The Skinny August 2018 by The Skinny

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August 2018 Scotland Issue 155

Comedy First Fringe Hours Comedians on OCD & Attention Deficit Disorder Sex & Toxic Masculinity Female Character Comedians Theatre The NHS at 70 Working-Class Theatre Multimedia Theatre Immersive Theatre Books Michael Pedersen, Claire Askew, Akala, Nikesh Shukla, Nicola Streeten Music Anna Meredith, Pussy Riot, Since Yesterday, Gruff Rhys, IDLES, Kathryn Joseph, Interpol, Tomberlin Art Platform, Rabiya Choudhry, Sonica, Made in Glasgow Film Crystal Moselle, Paweł Pawlikowski, Eye Haïdara, Brett Haley, Marcelo Martinessi, Bryan Cranston Clubs Helena Hauff, Lanark Artefax, SHYBOI

IT'S PARTY TIME GET READY FOR A MONTH OF FESTIVAL FUN

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ALL TH E LIG HTS ARE ON S U M M E R H A LL

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C I R CO A E R E O A N D TH O M M O N C K TO N

TH E ARTI ST A S S E M B LY R OX Y

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TE AT TE R I M E TA M O R FO O S I

TH E SAUNA S U M M E R H A LL

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S A M I R A E L AG OZ

COCK , COCK .. WHOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; S TH E RE ? S U M M E R H A LL

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AC E - PR O D U C TI O N

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P.55 IDLES

P.67 Skate Kitchen

August 2018

Issue 155, August 2018 © 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.

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Contents

Editorial Acting Editor Art Editor Books Editor Acting Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Events Editor Film & DVD Editor Food Editor Intersections Editor Music Editor Theatre Editor Travel Editor

Peter Simpson Adam Benmakhlouf Heather McDaid Michael Lawson Ben Venables Nadia Younes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Katie Goh Tallah Brash Amy Taylor Paul Mitchell

Production Production Manager Designer

Sarah Donley Fiona Hunter

Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives

Sandy Park George Sully Keith Allan David Hammond

Online Acting Digital Editor Online Journalist Web Developer

Nimita Bhatt Jamie Dunn Stuart Spencer

Editor-in-Chief Bookkeeping & Accounts Publisher

Rosamund West Rebecca Sweeney Sophie Kyle

THE SKINNY

Photo: Anneliese Nappa

Photo: Chris Scott

P. 12 Jordan Brookes

Credit: Tatjana Rüegsegger

P. 29 Heaven Burns

Contents

58 Sarah Beth Tomberlin shares her debut

Chat & Opinion: An intro to this month’s 06 magazine, Fringe Dog’s annual cartoon

Robbie Thomson explains how he came 61 to fill the Clyde Tunnel with lights and

adventure, The Skinny on Tour, our Shot of the Month and a look at what’s online. Heads Up: A day-by-day guide, so you 08 don't quadruple-book yourself. FESTIVALS

10 Comedy: OK, deep breath –

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Maisie Adam and Rosco McClelland present their debut hours; the impact of ADD and OCD on comedians; sexy chat with Jack Barry, Brett Goldstein and Norris & Parker; tearing down toxic masculinity with Stephen Bailey, Mawaan Rizwan, Joe Sutherland and David Correos; Marjolein Robertson and Olga Koch; character comedy chat with Beth Vyse, Enter the Dragons and Ada Campe; plus Paul Sinha, Simon Munnery, John Hegley and Arnold Brown.

24 Theatre: The NHS is 70, here are the

shows taking its metaphorical pulse; a host of theatre-makers offer their insight and ideas on making theatre accessible for working-class people; Birds of Paradise introduce My Left / Right Foot; a guide to The Fringe’s best toilets; how is theatre reacting to #MeToo?; a look at women in Fringe theatre 100 years after the first votes for women; the issue of consent in immersive theatre; a theatrical glossary to help you decipher the Fringe guide; previews of this year’s multimedia theatre and queer theatre.

34 Art: A look at the practice of this year’s

Edinburgh Art Festival Platform artists – Renèe Helèna Browne, Annie Crabtree, Isobel Lutz-Smith and Rae-Yen Song – and an in-depth chat with Rabiya Choudhry on Transmission Gallery, the life of the artist in 2018 and her flag at Rhubaba for EAF.

39 Books: Michael Pedersen outlines his

Book Festival party for Scott Hutchison; Akala turns his pen to issues of race and class in Britain; Nicola Streeten on retelling the history of British comics in The Inking Woman; Nikesh Shukla on fate, thrillers and diversity; Claire Askew on debut novel All the Hidden Truths.

usic: Anna Meredith brings not one, 47 M not two, but three projects to the International Festival and Fringe; Carla J. Easton celebrates the forgotten female heroes of Scottish pop music; Super Furries’ head honcho Gruff Rhys talks crowd management and cue cards; Pussy Riot on the power of protest. FEATURES in Glasgow celebrates some of the 52 Made city’s best designers this month – Local Heroes fill us in on what’s in store.

55 IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot on wearing

hearts and influences on their sleeves, ahead of their second record.

57 Sam Fogarino of Interpol looks back

on the band’s past and ahead to their future as new album Marauder drops.

August 2018

album with the world this month; she discusses her sheltered Christian upbringing and musical awakening.

robotics as Sonica returns for Festival 2018; Talat Yaqoob and Jodi Rudoren look ahead to their Beyond Borders chat on raising the voices of women; a look at Berlin on Screen as the German capital is celebrated in Glasgow; Discwoman’s SHYBOI on making the dancefloor political once again.

63 Helena Hauff returns with new album Qualm; we catch up with one of the most prolific DJs in music today.

64 Brett Haley combats rage by giving

Ron Swanson a guitar in Hearts Beat Loud; Pawel Pawlikowski introduces his monochrome marvel Cold War; Crystal Moselle moves into drama with New York-set teenage drama Skate Kitchen; Eye Haïdara talks us through the making of C’est la vie!; Paraguayan filmmaker Marcelo Martinessi on The Heiresses.

70 We showcase the Just Guts collective,

fresh from their convention-busting ECA degree show.

LIFESTYLE

73 Travel: One writer shares her reflections from her travels around the world as a Person of Colour.

74 Intersections: We celebrate the im-

migrants who make the NHS tick, and we tackle the bad and wrong idea of the male artistic genius.

77 Food & Drink: A look at the tastiest

shows at this year’s Edinburgh festivals, plus a guide to the best new venues across Scotland and an events round-up.

REVIEW

81 Music: The spellbinding Kathryn Joseph

introduces her new album; meet Glasgow trio Shredd; Good Grief and City of Glass on making Edinburgh great all year round; our take on the month’s new albums and the gigs to catch.

86 Clubs: Lanark Artefax talks playing live

and supporting Björk; Robert Bergman pulls together a Jamaican-tinged playlist; our guide to the month’s clubbing.

90 Art and Books: Reviews of new shows at

Tramway and 16 Nicholson St, and an exhibitions and opportunities guide; a spokenword round-up and reviews.

92 Film & TV: New releases in both cin-

emas and your house; Bryan Cranston on Isle of Dogs as it hits DVD shelves.

94 Competitions: Win tickets to things!

Specifically, Beyond Borders, Glasgow Youth Film Festival and the Scottish Album of the Year Awards.

95 Listings: What’s on in Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh.

102 Comedy: John Dowie comes over all

nostalgic ahead of his show at Fringe by the Sea.

Contents

Editorial Welcome to August, and to the joint-largest issue of The Skinny we’ve ever produced. It’s so jam-packed with stuff that we’ll cut the preamble and just get straight to what’s inside, not least because the volcanic temperatures of this heatwave mean time is very much of the essence. First up, those lovely Edinburgh festivals. Our Comedy editor has wrangled an enormous cast of interviewees to essentially map out the entire life cycle in laugh form – babies of the bunch Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, Rosco McClelland and Maisie Adam discuss their debut shows, and two trios of comedians talk through the trials and tribulations of Attention Deficit Disorder (Edd Hedges, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Ross Brierley) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Jordan Brookes, Rachel Fairburn and Catherine Bohart). Jack Barry, Brett Goldstein and Norris & Parker talk sex; Marjolein Robertson and Olga Koch share the importance of place to their comedy; we chat character with Beth Vyse, Ada Campe and Enter the Dragons; the changing face of masculinity is tackled by Stephen Bailey, David Correos, Mawaan Rizwan and Joe Sutherland; Paul Sinha and Simon Munnery get reflective; and there’s some true veteran experience from John Hegley, Arnold Brown and John Dowie. On the other hand, Theatre’s take on the Fringe programme is totes topical. The NHS is 70, so there’s a guide to this year’s health-related shows, and there’s also a look at theatre around #MeToo and the 100th anniversary of votes for (some) women. We’ve guides to multimedia and immersive theatre, plus a chat with the defunded then refunded Birds of Paradise. There is also a glossary of theatrical terms (be confused by the difference between ‘devised’ and ‘verbatim’ no longer!) and a look at which Fringe venues have the best toilets; rejected headlines include Pans Labyrinth and Loos Yourself. The Edinburgh Art Festival once again celebrates the best of new Scottish art in its Platform strand; our Art editor catches up with this year’s quartet, finding a cohort of exciting boundary-pushing, experimental artists. We also chat to Rabiya Choudhry – the Edinburgh-based artist’s flag flies above the Rhubaba gallery this month (that’s not a metaphor by the way, it’s an actual flag), and she talks us through a busy few months of work and exhibitions across Scotland. She also ponders whether it’s better to be an artist or get a job in Lidl; just something to think about when you hit the wall mid-August. Books takes a dive into the Edinburgh Book Festival programme – we talk to Nikesh Shukla and Claire Askew about their new novels, discuss the impact of letting someone other than A Man

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organise an archive with Nicola Streeten, and catch up with linguistic polymath Akala ahead of his Skinny-sponsored event at this year’s Book Fest. We also talk to Michael Pedersen about his night celebrating the memory of his not-to-beforgotten pal Scott Hutchison. Music-wise, we dial in with Russian punk activists and World Cup disruptors du jour Pussy Riot, while Carla J. Easton discusses Since Yesterday, her celebration of the unsung female heroes of Scottish pop at EIF. Gruff Rhys chats about his residency at the Pleasance (he’s bringing a PowerPoint), and Anna Meredith takes time out of her jam-packed schedule across all of Edinburgh’s festivals to pull us up for getting her job title wrong. It’s a fair cop, we’ll come quietly. So that’s the front half. After the midway point, we chat to Interpol about returning to former glories on new album Marauder, and Sarah Beth Tomberlin talks us through her sparse, sheltered debut album At Weddings. Kathryn Joseph gives us the heads-up on her new record for Mogwai’s Rock Action label, and Helena ‘The Most Exciting DJ in the World’ Hauff reveals an unexpected affinity with the thrill-a-minute town of Leicester. In film, we talk to Paweł Pawlikowski and Marcelo Martinessi about their festival hits Cold War and The Heiresses, Brett Haley combats Trump-era rage with a guitar-playing Nick Offerman in the lovely Hearts Beat Loud, and Eye Haïdara reveals that impromptu parties were key to the creation of French wedding comedy C’est la Vie! Our new Intersections editor tackles the idea of the male genius (it’s bad), and speaks to just a few of the immigrants and non-UK nationals who keep the Health Service ticking over (they’re good), while Local Heroes fill us in on their Made In Glasgow exhibition of top-notch design. And if you aren’t all festivaled out, there are more of the buggers back here as well. Crystal Moselle introduces her new film Skate Kitchen ahead of its screening at Glasgow Youth Film Festival, and Art talks to Robbie Thomson and Louise Harris as Sonica makes a brief return this month to fill the Clyde Tunnel with BRIGHT LIGHTS. We look at the discussion and debate in store at Beyond Borders, and we chat to Bristol punks IDLES about the audacity of positivity and their all-action live shows ahead of their slot at Electric Fields. So yeah, it’s a busy one. So busy, in fact, that I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself as Ros’ maternity cover, but never mind. As you can see, there’s plenty of stuff for us all to be getting on with. [Peter Simpson]

Heathers

Fringe Reviews If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a wee festival happening in Edinburgh this month and our Theatre and Comedy team are currently scrambling across town reviewing pure hunners of shows – get em while they’re hot. theskinny.co.uk/festivals/edinburgh-fringe

Edinburgh Book Festival Just as you start to acclimatise to the Fringe crowds, the Book Festival rocks up to Charlotte Square mid-August with an eye-watering array of world-class writers including Philip Pullman, Akala, Ali Smith, Viv Albertine and many more. Our Books team will be reporting back with all the juicy literati intel. theskinny.co.uk/festivals/edinburgh-festivals/books

Fistymuffs Edinburgh punk trio Fistymuffs have just released their debut EP, About Time, an energetic onslaught about escaping abusive relationships, unwanted groping and rejecting patriarchal standards of body image and femininity. We talk through it, track-by-track. [On Innocent Contact]: “You know the guys who put their hands on your hips to move you out the way? The ones who think it's ok to hug

you uncomfortably tightly a few minutes after they first meet you… That's who the song is about. Fuck those guys.” theskinny.co.uk/music

Jlin on her Autobiography album Indiana-based producer Jlin teams up with trailblazing choreographer Wayne McGregor for epic EIF dance piece Autobiography. We chat to Jlin about working with McGregor and her music practice. “I’m not going for a certain thing. I’m just creating. The listener feels how they feel because they like it, they don’t, they hate it, they love it, I’m just creating it and that’s it.” theskinny.co.uk/edinburgh-festivals/music

Heathers Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw, Winona Ryder teen movie classic Heathers is 30 years old. To mark the occasion, a sparkling new restoration of this wicked black comedy is released in cinemas and on home video this month, and it’s still as savage and hilarious as ever. We speak to Heathers’ director Michael Lehmann about what makes this 1988 film oh so very. theskinny.co.uk/music

Find more at theskinny.co.uk

By Jock Mooney

The Skinny on Tour

Chat

Czech out where The Skinny has been on holiday this month! Where in the world has this picture been taken? Clearly some crazy location where a great big beautiful hunk of Brutalist concrete has been parked in front of some pastel-colour-ed architecture straight out of a Wes Anderson joint. We have to admit, this is a Vary tricky one this month. We’ll give you a clue: the hotel that inspired the aforementioned director’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is about half a mile from where this picture was taken. Clue two, it’s not Budapest. Send your guesses to competitions@ theskinny.co.uk and you could be in with the chance of winning a copy of Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig from our good pals at Canongate Books. Send your shots of The Skinny in various exotic locations to news@theskinny.co.uk

THE SKINNY

Illustration: Tom Kindley

Shot of the Month CHVRCHES, TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow, 8 Jul, by Paul Storr

COVER ARTIST Ben Boothman is a designer & illustrator based in Leeds. He spends a lot of his time creating characters and settings that are inspired by everyday life and the world around us. He uses geometric shapes and angular lines to create work that is playful, expressive and fun. You can see more of Ben's work at: benboothman.co.uk

August 2018

Chat

Tue 31 Jul Enjoy the last few days of tranquility before Fringemania fully sets in and take in some art. Four emerging female artists – Renèe Helèna Browne, Annie Crabtree, Isobel Lutz-Smith and Rae-Yen Song – take part in the annual Platform exhibition, as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, after being selected from an open call by artists Jonathan Owen and Hanna Tuulikki. City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until 26 Aug, free

Emma Pollock

Wed 8 Aug

And just like that, it’s Fringe time! New Zealander Rose Matafeo returns for her third Fringe in a row with new show Horndog, an hour of stand-up and sketches about mid-20s angst. Matafeo was recently nominated for this year’s Barry Award at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, won last year by Hannah Gadsby, so, you know, pretty impressive stuff. Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Above), Edinburgh, 6.20pm, £6-11

If you enjoyed Sasha Velour’s Marlene Dietrich impression during season nine’s Snatch Game on RuPaul’s Drag Race, then Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club will be like heaven on Earth. Winner of the weekly Pick of the Fringe award at the 2017 Adelaide Fringe, the show comes recommended not just by us, but by real experts. Underbelly's Circus Hub on the Meadows (The Beauty), Edinburgh, 8pm, £10-15

As part of this year’s Traverse Festival, the theatre will play host to the world premiere of David Ireland’s latest play, Ulster American. An actor, director and playwright meet to discuss the challenges of a new play and, as tensions rise, the discussions reach a violent climax. Just a light bit of theatre on a Wednesday night. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £9-20.50

Rose Matafeo

Little Death Club

Photo: Ayesha Hussian

Tue 7 Aug

Photo: Andi Crown

Mon 6 Aug

Wed 15 Aug

In her 2017 memoir, member of Russian performance art collective Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina details her imprisonment in 2012, alongside two fellow members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich. The accompanying piece to Alyokhina's memoir of the same name, Riot Days will be performed over ten days throughout the Fringe. Summerhall, Edinburgh, 7pm, until 19 Aug, £17.50

Hidden Door celebrate Scottish music through the ages for the Edinburgh International Festival, lining up shoegaze icons The Jesus and Mary Chain, pop-punk duo Honeyblood and dream-pop troupe Spinning Coin to play in their recent haunt (Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 7pm, £25). Swing by the Botanics before to see the Pianodrome, a 100-seater amphitheatre constructed entirely from over 50 upcycled pianos. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, until 26 Aug

Take some time away from the madness and spend a day browsing what Scotland’s designers and makers have to offer at Craft Scotland’s Summer Show 2018. This year, as part of a high street takeover, 37 contemporary craft makers will fill an entire floor of White Stuff on George Street with an array of jewellery, knitwear, ceramics and printed textiles. White Stuff George Street, Edinburgh, until 26 Aug

Photo: Kirsty Crawford

Tue 14 Aug

Photo: Alexander Sofeev

Another year of Edinburgh Art Festival’s Art Late evening tours get under way, where you’ll be guided round a selection of exhibitions at participating venues at night. Along the way you’ll be treated to artist performances and talks, workshops and live music, with tonight’s tour concluding at The Fruitmarket Gallery, with Dundee electro-pop duo ST.MARTiiNS. Meet at The Fire Station, Edinburgh College of Art, 5.30pm, £8-9

Craft Scotland Summer Show

Tue 21 Aug

Wed 22 Aug

Just over a year since releasing their seventh, and self-titled, album, Dirty Projectors returned with another phenomenal new album Lamp Lit Prose last month. This is just one of four UK dates, so no excuses please (King Tut's, Glasgow, 7pm, £25). You’ll even be able to make it back to Edinburgh in time (just) for Artist Party: Incinerator – Electro Disco. Summerhall, Edinburgh, 11pm, £4-8

The Fringe always brings up recurring themes, and this year is no different. Two female storytellers bring us shows about coping with adulthood, but told in very different ways. Scottish comedian Ashley Storrie (Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (The Ballroom), Edinburgh, 8pm, free) and cabaret artist Tash York (Underbelly Bristo Square (Buttercup), Edinburgh, 7.55pm, £7-10) are both here to tell us about the struggles of adulting.

2018 marks 70 years since the inception of the NHS, so prolific comedian, journalist and political satirist Mark Thomas is taking the opportunity to look backwards and forwards on its successes and failings. Check Up: Our NHS at 70 uses the opinions of leading experts to look at what’s in store for the future of the NHS. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 1pm, £15-21.50

It’s Britney, bitch! Yes, the princess of pop herself, Britney Spears graces our shores tonight, as she takes her absolutely mammoth Piece of Me tour round the world. The show allows fans to see Britbrit’s record-breaking, four-year headlining Las Vegas residency show before she retires it completely, so don’t miss out. She was born to make you happy after all. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 6.30pm, £45-125

Check Up: Our NHS at 70

Mon 27 Aug

Tues 28 Aug

Wed 29 Aug

*Last day of the Fringe klaxon!* And only the strong remain, as the dust starts to settle on another year of Fringe-arama in Edinburgh. Fierce and fiery feminist troupe Hot Brown Honey take it right to the bitter end, continuing to wow Fringe audiences year upon year with their show combining music, performance and theatre. Gilded Balloon Teviot (Debating Hall), Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £12.50-16.50

It seems like Kevin Hart missed the memo about some tiny comedy festival happening in Edinburgh this month. This show is just one out of 100 extra dates the boisterous American comedian added to his obscenely huge world tour earlier this year. No phones are allowed into the arena though, so don’t be trying to get a cheeky pic for the ‘gram. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 7pm, £42.50-75

Twice in one year? You’re spoiling us Kenny! Hot on the heels of his five star performance at the Hydro back in February, Glasgow Summer Sessions bring Kendrick Lamar back to Scotland, and he’s bringing some pretty cool pals along with him. K.Dot will be joined by Bugzy Malone and none other than hip-hop heroes N.E.R.D. Excited? Us too. Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, 5pm, £59.50-85

Chat

Hot Brown Honey

Kevin Hart

Kendrick Lamar

Britney Spears

Young Fathers

Thu 30 Aug Credit: Top Dawg Entertainment

Ashley Storrie

Photo: Steve Ullathorne

Mon 20 Aug

Photo: Derek M Chapman

Sun 19 Aug

Dirty Projectors

Photo: Courtesy of Fashion & Textile Musum

August is a busy month and everyone knows it; that’s why Dovecot is allowing late night access to its exhibition celebrating Liberty Art Fabrics every Thursday night throughout August in a series of LIBERTY Lates (Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 5.30pm, £4.50). Leith Chill Fest kicks off today too, so make a day of it with some pre/post-drinks down Leith. Various venues, Edinburgh, times vary, until 2 Sep, £5

Thu 9 Aug

Ulster American

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Thu 2 Aug

ST.MARTiiNS

Mon 13 Aug

Pussy Riot

LIBERTY Lates

Credit: Susan Castillo

Platform

Credit: Allan Lewis

It’s time to get Fringin’! Gear up for pedestrian warfare, practise avoiding flyerers and prepare to roll your eyes at every street performer you pass because you’ve got all this to fit in over the next month and it ain’t gonna be easy...

Credit: Michael Cranston

Credit: Rae-Yen Song

Compiled by: Nadia Younes

Scottish music gets its time to shine, as the SAY Awards announce this year’s 20 longlisted albums tonight. Live at the Longlist will also see previous nominees provide some extra entertainment, with an exclusive collaboration between Stina Tweeddale of Honeyblood and Carla J. Easton of TeenCanteen, a performance from Emma Pollock and a DJ set from Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. King Tut's, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £14.50

Photo: Cameron Brisbane

Heads Up

Wed 1 Aug

We’ve been pretty lucky with the weather over festival season so far, so let’s hope it continues. Electric Fields celebrates its 5th birthday this year and they’ve added an extra day of partying for the first time. Young Fathers, The Horrors, Ibibio Sound Machine and Dream Wife are just a few of the bands performing, while The Pitt are back on scran duties. Drumlanrig Castle, Thornhill, Dumfries & Galloway, 30 Aug-1 Sep, £45-120

THE SKINNY

Avoid the hustle and bustle of the Fringe opening weekend and migrate to Glasgow for the next few days instead. LYLO play a homecoming show tonight, rounding up a brief UK tour, where there’ll surely be lots of saucy sax in store. (The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, 8pm, £5). And keep the party going after, as Subbie bring Hot Chip back for a DJ set. Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £12

If you thought a hangover day was in store today then you were wrong. There’s plenty more local live music to enjoy at Broadcast Summer Session, from the likes of Home$lice and CRYSTAL (Broadcast, Glasgow, 5pm, £6). Or, for the techno-heads, 10-hours of outdoor partying awaits, as Platform 18 Open Air returns, headlined by Berghain resident Ben Klock. West Street, Glasgow, 12pm, £38

Glasgow’s live music weekend concludes with Saint Luke's All-Dayer, where 15 bands, including Holy Esque and Shredd, will play across two stages (Saint Luke's, Glasgow, 2pm, £12). Meanwhile, all the hip-hop heads will most certainly be over at Stereo to see New York wunderkind Bishop Nehru, who is still only 21-years-old; you heard, 21-YEARS-OLD. Stereo, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £12.50

Sat 11 Aug

Sun 12 Aug

Galway-based Druid Theatre Company bring their rendition of Samuel Beckett’s classic play Waiting for Godot to the Edinburgh International Festival this year, in what’s been described as its greatest production for 25 years. Said to be one of Beckett’s funniest plays, strap yourself in for an evening of humourfilled, life affirming theatre. Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £8.50-35

Punk legend Viv Albertine talks to Cathy Macdonald about her second book To Throw Away Unopened, in a Skinny-sponsored event for the Book Festival tonight (Spark Theatre on George Street, Edinburgh, 8.45pm, £1012). Afterwards, Glasgow record label Numbers are putting on an incredible club night in Leith, with SOPHIE, Lanark Artefax, Spencer and Sofay. Un-real. Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 10.30pm, £15

HOTTER returns to the Fringe for the second time, as (even) HOTTER continues to teach us not to be embarrassed by our bodies but to celebrate them. Devised by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter and produced by Transgress, the show is based on interviews with women and trans people aged 13 to 97 and covers a wide range of body-related tales. Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, 9.30pm, £6-10

Waiting for Godot

Photo: Matthew Thompson

Fri 10 Aug

Holy Esque

SOPHIE

(even) HOTTER

Thu 16 Aug

Fri 17 Aug

Neu! Reekie!’s Michael Pedersen leads a tribute to his friend and Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, following his sad passing in May. Pedersen will be joined at his Oyster Party for Scott Hutchison by Hollie McNish, Withered Hand and E A Hanks, who will perform their own work and share tales of Hutchison to celebrate his life and incredible influence. The Spiegeltent (Charlotte Square Gardens), Edinburgh, 6.30pm, £10-12

Winona Ryder, Shannon Doherty and Christian Slater all star in the ultimate high school cult classic, Heathers; there’s no wonder it’s being shown as part of GFT’s Late Night Cult Classic series tonight (GFT, Glasgow, 11pm, £7.50-10.50). While in Edinburgh, Wasps open their doors to the public over the next two days for their Open Studios. Wasps Studios, Edinburgh, 6pm, free

Best of BEASTS

Comedy sketch trio BEASTS return to the Fringe for a brief four-night run, with their pretty self-explanatory show, Best of BEASTS. Ciarán Dowd, James McNicholas and Owen Roberts team up once again to bring us their best ever sketches from over the years in a manic, quickfire hour of fun, frolics and frenzy. Pleasance Dome (Queen Dome), Edinburgh, 8.20pm, £11-12

Heathers

In case you didn’t know, podcasts are totally in right now. Everyone’s sick of binge watching shows on Netflix so they’ve taken to the ‘casts instead. Welcome to Night Vale is one of the most successful; developed in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, the twice-monthly podcast offers news updates from the fictional town of Night Vale, from weather forecasts to supernatural events. Summerhall, Edinburgh, 11pm, £35

Beyond Borders International Festival returns for its ninth year, taking place over two days in the Scottish Borders. Today, presenter and broadcaster, Razia Iqbal is joined by the New York Times' Associate Managing Editor Jodi Rudoren and, Director of Equate Scotland, Talat Yaqoob, along with other guests, to explore the ongoing fight for women’s voices to be heard. Traquair House, Innerleithen, 5pm, £20.80-49

It’s a big night across Scotland. St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, brings her revamped and newly titled I Am a Lot Like You! Tour to the capital, in support of her brilliant 2017 album Masseduction (Edinburgh Playhouse, 8pm, £12.5040). In Glasgow, Sub Club SoundSystem concludes its two-day takeover of Barras Art & Design, with The Black Madonna, Midland and Sensu. BAaD, Glasgow, 2pm, £39.50-70

Akala

Fri 24 Aug UK hip-hop and Fire in the Booth royalty, poet, activist and now author, Akala brings Natives, his first book, to this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival in another Skinny-sponsored event tonight (Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, Edinburgh, 8.30pm, £12). While down in Leith, Carla J. Easton and friends celebrate the unsung women pioneers of Scottish pop in Since Yesterday. Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 7pm, £10-20

Welcome to Night Vale

Beyond Borders International Festival

Sun 2 Sep

More widely known as the frontman of punk renegades The Sex Pistols, John Lydon’s post-Pistols project, Public Image Ltd celebrates their 40th anniversary this year. J.Rot is the group’s sole constant member, with more line-up changes than the Sugababes over the years, and you can catch him doing a Q&A at Dundee’s Whitehall Theatre the night before this show (10pm, £23.50). Church, Dundee, 7pm, sold out

Could you even imagine a more romantic setting for Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar-winning girl-meets-fish tale The Shape of Water than in the stunning surrounds of Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens? The film closes The Luna Cinema’s three-day open-air cinema at the venue, which also includes screenings of The Goonies and The Greatest Showman. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 6.45pm, £7.50-15

Public Image Ltd

Photo: Roosa Päivänsalo

Noisettes

Photo: Solas Nicol

Fri 31 Aug

Photo: David Packard

Sun 26 Aug

Photo: Sara Cameron

Sat 25 Aug

St. Vincent

Photo: Derek Bremner

Oyster Party for Scott Hutchison

Photo: Kat Gollock

Sat 18 Aug

Thu 23 Aug

June 2018

Photo: Kaiya Stone

Ben Klock

Photo: Ciaran Dowd

LYLO

Photo: Ronan Park

Sun 5 Aug

Photo: Amy Muir

Sat 4 Aug

Photo: Neelam Khan Vela

Fri 3 Aug

Samara Scott

Sat 1 Sep

Mon 3 Sep

Just try and find a more bizarre festival line-up than this year’s Midstock Festival line-up; go on, we dare you. Seemingly trapped in a time warp, today’s performers include Example & DJ Wire, The Darkness, Ash and Noisettes – yeah, we weren’t kidding. If anything, just go to see the Noisettes and have an interesting day out. Dalkeith Country Park, Edinburgh, 31 Aug-1 Sep, £30-55

Body gel, glitter, toilet paper, sponges, milk and food dyes; no, it’s not your shopping list essentials, these are just a few of the substances Samara Scott uses to make up her liquid collages. For her first exhibition in a public institution in Scotland, Scott will create a large sitespecific installation, taking the form of a promenade space. Tramway, Glasgow, until 28 Oct, free

The Shape of Water

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Best of Friends Comedians and best friends Christopher Macarthur-Boyd and Rosco McClelland have both emerged from the local comedy scene to bring their debut shows to Edinburgh didn’t like Rosco when I first met him,” says Christopher Macarthur-Boyd. “Rosco has this thing where his eyes widen and I always thought he was being sarcastic. One night, we were doing a gig at a pharmaceutical company’s social club: I did terribly, he did really well. But, he gave me a cigarette afterwards and I thought, well... he’s OK.” For Rosco McClelland, the dislike of fellow comedians on the bill was better than always being asked for a favour. He used to be a

plumber, but also sold ecstasy on the side. “After gigs I would either get, can you sell me drugs, or can you fix my toilet?” The pair have emerged on the local comedy scene in parallel. There’s a sharpness and confidence to Macarthur-Boyd’s delivery of stand-up, which recalls American comedians, while his ability to spin a yarn seems more homegrown. He was bassist in punk band Gunfinger (“The Skinny called us ‘surprisingly accessible’”) and trained as a journalist before going into comedy.

Christopher Macarthur Boyd

Photo: Aemen Sukkar

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When we’re struggling to describe McClelland’s comedic style, it’s Macarthur-Boyd who offers an apt turn of phrase: “He does ‘psychedelic parlour tricks’.” Despite their contrasting styles, the pair have built up to their debut Fringe hours in tandem too. Back when Macarthur-Boyd first tried a long-form show, at the 2016 Glasgow Comedy Festival, McClelland opened for him. He only needed to provide his friend with a conventional warm-up set, but instead brought out the ‘parlour tricks’. “I was furious about it,” says Macarthur-Boyd. “I mean it was my first solo show and it was absolutely rammed.” McClelland came on with what looked like a tin. The audience were curious, quizzically looking at each other: this is a professional comedian, surely that can’t be ‘snakes in a tin’? “It was snakes in a tin,” says McClelland. “Do you remember I did three gigs in an Australian accent?” he adds, about their shared hour at The Counting House later in the year. “Yes,” says Macarthur-Boyd, with both affection and despair flashing across his face. “And I remember last year you made somebody cry.” “It was about the heart thing that I’ve got,” says McClelland. “I was talking about all these things I’ve done, and how I’m still going, despite the condition. A woman started crying and walked out the room... A guy explained she had two kids who’d died of the same thing.” With her friends leaving at the same time, it left just two people at the gig. “I asked, ‘Do you want me to

Interview: Ben Venables keep going?’, but they said, ‘No, it’ll be too awkward’. So that was that – show over – early finish for me you know.” Both comedians have signed with big agencies in the last year. Macarthur-Boyd impressed Off the Kerb performing in the appropriately named Gravesend: “They said if you can do well there you can do well anywhere.” Meanwhile, McClelland lured Gag Reflex’s agents in a car park, with a less orthodox approach. “I was going to do Late’n’Live for the first time. I said I’m driving down that way, do you want a lift? Great! And they got in my car. I then reversed into another car, and drove away laughing. I think at the very least they were quite terrified.” McClelland’s show, 29, is likely to be more of a coming-of-age tale than his more prop-based sets suggest: “I do want to make this year’s show nice and fun; I mean I have a bit about jumping off bridges, but that was just the way narrative goes.” Macarthur-Boyd’s debut is set closer to home, and is as much personal as political: “The show last year was about the rise of fascism, and this year it’s about living with my mum and dad. There is a crossover though, because my mum and dad are quite racist.” Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: Home Sweet Home, Gilded Balloon, Teviot Row House (Turret), 1-26 Aug (not 13), 10.15pm, £6-10 Rosco McClelland: 29, Gilded Balloon, Teviot Row House (Turret), 1-26 Aug (not 13), 2.45pm, £6-9

En Vague “I

n my last year of uni we were doing a module on a form of theatre called commedia dell’arte,” says Maisie Adam. “The teacher came in and wanted us to lose all our inhibitions – to look like a tit on stage, basically.” Within an hour, Adam and her class had each performed one minute of looking like a tit on stage, or as it’s better known: stand-up comedy. “It sounds quite psychopathic, but I loved having that power to make people laugh. It feeds the ego... I got up, did my minute, and it was literally just like that click in your head, where you know: this is what I want to do.” Adam started looking for open spots wherever she could. But, there isn’t much of a comedy scene in the spa town of Harrogate. And the northern clubs weren’t always obliging. “There were a lot of clubs, particularly up north, I have to say, where you send an email and they literally come back with replies like: ‘oh, we have a few good females already,’ or ‘females don’t go down well at our club.’ Are we in the ‘70s here? C’mon!” She had more luck arranging gigs in London, but before she caught the Megabus south, Adam realised she might need a few jokes. Most comedians start with five minutes of material. It can take a long time for those five minutes to evolve into a ‘tight-five’ routine. A ‘solid-20’ set is an eternity away; and an ‘Edinburgh hour’ may as well be an hallucination. But nobody told Adam any of this. “I thought how London is the big smoke and I’ve got to get a gig in somehow beforehand. I saw there was a festival in Ilkley, which is a local town

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half an hour from me. They were calling for submissions from artists.” And so it was that Ilkley’s tranquil literary festival played host to a rookie stand-up booking in to do a full show.

“ It sounds quite psychopathic, but I love having that power to make people laugh. It feeds the ego...” Maisie Adam

“I just wrote what I thought was funny, as much as possible, and it ended up being 40 minutes,” she says. “I made it free and invited everybody I knew, going back to my youth club. I look back on it now and think, ‘God that was such a stupid thing to do...’ It was a packed theatre of people who knew me, who couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid as to put on a stand-up comedy show without having done it before!” Only ten months later, Adam found herself in Edinburgh, after winning a place in the So You Think You’re Funny? semi-final. Not that she spent her time thinking too much about the Gilded Balloon’s

Interview: Ben Venables

celebrated new act competition. For Adam, for all comedy fanatics in Edinburgh, August is like Christmas: “Those two days, I just saw back-to-back shows. I looked through the programme for who I liked – I literally had an Excel spreadsheet! I had to work out how to get from the Pleasance to Gilded Balloon, and all that sort of thing.” Days after, Adam returned to Edinburgh to win the competition. One of the first people who congratulated her was Suzi Ruffell, whose show she’d sought out as a fan on her original trip. “I told her how I went to see her because I didn’t think I would be back in Edinburgh for a long time. I just really wanted to see a great female stand-up. It was so weird how she was saying congratulations to me.” Now, a year on, Adam is back. Her debut hour Vague touches on epilepsy, a condition she’s had since she was in her teens. “It’s the kind of thing where you have to make sure that you get at least eight hours sleep, and regular times of going to sleep. And sometimes I’m doing gigs where I’m not back until two or three in the morning. “With epilepsy, it does become better to just have a lifestyle where there is a bit more reserve, and you become a ‘Sensible Susan’, as it were. Of course when you’re 14 or 15 you don’t want to be doing that – you want to be going out. The show is about finding a balance for a very particular lifestyle, when the two couldn’t be more opposite really.” Maisie Adam: Vague, Gilded Balloon, Teviot Row House (Wee Room), 1-27 Aug, 4.30pm, £6-9 gildedballoon.co.uk/programme

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Maisie Adam

THE SKINNY

Photo: Andy Hollingworth

Ahead of her debut hour Vague, 2017 So You Think You’re Funny? winner Maisie Adam chats about launching her comedy career at an idyllic literary festival

Coming to Attention Edd Hedges, Ross Brierley and Kiri Pritchard-McLean discuss problems they’ve had with attention since childhood

Edd Hedges “It was like trying to tie a rope round a fly,” says Edd Hedges, describing his problems focussing at school. To speak with Hedges now, as he’s about to bring his sophomore hour For Eva, from Forever Ago to Edinburgh, he already seems a mature storytelling comedian. And he also seems like a man who is right on top of his to-do list; the kind who has a ‘work/life balance’. He writes out a daily schedule each day in half-hour blocks and as soon as we finish this call, he’s off to play squash. He doesn’t seem lost, spaced out or fidgety. Yet, Hedges has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – a condition which includes scattered concentration and a fidgety restlessness. In relatively recent years it’s been recognised these childhood symptoms often persist into adult life. Scratch beneath Hedges’ “rigorous schedule” and we find he simply learned the hard way how to knot a rope around that fly. “People think you’re going to be swinging from the trees,” he says, “the reality of ADHD is a lot more sad and jittery.” For Hedges, his schedule actually works more like a map than a management guru’s priority matrix. When he finds himself staring out of a window and can’t remember how he got there, “I simply have to look at my schedule and pull myself back to what I’m meant to be doing. “It’s so painful to me when I waste entire days. I had a four-day stint last year where I took the kettle apart. I took out all the pieces and left a huge mess. That is what happens when my brain is just allowed to do whatever it wants. It’s not structured; it’s me asking stupid questions and getting stupid answers.” Hedges knew his concentration could trip him up from a crushingly early age: “I think it was in about Year Three, when I was six, there was a moment when all the kids in primary school needed to start getting things right – and I didn’t. The things that you learn in primary school are the most important, because you build the rest of your education on it. But I couldn’t read until I was 13. I didn’t learn how to tell the time until I

was in Year Nine.” With his ADHD also compounded by dyslexia, Hedges found himself doing tedious remedial work. “I went to these learning support classes. The last thing a child wants to be told is that you’re going to catch up with the rest of the school by going twice as slow. I swear to god, one day, one of the questions we were asked is if we could make a sandwich. We didn’t need to be learning that – we needed to be doing algebra!” ADHD often hides an able kid behind its symptoms, finding themselves lost at sea in their own brain and attempting to fidget-paddle their way into focus. But by the time Hedges finished A-levels, he was offered a place at Edinburgh University, an academic turnaround he puts down to one particular teacher. “There was a teacher in the school that actually cared about my education and within two years she taught me how to read and write and lifted my exam results up,” he says. Hedges turned down his Edinburgh place, preferring to arrive in the city via another route. In 2013, he won – aged 19 – the Gilded Balloon’s acclaimed comedy competition So You Think You’re Funny? sharing the top prize with Demi Lardner. “Until I won So You Think You’re Funny?”, he says, “I hadn’t really ever felt I was good at anything.” Kiri Pritchard-McLean When Kiri Pritchard-McLean was at school she was in the top set for English. Yet her teacher found her puzzling. “She told me: ‘Your essays are an absolute mess.’ “She sent me to see an educational psychologist and they diagnosed me at that time with ‘dyslexic tendencies’.” The problem was more one of PritchardMcLean not being able to follow a linear thought pattern, even when this mindset occasionally offered her success: “One of the interesting things was when we did poetry, because it’s not linear and it’s a little bit nonsensical, I did really well with that.” She continued to pose an enigma to her tutors well into university: never exactly failing, but also not fulfilling a potential obvious to

Kiri Pritchard-McLean

others. She was sent for an assessment – “it was like a broad IQ test” – and it showed up a canyon-sized gulf between her general ability and her short-term – or ‘working’ – memory. Working memory is what we use when we’re keeping track of things in the present, and is famously limited in its capacity. But for people with ADHD it bottoms out to another level. Attention-deficit may have been missed in Pritchard-McLean’s earliest childhood because she went to a “brilliant primary school” and doesn’t have the H in the ADHD acronym. “My official diagnosis is ADD,” she says. Because the more overt symptoms of hyperactivity tend to stand out, it leads to an overemphasis on that side of the condition. Before the name ADHD was coined, it was often referred to as ‘hyperkinetic disorder’, or just plain old ‘hyperactivity’. But inattention is often its primary symptom and children who stare into space rather than pace the room are harder to spot. Another shade of difference when PritchardMcLean discusses ADD is that she does so in terms of what’s going out of her brain as much as what’s coming in: “It’s like a brain stutter,” she says. “I wish I didn’t have it, and I wish I could’ve gone into exams and put down what reflects what’s actually in my brain, instead of writing something that makes me look like an idiot.” As she now brings her third hour Victim, Complex to Pleasance Courtyard – a show about love and lies – she feels grateful to have found comedy, which runs along those same non-linear lines as poetry. She also adds: “In comedy, because it is about having a unique worldview, I think if you’ve got a brain that’s a bit different it gives you a bit of a head-start.”

Photo: Kayla Wren

Interview: Ben Venables

Ross Brierley “I never slept,” says Ross Brierley, recalling his childhood. And Brierley was always restless by both day and night: “There are videos of me, from when I’m about four or five, where I am in and out of the shot. The main thing was at school though, the teachers saying imagine what you could achieve if you’d applied yourself.” He’s pacing his way through our phone call and occasionally finds he’s flailing to hold onto the thread: “Even now, I was well into this conversation, but now there’s all-sorts of stuff going on around here: there is a car wash to my right and some drilling to my left, and suddenly I feel out of the moment and really self-conscious.” He seems quite a textbook case, but remarkably he wasn’t diagnosed until this January. Now that ADHD symptoms are recognised in adults, a retrospective diagnosis can be made if it’s clear the patient has always had it – as was the case with Brierley. But the idea didn’t come from him. It seems his partner is attracted to the restless type. “My girlfriend’s ex had it, and she thought I had a lot of similar traits. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’. She printed off some information for me and it was like: this describes my life completely.” Brierley seems to prefer to focus on the positives it brings him though. “We haven’t talked about all the good stuff it might do,” he says. His debut solo show Accumulator, which he describes as “life lessons through betting on horses,” is now coming to Underbelly. And certain types of bets may suit a splintered mind. “Most of my betting is done ‘in running’, so that’s during the race. It’s almost like a speeded up stock exchange where the odds change depending on what’s happening at the time. You have to watch and scan everything that’s going on with 20 horses. A lot of people aren’t very good at it, because they see one horse doing well, or they’ll look at the favourite, or the horse they fancy, and only be able to focus on that.” For Brierley, an attention span that is more of a net than a laser beam is extremely helpful. This chimes with the well-known study where a man in a gorilla suit walks onto a basketball court and people don’t notice because they are focussed on the game. ‘Inattentional blindness’, which is what the invisible gorilla study measures, can actually be part of a healthy mind. But it’s suggested in one other study that those with ADHD often do spot the ape because they’re not focussed on one thing. “Ha!” laughs Brierley, “Yes, we’re constantly looking for a gorilla!” And he adds, with some understatement: “Back when humans had to look out for wild animals, being able to spot one was probably pretty useful.”

August 2018

Ross Brierley

COMEDY

Photo: David Lindsey

Edd Hedges

Photo: Ed Moore

Edd Hedges: For Eva, From Forever Ago, Gilded Balloon, Teviot Row House (Balcony), 1-26 Aug (not 13), 4pm, £6-10 Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Victim, Complex, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two), 1-27 Aug, 8pm, £6-10.50; PritchardMcLean also appears with Rachel Fairburn in All Killa No Filla Live, Underbelly, George Square (Udderbelly), 5 & 19 Aug, 11.30pm; 12 & 26 Aug, 3.30pm, £13-14 Ross Brierley: Accumulator, Underbelly, Bristo Square (Daisy), 1-27 Aug (not 14), 4.30pm, £6.50-10

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In the Loop Catherine Bohart, Rachel Fairburn and Jordan Brookes talk about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Rachel Fairburn Rachel Fairburn’s show The Wolf at the Door is about coming back from mistakes, the breakdown of her friendship group and how women can become isolated in a way men don’t because of the different ways we judge male and female behaviour. As she prepares, she’s finding some aspects of her experience of OCD helpful, but off stage rather than on it. “Having had OCD for so long, I do see the positive side as well. I’m meticulous in my work and with the Fringe coming up I’ll have a little morning routine. I will stick to that like it’s my ritual.” In other words, it isn’t the outward behaviour that bothers Fairburn as much as “the other crap that you have to deal with it.” When Fairburn was a kid, a relatable fear became an all-encompassing dread. “I was brought up by a combination of parents and grandparents... and there was a time I realised they won’t be around forever. It was a definite thing for me. I was aware of losing that security, and once I realised, it became a real preoccupation. I would constantly worry about it.” She recalls certain behaviours which put her unquiet mind momentarily at ease: “I was always straightening door handles, or touching things twice, or putting things in piles. If I was given food – chips, obviously – I’d make sure I’d swap it around until there was an even amount. And then, when I was a teenager, and I still do this to this day, I add up car number plates. I’ll pass a car and if it adds up to an even number then it feels like things will be okay.” She adds: “It’s a bit of a rubbish system because if it’s an odd number I just look for another car!” As this shows, Fairburn is under no illusion that there is an actual cause and effect between her number plate system and life events, but her brain is set in a mode that makes it feel that way. The sense of foreboding is there, whatever, and it becomes exhausting. “You’re trying to control things with things that aren’t going to have any effect. It’s tedious.” Fairburn occasionally finds the symptoms walk on stage with her, ready to pounce on any doubt. “It doesn’t make everything go away. I’ll be there in a gig for example, and I’ll be having a lovely time, but then in part of my mind I’ll be thinking: ‘Why are they laughing?’ I’ll convince myself, in the moment, that they’re not laughing at me, and maybe there is something going on behind me and they’re laughing at that. Then that’s the only thought I have in my head.” At these times, she has to rally herself: “I just have to think: I have to get through this gig.”

“ When you do something with OCD, it’s through a massive fear of what might happen if you don’t”

Rachel Fairburn

Photo: Kayla Wren

Catherine Bohart When Catherine Bohart was 10, her cousins came to stay: “I drew round everything in my room with a pencil so I would know if anything had moved.” A decade later, Bohart found herself encircled entirely into the vicious cycle of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. “The symptoms became more severe at university, but not with me necessarily knowing what they were. I was depressed at the time too – when you spend an awful lot of time doing things to keep everything under control, it’s always going to be futile. Unfortunately, the world is not perfect.” In her debut show Immaculate, she’s talking about her experience of OCD head-on: “I think it’s misunderstood in popular culture where it’s largely boiled down to washing your hands. People also say, ‘I’m a little bit OCD’. And, you tell them it’s an all-consuming disorder; the very nature of it means you can’t be a ‘little bit’ whatsoever. The other thing people think is that you like doing the compulsive things: ‘Catherine just loves being clean!’ But, when you do something with OCD, it’s through a massive fear of what might happen if you don’t.” However, despite these day-to-day misunderstandings, Bohart feels the interest in OCD usually comes from the right place: “I do think people want to understand it though – I don’t think the misunderstanding comes from a will of ignorance.” Bohart gradually loosened OCD’s grip with the help of a great doctor, medication and cognitive behavioural therapy, though one unusual part of her treatment plan has been comedy. “Since I started comedy my OCD has actually got much better – or at least more manageable, that would be the right word. I’m not saying this is for everyone but with the type of OCD I have – where there’s worries and fears about failure and embarrassment – the beauty of discovering a space where shame and embarrassment are used to be funny has been a complete revelation. I have another place in my brain I can go. It’s weird, going on stage does this thing where it just allows you to step out of a bad day and you have to be in the moment. For me it’s quite freeing.”

Interview: Ben Venables

iours that become misunderstood in the popular imagination as ‘washing your hands’. The feelings of doubt, foreboding and guilt instead latch themselves onto specific and distressing thoughts. “I don’t know whether you’ve had a dream where you’ve accidentally killed someone,” he says, “and you’re feeling this guilt, and you’re worried that the police are coming for you, and you have to deal with the consequences. That feeling of guilt is what you carry around, but having done nothing. You do feel like you’re in a nightmare, it’s like having a constant argument with yourself, and the moment that you are left alone, that’s the moment your brain will go there – it’s tiring.” The kind of dark thoughts we all have from time to time, but can dismiss in an instant, follow those with this variant of OCD around like a toxic cloud. Considered ‘purely-obsessive’, when OCD manifests in this way it is sometimes referred to as Pure-O. In his 2017 award-nominated show Body of Work, Brookes told a “warm, cosy story” about his grandmother, in which a fleeting thought that entered his 11-year-old head, when she touched his knee, took over his adolescence, and at exactly when his identity was so impressionable. “It makes you very doubtful, he says, “because nobody knows really who they are. Maybe I am this thing: maybe I

want to sleep with my nan and touch dogs inappropriately, or whatever. It completely fucks you. You live in a constant state of uncertainty.” And, as with Bohart and Fairburn, reasoning alone does little to quell the torment. As Brookes says: “Your brain finds new waves of convincing you that it’s true, this is real, and it’s fascinating how resourceful your brain can be in presenting an argument to undermine you, to pull the rug from underneath you.” The eventual shift from one locked thought pattern to another, sometimes after many years, does allow those with the condition to see it’s the brain’s mechanism propelling the obsession, rather than the nature of the dark thought that says anything about who they are. But the help this provides is relative: “It is reassuring when it does change. But, it doesn’t make it any less real, that’s what can be so distressing about it.” One of the many remarkable aspects of Brookes’ 2017 show was that it concentrated on making these thoughts relatable, allowing the audience into his mind. “At times, I feel like I was diagnosing half the audience with a mental disorder,” he says. “I think we risk stigmatising mental health when we put a label on it. We make it this thing where people think ‘it doesn’t apply to me because I don’t tick all of those boxes’ and that’s not the point. I want to take away the label, that’s why I didn’t mention it at the top of the show, and made sure it was about the experience of, and describing, obsessive thoughts.” That’s not to say a diagnosis, that label, and treatment are not helpful. It’s just about making the description more of a bridge than a barrier towards understanding. And sharing his experiences is beneficial to Brookes too. “I definitely feel that it’s improved over the years and that’s a combination of being on the right medication and living my life better. And better understanding it, being able to talk to people about it.” This year, Brookes brings Bleed to Pleasance Courtyard and is leaving his condition off stage: “People feel that free speech is being compromised,” he says, “and I think there is something that fascinates me about that and the ludicrously narcissistic denial of another person’s right to say that they are upset about something. That forms the basis of the show.” The intensity of the Fringe helps him not to engage with his thoughts too. “It’s the month in my life where I go into Peter Pan mode and forget my troubles.” Catherine Bohart: Immaculate, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two), 1-26 Aug (not 14), 4.15pm, £6-10.50 Rachel Fairburn: The Wolf at the Door, Underbelly Bristo Square (Dexter), 1-27 Aug (not 13), 9.30pm, £6.50-11 Jordan Brookes: Bleed, Pleasance Courtyard (Beside), 1-26 Aug (not 14), 8.30pm, £7-13

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Jordan Brookes Jordan Brookes’ form of OCD is less well known, featuring none of the outward rituals or behav-

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Jordan Brookes

THE SKINNY

Photo: Anneliese Nappa

Catherine Bohart

Photo: Matt Crockett

Catherine Bohart

August 2018

THE SKINNY

Let’s Talk About Sex Jack Barry, Brett Goldstein and sketch duo Norris & Parker discuss relationships, from threesomes to fornicating with the devil

Brett Goldstein Also delving into the essence of relationships is Brett Goldstein. It’s debatable if this is a sideways move or a departure from his usual material. He describes What Is Love Baby Don’t Hurt Me as “me banging on about sex and addiction and porn, but also this time I’m finally talking about relationships so I feel really vulnerable and sick.” The relationship part, the day-to-day, is usually something hidden when we tell stories. And Goldstein offers a fresh reading of a psychological horror film from the perspective of the relationship within it: “My favourite film about love is Don’t Look Now as I think within its drama it shows a loving, functional long-term marriage, something I don’t think we see enough of, we rarely see the middle bit in art. The main bit. We see people get together and we see people break up but we rarely hang out in a positive way in the middle. Marriages are always in crisis in drama, they rarely sit together in a real loving way.” He adds: “The intense highs and lows of ‘love’ might not be love at all. From the looks of it, real love is calm and steady and not like a drug at all but it’s hard to see contentment for what it is, from the outside it looks dead boring.” The addictive side of love – or whatever is disguised as love – leads to impulsive decisions, as Goldstein knows all too well. “I spent thousands and thousands of pounds to fly across the ocean to be with someone who wasn’t there when I got there. I’m still paying that off in a way.” And we live in a curious time, where many desires can be satiated with a click. Do we live in an era of a digital gateway to the pleasure garden, or does the internet lead us awry? “Yeah, I think the internet has done us a right mischief.

Jack Barry

It’s set us all off on the search for dopamine hits from the wrong places, from getting likes and swiping right and we are in danger of living in a photoshopped fantasy land of resentment and self-loathing. Best to get Kim Kardashian to do as she promised and actually break the internet then we can see if we can actually look at each other in real life with no filters and learn to live with the discomfort of really being known. “Or wait for the sex robots to become sentient and let them fuck us all to death and take over the world.”

“ The intense highs and lows of ‘love’ might not be love at all. From the looks of it, real love is calm and steady and not like a drug at all”

Norris & Parker

August 2018

Photo: Lucy Ridges

Brett Goldstein

Norris & Parker While being fucked to death by sex robots sounds a fitting end for humanity, Norris & Parker are talking about a more persistent sexual threat as they come back to the Fringe after a year hiatus (“we like to take a year off to go to rehab”). The threat is female desire and seems best embodied by the persecution of witches. “We’re setting it in a town called Phallus Ridge where all the cliffs are shaped like penises,” says Katie Norris. “There is a threat of sex witches causing havoc amongst the town. We’re setting some of it in past Phallus Ridge, medieval Phallus Ridge, and some of it in the modern day.” Sinead Parker adds: “The League of Gentlemen is a huge inspiration for us. That’s how

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Brett Goldstein

Photo: Idil Sukan

for 30 years.” It appears Barry’s affordable, one-man Relate service is working. “My parents seem to be sticking together, they seem to be all right.” Though he adds: “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look them in the eye again.” Despite the thrust of Barry’s comedic routines, Tango is set to be a thoughtful and sensitive show: “It’s very confessional and there’s lots of stories about my early sex life and losing my virginity. I think by the time the show ends people will feel they know me pretty well.”

Photo: James Deacon

Jack Barry You know more about Jack Barry’s sex life than you think. As we discovered in our Glasgow Comedy Festival interview with Mae Martin earlier this year, it takes three to tango. Martin had introduced Jack Barry on stage as someone she’d had a threesome with, and now the man himself returns to Edinburgh with a show all about sex: “I do talk about Mae in the show, but I wasn’t going to say her name,” he says. “Maybe I should now if she’s blabbing about it all over town! You’ve opened a can of worms here.” While this might sound like part of a comedian’s hedonistic lifestyle, the threesome was arranged after Barry and his partner had been talking about their relationship. “My girlfriend is Argentinian – which is why the show is called Tango. I feel like she and I are really on the same page and comfortable talking about different kinds of relationships with each other. We’d spoken and wondered if an entirely monogamous relationship is entirely the way to go and it was after that conversation we thought a threesome might be an idea. So we asked Mae; that’s how that came about.” However, Tango starts not with his relationship, but with a couple Barry now knows far too much about. “The premise of the show is that I’ve been talking to my parents a lot about sex and relationships. They were being a bit tense with each other in their marriage and asked me to be a counsellor.” This sounds awkward for all concerned, but it made fiscal sense. “I don’t know if it’s just for frugality, that they didn’t want to pay a professional. My mum is a psychotherapist and maybe, like doctors making the worst patients, she didn’t want to see another therapist. They wanted some impartial person and rather than paying someone they decided to use me. “I’ve been reading The Ethical Slut and The Polyamory Handbook. I have been doing a lot of research into sex, on different ideas for relationships and on the idea of staying with one person for your entire life, who is going to have to deal with all your needs – it feels like a bit of a big ask. And I’m talking to my parents, and looking at their relationship, and realising some of the problems you have when you’ve been with the same person

Interview: Ben Venables

we met, became friends, talking about it. We like how it is all set in the one place. We’re setting this show all in the one world. Before, our shows have been sketches with mine and Katie’s storylines throughout.” Both artists have been through break-ups in the last year and expect their own lives to “seep” into Burn the Witch. The other influences on the show are more unusual, and include the film The Witch and a treatise called Malleus Maleficarum. The latter was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German catholic, and crystallises the mindset prevalent during the witch trials in the 17th century. Parker explains that treatise puts forward ideas that: “Eve came from Adam’s rib, so women are weak, and when women cry they are trying to ensnare and deceive a man. And ambitious women, all lusty women, are all linked with witchcraft. And it has parts about how women are all fucking the devil, but disguised as farmyard animals. They were forced to confess and really it was men just projecting their own weird repression onto women.” It is not only thematically that Burn the Witch is Norris & Parker’s most ambitious hour: it also features an original score by pianist Huge Davies (“He’s terrified of us”). What’s more, they tell us: “We might do a sex witch dance in the show,” says Norris. Although this remains under discussion: “We’d have to get a proper choreographer,” jokes Parker. The pair are seeking the right props for the show too: “We’ve asked someone we know who makes props if they can make lots of prop penises,” says Morris, “that we want to put in jars,” says Parker, finishing the sentence. “Because that’s also in the book, about women stealing men’s penises, and lots about penis sizes.” A prop penis in a jar maybe isn’t the sort of thing they want to be walking across Pleasance Courtyard every day, but they both seem to relish the idea: “Yeah, they’d be lots of male comedians shrivelling up.” Jack Barry: Tango, PBH Free Fringe, Globe Bar, 4-24 Aug, 8.30pm, Free Brett Goldstein: What Is Love Baby Don’t Hurt Me, Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath), 1-26 Aug (not 24), 7pm, £6-12 Norris & Parker: Burn The Witch, Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath), 1-26 Aug (not 4), 10.45pm, £6-9.50

Feature

Non-toxic Masculinity Ahead of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, comedians Stephen Bailey, David Correos, Mawaan Rizwan and Joe Sutherland talk about subverting traditional masculinity in stand-up

Interview: Katie Goh

Feature

Mawaan Rizwan

David Correos

his clothes off and covering himself in paint. While comics might call standing on stage getting naked, Correos often gets literally naked. “I mean I’ve got a tiny dick,” he says, laughing. “It’s not a very alpha presence. I’ve got nothing to be proud of bringing it on stage, it’s not doing me any favours at all. But I just think it’s funny.” Correos’ nudity is for laughs but it’s also subverting racial stereotypes of masculinity. “I looked it up, for Filipinos, the average penis size is 4.7 inches and that’s tiny!” he says. “You can’t go against fact so I guess I’ve just got to rock it. So instead of saying it’s a detriment, I’m saying it’s funny and I don’t give a shit!” Like Correos, British comedian Mawaan Rizwan is similarly experimenting with how clowning can diversify stand-up. “When I first started Stand-up, I was a bit disheartened by how mundane stand-up was,” says Rizwan. “Line-ups weren’t diverse and people weren’t

Photo: Rebecca Need-Menear

Stephen Bailey

Photo: Kate Little Photography

Joe Sutherland

Photo: Duncan Elliott

tand-up comedy is masculine in the most traditional sense of the word. The profession has historically been male-dominated, with conventional stand-ups tending to be straight white men doing opinion-driven sets. In their hands, it is about dominating a room, holding all the power and the microphone, while a subdued, passive audience hangs on their every word. Recently, however, comedy as a boys’ club has been going through a change. From the fallout of #MeToo, which saw the king of comedy Louis CK admit to sexual misconduct and Bill Cosby’s conviction earlier this year, to the success of comics like Hannah Gadsby and Michelle Wolf, our idea of what stand-up looks like is changing. While the world of comedy is hostile for women, for men who fall outside the parameters of straight white cis male – a model of masculinity stand-up has long embodied – the industry is equally as challenging. We speak to four comics who are shaking up conventional stand-up and using the form to question what masculinity can mean in 2018. “Femininity is still seen as weakness,” says Stephen Bailey. “At gigs, I’ve noticed that some straight men of a certain age won’t look at me when they’re in the front row. Some of them have their backs to me and some of them laugh by covering their mouths. Come on, it doesn’t make you gay by laughing!” When asked why some men in audiences take so long to warm to him, Bailey is direct in saying it’s the fact he’s a gay man. “If a straight man is shit, the audience still gives him their attention from the beginning and then when he’s shit they turn their back – I get it the other way.” Bailey’s comedy style is gossipy – he cites Amy Schumer and Kathy Griffin as influences – and because his sets feel as intimate as sitting round a pub table, he can play around with stereotypes of campness. However, even today, it’s still something that is held against him. “I find it hard when people say I’m putting the camp thing on – this is my voice! I’m not putting it on. I had another comic say to me recently, ‘Oh, it’s easy for you because you just do the gay thing.’ I was actually talking about a recent breakup and that’s not a ‘gay thing’ – that’s me discussing relationships. It was an old straight white man who said it to me as well. So he gets to talk about his ex-wife and be a sexist pig, but I can’t talk about my ex without it being deemed ‘that gay thing.’” For LGBTQ+ comics, homophobia can extend beyond comments like the one Bailey mentions to being an issue for booking shows. “Sometimes I don’t book jobs because they say they’ve already got the camp box ticked as if every camp comic is the same,” he says. Tokenism is a major problem within comedy. It’s common for promoters to book one female, one LGBTQ+, and one BAME comedian, put them on a line-up with seven straight white men and call that diversity. While the UK’s stand-up circuit has a notorious reputation for this kind of tokenistic performative ‘diversity,’ other countries are faring better. David Correos, born to Filipino parents in New Zealand, says that the Kiwi comedy scene is “pretty diverse at the moment, to the point where it’s my mates who are straight white guys who are struggling most at the moment.” Diversity in New Zealand’s comedy scene isn’t only in terms of who gets on stage, but Correos says that it’s “diversifying everyone and everything because the subject and the content of comedy is so diverse now. It’s great for quality.” Correos himself is an example of this diverse comedy. The comic’s set is part stand-up, part clowning, as he tells one-liners while often taking

Photo: pPeter Fingleton

necessarily saying anything new, so I started gravitating towards cabaret and clowning. That’s where I found the weirdos and underdogs and what I really imagined comedy to be – something subversive and rebellious.” Using props, costumes, and dance numbers, Rizwan’s sets are vivacious and so outside of conventional stand-up that it’s surprising to learn he started performing by taking a comedy course. “There was a lesson where we were told to acknowledge our ‘thing,’ whether that you’re a person of colour or you’re a bit effeminate or whatever it is,” he remembers. “We were taught that we need to get it out of the way. I think that’s a bit of a shame. I’ve spent all of my life with people categorising me and putting me in certain pigeonholes so why should I play to that myself? I think it’s dumbing audiences down and apologising for not being normal. You were telling the audience how to feel and telling them to see you

COMEDY

as one dimensional, like ‘Hey I’m the brown guy on the bill!’ or ‘Hey, I’m the queer one!’ Comedy’s more exciting when it’s more nuanced. When self-deprecating humour comes from people who are really marginalised it’s disempowering.” By not limiting himself to conventional one-man-with-a-mic stand-up, Rizwan has liberated himself from the restrictions of the form as well as gender. “I try not to be too on the nose about it but I think it’d be a shame for me to be in the world of performance and not acknowledge that gender itself is a performance. That’s how we’re taught how to behave, either as masculine or feminine. Babies don’t behave their genders – the world teaches them how to perform it. My comedy is a ticket to freedom for me because all the things my 16-year-old self would have been too scared to express in fear of being too gay or too girly is now a source of endless creativity for me.”

“ Maybe if we acknowledge that we need to address gender, then we don’t need to create monsters out of people. Especially men” Joe Sutherland

Comedy as liberation is something similarly explored in Joe Sutherland’s Fringe show. Aptly named Toxic, Sutherland uses the everyday domesticity of moving in with his partner to address trans politics from his childhood. “When I was a kid I had tested the boundaries of my own gender presentation,” says Sutherland. “I had gone through a couple of years when I was convinced that I should be a girl and tried to convince people that I was. Since then I’ve talked to a few people, particularly queer men and women, and we’ve all said the same thing, that we went through something similar but didn’t want to tell people in case they thought it was just a phase of questioning gender when you’re a child. It’s a really weird subject and in the show I want to open it up. Maybe if we acknowledge that we need to address gender, then we don’t need to create monsters out of people. Especially men.” Comedy has always been about subverting expectations and questioning the norm. As Rizwan tells us, “the role of the jester throughout history has been to challenge power and status quo in society,” and our ideas of gender are part of this status quo. While conventional stand-up has largely become a stale homogeneity, Bailey, Correos, Rizwan, and Sutherland are part of a new generation of comics using the art form to its full potential, bringing new models of masculinity onto the stage and into the limelight. Stephen Bailey: Our Kid, Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters (Maggie’s Front Room), 2-26 Aug, 5.15pm, Free David Correos: The Correos Effect, Gilded Balloon, Teviot Row House (Turret), 1-27 Aug (not 13), 9pm, £6-10 Mawaan Rizwan: Juice, Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome), 1-27 Aug (not 13), 5.30pm, £6-10.50 Joe Sutherland: Toxic, Underbelly, Bristo Square (Dexter), 1-27 Aug (not 14), 8.10pm, £6.50-10

THE SKINNY

August 2018

THE SKINNY

Shet Happens From Shetland to Edinburgh via Amsterdam and New York, stand-up Marjolein Robertson has plenty of tales to tell

s Shetland’s only female stand-up, Marjolein Robertson could hardly be more of an outlier in UK comedy. She first began performing live in Amsterdam, before training in improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. She made her Edinburgh Fringe debut before she’d ever done any stand-up on her home islands. And bizarrely, she was doing hour-long shows before she attempted a 20-minute club set. “So I find it really scary trying to win over an audience,” she admits. From “the middle of nowhere, at the end of the line”, the spark behind Shetland’s nascent comedy scene relates how she’s recently established an improv troupe, a monthly comedy night and contributes short online sketches to BBC Scotland. Playing to the same audiences time and again in Shetland requires a high turnover of material though: “But you don’t really get the chance to hone it.” she sighs. Her 2016 Fringe debut was to “see if I could do an hour’s worth of comedy. But also to see if I could make friends to gig with in the future.” Indeed, so rarely does she leave the islands, that when she does she has to make it count, taking every chance to gig along the east coast of the US and in New Zealand. Nevertheless, the performance of her latest show, It’s Time, at this year’s

Glasgow Comedy Festival in March, was the first time she’d done any of the material. She admires the likes of Eddie Izzard and Paul Foot especially, “how off-the-wall he can be about such an everyday topic”, and is uncertain if she’s surreal by design or life experience, not least after her troubled time in Amsterdam, where her mother hails from. But she’s certainly unique – relatable, vulnerable but unapologetically otherworldly, weaving personal anecdotes around a retelling of the traditional Shetland tale the Hillsook Wedeen (or Hillswick Wedding), which features mischievous, nocturnal, troll-like creatures called trows. Although her third show is the first time Robertson has incorporated 19th century folktales into her stand-up, the accomplished musician’s affection for the magical, out-of-time plight of her fellow fiddler in the story – “one I grew up with, which is so intertwined with what life was like in Shetland” – is so deep that she’s performing a straighter, more traditional version in the Fringe’s first week as well. Before a show, she still struggles with nerves. But her music and youth theatre background afforded her some basic stagecraft at the start. And she polished that at UCB, where she learned to emphasise “physicality when

Marjolein Robertson

telling jokes, that’s it’s not just your voice that makes them laugh”. If It’s Time shares how Robertson arrived at the point she is now – the failed relationship, the useless arts degree, heavy drinking and going stir-crazy away from home in a foreign land – it’s also a statement of intent about taking comedy seriously. She’s committed to living in Shetland

Photo: James Henderson

Interview: Jay Richardson

but anticipates making more frequent trips south in six-to-eight week blocks to sharpen her act, with “Edinburgh becoming less of a party this year and more of me putting myself out there.” Marjolein Robertson: It’s Time, PBH Free Fringe, Bar Badoes Complex, (Venue 32), 4-25 Aug (not 14), 8.30pm, free Shetland Storytelling: Hillswick Wedding, PBH Free Fringe, Bar Bados, 4-10 Aug, 3.45pm, Free

Coming In From The Cold Olga Koch talks moving from the Kremlin to comedy in her debut Edinburgh Fringe hour, Fight

Olga Koch

August 2018

Photo: James Deacon

ne year after the Soviet Union collapsed, Olga Koch was born. “My sister is 12 years older than me,” says Koch. “We were born in the same exact hospital, but she was born in Leningrad and I was born in St Petersburg.” Western culture poured into every detail of the family’s lives. The traditional samovar competing with seemingly alien items like tea bags; Koch herself must have been one of the first babies in Russia to wear disposable nappies. The mix of the old and new could make “living in 1990s Russia feel like living in someone else’s house”. Although for a child, “everything made sense because you don’t know any different”. The family seemed to be living through a golden period as Russia re-styled its economics towards privatisation; a herculean task for which Koch’s father was responsible. Alfred Koch was deputy prime minister under president Boris Yeltsin, and the reforms took a seismic shift in thinking for those who’d grown up in the pre-Gorbachev era Soviet system. “The currency of money didn’t exist in the same way, and your value was more in your connections. The general manager of a food store, for example, would be a gatekeeper of those connections. I know a guy who knows a guy, so don’t worry I’ll take care of it – that’s such a Soviet mentality.” As Vladimir Putin solidified his rise to power, Alfred Koch found himself a dissident to the Kremlin. With the family compelled to move, Olga enrolled at High School in suburban Surrey, though it was in attitudes rather than her surroundings for which she received the most culture shock. “I came from Russia being a very arrogant, very conservative child; even though I came from

COMEDY

Interview: Ben Venables

a very progressive family. But a progressive outlook at the time in Russia was that you would tolerate gay people.” Koch later trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York while at uni and credits those challenges to her teenage and conservative outlook as a reason for her eventually finding comedy: “When you’re that arrogant, and that set in your ways, someone smarter than you telling you what to think isn’t going to change your mind. I found comedy was the only thing that could change my mind about things, because comedy mocked me and showed me these inconsistencies and hypocrisies.” Her own comedic style reflects a life far removed from the Winter Palace stories we might expect. There’s a delightful silliness to her humour which conceals a compellingly acidic touch. “For the most part my comedy has nothing to do with history or politics. One of the challenges I’ve had with the show is when the people who come might be Cold War dads, whereas I’ve lived half my life in the west.” She adds: “I’m 25, I don’t hang around in embassy corridors, so even though I have this background for the most part my experience is much more millennial. I don’t sit around on Saturday night reading Bunin.” But, her fascination with her origins and how they inform her show is set to make Fight an intriguing debut as she tries to recall a country that has changed beyond all recognition. “There’s a difference between missing something and nostalgia, and the nostalgia I have for Russia is for a place that isn’t there.” Olga Koch: Fight, Pleasance Courtyard (This), 1-26 Aug (not 14), 7.15pm, £6-9

Feature

The Women with a Thousand Faces Beth Vyse, Naomi Paxton and clowning duo Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards talk about motherhood, sisterhood and kicking ageing up the arse

Ada Campe Dr Naomi Paxton is a historian who has researched, written about and even adapted lost scripts from the suffrage movement. Her alterego Ada Campe is a variety act performing with a psychic duck.

“Ada is a contemporary character,” says Paxton. “Even though I love music hall, I’m not pretending that she’s a Victorian throwback. She is very now, she has a Twitter account.” Having come ‘top of the bill’ at the New Act of the Year competition this year and then winning The Old Comedian of the Year at Leicester Square Theatre, Paxton now brings Ada’s origin story to The Stand’s New Town Theatre. “The story starts when she is about 16 years old and she’s working at a holiday camp on the Welsh coast where something happens which informs her life. The psychic duck ends up being part of that”. Ada’s exuberant and eccentric character seems at odds with an academic life. And the differences been the two of them often surprises the creator: “With Ada, I’ve sometimes tried to make her very gay and feminist, but it didn’t work out at all. She’s her own beast! But I’ve been trying to give her a few bisexual leanings,” she says, unsure how much Ada will take to this direction or if she’ll beat it back. Before Paxton became a historian – and ‘met’ Ada Campe – she was an actor performing in The Vagina Monologues. With the flamboyant Ada being two decades Paxton’s senior, she’s found inspiration for the bi-possible aspect of her character in conversations she had with the audience after these shows. “People would often be very liberated by The Vagina Monologues. They’d tell me, in their semi-drunken state, stories of bisexual feelings they’d had in middle-age. I’m gay and they would seem to look at me and go: ‘Oh, I’m going to tell you about my nearly-coming-out-story.’” Paxton’s journey into history dates back from a second-hand book she bought on suffrage plays, several of which she’s since staged. She’s often found comedy was used to great effect in the pieces, especially one titled Anti-Suffrage Waxworks by Cicely Hamilton, a play lost until Paxton revived it based on descriptions from the time: “They used comedy in subtle ways to release tension but also broad comedy to take the negative portrayal of suffragettes and turn it to an advantage.” The waxworks were based on the entertainment of the time, and when in the play a suffragette is brought out “in chains, and is miserable, and is wearing football boots,” it showed a modern eye for mocking stereotypes and

Enter the Dragons

thereby turning a popular perception on its head. As far apart as Paxton’s interests and Ada Campe’s performances seem, there is an intersection: “When I read about political theatre, it’s for people who want to talk, and who have dreams and ideas. They see theatre as a space where they can communicate in that moment. And they’ve chosen to write for that space. Now, I’d never have connected that to Ada’s character before, but it all comes out of the same thing.” And what is that thing? “Let’s have a moment together.”

“ When do you stop calling yourself an actor, or a comedy performer, or the greatest television presenter of all time, and just be happy?”

Feature

Beth Vyse

Photo: Idil Sukan

Ada Campe

Photo: Catrin Arwel

Beth Vyse

Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards – Enter the Dragons “The show came out of our frustration about how women are represented going through the ageing process,” says Abigail Dooley. “You’re either Helen Mirren or a witch.” Enter the Dragons picked up the Best of the Brighton Fringe Award and its two creators – Dooley and Emma Edwards – describe its style as something like The Mighty Boosh running the Women’s Institute. On bringing the show to Pleasance Dome, Edwards says: “At the moment we’re excited, but when I’m standing backstage in a fat suit and Abigail’s in a sweaty wigwam, then I might think: what the hell am I doing with my life?” Dooley and Edwards have a remarkable range of influences. Most notable is perhaps

COMEDY

Photo: Emma Myrtle

Beth Vyse “All Olive Hands wants,” says her creator Beth Vyse, “is to be a daytime television presenter – the best daytime television presenter there is.” Just like Vyse, her feisty leopard-skin clad double has become a mother. And Olive Hands is having to make some adjustments to her outlook now she might not be the most important person in her own life. “It’s about the golden year, the first year of motherhood,” says Vyse, “and how it affects you and changes you – or the hysteria of motherhood. A baby puts a different perspective on things. It makes you more focussed on what you want to do – but it also takes away your focus... because you have a baby! “There’s still a question mark over who the father is for Olive. I don’t think that’s been resolved yet, but I don’t think it really matters to her.” Vyse thinks The Hand that Rocks the Cradle may touch a little on the tone of her most personal hour As Funny as Cancer. This sounds a delicate balance when considering the bonkers brand of surrealism required for an Olive Hands performance. But as Vyse says: “I think having a baby is the only thing that will make her come of age. I think by default she’s actually a good mother – but she still wants these things, these ambitions. The show is about memories as well. And, as Beth, personally, I have this memory of performing with Sir David Jason.” Originally, her scene in A Touch of Frost included Sir David, Vyse and a baby. However, after the baby became agitated the performance ended up being slightly more improvised than expected. Her conversation with Sir David during the filming left a deep imprint in Vyse’s mind and was pivotal to her thinking about the kind of aspirations we have for our careers. “It has that memory going on through the show. When do you stop calling yourself an actor, or a comedy performer, or the greatest television presenter of all time, and just be happy once you stop striving for things. When can you just be you?”

Interview: Ben Venables

Philippe Gaulier, the master clown whose teachings have greatly influenced stand-up in recent years. But Dooley was part of his official entourage long before his popularity resurfaced. She was part of his show The End of the Tunnel at the Assembly Rooms in 1992. “In one way it worked brilliantly,” she says, “but I don’t think it was the show people expected. There was massive pressure on Gaulier and it had mixed reviews, but it was a great experience.” Dooley and Edwards’ influences also owe as much to traditional double acts as clowning, especially Morecombe and Wise. “The image we have for our posters is based on those beautiful scenes where they sit in bed,” says Dooley. In 2011, the pair won the prestigious Sitcom Mission competition, but as Edwards tells us: “We’ve been writing stuff together for other people for a while, but this is the first show we’ve written for ourselves to perform. It’s a mythological quest reframed from the point of view of an older woman, and it’s sort of a rallying cry about ageing – to kick it up the arse.” The mythological quest structure nods to their script writing experience. Story structure might now seem the preserve of Hollywood script doctors – and the duo have attended Robert McKee’s seminars – but its roots lay in the work of anthropologist Joseph Campbell and his study of universal myth in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. George Lucas revitalised interest in ‘The Hero’s Journey’ story structure by adapting its stages for an obscure production made at Pinewood Studios called Star Wars. Dooley and Edwards are enjoying taking The Hero’s Journey back to all the strange stuff of myth. As Edwards explains: “Our protagonist has to defeat the monster and we like the ridiculousness of being able to have crazy mythological monsters, and creatures, and wise women, and weird sisters – and all the funny characters that come out of that.” But they have great respect for the journey and story structure. “It’s Ulysses really; it’s anyone,” says Dooley, adding: “And when you understand structure you can fuck with it.” Beth Vyse as Olive Hands: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Monkey Barrel Comedy Club (Room Two), 1-26 Aug (not 15), 3.45pm, £5 Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck, The Stand’s New Town Theatre (Studio), 2-26 Aug (not 14), 2.50pm, £7-9 Enter the Dragons, Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome), 1-27 Aug (not 13), 4.10 pm, £6.50-11

THE SKINNY

Keeping It Personal After an acclaimed 2017 show on heartbreak, Paul Sinha’s new show about ageing once again draws on matters closer to home

Paul Sinha

t’s said that the simpler explanation is usually the correct one. While William Shakespeare famously wrote of seven ages of man, comedian Paul Sinha has it down to two. Or as he describes these two phases of life: “On the way up and on the way out.” Before Sinha became a stand-up – and a “daytime TV micro-celebrity” courtesy of ITV’s The Chase – he was a GP. Yet medicine gave him more insight into comedy than the ageing process: “As a doctor you see such a variety of human existence that you don’t really have time to sit there and make greater observations. The thing that being a doctor gave me more than

Photo: Paul Sinha

Interview: Ben Venables

anything else is a sense of perspective. I don’t take the lows of comedy as seriously as some other people might. I think to myself: I’ve seen proper life-lows. I think doing a profession as serious as medicine gives you insight as a comedian that a bad gig is a bad gig – move on.” His latest show follows his most recent hours in being more personal in nature. “I have had health issues in the last 12 months,” he says, “and that gave me an impetus to write the show. But I promise it will have an upbeat and feel good ending. I don’t want people to walk out of an hour show feeling miserable.” When Sinha first broke out as a stand-up he

was often bracketed as a socio-political comedian. Despite the twists UK and global politics have taken in recent years, he’s resisting the temptation to add another layer of commentary about this in his shows. “The expansion of people’s need to be relevant – and I’m as guilty of this as anyone, especially with social media - is diverting people’s need to engage with real life. I feel I have very little to say that would change people’s minds or attitudes. Social media has entrenched all debate. And the idea someone would change their mind because of something someone said is now absolute nonsense.” A fertile take on a news story is harder to unearth when millions are doing the same in real-time, and it’s taken Sinha in another direction. “It has been a conscious decision to go more personal,” he says. In addition, the success and mainstream acceptance of gay equality has happily eroded his want or need to say as much: “It takes away some of the righteous anger for a gay comedian. We won! I have less to say about gay politics.” Keeping a show closer to the heart is helping Sinha keep his comedy distinctive: “The difference between the personal and political, by definition, is that the personal is original.” When he tours shows, he is conscious of the different groups of people that come to see him, and how it perhaps tempers his instincts. Or, maybe, it’d be better put that it makes him more conscientious: “I think it’s become unfashionable to stand in front of a room of people who have paid to see you and just tell them what your views are.” And, he has a lot of people to reach without

wishing to lecture at them: “Offhand I can think of Radio 4 people, people who want to listen to a vaguely snowflake-y liberal perspective; people who only know me as the guy on The Chase; people who know me through my Edinburgh work; people who know me through Radio 5 Live sport panel shows. Even in The Chase there’s a demographic – students and the elderly. It has softened my edges, there is no doubt about that.”

“ The idea someone would change their mind because of something someone said is now absolute nonsense” Paul Sinha

But that brings him back to Edinburgh. “I’m back now to coming to Edinburgh for the sheer love of it,” he says. “One of things about Edinburgh is that you don’t have to soften your edges. You do the show that you want to do.” Paul Sinha: The Two Ages of Man, The Stand Comedy Club, 1-26 Aug (not 2), times vary, £10-12

Catching Your Death N

o comedian wants their jokes to die, but Simon Munnery is at least giving one of his a decent send-off. At only eleven words, his joke about a wreath led a modest life: ‘I went to a funeral the other day. Caught the wreath...’ Yet, those eleven words capture something otherworldly: “I see it as being in a semi-alternate universe,” says Munnery, “where it is perfectly normal to go to a funeral and somebody has to catch the wreath.”

“ ‘Please come to my funeral,’ I said. ‘If you come to this you don’t have to come to the real one’” Simon Munnery

The eulogy he’s performing at The Stand Comedy Club will be a moving tribute to everything the joke has meant to him: “There is a lot about the joke, what it led to, how I got this job at a chicken factory, and translated it into

August 2018

Romanian. Then there is a history of the joke, how it came to me, how I sold it to somebody else, changed my mind, and then tried to rent it to them.” Munnery always enjoyed the joke’s visual aspect and wanted to capture this without words: “I always thought the joke would make a great painting, and I didn’t want anyone else to do it. Sometimes I can be a slave to ideas: you think of something, and then you think ‘either someone else will do it, or I’ve got to do this myself ’.” There was one drawback though, as he tells us: “I had to teach myself to paint. But, that’s no bad thing. Painting sky is hard, though, so hard.” Painting the sky wasn’t the only difficulty: “In order to make the painting, I had to stage a fake funeral. We dug a grave, made a coffin and had a rope to suspend the wreath from. I invited friends, neighbours and a couple of comedians. And then photographed it... It was a cold day in March and the snow had just gone. Which was a shame because I thought it would look better with snow – and easier to paint of course!” The gathering attracted some illustrious guests wishing to pay tribute; the comedians in attendance were Tony Allen, the pioneer of alternative comedy, and Balham’s great ambassador Arthur Smith. “It is pretty odd,” says Munnery on the invitations. “’Please come to my funeral,’ I said, ‘if you come to this you don’t have to come to the real one.’ It was in my garden: we had sandwiches.” Are Allen and Smith recognisable in the painting?

Interview: Ben Venables

Simon Munnery

“Not the way I paint it!” he says. “It is more about the gist of it rather than the identities of the people there. Tony Allen is wearing a hat, I’ll tell you that much.” Most of all though, the funeral has acted as a resurrection for the joke: “The photograph is brilliant, it’s really beautiful. It is good to put things concretely because it forces you to think about it.” And this has led to more than one painting: “I’ve done five of them, so far, and

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Photo: Jon Spaull

Simon Munnery’s new show is about one of his old jokes; what happens when a joke meets its maker?

there’s going to be a series of reveals.” All this circles him back to the original idea: the alternate world the joke creates. “I like the idea that it’s totally normal – just like at a wedding – where at a funeral you throw the wreath for someone to catch it: ‘Sorry mate, bad luck!’” Simon Munnery: The Wreath, The Stand Comedy Club, 3-26 Aug (not 13), 3.20pm, £10-12 Simon Munnery also appears at Show And Tell, Queen’s Hall, 9pm, 11 Aug, £16

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Account Me In The first stand-up to win the Edinburgh Comedy Award, Arnold Brown shares some comedy memories and talks about his new podcast Are You Feeling Funny?

rnold Brown had a misspent youth. “I mixed with the wrong people growing up”, he says. And so it was that he became an accountant. Brown was in the first wave of alternative comedians who changed the direction of British comedy. He performed at the Comedy Store on its opening night in 1979 and became – in 1987 – the first stand-up to win the Perrier Award (now simply, the Edinburgh Comedy Award) in Edinburgh. Brown even has a claim to being the first ‘stadium comedian’ in the UK, supporting Frank Sinatra at Ibrox Park in 1990. He’s appeared in Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. And, ahead of his talk at The Stand’s New Town Theatre, he’s preparing to launch a new podcast Are You

Feeling Funny? for which he is a comedy consultant with Lee, Helen Lederer and Paul Merton. Yet Brown didn’t start performing comedy until he was 42. The absence of an alternative stand-up scene during the 1960s and 70s kept him off the comedy books until the Comedy Store placed an open call for acts. “The side of my career that kept me sane,” he says, “was I always used to be scribbling one-liners, cartoon ideas, even when I was in Glasgow.” Except for one cartoon published in Glasgow’s Jewish Echo, he had little reward for his efforts. He kept up the habit, though, when he moved to London: “I used to work at Oxford Circus, round the corner from the BBC, and every Friday morning, for years actually, I took in

one-liners before work. I was in training for the Comedy Store in May 1979 – always.” The Comedy Store in Soho took stand-up in a new direction. “It was a free for all. I’d never been on a stage in my entire life. I must have been off my head. I had one joke... and I was gonged off. But, I made up my remark about how I came back the next night, despite public demand.” Brown’s style proved an asset, making him distinctive in a line-up of ebullient acts. Especially at the second Soho club, the Comic Strip. “My laid-back approach gave the night a contrast,” Brown says, adding that “Rik and Ade, Dawn and Jennifer” were in their early 20s.

“ I’d never been on a stage in my entire life. I must have been off my head”

Arnold Brown

Photo: Graham Clark

Arnold Brown

In 1983, he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time. Stand-up was beginning to establish a small presence, having grown year-on-year after Alexei Sayle and Tony Allen’s appearance three years earlier. “I was at the Masonic Lodge with Norman Lovett and Helen Lederer. The main people in Edinburgh were still ‘Oxbridge’. Somehow the tide changed, and it takes the energy of someone like Alexei to do that,” he says.

Interview: Ben Venables Four years later, Brown picked up the Perrier Award for Brown Blues with jazz musicians Jungr and Parker. “When you’re in something you don’t always get the relevance or perspective until later on. When we won the Perrier it was very low-key, the reception was in a hotel in Charlotte Square and there was only about 100 people there. Some years later I opened the paper, when Al Murray won. It was huge front [page] news.” He jokes: “My timing wasn’t so good there.” Press clippings of the coverage Brown did attract were all preserved in a scrapbook kept by his sister, which only came into his possession when she passed away. “I only found out about it when my nephew gave me it,” he says. His sister was always supportive: “She was the one in the family who came to the Frank Sinatra concert.” That night at Ibrox Park, Brown found himself performing to people finding their seats. “The reality wasn’t fantastic,” he admits. But he did manage to win the crowd over when he said he hoped Sinatra would open with “Fly me to Dunoon.” Brown is animated speaking about the new podcast, which has a strong line-up from the latest generation of comedians: “Jamali Maddix, Isy Suttie, Phil Wang, Adam Kay, Zoe Lyons,” he says. “All fantastic. It’s exciting. I like analysing comedy.” He’s interested in how a comedian’s heritage and lifestyle is now a natural part of who they are on stage. Brown was one of the few to do so in the early alternative scene. “It was part of my act, my emblem. Being Jewish and Scottish – it was two racial stereotypes for the price of one.” In Conversation with... Arnold Brown, The Stand’s New Town Theatre (Grand Hall), Fri 24 Aug, 12pm, £12

Man About Town John Hegley celebrates his 30th Fringe with a show for kids and a show for everyone – but he’s also a Luton Town fan... Interview: Ben Venables here’s so much to talk to John Hegley about, like the time in 1983 when his band The Popticians busked their way onto the John Peel Show. Did he really once gig with Kylie Minogue? What was it like being the writer-in-residence at Keats House? And there’s more we could ask. His French ancestry might be an interesting line to pursue. That’s not to mention his poems; how he sees a world in a potato or writes from the point of view of a guillemot. Then there’s what we’re meant to discuss: his two shows at the Fringe will characteristically have something for everyone, whether it’s the children’s show Morning Wordship at Pleasance, or New and Selected at Assembly George Square. But opportunities to chat to another Luton Town Football Club fan can be exceedingly rare. And neither of us are going to miss it. Hegley breaks into verse: “Five whole goals to Luton Town and Middlesbrough not one, but though their team was five-nil down their fans were up for fun and when their consolation came before the whistle blew

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they echoed Luton’s ‘we want six’ with a modest ‘we want two’.” For most people, Luton’s Kenilworth Road ground is one of the worst stadiums in the Football League. “To me it’s a delightful place,” says Hegley. “I remember trying to get autographs from the reserves in 1967... The first time I went we had rattles and we were in the Bobbers Stand... My main memory is 1967/8, when we won the fourth division championship. Tediously, I can still name that team. [My brother] Marcel buys me books about Luton and I’m always reading old match reports.” He adds: “I missed the glory years,” referring to Luton’s 1980s peak, which included a top-seven finish in what is now the Premier League, and winning the League Cup against Arsenal in 1988. This was partly due to his family moving to Bristol, but also because Hegley’s glory years started too. In 1983 – the same year of David Pleat’s famous jig, which celebrated Raddy Antić’s relegation saving goal at Manchester City – Hegley and the Popticians came to the Fringe for the first time. “The first year I came it was at The Hole in the Ground, which is where the Traverse Theatre now is. There were lots of little tents around; it

John Hegley

was like a mini-festival. I don’t think I did any poems in that first year, it was just music, and we did an hour in that tent. We didn’t know anything about Edinburgh then. I think it was the first ever year of the Book Festival. We busked as people were setting it up in Charlotte Square. So I think we were the book fair’s first ever act!” Then, in the same year that Luton narrowly missed retaining the League Cup, losing 2-1 to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, Hegley was pipped to the Perrier Award by Simon Fanshawe. “1989 was a lovely year. It was the first time I’d been in a posh venue [The Assembly Rooms]. It was a brilliant room, that black box. It’s where I always wanted to be really, a black box theatre. It

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was my first time having an hour to myself, and not knowing if I could do it.” Since then, his and Luton’s fates diverged, with Hegley rising to become one of the UK’s most popular poets and Luton sliding through the tables – even spending some years in the non-league wilderness. But the Hatters are back on form, having just secured promotion from the fourth tier, just as they did exactly fifty years earlier. “I feel I’m back to where I started,” says Hegley. John Hegley: Morning Wordship, Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath), 4-19 Aug (not 6-8 or 13-15), 10.30am, £8-10 John Hegley: New and Selected, Assembly George Square Studios (Two), 4-26 Aug (not 13), 4.20pm, £11-13

THE SKINNY

Photo: Travis Elborough

August 2018

The Anatomy of the Fringe With the Fringe and the NHS now 70 years young, how healthy is the festival? Would it get a clean bill of health? Or would it need to be put in special measures?

Interview: Laura Kressly

A Fortunate Man

attitudes towards sex. But Ben Pettit-Wade promises “the show works on a deeper level. In many ways some of those attitudes towards sex have not changed.”

says she “literally owes this show to the NHS. I directly quote so many of my interactions with it in the play because that service was so impactful to my life, and consequentially the play.”

Womens’ Health Isley Lynn’s autobiographical Skin a Cat (Assembly Rooms, 2-25 Aug (not 13), 4.10pm, £8-12) provides a female perspective of so-called ‘sexual dysfunction’, in this case, vaginismus, and also its relationship with mental health. Alana is a teenager and while trying to have sex like everyone else, it just doesn’t happen. Desperate to ditch the ‘V’ plates and become a woman, Alana seeks out treatment. Lynn found when seeking medical help for her own issues, that “it was assumed that ‘fixing’ the physical problem would lead to a shift in my mental state, rather than the reality – that one is part of the other, not just a consequence.” Lynn

Mental Health Shows addressing mental health, either on its own or its relationship to physical conditions, have become a familiar sight at the Fringe in recent years, and 2018 is no different. There’s a wide array of conditions on the examining table, from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to alcoholism and recovery. The same company that’s bringing My Left Nut to the Fringe, PrimeCut Productions, also present East Belfast Boy (Summerhall, 14-26 Aug (not 20), 9pm, £12-16). Michael Patrick cites this show as a great example of a show that addresses both male and mental health in one. Fintan

Men’s Health Ashamed of his overly large bollock and with no father to turn to for advice, the Belfast youngster in My Left Nut (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 6, 13 & 20), 1.15pm, £5-10) hid his swollen sack, medically described as a Hydrocele, for three years; 400 ml of fluid was drained after he eventually sought help. Through this show, Patrick confronts the stigma many feel around male and adolescent health, since there’s a “real difficulty men have in admitting their problems and going to the doctor.” He reminds us that “the idea that to be ‘manly’ you need to be independent, self-reliant, someone who doesn’t need any help, is rubbish. We all need help and love to get through our lives.” The Flop (Summerhall, 3-26 Aug (not 13 & 20), 4.55pm, £6-12) also addresses men’s health and the reluctance men have to admit that something’s wrong, complete with puppets. Set in 17th Century France, where limp dicks in the bedroom were technically banned (a cishet woman’s dream, right ladies?) and using a heavy dose of comedy, the play ridicules old-fashioned

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Katie & Pip

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Photo: DWC Imagery

Blood Pumped around our bodies by our hearts and containing clues to our overall quality of health, blood has long featured on Fringe stages. But it’s not always fake and can be a matter of life or death rather than just for show or shock value. Tin Can People’s piece about diabetes, Katie & Pip (Summerhall, 1-12 Aug, 1.20pm, £5-10) stars 15-year-old Katie and her qualified medical support dog, Pip. With the company breaking two cardinal rules of theatre by including both a child and an animal, Katie testing her blood sugar levels mid-show is only a small part of the chaos that unfolds. Seeking to raise awareness of what life is like with Type 1 Diabetes, Katie & Pip wants to empower those with invisible disabilities, like this serious autoimmune condition, and also let us know that those with Type 1 can eat what they want. Jade Byrne has Type 1 as well, and approaches her condition with a more adult take. Inspired by more than 70,000 jabs she’s had, Pricks (Pleasance Court-yard, 1-27 Aug (not 8, 15 & 22), 2.15pm, £6.50-11) also addresses inaccurate preconceptions about the condition. Byrne seeks to use her story to educate, entertain and give audiences “an uplifting feeling, but also with greater empathy for all people living with lifelong health conditions, and I hope they spread their new-found knowledge and understanding far and wide.” Blood is a symbol of passion, commitment and the life force that keeps us ticking along, but our bits below the belt are way more fun – when they work. They can also be the source of much angst and anxiety, particularly during the teen years – like Michael Patrick’s left nut.

Photo: Julian Hughes

ur beloved NHS turned 70 on 5 July, one year after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe reached the same milestone. The Fringe is no stranger to shows relating to health, so in honour of the NHS’s birthday and with hopes for an illustrious future without devastating budget cuts, here’s a thorough examination of the Fringe’s anatomy, both mental and physical, those that ail, and those that care for her.

Brady’s spoken word script combined with techno music is designed to appeal to a broad range of audiences and ultimately, to inspire men to take care of themselves and their mates. Meanwhile, La JohnJoseph’s A Generous Lover (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 2, 6, 13 & 20), 4.10pm, £8-10) frames a mental health crisis within a queer relationship. Based on JohnJoseph’s real-life experiences providing necessary advocacy and support for a partner in hospital during a manic episode, the part-recital/part-seance is set to provide insight and awareness into mental health services. Like A Generous Lover, the one-woman play WEIRD (Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 Aug (not 14), 1.45pm, £6-12) is also inspired by the writer’s experiences of mental health issues and how they impact others. This play shows how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder doesn’t just impact the person with the condition, but their entire family. Meanwhile New Room Theatre’s Blackout (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 2, 8, 13 & 20), 4.20pm, £5-12), part of this year’s Made in Scotland showcase, uses verbatim theatre to share true stories of alcoholism, with an added dose of humour and prescription-strength levels of hope and honesty. Cancer The brain is a complex and often misunderstood understood organ, but it can be afflicted by a disease that we all know and fear – cancer. All the Lights Are On (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 8, 13 & 20), 11.40am, £5-10) is part of the Start to Finnish showcase at Summerhall, featuring work from Finland, and sounds like a heartbreaker. A young woman dying of cancer looks for positivity and hope as her husband and mother watch her deteriorate in this new play by Kaisa Lundan. Carers It’s easy to focus on the patients but what about those that do the caring? Nurses, doctors, care workers and other people working in the NHS and health services also get some time in the spotlight this Fringe. Families also get plenty of loving shoutouts, like in 3 Years, 1 Week and a Lemon Drizzle Cake (Underbelly Bristo Square, 1-27 Aug (not 13), 2.25pm, £6.50-10). The team behind the show “hope for a more in-depth consideration of the huge impact on the friends and families of those living with a mental illness. It’s a take which could be said to mirror the experience of those left in the shadows, perhaps struggling themselves, with an ill relative.” A Fortunate Man (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 2, 13 & 20), 4.30pm, £5-10) uses interviews, mixed media and John Berger’s 50-year-old documentation of life as a rural doctor to construct a show about doctors’ practice today. While Grassmarket Projects’ Where It Hurts (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 2, 6, 13 & 20), 8.30pm, £5-12) goes even further, with a cast partly composed of NHS trainees and staff. Although the current UK government is taking a hatchet to our NHS, it’s very much in rude health. With a big selection of shows on offer that pay homage to the people that keep it running and those that rely on its services, there are plenty of ways to celebrate its 70th birthday at the Fringe this year. theskinny.co.uk/theatre

THE SKINNY

Class Acts With theatre seen as a middle-class pursuit, what about working-class artists and stories? We speak to a host of working-class artists to find out how theatre could do better

Interview: Amy Taylor

heatre can be an amazing force for good, but for whom, exactly? Sky-high ticket prices and a lack of engagement with working-class audiences means fewer of those working-class audiences. Meanwhile, funding cuts and increasing fees ensure that working-class artists struggle to get their foot in the door. Despite this, working-class artists and their stories can be found, and at Edinburgh’s festivals a host of writers, actors and directors are telling stories not often told on the UK stage. We spoke to some of them about their work, opportunities and how theatre could be more inclusive.

imagination? Theatre should have no colour or class. Inclusive to everyone. We are all storytellers at the end of the day.”

“ I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on stage that represents my voice, which is really, really sad, so I thought I’d try and do something different with that”

Class in Theatre “It never gets spoken about, never. The class structure is left out of all theatre conversations,” begins Kat Woods, who is bringing her play KillyMuck to the Fringe. Based on real-life events, the play examines the challenges of being a child in the benefits system. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on stage that represents my voice,” she says of writing the play, “which is really, really sad, so I thought I’d try and do something different with that.” According to Woods, the theatre industry’s preoccupation with imitating the works of others in order to create a hit is making it more difficult for artists like her to have their voices heard on the UK stage. “We’re constantly talking about how we need to get more working-class voices and more underclass voices in the theatre, yet everyone’s looking for the next Fleabag! So, how does that make sense? It’s stopping people like me getting commissioned or getting other jobs because my voice is not the voice that I speak from.”

August 2018

Fcuk'd

think they are encouraging people from diverse backgrounds, sometimes even working-class backgrounds, but what they want those people to do is to write or make theatre with a middle-class voice that is pleasing and familiar to them and fits their perception of intelligent work.” Opportunities for Working-class Artists That perception of working-class people was something that all our artists had experienced. For Pauline Lockhart from the newly-formed Wildfire Theatre - a company who work with working-class women writers and who bring its piece Project #1 to the Traverse for one day only during the Fringe - the roles for working-class women on the stage are particularly limited. She says: “I started thinking about how working-class people have been portrayed in the media, and more than often, it’s if you’re fat and funny, you’re allowed to be in theatre. I thought ‘well, we’re capable of all different genres’, and there’s not much seen of working-class artists in that different way.” Lockhart, who grew up in the East End of Glasgow, found that the lack of opportunities for her family, friends and neighbours growing up

Photo: Andreas Lambis

Representations of class in theatre “I think very often when you see working-class people on stage, it’s a cute version of the working class,” begins Stewart Laing, whose new play The End of Eddy – Pamela Carter’s adaptation of Édouard Louis’ autobiographical novel about growing up below the poverty line in rural France – will be staged at the Edinburgh International Festival later this month. He continues: “It’s going ‘oh look, they’re really sweet people, really.’ I think because Édouard is of that class, he can be very critical of that class.” “What Louis is doing is in his book is he’s recounting his experience, he’s reliving his experience, but at the same time he’s reflecting and reframing it as well,” explains Carter. Reframing of working-class people and lives is very important to Eve Steele, an actor who grew up in Manchester’s Moss Side in the 80s, where her new play – Ed Edwards’ The Political History of Smack and Crack – is set. “A lot of working-class or even just generally ordinary people want drama to have characters they can identify with: humour, passion, high stakes and humanity,” says Steele. The play, which takes place during the Manchester uprising in 1981, follows the riots through the eyes of two young heroin addicts, and shows how workingclass communities were splintered by a rightwing conservative government. Steele says: “A lot of new plays I see produced are quite cerebral and keep emotion at a distance, or don’t have characters I recognise and believe, especially working-class ones. “I think what happens is that theatres often

Kat Woods

meant that people didn’t fulfil their potential. After working as an actor for many years, she created Wildfire Theatre with other working-class actors – Wendy Seager, Molly Innes and Natalie Arle-Toyne – to help encourage women to see what they are capable of and to keep creating. She explains: “And also, the main point really [is] to increase opportunities. Thinking about those people that I grew up with, there could have been loads of artistic potential there, but there was no way that was ever going to see the light of day, they weren’t encouraged in any way.” Roles for Working-class Artists George Edwards, who performs in Niall Ransome’s new play about the care system, Fcuk’d, has found that working-class actors are often typecast, with many people believing that they should only play specific roles. He explains: “We can only play working-class parts. You’ve got to just not get too bogged down about it though, because there is nothing worse than an actor with a chip on their shoulder regarding where they are from or what they ‘deserve’. “Maybe the industry needs a little more

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Making Theatre More Accessible For most of the artists interviewed, the issue of making theatre more accessible for working class people fell into three distinct categories: making tickets more affordable, commissioning work by working-class writers and performers, and bringing drama classes to disadvantaged children. “There are lots of working class depictions on our stage, but they are all old hat depictions,” explains David Horan. Horan, along with Iseult Golden, wrote Class, a play that explores barriers, opportunities and parenting in a disadvantaged school. “This possibly has to do with that thing that when working-class voices are allowed on the stage they’re being told to represent what is already expected of them. “We need more working-class writers to bring those authentic voices on to the stage and I think there’s an increasing awareness of wanting to bring more diverse voices in” Eve Steele says: “Well obviously there’s the ticket prices, but I think it’s more complicated than that. I think the fact that when you walk into a theatre building you often don’t hear many of the staff talking with a regional accent can make some of us feel like, ‘this isn’t a place for us.’” For Woods, the lack of access to drama classes in childhood means that working-class children are excluded from theatre from an early age: “We didn’t do any form of drama at school or at youth clubs, primary school or secondary school. Where I come from it wasn’t an option, which is really sad because when somebody is from an impoverished background that aspect of culture is left out of their life and they don’t get access to it.” KillyMuck, Underbelly Bristo Square, 1-27 Aug (not 13), 6.25pm, £6.50-11 The End of Eddy, The Studio, 21-26 Aug, 7pm; 23-26 Aug, 2pm, £22 The Political History of Smack and Crack, Summerhall, 3-26 Aug (not 7, 14 & 21), 5.30pm, £9-15 Project #1, Traverse Theatre, 20 Aug, 8pm, £5-7 Fcuk’d, Gilded Balloon Teviot, 1-27 Aug, 12.30pm, £7-10 Class, Traverse Theatre, 2-26 Aug (not 6, 13 & 20), times vary, £9-20.50

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Paradise Lost and Found Just before their 25th anniversary, Birds of Paradise lost their Creative Scotland funding. Then they got it back. We talk to Robert Softley Gale and Mairi Taylor about their latest work

s we sit down to chat with Robert Softley Gale and Birds of Paradise’s Executive Producer Mairi Taylor, the company are in the first few weeks of rehearsals at Rockvilla, the National Theatre of Scotland’s HQ. Despite being their 25th anniversary year, 2018 was meant to be a quiet one for BoP, Scotland’s only disability-led arts organisation. With just one production scheduled – their musical comedy My Left / Right Foot - The Musical, co-produced with the National Theatre of Scotland – the company were looking to the future, until their regular Creative Scotland funding was pulled and then reinstated following a public outcry. With their future once more looking bright, they continued working on My Left / Right Foot, which follows a local amateur dramatics group as they attempt to stage a musical based on Jim Sheridan’s 1989 film My Left Foot featuring “the disabled”, even though none of the group are. “Am dram folk would probably stage it,” explains Softley Gale, who grew up taking part in local amateur dramatic group shows, “because they’re

the only people with enough gall to do that.” The source film told the story of Christy Brown, an artist and writer with cerebral palsy who could only use his left foot. It’s famous not just for its story, but also for Daniel Day-Lewis’ Academy Award-winning performance as Brown, which had quite an impact on a young Softley Gale, who like Brown has cerebral palsy. He explains: “I was nine when it came out. As a nine-year-old with cerebral palsy, a story coming out about a guy with cerebral palsy became quite a big thing in my life. My mum was always going, ‘Oh, he’s so like you’, it was Daniel Day-Lewis pretending to be like me, and that was always a big influence on my life.” Now a successful actor and director, Softley Gale wanted to explore the idea of a non-disabled actor having to act disabled – or as Mairi Taylor calls it, “crip up” – for a role. And it’s this process that forms a lot of the thinking behind My Left / Right Foot. “It’s amazing,” begins Taylor. “Daniel Day-Lewis, and other actors who play disabled people, must go through the process. How do

they get there? How do they develop it? There’s something that’s explosively ridiculous in that. And we’re showing that, we’re not presenting the finished product, we’re showing the process, which is so terrible in itself.”

“It’s always about telling stories and putting the stories of the disabled on the stage” Robert Softley Gale

This process still happens today, as Softley Gale points out. Non-disabled actors are still being cast as disabled characters, and for him, it’s about letting disabled people get into the theatre

Interview: Amy Taylor and tell their own stories in their own words. “It’s always about telling stories and putting the stories of the disabled on the stage, and if we can keep doing this we can have conversations about it,” he explains. “If it’s not there, it’s not part of our culture, then there’s nothing to talk about.” Popular discussions surrounding disability are often in a strict binary; that of the lazy, unemployed scrounger or the inspirational one-in-a-million talent; someone who succeeded despite their disability. For BoP, this is not how disabled people should be portrayed and Christy Brown is the perfect example. “He acknowledged that he became a writer, not despite his disability, but because of it,” Taylor explains. “His experience of the world, and how he lived in the world, looking at the world, built the artist. This is that idea of looking at the disabled person, ‘How did they get here, how did they manage?’ Actually, it’s all part of their creative process.” My Left / Right Foot - The Musical, Assembly Roxy, 1-27 Aug (not 8, 14 or 21), 6.10pm, £10-16

Flush Hour In the name of good journalism, our theatre editor dives deep into the muddy waters of public opinion to find out which toilets are worth visiting and when you should hold it in at the 2018 Fringe

bright and fragrant’. Other fan favourites were Underbelly Cowgate, Traverse, Pleasance Dome and Assembly Rooms, which were described by one person as ‘pretty swish’. The Worst Regular visitors to the Fringe may not be surprised to learn that when it comes to toilets, Summerhall’s offerings proved to be very unpopular. The reason being there aren't enough of them, there are often queues, and there's a lack of soap, toilet paper and general cleanliness. Runners-up were Assembly George Square, Pleasance Courtyard and The Hive for similar reasons. Which Venues Have Gender Neutral Toilets? Everybody needs to use the toilet and everyone has the right to use the one that best suits their gender identity. We asked some of the biggest Fringe venues if they had gender-neutral toilets and here are their responses:

f going to the Fringe is a pleasure, then why is finding a decent venue toilet such a pain? It may be easier to get hold of the hottest tickets at the festival than it is to find a nice, clean, secure loo. But these toilets do exist – when we asked our readers to tell us about their best and worst Fringe toilet stories, boy, did they have stories. From colourful Fringe toilet tales involving finding used pregnancy tests, fights with men dressed as pandas, drag queens using the toilets as changing rooms (because there weren’t any in

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the venue), and our favourite, the person who managed a pop-up venue in what turned out to be a popular cottaging toilet — spending a penny at the Fringe is always an experience. But where should you go? The Best According to the survey respondents, some of the Fringe’s best toilets can be found at Gilded Balloon; both Teviot Row House and Rose Theatre, which were praised for being ‘clean,

Yes Assembly – Club Bar and George Square Gardens have a gender-neutral toilet block. Gilded Balloon – One gender-neutral toilet at Teviot Row House outside The Dining Room. Due to council occupancy regulations, Teviot Row House in its current configuration cannot provide additional gender neutral toilets, but EUSA, who manages the building, are committed to changing this. Fringe Central – Has one gender-neutral toilet. Greenside – All three of their venues (Greenside @ Infirmary Street, Greenside @ Nicolson Square and Greenside @ Royal Terrace) will have at least one gender-neutral toilet, with the exception of Greenside @ Royal Terrace, as both its toilets are gender neutral.

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Words: Amy Taylor Illustration: Josie Sommer

Institute Francais D’Ecosse – The disabled toilet on the first floor is gender neutral. Pleasance Courtyard – West ground floor, theatre block basement and first-floor toilets are gender neutral. Riddle’s Court – All their single occupancy toilets are gender neutral. Scottish Storytelling Centre – Their disabled toilets are gender neutral, while the rest remain gender defined, “at the moment.” Sweet Venues Apex Grassmarket – The accessible toilet within the 1st-floor venue complex (the conference suite of the hotel) is gender neutral. Sweet Venues Novotel Lauriston Place – The accessible toilet in the hotel bar’s toilets is gender neutral. Summerhall – The majority of their toilets are gender neutral, except the toilets in The Royal Dick bar and the four toilets to the right of the box office are for women only. Traverse – All toilets are gender neutral. Underbelly – All venues have gender-neutral toilets and Underbelly encourage patrons to use the toilets that best match their gender identity. No Bedlam Theatre – There is no space within the building for gender neutral toilets, but they would like to change this if a planned redevelopment goes ahead. The Rose Theatre – Gender-neutral toilets are not yet available, but they are committed to providing them in the future. The National Museum of Scotland – Do not currently offer gender-neutral toilets but would “certainly consider” them in the future. Pleasance Dome The Space UK The Stand The New Town Theatre

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August 2018

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THE SKINNY

Taking Centre Stage 1

00 years since some women were given the right to vote in the UK, how does theatre best reflect women’s voices? We spoke to three artists to hear the stories of the women they’re putting on stage this year. “I wanted to write a play about a woman doing monstrous things for a cause she wholeheartedly believes,” says Jen McGregor of the real-life story of Christian Caddell, a 17th-century Scottish woman who disguised herself as a man to become a witch hunter. Reimagined in her Assembly Roxy Theatre Award-winning play Heaven Burns, the piece explores gender politics and religious fundamentalism in an era when gossip could literally end lives. Caddell’s story, which saw her dress in men’s clothes and assume the name John Dixon in order to become a witch-pricker – someone who tortured women in order to get them to confess to being a witch – is an incredible one, and also a difficult one to recreate. “There were times when I found it quite disturbing trying to see things from her point of view,” McGregor admits. “It would have been comforting to step away and never think her thoughts again.” So-called “witch panics” often reflected a wider disruption in society. “Witch panics pop up frequently from the 1590s to the 1660s, and during that there’s upheaval on every level of society,” McGregor explains. “I think the greater people’s suffering, the more they need to attribute it to a powerful cause – so people living through those harsh times bought into the idea that the culprits were people in league with the Devil.” Like McGregor, Joanne Hartstone’s That Daring Australian Girl focuses on the life and work of

another notable woman from history, albeit notable for much more positive reasons. Muriel Matters, an Australian actress and leading UK suffragette, was the first woman to speak in the Houses of Parliament, but is often overlooked. “Muriel’s life story is fascinating in any medium,” Hartstone explains. “She has been documented in books, film, art and musical reviews. However, Muriel was inherently theatrical, both an actress and elocutionist; her natural home was the stage.” For Hartstone it’s important that Matters’ life, which saw her emigrate from Southern Australia to the UK to help the fight for women’s suffrage, is remembered in the theatre, especially in this anniversary year. “The centenary of some women getting the vote in the UK was an additional driving force to bring her ‘home’. It is my hope that by bringing her story back to the UK, she continues to inspire and affect change for equality and social justice in a politically turbulent time.” What Girls Are Made Of, Cora Bissett’s autobiographical gig/theatre piece follows what happens when your teenage dreams come true. Plucked from relative obscurity while still a teenager, Bissett and her band Darlingheart landed a record deal and toured extensively, but it didn’t last, and the band found themselves without a record company and in debt. “Everybody’s story is important to them,” says Bissett, explaining her decision to stage What Girls Are Made Of, inspired by the discovery of her late dad’s scrapbook of Darlingheart’s newspaper clippings, and the 25th anniversary of the release of their first single. Her story, she

Interview: Amy Taylor

That Daring Australian Girl

realised, was important and after working for 15 years as an actress and portraying countless murdered sex workers on shows like Taggart, she’s now creating work that takes women’s stage roles in a different direction. And with her recent research revealing that nine out of ten West End shows are written by men, women have to create the roles that they want. “I think sometimes that’s maybe why we find a lot of female performers who are actor/writer/ their own producer/director, because you just go,

Photo: Tom Kitney

A century has passed since some women (not all women) got the right to vote in the UK, and to celebrate, we chat to the ‘holy trinity’ of women on stage at the Fringe; a witch hunter, a forgotten suffragette and a former rockstar

‘You know what? I can’t find the roles that I’m excited about so I’m gonna go make them myself. I’ll either put someone else in that show, or I’ll do it myself, because no one else is gonna give me it.’” Heaven Burns, Assembly Roxy, 2-27 Aug (not 14), 2.35pm, £7-11 That Daring Australian Girl, Assembly George Square Studios, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 Aug, 11.45am, £8-13 What Girls Are Made Of, Traverse Theatre, 3-26 Aug (not 6, 13 or 20), times vary, £9-21.50

Continuing the Conversation Following the rise of the #MeToo movement, and its effects on the entertainment industry, we speak to three artists about creating work that challenges and questions

he #MeToo movement needs no introduction. After its creation in 2006 by Tarana Burke, it has felled numerous high-profile men in the entertainment industry in recent years. But with such a large cultural shift leading to people speaking out about abuse, how can theatre allow us to keep the dialogue going and make the industry better for everyone? Three theatremakers, who have tackled the subject, spoke to us about their work and how it can help others. “After my experience, I sorely lacked any stories about the aftermath I could actually identify with, so I decided to share my own,” begins Samira Elagoz of her piece, Cock, Cock... Who’s There?, which charts her experience of trying to relate to men again after being raped. Examining the male gaze across three continents, the play invites audiences to look at the topic of rape and promotes frank discussions about it. “I didn’t want to be the subject,” Elagoz explains, “but rather address misconceptions about rape victims, expose aspects of rape culture and share certain patterns I noticed in male behaviour. And do this in a way that would be accessible to men too.” The reactions to the piece have been interesting, from one woman insisting that Elagoz was a victim, a label she rejects, to men sharing their experiences of sexual violence. Elagoz says: “Perhaps the most encouraging comments for me are when men look back at

August 2018

their escapades and second-guess their actions, considering if they did cross a line at some point. To hear my work made them recognise something in themselves or question what they’d done, gives an indication of how accessible the work is.” For writer and performer Craig Malpass, #MeToo happened while he was writing a piece about male suicide. The movement and the reaction to it allowed him to go on a very personal journey and create The Spider Glass, which sees a man question his actions following the rise of #MeToo. “I started to delve deeper and found that the story of what it meant to be a man – my own personal story of masculinity – had led me to be complicit in the culture that allowed such abuse to happen and my attitude and behaviour made me deeply unhappy,” Malpass explains. Writing the play was not without its challenges and he found that he had, in the past, had some “shameful attitudes” towards women. But in order to speak to other people about it, he had to put himself on stage and talk about it. “Putting myself out there as an example, as the writer and performer of The Spider Glass, is a very vulnerable place. But the point is that some people need to step forward. The challenge for me is to keep doing so even though it feels uncomfortable. I’m being shown though that most men are grateful that the conversation is available.”

For Tom Ratcliffe, the writer and performer of the darkly comic one-man play VELVET – which follows a down-on-his-luck actor offered a professional lifeline by a predatory authority figure – conversation is vital, particularly when it comes to abuses of power.

“ Theatre can help provoke those difficult, nuanced conversations in the unfamiliar terrain #MeToo has created” Craig Malpass

“We haven’t really had many gay male #MeToo stories, and what’s nice about VELVET is it’s not a play that’s dependent on sexual orientation. For me, it is a story about an abuse of power and for me, also, the need for recognition.”

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Interview: Amy Taylor Based on some of Ratcliffe’s experiences as a young actor, and featuring dialogue taken from real-life conversations, he wants to question our beliefs about abuses within the entertainment industry. “A key point in the play, I think it challenges the perception of someone who’s been through something like this, with no public profile, no celebrity, no immediate love for them,” he explains. “I just want to challenge their perception of that because it does change things slightly.” But if a culture of silence has enabled the abuse, then talking about it will help. His advice? “Find people you trust and speak up.” For Elagoz, theatre must be used to discuss difficult topics: “Confronting such issues in performance can be a powerful way to admit ‘lapses in judgement’ and communicate realisations.” Malpass agrees: “Theatre can help provoke those difficult, nuanced conversations in the unfamiliar terrain #MeToo has created – a terrain that’s unsettling for many men to feel they can enter into without co-opting the movement and without the emotional literacy that many men wish they had developed.” Cock, Cock... Who’s There?, Summerhall, 3-26 Aug (not 8, 9 or 20), 6.45pm, £5-10 The Spider Glass, theSpaceTriplex, 3-25 Aug (not 5, 12 or 19), 1.35pm, £5-8 VELVET, Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 Aug (not 14), 2pm, £8-12.50

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No Blurred Lines Immersive theatre invites the audience in. Here’s how to be a good guest.

Words: Katie Hawthorne

“ Done well, immersive productions don’t force your emotions or wilfully intrude on your personal space; they’ll invite you to join in” In February this year, Buzzfeed reported seventeen confirmed incidents of sexual assault on the stewarding staff and performers at Sleep No More in New York. These crimes were committed by their own audiences. Punchdrunk’s prize-winning adaptation of Macbeth – all blood, guts and lust – has existed in one form or another since 2003, and has built a global cult following by offering audiences free rein to explore the world of the play. No door or drawer is out of

Counting Sheep

bounds and there is theatrical treasure to be gleaned by being bold, but some have taken this license far too far. Billy Bell, a Sleep No More performer, said to Buzzfeed: “[The audience are] in this atmosphere that we’ve created where there are no limits, there are no rules, we’re in a magical land right now – but in reality you’re still a person.” After the article, Punchdrunk added a softly-worded instruction to their pre-show information: participants should “keep a respectful distance” from the actors and staff. Buzzfeed’s revelations prompted a wider industry discussion about the safety of both audiences and performers in immersive spaces,

Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh

hen it’s good, it’s really good. Immersive theatre can transport you, sweep you up, and give you the power to choose your own path through the production. The possibilities might feel endless, but – and we can’t believe we still need to say this – it’s never an opportunity for you to forget the basic rules of consent. Obviously, right? If you went to see a stand-up show, you wouldn’t grab the comic’s bum, right? RIGHT?

but it is still common to see immersive theatre described in heated, sexy terms. An Independent article in May called for better boundaries, but still described immersive work as “the most hedonistic of art forms”. That’s a bit like describing novels as the most sexy kind of books: it doesn’t make any sense. Yes, immersive theatrical experiences can be intimate and bodily, sometimes – but they can also be about space travel, fairy tales or shark attacks. At the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Lemon Bucket Orkestra’s Counting Sheep helped its audiences to imagine life on the front lines of the 2014 Ukrainian student uprising, via pierogi,

piles of bricks and a joyful wedding ceremony. I ate, danced, laughed and, finally, cried as I held a hand offered to me and helped to carry a coffin. Done well, immersive productions won’t force your emotions or wilfully intrude on your personal space; they’ll invite you to join in. That actor’s hand, offering rather than demanding, was crucial in setting boundaries on both sides. At any time during the show, audience members could take a seat outside of the action, to look on instead. At this year’s Fringe, some of the shows tagged as ‘immersive’ provide similarly stratified options. The ever-popular theatre adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting offers two kinds of experience – ‘traditional’ seats are tucked safely at the back, but the rest are in the thick of things. And by things, we mean the worst toilet in Scotland™. Elsewhere, a séance is billed as “not for the fainthearted” in Talking to the Dead, and it urges in advance that “audience participation is essential”. Other shows are immersive by way of atmosphere and environment rather than by action on your part: Flight (see more on p33) straps its audience into a plane cabin, and BaseCamp zips you into a tent to witness a fierce rivalry between mountain climbers. No matter the theatrical situation, remember that basic human decency still applies. Don’t touch unless you’re invited, but take a risk when it’s offered and a whole new world could open up. Trainspotting Live, Venue 150 @ EICC (The Tunnel), 2-27 Aug (not 8, 15, 22), various times, £10-24 Talking to the Dead – A Séance, Sweet Novotel, 3-4, 24-26 Aug, 10.05pm, £12 Flight, Summerhall (Terrace), 1-26 Aug, various times, £5-6 BaseCamp, C South, 1-27 Aug (not 14), various times, £7.5011.50

Word Up What theatre do you like? How do you know? What do all the theatre words mean? We demystify some theatrical jargon to help you get the most out of the Fringe

he Fringe programme’s heavy this year, isn’t it? Hefty. When you hold it in your hands, you can really feel the weight of the thousands of shows you’ll definitely not have time to see. Shows cost money, and time is money, and none of us are rich, so how to choose? What do you want from a show? On the Fringe’s website is a handy search function; click ‘Filter Results’ and you can tick a load of boxes, specifying exactly how you want to spend five quid and 60 minutes in one of Edinburgh’s sweatiest basements. But wait: what are all these words? How do you know if you want, say, an immersive show rather than an interactive one? What’s the diff? Here’s a quick glossary to speed you on your way. Adaptation This is when someone makes a play out of a thing that already exists; perhaps a novel, maybe a film, sometimes even another play (inception!). The catch is that it is always someone else’s favourite novel/film/play, and therefore the adaptation is always Terrible™ for not fulfilling that one other person’s incredibly specific vision. Go and see any Fringe show about Jane Austen, Franz Kafka or Harry Potter if you would like to join in with these fun arguments.

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Devised ‘Devised’ is a sign that the theatre company does not believe in creative hierarchies and it Very Much wishes you to know that. It means that the performance was made collaboratively, probably with lots of improv and rehearsals, without one single person bossing everyone else around. Ugh, bosses, amirite?

“ Physical theatre is about BODY TALK, rather than your usual boring mouth words” Immersive Not to be confused with ‘interactive’, this adjective is usually used to describe a show which tries to make you feel like you’re *inside of its world*. It’s a broad term: maybe someone will (pretend?) to throw poo at you, maybe the show space looks like the inside of the Mars Rover,

Words: Katie Hawthorne

maybe you’ll have to crawl through a teeny tiny tunnel. We just don’t know.

story communicated mostly through the expressive power of contorted limbs.

Interactive Now, interactive means you’ll definitely be doing stuff. What kind of stuff? We don’t know that, either. You might just have to scribble an answer to a question, you might end up on a blind date, perhaps you’ll have to bust an international crime network. In short, interactive usually signals… action… so attend with an open heart and a humiliation tolerance set to 11.

Promenade Most likely, this means standing up and/or walking. You think theatre should come to you? Think again. A promenade performance lets you roam free and organic within the space, strolling between scenes at your leisure. Perfect for fidgets.

Multimedia ‘Multimedia’ is a cover-all way of describing a show that uses tech, beyond, like, lights and stuff. This might manifest in VR headsets, projected screens, handheld video cameras or even an app. Fancy. The main thing to remember is that ‘multimedia’ in itself is not praise, so don’t get too dazzled to forget to check that it’s also a story you actually like the sound of. Physical theatre All theatre’s physical though? Right? Wrong! Physical theatre is about BODY TALK, rather than your usual boring mouth words. Sure, there’ll probably be some of those, too, but expect a

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Site-specific Bored of boring theatre venues? Same. Want a show set in a bespoke space, specifically chosen to enhance the narrative? SAME. For example, imagine if a show about a wedding was set inside a church? Or a show about a café was set in an actual CAFÉ? You get it. Verbatim Verbatim theatre uses words spoken by ‘real’ people (i.e. non-actors) who, usually, have been interviewed about the thing that the play is about. Actors then speak these words on stage, with 100% more pizzazz. It’s a kind of documentary-making, and the play could be a collage of ‘real’ conversations and dramatised stagings of events. Think war, politics, the justice system, etc. etc. Generally unlikely to be light-hearted. theskinny.co.uk/theatre

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Technically Intimate We speak to three theatre makers whose Fringe shows use technological innovations – some sensational, some simple – to get closer to their audiences e tend to think of theatre as an ancient, analogue art form, one which relies on lo-fi magic and the warmth of bums in seats. In contrast, tech is clean steel, glitching, freezing FaceTime. But tech can bring us even closer to the action. The technological challenges in making User Not Found have been a first for Dante or Die, co-founded by Terry O’Donovan and Daphna Attias. “We’re the least technical people in the world,” O’Donovan laughs. User Not Found examines the murky world of digital legacies: what do we leave online when we die, and who inherits it? Written by Chris Goode, and created with tech company Marmello, the play mimics cafe culture. “We go to use the WiFi and we’re alone, but we’re together,” O’Donovan explains. Each audience member receives a smartphone and a pair of headphones (not to keep!) to

immerse punters within the mindset of O’Donovan’s character. “People in cafes with their headphones on, isolating themselves despite being in a public space – it’s a thing we do all the time,” he says. As O’Donovan describes it, User Not Found uses cutting-edge tech to create deceptively simple effects: “We’re mimicking the everyday, so people won’t realise the amount of work that’s gone in to it. You’re looking at a phone, nothing ‘special’…” – don’t be fooled. In contrast, Ming Hon’s Chase Scenes lays bare all of its constituent parts. The cast frantically re-enact and re-film roughly 59 chase scenes from pop culture, while the original clips play out behind them. “We’re like a rotating film crew,” she explains. “It’s a greatest hits, and each scene is a minute or less. The runner is always running, and it covers action, comedy, thriller,

User Not Found

Photo: Justin Jones Photography

Interview: Katie Hawthorne horror… all of it!” Hon has a formidable mental library of clichés and stereotypes from all your favourite film moments. To recreate them, the cast use two cameras with live projections so the audience can see the shots forming through the lens. They take it in turns to become props master, makeup artist, runner or camera woman, and she laughs as she describes the chaos: “With the props and so on, it just looks absurd from the outside, but on screen the framed picture makes more sense than what you see live. A lot of the time we’re running in distress, in this very vulnerable place, right next to someone, and they just look at the screen – because they’re getting a different context.” There’s a timeliness to this kind of filtered physicality, too. “We’ve been seduced by this idea of a beautiful woman running away in a horror film,” she says. “But there’s a certain type of reality to women portraying [the act of] being chased. We have a horrible reality that it still happens to us in our adult lives, that you might have to propel yourself physically forward in fear of being attacked.” In Flight, the audience is in the hot seat. It’s the latest instalment in a series of shows by Darkfield, who use the pitchblack confines of a shipping container to create unsettling experiences for audiences. David Rosenberg, co-creator with Glen Neath, describes how sitting in the dark “creates this gap that the audience can find themselves inside. It’s a way for them to become the protagonist. “The intention was never to frighten the

audience,” he laughs. “But we do want to directly address fear and anxiety.” Last year’s Séance led audiences through an unnerving ghostly encounter, and this summer the container resembles the interior of an airplane that may, or may not, be about to crash. “You know where you are, and then the lights go out… and you’re not so sure! Okay, it’s not going to be for everyone,” Rosenberg admits. Flight touches on a near-universal fear. “Everyone’s experienced an unexpected jolt, and you question… if this is IT, then what? But we’re approaching it from a very different angle. It’s all very highbrow,” he jokes. “It’s about these incredibly wild ideas that theoretical physicists have, that innumerable other worlds co-exist, and any time there could be a different outcome for something, both of these outcomes happen – and [also] how physicists are the same people you trust with your life when you get on a plane.” Flight’s aim is to create a sense of strange, shared intimacy: “We’re interested in when audiences are both alone and together, and headphones create this – an isolated experience, but [the play] doesn’t make sense unless you’re still aware of the group that you’re with.” Rosenberg suggests that Flight could be considered a public service. If you’re scared of flying, he says, “just think of it as the cure.” User Not Found, Traverse at Jeelie Piece Cafe, 3-26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 8pm, £9-20.50 Chase Scenes, Canada Hub @ King’s Hall, 1-26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), 2.25pm, £9-11 Flight, Summerhall, 1-26 Aug, various times, £5-6

Taste of the Rainbow Looking to celebrate the range of human sexualities in theatre, but don't know where to begin? Here's a helpful guide to help you find the show that's best for you

August 2018

her lesbian identity – during the course of the play I develop a complicated relationship with a woman who is discovering her bisexuality and attempting to reconcile this with her Catholic faith.” Solo shows These queer stories come solo, too: Grace (Gilded Balloon Teviot, 1-27 Aug (not 13), 1.45pm, £6-9.50) by Katie Reddin-Clancy, inspired by a friend coming out as transgender, has created a show framed by showbiz. Set in a regional theatre, Grace focuses on Zora, formerly Alfie, and the people she works with. Femme-identifying La JohnJoseph draws on more recent history with A Generous Lover (Summerhall, 1-26 Aug (not 2, 6, 13, 20), 4.10pm, £8-10), a one-person show looking at mental illness. Like Reddin-Clancy, Jamie Gould looks at the trans experience in Ganymede (Paradise in Augustines, 3-25 Aug (not 5, 12, 19), various times, £5-10), his adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Trans man Gould and TypeCast Productions add Gould’s new writing to Shakespeare’s original to create a new play about gender transition. More than half of the company are queer, and a trans actor has been cast as Ganymede. Holly and Ted’s “fantastical adventure through time and space”, Polaris (Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 Aug (not 14), 12.55pm, £6-9.50) is also made by a trans artist, Teddy Lamb. Comedy If you’re looking to extend your LGBTQIA+

A Generous Lover

Fringe-going beyond theatre, comedy has some offers: Catherine Bohart: Immaculate (Pleasance Courtyard, 1-26 Aug (not 14), 4.15pm, £6-10.50) draws on Bohart’s experience of coming out as bi when her father simultaneously comes out to her as an aspiring priest. Sian Davies presents Comedy Queers and Best in Class and Karen McLeod investigates lesbian clichés in Who Do You Think You Are? Barbara Brownskirt (Assembly Rooms, 14-25 Aug, 6.20pm, £8-11). In cabaret, Queen Of The F*cking World: The Second Coming (The Street, 5-25 Aug (not 6,

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Photo: Attila Kenyeres

LGBT stories Playwright Jen McGregor, who is quietly queer but deeply invested in telling the stories of LGBT characters, brings her new play Heaven Burns to Assembly Roxy (2-27 Aug (not 14), 2.35pm, £7-11). Set in 1662 Morayshire, it tells the true story of the woman Christian Caddell, otherwise known as John Dixon the ‘witch-pricker’, who sentenced several women to death for witchcraft. For something lighter, “bi-guy”-identified writer and director Ash Pryce presents First Time Buyers at the PBH Free Fringe (Tolbooth Market, 4-24 Aug (not 7, 14, 21), 9.30pm, free). In this supernatural comedy, Sarah and Claire buy their first home as an engaged couple. But the previous residents won’t leave the couple’s new home and to make matters even harder, they’re dead. Pryce’s script stipulates that at least one of the characters is bisexual “because I wanted to see others like me on stage. Sarah being bi doesn’t stop just because she is engaged to Claire. It’s also important to see bi characters in a light other than ‘temptress’, and here the character being bi is a fact about them rather than the driving force of the plot.” Rather than starting with a script, Breathless Theatre have devised Spaces (Sweet Grass-market, 2-26 Aug (not 7, 14, 21), 2.25pm, £7-9), a part-verbatim play about sexuality informing personal boundaries, and how these impact relationships with family members and loved ones. Company member Emma Nihill explains she is “playing a woman called Lucy who is very comfortable with

Words: Laura Kressly

13, 18), 6.30pm, free) “takes sexual politics by the balls,” and Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews’ Yana Alana – Between the Cracks (Assembly Checkpoint, 2-26 Aug (not 8, 13, 20), 8pm, £10-13) is performed by pansexual Ward; Matthews is gender-queer. The perennially popular Hot Brown Honey – winner of a Total Theatre Award – implores women to “moisturise and decolonise” whilst celebrating and empowering women in all the forms they take (Gilded Balloon Teviot, 3-27 Aug (not 8, 15, 23), 7.30pm, £12.50-16.50). theskinny.co.uk/theatre

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Forward Thinking

coco!nuts!, 2018, acrylic on paper

“I

’m better at technology now. It’s because of smartphones – I don’t have to go to the computer room, or fire up a really ancient laptop. The world was totally different 10, 15 years ago. Most of us didn’t have computers in our flats. Laptops – were they even around?” It’s in a somewhat nostalgic mood that we meet up with Rabiya Choudhry to discuss what promises to be a busy season for the Edinburghbased painter. Contemporaries at Edinburgh College of Art in the early 2000s, and both Glasgow natives, it’s with shock that we realise we have now lived in Edinburgh for more than half our lives. Traitors. As Choudhry gears up to launch the first of three high-profile Scottish exhibitions in the coming months, it’s an opportunity for reflection. How far have we really come from the useless art students hanging around K Jacksons? “The reason I think I was slow at communication was that communication was slow. So the reason that I didn’t email for a couple of months

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was because I never had my own laptop,” explains Choudhry. “I was queuing up in the computer room! The computer room at college was the best place to be. There was a feeling about the place. It was a good place to connect with people from other departments.” The comparative inconvenience of queuing up to use a shared PC provided an opportunity for natural cross-fertilisation between students of different disciplines which may not have a space now. There were advantages to our pre-smartphone education. It is Choudhry’s first planned exhibition of the summer, ambi, which has sent us down this reminiscence about technologies past, after she successfully sent in an image of her work for the exhibition in marked contrast to former technologically-inspired panics. The group show was scheduled to take place at Glasgow School of Art in mid-June before the devastating fire at the Mack led to that corner of the city being closed off indefinitely. But it will be staged at a later

Credit: Image courtesy of the artist

Edinburgh artist Rabiya Choudhry talks us through her trio of new projects – interrogating the GSA archives, presenting new work at this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, and her upcoming solo show at Transmission Gallery

date, and it is a project which forms the genesis of a new branch of Choudhry’s work which we will see playing out across the country over the next three months. ambi is a collaborative exhibition, conceived by Jenny Brownrigg who invited three artists – Choudhry, Hanneline Visnes and Fiona Jardine – to make new work exploring the GSA archive. The name came from the material Choudhry, Glasgow-born of Pakistani heritage, was initially drawn to. She explains: “ambi is the Punjabi word for the boteh which is the Paisley [pattern’s] comma form. But it also means both, so there’s a duality. “Looking through their archive it was the Paisley pattern that really jumped out because I’ve been thinking about that shape for a while, and how it is related to fertility…” Looks like sperm. “You said it, I never said it. So initially I was thinking about a small textile that could be produced and through research ties really jumped out as both a sort of symbol of power and also like an arrow pointing down to your ‘love bits.’” Sperm. The boteh is a fascinating subject for Choudhry to focus on, acting as it does as a weird cipher for the postcolonial tension of multicultural Britain which has formed the basis for much of her previous work. A Punjabi form appropriated and brought west, reproduced in textiles manufactured in Scotland to such a degree that the form became identified with Paisley. Then re-exported as the cheap labour markets shifted back east, so that Paisley print has returned to its birthplace without shedding its imposed Scottish name. It’s picked up a slew of meanings along the way as well. Says Choudhry, “I was looking at the fact that Paisley was quite a bohemian sort of emblem, and I wanted to do something that was a bit darker (obviously because I’m a bit dark) and a bit more punk with it. Because I don’t think we live in a bohemian time. I wanted to do something that was taking a more fascist palette.” The contemporary darkness also seeps into her choice of product. “Initially I thought of the ties as sort of throttling devices or nooses, to get really depressing. I thought about uniform and the fact that it really is a conformist thing. Initially they were men’s ties but now they’re more gender fluid. There are three ties, and ten of each, so thirty ties produced.” Following ambi, during Edinburgh Art Festival there will be another foray into textile design as Choudhry has created a flag for Rhubaba, the Leith studio-gallery where she’s based. “The Rhubaba flag is military tanks going round in circles, with an R in the middle. For Rhubaba. And also Rababa... I was tempted to rebrand it.” The tanks are a common motif in Choudhry’s work, imagery of war linked to her experience as someone who identifies as Muslim in a post-9/11 Britain. After Rhubaba, the tentpole event is a solo exhibition in Transmission entitled Coco!Nuts! in a reclamation of the pejorative which also aims to underline its essential absurdity. Nearly hobbled by Creative Scotland’s withdrawal of regular funding from the iconic Glasgow gallery, the show is back on after Choudhry received project funding in a fresh application. But the second application nearly didn’t happen. “I wasn’t going to do it – I was a bit depressed when I found out about the RFO thing. I found out at midnight, so I

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Interview: Rosamund West

couldn’t sleep that night. It was like Creative Scotland doesn’t care about Transmission. But there were a lot of people they didn’t care about.” The Transmission defunding felt like a particular blow (and a fairly baffling move) because this is a gallery which is, right now, specifically representing people of colour. “For the first time as well,” says Choudhry. “It’s a really groundbreaking space, it’s one of the most groundbreaking spaces in Scotland for visual art.”

“ I’ve done a lot of group shows, and I’ve not really had the opportunity to go ‘This is the way I want to do it’” Rabiya Choudhry

It always has been in different ways, but right now the battle lines that Transmission are drawing and representing are around race and gender and sexuality. “At one of the most important points in time as well,” says Choudhry. “It’s so important that we do hear these stories and have that perspective right now. So it made me feel really depressed, I felt that Creative Scotland doesn’t value that. People keep telling me it’s not about that, but what is it about? It seems there’s a focus on advocacy. I don’t want to start saying ‘Why did they fund that,’ because ideally everything gets funded. But what’s the focus on?” It’s the eternal debate around public funding, where the ability to fill in forms often seems to trump creative vision. Visionaries are frequently messy and disorganised, and it’s undeniably difficult to justify handing out buckets of public cash to people who might not be able to tell you what they did with it afterwards. We turn to the solo show, a rare privilege in an era when the rise of The Curator has seen an explosion of group shows (something particularly noticeable in this year’s Glasgow International programming), where the artists can feel like quotations used to justify The Curator’s thesis. An individual work will be selected or developed to fit within a broader narrative contrived by The Curator, but that often doesn’t offer a space to really engage with the personal vernacular that each artist is developing, that they are afforded more of an opportunity to develop through a solo show facilitated by a more publicly neutral voice behind the scenes. Choudhry considers this. “So we become props. Am I quote mark anyway?” It depends what your context is. “I dunno, I just sort of… sit on my own. Trying not to think too much and letting it flow, you know?” Transmission provides an opportunity for a solo show. “I’ve done a lot of group shows, and I’ve not really had the opportunity to go ‘This is the way I want to do it,’ and not have someone else going, ‘Wellllll this is how you fit into it.’ A solo show is the way to start to develop our own vision and I guess try to inspire other people to do the same. I think it can tell enough of a story

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August 2018

spotted at The Armory Show in New York, completely outwith her usual practice but retailing for several thousand dollars due to her name. “When you get to that place, talking about representation and so on, you’re paying other people’s wages and the pressure there would hinder what you make. A lot of other people are relying on you and pushing a narrative that pays. And that is, I guess, slightly dangerous. It depends really what you want to do – do you want to make work that really matters without financial influence, or do you not care? I dunno, I have no experience of that. Maybe they’re doing the art fair pieces and interesting things on the side.”

tailor to make suits, more Asian style suits. I’m going to get four or so new repeat images and have them made into fabric. So if time works out, the idea is to use the windows as a place to have mannequins and give it a bit of a shalwar kameez shop feel.” She’s also going to experiment with material she’s never used before. “I’d like to use neon, I’ve been thinking for a while I want to see more Asian names in lights.” Choudhry has long documented her relationship with her family, and her father in particular, creating searingly expressive imagery which you would imagine might be quite difficult for her family to deal with, although apparently

Rabiya Choudhry: Standard Bearers #1, Rhubaba, until 26 Aug, part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2018; COCO!NUTS!, Transmission Gallery, 14 Sep-20 Oct; ambi is postponed until further notice, follow Glasgow School of Art for further updates rabiyachoudhry.com

“ At art school I painted a picture of my dad with my mum’s legs cut off. My parents have got that up in the hallway” Rabiya Choudhry

There’s also a difficulty in separating the meaning and creativity of the work from the external pressure to make money from it. In our capitalist society it’s difficult to dodge the feeling that something is only valid if someone is willing to pay cash for it. “That question – ‘Do you make money out of art?’ You are in a way instantly important in people’s eyes. That’s always the one rude question, because that’s how people judge it.” In the past Choudhry has addressed this by focussing only on the cold hard cash, in a series of drawings and prints where she made her own money. “Maybe I should just paint more money. Make large gold coins. Because then it would be worth the gold.” For Transmission she’ll be pausing the cash and returning to textiles as she expands on her GSA fabric designs to create shalwar kameez in a range of new patterns. “I’m thinking of getting a

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Black Rose, 2018, acrylic on paper

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Credit: Image courtesy of the artist

independently, without other stories around it. But then I think ‘is that really self indulgent?’ Me Me Me.” It remains incredibly difficult to start and then sustain a career as an artist. Over a decade post-graduation it’s become clear that even those who are apparently established and successful are not able to make a living from art and art alone. Choudhry says: “I think there’s a lot of assumptions [around artists’ perceived financial success] and the reality is you can be really visible and doing really well but not able to pay all your bills.” There are financial barriers (and they’re getting stronger – can you justify a degree without a clear job at the end when you’re going to be accruing £36,000 of debt in tuition fees alone in the process?) and there are psychological barriers. Continued self-motivation and the concerns about the narcissism of art-making Choudhry has touched upon are not easy, and have hobbled many a promising career. “Maybe artists would be better off just getting a job in Lidl,” she ponders. “You get mega bucks, comparatively. It seems like quite a romantic notion that we just need to make, but for years I’ve been trying to resist doing this because I think it’s a bit of a shite life. This year’s good, but it’s not sustainable… this is where I start to moan a lot.” An artist has to keep constantly finding their own opportunities unless they have representation, and that in itself is problematic. “And where do you find the time?” asks Choudhry. “You need to pay your way. And the balance is so hard to find. Because the pressures of keeping down a part-time job in order to be able to pay rent kills your creativity. I did that for ages. The balance has changed now, I’m doing art more and I work in my part-time job one day a week – I like to still be able to realise that people are fundamentally awful. Also, it’s a bit of a security blanket. But it’s taken years to get to that point.” On the subject of representation, we’ve both observed the sort of compromises necessary to enter into the commercial gallery system, be they financial or creative. Choudhry is unequivocal in her resistance right now: “I feel like art fairs are just banking in a way, which is why I try to avoid them. You can find a meal ticket as an artist, but that’s dangerous in itself.” We discuss a Rachel Whiteread work

Photo: Ruth Clark

Rabiya Choudhry, installation view from DCA Thomson, 2016

not. “At art school I painted a picture of my dad with my mum’s legs cut off. My parents have got that up in the hallway.” She documents the faultlines of cultural identity using her first-hand experience as the daughter of a Pakistani father and Glaswegian mother. It’s an ongoing evolution on both sides, finding a middle ground across the generations and worldviews around gender, sexuality, race – at times it has been incredibly difficult. Right now she’s reached a moment of calm, self reflection, forgiveness. “There’s no point in looking back – you should only look forward. So that’s why my dad’s name in lights would be nice. I want it to always be on in the gallery, at night too.” Alongside the neon and the shalwar kameez will be a series of smaller paintings currently in progress. Is she connecting with the miniaturist traditions of her Pakistani heritage? “Perhaps. I do think about that from time to time. But it’s mainly because I’m running out of room, storage-wise.” Downstairs there may be a series of screenings of films Choudhry has felt a kinship with, like East is East. It’s set to be a perfectly formed exhibition, but it could have been grander had Transmission not lost its regular funding, says Choudhry. “I think the gallery does need more support, in order to be able to give exciting artists who haven’t been able to show or have a solo show, to be able to really ramp it up and do really ambitious work in the way that they might never otherwise get the right gallery to do it with. God bless artist-run spaces. We need them. But they also need help. And maybe they do need to think more about the day-to-day running of it. It’s hard though – I have to remind myself that these are people that aren’t getting paid. That care about what I’m doing.” What are her final words of wisdom for any struggling artists out there? “Be a tortoise. Get there slowly. Do it with the right people.”

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Give Us Your All Platform 2018 brings together a group of four distinctive artists whose very different works are softly drawn together by medium-experimentation and a sense of excited experimentation with materials and genres

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

Isobel Lutz-Smith, The Impetuous Engine, 2016

collaborated with members of her immediate family, and so it was that the artist went with her mother, father and little sister with costumes and props for a “summer outing in Edinburgh.” In a gold frame, the lenticular print is hung beside the window in the large space of the Edinburgh’s City Art Centre. For Song, the choice of the print technique, display materials and strategies is important as it can draw out the idea “of something foreign being presented and we’re here to form opinions around it, and so on first sight people will hopefully try to work out what the [costume] is and what its purpose is, the only information about that being in the print” but nevertheless “why and what it is remains ambiguous.” As for the choice of lenticular print, Song “relates these to postcards or bookmarks... souvenirs you collect from another country.”

Rae-Yen Song, It’s a Small World, 2017

August 2018

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

ach year, Edinburgh Art Festival’s Platform exhibition assembles four early-career artists and puts them centre stage in the Festival programme that extends across Edinburgh galleries during August. This year’s artists are Renèe Helèna Browne, Annie Crabtree, Isobel Lutz-Smith and Rae-Yen Song. While each of their presentations are completely distinct, it’s not difficult to see lines of reference that extend across their respective practices, though they each work across very different media and subject matter. Rae-Yen Song jokes that she’s the most traditional of the four on show, as none of her work needs a plug socket. A large handmade costume of a lion makes a visual parallel between the lion rampant (on the Scottish coat of arms) “and also the lion costume used for lion dancing in Chinese culture”. Combining these different symbols that are intended to illustrate the same animal, Song considers mixed cultural identity, “being Scottish and Chinese, and [this] position in society”. Elaborating further, she describes “[offering] alternative realities and perspectives,” and the “surreal quality” that pervades her work. One informing perspective that characterises Song’s idea of the cross-cultural lived experience is “not fitting into either of those cultural identities.” It’s for this reason and from this standpoint that Song considers the “cultural Other” as a figure, “exposing that role in society”. Bringing these symbols of identity and celebration together, Song describes “picking away” at them to create a distinctive set of meanings and significance: “Language that I can occupy positively, rather than have this emptiness between the two cultures, where I don’t fit in.” Part of this intention, Song says, is the creation of a “new realm, that people find absurd and very foreign” but also which contains “familiarities” The large costume is free-standing on a low plinth. It’s seen again on a lenticular print, being worn and with other costumed figures around the lion. They all stand in what looks like the countryside, but is an open green spot in Edinburgh. “This work is called Song Dynasty II,” she says, “and is expanded from the [first iteration] that was done for Glasgow Open House 2017.” As in the previous work, Song Dynasty, Song has

The costume is made with an attention to detail, and Song speaks about the love of making that motivates her practice, alongside the concepts and ideas that inform the work she makes. “It was such a joy to get into the intricacies and details of the costume.” Song remembers the drawing that she made which forms the basis of Song Dynasty II. “I consider [drawing] very important, but I’ve never shown it. I consider it more like thinking and writing, and more of a private process more than something I show. This [Platform presentation] was originally proposed as drawing and it turned into a lenticular print, so I’m yet to show a drawing.” Some of Song’s beautiful concept drawings can be found online on her website. While Song’s work seeks to form a language that can enunciate what it is to live and form one’s sense of self across multiple cultures, Renèe Helèna Browne’s sound work mines into the physical embodiment of language and speech. In considering the work presented at Platform, Browne describes it as a pivotal moment as she centres sound as a medium. For Browne, there’s something very distinctive about the challenge of sound, which moves the audience from a passive to a more active role: “When you ask someone to sit down and use their ears, it’s somewhat more demanding.” For Platform, Browne will set five sound works on different and significant chairs. “Each [one] relates to the different contact zones it has with your body, and that is then developed in the sound work and creates the atmosphere for the sound.” For example, “there’s a portable massage chair in the space and for that there’s a slow ASMR elocution lesson with meditation music layered into it.” This intended to create an “embodied and relaxing effect.” For Browne, the work is about “the construction of language from the body as speech.” The

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Photo: Courtesy of the artist

works that will be shown at Platform come from Browne’s research into the knowledge that governs speech within society, both inside and outside the body. Browne says: “Outside the body, I was looking at language and the expectation of proper pronunciation. Received pronunciation or The King’s English (as it’s colonially known) is spoken by 2% of the British population, but when you read the dictionary in phonetics, you’re reading it in received pronunciation.” Browne adds as an aside that this is “kind of dark, when you think about it.” There’s a “prestige that comes with this perfect, pure, clean elocution” and Browne has found that as an Irish person living in Britain there are negative connotations that attach to her accent. “I’ve also been thinking about how pronunciation is played with and the malleability of sound, in terms of tongue twisters and vocal warm-ups, and all these things that public speakers do to generate this air coming up through the body.” Browne describes how, if a person focuses on a certain point, it’s possible to speak in a way that the voice vibrates through the speaker’s forehead or legs. As well as thinking about what happens when sounds comes out of the mouth, Browne also thinks about “the interior, looking at the mouth as the cavity for speech and the site of it, then the lips as the way that it comes out of the body and the visceral-physical activity of speaking and how that implicates the body and how the organs of speech, what they think about it and giving them some agency within it.” Browne thinks of another of the five sound works included in the Platform show: an “exercise ball and on that one there’s a very raw, residual, underneath language noises from the mouth, there’s no construction [of specific words].” It’s noise, but it “is in no way governed, and is in some ways a respite from the rest of them”.

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artwork that she took great pleasure in making. “There’s a lot going on in the piece,” Crabtree says. “There’s footage of me when I was first out of hospital, two years ago. It’s footage I didn’t think I would end up using in a piece of artwork. It does have a video diary look to it and I recorded it more as a document for myself of what my body looked like at that point in time. I’d just had abdominal surgery for a tubo-ovarian abscess which is a complication of pelvic inflammatory disease.” Crabtree describes some of the gendering of this illness, and its relationship with sex: “It could be looked upon quite shamefully. I didn’t feel that way, but would definitely experience that in how I was treated in hospital. It’s an experience that so many women have, of having their bodies overlooked, their voices ignored, and the silencing that goes with that.” Crabtree describes a consistent “gaslighting” that came with the attitude that she was just having a bad period, and being sent home with paracetamol to treat significant pain. For Crabtree, there’s a pattern that she’s observed – every time she shares the work, there will then be further discussion and conversation with others that have had similar experiences. “It might not be the same disease, but it’s the same story over and over again. So I was really interested in that idea of storytelling and how we tell these stories in order to heal or move on, or find commonality with other people. There are really interesting theories around narrative medicine. Rather than seeing medicine as separate from you as a person, the medical practitioners and the patient use storytelling together to find out what’s wrong. We tell stories to be understood and to understand ourselves.” “It’s me telling my story,” Crabtree says. “But also through the use of other people’s words.” Within the film, there are extracts from Crabtree’s diaries and she describes the “shock” that came with looking back at them. Since being ill, she had moments of forgetting or doubting the severity of what she had experienced, but the written account serves as a vivid reminder to Crabtree of just how bad that time was. “There are also new bits of writing [by Crabtree], and quotations from authoritative sources like the NHS website, or Wikipedia.” These clinical sources can be upsetting, as Crabtree recalls the fear of looking up her diagnosis and the treatment she received and reading further into it online. This necessity of questioning received wisdom or conventional understandings can be

one line of intentionality that crosscuts Song’s ambition to create a “new realm” for cross-cultural lives and knowledge, or Browne’s deconstruction of dominant linguistics and accents. This trajectory of the exhibitors continues to Isobel Lutz-Smith’s video work that deals experimentally with ideas of objecthood, language and the material basis of film itself. When it comes to approaching film and making art, Lutz-Smith emphasises very careful filming, then playing with image and creative editing. Sitting with some examples of the visual from the film that will be in the Platform exhibition, she speaks about the work in terms of connection and relationships. “It’s like a collage, where things make sense because they’re with other things, not because they’re alone. You can build on it and continue to add layers, even though it’s digital. That’s what I enjoy, I think to see video as beyond a narrative or a window into something else, it becomes something completely different.” Lutz-Smith takes inspiration from Sidewalk, an Edinburgh-based radical 1960s literary publication, edited by publisher Alex Neish, a law student in Edinburgh University at the time. Neish managed to source writers like William Burroughs, and this was essentially the first time international radical literature scene made its way to Edinburgh. In the chapter that Burroughs published, he discussed the cut-up method, and Burroughs admitted that he “took this technique from Brion Gysin, a famous sound artist and painter. He basically rediscovered the Dadaists’ cut-up method but he used it in a different way.

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“ It’s an experience that so many women have, of having their bodies overlooked, their voices ignored” Annie Crabtree

Like Crabtree, Lutz-Smith describes the work presented at Platform as coming from two years of development. This sense of the exhibition coming at a turning point of long periods of research and artistic development is another recurring theme across our separate interviews, so there’s a lot packed into one floor of the City Art Centre. “I think you might be a bit tired after seeing the show,” Browne jokes, “we’re all expecting you to give us your all, which is quite nice, rather than this passive art experience. The show is asking you to think in ways you haven’t before”. Platform 2018, City Art Centre, until 26 Aug, part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2018 edinburghartfestival.com

Renèe Helèna Browne, Research still, 2018

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Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

There’s also a chaise longue that deals with the “lips”, and there are two characters that describe what they do in speech. More generally, the seats are intended not to be “didactic” and more of an “invitation.” The audience thus makes the decision on whether or not to sit down, then whether to put on the headphones – “you can make your own connections with what is happening.” Browne also discusses some of the connections between the work on show by the other exhibitors, and thinks in particular of the embodiment that’s important to Annie Crabtree’s film work. For this work, Crabtree considers moving image from a perspective informed both by her own fine art background and also the time she spent studying a Masters in Research in Human Geography. These distinctive backgrounds have informed her specific relationship with film as a medium, and this is one reason that Crabtree especially challenges the distinctions between documentary and experimental film, or where types of film should or can be shown. For the film she is showing at Platform, Crabtree addresses “the loss of bodily autonomy and agency through illness, and the ignoring or dismissal of women’s pain and the stereotypical trope of women as hysterical.” This is paired “with swimming as a means of regaining power both over yourself and as a metaphor for becoming well again. Water is repeatedly an image for healing throughout history, if you think of Victorian England and the spa towns.” As well as operating in some ways like an essay on the subject, the film also operates on a personal level. “I was very sick two years ago,” says Crabtree, “and I felt like I lost all control over how I was understood, and I regained a lot of myself through swimming.” Originally, Crabtree had been thinking of two pieces of work, one on sickness and one on swimming before it became clear that they were in fact two elements of a single work on female pain and the embodiment of politics. Once the film ideas cohered into one project, Crabtree describes the joy that she took in making the work. At one point, she recalls with particular fondness when she was filming underwater, realising with great satisfaction that she had successfully brought together her love of making moving image work and swimming. It was particularly meaningful for Crabtree to be able to transform the original traumatic experience of serious illness and the resulting distress of being subject to institutionalised medical misogyny, and for this to form the basis of a complex

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Annie Crabtree, Body of Water, 2018

Instead of pulling words out of a hat and reading them, he actually composed them. And what Burroughs found interesting was taking something that could be used in painting, then applying it to writing as a technique, and I really wanted to do that in film.” While filmmaking might be understood as a linear process, Lutz-Smith describes her process of going through editing, reordering and changing sequence in a more responsive way. Going into further detail, Lutz-Smith describes that the work will be “a video installation with four screens”. Lutz-Smith describes the work as developing on from a previous video installation, in which the screens were set up and they related to each other like actors in a play. Going on, Lutz-Smith says: “This time, I’m not so interested in video as a narrative medium but as an experience. In the last video work I did, it was almost like a play in the way it was set up and its relationship to the audience. Now I wanted to make something where you could almost go inside the film, like you were inside the screen and looking outside. There’s some custom-made seating inside that relates to the video itself.” Describing the video further, Lutz-Smith says: “It’s a meal, it’s meat and two veg, so the main ingredients are: meat, potatoes, peas. So the food becomes almost like Photoshop textures, or 3D animation programmes when you see the surfaces flattened down. That’s what the food becomes [in the video]” and this image is then reproduced on the surface of the seating.

Party On Michael Pedersen pays tribute to friend and comrade Scott Hutchison at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. We talk to Pedersen to find out what’s in store at his Oyster Party for his dear friend

Interview: Kirstyn Smith

Photo: Kat Gollock

ambition for the night, though, is to honour Scott with a performance worthy of his affection. “I will try my best to do a set that I think he would have enjoyed and respected,” she says. “Well, no. Enjoyed, not respected! I think for me, that’s all I can hope to do. So, likely the ruder side of my writing.” Pedersen’s hopes for the evening are equally as humble. Despite being sure he’ll be too concerned with making sure everything goes off without a hitch, he also has firm plans about what he hopes the event will entail. “It’s a safe space to cry, laugh, lament, chant and cheer for someone you love and miss among kindred souls,” he says. “No judgement, no egos, no questions asked.” More than anything, it’s a place for people to reminisce, share stories and remember what it is about Scott that is so special. The outpouring of grief when Hutchison passed was remarkable: fans across the world shared stories about how his music helped them through rough times, while his good and kind heart was celebrated in lesser-known anecdotes from fans and friends alike. Pedersen is ever-eloquent and un-editable when describing his old pal.

ords have power. Shuffle them around even just a little bit and entire meanings can change. ‘Michael and Scott’s Oyster Party’ becomes ‘Michael Pedersen’s Oyster Party for Scott Hutchison’. Such a little change says so much. “It was to be a story-filled, sumptuous and lovey gig where we nattered through the past year together: shows, holidays and the realms in between,” explains Pedersen, about the reimagined event. “There would be an oyster or alternative included in your ticket price for a giant toast of champions.” The event has transformed instead into a celebration of Hutchison’s life featuring powerful, playful verse from Pedersen alongside some of Hutchison’s close friends – Hollie McNish, Withered Hand and E A Hanks. The five-piece have performed together before – as the Cold Turkey Collective – so their involvement was self-evident. “We will perform our own work, new work inspired by him, and maybe a group finale (as we did before, with Scott in tow),” he says. “Elizabeth Hanks is an LA-based writer and friend of Scott’s from his time in the States. I invited her to join the bill as we’ve become close, post-Scott’s passing – having only known of each other through the stories he told us both. I like to think of this as completing a circle he started drawing for us.” The Oyster Party’s oyster in question is Pedersen’s second poetry collection, released in 2017 and illustrated by Hutchison. As friends clearly working from the same wavelength, Hutchison’s drawings go hand in hand with Pedersen’s words as they wander the pages together: wild, sensual doodlings served on ice. “In Scott’s words, illustration is the only thing he was trained to do – I loved every glimpse of the art he showed me,” says Pedersen. “His illustra-

August 2018

tions boast deft hidden detail, hilarity, naivety, they take childlike leaps, as well as confronting head-on that more lugubrious stuff. They share a kinship with my poems and I loved knowing he was drawing prolifically. It seemed to open something playful in him; playful yet accomplished.” Poet Hollie McNish had been planning to attend the original event in punter capacity, before being invited to take part in this new evening, this time as a pal of Scott’s and fan of his work. For her, the correlation between song lyrics and poetry is a strong one that highlights a mutual emotional stimulation and a sense of community in shared thoughts.

“It’s that feeling when something you’ve been thinking or feeling is then articulated by someone else in such an exciting or passionate or beautiful way and you’re like: ‘That! That’s it!’” she says. “That feeling is a lovely one. I love it at gigs when someone reads a poem or sings a song about something I feel passionate about and I think: ‘Well, I don’t have to try to write about that now, it’s been done!’” While it’s the atmosphere and reforged camaraderie that McNish is most looking forward to, the toughest part of the evening, by her own admission, may be having to eat an oyster – she’s been a vegetarian since she was a child. Her overall

An excerpt from Oyster’s title poem: No bones in tongue nor oyster, though a marvel nonetheless: a zinc-pumped seabed filter system, oyster has many magics and molluscy mischief, is worthily lickable – yet she had never licked an oyster! Her tongue recoils gingerly, processing them flavoursome fecundities; the fleshy grope is silent and wordless, the moment’s après, noisy and weird, rattle around, shake out a timid smile. Not to be bested, the oyster too tastes tongue, zaps back, a shiver to the spine from the aquatic journeyman. How does tongue taste to oyster? Best not to know.

BOOKS

“ It’s a safe space to cry, laugh, lament, chant and cheer for someone you love and miss” Michael Pedersen

“I called him H-Craft,” he says. “This sentient creature was in many ways a wizard of human emotion, casting out spells of song against fierce forces that rallied in the murky firmament above. He was consistently processing the great cliffs of human experience that would tumble down upon him – sculpting from the rock majestic shapes. His imagination was vivid and abundant and this came across more starkly in his illustrations – the forlorn made funny, the melancholic shadowed in love, every whip of wonder. He was Owl John as well as Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. That’s worth exploring.” The value in banding together in times like this is hard to overstate, and the fact that the Oyster Party goes on is important. A crucial occasion for friends, family, loved ones and fans to come together and honour his legacy, it quietly reminds everyone involved that keeping his memory alive is a vital way of remembering Scott and getting over the stigma of talking about loved ones and mental health. As Pedersen says: “I think you lose a bit of yourself when someone so close leaves this spinning planet, a little more goes if they were younger and tragedy is close at hand. We’re not getting the clever bastard back (not as we know it) and I get that, so will take little tastes whenever we can. I really, REALLY fucking miss him.” Michael Pedersen’s Oyster Party for Scott Hutchison, The Spiegeltent, Charlotte Square, 16 Aug, 6.30pm, £10-12 Excerpt and illustration taken from Oyster, out now via Polygon, £9.99 RRP

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Knowledge Is Power London rapper Akala is best known for his expansive hip hop records and BBC Radio freestyles. But his new book Natives is a reminder that he also knows a thing or two about how racism and classism works in the UK here’s a commonly-held view that Britain has moved past racism in recent years, with some commentators even citing mixed-race royal bride Meghan Markle as evidence we’ve reached a postracial panacea. But the stats tell a different story: one in four people in Britain admit to holding racial prejudice and hate crime has soared in light of Brexit. As actor Daniel Kaluuya puts it: “Racism is more pronounced in America... it’s not seen in England but it’s felt and it’s oppressive.” Of course, nobody needs to tell that to Akala, who describes himself as half-Jamaican and half-Scottish, and has been exploring issues of race in his music for over a decade. The London-born rapper, artist and educator reflects in the introduction of his book Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire that “it’s easy for people just slightly younger than myself, and born into a relative degree of multiculturalism, to forget just how recently basic public decency towards black folks was won in this country”. For him, the Windrush scandal, which revealed Caribbean Brits had been denied legal rights and even deported over generations, was hardly a bolt from the blue – it confirmed what he already knew. “It’s not a new issue,” he says. “Black people here have dealt with it since 1948 when our ancestors arrived. Clement Attlee [then Prime Minister] referred to the Windrush generation as an ‘incursion’ and identified ringleaders so no one further would come. There was hostility from the state from the start – it’s just now it’s become blatant.” In many ways, Natives is as thorough a

dissection of British racial relations as any you’re likely to find. It’s packed with eye-opening statistics and relevant case studies drawing from historical texts going back hundreds of years, a process Akala says was “difficult and emotionally challenging”. But it’s also a vivid memoir on his own experiences of racism, from shameless police officers to aggressive primary school teachers.

“We can’t deny things have improved... but some people still express so much indignation and believe Britain to be perfect” Akala

“The book looks at how the state manages race and class,” he says, “what it meant for young guys like me and how being aware of how social forces affect your life can psychologically help you. It’s not just attacking the system and saying it’s hopeless – it’s saying what the pitfalls are and

Akala

helping you adjust. “We can’t deny things have improved. Two years before I was born, 13 black children burned to death in arson attacks. It’s hard to believe a government today wouldn’t even acknowledge the death of children in that way. But some people still express so much indignation and believe Britain to be perfect – there’s a tendency to pretend we all have the same opportunities in life.” It’s this conviction that drives Akala and encourages him to pose uncomfortable ethical questions throughout Natives. He’s not shy in attacking myths peddled about “white genocide” and he attacks “absolutist free speech” by countering that “no one is owed the right to speak at any institution, left or right, including

Photo: Paul Husband

Interview: Jonathan Rimmer

me”. But crucially, he keenly points out that he doesn’t have all the answers, even if his unique background and depth of knowledge places him in a better position than most to analyse the relationship between race, class and the capitalist system. He says: “I don’t buy the idea that racism was invented to serve capitalism, but it has been very useful to it – relegating peoples into lower realms of humanity and working them to death for wealth. Maybe I’m wrong and capitalism has won – I’m open to being challenged by people I don’t agree with, as long as it’s based in sources and genuine disagreement. But I’m putting it all out there.” Akala: The Ruins of Empire, Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, Charlotte Square, 24 Aug, 8:30pm, £10-12

From the Archives Nicola Streeten looks to retell the history of British comics and cartoons with The Inking Woman

Nicola Streeten

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t started off simply – four women putting their heads together to come up with a list of female cartoonists. The end result was The Inking Woman exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London, a celebration of British women cartoon and comic artists. “Afterwards, when Cath Tate and I were going around the exhibition thinking about the book, we realised it needed to be bigger than the exhibition,” recalls Nicola Streeten, illustrator, graphic novelist and co-editor of The Inking Woman. “We’d had time to reflect and think of more people to be in it.” With a PhD in the Cultural History of Feminist Cartoons and Comics in Britain from 1970-2010, Streeten was an obvious choice to get involved, along with Tate, who has been at the helm of Cath Tate Cards for 30 years. After looking through Tate’s personal archives – homed, mainly, in cardboard boxes – Streeten began thinking about how, or if, the history of women’s cartoons are recorded. “The clue is in the archive,” she says. “If you go to an archive and it’s masculine, it’s controlled by a masculine lens. The tastemakers in society create and determine what is funny, what is popular and what comics can be.” What we learn from The Inking Woman book is that female tastemakers were out there, working in academia and creating feminist publishers and magazines, but their contributions have faded into the backgrounds of history. Streeten noticed that cartoons were an important part of feminist act-

ivity, prevalent in the suffrage movement during which women used screenprinting techniques because they were quick and fairly affordable.

“ The tastemakers in society create and determine what is funny, what is popular and what comics can be” Nicola Streeten

“A lot of the banners and artwork produced used what we now see as the language of comics and cartoons, with inter-relationships between text and image and panels and borders,” she notes. “The pictorial idea of suffrage, both antiand pro-suffrage, was also appearing on postcards, which led to the popularity of postcards for political activism.” What’s essential about political graphic works is being able to find a shred of yourself in it, which is, perhaps, why women’s work wasn’t as commended by patriarchal influencers. A key

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Interview: Kirstyn Smith thing when it comes to political humour is that it’s not based, necessarily, around belly laughs, but recognition. “It’s about pinpointing an experience, and the experience of being a woman is what was picked up from the 70s onward,” explains Streeten. “So, cartoons about childcare, or difficulties at work, or being overlooked might be something that we recognise. It’s not about a hierarchy of humour, but that sense of togetherness and belonging, and a reinforcing of groups.” For her event at Edinburgh Book Festival, Streeten will give a highly visual talk about The Inking Woman book, unveil female cartoonists from the past 250 years, and tell stories of strong friendships formed due to the creation of the book. Her goals are simple: for the audience to be made aware of women cartoon and comics artists and their important British history. “Quite often we think of comics as an American history, or French – bandes dessinées – but Britain has its own cultural history of what’s been happening with the form,” she says. “I want to introduce the audience to the idea that the first caricaturist in Britain was a woman – Mary Darly – when all we hear about is Hogarth and Gillray and all these men. I hope the audience will leave challenging the assumptions that have been made around cartoons and comics. And also whet their appetite to look at what’s happening now – there’s a real richness of activity.” Nicola Streeten, Garden Theatre, Charlotte Square, 12 Aug, 11am, pay what you can

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August 2018

THE SKINNY

Destiny’s Child As he brings his two new novels to the Edinburgh Book Festival, we talk fate, thrillers and diversity with Nikesh Shukla

ikesh Shukla is from a long line of people who don’t take shit. His uncle was the first person in the UK to bring a case of racial discrimination to court under the Race Relations Act, following a building company’s refusal to sell him a house in 1968 because he was a person of colour. This incident was the inspiration behind The One Who Wrote Destiny, Shukla’s latest adult novel, a sweeping multi-generational epic following the lives of one immigrant family. “I had this idea when I was 19 years old that I was going to write the great novel about immigration,” he says over the phone. “This was in 1999 and I was sitting in my university dorm room and I was like ‘I’m going to drop a mixtape and put out an amazing novel’”. The novel didn’t manifest just yet, but Shukla did spend his twenties as a self-described “average at best” rapper. When he sat down to try and write the novel again, it wouldn’t come. Instead he wrote Coconut Unlimited – “an ode to my year spent as a not very good rapper” – and Meatspace. In the middle of a third novel, he hit a dead end. “I felt like I hadn’t really challenged myself as a writer. I was listening to a podcast with the creator of the US comedy show, Arrested Development and he was talking about archetypal characters where you have a matriarch, a patriarch, a craftsman and a clown and you use them to create chaos. This was exactly what I had been looking for, so then I went and wrote what became The One Who Wrote Destiny.”

“When I think about the two most significant things that have happened in the UK in my lifetime, it’s the murder of Stephen Lawrence and Grenfell Tower. I still feel haunted by both” Nikesh Shukla

This novel, the one he’d longed to write all those years ago, follows four narratives of a family across different generations. Mukesh, the patriarch, immigrates from Kenya to Keighley in the sixties. There he meets the love of his life Nisha, who has pulmonary fibrosis, a literal and symbolic hereditary curse that she passes down to her daughter Neha. Meanwhile, Neha’s twin brother Rakesh negotiates the overwhelmingly white world of comedy. Writing an intergenerational story was at the heart of Shukla’s novel. “I wanted to interrogate this tension that I used to feel with my own dad. In the late sixties, my dad was nearly bottled to death by a member of the

August 2018

Interview: Katie Goh

National Front. He nearly died. To my dad, that is racism. So when I used to come home from school and say the kids said I stink of curry, my dad would just be like, ‘Ignore them, who gives a shit!’ I wanted to talk about that coming together of how my dad and I felt about this stuff.” The title is a nod to the different attitudes towards destiny. “On one hand there’s the idea that everything is pre-written, so whatever will happen will happen. On the other hand, you have the thought that you have to write your own destiny which, to me, just sounds like living your life. So I wanted to talk about how sometimes we can get this form of stage fright by thinking that everything is predetermined for us and there is a journey for us that doesn’t necessarily fit what we want to do.” Immigration is another sort of destiny – how a family ends up where they do. “That family history could have looked completely different if Mukesh decided not to go to the UK or if he didn’t go to Keighley. The whole family hinges on that one mistake. Is that coincidence or is that destiny?” Shukla’s other new novel, Run, Riot was a much more spontaneous work. “My agent had suggested that I think about it,” he recalls. “In 2014, I was working on a youth project where I was mentoring young people to create digital content, like documentaries and essays, and I always asked them what they were reading. Hardly any of them read beyond Harry Potter or Malorie Blackman. The reason a lot of them cited was that they didn’t feel represented in YA. One of them asked why didn’t I write them a YA novel and I said, ‘Yeah, I should.’ So I did.” Run, Riot is his first Young Adult novel – a thriller about teenagers who witness a police shooting, set in real time. “I don’t think it was necessarily a challenge for me to write for teenagers and in the voice of teenagers because, until very recently, I worked with teenagers nearly every day. The hard bit was that I’d never written a genre piece before. I was writing a thriller set in real time, in a single location with four narratives and using it to try to make an important political and social issue accessible. That was the really hard stuff for me. How do I ensure there aren’t any continuity errors and how do I ensure people aren’t just monologuing at each other about the evils of property development?” Although he had a first draft written before the events of Grenfell Tower, the tragedy deeply impacted the novel. In the author’s note, he writes: ‘This is a work of fiction that was conceived and drafted before the tragedy in Grenfell Tower. While I did my best to ensure that this remained a work of fiction, the awful events that happened in 2017 loomed large in my consciousness.’ “I didn’t want anyone to say that this was a police brutality novel or this was a Grenfell novel,” he notes. “In an early draft before Grenfell happened, there was a significant fire that broke out halfway through the book, which I then felt was inappropriate so I took that out. The fire was not as important as telling these kids’ stories and this community’s stories and that’s what I wanted the book to be about. When I think about the two most significant things that have happened in the UK in my lifetime, it’s the murder of Stephen Lawrence [a black teenage boy who was killed in a racially motivated attack in 1993] and Grenfell Tower. I still feel haunted by both of them and I

feel like I’ll be haunted by both of them for the rest of my life.” Shukla has always been a politically motivated writer and he is a champion for improving the lack of diversity in publishing. When asked whether he’s seen a change since he began advocating, he pauses before saying, “I’m going to say things are improving rather than they have improved. Because whether this has any long term effect is TBC. I want all these things that are happening to have a long term lasting effect because no one who is doing work around diversity wants to

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be doing work around diversity. I want to be writing and reading books. I don’t want to spend my time banging the drum for equal representation. Yet, I do it because I have a platform and people pay attention to what I’m saying, so I can’t stop saying it until it’s done. And when it’s done I need it to be done forever so I don’t have to talk about it anymore.” Tense Thrillers with Sarah Mussi & Nikesh Shukla, Garden Theatre, Charlotte Square, 25 Aug, 5.45pm, £5 Philip Hensher & Nikesh Shukla, Garden Theatre, Charlotte Square, 26 Aug, 5.45pm, £10-12

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Seeking the Truth Interview: Heather McDaid

Photo: Dominic Stevenson

Claire Askew’s debut novel tackles the tinder box of masculinity, the uneasiness of our relationship with information, and our collective desire for the reasons behind horrific crimes

eople want answers. It’s human nature. When the most horrific events happen, when unimaginable acts occur – people need to have a reason, they need to push everything into a defined box. This is what Claire Askew wanted to explore. All The Hidden Truths has a simple concept: Ryan Summers walked into Three Rivers College and killed thirteen women, then himself. No one can say why. “I’m really interested in how humans try and logic-bomb things,” explains Askew. “When massive events happen that unsettle us, we try and find meaning in them and sometimes there is none. I wanted to explore a crime where there is no logic and there is no meaning. It comes from a place of random catalysts coming together in a really tragic horrendous way. Throughout the book there are loads of people, from the mother of the gunman through to conspiracy theorists, that just want to find some answer that means they can feel okay again. I’m really interested in that urge in us as human beings to do that even when something is really senseless.” There were two catalysts in Askew’s own life that, when they came together, formed the foundation of this book. She previously worked at a further education college with a lot of young men who were disengaged with learning – they were lovely guys on a one-to-one basis, but she noticed slight shifts when they were in big groups. “If there was the slightest provocation, they would suddenly resort to violent behaviour, whether that was threatening each other or trying to climb over the desks to get to each other. The group dynamic was this toxic masculinity that none of them really bought into as individuals but it was there in the group. Toxic masculinity is such a tinderbox and you just need the right kind of catalyst to set it off. That was where the thought started: I began to ruminate, ‘What if the right, or rather the wrong, circumstances came

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together and something like this happened?’” The second is close to the heart of the story, and Scotland: the Dunblane Massacre in 1996, the last school shooting on UK soil. It occurred a few days after Askew’s 10th birthday; she was also in a small Scottish primary school at this time. “It had a seismic effect on Scotland and especially parents in Scotland,” she recalls. “I guess I never really forgot about that, then it all came back and eventually all of that melting pot created the book.” The book is one of discomfort. Using crime as a jumping off point for bigger questions, Claire situates Ryan Summers and Three Rivers College in a world that feels all too real. “What I really wanted to do was reflect reality as much as possible. The news doesn’t break on a BBC-type outlet, it breaks on the internet. I wanted to tell the ins and outs of what happened on that day through Wikipedia because that’s where a lot of people go, to almost remind themselves of what it was that happened. And yet Wikipedia is so interesting because it’s notoriously an unreliable text, and it can be edited at any time and changed – it’s this shifting thing. I was really interested in showing that in a way we absorb information about crimes and tragedies, in that we have all the details at our fingertips but we can never entirely trust them. That sense of trying to find ease but always being kept uneasy.” The unease is palpable. The reaction to the shooting is explored widely: the Detective Inspector tasked with the case, Ryan Summers’ mother, the families of victims; we hear of wretched journalists, conspiracy theorists and more. The breadth is stark and emotive, as are the kneejerk reaction queries: What did his mother know? What did she do? What about the girls? Surely there was a reason? The questions feel wrongly placed in the story when in response to someone who clearly committed a crime on their

own, but put down the book and look around and these uncomfortable questions are everywhere, in the real world. “Again, I think it’s that wanting to find an answer, then we can all go, ‘Well that explains that’. It’s the same reason why we go, ‘This person must have mental health problems’, which is obviously a massively problematic way to look at it because that has a knock-on effect for people who have mental health problems who would never kill other people.”

“ I wanted to explore a crime where there is no logic and there is no meaning” Claire Askew

Through the hounding of Summers’ mother, to the guilt of those recounting their last interactions with victims, to the manipulation by reporters desperate for the scoop, Askew keeps it grounded in the real world. The one distinct shift in the narrative is the Edinburgh setting. “I think that we’re a bit complacent in saying, ‘It could never happen here’. I think we’re very lucky to have the gun laws in this country because I actually think we’re not in any way superior or better people, we just don’t have easy access to weapons of large-scale destruction. I suspect that if we did, we’d have the same culture of toxic masculinity and representations of masculinity that are violent. We’re not dealing

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with those, so I did want to start a conversation about that. “We do have issues of young men getting involved in violent crime and seeing it as a normal thing and they’re not bad people, they’re normal teenage boys; they’re just acting out like the rules that have been kind of given to them and that’s something – however that eventually manifests itself, whatever kind of tragedy or difficulty – I think we all need to be talking about.” All The Hidden Truths is a marvel. It begins a casual read and before you know it the pages are turning in quick succession – a need to know why when you know there simply can’t be an answer. Absorbing and suspenseful, it’s a thought-provoking debut novel. But what does Askew hope people take from the read? “I’d quite like people to think about how there are no easy answers, and you can’t pigeonhole anybody. I didn’t want to rehabilitate Ryan Summers because he did a horrendous thing, but I wanted to make it difficult for people to make easy judgements about him. I wanted it to be difficult for people to go, ‘He’s obviously just an outlier, we don’t really have to worry about this sort of thing because it happens so rarely, the people who do it are different to us’. “I wanted people to be troubled by the idea that Ryan was actually quite normal. I want people to read it and hopefully in future think twice about making easy judgements when they see tragedies happen and the media presenting a depiction of a victim, or a family member, or a perpetrator and they want to take that at face value, I’d like people to question that more and realise there’s no straightforward answer.” Claire Askew & Alan Parks: Crime Debuts to Die For, Charlotte Square (Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre), 19 Aug, 8.30pm, £6-8 All the Hidden Truths, 9 Aug, Hodder & Stoughton

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Home Comforts We speak to feminist clowns Silent Faces and incisive comic Evelyn Mok about amplifying their voices and finding a supportive family with the Pleasance

award-winning 2017 show Hymen Manoeuvre was “me making a room of very nice white people uncomfortable. “But when I realised I might be doing that, I was really surprised. It’s not my intention. As stand-ups, we’re telling our truth, we’re just doing it through comedy – I don’t have the conventional mainstream experience, and my experience was very affected by the mainstream white experience. But let’s just feel these feelings, and try and work it out together! I do believe in being respectful, but I feel like people are trying to supress conversations that make them feel uncomfortable. [For example], the #MeToo movement is an uncomfortable conversation that people refused to have, and now we’re finally scratching on the surface of it. It’s so important.”

“ They look after you, and you’re part of a team. You go in to battle every night together, even though comedy’s not a battle…” Evelyn Mok

This year’s Reserve catapults Chloe Petts and Helen Bauer into the spotlight, while Catherine Bohart follows Mok’s trajectory, returning to the Pleasance with her first solo show Immaculate, after a Reserve spot in 2017. Other Pleasance returnees include Natalie Palamides and Lauren Pattison, after triumphant debuts last year; both were nominated as Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, but Palamides took home the title. Showbiz legend Ruby Wax is back for more, too. Her sell-out show Frazzled returns to the courtyard for six nights only. For Mok, performing at the Pleasance feels like “coming

A Clown Show About Rain

August 2018

Evelyn Mok

home”, and it seems she’s not the only one. On the theatrical side of the bill is Silent Faces, currently the Pleasance’s Associate Theatre Company, who are experts in highly physical and political clowning. Cordelia Stevenson – co-founder, along with Josie Underwood and Jack Wakely – describes how they sought out a relationship with the Pleasance from the very beginning. “We showed an interest in them, and they started the conversation!” she says, enthusing that the biggest benefit is in learning from the Pleasance’s experienced producers: “You need people to ask questions to, otherwise you’re just floating around going, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing!’” Silent Faces is a prize-winning, integrated company (which means that the cast includes disabled and non-disabled performers), and visibility is central to their ethos. Stevenson explains: “We’re particularly passionate about the visibility of disabled people on stage. Invisible disabilities might mean that when you’re watching a piece of work you wouldn’t notice – for Jack, it's fibromyalgia. All three of us have also had battles with mental health issues, and it does have an effect on the work that we make and the way that we make it.” The company uses a physical language to talk about serious things – their debut Follow Suit gave a darkly absurd take on the world of high finance, and this year’s brand new A Clown Show About Rain examines mental health with bodies (and yellow rain jackets) rather than with words. Stevenson explains: “It’s about a clown – someone who can’t speak – learning to find their voice, and what drives them to be able to speak. There’s something about being [physically] expressive that is very freeing: there’s so much more potential than words can ever give you – you’ve only got a few words!” Stevenson notes that clowning is often “very male-dominated”, describing how “the process of learning to clown can be quite an unkind one, funnily enough. But over the past five

Photo: James Deacon

or audiences and performers alike, the Pleasance banner is a sign of trust. Their cobblestoned courtyard offers quality and quirkiness for August’s adventure-seekers, and their stages have launched innumerable glittering careers. It’s no secret, though, that theatre and comedy are male-dominated industries, and performing at the Fringe is often accessible only to those who can afford the financial risk: this is where the Pleasance steps in. On the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, female and non-binary talent are centre stage for the Pleasance’s 2018 programme. For any comedian, the Charlie Hartill Comedy Reserve is a coveted platform. Established in 2004, in memory of Pleasance colleague and performer Charlie Hartill, the Reserve provides a prestigious nightly Fringe slot for four rising comics. Perhaps even more importantly, the Reserve takes care of the costs – all the comedians need to do is show up and let rip, even though that’s definitely easier said than done. Alumni include Jack Whitehall, Holly Walsh and Joe Lycett, and as well as being a leg-up for the artists, it’s both a bargain and a bragging rights opportunity for punters. Evelyn Mok, returning to the Pleasance’s leafy courtyard with new show Bubble Butt, won a spot on the Reserve in 2014. “I was really determined to get a try-out!” she remembers. “Even getting a try-out is really difficult. Ryan [Taylor, Pleasance Theatre Trust's Head of Comedy] keeps his hand on the pulse; he knows the scene, so I went to the Pleasance to like… show myself.” Mok laughs: “I basically stalked him to get that try-out. It worked. “First it was a feeling of accomplishment, and then complete nerves! Oh my god, I want to do a good job, all of that. But you become a part of the Pleasance family so quick, and you’re kind of the kid: they look after you, and you’re part of a team. You go in to battle every night together, even though comedy’s not a battle…” Isn’t it? “Well… Exactly! It depends on the night. If you’re a newer act, it’s just so appreciated to have that support network.” Mok’s new show is about “difficult conversations” – an arena in which she has plenty of experience. Her previous works have dissected her experiences as a Swedish-Chinese woman, hilariously skewering racist teachers and awkward party small talk. She jokes that her

Photo: Heather Pasfield

years there’s been a surge in women making clowning work, and for me it’s actually the process in the rehearsal room [that makes clowning a feminist act].” The show was developed as part of the Pleasance Scratch programme, which gave Silent Faces two days of practice space in which “to throw ideas around”, and then ten minutes in front of a live audience, to give those ideas an airing. “Feedback is so valuable at that stage,” she says, describing their creative working relationship with the Pleasance team as “very trusting”. “[Clowning] isn’t something they have a specific history with, but they listen to what it is we do, and are passionate about saying: ‘How can we find them their audience? How can we help them to be self-sufficient?’” Women can be found not only on the Pleasance stage but behind it too – Nichola McAuliffe's play Revenants tackles the impact of prejudice and segregation in the 1940s. And this year’s Theatre Reserve winners are Strictly Arts Theatre, whose show Freeman (by Camilla Whitehill) exposes how systemic racism damages a sense of self. Stiff and Kitsch are back with musical theatre comedy Adele Is Younger Than Us – which, yep, reminds us all of our desperate lack of Grammys. Aside from sheer talent and an incisive ability to handle heckling, the only thing this disparate, dazzling line-up has in common is a supportive stage to call home. Once you’ve settled in to that courtyard, you’ll find it hard to leave, too. Evelyn Mok: Bubble Butt, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker One), 1-26 Aug, 6pm, £6-10 A Clown Show About Rain, Pleasance Dome (10 Dome), 1-27 Aug (not 13, 20) 1:40pm, £6.50-11 pleasance.co.uk

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THE SKINNY

Starting Points Ahead of her various appearances in Edinburgh this August, we catch up with prolific composer Anna Meredith to talk Five Telegrams, Varmints, Vivaldi and bumper cars

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latest challenges has come in the form of composing the music for Five Telegrams, a free outdoor digital performance featuring whole building projection mapping from the incredible Tony Award-winning 59 Productions team. “The BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival wanted to do a co-commission – I don’t think they’ve ever done anything [together] before – for both of their first nights... and obviously Edinburgh have been working with 59,” Meredith explains alluding to their recent EIF opening night productions: The Harmonium Project (2015), Deep Time (2016) and last year’s Bloom. “So they started talking about a light and music show and they wanted to commission someone so they got in touch. Then 14-18 NOW (WWI Centenary Art Commissions) came on board as third commissioning partner and they added in the World War One element to it.” Working closely with Richard Slaney, the Managing Director of 59 Productions and director of Five Telegrams, the pair found inspiration based on material found at the Imperial War Museum: “It’s such a huge, sensitive, complicated, awful subject to try and get your head around,” says Meredith. “Rich Slaney and I were trying to find a way in so we went to the Imperial War Museum a few times to look for starting points. We were paired up with an amazing historian there, Alan Wakefield, who would talk us through, and give us bits of insight and stuff, and eventually we started looking at these Field Postcards – different kinds of communication. That’s what the whole piece is about, five different kinds of communication that were used during the First World War and the rules and infrastructure behind each of those.” Five Telegrams will reflect on the centenary of the end of the Great War while celebrating Scotland’s Year of Young People and from what we’ve seen on Meredith’s Instagram feed is not to be missed. “I spent all my time rehearsing in the

hall with the orchestra,” she says of the lead-up to the premiere as part of the opening night of the 2018 BBC Proms, “then suddenly it was about 10 o’clock [on the night of the premiere], I just ran outside and watched it, it was crazy it all coming together in that moment… It looks incredible so I can’t wait to see it again in Edinburgh – even more people, bigger audience, apparently you can get the sound to be pretty beefy, so brilliant!” Meredith will also be performing a new arrangement of Varmints at EIF on 11 August as part of their expansive Light on the Shore series at Leith Theatre. For this, Meredith will be performing with her band and London’s Southbank Sinfonia. “I didn’t actually do the arrangement for it ‘cause I was writing the Five Telegrams piece...” Meredith enthusiastically confesses. “The guys in my band, who are all amazing composers too, did the arrangement so I sort of just rocked up to the gig and heard these arrangements and they’re incredible – it’s so exciting! We’ve done it very much so it’s not band in the front, orchestra in the back; we’ve tried to really make it more like a giant band. The orchestra is a really important musical part that’s not just [playing] long soaring lines in the back, they do all the hard stuff… I think it’s going to be a really good show. “We’re doing the whole album,” Meredith continues. “When we’ve been doing the band show last year we’ve never ever performed Blackfriars, which is the last track on the album so there’s new stuff that we’ve never done from the album for this show... but we do finish on Blackfriars which is a total downer,” she says laughing. And topping off her trio of shows in Edinburgh this August is Anno, a collaborative piece between Meredith and the Scottish Ensemble whereby new pieces of electronic work have been written and woven around Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Having upset classical purists in the past, who actually sent her physical hate mail for composing

Photo: Anna Victoria Best

nce August is out the way, I’ll be like ‘give me my dodgems!’” Anna Meredith is a very busy woman. So busy in fact that she’s “forgotten how to relax” and when we phone her for a chat just five days after the debut of Five Telegrams, performed as part of the BBC Proms at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall, she’s “sitting about feeling the post-post-show weirdness… post-gig, freakingout feeling,” while fantasising about “maybe a couple of days in Butlins,” going on to later state that she just wants “to take the band for a few days to Pontins,” so she can “sit on the dodgems or something.” Sounds good! Before we get to Meredith’s dreams of spending weekends in holiday camps riding around in bumper cars, we reminisce about the time we saw her at Iceland Airwaves just months after she won the Scottish Album of the Year Award for her 2016 debut, Varmints. “I loved that gig!” Meredith says excitedly down the line. “When we talk about our favourite gigs that is one [of them] – they were just so mental at that show, everyone was just screaming, it was a really nice one. It’s been great to be doing so many different gigs. “I feel like in Edinburgh, in a way you’ve kind of got the three stages: something that I’ve written where I will definitely not be performing, something that I am performing and then something where I’m performing alongside others, so there’s that different mix of what I do. “I saw some Skinny thing describe Five Telegrams as a collaboration with singer-songwriter [Anna Meredith],” she, embarrassingly, goes on to point out. “I was really baffled by it: those guys know me, I can’t sing!!!” she says as we both burst out laughing. Not at the fact she can’t sing, as that is very much a false claim, but singer-songwriter she ain’t. As the former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA, one of Meredith’s

Interview: Tallah Brash

a body percussion piece entitled HandsFree which was performed at the 2012 BBC Proms, what is it actually like taking on something as big as The Four Seasons? “I mean it was pretty daunting at first,” begins Meredith, “I couldn’t figure out a way to write music that could sit alongside something so well-known and so famous, so I sort of had to treat it a bit like as if Vivaldi and I were working on a piece together. So there’s bits of Vivaldi, there’s bits of me, there’s partner pieces.

“ Everything I’ve been offered is so exciting that I can’t say no..." Anna Meredith

“I’ve not actually interpreted Vivaldi so it’s different to say what Max Richter does/has done. It’s bits of Vivaldi sort of alone with music either side of it, so of course if you’re coming to hear The Four Seasons in its original state it’s gonna probably feel quite different to you because it’s got other bits of music in it – it’s not like a totally different version of The Four Seasons, most of that material’s still in there, it’s just got other bits of music alongside it.” Anno is also being released as an album in August via Moshi Moshi with stunning artwork courtesy of Meredith’s sister Eleanor, and when performed live the players will be surrounded by screens featuring Eleanor’s animations creating a fully immersive and unique experience. “It’s a really lovely performance, the players are utterly, utterly brilliant, the Scottish Ensemble are such good players so even if you’ve never seen a string orchestra before you get to be so close to this amazing virtuosic playing and that’s really, really exciting, and the visuals my sister has done for it are fantastic!” As we delve a little deeper, Meredith gets excitedly lost in a world of “geeky” and “techy” musical jargon, excitedly telling us about harmonics played during the performance by solo violinist Jonathan Morton’s “not normal violin fingering,” going on to conclude that “he manages to make it look utterly, utterly effortless. Can you come and see the show? ‘Cause you’ve honestly got to come and see this guy do this!” As our chat winds down, we point out that Meredith has also just released a film soundtrack for Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade; “Yes, I know, what I am doing!?” she interjects, seemingly in disbelief herself. “Everything I’ve been offered or asked to do is all cool and so exciting that I can’t say no – I’m absolutely exhausted and thinking never, never again and then someone says, ‘can you just do this?’ and it’s ‘aw crap, that’s incredible’ so I’ll pull some all-nighters. But yeah, the film’s brilliant, I loved writing that. “I’m trying to keep the rest of the year clear to get on with the second album – I’ve started it and I’ve got some stuff done but I had to kind of put it to one side to get Five Telegrams done. So yeah, the plan is to get back on with that, maybe have some kind of holiday but I seem to have forgotten how to relax, I just don’t know how to do it anymore… wired at all times.” Five Telegrams takes place at Festival Square, Edinburgh, 3 Aug; Anna Meredith performs Varmints with the Southbank Sinfonia at Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 11 Aug; Anna Meredith performs Anno with the Scottish Ensemble at EICC, Edinburgh, 17-18 Aug annameredith.com

August 2018

Music

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Hidden Gems

Carla J. Easton

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The Skinny asks, perhaps too eagerly, if there could be an opportunity for these records to be re-released, but Young puts us straight. “A lot of them were never issued in the first place! It’s incredible to think about what else is out there. Given the Scottish pop output compared to the size of the population, why was the gender balance so woefully off? For me that just underlines [the question]: ‘Who gets to get signed? And who gets to have financed, supported careers?’ If I’d wanted to have been in a band I’d have had hundreds of role models.”

“ In the late 70s/ early 80s it was still dangerous for women to be in an audience at a gig sometimes... Not only were these women going to gigs and becoming a part of the scene, they were the scene”

and learn our instruments together, maybe we’d have done it earlier.” She hints that the documentary will have a “focus on the 80s, because that’s when Scottish music exploded. That period’s been looked at so much, but not the bands we’re featuring. There was this community centred around specific rehearsal spaces where all the bands, the ones that went on to make it were really good friends with the ones who didn’t. And you’ve got to remember that in the late 70s/early 80s it was still dangerous for women to be in an audience at a gig sometimes, and that’s another really remarkable part of the story – not only were these women going to gigs and becoming a part of the scene, they were the scene.” Determined to get these tunes in your ears? You’re in luck. As part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s Light on the Shore gig series, the Since Yesterday team are throwing a party in celebration of these bands and those songs. Easton’s put together a ‘house band’ who are learning fourteen new tracks, “ranging from full pop to that classic ‘60s girl-group sound, to complete post-punk with a bit of riot grrrl in there. It’s a greatest hits of non-hits!” Sharing the setlist with the rest of the performers set off a “chain reaction.” Easton enthuses, “We’re all discussing this music we’ve never heard before and there’s that teenage excitement in discovering something new, that’s old. “Some singers from the original bands will join us on stage,” Easton explains. “Everyone’s been approached, but some people are happy to watch rather than perform their songs now, so we’ll have guest singers in their place.” Learning and reinterpreting the songs has been a unique experience, too. “I’ve been asking the original bands, should I attempt synths here? They’re like, do it! We couldn’t afford one at the time.” Covering The Ettes has proved a particular challenge: “They did five gigs ever [in 1979] and the recordings are like… what is that?? They said, ‘Oh, we recorded it in the living room and we didn’t have a drum kit, so that’s boxes we’re hitting.’ How are we going to reimagine this? And

still do it in a respectful way, of course.” The house band includes Lesley McLaren (Altered Images) on drums, Vicki Cole (Randolph’s Leap) on bass, two guitarists – Kate Lazda (Kid Canaveral) and Stacey Sievwright (The Moth & The Mirror), who’ll also play cello – reading like a who’s who of Scottish indie. Expect sets from Glasgow’s The Van T’s and 2017 Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning duo Sacred Paws on the night, too, as well as an after-party conducted by Bossy Love – “I think they’re the best live band in Scotland right now!” Easton urges. Blair weighs in saying that the evening’s also a celebration of Scotland’s current wave of crazily good bands, and points out that their line-up isn’t prescriptive. Both The Van T’s and Bossy Love have male members too, and he says: “If you’re a woman should you form a band with women? No, form a band any way you want.” And to those frustrated by the project’s focus on women? “You have to look at who is doing the criticism,” says Easton. “Women have always made music. We’ve always made popular music, indie music, rock music, every kind of genre, and has that been celebrated to the extent that it needs to be celebrated? We’re just telling a story that’s not been told, which should have been told.” “We’re not knocking those bands that are seminal,” Young adds. “We’re just saying, by the way, at the same time these other bands – essentially because of who they were – didn’t get the chance to make the same waves.” Easton agrees. “The phrase we keep hearing when we contact [these musicians] is, ‘I’ve been waiting for this to happen. I’ve been waiting for someone to approach us. I’m glad someone’s finally making this.’ Look at a band like Strawberry Switchblade who had a top 10 single, Since Yesterday, it’s what we’ve named the night after. The idea is that it’s since yesterday we’ve been doing this. It’s not new.” Since Yesterday, Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 24 Aug eif.co.uk/whats-on/2018/since-yesterday

Carla J. Easton

“I didn’t start making music with my friends until my late 20s,” Easton replies. “If there’d been a documentary that made it seem normal for me to be 15 and go into a garage with my best friend

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Strawberry Switchblade

The Twinsets

THE SKINNY

Photo: Andy Glidden

ho gets to become ‘seminal?’ Which bands get consigned to history, or enshrined in a museum? Since Yesterday, a documentary filmin-progress and a special concert at the Leith Theatre on 24 August asks all these questions and then some. Starting with Edinburgh band The McKinleys – ‘60s sister duo Sheila and Jeanette McKinley – musician Carla J. Easton and filmmaker Blair Young are writing, filming and singing (!) the history of Scottish, all-female bands who haven’t been celebrated as they should. “We’re both first and foremost music fans,” Easton explains. The idea surfaced while planning a music video for Easton’s band TeenCanteen’s song How We Met (Cherry Pie): “We were looking at examples of how all-female groups had been represented in music videos previously, and then I mentioned that I’d been collecting information on Scottish all-female bands.” Blair laughs, admitting that his “ears pricked up” at the potential in a documentary on the material. “When I started going to see music in the ‘90s, my internalised reference point would be ‘Oh yeah, an all-female band’ – it was never just, ‘That band with great music.’” He says: “I think so much of that stuff is quietly damaging and not terribly progressive, and that’s my focus for the whole documentary, to broaden people’s horizons. It’s not just the music industry; it’s probably [the same] in every industry in the world. We forget to notice and we need to do more work.” The documentary is still in progress and the research is tricky but thrilling. Hunting for information on bands like Strawberry Switchblade, The Ettes and The Twinsets has involved, as Easton puts it, “trawling pages and pages of blogs and archives to try and find photos or lost Peel sessions, to find out where these recordings are. The more we’ve worked on it, the more music that’s become available. We’re both hearing [a lot of] these songs for the first time, and it’s brilliant.” Young agrees: “The information online is very scant. We’ve had to speak to the bands themselves, really, to discover anything. But it always comes back to the music, and the music is great. It’s all these amazing gems that we’ve been able to start mining a little bit.”

Interview: Katie Hawthorne

Photo: Simon Clegg

Photo: Brian Sweeney

Blair Young and Carla J. Easton tell us about Since Yesterday, their documentary film and live gig celebration of Scottish women in music. History’s never sounded so good

Slideshow Job Ahead of his first run of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, we speak to Super Furry Animals frontman and prolific solo artist Gruff Rhys about his love of cue cards, the future of the Welsh language, and why people sometimes struggle to understand him

Interview: Chris McCall

f you were confronted at a gig by a musician holding up a large sign proclaiming “APPLAUSE!”, chances are you would immediately start clapping. That’s the experience of Gruff Rhys, sometime leader of the Super Furry Animals and prolific solo artist. He is the undisputed master of cue cards at live shows. Why engage in banal onstage banter when you can simply hold up a piece of cardboard with a snappy one word pointer? Those unfamiliar with the inimitable Welsh songwriter might presume such actions are based on ego. But for Rhys, perhaps the most softly spoken of all frontmen to find fame in the swaggering mid-90s, the idea to use cue cards was a practical one. “When I was a kid I was into bands like Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain who didn’t communicate at all with the audience,” he tells The Skinny in his distinctive half-whisper. “I found that a lot less condescending. For about the first ten years of performing I didn’t really bother speaking to the audience as I didn’t want to start being condescending myself. After a while the audiences started to get a bit bigger and I felt I needed to communicate. But then no one could understand what I was saying. I don’t have a very commanding voice. It was mostly my accent and the low volume of my voice and a lack of projection. I have the same predicament in the Welsh language as well. I’m equally unclear. “Then, by accident, by holding up the signs people would react immediately and be very obedient. I couldn’t believe how malleable the audience were.” He laughs: “I try not to exploit that hour of the show and try to use the signs responsibly!” Rhys will bring his many cue cards to the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh when he arrives in the Capital for an eight-night residency as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he’ll play a selection of songs from his long and varied career. And what songs they are. There are few touring musicians in the UK who have achieved such critical success, first with a band, and then as a solo songwriter, while staying true to their firmly-held beliefs. Back when record companies still had sizable promotional budgets, the newly-signed Super Furries spent theirs on a specially-modified army tank to play impromptu techno sets – a fun-yet-serious protest at the infamous Tory clampdown on illegal raves which could see a DJ’s equipment impounded by police. Just you try and impound this tank, was the band’s message. Several years later, the band would reject a seven-figure offer from Coca-Cola to use their song Hello Sunshine in an advert citing alleged malpractice by the company in one of its South American bottling plants. “We felt we couldn’t justify endorsing a product that may have had a part in violently suppressing some of its workers,” wrote Rhys at the time. While working on his own or as part of the Neon Neon electro project, he has since explored in song such matters as Brexit, hotel shampoo bottles and the life and death of Italian communist publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.

August 2018

Rhys taped the songs for Babelsberg. “The record is not particularly political, although there are some themes here and there,” he explains. “When I was looking for a title I wanted it to allude to the recording process which was disrupted by the studio being knocked down to build luxury flats. It seemed to sum up a kind of societal moment where cultural spaces are no longer considered things of value, and instead they are turned into these kinds of homes that have a veneer of opulence, which only magnifies disparity. The record is opulent itself, with the orchestra, so it has that veneer as well.”

“For about the first ten years of performing I didn’t really bother speaking to the audience as I didn’t want to start being condescending” Gruff Rhys

But back to Edinburgh. “I’ve played the odd gig at the festival but I’ve never been there for a week before,” explains Rhys. “It’s just something that happened, accidentally, really. I started doing a slideshow when I was touring American Interior. I had like a Powerpoint presentation that I was doing on the road, in-between playing songs. Since then, I’ve got a new slideshow and I got offered these gigs. It’s something that’s built gradually and something I’ve fallen into rather than having any grand ambitions. “I’ve been to the festival a little bit and had a sort of glimpse of what goes on without completely understanding it, you know? This time I’ll get to live in it for a while. I’m playing a really late show (11pm) so it’s going to be a bit like a midnight movie. So I’ll have all day to figure out what goes on. I’ll just be doing it myself with a guitar and a slideshow. I’m going to play songs from my new record and lots of old songs from the past 30 years. I think it’s going to make sense! The slideshow is about – for the most part – how

I’ve been using cue cards to communicate with audiences for the last decade or so. So I’m going to bring all of them and the slideshow is going to feature a lot of them. I’m going to see how far I can take these commands to the audience.” Tracks from Rhys’ latest solo album Babelsberg, which was released in June despite being largely finished in 2016, will be played throughout the show. The album features orchestral scores by Swansea-based composer Stephen McNeff and the work of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. “It just took as long as it took,” he says. “I had the bulk of it done a couple of years ago but I was keen to get the arrangements right and had to find an orchestra, which took a while – a couple of years! Which is longer than I usually take with a record.” The record’s title is a reference to the kind of plush residential towers that have sprung up in many major UK cities in recent years, often at the expense of more community-minded facilities – including the Cardiff recording studio where

Music

Looking beyond the Fringe, Rhys is working with his Furries bandmates to prepare more SFA reissues following the successful remastering of the group’s first two albums. Further down the line we could also hear new solo material in Welsh. Rhys and his band have long been proponents of their native tongue and its central role in Welsh culture. “I’ve got a few Welsh language songs on the go at the moment,” he says. “Welsh language music at the moment is very healthy. There’s a digital distribution service, PYST, and they’re putting out loads of bands. There’s new stuff going up every week – from interesting music, to middle-of-the-road music. Like any other language! “Most people in Wales are now very accepting of the language even if they don’t speak it. But the reality on the ground, in areas where it has been spoken traditionally, means it is being disrupted for all kinds of reasons. People are being priced out of their communities by the housing market. There’s been a huge drop in many areas in the number of Welsh speakers in the past 20 years, areas where you once took it for granted they were 100% Welsh speaking. When you reach that threshold of 50% it can go downhill very swiftly. In a lot of industrial areas they lost the language a century ago and it’s been revived by Welsh language education. So it’s increasing in some places and decreasing in its heartlands. It’s a real battle, you know?” Gruff Rhys: Resist Phony Encores!, Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond), 17-25 Aug (not 20), £19.50-23.50 gruffrhys.com

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Riot Gaze What does it take to prepare to protest? Pussy Riot brief The Skinny on their punk spectacle Riot Days and *that* World Cup final performance

Interview: Katie Hawthorne

“ All of us who are making protest actions, rallies, demonstrations – this is how patriotism should look” Maria ‘Masha’ Alyokhina

They became infamous in 2012, after a performance titled Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Drive Putin Away in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour culminated in a criminal sentence for three of their activists. The unconventional prayer demanded a separation of church and state – the chorus repeats, ‘Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin’ – but they were falsely charged on grounds of religious hatred. Masha, along with other co-founders Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, evaded the police for some time before they were caught, relying on anonymity (which, today, is no longer possible) to give statements to the press. As Masha writes in Riot Days, “Giving an interview over Skype while wearing a balaclava and sitting in a café without ordering anything is weirder than ordinarily sitting in a café without ordering anything. So we hid in the toilets. […] Once, one of us left a balaclava in the stall. The waitress brought it back to us.” The show replicates the book’s timeline, starting with Pussy Riot’s early protests and following Masha as she is arrested, sentenced to two years in prison and transferred to a penal colony in the Ural Mountains. There, she campaigned from her cell for improved working conditions, fairer wages for prisoners and the right to visit a lawyer without intrusive strip searches. It’s

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Photo: Alexander Sofeev

ussy Riot are in a van in Normandy, heading east. As we speak on a patchy, unreliable phone line, they stop at a service station and receive news from Moscow: all four of their friends – Pyotr Verzilov, Veronika Nikulshina, Olga Kuracheva and Olga Pakhtusova – who dressed as cops and stormed the pitch at the FIFA World Cup final in front of Vladimir Putin are sentenced to fifteen days of administrative arrest (and a three-year ban on attending sporting events). It’s hard to know how to respond. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Cheparukhin – producer of Riot Days, the show based on Maria ‘Masha’ Alyokhina’s autobiography of the same name – assures us that it’s actually quite a light sentence. “This is a real achievement. At least it’s not criminal punishment,” he says. It could have been far worse. Gifs have been made from the video of Nikulshina high-fiving France’s star player Kylian Mbappé. Photos of the pitch invasion were published underneath newspaper headlines across the world. Pussy Riot, Russia’s most famous activist collective, specialise in theatrical political protest that is digitally savvy. They are a punk band, authors, a touring theatre troupe, a human rights media organisation, but most of all they are tireless, strategic protestors. Pussy Riot’s sharp, concise demands and iconic neon balaclavas appeal to the greedy consumption of online news outlets, which is to say that they can capture the world’s attention whenever they choose.

a remarkable story, told in surreal vignettes that are testimony to unimaginable bravery, and evidence of a piercing sense of humour. “I should tell you a story of my involvement with Pussy Riot,” Sasha starts; a prominent figure in Russia’s music scene, he’s been integral to the creation of the Riot Days show, as well as the book’s publication. Once the producer of Russia’s largest arts festivals, including the Russian branch of WOMAD, his career took a strange turn after he became publically associated with the collective, which started when Verzilov – Tolokonnikova’s husband, and one of the World Cup performers – asked him to help bring global attention to Pussy Riot’s 2012 court case. “For several days I had some doubts,” he admits, “I was not sure I completely agreed with their action in the church. But then I realised that the court wasn’t fair, so I decided to help and I wrote to big stars.” He collected handwritten letters and videos of support from celebrities like Peter Gabriel, Patti Smith and Madonna, but the biggest coup was in reaching Sir Paul McCartney. “People said, don’t even try. He’s a friend of Putin. Well, not a friend, but he visited on a personal invite to the Kremlin. I don’t think you realise that Paul McCartney is the biggest authority for many generations of Russians.” McCartney responded within the hour and published a passionate letter of support online. After this, Sasha noticed a change. “Step by step, because it was a different time,” – he pauses to explain that Russian law was softer six years ago – “I started to lose my festivals. Even the press secretary of Putin called local authorities to tell them that they are stupid to cooperate with people like me.” The touring Riot Days show that visits Edinburgh’s Summerhall this August was his idea, but it was only after Masha wrote the book that she gave him the go-ahead: “She told me – let’s do it.” So they pulled together a seasoned team of performers. Musicians Nastia (the anonymous

‘bass player’ in Masha’s book) and Maxim – who perform under the name AWOTT (Asian Women on the Telephone) – bring chaotic electro-punk soundscapes, and Masha is joined on stage by her colleague from the Belarus Free Theatre, actor Kyril Kanstansinau. The show is “made theatrical” by director Yury Muravitsky, a recipient of prestigious Russian theatre award the Golden Mask. Sasha lists the countries they’ve toured – the US, Australia, the UK, “all of Europe” – and proudly details rapturous responses: “It would not be honest to say that I didn’t expect it! It’s a marvellous text and a very unique performance. “The goal of the show is not only to show how bad it is in Russia.” He continues: “The goal is to show people that they can act if they want to act, and even in oppressive, difficult circumstances, they can win. Masha won three cases out of four against her prison administration. You can win. The goal is to share the Russian feeling of action and justice and will.” He passes the phone to another, newer musician in the collective, Aleksandra ‘Sasha’ Klokova. We ask what kind of preparation is involved in joining a group like Pussy Riot and she sounds amused: “No, I didn’t prepare at all! In Russia everybody is really afraid. You feel it every day on the streets, everywhere. So I’m happy to be an example that it’s true – everybody can be Pussy Riot. I never prepared for this, but with Pussy Riot you must be ready for anything.” The West has long been fascinated by this collective and it’s easy to see why. Protest in the UK rarely comes in a form stronger than an organised march. Feminist slogans feature within corporate branding strategies and are splashed across dangerously cheap T-shirts. Sometimes it seems that Western media coverage of the violent treatment endured by Pussy Riot activists at the hands of Russian law enforcement is more voyeuristic than it is supportive. For Masha, who’s taken the phone from

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Klokova, all this is irrelevant. “All that is written is true. I can say that the attention from the West, about Pussy Riot, about any activists in Russia, it’s protection. We all know that it can be worse. A lot of people disappear, or have been tortured and killed. This protection is really, really helpful for all of us.” She abruptly passes the phone back to Sasha. “She’s finished,” he says. We worry that we’ve caused offence. There’s a quick, hushed conversation and suddenly she’s back. “I had an emergency,” she laughs, without explanation. In Russia, and increasingly in the UK and the US, it’s common for the state to denounce activists as “traitors” who hate their country. Masha vehemently disagrees. “All of us who are making protest actions, rallies, demonstrations – this is how patriotism should look. “If you look to the history of any country, especially [the] countries that used to be USSR, all the people who fought for change, after ten or twenty years they became politicians, national heroes, members of European Parliament. People who protest and demonstrate, who’ve been beaten, who’ve been in prison, after some time [the public] understand why they tried. For current power, it’s very easy [for them] to say that we want something bad for our country. This has been used in our country for 100 years, there’s a big tradition of this shit. If Great Britain has the same, if your media or your politicians do this, it’s a very bad sign. It’s pure totalitarian propaganda.” Pussy Riot’s long-term objectives are these: political freedom and competition, no more political prisoners, no fabricated criminal punishments, no illegal arrests at rallies. What does small-scale success feel like? Masha laughs: “I don’t believe in success.” Then she concedes: “At least we have a sense of humour, especially about ourselves. This is what I hope we will not lose.” Riot Days, Summerhall, 10-19 Aug, 7pm, £17.50 facebook.com/wearepussyriot/

THE SKINNY

11TH YEAR! THE ESSENTIAL EDINBURGH SHOW! ‘Had me weeping with laughter… you absolutely have to go.’ Mail on Sunday

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‘Achingly funny. Worth seeing again and again.’ Time Out Critics’ Choice

1 – 26 AUGUST, 6PM

plus 11.30pm late show on 12 Aug www.pleasance.co.uk | 0131 556 6550

Original artwork design: BoomEnts.com.

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Claudia by Giulia Fiorista from the Le Zite series

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DESIGN

Photo: Ross Fraser Mclean

Photo: Francesco Tagliavia

Bobitza Silk Scarf by Giulia Fiorista from the Le Zite Series

Photo: Francesco Tagliavia

Sunset at the Cobbler Cotton Scarf by Ruth Mitchell

Photo: Christina Kernohan

Trio of Cotton Scarves by Mhari McMullan, Ruth Mitchell, Isabella Bunnell

THE SKINNY

Made in Glasgow Local Heroes celebrates the strength of Glasgow’s design scene in a new exhibition this month; curator Stacey Hunter introduces what’s in store

xceptional Scottish design is once more in the spotlight, with Made In Glasgow by Local Heroes turning Glasgow’s Merchant City quarter into the best place in Scotland to see contemporary design for a 16 day period this August. Part of the cultural programme running alongside the Berlin / Glasgow 2018 European Championships (from 28 July until 12 August), – the show will transform a former retail space in the heart of the city into an immersive exhibition environment and a catalyst for audiences to discover contemporary design. Glasgow artist Steff Norwood has been invited to create a variety of geological island sculptures which reference Scotland’s diverse landscapes. The sculptures act as plinths for 12 special commissions and a curated selection of over 30 objects – a thrilling combination of

precision engineering, craft and design. Along with our project partners at Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, we believe that Glasgow’s flourishing design scene well-deserves the accolade Local Heroes. This special celebratory pop-up features the work of over 20 designers and design studios from Glasgow, and a special guest from Berlin. [Stacey Hunter] Made in Glasgow by Local Heroes runs from 28 Jul-12 Aug; Every exhibit is for sale in-store at 58 Albion Street, Glasgow, G1 1LH and online at localheroes.design Check social channels for updates about opening times, as these vary to align with local events such as the European Championships and the Merchant City Festival. facebook.com/localheroesdesign instagram.com/localheroesdesign twitter.com/LocalHeroesScot

The Glasgow Raincoat by Love & Squalor x Alice Dansey-Wright

August 2018

DESIGN

Photo: Christina Kernohan

Slot Earrings by Cecilia Stamp

Photo: Caro Weiss

Feature

THE SKINNY

Honesty is the Best Policy Bristol punks IDLES’ new album breaks down nationalism, toxic masculinity, immigration and class inequality – but frontman Joe Talbot doesn’t intend to be sucked into a shouting match

Photo: Lindsay Melbourne

Interview: Jonathan Rimmer

unk has been characterised as an intrinsically anti-establishment enterprise since its inception, but a handful of exceptional artists have felt compelled to reinvigorate that spirit over decades. Dissonant hardcore pioneers Fugazi did it when they released Repeater in 1990, as did Swedish experimentalists Refused when they flipped the script on 1998’s The Shape of Punk to Come. Equally, IDLES’ debut Brutalism felt like the short, sharp shock the scene needed when it was released last year, expressing feelings of anger and disillusionment with society using the explicit language of class warfare. In an era of rife inequality, societal polarisation and political injustice, the only surprising aspect of the record is it took so long in coming. Shamelessly irreverent vocals, ferocious riffs and an engine-like rhythm section make for a style that suggests the five-piece have had a solid education in both hardcore and art rock, but frontman Joe Talbot is adamant that the band’s ethos comes from concrete experiences rather than some romanticised ideology. As he puts it to The Skinny, “I don’t really care about the punk scene at all. But I don’t mind being called a protest band. It is a protest of sorts, isn’t it? It’s a protest against popularised ideas of what it is to be normal and good. “We don’t look like your average rock band or act like one. I live by protest so there’s something subversive about being loving and open-minded in this day and age – especially in pop music. I can’t be preoccupied with what people perceive us as. If people want to call us

punk or whatever, I don’t care. As long as we’re working truthfully, call us what you want, but I think there’s protest in our nature. Even being a band outside of London is subversive these days.” Hailing from Bristol, IDLES formed in 2012 but threw out much of the early album material they had in order to better reflect the real life pressures they faced as individuals. By contrast, the band started work on the upcoming follow-up Joy as an Act of Resistance almost immediately after Brutalism’s release, a signal of their greater sense of purpose. Addressing themes of “toxic masculinity, nationalism, immigration and class inequality,” it’s an album even more informed by the environment it's been written in than its predecessor. At a glance, the title might seem odd given the band’s propensity to bellow and thrash out, but Talbot sees it as a declaration of radical intent. “The phrase was poignant to me when I first saw it. All around the world there’s a lot of polarisation of ideologies and right wing parties getting more and more popular. Now’s the time to resist, yes, but a lot of the narratives floating about with resistance are negative. We’re violent and our music has that tone, but we want to spread something that’s positive and listen to each other. I’m a lot more conscious about that now. I carry anger within me but it’s from a point of circumstance. “For a long time I was angry at the universe about things that had happened to me. But that was stupid because I’m unimportant. What matters is that people feel disillusioned – there’s this sense of loss in Europe and America and my

side are calling people ugly, stupid and racist while the right take advantage. Some are racist, of course, but some want to make a change. We want to challenge the passion we have through angry music, allow people to breathe and look within. When you regroup, you love yourself and are more open to other people’s ideas.” The fact IDLES describes themselves as “passionate rather than angry” is telling – the band balance brains and brawn, but their music also has heart. Last year, Talbot dispelled the narrative that the band want to revive a tradition of po-faced British rock stretching back to the 80s by bluntly stating: “We’re not a post punk band.” If anything, their sardonic lyrics and chaotic song structures more closely resemble British post-hardcore revivalists from the early-2000s such as Mclusky and Million Dead. “One of the narratives I’d love to change is that real pretentious gripe a lot of artists have that ‘derivative’ is a dirty word,” says Talbot. “The second album kicks more against this idea and celebrates our derivative nature. We’re openly a product of different things we love. Kanye West’s Yeezus was a big influence on the first record. Weirdly, there’s a lot of garage influences on this new one. Our bassist loves Mclusky. We like Interpol and the Sex Pistols. Grime music and jungle is a big thing. There’s loads that we love. We’re not about hearing the new Radiohead album and thinking, ‘let’s sound like that;’ it’s about breathing and allowing whatever happens – you absorb what you love.” The band’s expansive sonic palette is

reflected in their recruitment of SPACE (aka Paul Trazer), whose credits include everyone from Jamie Lenman to Wilko Johnson to The Prodigy, for production duties. Hearing the album’s second single Danny Nedelko, this makes eminent sense – basslines rumble and guitars ring menacingly, but the mix gives precedence to Talbot himself as he loutishly squalls in the manner of John Lydon. But what’s most significant is what he’s squalling about: his solidarity with immigrants who he regards as ‘blood brothers,’ and the value of community. Those judging by his appearance or demeanour might find that surprising or subversive, but it’s a fitting representation of how IDLES view punk. Positivity and self-love in the face of struggle defines their position on making art and, by extension, how the entire world should operate. Talbot describes Brutalism as “relentlessly honest” but argues that the band’s “success” had “encouraged others to be honest with themselves” and that “it is that bravery to freely express yourself that so terrifies the tyrants.” It’s perhaps also why he talks about the band’s audiences with the kind of veneration one might reserve for a religious congregation. “We have a bucket list for the audiences we want to play in front of,” says Talbot. “We were always told Paris, Hull and Glasgow were the three best audiences. We played G2 in Glasgow last year and it was unbelievable – it didn’t let us down. We were looking forward to playing at the ABC this time around, but that fucking fire means we won’t be so it’ll be at the QMU. My dad went to the Glasgow School of Art so that really caught me. Still, we love our music and our touring and where we’ve got to so we’re not going to sit around.

“ There’s something subversive about being loving and open-minded in this day and age – especially in pop music” Joe Talbot

“Hopefully our sound has developed this time. We’re enjoying our instruments and enjoying each other. Our ethos is to make music that’s as honest as possible. We’re very mindful of our surroundings and we run through empathy. We’re constantly thinking about the welfare of the people we care about, not just ours but humans in general. We’re mindful of what’s going on about us at the moment and hope to always be as long as we’re astute with our musical language. So much art – radio, magazines and TV – has popularised ideas that are dangerous for children and the livelihood of the marginalised. We can’t get bogged down by the lack of progression – we’ve just got to do it ourselves.” Joy as an Act of Resistance is released on 31 Aug via Partisan Records IDLES play Electric Fields, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway, 1 Sep; QMU, Glasgow, 20 Oct idlesband.com

August 2018

Music

Feature

THE SKINNY

Relight My Fire Sam Fogarino of New York post-punk icons Interpol talks us through the band’s ups and downs and their return to form on new album Marauder

Photo: Jamie-James Medina

Interview: Nadia Younes

hen Interpol released their seminal debut album Turn on the Bright Lights in 2002, indie rock was at its peak and everyone wanted to be one of The Strokes. But, in many ways, Interpol were the anti-indie rock band of their generation. Lauded as post-punk revivalists, the band fought against the New York music scene’s newfound denim-clad, floppy-haired, not-giving-afuck attitude brought about by Julian Casablancas and co, instead opting for a more stylised approach; their monochrome aesthetic perfectly complementing the moodiness of their music. Like many long-serving bands though, Interpol have suffered the rise and fall. After two critically-acclaimed albums, in the form of Turn on the Bright Lights and 2004’s Antics, the band’s contract at Matador Records – who had put out their first two albums – expired and they briefly signed with Capitol Records for the release of 2007’s Our Love to Admire. Although not badly received on the whole, the album felt flat in comparison and lacking in the same energy as their previous releases. “We were – maybe to the detriment of Our Love to Admire, one will never know – still very possessive of what was happening,” says drummer Sam Fogarino, who joined the band in 2000 replacing original drummer Greg Drudy. “[That] period was very fragile and insecure; we had shitty management and the big major label with staff changes, we spent a sick amount of money recording at Electric Lady day and night. It was a learning experience. It was definitely a crossroads of sorts.” He continues: “I think we all felt a little greater than some individually and wanted way more autonomy than what a band requires. Thankfully we got our heads out of our asses at some point and realised that we could make good records again.” The band returned to Matador directly after and, following a two-album stint self-producing – on their self-titled 2010 album and 2014’s El Pintor – they chose to record their new, sixth album Marauder with revered, Grammy Awardwinning producer Dave Fridmann at his Tarbox Road studio in upstate New York. As a frequent

August 2018

Flaming Lips collaborator, having co-produced most of their albums since 1990’s In a Priest Driven Ambulance (with Silver Sunshine Stares), and a founding member of Mercury Rev, Fridmann’s previous work has largely veered towards the psychedelic. “There’s this inherent component that is kind of ethereal and dreamy in nature when it comes to certain Interpol songs,” says Fogarino. “I personally thought it would be cool to see how [Fridmann] treats that, to see how he interprets that, because he has a grip on space.

“ Thankfully we got our heads out of our asses at some point and realised that we could make good records again” Sam Fogarino

“I think a really good example goes way back to when I first joined Interpol and we had an association with Chemikal Underground – the Scottish label – and Fridmann had done The Great Eastern, The Delgados record, I guess around 2000-something,” he continues. “I just thought it was an extraordinary marriage between a very autonomous band and what he did, and from there it was kind of revealed that he’s not a one-trick pony; he does what he does and he doesn’t change the band sonically or the band’s intention, he just amplifies it and filters it with Dave Fridmann.” In a kind of old meets new fashion, the band chose to launch the album with a live streamed

press conference from Mexico City – “according to the label, it was like a live press kit,” jokes Fogarino – all of which played into the story of Marauder. About halfway through the press conference, American actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Girls, The Punisher) walks on to the stage, grabs frontman Paul Banks’ face and pulls it into his; at the time of streaming, none of this made any sense but all was revealed in the video for lead single The Rover. Filmed in Mexico City at the same time, the video follows Moss-Bachrach and the band’s day in the lead up to the press conference, culminating with the aforementioned scene. “Aside from just having a great backdrop with the looks of that venue we were in... down that way we have very adoring fans,” says Fogarino. “So, for maximum impact it just made sense to go where you just receive a certain type of attention, which is just very passionate.” During the recording of Marauder, the band took a short break to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Turn on the Bright Lights, embarking on a world tour which saw them play the album in its entirety in different cities over two months. “It really was good to step away from the recording schedule and go do something that’s kind of familiar but in a new way, playing the record in its entirety,” says Fogarino. “It was a good exercise regardless to go out and do something you’re familiar with and have fun with it, presented in such a novel way that you won’t revisit again... And what came back from the crowd was just so easy to apply to the recording process, just coming off such a great little jaunt. It just gave it a jolt, it gave it like a B12 shot, to something that was already exciting to begin with.” But the anniversary didn’t come along without controversy. Estranged bassist Carlos Dengler – who left the band after the making of Interpol – penned a rather scathing online-only essay entitled Stories of Excess for n+1 while the band were out on tour, in which he reflected on the making of the band’s debut album. Denger compared the making of the album to the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, stating: “...like Rumors [sic], the album needed to be saved from

Music

Did you know... Back in the year 2000, prior to the release of Turn on the Bright Lights and before Interpol’s rapid ascent to global stardom, Scottish independent label Chemikal Underground were the first label to release their music in the UK. The band released their debut EP, Fukd ID #3, on Chemikal Underground’s newly-launched Fukd ID imprint, which featured some of Interpol’s very first recordings. It included original versions of Turn on the Bright Lights tracks PDA and Roland, with all the original members and Fogarino credited on it. Set up by The Delgados in 1994 to release their debut single Monica Webster / Brand New Car, the independent label continues to remain active and has released works by the likes of Aidan Moffat, Arab Strap, Emma Pollock and Mogwai over the years. a certain abyss: an album can’t be produced on cocaine and vodka alone.” He continues: “I now feel more like a confused participant, or a survivor of PTSD. I’ve lived to tell the story of a plane crash that almost took place.” Following Dengler’s departure, frontman Paul Banks took on bass duties, making him and guitarist Daniel Kessler the only two original members left in the band. But, on Marauder, the current line-up sound comfortable again, returning with their best album in years. Recorded directly on to two-inch tape, and with the interlude of the ...Bright Lights tour, the band have managed to capture the energy of their live shows on the album, ignited by the addition of Fridmann on production. Or, as Fogarino puts it, “He just lit the fire and we were burning.” The result is a band who sound revived, invigorated and ready to prove why they’re just as relevant now as they were in the early 00s. Marauder is released on 24 Aug via Matador interpolnyc.com/

Feature

Keeping Afloat We speak to Sarah Beth Tomberlin about moving around a lot in her childhood, friendships and her debut album, At Weddings

bove all else, Sarah Beth Tomberlin aspires for sincerity. The Louisville, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter has felt inadvertently like a secret for most of her early life and when we speak with her it’s clear that she’s ready to start sharing herself. Having just moved to Louisville in January, the 23-year-old has just finished her early shift at the coffee shop where she currently works, an arrangement she prefers as it opens up the rest of her day to get things accomplished. Imagining her heading to work in the early hours with just the birds for company makes a lot of sense, given the secluded music she writes as Tomberlin, under which she is about to release her debut album At Weddings. Born in Jacksonville, Florida into a devout Baptist family, Tomberlin and her parents moved at least five times when she was younger to follow her father’s work as a pastor, relocating for the first time when she was around three or four years old. The family eventually wound up in the rural town of Fairfield, Illinois when she was 12. “I guess since I initially moved so young it wasn’t too crazy to me,” Tomberlin says in her gentle patter. “I didn’t think about it a lot until I was a little bit older and realised, ‘Oh, I don’t actually know anybody from when I was younger.’ You meet kids your own age and they already have a best friend that they’ve had as their best friend since they were five and that just wasn’t a thing for me and my sisters. That was pretty weird once I started realising I didn’t have these roots that other people had.” For Tomberlin, moving so often was challenging as she had to tackle cultural differences such as an obsession with name brand clothing when she arrived in Illinois. It’s tough to be different at a stage of life where standing out from the crowd is what you least

Interview: Chris Ogden

want to do. Being homeschooled and only understanding community via family and church, Tomberlin didn’t make too many close friends nearby – instead she made strong bonds with people over Twitter and Tumblr, friends who have been so influential in her life she‘s thanked them in At Weddings’ liner notes. “I had pen pals that were kind of my closest friends – my cousin Melody is one of my closest friends but she felt more like a friend than a cousin because I didn’t see her that much because of distance,” Tomberlin explains. “I had more random internet or pen pal friends and we would make each other mix CDs and send them back and forth. I truly didn’t show people around me that much of the stuff that I was listening to because I didn’t really have friendships like that.” Tomberlin started playing and writing music at a very young age and the first CDs she bought were by Bright Eyes and Dashboard Confessional, influenced by her cousin. Due to her parents’ beliefs, Tomberlin found it hard to explore art that was even slightly risqué out of fear of being lectured about its content. When it came to music, she hid the albums she bought in a book bag and avoided uploading them to the family computer. While her parents were never punishing, Tomberlin admits she just didn’t want the questioning that would ensue; she now understands they were just trying to do what they thought was best. “To give you an example of content that they did not like, I had got a lot of E.E. Cummings books when I was 13 from the library, and... I wasn’t thinking anything of it,” Tomberlin explains. “My mom was reading one of them and she was like, ‘This is so sexually explicit,’ I was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine! No, it’s not! It’s fine!’ It was really funny though because my dad read it and he was like, ‘Sheila, it’s not much different from

the Song of Solomon.’ It cracked me up because it was true.” Once she finished homeschooling, Tomberlin started and dropped out of college before returning home and entering work. After writing the song Tornado on her parents’ piano at the age of 18 or 19, she found that writing helped dispel the deep isolation she felt while her internet friends kept her afloat. She ended up writing the bulk of At Weddings between November 2015 and August 2016 while working at a Verizon store full-time and topping up her studies at home. “It was just what probably stabilised me in a way,” Tomberlin explains. “I didn’t realise it then but writing was a really good way to have some creative energy going with all that roboticness going on.” The result of all her efforts is At Weddings, a sparse, sheltered record marked by its patient guitar arpeggios, echoing piano keys and Tomberlin’s aspiring voice, with an ambience reminiscent of Grouper. After a seven-track version was initially released last year on Joyful Noise Recordings, At Weddings is now being rereleased with three additional songs this month on Bright Eyes’ old record label Saddle Creek, a nice turn full circle from Tomberlin’s adolescent influences. One of the main themes on At Weddings is Tomberlin’s quest for identity – whether it’s wrestling with her religious upbringing on Any Other Way, wanting to be a hero in A Video Game or reflecting on womanhood on the surging ballad I’m Not Scared. ‘My life has always been a kind of secret,’ she sings on the reflective Seventeen, asking: ‘Can you keep it?’ The songs are affecting, despite there being barely a chorus in earshot – Tomberlin felt she couldn’t easily tie up the songs’ knotted thoughts in a bow without being tacky, aiming instead to be more genuine and let listeners unpick them themselves.

“I think all songs are fiction,” she confirms. “Even if you’re putting a truth into what you’re saying or writing, you’re still placing a perspective that you want to share with whoever’s listening, and you still want to make it vague enough [that] other people can put their own hearts and thoughts and memories and nostalgia to the song as well, so you have to make active choices to leave room. When people say [At Weddings] is a personal record, I’m like, it is, but I also want it to mean what it means to you.” While At Weddings’ soul-searching might sound overwhelming, what sets Tomberlin apart is her quiet sense of humour. Unlike similar artists like Julien Baker, who delve so deeply into depression the stakes feel awesomely high, Tomberlin remains firmly on the ground, gently acknowledging her foibles. Tomberlin’s self-deprecation is evident from At Weddings’ first track, the affecting strum Any Other Way, which contains the line ‘Feeling bad for saying ‘Oh my God’ / No, I’m not kidding.’ On Self-Help she admits killing a fly with a self-help book, and on closing track February she even considers cutting her own neck before adding: ‘Okay I’m sorry / I didn’t mean to take it there again.’ There is a glib melancholy to Tomberlin’s lyrics which, if we’re honest, we can all reel off easily.

“ Even if you’re putting a truth into what you’re saying or writing, you’re still placing a perspective that you want to share with whoever’s listening”

Tomberlin

Feature

Music

Photo: Philip Cosores

Sarah Beth Tomberlin

“I just think humour is what helps us not kill ourselves,” Tomberlin laughs, explaining how she obsessed over Sylvia Plath’s darkly funny The Bell Jar as a teenager. “It’s a really big part of life that’s maybe not touched upon in the solemn atmosphere that people put singer-songwriter people in. “Everyone’s like ‘It’s so cathartic… It’s like you’re just writing a diary,’ and it’s not really like that at all because it’s still work, but I think sharing the humour in these really morbid moments is just how we actually live… We’re like, ‘Well, this is really shitty, but, you know, at least there’s one positive, slightly almost depressing positive… It’s not even a positive [but] I’m going to make it that way because it’s the one thing that can keep me floating.’ I just think it’s interesting how we get through things that way.” Our time with Tomberlin ends as she stresses just how excited she is to get on tour, play these songs for people and start speaking with them. After feeling isolated for so long, it sounds like with At Weddings, Sarah Beth’s finally found the connection she was looking for. At Weddings is released on 10 Aug via Saddle Creek tomberlinmusic.com

THE SKINNY

From Fringe First winning creators of THE TABLE and CITIZEN PUPPET

BLind SumMiT presents

Henry A puppet possessed

‘The UK’s Puppet Masters’ The Guardian 11-26 August 3:30pm (1 hr) Pleasance Dome Tickets £9-12 0131 556 6550 pleasance.co.uk

blindsummit.co.uk

August 2018

Feature

THE SKINNY

Tunnels and Towers Sonica returns for Festival 2018 with three brand new visual and sonic artworks that bring new life to well-known Glasgow landmarks

very other year, Sonica brings a world-class menu of visual sonic arts that present contemporary artists for whom technological innovation is a primary part of their work. Some of the artists leading projects that will take place around the city this August have shared details of the ambitious work that make up this year’s programme, part of Festival 2018 in Glasgow this month.

“The Clyde Tunnel looks like something out of a Stanley Kubrick film” Robbie Thomson

“I knew I wanted to do something in a tunnel,” Robbie Thomson says. “I started looking for sites, originally at abandoned sites.” Then the Clyde Tunnel was suggested. “I had thought it would be an amazing spot, but that it was a bit of a dream

that they would go for it.” For Thomson, the work – Portal – then followed from being able to present in the Tunnel, particularly the sci-fi and mythological elements that he draws out of the architectural details like the concrete shuttering and chamfered corners on the tops and sides of the walls. “[The Clyde Tunnel] looks like something that could be out of a Stanley Kubrick film.” The narrative itself also draws out some of the symbolics of the tunnel form: “There might be a sense of trepidation as they enter.” As Thomson often works with robotics and kinetic sculpture, he was interested in interacting with all the different kinds of behaviour and ways of walking in public. “It feels like the audience will enter the first sculpture’s space, it’s looking for you and finding out who you are. As you are moving on into the centre, you pass that threshold and you get to a watery centre, as it becomes deeper and darker.” Then there’s “a serene and crystalline world based on coral forms and reefs, and the types of behaviour of the robotics change as they’re used to your presence.” For Thomson, it acts as a metaphor for getting through the worst of something, and making it to the other side. For Louise Harris’ Visaurihelix, there’s again a journey but this time it is up the tower at the

Cryptic Portal

Lighthouse, an early architectural work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. “It’s a half an hour long piece made up of recordings that I’ve taken in five different Mackintosh buildings around Glasgow and further afield,” says Harris. “They’re woven into an electronic music piece that lasts half an hour. It’s built into five movements, and each movement of the work is a direct touch mapping from a particular Mackintosh design into a chord structure that evolves over a period of time. It’s very heavily tied to a lot of Mackintosh's buildings, design and ethos generally.” In particular, Harris has set up very particular geometric themes to speak to some of the angular and linear simplification that makes up part of Mackintosh’s legacy. “Strung across the tower at five different levels are copper rods that turn the tower into a giant glockenspiel, and people can wander up and down, hit it with beaters or bow it with bows. It makes sounds that

Credit: Robbie Thomson

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

are complementary to the fixed composition that is played across speakers along the tower. The way that the copper rods are positioned, they overlap and intersect with each other as you look down and they make these very geometric shapes that are very reminiscent of Mackintosh.” Along with these projects, keep an eye out on George Square for Pivot by Australian artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey: it’s a playground of “giant, semi-intelligent talking seesaws”. Across all of the completely free events and commissions, Sonica creates new and genuinely surprising encounters with even the most recognisable Glasgow landmarks. Portal, Clyde Tunnel, 2-12 Aug, free ticketed, tickets via cca-glasgow.com Pivot, George Square, 2-12 Aug, free Visaurihelix, The Lighthouse, until January 2019, free sonic-a.co.uk/festival-2018

Pass the Mic

Hard Truths

xperience the world in a weekend – that’s the promise of the Beyond Borders festival. With a goal of promoting Scotland to the world, and the world to Scotland, an array of guests from across the world come together to tackle the big questions across 25-26 August. One such event considers the ongoing fight for women’s voices to be heard, with New York Times Associate Editor Jodi Rudoren, and Director of Equate Scotland Talat Yaqoob. 2018 marks the centenary of the first wave of women gaining the right to vote in the UK; 100 years on it’s important for these conversations to continue “because inequality for women continues,” explains Yaqoob. “The centenary celebrates women gaining the right to vote, but it was only for economically privileged women and women over 30. It was another ten years before women and men enjoyed equal voting rights. To

August 2018

this day we see inequality; while progress has been made, I am sure even the suffragettes expected us to be much further ahead.” “We should be constantly exploring whose voices are heard?” notes Rudoren. “Whose perspectives are shaping public debate and public institutions, whose narrative is it? Good journalism is about understanding a variety of perspectives, which, in turn, helps societies function. It’s about giving the voice to the voiceless as well as parsing the voices of the powerful.” Without encroaching too much on the upcoming conversation, it’s fair to ask: what can we do – particularly in a position of privilege – to ensure all women’s voices are being heard and, more importantly, listened to? “Don’t be a voice for the voiceless, pass the mic” is a quote that Yaqoob recalls hearing recently which captures the feeling perfectly: “If you are in a privileged

Photo: Tomas Munita for The New York Times

The Beyond Borders festival brings a weekend of discussion and cultural exchange to Scotland this August – ahead of their event on 100 years of votes for women, we talk to Jodi Rudoren and Talat Yaqoob position, consider what you are doing to amplify women’s voices, particularly women of colour, working class women and unpaid carers. Are you sharing the platform you have? Have you taken up space, when it is the expertise of these women that is actually required? If so, pass the mic. Whenever I get requests, I question: do I know a woman, particularly a woman who too often goes unheard, who could have this platform? If so, I pass on her details.” Rudoren similarly channels this sentiment into action: “I’m a journalist, not an activist, so what I do is tell stories, or help elevate and amplify stories, of people whose voices are important, interesting, and might otherwise not be heard.” These conversations allow us to share experiences and learn from others; the festival offers other ways to explore the world through another’s lens, such as the Hard Truths exhibition. “Photojournalism is one of the most important franchises of The New York Times,” explains Rudoren. “A big part of that is going into complicated, often dangerous places in order to tell complicated and difficult stories. Bearing witness is a core part of our mission. If reporters can give voice to the voiceless, photojournalists can humanise the experience and sear it into our consciousness even more powerfully. You can’t recreate historic moments or emotional ones; you have to be there to capture them, and then share them in a compelling and sensitive way.” Photojournalism is an important documentation of the world and its history, and exhibitions like this are testament to the power and danger of their work. What does Rudoren hope people take from seeing Hard Truths? “I want them to

ART / BOOKS

Interview: Heather McDaid feel the stories: feel the hope and stress in the Iranian portraits, feel the hunger and pain in the Venezuelan children, feel the vibrancy of the Cuban street and the chaos of the Syrian fighting and the devastating violence of the Philippines.

“While progress has been made, I am sure even the suffragettes expected us to be much further ahead” Talat Yaqoob

“But I also want them to understand the value of the work, the extreme talent and extreme bravery of the women and men who made the images, the commitment to truth and discovery and accountability made by The New York Times. I want them to want more of this amazing storytelling.” The world remains a big place, with incredible stories and perspectives to be shared; events such as Beyond Borders bring it closer to your doorstep than ever before. Beyond Borders International Festival, Traquair House, Innerleithen, 25-26 Aug, £12-49 beyondbordersscotland.com/festivals-guide

Feature

Berlin Haul As GFT presents a season of Berlin films to celebrate Glasgow’s co-hosting of the European Championships with the German capital, we suggest more cinematic titles made in Berlin that delve into this fascinating city’s history

Words: Eleanor Capaldi

t’s been said that Glasgow has a lot in common with Berlin – creatives, collectives, a buzzing re-emergence. Now the twinning goes one step further when Glasgow hosts the European Championships this month, with events being held in the German capital simultaneously. In recognition, the GFT is holding a Berlin retrospective. It offers to take you on a chronological journey through the evolution of a city that gave birth to an entire influential film movement in German Expressionism, and fostered names like Dietrich and Lang. A Berlin season wouldn’t be complete without Cabaret (2 Aug). It might be known for Minnelli’s razzle-dazzle but the film exudes a sense of threat and precarity as Nazism tightens around the hedonistic Kit Kat Club. Liberality and the accompanying reactionary conservatism isn’t so strange a concept today. Next, The Lives of Others (5 Aug). Set in 1984, it skilfully examines the process of self-revelation in the mind of an East German spy who listens in on a couple on the Western side of the wall. Wings of Desire (6 Aug) uses a black and white palette, conversely exploring the nuances and complexities of human existence from the point of view of an angel. Wim Wenders’ 1987 film was screened in the appropriately monastic Paisley Abbey last year. The season concludes with the continuous one take Victoria (11 Aug), a thriller in both narrative and filming choice. And then there’s the dance culture documentary Symphony of Now (12 Aug) – follow the beats and spot your favourite club stops, as every district gets its turn under the glowstick lights. Like Berlin’s side streets of hidden art, clubs and communities, you can delve beyond those initial five titles for a more rounded experience. People on Sunday (1930) is an early example of

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what we have become used to seeing in films by Ken Loach or Jafar Panahi, namely the use of non-professional actors to create a naturalistic style. Relationships and friendships fall together and apart in this silent film written by Billy Wilder. In capturing wartime, Downfall (2004) offers the chance to see events through the eyes of “young follower” Traudl Junge, who was appointed as Hitler’s personal secretary. Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) brings the comedic to communism. When a mother sleeps through the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, her son (Daniel Brühl) goes to every effort to maintain the lie. It’s an unexpectedly touching look at the lengths we’ll go to for the ones we care about. Run Lola Run (1998) takes time and plays with it, splitting the narrative into distinct strands where we get to see how things would turn out if you could do them differently. The Edukators (2004) may be 14 years old, but its ideas are as relevant as ever. A

group of young activists break into houses of the wealthy, rearranging their furniture in anti-capitalist protest. Soon events spiral and the film raises questions about the consequences of principles in practice. The Berlin Film Festival is now in its 68th year, and the city’s cinephile scene sits side-byside with its filmmaking culture. Academy Award-nominated Toni Erdmann (2016) was directed by Maren Ade, also known for her Silver Bear-winning Everyone Else. Erdmann explores a father-daughter relationship in wise-cracking form – from the moment an eccentric father dresses up as his ‘brother’ to unconvincingly fool the postman, the tone is set. Margarethe von Trotta, nominated for two Palm d’Ors, brought political theorist Hannah Arendt to screens in 2012. Today, Arendt’s book The Origins of Totalitarianism has become required reading again, in part because of perceived parallels with

current events. Film Academy Baden-Württemberg graduate Mia Spengler was a star of the 2017 Berlin Film Festival with Back for Good. Spengler puts two sisters and their mum at the centre of a comedy-drama intertwining the perils of reality TV and protective epilepsy helmets. While Helene Hegemann has opened eyes with Axolotl Overkill (2017). Based on her own book, it follows a young woman who takes audiences into the tumult of adolescent implosion. Hegemann re-energises female relationships, laying bare all their uneasy extremes. As events unfold in America and on our own doorstep, the shadows are not just drawn across the screen any more. But there is a Berlin on film ever propelling itself forward too, disruptive, energetic, and vocal. Festival 2018: Berlin on Screen, GFT, 2-12 Aug

Disrupting the Status Quo Discwoman affiliate Yulan Grant aka SHYBOI is part of a new wave of stateside artists helping breathe new political energy into dance music

f you take even a passing interest in electronic music and club culture, there’s a good chance you’ve stumbled upon Discwoman, the New York City-based collective intent on disrupting dance music’s hegemonic masculinity. Since its formation in 2014, the crew has worked tirelessly to address a lack of representation for women, POC and LGBTQ+ artists, and the ripple effect has been felt on a global scale. Starting out as a series of inclusive parties determined to reignite dance music’s sociallyconscious roots, Discwoman soon morphed to incorporate DW Artists, a booking agency dedicated to helping its founding members achieve their goals. Yulan Grant, better known as SHYBOI, is one of the latest additions to the Discwoman ranks. The Jamaican-born DJ and performance artist has carved a reputation around her highintensity sets that change style and tempo freely. “As a child growing up in Jamaica I was obviously heavily exposed to reggae, dancehall, ska, mento, gospel music, etc, and then we got cable in ‘98 and that changed everything,” she explains, attempting to trace her early musical influences and gateway into electronic music. “It

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Interview: Michael Lawson

was my first exposure to popular music that was determined by the Global North, and images of music videos from The Prodigy and Shy FX to Marilyn Manson and Missy Elliott were burned into my eyes.”

“ Unfortunately I’m unable to unpack thousands of years of statesanctioned violence and trauma into one interview” Yulan Grant

Before joining Discwoman, Grant became part of #KUNQ, the unapologetic queer arts collective with a disregard for restrictive genre boundaries. The group’s ethos presented Grant with the perfect opportunity to combine Caribbean flavours such as dancehall and soca with tougher, colder club tracks – and everything in between. “I was so intrigued by their creative output, because it had a deep commitment to ethnographical research and a true respect and understanding on how cultures can influence music, without co-opting, bastardising and then subsequently profiting from it in a harmful way,” she enthuses. “It was a model I was deeply interested in, so we spent more and more time together and before I knew it, like mixing sugar into water, I joined the collective.” This burning desire to shine a spotlight on perceived injustices underpins all of Grant’s musical projects, and the threats and challenges faced by marginalised groups is a cause she feels particularly passionate about. Although clearly highly knowledgeable of such topics, she assures us she is “unable to unpack thousands of years

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of state-sanctioned violence and trauma into one interview.” As she continues to turn more and more heads in Europe and beyond, the remainder of 2018 could well be Grant’s most prolific period to date. Her Berghain debut precedes appearances at the Southbank Centre, the much-celebrated Sustain-Release weekender in Upstate New York, and Krakow’s wildly experimental Unsound festival. In amongst the madness, she also plays her first ever Scottish gig on 31 August, performing at La Cheetah for Missing Persons Club. It’s a club night with a history of booking Discwoman affiliates, having booked two of the collective’s founding members – Umfang and Volvox – to play in the city on three occasions since January of last year. Yet when talk turns to future projects, Grant makes it clear that she is keeping her cards close to her chest. “I prefer surprises,” she insists. “It feels more like a gift that way.” SHYBOI: Missing Persons Club, La Cheetah, 31 Aug discwoman.com

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Upward Trajectory We catch up with Helena Hauff ahead of the release of Qualm, to find out how she combines making music with a touring schedule that’s almost as relentless as her DJing

t’s hardly uncommon for DJs to flit between two or three cities over the space of one weekend, taking multiple flights to headline parties across the continent, but Helena Hauff ’s touring schedule is more strenuous than most. For the month of July, for instance, the Hamburg native clocked up an average of three shows per weekend, and the diary for August and September suggests there’s little chance of her taking the foot off the gas anytime soon. This perpetual calendar congestion is reflective of Hauff ’s unstoppable ascent through the ranks, towards her current position as one of the most revered DJs on the planet. It’s a somewhat unlikely rise, given the rugged, industrial-influenced electronics she communicates. Thundering acid, breakneck electro and Belgian new beat rarities are far from the easiest styles to market to the masses, but her snarling, uncompromising sets continue to strike a chord with an increasingly widening audience.

“ One of the things that I find most interesting about electronic music is that it reflects on all of the amazing things we do as humans”

more melodic elements on last autumn’s Have You Been There, Have You Seen It. “I enjoyed making the last EP and coming at it from a different angle, but once it was finished I found myself going back to a simpler way of recording, where I’d just be using a couple of drum machines and a synthesiser to create music in a very stripped-back, minimalistic way,” she explains. “When I first started making music I was really inspired by Bunker Records, and all that kind of stuff was very minimalistic. They wouldn’t use a lot of machines, they wouldn’t use a lot of sounds, they would just try to create something very powerful with not too many elements. One drum machine, one synthesiser and lots of distortion.” The punk essence of Bunker and The Hague’s mid-90s electro scene is prevalent throughout the 12-track LP, as is a peculiar sense of Britishness. Tracks titled Barrow Boot Boys, Fag Butts In the Fire Bucket and It Was All Fields Around Here When I Was a Kid allude to both Hauff ’s fascination with British humour and, somewhat bizarrely, her regular trips to Leicester. “I have lots of friends there and released music [on her Return To Disorder imprint] from a band called Children of Leir who are based there, so I end up in Leicester quite often. It’s kind of the most boring city in the UK!” she laughs.

“I’ve spent so much time there but never DJed there or ever got an offer to play there – I’ve never even met anyone who DJs from there come to think of it. So hello Leicester, you boring bastards, I’m up for it!” With its relentless acid workouts, sludgy synths and scuzzy electro basslines, Qualm is an LP that evokes images of a desecrated industrial dystopia. Countless contemporary artists have cited the current political turmoil as inspiration for making bleak, dystopian music, but for Hauff the production process was more visceral. “When I was making the music, I didn’t really think too much about the outside world,” she admits. “But generally speaking I do think about that kind of thing. The world is a cruel place and one of the things that I find most interesting about electronic music, and specifically electro as a genre, is that it reflects on all of the amazing things we do as humans and how intelligent we are, but at the same time can convey the harshness of human nature.” Hauff ’s agenda for the rest of the summer is underpinned by appearances at some of Europe’s foremost electronic festivals. Dimensions, Flow Festival and Houghton all stand out, but it’s perhaps a main stage closing set at Amsterdam’s much-celebrated Dekmantel that reiterates just

Interview: Michael Lawson

how far she has come. And despite being far removed from Europe’s primary electronic hubs, Hauff is convinced that her hometown is ideally positioned to connect her to these worlds. “Hamburg offers me everything that I need at the moment,” she asserts. “I couldn’t live in London and have to travel to Heathrow or wherever, it’s a nightmare. Hamburg is great, it’s just like a 15-minute taxi and you’re back home. Plus you can still smoke inside!” When probed on whether the current concentration of gigs is sustainable in the long-term, she offers a typically grounded response. “I honestly don’t think it’s harder or more tiring than any other job – just so long as you try and take care of yourself – and right now I absolutely love what I’m doing. “I really enjoy the touring and the DJing and seeing all the different places and meeting all the different people, and I’d love to do this for as long as possible. Maybe I’ll have had enough of it at some point, but I don’t actually think so. It’s just totally my thing.” Qualm is released on 3 August via Ninja Tune Helena Hauff plays Nightvision, The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 17 Aug helena-hauff.com

Helena Hauff

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Photo: Fabian Hammerl

After landing a BBC Radio 1 residency, her Essential Mix being voted the best of the year, and Crack Magazine placing her top of their ‘50 Most Exciting DJs in the World (Right Now)’ list, 2017 seemed to be something of a landmark year for Hauff. But how well is she coming to terms with this shift towards fame? “I love it!” she declares honestly. “If Crack say I’m the best DJ in the universe then fine! I find it cool y’know. I really, really love DJing and if people think I’m good at it then it’s nice to know. I’ve never pushed to be famous or had in my head that I want to become this big star or anything.” In many ways Hauff is the unlikeliest of superstar DJs: no inflated sense of importance, expansive PR team or even active social media presence. In fact, her self-deprecating demeanour makes a welcome change from the deadpan, black V-neck-wearing techno DJ stereotype. “When I was just DJing in bars in Hamburg I was totally cool with it, then when I started travelling more I really enjoyed that as well,” she continues. “Now events are getting a bit bigger and I’m still enjoying it and trying to take things as they come. So far I’ve not really felt there’s been a downside to becoming more famous.” In amongst the gigs and the accolades, Hauff has also somehow managed to release her fourth record in as many years. Her second full-length album, Qualm sees her revert back to the raw, minimalist hardware jams she made her name with on earlier releases, after experimenting with

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Ron’s Swansong Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman shows his softer side in Hearts Beat Loud, a sweet hug of a movie focused on the bond between a father and his daughter. Writer-director Brett Haley talks to us about the making of this music filled crowd-pleaser

Photo: Jon Pak

Interview: Jamie Dunn

e hear Brett Haley, director of sweet indie drama Hearts Beat Loud, before we see him. Milling around a corridor in Edinburgh’s Caledonian Hotel ahead of our interview with the American filmmaker, we hear a diatribe coming from behind frosted glass and look over to the film’s PR disconcertingly. “Have you seen this?” he says to the PR while waving his phone as we’re led into the room. “Fucking Trump junior.” We breathe a sigh of relief: this is an angry rant we can get on board with. It turns out the Commander-in-Chief’s greasy heir has just used the word “lit” in a tweet celebrating the retirement of Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy, meaning daddy will be able to replace him with a lap dog. “Well that’s that word fucking ruined,” says Haley. We were warned beforehand that the filmmaker was a tad groggy from his red-eye flight from New York. If Trump and his progeny are good for one thing, it’s clearly making you forget about your jetlag. Haley’s apoplexy is completely at odds with Hearts Beat Loud, the film he’s in town to present at the Edinburgh Film Festival. A music-tinged coming-of-age story, it centres on the tender relationship between Nick Offerman’s Frank, a middle-aged widower and former rocker who now runs a failing record store in hip Brooklyn neighbourhood Red Hook, and his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons), who’s about to fly the nest to begin college on the West Coast. You’ll be hardpressed to find a sweeter, more warm-hearted film this cinema season. It’s clear that Haley has plenty of irritation at the state of his nation, but he hasn’t channeled it into his work – quite the opposite in fact. “It’s too fucking boring to make the anti-Trump movie,” he says. “That’s too easy. I’m not interested in yelling into the void. We’re all so angry, we’re all so divided and we could easily just keep yelling at each other. I have my opinion and everybody else has their opinion and no one’s listening and everyone’s yelling, and it’s a really sad time. And it’s what lead me to Hearts Beat Loud quite frankly. I was basically looking at my next movie as the

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opportunity to be positive in some form, just to keep me from going crazy, because it is such a sad time.” Hearts Beat Loud certainly fits the bill. It’s not a musical, but music flows through it, connecting the characters (the father and daughter bond by forming a band) and letting them express their emotions when words just won’t cut it. Haley’s influences are wide-ranging – he cites “High Fidelity, obviously, and That Thing You Do!, and a little bit of Once, and there’s Sing Street in there, and Inside Llewyn Davis, and Linda Linda Linda, a Japanese film that I love.” Out of that blender comes a charming film with its own flavour. “It’s our own spin on the band movie,” is how Haley describes it. “Ours is not about fame and fortune, it’s about something completely different.” That something different is a family bond, and specifically the difficulty a father has in letting his daughter grow up. Offerman, still best known as Ron Swanson, the meat and scotch loving government official and lovable grump from sitcom Parks and Recreation, is an actor blessed with a deep reservoir of melancholy as well as some well-honed comic chops. It’s rare to see him in a leading role, but he brings a winning blend of curmudgeonly hipster and corny dad to the role of Frank, who’s forever wearing a crumpled band T-shirt and a scowl on his face. Offerman played a supporting character in Haley’s previous film Hero, from 2017, and the director explains that he and his writing partner Marc Basch always wanted Offerman for Hearts Beat Loud. “Writing with an actor in mind is very helpful,” says the director, “especially one who you think you can get. I try not to write with Tom Cruise in mind – I adore him, but he’s not going to be in my movie. So that was a great thing, to have Nick in both of our minds and thinking, ‘Oh, this is what we’d like to see Nick do.’” Fans of Parks and Rec will be familiar with Offerman in fatherly mode: his protective relationship with sarcastic office intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) was very much in the

margins of the show but was one of the elements fans most loved about it. It’s rewarding to see Offerman explore this side of him in more depth here. “You get to know Nick and you think, ‘Why aren’t you the lead of something?’” says Haley. “He can do anything, why not see an actor that you love and admire do something a little different – that’s how I look at it as a fan.”

“ I was basically looking at my next movie as the opportunity to be positive in some form, just to keep me from going crazy, because it is such a sad time” Brett Haley

Stories of father-daughter relationships are surprisingly rare in modern cinema. When they do crop up, it tends to be in the form of a cheesy action movie in which the daughter’s role is merely to be kidnapped or degraded as a catalyst for the muscle-bound dad to kick some arse – think Commando or the Taken series or this year’s Death Wish remake. Surprisingly, though, the father-daughter bond has been at the heart of many a great American indie film this summer, including Debra Granik’s new drama Leave No Trace and Bo Burnham’s celebrated debut Eighth Grade. Can Haley account

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for this welcome trend? “It is interesting that these movies [have] all come out at the same time,” he agrees. “Obviously Debra and Bo and I, we didn’t sit around and say, ‘Hey, let’s all do this father-daughter thing.’ But I think it’s cool and I think it’s obviously something that’s been lacking, that sort of true, complex connection that exists there [between father and daughter]. For whatever reason – maybe there’s something in the air – that made it the most interesting dynamic to explore for us.” Even rarer than seeing a realistic fatherdaughter bond on screen is seeing creativity (in this case the art of composition) explored in compelling fashion. Early in the film Frank manages to tear Sam away from her studies and convinces her to jam with him. Tinkering on keyboards, Sam comes up with a melody that piques Frank’s interest, and before they know it they’re laying down a pop banger on GarageBand, with Frank adding guitar and drums and Sam providing a soaring vocal and slick synth. Haley isn’t a musician himself, but he’s managed to do what many filmmakers have struggled with in the past: make creativity cinematic. He says he took a lot of inspiration from watching Hearts Beat Loud’s composer Keegan DeWitt at work. “I paid attention and I took notes, took videos, and would constantly lean on him and say, 'does this make sense? Does this feel real? Is this how you come up with melodies? Is this how you figure out a bassline?'” The aim was for these composition scenes to feel both real and dynamic. “The creative process a lot of times is boring and slow and not cinematic, so you try to find that balance, to give people that moment where they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s some magic happening here.’” DeWitt is something of a stalwart of the US indie scene. Name an American indie darling from the last few years and he’s probably had a hand in the music, from his wonderful collaborations with Aaron Katz (Quiet City, Cold Weather) and Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, Queen of Earth) to titles like Chad Hartigan’s This Is Martin Bonner, Joshua Locy’s Hunter Gatherer and Hannah Fidell’s upcoming The Long Dumb Road. Over the course of the film we hear Frank and Sam play three of DeWitt’s songs. Offerman and Clemons perform them with gusto, and they’re undeniably catchy. “Trust me, there are people who don’t like the songs,” Haley counters dryly. “And if you don’t like the songs, you’re not going to like the movie, and there’s nothing I can do about that. If you’re only into Nordic death metal, you’re going to hate it.” Even if synth pop and sweet ballads are not your jam, there’s much to admire in DeWitt’s compositions. “I think what’s great about them is that they do some of the narrative lifting. They had to be songs that weren’t just cool to listen to, they had to move the story along, move the character’s journey along.” In other words, they provide the emotional connective tissue between the scenes; without them, Hearts Beat Loud wouldn’t be half as potent. Haley’s ambitions for the film are pleasingly modest: he simply wants it to give you a warm hug. “It is such an angry, fearful, hate-filled time, so by putting a little bit of goodness into the world it will, I hope, help. Even if you’re having a bad week and you see Hearts Beat Loud and it makes you feel this much better,” he makes a space between his thumb and forefinger just wide enough to slide a pound coin, “I’ll take it. That has worth.” Hearts Beat Loud is released 3 Aug by Park Circus

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Love Cats From Polish folk troupes to Parisian nightclubs, Paweł Pawlikowski discusses crafting his classic story of wounded love in post-war Europe, Cold War

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t was always the mother of all love stories,” begins director Paweł Pawlikowski, who’s animatedly discussing his latest work Cold War while sipping coffee in a swanky London hotel. For nearly three decades, Pawlikowski has been producing a fascinating body of work, but it’s only recently that he’s earned his accolades. After a career as a documentary filmmaker throughout the 90s, he shifted to narrative fiction film in the new millenium. In 2004, he bowled over audiences with My Summer of Love, a radiant, Yorkshire-set romance featuring the talents of a young Emily Blunt. Then came The Woman in the Fifth, starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas, a romantic thriller which, while failing to impress critics, was a solid addition to the director’s overall output. In 2014, there was a change of pace. Pawlikowski made his first feature-length fiction film in Poland, Ida. This black and white road movie charted the country’s tragic and turbulent history, seen through the life of a young nun who stumbles on a dark family secret via her aunt. Critically lauded, Ida went on to take home the gong for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards – it was the start of an international shift in how audiences perceived the filmmaker. Fast forward to May 2018, when Pawlikowski premiered his new film Cold War in competition at Cannes. By the end of the festival he had won the prize for best director, as well as garnering a slew of five-star reviews. Like Ida before it, Cold War is a period piece. The tone is more melodramatic and accessible, but no less artful. It is a sweeping story of wounded love in exile, shot in sumptuous monochrome and set against the backdrop of post-war Europe. The story charts the

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tempestuous relationship between rising star Zula (Joanna Kulig) – a hot-headed singer – and her older lover Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), who’s also Zula’s composer. Their troubled romance takes them from Stalinist Poland to the smoky jazz clubs of Paris and Berlin. The story is based on the relationship between Pawlikowski’s parents – he even named the lead characters after them. His mother Zula was 17 when she ran away from home to become a ballerina, showing the same independent spirit of her Cold War cypher. Pawlikowski’s father, upon whom Wiktor is loosely based, was also musical and bears some similar character traits. “They got together when she was very young. She was 17, he was 27,” Pawlikowski explains. “They split up, got together, betrayed each other and then got together again; left the country separately and then got together again; then split up again and eventually ended up together.” It’s a story that has all the trademarks of Burton and Taylor and is no less grand a love story. While Pawlikowski’s parents were the starting point for the story, co-written with Piotr Borkowski and the late Janusz Głowacki, the director’s style of filmmaking is a process of constant evolution. “As you go through locations, scouting, casting, rehearsing and all that, the script changes and grows,” he says. “I like to create a situation with a beginning, middle and end, but these transitions are approximate – things to get you from A to B that I then hope to remove from the film. It’s like making a documentary where I create this world, and then I sculpt it.” This openness of approach to filmmaking is a vital part of the director’s method. “It’s about the initial impulse and where it goes, and why you want to tell it,” he explains. “Then it becomes

Interview: Joseph Walsh

about the possibilities of where it will go. There have to be many possibilities for it to work – psychological, historical, metaphorical, visual and others.” For Pawlikowski, sculpting the film happens at every stage of the process, not just in the edit suite. Like a jeweller cutting and polishing a diamond, Pawlikowski takes a “lapidary approach,” in which he slowly and carefully hones the movie until he’s satisfied. The classic look and feel of Cold War isn’t only down to the choice of shooting on black and white stock. Pawlikowski’s keen choice of camerawork, provided by Lukasz Zal to capture Kulig and Kot’s performances, informs every shot. “I always explain to my actors that it isn’t about what is going on inside, or feeling it, it’s about what the camera sees,” he says. “You have to think about what angle they look most iconic. Of course, that involves the actors, but it’s also how you bounce the light and cast shadows.” A vital aspect of the film is the director’s choice of music, which is a signature note of the production. The story opens in the world of a travelling troupe of Polish folk singers, of which Zula is the star and Wiktor is the conductor, before shifting to the underground clubs of Paris and Berlin where jazz sings out into the early morning. Pawlikowski spoke with Polish folk performers to select three songs that would act as leitmotifs throughout the story. “I needed songs that would work well as folk songs and as jazz motifs because the music is a vital part of the story as well as a character,” he says. “When I am writing the script, I always listen to songs to get me pumped up and it’s normally from my back-catalogue of music that I like. Because I have lived for a long time there is a lot of stuff to

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pick from.” These songs, which deal with the grand themes of love, provide some of the most iconic moments of the film.

“ I always explain to my actors that it isn’t about what is going on inside, or feeling it, it’s about what the camera sees” Paweł Pawlikowski

As well as a glowing reception at Cannes, Cold War’s premiere in Poland also received near-universal praise. It was a pleasant relief for the director, given the frosty reception that Ida received in Poland. So how does Pawlikowski feel about the cinematic release to the public? “I rely on a certain type of audience as to whether they get the emotion or not,” he explains. “I don’t think that people should have to get it, but the percentage of people that have responded to this film has been utterly overwhelming.” As a closing note he adds, “If you enter it with your own imagination, emotions and life experiences that is great. If you don’t, I don’t mind.” Cold War is released 31 Aug by Curzon Artificial Eye

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Skate and the City The Wolfpack director Crystal Moselle discusses her follow-up Skate Kitchen, a dreamy tale following a gang of achingly cool girl skaters. We speak to Moselle about the film ahead of its Scottish premiere at Glasgow Youth Film Festival

ou’d be hard-pressed to pigeonhole Crystal Moselle. The filmmaker made waves back in 2015 with her award-winning debut The Wolfpack, a documentary about six movie-obsessed brothers who’d spent the majority of their young lives isolated from the outside world in their parents’ 16th floor apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her follow-up feature, Skate Kitchen has superficial similarities – it’s also about a group of New York teens with a passion and who move in a pack – but in many ways it couldn’t be more different. Where The Wolfpack concerned sheltered boys who had barely left their cramped apartment despite living in the greatest city in the world, Skate Kitchen’s focus is a gang of kick-ass young women who rule the New York streets on their skateboards. Like with her Wolfpack subjects, Moselle discovered the skate collective – who go by the name Skate Kitchen – when they caught her eye while she was running some errands around her hometown. “I met them on the train and they had skateboards in their hands,” she recalls of her first impression of Skate Kitchen, “which you don’t see that often with women. We just started talking and I asked them if they’d be willing to do a film project and they were into it, so we stayed in touch.” Initially Moselle had in mind another documentary, but when Italian fashion label Miu Miu approached her to make a short fiction film featuring their clothes, she thought instantly of the striking, super-stylish girls she met on the train. That short film became That One Day. While fictional, the script and story was workshopped with the collective and very much mines the girls’ lives for details. “They were just incredibly open,” Moselle says of her greenhorn cast. “They shared everything.” She was impressed with their performances, but less certain about the overall quality of her first foray into fiction filmmaking. “When that film was finished and came out, I couldn’t even tell if it was good or not,” she admits. “But Kim Yutani from Sundance watched it and she was like, ‘You need to actually make the feature version.’ So that gave me enough confidence to go on and make the feature.” That One Day made its debut at Venice Film Festival in 2016; Skate Kitchen premiered at Sundance earlier this year. We’re eternally grateful that Yutani gave Moselle a pep talk, because the resulting film is a vibrant joy. The focus of both the short and the feature is Rachelle Vinberg’s Camille, a talented thrasher who appears to be the lone female skater at her local park in suburban Long Island, which is overrun by sniggering adolescent boys. When she discovers the Instagram feed belonging to the eponymous all-girl crew, she jumps on a train to the city and tracks them down. Moselle’s curious, watchful camera gracefully moves with the pack and captures this subculture in a manner that’s both gritty and lyrical, often slowing the image down to catch each ollie and flip. The film is just as compelling away from the skatepark. Some of the most memorable scenes involve the girls lounging around one of the crew’s bedrooms while they smoke pot and air their myriad concerns as a group. There’s the usual discussions of boys and trouble with the ‘rents, but these young women are also concerned with topics you won’t hear in your average teen movie: period woes, stories of

August 2018

date rape and a rare accident dubbed “credit carding” that should have every female member of the audience wincing. It’s abundantly clear from the film that Moselle enjoys the company of these young women. “I just love sitting in a room and listening to them talk,” she says, “they’re so funny and their conversations are amazing. That’s just the realism of girls and I wanted to show it completely candidly, not with a male gaze, not with the perception of what people expect girls to talk about, but really be honest of what girls are together – they’re companions and they have each other’s back.”

“ It’s so refreshing that the youth always take it into their own hands and they show you a side of New York that still breathes”

Gen Y. “I just feel like there’s this whole new generation who are breathing life into the city. For me, when I hung out with these girls, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a side to New York I have never seen and it’s so cool.’ It’s so refreshing that the youth always take it into their own hands and they show you a side of the city that still breathes.” What’s so exciting about this skating subculture’s attitude to the city, she says, is that they treat it like a painter would treat their canvas: “They look at it as a piece of art that they can interact with, which I thought was very cool.” Moselle clearly has a deep connection to her protagonists, but it’s tempting to see Skate Kitchen as a personal film in other ways too. For instance, it’s a film about a young woman fighting for the opportunity to express herself in a macho arena. Did Moselle find any parallels with her own career in a male dominated industry that’s still

Interview: Jamie Dunn

dogged by underlying sexism? “In theory, yes it’s similar, but in action it’s different,” says Moselle. “I’m in a male-dominated field but with these girls, having to actually walk into that skatepark and be around this other world, it’s tough. With them, when they first start going to these parks, it’s very intimidating and it’s just something they had to get used to. It’s not like the boys have a problem with them, really, it’s just the attention they get from being there, all eyes are on you. I think it’s different for me as a director because I’m doing my own thing. It’s like, when I walk on set, that’s my set and nobody’s going to fuck with me.” We don’t doubt it. Moselle is as cool and badass as her young cast. Skate Kitchen screens 15 Sep, GFT, as part of Glasgow Youth Film Festival, and is released 28 Sep by Modern Film glasgowfilm.org/gyff

Crystal Moselle

While the skaters have their problems, nothing calamitous happens to them during Skate Kitchen’s hazy hangout narrative. It’s easy to imagine a less sophisticated film sprinkling the story with tragedy or melodrama, but Moselle resists such temptations at every turn. Moselle’s defence for Skate Kitchen’s low-key dramatic thrust is watertight: “It’s based on these girls’ own lives and they’re OK, and most kids are,” she says. “They go through these moments of doubt and pain, but then they get through it and come out the other side and learn from it, and that’s just a part of being a kid – or an adult.” It’s this fidelity to the everyday lives that these young skaters that makes Skate Kitchen sing. “I’m obsessed with the idea of creating things in a way that feels completely real, where the camera is discovering things rather than it’s been set up,” Moselle says of her approach. So dedicated is she to realism that she tries to keep her directions to a minimum. “I have a hard time even leading characters because it feels like set-up to me,” she explains. “I like to follow.” That might sound impossible in a narrative film, but despite having written the script she describes every moment on set as “feeling like a constant discovery. I need to find these little intimate moments that you can’t anticipate.” As well as being a fine film about female friendship, Skate Kitchen should also be added to the ever-growing list of great New York movies. Moselle’s ambition for capturing her hometown was to “just show a different perspective of what New York City can be,” she tells us. “I think there’s a lot of talk, this feeling that New York City is dead, and I just don’t believe it.” This chatter talking down the Big Apple tends to be from Baby Boomers or Gen Xers nostalgic for the days when they were the ones running Downtown. Moselle, however, has faith in

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Feature

The Good Life The Intouchables writer-directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache return with delightful French comedy C’est la vie! At the film’s UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival, we sat down with one of the ensemble’s stars, Eye Haïdara

Photo: Thibault Grabherr

Interview: Carmen Paddock

ood news Francophiles: Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the writing-directing team behind The Intouchables, are back on top form with their latest feature C’est la vie! This delightful comedy follows a wedding from the point of view of its staff (all played with deadpan comedic perfection) as competing egos and the demands of a 17th century estate wreak havoc on the plans. Jean-Pierre Bacri’s Max heads the catering staff, while Eye Haïdara plays his highly competent but uptight deputy Adèle. Ahead of C’est la vie's UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival, we sat down with Haïdara in the Caledonian Hotel – a stone’s throw away from the EIFF’s Filmhouse headquarters – to discuss her role in the film. The Skinny: What initially drew you to the project? Eye Haïdara: Well first of all, it was just a regular audition! But the way the directors [Toledano and Nakache] talked to me about it, it just seemed like the next big movie I had to do. In the audition I just read one scene, the first scene with Jean-Pierre Bacri, who plays the wedding caterer Max, which was my first step. After that I went back to their office and I read the whole script and fell in love with it, and then I left with the screenplay. I met Bacri back at their offices about a week later, and we worked on the screenplay together. Then I left, and then I called my agent and asked her “what does this meeting mean, do I have the part?” and she told me yes, I did. So I was really, really happy and excited to work with Toledano and Nakache, and this was my first comedy – with those two leading the production it was an amazing experience. Did you find doing a comedy different from your past work?

Feature

Yes, because I’ve always had the feeling that comedy is more difficult than making a dramatic movie. First of all it’s about rhythm, and then second of all I think it’s about sincerity – in the comedy itself and in each other when performing. Without sincerity, comedy does not work. And then in comedy, every word is right – every word counts in the delivery. I really learned all of this with Toledano and Nakache, they helped me capture the rhythm and sincerity and combine them so that it works. It’s simple to say but hard to do it!

“ The situation and characters in the film aren’t just French, they’re universal” Eye Haïdara

What was it like working on the set with such a large ensemble? It was kind of a family, it was great. It was such a large team working on set – we had many departments, many people, and we all worked hard to create a work environment in which we could make a wonderful movie. We had a lot of fun. But we had really bad weather the entire time. We just had to go beyond it. There’s the saying that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, but the directors made us forget about everything that went wrong. That’s the great thing with them – they make you forget about everything else and just focus on what you are doing in

the moment. I remember one day in particular when the world was against us. It was raining all day so they had to change the schedule last minute. We were supposed to be doing a day shoot and then it had to turn into a night shoot. When we came to set it was sunny, so we felt that this shoot would work. But when the sun went down and we were going to start, it started to rain – crazy rain and hail. And we were all just in a tent – the wedding marquee – and the hail started echoing on the roof so we couldn’t shoot or record any sound. Everything was against us. So Toledano and Nakache did something very crazy. They put the music at the end of the movie on very loud and we had a huge party – there were 200 extras and then all of us character actors – it only lasted about 30 minutes, but it was really, really big. People were dancing on the tables, and it’s like we washed everything away. And then the song finished, the rain and hail stopped, and we could work again. Essentially, everyone could have been really down because the weather was depressing, but after this little party we were ready to shoot. The directors were able to bring the cast back together again – it was like a miracle. Otherwise we would have just been sitting there waiting for the rain to stop and being miserable. No matter what, we had to wait until the rain stopped so why not have fun? We had everything we needed to have fun! We had music, we had food, we had drinks, so why not? This is the UK premiere of C’est la vie!, but it’s played in a few festivals so far (Toronto, Zurich, San Sebastián). How have the audience been around the world, and what was it like in Edinburgh? The movie has been very well received everywhere, so we are really happy about that. The movie is a product of about 45 countries, which

FILM

is just magic. That’s the goal of the cinema. Cinema has to be shared all around the world, cinema has to cross borders, and it’s always great to see how different countries, different cultures can react and laugh – the situations and characters in the film aren’t just French, they’re universal. It’s not just French humour, it’s a kind of humour that goes beyond borders. This film is about marriage – although it’s shown from the behind-the-scenes perspective – and of course in the UK we’ve just had the Royal Wedding where we all went a bit crazy for the whole ‘fairytale’. What do you think C’est la vie! brings to the table in terms of wedding films, as the wedding we see here is from a different perspective and so many things go wrong? We weren’t trying to send any message or trying to say something was the right or wrong way, we were just questioning. I just feel that if we accept each other’s differences, it’s easier to work together. I guess this is what this movie shows. As actors, we all come from different backgrounds, and the characters inside also all come from different universes. Like Adèle – Adèle is a professional who works with Max, she brings her friends who know nothing about the work they’re doing, and then Max brings his brother because he’s kind of depressed and needs something to do. We have some characters who are dedicated to their jobs, and we have some just trying to make some more money. All this makes up this little society and all those people have to stick together and build together because they are all working towards the same goal. I guess what we can learn from this movie is that we should stop trying to separate people, because it’s so much easier to stick people together and to go forward together. C’est la vie! is released 31 August by Cinefile

THE SKINNY

Paraguayan Breakout A multiple prize-winner at this year’s Berlinale, The Heiresses is a moving twist on the LGBTQIA+ coming of age genre, in that it’s about an older gay woman embracing new things. We speak to Paraguayan director Marcelo Martinessi about making the film

Interview: Josh Slater-Williams

ost of the time when The Skinny interviews filmmakers in person, particularly in the context of a film festival, it’s in a swanky conference room or reserved table in a posh hotel’s private bar. When speaking to Paraguayan writer-director Marcelo Martinessi at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, our interview is confirmed so last-minute that it ends up taking place at a spare table by the concessions stand in the lobby of the Odeon on Lothian Road, mere minutes after he’s introduced the film’s UK premiere. Considering we have to move some spilt popcorn off the seats, we wouldn’t have blamed Martinessi for being less than thrilled to speak about his work in such surroundings. But the filmmaker proves enthusiastic and engaged, even though his trousers probably now bear traces of butter.

“ When sat down in front of white paper, I always heard this voice as women” Marcelo Martinessi

He tells us he’s been interviewed in far worse set-ups, which is a surprise considering The Heiresses – his debut feature – premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it picked up multiple prizes, including Best Actress for lead Ana Brun. “It feels wonderful for the visibility the film gets,” he says of the film’s Berlinale haul. “I’m from a country where we have no such thing as a New Paraguayan Cinema because there hasn’t really been a time when a whole generation was able to produce cinema in Paraguay. So we feel like we’re in the early stages of Paraguayan cinema. Of course, any visibility to what we do is very important at the moment because we’re fighting for a cinema law, for a cinema institute, for regular funding in Paraguay. So in that sense, it was very important. And for me as a filmmaker, to have my work seen and appreciated by people is important, mainly because it was so difficult to make. When the film connects, it’s always great.”

The eponymous heiresses in the film are Chela (Brun) and Chiquita (Margarita Irun), two older women in Paraguay’s capital, Asunción, who have been living together for over 30 years. Their financial situation has recently worsened and so they begin selling off inherited possessions, but their debts lead to Chiquita being imprisoned on charges of fraud. As such, Chela is forced to make a new life for herself, finally breaking out of her shell and engaging with the world, while waiting for Chiquita’s sentence to end. She stumbles into a new life of providing a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy women, while also forming a new connection with the much younger Angy (Ana Ivanova). “The Heiresses is not a straightforward story,” Martinessi says of getting the film made. “We had to find a way of talking about a country where the oppression is underneath the skin of the society. Even though we had a dictator [Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda] that left in 1989, the way the film deals with our history and with who we are as a country... for me, besides telling the intimate story of two women, the film has a lot to do with the place I come from. And it’s difficult to work around the history of a country that doesn’t have cinema. When you grow up in Brazil or Argentina, you have seen yourself, or your society and the way you speak your language, since you were a child on the big screen.

We haven’t. We have seen mainly American commercial cinema all our lives, so it was a big challenge.” As well as being a rare Paraguayan film to break out internationally, The Heiresses is uncommon for being a film written and directed by a man that’s led entirely by women; there’s rarely a man onscreen at all, apart from the partner of a supporting player. “When sat down in front of white paper, I always heard this voice as women,” Martinessi tells us. “I grew up in a very female-driven society; a female-ruled society, let’s say. Even though Paraguay is a very macho country, the ones that are working the internal fibre of society are women. The ones that reproduce, the ones that inherit, and the ones that transmit values and everything from one generation to the next are women. This is the only way, this is the only mechanic I can use to talk about my country. I grew up with a mother, grandmother, sisters, aunties, great aunties – a lot of women around me. And I also admire a lot of women’s cinema, such as Fassbinder films, Todd Haynes, many directors that work with actresses. I was happy to find a great cast, so I think it just came very organically.” Regarding the age range of his characters, Martinessi describes them as “the lost generation. My dad was ten years old when the dictator came to power in Paraguay; I was 16 when the

dictator left. So you have this whole generation – that is the generation before mine – who are these people who grew up, got educated, went to university and had to work under a very, very awful dictatorship. They either had to adapt or they had to leave. So I think these women, in a way, are inside this prison, and for me, there are many metaphorical levels you probably don’t need to get if you don’t know the history of Paraguay, but I think they are felt onscreen because these people are trapped by a system that doesn’t really allow them to be who they are.” Speaking of not being allowed to be who they really are, The Heiresses also serves as a portrait of a long-term lesbian couple living in secrecy about their exact relationship, in a country where that’s still a political hot potato. “I wanted to treat it in the way people in Paraguay would mention it,” the filmmaker says of this element. “Not mentioned, not very explicit. And I don’t like cinema where everything is very explicit, where if you have a lesbian character you have to have a scene of her kissing another woman so you understand she’s a lesbian. I think life is not like that. I think in cinema sometimes when a man and woman are together in a car, you assume they’re a couple, and more when they’re in bed. I don’t know why when there are two women together, we still don’t assume them being a couple is a possibility. I think cinema needs to be a bit more open to everything. We don’t have to give out so much information in the script. I think life is not like that.” Although Paraguayan media has apparently been very supportive, we’re told that the film was to receive an award of recognition from the Senate of Paraguay, but half the room left during the prize-giving. “We’re talking about a very conservative country where, before watching the film, they just heard there were lesbian characters and it was a big issue. And one of the senators yelled at Ana Brun, saying ‘I don’t understand why we’re giving this award to you, lesbian’. It’s a very, very basic interpretation of cinema, art, life, everything. And, of course, we are not going to stick to that for any reason. We are enjoying what we’re doing, we think art has to look at the future and that’s what we’re doing with the film. It was just very depressing for us how behind the politicians of our country can be, even compared to their own society.” The Heiresses is released 10 Aug by Thunderbird Releasing thunderbirdreleasing.com/the-heiresses

August 2018

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Feature

Just Guts We showcase the work of the Just Guts collective, fresh from their collaboration at this year’s Edinburgh College of Art degree show

ust Guts came together in September 2017 at Edinburgh College of Art, made up of members Szabolcs Fricska, Ursula Ilett, Fiona Berry, Harry Whitelock, Niklas Gustafson and Tiki Muir. The intention of the group’s collaboration was to combine their work, taking control of the space in and around a communally-built structure to discuss their work collectively and work against normal degree show formats. Occupying most of the 72-square metre room, with three large sections and a performance area, the structure allowed Just Guts to adapt their work for its design, and the design to their work. It also allowed the group to create their own context, one that could be removed from the art school and imagined elsewhere. “Wanting to inhabit a space we could call our own, the environment quickly became what we would consider a domestic space, seeing each object as serving two uses, both that of an expressive art object and something designed to be used. Our individual practices of sculpture, video, performance, painting, printmaking and ceramics, with their own thematic and political nuances were joined together in a space built for and directed by our collaborative aims. Together we looked at ideas of ownership, domesticity and

SHOWCASE

hierarchies of art and design. Our works began to feel like possessions, integrated with each other like that in a family home. “We found the complexity of the space exciting; coming from different disciplines within the art school each of us could contribute elements others desired but didn’t have the skill or capacity to achieve. By activating the space with performance, workshops and furniture to be used, we hoped to make something alive and functional that both the group and its visitors could feel comfortable in. The exhibition became a hybrid space, both theatrical and practical, speaking directly and imaginatively and lying between individual and collective forms of art and design. The opportunity to work out of isolation enabled us to form a shared space of desire rather than a solitary one, providing us with a community to work within, to develop ideas and exchange skills, while enabling us to work on a project far more ambitious than we could achieve alone.” Contact the Just Guts collective on gutsgutsgutsmail@gmail.com instagram.com/just.guts

THE SKINNY

August 2018

SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

LI FE

We Go Too

ST Y LE Words: Samara Linton Illustration: Kate Costigan

One writer explores what it means to travel as a black woman and why despite its difficulties, she always encourages people of colour to go

ost of us have a love-hate relationship with Facebook’s “On This Day” feature. Sometimes, the algorithm gets it right and we find ourselves snorting with laughter during an important meeting. At others, we are confronted with images of an ex we had hoped to forget. And then there are the holiday memories: clichéd yellow-red sunsets, overcrowded group selfies, and enviable carefree smiles. These are the kind of memories that tip me into endless nostalgia. There are few things I love more than travelling and I will find any excuse to plan a holiday. When deciding on my next destination, airline deals, reviews from friends, and Lonely Planet are my guides. And yet, before I make a booking, I always do one final Google search: “Black woman solo travel to [insert destination here].” If you are a black woman who has travelled alone, chances are this search, and its underwhelming results, are familiar to you. The scarcity of travel blogs by black women leaves me piecing together information about travelling to a particular country as a woman and as a black person, trying to deduce what my experience may be like. Scattered between the horrific tales of profiling, harassment, and discrimination, there are the positive stories and these are the ones that make me put aside my apprehensions and book my ticket. When black women ask me about my experience in a particular country, I often tell them the positive things. I describe the joys and the wonders, the sights and the warm welcome. On Facebook and Instagram, I present images of pristine waters, crystal sand and joyous #carefreeblackgirl selfies. I want to share with them the joys of travelling, the pleasure of saving up for and enjoying experiences outside of your comfort zone. I want them to know that you don’t have to have a lot of money to see another small corner of the planet. But I also want to tell them about the realities of navigating the world as a black

August 2018

woman. I want to tell them about travelling with my family as a child with a non-British passport, wondering why security would stop us and not the other families. I want to tell them about when I was 17, passing through Miami airport on a school trip and observing that only the people of colour in my group were having their bags or bodies searched. I want to tell them about my girls’ trip to Ibiza, where a man pulled up in his car to ask me and my friends, “How much?” I want to tell them that after the shock, embarrassment, and anger subsided, we looked around and saw that the only other black women on the strip were sex workers and the black men were selling souvenirs. I want to tell them about Peru, where awestruck adults pointed and confused children pulled on their mother’s sleeves shouting, “Su pelo!” Where strangers indiscreetly took photos of me on the bus or asked me to take photographs with their children. I want to tell them that knowing that people are probably staring out of curiosity and reaching for my hair out of fascination does not take away the discomfort of being othered. I want to tell them to be prepared to become the tourist attraction instead of the tourist. I want to tell them about the responsibility I sometimes feel to “act right” and present a different, more nuanced image of black women to those typically seen in music videos and films. I want to tell them that knowing that I shouldn’t have to carry this burden does not lessen the load. I want to tell them that the experience of being sexualised, racialised, and ostracised is not limited to countries where black people are a minority but extends to countries where significant proportions of the population are of African descent. Countries like Cuba, where despite my poor Spanish, I was able to understand the shouts of “Me gusta las negritas!” That the incessant hisses and catcalling from

Trinidadian or Jamaican men become as familiar as the sound of crickets at dusk.

“For too long we have been pushed into the background of other people’s stories, labouring away for their growth and comfort at the cost of our own” I want to tell them about my plans to travel further afield, but also about my fears of going somewhere where I will be even more of a minority and my blackness even more visible. I want to tell them that while I am afraid, I go anyway because travelling is a privilege few people of colour, and black women in particular, get to enjoy. I think back to a few years ago, to the border control agent whose shoulders relaxed when I opened my mouth to produce a British accent and opened my bag to produce a British passport. I remember the relief I felt when this happened but also the guilt and indignation. I should not need to be British to be treated with gentleness and respect, yet it is this identity that affords me so much of the freedom I have when I choose to see the world firsthand. I want to tell them all this, but I am hesitant because I know that women like me hear “No” too often. We are told that we can’t do this and we can’t be that, we shouldn’t wear this and

TRAVEL

we shouldn’t act like that. How often are we told “Yes”? So, when I share my experiences of travelling with women of colour, I say: “Nevertheless, go.” Whether it is driving to a neighbouring county or catching a 12-hour flight to the other side of the globe, go. Whether it is for a couple of days or a couple of months, go. Whether it is by yourself or in a group, go. Go, because for too long we have been told how to exist and where to exist. For too long we have been pushed into the background of other people’s stories, labouring away for their growth and comfort at the cost of our own. I choose to tell women of colour, go. Travelling brings both joy and anxiety. It is both magical and mundane. As I write this, I am on a small tropical island in the Caribbean, watching day fade into the night and listening to the humming of the fan behind me. My legs are covered in insect bites, my throat feels like sandpaper, and I miss the comfort of being wrapped up in a blanket, drinking a good cup of tea on a rainy day. But I am happy to be here. I am happy I told myself: “Yes, go.” I have snorkelled over coral reefs, swum with stingrays, and gone horseback riding in the sea. I have squeezed into overcrowded buses, joined in with the chorus of “Hallelujah” at church, and ‘limed’ by the beach. Does being a black woman shape my experiences abroad? Of course. Being a black woman shapes my experiences outside the UK, just as it shapes my experience of life inside it. But when all is said and done, I simply cannot imagine a time in my life when I would be content with confining myself to the boundaries of the UK. So I will continue to peruse black women’s travel blogs and Instagram pages, subscribe to airline newsletters, and diligently save up for my next trip. I will continue to go. theskinny.co.uk/travel

Lifestyle

Doctors Across Borders Interview: Katie Goh Illustration: Tom Saffill

Free, universal healthcare is a privilege most of us take for granted in this country. We talk to healthcare professionals who have chosen to work in the UK about what the NHS means to them on its 70th birthday

hen I say I have the NHS in my blood, I don’t just mean the various blood transfusions, operations, medications, and check-ups that have kept me alive since I was born. My Malaysian dad came to the UK to study when he was 17, trained to be a doctor, and ended up working in a Northern Irish hospital where he met my mum, a children’s nurse who had moved north from the Republic of Ireland. The NHS is made up of stories like my parents: about people who came to the UK to study, train, or work in one of the thousands of hospitals across four countries. Last year it was reported that 18% of NHS workers are non-UK nationals and 30% of NHS doctors are from countries outside the UK. This year the NHS turns 70 and to celebrate seven decades of universal healthcare, we speak to some of the immigrants who have chosen to make a life for themselves in the UK about what the NHS means to them. Through a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events, Matthew unintentionally fell into the NHS. An Australia-native, he was travelling around Europe before becoming stuck in Scotland. Through the kindness of strangers, he was put in touch with the head of human resources at an Edinburgh hospital. “One thing led to another and while working as a nursing assistant I discovered that, even though I had been to five different high schools and somehow not graduated from any of them, I was encouraged by senior staff who saw some value in me to start on the path of tertiary education. Being a high school drop-out, I needed to start by doing a SVQ 2 then an HNC before going into second year at university. I felt so amazed and grateful that the country I’d simply gotten lost in offered me a chance to be a ‘real’ and relevant part of society, one that could hopefully allow me to reciprocate the gratitude I felt for being so included.” Despite the fact that he would have a better salary if he had returned to work in Australia, made the decision to stay in Scotland as a staff nurse. “Yeah, I could be making double the money for the same job back in my home country (as my mum likes to tell me), but for now I’m extremely proud to be part of something which I see as genuinely approaching – and regularly achieving – what I don’t think is too exuberant to say [are] the highest ideals of an egalitarian approach to life that demonstrates the best parts of human nature.” Denis, from Kerala in India, has been working as a domestic porter in an NHS hospital for the past six months. A mechanical engineering student, Denis is working part-time to support himself through these studies. While he isn’t likely to stay in the UK when he graduates, the NHS means a great deal to him. “As well as myself, both my parents are employed by the NHS and it is essentially their lifeline. Unlike in India, it provides free healthcare for my family and others, which I have always thought is amazing. I’m amazed that they have provided this service for 70 years.” Set up after The Second World War, the UK was one of the first European countries to aim for free healthcare for its citizens. It remains one of only 58 countries in the world to provide universal healthcare. For people who grew up in countries where healthcare is an expensive privilege, the UK’s NHS is not something to be taken lightly. Born in the Philippines, Emily has worked as an NHS nurse since 2009. She calls the

Lifestyle

NHS “the greatest social reform ever created which should serve as a role model for every country in this world. Being an immigrant I can see how fortunate the people here in the UK are to have the NHS. Access to free medical and health services whether you’re rich or poor! How wonderful it could be if this was the same in the Philippines or any other countries.” Emily completed her nursing qualification in the Philippines and, after graduating, had to volunteer as a nurse in exchange for experience in the field. “Getting a paid nursing job in the Philippines was quite hard at the time if you didn’t have experience, so you had to ‘volunteer’ at first for at least six months to apply for probation.” She says a desire to travel and for a better paid job led her to want to work abroad. In 2002, she moved to an American hospital in Yemen before making her way to the UK in 2004. Emily is upfront about the challenges of being an immigrant and working for the NHS. “Although I can say my English is good, I had some struggles understanding the way people speak here with accents and use of English terms and words,” she says. “There’s also an issue of belonging. I feel that no matter what I do to fit in, there is always a feeling that you don’t belong or people from here make you feel that you’re not one of them. It’s up to you how you react to every situation when you feel this way. It’s a matter of acceptance.” On a larger scale, she says that there is a major imbalance between workload and pay. “This is a big challenge now for nurses. I said

before that my plan was to work in the NHS until I retire but that has changed now because of the imbalance of workload versus pay. Working in the NHS, especially in Accident and Emergency, is tough with the amount of patients coming in with a shortage of staff – the pay isn’t enough. This is true in different areas of the NHS.” The NHS is suffering from a lack of government funding, something that is affecting both NHS workers and patients. The Leave campaign manipulated this fact during the lead-up to the Brexit referendum last year, infamously plastering “We send the EU £350 million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead” on the side of a red bus. The morning after the referendum, Nigel Farage, at that time UKIP’s leader, backtracked on Good Morning Britain, saying: “No I can’t [guarantee it], and I would never have made that claim.” After the Brexit vote last July, a 23% increase in hate crime involving racial and religious discrimination was reported. Whether it’s feeling unwelcome in the UK or uncertain about whether staying will even be an option for EU nationals living in the UK, the uncertain consequences of Brexit loom over. Meabh, a junior doctor working between acute medicine and A&E, is from County Donegal in Ireland and has worked in Belfast for the past year. Like many Irish and Northern Irish people, Meabh is concerned about the possibility of a hard border between the north and south and how that will affect health services in both countries. “A hard border would completely

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change life in Donegal. I’m worried about how Brexit is going to affect the north-west. Some services are cross-border, including some of the cancer services. I hope that this will continue, even in the event of a hard border, as this massively benefits people in Donegal.”

“ Being an immigrant I can see how fortunate the people here in the UK are to have the NHS” Emily

The NHS is under threat. Whether it’s the government’s increasing and unrelenting cuts to funding, the threat of Brexit or overworking underpaid staff, the future of universal, free healthcare in the UK is becoming more uncertain. As Matthew, Denis, Emily, and Meabh all express, the NHS is a rare privilege in the world. “Free healthcare that treats on the basis of need rather than income or status should be the norm everywhere,” says Meabh. So, as we celebrate 70 years of the NHS, we should also be fighting to ensure that we get to celebrate another 70 more.

THE SKINNY

Kill Your Darlings Interview: Katie Goh Illustration: Jacky Sheridan

The notion of the male genius sits at the heart of our artistic and cultural life – here’s why it’s time to rip it up and start again

ho was your first male genius hero to fall? Bill Cosby? Ernest Hemingway or John Lennon? Roman Polanski or Jean-Luc Godard? Or maybe yours was more recent following #MeToo: Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner, Harvey Weinstein or Louis CK? Or even more recently, Kanye West? There’s a wealth of famous and powerful men who make great art and do shitty things to pick from. Mine was Woody Allen. When I was a teenager, I loved Woody Allen, particularly Allen in Annie Hall. It wasn’t even just a case of admiring Allen’s gift of comedy, I wanted to be him. I thought he was genius. A few years later I learned that Allen’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow had accused him of sexual assault when she was seven. It felt like a betrayal, and not just by Allen. Farrow accused her adoptive father of assault in 1992. For the entire time I had admired Allen and looked up to him as a genius, this had been public knowledge. Why had nobody told me? Why was Allen still held up as one of the greatest living American filmmakers and a comedy legend? Why had no one listened to Farrow? It was the first time I realised just how powerful the myth of genius can be and how far we’ll go to defend our genius men. Despite Farrow’s accusations in the early 90s, Allen had been given a pass in Hollywood. Who cares if David Foster Wallace stalked, harassed, and abused the poet Mary Karr? The guy wrote Infinite Jest! Or that Pablo Picasso was in a relationship with a 17-year-old girl when he was in his 40s. But cubism! Although we do have

August 2018

it a little easier with the dead geniuses. We can excuse them by saying they were of their time or who cares, they’re dead, it’s not like they’re benefiting from our admiration now. But they are benefiting. As time passes, Picasso, Wallace and other dead, problematic genius men’s reputations are continually being cemented. Their art is worth millions as they are locked firmly into our culture’s canon as the great auteurs of history. If we can’t even hold dead geniuses to account, what luck do we have with the living ones? When we talk about genius, we aren’t just talking about ego or talent. We’re talking about the institution of genius that we have build Western art on. We’re talking about the canon and history, who we choose to give reputation to and who we decide is worthy of our time, space and money. We’re talking about why we give certain men who abuse their power and privilege a second chance, while we throw their victims under a bus for daring to threaten our geniuses. When we talk about genius, we’re talking about ourselves. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the etymology of “genius” as, from the Latin: the “male spirit of a family, existing in the head of the family and subsequently in the divine or spiritual part of each individual […] spirit or personality of an emperor regarded as an object of worship, spirit of a place, spirit of a corporation, (in literature) talent, inspiration, person endowed with talent, also demon or spiritual being in general.” Divinity, spirit, worship, talent,

inspiration – something godlike from the heavens and a quality that is always inherently masculine. Women cannot be geniuses. While Ted Hughes was called the greatest poet of his generation during his lifetime, it is only by the hard work of feminist academics that Sylvia Plath has received any critical acclaim or respect. Hughes is a literary genius while Plath is “an interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college-girl mentality.” It was Woody Allen’s character who said that in Annie Hall. Go figure. Female artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Frida Kahlo, all responsible for conceiving and advancing their respective literary and artistic movements, aren’t geniuses. They might be respected but it’s largely their lives rather than their work that is remembered. Toni Morrison might be the greatest living American novelist but she will never reach the level of genius of Wallace or Hemingway. While male geniuses are passionate, soul-searching, violent pursuers of greatness, female artists are simply difficult women. That’s why when a male genius is accused of abusing his power and privilege by a woman, we forgive him because, well… he’s a genius! Why would we care about a seven-year-old girl who has accused her 50-something adopted father of molesting her when that man is Woody Allen. The male mind will win every time over the female body. Rape culture is a symptom of worshipping genius men. Recently, however, there’s been a shift in our

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culture. Male geniuses are falling and your fave is definitely problematic. During #MeToo, famous and powerful Hollywood men like Weinstein, Spacey and CK finally faced real consequences for their actions that for so long had gone unacknowledged. Kanye “I am a god” West was another male genius who fell. Woody Allen’s latest film looks like it will never see the light of day. Elon Musk has become a hack meme. Why have we suddenly decided that we don’t like male geniuses anymore? Perhaps having Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “very stable genius” who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault, as the leader of the free world was finally too much for us (although he was still elected president).

“The male genius is a toxic myth that pollutes art, politics, society, and ourselves” So, now that we know that our male geniuses are shitty people, how do we navigate our culture that is built on the foundation of monstrous men’s art? We’re told to separate the art from the artist but what happens when the art is about the artist? How can you watch Allen’s character in Manhattan have a fling with a high school student without remembering that he has been accused of paedophilia? Or appreciate one of Picasso’s female nudes with the knowledge he was a sexist who slept with underage girls? Or listen to Kanye’s latest record while a voice at the back of your head reminds you that he believes slavery was a choice and that America should be made great again? The thing is though, I still listen to Kanye’s music and watch Annie Hall and can appreciate the impact Picasso had on art history. What does that say about me? Am I a shitty person for doing that? I don’t think we can separate the art from the artist. Doing that only shifts the blame from us, the consumers of art who have given these men a platform. We need to create a dialogue about what to do with the art of monsters that moves beyond “cancelling” them or a your-faveis-problematic culture. While we can boycott and not financially contribute to bad men’s art, it still exists and we need to learn how to navigate that. We need to talk about how we treat male artists and how we give certain men the platform to become genius. A change is needed on an economical and cultural level to shift the institution of art so that it isn’t run by the powerful and rich. We need to open up art’s canon to give room to underrepresented artists so that our cultural history doesn’t only consist of male geniuses. No artist is a genius and no artist is above being held accountable for their actions. Art is a reflection of society and the male genius is a toxic myth that pollutes art, politics, society and ourselves. If we stop giving male artists the platform to become our secular gods, then they can no longer fall. We kill genius, we free our art, our artists, and ourselves.

Lifestyle

THE SKINNY

Food on the Fringe Whisky-soaked dinners, gin-inspired detectives, cocktail festivals and ‘wine wankers’ – here are the food and drink shows to catch at this year’s Edinburgh festivals

e begin this year’s food-themed guide with breakfast – it is the most important meal of the day and the Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show aims to cram plenty into the early timeslot. A string of ten-minute plays to help you line your theatrical stomach for the day ahead, and free croissants and coffee for those of you who’ve been dragged out of bed to enjoy some culture when caffeine is the only c-word you have time for. Pleasance Dome, Bristo Square, 1-27 Aug (not 14 or 21), 10.30am, £9.50-12.50 If you’ve alienated your pals by complaining through the breakfast show, you’ll need some company. That’s where Happy Hour at Summerhall comes in – it’s an award-winning solo experience that takes you through a 25-minute pub session at the aforementioned hour. Enjoy some art that practically compels you to grab a tasty craft beer and take a break from the all-round frenzy of the Fringe, all in one fell swoop. Summerhall, Summerhall Pl, 1-26 Aug (not 2), 12-9pm (drop-in), £5 Over at the Book Festival, Turkish chef Özlem Warren introduces her new book Özlem’s Turkish Table with an afternoon tea and a guided tour through some of the culinary traditions of her native Turkey (Charlotte Square Spiegeltent, 24 Aug, 2.30pm, £25). Also in Charlotte Square Gardens, American science journalist Maryn McKenna fills us in on what we might not know about the world of industrial poultry farming as she discusses her latest book Plucked! Spoiler: the things we previously didn’t know are not good things, but we’re better off for knowing them. Garden Theatre, 11 Aug, 12.30pm, £10-12 Of course, the Fringe can always be relied upon to ask the big questions. Questions such as Is Astronaut Food the Future? Part of the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas series at The Stand, this hour will see Edinburgh University space technology researcher Matjaz Vidmar explore the food science that keeps astronauts fed while they’re floating around doing experiments, looking at ways those techniques and tricks are making their way into our food culture down here on Earth. Find out how cutting-edge space science could help us sort out the planet’s food problems, and take what’s probably the best chance you’ll ever get to find out whether those crisps Homer Simpson released on the space shuttle really would have clogged up the instruments. The Stand’s New Town Theatre, 96 George St, 20 Aug, 8.10pm, £8-10

But maybe you fancy something different. Perhaps you like your food and drink unsullied by the arts, or maybe you live in Leith and don’t fancy charging headlong into a sea of circus performers and confused tourists? Leith Chill Fest has you covered. The month-long cocktail shebang follows what has become a well-worn format in recent years – snap up a wristband, head around a host of participating bars and try each of their specially-designed cocktails, loudly proclaim your favourites to anyone who’ll listen. The bar line-up features a host of Leith’s best, and the fact the thing runs all month means there’s no need for the usual Fringe panic. It’s in Leith; seems pretty chill; is a festival. Sounds good to us. 2 Aug-2 Sep, various venues, wristbands £5 via leithchillfest.com Also on our hitlist is Street Jam Edinburgh, the graffiti art-meets-craft beer all-dayer from Six Degrees North. It’s an event that combines live street art painting from some top-drawer artists and illustrators, an artists’ market with wares from each of the day’s creators, an open canvas to add your own mark, and a specially-crafted food menu and beer list to go along with it all. Really, it’s many of the things you’d like to be able to slot into a Saturday afternoon at the Fringe, all plonked in one place. Go to that place. Six Degrees North, 24 Howe St, 18 Aug, 2-11.30pm, free entry On an equally boozy tangent is Whisky and Gin Tasting Cabaret, a combination of music and boozing which we shall christen “moozing”. The show is what it says on the label – a cabaret celebrating gin and whisky, featuring a trio of free samples and some helpful info on the story and technique behind each of the spirits. That much of said information will presumably be delivered through the medium of song is fine by us (Hill Street Theatre, 19 Hill St, 3-26 Aug, 10.40pm, £15). Then there’s The Gin Chronicles in New York, a gin-inspired radio drama pastiche. See, they really do have everything at the Fringe. The show follows a pair of detectives drawn into a tricky case while living it up in 1940s New York, while you live it up in 2018 Edinburgh with a complimentary gin and tonic. artSpace@St Mark’s, 7 Castle Terrace, 8-26 Aug (not 13, 14, 20 or 21), various times, £9-12 Moving on from gin, we’ve picked out a pair of whisky-related events for those of you who like your drinks dark and faintly reminiscent of old, old wood. Robert Graham 1874’s Scotch Whisky

Street Jam Edinburgh

August 2018

Words: Peter Simpson

Leith Chill Fest

and Artisan Food Experience isn’t just an opportunity to sample great wares from producers from across the city paired with excellent whiskies, it’s also an event whose title takes a lot of the fun out of the classic Fringe brochure game ‘Can You Guess What This Show Is Actually About?’ Still, nice drinks, nice food and a very straightforward sales pitch is a good combination, so we’ll allow it. Robert Graham Tasting Room, 254 Canongate, 3-27 Aug, 1pm and 4pm, £18 Slightly more esoteric is A Year of Scotland in a Meal, hosted by the tweed-loving whisky stewards of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. If you’re after a big foodie night out at this year’s Fringe, this is one for you – a three-course meal from the SMWS that promises to span the key events of a year in the space of one dinnertime. Expect songs, stories, a few laughs and plenty of whisky. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 28 Queen St, various dates from 3-25 Aug, 1pm and 8pm, £32-35 If, on the other, hand you throw a bit of a wobbler any time your meal schedule is interrupted, you’ll be right on board with Molly Sokhom and Neil Thornton, aka the Hangry Americans. A combination of comedy and cookery show, Sokhom and Thornton promise to sit at “the intersection of food and fury” – let’s face it, we’ve all been there (Laughing Horse at the Counting House, 38 West Nicolson St, 15-26

FOOD AND DRINK

Aug, 9.45pm, free). There are no such problems over at Comfort Food Cabaret, where Michelle Pearson knocks together a three-course meal while working her way through a songbook of pop and jazz tunes. C Venues at New Town Cookery School, 7 Queen St, 15-18 and 22-26 Aug, various times, £10.50-16.50 If all you really want from this year’s Fringe is an Australian man singing about how much he enjoys coffee, comedy singer-songwriter Majk Stokes has you covered. One More Cup of Coffee, and Then We’ll Save the World promises songs and poetry around Stokes’ two favourite topics – the environment and coffee. Coffee is one of our favourite drinks and the environment is our favourite place in which to drink it – we’re hooked. Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, 14-18 Aug, 6.30pm, £6-8 And finally, there’s the fantastically-titled How to Drink Wine Like a Wanker. A one-woman show about its star’s “accidental journey from shallow wine novice to full-blown wine wanker,” this is what the Fringe is all about. That is to say boozing, swearing and sharing grim personal experiences in rooms that are ever so slightly too small – and long may it continue. Zoo Southside, 117 Nicolson St, 11-27 Aug (not 15), 8pm, £8-10 theskinny.co.uk/food

Lifestyle

New Food and Drink Exciting sit-down dining, delightful bagels, cracking coffee and some fancy fish and chips – here are eight new venues to check out this month Five March At the very edge of Kelvingrove Park, Five March has popped up with the kind of menu that makes us want to throw the laptop out the window and head for lunch right this second. It’s a sharing selection with influences from all over the map, a bit like hearing from your friend who’s an incredible cook and really wants to host three or four dinners but doesn’t have the time in their calendar. Throw in some numbered cocktails (we’ll have the Number 1 with ‘Rum, Pineapple, Citrus, and Fire’) and we’re sold. 140 Elderslie St, Glasgow Cornerstore As mission statements on your cafe’s Instagram handle go, “bringing back honest breakfast items as the world has gone mad for brunch which should be lunch” is up there with the best. The Mount Florida spot keeps things simple – four toasties (all of which sound banging), other kinds of toast if you don’t want a toastie, good coffee, simple decor, slam dunk, job done. 186 Battlefield Rd, Glasgow

neighbourhood restaurant for the people of Shore-side Leith. What that means in practice is a reasonably priced menu of sharing plates (following the now-standard ‘three ingredients and a number’ school of menu design) made to a standard that you’d really have to concentrate to get close to. Expect swooshes, smears and a whole load of exciting seasonal ingredients. 50 Henderson St, Edinburgh The Fishmarket ‘Posh fish and chips’ – it’s just a really easy sell, isn’t it? Down on the waterfront in Newhaven, The Fishmarket is a collaboration between old school fishmongers Welch and the team behind fancy-pants Old Town seafood restaurant Ondine. The result is a seaside spot that’s equally comfortable slinging oysters and scallops as it is knocking together a cracking fish supper.

Words: Peter Simpson We like that, and will take one of each, thanks. 23A Pier Pl, Edinburgh Hawksmoor If Hawksmoor, the latest London transplant to hit the fringes around St Andrew Square, can be summed up in two words, those would be ‘opulence’ and ‘meat’. The steakhouse is much loved down south for its outlandish and delicious cuts, and things are no different here. The swish factor comes from the venue’s location in the new Edinburgh Grand hotel development, all old wood panels and shiny, shiny windows. 23 West Register St, Edinburgh Bross Bagels Leith Walk The deliciously chewy bagels and myriad fillings of the Montreal-inspired Bross head inland from Portobello with a second shop near the foot of Leith Walk. It’s a refinement of the original

formula, with increased options for the veggies – we’re particularly intrigued by the jackfruit reuben – and a few little specials for the Leith crowd. The cool decor and queues out the door have both survived the move; take a place in line, you won’t regret it. 105 Leith Walk, Leith Little Fitzroy A slice of Aussie coffee culture at the top of Easter Road, Little Fitzroy takes its name from the extremely cool area of Melbourne that’s home to the street art-laden Laneways and, frankly, more good food and drink than you can shake a stick at. Little Fitzroy focuses in on the coffee, in a homely space that’s sure to prove a great stopping point for those of you who can’t quite face getting stuck in roadworks at the back of the St James Centre. 46 Easter Rd, Edinburgh theskinny.co.uk/food

MAYZE From the team behind coffee pop-up Something Brewed, MAYZE is the latest addition to Finnieston’s never-ending litany of intriguing food and drink. There’s a focus on great coffee (naturally) and great food options both sweet and savoury, as well as a frankly welcome eye for angular geometric design. Everyone’s going for that soft, Scandi style right now – we appreciate some odd, colourful angles. Good work. 974 Argyle St, Glasgow Borough Occupying the former site of Norn, and headed up by former Norn head chef Darren Murray, Borough pitches itself as a relaxed

Borough

The Fishmarket

Chews Bulletin Festival fun takes hold in Glasgow as well as Edinburgh this August – get ready for a month of charity beer fests, cocktail weekenders and celebrations of all things vegan

ypically, August is a time for Edinburgh to get very festival-heavy and everyone else to get a little bit fed up of it constantly being mentioned. This year, Glasgow is also getting in on the act courtesy of Festival 2018, the sport-adjacent cultural melee hitting the city in the first half of the month. The programme’s foodie element comes in the form of the Civic Canteen project, a celebration of food from around the world led by a squad of activists, food educators and all-round good eggs, all packed into a marquee on John Street in the Merchant City. In Tomorrow’s Kitchen, food anthropologists Kueche shine a light on Glasgow’s diverse multicultural food culture and look at the ways in which Scottish ideas and ingredients interact with food traditions from Syrian, Roma, Pakistani and Iraqi cuisine, with the aim of creating new traditions and new recipes (9-12 Aug, 5pm, free, tickets via festival2018glasgow.com). Meanwhile, Montreal art group ATSA present While Having Soup, which has been dubbed a “three-course dialogue”. Here’s the idea in a nutshell – you pop

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in for soup and have a conversation with one of ATSA’s artists or volunteers. Your chat is added to thousands of others, we all learn the power of listening and chatting, and you get some free soup. Everyone’s a winner. 9-12 Aug, 12-3pm, free, drop-in Festival 2018 has subsumed the long-running Merchant City Festival this year, with the Merchant City Markets set to serve up an expanded range of food and drink. There’s a street food market from Govan’s own Big Feed and a host of foodie vendors to check out on your travels. 4-5, 9-12 Aug, various locations in Merchant City, Glasgow, free entry It may have snared the most straight-forward name, but Festival 2018 isn’t the only game (festival) in town (Glasgow) this month. Glasgow Cocktail Weekend is a weekend-long encouragement to explore some of the city’s best bars, with a host of participating venues offering specially-created £5 cocktails to wrist-band holders. Among the bar list so far are the Kelvingrove Cafe, The Spanish Butcher and recent

Skinny fave Bibimbap – there are also DJ sets from Rebecca Vasmant, IDA and the We Should Hang Out More crew thrown in to sweeten the deal. 9-12 Aug, various locations, festival ticket £30 If you’re not much of a cocktail person, may we present Innis & Gunn Beer vs I.J.Mellis Cheese vs Kopke Port, a night with a somewhat clunky name but a highly intriguing premise. Part of I&G’s ongoing ‘versus’ nights, you’ll try out four beers, four cracking cheeses from one of our favourite ‘mongers and four glasses of port, rating them as you go. Will your ratings degenerate over the evening, to the point that the fourth selection earns a scrawled ‘LOVELY’ out of 10? Only one way to find out! 16 Aug, 7pm, Innis & Gunn Beer Kitchen, Ashton Lane, tickets £20 via EventBrite August also brings with it a pair of vegan festivals at either end of the M8. In Edinburgh, it’s the aptly-titled Edinburgh Vegan Festival. Continuing a somewhat unexpected trend of plant-based shindigs in enormous sports stadiums, this one’s taking place at Murrayfield

FOOD AND DRINK

– all the more room for delicious veggie treats and the vegan essentials that there’s apparently no room for in the city’s innumerable miniature supermakets (19 Aug, 10.30am-4.30pm, BT Murrayfield Stadium, tickets £2 via EventBrite). Over in Glasgow, Vegan Connections festival returns with a two-day veggie-powered market celebrating the best that vegan food has to offer. Expect great stallholders bringing a whole host of exciting stuff – all profits go to Tribe Animal Sanctuary and Veganuary. 25-26 Aug, from 10am, The Briggait, tickets £3.50-7 via EventBrite And finally, there’s a chance to give something back to your community while trying out some delicious beers, as charity festival Beer Makes Glasgow returns for 2018. This time round, the festival bumps up to three days and makes the move over to Drygate, with more than 60 beers from more than a dozen breweries lined up across the weekend. 24-26 Aug, various times, Drygate, tickets £5 via drygate.com [Peter Simpson] theskinny.co.uk/food

THE SKINNY

August 2018

THE SKINNY

RE V IE W

Dark Waters As she prepares to release her immense second album, previous Scottish Album of the Year Award-winner Kathryn Joseph talks to The Skinny about love, loss and survival

Interview: Susan Le May Photo: Kat Gollock

“What adds to my bullshit impostor syndrome is that I’m aware of how much of it is just luck, it’s like why do I get to do it and not someone else, or why do I get more attention and not someone else,” she states. “I know that [there are] people making better work and are more talented and it’s very upsetting that there’s nothing fair about it. It doesn’t matter if you are writing the most beautiful songs in the world, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be heard or loved.” Long-time collaborator and producer Marcus Mackay is as instrumental as ever in elevating Joseph’s work. “What Marcus has done is amazing,” she enthuses. “I knew that about the other [record] but I would also spiral out of that, I would go round in circles the whole time thinking I loved it and then thinking it was shit, whereas this one I haven’t been thinking it’s shit. I feel like everyone that I love is involved in it again and that makes me feel much, much better about it. I feel really proud this time in a way that I probably didn’t feel before. I didn’t have any awareness of what it was last time, but this one I feel like I love this record and it feels stronger and more the sound of what we play live is as well.”

“T

his record is about surviving things or how much I love people surviving what they survived. Just the feeling of loving human beings and how sore that can be, but how worth it that is as well.” In the three years since Kathryn Joseph became a fully fledged full-time musician following a SAY Awards win in 2015 for her debut album bones you have thrown me and blood i’ve spilled, her career has flourished, with collaborations and projects beyond what she could ever have imagined. From her recent signing to Rock Action Records, to working with artists such as RM Hubbert, to writing an album with James Graham of The Twilight Sad on their Out Lines project, the high points have been numerous. She was chosen by Robert Smith to play his Meltdown Festival supporting Mogwai and at The Cure’s huge Hyde Park gig in London, sang at the incredible Emma Pollock-curated Kate Bush tribute concerts and has written music for the theatre adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, among many other highlights. We’re chatting over lunch at Stereo in Glasgow. She’s due to support Iron & Wine tonight and she’s not long back from playing Meltdown. In person, Joseph is far removed from the fragility that flows through her music; she’s confident and hilarious with a laugh that buoys your soul. She’s forever complimenting or befriending strangers, or beguiling random babies. From When I Wake the Want Is was largely written during a very dark period following an intense break-up. The new songs seemed to flow out of her, coming from a place that she couldn’t control. Writing was the only thing that was going to help.

“I was definitely writing like this is the only thing that’s going to make me feel better,” she admits. “Knowing that I knew the shape of [some of the songs] when I was walking to the piano, I’ve never had that before. Tell My Lover came in the day we were recording and it came in in bits, and in between takes I was writing it and then by the end of the day it’s finished. I’ve never written anything as fast as that and I love it. It is one of those weird things where you feel like something gives you a song rather than you having anything to do with it.” The songs evoke a melancholic beauty that’s somewhat more immediate, urgent and structured than their predecessors, largely gauging the bleak heaviness of heartbreak but also speaking of hope and love - of what it’s like to want completely, the uncertainty of the future, of not knowing if you will ever trace the lines of the body of the person you love or be fuelled by their warmth again. It’s the sound of the anxiety that eats you up when you can’t have what you long for, but it’s also a celebration of the human strength of getting through that. “When I’m playing [the songs] live I’m maybe thinking about how I felt in that time but it doesn’t affect real life,” she says. “It’s a reminder of feeling that amount is good for me as well. To remember that this is how much this matters to me and I like that about it. “This [album] almost makes me feel like I’m underwater when I listen to it,” she suggests. “I don’t know if other people will feel the same way about it but I’m like ‘oh no this is going to be awful, everyone is going to be feeling sick.’ I remember someone describing being at one of my gigs and she had to leave because she felt like she was getting the bends. I’ve never had the

bends but that’s what this record is like. The bass on it, I love it so much, but the songs all feel the same feeling of blackness and water.” But she’s also now out the other side, back in the arms of her lover, and while these songs largely document a terrible time, they feel like a release and a reminder of things coming full circle. “It doesn’t remind me of the hurt of it, it’s more the feeling of how lucky I am. Even going back to the baby that we lost before (Joseph’s son was born premature in 2010 and survived just a week, becoming the inspiration for her focusing on music). It doesn’t matter how long you get someone for,” she says, “if there’s a feeling of love for that human being it’s totally worth the pain of not having them. But it’s really hard to remember that when you’re actually in it.” The new songs are recognisably hers, but there are fresh nuances and sounds on From When I Wake the Want Is that reach into your chest, pressing down with a mixture of fear and comfort; a feeling somewhat reflective of the schizophrenic dichotomy of Joseph’s ease/unease when it comes to playing live and doing the things that need doing as part of the process of releasing music. “The only time that I don’t feel wrong is when I’m playing, when I don’t care about what I look like, but everything that gets you to the point of being able to do that is a nightmare for me,” she tells us. “It’s a really annoying character trait for someone who wants to do this as a job and it’s doing everyone else’s heads in as well!” Despite incredible praise and a series of career highs over the past few years, the heavy gremlin of impostor syndrome pervades. But she’s accepting it and learning to better deal with the things that make her uncomfortable.

“ It doesn’t matter how long you get someone for, if there’s a feeling of love for that human being it’s totally worth the pain of not having them” Kathryn Joseph

The new album is released by Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, something that Joseph is still finding hard to believe. “Mogwai are a band that I’ve been obsessed with and listened to over and over again and would never ever have imagined that I would get to even know them let alone be on their label,” she says. “It’s so nice to go from Hits the Fan [Records] before and it just being me, Claire (Mackay) and Marcus and how in control of that we were, and to still feel like it’s a label being run by a band, which means that they absolutely know what you need or what makes sense or what is going to be uncomfortable.” Excited to release From When I Wake the Want Is, Joseph isn’t stressing: “I’m always going to think no one likes anything I do, no matter how many times people are nice to me, and I feel like I’ve just resigned myself to that and I’m just a dick and I can’t do anything about it,” she grins. “I know that Marcus has made it amazing. I feel proud enough of it even if people don’t like it, I don’t care, because I love it.” From When I Wake the Want Is is released on 10 Aug via Rock Action Kathryn Joseph plays George Square, Glasgow, 3 Aug (as part of Mix the City); The Drouthy Cobbler, Elgin, 10 Aug; Assai Records, Edinburgh, 11 Aug; The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 17 Aug; Tramway, Glasgow, 13 Sep; Summerhall, Edinburgh, 14 Sep; Tolbooth, Stirling, 15 Sep; Horsecross, Perth, 17 Sep kathrynjoseph.co.uk

August 2018

Music

Review

Sounding Massive Glasgow garage-rock trio Shredd chat unlikely influences, how a sparsity of vocals allow for instrumental freedom and how their new EP is exactly how they want it to be heard

Mark Macdonald

The pair agree that having Harvie as their contact point with garage-rock is entirely necessary for staying in sync with it all. He’ll come to them with ideas for new tunes, but Wilson and Macdonald recognise that having their own, and sometimes more obscure, influences adds more depth to their sound and allows them to quell the risk of sounding genre generic. “Bruno Mars, for example, his drummer is fucking insane,” says Wilson. Having seen him

GOBLIN @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 5 & 6 Aug We can’t actually think of many better ways to kick off our August than witnessing GOBLIN performing live at Summerhall. As part of the Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead 40th Anniversary celebrations, catch the Italian progressive rock band two nights on the trot as part of Summerhall’s Fringe programme where they’ll be performing the soundtrack to 1977 supernatural horror Suspiria live followed by a special Greatest Hits show on the first night, and vice versa on night two. Get on it quick as this will sell out.

GOBLIN

Review

Deerhoof

Photo: Rita Azevedo

Do Not Miss

Deerhoof @ Stereo, Glasgow, 8 Aug Almost a year since they released their fourteenth studio album with Mountain Moves, the American group who formed in San Franciso in 1994 stop into Glasgow’s Stereo tonight with their inimitable style of experimental noise pop. To anyone who has already bought tickets for this show, it was originally meant to be at The Art School so please make sure you head along to the right venue tonight to avoid disappointment. All original tickets will still be accepted on the door at Stereo.

Shredd

a state of limbo, with little opportunity to break through the “wall of distortion,” as Macdonald refers to it. Wilson adds that when his mum comes to see their shows she can’t help mention, ‘Yous were good, but I really don’t understand a word that boy says.’ “Of course we put a level of thought into it,” Wilson says of the vocals, “but it’s more about the instrumentation.” These limitations are seen as positives to them, though; it gifts them a freedom to focus on their musicality and pushes them to foster the most aggressive sound they can. Wilson ruminates about Harvie’s guitar work: “If there are no vocals happening, he needs to think about what he’s going to do to make the song interesting.” Without the responsibility of conveying crystalline lyrics, Harvie has more opportunity to go berserk on stage. Which has become a quintessential component of their shows; without his kicking, lunging and craning they would be

New European Music @ George Square, Glasgow, 11 Aug As part of Glasgow’s Festival 2018 this August there are tonnes of events going on across the city – tonight’s comes in the form of a specially curated free outdoor event in George Square to celebrate the musical links between Glasgow and Berlin. Mogwai’s Barry Burns has curated the event where he will perform as part of electronic trio SUMS; Stockholm-born, Berlin-based Molly Nilsson – who has previously released on Glasgow’s Night School Records label – will also play along with Glasgow’s Berlin-based electronic producer Konx-Om-Pax.

Music

SUMS

Photo: Domante Lileikyte

“ We’re all about massive sounding drums, massive sounding bass, massive sounding guitar, just everything being huge”

live recently, he goes on to observe that “you pick things up and it makes a difference to your playing as well.” As bass from a soundcheck below makes the floor buzz as though an invading force is marching past and football-induced cheers and groans occasionally punctuate their responses, we move on to tasking the pair to refine Shredd down to a word. Macdonald is quick on the draw with “Loud.” After pondering for another minute, he elaborates, “No, fuzzy loudness. No, raw, fuzzy loudness.” During their early days on the Glasgow scene in 2016, Shredd quickly amassed a slate of gigs from word of mouth alone. Their second gig was opening Glasgow’s garage/psych festival Freakender after a headliner pulled out and word soon spread of the trio’s sonic strafing. Without any recorded material, bands were blindly giving them support slots, unknowing of their inflated volume. Performing on stage is where these lads place the lion’s share of their chips. They see the importance of social media, but, as Wilson states, they feel that “people pay more attention when you’re playing live, when you’re playing for them.” Staying true to this mantra, the band lapped up every gig slot going, but “quite quickly,” says Wilson, “people started being like, ‘we’re going to stop asking you to support us because we didn’t realise how loud you were.’” But they did not, and do not, see this as a hindrance. The destructive capacity of the soaring decibels to which they climb is part and parcel of their package. So inherent is it, that for their latest EP Eat Your Enemy they’ve strived to bottle their kinetic live performances. “We didn’t want anything to be overly polished, so we’ve done bass and drums together,” Macdonald tells us. “For me anyway, you can hear that natural aspect of it.” They’re aware that there are no half measures when bringing a colossus to life: “We’re all about massive sounding drums, massive sounding bass, massive sounding guitar, just everything being huge,” Macdonald says. Unanimously, (of course, they speak vicariously for Harvie) the band cite this as their greatest progression in terms of how they want their sound to be captured. Something they are conscious of is how their hulking instrumentation leaves Harvie’s vocals in

without their scuzzing spirit. But it is modesty that rings the loudest with these gents. They acknowledge their successes (winning the Scottish Alternative Music Award for Best Newcomer in 2017, supporting the likes of Black Lips and building a staunch following across the UK) with a genuine gratitude and an awe of the traction they have gathered in such short a time. Shredd stay true to the crux of garage-rock: forging something out of nothing with whatever tools are available, banding together with like-minded compadres and ultimately having supreme amounts of banter. As Wilson attests: “Well, we don’t hate each other yet, which must be a good thing!” Eat Your Enemy is released on 10 Aug via Fuzzkill Records Shredd play The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 11 Aug shredd.bigcartel.com

Jamie Scott

Photo: Sophie Battye

don’t believe in guilty pleasures because all of my music is shit.” We catch up with Glasgow garage-rock three-piece Shredd in Sauchiehall Street’s Nice ‘n’ Sleazy on the eve of the Croatia vs England World Cup semi-final. The band have recently returned from playing XpoNorth in Inverness where the drive there and back exposed the smorgasbord of drummer Calum Wilson’s musical tastes: “I kept my iPod on shuffle, you get some proper shit.” With this acknowledgement, it comes with little shock that it was absentee guitarist and frontman Chris Harvie (loving life at the NOS Alive Festival in Lisbon) who enlightened Wilson and bassist Mark Macdonald to the existence of, or perhaps moreso the proliferation of, lo-fi DIY garage-rock, bombarding them with genre exponents like Ty Segall, Oh Sees and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. “The first time we rehearsed I had never heard any of that,” remarks Wilson, “and I think that was a positive thing.”

Photo: David Letellier

“I

Interview: James Ewen

Glasgow Garden Festival '18 @ The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 11 Aug To celebrate the release of his latest album Glasgow Garden Festival '18, celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the event of the same name, Jamie Scott (Conquering Animal Sounds/CARBS) along with 2 Stripe and the Save As Collective are re-staging that very event in the surrounds of Glasgow’s Glad Cafe. The recreation will include “a tower, a rollercoaster, Royal speeches, official merchandise and a specially brewed beer in collaboration with Drygate Brewery,” plus live music from Jamie Scott, Adam Stafford and Two Kings. Fresh.

THE SKINNY

Different Voices We chat to Edinburgh promoters City of Glass and Good Grief to learn more about what they’re doing to open up the capital’s creative community and what grassroots music means to them Purr and Commie Cars. This August, City of Glass and Good Grief are joining forces to bring Atlanta post-punk outfit Omni to Edinburgh’s Leith Dockers Club. As part of the event, which takes place on Sunday 19 August, you can also look forward to a vegan barbecue from local restaurant Harmonium and sets from Edinburgh lo-fi electronic punk Jonny Pariss and Glasgwegian super-band (of sorts) Kaputt, featuring members of Breakfast Muff and Hairband. If you’re not already convinced, all proceeds from the event will go to Drake Music Scotland, a charity which provides specialist technology and teaching methods to support people of all ages and a wide range of disabilities to play, learn and compose music independently. After moving up from London a year ago and witnessing the vibrant punk scene in Glasgow, Perry O’Bray became involved with Good Grief, a collective of show promoters aspiring to create more of an Edinburgh culture for the type of music he wanted to hear: “The venue Leith Depot, record label Song, by Toad and gig promoter Braw Gigs are already putting on great shows, so it’s not a matter of single-handedly trying to put Edinburgh back on the map. At Good Grief we’re just trying to put on things that we would like to listen to but that Edinburgh isn’t currently providing. We’re just trying to add to what there already is and hopefully encourage other people to do the same.”

Omni

In similar DIY spirit, David MacDonald launched City of Glass in 2016, which doubles up as a record label and gig promoter. “I got quite bored of artists or friends complaining about how there’s nothing to do in Edinburgh, or how our music scene isn’t as good as Glasgow’s. It isn’t, obviously, but you’ve got to try, you’ve got to put a bit of effort in – it’s about not being defeatist. There’s a lot of like-minded people in the city so I don’t think I’m doing anything special or new.”

“We’re just trying to add to what there already is and hopefully encourage other people to do the same”

August 2018

Lau

But why is it that Glasgow’s music scene has such a better rep than the capital’s? For MacDonald, one of the problems is that we’re constantly comparing the two cities rather than accepting and appreciating Edinburgh’s music scene on its own terms: “Glasgow is so close, but

Wye Oak

Wye Oak @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 21 Aug As we reached the mid-point of the year, Wye Oak’s glorious sixth album The Louder I Call, the Faster it Runs was voted as our fifth favourite album of the year by our lovely music team, so imagine our excitement when they announced an Edinburgh date in the very building that we’re based! Yes! Excitement!!!! Catch Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack in all their experimental, folky, synthy, dream-pop glory tonight at Summerhall. You won’t regret it!

MUSIC

more people live there, there are more venues and there’s just more support for grassroots arts. Also, because Glasgow’s so close if a band put out a new album chances are they’ll only go there and not Edinburgh. Which is part of the reason why we wanted to book this gig at Leith Dockers; Omni is a band I really love and there’s an audience for them here.” MacDonald and O’Bray are part of a wider circle of musicians, venue-owners and promoters trying to make the Edinburgh scene better by pouring their free time and skills into galvanising the talent and support which already exists. As two representatives of the community, what do MacDonald and O’Bray see as the values integral to a grassroots music scene? For MacDonald the answer is simple – “a sense of community and a sense of greater good.” O’Bray echoes this sentiment, expanding on it to express his opinion that grassroots values are best exemplified when “the people are making music because they love making and performing music, with no other motives – this is where you get all the interesting stuff and it’s extremely important in local communities and for society as a whole. This is why Good Grief and City of Glass want to support people like Leith Dockers Club and Drake Music, because their work enables this to be created by as many different voices as possible.” Omni, Kaputt and Jonny Pariss play Leith Dockers Club, Edinburgh, 19 Aug facebook.com/cityofglassedinburgh facebook.com/goodgriefedinburgh

Photo: Shervin Lainez

Blue Rose Code presents This Is Caledonian Soul @ The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 14 Aug Last year Ross Wilson’s Blue Rose Code won The Skinny’s Scottish Album of the Year, as voted for by our readers, for his stunning fourth studio album The Water of Leith. This August, as part of Made in Scotland’s extensive programme, Blue Rose Code will attempt to answer the question: ‘What is Caledonian Soul?’ With the help of a 14-piece band featuring Hamish Stuart (Average White Band), triple BRIT Awards winner Eddi Reader (Fairground Attraction) and Duke Special, Wilson will offer his unique take on cult, iconic and classic Scots song.

Lau-Land @ Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 18 Aug As part of Edinburgh International Festival’s Light on the Shore series at Leith Theatre this August, experimental folk band Lau take over proceedings tonight, and they’ve invited some truly astonishing artists to join them onstage. Performing alongside Lau will be Egyptian experimental artist Nadah El Shazly, American singersongwriter Joan As Police Woman, avant-folk star Alasdair Roberts, Scottish Brass Band of the Year the Whitburn Band and traditional singing quartet Landless with experimental electronica from James Holden and the Animal Spirits plus more!

Photo: Genevieve Stevenson

Blue Rose Code

Photo: Mark Archibald

Kaputt

Photo: Alice Smoth

Perry O’Bray, Good Grief

Photo: Sebastian Weiss

n August, during the mayhem of the Fringe, Edinburgh natives are spoiled by choice. It feels that, no matter what your cultural leaning, there’s something for everyone. When it comes to music the International Festival brings some of the best talent to the Scottish capital year after year. However, outwith the month of August, it feels like Edinburgh’s music scene has fallen on hard times. Alongside various venues closures in recent years and constant battles with the council, there’s a prevailing sense (justified or not) that Edinburgh’s local music scene consistently fails to measure up to what’s going on at the other end of the M8. The events put on as part of the Festival do a great deal to justify Edinburgh’s status as an international city of culture which goes a long way towards securing world-class acts from overseas at other times of the year. However, what’s being done to foster home-grown musical talent in Edinburgh and to cultivate it as a hub for both Scottish music acts and emerging international acts? This is a question DIY promoters City of Glass and Good Grief have been asking themselves – and one which they’ve also been trying to answer. Carving out a space of Edinburgh’s own across venues such as Leith Depot, The Wee Red Bar, Henry’s Cellar Bar and The Biscuit Factory, the two have showcased some of Scotland’s boldest and most exciting bands like Breakfast Muff, DUDS, Savage Mansion, CARBS, Undo, Lush

Mogwai @ Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 22 & 23 Aug As they prepare to release the soundtrack to KIN this month, the mighty Moggerz return to Edinburgh for two nights of foundation-shaking post-rock to please your body and soul. We are a little concerned, however, at how loud the Glasgow Rock Action giants are compared with how fragile the Leith Theatre is but we have it on good authority that it’ll be fine. While the building might be fine, your ears will not if you don’t wear protection, so we know we sound like a broken record when we say this, but BRING YOUR RUDDY EARPLUGS!!

Mogwai

Review

Photo: Brendan Waters

Interview: Megan Wallace

Album of the Month Kathryn Joseph

From When I Wake the Want Is [Rock Action, 10 Aug]

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n her second album, Kathryn Joseph continues to excel at both the light and the dark without ever being grey. As proven throughout her first album and cemented here, Joseph can sing about the deepest and most cavernous emotions to the most claustrophobic and cloying with the fragile beauty of a songbird and the raw natural power of towering North Sea waves; sometimes all at once. And it’s this balance, or rather, constant exchange between pain and beauty, and other opposites, that drives From When I Wake the Want Is. Mixing recently-written material with older pieces that have only now found their place, From When I Wake the Want Is paints a vivid picture of grief, loss, recovery and all things in between, led by Joseph’s familiar and intoxicating voice and bold playing style. Building on the aesthetics of her debut bones you have thrown me and blood i’ve spilled, this follow-up sees producer and main musical collaborator Marcus Mackay employ his usual savvy splashes of percussion while

The Proclaimers

Angry Cyclist [Cooking Vinyl, 10 Aug]

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Craig and Charlie Reid write and sing songs like it’s the most important thing in the world: ‘Depending on your viewpoint / This place is blessed or cursed / And in the years I’ve lived here / I’ve seen the best and worst’ goes the stately Streets of Edinburgh and right there nails the gestalt of The Proclaimers. Those who love them, really love them. The rest of you? You don’t matter... no matter how we’re listening to music, what economic union we’re listening to it in or who’s pretending to be POTUS, The Proclaimers will be travelling the world singing 13 new ballads and belters. Angry Cyclist offers a little less gravitas than usual in truth, but the taut Telecasters that dominate The Proclaimers’ 11th studio album provide a tension that seems to sit well within the heart of these prescient compositions. The clever Classy’s lyrical genius (‘Sausage supper says middle or upper’) rides in on a McCartney-esque piano figure and turns into a bit of a modern history lesson – albeit one wrapped up in a ceilidh hoedown. That’s probably the essence of what Craig and Charlie Reid do best and it’s summed up in penultimate song The Battle of the Booze: ‘Vodka takes the crown / Gets you when you’re up / And kicks you when you’re down.’ Just like The Proclaimers. [Alan O’Hare] Listen to: Angry Cyclist, Streets of Edinburgh, The Battle of the Booze

rrrrr Brilliant rrrrr Life-changing

embracing electronic beats and textures more fully this time around. Even some of the more subtle, underlying hums, rattles and drones in-between the louder, more rhythmically forceful moments help lend the album a greater sense of depth and space, while still sounding as intimate as a whisper in your ear. Funnily enough, that’s actually how the album begins on IIII with Joseph reciting the words that spill across the album’s tracklist; each line forming the title of a song. It serves as an apt foreshadowing of what’s to come, lulling us in gently before pulling us under with her. Fans of Joseph’s work will likely find songs such as the excellent single Tell My Lover, the slow-burning and balladic We Have Been Loved by Our Mothers and Mouths Full of Blood familiar from recent live outings. However, when placed in sequence their sense of individuality fades as it sounds like they were always meant to be part of this one overarching piece of work alongside other highlights such as the lilting Safe, And You

Review

Survives and the album’s brooding title track. While the subject matter and style aren’t vastly different to anything Kathryn Joseph’s done before, the progression here is more of a tasteful expansion of what came before it. In terms of finding new ways to express oneself with honesty

Anna Meredith & Scottish Ensemble

Mogwai

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KIN: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Rock Action, 31 Aug]

ANNO [Moshi Moshi, 17 Aug]

After countless achievements in the classical world, on her 2016 SAY Award-winning debut Varmints Anna Meredith consistently blurred the lines between the electronic and the organic. With her new album, she’s continuing to push genre boundaries, this time by combining an all-time classic with fresh work. ANNO sees Meredith collaborating with the Scottish Ensemble to entwine her own compositions alongside those of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The seamless way in which Meredith weaves her own works in-between the baroque passages becomes immediately obvious. With the emotional swell that gradually builds across the course of Haze, she leads directly into the piercing drama of Thunder, while the natural clamour of Birds follows smoothly from the fluttering Dawn. The alternating compositions easily complement and respond to one another, creating a dynamic interplay that encourages the listener to envelop themselves in ANNO’s world. Even when Meredith brings in harsher techno elements it works. Stoop climaxes with a pounding cataclysm of sound, while Low Light combines harpsichord and strings with a glitch-ridden foundation of beats that flows into the dramatic, high-tempo first segment of Vivaldi’s Winter perfectly. ANNO stands as a collection that casts an old master in a new light, while cementing Meredith’s place as a constantly startling and boundary-breaking contemporary composer. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: Haze, Low Light

Kathryn Joseph

Mogwai have been slowly inching their way towards this point, having already written the soundtracks for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, Before the Flood, Atomic and Les Revenants among others. However, KIN provides their first opportunity lending their talents to a major Hollywood production, and given the run of form Mogwai are on just now it has come at the perfect time. While it is obviously difficult to fully judge a soundtrack without having seen its accompanying film, there is an instantaneous reaction

Shredd

Eat Your Enemy EP [Fuzzkill, 6 Aug]

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To distil Shredd’s latest release down to a word: colossal. The Glaswegian garage rock fiends retain their existing arsenal for their second EP but add the blunt bludgeons of punk in their conquest of new territory. A tonal coherence is present across Eat Your Enemy’s four tracks, providing solid evidence that the trio have begun focussing their sound. Each cut exists as its own brutish character, but together they form a tight pack bound by fired vocals and a relentlessly feral energy. With just the right amount of polish, they still manage to

RECORDS

Photo: Kat Gollock

rrrrr Shite rrrrr Boring rrrrr Solid

while staying true to what makes you special, this album is a roaring success. [Ryan Drever] Listen to: Tell My Lover; Safe, Mouths Full of Blood

provoked from listening to basically any Mogwai record, a band famed for their cinematic scope. Tracks like Flee build up tension in such a way that anyone familiar with Mogwai’s music can imagine, but now with the pleasure of picturing– when the Jonathan and Josh Baker sci-fi/crime drama is released at least – the accompanying visuals to go along with yet another excellent piece. Funeral Pyre creates a beautiful mood piece, and We’re Not Done (End Title) is another slice of pop mastery the band showed they were capable of last year with Party in the Dark, not only adding to their soundtrack credentials but further proving they’re getting rather good at the old pop banger. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: Flee, Funeral Pyre, We’re Not Done (End Title) Mogwai play Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 22-23 Aug

maintain their lo-fi allegiance. The record has the essence of unfurling live, providing a window into the volcanic mania of their gigs. Chris Harvie’s galvanic guitar on What’s This I See? makes Thor’s hammer look limp. In My Head’s gothic intro, percussive annihilation and buzzing bass is the kind of sonic catalyst capable of waking the Kraken. Joyously apparent is the band’s clear-as-day path of evolution, their additions and refinements making for a thrilling advance. The indestructible foundations they laid in 2017 have been built upon here to a great height; if they stay true to their blueprints the structure will continue skyward to sovereignty over the land. [James Ewen] Listen to: In My Head, The Cave, What’s This I See?

THE SKINNY

Devotion [Domino, 10 Aug]

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A firm name in London’s underground scene, Tirzah teams up with her childhood friend and longtime collaborator Micachu, aka Mica Levi, on her debut album Devotion. Sparse, open and beautifully dispersed, it’s the pop album you didn’t know you needed. Devotion takes a step away from the club-ready dance tracks Tirzah and Micachu have created together in the past, instead swaying in a more lo-fi direction, with a kind of intimacy that could rival Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Tirzah’s vocals are delivered with an effortless cool, blending seamlessly with subtle yet intricate production on an album that has just the right amount of breathing space. The rawness and vulnerability of Tirzah’s vocals give her lyrics added poignance, as she

Jamie Scott

Glasgow Garden Festival ‘18 [2 Stripe, 10 Aug]

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Do you remember Glasgow in 1988? If you were born around this time, the answer will be a resounding no. And while Jamie Scott (MC Almond Milk, CARBS, Conquering Animal Sound) is around the same age, his latest work – the first

details the breakdown of a relationship. ‘I was standing in the light looking for the shadow / And you only got the night / Don’t be lonely,’ she sings on the heartbreaking Affection, accompanied only by a piano loop and chopped up vocal samples. On the album’s title track her fast-paced delivery almost descends into rapping: ‘I want candlelight / And romantic notion / I want your hands around me / And understanding.’ A breadth of textures and influences are explored in the album’s production, and they’re spread out far and wide. Future club sounds take centre stage on Do You Know; compressed drum samples and funky keys guide Holding On; Guilty opens with proggy guitars before melding Tirzah’s distorted vocals with Eastern-influenced strings; and Go Now is a 90s meets nu-R’n’B wonder. Like Blonde, Devotion unfolds and unravels in different ways upon each listen, giving you everything but never too soon. Tirzah and Levi have created something fiercely unique, relatable and of the moment; one of the most crucial pop records of the year. [Nadia Younes]

Tirzah

Listen to: Do You Know, Holding On, Go Now under his real name – sees him take the listener down a highly annotated history lesson looking at the 30th anniversary of the Glasgow Garden Festival, a summer which promised so much but ended up delivering so little, in a pretty characteristic turn of events for Scotland’s largest city. Scott is not a born Glaswegian but has resided there for almost a decade, and in this album he sheds the “characters” of his previous works and sings and raps in his own voice. In Make Scotland Shite Again Scott directly speaks of his relationship with Glasgow and Scotland as

a whole with ‘the name my mother gave me,’ while later in Cathedral asks the question ‘do I love you?’ to the city as if a former lover. And throughout, the album serves as both a celebration and critique of the industrial capital of the country. In The Tower, Scott details the various failed attempts to build something that gives Glaswegians the opportunity to see their city from above, including the current Science Centre built on the grounds of the former Garden Festival, which is regularly closed to the public, and sees it as a metaphor for how the public are

consistently kept down. Meanwhile, Another World explores the city’s violent colonial history which still to this day goes largely unaccounted for. So while Glasgow Garden Festival ‘18 finds some light, this is a tough but ultimately rewarding listen into questioning the much beloved yet problematic, crazy city of Glasgow through some characteristically excellent production and words. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: The Tower, Another World, Cathedral

Mitski

The Beths

Interpol

Tomberlin

IDLES

Helena Hauff

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Be the Cowboy [Dead Oceans, 17 Aug] With that title, it wouldn’t be wild to assume Mitski Miyawaki’s latest release might be something of a cowboy’s lament. But her fifth record is more than a tear-jerker, it’s a story of selfdiscovery, resilience and shifting identity. If Bury Me at Makeout Creek marked Mitski’s “breakthrough” and seismic shift from piano to punk rage on guitar, and Puberty 2 grappled with finding happiness in the reality of adulthood, Be the Cowboy is a new frontier. Decidedly more disco for Mitski, Be the Cowboy brings a pop pep to heartbreak and humanity’s greatest gluttonies. With that formidable voice, she forces us all to be the cowboy and lament for a while. Just no tears, please. [Cheri Amour] Listen: Nobody, A Horse Named Cold Air, Me and My Husband

August 2018

Photo: Clare Shilland

Tirzah

Future Me Hates Me [Carpark Records, 10 Aug] Auckland four-piece The Beths tackle dejection with a sense of hope on Future Me Hates Me as Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting focuses on existential themes and self-deprecation; the only real disappointment here is the overly-polished production that typically sounds a little sterile in an indie pop context. The upside to this is that Stokes’ commanding vocals take centre stage – eliciting both the brash confidence of Joan Jett and the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. The Beths’ debut is a triumphant take on bittersweet punk-pop that’s crafted with conviction and potential. Future Me Hates Me denotes optimism by relying on lighthearted music and acerbic humour resulting in a perfect riposte to the kind of po-faced cynicism that’s typically associated with angst-y guitar pop. [Hayley Scott] Listen to: Great No One, Not Running, Future Me Hates Me

Marauder [Matador, 24 Aug]

At Weddings [Saddle Creek, 10 Aug]

Interpol’s sixth record, Marauder, comes into life significantly blighted by two huge recent cultural events related to their 2002 masterpiece, Turn On the Bright Lights: a massive tour playing it in full and Lizzy Goodman’s book Meet Me in the Bathroom, which painstakingly chronicles the early 2000s New York City music scene. There are some solid poprock songs here and the presence of Dave Fridmann in the producer’s chair lends these songs a heft that El Pintor sorely lacked, but only the opening guitar loop of Number 10 comes remotely close to the sighing shoegaze of Bright Lights’ NYC or PDA. Marauder provides a top-up of Interpol for the band’s most dedicated fans, but nothing that approaches their former glory. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: If You Really Love Nothing, The Rover, It Probably Matters

Born into a devout Baptist family which moved state several times in her childhood, Kentucky singer-songwriter Sarah Beth Tomberlin found herself growing up not knowing her place in the world. At Weddings explores the loneliness of searching for yourself with a hushed reverence and proves to be a rich rumination on faith as it tackles the nature of womanhood, adolescent romance and what it feels like to wonder whether anyone will ever truly know you. Tomberlin’s biggest success on At Weddings is how she cuts through the morbid with a cautious humour and taps into a tentative inner strength, creating a soothing record that ends up resisting its self-doubts and reaches out its hand. [Chris Ogden] Listen to: Tornado, I’m Not Scared, Seventeen

RECORDS

Joy as an Act of Resistance [Partisan Records, 31 Aug]

Qualm [Ninja Tune, 3 Aug]

Building in intensity until breaking point, Joy as an Act of Resistance’s opening track Colossus’ almost ritualistic rhythm erupts into something altogether more familiar and hard-paced. Without missing a beat, the Bristol band are back doing what they do best and kick in hard with the scathing (and hilarious) Never Fight a Man With a Perm, and later turn class inequality and immigration into throaty, pogoing anthems of indignation (I’m Scum, Danny Nedelko). Besides some pretty clear face value, there are layers, moods, attitudes and tones to dissect and unpick here which are overshadowed somewhat as the album stands, something a quick shuffle would maybe fix? It’s frustrating because, on their own, many of these songs raise some serious hell. [Ryan Drever]

Given her continued ascent towards global stardom it would have been easy for Helena Hauff to shift towards a more palatable brand of electronica. The fact she’s instead opted for a bunch of gritty, Bunker Recordsinspired analogue improvisations on Qualm makes the end product all the more enjoyable. Underpinned by a peculiar sense of Britishness (see song titles: Barrow Boot Boys, Fag Butts In the Fire Bucket and It Was All Fields Around Here When I Was a Kid), the music itself conjures up images of desecrated industrial heartlands. Snarling 303 workouts, melancholic synths and doom-tinged acid combine to create the quintessential post-Brexit dystopia – a world that Hauff appears far better equipped to navigate than most. [Michael Lawson]

Listen to: Colossus, Never Fight a Man With a Perm, Television

Listen to: Panegyric, No Qualms, Entropy Created You and Me

Review

Power of the Individual Glasgow-born experimentalist Lanark Artefax cuts a singular path through the world of electronic music. He explains why he’s making the most of the creative freedoms that might not be afforded to him from bigger labels

“S

he just phoned me up, it was as simple as that. I got a text from someone I work with saying ‘if you’re in tomorrow night you might be getting a call from her,’ and that was that.” Calum MacRae, aka Lanark Artefax, is describing the moment he discovered Björk was keen to have him support her at this summer’s Eden Project, and is enthusing over the absurdity of the whole experience. “It was completely surreal but also incredibly fun. She has a way of carrying this energy that made the whole thing a total privilege to be involved with.” It’s the culmination of an exponential rise to prominence for MacRae, who remarkably only performed live for the first time last October at Krakow’s Unsound festival. The meticulouslyplanned AV spectacle, featuring an immersive light show, towering LED monolith and a wealth of his own unreleased music, received wholly positive reviews triggering a wealth of future offers and further adding to the cult of Lanark Artefax. The Glasgow-based artist is happy to admit that live performance will never be something that comes naturally to him, but the current set-up, where the domineering monolith takes centre stage and allows him to do his thing from the shadows, is one that he has grown to enjoy. “The live thing was a total alien world to me when I started out,” he explains. “Before then I’d never been on stage or even DJed to 100 people in a basement or anything like that. I’m not someone who’s born to do that kind of thing, and I’m not a performer as such, so I quite like being able to withdraw a bit and let the music be central.” The invitation to play Unsound, arguably Europe’s foremost experimental music festival, was an opportune one. Having released an EP on

Lee Gamble’s UIQ imprint a few months previous, MacRae was asked by festival curator Mat Schulz to support Gamble at the week-long event. “I felt like I was being a bit cheeky at the time by accepting the gig,” he laughs. “But I didn’t want to start small, playing low down on the bill to 50 people and then working my way up. I wanted to come out with a big show that’s as close to the representation of how I feel like my music should be presented.” Releasing music as Lanark Artefax since 2015 (the name deriving from a strange captivation with hearing the word ‘Lanark’ on the Glasgow Central Station PA system as a child), MacRae’s sound has evolved with each release, and more recently found a home on the muchlauded Whities label. In a scene that often reverts to lo-fi, minimalist beats, his meticulous attention to detail and desire for sonic innovation cut a singular path. “I guess it’s hard not to mention big names – the likes of Aphex, Autechre, Mike Paradinas, [The] Black Dog, B12 – all that stuff was the core of what I was listening to between the ages of 15 and 20,” he begins, trying his best to trace the roots of his highly distinctive sound. “Then from 2014 to 2015 it was all deconstructed club music; Lee Gamble, Halcyon Veil, PAN, even Objekt’s album [Flatland] was quite significant – just hearing how you can take really fast music and make it sound very sound design-y.” In reality, Lanark Artefax sits somewhere in between these two worlds, transcending genre boundaries and forcing music journalists to work even harder in their attempts to pigeonhole his sound. It’s a position in which he feels comfortable in, and admits that the idea of being aligned to any

one scene or movement is something that he takes exception to. “I desperately try to avoid contributing to any stockpiling of a sound, basically because I just don’t find it very exciting,” he confesses. “Generally I try and stick to my own stuff to see if it fits into the pocket of previous work or whether it needs to merge on its own. I think that’s a good way to make sure that you’re not just falling along the same path of people who are coming up at the same time as you. I find that I don’t tend to get massively inspired by other people’s music until I hear something that’s completely new, and that makes me think ‘okay what directions are there left to go in?’” One artist that does meet MacRae’s stringent criteria is SOPHIE, who he shares a bill with at the forthcoming Numbers x Edinburgh Festival party at Leith Theatre. While sonically the comparisons between the two may be limited, both possess an intrinsic urge to produce something original. “That album that came out recently (Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides) is just stunning,” he enthuses. “In terms of being really new, musically and technically next-level, but also artistically representing something that no one else is doing. It’s a visionary record.” This deep-seated desire for innovation and individuality, both in his own work and that of contemporaries who he looks to for inspiration, is ultimately informed by MacRae’s own introversion. And while this approach may be uncommon in the world of electronic music, it’s undoubtedly one that has served him well so far. Content with his current living situation in the southside of Glasgow (“I’m comfortable here, and whenever I’m away I’m quite happy to get

Interview: Michael Lawson

back”), removed from the cultural pressures that come with residing in one of Europe’s main electronic music hubs or being affiliated with a major label, he conveys a determination not to infringe on the creative process in any way.

“ I desperately try to avoid contributing to any stockpiling of a sound, basically because I just don’t find it very exciting” Calum MacRae

“Fortunately I don’t have to worry too much about people pushing me to put something out,” he explains. “I’ve been holding off on signing anything or rushing into stuff with bigger labels just for the sake of it. I’d rather wait until it feels right and I know it’s right time to do it. “I’ve learned that the worst thing to do is even bother about when your next thing’s going to land or who wants to speak to you on the phone or any of that stuff. It becomes a bit tiring and takes your focus away from the important stuff.” Numbers x EIF: SOPHIE, Lanark Artefax, Spencer, Sofay is at Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 11 Aug l-a-n-a-r-k.net

Review

CLUBS

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Guest Selector: Robert Bergman Rush Hour’s Robert Bergman serves up a selection of Jamaican flavours for this month’s Guest Selector, before bringing the searing heat of the Caribbean to the southside of Glasgow later this month

obert Bergman is the quintessential cratedigger. Working in Amsterdam’s famed Rush Hour record store by day, he’s built a reputation around his wide-ranging tastes and disregard for the fanfare and status that’s often attached to DJing. Bergman brings the irie vibes to this month’s Guest Selector, delving into the reggae, dub and dancehall sections of his vast record collection ahead of his set with Fergus Clark for The Rum Shack’s Jamaica Special. Noel Ellis – Dance With Me [Summer Records, 1983] “The debut LP from the son of Jamaican soul legend Alton Ellis. Can’t recall how often I’ve listened to this but it’s up there as one of the most played songs in my record collection. About six and a half minutes long and only gets better as it keeps on rocking.” Junior Reid – Movie Star [Tamoki Wambesi, 1985] “Junior Reid with the Roots Radics band; super-heavy FX action. Don Carlos – who’s a big hero of mine – is also involved here, so I guess this one brings a lot of things together.” Derrick Harriott – Tell Me This Is a Dream [Crystal D, 1980] “I guess this is more Jamaican soul than anything else, but I think it still counts given how much music Derrick Harriott put out. Really loving this sweet and naive heartbreak song.”

Horace Andy – Let's Live In Love [Wackie's, 1982] “The entire Dance Hall Style album is pretty insane, but this is my favourite track from it. Make sure you source a copy with the full-length version – which is the best bit, and unfortunately not included on every press of this heavyweight disc.” Half Pint – What’s Going Down [Greensleeves, 1986] “One of these songs where there are multiple versions floating around. There’s a real nice slow, digi version on a Greensleeves compilation called Joint Favourites, which features one side of Half Pint songs with Michael Palmer songs on the other. Big comp!”

Dadawah – Run Come Rally [Wild Flower, 1974] “This one will be special forever for me. I think it was the first reggae record I ever bought, must’ve been around 2009, and before then I honestly couldn’t name any reggae besides maybe a few Bob Marley classics and Chase the Devil by Max Romeo as The Prodigy sample was huge. Anyway this one was pretty much love at first listen. Still love it to this day.” Junior Delgado – Run Come [Crystal, 1985] “Had to include one from the Tempo Riddim style, which is my favourite. I think I also really like

Interview: Michael Lawson reggae love songs so this seemed to be a good one to include on this list.” Frankie Paul – Worries In the Dance [Hit Bound, 1984] “There are several recordings of this one by the late Frankie Paul doing the rounds. The one I like the most is the digi version produced by Channel One. Super-tuff and crazy on the vocal delays – sounds like some monster from outer space. The good shit.” Robert Bergman and Fergus Clark, Jamaica Special, The Rum Shack, Glasgow, 17 Aug residentadvisor.net/dj/robertbergman

Winsome – Untitled (Side B) [Sugar Records, 2017] “As with all music it’s real easy to get lost in the vast amounts that have been produced throughout the years. It’s therefore important not to overlook contemporary music. This one is on repeat quite often. Baddd tune.” Don Carlos – Oh Girl [Hit Bound, 1982] “Maybe my favourite from the Don (although he does have heaps of really good ones so maybe not). It has very relatable lyrics about the hardships of teenage love. I managed to go see him in concert last year – still rocking hard aged 65.”

Robert Bergman

Clubbing Highlights Glorious sunshine and record-breaking temperatures don’t exactly go hand-in-hand with sweaty, low-ceilinged basements, so it’s just as well that August’s club highlights are peppered with a flurry of big room and open-air parties to mark the occasion Hotline w/ DJ Femme Fresh, Proc Fiskal, VAJ. Power + More @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 9 Aug Hotline is the capital’s first club night hosted exclusively by female and non-binary DJs. Edinburgh festival commitments mean shifting from their usual spot at the Bongo Club to The Mash House for this month’s party, with local grime protégé Proc Fiskal and Glasgow duo VAJ.Power pencilled in to headline the 5am-licensed affair. La Cheetah presents Avalon Emerson (3 Hour Set) @ La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 10 Aug Over the space of a few short years, Arizona-born Avalon Emerson has skyrocketed to become one of the world’s most in-demand electronic artists. 2016’s The Frontier conveyed her raw talent for creating rich soundscapes, and since then she’s

proven to be equally talented behind the decks with a catalogue of on-point sets. SOPHIE, Lanark Artefax, Sofay and Spencer @ Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 11 Aug Two of contemporary music’s foremost visionaries join two killer DJs for what promises to be one of the parties of the year. Numbers and the Edinburgh International Festival combine to bring the immersive live shows of SOPHIE and Björk fave Lanark Artefax to Leith Theatre, with Sofay and resident Spencer on warm-up duties. Slam 88 with Slam and DJ Pierre @ The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 11 Aug One of house music’s founding fathers, DJ Pierre makes a rare trip across the Atlantic for a party in Glasgow’s cavernous Old Fruitmarket. With local

favourites Slam and Bosco & Rob Mason also on the billing, the promise of an ‘Authentic Acid House Party’ seems well within reach. Scottish Label Showcase w/ Craigie Knowes, WEC & Hilltown Disco @ The Reading Rooms, Dundee, 12 Aug Three Scottish DIY labels unite for ten-and-ahalf-hours of debauchery at Dundee’s Reading Rooms. Kicking things off in the garden, Glasgowvia-Perth’s Craigie Knowes and West End Communications join local outfit Hilltown Disco, with street food heavyweight Tasteside supplying the Mexican cantina refreshments throughout the day. Texture x Ectotherm w/ Courtesy, Rune Bagge and Hilltown Disco @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 16 Aug Copenhagen’s techno scene has been enjoying international recognition for some time now and two of its key players will grace The Mash House DJ booth tonight thanks to Texture. Courtesy and Rune Bagge, who run the city’s Ectotherm imprint, favour the kind of high-BPM, rave era-inspired techno that turns dancefloors upside down. Jamaica Special w/ Robert Bergman and Fergus Clark @ The Rum Shack, Glasgow, 17 Aug Jamaica Special invites Rush Hour alumnus Robert Bergman and local boy wonder Fergus Clark to delve into the reggae, dub and dancehall

August 2018

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Words: Michael Lawson Illustration: Terri Po section of their vast record collections. Subculture w/ Solar and Harri & Domenic @ Sub Club, Glasgow, 18 Aug San Francisco’s Solar Langevin is one of the most criminally underrated DJs on the scene, effortlessly joining the dots between post-punk, cold wave, EBM and uncategorisable weirdo-synth freakouts. Perhaps his most impressive trait of all is making these styles sound perfectly at home in a club environment. Catch him tonight with Harri & Domenic. Sub Club Soundsystem 2018 @ Barras Art & Design Centre, Glasgow, 25-26 Aug Subby Soundsystem returns for its annual two-dayer down BAaD, bringing an assortment of predictably high-profile names that include Motor City Drum Ensemble, The Black Madonna and KiNK. Ooft. Missing Persons Club w/ SHYBOI and Discwoman @ La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 31 Aug Formed back in 2015, the Discwoman collective have been successful in disrupting dance music’s hegemonic masculinity, helping change the face of the global scene as a result. Yulan Grant, aka SHYBOI is the latest addition to the NYC crew, with the Jamaica-born DJ’s track selection sitting somewhere between the dancehall and soca styles of the Caribbean and a tougher, colder techno sound. theskinny.co.uk/clubs

Review

Where Art Now? August brings many art exhibitions and events, including – to name a few – the Edinburgh Art Festival, and Sonica’s celebration of visual sonic work in Glasgow. A host of upcoming deadlines for artist opportunities are helpfully gathered here, too!

Exhibition Highlights It’s the most wonderful time of the year, or possibly the most dreadful depending on what you think of August in the capital, with every nook and cranny of Edinburgh being jam-packed with festivities, including Edinburgh Art Festival. There are simply too many things to shout about, but we've devoted p37 and p38 to the up and coming artists in the Platform exhibition at the City Art Centre from 26 July to 26 August. As well as EAF’s commissions programme, galleries across Edinburgh are filling their spaces with partner exhibitions for Edinburgh Art Festival throughout the month. The Fruitmarket Gallery have already kicked off proceedings with an incredible exhibition of work by Tacita Dean, while the Edinburgh College of Art are housing a haunting investigation: Dead Images explores the legacy of collections of human skulls, some unethically acquired and all still held in public institutions in Europe. Over in Glasgow, Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover are presenting Looking for

Children’s Exhibition Tramway

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For its Children’s Exhibition, Tramway has commissioned several artists to create a series of sculptures, videos and projection works that are intended specifically for 3-8 year olds. On the way in, there’s a work with coloured perspex tiles on an overhead projector. Two children are sliding them around happily, and they show geometric abstractions in orange and yellow on the wall. The decoration of the walls inside also quote unfamiliar educational methods, and are pasted with some images of wet-on-wet techniques. This painting technique, per the exhibition information, is used in Steiner schools to encourage abstract thinking. It makes for a soft decoration and contrasts with the geometric pattern of the multicoloured floor tiles. There are also many cushions in abstract blob shapes that are covered in differently textured fabrics. Nearby, piles of playdough are

Signs: ideas and imagined circumstances, an exhibition by Scottish artist and designer Jimmy Cosgrove. On until 16 September, the exhibition will familiarise audiences with Cosgrove’s keen observation of people and places he has encountered, all re-imagined through a personal lens imbued with spontaneous and constructed narratives that all reflect his immense curiosity in the exploration of ideas. Sonica’s latest roundup of some of the most exciting visual and sonic artwork is also already underway; read more about it in our chat with Robbie Thomson and Louise Harris on p61. Awards, Funding and Call for Entries Artists working in moving image need to be quick off the mark if reading this now, as Alchemy Film Festival invite proposals of moving image installations to be exhibited between November 2018 and March 2019 in Hawick, Scottish Borders. Deadline: 3 August Moray Artists Bursary are offering emerging and established artists the opportunity to

apply for a bursary of between £500 and £1500 to help towards activities such as researching, creating and presenting new work or advancing skills, technical ability and ideas. Deadline: 12 August You’ll need to become a member of the Scottish Society of Artists to submit work for a satellite exhibition hosted by An Lanntair. Palimpsest has an exciting, albeit unique brief: “Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form”, inspired by medieval manuscripts’ layering of text. Deadline: 16 August Spark Box Studio in Prince Edward County, Ontario have an exciting Artist Residency Program: they are currently looking for artists working in print, photography, paint and illustration to apply. The Residency Program affords artists the space and time to support the advancement of their careers and to strengthen their practice. Deadline: 31 August Wasps Studios have again announced a self-funded residency opportunity, for artists and

Review

theskinny.co.uk/art

16 Nicholson Street

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A performer leans on two loose wooden posts in a darkened hallway in Leah Capaldi’s Overlay. On approach, the performer does not move, her craned neck angled dramatically forward. In this gentle discomfort, each moment spent looking around the gallery can be clocked as another few seconds of subtle strain. While watching the languid slow motion of Ross Little’s film, the performance is contextualised by proximity to Little’s ideas about how bodies move through space, and the radical ways people can coagulate and clog through collective occupation. Little juxtaposes the peaks and troughs of political energy with documentary footage of celebration following a revolution in Armenia, then the descriptions of exhaustion by the protesting inhabitants of the Faslane peace camp. Finally, the two narratives merge hopefully as a Faslane protester fondly describes the mutual respect they’re building in the camp, as the Armenian revolutionaries energetically and joyously dance. On the top floor, Ani Schulze’s video begins with an atmospheric landscape of wet leaves – looking like the skinflakes of Ridley Scott’s Alien. The film seems to trace a journey to a wheat field, set in a tone of unresolved menace. Ambiguous suggestiveness adds intrigue to both the video and the oil drawing on the hanging scroll of acetate. Illustrations of gloved hands, farm animals, leaves and syringes overlay and intermingle, and with the film’s drone footage of farmlands are suggestive of the anomie of out-of-sight industrial farming, and the invisibility of technicised violence. At one point, Capaldi’s performers swap and change position. What seems at first like a difficult solo effort is a more comfortable relay. Looking again to the performer, now in the corner of the top floor, her feet nevertheless have come down at the heel, where they were arched before. The slump is slow, and the act of bare presence itself is acknowledged as tiring. Capaldi’s minimal work holds its own while acting as a poignant via media for Schulze’s and Little’s distinctive takes on bearing witness and politicised presence. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

Children’s Exhibition, Tramway, until 26 Aug, free

ART

makers to stay in the beautiful surroundings of The Booth, Shetland in 2019. Deadline: 30 September If the idea of tranquility and rurality gets your artistic juices flowing, then Moray Art Centre’s call out for exhibition proposals may be for you. With an open-ended brief, artists are also encouraged to submit their ideas for their potential inclusion as tutors in leading their own one-off workshops, courses and talks at Moray Art Centre, in tandem with their exhibitions. Deadline: 30 December And finally, The People Unite sees Glasgow residents celebrate a different community, that of the people of Berlin, and organisers are currently looking for volunteers to help with a gargantuan project. Over one week, volunteers will build a massive cardboard replica of a Berlin landmark in Glasgow Green at the start of August. No prior experience necessary!

Obeying Durations

displayed on a bespoke structure that doesn’t give much space for the children to sculpt and play with the material, which is presumably not meant to be taken elsewhere in the room At the back of the room, three monitors display a single word each: ‘sound’, ‘move’ and ‘touch’, with video footage to illustrate each of the terms. A fourth shows kaleidoscopic, cellularlooking microscopic abstraction with sounds of children making noise in the background. Three to eight may ultimately be too large a gap for pitching an age-specific exhibition (hanging height alone changes by at least a foot in this time). This might be the reason for an over-reliance on obvious solutions (playdough, soft sculpture and lots of colour). These cumulatively short-circuit a thoughtful consideration of the nuanced and exciting question of what might constitute an exhibition that challenges and engages kids, without underestimating their often boundless receptivity to all kinds of artwork – multicoloured or not. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

Children's Exhibition, installation view

Words: Rosie Priest

Obeying Durations, installation view

Run ended

THE SKINNY

Rhyme Watch While Edinburgh is a hub of literary activity this month, there are also festivals, open mics and events to take in across Scotland this August Words: Beth Cochrane

he Edinburgh Festival Fringe is packed with some incredible spoken word and poetry shows, but that doesn’t mean poetry outside Edinburgh is at a standstill. Quite the contrary, in fact: August is chock-a-block with excellent poetry events running throughout the country. There are multiple festivals happening elsewhere in Scotland, with Stowed Out Festival taking place on 10-11 Aug. Full weekend tickets cost £35, with a line-up promising an eclectic mix of music and spoken word. Loud Poets are co-ordinating the Roar Stage on the Saturday (11 Aug, 2.30-5pm) – their core team, consisting of Kevin McLean, Katie Ailes, Doug Garry and Mark Gallie, are confirmed in the line-up, with more spoken word artists yet to be announced. Also in the Borders, taking place in Traquair House in Innerleithen, is the Beyond Borders Festival. Taking place on 25 and 26 Aug, the programme includes a huge variety of events, including panel discussions, comedy, visual art, storytelling, foraging walks and, of course, poetry and spoken word. Poetry readings can be found at numerous times throughout the Walled Garden strand of the programme. In Ayr, Sunday Sessions in the Conservatory, with hosts Rosie Mapplebeck and Graham Charlton, is continuing to take place on the third Sunday of the month (19 Aug). The event is held in Belleisle Conservatory, 2-4pm, as a family friendly open mic which is open to all. There’s a good play park close by too, for any poets with restless kids along for the afternoon. In Dumfries, The Stove will also continue with its monthly open mic night. As usual, the last Friday of the month (31 Aug) will welcome writers and poets from all round the region to take to the stage and share their work. The Stove Network has also welcomed Stuart A. Paterson as its new Lowlands Writer in Residence. The Lowland project will be ongoing across the next three years, and looks to create a living story of Dumfries. At the end of June, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award’s shortlist was announced. The prize of £20,000 is one of the largest in the UK and is biennially awarded to an unpublished poet under 30. Congratulations to the five poets shortlisted for 2018: Tom Docherty, Nadine Aisha Jassat, Daisy Lafarge, Peter Ratter and Roseanne Watt. The winner of the prize will be announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 22 Aug at 7pm. The deadline is looming for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, with 31 Aug sure to come round before you know it. The award is an international competition with categories of Poetry and Short Fiction. Although the entry cost for a poetry entry is £12 (thumbs down, Aesthetica), the prize is worthwhile: consisting of £1000 cash, publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual, a selection of books from Vintage and Bloodaxe Books, a year’s subscription to Granta, and membership to The Poetry Society. It’s well worth throwing your name in the hat, and both finalists and winner will be announced in December. Whatever your poetry plans are for August, remember that the Fringe isn’t everything. There’s plenty going on elsewhere for poets and audiences alike.

August 2018

Notes to Self By Emilie Pine

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It’s often said with essay collections that after each piece, the book needs to be set aside so the writing can be truly absorbed and considered. Never has this been truer than with Notes to Self. Emilie Pine does not rush, nor does she write with the goal of filling a book. Instead, with pinpoint precision, she welcomes readers into select, deeply personal parts of herself and explores them with beautiful nuance. In six essays, she confronts her past in startling honesty, from addiction and its impact on family, to the journey of fertility, to the struggles to define and comprehend lived sexual violence. Each piece feels like it comes to a conclusion; flip the page and there is another turn, an unexpected addition, that burrows these words more deeply in your chest. You feel this collection; the trauma, the honesty, the hope. Notes To Self is the sort of book that no one should expect anyone to write, it would be too great an ask. But it is the kind of writing we should be grateful to have – that someone was so willing to lay the harsh, at times heartbreaking realities of life on the page in such beautiful essays. Incredible and insightful – an absolute must-read. [Heather McDaid]

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes A Man By Thomas Page McBee

rrrrr What does it mean to be a man? In his search for an answer to this question, Thomas Page McBee steps into a place where masculinity resides in its most romanticised and

Resin By Ane Riel

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Tramp Press, Out now, £12.99 tramppress.com/product/notes-to-self-pre-orders

How to Love A Jamaican By Alexia Arthurs

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How to Love a Jamaican explores the gravitational pull between close-knit island communities and the USA for Jamaican characters who have moved one way or the other, weighing up opportunities and aspirations, home and identity, and in some cases, rebelling against the protective expectations of older generations. In Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands, its title taken from a Kanye West lyric, two Jamaican friends of different social classes have discordant experiences as students in NYC. Doreen in On Shelf thinks about the statistic that highly-educated black women over thirty years old are the most likely demographic to remain uncoupled in the USA, while increasingly open to settling for the imperfect but available Glenroy. In Island, a resort wedding is the scene for a lesbian woman to come to terms with the discomfort of her friends. Complex relationships, warm with nostalgia or bittersweet with regret, take the fore in other stories – between grandsons and grandmothers who bond over preparing coconut drops, mothers and daughters who struggle to see eye to eye, and two estranged brothers who follow diverging paths in life, bumping into each other only accidentally as the years pass. Arthurs is an evocative storyteller who dives deep into her characters’ motivations in this brilliant debut. [Laura Waddell]

Jens Horder is afraid of letting anything, or anyone, go. Most of all, he is afraid of losing his daughter Liv, after a fatal accident took the life of her twin brother. Resin follows the downward spiral of the Horder family, exploring the lengths to which parents will go in order to protect their children – even if it means reporting them as dead. As Jens teaches Liv to steal – to feed the family, and Jens’ hoarding – she begins to see that her isolated life is perhaps not as safe as her parents would have her believe.

Hits and Misses By Simon Rich

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Simon Rich is well known for his bitingly hilarious work as a screenwriter, novelist and short story author, known for being one of the youngest screenwriters ever hired on Saturday Night Live. His new short story collection, Hits and Misses is the latest evidence to support Matt Haig’s testimonial that “Simon Rich is the funniest writer alive.” Hits and Misses is an eighteen-piece short story collection inspired by Rich’s experiences in Hollywood. These aren’t personal recollections of

rawest form: the boxing ring. A gender so often defined by violence, the ring is a place where its cardinal values of aggression, pride and fearlessness can ascend into physical lyricism. At other times, they collapse into mere brutality. McBee seeks out this place to answer a question he can’t ignore. As the first trans man to box in Madison Square Garden, he has watched the whole world swivel in its perception of him. His male face and form make more sense to him when he looks in the mirror, but less to the world around him. His inner self has become like a word translated into a language with no exact equivalent. He steps into the ring to confront his worst fears and greatest hopes of what it means to be a man. Each moment of gym-bro camaraderie, each midnight exchange with his partner, each step in his journey towards the ring is met with an inquisitive, introspective eye. Reading Amateur is watching someone try to simultaneously figure out who they are, who the world wants them to be, and why. It’s deeply personal and politically vital, a calm and contemplative antidote to male toxicity. [Ross McIndoe] Canongate, 2 Aug, £14.99 canongate.co.uk/books

Liv’s innocence and love for her father at first manipulates the reader into seeing past his sinister actions, but his increasingly erratic and morbid behaviour – and the disturbing letters by Maria, Liv’s mother – creates an electric tension that is both unsettling and addictive. Each chapter brings a sense of relief, one step closer to Liv’s hopeful rescue, yet paradoxically, increased anxiety through the separation from her family and a desire to see them stay together. An intrusion upon the house on the Head appears inevitable, as is the fatal culmination of Jens’ obsessive desire to keep all things close. Resin expertly navigates a wealth of themes – obsession, grief, love, and innocence and childhood – and binds them together in a cleverly crafted, gripping tale. Addictive, brutal and honest, Resin is an emotional rollercoaster. [Mika Cook] Doubleday, 9 Aug, £12.99 penguin.co.uk/books

funny anecdotes, but high concept works that question and dismantle the twenty-first century obsession with fame. This fascination is perhaps most obviously parodied in Adolf Hitler: The GQ Profile. Here, Rich ably subverts and interrogates the status of celebrity in a world where Hitler survives WWII to become a Hollywood star, wildly famous for his status of homicidal dictator. Anxiety of faith (or a lack of faith) is a key theme throughout. The Book of Simon, in particular, toys with God’s relationship with atheism, while remaining firmly tongue-in-cheek. Meanwhile, Death signs up to a one-man casting agency, a Babylonian monk learns how to use his hands and an unborn baby pens the next great American novel. The collection is a thought-provoking and organically laugh-out-loud work, with the true gems shining through as the stories, arguably, most personal to Rich. [Beth Cochrane] Serpent’s Tail, out now, £10.99 serpentstail.com/hits-and-misses-hb.html

Picador, 9 Aug, £14.99 panmacmillan.com/authors/alexia-arthurs/how-to-love-ajamaican

BOOKS

Review

In Cinemas BlacKkKlansman

Director: Spike Lee Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Pääkkönen, Corey Hawkins, Paul Walter Hauser, Harry Belafonte Released: 24 Aug Certificate: 15

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Spike Lee returns with this adaptation of Ron Stallworth’s autobiographical account of his experience as Colorado Springs’ first black cop during the 1970s, and his infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t be fooled by the period setting, however – Lee is taking aim at racial tensions of contemporary America. He employs the tropes of Blaxploitation films, while drawing on the tragic events of Charlottesville, as well as taking plenty of time to poke fun at the Trump administration through a series of overt but very funny gags. John David Washington (son of Denzel) plays Stallworth, a rookie who convinces his chief of police that his time would be better served as an undercover cop, and rashly calls the local chapter of the KKK, faking his white supremacist credentials in a series of increasingly offensive

statements to gain membership. Unable to actually meet up with the Klan for obvious reasons, he convinces his fellow officer Flip Zimmerman (Driver), who’s Jewish, to act in his stead and join him on the case. The comedic set-up is smartly handled, counter-balanced with a sharp, hard-hitting political edge. At one point in the film Lee uses the news footage of Charlottesville to great effect, and achieves the same impact by taking clips from The Birth of a Nation, which is screened in the film at a KKK gathering attended by the Grand Wizard, David Duke (Grace). Lee’s heightened stylisation is refreshing, far removed from the hard-hitting realism of Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit, which takes place in roughly the same era. His message is clear and present throughout, even if the plot is a bumpy ride. As the credits roll you realise this is Lee’s best work in years, showing that the journey towards racial equality still has a long way to go, and that for all the progress that has been made, it can quickly be rescinded when the wrong people are in power. [Joseph Walsh] Released by Universal

Sicilian Ghost Story

Cold War

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Luna (Jedlikowska) and Giuseppe (Fernandez) have taunted and teased their way around a mutual crush for some time. Finally, as the movie begins, she hands him a letter that reveals her heart and asks if he wants “to get together.” They share a first kiss and a beautiful afternoon in the Sicilian countryside, a blissful dream before reality shakes them back awake and tears them apart. Giuseppe vanishes, kidnapped by the local mafia to exert pressure on his police informant father. The town is quick to ignore and eager to forget, but Luna rails on and rages against the machinery that would bury her friend. Isolated by fury and grief, her grip upon reality begins to loosen as she chases the ghost of her lost love with increasing desperation, tumbling down a rabbit hole she might not emerge from. Quietly evocative of the dreamlike state of childhood, Sicilian Ghost Story is a melancholy poem to the part of us we can’t allow to be wrung out by the complacency and compliance of adulthood. [Ross McIndoe] Released by Altitude

The Eyes of Orson Welles

Director: Mark Cousins Starring: Orson Welles, Beatrice Welles, Mark Cousins Released: 17 Aug Certificate: 12A

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BlacKkKlansman

Director: Antonio Piazza, Fabio Grassadonia Starring: Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari Released: 3 Aug Certificate: 15

The Eyes of Orson Welles

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski Starring: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza, Cédric Kahn, Jeanne Balibar Released: 31 Aug Certificate: 15 Loosely based on Pawlikowski’s own parents’ experiences, Cold War is a story of wounded love told across a 15-year period at the beginning of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. At its centre is the tempestuous relationship between a suave conductor (Kot), and a beautiful, hot-tempered singer (Kulig). Like his Oscar-winning Ida, Cold War is shot in the boxy 4:3 Academy ratio, giving the film an old world elegance, even though the framing of the shots is distinctly modern. The disparate musical genres employed by Pawlikowski on paper sound ludicrous, ranging from jazz to Polish folk music performed by Mariachi bands, jumping to Bill Haley & His Comets’ Rock Around the Clock. In practice, however, these disparate musical genres are one of the highlights of the film, sharply demonstrating in shorthand the tensions that exist between Eastern and Western Europe. Told with an icy-sense of humour, Cold War is Pawlikowski’s finest work to date, proving to be a dexterous examination of two juxtaposed political ideologies wrapped in a mesmerising story of wounded love. [Joseph Walsh]

Mark Cousins is a champion of the underseen. But the Belfast-born, Edinburgh-based filmmaker has an uncanny knack, too, for spinning the familiar on its head, making it feel laundry fresh, whether it’s sprinkling magic dust on his roughhewn hometown in I Am Belfast or comparing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again to Bollywood on Twitter. In his latest film he looks anew at a subject from which you’d expect few surprises: Orson Welles. The Citizen Kane director may be one of cinema’s most celebrated and discussed figures, but Cousins finds interesting new perspectives through which to observe his life and career. Cousins’ vehicle into discussing Welles, as the film’s title suggests, is the way he looked at the world. Specifically, the way he expressed what he saw through his art. Cousins’ ace up his sleeve is that he doesn’t simply have Welles’ films as

Review

Released by Dogwoof

Searching

The Apparition

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Director: Aneesh Chaganty Starring: John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La Released: 31 Aug Certificate: 12A Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching gives the missing person thriller a welcome twist by setting it entirely within the various computer screens used by a father (Cho) as he frantically tries to find his 15-year-old daughter. This desktop detective scours the teen’s most private and personal spaces – her search histories, Facebook messages, Tumblr posts – to find clues to where she might be and whom she was closest to. Despite never leaving the computer frame, cinematographer Juan Sebastian Baron keeps the images thrillingly cinematic, darting across the various tabs and applications using zooms and close-ups to guide our eyes and further the story. Much of the film’s success is down to Cho’s winning performance, which we see in various FaceTime chats, YouTube posts and local news reports. Without his hangdog face and bottomless charm, Searching would be a much colder film. Like with found footage films, we’re sure to become bored with this “screen movie” technique when a raft of pale imitations follow in Searching’s wake. For now, we have a mint fresh subgenre to celebrate. [Jamie Dunn] Released by Sony Pictures

Released by Curzon Artificial Eye

windows to his soul, but also the expressive sketches and paintings he made since he was a lad, many of which have barely seen the light of day. Speaking to Welles in an intimate voiceover, Cousins brings him up to speed on the major events since his death in 1985 – the internet, 9/11 and the current “guy in the Oval Office who thinks he’s Charles Foster Kane” – before travelling back and forth through the filmmaker’s life, “like Groundhog Day,” exploring it through different lenses. There’s Welles the political activist and Welles the cad, the knight in shining armour and the offish jester. The imaginative leaps Cousins takes as he explores this contradictory character are both illuminating and elegant, moving as fleetly as Welles’ ink on paper. As well as exploring new sides to the filmmaker, Cousins also shines a torch on his little-loved films. Scrappy works like Mr Arkadin and Macbeth clearly excite Cousins’ imagination more than the perceived masterpieces; Citizen Kane barely gets a look in. Seeing the world through Welles’ eyes is a wonderful thing; through Cousins’ isn’t bad either. [Jamie Dunn]

Director: Xavier Giannoli Starring: Vincent Lindon, Galatéa Bellugi, Patrick d’Assumçao Released: 3 Aug Certificate: 12A Xavier Giannoli’s latest follows a war correspondent, Jacques (Lindon), who is enlisted by the Vatican to investigate a young girl named Anna (a transfixing Galatéa Bellugi) who claims to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The non-religious Jacques is confronted with a crisis of faith. Is Anna telling the truth? If so, is God real? Meanwhile, Anna becomes a deity of her own. Devout pilgrims are travelling from around the world to see her and are bowing at her feet. The film is at its most thoughtful when it explores the intersection of modern religion and capitalism, as the church increasingly exploits Anna for profit. The camera lingers on uncomfortably artificial headshots of Anna emulating Mary – the effect is jarring and provocative. Unfortunately, much of the runtime is occupied by a standard investigation whose ambiguity is as appropriate as it is frustrating, and its ill-timed release means that The Apparition arrives in cinemas too soon after First Reformed, a film which grapples with many of the same ideas in a more compelling manner. [Iana Murray] Released by MUBI

FILM & TV

THE SKINNY

At Home Heathers

Blockers

A Wrinkle in Time

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Director: Michael Lehmann Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater Released: 20 Aug Certificate: 15

Director: Kay Cannon Starring: Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz Released: 6 Aug Certificate: 15

Three teenage girls play a sedate game of croquet to the lilt of Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). Something isn’t quite right. They all address one another as Heather. And their outfits correspond eerily to the colours of the croquet paraphernalia. As the camera pans to take in the fourth girl, Veronica (Ryder), we realise she can only watch, helplessly, on account of being buried up to her neck in an otherwise perfectly manicured lawn. This exquisite and surreal opener is a fitting analogy for Veronica’s toxic friendship with Heathers one, two and three, who form the most powerful clique in school. Lunchroom bullying and life-scarring quips are the order of the day for these mean girls. But popularity is losing its lustre for Veronica, who finds herself harbouring only contempt for the head Heather (Kim Walker). It’s enough to snag the attention of troubled transfer student Jason (note: not James) Dean, played by a feline, smirking Christian Slater. In the throes of teenage angst, his nihilistic embrace strikes Veronica as an appealing setting to indulge her revenge fantasies. But while Veronica merely means to teach the cool kids a lesson, JD’s intentions are altogether more insidious. Heathers takes place in an alternative version of reality, where emotion is all-consuming and adults flail ineptly at the fringes, failing utterly to get a handle on things. In this fantasy realm, identity can be constructed as easily as a hastily scrawled suicide note, and power wielded in the unassuming form of a red scrunchie. It is a near-perfect simulacrum of any high school. At 30, Heathers is still scathing. Be warned: its searing one-liners lampoon everything from suicide to eating disorders (“bulimia is so 87”). In today’s age of hypersensitivity, it may leave a bitter taste; at least it’s anything but bland. [Kirsty Lecki-Palmer]

It’s hard for any parent to see their child grow up. One day they’re leaving the nest to go to school for the first time, the next they’re a horny teenager making a sex pact. So is the case for Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), whose respective BFF daughters decide to lose their virginity on prom night. After deciphering the eggplant emojis and “yas queens” on the girls’ group chat, the three parents do everything in their power to stop their children from having sex. The rooster on the film’s poster tells you there’s a prefix to Blockers. The film is aware of its contradictions and charges at them head on. It could easily go down the route of peddling the outdated idea that losing your virginity means losing your innocence, but Kay Cannon’s directorial debut is smarter than that. It embraces teenage sexuality and femininity wholeheartedly, and in all forms too: Julie (Kathryn Newton) wants to have the perfect first time, while Sam (Gideon Adlon) is only following her friends’ lead, too scared to come out as a lesbian. Mainstream comedies are usually coy about addressing sex, and even then it’s reserved for the boys. Blockers is delightfully crude, but its bluntness is what makes it authentic. The word “penis” is thrown around as often as they are seen on screen. Though it might make you squirm, it stays true to how teenage girls talk today – and this writer is speaking as someone only a few years out of teenager-dom. Like all Rogen-Goldberg produced comedies, Blockers wants you to revel in its juvenile humour, but its empowering message makes it stand above the rest. In between arguments about feminism, John Cena is butt-chugging beer, and you’ll love the film for both. [Iana Murray]

Released by Arrow Video

Released by Universal

Director: Ava DuVernay Starring: Storm Reid, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey Released: Out now Certificate: PG Some say A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved 1962 novel, is unadaptable. Bringing fantasy to the screen always has its challenges, but with material as dense as L’Engle’s, adapting this planet-hopping adventure appears to be an insurmountable hurdle. Despite its best efforts, Ava DuVernay’s ambitious blockbuster doesn’t succeed in disproving that theory. Bespectacled pre-teen Meg (Storm Reid) is still dejected four years after the disappearance of her scientist father (Chris Pine), and her bullies are doing nothing to make her feel better. Life sucks – until Meg is face-to-face with three glittery space travellers, Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and a giant Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey). They inform Meg that her father is stranded somewhere in the universe, and offer their guidance in finding him. Meg and her unlikely companions “tesseract” from planet to planet – each one looking like something you'd see on a desktop screensaver. A Wrinkle in Time is visually overwhelming – the costumes are extravagant and the CGI landscapes even more so. Its rainbow palette is stunningly vibrant, likely to elicit some oohs and ahs. However, there’s a sense of artificiality – its facade so polished and pristine. It’s like a $100 million costume party. The plot flings to every corner of the galaxy before you have time to take a breath, and so A Wrinkle in Time never really finds its footing. Some elements don’t translate – Mrs. Who’s quotation-spouting dialogue quickly grows tiresome, and a reference to Lin Manuel Miranda is downright cringe-inducing. When the film tones it down to focus on its characters, its beating heart comes to the forefront. The journey Meg goes through internally is more moving than the external one. Realising your self-worth doesn’t require a voyage through the galaxy. It’s a message all kids should hear. [Iana Murray] Released by Disney Home Entertainment

Barking Bad Bryan Cranston tells us why he was perfect for the role of a mangy mutt in Wes Anderson's joyful Isle of Dogs

ince his debut film, Bottle Rocket in 1996, Wes Anderson has been amassing the most eclectic ensemble of actors since the heyday of Robert Altman. Many of them turn up voicing canines in his latest stop motion animation Isle of Dogs, including Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Edward Norton and the talismanic Bill Murray. It’s a supporting cast of old friends. But for the film’s lead dog, Chief, the alpha of the pack, Anderson required a bit more grit than the likes of Goldblum or Murray could provide. Enter Bryan Cranston, whose gravelly, soulful voice was the ideal fit for this four-legged, tick-infested mutt. The 62-year-old actor agrees he was perfect for the role. “I have a habit of playing damaged characters,” he tells us. “I relate to them.” We ask why that is? “Because I am one,” he says frankly. “I come from a busted-up home that was filled with alcoholism and physical abuse, and that didn’t become aware to me until I was like ten or 11, so it turned me into an introvert. I was very shy, very unsure of myself, very insecure about what to do with my life. My whole personality was like a turtle, and I went into the shell. So I had anger issues and resentment, insecurities. I think part of the reason I love to act so much is that it creates opportunities to live through that pain again vicariously and have a cathartic experience and therapeutic experience in my work.” Cranston is certainly a scrapper, and his success has been hard earned. Start watching some reruns of any old US TV shows from the 80s

August 2018

and 90s and before long you’ll come across him in some bit part or another. He crops up in everything from Airwolf to Baywatch, Murder, She Wrote to The X-Files. For the first two decades of his career, his most substantial role was his five appearances in Seinfeld as sleazeball dentist Tim Whatley. His first major success would come two decades into his acting career, playing Hal, the hapless father of three unruly boys in Malcolm in the Middle. So protean is Cranston that when that much-loved teen sitcom came to an end he was soon back in gainful employment in HBO crime drama Breaking Bad playing Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who starts cooking meth to provide for his family’s future after learning he has terminal cancer. Over five series his character transformed from a meek everyman to the kingpin of New Mexico’s drug trade, winning Cranston four Emmys along the way. Breaking Bad ended in 2013 and the actor hasn’t been out of work since, starring in blockbusters (Godzilla), prestige dramas (Trumbo) and raunchy comedies (Why Him?). You’d struggle to name a more versatile actor. “Part of that is just how I look,” he says. “I’m not short or bald or exceedingly tall. I’m kind of average height, average weight, so I can adjust, grow hair, darken my hair, shave my head, gain some weight, lose some weight, and I can kind of hide. For an actor, that’s perfect.” He’s certainly hiding in Anderson’s stop motion adventure, but you recognise that voice in

Interview: Jamie Dunn

Isle of Dogs

a second. Cranston accepted the role of Chief before even knowing anything about the part (“when my agent said, ‘Wes Anderson would like…, I was like, ‘YES!’”), but when he actually got around to reading Isle of Dogs’ script he was attracted to its political dimension as well as its wry dialogue. Set in a future Japan, it follows a pack of dogs who’ve been exiled, along with the rest of their species, to an island trash dump by a corrupt politician with a hatred for facts, science and the free press – sound like anyone you know? “There are so many social and political stories going on in Wes’ story,” says Cranston. “Xenophobia, greed, scaremongering, immigration issues, segregation. My country is going through turmoil right now. We’re going through a

FILM & TV

lot of anxiety and uncertainty and anger, and I think this is going to resonate with a lot of Americans, but I also think that it has something to say internationally. No matter where you are in the globe, I think you’re going to be able to recognise certain leaders.” If there’s a message we can take away from Isle of Dogs, says Cranston, it’s, well, to be more like dogs. “I love dogs. Dogs are the best. All they want is love, and play, and to be walked. A dog doesn’t care if its owned by a wealthy person or a homeless person, as long as they’re loved. In the simplest form, if human beings were more like dogs, the world would be a much better place.” Isle of Dogs is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 6 Aug by 20th Century Fox

Review

Competitions Win tickets to Beyond Borders International Festival 2018 You can experience the world in a weekend as Beyond Borders International Festival returns to Traquair House on 25-26 August. Join internationally acclaimed writers, speakers, thinkers, diplomats and artists to discuss the most pressing issues of our time. The Main Tent will welcome a variety of influential speakers to discuss a wide variety of topics, from tales of an ex-CIA agent and UN Special Envoys to debates on populism’s impact on world (dis)order to talks on the #Metoo movement and women’s rights one hundred years after suffrage. The Walled Garden, meanwhile, is jampacked with music, performing and visual arts, poetry, workshops, and more! Including the prize-winning Hard Truths exhibition from the New York Times, pop-up poetry and prose along with music from Barbara Dickson and SOWhErTO Africa. We’ve a pair of weekend tickets to Beyond

Borders International Festival to give away, which includes entry to all Main Tent and Walled Garden events. To be in with a chance of winning, simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and correctly answer this question: Which Scottish best-selling artist will be performing at Beyond Borders International Festival 2018? a) Emeli Sandé b) Barbara Dickson c) Lulu Competition closes midnight Wed 15 Aug. Winners will be notified via email within one working day of closing and required to respond within 24 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Transport to and from the event is not included, tickets cannot be resold. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms For more info on Beyond Borders International Festival 2018 and to purchase tickets, head to beyondbordersscotland.com

Beyond Borders International Festival

Anna and the Apocalypse

Win an All-Access Pass to Glasgow Youth Film Festival 2018! One of the most innovative youth film festivals in Europe, Glasgow Youth Film Festival (GYFF) returns from 14-16 September, celebrating both its tenth anniversary edition and Scotland’s Year of Young People. Programmed by GYFF Young Programmers aged 15-19, who are mentored on a year-round basis, the festival presents an outstanding range of international films and creative workshops for young people across the city. Much of the programme remains tightly under wraps until Wednesday 15 August, but GYFF has already announced the film for its opening gala: Scottish-based production Anna and the Apocalypse. The thrilling zombie musical will enjoy a hometown screening at GFT on Friday 14 September, followed by a Q&A with some of the cast and crew.

We have one all-access pass to give away – that means free entry to any film during GYFF for you and a friend. To be in with a chance of winning simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and correctly answer this question: What supernatural terror features in GYFF 2018's Opening Gala film Anna and the Apocalypse? a) Werewolves b) Donald Trump c) Zombies Competition closes midnight Wed 5 Sep. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and 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 Full programme announced 15 August at glasgowfilm.org/gyff

The Scottish Album of the Year Award

Win tickets to The SAY Award Ceremony The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY Award) are giving one lucky Skinny reader the chance to win a pair of tickets to The SAY Award Ceremony at Paisley Town Hall on Thursday 6 September. Find out who will take home the coveted title of Scottish Album of the Year Award 2018, and catch exclusive special performances from SAY Award alumni. For your chance to win, simply head over to theskinny.co.uk/competitions and correctly answer this question:

Who won the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2017? a) Sacred Paws b) Biff y Clyro c) Texas Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Sep. Entrants must be 14 years or older, as must their guest. Tickets not transferable. Winners will be notified via email within one working days of closing and 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 the SAY Awards, head to sayaward.com

COMPETITIONS

THE SKINNY

Top Edinburgh Festival Picks

Glasgow Music

There's a lot going on in Scotland's capital this August. Here are our top five picks from music, theatre, comedy, art and books

Wed 01 Aug

DAMMIT PRESENTS: RAGING NATHANS (AERIAL SALAD)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Music

Theatre

Comedy

Thumpasaurus

White Feminist

Eleanor Morton: Platform 2018 Great Title, (Rae-Yen Song, Glamorous Photo Isobel LutzTaking a look through the lens Smith, Annie towards her glamorous photo, Crabtree, Renèe Eleanor Morton is examining the expectations that come with being Helèna Browne)

We were fortunate enough to catch the LA-based funky fivepiece last August at Underbelly Cowgate so are delighted to see they’re back for another run of late night weekend parties throughout this year’s festival. Drawing influences from the likes of Talking Heads, Jimi Hendrix and Black Flag, and sounding like a rude, highpowered Flight of the Conchords with lyrics like “I’m too funky for my motherfuckin’ grandma”, we’ll no doubt be back again and you should go too if you want a guaranteed good time. UNDERBELLY COWGATE (WHITE BELLY), 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 24-26 AUG, 11.59PM, £10

Autobiography

This is a bit of an odd one to include in music as it’s part of EIF’s Dance programme, but what do people dance to? That’s right – music. Our interest was piqued when we discovered that the original music for 'Autobiography' is by experimental electronic musician Jlin. Collaborating with scientists from the Wellcome Trust to determine what shape Wayne McGregor’s trailblazing choreography will take each night, each performance of 'Autobiography' will be unique. Combined with immersive lighting and Jlin’s body-shaking electronic beats, this is going to be a one-ofa-kind experience. FESTIVAL THEATRE, 11-13 AUG, 7.30PM, £14-35

Crow Hill

To say we’re intrigued by Neil Pennycook’s latest project under his Meursault moniker would be an understatement; a series of urban horror story vignettes set in the fictitious Scottish town of the same name, Crow Hill' comprises of a studio album, feature film and graphic novel. ‘What!?’ we hear you cry! What’s more, for the live show Meursault will perform the album in its entirety accompanied by dancers, projections and actors. A unique show not to be missed this August. Summerhall (Dissection Room), 15-16 Aug, 11pm, £14

Anno

Anna Meredith has been an unbelievably busy bee of late with multiple projects all seeming to come to a head this month. 'Anno' is just one of these, with six performances of her brand new record taking place over the course of two days. It’s a contemporary reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with electronics and 360 degree visual arts. Throughout the 60 minute run-time, you’ll be fully immersed in a year-long journey through the seasons via the power of music and art courtesy of Meredith, her sister Eleanor and the Scottish Ensemble. Pleasance at EICC, 17-18 Aug, times vary, £14.50-16

St. Vincent

With five solo records, a collaborative album with Talking Heads’ David Byrne, her own signature guitar design and several other amazing things we don’t have room to list here, Annie Clark is one lady we can’t wait to see this August on a rare trip to Scotland as part of her I Am a Lot Like You! tour at the Edinburgh International Festival. After causing a bit of controversy late last year due to touring 2017’s Masseduction' on her own, God forbid, Clark is always one to surprise in a live setting, so we’re super excited to see what she’s got in store for her Edinburgh fans. Playhouse, 26 Aug, 8pm, £25-40

August 2018

From US performer Lee Minora, 'White Feminist' is a one-woman show that explores privilege, class and the danger of white womens tears. This new piece of theatre holds a mirror up to the state of US feminism and asks, “Are you one of the good ones?” One for people wanting to laugh and change the world for the better. Tolbooth Market (Room 6), 4-25 Aug (not 13), 9.45pm, Free

Kill The Beast Directors Cut

Fancy something that’s a real horror show? Kill the Beast’s 'Director’s Cut' is a ghost storycomedy staged on a 70s B-Movie set, where a terrible presence is wreaking havoc on the shoot but the director is determined that the show will go on, whatever the cost to the cast and crew. Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Two), 21-27 Aug, 6.30pm, £9-12.50

Hot Brown Honey Cabaret with sass, style and politics, Hot Brown Honey are back in Edinburgh with their signature genre-defying blend of music, dance and empowerment. The people who produced this also produce 'Briefs', don’t ya know. Gilded Balloon Teviot (Debating Hall), 3-27 Aug (not 8, 15, 23), 7.30pm, £12.50-16.50

Mark Thomas – Check Up: Our NHS at 70

Our NHS is 70, but how healthy is it? Mark Thomas, with his masterful storytelling and trademark wit, looks at this brilliant but underfunded institution and wonders what will it look like when it is 100? Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1), 4-26 Aug (not 6, 13, 20), various times, £15-21.50

Pussy Riot: Riot Days

Fresh from their win at the World Cu... uh, their very successful pitch invasion at the World Cup Final, Summerhall plays host to these icons of dissent with this touring play, adapted from band member Maria Alyokhina’s memoir of the same name. Summerhall (Dissection Room), 10-19 Aug, 7pm, £16.50-17.50

a female performer. It’ll be delivered with imaginative surrealism and some characterful whimsy, and from a comedian with original things to say. The Stand Comedy Club 4, 1-25 Aug (not 2, 13 & 20), 12.05pm, £7-9

Foxdog Studios: Robot Chef

Lloyd Henning and Pete Sutton return to reinvent our ideas of IT consultancy. Foxdog Studios’ shows are unique in the joyousness with which they bring interactive technology to the Fringe. This year they join Heroes’ roster at Boteco, where, amid the servings of Brazilian cuisine, the duo are setting a Robot Chef on the loose. Heroes @ Boteco (Basement), 2-26 Aug (not 9), 1.20pm, £5/ PWYW

Henry Paker: Man Alive

In his previous show 'Guilty', Henry Paker played a Gaviscon-swilling illustrator caught up in a noir-style thriller. He seems no less ill-atease now, hiding out in the ‘Travelodge’ that is Banshee Labyrinth for a show not listed in the Fringe print programme. 'Man Alive' is set to be both a dark night of the soul and a story told over an open can of John West’s tinned tuna. PBH, Banshee Labyrinth (Chamber Room), 4-26 Aug (not 6, 13 & 20), 5.10pm, Free

Rob Auton: The Talk Show

Poet and comedian Rob Auton has something of Daniel Kitson’s versatility, and he comes recommended by Kitson himself. Not one to skim the surface, he dives deep into single topics: past shows include meditations on hair, sleep, water, faces, the sky and the colour yellow. His latest offering is about talking, or to paraphrase the often paraphrased Raymond Carver title: what we talk about when we talk about talking. Just the Tonic at The Caves (Fancy Room), 2-26 Aug (not 13), 6.10pm, £5/PWYW

Ashley Storrie: Adulting

Now is the time to see Ashley Storrie if later you want to claim, with any dignity, that you saw her before she became a household name. Her profile is certainly on the ascent, with a little help from Margaret Atwood (the author shared Storrie’s video tribute to – and Scottish version of – 'A Handmaid’s Tale'). More importantly, Storrie is also on the ascent as a live performer: she continually gets better and better. After a powerful debut in 2017, this time she’s considering adulthood, or at least how we all pretend we’re grown up. Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (Ballroom), 2-26 Aug, 8pm, Free

Art

This year’s Platform brings together sculpture, video and sound work of four emerging artists who consider the limits of language, cross-cultural lives and communication, misogynistic medical practice and experimental film practice. City Art Centre, until 26 Aug, 10am-5pm, free

Shilpa Gupta: For, in your tongue I cannot hide

For, in your tongue I cannot hide brings together recordings of imprisoned poets, poignantly reinstatingf the voices of censored artists. There will be frequent performances in the Burns monument, including poets who will write to other poets still in prison. The Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art, until 26 Aug, 10am6pm, free

Ruth Ewan: Sympathetic Magick

For the young at heart, Ruth Ewan is working with magicians to consider the politics of magic and potential to change the world. Ewan has teamed up with the socialist magician Ian Saville, who brings Karl Marx to life in his shows. Various venues and times, until 26 Aug, free

Palm House

Last year, Bobby Niven built the Palm House structure as part of the Commissions Programme and it will be open again throughout the month, in response to the site of a community garden built in the nineteenth century by the social theorist Patrick Geddes. Every Friday through August, there will be an open mud oven afternoon from 2-5pm. Johnstone Terrace Wildlife Garden, 3, 10, 17, 24 and 26 Aug, 3-4pm, free

Hemispheric Phases

Hemispheric Places is the culmination of a six-month residency period and combines the work of Scotland-based sculptors Birthe Jorgensen and Scott Roger with Argentina-based Santiago Poggio. They’ve all made extensive and productive use of ESW’s worldclass facilities to make ambitious new bodies of work. Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, until 25 Aug, 11am-5pm, free

Books Adam Kay

Kay’s diaries as a junior doctor gave hilarious insight into the NHS; he brought the human element to a national treasure, all the more stark when he leaves humour behind to show the cracks in the service and strain for those working in it. A brilliant book, and sure to be an equally brilliant event. Spark Theatre on George Street, 16 Aug, 7.15pm, £10-12

Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina with Yanis Varoufakis

Pussy Riot fight for free speech in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, irrespective of the personal risk. Their balaclava-clad performances are seen the world over, their name synonymous with protest. Alyokhina will join Greek economist Varoufakis to discuss her life and work on the frontline of dissent against the establishment. Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, Charlotte Square, 18 Aug, 1.30pm, £10-12

Salena Godden & Molly Naylor

The Book Festival is celebrating spoken word in a dedicated strand and two of the finest voices in the scene are putting on an event to remember. Godden and Naylor’s work is sharp, witty, lyrical – hang on their every precise and powerful word. New to spoken word? You’ll find no finer welcome. The Spiegeltent, Charlotte Square, 18 Aug, 6.45pm, £10-12

The Last Poets

The godfathers of hip-hop. They’ve stormed the Book Festival before and they’re heading back to Charlotte Square Gardens to do it all over again with their first album in 20 years, 'Understand What Black Is', bringing author Christine Otten along for the ride – hop in with them. Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, Charlotte Square, 23 Aug, 8.30pm, £10-12

Akala

MOBO award-winning hip-hop artist, poet, political commentator – Akala is a vital voice in modern Britain. In 'Natives', he holds a mirror to the country around us, navigating the social, political and historical context that brought us here. A thought-provoking, powerful speaker – a real must-see. Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, Charlotte Square, 24 Aug, 8.30pm, £10-12

Voted #2 punk band in Dayton by someone who liked punk.

THE SAY AWARD 2018: LIVE AT THE LONGLIST (STINA TWEEDDALE + CARLA J. EASTON + EMMA POLLOCK + STUART BRAITHWAITE (MOGWAI) DJ SET)

ADOLESCENTS (REACTION + FAT BLACK CATS + YUNG KP) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13

Dreamy jazz funk, post punk and future pop combo. 10/10 pop star knee dancing.

Founders of the suburban Orange County punk scene, whose songs contributed generously to the melodic sensibility and musical style of later SoCal punk bands.

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:00, £4 - £6

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £39.50 - £42.66

CHEM 19 STUDIO’S WEEKENDER (CALUM PEARCE + MATT CARMICHAEL + KIMONA)

Live announcement of the Scottish Album of the Year Award longlist, live performances and DJ sets.

Introducing some of the best upcoming musical talent from across Scotland who have recently recorded at one of Glasgow’s most famous studios.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £14

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

KING TUT’S, FROM 19:30, £15.95

T.S.O.L.

Punk rock band formed in 1978 in Huntington Beach, California. HOBO JOHNSON

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £13.50

The moniker of Californian rapper Frank Lopes.

START TO END: ALANIS MORISSETTE – JAGGED LITTLE PILL

REBECCA MCDADE (RABBI)

The warm voice and delicate finger picking of this twenty-two year old singer-songwriter is reminiscent of the folk artists of the American sixties. BLACK SNAKE ROOTS

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

A special one-off performance of Alanis Morissette’s 1995 breakthrough smash hit album 'Jagged Little Pill'.

Glasgow guitarist Fraser John Lindsay and Australian born vocalist and bassist Charlotte Marshall deliver an exciting blend of blues music in their own harmoniously relaxed fashion.

Thu 02 Aug

Sat 04 Aug

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

A musical concert celebrating the best of Broadway and The West End featuring the Glass Slippers Show Band and vocalists.

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

SLIPPERY NIGHTS PRESENTS: DROVES

Reigning lords of Scottish weirdo grind vibes. HELICON (DOMICILES)

MONO, FROM 20:00, £6

Helicon’s new album is a collection of sprawling and expansive Eastern-sounding psych-rock. VCPB (SUBTOPIAN PLANNING BOARD + FAKE NOISES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

MAD FOR MUSICALS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

ERNEST

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £11.25

Scotland’s most exclusive wedding and events band.

THE MOODY CHANTS (GREEDY SOUL + THE ASURAS) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Synth-driven duo playing thumping bass lines with elements of house, disco, techno and electro.

Female-fronted band from Glasgow.

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:00, £8

Wonky psych-pop from Wales.

RAIN RESERVE (IONA MACDONALD)

Blues, jazz and country-tinged duo, comprising of Lorna Reid and John Alexander. SEAN MCGARVEY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Lead singer/songwriter in Glasgow indie band Static Union, who has been writing his own music since he was 11 and gigging in bars since he was 13.

Fri 03 Aug GG JAZZ DUO

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, FREE

Sunday Jazz in the main bar with saxophonist Gordon Dickson and guitarist Graham Mackintosh. DEAN FRIEDMAN

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Singer and songwriter Friedman, known for chart-topping 70s hits Ariel, Lucky Stars, Lydia and Woman of Mine performs songs from throughout his three-decade career. KINGS OF UNITY

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £8

Five-piece alternative rock band from Motherwell, inspired by the eclectic mix of All Time Low, Bring Me the Horizon and Pierce the Veil. TACADO (REMIND ME OF HOME + BY PROXY + COLOUR CARNIVAL)

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £8

A collection of dark, groovy rock riffs twisting into a flux of emotional progressive pop.

BLACK KING COBRA (SAUZA KINGS + VEMODALEN + DOOTCHI)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7

Rock music with groove.

JUICEBOXX (BOSPHORUS + ANTIGUO + THE KELVINS) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

The final hurrah from youthful hard rocker heroes playing homage to the 80s rock they were too young to catch the first time around. LOGANFEST 2018 (HYPERFUNK + JACK BROTHERHOOD + HYYTS + LANCE & BLAKE)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, FREE

One unstoppable free entry night of live music and DJ sets from loads of cool friends.

Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

LYLO (WET LOOK + THE LAWNMOWER + EL RANCHO DJS) THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 20:00, £5

IRMA VEP (ROBERT SOTELO)

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

BROADCAST SUMMER SESSION (LAURA ST JUDE + CARLY CONNOR + HOME$LICE + CRYSTAL + TONGUE TRAP + FRANKY’S EVIL PARTY) BROADCAST, FROM 17:00, £5

A night of some of the best local bands and artists in Glasgow to thrill and entertain at Broadcast.

CHEM 19 STUDIO’S WEEKENDER (ROSS WOODHOUSE + THE LOWER DEPTHS + CHRISSY BARNACLE + GARDENING FOR BUMBLEBEES) THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:00, £4 - £6

Introducing some of the best upcoming musical talent from across Scotland who have recently recorded at one of Glasgow’s most famous studios. KIRK STRACHAN

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Kirk Strachan is a singer-songwriter based in Glasgow.

Sun 05 Aug

BACKBEAT: NON-STOP 60S POP

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

Journey back to the swingin’ sixties with an evening of nothing but beat-boom, mod music and dripping psychedelia. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends. SAINT LUKE’S ALL DAYER

ST LUKE’S, FROM 14:00, £12 - £12.96

15 bands, two stages, one all day party at Saint Luke’s. SAMMY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 20:00, FREE

Monthly, popular open mic night with house band The Bucks. Get down early to guarantee a seat or a performance slot.

Mon 06 Aug

BABY FACE AND THE BELTIN’ BOYS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Jazz and gospel mixed with some southern charm. 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.

DANZIG (PARADISE LOST)

30th anniversary tour for the heavy metal bunch, led by the Misfits and Samhain founder, Glenn Danzig. NO PROBLEM (IRON SYSTEM + ASBESTOS BEACH)

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £6

With heavy riffs and bleak melodies, No Problem will bring an originality and frenetic nervous energy to any lame party.

Tue 07 Aug

GLASREGION PRESENTS: GLASGOW’S UNPLUGGED

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Glasregion Productions is a music/ artist production company which organises performances for upcoming and committed artists within the Glasgow district. THE WEIRDOS (JACKHAMMERS + BUZZBOMB)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Apparently The Weirdos may have been the first punk band formed in Los Angeles, which is vague, to say the least. THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £12

Riff-centric power trio, taking the grooves of the 60s and the classic riffs of the 70s.

Wed 08 Aug GOLDMOLD PRESENTS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The stalwart DIY label brings another line-up of indie, alternative and more. SOULFLY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £19.25

The Phoenix metallers continue to channel unbridled rage through a cacophony of thrash guitars, grooves, tribal polyrhythms and Max Cavalera’s thunderous roar. SWYM (ROLO GREB + FISKUR)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Swym is the musical project of songwriter, producer and multiinstrumentalist, Nassif Younes. DEERHOOF

STEREO, FROM 19:30, £13.50

San Franciscan four-piece noise band, gradually evolving into something we’ve yet to identify or pin down, more’s the joy. D.R.I VS M.D.C

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £18

Double header show from the the US hardcore/crossover trailbrazers.

Thu 09 Aug

DAMMIT PRESENTS: EAT DEFEAT

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Leeds quartet bring their infamous live show to Bloc. Expect fast skate punk, upbeat pop and a show to remember. THIRD PARTY (FUTURISE + THE INSIDE + FORGLOW)

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £8

Forming through a school project, Third Party blend a mix of indie bedroom pop and alternative rock. 100 FABLES (HUNKYBUG + RIGID SOUL + THE WHISPERING PINES) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £7.70

Fronted by Lyndsey Liora, fourpiece 100 Fables combine influences from the likes of Blondie, Altered Images and Le Tigre. LUNAFRUIT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £5

Jazzy, colourful modern pop from a young London crowd. COMBICHRIST & WEDNESDAY 13

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £18.50

Double whammy of heavy metal. Rock on. SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £18

The original line-up of these Manchester stalwarts celebrate 40+ years as a band.

Listings

MICHAEL MCMILLAN (LISA KOWALSKI) THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £5

Local singer/songwriter performs original songs with friends. DRAM N JAM

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, FREE

Acoustic music session in Drygate’s Beer Hall. SEAN MCGARVEY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Lead singer/songwriter in Glasgow indie band Static Union, who has been writing his own music since he was 11 and gigging in bars since he was 13.

Fri 10 Aug

THE ROOV (THE LUTRAS + STELLAR + ORIGIN SINS) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Four-piece from Lossiemouth who want to make music that could change your life. THE SCHIZOPHONICS (REAL LIFE ENTERTAINMENT + THE KIDNEY FLOWERS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Psychedelic fuzz rock from the USA. FISHBONE

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £17.50

Ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul fusion outfit hailing from California.

GLASGOW SONGWRITING FESTIVAL OPENING CONCERT

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £12

Cure your writer’s block and get some lyrical inspo from Glasgow Songwriting Festival in a launch gig at the Glad. JOHN RUSH

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Glasgow based singer/songwriter John Rush plays his ‘folk tinged pop songs’.

Sat 11 Aug

SIMPLE MINDED/DEACON BLUES

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

An evening celebrating two of Scotland’s greatest musical exports.

SUBWAVES STUDIO SHOWCASE (THE SMOKIN’ BUGLER BAND + ALANNAH MOAR + BELLAROSE + RAY KENNY)

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 18:30, £9

Showcase featuring a plethora of Scottish talent and a selection of finalists from the 2017 Soundwaves Music Competition. MONKEYFROG

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, £15

MonkeyFrog play an intimate set from the album 'Ivy', as well as new songs from forthcoming album 'Paper Tigers'. LUCID HOUND

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Blues/grunge/psychedelic trio based in Glasgow. GIFT HORSE

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

Free house party style Saturday night show at Mono. THULA BORAH (SWEARWOLVES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

More in the way of post-rock, ambient and math-y indie textures from the Glasgow-based lot. DEPARTURES (BEAR ARMS + SWALLOWS + ANTIGUO)

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £7

Glasgow-based hardcore rock lot.

SAVE AS 17: GLASGOW GARDEN FESTIVAL ’18 - JAMIE SCOTT ALBUM LAUNCH (ADAM STAFFORD + TWO KINGS)

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Jamie Scott launches his new album Glasgow Garden Festival ‘18, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the original Glasgow Garden Festival. SHREDD (SECRET MOTORBIKES)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Glasgow band dishing out fuzzy garage and pop. CHRIS CLARK JAZZ

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Chris Clark is one of the country’s premier jazz entertainers with an unrivalled knowledge and execution of the American Songbook.

Sun 12 Aug

THE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGBOOK WITH RONNIE & OLIVIA

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

Ronnie and Olivia play tunes from their Classic Acoustic Songbook in the cosy bar. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends.

Listings

10S ACROSS THE BOARD

SEAN MCGARVEY

DIRTY PROJECTORS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £30.50 - £75.50

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

KING TUT’S, FROM 19:00, £25

Five 'RuPaul’s Drag Race' Queens and plenty of amazing UK talent. NORTHERN NIGHTLIGHTS (SPOKE TOO SOON + WRTHLSS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6

Pop punk party.

ROBBIE CAVANAGH AND DEMI MARRINER

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £7

Americana singer/songwriters team up for a UK tour.

Mon 13 Aug

GILBERT O’SULLIVAN IN CONCERT – JUST GILBERT

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £24

The UK and US chart topper celebrates 50 years in the biz. THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. WEST THEBARTON (BAD MANNEQUINS + LUCID + HOLY PIRANHA)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.25

Seven-headed rock hydra from Adelaide, South Australia. 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.

KURT TRAVIS (TELEVANGELIST + ATLAS : EMPIRE)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Kurt Travis plays 'Eternity Forever' – Fantasy in full, with a full band.

PIPING LIVE! PRESENTS: INTERNATIONAL PIPING CONCERT (FRED MORRISON + BORJA BARAGANO DUO + MORVAN MASSIF + JARLATH HENDERSON) DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 20:30, £12.50 - £15

Lead singer/songwriter in Glasgow indie band Static Union, who has been writing his own music since he was 11 and gigging in bars since he was 13.

Fri 17 Aug STEVEN PAGE

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £30

The Canadian musician and Barenaked Ladies frontman goes solo. THE RISING SOULS (THE NAKED FEEDBACK + VELVETBOMB)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £8.80

Dynamic soulful rock band hailing from Scotland’s capital city; a punchy and intoxicating amalgamation of rock and soul. DEAD OTTER ALBUM LAUNCH

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

Glasgow heavy rockers launching their new album. SONS OF BILL (CARL ANDERSON)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

Young American rock outfit from Virginia.

PIPING LIVE! PRESENTS: BREABACH AND ANXO LORENZO BAND

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £12.50 - £15

Two of the best piping acts take to the stage with a distinctly Scottish/Spanish flavour. GOODBYE PURPLE PARK ROAD – A FAREWELL TO LP RECORDS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:00, £8

A gig to bid farewell to three years of LP Records. MANDULU AND HEPHZIBAH

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

High octane contemporary folk harmony duo, whose songs are dark but upbeat and lyrically mature.

Sat 18 Aug

SONGS OF THE SILVER SCREEN

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

A night of international piping styles to kick off the Piping Live! Festival.

A nostalgic, sentimental journey back to the heyday of Hollywood.

Tue 14 Aug

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

GABRIELLE

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £25

With the release of her latest album, Gabrielle’s ready-y-y to Rise Again. KING TUFF (SASAMI)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £14

The Sub Pop Records chap and his flowing locks make their way to the UK, acting the furioso frontman/artist/acoustic guitar legend that he is – or, in his own words ‘me like to rock’. JUKAI (XSERVITUDEX)

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £10

Mass Movement/RTF Records Long Island hardcore band. PIPING LIVE! PRESENTS: CEÒL NAM PÌOBAIREAN

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £10 - £12.50

Celebrate the music of the Highlands and the language of Piping, Gaelic.

Wed 15 Aug REPEATER PRESENTS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Promoting all that is alt-punk, emo and rock. MEST (SLIMBOY + LOST IN STEREO)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Since forming in a working class suburb of Chicago in 1995, Mest have been tearing up the punk rock scene, playing in local Chicago punk clubs.

Thu 16 Aug

DAMMIT PRESENTS: KIMBERLY STEAKS (ALBUM LAUNCH) (BAD YEAR)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The addictive pop-punk outfit launch their highly anticipated long player. HOLLOW ILLUSION (THE BIKINI BOTTOMS + THE PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SUPPOSITORIES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Norwegian Metal hailing from Stange, Norway. CHRIS GREIG

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £3 - £5

Glaswegian indie quartet, with fresh sounds and mellow vibes.

BRIAN MOLLEY QUARTET WITH THE ASIN LANGA ENSEMBLE

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £5

A musical fusion from Scotland and Rajasthan.

BREAK THE BUTTERFLY (CODY FEECHAN)

Levenmouth rock quartet led by Cameron Barnes. THE VIGNETTES (FACEUP)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £3-5

Up-and-coming band in the heart of Glasgow, intent on delivering high-energy performances. KONSHENS

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £15 - £20

Jamaican dancehall artist, known for the absolute banger that is Bruk Off Yuh Back.

JOSEPHINE SILLARS AND THE MANIC PIXIE DREAMS (FREAKWAVE + CAITLIN BUCHANAN)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5

A band based in Glasgow who write politically infused pop music. PETE MACLEOD

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, TBC

Scottish singer-songwriter with a knack for thoughtful, melodic music. Raised in the small mining town of Coatbridge, Scotland, MacLeod was heavily influenced by the music of Buddy Holly, The Beatles, John Lennon and The Rolling Stones.

GLAD 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY (KING AYISOBA + AYUUNE SULE + PAINTED XRAY (FKA ILK) + HOWIE REEVE + DJ DAVID BARBAROSSA)

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:00, £12 - £15

The Glad Cafe celebrate their 6th birthday, with a smashing line-up of musicians. OMNI (KAPUTT + BANANA OIL)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Featuring ex-Deerhunter guitarist Frankie Broyles, Atlanta based Omni play lo-fi pop that channels the spectre of the late 70s and early 80s. For fans of Television, Devo, and Pylon. EMMA MURDOCH

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Emma is a singer/songwriter based in Glasgow.

Sun 19 Aug RANAGRI

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £10

Contemporary folk/world music band, consisting of flutes, Irish whistles, electric harp, bodhran, guitars, piano, bouzouki and voices. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends.

The Brooklyn-based quintet continue with their exploration of rocks more challenging catacombs, to pretty bloody pleasing effect. ARCHIE AND THE BUNKERS (THE BUCKY RAGE + DAS PLASTIXX)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Cleveland organ punk band. LANDLESS

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £7 - £9

Irish foursome singing unaccompanied traditional songs in breathtaking, four-part harmony. RARARASMUSSEN

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

Rararasmussen formed as a small festival extravaganza and to express musical joy and merriment wherever they perform.

Mon 20 Aug THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. 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. FÖLLAKZOID

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13

Chilean cosmic music band.

Tue 21 Aug

MEGAN AIRLIE SINGLE LAUNCH

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The Bloc Music Records latest signing launches her new single. For fans of Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and Fiona Apple. JAMES MICHAEL RODGERS (BIG HOGG (ACOUSTIC) + MICHAEL BRINKWORTH)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

Songwriter from Ayrshire. BELLY

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20

Boston-based alt-rock band Belly which features Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. JOSIE DUNCAN AND THE DUSK (LAPWYNG) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5 - £9

Isle of Lewis-hailing folk singer and songwriter, who was awarded Radio 2’s Young Folk Award last year.

Wed 22 Aug

SLACK! - LUV DOT GOV (NYC) + THE TINO BAND

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Power pop for indie rockers. Sad songs for happy people. Simple music for hard times.

SAGE FRANCIS + B.DOLAN ARE ‘EPIC BEARD MEN’ STEREO, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Real-life rap BFFs Sage Francis and B.Dolan caved to years of fan pressure to form an official group: Epic Beard Men. SEAN MCGARVEY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Lead singer/songwriter in Glasgow indie band Static Union, who has been writing his own music since he was 11 and gigging in bars since he was 13.

Fri 24 Aug MACFLOYD

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20.25

Pink Floyd tribute act.

FACENDO COSE (TINY VINYL + MOTHER FOCUS + THE SHUTOUTS)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Six-piece soul and funk band from Glasgow.

HUSBANDS AND KNIVES (PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SUPPOSITORIES + RAMROD) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Riot grrrl-inspired punk rock band from Torquay. LIGHTNING BOLT

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5

Rhode Island duo, comprising of Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson, who made their name on the New York DIY scene in the 00s. BIG BLACK MARIAH EP LAUNCH

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £4

Big Black Mariah launch their new EP, showcasing a roaring set featuring songs from their debut recording.

CLEARWATER CREEDANCE REVIVAL

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £15

Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute act. JAMIE REILLY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Solo artist, formerly with The Blue Lenas and The Groove Allegiance, playing an acoustic set. LIKE A CAT TIED TO A STICK

THE BLUE ARROW, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

A night of Radiohead songs, re-imagined, rearranged and performed by a ten-piece band of musicians from Glasgow’s vibrant contemporary jazz scene.

Sat 25 Aug

PARIAH SOUL (THE SWAMP BORN ASSASSINS + HALF LOADED + ZOLA)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Classic blues rock’n’roll. DEAD HOPE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Three-piece post-punk band from Glasgow. GUNS OR ROSES

SHED, FROM 19:30, £8

QUARANTINE (BRATAKUS + BLÅGEN + ASBESTOS BEACH)

Guns ‘n’ Roses tribute night.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

STEREO, FROM 19:30, £14

Powerful, energetic hard rock/ metal. JAKE SHEARS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £17.50

Scissor Sisters' fabulous frontman out on his solo tour. LOWLIVES

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £8.50

Four-piece featuring former members of The Defiled, No Devotion and The Ataris. BRITNEY SPEARS: PIECE OF ME

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £51.50 £141.90

It’s Britney bitch! The princess of pop brings her record-breaking Las Vegas residency out on the road. STELLA DONNELLY

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Donnelly has gone from covering Green Day songs with her high school band to writing songs about being a millennial woman.

Thu 23 Aug

DAMMIT PRESENTS: THE BURNT TAPES (GET IT TOGETHER)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Four man melodic pop punk tag team. KING TUT’S PRESENTS: HIP HOP HOORAY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

A showcase of the best up and coming hip-hop acts Scotland has to offer. THE NUDE PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

Six-piece who formed in the freshman dorms of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

NITEWORKS

Young Scottish folk fusion outfit, mixing Celtic and electronic sounds in live Gaelic vocals, pipes and whistles. DZ DEATHRAYS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Brisbane thrash duo who, in suitably wild-hearted style, started life at a house party.

WHOLLY CATS

MIC CLARK - ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

MINDFUL DISCO (ZEN GWEN)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 17:15, FREE

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, FROM 09:30, £7.50 - £10

Glasgow cowboy jazz trio.

THE WEATHER STATION (SHANNON LAY)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

The project of Canadian songwriter Tamara Lindeman; folk music based in classic elements of songcraft.

Wed 01 Aug

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

Heavy metal lot based in San Fran.

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS

Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free. JAKE CLEMONS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £16.10

The American singer-songwriter, (and saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band). BUCK MEEK

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8.50

The Big Thief guitarist goes solo.

Wed 29 Aug

ALEXANDER TUCKER (IRMA VEP + QUITTER)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Alexander Tucker continues to carve out a space as one of Britain’s most forward-thinking songwriters. MARISA ANDERSON

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £9 - £12

Rooted in American folk music, Anderson’s pieces are inspired by 20th century classical and West African guitar techniques.

Thu 30 Aug STRETCHED PRESENTS: SUGARWORK

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Harnessing electronica to the melodic and rhythmic adventure of jazz in a thrillingly and utterly up to date way. I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £11

LA-based duo consisting of Dallon Weekes and Ryan Seaman. MATT HOLLYWOOD & THE BAD FEELINGS (BLACK CAT REVUE + REAL LIFE ENTERTAINMENT)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £12

Former member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Matt Hollywood has trodden many musical paths over the last two and a half decades. PASSENGER

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £24 - £27.75

LEE BAINS III AND THE GLORY FIRES

Alabama rock’n’rollers led by Lee Bains. SEAN MCGARVEY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Sun 26 Aug

Fri 31 Aug

THE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGBOOK WITH RONNIE & OLIVIA

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

Ronnie and Olivia play tunes from their Classic Acoustic Songbook in the cosy bar. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends. BE HERE NOW – INDIE ROCK ALL DAYER

ANDREW ROBERT EUSTACE BAND

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Frontman Andrew Robert Eustace, known for his soulful lyrics and powerful voice, invites you along to experience tales of hard blues. ASTEROID NO.4 (HELICON + BIG CLOUD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics.

Self-described “dimension jumping, sleep loving, Hawaiian shirt wearing pyjama pirates.”

MAIRI CAMPBELL: AULD LANG SYNE

SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, FROM 16:30, £9.50 - £12

The story of Mairi’s adventures with Scotland’s most famous song. FRESH PRODUCE (SUNSTINGER + WET LOOK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, TBC

Expect to be impressed by these two new up-and-coming bands, Fife’s Sunstinger and Glasgow four-piece Wet Look.

Fri 03 Aug

MEGADETH UK (SHAMTERA)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £14

SUGARHILL GANG FEAT. GRANDMASTER MELE MEL & SCORPIO FURIOUS FIVE

ST LUKE’S, FROM 20:00, £19.50 - £21.06

Hip-hop’s first superstars and pioneers of the genre.

RED HEARTED VIBRATIONS (GARLANDS + NEIL’S MEMORY BOX + SWIGGY) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

A four-piece musical outfit from Glasgow.

AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER

The DIY songstress hosts a special ‘An Evening With...’ live session, with surprises and special guests. THE UPMO EXPERIENCE + BONES CARNIVAL + LORRAINE AND THE BORDERLANDS

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

A night of quality music taking place during the Edinburgh Fringe, featuring three spectacular bands.

Fri 10 Aug

GRAHAM BONNET BAND (GIN ANNIE + HOLLOWSTAR) BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £15 - £18

The former Rainbow / Alcatrazz frontman brings his latest act to Bannermans.

AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £22.50 - £27.50

The DIY songstress hosts a special ‘An Evening With...’ live session, with surprises and special guests. SAM OUTLAW & BAND (MOLLY PARDEN)

Two killer tribute acts hook up for a night of sheer metal.

Southern California country music.

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:00, £6

ACOUSTIC MUSIC CENTRE @ ST BRIDE’S, FROM 17:30, £8

WARDOMIZED (PROLEFEED + MYRRAH + BURT WARD)

Drunk anarcho grind specialists from Belfast.

Sat 04 Aug

CELTIC BEAST (RISE OF THE FALLEN)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

A night of mixed rock and celtic folk rock. THE MATATUNES + LOUD SOUTH LADIES

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £18

ANDY GUNN

Scottish guitar virtuoso Andy Gunn brings his soulful bluesy set to the Edinburgh Fringe with a strippedback performance featuring songs from his latest album.

Sat 11 Aug

DRUNK GODS (HOLY SAVAGE)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

A night of dark, heavy punk rock

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 22:00, TBC

Sun 12 Aug

ADAM HOLMES & THE EMBERS

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

Joint headline show from two Edinburgh bands.

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £16.50 - £19

Young rootsy-pop singer/ songwriter Adam Holmes plays accompanied by his five-strong band of players, The Embers.

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:00, £10

Sun 05 Aug OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock. CRANACHAN

BANNERMANS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day. JUKEBOX BINGO

FIRESIDE, FROM 20:45, £7

Instead of balls and numbers, match songs and artists to Fireside’s speedy soundtrack and pit your wits against the room in a fast-paced musical challenge to win fabulous prizes.

Mon 06 Aug

SKILTRON (LUX PERPETUA + MERICHANE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £10 - £12

Metal with bagpipes. Err, make your own mind up on that one.

Founders of the suburban Orange County punk scene, whose songs contributed generously to the melodic sensibility and musical style of later SoCal punk bands.

Mon 27 Aug In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ozomatli’s self-titled debut album, Ozo is back in the studio to recreate the magic.

MANTIS TOBOGGAN

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £20 - £22.50

DEATH GRIPS

OZOMATLI + CHALI 2NA

Thu 02 Aug

Tue 07 Aug

The Californian thrash metal/hiphop hybrid trio deliver their usual full-frontal musical assault, back from retirement yet again.

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £17.50

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 20:00, £5

Punky bedroom jammers celebrate collaborative record release.

Stalwarts of the modern psych genre known for their prolific discography.

ST LUKE’S, FROM 16:00, £15 - £16.20

A celebration of iconic British Indie Rock from some of the best tributes in the country.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £22.50 - £27.50

A stacked night of heavy blues at the Depot

A colourful lyricist and expert in harmonica neck-brace playing.

HUGH KEARNS

SULKA/DEATH BED - SPLIT EP LAUNCH

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £20

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £18 - £20

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

EDDY GARTY & THE WEREWOLVES OF POWYS (VIOLENT MOOD SWINGS + DUSTY OLD CROWS)

Hosted by The Boulet Brothers, with performances from Vander Von Odd, Biqtch Puddin, Victoria Black, James Majesty and Meatball.

D.R.I. VS MILLIONS OF DEAD COPS (DISPOSABLE + DANIEL WAX OFF)

Intense, heavy and in-your-face, get ready.

SLOUGH FEG (JUNIPER GRAVE)

Brighton-born singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg’s pared back new guise (i.e. five piece band becomes one). THE BOULET BROTHERS DRAGULA

Rise and shine with Mindful Disco, a guided event combining dance and mindfulness.

Thu 09 Aug

Tue 28 Aug

Lead singer/songwriter in Glasgow indie band Static Union, who has been writing his own music since he was 11 and gigging in bars since he was 13.

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Mic Clark began his musical journey on violin then moved onto piano during his childhood and eventually picked up the guitar in his mid 20s.

ADOLESCENTS (LOS FASTIDIOS + GET IT TOGETHER + SHATTERHAND)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £13 - £15

OPEN MIC

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock. STEVE CONTE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Guitar legend from acts such as New York Dolls and Michael Monroe brings his solo outfit to Edinburgh. MR MCFALL’S CHAMBER: RED BLUE BALANCE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 20:00, £0 - £15

Premieres of three new works which lean towards jazz. JUKEBOX BINGO

FIRESIDE, FROM 20:45, £7

Instead of balls and numbers, match songs and artists to Fireside’s speedy soundtrack and pit your wits against the room in a fast-paced musical challenge to win fabulous prizes.

Mon 13 Aug

DEFINITELY OASIS UNPLUGGED

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £10

The UK’s #1 Oasis tribute play a special one-off Unplugged acoustic set.

Tue 14 Aug PRESSURE VALVE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.

Wed 15 Aug

HOLLOW ILLUSION (SIXTY CYCLE HUM)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

Norwegian Metal hailing from Stange, Norway.

Thu 16 Aug

SCOTT FREEMAN & THE TOKYO SEX WHALES

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Wed 08 Aug

Anthemic indie rock thrashed with an acoustic guitar.

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £30

THE KUT

Currently all over the likes of Kerrang TV and the like, this trio are not to be missed.

STEVEN PAGE

The Canadian musician and Barenaked Ladies frontman goes solo. BOW + JEANICE LEE + REYA KUNDU

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Gig during the Edinburgh Fringe with three different bands, from pop, jazz and indie rock.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Music FAIRFOLLIES

SUZANNE VEGA

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £30 - £45

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.

Fri 17 Aug TRUE BELIEVER

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

A limited side show, while the metalers from OZ are in the UK for Bloodstock.

The much-loved songstress makes her live return, performing new material alongside earlier classics from her impressive back catalogue. LUNAFRUIT

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £5

Jazzy, colourful modern pop from a young London crowd.

Sat 25 Aug DIRT BOX DISCO

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 13:00, £12.50

AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER

Dirt Box Disco all-dayer with loadsa support acts at The Liquid Room.

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £22.50 - £27.50

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

EP launch from local garage/ punk crew.

ACOUSTIC MUSIC CENTRE @ ST BRIDE’S, FROM 17:30, £8

HIGH FIGHTER (TUSKAR + MY DIABLO + HAMMER)

Scottish guitar virtuoso Andy Gunn brings his soulful bluesy set to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a stripped-back performance featuring songs from his latest album.

Sat 18 Aug

THE MIS-MADE (WEEKEND RECOVERY)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

Some classic punk/rock from OZ and the UK.

AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £22.50 - £27.50

The DIY songstress hosts a special ‘An Evening With...’ live session, with surprises and special guests. SPARE SNARE

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £10

The much-loved Glasgow group return to showcase their new Albini-produced album.

Sun 19 Aug OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock. CRANACHAN

BANNERMANS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day. GOOD GRIEF AND CITY OF GLASS’ SUMMER ONE (OMNI + KAPUTT + JONNY PARISS)

LEITH DOCKER’S CLUB, FROM 17:00, £10 - £13

Masters of the sharp, taut groove, Atlanta’s Omni play Edinburgh for the first time. Support from post-punk skronk outfit Kaputt and Jonny Pariss.

KORN AGAIN

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Korn tribute act, with bagpipes and all.

DANIEL MILLER EP LAUNCH (CARRIE SCRIMGEOUR + LAURIE CAMERON)

Sun 26 Aug

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

Stoner rock band from Hamburg. ST. VINCENT

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £25 - £40

The incredible Annie Clark brings her transgressive pop on a rare visit to Scotland as part of her I Am a Lot Like You! Tour. HUSBAND N KNIVES (YOUR REPTILIAN MASTERS + COLLARBOMB)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, TBC

Punk/riot grrrl four-piece from Torquay. DIRTY HARRY

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £15

A definitive homage to punk and new wave’s best, Blondie.

THE WEATHER STATION (SHANNON LAY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £10

The project of Canadian songwriter Tamara Lindeman; folk music based in classic elements of songcraft. THE COURETTES

SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14

Brooklyn-based country ensemble led by singer and principal songwriter Zach Williams.

EAST RECORDS PRESENTS: QUE PASA

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Dundee Music

Brighton-based dirty pop.

Thu 02 Aug MILLA (GIMIK)

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £7

Hip-hop night with Dumbarton rapper Milla and Dundonian Gimik.

Fri 03 Aug JERICHO HILL

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Johnny Cash tribute show.

Sat 04 Aug

NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING CARPETS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds tribute act.

Sun 05 Aug

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £5 - £6

OUT ON THE FLOOR

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £6

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, FREE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £15 - £45

PRESSURE VALVE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. WYE OAK

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £14.50 - £18

Baltimore duo composed of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, infused with elements of folk, indie rock and dream pop.

Wed 22 Aug MELISANDRES BEAVER

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

The punk rock trio make their Bannermans debut. SUZANNE VEGA

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £30 - £45

The much-loved songstress makes her live return, performing new material alongside earlier classics from her impressive back catalogue.

Thu 23 Aug

GODMOTHER (SECTIONED + ILENKUS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £7

Aggressive, energetic fastpaced hardcore, seasoned with death metal, sludge and tasty breakdowns.

August 2018

I’M WITH HER

Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan perform a unique blend of instrumental interplay combined with indelible harmonies.

Wed 29 Aug Q5

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £14 - £16

Scottish debut from the American legends. PASSENGER

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £24

Brighton-born singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg’s pared back new guise (i.e. five piece band becomes one). CHERYM (THE FARTING SUFFRAGETTES)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £6

Sat 11 Aug BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £20

Classic Seventies band Sham 69, back by popular demand with the original 1977 line-up.

Sun 19 Aug STAN URBAN

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £10

The rock’n’roll fella stops by with his piano smarts for a night of 50s bangers.

Thu 23 Aug

THE CARLOWAYS (LANGUID GOAT)

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, FREE

Perth-based country with a distinct touch of rock.

Fri 31 Aug PUBLIC IMAGE LTD

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, TBC

Post punk outfit led by Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, re-formed in 2012.

MATT HOLLYWOOD & THE BAD FEELINGS (REAL LIFE ENTERTAINMENT + NEIL MORRISON BAND + DRAINPIPE)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £9

Former member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Matt Hollywood has trodden many musical paths over the last two and a half decades.

Alabama rock’n’rollers led by Lee Bains.

Thu 30 Aug SAVING ABEL

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £15 - £17

A taste of some killer southern rock.

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £12

SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

LIGHTNING BOLT AFTERPARTY NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

Afterparty for Lightning Bolt’s Glasgow show, with Acid Cannibals DJs.

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

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, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you. CRAIGIE KNOWES (HIGHFIELD CASUALS + PARTS UNKNOWN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

BEAST

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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage. AFLOAT X SDC

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Afloat join forces with Silver Dollar Club, as the residents battle it out all night long.

Thu 09 Aug DRUGSTORE GLAMOUR

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene.

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

Craigie Knowes’ label party with a rare appearance by the Highfield Casuals (The Burrell Connection and DJCJ) and new label affiliate Parts Unknown.

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

UNHOLY

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

UNHOLY

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. FOUNDRY (VOIGHT-KAMPFF)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Expect fast-paced electro, unrelenting acid, the kicking noise of hardcore and everything in between.

Fri 03 Aug FRESH! FRIDAYS

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £0 - £6

Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember.

SUBCULTURE (SAOIRSE + HARRI)

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. MAGIC CITY SECOND BIRTHDAY

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

The hip-hop head’s haven celebrate their second birthday.

Sun 05 Aug NULL / VOID

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

Industrial goth rock disco. CLIFFHANGER

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

A hearty blend of emo, drive-thru, old school and new school pop punk, to see your Sunday through to the stars. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

OG Kush + hip-hop bangers with Notorious B.A.G.

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Mon 06 Aug

TRAX

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

DJ Daryl kicks off the first weekend of the month, spinning hip-hop, grunge, trap and dance tunes.

NORTHERN NIGHTLIGHTS (SPOKE TOO SOON + AFTER PARTY + MARA + WAXWORK MONOLOGUE)

Three-piece noise pop/punk band from Derry, Londonderry.

LEE BAINS III AND THE GLORY FIRES (JASON RIDDELL)

DJ NICK(ERS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Fri 10 Aug

SHAM 69

Tue 21 Aug

Thu 02 Aug

Classic Northern Soul and Motown anthems featuring local band The Messarounds.

Tue 28 Aug Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.

Sunny Side Up believe in nourishing music lovers with their fix of ear candy.

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits.

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

PRESSURE VALVE

SUNNY SIDE UP (OTHER LANDS + LYLA)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, £5

Pop punk party.

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:00, FREE

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

Highly accessible hits from heaven.

ALL BETTER (THE OVERBITES + THE MARX)

Mon 20 Aug

The Valencia-based record label returns for another dose of their popular Que Pasa programme.

WRAP-IT

Wed 01 Aug

The Valencia-based record label returns for another dose of their popular Que Pasa programme.

EAST RECORDS PRESENTS: QUE PASA

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3

JUKEBOX BINGO

Mon 27 Aug

BEAST

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

With heavy riffs and bleak melodies, No Problem will bring an originality and frenetic nervous energy to any lame party.

FIRESIDE, FROM 20:45, £7

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

Afro-disco screamers.

THE LONE BELLOW

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Instead of balls and numbers, match songs and artists to Fireside’s speedy soundtrack and pit your wits against the room in a fast-paced musical challenge to win fabulous prizes.

MELTED

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Edinburgh singer-songwriter Daniel Miller launches his new EP, Shine.

NO PROBLEM (GET IT TOGETHER + BRATAKUS)

The Danish/Brazilian beatpunk darling duo return to Edinburgh. New record, same stylish look.

Wed 01 Aug

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong.

THE SHAN - EP LAUNCH

The DIY songstress hosts a special ‘An Evening With...’ live session, with surprises and special guests. ANDY GUNN

Fri 31 Aug

Glasgow Clubs

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. LT (ILUM SPHERE + RIBEKA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

Musical explorations with resident Ribeka and special guests.

SUB CLUB PRESENTS: HOT CHIP (DJ SET) + LEZZER QUEST (SHOOT YOUR SHOT) SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £15

Sub Club is proud to welcome back electro, left-field act Hot Chip for a DJ set. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. DABJ WITH BIG MIZ

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Local hellraiser Big Miz is next in line for the DABJ residency.

Sat 04 Aug

DANZIG AFTERPARTY (DJ OMAR ABORIDA)

Rock on into the early hours after Danzig’s Glasgow show. BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. ELECTRIC SALSA (BWI BWI + BISSET)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Recreating the fun, passion and atmosphere felt at their favourite clubs the world over.

KILLER KITSCH

#TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember. DEATHKILL 4000

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Ultra-cutting edge dark electro, hip-hop and post-punk.

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. RUCKUS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Sarah Legatt’s monthly hip-hop, trap and R’n’B night. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

MOONLIGHT (QUAIL + LISALÖÖF)

Moonlight have a very special housewarming gift at their new second home, Animal Farm and Soma Records’ Quail.

LA CHEETAH CLUB PRESENTS… AVALON EMERSON (WARDY & DOM D’SYLVA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Ex-software developer and now world-renowned DJ/producer Avalon Emerson makes her La Cheetah debut. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

Wed 08 Aug

Celebrating the launch of INVINC 20 with two stellar acts under one roof, Berlin-based Eva Geist and Natural Sugars from Bristol.

GLITTERBANG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Disco divas and Euro-pop anthems for those ready to sweat.

Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Happy Meals’ Lewis seduces w/ Eurowave + Vaporbeat.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

ACID FLASH (CRAIGIE KNOWES + IDA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

IDA brings her Aberdeen-originating Acid Flash nights to Glasgow and brings along some pals too. SLAM & DJ PIERRE (BOSCO & ROB MASON)

OLD FRUITMARKET GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £15 - £20

Join the celebration of 30 years of acid house in Glasgow as Slam recreate 88.

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £10

BEAST CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

ALGORHYTHM (NAIVE MELODY + KEO + ERNESTO HARMON + ADAM ZARECKI)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

A collective of music lovers dedicated to bringing beautiful sounds to some of Glasgow’s best venues.

Thu 16 Aug PRAY 4 LOVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All love songs + all bangers. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

PALA (VEITCH + CASEY + STENGO)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Pala residents play all night long.

Fri 17 Aug FRESH! FRIDAYS

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £0 - £6

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember.

SUPERMAX

Pearl Necklace returns with the best of riot grrrl, electro and hip-hop.

SUBCULTURE

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, TBC

CHARITY CLUB NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £4

Support Calais refugees at this charity night. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Mon 13 Aug

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

SMALL TALK W/ DJ ADIDADAS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro. Big chorus club extravaganza where punk meets pop hits.

SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

SHAKA LOVES YOU

INVISIBLE INC: INVINC 20 LOST TRANSMISSIONS ALBUM LAUNCH (EVA GEIST (LIVE) + NATURAL SUGARS + GK MACHINE)

DAMMIT ALL TO HELL

Rock’n’roll, garage and soul.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

ROYALE SATURDAYS

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Sun 12 Aug

FRESH! FRIDAYS

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, £5

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

MONSTER HOSPITAL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Botch meets Beyonce DJ smash. A club night like no other.

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £0 - £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro.

DJ Billy Woods, start to finish, open to close.

Tue 07 Aug Funky, disco, boogie and house.

ROYALE SATURDAYS

Fri 10 Aug

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

CRATER COVER

Sat 11 Aug

BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 14 Aug OBZRV MUSIC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All the electronic dance. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

Wed 15 Aug DON’T BE GUTTED

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Nefarious beats for dangerous times.

EAT YR MAKE UP

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Exotic dreamy disco.

FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £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, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

SOLID STATE (CERA KHIN + RIBEKA + THE BURRELL CONNECTION)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

The Burrell Connection welcomes Berlin’s Cera Khin and local favourite Ribeka for an evening of modern club and experimental music. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. THE YELLOW DOOR

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

A night of contemporary classics, unheard of gems and well-kent belters, all for your general dancing pleasure, natch. JUNGLE TESTAMENTS: KEEP IT ROLLING MEETS CENOTE CREW

AUDIO, FROM 23:00, TBC

Cenote Sounds are back with their first Jungle Testaments after the summer.

Sat 18 Aug ROYALE SATURDAYS

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell plays a mix of chart and electro. FANTASTIC MAN

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Incoherent madness for those with a death wish. The worst club night in the world. SINGLES NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Beans + Divine explore the hits on 7” vinyl. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

Listings

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

Rubadub continue their 25th birthday celebrations, with NTS’ Charlie Bones. SUBCULTURE (SOLAR + HARRI & DOMENIC)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. JAMAICA SPECIAL

RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £4

Rush Hour Records' Robert Bergman brings a selection of reggae, dub and dancehall cuts, joined on the decks by Fergus Clarke

Sun 19 Aug CLIFFHANGER

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

A hearty blend of emo, drive-thru, old school and new school pop punk, to see your Sunday through to the stars. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

Mon 20 Aug BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 21 Aug

BUCKFAST SUPERNOVA

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Marble Gods will be living their best lives playing indie-pop gems, R&B smashes, sweet disco beats and the gr8est pop songs of all time ever. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

Wed 22 Aug FREAK LIKE ME

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Soul, hip-hop and funk. RUN THE WORLD: ANL

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £4

An unofficial Britney Spears afterparty, celebrating the best females in hip-hop and R’n’B. BEAST

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage. ATTENTION PLEASE (LIAM DOC)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

The Selectors Series is back, educating the floor with the best gems the fine line-up of selectors can get their hands on.

Listings

Thu 23 Aug

BREAKFAST CLUB W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

80s themed party extravaganza. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

SUBCULTURE

SILVER DOLLAR CLUB (TONE DROPOUT)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests.

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

SUB CLUB SOUNDSYSTEM (MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE + KINK + DJ HEATHER + HARRI & DOMENIC)

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

THE BARRAS ARTS AND DESIGN CENTRE, FROM 14:00, £20 - £65

UNHOLY

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. EUTONY (MAIN INGREDIENT + MILLÜ)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Eutony invites friends Main Ingredient and Millü for a night of house and techno.

Fri 24 Aug

SUMMER SESSIONS WITH PAUL N’JIE

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £6

A chronological history of soul, taking you through four decades of the best soul, funk, disco and hiphop, with a touch of smooth R’n’B and big club house classics. MANDATE

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Playing obscure but banging waves, synths, disco and beats from 1978-89. DATE NIGHT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

A mixtape of love, lust and nostalgia. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £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, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. EZUP (HAAI + NICKY + MARK + DEVLN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

The Ezup crew return with their standard electric atmosphere and stellar guests. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. TRANCE WAX (BRAIN DANCING)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Trance Wax, aka Garry McCartney, aka Ejeca, is the Belfast man that has been turning a few heads over the past few years.

Sat 25 Aug

SUMMER SESSIONS WITH CRAIG MCHUGH

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £8

Craig McHugh brings some Ibiza vibes to Òran Mór this summer. GONZO

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

The quest to bring epic nostalgia back in the form of all things MTV2 (pre-trash) and 120 Minutes continues. The return of Indie Disco. SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. MISBEHAVIN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Retro-pop, alt, dance and electro from DJ Drewbear. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Spencer & Numbers present Vol.1 of a new initiative: upfront rhythms and isolated listening information, guests announced on the night.

Tone Dropout label heads Dawl and Sween hold it down in the basement with their signature acid sound.

Fri 31 Aug FRESH! FRIDAYS

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £0 - £6

Sub Club bring their annual alldayer back to BAaD. Party vibes right through.

Resident DJ John McLean brings you the biggest tunes and best deals to make your weekend one to remember.

Sun 26 Aug

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes thorough the night.

SUB CLUB SOUNDSYSTEM (THE BLACK MADONNA + MIDLAND + SENSU)

THE BARRAS ARTS AND DESIGN CENTRE, FROM 14:00, £20 - £65

Sub Club bring their annual alldayer back to BAaD. Party vibes right through.

Mon 27 Aug BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Tue 28 Aug ONLY THE SUBJECT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

New wave of underground Glasgow DJ talent. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

SHAKE APPEAL

Six decades of rock’n’roll under one roof, hosted by the ultimate DJ trivium.

DEATH GRIPS AFTERPARTY (NULL / VOID DJS) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

If you’ve not suffered from severe whiplash at Death Grips’ gig, why not party on? OCTOPUSSY REUNION

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £8

Two rooms of choons from the original Octopussy DJs Johnny Whoop, Ribcage, Liam and Ted. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £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, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

MISSING PERSONS CLUB (SHYBOI)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

After the raunchy residents night, MPC are back with a bang bringing SHYBOI down to the La Cheetah basement to shake the walls to their core, Discwoman style. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 23:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

#TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

Wed 29 Aug

KENDRICK LAMAR AFTERPARTY (FANTASTIC MAN) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Keep the party going after K.Dot’s Glasgow show. BEAST

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £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, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage. MINDSET (MODULA RECORDS)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Mindset invite along the independent London via Ibiza vinyl-only record label.

Thu 30 Aug

Wed 01 Aug WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: TINNITUS WILLIAMS (C-SHAMAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

Co-founder and resident of Bristol night Nebula, Tinnitus Williams, aka Samuel, makes his Sneaky Pete’s debut.

Thu 02 Aug HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Since May 2012, Hector’s House (known affectionately to many as Hector’s) has become Edinburgh’s stalwart midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday. HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

JUICE IS DEAD (AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Good tunes, that’s it. No frills, no more branding, no superfluous “about us” bio; find them in the club every Thursday, playing what you need to hear. HECTOR’S ROLLER DISCO

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 22:00, £1.50 - £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The only roller disco at the Edinburgh Festival, so strap on your skates and get dancing.

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

Fri 03 Aug

GO FUNK YER SOUL

Funk. Loads of it.

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

FLY (JASPER JAMES + THEO KOTTIS)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £12

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent. FRINGE FESTIVAL HOUSE PARTY

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Four of Edinburgh’s party crews join together to deliver a night filled with dance floor thumpers. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Edinburgh Clubs MISS WORLD (RMILY + SYDD VISCOSE + APHID)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Continuing a new monthly residency at Sneaks, the Miss World ladies always bring the right vibes. SOULSVILLE

SUMMERHALL, 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. WEE DUB X MUNGO’S HI-FI FRINGE SESSION

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:30, £9 - £11

Mungo’s Hi-Fi return to Edinburgh with full sound for an all-night Fringe session. HEADSET

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in. HAPTIC + EQ

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Haptic residents along with fellow Fifers EQ will be going head to head all the way through till 5am.

Tue 07 Aug

Sat 11 Aug

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

TRASH

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.

Wed 08 Aug

BUBBLEGUM

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. GROOVEJET

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 23:00, £7 - £15.65

A full on night of house, vocal anthems, special edits and disco edits. TEESH: JEX OPOLIS (DJ CHEERS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Jex Opolis is a producer, musician and DJ with inescapable quality. His career is teeming with truly brilliant releases, parties and mixes.

HEATERS: C-SHAMAN B2B BAZ

SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £7

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

All new, all fun, all cheese club night. SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

RHYTHM MACHINE

C-Shaman welcomes long-time favourite and emerging talent Baz back to the sweatbox for a six hour back to back.

Rhythm Machine is a night of dance music and performance art, with DJs Yves, William Francis and guests playing dance music from around the world.

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

HEADZ UP X VOID SPACE: DENIAL

LET’S GO BACK TO THE 80’S

Denial is an artist who needs no introduction, travelling the world as a DJ and releasing music on multiple labels.

The sound of clubs before house music ruled. New Wave, New Beat and new romantic.

Join resident Montalto and guests as they explore avant-techno experiments.

Thu 09 Aug

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £10

Sat 04 Aug

Since May 2012, Hector’s House (known affectionately to many as Hector’s) has become Edinburgh’s stalwart midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday.

Enter Planet Dust. Italo heat and proto house from a man clad in studded leather.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

RIVIERA PARAISO (ANDREA MONTALTO + PAKO VEGA)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. SATIVA

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, FREE

Techno club night. REWIND

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 23:00, TBC

Monthly party night celebrating the best in soul, disco, rock and pop with music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and current bangers. FIRECRACKER PRESENTS HEAL YOURSELF & MOVE #16 (CHARLIE BONES + OTHER LANDS + HOUSE OF TRAPS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Edinburgh’s favourite esoteric imprint Firecracker Recordings return with their annual extended edition of Heal Yourself & Move. RHYTHM MACHINE

SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £7

Rhythm Machine is a night of dance music and performance art, with DJs Yves, William Francis and guests playing dance music from around the world. CLUB MADCHESTER PRESENTS GET LOOSE

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5

60s, punk, new wave, classic acid and classic and modern indie dance. SAMEDIA SHAHEN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

As always Samedia play music spanning Afrobeat, Latin, kuduru, dancehall, samba, soca, cumbia and beyond. CTRL Z (RENYARD + SEPTIK)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

A night of grime and drum ‘n’ bass on the top floor. JACUZZI GENERAL

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

Dip your toe into the sounds of pleasure powerhouse Jacuzzi General.

Sun 05 Aug SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 06 Aug MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. HODGE VS SKILLIS

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Bristol meets Edinburgh for six hours of anything goes in everyone’s favourite sweatbox.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

HI-FI REBEL

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

JUICE IS DEAD (SANA + AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Good tunes, that’s it. No frills, no more branding, no superfluous “about us” bio; find them in the club every Thursday, playing what you need to hear. HECTOR’S ROLLER DISCO

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:45, £3 - £12

The only roller disco at the Edinburgh Festival, so strap on your skates and get dancing.

HOTLINE (DJ FEMME FRESH + PROC FISKAL + VAJ POWER )

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Smashin’ cloob, ‘run by women, for everyone’. R’n’B, disco, funk and dancing.

Fri 10 Aug

FLY (HORSE MEAT DISCO)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £12

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. HOT MESS (SIMONOTRON)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Hot Mess is a hot and messy queer rave. Non-stop bangers and mash, selected and sequenced with love by Simonotron. DUB CONFERENCE – MESSENGER MEETS JAH TUBBYS

NSA & HECTOR’S: A TASTE OF PARIS

10+ DJs, four rooms, three floors, one amazing musical extravaganza. OTHER THUMPERS (DONALD DUST)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

Sun 12 Aug SUNDAY CLUB

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. SO ELECTRIC & FRIENDS / CDLS FUNDRAISER

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

For their inaugural Edinburgh Fringe party, So Electric & Friends team up with some of the capital’s finest to raise money for The CdLS Foundation.

Tue 14 Aug TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more. TEMPTATION

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Edinburgh’s finest LGBT+ club night, playing the best synth-pop, electro-pop and Hi-NRG from the 80s to the present day. Nothing is too cheesy, nothing is too camp, nothing is too queer. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

METROPOLIS X HEADS UP

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

Metropolis link up with local rave legends Heads Up for an evening of strictly drum ‘n’ bass and jungle. RAW: DJ ORIGIN (AESTHETICS + UPFRONT + JAMMIN)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

DJ Origin returns to test his latest selection of dubplates and handpicked classics from all corners of the scene. BEST INTENT (CAMMY)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

Join Paradise Palms in-house resident Cammy for a night of genre-hopping selections, paying close attention to the dancefloor.

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

JUICE IS DEAD (DECLAN + AMI K + DAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Good tunes, that’s it. No frills, no more branding, no superfluous “about us” bio; find them in the club every Thursday, playing what you need to hear. HECTOR’S ROLLER DISCO

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:55, £3 - £12

The only roller disco at the Edinburgh Festival, so strap on your skates and get dancing. HEADSET

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in.

Fri 17 Aug FLY (BEN PEARCE)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. MAMA MIA!

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

ABBA club night.

ATHENS OF THE NORTH (FRYER + GARETH SOMMERVILLE + LEL PALFREY) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

MIXED UP

Wed 15 Aug

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in.

Since May 2012, Hector’s House (known affectionately to many as Hector’s) has become Edinburgh’s stalwart midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday.

Mon 13 Aug

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.

HEADSET

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

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.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Messenger present a two sound system festival special.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:55, £8 - £12

Thu 16 Aug

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

HEATERS: C-SHAMAN B2B PADDY D

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

The Mirror Dance co-founder and all round good time extraordinaire Paddy D joins C-Shaman at Heaters’ helm for six hours of musical mischief.

WECHT PRESENTS REDSTONE PRESS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

The Redstone Press crew help WECHT celebrate their first party in the capital.

OPTIMO

Legendary duo JD Twitch and JG Wilkes are renowned for their visionary and exploratory musical approach during sets and throw some of the best parties on the planet. NO SCRUBS (MISS MIXTAPE)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5

A night of 90s and 00s hip-hop and R’n’B vibes, full of throwbacks guaranteed to send you on a trip down memory lane. STEPBACK DJ TAKEOVER

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

House, techno, bass and ghetto crew hit Palms. HELENA HAUFF

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 23:30, £10-22.25

Crack Magazine's number one most exciting DJ in the world right now, and for good reason.

Sat 18 Aug BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. COMMUNITY GOLDEN TIME

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

New beat, synth-pop and italo.

WASABI DISCO: DJ SOTOFETT (KRIS WASABI)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

He sunk his big Nordic teeth into his Sneaks debut last year, so Wania & Sex Tags boss DJ Sotofett is back for a six hour epic. RHYTHM MACHINE

SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £7

Rhythm Machine is a night of dance music and performance art, with DJs Yves, William Francis and guests playing dance music from around the world. DISNEY PARTY

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Decade’s pop punk party gets a special theme of Disney. SKIN TIGHT (MISS WORLD)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

An occasional dance party from the people behind Headset and Soul Jam.

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

THE SKINNY

PMSC

MINISET (SKILLIS B2B PARTIAL)

MIDNIGHT BASS

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 22:00, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Percy Main flings wide the doors to his social club this evening with melters, belters, boogies, woogies, sweat and daiquiris.

Partial is U-bo & Adler, who run their monthly night at La Cheetah Club in Glasgow, and now they’re heading to Sneaks.

Weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.

Sun 19 Aug

SUMMERHALL, FROM 22:30, £11

Wed 29 Aug

SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

INCINERATOR – ELECTRO DISCO (MISS WORLD + DOZEN DRAFT) SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

Heat will rise for one night only to ignite The Dissection Room with fed-after-midnight electro disco, homegrown in Summerhall’s last industrial graveyard. VOID SPACE VS HEADZ UP (DJ DUTCHIE)

BALKANARAMA

All singing, all dancing Balkan orgy, plus belly dancing and free brandy. As in, we’re sold. JACKHAMMER (DAVE CLARKE + BEN SIMS + STEPHEN BROWN)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

The Jackhammer crew serve up a dose of all things techno. OVERGROUND

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Lo-fi raw house and techno.

RAW PRESENTS ARIES (AESTHETICS + UPFRONT + JAMMIN) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Aries’ DJing is in demand across the globe, having played high profile sets in most major countries. THE UNIVERAL BOOGIE CORPORATION (ROB DYLAN)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 23:00, FREE

Mon 20 Aug

The Universal Boogie Corporation presents ‘Rob (Thrillin’) Dylan’ And His Camel Toe Caravan’s Travelling Tour of Disco-Very.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Sat 25 Aug

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Drum ‘n’ bass night. MIXED UP

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. NICK’S HIP HOP PARTY

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Nick from Sneaks plays (mostly) hip-hop all night but is up for requests, so shout out what you feel.

Tue 21 Aug TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more. MIDNIGHT BASS

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.

Wed 22 Aug WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: C-SHAMAN B2B GOLDY B

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

Goldy B’s party spirit is infectious; blend this with his fantastic taste and you have the perfect selector to close out Heaters’ Fringe series.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. RIDE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

00’s R’n’B. Y’all gon make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here. RHYTHM MACHINE

SUMMERHALL, FROM 23:00, £7

Rhythm Machine is a night of dance music and performance art, with DJs Yves, William Francis and guests playing dance music from around the world.

LET’S GO BACK TO ACID HOUSE (YOGI HOUGHTON + BOYDIE (THE ORB))

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

House, acid, techno and hip-hop from 1986-1990. PULSE (SLAM)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

Slamming techno with resident Darrell Harding.

METROPOLIS & FRIENDS: THE LAST DANCE

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Metropolis celebrate their last party of the summer with pals from across Scotland.

PIEUTE’S 6TH BIRTHDAY (NIKNAK)

FIRESIDE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Drum ‘n’ bass night.

Celebrate the 6th birthday of Edinburgh’s self-made skate brand Pieute and the 3rd birthday of their skate shop on Candle Maker Row.

Thu 23 Aug

Sun 26 Aug

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

VOID SPACE VS HEADZ UP (DBR UK)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

HECTOR’S HOUSE

Since May 2012, Hector’s House (known affectionately to many as Hector’s) has become Edinburgh’s stalwart midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday. HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

JUICE IS DEAD (PUGZ + AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Good tunes, that’s it. No frills, no more branding, no superfluous “about us” bio; find them in the club every Thursday, playing what you need to hear. HECTOR’S ROLLER DISCO

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:55, £3 - £12

The only roller disco at the Edinburgh Festival, so strap on your skates and get dancing.

Fri 24 Aug

FLY (CHAOS IN THE CBD + CC:DISCO + BEN MARTIN)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

SUNDAY CLUB

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion. SOULSVILLE

SUMMERHALL, 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.

SONIC GROOVE SHOWCASE (CHRISTINA SEALEY + POST SCRIPTUM + DARK AS YOU LIKE + NULL / VOID + DJ VOID) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Glasgow’s premier industrial techno night NULL / VOID relocates to the capital for a Fringe-closing Sonic Groove label showcase.

Mon 27 Aug MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

Skillis, Headset guy and one of Edinburgh’s deftest bass hitters, goes toe-to-toe with Hyperdub talent Proc Fiskal.

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Tue 28 Aug

MAMA MIA!

ABBA club night.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: GALACTIC JACKSON & ROSSZ VÉR

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £1 - £3

Analog acid lovers rejoice! Heaters closes out August with a mind-warping line up of Eastern European talent.

SKILLIS & PROC FISKAL

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Glasgow Theatre

Drygate Brewing Co. PITCH AT SURGE

10 AUG, 7:30PM, £6

A night of theatre, comedy, dance and drama.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

The King’s Theatre

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

1-4 AUG, TIMES VARY, £16.90 - £59.40

Thu 30 Aug Since May 2012, Hector’s House (known affectionately to many as Hector’s) has become Edinburgh’s stalwart midweek shindig, drawing in capacity crowds each and every Tuesday. HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

JUICE IS DEAD (DJ YVES + AMI K + DAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Good tunes, that’s it. No frills, no more branding, no superfluous “about us” bio; find them in the club every Thursday, playing what you need to hear.

Fri 31 Aug FLY (GRANT CLARK)

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. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

LIONOIL: MEDLAR B2B PERCY MAIN

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Edinburgh label and party people bring long-time pal and old Sneaks regular Medlar up for an all night B2B session with label head Percy Main.

GROOVERS – SESENTAYUNO ALL NIGHT LONG (CARNIVAL PARTY) (OSCAR JAMES + BOY NORTH + HAPTIC + KOSELIG) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Groovers’ head honcho Sesentayuno makes his debut open to close set, with a full carnival set up, foam fingers and tight grooves.

Dundee Clubs

COALITION

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with a powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent. FLIP

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Theatre

Fri 03 Aug

RECKLESS KETTLE (NINA STANGER)

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

Regular party-throwers across Dundee and Scotland, Fergus Tibbs and Mikey Rodger’s are joined by shit hot disc spinner Nina Stanger.

Thu 16 Aug

DISCLAIMER: KAI KASPAR

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £3.50 - £5

Bringing you the best of everything from disco to house, with some hidden gems to spice up the night.

FAME THE MUSICAL

New singalong production of the stage musical, based on the classic 80s film of the same name.

Edinburgh Theatre Scottish Storytelling Centre THE TIME MACHINE

2 AUG, 2:30PM, £7.50 - £10

Combining exquisite puppetry, scintillating melodrama and a luxurious soundscape, this fast-paced adaptation is suitable for enquiring minds aged 8+. Will the hour fly by or will it seem like an eternity? Dare to discover the truth! ALAN BISSETT: THE MOIRA MONOLOGUES

Caird Hall

RHYTHM OF THE DANCE

4 AUG, 7:30PM, £24 - £26

A fully live show that celebrates Irish culture through music and dance.

Dundee Rep INTO THE WOODS

15-18 AUG, 7:30PM, £10 - £15

Dundee Schools Music Theatre returns to Dundee Rep with Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. LOOPING: SCOTLAND OVERDUB

10 AUG, 8:00PM, £9 - £17

A dance, party and politics experience originally created in Bahia, Brazil by collaborating artists, Felipe de Assis and Rita Aquino. THE YELLOW ON THE BROOM

28 AUG-22 SEP, 7:30PM, £10 - £25

Adapted from Betsy Whyte’s beloved autobiography, The Yellow on the Broom is a heartfelt, funny and rich account of human endeavour.

Whitehall Theatre

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

29 AUG-1 SEP, 7:30PM, £10 - £15

Dundee Schools Music Theatre presents their interpretation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical.

Glasgow Comedy

1 AUG, 6:30PM, £10.50 - £13

Alan Bissett reprises his ‘one woman show’ for the first time in five years. OLD BOY

18 AUG, 11:00AM, £7.50 - £10

A brand new show featuring the real relationships of males of various ages from Glasgow in an attempt to explore the love that is shared between men in families and the legacy passed down through generations. IS THIS A DAGGER? THE STORY OF MACBETH

22 AUG, 12:30PM, £7.50 - £10

By the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes. Andy Cannon tells Shakespeare’s classic. MORE MOIRA MONOLOGUES

1 AUG, 8:00PM, £10.50 - £13

Alan Bissett’s straight-talking alter-ego returns in this awardwinning sequel. TWA

12 AUG, 6:30PM, £9.50 - £12

Powerful theatrical storytelling by award-winning Annie George, with live visual art from Flore Gardner. HAMISH HENDERSON: ON THE RADICAL ROAD

12 AUG, 8:00PM, £9.50 - £12

Evocative, innovative, shapeshifting drama sculpted from the poetry and songs of Hamish Henderson (1919-2002). THE LAIRD’S BIG BREAXIT

2 AUG, 5:00PM, £7.50 - £10

Join Gussie McCraig for this outrageous briefing. Christopher Craig premieres a Donald Smith script. GIE’S PEACE

17 AUG, 1:00PM, £6.50 - £9

Inspirational stories about women who have walked for peace, rebelled against war and risked everything. A TRILOGY OF HORRORS

2 AUG, 7:30PM, £7.50 - £10

Three classic horror stories from three great writers – Dickens’ haunting The Signal Man, Shelley’s tragic The Mortal Immortal and Poe’s chilling The Tell-Tale Heart. HENNA

15 AUG, 7:30PM, £7.50 - £10

British Punjabi storytellers Peter and Gorg Chand tell stunning traditional Indian stories full of love, despair, betrayal and humour.

TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

August 2018

Dundee Theatre

Find full listings at theskinny.co.uk/whats-on

Wed 01 Aug

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE (BILLY KIRKWOOD + JAMIE MACDONALD + RYAN CULLEN + SUSAN RIDDELL + JAMIE DALGLEISH)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £6 - £8

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

Thu 02 Aug

JOJO SUTHERLAND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £7 - £10

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland. FRANKIE BOYLE (WORK IN PROGRESS 2018)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £12 - £15

If you want to see Frankie Boyle telling jokes, and for some of them to totally die, this is the show for you.

BREW HA HA (CALUM & JIM + DEREK MCLUCKIE + AMY MATTHEWS + ROSS THOMPSON + OLIVER COLEMAN + NATALIE SWEENEY + MARC JENNINGS) DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £5

Monthly comedy nights at Drygate, taking place upstairs in the beer hall.

Fri 03 Aug 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 weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit. FRANKIE BOYLE (WORK IN PROGRESS 2018)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £12 - £15

If you want to see Frankie Boyle telling jokes, and for some of them to totally die, this is the show for you.

Comedy Sat 04 Aug

JOJO SUTHERLAND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. 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 weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit. FRANKIE BOYLE (WORK IN PROGRESS 2018)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £12 - £15

JAY LAFFERTY’S PICK OF THE FRINGE THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £10 - £12

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 15:00, £4

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

Sat 11 Aug THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB

JAY LAFFERTY’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

Sun 12 Aug

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £5 - £6

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School.

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Mon 13 Aug

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School. FRANKIE BOYLE (WORK IN PROGRESS 2018)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £12 - £15

If you want to see Frankie Boyle telling jokes, and for some of them to totally die, this is the show for you.

JIM SMITH: BACK TO THE TEUCHTER

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £10

The Perthshire farmer returns with another trailer load of tales of rural life and how country people view the outside world.

Tue 14 Aug

RED RAW (FRED COOKE)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Legendary new material night with up to ten acts.

Mon 06 Aug

Wed 15 Aug

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £2

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £6 - £8

FUNNY LITTLE FROG COMEDY AND QUIZ (JOHN GAVIN + MATT REES)

A pun quiz with a difference; funny and with lots of great prizes. FRANKIE BOYLE (WORK IN PROGRESS 2018)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £12 - £15

If you want to see Frankie Boyle telling jokes, and for some of them to totally die, this is the show for you.

Tue 07 Aug

RED RAW (DAVEY REILLY + ROB KEMP)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Legendary new material night with up to ten acts.

Wed 08 Aug

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £6 - £8

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

Fri 10 Aug 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 weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Thu 23 Aug

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £7 - £10

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 24 Aug

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £10 - £12

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. 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 weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Comedy club in Shawlands, with occasional guests.

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

Thu 16 Aug YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 17 Aug

JOE HEENAN’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £10 - £12

SHED, FROM 19:30, £5

Sat 25 Aug

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £17.50

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. 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

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Sun 26 Aug

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

Sat 18 Aug

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £7 - £10

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

JAY LAFFERTY’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £8

THE MARLBOROUGH COMEDY CLUB (LOST VOICE GUY)

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

YESBAR VIRGINS

BILLY KIRKWOOD’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

Thu 09 Aug Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

RED RAW (RYAN CULLEN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Wed 22 Aug

THE EARLY SHOW

Let the comedians entertain the kids. Best suited to 8-12 year olds. YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

Tue 21 Aug

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

MICHAEL REDMOND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 15:00, £4

Mr Fibbers is back with more musical comedy hijinks, lots of silliness for kids and parents alike.

Legendary new material night with up to ten acts.

Sun 05 Aug

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

MR FIBBERS: OUT OF TUNE

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £5 - £6

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School.

If you want to see Frankie Boyle telling jokes, and for some of them to totally die, this is the show for you. MICHAEL REDMOND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

JOE HEENAN’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. 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

MICHAEL REDMOND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow. YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School.

Mon 27 Aug

GRAHAM FELLOWS: COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £10

Character comedian (John Shuttleworth and many more) comes to Glasgow with his quirky take on everyday life.

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Tue 28 Aug

Sun 19 Aug

Legendary new material night with up to ten acts.

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £5 - £6

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 19:00, £48.25 - £85.15

MICHAEL REDMOND’S PICK OF THE FRINGE

Bringing the best of the Edinburgh Fringe to Glasgow.

RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

KEVIN HART

The boisterous actor and comedian continues his massive world tour.

Listings

CROSSMYLAFF COMEDY THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, FREE

An evening of stand-up comedy featuring a hand-picked selection of local up and coming comics. THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN

SEC, FROM 19:30, £39.75 - £44.85

The League of Gentlemen lot bring their dark and unhinged fictional village of Royston Vasey to theatres and arenas across the country.

Wed 29 Aug

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BENEFIT IN AID OF ACCORD HOSPICE (KEIR MCALLISTER + DONALD ALEXANDER + STEPHEN BUCHANAN + LIAM FARRELLY + JOJO SMITH) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5

Comedy charity night with all ticket proceeds to Accord Hospice. THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN

SEC, FROM 19:30, £39.75 - £44.85

The League of Gentlemen lot bring their dark and unhinged fictional village of Royston Vasey to theatres and arenas across the country.

Thu 30 Aug

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + ASHLEY STORRIE + PETER BRUSH + LIAM FARRELLY + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Sat 11 Aug

FRANKIE BOYLE – PROMETHEUS VOLUME III

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £24.15

Watch Frankie Boyle’s consciousness pilot an old man’s body around the stage, telling jokes about some very important things that you don’t care about.

Thu 16 Aug

KATHERINE RYAN – GLITTER ROOM

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £25.40

UK-based Canadian comedian, Katherine Ryan brings her brand new stand-up show Glitter Room to the UK.

Sat 18 Aug

COMEDY GALA 2018: IN AID OF WAVERLEY CARE

THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £36.25 - £43

The League of Gentlemen lot bring their dark and unhinged fictional village of Royston Vasey to theatres and arenas across the country.

Dundee Comedy

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Edinburgh Comedy Tue 07 Aug

FRANKIE BOYLE – PROMETHEUS VOLUME III

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £24.15

Watch Frankie Boyle’s consciousness pilot an old man’s body around the stage, telling jokes about some very important things that you don’t care about.

Wed 08 Aug

FRANKIE BOYLE – PROMETHEUS VOLUME III

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £24.15

Watch Frankie Boyle’s consciousness pilot an old man’s body around the stage, telling jokes about some very important things that you don’t care about.

1 AUG-16 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

POP is a comprehensive exploration of the music photography of Brian Griffin, who shot album covers, single sleeves, posters and press for The Clash, Depeche Mode, Iggy Pop, Kate Bush and many more. STEVEN BERKOFF: GORBALS 1966

1 AUG-16 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

VISAURIHELIX

1 AUG-1 JAN 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, sound and audiovisual artist Louise Harris takes inspiration from the many geometric forms found in his architecture to transform the Tower of The Lighthouse. 2 AUG-2 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition offering a bleakly humorous glimpse into the future by artist Kate McMorrine and photographer Alastair Jackson. RE-IMAGINED STRUCTURES

51 SHADES OF MAGGIE

River City and Gary: Tank Commander star Leah MacRae, Scotland’s original and favourite Maggie Muff returns to the role.

Glasgow Art

THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

BRIAN GRIFFIN: POP

OCCUPIED TERRITORY

THE LATE SHOW

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Street Level Photoworks

The Lighthouse

WHITEHALL THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £27.50

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Indian and Scottish artists make new lens-based work that explores their world as global citizens.

Thu 30 Aug

Fri 31 Aug

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

Artist Yu Hsieh will display his painting installations which discussed Taiwanese and Scottish politics.

Edinburgh’s biggest comedy event returns, this year hosted by Joel Dommett and Tom Allen.

Fri 17 Aug

The big weekend show with five comedians.

10 AUG-9 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

FÒCAS: DOCUMENT

This never before seen body of work includes photos taken by Steven Berkoff during a period in the Autumn of 1966, when he was an actor with The Citizens Theatre.

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 19:30, £27

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland. THE FRIDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + ASHLEY STORRIE + PETER BRUSH + LIAM FARRELLY + BRUCE DEVLIN)

Art

The Old Hairdressers

13th Note AYE CANDY

8-21 AUG, 12:00PM – 12:00AM, FREE

Abstract art exhibition, featuring original paintings, hybrid digital, digital paintings and fractal artwork created by Gordon Stead and Jason Mccreadie.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art SUMMER SHOW 2018

1 AUG-1 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Selection of 19th-21st Century British paintings, drawings and sculpture.

GoMA

CELLULAR WORLD

1 AUG-7 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

A group exhibition that introduces the key thematic concerns of this year’s Glasgow International Director’s Programme, including questions of identity and individual and collective consciousness at a time of prolific social change and uncertainty, when reality can often seem more like science fiction. JACK KNOX: CONCRETE BLOCK

1 AUG-13 JAN 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 AUG-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

This project brings together a diverse group of people to produce their own recycled plastic building materials. STUDENT AWARDS FOR ARCHITECTURE 2018

1 AUG-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition featuring the winning and shortlisted projects of the Scottish Student Awards for Architecture 2018. THE HAPPENSTANCE

31 AUG-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Dynamic exhibition showcasing The Happenstance, Scotland’s contribution to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice 2018. HILLHOUSE AT THE LIGHTHOUSE

2 AUG-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

As the insides of Hillhouse move out and the outside of the house is boxed in, the National Trust for Scotland welcomes visitors to explore the collections as they have never been seen before, disassembled and up close. WILLIAM CHAMBERS X CRM

1 AUG-7 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

As part of the celebrations around the 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth, this exhibition features hats by one of the UK’s leading milliners, William Chambers.

The Modern Institute MARK HANDFORTH

1-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Miami-based sculptor – primarily known for large-scale site-specific work – takes over The Modern Institute’s Osborne Street space with a new showcase of work.

FRANKIE BOYLE – PROMETHEUS VOLUME III

One of Scotland’s most influential artists of the 20th century, Jack Knox presents an exhibition looking at a ten-year period of work, from the late 1960s onwards.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £24.15

Mary Mary

The Modern Institute presents an exhibition of new work by Urs Fischer, spanning across the Aird’s Lane gallery space and adjacent Bricks Space. Fischer’s multi-faceted practice explores and extends the possibilities of sculpture, painting and image production.

Thu 09 Aug

Watch Frankie Boyle’s consciousness pilot an old man’s body around the stage, telling jokes about some very important things that you don’t care about.

Fri 10 Aug

FRANKIE BOYLE – PROMETHEUS VOLUME III

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £24.15

Watch Frankie Boyle’s consciousness pilot an old man’s body around the stage, telling jokes about some very important things that you don’t care about.

100

Listings

PEARL BLAUVELT AND ALEANA EGAN

1-4 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of drawings by the late American artist Pearl Blauvelt and works by Irish artist Aleana Egan.

Platform SCALED UP

1-5 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A collection of new large scale paintings that have been specifically created for Platform’s exhibition wall.

URS FISCHER: MAYBE

2-25 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

MARC HUNDLEY: THE SAME DIFFERENT GAME

2-25 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Canadian artist and designer Marc Hundley presents a new exhibition at The Modern Institute.

RECONCILIATION X YU HSIEH SOLO EXHIBITION

5 AUG, 2:00PM – 10:30PM, FREE

IMMERSE (I) - A BLANK CANVAS FOR FEELINGS WE ALL SHARE.

16 AUG, 7:00PM – 12:00AM, TBC

An immersive live musical art installation in Glasgow featuring and supporting local artists and musicians.

Tramway HERE TO STAY?

City Art Centre

IN FOCUS: SCOTTISH PHOTOGRAPHY

1 AUG-12 MAY 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

In Focus: Scottish Photography showcases the City Art Centre’s photographic collections, charting the development of fine art photography in Scotland from the 19th century to present day. The exhibition features work by a range of historic and contemporary artists, including Hill and Adamson, Thomas Begbie, Joseph McKenzie, David Williams, Maud Sulter, Wendy McMurdo, Calum Colvin, Christine Borland and Dalziel + Scullion. EDWIN G. LUCAS: AN INDIVIDUAL EYE

4 AUG-10 FEB 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

This Upper Foyer exhibition created by young people with connections to Central and Eastern Europe looks at their experiences of cultures, identities and belonging, in the context of Brexit.

The first major exhibition to focus on this unusual and enigmatic artist and one of the most unique Scottish painters of the 20th century, featuring over 60 artworks from public and private collections.

4 AUG-28 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

1-26 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

SAMARA SCOTT

Inspired by the main gallery’s similarity to open air structures, Samara Scott will create a promenade space in which audiences are confronted by what Scott calls the ‘glitching grit’ of contemporary culture. At Tramway, Scott literally suspends these miscellaneous accumulations to create a series of translucent, putrid and seductive sculptures. CHILDREN’S EXHIBITION

1-26 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of bold, playful and engaging artwork that will introduce children to ideas and materials commonly used in contemporary art, through tactile experience, digital interaction, and movable shapes and forms. JAMIE CREWE: RUSTIC PROLOGUE

4 AUG, 7:30PM, £3 - £5

Rustic Prologue is an evening of animation, film and reading, programmed by Glasgow-based artist Jamie Crewe.

Western Baths Club JANICE KERBEL: SINK

3 AUG, TIMES VARY, £5

PLATFORM: 2018

Edinburgh Art Festival’s dedicated showcase for artists at the beginning of their careers. The 2018 edition, selected from an open call by artists Jonathan Owen and Hanna Tuulikki, brings together four female artists: Renèe Helèna Browne, Annie Crabtree, Isobel Lutz-Smith, and Rae-Yen Song. TRAVELLING GALLERY AT 40

1 AUG-4 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Travelling Gallery’s rich and socially important archive will be shown for the first time alongside some of the original artwork from its incredible exhibitions history.

DOK Artist Space

CHLOE MARTINA SALVI: FLOAT

9 AUG, 12:00PM – 8:00PM, FREE

Walk-in immersive light experience of marine plastic waste fragments. The show aims to explore our complex relationship towards the materiality of waste through light, shadows and projection.

Dovecot Studios BATHS TO BOBBINS: 10 YEARS AT INFIRMARY STREET

Janice Kerbel’s major new artwork, Sink takes the form of a synchronised swimming routine, using the language of synchronisation to explore the tensions between body and language, movement and stillness, the individual and the collective.

1 AUG-31 DEC, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

iota @ Unlimited Studios

1 AUG-12 JAN 19, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, £4.50

ROWENA CURRIE: AN EYEFUL OF VINCENT

9-25 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

In this show, the painterly adventures of Rowena Currie expose sharp and smooth evocations of colour possible with formal arrangements in abstract dissonance.

Edinburgh Art &Gallery INITIAL SIGHTING

1 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Introducing four new artists to &Gallery, exhibiting a selection of painting and collage: Joanne Hummel-Newell, JFK Turner, Karine Leger and Susan Laughton. JONATHAN BARBER: INTERLUDE

4-29 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Jonathan Barber, a contemporary artist based in Edinburgh, creates atmospheric abstracted work based around light, darkness, shape, movement and presence.

Arusha Gallery KATE MCMILLAN: THE PAST IS SINGING IN OUR TEETH

1-26 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A gallery-wide installation and video work exploring the power of art to trigger dormant memories. Sound performances will take place on 27 July and 23 August feat. Glasgow sound artist Signy Jakobsdottir.

Celebrating 10 years of weaving in the Infirmary Street Baths, Dovecot will share some memories on the Tapestry Studio Viewing Balcony, open from 12-3pm Mon-Fri and 10.30am-5.30pm on Saturday. LIBERTY ART FABRICS & FASHION

Dovecot Gallery brings to Scotland a major retrospective celebrating the innovative retailer and design studio Liberty London. Featuring over 100 garments and fabrics spanning 140 years, this exhibition explores how textiles bring art into everyday life. CLOTH#18

18 AUG, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

The first curated selling event of its kind in Scotland, dedicated to raising the profile of independent textile designers/makers from this dynamic industry from across the UK. LIBERTY LATES

2-30 AUG, 5:30PM, £4.50

LIBERTY Lates is a Thursday night late access to Liberty Art Fabrics & Fashion at a special reduced ticket price for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Edinburgh College of Art EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART FESTIVAL EXHIBITION

2-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A showcase of work by postgraduate students, combining new work from artists and designers studying Contemporary Art, Illustration, Interdisciplinary Creative Practices and Art, Space & Nature.

DEAD IMAGES: FACING THE HISTORY, ETHICS AND POLITICS OF EUROPEAN SKULL COLLECTIONS 1-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

DEAD IMAGES explores the contentious legacy of collections of human skulls, assembled during the 19th and early 20th centuries and still held in public institutions in Europe. The exhibition brings this legacy to light by exhibiting a 30 x 3 meter photograph of one such collection, a gathering of more than 8,000 skulls held in the Natural History Museum of Vienna. THE COMMON SENSE

1-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Melanie Gilligan’s dystopian drama is set in an eerily familiar future. Over 15 short episodes, it tracks the impact of a new immersive technology that enable individuals to tap into the sensations of others. DATA PIPE DREAMS: GLIMPSES OF A NEAR FUTURE

2-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

This year’s Design Informatics Pavilion will showcase prototypes and interactive installations by Design Informatics researchers, Masters students and partners at Tesco Bank.

Edinburgh Printmakers NÀDAR / PRAKRITI

1 AUG-20 OCT, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Nàdar / Prakriti is the first solo UK exhibition by Indian artist Ravi Agarwal, including new prints commissioned and published by Edinburgh Printmakers.

Embassy Gallery DRAW OUT THE FIGURE THAT YOU WILL MAKE

2-19 AUG, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

A collaborative interactive exhibition by Flora Hunt and Ella Walker with responsive performances by Mara Menzies. DIGGING

2-5 AUG, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Bryony Rose and Danny Leyland meet to present work exploring the archaeology of movement, labour, ancient pilgrim routes and folk culture, with wheel throwing workshops by Lydia McGinley. DOZEN

23 AUG-2 SEP, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

After losing their beloved headquarters, The Number Shop studio residents have kindly been invited by Embassy Gallery to help realise their Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition, DOZEN. New friends, old mates, lots of things happening.

Ingleby Gallery JACOB’S LADDER

1 AUG-20 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition celebrating mankind’s relationship with space and our enduring attempts to fathom the unfathomable. Included are rare historical works alongside contemporary artists whose work considers the imaginative territory between Earth and the heavens.

Inverleith House JACKIE MORRIS & ROBERT MACFARLANE: THE LOST WORDS

1 AUG-2 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition by Jackie Morris & Robert Macfarlane in Inverleith House.

Jupiter Artland OLLIE DOOK: OF LANDSCAPE IMMERSION

2 AUG-30 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Reflecting on parallels shared in zoo enclosures, fabricated microclimates and imagery drawn from the BBC series Planet Earth, Dook will fabricate a sculptural enclosure that both mirrors our experience of observing natures forces whilst also positioning us, the audience, as a spectacle to be observed. JOANA VASCONCELOS: GATEWAY

2 AUG-30 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Bursting with colour and energy, Joana Vasconcelos’ art brims with imagination, wit and aesthetic know-how. Rooted in the history of her native Portugal, Vasconcelos gives new life to traditional craft practices.

National Museum of Scotland ART OF GLASS

1 AUG-16 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland will examine the diverse work of 15 established and emerging glass artists in Britain today. RIP IT UP: THE STORY OF SCOTTISH POP

1 AUG-25 NOV, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £7 - £10

The first major exhibition dedicated to Scottish pop music, exploring the musical culture of the nation over more than half a century, from influential indie pioneers to global superstars.

HIDDEN GEMS: SCOTLAND’S AGATES

1 AUG-2 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A new display exploring the beauty and variety of Scottish agates will examine how agates form, their diversity of colour and texture and how their allure has captured the imagination of scientists and amateur enthusiasts alike.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

NOW: JENNY SAVILLE, SARA BARKER, CHRISTINE BORLAND, ROBIN RHODE, MARKUS SCHINWALD, CATHERINE STREET AND OTHERS

1 AUG-16 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The third instalment of NOW will feature a major survey of works by renowned British artist Jenny Saville, spanning some 25 years of the artist’s career across five rooms. A graduate of The Glasgow School of Art, this presentation marks the first museum exhibition of the artist’s work ever to be staged in Scotland. Featuring monumental paintings and drawings by Saville dating between 1992 and 2017, the exhibition will demonstrate the scale and ambition of the artist’s practice, and her singular and dynamic approach to composition, gesture, materials and subject matter. EMIL NOLDE: COLOUR IS LIFE

1 AUG-21 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 - £10

Open Eye Gallery

Emil Nolde (1867-1956) was one of the greatest colourists of the twentieth century. Nolde felt strongly about what he painted, identifying with his subjects in every brushstroke he made, heightening his colours and simplifying his shapes, so that we, the viewers, can also experience his emotional response to the world about him. This is what makes Nolde one of Germany’s greatest expressionist artists.

1-27 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 AUG-28 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Ocean Terminal ONNA BUGEISHA

12-31 AUG, 10:00AM – 8:00PM, FREE

An exciting new multimedia show by Jodie Mann and Anna Wade that features high fashion, high fantasy fine art photography and its process.

JOHN BELLANY (1942-2013): THE WILD DAYS

In conjunction with Edinburgh Art Festival, the Open Eye Gallery presents a large-scale exhibition centring on John Bellany’s output during his most turbulent period in the 1980s. Featuring many previously unseen paintings, the exhibition shows Bellany’s work undertaken during the decade to include some of the most fervent examples of the ideas and iconography that preoccupied him throughout his incredibly prolific career.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA

BARBARA RAE: THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

4 AUG-9 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

In 2013, renowned artist Barbara Rae began a series of journeys of discovery into the Arctic, following in the footsteps of Dr John Rae. The result is a new body of new paintings and original prints from an artist with a deep-rooted fascination with the topography and history of place. SHELTER STONE – THE ARTIST AND THE MOUNTAIN

4 AUG-9 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition celebrating the completion of a year-long public art project taking the format of a newsprint publication.

Scottish National Gallery

REMBRANDT: BRITAIN’S DISCOVERY OF THE MASTER

1 AUG-14 OCT, TIMES VARY, £0 - £12

This exclusive new exhibition, which will only be shown in Edinburgh, reveals how the taste for Rembrandt’s work in Britain evolved over the past 400 years. From early beginnings around 1630, it grew into a mania that gripped collectors and art lovers across the country, reaching a fever pitch in the late-eighteenth century. The exhibition also reveals the profound impact of Rembrandt’s art on the British imagination, by exploring the wide range of native artists whose work has been inspired by the Dutch master, over four centuries, right up to the present day. ARTISTS AT WORK

1 AUG-2 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Artists at Work is an exhibition of works by members of staff from across the entire organisation. It is a varied and inspiring selection created by, among others, gallery attendants, conservators, retail team members and volunteers.

RAQIB SHAW: REINVENTING THE OLD MASTERS

Eight works by Raqib Shaw will be shown, alongside two paintings which have long obsessed him: Joseph Noel Paton’s The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania, 1849 and Lucas Cranach’s An Allegory of Melancholy, 1528. This is the first time Shaw’s work has been exhibited in Scotland. TESCO BANK ART COMPETITION FOR SCHOOLS 2018

1 AUG-16 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition of the winning entries from the 2018 Tesco Bank Art Competition for Schools, an annual competition which over 7,000 children take part in annually.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery SCOTS IN ITALY

1 AUG-5 MAR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A showcase of the Scottish experience of Italy in the eighteenth century, a time when artistic, entrepreneurial and aristocratic fascination with the country was reaching boiling point. THE MODERN PORTRAIT

1 AUG-27 OCT 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A display collating paintings, sculptures and works from the Portrait Gallery’s twentiethcentury collection, feat. a variety of well-known faces, from Ramsay Macdonald to Alan Cumming, Tilda Swinton to Danny McGrain. REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION

1 AUG-1 APR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition examining the cultural consequences of the national religion becoming Protestantism in 16th century Scotland. HEROES AND HEROINES

1 AUG-31 MAY 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A re-examination of major Scottish figures which questions our habit of framing history around individuals and idols.

ART AND ANALYSIS: TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS WORKING IN JACOBEAN SCOTLAND

1 AUG-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.

THE SKINNY

IN FOCUS: THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 1 AUG-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. VICTORIA CROWE: BEYOND LIKENESS

1 AUG-18 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition brings together a group of the best portraits by the distinguished artist Victoria Crowe. Crowe has developed an approach to portraiture that seeks to do more than record the outward appearance of a person. She aims to represent something of the inner life - the experiences and preoccupations of the individuals depicted - the world of ideas and dreams. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: TRANSPORTATION PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND

1 AUG-13 JAN 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

Planes, Trains & Automobiles is the third in a series of thematic exhibitions exploring the exceptional permanent collection of photography at the National Galleries of Scotland.

THE REMAKING OF SCOTLAND | NATION, MIGRATION, GLOBALISATION 1760-1860

1 AUG-21 JUN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition exploring the lives and careers of the Scots behind the period of dramatic change between 1760 and 1860, when Scotland rapidly attained a central role in European cultural life and in Britain’s industrial and imperial expansion. It documents the material and artistic benefits of their achievements, while also confronting the darker shadows they cast.

Stills

THE DAYS NEVER SEEM THE SAME

1 AUG-28 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Bringing together the work of photographer Gunnie Moberg and influential filmmaker, poet and writer, Margaret Tait. Both artists shared a strong connection to Orkney: the place, its people and its landscape. GUNNIE MOBERG AND MARGARET TAIT: THE DAYS NEVER SEEM THE SAME

1 AUG-28 OCT, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

This exhibition brings together the work of Gunnie Moberg (19412007) and Margaret Tait (1918-99).

Summerhall FREE THE PUSSY!

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Tamsyn Challenger curates a new exhibition of works of art made in protest to Pussy Riot’s imprisonment by the Russian government in 2012: ‘Free the Pussy’. Featuring work from Yoko Ono, Jamie Reid, John Keane and Judy Chicago, among others. ORSON WELLES DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

For the first time, many of the master image-maker Orson Welles’ sketches and designs are being exhibited; these sketches, designs and Christmas cards give us new insights into his life and work. LIFE DURING WARTIME

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A survey of paintings exploring themes of military, social and political conflict around the world dating from the artist John Keane’s appointment as the Imperial War Museum’s official artist for the Gulf War of 1990-91. KURT SCHWITTERS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: STORY AND DISPERSAL, LEGACY AND (RE)POSESSION

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

‘Kurt Schwitters has left the building’ explores what’s saved with art-work, what might be salvaged or re-built in reconstructing its stories and how these stories sustain or possess a legacy.

August 2018

SURA MEDURA 2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

UZ Arts presents the work of 14 UK based artists who have been resident at Sura Medura in Sri Lanka over the winter of 2017/2018. The programme includes performances, installations, video and visual arts. BBEYOND

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

The world’s foremost performance art group is Bbeyond, from the most fertile region for performance art, Northern Ireland. This exhibition curated by Summerhall will document Bbeyond’s history in Ireland and internationally. DEMARCO ARCHIVE EXHIBITIONS

2-26 AUG, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A medley of exhibitions from the archives of Demarco programmes, including a memorial to John Martin, co-founder of The Traverse and Forth Studios design agency whose designs included countless Edinburgh International Festival and Demarco Gallery publications. ROBERT MCDOWELL: I AM FROM THE 1970S!

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Robert McDowell founded the inter-disciplinary Troubled Image Group of artists* formed in 1970 in Belfast. TIG presented complex often surreal truths to belie or satirise stereotyping by news media or propaganda such as that of sectarian muralists. 1968

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A documentary exhibition curated by Summerhall includes bits of memorabilia with a noticeboard for the public to attach their mementos of the year 1968. THE MAGPIE’S NEST

2 AUG-28 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

XSexcentenary are a female collective that identify as older and create and perform work underpinned by themes of feminism, ageing and abhorring ageism. Kate Clayton, Wanda Zyborska, Norma D Hunter and Sarah Kent perform in the film The Magpie’s Nest, part of XSexcentenary’s NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T series of actions for Buzzcut performance festival, Govan, Glasgow (April 2017), documented by Beth Chalmers. EDINBURGH PEOPLE

2 AUG-23 SEP, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Edinburgh People is a photographic journey through the lens of an Edinburgh taxi driver. Using his black taxi as his mobile studio, Walls frames an ode of his city. Showcased under an unobtrusive taxi backdrop is an anecdotal narrative that brings his portraiture of life.

Talbot Rice Gallery

LUCY SKAER: THE GREEN MAN

1 AUG-6 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

FOR, IN YOUR TONGUE I CANNOT HIDE: 100 JAILED POETS 1-26 AUG, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

This ambitious multi-channel sound installation by internationally renowned Indian artist Shilpa Gupta gives voice to poets who have been jailed through the centuries.

The Fruitmarket Gallery TACITA DEAN: WOMAN WITH A RED HAT

1 AUG-30 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

Taking performance as its theme, this exhibition of the work of Tacita Dean will be presented in the context of the Edinburgh International Festival, bringing into focus Dean’s understanding of the possibilities and complications of performance.

Whitespace KALEIDOSCOPE

4 AUG-11 SEP, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

A joint exhibition of photography and mark-making. Two blind artists express their ways of seeing through abstract depictions of the landscape and world around them.

Dundee Art DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts EVE FOWLER: WHAT A SLIGHT. WHAT A SOUND. WHAT A UNIVERSAL SHUDDER

1-26 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

DCA present the first major European exhibition of American artist Eve Fowler’s work. Having exhibited widely over the past two decades in the US, Fowler is one of the most significant artists of her generation, using art and language to disrupt and unsettle the dominant power structures that control much of the world around us. This exhibition will reflect and further expand on the artist’s intense and intimate feminist engagement with the words of Gertrude Stein over the past eight years.

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

COOPER SUMMER RESIDENCY 2018

1 AUG-13 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

The 2018 edition of Cooper Summer Residency is an online residency and unique platform for critical and cross-disciplinary conversations, featuring Lorens Holm and Paul Noble engaging in a four-week correspondence.

Lucy Skaer’s exhibition The Green Man has at its heart an exploration and reanimation of the desire to collect. Skaer will select from the collections of the University of Edinburgh and has invited fellow artists to inhabit the galleries of Talbot Rice alongside her – Fiona Conner, Will Holder, Hanneline Visnes and Nashashibi/Skaer.

Generator Projects

Tent Gallery

1 AUG-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

MUIR IS TÌR / LAND AND SEA

1-20 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Muir is Tìr / Land and Sea is a new An Lanntair residency, loosely inspired by the George Macleod book of the same name. Five artists were selected for the residency last summer: Verity Standen, Kirsty Dixon, Mollie Goldstrom, Will Arnold, Amy Leigh Bird. This exhibition is a showcase of the works created in response to it.

The Fire Station BIODIVERSITY

1-26 AUG, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Biodiversity is the outcome of research and work developed during Siobhan Healy’s time as an Artist in Residence at ECA in collaboration with the artist and writer Alasdair Gray. The work references the protected species that are being encouraged to thrive in the urban wildlife area in the Geddes Garden, an urban garden near the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.

SIMON CARMAN / HELEN SHARP

3-19 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Concurrent shows by Simon Carman and Helen Sharp at Generator Projects.

The McManus REVEALING CHARACTERS

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 AUG-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 AUG-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.

Listings

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Before Comedy Captured the Fringe Ahead of his appearance at Fringe by the Sea with his memoir, John Dowie speaks to The Skinny about being the first solo comedian in Edinburgh

n 1972 there were two comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe. One you will have heard of, while the other is as important to comedy as anyone else in the UK – but you may not know his name. The comedian you know is Billy Connolly. In ‘72, the Big Yin performed in a production at 41 Waverley Market. The audience was arranged on wooden benches, facing each other like at the Tattoo, to see what The Scotsman called “a pantomime of songs and sketches around the loose theme of the bankrupt Wellington Boot Factory”. The Great Northern Welly Boot Show was the hit of the 1972 Fringe; a “rollicking satire” which appealed to “the populace” and captured a "carnival spirit," according to The Scotsman’s unusually jubilant reviewer. Meanwhile, less than half a mile away, across the rail tracks at 142 High Street, John Dowie had sublet a venue inauspiciously called The Un-Named Theatre. And though Dowie doesn’t appear in the Fringe programme, he is listed in The Scotsman with a curious description. It reads: ‘Mr John Dowie presents which he describes as “knockabout comedy of a low and vulgar nature.”’ Dowie was at the Fringe eight years before pioneers Alexei Sayle and Tony Allen, which eventually led to comedians establishing stand-up as the dominant art form in August. But Dowie didn’t feel he was doing anything remarkable. “My contemporaries at the time were theatre groups and there were quite a lot of them. And most of them would do a straight play and then a cabaret show in a bar. I was hanging around with those types of people... Every town had a theatre group who would do plays and comedy shows. I just considered myself to be doing a solo version of what they were doing.” It could be argued Edinburgh came to Dowie before Dowie came to Edinburgh. Those groups in every town wouldn’t have existed had they not been inspired by the Edinburgh Fringe. Or more precisely: the founding of Traverse Theatre. The Traverse’s beginnings take place in discussions and performances in Jim Haynes’ paperback bookshop in 1960, before a year-round venue was found two years later. It was launched as a club and was able to circumvent theatre censorship, and it heralded numerous Arts Labs around the country. The one in Birmingham was a notable success and attracted Dowie. He continued coming to Edinburgh as a solitary figure on the comedic landscape. The next year you could catch him at midnight for 35p at Nicholson Square Theatre. His show’s tagline from the 1973 Fringe Programme is apt for a comedian that’s hard to pin down over the following decades due to his varied interests: ‘A Midnight of Madness – impossible to describe successfully on paper.’ Dowie was one of the original artists for Factory Records, writing the tracks Acne, Idiot and Hitler’s Liver for the label’s first release A Factory Sample. In 1984, he played the Swedish playwright Strindberg in a play at The Assembly Rooms as the leading man opposite Nica Burns, although that was not a happy experience. “God

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Interview: Ben Venables Illustration: Rachel Tunstall

almighty that was a nightmare!” he says. “The people that staged it – one was Colin Watkeys who subsequently married my sister – used to run the cabaret at a place in London called the Finborough. I thought it was going to be funny. I went along and read for them and made it as funny as I could. But when it came to the actual thing it wasn’t funny at all!” Dowie’s desire to inject something of Spike Milligan into Strindberg led to tense performances with Burns, whose side of the story is recounted in John Connor’s Fringe history Comics. Walking off stage mid-performance, blaming Burns for the way she read the lines, Dowie immediately apologised and took her out to buy a birthday present. Burns added that it made her cautious of working with stand-ups, but as she is still chair of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards over three decades later the feeling doesn’t seem to have lasted. While directing solo comedy shows seems a very recent trend, Dowie is again easily missed for doing so years before anyone else. He directed Roy Hutchins’ acclaimed Whale Nation and Pete McCarthy’s The Hangover Show, both of which were nominated for the Perrier Award. “I went to see Whale Nation when it was first being performed and it was all over the place. Afterwards, as I always do, I gave the actor a bollocking and he said, ‘Well, why don’t you direct then?’ And because I’ve done so much stand-up, directing a solo show wasn’t difficult for me because it’s the discipline of stand-up. You have to stand in front of the audience and tell a story. And all the actors in the world, and I include myself in this, always want some kind of safety net – but there isn’t one.”

“ When I’m reading from the book, I have to remind myself I’m not doing stand-up comedy” John Dowie

Yet, by the end of the 1990s, Dowie seemed to have grown disenchanted with Edinburgh. Indeed, the title of his 1990 show was Why I Stopped Being a Stand-up Comedian. And any reader of Connor’s history, where ‘everyone has a John Dowie story’ but he’s the one comedian who didn’t want to talk, would assume he desired little to do with the Fringe. “I don’t know if I absolutely hated it,” he disagrees. “What I used to find tedious was that there were so many people taking themselves so seriously. For god’s sake, this is not life-saving stuff: this is just walking on stage and doing a bit of showing off. Let’s try and treat it with the contempt it deserves. Everywhere you went all you could see

were bars full of people talking about themselves, and their acts, and other people’s acts, and how much better they were than them. But the actual experience of performing I always enjoyed.” For anyone wanting to know about comedy history, Dowie’s memoir The Freewheeling John Dowie isn’t quite the book you’d expect. A comedy fan picks it up thinking it’ll provide all the evidence for the missing link, but instead finds themselves riding alongside Dowie as he sells his possessions and goes off cycling and camping around Europe. On the other hand, the comedic memories are woven through the book and it’s a striking portrait of a man who likes to go off and do his own thing. In that sense the memoir explains a great deal about Dowie. Rather than boasting about his place in comedy history he prefers to write about applying liniment to his legs and buying an electric bicycle. The comedic voice is there on each page. It’s an effortlessly funny and engaging read. His comedic instincts will be hard to shake when he reads from it at Fringe by the Sea. “The hard thing for me,” says Dowie, “is when I’m reading from the book, I have to remind myself I’m not doing stand-up comedy. It’s very hard to

COMEDY

suppress it, because when you’re doing something like reading you can get a little nervous and your instinct when you’re nervous is to say something funny.” He also offers an alternative explanation for him distancing himself from stand-up: he wrote a children’s show, Dogman. In his sleevenotes to Dowie’s CD An Arc of Hives, Stewart Lee describes Dogman as “the story of an alien Dog who ends up running a lighthouse that appears, the more I read it to my own children, to be a kind of autobiography.” “It’s my best work,” says Dowie. “I enjoyed it more than anything. It’s one of the reasons why I stopped performing because once you’ve done a kid’s show nothing compares to it. One of the nicest things that happened was when one of the technicians at the Pleasance said that after Dogman, during the turnaround, when usually everyone is fed up and knackered, they were always bursting full of energy and happiness.” John Dowie – The Freewheeling John Dowie, Fringe by the Sea (Marwick Spiegeltent), North Berwick, Wed 8 Aug, 3pm, £6 The Freewheeling John Dowie, out now via Unbound unbound.com/books/the-freewheeling-john-dowie

THE SKINNY

August 2018

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