community and our relationships to our families and ourselves. It follows Aydin, played with sententious dignity by Haluk Bilginer, a landlord and former thespian running a small resort in a Cappadocia mountain village. “My kingdom is small,” he says, “but at least I’m the king.”

Journeying through discussions with his beautiful twentysomething wife (Sözen), who wants to raise charitable funds for local schoolchildren, and his divorced sister (Akbag), who is withering away in the hinterland, as well as Aydin’s business manager and his tenants, Winter Sleep chips away at Aydin’s perceived supremacy, revealing the passive-aggression beneath his good intentions. Unfolding as a deep, empathetic series of conversations, it’s an absorbing interplay of coldness and warmth both in its morality and in the stunning snowy landscapes and log-fire interiors of its settings. [Ian Mantgani]

Set Fire to the Stars

Life Itself

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Director: Andy Goddard Starring: Elijah Wood, Celyn Jones, Kelly Reilly, Steven Mackintosh Released: 7 Nov Certificate: 15

Director: Steve James Starring: Robert Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Gene Siskel Released: 14 Nov Certificate: 15

In the centenary of his birth, there’ll be no shortage of screen depictions of Dylan Thomas. Already in 2014, he’s been surveyed by BBC drama A Poet in New York, while Rhys Ifans will soon play the part in Dominion – which places Set Fire to the Stars in a crowded field. Nonetheless, with strong lead performances and resourceful direction from TV veteran Andy Goddard, distinction seems within its grasp. Unfortunately, despite valiant efforts from all involved, the results struggle to convey the brilliance or tragedy of the life at hand.

Set in 1950, during Thomas’ first tour of the United States, the drama is premised on his volatile relationship with John Malcolm Brinnin (played

by Elijah Wood) – the admiring academic tasked with keeping the harddrinking bard on-course. As Thomas, Celyn Jones is suitably rambunctious and oratorical, while Wood impresses as his buttoned-up guardian, swallowing betrayals with mounting desperation. But the tone is curiously flat and the script light on genuine insight: we see the torment fuelling Thomas, but too rarely share or understand it. [Chris Buckle]

Life Itself is both an unflinching document of the last days of film critic Roger Ebert’s life and a densely packed celebration of his career. The former is told through interviews with Ebert while in hospital. Unable to speak, his face ravaged by cancer, Ebert jokes around using a speaking computer. His good humour is exaggerated by a limp lower lip (his jaw bone was removed during a previous operation) that creates a wide smile that remains constant, even when he’s in obvious pain – the cognitive dissonance is bracing.

Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) intercepts these often hardto-watch scenes with a fast-paced collage of archive clips and revealing stories from Ebert’s foul-mouthed newspaper buddies and the filmmakers he championed (including Errol Morris and Werner Herzog). Refreshingly, this is no hagiography. Fellow Chicago critic Jonathan Rosenbaum pops up to lambast Ebert’s shallow, consumer guide-style TV reviews and we hear plenty of stories of his pomposity (he loved bringing up his Pulitzer Prize to win arguments). The result is rich, moving and often hilarious. [Jamie Dunn]

Leviathan

The Skeleton Twins

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Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev Starring: Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Released: 7 Nov Certificate: 15 Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan is a film hunting big game. His fourth feature presents modern Russia as a country rotten to its core – corrupt, hypocritical and godless – and uses the story of one man fighting the establishment to highlight the human cost of such a system. Aleksey Serebryakov is the humble mechanic trying to stop his family’s land from falling into the hands of the crooked mayor (Roman Madyanov), and while we suspect this won’t end well – the imposing use of a Philip Glass piece introduces an instant note of foreboding – the full tragedy of Leviathan doesn’t hit us until it has swallowed its characters whole.

The film possesses this capacity to catch us by surprise because Zvyagintsev keeps wrong-footing the audience with his storytelling choices, which shift according to his characters’ often impulsive decisions. It’s little wonder Leviathan’s screenplay earned Zvyagintsev a prize in Cannes, but his direction matches it every step of the way, creating arresting images and establishing an unsettling mood that’s hard to shake. [Philip Concannon]

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Review

Director: Craig Roberts Starring: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, Joanna Gleason Released: 7 Nov Certificate: 15 “Maybe we were doomed from the beginning,” says bored dental hygienist Maggie (Wiig) in voiceover at the opening of The Skeleton Twins, before her gay, wannabe actor brother, Milo (Hader), with whom she’s been estranged for a decade, slits his wrists on screen. Don’t worry, he doesn’t cut too deep – but the siblings’ salty exchanges do.

Maggie drags Milo back East to live with her and her square husband (Wilson). “I’m a tragic gay cliché,” he quips, mortified at his new situation.

He would have been in other hands, but the script is so smart and Hader’s performance so honest that his myriad issues take a backseat to his delightfully cynical character. Wiig is no acting slouch either: for evidence, check the scene where she seamlessly transitions from fart gags to a confession about her habitual infidelities.

This brother-sister bond, so rarely explored on screen, is what makes The Skeleton Twins sing. We all knew the SNL pair had a finely calibrated comic chemistry – it clearly extends to an emotional one too. [Jamie Dunn]

FILM

Do The Right Thing

The GFT, in collaboration with Glasgow Women’s Library, have programmed a diverse selection of films charting the history of women in science fiction. Teknowomen (23 Nov-6 Dec) features five movies including Fritz Lang’s silent space adventure Woman in the Moon (23 Nov), containing the first instance of a launch countdown on film.

Two films, Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroes (29 Nov) and sci-fi classic Alien (6 Dec), are screening at the Women’s Library, with special guests and post-screening discussions. Also showing are Born in Flames (29 Nov) and Teknolust (3 Dec), the latter featuring Tilda Swinton as three robot versions of a bio-geneticist.

Mainstream success has so far eluded them, but post-punk band New Model Army have a dedicated, global fanbase. Since their formation in 1980 they’ve released thirteen studio albums and continue to tour to this day.

Between Dog and Wolf: The New Model Army Story (Filmhouse, 19 Nov) traces their history, making it ideal for both existing fans and those curious about this underground band. The film’s director, Matt Reid, and the band's charismatic frontman, Justin Sullivan, will be in the audience for a special Q&A after the screening.

Looking for an alternative film experience?

Pop-up cinema Das Kino is showing movies at the Peep Show Coffee Hatch just off Byres Road (1-6 Nov). Enjoy some classic feel-good films in a cosy setting over a hot drink – perfect for the winter. With a line-up that’s already included Hook, Almost Famous, and This Is Spinal Tap, find them on Facebook for the week’s programme. facebook.com/peepshowcoffee The DCA are screening four films as part of their Focus on Film: New York season. The Sunday morning events, in association with the University of Dundee, include an introduction and post-film discussion. This month there’s a chance to see Woody Allen’s love letter to the Big Apple, Manhattan (16 Nov), Nicolas Cage and Cher in Moonstruck (23 Nov), and Spike Lee’s gritty depiction of life in Brooklyn, Do the Right Thing (30 Nov). The season concludes with Frances Ha (7 Dec), one of The Skinny’s top films of 2013.

There’s a chance to see Metropolis on the big screen at the Cameo (16 Nov). With some thirty minutes cut from the film following its world premiere in 1927, the complete edit was considered lost until the missing scenes were discovered in a museum archive in Argentina.

Now fully restored with a new recording of the original score, don’t miss the chance to see Fritz Lang’s masterpiece as it was originally intended.

[Becky Bartlett]

THE SKINNY

I Clowns

22 Jump Street

The key joke in 22 Jump Street is how disappointing these type of films (i.e. quick cash-in sequels) turn out to be. Its reliance on this meta-gag might have quickly begun to grate – at a certain point self-deprecation starts to feel like an awkward stand-in for a lack of anything new to say – but every line is delivered with such wide-eyed excitement that the half-manic energy proves irresistible. What’s even more pleasing is that Lord and Miller’s film bubbles with an endearing earnestness, a proud refusal to succumb to the all-out irony of the post-Family Guy age of comedy, and always seems more interested in having fun than taking pot shots.

Though it definitely lags in places, and there’s no doubt that the returns this time around are significantly diminished, 22 Jump Street succeeds at being endlessly likeable, just like its leads, Hill and Tatum, who have rarely been better. [Ross McIndoe]

Director: Federico Fellini Starring: Federico Fellini, Riccardo Billi, Gigi Reder, Tino Scotti Released: Out Now Certificate: U

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A minor project made in a breather between films that would elevate him to the highest level of the cinematic pantheon, Fellini’s I Clowns is often noted as the original mockumentary, with the director appearing as himself at the head of a small film crew documenting the history of the Italian clown. At one moment, an interviewer begins to ask Fellini whether this film will serve as an analogy for his own career – a ringleader of clowns, taking the silliest things seriously and finding poignancy behind painted smiles – before an errant custard pie cuts off his question.

If this is the prototype for the mockumentary, it’s definitely an early model: Fellini never commits to the form, filming the action from his own invisible lens rather than the POV of the movie-makers within the movie. Apparently it just wasn’t in him to make something less than beautiful. An interesting footnote to the Fellini legend, but not the legend itself. [Ross McIndoe]

Youth of the Beast

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Director: Seijun Suzuki Starring: Jô Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio Kawaji, Minako Katsuki Released: Out Now Certificate: 15

In 1968, Japanese director Seijun Suzuki saw his long-standing contract with the Nikkatsu studio terminated for repeatedly turning the routine potboiler scripts he was given into increasingly surreal, visually uninhibited gangster movies, such as avant-garde masterworks Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter. 1963’s Youth of the Beast rarely reaches quite the same fantastic heights of kaleidoscopic imagery, but within it the seeds of Suzuki’s later, greater madness were sown.

In what’s almost a yakuza riff on Yojimbo, the ostensible plot sees one thug (the famously chipmunk-cheeked Jô Shishido) play two opposing crime bosses off against each another. Suzuki and cinematographer Kazue Nagatsuka turn the macho clashes into a vivid feast akin to the work of Nicholas Ray or Vincente Minnelli. Crime conventions are dismantled, colour takes precedence over coherence, and madcap humour and tangents intrude on a stock narrative the director palpably doesn’t care much about but still makes entertaining. [Josh Slater-Williams]

Hide Your Smiling Faces

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Director: Daniel Patrick Carbone Starring: Ryan Jones, Nathan Varnson, Colm O’Leary Released: Out Now Certificate: 15

Death is introduced early in this US indie, with an opening shot that features a snake ingesting its prey. Its presence then lingers through every frame that follows, as two young brothers spend a long, lazy summer staring down their own mortality after a friend takes a fatal plunge from a woodland viaduct.

Superficially, Hide’s adolescent protagonists, coming-of-age grace notes and rural setting invite comparisons with the likes of Mud and Joe, though the film to which it bears the strongest thematic resemblance is Stand by Me – albeit with the humour and bittersweet nostalgia of the earlier film replaced by a pervading solemnity. Despite its languid pacing, there’s an underlying unease that never entirely relaxes its grip – a credit to the composure of first-time writer/director Daniel Patrick Carbone. Together with cinematographer Nick Bentgen, Carbone creates a palpable sense of atmosphere, resulting in a debut as beautiful as it is troubling.

[Chris Buckle]

Naked City

Diary of a Lost Girl

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Director: Jules Dassin Starring: Dorothy Hart, House Jameson Released: Out Now Certificate: PG Jules Dassin’s absorbing 1948 potboiler is sometimes billed as film noir. It’s actually much more concerned with the nitty-gritty procedural details of a group of upstanding detectives – in this case, those investigating a salacious murder of a young model in New York – than it is establishing any kind of shadowy tone or antihero allegiance. Inspired by the work of infamous crime scene photographer Weegee, it features the pioneering use of real locations as opposed to sets – virtually unheard of in Hollywood at the time.

But any semblance of reality is outdone by the film’s delightfully weird, nearly omnipresent voice-over and its expressionistic recreations of the internal monologues of everyday schlubs in the street. Dassin, who would go on to make the classic proto-heist film Rififi, seems as much interested in Hitchcockian flair as he is in naturalism, anyway – no surprise, considering he got his start as Hitch’s assistant. [Michelle Devereaux]

November 2014

Director: GW Pabst Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp Released: 24 Nov Certificate: PG While critical plaudits are more often reserved for Pandora’s Box, the first collaboration between director GW Pabst and star Louise Brooks, the pair’s lurid and frequently baffling follow-up from the same year remains one of Weimar cinema’s most notorious offerings.

The story of a wealthy pharmacist’s daughter consigned to reform school after her rape yields an illegitimate child, this displays all the hallmarks of portentous melodrama as its protagonist strives toward social redemption. What rescues the movie from anonymity is the nausea-inducing darkness that permeates its every frame.

Iconic, bob-haired Brooks is at once vulnerable and vital, adrift in a world of exploitative sexual predators. There’s frequently comic value to be found in the grotesques our heroine encounters, but Pabst expertly lingers over their leering faces and guides the audience into a harrowing nightmare world. [Lewis Porteous]

Miss Prissy at Arika's Episode 6: Make a Way Out of No Way, Glasgow 2014

Arika Episode 6: Make a Way Out of No Way

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Much like 2013's Episode 5, Arika set something of an agenda for Episode 6 with a club night both spectacular and spectacle-heavy. The Friday saw the return of Vogue practitioner and Ballroom celebrity Pony Zion Garçon, an officially endorsed ‘legend’ of his scene. Pony’s Femme Dramatics are complemented by performance artist Kia Labeija’s own fluid take on Voguing, and DJ MikeQ’s masterful knowledge of the angular, razor-sharp sound of modern Ballroom House.

Episode 6 also brought a further style to the proceedings via Miss Prissy, AKA the Queen of Krump, the Afro-American street dance popularly (and, in Prissy’s view, regrettably) associated with battle dancing. Joined on stage by members and friends of the Glasgow Open Dance School, she performs her single Bounce to devastating effect. Everything about Prissy seems to scream resistance. Everything about tonight seems to urge celebration.

During the following day’s discussions, the club is referenced repeatedly. As the audience take their seats for Saturday’s You’ve Never Seen Pain Expressed Like This, the speakers quietly erupt with the sounds of last night. Seated on stage are Miss Prissy, Pony Zion, Kia Labeija, and dancer Danielle Goldman. Pony prompts them to respond to what they hear. All four light up. Suddenly the audience and performers are bathing in the afterglow of this incredible space that, together, they briefly forced open. Suddenly there’s a large room of people collectively buzzing in the same way you do the day after a great night out, hangover permitting.

It’s wonderful – a real moment of warmth, vulnerability, perhaps unity. But how useful is any of it? Might it really give us a glimpse of how communities under continuous assault, whether black, gay, transgendered or other, can hollow out a space not subject to the societal norms they’re so brutally compelled to conform to?

FILM / THEATRE

“When you run from the man, that suggests a divergence from the self too,” argues poet and academic Fred Moten. Can the experience of Vogue illustrate how, following this split, people and communities engage in a potentially life-long process of “entering positions to leave them”?

This is a reality for those tied to the ballroom scene, many of whom, including Pony, ran away from home at a young age – a very literal split.

Similarly, is Krump’s violent posturing a way of railing against the imposition of a discrete body? Is the fact that Michael Brown was with a friend the criteria that made him so threatening to one Fergusson police officer? Was his murder an attack on black sociality? “Kids think it’s all about beating each other,” says Prissy, in reference to Krump’s competitive nature. Its contestants are angry. “You’d be angry too if you were 18 with a gun in your face,” she adds.

Fundamentally, what might any of this have to do with an overwhelmingly white audience?

Come the Sunday night, this question is asked directly. “I don’t see any white people in here,” replies Moten, perhaps an allusion to the audience’s shared goals and struggles. “If there are any white people in here, well, fuck you. I’m just assuming everyone in here wants to kill evil… I’m interested in what’s so threatening about homosexuality. I want to activate that threat.”

What’s more, it’s almost certainly true that, as one audience member suggests, “we’re moving towards a horizon where most people in Scotland will be criminalised in one way or another.” Sound familiar? The working poor. The unemployed. The disabled. ‘Domestic Extremists.’ For that reason, Arika’s conversations remain extremely necessary – so that, if nothing else, we may at least collectively chart our downfall, or perhaps even our destruction. [Jean-Xavier Boucherat] arika.org.uk

Review

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Photo: Alex Woodward

rrrrr

Director: Phil Lord and Chris Miller Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Amber Stevens, Released: 17 Nov Certificate: 15

Glasgow Music Tue 04 Nov

RISE AGAINST (PENNYWISE + EMILY’S ARMY)

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £21.50

More fine adreneline-charged tunesmithery from the Chicagoan foursome, tearing into action like a punk-rock clusterbomb.

FUTURE ISLANDS (CELEBRATION + WHITE) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £13.50

The mighty Maryland outfit do their badass new-wave pop thing, with funk-inflected lead singer Sam Herring likely growling his way through the set.

BOY & BEAR

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

Sydney-based indie quintet deftly mixing driving indie-folk sounds with dainty choral harmonies.

CHVRCHES

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £16

Just over a year since the release of their debut LP – and fresh from touring the hell outta the US-of-A – the Scottish electro-pop buzz band briefly return to home soil, before hitting far flung shores again later in the month.

THE 2 BEARS

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £14

Genre-hopping London musical duo made up of Joe Goddard and Raf Rundell.

RAW IN SECT (SCORDATURA)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The Athens progressive metal unit tour their new LP, Blue Haze.

Wed 05 Nov

ALEX CORNISH (PAUL GILBODY)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £13.50

The Edinburgh singer/songwriter and his effortlessly laid-back DIY folk-pop songs, sewn together with some live musical trickery.

THE BLACKOUT (WHEN WE WERE WOLVES + YASHIN)

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £13

The Welsh post-hardcore unit bring the high energy rock soundscapes, well-kent for their party-hard attitude.

SLEAFORD MODS

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £9

Punk electronics and spoken word hip-hop fusion from the Nottingham-hailing duo, touring in support of their latest album, Austerity Dogs – released on the Harbinger Sound label.

LOVEABLE ROGUES

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Young urban folk trio on vocals, guitar and trusty ukulele.

LA ROUX

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Synthpop duo made up of singer Elly Jackson and record producer Ben Langmaid, out and touring their new LP, Trouble In Paradise.

PHILIP CLOUTS QUARTET

WOODEND BOWLING CLUB, 20:00–22:30, £12

Experimental quartet mixing South African township jive with souljazz, hard bop and impressionism.

STEVE ROTHREY

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £15

The Marillion guitarist hits the road lonesome.

REMEMBER REMEMBER: BONFIRE NIGHT LASER SHOW (CLIP ART + TANGLES)

STEREO, 19:30–22:00, £7

Thanks to some fine scheduling, this day finds Remember Remember pitch up for a ‘Bonfire Night Laser Show’ (as in, Remember Remember, playing on the 5th of November, rejoice), dipping into their glorious third LP, Forgetting The Present.

SNACK FAMILY (HERBERT POWELL + ANTIQUE PONY)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Alternative-styled London trio imbued with an unapologetic and relentlessly driving sound.

THE SPECIALS

SUBMOTION ORCHESTRA

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £40

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

The legendary ska group take to the road for their 11-date autumn UK tour, some 30-odd years since they first called it a day.

DEXTERS (IC1S + JIM VALENTINE)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £8

Indie rock five-piece hailing from East London, a dab hand at penning catchy wee guitar anthems.

SHIELD PATTERNS

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £5

With their debut LP getting five shiny stars from us, the Manc duo kick off their UK tour up ‘ere in Scotland – splicing beautifully emblematic song-craft with plump’n’dreamy electronica to suitably magical effect.

THE JOHN LANGAN BAND

MONO, 19:00–22:00, £9

Glaswegian three piece chucking every imaginably musical influence into the mix – think Gypsy folk, dance, and swing – resulting in high energy, danceable tunes.

CALUM INGRAM

THE ARCHES, 19:30–22:00, £8

Acoustic set from the Paisley-born classically-trained cellist and songwriter, imbued with Celtic, folk, jazz and blues influences.

CIRCA WAVES

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £8

Liverpool garage-pop quartet taking their cue from the early-00s indie scene.

NOTHING BUT THIEVES

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Southend on Sea ensemble take their new EP out on the road.

LORDS OF THE RIFF TOUR VOL. 2 (ANT-MORTEM + KYNG + LIONIZE) CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:30, £10

Another installment of the touring showcase bringing a trio of the heaviest riff-meisters to a venue near you.

TIM WHEELER

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12

The Ash mainman tours his debut solo LP, Lost Domain.

SOUND OF YELL (SACRED PAWS)

PLATFORM, 19:00–22:00, £7.50

Musical alter ego of sought-after collaborator Stevie Jones, stepping out of the wings into centre-stage with his new solo project – weaving acoustic psychedelia, folk, jazz and improvisation.

WHITE LUNG (TWEEN + TYCI DJS)

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £9

The Vancouver-based punk noisemakers hit town.

Fri 07 Nov THE SPECIALS

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £40

The legendary ska group take to the road for their 11-date autumn UK tour, some 30-odd years since they first called it a day.

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR (BERNIE MARSDEN)

THE ARCHES, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

The British blues rock guitarist tours in support of new album The Dirty Truth, having been initially discovered as a 16 year-old by the Eurythmics Dave Stewart.

THE XCERTS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £8.50

Hard-riffing Scottish trio, whose impressive sound has been honed to perfection (i.e. they sound bloody massive live), out airing their first LP in four years.

SHABAZZ PALACES

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:00–23:00, £10

Mysterious Seattle duo fusing Ishmael ‘Butterfly’ Butler’s laconic rasp against percussionist Tendai Maraire’s down-tempo bongo and hi-hat combo.

THE PRIMEVALS (THE REVERSE COWGIRLS + THE PHARISEES)

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £6

Thu 06 Nov

Longstanding Glasgow psychedelic rockers on the go since 1983, built on swinging rhythm-tenacious beats.

O2 ABC, 18:30–22:00, £16.50

CITY HALLS, 20:00–22:00, £16

Y&T

Rock’n’roll long-timers, continuing to melt faces some 30 years on.

STRUGGLE (CØLLEGE + ZUOCO + ZACH RODDIS)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Monthly punk and post hardcore selection of bands from DIY collective Struggletown.

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Listings

MARTYN JOSEPH

The Welsh singer/songwriter does his acoustic folk thing.

Formed after the arts council commissioned Dom Howard, aka Ruckspin, and Ranking Records to write and perform a live dubstep piece in Yorkminster – now out and touring their third LP, Alium.

SWALLOWS (HAYWORTH)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

RANDOLPH’S LEAP: I CAN’T DANCE TO THIS MUSIC #2 (CARBS + TEENCANTEEN + CHRISSY BARNACLE + ADAM STAFFORD + BALLBOY + JOSEPH GOSS + SANDY BOUTTELL + ANDREW LEARMONTH) THE GLAD CAFE, 16:00–22:00, £10 EARLYBIRD (£15 THEREAFTER)

GREW QUARTET (STU BROWN + JER REID + CATRIONA MCKAY)

KATE BOY

Mon 10 Nov

STEREO, 20:00–03:00, FREE

The Glasgow institution that is Stereo gets into party mode for its 7th birthday – holing up with musical guests including Sue Tompkins reuniting her Life Without Buildings crew, plus DJ sets from Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, TYCI and more.

Sat 08 Nov

THE WAR ON DRUGS (STEVE GUNN)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

Sans Kurt Vile, fellow War founder Adam Granduciel continues to combine rock’n’roll classicism in the seventies AOR mould, all psychedelic and lushly-layed.

OZRIC TENTACLES

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

The psychedelic space rockers take to the UK armed with a 28-strong back catalogue of albums, celebrating 30 years of music-making.

HAVE MERCY LAS VEGAS

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £7

Energetic blues and folk hybrid, formed on the shores of Loch Lomond.

SON OF DAVE

JAMIE T

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £19.50

The consonant-dropping Londoner drops by Glasgow following his sell-out show at The Art School in July – this time playing the thankfully bigger surrounds of Barrowland across two consecutive nights.

Tue 11 Nov THURSTON MOORE

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £17 (£15)

The former Sonic Youth singer, songwriter and guitarist goes on tour to support his latest LP, The Best Day. BELLOWHEAD

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £22.50

Beast of a contemporary English folk ensemble (there’s 11 of ‘em) fusing folk, funk, rock, world, jazz, music hall and classical music into their mix.

SANDI THOM

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £20

The Scottish singer/songwriter and mulit-instrumentalist plays an intimate set.

THE COATHANGERS

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £7

The Atlantan punk ensemble play a special intimate set, with after-bash in the same venue (11pm-2.30am).

DONNIE WILLOW (THE BELAFONTE + HIDERS) BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The tuneful Glasgow math rock trio play tracks offa their new EP.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:00–23:00, £10

JAMIE T

RSNO: ELGAR’S ENIGMA

The consonant-dropping Londoner drops by Glasgow following his sell-out show at The Art School in July – this time playing the thankfully bigger surrounds of Barrowland across two consecutive nights.

Canadian singer/songwriter and former Crash Test Dummies guitarist, otherwise known as Benjamin Darvill.

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Conductor Rory Macdonald and the RSNO perform different pieces of musical remembrance.

SOLEMN SUN

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £8

The anarcho-Anglo storytellers deliver their own blend of alternative folk-punk.

PHOX

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £8

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £19.50

Wed 12 Nov

YOUNG PHILADELPHIA (BELLOW BELOW)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The Young Philly noise rock troops descend for one night only.

JOYCE MANOR (CHEAP GIRLS + GREAT CYNICS)

A bunch of friends from the Midwestern circus hamlet making happy-go-lucky folky indie-pop.

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

No introductions needed here, surely – it’s only ruddy Kylie!

DANIEL MUTCH (CHARLEY HOUSTON + HANNAH JACKSON + CALUM O’CONNOR)

Aberdeen singer/songwriter building his sound on rough-hewn vocals and intricate guitar work.

Sun 09 Nov GUN

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £15

Rock’n’roll outfit formed by the Gizzi brothers in the mid-80s, taking to a live setting to play their debut LP – Taking on the World – live and in its entirety.

WILLIWAW

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, 18:00–20:00, FREE

Expect a good bit o’ ukulele mayhem as Williwaw brings his merry cavalcade of melodious din to a live setting.

LIFE + STORMS

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £5

Double headline tour for Hull indierock foursome Life and harmonic London lot Storms.

STUBBLEMELT

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £7.50

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

STEREO’S 7TH BIRTHDAY (SUE TOMPKINS + MODIFIER + SMACK WIZARDS + PENNYCRESS + APOSTILLE + DAVID BARBAROSSA + STUART BRAITHWAITE + TYCI DJS)

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

Experimental Leeds newcomers out and touring their debut LP, Gist Is. 13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £5 (£4)

Stockholm-based electro-pop merrymakers led by Kate Akhurst.

The former My Chemical Romance frontman follows the release of his debut solo LP, Hesitant Alien, by embarking on his first full solo tour.

ADULT JAZZ (G-BOP)

Glasgow folk-pop melody merchants Randolph’s Leap host another outing of their musical all-day event, I Can Dance To This Music – this time featuring sets from CARBS, TeenCanteen, Adam Stafford and more.

Melodic hardcore Glasgow mob – abrasive, tough... and usually shirtless.

GERARD WAY

Thu 13 Nov

Modern rock ensemble made up of four guys with a penchant for Thin Lizzy guitar solos.

KYLIE MINOGUE

THE SSE HYDRO, 19:30–22:00, FROM £40

AREA 11

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £11

Electronic-tinged hard rockers from Bristol, known for their energised and varied live sets.

COMMON

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £28.50

20-odd years since the release of his breakthrough album, Resurrection, the two-time Grammy Award-winning Chicago rapper tours his tenth LP, Nobody’s Smiling.

TRUCKFIGHTERS (WITCHRIDER + WHITE MILES)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

The Swedish noise rockers tour off the back of their new LP, Universe.

BALLET SCHOOL (KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD)

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £7

Berlin-based alternative popsters built on of Rosie Blair’s voice, Michel Collet’s glacial guitar and Louis McGuire’s innovative drumming.

SAINT MOTEL

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £8

Los Angeles indie-rockers who do a good line in dreamy pop soundscapes.

BBC Introducing-approved rockers with a penchant for the unusual.

FRAZY FORD

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £15

Canadian singer/songwriter and founding member of The Be Good Tanyas.

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £TBC

Spontaneous, jazz-influenced quartet traversing their way through a variety of moods and influences.

SLOW DOWN MOLLASES (NOW WAKES THE SEA + MARTHA FFION)

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Heavy alternative rock soundscapes from the Canadian visitors.

Fri 14 Nov BRYAN ADAMS

THE SSE HYDRO, 19:30–22:00, FROM £39.50

The man who put (Everything I Do) I Do It For You at number one for 16 bloody weeks. Say no more.

VIC GODARD AND THE SUBWAY SECT (THE SEXUAL OBJECTS) STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £13

Punk legend Vic Godard returns with the latest incarnation of the Subway Sect, including ex-Sex Pistol Paul Cook on drums, playing with Davy Henderson's The Sexual Objects on their annual visit to Scotland.

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £10

Indie rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.

SHAM 69

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16

Old school-styled English punk ensemble formed in Hersham way back when (aka 1976), out and touring under Jimmy Purdsey’s original 1977 line-up.

AMBER RUN

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £7

Rising young Nottingham quintet of the soft folk-rock variety.

BARRENCE WHITFIELD AND THE SAVAGES

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £12.50

American soul-meets-r’n’b outfit led by vocalist Barrence Whitfield, recently taken under the wing of Bloodshot Records.

SCO: BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTOS

CITY HALLS, 19:30–22:00, FROM £14.50

Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja performs both Brahms piano concertos, accompanied by the SCO ensemble.

EUGENE RIPPER (ROY MOLLER + RUTH MARTIN)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £5

The Canadian punk folk chappie launchies his new LP, Hangman.

...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD (YOUR FAVORITE ENEMIES + MIDNIGHT MASSES) THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £13

The alternative rock veterans return, defined as ever by the push and pull of Conrad Keely’s epic mysticism and Jason Reece’s primal punk surge, back-and-touring their latest album, IX. MONO’S 12TH BIRTHDAY (CASUAL SEX + GENERAL LUDD + HOLY MOTORS + GOOD PRESS DJS)

MONO, 20:00–01:00, FREE

Oh-so-very-nearly a teenager, the Glasgow institution that is Mono turns the grand old age of 12, with guests including Casual Sex, Holy Motors and the Good Press DJs.

B.DOLAN + SCROOBIUS PIP (WARREN PEACE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £10

American rapper and performance artist B.Dolan jets in for a special collab set with bearded UK spoken word hip-hopper Scroobius Pip.

Sat 15 Nov ALABAMA 3

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

The Brixton collective do their blues-rock-acid-house thing to pleasurable effect; cue teary eyes at the Sopranos opening theme song, Woke Up This Morning.

JONNIE COMMON (WOLF + ROSS SUTHERLAND + MIAOUX MIAOUX DJS) THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £6 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

Glasgow-based sonic boom of majestic devilry, taking to The Glad Cafe for the official launch of his new LP. BOB MOULD

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

Alternative San Fransiscoan rocker (and one time Husker Du and Sugar man), out and touring his latest solo LP. THULA BORAH

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, £5

More in the way of post-rock, ambient and math-y indie textures from the Glasgow-based lot.

VOLBEAT

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £17

The Danish metal heavyweights continue to tour hell outta their newest LP, Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies.

RSNO: OUNDJIAN AND BENEDETTI

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Programme of orchestral classics, as Peter Oundjian plays Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Nicola Benedetti re-joins the RSNO to play Shostakovich’s tense political thriller of a violin concerto.

HORISONT + SPIDERS

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £12

Double headline classic rock invasion, taking in sets from Horisont and Spiders.

OMNIA

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:30, £12.50

Unique ‘pagan folk’ outfit, which is a mix of religious pagan, Celtic and world music in which nature and freedom of expression are the main themes.

ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

Aye, him of Led Zeppelin fame takes his rock’n’roll self out on the road solo with his live band, the Sensational Space Shifters.

JAMES (STARSAILOR)

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £36

The longstanding Manc rockers return to the live scene for a ninedate UK tour.

CARL BARAT AND THE JACKALS

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

The former Libertines chappie takes to the road with his all-new band, The Jackals.

THE GROWLERS (PINS)

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £10

American ensemble known for blending fuzzy surf with sexy psychedelia, throwing in some hypnotic melodies and tripped out lyrics for good measure.

ATLANTEAN KODEX (SOLSTICE + DARK FOREST)

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £15

The German epic metal heroes play a UK exclusive show.

Sun 16 Nov PALOMA FAITH

SECC, 18:30–22:00, £TBC

The British singer/songwritercum-actress does her glossy, retro-referencing soul-meetspop thing s’more.

CHRISTOPHER OWENS

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

OUGHT CCA, 19:00–22:00, £12

Montreal post-punk lot who flickered to life in 2011 holed up in a shared apartment that doubled as their rehearsal space.

KATIE ARMIGER

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £15

The Texan country star crosses the Atlantic for a round of UK shows.

DEKE MCGEE BAND

THE ARCHES, 19:00–22:00, £10

Soulful r’n’b quartet led by Mark ‘Deke’ McGee on saxophone.

Mon 17 Nov MARTHA WAINWRIGHT

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

The American-Canadian songstress (aka sprog of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and sister to Rufus) does her fiery folk-rock thing.

NEW FOUND GLORY (THE STORY SO FAR + CANDY HEARTS + ONLY RIVALS)

O2 ABC, 18:00–22:00, £18.50

The American pop-meets-punk lot hit the road with their new LP, Resurrection.

JOHN MAYALL

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £27.50

The blues legend is still going strong years after launching his pioneering band The Bluesbreakers, out and celebrating his 80th anniversary.

Irish soul-meets-blues one-manband, aka Andrew Hozier-Byrne, who joined his first band at the tender age of 15.

MATT SCHOFIELD (THE BEN POOLE BAND)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

The British bluesman does his guitar wizardry thing to suitably fine effect.

ROWAN ROSS

THE GLAD CAFE, 20:00–22:00, £8

The local singer/songwriter showcases tracks from the second LP, Fireflight, backed by an assembled live band.

AMERICAN AUTHORS

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £12

NYC alternative rockers led by vocalist Zac Barnett.

JIM NOIR (GLITCHES)

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £10

Manc singer/songwriter (aka Alan Roberts) taking his stage name in homage to Vic Reeves (whose real name is Jim Moir), out and touring his new LP. ACCIDENT (GREGOR’S KEACHIES)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, FREE

The fledgling Scots supergroup take to the 13th Note to launch their debut LP of TOTO-inspired melodic rock sounds.

Thu 20 Nov THE DRUMS

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:30, £15

The former surfing enthusiasts return with their third album Encyclopedia as they try to make good on their early hype.

CHRISTINA PERRI

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £15

THE GARAGE, 19:00–22:00, £5 ADV. (£7 DOOR)

The bluegrass four-piece come to the UK with a glut of awards on their mantelpiece.

RICH ROBINSON (FEDERAL CHARM)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

The founding member of rock’n’rollers The Black Crowes plays a full-band solo set.

JACK WHITE

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £27.50

The White Stripes mainman takes in Glasgow as part of his four-date European tour, with his second solo LP, Lazaretto, under his arm.

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:30, £15

The chaotic Minnesota countryrockers play one of their signature energetic sets.

GARETH GATES

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Only the pop star Will Young could’ve been!

SEETHER

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

PICNIC BASKET NOSEDIVE

Balloch and Dumbarton-straddling pop-punk noisemakers who describe their sound as ‘shitey mosher music’, which is nice.

GABBY YOUNG AND OTHER ANIMALS

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

Crafting a new genre of entertainment, Gabby Young et al bring their circus swing/burlesque folk show to the UK. THE PRETTY RECKLESS (HEAVEN’S BASEMENT + NOTHING MORE)

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, FROM £17.50

NYC rockers led by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Taylor Momsen.

TOPS

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £6.50

Montreal foursome, equal parts girls and guys, delivering a raw punk take on AM studio pop.

WOODWIFE (OLD BOHEMA)

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, 19:30–23:00, £5

Atmospheric folk sounds from the Glasgow locals.

OBLITERATIONS

South African alternative metal outfit formed in 1999, who went under the name Saron Gas until ditching it in 2002.

The US-of-A noisemakers bring their thunderous touring racket to Bloc+’s welcoming lair.

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £6

WILD CHILD

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

NIGEL THOMAS (CARA MITCHELL)

Folk-meets-pop Texans with Alexander Beggins and Kelsey Wilson sharing lead vocal duties.

The Foxes chappie heads out alone, with just his trusty guitar for company.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Fri 21 Nov

F.O.O.S. (THE CIAZARN AFFAIR)

Torino duo blending electronic and alternative rock with their own original twist.

PREHISTORIC FRIENDS (THE GREAT ALBATROSS + LE THUG)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:00–22:00, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)

Wed 19 Nov

HOZIER

Los Angeles born’n’raised singer/ songwriter and self-taught pianist (aka Jillian Banks), fresh on the back of her debut LP.

MONO, 20:00–22:00, £12.50

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:30, £10

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £14

BANKS

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

Tue 18 Nov

CHATHAM COUNTRY LINE (MANDOLINE ORANGE)

The heartfelt casio-tone dreamers throw a wee party to launch their second single, Wisdom Tooth, in the run up to their forthcoming eponymous debut LP next year.

Long-haired singer/songwriter currently residing in Brighton, having his way with the pop/rock template at the tender age of 20.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The offbeat, brass-infused pop lot do their adventurous live thing to suitably pleasurable effect.

Young Philidelphia singer/ songwriter who got her break on Fox talent show So You Think You Can Dance, singing a self-penned break-up anthem, obvs.

The singer/songwriter of the nowdisbanded San Franciscan outfit, Girls, goes it alone again with his second solo LP, A New Testament.

JAMES BAY

SAINT MAX AND THE FANATICS (PHASES + ESPERI)

KASABIAN

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £29.50

Expect more in the way of ballsy northern anthems from the Leicester boys.

KINA GRANNIS

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Los Angeles-based acoustic folkmeets-pop singer/songwriter who recently won an MTV award for best web-born artist.

WIFE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £7

The singer of heavy metal lot Altar of Plagues, James Kelly, presents his solo off-shoot – a much subtler soundscape of dusky twilights sounds.

PERE UBU

CCA, 19:30–22:00, £15

The Ohio rockers hit the Ukwith 18th LP, Carnival of Souls – inspired by their live soundtracking of Herk Harvey’s classic 1962 B-movie of the same name.

ERASURE

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

Legendary 80s electropop duo made up of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, out and touring their 16th – yes, 16th! – LP release, The Violet Flame.

BEANS ON TOAST (WILL VARLEY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £9

Politically-charged one man folkmachine from London, via Essex.

LEVELLERS (THE SELECTER + SHE MAKES WAR)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

The longstanding Brighton rock ensemble celebrate the release of their greatest hits LP with, presumably, a set cherrypicked from their finest.

ASTRAL BLACK (DJ MILKTRAY + SKEPTA + JON PHONICS + BU$HIDO BROWN + JAISU + DRESSIN’ RED)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £5 EARLYBIRD (£7-£9 THEREAFTER)

Burgeoning label Astral Black stage a venue takeover, joined by DJ Milktray for a special EP launch set, plus a guest DJ set from Skepta and more.

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £27.50

The riotous, adrenalin-soaked Scottish alternative rock unit celebrate the forthcoming 30th anniversary of their 1985 debut LP, Psychocandy, by playing it live and it its gloriously scuzzy entirety.

THE SKINNY

THE ORDINARY BOYS

LILY ALLEN

REVERIEME

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £32

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Preston et al take to a live setting in a slightly rejigged line-up, with the addition of ex-Spectrals guitarist Louis Jones.

2:54

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £10

London sister duo made up of lead vocalist Colette Thurlow and sister Hannah, fueled on riot girl punk with bursts of heavy riffing and the odd psychedelic meander.

YEAH DETROIT (VETO + NORTHERN NIGHTLIGHTS + CENTURY THIRTEEN)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £6

Melodic pop Scottish quintet, imbuing their sound with flecks of punk.

JACKSON BROWNE

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 20:00–22:00, FROM £36

The singer/songwriter returns to the live arena in support of his 14th studio LP, Standing In The Breach.

E KARIKA DJAL

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £DONATIONS

Newly-formed outfit made up of musicians from across the globe playing traditional Eastern Slovakian Roma and traditional Scottish music.

TIM HECKER

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £13

The Montreal-based ambient electronic musician and sound artist returns to our shores, focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody – fostering a physical and emotive approach to his songcraft.

UNITED GLASGOW FUNDRAISER

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

The London songstress returns to a live setting as part of her winter UK tour.

Airdrie dweller Louise Connell brings her delicate acoustic indiefolk soundscapes to a live setting.

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £9

Little Lucy Spraggan, of X Factor fame, now a fully fledged touring musician making ‘flop’ – that’s folk meets hip-hop for the uninitiated.

Collaborative AV installation party with musicians, designers and programmers exploring the relationship between sonic and visual practices, including music from Ubre Blanca, Orpheus Choir and more, plus an after-party in the Vic Bar from 11pm.

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £8

Fri 28 Nov

VIOLET (PAVILIONS)

Simplistic electronic beats and paint-by-numbers rapping is the order of the day, as the Prof attempts to entertain the yoof.

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE (PS I LOVE YOU)

Canadian indie-rockers led by Nils Edenloff on vocals and guitar duties.

THE RULERS OF THE ROOT (PORKY DREAMS + KINGS OF CHEEZE)

LUCY SPRAGGAN

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

EOFE

The local roots-meets-blues outfit launch their new LP.

Fledgling crossover rock ensemble big on the soaring vocals and giant riffs.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £6

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, FREE

STEVE HAUSCHILDT (SHAM GATE)

The ex-Emeralds electronic muso continues his experimentation with synthesizers, computers and digital processing.

Sun 23 Nov LITTLE DRAGON (NAO)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £19.50

Gothenburg natives splattering a broad pallet of influences against a canvas of intricate pop.

THE SOUTH (TRISTAN MACKAY)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

Former members of The Beautiful South, Dave Hemingway, Alison Wheeler and Dave Stead come repackaged as, er, The South.

THE ORWELLS

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £10

Raunchy flower punk from the Illinois-residing five-piece outfit, touring with their latest EP, Other Voices, bringing the fresh-faced rock’n’roll energy by the bucket load.

THE SHIRES (WARD AND THOMAS)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £11

Experimental Small Town Records signees dabbling in a number of different genres.

Wed 26 Nov

MASTODON (BIG BUSINESS + KROKODIL)

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

Classic and southern-styled rock influences abound as the mighty Atlanta heavy-metallers descend.

THE TING TINGS

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £15

Manc musical duo made up of Katie White and Jules De Martino, best known for earworm of a single That’s Not My Name.

DEERS

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £7

Spanish lo-fi rockers capturing the sound and spirit of C86 to perfection.

ALLUSONDRUGS (FOREVER CULT)

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

The grungy Leeds quintet do their guitar-fuelled rock thing.

BIG BODY SQUAD

Special fundraiser night bringing together bands, DJs and performers in a celebration of United Glasgow’s work.

Hertfordshire and Bedfordshirehailing duo riding the wave of country music’s recent success.

Skillful and savvy Liverpudlian noise rock freak out.

Sat 22 Nov

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £7

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, £6

THE WOLFE TONES

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £20

Alternative Irish chaps, incorporating elements of traditional Irish music into their sound.

PULLED APART BY HORSES

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £12

Leeds-based band of lunatics running to a tight check list of torturous vocals, distortion, serious riffage, and hardcore clatter. All in the name of some pretty bloody awesome balls-to-the-wall rock, y’understand.

FELIX CHAMPION

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The Cupar-based alternative rock trio launch their new LP, debuting on Bloc+’s own wee imprint.

HACKTIVIST (DEAD HEARTS + THE ONE HUNDRED)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £9

The Milton Keynes-based fivepiece grime outfit embark on a UK headline tour.

CHET FAKER

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

The Australian electronica muso showcases tracks from his debut LP, Built on Glass.

SPUNK VOLCANO AND THE ERUPTIONS (MEDIA WHORES + BROTHEL CORPSE TRIO + THE PUZZLERS + SKIZOFRENIK)

RIVER, 18:45–22:00, £7

Punchy punk rock led by Dirt Box Disco songwriter/guitarist, Spunk Volcano (birth name, obvs).

RSNO: OUNDJIAN CONDUCTS THE FIREBIRD

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Four great composers throw caution to the wind in four tuneful orchestral showpieces, under the watchful eye of conductor Peter Oundjian.

STEVE CROPPER + THE ANIMALS

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:30, £25

Rhythm guitarist Steve Cropper joins forces with The Animals (well, founding member John Steel and veteran Mick Gallagher) for a special collaborative outing.

DAN BAIRD

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

NOTHING

The American shoegaze outfit take to the road with their debut LP, Guilty of Everything.

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £27.50

The riotous, adrenalin-soaked Scottish alternative rock unit celebrate the forthcoming 30th anniversary of their 1985 debut LP, Psychocandy, by playing it live and it its gloriously scuzzy entirety.

STEVIE NIMMO TRIO

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12

One-half of the Nimmo Brothers, Stevie Nimmo – a longstanding figure in the blues and roots world Ð plays with his own live band trio.

EWAN MCLENNAN

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £10 (£8)

The Brooklyn-based alternative composer who uses an array of instruments – including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion – to create a colourful palate of sound.

Thu 27 Nov

IMPERIAL LEISURE (SKARSOLES + SUPA AND DA KRYPTONITES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, £6

The ska, punk and rap straddling Londoners take to a live setting.

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

Still fronted by original member Ian McCulloch, the longstanding Liverpudlian rockers continue to do their thing.

CHRIS T-T AND THE HOODRATS

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

Mon 24 Nov

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

MERCHANDISE (SHOPPING)

STEREO, 20:00–22:00, £9.50

Florida-based band of rockers, riding along on interestingly experimental punk and hardcore soundscapes.

LILY & MADELEINE

BROADCAST, 20:00–23:00, £8

Teenage sister acoustic-folk duo hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, currently residing on the Asthmatic Kitty roster.

ORGY (DEVIANT UK + SERAPH SIN)

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:30, £13

Longstanding goth unit formed back in 1998 by vocalist Jay Gordon and guitarist Amir Derakh.

WALKING ON CARS (ZIBRA)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £6

Young pop-meets-rock scamps hailing from Dingle, in Ireland.

Tue 25 Nov EXAMPLE

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £25

XYLOURIS WHITE

Master of Cretan lute, George Xylouris, and innovative drummer Jim White fulfil their long-held ambition of coming together as a duo.

SINK ALASKA + MUG + KIMBERLY STEAKS + AUSTEROS

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £6

A selection of bands play a melodic punk/rock warm-up session ahead of this year’s Book Yer Ane Fest.

GIOFEST VII (STEVE BERESFORD + LEMUR + GINO ROBAIR + JOHN BUTCHER) CCA, 19:30–22:00, £8 (£5) OR £20 WEEKEND

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra pitch up for their 7th annual international festival, GIOFest, with a selection of internationally regarded musicians joining them for a series of unique collaborations throughout the three-day run.

JAMES KING AND THE LONEWOLVES

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

The English electronic singer/ songwriter (aka Elliot John Gleave) tours his latest LP, Live Life Living.

Glasgow ensemble famed in the 80s for their wild gigs. You have been pre-warned.

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £7

PASSENGER

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–22:00, £15

November 2014

ASHLEY PAUL

Brighton-based troubadour Chris T-T take to the road with his live band ensemble, The Hoodrats.

Brighton born singer/songwriter Mike Rosenberg’s pared back new guise (i.e. five piece band becomes one).

The American singer/songwriter plays a solo set, best known to many as the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Emerging folk singer/songwriter combining more traditional sounds with a focus on the music of Scotland.

The Georgia Satellites frontman returns to Glasgow with his rockin’ and rollin’ live band, Homemade Sin. DARIUS RUCKER

ALGO_RHYTHM (UBRE BLANCA + ORPHEUS CHOIR)

SHARON VAN ETTEN

NYC singer/songwriter touring her third solo album, produced by none other than The National’s Aaron Dessner.

WAMPIRE

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:30–23:00, FREE

PROFESSOR GREEN

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

MARCUS BONFANTI (DIXIE FRIED + MANKY SAVAGE)

KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

The London-born bluesman plays tracks offa his new LP, Shake The Walls.

PETE MACLEOD

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £SOLD OUT

Scottish singer/songwriter who swapped sunny LA for, erm, notso-sunny Lanarkshire, as you do.

SILVER APPLES

STEREO, 19:00–22:00, £12

Groundbreaking 60s electronica duo, featuring surviving founder Simeon Coxe III. DREADZONE

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

Eclectic UK bunch fusing elements of dub, reggae, techno, folk and rock into their own musical soundscapes.

SCO: HANDEL’S MESSIAH

CITY HALLS, 19:30–22:00, FROM £14.50

The SCO Chorus and a team of soloists host their seasonal reworking of Handel’s great choral masterpiece.

EDEN’S CURSE (COLDSPELL)

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:30, £10

Multi-national melodic metal unit featuring five musicians from four different countries.

GIOFEST VII (MAGGIE NICOLS + ILAN VOLKOV + MAYA DUNIETZ)

CCA, 19:30–22:00, £8 (£5) OR £20 WEEKEND

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra pitch up for their 7th annual international festival, GIOFest, with a selection of internationally regarded musicians joining them for a series of unique collaborations throughout the three-day run.

BENEFIT FOR CLUTHA TRUST (BOMBSKARE + THE GIROBABIES + ROSE ROOM + MICKEY 9’S + THE MIGHTY SPARROWHAWK + THE CARLTON JUG BAND) BARROWLAND, 19:30–23:30, £10

Launch night for the Clutha Trust charity featuring the nine-man ska juggernaut that is Bombskare, alongside a raggle taggle host of support. After-party at the African and Caribbean Centre.

LIVE ‘N’ SPITTIN 2014 (SHOTTY HORROH + DAVID MACWILLIAM + DEADSOUNDZ)

AUDIO, 18:30–00:00, £8 EARYBIRD (£10£12 THEREAFTER)

Annual live hip-hop night showcasing a handpicked selection of acts, with a 16-man freestyle battle tournament to boot.

KLASHNEKOFF + RES ONE (KONCHIS & PHYSIKS + GASP + BIG TAJ + SPEE 69)

Special set from Jamaican-English Klashnekoff, playing a double headline set with Res One.

Sat 29 Nov LEE SCRATCH PERRY

SWG3, 19:00–22:00, £25

Hugely influential reggae and dub producer who was behind Bob Marley’s early studio output.

THE MOUSE OUTFIT (LOKI AND THE KARTEL + GASP + STEG G + BAGUL)

AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN CENTRE, 19:00–02:00, £8 (£6)

Nine-piece Manc hip-hop juggernaut led by MCs Dr Syntax and Sparkz, fusing funk, soul and jazz into their mix.

THE AMITY AFFLICTION (BURIED IN VERONA + HEART IN HAND + NAPOLEON)

Metalcore quartet hailing from Australia, bringing cheeky charm by the bucket load.

STEREO, 19:30–22:00, £10

13TH NOTE, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

The four former That Petrol Emotion dudes get active again under a new live guise.

Glasgow-based ska merrymakers who played their first gig together back in 1997.

GIOFEST VII (ILAN VOLKOV + GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA)

CCA, 19:30–22:00, £8 (£5) OR £20 WEEKEND

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra pitch up for their 7th annual international festival, GIOFest, with a selection of internationally regarded musicians joining them for a series of unique collaborations throughout the three-day run.

RSNO: ST ANDREW’S PARTY

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £15

The RSNO raises a dram to St Andrew in a night of jigs, reels, and live tunes from Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham.

THE ORCHIDS (BODYHEAT)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £6

The Sarah Records-led outfit play their first headline show in Glasgow for some seven years, cherrypicking songs from their new album as well as a few classics.

Sun 30 Nov

LOVE INKS (TEENCANTEEN)

THE GLAD CAFE, 19:30–22:00, £6

Austin minimalist pop trio imbued with an emotive sophistication generated almost entirely by space and nuance.

COASTS (RACING GLACIERS)

BROADCAST, 19:00–23:00, £8

Bristol-based five-piece known for making shimmery pop sounds that go well with cold cider and a sunny day. Or, y’know, beer and dark clouds.

THE WHO

THE SSE HYDRO, 18:30–22:00, FROM £60

CLASSIC GRAND, 18:30–22:00, £10

EARTHS (GONE WISHING)

Borders via Glasgow punk and folkinfluenced troupe, out to launch their debut EP release.

Edinburgh Music Wed 05 Nov

ADAM HOLMES AND THE EMBERS

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

Young rootsy-pop singer/ songwriter Adam Holmes plays accompanied by his five-strong band of players, The Embers.

BOY & BEAR

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £10

Sydney-based indie quintet deftly mixing driving indie-folk sounds with dainty choral harmonies.

CHVRCHES (LIZZO)

CORN EXCHANGE, 19:00–22:00, £16

Just over a year since the release of their debut LP – and fresh from touring the hell outta the US-of-A – the Scottish electro-pop buzz band briefly return to home soil, before hitting far flung shores again later in the month.

RAW IN SECT

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £6

The Athens progressive metal unit tour their new LP, Blue Haze.

Thu 06 Nov

ALEX CORNISH (PAUL GILBODY)

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £12

The Edinburgh singer/songwriter and his effortlessly laid-back DIY folk-pop songs, sewn together with some live musical trickery.

SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA + LL R WILLIAMS

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £10

Pianist Ll©r Williams joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the evening, taking in renditions of Stravinsky, Mozart and Beethoven.

DANIEL MUTCH

The original psych-rock bunch celebrate their 50th anniversary by playing ‘greatest hits’ set spanning their entire career.

Aberdeen singer/songwriter building his sound on rough-hewn vocals and intricate guitar work.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

Fri 07 Nov

SIMONE FELICE (DAN WHITEHOUSE)

The former Felice Brothers man tours with his new live band.

BASEMENT JAXX

BARROWLAND, 19:00–23:00, £25

Electronic dance duo from London, made up of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, out and touring with a selection of all-new tunes (and hopefully some golden oldies, too!).

AUGUSTINES

QUEEN MARGARET UNION, 19:00–22:00, £14

NYC trio who do a rather fine line in anthemic indie-rock (formerly playing as We Are Augustines), due in no small part to frontman Billy McCarthy’s measured and majestic vocals.

PAUL HEATON + JACQUI ABBOTT

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

The collaborative duo continue to ride the wave of the first record they’ve made together since The Beautiful South.

CURTIS HARDING

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, £9

Soul muso who has worked as a backup singer for Cee Lo Green, spent time in a Georgia rap group Proseed and currently plays in Black Lips.

STEREO, 23:00–03:00, £7 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Portland indie-rockers who went from a duo most accustomed to playing house parties around their hometown, to a five piece performing in venues around the world. Go witness.

THE EVERLASTING YEAH

THE AMPHETAMEANIES KING TUT’S, 20:30–23:00, £10

Edinburgh Music Tue 04 Nov LUKE ABBOTT

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 20:00–23:00, £8.50

The Norwich electronic producer continues to ride the wave of his newest LP, recorded last winter in the middle of the countryside with no mobile phone reception and limited internet access.

NORDIC FIDDLES BLOC

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00–22:00, £15 (£12)

Norway’s Olav Luksengård Mjelva, Sweden’s Anders Hall and Shetland’s Kevin Henderson combine their fiddle-playing talents.

TONY WRIGHT

BANNERMANS, 19:30–23:00, £12 (£10)

The Terrorvision frontman takes to the road with his new solo acoustic project.

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

MIDDLE FINGER SALUTE

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Blackburn pop-meets-punk foursome who’ve more than earned their stripes on the underground UK punk scene.

AS I WAS HUNTED (BEING OCTAVIUS)

STRONOWAY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 18:45–21:45, £5

OXFAM MUSIC SHOP, 13:00–14:00, £DONATION

Female-fronted progressive metal hellraisers.

STFU

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–03:00, £TBC

Open collective of electronic musicians and visual artists who use the internet as their main means of communication, coming together for a live electronic showcase.

SOUL FOOD (THE FOO BIRDS + LO BIRD + DJ CALUM)

THE CAVES, 19:00–03:00, £7

A duo of Edinburgh upcoming soul acts, The Foo Birds and Lo Bird, plays a double headline set, followed by the best in soul and funk vinyl from DJ Calum.

Sat 08 Nov

EDINBURGH LIGHT ORCHESTRA

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £7.50

The local concert orchestra take in a programme of stage and screen easy listening favourites.

LITTLE LOVE AND THE FRIENDLY VIBES (NO EGOS + THE INDUSTRY)

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

SENEKA

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Edinburgh-based rock outfit cemented by a love of The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA + LAURENCE COTTLE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £20 (£18)

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra are bolstered by the talents of bass guitarist Laurence Cottle, paying tribute to the legendary sounds of Jaco Pastorius.

RSNO: ELGAR’S ENIGMA

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Conductor Rory Macdonald and the RSNO perform different pieces of musical remembrance.

BRACE + SHAMBLES IN A HUSK + ALBERT SHAKESPEARE + KAPIL SESHASAYEE + CITIGAZI

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 18:00–22:00, £4

Mixed up showcase night of metalcore, post-hardcore, mathrock and noise rock soundscapes.

That do you?

KELBURN GARDEN PARTY: A WINTER WARMER (THE JOHN LANGAN BAND + KING EIDER) STUDIO 24, 23:00–03:00, £6 ADV. (£8 DOOR)

Kelburn Garden Party celebrate another sold out season with an early winter knees-up, featuring Glasgow folkies The John Langan Band, alongside support from King Eider.

Wed 12 Nov

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN

THE CAVES, 19:00–23:00, £10

HAMILTON LEITHAUSER

Former lead singer of American rock units The Recoys and The Walkmen, out and touring his solo material.

LIMBO: 7TH BIRTHDAY (SNIDE RHYTHMS + BIRDHEAD + WOZNIAK)

The French rockers hit the UK for their first ever headline tour.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 20:00–01:00, £3 EARYBIRD (£5 THEREAFTER)

Thu 13 Nov

The favourited Edinburgh gig-ina-club night turns seven, marking the occasion by inviting two of their favourite ‘burgh-dwelling bands – Snide Rhythms and Birdhead – to play a double-headline bill, with support from Wozniak.

HEADLESS

BANNERMANS, 19:30–23:00, FREE

Double dose of guitar virtuosos: Scottish world jazz guitarist and composer, David MacGregor, and Cuban classical guitarist, Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas.

With their debut LP getting five shiny stars from us, the Manc duo kick off their UK tour up ‘ere in Scotland – splicing beautifully emblematic song-craft with plump’n’dreamy electronica to suitably magical effect.

Brighton-based electronic chappie with a colourful production and musicality genuinely his own.

Punk electronics and spoken word hip-hop fusion from the Nottingham-hailing duo, touring in support of their latest album, Austerity Dogs – released on the Harbinger Sound label.

THE VIBRATORS (TV SMITH)

SHIELD PATTERNS

EAGLES FOR HANDS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 20:00–23:00, £6

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £14

SLEAFORD MODS

Sun 09 Nov

ASSEMBLY ROXY, 20:00–23:00, £5

THE WEDDING PRESENT

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £17

David Gedge takes his cult 80s concern out on the road for a special set of dates.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £9

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 20:00–23:00, £6 ADV. (£8 DOOR)

CITRUS CLUB , 19:00–22:00, £10

Tue 11 Nov

Indie rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.

The reformed rockers put on special free show for fans old and new.

London-based punk-rock trio formed way back in’t day (as in 1976), still touring and recording.

THUNDERMOTHER (THE KING LOT)

BANNERMANS, 19:30–22:00, £10 (£8)

All-female Swedish rockers with a hint of AC/DC to their sound, playing their only Scottish tour date.

Catchy melodies and quirky hooks from the self-dubbed ‘fun pop’ Edinburgh quartet.

THIS FEELING (NICK MERCER JR + THE MONA LISA’S + REBEL WESTERNS + AARON WRIGHT + THE JACKALS DJS)

The London rock’n’roll night takes a trip north with a selection of live bands taking to the stage.

Alternative indie-folk band hailing from Oxford, built on the crystalline vocals of Brian Briggs and Jon Quin’s delicate arrangements, in town to play a special in-store session and signing in aid of Oxfam.

DAVID MACGREGOR + AHMED DICKINSON (AHMED DICKINSON CARDENAS)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:15–23:00, £10

OZRIC TENTACLES

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

The psychedelic space rockers take to the UK armed with a 28-strong back catalogue of albums, celebrating 30 years of music-making.

STACEY KENT

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £20 (£17.50)

The Grammy-nominated American jazz singer/songwriter plays tracks from her new LP, The Changeling Lights.

THE LOST BROTHERS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £8

The Irish duo celebrate the launch of their fourth album New Songs Of Dawn and Dust, produced by former Coral man Bill Ryder-Jones.

Mon 10 Nov

EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (IAN SIEGAL & JIMBO MATHUS + RYAN MORCOMBE)

CAROUSEL VARTIGO

BANNERMANS, 19:30–23:00, £10 (£8)

HUE AND CRY

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 18:30–22:00, £25

The Coatbridge duo take to a live setting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Remote, as well as the arrival of new LP, Remote: Major To Minor.

GENERATION BY NIGHT (LOOPS HAUNT)

SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART, 17:00–19:00, FREE

National Galleries of Scotland’s GENERATION exhibition after hours pop-up, this time taking in a sitespecific set from Loops Haunt in response to the exhibition.

SCO: BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTOS

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £10

Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja performs both Brahms piano concertos, accompanied by the SCO ensemble.

AREA 11

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 18:45–21:45, £11

Electronic-tinged hard rockers from Bristol, known for their energised and varied live sets.

THE COATHANGERS

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 19:30–23:00, £7 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

The Atlantan punk ensemble play a special intimate set, with after-bash in the same venue (11pm-2.30am).

DANCING MICE

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

The 80s-influenced Edinburgh electronic popsters launch their new LP in their favourited Henry’s Cellar Bar basement lair.

DAVID J ROCH

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £7

Fledgling Sheffield singer/songwriter built on an affecting diet of delicate melodies and melancholy words.

DONNIE WILLOW

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–23:00, £13

The tuneful Glasgow math rock trio play tracks offa their new EP.

THE DELINES (THE WYNNTOWN MARSHALS)

ASSEMBLY ROXY, 19:00–22:00, £9 (£5 MEMBERS)

Monthly blues club taking in touring blues acts from the UK and beyond.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 20:00–23:00, £14

New-country/soul outfit lead

by Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine, out on tour armed with their new LP. EMERSON QUARTET

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:45–22:00, FROM £12

The American string quartet play a set with new cellist Paul Watkins – marking their first personnel change in almost 40 years.

CREATIVE EDINBURGH: AWARDS AND 3RD BIRTHDAY

The talent incubator that is Creative Edinburgh takes to a party setting for its annual awards and birthday bash combined – featuring music from Numbers are Futile and Kitchen Disco, plus a silent disco, party games and piñatas.

Listings

57

Fri 14 Nov TRAPPED MICE

Sat 15 Nov

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

VIC GODARD AND THE SUBWAY SECT (THE SEXUAL OBJECTS)

LIGHTS OUT BY NINE (HUNTER/ HOPE)

Punk legend Vic Godard returns with the latest incarnation of the Subway Sect, including ex-Sex Pistol Paul Cook on drums, playing with Davy Henderson's The Sexual Objects on their annual visit to Scotland.

The Edinburgh quartet do their alternative folk-meets-indie racket of a thing to suitably fine effect, this time previewing songs from the album they’re about to record.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:15–23:00, £8.50

Eight-piece soul/r’n’b ensemble known for bringing the sound of the Mardi Gras.

LYLO

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £3

Young Glaswegian outfit who describe their thang as ‘dream pop with a hint of lemon’, obvs.

WE CAME FROM THE NORTH (A SUDDEN BURST OF COLOUR + GLACIER)

OPIUM, 19:00–22:30, £5

The Edinburgh instrumental post-rock quartet launch their new EP, pairing heavy distortion to melodic, delayed guitars and driven drum beats.

RSNO: OUNDJIAN AND BENEDETTI

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Programme of orchestral classics, as Peter Oundjian plays Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Nicola Benedetti re-joins the RSNO to play Shostakovich’s tense political thriller of a violin concerto.

THE DUKE, DETROIT (OSKAR + THE SIMONIACS)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £5

The electro-driven Scottish foursome launch their new single.

Remarkly not Dukes. And not from Detroit.

LEON OF ATHENS

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The rising indie-pop chappie (aka Timoleon Veremis) brings his solo work to the UK.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £13

THE CHANGES (THE RHEMEDIES + ANDY BOYLE)

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

Alternative Edinburgh foursome heavily-influenced by 90s indie.

BERNIE TORME (ENGINES OF VENGEANCE + BISONGRASS)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £14 (£12)

Replacement guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne following the tragic death of Randy Rhoads, the Irish axe-wielder goes it alone.

KATHLEEN MACINNNES (RACHEL NEWTON)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00–22:00, £16 (£14)

South Uist singer/songwriter performing primarily in Scottish Gaelic.

B.DOLAN + SCROOBIUS PIP (WARRENPEACE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £SOLD OUT

American rapper and performance artist B.Dolan jets in for a special collab set with bearded UK spoken word hip-hopper Scroobius Pip.

Sun 16 Nov JON GOMM

THE CAVES, 19:00–23:00, £15

The Blackpool native – best known for stacking up over four million views on his Passionflower video on YouTube – does his Beatles, Radiohead and John Coltrane-inspired thing.

THE VOYEURS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £7

Charlie Boyer’s still with them but his name isn’t, as this London fuzzy pop band present a united front for their autumn shows.

BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH USHER HALL, 16:00–22:00, FROM £11

The BBC SSO toast conductor Donald Runnicles’ 60th birthday with a special rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Preceded by a Q&A with Runnicles (3pm).

SAINT MOTEL

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £8

Los Angeles indie-rockers who do a good line in dreamy pop soundscapes.

SCUMPULSE (THE OBSCENITIES + CHRISTGEINDER)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

The crushing death metallers plays a Sunday-bothering set.

Amen.

Mon 17 Nov

EDINBURGH QUARTET: POSTCARD FROM PARIS

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £15 (£12)

The local quartet play a special series of pieces with Paris at their heart, including Haydn’s Op 54 No 2, published in Paris in 1788.

GOATESS (IRON VOID + TORN FACE)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £8

More stoner doom soundscapes with a touch of psychedelia from the Swedish lot.

Tue 18 Nov PERE UBU

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £16

The Ohio rockers hit the Ukwith 18th LP, Carnival of Souls – inspired by their live soundtracking of Herk Harvey’s classic 1962 B-movie of the same name.

KING TUFF (SAINT MAX AND THE FANATICS + GARDEN OF ELKS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £8

The Sub Pop Records chap and his flowing locks make their way to the UK, acting the furioso frontman/artist/acoustic guitar legend that he is – or, in his own words ‘me like to rock’.

A DAY TO REMEMBER

CORN EXCHANGE, 19:00–22:00, £22

American rock outfit residing in sunny Florida, formed back in 2003 by pals Tom Denney and Bobby Scruggs.

Wed 19 Nov THE RIFLES

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)

London indie-rock outfit on’t go since 2003, when principle members Joel Stoker and Lucas Crowther met at college.

GRAEME STEPHEN QUARTET: NOSFERATU

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00–22:00, £14 (£12)

Unique cineconcert projecting the classic silent film Hosferatu, accompanied by the live quintet’s performance of Graeme Stephen’s specially-written soundtrack.

F.O.O.S.

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £6

Torino duo blending electronic and alternative rock with their own original twist.

Thu 20 Nov

CLICK CLACK CLUB (TRIO VELCRO)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19:30–22:30, £6 (£4)

Experimental music club bringing the good times with their Beefheart-inspired funk and special guests.

ERASURE

CORN EXCHANGE, 19:00–22:00, £35

Legendary 80s electropop duo made up of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, out and touring their 16th – yes, 16th! – LP release, The Violet Flame.

JOHN COOPER CLARKE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00–22:00, £27.50

More satirical and biting political verse, delivered in Cooper Clarke’s trademark rapid-fire performance style – taking in anecdotes of Northern life, interspersed with some of his best poems.

HACKTIVIST (DEAD HARTS + THE ONE HUNDRED)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £9

The Milton Keynes-based fivepiece grime outfit embark on a UK headline tour.

SON OF DAVE (CERA IMPALA)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £10

Canadian singer/songwriter and former Crash Test Dummies guitarist, otherwise known as Benjamin Darvill.

PSYDOLL (SERAPH SIN) BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £9 (£7)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Seattle-based musician Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius) embarks on a mini tour of the UK and Europe – his emotive vocal delivery so intense and intimate it’s been known to induce a pindrop stillness in’t crowd.

More upbeat and catchy tunes from the Scottish four-piece, peddling their own chirpy brand of indie-disco-pop.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00–22:00, £18 (£15)

Glasgow quartet taking their cue from the sounds of yesteryear, inspired by the 60s but with a 70s punk-rock sensibility.

LITTLE KINGDOM (ST DUKES + OLLIE LEE)

The fledgling Edinburgh outfit play Sneaky’s basement lair.

Fri 21 Nov

MY ELECTRIC LOVE AFFAIR

THE POND, 21:00–00:00, FREE

The Edinburgh-based post-rock popsters build their usual wall of shoegaze noise.

STANLEY ODD

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £10

Inventive hip-hop musings as the Odd Squad move from chopped electrofunk to crunchy 8-bit, via well-constructed vocal flows from Solareye and Veronica Electronica.

SOULACOASTER

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

12-piece monster of a soul ensemble, packed with classic hits made famous by the genres legendary singer/songwriters.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

CORN EXCHANGE, 19:00–22:00, £24.50

The New Jersey quartet play a reliably anthemic mix of pop-rock melodies retooled for a punkinformed audience.

THE BREW (THE RICH)

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £13 (£11)

Brit rock trio with a rare father/ son line-up that seems to work for ‘em.

ORKNEY FOLK: THE FIDDLE GATHERING

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £18 (£15)

Celebration of the Orkney’s rich musical heritage, featuring traditional acts from the island. Part of the Scots Fiddle Festival.

RSNO: OUNDJIAN CONDUCTS THE FIREBIRD

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £12

Four great composers throw caution to the wind in four tuneful orchestral showpieces, under the watchful eye of conductor Peter Oundjian.

CARA MITCHELL (NIGEL THOMAS + CHARLOTTE CARPENTER)

Sun 23 Nov PERFUME GENIUS

THE CAVES, 19:00–23:00, £10

FRANKIE GAVIN (ROSS COUPER + TOM OAKES)

Irish fiddle player extraordinaire, crowned Guinness World Records’ fastest fiddle player in the world 2010, no less. Part of Scots Fiddle Festival.

DEATHCRUSH

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £5

Oslo no wave noisemakers mixing it up between hip-hop, pop, trash metal and noise-rock.

JAMES KING AND THE LONEWOLVES (LOLA IN SLACKS + ROY MOLLER) THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £10

Glasgow ensemble famed in the 80s for their wild gigs. You have been pre-warned.

Mon 24 Nov KID HARLEQUIN

BANNERMANS, 20:00–00:30, £5

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £10

DOMINIC WAXING LYRICAL

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19:00–23:00, £5 (£4)

Baroque folksters who describe their things as ‘tales of graffiti, truancy and despair, with the odd toilet roll and vacuum cleaner thrown in for good measure’, as you do.

DAEDALUS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 21:00–23:00, £8

Sat 22 Nov

Wed 26 Nov

Musical-magpies borrowing from a variety of classic indie-pop acts, in town playing a special BYOB fun night, with support from Tuff Love and Making Marks, plus The Spook School on compering duties.

BEANS ON TOAST (WILL VARLEY + BILLY LIAR)

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £9

Politically-charged one man folkmachine from London, via Essex.

CHEATAHS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £7

London-based grunge rockrevival four-piece still riding high on their debut self-titled LP. LAINIE AND THE CROWS (KING EIDER AND THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5

Rootsy modern-retro outfit laced with country-tinged harmonies, rockabilly twangs, sweet Appalachian blues and the occasional laid-back heartbreaker – launching their debut EP on’t night.

MICHAEL MCGOLDRICK + JOHN MCCUSKER + MATHEU WATSON (CASEY DRIESSEN + SCOTS FIDDLE FESTIVAL OUTREACH PROJECT) THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:00, £18 (£15)

PASSENGER

USHER HALL, 19:00–22:00, £22

Brighton born singer/songwriter Mike Rosenberg’s pared back new guise (i.e. five piece band becomes one).

RAGWEED

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Sludgy, garage rock-styled grimy guitars from down south.

Thu 27 Nov ELECTRIC SIX

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £16

Detroit underdogs with enough joyful hooks, mischievous wordplay and unexpected pathos to worm their way into your heart.

LAU-LAND: LAU + ELYSIAN QUARTET (ELLA THE BIRD)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 18:30–22:00, £20 (£18)

THE NEW PICCADILLYS (JOE VITERBO + THE PHLEGM)

CITRUS CLUB , 19:00–22:00, £6.0

THE RETROPHONES (COLIN STEELE)

REID CONCERT HALL, 20:00–23:00, FREE

WE CAME FROM WOLVES (RETURN TO THE SUN + SCOTIA + SAVE THE RECKLESS)

Fri 28 Nov

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Post-rock foursome all about the harmonic, melodic soundscapes with hook-laden, euphoric choruses.

Subbie’s regular student night with residents Ray Vose and Desoto at the helm.

DISCO RIOT

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

LAU-LAND: JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN (ADAM HOLMES)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:00–22:00, £16 (£14)

NYC chanteuse Joan Wasser tours in support of her properly good new record, The Classic, playing as part of Lau-Land’s Edinburgh takeover (aka Scottish folk trio Lau’s touring mini festival project).

CATHOLIC ACTION (PLASTIC ANIMALS)

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

BWANI JUNCTION

Edinburgh quartet imbued with world-traipsing influences.

Sat 29 Nov MARCUS BONFANTI

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £8

The London-born bluesman plays tracks offa his new LP, Shake The Walls.

HUGH CORNWELL (HAZEL O’CONNOR)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £22

The Stranglers frontman heads out on his own, joined by a select batch of musical pals.

WINTERLIZARD

BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Edinburgh black metal hellraisers with distinct doom overtones.

LAU-LAND: CAPERCAILLIE + DICK GAUGHAN

THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20:00–22:00, £20 (£18)

A double bill of Scottish folk musicians commandeer the stage, rounding off the final night of Lau-Land’s Edinburgh takeover (aka Scottish folk trio Lau’s touring mini festival project).

JOHN GRANT + ROYAL NORTHERN SINFONIA

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £18

The American singer/songwriter and onetime frontman of 90s act The Czars takes to the road for a special seven-date tour with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, reworking his back catalogue within a sumptuous orchestral setting.

LAU-LAND: FESTIVAL CLUB (ANAIS MITCHELL + KRIS DREEVER + ÉAMONN COYNE + MYSTERY JUICE + MARTIN GREEN) SUMMERHALL, 22:00–03:00, £5

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

SHANGRILA

THE ARCHES, 23:00–03:00, £5

Unique night with décor inspired by various festivals across the globe, manned by rotating DJ guests adopting a different theme to each week.

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Red-hued adventure travelling through 70s funk, motown and 80s r’n’b, highlighted with glorious rays of disco sunshine.

SUB ROSA (SENSU)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie’s regular student night with residents Ray Vose and Desoto at the helm, this edition joined by fellow Subbie chums Barry Price and Junior (aka Sensu).

Thu 06 Nov NEVERLAND

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Themed fun night complete with a live Twitter feed and a bouncy castle for added LOLs. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3

Early weekend party starter, with Euan Neilson playing the best in classic r’n’b and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Two rooms of tunes with DJs David Lo Pan and RYRY, taking in rock anthems, pop-punk, screamo and requests.

SHOW (RICHY AHMED)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Show return to Subbie, this time joined by Richy Ahmed – one of the key players currently re-defining house music with hues of disco, techno, funk and hip-hop.

Fri 07 Nov OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your Friday jivin’ pleasure.

DAMNATION

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of the best in rock, metal and industrial tunes picked out by DJs Barry and Tailz.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo over three rooms.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MARCUS MALONE

THE CAVES, 19:00–23:00, £13

SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out lethally alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

Glasgow Clubs

The SCO Chorus and a team of soloists host their seasonal reworking of Handel’s great choral masterpiece.

An unabashed mix of 80s pop, electro and nu-disco. They will play Phil Collins.

Disco-styled party bolstered by added karaoke fun.

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, FROM £10

SCO: HANDEL’S MESSIAH

TAKE IT SLEAZY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–23:00, £5

Edinburgh-based retro-styled funk outfit built on female vocals and a full-on horn section.

Lau-Land (aka Scottish folk trio Lau’s touring mini festival project) draws to a close with a late night music party featuring a selection of talented pals.

Detroit native currently residing in the UK, in possession of a fine blues-rock vocal that flits across the multiple styles of music he plays.

Vroni Holzmann launches her new LP, Dream Tree, a cycle of new post-minimalist piano works performed by pianist Kirsteen Davidson Kelly, with Holzmann on hand to talk about the album.

Wed 05 Nov

THE LITTLE KICKS (COLLAR UP)

Lau-Land Edinburgh (aka Scottish folk trio Lau’s touring multi-media project) opens with a special show by the chaps themselves, joined by guests the Elysian String Quartet.

Members of BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions, Michael McGoldrick and John McCusker play a special session with multi-award winning guitar player Matheu Watson.

Part of Scots Fiddle Festival.

KIRSTEEN DAVIDSON KELLY + VRONI HOLZMANN

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:00, £6

THE LIQUID ROOM, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

Hamburg outfit mashing up electronica with hefty beats and good ol’ indie spirit.

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (STUDENTS FREE)

Weekly party anthems with Jimmy 11, complete with a hot tub and giant inflatables, because that’s obvs a normal Tuesday night oot.

Tue 25 Nov

FUCK ART LET’S DANCE (THE RAHS)

#TAG

The Edinburgh metallers play a special gig to bid au revoir to drummer Dave Cumming, who’s set to move on to pastures new.

Glasgow noisemakers featuring members of Male Pattern Band and Casual Sex.

Aberdonian singer/songwriter in possession of a unique vocal.

HENDERSON HALLS, 20:00–23:00, £13.50

COUNTING HOUSE, 19:30–23:00, FREE

Amsterdam alternative rockers with a penchant for the dark and brooding.

The Ninja Tune electronic chap plays a special late night set as part of Sneaky’s ‘Night Music’ series of gigs.

ALLO DARLIN’ (TUFF LOVE + MAKING MARKS + THE SPOOK SCHOOL)

Listings

VANTAGE POINT (VERONICA IS BORING)

The Orkney-based alternative rockers hit the ‘burgh once more.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £6

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KENDA NAGASKI BANNERMANS, 20:00–23:00, £5

Tokyo cyberpunksters who incorporate industrial and electropop with cyberpunk imagery, musical and lyrical content.

Tue 04 Nov KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Killer Kitsch residents take charge – eight years old and still offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

I AM (JACQUES GREENE)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 EARLYBIRD (£6-£7 THEREAFTER)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, this edition joined

by Montreal man of the moment Jacques Greene.

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Student-friendly Friday night party playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Hip-hop and gangsta rap brought to you by the Notorious B.A.G and pals.

THE SKINNY

Glasgow Clubs YES!

WRONG ISLAND (GOLDEN DONNA)

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £4

New gay indie night on the block, with a playlist that mixes classic Bowie, The Smiths and Blondie et al alongside new kids like Django Djanjo and Grimes.

NUMBERS (JOY ORBISON)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £12

Numbers Joy Orbison mans the decks for the whole evening, likely doing his electronic dubstepgarage-house hybrid of a thing to suitably barry effect.

ALPHA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly mash-up of new tunes and floor fillers from across the alternative spectrum. In O2 ABC 2.

PATRICK TOPPING (VILMOS + THIS IS I)

SAINT JUDES, 23:00–03:00, £7 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Fast rising Hot Creations star Patrick Topping plays a headline set, fresh from an Ibiza residency at Paradise, DC10 over the summer.

TROPICAL (TELEPHONES)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£7 AFTER 11.30)

Dan Shake does his eclectic, diverse and dancefloor-orientated thing – this edition joined by Norwegian DJ/producer, Telephones.

ROOT OF SOUND

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Friday night party starter of alternative indie and electro DJ patter.

MÖBIUS

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £5

Reliably loud party night with a focus on visuals as well as audio, with the italoBLACK joining them to man the Vic bar space.

FRESH BEAT VS FLASH BACK

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Split up night of contemporary mixes in the main hall and 90s/00s nostalgia in the wee room.

Sat 08 Nov NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

ABSOLUTION

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative weekend blowout, taking in metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska over two floors.

The legendary Teamy and Dirty Larry spin some fresh electronics for your aural pleasure, joined by DJ wizard Golden Donna all the way from Wisconsin – performing using real hardware combined with software.

FOAM (PLAID + MOONER + VOLTNOI + CIO) THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

A trio of local promoters – Cry Parrot, Endless Race and Brendworks – join forces for an Art School takeover, filling the venue with a selection of international talent, moving from London’s Plaid to Zurich’s Cio. GARAGE LOVES SATURDAYS

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Weekend student superclub playing all the dance and chart you can handle.

Sun 09 Nov VERTIGO

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

DJ Kelmosh plays a mix of rock, dance and indie hits.

SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

New Sunday-bothering night playing house, r’n’b and hip-hop tunes, with added LED frickin’ lazers, just cos.

Mon 10 Nov BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

MONDAY BARE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Gavin Somerville spins the finest chart, dance, house and hip-hop in the main hall, while David Lo Pan holes up in the bar playing rock and metal athems.

Tue 11 Nov KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Killer Kitsch residents take charge – eight years old and still offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats across three rooms.

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (STUDENTS FREE)

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

THE ROCK SHOP

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.

SHED SATURDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

The Shed’s mainman Andy Robertson spins ‘charty poppy party classics’ for all your Saturday night dancing needs.

FANTASTIC MAN

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Messy Saturday night uberdisco armed with Erasure and Papa Roach discographies.

MISSING PERSONS CLUB

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Residents-manned evening of the finest techno and house offerings from the MPC crew.

SUBCULTURE (ANDREW WEATHERALL)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £12

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic manning the decks, this edition joined by DJ, producer and remixer extraordinaire Andrew Weatherall for a deck takeover.

FRENCH EXPRESS TOUR (JONAS RATHSMAN + MOON BOOTS + ISAAC TICHAUER)

SAINT JUDES, 22:00–03:00, £8 EARLYBIRD (£10-£12 THEREAFTER)

The French Express label hits town as part of their current UK tour, with their stable of producers and DJs in tow.

November 2014

#TAG

Weekly party anthems with Jimmy 11, complete with a hot tub and giant inflatables, because that’s obvs a normal Tuesday night oot.

Wed 12 Nov NEVERLAND

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Themed fun night complete with a live Twitter feed and a bouncy castle for added LOLs. DISCO RIOT

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Disco-styled party bolstered by added karaoke fun.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out lethally alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

SHANGRILA (LE YOUTH)

THE ARCHES, 23:00–03:00, £5

Unique night with décor inspired by various festivals across the globe, this edition welcoming Los Angeles producer Le Youth to the decks.

NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR (MISTER SATURDAY NIGHT)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Night Of The Jaguar collective welcome the man behind Brooklyn's world famous Mister Saturday Night Loft parties and the Mister Saturday Night record label, Justin Carter (aka Mister Saturday Night, obvs).

Thu 13 Nov HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3

Early weekend party starter, with Euan Neilson playing the best in classic r’n’b and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

BEAT SURFING

VARIETY BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Pre-club session with Frizzo from Frogbeats playing selections of nu jazz, funk and electro swing.

OUT OF ORBIT

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

The cosmic-heavy Out Of Orbit residents man the decks.

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Two rooms of tunes with DJs David Lo Pan and RYRY, taking in rock anthems, pop-punk, screamo and requests.

RUBIX (PEARSON SOUND)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Continuing Rubix’s autumn season of guests, Hessle Audio head honcho Pearson Sound join them for a deck takeover.

Fri 14 Nov OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your Friday jivin’ pleasure.

THE HOT CLUB

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Tearin’ it up with 60s psych-outs and modern sleaze, provided by Rafla and Andy (of The Phantom Band).

DAMNATION

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of the best in rock, metal and industrial tunes picked out by DJs Barry and Tailz.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo over three rooms.

COMMON PEOPLE

THE FLYING DUCK, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Celebration of all things 90s, with hits a-plenty and a pre-club bingo session.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Student-friendly Friday night party playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

TRUST (NICK CURLY + TOBI NEUMANN + MATT TOLFREY + VILMOS)

SWG3, 22:00–03:00, £10 EARLYBIRD (£12£15 THEREAFTER)

Tech house German DJ Nick Curly brings his Trust party to a warehouse hear you (aka SWG3), with Tobi Neumann, Matt Tolfrey and Vilmos in tow.

SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £8 ADV. (£10 DOOR)

Belfast DJ Space Dimension Controller (aka Jack Hamill) brings his heavy hitting form of galactic funk to the Art School.

EVERYDAY COURAGE

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Queer clubber’s delight with additional live performance, visuals and printed matter, programmed and realised by queer clubbing pioneer DJ Hush and artist Casey O’Connell. In the Vic Bar. Part of Glasgay!

ALPHA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly mash-up of new tunes and floor fillers from across the alternative spectrum. In O2 ABC 2.

STEREO 54 (DEN HAAN + DAVID BARBAROSSA + SHINY DISCO BALL + FRANCIS MURPHY) STEREO, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

The Subcity Radio crew take over Stereo for the evening, transforming it into the embodiment of New York super-club Studio 54, joined by a host of guest talent.

LA CHEETAH’S 5TH BIRTHDAY: PART 3 (MATTHEW HERBERT, WARDY, DOM D’SYLVA) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 22:00–04:00, £10

The 5th birthday celebrations continue with one final bash – and it’s a biggie! – welcoming sonic wiz Matthew Herbert into their lair, with support from residents Wardy and Dom D’Sylva.

ENJOYABLE MOMENT

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The Cosmic Dead chaps trip out with an evening of rollin’ Krautrock DJing for your general aural pleasure.

FRESH BEAT VS FLASH BACK

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Split up night of contemporary mixes in the main hall and 90s/00s nostalgia in the wee room.

RETURN TO MONO (BEN SIMS)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £12

Monthly night from Soma Records taking in popular techno offerings of all hues, this month welcoming three-deck techno wizard Ben Sims for a guest set.

Sat 15 Nov NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

ABSOLUTION

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative weekend blowout, taking in metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska over two floors.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats across three rooms.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

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.

SHED SATURDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

The Shed’s mainman Andy Robertson spins ‘charty poppy party classics’ for all your Saturday night dancing needs.

STRANGE PARADISE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Party night from floral-shirted Wild Combination man David Barbarossa, specializing in leftfield disco, post-punk and far-out pop.

CODE (PFIRTER)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£10 THEREAFTER)

CODE bring back returning guest, Argentinian techno legend Pfirter, for another night of driving, dancefloor techno in the basement.

TYCI (GIRLPOOL + GRAINNE BRAITHWAITE)

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The all-female collective, blog and fanzine bring together a selection of live acts and DJs for their monthly party night.

GLITTERBANG

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Sweatcore disco hits played out by James T and Ramo, with a Gina G tune or two on a promise.

BNR PARTY (BOYS NOIZE + SCNTST + POL STYLE) THE ARCHES, 22:00–03:00, £14 EARYBIRD (£16 THEREAFTER)

Legendary German label BNR, founded by Boys Noize Records, blows through Glasgow with a selection of guests in tow.

GARAGE LOVES SATURDAYS

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Weekend student superclub playing all the dance and chart you can handle.

SUBCULTURE (DJ SPRINKLES)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic manning the decks, this edition welcoming Terre Thaemlitz (aka DJ Sprinkles) into their fold.

Sun 16 Nov

Fri 21 Nov

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

EASY

OLD SKOOL

DJ Jamie spins anything and everything your heart could possibly desire, with requests accepted all night long.

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your Friday jivin’ pleasure.

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Two floors of the best in rock, metal and industrial tunes picked out by DJs Barry and Tailz.

SUNDAY SCIENCE

New Sunday-bothering night playing house, r’n’b and hip-hop tunes, with added LED frickin’ lazers, just cos.

FLY (DAVID AUGUST)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 EARLYBIRD (£8-£16 THEREAFTER)

The Fly residents play host to the Glasgow debut of Innervisions’ latest recruit, David August.

Mon 17 Nov BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

MONDAY BARE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Gavin Somerville spins the finest chart, dance, house and hip-hop in the main hall, while David Lo Pan holes up in the bar playing rock and metal athems.

Tue 18 Nov KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Killer Kitsch residents take charge – eight years old and still offering up the best in house, techno and electronic. #TAG

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (STUDENTS FREE)

Weekly party anthems with Jimmy 11, complete with a hot tub and giant inflatables, because that’s obvs a normal Tuesday night oot.

I AM (TELFORD + KAPPA)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with regular Subbie frequenter Telford dropping by for a back-to-back set with Kappa.

Wed 19 Nov NOT MOVING

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

South African house, grime, jungle, r’n’b and hauntology – a tropical mix, ayes.

SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie’s regular student night with residents Ray Vose and Desoto at the helm.

DISCO RIOT

DAMNATION

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo over three rooms.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Student-friendly Friday night party playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

KILL YR IDOLS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

DIY disco with a punk attitude, where psychedelic voodoo grooves meet souped-up turbo-tech.

ASTRAL BLACK (DJ MILKTRAY + SKEPTA + JON PHONICS + BU$HIDO BROWN + JAISU + DRESSIN’ RED)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £5 EARLYBIRD (£7-£9 THEREAFTER)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, FREE

The No Globe posse play their frenetic night of party music beyond borders, with live visuals and free entry for all.

Thu 20 Nov NEVERLAND

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Themed fun night complete with a live Twitter feed and a bouncy castle for added LOLs. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3

Early weekend party starter, with Euan Neilson playing the best in classic r’n’b and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

IN THE BASEMENT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Thursday session of alternative sounds.

OUT OF ORBIT

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

The cosmic-heavy Out Of Orbit residents man the decks.

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Two rooms of tunes with DJs David Lo Pan and RYRY, taking in rock anthems, pop-punk, screamo and requests.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

SHED SATURDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

The Shed’s mainman Andy Robertson spins ‘charty poppy party classics’ for all your Saturday night dancing needs.

HAUS DIMENSION

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

All-new night taking in a bit of disco, house, techno and acid, plus all manner of other wavy beats.

HEADSTRONG (TESSELA + EOMAC + CLOUDS) THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

New world rave dance craze from the Animal Farm and Clouds bods.

BOBBY TANK

BROADCAST, 23:00–03:00, £5

Broadcast welcome the breakthrough electrofunk wunderkind for a DJ set of upbeat postdubstep, done in his trademark maximalist style.

SONGS YA BASS VII

BUFF CLUB, 19:00–23:00, FREE

ALPHA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly mash-up of new tunes and floor fillers from across the alternative spectrum. In O2 ABC 2.

OLUM

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Glorious return for the legendary Glaswegian club institution, back and in its stride.

RECONDITE

SAINT JUDES, 23:00–03:00, £10

The German techno specialist (aka Lorenz Brunner) plays a headline set, noted for his sensitivity to the deeper, melancholic and intimate side of electronica.

THE ARCHES, 23:00–03:00, £16.50

FRESH BEAT VS FLASH BACK

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Split up night of contemporary mixes in the main hall and 90s/00s nostalgia in the wee room.

SENSU IS 10

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Ten years old and still going strong, Barry Price and Junior continue to provide the cutting edge electronic from across the globe – celebrating with a series of birthday specials.

Sat 22 Nov NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

ABSOLUTION

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative weekend blowout, taking in metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska over two floors.

SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

Long-running house night with regulars Harri & Domenic manning the decks all night long.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats across three rooms.

Weekly party anthems with Jimmy 11, complete with a hot tub and giant inflatables, because that’s obvs a normal Tuesday night oot.

Wed 26 Nov SUB ROSA

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Subbie’s regular student night with residents Ray Vose and Desoto at the helm.

SO WEIT SO GUT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

The party sounds of Ean, Smiddy and Kenny White on decks.

DISCO RIOT

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Disco-styled party bolstered by added karaoke fun.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out lethally alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

Thu 27 Nov NEVERLAND

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Themed fun night complete with a live Twitter feed and a bouncy castle for added LOLs. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

A seventh outing for ‘the club night for people who don’t really go clubbing anymore’, taking in punter-generated requests before finishing at the beauty sleepfriendly hour of 11pm.

Early weekend party starter, with Euan Neilson playing the best in classic r’n’b and hip-hop.

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

SINGLES NIGHT IS 7

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FIRST 30 GO FREE)

INTERGALACTIC

Colours bring back two of the stars who rocked Coloursfest 2014 – talented chaps Will Sparks and Joel Fletcher – fresh from their US Bounce Bus tour.

NO GLOBE

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Space and sci-fi themed night with Sci_Fi Steven and Gav Dunbar playing the best in star-crunching party tunes, or summat.

BEAST WEDNESDAYS

The midweek residents serve up their usual rammy of pop-punk and hardcore, whilst the bar doles out lethally alcoholic slushies. Slurp.

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (STUDENTS FREE)

Andy Divine and Chris Geddes’ gem of a night dedicated to 7-inch singles from every genre imaginable, this edition celebrating the club’s 7th birthday!

COLOURS: LET’S BOUNCE TOUR (WILL SPARKS + JOEL FLETCHER)

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

#TAG

Burgeoning label Astral Black stage a venue takeover, joined by DJ Milktray for a special EP launch set, plus a guest DJ set from Skepta and more.

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Disco-styled party bolstered by added karaoke fun.

THE ROCK SHOP MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

OFFBEAT VS KUNST (BINTUS + AN-I)

Offbeat and Kunst join forces to welcome a double dose of guest action: Power Vacuum founder Milo Smee (aka Bintus) and Berlinbased New Yorker Doug Lee in his latest musical moniker, An-i.

GARAGE LOVES SATURDAYS

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Weekend student superclub playing all the dance and chart you can handle.

Sun 23 Nov EASY

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

DJ Jamie spins anything and everything your heart could possibly desire, with requests accepted all night long.

SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

New Sunday-bothering night playing house, r’n’b and hip-hop tunes, with added LED frickin’ lazers, just cos.

PISTOLS AT DAWN (PETE HERBERT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

Pistols At Dawn return with a guest set from Pete Herbert, mixing Balearic leftfield disco, house, Italo, dub, funk and beyond.

FLY (DENIS SULTA + JOSH BARR)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

The Fly residents play host to a double whammy of guest talent: Denis Sulta and Josh Barr.

Mon 24 Nov BURN

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/FREE WITH WAGE SLIP)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

MONDAY BARE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Gavin Somerville spins the finest chart, dance, house and hip-hop in the main hall, while David Lo Pan holes up in the bar playing rock and metal athems.

Tue 25 Nov KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Killer Kitsch residents take charge – eight years old and still offering up the best in house, techno and electronic.

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (FREE VIA IAMCLUB.CO.UK)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, oft joined by a guest or two.

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

STRETCHED

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Jazz-influenced sound sauna, moving through mathcore to postrock, with a few live acts thrown in for good measure.

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, FREE

Red-hued adventure travelling through 70s funk, motown and 80s r’n’b, highlighted with glorious rays of disco sunshine.

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Two rooms of tunes with DJs David Lo Pan and RYRY, taking in rock anthems, pop-punk, screamo and requests.

Fri 28 Nov OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your Friday jivin’ pleasure.

DAMNATION

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £6

Two floors of the best in rock, metal and industrial tunes picked out by DJs Barry and Tailz.

PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Residents fun night of rock, metal, punk and emo over three rooms.

SUPER TROUPER

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Clubber’s delight dedicated to all-Swedish indie, pop and rock – moving from ABBA through to The Knife like a proper legend o’ a thing.

THUNDER DISCO CLUB

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

The Thunder Disco Club residents churn out the 90s house, techno and disco hits, as is their merry way.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

THE BIG CHEESE

SHED, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11)

Student-friendly Friday night party playing – as one might expect – cheesy classics of every hue.

SHAKE APPEAL

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Monthly evening of hip shakers and neck breakers, combining everything from Buddy Holly to Motorhead.

Listings

59

ALPHA O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly mash-up of new tunes and floor fillers from across the alternative spectrum. In O2 ABC 2.

BRIAN NOT BRIAN (HOUSE OF TRAPS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £4

The longstanding DJ – and one of the chaps behind Brixton-based record label Going Good (alongside the mysterious Sal Z) – drops by for a guest set.

PRESSURE: 16TH BIRTHDAY (BEN KLOCK + SLAM + LAURA JONES + SUBB-AN)

THE ARCHES, 22:00–03:00, £16 EARLYBIRD (£20 THEREAFTER)

Slam’s monthly party night turns 16, with the residents joined by night favourite Ben Klock for an extended set, plus support from Subb-an and Laura Jones, making their debut appearances at the club no less.

FRESH BEAT VS FLASH BACK

Edinburgh Clubs Tue 04 Nov HIVE TUESDAYS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be, joined by a selection of guest performers and DJs. HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Split up night of contemporary mixes in the main hall and 90s/00s nostalgia in the wee room.

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

Sat 29 Nov

Wed 05 Nov

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £6

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

ABSOLUTION

Alternative weekend blowout, taking in metal, industrial, pop-punk, rock, emo and ska over two floors.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Punk, rock and metallic selection of beats across three rooms.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£5/£3 STUDENT AFTER 12)

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

CHAMPION SOUND

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

Midweek celebration of all things dub, jungle, reggae, dancehall and everything inbetween.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

Weekly selection of dance bangers, played out by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 12)

LOVE MUSIC

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

SHED SATURDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

The Shed’s mainman Andy Robertson spins ‘charty poppy party classics’ for all your Saturday night dancing needs.

HOUNDIN’ THE STREETS

THE FLYING DUCK, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Nothing but bare bone rattling, foot tapping, ass shaking hip-hop classics, new wave and disco.

TEENAGE RIOT

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Members of Glasgow’s posthardcore noise-masters, United Fruit, curate their lively event of big-beat alternative indie.

NOTSOSILENT

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Belch and crew bring the best in underground house with special guests being kept under wraps for now.

IBIZA SESSIONS: KILTIES REUNION (MALLORCA LEE + CALVIN LOGUE + ROSKO + JACK EYE JONES) THE ARCHES, 22:00–03:00, £16.50 EARYBIRD

With their Ibiza Sessions boat parties the stuff of legend in 2014, Colours throw a reunion party at The Arches, with sets from Mallorca Lee, Rosko, Jack Eye Jones and more.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 23:30–03:00, £3

Occasional gathering discoing down to a playlist of Italo, disco and more.

GARAGE LOVES SATURDAYS

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Weekend student superclub playing all the dance and chart you can handle.

SUBCULTURE (STEFFI)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic manning the decks, this edition playing host to Panorama Bar resident, Steffi.

Sun 30 Nov SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Full-on mix of nu-metal and hard rockin’ tunes over two floors, with DJs Mythic, DJ Nicola and Div on decks.

SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

New Sunday-bothering night playing house, r’n’b and hip-hop tunes, with added LED frickin’ lazers, just cos.

60

Listings

ROUTE 66

Student fun night spinning motown, blues, hip-hop and funkstyled dancing tunes.

Thu 06 Nov I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident i AM young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

XPLICIT THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 AFTER 12)

Heavy jungle and bass-styled beats from the inimitable Xplicit crew, most likely with a guest or two in tow.

FLY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

A powerhouse of local residents take over Cab Vol, joined by a selection of guest talent.

DISORDER

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

Pumped night of acid, techno and electro soundscapes with the Disorder residents.

WARM FUZZY: 1ST BIRTHDAY (ROB DYLAN + AL MACDONALD)

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

First birthday bash for the funky electronic night, offering an all-inclusive club environment bolstered by a strong visual element featuring hangings, installations and projections.

IN DEEP (JASPER JAMES)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

The In Deep champs welcome bright young Glasgow house music talent Jasper James for a guest set.

Sat 08 Nov TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern tunes.

MUMBO JUMBO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£7/£5 STUDENT AFTER 12)

Funk, soul, beats and mash-ups from the Mumbo Jumbo regulars and pals.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

THE CLUB THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

WEEK’S END

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Aisling Murphy holds the fort in the cafe playing a batch of sweet soulful beats.

Mon 10 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightener playing hip-hop, r’n’b and good ol’ chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs.

Tue 11 Nov HIVE TUESDAYS

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be, joined by a selection of guest performers and DJs. HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

Wed 12 Nov COOKIE

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

CHAMPION SOUND

Danceable mix of the best in 60s ska, rocksteady, bluebeat and early reggae.

Midweek celebration of all things dub, jungle, reggae, dancehall and everything inbetween.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4 MEMBERS)

TRIBE

Retro pop stylings from the 50s to the 70s, via a disco tune or ten.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Craig Smith hosts an array of experts in deep, soulful house with a funked up back room.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 12)

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

WITNESS (MSSINGNO)

Mash-up mix of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Mumbo Jumbo’s Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin, bolstered by Tall Paul’s vintage selections.

HI-SOCIETY

THINK TWICE

DIGITAL VS VINYL (MAXIROOTS + MIGHTY OAK CREW + QUOOB)

Playlists of student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r’n’b and urban in the back room.

DubCombe Records meet Mighty Oak Soundsystem for a night of dub, dubstep and reggae selections.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:30–03:00, FREE (£2.50 AFTER 12)

POTTERROW, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

STROBE

Sprawling party night spread across four rooms with a main room of house and electro beats, bolstered by a UV Room, a Photobooth Room and a Mixology Room.

JACQUES GREEN

THE CAVES, 23:00–03:00, £8

The Montreal man of the moment mans the decks for the evening, celebrating new releases on both LuckyMe and Night Slugs.

Fri 07 Nov MISFITS

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3 MEMBERS)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

THE BIG CHEESE!

Saturday fun night playing selections of pop, dance and cheese hits.

First 100 go free.

TEESH (LORD OF THE ISLES)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

DJ Cheers – frequent flyer at many a Sneaky’s night – finally gets his own show on the road, this edition welcoming Lord Of The Isles for a guest set.

NIGHTVISION: JOY ORBISON + BODDIKA + LEVON VINCENT

THE LIQUID ROOM, 21:00–03:00, £12.50 EARLYBIRD (£15-£20 THEREAFTER)

Inaugural Edinburgh club series Nightvision pitch up with a triple whammy of a bill, with Joy Orbison and his long-term collaborator Boddika holing up for the evening with New York lad Levon Vincent.

That do you?

Sun 09 Nov COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs.

MISFITS

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Weekly selection of dance bangers, played out by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

ROUTE 66

Student fun night spinning motown, blues, hip-hop and funkstyled dancing tunes.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines – with special guest MssingNo playing a rare guest slot.

Thu 13 Nov I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident i AM young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up mix of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Mumbo Jumbo’s Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin, bolstered by Tall Paul’s vintage selections.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Playlists of student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r’n’b and urban in the back room.

STROBE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2.50 AFTER 12)

Sprawling party night spread across four rooms with a main room of house and electro beats, bolstered by a UV Room, a Photobooth Room and a Mixology Room.

SHANGRILA (LE YOUTH)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5

Unique night with décor inspired by various festivals across the globe, this edition welcoming Los Angeles producer Le Youth to the decks.

Pop and rock gems, taking in motown, 80s classics and plenty danceable fare (well, the Beep Beep, Yeah! crew are on decks after all).

ETON MESSY (BLONDE + ISAAC TICHAUER + JUST KIDDIN)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:00–03:00, £12 (£10)

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

The house music collective bring some of their mainstays to town.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

THE CUCKOO’S NEST, 21:00–01:00, FREE

FOUR CORNERS

Soulful dancing fodder, from deep funk to reggae beats with your regular DJ hosts.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

MJÖLK

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 11.30)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

SOUL JAM HOT

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£5 AFTER 12)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Fri 14 Nov

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo, with NYC chappie Anthony Naples dropping by for a guest set of raw dance tunes.

Occasional night playing the finest in Swedish indie pop, plus 60s, 70s and independent tunes from near and far.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

BEEP BEEP, YEAH!

POP ROCKS! ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

DR NO’S

JUICE (ANTHONY NAPLES) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

FLY

A powerhouse of local residents take over Cab Vol, joined by a selection of guest talent.

PARADIGM

THE MASH HOUSE, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Fledgling experimental night set across three floors of the sprawling Mash House space, subverting the senses via DJ sets, film screenings, live performance, installations and sound.

IN DEEP (LORCA + HOUSE OF TRAPS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

The In Deep champs welcome a double dose of guest action: Lorca and House of Traps.

NIGHTVISION: BONDAX AND FRIENDS

LA BELLE ANGELE, 21:00–03:00, £12 EARLYBIRD (£14-£16 THEREAFTER)

Inaugural Edinburgh club series Nightvision hand over the reins to boundary crossing teenage duo Bondax, currently out on their national tour.

FANGUARD

Fledgling grassroots night pitched at indie grown-ups who dream about going dancing but don’t want to stay out too late – taking in indie-pop, post-punk, new wave and the like.

THE BIG CHEESE!

POTTERROW, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

Saturday fun night playing selections of pop, dance and cheese hits.

First 100 go free.

Sun 16 Nov COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs. THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Art School institution with DJs Chris and Jake playing the finest in indie, garage, soul and punk – now taking up a monthly Saturday slot, in what is their 20-somethingth year.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

BIG ‘N’ BASHY

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 AFTER 12)

Mighty mix of reggae, grime, dubstep and jungle played out by inimitable residents Brother Most Righteous, Skillis, Era and Deburgh.

GASOLINE DANCE MACHINE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

More classic Italo and straight-up boogie allied with contemporary house and disco, as Edinburgh’s GDM crew do their thing.

TORTURE GARDEN

THE CAVES, 21:00–03:00, £18

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.

WASABI DISCO

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

Heady bout of cosmic house, punk upside-down disco and, er, Fleetwood Mac with yer man Kris ‘Wasabi’ Walker.

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up mix of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Mumbo Jumbo’s Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin, bolstered by Tall Paul’s vintage selections.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Playlists of student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r’n’b and urban in the back room.

STROBE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2.50 AFTER 12)

Aisling Murphy holds the fort in the cafe playing a batch of sweet soulful beats.

GOLDFISH

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £10 (£8)

Party night playing selections of electro swing meets house.

Mon 17 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightener playing hip-hop, r’n’b and good ol’ chart classics, with requests in the back room.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs.

Tue 18 Nov HIVE TUESDAYS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

SOUL JAM HOT

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be, joined by a selection of guest performers and DJs. HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

Wed 19 Nov COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

CHAMPION SOUND

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

Midweek celebration of all things dub, jungle, reggae, dancehall and everything inbetween.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £6

Weekly selection of dance bangers, played out by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

ROUTE 66

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 12)

Student fun night spinning motown, blues, hip-hop and funkstyled dancing tunes.

POCKET ACES CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Dance-inducing party with an anything goes attitude and rotating schedule of guest DJs. CIRQUE DU SOUL (DJ EZ)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, FROM £8

The newcomers from down south put on their first show in Scotland.

Expect summat special.

THE BIG CHEESE!

POTTERROW, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

Saturday fun night playing selections of pop, dance and cheese hits.

First 100 go free.

DEFINITION: 7TH BIRTHDAY

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

Mark Balneaves and Martin Lightbody play some of the finest underground house and techno around, keeping things as per for their 7th birthday celebrations.

NIGHTVISION: ANNIE MAC PRESENTS... (HANNAH WANTS + TOURIST + LXURY + MONKI)

CORN EXCHANGE, 21:00–03:00, £17.50 EARLYBIRD (£20-£22.50 THEREAFTER)

Sprawling party night spread across four rooms with a main room of house and electro beats, bolstered by a UV Room, a Photobooth Room and a Mixology Room.

Inaugural Edinburgh club series Nightvision hand over the reins to Radio 1 lass Annie Mac, out on the road with her AMP tour.

Fri 21 Nov

Sun 23 Nov

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

MISFITS

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

WEEK’S END

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

THE EGG

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident i AM young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

TEASE AGE

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern tunes.

I AM EDINBURGH

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Sat 15 Nov

Thu 20 Nov

PLANET EARTH

THE CLUB

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

WEEK’S END

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Aisling Murphy holds the fort in the cafe playing a batch of sweet soulful beats.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

PROPAGANDA

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

FLY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

A powerhouse of local residents take over Cab Vol, joined by a selection of guest talent.

THE DARK ROOM

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5

COALITION (MOXIE)

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs, this edition joined by Radio 1’s ‘In New DJs We Trust’ star, Moxie.

Mon 24 Nov MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Dark psytrance-styled night, featuring a batch of DJs from various Scottish tribes.

Monday-brightener playing hip-hop, r’n’b and good ol’ chart classics, with requests in the back room.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

CONFUSION

All-new spin-off night from the Confusion is Sex peeps, placing its focus on bringing in guest DJs, MCs and live acts from outside Edinburgh.

DIVE: UNTAMED

SUMMERHALL, 21:00–02:00, £12 (£10)

Queer party night flaunting its eclectic wares across a packed programme of music, drag, live art and performance – now in their fitting new home of Summerhall’s Animal Hospital space.

COCO LOCO (REUBEN LOWE + DOWZER)

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Electric new addition to the Edinburgh nightlife scene, with DJs Reuben Lowe and Dowzer playing a reliably eccentric mix.

NU FIRE

DJ Fusion and Beef move from hip-hop to bass with a plethora of live MCs. KYGO

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:00–03:00, £17 (£15)

Young producer from Norway gradually nudging his way into the mainstream.

Tue 25 Nov HIVE TUESDAYS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fresh mix of funk, soul and boogie from The Players Association team.

I LOVE HIP HOP

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

Weekly selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be, joined by a selection of guest performers and DJs.

Sat 22 Nov

The HH crew serve up their usual fine mix of electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

Wed 26 Nov

IN DEEP: ONE NIGHT STAND

The In Deep champs morph into a special showcase night for Cheap Picasso, Eyemen The Zoo and guests.

TEASE AGE

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4

COOKIE

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern tunes.

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

WITNESS

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of house, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

SOULSVILLE

Swinging soul spanning a whole century, with DJs Tsatsu and Fryer.

POP TARTS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Pop and rock gems spun by DJs from Electric Circus’ Saturday club nights, including Magic Nostalgic, Beep Beep, Yeah! and Pop Rocks.

CHAMPION SOUND

Midweek celebration of all things dub, jungle, reggae, dancehall and everything inbetween.

TRIBE

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4 MEMBERS)

Weekly selection of dance bangers, played out by residents Khalid Count Clockwork and Craig Wilson.

THE SKINNY

ROUTE 66

BUBBLEGUM

ASYLUM

MASK

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£1 AFTER 12)

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

FAT SAM’S, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£5)

Student fun night spinning motown, blues, hip-hop and funkstyled dancing tunes.

Thu 27 Nov I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident i AM young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

JUICE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Pumped Thursday nighter playing a mighty mix of everything from Hud Mo to Fly Mo. HULLABALOO

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Mash-up mix of beats, breaks and hip-hop from Mumbo Jumbo’s Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin, bolstered by Tall Paul’s vintage selections.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Playlists of student-friendly chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, r’n’b and urban in the back room.

STROBE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2.50 AFTER 12)

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

MAGIC NOSTALGIC

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£8 AFTER 12)

A hodgepodge of quality tracks chosen by JP’s spinning wheel Ð expect anything from 90s rave to power ballads, amidst a whole lotta one-hit wonders.

RIDE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

POCKET ACES

CREATURES OF HABIT

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 11.30)

House, tech-house and techno from resident DJs Peter Annand and Jack Swift.

ELECTRIKAL SOUND SYSTEM (MIKE SKINNER)

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

The Electrikal bunch return for their monthly outing, this time bolstered by The Streets’ Mike Skinner dropping by to play a 60-minute set.

CIRCUS LATES

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 12)

Venue takeover offering up a carnival of activities including cover bands, live DJs, karaoke, cocktail mixing and free popcorn!

KAPITAL: 7TH BIRTHDAY (JON HOPKINS + NATHAN FAKE)

THE CAVES, 23:00–03:00, £15

The Kapital crew take to their regular cavernous setting in celebration of their 7th birthday, marking the special occasion with two guest purveyors of UK wonky techno: Jon Hopkins and Nathan Fake.

NOTSOSILENT (MOSCA)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

Belch and crew bring the best in underground house, joined on the night by guest DJ Mosca and his deep house selections.

NIGHTVISION: GORGON CITY ALBUM TOUR

LA BELLE ANGELE, 21:00–03:00, £15 EARLYBIRD (£17.50-£22.50 THEREAFTER)

Inaugural Edinburgh club series Nightvision play host to fledgling electronic talent Gorgon City, hitting up Edinburgh as part of their worldwide Sirens album tour.

Fri 28 Nov

VANISHING PEOPLE (SMALL FEET LITTLE TOES + LORRAINE MC CAULEY + NICOLA MADILL) BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £4

Wed 05 Nov

JAMES GILCHRIST + ANNA TILBROOK

MARRYAT HALL, 19:30–22:00, £14

Five-piece alternative rock unit riding along on the captivating vocals of Ashley Christie.

Tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook reinterpret songs by Grieg, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Loewe, Wolf, and Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Glasgow Tue 04 Nov

Sat 15 Nov

Hard-riffing Scottish trio, whose impressive sound has been honed to perfection (i.e. they sound bloody massive live), out airing their first LP in four years.

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Mon 10 Nov

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLE

THE BIG CHEESE!

POTTERROW, 22:00–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

JACKHAMMER (DJ ROLANDO)

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £8

The Jackhammer crew provide our dose of all things techno, joined by night favourite DJ Rolando.

REDD, 22:30–02:30, £2 (£3 AFTER 12)

SPEKTRUM

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £TBC

Showcase night for electronic DJs and producers from across the globe, with guests being kept under wraps for now.

MASK

FAT SAM’S, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£5)

Classy club takeover snaking its way across four rooms, with a VIP lounge to boot.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

NIGHTVISION: KINK + NEVILLE WATSON + KIRK DOUGLAS

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

LA BELLE ANGELE, 21:00–03:00, £10 EARLYBIRD (£12-£15 THEREAFTER)

Thu 20 Nov

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly cross-genre of bass from a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs. THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle.

WEEK’S END

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Aisling Murphy holds the fort in the cafe playing a batch of sweet soulful beats.

Dundee Clubs Thu 06 Nov ROOM THURSDAYS

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £4

Thursday nighter – as the name would suggest – promising to play anything and everything ‘good’.

Fri 07 Nov

HEADWAY (ROBERT HOOD)

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £10 EARYBIRD (£12-£15 THEREAFTER)

The Headway crew welcome Detroit minimal techno innovator Robert Hood (aka Floorplan) for a deck takeover.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as they go.

Sat 08 Nov COOKIN’ SESSIONS

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £TBC

CITRUS CLUB , 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

FAT SAM’S, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£5)

November 2014

Dundee Music

THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£7 AFTER 12)

TEASE AGE

Long-running indie, rock and soul night, traversing the spectrum of classic and modern tunes.

FAT SAM’S, 19:00–22:00, £27.50

The English electronic singer/ songwriter (aka Elliot John Gleave) tours his latest LP, Live Life Living.

MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM

Special Reading Rooms sessions night catering for all your dance music needs, with bespoke visuals to boot.

Sat 29 Nov

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as they go.

EXAMPLE

Sat 08 Nov

Sun 30 Nov

A powerhouse of local residents take over Cab Vol, joined by a selection of guest talent.

WARPED

Wed 26 Nov

WHAT MATTERS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

FLY (BEN PEARCE + THEO KOTTIS)

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £TBC

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

The inimitable Kunt sings his way through a variety of obscene subjects, taking in such hits as Fucksticks and Use My Arsehole As A Cunt. Nice.

Showcase night for Dundee’s fledgling DJ talent, playing handpicked selections of techno and house.

Student-orientated night playing the best in new and classic indie music.

PROPAGANDA

PHAZED

Classy club takeover snaking its way across four rooms, with a VIP lounge to boot.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7/6/5

Dance-inducing party with an anything goes attitude and rotating schedule of guest DJs.

Inaugural Edinburgh club series Nightvision pitch up with a triple whammy of a bill, with Bulgarianbased producer KiNK making merry alongside Neville Watson and Kirk Douglas.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Fri 14 Nov

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

MADCHESTER

Saturday fun night playing selections of pop, dance and cheese hits. First 100 go free.

PLANET EARTH

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £4

Thursday nighter – as the name would suggest – promising to play anything and everything ‘good’.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 23:00–03:00, £6

Fri 28 Nov Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

ROOM THURSDAYS

The Ride girls play hip-hop and dance, all night long – now in their new party-ready Saturday night slot.

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger soundsystem.

MISFITS

Thu 13 Nov

Two of Dundee’s younger veterans – Teddy Hannan and Correlate & George – come together to create a new addition to the Reading Rooms roster: welcome Phazed!

Sprawling party night spread across four rooms with a main room of house and electro beats, bolstered by a UV Room, a Photobooth Room and a Mixology Room.

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

KUNT AND THE GANG BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £6

MASK

Classy club takeover snaking its way across four rooms, with a VIP lounge to boot.

ROOM THURSDAYS

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £4

Thursday nighter – as the name would suggest – promising to play anything and everything ‘good’.

Fri 21 Nov

SOOM T (JSTAR + DISORDA + MISS DLOVE)

READING ROOMS, 21:30–02:30, £TBC

Eclectic lyrical Glaswegian known for her many and varied vocal collaborations, encompassing 50+ releases since 1999.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as they go.

Sat 22 Nov LOCARNO

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £TBC

Rockabilly, doo-wop, soul and all things golden age and danceable with the Locarno regulars.

MASK

FAT SAM’S, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£5)

Classy club takeover snaking its way across four rooms, with a VIP lounge to boot.

ASYLUM

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative tunes to get your Saturday night movin’.

Thu 27 Nov ROOM THURSDAYS

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £4

Thursday nighter – as the name would suggest – promising to play anything and everything ‘good’.

Fri 28 Nov KLIK (SUNIL SHARPE)

READING ROOMS, 22:30–02:30, £TBC

The fledgling KLiK troops draft in Irish mash-up technohead Sunil Sharpe for a dancefloor-destroying guest set.

WARPED

KAGE, 23:00–03:00, £4

Ska, screamo and pop-punk offerings now in a weekly Friday slot, moving from Alkaline Trio to Zebrahead as they go.

Sat 29 Nov BOOK CLUB

READING ROOMS, 21:00–02:30, £TBC

The Good Stuff DJs spin all genres of disco house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy.

THE XCERTS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £8

TONY WRIGHT

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £9

The Terrorvision frontman takes to the road with his new solo acoustic project.

Thu 13 Nov

RSNO: OUNDJIAN AND BENEDETTI

CAIRD HALL, 19:30–22:00, £16 (£12.50)

Programme of orchestral classics, as Peter Oundjian plays Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Nicola Benedetti re-joins the RSNO to play Shostakovich’s tense political thriller of a violin concerto.

Fri 14 Nov THE RUTS DC

BUSKERS, 19:30–22:00, £15

Reggae-influenced punk-rockers, formed in 1981 after The Ruts demise, playing a rare Scottish outing.

HUE AND CRY

FAT SAM’S, 19:30–22:00, £23.50

The Coatbridge duo take to a live setting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Remote, as well as the arrival of new LP, Remote: Major To Minor.

Sat 15 Nov JOHN MAYALL

CAIRD HALL, 19:30–22:00, £29.50 (£27.50)

The blues legend is still going strong years after launching his pioneering band The Bluesbreakers, out and celebrating his 80th anniversary.

JONAS WOOLF (DA GENERAL + SCOTT WILLIAMS + HANNAH LAING)

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:30–02:30, £8

Edinburgh-based disco and hiphop influenced tech-house DJ/ producer, playing as part of the This Is Techno Live all-nighter.

Thu 20 Nov

TUFF LOVE (WOZNIAK + LUNA WEBSTER)

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £5

Female-fronted trio of the fuzzy lo-fi guitar pop variety, built on wispy soft vocals and loud instruments.

Fri 21 Nov

THE COCKNEY REJECTS (THE EDDIES + THE CUNDEEZ) BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, 20:00–23:00, £14

English punk rock band behind the song Oi Oi Oi – you could say they named an entire generation of music.

Sat 22 Nov

PICNIC BASKET NOSEDIVE

NON-ZERO’S, 19:30–23:00, £5 ADV. (£6 DOOR)

Balloch and Dumbarton-straddling pop-punk noisemakers who describe their sound as ‘shitey mosher music’, which is nice.

RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Wed 05 Nov THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£4)

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 NIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

Thu 06 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DYLAN MORAN + QUINCY + MC MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

VESPBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

WEST BREWERY COMEDY CLUB

WEST, 20:30–22:30, £7

Jamie Dalgleish comperes WEST’s night of live stand-up, headlined

by Gary Little and his gossipy brand of Glasgow banter.

Comedy THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

Sun 09 Nov SCOTT CAPURRO: ISLAMOHOMOPHOBIA

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

The San Franciscan comic does his deliberately provocative thing, taking in gay marriage, his third mid-life crisis and the Koran.

JAMES ACASTER: RECOGNISE

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £10

VIKKI STONE: INSTRUMENTAL

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

The award-winning comedian uses a collection of blagged, stolen and borrowed musical instruments – some she can play well, others not so well – to underscore her comedy tale of love, loss and music.

Tue 11 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Wed 12 Nov

BBC COMEDY PRESENTS...

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £4

BBC-selected sketch comedy showcase where handpicked new acts get their chance to shine – with each performed getting a quickfire 5-10 minutes on stage.

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

Thu 13 Nov

Longrunning comedy club the Gilded Balloon hit up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Sat 08 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DYLAN MORAN + QUINCY + MC MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

Sun 16 Nov

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

MIRANDA SINGS

CITY HALLS, 19:00–21:00, FROM £22

The Youtube sensation attempts to find out whether people will find her as watchable in the flesh by going on tour.

Mon 17 Nov THE COLOUR HAM

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£3)

Three-man sketch project built on character comedy, mentalism and magic – we’re talking contacting your dead pets, re-enacting your first kiss, and rewriting Pinocchio through the medium of a military crotch.

Tue 18 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Wed 19 Nov

VESPBAR VIRGINS

Comedy fundraiser for Freedom From Torture, a charity providing clinical services to survivors of torture who arrive in the UK.

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 14 Nov

LAUGHTER EIGHT

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 19:30–21:30, £15

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Bad taste director John Waters leads a spoken laughathon taking in stories of childhood and early influences, through to his Hollywood highlights and (hopefully) some Divine reminiscing. Part of Glasgay!

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (ROB ROUSE + RUSSELL HICKS + CHRIS FORBES + MC SCOTT AGNEW)

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KARL SPAIN + DIANE SPENCER + MC KEVIN SHEPHERD)

JOHN WATERS: THIS FILTHY WORLD VOL. 2

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (KARL SPAIN + DIANE SPENCER + MC KEVIN SHEPHERD)

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

VESPBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

Sat 15 Nov

Mon 10 Nov

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

Longrunning comedy club the Gilded Balloon hit up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

Fri 07 Nov

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 22:00–00:00, £15

The two-time Edinburgh Comedy Award ‘Best Show’ nominee hits town with his new show, promising another evening of riotous storytelling and awkward physicality.

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DYLAN MORAN + QUINCY + MC MARTIN MOR)

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (MARCEL LUCONT + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + GARETH WAUGH + MC RAY BRADSHAW)

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:00, £25

THE FRIDAY SHOW (KARL SPAIN + DIANE SPENCER + MC KEVIN SHEPHERD) THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

BENEFIT FOR FREEDOM FROM TORTURE

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £5

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

Thu 20 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + DAVE WARD + MC STU MURPHY)

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

VESPBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Fri 21 Nov

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + DAVE WARD + MC STU MURPHY)

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (ROMESH RANGANATHAN + STEVE SHANYASKI + BEC HILL + MC MICKEY DWYER) DRYGATE BREWING CO., 19:30–21:30, £15

Longrunning comedy club the Gilded Balloon hit up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Sat 22 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAN NIGHTINGALE + DAVE WARD + MC STU MURPHY)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

Sun 23 Nov

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

Mon 24 Nov BRIGHT CLUB

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £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.

Tue 25 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

THE TUESDAY NEWS REVIEW

VESPBAR, 20:30–22:30, £5

All new comedy/satire from the folks behind the Referendum Review Show, dissecting local, national and internation newsÉ and the people who make it.

Wed 26 Nov JOHN BISHOP

THE SSE HYDRO, 20:00–22:00, £30

The marketing director turned comedian takes to the road with his new tour of confessionalstyled stand-up.

DYLAN MORAN: A WORK IN PROGRESS

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12

Still much loved for 00s comedy sitcom Black Books, Mr Moran takes to The Stand for a special ‘work in progress’ preview performance.

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering, yes, all new material.

Thu 27 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + STEVE SHANYASKI + MC RAYMON MEARNS) THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

VESPBAR VIRGINS

VESPBAR, 21:00–22:30, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Listings

61

Fri 28 Nov

Fri 07 Nov

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + STEVE SHANYASKI + MC RAYMON MEARNS)

COMEDYDOO (JELLYBEAN MARTINEZ + JONNY THOMSON + ROBIN GRAINGER)

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10 STUDENTS/£6 MEMBERS)

THE WHITE HORSE, 20:00–22:00, £5

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

GILDED BALLOON COMEDY @ DRYGATE (MARK NELSON + SEAN PERCIVAL + LARRY DEAN + MC BY RAY BRADSHAW)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., 22:00–00:00, £15

Longrunning comedy club the Gilded Balloon hit up Drygate for a new residency, combing the joys of a craft brewery setting with a rotating schedule of live comedy talent.

Sat 29 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + STEVE SHANYASKI + MC RAYMON MEARNS) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE 10 O’CLOCK SHOW

VESPBAR, 22:00–23:45, £10

Fresh line-up of fledgling comedic talent, topped off with a national headline act and a jovial compere.

MEN WITH COCONUTS

THE GRANARY, 20:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Fringe favourites Improv FX – made up of West End actors, physical comedians and musicians – stage their fast-paced sketch show, inspired wholly by audience suggestions.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (PHIL NICHOL + MICHAEL LEGG + MC STU MURPHY)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12/£10

Sun 30 Nov

HARDEEP SINGH KOHLI: HARDEEP IS YOUR LOVE

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

The broadcaster, writer and Celebrity Masterchef finalist takes his latest show on the road, with extra points for a puntastic title, obvs.

Edinburgh Tue 04 Nov

RICHARD MELVIN PRESENTS... 4 EXTRA STANDS UP

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, FREE (BUT TICKETED)

Funnyman Richard Melvin presents a recording of a new episode of 4 Extra Stands Up, featuring sets from some of the UK’s best comics.

GRASSROOTS COMEDY

THE PLEASANCE, 20:00–23:00, £1

Showcase night featuring the best in fresh, local talent – bringing together first-time and upand-coming comics in a series of quickfire 10-minute slots. In the Cabaret Bar.

Wed 05 Nov

THE BROKEN WINDOWS POLICY

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4)

More fast-paced and anarchic skits and character comedy from The Stand’s resident sketch comedy troupe and their special guests.

Thu 06 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (PHIL NICHOL + MICHAEL LEGG + MC STU MURPHY) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

62

Listings

THE MELTING POT

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4 STUDENTS/£2.50 MEMBERS)

Series of comedy sketches picked by the audience and performed by a varying troupe of actors and musicians.

LEE MACK: HIT THE ROAD MACK

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 20:00–22:00, £28.50

Thu 13 Nov

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

THE IMPROVERTS

BEDLAM THEATRE, 22:30–23:30, £5 (£4.50)

Long-standing improv comedy troupe made up of an everchanging line-up of local students, whose rather fine show is built entirely on (oft daft) audience suggestions.

FLANDERS AND SWANN: AT THE DROP OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 19:00–22:00, FROM £17.50

Sat 08 Nov

The pop culture-obsessed Canadian does her solo thing, deft at taking the things in life that make us bitter and turning them into humourous skits.

Wed 12 Nov

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

VESPBAR, 20:00–21:30, £8

KATHERINE RYAN: GLAM ROLE MODEL

The multi-award winning comic takes to the road for his first live tour in over four years, trademark high energy banter and sharp oneliners all well and in place.

The multi-award winning comic takes to the road for his first live tour in over four years, trademark high energy banter and sharp oneliners all well and in place.

Tim and Duncan return following their Edinburgh Fringe run, featuring the songs and wit of those 50s/60s masters of mayhem, Flanders and Swann.

All-new comedy slot for Vespbar kicking off at, aye, 8pm – manned by a selection of hot talent form the local circuit.

GRASSROOTS COMEDY THE PLEASANCE, 20:00–23:00, £1

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Your weekend host Viv Gee introduces a mixed bag of new talent, topped off with a bigger name headline act.

LAUGHTER EIGHT

LEE MACK: HIT THE ROAD MACK THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, 20:00–22:00, £28.50

THE SATURDAY SHOW (PHIL NICHOL + MICHAEL LEGG + MC STU MURPHY) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

Sun 09 Nov

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase manned by resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond and his guests.

THE IMPOSSIBLE QUIZ

THE AULD HOOSE, 20:00–22:30, £1 (TEAMS OF 4)

Comedy-styled pub quiz where not only are the questions really difficult, some of the answers are entirely subjective and the quizmaster hates you.

Mon 10 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Tue 11 Nov JASON COOK: BROKEN

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

Award-winning comedian, writer, creator and star of BBC2’s Hebburn and Radio 4’s Jason Cook’s School of Hard Knocks returns with a show about, well, being broken.

Poor chap.

GRASSROOTS COMEDY

THE PLEASANCE, 20:00–23:00, £1

Showcase night featuring the best in fresh, local talent – bringing together first-time and upand-coming comics in a series of quickfire 10-minute slots. In the Cabaret Bar.

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAVID FULTON + RIA LINA + MC BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Showcase night featuring the best in fresh, local talent – bringing together first-time and upand-coming comics in a series of quickfire 10-minute slots. In the Cabaret Bar. THE SPEAKEASY (SAM SMALL + THE CREATIVE MARTYRS + ELEANOR UPDALE + BRAM E. GIEBEN)

SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, 20:00–22:00, £6

Monthly spoken-word show of the rather ace variety, featuring a feastful of writers, comedians and musicians telling (mostly) true stories.

Wed 19 Nov WORK IN PROGRESS

SUMMERHALL, 19:30–21:30, £3

Comics from the Work in Progress crew (made up of Daniel Sloss, Kai Humphries and special guests) try out a selection of all-new material.

Be gentle on ‘em.

Thu 20 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + DYLAN MORAN + SUZI RUFFELL + MC SCOTT AGNEW) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Fri 14 Nov

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

THE GRANARY, 20:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Fri 21 Nov

MEN WITH COCONUTS

Fringe favourites Improv FX – made up of West End actors, physical comedians and musicians – stage their fast-paced sketch show, inspired wholly by audience suggestions.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAVID FULTON + RIA LINA + MC BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

THE IMPROVERTS

BEDLAM THEATRE, 22:30–23:30, £5 (£4.50)

Long-standing improv comedy troupe made up of an everchanging line-up of local students, whose rather fine show is built entirely on (oft daft) audience suggestions.

Sat 15 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAVID FULTON + RIA LINA + MC BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

Sun 16 Nov

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

VIKKI STONE: INSTRUMENTAL

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

The award-winning comedian uses a collection of blagged, stolen and borrowed musical instruments – some she can play well, others not so well – to underscore her comedy tale of love, loss and music.

Mon 17 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Tue 18 Nov

BENEFIT FOR FIRST STEP

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £5

Comedy fundraiser for First Step, a community project for families with young children based in Musselburgh.

MEN WITH COCONUTS

THE GRANARY, 20:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Fringe favourites Improv FX – made up of West End actors, physical comedians and musicians – stage their fast-paced sketch show, inspired wholly by audience suggestions.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + DYLAN MORAN + SUZI RUFFELL + MC SCOTT AGNEW)

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

THE IMPROVERTS

BEDLAM THEATRE, 22:30–23:30, £5 (£4.50)

Long-standing improv comedy troupe made up of an everchanging line-up of local students, whose rather fine show is built entirely on (oft daft) audience suggestions.

Sat 22 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + DYLAN MORAN + SUZI RUFFELL + MC SCOTT AGNEW) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

Sun 23 Nov

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£1 MEMBERS)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-to-work blues.

Mon 24 Nov RED RAW

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, bolstered by a selection of old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Tue 25 Nov BRIGHT CLUB

THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £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.

GRASSROOTS COMEDY

THE PLEASANCE, 20:00–23:00, £1

Showcase night featuring the best in fresh, local talent – bringing together first-time and upand-coming comics in a series of quickfire 10-minute slots. In the Cabaret Bar.

Wed 26 Nov

THE BEST OF SCOTTISH COMEDY

Dundee Fri 07 Nov

JONGLEURS COMEDY CLUB

DUNDEE REP, 20:00–22:00, £12

The famed comedy club hits Dundee for its monthly outing, joined by three comics, a compere and a whole lorra laughs.

Fri 14 Nov

CRAIG HILL: GIVE HIM AN INCH...

DUNDEE REP, 19:30–22:00, £17.50 (£12.50)

The cheeky chappie brings his new show to Dundee, presented in his usual live and unleashed manner.

Thu 27 Nov

THE THURSDAY SHOW (GARY LITTLE + LLOYD LANGFORD + MC MRS BARBARA NICE) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£7 STUDENTS/£5 MEMBERS)

Glasgow CCA SKIERLIK

30 OCT – 6 NOV, NOT 2 NOV, 3 NOV, 4 NOV, 5 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Philip Dikoltla’s award-winning play revisiting the horror of a racially-motivated shooting spree that devastated the remote settlement of Skierlik in 2008.

THE BANSHEE LABYRINTH, 20:00–22:00, £DONATION

13–15 NOV, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)

POETS AGAINST HUMANITY

Three comedic contestants attempt to tear poetry a new one, in a live panel show variation on Cards Against Humanity.

Fri 28 Nov MEN WITH COCONUTS

THE GRANARY, 20:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Fringe favourites Improv FX – made up of West End actors, physical comedians and musicians – stage their fast-paced sketch show, inspired wholly by audience suggestions.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (GARY LITTLE + LLOYD LANGFORD + MC MRS BARBARA NICE) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £12 (£10 STUDENT/£6 MEMBERS)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

THE IMPROVERTS

BEDLAM THEATRE, 22:30–23:30, £5 (£4.50)

Long-standing improv comedy troupe made up of an everchanging line-up of local students, whose rather fine show is built entirely on (oft daft) audience suggestions.

Sat 29 Nov

THE SATURDAY SHOW (GARY LITTLE + LLOYD LANGFORD + MC MRS BARBARA NICE) THE STAND, 21:00–23:00, £15

CRYPTIC NIGHTS: THESE DELICATE THINGS

Cryptic’s Josh Armstrong returns with his new multi-disciplinary piece inspired by the life of photographer Francesca Woodman, accompanied by Gavin Bryars’ String Quartet No.2 and Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.15.

Citizens Theatre KILL JOHNNY GLENDENNING

22 OCT – 8 NOV, NOT 26 OCT, 27 OCT, 2 NOV, 3 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £8.50

Murderous comedy of the Glasgow underworld, taking aim at the tabloid celebrity and macho glamour of the gangster life. Matinee performances also available (Sat, 2pm).

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 29 NOV AND 3 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The Christmas staple takes to the stage thanks to an adaptation

by Citizens Theatre and director Dominic Hill, starring everyone from Scrooge to Tiny Tim. Bah humbug, etc. Matinee and Schools performances also available.

SLOPE

12–22 NOV, NOT 16, 17, 21, TIMES VARY, £12 (£8.50)

Untitled Projects exploration of the love affair between 19th century poets, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, and its impact on Verlaine’s young wife Mathilde – originally produced in 2006, and returning for a revived run.

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

MOSCOW BALLET LA CLASSIQUE: NUTCRACKER

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

16 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £19.50

BEEHIVE INN, 20:30–22:30, £7

The Arches

THE BEEHIVE COMEDY CLUB

Regular weekend comedy showcase featuring a selection of up-and-coming acts from Scotland and beyond, topped with a guest headliner. Check their Facebook page on the day for line-ups.

Sun 30 Nov

ROCK AND ROLL PING PONG

THE BONGO CLUB, 19:00–23:00, FREE

The It’s Funtime jokers present a free, fun, table tennis evening with a comedy bent, bolstered by dancing discs from DJ Ding Dong (ahem).

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND, 13:30–15:30, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from offthe-cuff audience suggestions.

KATHERINE RYAN: GLAM ROLE MODEL

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £12 (£10)

The pop culture-obsessed Canadian does her solo thing, deft at taking the things in life that make us bitter and turning them into humourous skits.

THE CIRCUS OF HORRORS: THE NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIE 25 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £13

Whirlwind of contortionists, flying aerialists, demon dwarfs, sword swallowers, and any other weird thing you can think of – yep, it’s The Circus of Horrors, out and celebrating their 20th anniversary with a zombie-themed special.

The SSE Hydro THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

28–29 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

THE STAND, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5 STUDENTS/£3 MEMBERS)

A selection of top comics from the contemporary Scottish circuit do their thing, aye.

Theatre

With festive season officially nigh, Moscow Ballet present their reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s fairytale dance classic.

INCORRUPTIBLE FLESH: MESSIANIC REMAINS

11–12 NOV, 7:30PM – 9:30PM, £15 (£10)

The fourth installation in the Incorruptible Flesh series, with tattooed performer Ron Athey exploring the continuation of his own post-AIDS body.

The King’s Theatre BLOOD BROTHERS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 28 OCT AND 15 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £10

The favourited musical tale of separated-at-birth twins who grow up on opposite sides of the tracks. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 AND 22 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £10

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary rock classic returns to the stage.

ERIC AND LITTLE ERN

24 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY

Jeff Wayne’s musical version of the HG Wells novel tours for what will be its final arena swansong.

Theatre Royal

RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY

11 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £13.50

Richard Alston Dance Company return with a handpicked programme of goodies, featuring four works including Alston’s much-praised classic Overdrive.

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S BLACK COFFEE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 3 NOV AND 22 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

New adaptation of Agatha Christie’s first play, focusing on a character who went on to become the most famous detective of all time and the only fictional character to receive a full-page obituary in the New York Times – Hercule Poirot!

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

19–29 NOV, NOT 23, 24, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The Tim Burton classic is given a resplendent makeover courtesy of renowned choreographer Matthew Bourne. And some shiny scissor hands.

JEEVES AND WOOSTER: PERFECT NONESENSE

24–29 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £10

James Lance stars in this new play adapted from the works of P.G. Wodehouse, with a trip to the countryside soon taking a turn for the absurd.

Tron Theatre THE GAMBLERS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 5 AND 8 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

New all-female version of Gogol’s classic play, in which the women gamble, hustle, cheat, drink, swear, sing and dance. And never apologise for it.

MIRACLE ON 34 PARNIE STREET

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 28 NOV AND 4 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £9

The Tron’s annual irreverent festive panto, this time set in a department store and featuring a – shock horror! – female Santa who claims to be the bona fide Santa Claus herself.

COLQUHOUN & MACBRYDE

29 OCT – 8 NOV, NOT 2 NOV, 3 NOV, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, FROM £8

John Byrne’s two-handed telling of the story of Scottish artists Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, crackling with fine art and foul profanities as one would expect.

Edinburgh Assembly Roxy HOPELESSLY DEVOTED

24–25 NOV, 7:30PM – 8:45PM, £15.50 (£12.50)

Following her debut Wasted and the follow-up Brand New Ancients, Mercury Prize nominee Kate Tempest returns to the stage with Hopelessly Devoted – a prison-set story of love and redemption, told with her trademark lyrical fireworks.

Festival Theatre

SCOTTISH OPERA: LA CENERENTOLA

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 AND 22 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £10

New production of the classic rags to riches Cinderella tale, set to Rossini’s sparkling score.

GRUPO CORPO 4 NOV, 5 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £12.50

Acclaimed Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo return to Edinburgh, filling the stage with a 22-strong ensemble of dancers who combine the precision of classical ballet with the sensuality of Latin dance rhythms.

RAMBERT DANCE COMPANY: ROOSTER

27–29 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £13.50

Christopher Bruce’s electrifying celebration of the swinging 60s set to music by the Rolling Stones, making a much anticipated return after a 13-year absence from the stage.

King’s Theatre THE KITE RUNNER

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 10 AND 15 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £14

Matthew Spangler presents a reworking of the epic novel by Khaled Hosseini – a tale spanning cultures and continents, telling the story of two motherless boys in Kabul and an event that will tear their worlds apart.

ALADDIN

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 29 NOV AND 18 JAN, TIMES VARY, FROM £14

Your annual opportunity to boo Grant Stott, who returns in the King’s festive panto offering as the evil genie in Aladdin. Matinee performances also available.

DREAMBOATS AND MINISKIRTS

3–8 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £14

60s-set musical singalong which finds two young musicians competing for the love of a certain lady. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2.30pm).

EDINBURGH GANG SHOW 2014

18–22 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £10

Colourful annual music-meetscomedy show performed by over 250 young things from the world of Scouting and Girlguiding.

Royal Lyceum Theatre BONDAGERS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 OCT AND 15 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £12.50 (£10)

Sue Glover’s lyrical play with music and song following six female land workers as they graft and dance their way through a year on a 19th Century Borders farm. Matinee performances also available (Wed & Sat, 2pm).

THE BFG

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 28 NOV AND 3 JAN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Roald Dahl’s classic story is brought to life on stage for kiddies (and adults) this festive season.

And, praise be, it’s not a bloody panto! Matinee performances also available.

Space Club THE MAIN YVETTE

24–28 NOV, 6:00PM – 7:30PM, £6 (£5)

New performance piece from Alan Kerr and Fiona Anderson putting media representations of what it means to be female to the test, exposing contradictions and playfully toying with expectations.

Summerhall THE GAMBLERS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 AND 14 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

New all-female version of Gogol’s classic play, in which the women gamble, hustle, cheat, drink, swear, sing and dance. And never apologise for it.

The Edinburgh Playhouse WICKED

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 19 NOV AND 10 JAN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, FROM £20

The captivating and oft-sold out musical, telling the story of how the two witches of Oz came to be known as good and bad, through song ‘n’ all that. Matinee performances also available.

Theatrical homage to the legendary comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.

THE SKINNY

RIVERDANCE VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 AND 9 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

You know the score, Irish dudes dancing with no little amount of ability, who burst onto the scene at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. This tour marks their 20th anniversary.

Traverse Theatre THEATRE UNCUT

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 13 AND 15 NOV, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £10 (£8)

Multi-award-winning Theatre Uncut present their new programme of short political plays, with each performance followed by a Q&A to debate the issues raised.

SYMPHONY

5–7 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £16 (£13/£8)

Watford Palace Theatre-based new writing company nabokov return to Scotland with their innovative theatre-meets-gig project, split into three plays and told via a mix of live music and spoken word.

SQUISH/BOX FRESH

13 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £16 (£13/£8)

Double bill of new works from acclaimed dance company Room 2 Manouevre.

DAVID HUGHES DANCE: TRIALOGUE

15 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £16 (£13/£8)

David Hughes Dance’s trio of works spanning three decades, taking in new work from Hughes himself, plus Rafael Bonachela’s brooding 4:Freeze-Frame from 2004, and Lucy Guerin’s revival of Soft Centre from 1999.

NEW WRITING FROM QUEBEC

18–20 NOV, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £6 (£4)

As part of a cultural exchange project, the Trav welcome three Quebecois writers from La Licorne Theatre to present rehearsed readings of their latest works.

SLOPE

26–29 NOV, 8:00PM – 10:00PM, £16 (£13/£8)

Untitled Projects exploration of the love affair between 19th century poets, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, and its impact on Verlaine’s young wife Mathilde – originally produced in 2006, and returning for a revived run.

Dundee Dundee Rep ERIC AND LITTLE ERN

13 NOV,, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY

Theatrical homage to the legendary comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.

SUNSET SONG

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 AND 8 NOV, TIMES VARY, FROM £19 (£14)

Sell a Door Theatre Company revive Alastair Cording’s faithful adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic story, marking 100 years since the outbreak of WWI. TED & CO: THE DINNER SHOW

20–22 NOV, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £29.50

Comical interactive dining experience bringing punters face-toface with the Craggy Island priests.

Meal included.

The Space ROYSTON MALDOOM RETROSPECTIVE

6 NOV, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The Edinburgh Choreographic Project present an evening of modern dance devised by international choreographer Royston Maldoom.

Art TOBY CHRISTIAN: THE PLASTICALLY PARROTING 14–29 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

A graduate of Royal Academy Schools - where he was awarded the Gold Medal - Toby Christian displays a new body of solo work, known for his written texts that are used through an expanded sculptural field.

David Dale Gallery and Studios ALEX IMPEY

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 OCT AND 22 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

New solo showcase from the Stockport-born sculptor – awarded the Gordon Foundation MFA Graduate Fellowship on 2011 – whose work spans across drawing, sculpture, sound and writing.

Gallery of Modern Art

NATHAN COLEY: THE LAMP OF SACRIFICE

15 MAY – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Interested in how people relate to architecture and what they choose to believe, Nathan Coley presents an installation featuring models of 286 ‘places of worship’ that he found in the 2004 edition of the Edinburgh Yellow Pages. Part of GENERATION. ALASDAIR GRAY SEASON: SPHERES OF INFLUENCE I

21 NOV – 25 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

Part of a season of Alasdair Gray exhibitions, with this one looking at his practice, influences and work - delving into the Glasgow Museums Collection to explore connections between them.

Glasgow Print Studio

ALASDAIR GRAY: A LIFE IN POSTERS AND PRINTS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 OCT AND 16 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Part of a season of Alasdair Gray exhibitions, with this one looking at his print practice and its development over the years through working with Glasgow Print Studio.

Glasgow School of Art ALASDAIR GRAY : SPHERES OF INFLUENCE II

21 NOV – 25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Part of a season of Alasdair Gray exhibitions, with this one providing an alternative reading of his visual work through the prism of others’ works, both historical and contemporary. In the Reid Gallery.

Glasgow Sculpture Studios

TESSA LYNCH: CONCRETE CAFE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 27 SEP AND 29 NOV, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

New body of sculptural and written works by GSA graduate Tessa Lynch, born out of her one year Glasgow Sculpture Studio Graduate Fellowship - a fellowship awarded annually to a graduate of The Glasgow School of Art’s Master of Fine Art programme.

Hillhead Library

Glasgow CCA

MANUEL CHAVAJAY + REBECCA WILCOX: THIS MIGHT BE A PLACE FOR HUMMINGBIRDS

14 NOV – 18 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Double headline show with both artists exhibiting existing work and producing newly-commissioned responses that consider questions of community and approach the translation of urgent issues that arise from societies in Scotland and Guatemala.

November 2014

HUGH HOOD: GLASGOW 1974

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 7 NOV AND 21 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Series of images by the Glasgow photographer – who began his photographic ‘career’ at the age of 10, helping his father develop black and white prints, before attending Glasgow College of Printing – taking in the streets of Glasgow between 1974 and 1978.

DONALD JOHN MACLEAN: THE TURTH EVEN IF IT DIDN’T HAPPEN

1 OCT – 21 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

The UWS graduate and Forgotten Collective member displays work from his The Truth Even If It Didn’t Happen project, using his trusty Holga 120 camera and black and white film to capture a series of striking, ghost-like street photography images.

Hunterian Art Gallery MACKINTOSH ARCHITECTURE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JUL AND 4 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

First major exhibition devoted to Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s architectural work, featuring over 80 architectural drawings from The Hunterian and collections across the UK, many never before exhibited.

MACKINTOSH TRAVEL SKETCHES

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JUL AND 15 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s watercolours, sketchbook pages and sketchbooks, demonstrating the range of his travels and his interest in Scottish tower houses, medieval English churches and vernacular architecture.

WILLIAM DAVIDSON: ART COLLECTOR

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JUL AND 4 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Modern Institute

RICHARD HUGHES: FIELD TRIP

1 NOV – 19 DEC, NOT SUNDAYS, TIMES VARY, FREE

New body of solo work from the Birmingham-born artist, known for his engaging and powerful sculptural installations drawing inspiration from the detritus of our urban environment.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane VICTORIA MORTON

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 8 NOV AND 17 JAN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

New body of work from the Glasgow artist, whose thoughtprovoking and experimental work has been self-labelled as ‘explicit abstract realism’.

Tramway MIKE NELSON

Collected works from the late William Davidson’s collection, one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most important patrons, taking in a selection of gifts, bequests and loans from the Davidson family archives illustrating the scope of his collection.

15 NOV – 11 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 18 JUL AND 25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

SQA: ADVANCED HIGHER PORTFOLIOS

LUCY SKAER

Solo showcase from the contemporary Scottish artist, including the installation of four key pieces – a drawing, a 16mm film, and two wooden sculptures – inspired by surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, whom Skaer visited in 2006. Part of GENERATION.

Mary Mary JONATHAN GARDNER

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 15 NOV AND 17 JAN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Solo showcase of work from the contemporary painter, known for merging the subjects of his paintings so as to create an abstracted picture plain.

RGI Kelly Gallery

RUTH NICOL: THREE RIVERS MEET

8–29 NOV, NOT SUNDAYS, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scottish contemporary landscape artist Ruth Nicol showcases a new body of work inspired by Alexander Moffat’s painting Poets’ Pub, investigating the landscapes of seven great Scottish poets.

Street Level Photoworks

JILL TODD PHOTOGRAPHIC AWARD 2014 VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 OCT AND 7 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Annual photography award showcase, featuring the work of this year’s finalists Frank McElhinney, Cliff Andrade, Ingvild Melberg Eikeland, plus works by four of the commendations in the competition.

The Lighthouse POSTCODE 3000

1 NOV – 25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Architectural exhibition exploring the development of Melbourne, highlighting how recent regeneration focused on making better streets and increasing activities for people at street level has transformed the perception of the city centre.

ALICE DANSEY-WRIGHT: LEGITIMATE LIKENESSES

6 NOV – 11 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Solo showcase of work from Glasgow-based illustrator Alice Dansey-Wright, inspired by her research trip to the American Museum in Britain, from which she’s developed new work based on their collections.

EMPOWERMENT

27 NOV – 1 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Thought-provoking exhibition documenting the characters/narratives surrounding the construction projects of humanitarian design organisation, Orkidstudio – a charity dedicated to developing the connection between architecture and humanitarian aid.

New work from the labyrinthine British installation artist exploring landscape and the artistic traditions inherent within it, inspired by his friendship and collaboration with Erlend Williamson, and the work of anthropologist Dr. Wilson Duff.

30 OCT – 9 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase of work submitted to the Scottish Qualifications Authority for the Art and Design Advanced Higher qualification, encompassing work comes from pupils across Scotland.

COLLETTE RAYNER: ACCESS AS IDIOT DISTRACTION VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 22 NOV AND 25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

New film installation from the GSA graduate, based on her research into the Principality of Sealand – a sovereign principality established in 1967 in international waters, six miles off the coast of Britain.

Part of Collective’s Satellites Programme.

Danish Cultural Institute JESPER CHRISTIANSEN: FOUND DRAWINGS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 30 OCT AND 2 DEC, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Danish contemporary artist Jesper Christiansen showcases a series of old, forgotten and re-found drawings – all of which were initially discarded as trash by the artist.

Dovecot GEM

3 OCT – 8 NOV, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

Showcase exhibition of jewellery, gem-cutting and contemporary practices from Afghanistan, originally produced as part of the British Council’s South Asia season in 2013.

SELECTED 2014

29 NOV – 20 DEC, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

Dovecot’s own hand-selected celebration of contemporary Scottish craft and design, presented as a ‘selling exhibition’ showcasing local makers across disciplines including ceramics, jewellery, furniture, textiles, glass and silver.

Inverleith House TONY CONRAD: INVENTED ACOUSTICAL TOOLS 1966-2012

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 OCT AND 18 JAN, 10:00AM – 5:30PM, FREE

First UK showing of musical instruments developed by the highly influential American artist, filmmaker and musician Tony Conrad, exploring his relationship with improvisational sound and free invention.

National Museum of Scotland

PRIMORDIAL: SUPERNATURALBAYIMINYJIRRAL

1 AUG – 23 NOV, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Inspired by objects from National Museums Scotland’s World Cultures Collection, contemporary Australian artist Danie Mellor presents sculpture and work on paper that explores his own indigenous and European heritage.

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

North Edinburgh Arts Centre COLIN GRAY: A JOURNEY WITH HIS PARENTS, THROUGH LOVE, LIFE AND DEATH

1 OCT – 7 NOV, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Selection of works documenting some 34 years, including work from The Parents series, started in 1980; from In Sickness and in Health, exploring his parents’ older age and mother’s death; and a preview Do Us Part, documenting his father and daughter.

Edinburgh iota @ Unlimited Printmakers Studios NO FIXED ABODE

Rhubaba

13–22 NOV, NOT 16, 17, TIMES VARY, FREE

Rhubaba has commissioned Ben Callaghan to explore the juncture in his practice where functional design and art production meet – for which he’s built a selection of semi-functional furniture and produced sculptural objects suggestive of use.

A WINTER EXHIBITION

Triple-header winter showcase from artists Elisa Alvarez-Curto, Lauretta MacLeod and Pascale Steenkiste, each bringing different experiences and styles to their painting. 10% of proceeds go to Yorkhill Sick Children’s Hospital.

Edinburgh City Art Centre A-Z: AN ALPHABETICAL TOUR OF SCOTTISH ART

26 APR – 16 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Informative exhibition cutting across time periods, themes and media to explore the breadth and diversity of Scottish art, representing the key movements that have shaped Scotland’s artistic identity.

PICTURING CONFLICT: ART OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

8 NOV – 18 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase of paintings and other artworks offerings an insight into the events of WWI and its impact on those involved, drawn from the City Art Centre’s own collection.

Coburg House Art Studios ABSURD MODE

13–16 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Collective exhibition taking in a variety of media including photography, installation and performance, with each artist exploring social identity within the 21st century.

Collective Gallery

VANESSA BILLY: SUSTAIN, SUSTAIN

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 11 OCT AND 21 DEC, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Swiss artist Vanessa Billy marks her first Scottish solo exhibition, showcasing a body of recent sculptural works combining different everyday transient materials and found objects.

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 8 NOV AND 23 DEC, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Working in collaboration with The Big Issue, Edinburgh Printmakers present an exhibition examining the significance of home as a concept and the realities and challenges of homelessness.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop CONCRETE ANTENNA

14 NOV – 31 JAN, 9:30AM – 5:00PM, FREE

BEN CALLAGHAN: SEMIFUNCTIONAL WORKS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 25 OCT AND 16 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) RESIDENT 14

6 SEP – 9 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Sound installation in the new ESW tower created by Tommy Perman, Simon Kirby and Rob St. John, sonically exploring the past, present and (potential) future of the workshop’s site via sound gathered from audio archives and specially made field recordings.

Group exhibition presenting a selection of the most recent RSA Residency for Scotland artists, highlighting the results of opportunities taken with residency centres and centres of excellence across Scotland.

Embassy Gallery

Exhibition of small works sourced by open submission from artists across Scotland, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and photographs – all available to buy – with this year again seeing the addition of a room dedicated to architecture.

VITAE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 14 NOV AND 30 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Collective exhibition bringing together works by artists Jaakko Pallasvuo, The Museum of Non-Participation, Danna Vajda and Dave Young, offering modes of resistance and alternatives to deconstructing the pervasive sheen of professionalism.

Ingleby Gallery THOMAS JOSHUA COOPER: SCATTERED WATERS

11 OCT – 29 NOV, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

New body of images from California-born, Glasgow-living landscape photographer Thomas Joshua Cooper, chronicling his adopted land through the rivers that help to define its identity.

Interview Room 11 ANOTHER ATHENS

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 26 NOV AND 20 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Collaborative multi-platform project that explores the experience of the inhabitants of a city informed by their personal attachment to a place, in the context of its intellectual and cultural heritage.

RSA OPEN 2014

29 NOV – 20 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scottish National Gallery

WILLIAM STRANG: FAIR FACES AND DARK PLACES

18 OCT – 15 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE

Retrospective showcase of work from the Dumbarton-born printmaker, portraitist and painter, featuring around 30 prints and drawings spanning his career and drawn from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

GENERATION @ SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

28 JUN – 25 JAN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Celebrating some of the best art to come out of Scotland in the last 25 years, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s GENERATION exhibition includes installations

by Ross Sinclair, Graham Fagen and Simon Starling. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

ROBERT COLQUHOUN AND ROBERT MACBRYDE: THE TWO ROBERTS 22 NOV – 24 MAY, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 (£6)

Double-header showcase of the Scottish artists Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, or ‘The Two Roberts’, who took the London artworld by storm in the 40s, but had faded into obscurity by the 60s.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery MAKING HISTORY

12 OCT – 29 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Solo exhibition of recent work

by Sandy Stoddart (Sculptor In Ordinary to The Queen of Scotland), of which the main focus will be the creation of a new figurative statue of William Birnie Rhind commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

REMEMBERING THE GREAT WAR

4 AUG – 5 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Marking the centenary of the outbreak of the WWI, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery display various portraits and related works in various media - including work by artists Sir James Gunn and Sir William Gillies, who were wounded in action.

BEAUTY BY DESIGN: FASHIONING THE RENAISSANCE

15 NOV – 3 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcase exhibition linking the renaissance art collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery to contemporary fashion design, practice and display.

BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2014

29 NOV – 12 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE

Annual showcase of the best in contemporary portrait painting from around the world, now in its 33rd year and marking the fifth time the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has hosted the exhibition.

Settlement Projects Shop PLACE+PLATFORM

29 NOV, 8:00PM – 11:00PM, FREE

One-off exhibition event for which artists have been invited to submit works on paper, as well as invited musicians and performers responding to the theme on the night.

Stills

CHLOE DEWE MATHEWS: SHOT AT DAWN

8 NOV – 25 JAN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

New body of work produced over two years by British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews, focusing on the sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918.

Talbot Rice Gallery

CHRISTOPHER ORR: THE BEGUILED EYE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 15 NOV AND 14 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE

Talbot Rice host the first solo show in Scotland for English artist and printmaker Christopher Orr, bringing together new and recent paintings and featuring, for the first time, the his remarkable sketchbooks.

The Fruitmarket Gallery STAN DOUGLAS

7 NOV – 15 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE

Solo showcase from the Canadian artist who came to prominence in the mid-90s when his film installation, Der Sandmann, was one of the highlights of Documenta X in 1997, being shown here alongside other film, video and photography work.

Dundee Centrespace

WILLIAM LATHAM: MUTATOR 2

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 31 OCT AND 31 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

First solo exhibition in Scotland by pioneering computer artist William Latham, taking in interactive video works, drawings and prints that explore and embody evolutionary processes, physical and virtual space.

Cooper Gallery

ANNA OPPERMANN: COTONEASTER HORIZONTALIS

16 OCT – 13 DEC, NOT SUNDAYS, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

First major UK exhibition of late preeminent German conceptual artist Anna Oppermann, featuring her celebrated 1984 ensemble Cotoneaster Horizontalis shown for the first time alongside drawings, prints, collages, documentary films and archival material.

DCA

HEATHER PHILLIPSON: SUB-FUSC LOVE-FEAST

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 6 SEP AND 9 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Multi-format London-based artist Heather Phillipson showcases a suite of constructed ‘landscapes’ – a colourful mass of videos, text, cut-out ‘nature’ images, soundscapes and recurring materials.

JIM CAMPBELL

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 22 NOV AND 25 JAN, TIMES VARY, FREE

For their closing exhibition of 2014, the DCA present a showcase of American new media artist Jim Campbell - marking his first solo exhibition in the UK, following inclusion in group shows at Cornerhouse, Manchester and The Hayward Gallery, London.

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

NIGEL JOHNSON: A.E.S.O.P. (AN ENHANCED SENSE OF PLACE)

20 OCT – 13 NOV, NOT SUNDAYS, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Interactive installation comprised of seven autonomous rotating units displaying moving messages in red LED lights, drawn from a real-time, global RSS news data feed broadcasting truths and untruths. In the Matthew Entrance Galleries.

Generator Projects VIEW

17 OCT – 9 NOV, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Exhibition of both installed and event-based artworks which through their own processes highlight a relation that can occur between design and contemporary art, intended as an initial response to Dundee’s Waterfront redevelopment.

The McManus A SILVERED LIGHT

6 DEC – 30 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition of Scottish art photography selected from Dundee City’s permanent collection, showcasing images from over 50 photographers collected in the 28 years following the purchase of two important early photographs

by Thomas Joshua Cooper in 1985.

University of Dundee SCALES OF LIFE

VARIOUS DATES BETWEEN 4 OCT AND 10 JAN, 9:30AM – 4:30PM, FREE

Inaugural exhibition in the new gallery in The Centre for Translational and Interdisciplinary Research, featuring works by Thomson & Craighead, Elaine Shemilt, Tabitha Moses and Helen Chadwick. In the Lifespace gallery (open Sat and by appointment).

SOME LINES ON A LANDSCAPE

18 OCT – 13 DEC, NOT SUNDAYS, TIMES VARY, FREE

The fruits of artist Derek Robertson’s recent residency at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, a collaborative project involving scientists, writers, poets, storytellers and dancers. In the Lamb Gallery.

Vision Building

BRING YOUR OWN BEAMER: DUNDEE

8–9 NOV, 8:00PM – 12:00AM, £TBC

A bumper batch of artists and their projectors take to Dundee for the curated one-night-only video art event, with videos amassed by open submission. Part of the NEoN Finale Party.

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