The Skinny June 2018 by The Skinny

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CULT U R A L

J O U R N A L I S M

June 2018 Scotland Issue 153

Pioneering Women A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE FILMMAKING IN THE 1980S WITH SUSAN SEIDELMAN, KATHRYN BIGELOW, AMY HECKERLING & MANY MORE

Photo: Kat Gollock

P.41 Where Your Mouth Is

June 2018 I N DEPEN DENT

CULTU R AL

JOU R NALI S M

Issue 153, June 2018 ÂŠ Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business. Get in touch to find out more.

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Contents

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Art Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Events Editor Film & DVD Editor Food Editor Intersections Editor Music Editor Theatre Editor Travel Editor

Rosamund West Adam Benmakhlouf Heather McDaid Claire Francis Ben Venables Nadia Younes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Kate Pasola Tallah Brash Amy Taylor Paul Mitchell

Production Production Manager Designer

Sarah Donley Fiona Hunter

Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives

Sandy Park George Sully Keith Allan David Hammond

Online Digital Editor Online Journalist Web Developer

Peter Simpson Jamie Dunn Stuart Spencer

Bookkeeping & Accounts Publisher

Rebecca Sweeney Sophie Kyle

THE SKINNY

Credit: Tom Saffill

P.33 Rip It Up

P.10 Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Photo: Courtesy of National Museums Scotland

P. 07 Scott Hutchison: A Tribute

Contents Chat & Opinion: We share some 06 heartfelt tributes to much-loved Scott Hutchison alongside a welcome to the magazine.

Heads Up: It’s the halfway point of 2018! 08 Here’s your cultural calendar for June. FEATURES

10 We kick off our Edinburgh International Film Festival coverage with a spotlight on their American Woman retrospective celebrating female filmmakers of the 1980s.

ark Cousins on The Eyes of Orson M Welles plus our top ten recommendations from the EIFF programme.

15 We speak to Apostille aka Night School

Records founder Michael Kasparis about Trainspotting, George Michael and his latest solo record Choose Life.

16 Let's Eat Grandma's Rosa Walton and

Jenny Hollingworth discuss friendships, gender stereotypes and sophomore album I'm All Ears.

18 Ahead of his performance at Doune the Rabbit Hole, London rapper / author / lecturer Akala assures The Skinny that making world-changing music is still his first love. 19 Chromeo’s David Macklovitch – aka Dave 1 – talks about fifth album Head Over Heels, the band’s love letter to funk. 21 Architecture Fringe organiser Andy

Summers introduces this year’s distinctive programme.

22 We take a look at Take Me Somewhere’s programme of cutting edge theatre and with Flight of the Conchords landing at the SSE Hydro, we take a look back at when the duo were playing to only the people they could fit into an eighteenth century vault.

25 Glasgow Comic Con boss Nicola Love

tells us why she’s flying the flag for comics in a sea of movie franchises.

26 Doug Stanhope tells us how him smoking saved a man’s life the last time he visited Edinburgh.

27 Competitions: WIN THINGS! Namely, Ace & Tate glasses or tickets for Christine & the Queens.

LIFESTYLE

28 Intersections: A history of Scottish

30 Showcase: Edinburgh-based photog-

rapher Kat Gollock shares some of her shots of musicians.

41 Travel: One adventurer swears off meat until he’s able to witness the animal’s slaughter, with fairly gruesome results.

43 Food & Drink: A Scottish culinary world

cup – we predict the outcome of that football competition using Edinburgh and Glasgow restaurants. Plus round-ups of the latest new venues and general foodie events news.

RIP IT UP

33 To celebrate the opening of the National

Museum of Scotland’s blockbuster survey of Scottish music, Rip It Up, we’ve put together a special supplement looking at the past, present and future of this nation’s rock & pop music. Featuring interviews and comment from Shirley Manson, Aidan Moffat, Lauren Mayberry, Vic Galloway and many many more besides.

REVIEW

47 Music: Looking forward to Kelburn

Garden Party (we’ve curated a stage you know) plus words with Vital Idles and Declan Welsh alongside our favourite album releases and gig highlights for June.

53 Clubs: This month’s highlights, plus words with Theo Kottis and Sam Telfort.

56 Books: Poetry news plus our pick of the month’s new releases.

57 Art: Exhibition highlights for June (de-

gree shows are a-coming, get your bingo cards ready), and reviews of iQhiya and Minimal/Poor/Present from GI.

58 Film: This month’s releases include

L’Amant Double, Hereditary and The Happy Prince. We introduce our new At Home section bringing in streaming and TV reviews with a look at Donald Glover’s Atlanta.

60 Theatre: Stage Directions has this

month’s programme highlights, and Courtney Act stands in for Auntie Trash to solve your problems.

61 Comedy: Fringe Dog announces the categories for the 2018 Terrier Awards.

63 Listings: What’s on where in June. We take a quick break from mapping the 71 Scottish design world to talk to celebrated design critic Alice Rawsthorn about the need for a national design policy.

Pride plus an investigation into the link between heterosexual involuntary celibates and murder.

June 2018

Contents

f it’s June, then we must be getting excited about Edinburgh International Film Festival. This year, we are partnering with one of the strands of their programme and have decided to focus on their American Women: Female Directors series for our cover story. We meet Smithereens director Susan Seidelman to look back on the era and discover a sadly all-too-brief period when women were starting to have their voices heard, at least at the mid-budget filmmaking level. Going further into the EIFF programme, we also have words with Mark Cousins on new documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles and offer a rundown of our top picks from the festival as a whole. In the centre pages of this here magazine, you will find Rip It Up, a special supplement exploring the history of Scottish popular music from the mid-20th century to the present day. It’s been created in collaboration with the National Museum of Scotland to celebrate the opening of their new exhibition of the same name, a nod of course to the incomparable Edwyn Collins and Orange Juice. It’s given us an opportunity to take a deep dive into the subject, talking to a host of internationally renowned artists (SHIRLEY MANSON SPOKE TO US IN ALL CAPS TEENAGE ME IS REALLY REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS STILL) and creating a timeline of key dates related to the artists featured in the exhibition. It’s been an interesting process to reflect on the influence of hearing Scottish voices on the international stage – for me personally, realising that Shirley Manson was from Scotland was a moment of revelation. World-leading music could be made by people, women, from here? On the final page of the supplement, we attempted to create a family tree of Scottish record labels, a project which drove not one but two members of our team perilously close to the edge of reason. Turns out there are loads of them, and they overlap in a multitude of ways. You can see a visual representation of this polyamorous extravaganza on p40. We’ve got a few IRL adventures this month, starting at Hidden Door on 31 May for a night co-curated by our team featuring a headline set from Makeness alongside a live-soundtracked screening of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. On 21 June we’re hosting a party at the Filmhouse as part of EIFF. Says our Film editor Jamie Dunn, “DJs, 80s

music, it’ll be wild.” Finally, we finish the month at Kelburn Garden Party, with a whole stage of music curated by our very own Music editor Tallah Brash – find out full details on p47. So many opportunities to engage with The Skinny in person / shout at us for that time we gave your pal’s band a shit review. This’ll definitely not end badly. Elsewhere in Music, we have words with Michael Kasparis aka Apostille about his latest solo record Choose Life (not a deliberate Trainspotting reference it turns out). Possibly the only band to be named after a punctuation lesson, Let’s Eat Grandma introduce sophomore album I’m All Ears. Rapper / author / lecturer Akala promises us his heart is truly in the music as he gears up to play Doune the Rabbit Hole and we talk to Chromeo’s Dave 1 about funk, ahead of the release of new album Head Over Heels. In Books, we talk to the Glasgow Comic Con boss to hear about what’s in store at this year’s much-loved event. Comedy speaks to Doug Stanhope about saving lives by smoking and looks back to Flight of the Conchords’ Fringe 2002 debut in the (then) dank surrounds of The Caves as they return to Scotland with their rescheduled mega-tour arriving at the Hydro. In Art, we’ve been quite taken by the Architecture Fringe programme, so meet up with one of the organisers to get an overview of what’s in store. We also meet design critic Alice Rawsthorn to hear her thoughts on the need for a national design policy for Scotland – find her considered insight shared with Local Heroes’ Stacey Hunter on the inside back cover. On the page opposite, you will find our small contribution to the tributes to Scott Hutchison that have been shared from far and wide in the last sad weeks. It is difficult to know how to approach something so devastating and raw; we wanted to bring together a few of the voices who have spoken so eloquently and movingly about him, and share just a few of the glimpses into a truly generous and kind individual and the tiny changes he made to people’s lives on a daily basis. It has been astonishing to realise just how many lives have been so profoundly enriched by this man and his work. Our thoughts remain with the many, many people who love him and all who have been touched by this loss. [Rosamund West]

Shot of the Month Bo Ningen, Stag And Dagger, 6 May by Martyna Maz

By Jock Mooney

Editorial

Online Only Edinburgh International Film Festival: Even more online In addition to this month’s cover story, and our guide to the features that jump out of the 2018 programme (much like Pokémon, you’ve gotta catch them all), there’s plenty more EIFF stuff in store. Once we get into June proper, keep an eye out for reviews, interviews and chat online throughout the festival – we’ll be all over EIFF from the opening night onwards. Keep up-to-date throughout EIFF at: theskinny.co.uk/festivals

Hera Lindsay Bird on poetry, comedy, and anti-Instagram snobbery We catch up with the New Zealand poet ahead of a string of Scottish dates to kick off June. “When I first set out writing poetry, I was like ‘I’m going to write this really beautiful, really sparse poetry’, ...it was the end of the MA year that I realised that I can’t do this, I need to crack like 75 more jokes because it’s just my normal way of being in the world.” Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/books

Degree Show 2018: The Reviews After four long years, Scotland’s art students are putting forth their wares to kick off the summer at the art school degree shows across Scotland. Head web-ward for our takes on the new work from Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee. Get our Degree Show reviews at theskinny.co.uk/art

Jonas Staal introduces The ScottishEuropean Parliament Staal's new artwork sets out to address some of the most pressing political problems in Scotland today. “Art becomes alive and meaningful when it participates in a larger assembly to re-imagine our world,” Staal tells us. “To start a project on transforming the EU into a genuine transdemocratic union for me logically entails to speak with the groups and people that have shaped

our popular imagination of how such a political alternative can come into being.” Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/art

Persistent and Nasty on creating a new theatre platform for Scotland The founders of P&N talk us through the new project, born from a need for more diverse work and recognisable characters on the Scottish stage “It’s certainly not ‘come and man-bash’,” says Elaine Stirrat. “That’s just an echo chamber. It’s about the bigger picture... how we move forward, not just in our industry but socially, and in our culture.” Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/theatre

François Ozon on sexy, twisty thriller L’Amant Double The French auteur is back on provocative form with a new film that puts Fifty Shades of Grey in the shade “To have an unconscious is a reality for everybody,” Ozon tells us. “So you can have a love story with someone and have some fantasy that has nothing to do with the person you love. It’s [about] the complexity of sexuality...” Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/film

Marc Meyers on My Friend Dahmer Writer-director Meyers introduces his new film, an adaptation of the John "Derf " Backderf graphic novel about a teenage friendship with the man who would become a notorious serial killer. Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/film

Alex Winter on Freaked and Bill & Ted 3 The inaugural edition of Weird Weekend, the cult film festival from the ace Matchbox Cineclub, features many curiously rarely screened in the UK, including Alex Winter’s gonzo directorial debut Freaked. The Bill & Ted star tells us about turning Keanu Reeves into a dogman and making Mr. T wear a dress. Read the interview at theskinny.co.uk/film

Find more at theskinny.co.uk

COVER ARTIST Kate Costigan, katecostigan.com

Chat

THE SKINNY

Make Tiny Changes As we come to grips with the loss of Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, a few pals of ours and Scott’s share some happy memories, tributes and messages of comfort

Sandra Gordon (friend of Scott's) “The beauty of being Scott’s friend was that you could show your true, raw, vulnerable self to him [...] The highs with Scott were the best. I felt drawn to my friend like a magnet as so many others did too. He was utterly charismatic, he was hilarious, he was cheeky, he was brilliant (and pretty sweaty too). He lit up every room. He was as good as friends get. Things won’t ever be the same, but you put up a great fight my friend. I will take strength from that. I’m so fucking proud of YOU, and I love you always. Always.”

hen the devastating news came on Friday 11 May about our beloved Scott Hutchison, I was in disbelief and the truth of it is, I still am. I felt numb. I personally didn’t know Scott that well, although we had met several times over the years and these meetings always featured friendly hellos. Frightened Rabbit were one of the first bands I ever put on when I was the Head of Music for Fresh Air and as the day went on and my emotions peaked and troughed, I ended up finding a live recording from that night in 2008 at Cabaret Voltaire and sobbing myself into a migraine slumped on my couch. From being online that day, it was comforting to see how many people Scott had touched through friendship and lyrics over the years. The Scottish music industry was and is crushed by its massive loss and the outpouring of love across every social channel from far and wide is testament to how special a person Scott was and will continue to be for so many. [Tallah Brash]

Kat Gollock (Neu! Reekie!) “There are a handful of days in my life that I hold onto as some of my favourites. Two of those involve Scutch. There’s not many people that I could be stuck in a car with on the A9 for eight hours but he was certainly one of them. “Our friendship was based on a love of each other’s laughs, an understanding of each other’s demons and a deep love of crime dramas and it was a friendship that meant a great deal to me. It bugged me that he didn’t accept that fig rolls were a biscuit and we bickered a lot. But we laughed so much more. He was fucking hysterical! And kind and thoughtful and patient. He had time for everyone and anyone, no matter who they were or what their patter. I saw it many times over and never once did I see him falter. “I am truly devastated by his loss and so very sad I won’t see my friend again but I hope that his gentle soul has found some peace. I can’t quite imagine a life without him but I will always remember my life with him. Rest easy Scutch, I love you very much and we will always be top banana.”

David Weaver (Detour) “I first met Scott at Belladrum Festival in 2008. He agreed to come down to do a session for me and Ally (McCrae) – we were still doing student radio at the time and had no idea how to film, record or do anything properly [...] He did the same for us many times over the next decade. He wore stupid costumes for us, played sweaty pubs, made compilation albums and contributed his time, energy and creativity to help us out because he was just like that; kind, modest, humble, supportive. “Scott has been the soundtrack to a whole generation, a supportive pal to a whole community and a catalyst for so many good things in Glasgow, Scotland and beyond.” Ally McCrae (Detour) “Scott soundtracked some of my happiest and saddest memories over a decade; one song in particular I associate with coming to terms with losing my dad, years after it had happened, all down to those lyrics - they live on - and thank you Scott for every one of them. “The day after that devastating news, I had tickets for Gang of Youths in London. I, like so many, felt a bit lost and totally empty. I went to the show as the music doesn’t stop, but what I wasn’t expecting three songs in was a beautifully put dedication to Scott, who had invited Gang of Youths on tour a few years back. Of course he did. The man gave so much to so many, near and far. What a loss, what a legacy. Cheers big man.”

June 2018

Photo: Kat Gollock

At The Skinny, one of our favourite memories of Scott was seeing him perform in the street down in Stockbridge for VoxBox’s 2017 Record Store Day celebration – he stopped midway through Modern Leper to ask, “did someone just get shat on?” It was obviously us. Well, thankfully it just hit one of our bags, but still, it was hilarious. Later he snuck a line about ‘seagull shit’ into Scottish Winds. Scott’s sense of humour was second to none and we’re glad we got to share this stupid, warm and mingin’ moment with him. We’ll remember it forever. With warm memories in mind, we’ve reached out to a number of pals of ours and Scott’s to bring together a truly heartwarming collection of tributes, memories and messages which will hopefully help bring some comfort.

Halina Rifai (Glasgow Podcart) “Scott was a prodigious artist. The mind-blowing ripple effect of his songwriting created so many connections to people in music and beyond for me. I regard it to be something similar to a constellation, something that will be embossed forever. He and Frightened Rabbit soundtracked some of my most difficult times and some of my most joyous. I want to keep this positive and recall one of the conversations on the podcast I did with him that left me smiling. He said he “needed” to re-write and live score the soundtrack for Terminator 2. I hope someone undertakes this as a remarkable tribute.” Michael Pedersen (Neu! Reekie!) “To my best friend Scott John H-Craft. You brilliant beautiful human soul – a best to many I’ve no doubt and rightly/most righteously so; be it bandmates, brothers, lovers, mothers, wooden spoons or complete strangers. You are gone now (as we know it) and that is not, nor will it ever be, okay. The devastating and abundant void you left spills among us, it encases us like arms can like wax like ocean. I know now that this same force shall unify us, for in it is the befuddling beauty of an entire galaxy of magnets – it is your pull, you supreme magnet, you - glimmering moon.

“Let’s keep talking – I love you… Michael xXx” Vic Galloway (BBC Radio 1 and 6Music) “I started playing Frightened Rabbit on radio around 2006 and slowly got to know Scott... As my mother and her side of my family are from Selkirk we bonded immediately over that and had a laugh. Billy from the band once referred to a teenage Scott as the ‘Jimi Hendrix of Selkirk’... I loved that and often teased him about it! “There are many people who knew him far better than me, but over the years we became more than simply musical acquaintances... His death is so utterly tragic and I am deeply saddened by what has happened. He was a genuinely lovely person.” Tom Johnson (GoldFlakePaint) “When living in Bristol, my best friend Sammy and I started a new monthly night. We’d left it a bit late so I tentatively asked Scott if he fancied doing it as Frabbits were in town for a headline show the following night. He replied saying management strongly told him not to but, aye, of course he would. He walked in carrying only his guitar five minutes before the start, played an hour-long request show and asked for nothing more than a beer and a charity collection on the door.”

Darren Cullen (artist) “I’m heartbroken about Scott. We were classmates and neighbours at Glasgow School of Art and his wit, intelligence, and kindness were a massive influence on me at a vitally important time in my life... I was once singled out and arbitrarily banned from going on the design department’s class trip after falling out with the tutors and Scott decided to pull out of the trip himself and told me we’d buy our own tickets and go anyway, which we did. I’ve never forgotten that simple act of solidarity, at a time when I felt mistreated and alone. “Scott always has been, and always will be a hugely positive influence on my life and on many, many thousands of others. The tiny changes he made multiply exponentially through those who knew him and his work. “What a fucking magnificent human being.” Scott was never shy when speaking up about his struggles with mental health and it’s heartbreaking that he was unable to overcome the power it held over him. It’s okay not to be okay but it’s important to talk to someone if you’re struggling, and if you can’t speak to someone you know about it there are organisations out there who can help, SAMH, Help Musicians UK and Samaritans being three. Our thoughts are with Scott, his friends, his family and everyone who has been affected by his loss. Let’s all raise a glass and continue to make tiny changes in his honour.

A Tribute

We’re officially halfway through the year and where has it actually gone?! But while the incredibly speedy passage of time may be a terrifying thought, why not take your mind off it with some cracking culture...

Stock up on white face paint, dig out your best fishnets and get ready to do the Time Warp, as Burnt Church Film Club are screening the cult classic musical Rocky Horror Picture Show for their latest shindig. Fans of the film take the dress up side of things pretty seriously, so you better start planning your outfit asap (if you haven’t got one looked out already). Flying Duck, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £5

We’ve teamed up with Hidden Door festival this year to curate an evening of live music and film, with six musicians – The Reverse Engineer, Midi Paul, Matthew Collings, WOLF, Heir of the Cursed and HQFU – playing a live soundtrack to the 1920 horror classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The screening will also be followed by a live headline set from Scottish electronic producer Makeness. Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 6pm, £10-12

They Had Four Years

Wed 30 May The annual graduate exhibition, They Had Four Years brings together five graduates of 2017 – Lea (Ye Gyoung) Choi, Alice Martin, Yvette Bathgate, Jonny Walker and Kaitlyn Dunsmore – to exhibit one year after their degree show. Curated together from submitted proposals, the chosen artists’ works, while very different, at points subtly link together. Generator Projects, Dundee, until 3 Jun

Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Fri 8 Jun

Remember when people listened to the radio? Yeah, that used to be a thing. And people even listened to radio plays. IKR, old skool. Dundee Rep are taking us back to those glory days, with Joe Landry's live radio play version of John Buchan’s novel The 39 Steps – famously adapted into the 1935 film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. Dundee Rep, Dundee, 7pm, £5

Interested in taking in some expansive industrial techno on a Wednesday night? We thought you might be. As part of a series of events organised around the Museum of the Moon touring exhibition, Rival Consoles will perform under the moon, making for a truly unique setting for his experimental soundscapes, as demonstrated wonderfully on his latest album Persona. Mackintosh Queen's Cross Church, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £14

Scotland’s independent annual architecture event is back and bigger than ever. Over 70 events will take place across Scotland as part of this year’s Architecture Fringe programme, ranging from talks and workshops to dance performances and installations. The programme will explore themes including Community Use & Ownership, Left Behind By Design, Women in Architecture and New Architecture Writing. Various venues across Scotland, until 24 Jun, times & prices vary

Submotion Orchestra

The 39 Steps

Rival Consoles

Photo: Lenka Rayn H.

Thu 7 Jun Boutique multi-genre festival, Eden Festival returns with a line-up featuring Groove Armada, Submotion Orchestra and Withered Hand. If you fancy a little break from the music at any point though, there will also be a workshop arena, where you can brush up on your woodwork and blacksmithing skills, a drive-in cinema and a circus tent. Raehills Meadows, Moffat, 7-10 Jun, £49-129

Photo: Emily Speed

Wed 6 Jun

Photo: Allan Lewis

Tue 5 Jun

Architecture Fringe

Fri 15 Jun

Wu-Tang Clan member and certified rap royalty, Ghostface Killah took to Twitter back in 2015 “looking for some fire beats” for a new Wu-Tang project, as well as a rumoured sequel to his critically-acclaimed second album Supreme Clientele. No new music has surfaced since though, so hit him up if you have any leads and let’s help get this show on the road. The Art School, Glasgow, 7pm, £25

Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring is quite possibly the most energetic and enigmatic live performer around right now. Over ten years after they first formed, the Baltimore band finally got their big breakthrough moment with their fourth album, 2014’s Singles. Their latest release The Far Field brought together the best of the old and new Future Islands sounds in their boldest record to date. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 7pm, £22.50

Returning with his first solo album in 14 years back in March, David Byrne is currently on the road with his American Utopia tour and makes a pit stop in Glasgow tonight. The Scottish-born, ex-Talking Heads frontman hasn’t exactly been relaxing in that time though, still managing to fit in collaborative albums with Brian Eno, Fatboy Slim and St. Vincent. Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 7pm £33.50-47.50

Ghostface Killah

Photo: Ross Gilmore

Wed 13 Jun The Proclaimers didn’t write a song about it for nothing, and the celebrations of Leith continue at the Leith Festival 2018. Just one of the many events taking place during the annual week-long community festival includes a Trainspotting Tour, starting at the Leith Dockers Club and taking you on a trip following in the footsteps of Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud (ideally with less skag). Various venues, Edinburgh, 9-17 Jun

Future Islands

David Byrne

Wed 20 Jun

Thu 21 Jun

Fri 22 Jun

In the centenary year of the first women receiving the right to vote in the UK, a new exhibition entitled Their Work is Not Forgotten will chart the significant role the women of Edinburgh played in the suffrage movement. Objects on show include replica banners from the Great Procession and Women's Demonstration in 1909 and original sashes worn by the women who participated. Museum of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 8 Jun- 14 Oct

Edinburgh International Film Festival is back for another year. Tonight, we’ll be taking over EIFF Festival HQ to celebrate their American Women: Female Filmmakers of the 1980s retrospective. Following the screening of Smithereens, Susan Seidelman’s spiky first feature inspired by New York’s early 80s punk scene, we’ll be playing music in the cafe by some of the great female artists of that decade. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 20 Jun - 1 Jul, times & prices vary

Now running for over 30 years, it’s safe to say the Glasgow Jazz Festival is a Scottish institution. Tonight, Gregory Feldwick takes his glitchy electronica, with hints of ambient, hip-hop, jazz and bass, which he creates under his moniker Slugabed, to The Hug & Pint. If you missed his live shows earlier in the year, don’t sleep on him again this time around. The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £10

Their Work is Not Forgotten

Smithereens

Thu 28 Jun

What do Shirley Manson’s jacket, a Bay City Rollers fan club badge and a Simple Minds guitar all have in common? They’ll all be on show at the National Museum of Scotland for the next few months as part of the Museum’s flagship exhibition Rip It Up, exploring the history of Scottish pop. And there may or may not be a tutu involved. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 22 Jun-25 Nov

Continuing her ‘How to’ series – following on from her 2011 memoir How to Be a Woman and 2014 novel How to Build a Girl – Caitlin Moran is taking her latest book How to Be Famous out on tour. Catch her chatting about the video for Charli XCX’s Boys, Rihanna, the imminent Lady Revolution and more in Caitlin Moran Live: How to Be Famous tonight. King's Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £27.50

Scotland’s leading creative industries and showcase festival, XpoNorth returns to Inverness with a whole load of seminars, workshops, film screenings and live music performances spread over the course of two days. This year’s showcasing Scottish artists include alt-pop group Acrylic, grunge fourpiece CRYSTAL and electronic artist Edwin Organ. Various venues, Inverness, 27-28 Jun, times & prices vary

Rip It Up

Chat

Caitlin Moran

Photo: Mark Harrison

Wed 27 Jun

Credit: National Museum of Scotland

Tues 26 Jun

Slugabed

Acrylic

THE SKINNY

Photo: Cleo Glover

Trainspotting

Photo: Ryan McGoverne

Thu 14 Jun

Photo: Derek Robertson

Tue 12 Jun

Photo: John Graham

Compiled by: Nadia Younes

Thu 31 May Credit: Yvette Bathgate

Heads Up

Tue 29 May

Mon 4 Jun

Coming up through the ranks on the radio airwaves from London community station Reprezent all the way up to BBC Radio 1Xtra, Jamz Supernova has a strong ear for underground and rising new talent in the urban music scene. Edinburgh’s resident pioneers of future club music, Witness are bringing her along to the sweatbox for what’s sure to be an unmissable set. Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 11pm, £6

After a brief jaunt collaborating with Kurt Vile on last year’s Lotta Sea Lice, Australian singersongwriter Courtney Barnett returned with new solo album Tell Me How You Really Feel last month. Known for her straightforward, honest lyrics and with song titles like Crippling Self-Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence, what’s not to like really? Barrowlands, Glasgow, 7pm, £22.50

Closing this year’s Hidden Door festival, Londonbased producer Romare will perform a special full live band set. Making this an ever more exciting evening of live music, he’ll be supported by fellow Ninja Tune-signee Nabihah Iqbal, fka Throwing Shade, and Edinburgh-based fourpiece Earth Wire. It’s also your last chance to explore the festival before it ends, so catch ‘em while you can. Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 6pm, £13-16

It’s degree show season! Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art’s Degree Shows both run from 2 June, while Gray’s School of Art’s runs a bit later in the month, from 16 June. Fancy yourself as a bit of an art connoisseur? Well, head along and see if you can spot the next big thing (and send us a memo if you do). Various venues across Scotland, until 24 Jun

Courtney Barnett

Romare

Sun 10 Jun

Mon 11 Jun

Finally, the real royal couple, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are taking their On the Run joint tour to the UK, after a sold out stadium tour in North America in 2014. Bey and Jay’s On the Run II tour will hit four UK cities this month before heading out across Europe and the US. You know you want to see this show, don’t even try and lie. We can see right through you. Hampden Park, Glasgow, 5pm, £25-230

Taking place simultaneously across four UK capitals today, PROCESSIONS will see 100 UK organisations create 100 unique banners to celebrate 100 years since the first British women got the vote. That’s a lot of hundreds. You can attend one of the public banner-making workshops led by participating artists or make your own banner at home using the PROCESSIONS toolkit. Middle Meadow Walk, Edinburgh, 12.15pm, free

For his latest theatrical venture, Graham Eatough took inspiration from the bestselling Japanese book The Reason I Jump, written by Naoki Higashida in 2005 when he was just 13 years old and translated into English by Keiko Yoshida and her husband David Mitchell in 2013. The project explores the realities and experience of living with autism in the form of a site-specific installation. Children's Wood and North Kelvin Meadow, Glasgow, 7pm, £4-8

Beyoncé

Photo: Sam Brill

Sat 9 Jun

PROCESSIONS

ECA Degree Show

North Kelvin Meadow and Children's Wood Labyrinth

Mon 18 Jun

Tue 19 Jun

Rainbow flags will be flying high today for Edinburgh Pride, the annual celebration of the LGBTI community. As always, a Pride March will be taking place, but if you’d rather stay stationary, Checkpoint – named one of the “25 coolest restaurants in the UK” by The Times – will be hosting a special Drag Brunch, with local Queens Groundskeeper Fanny, Violet Grace and Frans Gender. Checkpoint, Edinburgh, 12pm, £15

As part of the Refugee Festival Scotland, a new poster exhibition conceived by Iman Tajik and Jonas Jessen Hansen will be on show in multiple sites across Glasgow this month. The Who is? Project aims to tackle issues around immigration systems and globalisation, and has been created as a space for open conversation surrounding the current refugee crisis. Various venues, Glasgow, until 24 Jun, free

Bill Murray is the gift that keeps on giving, and his latest present comes in the form of a collaborative musical project with German cellist Jan Vogler, violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez. In Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & friends: New Worlds, the legendary comedic actor will perform classic American songs and read passages from classic American novels, accompanied by the classical trio. Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £47.50-92.50

The organisers of this event have missed a trick here by not calling this ‘Happy Meals with Happy Meals; instead opting for the less catchy Cantina nite #2 with Free Love aka Happy Meals DJ set. For future events, we suggest: ‘Vegan Lunch with The Vegan Leather’, ‘Snacks with Snack Villain’ or ‘A Slice of Pizza with Home$lice’. And there’s plenty more where that came from. The 78 Bar and Kitchen, Glasgow, 8pm, free

Edinburgh Pride

Who is? Project

Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & friends

Mon 25 Jun

Now in its ninth year, the all-age weekend-long celebration of music and the arts situated just outside of Perth, Solas Festival will this year explore the theme of ‘Drift’. The artists, musicians and performers on this year’s festival line-up will all engage creatively with the theme, exploring internationalism, journeys, change and cultural fusion. The Bield at Blackruthven, Tibbermore, 22-24 Jun, £16-125

If travelling far and wide for a festival just to spend a weekend tired, dirty and inevitably annoyed by everyone around you doesn’t sound like your thing, then take the opportunity to stay a little closer to home instead. Be Charlotte, Ava Love and Wuh Oh are all lined up to perform at the seventh Òran Mór West End Festival All-Dayer today, and you won’t even need to pitch a tent. Òran Mór, Glasgow, 3pm, £18

Taking its title from the Punjabi word for the pattern known in Scotland as Paisley, ambi will feature a series of new commissions by Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine and Hanneline Visnes. Works from the Textiles and Fashion holdings at the Glasgow School of Art Archives & Collections will be taken as a starting point to present new stories and artwork. Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, until 16 Aug

LUCIA

Be Charlotte

Photo: Amy Muir

Sun 24 Jun

Photo: Cameron Brisbane

Sat 23 Jun

Photo: Peter Rigaud

Sun 17 Jun

Credit: Xenia Latii

Sat 16 Jun

Rabiya Choudhry, Black Rain on Red, acrylic on paper, 15cm x 15cm, 2018

Sun 1 Jul

Mon 2 Jul

Kelburn Garden Party kicks off today, with headline performances from Goldie, Chali 2na and Krafty Kuts and Ibibio Sound Machine taking place across the weekend. On Saturday, The Skinny will be taking over the Pyramid Stage with a line-up featuring some of our favourite new Scottish bands and artists, including Future Get Down, DTHPDL and ST.MARTiiNS. Be there or be square. Kelburn Castle, Largs, 29 Jun-2 Jul, £119

The cosplay crew will be out in full force today for Glasgow Comic Con, so expect to see lots of adults dressed up like their favourite superheroes and reliving their youth in the most extroverted way possible. No, you’re not still drunk from the night before, that really is a grown man dressed up as Spiderman, and it’s not even Halloween. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 10am, £0-10

At first glance of the TRNSMT line-up, you may be thinking ‘lad fest’, but look further down and you’ll find some real life, actual women on there. Today, Sheffield via LA beige tailored trouser flaunting indie band Arctic Monkeys headline, while you can also catch 00s indie icons Interpol, Norwegian pop sensation Sigrid and Australian party troupe Confidence Man. Get down. Glasgow Green, Glasgow, 12pm, £59.50

There's a suspicious similarity between American artist Eve Fowler’s 2014 work The Manifest Destiny Billboard Project and Martin McDonagh’s 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Fowler has used art and language to challenge power structures over the past two decades in the US and, the first major European exhibition of her work, what a slight. what a sound. what a universal shudder. continues to do so. DCA, Dundee, until 26 Aug

June 2018

Glasgow Comic Con

Photo: Sinead Grainger

Sat 30 Jun

Photo: Christophe Crenel

Fri 29 Jun

Ibibio Sound Machine

Free Love

Photo: Joe Singh

Jamz Supernova

Credit: Jessica Gasson Fine Art

Sun 3 Jun

Photo: Chris J Rhodes

Sat 2 Jun

Photo: Haydn Rydings

Fri 1 Jun

Sigrid

Eve Fowler, the difference is spreading 2014. Billboard

Chat

Acceptable in the 80s A shimmering highlight of this year’s EIFF is its American Woman retrospective celebrating female filmmakers of the 1980s. Ahead of the festival, we talk to Smithereens director Susan Seidelman, one of the pioneering female filmmakers of this era

Smithereens

f you haven’t noticed, we’re all obsessed with the 1980s. In all likelihood, the last piece of contemporary pop culture you consumed referenced the decade in some fashion, consciously or unconsciously. Whether it’s Ready Player One in cinemas, Stranger Things on our laptop screens or Carly Rae Jepsen in our ears, we’re swimming in homages to the aesthetics of the ‘greed is good’ era; even royal weddings are back in vogue. It’s no wonder then that film programmers are beginning to dust off long-ignored prints from that decade to investigate their riches. Last month at London’s BFI Southbank, an extensive retrospective titled Lost in America: The Other Side of Reagan’s 80s explored the gritty, more personal films that fell through the cracks left by the high octane Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer behemoths, Arnie/Stallone action flicks and Spielberg/Lucas fantasies that dominated the decade. These overlooked classics – like Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue, Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge and Martin Bell’s Streetwise – “expose the real 80s America, in all its troubling, fascinating complexity,” argue the retrospective’s programmers. The upcoming retrospective at the 72nd edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival titled Time of the Signs takes us back to this same period of American cinema and covers similar ground to the BFI season, although the respective programmes only share one title: Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s disquieting study of teen alienation starring a 17-year-old Laura Dern who’s so mesmerising in the lead role that no one

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could complain about the overlap. Rather than simply examine the decade’s cinema, EIFF’s aim is to hold a mirror up to these films and consider them in the context of our current climate. “In light of recent events on the other side of the Atlantic,” explains Niall Greg Fulton, the retrospective’s curator, “Time of the Signs is designed to reflect important cultural issues in America today through the cinema of the country’s past.” EIFF’s retrospective splits into three sections – American Exposé: The Media in Mainstream American Cinema; American Nightmare: Horror in Mainstream American Cinema; and American Woman: Female Directors in American Cinema. In this moment of #MeToo and #TimesUp, it’s the latter season that’s the most eye-catching and vital. We’re all aware of the paucity of opportunities afforded female filmmakers in 2018, and it’s been a similar story since the birth of the moving image, even in the 1970s, the short window of American filmmaking when the money men in Hollywood put their faith in visionary auteurs. Received wisdom tells us that this period, known now as New Hollywood, was a purple patch in American cinema, but not if you were a woman. While the likes of Spielberg, Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola had their run of the studios, female voices struggled to be heard among the macho din. Formidable talents like Barbara Loden (Wanda, 1970), Elaine May (A New Leaf, 1971) and Joan Micklin Silver (Hester Street, 1975) elbowed their way through with smaller projects, but

in general, women directors were invisible in New Hollywood. Susan Seidelman, who would make a splash on the lively New York films scene in 1981 with her evocative debut feature Smithereens, recalls the lack of female role models when she was first picking up a camera. “No one talked about it back then, but when I think about when I was in film school, which was the mid to late 70s, I didn’t know about any other women who were directing movies except for a few in Europe,” says Seidelman from her home in Upstate New York. “[Italian filmmaker] Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties, Swept Away), some of her films had just come out in New York, and for me she was a major inspiration, but I just didn’t know of any other women who were doing that at the time.” What EIFF’s retrospective seems to suggest is that, counter-intuitively, things marginally improved for women filmmakers in the following decade. The 80s may be thought of as a period when the American auteur died, killed off by the hubris of studio-crippling white elephants like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate and Coppola’s One from the Heart, replaced with wallto-wall blockbusters. But looking back with 20-20 vision, it’s clear that the much lamented midbudget film was still in rude health and an avenue where women were given some opportunities. Seidelman’s celebrated second feature, Desperately Seeking Susan was one such midbudget studio feature. “It probably wouldn’t have got made these days,” Seidelman says of her 1985 comedy. “Back in the 80s the studios were still

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Interview: Jamie Dunn

making lower budget movies. Not as low as the indies but in that, let’s say, five to ten million dollar range where they could take a little bit more of a risk because the production budget isn’t so high.” The likes of Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl, 1983; Real Genius, 1985), Penny Marshall (Jumpin’ Jack Flash, 1986; Big, 1988) and Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 1982 – which screens in EIFF’s retrospective; Look Who’s Talking, 1989) found early career opportunities in such modestly-sized studio projects, while others like Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization, 1981; Suburbia, 1983), Lizzie Borden (Born in Flames, 1983; Working Girls, 1986) and Seidelman would make their mark in the vibrant indie scenes developing on the East and West Coasts. Based in New York and with no connections in the business, Seidelman had no real aspirations to be a Hollywood director at that time. “I didn’t really think in those terms,” she tells us. “I was only thinking, I love watching foreign films, I love making movies, so I’m going to work in the independent film world.” Smithereens was shot on 16mm film for a measly $40,000, and working small-scale gave her freedom. “It was such a small budget that I could make my own opportunities. I wasn’t asking anyone to hire me. So all the prejudices and all the horrible statistics about the lack of women directing didn’t sink into me until I got more familiar with how the Hollywood industry works.” Seidelman suggests that this independent spirit might account for the increased prominence of female directors making features in the 1980s, as showcased in EIFF’s retrospective. “As an independent, you’re just working with friends and you’re your own boss,” she says. “And I think if you look at a lot of the movies from the women directors of that time, whether it’s Lizzie Borden or Penelope Spheeris, they weren’t asking anyone to hire them; they were making their own movies. That seemed to me at the time the only way, as a woman, to make a film.” We’re speaking to Seidelman in mid-May, and the Cannes Film Festival is in full swing. Debates on the number of female filmmakers competing for the Palme d’Or (three out of 21 this year) and protests about equal pay abound at the French festival. Seidelman certainly knows how Eva Husson, Alice Rohrwacher and Nadine Labaki, the trio of women competing for this year’s Palme d’Or must feel. Smithereens played in the same competition at Cannes in 1981 and Seidelman was even more outnumbered: she was the sole woman and was competing alongside aging giants of European arthouse cinema like Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni and Lindsay Anderson. Not only was Seidelman breaking ground by being a female filmmaker in a male dominated arena, Smithereens was also the first American indie to play at the prestigious festival. At the time, however, it didn’t feel to her like a landmark moment. “I was very naive back then,” she laughs. “When the film was accepted into Cannes, I didn’t even know that much about it. I had heard of the Cannes film festival of course, but I didn’t really know what a big opportunity it was and I didn’t know how it would end up changing my life.

THE SKINNY

Near Dark

Because of the result of the film being accepted, I ended up getting an agent and I got some scripts sent my way.” One of these scripts was Desperately Seeking Susan, Seidelman’s iconic 1985 screwball comedy in which a bored suburban housewife (Rosanna Arquette) hits her head, causing temporary memory loss that results in her mistakenly assuming the identity of the eponymous Susan, a funky bohemian played by Madonna, who at the time of casting was an ambitious singer on the New York club scene who Seidelman would see around the East Village. “Madonna wasn’t acting as Susan, she was Susan,” says the director. The film’s themes of reinvention made it an instant feminist classic.

“ There were projects I remember wanting to do but if I brought them out to somebody who was a Hollywood producer, it was always, ‘Who’s the male star?’” Susan Seidelman

While Desperately Seeking Susan plays like a fairytale, Smithereens is a much more prickly beast. Seidelman recently watched the film for the first time in decades at a 35 year anniversary screening at the Metrograph in New York, and she was pleasantly surprised by how well it’s stood the test of time. “I was worried it would feel dated or old fashioned or something,” she recalls of the screening. “Certainly the city is very different now, but I wasn’t watching it as nostalgia.” Pre its 90s makeover, the Big Apple looks like a war zone, with graffiti on every wall and a trash fire on every street corner. The sidewalks and subways may be in need of a hose down, but the people on screen feel mint fresh. “I was surprised with how engaged and how modern the characters felt, and the theme of this main character Wren coming from outside of the city, a boring suburb, and wanting to go into the city to be a part of the action and wanting to reinvent herself. All that still felt kind of relevant to me.” Wren is certainly a force of nature. The film opens with our spiky heroine pinching a pair of

June 2018

sunglasses straight out of the hands of an unsuspecting yuppie who’s waiting on a subway platform. How could Wren resist? The frame’s black and white checkerboard pattern perfectly matches her miniskirt. She’s a wannabe rock star, and we follow her in the opening scene as she pastes photocopied posters of herself on every available surface across New York. An authentic punk sensibility runs through the film. Wild boy rock star Richard Hell plays one of Wren’s love interests, a handsome bastard who’s clearly hustling our heroine. Hell also appears on the soundtrack with his band the Voidoids, while most of the tracks come courtesy of The Feelies, who Seidelman was introduced to by Jonathan Demme. The film acts as a time machine to this time and place, but it also feels fresh. If you dropped Wren into post-gentrified New York and gave her hair a wash she could be one of the cast of Girls or a new roommate on Broad City. Seidelman agrees, revealing that at the anniversary screenings in New York, she was struck by how well Smithereens seemed to play with the mostly millennial audience who turned out for the film. It’s easy to see why today’s New York youth would identify with Wren though: she’s as hungry for fame as they are. “Back then – but maybe even more so today – the idea of wanting to be famous but not having any specific talent, that idea of reinvention, was everywhere,” explains Seidelman. “Back then, a lot of the bands, they weren’t exactly great musically, but they sort of had the energy and attitude that meant they could perform at CBGBs or Max’s Kansas City, and in some ways the whole idea of Wren, who’s posting Xeroxed pictures of herself all over the subway, it’s a form of self-promotion that’s not all that different from taking a selfie and posting it on Instagram.” The film was influenced, says Seidelman, by her experience of being broke and living in a tiny apartment in the East Village. “I made this film about two years after I had graduated from NYU Film School, and the film was made with a lot of my fellow classmates. At the time, NYU Film School was located in the heart of the East Village, and for me it was such an interesting place.” It was a city in transition, she explains. “The downtown area had been sort of home to this 1960s hippie culture, but towards the mid-70s something new was coming. The music was changing, the punk scene was emerging, there was a cultural shift. Whether it was poetry or painting or music or graffiti art or performance art, they were all kind of blending together. And films were starting to be made that way too, using musicians as actors, and artists were helping out with the production design. There was a cross-cultural blending that definitely influenced the look and feel of Smithereens.” Seidelman’s debut plays at EIFF alongside ten other knockout features from the 1980s

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

directed by women. As well as Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Chopra’s Smooth Talk, the eclectic line-up includes Kathryn Bigelow’s poetic vampire movie Near Dark, Donna Deitch’s moving lesbian romance Desert Hearts, Lynne Littman’s nuclear holocaust drama Testament and Penelope Spheeris’ vibrant documentary about LA’s punk scene The Decline of Western Civilization. There’s more of New York’s music culture too in the form of Jennie Livingston’s brilliant doc Paris is Burning, and there’s also rarely-screened work from two titans of American experimental cinema: Lizzie Borden and Shirley Clarke with Working Girls and Ornette: Made in America respectively. Like Seidelman, many of the women above would go on to have considerable success in the mainstream. Heckerling would make Look Who’s Talking (1989) and teen movie masterpiece Clueless (1995). Spheeris made another punky effort (Suburbia) before directing Wayne’s World (1992) and Little Rascals (1994). As the new millenium approached however, fewer studio gigs were assigned to these directors. Only Bigalow would build on her mainstream success to continue to regularly direct feature films. It’s worth noting though that Bigalow works in the action mode and tends to make films about men (Point Break, The Hurt Locker, Detroit). Might this explain why her career flourished while the opportunities to direct studio films dried up for her peers? “Hollywood, certainly in the 90s, was very male centric,” says Seidelman, who worked primarily in television throughout the 1990s, including directing several episodes of Sex and the City. “So being a New Yorker, and not being part of that boys club, the studios – and there definitely was a boys club – that probably was a

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disadvantage. But it was kind of a double whammy: being a woman director who wanted to make movies with female characters in the lead. “There were projects I remember wanting to do but if I brought them out to somebody who was a Hollywood producer, it was always, ‘Who’s the male star?’ Not that I don’t like to have men in my movies, I do, but certainly as a female director, my interest was to try to tell stories that I thought hadn’t been told yet with characters that I thought were interesting in real life but I hadn’t seen on screen.” We get the sense that Seidelman has few regrets: “Maybe if I’d have moved out to LA and done other kinds of movies, it would have been a bit easier but I wanted to make the kind of movies I wanted to make.” It’s to Hollywood’s shame that filmmakers as fine as Seidelman and her peers weren’t given the chance to make more feature films beyond this extraordinary run of creativity in the 80s. The chance to revisit these wonderful movies at EIFF should prove bittersweet. You’ll leave the screenings of films like Smithereens and Working Girls enlivened, but asking yourself the nagging question: what could have been? EIFF runs 20 Jun-1 Jul, edfilmfest.org.uk Female Directors in American Cinema 1980-1990 runs throughout EIFF, with Smithereens screening 21 Jun, 8.40pm. Ahead of Smithereens’ screening, EIFF also present a lecture on Female Directors in American Cinema

Fancy soaking up some of these fantastic films at EIFF? Win a pair of tickets to both Smithereens and Near Dark, plus a Kathryn Bigelow T-shirt courtesy of Girls on Tops and an official EIFF T-shirt by heading to: theskinny.co.uk/competitions

The Decline of Western Civilization

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The Eyes Have It

10 Films to See

Mark Cousins' latest film explores the life and work of Orson Welles through the huge archive of drawings the Citizen Kane director made across his life. Cousins tells us how studying these sketches brought him closer to his filmmaking hero

Our film editor picks ten of the most interesting films to look out for at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (20 Jun-1 Jul) Words: Jamie Dunn

Interview: Jamie Dunn Make Me Up Dir. Rachel Maclean Video artist Rachel Maclean specialises in taking pop culture imagery and twisting it to create darkly surreal computer-generated worlds that act as grotesque, candy-coloured allegories to our own. Her first feature-length work is made to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage and imagines a dystopian future where a group of women are trapped in a cruel reality TV-style competition. 21 & 24 Jun

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An Elephant Sitting Still Dir. Hu Bo There was much acclaim for this four-hour Chinese epic at this year’s Berlinale. Set over one day, it follows four lonely people in a humdrum city in northern China. The filmmaking from first-time director Hu Bo is reportedly assured and mesmerising, employing dreamy Steadicam shots that call to mind the work of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Béla Tarr. Its qualities make it all the more tragic that the 29-year-old director committed suicide before the film’s release. 26 & 30 Jun

Orson Welles

Photo: Getty Images

icture the scene. Belfast, 1973, and a nervy eight-year-old boy is sitting crossed legged in front of the TV watching a feverish black and white thriller. Full of bold lighting and baroque camera moves, not to mention the greatest opening shot in film history, this pint-sized cinephile’s mind is blown. That kid was filmmaker Mark Cousins, and the movie that so transfixed him was Orson Welles’ 1958 noir Touch of Evil. “When you’re eight or nine, you can’t really understand that film,” says Cousins when we sit down to chat at a bar near his flat in Edinburgh, which has been his home for three decades. “But back then I knew it was something so intense, for me, so visceral. It was the first time that I realised films could have a texture. ” The reason we’re discussing this Orson Welles classic is that Cousins has just made a wonderful new film about the legendary director, called The Eyes of Orson Welles. As the title suggests, the Irish filmmaker’s angle into discussing this giant of cinema is through the way he looked at the world, specifically through the drawings and paintings Welles made since he was a boy. Cousins had encountered a few of these sketches over the years, but a chance meeting with Beatrice Welles, the director’s youngest daughter, at Traverse City Film Festival led him down a rabbit hole. “I’d no idea that [Welles’ archive of sketches] was so huge,” says Cousins. “I would estimate there’s almost a thousand. I’m the first person I think to look at all of the drawings anywhere in the world, so the scale of it was completely new to me.” In the film, Cousins juxtaposes these Welles drawings with scenes from his movies, and the experience is akin to going to an exhibition of a great master painter where the curator has hung charcoal studies next to the famous masterworks. “And I prefer the sketches,” says Cousins of this analogy. “It’s far more exciting to see the unfinished ones. If you can see the paint movement, the movement of hand, then you feel closer to the artist. It’s like ripping the lid off of those paintings and looking into the unconscious mind. When you get into these Orson Welles drawings, you can see him thinking, thinking visually.” To illustrate his point, Cousins reaches into the satchel he has hung over a chair and pulls out a small, cream coloured Christmas card drawn by Welles in the early 70s. “There’s something quite personal about this,” he says as he lovingly places it down on the table. Hardly the most festive of scenes, it shows old Saint Nick clutching a bottle of hooch marked XXX, and the huge, cartoonish grin he’s wearing suggests he might have had a few drams. “This is a drinker’s image,” Cousins confirms. “There’s a big drinker’s nose there, as you can see, and the sort of slightly cartoony eyes. He has a big smile, and yet look at the grey background, there’s none of the colours you’d expect in a Christmas card. Where’s the green and red?” This quick doodle, knocked off in a few minutes, works as a kind of peephole into Welles’ unconscious, says Cousins. “There’s something a bit autobiographical here. It is Santa, but it’s also a bit of King Lear. [His sketches] are contradictory, they’re all the things the man himself was.” Cousins wears his admiration for Welles on

his sleeve- quite literally – in the form of a tattoo, alongside tattoos of other great artists he admires, like Paul Cézanne, Le Corbusier, and Virginia Woolf. What’s the criteria to make it on to his arm, we ask. “Well, they have to be dead, first of all,” he laughs. “If they’re dead, they’re less likely to turn into Trump supporters or something like that. But they’re people who, in some simple way, have astonished me. And beyond that, these people tend to be quite wild in some way. Or innovative. And in the case of Welles, he was certainly both.”

“ When you get into these Orson Welles drawings, you can see him thinking, thinking visually” Mark Cousins

If you think you can’t get any more intimate than this most permanent of tributes, Cousins has another surprise inside his satchel. “I bought them online,” he says sheepishly, pulling out a huge pair of Welles’ boots. “This was one of the last pairs he had commissioned. He’s no longer distant.” Cousins reaches in to the black leather and pulls out something white and plastic. “Look,” he says proudly, “he can’t be distant when I’ve got his orthotic.” The Eyes of Orson Welles has its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival, screening 24 & 25 Jun, before being released across the UK 17 Aug by Dogwoof

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The Eyes of Orson Welles Dir. Mark Cousins Mark Cousins gives his zesty take on the life and work of Orson Welles. As the title suggests, the Irish filmmaker’s angle into discussing this giant of cinema is through the way he looked at the world, and specifically through Welles’ drawings and paintings. Using these expressive artworks as jumping-off points, Cousins – speaking directly to Welles in an intimate voiceover – makes some inspired connections between the great filmmaker’s personal, political and creative endeavours. 24 & 25 Jun Swinging Safari Dir. Stephan Elliott With The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Stephan Elliott created one of the great Aussie films of the 1990s. He’s reportedly back on crass form with this 70s-set raunchy comedy following the outrageous antics of three dysfunctional families in suburban Sydney. The bonza cast includes Elliott’s Priscilla star Guy Pearce, and pop institution Kylie Minogue, Pearce’s old mucker from their Neighbours salad days. 27 & 29 Jun Searching Dir. Aneesh Chaganty Step aside found footage films, there’s a new movie gimmick in town: 'screen movies', meaning films that play out entirely on computer screens. Unfriended, the creepy little ghost story from 2015 set within a single Skype convo, was a promising beginning for the sub-genre, but word is this thriller about a dad (John Cho) who turns desktop detective when his teenage daughter goes missing takes it to a whole new level. 21 & 22 Jun Calibre Dir. Matt Palmer We’re getting a distinct ‘Deliverance in the Highlands’ vibe from Matt Palmer’s feature

debut about a weekend hunting trip that goes badly awry, with Jack Lowden and Martin McCann playing the two city-slickers out of their depth in teuchter country. Palmer is best known in the Scottish horror community for All Night Horror Madness, his immaculately curated horror all-nighters at Cameo – we look forward to seeing what he comes up with behind the camera. 22, 23 & 30 Jun

Waru Dirs. Ainsley Gardiner, Awanui Simich-Pene, Briar Grace-Smith, Renae Maihi, Chelsea Cohen, Casey Kaa, Paula Jones, Katie Wolfe Eight female directors from New Zealand each create a short film that combine to tell a multi-voiced story about the death of a young Maori boy. The shorts take the form of a single ten-minute continuous shot following a different person in the boy’s life. Together, the films explore the circumstances that lead to the boy’s untimely demise, from his chaotic home life to the social mores of the wider Maori community in which he lived. 23 & 24 Jun Wild Nights with Emily Dir. Madeleine Olnek If Terence Davies’ Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion was too heartbreaking for you, this dramedy reimagining the personal life of the 19th century poet might be just the ticket. Instead of the hermit spinster that she’s often imagined as, Madeleine Olnek uses Dickinson’s own vivid writing to paint her as an altogether gayer character, in both senses of the word. The brilliant Molly Shannon – scene stealer extraordinaire in many a Hollywood comedy – plays the poet. 28 & 30 Jun Anna and the Apocalypse Dir. John McPhail A zombie apocalypse musical set in a Scottish high school. Oh, and it’s also a Christmas movie. Who could resist? Based on short film Zombie Musical – which spliced George A Romero and the Disney High School Musical franchise – from the late Ryan McHenry, this ambitious feature length horror-musical went down a storm at Fantastic Fest and should light up EIFF’s Night Moves strand. 29 & 30 Jun Dirt Road to Lafayette Dir. Kenny Glenaan At 71, the great Glaswegian novelist James Kelman is making his screenwriting debut with this story of a widowed father and his son journeying to southern USA, where the lad, a talented accordionist, falls for blues music. If you’re familiar with Kelman’s novels, you’ll know that he writes authentic dialogue like a dream. Kenny Glenaan, who won EIFF’s Michael Powell award back in 2001 for his debut Gas Attack, directs. 24 & 26 Jun The 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 20 Jun-1 Jul Want to receive the best of the Scottish cultural scene in your inbox every week? Sign up to our mailing list! edfilmfest.org.uk

THE SKINNY

June 2018

Feature

THE SKINNY

Choose Life, Choose Apostille Interview: Claire Francis

Photo: Harrison Reid

We speak to Night School Records founder Michael Kasparis about Trainspotting, George Michael and his latest solo record Choose Life under his Apostille moniker

s a man with a number of musical projects around town, Michael Kasparis is a name you’ll likely recognise. Kasparis founded and runs the Glasgow-based Night School Records label; he’s also a member of hardcore punk bands Anxiety and The Lowest Form. Under the alias Apostille, his solo electronic project, he releases his second album Choose Life this month. When we meet up with Kasparis at a café in Glasgow’s Southside, Anxiety have just recently played their last-ever show; a point of transition that seems apt with the imminent Apostille release. “We played our last gig… Saturday just gone in Bologna. I was doing double duty – I was touring Apostille and then Anxiety at the same time. So yeah, it was intense,” he laughs. “It would have been nice to do the last [Anxiety] gig in Glasgow, but that’s just the way it happened. One of the guitarists moved away from Glasgow, basically. We didn’t want to be like Iron Maiden and start drafting people in. It would just be a bit weird.” Hardcore punk seems like a large leap from electronic pop, but as Kasparis explains, “the punk stuff is actually more new to me. Anxiety has only been going since like, 2016. I’ve always done stuff on my own, since I was a kid. The first thing I ever did was – I think my mum got me a guitar from Argos and I didn’t even know how to tune it – recording tapes and tapes of that.” He continues: “I got a four-track when I was 16 or 17 and made loads of recordings. There was never any kind of style consistency… I didn’t really care about that. I got into Mogwai when I was 16, so I did all these tapes with loads of guitar. Then I discovered Leonard Cohen, and I was like ‘okay, now I’m a real ballad guy,’” he laughs. “I’ve always been doing stuff like that, but then I started taking Apostille more seriously in 2010. And that was just because I was playing in a hardcore band, and doing some other abstract music, but I think

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I actually just really love pop music. So I wanted to try and communicate that way.” Kasparis adds, “I was never an expert or anything. It was trial and error. Mostly error, and a lot of trial!” His Apostille debut, the self-released 2015 album Powerless set the template of Kasparis’ electronic pop sound. Minimal yet packing an emotional, at times almost comic punch, the record employed skittering drum machines, thick walls of synth and vibrant basslines. Choose Life is by contrast a more personal and honest album. Kasparis lays himself bare but also demonstrates a new-found confidence in his voice, and embraces pop songwriting more definitively than on his debut. In the press release accompanying Choose Life, Kasparis explains, “Many of the songs were written as some sort of catharsis, an escape from a tumultuous couple of years. The album title was intended as ironic at first but as the writing process went on the album began to feel more playful, I was finding revelatory threads in it I hadn’t intended.” When we ask Kasparis about this need for catharsis, he tells us, “I suppose the whole thing has always been about music, but also for me – this is going to sound awful – it was a little bit more about self-realisation. It’s like any situation where you’re used to working in a group with a bunch of people, you kind of lose yourself in that a lot. And I suppose that’s the point, right? So the more I started doing [Apostille] stuff, I wanted to see how far I could push myself. “[With a solo project] you can basically be as indulgent as you want – until people stop listening,” he laughs. “It’s funny, when I talk to other people that write songs... they have a treatise about how to write songs. Whereas for me it’s all kind of done instinctually. Especially with this record, I wanted to try and secondguess myself less. You know when you’re a kid,

and you haven’t developed that self-consciousness yet, and everything is really exciting? I’ve been trying to have that approach to everything.” Choose Life was recorded with Lewis Cook (of Free Love fka Happy Meals, The Cosmic Dead) at his home studio Full Ashram. Of the songwriting process, Kasparis says that “the most recent one is the title track, and that was co-written with Lewis. We kind of collaborated on it, he’s just such a whiz. Certainly with the newer songs, which were unfinished, he was integral to the process. And that’s the thing; with the last record, I did everything myself. Recorded it, selfreleased it, wrote the press release. It’s funny because these songs are much more personal than the last album, but I wanted to change the dynamic and get other people to help me with it.” The album opener Fly With the Dolphin is a pulsing synth pop number whose uplifting melody counters the existential crisis unfolding in Kasparis’ lyrics: he sings of wanting to swim, walk, drive and fly away, to press the ejector seat and leave everything behind. Feel Bad explores similar territory, while track titles like Hanging On and Without Me suggest a further process of introspection – before the redemptive titular closing track emerges. “When I started writing the record, I don’t know, I suppose most people would say a ‘state of flux’ or something,” he laughs. “I mean, just the shit that everyone goes through; break-ups, feeling a little bit unhinged or whatever. So a lot of those songs were either written in the middle of that or just after it. I think songs that deal with subjects like that, you have to have some perspective on it; it has to have some structure.” Finally, we have to ask, in the spirit of the title being as Kasparis himself says “kind of ironic, because I didn’t feel like choosing life at the time,” whether Choose Life is a Trainspotting

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reference? With his trademark candour, Kasparis laughs, “Do you know what? It was stupid of me, because basically when I was at school we all did it for a reading project. You know when you do a reading report, and all the kids choose [Trainspotting] because it has swearing in it. I didn’t even think about that reference until someone asked me whether it related to Trainspotting.

“These songs are much more personal than the last album, but I wanted to change the dynamic and get other people to help me with it” Michael Kasparis

“But it was actually more of a George Michael reference. I’m a massive George Michael fan. The Katharine Hamnett kind of slogan T-shirts from the 80s. I think it was originally Choose Love. So, it became Choose Life.” Choose Life is released on 8 Jun via Upset the Rhythm Apostille plays The Art School, Glasgow, 2 Jun facebook.com/ApostilleofGlasgow

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All Ears We catch up with Let’s Eat Grandma’s Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth to discuss friendships, gender stereotypes and sophomore album I’m All Ears

hildhood friendships are often long-lasting. Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth – better known as the grammatically incorrect duo Let’s Eat Grandma – are a testament to this. The teenaged kindred spirits became friends aged four after meeting in reception class at school in Norwich. They’ve been inseparable ever since, sharing a sibling-like bond and forming their musical duo in 2013 upon becoming teens. When they first emerged on the scene – with the release of their debut album I, Gemini in 2016 – they could be mistaken for twin sisters as they adopted matching outfits on stage and mirrored one another with Rapunzel-esque hair. The multi-instrumentalists had barely left school when their fanbase grew substantially. Their experimental, ethereal and sometimes psychedelic pop music was unique and captivating. Much of their debut had been written years earlier during their formative years and was later recorded on a minimal budget using equipment at the college they later attended together. Songs such as Sax in the City, Eat Shiitake Mushrooms and Chocolate Sludge Cake are playfully titled yet musically skilful and unpredictable. The album was met with critical acclaim and led to them making a memorable television debut performance on Later... with Jools Holland. Two years later – after a heavy schedule of touring, writing and recording – they return with new material. Walton and Hollingworth are still as close as ever but have a greater sense of individuality in their late teens which goes way beyond their appearance. They completed a pre-album release UK tour in April and are expected to return with further dates at the end of the year. In the months to come, summer festivals beckon and the duo will head Stateside in September. As they speak to The Skinny ahead of releasing their second album I’m All Ears, we listen intently as they reflect on their story so far, beginning with their first encounter. “I remember the day we met,” recalls Walton, who takes the lead during much of the conversation. “It was on the drawing table. Jenny was drawing an orange and blue snail. I thought it was really, really cool and wanted to make friends with her.” Hollingworth quips: “I think I was just iconic.” Their memorable stage name is a nod to the importance of good grammar. The lack of a simple comma can cause great misunderstanding between people, but the duo’s strong bond means there are rarely crossed wires between them. “We don’t really argue that much. I think we’re pretty open with one another about how we feel,” confirms Walton, going on to explain that a close-knit friendship is integral to their songwriting: “I think it has a really big impact and is one of the most important things about how the band works. You’ve got to be able to share the same creative vision when it comes to writing – even if we bring separate things to the table – but it helps having grown up together and really knowing each other inside out.” I’m All Ears is lyrically transparent. It’s more honest and emotive than their debut, which was comparatively cryptic. Hollingworth explains that maturing over recent years left them feeling ready – despite some initial reservations – to share their feelings with their fans: “I think it takes quite a bit more courage to be open about how you feel. It would’ve been easier to come out with personal songs on the first record when fewer people were going to hear it straight away.

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But we’ve actually made them more personal on the second record, despite the increased audience, because we had stuff that we needed to talk about.” Walton agrees: “We already had an audience for the album before we’d actually released it. When you make your second album you know that people are going to be listening to it because they listened to your first album. They’re going to want to hear your stuff so I think that you have to be a bit bolder with what you’re saying... When we wrote the first album we were so much younger and we hadn’t necessarily had the life experience that we’ve had in the last couple of years.” Recent single Hot Pink is a case in point. It tackles the misconceptions of gender identity and highlights the power of embracing its various forms. “It’s something that we think about a lot. It affects us and so many other people. We wanted to write something for people who didn’t fit the stereotypes. It’s also about the idea that femininity is inferior to masculinity and how empowering femininity is,” says Walton. Hollingworth adds: “Regardless of gender on a personal level, I know feminine guys who are affected as well.” The emotions expressed on the album are also personified on its cover artwork. A vivid, kaleidoscopic image portrays Let’s Eat Grandma through the eyes of another female’s perspective, namely New York-based artist and illustrator Yanjun Cheng. It is simply entitled Jenny and Rosa, Digital Painting 2018 and is inspired by the duo’s voices and music. “This illustration visualised their voice from listening to the new album and expresses that one voice has two attitudes, the two voices connect like the one,” said Cheng of her own work.

“ We wanted to write something for people who didn’t fit the stereotypes. It’s also about the idea that femininity is inferior to masculinity and how empowering femininity is” Rosa Walton

Walton is keen to express her admiration for the artist although she confesses that they have yet to meet: “We found her on the internet and sent her a message. We really, really loved her work and it seemed to us like it was perfect for the album. We sent her quite a few different photos of us. The image she painted wasn’t actually a direct copy of any of those – it was combined – but I think she’s really captured our facial expressions well and it just works.” The making of I’m All Ears was supported by the Momentum Music Fund (MMF). The fund forms part of the PRS Foundation, the UK’s

Photo: Charlotte Patmore

Interview: Stuart Holmes

leading funder of new music and talent development, who support numerous projects in partnership with patrons and funding bodies such as Arts Council England. Let’s Eat Grandma also received previous financial support for a North America tour from Women Make Music, another PRS Foundation project, all of which has proven vital to their achievements so far. “They’ve really allowed us to do a lot of stuff that we couldn’t have done without them. They’re really supportive of us. Making records is so expensive. We were really ambitious with this record as well. We wanted to properly invest money into this album and without MMF I don’t think we would have been able to do it the way that we did,” says Walton. The range of sounds on I’m All Ears is broad and accomplished. They utilised the talents of several producers, including SOPHIE and Faris Badwan (The Horrors), who were also songwriting

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partners on several tracks. The collaborative approach to the album was unchartered territory for Let’s Eat Grandma, which they embraced and learned from. “We didn’t really try to make an album that has all its songs in the same style,” says Walton. “I think our own style comes out naturally. For I, Gemini there were quite different sonic themes going on and this record is the same.” With their school days and the DIY production of I, Gemini now a distant memory, I’m All Ears is a greatly distinguishable leap forwards from their impressive debut. And with Let’s Eat Grandma achieving such high standards so soon after reaching adulthood together we can only hope that their friendship is eternal. I’m All Ears is released on 29 Jun via Transgressive Records letseatgrandma.co.uk

THE SKINNY

June 2018

More Than Conscious London rapper Akala is increasingly known for writing books, appearing on Question Time and lecturing on Shakespeare. Ahead of his performance at Doune the Rabbit Hole, he assures The Skinny that making world-changing music is still his first love Interview: Jonathan Rimmer

or dropping freestyles, Kingslee ‘Akala’ Daley, now 34, always goes by his rapper tag, even though it’s been five years since his last full length studio album and three since his last mixtape. As the London emcee lightly puts it: “I’ve just been really busy with other things. I’ve still been touring and music is my first love. I’m probably going to do another full-band type thing next year – at least that’s the hope.” Other than a DJ and live drummer, Akala is leaving his full band behind for upcoming sets – including his slot at Doune the Rabbit Hole festival near Stirling in July – but it’s difficult to imagine him fully returning to the electronicaoriented route of his earliest records. Describing himself as an “old soul,” Akala draws heavily from reggae, funk and garage, reflective of the wide array of cultures and experiences that moulded him and giving his most recent studio LP The Thieves Banquet what he describes as a “smoothness and warmth and energy.” But while he naturally identifies mostly with his Jamaican heritage and culture, he also has more than a soft spot for Scotland due to his mother’s background. In his new book Natives he describes a childhood trip north of the border as

Photo: Paul Husband

t’s a curiously overlooked fact that hip-hop has overtaken rock as the most popular style of music on the planet in the last few years, at least if streaming statistics are anything to go by. And yet, the genre continues to be under-represented when it comes to critical recognition and award allocation. The reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize win from some quarters, for example, demonstrates how far rap artists and the wider scene still have to go to be treated respectfully. Akala has become one of hip-hop culture’s most prominent ambassadors in the UK over the past decade, serving as a conduit through which middle class commentators and consumers purport to try and better understand the music and the struggles it gives voice to. In many ways he subverts many of their preconceived stereotypes: he runs workshops on Shakespeare, regularly appears on BBC programmes like Question Time and Frankie Boyle’s Election Autopsy, has lectured and answered questions at universities around the world including Oxford, and has just released a research-heavy memoir on race, class and the British empire. Whether he’s speaking at ‘elite’ institutions

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having a “profound impact on his life and thinking.” It perhaps hints at why he’s enthusiastic about making the trek up to Doune – even if he’s the only major hip-hop artist on the bill. He says: “For me, Scottish audiences are the perfect balance: rowdy without being troublesome. They’re passionate and it’s always a pleasure to get up there and perform. I think at festivals like that as well you really need to hit them short and sharp. I’m aware they won’t all know me – you don’t have the same history or relationship or even trust. You have to hit them as quickly as possible. “Is it difficult for hip-hop artists? I did the festival circuit when I came up, but it’s a weird situation. I think with a festival, the ticket price can certainly be prohibitive to poorer audiences and that can be difficult for a working class hip-hop scene. But with UK hip-hop as a whole, you’ve got to remember some of the producers come from places like Peckham or Tottenham or Hackney – this is one of the few means of exposure to an outside audience.” Campaigning for this exposure – particularly for artists from working class and minority backgrounds – remains one of Akala’s real passions. His political activism and community work arguably invokes the tenets of hip-hop’s inception, seeking to empower young people to articulate stories about their own lives and society around them. Although radio play has not always been forthcoming, Akala says he’s encouraged by the way rappers and grime artists like Stormzy and JME, for example, have chosen to use their platforms. “It’s interesting,” he says. “These guys are the only real musicians on mainstream popular platforms trying to critique the state – what Stormzy did calling out the government for Grenfell [at the BRIT Awards] was amazing. It’s kind of ironic, too. The pro-free speech right somehow didn’t think he should have used his free speech in that way. “We saw a reaction with Stormzy being told by the Daily Mail to show gratitude for what Britain’s given him. But he made his own money and the Daily Mail should respect that. He’s the archetype of social mobility. This is a country proud of free speech, so surely a multi-millionaire putting their freedom and career on the line should be admired. It just exposes the hypocrisy.” Over the past few years there have certainly been examples of hip-hop returning to its social justice roots. On a global level, hip-hop has been used to vocalise struggles in Iran, North Africa and China, where it was banned this year. Stateside artists such as Rapsody, Brockhampton and Joey Bada$$ have tackled issues around LGBT rights, women’s rights, class and white nationalism on the highest stage. For Akala, who has been making virulently anti-establishment music since Tony Blair and George Bush were in power, you might think these developments would serve as vindication. Although Akala doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a “conscious rapper,” some of his most recognisable tracks and freestyles are equipped with direct messaging around aspiration and using rap in an empowering way – such as his legendary Fire in the Booth verse on Radio 1. But he says

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he’s become more balanced in his reflections with age. “As I get older, I’ve had to review my own opinions of hip-hop and the extent to which it was a radical critique,” he says. “Compared to reggae, which was anti-establishment and class conscious, hip-hop has been more ambiguous. Post-black power, it certainly has echoed the civil rights struggle and so on, but that’s not been the central voice.

“ For me, Scottish audiences are the perfect balance: rowdy without being troublesome. They’re passionate and it’s always a pleasure to get up there and perform” Akala

“Other than Public Enemy and other spurts, it’s been politically ambiguous – a mix of anti-establishment rhetoric and socially conservative politics – which is of course aided by what the industry is willing to promote as part of that. One of the contradictions of hip-hop is artists not controlling the means of production of music.” Akala doesn’t do anything by halves: Doune festivalgoers can expect a full visual show to accompany his multifaceted set, which is typically interspersed with rousing interludes and spoken word poetry. Over a decade on from his debut record, he’s still creating music that seeks to educate and inform as well as entertain, and he says he’s not the only one. “We might not be at the point of counterculture that we had in the 70s with reggae and jazz, but as things have gotten worse for people – and it’s so obvious there are problems – it’s hard for artists to justify ignoring them,” he says. “And to be fair, record labels recognise there’s money in rebellion: Rage Against the Machine and Bob Marley generated a lot of money for these people. “It’s the same for me. You’d be hard-pressed to find an artist on a major label that hasn’t had major radio play but can sell 2,000 tickets at a show. I’ve not been on a top radio playlist since 2005 yet I can, but there’s very few. Artists who have something to say can be very successful, contrary to popular belief. That’s the role of art – it should be social commentary and tell us something about the world.” Akala plays Doune the Rabbit Hole, 13-15 Jul, Cardross Estate akala.moonfruit.com

THE SKINNY

For Funk's Sake Ahead of fifth album Head Over Heels, Chromeo’s David Macklovitch – aka Dave 1 – talks collaboration and curation on the band’s love letter to funk

Interview: Peter Simpson

unk forever, motherfucker.” That call-out from producer DJ Quik around a third of the way through Chromeo’s new album Head Over Heels is actually a pretty good explanation of the Montreal duo’s gameplan. David Macklovitch and Patrick Gemayel – better known by their stage names of Dave 1 and P-Thugg – have been throwing out synth-loaded jams since the early 2000s; as the seasons change around them, Chromeo have stayed sleek, shiny and ready to party. The duo’s latest album is a noticeably more human affair than the clipped, chirpy electronics they broke through with, and sees Macklovitch and Gemayel progress with the more collaborative vibe that began on 2014’s White Women. “I guess we wanted to up the ante from the last record and maybe challenge ourselves a bit more,” Macklovitch tells us. “Also, it was our fifth album; we’ve done so much in the past in our idiosyncratic way so we wanted to change our way of working, and that’s why we wanted to make this album more collaborative than ever before.” And so Chromeo decamped to Burbank, Los Angeles with their vast array of gear and built up a studio with a view to bringing in as many other musicians as possible. The band are joined on Head Over Heels by an impressive roster including D.R.A.M., Stefflon Don and French Montana, with collaborations guided by the duo’s constant research. They started with The-Dream – “we’ve always been obsessed with him” – and D’Angelo and Q-Tip collaborator Raphael Saadiq, then things snowballed from there as the duo would hear more new music and call up its creators. “I had a couple of names on the hit list,” Macklovitch says, “but after that we were just curating and adapting as we went along.” The goal, he says, was to “try and create a polyphony of different voices and make this kind of ode or homage to all the different genres of funk music that have influenced us.”

“ There’s really nothing that makes people happier than disco, funk, boogie – it doesn’t exist” David Macklovitch

The result is an impressively deep dive through the annals of funk. Hearing Macklovitch rattle through a potted Head Over Heels track-bytrack that name-checks everyone from The Rolling Stones and Steely Dan to 60s funk pioneers The Meters – via Mark Morrison’s mid-90s R’n’B banger Return of the Mack – is to understand two things. These guys love funk, and they’ve done a hell of a lot of background reading. “I didn’t want to do a genre study,” Macklovitch says, “but there’s all these sides of funk that we wanted to integrate in this album, and make it almost like a love letter.” We compliment the natural, full-band bounce of recent single Bad Decision, and

June 2018

Photo: Tim Saccenti

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Macklovitch’s enthusiastic perfectionism comes through loud and clear: “Do you know how hard it is to have that natural bounciness, by the way? Unless you have the world’s best drummer, unless you have Prince and the New Power Generation playing with you it’s so hard to achieve. We worked on that song for a year, just to make it sound natural. It’s about moving every single element off the grid so it feels just loose enough.” Of course, slap on the radio and it becomes obvious that Chromeo aren’t the only ones who love a big bassline and scratchy guitar part. When Calvin Harris is dropping a whole album named after your chosen genre, it’s clear that the spotlight is on. For his part, Macklovitch’s opinion on funk’s current place in the pop hotseat is a mixed one. “I love hearing things that are well done,” he says. “If I hear a Bruno Mars record and the writing is good and his voice is incredible and the sonics are great, it motivates P and I to go in the studio. “Sometimes I’m just like ‘eh’. Sometimes I get the feeling that now, having either an 80s funk element or a 90s house element is just the 2018 equivalent to, like, having an EDM drop in a song four years ago. I’m wondering if it’s just ‘the thing to do’ and maybe [soon] it’ll be something else.” Yet despite their deep love for all things funky, the band aren’t angling for the role of genre gatekeeper any time soon, not least because Macklovitch acknowledges their take on the sound is “completely inaccurate.” He tells us,

“I didn’t even know what funk was until Snoop came out, I discovered George Clinton through Snoop Dogg. It’s always through the lens of kids who grew up in the 90s; that’s why we mix and match things the way we do.” The band’s sense of self-deprecating humour and lyrics focused on the more neurotic and left-field side of romance have long been calling cards – the duo once self-identified as ‘Larry David funk,’ and that’s the kind of soundbite people remember. Their repurposing of the erotic artwork of 70s and 80s rock and R’n’B bands, all long-legged models and gratuitous sexiness, has also been a common trope, but this time round the band have put themselves centre stage. “This felt like the responsible thing to do,” says Macklovitch of the album’s cover, featuring him and Gemayel in high heels with some impressively well-shaven legs. “We didn’t just want to have another retro image of a woman’s body and some kind of 70s eroticism, I was like ‘I’ve done that.’ We’ve always wanted to be the legs anyway – we always wanted to incarnate and embody that ourselves, and it comes at a time where I think everyone’s a little more socially responsible. You know, we’re grown men in our late 30s and we feel like there’s a responsibility we have with the imagery we use, and this felt like the best way to sort of turn it on its head and assume control of it.” Initial live reaction to the immediacy of Chromeo’s new sound has been positive ahead of

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a string of festival shows across Europe and North America to kick off the summer. The band’s sound is ideally suited to that kind of all-day-andall-night party, and Head Over Heels-era Chromeo feels like an incarnation that will have at least a couple of tunes for everyone. “We knew it from the beginning when we started this band, you could hear this music at every party, at every wedding,” says Macklovitch. “I was like ‘it’s only a matter of time before people realise this is the music that makes people the happiest.’ There’s really nothing that makes people happier than disco, funk, boogie – it doesn’t exist.” With that in mind, the band aren’t resting on their laurels. When asked about future plans, Macklovitch is clear that the next new tunes from the duo won’t take a full four years to show up. “I don’t think humanly we could churn out a new Chromeo song every month,” he says, “but I definitely feel like we need to put new stuff out either later this year or the top of next year and just make it a yearly thing. That’s just the way the music industry is evolving and it would be stubborn to not adapt to that. I think we’d be doing ourselves a disservice; if we have the resources then why not?” With a kitted-out studio, a bumper contacts book and encyclopedic knowledge of the sound, it looks like Chromeo might just be able to keep that funk going forever after all. Head Over Heels is released on 15 Jun via BigBeat/ Atlantic Records chromeo.net

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THE SKINNY

From the Ground Up cotland’s Architecture Fringe festival returns for a third year this month. Designed specifically to challenge conventional expectations of what might be expected of architectural discourse, the 70 events (up from 50 last time) are focused on considering the social and political implications of the built environment at the intersection of architecture, design and contemporary art. Says one of the organisers, Andy Summers, “Architecture is all about other people, buildings are for other people… Everyone experiences architecture all the time; we buy it, live in it. For us, what’s crucial is the cultural and socio-political context in Scotland. That’s the main point of our departure, it’s not about nice taps.” Started in 2016, the Architecture Fringe emerged as a direct response to Year of Innovation in Architecture and Design and the “top heavy approach” of the main festival by the Royal Institute of Architects in Scotland. Summers remembers “it was not easy to understand how grassroots organisations would take part.” From this, the organisers of the Architecture Fringe came together to build their own fringe that would “not just include architects but would be a wider expression of the arts, activism and society in general.” In order to promote this kind of openness and interaction of disciplines, politics, art and activism, the Architecture Fringe is based around an open call. “We’re a non-profit community interest company. Eleven of us all run the Fringe as volunteers. We basically are very handsoff, as to partake in the platform is free and it’s open access.” They do not curate the programme, but instead produce a core programme that responds to the annual theme. This year, that theme is ‘common senses.’ However, when it comes to the ‘open programme,’ Summers makes clear, “we only watch the quality, but we don’t curate that, as that’s how new cultures can emerge. We have very strict submission criteria, about tickets and levels of organisation expected, but beyond that we’re very hands-off… New ideas and new voices can come onto the scene very easily.” As well as being open to the social issues around itself, there is also the question as to how the Scottish architectural scene is interrogating its own problems, make-up and the diversity of its own population, and how easy it is for

anyone to break into the discipline and flourish. “Within architecture, this reflection is definitely up and running,” says Summers. He mentions the high profile architect Richard Meier in New York, who has been recently brought to account for sexual misconduct. “Within the Fringe itself, there are four projects that deal with women, misogyny and generally the institution and cultural shift. Architectural Killjoys is one of those, and will be an open space where people can come along and generally share and open up conversation. There’s also Voices of Experience which is in Glasgow, an archive project which rediscovers older professional women who have been ignored and forgotten, and they’re paired with younger professional women to share experience and are remembered.”

“ New ideas and new voices can come onto the scene very easily” Andy Summers

Some of the main ambitions of the programme can also be understood from the Custom Lane Summer Pavilion, which is both one of the 70 projects and one of the central meeting points of the entire Fringe. According to one of the Summer Pavilion’s main facilitators Gunnar Groves-Raines, “Custom Lane down in Leith is a creative hub and centre for design and making. Our project with the Architecture Fringe is to describe a temporary pavilion [a main meeting point for the Fringe] in a lane space that we have at the front of our building. As a creative hub, we have a lot of people who are based here including designers from different disciplines and we also have the Edinburgh Tool Library in our space. The idea is to use all that expertise, with the community and a lot of volunteers to design and build a structure that will be there for the duration of the summer.” The Summer Pavilion also draws out some of the significances of the the theme ‘common senses,’ according to Groves-Raines. He thinks

Frankentypes

June 2018

Voices of Experience: She Makes She Changes

Photo: Robb Mcrae

Interview: Adam Benmakhlouf

Credit: A.R. Coster/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Architecture Fringe organiser Andy Summers and participant Gunnar Graves-Raines describe the exciting plans for this year’s Fringe, and what makes it so distinctive from other festivals of its kind.

Univer-City, UCU rally

first about the ‘common’ part, and the implied community and conversation, in relation to the Custom Lane building itself. “It’s about sharing experience, knowledge, information and supporting one another. It fits very well with the building,” he says, alluding to some of the daily exchanges that take place between the different studio holders. “The structure [the Summer Pavilion] is then thinking of that as a public space that anyone can use if they want to come in and create an atmosphere where any members of the public can come and experience design and architecture, and not in an intimidating environment. “In terms of the ‘senses’ part,” he continues, “we have a resident band who are very experimental and we’re looking at whether we can play on multiple senses [within the Summer Pavilion], whether their musical performance can be tailored to the structure and whether the two can inform one another.” If you’re not yet convinced to visit any of the 70 free events across Scotland that will comprise Architecture Fringe, the past visitors’ feedback also speaks to the quality of the Fringe programme. Summers describes their success, as 95% of the audience last year responded that they would enthusiastically recommend the Architecture Fringe.

ART

One point that comes up in both interviews is the distinctive nature of the practice of architecture in Scotland, and how this emerges from the regulatory and commercial factors at play here. “For those involved [in the Summer Pavilion], it’s about being free to build something. It’s very difficult to get things built in Scotland as an architect, especially as a young architect,” explains Summers. Similarly, he continues, “to build is very difficult, there’s either no money or the way that the procurement system works, it favours large companies. That’s the same across the world, that there’s a favouring of commercial enterprises and smaller independent people find it more difficult. So what architects have to do is diversify into areas beyond actual buildings.” One particular strength Summers identifies as coming through the Fringe is “very strong social engagement, e.g. helping to get a community centre off the ground.” Giving a sense of the strong basis of the experimental and socially-minded Architecture Fringe, Summers is clear that “Architecture in itself in Scotland is very plural, and architects are very socially engaged on the ground because that is where the work is.” Architecture Fringe 2018, 8-24 Jun, across Scotland

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Vital Sparks I

t’s pointless to write a feature about Scotland’s newest festival of contemporary performance, Take Me Somewhere, without mentioning the debt it owes to The Arches. Founded by Jackie Wylie, The Arches’ former Artistic Director, and now National Theatre of Scotland’s Artistic Director, the festival came about as a way to fill the gap left by the closure of that much-loved space in 2015. Recognising that the venue, and by extension, Glasgow itself, had been a hub of creativity and a home for contemporary artists, the festival continues its predecessor’s mission to be a space for diverse and crucial artistic voices from all around the world. Take Me Somewhere 2017 was a phenomenal success, boasting critically acclaimed shows and strong attendance, with the festival eventually selling out. Clearly, the demand for a space for contemporary artists to perform their work was high, and so this year’s festival continues in that same vein, and playing host to artists performing existing work and new commissions, too. For dancer Jamila Johnson-Small, Take Me Somewhere gives her the chance to perform her show i ride in colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere, in a city that she’s admired for some time. “There’s a real scene and a real interest in performance and art. I’m interested in that and in the work,” she says of Glasgow. “I make work so that I can have conversations about stuff that I think is important; questions I have, not just making work and composition and choreography,

too… trying to have new conversations, meet new people, share where I’m at.” First performed in 2016, i ride in colour explores Johnson-Small’s interest in making art from existing work and creating dance and spectacle in what she describes as “the spaces between things.” “I’m very interested in creating, crafting a spectacle, but at the same time I’m interested in the space between spectacle and everyday things.” In the piece, the body is the vessel, as Johnson-Small examines its limits, landscapes and her mental state, identifying her own voice through her experiences and memory. As well as dance and movement, Johnson-Small utilises song, music and her own voice to explore themes, such as representation and visibility, as well as occupying space. “I’m not really someone that likes to be stared at and not really big and loud or anything, so there’s a tension there in the work about regarding the gaze, how loud do I have to be to be heard? How big do I have to be to take up a space?” Take Me Somewhere have also commissioned a small number of artists and companies to present new work during May and June. These works, which come from familiar names and newer acts, tackle various subjects from LGBT political history, to the topic of FK Alexander’s latest piece, love. “There was a very clear moment for me when I was like, ‘Why am I speaking somebody else’s

Interview: Amy Taylor

i ride in colour and soft focus, no longer anywhere

words?’” explains Alexander about her past life as an actor. “…it’s some dead white guys, and you’re going to say their words. I’m sure that Shakespeare has a lot to say about a lot of things and that’s true, but he doesn’t mean shit to me about my life, or anybody that I knew. So, there was just a very clear point for me where I was like, ‘I have things.’” These “things”, as Alexander describes them, became her work, and her latest, Violence, a new commission from Take Me Somewhere, Outspoken Arts and The Marlborough Theatre, explores a theme that has become all too familiar; the way we think about love and how it is represented in popular culture, specifically that it was really another name for a form of violence.

Credit: Carlos Jimenez and Katarzyna Perlakpress

The Skinny chats to FK Alexander and Jamila Johnson-Small, two of the acts selected for Take Me Somewhere 2018, about their work and the space that the festival provides for contemporary artists

“I realised that I had received a lot of that information [about love] through untrustworthy sources, like Hollywood, which actually had given me the idea that romantic love is just a form of suffering and all too often, violence,” she explains. “I think I just wanted to make a piece of work that was like-the dream of this is broken for me. I wonder who else has a thought about that or has an experience about that?” she ponders. These shows would not have been out of place at The Arches, and thanks to Take Me Somewhere, they have another home. Take Me Somewhere until 4 Jun, various venues takemesomewhere.co.uk

Chord Progression With Flight of the Conchords landing at the SSE Hydro, we take a look back at when the duo were playing to only the people they could fit into an eighteenth century vault

n 1 August 1785, the first stone for Edinburgh’s South Bridge was laid. 217 years later in August 2002 the bridge’s subterranean vaults, closed off for over a century and now believed haunted, naturally became a Fringe venue. These vaults had been long forgotten. But, in 1989, there featured a curious news story which seemed straight from the pages of a spy novel. The Romanian rugby player Cristian Raducanu escaped his country’s secret police by entering a passageway in The Tron pub, taking him to the other side of the Cowgate. The Tron’s owner, fellow rugby star Norrie Rowan, spent the next decade excavating the vaults. Eventually he opened it as a new Edinburgh hub: The Caves. On the other side of the South Bridge stood the original Gilded Balloon. And in 2002 The Caves joined the Balloon’s family of Fringe venues for the summer. It’s hard not to see this moment, this summer, as a golden moment in the Balloon’s history. By December of the same year its Cowgate home would be destroyed by fire. GB’s

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2002 line-up was a remarkable one. It included Andrew Maxwell, Reg Hunter and Count Arthur Strong at the main theatre; Glenn Wool and Sarah Kendall at the Peppermint Lounge (now Cabaret Voltaire); David O’Doherty and Jimmy Carr at Teviot Row House. All were unknowns, compared to their reputations today. But it was in The Caves, this most unusual venue, where the most unusual act of all received their first big break. Talking to The Skinny, Gilded Balloon’s artistic director Karen Koren says: “Rosie Carnahan from New Zealand, who later became Mrs. Rhys Darby, was working for me running the Gilded Balloon bars and she said I should book this bizarre act who where friends of her and her boyfriend Rhys.” The bizarre act were an offbeat musical duo seeming to parody the folk genre. With a show at a quarter to midnight, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie – better known as Flight of the Conchords – could have spent August unnoticed, leaving with only their chest infections from the damp room. As the potted history on their

website puts it: “When it rained, which was most days in Edinburgh, the ceiling dripped onto the audience and a dank slime crept down the stone walls. Apparently in the 17th century the room had been used to quarantine plague victims.” Similarly, a Flight of the Conchords fansite – fotcmb.net – quotes an Edinburgh diary piece from the time: “The Caves […] resembled a cross between a giant pizza oven and… well, a cave. Damp, drippy, high, domed ceiling, and bricklined. Very old. If you sat in the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) spot, you got dripped on.” But, with the help of their new fans, including many comedians, a few drips and the threat of plague couldn’t halt their success. Koren adds: “[In] the first year, David O’Doherty just fell in love with them and all the comics started going down to the Caves to see them. I also booked them lots on Late‘n’Live which helped their profile, and I helped get their UK agent.” Along with playing Late‘n’Live, the Conchords show was also rivalling the legendary

THEATRE / COMEDY

Words: Ben Venables

Fringe show most nights. As Steve Bennett, on a fairly new comedy website called Chortle, put it: “You are going to be sceptical about this – I know I was – but two unknown New Zealanders performing a modest spoof on folk music is one of the highlights of this year’s Fringe... That the audience for these undiscovered comedy heroes boasted more performers than the Late and Live [sic] bar speaks volumes about the quality of this delightfully funny show, whose word-of-mouth buzz is spreading fast.” A year later, Flight of the Conchords, back at The Caves, were nominated for the Perrier Award. A year after that their BBC radio series picked up a Sony Award. By 2007, their sitcom debuted on HBO in the US, propelling the pair to international stardom. Yet, despite all this, even as they land at Glasgow’s vast SEE Hydro, their understated presence and humour still gives them the feel of the alternative act who grew a cult following from the inside of a dank cave. Flight of the Conchords, SSE Hydro, 18 Jun, 6.30pm, £28-62

THE SKINNY

June 2018

THE SKINNY

Comics and Capes Glasgow Comic Con boss Nicola Love tells us what we can expect at this year’s convention

et’s set the scene: you’re walking through Glasgow, a tiny Wonder Woman zips around the tail end of Sauchiehall Street, fighting an equally small Hit-Girl; Captain America and Batman leap into the action. Cosplayers are everywhere, people are buzzing, there’s a hell of a queue. The winner of the battle is undetermined. For adults and children alike, comic cons are a beacon of fandom that brings people together. Glasgow Comic Con is a particularly bright beacon. Started in 2011, when Sha Nazir and John Farman bit the bullet and decided to launch a convention, Glasgow Comic Con began in Mackintosh Church and continued to grow, first to the Centre For Contemporary Arts, and again to the Royal Concert Hall in 2016. Come 2017, Nicola Love took over as boss – “you don’t want to fuck that up!” – continuing to evolve the event and its programme with their audience. It returns for the second year under her command on 30 June. “A man emailed me the other day and told me I had made the event 'too gay' and femalefocused,” she recalls. “I mean, he’s not entirely wrong… we’re for everyone, so of course our show is going to reflect that. “Glasgow Comic Con has two main focuses: families and comic fans. We’re a friendly bunch, really. You can expect plenty of comics which isn’t always a given at comic conventions, I guess. We showcase everything from the biggest international names working for DC and Marvel to selfpublished, small press creators. It’s not just superheroes (though there are also plenty of those too, we’re big superhero fans); people are making comics about everything and anything – last year my convention haul included books about traveling, mental health and sexuality. “We’ve also a dedicated Kids’ Zone, which debuted last year, focusing on workshops for our younger audience where you can create your own comic book character or get stuck into some

June 2018

comics-themed crafts. Plus we’ve got the usual mix of back issue sellers, bookshops and merchandise.” Love is right that comics aren’t always a given, with events increasingly focusing on films, TV, animation and large franchises under the comics moniker. Why is it important to them to keep the focus firmly on comics? “We just really like comics! I like TV and film as well but you could see them start to overtake books at selfprofessed comic conventions and that can be frustrating. We never wanted artists and writers to just be a couple of tables up the back, we want the medium to be the centre of attention. “The convention calendar is pretty full and different shows exist for different interests (it’s an exciting time to be a geek, really), it just happens that our main interest is comics. Comics tell stories in a way that, in our humble opinion, no other medium can and it’s exciting to be able to expose people to that. We usually find that the people who come to Glasgow Comic Con are totally up for exploring comics, if they’re not already avid readers. Being people’s introduction to comics is a privileged position to be in. We don’t take it for granted. “There’s definitely a celebration and enthusiasm for the medium shining through. I mean, you don’t get the plot of Avengers:Infinity War without comic writers like Jim Starlin or Jonathan Hickman. You can love the movies without loving the source material (and vice versa) and that’s totally fine, but it makes sense to nod to the thing that started it all.” 2018’s one day comic celebration is almost here, so what’s in store? “Every year, I say our line-up is the best yet. Every year I mean it. I was really fortunate in the sense that pretty much everyone I invited was able to come this year. We’ve got Kris Anka, an incredible artist who is knocking Marvel books out of the park right now. You have Jen Bartel, an illustrator whose covers and reimagining of popular characters got her

recognised in comics and is now starting to work on her own stories. Mahmud Asrar’s art is well-known among X-Men fans and Christian Ward’s cosmic style is just a breath of fresh air. All of our guests work on different books but the one thing they all have in common is that they’re committed to making mainstream comics accessible to everyone, which is kind of like Glasgow Comic Con’s mission statement.

“Comics tell stories in a way that, in our humble opinion, no other medium can and it’s exciting to be able to expose people to that” Nicola Love

“I always look at doing something we didn’t do the year before because I don’t want Glasgow Comic Con to repeat itself. I keep an eye on what comic fans are talking about and we’re always looking for feedback in terms of who people want to see. We want to be representative and showcase as many parts of the industry. Put it this way: I don’t ever want to have a diversity panel with four white guys on it. We want to strike a balance between having a laugh and being entertained and people walking away from a panel having learned something.” Beyond the guests, the convention is also jam-packed with exhibitors. “We have about 100

BOOKS

Photo: SineadGrainger

Interview: Heather Mcdaid

between creators, publishers and merchandise vendors. They’re mostly comics-focused, making books on every subject you can imagine. We have kids’ books, queer books, superhero books, autobiographical books. Everything. We also have your favourite high street shops like Forbidden Planet and Waterstones there too, and they’ll have books from our guests if you’re looking for something to get signed. If you just want to buy a Pop! figure, you can do that too.” With the event on the horizon, what does Love hope people get from attending Glasgow Comic Con? “Books. Lots of books! I hope people have fun, pick up something to read and get the chance to meet a creator they never thought they would get to meet.” Sat 30 Jun, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall glasgowcomiccon.com

Looking for some comic recommendations? Nicola Love has you covered Runaways: Kris Anka and Rainbow Rowell’s revival of the early 2000s Marvel series is my favourite monthly title right now. It’s a sweet, action-packed book and Matthew Wilson’s colouring is to die for. Black Bolt: Saladin Ahmed’s take on the Inhumans world is definitely a Marvel hidden gem and Christian Ward’s art is a breath of fresh air for mainstream comics. Heavy Vinyl: I wish Carly Usdin and Nina Vakueva’s music-loving, patriarchy-smashing, crime-fighting girl gang story had existed when I was in high school.

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Saving Lives One Cigarette at a Time Often bracketed as a caustic political comedian, we discover Doug Stanhope may have been plonked in the wrong pigeonhole

Credit: Brian Hennigan

Interview: Ben Venables

hen Doug Stanhope was last in Scotland, unwinding in a hotel bar, a man ran by intent on jumping from Edinburgh’s George IV Bridge. “I just went out to smoke,” Stanhope tells us, “there was a chick screaming, chasing after a guy, which is nothing odd in Scotland: screaming drunk people running down the street. But he was right at the bridge and he got up like he was going to jump. I just walked over and figured, well I’m drunk and he’s drunk, I can probably talk some sense into him.” With the help of others at the scene, Stanhope managed to dissuade the man until the authorities came: “Thank god I didn’t quit smoking: cigarettes saved a life.” A lot has changed since Stanhope’s last UK tour in 2015. But as he arrives back at Glasgow’s O2 Academy, the two memoirs he’s released within that time, both highly personal in different ways, remind us that we often peg Stanhope as a political comedian because he is outspoken, and speaks about anything, rather than from the reality of his routines. Talking of a recent interview to another “lazy fucking journalist,” he says: “Most of my answers were: I don’t know.” But the questioning continued: “What do you think about gun control? I don’t have a strong opinion. What do you think about Trump? I don’t really watch or care. I have my own fucking problems.

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“Some of my stuff, occasionally, is socially relevant,” he clarifies, “But I wouldn’t call it political. When I get compared to Bill Hicks people show up thinking it’s going to be a Bill Hicks show. And then they go: He’s not like Bill Hicks... Bill Hicks died at 32. I didn’t have a strong opinion until I was 38.” The first of his two recent books, Digging Up Mother, released in 2016, went well beyond describing his part easing his mother’s suicide – which he talked about with brutal if characteristic candour in his special Beer Hall Putsch. Without Bonnie, Stanhope wouldn’t have found stand-up. And the memoir’s subtitle – A Love Story – accurately describes a moving relationship between mother and son, not to have the irony we might expect. His latest book, This Is Not Fame is more like a collection of love letters to booze, chronicling an ongoing romance: “Everyone tends to write a book or tell a story when it’s too late,” he says. “They have to wrap it up with: thank god those days are over... which I just celebrated. I’ve been drinking for 30-something years, most of my stories are going to be drunk stories.” This Is Not Fame portrays someone whose actions are often more impish than stirring up controversy for the sake of it. In an early story, Stanhope jumps naked into a swimming pool. The motivation for which isn’t to be the centre of attention, but of someone wanting to liven things

up a bit: it’s heavy drinking as a public service. “Sometimes you have to be a utility player, you have to play a few positions. Sometimes you have to be the responsible one, which happens more and more the older you get. Sometimes you have to be that guy that jumps into the pool naked, to break up the monotony for everyone else.” Though perhaps the most illustrative story concerns the time Stanhope found himself in the middle of a protest against him: “That was one of my favourite shows... I was just getting named as the host of The Man Show, it hadn’t aired but we’d started promoting it, and there was this socialist website, or forum, by students from a very liberal college. They planned a protest against The Man Show because it was ‘demeaning to women’. Basically it was a Three Stooges show... Chimpanzees on tricycles, girls jumping on trampolines... The [students], ten or a dozen of them, came out and I went out early with a camera because I was all excited: I’d never been protested and haven’t been since.” But rather than going out and riling the activists up, Stanhope found himself instead discussing and debating their different points of view – even if none of them recognised him as the comedian they were protesting against. A situation which then farcically extended to his own fanbase: “I took pictures until some guys [from my audience] came by and started giving the protesters shit. They shouted: ‘if you don’t

COMEDY

like it don’t go to the show’ and then one started yelling at me, thinking I was one of the protesters, just because I was hanging out with them. It was just surreal.” Also in the book is a photo of Stanhope pulling his junk out in front of Louis CK. The picture’s inclusion predates the unravelling of CK’s masturbation stories coming out from the rumour mill into long overdue confirmation. Stanhope recently found himself explaining why, some years ago, he ‘confessed’ that he was the comedian masturbating in front of women. An action that naturally seems misjudged now. But despite that he tells us: “I made a decision many, many years ago that I just play to myself and what I want to talk about, my audience doesn’t get upset about anything. I try to push boundaries when I can and if I have a strong opinion beforehand, and if it is going to offend them, I’m gonna say it.” His motives, as with the protest, seem to be of someone who wants to listen as much as he wants to talk. If he discusses CK and #metoo in his new show, it’s likely to be controversial and provocative, but we suspect Stanhope would rather be in the conversation than thinking the first words that come into his head are the last words on a subject. With his tour reaching Glasgow but not Edinburgh, we finally discuss if Stanhope will ever come back to play the Edinburgh Fringe. But it seems unlikely given he’s not a fan of festivals generally. “I don’t like crowds and I don’t like festivals. I think they capitalise on artists’ desperation. They fuck them [over] on money while they get rich.”

“ Sometimes you have to be that guy that jumps into the pool naked, to break up the monotony for everyone else” Doug Stanhope

Although, when it comes to Edinburgh specifically, he offers a few backhanded compliments – if through the fog of a veteran’s memory. “I remember the times I’ve had with Glenn Wool and Jim Jefferies, those guys just hammering it. It’s like they talk about being in a war. I don’t think I could take it then, back when I was in my ‘fighting way’. You look back on those days like ‘we survived that’ – but I wouldn’t want to do it again.” And a festival mentality wouldn’t have given him the clarity of mind to intervene in Edinburgh, that time three years ago when he was needed most: “If I’d just finished the Fringe, I would have let that guy jump.” Doug Stanhope, O2 Academy, Glasgow, 8 Jun, 7pm, from £39 This Is Not Fame, published by De Capo Press is out now

THE SKINNY

Win Glasses from Ace & Tate! No two of us are the same, but we also don’t act the same way in every aspect of our lives. We’re weird, wonderful and multifaceted. Experimental, empowered and constantly evolving. So surely we shouldn’t have to wear the same kind of glasses in every situation, right? That’s what Ace & Tate believes – their prescription opticals and sunglasses start from £98, and as you’ll see if you check them out on Instagram, there’s plenty of stylish variety to choose from. We’ve teamed up with Ace & Tate to offer you the chance to win a new pair of frames – opticals or sunglasses – just in time for the summer. To be in with a chance of winning, simply head to theskinny.co.uk and answer this question. What do Ace & Tate manufacture?

Fatima Bramme Sey wears Ace & Tate

Photo: Bafic

a) Headwear b) Eyewear c) Footwear Competition closes midnight Sun 1 Jul. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Win Christine and the Queens tickets! The gender-queer electro-pop alter-ego of French singer-songwriter Héloïse Letissier, Christine and the Queens returned last month with new single Girlfriend. First album Chaleur Humaine sold 1.3 million copies around the world and was the biggest-selling debut in the UK in 2016, and now Letissier and her band are back on the road. Christine and the Queens’ UK tour brings them to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Fri 23 Nov and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Sat 24 Nov, and we have a pair of tickets to your choice of the Scottish shows to be won. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is simply head to theskinny.co.uk and answer the question below. What is the name of Christine and the Queens’ new single? a) Girlfriend b) Boyfriend c) Not Your Friend Competition closes midnight Sun 1 Jul. Winners will be notified via email within two working days of closing and required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. The winner will receive two tickets to either the Edinburgh or Glasgow gig. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Christine and the Queens

June 2018

COMPETITIONS

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LE Y ST FE LI

Scotland’s Coming Out Pride is far from perfect, but its impact on human rights in the country is undeniable. One writer retraces the strides we’ve made in 23 years of Scottish Pride

n a brisk summer day in June 1995, Scotland’s first Lesbian and Gay Pride march took place in Edinburgh. The organisers expected 500 people to turn up, yet to their happy astonishment an estimated 3000 marched along Princes Street, up the Mound, through the Old Town, and finishing with a festival in the Meadows. The mood was celebratory yet there was a political focus to the marchers: these were the days before equal marriage or non-discriminatory legislation and this was Scotland’s first acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ people in the public sphere. Despite there only being two decades between the first Scottish Pride and this year’s 23rd, major changes have happened on social, political and cultural levels. Feminist sociologist Alva Traebert specialises in gender and sexual diversity and she tells us what life was like in Scotland in the 1990s for LGBTQ+ people. “One thing to keep in mind is that sexual acts between consenting adult men only became decriminalised in Scotland in 1980, a whole 13 years after decriminalisation in England and Wales,” she says. “The age of consent was still different from the regulations applying to mixed-sex activities. Just after decriminalisation, HIV/AIDS became a huge issue and the wave of prejudice connected to that contributed to the passing of Section 2A (Section 28 in England and Wales), which among other things essentially shut down sex education for young people who weren’t cis and straight. A generation of young people were systematically deprived of vital information about their rights and their health.” Sue John, now the Enterprise Development Manager for Glasgow Women’s Library, was there at the very first Pride and explains why that march was as much political activism as a celebration: “It felt like we had a lot to fight and change,

Lifestyle

and as an activist that was at the forefront of my mind and activism was at the forefront of Pride. On one level we were saying ‘Yes, we are proud but we’re also proud to be at the forefront of changing things’.” And activism did change society. In 1998, the age of consent for same-sex relationships between men was lowered to 16 – the same age of consent for heterosexual couples. In 2000, Section 2A was repealed in Scotland, before England and Wales, largely due to the devolution of power to the Scottish parliament in the same year. In 2003, new legislation made it illegal for employers to discriminate based on gender or sexuality. And in 2005, same-sex couples became entitled to register for civil partnerships and the Gender Recognition Act passed, finally allowing transgender people to obtain birth certificates in their preferred gender identity – two of the biggest milestones in UK LGBTQ+ history. As well as a push to change political legislation, Scotland’s 1995 Pride was also a “coming out” to the public. In the 90s, Pride was an established annual event in England with the first UK Pride taking place in London in 1972. However, this level of visibility didn’t make its way up to Scotland for another 23 years. Sue remembers protesters at the first Scottish Pride marches: “[They] definitely believed that our way of life wasn’t right. We’d be shouted at, spat at, hollered at. But when you’re with a big group of thousands, that feels like a different thing than being on your own, because everyone who is LGBTQ+ has experienced that physical and verbal violence on their own – and that’s terrifying. But when there are thousands, you’re emboldened by that feeling of community. It was great to be able to shout back or just laugh.” Pride has always been about bringing different communities together under the umbrella

acronym LGBTQ+, and making non-cis or hetero sexualities visible to the general public. Alva Traebert points out that it’s important to keep in mind that Scotland’s geography had, and still has, an impact on everyday LGBTQ+ life. “Large parts of Scotland are rural, and queer and trans people in the Highlands and Islands had (and have) even less infrastructure to support them there. People would travel long distances to be able to meet peers or find support groups. Before the internet was widely available, people would find information about these groups in small, vague personal ads or use the one public phone booth in their village to call a helpline or switchboard in secret. The perception was that young gay people would move south of the border whenever possible, drawn by the prospect of queer community in places like London and Manchester, later Brighton. But the truth is that of course there have always been queer and trans people who have spent their entire lives in Scotland.” While the face of Pride has changed, somewhat controversially becoming a more commercial event, its essence remains the same. Every Pride march will be someone’s first public acknowledgment of their sexuality or the first time someone will travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh and walk with their community. Despite the changes in both Pride itself and Scotland’s legislation around LGBTQ+ rights since Edinburgh’s first march, Sue John believes that the power of Pride remains just as relevant for us today as in 1995. “I think Pride is a very literal sense for those who go on a Pride march for the first time,” she says. “The Pride march can be a catalyst: it’s the first public acknowledgment of a person’s identity and I’ve known so many LGBTQ+ people over the years where it’s been the first time of saying ‘right, I’m going on the streets’ and being terrified in case someone spots them. But despite those fears,

INTERSECTIONS

Words: Katie Goh Illustration: Susie Purvis

people have gone on the streets and done it, and it’s a proud moment and an acknowledgment of public LGBTQ+ life. It’s a massive statement and there are people doing that every year, regardless of age.” While Pride in Scotland is largely a celebratory event, we would do well to not only reflect on our LGBTQ+ history but also to recognise the privilege of freedom of expression we have in Scotland compared to the rest of the world. In Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania, homosexuality remains punishable by fines, lashings, prison time and even death. The Republic of Ireland only legalised same-sex marriage in 2015 and Australia only did it in 2017, both by public vote. In countries where homophobia is rampant, Pride is a powerful symbol of resistance – the minority against the majority. In Uganda, discrete underground marches have been taking place in the last few years and in Northern Ireland, the only country within the UK where same-sex marriage is illegal, Pride is as much political activism and a ‘fuck you!’ to a government that continually blocks legislation passing as it is a celebration. While Scottish Pride isn’t perfect and discussions around its accessibility and commerciality are important ones to have, the fact that it’s only been 23 years since the first march and the unrecognisable change in Scottish public opinion since then is something to celebrate. As we paint our faces the colours of the rainbow, wave our flags, and hold our heads high as a community, let’s remember that the right for which to march and stand together as LGBTQ+ has been a right long fought for and a right others around the globe are continuing to fight. In the words of Sue John herself, Pride is “still important and it’s still political.” Pride Edinburgh, 16 Jun; Pride Glasgow, 14-15 July

THE SKINNY

Romantic Terror Involuntary celibates exist across all genders and sexualities; so why is it the straight men whose loneliness is galvanised into blood-lust? Intersections investigates...

hanks to a recent deluge of think-pieces prompted by violent acts of terrorism in Toronto, you’re more than likely to have learned a new word lately: incel. An incel is someone – typically male – who is ‘involuntarily celibate’. The incel feels that they should be having consensual sex with others, but that they just can’t seem to make that happen. Some consider this a curse, others an identity to claim and share with others online. The latter might seem a little paradoxical to the uninitiated. If a person wanted sex so badly, wouldn’t it be counterproductive to dwell on the fact they are unable to find willing sexual partners? But on the whole, incels don’t care. To wear that label is to embrace a kind of angry, resentful passivity. Whole online forums have been erected around this identity, where self-proclaimed incels share their anecdotes of sexlessness, their frustration and rage. You might be familiar with the idea of pick-up artists, who form another online subculture famed for misogyny. They share tips convincing men that they too can be transformed into chick-magnets [sic] if they just game the system correctly. In contrast, incels encourage one another to sink into misery, to feel branded as unlovable – and then share memes about how everyone else sucks. Maybe this makes you feel pity for the incel. It shouldn’t. Incels probably hate you. If you’re a conventionally attractive person who’s having sex they’d likely mock you online, deeming you a ‘Chad’ or a ‘Stacy’, condemning you as idiotic and stereotypical for doing what they wish they could. If you’re having sex and they don’t think you’re attractive? Then they’re confounded and they hate you. How have you stumbled across the divine knowledge, the secrets of sex, that they haven’t? You’d be forgiven for thinking that all sounds like harmless (albeit self-indulgent) moping. It was once tempting to think of incels as a bad joke. But the unfunny truth is that incels are now out for more than attention. One is reminded of the evergreen Margaret Atwood adage: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” A few incels, thinking women and men are laughing at them, are now willing to kill. The first time incel terrorism made the news was in 2014, when Elliot Rodger killed six people, injured more and then killed himself. Rodger left behind extensive textual and video justification for his actions, having essentially created a protoincel manifesto. Poring through his output, it becomes clear that he was a misogynist loner, who planned his attack as an act of retribution against a world he felt had rejected him. Take, for example, the following quote, reportedly published online by Rodger: “If we can’t solve our problems we must DESTROY our problems... Start envisioning a world where WOMEN FEAR YOU.” He lusted after the many Stacys he felt would never love him and hated the Chads he felt he could never become, because of his body type, his interests and his race. His philosophy, which he compiled into a ‘manifesto’, was motivated not just by misogyny but by internalised racism. He was half-Malaysian, and often blamed his ‘Eurasian’ heritage for his romantic failures, and because of this he fetishised whiteness just as he fetishised unavailable women. His ideas live on, permanently housed on the internet.

June 2018

In April 2018, Alek Minassian was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder following an attack in Toronto, wherein a van ploughed into pedestrians. Before the attack, Minassian posted online identifying himself as an incel – but also as a combatant, ready to fight in some grand revolution against the sexually normative masses, following the command of the late ‘Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger’.

We live in a world which teaches heterosexual men to express their feelings only in certain codified ways, predominantly as shows of force

Incels however feel that their virginity and/ or loneliness is a brand that isolates and yet unites them – and that their position is worth screaming over. Why do they feel this way? The answer is obvious – even borderline buzzword: toxic masculinity. We live in a world which teaches heterosexual men to express their feelings only in certain codified ways, predominantly as shows of force. They are taught not to cry and encouraged not to feel. Anger is the only sanctioned negative emotion they are meant to show. To prevent future violence of this sort, society must address this diseased form of masculinity. The way to do so is obvious: by dethroning the structures that sustain this rigid perspective of manhood. We should embrace

Words: Conor Nelson Illustration: Julija Straizyte

body positivity, racial justice and freedom of gender expression, allowing individuals to feel like they could be loved regardless of how they look and dress. We must encourage men to express themselves with compassion, by rewarding warmth and questioning anger. We need to destabilise the idea that sex is something that one is owed. The ideology of the incel, at its root, posits that men deserve women’s bodies like running water and that inability to find a sexual partner equals failure. We need to kill that concept, for the safety of the world’s women and the sanity of its men. But above all, we need to encourage men to regard sex as an expression of fun, love and joy – rather than a prized commodity worthy of warfare.

Perhaps you’re of the opinion that these two incidents, though upsetting, aren’t signs of a pattern. You’d be correct in the sense that many members of the incel community aren’t plotting acts of domestic terrorism. Lots of these men simply employ incel forums on Reddit or 4chan to explore their confusion, rather than their bloodlust. But consider how incels are being empowered by the current political climate to convert perplexity into fury, and how the terrorist incels making the news are the tip of the iceberg. For each mass-murderer, there’s a hundred men stalking the object of their desire, dozens threatening to ruin an ex-girlfriend if she dares move on. The Incel Genesis This is a far cry from where incel ideology began. The concept was, in fact, coined by a queer woman. ‘Alana’ in Toronto wanted to sum up her lonely frustration, starting an online community for people like her who felt left out. When she found a partner, she abandoned the site and moved on with her life. Beyond her gaze, her idea grew thorns and is now almost exclusively used by heterosexual men channelling their fury. From a queer person’s perspective, it’s intriguing to see how straight dudes have taken the incel memo and rolled with it into dark, new territory. Many queer people grow up feeling isolated, resenting the normative (hetero)sexual economy that’s working around them. As a gay teen, I felt sure that no one would ever touch or want me. Straight people benefit from endless opportunities to practice flirtation, watch countless versions of their love in the media and are encouraged to pair off even at school dances. It took me years to learn that (not) having sex didn’t define me and that virginity was hardly a torment – indeed, it was barely a state to name or notice. These revelations though did not save me from a path of vengeance and violence. I never thought that other people deserved to die for not touching me in the first place.

INTERSECTIONS

Lifestyle

Frightened Rabbit

Kat Gollock E

dinburgh-based photographer Kat Gollock specialises in performance, portraiture and events, and has been shooting gigs for The Skinny for several years. She’s also taken two cover images – Law Holt and Birdhead – and worked as in-house photographer for our sister publication Fest. A graduate of both Stevenson College and Edinburgh Napier University, she’s been working within the photography industry since 2007. As well as freelance work, she teaches photography and has been involved in several art based youth engagement and community outreach projects. Her more permanant roles include picture editor for Edinburgh International Film Festival and project assistant for Neu! Reekie!

Teen Canteen

You can contact her on wordup@katgollock.com www.katgollock.com

SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

Law Holt

Kathryn Joseph

Meursault

Pinact

June 2018

SHOWCASE

THE SKINNY

Clare Grogan

Biffy Clyro

Rip it Up: The Story of Scottish Pop Garbage and Shirley Manson

The curator of the National Museum of Scotland’s exhibition on Scottish music, Stephen Allen introduces Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop Guitars including Simple Minds, Josef K, Big Country, The Rezillos

The Rezillos

Bay City Rollers

June 2018

y own love affair with Scottish pop music probably goes back to 1978 being mesmerised by Eugene Reynolds, resplendent in lime green jumpsuit, alongside Fay Fife on Top of the Pops, singing – appropriately enough, Top of the Pops. Fast forward exactly 40 years, and here we are, getting ready to put that same jumpsuit on display in Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop at the National Museum of Scotland. It will be one of over 300 objects on show, many of which have come directly from the artists and bands, and which mostly haven’t been on public display before. For all sorts of reasons – space, availability of material, curatorial choices, basic sanity – the exhibition is not and cannot be comprehensive. Through a mix of chronological and thematic approaches, we’ll give the broadest possible overview to the story while also offering fresh sights and insights through unique objects and first-hand artists’ contributions. We’ve also had expert help and advice from a wide range of people over the past 18 months. We start in the dancehalls and cafes as skiffle catches on, with Scots born Lonnie Donegan in the vanguard of a movement in which a young Alex Harvey also cut his teeth. An industry forms, with its centre in London. Young Scots artists make their way there, seeking fame and fortune. Some find it, like Lulu. At the same time new folk starts to emerge from the clubs and bars as bands like The Incredible String Band are at the heart of an emerging counterculture. Folk traditions are adopted and adapted into the new pop music – a fusion which continues to this day.

Into the 1970s, other Scots make global breakthroughs on their own and as part of groups – Average White Band, Gerry Rafferty, Nazareth, Jack Bruce in Cream, Ian Anderson in Jethro Tull and, of course, the Bay City Rollers. In the late 1970s, social and technological changes turn everything on its head. A new generation seizes the means of production; more portable and affordable recording equipment and even the emergence of the humble office photocopier lead to the emergence of smaller independent labels throughout the country, with notable examples in Scotland including Zoom, No Bad, Postcard, Fast Product and, later, Creation. There is a parallel creative flourishing around new wave and post-punk. Lots of hugely influential artists emerge around this time, from The Skids, Josef K, Orange Juice, The Associates, Altered Images, The Fire Engines, Scars and artists who went on to have global commercial impact like Simple Minds and Midge Ure… the list goes on. In amongst all this a recurring presence is Scotland itself, and its changing social, political and cultural climate. To what extent can you hear that in the music? In some cases, very obviously; the inimitable sound and the politics of The Proclaimers, or Runrig, the only band to perform in Gaelic on Top of the Pops. In other cases, it’s far less obvious and some would say rightly so, that music is universal, and transcends national boundaries. Maybe more subtly, particular places have had movements and moments of creativity with a particular sound and voice. Most obviously

RIP IT UP

Glasgow through different periods, whether the Bellshill blossoming of Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits, or the emergence of the scene fostered by The Pastels and Belle and Sebastian. More recently labels such as Fence, Lost Map and of course Chemikal Underground continue Scotland’s do-it-yourself musical ethos. Contemporary voices have recently emerged in Scotland, most notably in Young Fathers and also through the success of the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards. And we will celebrate artists whose work and career reflects some of all of those themes and influences, and who have had global success, like Franz Ferdinand, Shirley Manson, KT Tunstall and Biffy Clyro. Alongside the objects, we’ve been working with BBC Scotland on this project and so, not long after we open, there will be a three-part TV series on the history of Scottish pop. Vic Galloway has written a book which will accompany the exhibition, and will also present a four part series on Radio Scotland. And it’s actually going to be a whole summer of Scottish pop, as this carries over into live music, particularly the associated events coming up with the Southern Exposure Festival at Summerhall in June, and Light on the Shore as part of the Edinburgh International Festival at Leith Theatre. We’ll also have our own range of events happening here at the museum throughout the exhibition run. Rip it Up: The Story of Scottish Pop runs at the National Museum of Scotland from 22 Jun-25 Nov nms.ac.uk/ripitup

Feature

Historical Timeline

Talking Heads

1955: Lonnie Donegan’s Rock Island Line is released. Originally recorded by the American blues singer Leadbelly, Glasgow-born Donegan’s version is an overnight sensation and inspires a generation of musicians. “He was the man,” says Paul McCartney.

To write the story of music in Scotland from the perspective of the people at the very heart of it, we contacted a few of Scotland’s most celebrated musicians and behind-the-scenes influencers to ask them five questions

1960: Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom opens after complete rebuild following a fire in 1958.

The Questions: 1. What Scottish venue played an important and influential role in your musical career and why? 2. What is the most iconic gig you can remember attending in Scotland and what made it stand out? 3. Which Scottish band/artist has been really influential to you/ignited your passion for music and why? 4. What do you think have been the most significant changes in the Scottish music scene since the start of your career? 5. Where do you feel Scottish music fits in on a global scale?

1964: Lulu is the first Scottish artist to appear on BBC TV’s Top of the Pops, performing her cover of The Isley Brothers’ single Shout. 1964: Glasgow blues and freakbeat band The Poets release Now We’re Thru reaching number 31 in the UK singles chart. 1966: Cream, featuring lead singer and bassist from Bishopbriggs Jack Bruce, along with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker release their debut album Fresh Cream reaching number six in the UK album chart and 39 in the US. 1967: Bruce Findlay and his brother Brian open their first record shop – Bruce’s – in Falkirk in 1967, going on to establish a chain of independent record shops. Its slogan was emblazoned on bags and badges until the 1980s. In 1977 Bruce Findlay sets up one of Scotland’s first independent labels, Zoom, and goes on to manage bands including Simple Minds. 1968: Donovan releases his sixth studio album The Hurdy Gurdy Man. 1969: Lulu wins the Eurovision Song Contest with Boom Bang-a-Bang. 1970: Barbara Dickson releases her debut solo album Do Right Woman before going on to record a world famous duet with Elaine Paige for I Know Him So Well from the musical Chess in 1984. 1972: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band release their debut album Framed, which was a massive influence on Nick Cave who used to perform many of its songs in his band The Birthday Party. 1973: Gerry Rafferty and Stealers Wheel release Stuck in the Middle With You, reaching number eight in the UK singles chart. The single is perhaps best known for soundtracking the famous ear cutting off scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. 1975: Bay City Rollers release their version of The Four Seasons’ hit Bye, Bye, Baby hitting the top spot of the UK singles chart and remaining there for six weeks. 1975: Average White Band are the first Scottish band to have a US number one single and album simultaneously, with Pick up the Pieces and AWB topping the charts Stateside in February 1975. 1976: First recorded by The Everly Brothers in 1960, Dunfermline rockers Nazareth find fame with their cover of Love Hurts. Their version found further fame when Cher covered it for her 1991 album of the same name. 1978: The Rezillos appear on Top of the Pops performing, you guessed it, Top of the Pops.

Feature

Shirley Manson

1. “The Barrowlands is by far the most influential venue in the country and my favourite place to play. I also have to mention upstairs in the Waterloo Bar, Edinburgh where I played my first ever show with Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. I caught the bug that night and have never been the same since.” 2. “When we played in the gardens underneath Edinburgh Castle for the opening celebrations of the first Scottish Parliment in 300 years. It was fairly epic.” 3. “Recently I’ve been remembering how much I was obsessed with The Associates and in particular the voice of Billy Mackenzie. His version of Gloomy Sunday ripped my heart out when I first heard it and it still blows me away.” 5. “Bands like Teenage Fanclub and The Vaselines went on to deeply influence Kurt Cobain and so, by default, the sound of contemporary rock’n’roll.”

Martin Doherty

1. “The 13th Note was the place where you could get a gig if you wanted one. It was a real kind of proving ground for bands coming out of their parents’ garage or their school classes, certainly in my experience.” 2. “I saw Arcade Fire just as Neon Bible came out at the Barrowlands. There’s never been a buzz like it at the Barrowlands that I can remember.” 3. “The level of influence that The Blue Nile’s music, Paul’s [Buchanan] singing and his lyrics have had on what I’ve done and their stance on production runs through everything that I do. Nothing else compares to it, in my opinion, on a Scottish level.”

Aidan Moffat

signings. If The Delgados hadn’t encouraged us to pull our fingers out and make an effort, we’d probably still be on the dole.” 5. “The most famous and instantly recognisable song in the world is Scottish – almost literally everyone’s heard Auld Lang Syne. We seem to be an inherently creative nation.”

few contenders – with Party Fears Two and that is the highest accolade possible.” 4. “With the advent of the Fast and Postcard labels, that clichéd macho hard man and woman image was seriously undermined, and a very ironic sense of humble arrogance has been on tap for the more stylish musicians of Scotland ever since.”

Roddy Woomble

1. “The Cas Rock Cafe in Edinburgh was a fairly inconspicuous pub that let us play a few times every month after they realised that we brought a young crowd who drank beer. So many great nights and memories were made there. The last show we played before it closed in 1999 was dangerously oversold and chaotic, but one of our standout gigs.” 2. “dEUS at the Edinburgh Venue in 1994 or Sonic Youth with Pavement at the Barrowlands in 1992 – those shows hit me at the right time in my life. Two amazing Scottish venues that offered a young music fan the chance to witness these influential and enduring bands in such an electric atmosphere.” 4. “Scotland has a constantly evolving and vibrant musical soul.”

Clare Grogan

1. “Mars Bar, Glasgow. It’s where we went to see bands so to get to play it as one of our first gigs made the whole thing a bit more real... that Altered Images really were a band and not just an idea.” 3. “Orange Juice, Simple Minds, Berlin Blondes, Josef K” 4. “There are lots more girls now – hurray!”

JD Twitch

1. “The Venue in Edinburgh; I went to so many life-changing gigs there in my late teens and then ended up DJing there at Pure every Friday for a decade.” 3. “Edinburgh post-punk bands... The Fire Engines, The Scars, Josef K and I’ll throw in Port Glasgow’s Robert Rental. They showed me you can do your own thing without being pigeonholed and that doing it yourself is a viable option.” 5. “Scotland has a knack of continuously producing truly original, amazing music.”

Tim London

1. “The most important venue overall was Nice ‘N’ Sleazy. Besides being a venue and hosting countless gigs for local bands, the pub upstairs was a real hub for the musicians that were around in the 90s.” 2. “The best gig I’ve ever seen was at Hampden Park, and it was Beyoncé. It was the closest I’ve ever came to a religious experience; she ruled us like a goddess.” 3. “I’m eternally indebted to The Delgados. They set up Chemikal Underground to release their own music, and Arab Strap were one of their first

Interview: Tallah Brash

1. “Sneaky Pete’s hosted the first Young Fathers Edinburgh show after I took over their management. It’s the perfect small venue, a black rectangle of possibilities. 2. “That award will need to be shared between Vic Godard at the Citrus Club, a sadly underused live venue, Cool Kids at the old Embassy club in front of about 20 people, Callum Easter at The Biscuit Factory, Law Holt at the Voodoo Rooms and YFs at the Neu! Reekie! show at Central Hall in 2015.” 3. “The Associates and Billy Mackenzie made the perfect pop single – at a time when there were a

RIP IT UP

Gráinne Braithwaite (Synergy)

1. “The Liquid Room was the most influential for me because it was the first music venue I went to once I moved back to Scotland, and they gave me my first job booking artists 20 years ago or so now.” 2. “I think part of what makes shows in Scotland feel so iconic is the fans. We have the best fans on earth and I think that drives the performances and inspires the artists when they’re on stage.” 3. “I remember Mogwai playing at The Liquid Room when I worked there in the 90s and I was just blown away by the show. For the last 20odd years their sound is constantly progressing, they’ve never released a bad record or film score.”

Eddi Reader

1. “The Glasgow Barrowlands for me is magical. Its dancehall history thrills me and I worked there in the early 1970s at weekends then progressed to busking outside it.” 3. “I adored Ossian. Billy Ross' singing is outstanding and many unsung heroes from the Scottish folk scene in the late 1970s influenced how I heard music. John Martyn was also a big influence, his folk tunings on guitar and soul singing expanded me.” 5. “I’ve sung Scottish songs in Japan, Australia, America, Spain, France, Italy, England, Ireland and Wales – if we bounced between the stars I’d try singing Scots song there too.”

Duglas T. Stewart

1. “A club called Splash One! that ran from a Nightclub called Daddy Warbucks in Glasgow from 1985-86. It was run by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. There was no DJ, instead there were mixtapes compiled by the people who ran the club. It was the first time in Glasgow a club felt like a safe place to meet like-minded outsiders, to exchange enthusiasms and make plans.” 3. “Ivor Cutler had a massive influence on us. The Pastels were important when we were starting out as their attitude seemed to set them apart from the mainstream and we shared a lot of common tastes.” 4. “When we started it seemed there was almost no infrastructure in Scotland but there were lots of people buying lots of music. Now there is so much infrastructure: rehearsal places, studios, courses on how to be a rock musician, a sound engineer or music business bigwig but no one wants to pay for music. It feels a bit topsy turvy.”

THE SKINNY

Photo Credits: Martin Doherty and Lauren Mayberr by Eoin Carey; Aidan Moffat by LUCUSj Photography; Roddy Woomble by Mat Hay; Eddi Reader from Creative Commons; Johnny Lynch by Beth Chalmers; KT Tunstall by Piper Ferguson; Be Charlotte by Rory Barnes; Emma Pollock and Olaf Furniss by Jannica Honey; Nick Stewart by Holly Brown; Tracyanne Campbell by Anna Isola Crolla; Francis Macdonald by David Boni

Johnny Lynch

1. “The Caves is a venue I’ve enjoyed as a punter, as well as a performer and promo-ter. Everything about the place is atmospheric and unusual – it genuinely feels exciting to be at a gig there.” 2. “Watching Primal Scream on the XTRMNTR tour playing at the Barrowlands. That felt special… the whole fucking room was a mosh-pit – exhilarating stuff, when you’re on that Barras’ sprung floor.” 3. “The Beta Band’s approach to making music, that collage of styles, totally blew my mind. They were a musical education in and of themselves… they fused hip-hop, psychedelic folk/rock, dub, music from around the world (not to mention film), a proper journey that ultimately led me straight to Fence and making my own music.” 5. “Over the course of rock’n’roll’s seven decades, we’ve spawned some of its most influential figures – from Lonnie Donegan to Cocteau Twins, Bill Drummond to Hudson Mohawke.”

Emma Pollock

1. “The original 13th Note in Glassford Street, Glasgow opened by Craig Tannoch who now owns Stereo, Mono, The Old Hairdressers was of huge importance when we got together as a band in 1994.” 2. “For the 5th birthday of Chemikal Underground, held at The Garage in 2000, we had John Peel compèring and a load of the bands on the label playing, including Mogwai, Bis, The Delgados, Magoo, Arab Strap etc. It was a hugely special night for all of us.” 3. “In high school I became a massive fan of Simple Minds. On moving to Glasgow to study in 1989 I became aware of the Bellshill scene and started listening to bands like Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits. The Trashcan Sinatras were of particular importance to me though.” 5. “When The Delgados used to tour the US, we’d introduce ourselves to people and they’d already know so much about the Scottish scene, often asking ‘What’s in the water over there?’”

KT Tunstall

1. “King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. I always dreamed about headlining that venue, and it really meant a lot to me when it happened.” 2. “My most memorable music experience was my very first festival – T in the Park 1996 was fucking AMAZING! I was singing with King Creosote and I saw Beck, Radiohead, Alanis Morissette, Mazzy Star, Leftfield, Cocteau Twins AND Keanu Reeves playing bass in Dogstar!” 3. “Liz Fraser, singer of Cocteau Twins has this incredible, ethereal voice that transports you. I loved that she was from Scotland and sounded totally other-worldly.” 5. “The output of successful Scottish music when you look at the size of it is absolutely amazing.”

Be Charlotte

1. “When I was too young to play in most venues The Green Room in Perth was hugely influential and played a huge role in my development.” 2. “BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee 2006 was pretty surreal... The View were becoming huge and there was such a buzz about the place.” 3. “Emeli Sandé and Paolo Nutini inspired me to make sure I always sang about things that I had experienced. I’d love to emulate their successes.” 5. “In terms of pop music I think our country has produced some of the best artists in recent times like Calvin Harris and CHVRCHES. It’s

June 2018

inspiring to see people from Scotland go on and have that level of success.”

Olaf Furniss (Born to be Wide)

1. “The Venue played the most significant role in my career. It hosted dozens of amazing shows and clubs, which in turn provided endless inspiration for my early journalism.” 2. “Seeing Big Country in their prime in the mid-80s was always amazing, but the best single gig I ever saw was The Stranglers at the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1986. For a teenager the bouncers at the venue were absolutely terrifying, but that night they met their match... It was the first time I ever joined a stage invasion.” 3. “I first saw Primal Scream play in 1986 in what is now known as Espionage and then covered them in my fanzine. They formed part of a Scottish indie boom which included The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Shop Assistants and BMX Bandits and which then gave rise to Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian.”

Lauren Mayberry

2. “I remember going to Connect festival the year that was on and just being completely blown away by that line-up. I think in one weekend I saw M.I.A., Regina Spektor, The Beastie Boys and Björk.” 3. “Growing up as a teenager who loved Garbage and now, as a grown up woman, it’s even more clear to me how important Shirley Manson was, to music and to women in music at that time. I like that it took the concept of a girl in a band and just gave it the middle finger at that time – her legacy is really important.”

Ronnie Gurr (Manager)

1. “Regular Music’s Monday nights at Tiffany’s in St. Stephen Street, Edinburgh were central to my musical ontogeny. A crowd of young punks would convene at The Antiquary pub beforehand and we then went along the road to Tiffany’s to offer up our prayers to the great god of Punk Rock.” 2. “The first time I saw Simple Minds in a tiny basement room of The Grafton Bar in Glasgow. It was 1978, their third gig and you knew you were seeing something extraordinary. The Clash gig at The Playhouse (The White Riot Tour) in May 1977 was pretty special but I got thrown out for taking photos on my Kodak Instamatic 77 so only saw three songs. The Skids showed that Scotland could produce a band that could actually wipe the floor with London and Manchester’s finest punk combos.” 4. “The independents who followed in the path of the very great Lenny Love (founder of Sensible Records in 1977) and Bruce Findlay (Zoom Records, also from 1977) owe these label trailblazers a massive debt of gratitude.”

Francis Macdonald

1. “The legendary Glasgow Apollo on Renfield Street, demolished in the 1980s before it fell down of its own accord; my big sister took me there to see The Police in 1979 when I was eight! The Cramps were supporting. I think I was in shock all evening.” 2. “Jonathan Richman solo electric on the Renfrew Ferry in May, 1992. It was my first time seeing him. I loved his songs. I was at a table near the front of the stage and the sun was going down over the River Clyde… I don’t think I ever

remember feeling so happy at a gig.” 3. “I watched Teenage Fanclub take flight with the release of Bandwagonesque… they were the first people I knew socially to travel in a splitter van, pay themselves per diems on tour and sell actual merchandise like T-shirts. But they were also grounded and down to earth.” 5. “Maybe if you’re not from here our accents sound cute!”

Aarti Joshi (DF Concerts)

1. “Since starting my career almost 17 years ago, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut has been a focal point forsomanygreatmomentsinmusic that I’ve been so proud to be a part of. Long live King Tut’s!” 2. “Watching Coldplay from the side of the stage at T in the Park in 2003 was the moment I knew that working in music was 100% what I wanted to do.” 4. “Looking back to when I first started out in PR, I’d have around five journalists who I phoned to ‘break’ a band in Scotland – that simply isn’t the case anymore. The people, along with the industry, have become the tastemakers and in my opinion that can only be a good thing.” 5. “Our artists are extremely talented, determined and hardworking and some of them have managed to crack every corner of the globe – which for a tiny country is amazing!”

Nick Stewart (Sneaky Pete's)

1. “The first gig I ever put on was a late night, one microphone affair at The Goulag Beat, a punk club night downstairs at the long-gone Ego nightclub. The venue was a sticky mess, chaotic, creaking, and all the better for it.” 2. “When Monotonix played Sneaky Pete’s in 2009 they changed my sense of what a gig could be. They started the set with five minutes of feedback and crowdsurfing held aloft ON TOP OF THEIR DRUMS before taking the whole audience out into the street.” 4. “When I started, all the best music venues (The Venue, Cabaret Voltaire, The Liquid Room) were being run by powerful women and sadly that’s not the case anymore. Bring those days back.” 5. “I can only say what musicians and DJs constantly tell me: Scottish crowds are the best!”

Tracyanne Campbell

1. “The Barrowlands. I mean, everybody says that, don’t they? You really feel like you’ve landed when you play there, and that’s how Camera Obscura felt when we played there for the first time. It was very much, ‘wow, we’re a proper band now.’ We’d just gotten into the charts as well. It was an exciting time.” 3. “I love The Pastels and I love Cocteau Twins, and it’s no secret I love Belle and Sebastian. The Belles were a massive influence on me, though, and not just because Stuart Murdoch produced our first record.” 4. “One thing I’m noticing now, and I don’t know if it’s just because I’m old – there’s a lot more bands with girls in them… I never really had a problem with sexism myself, but there was a period where it was all very male-dominated. It’s so exciting to see young women playing music.” 5. “In the US and Mexico especially, there’s something that sets Scottish bands apart from English bands. It might be the pop sensibility, in my band’s case.”

1979: Named after the protagonist from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, Scottish post-punks Josef K are active for just a few years from 1979, releasing singles on Postcard Records, a label launched in the same year, founded by Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins. Edinburgh post-punks The Fire Engines form in the same year. 1979: Dunfermline band Skids release Into the Valley, going on to perform it live on Top of the Pops that same year. 1979: AC/DC bring their Highway to Hell tour to Glasgow Renfield Street’s The Apollo. 1979: Weddings are never the same again after Runrig release their version of traditional Scots song – originally published in 1841 – Loch Lomond this year. 1981: Vienna, taken from the Ultravox album of the same name is released and spends four consecutive weeks at number two in the UK singles chart never quite reaching the top spot like it did in Ireland, Belgium and The Netherlands. Oh Vienna. 1981: Altered Images release Happy Birthday, reaching number two in the UK singles chart. 1982: Cocteau Twins release their debut album Garlands peaking at number five in the UK album charts and gaining support from Radio 1 DJ John Peel. 1982: The Associates release their second album and critical and commercial breakthrough, Sulk, the final recording by original pairing Alan Rankine and Billy Mackenzie. 1983: Scottish music exec Alan McGee launches Creation Records, which goes on to release music by Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, The Pastels and BMX Bandits. 1983: Orange Juice release Rip It Up, reaching number eight in the UK charts and going on to perform it on Top of the Pops. 1983: Avalanche Records opens its doors in Edinburgh, going on to close in 2016 after various location changes. 1984: Big Country release their sophomore album Steeltown; recorded at ABBA’s Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, it tops the UK album charts for a week. 1984: Midge Ure co-writes Band Aid hit Do They Know It’s Christmas? with Bob Geldof. 1984: Annie Lennox is the first ever Scot to win a Brit Award, taking home the prize for Best British Female Solo Artist, going on to win that particular accolade a further four times in 86, 89, 93 and 96. To date, Lennox has picked up eight Brit awards making her the most successful Scottish person in history to be part of these proceedings. 1985 Marillion, fronted by Dalkeith-born Derek William Dick aka Fish, release Kayleigh reaching number two in the UK singles chart. 1985: Simple Minds release Don’t You (Forget About Me), made famous as it features in an iconic scene from John Hughes’ film The Breakfast Club.

Read the extended versions of these interviews at theskinny.co.uk/music/rip-it-up

RIP IT UP

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1986: Edinburgh’s Finitribe release their Let the Tribe Grow EP, via Glasgow label Cathexis Recordings, featuring seminal Balearic dancefloor anthem De Testimony. 1986: The Vaselines fronted by Eugene Kelly form in Glasgow going on to release their debut album Dum-Dum in 1989 via Rough Trade. 1987: Glasgow pop band Deacon Blue release their debut album Raintown featuring the hit Dignity which peaks at number 20 in the UK singles chart. 1987: Hue and Cry release Labour of Love, from their debut album Seduced and Abandoned, which peaks at number six in the UK singles chart. 1988: The Proclaimers release Sunshine on Leith featuring the hit single I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) reaching number one in Australia, New Zealand and, er Iceland. It finally gains a UK number one in 2007 as it is repurposed for Comic Relief. 1988: Fairground Attraction, fronted by Eddi Reader, release their hit single Perfect reaching number one in the UK singles chart. 1989: Del Amitri release Nothing Ever Happens reaching number 11 in the UK charts. 1990: Named after a character from 1970s show Clangers, Bellshill band The Soup Dragons release their cover of The Rolling Stones single I’m Free which hits number five in the UK singles charts. 1991: Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl play an acoustic set in The Southern Bar in Edinburgh. 1992: Primal Scream win the first ever Mercury Prize in 1992 with Screamadelica. 1993: Oasis are signed by Creation Records’ Alan McGee at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut after he sees them perform in the venue. 1994: Chemikal Underground is launched by The Delgados going on to release records for Arab Strap, Mogwai and RM Hubbert amongst others. 1994: Edwyn Collins has worldwide success with A Girl Like You taken from his third solo album Gorgeous George charting in 15 countries and reaching number four in the UK singles chart. 1994: Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty of The KLF burn a million pounds on the Isle of Jura after quitting the music industry on stage at the 1992 Brit Awards by firing machine gun blanks into the crowd. 1994: Wet Wet Wet spend 15 weeks at the top of the UK singles charts with their single Love is All Around, as featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral, making them the longest running Scots ever to grace the top of the chart. 1995: Glasgow post-rock outfit Mogwai form, going on to release their debut album Mogwai Young Team on Chemikal Underground in 1997 which features a guest appearance from Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat. The band also launch their own label, Rock Action, which shares its name with their third album.

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Pop Thrills: A Love Letter to Scottish Pop In this love letter to Scottish pop, we speak to a selection of journalists, radio hosts and documentary makers about the moments in Scottish music that matter to them Interview: Katie Hawthorne

ow do you get yours? Blaring LOUD from your car radio? On a playlist a pal made you? On shiny, special edition vinyl? On... cassette? When was the last time you choreographed dance moves with your best friend? The first time you bought a magazine because your favourite band was splashed on the cover? Which chorus takes you back to a clumsy kiss at a house party? Will you show us your best karaoke ballad? Pop music is for the people. It’s the soundtrack for pub garden pints, sticky dancefloors, or a soak in the tub using the showerhead as a mic. A great pop song can be a time machine, party fuel or a comfort blanket, and a pop star can be a preacher, a poet, an alien, a sexual awakening. In this love letter to Scottish pop, we ask long-serving journalists, radio hosts and documentary makers about the moments that made music matter to them – and why they feel compelled to document the transcendent chaos of pop. STRAIGHT TO YOUR BRAIN With a blast of Hey, Johnnie Cope on the pipes, radio station 5SC roared into life. Broadcasting from Bath Street, Glasgow in March 1923, 5SC was the first BBC radio station to be based in Scotland and then-director Herbert Carruthers told the Evening Times: “To elevate the public taste in music […] and to give the public the best in entertainment will be our motto.” 95 years later, BBC Radio Scotland sits proud in the shiny Pacific Quay, gazing out to the Hydro from over the Clyde. Every Monday night, Vic Galloway’s show introduces eager listeners to brand new sounds – it’s no surprise that he believes pop’s spiritual home is on the airwaves. The radio DJ, esteemed author and tireless champion of excellent tunes enthuses: “There’s no distraction besides the music. It’s mainlined straight to your brain, and you either like something or you don’t. Radio reached its all-time high in listening figures in 2017, which shows how it still moves people.” He emphasises, too, the importance of an expert curator/selector, name-checking the late, great John Peel: “I don’t trust or expect an algorithm to second-guess my music taste, I like being recommended things that blow my mind, or lead me in different directions!” Trusting someone’s music taste is an intimate exercise, and one which Scottish radio has taken extremely seriously. For seven months in 1967, Radio Scotland endured the freezing waters off the coast of Dunbar on a boat called the Comet, determined to bring pop joy to the masses – until the Marine Offences Act shut down pirate radio in the UK. Student radios have demonstrated similar grit, albeit in the face of diminishing budgets rather than blowy seas. The Skinny’s Music editor and former manager of Edinburgh University’s Fresh Air station, Tallah Brash, remembers: “We had no money, so we did a lot of fundraisers and put on a lot of gigs. There was a real sense of community!” Glasgow University’s influential student radio Subcity has been on air nearly twenty five years, and offered an early platform to the likes of LuckyMe cofounder and hip-hop oddball Hudson Mohawke. For Galloway, hearing one band in particular sparked his interest in the power of radio: “I would have been around 12 or 13 years old, and already considered myself a ‘punk’ in rural Fife, dressed in DM boots and tight jeans,” he says.

The Jesus and Mary Chain

“When I heard The Jesus and Mary Chain I couldn’t believe the racket they were making, with those layers of feedback and distortion. There were sugary sweet tunes in there though, and I was hooked. To then discover they were Scottish was really important too.” He reckons that TV is too populist by nature to be a useful tool in music discovery, but admits that Annie Lennox’s “visually striking, cropped orange crew-cut hair” is perhaps his earliest memory of seeing a Scottish ‘contemporary’ artist on national television: “She looked amazing, sexy and somewhat androgynous. Her voice had soul and power, and tunes like Sweet Dreams and Love is a Stranger stood out when I was a wee boy. I still like them today!” MUSIC TELEVISION Evidenced by Lennox’s flaming locks, visual aesthetics are vital for a pop band. From Primal Scream’s effervescent, all-consuming psychedelia to Shirley Manson’s inimitable kohl eyeliner, or Franz Ferdinand’s skeletal pop art visuals for evergreen banger Take Me Out (2004), the greats are usually instantly recognisable. Perhaps you remember Edwyn Collins’ angular precision during Orange Juice’s triumphant performance of Rip It Up on Top of the Pops in 1983? Or perhaps you picture Bender’s fist in the air as The Breakfast Club ends every time you hear Simple Minds’ Don’t You (Forget About Me)? Maybe you see Irvine Welsh’s Leith when you hear Young Fathers, after last year’s T2: Trainspotting sequel? A pop single can be intertwined within broader popular culture in myriad ways, and sometimes taken completely out of context. For Sylvia Patterson, storied journalist and author of I’m Not With the Band, Skids’ 1979 ToTP performance of Into the Valley was pivotal: “[It’s] a song which made me and my best mate Ali go completely berserk in front of [the TV], the pair of us doing high kicks to the ceiling and bawling ‘Ahoy! Ahoy!’ while laughing like demented banshees. We were 13/14 and this was sheer, irresistible

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euphoria. I had no idea what it was about [young Scots being recruited into the army after Richard Jobson’s soldier pal was killed on duty in Northern Ireland] [but] it didn’t matter, this was simply MAGIC. Whenever we hear it out in the world today it still makes us go completely berserk.” Filmmaker Blair Young credits his love of music videos to Douglas Hart, who’s famed for working with, and briefly playing with The Jesus and Mary Chain. He tells us how Hart’s video to Whiteout’s Detroit (1995) drew on visual techniques from the skate scene, and admits: “I think I still rip him off on a regular basis!” Young’s filmed for Scottish royalty like Biffy Clyro, Belle and Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand, and more recently has teamed up with TeenCanteen leader and solo musician Carla J. Easton for Since Yesterday, a documentary designed to celebrate all-female Scottish bands from the 1960s to the present. “We’re both a bit anoraky in our love of music,” he admits, and explains that discovering a shared appreciation for The McKinleys (a duo of Edinburgh sisters, prolific in the mid 60s) sparked the idea for the project. “It’s a story of swimming against the tide that is somehow still relevant on a global scale – since the advent of pop music, people have seen ‘bands’ as being a male thing, and there’s no valid answer why. It’s a set of musicians who have been repeatedly overlooked, and now is the soonest time we could do it!” Coming full circle for Young, Since Yesterday feeds into a live show that’s planned for August, with 2017 SAY Award winners Sacred Paws, sticky pop heroes Bossy Love and bittersweet Glasgow band The Van T’s as part of Leith’s Light on the Shore series. PUT IT IN WORDS Print media has been ‘dying’ for a suspiciously long time, but Scotland’s got a robust medical history when it comes to music magazines. Of course The Skinny’s biased in this department, having celebrated our 150th edition earlier in the

THE SKINNY

year, but we’re in fine company: Clash, begun in Dundee in 2004, will soon hit its fifteenth birthday, and The List’s been dedicated to covering the scene since 1985. The digital turn altered the music industry in previously unimaginable ways – the ability to download or stream a song changed the economic landscape for labels and artists alike, and this instantaneous access has impacted journalism, too. Last year, Stuart McHugh’s Jockrock announced its 20th anniversary of internet-aided vibrancy, after setting up its domain in 1996. A shift online in the noughties saw sites like Aye Tunes, Scottish Fiction and Podcart come into their own, and Tom Johnson’s Gold Flake Paint has re-worked the relationship between reader and journalist in a manner similar to Galloway’s insistence on a trusted curator/selector. Johnson’s site rewards financial patrons with hand-picked new music and painstakingly curated digital mixtapes, to such success that he launched an in-house record label called Human Noise Records earlier this year. Music journalism’s not dead, it’s just different. Dr John Williamson is a Fellow in Popular Music at the University of Glasgow, and remembers reading The List, Cut, Streets Ahead and TLN in the mid to late 80s. He juggled a part-time PhD in pop with the hands-on experience of managing Belle and Sebastian and Bis, a job he affectionately describes as “probably a bad career move for all parties, [although] none of us were thinking too much about careers.” At this time, Williamson was also working as a freelance music journalist for newspapers like The Herald, and even then he remembers thinking sceptically about the direction in which the music industry’s finances were headed. “I interviewed Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera around the release of Deep & Wide & Tall. I’d taken the bus to Clydebank, but got a lift back to the city centre in his well-stocked, chauffeur driven car. It was not the last time I thought about the spurious economics of the music business. The single reached number 55 in the charts.” In Patterson’s autobiography, she details moving from Perth Grammar School’s DIY mag PG Snips to Dundee’s DC Thomson-owned Etcetra [sic], before getting the call from Smash Hits and speeding down to London. Later in her career she would quit the NME in spectacular fashion, inspired by an interview with Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite – “one of the smartest, funniest men on the planet” – which revealed the increasingly corporate face of the once radical mag. He told her, “Music as a cultural force is a way of life. And to move the goalposts to the point that [music is] actually a commodity, is the sad, sad fact of what’s happening.” The magazine refused to print the feature and for Patterson “this interview

June 2018

DOIN’ IT FOR THE FANS Dig out your Pritt Stick and a stapler: we’re making fanzines. From Cripes in 1977, publishing news and offering a mail order service from independent record store chain Bruce's, Dundee’s Cranked Up, Livingston’s 60s-focused Bam Balam, which supposedly influenced iconic London ‘zine Sniffin’ Glue, to The Next Big Thing – Scotland’s longest running music fanzine, according to The Herald – Scotland’s music fans have a grand tradition of taking matters into their own hands (and printer/scanners). These homemade publications were once integral to the distribution of their authors’ favourite bands, as Chemikal Underground label boss and ex-Delgados member Emma Pollock attests: “When we went on tour in ‘95/’96’/97, most of the interviews that we did were with fanzines, and these were getting posted to people all over the country. That’s how it worked with spreading new bands. It was very grassroots, people felt empowered, like they could do something.” Contra to journalism’s digital shift, ‘zines have seen a strong resurgence in recent years. After visiting Rip It Up, pop round the corner to browse the newly installed Edinburgh Zine Library (upstairs at the Central Library on George IV Bridge), or purchase a treat at Paradise Palms’ ‘Crisps’ collection (41 Lothian St). Glasgow-based pop critic Claire Biddles has been making ‘zines – notably Fuck What You Love, dedicated to pop crushes – since 2016. She says: “I wanted a way to bring together marginalised voices to talk about pop culture through a lens of enthusiasm and fandom. My zines are often collaborative, and it’s selfishly a good way for me to collect writing about my favourite things! It’s important to carve out spaces outside of mainstream culture writing, both so that fans/writers can explore topics in more depth than traditional outlets would allow, and also so that the voices of people who may be excluded from mainstream conversations can be amplified. Just because writing comes from a place of fandom it doesn’t mean it can’t be critically rigorous!”

Photo: Allan Lewis

Emma Pollock

foresaw the demise of integrity.” She muses, “I have a fantasy that we’ll return to the jazz age, when we had wealthy ‘patrons’ financially supporting all the arts, [but] the objectives remain the same: inform, inspire, and find out what’s in these people’s heads, hearts and souls. And if someone’s an arse, it’s still our duty to print The Truth!”

A COMMON THREAD? In his forthcoming book which accompanies and shares its name with the exhibtion, Galloway’s Rip It Up attempts to trace a common thread through decades of Scottish pop. Does he succeed? “The music has been so eclectic, varied and disparate,” he reflects. “I [do] think there is an element of struggle, of being the underdog, of being isolated from the pop-culture epicentres such as London, New York and Los Angeles, that has given Scottish artists some kind of plucky courage and dedication. They won’t take no for an answer, and keep fighting until someone pays attention and listens! Elements of both melancholy and euphoria, I’d say. What always amazes me is how each era, genre and style has bled into the next one. I like how each group or artist influenced the next generation, and often played alongside them; sometimes the markers between generations aren’t as defined as you think.” Taking stock of some unforgettable encounters, Patterson ponders the same question: what do Scottish pop stars have in common, if anything? “There’s been a few memorably Scottish interviews,” she confesses. “I witnessed Paolo Nutini being booted out of a posh pub in west London for smoking a spliff in the front garden. Back in 1991, a hallucinogenically wasted Bobby Gillespie thought a hotel room carpet was on fire in Brighton and ran out of the room; it was a red Quality Street wrapper glinting in the light. And Steve Mason (ex-Beta Band) in 2016 decimated the prevailing culture in a rousing outburst of

indignation. This is him talking about today’s groomed, identikit pop stars making music-bycommittee: ‘They’re essentially little business people and I don’t want those fuckers making music! I’d put them all in a fucking trash compactor. The whole system is set up against anything real coming through. I want art, based on reality!’ He is not only a spectacular talent but a man built out of uncompromising passion. This also reminds me of Shirley Manson’s one-word description of the Scottish spirit: ‘Defiance.’”

“There is an element of struggle, of being the underdog, of being isolated from the pop-culture epicentres such as London, New York and Los Angeles, that has given Scottish artists some kind of plucky courage and dedication.” Vic Galloway

TATTOOS AND T-SHIRTS Music journalists are rarely chasing rock stars as part of a lucrative pension scheme: they’re in it for the thrill, for the love of it. Galloway reflects, “pop and rock’n’roll has always been seen as lowbrow, [but] it has helped shape modern culture, fashion, film, politics, civil rights, and has been the soundtrack to our lives. Key singers, performers and lyricists are as important as the politicians in many ways, they have certainly connected directly with more people. Pop is continually changing, morphing and mutating to keep up with the times – echoing, reflecting and mirroring what’s going on. Capturing and documenting these moments is like recording modern history. Some may think it’s silly, but to me it’s important.” Pop is the stuff of ridiculous memorabilia, iridescent memories and basking in 100% guilt-free pleasure. Williamson confesses to skipping school “under cover of a stomach bug to get a copy of the Strawberry Switchblade album signed by Rose and Jill! They may have been the first pop stars I ever met.” Patterson remembers, “I loved The Bluebells and went to see them play the Dance Factory in Dundee in the early 80s. Bobby Bluebell was wearing a Bluebells T-shirt featuring a picture of himself doing ‘the Vs’. I was down the front, he took his T-shirt off and… handed it down to me from the stage! Sadly, I’ve lost it since. Three years ago I met Bobby in Edinburgh and he claimed ‘I remember that!’ These are the thrills of the pop fan.” Pop is deeply personal; we invite songs into our hearts and our heads and our bedrooms, and stain our hopes and fears with favourite lyrics. In 2016, beloved and sorely missed musician Scott Hutchison reflected on Frightened Rabbit’s feverishly passionate fans in a cover story for The Skinny: “It’s a privilege that people have immersed themselves in the songs, and allowed the songs to be part of their lives... It’s wonderful. Someone said, ‘Oh fuck, I don’t like the new Frightened Rabbit song. I’m going to have to get rid of this tattoo!’…”

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1995: Boards of Canada release their debut EP Twoism on their own Music70 label. 1995: Garbage release their eponymous debut album featuring breakthrough hits Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl, the latter reaching number four in the UK singles chart. 1997: Texas release White on Blonde featuring Say What You Want, Halo and Black Eyed Boy, skyrocketing them to number one in the UK album charts. 1997: Anstruther’s Fence Records is founded by Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote. The label, as well as putting out a number of releases including Randolph’s Leap and Kid Canaveral, also hosted a number of festivals including Homegame, Away Game and Hott Loggz. 1998: The Beta Band release The Three E.P.s including the single Dry the Rain which featured heavily in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity starring John Cusack, Tim Robbins and Jack Black. 1999: Belle and Sebastian win a Brit Award for Best British Newcomers, controversially beating Steps in a popular poll… and in the same year host their famous Bowlie Weekender festival at the Pontins Holiday Camp in Camber Sands featuring performances from The Delgados, The Amphetemeanies, Camera Obscura, The Pastels, Bill Wells, Snow Patrol, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub amongst others. 1999: Travis release The Man Who featuring their hit single Why Does It Always Rain on Me? When the band went on to perform this at Glastonbury Festival that same year, it begins raining when the first line of the song is sung. In 2000 Travis win two Brit Awards for Best British Group and Best British Album. 2000: Idlewild release 100 Broken Windows which features four top 40 singles. In 2009 the album is ranked number one in The Skinny’s Scottish albums of the decade list. 2002: James Yorkston releases Moving Up Country via Domino featureing additional vocals and accordion from King Creosote. 2002: Edinburgh’s La Belle Angele, situated in the city’s Cowgate, suffers from a major fire and is destroyed. The city centre venue is rebuilt from scratch and reopened in 2014. 2002: Glasgow’s Monorail record shop opens. 2003: Karine Polwart releases her debut album Faultlines and wins Best Scots Singer in the Scots Trad Music Awards. Since then she’s gone on to win several awards including BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2005, 2007 and 2018. 2004: Franz Ferdinand win the Mercury Prize with their eponymous debut featuring to-this-day banger, Take Me Out. 2004: KT Tunstall releases her debut album Eye to the Telescope, going on to sell millions of copies worldwide. In 2006 Tunstall goes on to win the Brit Award for Best British Female artist.

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2004: Mylo releases Destroy Rock and Roll featuring hit single Drop the Pressure. 2005: Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push is part of the worldwide series of Live 8 concerts and takes place at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium featuring performances from The Proclaimers, Annie Lennox, Midge Ure, Texas, Snow Patrol and more.

Finiflex is the Future We chat to John Vick and Davie Miller of Finiflex, charting their progression from performing Peel Sessions in 1985 as Fini Tribe to their 2018 album Suilven as Finiflex

Interview: Becca Inglis

2006: Paisley’s Paolo Nutini releases his debut album These Streets featuring the hits Last Request, New Shoes and Jenny Don’t Be Hasty. The album reaches number three in the UK album charts reaching 5xPlatinum status selling over 1.5 million copies. 2006: Edinburgh live music venue and multi-storey nightclub The Venue closes its doors. 2007: The Sexual Objects, featuring Davy Henderson of The Fire Engines release their 7" single Full Penetration going on to release their debut album Cucumber in 2010 partially produced by Boards of Canada. 2008: Frightened Rabbit release seminal album The Midnight Organ Fight via FatCat Records. 2008: Sneaky Pete’s reopens on the Cowgate, now as a live music venue. 2011: King Creosote and Jon Hopkins’ Diamond Mine album is nominated for the Mercury Prize. 2012: The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award launches, with the first prize being snatched by Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat’s Everything’s Getting Older. 2013: Lost Map Records launches from the ashes of Fence Records via Pictish Trail’s Johnny Lynch. 2013: After eight years of silence, Boards of Canada release Tomorrow’s Harvest preceded by an elaborate cryptic advertising campaign launched on Record Store Day of that year. The band premiere the album via YouTube on their website and subsequently crash their site due to high demand. 2014: Young Fathers win the Mercury Prize for their debut album Dead. 2015: Assai Records opens in Broughty Ferry, going on to open an Edinburgh branch two years later just in time for 2017’s Record Store Day. 2016: The Twilight Sad hit the road with The Cure for their world tour. 2017: Optimo celebrate 20 years of throwing parties and releasing music with an all-dayer at Glasgow’s SWG3. 2017: Ripping Records closes its doors after 41 years of trading. 2017: After 29 years of being closed, Edinburgh’s grand Leith Theatre once again reopens its doors. 2018: Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura) releases Tracyanne & Danny with Danny Coughlan (Crybaby), produced by Edwyn Collins and recorded in his studio in Helmsdale. [Tallah Brash & Rosamund West & National Museums Scotland]

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iniflex Recording Studio sits behind a nondescript door on a quiet corner in Leith. You wouldn’t guess it was there as only a discreet buzzer indicates its existence. Yet inside sits a subterranean complex that’s on most days a hub of activity, producing sound for an impressive roster of clients including the Scottish Government, Irn-Bru, and the Rubik’s Cube. It’s also home to the newly resurrected music outfit, Finiflex. “Finiflex is the future,” says John Vick, referencing the project’s plethora of previous guises. Originally six members, they played their first John Peel session in 1985 as postpunk guitar band Fini Tribe. Spurred on by a fascination with technology, a more electronic lean evolved. They acquired a sampler early on and used pre-recorded sound effects to create Balearic dance anthems like De Testimony, landing collaborations with fellow elec-tronic music pioneers Andrew Weatherall and Justin Robertson. Finiflex was the label originally set up by the band to release their music, which gained its permanent studio home in 1989. When Vick departed from the group – by then known as Finitribe – in 1996 he inherited Finiflex leaving only remaining members Davie Miller and Philip Pinsky to perform together until their final gig in 1998. He’s been here recording sound ever since, until Miller approached him with the suggestion to re-release De Testimony in 2014. “One day Trevor Jackson, who’s a producer, phoned me up and asked if he could license De Testimony,” says Miller. “And he went, ‘You know you should really re-release this because it’s an amazing track. It still sounds now.’” What followed was a dig through archives of recordings for the parts that had made up the original track. “We didn’t have the old tapes but we did have the elements,” Vick says. “So I put it together and all of a sudden it’s there. I said to Davie, I’ve got it. I know it’s not exactly the same, but I’ve got it.” They ended up releasing two anniversary collections – one for De Testimony’s 25th

birthday with remixes by Optimo, Justin Robertson and Robot84, and another for 101 on Record Store Day in 2015 via One Little Indian. From what began as a digital treasure hunt, the two ex-bandmates started composing new music and playing gigs together again, this time as Finitribe with A Finiflex Production. But this is where they ran into trouble. While Miller can still release music as Finitribe, Vick legally renounced his affiliation when he took on the studio. “This record label who were keen for us to do stuff got a letter from an older guy saying under no circumstances could the name be used,” says Vick, “and it was like, ‘you know what Davie? Let’s not visit there. We’re laughing and giggling and having fun. Do we really want to go down that route where we could end up having a legal case of some sort?’” Discarding Finitribe and aligning themselves fully with Finiflex turned out to be a blessing. Vick can now take full ownership of a project where he previously felt overshadowed by the past, and it also better conceptualises the studio’s centrality to the music being made. Finiflex Recording Studio is the nucleus. “We make the videos here,” Vick says, “we write the songs here, we do the merchandise here. It’s all inclusive.” The pair have been devoted for the past four years to producing Finiflex’s first album, Suilven. In stolen moments between the studio’s day-to-day business, Miller and Vick are busy sampling, mixing and filming, often starting at six in the morning and working until clients arrive at nine o’clock. It’s been a long process, but the pair have enjoyed their creative freedom. “We’ve made it so it’s original,” says Vick. “There’s no outside influence, whether that’s good or bad. This is what we do, and not anybody else.” Finiflex resemble hi-tech magpies in a bunker, removed from the outside and surrounded by the technology they’re fascinated by. It’s this world of numbers and cables that has shaped the music most. “I don’t have a music collection,” says Vick. “Davie does. I don’t. I have a machines collection.” Finiflex’s songwriting is driven by toy-

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ing with these machines, starting with little nuggets of sound and then manipulating them and seeing how they could fit together. “You’re constantly decoding the sound around you,” Vick explains, “and then working out why it was good and how to put that thing together again.” Because they’ve felt their way through each track, the album’s not tied together by a single overarching concept, except perhaps the joy they take from unbounded experimentation. What Finiflex are concerned with, more than likeability, is quality. Whereas before they worried about creating music that could be signed, now they focus on aural clarity: “If you want it, great. If you don’t, not a problem,” says Vick. “It might not be anyone’s cup of tea, but I know from the work I do that it’s good enough to present.” This approach has paid off – Finiflex’s single Bonus Freaks entered the Top 40 Official Vinyl Singles Chart in April. “Finiflex is the future” is a phrase that comes up multiple times during our chat and could be a rallying call for the whole project. Each song on their upcoming album Suilven has its own music video, edited from live recordings of the two performing and then mixed with a technicolour onslaught of graphics. It’s intended as an immersive, stimulating multimedia experience rather than simply an album. “The lights and the videos are as much a part of the show as the music is,” says Miller. “The package works together. The sleeves, the videos, and everything is a kind of whole.” While the album’s title looks to the past – Suilven is the name of the Scottish mountain where Finitribe wrote 1995’s Sheigra, the last release Vick recorded with them – it only does so as a point from which to depart. “Why is it called Suilven?” says Vick, going on to answer: “Because it’s such a fantastic mountain. Magical. Untrodden. Hard to get to. If you’re signed to a record label, you get to work on the record all the time, but you do what they want. If you do it this way, you do what you want.” Suilven is released on 8 Jun via Finiflex Records finiflex.bandcamp.com

THE SKINNY

Young Team We take a closer look at the National Museum of Scotland’s Future Features project which celebrates four up-and-coming artists: the future of Scottish pop music

“T

he National Museum of Scotland is the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland,” Lee McCulley, the museum’s Adult Learning Officer tells us. “Although a large number of 17-24 year olds visit, only 7% of visitors to our paid exhibitions fall within that age group. With Rip It Up, we want to change that.” Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop is all about... well, um, telling the story of Scottish pop. Part of the story the National Museum of Scotland want to tell is one that’s in the making right now, so they’ve teamed up with some of the students from the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University to create a campaign to appeal to a 17-24 year old audience. The students created Future Features, looking at four up-and-coming young talented artists – SKJØR, Dancing On Tables, Gus Harrower and Anna McLuckie – currently plugging away in Scotland’s vibrant music scene. “We had an existing relationship with Napier – and they are experienced in work-based learning – so progressing this was straightforward,” McCulley says. “The tutors recruited students from relevant courses to create an

‘interdisciplinary agency’ [and] it’s fair to say that, from the beginning, we were so impressed by the students’ approach... Sometimes projects can begin really positively but peter out a little. This was never like that. The students’ confidence and commitment was apparent straightaway. They each had their own specialisms and came across as respectful to each other in terms of what everyone brought to the table. I’ve really enjoyed this process, it’s been great.” As well as McCulley, we speak to Joanne Frier, one of the students who has been working on the Future Features project at Napier. “This has been an amazing opportunity for us as final year students to work on a campaign that will actually be produced and have tangible results,” she tells us. “While the exhibition is all about the past 50 years of Scottish pop music, our Future Features campaign focuses on the musicians that we believe will be the future of Scottish pop music.” The artists being given the spotlight by Edinburgh Napier University are already starting to make waves in the Scottish music scene: Edinburgh four-piece SKJØR, fronted by the immense talent of Louise McCraw, gained slots at the likes

SKJØR

Dancing On Tables

Anna McLuckie

June 2018

Interview: Tallah Brash Photos: Theodor Stefan Asoltanei

Gus Harrower

of Electric Fields and Belladrum Tartan Hearts Festival last year, recorded a BBC Introducing live session for Vic Galloway and were on Jim Gellatly’s list of emerging Scottish acts to watch out for in 2018. Similarly, Dunfermline’s catchy indie-pop five-piece Dancing On Tables appeared on that same list and are set to have a busy 2018 following their appearance at The Great Escape in Brighton in May, with slots at XpoNorth, Belladrum and Latitude already confirmed. Two further Edinburgh artists are involved with Future Features including singer-songwriter Gus Harrower, who like Dancing On Tables is also set to play XpoNorth this summer in Inverness. In 2015, Harrower won the Holyrood Rocks competition; he then went on to win the Song Academy’s Young Songwriter award in 2016 and was nominated for best acoustic act at the 2017 Scottish Alternative Music Awards. Completing the line-up is the incredibly talented and quite unique Anna McLuckie, whose name you might already know as she appeared on 2014’s series of The Voice where she performed an original cover of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky on the harp, giving pop a

RIP IT UP

folk twist. Influenced by the likes of Laura Marling, Karine Polwart and Dry the River, McLuckie has been quietly plugging away with her bandmates and released gorgeous five-track EP Dear towards the end of last year. “The artists chosen already have a following of fans that we hope will engage with our campaign for Rip It Up,” Frier explains. “The campaign showcases the artists performing in various locations across the museum, which will be available to view as full videos on the National Museums Scotland website, or through shorter clips on social media. A series of posters featuring each of the artists in the museum will also be distributed in a range of locations around Edinburgh. By further exposing the bands across various channels throughout the Future Features campaign, we hope to boost awareness of the music our talented artists are creating.” “This project was to be by young people, for young people,” McCulley tells us. “I’m so pleased with the results, these bands were great choices… For the museum, it has ensured that we’ve also looked to the future, as well as the past.”

Feature

What's On Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop 22 Jun-25 Nov 10am-5pm daily National Museum of Scotland Chambers Street Edinburgh EH1 1JF Book now at nms.ac.uk/ripitup or call 0300 123 6789 Ticket prices: Adult £10 Concession £8 Child (12–15) £7 Under 12s Free National Museums Scotland Members Free

MUSEUM EVENTS

Thu 28 Jun, 27 Sep, 18 Oct & 1 Nov KEY NOTE SESSIONS

Artists, writers, musicians and leading figures in the music industry share the tracks and bands they can’t live without and reflect on key moments in the story of Scottish pop. Featuring Ian Rankin, Bruce Findlay, Clare Grogan, Fay Fife, Barbara Dickson, Rab Noakes and more to be announced. On Thu 28 Jun, Vic Galloway will chair a discussion with Ian Rankin and Bruce Findlay. 7.30-9pm, £8-10

Sat 4-Sun 26 Aug FREE FRINGE MUSIC

Some of Scotland’s best young contemporary talents perform an exciting blend of Scottish pop, traditional Scottish songs and instrumental sets. In partnership with Live Music Now Scotland, daily, 2.052.50pm, free, drop-in

Fri 10, 17 & 24 Aug

MUSEUM AFTER HOURS: FRIDAY FRINGE TAKEOVER

Enjoy a unique flavour of the Fringe and explore the galleries after hours with handpicked performers, comedy, music, bars and entry to Rip It Up. 7.3010.30pm, age 18+, £16-18

Sat 29 Sep

BRIAN HOGG: IN CONVERSATION

The author of All That Ever Mattered: The History of Scottish Rock and Pop, explores the story of Scottish popular music. 2-3pm, free RECORD FAIR

Join us for a Record Fair bringing together vinyl collectors and enthusiasts. Free

Sat 3 Nov TURNTABLE POP-UP

Turntable started when Michael John McCarthy and his Great Aunt Kitty – 55 years his senior – connected over a stack of vinyl. Since then the team have toured her record case around Scotland, inviting listeners of all ages to pick a track to share and engage in a one-to-one conversation with a host. 12-2pm, free drop-in TURNTABLE

Join Michael John McCarthy and special guests as they play their favourite records and reflect on the importance of music in their lives. 2.30-3.30pm, £5-6

Fri 16 Nov

MUSEUM LATE: RIP IT UP

Our Museum Lates return with a Rip It Up-themed evening extravaganza. 7-10.30pm, age 18+, Late only £10-12, Late plus exhibition entry £18-20

Family Events Mon 2–Sun 15 Jul SUMMER HOLIDAY THEMED PROGRAMMES

Two weeks of programming for families centred around Rip It Up including mini live music sessions in Imagine Gallery, hands-on workshops and craft and object handling sessions.

Listings

16 Jun-25 Nov

14 Aug

To coincide with Rip It Up, join Edinburgh Music Tours for a walking tour telling the story of the musicians who have stayed, played and made music in Edinburgh. 16 Jun-25 Nov, times vary, £12-14

A special evening at EIF from Hidden Door, with East Kilbridehailing legendary shoegazers The Jesus and Mary Chain. 7pm, £25

19 Jun

Karine Polwart performs a soundtrack of seminal Scottish pop songs with special guests. 7.30pm, £20

EDINBURGH’S GREATEST HITS: THE STORY OF THE CAPITAL’S MUSIC @ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND

SYNERGY PRESENT… SKIDS + BIG COUNTRY @ SUMMERHALL

Two of Fife’s most influential bands come together. 7pm, £32

21 Jun

NEU! REEKIE! #2: THE VASELINES, THE PASTELS AND LINTON KWESI JOHNSON @ LEITH THEATRE

A full day of world-class music to celebrate the opening of Rip It Up. 12pm, £25

An all-day takeover by Scottish band Lau, a trio of folk adventurers with roots in Oban, Orkney and Edinburgh. 7pm, £25

24 Jun

21 Aug

SYNERGY PRESENT… THE REZILLOS @ SUMMERHALL

The Rezillos ripped into the rock scene with their inimitable molten attitude and created their unique left-field brand of punk rock’n’roll. 7pm, £20

9 Aug

KING CREOSOTE @ LEITH THEATRE

LAU-LAND: JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN, LAU, JAMES HOLDEN & THE ANIMAL SPIRITS, NADAH EL SHAZLY AND MORE @ LEITH THEATRE

MARTYN BENNETT’S ‘BOTHY CULTURE’ @ EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE

A unique performance of Martyn Bennett’s second album, Bothy Culture, performed by The GRIT Orchestra and Greg Lawson. 8pm, £30-35

22-23 Aug

Fife-based singer/songwriter, otherwise known as Kenny Anderson, returns to the EIF. 7pm, £25

The mighty Mogwai return to EIF for two special concerts. 7pm, £30

10 Aug

24 Aug

Genre-blurring band Django Django are joined by C Duncan and Happy Meals for an evening of heavy hitting pop acts. 7pm, £20

A live event celebrating the music of female scottish bands featuring Sacred Paws, Bossy Love and The Van T's. 7pm, £20

DJANGO DJANGO, C DUNCAN AND HAPPY MEALS @ LEITH THEATRE

11 Aug

ANNA MEREDITH AND SOUTHBANK SINFONIA @ LEITH THEATRE

Anna Meredith performs a specially expanded version of her debut album Varmints, with the Southbank Sinfonia Orchestra. 7.30pm, £20 NUMBERS @ LEITH THEATRE

An evening of exciting names in dance music, with live performances and DJ sets. 10.30pm, £15

12 Aug

13 Aug

BABY DISCO

17 Aug

18 Aug

Interactive music gigs in the Grand Gallery for family visitors during Free Fringe Music in August. 11.30am-12pm, 1.30-2pm & 2.30-3pm Ticketed baby disco held in Imagine Gallery for families with younger children.

KARINE POLWART’S SCOTTISH SONGBOOK @ LEITH THEATRE

23 Jun

NEHH PRESENT… THE RIP IT UP FESTIVAL (STANLEY ODD + EMMA POLLOCK + WITHERED HAND + MODERN STUDIES + BE CHARLOTTE + MORE) @ SUMMERHALL

A special evening at EIF from Neu! Reekie! with a powerful triptych of sonic, artistic pioneers. 7pm, £25

Tasked with creating a Scottish record label family tree, we tackle it head on, ending lost further down a rabbit hole than we thought possible – it's a testament to how connected the Scottish music community is. We're truly sorry if we've missed anyone out. Just so you know, the lines between the labels denote band connections – isn't it beautiful?

16 Aug

The second of two specially curated line-ups see Neu! Reekie! assemble some mighty cult icons for one glorious evening. 7pm, £25

NEU! REEKIE! #1: MICHAEL ROTHER (NEU!), FIRE ENGINES AND LYDIA LUNCH @ LEITH THEATRE

SPROG ROCK

HIDDEN DOOR PRESENT THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, HONEYBLOOD AND SPINNING COIN @ LEITH THEATRE

Nothing Ever Happens Here presents a night of Scottish music to celebrate the launch of Rip It Up. 7pm, £23

Sat 11 Aug

For tickets and the lastest information on all our events and family activities visit nms.ac.uk/ripitup

PARTNER EVENTS

NEHH PRESENT… IDLEWILD, PAWS AND MAN OF MOON @ SUMMERHALL

#RipItUp

Adult Events

We Are Family

MOGWAI @ LEITH THEATRE

SINCE YESTERDAY @ LEITH THEATRE

25 Aug

BOARDS OF CANADA'S 'HI SCORES' @ LEITH THEATRE

André de Ridder conducts s t a r g a z e for a reimagining of Hi Scores by BoC. 5pm, £20

ALAN CUMMING PRESENTS CLUB CUMMING @ LEITH THEATRE

Alan Cumming returns to EIF with his Club Cumming hedonistic extravaganza. 10.30pm, £25

28 Sep

SHAMANIC @ OLD COLLEGE QUAD

Featuring performances from DJ Dolphin Boy, Fay Fife (The Rezillos) and more, expect a visceral collision of alternative rock, live painting and architecture. 7pm, £22

CELTIC CONNECTIONS PRESENT LE VENT DU NORD AND JULIE FOWLIS @ LEITH THEATRE

Celtic Connections brings together francophone folk music group Le Vent du Nord and Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis. 7.30pm, £25

Exhibition sponsored by:

RIP IT UP

THE SKINNY

Where Your Mouth Is After getting a particularly cancerous pork chop from the local supermarket our writer made a vow – he wasn’t going to eat a piece of meat again unless he knew where it came from.

“T

hat’s the gun Munder’s son shot himself with.” I look at the rifle in my hand. The barrel is heavily scratched, accidental hieroglyphs of a murky past. “Reliable model, dad got it for $100.” The wooden grip shines in two places, treated by a hundred years of sweaty palms. “Winchester 22, came over with the Poms.” I stand in a field with Corrin the farmer and John, my New Zealand host. We are at the base of the Main Divide mountain range; snow topped peaks look down on us. The Canterbury Plains stretch to the east, farm after farm rolling over the Earth’s curvature. “Lost the magazine, but still works,” says John, a semi-retired hunting guide. He wears Wrangler jeans, a fishing supplies cap, and a cotton shirt. All are marbled with sweat and dirt. He walks with a half-skip limp, his knee decommissioned a decade ago by a wild boar. “Remind me once we’re finished,” says Corrin, “I think I’ve got a spare one in the house.” A worry of barren ewes flows round the small paddock in front of us, their only use meat. I join the conversation: “Was it an accident?” “What was?” “The boy who shot himself, was it an accident?” “Suicide, shot himself between the eyes.” I put the gun on the back of the pickup and take a few steps away. After getting a particularly cancerous pork chop from the local supermarket I had made a vow. I wasn’t going to eat a piece of meat again unless I knew where it came from. New Zealand’s animal products made me uncomfortable, they tasted fake, more like an impression of food than the real thing. You could taste their high-yield high-efficiency farming in every bite. That was all except the wild venison. The best tasting piece of meat I’d ever eaten had lived on the mountain behind John’s house. I told John of my vow. He liked it, thought it was a great idea. He said he could make it happen. I thought we would be going hunting in the mountains. Instead I found myself at Corrin’s farm with a gun. John takes aim. The first shot fades over the fields. The ewe chosen is still standing but chewing rapidly. Blood starts to run down its chin. “Bit low there, got it in the mouth,” John says, lowering the gun. He takes aim again. I hold my breath. Bang. The sheep doesn’t fall. It runs around in circles shaking its head, trying to throw off whatever is causing it pain. The second shot went through her cheek. “Aim higher when you’re this close,” says Corrin, “you’re making a pig’s dinner of this John.” Corrin paces back and forth with his hands behind his back. Used to slaughter he still finds this slow death difficult to watch. John aims for the third time and shoots. The sheep falls onto her back, legs twitching in the air. Corrin stares at John, his gaze is not met. “Bit of a disaster John.”

June 2018

Words: Ciaran J Stormonth Illustration: Tom Saffill

“Yeah, the gun’s not firing the best.” John laughs awkwardly, an apology to the beast. I had seen one other sheep shot when I was a child. My mum said it would be good for me to watch. Maybe she would have been right if it wasn’t such an isolated incident. It didn’t make me used to death, only aware of it. And what of Scotland, why was I only questioning my food choices in a foreign country? I had an ineffable feeling we were better, we were more ethical. Scottish beef was best, Scottish pork had a great life, Scottish eggs were from happy hens. I had a conscience, I bought free-range everything. Those two words made it all seem alright. I imagined mother hen twaddling through a leafy forest, eating a diet of wild grains and juicy worms while chirping away to her comrades. The UK requirements for a free-range classification are as follows: - No more than nine hens per square metre. - Theoretical access to the outdoors at least once every three months. That’s it. On the way to Glasgow airport for my flight to New Zealand, I got stuck in traffic on the M74. A livestock float destined for the slaughterhouse pulled up beside me. Dirty scared animals in a dirty scary lorry, the whites of their eyes bulging through small holes in metal walls. I wound up my window and looked straight ahead. We used to live with our animals in our house, why as our standard of living has gone up has theirs come down?

“We used to live with our animals in our house, why as our standard of living has gone up has theirs come down?” Snow loosened by the brutal sun falls down the mountains in fitful whispers. Covered in sunblock, my nose still burns, the ozone hole above New Zealand difficult to avoid. The hiss of spraying water can be heard behind us, an irrigation pivot arches its emaciated frame over countless fields, like rows of greyhound skeletons pissing on the Canterbury Plains. Corrin slowly wrings his hands; deeply creased, they sound like sandpaper against damp wood. When we first shook hands, the thick skin felt like a layer of rubber between us. His shirt is loosely buttoned, a wisp of white chest hair hanging over the top button. His rolled-up sleeves reveal forearms like ancient treated timbers. Corrin is known as the most parsimonious farmer in Canterbury – that he once made his wife get a part-time job is local folklore.

New Zealand’s biggest export is milk powder to China. Modern irrigation systems have changed the face of farming on the Canterbury Plains. Where dry scrubland used to support hardy sheep, lush green grass feeds an army of dairy cows. Corporations have invested heavily, driving up the cost of land while reducing the private farmer’s margin. During the six months I lived there, two local families sold their farms to the same corporation. Ruthless commercial farming doesn’t just affect animals. Corrin decided not to irrigate his fields for dairy cattle, instead sticking with sheep. “Sheep do well on this land naturally. Once you get the loan to irrigate the land, you spend the rest of your life working for the bank. The bank owns everything.”

TRAVEL

John asks me to pass him his boning knife. A bright plastic handled blade in an old carved leather pouch. He starts by cutting the throat, then slitting from the neck to tail. He cuts round the anus, then scoops out the blue green and purple coils and sacks that make up organs. He dumps these beside himself, careful not to puncture the bladder or intestines. “Go chuck them in the trees Ciaran.” They smell like hot grass and blood. Visceral fat and slime make them slippy, the intestines roll out my hands like a greasy slinky. I put the bundle down and try to get a better grip. I throw the ewe’s mechanics in the trees then walk back. “What’s wrong with you Ciaran?” asks Corrin. “He’s not used to this sort of thing,” answers John for me. I’ve lost my appetite.

Lifestyle

ootball – it’s not a subject that’s brought up much round these parts; we’re much more of a ‘flat white, second-hand shop, then lovely bit of contemporary art with the lads’ bunch. Still, there’s no denying the cultural ubiquity of that football competition they’re doing this month, so we hit on an idea. What if each of the countries in the 32-team field were represented by a venue or item available in Scotland’s foodie establishments, with the aim of finding out which is the

best in the most arbitrary way imaginable? Well, reader, we've made that dream come true. Mostly. We had to jump straight to the knockout rounds for space reasons, and because we couldn’t for the life of us find any Panamanian cuisine, but the point remains. Consider this a primer on some of Scotland’s foodie gems from around the world, and a source of needless diplomatic tension. Win-win.

Round One Nile Valley Cafe v Serrano Manchego Representing Spain is the delightful tapas joint Serrano Manchego (297 Leith Walk, Edinburgh), home of incredible meats, cheeses, and coffees with condensed milk in them. Standing in for Egypt from over the border in Sudan are the otherworldly falafels of the Nile Valley Cafe (6 Chapel St, Edinburgh). Dill, sesame seeds, chilli flakes – stick a couple of those in a wrap with some babaganoush and fava beans and you’re onto a winner.

Fylkir of Copenhagen v Einstök Ölgerð Fylkir (134 Newlands Rd, Glasgow) is a Danish cafe that’s all about delightfully arranged open sandwiches and other lovely Scandinavian goodies. Einstök – the brewery whose beers are available in many of your favourite swanky off-licences – has thrown its weight behind the Icelandic football team with specially designed bottles and general marketing patter. You can’t eat patter though, so the smorrebrod merchants of Fylkir win this one.

Clark and Lake v Bibimbap Switzerland is all about the raclette – what’s not to love about the warm scrapings from an ostentatiously big piece of cheese? Clark and Lake (8 Gillespie Pl, Edinburgh) will sling you some of that cheesy goodness, but they can’t hope to beat turbo-hip Korean bar Bibimbap (3 West Nile St, Glasgow). We’re suckers for ridiculous design, wild cocktails and crunchy fried chicken – they have all three, so obviously they’re straight through.

Six Degrees North v Pierogi Najlepsze w Mieście The slight issues of this format begin here; how do you pick between the Belgianinspired beers of Six Degrees North (24 Howe St, Edinburgh; 566 Dumbarton Rd, Glasgow) and the steamed-up windows of Polish dumpling house Pierogi Najlepsze w Miescie (29 Crighton Pl, Ediburgh)? Well, you do like they do in the world of football punditry, and just pick one or the other. We like Six Degrees North’s apparently endless tap selections, so they’re through.

Casa Amiga v Cafe Cossachok The Russian culinary gamut gets a full runout at Cafe Cossachok (10 King St, Glasgow), everything from blintzes to borscht to myriad kinds of dumplings. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have the unreal Pastéis de Nata from Casa Amiga (294 Leith Walk, Edinburgh). Pastry that’s both crunchy and flaky, paired with a sweetbut-not-too-sweet baked custard; winner winner, skip your dinner and just have four or five of these.

Gaucho v The Peruvian A pair of South American concepts clash here – the choice is between swanky-ass Argentinian steakhouse Gaucho (4a St Andrew Sq, Edinburgh) and street food stand The Peruvian (Food & Flea, Edinburgh). If you like swanky furnishings and shiny interior design you’ll probably fancy Gaucho, but we’re more into the ceviche, marinated meats and in-thestreet cool of The Peruvian so they’re our pick. Plus, their sign has a llama on it.

El Cartel Mexicana v Mr Eion Coffee One of the greatest culinary gifts Mexico’s given the world is the taco, and there aren’t many better in Scotland than those at El Cartel Mexicana (64 Thistle St, Edinburgh), served in a room that straddles ‘cool ambience’ and ‘can someone turn a light on’. Costa Rica has blessed us with great coffee – micro-roasters Mr Eion (9 Dean Park St, Edinburgh) serve up a fruity, sharp smallbatch Costa Rican coffee, but it can’t quite beat those tacos.

Maki and Ramen v Koelschip Yard Our favourite ramen spot Maki and Ramen (97 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh) flies the flag for Japan in this one, and given that this is the World Cup we need to ensure that England are knocked out embarrassingly early. That said, England is home to some fantastic craft breweries whose beers can be regularly found on tap at some of the Central Belt’s best bars – we’ll shout out Koelschip Yard (686 Pollokshaws Rd, Glasgow) this time around.

Casa Amiga v The Peruvian A clash of styles here, between phenomenally sweet and sugary and impressively savoury. We’re going to put through Casa Amiga for two reasons – you’ve always got room for dessert, no matter how much you’ve eaten, and those custard tarts are much easier to transport around than a delicious plate of ceviche. You can’t pocket-munch ceviche. Believe us.

El Cartel Mexicana v Maki and Ramen Ah yes, the point in any sporting tournament where two of the very best competitors come up against each other slightly too early. Both of these are great, and to be honest they’d be near the top of the office hitlist in almost any circumstance. As it is, we’ll give it to El Cartel, as it’s much harder to embarrass oneself with a taco than it is flapping around with a pair of chopsticks. It’s not impossible – salsas move in mysterious ways – but at least the chances of accidentally taking an eye out are a whole lot lower.

Quarter-finals Nile Valley Cafe v Fylkir of Copenhagen At this stage in the competition, we’re looking at things with a finer eye for detail, something that both these spots grasp but in different ways. Fylkir’s smørrebrød are all intricately designed pieces of art topped with all manner of lovely goodies; Nile Valley’s wraps are wonders of culinary engineering, balancing a whole host of flavours and textures in a lunchtime treat the size of a small cat. However, on the finest detail of all – ‘does this venue actually represent the country it’s matched with in this tournament?’ – Fylkir takes the biscuit.

June 2018

Bibimbap v Six Degrees North We’re also looking at range – what options are on offer? Six Degrees North really can’t be touched on this one, offering a boat load of their own Belgian-style beers as well as a constantly changing range of guest beers in each of their bars. While Bibimbap do have some banger options, there’s unfortunately always going to be one dish that gets in the way of ordering anything else. Fried chicken that’s literally too good – feel free to have that one for a poster quote.

Eat My Goal We embark on a world tour of Scotland to crown a food and drink champion this summer to coincide with a certain football tournament Words: Peter Simpson

Semi-finals Fylkir v Six Degrees North A trendy upstart versus an established big boy here, and unfortunately we’re going to have to side with the larger of the two. Six Degrees North’s beer selection is always impressive, we like to party, and there’s something reassuring about knowing there’s nice beer waiting at either end of the M8 (plus one of the guys from 6DN was very nice to us at a beer festival, and this wouldn’t be a sporting tournament without some questionable nepotism, would it?)

The Final The grand finale – Mexican food vs Belgian Beer. While the beer is delicious, the tacos' endless flavours and opportunities to much about win the day. Myriad options, all working in harmony – Total Football, but in a corn tortilla. What we’ve learned from this experiment is that Scotland is home to some incredible options from across the culinary world. We’ve been reminded that, when it comes to picking your next night out, sometimes the choices you have to make aren’t fair. But more than anything, we now know that, according to this highly arbitrary tabulation, El Cartel Mexicana is the best place in the world and that Mexico are going to win the World Cup. You’re welcome.

Casa Amiga v El Cartel Mexicana Each of these spots has been something of a one-dish team so far – Casa Amiga for their custard tarts, and El Cartel for their tacos. But there’s only so deep in a competition you can go behind one star, which is to say that the coffee in Casa Amiga is kinda average, while El Cartel’s menu also features cracking margaritas and Mexican dips with about 40 visible ingredients in them. So long Pasteis De Nata, you did your best.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup begins on 14 Jun; food is available all year round

FOOD AND DRINK

Lifestyle

Food News The science of drinking, a couple of drinks festivals and a giant maneating lion – it's just another month in the world of Scottish food and drink

e start June with a double dose of foodie science courtesy of the Glasgow Science Centre. Their latest Science Lates night is all about our sense of taste, and the museum’s loaded with a host of interactive demos and happenings from the likes of Clydeside Distillery, tea experts Eteaket and The Good Coffee Cartel (1 Jun, 6pm, £15). The following day, The Science of Rum is explored in fine detail with the help of the Good Spirits Co – expect a six-part runthrough of the best that the rum world has to offer (2 Jun, 7pm, £35). Over in Edinburgh, the Juniper Festival of gin and gin-related paraphernalia returns to Summerhall with a focus on the people behind your favourite spirit. The fest features a host of masterclasses, demos and the chance to ask your clever, clever questions about gin to the very people who make it. Oh, and there’ll be the odd gin & tonic as well. Nearly forgot about that…1-3 Jun, various times, £17.50-21.50 Next up, a left-field reminder that food-related events aren’t just about boozing, as Edinburgh Fringe hit Eaten arrives at Platform in Glasgow as part of Take Me Somewhere Festival. Suzi Cunningham and Mamoru Iriguchi portray a lion and human respectively; guess which one’s eaten by which? An ideal afternoon out for those of you who love pithy children’s theatre but insist on a food and drink theme, which we assume is all of you. 4 Jun, 1.30pm & 7pm, £4.50-8.50 Right, back to the drinking, with Summerhall’s FestivALE. The fest moves outdoors this year to coincide with the Southern Exposure series of music events at the venue, which in turn tie in with the Rip It Up exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland. All you need to know is there’ll be more than 30 beers on tap, street food to fill the gaps between those beers, an intriguing ‘Crisp Confessional’ to help you find the ideal savoury snack for your choice of tipple and the Massaoke band will be at hand to provide the music. They will be taking requests, so good luck to everyone involved. 15 & 16 Jun, 5.30pm, £10 In Glasgow, much-loved vegan chef VSO’s new Cantina Nite series of music and food pop-ups continues at The 78. This time around, the top-drawer plant-based grub is paired with a DJ set from Glasgow’s favourite Euro-synth duo Free Love (up until recently, they were the aptly-titled Happy Meals). An ideal opportunity to have an amazing meal and get MWI all at the same time. 19 Jun, 8pm, free entry And finally, some extremely inspirational beer from the winners of this year’s IBD Home Brew Competition. The Hanging Bat in Edinburgh host the launch of this year’s three winning brews – try them out to get some ideas for your own home brew and grab a chat with this year’s winners to find out how to stop your beers from going bad and/or exploding. 21 Jun, 6pm, free entry [Peter Simpson] theskinny.co.uk/food

Thomson's Central

New in Food

Lifestyle

Burgers that’ll blow you away, top-class tempura and very good veggie and vegan food feature in our latest venue round-up Words: Peter Simpson

El Perro Negro After the longest time as an itinerant pop-up never staying anywhere long enough for us to get there in time, El Perro Negro has a permanent home for some of Glasgow’s best burgers. Find them in Finnieston with a menu that features burgers that follow two distinct paths – one road leads to incredibly rich burgers with bone marrow everywhere, the other is covered in delicious spicy things. 966 Argyle St, Glasgow Short Long Black Coffee This new addition to a buzzing scene in south Glasgow has everything you could want from a neighbourhood coffee place. There’s the light punning of the name, a delicious-looking food menu filled with brunchy goodness and a fantastic Instagram game centred around some absolutely lovely tableware. Hey, if we wanted to drink from a chipped mug with the Swedish Chef on the side, we’d stay in the house, right? 501 Victoria Rd, Glasgow Tempura Kiro It was while eating a disappointing sandwich on a grey Wednesday afternoon that The Skinny was

Thomson's Central

tipped off about Tempura Kiro, a tiny spot on Victoria Road that specialises in just two dishes. Turn up on a Wednesday or a Thursday and it’s all about karaage, or Japanese fried chicken; Friday and Saturday are for delightful piles of tempura. Throw your meal deals aside and join us in forming an orderly but excitable queue. 72 Victoria Rd, Glasgow Thomson’s Central Old-school Glasgow coffee roasters have been at it since the 1840s, and now they have a new cafe in which to try out their wares. It’s part of the redevelopment of The Arches next to Central Station, and it doubles up as an on-site roastery so you just know it’s going to smell amazing. 253 Argyle St, Glasgow Nonya Nonya sits on the edge of Finnieston, and from the looks of it the place also sits on the edge of ‘extremely exciting’ and ‘impressively cool’. The food is a South Asian array of sharing dishes, everything from whole grilled quail to Laotian sausage to green mango salads. Meanwhile the drinks list features some outlandish flourishes

FOOD AND DRINK

– four kinds of kombucha, and a take on a daiquiri that sees edible pandan leaf paint smeared on the inside of the glass. The inside of the glass, folks! 10 Claremont St, Glasgow The Greenhouse Vegetables’ big moment continues down in Leith, as what was once the Constitution Bar is now the hopefully-pun-intended Greenhouse. From the team behind The Black Fox on Leith Walk, this new spot focuses on plant-based comfort food and trendy beers, so naturally it’s right up our street. 48-52 Constitution St, Edinburgh Fhior Fhior is the new home in the New Town for former Norn head chef Scott Smith, opening later this June. Smith resigned from his old work on the same day it won an award for being Edinburgh’s best restaurant, so he’s clearly not short on talent or a sense of comic timing; we’re highly intrigued to see what’s next for his take on modern Scottish dining. 36 Broughton St, Edinburgh theskinny.co.uk/food

THE SKINNY

June 2018

THE SKINNY

Fun in the Sun As the 2018 Kelburn Garden Party fast approaches, we take a closer look and chat to some of the artists playing The Skinny’s Pyramid Stage line-up

Kobi Onyame

June 2018

Photo: Ryan Johnston

jagging riffs and a set with no vowels,” as frontman Alastair Chivers so concisely puts it. Bandmate David MacDonald adds that it’s a “dysfunctional family relationship with too many wires and cold synths.” We then move on up to Future Get Down’s “synths, drums, bass, percussion and vocals methodically stumbling down a decaying flight of nightclub stairs,” as ringleader Oliver Kass describes their sound, concluding that it’s “often accompanied by a general consensus that if they haven’t been kicked out already, they surely will be soon.” Future Get Down will be headlining our stage, bringing their beekeeper outfits and LCD Soundsystem-indebted beats to Kelburn this year – we’ve actually described Kass in the past as a “psychedelic James Murphy” so make of that what you will and be sure to make catching their set part of your itinerary for the weekend. Their excellent debut five-track EP, the aptly titled EP1, was released back in April so give it a listen and get yourself ready for the late night Future Get Down party. Kass tells us that “EP2 is finished and will be out at some point in the next couple of months….” going on to conclude that, “we’ll be figuring out what the fuck’s happening with EP3 as well.” Glasgow’s CRYSTAL recently blew us away with their single Heaven – they got in touch to ask if we’d be up for premiering the track and by the end of that same day we’d booked them to play our stage. We were then fortunate enough to see them perform at La Belle Angele for Wide Days and they blew us away again. “Kelburn is a festival I’ve always wanted to go to and I’ve heard a lot of friends saying that the atmosphere and music is amazing,” CRYSTAL guitarist and vocalist Anna Shields tells us. “So I think it will just be cool to experience the festival as a whole as well as perform to a new audience. “Our sound is heavily inspired by 90s grunge,” she continues. “We take a lot of influence from bands like The Breeders and Nirvana.” While that is true, what surprised us the most was just how much of a glam sensibility they have – imagine if Kim Deal and Marc Bolan made

SKJØR

CRYSTAL

musical babies together and you’re just about halfway there. This young four-piece are a serious force to be reckoned with and ones to watch. Like CRYSTAL, ST.MARTiiNS are another band who massively caught our attention when they got in touch to tell us about their debut EP Bad w/Her. We instantly fell in love with their single othr grls and that’s been us firmly in camp ST.MARTiiNS ever since. The Dundee duo made up of Katie Lynch and Mark Johnston have a varied array of influences from Bombay Bicycle Club and The Cure to ANOHNI and Day Wave, and Lynch has a real passion for writing poetry – their sound is absolute, perfect for a summery afternoon, so we can’t wait for their set. We’ve actually booked a whole bunch of bands that we think are perfect for a summery afternoon/evening – so we’re praying the sunshine gods are with us on 30 June. The incredible talent that is Glasgow-based Kobi Onyame, who recently swapped hip-hop to rediscover his musical roots, is one such act. Born to Ghanaian parents, Onyame spent three years as an undergraduate in Ghana where he became fully immersed in its music scene. His latest album GOLD is full of uplifting highlife grooves and we can’t think of a more perfect start to your evening at Kelburn than Kobi Onyame. “I heard it’s magical out there!” he exclaims of Kelburn Garden Party, going on to tell us his music “sounds like jollof rice with a side of fried ripe plantain and a chilled glass of Supermalt on a sunny (hopefully not muddy) day.” He also says you’ve to “expect to be part of the show so bring your vim.” Playing their first outdoor festival show for us at Kelburn is Edinburgh “low key synth pop” duo Super Inuit, comprised of Brian Pokora and Fern Morris. “Kelburn’s such a lovely setting so it’s the perfect location for our first outdoor festival show,” says Pokora. “From going previously we remember the chilled atmosphere, views across the water and lots of fun stuff outside of the music itself fondly, so are particularly excited to make it back and play this year. “We’re also really excited to be among such an eclectic mix of excellent bands on The Skinny stage, and beyond that are looking forward to seeing Egopatterns, Randolph’s Leap and Warm Digits.” To bring a bit of R’n’B and neo-soul flavour to Kelburn this year, we’ve invited Edinburgh-based

Music

Photo: James A. Grant

elburn has the friendliest vibe of all the festivals I’ve been to. It’s a great place to meet other musicians and get chatting to new people,” Lou Mclean tells us of her love for Kelburn Garden Party. “The line-ups are always so good and inevitably I find a new band/artist to obsess over. “There’s never a dull moment even away from the tunes,” she adds, “and I’m looking forward to topping last year’s random Kelburn sighting: a six foot tall cat dressed as a bellhop prowling around the artists’ camping!” The Skinny have been going to Kelburn Garden Party for some time, and 2017 was our favourite year yet: we got political with Akala; we saw the light during Flamingods’ set; we danced in the trees to Optimo b2b Numbers’ Spencer; we got our party on in the saloon; we got joyously lost in the woods; we gave ourselves heart palpitations watching the slackline walkers do their thing in the dark up in the treetops; and we even got to make our own beats at one point, which if any of you saw on our Instagram (@ theskinnymag) account, were fucking top notch. When we got home from 2017’s party we decided it would be pretty great if we could curate our own stage one year; we asked KGP organiser Chris Knight if we could and now it’s happening in 2018. Lou Mclean will be opening The Skinny’s takeover of the Pyramid Stage on Saturday 30 June with what she describes herself as “lyric-driven pop songs with a riot grrrl edge. Think early Kate Nash, but Scottish. “Expect acoustic bangers with plenty of heartbreak and lots of laughs in between,” continues Mclean. “Music is about connection so I try to stay in the moment with gigs which usually means I accidentally spill an anecdote or two during the set. So come laugh at my life disasters at the very least!” If that isn’t the perfect way to spend the beginnings of your Saturday hangover then we don’t know what is! As Saturday continues, we plan to take you on an aural journey of what Scotland’s young music scene has to offer right now. From Mclean’s acoustic bangers it’s on to DTHPDL’s “krautrock

Photo: Jannica Honey

“K

Interview: Tallah Brash

Bahraini singer-songwriter and producer Khalid Al Khajah, who cites the likes of Prince and D’Angelo as inspiration. He really impressed us with his debut EP Open (written, produced and recorded entirely in his living room), self-released at the start of 2017, and we can’t wait to hear it performed live. Annie Booth is another we’re excited to see live (we’re obviously looking forward to seeing everyone, so don’t get your knickers in a bunch) as up until now we’ve only seen her performing as part of Mt.Doubt, so it’ll be lovely seeing her do her own thing. The Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter recently released her debut album An Unforgiving Light on Last Night From Glasgow and has since performed as part of BBC Scotland’s Quay Sessions. Booth tells us: “[I’m excited] to play my songs at a really warm, welcoming festival! Being part of The Skinny’s stage is also very cool – excited to see the other acts. And the sun... I hope there’s sun.” Not sure we’ve mentioned it yet, but we’re really hoping it’s going to be sunny. “Me and the band are thinking that we’ll do something quite stripped-back and folky on the day,” so make sure you’re down early for that slice of lovely. Completing our line-up is Edinburgh four-piece SKJØR, fronted by the incredible talent that is Louise McCraw. She describes the band’s sound as “dark dream pop, with essences of Florence and the Machine and similar to artists such as Nadine Shah and St. Vincent,” and we’d say there’s a good smattering of Daughter in there too. “Expect catchy melodies with a dreamy, reverb rich, musical soundscape,” McCraw adds. “Oh and we will be playing a brand new set!” We’re genuinely thrilled and incredibly excited for our first stage curation for Kelburn Garden Party this year and we hope this has whetted your appetite for what to expect from our stage. The music starts from midday and goes on until just after midnight. We’ll be there all day hanging out, so please come say hi and hang out with us. Sun or no sun bring your waterproofs, as SKJØR are “hoping there’ll be a water fight!” You have been warned. Kelburn Garden Party takes place from 29 Jun-2 Jul The Skinny’s Pyramid Stage takeover takes place on Sat 30 Jun kelburngardenparty.com

Review

Idle Hands We catch up with Ruari MacLean and Nick Lynch of Glasgow four-piece Vital Idles to talk about Glasgow, Billy Idol and recording their debut album Left Hand

ollowing a couple of demo cassettes and a 7”, Vital Idles finally release their debut album Left Hand on 1 June. The group formed in Glasgow a few years back, growing from just a few friends hanging out making music to a fully fledged project. It was definitely a “social thing first,” explains multi-instrumentalist and former Golden Grrrls member, Ruari MacLean, “every band I’ve played in has had some non-musician element... it’s a way to hang out with people you like, that isn’t just going down the pub, and you make something.” And while working on new material last summer the band “wrote a dozen songs in the first month or so [and] we weren’t planning to do an album, just an EP, but we had so many songs so...” The band have already been noted for their DIY aesthetic and minimalist arrangements, while Jessica Higgins’ oblique and kitchen-sink-philosophy lyrics have drawn comparisons to Life Without Buildings and The Smiths. “I think we all agree that we try to use as little as possible, to not be too busy,” MacLean says of the band’s creative process. “We [MacLean, Nick Lynch, Matthew Walkerdine] work out some music and Jess Higgins is always writing, then we whittle it down from a load of words. It’s usually pretty fast, just a couple of practices.”

“Some people expect more of a rock vibe (in reference to their recent No Age support slot), more guitar effects or more volume... but the way we write it is the way we play it.” Lynch, Higgins and Walkerdine are all part of Good Press, a multi-purpose art space/publisher that works with a range of artists on various zines, exhibitions and projects in Glasgow. This engagement with different mediums helped the group’s decision to make cassettes early on. “It was like, we have all these songs, gotta put them somewhere!” Lynch says with regards to the band’s early material, while MacLean adds, “tapes have been fetishised now to an extent, and they’re really cheap to make. We could make CD-Rs but... I don’t have a CD player and the packaging doesn’t lend itself as well to our artwork.” Needing a name before they could release a demo cassette the group found inspiration in a

Interview: Lewis Wade “There are venues that make it easier to play shows in an economical way like The Old Hairdresser’s, Mono, CCA [and] there’s been some young musician’s projects that have been good [for getting started in music].” MacLean goes on: “There’s a lot of faffing around and being quite bad for a long time [when you start out].” But the city has a strong community that provides opportunities to learn and improve: “I moved to Glasgow about three years after Franz Ferdinand and I’d read about them mentioning Stereo... then my third show in a band was at Stereo and it seemed like such a big deal, and that band was not good,” MacLean laughs, “but it was a good experience to play there.”

few fairly disparate places, “My sister was in a charity shop near Perth and saw a Billy Idol remix album called Vital Idol,” MacLean tells us, “and there’s The Teen Idles, Ian MacKaye’s pre-Minor Threat band and also The Idle Idols, an old glam band I saw on a YouTube documentary about New Zealand punk... so it was an amalgamation of those things.” Despite being connected to the artistic community through Vital Idles and other projects (“the city is small enough that everyone basically knows everyone,” Lynch says), there isn’t a belief that the city is inherently special in its musical makeup. “Right now there are some great bands in Glasgow, and some... not so great bands,” Lynch argues, “probably the same as 20 or 30 years ago.” But the difference seems to be in the way that local venues and musicians have built a solid infrastructure of support.

Left Hand is released on 1 Jun via Upset the Rhythm Vital Idles play Mono, Glasgow, 1 Jun facebook.com/vitalidles/

“ Right now there are some great bands in Glasgow, and some... not so great bands”

Vital Idles

Review

Photo: Thomas O'Donoghue

Team Picture

CARBS

HAIM @ O2 Academy, Glasgow, 10 Jun ‘Sister sister, never knew how much I missed ya!’ It feels like it’s been forever since the sisters Haim graced us with their upbeat presence, catchy riffage and let’s be real for a minute... Este’s bass face, right? We’ve probably missed that the most. In all seriousness though, the magical HAIM bring two albums worth of sunsoaked indie pop to Glasgow’s O2 Academy tonight and you don’t wanna miss it. Right on!

CARBS @ Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, 9 Jun Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott are back under the guise of their CARBS moniker with brand new EP YouTubular Bells (out on 1 June via Save As Collective) and they celebrate its release tonight in the cosy surrounds of Henry’s Cellar Bar. Made up of stitched together YouTube samples and song titles like Live Fast Get Coin and Skateboards of Canada, checking out their lyrical prowess in the flesh will be well worth your time. Support comes from Chuchoter. CARBS also play The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 8 Jun with Edwin Organ.

Music

HAIM

Siobhan Wilson

Photo: Jassy Earl

Team Picture @ The Hug & Pint, 4 Jun Formed in 2016, Leeds six-piece Team Picture are fresh from playing Brighton’s The Great Escape festival and are heading out on the road this month to celebrate the release of their debut mini-album Recital (out 1 Jun via Big Dumb Music). With a sound very much indebted to the 80s, their songs are nostalgically peppered throughout with joyous synths and boy/girl vocals. Tonight’s show at the Hug will no doubt make for a glorious start to a new month. Oh, and don’t be fooled by the high school marching band attire in their press shot...

Photo: Chris Byrne

Do Not Miss

Tae Sup Wi a Fifer @ Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, 16 Jun Fancy getting out of Edinburgh, Glasgow or Dundee this month for some glorious live music but don’t want to go too far afield? Then look no further than James Yorkston’s Tae Sup Wi a Fifer taking place tonight at the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy. Performances come from hugely influential alt-folk singer-songwriter Michael Hurley; comedian, actor, performance poet, cartoonist and podcaster Phill Jupitus, and the inimitable Siobhan Wilson, whose latest album There Are No Saints was one of our Scottish albums of 2017.

THE SKINNY

Photo: Gaelle Beri

While it all came together quickly the record never feels rushed, just lean, ground down to its bare essentials. “In other bands I’ve played in it might be what I’m listening to at home, liking a certain part then trying to do my own version of it... but now that we’re practising together in a room it’s a bit more instinctual.” This organic style also informs the group’s no-frills live shows:

Photo: Edwin Stevens

Nick Lynch

The Art of Politics Ahead of the release of the debut EP from Declan Welsh & The Decadent West, we speak to the group’s frontman about the inextricable links between politics and his songwriting

Interview: Claire Francis

inger, songwriter and poet Declan Welsh, who hails from East Kilbride, has a particularly sharp way with words. With his band The Decadent West (a moniker chosen for its alliterative quality), they make rousing indie guitar music that unapologetically tackles sticky political issues and social norms. While many musicians would baulk at the idea of having their art and their political views so closely entwined, for Welsh, that’s exactly how he likes it. “I think – it might be quite presumptuous to say this, and people can disagree – every single bit of art is inherently political,” he states firmly. We’re a couple of beers into our chat at Glasgow’s Stereo bar, having firstly discussed Welsh’s musical background (“Basically I’m half as good a footballer as my dad, and half as good a singer as my mum, so I’m quite a good footballer and a pretty good singer”) and influences which range from politically-charged acts like Billy Bragg and Rage Against the Machine, to more straight up rock’n’roll fare. “Muse and Arctic Monkeys, I was obsessed with [both] when I was younger. I stand by Muse’s first three – maybe three-and-a-half – albums,” he laughs. Welsh began writing songs for acoustic guitar and after deciding the songs needed a

June 2018

SAMH Fundraiser @ Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 21 Jun Head along to the Leith Depot tonight for some great music while helping raise money for the Scottish Association for Mental Health. Hosted by the lovely Edinburgh-based dream pop fourpiece L-Space, performances will come from them as well as Adam Stafford – whose latest long player Fire Behind the Curtain was our album of the month in May – plus Glasgow synthpop duo Pocket Knife and Manchester-based synth-folk act KITS. It’s going to be really quite lovely, that we guarantee.

L-Space

track Nazi Boys – which depicts a retaliatory attack on a right-wing activist – YouTube temporarily blocked it on the grounds that it ‘incites violence.’ Back in 2016, Welsh travelled to Palestine to perform at Bet Lahem Live festival: “Bethlehem and Glasgow are twinned cities!” Welsh explains. “Who knew, right?” Then, ahead of Radiohead’s performance at Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival last year, Welsh penned an open letter online urging people to boycott the band ahead of their planned concert in Tel Aviv: “If you can’t stomach a boycott then I understand [...] Take the biggest fucking Palestine flag you can find and make sure it gets on telly,” he wrote. “The people of Israel are much like the people of anywhere else,” he says. “They’re barely complicit in the government’s actions. How much control do we have over the actions of the UK government? Very little. “Playing Tel Aviv is different to playing New York, because [in Tel Aviv] you’re a political pawn. You could go to the US and say ‘Fuck Trump’ on stage and nothing would happen to you. If you played in Tel Aviv and went ‘Fuck Netanyahu and Fuck Israel’ then there would be a whole fucking world of pain coming your way.”

The Vaselines

Photo: Brian Sweeney

Wuh Oh @ The Blue Arrow, Glasgow, 21 Jun Get your dancin’ shoes at the ready as Glasgow’s Wuh Oh play their first headline show of 2018 tonight at Glasgow’s recently opened Blue Arrow venue, marking not only Wuh Oh’s first headline show of the year, but also new bandmate Baboon’s first headline show EVER. Watch Baboon go bananas on the decks while Pete the human goes all out on synths and keys for this not to be missed night as part of the 2018 Glasgow Jazz Festival.

Photo: OM-A

Wuh Oh

band behind them “I created a band while playing the stuff I had written... and it was okay, but then we changed the line-up and started writing songs for a band. So there’s no song in the set now that’s more than a year-and-a-half old.” Now, as Declan Welsh & The Decadent West (comprised of Duncan McBride, Ben Corlett and Jamie Holmes) the group release their debut EP All My Dreams Are Dull on 1 June. The EP was recorded at 7 West Studios in Glasgow’s city centre. “The biggest thing was the attention to detail,” says Welsh. “We wanted to go with them because we sound quite different to a lot of the bands they produce. We are slightly different in that we’re not straight up punk. There’s a couple of different sides to us.” The energetic collection of tracks showcases the group’s reverby guitar-driven sound with nods to Alex Turner in Welsh’s smooth vocal delivery while channeling the wry poetic charm of the likes of Courtney Barnett (whom Welsh cites as another major inspiration). With Welsh, it’s hard to get away from politics though. He’s admirably fiercely outspoken about what he believes in, both through his songwriting and via other means of protest. When Welsh and co released the video for their

Declan Welsh

In Scotland, Welsh also agrees that people are reluctant, as he puts it “to be earnest about anything.” Given the outspoken politics of both his songs and his personal views, does Welsh ever worry about coming across as a sanctimonious Bono/Bob Geldof figure? Once he’s finished laughing, Welsh stresses that “there has been no point where I deliberately set out to be a ‘political singer.’ It’s just what I write about. If something does my head in I write about it. Whether it’s about friendship or the Spanish Civil War, it’s all the same thing. It’s all just the thoughts in your head.” All My Dreams Are Dull is released on 1 Jun Declan Welsh performs pieces from his debut book of poetry If You Like That Sort of Thing at Drygate, Glasgow, 18 Jun; Basement Theatre, Edinburgh, 19 Jun; Solas Festival, Tibbermore, 23 Jun facebook.com/DeclanWelshMusic

Photo: Rita Azevedo

The Vaselines @ Museum of the Moon, Glasgow, 22 Jun As Museum of the Moon approaches the end of its time in Glasgow’s Mackintosh Queen’s Cross Church, don’t be a dum-dum (geddit?) and be sure to pop in tonight for one of your last chances to get a good ol’ swatch at Luke Jerram’s moon installation, and of course for one of the final shows from the Events Under the Moon series. Tonight’s gig comes in the form of Glasgow alt-rock legends The Vaselines featuring the wonderful talents of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee.

Music

“ I think any band that’s talking about being fae a council estate is a political act. Because that’s not a thing that’s talked about in mainstream discourse”

Rip It Up @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 23 Jun The incredible Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop Music exhibition runs from 22 Jun-25 Nov at the National Museum of Scotland and to coincide with it there are a number of wonderful events taking place in Edinburgh throughout the year. While Idlewild play 2002’s The Remote Part in full on 21 June, today’s Rip It Up all-dayer is where the party really starts with performances from Stanley Odd, Emma Pollock, Withered Hand, Babe, Modern Studies and Be Charlotte with more TBA. [Tallah Brash]

Be Charlotte

Review

Photo: Rory Barnes

Declan Welsh & The Decadent West

Photo: Neelam Khan Vela

Discussing what makes a band political, Welsh muses: “I think any band that’s talking about being fae a council estate is a political act. Because that’s not a thing that’s talked about in mainstream discourse. If you’re talking about fucking feeling alienated, depressed or being sad, that’s not a thing you’re meant to talk about so that becomes a political act. I think that fewer and fewer bands now are allowed to be apolitical.”

Album of the Month Natalie Prass

The Future and the Past [ATO Records, 1 Jun]

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Sometimes when an artist comes out with a kind of knowing, retro sound, there’s a risk of them sounding like they’re looking backwards. Natalie Prass has almost exclusively been described in terms of those who have come before her. However, her eyes are fixed firmly forward and this record beautifully channels those influences whilst feeling incredibly fresh: The Future and the Past. When single Short Court Style dropped earlier this year, it marked a shift in sound from Prass’ debut – all whoops and sly, subtle guitar licks, with sweet 70s piano pushing everything along and Prass’ signature voice filling in the blanks. The song is not an anomaly on the record. Sisters has a similar groove, albeit with a more urgent, anthemic chorus, while Never Too Late leans into the jazz influences even further, showcasing just how good her band is, giving them room to flourish. Prass picks and chooses when these moments are allowed to happen. More often, she runs a tight ship; nothing feels out of place, and

Listen to: Nothing To Say, The Fire, Sisters Natalie Prass

Vital Idles

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After a couple of years being one of the most thrilling live acts out there, sadly Anxiety recently called it quits. Part of that thrill was due to frontman Michael Kasparis, an endlessly engaging presence front and centre for the noise-punks. Initially, Apostille – Kasparis’ solo project – wasn’t a million miles away from his bands. On his self-released debut Powerless, he took to the harsher end of electronica performing his vocals live as if still fronting three or four other equally loud musicians. However, on Kasparis’ follow-up record as Apostille, we find a more 80s synth-pop inspired set of tracks that is sure to win the hearts of wider audiences over the summer months. Like all of the best pop music, Choose Life appears upbeat and summery on the surface, but underneath bubbles an anxiety and tension most audiences have come to know Kasparis for. Opening track, Fly With the Dolphin is a statement of intent, a pulsing industrial-sounding manifesto of what to expect hereon, while lead single Feel Bad is a brilliant pop song about, well, feeling bad. As Choose Life progresses, Kasparis doesn’t completely abandon the more challenging aspects of the sound we’ve come to expect, culminating in a montage-piece finale perfectly summing up this album. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: Fly With the Dolphin, Feel Bad, Choose Life

Review

everything feels very considered. The Fire is probably one of the more conventional tracks on the record, but small vocal tweaks in the second verse and a gorgeous verse-chorus segue make it one of the highlights. Nothing To Say is another pared back affair, maybe unsurprising given it’s one of the record’s older cuts (you can find clips online of Prass playing it live as far back as 2012) – it’s basically a power ballad. Big, chunky piano chords and a coda that deserves to be sung along to with everything you have. You absolutely can hear the fingerprints of Prass’ influences across these tracks, but as well as the Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter tones that colour her first record, there’s bits of Dionne Warwick, Laura Nyro and Diana Ross. More than that though, you’re hearing a songwriter who seems to know exactly what she wants to make, and has all the tools to do that. A glorious, glorious album. [Harry Harris]

Apostille

Choose Life [Upset the Rhythm, 8 Jun]

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RURA

Left Hand [Upset the Rhythm, 1 Jun]

In Praise of Home [Rura Music, 1 Jun]

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Left Hand, the debut album from Glasgow’s Vital Idles, delivers on all of the lean, scrappy promise of their previous demos and singles. It’s a taut, propulsive exercise in minimalism that doesn’t waste a moment, barrelling across a series of vignettes tackling issues like one’s place in the world, social complacency and the nature of music itself. Jessica Higgins’ lyrics are frequently oblique or wrapped in a tight, personal cocoon, but the feelings they evoke are often more important than the actual words. There’s no uniformity to the delivery; some lines are clipped, sometimes drawn out (Solid States) or just matter-of-factly stated (Like Life), but it all amounts to a fascinating snapshot of a band in motion, moving from idea to idea. The fragmentary nature of the music is demonstrated in the imagery of the lyrics; the album is constantly in the process of quick, abrasive movements. This is not meticulously planned music, but the ephemeral sounds of a group of musicians working out kinks on the fly, using what they can to make something real. If you can give up a little time to connect with these fascinating DIY structures, you’ll find a treasure trove of ponderous lyricism and bare-bones stomp. Otherwise, as Higgins says on Solid States, they’re ‘just making noise...’ Vital Idles seem to be just as happy with either. [Lewis Wade] Listen to: Carve a Bat, Cave Raised, Like Life

Following the amicable departure of singer Adam Holmes at the beginning of 2017, RURA’s third effort In Praise of Home is mostly instrumental. Still full of the energy you’d expect from a mainly traditional band, it is nevertheless mellower than their previous output musing on the concept of home, something of a preoccupation for traditional bands and Highland people. As a whole, the album is widescreen and cinematic with bags of space. It kicks off with the relaxing title track, which includes spoken word about what home means and how it can be a

Proc Fiskal

Insula [Hyperdub, 8 Jun]

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The debut release from Edinburgh-based grime producer Proc Fiskal was a triumphant amalgamation of various grime sub-genres. Entitled The Highland Mob and released on the highly-influential Hyperdub imprint, the EP spliced together elements of eskibeat, sinogrime, ruff sound and the like, providing equal parts nostalgia and originality. Returning to Hyperdub, Fiskal’s debut album Insula feels like a far more personal affair. Similar to The Highland Mob, it utilises a number of classic grime tropes – eski clicks (Kontinuance);

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comfort. On Lust, the ever prominent fiddles and pipes complement each other, building to a crescendo never quite losing control until they hit a sudden halt. Following this, there’s a breather in the form of more laid-back cut I’ll Never Forget. Several tracks on the album hint at the intensity of their live shows and will undoubtedly become live favourites in time. In Praise of Home takes elements from the past and present and finds a way to balance the two. It evokes the landscape of Scotland and is an album that would be best played enjoying some of the stunning views the country has to offer; the perfect soundtrack to the Scottish summer. [Eala Macalister] Listen to: In Praise of Home, Catriona’s, Forged 8-bit homages (Evil Spirits); Dizzee Rascalsampling sino throwbacks (A Like Ye) – but repackages them in a way that brings introspection to the fore. “I think I probably make tunes to get out emotions I don’t express in day-to-day life,” Fiskal explains candidly. This sense of self-examination is reiterated by the LP’s liberal use of vocal samples – many of which are fleeting extracts from Fiskal and his mates’ off-the-cuff conversations. Interwoven between tracks, these samples – which also include police dispatches and news reports of cars ‘tearing through the streets of North Edinburgh’ – offer a microcosm of the 21-year-old’s day-to-day life in the Scottish capital, while also providing a sense of thematic consistency. [Michael Lawson] Listen to: Apple Juice, Dopamine, A Like Ye

THE SKINNY

Photo: Tonje Thilesen

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June 2018

Head Over Heels [Big Beat / Atlantic Records, 15 Jun]

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Having honed their synth-funk sound for more than 15 years, Chromeo find their style co-opted by the big pop music machine with all of its uptown funks and funk wav bounces. Dave 1 and P-Thugg’s solution is to take things back to the source on Head Over Heels, a multi-layered trail through the genre’s various iterations loaded with squealing synth leads, big basslines and more sass and energy than you can shake a stick at. This is an album that takes in everything from scratchy, jittery Minneapolis funk to atmospheric slow jams to wildly over-the-top histrionics that would make George Clinton proud. But more than anything, Head Over Heels is just incredibly good fun. From the squelchy bass of Don’t Sleep to the backing vocals on Bad Decision that

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YouTubular Bells [Save As Collective, 1 Jun]

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Given the consistently excellent output of Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott (aka MC Almond Milk) over the past few years, both in their own right and collectively as their musical project CARBS, it actually seems a little odd that YouTubular

Lykke Li

so sad so sexy [RCA, 8 Jun]

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Lykke Li’s fourth album, so sad so sexy isn’t a big move away from her previous material but it does feel like a significant moment in her career, and not necessarily for the better. Pivoting between pop/trap maximalism and aching personal sentiments, it fails to strike a satisfying balance. The album’s first two songs feature more writers and producers than the whole of 2014’s I Never Learn and too many cooks are definitely spoiling the broth. There’s also little lyrical deviation, with almost every song about some aspect of a relationship/regret about her failings. Although it has served her brilliantly in the past, here the introspection is mostly half-baked. It’s actually not a terrible record, but it’s frustratingly complacent after two outstanding albums. [Lewis Wade] Listen to: last piece, sex money feelings die

Review

have more than a whiff of Yello’s 80s soundtrack classic Oh Yeah, it’s packed with moments that will have you shuffling in your seat if not the whole way out of it. It’s not perfect; a couple of the album’s feature spots from the likes of D.R.A.M. and Stefflon Don feel a little crowbarred-in, there’s less of the punchiness that characterised the duo’s early work, and the lounge-funk interlude of Right Back Home To You goes on for at least a minute too long. But when the pieces fall into place there aren’t many bands that exude this much ridiculous, filthy, party-starting energy. Things come together best on the two-part Bedroom Calling. Part one’s an anthemic slow jam, all drum machine handclaps and reverbladen bass; part two’s an uptempo pop-funk banger guest starring The-Dream that would be topping the charts everywhere if there was any justice in the world. If you want the funk this summer, Chromeo are still the guys to call. [Peter Simpson] Listen to: Count Me Out, Bedroom Calling pts 1 & 2 Chromeo

Bells is only their second official release together. Since 2015’s excellent Joyous Material Failure the duo have been no less productive, both releasing solo albums and a handful of singles and collaborations with their Save As Collective labelmates, but it’s been a surprisingly long wait for the follow-up CARBS release. Their latest five-track EP is, allegedly at least, completely comprised of samples found on YouTube and “is a far superior recording in every conceivable way” to the title’s predecessor

Father John Misty

God’s Favorite Customer [Bella Union, 1 Jun]

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Father John Misty’s new album is a surprise – a return to the warmth and sincerity of 2015’s I Love You, Honeybear after 2017 being chilled in the cold cynical wind of Pure Comedy. Allegedly recorded off the back of a personal crisis, God’s Favorite Customer is simpler and more to the point, with the sound of Josh Tillman’s voice being what immediately grabs you rather than the content. The instrumentation is familiarly traditional, filled with golden horns and more than a touch of showmanship. God’s Favorite Customer showcases Tillman at his most levelled: sly-tongued and biting, emotional and soulful, articulating life’s most complex feelings in a way we can all understand. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: Hangout at the Gallows, Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All, The Songwriter

Let’s Eat Grandma

I’m All Ears [Transgressive, 29 Jun]

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With its blaring bass and cosmic synths mixed with gothic strings, Whitewater – the dramatic overture to Let’s Eat Grandma’s new album – makes a statement: Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth are back with an even bolder collection than before. A couple of years on from I, Gemini, sophomore effort I’m All Ears emerges as the work of two young women supremely confident in their craft. With some added production from David Wrench, SOPHIE and The Horrors’ Faris Badwan they’ve created a record that perfectly marries together strong pop sensibilities with avant-garde edges. On I’m All Ears Let’s Eat Grandma encapsulate the agony and ecstasy of youth, and even more besides, in constantly dynamic ways that demand your attention. [Eugenie Johnson] Listen to: Falling Into Me, Donnie Darko

Tubular Bells, so they claim. Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but regardless YouTubular Bells is yet another excellent slice of the witty lyricism and inventiveness we’ve come to expect from the duo. Opener, Slept On quite explicitly spells out the concept of ‘feeling weird’ in all its various manifestations, while Live Fast Get Coin explores the duo’s brotherly (from other motherly) relationship. Featured single Surf ’s Out is a glorious bit of summery hip-hop, while the excellently titled Skateboards of Canada isn’t too

far off the well-loved band they reference in the title. Though brief, YouTubular Bells is yet another example of the consistently impressive output of Common and Scott (and Save As in general), which is neatly packaged by closer Run Fast Get Rings. [Adam Turner-Heffer] Listen to: Slept On, Surf’s Out, Skateboards of Canada

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Melody’s Echo Chamber

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Hope Downs [Sub Pop, 15 Jun]

Bon Voyage [Domino, 15 Jun]

Hope Downs is the first album from Melbourne indie rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and a record that finally answers the question of what The Strokes might have sounded like if they’d grown up near the beach rather than in scuzzy basements and Swiss finishing schools. Hope Downs is passionate and warm indie pop with some of the best twin guitar grooves in years. Tracks like Mainland pitch the group as torn between cocksure adventurers and creatures adrift, every bit as much as Julian Casablancas found himself torn between the coolest parties and four day hangovers. Mostly though, Hope Downs is as good a reminder as any that life’s a blast. Head to the beach, you’ve found the soundtrack. [Max Sefton]

After suffering a serious accident last year, Melody Prochet’s Bon Voyage was put on hold. Now fully recovered, Bon Voyage is finally being given its release; it’s not an easy listen by any count, and it probably isn’t meant to be. Prochet deals with a lot of dark themes: loneliness, feelings of lack of self-worth and general discontentment with life. But sadly it feels like an album of two very distant halves. Opener Cross My Heart begins sounding very much like Prochet’s previous work but soon descends into what can only be described as madness, featuring pan pipes and some questionable vocal sampling. The closing trio of tracks are the album’s saving grace displaying the only moments of clarity on an otherwise wildly inconsistent album. [Nadia Younes]

Listen to: Bellarine, Talking Straight

Listen to: Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige, Shirim

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Photo: Tim Saccenti

Chromeo

Snail Mail

Lush [Matador, 8 Jun]

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It’s a welcoming coincidence that Snail Mail maestro Lindsey Jordan is releasing her debut album Lush as Liz Phair’s straight-talking alt-rock classic Exile In Guyville celebrates its 25th anniversary. The parallels are all over Lush: the frankness of the lyrics, the eccentricity of the guitar chords, the quick wit and the fully-realised artistic sense of self. Lush is a debut bursting forth in full technicolour. Its sound may be conceived in the bottomless pantheon of 90s guitar-led rock, but nothing about its hues are black and white. Snail Mail have stepped up as a band; with Jordan as its architect she has no qualms about letting her songs draw out and always has something important to say that’s worth listening to. [Tony Inglis] Listen to: Pristine, Speaking Terms, Golden Dream

THE SKINNY

Thinking Global, Acting Local We speak to Edinburgh-based DJ and producer Sam Telfort about his new EP Rooms For Speculation Interview: Michael Lawson Sam Telfort

hen we catch up over Skype on a balmy Friday afternoon, Sam Telfort is bracing himself for a rare weekend off. On the back of a flurry of gigs and regular travelling to maintain a long-distance relationship, he insists that this sporadic window of free time will be used for “something productive.” The Edinburgh-based DJ and producer is looking ahead to the imminent release of his new EP, out this month on local label Lionoil Industries. It’s an imprint that’s been instrumental in shaping the electronic backdrop of his hometown since its formation back in 2014, and one that Telfort has developed a strong affinity with. “I definitely feel part of the label as a collective. I’ve played a bunch of their parties, alongside the likes of Move D and Jane Fitz, and I think, other than my girlfriend, I probably speak with Matt [Belcher, Lionoil label head] more than anyone,” he laughs. “We’ve always had a mutual appreciation of the same kind of music, so we’re constantly sharing new tracks and mixes and bouncing ideas off each other.” The record itself feels like Telfort’s most accomplished work to date: four tracks spanning the breadth of the deep house spectrum, purveying an air of confidence that was less prevalent on previous releases. It’s clear that what he describes as the “mandatory five-year sucking period” – the early period of a producer’s career where the end product doesn’t always match the initial aim – has long been surpassed.

A politically-charged dystopian dream is cited as inspiration for the EP’s title, Rooms For Speculation. Inspired by the current post-truth era of politics, where the general public are intent on disregarding facts and expert opinion, the dream instead offered a glimpse of a world where lies, spin and exaggeration were completely outlawed. “It all rebounded the other way to the point where no one could talk shite at all – especially politicians, which would be nice!” he laughs. “Everything you said in public had to be substantiated, evidenced, backed by research etc. and because of this, people sorely missed being able to speculate and chat pish. So, there were these designated spaces where you were allowed to say anything you want – lie, add spin to things, whatever – and these were the Rooms For Speculation.” Telfort took the somewhat unconventional step of starting his own label, TLFT, to release his debut EP back in 2015, and Rooms For Speculation marks the first time he’s moved away from that imprint to put out music. “For a few reasons, I felt my first output should be self-released,” he explains. “Partly so I could control the context of my music, but also in terms of longevity, and not releasing on a label where a couple of years later it suddenly goes off on a direction that I don’t like or can’t relate to.” This desire for longevity extends to the music itself, with Telfort reciting a quote from Workshop Records label-boss Lowtec to reiterate

this point further. “It says, ‘In my opinion, if you’re going to release a record, it’s very important that you should be able to listen to it in fifteen years and still think that it’s cool’, and that’s something that’s firmly in my mind when making music.” He continues: “I’m also careful not to be overly influenced by some of the quite tight, sensitive tangents that house and techno take for very limited periods of relevance, which are often discarded without a second thought.” In terms of influences, Ron Trent and other Midwest icons are the first that spring to mind, but he’s quick to point out that some of the Scottish capital’s finest house innovators also had an impact on his musical development. “Locally, Firecracker [Recordings] struck a chord in a big way,” he enthuses. “Going to see the likes of Linkwood and Fudge Fingas perform really brought the relevance of a lot of other stuff I liked into a local context.” This engagement with the house scene at a local level is something that Telfort’s made a conscious effort to maintain. Glasgow has long been considered Scotland’s electronic music capital, but he is keen to talk up the blossoming scene that’s emerging at the other end of the M8. “The Edinburgh scene’s been great recently. I think it took a long time to shake off the impact of The Venue closing back in the day. It’s had some catching up to do after feeling quite behind for years. “But thanks to a lot of the newer, clued-up promoters and collectives, as well as a few older

ones still going strong, like Substance, it’s surely one of the best cities in the UK to come and play at the moment.” As well as throwing semi-regular ‘Telfort’s Good Place’ parties at the cherished Sneaky Pete’s (“Sneaky’s literally is a good place so it’s perfect”), he also often appears at the monthly Lionoil nights – spread across Sneaky’s and The Bongo Club. An artist who’s well-connected on the international front, these events have given Telfort the opportunity to DJ alongside close friends and contemporaries from further afield. “I’ve had the Smallville Records guys over from Hamburg; Matt Karmil has played; Baaz from Berlin; Karima F from Norway, it’s purely to showcase what I’m into and who I want to play with.” But have these deep connections with the international DJ community had a bigger influence on his musical development than that of his local scene? “I think certainly both,” he opts for pragmatically. “Dance music in the UK as a whole is always really forward-thinking, which makes for some really interesting results, but almost to the point where it’s like ‘that’s great but what’s next?’ Whereas in mainland Europe, particularly German scenes, [they] tend to know what they like and pretty much stick with it. I try to take inspiration from somewhere between those two paradigms.” Rooms For Speculation is released 1 Jun via Lionoil Industries

Clubbing Highlights

Words: Claire Francis

Nightvision presents Alan Fitzpatrick (All Night Long) @ The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 1 Jun To start the month off with a bang, techno powerhouse Alan Fitzpatrick kicks off his quarterly Nightvision with an all night long, five-hour spectacular. Expect his signature hardhitting, big room techno-infused rave culture and vintage London clubbing vibes.

Wavejumper EP, released last year, drew strong praise across the board. For this Hidden Door Festival closing event she’s joined by another well-known Scottish talent in the form of Edinburgh-based techno innovator Neil Landstrumm. With over two decade’s worth of international touring experience under his belt, this makes for one dynamic pairing.

Lezure 036: Aurora Halal @ La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 2 Jun Specialising in dynamic, hardware-driven live sets, Aurora Halal is a promoter, producer and artist, and one of the most exciting breaking talents on the scene right now. The New York native runs her own label Mutual Dreaming and is the founder of the forward-thinking SustainRelease festival. She impressed by playing hard and heavy in The Poetry Club at last year’s Optimo 20 festival, and this time round La Cheetah’s basement provides another intimate setting.

Tonto Techno present: Luca De-Santo @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 8 Jun Techno fans, take note of Glaswegian DJ and producer Luca De-Santo. A young up-and-coming artist, he debuted in 2015 and has since carved out a signature sound that has seen him pick up a string of high-profile support gigs. The Tonto residents will also be in attendance.

Hidden Door presents: Nightwave & Neil Landstrumm @ Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 3 Jun A DJ, producer, vocalist, club promoter, label boss and activist, Nightwave has many strings to her bow. Her own Nightrave parties are a popular fixture on Glasgow’s club scene and her

June 2018

Acid Flash with Kim Ann Foxman & IDA @ La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 9 Jun Finnish-born, Glasgow-based DJ IDA brings one of her heroes to Glasgow for the latest edition of her Acid Flash parties. Kim Ann Foxman is the former frontwoman of Hercules & Love Affair; the New Yorker is a veteran electronic musician and also a prolific producer. Foxman’s sound is rooted in nostalgia, forgoing trends in favour of her own signature take on rave and house.

Tweak_ in the House: Tweak_ 3rd Birthday Party @ Kippilaw House, Melrose, 9 Jun To celebrate their third birthday, Tweak_ are heading to the Scottish Borders for a 12-hour music marathon headlined by Stockholm’s Kornel Kovacs. The line-up also features Domenic Cappello, Big Miz, Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, IDA and many more, spread across three reception rooms of a country manor house (decked out with excellent sound and lighting systems, of course). SuperMAX Summer Lovin’ w/ DJ BILLY WOODS @ The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 9 Jun Disco lovers queue down the street for the monthly SuperMAX parties, headed up by DJ Billy Woods. With summer (hopefully) on the way, you can now comfortably dress light for this edition – as all Supermax veterans know, all that vibing disco gets the room, hot and SWEATY. The Yellow Door 4th Birthday Party @ The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 15 Jun The Yellow Door’s Iain Kerr and Paul Dey are celebrating four years of their unique residentsonly club night which always guarantees a great night full of fun tunes and friendly faces. The duo do excellent work fundraising for Shelter Scotland via their annual Christmas party, so join

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them to commemorate four years of Yellow Door (they’ve promised some YD birthday treats to give away on the night too). The Million Dollar Orchestra (Live) @ Saint Luke’s, Glasgow, 23 Jun Scottish disco don Al Kent released the ambitious Better Days by the Million Dollar Orchestra in 2008 – a double album with a 26-piece band that aimed to recreate an authentic disco sound in a unique way. The album is now a cult favourite and a sought-after collector’s item – and now in partnership with the Glasgow Jazz Festival and Salsoul Records, you can see the Million Dollar Orchestra perform IN THE FLESH (with Al Kent himself providing a warm-up DJ set). SWG3 presents Charlotte de Witte @ SWG3, Glasgow, 30 Jun Inspired by artists such as Len Faki, Ben Klock, Slam and Gary Beck, it’s no surprise that Charlotte de Witte creates and plays techno that’s dark, minimal and pounding. The Belgian producer has fast become a prominent fixture on the international techno circuit; she’s stopping by Glasgow for a headline show with support provided by Frazier, IDA and Tim Haux. theskinny.co.uk/clubs

Review

THE SKINNY

No Stranger to the Dance Floor Edinburgh DJ and producer Theo Kottis talks us through the making of his dance floor-focused debut album, Beautiful Strangers

Interview: Claire Francis

favourite fixture on the Scottish clubbing circuit, Theo Kottis has established himself as one of the UK’s most versatile DJs. Growing up between Scotland and Greece, Kottis started out as a promoter in Edinburgh while still in his late teens, before subsequently turning his hand to the decks. He’s since held down residencies at Glasgow’s Sub Club and with FLY Club at Cabaret Voltaire in the capital, and has built a reputation as a standout support DJ both locally and internationally through his ability to adapt his sets to multiple moods and environments. His production breakthrough came in late 2014 with the release of Waiting Game on Moda Black, and a string of further releases on Moda Black, Last Night On Earth, and Anjunadeep have followed. This month marks the release of his debut LP Beautiful Strangers, via his own Beautiful Strangers label – “I was just fed up of labels, and taking ages... maybe sending a label a certain tune, but it wouldn’t fit. I’m also really into graphic design and photography and stuff like that – to be honest, I just really like having control over everything! It was just as simple as that.” Kottis is now more than ready for the album, the product of 12 months of work, to see the light of day. “It feels like it’s taken an absolute age, but I guess it took about a year to do,” he explains. “It was all recorded in Edinburgh in my bedroom studio. So not too exciting – I just built myself a studio in my bedroom! I got into a routine, I was getting up every day, going for a run, and then just working on this album. But the frustrating part was, I feel like once it was done and I’d signed everything off, it felt like so long until I could even announce that I’ve got an album coming out. So it’s all fun now, because I can talk about it!” Whereas Kottis’ previous productions have generally stuck to a trajectory of melodic, emotional deep house, his club and festival performances, and mixes for the likes of BBC Radio 1, Fabric and Rinse FM, demonstrate the breadth of Kottis’ musical tastes and his adaptability as a selector. With Beautiful Strangers, Kottis says, he aims to close the perceived gap in versatility between his DJing and productions. “The main thing for this album, what I wanted to come across, was that whenever I DJ, I’m very varied, and I think that’s one of my strengths. I can adapt to certain sounds. I mean, I was playing with a lot of DJs on different line-ups and they’d come up to me like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could play that style of music’, because I wasn’t producing that style of music. “Everyone was [mentioning my versatility] when I was DJing, but no one was saying that about my music. So I thought, right, I need to do something about this!” Beautiful Strangers therefore marks a turning point in Kottis’ creative journey. Delivering seven unique, expressive club tracks that reflect the varied moods encountered on the dancefloor, it encompasses everything from

June 2018

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breakbeat grooves and disco, to acid house and UK garage rave. Unifying the seven tracks is Kottis’ ear for what makes a standout party tune, regardless of the crowd or environment it’s designed for. The infectious opening track Get Down has club classic written all over it, from the pulsing percussive intro, to its euphoric pattern of synth flourishes and rave-indebted vocal samples (complete with cheers from a rapturous crowd layered into the mix). Keep It Simple is a journey through melancholic deep house, the perfect closing track at the end of a long night, while Reasons is a classic Ibiza anthem, all 4/4 kicks and summery, yearning strings. Acid Disco, meanwhile, does exactly what the name implies, incorporating a funk bassline into a mix of brass flourishes with 303-squelches, overlaid with a classic disco vocal sample. Of the track Kottis says, “it was the first time that I was like, right, this is going to be the main single, because I could just tell straight away. Sometimes something just happens in the studio, your ears click, and I was like, this is the one. I hadn’t even finished it and I was just sending clips to some friends and DJs and the feedback was really good.” The process of crafting Beautiful Strangers also allowed Kottis to develop his skills in the studio, free of compromise or label pressures. “I bought quite a few synths, and hardware and stuff like that, thinking it would help me – and it did, but what happened was that I ended up spending months and months trying to learn the hardware, because it’s not as easy as it looks!” he laughs. “I end up just jamming for like a week on a new synth, and I’d have no music done, but I’d have like a 30 minute live jam. “It’s the first time I actually tried sampling as well. I love sampling. I think that’s me,” he laughs. “Going record shopping, and trying to find stuff that you can use. So it was the first time that I’d been sampling and using hardware for it all. It’s been a fun process.” The album is also set to form part of a trilogy of LPs, the second of which Kottis has already begun work on. The series of albums, he says, “shows that I want to make music and I want to keep at it. I don’t just want to release an album, and then that’s it. I want it to be a bigger picture. So hopefully, in this album, I’ll see myself improving in it as well. “DJing for me is where it’s at,” he states. “I feel like I’m a better DJ than I am a producer, and with these albums I guess I get to experiment and practice and learn, without labels telling me what I can and can’t do. So I’ll always be a DJ, always. I guess what this is going to allow me to do is get booked on line-ups that I maybe wasn’t getting booked on before, because of my sound.” With the release of Beautiful Strangers, Kottis has certainly shown that his talents aren’t just limited to behind the decks. Beautiful Strangers is released 15 Jun

Review

Rhyme Watch

Thursday of every month from 6.30-8pm, and for £5 entry you’ll hear three wonderfully diverse poets read. Keep an eye on their website for details. The Borders Book Festival is a little light on their poetry programme this year. Running from 14-17 June and based in Harmony Garden, Melrose, the festival boasts an excellently curJune is a relatively restful month in ated line-up of writers. If you fancy catching some Scottish poetry, with many poets poetry over the weekend, head along to Border gearing up for the Fringe or summer’s Voices at the Knight Frank Marquee on Friday 15 at 5.30pm. Running for eight years, the event various book festivals. Thankfully, comprises of readings from the Border Voices there are still lots of regular nights Forum, who will be showcasing their recently going on across the country to satiate released titles. The poetry promises to be luminyour poetry desires ous, and there’s a chance to chat with the authors after the event. Words: Beth Cochrane Continuing on from May, Hidden Door have an excellent spoken word line-up during the first weekend in June. This includes possibly the most lasgow’s Extra Second continues on the wholesome event for Scottish poetry in 2018 so third Thursday of every month in Clutha Bar. far: The Space Gecko Project, 1 June, 6.30pm. Extra Second is a vibrant poetry night which Poet Stuart Kenny has brought life to the 2014 blends local hip hop, comedy, acoustic acts and Telegraph article, headlined ‘Five Geckos Freeze cabaret performers. However, giving it a unique to Death on Space Sex Mission.’ This untold love edge, the line-up includes local activists story is set to animated visuals and musical accdelivering talks on that night’s theme (June’s ompaniment, and tells the tale of the two small theme is set to be War). With a real sense of reptiles’ doomed space-love for one another. community, Extra Second is renowned for New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird will be supporting new artists, local organisations and drawing an end to the Scottish leg of her tour, causes from across the city. with two dates in Edinburgh. She’ll be performing Straddling the Edinburgh/Glasgow divide, as part of the Flint & Pitch line-up at Hidden Loud Poets have had some exciting news. As of Door, also on 1 June, at 9pm. Expect acts September, they’ll be hosting their monthly Delightful Squalor, Kathryn Joseph and a range of shows in new venues. Edinburgh performances, cinepoems to complement the bill. In addition, on the last Friday of the month, will take place in Hera will be at the Scottish Poetry Library the the Scottish Storytelling Centre, while their following afternoon, discussing the craft in her Glasgow dates, on the last Thursday of the poetry with local poet Alice Tarbuck. month, will take place at the CCA. Both venues Iona Lee’s first pamphlet, Iona Lee has been are completely accessible. selling fast since its initial Edinburgh launch. Edinburgh independent bookshop Golden June sees a Glasgow launch of the pamphlet and, Hare Books is faced with retail giants although details are unavailable at the moment, Waterstones opening an unbranded store just it’s worth your while keeping an eye on the poet’s around the corner from its Stockbridge premsocial media pages for upcoming announceises. Golden Hare has shown an incredible ments. As quoted from Hollie McNish, “It’s always amount of support to the local poetry commua pleasure to watch Iona read. There’s a lovely nity, and even host a monthly poetry reading. mystery, fairytale feel to her words and I’m Hear Hare Here usually runs on the third thrilled they’ll now be in print so I can get to know them more.”

The Iliac Crest By Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Sarah Booker

rrrrr Cristina Rivera Garza’s The Iliac Crest has been compared to a David Lynch film, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a circular, unbounded story where nothing is certain: gender, chronology, borders and death are all ambiguous, both for the protagonist and the reader. One night, two women arrive, hours apart, at the unidentified narrator’s house. One is apparently an ex-lover, the other a stranger who

Review

Aliens & Anorexia By Chris Kraus

House of Stone By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

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First published in 2000, Aliens & Anorexia is the third book by Chris Kraus to be published in the UK, following the success of I Love Dick and Torpor. Part memoir-novel and part cultural criticism, the book loosely follows Kraus’ attempt to get her lo-fi experimental film Gravity & Grace off the ground at the Berlin Film Festival, while exploring the lives and philosophies of Simone Weil and Ulrike Meinhof and how they relate to her own life. It would be wrong to call this Aliens & Anorexia’s narrative or plot; instead, it’s simply a jumping-off point as Kraus dives into a kaleidoscope of subjects covering anorexia, S&M, the act of creation, gender and relationships. Aliens & Anorexia is a Russian doll of ideas and theories that are both unworldly and devastatingly relevant. At the heart of the book is the motif of the isolated and unloved alien and, for Kraus, that’s French philosopher Weil, whose book Gravity & Grace was the inspiration behind her film. This book is a manifesto for failing as an artist and a spaceship to rescue Kraus’ alien. It’s a difficult and unwieldy book, and like her earlier, better-known I Love Dick, it’s full of Kraus characteristic deep empathy, vulnerability and wit. [Katie Goh] Tuskar Rock, 14 Jun, £8.99 serpentstail.com/aliens-anorexia-pb.html

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Tshuma’s debut novel is an astounding tapestry of national, familial and personal histories, woven together in one seamless narrative. Through the skewed lens of protagonist Zamani, the reader is deftly led through the history of Zimbabwe. Accounts of the Rhodesian Bush War and the Gukurahundi are dragged from Mama Agnes and Adeb Mlambo, the mother and father of the family that Zamani so desperately wants to belong to. Zamani’s obsession with the Mlambos is the driving force of the novel; his desperate need to learn their history is fuelled by his desire to replace their missing son. Sympathy for Zamani, however, quickly wanes as the reader comes to understand the terrible lengths he is willing to go through to earn his place as the Mlambo’s son. The strength of his voice carries House of Stone from one deception to the next, yet the heart of the novel remains a tender exploration of what it is to have firm roots in both family and country. House of Stone is a remarkable novel, using the intimacy of personal narratives to sculpt the history of Zimbabwe for the contemporary reader. Tshuma has shown a rare talent for creating blisteringly real characters, somehow cementing their authenticity in the unreliable histories narrated by Zamani. [Beth Cochrane] Atlantic Books, 7 Jun, £14.99 atlantic-books.co.uk/book/house-of-stone/

This Is Just My Face By Gabourey Sidibe

The Hidden Keys By André Alexis

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claims to be Mexican author Amparo Dávila. Their appearance turns his world in on itself, as all aspects of his previously insular life are questioned. In his hunt to find out why they’ve chosen to cling to him, his masculinity is doubted to the point where he frequently has to check to remind himself of his gender, his memories blur and fade in and out of reality, and his actions are fueled by the concept of appearance, disappearance and stability. Garza has a flair for describing intense pleasure: paragraphs where the narrator is offered first whisky, then – in later pages – a cigar are laced with a dizzying hedonism, made all the more sensuous when juxtaposed against the creeping terror of nearly every other scene. Similarly intense, the ocean’s constant presence as a character in its own right introduces the concept of borders and finality to the text, reflecting themes as relevant today as they were when the novel was first published nearly 20 years ago. The true significance of each individual word is due to the novel’s translator, Sarah Booker. The ambiguity of translation allows themes and motifs to take on numerous façades: the term ‘turn back’ is one which recurs throughout, and it is beautifully unclear each time whether it should be read literally or metaphorically. This vagueness blurs the line between sanity and insanity even more in this fever dream of a story. [Kirstyn Smith]

Gabourey Sidibe is the bomb. So says Barack Obama, and it only takes a few pages of This Is Just My Face to wholeheartedly agree, if it was ever in doubt. Best known for portraying Precious in the movie of the same name and Becky Williams in Empire, readers are taken back through her childhood, her life and daring to dream. Gabourey writes like she’s talking to a friend – you feel welcome. She invites everyone into her life with humour and warmth, not shirking the difficult moments. Readers glimpse insight into her unique childhood, portraying her disruptive family dichotomy both with the experience of living it and sparkling retrospective humour; we hear pro-tips from her job as a phone sex talker, hear how psychics told her she’d be famous, just like Oprah. She displays how warm and loving she is, reflects relatable insecurities through relationships and family, and those unique to her – magazine editors excited to put her on the cover, unaware she could hear the unsavoury descriptors being used. Frank and honest through depression, issues around race and body image, celebrity and more – it’s a staggeringly great read. Owning the world and her stardom, and crystal clear at her most vulnerable, this is a book that charms. This Is Just My Face is fearless and funny, much like Gabourey. She dared to dream big, and getting to know her, through the good and bad, is quite a joy. [Heather McDaid]

And Other Stories, 7 Jun, £8.99

Vintage, 7 Jun, £7.99

Tancred Palmieri is a gifted thief. Willow Azarian – a heroin addict and the daughter of late billionaire Robert Azarian – finds Tancred in a bar, and gives him a quest. Her father gave each of his children a gift before he died and Willow believes that together these gifts hold clues to a secret inheritance. All Tancred has to do is steal them from their various high-security homes, solve the puzzle and give the objects back. There’s a cast of all kinds of oddball characters. Aside from a thief with morals and an addict with millions, we meet an albino drug dealer, a thoughtful detective, a skilled and pragmatic artist, and watch as their lives interlink in the streets and homes of Toronto. At its core, this is a treasure hunt adventure with a sprinkling of slapstick violence. André Alexis won Canada’s most prestigious prize for fiction for his previous novel Fifteen Dogs, and The Hidden Keys moves with the confidence of a writer on form. The characters have the emotional drive to give their actions credibility and it’s a treat to find an authentic puzzle at the heart of a novel. There’s some well-handled structural playfulness of the sort you’d find in a good cinematic farce too. Weaving the intrigue and lure of a puzzle into a wider narrative means the pace can drop off at unexpected moments – but it’s worth it, to balance the urgency of solving the mystery with developing the broader themes at play. [Galen O’Hanlon]

andotherstories.org/book/the-iliac-crest/

www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115212/this-is-just-my-face/

Tuskar Rock, 7 Jun, £8.99 serpentstail.com/the-hidden-keys.html

BOOKS

THE SKINNY

This Month in Scottish Art Degree show time is underway, and there’s also a whole host of exhibitions, opportunities and events taking place throughout the month

Photo: Tina Scopa

Words: Rosie Priest

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and Architecture

Exhibition highlights It’s that time of the year again – summer is officially here, and how do you know? The sound of art students across the country popping corks of off-brand prosecco fills the air as it’s Degree Show Time! Both the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art are opening 2 June, while Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and Architecture had their exhibition in late May and Gray’s up in Aberdeen have theirs 16-24 June. We’ll have more information about the Degree Show highlights from across the country on theskinny.co.uk/art and in next month’s issue, so stay tuned to find out more. Also celebrating a year of concentrated artistic development, from 12-18 June the

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop unveils After Party, this year’s exhibition of the work created during its unique community outreach primary schools programme. Well over 100 pupils spent a year learning and collaborating with some of the most exciting artists in Scotland (including our Art editor, natch) to create a diverse body of sculptural, performance, video and sound work. Hidden Door wraps up in the first week of June in Edinburgh. The ever expanding and innovative festival will be presenting work from the likes of Silas Parry, Zoe Griffin and Jennie Bates. With performance art, sculpture, painting, printing, video art and the weird and wonderful in between – there’s plenty to get your teeth into. Also in Edinburgh, Arusha Gallery are presenting

iQhiya

tion. You are encouraged to listen, question and stand on the periphery understanding that it is their voices that are meant to be heard. In contrast, the audience is then drawn into the dark space downstairs where there is a more meditative video installation on the movement of braided hair by the artist Tshiamo Naledi Letlhogonolo Pinky Mayeng, one of iQhiya’s own who passed away in August. Throughout the show there is a DIY party aesthetic – see for instance the hand cut conversations via social media printed and attached to the aspect windows. Participants have to spend time in the space, revisiting to fully read the chaotic text and gather a full understanding of the historic narrative. As Transmission’s Glasgow International project, the iQhiya project continues the gallery’s efforts to draw attention to the need for better representation within Glasgow’s art scene. iQhiya’s work may be this generation’s The Dinner Party and a true narrative of new art which is emerging outwith the classist and male-dominated ‘contemporary art’ world. [Kirsten Millar]

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iQhiya’s site specific performance, digital and text works are in direct dialogue with the conventional white-walled contemporary art space of Transmission Gallery. iQhiya, a collective of black womxn (a more inclusive term for female identifying individuals) artists from South Africa directly address the whiteness and privilege of the cultural scene through their (in places, literal) amplification of colonised and marginalised voices of womxn along with non binary, genderqueer, transgender persons. Their work reflects on women of colour and their role in Scotland’s artistic, social and political history through a recorded conversation of a dinner event that took place in the three hours preceding the opening of the exhibition on the first Friday of Glasgow International, centred round a large yellow-clothed table that remains in the space along with leftovers of the meal. The invited peers have now left and only their voices and words written on the adjacent wall remain, yet they are still powerful and the focus of atten-

June 2018

Awards, funding and calls for entries There’s an opportunity for artists of any medium to win some big bucks with Wells Art Contem-

Minimal/Poor/Present Pearce Institute

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Run ended

iQhiya, installation view

Programme announcements Edinburgh Art Festival have revealed their commissions programme including Shilpa Gupta, Ross Birrell & David Harding, Ruth Ewan and Adam Lewis Jacob. Get your art-hungry hands on all the info at edinburghartfestival.com

porary Visual Arts Competition, as well as exhibition, mentoring and artistic development opportunities with the organisation. Deadline: 2 July Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire-based artists are invited to apply for The Barn’s micro residency programme, which takes place over four or five days in July. Artists working in any medium are able to apply so long as they are wishing to undertake periods of research, develop their practice or project idea in a supportive environment (aren’t we all?!) Deadline: 22 June Also offering a series of micro residencies is Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop which aim to enable artists to develop ideas, learn new skills and produce work supported by the resources of ESW – open to artists of any background, not just sculpture, this is a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself within an incredible organisation over six weeks, and have access to their facilities year round. Deadline: 9 June Wasps Studios have several residencies available to artists in some beautiful and remote places such as Shetland and Skye, with a variety of application deadlines from early July until the autumn – be sure to take the time to apply to this brilliant series. In the capital, Magnetic North are looking for Scottish-based artists with a significant track record from any art form to focus on a new development in their work – previous awardees include the ever impressive Hanna Tuulikki so don’t miss out on your opportunity to apply. Deadline: 9 June

Esther Ferrer

Photo: Alex Sarkisian

Transmission Gallery

an exhibition by Scottish-based artist Kirsty Whiten: personal transformation and mythical inspiration will be the focus of mesmerising, large-scale portraits, 8-25 June. Elsewhere in the capital Talbot Rice Gallery will play host to ‘a new type of student exhibition’. Trading Zone, an eclectic mix of artists trading knowledge to create themes connected by ideas based around data, human behaviour and ecology runs until 23 June. Up the coast, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) are presenting the first major European exhibition of American artist Eve Fowler. Fowler’s work will fill DCA’s expansive galleries over the summer and also reach beyond the walls of the institution to appear in public spaces across Dundee and further afield, punctuating the Scottish landscape with feminist cries 9 June-26 August. While in Glasgow, be sure to see Jonas Staal’s The Scottish-European Parliament (16 Jun-29 Jul) at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Read more about the two-year project in our interview with him online.

Minimal/Poor/Present is an evening of performances developed in response to the practice of Esther Ferrer, a Spanish performance art pioneer whose work is grounded in politics, feminism and protest. Ferrer’s performance inhabits a white square on the floor in which she carefully traces lines with her feet. She interrupts her movements by asking questions of the audience and hitting a stick loudly on the floor. What begins as a calm and poised performance grows into a powerful commandeering of space and attention. Louise Ahl and Fritz Welch move around the space independently yet connected to one another: both absorbed and absorbing in their own logics. Welch engages more with object constellations and sound making while Ahl enacts an animalistic and primal mode. Together they create a kind of cosmos in which different forms of experimentation and play become transformative, magical even.

ART

Jessica Higgins’ performance focuses on language: the slippages and misunderstandings that can ensue. Four performers weave their way around the crowd while repeating the same text, resulting in a coalescing and linguistic jarring. The multiplicity of words and their meanings then become affected onto the audience as we too become enwrapped. Sandra Johnston creates a tableau of domestic objects within which she performs a series of actions. These interactions demand the physical limits of both her body and the objects. Often involving balance, weight and duration, the atmosphere within the room grows tenser as Johnston exploits further the vulnerability of her body. In all of the performances repetition pushes meaning and sense to their limits, making way instead for a new non-normative way of being. Misappropriation and mistranslation produce a resourceful and fertile ground from which a schism is opened, revealing the potential of a more radical approach to daily interactions. [Hannah James] Run ended

Review

In Cinemas Arcadia

Director: Paul Wright Released: 21 Jun Certificate: 12A

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Paul Wright (For Those in Peril) slices apart and stitches together a hundred years of footage from the BFI National Archive to create something that is both nostalgic and nightmarish. Arcadia is an at times disturbing exploration of the relationship between the British countryside and its inhabitants. The film is split into ten parts, each with a title that helps frame the oneiric flood of visuals that are to follow. An unnamed protagonist, searching for truth, views Britain through the seasons. From joyful folk dancing, and the harvest of the crops by scythe, to the mechanisation of farming and the poverty of those left behind by urbanisation. Whenever a sequence of clips builds a sense of hope, suggesting a genuine positive connection with the land through images of nudists frolicking in rivers or people caring for animals, Wright immediately shifts the tone. The bucolic and pastoral are juxtaposed with fire and desolation. The sequences, although open to individual interpretation, have their effect guided by a score, from Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp), that colours the visuals with emotion. Repeating images demonstrate this when they are accompanied with either a haunting and sparse electronic beat or an uplifting harmonic string quartet. The overall impression is similar to that of a folk-horror film, such as Robin Hardy’s The Wickerman or David Gladwell’s Requiem for a Village, clips from which feature in Arcadia. In particular, the combination of footage showing the brutal treatment of animals interspersed with revolving, masked folk dancers, and Stonehenge. However, there are hopeful elements. Indeed, the final sequence is profoundly uplifting – greatly due to an excellent score blending classical and modern instrumentation. It is hard not to allow recent political events to affect one’s reading of the film. Nostalgia always succumbs to the brutal reality. [Gianni Marini] Released by BFI

Hereditary

Director: Ari Aster Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne. Released: 15 Jun Certificate: 15

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Following a string of successful shorts, Ari Aster makes his feature debut with Hereditary, an artfully visualised tale of grief and all it destroys in its mire. The film feels especially appropriate in this era’s domestic horror renaissance, for like The Babadook (2014), It Comes at Night (2017) and A Quiet Place (2018) before it, Hereditary steeps its anxieties, chillingly, in the most familiar of units: the family. The film opens with the obituary of the Graham family matriarch. At the funeral, her daughter Annie (Collette) grasps clumsily for the words to eulogise her mother, with whom she endured a fraught relationship. That dynamic has clearly infected the way Annie relates to her own children: Peter (Wolff), a sullenly handsome pothead, and the laconic Charlie (Shapiro), who’s given to unsettling stares and clucking noises and driven by eerie apparitions. Despite her husband Steve’s (Byrne) initial support, Annie’s marriage, too, grows increasingly strained, and soon the family is dealt another blow, so devastating it shatters any hope they might have of returning to some semblance of normalcy. Perhaps no genre is so well-suited as horror to articulating grief, with its hauntings and proximity to death, and Hereditary is at its best when exploring the impact of loss. But a late, jarring jump in mythos, when it’s revealed Peter is the film’s true victim, undermines the solid first two acts. On the one hand, in a genre saturated with violated or otherwise mutilated female bodies, positioning a man as prey seems refreshing. On the other, Hereditary is an occult tale – with apt nods to predecessors Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Suspiria (1977), and even The Skeleton Key (2005) – masked as a ghost story, and the former sub-genre, having largely to do with witches and women, has long possessed currency in feminist discourse. Hereditary’s farcical conclusion breaks with its tone, but more importantly feels antithetical to that history and a promising premise. [Kelli Weston] Released by Entertainment Film

My Friend Dahmer

Director: Marc Meyers Starring: Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Dallas Roberts, Anne Heche Released: 1 Jun Certificate: 15

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My Friend Dahmer will get under your skin. Its subject is a teenage Jeffrey Dahmer, who will go on to murder 17 young men. What’s so troubling isn’t Dahmer’s crimes – the film ends as he picks up his first victim – but the compassion director Marc Meyers shows towards his disturbed protagonist. Based on the graphic memoir by Derf Backderf, who went to high school with the future killer, it follows a morose Dahmer over the course of his final year of high school in the late 70s during a period when he became an unlikely cult hero to Backderf and his circle of friends. Former Disney kid Lynch plays Dahmer as a lost soul bumbling through adolescence, and Myers’ framing adds to this isolation, with Dahmer usually positioned awkwardly off to the side. But just as you find yourself feeling sorry for this teen misfit, he’ll say something so off your guts will twist. The results are unnerving. It’s easy to imagine serial killers as Hannibal Lecter-style monsters, but remembering that they’re real people living banal lives is all the more terrifying. [Jamie Dunn]

In the Fade

Director: Fatih Akin Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto, Johannes Krisch, Ulrich Tukur, Numan Acar, Rafael Santana Released: 22 Jun Certificate: 18

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Diane Kruger plays Katja, a white German woman who lives in Hamburg with her Turkish husband, Nuri (Acar), and their young son, Rocco (Santana). After Nuri is targeted by neo-Nazi terrorists, he and Rocco are killed in a bomb attack and Katja is left to seek revenge for the death of her family. For a film with a provocative and contem-

Director: François Ozon Starring: Marine Vacth, Jeremie Renier Released: 1 Jun Certificate: 18

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Review

Director: Rupert Everett Starring: Rupert Everett, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Edwin Thomas, Tom Wilkinson Released: 15 Jun Certificate: 15

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Written, directed by and starring Rupert Everett, The Happy Prince offers up a beautifully crafted and quietly majestic portrait of the final years of Oscar Wilde’s life in exile. Following his scandalous relationship with Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas (Morgan), Wilde is living down and out in Paris away from his estranged wife (Watson) and children. He has few acquaintances to call on, save for his literary executor Robbie Ross (Thomas) and friend Reggie Turner (Firth). Living in and out of absinthe joints, we watch as he regales local street urchins with tales that recall happier days when he was the toast of London. Taking its title from Wilde’s collection of children’s fables, the short story becomes a metaphor for the playwright’s life, capturing his sorrow at falling from grace after serving a prison sentence in Reading Gaol for “gross indecency”. Told with a non-linear approach, Everett pours his heart and soul into this directorial debut, with tremendous results. [Joseph Walsh] Released by Lionsgate

Released by Altitude

L’Amant Double

L'Amant Double

The Happy Prince

L’Amant Double opens with a much talked about scene: a close-up of something fleshy and pink. As the camera zooms out, we realise we’re staring down a speculum and into a vagina during a gynaecological examination. It’s a provocative opening, and unfortunately the most compelling part of François Ozon’s otherwise lacking film. A troubled young woman, Chloé (Marine Vacth) – whose vagina was the opening shot – is

FILM & TV

porary subject matter, In the Fade plays it surprisingly safe. Rather than focusing on how the terrorist attack affects the Turkish and Kurdish communities in the city, Fatih Akin quickly paints Nuri’s parents as cruel antagonists to Katja before they are completely written out of the film. Instead we watch Katja attempt to bring the terrorists to justice in a long and dull court trial, and after that fails, take matters into her own hands. Other than Kruger’s moving performance, In the Fade falls flat. Undoubtedly there’s a better film in there and it’s a shame Akin doesn’t delve deeper. [Katie Goh] Released by Curzon Artificial Eye

advised to seek a psychologist. Her doctor, Paul (Jérémie Renier), is dashing and compassionate, and before long they fall for each other. After spotting Paul’s doppelganger in the street, another psychologist called Louis, she discovers that they are in fact twin brothers and begins leading a sexual double-life with both men. L’Amant Double attempts to be an erotic thriller in the vein of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers but the end result is an uneven film that’s neither as sexy nor as smart as it thinks it is – one part a nastier Fifty Shades of Grey and one part an introduction to Freud. [Katie Goh] Released by Curzon Artificial Eye

THE SKINNY

At Home

Primal Stream The Skinny’s DVD page joins the modern world

n some ways, UK cinephiles are living in the golden age of home video. The convenience and increasing quality of streaming content has pretty much decimated the DVD and Blu-ray market on the high street, yet some of the finest home video titles to ever be made have been released during this chronic decline in home entertainment sales. Just this month Indicator release seven-film set Samuel Fuller at Columbia, Arrow offer a pair of little-seen Kiwi gems – Vincent Ward’s Vigil and Geoff Murphy’s The Quiet Earth – Eureka! restore James Whale’s seminal The Old Dark House and Second Run release Black Peter, the debut from from the late, great Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman. Each release features beautiful transfers, moreish extras like rare interviews with the filmmakers and behind the scenes featurettes, and specially commissioned critical essays from some of the finest film historians and critics working today. As essential as these titles are, by solely concerning these pages with such boutique releases we would be blindly ignoring how the vast majority of people now experience films at home. Namely, they stream them. With this in mind, our antiquated DVD section becomes our

Dark River

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Director: Geoff Murphy Starring: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith Released: 18 Jun Certificate: 15

Words: Jamie Dunn

‘At Home’ page. No longer confined to physical releases, we’ll be covering the lively, contentious and ever-evolving world of video on demand and streaming services. Whether it’s a Netflix original, an expertly curated MUBI season or an independent release on someone’s Vimeo channel, we’re open to all forms of at home movie consumption. On this page, even TV will be fair game. With this in mind, our first piece concerned with non-physical media is the phenomenon that is Donald Glover. You’ll find him on a big screen near you in Solo and blowing up the internet as Childish Gambino with his blistering music video for This Is America. But here we’re pointing you in the direction of his masterful hangout comedy Atlanta, in which Glover stars as a downwardly mobile college dropout with pipe dreams of breaking into the music business off the back of his talented cousin, a local rapper with a small following. It’s the perfect recommendation to kickstart our new-look section. Not only is the second season due to be broadcast on Fox in June, the first season is currently available on iPlayer. If you haven’t seen season one, go watch it right this minute. If you have, go watch it again, the show is brilliant.

The Quiet Earth

Post-apocalyptic survival has fascinated writers for centuries, and filmmakers for as long as moving images have been around. The particular sub-genre known as ‘the last man’ made its big screen bow with 1924’s The Crazy Ray and has been revisited regularly since. In 1985, Geoffrey Murphy crafted a fairly unusual New Zealand entry into the canon, adapting Craig Harrison’s novel The Quiet Earth into an indie sci-fi with an understandable cult following. Channeling the comedic tone of Clair’s 1924 film, The Quiet Earth sees scientist Zac Hobson (Lawrence) awaken to find himself the only person on the planet. The opening act plays out like an oddball wish-fulfillment fantasy – a daydream about where we would live, what we’d surround ourselves with if we were entirely alone. Eventually, just as the solitude threatens to overwhelm Zac, he runs into two other survivors and a more traditional narrative sets in. Gender and racial politics are touched upon briefly through interactions first with Joanne (Routledge) and then Api (Maori actor Pete Smith). Slowly, Hobson’s own backstory begins to crystallise and the film settles into its primary meditations on loneliness and guilt. ‘The Effect’ which caused the disappearances had seemed a clear consequence of experiments Zac was involved in, but a revelation in the third act explaining how the trio survived also opens up the door for myriad interpretations of the central narrative. Its ultimate refusal to jettison its more eccentric elements adds to its sustained aura of otherworldly mystery – and help it retain its off-beat appeal. Extras The Quiet Earth’s debut on Blu-ray includes several extras features, including an audio commentary by film historian Travis Crawford, an interview with Kim Newman about the film’s place in genre history, and a new video essay by Bryan Reesman discussing the underlying meaning(s). The first pressing will also include a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Amy Simmons. [Ben Nicholson]

Atlanta

Director: Hiro Murai Starring: Donald Glover Released: 13 May

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The nature of being a publicly-funded broadcaster means that every penny the BBC spends is subject to intense scrutiny; when a project fails, the fallout can be massive, with a government that will jump at any excuse to cut the corporation’s funding. Imagine the relief then for whoever signed off on the acquisition of the free-toair British broadcast rights (it was previously on Sky Atlantic) for Atlanta. In between the announcement that the Beeb would be showing its critically-adored first season and the airing of the pilot episode, its creator, writer, star and occasional director Donald Glover dropped new single This Is America – his scorched-earth treatise on a country in hock to division and violence. Glover is as close as anybody has come to resembling a 21st century renaissance man. In addition to his illustrious credits on television, both in front of the camera and in the writers’

June 2018

room, he’ll play Lando Calrissian later this month in the Han Solo movie and is already being tipped for his own spin-off. His career in music was perhaps the one area in which critical acclaim hadn’t come altogether easily to him. Under the pseudonym Childish Gambino, he released the deeply muddled concept album Because the Internet in 2013, before redeeming himself three years later with Awaken, My Love!, an eclectic funk odyssey that marked a stylistic turning point for him akin to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. Unlike Lamar though, Glover hadn’t used his music to incisively take America’s societal temperature until now. The video for This Is America, directed by regular Atlanta helmsman Hiro Murai, is loaded with symbolism and has already been extensively deconstructed by critics looking for Glover’s message on race. He debuted it during a hosting slot on Saturday Night Live and it’s been viewed in excess of 160 million times already – certainly far more people have seen it than have seen Atlanta. Had more watched Glover’s TV series, they’d know that he’s been making pronouncements on the present state of black America with

Director: Clio Barnard Starring: Ruth Wilson, Sean Bean, Mark Stanley Released: 25 Jun Certificate: 15 In the 1990s and 2000s, British (and in particular Scottish) cinematic miserabilism found expression and purpose in urban settings. Fast forward a decade, and films such as Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril and Scott Graham’s Shell had shifted focus and were exploring hardscrabble lives and emotional turmoil in coastal and rural settings instead. South of the border, Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, Hope Dickson Leach’s The Levelling and Guy Myhill’s The Goob have successfully tackled similar subjects in Yorkshire, Somerset and Norfolk respectively. In a sense, Yorkshire-born Clio Barnard straddles both traditions. The Arbor, her 2010 film about playwright Andrea Dunbar, and its 2013 follow-up The Selfish Giant are both set in and around Bradford, while Dark River, her third feature, moves into the countryside of the West Riding. Typically though, its hills, hedges, glades and pools are dark, threatening places. Its wildlife is mostly sheep and fierce dogs and its people are hard, taciturn and shuttered-up. Enter Alice Bell (Wilson), an itinerant sheep-shearer returning to the family farm after the death of her father (Bean) and hoping for a reconciliation of sorts with his dark legacy – he sexually abused her through her teenage years and visions of him still haunt her – and with her brother, Joe (Stanley). Alice wants the farm because it was promised to her, Joe wants it so he can sell the land for development. Under skies permanently set to ‘threatening’, a taut and occasionally violent family drama plays out, interspersed with fragments of Alice’s earlier life showing its scarring events and its rare moments of happiness. Wilson’s performance is unstintingly intense, as is the mood. But Dark River feels more like an addition to an already well-established canon than an important new direction for it. Extras There are illuminating interviews with Barnard, Wilson, Stanley and Bean, as well as with Esme Creed-Miles, who plays Alice as a teenager. Other extras include a stills gallery and a short behind-the-scenes featurette. [Barry Didcock]

Released by Arrow Video

laser-guided focus long before This Is America. They’d also know that, as brilliant and vital as Get Out was, Jordan Peele isn’t the only person to have used surrealism to skewer his country’s racial biases. The show follows Glover as Earn, a perennially-broke college dropout who spots an escape route from his present circumstances when his older cousin, who raps under the name Paper Boi, appears to be on the brink of breakout success. What ensues is a remarkably weird and consistently funny reflection on every aspect of Glover’s lived black experience in his hometown. Much of this is reflected not just in Glover’s character but in those around him, who are equally well-drawn. It quickly becomes apparent that FX, who commissioned the show, didn’t place any kind of restraints on its creator, but Glover remarked in a recent New Yorker profile that one of the things his bosses found strangest about the show was the ambiguous relationship between Earn and his on-off girlfriend, and mother of his child, Van – brilliantly played by Deadpool 2 star Zazie Beetz. “[She] is every one of my aunts – you have a kid with a guy, he’s around, you’re still attracted to him. Poor people can’t

afford to go to therapy,” said Glover. Atlanta delights in its diversions into surrealism – from the presentation of Justin Bieber as an African-American rapper to an uproarious skit in which a black character becomes convinced he is ‘transracial’ and therefore a 35-year-old white man who talks as such (“what IPA do you have on tap?”). But it’s concessions like that one from Glover about the nature of Van’s character that suggests that Atlanta is a far more personal project than he’d perhaps like; he has been opaque about his private life in interviews. In the wake of the deeply provocative This Is America, and with him looking like more of a polymath than ever before, most would want you to think that this is Donald Glover’s world, and that we’re just living in it. But Atlanta actually is Glover’s world, a show every inch in the image of its creator, and with a deeper message than he can convey in a four-minute music video. Of everything he’s done, this piece is the most essential. [Joe Goggins]

FILM & TV

Atlanta, series one, is currently being broadcast on BBC Two and available on iPlayer Altanta, series two, is broadcast on FOX UK from 17 Jun

Review

Stage Directions Much like the end of May, June is also home to other events and productions that deserve not just a mention but a place in Scotland’s cultural calendar

s June starts, festivals like the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Take Me Somewhere and Hidden Door are still going strong, so remember to check our past coverage to see what we’ve already recommended from their programmes. Running 31 May-2 June, the Lyceum’s revival of the 1992 play The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, directed by Wils Wilson and Janice Parker, features a cast of nearly 100 people and no words. Written by the award-winning Austrian playwright and political activist Peter Handke, this huge community project will see 450 characters and costumes come to life in what will be one of the Lyceum’s biggest productions to date. This unusual and rarely-performed play is unconstrained by traditional expectations, such as plot or dialogue. Instead, hundreds of stories are told but not one word is spoken. Bard in the Botanics, the annual celebration of the life's works of William Shakespeare is staged in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Glasgow every summer. This year’s festival, which runs from 20 June-28 July, has been dubbed ‘The Star-Cross’d Lovers' Season, and features four of

Shakespeare’s best-known romances, or possibly tragedies: Antony & Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, Edward II and, of course, Romeo & Juliet. Remember to bring your own seating if needed, although stools are available for hire. Staying in Glasgow, Jack Nurse and Robbie Gordon’s The Coolidge Effect returns to the city and discusses our relationship with pornography, analysing why while porn becomes more accessible, our willingness to talk about it does not. Taking place at The Art School on 20-21 June, before touring to London and Manchester, this show fuses spoken word, science, and storytelling to examine how porn affects our mental health and our relationships. Moving briefly to Edinburgh, where Assembly Roxy will play host to the Scottish premiere of The Pride, the award-winning play by Alexi Kaye Campbell, performed by Edinburgh-based company Different Works Theatre Productions to mark the 10th anniversary of the play’s London premiere and Edinburgh’s Pride weekend. Alternating between 1958 and 2008, the play follows three complex characters as they examine changing attitudes to sexuality and wonder if their

lives would have been different had they been born 50 years earlier, or 50 years later. Going back to Glasgow, Blood of the Young return to the Tron Theatre with their latest work, Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort of) a new irreverent take on the classic Jane Austen novel, from Isobel McArthur. This co-production with the Tron runs from 28 June-14 July and features an all-female cast celebrating Austen’s humour with a contemporary edge, as well as karaoke and disco balls. The Citz mark the end of an era this month as they prepare to move from 119 Gorbals Street to their new, temporary home at Tramway on Albert Drive for two years as they make way for their long-awaited £19.4 million redevelopment. To mark the occasion, the Citz have created On the Move, a unique all-day event on 23 June that lets the public see behind the scenes at the iconic theatre before the building work begins. It will include backstage tours, sale of costumes and other mementos, and begins at 10am sharp. Tickets are not needed for the backstage tours, but they will operate on a first-comefirst-serve basis at the box office on the day.

Ask Auntie Act:

How Can I Be Original?

Review

Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of)

theskinny.co.uk/threatre

For this month, beloved Auntie Trash hands over her opinion column to new national treasure Courtney Act

Dear Auntie Act, I’m an aspiring actor, but I keep on getting compared to other performers. How can I make my act truly original? Yours, AA

conform is something I know very well. We don’t conform in drag, you’re being your own character – the things that inspire you, whether it be a TV theme song or a political oppression, brings about creativity. Your performance is a response to that trigger.

Dear AA, Well, first, I just want to say thanks to Auntie Trash for letting me take over her agony aunt spot for June. Since that little TV appearance in January, people (not just the wonderful Drag Race fans) seem to value my opinion and say hi in the street, so thank you. How do you make your Act truly original? Well, I’m not an actor! But here’s my T. As an actor – and often in life – we’re too busy working out how to be someone else, everyone’s always all about who they need to be, not who they are – the best thing to do to be totally original, is to be your own weird self, get niche and stick to your guns. Being an actor is all about conforming to someone else’s idea of a character. It’s not bad to be compared to someone else, well, it depends who you’re being compared to— but don’t fear that similarity. An actor’s job isn’t always to be unique, the job is to pull off the role of the character – when we look at those who are the most highly regarded in the industry, from stage or screen, they often have that certain something that places them apart – so if you’re trying to stand out from the crowd the best way to do that is to be yourself. Simple huh? Performance, being yourself and refusing to

“ The more you know who you are the better” Courtney Act

Courtney Act is always going to be original as it’s my take on this world and her place in it. Your act is always going to be original if you follow how you feel, because of YOUR unique take on life. With drag, there are a lot of young people who think it’s all about drag makeup and women’s clothes, but I think for a drag queen or drag artist – who has been doing it for a better part of their lives – it’s about performance. Drag and making up that face is a tool, creating whatever will fix you. This fix and freedom could be lip-syncing a Beyoncé video or interviewing people at a Trump rally. Let’s put it like this, it’s more about giving no fucks, the same way as a drag performer, drag artist – be ready to turn it on, but be ready to play the role in front of your peers – and DO NOT

THEATRE

OBSESS over nos! Get strong at handling rejection, it’s a simple fact in an acting career that you are going to be compared and knocked back, so don’t see that as you being wrong or not ‘original’ enough – see it as a fact of the situation and a good one for you to be canny with, and to work out how to play the game well. Coming back round to: the more you know who you are the better. Just stick to it and do it because it’s what you love doing. Don’t worry about what other people are thinking – pay attention to feedback without giving too many fucks about what happens as long as you enjoy doing it… Keeping at it, listening, reading the situation – knock backs and comparisons are part of life. RuPaul’s Drag Race is a perfect example of this. You’ll hear ‘there’s the new Bianca’, ‘the new Bob the Drag Queen’, ‘that’s the new Courtney Act!’ Or think how many times you’ve heard the classic ‘Oh it’s very David Bowie’… People always want to compare and contrast based on their experience, their interests and their world. The more you hone your craft and your awareness of your world, the more original you will be. Yours, Courtney Act x Courtney Act: Under the Covers, O2 Academy Glasgow, 4 Jun tickets: courtneyact.com/under 3-18 Aug (not 7,8, 13) Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, tickets: edfringe.com

THE SKINNY

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

Words: Amy Taylor

The Terrier Awards With the Edinburgh Fringe bounding towards us, canine critic Fringe Dog annouces what he’ll be looking for in the third annual Terrier Awards Words: Fringe Dog Illustration: Jasmine Floyd

boy o boy o boy i is slurpin your face and bringin you slippers because it time to wake-up,, this is gratest day outside all of august -- the fringe program have arrived !!! 2018 is actualy very special anniversry for comedys big prizes cõs it is exactly ten year since edimbrugh comedy award judge give official panel prize to “all the performers ‘. o boy the judges got the decisiom rite that year !!! but withot further doo the new terrier award categories are ;: best headscratcher is for briliant bafflin show that like gluggin cold slush puppy very too quickly and head hurt bad even thou it is much delicous ,, when your mind eventualy melt you still dont know what show was about -- but o boy it sure make you think best wet nose this award is for comedian who has “ gone virus ‘ . no doubt the symptons start with common kennel cough but leaky sinus help germs splutter all about the place . uh oh , now the public health watchdogs is in town, all edimbrugh is in quarantine and comedian is on cover of every epidemiology journal that matter ,, o boy !!! best mangy old coat is for comedian who not wash cloths all fringe and by week 3 the whiff is whaftin from stage and audience is envelope in invisible toxin cloud . o boy human nose not built to apreciate such rich 5star odor ..but make no mistake ,this bouquet have low notes and high notes and award will

June 2018

recognse only the most textured pong best howl howl howl howl is for show which stop bein funny after 45 minutes and it turn into great tragedy . best winston churchill award for best depressed comedian it very strange co-incidence but just as human sometime call depression “the black dog’ , which is sayin popularise by winston churchill ,, all dogs call depression “the winston churchill ‘ !!! the roots of it go back to a melancholic mastiff who describe sadness to a veterinarian like this : “”o boy ,, i feel so low it like the great war is goin on all around us and i has just presided over a military disaster in gallipoli . i think my reputation is finished for a big long time . ‘ this sayin was bit cumbersome and over time it change to things like “i been eatin too many of winston churchill’s biscits ‘ . which much more convenent shortpaw for describin depressive symptoms .this award is for most hilarious show illuminatin mental health theme thro briliant comedy . while awards very very o boy excitin always remember wise word of strategum genuis sun tzu . i think it was in the art of war where he say ;”it not the winnin ,, but the takin part that counts ‘ . imspirational . love from fringe dog The third annual Terrier Awards winners are announced by The Skinny on Fri 24 Aug The full Edinburgh Fringe programme is released on 6 Jun theskinny.co.uk/comedy

COMEDY

Review

COMPETITIONS

THE SKINNY

Glasgow Music DARMAN (BLEAKERS + KARIN + HACHIKO) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Italian outfit Darman bring their lively rock show to Scotland. RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: WERQ THE WORLD TOUR

SEC, FROM 19:00, £32.90 - £136.20

Your favorite drag stars return with a fierce new show. Slay.

BLACK MAP (BLACK ORCHID EMPIRE + RANDOLPH’S GRIN)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

San Francisco rock trio.

DAYLIGHT SESSIONS TAYLOR TAKEOVER (MEGAN D + RILEY MUSIC + MATTHEW GIBB + LISA KOWALSKI)

ST LUKE’S, FROM 13:00, FREE

A lazy afternoon with music, brunch, Bloody Mary’s, tea and cake, for all ages. This time, dedicated to the one and only Tay Tay (Taylor Swift).

Fri 01 Jun

THE RIOT VANS (KINGS OF UNITY + DETER + JOE CLARK)

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £9

Inspired by the likes of The Clash and The Libertines, The Riot Vans are a group of bright young upstarts from Scotland. ED SHEERAN (JAMIE LAWSON + ANNE-MARIE)

HAMPDEN PARK, FROM 17:00, £49.50 - £82.50

Nnnnnnnope.

RED HEARTED VIBRATIONS (GARLANDS) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

A four-piece musical outfit from Glasgow. VITAL IDLES ALBUM LAUNCH

MONO, FROM 19:30, £7

Vital Idles celebrate the launch of their very first Long Play Record, released on Upset The Rhythm.

THE SCIENTISTS (THE GO GO CULT + ROCKET REDUCER)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £15

Australian post-punk band, who probably aren’t actually scientists. THE SHACKS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Young trio creating a seductively dreamy blend of early rock, vintage soul and intimately hushed vocals. VUROMANTICS (THE NOWES + THE VIBE + RUDI N SPIDER)

13TH NOTE, FROM 19:00, £5

Vuromantics blend pop sensibilities with a passion for electronic music and funk groove to create a very modern take on retro ideas. THE FILTHY TONGUES

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £12

Alternative rock group from Edinburgh.

THE ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND: TRADITIONAL MUSIC RECITAL FESTIVAL

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 11:00, FREE

Showcasing a diverse programme of new work by students of the BMus Traditional Music course at the RCS. TRASHCAN PARTY

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £6 - £8

Glasgow rockers launch their new album. CHARLES WATSON (SIVU + MEGAN AIRLIE)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10.50

One half of indie duo Slow Club presenting his solo work. JAMIE REILLY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Solo artist, formerly with The Blue Lenas and The Groove Allegiance, playing an acoustic set.

Sat 02 Jun

GARDENING FOR BUMBLEBEES (QUICK + FAIRFOLLIES + ERIN NEWTON) ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

Musical collective formed around central members Sam Begbie and Joe Doyle. CASH

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £14.10

Johnny Cash tribute act.

June 2018

WHAT’S THE NOISE (THE SHUTOUTS + SUMMIT + NICK SHANE + DEAN FREEMAN) CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:45, £6 - £7

What’s The Noise Presents a showcase with local talent.

ED SHEERAN (JAMIE LAWSON + ANNE-MARIE)

HAMPDEN PARK, FROM 17:00, £49.50 - £82.50

Nnnnnnnope.

FLYING BY MIRRORS (CRYPTIC CULTURE)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Making waves throughout Scotland, Glasgow’s Flying By Mirrors are sure to bring a dynamically lively set leaving you hooked from the outset. CULANN

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £6

Irvine-based rock quintet who’ve christened themselves as ‘folkressive’, which pretty much sums ‘em up. THE ABSOLUTE JAM (BERRY TWEED & THE CHASERS) ST LUKE’S, FROM 20:00, £12.50

Tribute band capturing the authentic raw energy and sound of The Jam’s early punk roots. CHOOSE LIFE ALBUM LAUNCH (SACRED PAWS + HAPPY MEALS + APOSTILLE + STEPHEN PASTEL + MOLLY X MARIA) THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 20:30, £9

An epic party featuring bands and DJs to celebrate the release of Choose Life.

BE LIKE PABLO (JOSEPHINE SILLARS & THE MANIC PIXIE DREAMS + EWAN CRUICKSHANKS) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Powerpop outfit who specialise in catchy pop songs with girl/boy harmonies, Moog synthesizers and noisy guitars. DECLAN WELSH AND DAVID MILNE

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Declan Welsh and David Milne combine their unique blend of influences for a night of old classics, original material and open jams.

Sun 03 Jun

THE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGBOOK WITH RONNIE & OLIVIA

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

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

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends. ED SHEERAN (JAMIE LAWSON + ANNE-MARIE)

HAMPDEN PARK, FROM 17:00, £49.50 - £82.50

SUFFOCATION (PROFANITY + PARTY CANNON)

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £16

Raw death metal band hailing from Long Island, New York – formed back in 1988 and reformed in 2003 with a new line up. SAMMY’S OPEN MIC

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, FREE

Ever popular open mic night hosted by house band The Bucks. WARMDUSCHER (WOMANSAID)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

London-based post-punk band formed in 2014 and currently signed to The Leaf Label.

Mon 04 Jun

BABY FACE AND THE BELTIN’ BOYS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Jazz and gospel mixed with some southern charm. COURTNEY ACT – UNDER THE COVERS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £28

RuPaul’s Drag Race 2014 star and Celebrity Big Brother 2018 winner. Also a vegan, if that interests you. TOMMY MCATEER (NYREE CUTHILL)

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

Young Glasgow singer-songwriter, headlining the Classic Grand for the first time. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

Come and see some of the best unsigned artists in the country for free. LYLO (TEAM PICTURE)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

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

Tue 05 Jun LAURA VEIRS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £17.50

The Colorado singer/songwriter does her lush acoustic thing, showcased no sweeter than on new album Tumble Bee – a selection of children’s songs drawn from US folk tradition. GYPSY CIRCUS (PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION + JACK SUTTON)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Edinburgh-based quartet Gypsy Circus combine vintage Blues roots with modern raw indie/rock inspired hooks. CAMILLA CABELLO

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £34.50

Ex-Fifth Harmony member and singer of the incredibly catchy hit Havana-oo-na-na. JOLIETTE (CASSUS + OLD GUARD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Nnnnnnnope.

Mexican post-hardcore since 2011.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £22

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £29 - £34.70

NEWTON FAULKNER

London-based singer/songwriter known for his guitar playing, which involves rhythmically tapping and hitting his guitar’s body. ELKIE BROOKS

THE KING’S THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £26 - £36

Now in the fifth decade of her career, Elkie Brooks is back performing some of her classic hits, blues and jazz.

TONY CHRISTIE

Still going, though not necessarily strong, with a Golden Anniversary tour. LOMA (ADAM TORRES)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

LOMA is Emily Cross and Dan Duszinsky from Cross Record and Jonathan Meiburg from Shearwater.

Wed 06 Jun

SAVE AS #16: CARBS EP LAUNCH (EDWIN ORGAN)

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £5.10

Jonnie Common and James E Scott launch their new EP as CARBS.

GLASGOW KELVIN COLLEGE MUSIC SHOWCASE

Glasgow Kelvin College’s Music and Sound courses stage their annual awards night. VOLBEAT

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £23.55

The Danish metal heavyweights continue to tour.

COMMON RECORDS BUNDLE #2 LAUNCH (DECENT SWEETS + NYLA + ADULLBOY) BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The micro DIY Scottish label bring a whole bunch pf musical acts along.

OCTOBER DRIFT (JAMES BREADNER + ORDINARY HERO) KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9.35

October Drift appeared at the start of 2015 with their beefy yet melodic sound and gained a reputation for delivering blistering, high-energy live shows. KROW (D3VL MAY CRY + XILES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

Alternative/dark electronica.

JONATHAN TOUBIN SOUL CLAP DANCE OFF (DADDY LONG LEGS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £13.75

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 20:00, £5 - £7

CRACK CLOUD

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

Multimedia collective, comprising members from different cities, ethnicities and origins, who contribute to the sound, visual aesthetic and beyond. JOHN RUSH

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Sat 09 Jun

BEYONCÉ & JAY-Z: ON THE RUN II

HAMPDEN PARK, FROM 17:00, £28.40 - £170.25

Go to this. Absolutely no excuses.

HOLY ESQUE ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY (FAUVES + BETA WAVES) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £9

Much-hyped and reverb-drenched Glaswegian art popsters launch their new album. BORN RUFFINS (THE KENNETHS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £11

Jonathan Toubin juxtaposes raw, wild and uncommon original 7-inch vinyl sides by unsung artists on the beat for today’s dance floor.

Trio made up of singer/guitarist Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier and drummer Steve Hamelin.

Thu 07 Jun

Inspired by the likes of The Clash and The Libertines, The Riot Vans are a group of bright young upstarts from Scotland.

NICK HEYWARD

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Ex-Haircut 100 man gone solo. DECLAN HEGARTY

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE

Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. SLIPPERY NIGHTS (NO TEETH + CARTILAGE)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The stalwart DIY collective bring another evening of top class alternative bands to Bloc.

HOME$LICE (DAS PLASTIXX + ROLO GREB)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8.80

Glasgow’s latest hype band show you what all the noise is about. PETER CAT (GIFT HORSE + COP GRAVEYARD)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Glaswegian indie-pop outfit Peter Cat launch their debut extended play.

REVELATION (VELVET + THE STRAYS + BASTARDS LTD.) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6

New music showcase with three bands.

ROCK IT! FOR CHARITY: FLOCK ROCK (FUNDRAISER FOR STARTER PACKS GLASGOW) (VOLCANO X + SKAGHOORS + BIG BLACK MARIAH + PLECTRUM) BOX, FROM 20:00, FREE

Rock It! For Charity is flyin’ high in June, with a fundraiser for Starter Packs Glasgow.

THE WORK ROOM: 10 YEARS & BEYOND

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:30, £8 - £20

An evening of live dance, music and installation programmed by The Work Room members.

Fri 08 Jun GG JAZZ DUO

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, FREE

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

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

Big, melodic rock sounds from four veterans of the field. CRAIG-RUSSELL HORNE (HYYTS + KOLOURS)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Independent Scottish electronic pop act. PETTY THIEVES (EILIDH PARK)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £3

Four-piece indie rock band from Falkirk, fusing 90s indie and alternative rock. DRAHLA

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £6

Leeds trio blending wiry post-punk with unpredictable art-rock.

DOMINICIDE (SATIRACY + NOCTURNE WOLF)

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, TBC

Glasgow-based thrash/groove metal band.

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

THE RIOT VANS

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, TBC

THE FALLEN ANGELS CLUB: JON DEE GRAHAM

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £12

HOLLIE ROBINSON (ST MUNGO + CAITLIN ELLIS WHITE + AIMEE ALEXANDER + LEAH CLARK) CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

14-year-old singer who won Paisley’s Got Talent in 2017.

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Tue 12 Jun SLUT MAGIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

A loud, riot grrrl vocal wand of creation making you wonder if this is all a dream. MIKE DONOVAN (IRMA VEP)

MONO, FROM 20:00, FREE

Late start, relaxed atmospheres and top notch class acts. GHOSTFACE KILLAH

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 19:00, £25

Wu-Tang banger Ghostface Killah does his solo thing, with his inimitable stream-of-consciousness style rap narratives blasted out atop high-energy machine gunlike basslines. PALM (RAPID TAN)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

American experimental rock band, who apparently play “rock music backwards.” Take from that what you will.

Wed 13 Jun PUBLIC IMAGE LTD

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £30.35

Post punk outfit led by Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, re-formed in 2012. STRATA 14

Jon Dee Graham returns for the first time in seven years to headline his own tour.

A two set-er from Graham Costello’s Strata.

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 22:00, £11 - £16

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £5

RANDOLPH’S LEAP

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

GLASGOW BLUES AND SOUL ALLIANCE

Glasgow folk-pop melody merchants Randolph’s Leap return.

Crafty blues, powerful soul and outrageous funk.

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £42.55 - £51.10

OCEVNS (LOST IN VANCOUVER)

Anthemic alternative rock band from Glasgow. JAMIE REILLY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Solo artist, formerly with The Blue Lenas and The Groove Allegiance, playing an acoustic set.

Sun 10 Jun

BACKBEAT: NON-STOP 60S POP

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

DEMI LOVATO (JAX JONES)

Remember Camp Rock? Back when the Jonas Brothers still claimed to be virgins and wore promise rings? Good times. EL GOODO

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

Welsh psych-pop band.

Thu 14 Jun DANNY BRYANT

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

“National Blues Treasure,” according to Classic Rock’s The Blues Magazine.

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £22

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE

GIANT SAND (PATSY’S RATS)

Howe Gelb’s ever-rotating musical collective celebrate their 30th year in existence. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends. HAIM

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £37.88

LA-based band of sisters who build their sound on an e’er lovely whimsy of folk and r’n’b beats – engaging unashamedly with the cliches of 70s and 80s rock and pop as they go. ZAK YOUNGER BANKS (CATHERINE MCGOLDRICK + EMILY SHIELDS)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5 - £8

Singer-songwriter and guitarist combining emotionally raw vocals, poetic lyrics and intricate finger style guitar arrangements to create original and distinctive songs. KIM RICHEY

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £13

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

DECLAN HEGARTY

Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his mult-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. PROUD MARY (DIXIE FRIED)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

LA-based (by way of Manchester) rock quintet. MOANING (UNDO)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8.50

Abrasive, post punk trio comprised of Sean Solomon, Pascal Stevenson and Andrew MacKelvie. BERTA KENNEDY

KING TUT’S CLASSICS PRESENTS... BLEACH

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.75

King Tut’s Classics presents Nirvana’s Bleach, performed in full by tribute act Novana on the anniversary of its release. SWALLOWS (HORIZONS + HAYSWORTH + VESPERS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

Melodic hardcore Glasgow mob, served up abrasive, tough... and usually shirtless. SABFEST 2018

STEREO, FROM 19:30, FREE

A whole night of live bands, hiphop and Glasgow’s best DJs.

THE WAVE PICTURES (WEST PRINCES)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:30, £12

Prolific London indie threesome, The Wave Pictures’ most recent album Bamboo Diner In The Rain marked the band’s 15th in the canon. 1919 (TWISTED NERVE)

Veteran singer-songwriter, who has shared the stage with The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Decemberists, and is often compared to Tom Waits, Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen.

FACENDO COSE (ECHO PARK + CLENCH)

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

Six-piece soul and funk band from Glasgow.

BAR STOOL PREACHERS (ESPERANZA + STRUNG OUT NIGHTS) AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £8

Brighton’s ska-infused, street punk inspired five-piece.

AA07: DOUBLE A-SIDE RECORDS’ FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY (LIFE MODEL + BARBE ROUSSE + HAIRBAND) THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7

Double A-Side Records are turning one and are having a party to mark the occasion. MARK MORRISS (MANDULU AND HEPHZIBAH)

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

Mark Morriss is a singer-songwriter who famously made his name fronting English indie outfit The Bluetones.

AUDIO, FROM 20:00, £8

Sun 17 Jun

BINGO RECORDS & SCOTTISH FICTION SHOWCASE (MR BEN. & THE BENS + MT. DOUBT + SUN DRIFT + FAMILY SELECTION BOX + DOG DAISIES)

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

Join post-punk legends 1919 at their first ever Glasgow gig.

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Mega five band bonanza in Glasgow’s finest music pub. MANDULU AND HEPHZIBAH

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Sat 16 Jun

DREW MCCULLOCH’S SPIRIT OF SLIM CHANCE + THE KINKS EXPERIENCE

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

An evening of great music featuring songs from Ronnie Lane, The Small Faces and Gallagher & Lyle, followed by The Kinks Experience. FOO FIGHTERS GB

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £15.75

Foo Fighters tribute act. BELLY

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £23

Boston based alt-rock band Belly which features Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses.

KING TUT’S CLASSICS PRESENTS... THE QUEEN IS DEAD

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.75

King Tut’s Classics presents The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead, performed by tribute act Morrissey Indeed. ELECTRIC DRAGON (LO PAN + FOURFOX)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £9

Bulgarian electro-punk and Nintendocore project. Yup.

HAUNT YOU DOWN X CLUB HEADS: PLEASURE CRUISER

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £3 - £5

Haunt You Down and Club Heads present former Tokyoite Nic Liu, aka Pleasure Cruiser, fresh off the back of his DJ chart topping debut EP, Tokyo Horoki.

THE CLASSIC ACOUSTIC SONGBOOK WITH RONNIE & OLIVIA

Ronnie and Olivia play tunes from their Classic Acoustic Songbook in the cosy bar.

FURNACE AND THE FUNDAMENTALS

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £14.10

Musical chameleons with a sense of humour, or so they claim. BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends.

ADAM FRAME (KIM IRVINE + LUCY GORMAN + SWIGGY + KERR JAMES)

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

17-year-old singer/guitarist from Livingston. MICHAEL MALARKEY (GARETH DUNLOP)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £17.60

Actor and singer, who you might recognise from The Vampire Diaries series. If you’re into that kinda thing. IRON WITCH

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £8

A spectrum of rock sounds from Liverpool and Sheffield.

MXMJOY (MAXIMUM JOY) + GUESTS

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £12

Legendary post-punks, formed in Bristol in 1981.

Mon 18 Jun THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

MONO, FROM 20:00, £7

For Grimm Grimm’s album launch tour, they will be collaborating on a special AV set with new live mixed visual material created specifically for the tour. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

JESSICA LYNN

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Country singer from New York, hailed as “Shania’s successor”, who is also an advocate for transgender issues. NIGHT FLOWERS

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £8

Mon 11 Jun

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £5

SOULS OF MISCHIEF

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

A collaborative triple bill of up-andcoming soul talent, highlighting the genre’s 21st-century vibrancy.

MISHKA SHUBALY 13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £11

Berta Kennedy launches her new single Woman.

Two-time Grammy-nominated Kim Richey is a storyteller; a weaver of emotions and a tugger of heartstrings.

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £18.60

LADIES OF SOUL

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, TBC

Indie pop quintet made up of a close group of friends from North England and Boston-born vocalist Sophia Pettit.

The Oakland hip-hoppers make their live return, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of 93 ‘til Infinity.

Fri 15 Jun

AUSTIN MILLER

Austin Miller will be performing his most recent release, Some Degree Of Comfort, in full, along with debuting new tracks.

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

Listings

HE IS WE (LIZZY FARRALL) CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, £11

American indie pop duo fronted by lead singer Rachel Taylor. DINOSAUR

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £13.20

British jazz quartet founded in 2010.

NEIL STURGEON & THE INFOMANIACS (THE VINDICATORS)

STEREO, FROM 19:00, TBC

The first Neil Sturgeon & The Infomaniacs live date since Wickerman 2014.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: CLAIRE MARTIN & JIM MULLEN’S FULL HOUSE CELEBRATE WES MONTGOMERY

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £20.20

Claire Martin and Jim Mullen’s Full House celebrating the music of Wes Montgomery. TEEN CREEPS (PUPPY FAT) BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, FREE

A Ghent indie rock trio, bringing together fuzzy guitars, solid drums and melancholy vocals in one energetic mix. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £28.40 - £62.45

Grammy Award-winning folk comedy duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie embark on their first UK and Irish tour in seven years.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: SARATHY KORWAR (GRAHAM COSTELLO’S STRATA)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £11

Sarathy Korwar is a percussionist/ drummer and producer signed to Ninja Tune.

Tue 19 Jun UNA HEALY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £16.50

Former The Saturdays member (one of the ones that could actually sing).

EAST WINDS (CHRISTINE BOVILL + MARTHA L. HEALY + CLESCHI QUARTET) ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:30, £10

Benefit show bringing high-calibre music from different cultures to the popular Glasgow venue. HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 19:00, £51.10 - £59.60

Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp. Performing. Live. Together.

Wed 20 Jun THE CHURCH

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £20.25

The iconic Australian band are back with new music and their 26th album.

CANAL CAPITALE (BLANCA GRANDE)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Four-piece band, named after the Colombian local public television channel Canal Capital. NEAL MORSE

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:00, £19.50

The legendary voice of Spocks Beard and Transatlantic plays an up close and personal acoustic show in Glasgow. ANDY WILLIAMSON (JUPITER SKIES)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.70

Artist, producer and multiinstrumentalist from the North Coast of Scotland. DANIEL HIGGS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £10

The ex-Lungfish legend and his banjo return to the UK.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: ROSE ROOM ORCHESTRA FANTASTIQUE FEATURING KONRAD WISZNIEWSKI

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:15, £20.20

Scotland’s leading Hot Club swing band joins forces with top Scottish saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski and the award-winning Capella String Quartet. RORY MCLEOD

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £10 - £12

An ex-circus clown and fire eater, Rory McLeod does his one-mansoul-band thing, employing harmonica, spoons and finger cymbals into his mighty mix. As you do.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: YOUNG SCOTTISH JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR FINAL DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:30, £5 - £12.50

The best in young jazz talent in Scotland compete for the title of Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year. GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: ALABASTER DEPLUME (ART OF FALLING)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Lost Map signee, delivering experimental pop music and Eastern-influenced anthems.

Thu 21 Jun WADE BOWEN

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Country singer from Waco, Texas. DECLAN HEGARTY

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE

Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his mult-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd. J.I.D & EARTHGANG

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £16.90

Having grown up in the same Atlanta scene and collaborated on numerous projects, J.I.D and Earthgang are joining forces again for a UK tour. JACK VIZE (MIRA K + NIAMH RYAN)

Listings

AUDIO, FROM 19:30, £5

Two piece modern rock band. RAYMOND MACDONALD AND FRIENDS

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £5 - £8

A genre-busting line up of inspiring performers, each one a musical superhero in their own right. GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: TONY MOMRELLE

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:30, £15

Singer-songwriter Tony Momrelle is currently one of the hottest artists in the R’n’B/soul scene. GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: SLUGABED

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

Slugabed makes bass music of a sort, but it’s part jazz odyssey, part hip-hop beat tape, part future-pop deconstruction, part Part John Carpenter soundtrack, part post-rock adventure. BLACK SNAKE ROOTS

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Sat 23 Jun

BIG VERN ‘N’ THE SHOOTAHS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £14

KATE VOEGELE AND TYLER HILTON (BRIAN MACKEY + JABLONSKY)

ORAN MOR, FROM 15:00, £18

One for the One Tree Hill fans. Or fans of its uber-emotive soundtrack.

BLOC+ JAM OPEN MIC

Montpellier-hailing band Les Lullies play breakneck rock ‘n’ roll.

Fri 01 Jun

AUDIO, FROM 19:00, £12.50 - £25

The ever rising UK rockers make a welcome return visit with the come back of NOV making for a great night

Fri 29 Jun

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:00, £8

WEST END FESTIVAL ALL DAYER 2018

Returning for a seventh year, West End Festival brings 15 Scottish acts to three stages in Oran Mor. BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Weekly Open Mic with host Jamie Stuart and friends. LUNA THE PROFESSOR (DOGTOOTH)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £8.80

Teenage indie-rockers from Wishaw. JUNIOR BROGAN (LOUIS SISK)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £3

Two-piece stripped back dark blues band. THE DECOY (PUSHING DAISIES)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:30, £6

Described by Kerrang as “mighty Welsh math-rock.” GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: YAZZ AHMED’S HAFLA BAND

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:15, £20.20

Bahraini-British performer giving a new meaning to nowadays jazz. KATY PERRY

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £50 - £120

American pop star known for being just a little embarrassing sometimes.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:00, £10

A rare and unique opportunity to hear Trevor Watts in collaboration with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: NOYA RAO (WERKHA) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £11

Purveyors of lush, enigmatic dreamscapes and grooving electronica.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £20.35

LES LULLIES

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

SHEA COULEÉ

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 finalist and dancing Queen Shea Couleé drops by to slay. SARA N JUNBUG

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

An acoustic trio based in Glasgow. WAHEELA (SUNWØLF + TILDE + NATHALIE STERN)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Improvised noise/rock project, driven by a shared affection for shrieking feedback, nondenominational riff worship and unexplained sounds. SPYLAW (WONDERBOY)

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £5

Energetic Edinburgh rock band with a brassy twist. ROGER WATERS

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £73.80 £107.85

The Pink Floyd bassist plays some of the band’s biggest hits and some new songs. MIC CLARK - ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

Sat 30 Jun AC/DC UK

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £16.90

Mon 25 Jun

Europe’s premier tribute to AC/DC.

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

Celtic Connections glitterati perform a night of inspiring covers, originals and classics. ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ GERRY LYONS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, FREE

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

THE PRIMITIVES (YOUNG ROMANCE)

SAVAGE MANSION

Lost Map slacker pop.

FILTHY BLUES (THE STRUMMERS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Scottish band whose ethos is simply to play and record for the love of music. CP TAKEOVER

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5 - £7

Cornerstoned Productions celebrate their 1st birthday with an all-dayer at Broadcast, showcasing their favourite local bands and DJs.

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

Nine-piece soul band from Glasgow.

THOMAS WYNN & THE BELIEVERS

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £16.90

Indie-meets-psych-meetspowerpop four-piece – fronted by the Coventry-born Tracy Tracy.

THE LONELY SOULS

Tue 26 Jun

Longstanding Mike Stott-led ensemble, basing their sound on a mix of Celtic folk and rock.

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £12

16-year-old talented musician about to release his debut EP. KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £11

Sibling-led folk/country group.

A WILHELM SCREAM (DARKO + THE AFFECT HEURISTIC)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, TBC

The melodic hardcore veterans from Massachusetts return to the UK.

MEZCLA FEAT. JAMIE JOHNSON (ERISKA) STEREO, FROM 19:00, £10

Jazz/fusion collective blazing an improv trail, with live visuals from acclaimed Glasgow-based artist Jamie Johnson. PORTS OF ESSEN (AERIAL )

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, £4

Glasgow four-piece formed in 2014, playing a mix of pop and classic rock songs. GIRLS NAMES

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS, FROM 19:30, £12

Moody Irish post-punkers in possession of a new LP. GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: COLIN STEELE QUARTET – DIVING FOR PEARLS

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:30, £15

THE SENSATIONAL DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE BAND (HOT LOVE (T.REX))

David Bowie tribute act. NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Alternative folk, Americana and blues-tinged rock from Mark Clinton’s Bellshill-based outfit.

BLOOD ROCK: FUNDRAISER IN AID OF LIFESAVERS SCOTLAND

IVORY BLACKS, FROM 19:00, £5

It’s June, the official ‘birthday’ month of Alternative Promotions, which means it’s time for their annual ticketed charity gig. THE FLAVOURS & FRIENDS

13TH NOTE, FROM 20:00, TBC

Edinburgh band bringing some friends along for the ride.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: THE MILLION DOLLAR ORCHESTRA (AL KENT)

ST LUKE’S, FROM 20:30, £16 - £18

The Million Dollar Orchestra pay tribute to the stars of Salsoul Records.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: NIGEL CLARK + TOM MACNIVEN QUINTET CELEBRATE BOBBY WELLINS

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 17:45, £15

The music of The Pearlfishers, one of Marina’s most beloved acts, gets the royal jazz treatment in exciting new arrangements by the Colin Steele Quartet.

This concert, featuring musicians who were directly involved with and affected by Bobby, honours a great Scot.

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: SKELTR

An eclectic mix of future soul, funk, drum ‘n’ bass, improv and more.

Fri 22 Jun

LONDON ASTROBEAT ORCHESTRA PERFORM TALKING HEADS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

London Astrobeat Orchestra perform songs from the iconic Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense movie live.

TAPED LIVE (DEAD COYOTES + HIGHWAY 491)

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL: YAZMIN LACEY

Yazmin Lacey sings with the directness and emotional clarity of classic soul. MARK MCGEE & GIROBABIES

PIE & BREW, FROM 20:00, FREE

A rare acoustic set from one of Glasgow’s most original bands of the past decade.

Edinburgh Music

Sun 24 Jun

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £16.50

SASHA KALOHERIS (CIARA WATT + JOHN MCLEAN + RAEGAN LYNCH + FUSE)

THE WATERBOYS

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £41.25

VEGA (MIDNITE CITY)

Young singer headlining the Classic Grand for the first time.

Melodic rock/AOR band from the UK, formed in 2009.

AUDIO, FROM 18:30, £16

KELVINGROVE PARK, FROM 13:00, £79 - £135

H20 (ALL FOR NOTHING + GET IT TOGETHER)

Punk rockers H20 celebrate the 10th anniversary of their fifth studio album, Nothing to Prove.

Wed 27 Jun

CIARAN MURRAY (WES READER + ZOE MARTIN + TEEJAY MACK + CONNAH GRANT) CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 18:30, TBC

Ciaran Murray returns after a three-year hiatus from music. DOWALLY (ROBBIE GREIG)

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £8

FIESTA X FOLD

Brand new festival by the team behind The West End Fiesta, in collaboration with the legendary Nile Rodger’s Freak Out Let’s Dance Party. SAMBA SENE & DIWAN

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £7.50 - £10

Led by charismatic Senegalese singer Samba Sene, Diwan is a diverse international collection of musicians, who share a global outlook and love of West African rhythms.

Folk group fusing Scottish tunes with jazz harmony, Balkan rhythms and deep Americana raucousness, performing with guitar, fiddle and cello.

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £73.80 £107.85

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:30, £15

ORANGE CLAW HAMMER PLAYS CAPTAIN BEEFHEART

Avant rock jazz-blues from the classic albums of the legendary Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band.

ROGER WATERS

The Pink Floyd bassist plays some of the band’s biggest hits and some new songs. RURA

Thu 28 Jun

Scottish five-piece who won Live Act of the Year at the 2015 Scots Trad Music awards for their unique blend of fiddle, Highland pipes, whistle, flute, bodhran, guitar and voice.

ORAN MOR, FROM 21:00, FREE

PIE & BREW, FROM 21:00, FREE

DECLAN HEGARTY

Fully trained folk harp player who also plays the guitar and sings, bringing his multi-instrumental talents to a regular Oran Mor crowd.

EMMA MURDOCH

Emma is a singer/songwriter based in Glasgow.

BIGFOOT (NEST OF VIPERS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

BEYOND JOVI

A tribute to Bon Jovi.

PATERSANI: FROM YOU, FROM HERE EP LAUNCH (EL SALVADOR + SHOTGUN CITY SUNSHINE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

Celebrate the release of Patersani’s debut EP, From You, From Here in the nation’s capital.

JAMIE SUTHERLAND (JOSH FUCHS)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Broken Records frontman brings solo tunes to a hometown crowd.

HIDDEN DOOR 2018: EDINBURGH JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL PRESENTS (SUBMOTION ORCHESTRA + LONDON AFROBEAT COLLECTIVE + JAMES BROWN IS ANNIE) OLD LEITH THEATRE, FROM 18:00, £10 - £300

The renovators and curators at Hidden Door return for another ma-hoosive programme of crossplatform entertainment at the Old Leith Theatre.

Sat 02 Jun

THE HOOK ‘N’ PULL GANG (CRITIKILL + DANGERMULE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, TBC

After disbanding in 1988 and consequent reshuffles, the Edinburgh outfit return to the live circuit following studio time. SING IN THE CITY (AW BLACKS + HANLEY & THE BAIRD)

FESTIVAL THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £13 - £19

A humorous set full of songs from all decades and genres and some original material written by the Musical Directors, Kirsty Baird and Annette Hanley. KERRY ELLIS

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £19.50 - £35

The musical theatre legend celebrates 20 years since her West End debut. KROW (DEVILS IN SKIRTS + THE PHLEGM)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Alternative/dark electronica. BOMBSKARE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £10

Scotland’s best part-time band bring a ska cavalcade.

THE PARTY SLOGAN (HEAVY DUTY BOX COMPANY + THE NIBLICKS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

Edinburgh band formed in 2016, whose sound comprises of three guitars and keyboards on top of a powerhouse rhythm section.

Sun 03 Jun OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

ORPHEUS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS (BARBE ROUSSE + ATTIC CHOIR)

CITY OF GLASS #14: CARBS (EP LAUNCH), CHUCHOTER AND TIGHT KNIT

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5

The Orpheus Collective return to the Edinburgh circuit with a big one for the summer. A night of funky psychedelia, alternative hardcore and riot grrrl-inspired punk.

Tue 05 Jun

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. BOY AZOOGA

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £8

The musical mission of Cardiffbased Davey Newington, drawing multifarious influence from Ty Segall, Sly & The Family Stone and Black Sabbath.

Wed 06 Jun

TEQUILA MOCKINGBYRD (RENEGADE TWELVE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Fantastic hard rock three-piece female rock group from Australia make a welcome return.

ANGUS MUNRO (PETER CAT + ROSIE BANS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £5

Piano singer/songwriter blessed with a mesmerising four octave vocal range.

Thu 07 Jun

TRUST TED CHARITY NIGHT (EDINBURGH ENSEMBLE + THE NIEVES + GUS HARROWER + HAMISH HAWK + STEPHEN MCLAREN + SACRE NOIR) THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 18:30, £7

A night filled with fun, music and prizes. THOM YORKE, NIGEL GODRICH & TARIK BARRI (OLIVER COATES)

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £49.50 - £60.50

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke will be performing in a live mix with Nigel Godrich and visual artist Tarik Barri, playing tracks from across his solo material.

JANE BLANCHARD (CARLA J EASTON + LUNA DELIRIOUS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £7

Three fiercely brilliant Central belt dwelling female songwriters operating across a broad range of styles.

Fri 08 Jun

THE DIRTY STRANGERS (TYLA J PALLAS + THE SUITCASE JUNKET)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

No Stopping Party, friends of the Rolling Stones, play special gig the night before the big one.

FABRIC BEAR (SHREDD + VOODOOS + SHIVA) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £6

Fuzz-fueled riffage.

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock.

Sat 09 Jun

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £16 - £18

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £7 - £9

GINGER WILDHEART

Ghost in The Tanglewood acoustic solo show by The Wildhearts legend. DAVID FORD: THE ANIMAL SPIRITS TOUR

IN EVIL HOUR (CRIMINAL MIND + THE DISTURBED + SPC + DELINQUIENTS)

Killer double bill from two of the UK’s best upcoming punk bands and great supports.

Absolutely stacked lineup, featuring some of the finest Scottish bands out. From the chilled to the frantic and everything in between, this is another unmissable night from City of Glass. RURA

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 20:00, £16.50

Scottish five-piece who won Live Act of the Year at the 2015 Scots Trad Music awards for their unique blend of fiddle, Highland pipes, whistle, flute, bodhran, guitar and voice.

NEHH PRESENTS… KRIS DREVER (HANNAH READ) SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £16.50

For his 2018 concerts, Kris Drever will be performing as a trio with Louis Abbott and Euan Burton, playing a ‘best of’ set. HERMITAGE GREEN

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £17

Folksy types from the Emerald Isle. THE VICTOR POPE BAND (FINN WATSON + LITTLE LOVE AND THE FRIENDLY VIBES + MID LIFE KRYSIS)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:00, £3

A mixed musical bag spanning post-punk, anti-folk and even rap. Hosted and headlined by The Victor Pope Band.

Sun 10 Jun OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

Free music all day from acoustic to blues and rock. MARTI PELLOW

FESTIVAL THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £32.50 - £37.50

Former Wet Wet Wet frontman, out on tour again. JON DEE AND WILLIAM HARRIES GRAHAM

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12

Jon Dee performs with his son William Harries Graham, who also has an album out with the German Blue Rose records.

SOUNDHOUSE: REDWOOD MOUNTAIN

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Dean Owens and traditional fiddle player Amy Geddes come together to form a brand new duo performing transatlantic folk songs.

Mon 11 Jun GIANT SAND

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £22

Howe Gelb’s ever-rotating musical collective celebrate their 30th year in existence. SOUNDHOUSE: MOISHE’S BAGEL

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Cutting-edge, jazz-inflected brew of Eastern European dance music, Middle Eastern rhythms and virtuoso performances. MIKE DONOVAN (IRMA VEP + TIGHT KNIT)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6

Late start, relaxed atmospheres and top notch class acts.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £12

David Ford brings his all-action one-man show to Edinburgh. It’s on a Sunday, so prepare for a religious experience.

HIDDEN DOOR 2018: CLOSING PARTY (ROMARE + NABIHAH IQBAL + EARTH WIRE) OLD LEITH THEATRE, FROM 18:00, £13 - £16

Bid farewell to the glorious Leith Theatre at the final night of Hidden Door Festival 2018, with a full band live set from Romare.

Mon 04 Jun

SOUNDHOUSE: KAELA ROWAN BAND

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Formerly a singer with Gaelic music band Mouth Music, Kaela Rowan plays with her own group this time.

TREMONTI

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £25.85

Guitarist and singer Mark Tremonti brings his band to Glasgow.

THE SKINNY

Tue 12 Jun

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. NASHVILLE LIVE

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £29.15 - £31.90

Nashville Live transports you right into the heart of downtown Nashville, celebrating the atmosphere and energy of an evening in the home of country music.

Mon 18 Jun

BILL MURRAY, JAN VOGLER & FRIENDS: NEW WORLDS

FESTIVAL THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £47.50 - £92.50

Actor Bill Murray and cellist Jan Vogler are joined by violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez for this show, celebrating American values in literature and music. SOUNDHOUSE: THE FOO BIRDS

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Wed 13 Jun

Edinburgh-based funk and soul eight-piece, formed by a crew of Edinburgh University students.

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Tue 19 Jun

JAMMIN’ AT VOODOO

Monthly Live Jam Session with some of Scotland’s leading musicians playing lounge grooves from many genres.

Thu 14 Jun FUTURE ISLANDS

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £24.75

The mighty Maryland outfit do their badass new-wave pop thing, with funk-inflected lead singer Sam Herring likely growling his way through the set. THE WAVE PICTURES

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £12

Prolific London indie threesome, The Wave Pictures’ most recent album Bamboo Diner In The Rain marked the band’s 15th in the canon.

ARMS & HEARTS + SARAH CAREY (PAPER RIFLES (ACOUSTIC) + STOLEN WINGS) LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:00, £5 - £7

Punky, folky, singer-songwritery stuff from over the border, and some from round the corner.

Fri 15 Jun

JACK RABBIT SLAMS (ROYAL BLOOM)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Two killer rock outfits for your Friday night. HAIRBAND (THE TROPICANAS + TIGHT KNIT)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

All-female band from Glasgow.

ARCOIRIS PRESENTS: BASSFACE & YOKO PWNO (SCUNNER)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5 - £8

Edinburgh’s freshest drum crew BassFace and folk/dance fusion act Yoko Pwno play a joint headline show. JAMES MADDOCK

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 21:00, £15

The songwriter’s songwriter, James Maddock has built his acclaimed legacy on humbly honoring purity of expression. LAND OF CAKES (THE FAKES)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Alt rock, electro, punk and possibly some poetry. FURNACE AND THE FUNDAMENTALS

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke. THE SKIDS & BIG COUNTRY

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £32

Two of Fife’s most influential bands come together. Part of Southern Exposure. CRYWANK (JORDAAN MASON + ANGUS MONROE)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, TBC

Manc chap James Clayton’s antifolk alter ego, going by the touching moniker of, er, Crywank.

Wed 20 Jun

STREETLIGHT CIRCUS (BLACK CAT BONE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7 - £10

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £3

Punky, indie night from localish lads, originally formed in the 80s, now back for good/bad/ugly.

Sat 16 Jun BELTANE FIRE

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

“Classic then & Classic now,” say Classic Rock magazine of this outstanding UK outfit. ACID CANNIBALS (FIT TO WORK + BRATAKUS + CUTTY’S GYM)

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6

A night of ridiculous riffs and crushing hardcore from some of the best around. And on Leith Gala day too.

Sun 17 Jun OPEN MIC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

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

BANNERMANS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day. NEHH PRESENTS… MICHAEL HURLEY

SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14

GIRLS ROCK SCHOOL

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

A kickass evening of riot grrrl music brought to you by the infamous Girls Rock School Edinburgh.

RIP IT UP FESTIVAL (STANLEY ODD + EMMA POLLOCK + BROKEN RECORDS + BE CHARLOTTE + BABE + MODERN STUDIES + WITHERED HAND) SUMMERHALL, FROM 12:00, £25

A full day of world-class music to celebrate the opening of National Museum of Scotland’s flagship exhibition Rip it Up. BUDAPEST CAFE ORCHESTRA

SUMMERHALL, FROM 20:00, £14 - £15

Post-rock English outfit whose origins lie in Leicester, Leeds and York.

Thu 21 Jun

TRUCKER DIABLO (GASOLINE OUTLAWS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £9 - £11

Two outstanding rock bands team up for this intimate show.

JOHN MCCUSKER AND HEIDI TALBOT

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £16.50 - £45

Two of folk music’s most highly regarded and celebrated musicians are joining forces for the first time as a duo. DALE BARCLAY & LAURA ST. JUDE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, TBC

A couple who work individually and collaborate wonderfully.

NEHH PRESENTS… IDLEWILD (PAWS + MAN OF MOON) SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £23

To celebrate the launch of National Museum of Scotland’s new exhibition Rip It Up, NEHH presents a night of Scottish music. LEITH DEPOT PRESENTS #7

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 19:30, £6

SNAGGLETOOTH (AKA TOMMY CONCRETE & THE WEREWOLVES)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, TBC

BANNERMANS, FROM 15:00, FREE

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

BANNERMANS, FROM 21:00, FREE

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS

Mr Costello reintroduces The Spectacular Spinning Songbook some 25 years on HAYFITZ (JOHN EDGE + CARO BRIDGES)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, TBC

The intimate new solo project of Oh Malô founder, Brandon Hafetz. THE REZILLOS

SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:00, £20

Edinburgh-formed punk/new wave outfit active since 1976, running on high octane, guitar driven, melodic anti-mope rock.

Mon 25 Jun THE SOAPGIRLS

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7 - £10

Controversial duo return with their blend of rock and pop. WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £18

American black metal band formed in 2003 in Olympia, Washington by brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver.

Tue 26 Jun

PRESSURE VALVE UNPLUGGED

BANNERMANS, FROM 17:00, FREE

Local artists play stripped back sets, before the public get to be the stars at karaoke.

Wed 27 Jun DOCTOR VICTOR

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £7 - £10

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £17

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £10

An ex-circus clown and fire eater, Rory McLeod does his one-mansoul-band thing, employing harmonica, spoons and finger cymbals into his mighty mix. As you do.

CRMC CLOTHING SS18 LAUNCH PARTY (GARETH MONTAGUE + DJ OWN DIALECT)

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 12:00, £3 - £5

CRMC Corvid celebrate the launch of their upcoming spring/summer 2018 collection with Edinburghbased DJ and producer Own Dialect.

Sat 23 Jun

SWAMP BORN ASSASSINS (LAST ALIBI)

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:30, FREE

THE WATERBOYS

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 20:00, £37.65 - £42.65

Longstanding Mike Stott-led ensemble, basing their sound on a mix of Celtic folk and rock. KIEFER SUTHERLAND

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £28.50

The man you might know from The Lost Boys and Flatliners has turned his attention to music of late – see the fruits of his efforts.

BONGZILLA (DOPETHRONE + SONS OF OTIS) LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 19:00, £18

Stoner rock and metal kings come to Edinburgh on their UK tour. FOLK NIGHT

LEITH DEPOT, FROM 20:00, £5

Monthly folk night and open session.

Sat 30 Jun

Three band metal Saturday night.

OPEN MIC

Rootsy pop, neo-folk and raw rock from Virginia-raised musician Amelia White.

RORY MCLEOD

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7

Traditional heavy metal three band bill.

Sun 24 Jun

Having opened for the likes of AC/DC, this rock trio are not to be missed.

Edinburgh Blues Club is a Social Enterprise established to harness popular support for regular blues events in Edinburgh to ensure that the city and surrounding areas do not miss out on quality touring blues acts.

Sun 24 Jun

TOLEDO STEEL (SEVEN SISTERS + MIDNIGHT FORCE)

DARKNESS DIVIDE (A RITUAL SPIRIT + FREAKSHOW)

A storming tribute to Motorhead, this time in memory of Fast Eddie Clarke. EDINBURGH BLUES CLUB (ROB TOGNONI + ANDREW ROBERT EUSTACE)

Fri 29 Jun

The Budapest Café Orchestra play traditional folk and gypsy-flavoured music from across the world.

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £42.65 - £52.65

HER NAME IS CALLA

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, TBC

SKILLED EMBRYO (GHOST DANCE COLLECTIVE)

A thrilling force in the international folk music scene; heavily rooted in traditional Irish music, but with hugely diverse backgrounds.

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, £6

Fri 22 Jun

Edinburgh-based four-piece alt-rock-chamber-pop group who are increasingly becoming festival mainstays.

DALLAHAN

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

Musical chameleons with a sense of humour, or so they claim. NOAH NOAH

Sounds like the result of putting Newton Faulkner, José‚ González and OneRepublic in a blender. Make of that what you will.

New York rockers with a sound of old school rock/sleaze make their Edinburgh debut.

Leith Depot’s monthly live night returns. Expect a mighty mixed bag as always.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £13.75

BEN MONTEITH THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £15

AMELIA WHITE

THE VOODOO ROOMS, FROM 19:30, £12

MISCOMMUNICATION + FANTANAS + SCREAMIN’ WHISPER

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 19:00, TBC

Top local up-and-coming band showcase.

Thu 28 Jun NA CRUITHNE

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

Killer folk metal from Galway. BEN HOWARD

THE EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £34.38 - £45.38

Devon-based folk rocker using his guitar to build percussive beats around his melancholic ditties.

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

THROUGH THE DECADES WITH ROY ORBISON AND BUDDY HOLLY

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £18.50 - £19.50

Joint tribute to the two Texas lads by Darren Page and Marc Robinson.

Dundee Music Fri 01 Jun

REV MAGNETIC (STONETHROWER + WINTERTHIEVES)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, £5

Glasgow four-piece combining elements of dream pop, R’n’B, shoegaze and post rock.

Sat 02 Jun CAST

READING ROOMS, FROM 19:00, TBC

The Liverpool Britpoppers return. THE RISING

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Bruce Springsteen tribute act.

Sun 03 Jun

SONG CLUB SHOWCASE: KINNABER JUNCTION

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £3

Montrose singer-songwriter Gary Anderson launches his new album Looking at the Tracks.

Fri 08 Jun AFTERGLOW

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £10

Genesis tribute show.

RETRO VIDEO CLUB (NEIL MORRISON BAND)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £6

Scottish indie at its finest.

Sat 09 Jun NASHVILLE LIVE

DUNDEE REP, FROM 19:30, £9 - £25

Swiss/Canadian troubadour whose music is a fresh take on contemporary folk/pop with a touch of country/hip-hop.

Thu 28 Jun

SPYLAW (WONDERBOY + WASTED SUMMERS)

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £5

Energetic Edinburgh rock band with a brassy twist.

Fri 29 Jun

HELLS BELLS (PITY THE FOO)

FAT SAM’S, FROM 19:30, £10 - £16.50

AC/DC tribute act.

DUNDEE’S ALMOST BLUE FESTIVAL

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 21:30, FREE

All day festival in Dundee across multiple venues.

Sat 30 Jun

DUNDEE’S ALMOST BLUE FESTIVAL (SKINT LIZZY + STRAIGHT SHOOTER + LIEUTENANT STARDUST)

Glasgow Clubs JAMAICA SPECIAL (CAROLINE MURPHY + GEE BALL + JAMAICA SPECIAL DJS) THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £4

All things reggae, dancehall, dub and Jamaican-influenced, with Caroline Murphy and Gee Ball.

Sat 02 Jun LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests. DAMMIT ALL TO HELL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

The best in pop-punk, emo, indie, rock, pop and other shit. BALKANARAMA

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 22:00, £9

All singing, all dancing Balkan orgy, plus belly dancing and free brandy. As in, we’re sold. GLITTERBANG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Disco divas and Euro-pop anthems for those ready to sweat.

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 17:00, FREE

TAKE ME SOMEWHERE STICKY (MYKKI BLANCO + LADY VENDREDI + DYNAMO MOUSE)

DUNDEE’S ALMOST BLUE FESTIVAL

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 20:00, £6 - £10

All day festival in Dundee across multiple venues. CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 14:00, FREE

All day festival in Dundee across multiple venues.

Fri 01 Jun PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. GHOST GIRLS

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Expect the unexpected, your 90s nostalgic dance classics, your 00s R&B and more. DARKSIDE: FAST & FURIOUS

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 21:00, £20

Hardcore, uptempo, Frenchcore and terror in the main room with Darkside, while Infexious take over room two with rawstyle and hardstyle. HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

OG Kush + hip-hop bangers with Notorious B.A.G. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. TRAX

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

DJ Daryl kicks off the first weekend of the month, spinning hip-hop, grunge, trap and dance tunes. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. MUSIC BOX AT BROADCAST

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

An intergalactic Queer performance party. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you. NOVA BATIDA (PROC FISKAL + CASEMENT + BOLAM)

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, £4

Lisbon festival Nova Batida host their Scottish launch party at Broadcast. LEZURE (AURORA HALAL)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

A group of pals renowned for booking some of the most interesting artists, local and international.

SUBCULTURE (BRADLEY ZERO + HARRI & DOMENIC)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests.

Sun 03 Jun NULL / VOID

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, TBC

Industrial goth rock disco. CLIFFHANGER

Nashville Live transports you right into the heart of downtown Nashville, celebrating the atmosphere and energy of an evening in the home of country music.

Taking inspiration from that little Chicago club known as The Music Box, you can expect to hear the very best disco, 80s boogie and classic Chicago house tracks.

A hearty blend of emo, drive-thru, old school and new school pop punk, to see your Sunday through to the stars.

Sun 10 Jun

STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

OUT ON THE FLOOR

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 15:00, £6

Classic Northern Soul and Motown anthems featuring local band The Messarounds.

Sat 16 Jun

PROUD MARY (CAROUSEL)

CHURCH, FROM 19:00, £12

LA-based (by way of Manchester) rock quintet. UK FOO FIGHTERS

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 20:00, £15

DOWALLY

Foo Fighters tribute act.

SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, FROM 20:00, £7.50 - £10

Sat 23 Jun

Folk group fusing Scottish tunes with jazz harmony, Balkan rhythms and deep Americana raucousness, performing with guitar, fiddle and cello.

SONG CLUB SHOWCASE: LINDSAY FERGUSON

WOES (THE HOSTILES)

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 19:30, £7.50

“Lit af” pop punk band.

Old and new fans should not pass up the rare opportunity to catch Michael Hurley in action.

Two killer rock outfits who refuse to be pigeonholed.

June 2018

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

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6

VICE: 90S REPLAY

Expect 90s pop, house, techno, progressive house and trance. LT #5 (NATALIE + MARK)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Musical explorations with resident Ribeka and special guests. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. DABJ (EFEMME)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £8

Next up for the DABJ residential take over is Sheffield-born, Londonbased producer and resident DJ at The Night Kitchen, Efemme. DEGREE SHOW PARTY 2018

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 23:00, £10 - £16

Afterparty to the annual GSA Degree Show Street Party.

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

SESH

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

AFLOAT X STEREOTONE (WHEELMAN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

The two Glasgow club nights join forces.

SUNDAYS AT LA CHEETAH (WARDY & DOM D’SYLVA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, FREE

La Cheetah’s in-house residents’ series of Sunday sessions with a twist on your average club party and some special guests.

Mon 04 Jun BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

BARE MONDAYS

HETEROTOPIA PRESENTS: HEY QT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Queer friendly parties with worldly and otherworldly sounds.

Tue 05 Jun

DJ Sotofett continues his series of Wania parties in the club by inviting Moss sound system originators, Kambo Super Sound.

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

LA CHEETAH MEETS WANIA WITH DJ SOTOFETT (KAMBO SUPER SOUND)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

RETURN TO MONO

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Monthly night from Soma Records, often with special guests. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. QUANTUM THEORY EXPLAINED BY SORBET (SORBET (LIVE) + DJ ANORAQ)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

Live experimental and improvisational music from Sorbet plus records from DJ ANORAQ.

Wed 06 Jun

Sat 09 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

MELTED

Afro-disco screamers. BEAST

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £3

LOVE MUSIC (MAGIC NOSTALGIC)

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests. MONSTER HOSPITAL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Botch meets Beyonce DJ smash. A club night like no other. ANNA & HOLLY’S DANCE PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Rock’n’roll, garage and soul.

SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Thu 07 Jun

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

BUFF CLUB, FROM 19:00, FREE

JELLY BABY (RUBBERMENSCH)

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. DJ NICK(ERS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Highly accessible hits from heaven. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

SONGS YA BASS VIII

Marketed as ‘the club night for people who don’t really go clubbing anymore’, Songs Ya Bass takes in punter-generated requests before finishing at the beauty-sleepfriendly hour of 11pm. CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

ELEMENT

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. FOUNDRY (MURRAY CY)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Foundry residents looking after you all night. Expect fast-paced electro, unrelenting acid, the kicking noise of hardcore and everything in between.

Fri 08 Jun PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. DEATHKILL4000

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Ultra-cutting edge dark electro, hip-hop and post punk. SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals. ABBA DISCO WONDERLAND

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £5 - £12

An extravaganza of soul shaking and body rocking disco classics alongside the greatest hits from the legendary ABBA. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. RUCKUS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Sarah Legatt’s monthly hip-hop, trap and R’n’B night. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

I LOVE GARAGE

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, £9.50

The dynamic young LA-bred quartet has been wiping the jaded looks off audiences across their hometown since making their live debut back in 2016. PUSH IT: BEY-Z

STEREO, FROM 22:00, £4

A celebration of Bey and Jay following their gig at Hampden Park.

ACID FLASH (KIM ANN FOXMAN + IDA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

IDA brings her Aberdeen-originating Acid Flash nights to Glasgow and brings along some pals too. SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. SUPERMAX

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £8

DJ Billy Woods, start to finish, open to close.

LOOSEN UP (CHARLIE MCCANN + FERGUS CLARK + DAVID BARBAROSSA) THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3

Tropical, Afro, disco and fun times with the holy disco party trinity. MK (KC LIGHTS)

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17 - £28

Dance icon Marc Kinchen brings good vibes, eclectic samples and infectious beats.

Sun 10 Jun L7 THEME PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 22:00, FREE

Punk and riot grrrl upstairs.

Listings

SESH

ELEMENT

SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BEAST

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

SUNDAYS AT LA CHEETAH (RIBEKA + SOFAY) LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, FREE

La Cheetah’s in-house residents’ series of Sunday sessions with a twist on your average club party and some special guests.

Mon 11 Jun BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

ELECTRIC SALSA (AISHA + BISSET)

Electric Salsa welcome the Lunacy crew’s very own Aisha to the booth.

Fri 15 Jun PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. SUGO: ITALIAN TRASH DISCO

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Shake what you got to the sound of the best of the worst Italo/Euro trash from the last four decades. THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Exotic dreamy disco.

FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Tue 12 Jun

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

OBSRV MUSIC

Hip-hop, grime and trap. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence. I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

Wed 13 Jun

SMALL TALK W/ DJ ADIDADAS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Happy Meals’ Lewis seduces w/ Eurowave + Vaporbeat. BEAST

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

Thu 14 Jun

JELLY BABY (RUBBERMENSCH)

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. DRUGSTORE GLAMOUR

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

The Queens of the Glasgow disco scene. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. PARTIAL (CONCRETE CABIN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Promoting nights to dance at between Glasgow and Edinburgh, est. 2014.

THUNDER DISCO (ROSS FROM FRIENDS (LIVE) + HAMMER + JUBÉ)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £10

The Thunder Disco Club residents churn out the 90s house, techno and disco hits, as is their merry way. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue. FUSE (A.G + AMZ + KAMI-O + PLANTAINCHIPPS + LO KINDRE + EVIL MEDVÊD + SHREK)

THE ART SCHOOL, FROM 21:00, £5 - £8

A jam-packed line-up of DJs roll in for the latest edition of Fuse. PARIS SPECIAL (REBECCA VASMANT)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £5

Jazz and more from Rebecca Vasmant and special guests.

Sat 16 Jun LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, FREE

The Danse Macabre regulars unite those two happiest of bedfellows – er, that’d be goth rock and classic disco. VOIGHT-KAMPFF PRESENTS: MYLER

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

The South London Analogue Material man drops in to spin some intensely energetic industrial techno. SUBCULTURE (ROMAN FLÜGEL)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. MOJO WORKIN (FELONIOUS MUNK)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £2

60s R’n’B, Northern Soul, motown and more.

Sun 17 Jun CLIFFHANGER

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

A hearty blend of emo, drive-thru, old school and new school pop punk, to see your Sunday through to the stars. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

SUNDAYS AT LA CHEETAH (BAKE)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, FREE

Thu 21 Jun

JELLY BABY (RUBBERMENSCH)

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer. PRAY 4 LOVE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

All love songs + all bangers. HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. PALA (FENIX)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Pala invite good friends Fenix to the La Cheetah basement.

HEADSET (WISDOM TEETH + FACTA + K-LONE) SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in.

Fri 22 Jun PROPAGANDA

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. DATE NIGHT

Scotland’s biggest dedication night is hitting SWG3 again for it’s famous Yeezy party, playing the best of Pablo but with his friends along for the ride. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no? BUCKFAST SUPERNOVA

Marble Gods will be living their best lives playing indie-pop gems, R&B smashes, sweet disco beats and the gr8est pop songs of all time ever. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

I AM

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow. BENZTEKISTAN X REFUGEE FESTIVAL SCOTLAND

FLAT 0/1, FROM 22:00, FREE

Benztekistan is the only club night in Glasgow where Middle Eastinfused bass music is played along with South African Gqom and Rap.

Wed 20 Jun DON’T BE GUTTED

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Nefarious beats for dangerous times.

FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore. MOONLIGHT 002: FEAR-E (LISALÖÖF) STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

Moonlight bring along Clydebank’s rave overlord Fear-E. RAD25 (CHERRIE FLAVA)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Rubadub continue their 25th birthday celebrations, with Nicole, aka Cherrie Flava, who manages LAPS and runs MIC. I AM (SPECIAL REQUEST)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs. I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £6 - £10

A night of classics from the original Glasgow underground club night. MILLION DOLLAR DISCO (AL KENT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £8

Al Kent’s disco love affair with Manchester was born in dark, balloon filled rooms in the city a decade ago; go and sweat it out in the Soup Kitchen basement for four very special hours of twisted disco. SUBCULTURE

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. CHEZ DAMIER (ALL NIGHT LONG)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £10 - £12

VESSELS THEME PARTY

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

Ahoy there mateys, grab yrself some mathcore. SLIDE IT IN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, TBC

Classic rock through the ages from DJ Nicola Walker. SESH

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Twister, beer pong and DJ Ciar McKinley on the ones and twos, serving up chart and remixes through the night.

Mon 25 Jun BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats. BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

SHED, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Tue 26 Jun

MIND YER SELF (URULU)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

MYS bring in California-hailing DJ and producer Urulu to warm up the club with his pensive chords and inventive rhythms. VIXEN SOUND SUMMER SKANK (VIXEN SOUND + FLEW THE ARROW + MC BEE) THE RUM SHACK, FROM 21:00, £3

Reggae, dub and dancehall.

FREAK LIKE ME

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Soul, hip-hop and funk. BEAST

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong. WRAP-IT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Strictly house grooves from Edinburgh house DJ don Gareth Sommerville.

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow. Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

Wed 27 Jun

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

FRIDAY NIGHTS

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow.

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits.

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

I AM SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Sun 24 Jun

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Listings

A collective of music lovers dedicated to bringing beautiful sounds to some of Glasgow’s best venues.

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £6

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits.

BURN MONDAYS

#TAG TUESDAYS

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £0 - £5

MAKE KANYE GREAT AGAIN: A CELEBRATION OF YEEZY & FRIENDS

Mon 18 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:00, FREE

Beans + Divine explore the hits on 7” vinyl.

ALGORHYTHM (KEO + ERNESTO HARMON + ADAM ZARECKI)

SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

The Berkeley Suite present a rather special guest slot from house music don, Chez Damier.

FANTASTIC MAN

SINGLES NIGHT

DJ Craig cures your Wednesday woes at The Garage.

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

A mixtape of love, lust and nostalgia.

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Incoherent madness for those with a death wish. The worst club night in the world.

WRAP-IT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

LOVE MUSIC

La Cheetah’s in-house residents’ series of Sunday sessions with a twist on your average club party and some special guests.

Tue 19 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

DJ Jonny soundtracks your Wednesday with all the best in pop-punk, metalcore, house & EDM and there’s even beer pong.

Sat 23 Jun

ONLY THE SUBJECT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

New wave of underground Glasgow DJ talent. KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic Tuesday nighter playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

MINDSET (DIEGO KRAUSE)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Thu 28 Jun

GONZO PRESENTS: FUGAZI – IN ON THE KILL TAKER 25TH ANNIVERSARY BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Members of Slowlight, Scalp, No Island and Undo team up to perform Fugazi’s classic album in its entirety.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

JELLY BABY (RUBBERMENSCH)

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

BREAKFAST CLUB

FANTASTIC WOMEN

Gerry Lyons delivers 80s and 90s pop and rock hits.

No pleasures are guilty.

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £10 - £16.80

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop. UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up. ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey. SILVER DOLLAR CLUB (LIONOIL INDUSTRIES)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

CHARLOTTE DE WITTE (FRAZIER + IDA + TIM HAUX)

Belgian DJ and producer Charlotte de Witte heads up this massive show.

THE FIESTA X FOLD AFTER PARTY (CANDI STATON + FELIX DA HOUSECAT)

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £18 - £23

The Fiesta presents a spectacular live show from the first lady of disco, Candi Staton. SATURDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock, Alex O and John Ross spin a Saturday-ready selection of Northern soul and 60s and 70s hits. MISBEHAVIN

CATHOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

SDC invite two Edinburgh heavy hitters to the club for an East Coast takeover.

Retro-pop, alt, dance and electro from DJ Drewbear.

Fri 29 Jun

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

PROPAGANDA (WE LOVE POP)

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £4

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. SHAKE APPEAL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Six decades of rock’n’roll under one roof, hosted by the ultimate DJ trivium. HOTLINE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Brand smashin’ new cloob, ‘run by women, for everyone’. R’n’B, disco, funk and dancing. FRIDAYS AT THE BUFF CLUB

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

A selection of funk and soul and 60s and 70s hits. CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, FROM 22:30, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style. FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

STEREO REVOLVER (TIM BURGESS DJ SET)

I LOVE GARAGE

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £6 - £8

An eclectic mash-up of cuttingedge classic indie, retro and electro tracks for your dancing pleasure. CRAIGIE KNOWES

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Techno set from John Heckle’s alias ‘Head Front Panel’. SUBCULTURE (STEFFI)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic, oft’ joined by a carousel of super fresh guests. NEVER BEEN KISSED (MILK GLASGOW)

THE RUM SHACK, FROM 20:00, £5

A 90s/00s anti-prom party with a Never Been Kissed movie screening. Expect nostalgia-infused pop hits of yesteryear set to a music video time machine, PLUS prom photos, inflatable chair thrones, agony aunt wall and a LOT of glitter.

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £8.80 - £11

An eclectic mash-up of cuttingedge classic indie, retro and electro tracks for your dancing pleasure. EZUP (KRYSTAL KLEAR)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

Expect all things boogie, house and disco as the enigmatic Irishman joins the Ezup crew for his first foray into the La Cheetah booth. FRIDAY NIGHTS

SHED, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

Sat 30 Jun LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, FROM 23:00, £5

Fri 01 Jun

HEADSET (HODGE + KOWTON)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

WITNESS PRESENTS JAMZ SUPERNOVA (ROSS + FAULT LINES) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £8

As one of the leading next generation DJs in the UK, Jamz Supernova has passion for her craft in abundance. BALKANARAMA

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

All singing, all dancing Balkan orgy, plus belly dancing and free brandy. As in, we’re sold.

GROOVERS (SESENTAYUNO + OSCAR JAMES + DJ VOID + LIZ LOUISE) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Groovers nights are all about the music, focusing purely upon the tastiest groove-infused underground house music. RIVIERA PARAISO (MONTALTO + GLOBETROTTER + DRIBBLER)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Join resident Montalto and Lindsey (Supermodel / 50% PURE) as they explore avant-techno experiments.

Sat 02 Jun SOULSVILLE: HOBBES

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Hobbes Music label boss, Hobbes digs deep into his collection for this set. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. FIRECRACKER PRESENTS: HEAL YOURSELF & MOVE (HOUSE OF TRAPS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

A far-out workout with Edinburgh label Firecracker Recordings’ mystical chief cook and bottlewasher, House of Traps.

GET LOOSE: THE CORAL DJ SET WITH NICK POWER

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Special edition of Get Loose with The Coral’s Nick Power playing soul, psych and garage gold.

CTRL Z (RENYARD + GRIEZMANN + SEPTIK)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

A night of grime and drum ‘n’ bass on the top floor.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN (SAMEDIA + ASTROJAZZ)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

As always, Samedia play music spanning Afrobeat, Latin, kuduru, dancehall, samba, soca, cumbia and beyond. HEADS UP

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Powered by the Womp and Stomp sound system, Heads Up brings you a night of drum and bass stompers from start to finish. HIDDEN DOOR 2018: NEIL LANDSTRUMM & NIGHTWAVE

OLD LEITH THEATRE, FROM 23:30, £8 - £10

The final late-nighter at Hidden Door Festival 2018 finishes with a flurry of sets from the brains behind some of the most acclaimed techno and electronic nights in Scotland.

Sun 03 Jun SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

THE SKINNY

Edinburgh Clubs PROC FISKAL: HYPERDUB ALBUM LAUNCH (SKILLIS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, TBC

New Hyperdub signing Proc Fiskal launches his new album in his hometown, with support from Headset’s Skillis.

Tue 12 Jun MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)

PROPAGANDA

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 04 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. DOWN THE GARDEN PATH II

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Make your way Down The Garden Path to sounds inspired by the likes of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor and William Onyeabor.

Tue 05 Jun MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

SOUL JAM: CORNFORD (PERCY MAIN + TUESDAY GONZALEZ) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Jake Cornford of Cardiff’s finest house and disco crew Rotary Club join the Soul Jam gang.

Wed 06 Jun WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: THE MIRROR DANCE (PADDY D + TAISCE + C-SHAMAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

The Mirror Dance duo return to Heaters to kick off a summer of parties.

Thu 07 Jun

UNDERGROUND SOCIETY X: TWEAK_ IN THE HOUSE PRE-PARTY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 22:00, £3 - £4

Pre-party for Tweak_ in the House, Tweak_’s third birthday celebrations at Kippilaw House on 9 June. HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll. JUICE (AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.

Fri 08 Jun

ANYTHING GOES FUNTASTIC

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Residents Wonksie and Dru Oid will both bring surprises to keep you on your feet, along with the up-andcoming Cheshire Catt. SUBSTANCE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Described by Resident Advisor as “one of Edinburgh’s most important outposts for house, techno and bass”, Substance brings a wide-ranging collage of classic and cutting edge underground electronic music to the Bongo. FLIP

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. HOT MESS (SIMON EILBECK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Hot Mess is a hot and messy queer rave. Non-stop bangers and mash, selected and sequenced with love by Simonotron. TONTO TECHNO: DE SANTO (DE SANTO)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Rising Glaswegian Techno Producer De Santo brings his Ibiza sound to Edinburgh. HOTLINE DJ TAKEOVER

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

The resident DJs from auspicious LGBT night Hotline will be taking over the decks at Palms.

Sat 09 Jun MESSENGER

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger Sound System. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. TEMPTATION

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £5

Edinburgh’s finest LGBT+ club night, playing the best synth-pop, electro-pop and Hi-NRG from the 80s to the present day. Nothing is too cheesy, nothing is too camp, nothing is too queer.

TEESH: ALL YOU CAN EAT MIND BUFFET (COOLANT BOWSER + DJ CHEERS) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

The Pickle Factory resident, Coolant Bowser returns to Teesh after hosting the Simian Mobile Disco album launch. THE UNCONSCIOUS COLLECTIVE (DARI J + MATTHEW ORRELL) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Another night of upfront, forward thinking dance music. OTHER THUMPERS (DONALD DUST + DIANA MCNALLY)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Enter Planet Dust. Italo heat and proto house from a man clad in studded leather.

Sun 10 Jun SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion. BFLF WITH DJ MARK ARCHER: HAWAIIAN LUAU

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 14:00, £6 - £8

Family fun for the post-rave generation of parents. Helping parents be responsibly irresponsible since 2013.

Mon 11 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 13 Jun WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: LEZURE (C-SHAMAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

Heaters invite hot Glasgow/Edinburgh crew along for an overdue return to Sneaks.

Thu 14 Jun HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll. JUICE (AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

FIRST EDITION

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £10

Techno night from Glasgow and Edinburgh crews on the first floor of Mash House.

PMSC: NICK STEWART (PERCY MAIN)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Lord Mayor of Sneakytown, the right honourable Nick Stewart joins Percy Main for a roof down musical road trip in the Paradise Palms Cadillac.

Sun 17 Jun SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 18 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room. LOOSE THREAD

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Loose Thread return for round two, a new party dedicated to bringing local DJs playing finely selected techno, breaks and other percussive explorations.

Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.

Tue 19 Jun

Fri 15 Jun

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £6

Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. BIGFOOT’S TEA PARTY: SAVE LEITH WALK

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Sub Club residents Bigfoot’s use this date to fundraise for the Save Leith Walk campaign.

OVERGROUND (WRISK + TRISTAM)

MIDNIGHT BASS

Pimpses Asha and Sweethardt Dowt, two thirds of local femme rap group The Honey Farm, will be descending upon Palms.

Sat 23 Jun

MUMBO JUMBO W/ THE GOGO

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo gang and new room two residents The GoGo. TORTURE GARDEN

THE CAVES, FROM 21:00, £21

Infamous fetish club spread over three dungeon-themed playrooms. Dress code: all the PVC you can slither into. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. DEFINITION (MARK BALNEAVES + MARTIN LIGHTBODY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Sneaky Pete’s longest running club night, with over 10 years of parties, almost all of which were soundtracked solely by the residents.

SUPER HANS BIG BEAT MANIFESTO LIVE

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £13 - £15

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 20 Jun WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: ANDREA MONTALTO (C-SHAMAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

Everyone’s favourite Sicilian export, Andrea Montalto joins Heaters with a bag of bargain bin belters.

Thu 21 Jun HI-FI REBEL

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

JUICE (AMI K + DAN)

PALIDRONE X HILLTOWN DISCO: SYNC 24

Palidrone team up with Dundeebased Hilltown Disco to present Sync 24, a huge figurehead of UK electro. TEMPLE OF DISCO

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday. COALITION (BELIEVE + FRIENDS)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, FREE

Believe presents the best in bass DJs from Edinburgh at his weekly Sunday communion.

Mon 25 Jun

Fri 22 Jun

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

MIXED UP

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

BUBBLEGUM

Continuing a new monthly residency at Sneaks, the Miss World ladies always bring the right vibes.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Tue 26 Jun

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

WASABI DISCO WITH FETT BURGER (KRIS WASABI) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Norway’s bizarro disco dude returns for a rare UK show repping his Sex Tags label. DECADE (QWEEN ROISIN + KELBOI )

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £5

Edinburgh’s funnest alt party.

THE LIBRARY (LUCKYBABE + MISS MIXTAPE) THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Channeling and celebrating the underground world of 1990s queer NYC. HEADSET

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £1

Skillis and friends playing garage, techno, house and bass, with special guests often joining in.

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5 - £12

FLIP

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect. PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

LOSTOSC NIGHTS: SEVEN DAVIS JR (TREMBLER + PASSMORE) SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Ninja Tune heavyweight Seven Davis Jr brings his soulful live/DJ hybrid to the launch of Edinburgh recording studio Lost Oscillation’s new after-hours imprint. PINNACLE & FRIENDS (ACID BUDDHA + MIKO)

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

June 2018

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

Pinnacle return for another party.

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

13-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, £9 - £18

Fri 15 Jun

1-2 JUN, TIMES VARY, £5 - £13.50

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll. JUICE (AMI K + DAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.

Fri 29 Jun RHYTHM MACHINE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6

Rhythm Machine makes a move to Bongo, and they’re bringing the whole family along. FLIP

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

MISS WORLD

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £2

MIDNIGHT BASS

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £4

Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage. TRASH

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

Wed 27 Jun WICKED WEDNESDAYS

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

All new, all fun, all cheese club night.

HEATERS: CREME FRESH (C-SHAMAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £0 - £3

BOOK CLUB PRESENTS

Is Kill and Marc JD spin all genres of disco, house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy. NON STOP

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

Dicky Trisco and Ben Rothes get you dancing to the very best soundtrack possible.

Sat 16 Jun JUTE CITY JAM

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

LEGALLY BLONDE

All-singing, all-dancing musical adaptation of the hit movie featuring teen queen Elle and her trusty chihuahua, Bruiser. THE ANGRY BRIGADE

Performance by final year students of RCS. WIDOWS

5-6 JUN, TIMES VARY, £12

A political story set in a Chilean village where all of the men have disappeared and the women unite in protest against a corrupt regime.

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

Resident pushers Max Galloway & Ronan Baxter will be in control for the evening’s dance.

Drygate Brewing Co.

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Fri 22 Jun

7-7 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

PROPAGANDA

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like. EH-FM LAUNCH PARTY (ANDREA MONTALTO + PERCY MAIN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

Brand new Edinburgh community radio station EH-FM celebrates the official launch of the broadcast with two of its founders.

ALL GOOD

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

All Good return to the Reading Rooms.

Sat 23 Jun LOCARNO

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

The Locarno boys, Red & Steven, Reuben and Max will once again bring their alternative slice of 50s & 60s (and a little 70s) music to the Small Town Club.

NIKNAK

Fri 29 Jun

EVOLVE (CHRIS CARLYLE + JOE WILSON)

House and techno.

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

NikNak are back with B2B bangers and 2018 startovers. Let's start afresh with fresh tracks and new leaf blowers.

Sat 30 Jun SOULSVILLE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Residents Cameron Mason and Calum Evans spin the finest cuts of deep funk, Latin rhythms and rare groove into the early hours. BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, FROM 21:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure. RIDE (LOW REN + YUNG CHEX)

SNEAKY PETE’S, FROM 23:00, £5

An uplifting journey filled with funk, soul, disco and Motown classics.

SUNDAY CLUB

System Sound label boss and events curator, Vivek heads up this dubstep special.

Brand smashin’ new cloob, ‘run by women, for everyone’. R’n’B, disco, funk and dancing.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

Sun 24 Jun

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

HOTLINE

Citizens Theatre

00’s R’n’B. Y’all gon make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here.

SOUND SYSTEM LEGACIES: XL DUBSTEP SPECIAL (VIVEK + FACTA + K-LONE + MESSENGER SOUND SYSTEM)

Sat 16 Jun

Sat 09 Jun

HI-FI REBEL

Join Gary Mac and Barnes for an evening of unbridled praise to all sounds disco.

Dan & Ami K make weird waves through house and techno.

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, £0 - £4

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

THE HIVE, FROM 22:00, FREE

TRASH

Your weekly dose of indie rock’n’roll.

Crème Fresh return to Palms with a bag full of records and intention set to good times.

HONEY FARM TAKE OVER (PIMPSES ASH + SWEETHARDT STOUT)

The Peep Show hero, the one and only Super Hans, goes on a music tour. Expect things to get weird.

CREME FRESH

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Skoop is an Edinburgh-based collective focused around experimental hip-hop and electronic music in all shapes and sizes.

Brand new weekly Bongo night by Electrikal Sound System, dishing out drum and bass, jungle, bassline, grime and garage.

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5

Lo-fi raw house and techno.

SKOOP

Thu 28 Jun

THE EDINBURGH SOUL TRAIN

ROOMS RESIDENTS

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 23:00, £5 - £7

Slamming techno with resident Darrell Harding. FINITRIBE (DAVIE MILLAR)

PARADISE PALMS, FROM 21:00, FREE

Finitribe return for their monthly residency at Palms, known for booking legends such as Justin Robertson, Timothy ‘Heretic’ Clerkin and Jon Pleased Wimmin.

Kinning Park Complex

WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM?

22 JUN, 6:00PM, FREE

Where are you really from? explores identity, culture, labels and stories of migration.

The Glad Cafe DETENTION DIALOGUES

19 JUN, 7:30PM, FREE

Detention Dialogues is a verbatim script which reflects the experiences of people whose lives have been affected by Immigration Detention in Scotland.

Sat 30 Jun

4 JUN, 1:00PM, £10 - £14

BASSHUNTER

CHURCH, FROM 23:00, £8 - £12

Cruddy hell! Basshunter! The Swedish auto-tune and bass addict twiddles some knobs for a couple of hours while everyone waits for him to drop his 2007 smash hits All I Ever Wanted and Now You’re Gone. BOOK CLUB

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

The Good Stuff DJs spin all genres of disco house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy.

Glasgow Theatre CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art CRYPTIC: STRATA

7 JUN, 8:00PM, £5 - £8

An immersive live performance for improvised cello, hydrophone and electronic vocals. TOTAL LEATHERETTE: MY BOSS

Dundee Clubs

Inspired by interviews and life experiences, Shattered deals with the universal themes of grief, loss and isolation.

A selection of Reading Rooms residents hold the fort for the evening, playing good vibe tunes all night long.

LA BELLE ANGELE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

PULSE (DARRELL HARDING + SEAN LAIRD)

SHATTERED

13 JUN, 12:00PM, FREE

Total Leatherette will use Linda Di Franco’s Ibiza classic My Boss as a point of reference for an eight hour long performance.

MINI MUSICAL: THE THINKERY

Inspired by Aristophanes’ The Clouds, this new musical follows Strepsiades and Pheidippides as they attempt to clear their debts. MINI MUSICAL: MELANIA

11 JUN, 1:00PM, £10 - £14

It’s a long way from the Eastern Bloc to the East Wing, and for one former glamour model turned FLOTUS it hasn’t been a happy journey. MINI MUSICAL: THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

18 JUN, 1:00PM, £10 - £14

Are you one of the 61% of people who confess to being addicted to their machines? There is one detox retreat out there guaranteed to cure you of your digital addiction – but at what cost? MINI MUSCIAL: CRANHILL CARMEN

25 JUN, 1:00PM, £10 - £14

The story of Carmen McGurn, a tobacco factory worker. She meets two men late at night on her way home from a bender. Who will she choose and who will destroy her?

The King’s Theatre 20TH CENTURY BOY

4-6 JUN, TIMES VARY, £16.90 - £40.40

Musical inspired by the life of Marc Bolan, with music and lyrics by the man himself, taking audiences on a touching journey through his myriad experiences

Fri 01 Jun ROOMS RESIDENTS

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

A selection of Reading Rooms residents hold the fort for the evening, playing good vibe tunes all night long.

Sat 02 Jun MUSIC IS THE ANSWER

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 21:00, FREE

A brand new clubbing experience, showcasing the best in house, deep house, progressive house and techno.

Fri 08 Jun ALL GOOD

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:00, TBC

All Good return to the Reading Rooms.

Mash House superstars and Sundancin day party curators join in for a Wednesday shakedown.

Listings

Theatre TITANIC THE MUSICAL 1-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Musical based on real people aboard the most legendary ship in the world, the Titanic. MATTHEW BOURNE’S CINDERELLA

5-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Matthew Bourne’s interpretation of the classic fairy tale has, at its heart, a true war-time romance.

THE BAND: TAKE THAT’S NEW MUSICAL

26 JUN-7 JUL, TIMES VARY, £19.50 - £53.40

For five 16 year old girls in 1992, the band is everything. 25 years on, we are reunited with this group of friends as they try once more to fulfil their dream of meeting their heroes.

Theatre Royal BIRDSONG

1-2 JUN, TIMES VARY, £14.90 - £37.90

Sebastian Faulks’ story of love, courage and sacrifice during wartime is brought to the stage in a new adaptation marking the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI. NIGHTS ON BROADWAY

24 JUN, 7:30PM, £21.90 - £25.90

A musical retelling of some of Manchester’s favourite disco-loving sons, the Bee Gees. THE LAST SHIP

12-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Led by a brilliant ensemble cast, this show features a moving and heartfelt story of love, life and hope. LOVE FROM A STRANGER

5-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A brand new production of the Agatha Christie novel, which sees Cecily Harrington caught up in a whirlwind romance but all is not as it seems.

Edinburgh Theatre Festival Theatre MATTHEW BOURNE’S CINDERELLA

5-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Matthew Bourne’s interpretation of the classic fairy tale has, at its heart, a true war-time romance. THE LAST SHIP

12-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Led by a brilliant ensemble cast, this show features a moving and heartfelt story of love, life and hope.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FINAL CURTAIN

1-2 JUN, TIMES VARY, £19 - £32.50

Chilling, gripping and filled with unforeseen twists and revelations, this new thriller reunites the dream team of Robert Powell and Liza Goddard. LOVE FROM A STRANGER

5-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A brand new production of the Agatha Christie novel, which sees Cecily Harrington caught up in a whirlwind romance but all is not as it seems.

Old Leith Theatre HIDDEN DOOR 2018

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, £10 - £300

Tramway

The renovators and curators at Hidden Door return for another ma-hoosive programme of crossplatform entertainment at the Old Leith Theatre and State Cinema.

1 JUN, 7:30PM, £10 - £14

Royal Lyceum Theatre

LAST YEARZ INTERESTING NEGRO: I RIDE IN COLOUR AND SOFT FOCUS, NO LONGER ANYWHERE

Last Yearz Interesting Negro is the solo project of Jamila Johnson-Small, who makes work with ‘in-between spaces’ – things that exist within cracks in time/ memory/attention.

BALLET BLACK: THE SUIT / A DREAM WITHIN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

6-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Ballet Black celebrates dancers of black and Asian descent, showcasing technique, precision and grace in specially commissioned pieces, and this is their latest double bill. ROSANNA IRVINE: BREATH PIECES

23 JUN, 7:30PM, £8 - £12

Breath Pieces – part performance, part installation – comprises multiple components intermingling in an immersive experience of the breathing breath.

Tron Theatre ACTION REACTION

7-9 JUN, 7:30PM, £8

A dystopian tale set in the year 2099, presented by Youth Theatre Juniors. STORY RECYCLERS

16-17 JUN, TIMES VARY, £5

After a new law is passed that all types of recyclable material in the UK must be recycled, a group of young people band together to save the books, the library and the day. PRIDE & PREJUDICE* (*SORT OF)

28 JUN-14 JUL, TIMES VARY, £9 - £17

Men, money and microphones will be fought over in this irreverent, all-female adaptation of Jane Austen’s unrivalled literary classic.

Webster’s Theatre

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME

18 JUN, 7:00PM, £5 - £10

Ignite Theatre presents a double bill of new plays: And Still I Rise, inspired by the Maya Angelou poem, and Don’t You Forget About Me.

THE HOUR WE KNEW NOTHING OF EACH OTHER

1-2 JUN, TIMES VARY, £13 - £15

This production gives the simple pleasure of people-watching a vibrant dramatic life, as the audience weave a narrative out of the everyday scenes of a city.

Summerhall

ANATOMY #18: VAUDEVILLE VALUE BASICS

29 JUN, 8:00PM, £7

ANATOMY is a quarterly live art cabaret featuring work in dance, sound, costume, movement, spoken word, film and more from across the UK.

The Edinburgh Playhouse WICKED

1-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, £22.50 - £91.50

The captivating and oft-sold out musical, telling the story of how the two witches of Oz came to be known as good and bad, told through song ‘n’ that. SUMMER HOLIDAY

19-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, £14 - £64

Bizarre but heartwarming musical about Cliff Richard and his buds going on a summer holiday (via bus). TITANIC THE MUSICAL

1-16 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Musical based on real people aboard the most legendary ship in the world, the Titanic.

Dundee Theatre Dundee Rep ON OUR WAY TO LISBON

7 JUN, 7:30PM, £9 - £16

Two fans recreate the epic campaign that led to Glasgow Celtic’s 1967 European Cup win. THE 39 STEPS

5-20 JUN, 7:00PM, £5

John Buchan’s exhilarating novel, famously adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, will transport you once again in this new live performance of a period radio play. GIRLS NIGHT OOT!

23 JUN, 7:30PM, £10 - £16

Sequel to feel-good production I Will Survive, featuring songs from the 60s right through to modern hits. Frothy as it comes.

BALLET BLACK: THE SUIT / A DREAM WITHIN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

6-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Ballet Black celebrates dancers of black and Asian descent, showcasing technique, precision and grace in specially commissioned pieces, and this is their latest double bill. SWEET VENUES LATES – 3000 TREES: THE DEATH OF MR WILLIAM MACRAE

22 JUN, 9:30PM, TBC

Now in its third year of touring, this is a moving and thought-provoking play, offering a reminder of dark political times that resonates today. DUNDEE REP YOUTH THEATRE DOUBLE BILL

28-29 JUN, TIMES VARY, £7 - £10

Double bill of The Love of a Nightingale and The Ash Girl, presented by the Youth Theatre.

The Gardyne Theatre TOTALLY TINA

1 JUN, 7:30PM, £22

An internationally acclaimed, award-winning tribute show to the ‘Queen of Rock’, Tina Turner. BEATLEMANIA

30 JUN, 7:30PM, £22

The story of The Beatles, recreating the legendary live performances of The Beatles from their early ‘moptop’ roots, through the psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper then on to the final years of Abbey Road and Let It Be. ELVIS IN VEGAS

7 JUN, 7:30PM, £22

A professionally produced stage show celebrating the Vegas Years of Elvis Presley.

HIGH SCHOOL OF DUNDEE PRESENTS FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

20-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, £16

Following their sell-out production of Les Miserables in 2016, senior pupils from The High School of Dundee present their latest production, Fiddler On The Roof.

Whitehall Theatre KING OF POP

3 JUN, 7:30PM, £19

King Of Pop is led by the world’s number one Michael Jackson tribute artist Navi, the only tribute artist ever to be chosen by Michael Jackson himself. ANNIE KIDS & LEGALLY BLONDE JR

23-24 JUN, TIMES VARY, £13.50 - £15.50

Stage Academy Theatre School present adaptations of two musicals, Annie and Legally Blonde.

Traverse Theatre THE DARKNESS OR ELSE THE LIGHT

8-9 JUN, 7:30PM, £6 - £12

An anonymous hack – an act of sabotage or revenge – kicks off a chain of events that changes the whole of society. THE MISS ANNABEL SINGS SHOW: PRIDE MARCH

15-16 JUN, 8:00PM, £6 - £12

Edinburgh’s finest purveyors of show-stopping weirdo cabaret present a very special dose of anarchic entertainment in celebration of LGBT Pride.

Glasgow Comedy Fri 01 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARK NELSON + SCOTT AGNEW + CATHERINE BOHART + STEPHEN HALKETT + SCOTT GIBSON) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Listings

Comedy THE EARLY SHOW

DOUG STANHOPE

Comedian’s Comedian podcast host and ‘expert stand-up’ brings his best ever show.

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £39

Thu 14 Jun

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Sat 02 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARK NELSON + SCOTT AGNEW + CATHERINE BOHART + STEPHEN HALKETT + SCOTT GIBSON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Sun 03 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICKY BARTLETT + CUBBY + RACHEL MURPHY) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out. YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School. OXIDE GHOSTS: THE BRASS EYE TAPES

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 13:30, £10 - £12

Made from hundreds of hours of unseen material from his personal archive, director Michael Cumming’s film shares insights into the process of making Brass Eye.

Mon 04 Jun

MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV (BILLY KIRKWOOD + STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Hold on tight for this fast, frantic unpredictable showdown of improvised comedy games where the same game is never played twice. KOMEDY

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £0 - £3

From the people who brought you CHUNKS, comes a night of actual komedy.

Tue 05 Jun

RED RAW (MARC JENNINGS + TERRY ALDERTON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material. GLASGOW HAROLD NIGHT

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, FREE

One hilarious show, completely improvised by two teams, based off an audience suggestion. Improv comedy at its finest.

Wed 06 Jun

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES (NEIL THE WEE MAN BRATCHPIECE)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £4 - £6

Comedy and rap collide.

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Expect more in the way of brutal comedy rants about the stupidity of our social and political systems, courtesy of Mr Stanhope. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit. SARAH MILLICAN: CONTROL ENTHUSIAST

SEC, FROM 18:30, £30

Sarah Millican is not a control freak, she’s a control enthusiast. She even controls her own insults, see?

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 08 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + LARRY DEAN + BIG MENTAL ROSS + JOJO SMITH)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 15 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (KEITH FARNAN + SIMON DONALD + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

THE EARLY SHOW

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

MICHAEL MCINTYRE’S BIG WORLD TOUR 2018 - PLATINUM SEATING

THE EARLY SHOW

The floppy-haired, overly-enthusiastic comedian returns. Probably filming this for a Christmas DVD.

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 20:00, FREE

Writer of the long running hit topical radio show Watson’s Wind Up, Rikki Brown presents a fresh take on the news and those making the news.

BENEFIT IN AID OF GLASGOW CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHARITY (SUSIE MCCABE + RAYMOND MEARNS + JIM SMITH + JAMIE MACDONALD) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £10

Join some of Scotland’s finest comedians to help raise money for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

Thu 21 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + RAY BRADSHAW + CHRISTOPHER KC + MANDY KNIGHT)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 22 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + RAY BRADSHAW + CHRISTOPHER KC + MANDY KNIGHT) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Sat 16 Jun

SEC, FROM 18:30, £30

The big weekend show with five comedians.

Sun 10 Jun

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

The big weekend show with five comedians.

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

MICHAEL MCINTYRE’S BIG WORLD TOUR 2018 - PLATINUM SEATING

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 20:00, £10

SARAH MILLICAN: CONTROL ENTHUSIAST

Sarah Millican is not a control freak, she’s a control enthusiast. She even controls her own insults, see? MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out. GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 15:00, £4

Let the comedians entertain the kids. Best suited to 8-12 year olds. DANNY BHOY

THEATRE ROYAL, FROM 19:30, £21.65

The Scottish comedian drops in with a new set of rib ticklers.

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School. GLENN WOOL: VIVA FOREVER

THE SATURDAY SHOW (KEITH FARNAN + SIMON DONALD + RAYMOND MEARNS)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

THE EARLY SHOW

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 20:00, FREE

The floppy-haired, overly-enthusiastic comedian returns. Probably filming this for a Christmas DVD.

Sun 17 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (ASHLEY STORRIE + JORDANA WISTUBA)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

BRIGHT CLUB

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5

Tue 12 Jun THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material. JOE LYCETT

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Charming and fresh faced young thing, Joe Lycett brings the jokes. LIGHT BULB

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, FROM 20:00, FREE

An alternative comedy showcase and brand new night of stand up comedy.

Wed 13 Jun

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

JOHN LYNN: ADDICTION DICTION

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £5 - £6

John Lynn has many addictions in his life, and some of them he likes. WITSHERFACE: WIT NOO?!

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50

THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

CROSSMYLAFF COMEDY

An evening of stand-up comedy featuring a hand-picked selection of local up and coming comics. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Sun 24 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School. ALISON SPITTLE: WORRIER PRINCESS

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5

Mon 18 Jun

Alison got her own TV show in Ireland. She thought all her problems would melt away. Turns out she was wrong.

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £7 - £8

Mon 25 Jun

Witsherface return with a brand new show packed full of laughs. LEE KYLE: FOLLY

At the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, Lee Kyle got a really nice review. The bit that stuck in his mind was that “It would be good to see him find more of his audience.” WITSHERFACE: WIT NOO?!

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Witsherface return with a brand new show packed full of laughs.

JARLATH REGAN: ORGAN FREEMAN

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 29 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + PAUL THORNE + CUBBY + ASHLEY STORRIE)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Sat 30 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + PAUL THORNE + CUBBY + ASHLEY STORRIE) THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. THE LATE SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 22:15, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit. THE EARLY SHOW

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

Edinburgh Comedy Fri 01 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (JANEY GODLEY + MICKY BARTLETT + PAUL F TAYLOR + BILLY BIRKWOOD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

BEARFOOT COMEDY CLUB (MICHAEL REDMOND + ROSS LESLIE + BOB GRAHAM + SUSAN RIDDELL + CHRIS ISKANDER)

THE MERLIN, FROM 19:30, £10

Bearfoot Comedy Club brings you a fabulous comedy extravaganza of stand-up, sketch and musical comedy.

THE COMEDY SHOW (CHRIS FORBES (MC) + JIM SMITH + LOU SANDERS + CHRIS WASHINGTON) THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. CHRIS WASHINGTON: YOU BEAUTY

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Tue 26 Jun

Sat 02 Jun

RED RAW (AHIR SHAH)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Wed 27 Jun

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Join 2017 Edinburgh Best Newcomer Nominee Chris Washington for an hour of brand new stories, ideas and (hopefully) laughs.

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £3

Wed 20 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £12

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material.

THE THURSDAY SHOW (MARK MAIER + PAUL THORNE + CUBBY + ASHLEY STORRIE)

A stand-up show from the creator of multi-million downloaded Irishman Abroad podcast.

Tue 19 Jun

RED RAW (JAY LAFFERTY + BRUCE FUMMEY)

Thu 28 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £17.50

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

SARAH MILLICAN: CONTROL ENTHUSIAST

Mon 11 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + RAY BRADSHAW + CHRISTOPHER KC + MANDY KNIGHT)

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

A selection of five fledgling comedians do their best to win over the audience and graduate Yesbar’s Comedy Sunday School.

Sarah Millican is not a control freak, she’s a control enthusiast. She even controls her own insults, see?

Sat 23 Jun

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out. YESBAR VIRGINS: COMEDY SUNDAY SCHOOL

SEC, FROM 18:30, £30

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a weekend comedy club with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (ALISON SPITTLE + CELIA WILDING + BMR)

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 18:00, £8 - £10

Glenn Wool returns with his hit show Viva Forever.

Thu 07 Jun

YESBAR VIRGINS

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

YESBAR, FROM 19:30, £10

RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5 - £10

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KEITH FARNAN + SIMON DONALD + RAYMOND MEARNS)

Resident MC Viv Gee hosts a late night comedy show, with some of the best comedians on the circuit.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + LARRY DEAN + BIG MENTAL ROSS + JOJO SMITH)

Seriously smart stand-up. Comedy and Academia collide. Described by Robin Ince as, “A very good idea.”

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

NEWS HACKS ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

Sat 09 Jun

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material. THE THURSDAY SHOW (MARKUS BIRDMAN + LARRY DEAN + BIG MENTAL ROSS + JOJO SMITH)

STUART GOLDSMITH: LIKE I MEAN IT THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £10

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (JANEY GODLEY + MICKY BARTLETT + PAUL F TAYLOR + BILLY BIRKWOOD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

SPONTANEOUS POTTER

THE STAND GLASGOW, FROM 20:30, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards.

THE SKINNY

THE COMEDY SHOW (CHRIS FORBES (MC) + JIM SMITH + LOU SANDERS + CHRIS WASHINGTON) THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. OXIDE GHOSTS: THE BRASS EYE TAPES

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 14:00, £10 - £12

Made from hundreds of hours of unseen material from his personal archive, director Michael Cumming’s film shares insights into the process of making Brass Eye. OXIDE GHOSTS: THE BRASS EYE TAPES

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 16:30, £10 - £12

Made from hundreds of hours of unseen material from his personal archive, director Michael Cumming’s film shares insights into the process of making Brass Eye.

Sun 03 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (BRUCE FUMMEY + STU MURPHY + JAY LAFFERTY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend. STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 13:30, FREE

Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show. PROGRESS!

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. TBC IMPROV THEATRE

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.

Mon 04 Jun

RED RAW (MARC JENNINGS + TERRY ALDERTON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £3

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material.

Tue 05 Jun PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

Fri 08 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (GLENN WOOL + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAY LAFFERTY + STU MURPHY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. THE COMEDY SHOW (KATIE MULGREW (MC) + SUSIE MCCABE + RACHEL JACKSON + STUART MITCHELL) THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. STUART MITCHELL: MORALS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Stuart Mitchell previews his new show, with sharp one-liners, brilliant turn of phrase and clever wordplay.

STAND UP FOR LEITH THEATRE (BEN VERTH + CHRIS FORBES + KIMI LOUGHTON + KEIR MCALLISTER + JAY LAFFERTY) OLD LEITH THEATRE, FROM 19:00, £15

A multi-act showcase of some of the best Scottish comedy to start the weekend to raise funds for Leith Theatre.

Sat 09 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (GLENN WOOL + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAY LAFFERTY + STU MURPHY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. THE COMEDY SHOW (KATIE MULGREW (MC) + SUSIE MCCABE + RACHEL JACKSON + STUART MITCHELL) THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites.

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.

Sun 10 Jun

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £6

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

JAY LAFFERTY & LIAM WITHNAIL: FRINGE PREVIEW DOUBLE BILL

Scottish comedy circuit favourites Liam Withnail and Jay Lafferty give us a sneak peek of their upcoming festival shows.

Wed 06 Jun VIVA LA SHAMBLES

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £4 - £5

Anarchic comedy mayhem from Scotland’s finest young acts. TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.

Thu 07 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (GLENN WOOL + GORDON SOUTHERN + JAY LAFFERTY + STU MURPHY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS POTTER

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. JAYDE ADAMS: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Comedian Jayde Adams is going full diva with glorious gowns, acerbic charm and show-stopping music by Olivier Award-winner Richard Thomas.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (MARC JENNINGS + MEGAN SHANDLEY + KRYSTAL EVANS + LIAM WITHNAIL)

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend. STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 13:30, FREE

Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show. PROGRESS!

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. LARRY DEAN: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 18:00, £4 - £5

Fosters Comedy Award 2015 nominee and gallus Glaswegian Larry Dean returns with a work in progress. TBC IMPROV THEATRE

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.

Tue 12 Jun

BONA FIDE (JAY LAFFERTY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

New material specially written for the night by some of the countries finest comedians. PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X. TOM STADE: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:00, £5

See Tom Stade work on new material, alongside some of his favourite acts, in the run up to the Fringe.

STUART GOLDSMITH: LIKE I MEAN IT

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:30, £10

Comedian’s Comedian podcast host and ‘expert stand-up’ brings his best ever show.

Wed 13 Jun TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene. PAUL CHOWDHRY: LIVE INNIT

GILDED BALLOON , FROM 20:00, £20

Following phenomenal demand and instant sell-outs across the country, comedy powerhouse Paul Chowdhry has announced extra dates to his tour. NEW SH*T

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, FREE

The ultimate comedy test-ground for new acts and old pros.

BENEFIT IN AID OF SUPER POWER AGENCY LITERACY PROJECT (RAY BRADSHAW + KEIR MCALLISTER + DONALD ALEXANDER + BRYAN GHOSH + JAY LAFFERTY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5

Comedy Benefit with all ticket proceeds going to the charity. TIM KEY: MEGADATE

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £11 - £22

A brand new show, blending poeticals, talking, standing, spotlights, cables, Kronenburg, foot-stamping and old school wistfulness.

Thu 14 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (JOHN MOLONEY + JOHN LYNN + ROBIN GRAINGER + CELIA WILDING + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe.

LARRY DEAN: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Fosters Comedy Award 2015 nominee and gallus Glaswegian Larry Dean returns with a work in progress. PAUL CHOWDHRY: LIVE INNIT

GILDED BALLOON , FROM 20:00, £20

Following phenomenal demand and instant sell-outs across the country, comedy powerhouse Paul Chowdhry has announced extra dates to his tour. BITCH NIGHT

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 20:00, FREE

Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel.

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Jarred Christmas is dealing with his own averageness and it’s been a very difficult journey.

Sat 16 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (JOHN MOLONEY + JOHN LYNN + ROBIN GRAINGER + CELIA WILDING + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

THE COMEDY SHOW (SCOTT AGNEW (MC) + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + MAISIE ADAMS + JARRED CHRISTMAS) THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. MAISIE ADAM: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:00, £5

Maisie Adam presents a work in progress ahead of her Edinburgh debut, hilarious personal material delivered with her signature selfdeprecating charm.

Sun 17 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (GARETH WAUGH + RACHEL MURPHY + JAMIE MACDONALD) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend. STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 13:30, FREE

Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show. PROGRESS!

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow. CATHERINE BOHART: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 18:00, £3 - £4

A brand new show, blending poeticals, talking, standing, spotlights, cables, Kronenburg, foot-stamping and old school wistfulness.

Fri 15 Jun

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

TOP BANANA

PROGRESS!

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene. SCOTT GIBSON: SUNDAY SESSIONS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £5 - £6

Award-winning comedian Scott Gibson welcomes you to join him for a Sunday Session, with a hand-picked line-up of singers, musicians, poets, storytellers, comics and more.

Thu 21 Jun

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

A brand new Harry Potter play from some of Edinburgh’s most top notch improv wizards. CHRIS FORBES: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Award-winning comedian Chris Forbes presents a Work in Progress show about how he met a man who claimed to be the son of God. SCOTT GIBSON: ANYWHERE BUT HERE

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £5

A hysterical hour about hedonistic holidays, this is a story about friendship, pool parties, travel insurance and the Greek thirdchoice goalie.

Fri 22 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + ASHLEY STORRIE + TONY JAMESON + BEN POPE + JOE HEENAN)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians. DANNY BHOY

KING’S THEATRE EDINBURGH, FROM 19:30, £20

The Scottish comedian drops in with a new set of rib ticklers. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. CHRIS BETTS: BEWILDERBEAST

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Work in Progress material from Chris Betts, a comic who loves to watch people, and whose favourite view is from behind the bar. THE COMEDY SHOW (BILLY KIRKWOOD (MC) + CHRIS BETTS + TONY BASNETT + SCOTT GIBSON)

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

RED RAW (LIAM WITHNAIL + STU & GARRY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £3

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY PRESENTS: WIP

Four of Monkey Barrel’s very favourite acts combine forces for a bumper night of works in progress.

Tue 19 Jun PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X. ELEANOR MORTON: PREVIEW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £7 - £8

Award-nominated comic Eleanor Morton brings a preview of her brand new Fringe show.

Wed 20 Jun

TOPICAL STORM (MARK NELSON + KEIR MCALLISTER + STUART MURPHY + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £7

THE SATURDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + ASHLEY STORRIE + TONY JAMESON + BEN POPE + JOE HEENAN) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £17.50

The big weekend show with five comedians. MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy. THE COMEDY SHOW (BILLY KIRKWOOD (MC) + CHRIS BETTS + TONY BASNETT + SCOTT GIBSON)

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites.

Sun 24 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (RAY BRADSHAW + DONALD ALEXANDER + BRUCE FUMMEY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Chilled Sunday night comedy to see out the weekend. STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 13:30, FREE

Legendary free Sunday afternoon improv show.

DAVID BADDIEL – MY FAMILY: NOT THE SITCOM GILDED BALLOON , FROM 19:30, £25.50

Following a sold out run at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory and two critically-acclaimed West End runs, David Baddiel takes his Olivier-nominated one-man show to theatres nationwide.

Set sail with the award-winning grand dames of Scottish comedy.

THE COMEDY SHOW (JAY LAFFERTY (MC) + AHIR SHAH + MICKY OVERMAN + ADAM ROWE)

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, Â£10

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

SCOTT GIBSON: SUNDAY SESSIONS

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

Sat 23 Jun

Mon 18 Jun

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 17:30, £4 - £5

SPONTANEOUS POTTER

Start the weekend early with five comedians.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.

JOJO SUTHERLAND & SUSAN MORRISON: FANNY’S AHOY!

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £5 - £10

THE THURSDAY SHOW (BEN NORRIS + ASHLEY STORRIE + TONY JAMESON + BEN POPE + JOE HEENAN)

Catherine Bohart is the bisexual, OCD daughter of a Catholic Deacon and she’s got a hell of a lot to say about it. An hour of new material from a rising comedy star. TBC IMPROV THEATRE

Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow.

Award-winning comedian Scott Gibson welcomes you to join him for a Sunday Session, with a hand-picked line-up of singers, musicians, poets, storytellers, comics and more.

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:30, £0 - £3

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £6 - £12

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, FREE

JARRED CHRISTMAS: REMARKABLY AVERAGE

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £11 - £22

TIM KEY: MEGADATE

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £3

PETER PANCAKES’S COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA!

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites.

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (JOHN MOLONEY + JOHN LYNN + ROBIN GRAINGER + CELIA WILDING + BRUCE DEVLIN)

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material.

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Bitch Night is Edinburgh’s leading female and man-bitch friendly variety night, showcasing the best talent across Scotland.

Mon 11 Jun

RED RAW (GARETH WAUGH)

THE COMEDY SHOW (SCOTT AGNEW (MC) + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + MAISIE ADAMS + JARRED CHRISTMAS)

TBC IMPROV THEATRE

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. MICKY OBERMAN: ROLE MODEL

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.

Micky Oberman has spent her life so far trying to become a better woman/person. She’s mostly failed.

Mon 25 Jun

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 18:30, TBC

RED RAW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £3

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands road testing new material. DANNY BHOY

KING’S THEATRE EDINBURGH, FROM 19:30, £20

The Scottish comedian drops in with a new set of rib ticklers.

Tue 26 Jun PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

THEWEECOMEDYWEEKEND

Bitch Night presents TheWeeComedyWeekend, in association with Cabaret Voltaire over three nights and two rooms.

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5 - £6

Join some of the best comics from the contemporary Scottish comedy circuit for a night of laughter. TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £0 - £3

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene. STEPHEN FROST’S CELEBRITY MURDER MYSTERY

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

Join Stephen Frost and special guests as they act out a fabulously funny murder mystery.

Thu 28 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + RO CAMPBELL + SINDHU VEE + BRUCE DEVLIN) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £5 - £10

Start the weekend early with five comedians. SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £5

An entirely improvised Sherlock Holmes comedy play from Scotland’s hottest improv troupe. AHIR SHAH: WORK IN PROGRESS

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £5

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £10.50 - £12.50

Weekly comedy show at the Basement every Friday and Saturday night, with a different line-up and headliner each week, combining up-and-coming talent with Fringe favourites. THEWEECOMEDYWEEKEND

CABARET VOLTAIRE, FROM 18:30, TBC

Bitch Night presents TheWeeComedyWeekend, in association with Cabaret Voltaire over three nights and two rooms.

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG FRIDAY SHOW

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £10 - £12

Monkey Barrel’s flagship night of premier stand-up comedy.

CLYDEBUILT SUMMER EXHIBITION

A showcase of Glasgow’s art and design talent.

Compass Gallery IONA ROBERTS: TRAVELS AND TRANSLATIONS

1-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Debut solo exhibition from Iona Roberts at the Compass Gallery.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art

19TH-21ST CENTURY BRITISH DRAWINGS, PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE 11-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Exhibition including works by new Scottish Contemporaries and leading Modern Masters.

David Dale Gallery and Studios

STEPHANIE HIER: WALNUTS AND PEARS YOU PLANT FOR YOUR HEIRS

Fri 08 Jun

Glasgow Print Studio

SCOTT GIBSON AND FERN BRADY

DUNDEE REP, FROM 19:30, £10 - £16

A double headline bill from two Scottish comedians.

Fri 15 Jun

THE GRADO AND CONNELL SHOW

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £15.50

The stars of Scot Squad and ICW present their brand new stand-up comedy show.

Tue 26 Jun DANNY BHOY

WHITEHALL THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £19.25

DAVID BADDIEL – MY FAMILY: NOT THE SITCOM

DUNDEE REP, FROM 19:30, £26.50

Following a sold out run at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory and two critically-acclaimed West End runs, David Baddiel takes his Olivier-nominated one-man show to theatres nationwide.

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £6 - £12

The big weekend show with five comedians.

26 JUN-1 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

16 JUN-21 JUL, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Sat 30 Jun

Fri 29 Jun

PEOPLE OF COMICS: THE FULL COLOUR GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY EXHIBITION

Dundee Comedy

THE BASEMENT THEATRE, FROM 21:00, £5

THE FRIDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + RO CAMPBELL + SINDHU VEE + BRUCE DEVLIN)

Transforming a decommissioned oil rig in the North Sea into a new transnational parliament, assembling pan-European organisations with Scottish civil platforms, social movements and political parties to envision a future European Union from a Scottish point of view.

28 JUN-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

The up and coming young Scottish comedian drops in with a new set of rib ticklers.

JAY LAFFERTY: WHEESHT

JONAS STAAL: THE SCOTTISHEUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

16 JUN-29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY’S BIG SATURDAY SHOW

Ahir Shah’s sharp, intellectual brand of stand-up features a blend of philosophical inquiry, political vigour and sweet gags. Jay Lafferty returns to the Gilded Balloon with her Work in Progress show Wheesht.

Including new film and installation works conceived specifically for this exhibition.

Cass Art Glasgow

The big weekend show with five comedians.

THE COMEDY SHOW (JAY LAFFERTY (MC) + AHIR SHAH + MICKY OVERMAN + ADAM ROWE)

BEST OF SCOTTISH COMEDY

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 21:00, £17.50

THE SATURDAY SHOW (MICK FERRY + RO CAMPBELL + SINDHU VEE + BRUCE DEVLIN)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £12

Wed 27 Jun

ROSS BIRRELL: THE TRANSIT OF HERMES

Sat 30 Jun

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:00, £14

A stand-up show from the creator of multi-million downloaded Irishman Abroad podcast.

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art

An overview of the process and original art from the Full Colour project, which has been mentoring young people from BAME backgrounds in all things comics and giving them a boost into the industry.

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X. JARLATH REGAN: ORGAN FREEMAN

Art

Glasgow Art Broadcast CANVAI

2 JUN, 7:00PM, FREE

A solo exhibition by Glasgow-based street artist, illustrator and designer, Panda.

New exhibition by the Canadian artist Stephanie Hier.

CIARA PHILIPS – GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Turner Prize nominee Ciara Phillips addresses issues around women’s representation and selfactualisation. ALAN CAMPBELL: DEAD ENDS

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Alan Campbell’s work focuses primarily on storytelling, literature and word play. ADE ADESINA AND JUNE CAREY: A COLLABORATION IN PRINT

8 JUN-29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Together they have created a sublime series of etchings and linocuts that combine Carey’s figures with Adesina’s landscapes, mixing the “magical realism” of the artists.

Glasgow School of Art AMBI

23 JUN-16 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

A series of new commissions by Rabiya Choudhry, Fiona Jardine and Hanneline Visnes tracks the diverse histories of the pieces they have chosen from the Textiles and Fashion holdings at the Glasgow School of Art Archives & Collections. PRABHAKAR PACHPUTE

22 JUN-19 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

The space will be transformed into an assembly platform created by a single artist, Prabhakar Pachpute, and inspired by the literary work of Johnny Rodger.

Satirical comedy at its best.

June 2018

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

Listings

GoMA

CELLULAR WORLD

1 JUN-7 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Addessing questions of identity and individual and collective consciousness at a time of prolific social change and uncertainty, when reality can often seem more like science fiction.

House For An Art Lover

LESLEY PUNTON: BELOW, THE ROCKS PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS

1 JUN-15 JUL, 12:00AM – 12:00AM, FREE

Exploration into mountain landscape and a consideration of how we experience, encounter and inhabit wild spaces.

Hunterian Art Gallery

STILL MOVING: THE FILMS AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF ULRIKE OTTINGER

1 JUN-29 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A solo exhibition of moving image works and photographs by the internationally renowned filmmaker and artist Ulrike Ottinger, accompanied by a retrospective screening of her key films. THE PHILOSOPHY CHAMBER: ART AND SCIENCE IN HARVARD’S TEACHING CABINET, 1766-1820

1 JUN-15 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition bringing rare items from Harvard University’s extraordinary collections to Scotland for the first time.

Mary Mary

PEARL BLAUVELT AND ALEANA EGAN

23 JUN-4 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of drawings by the late American artist Pearl Blauvelt and works by Irish artist Aleana Egan.

Six Foot Gallery LOUISE MONTGOMERY: ICESCAPE

1-8 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

This exhibition attempts to bring together two oppositional aspects of life, creating a disordered beauty. RACHAEL REBUS: WOMEN’S WORK

12 JUN-13 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Rachael Rebus was one of the many talented artists who exhibited at the Six Foot Gallery last year in the 2018 Showcase and this time, she's back for her very own solo show. MARCIN KRUPA AND LAURA MANESCAU

12 JUN-13 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Two exhibitions running alongside each other in Gallery 2.

Street Level Photoworks JAMES PFAFF: ALEX & ME

1 JUN-1 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Alex & Me is an artistic reappropriation of James Pfaff’s archive, a tribute to a significant broken love and an authentic road trip through North America in the late summer of 1998.

The Common Guild

KATINKA BOCK: RADIO PIOMBINO

1 JUN-7 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Bock works with a range of natural and manmade materials that undergo processes of alteration and translation, transforming materials into objects and experiments into proposals.

The Lighthouse COMMON GROUND (GLASGOW PEOPLE MAKE)

The Modern Institute DUGGIE FIELDS

1-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

The exhibition will recreate the artist’s personal environment, collaging seminal works with new ones alongside video and sound pieces – a context that explores Fields’ position as an artist and cultural phenomenon.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane URS FISCHER: MAYBE

1 JUN-25 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Fischer’s multi-faceted practice explores and extends the possibilities of sculpture, painting and image production.

Tramway

KAPWANI KIWANGA: SOFT MEASURES

1-17 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new multi-faceted installation by Paris-based Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga. MARK LECKEY: NOBODADDY

1 JUN-15 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

For his solo exhibition at Tramway, Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Leckey has taken inspiration from a small statuette of the biblical figure of Job on display in the Wellcome Collection in London.

CHRISTIAN NOELLE CHARLES: CC TIME

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Glasgow-based artist Christian Noelle Charles takes inspiration from pop culture, modern performance techniques and personal experience to create a series of works titled ‘CC Time’. Part of Take Me Somewhere 2018.

iota @ Unlimited Studios STREF AKA STEPHEN WHITE

7-23 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

See the many talents of this illustrator, writer and graphic novelist, through the various stages of production, from sketch book to publication.

Edinburgh Art &Gallery SAM LOCK: IN SITU

Dovecot Studios BATHS TO BOBBINS: 10 YEARS AT INFIRMARY STREET

1-29 JUN, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

The display titled Baths to Bobbins will explore memories of those who attended the Baths, the stories of the old Studio in Corstorphine, the saving of the Infirmary Street building and its conversion to a modern tapestry studio. SCREEN FOR ANOTHER FOCUS: DAVID PENNY

1 JUN-11 JUL, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

Artist David Penny has created an exhibition of photography and video work interpreting the extraordinary craftsmanship of the weavers at Dovecot Tapestry Studio.

KIRSTY WHITEN: ICON ORACLE

8-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new series of monumental paintings and delicate watercolours by Kirsty Whiten will explore the personal and mythical in this powerful solo exhibition.

Edinburgh College of Art present their annual graduate student roundup, showcasing the fruits of more than 500 budding graduating artists, filmmakers, designers and architects. DEAD IMAGES: FACING THE HISTORY, ETHICS AND POLITICS OF EUROPEAN SKULL COLLECTIONS

28 JUN-25 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

DEAD IMAGES explores the contentious legacy of collections of human skulls, assembled during the 19th and early 20th centuries and still held in public institutions in Europe.

Edinburgh Printmakers TRANSLATING TRAVELS

1 JUN-21 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

British-born, Bergen-based artist, Imi Maufe will be showing work from the past fifteen years – a collection of travels that have been developing into contained boxed pieces that can also involve collaboration with other artists.

Embassy Gallery GLASSMOUNT: DANIEL COOK

1-3 JUN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Glassmount House stands stoically on an island of green, isolated by sprawling fields. Its lavish rooms and idyllic walled gardens make it the perfect retreat. Filmed site responsive performances create a chaotic personification of the house itself.

Ingleby Gallery CALLUM INNES

1 JUN-14 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

TWENTY

An exhibition to celebrate 20 years of Ingleby gallery and the opening of their new premises in the old Glasite Meeting House at 33 Barony Street.

National Museum of Scotland ART OF GLASS

1 JUN-16 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

City Art Centre

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland will examine the diverse work of 15 established and emerging glass artists in Britain today.

1 JUN-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

22 JUN-25 NOV, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £7 - £10

THE RE(A)D BED

HIDDEN GEMS: SCOTLAND’S AGATES

ROBERT CALLENDER: PLASTIC BEACH

RIP IT UP: THE STORY OF SCOTTISH POP

Internationally exhibited artist Alex McEwan’s first public work in the city celebrates Glasgow’s everyday urban design with aspects of architectural drawing.

Focusing on a selection of Robert Callender’s work, the exhibition addresses environmental concerns, ways and means of recycling; issues that underline the enduring and absolute relevance of Robert Callender’s ideas.

The first major exhibition dedicated to Scottish pop music, exploring the musical culture of the nation over more than half a century, from influential indie pioneers to global superstars.

1 JUN-22 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 JUN-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 JUN-2 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A DAY OUT

Graphic design studio A Day Out is Graham and Malcolm: a twenty-nineyear-old skateboarder, and a retiree of the Stockholm hardcore punk scene. Here they share some of their work and approach.

This exhibition at the City Art Centre features The Red Bed (1916) from The Human Comedy series by James Pryde (1866-1941) in the City of Edinburgh collection, alongside work from Lothian Health Services Archive and the Alt-w Fund.

A new display exploring the beauty and variety of Scottish agates will examine how agates form, their diversity of colour and texture and how their allure has captured the imagination of scientists and amateur enthusiasts alike.

8-24 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Coburg House Art Studios

Open Eye Gallery

9-17 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

8-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

TIME CONSTRUCTS

A collaboration between two visual artists – Glasgow-based Ally Wallace and Lincolnshire-based David Carruthers – resulting in a collection of short animated films about architecture and the built environment.

KATIE STRACHAN: SCULPTURE EXHIBITION

Gallery exhibition of original work by local artists.

Drawing from artists across the whole of Scotland and beyond, this exhibition in the RSA’s Lower Galleries showcases a wide range of small and medium sized works selected through open submission. LENNOX DUNBAR RSA: LEWIS & OTHER JOURNEYS

NEW PRINTS

ECA DEGREE SHOW 2018

1 JUN-14 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Arusha Gallery

RSA OPEN EXHIBITION OF ART 2018

23 JUN-25 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

2-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

FIONA BYRNE SUTTON: ANGEL’S SHARE

Sutton's assemblages go under the name The Angel’s Share, an industry term for the portion of whisky lost in evaporation in the cask barrel.

The RSA Annual Exhibition is a focal point of the RSA programme and showcases work from RSA Academicians the length and breadth of Scotland.

1-10 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

This exhibition of his newest Exposed Paintings opens this new chapter in the gallery’s history.

1-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

RSA ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2018

1-6 JUN, TIMES VARY, TBC

Edinburgh College of Art

1-9 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Abstract paintings revolving around time, history and memory traces of another time and place.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA

BRENDAN STUART BURNS: RECENT PAINTINGS

Large scale painterly abstractions inspired by the Pembrokeshire coast. JOAN DOERR: RECENT WORK

New paintings by artist Lennox Dunbar RSA in the Academicians’ Gallery. 1-10 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

New prints created for the Ages of Wonder exhibition by Delia Bailie, Kate Downie, Stuart Duffin, Paul Furneaux, Jessica Harrison, Marion Smith and Frances Walker.

Scottish National Gallery ARTISTS AT WORK

1 JUN-2 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

A varied and inspiring selection created by, amongst others, gallery attendants, conservators, retail team members and volunteers.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

A NEW ERA: SCOTTISH MODERN ART 1900-1950 1-10 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, £8 - £10

An alternative version of the history of modern Scottish art, featuring over 80 works by around 50 artists, including some of Scotland’s artistic giants and more unfamiliar artists.

NOW: JENNY SAVILLE, SARA BARKER, CHRISTINE BORLAND, ROBIN RHODE, MARKUS SCHINWALD, CATHERINE STREET AND OTHERS

1 JUN-16 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

The third instalment of NOW will feature a major survey of works by renowned British artist Jenny Saville, spanning some 25 years of the artist’s career across five rooms.

IN FOCUS: THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 1 JUN-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition centred around a painting of the execution of Charles I – based on eye-witness accounts and contemporary engravings – by an unknown Dutch artist.

VICTORIA CROWE: BEYOND LIKENESS

1 JUN-18 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

Crowe has developed an approach to portraiture that seeks to do more than record the outward appearance of a person. She aims to represent something of the inner life - the experiences and preoccupations of the individuals depicted - the world of ideas and dreams. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: TRANSPORTATION PHOTOGRAPHS FROM NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND

2 JUN-13 JAN 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

The third in a series of thematic exhibitions exploring the exceptional permanent collection of photography at the National Galleries of Scotland.

THE REMAKING OF SCOTLAND | NATION, MIGRATION, GLOBALISATION 1760-1860

16 JUN-21 JUN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition exploring the lives and careers of the Scots behind the period of dramatic change between 1760 and 1860, when Scotland rapidly attained a central role in European cultural life and in Britain’s industrial and imperial expansion.

Stills

PROJECTS 18

1 JUN-1 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

The projects consist of solo exhibitions by:Thomas Whittle (11-20 May), Kevin McCollum (25 May-3 June) and Flannery O’Kafka (22 June-1 July), as well as a group presentation by Fresh Focus (8-17 June)

Summerhall

ALLA PRESENZA DI TINTORETTO / IN THE PRESENCE OF TINTORETTO: MARK PULSFORD

1-17 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Using Tintoretto’s creative presence and the atmosphere engendered by his great masterworks, studying their subtlety and responding to them with drawings and paintings of his own, Mark Pulsford attempts to relive Tintoretto’s experience of inventing them.

The Fruitmarket Gallery

Generator Projects

Married for 51 years, Dawson and Liz Murray share a great passion for plants and have spent the 21 years since they moved to Fife designing a beautiful garden which provides a constantly changing source of inspiration for their work.

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

1-3 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

1 JUN-13 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Dundee Art

THE ROMANCE OF THE GARDEN: FRAGMENTS AND MEMORIES – DAWSON AND LIZ MURRAY 1 JUN-13 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

SATELLITE: VAS AT SUMMERHALL

Satellite will track the progress of some of the 25 aspiring artists that the VAS Graduate Showcase have featured over their last four annual exhibitions and will also feature works by their associate members. FRITZ WELCH: CRYSTALLINE CHRYSALIS CRISIS

2 JUN-13 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Artist and musician Fritz Welch presents Crystalline Chrysalis Crisis in Summerhall’s Machine Shop – a bunker-like area in the former veterinary school, housing its defunct metal-lathe, responding to the space’s architectural and interior features. E.Y.E 201

6-13 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

The exhibition showcases the work from Edinburgh College’s School of Art and Design Higher Education Graduating students 2018. SUZANNE TAYLOR: SCAPES

19 JUN-11 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

The show is a retrospective body of work by artist Suzanne Taylor covering the last several years, bringing together painting, collage, screen printing and photography.

Talbot Rice Gallery TRADING ZONE

1-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Launching a new type of student exhibition, Trading Zone creates a meeting point for different disciplines from across the University of Edinburgh.

LEE LOZANO

This first exhibition of her work in Scotland brings together paintings, drawings, language pieces and notes on making paintings that have only just come to light.

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts

EVE FOWLER: WHAT A SLIGHT. WHAT A SOUND. WHAT A UNIVERSAL SHUDDER

9 JUN-26 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

DCA present the first major European exhibition of American artist Eve Fowler’s work. Having exhibited widely over the past two decades in the US, Fowler is one of the most significant artists of her generation, using art and language to disrupt and unsettle the dominant power structures that control much of the world around us. This exhibition will reflect and further expand on the artist’s intense and intimate feminist engagement with the words of Gertrude Stein over the past eight years.

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

THE NEXT ART-OF-PEACE BIENNALE PRESENTS WHAT IS PEACE? (ANSWER HERE) 1-2 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Artist-researcher Roddy Hunter has appointed himself as curator of the second edition of The Art-of-Peace Biennale, formulated as a concept by artist Robert Filliou ﬁfirst realised as ‘Zugehend auf eine Biennale des Friedens’ curated by René Block in 1985.

TH4Y 2018

This well-established feature of the Generator exhibition programme is an excellent opportunity for a selection of Scottish graduates from the previous academic year to develop new projects post art school. The committee will lead the artists through the development of their ideas, production,and the exhibition process, and provide them with financial assistance.

The McManus REVEALING CHARACTERS

1 JUN-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Part of a joint exhibition of selected works from the City’s permanent collection, Revealing Characters includes an array of portraits, which examine the construction of identity. FACE TO FACE

1 JUN-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

Part of a joint exhibition of selected works from the City’s permanent collection, Face to Face includes an array of portraits, which examine the construction of identity. PORTRAITURE

1 JUN-31 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

In the history of art ‘the portrait’ has taken on many guises, from exact likenesses to abstract collections of ideas and emotions. Selected from the City’s permanent collection this exhibition includes an array of portraits, which examines the construction of identity. BASH STREET’S BACK AT THE MCMENACE

2-30 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

2018 marks the 80th Birthday of Beano and this exhibition explores the birth of the comic in Dundee, the people behind it and its enduring popularity across generations of readers.

RAQIB SHAW: REINVENTING THE OLD MASTERS

1 JUN-28 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Eight works by Raqib Shaw will be shown, alongside two paintings which have long obsessed him: Joseph Noel Paton’s The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania, 1849 and Lucas Cranach’s An Allegory of Melancholy, 1528.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery SCOTS IN ITALY

1 JUN-5 MAR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A showcase of the Scottish experience of Italy in the eighteenth century, a time when artistic, entrepreneurial and aristocratic fascination with the country was reaching boiling point. THE MODERN PORTRAIT

1 JUN-27 OCT 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A display collating paintings, sculptures and works from the Portrait Gallery’s twentiethcentury collection, feat. a variety of well-known faces, from Ramsay Macdonald to Alan Cumming, Tilda Swinton to Danny McGrain. REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION

1 JUN-1 APR 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition examining the cultural consequences of the national religion becoming Protestantism in sixteenth century Scotland. HEROES AND HEROINES

1 JUN-31 MAY 19, TIMES VARY, FREE

A re-examination of major Scottish figures which questions our habit of framing history around individuals and idols.

ART AND ANALYSIS: TWO NETHERLANDISH PAINTERS WORKING IN JACOBEAN SCOTLAND

1 JUN-26 JAN 20, TIMES VARY, FREE

Two 17th-century artists, Adrian Vanson and Adam de Colone's, paintings' have been examined by paintings conservator Dr Caroline Rae.

8-23 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Bold, abstract paintings inspired by the Edinburgh landscape.

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THE SKINNY

Agent of Change It’s becoming a persistent question as Scotland’s design sector thrives and evolves: do we need a national design policy? This month, Local Heroes founder Stacey Hunter asks design critic Alice Rawsthorn for her opinion

his discussion coincides with Alice Rawsthorn’s role as keynote speaker (alongside award-winning Scottish artist Jacqueline Donachie) at the Architecture Fringe closing lecture where the theme COMMON/SENSES will be explored through design, art and architecture. Rawsthorn is arguably uniquely positioned, as someone who has observed design around the world, to discuss whether nations that have successful design eco-systems can be said to result directly from national design policies. An award-winning design critic and the author of the critically acclaimed books, Hello World: Where Design Meets Life and Design as an Attitude, her weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade. Speaking on design at important global events including TED and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rawsthorn is chair of the boards of trustees at Chisenhale Gallery in London, the contemporary dance group Michael Clark Company and The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire. She has been awarded an OBE for services to design and the arts. “National design policies can certainly be very helpful,” she says. “Denmark is a great example of a country that has reinvented its design culture in the last 20 years through a national strategy of investing in cultural and educational initiatives, as well as ambitious practical design projects, such as the world’s most advanced urban cycling system in the Copenhagen Cycle Super Highway. As a result, Denmark has shed its nostalgic image as the home of mid-century modernist furniture design, and is hailed as a pioneer of social, sustainable and humanitarian design, all critically important areas of 21st century design.” Grassroots organisations like Local Heroes offer a platform for wider public engagement with and understanding or valuing of design. But what does Rawsthorn suggest might happen at a strategic level? “Design needs to prove its value as a dynamic, relevant and constructive force in our lives. National governments and city councils can accelerate this process by investing in key resources. Design education is a priority, as is cultural infrastructure to support design, such as museums, galleries and festivals, like the Architecture Fringe. Though it helps if other cultural institutions, such as contemporary art galleries, interrogate design in their programmes too. Both Denmark and The Netherlands have benefited from offering grants to individual designers to fund early projects, international exhibitions and books. Practical support can also help. Ensuring a steady supply of affordable studio and work spaces is essential.” The difficulty in defining design and its association with ‘style’ or aesthetics can often be a major barrier when discussing design with enterprise agencies. Does Rawsthorn have any advice? “Much as I hate to admit it, the majority of people still think of design as a superficial styling tool or a promotional ploy to trick us into splashing out on something we neither need nor want. Design is guilty as charged on both counts, but there is, of course, much, much more to it. I believe that design has one defining role as an agent of change that enables us to make the most of changes of any type – social, political, economic, scientific, cultural, or whatever – and avoid their dangers. Design isn’t a panacea for such problems, but it is a powerful tool to help us to address major challenges such as identifying constructive applications for artificial

June 2018

intelligence and other technologies, tackling the refugee and environmental crises, and redesigning dysfunctional social services. “Sadly, the stereotyping of design prevents that from happening. If politicians, investors and NGOs see it solely as a source of blingy phones and over-priced trainers, why would it occur to them that it could make a meaningful contribution in other fields?” As environmental sustainability asserts its importance many small design studios in Scotland are deciding whether their business should be ‘commercial’ i.e.: profitable or responsible – and wondering if they can really be both. “Absolutely. My new book is called Design as an Attitude as a reference to the new wave of digitally empowered designers, who are using basic tools like crowdfunding platforms and social media, to operate independently and to pursue their social, political and environmental goals, rather than being confined by design’s commercial role during the industrial age. An example is the young Dutch design engineer Boyan Slat who has raised over £30 million in less than four years to try to fulfill his dream of clearing plastic trash from the Pacific in the Ocean Cleanup project. Other designers are combining pro bono work for activist causes they’re passionate about, with entrepreneurial or commercial assignments. Design has become a much more diverse, eclectic and ambitious field.”

“ I believe that design has one defining role as an agent of change that enables us to make the most of changes of any type – social, political, economic, scientific, cultural, or whatever – and avoid their dangers” Alice Rawsthorn

What cities or nations can we look to for inspiration to make design one of our country’s key cultural exports? “Arguably the most dynamic global design centre right now is the Dutch city of Eindhoven. When its manufacturing sector contracted in the late 20th century, local politicians took a strategic decision to reinvent Eindhoven as a design hub. The Netherlands has a strong national design culture, and Eindhoven has established itself as the Dutch design city by establishing Design Academy Eindhoven as the world’s leading design school, and launching a hugely popular, culturally ambitious annual design festival in Dutch Design Week. Critically, Eindhoven encourages DAE students to stay in the city after graduation by providing

Photo: Michael Leckie

Interview: Stacey Hunter

incredibly cheap studios and workshops in disused buildings.” Our tour of modern Scottish design has illustrated that we are increasingly defined by our ability to collaborate, co-produce and create strategic alliances. Should we consider this as a ‘national characteristic? “I hadn’t thought of Scottish design in that context before, but you’re right. Scotland has an incredible design heritage, which, I’m sure, the new V&A Dundee will articulate, and collaboration is a recurrent theme. Think of the communities that have embraced tartan as a form of collective identity, and Scotland’s great tradition of individual design collaborations in Scotland, such as the Adam brothers in the 1700s and, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Margaret Macdonald and Charles Rennie Macintosh. Then there are the design communities that have emerged in different parts of Scotland by sharing ideas and pooling skills, from Silicon Glen, to the cluster of illustrators around DC Thomson in Dundee. One of my favourite current Scottish design projects is Fi Scott’s Make Works programme, which is an

DESIGN

ingenious way of helping designers, artisans and manufacturers to forge collaborations.” Rawsthorn’s Instagram series famously and engagingly delivers educational design history with perfectly gauged posts. The series began with Scottish design icons like DC Thomson and father of information design William Playfair – does Rawsthorn think Instagram is here to stay? “I started my Instagram as a personal project three years ago, choosing a weekly theme relating to design, such as human rights, recycling or colour, and posting about a different iteration of it each day. My objective is to demonstrate how rich, dynamic and eclectic design is. I’m planning to continue for as long as I enjoy it, but, of course, another platform will emerge sooner or later to challenge Instagram. I hope so. It’s always fun to experiment.” @alice.rawsthorn For tickets to the Architecture Fringe closing lecture on Sat 24 Jun featuring Alice Rawsthorn and Jacqueline Donachie, visit architecturefringe.com

Last Word