.CO.UK
INDEPENDENT FREE
CULT U R A L
J O U R N A L I S M
February 2018 Scotland Issue 149
Music Franz Ferdinand Field Music Ought Possession Records A Celebration of Kate Bush Fiona Soe Paing Film Glasgow Film Festival Lynne Ramsay Guillermo del Toro Daniela Vega Clubs OOFT! Groove Cairngorm Reckless Kettle Books Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bandele Art Rehana Zaman Marcelo Brodsky Eunjoo Lee
Be Kind
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN COME HOME TO GLASGOW WITH HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS
Theatre Grid Iron Comedy David Baddiel
MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | TRAVEL | FOOD & DRINK | INTERSECTIONS | LISTINGS
3
Photo: Gaelle Beri
P.18 Glasgow Film Festival
P.28 Grid Iron
P.30 Singles Day Celebrations
February 2018 I N DEPEN DENT
CULTU R AL
JOU R NALI S M
Issue 149, February 2018 Š Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business. Get in touch to find out more.
E: sales@theskinny.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher.
Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle ABC verified Jan – Dec 2016: 27,332
printed on 100% recycled paper
4
Contents
Editorial Editor-in-Chief Art Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Events Editor Film & DVD Editor Food Editor Intersections Editor Music Editor Theatre Editor Travel Editor
Rosamund West Adam Benmakhlouf Heather McDaid Claire Francis Ben Venables Nadia Younes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Kate Pasola Tallah Brash Amy Taylor Paul Mitchell
Production Production Manager Designer
Sarah Donley Kyle McPartlin
Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives
Sandy Park George Sully Keith Allan David Hammond
Online Digital Editor Online Journalist Web Developer
Peter Simpson Jamie Dunn Stuart Spencer
Bookkeeping & Accounts Publisher
Rebecca Sweeney Sophie Kyle
THE SKINNY
Illustration: ulija Straizyte
P.10 Belle and Sebastian
Contents Chat & Opinion: Welcome to the maga06 zine with a love poem by Daniel Piper; Jock Mooney asks one member of the public what they’re eating for lunch; Shot of the Month; Online Only; and the latest competition from Peter’s Dioramas – can you guess what it is yet? Heads Up: Your cultural calendar for the 08 month of February. FEATURES
10 Belle & Sebastian are back recording
in Glasgow, producing EPs – they tell us about going full circle and how they think we can solve our human problems.
12 Visionary director Guillermo del Toro
introduces the much-lauded The Shape of Water, a contemporary allegory set in an idealised America of the past.
Ahead of her CCA exhibition, artist 14 Rehana Zaman discusses reflecting
subtle forms of political resistance from marginalised voices.
15 We speak to journalist asha bandele
and Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors about When They Call You a Terrorist, the latter’s memoir on which they have collaborated, out now.
16 Ought frontman Tim Darcy on the workings behind the Montreal four-piece's third album, Room Inside the World, our album of the month.
LIFESTYLE
29 Travel: The latest Living Abroad guide
offers an insight into how to start over in Bordeaux.
30 Intersections: As Valentine’s Day rears
its red plastic head, we take a look at how the rest of the world deals with singledom. Plus, one writer discusses the toxic prevalence of Holocaust comparisons in contemporary culture.
32 Showcase: Illustrator Eunjoo Lee shares her portfolio.
35 Food and Drink: Are you feeling
FURIOUS about the new Irn-Bru? Our Food editor examines the additive-filled history of fizzy drink recipe changes. Plus new openings and (food) and drink (mainly, almost exclusively drink) news.
REVIEW
39 Music: A Kate Bush retrospective to
mark 40 years since her debut’s release; Fiona Soe Paing previews her show in Aberdeen’s SPECTRA festival; we meet Glasgow’s new Possession Records label; plus gig highlights and our picks of this month’s album releases.
44 Clubs: We meet Ooft, Dundee party
starters Reckless Kettle, Groove Cairngorm’s organisers share their hopes for this year’s line-up, plus clubbing highlights for February.
talk plans for the future with 17 We Bathgate's BBC Sound of 2018 longlister,
48 Books: This month’s reviews page now
Film Festival returns with a 18 Glasgow programme so exciting our Film editor’s
49 Art: Reviews of Anne Collier at the
Lewis Capaldi.
top ten events quickly morphed into a top 12 for print, and an extra three online. We speak to Lynne Ramsay about her fourth feature, You Were Never Really Here, and Chilean star Daniela Vega about her lead role in A Fantastic Woman.
21 Franz Ferdinand are reborn with
new members and a fifth album. We hear how they’ve stayed at the top, 14 years on from breaking through with Take Me Out.
22 Field Music's Peter Brewis tells us how personal and political transition have informed the group’s new album Open Here.
25 Comedy is family therapy with David
Baddiel – we meet him as he prepares to tour My Family: Not the Sitcom.
26 Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky
presents a solo show this month in Glasgow, in which he intends to broaden an understanding of the world-changing events of 1968.
featuring FIVE REVIEWS! Plus poetry event highlights across the Central Belt. Modern Institute and Steven Campbell at Tramway, plus exhibitions and opportunities news.
50 Film & DVD: Things take a weird ice
skating turn with I, Tonya and The Ice King both receiving reviews. In DVD, we look at American Assassin, The Mystery of Picasso and Sejun Suzuki.
Theatre editor rounds up the best 52 Our in, well, theatre for the month ahead, and gives us a little insight into the musical that's taking the world by storm, Hamilton, as it arrives in London.
54 Competitions: Win tickets to Glasgow
Film Festival and to see Turin Brakes live in Glasgow
55 Listings: What’s on, everywhere good, this month.
Local Heroes design column takes 63 Our a look at some of Scotland’s current collaborations.
28 Grid Iron’s Judith Doherty discusses
funding, shows and touring ahead of their collaboration with Stellar Quines, Bingo!
February 2018
Contents
5
Editorial
T
his February sees the return of a pair of Glasgow bands who’ve managed to strike the rare balance of achieving long term international success without losing a profound connection with the city that formed them. On the cover you will find Belle and Sebastian, back recording in Glasgow with a series of EPs How to Solve Our Human Problems. We look back on their evolving sound from the mid 90s to now, while lynchpin Stuart Murdoch explains a little more on their proposed solution – compassion, kindness. We also speak to Franz Ferdinand, 14 years after Take Me Out exploded into the mainstream. They’ve experienced some line-up changes of late, responding to the changing circumstances of the band as the members have moved through their lives. Synth master Julian Corrie, aka Miaoux Miaoux, is a recent recruit – he and Alex Kapranos discuss reinvention and staying curious as they release new album Always Ascending. Elsewhere in Music, we meet Bathgate newcomer Lewis Capaldi who tells us about his jawdropping musical loves from Busted to Paolo Nutini. Montreal’s Ought are here to promote third album Room Inside the World, and Aberdeen’s Fiona Soe Paing discusses cross-continental collaboration as she gears up to present a sound and art performance as part of SPECTRA festival. We also meet Glasgow’s latest label, Possession Records, and mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Kate Bush’s debut with a celebration of that record, The Kick Inside. If it’s February then it must be Glasgow Film Festival! They’re back with another vibrant programme, and we’re here as usual to tell you what we’re most excited about and launch the CineSkinny, our now-weekly guide to what’s happening in the festival, which will be distributed around Glasgow from mid-month. Here we meet Lynne Ramsay to learn more about her fourth feature, You Were Never Really Here, and talk to Chilean newcomer Daniela Vega about thriller/character study A Fantastic Woman, screening as part of the festival. The Shape of Water is one of the year’s most
hotly anticipated releases – we meet director Guillermo del Toro to discuss walking away from a Pacific Rim 2 mega-payday to pursue this tale of the monster at the heart of the American dream. In Books, When They Call You a Terrorist has just been released, a memoir of the Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, written with celebrated journalist asha bandele. The pair discuss this struggle to address systemic racism, alongside the fine balance they aim to strike in presenting narrative. bandele says it is “important to acknowledge a life harmed or taken, but in telling the whole story we also need to see images and stories of black joy, black beauty, black love.” Art speaks to Rehana Zaman, who brings her solo show to CCA this month and discusses her work which reflects on surprising methods of resistance and undermining the systems of power by the normally marginalised. We also meet Marcelo Brodsky, and Argentine artist exhibiting in Street Level Photoworks this month who aims to broaden awareness of the global struggles of 1968 beyond a Eurocentric narrative. You may associate David Baddiel with 90s lad culture and football, but 2018 Baddiel is much more interested in discussing family and mental health as he tours his Olivier Award nominated show My Family: Not the Sitcom. Meanwhile Food is mainly interested in discussing the highly controversial release of a new Irn-Bru recipe. Would it have happened in an independent Scotland? We do not answer this question, but we do look at other controversies generated by the recipe changes of Big Fizzy Juice. Intersections is almost the only section to acknowledge Valentine’s Day, celebrating this festival of commercial interest and unnecessary single-shaming by looking at how the rest of the world celebrates singledom. We close the magazine with our regular design column as Local Heroes makes a tangential Valentine’s reference by celebrating a handful of Scotland’s finest collaborative partnerships. [Rosamund West]
What Even is This?
SNOW NO THEY DIDN’T The cold, the pomp, the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation. This month’s What Even is This? competition celebrates an event that, in a handy turn of events, is so famously litigious that we don’t actually want to refer to it by name. Just luge yourself in the image, and ski if you can work out what’s going on. Are we celebrating a quadrennial snow-based sporting extravaganza? Are we advocating putting
animals on skis for our amusement? Or are we using this space to brag about our recent quiz win and show off our trophy? For your chance to win a copy of Charlotte by David Foenkinos courtesy of the gold medallists over at Canongate, simply decipher this diorama then head to theskinny.co.uk/competitions to tell us what it represents. Best answer wins.
Competition closes midnight Sun 4 Mar. The winner 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 full Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms
Ring:
A Valentine’s Poem Words: Daniel Piper
After weeks of deliberation, I decided that Valentine’s was the perfect day to finally give my girlfriend a ring. I practised my words several times in front of the mirror and ironed my best shirt in preparation for the moment. As the sun began to set and the stars started shining iridescent across the evening sky, I took a deep breath and reached into my pocket. It rang twice before she hung up.
By Jock Mooney 6
Chat
Daniel Piper is the 2017 Scottish Poetry Slam Champion and came second in the world final in Paris in May. He is currently crowdfunding his debut book of comedy short stories and poems with Unbound. Pledge at www.daniel-piper.com
THE SKINNY
Shot of the Month
Online Only
Credit: Jake Hollings
Paramore, The SSE Hydro, 20 Jan, by Cameron James Brisbane
Pod People Our podcast column continues this month with a look at Josh Widdicombe’s nostalgic football podcast, Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? In the 90s, the things that would later define modern professional football were just starting to take hold, while at the same time remnants of football’s past (drunkenness, the mullets) were just about holding on. This combination throws up all sorts of oddball incidents... Catch up on the Pod People column at theskinny.co.uk/tv-radio
CineSkinny Our guide to the finest goings on at Glasgow Film Festival returns to help lead you through this year’s massive programme, which covers everything from sublime arthouse (new films from Todd Haynes, Claire Denis and Agnès Varda) to inspired immersive events (Die Hard screened in an office block). Find the CineSkinny preview at GFT from 14 Feb, the regular editions at GFF venues throughout the festival (21 Feb-4 Mar), and online at theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny
John Byrne Award Meet the latest winner of the emerging artists’ awards Open to 16-25 year olds in Scotland working across the arts, The John Byrne Award invites
artists to submit their work along with a 200-word description of the values behind it. We’ve teamed up with the fine folk behind the John Byrne Award to let you know more about the winning artists – this month we profile filmmaker Harry Maberly. Find out more at theskinny.co.uk/art
Get ready for Festival Season Prepare for a long summer of live music with our festivals coverage We’ll be casting our net far and wide to find you the best music festivals to check out this summer, from fests in faraway climes to line-ups which – shock! – feature some female artists. We also report back from January’s Eurosonic festival in Groningen with a look at some of the festival headliners of tomorrow. Get the latest at theskinny.co.uk/festivals
Oscar nominations recap Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, our film editor runs the rule over this year’s picks The Best Picture category is surprisingly short of the kind of bloated Oscar-bait that Academy voters tend to fall head over heels for at this time of year; the result is that it’s the most wide-open contest for the top prize in years. Read more at theskinny.co.uk/film
Find more at theskinny.co.uk
COVER ARTIST Jacky Sheridan is a Belfast-based illustrator who specialises in hand drawn typography, editorial & branding work, and generally drawing the obscene. She is a walking Irish stereotype and her dream illustration job would be being commissioned to design beer bottle labels. You can find more of her work at jackysheridan.com, as JackySheridan on Twitter and Instagram or at facebook.com/JackySheridanIllo
February 2018
Opinion
7
It may only be February but festival season has already begun and there are plenty to choose from this month, as well as all the usual cultural shenanigans...
Thu 1 Feb
John Kearns dusts off his false teeth and monk wig for his debut UK tour Don't Worry They're Here, directed by Olivier award-winning playwright, and Kearns' friend, Jon Brittain. Kearns made comedy history as the first comic to win both the Best Newcomer and Best Show awards at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, so why not see what all the fuss is about. Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, 30-31 Jan,7pm, £9-12
2018 marks the centenary of the birth of acclaimed Scottish writer Muriel Spark and to celebrate, a yearround programme of events, entitled Muriel Spark 100, has been organised in her honour. Crème de la Crème sees friends and fans of Spark, including authors Ian Rankin and Rosemary Goring, read, perform and share their passion for a 20th century literary icon. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 7.15pm, £12-15
A superhero on her period. Poems based on comments on PornHub videos. These are just a couple of subjects that award-winning spoken word poet Jenny Lindsay covers in Flint and Pitch Presents: This Script (and other drafts). Lindsay's new work sees her exploring sexual politics, gender, feminism and more in a series of new poems, and if the subject matter hasn't already grabbed your attention, we're not sure what will. Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £8
John Kearns
Muriel Spark
Jenny Lindsay
Fri 9 Feb
Next up, we've got another one of Drake's pals (but let's face it who hasn't Drizzy worked with) and winner of the 2018 Brits Critics' Choice Award Jorja Smith. Frequently compared to one of her inspirations Amy Winehouse, Smith's silky smooth jazz-tinged vocals and lyrics about social justice prove her to be wise beyond her years (she's only 20 years old) and something of a prodigy. The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 7pm, £13.50
Jhené Aiko took fans by surprise in September last year, when she announced a new three-part project known as MAP: an acronym for Movie, Album and Poetry, and a literal map of how Aiko coped with the death of her brother Miyagi in 2012. The project consisted of a 23-minute long film and a 22-track album, both entitled Trip, and the release of a poetry book, filled with a lifetime of writing. O2 ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £17.50
Who else could possibly close R'n'B week than the undisputed king of R'n'B himself Prince? GFT obviously caught on to the week's running theme of events and decided to host a screening of the 1984 cult classic Purple Rain, as part of their Late Night series tonight. The film captures Prince Rogers Nelson in his prime and the incredible soundtrack won him an Oscar for Best Original Song Score. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, 11pm, £9.50
Jorja Smith
Lindstrøm
Photo: Lin Stensrud
Wed 7 Feb
Photo: Rory Barnes
Tue 6 Feb
Thu 8 Feb Aberdeen's annual Festival of Light SPECTRA this year includes an exciting new music programme, which will run alongside the festival, taking place between 8-11 February in venues across the city. The Nordic-themed music festival, programmed by Curated Place, will include AV shows from Warp Records' Plaid, world-renowned Norwegian producer Lindstrøm and local talent Fiona Soe Paing, as well as performances from rising UK talents. Various venues, Aberdeen, times & prices vary
Jhené Aiko
Wed 14 Feb
Thu 15 Feb
Previously shown at one of the largest contemporary art museums in China, the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Here Was Elsewhere: >>FFWD is an exhibition of 27 artist moving image works made by 24 leading and up-and-coming artists. The exhibition, currently in its fourth and final week, is staged in weekly rotations of selected works that capture the distinctive concerns driving contemporary artists’ moving image works made in Scotland. Cooper Gallery, Dundee, until 17 Feb
Whether you're flying solo or coupled up, Glasgow queer cabaret troupe Black Doves bring you a special Valentine's Day themed edition of Queer Theory that will send sparks flying. Queer Theory: The L Word will be hosted by performance artist Katy Dye, aka Katy Cupid, who will introduce acts from the worlds of music, comedy, poetry, drag and variety – just watch out for the arrows. Nice 'N' Sleazy, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £5
Created as a response to political oppression in South America, Christopher Bruce's Ghost Dances is the most popular work in Rambert’s history. It will be shown alongside Ben Duke's Goat, a dance theatre performance inspired by the music and spirit of Nina Simone, and Symbiosis, a celebration of the Rambert dancers’ skills by acclaimed dance-maker Andonis Foniadakis, with live music throughout from the Rambert Orchestra. His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, until 17 Feb 7.30pm, £5-33.50
Here Was Elsewhere: >>FFWD
Katy Dye
Photo: Martin Windebank
Tue 13 Feb
Purple Rain
Ghost Dance
Mon 19 Feb
Tue 20 Feb
Wed 21 Feb
Thu 22 Feb
Scottish BAFTA-nominated composer/songwriter and Teenage Fanclub drummer Francis Macdonald takes his Hamilton Mausoleum Suite project right back to where it began, playing a one-off performance of the album in its namesake tonight. Once holding the Guinness World Record for longest echo at 15 seconds, the Mausoleum has one of the longest echoes of any man-made building in the world. Just a fun fact there. Hamilton Mausoleum, Hamilton, 7.30pm
Edinburgh natives Dylan Moran and Jay Lafferty and Glasgow-based Jamie Macdonald join host Jo Caulfield for a Benefit In Aid of Edinburgh Women's Aid. All ticket proceeds will go towards the confidential organisation, which aims to raise awareness of domestic violence and provides information, support and refuge accommodation to women and any accompanying children who have experienced or are at risk of domestic abuse. The Stand, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £12
Artist-run group GOSSIP (Graduate Opportunities Supporting Sustained Independent Practice) work with student and graduate artists in Stirling and aim to create a safe, communal space for all kinds of artists – beginners to professionals – to come together and express their creative sides. Their second exhibition which ends today, COMMUNICATION features conceptual art from emerging artists with a theme of communication. Tolbooth, Stirling, Free
Orlando Higginbottom, aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (or TEED for short), has been laying low for the last few years, since smashing onto the scene in 2012 with his criticallyacclaimed debut album Trouble. He last played Subbie back in 2013 and he makes a welcome return tonight – thanks to the club's Thursday night crew Show – hopefully with new material also on the way soon. Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm £10-12
Hamilton Mausoleum
Jo Caulfield
COMMUNICATION
Tue 27 Feb
Thu 1 Mar
Fri 2 Mar
Taking its title from our very own Rabbie Burns' poem To a Mouse, John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men celebrated its 80th anniversary last year. Initially adapted for the stage by Steinbeck himself, it tells the story of George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers who dream of owning their own ranch. Currently touring the UK, this version, directed by Guy Unsworth, stops in Glasgow from 26 February-3 March. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £15.90-£40.40
Ira Levin's black comedy Deathtrap takes you on a rollercoaster ride full of twists, turns, laughs and shocks. The play is the most successful thriller in Broadway history, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 1978 and was adapted into a film, starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine, in 1982. If that's not enough accolades to sell you, then you're very hard to impress. Dundee Rep, Dundee, until 10 Mar, 2.30pm & 7.30pm, £9-25
A suspicious smoke-like smell is set to spread across Edinburgh's Old Town this weekend, as Wee Dub Festival takes over six venues in the historic area, with its annual celebration of reggae, dub, dancehall and bass. Ninja Tune-signed producer The Bug will be joined by MC Miss Red, heading up La Belle Angele's Friday night line-up, while just a short walk away at The Mash House, dub legends Vibronics will headline alongside Madu Messenger. Various venues, Edinburgh, 2-4 Mar times & prices vary
8
Chat
Mica Levi
Wed 28 Feb Part of Glasgow Film Festival's Sound & Vision strand, The Unfilmables will see a group of musicians responding to the greatest films never made. BAFTA and Oscarnominated composer Mica Levi collaborates with her sister Francesca on a re-imagining of Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov’s most famous work The Colour of Pomegranates, while electronic pioneers Wrangler join forces with filmmaker Tash Tung and live visual manipulator Daniel Conway to tackle Claire Noto’s script The Tourist. St Luke's, Glasgow, 7pm, £15-18
Deathtrap
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Wee Dub Festival
THE SKINNY
Photo: Ryan McGoverne
Compiled by: Nadia Younes
Wed 31 Jan
Illustration: Xenia Latii
Heads Up
Tue 30 Jan
Sun 4 Feb
Mon 5 Feb
Fashion Forum: Design for Diversity is a week-long programme of events curated by The Diversity Network – a collaboration between Edinburgh College of Art and All Walks Beyond the Catwalk – exploring new, inclusive approaches to fashion. It begins today with a drinks reception and a fashion presentation by Edinburgh College of Art 2nd year Fashion students, as well as a talk hosted by fashion journalist and broadcaster Caryn Franklin MBE. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 7pm, £8-10
They may be new on the scene but DIY promotions company Hiip Priest are gearing up for a huge second year in existence. To kick things off, they've put together a massive line-up of local bands for their alldayer HiiP Priest Party. SAMA 2017 best newcomer award winners Shredd will play alongside the likes of WYLDE, Natalie Pryce and Savage Mansion to name a few. The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 2pm, £7
Cannibalism, werewolf trials, deceit, and murder – just what Sundays were made for. Following a sell-out debut at the Edinburgh Horror Festival last year, Edinburghbased production company Some Kind of Theatre bring The Grandmothers Grimm back for round two. The production will be shown from 3-6 February as part of Annexe Arts Hub's week-long Formation Festival, showcasing the talents of the Annexe Repertory Theatre company. Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, 7pm, £6.50-8
It's officially R'n'B week in Scotland and kicking things off is Drake's pal, (rumoured) brief Kylie Jenner sidepiece and Grammy-nominated R'n'B hit-maker PARTYNEXTDOOR, real name Jahron Anthony Brathwaite. As well as cowriting Rihanna's 2016 banger Work, Party has also had one of his tracks, Come and See Me, covered by none other than Erykah Badu and, what's more, he's got tunes for days. O2 ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £22.50 The Grandmothers Grimm
PARTYNEXTDOOR
Sun 11 Feb
Mon 12 Feb
Don your family tartan, crack open a can of Irn Bru and fire into a haggis supper because patriotism reaches an all time high at Scottish Fan Fest this weekend. The team behind Craft Beer Revolution have put together a celebration of Scottish culture, hosting some of the best food & drinks professionals and craft designers in Scotland, accompanied by a programme of Scottish entertainment. The Signet Library, Edinburgh, 1pm, £10
Kendrick Lamar's latest album DAMN. came in at number one on our Albums of 2017 list, and for good reason. K.Dot caught the attention of hip-hop fans around the globe when he dropped his debut studio project Section.80 back in 2011 and he's gone from strength to strength since. Making this an even more unmissable show, he's also bringing minimal piano man James Blake along with him. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 6.30pm, £50-95
Edinburgh-born comedian Iain Stirling gained a hoard of new fans last year after narrating the ITV2 reality dating show/glorified shag-athon Love Island. His subsequent Edinburgh Fringe show U Ok Hun? X sold out its four-week run in advance, resulting in extra dates at the Pleasance Grand being added due to demand. Now, he's taking it round the UK for those that missed it the first time round. The Stand Comedy Club, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £12
Scottish Fan Fest
Kendrick Lamar
Credit: Creative Commons
Sat 10 Feb
Sat 17 Feb
Sun 18 Feb
Ex-software developer and now world-renowned DJ/ producer Avalon Emerson makes a welcome return to the Capital, this time for her debut at Bongo. The last time Emerson played in the city, it was just across the road at Sneaky Pete's but she's making her return in much bigger surroundings for Substance. A truly diverse selector, you'll no doubt be Shazam-ing the shit out of her set. The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 11pm, £10
For this year's celebration of artists' book culture, The Fruitmarket Gallery have expanded the annual event by partnering up with their neighbour Stills Centre for Photography for a multi-venue edition of Artists' BookMarket. Over fifty stalls will be laid with work available for sale from more than two thousand collectors and enthusiasts over the weekend between both venues, with Stills focusing more on photographic publishing. The Fruitmarket Gallery & Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, 11am, free
Celebrate Chinese New Year by indulging in some delicious dumplings, scrumptious spring rolls and the best bao buns in the city at the Old Town Street Food Festival. 2018 marks the Year of the Dog and the regular street food festival has put together a very special weekendlong affair, complete with live music and traditional Chinese lion dancers from Yee’s Hung Ga International Kung Fu Association. The Three Sisters, Edinburgh, 16-18 Feb, times vary, free
Avalon Emerson
Photo: Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert
Fri 16 Feb
Artists Bookmarket
Iain Stirling
Old Town Street Food Festival
Fri 23 Feb
Sat 24 Feb
Sun 25 Feb
Mon 26 Feb
Cancel that skiing holiday in the Alps and make a trip to Groove Cairngorm this weekend instead. The UK's only snowsports and music festival allows you to show off your skills on the slopes and catch some cool bands and DJs at the same time – well not at the exact same time. Belgian brothers 2manydjs, and KISS FM co-founder Norman Jay MBE are just two of the acts set to play the festival. Cairngorm Mountain, Aviemore, 23-24 Feb, £18.90-120.50
Coinciding with Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon's exhibition Circle, as part of Glasgow Film Festival 2018, this special screening of her 2017 film Mm features a one-off live performance by 2017 Scottish Album of the Year award winners Sacred Paws. Shot on location on 35mm film in collaboration with the all-male motorcycle team, the Berwick Bandits, the film incorporates sounds of speedway alongside live music by the duo. Tramway, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £8.50-10.50
Bask in some Polish culture today at the New Polish Poster Exhibition. A selection of posters by young Polish illustrators and graphic designers, including Ola Niepsuj and Jan Bajtlik will be on show, with talks and screenings on the legacy of Polish posters also being held. As well as this, the albums of Polish indie/electronic bands BOKKA and Rebeka will be played and traditional Polish drinks will be available to whet your whistle. The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 6pm, free
ECA alumni Django Django sent heads a-nodding when they broke on to the scene with their self-titled Mercurynominated debut album in 2012. They returned last month with a new album – their third to date – Marble Skies, which has been described as a return to form. Now they're hitting the road, starting in the motherland before heading across the rest of the UK and Europe. Fat Sam's, Dundee, 7pm, £17.50
2manydjs
Mm, Margaret Salmon, 2017
New Polish Poster Exhibition
Mon 5 Mar
Although unsuccessful in their bid for the UK's City of Culture, Paisley 2021 isn't giving up just yet, bringing a brand new festival to the city. SAMAs Paisley Takeover will include a series of music workshops, seminars and live in-store sessions at record shops throughout the day, with a gig at Paisley Arts Centre at night. Tonight's gig will be headlined by Glasgow indie-rockers Pronto Mama. Various venues, Paisley, times & prices vary
Looking for some hotlytipped new bands to drop in to conversation to look cool in front of your pals? Well, DIY's Class of 2018 tour is the perfect place to do just that. Manchester goth-pop four-piece, and favourites of fellow Manc's The 1975, Pale Waves headline, with support from Brighton garage-rock trio Our Girl and indie-pop band Bloxx – something for everyone, you might say. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, 8pm, £8
Swedish-born, Edinburghbased photographer Jannica Honey's work is often concerned with the female body and the place of women in society. Honey will present a new series of nearly 30 works for her first solo exhibition, When the Blackbird Sings, focusing on the female body and its links with nature, at the Arusha Gallery. Using family, friends and acquaintances as subjects, the works depict naked women of all ages, always posing outdoors and at twilight. Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, until 25 March
February 2018
Pronto Mama
Pale Waves
Photo: Jenna Foxton
Sun 4 Mar
Photo: Ryan Johnston
Sat 3 Mar
Photo: Edward Moore
Shredd
Django Django
Photo: Fiona Garden
Fashion Forum: Design for Diversity
Photo: Allan Lewis
Sat 3 Feb
Photo: Julie Howden
Fri 2 Feb
Jannica Honey
Chat
9
Problem Solvers With the world around them more turbulent than they could have imagined in their 90s heyday, Belle & Sebastian return to the hometown that shaped them to record their first EPs since 2004, finding personal solutions to global issues in the process
F
ew bands have a history that can be split as cleanly down the middle as Belle & Sebastian’s. Everything that the Glaswegian stalwarts have ever done can be neatly placed into one of two eras; if we start counting from 1996, when they released their first two records (Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister), then we can call the former period The First Five Years and the latter one Everything After That. Many would consider the halcyon years of the late 90s to represent the peak of their creative powers, but the divide between that Belle & Sebastian and the present-day incarnation runs much deeper. Stuart Murdoch’s rich vein of songwriting form in the early days of the group invites favourable comparison with the greats; indeed, speaking as part of a Pitchfork TV documentary on the band’s first two LPs in 2013, guitarist Stevie Jackson said of debut album Tigermilk that “it was like Dylan or Paul Simon – I actually thought it was on that level. I was staggered.” Purple patches like this one are genuinely unusual, but they always bear the same telltale hallmark; a prolific rate of output. As the music spilled out of Murdoch, Belle & Sebastian couldn’t release records quickly enough, leading to a series of EPs between full-lengths; Dog on Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light and This is Just a Modern Rock Song all amongst them. Murdoch comfortably cleared his self-raised, intimidatingly lofty bar each time. The compilation on which they were collected along with similarly worthy B-sides – Push Barman to Open Old Wounds – stands alongside Oasis’ The Masterplan and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Pisces Iscariot as one of those exceedingly rare odds-
and-ends collections that stands tall next to the band’s best material. Murdoch’s midas touch, though, was just one of a few anomalies that have come to define that chapter in the band’s story. In the summer of 1996, while being courted by myriad record labels, they chose to join Jeepster, a London imprint fledgling enough that this was their very first signing. The method in the madness was quickly self-evident; the group wielded the sort of total creative control that ran well beyond the music. They didn’t want to release singles from albums. You probably could’ve counted on one hand the number of interviews they gave at the time. They were reluctant even to appear in their own press photography. Not only that, but there was little prospect of them touring, given that Murdoch was still in the process of managing his recovery from M.E. and some members of the band were still at university. When they did manage to take the stage, the results were mixed, not least because, again, they insisted on doing things differently; their two shows in Manchester just after Christmas of 1997 were a case in point. They were held in the round at the Town Hall – not usually a concert venue – and were beset by problems ranging from technical issues to, at the second gig, a raging, Jack Daniel’s-induced hangover for keyboardist Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes. By the turn of the century, some of the industry’s more familiar trappings were beginning to permeate the band, and not all of them for the better; burnout led to the first slip in their quality control, with LP4, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, meeting with a lukewarm reception.
Plus, Murdoch’s divesting of his songwriting duties to other members of the group seemed less like a lightening of his own workload than it did a diplomatic move aimed at preserving harmony, with Stuart David and Isobel Campbell both eyeing solo careers. Both were gone by the end of 2002. Belle & Sebastian returned in 2003 almost as if reborn as a new outfit entirely. Their fifth record, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, swapped Glasgow and the house engineers they’d worked with in the Jeepster years for London and Trevor Horn of The Buggles on production duties. It was their first release on Rough Trade, and one marked by both a sudden uptick on the touring front and a considerably more accommodating approach to the press. The album was punchy and polished, scored through with a pop sheen a world away from the hushed reserve that had been the group’s calling card up to this point.
“ I think we’re in a much better place than we were in the 90s, in a lot of ways. A lot of the time, you felt as if you were being torn apart, because the people around you were pulling in different directions” Sarah Martin
In the fifteen years since, the band have continued travelling down that same road; it’s just that they’ve increasingly refused to stay in the same lane. They indulged their hankering for glam-pop on 2006’s The Life Pursuit, collaborated with A-list talent (Norah Jones, Carey Mulligan) on Belle & Sebastian Write About Love in 2010 and, with their most recent LP, adapted to the current trend of swooping, magpie-like, on anything they might deem to be musically shiny with the sprawling and diverse Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. They’ve toured around the world extensively in that time, with their only two extended absences from the road enforced by Murdoch’s dedication to his passion project, the musical God Help the Girl. The Jeepster version of the band, meanwhile, remained trapped in amber; the records haven’t aged, but everything else seems almost of a bygone era; no group boasts that sort of autonomy these days, and as far as the work is concerned, Belle & Sebastian have never displayed much of an appetite to return to old habits. Until now. How to Solve Our Human Problems is not a record but a series of three EPs, the band’s first foray back into the format since the Books EP in 2004. They were written and recorded, without a producer, in Glasgow over the course of 2017, making them the first meaningful output from the group to be entirely cut in their hometown since Storytelling in 2002. There’s songwriting contributions, as is now standard, from Jackson and keyboardist Sarah Martin and, as the title suggests,
10
Feature
Music
Interview: Joe Goggins Photos: Gaëlle Beri
they’re a little more outward-facing and ambitious of concept than could be said of their classic EPs of the 90s. Murdoch, in fairness, has remained Murdoch throughout the band’s existence, with his Twitter feed strongly suggesting that he continues to enjoy the simple pleasure of spending time out and about in Glasgow, just as he used to two decades ago when he wrote of riding on city buses for a hobby and turning tables round in Marks & Spencer. True to form, he calls in to talk through the EPs from a bike ride pit stop in a Govan park. “At the start of the process, there was a feeling of us having two distinct choices,” he explains. “Do we go back to London, or back to America, and do an LP? That would have been the same way we’d normally do it, where we’d prepare twentyodd tracks, get a producer, and whittle it down to about twelve. In the end, we thought, ‘we’ve been doing that for the past dozen years, so let’s go with the other option.’ That meant going back to Glasgow and recording what we wanted, when we wanted, and just focusing on making the individual songs as good as they could be – we weren’t thinking about how they were going to be released at that point. It’s probably an old-fashioned way of going about things, but the crucial thing was that we were keeping it interesting for ourselves, if nobody else.” “I think it was all a bit of an attempt to keep ourselves lighter on our feet,” adds Martin in a separate call. “We haven’t really had any extended breaks from the road in a few years now, even going back to before the last album was out, and we thought that we could maybe spend those shorter periods of downtime in between tours recording three or four songs and putting them out there and then, rather than going through the usual cycle of album, long tour and then long break. “In the end, we didn’t announce anything until we had all the music together, so it might have ended up as [an] LP, but I think people have shorter attention spans these days anyway, so even with all three EPs coming out in quick succession, presenting the music in a more bitesize way than usual is no bad thing. It means it’s a bit more like a shotgun than a bullet, which I hope means there’s more of a chance of us hitting the clay pigeon, so to speak.” Like Peacetime before them, all three instalments of How to Solve Our Human Problems feel disparate and wide-ranging in their stylistic approach; the band are generally used to writing and recording over a much more focused period than was the case this time, and the languid pace at which these EPs came together seems to have bred a sense of adventurousness. “It was maybe going to be a little bit more conceptual, in the early stages, than it’s ended up being,” says Murdoch. “I came up with the title pretty early on – I just had this notion that that’s what the next thing was going to be called. It seemed like a little bit of a gesture to use a title like that – as if there’d be some kind of answer on each EP to that question, to how we’d solve our human problems. There isn’t, obviously, but it is the name of a really good book, a kind of modern Buddhism textbook that I’ve been studying for the last three years.” Murdoch’s interest in Buddhism sees him regularly attending meditation classes. Martin’s been to the odd one, too, “but it didn’t stick. It’s a big deal for Stuart, though, and I think he had the idea of doing three EPs based around two different belief systems, but it just became the sort of thing that would’ve been too contrived. It’s better that they’ve ended up more loosely connected.” It’s difficult not to think that the full-circle nature of the band’s return to Glasgow to work on a series of EPs might seem more profound to
THE SKINNY
longstanding fans than it does the group themselves; similarly, it’d be easy to read too much into the fact that How to Solve Our Human Problems represents their first releases since they celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister. “It’s not as if we’ve gone right back to that time,” Murdoch laughs, “because we’re talking to you! We haven’t clammed up and gone shy again. I think these things probably just tend to come in cycles. You get bored, and you want to do something else, and break away from the last thing you did.” There were other possibilities on the table, too; “We thought about maybe doing an LP with just guest singers – that was an option, but in the end, we realised that we still had songs bursting out of us, and that was the main thing: that we had something to say. It was nice to go in without a producer, and instead, just trust each other, that we all understood the direction we were heading in. The process is a lot less painful than it was twenty years ago, when there were eight of us kind of thrown together, and some of us didn’t even know if we wanted to be in a group.” Despite the cascade of classics that the Jeepster-era Belle & Sebastian produced, they were clearly not as tight a band as the presentday iteration. “I think we’re in a much better place than we were in the 90s, in a lot of ways,” explains Martin. “A lot of the time, you felt as if you were being torn apart, because the people around you were pulling in different directions. Not everybody was sure if they wanted to be in a band, and the whole thing had come together by accident, really.” She agrees with Murdoch that there was never any chance of a wholesale return to the aesthetic of the early days, even if circumstances outside of the band did play a part in the decision to return to Glasgow. “I don’t think anybody was ever thinking, ‘we’ll not tour this time, and we won’t do photoshoots, or we won’t talk to the press’; we’ve grown out of that by now, out of necessity in some respects. There was another incentive for being
February 2018
closer to home, because a couple of folk had kids last year... I think, in general, we’ve regressed in some ways and grown up in others.” Murdoch was one of those parents that Martin mentions; he and his wife welcomed their second son, Nico, in November 2016, in the early stages of the writing of How to Solve Our Human Problems. Inevitably, it’s something that’s informed his work since, even if he’s characteristically tongue-in-cheek about it. “Plenty of songwriters have gone to seed that way! It’s not always been the healthiest thing for rock and roll, and there’s probably some artists where I won’t seek out the later records for that reason, you know? But it changes your life, and so your perspective will certainly follow, and I think it’s been for the better for me. Rock and roll is a young man or woman’s game, obviously, but I’m prepared to be a hypocrite and say that our group has still got something interesting to say. It’s just that it might be less of a shout and more of a whisper. More of an accompaniment to your morning walk to work than something you’ll be dancing to on a Saturday night.” Ultimately, becoming a father is just one of a number of things that coloured Murdoch’s view of the world and his way of working over the years; the seismic shifts in the music industry over the past couple of decades have inevitably taken their toll, too. “That’s something that’s always been rumbling away somewhere in the background,” he relates, “but I think now, more than ever, it’s impossible not to notice how things have changed. That was especially true this time around, coming back to Glasgow to work on new songs. There’s obviously nothing like as much money going around these days, because people don’t buy records any more, and that means you have to fall back on your own skills much more. For a lot of bands in Glasgow, that privileged position that we’ve been in, of being able to go abroad to make records, it’s something they don’t have available to them.” There are, though, positives to the present state of play, to Murdoch’s mind at least. “What it
does mean is that people have a lot more humility in the business now. I’m not saying that we were ever very rock and roll, but you can’t afford to be pretentious any more, which is a good thing. Younger bands are having to beg, steal and borrow to make music, so I think established groups like ourselves should be making more of an effort, too.” One of the consistent criticisms that’s been levelled at Belle & Sebastian in the past, and specifically with reference to their early records, was that their songwriting was insular, that they were navel-gazers without much to lend to the conversation when it came to social commentary, but three years ago, on Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Murdoch began to dip his toe into political waters. That album was already in the can by the time the Scottish independence referendum came to pass in September of 2014; Murdoch, who considered himself a staunch unionist at the beginning of the process, had swung around to the pro-independence side of the debate by the time polling day arrived. “I didn’t exactly paint my face with the Saltire, but at the same time, it was kind of like the levee broke for a lot of people. They saw an opportunity for a new society. It seemed like England was lost, and that perhaps we could have it our own way, and have a more just society. I’ve probably pulled back from that a little bit since, because there was the realisation that we might have just ended up with the same divides up here. I think the moment’s possibly passed now.” Still, it’d be putting it extremely mildly to say that there’s been no shortage of further material to be mined for political lyricism since. “I’ve had my flirtation with that now, I think,” he explains. “The whole thing of responding to politics, and the media, and what’s going on in the world around me; some people do it better than others. I’m no Billy Bragg, that’s for sure. At the end of the day, in terms of my own personal experience, it’s not like I’m going down the pits for a living. I’m
Music
not in the union, and I’m not living in a country that’s being bombed every day, so I’m not sure how authentic it’d be coming from me. Plus, if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s all that useful to stand back and start throwing volleys of abuse at politicians. They’re perceived to have done us a load of harm, but am I that much better a person than the usual targets you see in the news?” How, then, to solve our human problems? As far as Murdoch’s concerned, it begins with tackling them on more of a micro level than a macro one, by recognising our own contributions to the world’s issues, by seeking to improve ourselves, and by putting kindness and compassion before all else. For his own part, he feels as if he’s making progress, even if his worldview continues to evolve as he moves into middle age. “There’s a track on the third EP, There is an Everlasting Song, that myself and Stevie wrote about a year ago, and that is pretty close to where I am at the minute in terms of my own philosophy. “The ideas are in play all through How to Solve Our Human Problems, I think, but that’s where they’re clearest. I feel quite humbled to admit this, because I’m almost fifty; you’re supposed to sort your mind and your attitude out when you’re in your early twenties, you know? But my viewpoint changes all the time. I want to be a better person, and calmer, and more charitable, and even in the past three years, I feel as if I’ve made steps towards that. I know it’s the sort of thing that probably sounds obscure and obtuse to say, but if you can become that person yourself – if you can solve your own problems first – you can see the positive effect it has on the people around you. If more of us went down that route, it’d be really helpful. That’s the way forward.” How to Solve Our Human Problems Parts 1, 2 are out now and Part 3 is released on 16 Feb via Matador Belle & Sebastian play Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 24 Mar; SWG3 Galvanizer’s Yard, Glasgow, 25 May belleandsebastian.com
Feature
11
Sleep with the Fishes Ahead of the release of his Beauty and the Beast-esque romance The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro talks to us about pitching movies, ‘Make America Great Again’ and what love is
“I
said it’s R-rated, it’s Sally Hawkins, she masturbates, and they fuck. If that’s alright, we’ll make the movie.” Mexican director Guillermo del Toro is giving us an idea of the pitching process for his latest feature, The Shape of Water. Following 2015’s Crimson Peak, this new film is another romance with fantastical elements and plentiful gore, albeit one with a more hopeful streak than that gothic tale. Set in Cold War-era America in 1962, Shape follows Elisa (Hawkins), a mute woman working as a janitor in a high-security government laboratory. Bar friendships with her co-worker, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and closeted gay neighbour, Giles (Richard Jenkins), Elisa lives a somewhat isolated, routine-based existence. That is until, one day, she encounters a classified specimen that’s been brought in to her workplace: a humanoidamphibious creature (à la Creature from the Black Lagoon), played by Doug Jones, that’s being held in captivity and experimented on by a tenacious colonel (Michael Shannon) and a more empathetic scientist (Michael Stuhlbarg). As a Beauty and the Beast-esque relationship develops between Elisa and her fish-man, a plan is set in motion to free the creature before it’s dissected. “I pitched it to one single entity,” del Toro tells us, “which was Fox Searchlight. I did that because Alejandro [González Iñárritu] had a great time with them doing Birdman. And I pitched it and I knew it was working because, like when I was pitching Pan’s Labyrinth, at the end everyone was crying and I was choked up. I could barely finish the pitch. It’s working because it’s an act of communication. People think you can get all these business books about the movie business – bullshit. Instead, do you have something that hurts you? And can you communicate that hurt or that hope? And they said yes. Then I pitched it in black and white and they said no. They said we’ll give you 16.5 [million] if it’s black and white, if it’s colour it’s
12
Feature
19.5. I said, hell, I’ll take colour! I’ll take colour for 19.5. And I said I’ll colour code it so that colour becomes an advantage and part of the beauty.” Though the quantity of his directorial output has been on the upswing of late (Shape is his third feature in five years), del Toro is nearly as well known for movies he almost made as for those that did make their way through the brutal greenlighting process. To name just two, he was originally set to direct The Hobbit before studio troubles delayed production, while H.P. Lovecraft adaptation At the Mountains of Madness fell apart in 2011 due to budget concerns for an R-rated film, despite Tom Cruise and James Cameron being attached as star and producer. What made him persevere with The Shape of Water at this moment in time, over, say, the sequel to Pacific Rim (he retains a producer credit on that Steven S. DeKnight-directed blockbuster), which is due for release this spring? “I really, really needed to make it,” he says. “We were prepping Pacific Rim 2 and there was an impasse where they said we’re gonna delay it six months and the choice was: do I wait six months for a big payday, or do I get the fuck out of dodge and make the movie that is gonna be super risky and is not gonna pay me a single cent? But I needed to make it and I went, ‘I’m getting the fuck out of dodge.’ “It was urgent for me because I am 53, I’ve done ten movies and nine of them have been paraphrases of my childhood. This is the first movie I’ve made as an adult, and the way I feel as an adult. I may have originated it when I was six, but the way I talk about the movie, I talk about it like an adult and about adult concerns. About what I think about love, which is when you look at me, and you don’t look at me like I’m incomplete, then that’s love. That’s love. You don’t need to change; you don’t need to do anything. That’s it.” Like most of del Toro’s filmography (which also includes The Devil’s Backbone, Cronos, two Hellboy films, Blade II, and Mimic), The Shape of
Water is informed by the director’s much-discussed affinity with the monsters, spirits and outcasts of fantastical fiction of the past. But while Beauty and the Beast and Creature from the Black Lagoon are obvious reference points for the story, the film’s setting and period details bring to mind a wealth of movies that have looked back on early 60s America with scrutiny.
“ People think you can get all these business books about the movie business – bullshit. Instead, do you have something that hurts you? And can you communicate that hurt or that hope?” Guillermo del Toro
Certain scenes in Shape recall Joe Dante’s Matinee, a satirical comedy about a small-time film producer capitalising on peak Cuban Missile Crisis hysteria to promote his latest monster movie. When we bring up the comparison, del Toro seems intrigued, but suggests Cold War-set films didn’t inform his vision for the film. “No, [but] that is a good movie. Matinee is the Cuban Missile Crisis at its height, which is inter-
FILM
Interview: Josh Slater-Williams
esting because [Dante] juxtaposes the horror film with the horror of that madness, so it, topically, is about that. I think this is more about using an America in ‘62 that was idealised to the point of fantasy – America in ‘62 became ‘Once upon a time,’ So the imagination of the US is that when they say, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ they’re dreaming of that America, which is a fantastic America if you’re a white male heterosexual. The rest of the people don’t have a great deal. “It’s an America that is obsessed with the future,” he continues. “That’s why in the movie, the colour green is used for the future, whether it’s the fucking gelatine or the car or the striping of the walls in the lab. Everything that is the future is green. There’s a huge wealth that comes through to America after World War II. There’s an influx, there are houses in the suburbs, tailfin cars, TV in the living room, TV dinners, the Space Race. And then Kennedy gets assassinated; the Vietnam War escalates. And that green ends up being the carrot at the tip of a very long stick for the horse. And people think, why didn’t we fulfil that? Why don’t we have a car in every garage? Why don’t we have the money? And then you’re open to ideology, so it’s about now. “If you look at the problems that are depicted in the movie – sexism, casual racism, horrible racism, the Cold War – these are exactly the same things that are alive [now]. But if I do it in the present, I lose two things. I lose the ‘once upon a time’ – this ‘once upon a time in 1962, there was an America that never came to be.’ And in it there was a monster. And where the monster lived, there was a woman that cleaned toilets for a living, in silence. Then you have a fairytale. If I [set] it now, it becomes a movie which reads to be [solely] political, as opposed to that being just one flavour. It’s about now. And then it dates it and it kills it and it takes the magic away.” The Shape of Water is released 14 Feb by 20th Century Fox fox.co.uk/shape-of-water
THE SKINNY
February 2018
13
Peripheral Visions London-based Rehana Zaman discusses instances of less obvious – but no less potent – forms of political resistance from people whose experiences are often marginalised
Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf
O
n Friday 9 February, from 7-9pm at the CCA there is a preview for London-based artist Rehana Zaman’s first solo show in Scotland, Speaking Nearby. Talking about the work she’ll be showing, Zaman here describes the possibility of a political position that doesn’t assume unchanging or fixed power dynamics but finds surprising ways of resisting and subverting power relations within what seem like stable dynamics, as well as describing a few of the elements of the three film works that form the basis of Speaking Nearby. The films that will be shown at CCA are selected from the previous three to four years of Zaman’s practice. Thinking about the distinctiveness of each of these works and her own rhythm of research and making, Zaman describes the process of being immersed in each as they were being made. Underlying all three films are common processes of research and specific ambitions, which nevertheless do not dampen the variety of contexts and working methods that are present throughout her oeuvre. One of the most pressing concerns for Zaman is to centre the narratives and experiences of people that somehow exist on the geographical or social periphery. For instance, in the upcoming Glasgow show, the new work, titled Lourdes, comes
from an interaction with one market trader during a period of residency in Tepito, Mexico during 2015-16. The area is known for its notorious bootleg and knock-off market, but is also being threatened by government buyouts and gentrification. Within this, resistance on the part of the market traders and residents is mostly structured around matriarchy and strong, women-led organisation. The interview that forms the basis of Lourdes revolves around a discussion about the kinds of innuendos that permeate informal speech and conversation in Tepito, as well as Mexico more broadly. “Someone might be talking about a table, but the innuendo is something to do with an orgy, but you would never know unless you were really fluent.” The linguistic term used to describe this kind of slang is ‘albures,’ and these are often compared to similar ways of speaking in Creole, for example. These subtle, coarse and usually sexual turns of phrase are, to some extent, “impossible to translate. The film is [in this sense] slightly ridiculous as Lourdes is trying to explain how it works, but the translation is always falling short.”
14
Feature
The protagonist speaks from a working class perspective about how this language originally comes from a way of existing before and during colonialism. It is a way to “undermine the hierarchy they find themselves in, as they can communicate without anyone knowing.” Doing so, “destabilises certain norms and is quite subversive as it resists power structures in a way that doesn’t just set up us against them, but exists inside a system and disrupts from within.” In Lourdes, the local tensions involving state and international private interests are thus addressed through “this woman talking about slang and giving a brief background to the area.” The lateral direction of discussion comes from Zaman following “what feels right in that moment,” and complicates any overarching or simplistic idea of the power relationships of those involved. Rather than relying on, or reinforcing a binary of who does or doesn’t have power or agency in a situation, Zaman describes ways of appreciating that “after a while, oppositional-type politics has an emotional weight to it, and that [she is] increasingly trying
to find a way to articulate politics or a position through other ways to think that are dynamic.” She raises one suspicion that there is otherwise the risk that, “You end up reinforcing the thing you’re trying to dismantle.” While Lourdes is structured around one encounter and type of filming, Zaman’s works often incorporate several experimental genres and techniques within single films. This is the case in Tell me the story of all these things, which will be showing in CCA. It includes a staged cooking demonstration, a nebulous body, screenshots from Prevent’s e-learning website [the UK government’s ‘anti-radicalisation’ programme] and an intimate probing interview with the artist’s sister Farah. After using the idea of “pleasure” to think about Lourdes, Zaman also speaks about intimacy and pleasure as ways of describing her strategies of filmmaking, in place. “How do you embody a politics that isn’t just rhetoric, that is sensitive, and that has emotional dynamics that will sustain you and space for other positions to sit beside you?” In particular, the part of the film that involves
ART
a direct interview between Zaman and her sister Farah, also activates parts of Zaman’s own biography without the artist including herself more obviously in the film. For Zaman, she’s “already present in the film, through editing, or a hand that you see,” and putting further emphasis on herself would be “really boring.” An important theme of the interview is being recognised and misrecognised for different reasons and in various ways. In the film, her sister speaks about being brown-skinned, and “acknowledging the coding that is going on here and that she’s battling around as a woman in her 40s,” says Zaman. ‘Coding,’ or ‘to code’ can be understood as a term here to describe the problematic action of others who make frequent and automatic assumptions about Farah’s appearance in a way that is without basis and usually stemming from attitudes of prejudice. For instance, Farah challenges some of the associations that might be made about those who wear religious clothing. She speaks candidly about how “I used to be embarrassed wearing a hijab, but I’m now more interested in provoking a response.” But Farah also compares the experience of wearing the abaya in Dubai and how it differs here. While it might be pleasurable to wear only the abaya in the warmer climate of United Arab Emirates, chances are that in colder places like the UK, the abaya may just be one layer of many. So while the experience of the abaya in Dubai could even feel sensuous and sexy, this might not carry over to the UK. This is one of the subtly different experiences that challenge the kinds of ‘coding’ that’s involved in understanding the experience of a Muslim woman, and how it changes dependent on many circumstances. This leads Zaman to think more broadly of collectivisation that takes place around certain categories of experience, religion or skin colour, and that there are also “discrepancies” for which allowance should be made. To put it another way, there’s the opportunity for “alliances that don’t appropriate experiences, and that don’t smooth them over.” This kind of interaction and political organising that is sensitive to difference and which features in parts of Zaman’s work, charges the upcoming exhibition with a sense of urgency and excitement. Rehana Zaman, Speaking Nearby, CCA, 10 Feb-25 Mar, free theskinny.co.uk/art
THE SKINNY
When They Call You A Terrorist Three women came together to form an active response to the systemic, violent racism enacted in the USA – the Black Lives Matter movement. When They Call You A Terrorist follows the life and activism of co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors Interview: Rianna Walcott Illustration: Xenia Latii
“W
hen they call you a terrorist, you tell them the truth.” – asha bandele To be labelled a terrorist by the US Government – along with the likes of Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, the entire Black Panther Party and countless other black rights activists – may be nothing short of an honour. They called Martin Luther King Jr. a terrorist too, but the white American cultural memory is short. In 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, three women – Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors – came together to form an active response to the systemic, violent racism enacted on black people in the USA, and globally – the Black Lives Matter movement. When They Call You a Terrorist follows the life of Patrisse, the prominent African American activist, written together with the award-winning author and journalist asha bandele. Her memoir shows us that first and foremost black women are shaking up the world, but they’ve been kind enough to keep us in the loop. This is a narrative of knee-buckling adversity, but also, triumphantly, so much tenderness and love. asha talks of the book’s title and the trope of the ‘black terrorist’ in the United States. She tells me that the memoir was informed by her long friendship with Patrisse, and also a rage at the narrative set by the US Government and media, which has been consistently used throughout history in undermining black struggles for freedom and equal rights. On the persistence of the ‘black terrorist’ trope, Patrisse explains, “Black people have always been a threat to white supremacy, which seeks to undermine our fight for freedom and dignity. ‘Terrorist’ has simply replaced ‘communist’ in the American lexicon – a term that is salacious, causes public fear, and is a distraction to what’s really happening: black people putting their lives on the line, challenging white governments about our extra judicial murder.” asha continues, touching on the origins of rebellious blackness: “Drapetomania was a psychological condition ascribed to black slaves who wanted freedom. Our resistance to white supremacy has always been branded subversive.” With this memoir, Patrisse and asha set the record straight, redefining what it means to be a ‘terrorist’ through recollection of a life under the terrorism of the US government. The memoir is threaded with excerpts from reports, legislative documents and news clippings – much like Reni-Eddo Lodge’s 2017 book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, this deals in history and statistics. More so, they are woven into real life, humanising the people government action affects, and reminding us how black life is often the first to suffer. Patrisse explains that by providing historical context alongside personal experience, she shows that black life isn’t experienced in a vacuum, and how black experiences are impacted by government, policies, and the culture of white supremacy. As with life, many important people satellite Patrisse: it can at times be difficult to keep track of how they fade in and out of her story. Timelines overlap in ways that can be confusing, and the layered tragedies are difficult to keep track of. Recognising that this is real life rather than a novel, in which tragedy often does overlap, I asked how
February 2018
Patrisse and asha manage to stay whole and healthy amidst misery – a question about declining mental health that is all too relevant to black people. Patrisse insists that “every black person globally deserves a therapist as part of the reparations package” and recommends that activists make space for “what makes you joyful and restored, as opposed to just able to cope.” asha offers a reminder of how life can be, particularly for black women, noting, “We don’t have the proper structures within societies and organisations to care for ourselves due to a capitalist model that requires a constant output, particularly from black women who are constantly having to prove ourselves. We can’t rest on our laurels like white men! I know what to do – how to eat, how much to exercise, all the tricks – but I am never actually allowed the space to give myself to myself before I give myself to the world.” Still, asha says that she feels her best in the mornings when she writes in her journal all the things she is grateful for, including her daughter. She has a space to be still and quiet, and has worked to create a home grounded in peace and love.
“ We can’t rest on our laurels like white men! I know what to do – how to eat, how much to exercise, all the tricks – but I am never actually allowed the space to give myself to myself before I give myself to the world” asha bandele
The answers they give, which value tenderness and joy as restorative, are reflected throughout the book. Patrisse speaks fondly of everyone in her life, and is often at pains to remind us of the humanity of black people. After traumatic confrontations with police, we are reminded of how young and helpless a twelve year old is, as if to counteract the premature aging black children experience at the hands of society. There are constant mentions of the physical size and muscularity of the black men in her life, juxtaposed with their gentleness – an underlining that the two are not mutually exclusive. I asked both authors who these reminders of black gentleness were for, and also who the mantra ‘black lives matter’ was being told to.
”I’m talking to everyone,” answers Patrisse. “Black people often don’t give ourselves room to be tender, and this is specifically written to allow black people to feel feelings, be vulnerable, to share honestly in a way that is uncommon for us. Black Lives Matter as a movement is a reminder for us first, and then a reminder to like-minded people to join to the state of action and emergency.” ”Patrisse is blessed by men in her family who love her deeply and treated her well,” continues asha. “This was profoundly moving to me, and we didn’t imagine a specific audience: it’s just truthtelling as she saw it and knew it, a complete, honest narrative rather than a caricature. We’re putting that truth out for the entire world. As a movement that’s what Black Lives Matter does: it allows black people globally to speak for themselves and demand dignity and respect.” On the subject of telling, of making visible a lifetime impacted by oppression, I ask about the hypervisibility of black trauma on a global scale. While the memoir makes clear that the impacts of institutionalised racism are not new, the very nature of the book in addition to the impact of the digital age means that these stories have a
BOOKS
new reach. This is a double-edged sword, allowing for public awareness and therefore action against the oppression we face, but also the normalisation of our visible pain. Patrisse captures this tension: “Black people are able to share our most intimate and vulnerable moments, to grieve and to connect to each other, but also this gives white people an insight into our pain which can be traumatic – opening the space to let them see can feel cheap. We need to challenge the need for white proof of our trauma.” asha also shares how this visibility may have activated a generation, but allows white people to make entertainment out of our torture. She concludes that it is “important to acknowledge a life harmed or taken, but in telling the whole story we also need to see images and stories of black joy, black beauty, black love.” For me, that’s what this memoir does, in a nutshell. Patrisse and asha tell a fuller story, with not just pain but also joy and intimacy, disrupting the single narrative of black people as one-dimensional or less than fully-human. A reminder that every part of our lives matter. When They Call You a Terrorist is out now by Canongate theskinny.co.uk/books
Feature
15
Positive Space We speak to Ought frontman Tim Darcy about the Canadian band’s third album, Room Inside the World
Interview: Chris Ogden
im Darcy is a little flustered at the moment. “I’m a little out of breath right now because I just ran up a flight of stairs,” he laughs. The lead singer and guitarist of Montreal four-piece Ought has been out grabbing a sushi roll for lunch, and we get hold of him just as he gets home to discuss the band’s new record Room Inside the World. It’s a nippy afternoon in Montreal, on the back of a few days hitting -20C, and we’re in half a mind to let the frontman stick the heater on and take a breather. Once he’s settled down a bit, Darcy’s a thoughtful, curious conversationalist – the words ‘interested in’ pop up constantly as we speak – and he seems more than happy to fall down rabbit holes with us. It’s been two-and-a-half years since Ought’s last LP Sun Coming Down, a gap which Darcy calls “deceptive” as the band have still been exceptionally busy. In that time, the quartet toured the LP for a year, spent time rehearsing and recording then took a bit of time off as they changed label, from the Montreal-based Constellation to the bigger indie label Merge. “The project of the third Ought record was something that we all were very much on board with, as far as wanting to be more adventurous with sound and very much make a studio record, whereas the first two [LPs] were much more live and hectic,” Darcy says. “We wanted to take time we hadn’t taken before to write in that really concentrated way. We did lots of demoing ourselves and really thought about the sounds we were getting. I think it’s really evident in the record.” The first impression one gets of Room Inside the World, Ought’s third album and their first on Merge, is that it’s definitely a fuller work than any they’ve done before. “The process was pretty long – long for us,” Darcy says, correcting himself. “We spent five months writing and then recording it. Compared to Sun Coming Down, we did that whole thing in two months. The first record, we were just a band about town and, like, kids, pretty much just jamming whenever we had a minute and writing songs over the period of a year then recording them in three days.” Ought did the early work on Room Inside the World while they were dotted in different places, sending each other songs and whole albums to listen to. “People would just upload everything from visual art to little pieces of ephemera, or uploading a song and [saying] ‘We like this synth tone’,” Darcy said. “It was cool to have done that in a way that we never did – it was communication first and very much with the project of expanding our horizons.” By sharing little nuggets they’d discovered and bringing those ideas into the recording studio, Ought opened themselves up to influences that haven’t made their way into their music before. Take, for example, the bubbly bass, ominous strings and Kate Bush warble on lead single These 3 Things, or the propulsive Cure-influenced Disaffectation. There’s even Disgraced in America, which starts with guitars jangling like The Strokes and ends somewhere near the moody groove of X&Y-era Coldplay. While the LP has a low-key new wave vibe, Darcy stresses that Ought were keen to avoid pastiche, careful not to knock off particular bands or lock themselves into a particular time period. “In some respect, I think we had some of those songwriting sensibilities and now what’s present are the accompanying tones,” Darcy says of the album’s 1980s echoes. “There’s a big difference to us between using chorus on a guitar and being like ‘OK, we’re going to make this song like The Cure’.” The tone of Room Inside the World is a curious point, as the record seems mellower than the band’s previous output, particularly in the album’s middle stretch. Standout track Desire sounds unusually soulful for Ought, with Darcy’s yearning
Photo: Jenna Ledger
T
croon backed by horns and a full choir. Brief Shield, meanwhile, spends its four-and-a-half-minutes jazzily drifting along like a cloud – a far cry from the jittery release of More than Any Other Day. We ask whether Darcy thinks that’s reflective of how Ought has changed and grown as a unit.
“ I think there’s something on this record that’s thinking about creating positive space instead of just creating negative feedback loops” Tim Darcy
“There are moments that are mellower,” he agrees, “but I think there are other elements that are just as energetically elevated because we took more time and also we’ve just grown as songwriters. The goals of what we wanted to do with the songs had changed a bit, as far as being less interested in being pseudo-improvisational at times [as we were] on the first two records. We want to not lose that intensity but really go deeper
and think about craft. Being a little bit more compositional and patient with the parts enabled us to add additional layers of paint without sort of turning brown. “It’s funny that people talk about the new sound – there definitely is a development. I like to think of it as like if you go back to that first EP that we made [2012’s New Calm EP], the version of the song Pleasant Heart is half-speed and there’s quite a bit more happening production-wise. We just felt like we had a lot of that kind of juice in us as a young band and we sort of stopped messing around with that stuff for the first two studio records. It was more that we wanted to write in a way that would enable us to bring more of that stuff back.” Darcy names Brief Shield as his most surprising moment on Room Inside the World, calling it a “cult favourite” for the band that many fans will be surprised by. “We really love that song,” he says. “It has a different energy, but I don’t think it is so distinct from something like Pill [from New Calm], literally the first song we ever wrote which has this kind of croon like the softer side of Velvet Underground, or Yo La Tengo or something like that – bands we really look to for inspiration based on the way they got their hands dirty and were unafraid to go wherever the song takes them, which is something that I think is a characteristic of how we write.” The album closes with the song Alice, a track with two distinct parts. The first is built on an insistent off-hook tone and a steamy drum machine, while the second can only be described as an ecstatic odyssey. Aiming for a “transportational, get out of your body” thing, as Darcy calls it, the song shows Ought’s reverence for spiritual jazz – a thing the band also has form for in its older cut Forgiveness.
“We all love Alice Coltrane, particularly her synth records,” Darcy laughs, calling them “out of this world... One is Turiya Sings and the other is Divine Songs. For the most part they’re just synths and voice but they’re completely transporting. Those records mean a lot to us as a band, and I would say, even as a big part of having more synth on this record in general.” Ever since they formed in the wake of the 2012 Quebec student protests, Ought’s reputation has been that of a political band, albeit on a small scale. So how does Darcy think Room Inside the World compares to the band’s previous releases? “I think it’s as political as any of the records that we’ve made,” he answers unequivocally, saying all that’s changed is “nuances and subject matter... I don’t try to write intentionally political music. It’s very much for us an organic side effect of what we care about as individuals.” Reflecting on Ought in this way makes sense, as we compare an older Ought song like Clarity! – a rollicking assertion of consent that urges listeners to ‘ask her anyway’ – with These 3 Things’ lyric ‘I must remember to dance with you tonight’, a call to enjoy communion despite your inner demons. Small statements like these are Ought’s form of activism, in their own way a resistance against the status quo. “I think there’s something on this record that’s thinking about creating positive space instead of just creating negative feedback loops,” Darcy concludes. “That doesn’t mean that you can’t stand in opposition to things; it’s more the distinction of trying to grow something that will exist beyond your current moment.” Room Inside the World is released on 16 Feb via Merge Records Ought play Stereo, Glasgow, 22 Apr internetought.com
16
Feature
Music
THE SKINNY
Straight Out the Gate Currently supporting Milky Chance on their tour through the USA and Canada, Bathgate’s Lewis Capaldi calls us from Atlanta for a chat about his long journey to success and plans for the future Interview: Briony Pickford
L
ewis Capaldi shot to fame in a mere ten weeks with the release of his debut track Bruises in the middle of 2017. His debut EP Bloom only cemented this following, with just under 40 million global streams on Spotify. The Scottish singer-songwriter’s CV doesn’t stop there: he was also recently named one of Vevo DSCUR'S Artist to Watch 2018, as well as being longlisted for the prestigious BBC Sound of 2018. Capaldi is one of those people that sounds like he grew up on the stage. Guitar entered his life at nine years of age and songwriting joined at 11. He tells us stories of how he managed to steal the stage before he was even a teenager: “I spent a lot of time waiting in bathrooms, in pubs, until it was my turn on stage so no one could tell I was only 12 and throw me out!” This passion for performing stems from his childhood inspirations. “My parents listened to Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Queen and Elvis, so I heard those a lot growing up and my brother was big into rock’n’roll, but I preferred Busted. I think the first time I heard Paolo Nutini was the first time I thought, that is great music! “I love artists like The Maccabees and Kings of Leon, so quite indie, but I started listening to more pop music when I was about 18 and got really into Sia’s stuff.” His indie loving style is clear but Capaldi’s vocals are also very iconic and there’s a story there too. Watching a BBC documentary about The Beatles as a child, he saw Joe Cocker singing With a Little Help From My Friends and just fell in love with the low gravelly, gritty voice. “I just thought, I want to do that, but I was 12-years-old with a high-as-hell voice so it took time.” Now his voice has matured, his live shows are selling out and his fans can’t get enough of the beautiful humility of such stripped-back sets. With such success on his hands, his future has masses of potential, along with the added pressure to write what he thinks the audience wants to hear. Some artists would cave in this situation, but I think we can safely say Capaldi won’t be one of them. Currently in the process of writing his debut album, we of course ask how it’s coming along? “I’ve got six albums worth of music, I just don’t want any songs that feel sour or bitter. If I don’t think a song
February 2018
could be released as a single then I won’t put it on the album. I’m putting music out that I like and I listen to, so if people don’t like it fuck ‘em!” With plans in place to release his debut later this year/early 2019, Capaldi also has some collaborations in his sights. After working so well with Malay – who has worked with the likes of John Legend and Frank Ocean – on his debut EP, there are some more names he’d like to work with. “I haven’t thought much about that but obviously I’d love to work with Justin Vernon; Kanye West would be very cool, and definitely Sia.” With Ellie Goulding and One Direction’s Niall Horan already among his fanbase, perhaps these dreams aren’t so unrealistic.
“I’m putting music out that I like and I listen to, so if people don’t like it fuck ‘em!” Lewis Capaldi
Capaldi’s success straight out of Bathgate is one that he hopes will show that you don’t need to move to London or New York to make it big. He credits his school’s music facilities and enthusiasm for furthering his skills as a musician from a young age. “My school was always supportive of playing music and I had lessons there, so I think that helped… I was the kid who was shit at P.E. and good at singing. If I wasn’t doing music I’d just be sat in my house on my Xbox in my pants.” His love for music and performing is not one of a lonely detached singer-songwriter, it’s welcoming, and Capaldi is an obvious supporter of everyone having an opportunity to be involved in music. “Being able to turn people’s heads and inspiring them to play music would be brilliant – I’d love it if the story of my journey had that effect.” Lewis Capaldi plays O2 ABC, Glasgow, 17 Feb lewiscapaldi.com
MUSIC
17
Blunt Force Trauma Lynne Ramsay is back with crime thriller You Were Never Really Here. The Scottish director tells us about channeling Sam Fuller B-movies, collaborating with Jonny Greenwood and getting a performance from Joaquin Phoenix that’s both brutal and tender
L
ynne Ramsay is four for four. Almost 20 years into her feature film career, she has made only a quartet of films, but none of them are anything less than excellent, and at her best she’s one of the most thrilling, penetrating stylists working in British film today. One can think of her pictures as a kind of ‘minimalist maximalism’ – little dialogue, but intense close-ups on characters’ faces that reverberate more than words. Her films are never very long, but their individual sequences are drawn out, with stark soundscapes and hallucinatory plays of light and darkness. If Ratcatcher (1999) and Morvern Callar (2002) were character studies and art films closer to a social realist mode, her third movie, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), and her new film, You Were Never Really Here, scratch the itches of character study and art film while bringing the exploitation thriller into the mix. Kevin, based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, spoke as much to the parents’worst-nightmare potboiler tradition of The Good Son and The Omen as it did to deep human insight about a woman questioning her maternal instincts. In the new one, based on a novella by Jonathan Ames, Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, living with PTSD from both war and childhood trauma, cutting through the fog of his suffering via employment as a soldier of fortune. Joe’s weapon of choice is a hammer. He’s hired by a New York politician to rescue his daughter from a child sex ring, and from there, a brutal odyssey into more fog begins. Some critics have compared You Were Never Really Here to hard-boiled avenging angel movies like Taxi Driver, Point Blank and Drive; we found it hard not to think of William Devane in Rolling Thunder, Paul Walker in Running Scared and Gena Rowlands in Gloria. Ramsay has previously talked about her admiration for Sam Fuller, and how he used genres to explore ideas beyond the
B-movie material. How does she feel about working in this realm? “I love films like The Shining, which seems like a straight horror film, but it’s really about a man going mad,” she says. “And I think within the construct of a genre, you can tell an exciting story, but also go deep into the psychology of things. You grow as a filmmaker, and you’re interested in different things at different times. “I was kind of brought up with 50s B-movies, in a way, and I’ve always loved the short form of telling a story. The reason I always mention Sam Fuller (Shock Corridor, Forty Guns) is, I think he’s pretty subversive for his time, speaking about things within this framework that were pretty controversial. Funnily enough, [We Were Never Really Here] ended up like those 50s B-movies, really economical, 95 minutes.” What gives the film its Ramsay touch, however, is less its genre conventions than its sensory expression. “The way it was made, and the whole spirit of it, had a kind of electricity,” says the 48-year-old filmmaker. “And it was so fast.” Shooting in the heat, and sweat, and grime of New York City also fired Ramsay’s imagination. “I was living on a small island in Greece when I was writing this – with no cars – so to go to New York, I was overwhelmed. I felt overwhelmed by the sound of New York after being in that environment, how it makes you feel like you’re going insane. The city sounded like bombs dropping, fireworks cracking, and I said to Joaquin (Phoenix), this is what you’re hearing in your head every day.” You Were Never Really Here is a brutal film, but it’s also a vulnerable one. Phoenix’s character is tough and expert, but he can’t win every battle. “Joaquin and I came at it thinking, ‘Let’s break every cliché you’d normally see,’” says Ramsay. “It’s based on a novella that’s a really gripping page-turner,
but the best thing about it for me was the character, because the character’s so flawed. You have this guy who can’t even save himself. He’s suicidal, he lives with his mum – I don’t want to give too much away about the movie, but it was such a flawed character that couldn’t solve the world in a way. It’s not the guy coming in with the six-pack who is invincible – it’s anything but.“
“ Within the construct of a genre, you can tell an exciting story, but also go deep into the psychology of things” Lynne Ramsay
Not only is the hero’s journey unpredictable, it gets to a point where we’re not even sure if it’s literal. After seeing the film once, you may feel the need to see it again right away. “I went really surreal with the end. The more he was kind of spiraling into madness, the more I could play with it. You think you’re going towards somewhere where you get the obvious conclusion, the big showdown at the end, and you don’t get the pleasure of that – he tips over the edge.” Surprises should even be in store for those who’ve already read the Jonathan Ames novella. “Jon’s quite a cool guy, so he knew I was going on my own journey with the story and it was quite different. The more Joaquin and I talked
Interview: Ian Mantgani
about it, it was becoming about a crisis of masculinity. There’s no easy resolution, he doesn’t get easy vengeance, he’s failing, he’s breaking down, and he’s kind of at a pivotal point where she’s the one that sort of lights him from within.” The ‘she’ Ramsay mentions is 15-year-old Ekaterina Samsonov, the young girl who Phoenix’s character saves from bondage in the first instance. But as Ekaterina becomes hiss sidekick, she shows a quiet strength of her own. What was it like, we wonder, directing a child through a story involving such tough stuff as bludgeoning violence and sexual exploitation? “She has an amazing screen presence. At first, I thought, she’s too beautiful, almost. She’s got this kind of luminescence, and she still felt like she was a young kid. Her parents knew I’d be really sensitive about everything. And they’re Russian, so they’re pretty tough! “I think her and Joaquin’s relationship helped, and that she trusted me, and that we hung out a lot. She’d come round at the weekends, and hang out beforehand. She knew it was dark subject matter... she was conscious about it, but she still has a kind of naiveté.” In other words, she was no drama school kid: “I don’t think her parents had made her do singing and dancing and acting classes, you know.” For the movie to get completed in time required a lot of effort from the dream team cast and crew, a lot of whom came to visit Ramsay early to make sure they were ready in time. “It was a sort of trial by fire way of making films, but it had the right elements,” recalls Ramsay. “Even the director of photography, Thomas Townend, he’d come to Santorini when I was writing this, and we’d done quite a lot of prep. We knew the film inside out, and I think that was the reason we were able to do it so fast. The same with the sound design, and the same with Jonny Greenwood’s involvement. The whole sort of mix of people, it was like a band, the way it clicks.” This is Ramsay’s second collaboration with the Radiohead guitarist, following his score for We Need to Talk About Kevin. “Jonny’s amazing, and a very modest man as well. I was showing him five minutes, then ten minutes, then 15, he didn’t know what was going to happen next – he knew the script, but lots of things had changed, and I think it made it quite exciting.” It sounds like this piecemeal reveal of the film has led to a similarly startling score. “The way we approached the music was, we get something quite familiar and then it goes somewhere completely that you don’t expect about Joaquin’s character. I’ve probably got another whole album of amazing Jonny Greenwood tracks! He doesn’t score to picture – it’s more kind of inspired-by, so you get a pretty long piece. And what now? Ramsay isn’t making films at a prolific rate, so we ask if that’s by design or happenstance. “It’s funny, with directors. I’ve had ideas that have been in gestation for ages. I don’t feel frustrated because there’s something I can’t get off the ground, there are just things that haven’t quite pieced together yet. I get so involved with every film I do. For me, all I want to do is be in a room thinking about ideas, being in my study thinking. I’m dying for that quiet time. To get back to working on lots of things I’ve been thinking of.” We look forward to them. Ramsay hasn’t let us down yet – and You Were Never Really Here gives us much to puzzle over and debate until next time. You Were Never Really Here is released 9 Mar by StudioCanal You Were Never Really Here screens at Glasgow Film Festival on Fri 23 & Sat 24 Feb; Ramsay will be in attendance
18
Feature
FILM
THE SKINNY
Chile Reception Gloria director Sebastián Lelio returns with A Fantastic Woman, the story of a young trans woman under suspicion from authorities and her older partner’s family after tragedy strikes. We speak to its Chilean star, Daniela Vega, about her first lead role Vega has just one prior supporting part credit on her IMDb page, so Lelio’s film is effectively her debut. And according to the actor, who The Skinny sat down with ahead of the movie’s UK premiere at the London Film Festival, the director sought her out for the part. “I didn’t have to audition,” she tells us through a translator. “The director wrote the film for me. Along the way, there were things that were changed and were added once I was involved with the project because he was doing the research before completing the script.”
A Fantastic Woman
A
recurring issue when it comes to representation in cinema is allowing characters from certain minority groups to actually be played by actors from those groups. When it comes to stories concerning trans women, it’s still often the case that cis men will be cast – think Eddie Redmayne being called upon to play the historically major trans figure Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl. In the case of Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club, an additional insult came from the star’s obliviousness in discussing his role as a trans woman that, disappointingly, got him an Oscar.
When Hollywood power players do comment on the lack of appropriate casting for particular groups, one common excuse is that there aren’t any or enough prominent performers from those groups with whom they can get films financed. This ignores the point that you can’t make movie stars out of, say, trans women unless you give them that chance. Over in Chile, that’s just what director Sebastián Lelio (2013’s Gloria) has gone and done with A Fantastic Woman, which features newcomer Daniela Vega, a 28-year-old Chilean actor and singer, in the lead role as a trans woman character.
“ The most beautiful thing for me about making film is that everything depends on everybody else” Daniela Vega
In the film, Vega plays Marina, a waitress and aspiring singer. Her cis partner, Orlando, is 20 years her senior and left his wife to commit to their relationship. After celebrating her birthday one evening, Orlando suddenly falls gravely ill and – spoiler alert, although it happens in the first 15 minutes – passes away not long after arriving at hospital. Instead of being able to grieve properly, Marina is treated with varying degrees of suspicion. Orlando’s brother is respectful of her, albeit clumsily, but the ex-wife forbids her from atten-
Interview: Josh Slater-Williams ding the funeral, hurling transphobic comments her way, while the son of the family threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Meanwhile, a detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in Orlando’s death, based on injuries he sustained in a fall on the way to the hospital. A character study by way of a thriller in some respects, Vega tells us “we saw films by John Cassavetes and Louis Malle” as part of the research for the film’s tone. Regarding the title, Vega sees it as less of a character assessment and more a comment on the story’s occasional bursts of magical realism, which include the late Orlando appearing to Marina: “I think the title is referring to her being a woman that has a fantasy. She’s fantastic because she can fly, she can go against the wind as well if she wants to.” Cinematic flights of fancy seem to appeal to Vega, as she says that Pedro Almodóvar is a director she’d like to work with, for the reasons that his films “do have a magic realism that is very interesting; that he works, basically, just with women; his stories are very entertaining; and that his aesthetic is very original.” As our short time wraps up, Vega summarises what she would most like people to take away from the film, and what’s been most special about the project: “I would love them to believe in the human being, and to understand that diversity is everything for the human race. The beauty of acting is that it’s a collective project. And the most beautiful thing for me about making film is that everything depends on everybody else.” A Fantastic Woman is released 2 Mar by Curzon Artificial Eye A Fantastic Woman screens at Glasgow Film Festival Sun 25 & Mon 26 Feb
12 Best Films at GFF Compiled by: Jamie Dunn Super November
You Were Never Really Here Lynne Ramsay continues her immaculate run of films with this fourth feature, a taut thriller following Joaquin Phoenix as a hammer-wielding vigilante tasked with rescuing a young girl from a child sex ring. Jonny Greenwood provides the score from Ramsay's intense, visceral images. 23 & 24 Feb
Let the Sunshine In Claire Denis – probably the finest filmmaker in the world right now – proves she can do anything with this romantic comedy following Juliette Binoche as a middle-aged divorcée making some unwise relationship decisions. Suffice to say, Denis upends every cliché of the rom-com genre. 24 & 26 Feb
The Party’s Just Beginning The GFF audience will be the first to gauge Karen Gillan's directing chops with the world premiere of her Inverness-set story about a young woman (Gillan) whose life is in a tailspin following her best friend’s suicide. 24 & 25 Feb
Beast The serial killer sub-genre gets a twist in this sexy and sinister thriller from debut feature director Michael Pearce, whose intoxicating visual sense is garnering comparisons to other great intimate stylists like Jane Campion and Lynne Ramsay. 24 & 25 Feb
Faces Places Octogenarian filmmaking treasure Agnès Varda takes to the road with a hipster doofus (photographer and muralist JR) for a sublime celebration of people and their faces. As ever, Varda find the sublime in the quotidian, and this breezy doc proves surprisingly move by it's knockout ending. 25 & 26 Feb
Super November Josie Long’s love affair with Glasgow continues with this romantic comedy-cum-Orwellian dystopia in which a blossoming romance is interrupted by a right-wing coup. The two shorts Long made with Douglas King were delightful, so we’ve high hopes for their new ambitious-sounding feature. 3 & 4 Mar
The Rider We’ve heard great things about this lyrical drama from Chinese-born American filmmaker Chloé Zhao. Centred on a young cowboy with a love for rodeo, it’s reportedly a tender portrait of masculinity in crisis, with the cast made up of real life bronco riders playing variations of themselves. 27 & 28 Feb
Zama Lucrecia Martel’s long-awaited follow-up to her haunting psychological drama The Headless Woman sees the Argentinian filmmaker tackle Antonio di Benedetto’s classic novel. It centers on an officer of the Spanish army going through an existential crisis while overseeing an 18th-century Spanish colony perched on the Asunción coast. 25 & 26 Feb
120 BPM Robin Campillo’s deeply moving follow-up to Eastern Boys mixes the political and the personal as he follows the activism of the Paris branch of ACT UP during the Aids panic in the late 80s as well as the romantic imbroglios that form between the members if the movement 26 & 27 Feb
Columbus This visually striking indie debut from Kogonada follows the tentative relationship that forms between a young woman with a passion for architecture and a world-weary man (John Cho) who’s visiting her hometown of Columbus after his father died there suddenly. 22 & 23 Feb
Lean on Pete Andrew Haigh brings his distinctive stripped-back style (no non-diegetic music, few camera moves, unadorned performances) to this coming-of-age film following a 15-year-old boy and his friendship with the horse of the title. 24 & 25 Feb
Foxtrot Samuel Maoz’s debut was the extraordinary four-men-in-a-tank war thriller Lebanon, and the Israeli filmmaker’s follow-up – a triptych following a family in crisis – is said to be similarly surreal and nightmarish. 26 & 27 Feb Glasgow Film Festival runs 21 Feb-4 Mar glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival
February 2018
FILM
Feature
19
20
THE SKINNY
Always Ascending It’s been 14 years since Franz Ferdinand burst into the mainstream with Take Me Out. Now the acclaimed Glasgow band are back with their fifth album and two new members. The Skinny sits down with them to ask how they’ve stayed at the top for so long Interview: Chris McCall
t’s been more than four years since Franz Ferdinand released their last full-length album but the band has been far from quiet in that time. There was a collaboration with Sparks in 2015 – the well-received FFS – followed by the 2016 standalone single Demagogue, which predicted the rise of Trump with uncanny accuracy. If that wasn’t enough, the group lost a founding member that same year in Nick McCarthy; the stylish guitarist announced he could not commit to another world tour with a young family to support. Lesser bands may have called a hiatus or pondered a solo project or two. Franz Ferdinand instead chose to press the reset button. It was time for FF Mk II. Recognisably the same while still refreshingly different. Two new members filled McCarthy’s berth. Julian Corrie, a musical polymath otherwise known as Miaoux Miaoux, was first to sign up. He was followed by Dino Bardot, sometime member of the 1990s and The Yummy Fur. Both are well known in Franz’s home city of Glasgow. Given the band’s success since forming in 2002, they weren’t short on offers. “When we first started looking for someone people would call me up,” frontman Alex Kapranos tells The Skinny over tea in a Glasgow hotel. “The guys from Midlake, who I worked with last year, were offering suggestions. Then there was a guy from LA, and a guy from Germany. But we’re a band from Glasgow. It came down to recommendations from friends. I was at a screening of Lost in France, with Stuart Braithwaite, Emma Pollock and Paul Savage. Elisabeth Elektra, Stuart’s girlfriend, had recently worked with Julian, and all of them individually recommended him. So I gave him a shout, we met for a curry at Mother India’s Cafe, had a few drinks, we got on, and eventually went to the studio and it sounded... good! You just know. I’ve been in bands where it just hasn’t worked.” Corrie, sitting alongside his new bandmate, agrees there was a spark from the off. A respected producer in his own right, it’s unlikely he would have joined a group to be little more than a hired hand. “My background is in electronic music, and I guess when I joined the band I wanted to bring a little bit of that with me,” he explains. “The very first song I heard when I went to the studio was Always Ascending. I thought it sounded great.” That song – an infectious, synth heavy stomper – is the lead single and title track of their new album. It represents a departure from the sharply hewn indie rock that made them famous, but still feels at home in their growing back catalogue. Could this change of direction have happened without the addition of new members? “When Bob [Hardy, bass], Paul [Thomson, drums] and I started work on this record we were taking it in a certain direction,” explains Kapranos. “We were experimenting with the kind of sounds you can hear on the finished album. But that’s what drew us to Julian – we wouldn’t have been able to get those sounds if he hadn’t come along to help out. He is a master of that stuff. We introduced something key to the sound of this record straight away with Always Ascending. It was the first track we had written and arranged as you would with a piece of dance music. It was done with a sequencer and then we took it away and learned how to play it as a band.” Corrie laughs off suggestions he was brought on board as a great disruptor to the classic Franz sound. “I guess in any situation, where someone
February 2018
new comes in, there will be a bit of mixing up,” he says. “I think I wanted to come in and be myself – I didn’t want to come in and think I had to behave in a certain way. I was obviously aware of the band’s work. It did feel like a very collaborative thing. I think that was the idea from the start – come in with your ideas, what you know how to do, and we’ll see what happens. And it really works.”
“ One thing that can kill a band in the studio is the fact you have no audience.... but Philippe, it’s like playing to a Barrowlands audience concentrated in one human being” Alex Kapranos
The record was written and recorded initially at Kapranos’ home studio near Dumfries, before the group teamed up with acclaimed dance producer Philippe Zdar. The Parisian has worked with an impressive list of heavyweights, including Phoenix, Cut Copy, The Rapture and Pharrell Williams, and his energy in the studio clearly rubbed off on Franz. “Philippe works super fast,” says Kaparanos. “There’s no fannying about. Different producers react in different ways to how you perform as a band in the studio. Some are more interested in sculpting the sound, others are more intuitive. One thing that can kill a band in the studio is the fact you have no audience. There’s no response. When you perform live you react to the crowd’s reaction. Some producers are just looking at the mixing desk – but Philippe, it’s like playing to a Barrowlands audience concentrated in one human being.” When they first rose to prominence in 2003, Franz famously said they wanted to make music for girls to dance to. Now, with a synth expert in Corrie on board, and the skills of a French superproducer to call on, they could push towards a new electro sound like never before. “The reaction I’m getting from most folk is that it sounds like a Franz Ferdinand album but that it also sounds very different, which is exactly what I wanted to do,” the frontman adds. The day The Skinny sits down with Kapranos and Corrie just so happens to be the 14th anniversary of the release of Take Me Out, the single that launched the band to international stardom. Franz were an integral part of the indie rock revival of the early 2000s, but not being based in London meant they could remain separate from it. Few of the bands they shared column inches with back then are still around today. When asked what the secret to their longevity is, Kapranos offers a
Photo: David Edwards
I
straightforward answer. “I think we’re making something that is worth listening to,” he says. “I like being in a band. It’s a good laugh. Bob and Paul are my pals. We’re in it together. Getting the band together was not a device to launch my solo career. We were hanging out playing gigs in our pals’ flats, that’s why we got it together and that’s why it is still going, I guess.” Corrie, who has the perspective of viewing the band’s rise from the outside, believes a desire to reinvent is crucial. “I think what sustains bands is curiosity,” he adds. “And there’s a lot of that with these guys. People who are making music, art, or whatever, follow that thread. If you simply start thinking: ‘this is what I do’, you can lose that. The acceptance to try new things has been great.” An often overlooked element of Franz’s success is the support of their label, Domino. Few artists remain with the same record company throughout their career. In the 21st century it has become rarer still. Co-founder Laurence Bell signed the then four-piece in May 2003 and that relationship endures today. Kapranos dismisses any suggestion the band has ever considered moving elsewhere. “With Domino, it’s a personal rather
Music
than a business relationship,” he says. “It’s about the relationship between the band and all the people at the label who have been there for years. I remember meeting Laurence in Mono in 2003 and then I saw him again two weeks ago – he’s the same guy. You build up a mutual respect and understanding. We’re very fortunate as not all bands have that. Our debut album was licensed to Epic in the US as Domino is very small in the States. But my god – there were some nice people there but the atmosphere at a major label is really, really different – there’s a lot of competitive sport references.” 2018 promises to be a busy year for Franz Ferdinand. They already have 60 shows booked for the months ahead, with more to be added soon. Among them are a homecoming show in Glasgow and a main stage slot at the city’s TRNSMT festival this summer. The week after speaking to The Skinny, the band heads to Tokyo. “It’s very exciting,” grins Corrie. Welcome to Franz Ferdinand Mk II. Always Ascending is released on 9 Feb via Domino Franz Ferdinand play the O2 Academy, Glasgow, 17 Feb; TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow, 8 Jul franzferdinand.com
Feature
21
Time in Joy We speak to Field Music’s Peter Brewis about how transition, both personally and politically, has informed the group’s new album, and how they’re tackling it head on with a dose of positivity
O
n a light industrial estate in Sunderland, Field Music have spent nearly seven years crafting their art. Their time spent at the unit is now at an end. The area is being demolished, driving Peter and David Brewis out of the creative space they’d crafted for themselves. The band have been forced to face a period of flux and uncertainty. And so has the wider world. It’s unsurprising then that the personal and the political collide on the band’s new album, Open Here. Reflecting on the thematic scale of the record compared to their 2016 LP Commontime, Peter Brewis says that “the new one’s more about how we deal with the things that have been going on in the world and things that have been difficult in our personal lives too.” As its title might suggest, Field Music cast their net more widely on the album, looking out on to some of the world’s most pressing issues. As Brewis puts it: “it’s the obvious things: Trump, Brexit…” These topics cast a long shadow across the record, but Field Music try to find ways to humanise and personalise the subjects, examining them through an often relatable lens. So, for many, news of both the Brexit vote and the later American election may have reached them via the medium of social media, and this was no different for Brewis. “I went to bed thinking, ‘yeah, it’s gonna be fine, of course it’s gonna be fine’ and then it wasn’t! I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe the messages I was getting and I thought to myself that it was me being stupid and that’s the problem,” he says. The experience helped inform Checking On a Message, a track that mixes this experience with wider commentary on social media. “It happens all the time on Twitter and Facebook: it’s where you get the information you do and don’t want to know about, but you can’t really ignore it.”
“ We are essentially white, male, in a decent socio-economic group and we have all the power in the world to do something. We’re the privileged minority”
It’s that sense of feeling privileged that helps inform the album’s lead single, Count It Up, which asks the listener to reflect on their own situation (‘If you can go through day to day without the fear of violence / Count that up’). According to Peter, David also includes the band in that checking of privilege. “We are essentially white, male, in a decent socio-economic group and we have all the power in the world to do something. We’re the privileged minority,” he says. “We need to realise that and then not just be thankful for it, but do something positive with it.” In their own way, that’s exactly what they do on Open Here. In spite of all the issues that inspired it, there’s a sense of defiance surrounding the album. It’s a record that’s thematically dark, but a desire to create something positive and upbeat becomes the driving force behind the LP. “Despite everything that was going on in the world, we were determined to have fun making the record,” Brewis says. “The point really is to face these horrible things and use music as a joyous thing and as an incantation to face these feelings and to fight it.” He doesn’t deny or diminish the feelings of anger, despair and sheer frustration that recent world events may stir in someone (“that’s not to say that that’s not how I’ve felt, because it is bleak and it is dark”) but notes that “there is a tendency not to fight it and to wallow in it, to find the romance in being in the darkness.” Field Music wanted to find a different way of tackling these emotions: “I’m well capable of doing that, but I decided not to do that.” The result is possibly one of Field Music’s most stylistically diverse, big and bold records to date. It literally opens up their sound, moving away from the more distilled, compartmentalised approach of Commontime to something far grander in scale. On top of tight rhythms, funk-inflected melodies
and hooks, it packs in a wealth of additional instrumentation at every possible turn, from sweeping string quartets and blasts of saxophone to strident synths, flourishes of flute and even some flugelhorn. Count It Up was even written on David’s son’s toy keyboard, while No King No Princess is a supremely exuberant cut challenging conventional gender stereotypes by enthusiastically telling children that ‘You can dress up how you want / And you can do the job you want.’ For the most part, musically it fights despair with joy, isolationism with expansiveness, anger with unbridled release. Brewis puts it best: “we’ve gone all out.” The knowledge of their impending eviction from the studio played some part in this direction: “we knew we had to finish recording before we got kicked out.” The ever-looming deadline simply spurred them on in the recording process, creating something looser, freer and more uninhibited. “I think we let the performances kind of run and we let some, almost, mistakes creep in. There doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of mistakes in there though!” Brewis laughs. At a time when people seem to be increasingly fragmented, Field Music also sought to create their own tight-knit community of musicians to contribute to the LP. “I think because it was the last thing we were doing in the studio, we got more people in to work with us,” Brewis says. “We wanted to include as many people as possible.” Their cast of contributors includes their regular string quartet of Ed Cross, Jo Montgomery, Chrissie Slater and Ele Leckie, as well as the Cornshed Sisters, but they also welcomed saxophonist Pete Fraser, flautist and piccolo player Sarah Hayes (Admiral Fallow), backing vocals from Liz Corney, and Simon Dennis on trumpet and flugelhorn. While the Brewis brothers did have an idea of how they wanted each element to sound, often
Interview: Eugenie Johnson
writing out each part for their collaborators to play, there was scope for each contributor to bring their own unique touches to the record, giving it an even greater dynamic. “Quite often people would say, ‘well we can add this to that’ or ‘we need a bit here’ or ‘we need you to do something we can’t even imagine’!” Brewis says, “Everyone got involved in that as well, so there’s some flute and saxophone things that I would never have thought of.” Field Music are taking those positive vibes and shared experience on tour with them, bringing along Hayes and Fraser for most of their upcoming dates. But before that, they’re having to say goodbye to the studio they’ve called home for over half a decade. Much like the album though, it’s a task they’ve taken on in high spirits. “We had a little get together and it was the first time in seven years we’d ever spilt a beer in the studio! It was unlike us!” Brewis laughs. “So yeah, we gave the place a send-off and we’re going to have to shift all the stuff out now!” Luckily, the brothers may already have found a new space to turn once again into their own studio. “I think we possibly have, in Sunderland again. But we haven’t signed the lease yet though!” he explains. Looking ahead, he feels confident that, wherever they may reside, it’ll have a positive effect on the band’s next steps. “It’s always the case that a new space should affect the sound and utilise the space that you’ve got to give the sound a certain character.” It’s difficult to predict where the world may be headed, but Field Music will undoubtedly be ready to face whatever comes next. Open Here is released on 2 Feb via Memphis Industries Field Music play Saint Luke’s, Glasgow, 17 Mar field-music.co.uk
Peter Brewis
22
Feature
Photo: Andy Martin
Social media doesn’t just force us to face and confront truths that are unexpected though; it’s also another contemporary outlet for exposing us to some of the horrors of the world, not least the ongoing conflict in Syria. As Brewis himself notes, Cameraman is about someone documenting these harsh times, while album closer Find a Way to Keep Me is “about a child potentially being separated from his or her parents.” For him, being a parent further heightens the emotions surrounding the conflict. “I would have thought it was horrible even if I hadn’t been a parent, but now I also think that that could have been my son if I didn’t live in a country which was not at war, being privileged to live in a place that’s free from that kind of thing,” he explains. “It’s not perfect at all by any means, but it’s not a day to day dangerous place and you’re not trying to escape it.”
Music
THE SKINNY
February 2018
23
24
Feature
THE SKINNY
They Fuck You Up Ahead of his UK tour, we chat with David Baddiel about his Olivier Award nominated show My Family: Not the Sitcom
W
e all know who David Baddiel is, so we won’t waste too many words introducing him. His writing credits go way back to satirical puppetshow Spitting Image, he and Frank Skinner wrote that Three Lions football song that still gets sung across the border, and with Rob Newman he sold out Wembley Arena way before any other stand-up could. Since then, much has changed in the world of entertainment. Comedy fans are now used to taboo-busting on-stage, usually accompanied by a smirk and an ‘I’m-just-saying’ shrug. One taboo that isn’t so easily challenged, however, is talking about our parents’ sex lives; our mothers’ sex lives in particular. Yet it is central to Baddiel’s new show, My Family: Not the Sitcom, with the details of a long-lasting affair his mother had with a golf memorabilia salesman, and how little effort she put into hiding it from her husband and three sons. “What I think is unusual is not necessarily speaking ill of the dead,” explains Baddiel, down the phone from London, “but speaking truthfully, and being happy to embrace the madness and the crazy stuff the dead did. But also what’s unusual is for someone to talk about their mum having sexual feelings.” When his mother died, it was natural for Baddiel to turn to comedy, and not therapy, to help him through it. “She died very suddenly, and I think that a way of processing that was to write a show which is 70% about her.” Baddiel is no stranger to therapy: throughout his long career, he has grappled with depression and intrusive thoughts, and undertook a decade of talk therapy in an attempt to start feeling normal. “Therapy is going into a room with someone and trying to make the random events of our lives into a story that makes sense to us. Really, the show is a series of stories about my childhood and my parents, and that must be therapeutic in some ways.” The rest of My Family is about his over-sexualised upbringing in the 1970s, and his father’s experience with dementia in later life. He explains that the show is also “a way of holding on to my dad.” To make sense of it, all of it, and to give an accurate representation of his parents in the telling, Baddiel’s focus is on not just the good parts of his parents’ life together, but all the weird parts too. The show is about them, their tumultuous lives, his own childhood, and about memory. “It’s about how we remember people and how someone with no memory can still be the person they used to be. With my mum, it came out of going to her funeral and people telling me how wonderful my mother was, and me thinking ‘well that means you didn’t really know her.’ If that’s all you can say about someone who’s dead then you’re erasing them out of existence. The way to remember someone is to be very honest about them.” Next to speaking ill of the dead, speaking ill of the ill is another taboo that Baddiel comes up against. He has already explored the difficulties of his relationship with his father in Channel 4’s The Trouble with Dad (2017): Baddiel senior now has Pick’s disease, a form of dementia which commonly leads to behavioural changes. Far from showing a perfect father transformed by disease, Baddiel insists that Pick’s has just amplified certain parts of his dad’s personality. Given all of this, it could be easy for the show to shock too much, to be too cruel, or to be too offensive. It is testament to Baddiel’s skill as a writer and performer and his compassion as a son that this has not happened. Overwhelmingly, the show has garnered positive feedback: “People tell me afterwards about their family life – one person told me about going on holiday with his parents, and with this other guy who he thought
February 2018
was his uncle, but it turned out he was having a ménage-á-trois with his parents. He said ‘I’ve never told anyone that before.’ Clearly the show is liberating. “Even though I’m talking about [my parents] doing mad stuff, people respond to them very well, because it’s true and it’s funny. That gets over any negativity that the show might be accused of.” Humour, we agree, is important to a comedy show, and especially important when it comes to anything morbid. “It’s not like this is never done – sometimes you go to a funeral and someone does a really funny speech. If you take the piss out of the person who’s died, you’re not necessarily doing it maliciously. You’re doing it partly to bring who they actually were back into focus. “My older brother – both my brothers had very complicated feelings about the show when they first heard about it – when he finally saw it, he said that he loved it, because it felt like our mother was in the room. People come up to me afterwards and say ‘I wish I knew your mum, she sounds amazing; your dad, what a legend.’ It feels like a real representation of someone who’s gone, and not a mythical one.”
He was their official spokesperson until about two years ago (“They needed someone younger and hipper than me. Professor Green took over”), and he is still emotive about men being emotive. “I’ve never believed the myth that men can’t express their emotions. Obviously, some men do find it difficult – some women find it difficult – but there’s no natural, legitimate reason why men can’t express emotion.” That said, he has previously referred to his father’s ‘incessant maleness and unemotionalness.’ This isn’t a trait that has passed along to
Interview: Jenni Ajderian
Baddiel junior, however: “If anything, I need to be stopped from expressing my emotions all the time: the show is very much a man talking about his feelings. When people are shocked by the show, they’re shocked by the freedom with which I talk about this stuff. But I don’t have much esteem for shame. My mother didn’t, and I have inherited that.” David Baddiel: My Family: Not the Sitcom, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 1 Feb; Citizen’s Theatre (Glasgow Comedy Festival), 13 Mar; Rose Theatre, Edinburgh, 29 Jun; Dundee Rep Theatre, 30 Jun davidbaddiel.com
“ What I think is unusual is not necessarily speaking ill of the dead, but speaking truthfully, and being happy to embrace the madness and the crazy stuff the dead did” David Baddiel
Instead of seeing his parents as simply objects of pity, Baddiel presents them again and again as flawed, strange and frustrating – as human. One may be dead and the other losing his memory, but they are still his parents and have still had a huge effect on him as a person. Part of the message of the show is how such a strange upbringing can then be overcome. Albeit after a decade of therapy, Baddiel is – nonetheless on stage telling his story to paying, laughing crowds all around the country. Aside from it being psychologically draining to go over the same strange childhood stories again and again, Baddiel says he is in a good place. “At some level, I’m at peace with how I was parented. In therapy I could never take my own damage, my own pain, that seriously, partly because it involves golf. I always ended up saying ‘then she had an affair and turned her life over to golf memorabilia.’ And then I’d think that was funny – I wasn’t able to channel that pain into any melodramatic, serious thing. I always saw it as comedy.” Comedians are expected to mine their own experience for material, which brings us up against yet another taboo: men talking about their feelings. Baddiel’s personal experience and advocacy for good mental health extends off-stage as well, with work for men’s mental health charity CALM.
COMEDY
Feature
25
People All Over the World Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky presents a solo show this month in Glasgow, in which he intends to broaden our understanding of the world-changing events of 1968 to share a greater appreciation of what was taking place that year outside of central Europe
Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf
Speaking about how he approaches these issues in his work, Brodsky describes how he does not seek out any single type of photography, and so he spans vernacular types of photography (e.g. school photographs, and the output of local shopbased commercial photography studios as they once existed), as well as press images and images that are taken artistically or out of documentary intention. For example, in one series about the war in Colombia, he created “an installation of images in the Archive of Modern Conflict in London that are from the personal album of a military lieutenant of the Colombian army and through that album I narrated the Colombian war.” These images documented “all the different parts of [the lieutenant’s] life and of the Colombian army and different events in which he participates. That is another way to use archival photography, to narrate history.” Overall, though, when it comes to choosing an image, “it depends on what you want to talk about. You do the research on what you want to shoot or research. It’s not important if the image is vernacular, if it’s press or it’s taken by myself. What is important is what you want to say. The narration as a whole.”
“ Latin America also had its ‘68... the killing of hundreds of students in Tlatelolco Square [is] as important as Paris”
T
his month Marcelo Brodsky presents a solo show in Street Level Photoworks. For several decades, he has been committed to promulgating images of marginalised histories and social mobilisation, both through his work as a press photographic agent and within his own artistic practice. Initially, he drew international attention for his archival research into the Dirty War in Argentina throughout the 70s and the start of the 80s, an extended era following a military coup there, and during which all levels of dissent were violently quashed and tens of thousands of political activists were killed – including Brodsky’s own brother. It was through these works that he became known for his idiosyncratic form of making photographic artworks: annotating historical photos in his own handwriting with further information about the people in the pictures, the setting or the historical epoch. ‘’I intervene in images, they are manipulated [and] transformed… Therefore, I can place words and deliver the message that the image itself contains: magnify it, and address it to different points. I change the focal point of the image, where the eye goes to.” For Brodsky’s Glasgow project, he looks to the politically charged year of 1968. For him, the events that are now associated with this year are “fundamental to how we think today; everything
26
Feature
has a relationship with what happened there.” What might first come to mind are the Paris student uprisings of May ‘68, when those in their late teens and early 20s made demands against the conservatism of regulations that limited their freedom. This discontent gathered support and a strong sense of unity was fostered across the students and workers on general strike at the time. This led to circumstances that eventually saw France tipping into civil war. Since then, for a lot of people the year ‘68 is synonymous with barricades and revolutionary fervour. Importantly, photographs are central to Brodsky as a means of being able to expand ideas of the importance of 1968 beyond the usual Continental European reference points. For Brodsky, the best way of conveying the impact of the extent of the 1968 upheaval “is through images, as they give the panoramic feeling of the whole situation around the world.” For Brodsky, his own distinct interest is in what was taking place beyond the usual centres of attention during 1968, and he sees this as being related to his position of being to an extent outside of conventional cultural centres, “away in Argentina, somehow in the margins.” Rebutting these ideas of Eurocentrism, Brodsky has searched for images of the political actions in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Chile. “Latin America also had its ‘68. What happened
to us in Mexico [was] the killing of hundreds of students in Tlatelolco Square. It’s as important as Paris.” Brodsky has been recently involved extensively in provoking national and international awareness of this violence. Some of his works are “at this moment in the Tlatelolco memorial centre, in the very same place where everything happened.” He is showing 30 3x10 metre images from the 1968 riots in the site of the Tlatelolco massacre, and he’s clear that this “is one of the most important exhibitions of my life.” It’s for this reason that as Brodsky’s work on the politics of 1968 circulates internationally, it is received in different ways depending on the national historical context within which it is shown. While Brodsky describes the time as “an anticipation of the glocal,” each of the country’s specific configurations and political narratives of the period differs. “It was certainly a global moment, and Paris was inspiring, but each location had its own movement. Bangladeshi protestors were fighting for independence, in Mexico there were demands for democracy, resources and the involvement of students, Cordova had a large insurrection, in Lithuania the issue was independence, in England there were actions against the Vietnam War, in the US there was the Poor People’s March with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.”
ART
It’s for this reason that the Glasgow exhibition not only contains photography, but also a sound piece. It has “the recorded excerpts of speeches by Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Daniel Cohn Bendit, Herbert Marcuse, and Agustin Tosco, whose ideas and actions fueled many of the protests.” For Brodsky, the images, the sound and the parts of text that he emblazons on the prints all come together to make a concept of history. As well as pursuing his own well-received artistic practice, and running a press photo company, to this day Brodsky continues to put “pressure on authorities to solve and prosecute recent unsolved mass murders” – as curator Anne Tucker writes in a recent publication that accompanied the previous version of the project that will soon be opening in Glasgow. Describing his relationship with other demands, he admits that he doesn’t have as much time for some of his other direct political pursuits (he alludes to an NGO that he ran for some time). Brodsky is now at a point where he has a full schedule of international exhibitions, invitations to show at world class biennales, and large scale public installations. Describing how he’s recently focused more exclusively on his art practice, he advises sagely: “You don’t have to have any more missions than the ones you want to take.” Marcelo Brodsky, The Fire of Ideas, at Street Level Photoworks from 10 Feb-7 Apr
THE SKINNY
February 2018
27
Full House Ahead of Creative Scotland’s highly controversial Regular Funding announcement and the premiere of Bingo!, their collaboration with Stellar Quines, Grid Iron’s Judith Doherty sits down with The Skinny to discuss funding, shows and touring
W
hen we meet at The Shore, Judith Doherty, the Chief Executive, Producer and Artistic Director of Grid Iron theatre company is chatty but nervous. In 24 hours, she and every other theatre company, theatre venue, and many more arts organisations in Scotland are due to find out if they have secured funding from Creative Scotland for the next three years. However, despite 22 years of consistently working, performing and touring (the company formed in 1995, with their first production, Clearance, premiering at the Traverse Theatre), and the recent news that the Scottish Government’s draft budget announcement detailing a significant increase in culture spending, Doherty is still anxious. “Despite the fact that the budget announcement was so positive, it’s hard to not be incredibly nervous.” She explains, over coffee, that it hasn’t always been easy to keep the money coming in and once they believed that their biggest production was going to be their last. “We really, really thought that Roam [staged at Edinburgh International Airport in 2006 with the National Theatre of Scotland] was going to be our last one – that was ten years in. We had had four years without any funding from the Scottish Arts Council, but we’d had bits and pieces from other places. And then we had six years of project funding. We were very lucky, we picked up a European City of Culture commission, which was great. We’d done a show at Edinburgh International Festival in 2002, which very much split opinion, but we hadn’t had any regular funding. The Scottish Arts Council [now Creative Scotland] had introduced, I think – it changes its name – Core Funding, then it was Flexible Funding and now it’s Regular Funding. So, we felt, right, well, this is the biggest thing we’ve done, it’s been ten years, maybe it’s time for us to move on, and then we got our first lot of Core Funding, and we thought, ‘Oh, right! OK!’” Perhaps, then, with their history of financial uncertainty it’s fitting that their latest show, the comedy musical Bingo!, a co-production with Stellar Quines, finds both companies exploring themes of money, community and as Doherty puts it, “The things that you do when there’s something that you desperately need, and the things that you do when you’ve done something that you shouldn’t have done; how we can all be driven to do extreme things, from desperation. “So many people are starting to look at bingo and the lottery as a sort of long term financial plan,” Doherty continues. “Pensions are difficult, savings are nigh on impossible, as is trying to get a mortgage if you’re not on the ladder already. It’s scary times and we’re looking for impossible dreams. It touches very much on that, and it touches on relationships between a mother and a daughter and their friends, and the whole community in a bingo hall and what that means.” Perhaps it is these scary times that we live in, where the cost of living is rising, yet wages stay the same that makes Bingo! so relevant. Directed by Stellar Quines’ Artistic Director, Jemima Levick, and written by Johnny McKnight and Anita Vettesse, with music by Alan Penman, the play is unsurprisingly set in a bingo hall, and follows six
28
Feature
characters over the course of one unforgettable evening. It’s a show that’s been five years in the making, and it all began when Levick was working at Dundee Rep. “When she was at Dundee Rep,” begins Doherty, “the staff of the theatre used to go to the bingo for a night out, and she loved it, so it was quite a big deal. So, we started gently to talk about that, but we hadn’t really over the past few years put a lot of thought into it, too many plans in place, we were looking quite far into the future. That was 2013, 2014.” Fast-forward to 2018, and Levick’s idea is very much a reality, with the production setting up shop in a specially built bingo hall in Edinburgh's Assembly Hall, although, explains Doherty, other venues were initially considered.
“ We’re very proud of being a Scottish company, not just an Edinburgh company” Judith Doherty
Roam
called Fierce. We absolutely adored that, and it toured, and that was the last time we did a show at Assembly, because it came to Assembly Rooms for that Fringe.” The 14 year gap between musicals was, as Doherty says, the result of waiting for the right idea, but interestingly, it was Fierce that allowed them to tour, and took them to Inverness, to Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, and brought them to Assembly Hall for the very first time. “We’re very proud of being a Scottish company, not just an Edinburgh company, so when we get the opportunity to go out, it’s a bit of a treat to
“We looked into bingo halls, and you know, they’re open from ten in the morning to ten or 11 at night, and with the best will in the world – and we have a very intrepid audience – we could maybe get people during the Fringe to come to a show in a bingo hall at 11 o’clock at night, but not in normal times. And they’re absolutely definitely not going to shut a bingo hall for a couple of hours at prime time to let us do the stuff. So this made us go, no, let’s put this on a conventional stage!” While the decision to perform the show in a more traditional setting may sound unusual for a company that is known for its site-specific work, from What Remains at the old Edinburgh University Medical School, to Decky Does a Bronco in a playground, Doherty is quick to point out that the company can perform anywhere. “There’s people questioning, ‘Why are Grid Iron doing something on stage?’ If you read our statement on our website, we never say we’re exclusively site-specific, because it’s about responding to the idea and responding to what the director wants to do and the designer wants to do.” The idea behind Bingo!, aside from the financial themes, is quite simple: community. Bingo halls are places that are traditionally female, a place where women can come together and relax, which makes it the perfect setting for a musical. In fact, it’s the perfect setting for Grid Iron’s second musical. “What we also want is a real sense of community of the audience coming to see this and getting a really shiny, lovely musical experience. I love musicals. This is only our second ever, music is really important, as you know, to our work, and this is the second time we’ve done a full on musical. The first time was in 2004, when we did a show
THEATRE
be in a building with dressing rooms and a bar and running water, and nobody has to wear thermals!” Two days later, it is announced that Grid Iron have secured their funding for the next three years, but other Scottish theatre companies have received a 100% funding cut from Creative Scotland. As Doherty mentioned during our conversation, “There is no shortage of ideas. There is no shortage of people wanting to make the ideas happen. There is always a shortage of money.” Bingo! runs at Assembly Hall, Edinburgh,6-17 Mar, before touring gridiron.org.uk/bingo
Judith Doherty
THE SKINNY
Photo: Richard Campbell
Interview: Amy Taylor
LI ST Y LE Words: Hannah Champion
Credit: Creative Commons
One Bordeaux resident offers a fun-filled guide to France’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’
FE
Wine and thyme in Bordeaux
I
should really have done a bit more research into Bordeaux before I moved here permanently. But — as is befitting of my organisational skills — I absolutely didn’t do any, which is why I sat on a bus from the airport nearly five years ago, staring out the window nervously at a mass of 70s architecture and high rises. But as the buildings clanked past they got more and more beautiful until voila! I stepped off in Place des Quinconces (one of the biggest squares in Europe, don’t you know?) and looked up. Mon dieu, it’s beautiful. I may be biased, but Bordeaux is the perfect French city. Called the “sleeping beauty” of France, it has undergone a major transformation in the last few decades. Sooty walls have been cleaned up and shutters have been repainted to reveal charming limestone façades and pretty boulevards. Bordeaux is like all the bijou parts of Paris jumbled together and all within walking distance. Cobbled streets twist between balconied buildings that haven’t ever changed: sometimes you can walk down some streets and forget what century you’re in. Haughty cats slink on tiled roofs; plant pots balance precariously on windowsills and church bells dong in the distance. It’s also full of genuinely nice people. Bien sûr, you get the odd stereotypically grumpy-faced French person, but most people are pretty smiley (and some have an almost Scottish sense of humour – check out the Serge the Llama escapade of 2013). Tourism is just beginning to really hit Bordeaux, so the visitor-fatigue of Paris hasn’t quite sunk in yet. Here are some dos and don’ts if you want to come visit my adopted city. Who knows, you might even stay.
DO… …drink Well, obvs: Bordeaux is renowned for its wine – we even built a wine museum in the shape of wine swirling in a glass (although I think it looks more like an old boot). There’s nothing better than sitting in an ancient square and sniffin’ and swirlin’ like you know what you’re doing. Visit l’Ecole du Vin next to Quinconces for cheeeeap delicious wine. It’s a
February 2018
sommelier school, so you can explain what you’re in the mood for and the students/servers find your dream glass. If you can’t get enough and want to take wine home, there are many caves dotted all over the city. If you’ve had enough wine from Bordeaux (it happens!) the Spanish restaurant L’Auberge Espagnole can give you international beverage relief with their list of hispanophone wines. If like me however, you prefer your glass G&T shaped you can do that too (don’t let them shame you!) The Bordelais are also all about their cocktails with mixology bars all over the place (try L’Alchimiste, La Comtesse, Calle Ocho (best mojitos in town) or La Vie Moderne) so really, not being a wine lover should not hold you back from that hangover. …eat Being veggie, I’m definitely a terrible person to give you advice on typical French cuisine, but I’m gonna try m’best. I have heard everyone raving about La Tupina and even if you may have to sell your car to eat there, apparently it’s worth it (you don’t need a car in Bordeaux anyway!) In Baud et Millet the cellar is ram-packed with cheese: stinking brie, creamy camembert, nutty comté… and armed with a plate you go down the stairs and take as much as you want. After several trips you can feel the lactose seeping out of your pores and your body succumbing to a cheese-dream sieste. Still haven’t had enough fromage? Go to La Petite Savoie for a traditional raclette. But restaurants aren’t the only way to stuff traditional French food right in your moosh. If you want the real deal then go to the market, buy everything, then eat it there, fresh. I’m not promoting biting the head off a still-wriggling fish but there is nothing better than sticky peach juice sliding down your arm on a hot Sunday morning. Check out the Marché des Capucins behind the Saint- Michel neighbourhood – bursting with cheese mountains and nipping crabs, fresh crêpes and steaming coffee on counters, purple cauliflowers and open pomegranates spilling their ruby red jewels onto the dirt trodden floor and the smell of cut flowers
and lemony oysters, here you fill up a basket with goods and then pour it into your tote. Open Tuesday-Sunday; you’ll find me at the herb stall. …get a bike In Bordeaux, my bike is like an extension of my body. Although the cobbled streets clank under your wheels and rattle your teeth out of your mouth, you really are lost without one. Find cheap bikes at the Saint-Michel market, on Leboncoin (the French gumtree/Craigslist) or sign up for a subscription with the city bikes. You’ll be ringing that bell at unsuspecting tourists in no time. …wipe your feet when you get home British author Stephen Clarke didn’t write a book titled A Year in the Merde for nothing folks. Also, if you’re wearing sandals, I advise you to either pack your bag with wet wipes or learn to look down. Dogs: a man’s best friend but a foot’s worst nightmare.
“ Bordeaux is like all the bijou parts of Paris jumbled together and all within walking distance” …party In Bordeaux you can party on a boat, in an old army barracks, on the riverside in a traditional guinguette (think Renoir’s Bal du moulin de la Galette) or in a submarine base. There are also some amazing roof terraces, try the Mama Shelter or Night Beach on top of Le Grand Hôtel to really feel like you’re looking down on the common people. If you don’t want to have to re-mortgage your house just
TRAVEL
for a pint, head to the Hôtel de Ville and climb the tower, or to Saint-Michel to climb La Flèche. DON’T… …worry about getting a job Are you a native English speaker? Pas de problème. When I first moved here I managed to find five jobs in three days. I literally had some mum come up to me on the street and try to take me home with her to teach her child English. Mums – particularly of the bobo variety (bohème/bourgeois: yoga, organic food, private primary schools) – are desperate for their children to learn the language and you won’t be short of job offers. Don’t want to teach English? Find a pub: you have about a million to choose from and if you don’t speak French it’s the best way to learn fast. Working in a pub is also a sure-fire way of finding the Bordeaux English-speaking community. …get homesick There are many places to go in Bordeaux if you need a friendly face or a familiar accent. The abundance of pubs are a safe bet, everyone who works there is happy to chat with you over a pint. Paul’s Place in the Chartrons area is a hidden gem. Run by adorable Cambridge born couple Paul and Jo, this cosy café is an Aladdin’s cave of books, knickknacks and paintings that cover the walls and ceiling. There is always something happening, whether it is a piece of theatre, an open mic session, a poetry reading, a ukulele concert or the local magician. …be surprised when you become a bread snob It’s normal. It’s just better here. French bread is the best: no danger, end of story, full stop. Don’t express it too much though when you go home, people get mad. #sorrynotsorry So if you do end up in Bordeaux come and find me, I’ll be the girl wearing a stripy top, swirling wine and groping peaches in the market. When in Rome, huh? I do draw the line at a beret though. Find more guides to starting a life in a new city at theskinny.co.uk/travel/living-abroad
Feature
29
The Lucrative Market of Singles Day Celebrations Words: Kate Pasola Illustration: Julija Straizyte
Anti-Valentine’s celebrations in the UK and US are frighteningly bland, but is copying Singles Day culture in China and South Korea the answer? days, South Korea’s Black Day also began with Valentine’s celebrations. Following Japanese custom, on Valentine’s Day in South Korea and many other neighboring countries, it’s down to the women to get the ball thoroughly rolling by giving out chocolates to their local hotties. For the record, South Korea’s varying stratifications of chocolates for different recipients is fascinating in itself, with lower-ranking giri-choco (courtesy chocolate) being given obligatorily to friends, acquaintances and colleagues; and fancier honmei-choco (love chocolate) reserved for the real subject of their affections. Also, it goes without saying that this all sounds pretty hetero- and cis-normative, but what’s new? One month later, on White Day, it is traditional for men reciprocate these offerings with chocolate and gifts – kind of like an IRL Tinder swipe, but with more toothache and fewer scrotal photoshoots. This time, however, they triple the value of the initial offering. Then, on 14 April, singles who didn’t receive chocolate or reciprocal gifts on Valentine’s Day or White Day have their time to shine. It’s Black Day, baby. They commune, donning moody garms and eating a dish called Jajangmyeon, of which the main components are noodles in an ink-black sauce. They gather specifically to commiserate, to complain about their dry DMs and to wallow, if just for a day. It’s such a brilliant (*cough* marketable) idea that trend forecasters and economists already predict it’ll catch on in the rest of Asia, perhaps beyond, underscored by a global obsession with South Korean pop culture and food.
I
t used to be uncool to show enthusiasm for corporate holidays – especially Valentine’s Day. Contemporary culture has dictated an unwritten rule specifying that if you’re part of a couple, you engage passively, eye-rollingly or ironically; if you’re single, you endure the day with enlightened contempt. End of unromantic story. But that was then. Before the world looked like the cutting floor of a Charlie Brooker writing studio – a higgledy piggledy unpredictable land where, for example, ballistic missile threats are texted to entire islands by accident. Nowadays, in a post-hygge Britain, any glimmer of normalcy, annual regularity and intimacy is our touchstone. With torn fingernails and blue knuckles we cling to greetings card days, dangling in the apocalyptic winds. Hallowe’en! Mother’s Day! National Tequila Day! And OK, if we must, Valentine’s Day! But, where does this leave single people on 14 February? After a failure (or reluctance) to cuff a boo over the winter, should singles be expected to spin both the plates of existential terror and romantic solitude? Surely not. But where it used to be enough to order in a single burrito and frozen margarita to one’s sofa while re-binging Broad City (true story – V. Day 2017), these days surviving Valentine’s Day as a single person seems to require more. It needs community. It needs a day of acknowledgement in its own right. It needs a hashtag. Apparently.
Singles Awareness Day (AKA S.A.D.) And if the above paragraph sounds unrealistic and reactionary, you obviously haven’t heard of Singles Awareness Day. I wish I was joking. As you’d imagine, everything about Singles Awareness Day is
30
Lifestyle
weak. The title, which reads like a charity wristband from 2006 is weak. The acronym S.A.D, insensitively yoinked from those suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder is weak. The prehistoric-looking website, which features every possible apostrophising of the term (Singles Awareness Day? Single’s Awareness Day? Singles’ Awareness Day?) is w-e-a-k. S.A.D. is to days of recognition as couscous is to potluck parties. Half-arsed, embarrassing and kind of an afterthought. Sure, Amy Poehler tried her darndest to come to the rescue, coining ‘Galentine’s Day’ on Parks and Recreation. And agreed, pouring out some Vinho Verde, screaming “EVERYTHING’S FINE” and furiously launching into a session of mutual validation to Lady Gaga’s Joanne sounds great and all. But that’s kind of an average Tuesday. Being a woman who dates isn’t just trash on Valentine’s Day, it’s trash most of the year too. We have systems and regimes in place for that already. Rather than a magenta ceremony of friendship (which, again, great!), I specifically want to wallow, but fashionably. I want to be single, but part of something. I want to ironically mourn ghosts of Tinders past, wearing all-black in a state of melodrama like Lindsay Lohan on Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Preferably eating carbs. Is that too much to ask? Black Day in South Korea Well, I’m glad I asked. Turns out that’s not too much to ask if you’re in South Korea. They invented the goddamn best day in the world, Black Day, observed annually on 14 April. But in order to understand the beauty of Black Day, we need to go back in time. Like all reactionary single-person celebratory
“ Being single is sometimes a fucking bummer, but flash sales and stolen culture won’t solve the problem”
Cultural exchange? What’s more, thanks to the internet and globalisation, many people in Southeast Asian countries (and, strangely, Belgium) now observe the festival too. It’s shaping up to be the world’s largest and most lucrative shopping festival, meaning businesses who trade internationally are likely to expand their efforts into places like the United States and Europe. Now, call me contrary, but this seems to be getting a little out of hand. A comforting, wholesome day for singles sounded great. A global mass-consumption drive operating under the auspices of empowerment, benefitting nobody but retailers? That’s a hard pass, lads. We’re already far too keen to nick cultural and spiritual practices from other places for the sake of a day’s entertainment. Between the likes of Dia de los Muertos ‘Mexican piss-ups’ or Holiinspired ‘colour battles’, brands and promoters feel entitled to mine the spiritual and cultural gold from other races and cultures without considering the consequences. And sure, you might argue that a shopping festival like Singles Day isn’t tethered to spirituality or racial history, but allowing brands and companies to set the standard of what’s fair game for ‘cultural exchange’ is surely a recipe for disaster, right? Plus – my god – the poor, poor plasticky ocean. Perhaps the lesson to be learned here is that neither capitalism nor cultural appropriation should be the answer to the UK’s horrifically bland Singles Day fare. Being single in a world that overstates the importance of coupledom is sometimes a total fucking bummer, but stolen culture or flash sales won’t solve the problem. At best, we can hope to follow the lead of countries like South Korea who’ve tailored a day around empathy, eating and cathartic melodrama. But until we come up with a comprehensive cultural blueprint for a day of our own, we’re stuck with S.A.D. We made this basic-ass bed, and now we must lie in it.
Singles Day in China China’s own Singles Day, celebrated on 11 Nov (11/11 – because you’re alone, remember?), already has broken into the international market. It began in 1993 at Nanjing Uni, and the name of the holiday ‘光棍节’ translates directly as ‘Bachelors Day’. Yes, I side-eyed too, but these days the holiday is celebrated by singles of all genders across China. Sort of like a mix of St Patrick’s Day and Cyber Monday, single people spend the day shopping, partying, eating and generally smashing up their overdrafts. If you’re thinking “wow, this all sounds pretty convenient for corporations whose profits rely on emotion-based impulse marketing!” you’d be right. Let’s crunch the numbs. Online marketplace Alibaba has trademarked the term ‘Double 11’, and every year broadcasts a Comic Relief-style countdown gala to drive sales. In 2017, shoppers in China spent $25.3 billion at Alibaba alone. To put that figure into perspective, Alibaba made more on Singles Day than the whole US’s 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined – a paltry $6.79 billion.
INTERSECTIONS
THE SKINNY
Literally the Worst For decades Adolf Hitler and his Nazis have been considered fodder for comedy baddies, lazy political comparison and Oscarbait tearjerkers. It’s time to introduce nuance and sensitivity into the way we discuss those who committed racial atrocities
H
umanity has seen its fair share of disaster over the last few years. The earth’s slowly burning to a crisp, or exploding into bomb cyclones, depending on where you live. Britain’s going into selfdestruct. Whale babies are dying from plastic poisoning. David Bowie is still dead. But as if these fresh new horrors weren’t enough, history has once again started to rear its ugly head, to the tune of an ominous goose-step. In August last year, when the Free World’s new overlord stood at his podium and referred to people on the neo-Nazi side of the Charlottesville incident as “fine people,” the faint stink of fascism began to waft through the air. Many people on social media began to wonder if the Commanderin-Chief might be halfway to growing a toothbrush moustache. Lists of parallels between Trump and Hitler began to circulate on the internet, only for the president to turn around and compare the actions of US intelligence agencies to life in Nazi Germany himself. At around the same time that Americans were busy crying ‘Hitler’ at each other, comparisons to 1940s Germany plagued the UK’s own Brexit saga. Take, for example Boris Johnson’s inflammatory comments comparing attempts to unify Europe under a single government to the aims of Hitler, just by “different methods.” Eight decades on from the Second World War, and we just can’t seem to stop drawing up disproportionate comparisons. Crying ‘Nazi’ and Godwin’s Law This compulsive Nazi name-calling isn’t a new phenomenon. Recent events may have brought Third Reich terminology back to the fore, but for decades, Hitler and the Nazis have been a catch-all comparison for anything that is ‘literally the worst’. It’s the go-to ‘bad thing’ for people who want to discredit other ‘bad things’. You may have heard of Godwin’s Law, which states that in every internet debate, “sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds.” Essentially, a calm
February 2018
discussion in the comments of a video about how to make vegan waffles will eventually end in some internet troll keyboard-yelling that ‘HITLER WAS A VEGETARIAN TOO’, at which point, according to Mike Godwin, the debate is no longer worth having. (For the record, the creator of the law suspended his own rule when it came to the Charlottesville white supremacists, declaring “by all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis.”) But the comparison gets bandied around for more trivial stuff than politics; the word ‘Nazi’ also tends to be synonymous with ‘person who is pernickety about things’: grammar Nazi, cleanliness Nazi, Feminazi (as a Jewish feminist, I particularly hate that last one).
“ Nazi Germany has, in profound and frightening ways, become a commodified brand of ultimate sadness and badness” Hitler in Popular Culture The world’s apparent obsession with Hitler doesn’t just appear in debate and political rhetoric, but all over popular culture as well. He’s provided an endless fount of inspiration for writers who need cartoon villains for their stories. You’ll find him in every medium under the sun: TV, movies, music, games, literature. Ultra-violent thrill fest Preacher, originally a comic book, depicted a tricksy Hitler scheming his way out of Hell. The recent revival of sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf included a reformed Hitler
with all his evil genes removed having a guitar jam with Craig Charles. He’s popped up in Misfits, Call of Duty, Doctor Who, a Kate Bush song, internet memes galore, and thousands of hypothetical questions about time travel. Many of these works are brilliant, and it’s undoubtedly vital to make art about traumatic events, even just to serve as a reminder. But it’s easy to slip from thought-provoking exploration to something far less meaningful. I’ll always chuckle at that legendary Extras episode when Kate Winslet notes that anyone who makes a Holocaust film has “Oscars coming out of their arses”, but the truth behind that joke stings. After all, in an ironic plot twist three years later Kate Winslet did win her first Oscar for The Reader, a film with the central question: ‘do Nazis have feelings too?’ Nazi Germany has, in some profound and frightening ways, become a sort of commodified brand of ultimate sadness and badness. Take Simon Amstell’s recent mockumentary Carnage, which made the case for veganism by including a scene in which visitors were given a tour around an eerily Auschwitz-like abattoir. Regardless of your meatbased morality, the parallel drawn here leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. Many viewers and critics interpreted the scene similarly, perhaps due to pervasive comparisons between race-based atrocities and ‘speciesism’ in more militant vegan discourse. If we’re comfortable with using a concentration camp as a generic symbol for an ‘all-round bad place’, it surely isn’t long before we begin comparing systematic genocide to farming; humans to cows. Diluting a tragedy The fact is, the more Hitler pops up on our TV screens and in our books and music, the more he starts to become a crafted image; simply a character or the token bad guy. But as much as we all wish he was fictional, the truth is that the ongoing effect that Hitler and the Nazis had on our world remains devastating and all-consuming.
INTERSECTIONS
Words: Rae Bennett Illustration: Sonny Ross
Whether or not they were directly affected by the Holocaust, all the Jews on Earth (and many other groups besides) live under the shadow of its legacy. This is not the kind of trauma that dies with a generation; it weaves itself into our culture and our history in unexpected and inescapable ways. It doesn’t feel great to be bombarded with spluttering, fake-mustachioed, comedy depictions of the man responsible for the deaths of your family members every time you switch on your telly – especially now, with a fresh rise of white supremacism in the West, and the fact that anti-Semitism continues to loom over Jewish communities. So, what’s the answer here? Must we ditch the Nazi chat from political debate and discussion? Is it time to stop trotting Hitler out for our entertainment, and spending money on watching his reign of terror play out again and again? And what is the effect when he appears in light-hearted sitcoms with a comedy German accent? Does it serve to mock and deride him, or does it diminish the real, tangible impact his actions had? Perhaps it’s useful, through our politics and our popular culture, to keep people like Hitler visible, so that their devastation and trauma is never forgotten. But whether it’s appropriate and necessary to mention or portray him comes down to sensitivity, common sense, and nuance – the latter of which has often absented itself from popular discourse in recent years. Too often, in the name of money-making or discrediting a political opponent, snap decisions are made without much thought about their impact. We’re living in terrifying times, and now more than ever is the moment to learn what we can from history. We must keep talking, keep writing, keep analysing and interpreting. Keep creating art that doesn’t let humanity forget what happened. Just remember that what we’re dealing with is history. Not a story, not a fable, not a metaphor or a symbol or a tool. Respect for the survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants must always come first.
Lifestyle
31
Fantasy Consumer
Beer
32
SHOWCASE
THE SKINNY
Haetae
Utopia
Eunjoo Lee E
unjoo Lee is a Korean illustrator and textile graphic designer based in Glasgow. Her subjects are diverse, but she is especially interested in modern society’s utopia and dystopia. She’s won several international awards such as AOI, American illustrator, 3x3 awards and more beside. Since graduating from Glasgow School of Art ahe has been running her own studio, polarbluebird. She’s currently working on a riso illustration zine artwork about relationships, while working with several clients. In particular, she is preparing a collaboration with Sosomoongoo, a stationery design brand based in South Korea.
Deep Web Traveller
February 2018
SHOWCASE
polarbluebird.com
33
MOROCCAN STREET FOOD
OPENING SOON! The owners of the well loved Hanam’s, Pomegranate and Laila’s Middle Eastern restaurants bring you their Moroccan Souq inspired street food eatery. Belly Dancing Saturdays Moroccan hand-crafted goods for sale
57-59 South Clerk Street, EH8 9PP Open daily from 11.30am to late Souq-Edinburgh.com Souq-Edinburgh@outlook.com 01316676601 @SouqEdinburgh /SouqEdinburgh
34
THE SKINNY
Trouble Bru’ing As Irn-Bru changes its recipe and sends the country into a frenzy, we dive into the sugary and complicated world of the fizzy drink Words: Peter Simpson Illustration: Jasmine Floyd
T
here are some things in life that shouldn’t be messed with, the little bits and pieces that act as reassuring constants no matter what else is going on. For the longest time one of those constants has been everyone’s favourite tangerinetinted sugar explosion Irn-Bru, the reliable friend of juiced-up children and hungover adults everywhere. But sadly, without wishing to flip your life upside down, we have some bad news. In the coming weeks, the classic Irn-Bru that you know and love will be phased out in favour of a new imposter soda that is clearly the work of the devil, or at very least some kind of health-obsessed Satanic sidekick. There’s been blanket press coverage of the switch, a Change.org petition ‘Hands off our IRN-BRU’ has just under 50,000 signatures at the time of writing, and there seems to be a general mild panic hanging over us at what’s to come, a panic which may not be entirely misguided if past events are anything to go by. One of the interesting things about soft drinks is how different they are from, well, ‘normal’ food. If you go to a restaurant and order a curry, you can probably identify most of the ingredients by eye. For the ones you can’t see, taste and smell will give you an idea, and if you want to copy the recipe you are free to give it a bash. But the most popular soft drinks are tightly-guarded proprietary collections of mundane ingredients, blended into an oddly-coloured liquid then injected with thousands of pounds of marketing cash and/or the direct endorsement of Santa Claus. Trying to work out what’s actually in a can of Coke from the label is like trying to get testimony out of a particularly unhelpful witness – ‘Natural Flavourings’ is the recipe equivalent of ‘up yours, we’re not telling’ – but there’s a ubiquity to its taste that’s made the fizzy brown sugar water a huge hit. So when Coca-Cola decided to change their near-century-old recipe back in 1985, they should have seen trouble coming. You don’t spend almost 100 years getting people used to one specific formulation of a load of ingredients they have no access to, then mess with the ratios and expect them to go along with it. The ‘New Coke’ sparked a fan revolt that bears a strong resemblance to the current outpouring of Irn-Bru-based outrage – there was a vociferous letter-writing campaign (check), and Coke fans started stockpiling the original recipe (mm-hmm). We haven’t yet reached the stage of fans “swinging [their] umbrellas at a driver stocking cases of the New Coke, yelling that it ‘tastes like shit,’” but give it time. Of course, given the extreme profitability of the sugary fizz industry there have been a host of goof-ups by the business over the years. There was Orbitz, the soft drink with weird gelatin balls floating in it. There was Pepsi Raw, a drink which tried to make itself out as healthy and natural, despite the fact it was a bottle of mysterious brown liquid with seven teaspoons of sugar in it. Then there was the time Coca-Cola were so concerned about Crystal Pepsi becoming a success that their marketing team decided to send their own clear soda, Tab Clear, on a “kamikaze” mission to make Crystal Pepsi look as uncool as possible. The point is that while the world of soft drinks is full of the kind of food science experiments that would make Dr Frankenstein blush, it’s an area in which drinkers are fiercely loyal and are personally offended by the idea of change. At this stage, we have to talk about what’s behind that loyalty – the white stuff. No, not
February 2018
cocaine; sugar. Eating excessive amounts of it is generally considered not to be good for you, and the classic Irn-Bru recipe features more than ten grams of sugar per 100ml. In other words, the reason that a can of Irn-Bru helps with your hangover is because it has eight-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar in it; you’d be struggling to get as much sugar into your system that quickly if you dived headfirst into the bag. For years, doctors and health campaigners have been looking at the best way to get us all to cut down on our sugar consumption, and the finger has often ended up pointed at soft drinks. Hence the new ‘sugar tax’ that comes into effect in April, which will lead to producers of sugary drinks paying an 18p tax per litre on drinks with more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, and 24p a litre on those that come in at over 8g per 100ml. That is unless they, say, modify the recipe to bring it under the threshold, helping protect the nation’s health while saving themselves some hefty scratch at the same time.
“ One of the interesting things about soft drinks is how different they are from, well, ‘normal’ food” That’s why the recipe for one of the country’s best-loved drinks is changing – it’s so sugary that it’s too expensive to produce, and if that’s not a red flag to maybe cut down on drinking the stuff, we don’t know what is. The new Irn-Bru will feature half as much sugar as the original, with artificial sweeteners making up the numbers. While many of the claims made against aspartame and the like don’t stand up to much scientific rigour, it is this writer’s considered opinion that artificial sweeteners taste terrible. Drinks with artificial sweeteners tend to feature an immediate and abrasive sweetness combined with a faintly metallic taste reminiscent of trying to eat a Kit-Kat without taking the foil off first. And that’s not a scientific fact, that’s just one man’s opinion. Coca-Cola, for their part, are cutting the sizes of their bottles and jacking up their prices rather than messing with their recipe, ‘once bitten twice shy’ apparently applying especially strongly when you bit yourself the first time round. Irn-Bru producers A.G. Barr are confident of their new recipe, telling the Guardian that “nine out of ten regular Irn-Bru drinkers could not taste the difference.” Maybe they’re right, or maybe their market research has sent them down a blind alley and we’ll be back to the sugary beginning by the end of the year, but one thing is undoubtedly clear: many people in Scotland love Irn-Bru, and they don’t really want it to change regardless of how bad it might be for them. When a drink becomes a ubiquitous part of the culture, it’s the drinkers who really control its destiny. As for whether we’ll see those drinkers waving their umbrellas at Irn-Bru lorries this summer, we’ll just have to wait and see. theskinny.co.uk/food-and-drink
FOOD AND DRINK
Lifestyle
35
Food News This month’s events guide features gin paired with science and running, a pair of new beer festivals, and a celebration of Chinese New Year Words: Peter Simpson
Hanging Bat
T
he month kicks off with A Glasgow Beer Event, a new beer festival with a can’t-miss name and a pleasing focus on dark beers rather than the usual flood of ‘hoppy and floral’ IPAs. There’ll be beers from a host of our favourite breweries including Alechemy, Top Out and Fallen, as well as a couple of your favourites in the form of perennial Food and Drink Survey winners Williams Bros and Pilot. 2 Feb, 6-11pm, 3 Feb, 12-5pm and 6-11pm; 249 Govan Rd, Glasgow; £10.50, tickets via aleselabeers.com Have you made a resolution to get healthy this year, but decided to give up on it and just eat and drink nice things instead? Well, Run the Sights can help you combine the two with their Pickering’s Gin Running Tour. After a quick potter around the Pickering’s distillery at Summerhall, you’ll head off on a four-mile trek around Edinburgh, before arriving back at the pub for more gin. This is the kind of healthy outdoor activity we wholeheartedly endorse. 4 & 25 Feb, 1.15pm; 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh; £20, tickets via runthesights.co.uk Next up, The Hanging Bat host a tap takeover from craft beer veterans Abbeydale Brewery. They’ve been brewing since the mid-90s, and have recently decided to shake things up with some interesting new styles so expect – in the words of the Hanging Bat – a mix of traditional beers and “some experimental madness.” That madness, we gather, includes a coffee & donut-inspired stout. Colour us intrigued. 8 Feb; 133 Lothian Rd, Edinburgh; facebook.com/theHangingBat Up in Dundee, Craft Beer Discovery brings together a host of great breweries from across the country for an afternoon of tasty, tasty beers. Edinburgh Beer Factory, Stewart Brewing, WEST and Dundee’s own 71 Brewing all feature on the line-up; the beer festival prerequisites of street food and your very own branded glass also make an appearance. 10 Feb, 12-4.30pm and 5.30-10pm; Bonar Hall, Park Pl, Dundee; £12, tickets via Eventbrite Over in Glasgow, it’s time to combine two of our favourite things – gin, and scientific chat! The Science of Gin sees Glasgow Science Centre team up with The Good Spirit Co to work through a half-dozen expertly selected gins and discuss the science behind them. You’ll try some tasty drinks, and you can have a G&T in a planetarium, which is always nice. 14 Feb, 7pm; Glasgow Science Centre, 50 Pacific Quay; £35, glasgowsciencecentre.org And finally, some food! Celebrate the coming of the Chinese New Year with a Chinese Street Food Festival in Edinburgh. Expect stalls showcasing a host of dishes from across China, in a scene that should absolutely baffle the hungover stag parties trying to watch the football on a Sunday afternoon. 18 Feb; The Three Sisters, 139 Cowgate, Edinburgh; facebook.com/the3sisters theskinny.co.uk/food
36
Lifestyle
New in Food After the fun of Christmas and the frenzy of our Food and Drink Survey, we round up some of the best new venues to throw open their doors in recent months
Bananamoon We love a good bit of intra-section crossover, so the news that the guys behind Optimo have helped bring a bar into the world was music to our ears. Bananamoon in Glasgow’s West End is a sleek drinking den designed by Optimo’s JG Wilkes, and from the photos it appears to be a pleasing mix of retro style and modern touches. That means a super-shiny corner bar and some tasteful seating, plus some neon light fittings and wild bits of foliage. We are in favour of all of these things. 360 Great Western Rd, Glasgow. The Black Hoof Do you like ham? If so, you’re in luck, as a walk past the window of The Black Hoof reveals a whole array of jamon just dangling in the window awaiting the slice. The tapas venue specialises in traditional, high-quality Iberian meats as well as imported cheeses and a host of classic tapas dishes. Next time you need to rustle up a cheeseboard, or just fancy a really tasty sandwich, this is the place to go. 171 Dalry Rd, Edinburgh. Bodega The second outpost of one of our favourite Mexican restaurants, Bodega make some of Scotland’s best tacos. And that’s not just our opinion – they were one of the winners in this year’s Food and
Drink Survey in that very category, so it’s your opinion too. Their new Tollcross spot is a charming one-room venue with tacos, cocktails and wonderfully cheery staff; it is also the size of a large living room, so we recommend calling ahead. 36 Leven St, Edinburgh. Dockyard Social An unassuming warehouse in Finnieston now houses Glasgow’s first permanent street food marketplace, The Dockyard Social. With ambitious plans to develop a culinary training academy alongside a year-round home for some of the city’s best food trucks, the Social could well be the final piece of Glasgow’s street food puzzle. They’re currently running a series of weekend events as a soft-ish launch for the project, but from the initial reaction it doesn’t look like they’re going to have any problems getting people on board. 95 Haugh Rd, Glasgow. Julie’s Kopitiam A permanent home for the authentic Malaysian flavours previously seen popping up all over the place as Julie’s Street Kitchen, the Kopitiam is a cosy neighbourhood eatery that’s the latest in a long line of foodie developments up and down Pollokshaws Road. Expect flaky roti breads, tasty rice dishes and a whole load of colourful and delicious new things to try. 1109 Pollokshaws Rd, Glasgow.
FOOD AND DRINK
Words: Peter Simpson
KIN Leave behind the thoughts of Dry January and check out the new bar from two of the finest minds on the capital’s cocktail scene. Sam Baxendale and Jody Buchan are familiar faces from their times slinging delicious drinks at the likes of Bramble and The Voyage of Buck, and their first project together hopes to bring a bit of cocktail style to (not-quite) Broughton Street. The bar menu reads like the most outrageous shopping list you’ve ever written – crème de banana, apple funk or Yuzuinfused saké liqueur anyone? – but trust us, you’re in safe hands. 1 Barony St, Edinburgh. Serenity Now Cafe A Seinfeld-inspired vegan cafe, you say? The latest addition to Glasgow’s excellent range of vegan options, Serenity Now threw its doors open a few months back in a hail of sandwiches, vegan breakfast options and even vegan dog treats for your canine pals. And before you ask, yes, you can order a Big Salad; just don’t try and take credit for it when it gets to the table. 380 Great Western Rd, Glasgow. theskinny.co.uk/food
THE SKINNY
February 2018
Lifestyle
37
38
THE SKINNY
RE V IE W
Teenage Kicks Unbelievably, it’s been 40 years since Kate Bush released her debut album, The Kick Inside; with that in mind we take a closer look at the record which was home to the timeless classic, Wuthering Heights
K
ate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside, is not her best album. The Dreaming is bolder and more experimental, leading both Björk and Big Boi to praise it as one of their respective favourites. Hounds of Love brought together the strands of Bush’s eclecticism into her most compellingly cohesive statement. Late-career highlight 50 Words for Snow is more expansive and ethereal. But The Kick Inside is where it all began, and everything that came after can be traced back to the seeds that were sown when a teenage Bush gifted the world a collection of songs that she’d been working on since she was 13. The album is now often remembered as the home of Wuthering Heights; a towering classic, surrounded by lesser, juvenile material. But leaving Wuthering Heights aside for a moment, there’s still a wealth of prime Bush to be found across the breadth of The Kick Inside’s 43 minutes. Opening track Moving was the only other song to be released before the whole album. However, for inexplicable marketing reasons it was only released in Japan, with Wuthering Heights as its B-side. It begins, and hence begins canonical Kate Bush, with 20 seconds of whale song before segueing into a moving tribute to Lindsay Kemp, with whom Bush had taken mime classes (and also taught, influenced and collaborated with David Bowie). The lyrics invoke a sense of motion as an enveloping state, one which surrounds and affects, that can uplift, ‘How I’m moved, how you move me / With your beauty’s potency / You give me life...’, but can also be destructive, as exemplified in the abstruse line: ‘You crush the lily in my soul’. A mixture of gleefully simple sentiment, theatrics and enigma; a perfect introduction. The Man with the Child in His Eyes was the first song that made it onto the album, recorded shortly after Bush was ‘discovered’ by David Gilmour in 1975, when she was 16, and written (at least in part) as far back as 1971/72. Supposedly written about her first boyfriend – Steve Blacknell (as he claimed to The Daily Mail in 2010) – the song speaks to an adolescent contemplation of the wonder that comes with forging early romantic affiliations. The eponymous ‘man’ seems more likely to be an older man with whom the author is making a connection (Bush has denied autobiographical interpretations of her songs, insisting that she plays ‘characters’). He’s omnipresent in thought, ‘I realise he’s there when I turn the light off ’, and though he appears worldly and alluring, ‘Listening to a man I’ve never known before / Telling me about the sea / All his love, ‘til eternity’, the final verse focuses on the author’s feelings, removing any agency the man holds: ‘Here I am again, my girl / Wondering what on Earth I’m doing here / Maybe he doesn’t love me / I just took a trip on my love for him’. Is the ‘child’ Bush herself, engaged in a relationship with an older man? Or simply a reflection of innocence that Bush can see despite the front he’s putting up? Both? Either way, it’s ultimately a personal meditation on finding your place in the world and how you can fit other people into that. Them Heavy People continues the exploration of this theme, as different teachings are considered with a wide-eyed wonder and a seemingly rapacious desire for knowledge. With references to Gurdjieff and Jesus, Bush sets out her philosophical/historical stall, one that would provide material throughout her career. Them Heavy People also shares the honour, along with The Man with the Child in His Eyes, as being one of the two songs
February 2018
Words: Lewis Wade
she performed on Saturday Night Live in 1978, still her only appearance on US TV to date. The song that gets the most attention on The Kick Inside is, of course, Wuthering Heights. Now a bona fide classic, endlessly gushed over as an exemplar of 70s art pop (against the grain of the then-ubiquitous disco and punk). It’s also destined to be forever remembered for its equally famous visual of Bush dancing in a white dress with cheesy post-production effects (or the ‘red dress’ American version, with equally theatrical dancing on some real-life moors), still a few years before MTV would make the music video a mainstream creative medium. Wuthering Heights was the first self-penned number one for a female artist in the UK, written when Bush was 18 (released a year later). Bizarrely, EMI had decided that James and the Cold Gun would be the first single from the album, but Bush was determined that Wuthering Heights should be the first release and – amazingly for a young woman in the music industry in the 70s – she got her way. This imperturbable drive towards her own creative vision is something that Bush would continually exhibit throughout her career. Lyrically, the song deals with the ghost of Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw – from Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights – pleading to be released from her purgatory and let back in from her postdeath wandering on the moors. Despite the novel’s ambiguity when it comes to Cathy’s affections (for either Heathcliff or Edgar), Bush asserts that Cathy longs for Heathcliff, ‘I’m coming back to his side to put it right / I’m coming home to wuthering, wuthering, wuthering heights’ – i.e. the wild, passionate side of her character that she supressed during her lifetime. As a mission statement for an artist unmoored from conformity, social mores or traditional expectations, it’s more or less perfect. The Kick Inside was unafraid to dip its toe into more experimental waters. While it held sure-fire hits like The Man with the Child in His Eyes and Wuthering Heights, it also dealt frankly with sexuality and eroticism (Feel It, L’Amour Looks Something Like You), throws in a little reggae on Kite and doubles down on the gothic occultism that peppers the album on Strange Phenonema (a song once described by The Guardian as a “frank paean to menstruation”). Listing all those who’ve been influenced by Kate Bush is a near-impossible task and her impact on contemporary music is impossible to deny. The most obvious current touchstone is Lorde, another artist who came to prominence as a teenager writing pop music that veers away from the norm, similarly fearless in her imaginative musicality(nottomentionapredilectionforinterpretative dance moves). But her influence can also be glimpsed in the avant-garde compositions of Jenny Hval, the eclectic experimentation of Charli XCX and the bombastic future-pop of St. Vincent. 40 years ago, The Kick Inside began a musical journey that continues (hopefully) to this day. Kate Bush did not arrive fully formed – she has used constant renewal and rebirth as the tenets of her artistic evolution – but her auspicious debut album did showcase an artist with enough conviction, confidence and creativity to more than warrant her position as a once-in-a-generation musician. Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside was released on 17 Feb, 1978 via EMI (UK) and Harvest (USA) theskinny.co.uk/music
Music
Review
39
Fresh Take
With SPECTRA announcing its first ever musical programme, we speak to local musician Fiona Soe Paing about performing her audio-visual project Alien Lullabies at the Aberdeen festival Interview: Nadia Younes
o longer just known as the land of granite, oil and rowies, Aberdeen now has a new claim to fame in the form of light and sound festival SPECTRA. Taking place between 8-11 February, SPECTRA – now in its fourth year – for the first time announced it would also be running a music programme to coincide with the annual Festival of Light. With a focus on Nordic and UK talent, the festival this year will include a range of audio-visual performances from the likes of Warp Records’ Plaid, electronic supergroup Wrangler and worldrenowned Norwegian producer Lindstrøm, as well as live performances by rising UK talents. Aberdeenshire-based vocalist and producer Fiona Soe Paing is one of the artists representing Scotland at the festival, bringing her audio-visual show Alien Lullabies to the underground arches of The Tunnels. “It isn’t all that often we get a really big major event happening up here so I think it’s really important for everyone to get a buzz about
it,” she says. “I was there last year for the first time and I was really gobsmacked by how vibrant the city seemed on a dreary dreich night at the beginning of February.” Paing collaborated with moving image artist Sara Stroud on a sound and light installation at last year’s festival, focusing on Aberdeen’s Music Hall, which has been closed for refurbishment since March 2016 and is due to reopen this summer. The installation took the form of a 12-sided miniature fairground carousel, with an iPad on each side displaying archive footage of the Music Hall and interview clips with people that had been or performed there, accompanied by sounds created by Paing. This time around though, she’s showing her own project at the festival. Alien Lullabies is a stunningly sinister, haunting and completely captivating piece of electronic music, in which Paing’s experimental vocals switch between English and Burmese over the
While over there, they performed the project at the Auckland Fringe Festival and numerous other venues before bringing it over for its UK debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015, as part of Creative Scotland’s curated showcase Made In Scotland. With its initial development beginning in 2006, the project has now been over ten years in the making, but over the course of each performance it has taken on a different form, adapting from show to show. “It is constantly evolving… but I think the show that I’m performing [at SPECTRA] is the final version. I think that’s it finished now, but it has taken a long time to get to this stage, with a lot of different versions.” Although the project has now finally reached completion, Paing is not ready to give it up anytime soon. “It’s just such a powerful piece that I think it needs to be a bit more widely seen,” she says. “It’s really weird how I never get tired of performing it. Obviously, because it’s vocals and I’m going to be giving a slightly different performance every time, so even though it is the same material, it’s always a fresh take on it.” A champion of fellow female electronic musicians, Paing is also involved in the female:pressure network, an international network of female, transgender and non-binary artists in the fields of electronic music and digital arts. Founded by Austrian DJ, composer and musician Electric Indigo in 1998, the database intends to strengthen networking, communication and representation among women in electronic music all around the globe. “They did a huge bit of research on the actual statistics of how many women are involved in line-ups and produced some nice little graphic images… that got quite a lot of traction on social media and then that did bring it out to people’s attention of how dire the situation was.” In a guest blog on Female First in September 2016, Paing wrote: “Rather than bemoaning the shortage of female producers, let’s celebrate the fact that there actually are armies of us – it’s just that we’re not visible in mainstream media due to lack of coverage.” With a strong line-up of local and international female artists and musicians set to participate and perform at this year’s SPECTRA festival, it seems like the perfect place to celebrate – and hopefully the tide will begin to change. Photo: Wes Kingston
course of 12 tracks. “It was [a] complete exploration to find out if I could actually make music and what kind of music was it going to be,” she says. “I didn’t set out with a plan, it was just total exploration really of what I could do with a computer and my voice and whether it would be any good.” For its live performances, Paing developed a visual element alongside the music with New Zealand-born 3D animator Zennor Alexander. The pair initially met when they were both living in Brighton but it wasn’t until Paing visited Alexander upon his return to his home country that the project really came to life. “We had started working together a little bit in Brighton but I went over there with the intention of carrying on the project, so I was there for two years really, in New Zealand, helping him, collaborating on the animations and developing more music.”
40
Review
Photo: Louise Connor
The Van T's
Shopping
Hollie Cook, King Tut’s, Glasgow, 8 Feb The Slits vocalist Hollie Cook released her third studio album – Vessel of Love – via Merge Records at the end of last month, and February sees her extensively touring the UK and Europe to celebrate. Influenced by the likes of Minnie Riperton and Dusty Springfield, you can catch Cook at Glasgow’s King Tut’s tonight as she effortlessly blends reggae and pop to create what she describes as “tropical pop”.
Shopping, Mono, Glasgow, 1 Feb Did you just catch Shopping supporting The Spook School at Stereo for their album launch at the end of January? Want to see them again already? Of course you do! Well, Stereo pals Mono have got just the ticket for you as they’re playing again tonight to celebrate their own excellent album The Official Body, which was released on 19 Jan via FatCat and produced by none other than Edwyn Collins. Oh, and the band features Sacred Paws’ Rachel Aggs, along with drummer Andrew Milk and bassist Billy Easter. Get to getting!
Music
Hollie Cook
SPECTRA runs from 8-11 Feb at various venues in Aberdeen fionasoepaing.co.uk | spectraaberdeen.com
Meursault
Photo: Paul Burt
Independent Venue Week, Edinburgh, 1 Feb As Independent Venue Week continues, Edinburgh hosts two excellent shows tonight. Liverpool’s TV ME are set to release their new EP, A Broadcast From TV ME, this month – a lovely of Montreal-esque four-track record – and they play Leith Depot tonight. In the Cowgate, you can catch Glasgow power four-piece The Van T’s along with Dundee duo ST.MARTiiNS at Sneaky Pete's. The latter are gearing up to release their next single, do ur words, this month, as well as a new EP this March, with their focus firmly set on their songwriting. Check independentvenueweek.com for more shows happening near you.
Photo: CJ Monk
Do Not Miss
Fiona Soe Paing will perform at Tunnels, Aberdeen, 9 Feb as part of SPECTRA
Meursault 10th Anniversary, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 17 Feb Wow. It’s been ten years since Edinburgh’s Meursault released Pissing on Bonfires / Kissing with Tongues and we can hardly believe it! Head along to Summerhall tonight to get well and truly pelted in the face by the voice of Neil Pennycook and of course to hear their debut long player in full. As well as Pissing… Pennycook promises to play his Nothing Broke EP in full too. What a fucking treat. Get ready to bawl your eyes out to William Henry Miller and scream your heart out to A Few Kind Words. See you there!
THE SKINNY
Photo: Matthew Young
N
Organised Chaos
With Glasgow’s ever-bulging music scene as vibrant as ever, we talk to Claudia Nova from the latest DIY indie label on the block, Possession Records Interview: Tallah Brash
G
Claudia Nova as Hausfrau
Possession Records is the latest in a long line of DIY labels to come out of the city and so far the three friends have used it as an outlet for their own projects, with JJD’s Soft Riot releasing their sixth studio album, and Possession’s first full-length as a label – The Outsider in the Mirrors – this month. “We’re starting off giving a solid platform [for] further releases by our own projects: future albums, short-run experimental releases and possible re-issues of older albums if we wish,” Nova tells us. But the label are keen to help others in the local scene and beyond. “A few years ago Jack curated a compilation of synth/minimal bands when he was living in London (And You Will Find Them in the Basement), released on the Desire label that documented what was going on in the scene at that time, with artists like Linea Aspera, Lebanon Hanover, Mild Peril, etc. “We’d like to do something like that again, connecting our pool of Glasgow artists with similar artists and friends from mainland Europe doing
Lost Map’s Strange Invitation, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 24 Feb One of the latest Lost Map signings, London’s Bas Jan release their debut album Yes I Jan this month. To celebrate, Lost Map are hosting the Edinburgh leg of their album launch at the Fruitmarket Gallery as part of their Open Out week of performance, film and music. Joining the experimental post-punk trio tonight will be the inimitable Kathryn Joseph, along with Happy Spendy, Lost Map DJs and more to be announced. Ace music and lovely people in a cool art gallery. What’s not to like?!
February 2018
Husky Loops, The Garage, Glasgow, 24 Feb Genre-bending trio Husky Loops had a successful 2017 releasing two EPs – Husky Loops and EP2 – as well as supporting Spoon and Placebo on a number of dates towards the end of the year. The London three-piece, fresh from playing Europe’s biggest showcase festival Eurosonic in January, are now heading off on their first ever headline tour this month and stop by Glasgow’s Garage tonight.
Husky Loops
Mint Field
Mint Field, Broadcast, Glasgow, 27 Feb Tijuana-based Mint Field – 21-year-olds Estrella Sánchez (vocals, guitar) and Amor Amezcua (drums, synths) – release their debut album, Pasar de las Luces, via Innovative Leisure Records just four days ahead of tonight’s Glasgow show. The shoegaze duo are gearing up for some big things this year including the huge SXSW showcase in Austin, Texas, as well as Mexico’s incredible Ceremonia festival, so catch them in the intimate surrounds of Broadcast tonight while you can.
Music
The Outsider in the Mirrors by Soft Riot is released on cassette, CD and vinyl on 9 Feb via Possession Records Soft Riot play their album launch at The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 9 Feb facebook.com/possessionrecords possessionrecords.bandcamp.com
Photo: María Fernanda Molins
Bas Jan
Photo: Kuba Ryniewicz
“When Jack moved up to Glasgow, the three of us were in similar situations in terms of looking to release new music but feeling disheartened by the idea of ‘shopping’ our new records around various different labels, sending out press kits and endless emails that nobody really enjoys. We figured out that we could pool our experience and resources and set up our own label.”
Photo: Magdalena Siwicka
Claudia Nova
already on the cards to work with Glasgow-based artist Georgina Penstkart. They’re also turning their hand to a bit of gig and club promotion along the way, with Soft Riot’s album launch first up at The Hug & Pint in Glasgow on 9 February. So what’s next for Possession and what does 2018 hold for the fledgling label? “Soft Riot will be playing shows in the UK, Europe and Canada this year,” Nova tells us. “There’ll be a new Hausfrau release at some point this year too. The new material is a lot less pop and more along the lines of sound art and audio collage, so it’ll be interesting to see how it’ll be received! I believe Ubre Blanca [Brown’s band] are working on some new releases too, with music videos and live shows in the pipeline.”
like-minded music. I think we all like the idea of a label that documents a local scene, and there is definitely a lot going on in Glasgow that deserves to be brought to a more widespread consciousness.” As a young label, it’s good to know what you’re about from the off and to all be on the same page as individuals behind the releases. The label is DIY through and through, but it’s the musical and cultural interests that forge the three pals into a solid unit, from the popular to the obscure. “We bonded over our passion for bad sci-fi, Unsolved Mysteries and community television talent shows… We all have day jobs and none of us relish the grunt work involved in running a label, so we have to keep a certain element of chaos and irreverence in our approach. But like most small independent labels, we follow the regular formula of a dedication to Excel documents and sporadic ‘business’ meetings in pubs.” As well as releasing records and growing their roster, Possession hope to take advantage of Nova and JJD’s visual arts backgrounds as well, with plans
Lake of Stars, The Art School, Glasgow, 11 Mar One of Africa’s leading music and arts festivals, Lake of Stars will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year with festivals and events taking place in Malawi, London and Glasgow. The Glasgow instalment takes place today at The Art School from 11am until 2am, with free daytime activities and a ticketed evening event featuring live performances from Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, Ghanaian hip-hop artist M.anifest, Malawi singer-songwriter Faith Mussa, Neu! Reekie!’s Michael Pedersen and DJ Auntie Flo.
Frightened Rabbit
Review
41
Photo: Ian Schofield
“ We all like the idea of a label that documents a local scene, and there is definitely a lot going on in Glasgow that deserves to be brought to a more widespread consciousness”
Photo: CJ Monk
lasgow’s music scene is one that we’re all very aware of and proud of as a nation – it’s testament to the bazillion artists, promoters, DJs and venues working tirelessly every day that make the scene what it is. What makes it all the more exciting is that there’s always something new on the horizon; a new group of friends making music together, running a club night together, or in the case of Claudia Nova, Andy Brown and JJD, setting up a brand new label together. “Andy and I have known each other for years,” Nova tells us. “We met around the time he was in Divorce and I was playing in my first band, Aggi Doom. I met Jack (JJD) a few years ago when he was living in Sheffield and running a club night called Der Hammer. He booked my solo project Hausfrau to perform. We stayed in touch and ended up doing a European tour with [his band] Soft Riot, Hausfrau and Uncanny Valley from London.
Album of the Month Ought
Room Inside the World [Merge Records, 16 Feb]
rrrrr
Room Inside the World is Ought’s third album, and first for Merge. Recorded over a longer period than their previous work, it has a patience that has erstwhile been in short supply. While the usual post-punk and art rock influences permeate the record, there’s so much more room available here. Disaffectation contains a shimmering, Cure-esque guitar line to beautifully frame Tim Darcy’s elastic, yearning vocals, while Disgraced in America features a disco horn breakdown as the band try out their best Bowie impression. The album’s centrepiece Desire is a masterclass in slow burning fury, with buoyant choral backing. Lead single, These 3 Things is a wonderful example of the way in which the band have managed to incorporate pop melodies without sacrificing any of their post-punk nihilism. They can still make startling, stark imagery even if it comes in a glossier coat: ‘If you’re made of stone, then turn to clay / Wash away my body, I don’t need it / I stop moving, slowly glisten, and hurt’. They also split the difference between tender and acerbic elsewhere on the album. Take the
Listen to: Desire, Disaffectation, Into the Sea
Nightwave
rrrrr
rrrrr
Part 3 of Belle & Sebastian’s How to Solve Our Human Problems series is the most assured and enjoyable of the bunch. It goes some way to encapsulating the ethos of the project by giving us a snapshot of a group in transit, comfortable in their groove, but willing to explore and adapt to the changing musical landscape. Poor Boy, the third EP’s lead single, is a pseudo R’n’B jam that works well because it doesn’t lean too heavily into the experiment, instead letting the different style mould around the usual framework while keeping the best aspects of the band intact. There is an Everlasting Song is the best of the EP, and possibly of the whole project. It’s shorter and more direct, paring back any instrumental flourishes to mostly acoustic guitar and Stuart Murdoch’s laconic and despairing voice, offering a firm reminder of how this band can make you feel when they’re on top form. They don’t close at their peak, choosing instead the much cheerier Best Friend, a song that is more “new” B&S, all beats and keys without a trace of cynicism. It treads the now rote B&S line between sickly and sweet, but its bouncy energy ends the project on a note of overwhelming positivity, something all too rare in the media we consume these days. [Lewis Wade]
Listen to: There is an Everlasting Song, Poor Boy
Review
brilliant Brief Shield, one of the softest cuts in the Ought ouevre (‘Hold my heart / I’ll let the world run by...’). That’s followed two songs later by Pieces Wasted, the most anguished and atonal track found here, reminiscent of Parquet Courts’ Monastic Living EP (though not quite as deliberately obtuse). The knife-edge tension between ugliness and beauty is rendered masterfully across Room Inside the World, all the way through to Alice – a closing song that manages to evoke both Alice Coltrane’s smoky meditations through whirling, Eno-esque ambient noise, as well as a trip down the proverbial rabbit hole when the arrangement inevitably collapses in on itself. What Ought achieve on this album both surpasses and expands on what they’ve already built. A joyous philosophical cacophony that finds new ways to inform, excite and challenge the listener. [Lewis Wade]
Belle & Sebastian
How to Solve Our Human Problems (Part 3) [Matador, 16 Feb]
42
rrrrr Brilliant rrrrr Life-changing
Ought
Soft Riot
Sanctuary EP [Fool’s Gold Records, 2 Feb]
rrrrr
“Clubs are a sanctuary for many of us and this is my ideal, dreamy version of it”, says Glasgow’s Nightwave of her track Sanctuary, the second single taken from her new EP of the same name. Kicking off with a pattern of flighty percussion, accented by faint birdsong, Sanctuary is as bright as the tropical paradise it conjures up. Splicing in hypnotic vocals with bubbling synthesisers, the up tempo, beatdriven track seems primed for the dancefloors that inspired it. Equally assured and commanding is the opening track Limelight, an energetic reimagining of 90s house. Complete with soaring vocals supplied by Nightwave herself, the rave-indebted track will be right at home in sets geared towards floorfilling euphoria. Showing her growing confidence as a producer, the EP’s third track Tarmac then strikes out at the listener with a surprisingly industrial edge, clattering and humming like a swarm of bees. It’s the most minimal track on the record, which goes some way to demonstrate Nightwave’s foot-to-the-floor approach to these productions. This fearlessness is underscored by closing track Fantazia, a barrage of urgent jungle beats and breakdowns that twists in warped vocals, sirens, and more of those 90sera ravey synth stabs. Overall, Sanctuary reflects Nightwave’s boldness as a performer and producer; the product of an artist who continues to make courageous creative strides. [Claire Francis] Listen to: Sanctuary, Limelight
The Outsider in the Mirrors [Possession Records, 9 Feb] The musical alter-ego of Glasgow-based Canadian synth artist JJD, Soft Riot pertains to the more gloomy, post-industrial connotations of synthwave, the likes of early Human League and Cabaret Voltaire elicited. On first inspection, The Outsider in the Mirrors could be accused of parodying those bands; to some Soft Riot’s synth inclinations would sound outdated to the point of mere derision, but dig a little deeper and this LP has a lot more to give. The album uses an amalgamation of stylistic elements Soft Riot has pursued in the past – including sharp-edged post-punk and new wave – but
Ewan Cruickshanks A Glasgow Band [Armellodie Records, 9 Feb]
rrrrr
Ewan Cruickshanks has a reputation for carefree, slightly madcap shows that are full of energy. Happily, this extends to his debut album, A Glasgow Band, recorded in Glasgow’s Shady Lane studio with Catholic Action’s Chris McCrory on production duties. Full of edgy guitars, it begins with Youth Never Dies, a spiky instrumental that helps set the album’s tone early on. A clear highlight is Dreams where the voices of Cruickshanks and Siobhan Wilson, who also plays bass on the track, perform lush boy/girl harmonies
RECORDS
the underlying theme is early electronic music’s futuristic bend. JJD’s unique synth interplay is dark and pulsing, and lyrics explore issues of isolation, urban alienation and social paranoia. Here, JJD creates his own world – an eerie, claustrophobic dystopia that’s both terrifying and curiously alluring. It’s not without warmth and colour, however. While the title track deals in anxious rigidity, The Saddest Music in the World has an underlying softness that blends beautifully with its melodic impulses. The Outsider in the Mirrors negates current trends despite looking to nostalgia for inspiration, and in turn sounds refreshingly strange and exciting. It’s the perfect soundtrack for latenight escapism. [Hayley Scott] Listen to: The Saddest Music in the World, Now World Romancer, The Outsider in the Mirrors to a backdrop of music that transports you to summer even in the depth of a bleak winter. The album has a slight lack of focus with indie pop, glam and earnest love songs running up against each other, but this something-for-everyone approach leads to an album that’s anything but boring. A Glasgow Band is full of relatable, heartfelt and often humorous lyrics, and many a catchy hook that will be hummed long after you’ve finished listening. A unique piece of work that offers something new to discover on each listen, it’s rare to find such an uplifting album that’s guaranteed to improve your mood as much as this. A Glasgow Band will help no end in establishing Cruickshanks as a one of Scotland’s songwriters to watch. [Eala Macalister] Listen to: Dreams
THE SKINNY
Photo: Jenna Ledger
rrrrr Shite rrrrr Boring rrrrr Solid
Always Ascending [Domino, 9 Feb]
rrrrr
Franz Ferdinand’s fifth effort is something of a sequel to their underrated 2009 album Tonight, albeit one less dedicated to prioritising the keyboard over the guitar. It thrives on the same endearing quirks and idiosyncrasies but suffers from the same aura of lethargy around its more straightforwardly indie rock tracks. Jaunty piano and keyboard lines breathe a joyous energy into the album, and the irreverent wit of tracks like Huck and Jim (‘We’re going to America, we’re gonna tell about the NHS’) lives in the best Franz Ferdinand tradition. But on tracks like Paper Cages, the band sound unenthused and limp. Lazy Boy is one such track, though it is saved from its frankly phoned-in lyrics by infectious guitar riffs and a relentless earworm melody.
Zed Penguin
A Ghost, A Beast [Song, by Toad, 23 Feb]
rrrrr
Matthew Winter has taken his time. Accidents, incidents, coincidences and a heaped spoonful of luck has led to A Ghost, A Beast, Zed Penguin’s first full album, some six years after a debut on a
The eponymous lead single and album opener is a highlight, beginning with sparse piano while sci-fi synths swell in the background and eventually spill over into a raucous beat reminiscent of Kasabian at their most danceable and electronic, but with the grandiose swagger replaced by a wry smirk. Lois Lane is emblematic of both the album’s flaws and its strengths. It follows a fairly conventional, understated and arguably underwhelming course until the last minute or so, when it explodes into a dramatic, totally over the top breakdown which brings the track to life, predominantly because it sounds like the band are enjoying themselves. Always Ascending thrives when the band indulge their sense of fun – it’s not the best work Franz Ferdinand have ever produced, but it’s proof that they should embrace their intelligence and their quirks more and not try to be a standard indie band. They’re too good for that. [Corrie Innes] Listen to: Always Ascending, Huck and Jim
Song, by Toad split 12” in 2012. An Australian by birth but an honorary Scot at heart, you’ve likely heard Winter’s unruly balladry in any one of Edinburgh’s live music venues. Once a solo endeavour, Zed Penguin became a full band in time for that first recording, with James Metcalfe (bass) and Casey Miller (drums), as well as celebrated cellist Atzi Muramatsu who returns as a special guest for this full LP. Mournful and ferocious, the album is a testimony to the power in holding back, only
Franz Ferdinand
to let rip all the stronger. This Town is openhearted and theatrical, with well-placed words and riffs ripped wide open. Ribbons of Light (Hold Ya Heart High) is crystal clear and Violent Night swings from shooting stars to barely-veiled threats. The title track is as light, and then as grizzled, as its name suggests: threatening bass, intrusive hi-hats, and an exuberant guitar hold it down as Winter begins to scream. Each song is full to bursting, and such a strategy can sometimes feel chaotic. The Source
Field Music
Car Seat Headrest
Mint Field
Loma
rrrrr
rrrrr
rrrrr
Open Here [Memphis Industries, 2 Feb] Field Music’s seventh album continues their musical exploration, adding another gleaming jewel to their increasingly impressive canon. While ‘70s and ‘80s leftfield rock still provides the clearest sonic blueprint, there are more strings and baroque elements at play now, a heady dose of funk and even a tentative toe dipped into the ambient pool. Arrangements on the album are jam-packed, and when it comes to lyrical content everything is up for grabs, from gender stereotypes and checking your privilege to the tribulations of being a new parent. Sometimes the message is a little onthe-nose, but when the music is this bubbly and fun it’s hard not to be won over. [Lewis Wade]
Listen to: Time in Joy, Count it Up, Open Here
February 2018
Twin Fantasy [Matador, 16 Feb]
Ambitious, indulgent and prolific. Words that jar with the slacker rock genre, but which fully apply to Will Toledo and Car Seat Headrest. The band’s latest is a reworking of their sixth album, Twin Fantasy, which was originally released in 2011. In the years since, Car Seat Headrest’s popularity has grown exponentially. Teens of Denial, the band’s 2016 LP, took a huge leap sonically from its scuzzy predecessor Teens of Style. The same toolkit has been used for Twin Fantasy’s upgrade and the progression is just as marked. Toledo has taken what was already a fine album, added a lick of paint and (look away now, lo-fi fans) a squirt of polish. Indulgent? Possibly, but it works – it’s punchy, witty and razor sharp. [Finbarr Bermingham] Listen to: Beach Life-inDeath, Famous Prophets (Stars), Twin Fantasy (Those Boys
Pasar de las Luces [Innovative Leisure, 23 Feb] Mexican duo Mint Field have been building a following and nurturing the hype gently for a couple of years now, and have finally emerged with a finely crafted, sonically beautiful debut album. Pasar de las Luces draws inspiration from across the post-rock/shoegaze spectrum of guitar music and while never shy of borrowing from the playbook of its parent albums, it never descends into pastiche. Estrella Sanchez’s ethereal, echoing vocals’ interplay with Amor Amezcua’s woozy synth soundscapes is a near-constant across the album, helping to tie the work together thematically into a coherent, immersive whole. At almost an hour-anda-half, Pasar de las Luces sadly feels overlong. Nevertheless, it’s a thoughtful and aurally beautiful record. [Corrie Innes] Listen to: Quiero Otoño De Nuevo, Boötes Void
RECORDS
Loma [Sub Pop, 16 Feb]
of My Dreams is a blurry track, difficult to keep a hold on, but later in the album when Muramatsu’s cello returns it feels like this stormy band becomes an orchestra. A Ghost, A Beast is tactful and tactless, with just the right amounts of both. It’s a fine line, and reveals the expert showmanship of a band whose hard-won debut sounds nothing like a first attempt. [Katie Hawthorne] Listen to: This Town, Ribbons of Light (Hold Ya Heart High)
POLIÇA and s t a r g a z e Happy Accidents
rrrrr
Music For the Long Emergency [Transgressive, 16 Feb]
Everything But the Here and Now [Alcopop! Records, 16 Feb]
Who is Speaking?, the opening track from Loma’s debut record, is something of a nod to the trio’s creative process. The symbiotic nature of the collaboration between Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater and Cross Record (aka Emily Cross and Dan Duszynski) sees Meiburg writing lyrics for Cross to sing, resulting in a voice belonging to both of them and at the same time neither. This phantom narrator, who sings in a slower, pitched-down version of Cross’s voice, takes us on an ethereal journey through the organic world refracted through glitchy productions and highly experimental compositions, joined by myriad nonhuman voices. The combination of found sounds and unusual effects is a testament to Loma’s abilities as sonic world-builders. [Andrew Gordon] Listen to: Dark Oscillations, Black Willow
Electronic five-piece POLIÇA team up with Berlin-based chamber orchestra s t a r g a z e on an album that offers up some clever composition and pleasant pop songs but ultimately leaves you a little underwhelmed. There is a sweet youthful feel to POLIÇA frontwoman Channy Leaneagh’s stripped-back vocals on opening track Fake Like, but s t a r g a z e’s input is lacking. With a sharper arrangement from s t a r g a z e, Marrow bears the strongest resemblance to POLIÇA’s other work and it does well to combine the strengths of the two groups. While there are some interesting elements to Music For the Long Emergency, and there are aspects of both POLIÇA and s t a r g a z e’s music that work well together, the album is generally quite confused and lacking in any real excitement. [Nadia Younes] Listen to: Marrow
South-East London’s Happy Accidents have turned heads before, with their debut You Might Be Right in 2016. However, their follow-up Everything But the Here and Now expands their sound sonically, thanks to Matthew “MJ” Johnson of Hook-worms’ production but also due to drummer Phoebe Cross’ increased involvement in sharing vocal duties with guitarist Rich Mandell. Over the course of the album, Happy Accidents create a miniuniverse to get lost in, with anthemic belters such as Wait it Out and A Better Plan. Meanwhile, latest single Text Me When You’re Home is an emotional wreckingball, cutting right to the heart of fear and anxiety. These are songs that perfectly capture both youthful abandon and awkwardness. [Adam Turner-Heffer]
rrrrr
rrrrr
Listen to: Wait it Out, A Better Plan
Review
43
Photo: David Edwards
Franz Ferdinand
Turn The Kettle Up Launched in 2013, the Reckless Kettle events have become a highlight of Dundee’s nightlife. Here the duo behind the increasingly popular club nights, Fergus Tibbs and Mikey Rodger, explain the appeal of their self-described ‘parties for freaks’ Interview: Claire Francis Illustration: Sophie Freeman
R
eckless Kettle established themselves in 2013 as party throwers across Dundee and Scotland. The duo, consisting of DJs Fergus Tibbs and Mikey Rodger, found a regular home for their club nights in The Reading Rooms, a venue set in the industrial area of Dundee. Their first anniversary at the Rooms saw a guest set from Tama Sumo of Berghain/ Panorama Bar, and subsequent nights have featured guests including LYLO, General Ludd and LAPS. As a DJ act, Tibbs and Rodger keep their sets exciting with an unpredictable blend of influences: they’re just as likely to spin African funk tunes and post punk rarities alongside floor-focused house and techno. We caught up with the pair via email to learn more about just what a Reckless Kettle party entails. The Skinny: What were your early musical influences and how did you start out as a DJs? RK: We grew up just round the corner from each other in Glasgow, so have been listening to pretty much the same music for as long as we can remember. As soon as we turned (almost) 18 we were regularly going to nights at Chambre 69, Sub Club and La Cheetah, and that’s when we started thinking about running our own nights. It’s when we started going to uni together in Dundee (Fergus at art school and Mikey a medic) when we began seriously collecting vinyl and getting our first pair of Technics. It’s hard to talk about our influences and say that Optimo is not one of the main reasons we got into DJing in the first place. We fairly religiously attend their parties and they definitely shaped us in the early years. Tell us the story of how Reckless Kettle came to be – why Dundee, why The Reading Rooms, and why the name Reckless Kettle? It’s purely chance that we ended up in Dundee together; it’s basically the only place we got in to uni and coming from Glasgow we were definitely a bit sceptical at first! The Reading Rooms became a regular haunt of ours and over a few years we got to know a lot of people in Dundee’s small ‘underground’ dance music community, which mainly revolved around a few pubs and The Reading Rooms. It was a natural progression going from playing small bar sets in these pubs to doing nights at the Rooms. The name Reckless Kettle comes from a term for volume our chemistry teacher back in school used – “turn the kettle up on that music” – which we always found hilarious. I suppose we are a bit reckless sometimes, so the name just stuck. So cheers Mr. Bowman for that! What is different about the nightlife in Dundee compared to other cities in Scotland? The nice thing about the nightlife in Dundee is that the community is really small, so everyone knows everyone. You can go out on your own, fully in the knowledge that there will already be a big bunch of your pals already there. Being a DJ, the small size can be a blessing and a curse; after building up a close group of RK followers we can really push boundaries with some of our tune selections. On the other hand if you don’t have the full confidence of the small Dundee crowd nobody will come! When starting out RK nights the Rooms was basically the only club putting on decent music. Now there are some DJs and promoters finding alternative, sometimes non-club venues and putting on great nights.
44
Review
What kind of acts do you look for when booking guests for your parties? We try to strike a balance between familiar club music and new bands that might not usually be found in a night club setting. There seems to be a rift between the live music scene and the clubbing scene in Dundee and this is something that we are trying to change. What bookings do you have in store for 2018? We have some forthcoming acts we’re really excited about: Solid Blake from Apeiron Crew is playing at the end of March and the 70s/80s post punk band, Boots for Dancing, will be joining us in April. Your club nights often incorporate art installations, sculptures, zines, etc – how integral is this to the RK club night experience? Is this linked to the broader arts culture in Dundee? Prior to becoming residents at the Rooms, Fergus organised a two part art and music event, ‘Ice Cream with the Enemy’, at the Tin Roof artist-led space in Dundee and the Old Hairdressers in Glasgow. We played alongside our good friends LYLO, accompanying a DIY art exhibition that featured about 20 artists from both cities. We try to emulate the feel of those events in our club nights. The art elements are important in creating parties that are memorable, while allowing us to give emerging artists a platform to show their work. Although the changes happening in Dundee (for example, the construction of the V&A Museum) are widely seen as a positive step, we see non high-art, low level artist led activity far more exciting. If we can provide even small opportunities for artists, that’s great. If not, at least it’s somewhere cheap where art students and skint emerging artists can come to party. Next up you have a B2B planned with This Way Up’s Vinyl Matt. Tell us more about that booking. This Way Up is a new independent record and book store in Dundee, run by a couple of good friends Ani Pendova and Matt Storey. Matt (aka Vinyl Matt) has introduced us to many of our favourite records and is a regular favourite guest DJ at our nights. We are always surprised and amazed by some of the gems he has in his box. In March you have The Reckless Kettle Drag Party. How important are club nights that provide spaces for LBGT+ to the clubbing community in Dundee? It’s very important to us that all our nights are inclusive and provide a safe place for the LGBT+ community to dance and have fun. The drag party is no different, but it will perhaps allow people to express themselves more than usual, which is something we like to encourage! What has been your favourite RK moment to date? There have been a lot of great moments, although playing techno at the first Fetish Party alongside a live sitar player wearing hi-vis workman’s vest was pretty excellent. Another funny time was when we were playing at a small festival in Dundee and the generator konked out. While Mikey kept the crowd at bay, Fergus ran off to acquire some dodgy diesel from a fairground ride. That’s what all the big-name DJs have to do, right?
Your club nights have gained something of a cult status reputation for being ‘weird’ but you prefer to think of them as ‘freaky’ – how would you sum up the RK experience? Our motto is ‘keep it freaky’ which means we actively encourage people to let themselves go and be a bit silly. We want people to leave thinking, “that was a bit fucking weird, but in a good way.” This is reflected in every aspect of our parties: the music, the art installations and the club set up. It also helps to keep out the Spice Boys. Reckless Kettle B2B with This Way Up takes place at The Reading Rooms on 15 Feb The Reckless Kettle Drag Party takes place at The Reading Rooms on 15 Mar
CLUBS
THE SKINNY
February 2018
45
That OOFT! moment After years of soundtracking some of Glasgow’s best parties, DJ and producer OOFT! is set to release his first full length album, Intricacies of Modern Life
Interview: Claire Francis
ntricacies of Modern Life, the debut album from Glasgow-based producer OOFT! – aka Ali Herron – is the culmination of years of experience both behind the decks as a well practised house DJ and in the studio crafting his signature disco-heavy edits. From his collaborations and performances with friend Graeme Clark (aka The Revenge), to residencies in some of Glasgow’s best clubs, to running his own Foto Recordings label, Herron has unassumingly gone about building a solid foundation for this vibrant, first full length record. A stirring journey through ten tracks of elegantly-formed yet floor-focused dance productions, its completion finally came about after a couple of setbacks and several years of effort, Herron explains. “I had it in mind, maybe around 2014, that I felt ready to start working on a full album, and that my writing and production skills were finally up to scratch,” he begins. “However, when I actually started I realised it was going to be a lot more work than I originally thought – the songs I was making basically sounded shit!” he admits. “I also got the impression that nobody really gave two hoots about it – in terms of agents, or promoters – so at that point I decided to just work on the songs without the pressure of thinking ‘this is going on the album’ or whatever.” This independent approach saw Herron continue to work on the record for another couple of years; he then spent “the first few months of 2016 finishing the tracklist and putting the final touches to each track, before sending it all off to Rob Etherson for mixing and mastering.” Eight months later (“with a good portion of manufacturing delays for the vinyl!” he adds) and Intricacies of Modern Life is finally set to see the light of day. It’s a hypnotic, assured debut, that draws on a myriad of moods and sounds – from the jittering, urgent snare-driven Proteus Maximus, to the tropical, sunshine-soaked World Keeps Turning, and the slinking funk and sweeping synths of the title track – rather than relying on any one specific influence. “Musically, I was purposefully trying not to take in specific influences,” Herron agrees. “You can go after a certain sound that someone else is famous for, but you’ll never quite get there (or if you do you’ll still be disappointed). As this is my first album I really wanted to try and put all my musical experiences into the tracks, from my early disco editing days, through to more original compositions and less sampling.” Herron’s time at the now defunct Carbon Music in Glasgow – both as a customer and later as an employee – played a major part in the formation of his own musical tastes. “I was a regular customer there from the shop opening, in around 2001, I guess. [I was] spending most of my student money on 12”s there each week. They stocked a lot of ‘London’-sounding stuff which I was into at the time: tech-housey bits that guys like Craig Richards and Terry Francis were playing at the early Fabric parties. “I eventually started working there part time in 2003,” he continues, “and a real widening of my musical tastes happened while I worked there. In addition to all the vinyl, the shop also played the music inside Urban Outfitters – Carbon was located inside [Urban Outfitters], on the second floor – and sold a broad range of CDs. A big part of the business was selling music to bars and retail stores as it was just before the digital music revolution kicked in, so shops always needed a fresh supply of CDs. That meant you could be playing a bang-
46
Review
Photo: Kathleen Little
I
ing 2manydjs mix CD one minute, then some introspective Emiliana Torrini acoustic songs the next. I learned to appreciate music more generally from that experience.” Intricacies was crafted in Herron’s own home studio, which, he says, “I’ve built up over the last ten years or so. It’s a mix of some nice analogue synths and various other bits and bobs all running through Ableton Live – it’s the only sequencer I know how to use!” When asked to single out a favourite track from the record – from a production point of view – he exclaims, “my favourite ones are the ones that came together the easiest! Proteus Maximus, the title track Intricacies... just edging it though, is probably World Keeps Turning. It’s got a nice mix of sounds, from classic dance organs to more world-music type acoustic stuff, plus big pad strings. I love a good pad sound!” Herron also enlisted the services of the wellknown Dublin-born, Amsterdam-based vocalist/ producer Stee Downes on the track Keep on Pushin’. When asked how that collaboration came about, Herron laughs, “I can explain that easily – I coldmessaged him on Facebook! I had the Keep on Pushin’ track ready and thought his vocals would work well over it. Plus I haven’t got much of an idea of how to actually record vocals and I knew he’d be great at recording his own stuff remotely. So I spoke to him and he was up for it. A lucky break, I’d say.” There’s also the second track on the album, DSRV; which, The Skinny ventures, is a personal favourite. A beautiful slice of deep house propel-
led by a marching beat, layers of saturated synths and icy kick drums, it’s the kind of track you can imagine making serious waves on the dancefloor. “With that one, I was working with an 80s sample, playing it a lot slower and pitched down than the original source. It gave me an image of (what I’d imagine it would be like) travelling through the deep sea with no obstacles or anything around,” Herron explains.
“ The clincher was when I asked my wife what she thought of it and she said it sounded ‘a bit wanky’. Sold!” Ali Herron
“That in turn,” he laughs, “led me straight into my love of dubious Sean Connery films, The Hunt for Red October being my favourite. The DSRV is the wee rescue submarine they scoot about in during the film – a little glimpse into the very random nature of how I name tracks!” According to Herron, the album title took a bit more thought.
CLUBS
“I was thinking about names during the recording period and this kinda popped into my head from nowhere. I thought it fitted with the conception and recording processes and had a nice ring to it. I was also thinking about how these days it can be difficult to go down the path that you want in life, through having to work a job that isn’t ‘you’ in order to make ends meet; trying to project a great-looking existence through Facebook or Instagram; etc etc. All these things tied in and the album title just felt right. However, the clincher was when I asked my wife what she thought of it and she said it sounded ‘a bit wanky’. Sold!” he laughs. Intricacies of Modern Life is an exciting debut from a Glasgow artist carving out his own electronic house-defined sound, with the added strength of offering multiple cuts that guarantee to set a dancefloor alight. Herron agrees emphatically that a major factor of the process was to keep sight of tracks that would work well in a club environment. “My biggest DJ heroes are Harri & Domenic, consistently playing great music every week for decades. They were, and still are, a massive influence musically as they’ve stuck to their guns and kept current, without following fads. I wanted [Intricacies of Modern Life] to work well as a whole, but the individual tracks still need to have that punch for the dancefloor. I’m a DJ first and foremost so that has always informed the way I make music. I don’t really see that ever changing.” Intricacies of Modern Life is released on 19 Feb via Foto Recordings. OOFT! plays all night long for the album launch party at The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 17 Feb
THE SKINNY
Clubbing Highlights Words: Claire Francis Illustration: Lucas Jubb Skream – Loop #2 @ Fubar, Stirling, 2 Feb Two icons of UK club culture – London’s Fabric venue and Skream, aka Oliver Jones – joined forces last month, when Skream was announced as the curator of the most recent Fabriclive mix (Fabriclive 96). Jones will be in Glasgow in May for this year’s Electric Frog & Pressure Riverside Festival, but if you just can’t wait until then to see him in action, this mega-party down the road in Stirling should do the trick. Animal Farm Records presents Setaoc Mass @ Sub Club, Glasgow, 2 Feb Manchester-born and now Berlin-based, Sam Coates (whose artist name Setaoc Mass happens to be his real name in reverse – get it?) heads up this techno fest at Subbie, which will also feature Animal Farm’s own Quail and Ancestor.
Get into the Groove Groove Cairngorm promoter Dougie Brown guides us through what to expect from the third instalment of the annual Groove Cairngorm Festival, and selects some favourite tracks that he hopes to hear up the mountain Interview: Claire Francis
“W
ith Groove Cairngorm, we really want to curate a feel-good party vibe line-up [that is] quite eclectic in nature,” explains festival promoter Dougie Brown. “Being an outdoors festival in the Scottish Highlands in February, we really need to make sure people have something to dance to, to keep warm!” Returning for its third year on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 February, Groove Cairngorm offers festival-goers the chance to enjoy snowsports by day up the beautiful mountains at the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, before partying into the night at the apres-ski site. Example & DJ Wire are set to headline this year’s event billing, which will also feature a live set from 2manydjs, plus Norman Jay (MBE), Fun Lovin’ Criminals frontman Huey Morgan, Start to End performing Daft Punk’s Discovery, Ava Love, Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5 and more. “We are really excited about Norman Jay as he has been someone we have been keen to entice to Cairngorm for a couple of years now,” says Brown when asked which performance he’s most excited about. “We think he could deliver one of the stand-out sets of the weekend. We are also really looking forward to Start to End’s live performance of Daft Punk’s Discovery as we have heard nothing but rave reviews about this show.” To describe the Groove Cairngorm experience to someone who has never attended the festival, Brown says it’s a unique festival experience and “the best way to help kick the winter blues... Being the only snowsports and music festival in the UK is a huge unique selling point,” he continues, “and it is great to bring an event like this to the UK rather than people needing to travel to Europe for something similar.” And if you’re not one for snowsports, the festival still has plenty to offer, he adds: “You can spend your day taking in the music over the two stages at Cairngorm and soak in the incredible views, or take in some of the bars that nearby Aviemore has to offer.” This local connection is an important part of the Groove Cairngorm ethos – the festival have partnered with local charity The Speyside Trust, who host the apres-ski site at Badaguish. “They carry out great work with various youth groups, and children and adults with special needs, learning difficulties and multiple disabilities,” says
February 2018
Brown. “It is important to have a local connection with the festival and we are proud to support their work.” Finally, we ask, what happens if Scotland’s notoriously unpredictable weather fails to deliver any snow for the event? “There is always a slight fear that the weather does not deliver the goods,” Brown responds. “Though if the worst was to happen, we would encourage everyone to explore the local area and take in the two stages of music up the mountain during the day – and what better way to drown your sorrows than joining us for an incredible night of music in a woodland clearing at the foot of the Cairngorm Mountains?” Groove Cairngorm takes place at Cairngorm National Park, Aviemore, 23-24 Feb groovecairngorm.co.uk
Groove Cairngorm Music Wishlist Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger [Discovery, 2001] “What better track to sum up a day on the mountain – when the Start to End guys play this live the place is going to be jumping.” Example – Changed the Way You Kiss Me [Playing in the Shadows, 2011] “Another track guaranteed to warm up the crowd! 2013 was the last time he visited the Highlands at Rockness so this is a very overdue return to the area.” Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5 – Cross the Road [Self-released, 2017] “Walking the road across the snow is probably going to be a first for the Colonel Mustard guys and girls. You never know, we may even be able to get a snowman to join in?” Fun Lovin’ Criminals – The Fun Lovin’ Criminal [Come Find Yourself, 1996] “Here’s hoping Huey maybe sneaks in one of his own tracks and plays this absolute classic.”
Hawkchild DIY presents Clouds & Nassim Nicholas Taleb @ The Art School, Glasgow, 23 Feb This interesting night at The Art School pairs Perth sludge-techno proponents Clouds with a suprise appearance from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who ‘spent 21 years as a risk taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a researcher in philosophical, mathematical and (mostly) practical problems with probability’. Hawkchild DIY is the brainchild of Glasgow’s Hashim Ali and is ‘driven by a passion for unorthodox, innovative and interesting music and art forms’ – and this event ticks all those boxes. theskinny.co.uk/clubs
Lezure 3rd Birthday pt. 2: Pariah @ La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 3 Feb Celebrating three years of parties across Glasgow and Edinburgh, Lezure are bringing in modern techno whizz Pariah to mark the occasion. Alongside his solo productions, Pariah is widely known as one half of the infamous Karenn project, an all analogue, improvised techno duo alongside Jamie Roberts aka Blawan. This performance will be Pariah’s La Cheetah Club debut – and first Scottish solo appearance for five years – with an extended three hour set making it a don’t miss event. So Low / So Healthy with Total Leatherette @ The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 9 Feb The first Healthy event of 2018 is set to be a gothic stomper, with the combination of the So Low ladies’ cold wave and minimal beats paired with a barrage of ‘queer industrial music’ from Glaswegian duo Total Leatherette. Plus it’s free entry before midnight, and only a fiver after. Disco Pants @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 13 Feb This Tuesday night party offers the chance of a pre-Valentine’s Day boogie to some 80s classics – think Madonna, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, David Bowie, Hall & Oates and many more of your favourite old school hits. All proceeds from the night will be donated to Smalls For All, a Scottish charity that collects and distributes underwear to help women and children in Africa. As the Disco Pants crew put it, ‘giving pants and bras may seem like a small thing, but it can make a life-changing difference – having pants can help teenage girls complete their education without having to miss school each month during their period.’ Do your bit, dance and dig deep. Kornél Kovács at Juice @ Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 15 Feb Stockholm-based producer Kornél Kovács – who is one third of the excellent Stockholm-based Studio Barnhus label, alongside Petter Nordkvist and Axel Boman – makes a stop in the capital for a late night license party. Expect hours of dancefloor-focused, playful house tunes from this talented DJ and producer. Substance – Avalon Emerson @ The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 16 Feb Rising American techno star Avalon Emerson continues to turn heads with both her powerful, assured DJ sets, and her layered productions that evoke the ‘new school’ techno sounds of Emerson’s current place of residence, Berlin. She plays Edinburgh this month with support from the Substance DJs.
CLUBS
Review
47
Rhyme Watch Our correspondent takes a look at February’s finest poetry events across central Scotland, and the releases to watch out for in this month’s column Words: Beth Cochran
T
he month kicks off with a veritable colour wheel of events on the 1st: Glasgow Poetry Mafia’s Class War Slam at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy (more on that later), Jenny Lindsay’s much anticipated This Script (and other drafts) at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and the multi-award winning Michael Longley will be reading with Rishi Dastidar and Ciara MacLaverty at St Mungo’s Mirrorball (in partnership with the Scottish Poetry Library). And that’s just day one, there’s plenty more slams, releases, showcases and spoken word shows to keep your cockles from freezing. It’s a good month for releases too. Picador launches Robin Robertson’s The Long Take on 22 February. Already praised by John Banville as ‘one of the finest contemporary poets,’ Robertson, originally from the north-east coast of Scotland, is sure to live up to his prize-winning name with this noir narrative. The Long Take follows D-Day veteran, Walker, on a journey across America. Struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, Walker sets out to rebuild his shattered life at a time when America is fracturing into a societal jigsaw puzzle. Do you want more poetry in your life? Of course you do, and Speculative Books know it. The UK’s newest publishing company is offering a poetry-to-your-door service like no other: subscribe for £5 at speculativebooks.net and you’ll receive a new poetry collection every month. Sounds pretty great, right? Sign up, and February’s post could bring you David Ross Linklater’s collection, Black Box, which is launching at the cult poetry night at Glasgow’s Inn Deep on 27 February. Pinning a red flag on David now: this is a poet you’ll want to keep an eye on. On the events scene, February is filled with multifarious facets of the poetry world. Always fancied seeing a slam to sow dissent into the ranks of poets or breach the chasm of Scotland’s class divide? Glasgow Poetry Mafia’s Class War Slam is set to do at least one of those. On one side we have the middle class team, which includes former Scottish Slam Champion Iona Lee, and opposing there’s team working class, including Sonnet Youth co-producer and writer extraordinaire Kevin P. Gilday. With the headline slot filled by poetry legend Jim Monaghan, the Class War Slam may be the slam to unite the classes under one banner… But probably not – it’s only poetry. Speaking of Sonnet Youth, the Glasgow based literary rave is set to expand across the M8 and into Edinburgh. On the third Tuesday of every month, the spoken word cabaret will be taking over Gilded Balloon’s Rose Theatre, with their first show – Sonnet Youth #16 – set for 20 February, 8pm. The line-up includes Loki performing a live interpretation of his best selling book Poverty Safari, Canadian slam champion Andre Pre-fontaine, Scotland’s favourite short story revolutionary Chris McQueer, and one of Scotland’s newest and loudest poetry voices, Sarah Grant. Sonnet Youth #16 will make its way home to Glasgow’s Drygate on 21 February. It’s certainly a line-up that reflects the current climate of the Scottish Poetry scene: a spine tingling bundle of talents clamouring for our ears and waited on with anticipation.
Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations Edited by Sarah Cleave
RRRRR
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock By Imogen Hermes Gowar
RRRRR
Imogen Hermes Gowar’s 18th century London is a richly textured place, full of industry, sex and the rustle of silk. Here, our protagonist Mr Jonah
In January 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – from entering the United States of America. It stands as one of the country’s most divisive laws in modern times. Banthology challenges nations being cut off and silenced, instead bringing together stories from these seven banned nations, translated to English. The breadth of writing in this fleeting seven story collection is at times satirical, at times surreal, and often a gut punch as they unravel themselves to devastating effect. The Beginner’s Guide to Smuggling – Syria’s contribution by Zaher Omareen – is a wry consideration of displacement and the journey to reach a new and better place; Najwa Binshatwan’s Return Ticket – hailing from Libya – begins as a heartfelt letter to the character’s grandson, outlining fantastical tales and wonders of the village of Schrödinger. The implications and importance of people’s journeys interweave themselves through each story.
Anoud’s Storyteller is a stand out: beginning with memories of their first air raid experience, then bunker, then the death of a friend… It is remarked that as children they thought war was some kind of game, ‘like the Arabic-dubbed GI Joe cartoon on TV’, but the reality leaves them petrified. The slowly escalating war-torn surroundings are punctuated by political broadcasts from America – George W. Bush saying how much America cares about the Iraqi people, the implementation of this seven-nation ban from the States – to show the dichotomy of war, from those discussing it from afar and those living it. Banthology aims to give voice to and better understand a set of nations who have been writ off in one sweeping stereotype, and it does so. Those in power try to silence many voices – this is a triumphant refusal to let that happen. [Heather McDaid]
Hancock receives news of his ship, which his Captain has sold for a genuine specimen of a mermaid. This is no fantasy: Captain Cook has only recently established the existence of the kangaroo, so a mermaid really is not so far-fetched. Still, Mr Hancock is a businessman, and he sets out to recoup his loss by displaying such a marvel to all of London. This enterprise draws him into the dangerous, foreign world of high society – and the particularly bewitching courtesan at its heart. It’s an absorbing tale of curiosity and obsession. Gowar’s prose is marvellous. Her sentences are bright with detail and fizzing with ingenuity. Take but one example where Mr Hancock arrives
at a party that he is entirely unprepared for – ‘there is a splash of walnut ketchup on the calf of his stocking’ – and Mrs Chappell is there to greet him – ‘a vast toad in white muslin, her stubby arms outstretched and her legs churning up her skirts as she paddles across the gleaming floor’. There’s a beautiful balance of rhythm and intrigue, and an eye for what brings a book alive. We feel the trappings of whalebone, the warmth of powdered skin, and the descriptions of 18th century food are sumptuous. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is a masterful debut. [Galen O’Hanlon]
The Woman at 1,000 Degrees
Comma Press, 25 Jan, £9.99
Harvill Secker, 25 Jan, £12.99
Eat Up! By Ruby Tandoh
In The Pines By Erik Kriek
RRRRR
RRRRR
Eat Up! proclaims the title of Ruby Tandoh’s first food memoir, a love letter to the act and art of eating. The former Great British Bake Off star and columnist explores food’s different social roles: literally, with recipes, and also culturally, in our relationship to eating and appetite. Food is real, figurative, political, and most importantly yours, all at the same time. The appeal of the book lies in Tandoh’s openness, in her charming and sympathetic voice. She tells of her family’s relationship to food and the conflicting feelings she had as a child towards that of her Ghanaian inheritance (relatable for any child of an immigrant whose lunchbox was the source of ridicule in school), laments contemporary food writing’s diet-culture and the gentrification of food by the middle-class, and emphasises the importance of feeding your heart, mind and body. She effortlessly brings together old-school food writing, pop culture, and personal anecdotes, as she moves through a sprawl of influences from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The Qu’ran to Sex and the City. Tandoh’s writing is so rich and charismatic that when a section stops for a quick recipe interlude, it’s an almost irritating distraction to get back to Eat Up!’s meaty prose. If you’ve ever felt ashamed of your hunger, cultural inheritance, or weird eating habits then this is the food book for you. Just don’t read it on an empty stomach. [Katie Goh]
Murder ballads, though not originating there, have held a prominent place in American roots music. The songs they inspired traversed unrequited love, betrayal, violence, life and – of course – what would a murder ballad be without death? It’s from these musical musings In The Pines creeps. Erik Kriek has translated his eerie and wondrous graphic novel into English, placing his interpretation of five ballads of his choosing in an unsettling package. In his retelling of the classic Pretty Polly and the Ship’s Carpenter, storms are brewing, but what is causing it? The first story sets the tone and pace of the collection – stripped palettes using black, white and one muted colour to vividly depict the bleak tales of deadly romance. The Long Black Veil begins with a noose around the neck – but was it the right person? The closer of the five even sees Nick Cave’s Where The Wild Roses Grow get its own Kriek-twist. Bloody and twisted, In The Pines takes you repeatedly into these ordinary worlds and lures you to their deepest shadows. In doing so you’re masterfully shown the darkest sides of human nature in cinematic style. This isn’t a read to feel warm and fuzzy over; it will unsettle, but step away from the daylight, wrap up warm, and dive in. [Heather McDaid]
By Hallgrímur Helgason, translated by Brian FitzGibbon
RRRRR An old woman lies in bed in an Icelandic garage waiting for death. Her name is Herra Björnsson, and in between speculating about her carer’s sex life, stalking her family on Facebook, and agonising over the thrice-daily trip to the toilet, she remembers her life. This is a historical novel unlike many, as we journey with Herra from conception to cremation, from Iceland to Germany, South America and back again. Based upon the true story of Brynhilder Georgía Björnsson, the granddaughter of Iceland’s first president and the daughter of a Nazi, whose life was blighted by her experiences during the Second World War, Herra is a compelling narrator. Her humour and wry observations alleviate the bleakness that pervades the novel (‘Smoking kills, the packet assures me, but it’s taking ages’). We cannot help but pity ‘a lonely little Icelandic girl who had lost her father and mother in a round of poker with the ruthless rulers of the world,’ whose rare moments of happiness seem too quickly dashed. The novel boasts an engaging plot, deft characterisation, and an appealing dexterity with language. Yet after 446 pages of atrocity heaped upon sorrow, it is something of a relief to set it aside. An original, but not a comfortable, read. [Ceris Aston] OneWorld, 1 Feb, £14.99
Canongate, 1 Feb, £18.99
Serpent’s Tail, 1 Feb, £12.99
48
Review
BOOKS
THE SKINNY
This Month in Scottish Art In Scotland this month, there are new exhibits across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Applications are also open to be part of projects in Summerhall, the Pipe Factory, Scottish Sculpture Workshop and more
Kate V Robertson
Exhibitions Tramway are already showing Love, an exhib- ition featuring Glasgow painting legend Steven Campbell’s experimental collage works (until 25 Mar), reviewed below. Then from 16 February-18 March, they’ll present a survey of the acclaimed Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon.
In Platform, until 11 February they begin the year with the continuing exhibition of Helen De Main’s huge locally-based project and large- scale prints of the participants in her consciousness-raising group which ran from the venue during 2016-17. Dundee Contemporary Arts still play host to Kate V Robertson’s first solo exhibition in a UK institution. A major installation of new sculptural work that draws our attention not only to the walls, but to the floor, ceiling and windows of the most expansive gallery space at DCA until 25 February, it comes highly recommended. Visual Arts Scotland and the Society of Scottish Artists have joined forces for the first time to present an ambitious collaborative exhibi- tion celebrating contemporary and applied art: Open, until 8 March. Featuring established artists and makers based in Scotland and internationally as well as emerging artists, the exhibition is a unique survey of the diversity of contemporary and applied art being created today. Workshops & learning opportunities Following on from Scottish Sculpture Workshop’s 2017 Artist-led Activity Exchange Programme, the Lumsden Residency is a part-funded residency award which provides artists with a month-long residency that builds towards participatory activity
taking place during SSW’s Lumsden Weekender in November 2018. Deadline: 13 February Calls for submissions Syn Festival Edinburgh invites artists to participate in the new Odysseys exhibition, that will take place at Upper Church at Summerhall from 9-22 March 2018. Artists can submit a maximum of three works for consideration to the festival – visit the Creative Scotland opportunites page for more information on how to apply. Deadline: 2 February The Pipe Factory is welcoming expressions of interest to be part of their 2018 programme. Expressions of interest might be email, a collec- tion of research, a diagram, folder of images or whatever you think best communicates your ideas. Deadline: 11 March The Architecture Fringe was founded in 2015 to encourage public debate about architecture and design in Scotland within its broader socio- political context. The Architecture Fringe 2018 will be the third edition of the festival. In 2017 the archi fringe hosted over 50 projects from around 260 contributors in 37 venues across Scotland. Deadline: 9 April New Lanark, an 18th century cotton-spinning Mill Village and one of Scotland’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, have announced the launch
Words: Rosie Priest of a Textile Print competition to celebrate the opening of London’s Fashion and Textile Museum’s Artist Textiles Picasso to Warhol exhibition at New Lanark on 26 January which runs until 29 April. To celebrate the arrival of this exhibition and the village’s textile production history, New Lanark are launching a design competition to commission a special textile print, to incorporate into a new range of promotional merchandise which will be sold exclusively within the New Lanark Mill Shop. Deadline: 11 February Funding opportunities Glasgow Life have opened up the Arts Development Scheme 2018/19 which encourages the development of arts and cultural activity in the city, supporting access and participation. Awards of up to £5,000 are available to formally constituted groups and organisations, and will support arts activities delivered in Glasgow between April 2018 and March 2019. Deadline: 23 February Dewar Arts Awards invites applications from individuals in any art form, to submit online appli- cations for funding that will support them at a crucial time in their development. Previous awardees include Alan Benzie, Jenni Fagan and Paul Wright. Applications are considered on a rolling basis and can be submitted at any time. theskinny.co.uk/art
Steven Campbell Tramway
Anne Collier, Installation view, The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, Glasgow, 2017. Courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. © Anne Collier
Anne Collier
The Modern Institute
RRRRR
In Resistance to Replication, written for Tate Papers no.8, Margaret Iversen notes the critical obsolescence that has befallen the technologies of reproduction. In a beautiful turn of phrase, Iversen mentions how “these confident technologies that once participated in the shock of modernity now open themselves to reverie.” Prefacing Anne Collier’s Women Crying series shown at The Modern Institute’s Osborne Street gallery is How Do You Think Others See You?, a photo of a New Age, self-help manual. The promise of the new and the acknowledgement of that hope’s inevitable misalignment with reality are yoked together from the very start. Enlarged and tightly cropped to an exaggerated portrait ratio, the photos of photos of women crying reveal advertising’s practice of surfacing and reinforcing notions, such as the vulnerability of women, that are latent within a societal consciousness. In the exploration of how mass production of an image violently
February 2018
debases the emotions it depicts, the obvious comparison is painter John Miller’s Everything is Said series of paintings of people crying on reality television. However, instead of painting, Collier utilises the photo-object and reclaims emotive power by engaging with found photography’s attentiveness to reminiscence and loss. In Collier’s 35mm slide-projection Women with Cameras, found pictures of proto-selfies taken by women between the 1970s and the 2000s cycle round. The work bestows focus on these remnants left behind from a consumer economy intent on newness and disposal. Collier’s pictures are affective precisely because they are disposed pictures and not just archived digital images; the degrading physicality of pictures enable them to hold a tangible history and they experience redundancy, just as we do. The question that remains is whether, post-picture, we will need digital images to be able to hold the history that their predecessors were able to anchor for us. Or, without pictures, will we find ourselves suspended in stasis within a glut of images? [Colm Peare]
Photo: Patrick Jameson
RRRRR
The current Tramway exhibition of a specific part of Steven Campbell’s (1953-2007) oeuvre success- fully manages to surprise audiences that might have a well — or half-remembered idea of Campbell’s painting practice. Titled Love, it’s a show made up almost entirely of the careful collage works that he made from 1988-1991. With emphasis moving completely from painting to collage, there’s an important shift from the usually very illustrative images to more ambiguous and slower reveals. This effect is mostly down to the careful colla- ging technique that spans all of the works on show. While there are moments of more conventional cut paper collage, these are set within the context of painstakingly built-up areas of painted cut string, individually placed onto the surface. An excellent instance of these moments of the surprising visual revelations set up by this technique comes in the blue strings of various shades delicately arranged into the heads and shoulders of two figures, whose lower halves are
rendered in more immediately noticeable pinks and fleshy browns. It creates a subtle feeling of the figures slowly fading into the watery coloured sky, suggesting a complicated passing away, while a baby seems to slide off the bottom of the picture surrounded by zigzagging greens and oranges. All the more poignant as its title (Birth of Eurithia with Drowned Family) reveals it is an imagining of the myth of Orithyia who was taken by envious and lecherous gods. Across the dozen or so collages, moments like these contextualise some of the familiar cues of Campbell’s works – stylistically proportioned figures, a sense of the surreal, whirling pictorial dimensions and spaces. The sensuously textural surfaces and complicated rendering of bodies and space reveal themselves more slowly, creating the constant sense that the works might yet reveal just another hidden figure and strike another un- expected note of intrigue. [Adam Benmakhlouf] Study for 'Frottage of the Void', 1988
theskinny.co.uk/art
ART
Dream of the Hunters Muse, 1991
Steven Campbell, Love, Tramway, Glasgow, until 25 Mar
Review
49
In Cinemas Lady Bird
Director: Greta Gerwig Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lois Smith, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Odeya Rush, Jordan Rodrigues, Marielle Scott Released: 16 Feb Certificate: 15
rrrrr
There’s an early scene in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut that establishes her protagonist’s desire for escape. Christine “Lady Bird” McPhearson (Ronan) – Lady Bird is in quotation marks because, we’re told, it’s her given name, “I gave it to myself. It’s given to me, by me” – and her mother, Marion (Metcalf), are driving home after visiting local colleges, weeping in unison to the end of The Grapes of Wrath on audiotape. As soon as the cassette is packed away mother and daughter begin to argue about Lady Bird’s intention to go to liberal arts school on the East Coast; an argument that abruptly ends when Lady Bird unexpectedly throws herself from the moving car. Gerwig has been a vibrant presence on America’s indie film scene for a decade, co-writing and co-directing a number of independent features, but it was her collaboration with Noah Baumbach on Frances Ha – the tale of a young woman from California trying to make it as a dancer in Brooklyn – which placed her firmly in the spotlight. Set in Gerwig’s hometown of Sacramento during the early noughties, Lady Bird could be described as an unintended prequel to Baumbach’s film, with Gerwig’s distinct brand of clunky self-awareness central to her lead character. Often stories about those awkward, self-destructive years are implicitly autobiographical, but Lady Bird feels like a film that draws on this tradition to create something more grounded in its environment. Gerwig doesn’t rely on vast landscape shots to capture a sense of place, instead concentrating on how Lady Bird interacts with her surroundings. She’s impulsive, stubborn and hot-blooded, and the film is littered with moments of tenderness undercut by random acts of rebellion. However, when she does eventually escape to New York she begins to reconcile her feelings for home. It’s here that Gerwig’s film moves beyond a traditional coming-of-age ‘lessons learned’ conclusion, into rather a moving portrait of the intimate ties we have with place. [Patrick Gamble] Released by Universal
Phantom Thread
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Julia Davis, Brian Gleeson Released: 2 Feb Certificate: 15
rrrrr
We are told all we need to know about Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) within the opening scenes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. As we watch him dress and prepare for the day we see how meticulous and studied he is, and when his attempt to work at the breakfast table is interrupted by the current woman in his life, we know that she will soon be despatched by his no-nonsense sister and confidante Cyril (Lesley Manville). Nothing can stand in the way of Reynolds’ work as a dressmaker to the rich and famous in 50s London. Like many artists, Reynolds requires a particular environment and set of conditions in order to create, including a muse. When he meets Alma (Vicky Krieps) – a young and slightly ungainly waitress – something inside Reynolds clicks, and he brings her into his home, as a lover but primarily as a model. Alma is no quiet mannequin, however. “If you want to have a staring contest with me, you will lose,” she tells him; an early indication of the many ways she will challenge him. With its status as his final film, it would have
Phantom Thread
been easy for Phantom Thread to become the Daniel Day-Lewis show – particularly as it seems to comment on the toll of his own pursuit of artistic perfection – but he generously cedes ground to Krieps and Manville, both of whom are impeccable. In fact, Alma emerges as the film’s most compelling protagonist, thrillingly upending the familiar artist-muse dynamic. Phantom Thread is an exploration of a toxic and perversely co-dependent love story, but the
A Fantastic Woman
Director: Sebastián Lelio Starring: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Amparo Noguera Released: 2 Mar Certificate: 15
rrrrr
Following 2013’s crowd-pleasing Gloria, Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman is another portrait of an unconventional female protagonist defying the expectations of those around her and societal norms. Marina (Vega) is deeply in love with Orlando (Reyes), a businessman 20 years her senior, but when he suddenly dies she is ostracised by Orlando’s family, and denied the opportunity to even attend his funeral. The issue is that Marina is transgender, and Lelio’s film follows her fight for her love to be recognised as legitimate in the face of prejudice and hostility. The director’s inclusion of stylised fantasy sequences are sometimes too on-the-nose (see Marina leaning into an overpowering wind, or facing her own image as a mirror is carried past), and the collection of one-dimensional homophobes and bullies that she comes up against risks making the drama too didactic. Fortunately, Lelio has a secret weapon in Daniela Vega, whose star-making performance invests the film with emotional honesty and gives us a heroine worth rooting for. She really is fantastic. [Philip Concannon]
filmmaking is so brisk, elegant, witty and surprising. It’s a captivating experience. Anderson has continued to evolve and confound expectations with every film, and with Phantom Thread – his first picture outside his native California – he has outdone himself again. This is his most disciplined and refined work to date, and it’s among his very best. [Philip Concannon] Released by Paramount Pictures
The Ice King
Director: James Erskine Starring: John Curry Released: 23 Feb Certificate: TBC
rrrrr
John Curry revolutionised ice skating, bringing artistry and grace to the sport in a way never before witnessed. He also brought Olympic gold home to a Britain which still criminalised his sexuality. The Ice King is the story of a man who was told his way of living, loving and skating was wrong; how he grafted to overturn all that was stacked against him; and what that cost him. Cutting away here and there to mark John’s story with old photographs and letters, the vast majority of the film is footage of Curry on the ice. As audio of interviews with the skater, his family, friends and colleagues tell the details of his story, the camera remains fixed on the images of him alone on his frozen canvas, working tirelessly to perfect his art. James Erskine’s uncomplicated approach is the reverse of the complex life it documents, but the film’s simplicity matches its spirit. Curry’s punishing craft aspired after something quietly elegant, which, in its understated, delicate approach to its incredible story, The Ice King realises. [Ross McIndoe] Released by Dogwoof
Released by Curzon Artificial Eye
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
rrrrr
rrrrr
Director: Craig Gillespie Starring: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan, Bobby Cannavale, Mckenna Grace, Julianne Nicholson Released: 23 Feb Certificate: 15 Ever since 1994, figure skater Tonya Harding’s name has been inextricably linked to rival Nancy Kerrigan, but Kerrigan is barely a presence in I, Tonya. Instead, Craig Gillespie’s film allows the vilified Harding (Robbie) to tell the story; or at least, her version of it, with a competing testimony being offered by her ex-husband Jeff (Stan). I, Tonya juggles multiple truths while simultaneously attempting to incorporate knockabout comedy and fourth wall-breaking antics into its portrait of a woman enduring a lifetime of abuse and class prejudice, and the results are predictably messy. Everything about the film feels too broad and glib to connect with anything real, including a one-note supporting turn from Allison Janney, and while Robbie’s commitment is never in doubt, she doesn’t entirely convince in the lead role. At a shade over two hours, I, Tonya’s energetic, unfocused style is enervating, and by cynically turning on the audience with lines like “It’s what you all came for folks! The Incident!” and “You’re all my attackers too,” the filmmakers are skating on very thin ice. [Philip Concannon] Lady Bird
50
Review
Director: Guillermo del Toro Starring: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Jenkins Released: 16 Feb Certificate: 15 Guillermo del Toro’s latest is set in 60s America, looking like a blend of Mad Men and Amélie. We follow mute, wide-eyed Elisa (Hawkins), who lives an inquisitive life as a cleaner at a high-tech government laboratory. She finds her world altered drastically, however, when she begins to fall in love with the lab’s watery ‘asset.’ Colonel Strickland (Shannon), the bigot in charge of the facility, doesn’t take kindly to staff fraternising with his prized amphibian subject, but Elisa and her bae do find support in the form of her neighbour Giles (Jenkins), and her wise-talking best friend Zelda (Spencer). Considering the dense baklava of themes being layered here – a paperthin reality with fantasy just beneath the surface; Space Race and Cold War espionage; an otherworldly romance raising questions of where we belong in the universe; institutional sexism, racism, classism and homophobia – del Toro confidently and consistently hits all the right notes, maintaining a rich, transportive, lyrical tone throughout. The result is easily the director’s most enchanting production since Pan’s Labyrinth. [George Sully] Released by 20th Century Fox
Released by EntertainmentOne
FILM
THE SKINNY
American Assasin
Director: Michael Cuesta Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch Released: Out Now Certificate: 18
rrrrr
Michael Cuesta’s American Assassin opens with Mitch Rapp (O’Brien) filming a home video of himself and his girlfriend (Charlotte Vega) splashing around on a sun-soaked beach holiday. Moments later, terrorists attack and she is gunned down while he helplessly looks on, greenlighting his transformation into a dead-eyed killing machine by the next time we see him. As he infiltrates the cell responsible and is subsequently swept up into a CIA programme designed to create the apex predators of urban combat, the movie flirts with a few interesting ideas. The notion that the people whose homes have had hellfire rained down on them daily by a faceless, dispassionate foreign force might see their own revenge quests similarly to Rapp’s. That the military’s appeal to traumatised individuals with personal vendettas might be worth inspection. That the obsessive pursuit of vengeance only leads to more destruction. Unwilling or unable to actually engage with any of these ideas, the film throws in a white American mega villain (Kitsch) to draw away from its political posturing, adds a helicopter and a nuclear bomb, and decides to be a goofy, globetrotting action flick instead. It looks to Michael Keaton to redeem it but while he hurls himself into his role as the movie’s maniacally masculine father figure, even his eye-popping energy can’t shock a heartbeat into a script that turned up dead on arrival. Similarly, O’Brien and Kitsch are tasked with playing the “two sides of a coin” trope without enough character between them to make up one full person. Without a ringer to elevate it, Cuesta’s film still manages to hold the viewer’s attention by keeping the pace high and fights frequent and crunching. Ultimately, it’s not a film designed for the attentive eyes of viewers who actively sought it out but for the half-engaged, hazy-eyed ones who stumble on to it flicking channels late at night.
Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years. Vol. 1 – Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot Starring: Pablo Picasso Released: Out Now
Director: Seijun Suzuki Starring: Sachiko Hidari, Kôji Wada, Tamio Kawaji, Michi Azuma Released: 12 Feb Certificate: 15
rrrrr
rrrrr
The recently departed Japanese director Seijun Suzuki has had a resurgence of late in the world of British home distribution. Though a couple of his more famous films – like pop art classic Tokyo Drifter – got put out with middling transfers by small companies in the early aughts, the last few years have seen labels like Eureka’s Masters of Cinema, and, particularly, Arrow Video, raid the man’s archives for some remastered pleasures. With Arrow’s latest package, the distributor is on its third Suzuki box set in as many years, and interest in the filmmaker’s output is evidently high enough to justify a collection bundling together some of his earliest efforts, all of which are making their home video debuts outside Japan with this release. Focusing on Suzuki’s youth-centred movies, the films assembled here rarely branch into any of the eccentricities the director would later become best known for with offbeat works like Branded to Kill. That said, the likes of Teenage Yakuza (1962), The Incorrigible (1963), Born Under Crossed Stars (1965) and The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass (1961) all showcase his talent at injecting verve into even the simplest-seeming stock tales. The oldest film in the set, The Boy Who Came Back (1958), is a particular highlight in its portrait of a tempestuous hoodlum struggling to make a clean break after various stints in reform school and the relationship he forms with the young woman assigned to aid his transition back into society. It’s notable for being Suzuki’s first collaboration with future regular stars Akira Kobayashi and Jo Shishido.
Extras Highlight is an on-stage Q&A conducted at the Alamo Drafthouse, as well as some less interesting character featurettes. [Ross McIndoe]
Extras Arrow Academy’s limited edition boxset – only 3000 copies are being produced – is a dual format collection, providing buyers with both Blu-ray and DVD. The few special features include an introduction to the films by critic Tony Rayns and a selection of trailers and stills from films’ original release. The set also includes a 60-page illustrated book that features new writing by critic and author Jasper Sharp. [Josh Slater-Williams]
Released by Lionsgate
Released by Arrow Video
February 2018
The Mystery of Picasso
The mystery of Picasso, as far as this film is concerned, lay entirely in the painter’s technique. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot makes no attempt at psychological excavation of his subject, opting instead to present as direct and unfiltered a glimpse of his process as was conceivable in 1958. Employing the services of cinematographer Claude Renoir – nephew of Jean – and a specially designed transparent canvas, Clouzot allows us to follow the master’s brush strokes with unobstructed clarity. Shooting as his subject creates, we see Picasso’s restlessness and improvisational flair. The sketches that form the basis of these works are taken in surprising directions which play out like plot twists, while some initial ideas and intentions are obliterated entirely. Famously hailed as the ‘French Hitchcock’, Clouzot shows an admirable restraint in allowing his subject to steer the project. Happily, the director isn’t quite able to break the habit of a lifetime, throwing in a typically suspenseful – and in this context, bizarre – scene in which our hero races against time to complete a painting before a roll of film reaches its end. Similar scenes in which we see the chain-smoking filmmaker bark commands at his shirtless, harried genius undermine the movie’s aims somewhat, but certainly jolt the viewer at points when they might otherwise find themselves lost in reverie. Ultimately those who stay engaged with this piece will find it hugely rewarding, a sort of high art precursor to Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, where layers are built upon layers in a dizzying work of artifice and expression. Extras The extras filling out this disc will satisfy anyone who finds themselves taken by the main feature. An English language, BAFTA winning documentary is almost as engaging as Clouzot’s work, though takes us no closer to the man himself, while home movie footage shot by Man Ray is an intimate and unguarded curio. [Lewis Porteous] Released by Arrow
FILM
Review
51
What the Fuck is Hamilton? As the famous musical finally opens on the West End, The Skinny’s Theatre Editor has pulled together a handy guide that can help you sound like you know what you’re talking about when someone asks you, “Hey, what the fuck is Hamilton?”
he chances are that you’ve heard that Hamilton: An American Musical, has arrived in London. This award-winning, critically acclaimed production first opened off-Broadway in New York in February 2015, and since then has become one of the hottest tickets in theatre land. But what is it, exactly?
Who or what is Hamilton? Hamilton: An American Musical (let’s just call it Hamilton from now on) is a Tony Award-winning hip-hop musical (it was nominated for 16 awards, and won a total of 11). The music, lyrics and book of the musical was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who starred as Hamilton in the original run and also wrote the highly acclaimed In the Heights. Hamilton is based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Next time you go to America, check out a $10 bill; that’s his mug on it. OK, so what did he do to get put on there? Well, what didn’t he do? Hamilton’s life story is more or less the epitome of what we would call The American Dream. Born on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, he was, as the musical so eloquently puts it in song form, “a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman.” He grew up in poverty but, despite his beginnings, rose to great power and fortune. He eventually moved to New York and, over the course of his career, founded the US banking system, the Coast Guard, the New York Post and wrote most of the Federalist Papers; a series of documents which helped ratify the US Constitution.
Ah, so, he’s a pretty big deal, then? He is, but until the musical’s premiere in February 2015, he’d never been celebrated in musical form before. In fact, Miranda was only inspired to create a hip-hop musical based on his life after reading the biography Alexander Hamilton by the historian Ron Chernow. Miranda read the book and after a quick Google, was shocked that no one had created a musical about this particular Founding Father before. But what’s so special about the musical? It puts a figure who was sidelined and never quite broken through to mainstream culture – unlike his contemporaries such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and even King George III, all of whom appear in the show – centre stage. It retells a story you might have heard before from a different perspective; the creation of the US as we know it, set against the turmoil of the American War of Independence. Its message is diversity and inclusiveness and it celebrates among other things, immigration. Hamilton was an immigrant; Miranda is a first generation immigrant, who was born in New York and his parents hail from Puerto Rico. Additionally, the cast is almost exclusively comprised of people of colour, perhaps to stand up against the whitewashing of history, and it’s a hip-hop musical! The cast sing, speak, and rap about the ins and outs of the life of Hamilton. In fact, the two hour long soundtrack is very popular, and is one of the many reasons for the show’s success.
Hamilton: An American Musical
Hamilton: An American Musical
But what do people think? Well, lots of good things. One of the best quotes is from the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, who said it was, “the best piece of art in any form I have ever seen in my life.” However, the somehow current, President of the United States Donald J. Trump, who has never seen the show, dismissed it as “highly overrated” after the cast publically
called out Vice President Mike Pence at the curtain call for his views on immigration. So, should I get a ticket, then? YES. Good lord, why haven’t you got one already? Hamilton: An American Musical, Victoria Palace Theatre, London, for tickets and information, visit hamiltonmusical.com/london
Stage Directions The second month of the year is alive with shows and events, January is over, the pantomimes have definitely finished, and everyone can start over again
W
ith this in mind, some productions are starting February with a bang. One of which is the classic musical, Fame, which is set to be revived by Edinburgh University Footlights from 6-10 February at the Church Hill Theatre. The now classic musical takes place in 80s New York and follows a group of performing arts students as they try to make it big and contend with everyday issues. Staying in Edinburgh, tales of free speech, persecution and just being yourself tread the boards at the Traverse. First up is Showtime from the Frontline, which runs from 14-17 February, and tells the story of what happened when Mark Thomas tried to set up a comedy club for two nights in Jenin, Palestine. It also stars Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada from Jenin Freedom Theatre. Later in the month, from the 21-24 February to be exact, The Last Bordello, a co-production between Fire Exit and Tron Theatre, takes the audience on an absurd and fiendish exploration of the
52
Review
inner workings of the last bordello left in a land brutalised by war. Meanwhile, after recovering from panto season, The King’s Theatre, just up the road in Tollcross, presents Pressure (13-17 Feb), the acclaimed play by David Haig, which is a retelling of the real-life story of two warring allied meteorologists, tasked with predicting the weather conditions for D-Day. The play premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in 2014. In Glasgow, Scottish Opera present two shows at the Theatre Royal this month. The first is a revival of their Edinburgh International Festival hit Greek, a modern re-telling of the Oedipus myth by MarkAnthony Turnage. Based on the play by Steven Berkoff, Greek runs for two nights only (2-3 Feb). The second production is the Scottish premiere of Jonathan Dove’s comedy opera Flight, at the Theatre Royal from the 17-24 February and Festival Theatre Edinburgh from 1-3 March. Based on the true story of a refugee who was stranded at Paris Charles
Words: Amy Taylor
de Gaulle airport for a staggering 18 years, this opera flings together a group of strangers who are stuck at the airport during an electrical storm. BUZZCUT’S Double Thrills, their regular night of experimental performance and live art takes place at the CCA on 7 February. This month, Aby Watson and Nicola Hunter present their latest work. Watson’s –ish is a work in progress, a physical theatre piece that explores dyspraxia, and when someone goes from abled to disabled. Hunter’s MOTHERFUCKER is a conversation on gender, being a single parent, and the ongoing relationship a mother has with her body. The performances are BSL interpreted and are free for people living in Govan. If you want to take up this offer, or if you can’t afford a ticket to the event, email: buzzcutkarl@gmail.com Moving up to Aberdeen, the sound of Stephen Sondheim will fill Aberdeen Arts Centre from the 1-10 February with Company. This dark comedy about life, love and marriage follows Bobby, a
THEATRE
MOTHERFUCKER
35-year-old bachelor, and stars West End favourites Oliver Savile, Anita Louise Combe and Ashleigh Gray. Dundee Rep’s first production of 2018 is Ira Levin’s infamous thriller Deathtrap, which begins on 20 February. Directed by Johnny McKnight, this ‘play within a play’ marks its 40th anniversary and follows a washed up playwright as he attempts to claw back his former glory at any cost. But is he capable of murder? theskinny.co.uk/theatre
THE SKINNY
Photo: Matthew Murphy
T
Photo: Matthew Murphy
Interview: Amy Taylor
Ask Auntie Trash:
What is Love? Illustration: Stephanie Hoffmann Hey Auntie, What can theatre teach us about love? Luv, Valentine x
H
ello Valentine, Ah, love. If I wasn’t such an embittered theatre critic, I’d know what you were on about. I jest, honestly slightly, mind, because in the immortal words of Foreigner, ‘I Want to Know What Love Is.’ Incidentally, did you know that the lead singer wrote that around the time he was leaving his wife for another woman? What larks! Anyway. What can theatre teach us about love? Well, I was thinking about the many plays that I’ve seen and read over the years, and I realised that I couldn’t remember one single stage depiction of a happy, functional and stereotypically ‘normal’ relationship where Everything Works Out Fine. That’s not to say that they don’t exist, I’m sure some fictional theatre couples are happy, or maybe even content, I just can’t think of any. OK, that’s overly cynical, but hear me out – name one famous play with a couple who encounter no problems in their relationship. Give me the details of a show that doesn’t present some utterly warped version of seduction. And consent? DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED. For example, one of the bestknown plays in the world is William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, a tragic love story with starcrossed lovers, warring families, poison, sword fights, it’s every playwright’s wet dream. But Romeo and Juliet weren’t adults; they were 15 and 13(ish) respectively. They’re not starcrossed lovers, they’re shitty kids! How did you react when something went wrong when you were that age? You overreacted! Why? Because whatever happened was literally The End of the World As You Knew It to your tiny, still-forming brain. Romeo and Juliet didn’t die for love; they died for DRAMA. ’Cause of death: emo as fuck. Going to the theatre is fun and all, but at the heart of every good show, hell, at the thundering heart of every good story, there has to be one thing: conflict. Do you know who said that? Aristotle said
February 2018
that, and from what he left behind, he knew what he was talking about. Read Poetics if you would like to know more about this and the necessity of conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. (Available from all good bookshops, shop local and independent, thank you). Without conflict, you don’t have an engaging, riveting piece of art to get lost in, you just have, well, you have blah.
“Romeo and Juliet didn’t die for love; they died for DRAMA. ’Cause of death: emo as fuck” Blah is beige. Blah is the kind of play you go to help out a sort-of-friend with BIG DREAMS and very little talent. Do you want to spend your time watching a bunch of blah? Hell no! We have very little time on this beautiful, but conflicted planet, so, as we continue the long slide down the razor blade of life, it’s useful to know that this thing we call love is never as it appears to be depicted on stage, on screen, in books, etc. Love can be wonderful. Love can be Hell. It’s really important to learn to tell the difference and find suitable partners, self worth, and to not look for validation through other people. Love is not manipulation. Love is not someone casting a magic spell on you to gain your admiration or killing people for the want of your hand in marriage. That isn’t love. That’s hella problematic. And you deserve better. To summarise, theatre shows us what love shouldn’t be, but also, in a way, what it could be, so don’t frame fictional love as the perfect relationship just because you saw it on stage. What are you, 15? Love ya, Trash x
THEATRE
Review
53
Win ticket bundle to Glasgow Film Festival G
et ready for The Perfect Movie Mix at GFF18! The festival returns for its 14th edition from 21 February to 4 March and promises a treasure trove from the world of cinema, whether you like jaw-dropping documentaries or carefree comedies, grisly horrors or delicate dramas. The festival’s celebrated pop-up cinema events return with immersive screenings of Die Hard and Working Girl on the thirteenth floor of an office block, or you can take a zombie treasure hunt to discover the secret location for Dawn of the Dead. Music fans can see Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi at The Unfilmables, or hear Sacred Paws perform a live soundtrack to Margaret Salmon’s explosive speedway documentary Mm. To win a pair of tickets to each of The Skinnypartnered films throughout GFF, which include Mm + Sacred Paws Live (Sat 24 Feb, 7.30pm), Lynne Ramsay’s hotly anticipated You Were Never Really Here (Sat 24 Feb, 1pm), and a pair of
brilliant French dramas – Let the Sunshine In (Mon 26 Feb, 3.45pm) and 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Mon 26 Feb, 7.45pm), simply answer the following question: What date does Glasgow Film Festival 2018 begin? a) 14 Feb b) 21 Feb c) 4 Mar
Turin Brakes
Competition closes 12 noon on Mon 19 Feb. Entrants must be 18 years old or over. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 24 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny. co.uk/about/terms For more info on GFF18 and for tickets, head to glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival
Let the Sunshine In
54
Win tickets to see Turin Brakes live in Glasgow T
urin Brakes don't hang about. The estimable London four-piece released Invisible Storm – their eighth studio album – through Cooking Vinyl in January, and are now off on a UK & European tour. Invisible Storm’s journey runs from the acoustic centre of the band's sound on tracks like Deep Sea Diver and Don't Know Much through to the indiepop groove of Wait and Life Forms and far beyond into widescreen space with Would You be Mine. "The idea of an invisible storm came to me as a theme during the end of writing the album,” says the band’s Olly Knights. “I've always loved the quote ‘everyone you meet is fighting their own war, so be kind.’ Invisible Storm is very much coming from that sentiment, that we are all at the mercy of our own internal weather systems despite outward appearances that may paint different pictures.”
COMPETITIONS
To win a pair of tickets to see Turin Brakes on 10 March at the O2 ABC in Glasgow, simply answer the following question: How many studio albums have Turin Brakes released? a) Six b) Seven c) Eight Competition closes midnight on Sun 4 May. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms To purchase tickets, head to beyondhighlands.com/ events/2018-03-10-turin-brakes-o2-abc
THE SKINNY
Glasgow Music UNDERNEATH THE LIGHTS (FLAXMAN + THE HIGHWAY FIVE + ERIN BENNETT + ERIN NEWTON) O2 ABC, FROM 18:00, £8
Five-piece indie/alternative rock band from Dunfermline.
MICHAEL MCGOLDRICK BAND (TALISK) O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £17.40
ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE
Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. HAYSEED DIXIE
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £20.20
US novelty metal legends playing a mixture of hard rock cover versions and original compositions. SHOPPING (KAPUTT)
MONO, FROM 20:00, £5
Propulsive bass lines, primitive disco-not-disco drums and guitar lines sharp as broken glass. THE MENZINGERS
SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £16
They play loud music but if it’s too loud, you’re just too old. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: PITOU
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7
The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.
ROCK IT! FOR CHARITY: HAVE A HEART (FUNDRAISER FOR SACHD) (THE DROP + HARLITONES + TALKER + THE VIEW FROM AUGUST) BOX, FROM 20:00, FREE
February is National Heart Month, so this months Rock It! For Charity is a fundraiser for SACHD (Scottish Association for Children with Heart Disorders).
CLAPPERCLAW (MICHELLE HANNAH + FIMBRIA + KONZEL) 13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, TBC
Electronic solo project of Brooklyn-based performer CarrieAnne Murphy. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: C. MACLEOD AND WALLIS BIRD
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:30, £15
Macleod juggles sheep-rearing shifts with crafting magically poetic indie-folk songs, richly redolent of island life.
DBH + ROCKY LORELEI + IRMA VEP
THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , FROM 20:00, TBC
An evening of heavy listening at the lovely Old Hairdressers.
CELTIC CONNECTIONS: DECLAN WELSH & FRIENDS (EMME WOODS + EILIDH MCMILLAN (BREAKFAST MUFF) + TOM FRASER (CODIST) + FINN ANDERSON) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10
Glasgow Singer/Songwriter/Poet Declan Welsh invites some of the scene’s most exciting talents onto the stage with him for an eclectic night of music and poetry.
Fri 02 Feb
KATHRYN WILLIAMS AND THE BROTHER BROTHERS
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15
BETH ORTON AND BLUE ROSE CODE
The much-loved folktronica pioneer plays a joint headline show with Edinburgh’s own jazzy folk talent Ross Wilson.
NEON HURRICANE (KASHMIR CROWS + SHOTGUN CITY SUNSHINE + SCOTT ROBINSON) CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £8
Alternative act hailing from Glasgow, priding themselves on their individuality and their unique live shows. THE BLINDERS
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8
Alt trio hailing originally from Doncaster, now based in sunny ol’ Manchester. HELLO CREEPY SPIDER (MAGIC TRIK + ATHENA’S ARMY + GREGOR THOMAS)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5
A band that play hard and fast, short and loud rock’n’roll. THE AMAZONS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £15
Born and raised Reading locals, Matt, Joe, Elliot and Chris take the aggression of grunge and punk and attempt to splice it with melody and harmony.
CELTIC CONNECTIONS: JAIME WYATT
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10
Wyatt is a dynamic performer, dually noted as a powerhouse singer and stellar guitar player, sailing between vintage 60’s and 70’s rock’n’roll anthems and heartfelt ballads of love and confusion. JAMIE LENMAN
STEREO, FROM 19:00, £15
The former singer, guitarist and songwriter for underground heroes Reuben returns, with his twiddly moustache all well and in place. THE KICKS
MAGGIE MAY’S, FROM 20:00, FREE
With a repertoire that stretches from ABBA to Zeppelin and back again, The Kicks are guaranteed to fill your dance floor. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: SOUND OF YELL + ILK + ABY VULLIAMY
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £13
Three contrasting yet sympathetic acts, incorporating a remarkable range of instruments and musical styles. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: PETER BRODERICK (JAMIE SUTHERLAND (BROKEN RECORDS)) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £12
Oregon-based muso with releases on the likes of Erased Tapes, Bella Union and Type, as well as collaborations with Efterklang and M.Ward (his reputation truly does precede him).
Sat 03 Feb
SAM OUTLAW AND SUSTO
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £16
THE DEAD BOYS (RAMOANERS + REACTION)
O2 ABC, FROM 20:00, £19.70
American punk band The Dead Boys revisit some of their classic songs to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Young, Loud and Snotty. THE NIGHT CAFE (PARIS YOUTH FOUNDATION)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9.90
Avocet make contemporary music with a traditional folk-y feel to it yet also influenced by blues and world music.
OBJECTIFIED (ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW) (MR. TC + BANANA OIL + SISTER MIDNIGHT DJS)
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £19.65
Round off your festival in truly roof-raising style with one of today’s top Scottish trad-based bands Mànran.
Liverpudlian quartet out on their UK tour.
Mancunian five-piece, founded in 2009 by lead singer Martin Finnigan and guitarist Phil Rainey.
DECLAN HEGARTY
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £19.65
One of the world’s most sought-after instrumentalists will perform the Celtic and worldinfluenced Jazz sounds from his latest solo offering at Celtic Connections this year. THE RAINBAND (SONIC DISPACE + SKILLED EMBRYO)
Thu 01 Feb
CELTIC CONNECTIONS CLOSING PARTY (MÀNRAN + YOUNG FOLK)
MONO, FROM 20:00, £5
Formed in early 2016 featuring members of Sweaty Palms and Ubre Blanca. CRYPTIC CULTURE (COUNSEL + MOTHER FOCUS)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5
A guitar focused band bringing guitar back into the limelight.
INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK: THE DUNTS
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6
Four-part punk rock band from Glasgae.
MISS THE OCCUPIER (FERRI & THE FEVERS + DOROTHY HALE)
THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:00, TBC
The punk-inflected Glasgow popsters continue to blast Sister-era Sonic Youth through ace girl group melodies. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: TIDE LINES AND CASSIE & MAGGIE
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:30, £14
Formed in 2016, the young Highland quartet play catchy Celtic pop, melodic rock anthems and soulful ballads.
HIIP PRIEST PARTY (SAVAGE MANSION + SHREDD + WYLDE + PLEASURE HEADS + REAL LIFE ENTERTAINMENT + NATALIE PRYCE + THE KIDNEY FLOWERS + SNACK VILLAIN) THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , FROM 14:00, £7
An all-day party from the Glasgow DIY promotions company. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: LAU LAND LAU 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 21:00, £14
To conclude their 10th anniversary celebrations Lau will host a late night party where Aidan, Kris and Martin will perform special solo and collaborative sets with invited guests. THE RUMJACKS
AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £15
A mix of Celtic, folk and rockabilly punk. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: ALEX REX + AILBHE NIC OIREACHTAIGH
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £13
Alex Neilson’s new solo project is a more stripped down and folk orientated endeavour than his band Trembling Bells. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: JAYE BARTELL (STEPH CAMERON)
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8
CELTIC CONNECTIONS: AVOCET
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6
CELTIC CONNECTIONS: OUT LINES AND HAMISH HAWK
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:30, £15
Out Lines is a project combining the talents of The Twilight Sad’s James Graham, Kathryn Joseph and The Diving Bell Lounge’s Marcus Mackay. KHRUANGBIN
CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:00, £12.50
Psychedelic Texan trio influenced by 1960s Thai music. DANNY BOYLE
AUDIO, FROM 14:00, £12
No, not the director. It’s the young Liverpudlian singer/songwriter. SAMMY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, FREE
Monthly, popular open mic night with house band The Bucks. Get down early to guarantee a seat or a performance slot. CELTIC CONNECTIONS: MATTHEW LOGAN VASQUEZ (DELTA SPIRIT) (A. WESLEY CHUNG + DAVE FRAZER)
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10
California/Texas-hailing rock’n’roller signed to Dine Alone Records.
Mon 05 Feb THE TEXAS GENTLEMEN
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50
North Texas roots-rock collective, who were initially formed as an all-purpose backing band for an eclectic array of singer-songwriters, including Leon Bridges and Nikki Lane. PARTYNEXTDOOR (JESSIE REYEZ )
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £22.50
Drake’s protégé, (rumoured) brief Kylie Jenner sidepiece and Grammy-nominated R&B hitmaker hits the UK. JOSH KELLEY
MAN, I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN! (THE VEGAN LEATHER + LIZZIE REID & CO.+ AWKWARD FAMILY PORTRAITS + DECLAN WELSH) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5 - £6
Breaking down gender norms, Man, I Feel Like a Woman! is a unique event which sees some of the most talented musicians in Glasgow cover songs by their icons of the opposite gender.
Wed 07 Feb JHENÉ AIKO
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £20.20
Grammy-nominated artist Jhené Aiko heads to the UK off the back of the surprise release of 22-song album TRIP. VUUR
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £14.10
Dutch progressive metal band formed in 2016 by singer and lyricist Anneke van Giersbergen. COURTNEY ACT
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, £20
Drag superstar Courtney Act brings her show SLAY! to Scotland, fresh from leaving the Celebrity Big Brother house. FREAKENDER PRESENTS: PAUL JACOBS (FAT BLACK CATS)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
Previously performing as a one-man army, Jacobs is now performing as a four-piece which renders his catchy melodic garage even more incendiary. 13 CROWES (COLD YEARS) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6
Influenced by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Brian Fallon & poet Robert Burns to name a few, 13 Crowes aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they carry the torch and keeping it burning bright.
MR. VAST (SCUNNER + JACK SQUAT + LACY RAIN) THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:00, £5
Absurdist genre-defying artist fond of bizarre costumes.
Thu 08 Feb DECLAN HEGARTY
ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE
LISA KOWALSKI (MEGAN D)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70
Young singer/songwriter from Paisley. FROG POCKET
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £14.30
Singer/songwriter who shot to local fame supporting the Stone Roses at their Heaton Park comeback shows. FIVE COUSINS (GLASS ABBOT + MOLLY ELIZA)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
MAN OF MOON (THE ULTRAS)
Psychedelic duo from Edinburgh. ‘A CELEBRATION OF SONGS’ WITH FRANCES THORBURN ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:30, £25
A night of music hosted and performed by Frances Thorburn to raise money for her friend Moe Abutoq, who needs to get Stem Cell treatment to treat his MS. THERION (IMPERIAL AGE)
AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £20
Sun 04 Feb
At the young age of 19, Casey had already been featured as Radio One’s Artist of the Week and sold out some of the UK’s largest and most well known venues, all before releasing his first single.
Dom Pipkin is one of the UK’s ‘best kept secrets’ and his critically acclaimed solo show is coming to The Howlin’ Wolf for a night of jazz, blues and soul.
THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , FROM 19:00, £5
Fri 09 Feb
BLACK SNAKE ROOTS
ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE
Ronnie and Olivia play tunes from their Classic Acoustic Songbook in the cosy bar.
HAZY RECOLLECTIONS (RHONA MACFARLANE + AGE-OTORI + EMME WOODS + JACOB YATES & THE PEARLY GATES LOCK PICKERS)
HEART BEACH (JUTLAND SONGS)
Heart Beach play sad, girl-guy, 9 to 5 pop songs.
Kathryn Williams performs her Mercury-nominated album Little Black Numbers in its entirety celebrating its vinyl reissue on One Little Indian records.
LA-based modern country artist who has recently released a new album entitled Tenderheart. Aw.
February 2018
Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on
O2 ABC, FROM 14:00, £14.10
Handpicked selection of acts from the flourishing Glasgow indie, folk and roots scene. Part of Celtic Connections.
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £13.50
A creative, passionate, energetically enthused classic rock band. THE GO! TEAM
QUEEN MARGARET UNION, FROM 19:00, £16
The Brighton-based cult live faves weave their energetic and chantheavy web of indie-pop.
THIS FEELING - GLASGOW BIG IN 2018 (HEAVY RAPIDS + RITUALS + CAROUSEL + THE VANITIES + THE CAPOLLOS) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6 - £7
The club night where Rock ‘n, Roll royalty hang out and which has helped launch the likes of Blossoms, Catfish And The Bottlemen, The Struts, Cabbage and many more. SOUNDS IN THE SUBURBS PRESENTS: LOLA IN SLACKS + SPECIAL GUESTS
CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £10
Stockholm-based Swedish metallers.
DOM PIPKIN SMOKIN’ BOOGIE SOLO SHOW
THE HOWLIN’ WOLF, FROM 23:00, FREE
BOWLING FOR SOUP (THE AQUABATS! + ARMY OF FRESHMEN)
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £28.65
A night of post-punk from a 90s fave. They embarked on a farewell tour in 2013, but seem to have changed their minds and are back for another stab. Well, how’s about it?
Newcastle based electro-pop outfit Twist Helix present an evening of female fronted alternative music. THE REASON (POSABLE ACTION FIGURES + ENTRY ROOM)
AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £5
Glasgow four-piece launch new single Just the Same. BROKEN BY ROCK (KIDD + SEA CUCUMBERS)
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5
A Saturday night triple bill of DIY indie pop.
Sun 11 Feb
THE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGBOOK WITH RONNIE & OLIVIA
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £5
Live reggae plus DJs.
SOFT RIOT (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW) (UBRE BLANCA + MEDDICINE) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7
SEA GIRLS (ABLE FACES + VICTORIA’S FLIGHT)
BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens picked this band in his Ones To Watch For 2018 and here’s a chance to watch them. CATTLE (DROVES + CIVIL ELEGIES)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7
Leaders of the new wave of Northern English noise rock, combining all sorts of extreme sounds to deliver a shocking assault to the senses. NIGHTMARES ON WAX
SWG3 GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £16.50
George Evelyn, better known by his stage name Nightmares on Wax or DJ E.A.S.E, consistently delivers hugely danceable sets. Expect a blend of house, disco, and hip-hop alongside plenty of welcome samples from his own back catalogue.
JESSARAE
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £11.25
London-based singer-songwriter from LA, who’s shared stages with the likes of Plain White Ts, Matt Corby and others. FREAKENDER PRESENTS: THE MOLOCHS
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £7
The band of singer-songwriter Lucas Fitzsimmons.
DRAB MAJESTY (DUNE MESSIAH)
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £12
BARS AND MELODY
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £25
Youngsters Leondre Devries and Charlie Lenehan (offa Britain’s Got Talent).
KEITH BURNS (BRIDGETTE TATUM)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC
A founding member of Grammynominated trio Trick Pony goes out on his own. PEACH PIT
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £9
Japanese rock and metal band based in London.
REGGAE BURNS DANCE (KING SNOWFLAKE + HECTORRR)
Aussie singer-songwriter who found fame in the greatest soap of all time: Neighbours.
The Jim Kerr-led classic rock outfit take to the stage for an acclaimed acoustic show spanning all the hits.
AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £13
THE GODFATHERS
NATALIE IMBRUGLIA
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £30
Deb DeMure’s self-labelled tragic wave / gothic project.
Delicious melted-alt-indie with bummer summer vibes somewhere between Mac Demarco and Homeshake.
British rock’n’rollers formed back in 1985 by brothers Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of their previous band, The Sid Presley Experience.
Tue 13 Feb
ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE
Ronnie and Olivia play tunes from their Classic Acoustic Songbook in the cosy bar.
Chanteuse Lou Reid brings a Piaflike authority to the group’s Noir atmospherics. Imagine Marianne Faithfull fronting The Velvet Underground.
HOLLIE COOK (GENERAL ROOTS)
The recording name of Scottish musician John Charles Wilson. CASEY LOWRY
SOLID ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS: THE BREW
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.25
The Sheffield metalcore troops bring their usual racket.
Jaye Bartell’s songs are poetic yet candid and unafraid, formal but also spontaneous. Sounds deep.
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8.80
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.25
Canadian folk artist with a distinctly poetic quality to his lyricism.
Sat 10 Feb
WHILE SHE SLEEPS
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8.50
Tue 06 Feb
ANDY BROWN
O2 ABC, FROM 18:00, £18.50
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE
Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free.
All singing, all dancing Balkan orgy, plus belly dancing and free brandy. As in, we’re sold.
Soft Riot premieres his new live material with dark synth-pop, Dystopian pop hooks and a playful fusion of new wave and early synth-pop.
The 2nd edition of Cherry Bomb Music Events: female-focused gigs, where all acts performing will either be all-female, or bands with at least one female member.
ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS
TWIST HELIX 13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £3 - £5
Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd.
American singer/songwriter and member of Grammy award-winning country trio Lady Antebellum.
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £16
BALKANARAMA CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 22:30, £8 - £10
ESPRIT D’AIR
AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £10
KENDRICK LAMAR (JAMES BLAKE)
THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £50 - £95
K.Dot takes the DAMN. Tour to the UK with minimal piano man James Blake supporting.
Mon 12 Feb VONDA SHEPARD
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £25
You may know Vonda from her Ally McBeal theme tune - no, wait, that’s literally all you’ll know her from. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE
Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free.
THE LOVELY EGGS (PHIL JUPITUS (PORKY THE POET) + MR BEN AND THE BENS)
SIMPLE MINDS
BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £45
Wed 14 Feb PUBLIC ACCESS T.V.
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7
Post-punk four-piece from downtown NYC. SKYCLAD
AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £15
Longstanding British metalheads with heavy folk influences. WILL BLACK
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £20
Canadian solo artist returns with his up close and intimate show.
Thu 15 Feb DECLAN HEGARTY
ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE
Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. $UICIDEBOY$
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £23
One of the fastest growing acts in hip hop right now, don’t miss the chance to see the New Orleans duo at their peak. HEMPOLICS
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £9
Slowly becoming Reggae’s worst kept secret, The Hempolics are an underground band who are out to put the organic, rootsy vibes back into music. MUGSTAR (ANTIQUE PONY)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8
STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10
Psych-rock outfit hailing from Liverpool, navigating psychedelia, space and krautrock as they go.
MONTERO (BARBE ROUSSE)
Australian singer-songwriter, AMP and ARIA nominated recording artist and co-founder/label-manager of Milk! Records.
Champions of the UK underground scene The Lovely Eggs hit the road again for another round of punk rock good times. THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8
Artist and musician Ben Montero operates in the rich widescreen soft rock tradition, updating the romantic classicism of golden era love songs with a psychedelic pop brush.
JEN CLOHER
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8
NADJA
STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10
Duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff creating heavy atmospheric music which combines noise and electronics, ambient and shoegaze, and metal and industrial sounds. HIGHER POWER
AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £10
Melodic hardcore band from Leeds.
THE ATARIS
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £18.50
Indianapolis alternative indierockers who record all their songs in one take, using vintage 1940s ribbon microphones and a 1948 Gibson J-45 guitar. THE FRONT BOTTOMS (THE SMITH STREET BAND + BRICK AND MORTAR)
BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £17
Possessing more nous than the puerile band name might suggest, the New Jersey outfit do their acoustic-cum-indie-cum-dancecum-punk thing – packaged up with catchy choruses, an oftengalloping pace, and lyrics that mix flip humour with sincerity. 1.5 MONTHS
THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £5
Mhenwhar Huws continue their Non-Monthly residency in the venue with another packed line up of live acts and DJs.
Listings
55
THE BABE RAINBOW BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8.50
The Aussie kitsch folk-rockers take to the road. AMENRA & BORIS
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £18
Co-headline show from heavy music luminaries AMENRA and Boris.
Tue 20 Feb
KING 810 (COURTESANS + RARE BREED)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20
The Michigan metal unit take to the road. FREAKENDER PRESENTS: SCOTT YODER (ROBERT SOTELO GROUP)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
Ex-The Pharmacy member heads his own solo project band straddling the common vibes of folk, glam & power-pop. THE MYRRORS
IGLOOGHOST (KAI WHISTON)
THE ANDY GUNN BAND
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8
STEREO, FROM 19:00, £8
UK-based, electronic producer of hyperspeed booms, fizzes, squeezes and stretches.
Fri 16 Feb
DOÑA OXFORD – HEART & SOUL TOUR
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15
Soulful singer songwriter drawing on the old school of soul singing.
THE BLACK DELTA MOVEMENT (SABOTUERS + SHOTGUN CITY SUNSHINE + REFUGE ISLAND) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
Neo-Psychedelia rock. FOUR TET
BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £20
A certain Mr. Kieran Hebden mans the decks for the full four hours, taking to the stage under his Four Tet moniker for a set of his e’er lovely post-rock-meetselectronica, awash with abstract sensibilities. LUNA THE PROFESSOR
AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £6
Teenage indie-rockers from Wishaw. THE SCRIPT
THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £30.80 - £50.40
Scottish guitar virtuoso Andy Gunn brings his all new line-up featuring the cream of Scottish Blues musicians on tour in support of brand new album Too Many Guitars To Give Up Now. DAMON & NAOMI WITH RICHARD YOUNGS
LEWIS CAPALDI
British singer-songwriter who rose to prominence when his first track Bruises became the fastest streaming track by any new artist. FRANZ FERDINAND (ALBERT HAMMOND JNR)
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £27.50
Having been playing the music game for over a decade, Alex Kapranos & co mix the staccato energy of punk with highly calibrated pop ballads to suitably fine effect. MICK N PHIL (ERISKA + GORDON JAMES & THE POWER + FOLK SAKE)
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £8
Twin brothers from Hamilton have an easy listening country sound taking influence from artists such as Dan and Shay and Daughtry. JESS AND THE BANDITS (KEVIN MCGUIRE + THE STEP BROTHERS)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12
Country band Jess and the Bandits are fronted by Texan singersongwriter Jessica Clemmons, backed up by four Brits with an equal love for the genre. MOB47 (THE WANKYS + GRIEVE + DROVES)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC
The Swedish hardcore legends return to the UK. THE BALTIC STATES
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6
Three-piece indie/electronic band based in the UK, blending techno/ folk and haunting electronica with hypnotic, soaring vocal melodies.
MORRISSEY
THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £56.20 - £73.80
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £22.50
Four-piece jazz funk outfit from Rochester, active since 1985 and embarking on a tour to work through their extensive back catalogue. LIAM DOYLE
Glaswegian folk/pop singer.
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £13.20
LONEY DEAR
Alias of Swedish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanangen, chock with deft guitar swathes and haunting folk strains, ALVVAYS
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70
INTO THE ARK
The South Wales duo unveil a selection of new material. LAKYOTO
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 20:00, £8
Four-piece electronic pop band from Edinburgh, formerly known as SHVLLOWS.
Canadian indie-pop darlings.
Thu 22 Feb
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £27.50
ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE
KHALID
The young Texan R&B singer who cites his mother as his biggest musical inspiration. Cute. THE BARBITUARIES (CHERYM + HACHIKO)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
Northern Irish band whose influences range from punk, rock and roll, hardcore and rock.
DESERT MOUNTAIN TRIBE (MOTHER’S CAKE + VFLAMBDA) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6
Spacey low slung rockers Desert Mountain Tribe are joined by super tight rhythm driven psyche troupe Mothers Cake. WILLY MASON
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £15
The distinctive-voiced New York-born singer/songwriter plays a set of deep-rooted country tunes twinkling with pianos, a little swing and a little blues. GALANTIS
THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £28.40 £113.50
The Swedish electronic duo embark on a UK tour. GUN OUTFIT
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9
Modest LA rock ‘n’ roll from a group of art film lovers and makers, driven by a moody, lo-fi Americana sound that also works well for fans of Sonic Youth.
Mon 19 Feb
CURRAN + HOLLOWAY ROAD
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £16.90
Irish-born singer/songwriter touring with Essex country-pop duo. NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE
Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free.
Listings
JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET
Ex-The Smiths singer and renowned whinger takes to the road.
ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS
56
CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £14
Wed 21 Feb
WILLY MASON
Sat 17 Feb
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £12
THE FALLEN ANGELS CLUB: LINDSAY LOU
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £15
The distinctive-voiced New York-born singer/songwriter plays a set of deep-rooted country tunes twinkling with pianos, a little swing and a little blues.
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £17.40
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50
An evening of live music from singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy.
Duo comprising of Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang.
Sun 18 Feb
Four-piece blues rock band.
DERMOT KENNEDY
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £11
Outstanding Michigan songbird Lindsay Lou returns to the UK with her band and a brand new album to promote.
THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , FROM 19:00, £10 - £12
The Irish “alternative” rockers head out for more live dates. GERRY JABLONSKI & THE ELECTRIC BAND / ANDREW ROBERT EUSTACE
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8
Experimental psychedelic rock band from Arizona.
DECLAN HEGARTY
Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. BRIAN FALLON & THE HOWLING WEATHER
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £25.25
The former Gaslight Anthem frontman backed by a new band The Howling Weather. SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £39.90
Vintage reworks of contemporary pop hits courtesy of pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee. PARADISE LOST
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £18
Longstanding gothic metal-styled hellraisers. PAQUE ((I.D) FROM MFTM + SWVN)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70
Congolese-born British rapper, songwriter and producer.
THE ORIELLES (SPINNING COIN + ORDER OF THE TOAD + PASTELS DJS)
MONO, FROM 19:30, £8 - £9.50
A gleeful mixture of pop melody and post-punk deconstruction.
CARLTON MELTON (SMACK WIZARDS + COSMIC FRIENDS) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8
Five northern chaps who, when combined, create a finely-honed, psychedelic-tinged, amp-steeped din of a thing. DAXX & ROXANE
AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £6
Daxx & Roxane is a ticking time bomb of raw Rock n’ Roll power and crushing heavy riffs.
Fri 23 Feb THE XCERTS
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £15.15
Hard-riffing Scottish trio, whose impressive sound has been honed to perfection (i.e. they sound bloody massive live).
HYPOCRITES (BLACK BORRACHERO + THE COMMON PEOPLE + THE PONTANGZ) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70
Montreal-based alt-rockers.
AXE RASH (ATAVISTIK DEATH POSE + BRATAKUS) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £5
Swedish hardcore punk band. THE WANDERING HEARTS
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10
London-based country/Americana group.
MEGA RAN (SAMMUS + LOKI) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
The teacher-turned-rapper/ producer Random (aka Mega Ran) returns to Glasgow. CHRIS FORSYTH & THE SOLAR MOTEL BAND
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10
Lauded guitarist and composer from Philadelphia. JD MCPHERSON
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £13.20
Rock’n’roll rooted tunes from American songwriter and guitarist JD McPherson, think proper USA style rockabilly blues.
DYSTOPIAN FUTURE MOVIES (BOSPHORUS + SODEN) AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £7
Live music and DJs.
Dystopian Future Movies craft a unique combination of discordant layers, atmospheric swells and colossal heaviness.
Sat 24 Feb
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £7 - £9
REGGAE SHACK
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £3 - £5
THE JIMI HENDRIX RE-EXPERIENCE
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15
Jimi Hendrix tribute act. FIRST AID KIT
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £25
The Swedish folk sister duo, whose music is joyously steeped in their trademark American woodsy folk and blues. THE PATRYNS (RUBIAN + SOULCIRCUS + THE LABEL)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70
Four-piece indie rock band from Grangemouth. FREAKENDER PRESENTS: COOL GHOULS (SECRET MOTORBIKES)
MONO, FROM 20:00, £8 - £9.50
San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls bring their melodic garage, country psych to Glasgow. FAIRFOLLIES (HOLLOW TONES + STEVE GROZIER)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5
Drawing from a diverse range of musical ventures, FairFollies brings together songwriters and musicians from across Scotland to create an open and atmospheric sound, with an eclectic blend of Scottish indie and folk.
JAMES EDWYN AND THE BORROWED BAND LAUNCH PARTY (ANTON & THE COLTS + RILEY MUSIC)
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8
Hailing from Glasgow’s deepest and darkest west end streets, singer/ songwriter and guitarist James Edwyn has styled his latest work in the bracket of Americana/folkrock/alt-country. LAURA MISCH
STEREO, FROM 19:00, £9
Saxophonist/singer/producer from South-East London. ROTTENROWS + ACTING STRANGE (FAT BLACK CATS + LAURA ST JUDE) THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 19:30, £4.99
Rottenrows & Acting Strange celebrate the end of the Acting Rotten Tour THE KICKS
MAGGIE MAY’S, FROM 20:00, FREE
With a repertoire that stretches from ABBA to Zeppelin and back again, The Kicks are guaranteed to fill your dance floor. THE SENSATIONAL DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE BAND
ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £10
David Bowie tribute act. SHUGFEST 2
AUDIO, FROM 14:00, £10
All day event to remember Shug O’Neill.
THE YOUTH AND YOUNG (NIEVES)
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7
Taking the energy of Celtic rock and marrying it to the exuberance of modern Scottish indie-folk.
Sun 25 Feb
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £21.30
Melbourne psychniks evoking the eclectic rock experimentation of Frank Zappa. DAPPY
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £11
The N-Dubz chap entertains the yoof, avec baseball cap. Obviously. NICOLE ATKINS
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12.10
American pop-meets-rock singer/ songwriter demonstrating a new depth and maturity of late.
FIELDHEAD (KINBRAE)
Ambient electronic musician delighting in tape hiss, geography, bleak landscapes and decaying analogue loops. SAINT AGNES (THE ANIMAL MOTHERS + RUN INTO THE NIGHT)
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6.50
Psychedelic rock’n’roll from East London.
Mon 26 Feb
MARLON WILLIAMS (CUT WORMS)
KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9.90
The former Lyttelton choirboy does his angelic-voiced thing. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE
Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free.
Edinburgh Music Thu 01 Feb
WHITNEY - QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £23.90 - £56.40
A stunning celebration of the music and life of one of the greatest singers of our time.
GARDEN CENTRE (PORRIDGE RADIO (SOLO) + COP GRAVEYARD + HARDSPARROW)
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, £5 - £8
New project of Brighton’s Max Levy (formerly of King Of Cats). UNDERGROUND LIVE
TEVIOT UNDERGROUND, FROM 21:00, FREE
EUSA’s regular live music night showcasing up-and-coming Scottish musicians.
INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK: THE VAN T’S & ST.MARTIINS
SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £7
These tiny but tough grunge girls from Glasgow with big big tunes play alongside talented Dundee newcomers ST.MARTiiNS. NEHH PRESENTS... LIIMA
SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14
Liima (Efterklang + Tatu Rönkkö) was born as much of breaking old habits as building new habits, and their second album 1982 provides a masterclass in pushing beyond one’s established comfort zones. TV ME (ILL FITTING THOUGHTS)
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:00, TBC
ERASURE (BRIGHT LIGHTS BRIGHT LIGHTS)
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself.
TTWM: YOKO PWNO X THE HONEY FARM
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8.80
Give a little respect to this legendary band.
TEVIOT UNDERGROUND, FROM 19:00, £8
Edinburgh based Yoko Pwno present an exciting new take on the music of their native Scotland, while The Honey Farm are touted as “some of the most exciting new voices in Scottish rap”. INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK: KING CREOSOTE, TOM JOSHUA & ANNIE BOOTH
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6
A night of great classic rock with some outstanding bands.
INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK: MARSHALL RECORDS SHOWCASE (REIGNING DAYS + REWS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £7
A blistering showcase of acts from the record label of Marshall Amplification of six-footstacked-rock-guitar-amp fame.
RM HUBBERT (CHRISSY BARNACLE)
Fri 02 Feb
Mon 05 Feb
WILEY (RAPTURE 4D + CHRISSY GRIMEZ + 2T)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 19:00–22:00, £14 - £17
Producer, MC and all-round grime master Wiley (aka Richard Cowie) does his electronic meets hip-hop fusion thing, topped off with his inimitable snappy lyrical flow. MAGNUM
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £22.50
The five piece rockers tour in support of their 18th (that’s right) studio album, Escape From the Shadow Garden. MINT FIELD
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7
Noise-pop/shoegaze duo from Tijuana. PAUL DRAPER
THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £17.50
Former Mansun frontman premieres a full live performance of the Attack of the Grey Lanterns LP as well as his own solo material. SOLOMON GREY
THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8
London-based composers Tom Kingston and Joe Wilson
Wed 28 Feb SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £25
Fiesta Bombarda welcomes the youngest son of the legendary Fela Kuti is joined by his father’s 16-piece funk fuelled orchestra Egypt 80.
FREAKENDER PRESENTS: DR CHAN (FAT BLACK CATS + YUNG KP) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6
Parisian garage punk band come to the UK. VANIVES
SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £7
All-female heavy rock band. THE RAINBAND
THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £10
Mancunian five-piece, founded in 2009 by lead singer Martin Finnigan and guitarist Phil Rainey. EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (JOSH SMITH + ARIEL POSEN)
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, £14
Edinburgh Blues Club is a Social Enterprise established to harness popular support for a regular blues event in Edinburgh to ensure that the city and surrounding areas do not miss out on quality touring blues acts. INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK: WHITE & CALLUM EASTER
SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £12
Edinburgh firm favourite Callum Easter, known for collabs with Young Fathers, sets the stage for White, the towering Glasgow indie synth band who made a huge impact in 2017. WILL VARLEY
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £16
British folk singer and cofounder of arts collective Smugglers Records. BANGERS’N’MASH PRESENT: SCREAMIN’ WHISPER, THE 101 + THE CARVELLES
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £5 - £6
Come show your support during Independent Venue Week for local bands who deserve it.
OPEN MIC (CHRIS BARRON (SPIN DOCTORS) + LACH)
BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself. SOUNDHOUSE: A NEW INTERNATIONAL
TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £11
A concert in two halves featuring a new collection of songs by A New International for a forthcoming theatrical production by Vanishing Point. STEF KETTERINGHAM & HOWIE REEVE
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6
Experimental guitarist Stef Ketteringham and hard-touring bassist Howie Reeve join together for a tour of intimate venues around the country.
Tue 06 Feb JORJA SMITH
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £13.50
19 year old singer from Walsall, drawing on influences including Mos Def, The Streets and Lauryn Hill.
Wed 07 Feb
PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, FREE
Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.
Simon Pegg’s favourite new band JOHN are literary noise rock types. BBC6 Music are fans of this bunch. 13 CROWES (COLD YEARS + MICK HARGAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
Influenced by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Brian Fallon & poet Robert Burns to name a few, 13 Crowes aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they carry the torch and keeping it burning bright.
Fri 09 Feb
BULLETS & OCTANE (HOUDINI SAID NO)
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, £8 - £10
Californian rockers return and celebrate 20 years of rocking. LONDON CALLING
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, FREE
The UK’s premiere tribute to The Clash. MR. VAST (STONES )
WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5
Absurdist genre-defying artist fond of bizarre costumes. MICHAEL ROTHER PLAYS NEU! & HARMONIA & SOLO WORKS
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £22.50
Known as a founding member of NEU! and Harmonia and for his work with Kraftwerk, German multi-instrumentalist Michael Rother heads to the Capital. FLEETWODD MAC’S RUMOURS: PERFORMED BY THE TRANSATLANTIC ENSEMBLE
SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £20
Fresh off the back of their outstanding sell out December show, The Transatlantic Ensemble are returning to Summerhall by popular demand, performing Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album live and in its entirety. DED RABBIT, (ACRYLIC + CHRIS GREIG)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
The Ded Rabbit brothers have been one of the most promising indie acts in the capital for a while now.
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5
Part of Independent Venue Week, Edinburgh based Fires in the Alps play loud post-rock shoegaze.
Sat 03 Feb
BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, £12 - £15
San Francisco-residing singer/ songwriter and in-demand knobtwiddler for the likes of The Mantles and Tim Cohen.
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £13
JOHN (FRAUDS)
FIRES IN THE ALPS (THE LINE + GIFT HORSE + SEAN BELL)
VanIves performing their first official headline show in Glasgow. KELLEY STOLTZ
THE GODFATHERS
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £15
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £7 - £8
THE KING LOT (THIRTEEN STARS + SISTER ROSE)
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £3
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6
Thu 08 Feb
Sun 04 Feb
Tue 27 Feb
THE AGONY
At the young age of 19, Casey had already been featured as Radio One’s Artist of the Week and sold out some of the UK’s largest and most well known venues, all before releasing his first single.
British rock’n’rollers formed back in 1985 by brothers Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of their previous band, The Sid Presley Experience.
SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £15
The Glasgow guitarist writes music about love, death, friendship, mental illness and occasionally a dog called D Bone.
Live music at Sleazys.
CASEY LOWRY
Fence Collective co-founder King Creosote headlines a high quality songwriter line-up.
A three-piece project led by Thomas McConnell with tracks inspired by childhood, Playstations, memories of old computers and regurgitated pop culture.
JAMIE REILLY & NEW VICE (BLUE MILK + MAMA ROUX)
OPEN MIC TEVIOT, FROM 20:00, FREE
USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £44 - £66
THE RUMJACKS (RUGHNECK RIOT + BUZZBOMB + CAB 49)
A mix of Celtic, folk and rockabilly punk. CHRIS GLEN FT. NATASHA JAFFE
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:30, TBC
Scottish songwriter Chris Glen will be rejoined by long-term collaborator, friend and sublime accompanist Natasha Jaffe for a performance of original acoustic song.
THE SKINNY
Sat 10 Feb
THE NEW ROSES (NEW GENERATION SUPERSTARS)
BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, £8 - £10
Germany’s finest rock outfit make their Bannermans debut with killer support on this bill.
ISAAC BRUTAL - THE FALCON HAS LANDED
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5
Isaac Brutal and his caravan of crooks, crisis actors and creeps release a new album The Falcon Has Landed. BALKANARAMA
SUMMERHALL, FROM 22:30, £8 - £10
All singing, all dancing Balkan orgy, plus belly dancing and free brandy. As in, we’re sold.
ERRANT MEDIA PRESENTS UPSTAIRS AT LEITH DEPOT (BARBE ROUSSE + ERRANT BOY + STEPHEN MCLAREN + JAMIE WANDERS)
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6
The latest in the series of bimonthly nights put on by Leith indie Errant Media in Leith Depot. PEACH PIT (NASARI)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £12
Delicious melted-alt-indie with bummer summer vibes somewhere between Mac Demarco and Homeshake.
Sun 11 Feb THE BREW
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £12 - £15
UK rock trio that are an amazing live act who must be seen. THE BROADWAY BALLADEERS PRESENT DESIRE
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £10
A charity concert that will showcase some of the best amateur and semi-professional musical theatre talent from Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians. THE LOVELY EGGS (PHIL JUPITUS )
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £10 - £11
Dave Fridmann produced The Lovely Eggs are one of the most unique, innovative and genuine psych bands in the UK. Support from Phil Jupitus in his ‘Porky The Poet’ guise.
Mon 12 Feb
SPRING KING (WEIRDS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £10
Punky indie foursome Spring King drop by Sneaks as part of a jammed UK headline tour, supported by energetic and up front Weirds.
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £12 - £15
Dynamic soulful rock band hailing from Scotland’s capital city; a punchy and intoxicating amalgamation of rock and soul.
Thu 15 Feb
DOUGFEST (REECE HILLIS + BABY ISAAC)
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £6
NATALIE IMBRUGLIA
THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 18:30, £32.50
Aussie singer-songwriter who found fame in the greatest soap of all time: Neighbours. THE SNUTS
THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £10
The Snuts bring raspy, fuzzy indie rock to The Caves. JON BYRD
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:15, £8
Born in Birmingham, Alabama Jon Byrd grew up among the piney woods of south Alabama before becoming pivotal in Atlanta’s storied Redneck Underground music scene. UNDERGROUND LIVE
TEVIOT UNDERGROUND, FROM 21:00, FREE
EUSA’s regular live music night showcasing up-and-coming Scottish musicians.
Fri 16 Feb WILL BLACK
BANNERMANS, FROM 18:00, £20
Canadian solo artist returns with his up close and intimate show. DAMON & NAOMI WITH RICHARD YOUNGS (BELL LUNGS)
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £8.50
Duo comprising of Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (SEAN WEBSTER BAND + COW COW BOOGIE)
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £13
Edinburgh Blues Club is a Social Enterprise established to harness popular support for a regular blues events in Edinburgh to ensure that the city and surrounding areas do not miss out on quality touring blues acts. GIRL VOLTAGE GIG (BRATAKUS + JUNIPER GRAVE)
TEVIOT UNDERGROUND, FROM 19:30, £4 - £5
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself. TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £11
STRAMASH, FROM 22:00, FREE
OPEN MIC
SOUNDHOUSE: SWAMPFOG
Swampfog is a horn-heavy 7-piece band devoted to the music of New Orleans and its wide reach through jazz, blues and funk. MARMOZETS
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £13
Cheeky young alternative math rock lot Marmozets take to the road. RAVENEYE
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £11 - £12
RavenEye has already established itself as a powerful force in British rock with major support tours for Slash and Deep Purple. REDFACES
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
RedFaces are a brand new guitar band snapped up by a major label in open defiance of chart stats and marketing departments - four lads from Sheffield following the well worn path of the Arctic Monkeys et al.
Tue 13 Feb THE SHERLOCKS
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £13.50
Sheffield indie-rock unit made up of two sets of brothers.
Wed 14 Feb
PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, FREE
Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. JAMMIN’ AT VOODOO
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 21:00, FREE
Monthly Live Jam Session with some of Scotland’s leading musicians playing lounge grooves from many genres. COOL RUINS (SUPER INUIT)
WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5
Between order and chaos lies Cool Ruins. OPEN MIC
TEVIOT, FROM 20:00, FREE
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself.
February 2018
THE RISING SOULS THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £10
CHRIS GLEN & THE OUTFIT (JAG (JIMMY ANDERSON GROUP))
A night of female-fronted and all-girl bands to fundraise for Girls Rock School Edinburgh, with a mix of genres from rock blues to riot grrrl.
BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE
Sun 18 Feb
THE ANDY GUNN BAND
Scottish guitar virtuoso Andy Gunn brings his all new line up featuring the cream of Scottish Blues musicians on tour in support of brand new album Too Many Guitars To Give Up Now. PHILLIP TAYLOR (PAWS)
LEITH DEPOT, FROM 20:00, £8
Rare solo performance from PAWS vocalist/songwriter, Phillip Taylor before heading into the studio to record album number four. EASY BAND
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
Easy Band, good times guaranteed.
Sat 17 Feb
ATTICA RAGE (RABID BITCH FROM THE NORTH)
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10
A killer night of metal.
THE MUSIC OF OTIS REDDING PERFORMED BY MUDIBU AND THE JEZEBEL SEXTET
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £19
Experience the incredible sound of Otis Redding’s music as two of the UK’s most exciting soul acts join forces to create the world’s funkiest Otis tribute. NEHH PRESENTS… MEURSAULT: PISSING ON BONFIRES/ KISSING WITH TONGUES 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14
Meursault celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first record, Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues by performing it in its entirety. DESERT MOUNTAIN TRIBE (MOTHERS CAKE)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
Spacey low slung rockers Desert Mountain Tribe are joined by super tight rhythm driven psyche troupe Mothers Cake.
Legendary SAHB/MSG bass player brings his band for a long overdue return to Bannermans. THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £20
An evening of music and distinction in memory of Doug Morton. All proceeds to Worldwide Cancer Research. There will be DJ sets by Jan B vs Keith R and Rebecca Vasmant. HIGH TYDE
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £7 - £8
Indie-punk upstarts High Tyde have racked up over 3 million streams as well as repeat plays on Radio 1. Big things await.
Mon 19 Feb OPEN MIC
BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself. SOUNDHOUSE: LINDSAY LOU & THE FLATBELLYS
TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11
Michigan songbird Lindsay Lou returns to the UK with her band and a brand new album to share.
Tue 20 Feb
MARCO MENDOZA (NITROVILLE)
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15
Dead Daisies Bass player and former Thin Lizzy member brings his solo band back for an intimate show.
Wed 21 Feb
PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, FREE
SERENDIPITY (POSABLE ACTION FIGURES + THE MOTION POETS)
Serendipity feeds on inspiration. As a multi-arts event it aims to become a haven for restless minds where they can open wide and feast on creativity. Bands will be playing during the evening and they will be sharing their space with an exhibition. EUGENE RIPPER (PAPER RIFLES)
WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, FREE
After cutting his rock and roll teeth as a founding guitar slinger for Canada’s seminal surf punkabilly rockers Stark Naked & The Fleshtones, Ripper launched into a solo career showcasing his unique synthesis of punk, folk, rock and lyrical touch. RETRO VIDEO CLUB
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £7
Scottish indie at its finest.
THE RHYTHM ‘N’ BOOZE WHISKY CLUB: THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER
ASSEMBLY ROXY, FROM 19:30, £25
The fifth edition of the tasting features folk duo The Jellyman’s Daughter, 2015 nominees for best acoustic act at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards.
Sat 24 Feb MAIDEN SCOTLAND
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10
The best Iron Maiden tribute act out there return to play a cracker of the hits.
Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.
LOST MAP RECORDS AND THE FRUITMARKET GALLERY PRESENT STRANGE INVITATION (BAS JAN + KATHRYN JOSEPH + HAPPY SPENDY + LOST MAP DJS)
THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12
THE FRUITMARKET GALLERY, FROM 18:30, £12
CAROLINE SPENCE
While Caroline Spence may not look like one of the road-hardened troubadours of America’s past, with the release of Spades & Roses, the young songwriter from Charlottesville Virginia proves she is every bit as serious.
DAN REED AND DANNY VAUGHN: SNAKE OIL AND HARMONY TOUR 2018 THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £18
An evening of music and fun ‘n’ frolics, as The Fruitmarket Gallery collaborate with Lost Map Records on Strange Invitation. CINDY WILSON
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £17.50
Ex-B-52s singer goes solo. GARETH DUNLOP
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £8 - £10
Gareth Dunlop has gained support from Van Morrison, The Stereophonics and James Morrison to name a few.
In response to incredible fan demand, Dan Reed (Dan Reed Network) and Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) will once more take their Snake Oil and Harmony tour around the UK, and into Europe for the first time ever.
THREE DAYS FROM RETIREMENT (TAUAW + AISIAEC)
USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £38.50
OUTLYA (UPSTAIRS OPEN)
OPEN MIC
Bright, wide eyed and upbeat pop from OUTLYA who drop into Sneaks on their first headline tour.
SCOTT BRADLEE’S POST MODERN JUKEBOX
Vintage reworks of contemporary pop hits courtesy of pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee. TEVIOT, FROM 20:00, FREE
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself.
Thu 22 Feb
THE MIDNIGHT GHOST TRAIN (MY DIABLO)
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10
American trio with a stoner rock vibe make their Edinburgh debut. ELECTRIC SIX
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £18
Detroit underdogs with enough joyful hooks, mischievous wordplay and unexpected pathos to worm their way into your heart. UNDERGROUND LIVE
TEVIOT UNDERGROUND, FROM 21:00, FREE
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6
Instrumental/stoner/psyche/ grunge rock three ways on this class bill. SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7.50
Sun 25 Feb
ASOMVEL (STILETTO FARM + TANTRUM)
BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8
Balls to the wall rock and metal. SOUNDHOUSE: ADAM HOLMES & THE EMBERS
TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11
The 26-year-old Edinburgh-born multi-award-winning singer/ songwriter mixes influences from either side of the Atlantic together to form his own brand of soulful Americana with a hint of Scotland.
EUSA’s regular live music night showcasing up-and-coming Scottish musicians.
Mon 26 Feb
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £13
BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE
ORPHAN COLOURS (THE MARRIAGE)
Fresh from notable appearances at The Royal Albert Hall, Coachella and Glastonbury, alt-country 5-piece Orphan Colours cram their big sound into Sneaks.
Fri 23 Feb
BARBAR LUCK (AC RID)
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8
Ex-King Prawn man brings his solo show to Bannermans for an intimate gig. RICH HALL’S HOEDOWN
THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 20:00, £17
Join Rich and his virtuoso musical mates for a mash-up of music, comedy and gratuitous coloration featuring the very best of comedy and music.
OPEN MIC
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself. PAUL DRAPER
THE CAVES, FROM 19:00, £17.50
Former Mansun frontman premieres a full live performance of the Attack of the Grey Lanterns LP as well as his own solo material. SOUNDHOUSE: MARTIN HARLEY & DANIEL KIMBRO
TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £15
Martin Harley & Daniel Kimbro’s live shows seek to bring aspects of blues, Americana and folk to the table.
Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on
Listings
57
Wed 28 Feb
PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED
BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, FREE
Fri 23 Feb
PURGATORY (HILLSIDE + SONOROUS + GRIEVANCE)
Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.
Metalcore/melodic hardcore band from Aberdeen.
THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £35
Sat 24 Feb
RICKIE LEE JONES AND HER BAND
The double Grammy Awardwinning singer/songwriter brings her thirteenth studio album The Other Side Of Desire to The Queen’s Hall. WILEY
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £17
Producer, MC and all-round grime master Wiley (aka Richard Cowie) does his electronic meets hip-hop fusion thing, topped off with his inimitable snappy lyrical flow. OPEN MIC
TEVIOT, FROM 20:00, FREE
Discover the fresh talent in Edinburgh and have a go yourself. THE ATARIS (ALL THESE YEARS + WE CAME FROM WOLVES)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £17
Founded in 1996, over 20 years later they’re still going strong, travelling the world doing what they love on their own terms.
CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £6
SAINT AGNES (OHRIO + ARK ROYAL + THE SELKIES) CHURCH, FROM 18:30, £6
Psychedelic rock’n’roll from East London. THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £8
The Doors tribute band.
PINK COUCH NIGHTS II (UNIFORMS + BABAR LUCK + GBM + AZAM KHAN) CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, £5
Make That A Take Records celebrate Conroy’s Basement’s second birthday.
Sun 25 Feb THE VAN TS
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £7.50
Thu 01 Feb JELLY BABY
BLOODBUZZ
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £16 - £24.50
Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
Wall to wall bangers of every flavour. HIP HOP THURSDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4
Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC
Tue 27 Feb
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7
The season 3 RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant was known on the show for her poise, grace and beauty, as well as her shy, endearing demeanor stemming from her rural background.
FOUNDRY (DECEMBER)
Foundry are joined by December (Jealous God/Blackest Ever Black). WALK N SKANK: MUNGO’S FULL MOON PARTY
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
Weekly club night focused on reggae, dancehall and bass music.
Fri 02 Feb FRESH! FRIDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6
Thu 01 Feb STEVEN OSBORNE
CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:30, £14
Steven Osborne is widely recognised as one of the finest pianists of his generation. He gives solo recitals and plays with major orchestras both in Britain and around the world.
Fri 02 Feb ERASURE
CAIRD HALL, FROM 19:00, £40
Give a little respect to this legendary band. LIZZIE AND THE BANSHEES
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £8
Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute act.
Sat 03 Feb
BABY STRANGE + RASCALTON
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £8
Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember. PROPAGANDA - NME AWARDS ROAD TRIP FT FRANK TURNER DJ SET
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. DECADES OF DUB
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
Wee Dub 2018 warm up party in Glasgow. HARSH TUG
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
OG Kush + hip-hop bangers with Notorious B.A.G.
DOJO WINTER PARTY (MARK FAZZINI + DARRAN MCNEIL + NEIL ROBERTSON)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 21:00–02:00, £5
Get your fill of house and techno. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
The two Glasgow punk bands head out on tour together for Independent Venue Week.
A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits.
Thu 08 Feb
CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6
DAMNED SPRING FRAGRANTIA
CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, TBC
Italian metalcore/deathcore band.
Fri 09 Feb
TRIXIE MATTEL - NOW WITH MOVING PARTS
CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £25 - £50
The RuPaul’s Drag Race favourite embarks on a UK tour.
Sat 10 Feb
THE GODFATHERS (HEAVY DRAPES)
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £12
British rock’n’rollers formed back in 1985 by brothers Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of their previous band, The Sid Presley Experience.
Tue 13 Feb EASY
CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £5
With fresh grooves, slappin’ bass and addictive hooks, Glasgow band Easy design their live shows to get you moving. Funk? Blues? Jazz? Soul? Easy does it.
Sat 17 Feb THE SNUTS
CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £6
The Snuts bring raspy, fuzzy indie rock to The Caves. SAXON
BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10
Power metal five-piece riding along on frontman Biff Byford’s howlin’ squawk of a vocal, out for their 35th anniversary tour.
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
TRAX
DJ Daryl kicks off the first weekend of the month, spinning hip-hop, grunge, trap and dance tunes. FRESH BEAT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6
Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. HETEROTOPIA
STEREO, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
All the best in hardstyle. GBXL
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 21:00, £5
Cheesy dance, club classics, EDM, hardcore/hardstyle and old skool. GLITTERBANG
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
Disco divas and Euro-pop anthems for those ready to sweat. MY NU LENG (VALE + KEOMA)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £12 - £14
The Core Black Butter artists present a set of their hard-tocategorise tunes, moving through pitch shifted vocals and bass heavy rumbles. LETS GO BACK TO THE 80’S
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £6 - £10
Expect everything from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Prince, Grace Jones, The Human League and the Pet Shop Boys, with extended 12” mixes of big hits running into edits of lesser-known gems. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £6
Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7
#TAG TUESDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM
SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8
Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.
Wed 07 Feb MELTED
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
Afro-disco screamers. BEAST
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4
DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.
Thu 08 Feb JELLY BABY
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. DRUGSTORE GLAMOUR
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene. FATIMA YAMAHA
Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.
Fatima Yamaha is now in the spotlights of the electronic music scene, and it cannot take long until his third tour is sold out.
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 - £10
Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.
LEZURE (PARIAH)
Lezure are joined by one half of Karenn, Pariah for their 3rd bday bash.
SUBCULTURE (JENNIFER CARDINI + HARRI & DOMENIC)
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC
Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. BOB MARLEY BIRTHDAY (CAROLINE MURPHY + GEE BALL + HECTORRR + PETER BROWNE)
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £5
Celebrating Bob’s Birthday with some all night skanking.
Sun 04 Feb NULL / VOID
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
Industrial goth rock disco. SESH
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £11.50
HIP HOP THURSDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
UNHOLY
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4
Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC
Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.
ELECTRIC SALSA (HI & SABERHÄGEN + BISSET) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Electric Salsa bring through Edinburgh-based favourites for some feel good Thursday fun.
WALK N SKANK: MAXIROOTS LIVE
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
Taking inspiration from traditional Latin grooves mixed with all the heavyweight of dub, Maxiroots proposes a new approach to world music.
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, TBC
ANIMAL FARM RECORDS PRESENTS: SETAOC MASS, QUAIL & ANCESTOR
DABJ are the sound of house and raw techno in Glasgow right now.
Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember.
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £10
Mon 05 Feb
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4
NUMBERS
Glasgow clubbing crew Numbers return to La Cheetah.
Animal Farm kick off their 2018 Sub Club residency with an Animal Farm Records showcase. FRIDAY NIGHTS
SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6
Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. JAMAICA SPECIAL (CHARLIE MCCANN)
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3
Jamaica Special returns with Loosen Up’s Charlie McCann spinning reggae, dub, dancehall with added echo and siren.
Sat 03 Feb ROYALE SATURDAYS
Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro.
Listings
HARDSTYLE SUPERHEROES
Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.
Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.
Queer friendly parties with worldly and otherworldly sounds.
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £8
58
KILLER KITSCH BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.
Surf pop twin duo balancing rock swagger with sugary pop melodies. STACY LAYNE MATTHEWS
LOVE MUSIC O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.
CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £5 - £15
Dundee Music
Glasgow Clubs
DIXON AVENUE BASEMENT JAMS
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5
BURN MONDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.
Fri 09 Feb FRESH! FRIDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6
PROPAGANDA
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
BARE MONDAYS
Rock’n’roll, garage and soul.
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?
Tue 06 Feb PERMOCULTURE
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
The history of dance explored.
FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. RUCKUS
CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6
Sarah Legatt’s monthly hip-hop, trap and R’n’B night. FRESH BEAT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6
Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.
LOOSE LIPS X SKOOP IN GLASGOW WITH THE NORTHAZE, JACK JETSON + MORE BROADCAST, 21:00–03:00, £6
Loose Lips & Skoop bring you some of UK hip-hop’s finest alongside local Scottish talent and DJ’s dropping everything from kuduro to jungle. JUNGLE NATION
THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 23:00, TBC
Jungle, drum’n’bass and dubstep. NIGHTRAVE (NIGHTWAVE (ALL NIGHT LONG))
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5
Launch Party for the new Sanctuary EP on Fools Gold. RETURN TO MONO WITH SLAM (4 HOUR SET)
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10
Slam are on top of their game and have a special symbiotic back to back style all of their own. FRIDAY NIGHTS
SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6
Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. SGÀIREOKE! (SGÀIRE WOOD)
THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 21:00, £0 - £2
Queer karaoke night with performances. HEALTHY X SO LOW WITH TOTAL LEATHERETTE
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5
Local legends play totally live.
Sat 10 Feb ROYALE SATURDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £8
Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro. LOVE MUSIC
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests. I AM A RAVER VOLUME ONE GLASGOW ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY
CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 21:00, £5 - £7
All your favourite happy hardcore DJ’s in one place, including DJ Rankin, DJ Cammy and DJ Bad Boy. SINGLES NIGHT
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
Beans + Divine explore the hits on 7” vinyl. ONE NIGHT AT THE DISCO
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £15 - £20
SWG3 and Melting Pot present Love is the Message, a Valentine’s Disco Ball. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £6
Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7
Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you. ELEV.8
BROADCAST, 23:00–03:00, £5
JP McGowan, FXWLL and Basil bring you as many genres as they can play in one evening. RAD25 PRESENTS
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, TBC
Rubadub continue their 25th birthday celebrations.
SUBCULTURE (HARRI & DOMENIC)
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC
Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE: EN VOGUE
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, TBC
WSHOM plan to keep the tempo high and spirits higher as they welcome En Vogue. MARDI GRAS CAKE HOP
MARYHILL BURGH HALLS, FROM 20:00, £10 - £12
Mardi Gras themed dance night. Hot jazz, swing and Dixieland jazz music straight from New Orleans.
LOOSEN UP (CHARLIE MCCANN + FERGUS CLARK + DAVID BARBAROSSA) THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3
Afro, disco, tropical and funtimes.
Sun 11 Feb
FANTASTIC MAN PRESENTS DANK: KENDRICK LAMAR AFTERPARTY
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC
Hip-hop and R’n’B bangers. SESH
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.
Mon 12 Feb BURN MONDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
PROPAGANDA O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. FOREVERLAND
O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, FREE
The ultimate adventure through music, time and space, merging debauchery and the paranormal. Expect DJs and live performers, circus acts and giant inflatables, plus much, much more. FAMOO
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
Delicious disco for dancers, no chancers.
TREEHOUSE 3RD BDAY: HARVEY MCKAY (LUCA DE-SANTO + CRAIG HUGHES + NICO BALDUCCI + GAVIN BROWN)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 21:00–02:00, £8 - £14
Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?
Glasgow’s Harvey McKay has created a distinctive style with a name that is synonymous with driving, soulful techno.
Tue 13 Feb
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
KILLER KITSCH
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM
SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8
Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.
Wed 14 Feb DON’T BE GUTTED
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
Nefarious beats for dangerous times. BEAST
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4
DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage. AFLOAT
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £3
Afloat set sail with their first party in La Cheetah. Residents jam all night.
Thu 15 Feb JELLY BABY
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. SMALL TALK W/ DJ ADIDADAS
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE
FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS
CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6
Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6
Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. SLINKY KINKY – VINTAGE ELECTRONIC NIGHT
THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE
An evening of vintage electronic and avant garde dancefloor tunes.
PARTIAL (BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS (ALL NIGHT LONG))
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10 - £12
A long time coming, D.C’s finest jockeys the Swimmers return to Glasgow - this time for an all night long set, as part of a three-date European mini tour. FRIDAY NIGHTS
SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6
Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. FUSE (ZIÚR + ANZ + K4CIE + NOVA SCOTIA + AKUMU)
THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 21:30, £5 - £8
A series of events run by Glasgow based collective VAJ.Power, in which people from different backgrounds, experiences and ages come together, make work and perform. GALAXIAN (LIVE) ( MOTHER + TOISO + TOSS)
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £5
Galaxian (live) with support.
Sat 17 Feb ROYALE SATURDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £8
Happy Meal Lewis Seduces w/ Eurowave + Vaporbeat.
Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro.
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
HIP HOP THURSDAYS
LOVE MUSIC
Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.
Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4
NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3
UNHOLY
THE LANCE VANCE DANCE
Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.
Exotic dreamy disco.
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC
Massive sound system, acid house visuals, brilliant lighting show and lots of happy smiley people.
ELEMENT
Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. PALA (HARRI)
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5
After having Domenic Cappello and Telford playing last year, it would only be fair to invite, one of Glasgow’s most respected DJ’s, Harri to the party. WALK N SKANK: HEMPOLICS SOUNDSYSTEM
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
Coming straight from their live show at the ABC, the Hempolics carry on the party with an exclusive soundsystem set.
Fri 16 Feb FRESH! FRIDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6
Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember.
ACID HOUSE WAREHOUSE PARTY
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £6 - £10
SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £6
Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7
Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.
THE SKINNY
BREAK STUFF: A NIGHT OF NU METAL NOSTALGIA STEREO, FROM 23:00, £5
Nothing but Nu-Metal bangers all night long.
LA CHEETAH CLUB PRESENTS… (MUMDANCE & ANASTASIA KRISTENSEN + DOM D’SYLVA )
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–04:00, £10 - £12
After checking out their B2B session on Mumdance’s excellent Rinse FM show the club moved quick on making this one happen. SUBCULTURE (MWX + TELFORD)
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC
Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. OOFT! ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY (ALI OOFT! (ALL NIGHT LONG))
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Launch party for the debut Ooft! Album Intricacies of Modern Life. SYMBIOSIS
AUDIO, FROM 23:00, FREE
Innovative drum and bass beats in a relaxed, bass-rich environment. MOJO WORKING (FELONIOUS MUNK)
THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £2
Motown, Northern, Philly, 60’s R’n’B and more.
Sun 18 Feb SESH
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.
Mon 19 Feb BURN MONDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?
Tue 20 Feb KILLER KITSCH
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM
SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8
Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.
Wed 21 Feb BEAST
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4
DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage. ALGORYTHM (KEO + ERNESTO HARMON + ADAM ZARECKI)
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5
Algorhythm’s residents take the helm all night long for the first time.
Thu 22 Feb JELLY BABY
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. HIP HOP THURSDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4
Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC
Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.
February 2018
SILVER DOLLAR CLUB X DID HARDCORE EVER DIE (CLOUDO + MIRRORS + SALLY BELL) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
SDC is proud to present a very special one off collaboration.
SHOW PRESENTS TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £12
Oxford-based dance DJ bouncing relentlessly between laptop, keyboards, drum machine, samples and live vocals. Also in possession of a sparkly dinosaur head-dress, obvs. WALK N SKANK: SOMAH
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5
Expect deep rolling bass from Scrub a dub’s new signing Somah, with support from Mungo’s Hi Fi and Tom Spirals.
Fri 23 Feb FRESH! FRIDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6
Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember. PROPAGANDA
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. CAMELPHAT
I LOVE GARAGE THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7
Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you. TRIP NOISE WITH JON K (JON K + WILL BANKHEAD)
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8 - £10
FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS
CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6
Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC
Yet another top flight local lineup from the Firecracker crew, with boss House Of Traps and long time affiliate Linkwood taking control all night.
Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests.
Sun 25 Feb SESH
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night. LIGHTSOUT - ALI RENAULT
THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5
BURN MONDAYS
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?
Tue 27 Feb KILLER KITSCH
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.
Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
EZUP (JAMIE 3:26)
Chicago legend Jamie 3:26 joins the EZUP crew. SENSU PRESENTS NASTIA
SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10
Ukranian born Nastia’s style varies from set to set, but the quality remains an absolute constant. FRIDAY NIGHTS
SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6
Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.
HAWKCHILD DIY PRESENTS: CLOUDS + NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 23:00, £9 - £11
HI-FI REBEL
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6
As always, Samedia play music spanning afrobeat, Latin, kuduru, dancehall, samba, soca, cumbia and beyond.
Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.
SUBCULTURE (K-HAND + HARRI & DOMENIC)
Mon 26 Feb
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8
Come have a boogie and maybe find yourself some lovin’.
SAMEDIA SHEBEEN (ASTROJAZZ)
FIRECRACKER RECORDS: HEAL YOURSELF & MOVE (LINKWOOD & HOUSE OF TRAPS)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £0 - £5
A journey through disco, love and magic, inspired by the classic sounds of pioneers from America, Germany and Italy.
SPOONFUL
Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.
Mysterious duo who make authentic, timeless house music. ALL NIGHT PASSION
Thu 01 Feb
Jon K kicks off his new residency in La Cheetah by inviting Trilogy Tapes mastermind Will Bankhead to join him in the booth.
Vivod and Cyberdance bossman Ali Renault graces the gracious Berkeley Suite basement.
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £17
Edinburgh Clubs
#TAG TUESDAYS
Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM
SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8
Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.
Wed 28 Feb BEAST
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £4
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
JUICE (AMI K + DAN)
Fri 02 Feb
FLY 5TH BIRTHDAY RESIDENTS LOVE AFFAIR
CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent, celebrate their 5th birthday. OVERGROUND BASS RAVE
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £2 - £6
Following a series of capacity resident’s nights at The Mash House, Overground takes over The Bongo Club for a bass-oriented rave. JACKHAMMER (TYREE COOPER + STEPHEN BROWN)
THE CAVES, FROM 23:00, £5
The Jackhammer crew provide our dose of all things techno. FLIP
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.
INCINERATOR: ELECTRO DISCO (EVA CRYSTALTIPS + MISS WORLD + BRIAN HUTCHISON + JOE)
SUMMERHALL, FROM 22:00, £6
Deep in the basement, beneath the galleries and lecture theatres, something new fuels the boiler room and ancient generators. Strobe and haze through neon pipes ignite the Former Women’s Locker Room back to life. PULSE X KARNIVAL: MR. G (LIVE) (DARRELL HARDING)
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £15 - £16.75
Legendary techno DJ and Producer Mr G drops in for one of his famously energetic sets.
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
Sun 04 Feb SUNDAY CLUB
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE
Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.
Mon 05 Feb MIXED UP
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. ABBACADABRA
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, TBC
STAR invites all you dancing queens to boogie the night away to the ABBA anthems that we all know and love. You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life whilst in aid of refugeesupport.eu.
Tue 06 Feb MIDNIGHT BASS
THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.
HOSPITALITY EDINBURGH (HIGH CONTRAST + METRIK + ETHERWOOD + MC TEMPZA)
Wed 07 Feb
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 22:00, £16 - £20
All new, all fun, all cheese club night.
Hospitality is the biggest UK Drum & Bass event, bringing show stopping music and amazing bass shows around the world. DMS PRESENTS: REMCO BEEKWILDER
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £7 - £8
Beekwilder has turned many heads as a DJ, having played at some of the biggest clubs and techno events, including Awakenings, Reaktor and Tresor.
WICKED WEDNESDAYS
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
DISCO BISKIT (CODY CURRIE)
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, TBC
Disco, house and nu-disco.
HEATERS: DUNT CLUB (C-SHAMAN)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3
Guests Dunt Club specialise in doofer techno, and have thrown sold out raves in Wee Red and Bongo club with guests like Courtesy.
Formed by Hashim Ali at 15 years old, Hawkchild DIY has developed into a driving force for independent music and art.
DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong.
Sat 24 Feb
THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Mina’s vibrant sets, much like her tracks, fuse together syncopated rhythms with global influence.
Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.
MINDSET X ATTENTION//PLEASE (GOURLAY & CRAIG HAMILTON + KEYDEN + KOPKA + FINDLAY STEVEN)
Sat 03 Feb
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2
LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5
Exploring the legacy of dub, reggae, roots music and soundsystem culture on more contemporary club and dance music styles.
ROYALE SATURDAYS
ORAN MOR, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £8
Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro. LOVE MUSIC
O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5
Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests. KANYE WEST VS. HIP-HOP: ALL NIGHT LONG (HOMEALONE)
SWG3 GLASGOW, 22:00–02:00, £8
Scotland’s biggest dedication night is hitting SWG3 again for it’s once a semester Yeezy party, playing the best of Pablo but this time he’s up against the whole of hip-hop. MELTING POT BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH YOUNG MARCO (ANDREW + SIMON )
THE ADMIRAL, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12
The debut of Dutch wunderkind Young Marco at Melting Pot. Marco is one of the world’s best DJs – fact. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB
BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7
Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. MISBEHAVIN
CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £6
Retro-pop, alt, dance and electro from DJ Drewbear.
WRAP-IT
DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.
Part two of a collaboration between Mindset & A//P. If the last time was anything to go by, things will get real messy real quick.
WITNESS: MINA (ENCHUFADA) (ROSS WITNESS + FAULT LINES) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
MESSENGER PRESENTS: SOUNDSYSTEM LEGACIES
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
BUBBLEGUM
THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. PROPAGANDA
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. THE BIG CHEESE
POTTERROW, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5
Student-friendly party, playing – as you’d expect – cheesy classics of every hue.
FIRST EDITION (DARREN WILLIAMSON + SLG + FINLAY CARR + JACK HALL + ASH IS) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5
Techno night from Glasgow and Edinburgh crews on the first floor of Mash House.
Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on
Thu 08 Feb HI-FI REBEL
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
JUICE (AMI K + DAN)
Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.
Fri 09 Feb
FLY PRESENTS ROSS DUNN LIVE & GOURANGA & GUSTEAU
CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent – this time in the form of Ross Dunn. ANYTHING GOES TO HENRY’S CELLAR BAR (KARAOKEKILLER + BURDY + ZERKSIS + DJ STAY)
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £5
In true Anything Goes style, expect jumps from genre to genre all night just to keep those happy feet happy. HEADSET
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6
Skillis (Big ‘n’ Bashy) and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass downstairs, with old school hip-hop upstairs.
FLIP THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. BEATROOTS
WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5
A night of sweet vibrations from distant nations, with tunes that may cause hip gyrations, emotional elations and perhaps physical relations. THE EDINBURGH SOUL TRAIN
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10
A night train taking you on an uplifting journey filled with funk, soul, disco and Motown classics, leading you along the tracks and grooves with those licks of hard hitting horns, punchy rhythms and storming beats.
PALIDRONE 001 - LAUNCH (JESS COHEN + KATHMANDU)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6
Palidrone is a brand new party for Edinburgh offering guaranteed inclusivity and music to make you move all night. HOT MESS (SIMONOTRON)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6
Hot Mess is a hot and messy queer rave.
Sat 10 Feb DR NO’S SKA CLUB
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6
Baz and Dave spin out some belters under a strictly vinyl-only policy. SOULSVILLE
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5
Residents Cameron Mason and Calum Evans spin the finest cuts of deep funk, Latin rhythms and rare groove into the early hours. BUBBLEGUM
THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. PROPAGANDA
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. NIGHTVISION PRESENTS MUSIKA 11TH BIRTHDAY (ALAN FITZPATRICK + SLAM + JAMIE MCKENZIE/LAURIE NEIL)
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 21:00, £20
Sun 11 Feb SUNDAY CLUB
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. SUNDANCIN (CRÈME FRESH + HOT TOWEL)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 14:00, £5
A one off Sunday day party from the crews behind Crème Fresh and Hot Towel. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE
Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.
Mon 12 Feb MIXED UP
Smokin’ contemporary New Orleans inspired Mardis Gras band. NYBB are at the forefront of the funky brass revolution that is sweeping the UK, inspired the likes of Hot 8, Youngblood and Rebirth brass band. ERROR404
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5
New club night in Edinburgh playing all sorts of dance music with the newest Djays and an all round laugh. MIGHT OAK
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Wee Dub Festival warm up session with Kinsman (Decades of Dub). SHAPEWORK (DBRIDGE)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10
Exit records boss DBridge joins the Shapework gang.
TEESH CON ANDREA MONTALTO (ANDREA MONTALTO + DJ CHEERS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
Handsome Sicilian Andrea Montalto delivers smooth Mediteranean vibes to the ‘All You Can Eat Mind Buffet’. Solo Catania!
Messenger celebrate the life and works of the undisputed King of Reggae, the great Robert Nesta Marley himself. BUBBLEGUM
THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4
WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5
MIDNIGHT BASS
THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.
Wed 14 Feb WICKED WEDNESDAYS
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
All new, all fun, all cheese club night. HEATERS: PLEASUREDOME
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3
Feel good and soulful groovers are the name of the game for Wee Red residing crew Pleasuredome - always read the label. They join C-Shaman for their first time in control at Sneaks.
Thu 15 Feb HI-FI REBEL
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.
CHURCH 2.5 X LENGOLAND (DR CRYPTIC + NOTION + SELECTA)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £12
Lengoland heads north of the border for the very first time, bringing their exciting brand of bass raves to the Cowgate. KORNEL KOVACS AT JUICE (AMI K + DAN)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2
CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £7 - £10
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10
MESSENGER: BOB MARLEY’S BIRTHDAY
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Tue 13 Feb
Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.
POTTERROW, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5
ARCOIRIS: NEW YORK BRASS BAND MARDI GRAS SPECIAL (NEW YORK BRASS BAND + EDINBURGH NOISE COMMITTEE + SAMEDIA SHEBEEN)
Sat 17 Feb
Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.
First up on 2018’s Juice hit list is former tea-making record store jester and Studio Barnhus supremeo Kornél Kovács.
Student-friendly party, playing – as you’d expect – cheesy classics of every hue.
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
Discogs shattering reissue diggers Athens Of The North always bring the best time with rare selections for heads and feet, including selections from their own 50-release strong label.
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Over 3 years ago, Musika and Xplicit teamed up, put all their events under one banner and formed Nightvision. Now they dedicate the night to what it all started off as. THE BIG CHEESE
ATHENS OF THE NORTH (FRYER + LEL PALFREY + GARETH SOMERVILLE)
Fri 16 Feb
FLY PRESENTS THEO KOTTIS
The Fly Clubbers hand over the decks to Moda Black signee Theo Kottis for the evening. SUBSTANCE: AVALON EMERSON
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10
Ex-software developer and now world-renowned DJ/producer Avalon Emerson makes a welcome return to the Capital. FLIP
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. XOXO
WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5
The popular queer night returns to the Wee Red.
NIGHTVISION PRESENTS SOLARDO SESSIONS
LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £15 - £17
Hailed as one of the most exciting names in UK dance music, Mancunian duo Solardo have announced their eagerly anticipated Solardo Sessions tour. GROOVERS
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC
THE EGG
A salad of genres: sixties garage and soul plus 70s punk and new wave, peppered with psych and indie for good measure. PROPAGANDA
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £5 - £7
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.
EROS 3RD BIRTHDAY FT. QFX LIVE (JIM ETHERSON + LEE HAGGATH + STEVIE HORSBURGH) THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £10
Massive 90s dance legends QFX live on stage. THE BIG CHEESE
POTTERROW, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5
Student-friendly party, playing – as you’d expect – cheesy classics of every hue.
THE MIRROR DANCE X SAY NO MORE
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC
Parties bringing the happier sounds in underground electronic music to Edinburgh.
RIOT RADIO RECORDS - BIG BASH #1 (HORRIST + SUBHEAD) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 22:00, £15
After three years of building up a now established and popular online radio show, and a mightily successful record label, RIOT Radio Records bring you its first bash.
WASABI DISCO WITH WOLF MÜLLER AKA BUFIMAN (DEKMANTEL) (KRIS WASABI)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
Hailing from the D (Düsseldorf), Wolf Muller is resident for Salon Des Amateurs, and won a lot of new fans with an outrageously eclectic set for Dekmantel.
Sun 18 Feb SUNDAY CLUB
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE
Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.
Mon 19 Feb MIXED UP
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.
Tue 20 Feb MIDNIGHT BASS
THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.
Wed 21 Feb WICKED WEDNESDAYS
Groovers nights are all about the music, focusing purely upon the tastiest groove-infused underground house music.
All new, all fun, all cheese club night.
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £9
TEXTURE (ADULLAH RASHIM)
Northern Electronics founder Anthony Linell, aka Abdulla Rashim, the undisputed master of hypnotic electronica.
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
FRIEND WITHIN PRESENTS LOVE DEFINED - ALL NIGHT
One of our favourite past guests is back, and he’s playing all night. Friend Within’s new project is called Love Defined, and it’s comprised of 22 tracks of his own new music.
Listings
59
Thu 22 Feb
Mon 26 Feb
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
HI-FI REBEL
Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll. JUICE (AMI K + DAN)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2
Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.
Fri 23 Feb
FLY PRESENTS LA LA LAND
CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7
Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent – this time in the form of La La Land. HWTS HENRY’S CELLAR BAR TAKEOVER
HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4
Heriot-Watt Techno Society take over Henry’s. ELECTRIKAL: SHY FX FEAT. MC STAMINA
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £12 - £16
With drum & bass making a big comeback across the UK underground just now, this date with dnb/jungle pioneer Shy FX should go down very well. FLIP
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £4
Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. NSA WITH A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE (ANDREW WEATHERALL + SEAN JOHNSON)
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £15 - £17
A Love From Outer Space has risen out of a smoky North London basement and onto the stages of the world’s most discerning festivals and underground dance floors.
SCOOP RECORDS (GHOSTTOWN (DEAD PLAYERS) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5
MIXED UP
Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. MISS WORLD
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2
Continuing a new monthly residency at Sneaks, the Miss World ladies always bring the right vibes.
Tue 27 Feb MIDNIGHT BASS
WICKED WEDNESDAYS
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
All new, all fun, all cheese club night.
Dundee Clubs Thu 01 Feb
THAT’S HOT - LAUNCH NIGHT W/ DJ LANZA GIRLS COLLECTIVE
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £3.50 - £5
Fri 02 Feb
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £10
Sat 03 Feb
BACK TO THE OLD SKOOL
WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5
JUTE CITY JAM
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £5 - £7
Resident pushers Max Galloway & Ronan Baxter will be in control for the evening’s dance.
Sun 04 Feb PROPAGANDA
CHURCH, 22:30–02:30, £0 - £5
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.
A night dedicated to acid, breakbeat, rave, house, techno and old skool.
Wed 07 Feb
THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £6 - £8
Midweek mash up only the toughest survive
PROPAGANDA
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. THE BIG CHEESE
POTTERROW, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5
Student-friendly party, playing – as you’d expect – cheesy classics of every hue. PULSE
THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC
Slamming techno with resident Darrell Harding.
RIDE (LAUREN FACALL AND FRANNI STRIDER)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5
Live fast die young, Ride gals do it well. 00s rnb and 90s hip hop and put their lighters up.
Sun 25 Feb SUNDAY CLUB
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)
SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE
Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.
60
Listings
CHURCH, 22:30–02:30, £0 - £5
BOOK CLUB
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC
The Good Stuff DJs spin all genres of disco house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy.
Sun 25 Feb CHURCH, 22:30–02:30, £0 - £5
THE CAVES, FROM 21:00, £21
Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.
PROPAGANDA
PROPAGANDA
SLAM (aka Stuart McMillian & Orde Meikle) return to the small town club for another night of forward thinking techno.
BUBBLEGUM
17-24 FEB, 7:15PM, £12.50 - £80.50
Sat 24 Feb
Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo gang and new room two residents The GoGo.
THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4
13-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £12.50 - £23
LOCARNO
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6
Sat 24 Feb
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.
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC
Wed 28 Feb DRUMSTIX
MUNGO’S HI FI SOUND SYSTEM WITH MAXIROOTS & TOM SPIRALS
READING ROOMS, FROM 21:30, £6
Fri 09 Feb
ALL GOOD PRESENT JASPER JAMES
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £10 - £14
Son of long-serving Sub Club resident Harri and a frequent collaborator with Jackmaster, Jasper James has been honing his craft since the tender age of 14.
Sat 10 Feb
ALL GOOD PRESENT SUPER HANS BIG BEAT MANIFESTO LIVE
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, £12 - £15.50
After sell out shows all across the UK, Super Hans is back in the van and on the road with his all-new crew The Peace Posse, bringing love, miracles and big ketty-beats to Dundee for the very first time.
Sun 11 Feb PROPAGANDA
CHURCH, 22:30–02:30, £0 - £5
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.
2-3 FEB, 7:15PM, £12.50 - £31
Citizens Theatre
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.
This charity night promises to be a fun pick’n’mix into what Edinburgh has to offer.
Glasgow Theatre
SCOTTISH OPERA: GREEK
Sat 17 Feb
Sun 18 Feb
Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.
Theatre A modern re-telling of the Oedipus myth, Turnage’s anarchic, provocative opera exposes the seedy world of Eddy and his family. Stuck in a rut, Eddy longs for more.
THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE
TRASH
RRP PRESENT SLAM (SOMA) DJ SET
TORTURE GARDEN
READING ROOMS, FROM 21:30, TBC
February’s Reckless Kettle party brings another B2B session between Fergus & Matt. Representing independent record and book shop This Way Up, Vinyl Matt is a Reading Rooms Thursday old timer and all round record guru.
The Locarno boys, Red & Steven, Reuben and Max will once again bring their alternative slice of 50s & 60s (and a little 70s) music to the Small Town Club.
THE BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4
Rose, Paige and Erin will be bringing you the sexy sounds of the Lanzarote strip but without those creepy men that dance just a little bit too close.
THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7
RECKLESS KETTLE B2B WITH THIS WAY UP
Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.
SKOOP is back in Edinburgh for its first solo shindig of 2018, starting as they mean to go on, bringing out all the SKOOP residents in full force plus some extra extravagant guests. MUMBO JUMBO W/ THE GOGO
Thu 15 Feb
Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. ALL GOOD PRESENT CAMELPHAT
READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC
CamelPhat’s versatility and ageless sense of spacious house sonics sing to DJs across the great international house/tech landscape.
RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO
Best friends Rita and Sue get a lift home from married Bob after babysitting his kids. When he takes the scenic route and offers them a bit of fun, the three start a fling they each think they control. LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS
28 FEB-3 MAR, TIMES VARY, £10 - £16.50
A gag law limiting the country to 140 spoken words a day forces young couple Oliver and Bernadette to find different ways to understand and communicate with each other. THE MATCH BOX
13-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Firebrand present the Scottish premiere of a breathtaking new monologue by one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, Frank McGuinness.
549: SCOTS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR 13-17 FEB, 7:30PM, £10 - £16.50
Based on a true story, this new play follows four miners from the streets of East Lothian to the valleys of Spain.
SCOTTISH OPERA: FLIGHT
Inspired by the story of a refugee who was stranded for years in Paris Charles de Gaulle, Flight tells the tale of a group of total strangers stuck in an airport during an electrical storm. THE SUNDAY SERIES - NATIONAL OPERA STUDIO
25 FEB, 3:00PM, £11.50 - £12.50
Semi-staged performance featuring Russian-themed repertoire, accompanied by The Orchestra of Scottish Opera.
Tron Theatre THE LAST BORDELLO
10-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
The Last Bordello is an absurd and fiendish labyrinth that’s more suspenseful and provocative with every wrong turn. THE RETURN
23 FEB-1 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Inspired by the true story of Martin Guerre, The Return is a gripping play about the mystery of identity and the survival instinct CHIMERA
15-17 FEB, 8:00PM, £9
The King’s Theatre
Tron Studio, under the direction of Fraser Macleod, present this newly devised piece of theatre.
20-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, £21.90 - £25.90
28 FEB-3 MAR, 8:00PM, £8.50 - £11
TOP HAT
Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger’s Hollywood dance musical hit of the 1930s. THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
26 FEB-17 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Comedy mashing up the theatrical side of Noises Off with the farcical qualities of Fawlty Towers, following a polytechnic drama society as they attempt to stage a 20s murder mystery. BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL
13-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £15 - £73
A ‘show-umentary’ giving insight into the woman behind such hits as I Feel the Earth Move, Natural Woman, You’ve Got a Friend and Take Good Care of my Baby. CILLA – THE MUSICAL
1-3 FEB, TIMES VARY, £17.90 - £64.40
The new spectacular and heartwarming musical adaptation of the critically acclaimed hit ITV television series by Bafta Award winner Jeff Pope. THE RAT PACK - LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS
6 FEB-3 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
This production sends you back in time to the glamorous, golden era of 1950s Las Vegas, when Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin joined forces at the famous Sands Hotel. THE ROCKET MAN - A TRIBUTE TO SIR ELTON JOHN
4 FEB, 7:30PM, £27.50
A musical journey charting the rise to fame of one of the biggest selling artists of all time, combining breath-taking vocal and piano performances, flamboyant costumes and a dazzling light show. SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED - A TRIBUTE TO STEVIE WONDER
11 FEB, 7:30PM, £22.50 - £27.50
American singing superstar Lejaune André will be joined on stage by a fabulous seven-piece band, outstanding backing vocalists and top dancers to perform the music of Stevie Wonder.
Theatre Royal OF MICE AND MEN
26 FEB-3 MAR, TIMES VARY, £15.90 £40.40
This landmark play by the Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck is the story of George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers who dream of owning their own ranch.
STUNTMAN
A new performance about movie violence and masculinity, Stuntman is an intensely physical, funny, and tender duet by two men who wrestle with their relationship to violence.
Edinburgh Theatre Festival Theatre CIRQUE BERSERK
20-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, £20.50 - £30.50
A circus show designed for the theatre which is, apparently, quite berserk indeed. MISS SAIGON
Royal Lyceum Theatre THE BELLES STRATAGEM
15 FEB-10 MAR, TIMES VARY, £14 - £32
A witty riposte to Farquhar’s The Beaux Stratagem, Hannah Cowley’s rediscovered gem turns the tables on the farcical goings-on and has the women coming out on top.
The Edinburgh Playhouse ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN
2 FEB, 7:30PM, £24 - £49
Gary Mullen’s acclaimed Queen tribute act, bolstered by tricksy staging and lighting effects. THE SOUND OF MUSIC
20-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, £20.40 - £73.40
One of the greatest musicals of all time returns to the stage in this magnificent five-star production to enchant the young and the young at heart. ABBA MANIA
25 FEB, 7:30PM, £17 - £46
Internationally touring celebration of Sweden’s most famous export. FASTLOVE - A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE MICHAEL
3-4 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Direct from London’s West End, the UK’s biggest George Michael tribute show. Now featuring special guest Ed Barker, George Michael’s original solo saxophonist. SOUL UNLIMITED: HEATWAVE, ODYSSEY, JAKI GRAHAM & GWEN DICKEY
4 FEB, 7:30PM, £23.50 - £53
Return to the glory days of disco, funk and soul with real dance music legends and enjoy a sensational evening of non-stop, dancefloor anthems. THIS IS ELVIS
12-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £17.90 - £64.90
Internationally renowned, award winning Steve Michaels stars as Elvis in this production centering around The King’s ‘68 Comeback Special. ICONS OF THE 80S - GO WEST, NIK KERSHAW & CUTTING CREW
18 FEB, 7:30PM, £33.65 - £64.65
The eighties are back and these legendary stars have joined forces for a truly incredible, once in a lifetime, concert experience. THE RAT PACK - LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS
6 FEB-3 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
This production sends you back in time to the glamorous, golden era of 1950s Las Vegas, when Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin joined forces at the famous Sands Hotel.
Traverse Theatre SLEEPING BEAUTY
3 FEB, 7:30PM, £9 - £17
CLOWN CABARET: SPECIAL EDITION 3 FEB, 9:00PM, £9 - £14
Part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, Clown Cabaret is the lovechild of Scottish theatre professionals Tim Licata, Sáras Feijóo and Melanie Jordan. SNAPSHOTS 5: PHYSICAL THEATRE GRADUATES’ SHOWCASE
3 FEB, 6:00PM, FREE
A selection of the Edinburghbased Diploma in Physical Theatre Graduates’ Showcase 2017 pieces, shown as part of the SNAPSHOTS: Artists@Work series at manipulate 2018. THE MATCH BOX
13-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Firebrand present the Scottish premiere of a breathtaking new monologue by one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, Frank McGuinness.
SHOWTIME FROM THE FRONTLINE
14-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £12.50 - £18
Dodging cultural and literal bullets, Israeli incursions and religion, Mark Thomas and his team set out to run a comedy club for two nights in the Palestinian city of Jenin. THE LAST BORDELLO
10-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
The Last Bordello is an absurd and fiendish labyrinth that’s more suspenseful and provocative with every wrong turn. PROJECT #1
23-24 FEB, 8:00PM, £5 - £7
This work-in-progress piece aims to change the perceptions and expectations of working class women by representing new, previously unheard voices on the stage in a fresh and exciting way. THE RETURN
23 FEB-1 MAR, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
Inspired by the true story of Martin Guerre, The Return is a gripping play about the mystery of identity and the survival instinct
Dundee Theatre Dundee Rep DEATHTRAP
20 FEB-10 MAR, TIMES VARY, £9 - £25
One of the most successful black comedies ever, Deathtrap is a truly satisfying spine-chilling thriller that will have you laughing and screaming in equal measure.
The Gardyne Theatre GARY LAMONT
Part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, Compagnie Akselere’s Artistic Director Colette Garrigan performs a personal interpretation of the darker elements of the Briar Rose fairy tale.
17 FEB, 7:30PM, £15.50
25 FEB, 7:30PM, £26.50
1 FEB, 6:00PM, FREE
Whitehall Theatre
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL THROUGH THE YEARS – THE BOOKENDS
The Bookends recreate the unmistakable sound of the American folk-rock duo.
King’s Theatre Edinburgh PRESSURE
13-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £18 - £31.50
An intense real-life thriller centred around the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare. THE WEIR
20-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, £18 - £31.50
In a remote Irish pub the locals spin tales to impress a divorcee newly arrived in the community. ALLAN STEWART’S BIG BIG VARIETY SHOW
27 FEB-3 MAR, TIMES VARY, £27
Comedy, music and entertainment from yer pal Allan Stewart and a roster of guests. PWC PANTOMIME: THE WIZARD OF OZ
8-10 FEB, TIMES VARY, £15
The 32nd annual charitable pantomime production presented by PwC as part of its Community Affairs Programme.
SNAPSHOTS 4: CURIOUS SCHOOL OF PUPPETRY
Part of the SNAPSHOTS: Artists@ Work series at manipulate 2018, three recent graduates of the Curious School of Puppetry present examples of their work created during their training.
After eight years on River City, Gary’s left his role as hairdresser Robbie behind. But is he destined to be an international showgirl following in the footsteps of Kylie? Or will he be flogging yoghurt Martine McCutcheon style?
FASTLOVE - A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE MICHAEL
3-4 FEB, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY
1 FEB, 7:30PM, £9 - £17
Direct from London’s West End, the UK’s biggest George Michael tribute show. Now featuring special guest Ed Barker, George Michael’s original solo saxophonist.
SEA HAMES
17 FEB, 7:30PM, £33
ALMOST ALIVE
Part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, acclaimed dance artist Sabine Molenaar returns with her third solo show. 1 FEB, 9:00PM, £9 - £14
Part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, Sea Hames is a celebration of Orkney’s Festival of the House, ancient traditions of ploughing contests and arcant rural ritual. THE FROG AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL BELIEVES THAT THE SKY IS ROUND
2 FEB, TIMES VARY, £9 - £17
Vélo Théâtre returns for its third visit to manipulate Visual Theatre Festival. DAL VIVO!
2 FEB, TIMES VARY, £9 - £14
Part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival, Dal Vivo! shows us the mechanics of creativity where between light, objects, projection and their interplay we can create our own personal narratives.
Thu 01 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (PAUL CURRIE + MICKY BARTLETT + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + SCOTT GIBSON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7
Start the weekend early with five comedians.
Fri 02 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (PAUL CURRIE + MICKY BARTLETT + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + SCOTT GIBSON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sat 03 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (PAUL CURRIE + MICKY BARTLETT + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + SCOTT GIBSON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sun 04 Feb
Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed new production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical Miss Saigon heads up North as part of a major UK tour.
1-17 FEB, TIMES VARY, £19 - £65
Glasgow Comedy
MOON RIVER AND ME FEATURING JIMMY OSMOND
Direct from the USA, the only official Andy Williams tribute show starring Jimmy Osmond. OH WHAT A NITE
23 FEB, 7:30PM, £22 - £24
Join The Jerseys in celebrating the timeless music of the 100-million album-selling Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, the Drifters, The Stylistics, Beach Boys and more.
MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICHAEL REDMOND + JANEY GODLEY + DARREN CONNELL + JAMIE MACDONALD) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5
Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.
Mon 05 Feb
MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV (BILLY KIRKWOOD + STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:00, £3
Two teams of comics battle it out for the biggest laughs under the watchful eye of ‘Improv Warlord’ Billy Kirkwood.
Tue 06 Feb
RED RAW (GEORGE FOX + GARY MEIKLE)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts. GLASGOW HAROLD NIGHT
BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, FREE
One hilarious show, completely improvised by two teams, based off an audience suggestion. Improv comedy at its finest.
Wed 07 Feb
COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES (NEIL THE WEE MAN BRATCHPIECE)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4 - £6
Comedy and rap collide.
Thu 08 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (CARL DONNELLY + GARETH WAUGH + HARRIET DYER + ROSS LESLIE + RAYMOND MEARNS)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7
Start the weekend early with five comedians.
Fri 09 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (CARL DONNELLY + GARETH WAUGH + HARRIET DYER + ROSS LESLIE + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
THE SKINNY
Comedy Sat 10 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (CARL DONNELLY + GARETH WAUGH + HARRIET DYER + ROSS LESLIE + RAYMOND MEARNS)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sun 11 Feb
ROB NEWMAN’S TOTAL ECLIPSE OF DESCARTES
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:00, £12.50
Solo tour show.
Mon 12 Feb
IMPROV KILLED MY MONDAY
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £2 - £3
A new regular evening of unscripted comedy at Yesbar featuring Improv Killed My Dog and special guest performers. IAN STIRLING - U OK HUN? X
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:00, £12
Solo tour show.
Tue 13 Feb
RED RAW (GUS LYMBURN + SHAW & LOWRY) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts. LIGHT BULB
BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, FREE
An alternative comedy showcase and brand new night of stand up comedy.
Wed 14 Feb
ANTI VALENTINE’S DAY! (ANDREA HUBERT + JAMIE DALGLEISH + JAMIE MACDONALD + YVONNE CARROLL + ASHLEY STORRIE)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £6
Sun 18 Feb
LEFTY SCUM - JOSIE LONG, GRACIE PETRIE, JONNY & THE BAPTISTS
THE STAND GLASGOW, 15:30–17:00, £10.50 - £12.50
Music! Comedy! Revolutionary socialism! A riotous evening with three of the UK’s most joyfully rabble-rousing acts.
Tue 20 Feb
RED RAW (ASHLEY STORRIE)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts.
Wed 21 Feb BBC COMEDY PRESENTS
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–20:30, £4
Join BBC Comedy and The Stand for a night of brand new comedy.
Thu 22 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (PETE JOHANSSON + CHRIS BETTS + KAI HUMPHRIES + SUSAN MORRISON)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7
Start the weekend early with five comedians.
Fri 23 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (PETE JOHANSSON + CHRIS BETTS + KAI HUMPHRIES + SUSAN MORRISON)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–22:30, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sat 24 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (PETE JOHANSSON + CHRIS BETTS + KAI HUMPHRIES + SUSAN MORRISON)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
Oh God it’s that time of year again. Come laugh with booze and no smug couples.
The big weekend show with five comedians.
Thu 15 Feb
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
THE THURSDAY SHOW (ANDREW RYAN + ANDREA HUBERT + JAMIE MACDONALD + GARY MEIKLE + BRUCE DEVLIN)
THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7
CROSSMYLAFF COMEDY (KEIR MCALLISTER + CARINA MACLEOD + STEPHEN BUCHANAN)
Fri 16 Feb
An evening of stand-up comedy featuring a hand-picked selection of local up and coming comics.
Start the weekend early with five comedians. THE FRIDAY SHOW (ANDREW RYAN + ANDREA HUBERT + JAMIE MACDONALD + GARY MEIKLE + BRUCE DEVLIN)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sat 17 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (ANDREW RYAN + ANDREA HUBERT + JAMIE MACDONALD + GARY MEIKLE + BRUCE DEVLIN)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £10
THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
Sun 25 Feb
MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICHAEL REDMOND + JOE HEENAN + WIS JANTARASORN + SUSAN RIDDELL)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5
Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out. GARY DELANEY PLUS GUESTS
ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12
Regular on Mock The Week and double Sony award winner headlines a showcase of the UK’s best new talent.
Tue 27 Feb
RED RAW (GARETH WAUGH + JAY LAFFERTY)
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3
The big weekend show with five comedians.
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts.
YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10
Wed 28 Feb
THE LATE SHOW
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW
YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10
Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.
BRIGHT CLUB
THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5
Academia and comedy collide in the thinking persons stand-up night. BUTCHER’S CHOICE COMEDY
MCPHABBS, FROM 19:30, £5 - £6
An evening of stand-up comedy featuring Liam Withnail and a prime selection of local up and coming comics.
Edinburgh Comedy Thu 01 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + GARETH WAUGH + ELLIOT STEEL + JODIE MITCHELL + JONATHAN MAYOR)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10
Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS POTTER
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. ADAM ROWE: UNBEARABLE
GILDED BALLOON , 20:00–21:00, £9 - £10
A hilarious, honest stand-up show about selfishness, arrogance and affecting people’s lives without realising it.
Fri 02 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + GARETH WAUGH + ELLIOT STEEL + JODIE MITCHELL + JONATHAN MAYOR)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Sat 03 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + GARETH WAUGH + ELLIOT STEEL + JODIE MITCHELL + JONATHAN MAYOR)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Sun 04 Feb
THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + JAMIE DALGLEISH + SUSAN RIDDELL + LIAM WITHNAIL) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £6
Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.
STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE
Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show. PROGRESS!
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. THE TBC IMPROV COMEDY THEATRE
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
BENEFIT IN AID OF LGBT YOUTH (ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + JAY LAFFERTY + NATALIE SWEENEY + ANDREW SIM + BRUCE DEVLIN) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £5
Comedy Benefit with ticket proceeds to LGBT Youth Scotland
Wed 07 Feb
VIVA LA SHAMBLES (KIER MCALLISTER + JAY LAFFERTY + GUS LYMBUN + GARETH MUTCH)
THE THURSDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + STUART MITCHELL + RICHARD BROWN + STUART MURPHY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10
Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe. PETER PANCAKES’S COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA!
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, FREE
Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel.
Fri 09 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + STUART MITCHELL + RICHARD BROWN + STUART MURPHY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
SARAH CALLAGHAN: THE BALLAD OF SARAH CALLAGHAN (WORK-INPROGRESS)
GILDED BALLOON , 19:30–20:30, £7 - £8
Award-winning comedian Sarah Callaghan returns to Edinburgh with some brand new jokes, fresh from hugely successful tours in Australia.
Sat 10 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + STUART MITCHELL + RICHARD BROWN + STUART MURPHY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Sun 11 Feb
The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.
STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)
Mon 05 Feb
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE
RED RAW (ABIGOLIAH SCHAMAUN + STUART MITCHELL)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts. SCIENCE FACTIONS
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:30, FREE
The out-of-this-world sci-fi comedy panel show.
Tue 06 Feb GRASSROOTS COMEDY
THE PLEASANCE, FROM 19:30, £1
Come and see the freshest comedy Edinburgh has to offer, watch acts grow and perform brand new material. PROJECT X
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.
BONA FIDE (JAY LAFFERTY)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £6
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
Thu 08 Feb
Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show. PROGRESS!
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. THE TBC IMPROV COMEDY THEATRE
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics. IAN STIRLING - U OK HUN? X
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £12
Solo tour show.
Mon 12 Feb
RED RAW (KIMI LOUGHTON + SHAW & LOWRY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts.
JOJO SUTHERLAND & SUSAN MORRISON: FANNY’S AHOY! (JOJO SUTHERLAND + SUSAN MORRISON)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £3
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 17:30–19:00, £4 - £5
Glasgow Art
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 17:15–18:30, £14.50
TOP BANANA
Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.
Mon 19 Feb
THE PLEASANCE, FROM 19:30, £1
Come and see the freshest comedy Edinburgh has to offer, watch acts grow and perform brand new material.
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £4 - £5
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
Art
JOHN ROBINS: THE DARKNESS OF ROBINS - EXTRA SHOW!
GRASSROOTS COMEDY
New material especially written for the night by some of the countries finest comedians.
Anarchic comedy mayhem from Scotland’s finest young acts.
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
Tue 13 Feb
PROJECT X
All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X. PLANET CARAMEL: PRISON
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £3
A maximum security alternative comedy adventure.
Wed 14 Feb TOP BANANA
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene. ANTI VALENTINE’S DAY! (BETHANY BLACK + GUS LYMBURN + STU MURPHY + ROSS LESLIE + JAY LAFFERTY)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £6
Oh God it’s that time of year again. Come laugh with booze and no smug couples.
Thu 15 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (BETHANY BLACK + GUS LYMBURN + KAI HUMPHRIES + JOE MCTERNAN + RAYMOND MEARNS)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10
Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS POTTER
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. FIN TAYLOR: BEST OF
GILDED BALLOON , 20:00–21:00, £9 - £10
As seen on Comedy Central, one of the most critically acclaimed comedians of his generation does the best hour of stand-up he possibly can.
Fri 16 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (BETHANY BLACK + GUS LYMBURN + KAI HUMPHRIES + JOE MCTERNAN + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Sat 17 Feb
THE SATURDAY SHOW (BETHANY BLACK + GUS LYMBURN + KAI HUMPHRIES + JOE MCTERNAN + RAYMOND MEARNS)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14
Solo tour show (extra show due to demand). RED RAW (GARETH WAUGH + BEN POPE)
Glasgow’s legendary new material night night with up to ten acts.
Tue 20 Feb GRASSROOTS COMEDY
THE PLEASANCE, FROM 19:30, £1
Come and see the freshest comedy Edinburgh has to offer, watch acts grow and perform brand new material. PROJECT X
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.
BENEFIT IN AID OF EDINBURGH WOMEN’S AID (DYLAN MORAN + JAY LAFFERTY + JAMIE MACDONALD + JO CAULFIELD)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £12
Comedy Benefit with ticket proceeds to Edinburgh Women’s Aid.
Wed 21 Feb
TOPICAL STORM (MARK NELSON + KEIR MCALLISTER + STUART MURPHY + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7
Satirical comedy at its best. TOP BANANA
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.
Thu 22 Feb
THE THURSDAY SHOW (JOE ROONEY + ED PARK + JAMIE DALGLEISH + BEN POPE + JOJO SUTHERLAND) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10
Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe. JAY LAFFERTY: BESOM
GILDED BALLOON , 20:00–21:00, £9 - £10
Fed up trying to conform to society’s labels, Jay Lafferty decided to turn her back on the anxiety of expectation and frolic in the fun of failure.
Fri 23 Feb
THE FRIDAY SHOW (JOE ROONEY + ED PARK + JAMIE DALGLEISH + BEN POPE + JOJO SUTHERLAND)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12
The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12
Sat 24 Feb
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW
Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. THE TBC IMPROV COMEDY THEATRE
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5
10 FEB-25 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
The cult-favourite alternative comic humbly invites you to his brand-new, absolutely brilliant hour of extraordinary absurdist character comedy nonsense sort of stand-up and hubris.
Mon 26 Feb
RED RAW (JAY LAFFERTY)
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–23:00, £3
Glasgow’s legendary new material night with up to ten acts.
Tue 27 Feb BRIGHT CLUB
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5
Academia and comedy collide in the thinking persons stand-up night. GRASSROOTS COMEDY
THE PLEASANCE, FROM 19:30, £1
Come and see the freshest comedy Edinburgh has to offer, watch acts grow and perform brand new material. PROJECT X
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.
Wed 28 Feb TOP BANANA
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3
Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.
REHANA ZAMAN: SPEAKING NEARBY
Rehana Zaman’s moving image practice explores the ways in which social expectations and identities are produced and performed. Often humorous in her use of tropes from cinema and television, from forms of documentary to soap opera, her works are generated through careful collaboration and discussion with groups and individuals. The resulting films take up the entanglement of social life and individual experience, where intimacy is set against the hostility of state legislation, surveillance and control. BRANDON CRAMM: A CRYPT OF LIVING TIMBRE
10-21 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
A Crypt of Living Timbre is an exhibition of new video work and works of fiction by Brandon Cramm exploring notions of authorial silences, presence, and representations of the undead. LEGACY RUSSELL / TRANSMISSION GALLERY: GLITCH FEMINISM
2 FEB, 6:00PM, FREE
Legacy Russell is the founding theorist behind Glitch Feminism as a cultural manifesto and movement. #GlitchFeminism aims to use the digital as a means of resisting the hegemony of the corporeal. BUZZCUT: DOUBLE THRILLS: NICOLA HUNTER // ABY WATSON
7 FEB, 7:00PM, £7 - £9
Monthly sell-out nights of experimental performance and live art from Buzzcut! This month Nicola Hunter presents her piece Motherfucker and Aby Watson presents a new work called -ish.
Compass Gallery
JOSEPHINE BROEKHUIZEN SEEING THINGS GROW: NEW PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS & PRINTS INSPIRED BY A GARDEN
3-24 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Naturally influenced by her location on the Isle of Arran, with its array of wildlife, plant life, woodlands, harbours and coastlines, there is a certain calmness fundamentally expressed in Josephine Broekhuizen paintings.
1-18 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5
CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art
GILDED BALLOON , 19:30–20:30, £8 - £10
Compulsive Irish over-thinker Eleanor Tiernan previews her brand new standup show.
Sun 18 Feb
PROGRESS!
JOHN-LUKE ROBERTS: LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR! (ALL IN CAPS)
Set sail with the award-winning grand dames of Scottish comedy.
Glasgow Print Studio
ELEANOR TIERNAN: PEOPLE PLEASER
THE SATURDAY SHOW (JOE ROONEY + ED PARK + JAMIE DALGLEISH + BEN POPE + JOJO SUTHERLAND)
Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show.
The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)
THE TBC IMPROV COMEDY THEATRE
MASTERS
A selection of publications from highly regarded and celebrated artists, including Eileen Cooper, Alasdair Gray, John Houston, Bruce McLean, Eduardo Paolozzi and Barbara Rae, each of whom are considered to be masters within the field of printmaking.
The big weekend show with five comedians.
MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14
Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.
Sun 25 Feb
THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN
THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £6
Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.
STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE
Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show.
February 2018
Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on
Listings
61
CALUM MCCLURE: SOMEWHERE BECOMING RAIN 24 FEB-8 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
In his first major solo exhibition with the Glasgow Print Studio, Calum McClure explores ideas of place, transience and nature in his latest series of paintings and prints. The places where he walks and gathers images, through taking photographs, are predominantly parks and gardens, places that can be public or private; once private but now made public in the case of the country estates; places of botanical research or the private celebration of nature. All inspire differing modes of depiction and evoke contrasting atmospheres. They share in common that they are places we use for specific purposes, even if that is merely recreation, and are not landscapes in the traditional sense of the word, nor are they wildernesses.
Glasgow School of Art QE2 50 YEARS LATER
10 FEB-4 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition focusing on the design of the the last great Clyde-built passenger liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, and its interiors, which represented a high point for British post-war design and involved a number of very significant British architects, industrial, interior and graphic designers. Through imagery, text and ephemera, a notable ‘Clyde-built’ design achievement is celebrated. This exhibition is curated by Bruce Peter, Professor in Design History at The Glasgow School of Art.
GoMA POLYGRAPHS
1 FEB-20 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
A group exhibition with a central point of Hito Steyerl’s film Abstract, which explores truth, fiction and evidence in a complicated world. Features Jane Evelyn Atwood, Muirhead Bone, Boyle Family, Gerard Byrne, Graham Fagen, Ian Hamilton Finlay and more. AARON ANGELL
1 FEB-18 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
For this exhibition, Aaron Angell has created an interior that mines various historical points and hobbyist cultures partly in response to the complex history of GoMA’s site as a former private residence, garden and Neoclassical fancy. MATERIAL WITNESSES
3 FEB, 2:00PM, FREE
This presentation draws upon Susan Schuppli’s research exploring the evidential role of matter. In pursuing this research she has examined a wide range of materials that have recorded trace-evidence of the violence that generated their contexts and explore the institutional and disciplinary protocols that enable their latent histories to be rendered intelligible and made to speak, even if their “speech acts” oftentimes fall upon deaf ears or challenge accepted truths.
House For An Art Lover OBJECTS OF CELEBRATION
1 FEB-4 MAR, 12:00AM – 12:00AM, FREE
Objects of Celebration is a solo exhibition of new work by artist Claire Heminsley exploring the rituals of celebration.
Mary Mary
JONATHAN GARDNER: THE SPOT OF THE EYE
10 FEB-24 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
In this series of new works, Gardner places his attention on invented interior imagery, navigating a terrain between abstraction and representation. Gardner’s focus is on windows, doorways, paintings within paintings, exits or entrances, both in to the paintings, and the various spaces within them. Ever disrupting linear narratives, Gardner invites the idea of passages or a never ending series inside the private world of the works themselves.
Platform
HELEN DE MAIN: YOU KNOW, THINGS LIKE THAT
1-11 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Over the past year Helen has been meeting with a group of local women at Platform. Through looking at these women’s lives, marked by commonalities and difference, remarkable events and mundane ones, the exhibition celebrates the strength, resilience and beauty that exists within everyday experience.
Street Level Photoworks FUTUREPROOF 2017
1-4 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
The ninth annual showcase of new photographic talent selected from across Scotland’s Photography courses. Includes work from Yvette Bathgate, Sam Holland, Dosi Dimochovski, Katie Harris-MacLeod, Leanne Glass, Clare Hutchison, Gavin Bragdon, Gareth Bragdon and more. MARCELO BRODSKY - 1968: THE FIRE OF IDEAS
10 FEB-7 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Marcelo Brodsky is an Argentinian artist and human rights activist, working with images and documents of specific events to investigate broader social, political and historical issues. In 1968: the Fire of Ideas, Brodsky features archival images of student and worker demonstrations around the world, carefully annotated by hand in order to deconstruct what lay behind worldwide social turbulence in the late 1960s. Images of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in London and Tokyo sit alongside protests in Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico, Prague and San Paolo against military regimes and oppressive government structures.
The Lighthouse LAST EDIT MADE SECONDS AGO
1-5 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Rachel McBrinn and Ben Callaghan collaborate on a moving image work, which interrogates the ways in which we interact with digital workspaces and content production technologies, seeking to critique the functionality and design of their user interface.
The Old Hairdressers
NEW POLISH POSTER EXHIBITION
25 FEB, 6:00PM, FREE
A selection of posters by young Polish illustrators and graphic designers, including Ola Niepsuj, Jan Bajtlik and Bartosz Kosowski, will be on show, with talks and screenings on the legacy of Polish posters also being held. EXPOSURE: EXPLORING GLASGOW’S UNDERGROUND THROUGH A LENS
11 FEB, 4:00PM, £1
One-day exhibition focusing on local photographers showing unique and innovative perspectives of the city of Glasgow through their lenses.
The Telfer Gallery
SUGGESTIONS AND ENCOUNTERS: PHYSICAL OR OTHERWISE
10 FEB-4 MAR, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Following on from his 2017 residency at The Telfer Gallery, Leontios Toumpouris presents his first UK solo exhibition. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication, titled Physical or Otherwise: Suggestions and Encounters, featuring commissioned and re-edited essays spanning academic, theoretical and experimental responses to notions associated with Toumpouris’ practice.
Tramway
AMANDA ROSS-HO: UNTITLED PERIOD PIECE
1-4 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An installation taking the form of a factory floor dedicated to the production of oversized garments, Ross-Ho’s surreal, theatrical environment subverts notions of time, labour and economy. STEVEN CAMPBELL: LOVE
1 FEB-25 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Love is an exhibition of twelve large scale multi-media collages made between 1988 and 1991 by Steven Campbell, one of Glasgow’s most celebrated artists. Campbell began the works on his return to Scotland in 1987 following a five year period of living and working in New York. The collages represent a little known, experimental area of Campbell’s practice which also includes clay, plaster and papier mache sculpture, drawing, printmaking and textile design. LAWRENCE LEK: GEOMANCER
8 FEB, 7:30PM – 8:30PM, £3 - £5
Artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek returns to Tramway, with a screening of three new works, Play Station, Sinofuturism, and Geomancer. Using his characteristic style of computer animation, Lek’s recent works attempt to map the spirit of our rapidly dawning age - one whose characteristics, Lek implies, include the growing ascendancy of Sino-Futurism, the idea that China’s technological development constitutes a new form of Artificial Intelligence. MARGARET SALMON: CIRCLE
16 FEB-18 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
For Glasgow Film Festival 2018, LUX Scotland and Tramway present a major survey of works by acclaimed Glasgow-based artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon in Tramway’s main gallery. Salmon’s films draw from various cinematic movements, including cinema vérité and Italian neorealism, and capture the minutiae of daily life with gentle grandeur. The exhibition will feature a one-off live performance and screening event on 24 February with the Scottish post-punk band Sacred Paws, who created the soundtrack to Salmon’s latest film Mm, commissioned for Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival 2017.
A FINE LINE
1-18 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
A showcase in partnership with Inverness Museum and Art Gallery and Gracefield Arts Centre, featuring a diverse range of work by four contemporary artists based in Scotland – Lizzie Farey, Angie Lewin, Frances Priest and Bronwen Sleigh. Features printmaking, drawing, collage, sculpture and ceramics. PLAYFAIR AND THE CITY
1-25 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
By focusing on Playfair’s built and unbuilt proposals within the City Centre, this exhibition will demonstrate the architect William Henry Playfair’s vision and ambition for the city as a place of significance within the British Isles, and will follow his career from the Neo-Classical Enlightenment period of the Northern Athenian city, to the rapidly industrialized Edinburgh of the Victorian age.
An exhibition of artist books & wall pieces. Formerly known as the Artist Book Group, members of bound : unbound have been working and exhibiting together for ten years.
City Art Centre HIDDEN GEMS
Winter Flowers was made by Anne Redpath in collaboration with Harley Brothers in Edinburgh. From prints to watercolours, oils through to sculpture, the exhibition highlights a terrific breadth of practice and raises some surprises and questions about how we see, interpret and engage with what we imagine to be the familiar plant world around us. OPEN 2018
1 FEB-8 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Two of Scotland’s leading arts organisations, the Society of Scottish Artists and Visual Arts Scotland have joined forces for the first time to present an ambitious collaborative exhibition celebrating the best in contemporary and applied art. Featuring established artists and makers based in Scotland and internationally and new artists, the exhibition is a unique survey of the diversity of contemporary and applied art being created today.
1 FEB-17 MAR, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
1 FEB-25 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
BUILT IN TAPESTRY: DOVECOT TAPESTRIES AND ARCHITECTURE
A balcony-based exhibition at Dovecot highlighting projects from the studio’s history, featuring innovative and bold projects from commissions new and past. BEN HYMERS: MAGICAL TRANSFORMATIONS
1 FEB-17 MAR, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
Now a fully instated member of the Dovecot weaving team, former Apprentice Weaver Ben Hymers charts his journey through a series of pieces completed during the apprenticeship. GARRY FABIAN MILLER: VOYAGE
2 FEB-7 MAY, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE
This exhibition showcases a new Garry Fabian Miller tapestry created in collaboration with Dovecot Tapestry Studio, placing it within Garry Fabian Miller’s recent body of work as well as tracing back long term influences through key early pieces from the artist’s career. Applying craft ethos to digital printing, his current work extends his ongoing research into colour in photographic image, to how an image comes into being both in print and in tapestry.
Edinburgh Printmakers ARTOBOTIC
1 FEB-31 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, £10
Edinburgh Printmakers celebrate their 50th Anniversary year with an ‘Artobotic’, an art vending machine which distributes artworks ‘blind’ to audiences. FROM PAPER TO GOLD
1 FEB-31 MAR, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Embassy Gallery
BOUND : UNBOUND
WINTER FLOWERS
1 FEB-8 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Scottish National Gallery
&Gallery 1-28 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Royal Scottish Academy RSA
Dovecot Studios
Edinburgh Art
The City Art Centre showcases ‘unsung and unusual’ hidden gems from its collection of fine art.
Listings
City Art Centre host an exhibition exploring the work of Charles Poulsen and Pauline Burbridge; artists for whom drawing is at the centre of their practice.
To celebrate 50 years of printmaking excellence, Edinburgh Printmakers has invited 50 artists to participate in a special anniversary exhibition of exemplary Scottish printmaking.
1 FEB-13 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
62
SONGS FOR WINTER 1 FEB-4 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
JESSY JETPACKS, WILLIAM DARRELL AND JAKE RUSSELL
1-11 FEB, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE
Using automated sculptures, video works and a cave, the artists examine absurdity within larger meta structures. The exhibition exposes anxiety, dark humour and intrigue within the breaks and fissures of technological and ritualistic structural systems. FRACTAL PAISLEYS
1-11 FEB, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE
Fractal Paisleys features new work by multi-disciplinary artist Jessy Jetpacks, British sculptor William Darrell and painter/filmmaker Jake Russell.
Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on
A MEETING OF TWO MASTERPIECES
Six-footer British masterpiece Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831) by John Constable, displayed alongside another celebrated landscape painting, William McTaggart’s The Storm (1890). THE ART OF THE FUTURE
10 FEB-29 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Young people from across Scotland deliver an imaginative and innovative response to the question, what is the ‘art of the future’? Their original artworks are the outcome of a ‘mail art’ project, which got young Scots talking about the issues that are shaping their futures. The display, which mimics a mail order warehouse, includes a brave street performance about mental health, an inventive short film about the perils of social media, and an ‘unbearable teenager’. The artworks were created from materials delivered to the participants via a contemporary art ‘tool kit’ in a box.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
20TH CENTURY: MASTERPIECES OF SCOTTISH AND EUROPEAN ART 1-18 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
An exhibition of works offering a historical overview of some of the most significant artistic contributions made during the last century. The exhibition also aims to place Scottish modern art within an international context.
ARTIST ROOMS: MUSIC FROM THE BALCONIES - ED RUSCHA AND LOS ANGELES
1 FEB-29 APR, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A display highlighting the ways in which Ed Ruscha (b.1937, Nebraska, USA) draws upon urban landscape and architecture, cinema, brands, car culture and language that refer and relate to LA and Hollywood to create works about the American Dream. NOW
1-18 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
A second edition of the Scottish National Gallery’s dynamic exhibition series NOW, this time focussing on storytelling and showcasing the work of Turner Prize-winning artist Susan Philipsz, along with pieces by Michael Armitage, Yto Barrada, Kate Davis, Hiwa K and Sarah Rose.
PICTURE HOOKS 1-18 FEB, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
Acclaimed exhibition Picture Hooks returns for its third year, showcasing the result of one year’s collaboration between five arts grads and their established illustrator mentors. A NEW ERA: SCOTTISH MODERN ART 1900-1950
1 FEB-10 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 - £10
An alternative version of the history of modern Scottish art, featuring over 80 works by around 50 artists, including some of Scotland’s artistic giants and more unfamiliar artists.
Summerhall DELICIOUS SOURCE
1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Part of the new contemporary multi-arts festival offering diverse creative responses to Robert Burns, Burns Unbroke. Delicious Source is a large-scale detailed monochrome mural, painted onto a wall in the Laboratory Gallery by Ciara Veronica Dunne.
The Fruitmarket Gallery JACQUELINE DONACHIE
1-11 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Jacqueline Donachie presents sculpture, installation, photography, film and drawing in a major exhibition, engaging with ideas of support, platforms, and individual / familial / collective identity.
AS ITHERS SEE HIM
1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Part of the new contemporary multi-arts festival offering diverse creative responses to Robert Burns, Burns Unbroke. A group show of contemporary interpretations of Robert Burns’ appearance, featuring works by David Begbie, Rosie Dahlstrom and more.
1 FEB-5 MAR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE
1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
1-17 FEB, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE
INSPIRED BY TAM O’SHANTER
DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts
SCOTS IN ITALY
A showcase of the Scottish experience of Italy in the eighteenth century, a time when artistic, entrepreneurial and aristocratic fascination with the country was reaching boiling point. THE MODERN PORTRAIT
1 FEB-27 OCT 19, TIMES VARY, FREE
A display collating paintings, sculptures and works from the Portrait Gallery’s twentiethcentury collection, ft. a variety of well-known faces, from Ramsay Macdonald to Alan Cumming, Tilda Swinton to Danny McGrain. REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION
1 FEB-1 APR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition examining the cultural consequences of the national religion becoming Protestantism in sixteenth century Scotland. HEROES AND HEROINES
1 FEB-31 MAY 19, TIMES VARY, FREE
A re-examination of major Scottish figures which questions our habit of framing history around individuals and idols. WHEN WE WERE YOUNG: PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHILDHOOD
1 FEB-15 APR, TIMES VARY, FREE
Part of Luminate 2017, this exhibition documents the experience and representation of childhood to coincide with Scotland’s Year of the Young Person 2018. Photographs from the permanent collection of the NGS are used to explore how the experience of childhood has changed over the years, and how the portrayal of children has shifted too. ART AND ANALYSIS: TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS WORKING IN JACOBEAN SCOTLAND
1 FEB-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE
A small exhibition focusing on two 17th-century artists Adrian Vanson and Adam de Colone, showcasing a group of paintings which have been examined by paintings conservator Dr Caroline Rae, along with the findings from her research. IN FOCUS: THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I
1 FEB-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition centred around a painting of the execution of Charles I – based on eye-witness accounts and contemporary engravings – by an unknown Dutch artist. BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2017
1 FEB-11 MAR, TIMES VARY, FREE
An exhibition representing the best in contemporary portrait painting, selected from 2,580 entries by artists from 87 countries around the world.
Stills
COLLECTED SHADOWS: THE ARCHIVE OF MODERN CONFLICT
3 FEB-8 APR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Collected Shadows is an exhibition of 200 photographs drawn from the extensive collection of the Archive of Modern Conflict.
GANG DRY
Part of the new contemporary multi-arts festival offering diverse creative responses to Robert Burns, Burns Unbroke. An installation of objects, paintings, photographs and prints inspired by the life, time and works of Robert Burns by Derrick Guild. 1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Part of the new contemporary multi-arts festival offering diverse creative responses to Robert Burns, Burns Unbroke. Three installations inspired by Robert Burn’s epic poem Tam o’Shanter, by Ross Fleming, Laura Ford and Laura Graham. INSPIRED EDITIONS I AND II
1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Part of the new contemporary multi-arts festival offering diverse creative responses to Robert Burns, Burns Unbroke. Group shows of editioned work from Calum Colvin, Holly Johnson, Jo McDonald and more. ALBERTO VAZQUEZ – DARK FABLES: FROM COMICS TO FILMS
1-4 FEB, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
This special exhibition gathers Vazquez’s graphic and audiovisual work together, presenting how the artist adapted his comics and illustration books into animated films. A’ YE WHA LIVE AND NEVER THINK
1 FEB-10 MAR, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
Graham Fagen is one of the most influential artists working in Scotland today. His work mixes media and crosses continents; combining video, performance, photography and sculpture with text, live music and plants. A STITCH AND LINE
1-17 FEB, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE
An Exploration of Line by Garvald Edinburgh Artists. A line joins two points, what happens between these two points is where the creativity occurs. Following on from last years’ successful show at Summerhall, Garvald Edinburgh present an exhibition of work by 9 artists each exploring line in their own unique way.
Talbot Rice Gallery DAVID CLAERBOUT
24 FEB-5 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
David Claerbout is an internationally acclaimed video artist, known for his subtle manipulation of images and their not-so-simple construction. This exhibition presents six major works from the past 10 years. David Claerbout presents a thorough experience of an artist whose work can mesmerise and beguile.
Dundee Art Cooper Gallery
HERE WAS ELSEWHERE: >>FFWD
The exhibition of 27 artist moving image works made by 24 leading and up-and-coming artists, is staged in weekly rotations of selected works that capture the distinctive concerns driving contemporary artists’ moving image works made in Scotland.
KATE V ROBERTSON: THIS MESS IS KEPT AFLOAT
1-25 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Glasgow-based artist Kat V Robertson’s first solo exhibition in a UK institution, presenting a major installation of new sculptural work. ANDREW LACON: FRAGMENTS
1-25 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
Andrew Lacon’s first solo exhibition in a UK institution is based on a journey he made from Mexico City to Birmingham in 2015 and positions expansive ideas in a deceptively simple way.
The McManus FIRE AND STONE
1-4 FEB, TIMES VARY, FREE
An continuation of the NMS and British Museum’s Reflections on Celts spotlight tour, featuring a replica of the Monifieth II Pictish stone which has been commissioned from stone carver David McGovern. REVEALING CHARACTERS
1 FEB-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE
Part of a joint exhibition of selected works from the City’s permanent collection, Revealing Characters includes an array of portraits, which examine the construction of identity. FACE TO FACE
1 FEB-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE
Part of a joint exhibition of selected works from the City’s permanent collection, Face to Face includes an array of portraits, which examine the construction of identity. PORTRAITURE
1 FEB-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE
In the history of art ‘the portrait’ has taken on many guises, from exact likenesses to abstract collections of ideas and emotions. Selected from the City’s permanent collection this exhibition includes an array of portraits, which examines the construction of identity.
RACHEL MACLEAN: SPITE YOUR FACE
24 FEB-5 MAY, TIMES VARY, FREE
Commissioned for the Venice Biennale in 2017, Rachel Maclean’s Spite Your Face returns to Scotland at Talbot Rice Gallery for its UK premiere. Referencing the Italian folk-tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, ‘Spite Your Face’ (2017) advances a powerful social critique, exploring underlying fears and desires that characterise the contemporary zeitgeist.
THE SKINNY
Double Vision
Collaboration, both local and international, is a real strength in Scottish design. We take a look at three current partnerships creating exciting new products for 2018 Words: Stacey Hunter
Heather Shields
Myer Halliday
F
ollowing on from his first ceramics collection with British furniture institution Heal’s, Edinburgh-based designer Myer Halliday has transferred his love of pattern to textiles for the London interiors and homeware brand’s SS18 collection. Halliday’s Wave motif has been transferred onto the delicately proportioned Elgin chair (designed by Heal’s Senior Upholstery Buyer, Kris Manalo) as well as a cushion, lampshade and bowl. Halliday’s dynamic monochrome designs are drawn by hand to produce a delicately textured finish.
MILLICHIP X LANE
February 2018
With their roots in innovation and design since 1810, Heal’s have a long history of collaborating with prominent designers and pushing the boundaries of contemporary design. Homewares buyer Emily Rubner says of Halliday’s work: “It was clear that Myer’s creations lend themselves perfectly to textiles, which led to the development of the cushions, chair and lampshade. Myer is fascinated in the way pattern can alter our perception of everyday objects, and the result is a range of striking yet sophisticated furnishings.” Like many collaborations, Halliday’s with Heal’s was largely unplanned. “A contact with a buyer at a fair, an Instagram hook-up and a year later there have been regular sales, demos, lots of press, and a new avenue of work,” says Halliday. The chance to experiment outwith his main discipline is something Halliday emphasises: “I’ve really embraced the enterprise – it’s been a chance to make friends, expand my practice and get insight into the work of an iconic store – and perhaps most of all to have fun. “It’s been wonderful to get the call saying ‘What would you think of…? And would you like to…?’ and to be honest it’s taken me down roads I wouldn’t have dreamed of when I was at college. A ceramicist designing textiles? Heal’s are a business but they are also about working together and trying new things and I’m delighted they are including me in this adventure. Hopefully the best is yet to come!” Edinburgh fashion designer Emily Millichip’s collaboration with Australian textile and interior designer Francoise Lane to produce the MILLICHIP X LANE series of backpacks is an expression of a global interest in the slow fashion movement. Together with her husband Andrew, Lane runs Indij Design, one of the few 100% indigenous owned
and run design practices in Australia, based in Gordonvale, Queensland. Lane was in the UK taking part in Accelerate – a British Council Australia skills leadership programme for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders working in the creative industries. Lane first saw Millichip’s work on Instagram. “She came to visit the studio and we basically told each other our life stories within about ten minutes,” says Millichip. “We have very different lives but a similar energy, both in our personalities and in our work. We decided pretty soon after that to collaborate on a minimalist round backpack together. Fran designed the prints and I drew up the pattern and we decided to focus on one bold graphic print in three different colourways.” Key to both designers is their experimental use of colour, with Lane inspired by the tropical landscape of Queensland where she lives and Millichip by her love of punk. Millichip elaborates, “The print was actually inspired by seeds and seed pods indigenous to the tropical North but I love the way it echoes tiger print and polka dots. The green colourway looks like camouflage which is also a personal favourite print of mine. To soften the look slightly we have used a natural linen union which I haven’t worked with before but I love the way the colours have come out.” Both designers credit the British Council Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts for making their collaboration possible, citing the many logistical challenges that would have been difficult to overcome without support. The time difference is noticeable says Millichip; “Our Skype meetings are always entertaining though. I’m usually sitting shivering in a fur coat and Fran is fanning herself with geckos running
Heather Shields
up the wall behind her.” MILLICHIP X LANE backpacks will be available this spring. Port Glasgow-based David Watson is an awardwinning furniture designer and cabinetmaker, creating bespoke designs as well as his own signature collections, while Inverclyde textile designer and weaver Heather Shields specialises in vibrant, contemporary fabrics, homeware and accessories. Both have been on the Local Heroes radar for some time now and their first collaboration, the Govan Vector Chair doesn’t disappoint. Launched at the London Design Fair in late 2017, the piece is a perfect vehicle for demonstrating their mutual appreciation for clean lines and geometric forms. Inspired by the looming form of the Finnieston Crane, Watson’s Govan Collection echoes the utilitarian forms of the Clyde shipyards and their industrial might. Made from European Oak, the Govan chair is handcrafted using a combination of traditional and modern techniques to create a simple yet elegant design. Watson’s signature Govan Armchair is upholstered in Shields’ Vector fabric, which is hand woven using yarn composed of 90% wool and 10% nylon giving it durability and strength, while maintaining the warmth and the soft tactility of wool. Shields’ design has a three dimensional quality inspired by the shadows cast by traditional Italian window shutters on a recent trip. Her bold geometry complements Watson’s pared back Govan armchair in a very satisfying way. Together, Watson and Shields have created a sophisticated – and refreshingly weighty – statement piece rooted in urban typologies. We’ll be returning to the subject of collabs later in the year so get in touch @localheroesscot if you have one coming up that you think we should know about
Last Word
63