The Skinny May 2007 by The Skinny

LEE PATTERSON/THE DEMONS EYE, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £5

LISTINGS

EDINBURGH LIVE TUES 29 MAY

CALVIN HARRIS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £6 CONNECTING FLIGHT + DEAD OR AMERICAN, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC

SAT 19 MAY

BAND SHOWCASE - CALL IN ADVANCE FOR A SLOT,

£TBC

WED 30 MAY

ARSE 2 MOUTH + ONE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, THE MANNEQUINS + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 23.00, £TBC

COOLIO, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £15 BLACKJACK BLUES BAND/DAKOTA/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

SUN 20 MAY

THE WATERBOYS, EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE, 19.30, £20, £18

CRYOVERBILLIONAIRES, HOBO, THE BONGO CLUB, 22.00, £3

BLIND SUMMIT/JORDAN OGG, KERBSIDE PROPHETS, HAMILTONS, 17.00, Free

TBC/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free AIRSPIEL, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

MON 21 MAY

WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

CAROL LAULA, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £6 THE TANNAHILL WEAVERS, EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB, PLEASANCE, 20.00, £6 (£5)

TBC/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free MOLE HUSBAND/IDRIVE HOME, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

THURS 31 MAY

SLIM FRANCIS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £6, 50 THIS IS MUSIC, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £5 JOE JACKSON, THE QUEEN’S HALL, TBC, £25 TBC/CAPTAIN FACE + HOT MANGU, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

MOLLY WAGGER, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

WILLY MASON, THE LIQUID ROOM, TBC, £9, 50 OPEN MIC -JUST TURN UP, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free SIMON KEMPSTON/JOHN DEERY/MONTEREY SOUL/ EMMA FORMAN, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £3

TUES 22 MAY

BAND SHOWCASE - CALL IN ADVANCE FOR A SLOT, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

WED 23 MAY

HOLLOW HEART PARLOUR, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, Monthly acoustic night, 19.30, £5

CATHY RYAN BAND, EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB, PLEAS-

Willy Mason

ANCE, 20.00, £6 (£5)

THE RUMBLESTRIPS, PULL TIGER TAIL, BLOOD RED SHOES, THE LITTLE ONES, NME NEW MUSIC TOUR, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £8 SUPPORT + TRANSISTOR STATE/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

COPPER PILOT, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £4

THURS 24 MAY

XEROX TEENS , CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £7 HELLS BELLS, THE LIQUID ROOM, ACDC Tribute, TBC, £9 EVERY SCAR IS A VICTORY + SUPPORT, SUBWAY, 19.30, £5

TBC/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free ALTRES, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

FRI 25 MAY

WHOLE LOTTA LED, THE LIQUID ROOM, TBC, £11 STAND UP GUY, THE FINAL SIGH, FRIDAY NIGHT GUNFIGHT, RSJ, TRIDENTS, SUBWAY, 18.00, £5 THE HOUSEROCKERS/TBC/MODERN FACES TBC + SUPPORT/THE HUSTLERS, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free KINGS DIE KINGS, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30,

Coolio

£4

DEPARTURE LOUNGE FINLAND SPECIAL: DALINDEO + MATTI NIVES + DJ ASTROBOY + DAVID JIMENEZ + CAMMY & FRIENDS , THE CAVES, Funk / Latin, 22.00, £6 - £8

SAT 26 MAY

CALLEL, CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £5 RAY WILSON, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, TBC, £7 RICHMOND FONTAINE, BOB FRANK, JON MURRY,

Blood Red Shoes

THE BONGO CLUB, 20.00, £12

TOM SAWYER, THE LIQUID ROOM, Tribute To Rush, 19.00, £8

ASTERIOD, LORDS OF BASTARD , SUBWAY, 19.30, £TBC MAIN STREET BLUES/CABAL/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

COHOLIC/THE VALIUMS/KUDOS, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

SUN 27 MAY

THE DIAS QUARTET + EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH + 3 IN A BAR, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £4 STEALER/DAMON THOMSON, KERBSIDE PROPHETS, HAMILTONS, 17.00, Free

CO-EXIST, BROKEN OATH, SECTA ROUGE, BONESAW, TABASCO FIASCO + MORE TBC , SUBWAY, 17.00, £6

TBC/SABAI, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free POTSO/CAPTAIN MAGENTA, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

MON 28 MAY

BEN TAYLOR, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £10 THE DEXTER JONES CIRCUS ORCHESTRA + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC OPEN MIC - JUST TURN UP, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free MY OWN RELIGION/STATE OF AFFAIRS/COLE APPLEYARD, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

www.skinnymag.co.uk

Joe Jackson

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

LISTINGS

ANDREA HEINS,

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, Canadian

songstress returns to Glasgow, 8pm, £2

SIMPLE MISTAKE,

TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, dubby elec-

tronica using live instruments and samples, 8pm, £2

J-LIVE SUFACE EMP, DEMA AND BOOM MONK BEN, THE SUB CLUB, Live Music, 7.30pm, £10, 00

FRI 25 MAY

NOUVELLE VAGUE, ABC, Live Music, 7pm, £12, 00 LEANA ZACCARINI & THE JENNY CLARK TRIO, ART DE CAF, Jazz, 8pm, tbc

THE EDITORS, BARROWLAND, Live Music, 7.30pm, £15, 00

MICHAEL HARGAN, CLASSIC GRAND, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00

SIMPLE KID, ORAN MOR, New Zealand favourite, 8pm, £8, 00

BIG GEORGE & THE BUSINESS + ROCKSHOW, ROCK-

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS

ROCKERS & SMN PROMOTIONS BATTLE OF THE BANDS, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 BENNY GALLAGHER, ST. ANDREWS IN THE SQUARE, Live

EDINBURGH LIVE

FRI 11 MAY

Music, 7.30pm, £14/12

TUES 1 MAY

DOC RODENT + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19.30,

MON 28 MAY

SHUTTER + EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH, HENRY’S CELLAR

JOSH GROBAN, CLYDE AUDITORIUM, Live Music, 7pm,

BAR, 20.00, £4

G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE, KING TUTS, Hip-hop

HALL, 19.30, £15 (£10)

£35, 00

(acoustic), 8.30pm, £12, 50

ACOUSTIC JAM SESSION,

NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music,

8.30pm, tbc

SMN PROMOTIONS, BATTLE OF THE BANDS,

Live Music, 7pm, £5

YAMAN,

TCHAIOVNA,

CLARA CERNAT AND THIERRY HUILLET , THE QUEEN’S

WED 2 MAY

THE LEATHERETTES PLUS HOUSE MOUSE , HENRY’S CEL-

ROCKERS, LAR BAR, 20.00, £4

BRUCE MOLSKY AND MARY ANNE KENNEDY, EDINOTAGO LANE, sitar, flute and mixes, BURGH FOLK CLUB, PLEASANCE, 20.00, £5 (£4)

8pm, £2

TUE 29 MAY

LAND, Live Music, 7.30pm, £12, 00

WED 30 MAY

Music, 7pm, £5

ISNAJ DUI,

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, rising star of London’s experimental electronica scene, Isnaj Dui makes music from concert and bass flutes alongside effects and looping devices as well as home made instruments including the electrodulcimer, 8pm, £5 THE VATERSAY BOYS, THE FERRY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £10, 00

SUN 27 MAY

THE SUNDOWNS/GOD FEARING ATHEISTS (ACOUSTIC SET), ARCHES, Live Music, 7.30pm, tbc GARY MOORE, CARLING ACADEMY, Veteran bluesman, 7pm, £25, 00

FU MANCHU, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £10, 00 MIA BEANE AND THE ASTHMATIC SCENE & BELA, COTTIERS, Live Music, 7pm, tbc

MICHAEL DEANS QUINTET, COTTIERS, Live Music, 7pm, tbc

FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £9, 00

KTL (SUNNO))) / PITA) $, NICE N SLEAZY, Modern heavy

standards played by our resident trio, 8pm, £2 MICHAEL SIMONS, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, folk, blues and beyond from this fingerstyle guitarist, 8pm, £2

THURS 31 MAY , THE THREAT REMAINS AND

BLEED FROM WITHIN, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £5,

SIX PEOPLE AWAY, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc SEX PISTOLS EXPERIENCE AND ED TENPOLE TUDOR, CATHOUSE, Tribute band alongside originators, 7.30pm,

£8, 00

BAND SHOWCASE, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free RUBY AND THE EMERALDS/TBC/ESTHER, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

LEE PATERSON/WIRED DESIRE/TBC/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

KID EGO, MAJIK, THE SOLD, ROCKETFOX , BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £4

SAT 5 MAY

JAMES YORKSTON, FOXFACE, SHADY BARD, GIMME SHELTER, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £5 BORN TO RUN, CITRUS CLUB, Boss Tribute, 19.30, £8 THE WILDEBEESTS + PRESTON PFANZ & THE SEATON SANDS + THE ROHYPSTERS + THE FNORDS + KEITH DOUGLAS & THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, Beatsville Records Launch

ferent musics from the Kingdom and beyond, 8pm, free

FLOWERSOUNDS ACOUSTIC SHOWCASE,

TCHAIOVNA,

SOUTHSIDE, monthly singer songwriter night featuring A.P.

Morrison and others, 8pm, £2

16.00, Free

GOODBOOKS, HELP SHE CAN’T SWIM, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £6

LE RENO AMPS, ACTRESS HANDS , HOBO, THE BONGO CLUB, 22.00, £3

3 IN A BAR/ANDI NEATE, KERBSIDE PROPHETS, HAMILTONS, 17.00, Free

WHO’S WHO, CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £10 OPAL SKY + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 19.30, £TBC

AZRIEL, CENTURION, MY MINDS WEAPON, STUDIO 24, TBC, £6, 50

LITTLE GREEN MACHINE, KUDOS, SMOKED GLASS, THE EXCHANGE, 20.00, £6

NEARLY DAN, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £12 BLACKJACK BLUES BAND/TBC/JOJOCOKE, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

WHITE HEATH, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

SUN 13 MAY

HOW TO SWIM, CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £5 THE AXIDENTS + AUSLANDER, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC

DELTA MAINLINE, CHOCYAMO, 8 LEGS, HOBO, THE BONGO CLUB, 22.00, £3 MOGWAI, THE LIQUID ROOM, TBC, £15 KAT HEALY/EMMA FORMAN, KERBSIDE PROPHETS, HAMILTONS, 17.00, Free

TBC/OATBEANIE, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free OPEN MIC AFTERNOONS, EVERYONE WELCOME, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 16.00, Free

MON 14 MAY

THE WOMBATS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £6 BROKEN RECORDS + MORE TBA, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC

ROY AYRES, GECKO 3 AND ASTROBOY, ROYAL OAK, TBC, £14

WHEATUS, MC LARS, PUNCHLINE, ARMY OF FRESHMEN, THE EXCHANGE, Emo Kid’s Delight / Hell On Earth, TBC, £TBC

BAND SHOWCASE - CALL IN ADVANCE FOR A SLOT, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

WED 16 MAY

MON 7 MAY

PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £8 STEPHEN FRETWELL, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, TBC, £10 JOHN MCCORMICK, EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB, PLEAS-

TRE, 20.00, £22.50, £20.00

BRUCE FOXTON AND RICK BUCKLER, …OF THE JAM, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.30, £15

OPEN MIC - JUST TURN UP, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free PINK FUZZ, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £3

TUES 8 MAY

THE DRAYTONES, THE HOLY GHOST REVIVAL, FIVE PARK DRIVE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £6 THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND, STUDIO 24, TBC, £6 THE LEMONHEADS, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £18 BAND SHOWCASE - CALL IN ADVANCE FOR A SLOT, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

WED 9 MAY

ANCE, 20.00, £6 (£5)

IDLEWILD, THE LIQUID ROOM, TBC, £16 WYLDFLOWER/NON ZERO/ROCKET FOX, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

MYRIAD CREATURES/ONE EYE OPEN, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

THURS 17 MAY

STINKING LIZAVETA, MONIACK, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC

THE FUREYS AND DAVEY ARTHUR, THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20.00, £15, £13

AYAHUASKA /SUPPORT/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free

THE STORM SOCIETY/HEY APACHE/FALL IDLE, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

19.00, £6, 50

WILLIAMS (GET PHYSICAL MUSIC), BEN OSBORNE (DJ), BEN STREBEL (VISUALS), GYTOBOT (DJ), NOISE OF ART , THE CAVES, roving independent festival returns for

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £4

a second night of cutting edge electronic music & visuals, TBC, TBC

PLEASANCE, 20.00, £6 (£5)

FRI 18 MAY

KRIS DREVER, RUARRI JOSEPH, CABARET VOLTAIRE, THE DEAD BEAT CLUB + THE DOUGLAS KAY BAND, CALUM STEWART BAND, EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB, RUSH HOUR SOCIAL, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

THURS 10 MAY

COLIN MACINTYRE, AINSLIE HENDERSON, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £9

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

19.00, £6

21.00, Free

RAY DAVIES, …OF THE KINKS, EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEA-

THE CHECKS, ACTION GROUP, CABARET VOLTAIRE,

TUES 15 MAY

FALL IDLE, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £4

Nouvelle Vague

FLU & SUPPORT TBC, SUBWAY, 19.30, £TBC STRANGE BREW/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free STEVIE HAY AND THE RAYVONS, THE OFFENDERS, BAN-

Free

EXIT TEN, FIRST SIGNS OF FROST, STUDIO 24, TBC, £5 THE ZIPS/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free BLUE TO THE BONE/TBC/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00,

HEAVY MAMA/TBC/SOFTER RIDE/TBC, WHISTLEBINKIES,

rock, 8.30pm, tbc

£14 (£12)

night, 20.00, £TBC

SUN 6 MAY

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, a range of dif-

RAY BONNEVILLE, NICK KEIR, PLEASANCE, 20.00, £9 THE FOUR FIGHTERS, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £10 TERRAFOLK, ANJA BUKOVEC, THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20.00,

EMMA POLLOCK, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £8 PRINCE BUSTER, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £15 OPEN MIC - JUST TURN UP, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free INSOFAR, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £4

virtuoso guitarist, 8pm, £10, 00

FOLK FAE FIFE,

16:00, £28

SAT 12 MAY

THE RAB HOWAT BAND, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD,

Music, 7pm, £5

BJORN AGAIN, THE BOOTLEG BEATLES AND KILLER QUEEN, PARTY ON THE PITCH, MURRAYFIELD STADIUM,

THURS 3 MAY

STREET DOGS, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £8, 00 BEN TAYLOR, ORAN MOR, Hotly tipped songwriter and SMN PROMOTIONS, 4 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live

£4

NERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.30, £4

19.30, £4

JONI KEEN QUARTET, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free MOVIES WITH HEREOS AND THE JERSEY LINE, CATTHE FILMS AND THE LOST GENERATION, KING TUTS, Live HOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £6, 00 Music, 8.30pm, £5, 00 EMILY HAINES AND THE SOFT SKELETON, ORAN MOR, DEFENCE RECORDS, VIVA STEREO-ON THE FLY, NICE Live Music, 8pm, £8, 00 N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc DANCES ON THE SAND, RIO CAFÉ, Live Acoustic night, BLONDE REDHEAD, ORAN MOR AUDITORIUM, Space age 8pm, tbc SMN PROMOTIONS, LAP + A THOUSAND DESIRES + drone, 8pm, £10, 00 KOBAYASHI + PSYCHO DALEK + ARCHANGELS REJAMES TAYLORS 4TH DIMENSION, REGAL, Live Music, 8pm, £16, 00 VENGE, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 AFT: THE PENETRATIONS NITE: KONG, ROCKERS, Live CANDIRU JAZZ, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, modern jazz

£7

AEREOGRAMME , THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.30, £9

GLASGOW SONGWRITERS, BLACKFRIARS, Folk, 7.30pm, LOU RHODES , CABARET VOLTAIRE, TBC, £10, 00 WING AND A PRAYER, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, singer tbc VARIOUS, OUT OF THE BEDROOM, THE CANON’S GAIT, BAYAN, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc songwriter duo strongly influenced by the blues, 8pm, 20.00, Free £2 BOSSHOSS, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £7, 00 FIDDLER’S BID , THE QUEEN’S HALL, 20.30, £15-£5 THE VATERSAY BOYS, THE FERRY, Live Music, 7.30pm, SWEDISH POLAR BEARS, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, DRAGONETTE , WEE RED BAR, TBC, £5 £10, 00 8.30pm, tbc SMN PROMOTIONS, BEATNIC PRESTIGE + EASILY IN- MR GOODKAT/ALAN PANTHER & THE ENERGY SAT 26 MAY FLUENCED + BLISS CREEK +CITY CITY BEAT+1 BANDS TREADMILL, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4 DRIVE CAREFULLY, SAY JANSFIELD, 13TH NOTE, Live TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 FRI 4 MAY music plus disco, 9pm, tbc MAGIC CARPET CABARET, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, DELTA MAINLINE + THE DES MOINES RIOT, HENRY’S CELSEASICK STEVE, ARCHES, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00 Jim McAteer presents a night of singer songwriters and LAR BAR, 19.30, £4 SEDUCTION FEATURING DANNY WALSH, BAD BEbands, 8pm, £2 THE UPTOWN 3, THE COVIETS, THE FIASCO, SUBWAY, HAVIOUR, DJ NEMESIS AND X-CONTROL, BARROW-

ERS, Rock Covers, 7pm, £3

THE STONE ROSES EXPERIENCE, CITY NIGHTCLUB, TBC,

TRANSAUDIO + KIDDO, WHISTLEBINKIES, 21.00, Free FUSILLIERS, BANNERMAN’S UNDERWORLD, 21.00, £4

NICK HARPER, CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19.00, £6 VANTAGE POINT + 7 HERTZ + JOE VITERBO + LONGHORN, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 20.00, £TBC ELIZA GILKYSON, ROBERT MACENTEE, PLEASANCE, 20.00, £13

LEVELLERS, THE LIQUID ROOM, 19.00, £16:50 PLASTIC ANIMALS, CUDDLY SHARK AND CHEESE AND ONION, SUBWAY, 19.30, £TBC

LISTINGS

THE SKINNY

THE SKINNY TEAM * THE SKIN PUBLISHER MANAGING EDITOR DEPUTY EDITOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR PRODUCTION EDITOR ONLINE EDITOR SUBEDIT & ARTS EDITOR SOUNDS EDITOR GLASGOW MUSIC BEATS EDITORS FILM EDITOR THEATRE EDITOR BOOKS EDITOR LGBT EDITOR GAMES EDITOR DVD EDITOR COMEDY EDITOR CLUBS LISTINGS LAYOUT ASSISTANCE

EDINBURGH SALES EXECUTIVE GLASGOW SALES EXECUTIVE

FATSO MEDIA LTD SOPHIE KYLE RUPERT THOMSON CHARLOTTE RODENSTEDT LEIGH PEARSON ALEX KIRK JAY SHUKLA DAVE KERR GARETH K. VILE ALEX BURDEN & BRAM GIEBEN PAUL GREENWOOD HUGO FLUENDY KEIR HIND NINE JOSH WILSON ALEC MCLEOD EMMA LENNOX ANDREW COOKE KAY BENNETT EMMA BREMNER REBECCA TAGGART ROBBIE F THOMSON IAN SINKAMBA WIL CRAIG PETE BURNS

RAY WILSON, BARFLY, Formerly of Stiltskin and Genesis,

EDITORIAL

7.30pm, £9, 00

THE MACCABEES, GARAGE, Witty and lively, 8pm, £8, 00

Woah, check it out. May is mmmmayzin! Big ups to all the editors for the interview scores this month. At the risk of sounding like a smarmy six year old, I will boast on their behalf: Nicky Wire talks about history, political decisions and how The Manics make music when they are old; British comedy duo Mitchell and Webb muse over Magicians and tricks; Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff (“I can see clearly now the rain has gone…”) introduces his The Harder They Come commemorative DVD box set; plus we got some festival tips from Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay. Shibby.

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Derek Mark Chapman, Jethro Collins (www.jethrocollins. co.uk), Mirren Daykin, Mark Dorrian, Jim Law, John Lewis, Chris Merkle (www.themidnightsocialite.com), Andrew Moore, J.Paterson, Jack Revill, Loraine Ross. COVER CREDIT: CALUM CARR, WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CALUMBA

ADVERTISING SALES INFORMATION Email: SALES@SKINNYMAG.CO.UK Phone: 0131 467 4630 Distribution: The Skinny is distributed monthly through a network of bars, clubs, retail outlets, music stores, cafes, venues, hostels and lifestyle centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. If you would like to be on the distribution list please contact SKINNY@SKINNYMAG.CO.UK. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer OR the publisher. Printed by DC Thomson Issue 20 May 2007 © fatso media ltd

This issue we introduce our festival passes, indicating artists that are playing a festival, and we have put together a Festival Calendar so you can be properly informed when making that important decision of where to spend your summer’s festival money. Or you could just win some Rockness festival tickets in the comps below! Or a smoothie! AND you can still win free beer for a year! (see page 8 for details) Ahh… the joys of summery Skinny benefits. C’mon, lap it up.

We were as excited as you should be; “woo woo” roughly sums it up. So, if you want to be in a chance of winning one of these grand ol’ prizes, wrap your mind around this puzzler:

ENTA IN DE DANCE, PLUG IT IN AN WE BEGIN CROWD UP IN DE CENTA, DEY WATCH (BIDIBIDIM)

Daft Punk

SPIDER-MAN 3 All you Spidey fans out there will be keen to hear that the release of Spider-Man 3 in the cinemas on May 4th, will coincide with the release of the new Spider-Man 3 game. What may interest you even further is that The Skinny have 5 copies of the game to give away. The game will be available on PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, DS, PSP, GBA and PC. All you have to do is answer the following question.

(A) REAL EVIL IN DA METHOD WE A MOTOR-IZIN (B) RISE AND AMPLIFYIN WHEN WE COME IN WIT DE SWING (C) REGULAR AS CUCKOOS AT DE ROCK NESS TING

TRANSGRESSIVE ROADSHOW WED 9TH MAY: Larrikin Love, Battle, Foals, Jeremy

7.30pm, tbc

CONNECTING FLIGHT, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc NEIL MCLARTY, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free AKERCOCKE, CEPHALIC CARNAGE AND TED MAUL, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £12, 00 THE STATE BROADCASTERS AND ROY MOLLER, COT-

COLIN MCINTYRE, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £10, DANCES ON THE SAND, RIO CAFÉ, Live Acoustic night, 8pm, tbc

SMN PROMOTIONS, THE STARS ARENT SILVER + 4 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 MULTI-COLOURED SPEAKEASY, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, open mic night hosted by Tom Snowball, 8pm, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, folk, blues

BUILT FOR THE CITY, ARCHES, Live Music, 8pm, £8, 00 I-DEF-I AND FOREVER NEVER, BARFLY, Live Music,

7.30pm, £6, 00 CITY, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc DOUG HOEKSTRA, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free RED HOT CHILLIE PIPERS, CLASSIC GRAND, Tribute, 8pm, £10, 00

STRUCKDUM RECORDS: DBSIXTYEIGHT-CITY, NICE N

CATED?

THURS 10TH MAY: Brakes (LIVE), The Boy Least Likely To

(A) GLASGOW ARGYLE STREET (B) GLASGOW CENTRAL

(LIVE), The Archie Bronson Outfit (LIVE), Hot Chip (DJ set), Four Tet (DJ set), Black Ghosts, Alberta Cross, Psapp, Domino Records DJs and guests, Eat Your Own Ears DJs

MIKA, BARROWLAND, Live Music, 7.30pm, sold out ROOT OF SOUND, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc JEFF HEALEY, CARLING ACADEMY, Live Music, 7pm, £22, 50

DANCES ON THE SAND, RIO CAFÉ, Live Acoustic night, 8pm, tbc

NINETY SIX 4 EP LAUNCH, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm,

£5

SMN PROMOTIONS, FABLES LAST STAND + FISTFIGHTS & FOREPLAY + GUESTS, ROCKERS, Live Music, BIRD BY SNOW,

THURS 17 MAY

artist from California, with support from Nalle, 8pm, £2 SONGS FOR SAIL, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, original songs on voices and guitars, 8pm, £2

MOUSE EAT MOUSE, DUMB INSTRUMENT, COMMANDER KEEN, 13TH NOTE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £4 THE MISSION, ABC, Goth majesty and bombast, 7pm,

FRI 11 MAY

DO MAKE SAY THINK, ADMIRAL BAR, Idiosyncratic rock,

ART DE

Music, 7.30pm, £18, 00

ZYKLON, BLOOD TSUNAMI AND DEAD BEYOND BURIED, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £10, 00 BOB CUBA + AINSLIE HENDERSON + MARSHALL CHIPPED ., NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, £5, 00 WHOS WHO PERFORM QUADROPHENIA, ORAN MOR,

£15, 00

8pm, £10, 00

tbc

NICK HARPER, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £9, 00 DEAD CITY RADIO, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, CRASH MY MODEL CAR, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £6, 00

SMN PROMOTIONS, BATTLE OF THE BANDS, ROCK-

ERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5

IL DIVO, SECC, Live Music, 7pm, sold out

MON 21 MAY , SON OF DORK, ABC, Live Music, 7pm, £12, 50

JOHNOSSI AND SOUNDS LIKE VIOLENCE, ADMIRAL BAR, Live Music, 8pm, £6, 00

SABATON AND THUNDERBOLT, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £7, 00

GROOVE ARMADA,

BARROWLAND, Cutting edge com-

mercial dance, 7.30pm, £19, 50

WHITEFIRE, SOL DIABLOS, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc THE BESNARD LAKES, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £7, 00

ACOUSTIC JAM SESSION,

NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music,

8.30pm, tbc

SMN PROMOTIONS, BATTLE OF THE BANDS,

ROCK-

ERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5

YAMAN, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, sitar, flute and ELLIOT BROOD, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £7, 00 mixes, 8pm, £2 TRAVIS, BARROWLAND, Live Music, 7.30pm, £24, 50 THE SCHITZOPHONICS, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free TUES 22 MAY FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, CARLING ACADEMY, Live Music, PATTI SMITH, ABC, Punk poetry and a new set of cover 7pm, £16, 00

MAGNUM, GARAGE, Metal, 8pm, £17, 50 PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, KING TUTS, Hip hop (alternative), 8.30pm, £10, 00 GHOST, MONO, Japanese psychedelia, 8.30pm, £10, 00 GRIZZLY BEAR, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, £7, 50 THE TWANG, QUEEN MARGARET UNION, The People’s Band, 8pm, £8, 50

THE MEXICOS, RAFA CLUB, Swedish night out, 8pm, £4 MAIDEN SCOTLAND, ROCKERS, Metal tribute, 7pm, £3 ART OF PARTIES, SCHOOL OF ART, Live Music, 11pm, £5 JASON DONOVAN, SECC, The Comeback, 7pm, £22,

MICHAEL MCGOLDRICK, JOHN DOYLE AND JOHN MCCUSKER, REGAL, Live Music, 8pm, £12, 00 REAL LIVE JAZZ SESSIONS, RIO CAFÉ, Does what it

WHISPERS IN THE ATTIC,

SHOCK A MONKEY PROMOTIONS, ROCKERS, Live

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, mel-

MICHAEL DEANS QUINTET, COTTIERS, Live Music, 7pm,

8.30pm, tbc

standards played by our resident trio, 8pm, £2 MICHAEL SIMONS, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, folk, blues and beyond from this fingerstyle guitarist, 8pm, £2

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, touring folk

TIERS, Live Music, 7pm, tbc

says…, 8pm, tbc

Music, 7pm, Free

versions, 7pm, £25, 00

THE NME TOUR FEATURING THE RUMPLESTRIPS, PULL TIGER TAIL AND THE LITTLE ONES, ARCHES, Live Music, 8pm, £7, 50

RED CHORD AND FROM A SECOND STORY WINDOW AND ARCHITECTS, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £8, 00

JAMES YORKSTON, ORAN MOR, Urbane folk, 8pm, £12, 50

SMN PROMOTIONS, LETS PLAY GOD + TRIANGLE THEORY +MONEY 2 BURN +MAMA MAYHEM+1 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 JORDAN OGG, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, singer

low experimental music, 8pm, free

(B) DOCTOR OCTOPUS

SAT 12 MAY

DIANA ROSS, SECC, Diva, 7pm, £45, 00 IMMOLATION, SOUNDHAUS, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00 MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE,

BARROWLAND 2, Live Music, 7.30pm, £8, 00

bitter-sweet singer songwriting talent, 8pm, £2 VULTURE SPEAK, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, warm, minimalist psychedelic folk music, 8pm, £2

BATTLES, ABC2, Live Music, 7pm, £10, 00 GOOD CHARLOTTE, CARLING ACADEMY, More angst,

FRI 18 MAY

£10, 00

GHOSTS, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £6, 00 BARROWLAND 2 1ST BIRTHDAY (EMBRACE DJ SET),

Spider-Man and all related characters: TM & (c) 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Spider-Man 3, the Movie: (c) 2007 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Game elements: (c) 2007 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.

One of Glasgow’s most fasionable hairdressers are looking to invite 2 lucky readers into the salon for a free haircut. There are two £50 vouchers up for grabs and all you need to do is answer the following question:

Smoothie wizards Juice Almighty are offering 5 lucky readers the chance to win a smoothie and sandwich deal. If you are in need of a serious injection of health, then answer the question below: WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A FRUIT:

Live Music, 7pm, £3

(B) KIWI

THE JAM RESTART, THE VALE, Tribute to The Jam, 7.30pm, £10, 00

(A) SPRINGFIELD COURT

FILL YOUR BOOTS!!

£7, 00

AZRIEL, MY MINDS WEAPON AND CENTURION, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £6, 50

EMILY BARKER AND SIMONE WHITE, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free

IAN HUNTER, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, sold out MARIA TAYLOR, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, TAKE A WORM FOR A WALK WEEK-TITUS GEIN,

NICE N

SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc

SMN PROMOTIONS BATTLE OF THE BANDS,

ROCKERS,

Live Music, 7pm, £5

WISHBONE ASH, THE FERRY, Old school heavy rock, 7.30pm, £12, 50

MON 14 MAY

MANIC STREET PREACHERS,

Lawrence

ART DE

CAF, Jazz, 8pm, Free

LITTLE MAN TATE,

CATHOUSE, Catchy and lively, 7.30pm,

Yep

THE SKINNY

melodrama, 7.30pm, *sold out* MILES HUNT, CLASSIC GRAND, Ex-Wonderstuff, 8pm, £10, 00 THE WOMBATS, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £6, 00 ACOUSTIC JAM SESSION, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc STEPHEN FRETWELL, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00

www.skinnymag.co.uk

WED 23 MAY 7pm, £16, 00

BAND OF HEROES, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, NUTS AND SEEDS, OVO, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc

WILLY MASON, QUEEN MARGARET UNION, Live Music, 8pm, sold out

£10, 00

8pm, tbc

DANCES ON THE SAND, RIO CAFÉ, Live Acoustic night,

DATAROCK, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £8, 00 THE FIVE CORNERS QUINTET, REGAL, Tribute bonanza,

SMN PROMOTIONS, KIDDO + SLOW MOTION REPLAY +3 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5 MULTI-COLOURED SPEAKEASY, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO

ALICE COOPER TRIBUTE + KISS TRIBUTE + GUESTS,

LANE, open mic night hosted by Tom Snowball, 8pm,

ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £3

free

MICHAEL SIMONS, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, folk, blues MEATLOAF, SECC, Larger than life, 7pm, SOLD OUT BETTER CRACK CLUB, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, monthly and beyond from this fingerstyle guitarist, 8pm, £2 HELLS BELLS, THE FERRY, ACDC theme, 7.30pm, £10, 00 story telling evening, 8pm, free READING ALLOWED,

TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, poetry and

short story readings, 8pm, free

COLIN BLUNSTONE AND ROD ARGENT, THE FERRY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £15, 00

SAT 19 MAY

STAND-UP GUY, BLACK SUN, 13TH NOTE, Dark and alternative, 9pm, £5

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE, ABC, Live Music, 7pm, £14, 00 THE WATERBOYS, BARROWLAND, Folk and rock legends, BARROWLAND, Politics and

songwriter from Shetland via Edinburgh with support, 8pm, £2

£5, 00

8pm, £12, 00

SUN 13 MAY

£7, 00

Leaves

LEANA ZACCARINI & THE JENNY CLARK TRIO,

AFT CROSSFIRE NITE: THE USUAL SUSPECTS, ROCKERS, ORANGE GOBLIN, CLASSIC GRAND, Live Music, 8pm,

AN ALBATROSS, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, £9, 00

(A) APPLE WHERE IS THEIR GLASGOW SALON LOCATED:

LOUISE DODDS QUARTET, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free ROY HARPER, CLASSIC GRAND, 1970s icon, 8pm, £15,

DUKE SPECIAL, ORAN MOR, Eccentric songsmith, 8pm,

DIAGNOSTIC 17, EH? NO BILATERAL AGREEMENT, YEAH? BY LEWIS HOSIE

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, singer songwriter

SUN 20 MAY

(A) THE VULTURE

ABC: 22,787. 1/10/06 - 31/12/06

JIM WHYTE,

says…, 8pm, tbc

WHO WAS THE MAIN VILLAN FROM SPIDER-MAN 2:

pop, 7pm, £25, 00

GIRLS ALOUD, SECC, Processed pop, 7pm, £26, 00 CANDIRU JAZZ, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, modern jazz

Tribute, 8pm, £10, 00

With each entry please specify your preferred event.

OMD, SECC, Escaping from the 80s wave of alternative

SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc

THIRD DAY AND BRIAN HOUSTON, BARROWLAND, Live

BUILT FOR THE CITY

SMN PROMOTIONS, CHIARO + 4 BANDS TBC, ROCK-

ERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5

WED 16 MAY

CAF, Jazz, 8pm, tbc

UNDER WHICH MAJOR TRAIN STATION IS THE ARCHES LO-

THURS 10 MAY

LEANA ZACCARINI & THE JENNY CLARK TRIO,

Warmsley, Goodbooks, Polytechnic, Absentee.

JACK SAVORETTI, BREL, Bohemian songwriter, 8pm, £6 PIGEON DETECTIVES, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £9,

fluent in jazz, funk, folk and rock styles, 8pm, £2

£12, 00

For each event there are 3 pairs of tickets to be won. All you have to do is answer the following brain teaser:

GLASGOW SONGWRITERS, BLACKFRIARS, Live Music,

and beyond from this fingerstyle guitarist, 8pm, £2

THE NIMMO BROTHERS, ARCHES, Live Music, 8pm,

Our friends at the Arches are giving us a bundle of tickets to give away for some kick ass events taking place in May:

GIRLS ALOUD, SECC, Processed pop, 7pm, £26, 00 ELIZA GILKYSON, TRON THEATRE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £13, 00

7pm, £5

WATCH DA WAY WE DROP IT IN A MIX TIMIN

Well, this month the lovely folks at Rock Ness made us an offer: ‘3 pairs of VIP money-can’t-buy weekend tickets for Rock Ness including weekend camping in the very funky campsite and free car parking passes if required’.

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, sitar, flute and mixes,

8pm, £2

TUES 15 MAY

REAL LIVE JAZZ SESSIONS, RIO CAFÉ, Does what it

WHAT’S THE NEXT LINE IN THIS WELL KNOWN SONG:

YAMAN,

AFT: USUAL SUSPECTS NITE: THE DEMONS EYE, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £3

Live Music, 8.30pm, £6, 00

MICHAEL SIMONS,

HAVE A LOOK FOR MORE SKINNY FREEBIES AT WWW.SKINNYMAG.CO.UK, ALONG WITH OUR COMPETITION REGULATIONS. THE DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES IS 18 MAY UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. SEND YOUR ANSWERS, ALONG WITH YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND CONTACT NO. TO: COMPETITIONS@SKINNYMAG.CO.UK

On the weekend of 9 and 10 June, a fantastic line-up are set to rock Loch Ness, including Skinny favourites Daft Punk, Erol Alkan and the Chemical Brothers, and this issue’s interview stars Groove Armada and the Manic Street Preachers. All this in a stunning setting, with a monster. Want to go? Much?

SUBURBAN KIDS WITH BIBLICAL NAMES, NICE N SLEAZY,

free

Sophie

COMPETITIONS

CONTRIBUTORS Yasmin Ali, The Staff of Alphabet Video, Graeme Allister, Euan Andrews, Liam Arnold, Chris Bathgate, Luc Benyon, Finbarr Bermingham, James Blake, Jamie Borthwick, Frankie Boyle, Tom Brogan, Ally Brown, Sam Butler, Fraser Cardow, Darren Carle, Stephen Carty, Sierra Casady, Colin Chapman, Philippa Cochrane, Dave Cook, David Coyle, Heather Crumley, Anna Docherty, Neil Douglas, Natalie Doyle, Leon Easter, Holly Edwards, Meg Elliott, Neil Ferguson, Duncan Forgan, Lucy Gallwey, Sarah Gamble, Megan Garriock, Jasper Hamill, Billy Hamilton, Caroline Hurley, Barr y Jackson, Morag Keil, Margaret Kirk, Hamza Khan, Michael Kynaston, Johnny Langlands, Sarah Mair, Nico Major, Ali Maloney, Frank Martin, Jack McFarlane, Cara McGuigan, Milo McLaughlin, Sean McNamara, Sean Michaels, Nick Mitchell, Paul Mitchell, Lara Moloney, Jonny Ogg, Struan Otter, Julie Paterson, Laura Paterson, Anna Rogers, Jon Seller, Joel Shaw, Keira Sinclair, Kelly Smith, Celia Sontag, Stellar Feller, Graeme Strachan, Wallace Sulley, Karen Taggart, Teddy, Robbie Thomson, Fraser Thomson, Gary Thomson, Chris Torres, Kirsty Tough, Peter Walker, Rob Westwood, Neil Whiting, Ciara Wilson, Craig Wilson, Josh Wilson, Robert Wringham.

But The Skinny is always quietly more proud of the lesser known names included in its pages. We know the cover choice this month may leave some wondering “who?”, but take it from this Radio 2 listener, Battles’ type of experimental music is unusual on the ear, yes, but also ace. Also definitely worth a peruse is an interview with Fifers The Aliens. Elsewhere London-based wordsmith M9 talks of differences of knowledge and faith, and The Vivians speak about how they fit in the Edinburgh scene.

SMN PROMOTIONS, BATTLE OF THE BANDS, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5

LISTINGS

GLASGOW LIVE

7.30pm, sold out

SALLY MCGREEVY QUARTET, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free

CAGEDBABY, CLASSIC GRAND, Live Music, 8pm, £6, 00 AL MOODIE AND BLUE WHISKEY, FURY MURRYS, Live Music, 8pm, £5, 00 SAXON, GARAGE, rescheduled from 28 Feb., 8pm, £17, 50 SONDRE LERCHE, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £8, 00 STONESTHROW, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc

THURS 24 MAY

TOM MCRAE, ABC, Acoustic based songwriter, 7pm, £14, 00

THE CRIBS, BARROWLAND, Live Music, 7.30pm, £11, 00 HEATHER GREENE, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free CORTEZ, CAPITOL, Intense indie rock, 7pm, £5 MAD CADDIES, GARAGE, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00 APPLES IN STEREO, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £7, 00

SOOTH, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc ISIS, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £12, 00 THE HOLLOWAYS, QUEEN MARGARET UNION, Lively Londoners, 8pm, £9, 50

REAL LIVE JAZZ SESSIONS, RIO CAFÉ, Does what it says…, 8pm, tbc

SMN PROMOTIONS, BEATNIC PRESTIGE + EASILY INFLUENCED + BLISS CREEK +CITY CITY BEAT+1 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 7pm, £5

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS

night, £6, £4 b4 10.30pm

LISA LITTLEWOOD, HOT SUSHI, TOKYO, Funky house &

MON 28 MAY

club classics, £tbc

RESIDENTS, HAPPY MONDAYS, PO NA NA, Night for students & Industry folk, indie, rock & funk, £3, free for students/industry JEZ HILL, LA VIDA, LULU, Classic pop & funk anthems, £5, free b4 10pm JAMES COMBE, THE LATIN QUARTER, MEDINA, Salsa, funk & latin house, Free RESIDENTS, MOJO, OPAL LOUNGE, Modern music & timeless classics, £3, free b4 12am RESIDENTS, PONY CLUB, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3) RESIDENTS, ROCK KARAOKE, OPIUM, Rock Karaoke, Free

RESIDENTS & GUESTS, SHOWER OF BANJOS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Scottish, £3

ASTROBOY & BREADMARK, SOUNDS GOOD, PIVO CAFFE, Soul, jazz & funk, Free

DJ BEEFY & WOLFJAZZ, TRADE UNION, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Night for deserving bar & club staff, £2, £1 Trade

Union members/ECCF members

SWINGERS, ZOOT SWING, CAFÉ ROYAL, Swing dance classes, beginners 7pm, improvers 8pm followed by big-band swing jazz & neo-swing beats, £4.50 (£3.50), free after 9 P-HAZE, BARAKA, Mashup, Free KINKEY, HENRYS CELLAR, Flamenco, latin & reggae, £3 RESIDENTS, ANTICS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock, emo, punk & metal, Free PUBLIC, DARK PLANET OPEN MUSIC, BARAKA, Come play your vinyl, CDs, iPod, mp3 player or laptop, Free RESIDENTS, DELICIOUS, THE BONGO CLUB, Strictly hip hop & RnB, Free MR. JINX, THE DIAMOND DICE, MASSA, Hip hop, RnB & grime, £5

RESIDENTS, INDI-GO, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie & alternative, £2, £1 students

WARNER POWERS & CLAUDIO, INSOMNIA, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, Fresh house tunes each week, Free

WASTED LITTLE DJS, JERK ALERT, RED, Indie meets early nineties youth club disco, Free

EDINBURGH LOCALS, SPLIT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Blend of house, techno, drum & bass, breakbeat, healthy midweek rave, Free JAMES LONGWARTH, VIBE, EGO, Weekly gay club playing chart, £4 DAVA & HOBBES, LULU, Eclectic set, £4, free b4 11pm

WED 30 MAY

DJ JEZ HILL, CHAMBLES, OPAL LOUNGE, Funk & chart, £5 (£4)

TALIBAM, GIANT TANK, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Noise & experimental, Free

BREADMARK & JOHNNY CASHBACK, THE GOOD GROOVE, PIVO CAFFE, Funk, afrobeat, latin breaks &

NEW FOUND GLORY,

ABC, please note change of

venue, 7pm, £15, 00

RESIDENTS, THE PIT, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock & metal, Free

MASH & JON PLEASED, ROLLER DISCO, LULU, Past & future electronic classics, £4.99, free b4 11pm

B-SIDES & BOOTROSS ROCK, STIR FRIED, THE OUTHOUSE, Pre-club with indie & rock, Free

RESIDENTS, TOASTER, CITRUS CLUB, Breaks & Bobs, £3, free b4 11.30pm

DJ NU-CLEAR , TOXIK, OPIUM, New & old metal & hard rock, Free

GARY MAC & GUESTS, WE ARE … ELECTRIC, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, electro, tech-house & breaks with ro-

tating guests in the back, £2, free b4 12am/members RESIDENTS, BARAKA, Funk, soul, disco, dancehall & reggae, Free

THURS 31 MAY

7.30pm, Free

RESIDENTS, GENETIC, CITRUS CLUB, Night of rock anthems, £2

KIPP$ & MASTER CAIRD, GRAFITTI, MEDINA, Party tunes all night, £3 (£2)

RESIDENTS, HOUSEBOUND, EGO, Sexy house, funky

RESIDENTS, SALSA DISCO, CUBA NORTE, Salsa dance & tasty tapas, Free

GARETH SOMERVILLE, FRAZER MCGLINCHEY & GUESTS, SOULED OUT, OPAL LOUNGE, Soul, disco & dance, £3, free b4 12am

SNATCH RESIDENTS, SNATCH SOCIAL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Messy night guaranteed at eclectic student bash,

£5 (£4), £3 members

JEZ HILL, STILETTO, LULU, Electro-pop, classics & disco, £5, free b4 10pm

SCOTT GRANGER, TOKYO KYOUYOU, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3)

RESIDENTS, TRAFFIC, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Indie & alternative, Free

THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE DJS,

ASSEMBLY BAR, Jazz to

breakbeats, Free

MYSTERY JUICE, PRESTONPANS & SETON SANDS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Surfer rock & roll, £3

DAYBREAK, CAPITOL, Live Music, 7.30pm, £5, 00 PAOLO NUTINI (MATINEE SHOW), CARLING ACADEMY, Charming, if slight, pop, 3pm, sold out PAOLO NUTINI, CARLING ACADEMY, Charming, if slight, pop, 7pm, sold out THE HAUNTED, CATHOUSE, please note this show is rescheduled from 9th Feb. original tickets are valid, 7.30pm, £12, 00 DEEP PURPLE, CLYDE AUDITORIUM, Heavy heavy rock from the past, 7pm, sold out ROSS CLARK, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc SMN PROMOTIONS, 4 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live Music, 8pm, £5

WED 2 MAY

BILL CALLAHAN, ABC2, Live Music, 7pm, £15, 00 SERGEANT AND KOBAI, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm,

Music, 8pm, £3, 00

PAOLO NUTINI, CARLING ACADEMY, Charming, if slight, pop, 7pm, sold out

TIGER ARMY, DEADLINE AND POISONING, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £12, 00

MUMM-RA, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £8, 00 FUZZY FELT FOLK, DAVE ARCARI-YOU’RE HIGH FREQUENCY, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc DANCES ON THE SAND, RIO CAFÉ, Live Acoustic night, 8pm, Free

CHIARO + THE PARKERS + CRAZY 8 GOLFERS +DANIKA+MAMA MAYHEM, ROCKERS, Live Music,

8pm, £5

CANDIRU JAZZ,

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, modern jazz standards played by our resident trio, 8pm, £2 MICHAEL SIMONS, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, folk, blues and beyond from this fingerstyle guitarist, 8pm, £2 JOHNNY WINTER, THE FERRY, The white blues man, 7.30pm, £25, 00

THURS 3 MAY

DRIVE BY ARGUMENT, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £7, 00

ing good, 7.30pm, £7, 00

MAXIMO PARK, BARROWLAND, Anger and fire, 7.30pm, sold out

BOBMO, CLASSIC GRAND, French rising stars, 10.30pm, £6

MY LATEST NOVEL, CLASSIC GRAND, Witty and quirky pop, 8pm, £8, 00

GOD FEARING ATHEISTS/FELT TIPS/DEAD BEAT CLUB , NICE N SLEAZIES, Live Music, 8.30pm, £5

LE RENO AMPS-ACTRESS HANDS DIE! DIE! DIE!-TEAM SALT, NICE N SLEAZY, Punk Americana. From Glasgow, 8.30pm, tbc

QUINN, ORAN MOR, Early evening multi-media extravanganza, 6pm, £6

AFT: KISS TRIBUTE NITE: THE USUAL SUSPECTS, ROCKERS, Make up and glam metal, 7pm, £3 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SECC, Pop Megastar, 7pm, £50, 00 COUNSELLED OUT, THE FERRY, Soulful, 7.30pm, £8, 00

SUN 6 MAY

BARFLY BIRTHDAY, UNKLE BOB, THE GILDED ANGELS, HOW TO SWIN AND MORE, BARFLY, Sweet modern folkpop, 7.30pm, £6, 00 BLUEFLINT, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free

KLAXONS MATINEE SHOW, CARLING ACADEMY, Live Music, 7pm, £8, 50

KLAXONS, CARLING ACADEMY, Live Music, 7pm, £10, 50 NOISETTES, CATHOUSE, Recovering rock riffs with youthful performance art, 7.30pm, £5, 00 THE ANIMALS, CLASSIC GRAND, Classic blues-rock, 8pm, £10, 00 MICHAEL DEANS QUINTET, COTTIERS, Jazz, 3pm, Free

ENDRICK BROTHERS AND THE HERMIT CRABS, COT-

TIERS, Jazz, 7pm, Free

DE ROSA, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £6, 00 NUTS & SEEDS PRESENTS: BILGE PUMP-ACK ACK ACK, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc CHERNOBYL CHARITY PUNK ALL DAYER, ROCKERS, Charity punk all dayer starts at 12noon to 12 midnight featuring a host of Scottish bands, 7pm, £10 RAY DAVIES, ROYAL CONCERT HALL, *Rescheduled from Friday 27th October 2006, 7.30pm, £22, 50

SKATALITES PRE-PARTY, THE BIG SLOPE,

KELVINGROVE

STREET, Curios DJs WeeG & Breadmark playing soulful wonders, welcome breaks and leftfield treats, 3pm, free

MON 7 MAY

GHOST OF A THOUSAND, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, SPIRA RECORDS LAUNCH, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc £6, 50 PAOLO NUTINI, CARLING ACADEMY, Charming, if slight, FRIGHTENED RABBIT, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc pop, 7pm, sold out ELECTRELANE, KING TUTS, Agitated drone, 8.30pm, cancelled ZEBRAHEAD, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £8, 50 THE ATARIS, GARAGE, Passion and energy, 8pm, £12, 00 ACOUSTIC JAM SESSION, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc RORY MCLEOD, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £10, JESSE MALIN, ORAN MOR, Live Music, 8pm, £10, 00 00 RISE AGAINST, QUEEN MARGARET UNION, Live Music, THE DENIROS, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc 8pm, £12, 50 THE SUNSHINE UNDERGROUND, QUEEN MARGARET MARISSA NADLER, REGAL, Live Music, 8pm, £6, 00 UNION, Hotly tipped alt-rockers, 8pm, £10, 00 SMN PROMOTIONS, BATTLE OF THE BANDS, ROCKREAL LIVE JAZZ SESSIONS, RIO CAFÉ, Does what it

ERS, The road to the Barrowland Ballroom featuring bands

says…, 8pm, Free

KID EGO + MAJIK + THE SOLD + ROCKETFOX + WIRED DESIRE, ROCKERS, Live Music, 8pm, £5 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SECC, Pop megastar, 7pm, £50,

house, Free

BARFLY BIRTHDAY, THE HUSSYS, BARFLY, Local pop mak-

7.30pm, £10, 00 BLOC,

RESIDENTS, ALTER EGO, PO NA NA, DJ Diverse with indie, £6, 00 BEACHES OF THE PROUD + DEADMAN BED, BLOC, rock n roll & electro, £5 (£3) Live Music, 9pm, tbc DJ LUCKY LUCIANO, CLASS!, SUBWAY COWGATE, VinTHE FUTURE KINGS OF SCOTLAND, BUFF CLUB, Live tage cheese, student anthems & requests, £2, £1 students, free b4 12am

SAT 5 MAY

DAVID PATRICK QUARTET, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, Free THE CARRIE RODRIGUEZ TRIO, CAPITOL, Live Music,

GLASGOW SONGWRITERS, BLACKFRIARS, Folk, Live Music, 9pm, tbc

from Napier University, £3

TUES 29 MAY

club, Free

TUES 1 MAY

NAPIER STUDENTS, NAPIER LIVE, THE BONGO CLUB, Talent SCUNNER + GLASGOW GLAM BANGERS!!,

stuff, electro & disco with DJs from Edinburgh & Glasgow, £5 DJ STUART JOHNSTON, FRUNT, THE LIQUID ROOM, House TIM DELUXE, KARNIVAL, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, £6 music all night long, Free (£4) NICK A.K.A. & THE DALEK, INDIE MIX, PIVO CAFFE, Indie, RESIDENTS, LUCKYME, CITY CAFÉ, Hip hop, soul & off alt, Mashup & bootlegs, Free beats, Free FRYER & GINO, MOTHERFUNK, OPAL LOUNGE, Original RESIDENTS, NDAJE - AFRICAN CONNECTIONS, THE soul, funk, disco, latin & hip hop, Free BONGO CLUB, Ska, roots, reggae, salsa, jazz & soul, £5 RESIDENTS, REWIND, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, 100% upfront RnB JACEK ZAMOJSKI & GUESTS, POLYPHONIC SOCIAL & hip hop, £2, ladies free b4 12am CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Electric mash up dance grooves, Free

STEVEN CAREY BAND, SIMON KEMPSON, PAUL GLADWELL & THE RAIN PARADE, SECRET MELODY STORE, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Catchy melodies, £3 RESIDENTS, SPITFIRES SOCIAL CLUB, RED, Indie social

GLASGOW LIVE

SUPERSIZED BANANAS,

TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE,

funky jazz sounds inserted here on bass and small pipes, 8pm, £2 JIM KING, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, established singer songwriter in the grand tradition, 8pm, £2

FRI 4 MAY

from all over the UK, 7pm, £5 BRYAN ADAMS, SECC, Banned from the Diana memorial, apparently, 7pm, sold out YAMAN, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, sitar, ﬂute and mixes, 8pm, £2

TCHAI-OVNA BOOK GROUP,

TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE,

monthly book group, 8pm, free

TUES 8 MAY

MR HUDSON AND THE LIBRARY, ABC, Experiments with 1980s pop, 7pm, £7, 00

LEANA ZACCARINI & THE JENNY CLARK TRIO,

ART DE

HAWK AND A HACKSAW, ARCHES, Edgy folk, 8pm, £9,

CAF, Jazz, 8pm, Free

punk legend, 7.30pm, £7, 00 ANIMAL FARM, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc TIM O’ REAGAN, BREL, Live Music, 8pm, £8, 00 HARMFUL, CATHOUSE, Live Music, 7.30pm, £7, 00 BRETT ANDERSON, CLASSIC GRAND, Indie legend, 7.30pm, £14, 00 LOU RHODES, KING TUTS, Live Music, 8.30pm, £10, 00

8pm, £14, 50

BARFLY BIRTHDAY, HOLLY GOLIGHTLY, BARFLY, Garage

EXIT TEN, BARFLY, Live Music, 7.30pm, £6, 50 LUKE LEIGHFIELD, SAM ISAAC, THE SILENT REVOLUTION, BLOC, Live Music, 9pm, tbc WILDHEARTS, GARAGE, please note change of venue, THREE COUNTRIES OF FOLK FEATURING JENNA REID, GWENAN GIBBARD AND LISA KNAPP, REGAL, Live

READING THE LEAVES,

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

Eurovision The Skinny Showcase

6 12

LGBT

Equality: is that all there is? 14

FILM

Mitchell & Webb interview Reviews

DVD

16 18

Resurrection Man

GAMES The Fanjita Monologues

BOOKS

AL Kennedy interview

THEATRE Breakin’ Convention Futurology

ART

Glasgow Art Fair Reviews

SOUNDS The Hold Steady Battles

BEATS

Groove Armada Nasty P

The Lake District, p10 In Defence of Eurovision, pg 6

The Hold Steady, pg 28 22 23

26 27

28 32

Groove Armada, pg 42

42 45

LISTINGS

Edinburgh & Glasgow Art, Comedy, Theatre, Club and Live Music listings

Nasty P, pg 45

THE SKINNY RATING SYSTEM EXPLAINED 1 Skinny: Anything that receives one Skinny is probably best avoided. Chances are it will suck the will to live straight out of you. In other words, god awful baws. 2 Skinnys: Boring. Bog-standard or hugely derivative. Only for hardcore aficionados of the genre.

3 Skinnys: A good, solid rating. You’ll have a fine time but you won’t be bowled over.

4 Skinnys: Excellent stuff. Unmissable if you’re into this sort of thing.

weaving and other crafts, 8pm, free TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, po-

etry and short story readings, 8pm, £1

WED 9 MAY

Music, 7.30pm, £5, 00

somewhere between pop and experimental, 8pm, £10, 50

BRETT ANDERSON DJ SET, WOODSIDE SOCIAL CLUB, Live Electrelane

6 14 16 19 20 21 22 26 28 42 52

LIFESTYLE

ISSUE 20

Music, 8pm, £8, 00

SMN PROMOTIONS, 4 BANDS TBC, ROCKERS, Live THE GOD FEARING ATHEISTS-THE FELT TIPS-DEAD Music, 7pm, £5 BEAT CLUB, NICE N SLEAZY, Live Music, 8.30pm, tbc FILTH & THE FURY, ROCKERS, Sex Pistols Tribute, 7pm, £5 ANDY MILLER, TCHAIOVNA, OTAGO LANE, acoustic guitar virtuoso presents some of his favourite bands, 8pm, £2 THE SEX PISTOLS EXPERIENCE, ROCKERS, Live Music, CRAFT EVENING, TCHAIOVNA, SOUTHSIDE, weekly group 8pm, Cancelled linked with “Crafty Fingers” sharing tips on knitting, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SECC, Pop megastar, 7pm, £50, 00

CONTENTS

THE SKINNY

LISTINGS

TRANSGRESSIVE ROADSHOW, ARCHES, Many bands,

LISTINGS

5 Skinnys: A rare honour indeed; a must-see for all and sundry. Sublime.

www.skinnymag.co.uk

www.mcclurenaismith.com Solicitors and supporter of The Skinny Contact: Euan Duncan 0141 303 7814

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI NON-HAZARDOUS LIQUID INSIDE. I read this gem of a communiqué on the back of an articulated tanker this month. I didn’t know what I was supposed to think: ‘Well that’s good. Now I’m going to ram this hurtling juggernaut in my dinky hatchback, safe in the knowledge my crumpled corpse will be submerged in nothing more harmful than milk’? Then, out driving The Skinny Van (a noble if rusty vehicle now sadly no longer with us), I saw this sticker on the car in front: CAUTION! AGILITY DOGS IN TRANSIT. Baffled, my thought processes went something like: (1) should my animal welfare sensibilities really be heightened simply because you happen to have taught your pet to jump through hoops? (2) if they’re such agile dogs, surely less caution is required around them than almost any other dogs? In fact, you should be proud to have bred dogs that can look after themselves in this high octane world. Perhaps it could read: RELAX DUDES… AGILITY DOGS IN TRANSIT Though that might be equally daft. In case you’re wondering, I do think like a history textbook. (3) Summary: Life’s a limpid spaniel. Welcome to May. /RJT

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI THE SKINNY ON TOUR SKINNY ON THE FARM: YOUNG MACDONALD WITH LAMBS HUGO AND TOOTHFAIRY

dancehall, dub & ragga, Free

DOUBLE D & ISLA, GET FUNK’D, MEDINA, Hip hop to

IN DEFENCE OF

Eurovision I have zero interest in Abba or Bucks Fizz, and my music tastes are generally indier-than-thou. So don’t go thinking my love for the Eurovision Song Contest is about the cheesy music. “It’s a battle between the songs and the hair,” the UK’s commentator Terry Wogan once said, “and the hair’s winning.” Yes, sitting through Eurovision means sitting through a bunch of god-awful excuses for pop music, but the suffering is lessened somewhat with Terry there to match you drink for drink. And if you’re diligently filling in your own scoresheets, there’s so much more to look out for: outfits, choreography, queer subtext, imaginative use of English, and general flamboyance. Since 2000, Neil McCulloch has combined the Eurovision with travel, seeing the contest live every year. “It’s a bit like following the football around the world, without the aggression on the terraces,” he says, adding that it’s taken him to a few destinations that hadn’t yet become popular with tourists. His Eurovision obsession began at a monthly London night called Douze Points, and escalated from there. He notes that various friends of his have got it worse – one of them had to move to a ground-floor flat as his floor was starting to sag under the weight of his Eurovision collection. He’s hoping the UK doesn’t win any time soon, so he can continue taking exciting holidays – but he’s got little to worry about, since “[our compatriots] don’t take it seriously at all – as evidenced by Scooch*. Slovenia did (drag) air stewardesses with far more flair and originality years back in 2002!”

ICELAND’S SONG LAST YEAR INCLUDED A PHONE CALL TO GOD IN WHICH THE SINGER CLAIMED TO BE SAVING THE WORLD

presented with an award from the president of Finland for exemplary Finnish work.) Lithuania’s entry – LT United’s We Are The Winners – was another sign of a more ironic approach to the Eurovision. Meanwhile, the UK’s entry, Teenage Life, was an embarrassment performed by a 32 year-old man flanked by dancers dressed as schoolgirls - a rather odd offering from a country so prone to panicking about paedophiles – and received a grand total of 25 points. Nonetheless, it’s a shame he won’t be returning this year, as he was planning to duet with Carol Decker (remember T’Pau?). Iceland’s entrant last year, Silvia Night, only made it to the semi-f inal with her offering Congratulations, which included a phone call to God in which she claimed to be saving the world. After the finals, though, her diva strop topped the charts on YouTube. Drunkenly turning on the press following Lordi’s win, she raged that they didn’t have a real make-up artist, that the Swedish contestant was an “ugly fucking old bitch”, and that everybody was laughing at her. Everyone gasped at her obnoxiousness, but most people didn’t realise that she was a character

house, £4, £3 b4 11pm

TONY MCHUGH, GROOVEJET, TOKYO, Dancefloor hits, £6

RESIDENTS, JAM FRIDAY, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Pop & cheese, £2

RESIDENTS, MISFITS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Indie, electro, punk, rock, retro & a tequila girl, £2

RESIDENTS, NIGHT TRAIN, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Free

rather than a real person, sort of like an Icelandic Ali G. So what’s in store for this year? Well, both Denmark and Ukraine have drag queens in the running, Georgia and the Czech Republic will each make their debut, and Serbia and Montenegro will submit separate entries for the first time. Iceland’s entrant looks like Lion-O, Teapacks from Israel bring us a controversial song about nuclear war, the Romanian entrants are trying to outdo everybody with the amount of languages they can cram into one song, and Andorra is courting the pop-punk contingent. So gather together an international collection of food, drink and people, park yourselves in front of the TV, and watch this year’s madness unfold. WITH THANKS TO HOLLY EDWARDS AND SARAH DALRYMPLE FOR THEIR EUROVISION EXPERTISE. THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY 12 MAY AND BROADCAST ON BBC ONE. USE THE SONG-OMAT AT WWW.EUROVISION.TV TO DISCOVER YOUR ‘FAVOURITE SONG’. WWW.EUROVISION.TV

RESIDENTS, PLANET EARTH, CITRUS CLUB, 80s tunes with residents, £5

RESIDENTS, SALSA CARIBE!, THE LOT, Salsa DJs on the special wooden dancefloor, £5, £4 b4 9.30pm NASTY P, SOUL BISCUITS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Hip hop, disco & funk, £5 GUESTS, THIS IS MUSIC, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, No scene, £3 RESIDENTS, UNKNOWN PLEASURES, TEVIOT UNION, Indie club, £3 (£2) TROUBLE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Big gay disco to hip hop & broken beats, Free

(UNDERNEATH LE MONDE), House, soulful & funky, £3

VOLTAIRE, House, electro, tech-house & breaks with ro-

RESIDENTS, THE MALTINGS, Open Mic, Free JEZ HILL, OPAL LOUNGE, Upfront & classic tunes, £6, free

mixed with chart tunes, Free

tating guests in the back, £2, free b4 12am/members RESIDENTS, BARAKA, Funk, soul, disco, dancehall & reggae, Free

SAT 26 MAY

RESIDENTS, SIENTELO!, EL BARRIO, Latin America music SOUNDPROOF DJS, SOUNDPROOF OPEN DECKS, BARAKA, Open decks night, Free

FISHER & PRICE, JON PLEASED & MARTIN VALENTINE, TASTE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Legendary gay-friendly club, £8 (£6), £5 b4 11.30pm

MISS CHRIS, TASTE FOREPLAY, BARAKA, Pre-taste, Free

MON 21 MAY

FAKE SHARK - REAL ZOMBIE, DOGTOOTH, HENRYS CELLAR, Indie, new rave, electro, £5

RESIDENTS, HAPPY MONDAYS, PO NA NA, Night for

Dance, indie, hip hop & breaks, Free

TAIRE, Night for deserving bar & club staff, £2, £1 Trade

LIVE SCIENCES, THE ABDOMINAL SHOWMEN, ORCHESTRA DEL SOL, MILK MILK LEMONADE, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Hip hop, funk, MCs, £3

NASTY P & CUNNIE, MUCH MORE, MEDINA, Hip-hop & funk cuts , £4, £3 b4 11pm

DJ PAPI & ALEX GATO , PARTY NIGHT, EL BARRIO, Salsa night with free classes from 10pm, Free RESIDENTS, RETRIBUTION, STUDIO 24, Goth music for the old, £5, £3 students

GARETH CRUIKSHANK, BABES & SPANKY, SATURDAY CIRCUS, RED, A Snatch style affair, Free DJ RAFALLU, SATURDAY NIGHT FISH FRY, THE JAZZ

CAFFE, Soul, jazz & funk, Free

DJ BEEFY & WOLFJAZZ, TRADE UNION, CABARET VOLUnion members/ECCF members

TUES 22 MAY

RESIDENTS, ANTICS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock, emo, punk & metal, Free

PUBLIC, DARK PLANET OPEN MUSIC, BARAKA, Come play your vinyl, CDs, iPod, mp3 player or laptop, Free RESIDENTS, DELICIOUS, THE BONGO CLUB, Strictly hip hop & RnB, Free MR. JINX, THE DIAMOND DICE, MASSA, Hip hop, RnB & grime, £5 DJ STUART JOHNSTON, FRUNT, THE LIQUID ROOM, House music all night long, Free NICK A.K.A. & THE DALEK, INDIE MIX, PIVO CAFFE, Indie, alt, Mashup & bootlegs, Free

JEWEL & ESK COLLEGE, JEWEL & ESK, THE BONGO CLUB, Showcasing talent, £3

RESIDENTS, SEITEKI SATURDAYS, TOKYO, Funky house, £6 FRYER & GINO, MOTHERFUNK, OPAL LOUNGE, Original JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SOPHISTIFUNK, CITY, soul, funk, disco, latin & hip hop, Free RESIDENTS, REWIND, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, 100% upfront RnB House remixes, funky RnB & bootlegs, £8 (£4) DENNIS PROBERT & YOGI HAUGHTON, SOULCIAL, BAR & hip hop, £2, ladies free b4 12am RESIDENTS, SPITFIRES SOCIAL CLUB, RED, Indie social 99, Early soul session, Free club, Free RESIDENTS, TEASE AGE, CITRUS CLUB, All things rock, EDINBURGH LOCALS, SPLIT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Blend of motown, alternative & soul, £5, free b4 11.30pm house, techno, drum & bass, breakbeat, healthy midGARETH SOMERVILLE, ULTRAGROOVE, CABARET VOL-

Send your photos for Skinny on Tour to: LETTERS@SKINNYMAG.CO.UK

SKINNY-À-PORTER...

TAIRE, House music all night long, £8 (£6)

GARETH SOMERVILLE (ULTRAGROOVE) & JONNIE LYLEY (SCRATCH), ASSEMBLY BAR, House to hip hop, Free DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, £7, free b4 12am

NO 5739 IN A SERIES OF 56,756 : SCALES OF JUSTICE photo: Jethro Collins * this years UK act

illustration: Kate Anderson, www.stormillustration.com

RESIDENTS, OPAL LOUNGE, Saturday night soiree, £6,

LIFESTYLE

week rave, Free

JAMES LONGWARTH, VIBE, EGO, Weekly gay club playing chart, £4

RESIDENTS, VOLUME, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Dubstep, grime & UK hip hop, £2, £1 b4 9pm DAVA & HOBBES, LULU, Eclectic set, £4, free b4 11pm

free b4 12am

WED 23 MAY

SUN 20 MAY

£5 (£4)

RESIDENTS, ALL BACK TO MINE, OPAL LOUNGE, Eclectic mix of personal favourites, £3, free b4 11pm RESIDENTS, BABY DOLL, PO NA NA, Funky house, £5, free b4 11.30pm

IAN ANDERSON & BISCUIT D, BACK TO BASICS, PIVO CAFFE, Retro dance, 90s & disco, Free

DALE LUSH & FRIENDS, BOOTY, MEDINA, Soul, funk, disco & chart, £5

RESIDENTS, CURIOUS? SUNDAY JOINT, THE BONGO CLUB, Diverse selection of music, free internet & games,

£3, free b4 11pm

JOHN TOKYOBLU, DISUKO, TOKYO, Upfront disco, latin house with live percussion & sax from Pepe & saXingh, £3 (£2), free b4 11pm PEAS & DJG, FRESHMODE, CITY CAFÉ (DOWNSTAIRS), Hip hop, breaks, funk & open mic, Free

DJ JEZ HILL, CHAMBLES, OPAL LOUNGE, Funk & chart, BREADMARK & JOHNNY CASHBACK, THE GOOD GROOVE, PIVO CAFFE, Funk, afrobeat, latin breaks & house, Free

KILLER SHARK & THE RESISTANCE, THE HIVE, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Jazz & hard funk fusion, £4

LISA LITTLEWOOD, HOT SUSHI, TOKYO, Funky house & club classics, £tbc

RESIDENTS, INDI-GO, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie & alternative, £2, £1 students

WARNER POWERS & CLAUDIO, INSOMNIA, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, Fresh house tunes each week, Free

WASTED LITTLE DJS, JERK ALERT, RED, Indie meets early nineties youth club disco, Free

RESIDENTS, THE PIT, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock & metal, Free

ROWAN, DARK EL KANTE, ADAM & KODO, RANDOM, THE BONGO CLUB, Psy-trance, £4 UID ROOM, Weekly dance club, £4 (£2), £1 Centro card MASH & JON PLEASED, ROLLER DISCO, LULU, Past & DEREK MARTIN & STUART JOHNSTON, FRICTION, LIQ-

www.skinnymag.co.uk

free b4 12am

rock, Free

JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SHAKE, SHANGHAI

ASTROBOY & BREADMARK, SOUNDS GOOD, PIVO

punk, ska & more at the Art College’s long running institution, £5, £4 students/members RESIDENTS, HEADSPIN, THE BONGO CLUB, Hip hop, house, funk & more, £6, £5 b4 12am MARK B & GUESTS, LIQUID SOUL, PO NA NA, Chirpy music, £6, £3 b4 11pm RESIDENTS, LOUNGE, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Eclectic mix of tunes, Free

MADAME S, UTTER GUTTER, STUDIO 24, Gay friendly upB-SIDES & BOOTROSS ROCK, STIR FRIED, THE OUTHOUSE, for-it disco, £6 TROUBLE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Big gay disco to hip hop & Pre-club with indie & rock, Free broken beats, Free RESIDENTS, TOASTER, CITRUS CLUB, Breaks & Bobs, £3, free b4 11.30pm DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE DJ NU-CLEAR , TOXIK, OPIUM, New & old metal & hard & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, £7, future electronic classics, £4.99, free b4 11pm

CLUB, Alternative music for justified sinners, £3

DITA VON TEESE MEETS CARMEN MIRANDA, CLUB NOIR - EXOTICA, STUDIO 24, Burlesque, £12 MANGOMAD & DJ DEFAULT, DUB2CLUB, PIVO CAFFE,

11.30pm

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

BLACK DIAMOND EXPRESS & CRYOVERBILLIONAIRRES, SCOTTISH HOBO SOCIETY (LIVE), THE BONGO

SAT 19 MAY

BAR, Live music from The Joy Foundation, £5, free b4

pop & glam, £4

students & Industry folk, indie, rock & funk, £3, free for DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE students/industry & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, £7, JEZ HILL, LA VIDA, LULU, Classic pop & funk anthems, £5, free b4 12am free b4 10pm RESIDENTS, THE MALTINGS, Open Mic, Free JAMES COMBE, THE LATIN QUARTER, MEDINA, Salsa, JEZ HILL, OPAL LOUNGE, Upfront & classic tunes, £6, free funk & latin house, Free b4 12am RESIDENTS, MOJO, OPAL LOUNGE, Modern music & timeless classics, £3, free b4 12am RESIDENTS, PONY CLUB, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & RITCHIE RUFTONE & FRIENDS, 2HOT, EGO, RnB & hip hip hop, £4 (£3) hop for under 18s only (14-17), £5 RESIDENTS, ROCK KARAOKE, OPIUM, Rock Karaoke, SHAREM JAY, AFTERDARK, LIQUID ROOM, House, £10 Free RESIDENTS, ALLSORTS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Chart, cheese RESIDENTS & GUESTS, SHOWER OF BANJOS, OCTOPUS & party, £2, free b4 12am DIAMOND, Scottish, £3

CHRIS & PAUL, THE EGG, WEE RED BAR, Indie, garage,

Last year’s Eurovision took the contest to whole new levels of the ludicrous, topped off by Lordi’s victory with Hard Rock Hallelujah. (The winners, in thei r t radema rk monster costumes, were later

RESIDENTS, KAYOS, OPIUM, Rock, metal & indie, Free TREVOR NELSON, HOLLA, LIQUID ROOM, RnB, £10 TRENDY WENDY, PLAYGIRL MANSIONS, LULU, Chart

LISTINGS

LIFESTYLE

GARY MAC & GUESTS, WE ARE … ELECTRIC, CABARET

THURS 24 MAY

b4 12am

RITCHIE RUFTONE & FRIENDS, 2HOT, EGO, RnB & hip hop for under 18s only (14-17), £5

RESIDENTS, ALTER EGO, PO NA NA, DJ Diverse with indie, RESIDENTS, ALLSORTS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Chart, cheese rock n roll & electro, £5 (£3)

& party, £2, free b4 12am

tage cheese, student anthems & requests, £2, £1 students, free b4 12am RESIDENTS, GENETIC, CITRUS CLUB, Night of rock anthems, £2 KIPP$ & MASTER CAIRD, GRAFITTI, MEDINA, Party tunes all night, £3 (£2) RESIDENTS, HOUSEBOUND, EGO, Sexy house, funky stuff, electro & disco with DJs from Edinburgh & Glasgow, £5

Dance, indie, hip hop & breaks, Free

DJ LUCKY LUCIANO, CLASS!, SUBWAY COWGATE, Vin-

EDINBURGH INDIE CLUB RESIDENTS, INDIE CLUB TOGETHER, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Diverse indie, £5 RESIDENTS, LUCKYME, CITY CAFÉ, Hip hop, soul & off beats, Free

DJ BAS, MISTA P, JEE4CE, BEEF, PASS THE VIBES, RUSH,

MANGOMAD & DJ DEFAULT, DUB2CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, RESIDENTS, EDENANGELS, THE VAULTS/NICOL EDWARDS, Sexy, funky technoo, £5

CHRIS & PAUL, THE EGG, WEE RED BAR, Indie, garage, punk, ska & more at the Art College’s long running institution, £5, £4 students/members MARK B & GUESTS, LIQUID SOUL, PO NA NA, Chirpy music, £6, £3 b4 11pm RESIDENTS, LOUNGE, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Eclectic mix of tunes, Free

TOM TRAGO, LUCKY ME DRUMS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Live electronic skwee, hyph & soul, £3

RESIDENTS, MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM, THE BONGO CLUB, Reggae, roots & dub, £7.50

NASTY P & CUNNIE, MUCH MORE, MEDINA, Hip-hop & JACEK ZAMOJSKI & GUESTS, POLYPHONIC SOCIAL funk cuts , £4, £3 b4 11pm CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Electric mash up dance grooves, Free DJ PAPI & ALEX GATO , PARTY NIGHT, EL BARRIO, Salsa RESIDENTS, SALSA DISCO, CUBA NORTE, Salsa dance & night with free classes from 10pm, Free RESIDENTS, RETRIBUTION, STUDIO 24, Goth music for the tasty tapas, Free old, £5, £3 students GARETH SOMERVILLE, FRAZER MCGLINCHEY & GARETH CRUIKSHANK, BABES & SPANKY, SATURDAY GUESTS, SOULED OUT, OPAL LOUNGE, Soul, disco & CIRCUS, RED, A Snatch style affair, Free dance, £3, free b4 12am ERIK D’VIKING & ASTROBOY, SATURDAY NIGHT FISH SNATCH RESIDENTS, SNATCH SOCIAL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Messy night guaranteed at eclectic student bash, FRY, THE JAZZ BAR, Live music from Das Contras, £5, free Hip hop, funk, drum & bass, Free

£5 (£4), £3 members

JEZ HILL, STILETTO, LULU, Electro-pop, classics & disco, £5, free b4 10pm

TRIBAL WAVES LABEL, SYNTHETIC, THE BONGO CLUB, Techno, electro & breaks, £5 (£4)

SCOTT GRANGER, TOKYO KYOUYOU, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3)

RESIDENTS, TRAFFIC, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Indie & alternative, Free

DOWN THE TINY STEPS, HUMMIN TOKYO & MORE, TRAMPOLINE, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Off beat, £4 THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Jazz to breakbeats, Free

FRI 25 MAY

HLI & KEN GOURLAY, ASSEMBLY ROOMS CEILIDH, ASSEMBLY ROOMS, Ceilidh, £10

TAYO, BASS SYNDICATE, THE BONGO CLUB, Breaks, £8 (£7)

b4 11.30pm

RESIDENTS, SEITEKI SATURDAYS, TOKYO, Funky house, £6 JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SOPHISTIFUNK, CITY, House remixes, funky RnB & bootlegs, £8 (£4) RESIDENTS, SOULBOYS, THE HILTON, Northern & across the board soul, £tbc

DENNIS PROBERT & YOGI HAUGHTON, SOULCIAL, BAR 99, Early soul session, Free

COTTON CAKE RESIDENTS & GAVIN RICHARDSON, SUBSTANCE, HENRYS CELLAR, Electro & techno, £5 (£4) RESIDENTS, TEASE AGE, CITRUS CLUB, All things rock, motown, alternative & soul, £5, free b4 11.30pm DAVE CLARKE, UFREAK, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Leather pants techno, £tbc

SCOTT ELLIOT, CRAIG GEE & GAV GRANT ON ROTA- RESIDENTS, OPAL LOUNGE, Saturday night soiree, £6, TION, CLUB CLASSICS, PIVO CAFFE, Classic club music free b4 12am from the past 15 years, Free

KNOWN, CRAZI AFRO SUSHI FRY UP, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Rock, £3

DJ NICKI & GUESTS, CULT, PO NA NA, Hip hop, disco, funk & RnB, £5, £2.50 b4 11pm

DALINDEO, MATT NIVES & RESIDENTS, DEPARTURE LOUNGE, THE CAVES, Astrojazz, broken beat, house,

SUN 27 MAY

RESIDENTS, ALL BACK TO MINE, OPAL LOUNGE, Eclectic mix of personal favourites, £3, free b4 11pm RESIDENTS, BABY DOLL, PO NA NA, Funky house, £5, free b4 11.30pm

IAN ANDERSON & BISCUIT D, BACK TO BASICS, PIVO

funk, £8 (£6)

CAFFE, Retro dance, 90s & disco, Free

resident DJs, £3, free b4 12am

disco & chart, £5

alternative beats & rock, £5

CLUB, Diverse selection of music, free internet & games,

dancehall, dub & ragga, Free

JOHN TOKYOBLU, DISUKO, TOKYO, Upfront disco, latin

RESIDENTS, DE LUXE, HUDSON CLUB, Funky house with RESIDENTS, EVOL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie, hip hop, RESIDENTS, FRONTLINE SELECTA, STEREO, Reggae,

DALE LUSH & FRIENDS, BOOTY, MEDINA, Soul, funk, RESIDENTS, CURIOUS? SUNDAY JOINT, THE BONGO £3, free b4 11pm

£6

house with live percussion & sax from Pepe & saXingh, £3 (£2), free b4 11pm PEAS & DJG, FRESHMODE, CITY CAFÉ (DOWNSTAIRS), Hip hop, breaks, funk & open mic, Free

cheese, £2

UID ROOM, Weekly dance club, £4 (£2), £1 Centro card

DOUBLE D & ISLA, GET FUNK’D, MEDINA, Hip hop to house, £4, £3 b4 11pm

TONY MCHUGH, GROOVEJET, TOKYO, Dancefloor hits, RESIDENTS, JAM FRIDAY, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Pop & RESIDENTS, MISFITS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Indie, electro, punk, rock, retro & a tequila girl, £2

RESIDENTS, MODERN LOVERS, COCTEAU LOUNGE, Ska,

DEREK MARTIN & STUART JOHNSTON, FRICTION, LIQRESIDENTS, KAYOS, OPIUM, Rock, metal & indie, Free TRENDY WENDY, PLAYGIRL MANSIONS, LULU, Chart pop & glam, £4

reggae, psyche & soul, £6, £4 b4 12am

RESIDENTS, NIGHT TRAIN, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT),

BROKEN RECORDS & BILLY LIAR, SCOTTISH HOBO SOCIETY (LIVE), THE BONGO CLUB, Alternative music for

Free

justified sinners, £3

RESIDENTS, PLANET EARTH, CITRUS CLUB, 80s tunes with

JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SHAKE, SHANGHAI

residents, £5

(UNDERNEATH LE MONDE), House, soulful & funky, £3

bass, breaks, £5 (£4)

mixed with chart tunes, Free

special wooden dancefloor, £5, £4 b4 9.30pm

BARAKA, Open decks night, Free

RESIDENTS, RED ALERT, WEE RED BAR, Jungle, drum & RESIDENTS, SALSA CARIBE!, THE LOT, Salsa DJs on the HOT CHIP (DJ SET), SUGARBEAT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Breaks & bootlegs, £7

RESIDENTS, SIENTELO!, EL BARRIO, Latin America music SOUNDPROOF DJS, SOUNDPROOF OPEN DECKS, FISHER & PRICE, MISS CHRIS & MARTIN VALENTINE, TASTE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Legendary gay-friendly club, £8

(£6), £5 b4 11.30pm DJ Q, TELEFUNKEN, CRUZ BOAT, Glasgow house, £5 RESIDENTS, UNKNOWN PLEASURES, TEVIOT UNION, Indie MISS CHRIS, TASTE FOREPLAY, BARAKA, Pre-taste, Free RANDOM & LEATHERFACE, VELVET, STUDIO 24, Gay girlie club, £3 (£2)

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

RESIDENTS, REWIND, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, 100% upfront RnB & hip hop, £2, ladies free b4 12am

RESIDENTS, THE SHIP OF FOOLS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Live music, Free

RESIDENTS, SPITFIRES SOCIAL CLUB, RED, Indie social club, Free

EDINBURGH LOCALS, SPLIT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Blend of house, techno, drum & bass, breakbeat, healthy mid-week rave, Free JAMES LONGWARTH, VIBE, EGO, Weekly gay club playing chart, £4 DAVA & HOBBES, LULU, Eclectic set, £4, free b4 11pm

WED 9 MAY

DJ JEZ HILL, CHAMBLES, OPAL LOUNGE, Funk & chart, £5 (£4)

THE WEE ROGUE, WOUNDED KNEE & ROSS CLARK, THE GENTLE INVASION, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Alternative folk ballards, Free

BREADMARK & JOHNNY CASHBACK, THE GOOD GROOVE, PIVO CAFFE, Funk, afrobeat, latin breaks & house, Free

LISA LITTLEWOOD, HOT SUSHI, TOKYO, Funky house & club classics, £tbc

RESIDENTS, INDI-GO, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie & alternative, £2, £1 students

WARNER POWERS & CLAUDIO, INSOMNIA, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, Fresh house tunes each week, Free

WASTED LITTLE DJS, JERK ALERT, RED, Indie meets early nineties youth club disco, Free

RESIDENTS, THE PIT, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock & metal, Free

MASH & JON PLEASED, ROLLER DISCO, LULU, Past & future electronic classics, £4.99, free b4 11pm

B-SIDES & BOOTROSS ROCK, STIR FRIED, THE OUTHOUSE, Pre-club with indie & rock, Free

RESIDENTS, TOASTER, CITRUS CLUB, Breaks & Bobs, £3, free b4 11.30pm

DJ NU-CLEAR , TOXIK, OPIUM, New & old metal & hard rock, Free

GARY MAC & GUESTS, WE ARE … ELECTRIC, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, electro, tech-house & breaks with

rotating guests in the back, £2, free b4 12am/members RESIDENTS, BARAKA, Funk, soul, disco, dancehall & reggae, Free

THURS 10 MAY

RESIDENTS, ALTER EGO, PO NA NA, DJ Diverse with indie, rock n roll & electro, £5 (£3)

DJ LUCKY LUCIANO, CLASS!, SUBWAY COWGATE, Vintage cheese, student anthems & requests, £2, £1 students, free b4 12am RESIDENTS, GENETIC, CITRUS CLUB, Night of rock anthems, £2 KIPP$ & MASTER CAIRD, GRAFITTI, MEDINA, Party tunes all night, £3 (£2) RESIDENTS, HOUSEBOUND, EGO, Sexy house, funky stuff, electro & disco with DJs from Edinburgh & Glasgow, £5 RESIDENTS, LUCKYME, CITY CAFÉ, Hip hop, soul & off beats, Free

ELY MUFF, INFARED, TORMENTED BOY, SMURF, ZONK, ALKEMIST, THE NUT HOUSE, STUDIO 24, Hardkore, £4

JACEK ZAMOJSKI & GUESTS, POLYPHONIC SOCIAL CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Electric mash up dance grooves, Free

RESIDENTS, SALSA DISCO, CUBA NORTE, Salsa dance & tasty tapas, Free

GARETH SOMERVILLE, FRAZER MCGLINCHEY & GUESTS, SOULED OUT, OPAL LOUNGE, Soul, disco & dance, £3, free b4 12am

SNATCH RESIDENTS, SNATCH SOCIAL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Messy night guaranteed at eclectic student

bash, £5 (£4), £3 members JEZ HILL, STILETTO, LULU, Electro-pop, classics & disco, £5, free b4 10pm

TRASH FASHION, DOGTOOTH DJS & SITW DJS, SPIES IN THE WIRES, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Live music & indie, punk DJs, £4 (£3)

OBE, THIS IS MUSIC, THE BONGO CLUB, Fundraiser for Watoto, £5

SCOTT GRANGER, TOKYO KYOUYOU, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3)

RESIDENTS, TRAFFIC, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Indie & alternative, Free

THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Jazz to breakbeats, Free

CASSETTE & SUPPORT, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, South African band, Free

FRI 11 MAY

SCOTT ELLIOT, CRAIG GEE & GAV GRANT ON ROTATION, CLUB CLASSICS, PIVO CAFFE, Classic club music from the past 15 years, Free

13 TOMBS & FAKE FANGS, CRAZI.AFRO.SUSHI.FRY.

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS JAMES LONGWARTH, VIBE, EGO, Weekly gay club play-

UP, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Futuristic afronese zulu samuri

ROYAL CROWN REVUE, VEGAS, OCEAN TERMINAL,

punk with denajapan & samoa, Free

Neo-swing, £15

ing chart, £4

Free

WED 16 MAY

DJ NICKI & GUESTS, CULT, PO NA NA, Hip hop, disco, funk & RnB, £5, £2.50 b4 11pm

RESIDENTS, DE LUXE, HUDSON CLUB, Funky house with resident DJs, £3, free b4 12am

RESIDENTS, DOGTOOTH, HENRYS CELLAR, Indie, new

GARETH SOMERVILLE (ULTRAGROOVE) & JONNIE LYLEY (SCRATCH), ASSEMBLY BAR, House to hip hop,

DAVA & HOBBES, LULU, Eclectic set, £4, free b4 11pm

DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin,

DJ JEZ HILL, CHAMBLES, OPAL LOUNGE, Funk & chart, £5 (£4)

rave, electro, £5

£7, free b4 12am

BREADMARK & JOHNNY CASHBACK, THE GOOD GROOVE, PIVO CAFFE, Funk, afrobeat, latin breaks &

RESIDENTS, ERUPTOR, STUDIO 24, Tribal & hard techno,

RESIDENTS, OPAL LOUNGE, Saturday night soiree, £6,

£5

free b4 12am

house, Free

RESIDENTS, EVOL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie, hip hop, alternative beats & rock, £5

SUN 13 MAY

club classics, £tbc

RESIDENTS, FOUR CORNERS, THE BONGO CLUB, Afrobeat, deep funk, soul & latin, £5, £3 b4 12am RESIDENTS, FRONTLINE SELECTA, STEREO, Reggae, dancehall, dub & ragga, Free DOUBLE D & ISLA, GET FUNK’D, MEDINA, Hip hop to house, £4, £3 b4 11pm

RESIDENTS, INDI-GO, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie & alterna-

mix of personal favourites, £3, free b4 11pm RESIDENTS, BABY DOLL, PO NA NA, Funky house, £5, free b4 11.30pm

tive, £2, £1 students

IAN ANDERSON & BISCUIT D, BACK TO BASICS, PIVO CAFFE, Retro dance, 90s & disco, Free

CLUB, Diverse selection of music, free internet & games,

£3, free b4 11pm

BAS MOOY LIVE P.A., JAKN, STUDIO 24, Hard techno, £7 JOHN TOKYOBLU, DISUKO, TOKYO, Upfront disco, latin RESIDENTS, JAM FRIDAY, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Pop & cheese, £2

RESIDENTS, MISFITS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Indie, electro, punk, rock, retro & a tequila girl, £2

RESIDENTS, NIGHT TRAIN, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Free

house with live percussion & sax from Pepe & saXingh, £3 (£2), free b4 11pm PEAS & DJG, FRESHMODE, CITY CAFÉ (DOWNSTAIRS), Hip hop, breaks, funk & open mic, Free

DEREK MARTIN & STUART JOHNSTON, FRICTION,

RESIDENTS, PLANET EARTH, CITRUS CLUB, 80s tunes with

LIQUID ROOM, Weekly dance club, £4 (£2), £1 Centro

residents, £5

RESIDENTS, KAYOS, OPIUM, Rock, metal & indie, Free TRENDY WENDY, PLAYGIRL MANSIONS, LULU, Chart

RESIDENTS, SALSA CARIBE!, THE LOT, Salsa DJs on the special wooden dancefloor, £5, £4 b4 9.30pm

card

pop & glam, £4

GREG WILSON (!), NEELU SARKER, NEIL & ROB, SODELTA MAINLINE, CHOCYAMO & 8 LEGS, SCOTTISH LESCIENCE BIRTHDAY PART.1, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, HOBO SOCIETY (LIVE), THE BONGO CLUB, Alternative disco, boogie, £7 (£5)

RESIDENTS, UNKNOWN PLEASURES, TEVIOT UNION, Indie club, £3 (£2)

TROUBLE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Big gay disco to hip hop & broken beats, Free

music for justified sinners, £3

JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SHAKE, SHANGHAI

RESIDENTS, THE MALTINGS, Open Mic, Free JEZ HILL, OPAL LOUNGE, Upfront & classic tunes, £6, free b4 12am

SAT 12 MAY

RESIDENTS, 100% DYNAMITE, THE BONGO CLUB, Reggae, dub, funk, house, £6, £4 b4 12am

RITCHIE RUFTONE & FRIENDS, 2HOT, EGO, RnB & hip hop for under 18s only (14-17), £5

RICKY PALYS, RYAN TURNER, AFTERDARK, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Electro house, £tbc

RESIDENTS, ALLSORTS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Chart, cheese & party, £2, free b4 12am

RESIDENTS, ASCENSION, STUDIO 24, Goth, industrial, EBM, £5

NEIL HENDERSON, BASICS, SPIDERS WEB, Northern soul on original 45s, £5

JASON CORTEZ & ANDY OPEL, DISKOKITTEN, BERLIN, Keep your hat on 2nd birthday with house & bootlegs, £6

MANGOMAD & DJ DEFAULT, DUB2CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Dance, indie, hip hop & breaks, Free

CHRIS & PAUL, THE EGG, WEE RED BAR, Indie, garage, punk, ska & more at the Art College’s long running institution, £5, £4 students/members

WARNER POWERS & CLAUDIO, INSOMNIA, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, Fresh house tunes each week, Free

WASTED LITTLE DJS, JERK ALERT, RED, Indie meets early nineties youth club disco, Free

RESIDENTS, THE PIT, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock & metal, Free

MASH & JON PLEASED, ROLLER DISCO, LULU, Past & future electronic classics, £4.99, free b4 11pm

B-SIDES & BOOTROSS ROCK, STIR FRIED, THE OUTHOUSE, Pre-club with indie & rock, Free

RESIDENTS, TOASTER, CITRUS CLUB, Breaks & Bobs, £3, free b4 11.30pm

DJ NU-CLEAR , TOXIK, OPIUM, New & old metal & hard rock, Free

CASTLE VANIA & NIGHTMOVES, WE ARE … ELECTRIC, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, electro, tech-house & breaks

with rotating guests in the back, £2, free b4 12am/ members RESIDENTS, BARAKA, Funk, soul, disco, dancehall & reggae, Free

THURS 17 MAY

RESIDENTS, ALTER EGO, PO NA NA, DJ Diverse with indie, rock n roll & electro, £5 (£3)

(UNDERNEATH LE MONDE), House, soulful & funky, £3

RESIDENTS, BUNKER, STUDIO 24, Acid disco electro, £5 DJ LUCKY LUCIANO, CLASS!, SUBWAY COWGATE, Vin-

mixed with chart tunes, Free

RESIDENTS, SIENTELO!, EL BARRIO, Latin America music

DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE SOUNDPROOF DJS, SOUNDPROOF OPEN DECKS, & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, £7, free b4 12am

LISA LITTLEWOOD, HOT SUSHI, TOKYO, Funky house &

RESIDENTS, ALL BACK TO MINE, OPAL LOUNGE, Eclectic

DALE LUSH & FRIENDS, BOOTY, MEDINA, Soul, funk, THE FUNKI DIVA, DEJAYBIRD, BOY TOY & DEBI T, disco & chart, £5 FURBURGER, TWIST, For girls who like girls, £4 RESIDENTS, CURIOUS? SUNDAY JOINT, THE BONGO TONY MCHUGH, GROOVEJET, TOKYO, Dancefloor hits, £6

BARAKA, Open decks night, Free

FISHER & PRICE, MISS CHRIS & MARTIN VALENTINE, TASTE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Legendary gay-friendly club, £8 (£6), £5 b4 11.30pm

MISS CHRIS, TASTE FOREPLAY, BARAKA, Pre-taste, Free

MON 14 MAY

RESIDENTS & GUESTS, SHOWER OF BANJOS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Scottish, £3

ASTROBOY & BREADMARK, SOUNDS GOOD, PIVO CAFFE, Soul, jazz & funk, Free

DJ BEEFY & WOLFJAZZ, TRADE UNION, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Night for deserving bar & club staff, £2, £1 Trade

Union members/ECCF members

CONFLICT DIAMONDS, GOULAG BEAT BANG, OCTO- SWINGERS, ZOOT SWING, CAFÉ ROYAL, Swing dance

PUS DIAMOND, Punk, electro, disco, new wave, Free

classes, beginners 7pm, improvers 8pm followed by MARK B & GUESTS, LIQUID SOUL, PO NA NA, Chirpy big-band swing jazz & neo-swing beats, £4.50 (£3.50), music, £6, £3 b4 11pm free after 9 RESIDENTS, LOUNGE, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Eclec- P-HAZE, BARAKA, Mashup, Free tic mix of tunes, Free KINKEY, HENRYS CELLAR, Flamenco, latin & reggae, £3 NASTY P & CUNNIE, MUCH MORE, MEDINA, Hip-hop & funk cuts , £4, £3 b4 11pm RESIDENTS, ANTICS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock, emo, TECHNICAL RESISTANCE, RED ALERT, SEQUENTIAL punk & metal, Free VS. OBSCENE DJS, OBSCENE BATTLE OF THE DJS, PUBLIC, DARK PLANET OPEN MUSIC, BARAKA, Come COCTEAU LOUNGE, Drum & bass, £5, £3 b4 12am DJ PAPI & ALEX GATO , PARTY NIGHT, EL BARRIO, Salsa play your vinyl, CDs, iPod, mp3 player or laptop, Free RESIDENTS, DELICIOUS, THE BONGO CLUB, Strictly hip night with free classes from 10pm, Free RESIDENTS, RETRIBUTION, STUDIO 24, Goth music for the hop & RnB, Free MR. JINX, THE DIAMOND DICE, MASSA, Hip hop, RnB old, £5, £3 students GARETH CRUIKSHANK, BABES & SPANKY, SATURDAY & grime, £5 DJ STUART JOHNSTON, FRUNT, THE LIQUID ROOM, CIRCUS, RED, A Snatch style affair, Free ERIK D’VIKING & ASTROBOY, SATURDAY NIGHT FISH House music all night long, Free FRY, THE JAZZ BAR, Live music from Gecko 3, £5, free b4 NICK A.K.A. & THE DALEK, INDIE MIX, PIVO CAFFE, 11.30pm Indie, alt, Mashup & bootlegs, Free RESIDENTS, SEITEKI SATURDAYS, TOKYO, Funky house, FRYER & GINO, MOTHERFUNK, OPAL LOUNGE, Original £6 soul, funk, disco, latin & hip hop, Free JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SOPHISTIFUNK, CITY, RESIDENTS, REWIND, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, 100% upfront RnB House remixes, funky RnB & bootlegs, £8 (£4) & hip hop, £2, ladies free b4 12am DENNIS PROBERT & YOGI HAUGHTON, SOULCIAL, RESIDENTS, SPITFIRES SOCIAL CLUB, RED, Indie social BAR 99, Early soul session, Free club, Free LES BOF!, SUITE 69, HENRYS CELLAR, French pop, £5 (£4) EDINBURGH LOCALS, SPLIT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Blend of RESIDENTS, TEASE AGE, CITRUS CLUB, All things rock, house, techno, drum & bass, breakbeat, healthy midmotown, alternative & soul, £5, free b4 11.30pm week rave, Free

TUES 15 MAY

LIFESTYLE

LISTINGS EDINBURGH CLUBS

JACEK ZAMOJSKI & GUESTS, POLYPHONIC SOCIAL CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Electric mash up dance grooves, Free BRIAN SHRENTER, STEVEN FOULDS & BROKEN CHANNEL, RED STAR INSTITUTE, RED, Local house & techno, Free

RESIDENTS, SALSA DISCO, CUBA NORTE, Salsa dance & tasty tapas, Free

GREENSKEEPERS, SOLESCIENCE BIRTHDAY PART.2, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Stage-show Chicago house, £7, £5

b4 12am

GARETH SOMERVILLE, FRAZER MCGLINCHEY & GUESTS, SOULED OUT, OPAL LOUNGE, Soul, disco & dance, £3, free b4 12am

THE CUBAN BROTHERS, SNATCH SOCIAL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Messy night guaranteed at eclectic student bash,

£5 (£4), £3 members

JEZ HILL, STILETTO, LULU, Electro-pop, classics & disco, £5, free b4 10pm

PSIDREAM, TECHNICAL RESISTANCE, THE BONGO CLUB, Drum & bass, £tbc

SCOTT GRANGER, TOKYO KYOUYOU, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3)

RESIDENTS, TRAFFIC, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Indie & alternative, Free

THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Jazz to breakbeats, Free

FRI 18 MAY

STEVE PORTER (EQ RECORDINGS) & RESIDENTS, BEATROOT, COCTEAU LOUNGE, Techno & electrohouse, £tbc RESIDENTS, BIG TOE’S HI-FI, WEE RED BAR, Reggae, dub, dancehall, hip hop, £5 (£4) RESIDENTS, CLIMAX, RED, Detroit, Chicago sounds, £3

SCOTT ELLIOT, CRAIG GEE & GAV GRANT ON ROTATION, CLUB CLASSICS, PIVO CAFFE, Classic club music from the past 15 years, Free

DJ NICKI & GUESTS, CULT, PO NA NA, Hip hop, disco, funk & RnB, £5, £2.50 b4 11pm

RESIDENTS, DE LUXE, HUDSON CLUB, Funky house with resident DJs, £3, free b4 12am

RESIDENTS, EVOL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie, hip hop, alternative beats & rock, £5

KISSY SELL OUT, FAKE, STUDIO 24, Alternative, £8 (£7) WET DOG, FAST, THE BONGO CLUB, Punk, disco, electro, garage, danceparty, £5

RESIDENTS, FRONTLINE SELECTA, STEREO, Reggae,

LISTINGS

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

CARGO

CARGO OFFERS HEARTY FARE THAT WOULD BE OF A RESTAURANT STANDARD IF IT WASN’T FOR SMALL BUT CONSISTENT MISTAKES

Cargo is billed as a ‘corporate’ venue. Accordingly the interior architecture is modern and grand, if slightly brutal in style, and there is inoffensive (for which read dire) art on the walls – in this case pixellated Edinburgh roofscapes in shades of blue-grey. The atmosphere is friendly and the service attentive, though a few housekeeping issues come up this evening: when you take your Mum out to dinner, you don’t expect her to come back from the loos complaining that one had no paper and the other had no seat. I don’t know how she resolved that one...

were char-grilled king prawns for a main, and dishes with a number of ingredients tended to miss out some of the flavours (a prawn, crab and asparagus risotto had little by way of crab; and mussels were the only distinctive ingredient in a seafood chowder).

Cargo offers hearty fare that would be of a restaurant standard if it wasn’t for small but consistent mistakes. Peking duck spring rolls were tasty but too chewy, as

129 FOUNTAINBRIDGE

If you’re drinking in this canal-side location the menu might well tempt you, but don’t head there specially. [RJ Thomson] TWO COURSES FROM £12.50, THREE COURSES FROM £17. EDINBURGH WWW.CARGOCORPORATE.CO.UK

EDINBURGH CLUBS (£2), free b4 1am with PIYP

FUSING THE BEST OF ASIAN CUISINE INTO A COMPACT YET WIDELY VARIED MENU... NEW DISHES INCLUDE SHIITAKE NOODLE CAKES AND CHILLI MANGO DUCK

CAFÉ MAO Located in the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City, Café Mao has become one of the most reputable and established restaurants in the area. Easy to spot due to the outsized Andy Warhol-style portraits of Chairman Mao prominently displayed in the window, Café Mao has gained a reputation for its lively atmosphere and delicious Thai fusion cuisine. The influences range from Japan to India and everywhere roughly inbetween, fusing the best of Asian styles into a compact yet varied menu. New dishes include shiitake noodle cakes and chilli mango duck and other mouth-watering options include the teriyaki salmon and five spice chicken. The Thai rare beef salad is excellent and even a dish as basic as chicken lemongrass salad manages to possess a unique spark.

The food is fresh, fast and cooked to order and with the open plan kitchen you can watch your meal being prepared in front of you. There is also an intriguing drinks list with fresh, healthy fruit drinks and delicious smoothies with flavours including honey and banana and mango and guava. On the whole, Café Mao is a unique and exciting venue and an ideal place for couples or people after fresh and delicious food. With its stylish surroundings, energetic staff and inimitable menu it will probably not be long before there is a Mao establishment in every major city. [Neil Whiting] 84 BRUNSWICK STREET , MERCHANT CITY GLASGOW, 0141 564 5161

MASTERS AT WORK, FIRST RATE, SUBCLUB DJS, MARCO BERNARDI & MUCH MORE,THE WEE CHILL,GLASGOW SCIENCE CENTRE,Wee holiday festival,£22 NEIL WYPER,THE BUNKER BAR,New & old rock &

photo: Derek Mark Chapman

GIVE US YOUR REVIEW OF THE BARS FEATURED HERE EVERY ISSUE AND BE IN WITH A CHANCE TO WIN A CASE OF MILLER GENUINE DRAFT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR EVERY MONTH FOR A YEAR. THERE IS ONE WAY TO REVIEW A BAR... THEN THERE IS THE MILLER WAY - WITH YOU TELLING US WHERE IT’S AT...

COMPETITION your free time, we have hunted high and low through Scotland’s city-scapes, to bring a bit of sparkle back into your social life; these places are perfect for entertaining special friends, and meeting new ones. Not only do we review the drinks, food and entertainment, but more importantly, the atmosphere, the clientele and those particular details that make these bars unique.

OK, so there is one way to review a bar .. then there is The Miller Way - with you telling us where it’s at.. For your chance to win a case of Miller Genuine Draft delivered to your door every month for a year, simply log on to www.skinnymag.co.uk/whereitsat and give us your review. To win, tell us about the clientele, the atmos-

OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Folk, £4

PUBLIC, DARK PLANET OPEN MUSIC, BARAKA, Come

TUE 29 MAY

TWO COURSES AROUND £15

phere, any conversation openers you heard (or used) and your magic moment. It’s easy, just tell us about it.

INSIDE: Outdoor seating or an open fire. Come rain or

with a giant south-facing window. Open and stylish without being cold.

shine, it’s a cosy spot. There’s also leather-studded, booth-style seating. Rather swish.

PROVISIONS: On a sunny day it’s all about a classy

PROVISIONS: What would you like? Nice beers in

cold lager and an outside table.

stock, surprisingly varied menu, with good prices.

RESIDENTS, INDI-GO, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie & alternaWARNER POWERS & CLAUDIO, INSOMNIA, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, Fresh house tunes each week, Free

nineties youth club disco, Free

photo: Jethro Collins

photo: Jim Law

0141 221 1144

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

JOHN TOKYOBLU, DISUKO, TOKYO, Upfront disco, latin

RESIDENTS, JAM FRIDAY, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Pop &

£3, free b4 11pm

ALAN JOY & BRIAN DEMPSTER, MINGIN, STUDIO 24, Chunky house, £5

house with live percussion & sax from Pepe & saXingh, £3 (£2), free b4 11pm PEAS & DJG, FRESHMODE, CITY CAFÉ (DOWNSTAIRS), Hip hop, breaks, funk & open mic, Free

punk, rock, retro & a tequila girl, £2 Free

residents, £5

UID ROOM, Weekly dance club, £4 (£2), £1 Centro card

pop & glam, £4

STUDIO 24, Funky techno & breaks, £5

LE RENO AMPS & ACTRESS HANDS, SCOTTISH HOBO SOCIETY (LIVE), THE BONGO CLUB, Alternative music for

special wooden dancefloor, £5, £4 b4 9.30pm

justified sinners, £3

KINKY AFRO DJS, PLASTIC SOUL DJS, TROUBLE DJS, MARTIN JAY, D.E.K., SCOTTISH FREESTYLERS’ CONVENTION, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Soul, dance, new wave pop & rare grooves from some of the most forwardthinking DJs in Scotland, £6 (£5)

JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SHAKE, SHANGHAI (UNDERNEATH LE MONDE), House, soulful & funky, £3

RESIDENTS, SIENTELO!, EL BARRIO, Latin America music mixed with chart tunes, Free

SOUNDPROOF DJS, SOUNDPROOF OPEN DECKS, JASON BRUNTON & SHARI VARI DJS, SHARI VARI VS. BARAKA, Open decks night, Free IRIDTE, THE VAULTS/NICOL EDWARDS, Machine funk soul, £5 HEY ZEUS! DJS, SQUID CRYSTAL SUNDAYS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Live music, Free RESIDENTS, TOKYOBLU, EGO, House, £10 (£5) RESIDENTS, UNKNOWN PLEASURES, TEVIOT UNION, Indie FISHER & PRICE, MISS CHRIS & MARTIN VALENTINE, TASTE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Legendary gay-friendly club, £8 club, £3 (£2) (£6), £5 b4 11.30pm RESIDENTS, VAPORS!, WEE RED BAR, Hip hop, funk, MISS CHRIS, TASTE FOREPLAY, BARAKA, Pre-taste, Free disco breaks, £5, £4 b4 12am LONDON ELECKTRICITY (DJ SET), XPLICIT, THE BONGO RANDOM & LEATHERFACE, VELVET, STUDIO 24, Gay

THURS 31 MAY

THURS 3 MAY

SAT 5 MAY

THE PIG,Indie & rock ‘n’ roll,Free

CLUB, All proceeds go to rural schools in Kenya, £10 (£5)

hop for under 18s only (14-17), £5

RESIDENTS, ALTER EGO, PO NA NA, DJ Diverse with indie, RESIDENTS, ALLSORTS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Chart,

less classics, £3, free b4 12am

rock n roll & electro, £5 (£3)

cheese & party, £2, free b4 12am

hip hop, £4 (£3)

Free

future electronic classics, £4.99, free b4 11pm

B-SIDES & BOOTROSS ROCK, STIR FRIED, THE OUTHOUSE, Pre-club with indie & rock, Free

RESIDENTS, TOASTER, CITRUS CLUB, Breaks & Bobs, £3, free b4 11.30pm

DJ NU-CLEAR , TOXIK, OPIUM, New & old metal & hard rock, Free

GARY MAC & GUESTS, WE ARE … ELECTRIC, CABARET VOLTAIRE, House, electro, tech-house & breaks with ro-

tating guests in the back, £2, free b4 12am/members RESIDENTS, BARAKA, Funk, soul, disco, dancehall & reggae, Free BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Live music, Free

MAKOSA, DJ MAKA, AFRICAN NIGHT, THE BONGO

DJ LUCKY LUCIANO, CLASS!, SUBWAY COWGATE, Vin-

DJ NORMSKI,FOREPLAY,BOHO,Funk, electro & house,£3 tage cheese, student anthems & requests, £2, £1 students, free b4 12am FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMOVES,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts, Record Playerz RESIDENTS, GENETIC, CITRUS CLUB, Night of rock anin the bar,£4 (£3)

thems, £2

(£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

all night, £3 (£2)

JOHN,FREAKSCENE,POLAR BAR (ABC),Indie classics,£4

KIPP$ & MASTER CAIRD, GRAFITTI, MEDINA, Party tunes

D_FADE, DUNCAN HARVEY & BOOM MONK BEN,THE RESIDENTS, HOUSEBOUND, EGO, Sexy house, funky stuff, electro & disco with DJs from Edinburgh & GlasFUNKY PRECEDENT,SAINT JUDE’S,Hip hop, funk, soul & motown,Free

MARK ROBB, TANIA & FRIENDS,PLASTIC FUNK,BAMBOO,Funk, soul & rock n roll,£4 (£3), free b4

gow, £5

DIE DIE DIE, I FLY SPITFIRES, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Indie club, £5

beats, Free

JACEK ZAMOJSKI & GUESTS, POLYPHONIC SOCIAL CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Electric mash up dance grooves, Free RESIDENTS, SALSA DISCO, CUBA NORTE, Salsa dance &

RADIOMAGNETIC DJS,RADIOMAGNETIC,GAZELLE,Fun GARETH SOMERVILLE, FRAZER MCGLINCHEY & GUESTS, SOULED OUT, OPAL LOUNGE, Soul, disco & k, soul & latin grooves,Free dance, £3, free b4 12am HI-FI SEAN & HUSHPUPPY,RECORD PLAYERZ,THE VIC SNATCH RESIDENTS, SNATCH SOCIAL, THE LIQUID BAR,Disco electro,£4 (£3) RESIDENTS,RUBBERMENSCH,ABC2,A night for indie lov- ROOM, Messy night guaranteed at eclectic student bash, ers,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric. DJ BILLY,SKINT,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Metal, hip hop & rock,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with PIYP

PIYP

CJ,THE BUNKER BAR,Grunge & new rock,Free

LIFESTYLE

cheese, £2

RESIDENTS, CURIOUS? SUNDAY JOINT, THE BONGO

MASH & JON PLEASED, ROLLER DISCO, LULU, Past &

GARAGE,Chart anthems,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with

CLUB, Diverse selection of music, free internet & games,

TONY MCHUGH, GROOVEJET, TOKYO, Dancefloor hits,

Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD DJ RICCI,GOSSIP,SSU,Gay/mixed night,Free RESIDENTS,JOINTS & JAMS,CUBE,The Longest running RnB night in Glasgow,£3 (£2) CHRIS TRAYNOR,MJAM SALSA,LIPTONS,Salsa classes from 8pm, free club from 10.15pm,Free RESIDENTS,OCTOPUSSY,THE ARCHES,Student night with a bouncy castle, swimming pool?, jacuzzi?? & wedding chapel???,£4 RESIDENTS,TONGUE IN CHEEK,BAMBOO,Lounge, RnB & indie,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with matric ANDY & BRIAN,WHATEVER,THE GARAGE,Chart music,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP MARTIN BATE (BEAT 106),THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free

RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian

GERRY LYONS & BRIAN,THE THURSDAY CLUB,THE

GO TO WWW.SKINNYMAG.CO.UK/WHEREITSAT FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN FREE BEER FOR A YEAR

£6

DALE LUSH & FRIENDS, BOOTY 4TH BIRTHDAY, MEDINA,

RESIDENTS, THE PIT, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock & metal,

tasty tapas, Free

0131 662 8860

Soul, funk, disco & chart, £5

IAN ANDERSON & BISCUIT D, BACK TO BASICS, PIVO

tive music,£4 (£2), free b4 12am with PIYP

11pm/12.30am with matric

157-159 NORTH STREET, CHARING CROSS, GLASGOW,

house, £4, £3 b4 11pm

DOUBLE D & ISLA, GET FUNK’D, MEDINA, Hip hop to

RESIDENTS, SALSA CARIBE!, THE LOT, Salsa DJs on the

RESIDENTS, LUCKYME, CITY CAFÉ, Hip hop, soul & off

2 WEST CAUSEWAYSIDE, SOUTH SIDE, EDINBURGH,

CAFFE, Retro dance, 90s & disco, Free

RESIDENTS, FRONTLINE SELECTA, STEREO, Reggae,

club classics, £tbc

LISA LITTLEWOOD, HOT SUSHI, TOKYO, Funky house &

hop to nasty electro via the rest,£3, £2 matric. card DJ EUAN,ON DEMAND,THE SHED,Requests by text message at this interactive club night,£3

Look at me like this instead” (Think an orangutan with serpent tongue). “Oh you cheeky devil, behave yourself.”

dancehall, dub & ragga, Free

RESIDENTS, EVOL, THE LIQUID ROOM, Indie, hip hop,

JAMIE BALL, KEV FRASER & FLIPMODE, RESTLESS,

MAGIC MOMENT: At a recent gig, Boom Monk Ben

No, I didn’t say you’re fat. I meant you’re, you’re, attractive…”

alternative beats & rock, £5

mix of personal favourites, £3, free b4 11pm RESIDENTS, BABY DOLL, PO NA NA, Funky house, £5, free b4 11.30pm

OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Psych, rock, dub, electronics, £3

house, Free

cats.

OPENER: “Would you stop looking at me like that…

SUN 6 MAY CHRIS (FAST), CRAIG (RIDE THIS TRAIN), THE PLAGUE, EAST COAST POP ART EXPERIMENTAL CLUB, RESIDENTS, ALL BACK TO MINE, OPAL LOUNGE, Eclectic

RESIDENTS, KAYOS, OPIUM, Rock, metal & indie, Free TRENDY WENDY, PLAYGIRL MANSIONS, LULU, Chart

gathering in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Edinburgh’s ‘Human Be-In’ is less psychedelic but just as much fun. Skinny folks are known to hang there, doing their Skinny thing.

OPENER: “All those curves, and me with no brakes.

resident DJs, £3, free b4 12am

RESIDENTS, PLANET EARTH, CITRUS CLUB, 80s tunes with

TIFF PEACHES, PROVINYLIST KARIM ILL TECHNIQUE & GROUNDSKEEPER GC,HOMEBREW,THE SUB CLUB,Hip

as a surprise…

RESIDENTS, VEGAS, EGO, Flamboyance & retro, £10 (£7) GARETH SOMERVILLE (ULTRAGROOVE) & JONNIE LYTHE PUNTERS, BLACK TAPE, HENRYS CELLAR, Email hello@ LEY (SCRATCH), ASSEMBLY BAR, House to hip hop, Free blacktapeclub.co.uk to get involved, £5 (£4) DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE SCOTT ELLIOT, CRAIG GEE & GAV GRANT ON ROTA- & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, TION, CLUB CLASSICS, PIVO CAFFE, Classic club music £7, free b4 12am from the past 15 years, Free EPIC 26, JACKAL, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Indie rock & DJ NICKI & GUESTS, CULT, PO NA NA, Hip hop, disco, funky house DJs, £4 funk & RnB, £5, £2.50 b4 11pm RESIDENTS, OPAL LOUNGE, Saturday night soiree, £6, RESIDENTS, DE LUXE, HUDSON CLUB, Funky house with free b4 12am

FRI 4 MAY

DEREK MARTIN & STUART JOHNSTON, FRICTION, LIQ-

CLIENTELE: Everybody seems relaxed and groovy. Cool

MAGIC MOMENT: Friendly bar service. Still comes

TAIRE, Chicago house, £8 (£6)

RESIDENTS, NIGHT TRAIN, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT),

CLIENTELE: Named after a pre-Summer of Love

pulled out Do The Whirlwind by Architecture in Helsinki and in walked tray after tray of free snacks and nibbles. When was the last time you were given free mini spring rolls and pizza at a gig?

MISS HONEY DIJON, ULTRAGROOVE, CABARET VOL-

SOOM T, ACTIONGROUP, THE REMEDIES, DEMOCRAZY, THE BONGO CLUB, Edinburgh bands, Free BREADMARK & JOHNNY CASHBACK, THE GOOD GROOVE, PIVO CAFFE, Funk, afrobeat, latin breaks &

WED 30 MAY

bers

INSIDE: One of those long, high bars, spacious and

motown, alternative & soul, £5, free b4 11.30pm

RESIDENTS, MISFITS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Indie, electro,

£5 (£4)

WASTED LITTLE DJS, JERK ALERT, RED, Indie meets early

JIM GELLATLY,CLUB NME,THE ARCHES,Indie club,£5 (£3) MCSLEAZY (XFM),CRUSH,QMU,Bootlegs,£2, £1 mem-

THE IVY, GLASGOW

BLUE FLINT & THE GREENMAN BLUEGRASS BOYS,

DJ JEZ HILL, CHAMBLES, OPAL LOUNGE, Funk & chart,

LISA LITTLEWOOD & GRAEME FERGUSON,T. I.T.,KARBON,Dance,£5 (£4)

CRAIG MCGEE,CIGARETTES & F**K ALL,THE BUTTERFLY &

HUMAN BE-IN, EDINBURGH

WES 2 MAY

tive, £2, £1 students

DJ DEC,DELIVERANCE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2, Alterna-

The Skinny strives to bring something special to its dedicated readers, and this year, every issue, the Miller Genuine Draft Where it’s At feature will bring you one of each of the cities’ most unique and funky bars, plus the chance to win free beer delivered to your door for a year. Now don’t say we don’t spoil you. In order to bring you something different to enjoy in

punk & metal, Free

MON 28 MAY

GARAGE,Inflatables & groovy tunes,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with PIYP RESIDENTS,KALEIDOSCOPE LIVE,ABC2,Old school rock & roll, soul, funk, from the 1960’s-1980’s ,£3, free with matric. After 12am RESIDENTS,KILLER KITSCH,THE BUFF CLUB,Electroclash & that,£4 (£3) MARTIN BATE (XFM),REVOLUTION,QMU,Rock & punk ,£2, £1 members PUNTERS,ROCK KARAOKE,THE CATHOUSE,Karaoke to rock,Free b4 12am

MISSION STATEMENT

breakbeats, Free

RESIDENTS, ANTICS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock, emo,

play your vinyl, CDs, iPod, mp3 player or laptop, Free electronica,Free RESIDENTS, DELICIOUS, THE BONGO CLUB, Strictly hip hop & RnB, Free MR. JINX, THE DIAMOND DICE, MASSA, Hip hop, RnB NORMSKI & ZEUS,BURN,THE BUFF CLUB,Glasgow institition & grime, £5 playing underground classics,£5 (£3), free for pub/club DJ STUART JOHNSTON, FRUNT, THE LIQUID ROOM, House workers music all night long, Free RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian NICK A.K.A. & THE DALEK, INDIE MIX, PIVO CAFFE, Indie, Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD alt, Mashup & bootlegs, Free RESIDENTS,FRESH,THE POLO LOUNGE,Popular gay venue FRYER & GINO, MOTHERFUNK, OPAL LOUNGE, Original with house & indie,£5 soul, funk, disco, latin & hip hop, Free DJ ANDY & DJ DEC,POPTIMISM/ROCKTIMISM,THE RESIDENTS, REWIND, PRIVE’ COUNCIL, 100% upfront RnB GARAGE,Pop & rock,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with & hip hop, £2, ladies free b4 12am PIYP RESIDENTS, SPITFIRES SOCIAL CLUB, RED, Indie social club, Free EDINBURGH LOCALS, SPLIT, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Blend of ANDY WILSON & DJ KASH,ALL STAR,BAMBOO,Funk & house, techno, drum & bass, breakbeat, healthy midhip pop,£4 (£2), free b4 11pm/12.30am with matric week rave, Free MUNGO’S HI FI,DUB & GRUB,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF JAMES LONGWARTH, VIBE, EGO, Weekly gay club playART,Snacks, meals & Mungo’s Hi Fi,Free ing chart, £4 FOLKS,FOLK IT!,THE MIXING ROOMS,Up & coming folk DAVA & HOBBES, LULU, Eclectic set, £4, free b4 11pm musician session,Free RESIDENTS,FUNKY LUV,PLAY,Driving vocal house,£5, £3 THE SHIP OF FOOLS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Live music, Free NUS

NAUGHTY NICOLA,INFLATABLE FUN,THE

Where it’s at...

TUES 1 MAY

www.skinnymag.co.uk

£5 (£4), £3 members

JEZ HILL, STILETTO, LULU, Electro-pop, classics & disco, £5, free b4 10pm

SCOTT GRANGER, TOKYO KYOUYOU, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & hip hop, £4 (£3)

RESIDENTS, TRAFFIC, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, Indie & alternative, Free

THE DEPARTURE LOUNGE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Jazz to

LISTINGS

LIFESTYLE RESTAURANTS & BARS

CLUB, Drum & bass, £10

TROUBLE DJS, ASSEMBLY BAR, Big gay disco to hip hop & broken beats, Free

DANNY TENNENT, GARETH SOMERVILLE, ISLA BLIGE & THE BLOND FLASH, LULU, Soul, funk, house & latin, £7, free b4 12am

girlie night, £6, £4 b4 10.30pm

RANDOM & JEREMY, ZEUS, STUDIO 24, Gay night, £6, £4 b4 10.30pm

MON 7 MAY

RESIDENTS, HAPPY MONDAYS, PO NA NA, Night for students & Industry folk, indie, rock & funk, £3, free

RESIDENTS, THE MALTINGS, Open Mic, Free for students/industry JEZ HILL, OPAL LOUNGE, Upfront & classic tunes, £6, free JEZ HILL, LA VIDA, LULU, Classic pop & funk anthems, b4 12am

RITCHIE RUFTONE & FRIENDS, 2HOT, EGO, RnB & hip

BEATSVILLE RECORDS, BEATSVILLE, HENRYS CELLAR, Live bands, £7

MANGOMAD & DJ DEFAULT, DUB2CLUB, PIVO CAFFE, Dance, indie, hip hop & breaks, Free

CHRIS & PAUL, THE EGG, WEE RED BAR, Indie, garage, punk, ska & more at the Art College’s long running institution, £5, £4 students/members RED6, GIVE IT SOME, THE BONGO CLUB, Funky 45s & soulful 7s, £6, £4 b4 12am MARK B & GUESTS, LIQUID SOUL, PO NA NA, Chirpy music, £6, £3 b4 11pm RESIDENTS, LOUNGE, LIBERTY’S BAR (HERIOT-WATT), Eclectic mix of tunes, Free NASTY P & CUNNIE, MUCH MORE, MEDINA, Hip-hop & funk cuts , £4, £3 b4 11pm DJ PAPI & ALEX GATO , PARTY NIGHT, EL BARRIO, Salsa night with free classes from 10pm, Free RESIDENTS, RETRIBUTION, STUDIO 24, Goth music for the old, £5, £3 students

GARETH CRUIKSHANK, BABES & SPANKY, SATURDAY CIRCUS, RED, A Snatch style affair, Free ERIK D’VIKING & ASTROBOY, SATURDAY NIGHT FISH FRY, THE JAZZ BAR, Live music from The Abdominal Showmen, £5, free b4 11.30pm

RESIDENTS, SEITEKI SATURDAYS, TOKYO, Funky house, £6

JOHN HUTCHISON (TOKYOBLU), SOPHISTIFUNK, CITY, House remixes, funky RnB & bootlegs, £8 (£4)

DENNIS PROBERT & YOGI HAUGHTON, SOULCIAL, BAR 99, Early soul session, Free

RESIDENTS, TEASE AGE, CITRUS CLUB, All things rock,

£5, free b4 10pm

JAMES COMBE, THE LATIN QUARTER, MEDINA, Salsa, funk & latin house, Free

RESIDENTS, MOJO, OPAL LOUNGE, Modern music & timeRESIDENTS, PONY CLUB, TOKYO, Funky house, RnB & RESIDENTS, ROCK KARAOKE, OPIUM, Rock Karaoke, Free

RESIDENTS & GUESTS, SHOWER OF BANJOS, OCTOPUS DIAMOND, Scottish, £3

ASTROBOY & BREADMARK, SOUNDS GOOD, PIVO CAFFE, Soul, jazz & funk, Free

DJ BEEFY & WOLFJAZZ, TRADE UNION, CABARET VOLTAIRE, Night for deserving bar & club staff, £2, £1 Trade

Union members/ECCF members

TUES 8 MAY

RESIDENTS, ANTICS, SUBWAY COWGATE, Rock, emo, punk & metal, Free

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

GERRY LYONS & BRIAN,THE THURSDAY CLUB,THE

KEV MCFARLANE, STEPHEN LEE & WOODY,KARBON SATURDAYS,KARBON,House & hip hop classics,£tbc MANASYT, DAVE TARRIDA, MONOXIANS,MONOX,S

GARAGE,Chart anthems,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with

OUNDHAUS,Tales of Ignorance album launch, techno &

PIYP

electro,£12

DJ BILLY,SKINT,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Metal, hip hop & rock,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with PIYP

CJ,THE BUNKER BAR,Grunge & new rock,Free

FRI 18 MAY

EUAN NEILSON,ABC FRIDAYS,ABC1,Genre mashup,£6 (£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

BARRY & BILLY,BALLBREAKER,THE CATHOUSE,Rock & metal,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30am with PIYP STEWART REID,BOOGIE DOWN,BLUU,Jazz, disco & house sounds,£5, free b4 11pm RESIDENTS,BROWN BAGGIN’ IT,THE GARAGE,Retro, britpop, alternative, chill, RnB & soul,£5 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with PIYP

RESIDENTS,COMPUTELOVE,THE MIXING ROOMS,Electronic sounds,Free

RESIDENTS,DEAF MONKEY,BLACKFRIARS,Disco

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS

DJ RICCI,GOSSIP,SSU,Gay/mixed night,Free RESIDENTS,JOINTS & JAMS,CUBE,The Longest running RnB night in Glasgow,£3 (£2)

CHRIS TRAYNOR,MJAM SALSA,LIPTONS,Salsa classes

from 8pm, free club from 10.15pm,Free RESIDENTS,NU-SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Fresh northern RESIDENTS,NEW FLESH,FURY MURRY’S,Rock, metal, punk, soul, jazz & funk featuring live percussion, classics down- rap, industrial & alternative music,£4, £2 from 10pm11pm, £1 with flyer/after 11pm stairs,£6 RESIDENTS,OPEN DEX,DEEP 6 (GUU),Bring your vinyl/CDs RESIDENTS,OCTOPUSSY,THE ARCHES,Student night with a bouncy castle, swimming pool?, jacuzzi?? & wedding if you think you can do better,£1, £2 non-members HARRI & DOM,SUBCULTURE,THE SUB CLUB,Weekly snap- chapel???,£4 shot of the ever-evolving house blueprint,£8, £5 b4 12am RESIDENTS,TONGUE IN CHEEK,BAMBOO,Lounge, RnB MARK DOG, SEROTONIC, MARC LOAGE, STU LAURIE & indie,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with matric ANDY & BRIAN,WHATEVER,THE GARAGE,Chart music,£5 & FUTURE ANALOGUE,TEK-KYO,THE Q CLUB,Hardstyle, (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP jumpstyle,£4 MARTIN BATE (BEAT 106),THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock RESIDENTS,VEGAS,THE FERRY,Neo-swing & retro,£9 (£7) RESIDENTS,VOODOO,THE CATHOUSE,Under-18 club with & indie,Free metal, emo & punk,£6 (£3) DJ TOAST & MASH,THE BUNKER BAR,Eclectic,Free RESIDENTS,*.*,THE BUFF CLUB,Rock’n’roll & northern BARRY & ANDY,THE CATHOUSE,All things rock,£6 (£5), soul,£3 free b4 12am with PIYP

THURS 24 MAY

DJ NAEEM & MIRRIRBAW,CHINAWHITE,Main room RnB & RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA RESIDENTS,ELECTROBALL,KARBON,80’s, nu-wave, rock classics, funky house in the Mao room,£10 SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance & & punk,£tbc music,£tbc PAUL NEEDLES,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free LAYO & BUSHWACKA,FAT,THE SUB CLUB,Breaks,£10 RESIDENTS,BABAZA,BELO,Hip hop with the funk,£6, PAUL CAWLEY & KARIM THE PROLISA LITTLEWOOD,FLUID,MAS,Funky house,£5 free b4 11pm VINYLIST,MACSORLEYS,Jazz band downstairs, eclectic RESIDENTS,FREAKMENOOVERS,RUST BAR,Early doors upstairs,Free RESIDENTS,CHIX ON DEX,CHINAWHITE,Rock, funkpunk beats,£5

serving of hip hop, funk, RnB & soul,Free

RESIDENTS,REPUBLIC BIER HALLE,Leftfield music & FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMENOOVERS,BLANK pizzas,Free

ET,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts,£6 (£4)

RESIDENTS,GOODFOOT,THE ADMIRAL,Northern soul, rare motown & funk,£5

GREENSKEPPERS, KRAFTY KUTS,MIXED BIZNESS,THE ARCHES,House & hip hop,£8

RESIDENTS,NOJ,POLAR BAR (ABC),No Music Policy,£6 (£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

GORDIE & JACK,OLD SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Old school tunes,£6

SUN 20 MAY

MR. CRAIG GRANT, LOUIS ABBOT & KENNY REID,BLOC + JAM,BLOC,Open mic,Free RESIDENTS,CLUB CUBA!,FAVELA,Latin rhythms,Free DJ RICHARD LEVINSON,CLUB PRIORY: RETOX ROOMS,BLANKET,RnB,£5 (£3) RESIDENTS,COLD NIGHT SONG,THE GOAT,Guests & DJs play acoustic gems,Free

ALI & GRAEME (SKYROCKET),OOFT DOMINIC MARTIN, KASH & MAX,DISCO PRECLUB,TERMINAL BAR,Electronic/dub,Free BADGER,BAMBOO,Classic house music all night long RESIDENTS,RED & GOLD ROOM,ARTA,Soul musak,£7, with other boogie next door,£5 (£3), free b4 10.30pm/

LIFESTYLE

LISTINGS GLASGOW CLUBS

& house all mixed by lovely ladies,£4, free b4 11pm

GORDIE & JACK,OLD SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Old school tunes,£6

ALI & GRAEME (SKYROCKET),OOFT PRECLUB,TERMINAL BAR,Electronic/dub,Free

JOSH WINK, RICARDO VILLALOBOS, LOCO DICE, DAMIAN LAZARUS, SLAM, WIGHNOMY BROTHERS,PRESSURE,THE ARCHES,Techno,£19 RESIDENTS,RED & GOLD ROOM,ARTA,Soul musak,£7, free b4 11pm

DJ HUSHPUPPY (ART SCHOOL) & CHRIS GEDDES (BELLE & SEBASTIAN),SOUND MUSEUM,BREL,Retro soul,Free

MARK ROBB,SPARKIES 45S,CAFÉ RIO,Jazz, funk & soul,Free

MR. LIVEWIRE & GARY CURLEY,STEREODOG,CHINAWHI TE,House,£8 (£5)

DJ PHIL,TFI FRIDAY,SSU,Chart,£2 after 5pm, free 4 students

GEOFF M, JUNIOR CAMPOS & MAX,TOXIC POP,BAMBOO,House music, hip hop & lounge,£5, free b4 11pm/12.30am students

MARTIN BATE (XFM),VICE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Indie rock party,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30pm with PIYP TAM COYLE,THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free

ROBBIE ROLEX & THE RADIO MAGNETIC SOUNDSYSTEM,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free GEORGE BOWIE,CUBE FRIDAYS,Urban tunes from Clyde

CRAIG MCGEE,CIGARETTES & F**K ALL,THE BUTTERFLY & 1,£5 (£3) THE PIG,Indie & rock ‘n’ roll,Free

JIM GELLATLY,CLUB NME,THE ARCHES,Indie club,£5 (£3) SAT 26 MAY, MCSLEAZY (XFM),CRUSH,QMU,Bootlegs,£2, £1 mem- GERRY LYONS,ABC SATURDAYS,ABC1,Soul, punk, rock bers

DJ NORMSKI,FOREPLAY,BOHO,Funk, electro & house,£3

FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMOVES,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts, Record Play-

erz in the bar,£4 (£3)

JOHN,FREAKSCENE,POLAR BAR (ABC),Indie classics,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

& indie dance,£7 (£5), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

DAVID SINCLAIR (KILLER KITSCH),ABC SATURDAYS,ABC2,Electro, house & pop,£7 (£5), free b4

GOODSTEAD - A NY STATE OF MIND HITHERTO RECENTLY THEY HAVE BEEN RUNNING KNITTING EVENINGS ACCOMPANIED BY DECKS, TUNES AND WINE

“I always wanted to be a Beastie Boy.” This, explains Ian Craigie, is where the inspiration for Goodstead can be traced back to. The self-assured stance and barefaced cheek of the Beasties has always been expressed in their look, and since the 80s the term ‘streetwear’ has expressed an interest in all things counter-culture, usually coupled with an unhealthy trainer obsession…

A wee wander through the new café Tinderbox on Ingram Street will lead you to the imaginative shop space of Hitherto. Primarily a shop and gallery, Hitherto is also a designer extension of Tinderbox, where you can enjoy your cherished cuppa in the heart of this design hub.

11.30pm with matric.

DJ AIDEN ,AUDIO,BLOC,House, techno & electro,Free LOOSE JOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS,BAD ROBOT,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Rock to techno &

breakbeats,£6 (£5), £2 GSA, free after 12am D_FADE, DUNCAN HARVEY & BOOM MONK RESIDENTS,BEDLAM,QMU,Goth, industrial, free b4 11pm BEN,THE FUNKY PRECEDENT,SAINT JUDE’S,Hip hop, funk, alternative,£tbc 12.30pm with matric SCOTT FRASER & PETER WALKER,SKIN DEEP,MAGGIE MARKY MARK,JUNK,THE BUFF CLUB,Jazz & funk featuring soul & motown,Free EGYPTIAN LOVER, JAMIE JUPITER, LUKE MAY’S BASEMENT,Deep house & techno,£5 TIFF PEACHES, PROVINYLIST KARIM ILL TECHNIQUE & EARGOGGLE,DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR,SOUNDHAUS,Sexy live percussion by Duffy,£3, free with matric DJ HUSHPUPPY (ART SCHOOL) & CHRIS GEDDES 808 electro,£14 (£12) THE ONLY JONES,PM PRODUCTIONS,BLACKFRIARS,Live GROUNDSKEEPER GC,HOMEBREW,THE SUB CLUB,Hip (BELLE & SEBASTIAN),SOUND MUSEUM,BREL,Retro hop to nasty electro via the rest,£3, £2 matric. card PAUL N’JIE (BEAT 106),DIRTY RECORDZ,GUU,Current band night,£6 soul,Free RESIDENTS,HORRORSHOW,FIREWATER,Indie, rock n roll, tunes, open decks downstairs,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm JD TWITCH & JG WILKES,OPTIMO,THE SUB MARK ROBB,SPARKIES 45S,CAFÉ RIO,Jazz, funk & punk & electro,£4 (£3), free b4 10.30pm MR. DIVINE & HUSHPUPPY,DIVINE!,THE VIC BAR,Northern CLUB,Maximum eclectic,£6 (£5) soul,Free soul, funk, ska & mod tunes,£6 (£5) RESIDENTS,SPANK,THE CATHOUSE,Rock, punk & dance,£4 RESIDENTS,LOLLIPOP,GUU,Pop, RnB & Indie ,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm MR. LIVEWIRE & GARY CURLEY,STEREODOG,CHINAW (£2), free b4 1am with PIYP RESIDENTS,GROOVEJET,MAS,Weekly house & RnB J-LIVE, SURFACE EMP,MIXED BIZNESS,THE SUB CLUB,Hip mix,£7 (£5) HITE,House,£8 (£5) NEIL WYPER,THE BUNKER BAR,New & old rock & hop,£10 DJ PHIL,TFI FRIDAY,SSU,Chart,£2 after 5pm, free 4 ROBBIE ROLEX & NEL,HIP DROP,BREL,Funk, soul, electro electronica,Free students DJ EUAN,ON DEMAND,THE SHED,Requests by text mes- & disco,Free LITTLE MAN TATE,TOXIC POP,BAMBOO,House music, sage at this interactive club night,£3 RESIDENTS,HOME COOKIN’,BELO,Urban music showhip hop & lounge,£7 (£5) NORMSKI & ZEUS,BURN,THE BUFF CLUB,Glasgow institition MARK ROBB, TANIA & FRIENDS,PLASTIC case,£7, free b4 11pm RUBENS, ENGINE 7, MOSCA,TRONIC,THE 13TH playing underground classics,£5 (£3), free for pub/club FUNK,BAMBOO,Funk, soul & rock n roll,£4 (£3), free b4 STEVIE SOLE MIDDLETON, DOMENIC MARTIN & SCOT11pm/12.30am with matric NOTE,Electronic Institution,£5 workers TIE B,HOMEGROWN,BAMBOO,House and smooth RnB, MARTIN BATE (XFM),VICE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Indie RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian RESIDENTS,PUMP UP THE JAM,SSU,Old school cheese, jazz & funk,£5, free b4 10.30pm/12.30am students live bands & funky house,£2 rock party,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30pm Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD with PIYP RADIOMAGNETIC DJS,RADIOMAGNETIC,GAZELLE,Fu KEV MCFARLANE, STEPHEN LEE & WOODY,KARBON RESIDENTS,FRESH,THE POLO LOUNGE,Popular gay venue DJ HYPE,XPLICIT,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Drum & nk, soul & latin grooves,Free with house & indie,£5 SATURDAYS,KARBON,House & hip hop classics,£tbc bass,£10 HI-FI SEAN & HUSHPUPPY,RECORD PLAYERZ,THE VIC DJ ANDY & DJ DEC,POPTIMISM/ROCKTIMISM,THE RESIDENTS,NU-SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Fresh northern TAM COYLE,THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free GARAGE,Pop & rock,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am BAR,Disco electro,£4 (£3) soul, jazz & funk featuring live percussion, classics downROBBIE ROLEX & THE RADIO MAGNETIC RESIDENTS,RUBBERMENSCH,ABC2,A night for indie lov- stairs,£6 SOUNDSYSTEM,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free ers,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric. DANNY WALSH, BAD BEHAVIOUR & MUCH MORE,SED GEORGE BOWIE,CUBE FRIDAYS,Urban tunes from Clyde RESIDENTS,12 HOUR TUESDAYS,SSU,Chart music & live DJ BILLY,SKINT,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Metal, hip hop & UCTION,BARROWLANDS,UK hardcore,£12 1,£5 (£3) rock,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with PIYP comedy,£2, free b4 3pm RESIDENTS,SOUND THE ALARM,BLACKFRIARS,Dancehall

Photo: Renzo Mazzolini

BANKSY, THE BEASTIE BOYS AND BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE HIGH STREET CHAINS HAVE ALL INFLUENCED GOODSTEAD, EDINBURGH’S OWN DEDICATED STREETWEAR BOUTIQUE.

“Yeah, I’m basically just doing this to feed my trainer habit. I’ve been an addict and now I’m the dealer!” But it’s not just sneaker-junkies the shop hopes to attract. “We were tired of mass produced fashion presented in a very generic way. We want to offer people something different,” co-owner Graham Blakey explains. “We want to be to Edinburgh what Colette is to Paris.” To emulate the ultimate avant-garde shopping experience is a bold ambition but it seems this pair have the dedication to pull it off.

Both have travelled across Europe to bring specific brands such as Aem Kei, WeSC, EIO, Gsus Sindustries, Pharmacy Industries and Trainerspotter to Goodstead. from the wallpaper to the welcome sign, this has been a labour of love. Graham continues: “Having taken such care in bringing in the brands we wanted, we felt it was important to present the clothes in a setting that served them justice.” Goodstead also houses an impressive range of works from young artists including Banksy, Antony Micallef, D*Face and Lucy Bennet. Walking into Goodstead feels more like entering a store in New York, Paris or London and this is what’s really exciting about the store’s arrival; finally Edinburgh can cater to its own in-crowd. [Caroline Hurley] GOODSTEAD IS SITUATED AT 55 BREAD STREET, EDINBURGH. OPEN MON-SAT 10AM-6PM AND SUN 12PM-6PM. WWW.GOODSTEAD.CO.UK

Hitherto opened their doors in November, and have since exhibited the work of over thirty emerging artists. Proprietor Krista Blake explains: “The situation of our venue might take customers a little longer to discover, but the variety of people wandering in makes it ideal. We can actively expose art and design works to all types of people and make it accessible to all ages. This variety continually drives us to construct our interior with the task in mind to try and find things that appeal to everybody.” On closer inspection of the trove of gifts, trinkets and art ware, it becomes obvious that the unusual collection includes not only original art

pieces and creative craft but also everyday items that, save for their striking design, would normally be ever so slightly mundane: soaps, candles, and even boxes of matches. Krista’s team collect unusual examples of art and design as they travel, and source their products from across the globe, meaning Glasgow shoppers are unlikely to see the products anywhere else. As evening draws in, another personality emerges when the Hitherto team play host to a collection of unusual and exciting events. Recently they have been running knitting evenings with handmade Japanese needles and hand-woven wool, all accompanied by decks, tunes and wine, as well as a performance from the National Jazz Trio of Scotland. For activity as well as a creative atmosphere, Hitherto is a space to watch. [Simone Gray] MCINTYRE HOGG BUILDING, 14/1 INGRAM STREET, GLASGOW. WWW.HITHERTOSHOP.CO.UK

MON 21 MAY

TUES 22 MAY

SAT 19 MAY

GERRY LYONS,ABC SATURDAYS,ABC1,Soul, punk, rock & indie dance,£7 (£5), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

DAVID SINCLAIR (KILLER KITSCH),ABC SATURDAYS,ABC2,Electro, house & pop,£7 (£5), free

b4 11.30pm with matric. DJ AIDEN ,AUDIO,BLOC,House, techno & electro,Free

LOOSE JOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS,BAD ROBOT,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Rock to techno &

breakbeats,£6 (£5), £2 GSA, free after 12am VICARIOUS BLISS,DEATH DISCO,THE ARCHES,Electro disco,£12 PAUL N’JIE (BEAT 106),DIRTY RECORDZ,GUU,Current tunes, open decks downstairs,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm

,RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance & music,£tbc

PIYP

ANDY WILSON & DJ KASH,ALL STAR,BAMBOO,Funk &

CJ,THE BUNKER BAR,Grunge & new rock,Free

hip pop,£4 (£2), free b4 11pm/12.30am with matric

FRI 25 MAY,EUAN NEILSON,ABC FRIDAYS,ABC1,Genre mash-up,£6 (£4), free b4

MUNGO’S HI FI,DUB & GRUB,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Snacks, meals & Mungo’s Hi Fi,Free

FOLKS,FOLK IT!,THE MIXING ROOMS,Up & coming folk musician session,Free

RESIDENTS,FUNKY LUV,PLAY,Driving vocal house,£5, £3 NUS

NAUGHTY NICOLA,INFLATABLE FUN,THE GARAGE,Inflatables & groovy tunes,£5 (£3), free b4

12am with PIYP

RESIDENTS,KALEIDOSCOPE LIVE,ABC2,Old school rock

& roll, soul, funk, from the 1960’s-1980’s ,£3, free with matric. After 12am MR. DIVINE & HUSHPUPPY,DIVINE!,THE VIC RESIDENTS,KILLER KITSCH,THE BUFF CLUB,Electroclash & BAR,Northern soul, funk, ska & mod tunes,£6 (£5) that,£4 (£3) RESIDENTS,GROOVEJET,MAS,Weekly house & RnB MARTIN BATE (XFM),REVOLUTION,QMU,Rock & punk mix,£7 (£5) ,£2, £1 members ROBBIE ROLEX & NEL,HIP DROP,BREL,Funk, soul, elec- PUNTERS,ROCK KARAOKE,THE CATHOUSE,Karaoke to tro & disco,Free rock,Free b4 12am RESIDENTS,HOME COOKIN’,BELO,Urban music show- LISA LITTLEWOOD & GRAEME FERGUSON,T. case,£7, free b4 11pm I.T.,KARBON,Dance,£5 (£4)

STEVIE SOLE MIDDLETON, DOMENIC MARTIN & SCOTTIE B,HOMEGROWN,BAMBOO,House and

WES 23 MAY

smooth RnB, jazz & funk,£5, free b4 10.30pm/ 12.30am students

tive music,£4 (£2), free b4 12am with PIYP

RESIDENTS,I LOVE THE GARAGE,THE

GARAGE,Classics,£7 (£5), £6 (£4) b4 12am

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

GERRY LYONS & BRIAN,THE THURSDAY CLUB,THE

GARAGE,Chart anthems,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with

DJ DEC,DELIVERANCE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2, AlternaRESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD

11.30pm with matric.

RESIDENTS,COMPUTELOVE,THE MIXING

beats,£7 (£6)

HARRI & DOM,SUBCULTURE,THE SUB CLUB,Weekly snapshot of the ever-evolving house blueprint,£8, £5 b4 12am RESIDENTS,VOODOO,THE CATHOUSE,Under-18 club with metal, emo & punk,£6 (£3) DJ TOAST & MASH,THE BUNKER BAR,Eclectic,Free BARRY & ANDY,THE CATHOUSE,All things rock,£6 (£5), free b4 12am with PIYP DJ NAEEM & MIRRIRBAW,CHINAWHITE,Main room RnB & classics, funky house in the Mao room,£10 PAUL NEEDLES,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free

PAUL CAWLEY & KARIM THE PROVINYLIST,MACSORLEYS,Jazz band downstairs, eclectic upstairs,Free

SUN 27 MAY

electro,£tbc

MR. CRAIG GRANT, LOUIS ABBOT & KENNY REID,BLOC + JAM,BLOC,Open mic,Free DJ RICHARD LEVINSON,CLUB PRIORY: RETOX ROOMS,BLANKET,RnB,£5 (£3) RESIDENTS,COLD NIGHT SONG,THE GOAT,Guests & DJs

serving of hip hop, funk, RnB & soul,Free

play acoustic gems,Free

RESIDENTS,FRIDAY STREET,BLACKFRIARS,Mod & soul

with other boogie next door,£5 (£3), free b4 10.30pm/ 12.30pm with matric MARKY MARK,JUNK,THE BUFF CLUB,Jazz & funk featuring live percussion by Duffy,£3, free with matric JD TWITCH & JG WILKES,OPTIMO,THE SUB CLUB,Maximum eclectic,£6 (£5) RESIDENTS,SPANK,THE CATHOUSE,Rock, punk & dance,£4

ROOMS,Electronic sounds,Free

FC KAHUNA,ELECTROBALL,KARBON,House & LISA LITTLEWOOD,FLUID,MAS,Funky house,£5 RESIDENTS,FREAKMENOOVERS,RUST BAR,Early doors

FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMENOOVERS,BLANKET DOMINIC MARTIN, KASH & MAX,DISCO BADGER,BAMBOO,Classic house music all night long ,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts,£6 (£4) nightclub,£5

RA X, JOEL ONGTHORNE,IRIDIUM,BASURA BLANCA,Electro, techno, hip hop,£7

RESIDENTS,NOJ,POLAR BAR (ABC),No Music Policy,£6 (£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

LISTINGS

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

RESIDENTS,BROWN BAGGIN’ IT,THE GARAGE,Retro,

by Stellar Feller

TAURUS Your star sign stone thing is emerald, which I bet you knew already. Still, you need me to tell you that if you eat too much by way of limes, peas or salad this month you’ll turn into a lawn. My job is about saving lives. What gets you up in the morning?

GEMINI Increasingly twins are in demand for porn. You could try to persuade people that as a Gemini you are, strictly speaking, twins, and then make a mint as a jazz flick star. How much you make is dependent on what shit you’re willing to do, and your cheekbones, same as all ‘professions’.

CANCER Cancer’s ruling planet is the moon. Fuck sake. Moon’s not a planet. It’s just a moon. Some moons are bigger than others, some moons are even bigger than some planets, but the fact is anyone who is a Cancer has fundamental identity issues.

LEO You Leos only ever want to be rich ‘n’ famous, which makes you decent company until you’re about twentyfive and then you start getting grouchy. I make forty grand a year spending half an hour a month doing this, but that’s ‘cause I’m psychic and you’re not.

VIRGO Virgos are all about being loved. I suppose that’s why they’re such creeps round the office, always egging for promotion or bullying folk. Virgos do life like virgins do sex.

LIBRA Libra is the star sign that sounds most like a kind of car, but there actually used to be a Ford Scorpio and Taurus, and Renault Clios. Don’t let this get to you personally. One day you can start your own car company that makes flying cars and call them Flying Libra Cars marks one, two, three etc.

SCORPIO It’s decision time. Are you going to bother reading on when I’m plainly chatting shit, or save a few precious seconds of your short time on the planet? It’s not exactly life and death. But then nothing ever really is (despite what they try to tell you). Now wasn’t that worth reading on for?

SAGITTARIUS On 13 May the stars align and you’ll be surprisingly good at bowls, despite never having played before, if you choose to play bowls that day. Otherwise the 18th is well placed for blackjack fortune. Do both and write and tell me how right I was.

CAPRICORN Don’t act the giddy goat. Cultivate your beard and rub shoulders with your enemies.

AQUARIUS In astrological terms it doesn’t matter a jot that your sign is first in the alphabet. It doesn’t really matter in any terms, except lexicographical ones. But it makes you a bit happy doesn’t it?

SIX SEXY CITIES IN SCOTLAND

britpop, alternative, chill, RnB & soul,£5 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with PIYP

RESIDENTS,COMPUTELOVE,THE MIXING ROOMS,Electronic sounds,Free

RESIDENTS,ELECTROBALL,KARBON,80’s, nu-wave, rock & punk,£tbc

by Jasper Hamill

LISA LITTLEWOOD,FLUID,MAS,Funky house,£5 RESIDENTS,FREAKMENOOVERS,RUST BAR,Early doors

THIS MONTH’S SIX CITIES DESIGN FESTIVAL, A KIND OF NATIONAL SHOW AND TELL, ENCOURAGES CULTURALLY ACTIVE TYPES TO GET OUT AND SEE WHAT WE’VE MADE. JASPER HAMILL INVESTIGATES Scotland now has style, or so the mantra goes. Gone are the days when the best commercial product a visitor could buy was a tin of shortbread fashioned into the shape of Mackintosh roses. Now an eager tourist can shop for jewellery, browse through work by Turner Prize-winni ng a r tists or even buy themself a carbon-neutral camper van. Look around a little, and Scotland’s vaunted creative confidence is very much in evidence. From a slow-ish start, Scotland now has the greatest concentration of creative industries in the UK outside the South East of England.

Six Cities design festival was the first attempt to harmonise the work taking place in Scotland’s major cities. Reflecting the different personalities of the six cities, its remit is to publicise the work of the creative industries, engage and educate the public by demystifying the processes behind design and raise Scotland’s international profile by showcasing talent under the Six Cities rubric. First minister Jack McConnell launched the £3million festival, driven by his recognition of the dual cultural and economic importance of the creative industries in Scotland. He said: “An investment in creativity is an investment that pays dividends. The creative industries support thousands of Scottish jobs and generate billions of pounds for our economy.” As opposed to initiatives like Scotland with Style, which primarily focuses on fashion, Six Cities has an unashamedly high-brow agenda blended with its commercial imperatives. Without diluting the intellectual content of its contributors’ work, it aims to engage the public with designers, architects and creative thinkers, asking and answering the question ‘what does design have to do with me’? More than this though, it wants to bring together design and business under the guidelines set by the 2005 Design to Business programme, which promotes design as an integral tool for Scottish industry. The creative cash-cow, the festival suggests, is waiting to be saddled. Scottish creatives have hardly been ignorant of the financial world, however. Trent Jennings, of eco-friendly furniture designers Blue Marmalade, recognises he is not “working in one of the international design hotspots,” but due to the benefits reaped from the new ease of global communications, can exhibit and sell all over the world. The attraction of Six Cities for Jennings, who sells

The eyes of commentators and buyers are ineluctably drawn towards Glasgow and Edinburgh, the antagonistically entwined centres of Scotland. Six Cities challenges this by holding some of the best shows outside the two cities. Inverness for instance, a fastness so far-flung it does not even appear on The Skinny’s distribution list, has a show of sustainable housing from the Finnish Museum of Architecture. Aberdeen will have a show called Extreme North, which will show how architects and designers have adapted their work to the extreme climates of Northern Europe. Even world-renowned design firm Timorous Beasties are stepping outside their usual stomping ground, hosting a show called Peacock Amongst the Ruins in Dundee. Known globally for their provocative Glasgow Toile, which replaces the pastoral imagery of 18th century French wallpaper with scenes of destitution, drug-taking and architecture, they want to give the Dundonian public a whistle-stop tour through their slant on the history of interior design. They, more than any other company, typify the view of design as a buyable art, straddling the divide between commercial viability and artistic blue-sky thinking. Surely the sort of image the organisers of Six Cities want to portray to the world. In an age of carbon cost juggling and consumer guilt, it makes sense to engage with what’s happening in your own backyard. A situation like that of Blue Marmalade, where overseas customers buy more than domestic customers, seems not only undesirable, but scandalous. What Six Cities seems to be calling for is a situation where Scottish consumers buy locally designed products whilst at the same time those products are sold internationally. It’s a noble goal, possibly even a naïve one considering the price difference between cheap, mass produced tat and well-designed products. But it’s a start, and that’s something to celebrate.

SUN 13 MAY

LORY D & AUTOMAT,SEISMIC,BLACKFRIARS,Jackin’ techno & electro,£8

THE MEXICOS & GUESTS,SOS 1ST BIRTHDAY BASH,RAFA CLUB,Swedish pop,£4 DJ HUSHPUPPY (ART SCHOOL) & CHRIS GEDDES (BELLE & SEBASTIAN),SOUND MUSEUM,BREL,Retro

HITE,House,£8 (£5)

dance,£4 (£2), free b4 1am with PIYP NEIL WYPER,THE BUNKER BAR,New & old rock & electronica,Free

GEOFF M, JUNIOR CAMPOS & MAX,TOXIC POP,BAMBOO,House music, hip hop & lounge,£5, free b4 11pm/12.30am students

MARTIN BATE (XFM),VICE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Indie rock party,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30pm with PIYP TAM COYLE,THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free

ROBBIE ROLEX & THE RADIO MAGNETIC SOUNDSYSTEM,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free GEORGE BOWIE,CUBE FRIDAYS,Urban tunes from Clyde 1,£5 (£3)

LOOSE JOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS,BAD ROBOT,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Rock to techno & breakbeats,£6 (£5), £2 GSA, free after 12am

EATING OUT

dark alternative,£4 (£3)

RESIDENTS,FREEFALL,THE ARCHES,Trance & house,£tbc RESIDENTS,GROOVEJET,MAS,Weekly house & RnB mix,£7 (£5)

Old faves in Scotland include offal boiled in a stomach, lager like stale rain-water and chips of various sorts. Highland Cows are nice, but I couldn’t eat a whole one.

ROBBIE ROLEX & NEL,HIP DROP,BREL,Funk, soul, electro & disco,Free

RESIDENTS,HOME COOKIN’,BELO,Urban music showcase,£7, free b4 11pm

STEVIE SOLE MIDDLETON, DOMENIC MARTIN & SCOTTIE B,HOMEGROWN,BAMBOO,House and smooth RnB, jazz & funk,£5, free b4 10.30pm/ 12.30am students

PISCES The one thing that’s better about living with your girlfriend compared to living with your brother: uncontested sock ownership. You have to take the smooth with the rough.

RESIDENTS,I LOVE THE GARAGE,THE

GARAGE,Classics,£7 (£5), £6 (£4) b4 12am

RADIOACTIVE MAN,INNER CITY ACID,SOUNDHAUS,Brekas, electro & techno,£11 (£9) KEV MCFARLANE, STEPHEN LEE & WOODY,KARBON SATURDAYS,KARBON,House & hip hop classics,£tbc ALAN OLDHAM, MONOCHROME, STICK 430, SEAN MATTHEWS,NOISE POLLUTION,MAGGIE MAY’S

ARIES Your birthday’s miles off, and so’s Christmas. Your best bet is to save up, never go out and don’t use a bank account, what with internet fraud and tax and shit - just pile it under the bed and count it loads.

BASEMENT,Techno & electro,£8

RESIDENTS,NU-SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Fresh northern soul, jazz & funk featuring live percussion, classics downstairs,£6 RESIDENTS,OPEN DEX,DEEP 6 (GUU),Bring your vinyl/ CDs if you think you can do better,£1, £2 non-members HARRI & DOM,SUBCULTURE,THE SUB CLUB,Weekly snapshot of the ever-evolving house blueprint,£8, £5 b4 12am

Joey Ramone, Taurus

10 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

Dimensions of Design

Peacock Among The Ruins by ‘Toile De Jouy’

LIFESTYLE

MADAME S, ZDARR DEEJAY & DJ BITCH,UTTER GUTTER,CLASSIC GRAND,Gay friendly disco,£10 RESIDENTS,VOODOO,THE CATHOUSE,Under-18 club with

www.skinnymag.co.uk

CRAIG MCGEE,CIGARETTES & F**K ALL,THE BUTTERFLY & THE PIG,Indie & rock ‘n’ roll,Free

JIM GELLATLY,CLUB NME,THE ARCHES,Indie club,£5 (£3) MCSLEAZY (XFM),CRUSH,QMU,Bootlegs,£2, £1 mem-

MARK ROBB, TANIA & FRIENDS,PLASTIC FUNK,BAMBOO,Funk, soul & rock n roll,£4 (£3), free b4

DJ NORMSKI,FOREPLAY,BOHO,Funk, electro &

RESIDENTS,PUMP UP THE JAM,SSU,Old school cheese,

bers

house,£3

FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMOVES,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts, Record Play-

11pm/12.30am with matric live bands & funky house,£2

RADIOMAGNETIC DJS,RADIOMAGNETIC,GAZELLE,Fun k, soul & latin grooves,Free

erz in the bar,£4 (£3)

HI-FI SEAN & HUSHPUPPY,RECORD PLAYERZ,THE VIC

(£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

RESIDENTS,RUBBERMENSCH,ABC2,A night for indie lov-

JOHN,FREAKSCENE,POLAR BAR (ABC),Indie classics,£4

BAR,Disco electro,£4 (£3)

ers,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

TUES 15 MAY

comedy,£2, free b4 3pm

RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance & music,£tbc

ANDY WILSON & DJ KASH,ALL STAR,BAMBOO,Funk & hip pop,£4 (£2), free b4 11pm/12.30am with matric

MUNGO’S HI FI,DUB & GRUB,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF

RESIDENTS,FUNKY LUV,PLAY,Driving vocal house,£5, £3

RESIDENTS,FLUX,STRATHCLYDE UNION,Electro, industrial,

& house all mixed by lovely ladies,£4, free b4 11pm

GARAGE,Pop & rock,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with

tunes, open decks downstairs,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm

ART,Funky techno,£10

RESIDENTS,CHIX ON DEX,CHINAWHITE,Rock, funkpunk

DJ ANDY & DJ DEC,POPTIMISM/ROCKTIMISM,THE

ART,Snacks, meals & Mungo’s Hi Fi,Free

DAVE ANGEL,DOWNLOAD,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF

free b4 11pm

hop to nasty electro via the rest,£3, £2 matric. card RESIDENTS,HORRORSHOW,FIREWATER,Indie, rock n roll, punk & electro,£4 (£3), free b4 10.30pm RESIDENTS,LOLLIPOP,GUU,Pop, RnB & Indie ,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm DJ EUAN,ON DEMAND,THE SHED,Requests by text message at this interactive club night,£3

tion playing underground classics,£5 (£3), free for pub/club workers RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD RESIDENTS,FRESH,THE POLO LOUNGE,Popular gay venue with house & indie,£5

GHISLAIN POIRIER, SURFACE EMP, ECLAIRFIFI,DBLSP K,BLACKFRIARS,Electronic,£8 PAUL N’JIE (BEAT 106),DIRTY RECORDZ,GUU,Current MR. DIVINE & HUSHPUPPY,DIVINE!,THE VIC

RESIDENTS,BABAZA,BELO,Hip hop with the funk,£6,

TIFF PEACHES, PROVINYLIST KARIM ILL TECHNIQUE & GROUNDSKEEPER GC,HOMEBREW,THE SUB CLUB,Hip

NORMSKI & ZEUS,BURN,THE BUFF CLUB,Glasgow institi-

RESIDENTS,12 HOUR TUESDAYS,SSU,Chart music & live

b4 11.30pm with matric. DJ AIDEN ,AUDIO,BLOC,House, techno & electro,Free

music,£tbc

motown,Free

MON 14 MAY

& indie dance,£7 (£5), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

DAVID SINCLAIR (KILLER KITSCH),ABC SATURDAYS,ABC2,Electro, house & pop,£7 (£5), free

soul,£3

D_FADE, DUNCAN HARVEY & BOOM MONK BEN,THE FUNKY PRECEDENT,SAINT JUDE’S,Hip hop, funk, soul &

RESIDENTS,SPANK,THE CATHOUSE,Rock, punk &

PIYP

GERRY LYONS,ABC SATURDAYS,ABC1,Soul, punk, rock

RESIDENTS,*.*,THE BUFF CLUB,Rock’n’roll & northern

JD TWITCH & JG WILKES,OPTIMO,THE SUB

SAT 12 MAY

BAR,Northern soul, funk, ska & mod tunes,£6 (£5)

Scotland ain’t that big, so you can be home in time for dinner from any of the Six Cities. If you insist, there’s a wigwam encampment on Mains Farm, near Stirling. It was where all the anarchists stayed during their last annual conference in Edinburgh.

DOMINIC MARTIN, KASH & MAX,DISCO BADGER,BAMBOO,Classic house music all night long

CLUB,Maximum eclectic,£6 (£5)

students

STAYING AWAY

play acoustic gems,Free

soul,Free

DJ PHIL,TFI FRIDAY,SSU,Chart,£2 after 5pm, free 4

A high speed rail link between Glasgow and Edinburgh is being built that will whizz you along at subsonic speeds. If you can’t wait, get the megabus. And, since you ask, we don’t know where Inverness is either.

soul,Free

MR. LIVEWIRE & GARY CURLEY,STEREODOG,CHINAW

GETTING AWAY

RESIDENTS,REPUBLIC BIER HALLE,Leftfield music &

with other boogie next door,£5 (£3), free b4 10.30pm/ 12.30pm with matric MARKY MARK,JUNK,THE BUFF CLUB,Jazz & funk featuring live percussion by Duffy,£3, free with matric

MARK ROBB,SPARKIES 45S,CAFÉ RIO,Jazz, funk &

The keynote, must-visit exhibition of the entire festival is the Scottish Show, at The Lighthouse. It will exhibit the work of 34 of Scotland’s brightest designers, and what it hopes to prove is that designers do not need to up sticks to London to earn a crust. This year the exhibitors include avant-garde hair dressers, jewellery designers and even a designer of knitted creatures inspired by ‘the everyday oddities and deformities of life’. It’s a diverse, occasionally eccentric show, but always one of the best. Others to look out for around Scotland are Steven Sagmeister’s talk at the Glasgow Film Theatre, a new comic book from DC Thompson and a history of chair-making in Stirling.

PAUL CAWLEY & KARIM THE PROVINYLIST,MACSORLEYS,Jazz band downstairs, eclectic

(£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

free b4 11pm

VIEWING AWAY

classics, funky house in the Mao room,£10 PAUL NEEDLES,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free

pizzas,Free

RESIDENTS,NOJ,POLAR BAR (ABC),No Music Policy,£6

THURS 17 MAY

RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA DJ NAEEM & MIRRIRBAW,CHINAWHITE,Main room RnB & SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance &

T,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts,£6 (£4)

FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMENOOVERS,BLANKE

ALI & GRAEME (SKYROCKET),OOFT PRECLUB,TERMINAL BAR,Electronic/dub,Free RESIDENTS,RED & GOLD ROOM,ARTA,Soul musak,£7,

Jenny Pieus - Cocoon Chair

free b4 12am with PIYP

upstairs,Free

school tunes,£6

SCOTLAND NOW HAS THE GREATEST CONCENTRATION OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE UK OUTSIDE OF THE SOUTH EAST OF ENGLAND

DJ TOAST & MASH,THE BUNKER BAR,Eclectic,Free BARRY & ANDY,THE CATHOUSE,All things rock,£6 (£5),

serving of hip hop, funk, RnB & soul,Free

GORDIE & JACK,OLD SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Old

more work internationally than at home, is that it gives Scottish designers a “chance to show off a bit.” They are masterminding a show called 3d i n E d i nbu rg h, at P r i nc e s St r e e t Gardens, which will show anything designed in three dimensions, ranging from computer cases to jewellery. “This is the first time Edinburgh has had a show like this,” he says, “we want to showcase the under-known or under-publicised designers in the capital.”

metal, emo & punk,£6 (£3)

LISTINGS

LIFESTYLE Go Away!

FOLKS,FOLK IT!,THE MIXING ROOMS,Up & coming folk musician session,Free NUS

NAUGHTY NICOLA,INFLATABLE FUN,THE GARAGE,Inflatables & groovy tunes,£5 (£3), free b4

12am with PIYP

RESIDENTS,KALEIDOSCOPE LIVE,ABC2,Old school rock & roll, soul, funk, from the 1960’s-1980’s ,£3, free with matric. After 12am RESIDENTS,KILLER KITSCH,THE BUFF CLUB,Electroclash & that,£4 (£3) MARTIN BATE (XFM),REVOLUTION,QMU,Rock & punk ,£2, £1 members PUNTERS,ROCK KARAOKE,THE CATHOUSE,Karaoke to rock,Free b4 12am

LISA LITTLEWOOD & GRAEME FERGUSON,T. I.T.,KARBON,Dance,£5 (£4)

WED 16 MAY

DJ DEC,DELIVERANCE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2, Alternative music,£4 (£2), free b4 12am with PIYP

RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD DJ RICCI,GOSSIP,SSU,Gay/mixed night,Free RESIDENTS,JOINTS & JAMS,CUBE,The Longest running RnB night in Glasgow,£3 (£2) CHRIS TRAYNOR,MJAM SALSA,LIPTONS,Salsa classes from 8pm, free club from 10.15pm,Free RESIDENTS,NEW FLESH,FURY MURRY’S,Rock, metal, punk, rap, industrial & alternative music,£4, £2 from 10pm11pm, £1 with flyer/after 11pm RESIDENTS,OCTOPUSSY,THE ARCHES,Student night with a bouncy castle, swimming pool?, jacuzzi?? & wedding chapel???,£4 RESIDENTS,TONGUE IN CHEEK,BAMBOO,Lounge, RnB & indie,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with matric ANDY & BRIAN,WHATEVER,THE GARAGE,Chart music,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP MARTIN BATE (BEAT 106),THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

TUES 1 MAY

RESIDENTS,12 HOUR TUESDAYS,SSU,Chart music & live comedy,£2, free b4 3pm

RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance & music,£tbc

ANDY WILSON & DJ KASH,ALL STAR,BAMBOO,Funk & hip pop,£4 (£2), free b4 11pm/12.30am with matric

MUNGO’S HI FI,DUB & GRUB,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Snacks, meals & Mungo’s Hi Fi,Free

FOLKS,FOLK IT!,THE MIXING ROOMS,Up & coming folk musician session,Free

RESIDENTS,FUNKY LUV,PLAY,Driving vocal house,£5, £3 NUS

NAUGHTY NICOLA,INFLATABLE FUN,THE GARAGE,Inflatables & groovy tunes,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with PIYP RESIDENTS,KALEIDOSCOPE LIVE,ABC2,Old school rock & roll, soul, funk, from the 1960’s-1980’s ,£3, free with matric. After 12am RESIDENTS,KILLER KITSCH,THE BUFF CLUB,Electroclash & that,£4 (£3) MARTIN BATE (XFM),REVOLUTION,QMU,Rock & punk ,£2, £1 members PUNTERS,ROCK KARAOKE,THE CATHOUSE,Karaoke to rock,Free b4 12am

LISA LITTLEWOOD & GRAEME FERGUSON,T. I.T.,KARBON,Dance,£5 (£4)

WED 2 MAY

RESIDENTS,BATTLE OF THE BANDS,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Competition,£5 (£4)

DJ DEC,DELIVERANCE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2, Alternative music,£4 (£2), free b4 12am with PIYP

BAR,Disco electro,£4 (£3)

RESIDENTS,RUBBERMENSCH,ABC2,A night for indie lovers,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric. DJ BILLY,SKINT,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Metal, hip hop & rock,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with PIYP

GERRY LYONS & BRIAN,THE THURSDAY CLUB,THE

GARAGE,Chart anthems,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with

PIYP

CJ,THE BUNKER BAR,Grunge & new rock,Free EUAN NEILSON,ABC FRIDAYS,ABC1,Genre mash-up,£6

RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance &

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS

RESIDENTS,HOME COOKIN’,BELO,Urban music showcase,£7, free b4 11pm

RESIDENTS,KALEIDOSCOPE LIVE,ABC2,Old school rock & roll, soul, funk, from the 1960’s-1980’s ,£3, free with

STEVIE SOLE MIDDLETON, DOMENIC MARTIN & SCOT- matric. After 12am TIE B,HOMEGROWN,BAMBOO,House and smooth RnB, RESIDENTS,KILLER KITSCH,THE BUFF CLUB,Electroclash &

that,£4 (£3) jazz & funk,£5, free b4 10.30pm/12.30am students RESIDENTS,I LOVE THE GARAGE,THE GARAGE,Classics,£7 MARTIN BATE (XFM),REVOLUTION,QMU,Rock & punk ,£2, £1 members (£5), £6 (£4) b4 12am KEV MCFARLANE, STEPHEN LEE & WOODY,KARBON PUNTERS,ROCK KARAOKE,THE CATHOUSE,Karaoke to rock,Free b4 12am SATURDAYS,KARBON,House & hip hop classics,£tbc

RESIDENTS,NU-SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Fresh northern

FRI 4 MAY

(£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

CHRIS DE LUCA VS. PHON.O,NUMBERS,BASURA BLANCA,Hip hop, booty, techno,£10

GORDIE & JACK,OLD SCHOOL,THE BUFF CLUB,Old school tunes,£6

ALI & GRAEME (SKYROCKET),OOFT PRECLUB,TERMINAL BAR,Electronic/dub,Free BRETT ANDERSON (SUEDE),PINUP,THE WOODSIDE SOCIAL,Dirty glam disco,£6

RESIDENTS,RED & GOLD ROOM,ARTA,Soul musak,£7, free b4 11pm

HEARTTHROB,SENSU,THE SUB CLUB,M_nus techno,£10 (£8)

DJ HUSHPUPPY (ART SCHOOL) & CHRIS GEDDES (BELLE & SEBASTIAN),SOUND MUSEUM,BREL,Retro soul,Free

RESIDENTS,REPUBLIC BIER HALLE,Leftfield music & pizzas,Free

DOMINIC MARTIN, KASH & MAX,DISCO BADGER,BAMBOO,Classic house music all night long

THURS 10 MAY

RESIDENTS,*.*,THE BUFF CLUB,Rock’n’roll & northern soul,£3 RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance &

JOHN

My all time favourite is The Silence of the Lambs. Is that bad? IF YOU HAD A FLYING BOAT AND COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

house all mixed by lovely ladies,£4, free b4 11pm

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SEA DWELLING

CRAIG MCGEE,CIGARETTES & F**K ALL,THE BUTTERFLY & THE PIG,Indie & rock ‘n’ roll,Free

FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMOVES,GLASGOW

CLUB,Maximum eclectic,£6 (£5)

MON 7 MAY

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM?

RESIDENTS,CHIX ON DEX,CHINAWHITE,Rock, funkpunk &

students

ROBBIE ROLEX & THE RADIO MAGNETIC SOUNDSYSTEM,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free GEORGE BOWIE,CUBE FRIDAYS,Urban tunes from Clyde

Chinese.

I’ve not got one you could print. No, they’re all too dirty.

& a techno room,£12

JD TWITCH & JG WILKES,OPTIMO,THE SUB

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD?

b4 11pm

ITE,House,£8 (£5)

DJ PHIL,TFI FRIDAY,SSU,Chart,£2 after 5pm, free 4

Being busy. The kids are on holiday so lots of them are trading in games.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO TODAY?

soul,Free

MR. LIVEWIRE & GARY CURLEY,STEREODOG,CHINAWH

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO TODAY?

these - people always look awful. The Green Mile. It’s just really good. Me? I’m hungover, selling books and A FLYING BOAT...? records. The bags under my eyes... Probably Australia. I ken I’ll never get WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD? there otherwise. Pizza, no particular topping. GIVE US A JOKE... WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM? - What’s the capital of Hungary? Betty Blue. That’s good for The Budapest? - Greggs! (Elizabeth is Skinny innit. that charming she pulls off this crime A FLYING BOAT...? against humour, just.) Right now, the Cricket World Cup. FAVOURITE SEA CREATURE? GIVE US A JOKE... A turtle. I don’t have any.

GIVE US A JOKE...

RESIDENTS,BABAZA,BELO,Hip hop with the funk,£6, free

SCHOOL OF ART,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts, Record Playerz THE SKATALITES, JERRY DAMMERS, SWEET T in the bar,£4 (£3) AND THE SECTION, BOMB SKARE,MAY DAY FUNDRAISER,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Live music room JOHN,FREAKSCENE,POLAR BAR (ABC),Indie classics,£4

MARK ROBB,SPARKIES 45S,CAFÉ RIO,Jazz, funk &

JEAN, 41, PROPRIETOR, GAMES EXCHANGE

(£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

D_FADE, DUNCAN HARVEY & BOOM MONK BEN,THE FUNKY PRECEDENT,SAINT JUDE’S,Hip hop, funk, soul &

11pm/12.30am with matric

NORMSKI & ZEUS,BURN,THE BUFF CLUB,Glasgow institition RESIDENTS,PUMP UP THE JAM,SSU,Old school cheese,

1,£5 (£3)

FRI 11 MAY

LISTINGS

CREATURE?

A dolphin.

SCOTT, 42, PROPRIETOR, SIDEWALK CAFE WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO TODAY?

Working working working. Doing the lunches, and interviewing for staff. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD?

Probably nothing that I sell. It’s terrible. I’d have to say roast chicken. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM?

It was on the other day: The Sound of Music. It’s an old one, but I’m old! A FLYING BOAT... ?

Having watched the end of Life on Mars last night, probably Mars. Did you watch it? It was really clever. GIVE US A JOKE...

I can never remember jokes.

DAVID, 43, PROPRIETOR, ELVIS SHAKESPEARE WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO TODAY?

Oh, that’s what a ‘vox pop’ is. I hate

photos: Charlotte Rodenstedt

LEITH WALK, EDINBURGH

LINDA, 26, P.A., LA FAVORITA

with other boogie next door,£5 (£3), free b4 10.30pm/ JIM GELLATLY,CLUB NME,THE ARCHES,Indie club,£5 (£3) 12.30pm with matric MARKY MARK,JUNK,THE BUFF CLUB,Jazz & funk featuring MCSLEAZY (XFM),CRUSH,QMU,Bootlegs,£2, £1 members live percussion by Duffy,£3, free with matric DJ NORMSKI,FOREPLAY,BOHO,Funk, electro & house,£3

SUN 6 MAY

GUTTER TALK

(Decisively) The moon.

SAT 5 MAY

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

ELIZABETH

music,£tbc

TUES 8 MAY

LINDA

SAT 5 MAY

live bands & funky house,£2 playing underground classics,£5 (£3), free for pub/club RADIOMAGNETIC DJS,RADIOMAGNETIC,GAZELLE,Funk workers , soul & latin grooves,Free RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP, RSAMD, Brazilian SCHOOL OF ART,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts, Record PlayGERRY LYONS,ABC SATURDAYS,ABC1,Soul, punk, rock HI-FI SEAN & HUSHPUPPY,RECORD PLAYERZ,THE VIC Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD erz in the bar,£4 (£3) & indie dance,£7 (£5), free b4 11.30pm with matric. BAR,Disco electro,£4 (£3) RESIDENTS,FRESH, THE POLO LOUNGE, Popular gay venue JOHN,FREAKSCENE,POLAR BAR (ABC),Indie classics,£4 DAVID SINCLAIR (KILLER KITSCH),ABC RESIDENTS,RUBBERMENSCH,ABC2,A night for indie lov(£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric. SATURDAYS,ABC2,Electro, house & pop,£7 (£5), free b4 with house & indie,£5 ers,£4 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with matric. D_FADE, DUNCAN HARVEY & BOOM MONK DJ ANDY & DJ DEC,POPTIMISM/ROCKTIMISM,THE 11.30pm with matric. BEN,THE FUNKY PRECEDENT,SAINT JUDE’S,Hip hop, funk, RESIDENTS,ALL TORE UP,BLACKFRIARS,Rock n Roll record GARAGE,Pop & rock,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP DJ BILLY,SKINT,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Metal, hip hop & rock,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with PIYP soul & motown,Free hop,£5 GERRY LYONS & BRIAN,THE THURSDAY CLUB,THE TIFF PEACHES, PROVINYLIST KARIM ILL TECHNIQUE & DJ AIDEN ,AUDIO,BLOC,House, techno & electro,Free RESIDENTS,12 HOUR TUESDAYS,SSU,Chart music & live GARAGE,Chart anthems,£5 (£3), free b4 12am with PIYP GROUNDSKEEPER GC,HOMEBREW,THE SUB CLUB,Hip CJ,THE BUNKER BAR,Grunge & new rock,Free comedy,£2, free b4 3pm hop to nasty electro via the rest,£3, £2 matric. card RESIDENTS,HORRORSHOW,FIREWATER,Indie, rock n roll, STUART GRADY,AUTOKRAT,PIVO PIVO,House, electro to RESIDENTS,ABOLICANO CAPOEIRA SCOTLAND,RSAMD,Brazilian martial art with dance & techno,Free punk & electro,£4 (£3), free b4 10.30pm EUAN NEILSON,ABC FRIDAYS,ABC1,Genre mash-up,£6 music,£tbc LOOSE JOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS,BAD RESIDENTS,LOLLIPOP,GUU,Pop, RnB & Indie ,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm ANDY WILSON & DJ KASH,ALL STAR,BAMBOO,Funk & (£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric. ROBOT,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Rock to techno & THE TEENAGERS, SKULL JUICE, HAUNTED HOUSE,ART DJ EUAN,ON DEMAND,THE SHED,Requests by text mes- breakbeats,£6 (£5), £2 GSA, free after 12am hip pop,£4 (£2), free b4 11pm/12.30am with matric OF PARTIES,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,Electro, disco, sage at this interactive club night,£3 MUNGO’S HI FI,DUB & GRUB,GLASGOW SCHOOL OF PAUL N’JIE (BEAT 106),DIRTY RECORDZ,GUU,Current punk,£6 (£5) MARK ROBB, TANIA & FRIENDS,PLASTIC tunes, open decks downstairs,£3 (£2, £1), free b4 9pm ART,Snacks, meals & Mungo’s Hi Fi,Free BARRY & BILLY,BALLBREAKER,THE CATHOUSE,Rock & metFUNK,BAMBOO,Funk, soul & rock n roll,£4 (£3), free b4 RESIDENTS,COLOURS,THE ARCHES,Funky house,£tbc FOLKS,FOLK IT!,THE MIXING ROOMS,Up & coming folk al,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30am with PIYP 11pm/12.30am with matric musician session,Free MR. DIVINE & HUSHPUPPY,DIVINE!,THE VIC RESIDENTS,PUMP UP THE JAM,SSU,Old school cheese, BAR,Northern soul, funk, ska & mod tunes,£6 (£5) RESIDENTS,FUNKY LUV,PLAY,Driving vocal house,£5, £3 THE WHIP, THE BISHOPS, GO HOME PRODUCTIONS, DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?, THE SUGARS,BLITZKRIEG live bands & funky house,£2 NUS RESIDENTS,GROOVEJET,MAS,Weekly house & RnB BOP,THE ARCHES,Mashup,£6 (£4) RADIOMAGNETIC DJS,RADIOMAGNETIC,GAZELLE,Fu mix,£7 (£5) NAUGHTY NICOLA,INFLATABLE FUN,THE STEWART REID,BOOGIE DOWN,BLUU,Jazz, disco & house nk, soul & latin grooves,Free ROBBIE ROLEX & NEL,HIP DROP,BREL,Funk, soul, electro GARAGE,Inflatables & groovy tunes,£5 (£3), free b4 sounds,£5, free b4 11pm 12am with PIYP HI-FI SEAN & HUSHPUPPY,RECORD PLAYERZ,THE VIC & disco,Free

FRANZ & SHAPE (RELISH),FREAKMOVES,GLASGOW

DAVID

WED 9 MAY

MARC SMITH VS. RECON, JOEY RIOT, NEOPHYTE, JFX WEEG & BREADMARK,SKATALITES PRE-PARTY,THE BIG motown,Free TIFF PEACHES, PROVINYLIST KARIM ILL TECHNIQUE & VS. MIKK, RUSHY,TWISTED VS. BRAINFIRE,ARCHAOS,Ha SLOPE,Soul, breaks & leftfield,Free RESIDENTS,BABAZA,BELO,Hip hop with the funk,£6, GROUNDSKEEPER GC,HOMEBREW,THE SUB CLUB,Hip free b4 11pm BOOKA SHADE, DJ T, JAMES HOLDEN, KID KOrdcore, gabba,£12 hop to nasty electro via the rest,£3, £2 matric. card RESIDENTS,CHIX ON DEX,CHINAWHITE,Rock, funkpunk GEOFF M, JUNIOR CAMPOS & MAX,TOXIC ALA, SLAM, MONKEY MOO,SLAM PRESENTS,THE RESIDENTS,HORRORSHOW,FIREWATER,Indie, rock n roll, & house all mixed by lovely ladies,£4, free b4 11pm ARCHES,Techno & house,£14 POP,BAMBOO,House music, hip hop & lounge,£5, free CRAIG MCGEE,CIGARETTES & F**K ALL,THE BUTTERFLY & b4 11pm/12.30am students RESIDENTS,SPANK,THE CATHOUSE,Rock, punk & dance,£4 punk & electro,£4 (£3), free b4 10.30pm RESIDENTS,LOLLIPOP,GUU,Pop, RnB & Indie ,£3 (£2, £1), (£2), free b4 1am with PIYP MARTIN BATE (XFM),VICE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2,Indie THE PIG,Indie & rock ‘n’ roll,Free free b4 9pm TIMMY VEGAS, GEOFF M, STEVIE SOLE, JIM HAGGART rock party,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30pm JIM GELLATLY,CLUB NME,THE ARCHES,Indie club,£5 (£3) Y,XPRESS,CORINTHIAN,Chunky house,£10, £8 b4 11pm DJ EUAN,ON DEMAND,THE SHED,Requests by text mesMCSLEAZY (XFM),CRUSH,QMU,Bootlegs,£2, £1 mem- with PIYP sage at this interactive club night,£3 TAM COYLE,THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free bers NEIL WYPER,THE BUNKER BAR,New & old rock & MARK ROBB, TANIA & FRIENDS,PLASTIC EGO SPASTACHRIST & KONX-OM-PAX, CCA, Techno KELPE, MAMMAL,DBLSPK,THE SUB CLUB,Electronica,£6 electronica,Free FUNK,BAMBOO,Funk, soul & rock n roll,£4 (£3), free b4 & stuff,Free DJ NORMSKI,FOREPLAY,BOHO,Funk, electro &

THURS 3 MAY

SCOTT

LISA LITTLEWOOD & GRAEME FERGUSON,T.

soul, jazz & funk featuring live percussion, classics down- I.T.,KARBON,Dance,£5 (£4) stairs,£6 BARRY & BILLY,BALLBREAKER,THE CATHOUSE,Rock & RESIDENTS,OPEN DEX,DEEP 6 (GUU),Bring your vinyl/CDs metal,£5 (£4), £3 b4 11.30pm, free b4 11.30am with DJ DEC,DELIVERANCE,THE CATHOUSE - LEVEL 2, Alternative PIYP if you think you can do better,£1, £2 non-members music,£4 (£2), free b4 12am with PIYP RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD STEADY P & DJ FUGO,BASS INVADERS,BLACKFRIARS, BOBMO. MEHDI & ANIMA, JAMIE YOUNG,PURPLE DJ RICCI,GOSSIP,SSU,Gay/mixed night,Free Techno,£7 SNEAKER,CLASSIC GRAND,French electro,£6 (£5) RESIDENTS,JOINTS & JAMS,CUBE,The Longest running STEWART REID,BOOGIE DOWN,BLUU,Jazz, disco & TERRY & JASON, Z’AIRES, HAMISH,PUSSYPOWER,S RnB night in Glasgow,£3 (£2) house sounds,£5, free b4 11pm OUNDHAUS,House, techno & Czech dance,£10, £6 b4 11.30pm CHRIS TRAYNOR,MJAM SALSA,LIPTONS,Salsa classes RESIDENTS,BROWN BAGGIN’ IT,THE GARAGE,Retro, HARRI & DOM,SUBCULTURE,THE SUB CLUB,Weekly snap- from 8pm, free club from 10.15pm,Free britpop, alternative, chill, RnB & soul,£5 (£3), free b4 11.30pm with PIYP shot of the ever-evolving house blueprint,£8, £5 b4 12am RESIDENTS,NEW FLESH,FURY MURRY’S,Rock, metal, punk, HI FI SEAN,BURLY,THE ARCHES,Gay & bi men 25+ RESIDENTS,VOODOO,THE CATHOUSE,Under-18 club with rap, industrial & alternative music,£4, £2 from 10pm11pm, £1 with flyer/after 11pm night,£10 metal, emo & punk,£6 (£3) RESIDENTS,OCTOPUSSY,THE ARCHES,Student night with RESIDENTS,COMPUTELOVE,THE MIXING DJ TOAST & MASH,THE BUNKER BAR,Eclectic,Free a bouncy castle, swimming pool?, jacuzzi?? & wedding ROOMS,Electronic sounds,Free BARRY & ANDY,THE CATHOUSE,All things rock,£6 (£5), chapel???,£4 RESIDENTS,ELECTROBALL,KARBON,80’s, nu-wave, rock free b4 12am with PIYP DJ NAEEM & MIRRIRBAW,CHINAWHITE,Main room RnB & RESIDENTS,TONGUE IN CHEEK,BAMBOO,Lounge, RnB & & punk,£tbc classics, funky house in the Mao room,£10 indie,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with matric LISA LITTLEWOOD,FLUID,MAS,Funky house,£5 PAUL NEEDLES,THE GOAT,Eclectic,Free ANDY & BRIAN,WHATEVER,THE GARAGE,Chart music,£5 RESIDENTS,FREAKMENOOVERS,RUST BAR,Early doors (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP PAUL CAWLEY & KARIM THE PROserving of hip hop, funk, RnB & soul,Free MARTIN BATE (BEAT 106),THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & FREAKMENOOVERS DJS,FREAKMENOOVERS,BLANKET VINYLIST,MACSORLEYS,Jazz band downstairs, eclectic indie,Free upstairs,Free ,Fresh hip hop & funk cuts,£6 (£4)

music,£tbc

house,£3

JEAN

(£4), free b4 11.30pm with matric.

RESIDENTS,ELETRICAT DANCE GROUP,RSAMD,Brazilian RESIDENTS,NOJ,POLAR BAR (ABC),No Music Policy,£6 Street Dance classes,£4 (£3.50), £3 RSAMD DJ RICCI,GOSSIP,SSU,Gay/mixed night,Free RESIDENTS,JOINTS & JAMS,CUBE,The Longest running RnB night in Glasgow,£3 (£2) CHRIS TRAYNOR,MJAM SALSA,LIPTONS,Salsa classes from 8pm, free club from 10.15pm,Free RESIDENTS,NEW FLESH,FURY MURRY’S,Rock, metal, punk, rap, industrial & alternative music,£4, £2 from 10pm11pm, £1 with flyer/after 11pm RESIDENTS,OCTOPUSSY,THE ARCHES,Student night with a bouncy castle, swimming pool?, jacuzzi?? & wedding chapel???,£4 RESIDENTS,TONGUE IN CHEEK,BAMBOO,Lounge, RnB & indie,£4 (£2), free b4 12.30am with matric ANDY & BRIAN,WHATEVER,THE GARAGE,Chart music,£5 (£3), free +1 b4 12am with PIYP MARTIN BATE (BEAT 106),THE BUNKER BAR,Vintage rock & indie,Free RESIDENTS,*.*,THE BUFF CLUB,Rock’n’roll & northern soul,£3

LIFESTYLE

LISTINGS GLASGOW CLUBS

JOHN, 36, MANAGER, LIFESTYLE WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD?

John: - Definitely pizza. With mushI always wondered how people get rooms, extra mushrooms and perchosen for these things... haps some magic mushrooms. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD? Mum: - What about chicken curry? Seafood pasta. Difficult question: I John: - You’re ruining my credibility, Mum. could have printed my Bebo page. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM? WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM? It has to be The Godfather. Right now High School Musical. It A FLYING BOAT... ? must be for twelves and under! John: -The Bermuda Triangle. Not A FLYING BOAT... ? out of curiosity, but because nobody A flying boat? Anywhere in the uni- would follow me there. verse? Probably Miami. My friend Mum: -You are weird. and I went to America last year and John: -Thanks very much Mum. we went to Miami for two days. It GIVE US A JOKE... was amazing, but we went out the What’s the difference between a porfirst night we got there and spent the cupine and an XR3i? The porcupine rest of the time in bed. has pricks on the outside. FAVOURITE SEA CREATURE?

FAVOURITE SEA CREATURE?

Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I Mum: - Whale. watched it twice on Monday. John: - Yeah, whale.

ELIZABETH, 46, MANAGER, GREGGS

So no-one on Leith Walk knows any jokes, eh? We doubt it. In the WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO TODAY? run up to the Leith Festival, send I’ve been working here since 12. I’ll us your jokes and Leith Walk stoprobably go for a kebab later on. ries to skinny@skinnymag.co.uk, WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD? and we’ll do something with ‘em. Chinese beef in oyster sauce. Probably just laugh, maybe even WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM? print them.

SEMINAL DENIM It’s always a challenge to dress like your heroes. If you went around dressed like Percy Bysse Shelley these days folk’d think you were nuts, and Amelia Earhart-style leathers just wouldn’t be practical for everyday clubbing. Lucky then that Levi’s have released a range of retro styles with modern fits this season. Now you can strut around like Brando or Kerouac safe in the knowledge you’re tapered to fit ’07, or hit the dancefloor like a calamity-free Calamity Jane. The colours – monochrome tones or natural shades – are entirely current; the style is a healthy blend of past, present, and you. [Dylan Reed] LEVI’S, BUCHANAN GALLERIES, 220 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW 0141 332 7139 WWW.LEVI.COM

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

EDINBURGH COMEDY 01-MAY, SUSAN MURRAY; LOU CONRAN;

CHARLOTTE MACDONALD; AL KENNEDY; SISTARS, THE STAND, Pick of new and established XX chromosome

comedians, 20:30, £6/£4/£3

02-MAY, VLADIMIR MCTAVISH; BRUCE DEVLIN; LAUGH? I NEARLY VOTED! THE STAND, Topical news round up with special guest Socialist MSP Colin Fox, 20:30, £6/£3

03-MAY, FORUM FOR THE BEST EMERGING TALENT AND ESTABLISHED ACTS AROUND THE COUN-

TRY; HERESY, THE JEKYLL AND HYDE, A heady mix of weird

£TBC

JOHNSTON; NICK DAVIES, THE THURSDAY SHOW,

17-MAY, FORUM FOR THE BEST EMERGING TALENT

THE STAND, MC Bruce Devlin, 20:30, £7/£6/£3

NEW COMEDY, GAGS TO GO, THE STAND, Free but

09-MAY, CHANNEL 4 PRESENTS A NIGHT OF HOT ticketed contact 4talentscotland@channel4.com, 20:30, £6/£4

AND ESTABLISHED ACTS AROUND THE COUNTRY., HERESY, THE JEKYLL AND HYDE, A heady mix of weird and

25-MAY, MATT REED; VIV GEE; PLUS MORE, LEMONCUSTARD COMEDY CLUB, HENRY’S CELLAR

10-MAY, ALAN ANDERSON; MAC STAR, HERESY,

wonderful with a touch of darkness thrown in for good measure, 20:30, Free

21:00, TBC

ics who genuinely hate each other, 20:30, £3

18-MAY, PHIL WALKER; NICK WILTY; JARRED

THE JEKYLL AND HYDE, Grudge match between two com-

11-MAY, NEIL MCFARLANE; BILL DEWAR; MARK NELSON; DAVID HEFFRON, LIVE AT THE CANON’ S GAIT, THE CANON’S GAIT, MC Steven Davidson, 20:30,

and wonderful with a touch of darkness thrown in for good measure, 20:30, Free

£5

04-MAY, RUDI LICKWOOD; SANDY NELSON;

SPAIN, JONGLEURS, Featuring Australian success; the

KEVIN BRIDGES; RONNIE EDWARDS, JONGLEURS, Rudi Lickwood includes Noel’s House Party on his C.V, 19:00, £10

05-MAY, JEFF INNOCENT; TONY CARTER; ROWAN CAMPBELL; ANTONY MURRAY, THE STAND, MC Martin Bigpig Mor, 21:00, £12

12-MAY, ADAM CROW; KITTY FLANAGAN; KARL paranoid, tall-story-telling comedienne Kitty Flanagan, 19:00, £12

13-MAY, KEVIN BRIDGES; SIAN BEVAN; NICK

DAVIES; DEE CUSTANCE, THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH IN, THE STAND, MC Bruce Devlin, 20:30, £5/£4/£1

06-MAY, GARY DOBSON; STUART MURPHY,

14-MAY, GARY DOBSON; STUART MURPHY, OUT TO LUNCH LIVE!, THE STAND, Mon- Fri; top notch meal

WHOSE LUNCH IS IT ANYWAY?, THE STAND, Weekly free

and a comedy show all in your lunch break, 13:05, £5

improv from dedicated Stand duo, 13:00, Free

15-MAY, STEVEN DICK; ALAN MILLER; TEDDY, THE

07-MAY, BRUCE FUMMEY; THE STAND PLAYERS,

AMAZING BASTARDS, THE STAND, Maverick comedy,

RED RAW, THE STAND, Showcase for new acts and new

off beat and experimental, 20:30, £3/£2

material, 20:30, £2

16-MAY, SUSAN MORRISON; VLADIMIR MCTAV-

08-MAY, SKETCH SHOWCASE, MELTING POT, THE

STAND, Referendum on comedy skits from new talent,

ELFIELOVES BY DIANA KIERNANDER

20:30, £5/£4/£2.50

ISH; THE STAND PLAYERS; KEIR MCALLISTER, BOOBY BIRD BENEFIT, THE STAND, All are giving up their time free and ticket money goes to a very good cause! 20:30

Diana styles for editorial commissions and also does promotional styling. Her personal work is based on a ‘vintage fairytale’ concept, though it has cinematic qualities too. She makes many of the clothes/ accessorries herself - including many of those seen in this shoot - and organises models, photographers, make-up artists and venues. For her proposal for The Skinny showcase she collaborated with photographers including Jannica Honey, Andrew Stark and Amanda Newton. The make-up is by Denise McNulty (outdoor shots) and David Farquhar (studio shots). Many of the clothes are from her personal collection. We thoroughly recommend you delve further into her magical world.

GLASGOW COMEDY

01-MAYKIER MCALLISTER AND ROWAN CAMP-

BELL, RED RAW, THE STAND, Showcase for new acts and

new material, 20:30, £2/£1

02-MAY SUSAN MURRAY; LOU CONRAN; AL KENNEDY, SISTARS, THE STAND, MC Susan Calman, 20:30, £3

CHANNEL 4 PRESENTS A NIGHT OF HOT NEW COMEDY, GAGS TO GO, THE UNIVERSAL, Free but ticketed contact 4talentscotland@channel4.com, 20:30, £7/£5

ELFIELOVES@HOTMAIL.COM ARE YOU AN ILLUSTRATOR/GRAPHIC DESIGNER/PHOTOGRAPHER/FASHION DESIGNER AND KEEN TO BE EXIBIT HERE? PLEASE APPLY BY SENDING A COLLAGE 40 X 31 CM WITH YOUR WORK LAID OUT TO GETINVOLVED@SKINNYMAG.CO.UK BEFORE MAY 18.

Showcase for new acts and new material, 20:30, £2/£1

16-MAY JOCK TAMSON FUNDRAISER,

GLASGOW CAMPAIGN TO WELCOME REFUGEES, THE STAND, For people from all walks of life who want to come

together and improve quality of life for refugees arriving and settling in the West of Scotland. Hosted by Kevin Bridges, 19:30, £4/£3

03-MAY BENJAMIN CRELLIN; ANTHONY J.

17-MAY JOHN SCOTT; CURTIS WALKER; JASON ROUSE; JOE HEENAN, JONGLEURS, The fast food equiva-

STAND, MC Raymond Mearns, 20:30, £7/£6/£3

lent of comedy venues; eat and drink with a side order of laughter, 19:00, £8

BROWN; SCOTT AGNEW, THE THURSDAY SHOW, THE

WWW.ELFIELOVES.COM, WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ELFIELOVES

15-MAYJANE MACKAY, RED RAW, THE STAND,

05-MAY NEIL MACFARLANE; ANDY SIR; ROB KANE, COMEDY@THE STATE, THE STATE BAR, MC Chris Broomfield, 21:00, TBC

06-MAY BENJAMIN CRELLIN; ANTHONY J. BROWN; SCOTT AGNEW, BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL, THE STAND, MC Michael Redmond, 20:30, £8/£7

CHRISTMAS; CURTIS WALKER, JONGLEURS, Nick Wilty is critically acclaimed by all and sundry, worth seeing what the fuss is about, 19:00, £10

19-MAY, RICHARD MORTON; PAUL SINHA; MARTHA MCBRIER; HENNING WHEN, THE STAND, THE STAND, MC Jane Mackay, 21:00, £12

20-MAY, THE STAND PLAYERS; GUS TAWSE; GORDON ALEXANDER; NICK MORROW; LIZZIE MARAN, THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH IN, THE STAND, MC Joe Heenan, 20:30, £5/£4/£1

21-MAY, PAUL PIRIE; SCOTT AGNEW, RED RAW, THE STAND, Showcase for new acts and new material,

20:30, £2

22-MAY, RICHARD HERRING, MENAGE A UN, THE STAND, A stand up show that deals with solitude, selfish-

LISTINGS

LIFESTYLE

BAR, Childish things with Sian Bevan and Dee Custance,

26-MAY, FRANKIE BOYLE; ANDY WHITE; DEREK JOHNSTON; NICK DAVIES, THE STAND, THE STAND, MC Bruce Devlin, 21:00, £12

27-MAY, GARY DOBSON; STUART MURPHY, OUT TO LUNCH LIVE! THE STAND, Mon- Fri; top notch meal and a comedy show all in your lunch break, 13:05, £5

29-MAY, VLADIMIR MCTAVISH, A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, THE STAND, Another chance to catch the sell out Fringe show, 20:30, £8/£7

29-MAY, BENNETT AARON; STU WHO?; MARKUS BIRDMAN; DOUGIE DUNLOP, JONGLEURS, Hosts various award winning, sitcom writing, talented comic types, 19:00, £10

30-MAY, RAYMOND MEARNS; TEDDY; JOHN ROSS, BEST OF SCOTTISH, THE STAND, MC David Kay, 20.30.00, £5, 00

ness and whether 3 in a bed romps are really better than 1 in a bed romps, 20:30, £3

31-MAY, ANTHONY KING; NEIL DOUGAN; KAREN COCKFIELD, THE THURSDAY SHOW, THE STAND,

23-MAY, ALISTAIR BARRIE; SILKY, ALISTAIR BARRIE

MC Joe Heenan, 20.30.00, £7/£6/£3

AND SILKY DOUBLED UP, THE STAND, Promises intelligence, charm and filth, 20:30, £7/£6

24-MAY, FRANKIE BOYLE; ANDY WHITE; DEREK

27-MAY IAN MOORE; TEDDY; NEIL HICKEY; BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL, THE STAND, MC Michael Redmond,

29-MAY JOHN ROSS; NEIL HICKEY, RED RAW,

20:30, £8/£7

20:30, £2/£1

28-MAY RAYMOND MEARNS; PAUL PIRIE; ALAN CHALMERS; SANDY NELSON, THE STAND, topical stand-

30-MAY NEIL DOUGAN; NEIL HICKEY; MICHAEL REDMOND, BEST OF IRISH, THE STAND, Comedic en-

up, filmed sketches, improvised games, 20:30, £4

THE STAND, Showcase for new acts and new material,

semble with a distinct Irish lilt, 20:30, £7/£6

18-MAY “BILLY BONKERS; PETER AITCHINSON; LEE KIRK; BERNARD MCLAUGHLIN; AUSTIN LOW; BILLY,, KIRKWOOD; DAVE HEFFRON,,,,,, “,IMPROBABBLE,BRUINSWICK HOTEL, IMPROVISATION AND SKETCHES ON THE FAR SIDE OF PROBABILITY, 20:30,

£5/£4

07-MAY RAYMOND MEARNS; PAUL PIRIE; ALAN

19-MAY GLEN MANLEY; VIC GEE; NIALL BROWNE, COMEDY@THE STATE, THE STATE BAR, MC Sian

new material, 20:30, £2/£1

£5/£4/£1

09-MAY COMEDY UNIT SHOWCASE, ROUGHCUTS, THE STAND, Best of upcoming sketches

21-MAY RAYMOND MEARNS; PAUL PIRIE; ALAN CHALMERS; SANDY NELSON, DANCE MONKEY BOY, DANCE! THE STAND, topical stand-up, filmed sketches,

CHALMERS; SANDY NELSON, DANCE MONKEY BOY, Bevan, 20:30, £5 DANCE! THE STAND, topical stand-up, filmed sketches, improvised games and songs, 20:30, £4 20-MAY GARY LITTLE; MARTHA MCBRIER; CHRIS FORBES; DEE CUSTANCE; DAVE HEFFRON,MICHAEL 08-MAY GRAEME THOMAS; THE STAND PLAY- REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE, THE STAND, Preempt ERS, RED RAW, THE STAND, Showcase for new acts and those Monday blues with laid back laughs, 20:30,

tested for TV, 20:30, £5/£4/£2.50

10-MAY JASON ROUSE; GRAEME THOMAS;

DANNY DEEGAN; ALISA JOHNSTONE, THE THURSDAY SHOW, THE STAND, MC Fred MacAulay, 19:30, £4/£3

11-MAY “BILLY BONKERS; PETER AITCHINSON; LEE KIRK; BERNARD MCLAUGHLIN; AUSTIN LOW; BILLY,,KIRKWOOD; DAVE HEFFRON”, IMPROBABBLE, BRUINSWICK HOTEL, IMPROVISATION AND SKETCHES ON THE FAR SIDE OF PROBABILITY, 20:30, £10

12-MAY RICKY CALLAN; JO JO SUTHERLAND;

DAVE HEFFRON; ANDY VAUGHAN,COMEDY@THE STATE, THE STATE BAR, MC Rick Molland, 20:30, £10

13-MAY GRAEME THOMAS; DANNY DEEGAN; DEREK JOHNSTONE; PAUL GLASSWELL; MARTHA MCBRIER, MICHAEL REDMOND’ S SUNDAY SERVICE, THE STAND, Laid back and laconic with favourite Irish

improvised games and songs, 20:30, £4

22-MAY PAUL PIRIE; GARY LITTLE,RED RAW, THE

STAND, Showcase for new acts and new material, 20:30,

£2/£1

23-MAY RICHARD HERRING, MENAGE A UN, THE STAND, A stand up show that deals with solitude, selfish-

ness and whether 3 in a bed romps are really better than 1 in a bed romps, 20:30, £6

24-MAY DANNY BUCKLER; GAVIN WEBSTER; BRIAN HIGGINS; WOODY, JONGLEURS, The fast food equivalent of comedy venues; eat and drink with a side order of laughter, 19:00, £8

25-MAY IAN MOORE; TEDDY; NEIL HICKEY; SU-

SAN MORRISON, THE STAND, THE STAND, Deadpan and mod musings from reliable headliner Ian Moore, 20:30, £9/£8/£5

deadpan Michael Redmond, 20:30, £5/£4/£1

14-MAY STEVEN DICK; ALAN MILLER; TEDDY, THE 26-MAY STEPHEN DICK; DAVID BARR, COMEDY@

AMAZING BASTARDS, THE STAND, Maverick comedy, off beat and experimental, 20:30, £3/£2

12 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

LIFESTYLE

www.skinnymag.co.uk

THE STATE, THE STATE BAR, MC Billy Kirkwood plus special guest, 20:00, £6

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

THE BURRELL COLLECTION, GROUP

SHOW, 17TH CENTURY SAMPLERS, Embroidered

GLASGOW GALLERY OF MODERN ART,

samplers from Sir William Burrell’s wonderful collection of British embroideries, 1-SEP, 10:00(mon, thur, sat)/11:00(Fri/Sun), Mon-Sun, Free

bicentenary anniversary of the slave trade, 15-MAR, 28MAY, 10:00(mon-thu)/11:00(fri-sun), Mon-Sun, Free

CCA , PURE DATA SPRING SCHOOL, COURSE OF software tools for audio-visual art and performance., 14-MAY, 25-MAY, 0, 4375, Mon-Fri, £100 for 10 days workshop

GoMA’s social justice programme addressing sectarianism and related issues, 5-APR, 28-OCT, 10:00(monthu)/11:00(fri-sun), Mon-Sun, Free

GLASGOW ARTS

NAN HOOVER AND NINA KÖNNEMANN, SPECTRUM, Showcasing 40 years of German Video Art, 14-APR, 12-MAY, 11.00, Tue-Sat, Free

RODERICK BUCHANAN, HISTRIONICS, A response to

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, GROUP

SHOW, INTERIM MFA, The annual exhibition by the in-

ternationally acclaimed postgraduate Master of Fine art NAN HOOVER AND NINA KÖNNEMANN, SPECcourse, 12-MAY, 25-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Fri, Free TRUM, Showcasing 40 years of German Video Art, GROUP SHOW, REPUBLIC OF PLACE, wors by second 14-APR, 12-MAY, 11.00, Tue-Sat, Free and third year silversmithing and jewellery students, 1COLLINS GALLERY, TIM DAVIES, CADET, See MAY, 12-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Fri, Free review in art section, 31-MAR, 5-MAY, 10:00(Mon-Sat), GROUP SHOW, LIKE THAT ONLY, Exploring Indian cul12:00(Sat), Mon-Sat, Free ture as part of the Six Cities Design Festival, 19-MAY, GROUP SHOW, CELEBRATING CREATIVITY, Work by 2-JUN, 0, 416666667, Mon-Fri, Free the senior Studies Institute of the Uni of Strathclyde, HOUSE FOR AN ART LOVER, GROUP SHOW, 9-MAR, 19-MAY, 10:00(Mon-Sat), 12:00(Sat), MonGROUP SHOW, A new show different each month feaSat, Free turing a selection of contemporary Scottish artwork, , 0, GATEHOUSE GALLERY, PAM CARTER, SOLO 416666667, Wed-Mon, £3.50(£2.50 SHOW, Landscapes, 29-APR, 21-MAY, 13:30(mon, thu, HUNTERIAN, GROUP SHOW, WEIRD AND WON-

AMBER ARTS

SOLO SHOW, JANNICA HONEY, Intimate portraits (see review in art section), 12-APR, 12-MAY, 10.00 AM, Tue, Wed, Thur-Sat, Free

AMBER ROOME

PHOTOGRAPHY, SUSANNE RAMSENTHALER & IAIN STEWART, Photographs of jellyfish and water, 19-APR,

17-MAY, 11.00, Wed-Sat, Free

DUAL SHOW, JAMES LUMSDEN & ROSALIND LAWLESS, Marvel at Lumsden’s interplay between illusion and reality, 24-MAY, 21-JUN, 11.00, Wed-Sat, Free

ANALOGUE

CHINMI, ERI ITOI, Wicked drawings, 20-APR, 19-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Sat, Free

THE BONGO CLUB

EDINBURGH ARTS

GRAHAM FAGAN, DOWNPRESSERER, Marking the

GLASGOW GALLERY OF MODERN ART,

LEARNING, A two week boot camp dedicated to free

Interesting, unusual work in a stimulating environment, 11:00/12:30(sat), Mon-Sat, Free

CORN EXCHANGE GALLERY

BABBLE, PETER JAQUES, Unique ‘performed photography’, 27-APR, 14-JUN, 11.00 AM, Wed-Sat, Free

DOGGERFISHER

MAN OF LA MANCHA, Musical adaptation of Don Quixote, UNTIL, 19-MAY, 7.45pm, £24 down

FESTIVAL THEATRE

BREAKIN’ CONVENTION, International festival of hip hop dance theatre, 11-MAY, 12-MAY, various, various DUNDEE REP ENSEMBLE, SUNSHINE ON LEITH, Proclaimers’ musical, 15-MAY, 26-MAY, 7.30pm, £22.50 down NEDERLANDS DANS THEATER 2, DANCE, Dutch dance,

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

THE LIGHTHOUSE, GROUP SHOW, SIX CITIES DESIGN FESTIVAL, The country’s first nationawide in-

ternational design festival, 17-MAY, 3-JUN, 10:30(mon, wed-sat)/11:00(tue)/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, £3(£1.50) GROUP SHOW, SADNESS AND GLADNESS, Films of Glasgow Corporation 1920-1978, 5-MAR, 7-MAY, 10:30(mon, wed-sat)/11:00(tue)/12:00(sun), MonSun, £3(£1.50) GROUP SHOW, THINKING INSIDE THE BOX, 21st Century interiors, 24-FEB, 7-MAY, 10:30(mon, wed-sat)/ 11:00(tue)/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, £3(£1.50) DESIGN AND BUILD, THE SCOTTISH SHOW 07, 34 of Scotland’s most exciting designers, 17-APR, 3-JUN, 10:30(mon, wed-sat)/11:00(tue)/12:00(sun), MonSun, £3(£1.50) years of the GalleryÕs Opt in for Art education programme, 20-APR, 6-MAY, 11:00(mon-sat)/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, Free

INGLEBY GALLERY

EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART

GROUP SHOW, GROUP SHOW, Centenary fashion show, 10-MAY, 11-MAY, 19.00, Thu-Fri, £13-15

EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS

ZOO, GROUP SHOW, A diverse exhibition of over 40,

KINGS THEATRE

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE

performance of class, gender, nymphomania, alcoholism, and stardom, 4-MAY, 4-MAY, 0, 791666667, Fri, Free

I2, MONOCHROME, VARIOUS, Themed exhibition,

TRAVERSE

Triple bill, 11-MAY, 12-MAY, 7.30pm, £12/7 NTS, VICTORIA & TRAMWAY, AALST, Dramatisation of horrific true crime, 15-MAY, 19-MAY, 7.30pm, £12/7 INT CHILDREN’S THEATRE, IMAGINATE, International children’s theatre festival, 19-MAY, 28-MAY, various, various MULL THEATRE, CYPRUS, Sounds like Le carre set in Mull, 30-MAY, 2-JUN, 7.30pm, £12/7 DOGSTAR, E POLISH QUINE, Scottish post-war drama, 31-MAY, 2-JUN, 8pm, £12/7

MAY, Expect some long yarns and short dances in this

Solo Show, 18-MAY, 7-JUL, 11:00(wed-fri)/12:00(sat), Wed-Sat, Free

nowned Dutch artist, 19-MAY, 11-JUL, 11:00(mon-sat)/ 12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, Free OPT IN FOR ART, VARIOUS, Work from the last two

DAVID HUGHES DANCE, DAVID HUGHES DANCE,

INTERMEDIA, MARCIA FARQUHAR, NUTS IN

SLEEPSHAPES, CRYSTALLINE, HANNELINE VISNES ,

video works by the emerging Germany-based artist, 28-APR, 19-MAY, 12.00 PM, Tue-Sat, Free

novel, 2-MAY, 5-MAY, various, £12/7

outstanding Scottish collection, 23-MAY, 0, 395833333, Mon-Sat, Admission charge

view of a pan-European road trip by www.FlockPhotography.com, 9-APR, 7-MAY, 08:00 (mon-fri), 10:00(sat, sun), Mon-Sun , Free

COLLECTIVE GALLERY

COMMUNICADO/PERTH THEATRE, FERGUS LAMONT, Adaptation of Robert Jenkin’s Glasgow

GROUP SHOW, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HUNTERIAN SCOTTISH COLLECTION, Work from the Hunterian’s

Riley, 24-FEB, 17-JUN, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free

CUTTING EDGE GEOMETRY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ART, GROUP SHOW, From Piet Mondrian to Bridget

FRUITMARKET GALLERY

ous, £12/7

DERFUL, Numerous fascinating objects, 23-MAY, 0, 395833333, Mon-Sat, Admission charge

HULA JUICE BAR AND GALLERY (WEST BOW), FLOCKTALES, TOM MOORE, an alternative

hand-made limited edition original prints, by 33 artists in the studio at Edinburgh Printmakers, 19-MAY, 7-JUL, BEYOND APPEARANCES, GROUP SHOW, Painting 10.00, Tue-Sat, Free and picturing in Scottish modern and contemporary SECRET KINGDOMS, CATHERINE RAYNER, magical art, 17-MAR, 3-JUN, 10:00/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, Free exhibition of screenprints created by new author and LIVING IN MOTION, VARIOUS, Design and arillustrator of children’s books, 19-MAY, 7-JUL, 10.00, Tuechitecture for flexable living, 4-APR, 10-MAY, Sat, Free 10:00/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, Free OPEN DAY, Meet artists and see demonsrations PATTERN MEETS PRODUCT, VARIOUS, Exploring the amongst many other things, 26-MAY, 26-MAY, 10.00, collaborative possibilities between textiles and furniture Tue-Sat, Free design, 14-APR, 3-JUN, 10:00/12:00(sun), Mon-Sun, EMBASSY GALLERY Free WHEN ALL OUR HEROES TURN TO GHOST, BRANDON VIEW FROM THE INSIDE, VARIOUS, Exploring the world of the interior, 4-APR, 21-OCT, 10:00/12:00(sun), VICKERD, Surreal sculpture , 6-MAY, 6-MAY, 12.00, Thur-Sun, Free Mon-Sun, Free

SOLO SHOW, KEREN CYTTER, First UK exhibition of

THE SKINNY RECOMMENDS YELLOW HIGHLIGHTS

DEAN GALLERY

CITY ART CENTRE

TRAVERSE THEATRE CO, CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED, Punic Wars allegory, 27-APR, 19-MAY, vari-

THEATRE

fri, sun)/11:30(sat), Thu-Mon, Free

SOLO SHOW, AERNOUT MIK, Four films by re-

EDINBURGH THEATRE COS, SHINE, Lyceum Youth Theatre, 12-JUL, 7.30pm, £6/3

CURVE FOUNDATION, DANCE, Company reprise’s two pieces, 18-MAY, 19-MAY, 7.30pm, £10/7

INTRODANS ENSEMBLE FOR YOUTH, FIVE ECLECTIC BALLETS TAKEN FROM THE TREASURE-CHEST OF ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST AND MOST IMPORTANT CHOREOGRAPHERS, JIRI KYLIÁN., 25-MAY, 26-May, 7.00PM, £8,

GLASGOW LIGHT OPERA CLUB, KING AND I, Musical based on a love affair with SE Asian royalty, 7-MAY, 12MAY, 7.30pm, £18 - 8 ONE WORLD ALLIANCE, PAM ANN, One woman show featuring bitchy air hostesses, 15-MAY, 7.30pm, £15

NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS

VISIBLE FICTIONS, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, Children’s theatre, 4/5/07, 10.30am & 6pm, £6/4

LIFESTYLE

LISTINGS THEATRE & ARTS

31-MAR, 7-MAY, 11:00(mon-fri)/10:00(sun), Free

FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO, PETER LIVERSIDGE, Paintings and installations relating to his enduring fascination with the North Montana Plains plus a deconstruction of retail desire, 12-MAY, 23-MAY, 10.00, Tue-Sat, Free

NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND

AN ENLIGHTENED GENTLEMAN, ALEXANDER NASMYTH, Focusing on the man’s drughtsmanship, 3-MAR,

6-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free

A LAKELAND IDYLL: CHRISTOPHER NORTH AT ELERY, ALEXANDER NASMYTH, A chance to see a newly re-

LILLIE ART GALLERY, GROUP SHOW, PICTURE THIS, New acquisitions from the last five years, 24-MAR, 23-MAY, 0, 416666667, Tue-Sat, Free

JOYCE LEITCH, EARTH, SEA, SKY, etchings and woodcuts which reflect on the changing seasons, 21-APR, 23MAY, 0, 416666667, Tue-Sat, Free

PROJECT ABILITY, GROUP SHOW, SPEC-

TRUM, Works by Autistic children, 14-MAY, 13-JUN, 0, 416666667, Mon-Fri, Free

SORCHA DALLAS, FIONA JARDINE, SOLO SHOW, Solo show, 21-APR, 19-MAY, 0, 458333333, TueSat, Free

TRAMWAY, GROUP SHOW, AIRWORLD, A major exhibition celebrating the aesthetics of air travel from the acclaimed Vitra Design museum. Part of the Six Cities Design Festival, 14-APR, 27-MAY, 10:00(tue-fri), 12:00(sat, sun), Mon-Sun, Free LUCY ORTA, NEXUS ARCHITECTURE, Crossing the boundaries between traditional sculpture and intervention, 21-APR, 20-MAY, 10:00(tue-fri), 12:00(sat, sun), Mon-Sun, Free

TRANSMISSION, LUTZ FEZER, KEVIN HUTCHESON, CLUNIE REID, GROUP SHOW, Testing the instabilities of narrative by disrupting image, 16-APR, 12-MAY, Tue-Sat,

OPEN EYE GALLERY

VARIOUS, A cornucopia of talent with works for sale, , 11:00(mon-fri)/10:00(sun), Free

OUT OF THE BLUE DRILL HALL, 36 DALMENY ST

OOTB SHOWCDASE, GROUP SHOW, work from over 100 artists based at The OOTB Drill Hall and The OOTB Powerhouse in Portobello and will be showing work in mediums ranging from painting and sculpture through printmaking, 23-APR, 23-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Sat, Free

QUEEN’S GALLERY

THE ART OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, VARIOUS ARTISTS, Amazing inquiries into nature in collaboration with Sir David Attenborough, 16-SEP, 09.30, Mon-Sun, £5 (£4.50)

ROXBURGHE HOTEL

SOLO SHOW, SEBASTIAN KRUGER, Amazingly detialed paintings of the rich and famous, 23-MAY, 26-MAY, 24:00(wed-fri)/ 22:00 (sat), Wed-Sat, Free

SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

stored painting, 15-MAR, 19-AUG, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free OFF THE WALL, GROUP SHOW, Floor- and Ceilingbased Works from the collection, 9-DEC, 28-MAY, 10.00, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Mon-Sun, Free

PIXAR: 20 YEARS OF ANIMATION, GROUP SHOW,

Hundreds of drawings, sculptures and digital paintings, 2-MAR, 28-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free

NATIONAL WAR MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND, COMMANDO COUNTRY, GROUP SHOW, Examining Scotland?s key role in forming Britain?s famous Commando forces, 1-FEB, 09.45, Mon-Sun, Free

NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS CENTRE

SOLO SHOW, GERMANO OVANI , an Italian artist who specialises in illustrating children’s books, 1-MAY, 31MAY, 09.00, Mon-Sun , Free

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SHOTGUN WEDDING: SCOTS AND THE

UNION OF 1707, TRACY MACKENNA AND EDWIN JANSSEN, Six new works reflecting on the Union, 9-FEB,

6-MAY, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, FORCE, JANE BRETTLE, A contemporary photo-

graphic portrait of Scotland’s police force, 4-MAY, 15-JUL, 10.00, Mon-Sun, Free

from Alan McKendrick and Megan Barker, 17-MAY, 19MAY, £8/5 AL SEED, THE FOOLIGAN, One man clown show, 18MAY, 19-MAY, 9pm, £8/5 RSMAD, WINTER’S TALE, Students tackle Shakespeare, 29-MAY, 2-JUN, 7.30pm, £7/4

ERNA ÓMARSDÓTTIR/ JÓHANN JÓHANNSON, THE MYSTERIES OF LOVE, Dance from Iceland, 10-MAY, 12-

CITIZENS THEATRE

from the Belgian ensemble with live music, 17-MAY, 19-

theatre explores the complexities of convivance in troubled times, 9-MAY, 12-MAY, 7.30pm, £6/3

MAY, 8pm, £9/5

LES BALLETS C. DE LA B., IMPORT/EXPORT, More dance

CITIZENS’ THEATRE COMPANY, HEADLONG & LYRIC MAY, 8pm, £9/5 HAMMERSMITH, ANGELS IN AMERICA, Tony Kushner’s GISELLE VIENNE, KINDERTOTENLIEDER, theatrical colPulitzer Prize-winning play on the impact of AIDs in 1980’s NYC, 1-MAY, 12-MAY, 7.30pm, £16 - 3 AILIS NI RIAIN & THE NEW WORKS, TILT, A sister searches for empathy and for answers to her family’s self-destruction, 1-MAY, 5-MAY, 7.30pm, £9/4 RAPTURE THEATRE COMPANY, BROKEN GLASS, Prominent Scottish touring company reprise Arthur Miller’s classic, 15-MAY, 19-MAY, 7.30pm, £16 - 3

ISOCELES THEATRE COMPANY, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, Another adaptation of

RAPTURE THEATRE COMPANY, BROKEN GLASS, Prom- RLS’ goth classic, 15-MAY, 19-MAY, 7.30pm, £12 - 3 MIKE MARAN PRODUCTIONS, CAPTAIN CORELLI’S inent Scottish touring company reprise Arthur Miller’s MANDOLIN, Stage adaptation of Louis de Berniere’s classic, 8-MAY, 7.30pm, £8/5

laboration between French performance artist Gisèle Vienne and American novelist Dennis Cooper, 24-MAY, 26-MAY, 8pm, £9/5

RAMESH MEYYAPPAN IN ASSOCIATION WITH SPIKE THEATRE, GIN AND TONIC AND PASSING TRAINS, Comic piece exposing the frailties of a drunk trailway signalman, 24-MAY, 26-MAY, 8pm, £6/4

TRON THEATRE

DAVID HUGHES, TRIPLE BILL, Two world premieres and revival of his critically acclaimed 4:Freeze-Frame, 15-MAY, 16-MAY, 8pm, £14/7

JAMES SEABRIGHT, PAUL LUCAS PRODUCTIONS & FOUNTAIN THEATRE LOS ANGELES , WHAT I HEARD NORTHERN BROADSIDES IN ASSOCIATION WITH NEW ABOUT IRAQ, Fringe First-winner returns, 17-MAY, 18VIC THEATRE, THE TEMPEST, Irreverant take on ShakeMAY, 8pm, £14/7 speare classic, 30-MAY, 2-JUN, 7.30pm, £16 - 3 COMPANY CHORDELIA, RED SHOES, Dance interpretabest seller, 23-MAY, 26-MAY, 7.30pm, £16 - 3

ARCHES

WAYWARD SCOT, THE CABINET OF DR JEKYLL, Play based on RLS’ famous tale, 10-MAY, 6pm, £6/4

RANDOM ACCOMPLICE, LITTLE JOHNNY’S BIG GAY ADVENTURE, Camp one man show, 10-MAY, 12-MAY,

TRAMWAY

7.30pm, £6/4

LES BALLET C. DE LA B. ALAIN PLATEL, VSPRS, Dance

dents present cabaret, 14-MAY, 23-MAY, 7pm, £6/4 THE BAD DRIVE WELL / TONGUE LIE LIGHT, New work

performance set to the music of Monteverdi’s Maria Vespers, 3-MAY, 5-MAY, 8pm, £9/5 THEATRE INSAAN, JIHAD - INNER STRUGGLE, Physical

RSAMD, BLACK CATS & BLUE ANGELS, RSMAD stu-

tion of Hans Christian Andersen tale, 23-MAY, 24-MAY, 8pm, £14/10

TRON THEATRE + HYDROCRACKER PRODUCTIONS, BOY’S OWN STORY, funny and poignant monologue pf the goalkeeper’s art , 30-MAY, 2-JUN, 8pm, £14 - 6

LISTINGS

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

BEATS

LGBT

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

It’s fourteen years later, and the prevailing thinking among members of the Scottish Parliament isn’t much more advanced. They’ve just ignored expert recommendations, and instead voted in favour of criminalising kerb-crawlers, while failing to address the high levels of violence experienced by sex workers. It’s a complex topic, but our elected representatives have decided they know better than researchers, and making the sex industry as unpleasant as possible seems more politically beneficial than seeking to improve working conditions and safety. I’ve always felt strongly about voting. But it doesn’t matter a damn to me any more whether the Lib Dems, Labour, the SNP, the SSP, Solidarity or (ha!) the Tories are queer-friendly – I can’t in good conscience vote for any of them, because they supported the Prostitution Bill. (Iain Smith of Fife deserves an honourable mention, though – the solitary Lib Dem to vote against the Bill, he pointed out that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”) Recognising LGBT people’s needs is just not enough – I want a candidate who’s invested in equality and social inclusion for all citizens. Sadly there are precious few around, but in their absence I won’t sacrifice one principle for another. /Nine

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI TOP EVENTS ANGELS IN AMERICA @ CITIZEN’S THEATRE Epic play about religion, sexuality and AIDS 1 – 12 MAY, 119 GORBALS STREET, GLASGOW £9.50 - £16 / £6 STUDENTS AND UNEMPLOYED WWW.CITZ.CO.UK

DIFFERENT STROKES @ GLENOGLE SWIM CENTRE A safe space for transgender swimmers – the pool, gym and sauna are all yours! 12 & 26 MAY, GLENOGLE ROAD, EDINBURGH, FREE, 4PM

THE GOLD RIMMED GLASSES @ FILMHOUSE Tale of homophobic and anti-semitic persecution in fascist Italy, written by Giorgio Bassani and starring Rupert Everett 19 MAY, THE FILMHOUSE, EDINBURGH, £6 / £4.50, 6PM

PATTI SMITH @ ABC, GLASGOW Punk, feminist, androgynous and generally cool as fuck, her queer appeal should be self-explanatory 22 MAY, £25, 7PM

LONDON GAY MEN’S CHORUS, IN BAD BOYS with guest appearance from Loud & Proud, Scotland’s LGBT Choir 26 MAY @ USHER HALL, EDINBURGH 27 MAY @ ROYAL CONCERT HALL, GLASGOW

Equality: IS THAT ALL THERE IS? ALL SEXUAL ACTS BETWEEN MEN ARE STILL REFERRED TO IN SCOTS LAW AS ‘GROSS INDECENCY’ In an age of civil partnership and greater LGBT rights, it’s already dif f icult to remember what it was like before same-sex weddings were springing up like rainbow mushrooms. Changes to adoption law ensure that Johnny and Seamus’ kids are recognised as legally theirs; Goods, Facilities and Services Regulations mean that they can register for his & his towels at John Lewis or wherever else they fancy, and that the B&B where they honeymoon can’t refuse them entry or prevent them from sleeping in the same bed. We are in a new age of LGBT equality, where social attitudes are shifting and, finally, laws are responding. Because of this, when I tell those who ask that my job is working for LGBT equality in Scotland, a frequent response these days is ‘what’s left to do?’ It seems like the most glaring inequalities have been addressed, as indeed they have. But what’s left may be surprising to those who think of LGBT folks as ‘equal now’. For example, did you know that: · Scotland is the only place in the UK where crimes motivated by homophobia or hatred for disabled people are not legally considered ‘hate crimes’? · Anal rape (whether of a man or woman) cannot be charged as ‘rape’? · All sexual acts between men are still referred to in Scots law as ‘gross indecency’? · Experiencing high rates of bullying and isolation, LGBT young people are also several times more likely to self-harm than other young people in Scotland? · Civil partnership is only available to same-sex couples, and marriage only to mixed-sex couples? Despite significant, positive gains since 1980, when sexual acts between consenting men were finally decriminalised in Scotland, LGBT people still face frequent harassment and discrimination at home, in the workplace, and socially. Homophobia may be on the wane, but it’s far from

11PM - 3AM, £6

London Gay Men’s Chorus

14 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

gone: in 2002, for example, 26% of respondents told the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey that in their opinion a lesbian or gay man would be ‘unsuitable’ as a primary school teacher. The world is changing for the bet ter, but legislation does not a lways keep pace with it – and leg i slat ion i sn’t a lw ay s e no u g h when it comes to combating homophobia. We need leadership from politicians, but we also need champions for LGBT equality in our everyday lives: in the classroom where the young trans woman is bullied; in the do c t or’s s u rge r y whe re the lesbian woman is asked about birth control; in the workplace where the bisexual man in a straight relationship feels u ncom for table com i ng out to colleagues. Creating a climate in which homophobia is challenged rather than excused is everyone’s responsibility, all the time. And with the May elections we each have a chance to use our vote to encourage leadership rather than laziness on LGBT issues. Let’s hope we make the most of it.

SARAH GAMBLE IS A COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT WORKER FOR THE EQUALITY NETWORK. WWW.EQUALITY-NETWORK.ORG

About bloody time

by Sam Butler

THE BAN ON BLOOD DONATIONS FROM MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN IS STILL WITH US - BUT IT COULD BE ON ITS WAY OUT SOON It’ll be pretty hard to have missed the adverts. “Without these people, I’d be dead,” whimpers Heather Mills. “This man helped my son through leukaemia,” proclaims Gary Lineker. “Do something amazing today - give blood,” pleads the voiceover at the end of one of the many television campaigns from the National Blood Service. “Unless you’re a dirty gay, of course,” pops up an irritatingly cheery Davina McCall, “in which case you can keep your filthy infected blood to yourself.”

month, which bans discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, not only benefits lesbians, gay men and bisexual people - it benefits society as a whole when prejudice is challenged. In 2005, New Labour brought in laws recognising civil partnerships for same-sex couples. 2003 saw the repealing of Section 28 in Scotland. And in 2001 the age of consent for gay male sex was lowered. The fact that equal rights for LGBT people have come such a long way in the past ten years makes these donor selection rules seem all the more outdated.

THE IDEA BEHIND THE BLOOD BAN IS NOT ONLY OUTDATED AND HOMOPHOBIC, BUT ALSO DISCRIMINATIVE AND NOW POTENTIALLY ILLEGAL

Okay, so I might have made up that last bit. But she - or some other renta-gob - might as well have said it. At least then it would spare thousands of men the humiliation of being sent home from donor clinics simply because they have sex with other men. The idea that all gay and bisexual men practise unsafe sex and are therefore more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases is not only outdated and homophobic, but also discriminative and now potentially illegal.

£16 / £14.50, 7:30PM

by Sarah Gamble

illustration: Emily Robertson

I’ve been reading up on Senator David Norris. He’s a human rights activist who fought long and hard in Ireland for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. But when he f inally succeeded, in 1993, he was compelled to vote against the very legislation he’d worked for, because the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act also criminalised prostitution. “It would go hard with me to accept my liberation without a murmur at the expense of the victimisation of another vulnerable group,” he said. Transcripts from the Seanad (Senate) suggest that most members somehow thought the Act would protect sex workers.

Legislation passed under the Equality Act last

Although the Blood Transfusion Service will still be allowed to turn away donations from gay and bisexual men, this is only if they can prove that the rules are based on good clinical, academic research. The question is, will the LGBT community be able to prove that the research is flawed? Last year, students from universities across Scotland held demonstrations outside blood clinics across the country. Riots, you’d presume? Thousands of angry feather boa-clad men parad-

ing down the Royal Mile baying for blood? (Scary, huh?) No, there was no trouble. No arrests: in fact, there were no disruptions inside any of the clinics. Campaigners respected the privacy of donors who had gone to give blood and made every attempt not to disrupt the normal routines at the donor centres. Instead, their protest was one that actively encouraged people to give blood on their behalf – “Please give blood because we can’t” was their message, handed out on donor-style cards. And campaigning with such quiet dignity seems to have gathered more support. A petition sent to the Prime Minister to overturn the ban garnered over 5,000 signatures last month. Meanwhile, a counter-petition set up to keep the ban in place reaped merely four. It’s a complex dispute. Of course, everyone agrees that the most important thing is to make sure that blood stocks remain safe at all times. But stereotyping all gay and bisexual men as negligent in the practices of safe sex isn’t really of any benefit to anyone. Sorry, Lineker. Love to help. But being a dirty gay I’m keeping my filthy infected blood to myself.

LGBT

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

ALBUMS PRETTY RICKY LATE NIGHT SPECIAL (ATLANTIC RECORDS)

SINGLES for idiots, basically. Harmless, inoffensive and convivial, it would be easier to hate if it wasn’t so damn catchy. [Neil Ferguson] OUT NOW.

There isn’t much to be said for Prett y Rick y’s ‘trick y’ second album. It explores the same themes as its predecessor, with the four boys from Miami trying (almost embarrassingly) to seduce any woman with a pulse. With lyrics such as “I wanna sex you in the bedroom... I ain’t stopping till I hear you scream,” and “I’m right between yo’ thighs, exotic positions got yo’ orgasms multiplyin’,” it’s hard to imagine how anyone could resist. The vocals on this RnB/rap crossover album are cheesy, to say the least. There is something distinctly mainstream American and sleazy about Pretty Ricky. Thankfully, despite them reaching number 12 in the American Billboard charts, there should be little chance of them having any real success this side of the pond. [Meg Elliott] OUT NOW. WWW.PRETTYRICKY.COM

HELLOGOODBYE

ZOMBIES! ALIENS! VAMPIRES! DINOSAURS! (DRIVE-THRU)

Z o m b i e s ! A l i e n s ! Va m p i r e s ! Dinosaurs! may just be the most awesome album title ever, but sadly, that’s about as good as Hellogoodbye get. Fun, simple dance music, with massive whacks of popcore, it’s on a par with a ten-minute piss about on Fruity Loops or the soundtrack to a late80s Nintendo game. It bops along cheerily enough for about half an hour, taking the time to give nods to The Faint, Erasure, Apoptygma Berzerk and just about anyone else that’s ever gone near the synth-pop sound. Throwing in a little supermelodic power pop here and there, just to remind everyone that this is a Drive-Thru release after all, it’s an album filled with undemanding, superficial sounds. An album that never bothers to pretend that it has anything deeper to say. It’s Mylo

LGBT

BEATS REVIEWS WWW.HELLOGOODBYE.COM

KIDS ON TV

M IXIN G B U S IN ES S WITH PLEASURE (CHICKS ON SPEED RECORDS)

Straight outta the mixed bathhouse scene of Toronto, electro-punks Kids On TV have thrown together an album of dance rock on the cheap - reportedly recorded on a busted laptop while they were touring North America over the last few years. Sexy, witty, and queer, they have already been accused of ‘teaching indie kids to fuck again’. With songs like Breakdance Hunx, about just how much money a blond-haired B-Boy willing to go down can make (they reckon five grand), they look set to aggravate some of the right people. In short, they’re party animals, and they have a song called Cockwolves. If this band doesn’t fit in well with the inaccurately named nu-rave gang, it’ll be because they’re a little too techno-happy. If we’re lucky that won’t matter though, and they’ll be the ones to bring the scene some much needed sass. [James Blake] OUT NOW. WWW.KIDSONTV.BIZ

DAVE PICCIONI

AZULI PRESENTS MIAMI 2007 (AZULI RECORDS)

A z u l i ’s y e a r l y Miami compilations act as a p r i m e r of t h e likely ‘big’ tunes of t h e a n n u a l Miami Winter Music Conference and often, the subsequent Ibiza season. The near ubiquitous sound of electro-house looms large across this year’s two CD release, the likelihood being that if successful in Miami and the White Isle’s clubs, some of its tracks will end up in this autumn’s Top 40. Despite most of

them getting over-familiar with the same obvious growling basslines and pumping synth-patterns, there’s an undeniable energy at play that will see many rock dancefloors worldwide. Those who prefer a more subtle club soundtrack should look elsewhere. If there’s fun to be had it’s in picking out the likely commercial hits: vocal-led numbers such as Laura Kidd’s Automatic, Won’t Do It Again by Dave Spoon featuring Laura Vane, and Ultra DJ’s Me & U are sure-fire chart fodder. [Colin Chapman]

¡YA BASTA! 10 YEARS AFTER (¡YA BASTA!)

¡Ya Basta! is the French label set up by one third of the Gotan Project, Phillipe Cohen Solal, in the early 90s. The name, which roughly means ‘enough already’, is responsible for outputting a wide range of world music in a dance vein, from d&b to dub house, to bossa nova, tango, and dancehall, for the express task of revitalising the house and techno scene with world flavour. The tracks on this cut represent ten years of the label’s roster, which also happens to feature Solal on every single track, bar two written and performed by David Walters. It has been compiled and mixed by Michael Cook. The Gotan Project feature predominantly, alongside the Ya Basta crew, Stereo Action Unlimited, The Boyz from Brazil and Solal himself. The rhythms of South America and Europe resonate throughout, and there is a marriage to the political when Subcommondante

50 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

OUT NOW.

HIGH FIDELITY

www.azuli.com www.myspace.com/azuli

(TRIPLE DARKNESS/CHEMO PRODUC-

V/A

TIONS)

Melanin

9’s

DEJINE: REC COMPILATION VOL.1 debut is an od(DEJINE RECORDS)

There’s an old adage that to be successful, you need to come from far away. How else is Pavarotti so loved in Britain? So despite Asthmatic Astronaut’s work with Edinburgh boys Sileni or Pigeon style Kung Fu, it falls to Japanese hip-hop/electronica label Dejine Rec to be the first to promote this new talent. Working as a tour DJ for the Scottish hip-hop/funk/jam band Underling at the time of writing, Astronaut is currently slogging round the smallest bars in Scotland, nipping back to Edinburgh for the audio-visual showdown Neverzone, “the premiere locality for outerlimit hip-hop, altered crunk, electro-cubist dub and other made-up genres.” A mad professor’s workshop of skewed mechanicals and futurist electro-hop, Dejine: Rec showcases work from Vancouver, Ve n i c e, Ho ll a nd a nd Sc otl a nd. Despite the disparate locations there’s a predilection towards delicacy and experimentation that permeates the entire record: Asthmatic Astronaut’s Lord Have Mercy, a cut of bitstream electronic hip-hop with shoegaze harmonies, stands alongside the crunchy beats of the Dejine: Rec collective: Xiangxing, H.Honda, Toshee et al. Fellow Scots Savage Sound System and their sometime vocalist Sacre Noir contribute similarly leftfield cuts, with the former employing a stabbing static throb on The Infitada Dub, whilst the latter oc-

FEATURED ALBUM V/A

cupies far more ethereal territory with Mescaline Monologue, full of shimmery percussion and wailing vocals. Encapsulating a fascinating spectrum of broken beats, bleeps and ambient drifting, as well as killer skits from Obelus and Oblio (Dreadnots) and Seth Walker, this is a compelling compilation, brimming with promising new acts and entrancing tunes. [Liam Arnold]

yssey of conspiracy theories, fringe spirituality and utterly dark urban trauma. M9 refers to himself as Elohim, angelic messenger, sent to tell the story of his harsh life, and the struggles of his people. Holy Water holds up mainstream religion to intense scrutiny in breathless, run-on verses, a cranky funk loop starting and stopping in the background, allowing his hypnotic voice to ride a lonely beat, hammering home his words. His crew Triple Darkness contribute verses that sound like science fiction, but actually disseminate hidden knowledge of possible apocalypses to come, ancient wrongs perpetrated, dark events experienced. Through it all there is Melanin 9’s flow – perceptive, eloquent and filled with righteous fire. He’ll never be the most famous MC in the UK – he doesn’t talk enough about cars, women or money – but on the strength of his debut, he is without a doubt among the best. Production by Chemo and the mighty Beat Butcha is fantastic throughout, recalling the warped, dystopian vision of the RZA. [Bram Gieben] RELEASE DATE: MAY TBC WWW.MYSPACE.COM/M9INE

READ ALLOURLP, EP AND SINGLE REVIEWS ON OUR WEBSITE!

JUST JACK

GLORY DAYS (MERCURY RECORDS) Straight from the garish six ties artwork and trumpet introduction you can tell Just Jack is out to kick start your summer. The charmingly naive lyrics and sing-along chorus mean comparisons with Lilly Allen are hard to avoid. But as you hear Jack rhyme ‘Joss Stone’ with ‘ice cream cones’ why not smile and let Glory Days into your life? On the other hand, the Just Jack generation will consist of hundreds of Londoners whistling his tunes perpetually. They will make quirk y pop-culture references to each other whilst living in their eternal summer paradise. Incapable of anything but basic rhymes, they are doomed to a future of songs sounding like what Damon Albarn wrote when he was six. You decide. [Luc Benyon] OUT NOW.

THE WAREHOUSE SESSIONS VOL. 4 (MODERN LOVE TBC)

Mark Stewar t chops out another stunning slice of d e pth-c ha rge techno that knocks you of f your feet when it hits. Brimming with punchy, spacious bass and a cavernous kick drum, a-side Instinct is a thick, heady track that reproduces gorgeously retro Detroit melodies in futuristic shades of silver. Post is a glowing ember to Instinct’s flame though, a slow burning twilight-tinted track which pits the most elegant of keys against the snappiest snare in existence. Aural ecstasy, play it loud. [Liam Arnold] OUT NOW.

PEPE DELUXE PUSSY CAT ROCK (CATSKILLS)

THE BLACK DOG VIRTUAL EP (SOMA)

F i r s t re l e a s e d i n 1989, this is the l o ng awa i te d re release of the debut EP from The Black Dog. With their Brian Eno-influenced soundscapes and stark breakbeats TBD deliver a perfectly constructed EP consisting of three very individual tracks. The first two tracks, Vir tual and The Weight are consistent with the style of what was to follow from The Black Dog: melodic, dark with rattling beats. The last track Ambience with Teeth is a much more funky affair, with more than just a hint of James Brown about it. Surprisingly, 16 years on, this EP still sounds as fresh and interesting as any contemporary artist has to offer. This is a great reminder for any IDM fan just how important The Black Dog (and their more recent offspring, Plaid) have been for modern electronic music. [Meg Elliott]

This limited edition 7” is a wonderful taster for the upcoming album Spare Time Machine from Finnish duo Pepe Deluxe (James Spectrum and JA-Jazz). Title track Pussy Cat Rock is an energetic, vibrant mish-mash of fast garage rock and thrashy beats. Like a short, sharp thunderbolt that hits you smack in the face, this tune is a fun-filled feline riot. B-side Ms. Wilhelmina and Her Hat shows a different, softer side to the imaginative pair; a psychedelic affair, containing far-out trippy beats and sounds. This fantastic, feisty offering shows exactly what Pepe Deluxe can do - and that’s producing exciting, ex p e r i m e nta l, i nve nti ve pa r t y tracks. Known for both innovation and diversity, Pepe Deluxe look set to create an ever-bigger fuss with the release of their third album, and with a live tour on the cards, this could be a big year for the boys. [Karen Taggart] OUT NNOW. MYSPACE.COM/PEPEDELUXE

AVAILABLE NOW ON 12” & CD. WWW.SOMARECORDS.COM

RESIDENT LEON EASTER - 3345 Marcos - a spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation - appears in spoken word format on the first two dub/dub house tracks by The Ya Basta crew. The Gotan Project are brought in for some light tango relief with unplugged guitars and accordion for good measure on El Norte: painting the scene for a detective mystery set in the imaginary Cafe le Rouge, central Paris. Solal’s Psycho Girls and Psycow Boys is heavily influenced by Solal’s time in Nashville, resulting in a Beck-style indie folk rock with lamenting harmonica. In contrast, The Boyz from Brazil’s Bom Bom Be, (you guessed it, another production from Solal, with Christoph H Muller) takes it further down the coastline for Brazilian beats and experimentaion with latin rhythms, with a house backdrop.

CLARO INTELECTO

THIS MONTH LEON EASTER FROM 3345 GIVES US HIS TOP TEN FOR THE CLUB AND BAR. 3345’S NEXT BIG DATE IS THEIR 3RD BIRTHDAY ON 15 JUNE AT CABARET VOLTAIRE, EDINBURGH. ON THE MAIN FLOOR WILL BE A SIX-STRONG TEAM OF DJS INCLUDING ROY MCLAREN. JOINING THE TEAM WILL BE DUO ARMEET & GARY J FOR LIVE PERCUSSION, AND BILLY WOODS (TBC) WILL BE SPINNING ‘DISCO EXPONENT FUNK AND SOUL’ IN THE BACK ROOM. LIVE AND FUNKY HOUSE AWAITS YOU!

1. SESSOMATO - MOVIN’ ON [TIMMY VEGAS B’HAM HOUSTIN AUTHORITY MIX] (Z RECORDS)

Deep, techy and slightly on the electro tip. Roy’s a producer to look out for in the future.

My favourite club track at present. A rippng bassline and fresh take on a Joey Negro bomb.

6. LEELA JAMES - MY JOY (RESTRICTED ACCESS)

2. ME KUMBA - KNEE DEEP [ORIGINAL KNEE DEEP MIX] (KNEE DEEP USA)

From the Timmy Regisford stable, a couple of years old now. A deep organ track with the most gorgeous vocal.

7. STACY KIDD FEAT. XL - THE MOVEMENT

Chant-like vocals, deep latin groove with a piano hook over the top. Phatt and heavy.

(DEFECTED MIAMI)

3. JOHN JULIUS KNIGHT - WHAT IS LOVE

Bit of an old skool track - this is quite simply evil. Killer hook bassline and vocal.

(SOULFURIC TRAX)

It’s a little ‘quaint’ at times, but for the most part the tracks are all subtle remixes, using different artists to bring out different qualities in the music: The Gotan Project’s Santa Maria (del Buen Ayre) is remixed by Tom Middleton to emphasise the house elements. The album takes in all the major cities and cultures of the world as it traverses across the genres, so you’re going to be hard pressed to find notthing you like. [Alex Burden]

This track is full of rhythm and dark harmonic elements throughout; peaktime track, JJK at his best.

RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY.

4.TERRY THOMPSON FT. LISA MACK - SHINE [DJ SPEN REMIX] (CODE RED RECORDINGS)

8. DENNIS FERRER - CHURCH LADY (DEFECTED) This future classic track is subtle with detail and soulfrom-the-belly gospel-tech flavored house.

9. YASS - HE REIGNS (PURPLE MUSIC)

A year old now but due for another release on Defected. Has the sound of a mid 90s US jackin’ track.

Fresh out of Paris, this killer punchy dub mix is to be played as loud as possible, sure to kick off any party.

5. ROY MCLAREN - TOMMORROW’S FUTURE EP

10. SHARLENE HECTOR - THE BOTTLE (SOLE MUSIC)

(WHITE LABEL)

All time classic bar groove.

BEATS

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

FILM

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

ALEX SMOKE

HANGED MAN EP (VAKANT)

May ma rk s the off ic ia l s t a r t o f t he summer blockbuster season and two great trilogies reach their cl i ma x (u nt i l t hey make the fourth ones at least) with the relea s e of Spider man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. These two monsters mark only the beginning of the potential treats in store. Some will be megahits, some will be swept aside at the box office, and some will inevitably be utter shite, but we always live in hope of a better season than the last one. So look out for The Simpsons Movie, Transformers, the fifth Harry Potter and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Three more trilogies have their third outings in the shape of Shrek the Third, The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean’s 13, while Bruce Willis returns to a franchise thought long dead with Live Free or Die Hard. Mind you, that’s nothing: this time next year we’ll be talking about the release of Indiana Jones IV. Roll on summer 2008. Have fun and see you in June. Paul.

Following the release of his second album track, Prima Materia, on Soma, Alex Smoke’s latest three track EP comes out on Berlin’s Vakant label. A-side It’s a Carni Life is a typically dark and driving minimal tech trip, displaying the ubiquity and versatility of Smoke’s sound. On the flip-side, Hanged Man is a more straightforward glitch funk effort, soaked in acid and ready for any sleazy sweatbox. And finally, Rotwang, aptly named after the mad scientist in classic science fiction film Metropolis, is a subtle yet successful experiment in relentless rhythm and hypnotising loops. Altogether, another impressive release: intelligent, diverse, understated cool. [Peter Walker] OUT NOW

ANTHONY COLLINS

THE SHADES EP (DARKROOM DUBS)

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI RELEASE SCHEDULE 4 MAY Bridge To Terabithia (PG) Dans Paris (15) Fast Food Nation (15) Goya’s Ghosts (15) Mutual Appreciation (15) Spider-Man 3 (12A) The Upside Of Anger (15)

11 MAY 28 Weeks Later (TBC) The All Together (15) Blue Blood (15) Goodbye Bafana (15) Like Minds (15) My Best Friend (12A) The Night Of The Sunflowers (15)

18 MAY Black Snake Moan (15) Captivity (TBC) Conversations With Other Women (15) Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (15) Lovewrecked (TBC) Magicians (15) The Tiger’s Tail (18) Zodiac (15)

25 MAY Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End (12A) The Bothersome Man (TBC) Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure (U) Jindabyne (15)

THAT Mitchell and Webb MOVIE

by Paul Greenwood

DAVID MITCHELL AND ROBERT WEBB SPEAK TO THE SKINNY ABOUT THEIR BIG SCREEN DEBUT, MAGICIANS, AND WHY BRITISH CINEMA SHOULD STAND UP FOR ITSELF

wo of the shining lights of British television comedy make their big screen debut as a double act this month with the release of Magicians. David Mitchell and Robert Webb, stars of Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, play Harry and Karl, childhood friends turned famous magicians, who fall on hard times after a stage stunt goes horribly wrong and ends their friendship as well as their careers. As several unsuccessful, if not downright heinous, attempts have proved in the past (Smith and Jones, Cannon and Ball, Ant and Dec), translating a comedy duo from television to film can be a dangerous path to tread, and it wasn’t really something they sought out, as David Mitchell explains. “We wanted to do comedy in whatever form anyone would let us for a long time and it landed very fortuitously on our plates after the writers and director had done all the hard work.” Initially though, Mitchell was more worried about whether it would ever happen, never mind if it would be any good “The more read-throughs you go to, the more you feel it’s going to be heartbreaking when this doesn’t happen (“Or when they replace us with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller” chips in Webb). If you’re a natural pessimist like me, you have to tell yourself it won’t happen, right up until the point where it demonstrably IS happening.” So while it can be a rocky road getting a good British film into cinemas, the success of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s films must surely have helped. “Definitely.” says Mitchell. “Every successful, funny British comedy must help more to happen. There’s a mind set that we’re only due a successful British film every five years. And that obviously isn’t the case; you can in theory make loads.” Webb agrees: “We make so few that there’s such a lot of pressure on each one. Do you think because that last one was a huge turkey, they’re all going to be huge turkeys from now on? Everyone gets fixated about the last one that came out, so we should make more.” According to Mitchell, the move to the big screen is not quite the giant leap that many people may think. “The main difference in the challenge is coming up with a story that works over an hour

16 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

and a half. That’s a lot more of a difference than the change from one sized screen to another. People possibly lose sight of the similarities. They get their head so addled by ‘Oh, it’s a film, we’ve got to somehow make it like The Searchers.’ No, no, this is comedy, as long as there are characters and jokes that are funny and we’re happy with

“FUNNIER THAN THE PRESTIGE AND THE ILLUSIONIST PUT TOGETHER....ALMOST.” the script, then if we hold our nerve and just do this, all that we know is that that should work. If more British films happened, people would get less scared and just do it and have a little bit of confidence.” Of course, Magicians isn’t the first film for either of them; Webb in particular gained a lot of exposure with last year’s Confetti, where he played a naturist. “It’s been written into British law now that I have to take my clothes off in every film. Just because I slightly overdid it last time, doesn’t mean I should refuse to do it next time. Luckily Karl, not being a nudist, when he finds himself locked out of a hotel room not wearing any clothes, does what most normal people would do, he covers his balls up. So at least the ladies and gentlemen are spared another lingering ‘Rob’s cock’ shot”.

ing the film easier. But compared to the characters in Peep Show, Karl and Harry are closer when they’re together so it’s a much bigger deal when they fall out.” Mitchell points out that the writers might have spent too much time observing their real selves, “The writers have come with a different relationship dynamic from our own and from the one in Peep Show. These are two people who are almost brothers, there’s something sweeter about their friendship which doesn’t exist in Peep Show, which is why hopefully you’re rooting for them in the film to get back together.” Having spent a lot of time practising several difficult illusions, they came away with a new respect for the magician’s skill, if not necessarily the art behind them, learning the tricks they needed to learn and dropping the ones they couldn’t master. “Even before filming, I’d always liked Derren Brown”, says Webb. “We found out how a lot of stuff is done, but we’re not going to tell anybody, mainly because when you find out how something’s done, it’s like ‘Oh, is that it? Oh right. It’s just a trick.’”

But while comedy may have evolved in recent years, magic, as Mitchell sees it, possibly hasn’t moved on quite as much: “What’s changed in comedy over the last 20 or 30 years is that comedians are very closely associated with their material whereas previously material was seen as a separate thing – you could have a go at each other’s material like magicians could have a go at each other’s tricks. Now, if Ricky Gervais does a line you don’t think ‘I wonder if I could get a Though best known as a partnership, they have laugh with that line’, because it’s his. Material is done their share of solo stuff over the years, Webb a lot more respected in comedy.” in the likes of The Smoking Room and Mitchell hosting a variety of chat shows and comedy shows. Hopefully, for the sake of the success of the film, a “We are sort of each other’s bosses”, says Webb, comedy about magic is as respected as the recent “so if one needs time away to do a solo thing, you dramas about magic since, as Webb would have have to be reasonable about it because the boot’s it, Magicians is “funnier than The Prestige and The going to be on the other foot sooner or later.” Illusionist put together....almost.” Although they probably shouldn’t put that on the poster. With Peep Show now in its fourth series, bringing the core creative team (David and Rob plus the show’s writers, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain) DIR: ANDREW O’CONNOR on board certainly helped Webb, although the STARS: DAVID MITCHELL, ROBERT WEBB, JESSICA STEVENSON, friends’ relationship in Magicians is quite different PETER CAPALDI from that on the small screen: “Because we have a RELEASE DATE: 18 MAY shorthand and we trust each other and we know CERT: 15 what we’re doing, that makes the process of mak- WWW.UNIVERSALPICTURES.CO.UK

FILM

Underground French electro star Collins successfully avoids monotony, instead managing to ﬁll his music with emotion and intrigue. His sparse electronica whispers ‘love me’ into cynical ears. It constantly evolves; building up slowly and breaking out into clever plateaus. It plays like a dream you try to make sense of but never really grasp, and certainly can’t remember the next day. Despite occasionally being repetitive, Collins’ EP keeps the listener on edge, alert and, unusually for electronica, warmed. This probably will not be heard ﬁlling dancefloors but it will be hard to resist putting it on to keep that upbeat vibe going when the afterparties kick off. [Luc Benyon] OUT NOW

JUNIOR BOYS THE DEAD HORSE EP

(DOMINO)

The title is ominous, but the remixes are not. This six track EP takes the breathy rnb house of the Junior Boys and lets Hot Chip, Carl Craig, Kode 9 and Tensnake loose on them, resulting in satisfying overhauls. It begins with the album versions of In the Morning and Like a Child, taken from the So This Is Goodbye album, a good reference point for examining how the tracks have mutated and changed. Hot Chip’s Like a Child sounds like the Junior Boys on a crazed shabu session out to make fuzzy guitar synth pop: resplendent with drunk and tinny arpeggio synths: sections are over-laid for a compact piece, and they add their own vocals to carry the Hot Chip style.

Carl Craig’s minimal techy remix of the same track comes across as gothy electronica - think of The Cure born twenty years later. The repetitions of ‘I’m like a child’ are echoed into trance-house, cultivated for a straight to the dancefloor transition. Kode 9’s mix of Double Shadow is a gently paced grimey dubstep monster, while Tensnake’s FM mix adds the disco glam and electro house with bright, bouncing synth. [Alex Burden] OUT NOW

BUSY P

RAINBOW MAN EP (BECAUSE MUSIC)

Daft Punk’s manager, Pedro Winter, has taken a turn in the producer’s chair and released an EP of manic electro house. The Ed Banger sound is alive and well in Busy P, as you’d expect, what with it being his label. Busy’s almost nightly warmup sets for the French house legends that are Daft Punk, has given him the chance to ﬁgure out exactly how to get the party started: it’s dirty, it’s heavy, and it’s sweaty. It has echoes of booty, and in places it sounds reminiscent of those midsummer parties that hump your mate’s stereo over the course of a dance until dawn. It sounds like the soundtrack to heavy who-gives-adamn hedonism. [James Blake]

BEATS

12 VINYL REVIEWS bouncy beats and spook y jabs. [Natalie Doyle] WWW.SOMARECORDS.COM WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LEEVANDOWSKI

LET’S GO OUTSIDE

I’LL LICK YOUR SPINE (PNUMA) This is the four th release from Pnuma, the experimental off-shoot label from Soma. Let’s Go Outside’s slow grooves and discordant echoes ride atop a beat which could easily be transferred to the hip hop scene for utilisation. But in reality this a techno/IDM track, albeit an unearthly one. The sultry oversexed vocals/breaths of guest Christina Broussard promise to pull your hair and lick your spine in what comes across like the soundtrack to a postapocalyptic sex hotel, complete with the dull and lingering bongs of time as they bounce off a wall of mirrors. Repeat Repeat slap their trademark wonky sound on the remix, adding further layers, softer sounds, and absolutely minimal bass which occasionally rears its head as constrained volcanic bubbling, ﬁltering from speaker to speaker. This is great as a minimal Soma/Pnuma mix, but I’ll Lick Your Spine is no dancefloor slayer. [Alex Burden] OUT NOW, WWW.PNUMARECORDS.COM

LOTTERGIRLS

BONFINI E.P. (TNT / FOUR MUSIC)

OUT NOW, MYSPACE.COM/BUSYP

EDIT SELECT

EDIT SELECT 01 (EDIT SELECT) Edit-Select 01 is the debut release from the mysterious Edit Select, a well known Soma Recordings artist under a new pseudonym. The EP contains three tracks, the first of which, Asperity, sure packs an almighty punch with its dark rhythmic beats. No Automation takes a more minimalist approach. The release finally winds down with the chilled out and very serene Cnoc Moi. [Natalie Doyle] MYSPACE.COM/EDITSELECTRECORDS

LEE VAN DOWSKI

THE STRIKE PANDEMONIUM (SOMA)

Following the release of his and Philip Quenum debut album As Told On The Eve Of... through Soma last year, Lee Van Dowski’s releases his ﬁrst solo offering The Strike Pandemonium. In keeping with his forte, LVD has packed the track with progressive throbs and random blips, while its counterpart King Convex Stylus is dripping with

Lottergirls is the new “super-electro-punk-funk-group” comprising of Princess Superstar, Fetisch, Baxter Wilderbeast and AndMe, aiming to put a feminine twist on the electropunk sound. Their first EP Bonfini takes its’ inspiration from the Berlin Italian restaurant of the same name, a place where artists, DJs and lost souls hang out to eat, drink and get fucked up. The EP has four Bonﬁni mixes: Track 1 (original mix - Fetisch and AndMe) is very New York, reminiscent of the Fischerspooner sound – haunting, suspense-laden, dark and menacing, slowly building to a crashing crescendo. Track 2 (9 inch Spaghetti Jack) contains deep, brooding vocals and paranoid lyrics, with a faster house beat, and Tracks 3 and 4 (Headman and Sameboy) have thumping basslines, ideally suited to damp, dirty clubs with cramped, sweaty dancefloors. This is a small taster of what’s to come when the Lottergirls debut album is released later in the year, providing original electro dance tracks of superb quality, in what seems to rapidly becoming an over-saturated genre. RELEASE DATE: 7 MAY 2007 MYSPACE.COM/LOTTERGIRLS

Alex Smoke

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

FILM

BEATS EDINBURGH Art Brut & Improvised Infinity High Fives for Big Toe’s! by Joel Shaw

SET IN THE CHARMING SURROUNDINGS OF THE WEE RED BAR IN EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART, BIG TOE’S HI-FI IS A REGGAE NIGHT WITH A TWIST. FOUNDING BIG TOE’S MEMBERS JOHN AND COLVIN EXPLAIN TO THE SKINNY WHAT THEIR NIGHT IS ABOUT.

“

The music side of it and the vibes at a Big Toe’s party are top notch… but we’re the first to admit that we’re horrible promoters. Most people involved in Big Toe’s are artists at heart,” says John. From the impressive array of banners and uniquely designed bass bins, to the use of live samplers and effects, the Big Toe’s guys are keen to be as creative as they possibly can be. It’s more than just playing a few records. Such nights just would not be the same if run under a tight music policy and clientele list. “There’s nothing worse than playing at a night where the promoter or the club are dictating,” adds John. Colvin is keen to emphasise the ethos of “good music and good fun” as the only real policy of the night, whilst explaining that they’re “not into all the homophobic shit, just fun.” It all started around four years ago when John arrived to do a masters degree in Edinburgh. Before this he’d spent some time DJing and clubbing around Canada, but it was in the Caribbean – where he was helping set up a community project where he saw how “the soundsystem culture worked... at its purest and rawest.” With the idea of starting up his own soundsystem in Edinburgh lodged in his head, John met Colvin working at the Art College. Like John, Colvin has been passionately involved in music right back to the beginning of the 90s when he fronted the band Nonstopcamels. Colvin shared John’s passion for music in all forms, but he remarks that one of the reasons he enjoys soundsystem nights is because of the togetherness and multicultural vibe, that in a way, holds similarities “to rave culture circa 1990.”

As good as the music is, the Big Toe’s party is given a little something extra by the talents of Daddy Scotty, Ras Ista and George Prophet. They all met at the first ever Big Toe’s, and what developed is described by John as a unique and “beautiful relationship”, where they turn up on an ad hoc basis and perform if they feel like it. The relaxed relationship helps “bring the best out in our DJing ability, which helps not just to accommodate Scotty and Ista, but accentuate their skills,” John says.

THERE’S NOTHING WORSE PLAYING AT A NIGHT WHERE THE PROMOTER OR THE CLUB ARE DICTATING. It is their diverse musical backgrounds that helps give the club nights a unique musical flavour. Colvin explains the “beauty of Big Toe’s is that we can, and will, play anything and everything within all genres and sub-genres of reggae – if we feel rhythm & sound or some dubstep, we’ll do it.” And this refreshing attitude to a reggae night really does make it a fresher party.

CLUB REVIEWS CRYSTAL DISTORTION

SYNTHETIC, THE BONGO CLUB, 5 APR Support sets from the simultaneously jiving Graeme Marshall and DJ Physicist set the stage for just about any act, serving their techno sunny side up, tribalistic, and funky with a side of stutter, progressively delving into darker shades as hours tick away. It has to be said that Synthetic’s residents are always spot on in capturing the right atmosphere and revving up the crowd. Distortion rolls onto the decks around 1am, infusing the set with some ‘Lahndahn’ attitude not much has changed in his style in recent years, continuing on a successful heavy-edged plateau, peppered with blaring early 90s acid. Steering through ghettotek into hardtek, Distortion ends up in an offbeat field of cows mooing, spectacularly managing to delight the dancers. If you aren’t sweating profusely by the end and shaking off a bad case of the jogger’s knees, you can only have been standing outside all night. [Alex Burden]

DJ QUANTIC & TROUBLE DJS

BASEMENT BOOGIE LAUNCH, BERLIN, EDINBURGH, 5 APR In November 2006 the Trouble DJs launched their first Basement Boogie night at Hudsons, and they’re back in a new home at the

Berlin club – no longer a bierhaus but an exceedingly trendy basement bar. Trouble DJs are well known around Edinburgh for their house and funk sounds but this launch night leaves something to be desired from their sets. Their inhouse MC, Ratty B, provides surprisingly robust vocals and lyrics heathily stepping up the atmosphere, and DJ Quantic has a storming session, playing out a latin inspired set of funky salsa and soul tunes, keeping the dancers filled with a yearning to be samba dancers. However, the overall night is lacking the vibrancy and energy found in other clubs around the city, and to pull off a successful launch party, you need a lot more oomph! Fans of house and soul should not be dissuaded however, the concept and vinyl selection gets tops marks, so check it out next time you have a free Thursday night. [Lara Moloney]

STICK430

JAKN, STUDIO 24, EDINBURGH, 13 APR Tonight Stick430 (aka R.V & R.A) return to JakN, spinning some w i c ke d h a r d c o r e t u n e s, w i t h s u p p o r t f r o m r e s i d e n ts Fu KNuT and Sekonz. JakN rarely disappoints, and tonight is no exception. However, tonight’s action seems to be slightly overshadowed by the appearance of Lenny Dee at Amnesia upstairs in the club. Nevertheless, the JakN faithful party all night, with people chopping and changing between the two clubs. Stick430 provide the best banging

48 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

Big Toe’s are always keen to team up with other soundsystems and have already had a memorable night with Glasgow’s Mungo’s Hi-Fi. There are no egos in the Big Toe’s camp, just love for the dance. Big Toe’s first 7”, Cupid’s Revolution, released last month, manages to bring together what the nights are about - it’s a mash up of styles, taking Sam Cook’s soul classic Cupid on top of the Sly and Robbie Revolution riddim. It may sound like it shouldn’t work, but it does. Cupid’s Revolution is now a regular hit at Big Toe’s dances and according to John, it “encapsulates what we are about.”

As it is, Big Toe’s is a colourful reggae party with sunshine vibes. It’s a night put together by a group of guys with love for music in all forms - with reggae taking centre stage. Quick to criticise small mindedness in music, Big Toe’s refuse to be constrained - it’s a reggae night with no music policy.

NEXT DATE 18 MAY, 10PM-3AM, £5/£4. WWW.WEEREDBAR.CO.UK

Brian Cox

PREVIEWS tracks with an industrial electro edge and blaring bass, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. JakN is a must for all techno lovers and party monsters out there, with The Skinny already looking forward to Bas Mooy on 15 May – bring on the wild summer nights. [Karen Taggart]

VOLUME

EGO, EDINBURGH, 14 APRIL As they are standing outside smoking, a crowd of girls debates the relative merits of the music on offer at Ego tonight. “Straw poll,” says one girl. “Which do you prefer?” She cocks an ear towards the tinny house music emanating from the top floor. “I prefer house. The music downstairs is just so hard. So nasty. So... urban.” It’s hard to argue with her description, but you have to disagree with the look of repulsion on her face. Downstairs, Obscene’s DJ Termite lays down a set of strings-grime and dubstep, flawlessly marrying Diplo with bailefunk and Spank Rock, building pace. Great Ezcape’s Profisee takes up the baton with some London underground grime, rhyming over the top with fellow MC Simba and some local headz. Nick G pumps the energy levels with some classics from Dizzee, Roll Deep, and Akala and Skinnyman’s monstrously deep Shakespeare track. Finally, Termite returns to rinse out the sweaty crowd with some ragga jungle bizness. The underground urban sounds of Volume are on the rise - watch out Disco Dolly, ya might get murkled. [Bram Gieben] VOLUME IS BI-MONTHLY AT EGO, ALTERNATING WITH OBSCENE

THE SHAPESHIFTERS FUNKNGORGEOUS

LIQUID ROOMS, EDINBURGH, 27 MAY This will be only the second evening of FunkNGorgeous, but by heck they’ve got a name lined up for you. The Shapeshifters (Positiva Records) will be coming to Edinburgh for a blast of homemade house alongside fellow Nocturnal Groove label mate and FunkNGorgeous resident, Roy McLaren. The Shapeshifters first surfaced on radios in the summer of 2004 with Lola’s Theme, quickly becoming a UK No.1 and spending more than eight weeks there. A string of singles followed, and they dropped their debut, Sound Advice, in 2006. Simon Marlin and Max Reich met in Gothenburg, Sweden, while Simon scouted for new talent for the Down Boy label, soon becoming Max’s manager. After an early hours listening session with the duo, Simon’s wife, Lola, and her vinyl collection, they began working together on Lola’s Theme, and all three founded the Nocturnal Groove label. For sunkissed grooves to start your summer, check it out and keep an eye out for their new album due later this year. Supporting will be resident Roy McLaren, who was signed to Nocturnal in 2006 after coming to light for winning the 2003 Scottish Open Decks Championship. [Alex Burden] 11.00PM-3AM, £12.50 TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM TICKET SCOTLAND. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ROYMCLAREN

PUSHIN’ BUTTONS

RED NIGHTCLUB, EDINBURGH, EVERY SUNDAY The speakers at the relaunched Red Nightclub are being fattened on a mixed diet of hip-hop, disco, funk-breaking electro and indie, courtesy of new weekly club, Pushin’ Buttons. Five Edinburgh locals accrued from the clubs TrouBle (Hobbes), Xplicit (Meldrum), Diggity (DJ Fabuloz), Snatch (DJ Babes), and Motherfunk (Jamie Spectrum), will be pushin’ buttons, spinning records, and tweaking mixers with special guests to keep you dancing. Hobbes is better known as one of TrouBle’s funky residents, and while Babes may frequent Thursday nights at Snatch, playing out the best in pop and Minder theme tunes, expect something totally different as he brings boogiefunk, New York underground disco and old-skool flavour hip hop. Jamie Spectrum has since fled Motherfunk for

London, but he couldn’t resist coming back to showcase his disco and electro findings. Meldrum (Xplicit back room host) just likes good dancing music, so prepare your ears for funk, electronica, soul, and breaks to keep you stamping. Continuing the hip-hop thread with dancehall leanings is former Diggity resident DJ Fabuloz, looking to explore new and exciting music territory for his latest residency. [Alex Burden] £0, 10PM-3AM. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PUSHINBUTTONSCLUB

LE CASTLE VANIA

W.A.E, CABARET VOLTAIRE, EDINBURGH, 16 MAY We Are... Electric are back with more international flavours, namely in the shape of blonde-coiffured Le Castle Vania; the remix and production project of DJ DJ Dylan (AlwaysNever/Architek-ATL), otherwise known as Atlanta’s electro pride and indie rock joy. Influenced by the likes of Daft Punk, DFA, The Presets, Myoko and Soul Wax, DJ DJ Dylan breaks out the disco beats and ‘bad ass robot shredding’ keytar for his indie-pop electro. He’s played with the likes of MSTRKRFT and Uffie & Feadz, destroying dancefloors with his hyperfusion. Keep your ears open for tracks like Tigertron, taken from the recent Troubletron EP, available now on iTunes. Also appearing are Nightmoves; the disco punk exporter, Dava Le Funk, Flix, and weekly resident, Gary Mac. Other flavours for the night include the We Are... Electric’s staples of disco, house, indie, and of course, electro. [Struan Otter] 11PM-3AM, £0 B4 12AM AND MEMBERS/£2.

Le Castle Vania

photo: © www.TheMidnightSocialite.com

BEATS

by Stephen Carty

IT SEEMS NO DECENT MAINSTREAM PICTURE CAN DO WITHOUT HIM.

onsider yourself to have reasonably decent f ilm knowledge ? Ok then, quick test. Who was the first person to play Thomas Harris’ serial killer character Hannibal Lecter (at a time when it was spelt Lecktor incidentally) on screen? Sir Anthony Hopkins right? Wrong. Before the popular thespian legend hammed the psychotic yet occasionally well-mannered doctor up to such a level where he probably should have been sporting a Danepak label on his orange jumpsuit, a classy Scottish actor by the name of Brian Cox took on the role. Starring in Michael Mann’s 1986 Manhunter (remade recently as the infinitely inferior Red Dragon) Cox made the world aware of just how good he was and he has not let up since. Set to star in no less than four movies this year, including David Fincher’s imminently released thriller Zodiac, the native of Dundee is, as always, a busy man. Starting off in television the Scot got his break in programmes like Z-Cars and the Devil’s Crown and, despite working with such a pivotal director as Mann, continued to ground himself in television until Hollywood eventually came a knocking. After a few more years on the small screen and an impressive turn in Rob Roy, Cox played the part of the young William Wallace’s uncle Argyle in Mel Gibson’s 1995 (after Mad Max, before Mad Mel) Braveheart and really, from that time, gained part after part. Notable performances in run-of-the-mill trite action flicks like Chain Reaction and The Long Kiss Goodnight enabled better parts to follow, in movies like Desperate Measures and baseball drama For Love of the Game, but it has been in the last six years that his career has skyrocketed.

www.skinnymag.co.uk

With pivotal roles in Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, Woody Allen’s Match Point and Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Cox has proved he can do the intellectual but, at the same time, has obvious commercial pull. It seems no decent mainstream picture can do without him as he can lend himself to the epic (playing war-monger Agamemnon in Troy), the comedy (yes, he slummed it in Super Troopers), the genuinely scary (a critical role in jump-fest The Ring), the intelligent thriller (he nearly steals the first two Jason Bourne films) and even the comic book (standing out in Singer’s wonderful X2). Yes, a quick peep at his CV is impressive. Most impressive. So what can we expect from new movies this year? Well he plays a convict doing a Michael Scofield impression in The Escapist, voices ‘Spanners’ in new puppet espionage movie Agent Crush and – as is the norm – steals scenes aplenty as celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli in the aforementioned Zodiac. All this and a few more nice roles ticking along in pre-production; it must be tough work leading the life of Brian. ZODIAC IS RELEASED ON 18 MAY AND IS REVIEWED ON THE NEXT PAGE.

FILMOGRAPHY ZODIAC (2007) MATCH POINT (2005) THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) X2 (2003) ADAPTATION (2002) THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) BRAVEHEART (1995) MANHUNTER (1986)

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

FILM REVIEWS

GREEN VELVET

PRESSURE, THE ARCHES, 30 MAR

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER DIR: MIKE BINDER STARS: JOAN ALLEN, KEVIN COSTNER,

from a superstar into a hugely watchable character actor with a really nice line in middle aged grouches. [Paul Greenwood]

THE REAPING

ERIKA CHRISTENSEN RELEASE DATE: 4 MAY

DIR: STEPHEN HOPKINS

CERT: 15

S TA R S :

Joan Allen stars here as a fortysomething mother of four grown or nearly grown daughters, struggling to cope after her husband’s recent walkout, supposedly with his Swedish secretary. Finding a drinking buddy in neighbour Costner, a washed up baseball star turned talk radio host, she tries to hold her family together while doing a not very good job of resisting Costner’s advances. What we get is a fairly inconsequential romantic drama with several bitterly funny scenes, anchored by the stellar performances of its supremely experienced leading couple. Allen impresses in a showy role where she gets to yell and cry and act drunk, but Costner is even more of a delight, having matured

MORRISSEY, ANNASOPHIA ROBB

HIL ARY

S WA N K ,

D AV I D

OUT NOW

of course, her own inner demons. Sadly, Hopkins is too content to revert to pastiche rather than originality; the well worn elements of the ‘Horror / Thriller’ genre are simply too predictable to be scary while the final religious message is at best odious and at worst, offensive. [Anna Rogers]

SPIDER-MAN 3

CERT: 15

The Reaping is set in a southern American town called Haven (presumably a stab at irony) where the residents are convinced that the skinny, blonde daughter of the requisite town loon has caused a biblical plague to descend upon them. The town’s river is running red and the knives are out; enter Professor Katherine Winter (Swank), expert in debunking religious phenomena and a recovering Christian missionary with a dark secret. Can she convince Haven that the source of ill is located in the river’s algae before they kill an innocent child? Well, not before she’s battled with God, Satan and,

DIR: SAM RAIMI STARS: TOBEY MAGUIRE, KIRSTEN DUNST, JAMES FRANCO, THOMAS HADEN CHURCH, TOPHER GRACE RELEASE DATE: 4 MAY

because he thinks Spider-Man/ Peter (Maguire) killed his father, and he fancies himself as the new Green Goblin. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko (Church), who it turns out is Uncle Ben’s real killer (!!!) becomes The Sandman, a near indestructible mud monster. On a personal level, something these movies have always excelled at, Peter fears he’s losing Mary Jane (Dunst). Then there’s the black alien goo that has taken over Spidey’s suit, enhancing his powers, but turning him vengeful and hate-filled. And what does this have to with Eddie Brock (Grace), Peter’s new rival at the Bugle?

CERT: 12A

With great success comes great expectation. Financially and critically the most successful comic adaptations to date, the Spider-Man franchise reaches its difficult third episode with a hell of a lot riding on it and the webslinger now fighting his battles on four fronts. Peter Parker’s best friend Harry (Franco) is still mightily pissed off

FILM OF THE MONTH

Fun and exciting it may be but, with so much packed in, SpiderMan 3 remains strangely underwritten, never managing to be quite as stirring as the outstanding second chapter. The missing ingredient is the surprising lack of emotional depth needed to carry off some of the events. This may have something to do with the curiously upbeat, jaunty tone that Raimi adopts for much of the proceedings (the Saturday Night Fever scenes are just horrible) but it’s also badly paced and edited in places, events of huge import hurried along, the quicker to get to the next dust up. Speaking of which, close to half a billion dollars must have been spent on getting the special effects right over three films, so it’s no surprise that the action scenes are spectacular, both in scope and execution, while the climactic four-way showdown is truly something to behold. Ultimately, Spider-Man 3 is a rollicking good time at the movies that falls some way short of achieving the epic greatness to which it (quite rightly) aspires. [Paul Greenwood]

ZODIAC

THE BREED

DIR: DAVID FINCHER

STARS: MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ,

DIR: NICHOLAS MASTANDREA

STARS: MARK RUFFALO, JAKE GYLLENHAAL, ANTHONY EDWARDS,

OLIVER HUDSON, ERIC LIVELY

ROBERT DOWNEY JR, BRIAN COX

OUT NOW

RELEASE DATE: 25 MAY

CERT: 15

A group of students take off to a remote island for a weekend’s partying where, before you can say ‘Cujo’, their cabin is surrounded by a pack of rabid dogs (who appear to be much smarter than they are, by the way) and they’re fighting for survival. Like almost every modern horror, The Breed is loud, daft and dull, with stupid characters performing illogical actions that serve only to move us on to the next contrived set piece. It’s a cheap looking, ugly little film, where the calling card of the inept director, the shrieking violin, is employed to a ridiculous degree, and should be banned from future use. Rodriguez at least partially dispenses with her patented bulldogchewing-a-wasp scowl, but she’s surrounded by a thoroughly lifeless

ZODIAC

WWW.ZODIACMOVIE.COM

VIOLENT, GRIPPING, AND HAVE I MENTIONED SCARY?

Crime drama, suspense thriller, or balls-out freaky, whatever star you were born under, Zodiac has them all charted. David Fincher’s Zodiac is the movie based on the book based on the real life case of the 1970s’ Zodiac killer. The story follows writer Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) and his ever growing obsession with the symbolist psycho. But as the Zodiac’s messages to the press and the police’s enthusiasm for the case begin to subside, Graysmith’s obsession with the killer only increases. As he delves deeper into the psyche of the Zodiac, his professional future is not the only thing threatened. From the acting, to the script, to Fincher’s uncanny ability to remind his viewers that he is truly the master of dark suspense and psychological thrills (Se7en anyone?), every moving part of this feature works. The stars alone would make this film worth gazing at. Ruffalo and

ISSUE TWENTY May 07

Magicians

Spider-Man 3

Edwards are brilliant together as the two officers first assigned to the Zodiac case, Edwards in particular delivering a wonderful performance as the straight cop to Ruffalo’s egotist. Brian Cox and Chloe Sevigny shine in their supporting roles, and Gyllenhaal is strong as usual. But the true delight to watch on screen is Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, the reporter whose life is publicly threatened by the Zodiac. Downey brings deft comic timing to an otherwise pathetic and tragic character. His mere presence in the film provides the audience an excuse to breathe and maybe chuckle even while David Shire’s terrifying score has them around the throat. Zodiac is truly a thrill to sit through: when the psychological aspects slow down, the crime drama kicks in. It’s violent, gripping, and have I mentioned scary? I promise you will make it out alive, but just in case, you may want to check your horoscope first. [Megan Garriock]

cast who telegraph the order in which they’re going to die the moment they appear on screen. [Paul Greenwood]

BLADES OF GLORY

THE PAINTED VEIL DIR: JOHN CURRAN STARS: EDWARD NORTON, NAOMI WATTS, LIEV SCHREIBER RELEASE DATE: 27 APR

DIR: JOSH GORDON, WILL SPECK

CERT: 12A

STARS: WILL FERRELL, JON

Something of a love story in reverse, The Painted Veil is set in China in the mid 1920s: an English doctor (Norton) has married a society woman (Watts) who doesn’t love him. They quickly come to despise each other after he discovers her affair with a diplomat (Schreiber) and drags her to a remote cholera-ridden rural area out of spite. Once there however, their passion is rekindled against a backdrop of colonial rebellion and perilously manky water. Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a rather stiff and dry period piece that improves dramatically towards the end of the second act and is lifted by its stunning location photography and some exemplary performances. Both Watts and Norton’s transformations from selfish, highly unlikeable sorts to people we come to care deeply about make the journey well worth taking. [Paul Greenwood]

HEDER, WILL ARNETT RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW CERT: 12A

Set in the competitive, backstabbing world of champion figure skating, Blades of Glory is a film that goes for lewd and crude over restrained satire (no surprises there then). Jimmy MacElroy (Heder) and Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) are arch nemeses, one known for his precise if somewhat effeminate routines, the other renowned for his testosterone-fuelled antics on and off the ice. By a predictable turn of events, the pair bring about their own downfall and are banned from solo figure skating only to find that their only hope of returning to the ice requires them to pair up and make history as the first all-male figure skating duo. Throw in a rival couple of unbelievable heinousness, plenty of scatological visual gags, a budding romance and a message about the redemptive qualities of friendship and you pretty much have it. There is absolutely nothing subtle about this film and whilst there is plenty to get you smiling during the dance routines, the time in between these scenes relies too heavily on dialogue that’s really not funny enough to sustain the overall effect. [Anna Rogers]

HTTP://WIP.WARNERBROS.COM/ PAINTEDVEIL

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

MAGICIANS

DIR: GABOR CSUPO

DIR: ANDREW O’CONNOR

ZOOEY DESCHANEL

STARS: DAVID MITCHELL, ROBERT WEBB,

RELEASE DATE: 4 MAY

JESSICA STEVENSON, PETER CAPALDI

CERT: PG

RELEASE DATE: 18 MAY

Twelve year-olds Jesse and Leslie (Hutcherson and Robb) don’t seem to fit in. Bullied at school, they seek solace in each other and the fantasy kingdom of Terabithia which they create in their minds. If you can look past the slightly chewy title and the fact that it’s ostensibly a kids’ movie, there’s really no excuse not to check this out, because Bridge to Terabithia is a masterpiece of substantial proportions that deserves to join the canon of great family films like E.T. and The Wizard of Oz. Transcending a mere adventure story, it’s a tribute to friendship and the power of imagination, but the places it goes in the final act, and the depth and maturity with which it deals with some heavy themes mean that it may be the best film about the pains of growing up since Stand By Me. [Paul Greenwood]

STARS: JOSH HUTCHERSON, ANNASOPHIA ROBB,

CERT: 15

Harry and Karl (Mitchell and Webb) are the greatest magicians in the country, but their careers and friendship come to a spectacular end after Harry finds his wife cheating on him with Karl, then accidentally chops her head off on stage. Four years later, both desperate for work and money, they agree to perform together in a magic competition. For their first movie as a partnership, David Mitchell and Robert Webb have at least gone one better than Ant & Dec, but there’s a lot that’s familiar and a lot that’s formulaic in Magicians. Karl’s promoter is basically Stephen Merchant’s character from Extras, while Capaldi, as the competition organiser, is content to resurrect his persona from The Thick of It. Regularly funny without ever coming close to hilarious, it benefits most from Mitchell’s patented nervous shtick (when asked how his wife died, Harry replies “You know, the usual.”) and the lampooning of the inherent ridiculousness of magic. [Paul Greenwood]

WWW.BRIDGETOTERABITHIA.CO.UK

SUGARHILL GANG

SUB CLUB BIRTHDAY WEEK, SUB CLUB, 5 APR Two members of the Sugarhill Gang are better than none. Even before the Sub club opened its doors in 1987, the Gang would have had legal trouble appearing all together in Scotland, so we should be glad to see any of them here at all tonight. They manage to rinse out a whole gig of fun from only a few tunes, leaving not a grin-less face in the place.

THE WEE DJS VS. SILICON SCALLY FREQ, SUB CLUB, 20 APR

Tonight’s promising sets from two of the very best electro producers around certainly tickled our fancy. Would it live up to the expectation, we wondered? The answer is yes. Freq residents Brian and Murray turn out a pleasantly rounded and squelchy warm-up, the mood darkening somewhat with the Wee DJs arrival on stage. His personal brand of pumped-up, industrial edged electro is intensified threefold by the Sub Club’s newly-installed underﬂoor speakers, carrying the bass in a pleasurably jarring way from our kneecaps to our skulls. The crowd are dancing like madmen after getting used to the new, interactive sensation as he tears through his set with seemingly no consideration for our poor hearts. The energetic set is followed by Silicon Scally’s calmer and more dignified P1-esque rollicking grooves, weaved into a

THE BLACK DOG

RETURN TO MONO, SUB CLUB, 13 APR The Black Dog’s electronic resurrection continues in support of their Book of Dogma release on Soma with a three way Ableton DJ/live rave up at Sub club. The Dog’s long hiatus heralded a change of personnel and new collaborative possibilities, with The Dust Brothers duo joining the one remaining non-Plaid original member to breathe new life into the legendary Black Dog pseudonym. A busy danceﬂoor gives Slam’s Orde Meikle opportunity to ﬂex a few minimal sides before the 12.30am switchover to the three Kraftwerk-esque laptops wired up on stage. The set takes a tour through the past two decades of atmospheric breaks and Detroit-infused techno before twisting out a Blue Monday mash-up and a wealth of dance nostalgia to the visible delight of the crowd. Though the set suffers in terms of intimacy from the unavoidable positioning on the stage (Sub club ain’t quite Sub club without a wall of bass battering your left lughole) and the demeanour of most of the ‘Dog resembling that of the aforementioned androids, they still come up with the musical goods that reaffirm The Black Dog’s rightful position in dance music history. [Robbie Thomson]

CLUB PREVIEWS RADIOACTIVE MAN

INNER CITY ACID, THE SOUNDHAUS, 13 MAY

Good friends Glasgow and techno need not be introduced to each other - they hang out most weekends. With that in mind, it seems clear a leading light of the sweaty stuff like Keith Tenniswood, aka Radioactive Man, formerly of Two Lone Swordsmen, is likely to find favour among the onetime second city of empire. ICA’s inhouse spinners Jon Virtue, Monsieur DeLarge and John Cannon will all be there, playing host to Radioactive Man’s par ticular brand of hef t y techno breaks. They will likely be prompted to break out the big guns with a class act like the one-time Swordsman in the ‘Haus, even more than usual. Radioactive Man produced a self-titled album for Andrew Weatherall’s label, Rotters Golf Club, in 2001 and he was subsequently acclaimed by many as one of Britain’s most underrated producers. This is also the man who brought us one of the better Fabric mixes, Fabric 8, and he doesn’t seem to have slowed down at all since either disc, working right now on a solo LP and a new Swordsmen album. This could well be the best Saturday out in Glasgow since the last one. If you miss it, we think you’d better have at least one good reason. [James Blake] DOORS ARE 11PM-4AM, £9 MEMBERS/£11 WWW.INNERACID.CO.UK

LORY D,

WIREBLOCK RECORDS LAUNCH PARTY, BLACKFRIARS, 11 MAY “The number one priority always has to be the music or else you’re f*cked”, Jackmaster tells us. Like many, he

FILM

WWW.SUBCLUB.CO.UK

tight and focused selection that is satisfyingly melodic compared to the earlier dirty aural onslaught. The drop in tempo suggests that the line-up should have been the other way around, but it still ticks all the right boxes for a fantastic experience. [Sarah Mair]

www.skinnymag.co.uk

reckons that “most of the legendary techno labels of the 90s have slowly but surely shifted their priorities to money, and swiftly lost a lot of respect from the real music fans who don’t tender to niches or trends.” It makes sense, then, that this month sees the launch party of Wireblock records, a small-scale local label co-run by promoter Jackmaster, resident of Numbers/Seismic. Like many, Jack seems disappointed with the big names and big labels, and a small-scale label with an attention to detail, and an eye on the local scene has always been on the cards: “From the moment we started getting involved in music, the idea of having a label was firmly cemented in our minds. So the WireBlock has been ﬂoating around for around five years but only recently has it started to really take shape.” The first releases to roll off Wireblock will be three limited edition compilation EPs entitled the Audio Out series, featuring diverse and intriguing artists such as local boy Rustie and Aberdonian Redshift. There are also

more recognisable names involved, with Audible, aka Bill Youngman (Tresor) and Bogger (Digital/ Gadget Front). “We are still looking for homegrown talent and always will be,” Jack adds. The latest news from Wireblock is that they’ve just signed Music At Nite, who settle into their new home with a four-track EP. This should have fans of all forms of electronic music drooling, as it’s the renowned Dave Clarke (along with his brother), and Jack is chuffed to be releasing for them. “He was one of the first guys we had in mind to approach for a demo so we’re over the moon to have him on board,” says Jack. With any luck we’ll see him at a suitably low-key Wireblock party soon enough. To celebrate all this, all round techno hero Lory D (SNS/ Rephlex) and Automat join Jack and Rusty to celebrate, as loudly as possible, in Blackfriars. Jackin’. [Liam Arnold] 10PM-3AM, £8. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WIREBLOCK

illustration: Duncan McDonald

The Upside Of Anger

As one of the longest running nights at The Arches, Pressure continues to reign supreme as the spiritual home of techno music on the Glasgow d a n c e s c e n e. T h e atm os p h e re tonight is, as ever, a heady perfume of debauched hedonism - a seething mass of hardcore clubbers gathering for what promises to be a top technofest. Old school dance veteran Francois Kevorkian begins with a set that shifts in tone from the dark and alternative to more ﬂoor-friendly beats with mixed crowd reaction. Marco Carola is inf initely more impressive: a true connoisseur of minimal techno, he wows the crowd with a mesmerising and energetic pe r for mance. Be n Sims’ set is cautious in its execution, however, never quite reaching the throbbing rhythms we have come to expect from this exceptional DJ. Chicago legend Green Velvet ends the night on a high, electrifying a heaving main arch with his unique theatrical style, and ending with the (as-ever) highly anticipated rendition of the classic La La Land. [Ciara Wilson]

We’re treated to the dreaded ‘new stuff’, but thankfully it’s a shortlived detour. Going straight from a track nobody knows into a cover of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is a crowd saver, delivered just as the novelty of their new-school offering starts wearing off. Sugarhill may well have some good ideas to show us, but nobody seems too convinced this is the time or the place. It’s clear that everyone is here for the same reason; the whole night is a look back at the past, a slice of fun. When they stick to serving up that recipe, Sugarhill are dynamite. [James Blake]

BEATS

CLUB REVIEWS

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

DVD Resurrection Man - JIMMY CLIFF

Big Acts For The Wee Chill THE SUN IS SHINING DOWN, THE PEOPLE ARE SMILING AND THE WARM SUMMER NIGHTS ARE ONLY JUST BEGINNING. AND THAT’S EVEN BEFORE WE GET STARTED ON THE WONDERFUL AND DIVERSE MUSICAL TREATS ON OFFER AT THIS MONTH’S WEE CHILL

he scenario will be familiar to previous visitors to the annual Wee Chill, which is moving this year to the Glasgow Science Centre and welcoming the legendary Masters at Work to its roster of headliners. Promoter Brian Traynor explains to The Skinny why they have made the move from the Queen’s Park Glasshouse: “The last two Wee Chill festivals have sold out for the 1000 capacity at the Glasshouse, and our plan for the Wee Chill’s growth for the next four years wasn’t possible if we were to stay put. We had to find a venue which suited our vision for what we wanted the festival to grow into; it also has better facilities to make the festival easier to organize and a safer environment. This made it an easy decision to make when the Science Centre became available.”

We had quite a few problems shooting the film. Outside of the police, we were running out of money all the time, so we had to stop and start, and it was a very volatile political period in Jamaica, mainly gang-related. Most of the scenes were shot on location, so if you went into an area to shoot a scene, people would want to know why

you’re there, why you’d want to come into that area, and start up trouble, so they’d end up having to call the police in. Most of the time, they were there to help. Because the political landscape had kind of changed in Jamaica - there was a tendency towards socialism - that created a really tense situation politically, so the police were a little bit unhappy about the film getting made too. IT WAS THE FIRST JAMAICAN FEATURE FILM TO BE MADE. WHY DO YOU THINK IT HAPPENED WHEN IT DID? Perry was a very politically aware person, he had a very good eye for the political, cultural and social scenes in Jamaica. Prior to the movie he had been making commercials, and he had been wanting to make a feature film that would incorporate all that had been going on in Jamaica at the time. Of course, the theme of what was going on in Jamaica was universal. You could find a character like Ivan anywhere in the world. Perry wanted to show that, and I think he achieved it. The song I wrote for the movie (also called The Harder They Come), again, has a universal theme to it. It’s a rebellion song against society, and I think most of the people who have recorded it since can relate to that. People like Keith Richards and a few of the others. WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? I’m supposed to do a Summer tour in July or something and I think – I hope - there’s a gig or two in Scotland. I have about three or four movie projects I’m working on, one of them is a sequel to The Harder They Come. I’m very excited about that.

When you see that movie, that character - well, he really got shot up. So we take it that he must have died, which means for a sequel we’d have to resurrect him… which we did. We start at the end of the last one. He’s picked up a fter bei ng left for dead, and then taken to the doctor who then discovers that he isn’t really dead. He’s had an out of body experience while in that state and it goes on f rom t he re. It’s a resurrection story. THE HARDER THEY COME IS RELEASED ON 28 MAY.

FILM REVIEWS A FRITZ LANG BOXSET

“House was just starting out. Back then, I was collecting stuff by producers like Larry Heard, Virgo, Marshall Jefferson and Farley Jackmaster Funk,” Vega recalls. A few years later, he met and became friends with Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, who had become famed for throwing wildly eclectic parties in his Brooklyn neighbourhood. They joined forces as Masters At Work, creating their own productions and remixing artists as varied as Tito Puente, Saint Etienne and Debbie Gibson, quickly establishing themselves as major players on the global house scene. Aside from their MAW productions, they’ve also recorded as KenLou and NuYorican Soul, worked with the likes of Barbara Tucker and George Benson and completed various solo projects: The Bucketheads, Freestyle Orchestra and Hardrive, to name but a few. In more recent times they’ve worked independently; Louie on his Vega Records label, Kenny on his Dope Wax and Kay-Dee labels. “Kenny and I have always had a really great relationship, we’re like brothers,” explains Louie. “We’ve taken a break in the last four years - it’s good to have that individual, creative side when we’ve spent most of our careers working together.” Vega’s recent sets in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were his first Scottish appearances in over two years and ones he was unusually nervous about. As he explained to The Skinny: “I’ve not been in Scotland in about two years. I wondered what everyone here was into, would they still appreciate what I play? All the Morgan Spiced Now For Something Different events were packed and the people loved the shows. We played till people went crazy, over here you’ve just got to hit the crowd on the nose and give them a little bit of everything.”

46 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE FILM? Perry Henzell (director) came to a recording session looking for someone to do the music for a movie he wanted to make. He asked me if I thought I could do it, so I said, “What do you mean, do I think I can do it?!” My answer must have impressed him, as the next thing I knew, he asked me if I’d be interested in acting in the film, and the rest is history. I decided to do the film because, as a little boy growing up in Jamaica, I’d heard about Rhygin (the real Ivanhoe Martin). He was one really amazing character because, at that time, for an outlaw to carry a gun – even the police didn’t carry guns – and to kill a policeman… he really struck terror into the hearts of people. The real Rhygin didn’t have anything to do with music. I think Perry inserted that after I decided to do the movie, and that part kind of relates to my life in many ways. HOW WAS IT MAKING THE FILM? It was my first feature film, and Perry’s too, and I really and truly thought he was a very intelligent man in the way he went about shooting. He would ask how I would do the scene rather than saying, “This is how I want it done.” And in doing that with myself and most of the actors he got more reality, and I think that’s what helped give the film its enduring quality.

The inclusion of Masters at Work is an incredible coup and will suit the event perfectly - the DJ and production duo comprising of Kenny Dope Gonzalez and Little Louie Vega have had a stellar career, known for producing house classics such as To Be in Love, as well as consistently playing mesmerising sets across the world; individually and as a partnership. Born in the Bronx in 1965, Vega was surrounded by Latin music - his father was an accomplished jazz and saxophone player, his uncle a renowned Salsa singer. Growing up in the late seventies and early eighties he developed a passion for RnB, disco and hip hop, becoming a regular at the legendary Paradise Garage and Afrika Bambaataa parties, before gaining his first DJ residency at the Bronx’s Devil’s Nest nightclub in 1985.

This year’s event is also being run in conjunction with XFM and this brings a live stage into the pot, promoting some of the best new Scottish bands. The event is shaping up to be something for everyone! Along with the excellent line-ups, the Wee Chill has always been about so much more than the music: this year there will be a new small stage housed in a sphere shaped room with three-dimensional video footage, and IMAX cinema-style 3D glasses available to create a completely new visual atmosphere. There will also be street performers, magicians, market stalls,

by Alec McLeod

AS THE HARDER THEY COME SEES IN ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A NEW COMMEMORATIVE DVD/CD RELEASE, WE SPEAK TO THE MAN WHO BROUGHT REGGAE TO THE WORLD.

by Sean McNamara & Colin Chapman

As well as the main Bloc Party Beats Stage, there is a bar area that will feature talents from DJ First Rate of the Scratch Perverts and local boys Freakmenoovers; their abilities to mix together the most unlikely of tracks will be sure to provide fantastic entertainment for the Wee Chillers. Providing further aural delights is the Subculture stage where Harri and Domenic will be joined by some very special guests to continue the Sub Club’s 20th birthday celebrations. Added to that are the awesome Sensu DJs, including the mix perfect Paul Ingram.

FILM/DVD

BEATS GLASGOW

Little Louie Vega (photo actual size)

a Red Stripe beer garden and BBQ area, a new cocktail bar, face painters, art installations and even more unexpected gems!

A must-have for any self-respecti n g f i l m s n o b, A Fritz Lang Boxset has a ll the big classics: M, Metrop o l is, the two original Mabuses and Spione. In M, Peter Lorre’s victimised child murderer highlights the hypocrisies of a society reliant on corruption - obviously it’s still as relevant as ever. Metropolis needs no introduction, inspiring everything from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight y-Four to Austin Powers’ Fembots. The German Fu Manchu, Dr. Mabuse was a criminal mastermind who used manipulation and mind control to dastardly effect, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse involving such great set pieces as the heroic couple trapped in a room slowly filling with water, and the villain’s eery disappearing act. Spione (Spies) had Dr. Mabuse himself, Rudolph KleinRogge, play a Bond baddie years before the notion even existed, setting the tone for every espionage thriller to follow. As banker and carnival act, Haghi, Klein-Rogge is pitted against No.326, who is set to break Haghi’s evil spy ring. An excellent and entertaining group of cinema masterpieces. [Alec McLeod] OUT NOW

FULL LINE-UP:

BLOC PARTY BEATS STAGE: MASTERS AT WORK - KENNY DOPE GONZALEZ

BECKET

& LITTLE LOUIE VEGA, CRAIG SMITH, BILLY WOODS , PAUL INGRAM

The line-up is growing by the day and with tickets on sale already they are likely to go soon, so keeping checking the online updates and get ready for a magical May bank holiday weekend.

MICHAEL PECK, FREAKMENOOVERS, NAFEES

WEE CHILL, GLASGOW SCIENCE CENTRE, GLASGOW, SUNDAY 27 MAY, 6.30PM – 1AM

20 YEARS OF SUBCULTURE STAGE: SPECIAL GUEST TBA, HARRI & DOMENIC

TICKETS ARE £20 PLUS BOOKING FEE AVAILABLE FROM WWW.TICKET-SCOTLAND.COM

BAR AREA: DJ FIRST RATE (LIVE) [SCRATCH PERVERTS],

AND WWW.TICKETMASTER.CO.UK, BY PHONING 08701 690 100, OR AT TICKETMASTER

XFM EXPOSURE STAGE (LIVE): GALCHEN, THE PEOPLE, THE GEMS, DOWN

BOX OFFICES AT THE ABC SAUCHIEHALL STREET AND BUCHANAN GALLERIES.

THE TINY STEPS, YOU ALREADY KNOW, THE TOURISTS, BILLY BATES, ADAM BEATTIE

THERE WILL BE AN AFTER PARTY TILL 5AM WITH THE VENUE STILL TO BE CONFIRMED. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEWEECHILL

THE SENSU 3D EGG STAGE: MARCO BERNARDI/OCTOGEN, SENSU DJS

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH LOUIE VEGA ON OUR WEBSITE!

MELLOW SUB MACHINE, SENSU AFTER PARTY WITH 5AM FINISH!

BEATS

Sometimes whe n writing food reviews it is enough to do little more th a n l i s t th e dishe s: that the chef has dared to try to pull them off is a clear sign of the level at which the dining experience is to be understood. Only then do

DVD

the nuances of taste and execution really need to come out. As a film, Becket - about the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket and his fraught relationship with his friend and political rival Henry II - has some of the finest ‘ingredients’ a viewer could hope for: directed by Peter Glenville at the height of his career, it stars Richard Burton in the title role and Peter O’Toole as the king (with John Gielgud as the French king Louis VII); the script is based on the play by major 20th century writer Jean Anouilh, the score is by the masterful Laurence Rosenthal. Lightweight it is not. Excellent, it is. [Rupert Thomson] RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY

JEAN COCTEAU COLLECTION Wow. Images, images, images. Ever y scene in Jean Cocteau’s Sa ng d’u n Poete is a little work of art. He tries every possible way of provoking a reaction, from harnessed children being whipped til they fly, to oiled-up and shining black guardian angels with sculpted wings. All the more astonishing considering the conventions of the time - 1930 is only three years after the first ‘talkie’. The opening story consists of a painter whose painting’s mouth comes to life. He wipes off the mouth and washes his hands, only to be confronted by a drowned mouth spewing water from his palm. The physicality put into the trick photography is beautiful, and the artist climbing and splashing through the looking glass into the ‘Hotel of Dramatic Lunacies’ is one of the classiest things ever. There is so much passion, curiosity, experimentation and imagination in this film, it’s magic.

Testament d’Orphée is inherently ridiculous, but it ain’t without its charms. Jean Cocteau purses his lips and minces his way through a labyrinth of dreamy encounters with semi-mythological figures and characters from previous films, engaging in discourses about time, fame and art as he goes. Why he’s there in the first place isn’t exactly clear, but hey, it doesn’t need to be: this is surrealism, with healthy doses of egotism and homoeroticism besides. Cocteau’s final film is charmingly bonkers. He seems to be having one last blast at out-intellectualising everyone: one honking great existential pissing contest. And there are some lovely ideas, in particular the autograph-eating idol which makes anyone famous in a couple of minutes. Also, cameos from Yul Brynner and Pablo Picasso made me wonder who else I might have recognised if I were up on my French 50s elite. However, all the backwards/forwards filming and Rentaghost-stylee disappearances might have been modern in 1959 but all seem really naïve and quite sniggerable now. Pretentious and silly but surprisingly enjoyable. [Cara McGuigan] OUT NOW

THE FOUNTAIN Stories of lovers transcending time and yet doomed to be apart never s e e m to g o out of style, appropriately enough. But Darren Aronofsky’s latest reincarnation is trippy to the point of being style over substance abuse. As Tom (Hugh Jackman) tries to save soulmate Isobel (Rachel Weisz) from dying, we see them co-exist in the 16th Century, 21st Century and… whenever they figure out how to

make spaceships out of snowglobes. At other times The Fountain has the pulling technique of a caveman, being unashamedely incomprehensible before hitting you over the head with a blunt metaphor and starting to drag. The extras are an insight: like seeing the interplanetary special effects being created in a Petri dish, and a lyrical wax between Weisz and Jackman, just about managing to stay this side of luvvie. If 2046 was your bag, Darren’s got a brand new one for you. [Alec McLeod] RELEASE DATE: 28 MAY.

MARCEL CARNE BOXSET

LE QUAI DES BRUMES & LE JOUR SE LEVE A double bill from the Poetic Realism stable of aesthetics: pessimistic lone r s with a disposition towards poetic language and events. These were made by two of its premier exponents, the writer and director team of Jacques Prévert and Marcel Carné, and starring the movement’s posterboy Jean Gabin at his brooding, masculine best. Le Quai des Brumes sees Gabin’s shadowy A.W.O.L soldier caught up with a mysterious girl as she traces her lover’s murderer. The surrealist temperament of writer Prévert shines through in many memorably odd sequences. One particular example is a disillusioned artist’s suicide: swimming into the open sea to his death to allow Gabin to take his identity. What is frustrating is that although these standout scenes make it engaging, at the same time they are tonally unbalanced with the film’s noir-ish underbelly. Highly enjoyable, but not the masterpiece it is so often praised to be. However, in Le Jour se Leve, we have something genuinely special. Gabins’ lowly factory worker

murders a man and then shuts himself in his one room apartment, threatening to kill anyone who tries to enter. The increasingly extreme actions of the police in their ensuing siege are interspersed with flashback sequences of the events leading up to the murder. Some terrific charac-

ter work and first rate dialogue between murderer and victim across repeated encounters draw you into the state of mind of a man on, and then over, the edge. A bona-fide classic with top billing in this feature package. [Jack McFarlane] OUT NOW

FILM RELEASES THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT (AKA: TRZECIA CZESC NOCY) ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI

The debut feature from Zlawski is a haunting and surreal masterpiece from a true European maverick. His 1981 film, Possession, has been a cult favourite at Alphabet for many years. A dying man in WWII Poland has lost his family and seeks refuge with a woman in labour who bears striking resemblance to his massacred wife. Stark images of death and the evil acts of the occupying Nazis make for a shocking but stunning journey back in time. RELEASE DATE: 7 MAY

EL TOPO ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY

A welcome DVD release of Jodorowsky’s cult classic, unavailable for the last 25 years. A black clad stranger travels through the desert to kill four grand masters to prove himself the best gunfighter. Loosely based on the Bible and full of breathtakingly bizarre imagery, El Topo proves to be a most enjoyable trip. RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY

JAN SVANKMAJER: THE SHORT FILMS The director of Alphabet favourites Little Otik, Alice and Faust, Svankmajer produced 24 short films between 1964 and 1990. All of these are released in this comprehensive collection charting the director’s early development and illustrating his influences from living under the Communist Czechoslovakian regime. At times surreal, disturbing and violent but always inspiring. For the diehard animation fan, or indeed anyone with a passing interest, this is essential viewing. RELEASE DATE: 28 MAY

22 MARCHMONT ROAD, EDINBURGH, 0131 229 5136 93 BROUGHTON STREET, EDINBURGH, 0131 556 1866

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

KEIR HIND SPEAKS TO AL KENNEDY ABOUT HER NEW WAR-NOVEL, DAY

by Keir Hind

It would be a shame if she gave up the novels though, because her latest, Day, is extremely accomplished and enjoyable. The main character is one Alfred Day, once a tail gunner in a Lancaster bomber and then a prisoner of war. At the start of the novel he’s back in a POW camp, but one that’s been recreated for a film. We are party to the memories this naturally brings back, and so the book moves between a movie war and the actual war. “It’s dictated by how he thinks and every time he’s in the prison camp somebody kicks him off to somewhere else” says Kennedy. Admittedly, the flow of Day’s mind is complicated, and the book is heavy reading at first. However, we’re soon drawn in to Day’s thought patterns – or should that be Kennedy’s writing - and with a little work on the reader’s part, the initial difficulty gives way to an engrossing character portrait. We can’t help but respect Day’s odd decision to relive the war on a set, if not quite understand it. “There’s a kind of sense that he’s going back because it’s taken a bit of him that he’s going to take back” the author says. So we follow Day as he relives the war to get back whatever he has lost, and in the process we get to see what happened. This structure was, unusually, inspired by a throwaway line in a Picture Post article. It was about the making of the war film, The Wooden Horse. “Since some of the extras are former POWs they did this whole demonstration about how they started off the tunnelling. And this article just had a wee throwaway line where he said, ‘And the digging has continued and nobody knows how far it’s gone’” The author of this piece was a POW, and as Kennedy says “he’s kind of very quietly just saying that it’s weird to be back there and to be feeling at home somewhere that you hated.” Day is part of a close-knit bomber crew from various different backgrounds, which at times can make the book feel like a superior war movie.

BOOK REVIEWS MEET ME UNDER THE WESTWAY STEPHEN THOMPSON

Do you like to feel smart? Do you laugh louder than you should at the in-jokes in Shakespeare i n Love? D o you know your T h r e e S i ste r s from your Threepenny Operas? Then try Meet Me Under The Westway – it’ll suit you like Ian McKellen fits Richard III. Set in the world of London theatre, our guide is undiscovered playwright Jem (a bloke) who harbours dreams of becoming the next big thing. With observations such as “She gives me her customary wink, which I find so erotic I want to reach my hand under the table and part her thighs,” Harold Pinter can rest easy. Jem is flat and tedious, with the charm and sparkle of a back-issue of Nuts magazine, and all the more infuriating for considering himself an intellectual heavyweight for knowing who Blanche DuBois is. Having just been dumped and watching his friends succeed where he has failed, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving character. A dreary name-drop of a novel, it’s a checklist from the hangover of Cool Britannia, with carelessly slotted-in references to the inauthenticity of Notting Hill and the abundance of mockney crime capers dressed up as speaking for the disillusionment of a generation. With too close an eye on Nick Hornby (does a selfish, childish protagonist with an obses-

sion and an uncertain lovelife sound familiar?), Thompson’s book is vacuous and derivative. It reads like a first novelist’s first draft. [Graeme Allister]

Other movies influenced the book, and Kennedy mentions particularly “a Dirk Bogarde film called Appointment in London which was made just after the war but by people who were very involved. It was hailed at the time as being one of the most accurate war films that had ever come out. The footage at the end is genuine film that they took on a mission.” She did other research of course, reading extensively and actually boarding a semi-working Lancaster: “a very good machine, it was very resilient and could fly on only one engine, or full of holes; but it was really hard to get out of.”

Our ongoing war has become a fiasco, but Day does reach a happy ending of a sort. Or rather, Kennedy somehow manages to leave him at an upswing. “The art of the happy ending”, she says “is to stop just before it gets shit again. I think it would have been an intolerable book otherwise.” A brilliantly crafted intolerable book, one imagines. The book is extremely dark in places, but astonishingly ends on just the right note of slight, glimpsed, hope. Doctor Who doesn’t know what he’s missing.

The amount of information available on World War Two is overwhelming, and Kennedy’s head was full of research. This, she says, led to an intense writing situation: “you have to keep it all running in your head, and it was like being really close to somebody who’s very upset for a year, and there’s nothing you can do about it except write down why they’re upset until it stops.” This shows in the tone of the novel, which shows men under near constant pressure. Kennedy’s prose brings this home to us constantly, often in subtle ways such as when she notes, almost in passing, that Day “felt the slight metallic resistance that always seemed to lean against him when he turned and knew he was facing Europe”.

CANTLY EXTENDED

by Bram Gieben

SOULBISCUITS’ HIP-HOP HERO NASTY P DOES A DANGERMOUSE ON NEW LP IT SOUNDS NICER WHEN IT’S NASTY. WE GET THE LOWDOWN FROM ONE OF EDINBURGH’S ORIGINAL HEADZ.

VERSION OF THIS PIECE ONLINE, WHICH INCLUDES AL KENNEDY’S THOUGHTS ON SEX DURING WARTIME, STEVE MCQUEEN AND PLAYING CRICKET IN THE DARK. DAY IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY

The scenario of a crew who must periodically face extreme danger makes for good drama, but there are further reasons to write about bombers. “I definitely wanted to write about bombing because the idea of bombing a civilian population is this grand obsession that we still have. Didn’t work in Vietnam, didn’t work in Korea…” and you can guess where else it hasn’t worked...

JONATHAN CAPE. COVER PRICE £16.99.

AL Kennedy is a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, and this did influence Day. “I know loads of people are doing books about the war, but loads of people might not be in the position that I was, going to anti-war demonstrations just before it broke out or writing stuff; you just have a head full of war for about three months.” Kennedy adds that the mass protesting was “to no result” then continues “Well it might have delayed it a bit… which, considering our kill rate, has probably saved quite a few people.” It’s a bleak sort of positive, but it’s the only sort to be found in war.

RELEASE DATE: MAY 2007. PUBLISHED BY

tive essay to set the mind spinning, most notably for its insights into the reverential Italian attitude towards the mountains, and the unique historical timing of the book’s genesis and publication. [RJ Thomson]

BLACK AND WHITE PUBLISHING. COVER

OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE.

PRICE £9.99.

COVER PRICE £7.99.

THE TARTAR STEPPE

THE SUCCESSOR

DINO BUZZATI, TRANS. STUART C. HOOD

ISMAIL KADARE, TRANS. DAVID BELLOS

Soldier Giovanni D ro g o spe nds a long militar y career at For t Bastiani, a remote border outpost high in the mountains to the north of an unspecified kingdom. The fort watches over the mysterious ‘Tartar Steppe’, a great desert over which the ‘enemy’ may or may not come. The novel follows Drogo’s career through all its bathetic changelessness, but flows with a steady speed to match the passing of time at the fort. Written by Italian Dino Buzzati in 1938, this sparse and unusual story is revered by many, and is often compared to works by the twentieth century heavyweights of the unusual (Camus, Calvino et al). But the easy accessibility of its atmosphere and ‘meaning’ makes The Tartar Steppe slightly under whelming. Stuar t Hood’s translation is a good one, though, and the chapters on the deaths of Private Lazzari and Lieutenant Angustina are simple picaresque narratives, and brilliantly told. Tim Parks’ introduction is excellent: a simply phrased but easily authorita-

Fragmentary, confusing, dissident and frightening, The Successor is not an easy book to read. Kadare has been compared to Kafka, but Kafka’s ideas seem almost childish when compared to the winter-cold vision presented by Kadare. There are constant reminders that the book takes place in 1981 and not in some daydream dystopia: it’s a repeated cold reality check. The novel opens with the announcement of the suicide of the eponymous successor to a seat of power formerly occupied by the Communist dictator, Enver Hoxa. Questions arise about the nature of the death and the reader is wedged into a clamber for power and the fall of a house of godlike, yet peculiarly vulnerable rulers. Kadare mixes real fears of absolute power and oppression with the fleeing shadows and locked rooms of pulpier mystery novels. His dreamlike passages aren’t just strange or symbolic but genuinely akin to childhood nightmares. [Rob Westwood]

20 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

SELF-MADE MACK

THERE IS A SIGNIFI-

OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE. COVER PRICE £6.99.

Nasty P - he’s a nice guy really

“W

Wooley.” e have reservations,” I say. “Innes and and smiles at us. “Two non-smoking.” oard keyb uter comp a at taps t tionis The recep Liam nods. “Sorry,” I say. “Non-smoking?” vations again. frowns for a second as he checks the reser “Yes.” The receptionists catches my tone, “Two non-smoking queens.” ate he’s gay. riled up. You want to annoy a scally, intim “You what?” Now it’s Liam’s turn to get give him my desk, the on lean I t. tionis back to the recep “Queen-sized beds, Liam,” I say. Then

Come out

Po ly go n , £ 9 . 9 9 p b k , M ay 2 0 0 7 w w w. b i r l i n n . c o. u k

L Kennedy has a secret: “I am trying, desperately trying to get to write Doctor Who” she says. “To hell with the novels! It’s so hard to get that gig…” I put this at the start of this piece for no other reason than to get Russell T Davies’ attention, should he happen to be reading The Skinny this month.

f ro m D O N K E Y P U N C H by R AY B A N K S

Nasty P

BEATS

BOOKS A brighter Day?

Fighting

ng the room?” friendliest smile. “I’m a smoker. Any chance of changi sir.” see, just “Uh, let me Liam stands there looking sullen. There’s a long silence, punctuated by the tap of keys. ed at present.” occupi are rooms g smokin our All sir. Then: “I’m sorry, it make if you don’t have a does ce differen “Come twenty hours on a plane, Cal. Fuck smoking room?” e I’m a smoker. I bought a load I don’t look at him. “It makes a difference, Liam, becaus forward to smoking them. They looking I’m , smoker a being and of Marlboros at LAX me smoke in the fuckin’ rental let don’t didn’t let me smoke in the fuckin’ airport, they hotel room. So, yeah, you fuckin’ the in smoke me let to going not car and now they’re te in twenty hours cigaret a had could say it makes a difference, because I haven’t ambassadors for We’re son. ge, langua your watch And day. which is almost a fuckin’ our country.” I smile at the receptionist. He says, “I can let you know when one of the smoking rooms becomes available.” “That’d be lovely,” I say, grabbing our room keys. “I’ll get you a bellboy.” “That won’t be necessary.” Liam and I pick up our bags and head to the lift. I check the number on my room key and press the button . “You want to treat people with a bit more respec t,” says Liam. “Yeah, right. You were all ready to kick off when you thought he was calling you queer.” “I knew what he meant.” “Course you did, slugger.

”

BOOKS

Nasty P is the resident DJ at Edinburgh’s Soulbiscuits, and the producer of one album, 2005’s When The Smoke Clears. His forthcoming artist album on KFM will feature guests like Skinnyman, Roots Manuva and Oddisee, but to whet your appetite, he has released a bootleg compilation: It Sounds Nicer When It’s Nasty. Cheekily pairing Nas with Bob Marley, Mos Def with Aretha Franklin, and Kanye with Nina Simone, It Sounds Nicer… is conceptually lighthearted, but flawlessly produced (unlike most bootlegs).

I have been quite selfish. In future, I’d like to be doing this with more people, more of a collective. To actually have a movement.” He has been collaborating with Great Ezcape’s Profisee: “Profisee and I have done an EP together, featuring tracks like Roslin – that’s a whole tune about the Roslin Chapel thing that we were trying to bring out around the time of The Da Vinci Code. We’ve also recently done a mixtape, which is available from both of our Myspace pages – about 80 percent of the mixtape is my beats, with Profisee rhyming. That’s really worth checking. There’s def initely a chemistry there.”

“IT’S ONLY THROUGH HAVING LIMITATIONS THAT YOU BECOME MORE CREATIVE. IT’S NECESSARY.” – WHY NASTY P LOVES HIS MPC

Chilling in Edinburgh’s Dragonfly, Nasty P is not ashamed to say that It’s Nicer… is a promotional effort: “I did this album because I thought there would be a lot of people out there who might not know who I am, but they know who Jay-Z is, and they know who Jimi Hendrix is.” Even The Darkness took umbrage when their music was referred to as ‘novelty’, but Nasty P is less precious. One track, Dead Big, features a verse each by Big Pun, Big L, and Biggie. “Some of the tunes, there was a tiny bit of novelty. Like Dead Big, it just came to me that there were three rappers that were really good, they’re all dead – I probably shouldn’t laugh at that – and they all had Big in their names.”

Releasing bootleg albums can be fraught with controversy over copyright issues, something Nasty learned firsthand: “If they can prove you’re making money out of it… DJ Drama went to jail. They found him with like, 800,000 CDs. They prosecuted him as if he’d been doing racketeering! What happened with me was that the Standards Agency had clamped down on the distributors to say: ‘I wouldn’t advise it; it’s not a good idea.’ But me being me, I just thought, ‘Fuck it, let’s do it anyway.’ So rather than just selling it, it’s promotional. It’s been played on Radio 1 three times.”

A big fan of the hip-hop producer’s favourite, the MPC, Nasty P is wary of modern music software such as Ableton Live: “When you have equipment, as opposed to software like Ableton Live, you can do things really easily; but it’s only through having limitations that you become more creative. It’s necessary. The process I use is that I always start with a vibe, never anything technical. It has to be a vibe – everything technical flows from that.” Where does Nasty P see himself in ten years time? “I’m wanting to move towards a more collective approach, so I’d be handling the business side of things. I’d like to say that I’ll still be self-made. Since I was about 23, pretty much all my income has been through myself, as Nasty P. I haven’t worked for the man. I’d like to keep it that way.”

WANT TO HEAR WHAT NASTY P HAS TO SAY ABOUT 2 MANY DJS, ROOTS MANUVA, AND THE EDINBURGH HIP-HOP SCENE? READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON OUR WEBSITE! IT SOUNDS NICER WHEN IT’S NASTY (KFM) IS OUT NOW, AND IS AVAILABLE FROM INDEPENDENT STORES SUCH AS ANALOGUE,

KFM will also be releasing his new artist album, which leads me to ask, how come you haven’t collaborated with other KFM artists, like Penpushers? “It’s not that I wouldn’t use them on a track, it’s just that there’s never been a situation to use them,” he insists. “I’m a producer. I make music. I would quite happily do stuff for most people – especially if they want to pay me! As far as my own stuff goes, I get a lot more anal. Even with Skinnyman, I actually almost considered not doing it. In terms of the future beyond the next LP, I think up to now

www.skinnymag.co.uk

UNDERGROUND SOLU’SHN AND AVALANCHE. IT IS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES: WWW.KFMRECORDS.CO.UK WWW.MYSPACE.COM/KIKIKIK (NASTY P’S PAGE) THE MIXTAPE NASTY P DID WITH PROFISEE IS ALSO AVAILABLE HERE: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MCPROFISEE THE SCOTTISH B-BOY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2007 IS HELD AT SOULBISCUITS, CABARET VOLTAIRE, EDINBURGH, ON MAY 18. CHECK LISTINGS FOR TIME AND PRICE.

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

Frank N Dank MEET Dopeness Galore by Colin Chapman

DETROIT HIP HOP RUFFNECKS, FRANK-N-DANK RETURN WITH A NEAR-ALBUM SIZED EP, AND THE SKINNY IS ON HAND TO DISCUSS. Frank N Dank, real names Frank Bush and Derrick Harvey, are former protégés of one of hip hop’s greatest losses, the sadly departed Jay Dilla. They recorded a stack of much sought-after 12” singles with the revered Motor City producer, including Everybody Get Up, Love Is A Thing Of The Past and Push Up. “We met Dilla in 1984 when we were kids,” recalls Derrick. “Growing up with hip hop, we worked so well together because everything was built on friendship. Now’s he gone I really miss him, but his legacy’s strong, thanks to all the music he’s blessed us with.” Frank and Derrick’s own 21 year friendship has helped Frank N Dank build an obvious chemistry on the mic, best illustrated by their lyrical exchanges on Pause, from Jay Dilla’s 2001 album, Welcome 2 Detroit. Like many hip hop artists, the duo’s speciality is street reportage, but unlike most, their colourful tales of slum life come off as credible, as-lived exploits, rather than fabricated boasts. Despite nearly two albums worth of well-received singles, touring with Dilla and support dates for A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Slum Village, Common and Ludacris, they’ve only released one album, last year’s X-tended Play Version 3.13. An earlier release in 2003, the Jay Dilla-produced 48 Hours, was at first rejected by their then label MCA, reworked with new production and

resubmitted, but finally shelved altogether. The inevitable bootlegs did eventually surface in the underground. For their debut EP release on Amsterdam’s Dopeness Galore label, they’ve hooked up with a host of Dutch producers, each crafting their own infectious, head-nodding backdrop. The project came about when Dopeness’ producer, Wouda, approached the pair at an Amsterdam show, and asked them if they’d be interested in collaborating. Both were enthusiastic, and so the label circulated the idea among Dutch beat-makers, resulting in productions by I.N.T., Y’Skid, Elsas, Kid Sublime and Wouda.

GAMES The Fanjita Monologues people doing the serious wor. But as things have progressed, those of us doing the decrypting have developed quite a close-knit group.” Indeed, it is this close-knit group which has managed to crack the latest Sony update (updates generally try and lock out homebrew from the console) before it was even available for download on the English servers, something which used to take many weeks. An impressive feat, but one that begs the question: if the updates can be hacked so quickly - and given that their point, for the most part, is to keep the homebrew scene out - why does Sony still bother with them?

THE DUO’S SPECIALITY IS STREET REPORTAGE, BUT UNLIKE MOST, THEIR COLOURFUL TALES OF SLUM LIFE COME OFF AS CREDIBLE, AS-LIVED EXPLOITS. A long time ago, on a planet not so far away and rather similar/identical to this one, the PSP was a closed console – capable only of running programs deemed ‘worthy’ (read profitable) to Sony. And then came the hackers... bringing with them swathes of ‘homebrew’ (non professional) programs allowing the casual user to do everything from playing SNES games to controlling the telly.

“The Dopeness sound was different... it felt like early hip hop, so we approached it in the oldschool format; no big glossy hooks just cuts from the DJ,” explains Frank. “We took it back to when it was just about a beat, a DJ and an MC - you spit what you feel, not what’s most marketable.”

These homebrew applications would not be out there if it wasn’t for some diligent work from Edinburgh based Fanjita (real name, David Court), who, arguably, broke open the PSP hacking scene. In a fit of whimsy, The Skinny tracked down said hacker to find the whys and wherefores of hacking the little big screen…

Indeed, the collaboration was so successful that both are open to the idea of more, as Frank concludes: “Man, if Dopeness is ready to do an album let’s do it! They know how to get it crackin’.”

“In the beginning, prior to the PSP’s release over here, the hacking scene was small; no real advancements were being made. So I guess I decided if I wanted an open console, I’d have to get involved,” muses Court in response to the Whys. The Wherefores however, are somewhat harder to pin-down, due in part to my lack of comprehension of the word…

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON OUR WEBSITE! THE EP IS RELEASED ON 18 MAY ON DOPENESS GALORE. WWW.FRANKNDANK.COM, WWW.DOPENESSGALORE.COM

“We’re not sure why. After all, they have opened up the PS3 to the homebrew scene,” Court is referring to the ability of the PS3 to run Linux, an open operating system which effectively lets users run their own programs on the console. “It’s symptomatic of Sony’s whole attitude to the consumer. They have a general disdain for the end user: ‘You will take what we make, and you will think its cool.’ It’s where they are falling down with the PS3. It doesn’t excite me, and even then you can’t afford one.” True that.

December 21, 2012, to David Icke’s theories about pyramids. His name is often mistaken in reviews for a motorway or gun reference, something he is keen to correct: “M9 stands for Melanin Nine, which is what I have in my body as a black person. It’s the colour that I am. So the nine is the number that represents me, and my people. People are mistak-

ing me for some ignorant dude who only spits about guns or some shit, so I need to change that, and let everyone know I’m Melanin 9. I’m here to represent what my people stand for, and our trials and tribulations, our struggle.” A student of Supreme Mathematics, sometimes referred to as the Five Percent Nation, M9’s approach to religion is one of learning and knowl-

“WE HAVE SOMETHING INSIDE US THAT WANTS TO SPARK, BUT WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO SPARK IT... THERE ARE A LOT OF HIDDEN KEYS TO SELF THAT THEY’VE KEPT FROM US.”

M9 - dropping science

44 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

edge, rather than faith: “Supreme mathematics is in the Qur’an – it’s a scientific doctrine that represents black people. It’s facet. It’s not a code. What really got me onto it was Wu-Tang, other artists from Queensbridge like Nas, rappers like that put me onto it through certain things they would put in their rhymes, which I didn’t quite understand or ‘overstand’ (a Five Percent term). I got put on to it by a friend who was already going to the Five Percent Nation and doing classes, studying the doctrine. I started buying books; reading about lunar astrology and solar biology; started learning about society today, and what they know about these things – how they are using it against us. It was hip hop that put me on that path. We’re in a position where we are all thinking the same things, all going through the same things, but no-one thinks beyond those things. No one thinks about the reasons behind certain situations. We have something inside us that wants to spark, but we don’t know how to spark it. Through these

So does your better half appreciate the hacking? “That’s different, I don’t do it for more than an hour or so a night, and with my laptop I’m able to do it in the same room. Things will change in a few months though; our baby is on its way, so I will have to cut down significantly.” But until then? “Until then, well, we’re working to stop the whole update ‘race’ thing – which we’re all getting a bit bored with.” Go on… “We’re trying to get ahead of Sony - writing our own firmware – if we can do that without getting into too much of a fight, things will get a lot more interesting.” Who would win that fight? “I’m very confident we’re not doing anything illegal, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

Moving away from the hacking for a few minutes, The Skinny tries to glean some information about the hacker’s playing habits; “The PSP is the only console I have right now, and I don’t really play many games on it, I don’t have the time.” No consoles? But you’re a hacker – so you have a PC right? “Yes, I used to play the Star Wars MMO a lot, but I got a bit addicted. Since then my attitude to games has changed somewhat – I think they can be a bit anti-social, something my wife never really appreciated.”

So how does all this firmware tinkering affect your bank balance? How many PSPs have you bricked? Court retorts with a rather smug grin. “None - I’m very proud of that. Alex, for example [another prominent hacker] – he goes through hundreds.” Shocking... how does he afford that? “There’s a fair amount of support out there for what we are doing, and his profile is high enough that he can just get them donated.” With all this support, a firm legal standpoint and plans to end the firmware wars, the PSP’s homebrew future is looking pretty safe. Couple this with a potential Fanjita and Son-style hacking team, and things are looking like they can only get better.

WWW.NOOBZ.ORG

GAME REVIEWS by Bram Gieben

MELANIN 9 IS ABOUT TO RELEASE HIS DEBUT ALBUM, HIGH FIDELITY. WE ASKED HIM TO DROP SOME SCIENCE ABOUT SUPREME MATHEMATICS, HIS ‘RHYME AURA’, AND WHAT IT IS THAT ‘THEY’ HAVE BEEN KEEPING FROM US An affiliate of Terra Firma’s Skribblah Dan Gogh, rapper M9’s debut album High Fidelity is a dizzying information-burst, combining the brooding atmosphere of Chemo and Beat Butcha’s fearsomely underground productions with the breathless, apocalyptic wisdom of M9’s verses, covering everything from granite-hard street reality, to the end of the Mayan Calendar’s Long Count on

Wha-psh (that’s a whip noise)… Dave laughs: “There is more to life than games you know…”

“WE’RE TRYING TO GET AHEAD OF SONY - WRITING OUR OWN FIRMWARE – IF WE CAN DO THAT WITHOUT GETTING INTO TOO MUCH OF A FIGHT, THINGS WILL GET A LOT MORE INTERESTING”

Anyway, Court continues: “In the beginning, there weren’t many

M9 – KNOWLEDGE AND OVERSTANDING

by Josh Wilson

GAMES/BOOKS

BEATS

teachings, you can learn.” He’s reluctant to bash anyone else’s beliefs: “There’s a lot of strong beliefs. People will die for religion, you know? I’m not here to knock anyone’s beliefs, all I’m saying is – religion, to me, is like segregation. There are so many different beliefs, coming off one story. No one’s connected any more. Everyone wants to beef each other over the same belief, so it turns into a division. That’s why I don’t believe. It’s about who is pervading these divisions - who is trying to divide us as people. Especially my people – who’s trying to divide us? What’s their purpose? I believe there are a whole lot of answers within yourself. You don’t have to believe, or turn to some sort of external force that you can’t see for answers. It’s already within you. There are a lot of hidden keys to self that they’ve kept from us.” He is keen to point out that his rhymes are not works of fiction or conspiracy theory: “In terms of my lyrics, and how that influences me, it’s all fact. Never fictional, never romanticised. Not adventure. I talk about things which may seem like a dream, but it’s all straight fact. It’s oppressed knowledge. That’s what I based my philosophy on – opening up, revealing suppressed knowledge. I mean, my whole rhyme aura isn’t about that – it’s about my life. You’ll hear about murders, robberies. I put everything in there. But there’s another side to life.” M9’S DEBUT ALBUM, HIGH FIDELITY, IS OUT IN MAY (DATE TBC) ON TRIPLE DARKNESS/CHEMO PRODUCTIONS. M9 IS ALSO PART OF THE TRIPLE DARKNESS CREW, WHO ARE SET TO RELEASE MATERIAL LATER THIS YEAR. FOR MORE CHAT FROM M9 ON TRIPLE DARKNESS, THE ELOHIM, THE LUCIFERIAN AGENDA, DAVID ICKE AND SUPREME MATHEMATICS, READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THIS INTERVIEW ON OUR WEBSITE – NB. THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! WWW.MYSPACE.COM/M9INE

BEATS

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE:

SHADOWS OF ANGMAR (TURBINE)

Entirely separate from horrible movie based merchandising paraphernalia, Turbine have created their own vision of Middle Earth for some massive multiplayer tomfoolery. Man, dwarf, elf and hobbit are all represented in abundance – with a variety of character classes and trades to choose from, there is no shortage of role playing to be done. The game takes place alongside the main story, with regular visits from Middle Earth’s most celebrated characters into your quests. Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with the MMO of the moment, Warcraft. This is undeniably a sign of strength (Warcraft does have 8 million folk playing it after all): many of the game’s commands are the same, easing any transition, and some other features are improved upon. Team-based control options (‘fellowships’) allow for special group based attacks, for example. Along with this players get the chance to play as their favourite monsters from the books, levelling up as they would usually, giving you the opportunity to play the other (smidgen more evil) side against other players. The only real gripe is that while graphically superior to War of Warcraft, it does have a tendancy to lag, and some rather suspect animations. This inconvenience aside, the game is easily as engrossing as World of Warcraft; similarities abound be-

GAMES

tween the two, and while there are no major innovations over the behemoth of the MMO scene, this game has massive potential. With the fascination of all the Tolkien lore, and plans for regular updates to expand the play area to the whole of Middle Earth, the game could really be something special. Right now, it all comes down to a matter of preference. (Josh Wilson)

which you unravel a mystery involving murder, art theft and your traitorous ex-partner. Overall this is a neat little adventure game which benefits from bags of atmosphere and one of the best game scripts of the year. [Craig Wilson] OUT NOW FOR NINTENDO DS. WWW.HOTELDUSK.COM

RRP £34.99 WITH 45 DAYS FREE ONLINE PLAY

BURNOUT DOMINATOR

WWW.LOTRONLINE.COM

(EA)

OUT NOW FOR PC

HOTEL DUSK: ROOM 215 (NINTENDO)

Picture a game where jockeys do laps riding giant snails. Now picture the fastest most charismatic game you’ve ever played. This is like comparing EA’s racing juggernauts - Need for Speed and Burnout. The series has grown into a familiar friend who visits once a year. You know what you get with Burnout, unlike each new Need for Speed. This version takes all the best elements of the series, throws in new cars and tracks and performs brilliantly. It’s about driving like a maniac: some races require you to speed into oncoming traffic for certain distances or burn entire tanks of boost without crashing. This is called a ‘Burnout’ and earns you bonus tanks of boost - vital when the speed and difficulty ramps up. This is everything you’ve come to love about the series polished off and fine-tuned to perfection - unfortunately it’s not an entirely new game. [Dave Cook]

Graphics that are so painfully good they make your eyes bleed? Pah! Dodgy movie license? Forget it! Millions upon millions of terrorists to exterminate? Jog on! A damn good story dripping in film noir influences with a supporting cast of deep and complex characters? About time! Hotel Dusk is like reading a good book: once you get into it, it’s hard to put down. Dusk resurrects the tried and tested template of puzzle solving, many of which require intuitive use of the DS’s many features, conversation with the beautifully written characters, and the odd session of pointing and clicking. The characters themselves are all handsomely hand-drawn with a range of emotions that make them come alive during your interactions, which helps since they take up much of the game time (at least ten hours). The plot itself begins when you check OUT NOW FOR PS2/PSP. into the Hotel Dusk which will remain WWW.EA.COM the setting for the entire game during

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

CLUBBING

Highlights

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI This month marks the 300 t h a n n ive r sa r y of The Act of Union. With the Scottish elect ions a l so u nder way - touted in some quarters as a referendum on independence - Re: Union, 7:84’s dramatic account of four regional f lashpoints, is timely and underlines Scotland’s growing sense of self, especially in theatreland. Indeed, a glance at the review pages this month should give you an idea of the quality and sheer diversity of the theatre on offer in Scotland in 2007. The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) must share much of the credit for this renewed confidence. Although Futurology: A Global Revue was not entirely to this editor’s taste, this NTS co-production has much to recommend it to lovers of the cabaret form and its post modern blend of show tunes with up-to-the-nano-second subject matter perfectly exemplifies this new found chutzpah. However, nowhere is this ambition more eloquently demonstrated than at the Scottish Ballet under the stewardship of Artistic Director Ashley Page. Here we have a (national) dance company at the very top of its game, a game that some Cassandras had predicted already lost. But you don’t have to be classically trained to be a great dancer. Scottish breakdance crews such as StyleTrial and The Flying Jalepenos will prove just that as they battle it out acrobatically with some of the world’s best at the Breakin’ Convention festival at The Edinburgh Festival Theatre this month (see feature). Further proof, if more were needed, of the wealth of performing talent in our nation.

by Gareth K Vile

You are a producer, you have spent time touring a live d&b band and you are one of the two head honchos at Hospital Records. What do you enjoy the most and why? “Not easy to answer that. There’s bits of each that are really enjoyable, and bits that are a pain in the arse. Right now what I enjoy the most is not one of the above - I’m totally loving DJing.” The Hospital Records podcast is worldwide and award winning. How much do you think podcasts like that help the d&b world and specifically Hospital? “What started out as a laugh has become very important to us - we get over 120,000 downloads a month on my podcast, and to know that I’m reaching that many people is mental. It’s great to know that so many people not only enjoy my music selection, but also like hearing me talk complete nonsense for 45 minutes too!”

THE HOUSE OF TECHNO GLASGOW

Turn off your mobile, tell your partner you’re working late and tell everyone else it’s your grandmother’s funeral on Friday the 11th, because Lory D (Reflex/SNS) plays live alongside French electro-funk king AUTOMAT at the WIREBLOCK launch party (Blackfriars, 11pm-3am, £8, see preview for full details). Don’t miss this one, it should be excellent. Do try to survive the madness, ‘cos there’s two essential parties happening at the same time the next night. Inner City Acid presents RADIOACTIVE MAN live at the Soundhaus on 12 May, 11pm-4am, £9/£11. With a 4am license, that’s a whole extra hour of Radioactivity! Meanwhile, somewhere across town, GHISLAIN POIRIER (Chocolate Industries/Intr_version) makes knotty, clunking dancehall at Doublespeak (Blackfriars, 11pm-3am, £8, 12 May). Not going out is blasphemy, plumping for another night is not an option, and splitting down the middle is just plain weird. Do what my mate did in Prague, just crash out in the club and you’ll be speaking double for sure. If you’re after more head-nodding funky grooves, DROIDO (Urbantorque/ Silver Network) plays the Brunswick on 24 May, 11pm-late, £tbc. Also worth checking out is the recently launched Vibrations at Classic Grand, every Friday at 11pm-3am, £6/4. With the first lady of Glaswegian Trash, Mingogo, and DJs from the ever-popular Ariels, this is prime time Friday night sleaze.

EDINBURGH TROUBLE sinks its teeth into the Cab on 4 May with The Scottish Freestylers

London Elektricity It’s a packed out month, so lets get to it! Your warm-up on both 4 and 18 May, live and direct from The City Café are CODENINE (9pm, £0). Followed on the 4th by the main event, LONDON ELEKTRICITY at the Bongo Club with support from Xplicit Residents (11pm–3am, £10). 12 May is OBSCENE VS SEQUENTIAL vs RED ALERT VS TECHNICAL RESISTANCE at Ego (11pm–3am, £3/£5). Over Clydeside on 18 May is Xplicit at The Art School with ‘not to be missed’ True Playa DJ HYPE (10.30pm–3am, £10). Later, Edinburgh’s Studio 24 welcomes FUTUREBOUND & MATRIX as part of the Universal Truth album tour, plus residents (10.30pm–3am, £8). And finally, Bass Syndicate on 25 May presents a night of dubstep, Baile funk, breaks and electro from the legendary Mob Records boss, TAYO (Bongo Club, 11pm–3am, £8). [Jonny Ogg]

/HF

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

TOP

THE D&B CURRICULUM It’sSimon May, so I’m declaring on all your asses. With that in mind, Xplicit at Sequential SmithSummer Bassline on 4 May sees London Elektricity floating into Edinburgh’s Bongo Club on a bed of beautiful summertime d&b with the usual Hospital Records twist. Ahead of this DJ set The Skinny caught up with him to scoop the lowdown on the man behind it all, TONY COLMAN.

Association. Made up of some of the choicest local promoters, including KINKY AFRO and PLASTIC SOUL, this is a great way to catch some of the best locals in one go (11pm-3am, £6/£5). If you like your electro with a touch of pumping indie, the drop dead gorgeous remix king/queen, LE CASTLE VANIA brings disco-punk flavours to the Cab on 16 May with We Are… Electric (11pm-3am, free before 12/members/£3 after). Both of these are damn near institutions, but the new noise in Edinburgh is WOBBY, a collision of crusty drill’n’bass, hardcore techno and casualty-trance from the likes of Tekamine and Helicopter-face. Details tbc, but the last one was free entry and £1.50 drinks at Studio 24 (24 May, 11pm-3am). For something a little bit different; south of techno, west of house, and in the centre of world music, there’s Departure Lounge’s Finland Special with DALINDÈO (live), and DJ sets from Matti Nives, Astroboy & Jimenez (their newest resident DJ!), plus percussion from Cammy and friends. Dalindèo are a live club jazz band here to bring lighter textures to the mix, so check it out (The Caves, 10pm-3am, £8/6)! [Liam Arnold]

HIP-HOP BY BRINGDARUCKUS

BEATS

THEATRE Breakin’ Convention

Welcome back to another roundup of hip hop news and views brought to you by The Skinny in conjunction with bringdaruckus.com. Project Mayhem are about to drop their new EP Creative Destruction on Dropzone Records. We caught up with MC BOOMSTICK to talk about the EP and his thoughts on Scottish hip hop - you can read the full interview on the Skinny website: Hip Hop Highlights Pt 2.

GLASGOW KELPE, DBLSPK, Sub Club (8pm-12am, £6, 3 May): DBLSPK sees critically acclaimed electronica don Kelpe display some of his ‘head-nod-tronica’ workouts. The diversity of the music that inspires Kelpe finds reflection in his own sonic adventures, informing his ever evolving sound, combining as map and compass to guide his space-bound b-boy throw-downs. Also on show is the fantastic Hudson Mohawk. PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, King Tuts (8.30pm, £10, 17 May): one of Los Angeles’ finest hip hop groups comes back to Glasgow. Thes One and Double K are sure to make this another memorable night. GREENSKEEPERS, Mixed Bizness, The Arches (10.30pm-3am, £8, 18 May): Mixed Biz returns to The Arches with a bumper edition for all you party people. Chicago’s Greenskeepers bring their famous live show to town brimming with jack n’swing in support of their new Polo Club album, out now on OM Records. Finger Lickin’s KRAFTY KUTS hits the ones and twos to show us why he’s constantly voted the best DJ in the world by those in the hip hop and breakbeat community. Expect sickness!

EDINBURGH

Various Artists, DEMOCRAZY, Bongo Club (8.30pm – 2am, £0, 2 May): Democrazy will roll into Edinburgh with a host of acts, DJs and short films for a one-off pre-election gig. The ever excellent REMEDIES and Action Group are just a couple of the acts on show. Capital 1212, The Wee Red Bar (8pm, £0, 6 May): FLY-T along with fellow old school nerds THE VAPORS CREW will be laying down some classic hip hop delights for your listening pleasure. THE UNDERLING, Jazz Bar (11pm-3am, £0, 25 May): if you like your hip hop as a fusion of funky keys, jazzy drumming and double bass madness then you simply must see The Underling. Look out for exclusive interviews, gossip and insider information in the coming months. If you have a gig you wish me to cover for The Skinny or Bring Da Ruckus, email me at CHRIS@BRINGDARUCKUS.COM. [Chris Torres]

EVENTS

1. BREAKIN’ CONVENTION 11 & 12 MAY, FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH

International festival of hip hop dance theatre

2. AALST BY POL HEYVAERT 15 TO 19 MAY, TRAVERSE THEATRE, EDINBURGH

English-language premiere of powerful docudrama about infamous double infanticide in Belgium

3. WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ BY JAMES SEABRIGHT, PAUL LUCAS PRODUCTIONS & FOUNTAIN THEATRE LOS ANGELES 17 & 18 MAY, TRON THEATRE, GLASGOW

Fringe First-winning drama inspired by London Review of Books piece returns

4. SUNSHINE ON LEITH BY DUNDEE REP ENSEMBLE 15 TO 26 MAY, FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH

Proclaimers musical

5. VSPRS BY LES BALLET C. DE LA B. ALAIN PLATEL 3 TO 5 MAY, TRAMWAY, GLASGOW

Dance performance from acclaimed Belgian troupe set to Monteverdi’s Maria Vespers

B -Boys are now ballet stars. In the late 1990s, contemporary dancer and hip hop activist Jonzi D hooked up with the artistic director of Sadler’s Wells - a venue better known for classical ballet - and created The Breakin’ Convention. After three sell-out years in London, the UK’s only festival of breakdance is coming to the Edinburgh Festival Theatre on the 11th and 12th of May. Hosted by Jonzi B and Tony el Tigre from Edinburgh’s own Freshmess company, Breakin’ Convention is Scotland’s largest ever hip hop gathering. First staged at Sadler’s Wells in 2004, it was a bold attempt to bridge the gap between hip hop culture and traditional theatre. For a form so associated with street cultu re, brea kda nce fou nd a welc om i ng home in the London theatre, with DJs in the foyer and walls covered in graffiti. As curator, Jonzi D struggled to ensure that the venue would not swamp the dance’s roots in the community, leading to an all-ages, cross-over crowd that appreciated the culture as much as the performance.

22 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

This inclusive philosophy is advanced by the tour’s decision to include local breakdancers. Apart from Tony el Tigre, crews and companies have be en i nv it e d from across Scotland: Showcase the Street Dance Company come f rom D u nde e, Psychost yle a re the Edinburgh team, while Glasgow is represented by the Flying Jalapenos. Tony sees this as giving an opportunity to a new generation of dancers. “Breakdancing was once all about the ‘wow!’ factor. Now it has crystallised into a solid theatre form, and people have seen that they can be more creative, to be deeper and descriptive,” he says.

EJARA’S WORK APPROACHES AN ABSTRACT EXPRESSION THAT MIRRORS THE MOST FORMAL BALLETIC PIECES

A graduate of the London Contemporary Dance School, Jonzi D has been a B-Boy since the early eighties. As part of a generation who were as comfortable dancing on the stage as on the street, his own experiments convinced him that hip hop could find a broader audience. Across Europe and America, dancers were either integrating breakdance moves into the traditional repertoire or basing entire works on street styles, bringing new levels of professionalism and showmanship to the art. But breaking was still marginalised and its acrobatic moves were rarely accorded respect within the dance community. Aalst

The staggering success of Breakin’ Convention changed that. As its name implies, the Convention is far more than a typical dance show: the Edinburgh event includes workshops in dance, music and poetry, while the foyer space has been given over to small-scale performances. The Convention’s determination to represent the full breaking experience also brings together DJs, rappers and graffiti artists. The atmosphere is closer to a gig than a play, the performers dance it out with local B-Boys and breakdance’s roots in street culture are never neglected.

The international artists certainly support this: the programme boasts the spectrum of modern artists, from the old school Electric Boogaloos, through Frank Ejara’s spectacular solo work to the complex choreography of Frank II Louise. Between them, they showcase the variety and maturity of the contemporary scene. The Electric Boogaloos have been at the heart of breakdance since its beginnings. Formed by Boogaloo Sam in the 1970s, their appearance on Soul Train brought their mixture of hard-hitting styles to national

attention. They have been the highlight of past Conventions, and threaten to stop the show with their tribute to recently departed member Skeeter Rabbit. Hailing from Brazil, and working with the simplest locks and pops, Frank Ejara’s Som Di Movimento looks at the relationship between sounds and moves, a superb example of what Tony calls “the development of a language of movement.” Apart from being a celebration of technique and finesse, Ejara’s work approaches an abstract expression that mirrors the most formal balletic pieces. Franck II Louise are something else again. Their attention to detail in costume, interest in setting and extended company makes them more traditional in format - even though their sci-fi inspired narratives are anything but. The dancers work together to tell stories and create their own universe: both beautiful and alien, their show pushes the boundaries of both hip hop and traditional dance theatre. Taken as a package, Breakin’ Convention is a radical step away from the polite formality of the usual dance event. The combination of breathtaking acrobatics, thoughtful exploration and the excitement of experiencing a maturing art form ensures that this will be a signature event of the year. 11 & 12 MAY, FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH WWW.EFT.CO.UK THE SKINNY HAS FOUR PAIRS OF TICKETS TO WIN TO THE OPENING NIGHT OF BREAKIN’ CONVENTION. TELL COMPETITIONS@ SKINNYMAG.CO.UK WHICH MOVE A BREAKDANCE ROUTINE MIGHT INCLUDE: (A) A FREEZE (B) A MISTER (C) A CALIPPO DEADLINE 9 MAY

THEATRE

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

THE SKIN NY rtist

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

Festival Groovin’

TOM FINDLAY TAKES A FEW MINUTES OUT FROM A PACKED REHEARSAL SCHEDULE TO TALK ABOUT THE LATEST ALBUM AND GROOVE ARMADA’S FESTIVAL ACTIVITY IN 2007

GROOVE ARMADA ROCK NESS CLUBBING HIGHLIGHTS FRANK N DANK MELANIN9 NASTY P THE WEE CHILL GLASGOW CLUBS BIG TOE’S HI-FI EDINBURGH CLUBS ALBUMS/SINGLES 3345 DJ CHART

TOP

INTERVIEW FEATURE

PREVIEW

INTERVIEW FEATURE

GLASGOW FEATURE

REVIEWS AND PREVIEWS 47 EDINBURGH FEATURE

REVIEWS AND PREVIEWS 48 REVIEWS

DJ CHART

ALBUMS

1. M9 - HIGH FIDELITY (TRIPLE DARKNESS/ CHEMO PRODUCTIONS)

Dark London hip hop courtesy of Chemo and Beat Butcha’s new protégé. RELEASE DATE: MAY TBC

2. V/A - DEJINE: REC COMPILATION VOL.1 (DEJINE RECORDS)

Despite Asthmatic Astronaut’s work with Edinburgh boys Sileni or Pigeon style Kung Fu, it falls to Japanese hip-hop/electronica label Dejine Rec to be the first to promote this new talent. OUT NOW

3. FRANK N DANK – THE EP

(DOPENESS GALORE)

Detroit hip-hop twosome Frank N Dank make a return with some old-school lyrical stylings, side-stepping their more characteristic hustler tales. RELEASE DATE: 18 MAY

4. SPANK ROCK - FABRICLIVE 33

(FABRIC)

From Kurtis Blow to Daft Punk to Chicks on Speed, Spank Rock’s FabricLive mix is one smooth inhalation of genre styles. OUT NOW

5. ELECTRONIC MUSIC FOR BALLET - SHUT UP AND DANCE! (OSTGUT TON) An utterly unique collaboration bringing together the finest in high art and quality music: five epic tracks of orchestrally-influenced, beat driven experimentation.

festiv al

Rock N ess

date

June 2o o7

TOM FINDLAY’S TOP FESTIVAL TIPS 1. I like to wear a head torch. Yes, it has got a kind of a low-rent Orbital vibe, but it means you can always have your hands free to skin up. 2. Also, I like to take a light mackintosh with a good hood and lots of pockets inside. Lots and lots of pockets because you always have loads of things to carry at festivals. 3. I’m not a welly boots or a walking boots kind of man, that’s all just a bit too fucking grown up. I usually end up in a pair of old converse or something. 4. Toilets. Get yourself VIP access. That’s the best thing about being in a band at a festival, you get yourself into toilets with oak panelling and toilet paper. If you need the toilet, you need VIP. 5. Tents needs to have something fluorescent tied to them, or tie yourself to the tent with a piece of string and then you will always get home safe 6. Booze? Don’t be fussy, just get it down you.

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

BEATS CONTENTS

Groove A rmada

By Sophie Kyle

Dear Readers, By the time you read this, I will have stepped down as Co-editor of Beats. Who cares? I hear you cry. Well, I do! I’ve been privileged to work with some very talented people over the last 20 mont h s (a nd beyond that, back into the mists of 20 05, b e for e The Skinny was birthed), and I’d like to thank some of them by name. Xavier, Sophie – thanks for getting me involved. I only wanted on the guestlist for a party and now I’m a journalist! That was sneaky of you. Thanks! Ian and Alex (and Stu and Charlotte) – thanks for all the chocolate, cynicism and massive effort you have packed in over the months. You run the good ship Beats – always have. Thanks to all the wonderful Skinny writers, photographers and ad sellers too – you are all amazing. The fact that we make this thing work every month, and keep making it free, never ceases to astound me. I’ll still be writing features, and working on numerous exciting Skinny events yet to be announced, so see ya soon. Now, in the best ‘departing editor’ fashion, I’m going to make some predictions. By the end of the year, Great Ezcape’s debut album will be out-selling Hova. Penpushers will be given knighthoods for ‘services to hip-hop and the Crown’. Volume will be the most popular club night in Scotland, and all the people who currently like The Fratellis and The View will have got some sense, and started listening to grime instead. Those are my orders. Do it! Sayonara punks, it’s been real. Love, Bram

PRES ENTS a

Since 1998 Groove Armada has been an integral part of the history of British electronic music along with the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim. From down-tempo chill out vibes to high octane dance beats, Groove Armada produce it all with a distinct kind of positivity. However, these guys are not getting any younger, and over the last decade have worked hard to produce four albums, a remixes album, a ‘best of’, compilation and collaboration albums; they’ve also started their own festival and been on several world tours. So, have they still got what it takes to make a crowd rock? In a break from a packed rehearsal schedule with Sugardaddy, Tom tells us, “After our performances in Australia and the tweaking we are doing in the studio, I can safely say we are in the form of our lives right now, and it’s undoubtedly a good time to catch us.” Not only was Groove Armada’s recent tour of Oz an escape from the tail end of the British winter, but also a chance for the guys to test out the new band they are touring with in the UK this summer. “When we play live we tend to give it a bit of the ol’ Spinal Tap treatment and

turn everything up to 11. I think when you are playing live the rock elements really work well, and you can get a little bombastic with the sound. I think on an album you need to ease things in a little more.” There are some varied genres easing into the new album, Soundboy Rock, with crunky hip hop and reggae influences in dirty floor-fillers Get Down and Drop That Thing on the up tempo, all the way through to the epic relaxed house sound of Paris, featuring soul legend Candi Staton’s vocals. Chill out, as always with Groove Armada, is not left out, and American Jeb Loy Nichols supplies a smooth folk lick to What’s Your Version. In fact, it seems the GA are doing their best to squeeze in as many different collaborators and influences as possible, though the folk aspect that was once so strong in their music has receeded. “I think the folk thing merely came out of the fact that we produced an album from the countryside. We spent about three years out there and got a bit bored; I’m never going back to the country. It was one of those mad rock and roll ideas to get us to focus on the music, but in this case we all just went a bit potty. It was far too calm, we had far too much time on our hands!”

As far as line-ups for other festivals go, Groove Armada will also be headlining Rockness as part of their festival activity. “I’m really excited about playing Rockness as it’s a young festival and the line-up is amazing. Obviously, there’s Daft Punk who are just fucking amazing live; they don’t do it the way we do, but they are unmissable live.” Daft Punk’s highly anticipated ‘homecoming’ gig will be top of most Rockness-goers list - even more reason for Groove Armada to pull out all the stops. “The Scots audiences at T in the Park and the Barras have always been really welcoming. We are actually planning to raise the roof for that gig!” It’s a strange time for Groove Armada who now have many years in the biz under their belts. But if the new album’s distinctive edge proves anything, it’s that Groove Armada are as on top of their sound and its many influences as they ever have been. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW ON OUR WEBSITE GROOVE ARMADA PLAY ROCKNESS ON SAT 9 JUN. CHECK PAGE 4 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN VIP (!) TICKETS. SOUNDBOY ROCK IS RELEASED ON 7 MAY.

ROCKNESS LINE-UPS, 9 & 10 JUNE This year, an estimated 35,000 people will be going mental to a collection of electro and dance artists on the banks of Loch Ness. For a festival only in its second year, Rockness has bagged an amazing line-up, and funky electro lovers will be heading North in their droves. Headlining acts The Chemical Brothers and Groove Armada will be exciting crowds on Saturday in the evening, while Erol Alklan, dropping a special brew of ambient electro and rocky techno tunes, will get the masses dancing earlier in the day. The scratches, samples, and fun hip hop flavours of DJ Yoda will be enchanting revellers in equal measure at the Radio Soulwax arena on Saturday, and 2ManyDJs will electrify with their ever-growing collection of mixes. On top of all that, acts like Leatherhead, Nathan Detroit and Kelis will be making their mark on the day, with superstlyin’ performances from the headliners a sure thing to expect.

Daft Punk headline the event on Sunday the 10th, performing in the indoor arena supported by Soulwax Nite Versions. The Parisian duo are perhaps the most eagerly anticipated act at this year’s newly-expanded festival, and are set to rock the capacity 10,000 crowd before heading off on their US tour. Headlining the main stage are indie favourites Manic Street Preachers supported by Brit-award nominees The Feeling and Welsh rockers The Automatic. Rob Da Bank will also bring his Sunday Best extravanganza to the festival and will present an array of talent including Yousef and Optimo’s DJ Twitch, whilst the best of new Scottish talent will entertain the crowd on the Go North X-posure Stage. [Lara Moloney and Neil Whiting]

Get them online at www.ticketline.co.uk (0871 424 4444), www.ticketmaster.co.uk (0870 169 0100), www. thebooth.co.uk, or at Mania & HMV (Inverness), One Up (Aberdeen), Grouchos (Dundee), Ripping (Edinburgh), Tickets Scotland (Glasgow & Edinburgh), and the SECC (Glasgow).

THE HISTORY OF

by Nico Major & Wallace Sulley

BREAKDANCE

BREAKDANCING AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF HIP HOP CULTURE SUCH AS GRAFFITI NEVER ACHIEVED THE SAME LEVEL OF MEDIA ATTENTION THAT RAP MUSIC WOULD GO ON TO GARNER It all began in New York’s Bronx sometime between 1972 and ‘73. The term ‘b-boy’ actually derives not from the acrobatic movement of the dance, but from the structure of the music. The dancers preferred the breakdown of the records when all the music but the drum beat (or break) dropped out of the mix which the DJ would extend by using two copies of the same track. The partygoers would dance on the break, thus coining the term ‘break-boys’ or ‘b-boys’. With the dance moves inextricably bound together with the music, the scene inevitably coalesced around musical innovators such as DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa who extended the all important breakdowns by mixing together two copies of the same record. However, this brand new technique gave rival crews such as The Rock Steady Crew and The New York City Breakers a chance to battle for the right to claim the freshest moves and best styles for their own.

+bf, weekend ticket and camping £100 +bf.

during the opening ceremony for the LA Olympics. Even though this exposure gave birth to hundreds of crews across the world, breakdancing and other elements of hip hop culture such as graffiti never achieved the same level of media attention that rap music would go on to garner during the Nineties - continuing on to this day. Although it did enjoy a small revival thanks to Run DMC’s seminal video for It’s Like That, b-boying has remained a defiantly underground expression of hip hop culture. Thanks to DJ Reed Richards (Wallace Sulley) and b-boy Nico Mystereo (Nico Major) who perform together as Etch’N’Sketch at The Breakin’ Convention.

CHECK THEM OUT AT: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ETCHNSKETCH007 WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DJREEDRICHARDS WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NICOMAJOR

It wasn’t until the early Eighties, however, that breakdance got major worldwide exposure when it was spotlighted

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/STYLETRIAL WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FLYINJALAPENOS

The Rock Steady Crew

REVIEWS AALST

TRAMWAY, 21 MARCH RAISES QUESTIONS THAT ARE USUALLY SIDE-STEPPED AND DRAWS CONCLUSIONS THAT ARE UNCOMFORTABLE For a play that has only two performers, the sparsest of sets and a running time of just over an hour, Aalst is thought-provoking, brutal and immediate. Based on a true story that shocked Belgium, it explores the murder of two children by their parents. Using the transcripts of the trial, and refusing to work with the two murderers, Pol Heyvart developed an exploration of darkness that refuses to excuse or justify. Apart from brief moments of black humour generated by the self-serving idiocy of the defendants, and an ill-conceived monologue set to funky music, Aalst maintains a low-key pace throughout. Cathy and Michael are questioned by a disembodied voice about the events leading up to the murders. Their confusion, naivety and upbringing are dissected by cold reason, exposing their culpability and lack of conscience. With minimal business, aside from Michael’s sporadic twitch or Cathy’s appeals to sentimentality, the play steadily unfolds its horror. It recalls Euripides’ harshest tragedies in its focused, unsympathetic characterisation. Most astonishing is the hard line taken on the accused. They are not allowed to blame their ugly childhoods, or their abusive relationship. In a brief coda, the cynicism of their speeches is exposed, while their lack of moral direction is even acknowledged by Michael when he claims to have decided to kill the children before the

TICKET INFO: Day ticket £45 +bf, weekend ticket £85

THEATRE

BEATS

social security moved in. Another playwright might have worked sympathy for Cathy through the domestic abuse that she suffered at Michael’s hands - Heyvaert makes her an automaton who plays on her ignorance to avoid admitting her guilt. The per formances from Kate Dickie and David MacKay are consistently superb and understated. Using little more than the slightest vocal inflections, and occasionally standing up, they are simultaneously natural and iconic. The translation into Glaswegian vernacular brings home the universality of the story without descending into a stage version of natural speech: the light touch is responsible for the humour as well as the horror. Aalst crosses geographical boundaries whilst retaining a Scottish perspective. The rising intensity, the willingness to work on the audience’s emotions and intellect, and the refusal - except in one crass instance - to interpret explicitly all make this a singular work of dramatic power. It raises questions that are usually side-stepped and draws conclusions that are uncomfortable. It is the work of a National Theatre that is confident and radical. [Gareth K Vile] AALST WILL BE SHOWING AT TRAVERSE THEATRE, EDINBURGH 15 MAY - 19 MAY WWW.NATIONALTHEATRESCOTLAND.COM

RELEASE DATE: 29 MAY

42 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

BEATS

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

SINGLE REVIEWS

REVIEWS

FUTUROLOGY: A GLOBAL REVUE

SOULSAVERS REVIVAL

(V2)

DEERHUNTER

FLUORESCENTGREY (KRANKY)

When veteran producer Andrew Weatherall talks about raising his hands to heaven and “crying like a redeemed sinner” to describe a band, you could do worse than to listen up. Religious connotations may seem a tad lazy when it comes to music steeped in blues and church organ, but there’s little to doubt the conviction behind such words. Mark Lanegan provides the vocals of a man at the limit of his suffering, looking for redemption in the night. A gospel-backing choir urges him on. Your own personal epiphany may not be guaranteed, but a small piece of salvation awaits. [Darren Carle]

Stepping out to a new show by Graham Eatough’s highly regarded company, Suspect Culture - co-produced by National Theatre of Scotland and Brighton Festival - has a definite springy feel. After all, these are the edgy auteurs of 2006’s acclaimed multi-media happening, Killing Time, the same year’s equally endowed Harry Houdini bio-drama, The Escapologist, and so on back to the prolific group’s inception in 1992. Indeed, the publicity for the current show hinted at a simlarly hip producion: a 21st Century apocalyptic morality tale for today’s global village idiots. In fact, what we get is Rocky Horror 2.0. Five years in the exhaustive, workshop-based devising process produced a song and dance routine about climate change. That’s not to say there weren’t moments of real dramatic power but, overall, this seemed an episodic mishmash of halfconsidered platitudes. The show plays out in a UN-style climate change conference; programmes are delegate packs, all the venues for the tour are chosen for the dual conference centre roles and the slick set even features nicely finessed powerpoint presentations. But instead of taking its chance to land some well-deserved rabbit-punches on the rape of our planet by global capital, the production chose to indulge in aimless hand-wringing about the side-show inundation of the Sandwich Islands. The narrative seemed too flimsy by half to do the subject matter justice: what was needed was tighter plotting and less weak one-line trivialisation.

OUT NOW WWW.THESOULSAVERS.COM

LORDS OF BASTARD

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS/ KINGSIZED KARMA (SL RECORDS)

That said, Nick Powell’s music, articulately rendered by The Bauxite City Tranquilisers, was excellent, as was the ensemble performance by the talented cast. Raphaelle Boitel’s set-piece dance pieces were astonishingly virtuous while sometime Tanguera Victoria Di Pace led an impressive choral accompaniment. So, despite some griping over the seriousness of the topic in hand, this is a highly enjoyable show. It’s just a pity that what started out as a strong idea – a cabaret-style revue of the fucked-up state-of-the-nation - morphed into lite-entertainment. [Hugo Fluendy]

Edinburgh’s finest stoner zombie pirate wizards unload their first double a-side single, and it’s a suitably fierce affair. The spectre of LoB’s metal heroes looms large, but despite their love of the freakish, Off with their Heads is a rather pedestrian romp. Kingsized Karma is equally bludgeoning but bad production robs its bastard-heavy chords of the weight they deserve. It’s clear that LoB are overcompensating for a lack of musical invention with their outlandish aesthetic, but when your primary influence is Black Sabbath, it’s probably not innovation you’re aiming for. [Ted Maul]

FIVE YEARS IN THE EXHAUSTIVE WORKSHOPBASED DEVISING PROCESS PRODUCED A SONG AND DANCE ROUTINE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

OUT NOW AS 7” OR DOWNLOAD ONLY MYSPACE.COM/LORDSOFBASTARD

SCOTTISH BALLET

RE:UNION

HELD (AUSTRALIAN DANCE THEATRE)

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF CLASSICAL DANCE: A COMPANY UNDERGOING A RENAISSANCE

AN INSIGHTFUL LOOK INTO FAMILY AND HOW MUCH THEY HAVE IN COMMON EVEN WHEN THEY THINK THEY DON’T

FROZEN IMAGES OF DANCERS IN MID-FLIGHT ARE EXTRAORDINARY, LITERALLY BREATHTAKING

Made up of four discreet works, the Scottish Ballet’s latest programme demonstrates how far the company has come under Ashley Page. Agon and In Light and Shadow are both abstract pieces in what is becoming their signature style; Room of Cooks is a short interpretation of Stephen Chamber’s painting; Othello a revival of founder Peter Darrell’s 1971 piece. Ironically, since the production was designed to celebrate Darrell’s contribution, Othello is the weakest link. Its colourful costumes hide the lack of depth in his interpretation of Shakespeare and the dancers are wasted in a series of un-demanding mime shows.

The latest production by 7:84 Theatre Company is a quartet exloring separation and reconcilliation, to mark the 300th Anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland and England. Set on a stage of broken glass, Re: Union was written by four writers from varying backgrounds. Wound by Nicola McCartney is first up; a play set in Ireland in 1921, a few fluffed lines are forgiven by the performance of Ionia Ni Chronin who plays a disturbed 16 year-old, resentful of her adoptive parents. A black comedy throughout, Wound is one of the strongest plays in the series.

There is only so much that the human eye can take in. When looking at a fast-moving object, it sees the whole movement, not the individual moments which comprise the momentum. The camera allows us to see the world with an entirely new understanding, crystallising that which is normally fluid, stopping the headlong rush so that we can see one held fraction of it.

THEATRE ROYAL, 11 APRIL

This disappointment, however, only serves to remind the audience that this company is undergoing a renaissance. Agon, choreographed by Balanchine to Stravinsky’s angular score, is an early twentieth century classic, challenging the dancers’ technique and pushing the boundaries of classical dance. Along with In Light and Shadow, it generates emotion through abstract patterns and multiple combinations of dancers, giving space for solo virtuosity and precision team work. Room of Cooks is evocative, tense and moody, bringing to life the implied eroticism of the painting. Page’s sensitivity to ballet as total theatre is in evidence here - lighting and set are used to maximum effect: as in Shadow, a bare stage becomes a dynamic backdrop to the action. Along with the National Theatre, Scottish Ballet prove that contemporary theatre can be integrated with the traditional. The lacklustre choreography of Othello emphasised how hide-bound and sterile dance had been, and that the infusion of modern styles has energised the rigorous ballet technique. [Gareth K Vile]

24 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

TRAVERSE THEATRE, 14 APRIL

Next comes a solo performance by Umar Ahmad, a Pakistani scot in Haresh Sharma’s Eclipse, which follows a young man’s journey back to Pakistan to spread his father’s ashes and explore his heritage. Umar’s confident performance, in which he had to play a son, a father and grandfather, shows clearly the events surrounding the 1947 partition of India which created modern day Pakistan. A Time To Go, written by Selma Dimitrijevic, sees Billy Raddoch and Ahmad join forces against a backdrop of 1990s Croatia. This play explores the relationship of a father and son, and their conflicting views on one event, eventually reaching a shared understanding. Finally comes Linda McLean’s Doch-An-Doris (A Parting Drink). Set in a lawyer’s office, McLean’s play sees the excellent Jacqui Chan (really) as the mother of the troubled family. The timing of the actors creates a bravura climax to an interesting series of plays. I defy anyone not to relate to McLean’s play in some way: an insightful look into family and how much they have in common even when they think they don’t. [Kirsty Tough]

D e e r h u n te r ’s s e c o n d r e c o r d, Cryptograms, was an enthralling splurge of sound. As sonically relentless as Liars, yet more intimate than Funeral-era Arcade Fire, it left critics drooling - and new EP Fluorescent Grey is a further extension of this dualistic glory. The title track’s harrowing piano unfolds into grinding J&MC dreaminess whilst Dr. Glass is a psychedelic whirl of mellow bass-groove. Like New’s transient purr is the EP’s standout moment, cajoling the listener into a synth-led trance before melting into Wash Off’s shamanic racket. Unsurprisingly recorded during Cryptogram’s final mix, Fluorescent Grey suggests Deerhunter will continue to captivate for years to come. [Billy Hamilton] OUT NOW WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DEERHUNTER

HYENA

CROW OR VIDEO EP (SELF RELEASED)

For a band that can come across like plain-old heavy rock on first listen, Glasgow quartet Hyena’s willingness to flirt with, abuse, and finally dispense with the rule book demands some time and dedication. Opening track, Real Number, is a highly accomplished Captain Beefheart-meets-Placebo type affair which takes more turns than most bands manage in a whole album. This excellent start is followed by the equally impressive Ceiling Song, a much grungier, Sonic Youth-alike effort. Dig a Bath would be a sin-

gle if the production was (much) crisper, while Crack is a decent stab at Pumpkins-esque noise-core. The last two tracks, however, sound tacked-on at best. Still, given the proper resources, Hyena have the imagination to make something very special. [Nick Mitchel]

melodies and the picture is becoming clear. Clearly made with the intention of doing nothing more than selling out arenas, this is indie music for people who don’t really like indie music. A fiasco from start to finish. [Neil Ferguson]

OUT NOW

WWW.LOWVSDIAMOND.CO.UK

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HYENABAND

THE LOW MIFFS

BAND OF HORSES THE FUNERAL

(KIDS)

Fans of Kentucky outfit My Morning Jacket should sit up and take note: there’s a worthy challenger to their throne as the kings of reverb-heavy country twang. The Funeral shows that the ‘Horses can match the ‘Jackets for epic-ness and towering, atmospheric rock, with a tune that soars and swells to a guitar-washed climax topped off by Ben Bridwell’s yearning, melancholic vocal. It’s a song that swills with emotion without ever sounding in the least bit contrived. And while the subject matter may be bleak, the delivery shows off a healthy defiance in the face of adversity. [Barry Jackson]

RELEASE DATE: 7 MAY

EARL GREY/THIS IS THE NEW (ART/GOES/POP)

The Low Miffs are smarter than your average band. So smart, in fact, that BBC’s Newsnight invited them into the studio to pontificate over the state of the Scottish music industry. And just to reaffirm their undoubted intelligence, the Glasgow quintet release this dextrous double a-side. A

gnarling crescendo of vehement guitars and twitching percussion, Earl Grey is a victorious slice of intricate new-wave poetry that’s perfectly complimented by This Is The New’s shimmering summer pop hook. Over-flowing with zesty razzle-dazzle melody, its infectious self-certainty proves just how big it is to be clever. [Billy Hamilton] OUT NOW WWW.THELOWMIFFS.COM

FOUND

SYNTH LIKEMINDS EP (AUFGELADEN UND BEREIT)

Some songs are born from the strangest of inspirations. The third single to be released from Found’s debut album, Found Can Move, Synth Like Minds is a tribute to two

early speech synthesisers from the 60s called PAT and OVE. A rare recording of them “singing” a duet of the traditional song The More We Are Together - unearthed from the bowels of Edinburgh Uni’s Linguistics Department - planted a seed in the mind of lead singer Ziggy Campbell, who works as a sound engineer there. You’re probably thinking: aren’t the airwaves already swarming with songs about lovestruck, singing synths? Well, yes, but there’s always room for one more when it’s as wonkily rocking as this one. [Barry Jackson]

SOUNDS

THEATRE

RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY FOUND PLAY THIS IS MUSIC, HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, EDINBURGH ON 31 MAY. MYSPACE.COM/FOUNDTHEBAND

RELEASE DATE: 21 MAY WWW.BANDOFHORSES.COM

LOWVSDIAMOND HEART ATTACK (MARRAKESH)

It’s hard to imagine a more perfectly formed piece of radio friendly banality as Low Vs Diamond’s latest offering, Heart Attack. From the off, it’s nothing more than mammoth hooks, massive barrages of overdubbed guitars and undercurrents of empty synths. Add in a few colossal choruses and easy, tenacious

Who’s your favourite Low Miff?

FESTIVAL THEATRE, 31 MARCH

Australian Dance Theatre’s collaboration with photographer Lois Greenfield does exactly this, in real time. Greenfield joins the dancers on stage and her digital photographs are immediately transposed to giant screens, showing the audience what they have been watching, but in a way it was not possible for them to see. These frozen images of dancers in mid-flight - caught while apparently hurtling away from the ground - are extraordinary, literally breathtaking. This is dance as you have never seen it and the images are awesome. But this is dance. And this is unfortunately where this piece falls down. The stage is conceptualised as a photographic studio and consequently Held is choreographed for the camera and not the audience. In the segments of the show without the photographer on stage the dance comes alive, and the audience can appreciate the artistry of this company of athletic dancers. With the photographer present, the images upstage the dance, and there is one layer of distance too many between audience and dancer. An audacious, in many ways extraordinary piece which, unfortunately, narrowly fails to live up to the sum of its parts. [Philippa Cochrane]

THEATRE

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

SOUNDS ALBUM REVIEWS MIRRORED

(WARP)

Arriving after a mammoth gestation, Battles’ debut album has been more than worth the wait. Those who were turned off by the clinical precision of the band’s EPs will be pleased to discover that while these new tracks are still a technical tour de force, Battles’ new sound seems to cocoon the senses; the instrumental pyrotechnics having attained a warmth and lushness that is surely a product of the sprightly, playful spirit that permeates this record. John Stanier’s percussion is by turns pummelling and brilliantly restrained, never resorting to unnecessary rolls or fills – while his bandmates conjure dazzling labyrinths of noise that reveal fascinating nuances with each listen. Tyondai Braxton’s vocals are equally stunning; each track showcasing a different facet of his talent. The cathartic, eastern-sounding inﬂections of Bad Trails are emblematic of this whole album’s incredible diversity. This is without doubt the most extraordinary thing Warp have released in an age. [Jay Shukla] RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY. BATTLES PLAY ATP FESTIVAL, MINEHEAD ON 19 MAY AND ABC2, GLASGOW ON 23 MAY. WWW.BTTLS.COM

THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA MA FLEUR

(NINJA TUNE)

It may be an oxymoron, but there’s a feeling of understated concept album permeating Ma Fleur. Recurring musical motifs ebb in and out, whilst the 11 songs proper are stretched over the CD’s maximum 99-track capacity, ensuring this is an album you listen to as a whole. The Cinematic Orchestra’s jazz-leanings may be a starting point, but, as their name suggests, they’re still working on a broader canvas. To Build A Home’s cascading piano and rush of strings bolsters the fragile guest vocals of Patrick Watson, whilst Child Song begins with a Four Tet-style folk loop before morphing into unabated, sun-drenched, Hammondorgan bliss. A rich tapestry indeed, though this trait can leave the end product feeling a little unfocused at times. However, when the squeal-

ing, white noise guitar and clattering drums of As The Stars Fall pricks up the ears, or the unexpected, soaring blues chorus of Breathe lifts the spirit to the rafters, such minor quibbles can be forgiven. [Darren Carle] RELEASE DATE: 7 MAY. WWW.CINEMATICORCHESTRA.COM

JAMES YORKSTON ROARING THE GOSPEL

(DOMINO)

There may be a trade descriptions issue around the title of th i s re c o rd, as James Yorkston is definitely not one to roar. But don’t be put off by any such confusion, because the music of this Fence Collective albums retains power in its mellow restraint. It’s been just six months since Yorkston’s last release, The Year of the Leopard, which would suggest feverish productivity if it weren’t for the fact that this is in fact a collection of oldies, most plucked from his numerous EPs. But that doesn’t detract from the album’s worth, as Yorkston is a born songwriter with a knack for surprising his listeners in almost every verse. Blue Madonnas is a Blur-esque banjo-led standout, while the cover of Cilla Fisher’s Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk is heartwrenching. But the centrepiece of the record is undoubtedly The Lang Toun, a ten-minute slow-burner with pipes and detuned guitar that led to Yorkston’s deal with Domino. Sublime. [Nick Mitchell] RELEASE DATE: 14 MAY. JAMES YORKSTON AND THE ATHLETES PLAY ORAN MOR, GLASGOW ON 22 MAY. WWW.JAMESYORKSTON.CO.UK

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

SEND AWAYTHE TIGERS (COLUMBIA) T h e S k i n ny wo n’t e m b e l l i s h; th e heyday of the Manic Street Preachers was fucking ace. But where exactly do the ﬂamboyant Welsh trio fit circa 2007? Put bluntly, eighth album Send Away the Tigers smacks unashamedly of yesterday but it largely refuses to suffer for it. The blatant fact that the uproarious title track and The Second Great Depression roll with the same thunder as Elvis Impersonator and A Design For Life

respectively, falls only inches short of self-plagiarism. A return to old blueprints, perhaps, as SATT reclaims some of that liberated spirit for the Generation Terrorists, though Nicky Wire nevertheless succeeds in bracing a few tragic and macabre realities. Be it Richey, Guantanamo Bay, the massacre of the Russian royal family in the Bolshevik revolution, it’s all here. “Nothing’s finished, it just fades away,” warns James Dean Bradfield during surprise punk rocker Imperial Bodybags. Dodgy singles aside, the strength in some of these songs should surely put that process on ice for the Manics. [Dave Kerr] RELEASE DATE: 7 MAY. M A N I C S T R E E T P R E AC H E R S P L AY BARROWLANDS, GLASGOW ON 14 MAY AND ROCKNESS, INVERNESS ON 10 JUNE. WWW.MANICS.CO.UK

DŸSE DŸSE

(EXILE ON MAINSTREAM)

OUT NOW WWW.DYSE.INFO

THOMAS TRUAX

WHYDOGSHOWL AT THE MOON (SL) Self-confessed musical eccentrics tend to disappoint. Full of garbled attention seeking proclamations, they never quite deliver when capturing their ingenuity in song. But

EDINBURGH ON 22 MAY.

There’s something missing from Tromatic Reﬂexxions, the collaborative effort between Mouse On Mars and Fall ‘singer’ Mark E Smith that promised so much. Perhaps it’s unfair that, in LCD Soundsystem, we already have a blueprint of what an electronic Fall album should sound like in 2007, but that doesn’t explain the disappointment. The problem is two-fold: firstly, Smith’s vocals are often so indecipherable that he may as well be yelling “Tim-may!” for all that he communicates; secondly, the German’s beats, bounces and bulging basslines are, with a few exceptions, just bland. As a combination it leaves little for the listener to take – no emotional switch, no adrenalin rush, no substance for all its evident style. There are tracks here ripe for a good remix, with glimmers of cooperative compatability apparent in Duckrog and The Rhinohead especially – but the bulk is destined for trendy brown bars, and boredom. [Ally Brown]

After making a name playing broken and surreal J-pop at light velocity, Melt-Banana recording a rock album may leave some worried. On their last release - which they took a slower approach to - the results were wholly unsatisfactory. But for all its shortcomings, it was around that album (and his solo album on Tzadik) that guitarist Agata proved his ability to use the axe in a myriad of ways, none of which sounded like a guitar. Riffs that sound like timespace bending or some industrial strength Penderecki-stretched therimin propel some of MxBx’s best music yet. Bambi’s Dilema finds the perfect balance between lunatic hardcore and traditional rock song structure. While the jury might still be out on whether the lyrics/song titles are some of the best post-Beefheart dadaisms or just bizarre examples of brain damaged Engrish, either way, they are utterly perfect. MeltBanana will still melt your face off. [Ali Maloney]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THOMASTRUAX

RELEASE DATE: 21 MAY.

OUT NOW

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB LE RENO AMPS

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/VONSUDENFED

WWW1.PARKCITY.NE.JP/MLTBANAN

BABY 81 (ISLAND)

SO FOR YOUR THRILLS (PET PIRANHA)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s four th LP, Baby 81, sees the trio - depleted by one third during the recordings for previous album, Howl - back to full strength with drummer Nick Jago back in the fold. With Jago’s return comes some of the no-nonsense rock and roll that has made BRMC so vital, although balancing the ‘bigger sound’ effect of his percussion with the delicate beauty evident throughout much of Howl was never going to be easy. The ‘Club rise to the challenge, and the majority of Baby 81 is a masterclass in musicianship. First single, Weapon of Choice, is perhaps the best example of this, with a bluesy slideguitar opening giving way to stomp rock, dripping with killer hooks. In spite of the sluggish 666 Conducer and forgettable closer Am I Only, standout performances such as Berlin and Lien on Your Dreams offer proof, if any were needed, that BRMC still rock with the best of them. [Jon Seller]

Le Reno Amps’ second LP, So For Your Thrills, finds the band still ploughing those alt-folk furrows, throwing in dashes of punk, power-pop and a notion of old country sounds here and there. The choruses are bouncy, the rhythms are two-step and the backing vocals follow the new-wave, male-female harmony model. Flaunting a Pavement inﬂuence that somehow isn’t quite so noticeable or important this time around, the album passes by notions of Weezer, Ben Kweller and even indulges in a dabble with the ramshackle folk-punk of Defiance, Ohio. Only the relentless decline of Poison Letter towards Get Cape! Wear Cape! Fly. disappoints but is well forgotten by the time Wound Up pulses to a close. Deliberately tumbledown at times, So For Your Thrills is eclectic, upbeat and all very distinctly modern, with a conscious and almost ironically retrospective tint, as if to show and tell where it all came from. [Neil Ferguson]

Since his inauguration as an affiliate of the ‘acoustic movement’ in the early part of the decade, Tom McRae’s return has been two albums packed with clever, likeable, but never massively fashionable music. On his third release, McRae is in philosophical and reflective form. From the advisory bars of Got a Suitcase, Got Regrets (“See the hope in small things / disappointment can wear you thin”), to the witty, folkish number that is Houdini and the Girl, King of Cards will do his reputation as one of the most gifted of that bunch no harm. One Mississippi should be marked as one of the finest songs he’s recorded - equally On and On is one of the most disappointing. As an album, it’s full of the satisfyingly infectious melodies you’d expect, bar a couple of exceptions, with an escalating tendency to sound like Crowded House - which is no bad thing. Accordingly, despite the charm of a few songs, there are no monumental breakthroughs here, but a healthy addition to an impressive back catalogue. [Finbarr Bermingham]

OUT NOW

WWW.BLACKREBELMOTORCYCLECLUB.COM

LE RENO AMPS PLAY NICE N’ SLEAZYS ON

TOM MCRAE PLAYS ABC, GLASGOW ON 24 MAY

5 MAY AND BONGO CLUB ON 6 MAY.

WWW.TOMMCRAE.COM

THOMAS TRUAX PLAYS THE SL TENTH BIRTHDAY BASHES AT ABC, GLASGOW ON 21 MAY AND THE LIQUID ROOM,

TROMATICREFLEXXIONS (DOMINO)

ALBUMS

1. BATTLES nal monologues such as these are what define The National. Lyrically this is characteristically succinct, hard-headed and tender all at once; sure to find some form of resonance with anybody who gives it the opportunity. Elsewhere, Sufjan Stevens cameos to lend some keys to the nostalgic lens of Racing Like a Pro and the folktinted lullaby, Ada, providing little loops and touches that aid the brothers Dessner and Devendorf in constructing a gothic landscape of casual moodswings. Gloom, however, is not the intended premise of the record. “It’s about reconnecting with friends,” offers Berninger. He just didn’t have to scream to say it. [Dave Kerr] RELEASE DATE: 21 MAY. SEE OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE NATIONAL IN FULL NEXT ISSUE. WWW.AMERICANMARY.COM

BAMBI’S DILEMA (A-ZAP)

TOM MCRAE KING OF CARDS (V2)

MIRRORED (WARP)

2. NINE INCH NAILS

ONLINE ALBUM REVIEWS NINE INCH NAILS – YEAR ZERO (ISLAND) BRIGHT EYES - CASSADAGA (POLYDOR)

YEAR ZERO (ISLAND)

THE FUCKING CHAMPS – VI (DRAG CITY)

3. THE NATIONAL

THIS ET AL - BABY MACHINE (FC)

BOXER (BEGGARS BANQUET)

4. BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB BABY 81 (ISLAND)

5. MANIC STREET PREACHERS SEND AWAY THE TIGERS (COLUMBIA)

STAND UP FEATURING

Frankie Boyle COMEDIANS CUT THEIR CRITICAL EYE ON WHAT’S BRAW AND WHAT’S NAW. BRAW: The Jews. There will always be some people who are anti-semitic. I’ve decided to even things up by becoming a hard core pro Jew. Ok, they killed Christ but they’ve more than made up for it by inventing a bewildering range of breads.

NAW: That stupid cow that got caught by the Iranians. I was against the burkha until I saw one coverting her face. Kind of makes sense now, doesn’t it? Don’t feel sorry for her: she got 150 grand. Let’s hope she spends it on plastic surgery. Or at least gets her tits done to cheer her husband up. Am I right sisters?

BRAW: A dream I keep having at the minute where I appear at the end of my own bed and urge myself to take magic mushrooms. Amusingly, my subconscious portrays me as being really handsome.

NAW: The British soldiers held by Iran being al-

WWW.LERENOAMPS.COM

TOP

THE NATIONAL - BOXER (BEGGARS BANQUET)

40 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

MELT-BANANA

RELEASE DATE: 21 MAY.

This eponymous debut LP sees DŸSE steam out of Amsterdam’s undergrowth with the intention of invading the ears of the unsuspecting public. Its seedy mush of driving stoner rock, discordant guitar jabs and ruckus riffs is unseemly chaos at its finest, flinging you from a head-bobbing Kyuss homage into spiky metrical nightmares with a blatant disregard for structural convention. The vocals are hurtled with blind fury, a wry smile and a knowing wink. Though mainly in Dutch, the majority of the lyrics are incomprehensible anyway; the voice is just another tool of aural anarchy for DŸSE. Underlaydisk is a highlight, showcasing the band’s talent, weirdness and ineffably danceable tunes. The indulgence of the music could be off-putting to some (the trumpet solos in Wolke are pushing it a bit) but DŸSE will be a cheeky, freshfaced delight to most who venture into their world. [Jamie Borthwick]

FEATURED ALBUM “Hopefully we’re not gonna lose the fans because we don’t have any screaming songs on this…” confesses The National’s front man Matt Berninger, ahead of this sequel to the Brooklyn quintet’s understated and unexpected 2005 hit LP, Alligator. Then again, if you were here for the screaming in the first place then you’ve probably missed the point. Berninger tells me about his fondness for the less-ismore formula of Leonard Cohen, whose inﬂuence is stamped all over erstwhile opener Fake Empire (see Sean Michael’s appraisal of the track in this issue’s Easy Gramophone). Cohen’s spirit soon trades places with the foreboding soul of Nick Cave as Mistaken For Strangers segues into a haunting beat and a jeering, menacing stream of consciousness. “You wouldn’t want an angel watching over you / Surprise, surprise, they wouldn’t wanna watch,” warns Berninger amid a calculated ﬂurry of darkened chimes. Character driven inter-

VON SUDENFED

New Yorker Thomas Truax doesn’t just walk the oddball walk; he runs, skips, jumps and pirouettes it. New album Why Dogs Howl At The Moon is the aural actualisation of this lunatic character’s skewed approach to song-structuring. A Tim Burton styled visionary, Truax and his self-assembled Hornicator (essentially a gargantuan, spring infused gramophone) gnarl through the eerie Waits-esque remonstrations of Escape From New York and Like a Fallen Tree. If verse-chorus-verse conformity is what you crave, then Why Dogs Howl will disappoint; every track offers an incongruent take on visceral gypsycabaret. But in the woozy carousel charm of Sea Creatures and You Whistle While You Sleep’s doublebass funk Truax proves just how engrossing a little peculiarity can be. This is one eccentric who does not disappoint. [Billy Hamilton]

THEATRE/COMEDY

BATTLES

COMEDY

lowed to sell their stories to newspapers. I wanted the rights to the story for a porn film I’m making.

BRAW: Limmy.com. Particularly a brilliantly rubbish sketch where he believes he’s been sent a birthday card by the band Blue.

NAW: Hostages being pussies. I’d have gone up to that map of Iranian waters and drawn a spunking cock. Show some balls if you get taken captive. Wouldn’t it be good to see a hostage getting beheaded saying “a short, back and sides, please” or “just give me a minus one all over”?

BRAW: Poofs. I know that if I went to parks at night for sex I could find the motivation to work out more. I have urged the Scottish parliament to look at combating childhood obesity by introducing compulsory homosexuality. They have said that it’s already covered by the PE syllabus.

NAW: People taking jokes the wrong way. I’m looking at you Jews, gays and ugly female hostages. Take a fucking joke. FRANKIE BOYLE IS ON AT THE EDINBURGH STAND MAY 24, 26, 27.

COMEDY COMEDY @ THE STATE STATE BAR, GLASGOW, 7 APRIL Certain regional accents are perfect for stand-up comedy. Scottish, Welsh and Irish tongues have made many a simple joke acoustically brilliant. Good news then for those attending the Comedy @ the State’s launch night, which featured a pan-cultural mishmash of fringe acts. It could almost make you glad to be part of the Union. Particularly welcome were the breathless monologues of Rob Kane, including some rather odd ideas about having sex to the Dangermouse theme tune. As recent

winner of the Scottish Amused Moose heat, Kane is on impressive form. Lovely Sian Bevan packs in some punches too, identifying the differences between Welsh and Scottish peoples: their perceptions of the sun apparently veering between a “fiery ball” and “a great big sunbed in the sky.” The setting is great: cozy, beery and more akin to a Victorian gentlemen’s club than a comedy venue. Nights like these are the real fringe and the birthing grounds of new comedy. [Robert Wringham]

LEMONCUSTARD COMEDY CLUB HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, EDINBURGH, 28 MARCH

BORIS & MICHIO KURIHARA - RAINBOW MODEST MOUSE - WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK (COLUMBIA)

MACHINE HEAD - THE BLACKENING (ROADRUNNER) ARCTIC MONKEYS - FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE (DOMINO)

...AND MANY MORE

SOUNDS

Below street level at Henry’s Cellar Bar, in an aura of colourful lights, a new comedy night is born into Edinburgh’s social calendar. Lemoncustard Comedy Club is a monthly show attracting a top line-up of comics, which premièred with Perrier newcomer award-winner Wil Hodgson. As implied by the transformer/rubik’s cube mutant on the poster, the running theme is ‘childish things’, and dippers and fizzers are doled out like a hyperactive tuck shop. Paper fortune tellers (aka snap dragons, aka

COMEDY

cootie catchers, aka whatever you called them at your school) have useful insights e.g. “you probably need to buy some milk,” creating an infantile night, high in E numbers. But don’t let the dazzling fairy lights distract from the talent on stage, which includes both upcoming and professional stand-ups. Like an illegitimate child of The Stand, Lemoncustard is a welcome addition to Edinburgh’s small comedy playground. [Emma Lennox] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LEMONCUSTARDCOMEDYCLUB

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI The action is go for the month of May, make sure you don’t m iss these highlights: - Showcasi ng work produced by the denizens of E d i nbu rg h’s newest multiarts hub; the Out of The Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street in Leith, Edinburgh is currently showcasing painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and much more besides. OOTB coordinator Rob Hoon says, “The opening marks the culmination of years of hard work by Out of the Blue and its stakeholders. It’s a fantastic achievement and will be a huge asset to the local community and Scotland’s cultural scene in general.” Having already played host to Edinburgh’s Independent Radical Book Fair, and serving as the base of operations for The Skinny, OOTB looks set to play a vital role in the revitalisation of Edinburgh’s cultural landscape. - Show Scotland 2007 includes an exciting programme of events which celebrate the country’s museums and galleries. Why not adapt a clown as a gallery guide or attend a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party? Normality is suspended from 4-7 May. See WWW.SHOWSCOTLAND.COM for details. - E l s ewhe re, E d i nbu rg h C ol lege of A r t’s Centenary Fashion Show takes place 9-11 May. Book your tickets now for this glitzy event which takes place in the college’s striking neo-classical Sculpture Court. - Finally, the RSA’s Annual Exhibition takes place 5 May to 20 June. Forming part of the HIGHLAND 2007 programme, this unique exhibition examines the most recent developments within Scotland’s artistic community. /Jay Shukla

Glasgow Art Fair After a century long trend for non-commodifiable art, it almost comes as a surprise that artists might actually want to sell some of their efforts. Behind the financial dripfeed of Scottish Arts Council grants and occasional public commissions, the reality is that the art world is a marketplace. And let’s face it, only Charles Saatchi has the f loor space to give over a whole room to an Ilya Kabakov installation. For the first time buyer or part-time collector, it’s the more traditional forms of art that can find a space in their house. As much as we all love what artists can do in the Tate Modern’s turbine hall, would a Bruce Nauman sound installation actually work above the average Scottish fireplace?

oned to net around £1.1million pounds in sales alone. As one gallerist put it: “You’ll not get the Art Review power 100 [a list of the most powerful people in the art world] up here, so I guess that this is the pinnacle of the commercial art world in Scotland.” This year, business was booming. A queue snaked a l l t he way around George Square with scores of people leaving, proudly clutching their new purchases. The art fair encourages a certain caprice, as the scale of the event tends to drown out individual contributions. A few gems stood out from the rest, such as Simon Starling’s photographic document of an event where he fed an old boat into the fires of its own engine. The reliably excellent old guard of Scottish art was also well represented, with specially commissioned prints from Alasdair Gray and a suite of mega-expensive paintings from Peter Howson, portraying the men of Glasgow in his famously monumental, tough and oddly sentimental style. Thankfully, the sort of yuppie pseudo-pop prints beloved of nineties style-mags were constrained to one Brighton gallery’s stand. Likewise, the syrupy landscapes associated with provincial galleries were thin on the ground. Work that seemed to be selling was gently ab-

WOULD A BRUCE NAUMAN SOUND INSTALLATION ACTUALLY WORK ABOVE THE AVERAGE SCOTTISH FIREPLACE?

Therein lies the difference between the two Glasgow art festivals: the biennial Glasgow International and the Glasgow Art Fair, which takes over George Square once a year. The former exists to encourage the city’s thriving international artistic profile, whilst the latter is a more demotic scheme, intended to attract new art buyers and seasoned collectors alike. It is the largest event of its kind in Scotland - with 44 galleries selling over a thousand artists’ work - and reck-

Butcher Boy

by Jasper Hamill

by Jon Seller

stract, such as the Gauguin-like portraits of Billy Childish, or photorealistic, such as Jonathon Stewart’s view of a hazy Edinburgh morning. As a shallow-pocketed visitor, my picks would have been Robert Whincep’s contemplative paintings of young tourists looking at war memorials, or old men gazing at an ancient Greek statue. Another favourite was a collage by Vincent Poole, who rendered the form of a female shopper out of scraps of the bags, signs and icons she would have encountered as she shopped. But really, the strength of the Glasgow Art Fair lies not in the quality of the work exhibited, but the fact that it exists. Nick Barley, former List editor and head of the Six Cities Design Festival put it aptly: “Glasgow is no longer a faded construction economy, but a thriving information economy.” Events of this sort will never have the cachet of non-commercial art projects - specifically Francis McKee’s flamboyantly ambitious Glasgow International. Neither should it try. The Art Fair sold a massive amount of paintings, several thousand cappuccinos and encouraged visitors to reappraise their view of Glasgow. Despite the slightly cloying village fete atmosphere of the event, it managed to match the swagger of the city’s scene. It probably put food on a few artists’ plates too, and that is always to be commended.

THE GLASGOW ART FAIR TOOK PLACE FROM 19-22 APRIL. WWW.GLASGOWARTFAIR.COM

“ULTIMATELY, THE GREATEST FEELING COMES FROM KNOWING THAT I’VE CREATED THIS PIECE OF WORK FROM MY HEART AND SOUL.” - JOHN BLAIN HUNT more sense and have allowed me to reflect positively on that time.”

In March of this year local ensemble Butcher Boy released their debut album Profit In Your Poetry amidst non-existent fanfare and limited to an initial run of just 1000 copies. Built around local cult music figure, John Blain Hunt, the band settled on their current sevenpiece line-up in February of 2005 and began polishing Hunt’s poetic tales into musical gems. These tales, written over a number of years, are refreshingly sincere reflections of Scottish life. “At first I found myself embarrassed by the honesty and depth of emotion I was writing about,”

With its initial pressing shifting with some ease, and supported by a sold out show in London - which Hunt admits he was totally bemused about - Butcher Boy’s debut has quite rightly been granted another run. “The reaction has been wonderful,” Hunt relates, “but ultimately the greatest feeling comes from knowing Hunt reveals to The Skinny in his that I’ve created this piece of work from first interview. “It has only really been my heart and soul that I’m totally proud of.” in the last 18 months that I’ve been comfortable with the lyrics. In my mind I’ve reconciled the fact Although the record yields clear Smiths and Belle that people might not like the emotions I’m por- and Sebastian influences, Hunt is keen to stress traying with the fact that I’ve created something the relative musical isolation in which the album completely heartfelt and without irony, through was moulded. “I view the Butcher Boy stuff as entirely separate from all other music.” pure intentions.” Indeed, much of Profit In Your Poetry references Hunt’s childhood - most of which was spent in Ayrshire - and the difficulty he experienced “making sense of life. I took to writing short stories in an attempt to clarify things in my mind and explain these dejected feelings I was having. Now looking back, these stories - now songs - make

So is this a reflection on the current crop of spiky Scottish upstarts? “I have no time for all this cocksure macho music going around.” The View? Fratellis? “I’m not sure I’d even recognise their songs, I just know that their presence in people’s consciousness doesn’t do those who are trying something a little gentler any favours. I don’t get

SOUNDS

ART

the appeal of their black and white sentiments, there doesn’t seem to be much room for emotion or perspective.” In line with Hunt’s low-key outlook on the album’s release and promotion, there’s no real tour to speak of. “We wanted to do shows that were events, something different that we could make our own.” Hence their recent fundraising show at the the Royal Air Forces Association Club in Glasgow. Further one-off shows in Sheffield, Manchester and London are scheduled before the band head back into the studio around summertime. “We’ll hopefully be back in September for some more shows and with more songs,” he assures us. And while many bands make throwaway promises to visit their fans’ hometown, Hunt’s assertion that Butcher Boy will play Edinburgh before the year is out is as close to gospel as it gets, honest.

PROFIT IN YOUR POETRY IS OUT NOW ON HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE LOVED? WWW.BUTCHER-BOY.CO.UK

www.kingtuts.co.uk 272 St Vincent Street, Glasgow Telephone: 0141 221 5279

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

TOP

EXHIBITIONS

1. OUT OF THE BLUE SHOWCASE THE DRILL HALL, DALMENY ST, LEITH, EDINBURGH UNTIL 26 MAY

The newly refurbished Drill Hall building plays host to the work of over 100 artists in multifarious mediums (see editorial).

2. PETER JAQUES – BABBLE CORN EXCHANGE GALLERY, LEITH, EDINBURGH UNTIL 14 JUNE

Striking photographic works by this emerging artist using his radical ‘performed photography’ technique.

3. SPECTRUM AT CCA, GLASGOW UNTIL 12 MAY

Focusing on the work of Nan Hoover and Nina Könnemann, this exhibition showcases the work of video artists over the last 40 years.

4. RSA ANNUAL EXHIBITION

Onwards and Upwards by Ray Richardson

REVIEWS INKUBATOR

ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY, EDINBURGH, 5 MAY TO 20 JUNE

Examining the most recent developments in art practice with a particular focus on the Highlands.

5. ALEX POLLARD - BLACK MARKS AT TALBOT RICE, EDINBURGH UNTIL 2 JUNE

Solo show taking influence from the new romantic, the fable of Pierrot the Clown and notions of the gothic.

Work by Peter Jaques - Corn Exchange Gallery until 14 June

26 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

We Love Real Life Scotland by Ross Sinclair

This creative, conceptual display of artists’ books, prints and mutiples allows viewers access to a wide variety of visual material through the creation of themed rooms curated by artist David Faithfull. The works demonstrate the complexity of text, image and object relations, pointing to the artists’ book genre as a complete method of utilising these forms. Surprisingly, you can handle most of the books directly whilst exploring the Study, Log Cabin or Landscape interiors which are all decorated with beautiful site-specific conceptual wall papers. The Log Cabin is a busy environment of natural samples, historical books and words. This contrasts with the Study and its more academic, enclosed descripition of the natural world. Lyndsay Mann’s screenprinting of mirrored floral forms and her watercolours of Received Ideas remind us of underlying geometric systems in nature and their relation to urban systems and frameworks. Don’t miss the Audio Listening Post, particularly Zoe Irvine and Helen Douglas’ Illiers Combray which brillinatly evokes the complexity of environmental experience through the suggestion of present and past sound. The range of material and methods of display often makes it difficult

to differentiate and achieve a complete ‘reading’ of the artists’ work, but perhaps that’s an appropriate way of demonstrating how thoughts and experiences can interlock and confuse. [Lucy Gallwey] EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS UNTIL 5 MAY. FREE. WWW.EDINBURGH-PRINTMAKERS.CO.UK

GRAHAM FAGEN DOWNPRESSERER

not clear what Fagen is trying to say about the Slave Trade Act. However, in linking Scottish and West Indian history Fagan shows the similarities of the two cultures: a theme he previously explored in his exhibition Clean Hands, Pure Heart at Tramway. The exhibition celebrates two cultures, but panders to aesthetic beauty, thus marginalising the weighty topic it aims to deal with. [Morag Keil] GLASGOW GALLERY OF MODERN ART UNTIL 28 MAY. FREE. WWW.GLASGOWMUSEUMS.COM

These new works are a result of Graham Fagen’s research trip to Jamaica in 2006. The body of work was commissioned by Glasgow City Council to mark the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The exhibition explores Fagen’s ongoing interest in reggae music and Robert Burns, combining Scottish and West Indian history through music. Along with a projected film of a Jamaican rendition of the Robert Burns’ poem, Slave’s Lament, we find a series of prints depicting slave ships and two photographic works. The exhibits are visually alluring and clearly well produced; with high definition projection, slick prints and colourful photography. This visual wealth produces a pleasing exhibition, but should an exhibition tackling the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act be simply visually pleasing? It is

Inkubator

ART

www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

SOUNDS GLASGOW

BRANDON VICKERD

WHEN ALL OUR HEROES TURN TO GHOST...

ARCTIC MONKEYS - John Lewis

JAMES - Derek Mark Chapman

Brandon Vickerd is a Toronto based artist and Professor of Visual Arts at York University, Canada, whose research encompasses robotics, site-specific interventions, metal fabrication, foundry processes and collaborative projects. In this exhibition we see evidence of his interest in robotics (in his three kinetic sculptures: Champions of Entropy, Coat Rack and Knife) and metal fabrication (in his more traditional sculpture, Chrome Ghost). On entering the gallery we are confronted by Champions of Entropy, two machines locked in perpetual combat. Made from car component parts, bicycle frames and deer antlers, it resembles two battling stags. It combines the juxtaposed ideas of the organic and synthetic; high art and standardised, mass-produced technology. This is a theme repeated in Coat Rack, which consists of a coat rack made of deer antlers and moving deer hooves. Next to Coat Rack is an unopened crate, which at first seems as though it has just been abandoned until you notice a small blade protruding from the top of the crate in a circular motion. This piece, along with the other kinetic sculptures all share a menacing, ominous quality, tempered by a real sense of humour. The final work, Chrome Ghost, is a 6 ft 6 inch tall biomorphic sculpture constructed of sheet metal finished with chrome paint. Made to look like the traditional representation of a ghost - a human form covered with a sheet - the sculpture tricks the viewer’s eye by appearing light and floaty despite being made from sheet metal. Vickerd describes this as an “investigation of culturally agreed upon symbols that have little or nothing to do with what they represent.” This show brilliantly juxtaposes ideas: nothing is what it initially seems, constantly making the viewer question what they see. This is an exhibition that stays long in the mind. [Michael Kynaston] EMBASSY GALLERY, EDINBURGH UNTIL 6 MAY. FREE.

ARCTIC MONKEYS BARROWLANDS, 18 APRIL

“Yeah I know, it’s pink,” mutters Alex Turner by way of a greeting, as he pre-empts any potential teasing regarding the rather luminous t-shirt he’s decided to premiere in Glasgow tonight. Any other apprehension the ‘Monkeys may have harboured over how the “new stuff” might go down is dissipated as soon as new single Brianstorm thunders into life, and the crowd bellow along to its Morriconedoes-metal guitar riff. Even the proglike moments from latest album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, are greeted by a never less than enthusiastic response from a Barrowlands massive eager to transmit a tidal wave of good feeling towards the Shef field boys. Local luminaries Franz Ferdinand are seen nodding their sage approval from behind their fringes as the band scorch through a watertight set with barely a pause for breath. While almost every tune’s a winner, it’s the searing Scummy Man that undeniably wins the “Song Most Likely To Tear The Roof Off” award tonight. [Barry Jackson] FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE IS OUT NOW ON DOMINO. READ OUR REVIEW AT WWW.SKINNYMAG.CO.UK. WWW.ARCTICMONKEYS.COM

JAMES

CARLING ACADEMY, 20 APRIL From the opening notes of Come Home, through to the second encore 90 minutes later, the reformed James have the 2,500 strong crowd in celebratory mood. The punters have come here to rejoice in hits like Destiny Calling, Ring the Bells, and Sit Down - and the band are in no mood to disappoint. They do manage to squeeze two new songs into the middle of the set and both sit easily among the fans’ favourites. The decades old Johnny Yen and the 1994 hit Say Something are stand-outs in a show packed with highlights. When they slow things down to play Lullaby, it’s a reminder

that at one time James used to write thoughtful songs that weren’t designed to be anthems. They close with a lingering She’s a Star and ironically, for such a triumphant show, leave to a chorus of boos from a crowd disappointed that the night has to end. [Tom Brogan] WWW.WEAREJAMES.COM

TINARIWEN

THE ARCHES, 29 MARCH Coming from the African desert and singing in Arabic, Tinariwen have a unique take on the blues. Inspired by John Lee Hooker, infusing their guitar-based numbers with gentle chants and the distinctive warble of mourning, they eschew the drum kit for pulsating percussion to create a hypnotic rumble. Each song throbs with longing, guitars curling and slinking around the swaying rhythm. Suggestive of a thousand oriental clichés, Tinariwen convert the austerity of The Arches into an oasis. With the words incomprehensible to the majority of the audience, Tinariwen rely on relaxed virtuosity to weave their majestic hallucination. Dividing their set into two, this gig is more formal concert than the background to beer-drinking. They capture the audience with discreet psychedelia, as each number settles into an easy pace, the voice and guitars whispering and seducing. Never aggressive, but always engaging, Tinariwen are one of world music’s most glorious offerings. [Gareth K Vile] WWW.TINARIWEN.COM

BLOCPARTY

CARLING ACADEMY, 14 APRIL When Bloc Party released Silent Alarm a couple of years ago, what immediately stood out was its effervescence and intensity. New album, A Weekend In The City, continues this intensity but somehow lacks the sort of immediacy that was so abundantly contained within the stellar début. Tonight’s gig in the Carling

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Academy proves a hodgepodge of all of those sentiments. Early tracks like Banquet and Helicopter fizz along with all due velocity. There are moments of goosebump inducing intimacy (This Modern Love), but the abiding notion, on the first night of their UK tour, is that something may have been lost here. Under an aesthetically arresting light show the general sense of malaise could be attributed to rust and Bloc Party seem, for the most part, to be going though the motions. In a night reserved for true-to-the-original renditions, the quality of their songs saves them in what is ultimately an uninspired performance. [Finbarr Bermingham] A WEEKEND IN THE CITY IS OUT NOW. WWW.BLOCPARTY.COM

FOALS

THE ADMIRAL, 11 APRIL Perhaps it’s the wrong Foals. Nor ma ll y a f i ve -pie ce, the re’s only three band-members on the Admiral’s cramped stage tonight, with no explanation given for the absence of their regular drummer and keyboardist. Dropping out of Oxford Uni to pursue a musical career, the much-hyped techno-meets-indie Transgressive Records-signings are only two single releases into it. It’s their energetic live performances that have helped build-up the buzz now surrounding them. The two guitarists and bassist backed by a none-too-loud drum machine race quickly through a half-hour of angular guitars, fidgety, snatched-at vocals and prodding dance moves, with only one track seeming to stand out in the aftermath of the short-sharp-shock set. With fullband present, perhaps this wouldn’t be the case, but on the strength of this outing, Foals need to cultivate a more distinct sound if they’re to swim the channel populated by an ever-growing “indie-rave” pack. [Colin Chapman] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FOALS

HERMAN DÜNE KING TUT’S, 16 APRIL

If we were basing this entirely on appearances, you’d expect Herman Düne to be anything but boring. Hats and facial hair aplenty, random assortments of percussion held aloft - you’re not really expecting Travis here. Yet while the tunes walk a bizarre tightrope between folk and calypso, the lyrics are surreal (“My girlfriend’s afraid of sharks. I said ‘That’s just a dolphin.”), and the banter, while rare, is pretty oblique, Herman Düne’s sound doesn’t seem to breathe as it might. You Don’t Know Where I’ve Been and When The Later Gets Cold And Freezes On The Lake are delivered with passion, and most of the crowd are enraptured, but the Düne only seem to have one musical idea (FYI, it’s quirky, sunny pop), and this overlong set feels like it’s dragging from about 20 minutes in. A diverting band on CD, then, but sadly nothing too special in the flesh tonight. [Heather Crumley] WWW.HERMANDUNE.COM

PELICAN/THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES ORAN MOR, 16 APRIL

Post-hardcore… post-metal… postrock? Such neo-lexical pursuits of genrefication are all rather unhelpful when it comes to describing the musical vibe that lies ahead for this double-header. Perpetuating this, THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES wriggle on stage for a forty-five minute set that constantly breaks free of easy singular description. From a funkedup bass hook they constantly sidewind into various other forms - rapid, punky choruses; dense, analogue-driven sound effects or punch-packing doom breakdowns. Snakes are as hard to pin down as their writhing frontman Steve Snere. The energetic performance is generally well received, but the crowd’s apparent unfamiliarity with the material and style can’t be breached by

WWW.EMBASSYGALLERY.CO.UK

any connection to Snere’s grating dance routine. By contrast, PELICAN man an onslaught of hopeful requests from the crowd, though, like so many other foreigners who try, guitarist Trevor de Brauw insists he can’t understand the distinct Glaswegian brogue from the floor. The set begins with a trundle but picks up with the chugging heaviness of Drought. Without a vocalist to hold the attention, the almost choreographed headbanging holds the eye during the climactic

distortion overspills, while the intricacy of the overlapping layered guitar passages play out effectively in the live environment. An hourlong set from the Chicago troupe includes a majority of tracks from new album City of Echoes with a smattering of the old to keep a crowd happy enough to demand, and duly receive, a deserved encore in genre acrobatics. [Jamie Borthwick]

JANNICA HONEY MÄNNISKOR

Incorporating pictures of a child clutching a cigarette, a woman’s bruised legs and a fair whack of naked folk,

ART

REVIEWS the latest show by Jannica Honey is an initially arresting affair. “Portraying [people] as they are is what I do. My photographs are a reaction to the fake visual culture of advertising and fashion,” claims the Swedish artist. That may be so, but the exaggerated emotional content of Honey’s awkwardly posed images seems to heavily reference the very medium she is reacting against. Her confrontational image of a brooding punk-looking gentleman leaning against a wall avoids this trap, but a photograph of a blank-faced girl holding a struggling cat by the scruff of the neck seems preposterously contrived. Her quest to create “real images” is most successful when a dash of humour is injected, as seen in her photograph of a young lad awkwardly clutching an air rifle, his apprehensive expression complimented beautifully by his half-hearted attempt to project himself as a man of action. [Celia Sontag] AMBER ARTS, EDINBURGH UNTIL 12 MAY. FREE. WWW.JANNICAHONEY.COM

TIM DAVIES CADET

Cadet is the first Glasgow solo show for Cardiff based artist Tim Davies. It carries a strong theme of grief, both public and private. Despite the presence of video works in the show, there is a cool quietness in the atmosphere of the gallery. The walls are lined with a small army of drawings which feature neatly scored-out images of grand memorials. The work is defined by an extremely minimal aesthetic. The cinematography of the videos has parallels to the composition of a Vermeer painting, giving the depictions of the grieving a solemn beauty. The overriding aesthetically pleasing nature of this show drains the concept, which claims to be more than just an examination of grief, but also of war. It is a very stark and British view of grief; there is no emotion expressed in the work, just a cool, beauty and accuracy. The minimalism of the show is only disrupted by the jutting out of temporary walls and other gallery fixtures that have been installed to exhibit the work. This is a quiet and stiffly beautiful show, but the clutter of the gallery breaks the silence. [Morag Keil]

Photograph by Jannica Honey

COLLINS GALLERY, GLASGOW UNTIL 5 MAY. FREE.

Champions of Entropy by Brandon Vickerd

Figures in a European Landscape series by Tim Davies

WWW.HYDRAHEAD.COM/PELICAN WWW.THESEARMSARESNAKES.ORG

by Gareth K Vile MIGHT THIS BE ENOUGH TO PRY THOSE EYES AWAY FROM EUROVISION? It may only seem like yesterday that the 13th Note occupied the waterfront premises, it’s now five years since the Barf ly opened up in Clyde Street. Despite being part of a chain, it has retained that seedy, independent feel and puts on one of the most varied programmes in Glasgow. From Wednesday 2 through to Sunday 6 May, the Barfly celebrates its anniversary with a series of gigs that build up into a mini-festival. Local acts are well represented and the prices have been kept low. Unkle Bob and the Hussys headline the last two nights, while post-punk legend Holly Golightly reinvents rockabilly on Friday.

reunite (see our interview wtih Bruce Foxton online) this month - it seems that the past is finally triumphing over the present. Lets hope the universe doesn’t swallow us all up as a result.

Others refuse to let the weight of tradition sink them: A Hawk and A Hacksaw, for example, bring their woozy fusion of Eastern European and klezma music to the Arches and Mr Hudson and the Library is a bizarre re-appropriation of 1980s influences (ABC, 8th). And of course, the Transgressive Roadshow hits the Arches on the 9th, promising a night of listenable experimentation. Might this be enough to pry Elsewhere, there is a strong sense those eyes away from Eurovision? of nostalgia when The Animals (The Classic Grand) and Ray Also well worth a look will be Davis (Royal Concert Hall) con- the Gimme Shelter Festival at test for the baby boomer pound Mono (6th). With entry by do(6th), while Patti Smith arrives nation, an all day line up includat the ABC (22nd). Even the new ing folkster Alastair Roberts and wave of British heavy metal has oddball Fifers My Kappa Roots, been revived, with Saxon shaking among many other talented the Garage on the 19th. By the acts, it should be a winner. All time the perennial tribute acts are proceeds go to housing charity added - the Who are imperson- Shelter. ated, while two thirds of the Jam

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May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI

“IT’S SOMETIMES DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE IN THE STATES TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH MUSIC, YOU KNOW?”

O n e Po i n t T w o O n e Gigawatts! The future is nigh and this issue we embrace it as Jay Shukla hauls his DeLorean out of the garage to dig the skills of N YC ex p er i menta lists, Battles. Trance-like rhythmic precision, haywire strings and cunning vocal effects are the order of the day on their turf and although those elements on their own have been practiced to death since the Incas were hip, Battles hammer it all out in a way that makes us grin like fools and dream of hoverboards. Definitely a break from the norm, check out the interview on the centre pages. And how about those Festival line-ups this year eh? The Hold Steady are coming over for T, Manic Street Preachers are ready to Rock Ness and The Aliens are set to go Skye high, so we kick off our festival season previews and catch up with them all. Speaking of festivals, I’ve got the small matter of witnessing the past mix with the present as Rage Against the Machine and The Jesus and Mary Chain duel with Arcade Fire and El-P at Coachella. Strange to think that it will all be over by the time you read this. Will report back next month; see you on the other side of the space-time continuum. /Dave

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INTERVIEW FEATURE

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LIVE MUSIC

FEATURE

THIS MONTH’S REVIEWS 40- 41

A MUSO’S TOP 10 COCO ROSIE The Skinny recently enjoyed a conversation with CocoRosie’s Sierra Casady who swiftly stuck a few gems from her sister Bianca’s Voodoo-EROS label into her top ten tunes of the moment. “Let’s see...”

1. VASHTI BUNYAN - DIAMOND DAY 2. DEVENDRA BANHART – SOON IS GOOD 3. JHT – WHY AM I STILL SUCKING YOUR DICK 4. DIANE CLUCK – REAL GOOD TIME 5. METALLIC FALCONS – BERRY METAL 6. SWV – WEAK 7. BUNNY RABBIT – SADDLE UP 8. WU TANG CLAN - TEARZ 9. NINA SIMONE - FOUR WOMEN 10. PATRICK WOLF – NIGHT TRAIN Explaining the ethics behind Bianca’s label, she tells us: “It’s a house for runaways, underdogs, just people trying to be artists that aren’t really finding their way. They’re gearing up to support musicians, writers and painters to naturally cultivate their art and just make the house really big.” THE ADVENTURES OF GHOSTHORSE AND STILLBORN IS OUT NOW ON TOUCH & GO. SEE OUR REVIEW AT WWW.SKINNYMAG.CO.UK WWW.COCOROSIELAND.COM

Today the Newington bar is much calmer, but for a small group of people chattering loquaciously over spring-time beers. And etched into the corner of this decadently furbished ale house, The Vivians sit soberly with The Skinny, reflecting on what they propose to be Edinburgh’s lack of musical presence.

But despite such impulsive depictions, their sound is one that they attach to the past glories of their idols. “There’s a base in our music that started in the CBGB scene when everything began to diversify,” says Chris. “It wasn’t punk, it wasn’t new wave; it was a musical melting pot for everything that happened. It all started from there and then we picked up our influences along the way. But, really, we’re more influenced by bands we don’t want to sound like than anything else.”

Support slots with Five O’Clock Heroes and Towers Of London have brought the quintet into the nation’s conscience but their meticulous fashion sense has, unsurprisingly, led to the occasional ‘scenester-band’ jibes. Unsurprisingly, it’s a view that the group have a swift retort for. “Every band that’s made a landmark in history tends to have a style,” states Chris unapologetically. “The Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls, Motley Crue; they’ve all made an impact with their style. It’s all about show-business - seriously, what’s wrong with looking cool and playing great fucking music?” THE VIVIANS PLAY ISLE OF SKYE FESTIVAL ON 25 MAY, OCEAN TERMINAL, EDINBURGH ON 6 JUNE AND T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 7 JULY. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEVIVIANSDIVIDED

Yet aspiring local acts have often talked themselves into contention without delivering the knock-out punch, so what makes this group of suavely attired bohemians any different? “We don’t want to sound like Edinburgh or Glasgow art-chic,” proposes frontman Damon Deville. “Our music has its own sound. We just want to have a good time and so far we’ve been able to do it. We’re doing our own thing and having a fucking great time.” Essentially, The Vivians are all about attitude. Their live performances exude the platoon mentality of The Clash and the unhinged,

photo: Mirren Baykin

THEYMIGHTGETRICH, THEYMIGHTGETBUSTED by Finbarr Bermingham

Just when you thought the music press had exhausted its list of silly genre names with the particularly poor “new rave,” another one rolls off the conveyor belt. Behold “blue collar rock,” so called because of its traditional storytelling values and honest to goodness guitar riff ethos. Harking back to original purveyors of music for the masses in the ilk of Bruce Springsteen, The Hold Steady have been charged with spearheading this latest uprising and have assumed the mantle with exceptional style. The Skinny caught up with guitarist and founder member Tad Kubler to find out just what has been behind the massive and sudden success of third album, Boys and Girls in America.

nearest passing bandwagon, are The Hold Steady conscious of using their music as a vehicle for any particular agenda?

“The album title is taken from a line in Kerouac’s On The Road. Craig (Finn – lead singer) read that book back in high school and he just didn’t get it. Then he read it again when we were touring and all of a sudden it made sense. There’s one line when the male character leans in to kiss the girl and gets knocked back. He says “boys and girls in America have such a sad time together,” and goes on to explain the culture of going straight to sex without questioning it or having any measure of conversation. No matter what age you are: 13, 23, 33, this silly teenage concept always stays the same. This was just so crystal clear to Craig when he read that book again and it’s completely typical of American society.”

Admirable, then, that with such vehement personal opining, their music has been left without a trace of a soapbox. The conversation then turns to everybody’s favourite non elected politician, Bono. As easy and predictable a target as ever, U2’s head honcho succeeds in attracting extolment and criticism in equally hefty measures of Tad’s opinion.

The album itself, despite not being overtly political, is steeped in such references to their home country. But at a stage when bands are often so readily associated with, and pushed onto, the

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intense presence of The Voidoids. To top it off, they have the smouldering tunes that make you want to dance, fuck and fight simultaneously. It’s an attitude that’s had police closing down impromptu gigs and models hankering for clammy flesh. As Damon succinctly proclaims, The Vivians are “dirty, horny, sex punk.”

Such bravado smacks of fledgling-band brazenness, but after a string of boisterous gigs, The Vivians’ cocksure attitude seems well justified.

SOUNDS CONTENTS INTERVIEW FEATURE

by Billy Hamilton

The last time The Vivians swaggered into The Southern, the atmosphere was far from serene. Beer glasses bounced to reverberating basslines; skinny-fit punks pogoed to primal guitar riffs; and women swooned at the sight of five thrusting kids giving it their all in the name of rock ‘n’ roll.

“I’ve been put off by the musical climate in the UK, particularly in Edinburgh, in the past four or five years,” reflects guitarist and one time Skinny writer Chris ‘The Kiss’. “We’ve seen so many bands that don’t look like they were meant to be on stage, don’t act like they were meant to be on stage and don’t create music like they were meant to be on stage. The difference between us and them is that we tick every box.”

DITORIAL * EDITORIAL * EDI THE HOLD STEADY METAL UP YOUR ASS ORANGE GOBLIN BATTLES MANIC STREET PREACHERS FESTIVAL CALENDAR BRMC THE ALIENS EDINBURGH THE VIVIANS GLASGOW BUTCHERBOY ALBUM & SINGLE REVIEWS

The Vivians

“DIRTY, HORNY, SEX PUNK...”

SOUNDS

“I don’t particularly think bands should be used as tools to broadcast your political beliefs and that’s not what The Hold Steady is about, but you know what?” What? “It doesn’t pain me to say that the whole fuckin’ world’s going down the tubes. Really, especially America. The current administration is absolutely ridiculous and it makes me sick. This is a country that’s supposed to be a beacon of light for the rest of the world and look how it’s being run.”

“Sometimes I think you have to question Bono’s motives. Sure he’s putting himself on a pedestal and in the firing line a lot, which is admirable I guess. But why does he do it? Like I said, I don’t think bands should be political tools. I know some people that know him and they’ve told me he’s a good guy, which I’m not questioning but I think ‘what is he really trying to do?’”

thing truly indigenous about The Hold Steady’s music. Shying away from the likes of The Killers, who at first sought to ape Oasis and New Order before returning themselves to the bosom of Americana, Boys and Girls… appropriately enough appears light years away from anything produced on these shores. But does that equate to a complete detachment from British, nay, Scottish music? It appears that the answer is a resounding “yes.” “We see most of it as ‘British music’. It’s sometimes difficult for people in the States to differentiate between Scottish and English music, you know? I mean one of my all time heroes is Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy. He’s Scottish, right? Nowadays... hmm... are The Arctic Monkeys Scottish? They made quite a splash in America. No? Oh okay. Who then? Oh Franz Ferdinand... yeah, uh... they’re pretty big.” Boys and Girls in America, despite being unquestionably derivative, continues to pick up plaudits from various quarters as a potential album of the year. Kubler admits to being equal parts shellshocked and humbled, a charming feature in a musician in this day and age. Coupled with their incontestable musical quality, I PRESE think we can let Kubler’s NTS bad geography slide then, artist right? Just this once...

THE S KINN Y

BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA IS OUT NOW ON VAGRANT. WWW.THEHOLDSTEADY.COM

Back in their own realm, aside from the obvious themes and incumbent ideologies, there is some-

T he Hold S teady

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May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

SOUNDS EDINBURGH wee bit Yo La Tengoey and touching on late Blur with an accomplished Cockney swagger throughout, their sound is derivative in the most respectful way possible, taking the best bits from each of the aforementioned. With such a sprawling palette and two potential lead singers in their rank, Proxy have, on this evidence, the makings of a very decent début album. Headlining tonight are ODEON BEAT CLUB (3/5), hot on the release of their own début LP. Initially these ears believe that this is what The Beach Boys would sound like had they grown up on North Berwick beach, such was the harmonious yet distinctly Scottish nature of their early numbers. This notion subsides as they move inward to a more garagey sound, taking in The Strokes, Idlewild and chunky Kings of Leon-like basslines along the way. Whilst not as electrifying as their Southern predecessors, Odeon Beat Club round off a quality evening in fine, tuneful fashion. [Finbarr Bermingham] THIS IS MUSIC’S 1ST BIRTHDAY FEATURING FOUND, POPUP, AND Q WITHOUT U TAKES PLACE AT THE FALL - www.fisherphotographics.co.uk

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR ON 31 MAY.

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/COLLARUPMUSIC

MOUSE EAT MOUSE & DUMB INSTRUMENT

THE BONGO CLUB, 11 APRIL

The Bongo Club plays host to this Festival of colloquialisms and punchy cynicism tonight as Dumb Instrument snuggle up alongside Mouse Eat Mouse. DUMB INSTRUMENT (4/5), perhaps named so due to the fact that they are without a drummer, are unmistakably of these parts. ‘Maw fetch a hammer, there’s a fly on the babies heid,’ croons the vocalist Tom Murray along to their 12 bar blues. A laid-back affair, the ‘Instrument are talented musicians who can easily conjure up something to write home about. The distinct lack of skintight jeans and big hair is initially a shock to the system but once you get over the fact that they are above the age of consent (shock... horror and mortal terror) you will find substance, insight and passion. All of this without the aid of some strategically placed make-up. MOUSE EAT MOUSE (4/5) equally sound like Rabbie Burns on Mescaline. “Psst,” whispers vocalist CD Shade, “Clipe on yer maw.” This proves to be the highlight of the night as the band work with fervour and Shade applies an escalating tone and animated posture to his persona. Delivering songs with the strength to single-handedly capture the essence of Orwell’s 1984. Mouse Eat Mouse are frighteningly good. [David Coyle] MOUSE EAT MOUSE PLAY THE 13TH NOTE, GLASGOW ON 17 MAY. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MOUSEHQ WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DUMBINSTRUMENT

THE HORRORS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 8 APR

the aural intellect of an audience, a full-on experience will always be a jolt to the senses. The space-shattering sound of The Horrors’ core band is the greatest revelation tonight: driving a pounding combination of rockabilly, techno and goth styles in a brutal but irresistibly upbeat assault. While this tighter-thanthou racket energises all before it, strobes throb the air, mannequinlike performers shriek, pose, and play the fool – and all with an intense commitment to rock ‘n’ roll filth that transcends mere theatricality. Let the wild rumpus go on. [RJ Thomson] WWW.THEHORRORS.CO.UK

GAS GIANT

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 6 APRIL Edinburgh veterans Gas Giant cross the post-rock aesthetic with pastoral guitar. They’ve been hiding in the shadows for years, creating beautiful, emotional music. Summoning ghosts of sound from thin air, they create a sweet sense of false security – shattered by feedback as they lurch into overdrive. Math4stupid begins with a funereal march, working minimal notes through a lazy ascendancy which then unfurls into silence. In Coppafeel they control the sound and create a brooding intensity with violin bowed guitar. Slo-core reaches a sickening ceiling of spiralling guitar then explodes into a locked groove. Driven by devastating snare rolls the repetition reaches saturation, then welcome release. Gas Giant again demonstrate the ability to blend sound and affect mood, inducing smiles via the wonder of chord progression. [Chris Bathgate] WWW.GASGIANT.ORG

The cliché, that ‘nothing is shocking any more’, tends to relate to the content of ideas, not the intensity of an experience as a whole. So kinky sex may be easy joke material for prime time television presenters, but getting a whip across your buttocks while blindfolded retains its peculiar vitality. While it may be increasingly hard to make music that will startle

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SHUTTERSCOTLAND WWW.EAGLEOWLATTACK.CO.UK

MAXIMO PARK

LIQUID ROOM, 31 MARCH “Is that the greatest live band in the UK right now or what?” enquires a certain verbal and bespectacled Xfm presenter after Maximo Park

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DAMIEN RICE - Mark Dorrian

complete their night’s work as the latest in a line of live shows being put on by the radio station for lucky competition winners. Although the answer is a fairly unanimous chorus of “yeeeah!”, one felt the conviction from the floor was more alcoholfuelled than the voice of reason. On tonight’s performance, you’d struggle to question the band’s honesty when it comes to putting on a live show and frontman Paul Smith certainly strains every last sinew to convey the ‘Park’s message. However, the songs, and the new ones in particular, are all too inconsistent in their quality, leaving a certain thirst for a little more variety. But the dedicated seem happy with the goods regardless and Now I’m All Over The Shop still seals the night as a success. [Jon Seller] WWW.MAXIMOPARK.COM WWW.XFMSCOTLAND.CO.UK

CAPTAIN FACE

WHISTLEBINKIES, 29 MARCH It’s late by the time Captain Face take to the stage at Binkies. So late, in fact, that some of the audience finish the last of their pints and head to the exits. However, just as Chaucer once wrote, “patience is a high virtue,” those who choose to remain are well rewarded and treated for their loyalty to the cause. All played with unabashed effervescence, Captain Face’s patented mixture of funky indie verses, wahwah solos and boisterous, riff-heavy choruses goes down as well as the late night pints. Played with more energy than would seem possible at such an hour, it’s hard to believe that this is the same band on record. It’s heavier, harder, flashier, more confident and all tied together with a youthful poppiness and more than an occasional flash of rambunctiousness. A just reward for the fidelity of the enduring. A kick up the backside for the restless. [Neil Ferguson] CAPTAIN FACE PLAY WHISTLEBINKIES ON 31 MAY. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CAPTAINFACE

DAMIEN RICE

THE USHER HALL, 31 MARCH Having recently parted company with long time partner in whine Lisa Hannigan, this gig is Rice’s chance to hog all of the glory offered to his two records, once and for all. It was never going to be the most cheery of Saturday evenings and Rice’s easy on the ears / heavy on the tears style is unflinching, to his own acknowledgment. There are of course renditions of his “classics,” performed reflectively on an appropriately silhouette filled set, below visually stunning lights. Crowd interaction, initially minimal but stepping up gradually, proves at times to be a desired punctuation, although it does lapse into the cringe-inducing. Perhaps the most welcome aspect of the show is the expansion of Rice’s sound in the live arena. The added dimension of a quality band puts meat on the bones of some of the more anorexic tracks. Fans are left delighted, skeptics not converted, but perhaps kept at bay by the fuller sound on show tonight. [Finbarr Bermingham] WWW.DAMIENRICE.CO.UK

THIS IS MUSIC

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, 29 MARCH “A fiver well spent,” has been the general consensus of previous This Is Music events, a conclusion which is echoed tonight. Kicking off in ambitious style are COLLAR UP (2/5), a two piece keys ‘n’ drum outfit. Ambition proves to be a dangerous catalyst, as the band embark on an operetta of sorts, and in the end the ambition remains unfulfilled. Just as climactic peaks appear within their grasp, they seem only too pleased to descend back into the doldrums of uneventful minor chord verse. As their first footing here, second act, PROXY (4/5), seize the opportunity to showcase their raw but brilliant talent within the compact environs of Henry’s. Hailing from London and signed to A-Records, this lot should be worth keeping an eye on. Starting out sounding a

As we venture up to the Attic’s acoustic room, the loungey tones of Stealer (3/5) are already in full melodic flow. Perfectly capturing the blissed-out atmospherics of a lazy Sunday afternoon, their drippy ballads, infused with groovy Latino rhythms, beautifully unfold into an inspirational dash of mellow acoustic crooning.

by Fraser Thomson

5 FREE SONGS YOU CAN LEGALLY DOWNLOAD, LISTEN TO AND LOVE by Sean Michaels

Back down in the main hall, the shuddering tempo of Action Group (3/5) is blowing away any remnants of Stealer’s tranquilising set. Full of looping basslines and vicious fullbodied riffs, this frantic performance expertly pays homage to the swelling sound of Canadian experimentalists Broken Social Scene.

SPECTRUM FESTIVAL THE QUEEN’S HALL, 1 APRIL

The most notable and heart-warming element of this fourth Spectrum mini festival - a family orientated, culturally eclectic showcase of some of Scotland’s finest up-and-coming bands - is the emphasis placed on entertaining the kids. It’s truly refreshing to witness a cluster of

But for vivid sonic fertility it’s the luminous synths of The Magnificents (4/5) that steal tonight’s show. Sounding like the frothing spawn of Tubeway Army era Gary Numan, the band’s frazzled psychedelia screeches with the relentless velocity of an electronic typhoon. The title track from new EP Ring Ring Oo Oo is the undeniable highlight of a lunatic set that sensorially impairs an utterly astounded audience. [Billy Hamilton] WWW.SPECTRUMFEST.CO.UK

Elvis Perkins

Over the past couple of months I have be en DJi ng w it h various Scottish ba nd s on Su nday nights: The Hussy’s, Recliner, Jack Butler, Ten To Five Project a nd Sergea nt to name a few. The idea was to get to know t he ba nd s b et t e r, learn a bit about their influences, and get a bit drunk. I’m pleased to say I achieved all three, as did the bands (especially Sergeant). I’m pleased to report back that, in general, the Scottish music scene is in good hands. The bands played the right tunes. The Smiths, The Charlatans, Oasis, the Pixies and the like got plenty of spins. Other acts as diverse as DJ Shadow and Camera Obscura would appear week by week. But amongst the many bands and artists selected over the two months - one name kept cropping up week in, week out. And it’s a name I’m almost embarrassed to mention. That’s right kids! Buster himself. The Easy Lover. Phil Collins. Or as anyone who has attended one of Dr Paul’s many quiz nights in Glasgow knows him: The Beast. But far from appearing a joke figure, Collins is apparently hailed as a hero amongst the indie scene in Central Scotland.

The National

1. PARTS AND LABOR - FRACTURED SKIES Parts and Labor have made a track that’s strangely seminal, strangely stand-alone, not quite like anything else in the indie-rock landscape. There’s some of Arcade Fire or Wolf Parade, yearning and brash, but the mix is noisier, fiercer, dosed with glitch and the spirit of Fugazi. This combination is less mongrel than you would think, and more beautiful. Not beautiful like rainbows: beautiful like the demolition of a ruined Brooklyn tenement. DOWNLOAD AT: WWW.JAGJAGUWAR.COM/MP3.PHP

2. ELVIS PERKINS - ALL THE NIGHT WITHOUT LOVE Elvis Perkins is more Costello than Presley: on this song he shows an urban, modern melancholy, ruminating on insole packaging and GotMilk.com. It’s not funny, or bitter, quite; just resigned, weirdly proud in its sadness, especially when the klezmer fiddle sidles in, like a guest from the room down the hall.

by Nick Mitchell ...STRADDLING THE FORTH LIKE AN ENDANGERED, FURRY SUSPENSION BRIDGE With Triptych over and the sum mer festivals still only a glint at the end of the tunnel, you might think that May would be kinda lacking in live music. But you’d be oh-sowrong. As Dave excitedly mentioned in this space last month, the Liquid Room celebrates its tenth birthday with an impressively randomized line-up, including Mogwai, Roy Ayers and the Gangsta from Paradise himself, Coolio. Elsewhere, straddling the Forth like an endangered, furry suspension bridge is Tigerfest. Although the majority of this mini-fest will take place in Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall (hosting such acts as Camera Obscura and Nouvelle Vague), the Ed i nbu rgh st ra nd sees a host of local talented types plying their wares over several weekends at some of the city’s more intimate venues (check listings for details). Travelling along the M8 for the occasion will be alt-rockers De Rosa, art-popsters The Low Miffs and SXSW botherers Popup, while

DOWNLOAD AT: WWW.ELVISPERKINS.NET/SITE/MUSIC.SHTML

representing the east will be Ed i nbu rgh loca ls Five Day Hemingway and The Stantons, Dundonians The Kays Lavelle and Fifers Das Contras. Not to be outdone, new venue on the block Octopus D i a m o n d ha s a m a s s e d a cra z i ly eclectic l i ne -up for May. New night, The Gentle Invasion, brings a mix of “post folk, tradigital, slo-fi and other home-made genres” on the 9th, while Milk Milk Lemonade on the 19th features a live collaboration between members of Live Sciences, the Abdominal Snowmen and Orkestra Del Sol. Perhaps the pick of the bunch is the head-to-head between Myster y Juice a nd Preston Pfanz & the Seaton Sands on the 31st.

Highlights by Ted Maul

DANCEFLOOR PHILLER!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PROXYBYPROXY WWW.ODEONBEATCLUB.COM

THE HORRORS - Loraine Ross

s p r i g htl y p re -sc ho o l e r s d a ncing away to the dad-rock jauntiness of Ten Storeys High (2/5). Unfortunately, this Edinburgh quartet offers little more than a tame concoction of Arcade Fire-aspiring melodies, but their sprightly pop and genial disposition cer tainly seem to charm the crowd like the first glimmer of a scorching summer sun.

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LIVE MUSIC

3. THE TWILIGHT SAD - THAT SUMMER, AT HOME I HAD BECOME THE INVISIBLE BOY A Glasgow band that skipped Scottish buzz and went straight for North American brouhaha, although with a song like this it’s hard to be resentful. Cut from straight indie cloth and yet strangely affecting, the noisy bits are genuinely noisy, the angsty bits are suitably raging, and the lyrics are the kind that are really, really fun to yell in a throng of like-minded people. Repeat after me: “THE KIDS ARE ON FIRE IN THE BEDROOM.”

It’s odd. I’ve never heard a Genesis track pop on a jukebox but that is probably because no bar manager in their right mind would want a Genesis CD on their jukebox. More fool them, as it may have been a goldmine. In the ten years I’ve been DJing (I started in 1997 at the Subway Cowgate in Edinburgh - £20 to play Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Love Shack for six hours) I’ve only ever played Phil Collins at weddings. Of course, Collins is no stranger to being embraced and championed by entire generations of musicians. After In The Air Tonight was name checked in Eminem’s Stan (I always thought it sounded more like Bill Collins, as if Marshall was still slightly avoiding the name) the hip hop and R&B community seemed to collectively come out as fans. In fact, so many artists requested collaborations with Phil, or permission to use samples that Urban Renewal, an entire album of covers, was released. ODB did Sussudio. Brandy and her brother Ray J took Another Day In Paradise And Lil’ Kim hit the jackpot, getting to perform In The Air Tonight with the man himself. Now this is just a warning. It could happen here. In fact, any promoter willing to take the gamble should think about organising a tribute night. I’m not saying it would be a good thing, but you certainly wouldn’t struggle to fill the bill.

HEAR FRASER THOMSON’S SHOW ON XFM SCOTLAND (105.7-106.1FM) FROM 10AM-1PM, MON-FRI.

D O W N LOA D AT : W W W. I N S O U N D.C O M / M P 3 / M P 3 S . PHP?SEARCHBY=TWILIGHT

4. THE NATIONAL - FAKE EMPIRE May means summertime and so I don’t know why all my picks this month are vaguely-or-explicitly melancholy. It’s not heartbreak or homesickness; maybe it’s reverse-psychology. I think The National’s Matthew Berninger would be okay with this: You Do What You Have To Do, he’d intone in his red-wine baritone. And his band would play on, sluggish piano and confused narrator, trumpets rising splendid for all sides.

EDINBURGH

O nc e tou te d as “ the nex t Kur t C oba in,” THE LEMONHEADS’ frontman Evan Dando has survived drug abuse, trial by media and even the dissolution of his own band. Now The Lemonheads are back, and having released one of the best albums of their career (last year’s The Lemonheads, featuring contributions by J Mascis) they’re more than ready to rock the socks off THE LIQUID ROOM in time for the venue’s 10th birthday on 8 MAY. Expect joyful, alternative pop perfection – just like Momma used to make. We’ve praised them before and we’ll do it again: peculiar Glaswegian posse HOW TO SWIM will intimidate, instigate and entertain the crowd at CABARET VOLTAIRE on 13 MAY. Thoroughly weird, seductively strange – call them what you will; their brains are clearly wired differently to most everyone else’s. Expect lyrical intelligence, passion and a really very interesting take on that thing we call rock and roll. Formerly of The Delgados, EMMA POLLOCK is well on the way to carving out an impressive solo career for herself. Newly signed to the splendid 4AD label, she’ll be in celebratory mood when she performs her woozy, folk-inflected songs to a rapt CABARET VOLTAIRE on 14 MAY. Sultry, delicate and wondrously melodic – you’ll already know if this is your bag. We always give him a shout out when he’s in town – and he always obliges by putting on a spellbinding show NICK HARPER will entertain, entrance and amuse when he stops by CAB VOL on 18 MAY (plus Glasgow King Tut’s on 20 May). Harper has talent to burn: his passion, charisma and wonderful covers have made him a Skinny favourite – take a gander.

GLASGOW

One of the most fascinating bands to come out of Scotland in a long while, MY LATEST NOVEL play the CLASSIC GRAND on 5 MAY. Densely orchestrated, completely involving and deliciously off-kilter, this band certainly possess a certain je ne sais quoi that sets them apart from the pack. This should be a smashing gig. Myths of the Near Future is one of the most surprising albums of 2007 so far, and KLAXONS one of the few bands to have transcended the rock rag hype and evolved into something genuinely interesting. Gloriously shambolic, steeped in punk attitude and dripping with pop hooks, a Klaxons gig is a rapturous, sweaty and joyful affair. Have it. CARLING ACADEMY 6 MAY. A symptom of Warp’s recent diversification away from electronica; GRIZZLY BEAR were one of that label’s most interesting signings last year. Lush, psychedelic and winningly melodic, Grizzly Bear serve up slices of woozy nostalgia that are shot through with a healthy dose of experimentation. Imaginative, moving and utterly sublime, this should be something special. NICE N SLEAZY, 17 MAY. Melody and dynamics are all well and good, but when you get a craving for hard-charging riffs and walls of distortion, who’s gonna scratch that itch? FU MANCHU – that’s who! Sure, they’ve been mining the same seam for 15 odd years, but when you strike gold first time out, there ain’t much cause to reconsider your position. Fu Manchu’s buzzing, fuzzing riffs are made in heaven. Don’t pretend you don’t love it. CATHOUSE, 27 MAY.

DOWNLOAD AT: WWW.BEGGARSGROUPUSA.COM/MP3/ THENATIONAL_FAKEEMPIRE.MP3

But if all this new music is just too risky for you, then a true legend comes to town in the form of Ray Davies of the Kinks. Get down to the Festival Theatre on 7 May to see if he’s still got what it takes to go all day, and all of the night.

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5. ORNAMENT - WEEDS Lochside folktronica, lulling and green, made with guitarstrings, static and half-murmurs. Just right for those long afternoons on the grass, bicycles spinning past, butterflies flitting through the sunshine. DOWNLOAD AT: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ORNAMENTRONICA

www.skinnymag.co.uk

That man Phil Collins

The Lemonheads play The Liquid Room on 8 May

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

SOUNDS

SOUNDS S T R CHA

JIM GELLATLY’S X-POSURE TOP 10 1. DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP -THOU SHALT ALWAYS KILL

2. FOALS - HUMMER 3. MJ HIBBETT AND THE VALIDATORS - THE LESSON OF THE SMITHS

4. THE DYKEENIES - NEW IDEAS 5. AMY MACDONALD - POISON PRINCE 6. SHITDISCO - OK 7. PARKA - IF YOU WANNA 8. FOALS - HUMMER 9. STEVEN LINDSAY - MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN 10. THE TIGERPICKS - DISCO PUNK ELECTRO FUNK

MUSIC:RESPONSE TOP 10 1. BIFFY CLYRO

- LIVING IS A PROBLEM CAUSE EVERYTHING DIES

2. CSS - LETS MAKE LOVE... 3. THE TWANG - EITHER WAY BIFFY 4. THE CRIBS - MENS NEEDS 5. PIGEON DETECTIVES - I’M NOT SORRY 6. MUMM-RA - SHES GOT YOU HIGH 7. THE RUMBLE STRIPS - MOTORCYCLE 8. CALVIN HARRIS - THE GIRLS 9. CANDIE PAYNE - I WISH 10. JAMES - WHO ARE YOU

TOP 5 RECOMMENDED ALBUMS

MANIC STREETPREACHERS – SEND AWAY THE TIGERS (7 MAY) TRAVIS – BOY WITH NO NAME (7 MAY) FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND – TALES DON’T TELL THEMSELVES (14 MAY)

LINKIN PARK – MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT (14 MAY) BIFFY CLYRO - PUZZLE (25 MAY)

METAL UP YOUR ASS!

Red Chord

A QUINTUPLE-WHAMMY OF BALL-BUSTING METAL AND HARDCORE TO GET YOUR ASS ALONG TO IN MAY by Jamie Borthwick The sunshine is beginning to trickle into the season and temperatures are soaring to that prescribed 14C or so that means neds feel the need to walk around the city with their shirts off and the idle youth of Glasgow become irresitably compelled to open up fire hydrants everywhere. Certain cider manufacturers are again thanking the ingenious ad agency that came up with the idea of selling bottles of the stuff with a glass of ice, and the summer music festivals are tantalisingly appearing over the horizon. In preparation for your summer of heavy musical love, here’s a quintuplewhammy of events to get your ass along to in May.

Making something of a breakthrough with their first fulllength album this year are Manchester’s I-DEF-I: ballbusting metallic rock playing out at the Barfly in Glasgow on Thursday 10th. Metal-influenced hardcore from CENTURION at Studio 24 on Saturday the 12th should be a date in the diary for Edinburgh gig-goers as the touring Brighton lads are one of the few harder acts to come to Reekie in May. Anticipate an intense live show as AKERCOCKE entertain The Cathouse on Sunday the 20th with support from Colorado’s class CEPHALIC Carnage and Ted Maul (not to be confused with the cut-

ting edge journo of the same name). Staying with the Catty, Tuesday the 22nd sees an unmissable one-two from hardhitting death fiends THE RED CHORD and techy hardcore in the mould of Ion Dissonance and Botch from brilliant up-and-comers ARCHITECTS. There’s also a chance to check out on-the-road Englanders STAND UP GUY at Subway Cowgate in Edinburgh when they check-in on the 25th. Expect some neat post-metal passages and delectable crunches of hard mosh. They are ably assisted on the night by THE FINAL SIGH and the lovely FRIDAY NIGHT GUNFIGHT. See you in the pit.

“WE’VE STRUGGLED TO ESCAPE THE PIGEONHOLE OF BEING A STONER ROCK BAND, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT NONE OF US HAS SMOKED A JOINT IN OVER TEN YEARS!” - BEN WARD by Ali Maloney not strictly stuck 100% to the facts. We’ve elaborated and put a bit of a fantasy slant on it – things like plague victims returning to life as zombies.” Released with a bonus DVD featuring a live show at the Mean Fiddler in London, along with studio footage of the album’s creation, the album represents a more considered side of a band oft-assumed to offer little more than meaningless fun. “The older I get,” reflects Ben, “the more I realise I’m too old to be writing about dragons, witches and wizards. So we looked to other sources for inspiration. The album is a very grown-up one, not just lyrically, but musically as well. It was born out of the experience of being together 12 years and knowing exactly what we’re about when we go into the studio.” In 1666, London was in the pits of a plague epidemic, with disease and despair everywhere, and seers were prophesising the consumption of the world by fire. And lo, beginning in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane, a fire started that laid waste the already decrepit city. “It’s not a pleasant era of history, it’s doom-filled and very dark and sinister,” says Orange Goblin vocalist Ben Ward. “It’s perfect for the kind of music that we wanted to produce.”

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Formed in 1995, Orange Goblin’s blend of progressive doom-riddled metal has since garnered a devoted following in mosh pits across the globe. Their forthcoming album, Healing Through Fire, takes its inspiration from that grim period in their hometown’s history. “It’s the darkest stuff we’ve ever had a chance to write,” Ben tells The Skinny. “In the past we’ve always been renowned for singing fairytale lyrics about wizards and space travel and stuff like that. This time it’s more hard-edged, although we’ve

Drawing upon influences from 70s hard rock, 80s hardcore punk and 90s doom, the Goblin sound is difficult to categorise, but nevertheless promises good ol’ sweaty, hairy, horns-in-the-air metal. “Over the past few albums people have said that we don’t really know what direction we want to be moving in, which is a nice change from being called ‘Cathedral Clones’ or ‘Black Sabbath wannabes’,” Ben muses. “We’ve struggled to escape the pigeonhole of being a stoner rock band, but the truth is that none of us has smoked a joint in

over ten years!” We know we’re not going to be the next Iron Maiden and that we’re never going to make a living playing this kind of music. We don’t play economically viable music, especially in this day and age when everything can be downloaded for free anyway.” Once the album appears on the 21 May, the OG will embark on a mammoth tour that will take in a few summer festivals and include their first show in Poland. Discovering new territories, truly, their fire continues to burn brightly - although, as with too many decent outfits, to keep the touring machine going takes more than meets the eye. “We all still love the music that we do and we strive to make the music that we want to hear,” offers Ben. “We all have to work shitty jobs all week and the one release that we get is that we get to meet up in the studio and play together.” But he assures, “as long as it’s fun we’ll keep on playing.”

HEALING THROUGH FIRE IS RELEASED THROUGH SANCTUARY ON 21 MAY. ORANGE GOBLIN PLAY CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW ON 18 MAY WWW.ORANGE-GOBLIN.COM

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www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

- HEADS UP HIGH

by Jon Seller

“YEAH, OPENING FOR NEIL YOUNG’S A REAL DRAG...” - PETER HAYES the release of their eponymous debut and followup Take Them On, On Your Own. “I feel bad for all these bands being slapped on the front covers before they’ve had a chance to achieve anything in their own right,” confesses half of BRMC’s multitalented front duo, Robert Levon Been. “It just means that people come to their shows to sample them, so they’re there to be knocked down.” “Bands with a point to them don’t really get the chance today,” adds wing man Peter Hayes. “Now it’s just bands writing pop songs disguised as rock and roll who get the headlines. We’re lucky that our music kept our fans interested once the press had gone away but generally we try not to pay too much attention to what’s written about us.” Indeed, the twosome appear to care less about the fickle machinations of the industry, and more about the standard and integrity of their musical output thus far, seemingly thankful for a posthype opportunity to play for the ‘real’ fans in proper rock and roll venues. “It’s great to play the little rock clubs – that’s where the spirit is. When you get to a certain scale of ‘massive’, it becomes hard to avoid the conveyor belt of the pre-processed rock show,” laments Been, in reference to their recent Killers support slot. “They were great guys and it was good to be able to play to a new bunch of people on such a scale but the whole set up had a kind of sterile feeling to it.”

Providing a grittier, dirtier edge to the Strokes-led US invasion of the UK in the early Noughties, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club hotfooted through the ranks, selling out the UK’s largest club venues and swiftly headlining the Reading festival (albeit thanks to Jack White’s broken hand). Now, some five years on, the band are playing things decidedly low key when The Skinny catches up with them

backstage at a sell-out King Tut’s show. They speak to us about the return of Nick Jago for their fourth longplayer, the “drag” of supporting Neil Young and the string ‘em up, cut ‘em down mentality of the business. Without a doubt, this San Franciscan trio have sampled the power of the UK’s music press first hand, having been front-page darlings around

Of course, the ‘Club have experienced big shows before, having been hand picked to support the likes of the Rolling Stones, Oasis and Neil Young in the past, but they admit frustration at being asked to open for the next big thing. “Yeah, it’s frustrating but sometimes you just gotta do it. I mean Neil Young, who does he think he is, man?” says Robert, much to Peter’s amusement. “Yeah, opening for Neil Young’s a real drag...”

The release of 2005’s Howl, to relatively little fanfare and after a difficult break-up, showcased a band in total control of their work although apparently out of touch with the music-buyer, despite the extensive critical acclaim with which the album was met. The album was predominantly the work of Been and Hayes - having parted company with drummer Nick Jago after a now-infamous spat in Scotland’s fair capital the previous summer - and was a lush piece of acoustic Americana to further highlight the talents of both men as notable songwriters and musicians. So how did the return of Jago influence the new record? “It’s just a different way of writing a song. With Howl we started with acoustic guitars and built the sound up where we wanted. Now we have a full band again so that’s where we start - it’s like reading a story backwards,” relates Been. Sure enough, with Jago back in the fold, new album Baby 81 packs more of a solid rock and roll punch than its predecessor whilst retaining some of those dirty blues sentiments. First single Weapon of Choice is an instant BRMC classic, with now trademark slide guitar and fuzzy bass driving home their killer hooks with maximum effect. After the riotous King Tut’s show we take in tonight, it’s clear to see that the fans love their heroes as much as ever. “Scotland and Newcastle are our two favourite places to play… awesome,” Been concludes, “…and that’s true. I’m not angling for a front cover here.” And so it is, the Rebels are back in the saddle and happy to take the road ahead.

BRMC PLAY ABC, GLASGOW ON 14 APRIL. BABY 81 IS OUT ON 31 APRIL. WWW.BLACKREBELMOTORCYCLECLUB.COM

The Aliens - SONGS IN THE KEY OF FIFE by Milo McLaughlin

Y KINN S E H TPRESENTS

But as extraterrestrial lifeform John Maclean assures The Skinny, The group isn’t just a continuation of former glories. “It feels like a completely different band because it’s different personalities, it’s a different dynamic coming together and we really are starting from the beginning; we’re touring, roadying for ourselves again, not having any money to work with. But as far as what I do in the band it’s kind of a continuation. It would be pointless to start again and do something different when I learnt so much about either sampling or working with beats and live instruments, or making videos.” Robin Jones and Gordon Anderson are the other identities that make up the three-headed alien beast. Anderson, who left the Beta Band just after they were signed due to recurring mental health problems, has since gained a near-mythical reputation as Fife’s own answer to Daniel Johnston via his brilliant Lone Pigeon albums. “I’ve known Gordon since he was about 12 or 13” considers John. “We were at school together and me and Gordon met Robin when we were about 17 at Edinburgh Art College, so we’ve never lost touch. There was always the possibility that we would get

34 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

together if the situation was right, if we weren’t busy with the Beta Band and if he was well enough to work on stuff. So a couple of years ago when we started The Aliens it just seemed right.” A real sense of fun and experimentation comes across on their epic, psychedelic debut opus, Astronomy for Dogs. “Yeah, because we’re old friends, we have the same sort of sense of hu-

mour so even if we’re not making music, even if we’re going to buy some fish and chips it usually ends up being a bit of a laugh.” With tracks such as I Am The Unknown, there also lies a mystical side, which John attributes to his compadre’s spiritual beliefs. “Gordon’s an extremely spiritual person. He’s got that ability to be uplifting; you can have happiness but tinged with melancholy. He’s not a dour person, he gets sad and depressed

ens T he Ali

artist

“FORMATION DANCING WAS A SIDE WE NEVER REALLY GOT TO EXPLORE WITH THE BETA BAND...” It’s a double-edged sword for The Aliens. On the one hand they have a ready-made audience with passionate fans of both the Beta Band and Lone Pigeon embracing their new material, especially given the abrupt discontinuation of Steve Mason’s King Biscuit Time. On the other, they have a hell of a lot to live up to, given the groundbreaking nature of their former incarnations.

SOUNDS

SOUNDS Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

but he’s never miserable and I think that comes across in the music. You get the forlorn love but you also get the joyous celebration of life.”

ye Isle of Sk 7

al festiv

2oo y a M 6 2

date

In terms of recording, John reveals that the band tend to apply a cut-up technique. “We start off with Gordon’s song, and he’ll have probably done a few versions by the time we even hear it. Every song is different but a song like Only Waiting, for instance: Gordon’s got a slow version, a fast version, an acoustic guitar version, a piano version. So Robin went away and worked on it and I went away and worked on it, so we had even more versions! Then the three of us tried to play it live so I had the bass, Robin had the drums and Gordon had the guitar and we just laid down a live tape, and then we do overdubs, so eventually you can kind of pick and choose between all the different bits and put them all together and choose the best parts of each version.” Recording secrets revealed, the band also make room for the realisation of guilty pleasures with the crazed dancing to be seen on their videos to Robot Man and The Happy Song, as John admits: “formation dancing was a side we never really got to explore with the Beta Band, so it was nice to eventually do that!” ASTRONOMY FOR DOGS IS OUT NOW ON PET ROCK/EMI. THE ALIENS PLAY ISLE OF SKYE FESTIVAL ON 26 MAY AND CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW ON 16 JUNE. WWW.THEALIENS.CO.UK

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www.skinnymag.co.uk

May 07 ISSUE TWENTY

“MAYBE WE’VE BEEN GUILTY OF TRYING TO RAM OUR IDEAS DOWN PEOPLE’S THROATS - BUT I JUST THINK IT’S THE WAY WE ARE.” - NICKY WIRE

...MORE HUMOUR, MORE FEAR, MORE MANIA.” – TYONDAI BRAXTON

by Jay Shukla

Wired and Wonderful:

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO A MANIC STREET PREACHER Y NN

THIS MONTH THE SKINNY TALKS SHOP WITH JOHN STANIER, TYONDAI BRAXTON AND IAN WILLIAMS AS THEY GIVE US THE LOWDOWN ON LIFE ON THE FRONTLINES OF THE WAR AGAINST MUSICAL CONFORMITY.

Complacency can be a wonderful thing. Without it we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the big goofy grin and sense of blissful astonishment that comes after being smacked around the chops by the full force of the unexpected. Any idiot can be shocking, but to surprise people in ways that they couldn’t have foreseen is the aspiration of every artist. Without a doubt, the most surprising record that The Skinny has heard this year is Atlas, the lead single from Battles’ forthcoming debut LP, Mirrored. With a sound akin to Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People as re-imagined by a team of very merry, Glitter Band-loving munchkins, it has been heralded variously as both the single of the decade, and (less charitably) Crazy Frog for the avant-garde set. Its accompanying video - depicting the band performing inside a mirrored cube which is floating in a black void - plays up to the idea of the group as heroic scientists of sound, drifting alone in space, oblivious to the dumb machinations of their contemporaries. Romantic hyperbole, perhaps - but after hearing the full, irresistible scope of Mirrored, it’s an image that The Skinny is happy to indulge in.

If you find it impossible to imagine that Autechre’s ominous-sounding synth patches would make an appropriate backing to a soulful loop of Princelike vocals, then wait until you hear mathematical funk-track Leyendecker. “I think the vocals are presented with the same character as the other instruments,” comments Braxton. “They are able to sit in the music as another voice or come out as a lead line - just like another instrument. The addition and subtraction of elements in the new record came a lot more naturally than people think. Those elements were always there, it was just a matter of finding a measured way of using all of these textures tastefully.” The endearingly laconic Williams is notably less oblique in describing their philosophy: “I think we try to stay contrary to our own aesthetic. If we think it feels x, x, x, x, then please, get me a y!” Braxton is unequivocal that Battles’ decision to gift their new songs an extended evolution in the live setting was of crucial importance in cultivating the startling wealth of ideas which permeate Mirrored: “It was easier in the sense that we’ve had time to play around more and experiment. We’re not as self-conscious as a band anymore.

The music’s guard is let down a little bit – there was room for us to let in more humour, more fear, more mania.” Williams, as ever, offers a slightly different perspective: “Recording this album was harder than recording the EPs in some ways. We did have more resources this time, which I admit can help, but we also set ourselves goals. This new stuff had some specific ideas in terms of wanting to try some singing, Dave [Konopka] playing bass rather than being another guitar in the mix. And by now, everyone is writing and contributing, so the process is more strenuous.” Although the metronomic precision and angular rhythms of last year’s reissued EP C/ B EP compilation saw Battles labelled as the saviours of math-rock in some quarters, Stanier is confident that the unbridled exoticism of Mirrored will force many people to reconsider their assumptions: “One of the great things about this band is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Our music is fun to make and fun to play live too and I think it’s important for that to come across.”

Nicky Wire shoots the breeze with consummate whimsy as he imagines himself curating Meltdown where the ‘newly reformed’ Rage Against The Machine and McCarthy (the cult 80s band whose track We Are All Bourgeois Now was covered by the Manics) would show today’s upstarts a thing or two. “I think in Britain there are loads of good bands, loads of good music, but it’s a very decadent musical environment, the lyrics are unbelievably self-satisfying.” Warming to the chat, he adroitly pictures the ultimate political rally: “Martin Luther King, Tony Benn, Mo Mowlam - met her a couple of times, she was great - oh, and Chairman Mao.” Chairman Mao? “Yeah [and then, voice dropping to deadpan baritone], just for a laugh.”

Mirrored such a special record. From Braxton’s wordless vocals – which recall a kind of ecstatic glossolalia – to the breakneck, three-way guitar call-and-response of album closer, Race Out, the sheer joyful exuberance of the band’s experimentation ensures that Mirrored can confidently lay claim to being one of the richest and most accomplished debuts of recent times. Of course, a band as ceaselessly creative as Battles cannot rest on their laurels, and every live performance is embraced as a chance to evolve their sound – to push and pull their music into strange new shapes. Those who witnessed Battles at last year’s Triptych festival will already have their tickets for the show at ABC2 or their appearance at this month’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival. The rest of you can look forward to the spectacle of four very intelligent men having a lot of childish fun – and changing the course of modern music in the process.

And laugh he does, but in effect, Wire has demonstrated the essence of the Manic Street Preachers in a microcosm - music unrelentingly intertwined with politics fronted by tong ue -i n- cheek bravura. The Skinny, having wheeled out the soapbox, finds this songwriter-inchief isn’t for turning. Setting his sights on the incumbent Prime Minister, he is scathing, venomous even. “The song Send Away the Tigers (title track of their latest studio album) is really about how one foreign policy decision has wrecked his (Tony Blair’s) legacy. From a historical perspective he may have been seen as a good PM; that’s not my view but there might have been some reverence towards him. Alas, he’s made some fucking disastrous decisions and said disastrous things. It just seems the Iraq war has left a giant cloud over the country, so even when there’s some positive news it’s hard to feel good because of that situation. It leaves a very bad taste.”

MIRRORED IS RELEASED 14 MAY ON WARP RECORDS. BATTLES PLAY ATP FESTIVAL, MINEHEAD ON 19 MAY AND

In singling out the band’s essential playfulness, Stanier has really cut to the heart of what makes

ABC2, GLASGOW ON 23 MAY. WWW.BTTLS.COM

So, how exactly does a song as freakishly beautiful as Atlas come into being? Battles’ straighttalking powerhouse drummer, John Stanier, fills us in: “Atlas is our take on ‘The Sound of Cologne’, influential [an series of minimal techno compilations from the Rhineland]. A part of their sound (which is really the Kompakt and Trapez labels) used to have a shuffle rhythm to it, which ironically is their reaction from hanging out in rock clubs listening to Slade, Gary Glitter and other 70s ‘boogie’ bands... So it’s our take on their take of a very infectious 70s boogie beat. After seeing Tyondai doing his solo stuff, I think we realized what an amazing voice he has and that we should incorporate that more into the music.” So are the band concerned that new fans may mistake Braxton for the frontman of this none-more-democratic unit? “Fuck lead singers” is Ian Williams’ only musing on this particular point of discussion.

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Battles AT P

festival

Braxton’s incredible, elastic vocals may be the most immediately obvious element of their new sound, but an increased use of synthetic sounds also brings a new warmth and depth to Battles’ music. When the two play off against each other, the effect is often gloriously surreal.

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KI S THE

by Paul Mitchell

When he does finally talk about music, it is with a decidedly philosophical bent. Wire has recently suggested that all great bands go through a phase of destroying themselves, and unashamedly includes the Manics in this particular pantheon. “I think all the best acts reach a peak of commercial acceptance and then ask if they’ve been true to themselves and their roots. I think it’s all the colour, all the shades; the triumph and the tragedy [co-lyricist and guitarist Richey James has been missing, presumed dead, since

1995] which puts us in that category. We made a record like The Holy Bible (1994) which many people view as our best record but it didn’t sell at all. We were a real cult band at the time. But from selling 50,000 of The Holy Bible to two million of Everything Must Go (1996) was obviously a big jump. It had been a long process, but when we got there, it was a question of ‘where next’? We just seemed to chase our tail for a bit. But a lot of my favourite bands have done that. Like the Stones with Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967); it’s a mental album, confusing the band and their audience, but it stiffed. Then they came back with Jumping Jack Flash straight after. It must get boring being in a band that’s constantly successful (wry laugh) - you try and invent stuff to make it more interesting.” One such ‘invention’ was a highly publicised expedition to Cuba in 2001, where they became the first popular western rock band to play there in what was interpreted as an anti-American protest. “Surreal is one of the more overused words in the English language but it truly was like being in Forrest Gump or a Lewis Carroll book. All of a sudden you’re doing a gig in the Karl Marx theatre and there are no security guards except for some giant potted plants to stop the crowd rushing. Then you go backstage and there’s Fidel Castro. He’s an unbelievably bright guy, not that I agree with all his policies or anything like that and I still don’t know to this day if I have drawn any conclusions about the whole thing. I think it’s one of those things that when the band is over that I’ll be able to understand a bit more, for good or bad.”

SOUNDS

SOUNDS Battles - STRANGE REFLECTIONS

to the exorcisTS SEN ing of demons. PRE “Ac t ua l ly, t he st arti emphasis for the record was that we reconnect with ourl tiva fes selves and the fans who’ve stayed with us; the reasons they fell in te da love with us in the first place are probably different reasons to what we’ve become. At the start there was always the idea of the ‘fabulous disaster’, the Technicolor moment. I think you reach a peak of nihilism and cynicism when you get older. We had to make (well, me in particular) a conscious decision to try and be a bit more naïve again, a bit more idealistic and instinctive, and perhaps not to worry or care what people say so much. My solo album helped with that [last year’s I Killed the Zeitgeist]. I always wanted to make an out of tune, Lou Reed feedback-drenched vanity project without any expectations to sell lots of copies. When you’re in the Manics you can’t do that. I think if you become too vain and t o o i ndu l ge nt you find you’re not quite as good as you should be. Maybe we’ve been guilty of trying to ram our ideas down people’s throats - well, perhaps not ‘guilty’, but I just think it’s the way we are. With this album there’s much more a sense of joie de vivre about it.”

rs e h c i c n a a e Mreet Pr St ss e N Rockune 2oo7 10 J

SEND AWAY THE TIGERS IS RELEASED 7 MAY ON COLUMBIA RECORDS. THE MANICS PLAY

The title of the new album (their eighth studio offering) is an explicit allusion

GLASGOW BARROWLANDS ON 14 MAY AND ROCKNESS FESTIVAL ON 10 JUNE. WWW.MANICSTREETPREACHERS.COM

1 May 2oo7 6

THE SKINNY FESTIVAL CALENDAR

LAST MONTH, TRIPTYCH GOT THE BALL ROLLING ON WHAT IS SHAPING UP TO BE SCOTLAND’ S BUSIEST MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON OF ALL TIME. FROM THE AVANT-GARDE CROWD TO THE 80S POP NOSTALGISTS AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN, IT SEEMS EVERYBODY’ S REPRESENTED AND THE SKINNY WILL LITERALLY BE SCOURING THE GLOBE FOR THE BEST OF THEM THIS SUMMER. FOR NOW THOUGH, LET’ S KEEP IT LOCAL; BEHOLD OUR HOMELAND FESTIVAL CALENDAR FOR 2007…

MAY

Human League @ Big in Falkirk

Nouvelle Vague @ Tigerfest

JUNE

BIG IN FALKIRK

Saturday 5 – Sunday 6 May Callander Park, Falkirk Featuring: The Human League, Pop Up The Skatalites, Amy Macdonald WW.BIGINFALKIRK.COM

ISLE OF SKYE MUSIC FESTIVAL

Ashaig Airstrip, Broadford Friday 25 – Saturday 26 May Featuring: Primal Scream, Kasabian, The Aliens

TIGERFEST

Wednesday 16 – Saturday 19 May Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline Featuring: King Creosote, Nouvelle Vague, Kid Canaveral WWW.TIGERFEST.BABY-TIGER.NET

32 ISSUE TWENTY May 07

ROCK NESS

Arcade Fire @T in the Park

Rothiemurchus Estate, Aviemore Friday 22 – Sunday 24 June Featuring: Crowded House, Idlewild, The Guillemots

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Indian Summer

Supergrass @ Live at Loch Lomond

AUGUST

Victoria Park, Glasgow Saturday 14 – Sunday 15 July Featuring: The Flaming Lips, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Explosions In The Sky WWW.INDIANSUMMERGLASGOW.COM

T IN THE PARK

Balado, Fife Friday 6 – Sunday 8 July Featuring: Arcade Fire, Queens of The Stone Age, Tori Amos, Bloc Party, Felix Da Housecat, Amy Winehouse WWW.TINTHEPARK.COM

SOUNDS

Beastie Boys @ Connect

Björk @ Connect

SEPTEMBER

BELLADRUM TARTAN HEART FESTIVAL

INDIAN SUMMER

THE OUTSIDER

Dores, Invernesshire Saturday 9 – Sunday 10 June Featuring: Manic Street Preachers, Daft Punk, The Charlatans, Too Many DJs, Erol Alkan WWW.ROCKNESS.CO.UK

Crowded House @ The Outsider

JULY

WWW.OUTSIDERFESTIVAL.CO.UK

WWW.SKYEMUSICFESTIVAL.CO.UK

Primal Scream @ Isle of Skye

Saturday 28th - Sunday 29 July Alex Smoke, Pop Up, The Needles, O B E

Belladrum, Invernesshire Friday 10 – Saturday 11 August Featuring: James, Aereogramme, The Magic Numbers

WWW.DUNSTAFFNAGEMUSICFESTIVAL.CO.UK

WWW.TARTANHEARTFESTIVAL.CO.UK

THE DUNSTAFFNAGE MUSIC FESTIVAL Oban

WICKERMAN

LIVE AT LOCH LOMOND

WWW.THEWICKERMANFESTIVAL.CO.UK

WWW.LIVEATLOCHLOMOND.COM

Kircudbright, Galloway Friday 20 – Sunday 22 July Featuring: Fun Lovin Criminals, Hayseed Dixie, The Rezillos

www.skinnymag.co.uk

Loch Lomond Saturday 4 – Sunday 5 August Featuring: Supergrass, Thirteen Senses, Complete Stone Roses

CONNECT Inveraray Castle, Loch Fyne, Argyll Friday 31 August – Sunday 2 September Featuring: Björk, Beastie Boys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Modest Mouse, Polyphonic Spree, Padric Wolf, Alex Smoke

KNOCKENGORROCH - THE HAIRTH Dalmellington, Ayrshire Tuesday 14 - Thursday 16 September WWW.KNOCKENGORROCH.ORG.UK

RETROFEST Culzean Castle, Ayrshire Saturday 1 – Sunday 2 September Featuring: ABC, Bananarama Jimmy Somerville WWW.RETROFEST.CO.UK

WWW.CONNECTMUSICFESTIVAL.COM