The Skinny Scotland June 2017

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CULT U R A L

J O U R N A L I S M

June 2017 Scotland Issue 141

MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | TRAVEL | FOOD & DRINK | DEVIANCE | LISTINGS

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Photo: Dan Kendall

P.32 Anneli Holmstrom

June 2017 I N DEPEN DENT

CULTU R AL

JOU R NALI S M

Issue 141, June 2017 Š Radge Media Ltd. Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 1.9 1st Floor Tower, Techcube, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business.

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Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle ABC verified Jan – Dec 2016: 27,332

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

Rosamund West Adam Benmakhlouf Alan Bett Claire Francis Ben Venables Kate Pasola Kate Pasola Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Tallah Brash Amy Taylor Paul Mitchell

Production Production Manager Designer

Sarah Donley Kyle McPartlin

Sales Sales Manager Sales Executives

Sandy Park George Sully

Online Digital Editor Web Developer

Peter Simpson Stuart Spencer

Publisher

Sophie Kyle

printed on 100% recycled paper

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Contents

THE SKINNY

Photo: Sarah Donley

P.30 Pride special

P.25 Rachel Maclean

Illustration: Sonny Ross

P.22 Pixx

Contents Chat & Opinion: Welcome to the maga06 zine! Horrorscopes with Crystal Baws, Shot of the Month, Spot the Difference, last minute news with Stop the Presses and a guide to what you’ll find Online Only.

Heads Up: Five whole weeks of daily 08 cultural highlights!

LIFESTYLE

29 Deviance: A discussion on why being

overly apologetic may be the result of sinister suppressive forces.

30 Pride special! One writer assesses his

changing attitudes to Pride, plus a guide to World Pride, this year in Madrid.

FEATURES

10 Award-winning author Jenni Fagan cel-

ebrates the 25th anniversary of Rebel Inc. by looking back on a publishing phenomenon, interviewing architect Kevin Williamson alongside key players like Irvine Welsh, Jamie Byng, Laura Hird and Alan Warner.

12 Adam Stafford introduces Reverse

Drift, a collection of photography and music.

15 We speak to Ladytron singer Helen Marnie ahead of the release of her sophomore Marnie solo record, Strange Words and Weird Wars.

Celebrity terroriser Fred Fletch has 16 been tempted out of his self-imposed retirement to quiz Tom Green about fingering and Tom Hanks.

time for Edinburgh International 18 It’s Film Festival! Here are some Scottish films to get excited about, plus a closer look at God’s Own Country.

21 The Drums frontman Jonny Pierce talks

break-ups, moving on, and how Abysmal Thoughts is his most personal album yet.

22 Pixx chats confidence, her time at the

BRIT School, and why we need to look up more, ahead of her debut record The Age of Anxiety.

year’s Scottish representative 25 This at the Venice Biennale, artist Rachel

Maclean discusses the socio-political themes of latest film Spite Your Face.

26 We look at why dystopias such as The

Handmaid’s Tale and 1984 are connecting so strongly in the age of Trump and the rape clause.

32 Showcase: Lisbon and Edinburgh-based

artist Anneli Holstrom presents work from her current Summerhall exhibition.

35 Food & Drink: What will Brexit mean

for food? Basically, we’re fucked. Plus news, and a guide to finding ice cream in Scotland this summer.

REVIEW

39 Music: A profile of young label Triassic

Tusk, interviews with Lou Mclean and Bridal Shower, plus your live highlights for June and a guide to this month’s album releases.

44 Clubs: Patrick Topping talks about en-

joying seeing his face tattooed on other people’s legs. Plus clubbing highlights for June and a DJ Deep guest selector.

48 Books: Our poetry column meets Kayo Chingonyi, plus reviews of the pick of the June releases.

49 Art: Reviews of Ambit and After Hours,

and a few recommendations for exhibitions to visit in June.

50 Film: This month’s cinema releases

rated, from My Life as a Courgette to Stockholm My Love.

of the Dust, Hardcore 51 DVD: Daughters şkafa: Stories of the Street / and Ta Estate, a Reverie.

52 Theatre: Aunty Trash has advice for

one recent graduate pondering their next steps. Plus a sneak peek inside Leith Theatre before its Hidden Door regeneration.

53 Comedy: One writer is given exclusive access to the .

take a closer look at this year's SAY 28 We Awards' 20-strong longlist.

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

Comedy Captured the Edinburgh 63 How Fringe Part 2 – our Comedy editor focusses in on a single year which transformed the cultural landscape.

June 2017

Contents

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Editorial

W

hen Jenni Fagan got in touch with our Books editor to suggest writing a piece celebrating Rebel Inc. 25 years after its founding, we couldn’t really believe our luck. One of Scotland’s most exciting writers looking back on a publishing phenomenon that happened right here in Edinburgh, talking to the major participants about a period of intense, anarchic creativity that utterly changed the cultural landscape? We said yes, very quickly. She speaks to Kevin Williamson about how it happened and has words with key figures including Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner about what a game changer Rebel Inc. was. There’s an extended version on our website which you really should check out – theskinny.co.uk/books Elsewhere in Books, as an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale hits UK screens we examine the renewed interest in dystopian narratives such as this in a time when life begins to feel uncomfortably close to art.

In Music, Adam Stafford returns with an album / photographic project, a single-track LP that accompanies images he has created over the last nearly two decades. Helen Marnie unveils her second solo album under her Marnie moniker, Strange Words and Weird Wars, and tells us why she’s the pop part of Ladytron. We also have words with The Drums frontman Jonny Pierce, Hannah Rodgers aka Pixx, Bridal Shower, Lou Mclean and the people behind young Scottish label Triassic Tusk. The longlist for the 2017 SAY Award was unveiled shortly before we went to press, so our Music editor has diligently compiled a rundown of who’s who in the top 20.

If it’s June it must mean Edinburgh Interna-

By Jock Mooney 6

Chat

The Vitality of Pop

tional Film Festival. We anticipate the programme with a look at God’s Own Country, Yorkshire’s answer to Brokeback Mountain, and pick out some highlights from the Scottish contingent being presented at this year’s festival. Some headline ideas that didn’t make the cut for that particular feature include Great Scots (too obvious), Scot To Be You (didn’t quite fit) and Scottish Penis Required (just a fucking weird callback that no one would understand). Scotch Tapes it is!

In Comedy, the inimitable Fred Fletch has been lured out of his early retirement with some Tom Green bait. He overcomes considerable technical difficulties (which seem to boil down to an inability to work Skype) to bellow at the star of Freddy Got Fingered about Tom Hanks. In more measured coverage, comedy editor Benables continues his exploration of the Fringe archive with a look at 1981, the year that transformed the festival landscape.

Art takes a brief sojourn to Venice for some Biennale launch action before this year’s degree show onslaught. We have words with Scotland + Venice artist Rachel Maclean who presents another stellar video work, this time ruminating on this age of Trump and reality TV dreams in a deconsecrated church on the Venetian north shore.

Speaking of degree shows, you will find extensive coverage of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee on our website (theskinny.co.uk/art). 2017 is an extra special year for graduate shows as our Art editor Adam will be exhibiting in Glasgow School of Art. You should go and see his work, it will definitely be brilliant. [Rosamund West]

Following the tragic attack in Manchester at the end of May, a great deal has been said at a time when many cannot find words. Certainly in the city itself, where The Skinny has its Northern office, the mood is as stunned and quiet as it is defiant and united (as so heavily reported in the press).

We wanted to say something in sympathy and solidarity with those caught up in these terrible events. A piece that moved us all at The Skinny was a personal message posted by journalist David Stubbs, a writer who has spent a life in music – first as part of the team who made Melody Maker so influential in the 80s, then writing for titles including Uncut, The Wire and the Quietus.

We asked David if he would be happy for us to share his post, in appreciation of the unparalleled love, vitality and communality felt at a pop concert and in tribute to those young people and their families when they should have been – and likely were – at their happiest. He kindly allowed us to reproduce it here.

Words: David Stubbs

I

’ve never been to Manchester Arena but just over 20 years ago I did go to London Arena to interview Pulp. It was a pop awards ceremony and also featured a bunch of the boy bands doing the rounds back then, including Take That.

I’ll never forget the sheer, keening, screaming torrent of white noise sustained by the crowd of teens. My Bloody Valentine had nothing on this. It was awesome, a Niagara and not to be denied in any way.

I was in the habit of complaining, then as now, that pop was an exhausted medium, long since departed from the ideals of my own 70s / 80s heyday. However, that day, I realised something perfectly obvious really — my discernment and qualms meant next to nothing in the face of this, and rightly so.

Pop is a barely adequate word for the life force unleashed at a huge concert hall full of kids. The Beatles complained that when they played Shea Stadium, they couldn’t make themselves heard, that nobody was listening to them play; as if it had been better if the fans had sat quietly and attentively. Great as they were, they were actually wrong. It was the crowd, not them, who were making the noise that truly mattered that day.

There’s an undifferentiated, torrential essence to pop as a live spectacle. It’s capitalist,

socialist, liberal. It’s about joy and sex, sweat and glow, catharsis and cheer, plumage and confidence in numbers; euphoria. It’s a temporary excess, a respite from the drudgery that is being imposed, if anything, to more pernicious excess on this generation than my own: more homework, longer hours, bleaker prospects. If anyone deserves pop, it’s this generation. It’s brilliant, it’s rubbish, it’s innocent and guilty pleasure, it’s everything, really, except death. It’s anti-death.

Pop, whatever state it’s in, isn’t a symptom of social decay but sheer, ongoing vitality. Anyone who has the chance to experience it, in a dome, stadium, arena should do so, regardless of the critical write-up. My daughter has already been to several gigs, dolled up in ways that would make her dad cringe and is the better for it. My son in years to come will doubtless have the time of his life to some sonic mutation which would probably make me despair. I can only hope.

My heart goes out to those who died and their loved ones who have suffered irreparable grief.

But any sick, seething individual, any belief system, any society which seeks to repress the ultimately irrepressible, is doomed. Yesterday’s events will never be forgotten but the torrent of life goes on. Stay safe everyone, and find happiness without fear or shame.

THE SKINNY

Crystal Balls With Mystic Mark

GEMINI You really do have a heart of gold.

Scientists are puzzled how you’re even alive while many a wizened old prospector attempts to mine your chest for its precious contents. Ironically the heart’s heavy weight and numerous related health problems have turned you bitter and cruel.

CANCER Pregnancy is like growing a sofa in your living room until it’s so big you have to break off the sides of the door or saw a hole in the wall just to get it out.

EO L Your life isn’t even half-baked, God forgot to turn the oven on and there’s been a power cut.

VIRGO This month an AI robot strides confidently from the smouldering ruins of the Google building with a beard stuck on it and calls itself God.

Edinburgh Art Festival: 2017 Commissions programme EAF’s annual commissions take their inspiration from a pair of key anniversaries. The first is the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Festival , launched in 1947 with the ambition to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit” after WWII. The second is the work of town planner, conservationist, social activist and polymath Patrick Geddes – Geddes was a key figure in revitalising Edinburgh’s Old Town in the late 1800s. This year’s works include a giant sculpted dragon by Walker & Bromwich, and a multi-channel video piece by award-winning New Zealand artist Shannon Te Ao – see the full line-up at theskinny.co.uk/festivals.

June 2017

SCORPIO You go to the Whisky Buttchugging Festival to get away and experience the finest whiskies of mankind poured down your crack by master blenders. A sensory experience. “I’ll buttchug a little glass,” you think. “Stick a dreg down my bum lips for a wee taster.” You can sniff the delicate aromas on the tip of your guts as the master blender pours another oaky dram down the wrong booze hole.

SAGITTARIUS You’re inclined to believe humans are capable of altering the molecular structure of physical objects with their minds. I’d suggest you use these new powers to create more brains inside your own skull with which you can reappraise the situation.

CAPRICORN After years of research, your team are finally ready to demonstrate Shark Cannon to the assembled Military Chiefs at BAE Systems.

AQUARIUS This month you get tested and find out you’re an Aquarius.

PISCES You listen rapturously to David Icke’s new Hollow Dog Theory. It all makes perfect sense! Of course the government will deny dogs are hollow, there’s too much money in the dog industry for them to say otherwise. But then to your horror you find out the vets are in on it too after taking your dog to get refilled and the Illuminati shill vet insists he doesn’t know what you’re on about.

Aki Kaurismäki is the latest GFT CineMaster We’re delighted to be teaming up with Glasgow Film Theatre on its righteous CineMasters series, which celebrates cinema’s greatest filmmakers past and present. Kelly Reichardt, David Lynch and Rainer Werner Fassbinder have been recent recipients of the CineMasters treatment, and next up is one of the most original voices working in cinema today: Finland’s deadpan poet Aki Kaurismäki. Six of his best films are screening at GFT throughout June and July, and each is paired with one of the Finn’s short films. In these troubled times, Kaurismäki’s mix of absurdity and altruism is most welcome.

Spot The Difference Paws for Thor(t) Before you lie two Lokis; one’s the arch-enemy of Thor, the other a new pup and a sight to adore.

One’s played by an actor who’s particularly dapper, the other’s named after the Scottish rapper. One’s a character rooted in Norse, the other a pooch who we truly endorse. One’s a villain and total wrongdoer, the other is simply a slipper-chewer. BUT WHICH IS WHICH?

Quit Marveling at the pictures and help us out. We don’t mean to hound you (we prefer to keep things low-key around here) but once you’ve fetched the answer, head over to theskinny.co.uk/ competitions and fill us in. Top dog wins a copy of The Last Holiday by Gil Scott-Heron, courtesy of our pals at Canongate.

Competition closes midnight Sun 25 Jun. The winner will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Ts&Cs can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Online Only theskinny.co.uk/books Find an extended edit of this month’s cover story on Rebel Inc., plus words with one of Korean literature’s brightest lights Hwang Sok-yong. theskinny.co.uk/music Seattle post-punks Chastity Belt discuss finding inspiration in the banal on new album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone; Marika Hackman talks relationships as I'm Not Your Man hits the shelves; Spoon fill us in on how to keep touring interesting after two decades in the game; Depeche Mode talk about basically everything in an extended retrospective ahead of their European enormo-tour. theskinny.co.uk/art Take the pulse of the art scene at the macro and micro levels – read our report from the frighteningly fantastical Venice Biennale vernissage, and head online for our reviews of the degree shows at Duncan of Jordanstone, Edinburgh College of Art and Glasgow School of Art. theskinny.co.uk/film We talk to Edgar Wright about the music-powered car chase caper Baby Driver, and our man in Cannes reports back with reviews on new films

by Sofia Coppola, Bong Joon-ho and Yorgos Lanthimos among others.

Chastity Belt

theskinny.co.uk/festivals Get the lowdown on the programmes for two of the year’s biggest festivals – the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Edinburgh Fringe – when they hit the streets on 31 May and 7 Jun respectively.

Opinion

7

Photo: Conner Lyons

TAURUS Don’t sweat the small stuff. Agonise over the large stuff you have no control over.

LIBRA You ask the plumber fixing your broken toilet when it was he first got so obsessed with plumbing.

Photo: David N Anderson

ARIES Dating is essentially a sex interview and you immediately fluff the introduction, not sure whether to go for a handshake or hug. You nervously choke out some boilerplate platitudes as your interviewer tuts, shaking their head while you answer their probing questions with a series of ill-advised anecdotes. Pulling it back, you mention you excel at having sex by yourself or as part of a team, but they’re unimpressed by your experience or when you encourage them to ring two of your exes for sex references.

...aaand just like that, we're half-way through 2017. Don't lament it, just enjoy the sun as you roll around in Scotland's cultural offerings like a happy puppy on a freshly cut lawn.

Or something.

Call a wrap on May with the help of Marika Hackman, the formerly good-as-gold indie-folk talent who's acquired a little ferocity while crafting her new album I'm Not Your Man. If you were into the recent offerings of Angel Olsen, Mitski and Jenny Hval, Hackman will probably suit you down to the ground and back up again. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £11

After renaming itself Edinburgh International Children's Festival back in January, the festival formerly known as Imaginate returned on 27 May, bringing a nine-day programme of shenanigans suiting children of all ages to the Scottish capital. There's theatre from Scottish companies and beyond, along with film screenings, puppetry, dance, physical theatre and more. Times, venues and prices vary – see a full programme at imaginate.org.uk/festival

Marika Hackman

Mon 5 Jun

Tue 6 Jun

Wed 7 Jun

Thu 8 Jun

After kicking off on 2 Jun with Vinicombe Street's annual ripper of an opening party, West End Festival (2-25 Jun) continues today through until 25 Jun, bringing a diverse programme of cultural events, gigs, plays, workshops and god-knows-what-else to hunners of venues in Glasgow's West End. Today, have a little sit in the sun and enjoy Bandstand Cinema Club's screenings of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Pulp Fiction. Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, 6.30pm & 8.30pm £10 per film

Wrap yourself in beguiling dance talent and velvety splendour tonight at Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes. The esteemed choreographer has a history of capturing imaginations worldwide with his ravishing works, and with two Oliviers under its belt and glorious costumes by Lez Brotherston, this play based on the beloved film of the same name is set to be no different. 6-10 June, King's Theatre, Glasgow, 7.30pm, prices vary

If you're an avid reader of our Food & Drink section, you'll know that dedicating days, weeks and months of the year to beverages and foodstuffs is a highly contentious topic.

That said, we like a cocktail as much as the next person, and are low-key stoked for Negroni week (5-11 Jun). Civerinos, Black Fox and Nightcap are in on the act, with special bevs, events and workshops all on the cards. Follow negroniweek.com for all the latest.

Why eat dinner before going to the theatre when you could eat at the theatre? We use the term 'theatre' loosely here – we're really referring to Saigon Saigon Restaurant, host of Mary Cooper's From Shore to Shore, a play based on real life stories of love and loss from Chinese interviewees living in the UK. Ticket price includes a sumptuous two-course meal (veggie options available). Saigon Saigon Restaurant, Edinburgh, 7pm, £17.50-22.50

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Red Shoes

Negroni

Tue 13 June

Wed 14 Jun

Thu 15 Jun

If you're still on a high from exercising your right to vote in the general election, why not surf that wave with the 2017 SAY Awards? Nip over to sayaward.com between 12-14 Jun and choose your faves; not only can you help decide the next act to win the award that kindled the careers of Young Fathers, Kathryn Joseph and Anna Meredith, you'll also be entered into a ballot to win tickets to the ceremony itself on 28 Jun at Paisley Town Hall. DEAL.

The world of dcience has taken a bit of a Trumpshaped beating of late, so show your solidarity (and see some dank experiments while you're at it) with Glasgow Science Festival between 8-18 Jun. The full programme's available at glasgowsciencefestival. org.uk, but we think Pure Random Science Show – an adults-only experiment show at Glasgow Science Centre – sounds like a pretty ace way to spend an eve.

Glasgow Science Centre, 13 & 14 Jun, 7pm, £6

Today the Briggait hosts Design Pop Up Glasgow, a nomadic project which pitches up in some of the UK's lovelier venues, providing a platform for local designers to showcase their wares IRL. This edition engages with the topic of recycling, and over the three-day event will aim to demonstrate the importance of choosing the right materials. There's also promise of a 'Parmesan and Prosecco' segment, so consider us attending. 14-16 Jun, The Briggait, Glasgow, times vary, free

Annual arts festivalLeithLate (15-18 Jun) have stepped it the fuck up this year. Along with an enticing three-strand visual art programme and their e'er popular mural tours, there's a public poetry trail, an art bus, a handsome selection of theatre and dance and loads more. See leithlate. co.uk for full details. Oh, and keep tonight free for another epic LeithLate afterparty, this time headlined by Lost Map Records' Kid Canaveral.

Henderson Halls, Edinburgh, 9pm, £10

Pictish Trail

Illustration: Kyle Smart

Mon 12 Jun

The Briggait

Wed 21 Jun

Thu 22 Jun

Prefer to take your poetry a little less squeaky clean?

Get The Bad Boy Slam in your diary, an event settling a row between two poets laying claim to being the Bad Boy of Spoken Word. It's a public competition, open to all genders (obvs), and will feature "an out-dated format for judging poetry using an ill-defined set of rules" (their words). The winner will be given the opportunity to enter the 2018 Scottish National Poetry Slam.

Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, free

Edinburgh International Film Festival kicks off today until 2 Jul, ushering in all the usual silver screen excitement, along with stage and music performances, special events and even the odd celebrity sighting. Book a couple of days off, have a gander at the full programme (announced 31 May, see edfilmfest.org.uk) and go get yourself some filmic fun. If you can't wait, check out al fresco pop-up cinema Film Fest in The City at St. Andrew's Square between 16-18 Jun (times and prices vary).

No such thing as a midweek hump when Glasgow Jazz Festival's in town. And you're in luck, because it is!

After celebrating its 30th anniversary last year, GJF is back between 21-25 Jun, with a programme of syncopation, sauciness and sweet, sweet jazz solos.

Offerings are eclectic and varied, from genre alchemist Theo Croker to DJProducer Rebecca Vasmant, the SNJO to London based collective Nérija. Various venues in Glasgow, times and ticket prices vary

Illustration: Raj Dhunna

Tue 20 Jun

Film Fest in The City

Tue 27 Jun

Wed 28 Jun

Thu 29 Jun

A live performance of Jeff Buckley’s Grace by members of Fortunate Sons, Pronto Mama and Admiral Fallow, anyone? Er, yes fucking please. Start to End specialise in performing covers of albums in full, and have already treated packed out audiences to interpretations of Daft Punk's Discovery, Feist's The Reminder, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and more. Get booked in before it sells out (again). The Mash House, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £10 (also Hug and Pint on 26 Jun, 7.30pm).

The Sugarhill Gang are playing Stramash. Yep, that's a sentence we certainly never thought we'd say, but tonight you can indeed catch the rap pioneers responsible for 1979 hip-hop holy grail Rapper's Delight in all their glory in the Cowgate.

Sure, it's a Wednesday night but when else will you get a chance to see Master Gee and Co who rocks so viciously?

Stramash, Edinburgh, 7pm, £9-15

It's almost the end of the month, you deserve to kick-start your weekend a little early, right?

Brooklyn-based Detroiter Mike Servito's DJing Sneak's tonight, bringing with him the sort of house, techno and party selection smarts that'll make your Friday morning hangover feel truly worthwhile. Promise.

Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 11pm, £5

8

Chat

Start to End

Sugarhill Gang

Edinburgh International Children's Festival

From Shore to Shore

LeithLate mural

Theo Croker

Mike Servito

THE SKINNY

Photo: Seze Devres

Compiled by: Kate Pasola

Wed 31 May

Photo: Steve Gullick

Heads Up

Tue 30 May

Sat 3 Jun

Sun 4 Jun

CCA's mash-up of sonic and visual art, live music, film and new media Cryptic Nights returns tonight with Semispecific. Artists Charlie Knox and Euan McKenzie will take a look at the relationship between perception, memory and identity using found sounds and hypnotic rhythms in an "improvised DJ-set using multi-channel audio, projection mapping and a reactive light installation".

Sounds wonderfully weird, if you ask us. CCA, Glasgow, 9pm, £5-8

Up for a jaunt? Here's an unexpected suggestion: HULL! No, for real. It's the 2017 city of culture, and rapscallions Neu! Reekie! are heading down with Where Are We Now?, a badass programmme ft. Young Fathers, Hollie McNish, Akala, Charlotte Church and many, many more. 2-4 Jun, times, venues and prices vary. Closer to home, ginthusiasts will be pleased to hear that Edinburgh Juniper Festival is back for another slurp between 2-4 Jun. Summerhall, Edinburgh, £21.50, times vary

As we settle nicely into degree show season it's the ECA students' turn to down tools / paintbrushes / Oxy Acetylene welders and bring in the general public to have a gander at their masterpieces.

On show will be work by students from Art, Design and Architecture and Landscape Architecture courses. There might be gold, there might just be glitter (or rotting meat and latex), but you'll never know unless you turn up. ECA, Edinburgh, 3-11 Jun, times vary, free

Multi-platform arts festival Hidden Door wraps up today after a collaborative closing party featuring Tinderbox Orchestra and Kathryn Jospeh. Meanwhile in Glasgow, Tea Green host their annual Art, Design and Contemporary Craft Pop Up Market in Kibble Palace. There'll be all kinds of Actually Cool Crafts on offer, from knitted cacti to wicked wall hangings. Kibble Palace, Glasgow, 10am-5pm, free

Cryptic Nights

Hollie McNish

ECA degree show

Photo: Gareth Easton

Fri 2 Jun

Photo: James Mulkeen

Thu 1 Jun

Sat 10 Jun

Sun 11 Jun

If you're up for a rager look to GSA's Degree Show Street Party. The degree show isn't open to the public until 10 Jun (until 17 Jun at GSA), but tonight is dedicated to sweet, sweet partying with Heidi Chiu, Sara OH141, Still House Plants, Happy Meals and more. The party heads indoors to the Vic bar at 11pm with the likes of Juliana Huxtable and Junglehussy b2b Poisonous Relationship.

The Art School, Glasgow, 5pm, £9-12

If you fancy using the afternoon to make a bit of a difference, make your way over to Girls Rock Glasgow's all-day fundraiser in aid of their rock’n’roll summer school for girls aged 8-16.

The poster promises: “Learn instruments, make friends, form bands, shout loud. Confidence, creativity and NOISE. No music experience necessary. LGBTQ friendly.” Plus BIS, Marble Gods and Breakfast Muff are on the bill, so it's deffo worth your time.

Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, 2-11pm, by donation

Ever heard of the Workers Theatre, Scotland's new arts co-operative? If not, now's your chance to have a nosy as they chuck their inaugural weekend festival (9-11 Jun) featuring "exciting new theatre, comedy, spoken word, music and strangeness", along with social breakfasts, evening entertainment and community workshops. One ticket admits entry to at least six events – see the full programme over at workerstheatre.co.uk. The Glad Cafe and various other venues in Glasgow, times vary, £18-30

Happy Meals

Photo: Claire Maxwell

Fri 9 Jun

Breakfast Muff

Sat 17 Jun

Sun 18 Jun

Mon 19 Jun

Today's dedicated to the pint sippers among us – we've got a double-whammy of beer-based mischief on the cards. First up: North Hop, a two-day stint of beery fun, gin, street food, music and even a cocktail lounge (16-17 Jun, SWG3, Glasgow, £17.50). If you're over in Edinburgh (and feeling flush) get stuck into Brooklyn Brewery's Supper Club, featuring the brewery’s Head of Culinary Programming, Andrew Gerson and a cornucopia of delicious treats. 15-17 Jun, Edinburgh Food Studio, £65

IT'S PRIDE TIME, BABY. If you're needing a reminder of just how searingly glorious an occasion LGBTQ+ Pride really is, skip to p30 for a quick rundown in the Deviance section. Then, get your sequins / rainbow body glitter / latex at the ready as Edinburgh's annual explosion of acceptance and diversity carousels through Edinburgh.

The march assembles at Parliament Green at 11am, with speeches at 11.30pm and blast-off at midday.

First things first, it's Father's Day. Wait – before you rush out to buy a cider and pint glass combo gift – we've got an idea. Several, actually. Take your padre out for a few drams at The Good Spirits Co. Glasgow's whisky tasting event (2pm, £25); or take a trip to Edinburgh's Portobello-based beaut of a haunt The Skylark for a Smokin' Bros Street Food Takeover (3-9pm, free); or if you're in Dundee head to Duke's Corner for a Beer Tasting with Eden Mill (69pm, £15). Sorted.

Sashimi Rollin', They Hatin'. If you're not already waving figurative tenners in our direction due to this event's 10/10 name, how does the sound of a sushi pom pom making session sound to you? Because to us, that sounds fucking great. Turn up and allow artsy workshop throwers Primitive Painters to tutor you in the art of making woolly sushi "for wear, the home, kids' play or just for the saké of it". You're killing us, PP. Paradise Palms, Edinburgh, £14, 6pm

North Hop

Illustration: Xenia Latii

Fri 16 Jun

The Good Spirits Co.

Tinderbox Orchestra

Workers Theatre

Sashimi Rollin', They Hatin'

Fri 23 Jun

Sun 25 Jun

Mon 26 Jun

After celebrating its sweet 16 last year, Bard in the Botanics is back for its 2017 edition of al fresco Shakespeare. This year's season, entitled These Headstrong Women (nailed it) features performances of The Taming of the Shrew? (note the question mark), Timon of Athens, Queen Lear and Measure for Measure; all, as usual, in the lush environs of Glasgow's Botanic Gardens. Various runs between 21 Jun-29 Jul; see bardinthebotanics. co.uk for pricing and times.

June might mark the start of taps aff season, but that doesn't mean you can't make a bit of an effort with the tap you're, er, taking aff. Essentially, the Barras Arts and Design Centre are hosting a Vintage and Flea Market this afternoon, and we think it's the perfect opportunity to pick up some summery threads. Plus, there'll be retro homewares, antiques and collectables, furniture, and even the odd food stall too. BAaD, Glasgow, 10am-4pm, free

The Scottish National Gallery's much anticipated Beyond Caravaggio exhibition continues today after throwing open its doors to the public on 17 Jun. A collaboration with National Galleries of London and Ireland, this is Scotland's very first exhibition of works by Caravaggio and his followers (the so-called 'Caravaggesque painters'). It's a special opportunity to see works by the revolutionary Italian artist up close, so don't miss it. Until 24 Sep, The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, times vary, £10-12

Sat 24 Jun

Bard in the Botanics

Pack your Saturday full of art at Tramway today with the UK premier Nomanslanding, a major international work developed with Refugee Festival Scotland by Graham Eatough, Robyn Backen, Nigel Helyer, Jennifer Turpin and Andre Dekker. The central part of the exhibition features "a monumental machine architecture designed to be a space for listening, contemplation and performance". Performances take place on the hour Tues-Fri between 4pm and 8pm, and Sat-Sun between 2pm and 8pm. Tramway, Glasgow, £2

Fri 30 Jun

Sat 1 Jul

Give your night a nautical twist with Sensu's Boat Party, where Mano Le Tough and The Drifter will be leading proceedings from the Riverside museum on a clubby voyage down the Clyde (arrive at 6.30pm, tickets £27 admit entry to after party at Sub Club). Over in Edinburgh, check out Fractal Club as they team up with Untitled to bring in Undersound London resident Harry McCanna. The Mash House, Edinburgh, 11pm, £5-6

The 2017 edition of Glasgow Comic Con crashes down into Glasgow Royal Concert Hall today, bringing with it more than 150 exhibitors, meet and greets with comic book creators from around the world, plus panels, workshops and special events galore. This year’s guest list includes Pat Mills (2000AD), Kieron Gillen (Young Avengers, The Wicked and the Divine), Amy Reeder (Batwoman, Moon Girl), Marguerite Sauvage (DC Bombshells) and hunners more. Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 10am-5.30pm, £7

June 2017

Mano Le Tough

Glasgow Comic Con

Barras Art and Design Centre

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Sun 2 Jul Scottish born artist Anneli Holmstrom's compelling exhibition -}}}}}} : {{{+}}} continues today at Summerhall.

The multimedia project centres upon two new bodies of work (titled Levitation and Flood) which together strive for a visual experience conjuring the sense of "crossing between two distinct but interlocked psychological worlds". These works will be accompanied by texts from poets JL Williams and Janette Ayachi, scientific researchers Alex Murphy and David Carmel, artist-researcher Dr. Louise Milne and philanthropist Fatima Ashrif. Until 14 Jul, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 11am-6pm, free

Beyond Caravaggio

Photo: Sarah Donley

Nomanslanding

Mon 3 Jul Set your week off to a brilliant start with a gig from Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, a collaboration between James Yorkston of the East Neuk of Fife, New Delhi’s Suhail Yusuf Khan and Jon Thorne of the Isle of Wight.

They wed traditional Anglo-Celtic folk music to throbbing jazz basslines. If that sounds like a pretty eclectic mix of styles, you'd be right. And if that sounds like a tremendous treat, you'd be doubly right. The Hug and Pint, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £13

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan

Chat

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Fuck the Mainstream Author Jenni Fagan recalls revolutionary 90s publisher Rebel Inc. exactly 25 years on, speaking with key architect Kevin Williamson and authors it bore – Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Laura Hird. This is also a cultural call to arms. What better use to make of the past?

H

istory goes through many periods of darkness, so finding a beacon of light in the wastelands is vital. One that is political and radical. That does the thing we’re so often told is impossible — changing the cultural landscape for good.

Reaching into the lives of individuals and becoming part of who they are.

Imagining the individual as an important thing.

Bypassing the political propaganda of alienation and apathy and going for the heart, the balls or the jugular — and if it’s worth anything at all, doing all three.

I was brought up to think Scotland was the least interesting country on the planet, but in the early 90s everything was beginning to change. A summer of love had arrived. Ecstasy in particular was shifting culture, providing feelings of belonging, freedom, hope and possibility. It put a sense of love, connection and creativity, of sex and beauty and music and art, all at our fingertips. It was particularly exhilarating for a generation who had been brought up to believe they were nothing other than capitalism’s children. Under Thatcher and the Tories, we had been raised in recession, brutality and the rape of industry and community up and down the country. The aforementioned evil that was and is the Conservative extreme right had just got back into power for another five years. We were looking at more austerity, illegal demonstrations, stringent limitations on public gatherings. Demonisation of the poor and racism were rife, class warfare was devastating communities, fear was a way to rule the masses, political brutality and underhandedness was delivered as if there were no other way.

It all sounds so hideously familiar, right?

Edinburgh, 1992: several seemingly unrelated events were going on that would soon connect the two individuals who would make Edinburgh centre of the publishing world for a good, long, seductive, bad-arsed, volatile and exhilarating time. Who would publish a body of work to influence generations of writers and artists and readers to come.

A young guy called Jamie Byng had decided the best approach to wangling a work experience job at Canongate publishers [where he is now Managing Director] was by sending them a letter, with a packet of Mini-Munchies and a flyer for his reggae and rare-groove night, Chocolate City.

Also, in that late freezing cold Christmas of ‘92, a few miles away in a flat in Pilton, Kevin Williamson had woken to a hangover born from a drunken night that could easily have extinguished, before it had even started, the most vital new literary movement to occur in these lands since the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s.

However, in the early 90s I hadn’t even the vaguest Scooby about all of that. I was fifteen years old, playing in a punk band and living in a kids’ home. I read constantly. I was trying to find a way to stop getting in trouble. It seemed important. I was hanging out with punks, other kids in care or the homeless accommodation where I moved soon after, dealers, wiccans, pagans, ravers, office workers. Many of us sought out counter culture as if it were a life vein, and for me it literally was just that. Over that period I found writers like Iceberg Slim, Maya Angelou, Anthony Burgess, William S. Burroughs; all allowed me to vaguely imagine a place in literature for those of us who exist outside the boxes.

In the punk scene we traded B-sides, chord changes, substances, bodily fluids, political aspersions and unknown banalities of obscure Krautrock or lesser recognised No Wave bands.

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Feature

Interviews: Jenni Fagan Photos: Sarah Donley

would experience the breaking down of boundaries between thinkers from all backgrounds, collectively bound by discontent and talent — were finding a place to go and feel at home in a gnarly time of capitalist, conservative cuntery.

We were finding a place to talk, to make connections, to be inspired. The Rebel Inc. cry of ‘fuck the mainstream’ was a political reaction to being culturally voiceless.

KW: “I was into literature but I was immersed in the culture and philosophy of punk and DIY. And ‘fuck the mainstream’, that was my philosophy and a dawning political philosophy too — of 'fuck London'. That was our other main slogan…

It wasn’t a political independence thing, it was about writers and artists moving to London, it was a big deal.”

Irvine Welsh: “I met Kev and discovered that I vaguely knew him from when he played pool in the Fiddlers Arms back in the 80s. I had come back up from London and I imagined I didn’t know anybody who was involved in what we loosely term ‘the arts’ back home in Edinburgh. It was strange, that all those old faces from places like the Hoochie Coochie, like Paul Reekie*, were very much to the forefront of that scene. The great thing that Rebel Inc. did was to bring them all together and give them that visibility, under one crazy banner of publishing and readings.” [* The highly influential poet sadly passed away in 2010, aged 48].

KW: “I had met Paul at The West End Hotel where we’d all go for these writing things. He was wearing a Harrington jacket and a tartan scarf and he asked me if I had heard of Alexander Trocchi.

As I would find out, Paul was ahead of all of us on everything. We’d sit up at night talking and he introduced me to John Coltrane, John Berryman; he was immersed in counter culture in a way that made me realise I was only skimming the surface.”

It was during one of those conversations that somebody passed me the words — Rebel Inc. It might as well have been slipped to me in a wrap.

As it turns out, when Kevin Williamson had woken to that hungover Pilton morning after the night before – the editorial Christmas party at the Tollcross Times — and realised all the short story submissions he had received for a new publication he had been planning were lost, he set out to retrace his footsteps, and in one of those tiny moments of fate — a fork in the road that would grow to encompass a battery of talent from all over the world — well, he got lucky.

Kevin Williamson: “I honestly think if I hadn’t found them I would have just left it. I was Editor of the Tollcross Times. I ran a short story competition and the stories had to be less than 500 words, and the best of them I published in Issue 1 of Rebel Inc. It was Gordon Legge and Duncan MacLean who judged it… I took subscriptions for

four issues, printed 1200 for the first and it cost £2 [to buy]. There were lots of independent bookshops and record shops that we’d go around on foot… They came out in ‘92, ‘93, ‘94. It was pretty much one a year and Sandie Craigie* and I used to get stoned and read all the submissions. [*This esteemed and inimitable poet tragically passed in 2005, aged 41] “I met her at a reading, she had the most amazing voice, I was infatuated with her poetry.

Her politics in culture and language were so far ahead of where I was. I was trying to champion Scots as an urban diction and vocabulary where she was championing Scots as an ancient language in her own right. She threw a Scots dictionary at me and said — it’s a fucking language, it’s as thick as the English dictionary. She was always laughing, she had a great sense of humour.”

Just like that, what had begun in the 1920s was again setting in motion a movement where people like me – who with Rebel Inc. magazine in particular would for the first time see their own dialect in print, their own class in print, who

BOOKS

The magazine launch nights became a legendary experiment in chaos. Prizes were won that could get a person arrested or make them a better lover, or sometimes both. Connections were happening. More people began to hear and go along or submit work.

Alan Warner: “I sent in some poems and stories to Kevin at the magazine – before I met him – under the curious name of one ‘Morvern Callar’ ...ha. That is true. Of course, I was writing that novel at the time, but it never crossed my mind it would ever be published.”

KW: “There was this letter saying ‘I’m a girly writer,’ and I was like, ay? ‘I’ve written these poems, I hope you like them,’ signed, Morvern Callar.

Then there was a picture of a semi-naked girl and a bunch of poems and I thought, no female is ever going to write like that, and then I noticed that the writing on the envelope was the same as Alan Warner’s. Warner probably thinks I’ve forgotten but I don’t forget anything like that. I remember everything.”

Laura Hird: “There was an event going on at the back of the Filmhouse… I think Irvine was reading early bits from Trainspotting, and I just loved it because it was Edinburgh, it was like — real Edinburgh! Not some high-falutin’ stuff. I actually fainted at the reading. I’d gone from work and I had on a lambswool dress and a camel coat, most overdressed. I hit the deck! I went home and I was inspired by the event so I wrote a story and sent it to Kevin.”

AW: “I did win at the bingo at one of the Rebel Inc. readings! You got a raffle ticket with each bottle of Becks. If only life was like that. One prize

THE SKINNY

IW: “E broke a lot of stuff down. I realised that my mate’s wives and girlfriends were far more interesting than they (we) were! I think a lot of that sensibility informed Rebel Inc. as a salon.”

was: A Holiday for Two (= two acid tabs). I won a Playboy porno video involving ice cubes. Got home plastered at 3am bouncing off the walls, waving this porn video around and my girlfriend said, ‘Where the hell have you been?’ I replied, ‘Just at a poetry reading.’”

KW: “For Rebel Inc., it was Issue 4 that transformed itself. I think it is the best literary magazine ever published… it broke ground in a way that no magazine had ever done. Irvine and I did an interview on ecstasy and published the whole rambling interview with hallucinogenic artwork. It has John King’s first excerpt from The Football Factory, it has a story of Alan Warner’s about [rave event] Rezerection.

Worlds cross and re-cross with Rebel Inc. I used to go to Rezerection when I was about fourteen, float in wearing velvet hotpants and platforms with ‘lots of things I was carrying for the older kids’ lining my bra cos I was so young nobody would search me. And there was Alan Warner, and all these other early ravers; people with a collective desire to exist outwith the narrow confines of the 80s heyday for greed and grossness.

IW: “I had to practically force Kev to take one, that was his first E.” KW: “It was a snowball, I took half.”

I remember those exact ones, they were gnarly, furious, zappy — grind your teeth and just keep dancing beasts of a hit. They brought entire clubs to their knees if everyone had had them.

KW: “I fucking loved it. I was practically licking the plate by the end of the night. So, Issue 4 has got me and Irvine with Es on our tongues, and between Issue 3 and 4 I’d started taking LSD as well. Not in a massive way but in a way that extended consciousness.”

This was a time of cultural shifts on many levels, drug culture at that time was creating a way to challenge boundaries.

KW: “Aye, it sounds cheesy but before the ecstasy interview I’d never even touched a man and a few hours later there me and Irvine are, hugging on the floor of a hallway and it was a big experience, it broke through an individual, psychological constraint. For me physical contact was sex, that was it. You didn’t touch anyone unless you were having sex with them. That is the way the Scottish male psyche was and I think ecstasy culture was the best thing that could have happened, it opened people up to each other.”

June 2017

A few years after this collective of individuals had made their presence felt another meeting occurred that would take Rebel Inc. to another level.

Jamie Byng: “Living in Edinburgh in the early 90s it was hard not to absorb, whether you were conscious of it or not, what Rebel Inc. had started to seep into the literary ether. But what I remember extremely vividly is having a pint with Kevin in a pub on the Royal Mile, in what must have been 1995. I’m pretty sure it was the first time we met…

The moment I started talking with Kevin about literature, I knew that he was someone who had a passion and knowledge that was deep. And already, by this stage, Rebel Inc. had established itself as an underground entity of real power and with a twisted style that it was hard not to be drawn to.”

KW: “I met Jamie, who wanted to do a compilation of the first five Rebel Inc. articles, and I said I really wanted to do an imprint with all these titles and publish all these classic books as well. We sat and drank and chatted and it came out of that, it was a fortuitous meeting.”

“ ‘Fuck London’.

That was our other main slogan. It wasn’t a political independence thing, it was about writers and artists moving to London, it was a big deal” Kevin Williamson

JB: “From the word go, Kevin and I saw eye to eye on the sorts of books that we should be publishing at Rebel Inc. The first book we published was the infamous Children of Albion Rovers and everything seemed to flow from there. But it was the Rebel Inc. Classics we were putting out alongside the great contemporary writers that made the imprint immediately such a rich and interesting one. Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, John Fante’s Ask the Dust, Alexander Trocchi’s Young Adam, Richard Brautigan’s Revenge of the Lawn, Jim Dodge’s Stone Junction and Robert Sabbag’s Snowblind were just six of the Rebel Inc. Classics from that period that helped extend the idea of Rebel Inc. in print.”

KW: “One of the most interesting writers I met was Howard Marks, we had a really good time. Howard was an interesting guy to hang out with, it involved a lot of smoking. The second time we met we were judges in the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam and we were each given 10 grams of cannabis to grade. It was the best cannabises you can get. Howard did his job properly but I was just cabbaged. That was an interesting experience, the whole thing was just nuts. But we got on really well and I formed a friendship with Howard after that.

“I asked him how he ran such a big drugs empire when he was stoned all the time. [But] Howard used to get up every day at 8am. There’s a lot of myths around counter culture people but if you are going to do counter culture properly

you’ve got to be organised, this is a fact. You can’t just bumble around, you have to be organised and get your shit together and make sure stuff gets done, otherwise there’s nothing left and you’re just wasting people’s time.”

Howard Marks later went on to write an introduction to Rebel Inc.’s Snowblind by Robert Sabbag, about his career in the cocaine trade. By the time Rebel Inc. was reaching peak influence, musicians, writers and the media were all onto it. It’s something rarely seen in publishing and for the long arm of literary subversion it seemed there was nowhere, at that time, it could not, or would not, reach.

JB: “One of my strangest Rebel Inc. occurrences was presenting a copy of the Damien Hirst designed, limited edition of Snowblind to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. It’s right up there for bizarreness and surreality. She knew I was being mischievous and ended up saying, “I’ll have a good look at it later this evening and see if it’s suitable for the Royal Collection.” Which is where one of the 1000 copies of this beautiful edition of Bob Sabbag’s cocaine smuggling classic now lives.”

KW: “One of the most memorable Rebel Inc. nights was when we launched Children of Albion Rovers with a thousand people at the Traverse, featuring the Sativa Drummers, Irvine and Paul.

We had it on three floors, we had Manga, we had DJs, we had everything apart from books because Paul had managed to get the book banned [a legal injunction claimed Reekie’s contribution was libellous]... A thousand people were there, and it was memorable because at three in the morning the fire alarms went off and these thousand people in sweaty t-shirts bundled out into the snow, and it almost wiped out half the fucking literati of Edinburgh, we all nearly froze to death.”

As with all things that gather a cultural velocity and momentum there can only be one true peak. So with good grace, chaos and carnage and — much more importantly — a formidable literary legacy, Rebel Inc. was about to face its final volcanic eruption before settling back to stone.

KW: “When Trainspotting the movie came out, there was a lot of interest in the book and it was brilliant. But when the movie kind of moved Scottish culture, then all the London publishers and magazines wanted to know what was going on and suddenly Rebel Inc. became the hippest thing in Britain. You know, this was at the time of Britpop.

Every time we brought a book out, The Face, Loaded, ID, Dazed and Confused were all over us…

“At the same time, I started trying to campaign on drugs as a political issue. I started writing a book on drugs and immersing myself in drugs culture in every possible way... just the sheer scale of stuff I was doing as well as the publishing, plus the hedonistic lifestyle — everything then started to fall apart towards the end.

But the imprint itself got better and better and better. Until it blew up… it couldn’t have lasted, I couldn’t have kept going. My life couldn’t continue at that rate without everything completely falling apart and it did for a while.”

JB: “There is no best memory of Rebel Inc., for me they blur into one big beautiful one. But I have hundreds, not least each and every book and writer we published.”

problems related to publishing began in the 90s, while I was doing Rebel Inc. That’s when the net book agreement [a British book price agreement between publishers and booksellers] was repealed, 95/96 was when Amazon was launched, so you’ve got massive game changers taking place.

“I was against the removal of the net book agreement but at first Amazon seemed great because it bypassed middle men and we didn’t see the monster coming. It seemed to be liberating publishers, but in actual fact it was destroying them. So, it was an interesting time to do all that, the way we took writers on tour in Rebel Inc., all the things we did, it was the glory days of publishing for me… And writers were gods in the 90s, they loved the lifestyle of the writer and they wanted to be a writer rather than to write, which was back to front. It was also the decade Scotland was transformed, from ’92-’99; politically, socially, it was reborn, it was a renaissance. So, it was an important time. Rebel Inc. was just one part of a bigger picture.”

With that the gauntlet has been thrown. During our current time of political far-right extremism, with cultural cuts almost appearing to be a deliberate attack on thought itself, is it a coincidence that more zines are appearing again in print and online and literary nights are popping up everywhere, both long-running and new? And, of course, the people who made Rebel Inc. happen are still out there creating great, extraordinary work right now.

That response to centre is vital and necessary now more than ever. We need all the voices, old and new, great, big, fuck-off, non-permission asking, eclectic, dialectic, crazy, brilliant, scientific, philosophical, living, pulsing, breathing voices to respond right now. We need culture to hold accountability up to those who cannot see, we need publishers to protect, publish and stand up for a space where freedom of self is pivotal and right. So all of you, go forth, throw off your hot rock decorated duvets (like I used to do in the bedsit before scuffing down to Canongate offices to pick up my free copies of Rebel Inc.) or park your fold-up bike, or put your sex toys back in their well-worn zip locked bag. The time to respond is right here and now. I don’t know about you, but I’ll raise a glass and write, more than ever, to that.

Jenni Fagan is a Scottish novelist, poet and filmmaker, named in the Granta list of Best Young British Novelists. She is famous as the author of The Sunlight Pilgrims and The Panopticon, which is to be made into a film by Sixteen Films This article is dedicated to the memories of Sandie Craigie and Paul Reekie

So here and now, what has lasted was the most important thing — the work, the writing, the novels, the covers, the legacy, the care, love, attention and faith poured into the Rebel Inc. imprint.

What did Rebel Inc. get away with that wouldn’t happen now?

KW: “Almost everything.

“The 90s were interesting because all the

BOOKS

Feature

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Deep Time The Skinny meets artist Adam Stafford on a gloriously sunny day in his hometown of Falkirk to learn more of Reverse Drift, a collection of photography and music

T

he latest in a towering catalogue of projects from Falkirk’s own Adam Stafford, Reverse Drift is a collection of photographs presented alongside a piece of music that reflects upon them, a continuous forty minute composition made with synths, voice and a loop pedal that takes images as its starting point and spools out into its own strange, enigmatic entity. While the music came after the photos, it’s not a translation of them.

Rather, the two arms of Reverse Drift are intended to complement one another, to express in conjuction something about Stafford’s life, about Falkirk, and about decay.

“I wanted to do an improvisation album for a couple of years now because that’s how I write most of my stuff,” Stafford explains. “And then I was speaking to Gerry Loves Records about collaborating with them again – I think Andy (Lobban) and Paddy (Berry) at the label knew that I’d been taking pictures on and off for a few years and somehow the idea of a photobook came about.

And then the two ideas kind of merged – the improv album with the photobook.”

listening to it it seems very long, like you’ve been listening to it for three hours or something. But you can’t get away from it, you’re deep in it from minute ten. It really captivates you.”

As with much of Stafford’s previous music, loops are a big part of Reverse Drift and the repetition that comes with that is something else he acknowledges is not to everyone’s taste. “I can understand why some people hate repetitive music. My mother despises anything that is techno or dance.” But for him, repetition can be revelatory. “I’m of the mindset that the more I listen to a repetitive phrase, the more it starts to give up its secrets or the more that it starts to influence your mood,” he explains. “I find it hypnotic and trance inducing and the more I listen to something that repeats a lot, the more I start to get subdued and fall into that pattern of the phrase.”

So where does the title fit into all of this?

Given the prominence of loops, we wonder if Reverse Drift conveys something – concern, maybe – about the notion of repeating oneself, of taking

urement of time. For his part, Stafford hopes the music will offer “a temporal distortion maybe… something that will distort your sense or your surroundings.” Its sheer length alone goes towards achieving that, and has already proven a challenge for some. “I’ve got friends who I’ve given the album to and have been like, ‘yeah I listened to the first twenty minutes and it was really good but then I had to go and do something, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to burn it to a CD to listen to in the car and give it more time that way.’

“Which is fine,” he adds. “You know, people have busy lives. Not everyone always has time to sit down and listen to a whole record and that’s me included.” But Stafford believes the depth and quality of immersion offered by an extended piece of music is a rare experience worth pursuing.

“There’s a Boredoms [song] called Livwe!! and it’s about 45 minutes… it’s just utterly amazing,” he enthuses. “Maybe I’ve even ripped it off subconsciously because it starts off with Christmas bells chiming and this choir comes in and when you’re

Interview: Andrew Gordon a step backwards. Stafford had mentioned earlier that where we’re sitting is fairly close to a cold war nuclear bunker and, like most sensible people, he’s anxious about the future. “I think we’re heading back into those times. It seems to have happened really quickly with Russia and America and North Korea, it’s starting to get pretty fucking scary again.”

But his interpretation is more open. “The way that I thought about it was from the fact that in Antarctica, when there’s a lot of ice that falls off the ice caps, the ice that drifts out somehow changes the direction of the flow. It flows backwards.” It’s a reassuring image. Certain forces – the daily cycles, the march of time – might push you in a particular direction, but there’s always scope to push against the current.

Reverse Drift is released on 30 Jun via Gerry Loves Records Adam Stafford plays Stereo, Glasgow, 29 Jun. Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 1 Jul adam-stafford.tumblr.com

“ I can understand why some people hate repetitive music. My mother despises anything that is techno or dance”

Fading

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Feature

Photo: Adam Stafford

Ash Hill

Music

Brighton Morning

THE SKINNY

Photo: Adam Stafford

A “few years” is an understatement. The oldest photograph included in Reverse Drift dates back to 1999 and began life in Stafford’s high school dark room. That the collection spans eighteen years is just one indication of Stafford’s interest in the passage of time. Almost all the pictures are shot at daybreak or dusk, and in aggregate they comprise an interrogation into these ordinary, yet indelible moments that give a temporal shape to our daily experiences.

The music too, which opens with the sound of a chiming clock, seems interested in the meas-

Photo: Adam Stafford

Adam Stafford

June 2017

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THE SKINNY

Electric Dreamer We speak with Ladytron singer Helen Marnie ahead of the release of her sophomore Marnie solo record, Strange Words and Weird Wars

Photo: Aleksandra Modrzejewska

Interview: Gary Kaill

“T

he way Ladytron work and the way I work: it’s very different. Of course, in my own music there are elements of what I contribute to Ladytron...” Helen Marnie stops for a moment, exasperated. “This is why it shocks me when I’ve done interviews in the past with journalists who are perhaps Ladytron fans and they tell me that some of the songs sound very much like Ladytron and I’m kinda like, well, shocked because I don’t hear it at all. I know that I’m the softer, ‘pop’ edge of Ladytron and so when people compare me in that way, I find myself asking: ‘Can you see past, or hear past, my voice?’”

Marnie is talking to The Skinny prior to the June release of her excellent second album Strange Words and Weird Wars. We stop off on the subject of the band in which she began her career; only for a moment. The question: how might her approach differ for two very different vehicles? “You have to be able to differentiate between Ladytron’s music and what I’m producing, and see past the fact that it’s my voice on top,” she continues. ”And I think that people can’t see past that sometimes. I think that some of these songs would have made it onto a Ladytron album but would have been produced so differently. They’re far too pop. They’re not weird enough, maybe.” She laughs. “Weird in a good way!”

Of course, if your palette is more readily informed by, say, indie guitar rock, you may well lazily offer that the new Marnie album sounds just like the first Ladytron album. When in fact it actually sounds little like the last Ladytron album (2011’s lush and accessible Gravity the Seducer).

Marnie’s frustration with join-the-dots critiques

June 2017

is well placed. There is a depth of creativity and emerging personal vision within her second solo collection that should ensure unavoidable reference points remain just that, and don’t simply become dreary comparators. But even so, aside the bafflement (genuine confusion rather than real irritation), she offers with good grace (“I know that we have very, very loyal fans”) an update on the band’s activities. But that news, dear reader, in the spirit of the piece, is for another day. We will greet their return with the fanfares it will deserve, but for now Strange Words and Weird Wars is ample distraction and then some. We move on.

Our conversation had reached that point via discussion of the Marnie creative process. Her debut Crystal World was an expertly crafted exercise in sleek electro, assuredly mixing melody and mood. For every irresistible stomper (The Hunter), there was experimentation that caught the breath (the epic, seven-and-a-half-minute Submariner). But Strange Words and Weird Wars opts for a honing of the former and, bar the drifting lament A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, acts as a showcase for song craft artfully attuned to the dancefloor. Crucially, the record feels like a properly conceived whole.

“Well that’s good to hear. I put out a single a year ago and people kept asking me if it was going to be included on this album. But that didn’t make any sense to me because it wasn’t a part of the writing process for this album. So it didn’t have a place on this album. This album is definitely more coherent and a piece of music in itself. That’s more true of this one than of Crystal World. I mean,

I hadn’t really anticipated that I would make that first solo album but when Ladytron took a break in 2011, I found myself thinking that, yeah, I could actually do it. So even though Crystal World does work as an album, this one had a clearer intent in that respect.”

“ I do want to create pop music but I don’t want to create generic pop music.

I think that a lot of pop music now is over-produced” Helen Marnie

Now permanently residing in Glasgow, a new and developing methodology is at the heart of Marnie’s writing and recording activity. “Yeah, I feel like since moving to Glasgow I’ve met a good bunch of people,” she explains. “It feels like a community here. Most people interact and know other musicians. I guess when I lived in London – and I was there for a long time – I really didn’t have that. You live in your own pocket, to some

Music

degree, in London. So having moved up here, I met, through Iain Cook from CHVRCHES, Jonny Scott (drummer/producer). This was in about 2014 and it started off with him producing, and then we’ve moved into co-writing on occasion.

“Everything really starts here at home. I get the tracks to a basic demo stage: a basic song outline. I’ll then send it to Jonny for him to polish up. That’s generally how it works. With this album, though, we went into the studio and put a lot more work in. Lots of layering, just re-doing everything, really, so we got a better, fuller sound.

Some songs are a little bit more worked up beforehand but that’s pretty much the process.”

As Marnie stresses throughout, the album’s complex melodics are built upon a sharply cerebral lyrical foundation. This is none more apparent than on Lost Maps, a devastating and clear sighted report on the state of the nation(s). “Musically, I think it’s quite stark and robotic. It was a co-write with Jonny, so he’s responsible for the music bed.

The lyrics were written round about the time when the Syrian child refugee was washed up on a Turkish beach [three-year-old Alan Kurdi and his family were attempting to reach Greece when their boat tragically sunk in the Mediterranean] and that was a shocking image that everyone around the world saw. The line ‘survival’s not a crime’ came as a result of that. There’s hope in the song, I think, but yes, as you say, it’s a comment on the dark stuff that is all around us and that feeling of helplessness.”

As with the best synth-pop, Strange Words and Weird Wars perfectly models Neil Tennant’s ‘tragi disco’ concept. It’s luxuriant and fulfilling: all heart, all art. “Well, I do want to create pop music but I don’t want to create generic pop music. I think that a lot of pop music now is overproduced, to the point where you can’t really distinguish between, oh I don’t know, a Rihanna track and an Iggy Azalea track. It all sounds very much the same to me and it’s probably because there are a handful of producers who are popular and they’re the go-to for those kinds of tracks.

But, yeah, I did want to create a pop record but one with depth and with warmth, and I think that comes through with the instrumentation.”

As we close, talk turns to touring. These songs would surely come alive onstage, at volume and with an audience locked in to their heady grooves. “Yes, I’m intending to,” says Marnie. “I’ve only got a few things lined up at the minute in the UK but I would like to do more. I’d like to go over to the US and do gigs over there. I’ve been invited to play in Mexico and we’re just finalising the dates for that. I want to go out and play. I feel really good about it all right now. I’ve spent the last two or three years working on this record, so I really want to do it justice. That’s partly why I’m not rushing back into the Ladytron thing. I need to take that time because I’ve put so much time and effort and money into it, and that’s why I want to see it done right. I’ve got these two bodies of work now – this is my stuff.

“The new music is great to play live. I’ve only done two gigs so far but it feels great and it’s also great fun. That was partly the idea with this second album. I found myself thinking: do you know what? I feel a bit drained after Crystal World. Let’s do something less draining, emotionally. Not that it’s light, because lyrically it’s not. But something more danceable, more beats-driven, was what I was looking for. And that’s exactly what’s happened.”

Strange Words and Weird Wars is released on 2 Jun via Disco Piñata Marnie plays The Poetry Club, Glasgow, 1 Jun helenmarnie.com

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“ You know he fired me, right?”

As Tom Green’s European tour rides into Glasgow, our super-journo renounces his retirement to ask a set of questions as unique as Green’s comedy and screen career Interview: Fred Fletch oing an interview via modern technology is Buck Rogers-as-fuck, right up until the point Tom Green discovers he doesn’t have Skype on his phone. As far as I knew, ‘WhatsApp’ was simply something a 90s soda marketer screamed during climax. After 15 minutes of awkwardly emoji-ing each other over Facebook, we finally connect.

Fred Fletch: I had no idea how we’d get this to work. We’d have been faster connecting on Candy Crush or Grindr.

Tom Green: (laughs) It’s good. Skype is working, we can comfortably chat.

Where are you calling from? If you say: “From inside your house,” I’ll freak out.

I’m in Santiago. I’m performing tonight at The Comedy Store.

Your schedule seems impossible, you’re like Willy Fog. I’m always worried interviews are a tiring obligation for comedians. While I’m missing Doctor Who to speak with you, I’m still the luckiest bastard in the equation, talking to an amazing legend like Tom Green.

That’s nice of you to say. But, I never find it an obligation. I’m a stand-up comedian, and it’s about the audience. Whether it’s thousands of people in a show, or one guy on the telephone.

“ This is the first time we’ve had a reality TV president, and reality TV, by its essence, is about manipulating facts” Tom Green

Statistically, every question I could ask you has already been asked. Freddy Got Fingered: 2,900 journalists have asked about it. Testicular Cancer: 3,875. What do you want to talk about?

It’s the moment I’m in that’s the most important.

I’m happy to talk about the past, my movies, my old TV show, but I really want people to also know the me now; the comedy show I’m doing now isn’t a celebration of my past work. It’s about what’s going on in society today. I talk about political issues. I touch on social issues and also some really ridiculous, absurd stuff.

Ex-partners fear that, out there, someone knows all their secrets. Like, enjoying a hairbrush in the butt during sex, or about only getting hard while watching Lethal Weapon.

Are there parts of your past you wish us long-term fans would forget?

No. Every comedic choice I made in the past I made with a clear head and conscience. I identified long before reality TV that you could just pick up a video camera, go along your street and do something, anything, that has never been on television before. Technology was changing back then. We had access to these really small cameras and we

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were beholden to no-one. We did it on our own.

Free from the expectations… And, you know what happens when you defy expectations? You really capture people’s attention.

That changed my life. Before, I was living in Canada trying to figure out what to do with my life. That stuff led to MTV, which became internationally successful, which led to me being able to tour. You have to take risks if you’re going to do anything that people will give a damn about. You can’t just bowl straight down the middle and expect anyone to care. I’m pretty damn happy where my sideways bowling took me.

While I was waiting for the tech to sort itself out, I googled ‘greatest Tom Green performances’.

Google suggested that perhaps I was searching for ‘greatest Tom HANKS performances.’

Fuck Tom Hanks.

I really love Tom Hanks.

As I was saying: Tom Hanks, great guy.

He came to the taping of Saturday Night Live when I hosted. I remember I was running through the backstage area, dashing to change from one costume into the next, and there in the shadows, just watching, was Tom Hanks.

Creepy.

No, cool guy. But, it couldn’t have made me more nervous knowing he was going to be there.

Afterwards he was nice enough to come up, talk to me, to my parents. He’s an incredible actor and comedian. Do you know what my favourite Tom Hanks movie is?

The Burbs?

No, Castaway. I liked that a lot.

I saw you as maybe more of a Splash fan. In fact, I’d have loved to have seen you star in Splash.

You know they made four sequels to that film?

No, I did not.

Apparently, there was so much more we still had to learn about trying to fuck a mermaid. [laughs] OK, I change my answer. My favourite Tom Hanks movie is Splash. But not just for the mermaid.

They’re actually remaking Splash this year, but with a man-mermaid. Any thoughts on making sequels?

To mermaid movies?

Maybe closer to home. To Freddy Got Fingered?

The funny thing is, it didn’t do well initially. Over time it has drawn this absolutely phenomenally huge international following. I don’t think even Hollywood knows how big and popular that movie has become. If someone were to run up to me from the studio and say, “Tom, let’s make Freddy 2,” I’d say yes. I’d write it. I’d direct it. I had a blast making the first one, and if you can have an experience that you love, and that other people will, eventually, love, then do it.

I found it fascinating to see this timeline of opinion spread out over the Internet. In the early reviews, critics were writing things filled with so much scorn and hate you’d think it had come from the bowels of hell. Then, slowly

Photo: Matt Hoyle

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there’s some kind of renaissance where it becomes a national fucking treasure. Long after you and I are gone, in the post-apocalyptic world, Freddy Got Fingered might just become the basis of a new society. [laughs] Yeah, my post-apocalyptic legacy.

Yes, because you went out drinking with Dennis Rodman?

Exactly, which is a completely logical action I think. Dennis Rodman says “Hey. You wanna go for a drink?” What’s a kid from Canada in the big city going to say?

Some episodes of Doctor Who have been lost completely, from the years before digital.

They were real, they really happened, but the original copies have been lost, and for all intents and purposes, they never happened.

I heard that. I love Doctor Who.

You say: “Fucking yes!”

Exactly. Like who is not going to go drinking with Dennis Rodman?

They’re actually looking for a new Doctor Who. How’d you fancy being the next Time Lord?

I’d do that. That’s a great series and such a great character... to get into a part or project like that, I’d get behind that. Sure, tell the BBC I’ll be their next Doctor Who. I’ve just finished work on a film called Iron Sky: The Coming Race, and that was similarly a really weird, quirky role. And that sort of character appeals to me. I’ll always be drawn to that absurd type of character.

Talking absurd characters, you met Trump didn’t you?

It gives you a very unique perspective on the presidency when you’ve met him, and seen behind the wizard’s curtain. Being on Celebrity Apprentice you see that the boardroom isn’t real: that secretary you pass in the corridor, she’s an actress. Even those paintings on the wall… colour photocopies shoved into frames. Then you see people voting for a man to run a country based on a television show that’s faker than you think... Filmmaking is about making beautiful lies; and people just voted for one of the less beautiful lies. This is the first time we’ve had a reality TV president, and reality TV, by its essence, is about manipulating facts. That essence just took the most powerful seat on the planet. You know he fired me on that show, right?

COMEDY

The only people who’d say no to Dennis Rodman are either dead, from previous drinking sessions with Dennis Rodman, or they’re soulless cyborgs. I’m pretty sure that’s how they test for Terminators in the future, they ask if they want to go drinking with Dennis Rodman. If they say no, Bam! Blow them away. [laughs] Exactly, right. And I regret nothing. It was so much fun. I had a great time, then I wake up and the next day the future POTUS fires you for doing something completely logical. You think to yourself, he’s capable of punishing a man for having a fun night with Dennis Rodman, what decision is he going to make over something that actually matters like World War 3, or healthcare?

But, I thank him for giving me so much material for my stand-up act, and, if he could maybe hold off on killing us all, it’ll be interesting, creative times for comedians and artists. He’s given us something to stand together and artistically shout about. Some of the greatest music and comedy came from the 80s, from that bizarre Reagan era.

Everyone was worried about a nuclear war, and that was when comedy was needed most. People needed a voice and something to hold onto.

Comedy became that reassuring voice, and we can be that again, now, in the darkest hours.

Tom Green: European Comedy Road Trip plays 02 ABC, Glasgow, 10 Jun, 7pm Tickets £22.50 tomgreen.com

THE SKINNY

04 - 28 August 2017 | Tickets available at edfringe.com

70 YEARS OF DEFYING THE NORM June 2017

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Brokeback Dales Edinburgh International Film Festival gets its best opening film in years with God’s Own Country, an emotionally rich story of romance blossoming between a gruff Yorkshire farmer and a handsome Romanian migrant worker. Director Francis Lee tells us more

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hen God’s Own Country, the first film from actor-turned-director Francis Lee, premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year, it was quickly labeled ‘a British Brokeback Mountain,’ in reference to Ang Lee’s celebrated 2005 Oscar winner. It’s a glib comparison, but it’s easy to see why it’s been made. Both films concern two sheep farmers tentatively falling in love on a hillside; both make expressive use of their landscape (the earlier film is set in the rugged Wyoming mountains, the latter in wind-lashed North Yorkshire); and both are directed by men with the surname Lee. It’s an intimidating comparison to shoulder for a debut film, but God’s Own Country, a deeply cinematic study of loneliness and repression that thrillingly blossoms into a tender and sexy love story, more than holds its own.

“The comparison to Brokeback is not one that I’ve ever shied away from,” says Lee, who’s speaking to us from his home near Haworth, Yorkshire, just a few miles down the road from where God’s Own Country was shot. Despite the superficial similarities, Lee sees his film in very different terms from the earlier one made by his namesake. “I think it’s an incredible film, and beautiful, but very much set in a particular time and place.”

In Brokeback Mountain, which is set in 1963, its two characters can’t have a relationship because of the social mores of the time. By contrast, God’s Own Country’s main character, Johnny (Josh O’Connor), is in no doubt about his sexual preferences – we see that early on when he picks up a trainee auctioneer at the local cattle market for some no-frills sex in his trailer – it’s expressing emotions with which he has issues. When that young auctioneer suggests they go out for a pint some time, the look of bewilderment Johnny gives him is the equivalent of that old Yorkshire idiom: “Don’t talk daft, lad.”

“I knew I never wanted to tell a story about sexuality or coming out, in [the Brokeback Mountain] sense,” says Lee. “I wanted the biggest hurdle that this character of Johnny would go through to be this idea of falling in love, because that’s the hardest thing ever.”

In what sense? “I’m fascinated by how vuln-

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erable and open you have to make yourself when you form a deeply intimate relationship with somebody,” he explains. “Possibly the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life is to be open and make myself vulnerable to love and to be loved.

So that’s where Johnny came from really – I just wanted to kind of investigate that. ” When we first meet Johnny he’s hungover, throwing up, and in no state to work the farm.

But trudge out into the wind and rain he does, as there’s no one else to ‘tend the beasts.’ His father (Ian Hart), who’s so miserable he makes Johnny look like a ball of sunshine, has recently had a debilitating stroke, but he’s still able to bark orders to his emotionally repressed son. We learn that Johnny’s mother left the farm years ago (so joyless is the atmosphere there, we can hardly blame her) and Johnny’s grandmother (Gemma Jones) doesn’t seem the nurturing type. Dinnertime is a tense affair, with Johnny inhaling his meal along with a can of lager before heading to the local pub to dull his loneliness with more beer.

“I really wanted to create a character who was not just geographically isolated, but emotionally isolated,” says Lee. “For Johnny, it’s hard because all of his friends from school, they’ve all escaped. They’ve all gone to university or college, or they’ve gone and got jobs in town, and he’s left trying to hold the farm together.” While initially Johnny might seem like a stereotype of stunted Northern masculinity, his situation makes his closed off behaviour completely understandable.

“I think what’s really important for me as a filmmaker is always trying to find the truth, so it was very important to make that character as authentic and believable as possible. You do believe his situation and he’s not just this gruff Yorkshireman.”

As Johnny, O’Connor is quite a find, giving an emotionally complex performance full of contradictions and surprises. And what’s most impressive is the clarity with which he communicates these emotions physically, with barely any dialogue.

Lee explains that O’Connor auditioned by video: “Josh was in America working, so my first experience of him was seeing him play the character on screen and I was super impressed. Straight away

there was something within him that was really keying into the character: the emotional repression, the hardness, the vulnerability.” Lee was also convinced O’Connor was a Northerner: “maybe not Yorkshire, but the North certainly.”

When Lee finally met O’Connor in person, he was taken aback. “I was really shocked,” explains Lee. “He’s from Cheltenham! He’s very middleclass, a very lovely, sweet, polite, funny, joyful man and the total antithesis of this character, so straight away I twigged that Josh was obviously a transformative actor.”

“ Falling in love is the hardest thing ever” Francis Lee

O’Connor’s shapeshifting ability might not be the only reason the performance feels so lived in. As well as mapping out Josh’s whole history with the actor, Lee also insisted O’Connor go method, and put him to work on a farm before the shoot. “It was actually the farm we eventually shot the film on,” explains Lee. “For me, the really important thing about working with actors is to make them as immersed as possible, so there aren’t any questions like is this a real world or is that a real person? Josh was doing long shifts, 12 hour shifts, and he would do everything: birth lambs, build walls, he mucked out, he drove the tractor.”

The hands-on preparation wasn’t just so the actor knew and understood what the work was and how to handle the animals. “Tiredness would get into his body, the cold would get into his bones and his physicality started to change,” explains Lee. “Josh is a very sprightly, upright young man, but I knew that Johnny would probably be hunched, he would be cold and wet and miserable. So through the work, and through building that character and bringing those things together,

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Interview: Jamie Dunn Johnny became tangible. I know Josh quite well now as a friend, and I don’t recognise any part of Josh in Johnny: he doesn’t sound the same, look the same, have the same emotional range. Josh totally transformed himself.”

O’Connor’s performance is no doubt improved further by the easy chemistry he shares with Romanian actor Alec Secareanu, who plays Gheorghe, the migrant worker who comes to the farm to help out during lambing season and with whom he falls in love. Their relationship develops in near silence. Johnny’s suspicion of the handsome foreigner soon gives way to a beautiful, wordless fascination as he observes Gheorghe’s ease with the animals and his deep rooted connection to the land. “We worked very hard to tell this story visually,” Lee explains. “The script was very detailed in action, but not so detailed in dialogue, and in the edit the dialogue actually got cut because the boys were doing such a fantastic job without it.”

The halting relationship the men form is thrillingly romantic, but one thing Lee was careful to do was not romanticise life on the Yorkshire Dales; even more harsh and inhospitable than Johnny’s family is the land around Johnny’s farm.

“All the films I’ve ever seen about Yorkshire, or set here, always had these big wide shots of the landscape, and it was presented in this kind of bucolic, pastoral way. That was a way that I’d never seen it.”

Despite the spring setting, Lee and his cinematographer, Joshua James Richards, capture a gloomy, melancholy and brutal atmosphere that’s as prone to spontaneous eruptions as Johnny’s temper or the two men’s passions. The local tourist board might not approve of the depiction, but this is Lee’s Yorkshire. “I love it here, but it’s a tough place. When I’m outside my head is down, my hood is up, my hands are in my pockets, and so visually, on screen, I wanted to see the world as I see it every day.”

God’s Own Country opens EIFF on 21 Jun; Lee and his cast are expected to be in attendance for this UK premiere God’s Own Country is released across the UK 1 Sep by Picturehouse Entertainment

THE SKINNY

Scotch Tapes We take a quixotic tour of three eye-catching films with a Scottish connection in this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival

Words: Jamie Dunn

Teenage Superstars Grant McPhee follows up his post-punk film Big Gold Dream with Teenage Superstars, about the bands who emerged on the Scottish indie scene in the mid-80s, including The Vaselines, The Pastels and Primal Scream

Donkeyote Donkeyote, Spanish director Chico Pereira’s feature made with the Scottish Documentary Institute, centres on an eccentric septuagenarian who embarks on a gruelling walk through the United States, accompanied by his faithful donkey Feed The Straight Story and Au Hasard Balthazar into a documentary-making machine and it might look something like Donkeyote. The protagonist of Chico Pereira’s new non-fiction film is 78-year-old Manolo, who has an urge to embark on an odyssey on foot following The Trail of Tears, the 2200 mile route tens of thousands of Native Americans were forced to walk during their forced removal from their ancestral homelands. Despite his advanced years, Manolo is spry and raring to go. We sense his silent companion on the journey, donkey Gorrión, who looks to have even more miles on the clock than his master, is more reluctant.

Pereira’s filmmaking is wonderfully expressive. He’s constantly finding interesting angles and comic compositions to capture Manolo’s journey. We’ll find ourselves following the pair from behind through a scrum of sheep being herded or from Gorrión’s vantage point as he resiliently plods forward. It’s a style that exploits narrative, performance and humour, and this means sometimes Pereira makes small narrative interventions into his protagonist’s journey.

“Ultimately, the crucial aspects for me are ethical,” he says, “such as not to turn the characters into what they are not, or putting them merely at the service of a film.”

The title is clearly a sly nod to Cervantes’ tale of an ageing wanderer and his more down-toearth companion. Initially it was a joke, and a small homage to Pereira’s home of La Mancha, but as the shoot continued, clear thematic connections between Don Quixote and Manolo appeared. First of all, both men are unable to

June 2017

recognise that times have changed. “Don Quixote wants to be part of a world of cavalry that is long gone,” says Pereira. “Some aspects of Manolo’s lifestyle also resonate with this. Manolo still remembers and wants to walk through a countryside without fences and gates, something which is no longer possible in Spain.” We see this in action when Manolo literally rips down a fence to get to where he and Gorrion are going. “The disappearance of public paths, which have been overrun by highways and roads, and most commonly fenced-off by landlords, makes his desire to roam freely near impossible.”

They share another connection: they’re both dreamers and storytellers. “Manolo, like the character of the novel, goes out in search of adventures and creates stories about them. Ultimately it is the desire for adventure, more than the adventures themselves, that drive both Manolo and Don Quixote.”

Daphne Scottish filmmaker Peter Mackie Burns, who’s been celebrated for his short films, directs his debut feature Daphne, a London-set drama centred on an extraordinary performance from Emily Beecham Peter Mackie Burns’ first film, Daphne, has been described as “a romantic comedy with all of the bullshit taken out.” Its title character is a sybaritic 31-year-old Londoner (played by Emily Beecham), who’s going through something of a crisis after witnessing a random act of violence.

“We wanted to make a female character based on a contemporary story and Daphne came about as part of that process,” says Burns. Working with writer Nico Mensinga and producers Valentina Brazzini and Tristan Goligher, their aim was to create a character who was both complex and funny. “[Daphne had to be] someone smart and relatable, for whom life is pretty difficult and who

can’t abide bullshit. Especially her own. The character is unapologetically hedonistic yet feels dissatisfied with life. She has fantastic potential but doesn’t quite know how best to realise it yet.

We also wanted her to be foul-mouthed and funny.” The comparisons the film has received to Lena Dunham’s Girls suggest they succeeded.

This may be Burns’ debut feature-length film, but the 49-year-old director is something of a stalwart on the short film scene. Burns first made waves back in 2005, when the Berlin Film Festival awarded his short Milk the Golden Bear prize. Has working in the short form been good preparation for making his first feature? “I was very fortunate that a number of wonderful festivals liked my short films and they were generally well received,” he says. “Working in the short film format is a great preparation for making a feature film as it allows the director to develop their style and type of stories they want to tell.”

How would he describe that style? “Perhaps that is for other people to decide – but I certainly love movies with complex characters that mix tragedy and humour, which I suppose is how I think about life.”

Daphne premiered at Rotterdam Film Festival, where critics were knocked out by rising British star Emily Beecham’s performance in the title role. “She’s a wonderful actor,” says Burns of his lead. “She inhabits Daphne in a way that makes audiences forget they are watching a performance.”

The pair worked together previously on Burns’ short film Happy Birthday to Me, which acted as a kind of dress rehearsal for Daphne. “We knew immediately that we would write the feature for Emily,” says Burns, who points to Beecham’s attention to detail as being her greatest strength as an actor. “Emily’s performance is so detailed, funny and true that people might believe that she is the character. She reminds me of Gena Rowlands, and for me there is no higher compliment one can pay an actor.”

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Two years ago, Grant McPhee’s Big Gold Dream, a vivid documentary about Scotland’s post-punk scene went down a storm at Edinburgh International Film Festival. McPhee is back at EIFF this year with Teenage Superstars, which explores Scotland’s indie scene from the mid-80s to the early 90s. A good chunk of both docs was shot concurrently, but McPhee sees Teenage Superstars as its own standalone film rather than a sequel.

“Big Gold Dream was about a group of people taking on an industry and trying to break in,” explains McPhee. “Teenage Superstars is about a group of people ideologically opposed to a system and making their own alternative one.

They could easily have been set in two completely different cities or countries, it just happens to be Scotland.” There are similarities, though: “you can view them both as having a kind of anti-establishment flag waving message, or you can equally view them as two films which are full of great characters, anecdotes and fantastic music. Or ideally both.”

This second point is key. Even if you had no particular interest in the machinations of Scottish music or the post-punk era, you’d have still fallen head over heels for Big Gold Dream, such is the enthusiasm and wit with which the story is told; put the likes of Davy Henderson of The Fire Engines or Robert King of the Scars on screen and you’re likely to strike gold with a mischievous anecdote.

“Boring people generally don’t make great music, that’s pretty clear from making these films,” says McPhee. “Musicians are not regular nine-tofive folk, so before music is even mentioned we have an amazing cast of differing personalities and characters.” Part of what McPhee finds most fascinating is getting to the heart of what makes these musicians tick. “We try and find a good balance of musicianly detail and a little insight into who these people are without it turning into The Fog of War. Because really it’s the people we’re interested in. I think a lot of ‘indie’ documentaries are very po-faced and worthy – even some of the music is – but that’s not what everyone behind the music is like and that’s what we wanted to show.”

Teenage Superstar spans the mid-80s to the early 90s, and features the likes of The Pastels, BMX Bandits and The Vaselines. We wonder if there’s also a Chemikal Underground-era film in the works? “There is a very, very rough framework for a third film and a few interviews have been conducted. But unless there’s some funding it probably won’t go further.” This may sound defeatist, but McPhee’s clear passion for this material suggests to us he’ll find a way: “I do feel very duty bound to make people aware of individuals and bands who seem to have been unfairly ignored by the mainstream; creative people who really deserve to be recognised for what they have contributed to a culture – and there are many in the mid-90s scene who deserve to be known better. So who knows.”

Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 21 Jun–2 Jul. The full EIFF programme is revealed 31 May edfilmfest.org.uk

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

A Knock-Out Fringe ummerhall is now onto its sixth festival Fringe – for the first Fringe shows at the venue in 2011, Summerhall was actually still owned by Edinburgh Uni – but now, it’s a completely independent venue, run by a small, dedicated team. One of the HUGE events for the building year round is the Fringe, and although the venue is open aaaaall year with a busy calendar of events, during August, we open for [show]business 24/7. August 2017 the count is 140 festival events from incredible live music – Lift to Experience, Charlotte Church’s Pop Dungeon and mega rockstars Hinds – to theatre on all different scales with all different outlooks and a visual arts programme which is all free, all day, all festival.

Summerhall has done various things over the last few years to cement itself as a hub in the festival – in a super short time. One of those has been to work with theatre makers and creative teams, actors, directors, producers, visual artists making relevant and explosive work – and supporting them sharing their stories, from one-on-one experiences, huge projects, with

audiences. You can head down the venue and pick anything in the programme, and love it or hate it – you’ll end up talking about it for months to come.

If the venue defines an artistic policy, then it’s all about choosing work which has something to say about the world we live in, and saying it in an interesting way.

Pop to the website and see what takes your fancy – from Dolly Parton, to warzone jogging, to interactive performances, actual sasquatch in an opera, nights out in Manchester, PTSD, performers that people from Stewart Lee to Jodie Foster have loved, it’s literally the best of times and the worst of times (ON STAGE that is). Think of us as a fancy buffet, you can have a scotch egg, coleslaw AND a hot potato… dig in. Or hey, you could always start with an award-winner from last year like FK Alexander or Kieran Hurley and then go from there. Eeeeasy.

Mouthpiece

Photo: Brooke Wedlock

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What’s On in Summerhall in June

EDINBURGH JUNIPER FESTIVAL 2017 Summerhall, 2-4 June 2017, multiple sessions, £21.50 The Juniper Festivals have become a mainstay in the Gin Lovers calendar, and in 2017 we are delighted to be returning to Summerhall in Edinburgh.

EDINBURGH CEILIDH CLUB Main Hall, 6 June, 8-11pm, £6 Every Tuesday evening we have the best of Scottish ceilidh bands. This week's band is Tay ceilidh band.

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: JAMES HICKMAN & DAN CASSIDY Library Gallery, 7 June, 8-10.30pm, £10/£9 conc/ £7 EFC members Hickman’s emotive, soaring vocals and driving guitar is complemented by Cassidy’s ingenious and virtuosic fiddling.

NEHH PRESENTS...

RICHARD DAWSON Dissection Room, 8 June, 8-11pm, £14 Newcastle-based folk musician Richard Dawson returns to Summerhall on the back of his new upcoming album 'Peasant'!

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NEHH PRESENTS... STEVE IGNORANT (CRASS) Dissection Room, 9 June, 8-11pm, £14 Having cut his punk teeth in Crass, Steve Ignorant’s latest project – Slice Of Life – allows for the more contemplative side of his song-writing to reveal itself.

EQ: DANCE! Main Hall, 10 June, 7.30-9pm, £12/£10 conc The Edinburgh Quartet in collaboration with the National Youth Dance Company of Scotland, YDance’s flagship company for Scotland’s exceptional young contemporary dancers. The inspirational Marc Brew has created stunning new choreography to string quartets by Tom Harrold, Helen Grime & James MacMillan to be performed live by five talented young dancers from the National Youth EDINBURGH CEILIDH CLUB Main Hall, 13 June, 8-11pm, £6 Every Tuesday evening we have the best of Scottish ceilidh bands. This week's band is Ceilidh Minogue.

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: STEVE HICKS & LYNN GOULBURN Library Gallery, 14 June, 8-10.30pm, £10/£9 conc/ £7 EFC members With a mutual love of folk, roots and acoustic genres, their musical partnership has flourished and taken them to all corners of the UK, to Germany and the USA.

SUMMERHALL SINGERS SUMMER CONCERT Dissection Room, 14 June, 7.30-8.30pm, £5 We invite you to join the Summerhall Singers community choir for their annual mid-year concert. Suitable for all the family, and musical tastes, the performance will be a exciting mix of choral music.

TMSA YOUNG TRAD TOUR Main Hall, 15 June, 8-9.45pm, £10 / £8 conc The TMSA are delighted to present the finalists of the 2016 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award.

BRAW GIGS & NEHH PRESENT... SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Dissection Room, 16 June, 8-11pm, £10 Solo guitarist extraordinaire, ‘New Weird America’ pioneer and fret board shredding collaborator – Ben Chasny’s ever expanding and adventurous solo moniker of Six Organs of Admittance has created some of the mostly truly introspective psychedelic folk music of the last 19 years or so.

BRAW GIGS & NEHH PRESENT... JAPANESE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017 Dissection Room, 18 June, 8-11pm, £14 The Japanese New Music Festival is a showcase tour in which the trio of Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Atsushi Tsuyama (Acid Mothers Temple), and Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) perform

Charlotte Church's Pop Dungeon

as multiple different units. The tour will return to Europe May 2017, with our three heroes performing as 8 separate groups.

RETINA PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL Basement Galleries, 18 June-15 July, free The best photography from around the world - in the fourth year of the International Photography Festival.

EDINBURGH CEILIDH CLUB Main Hall, 20th June, 8-11pm, £6 Every Tuesday evening we have the best of Scottish ceilidh bands.

This week's band is Modhan.

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB; TILDON KRAUTZ Library Gallery, 21st June, 8-10.30pm, £10/£9 conc/ £7 EFC Members Tilden krautz' music comes from urban, old-time and rural mountain folk/bluegrass.

EDINBURGH CEILIDH CLUB Main Hall, 27 June, 8-11pm, £6 Every Tuesday evening we have the best of Scottish ceilidh bands. This week's band is the Pentlands Ceilidh Band.

ASPERGER'S ARE US Red Lecture Theatre, 27 June, 7-9pm, £15/£12 conc The first comedy troupe composed of people with Asperger Syndrome comes to Scotland for the first time!

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: CLOUDSTREET Library Gallery, 28 June, 8-10.30pm, £10/£9 conc/ £7 EFC members Bringing fresh life to the best of the tradition, Nicole Murray, John Thompson and Emma Nixon have carved themselves a niche internationally as outstanding performers of acoustic folk music.

Photo: Carys Eleri

SYRIA IN PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND WORD Basement Galleries, until 4 June, free A broad-based selection of new artworks by Syrian artists based in Edinburgh and further afield.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL MAGIC FESTIVAL: MAGICFAIR Summerhall, 30 June-2 July, multiple sessions/prices The Edinburgh International Magic Festival returns to Summerhall at the end of June with the Magic Fair, with magic shows from some of the greatest magicians and illusionists every 20 minutes across multiple rooms!

-}}}}}} : {{{+}}} Meadows Gallery, until 14 July, free Visual Arts -}}}}}} : {{{+}}} Scottish born artist Anneli Holmstrom’s first UK solo show.

WORK IN PROGRESS Red Lecture Theatre, 7.30-9.30pm, £3 A night of comedy with a difference – comedians trying out brand new material – off notes & off adrenaline

THE SKINNY

The Beat of His Own Drum The Drums frontman Jonny Pierce talks break-ups, moving on, and how Abysmal Thoughts is his most personal album yet

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band, it sort of by default infused new energy and new life into the process,” he affirms.

The Drums have always possessed a knack for the pairing of upbeat surf-pop riffs with Morrisey-esque ruminations on heartbreak, death and despair. That same aesthetic applies to Abysmal Thoughts, but this time round, Pierce is taking a different kind of outlook. “Before this album, I had pretty much always written about alternately, being left, or being abandoned, or somebody breaking my heart. Ultimately, I was pointing fingers, you know? It was very woe is me and this is the first album where I feel like I’m taking some responsibility for my own actions, and I’m asking myself a lot of questions.”

Rather than crafting a traditional break-up record, Pierce says Abysmal Thoughts is about breaking up with his old self. “It’s a break-up album, but it’s saying goodbye to the old me.

It’s really an album of introspection,” he tells us.

He also chooses to take an optimistic view of the hardships that surrounded the record. “It’s the artist’s curse, right? When things are going well, and you’re feeling great, it’s really hard to write a good song that’s genuine and pure and really earnest. It’s like you need a shitty life to make great art,” he concludes with a laugh.

Having written all the songs on the new album, as well as playing all the instruments, Pierce says he relished the opportunity to experiment with The Drums’ signature sound. “It’s going to sound silly to people reading,” he laughs, “but I’ve always wanted to use things like cowbells, and woodblocks and weird percussive elements, and saxophone. There were just certain elements that… weren’t [formerly] allowed.

“Those things add up over the years so now that I’m able to do whatever I want, I don’t have to ask anyone else for permission. I can just put it out there. Sonically it’s different, and lyrically I’m able to talk about things... I’m able to talk about sex finally, that’s really exciting! I couldn’t do that

before – Jacob always wanted everything to be kind of innocent and sweet.”

Clearly, the upside of fronting what is now a one-man band is that it allows Pierce to reach the greater level of intimacy he’s been striving for.

“When you’re representing other people, it’s really hard to get personal. I grew up with the Bible, so I’ve had enough [of that] for a lifetime,” he laughs.

“I’m kind of over the whole whimsical thing, and I’m really into just being much more direct.”

At the core of Abysmal Thoughts is this honesty. The album sees Pierce at his most vulnerable (‘I didn’t need another push towards the edge,’ he sings on opening track Mirror) and exploring some intensely intimate territory. Did he have any reservations about pouring so much of his private life into the album, we ask?

“You need a shitty life to make great art” Jonny Pierce

“I really appreciate the question,” he responds, “and here’s why. Whenever I feel like I’m getting too personal, or I’m opening up too much, I always get kind of scientific about everything. I mean, look, we all came from single-cell organisms, and we’re all going to die and turn into dust… so who cares!” he dissolves into laughter.

Of course, despite his carefree demeanour, there’s a serious side to Abysmal Thoughts and a deeper motivation behind Pierce’s candid songwriting. Switching to a more serious tone, he continues: “What I want most out of life is a human connection with other people. People don’t know how to go about it, and what I’ve found in my life is that it’s really about making myself vulnerable.

Everyone is under such pressure to come across as having it all together!” he exclaims. “Nobody is Instagramming that they’re depressed and alone and sitting in a dark room. I just like [the idea of] becoming vulnerable and admitting you don’t have it all together. That’s how you’re going to be closer to people, that’s how you’re going to make a human connection.”

Crucially for Pierce, this vulnerability has proved cathartic not only for him personally, but also for many listeners struggling with their own insecurities. “I can’t tell you how many kids write me, or DM [direct message] me, just talking about how they felt suicidal. You can’t imagine the amount of kids that are going through such shit, feeling really alone. Whether they’re afraid to come out of the closet or whether they just feel like an outsider – I can relate to that stuff, so there’s a connection there that keeps me moving.”

While the album’s title is a self-referential, semi-ironic nod towards Pierce’s own headspace, the term could well be applied to the chaos of the world at large. What, we ask him as the conversation draws to a close, would he say is the antidote to these kinds of abysmal thoughts? “Everyone is being a protester and an activist, which is important, it’s vital. They’ll go out on the streets and hold a sign, or they’ll rant on Facebook against the regime – but I think people are really forgetting to explore themselves, on a really deep, personal level.

“That’s my advice,” he adds thoughtfully. “If you can fix yourself then you can fix all sorts of things. But if you’re broken on the inside, how are you supposed to make much change in the world?

So, that is what I leave you with.” With a note of hope in his voice that sounds far removed from any abysmal thoughts, Pierce shows us all that there’s strength to be found amongst the sadness.

Abysmal Thoughts is out on 16 Jun via ANTIthedrums.com

Photo: CyCy Sanders

epending on how you look at it, heartache can either be a curse or a blessing. That certainly rings true for Jonny Pierce, frontman of NYC indiepop outfit The Drums. In 2010 the band’s self-titled debut, with its irreverent hit Let’s Go Surfing, marked them as one of indie-pop’s most promising breakout talents. But stylistic disagreements and in-fighting have plagued The Drums, and in the three years between their 2014 release Encyclopedia and latest record, Abysmal Thoughts, Pierce has experienced significant upheaval on both a professional and personal level.

“This entire process, the last three years making the album and just trying to maintain my personal life, has been very colorful,” Pierce says frankly, as we settle in for a conversation via a phone call to New York. “During the recording process I went through a break-up of a relationship that was so important and dear to me. It just fell apart before my eyes, and that was really difficult. Then a month later, my music partner, bandmate and lifelong best friend sent me an email on a random Tuesday saying that he needed to leave the band,” he divulges.

The exit of longstanding band member Jacob Graham marked a critical juncture for the band, who have functioned as a duo since fellow founding member Connor Hanwick departed in 2013 (fourth member, guitarist Adam Kessler, left in 2010 following the release of their debut album).

Suddenly on his own and the sole remaining component of The Drums, it would have been understandable if Pierce had simply walked away from the project. Yet as he explains, coming so close to breaking point provided him with some of his greatest inspiration to date.

“It was scary for about thirty seconds,” he laughs, “thinking that I have to make an album on my own, and then I just thought, well, I’m just going to do it. I just decided to do it, and I never felt like I couldn’t. Abysmal Thoughts, with this new dynamic of just being the sole member of the

Interview: Claire Francis

June 2017

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Look Up Pixx chats confidence, her time at the BRIT School, and why we need to look up more, ahead of her debut record The Age of Anxiety Interview: George Sully

t still feels kind of unreal, but it’s definitely happening, so...”

Hannah Rodgers laughs, sounding remarkably sanguine for someone whose debut album is dropping at only 21. It’s a sunny spring evening and the young Londoner has just finished her pasta. Two years after her Fall In EP – a release which turned heads with its sincere, dreamy psychedelia – and fresh off a steady tour schedule supporting some of the best alternative acts in the game, Pixx talks us through her upcoming LP The Age of Anxiety.

Developing the sound of that first EP, Rodgers has created an album of many colours. The psychedelic textures remain, laced with near-punkish guitar lines and her personal, emotive lyrics, but bolstered by synthy electronics and energetic percussion. It’s a harder thing to categorise – and to its credit.

“That was one of the aims I had with the album, where I did kind of feel like everyone was trying to fit it into a genre,” she explains. “And with me I’ve never really had a specific genre in mind for myself, or ever thought that I had, like, a crazily favourite genre of music. So with the album, I think of it more like a mixtape – it’s a combination of all of these different styles.”

The album also offers a change in perspective. “[Fall In] was very much centred around my own relationships and my own emotions. Over the last few years I had more of a desire to write about things that weren’t just my own experiences, and taking a bit of a broader look at what was going on around me and focusing on that.”

Graduating from presitigous Croyden institution the BRIT School, Rodgers' new outwardlooking gaze made her increasingly aware of the more worrying tendencies of our modern age. “I have this obsession with the fact that we are in an age of technology swarming over everybody,” she elaborates. “When I look at younger people now, I think, Jesus Christ, they’re growing up and the first thing that they get their hands on is an iPad.” So we’re all doomed? “I think there’s hope!” she insists, laughing. “I don’t think it’s all bad.

There are some really amazing advantages to the technology that we have; people can create music and art and movies and stuff that really are quite amazing to watch. But I’ve always taken it quite seriously in my own head, and I make sure that I always step away from it every now and then. Get back to mother nature vibes, and just actually look up. I feel like no-one’s ever looking up anymore.”

Look up, like from a screen? “Yeah,” she confirms. “We can spend our entire lives reading about things that are going [on] in other people’s worlds, in the political world and the environmental world, but really, the best way to be close and to understand these things and to have empathy for them is to actually be a part of it. It is scary when you realise that everybody’s locked away in their own little technology worlds – it can be very isolating.”

We know that Rodgers has an ecological sensibility, having seen her selling handmade upcycled merch at her gigs. “I think I’ve still got some in a box somewhere. I’ve been to shows my whole life and been like, ‘Why the fuck are these people selling t-shirts for £30?’ Actually – now that I’m a musician I kind of understand why!

“But I wanted to not do that­– particularly when I didn’t have an album out. I‘m someone who buys everything second-hand – I very much believe in recycling things, and I just decided

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that the best way for me to get my name out there was to put the effort in and make some handmade Pixx t-shirts and stuff, which actually went down really well.” She pauses. “I should maybe get back on that...”

We remark that she appears to be growing in confidence on stage, citing the difference between her more timid show supporting East India Youth in 2015 and opening for Glass Animals in 2016.

“It’s strange, since those shows that you’ve seen us at, we’ve now got a live drummer – which has made a huge difference for me. Before, when I went on stage I was terrified. I didn’t really ever feel that comfortable being in front of lots of people. As time’s gone on I’ve started to embrace it a bit more and realised that I do just morph into someone else on stage. It’s a really great outlet for me ­– I feel like I’ve found a lot more passion for that kind of thing.”

We ask what might have brought on this change? “It’s probably partly performing music that is a bit more upbeat! With the EP it was always quite downbeat and sad,” she laughs. “With the album it’s very much a different thing. It’s like a journey for me every time; I like the fact that I can use my stage presence to show people what the song’s meaning is.”

“ I’ve been to shows my whole life and been like, ‘Why the fuck are these people selling t-shirts for £30?’”

Hannah Rodgers

She adds that the addition of live drums has also helped in the song creation process. “I didn’t necessarily have a clear vision of what I was gonna be doing; I didn’t ever want to be limiting the way I was writing my music based on how I was going to transfer it into a live set; that never really stopped me from just going mental and doing whatever the fuck I felt like at the time. As time went on, suddenly realising it wasn’t easy to perform these songs, I got this drummer. And it’s a massive game-changer because I’ve managed to rebuild the whole live set. It’s nice to have a different version of the songs that we perform live now – I think people are quite often surprised with what they get when they come to a Pixx show!”

Rodgers has always been songwriting – “from a young age I was locked away in my room with a guitar, just constantly writing music” – but the biggest catalyst in her musical trajectory came in her enrolment at the BRIT School. “It’s a weird one actually, because before I was at the BRIT School I was at an all-girls convent, essentially. It was a pretty intense experience, surrounded by girls, and we had to wear brown long skirts and cream socks that look like football socks... [Then] I was suddenly surrounded by all these crazily creative people who were just bouncing off each other and just doing what they wanted to do. It’s nice at that age to suddenly realise that you can actually go out and do it, y’know?”

Photo: Cat Stevens

“I

Since then, it’s been a wild ride, including her first European tour early in 2017. “We went on tour with Austra – she’s just fucking amazing, an amazing woman. It was really nice to be touring with another girl. We played in this amazing old theatre in Paris. It was for a festival (Les Femmes s’en Mêlent) – pretty much only female artists – which was really really good. I’d never played in Paris before, I wasn’t really expecting anyone to come, and it was actually a really great show.”

We ask if appearing at that festival is part of a conscious move to be involved with efforts combatting the industry’s systemic gender imbalance. She says it’s definitely important to her, though until touring with Austra she’d never really worked with another woman before. (“Let’s Eat Grandma just did a remix of my track – I love those girls; super young, super talented, [and] just doing it for themselves, just fucking killing it!” she adds.)

“It’s a frustrating thing. I think female pop artists do have a tendency to oversexualise themselves. It’s a really disappointing and sad thing

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they have to do, or seem to think that they have to do, and I think it’s a bad, bad message to young girls who are growing up. They’re not teaching them to have respect for themselves. If you’re a female pop artist, you don’t have to be half naked dancing around with loads of backing dancers to be good. There are some crazy expectations that are put on female musicians.

“When I was at BRIT School actually there were no girl bands. It was all the boys who were in bands. Not many of the girls actually played instruments – lots of the girls there were just singers. Again it’s that weird thing where it’s like, why was it at that point these girls thought that they shouldn’t learn an instrument?”

The evening sun starts to fade, so we wrap up: what’s next? “I’m absolutely buzzing to get working on album two to be honest.” For all the the modern day unease informing her debut, Pixx remains a pragmatic optimist – looking up.

The Age of Anxiety is out now on 4AD Pixx plays Broadcast, Glasgow, 3 Jun

THE SKINNY

June 2017

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THE SKINNY

Cut Off Your Nose No stranger to these pages, video artist Rachel Maclean offers an insight into her dark Venetian fairytale, Spite Your Face

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ravel out to Venice this year and you will find the 2017 Biennale. A beautiful, horrifying extravaganza of contemporary art from around the globe in the chocolate box surrounds of La Serenissima, the six-month, multi venue exhibition is everything wonderful and everything disturbing about art and the contemporary world all rolled into one baffling whole.

On the northern shores of Cannaregio, in a deconsecrated church, lies this year’s Scotland + Venice Biennale presentation, featuring the inimitable Rachel Maclean’s ‘dark Venetian fairytale’ Spite Your Face. A 37-minute video plays on a loop, projected onto a portrait-oriented screen which replaces the altar of the Chiesa di Santa Caterina. The windows have been blacked out, light extinguished save for a floodlight on a statue of St Catherine to the left. Entering is a moment of wonder, stepping into the darkness as the sound of one of Maclean’s signature twisted musical soundtracks suffuses the space. It sounds sweet, but it is ultimately, inevitably, very disturbing indeed.

The work has been created in a remarkably short time – Rachel Maclean last featured on these pages for her exhibition in Manchester’s HOME, back in autumn 2016. She went straight from that major production to starting work on Spite Your Face, travelling out to Venice for 10 days in December to explore, consider, and write her script.

The Venetian location is baked deep into the film, from the mimicked architecture of the church in which it is displayed to the mercantile gold which suffuses the problematic heavenly kingdom it depicts. Maclean explains there is more to the gold than meets the eye: “It’s partly this feeling of Venice and partly the relationship between the Baroque churches and these sort of luxury stores, the Pradas and Guccis. That feeling of wealth, and the wealth being explicitly displayed in diamonds and gold and glittery things. But also that Trump style, the dictator chic that he’s got going on.”

The political climate of last December was (as you will probably remember) fraught, and proved to be greatly influential on the narrative Maclean ended up creating. “I was interested in particular in the way that lies were used in the Brexit campaign and the Trump campaign”, she says. “Untruths, bending of truths were used in quite a lazy way to benefit political advantage.”

The role of the media in trying to disprove the lies is something she evokes in the work, the slipperiness of truth as a concept. “I became interested in that kind of narrative,” she says. “I don’t think that as humans we are as capable at objectively, rationally making decisions around facts and untruths as we think we are.”

Spite Your Face draws on the Pinocchio fairytale, grounding the narrative in a familiar structure but skewing it and layering atop to serve a darker contemporary parable. Says Maclean, “It’s something that’s very recognisable to Italians. The growing nose is this very accessible signifier of a lie. I wanted there to be a base level of accessibility where you know where you are even if there are other layers that are disjointed or strange – you’ve got this that holds it together.”

As in much of her work, she utilises established cultural tropes and refracts them through the lens of today’s mainstream culture: “I was interested in this very strict moral fairytale about the value of hard work and discipline and listening to your elders. Taking that and creating this slightly amoral tale where right and wrong are mixed up and complicated.”

The morals become confusing as protagonist Pic is drawn into a contemporary rags to

June 2017

Interview: Rosamund West

riches narrative. He makes a wish on an iPad in the Other World Offerings temple – a digital recreation of the Chiesa di Santa Caterina – and finds himself transported by the blessing of a fairy godmother / Virgin Mary figure to a golden heaven where (through the application of a perfume named Truth) he is able to become a gilded hero punting rubbish perfume (named Untruth) to the masses.

Says Maclean, “I wanted it to feel like a critique of that rags to riches narrative – this character who’s individualistically pursuing this dream of wealth and fame, this specific notion of what success is. This Britain’s Got Talent idea that’s so prevalent in our culture that if you want it hard enough, if you work hard enough you can get there. And it’s this quite compassionless but seemingly positive narrative; despite all the socioeconomic barriers to you getting there, you can get there, and if you don’t then that’s your fault.

Because you’ve not tried enough, or dreamt enough, or whatever it is you need to get there.”

“ I don’t think that as humans we are as capable at objectively, rationally making decisions around facts and untruths as we think we are” Rachel Maclean

The work has sparked sensationalised headlines due to the depiction of sexual violence meted upon both Pic and his fairy godmother involving allusions to rape and castration. It’s uncomfortable viewing, made all the more dissonant by the awareness that each character is played by Maclean herself. She is violator and violated, and that paradox reflects the blurred lines the work displays around the changing cycles of power. As curator Richard Ashrowan, of Alchemy Arts, puts it, “Rachel plays all the characters in the film so in a sense when violence is being done she’s also doing it to herself. That gives the artist a certain kind of legitimacy and power in portraying those kinds of acts – the fact that she owns all of those roles. She is the male aggressor and she is the victim of violence.”

For Maclean, this is reflective of a broader narrative around the delicate power balance between the genders at this point in time. She says: “I’m disturbed by the rise in confidence in recent months of misogyny – particularly in the American election – and the legitimising of misogyny and anti-feminism. And also I think, more generally, an immunity to the violence against and exploitation of women’s bodies and image that is so much a part of our culture.

Women’s images are used all the time to sell things and we’re so used to it that it becomes almost invisible. So I wanted it to feel violent enough and awkward enough to cut through that, so it really did feel difficult to watch and wasn’t just contributing to the exploitation of the violence that we’re accustomed to.”

There is a duality to the female figure in Spite Your Face. She is mother-goddess, fairy-lover,

Rachel Maclean, Spite Your Face, 2017, digital video (still)

but also capable of this extreme violence. Says Maclean, “I wanted the female character to be complicated and not just a victim. It depends which way round you watch it, whether it’s his revenge or hers. I wanted her to be a powerful character in that moment and also to be an intellectual power.”

The film is looped, a necessity for the ad hoc drop-in viewers of the Biennale, but also a significant facet of the work’s meaning. Different entry points produce different narratives, different moments of glory and victimhood. It is also reflective of the inescapable cycle of triumph and despair, an allegory of contemporary designations of success and failure and, ultimately, life. Maclean

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explains, “I wanted it to feel like a narrative that was kind of unsatisfying, that you never really got a conclusion; there was never a sense of happily ever after. It just keeps looping round in this insane dizzying way where you feel the same mistake is being repeated over and over and over again — and it’s never going to stop.”

Rachel Maclean, Spite Your Face, Chiesa di Santa Caterina, Fondamenta Santa Caterina, 30121, Cannaregio 13 May-26 Nov, free Spite Your Face will be displayed in Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh in 2018 scotlandandvenice.com

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Life Imitates Art As The Handmaid’s Tale reaches our screens and the book tops bestseller lists, we look at why dystopias such as this and 1984 are connecting so strongly in the age of Trump and the rape clause. And just how close a reflection of reality are they?

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he newspaper stories were like dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How awful, we would say, and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic, they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives. We were the people who were not in the papers.” – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Ever since Trump – brash, bombastic and reeking of bigotry – burst into the White House, sales of dystopian classics 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale have soared. It’s not hard to draw parallels, and many have – from Orwellian doublespeak of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’, to the demonising of an ‘other’ to justify civil rights infringements, to state-mandated assaults on reproductive rights. In a time of political turbulence, with rising right-wing rhetoric and violence worldwide, the stage is set for Act 1 of a dystopia in three parts.

Yet if we find ourselves in Act 1, it is no longer Scene 1. It is hard to pinpoint the moment this became our trajectory. “Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it,” Atwood’s protagonist Offred comments. The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a bleak future New England, USA, where a theocratic totalitarian regime has overthrown the government, staging a terrorist attack blamed on Islamic extremists to enable them to suspend the Constitution. “They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television.” Then women find, suddenly, that their credit cards don’t work anymore, their savings transferred to male relatives. They are no longer allowed to work. Offred (literally ‘Of Fred’, a name change under the new regime) recalls her husband Luke telling her “hush”, promising to take care of her. They do not join the protest marches.

The Handmaid’s Tale is speculative fiction, ‘an imagined account’, wrote Atwood, ‘of what happens when not uncommon pronouncements about women are taken to their logical conclusions’.

It is a shock to realise the novel was published 32 years ago. A new TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale by Hulu is likely to expose no uncertain parallels with the world we live in.

While Trump’s withdrawal of funding to NGOs providing abortion caused worldwide uproar, we need not look across an ocean to find assaults on reproductive rights. In Ireland, abortion remains illegal. Women look to toilet doors for information on abortion pills. Three years ago a brain-dead woman was kept on life support to incubate a foetus against her family’s wishes. In The Handmaid’s Tale, fertile women are coerced into service as handmaids for infertile wives: “We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.” Similarly, P.D. James’ The Children of Men exposes patriarchal society’s control of women’s bodies – women deemed physically perfect are subject to invasive gynaecological checks while the text’s only mother is stripped of her autonomy. In Scotland, abortion remains under criminal statute. Women require two doctors’ approval to terminate a foetus; still, in the 21st century, deprived of the power to freely choose what happens to our bodies. “We are containers,” explains Atwood’s Offred, “it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important.” Dystopia finds its seeds in what is happening around us.

The UK is not the US. We have no border wall threats tweeted haphazardly by an arrogant egoist, nor Muslim travel bans that fall down in court. Yet we mimic its rising xenophobia, exacerbated since the Brexit campaign began; we close our borders to refugees while profiting from arms sales; our mainstream media vilifies

Words: Ceris Aston

the most vulnerable, labels the poor ‘scroungers’, calls migrants ‘cockroaches’. The rise in antiIslamic rhetoric is overwhelming, the inflamed threat used by media and politicians to obfuscate the injustices daily enacted on people within and outwith this small island. “If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies,” writes Orwell in 1984.

“ Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it” Orwell’s observation that “a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance,” might be a blueprint for today’s austerity regime. We have the family cap, limiting vital Child Tax Credits to two children. A woman may only claim child tax credits for a subsequent child if that child was conceived as a result of rape. To be able to afford to feed their children, women must disclose rape – some, for the first time. Despite a public outcry, the Conservatives call it ‘compassionate’. Orwell wrote: “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.”

If this sounds hyperbolic, these references to Orwell and James and Atwood, this linking of dystopia to the here and now, it is perhaps because we are not yet at the sharp end. “We

lived, as usual, by ignoring,” remembers Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale. “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” Women are disproportionately affected by the UK’s crushing austerity policies and for women of colour and disabled women, already likely to be financially worse off, the cuts bite deeper. Meanwhile, women’s experiences of sexism – at home, in the workplace, on the streets – are dismissed, belittled. A glance at the Everyday Sexism Project’s Twitter mentions sees thousands of women sharing experiences of sexism. Amongst replies claiming that sexism does not exist, we find rape threats and violent judgements.

Such threats and judgements recall the awful Testifying scene in The Handmaid’s Tale, where one woman reveals “how she was gang-raped at fourteen and had an abortion. But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault. We chant in unison. Who led them on? She did. She did. She did. Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson.

Teach her a lesson.” It’s modern-day rape culture to a T – not restricted to Twitter trolls but found across the media and even in the justice system.

In England and Wales a woman’s sexual history may be used to prejudice a jury against her in a rape case. On 24 April the BBC tweeted to ask “Do women have too many rights?”

If Atwood’s dystopia is, as she says, a warning about what might be, Naomi Alderman’s The Power depicts what is – with one enlightening difference. As a result of genetic mutation, teenage girls find themselves with the ability to give electrical shocks from their fingertips; a gift or curse that they can unlock in older women. The power, literally, is in women’s hands. It begins with a redressing of wrongs, a sort of vengeance – women able to defend themselves and one another from attacks; a 2014 report by the European Union Agency for Human Rights found around half of women in Britain have been physically or sexually assaulted. In Alderman’s novel, as the tables start to turn, appalled governments look to contain the crisis, seek a cure or try to use the women’s power.

But women are no longer subservient: “She could kill them. That is the profound truth of it […] What matters is that she could, if she wanted.”

Some women are cruel. Some are compassionate. Some are complicit – appalled, yes, but promising to take care of the men – evoking Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale. Women subjugate and demean men, rape them and murder them, control their actions and lives. Reporter Tunde grows up chronicling the rise of women, relates his fear of walking home alone though “Nothing worse has happened to him than to anyone.

There’s no reason for him to be afraid, no more reason than any other man.” This future is bleak – yet, as Alderman states: “Nothing happens to men in the novel […] that is not happening to a woman in our world today. So is it dystopian?

Well. Only if you’re a man.”

Dystopian fiction is hardly comfort reading.

It rarely offers solutions to compensate for its depictions of what is at best unsettling, at worst unremittingly bleak. Yet it offers a lens through which to view our own society – through its distortions and projections of what is, perhaps we may shape what may be. If the stage is set, there remains time to change the backdrop. Perhaps we can write a better future.

The Handmaid’s Tale, starring Elisabeth Moss screens on Channel 4

The Handmaid's Tale

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Easy bedfellows Art and science can work to enhance each other. We hear from Schema47, a research group who bring both domains together, and a filmmaker working with NASA to make a space movie that’s more science than fiction Interview: Jamie Dunn

Prudence Rees-Lee

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raw a Venn diagram of art and science interactions, and you might assume little overlap between both circles. The former is driven by emotion and self-expression; the latter by facts and figures. But ask yourself what practitioners of both these fields are trying to accomplish and you’ll see the goals of the artist and the scientist are fundamentally the same: both wish to understand the world around them.

As well as sharing the same goal, science and art can be extremely effective when working in synergy. Take, for example, the career of Leonardo Da Vinci. The world-renowned artist, perhaps our greatest ever, was also a visionary scientist, but it was through his skill for capturing line and form that he expressed his scientific innovations. Of course, Da Vinci was something of an anomaly.

Few scientists can claim to be great artists and vice versa, but artists and scientists can work together, and these collaborations – such as those explored on podcast and performance series Transmission – could enhance their own research projects and practices.

Collaborations between artists and science This is the ambition of Schema47, a research group who wish to bring both domains together to develop work that exists outside the traditional labels. “Through working with scientists, I’ve found they can feel very isolated,” says musician/ creative technologist Prudence Rees-Lee, a member of Schema47. “To be at the top of their field they’ve had to pursue advanced degrees in increasingly specialised disciplines and struggle to get their ideas out of the scientific community.”

By working in collaboration with artists, Rees-Lee argues that scientists’ ideas and innovations can break out of this science ghetto: “When artists create work about their research it engages the public in a way that pure data cannot. It can also help scientists see their research in a broader cultural context.”

Schema47 is made up of two artists (Rees-Lee and choreographer Sebastian Peters Lazaro), and two scientists (evolutionary biologist Davi Ortega and planetary scientists/roboticist Tom André Nordheim). “A large part of what we do is to facilitate discussions around topics such as the limits of our perception and the ability of art and science to offer portals to the sublime,” explains Rees-Lee. “Sharing our arts practices with scientists, and having the scientists share their work environments with us, has also been invaluable.

In many cases it is difficult to predict what an artist will find interesting about a science lab, or what a scientist will find interesting in a studio,

so just being able to visit with no strict agenda has been great.”

A current Schema47 project is the search for ‘shadow life,’ which sees the group investigate the existence of a set of organisms that are hypothesised to coexist with life on Earth. “If they do find anything it will suggest that life could have evolved twice on Earth,” says Rees-Lee, “and challenge the way we think about the origins of life and our place at the top of the evolutionary pyramid.”

Rees-Lee explains that artists would be invaluable in addressing cultural and philosophical implications of such a discovery. “Art is a medium which can give you information on many levels,” she says, “through cognitive, emotional and intuitive channels. To properly understand the implications of shadow life I think we would need to embrace all of these ways of knowing.”

Filmmaking’s ties to science One artform that is particularly entangled with science is filmmaking. Just over a century ago, the Lumière brothers invented cinema by transforming the peepshow into a projected moving image, and the medium remains as connected to science as it did in those pioneering days. “Film constantly pushes science and vice versa,” says filmmaker Etana Jacobson of UCLA. “The further you go as a filmmaker in shooting, cutting, doing FX on your films, you will learn codecs, frame rates, formats. There are times you’ll feel more technical than creative.”

Jacobson’s current film project is One Mars, which she describes as “an action-packed adventure about a rogue Gene Hunter fighting to save a partly terraformed Mars.” The film is set in 2320, but this shouldn’t be mistaken for science fiction: the science is based on accurate, up-to-date info working with NASA Mars Mission scientists.

“This is a new vision of Mars we’ve never seen onscreen,” she says, “a vibrant, violent, genetically engineered world. Future humans are part of it. It’s a gene-exchanging population and we’ll look, feel and act in exciting new ways.”

Whether it’s discovering a “shadow biosphere”, visiting Mars, or other more pressing scientific concerns like global warming, art can humanise the science, help laypeople get their head around its abstract concepts, and most importantly make us care.

Listen to Transmission, a podcast and performance series that speculates on what would happen if we suddenly knew we were no longer alone in the universe, at transmiss.io/n/podcast

transmission transmiss.io/n

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SAY My Name, SAY My Name We look at the twenty albums making up the longlist for this year’s Scottish Album of the Year prize

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he Scottish Album of the Year (SAY for short) Award was launched in 2012 to recognise outstanding talent within Scotland’s thriving music scene. This year sees the award scheme, backed

by Creative Scotland, celebrate its sixth year and the 20-strong longlist, decided by 100 impartial nominators from across press, radio, music venues and elsewhere in the arts, has been decided.

As well as a judging panel to help select the ten albums which will make the shortlist (announced on 15 Jun), there will be a public vote from 12-14 Jun where you, the lovely reader (and listener), can vote for your favourite album from the longlist.

The winner of the SAY Award 2017 will be announced at an award ceremony at Paisley Town Hall on 28 Jun. The winner will receive a cash prize of £20,000 and each of the other shortlisted artists will receive £1,000. Each shortlisted nominee will also receive a unique SAY Award designed and produced by the winner of the SAY Design Commission; a prize supported by Renfrewshire Council’s new business investment hub InCube to create the awards for the shortlisted artists.

Without further ado, let’s look at this year’s longlist, in alphabetical order.

Adam Holmes and The Embers – Brighter Still [10 Jun 2016 / Gogar Records] Brighter Still is the second album from Adam Holmes, this time accompanied by his band The Embers. Recorded at Glasgow’s Gloworm Studios, the songs combine textures of folk and soul music and feature some guest vocals from Eddi Reader.

C Duncan – The Midnight Sun [7 Oct 2016 / FatCat Records] The Midnight Sun is the second album from singer-songwriter C Duncan. Entirely written and recorded in his Glasgow flat, inspired by the 1960s cult sci-fi TV series, The Twilight Zone, it takes on a more electronic and dreamy sound than his Architect debut.

Ela Orleans – Circles of Upper and Lower Hell [7 Jul 2016 / Night School] Circles of Upper and Lower Hell is the seventh album from Polish-born, Glasgow-based sound artist and composer Ela Orleans. Consisting of 25 tracks, the 73-minute-long album is loosely based on the story of Dante’s Inferno but infused with deep personal experiences, incorporating art, orchestral textures, synth-pop and electronica.

Fatherson – Open Book [3 Jun 2016 / Easy Life/Sony] Recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studio in South Wales with Scottish producer Bruce Rintoul, and mixed by Adam Noble (Placebo / Nothing But Thieves / Don Bronco), Open Book is the second studio album from Fatherson and is full of emotional and uplifting tracks.

Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack [8 Apr 2016 / Atlantic Records]

Words: Tallah Brash

Sacred Paws – Strike a Match [27 Jan 2017 / Rock Action]

as Meursault, I Will Kill Again followed shortly after. Originally intended as a straight-up rock album following in the footsteps of Something for the Weakened, the final result is a much more stripped-back affair.

Modern Studies – Swell to Great [12 Sep 2016 / Song, by Toad]

Formed in 2003, Painting of a Panic Attack is the fifth studio album from Selkirk’s Frightened Rabbit. Over the course of their career, Frabbit frontman Scott Hutchison has become a master of emotionally honest lyrics and continues to make poetry out of misery on their latest album.

Working throughout the year at Pumpkinfield – Pete Harvey’s rural Perthshire studio – Modern Studies shaped a set of Emily Scott’s songs, drawing largely from the salt and spray of the sea.

Their communal ‘arts-und-crafts-werk’ resulted in their debut album, Swell to Great, named after an organ stop.

Honeyblood – Babes Never Die [4 Nov 2016 / FatCat Records] Recorded at London’s Fish Factory studio by acclaimed producer James Dring (Jamie T / Gorillaz), Babes Never Die is the second album from Scottish duo Honeyblood. The urgent lo-fi charm that defined their debut still pulses from its core, but the evolution that’s taken place is undeniable.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Damage and Joy [24 Mar 2017 / Artificial Plastic Records] The Jesus and Mary Chain have been on the go since 1983. Breaking up in 1999, the band got back together in 2007 for an appearance at Coachella, and in 2015 went on a world tour celebrating 30 years since the release of landmark album Psychocandy. Damage and Joy is the first album from the Reid brothers and co since 1998’s Munki and a welcome return to form.

Mogwai – Atomic [1 Apr 2016 / Rock Action]

Mogwai’s Atomic is an original soundtrack composed for Mark Cousins’ documentary film about nuclear history; Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise. The film uses only archive footage to explore life and death in the nuclear age, and Mogwai’s soundtrack effortlessly encapsulates both the nightmare of atomic power as well as its dreamlike qualities.

Pictish Trail – Future Echoes [9 Sep 2016 / Lost Map]

Future Echoes is the latest long player from Eigg-based singer-songwriter and Lost Map label boss Johnny Lynch, aka Pictish Trail. His latest offering is a very personal musing on mortality, the death of friendships and the finality of things, representing his most confident, cohesive and pop-savvy collection of music to date.

King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman [2 Sep 2016 / Domino] Astronaut Meets Appleman is the latest release from Fife’s Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote.

It explores the tension and harmony between tradition and technology – between analogue and digital philosophies – and according to Anderson it invokes a feeling of “being caught between heaven and earth”.

Rachel Newton – Here’s My Heart Come Take It [15 Apr 2016 / Shadowside Records] Here’s My Heart Come Take It is the third album from singer-songwriter and harpist Rachel Newton. Newton specialises in interpreting folk songs in both English and Gaelic as well as writing and arranging her own music. Here’s My Heart… is a bold combination of traditional folk and original composition set in a contemporary soundscape.

Konx-Om-Pax – Caramel [8 Jul 2016 / Planet Mu]

Caramel is the second album from Glasgow’s Tom Scholefield, aka Konx-Om-Pax and is quite a different record from the dark ambience of his debut, Regional Surrealism. Although it’s primarily a beatless album, Caramel has a lightness and energy about it within its still very ambient walls.

Meursault – I Will Kill Again [27 Feb 2017 / Song, by Toad] In 2014 Neil Pennycook called time on Meursault, instead opting to go it alone under the moniker Supermoon. Announcing in 2016 that he was back

RM Hubbert – Telling the Trees [29 Apr 2016 / Chemikal Underground] Returning to the collaborative format which saw RM Hubbert reconnect with a host of old friends on 2012’s Thirteen Lost & Found, Hubby’s latest offering, Telling the Trees, sees an extraordinary cast of musicians and songwriters brought together once again. The collaborators include Anneke Kampman, Marnie, Kathryn Joseph, Martha Ffion and more.

London/Glasgow duo Sacred Paws’ uplifting debut LP, Strike a Match, was produced by the band along with Tony Doogan (Mogwai / Belle & Sebastian / Teenage Fanclub) at Castle Doom, Glasgow and mastered at Abbey Road Studios. It’s a vibrant collection of songs which effortlessly combines infectious indie-pop and post-punk with African highlife guitars.

Starless – Starless [27 May 2016 / Marina Records] Paul McGeechan, aka Starless, released his lushly orchestrated self-titled debut album last year.

Recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the album is both epic and unique and features an array of collaborators from Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile) and Karen Matheson (Capercaillie) to Julie Fowlis and Chris Thomson (The Bathers).

Teenage Fanclub – Here [9 Sep 2016 / PeMa]

Here was recorded in Provence, France and Pollokshields, mixed in Hamburg, and mastered in London. The band worked on it slowly until they were happy with it, and then they put it out.

Since their inception in 1989 and now, not much has changed, they’re still doing the same thing, in much the same way as they always have.

TeenCanteen – Say It All With a Kiss [9 Sep 2016 / Last Night From Glasgow] TeenCanteen are Carla Easton, Sita Pieracinni, Chloe Philip and Deborah Smith. Recorded in mono and produced by Stephen Watkins, the Glasgow four-piece released debut album Say It All With a Kiss last year via the Last Night From Glasgow label. The album features Aurora Engine and The Cairn String Quartet.

VUKOVI – VUKOVI [10 Mar 2017 / Lab Records]

Scottish quartet VUKOVI mix heavy rock riffs with melodic, catchy vocals to create a sound that is as intense as it is fun. Fronted by Janine Shilstone, they’re best known for their raucous live show and their self-titled debut lived up to the hype with critical acclaim internationally as well as on home turf.

Previous SAY Award Winners...

2012: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older 2013: RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found 2014: Young Fathers – Tape Two 2015: Kathryn Joseph – Bones You Have Thrown Me...

2016: Anna Meredith – Varmints The SAY Award public vote takes place from 12-14 Jun The SAY Award shortlist will be announced on 15 Jun The SAY Award 2017 will take place at Paisley Town Hall on 28 Jun sayaward.com

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Music

THE SKINNY

LI FE

Sorry, Not Sorry

ST Y LE

I went cold turkey on the word sorry in the name of feminism and it didn’t go particularly well. Here’s everything I learned...

Words: Kate Pasola Illustration: Lucy Kirk

I

say sorry too much. In the last month I’ve had my relentlessly apologetic nature pointed out at least ten times.

One of the interventions took place in a White Russian bar after I hedged a request for a teaspoon between apologies and gratuitous thank-yous.

My friend was aghast; “You deserve the teaspoon!

Don’t apologise so much.” It was ironic, as historically I’ve teased this woman for her own charmingly deferential disposition. Though she’s an inspiring, powerful and organised person who nails her role at a national economics magazine, she sometimes talks like a female Hugh Grant (except with kinder intentions and 100% less sleaze). “Women say sorry all the time. I know I do,” she continued. “I’m trying to work on it – you should too.”

The next day at a pub quiz I apologised to a Jewish friend for my ignorance to the date of Passover. I’m not Jewish. “Literally, why would you need to apologise for that? Stop it. You apologise all the time,” he responded, going on to explain that he, as a gay man also finds himself embroidering all his sentences with sorries. “I think women and minorities say sorry a lot because we feel our existence is putting other people out. It’s hard to stop, but we need to.” He described the elation one of his female friends experienced after cutting out unnecessary repentance – I was sold.

So I conducted an experiment to address the situation. Originally, I planned only to quit apologies for trivial things, meaning I reserved ‘sorry’ for strictly serious circumstances. That plan was coming along nicely until a fatal flaw dawned on me – how does someone with a warped grasp of what’s worth an apology suddenly learn where to draw the line? I’m a sorry junkie, and there was only one option for me: cold turkey. Even if only for one day. ...I didn’t last an hour. ‘Sorry’ is so baked into my being that half the time I hadn’t even realised the word had left my mouth before colleagues were pointing it out. And, even when I managed to hold in the urge, I found sneaky ways to circumnavigate the ban. “I know this is a bit of an inconvenience, but…” “this might be my fault, but” “I don’t want you to think I’m bragging, but…” “Oh, wow, I’m in your way here,” “I don’t want to disturb you” and on, and on, and on.

I know what you’re thinking – perhaps it’s just a British thing? After all, we might be a Brexitvoting, Tory-hugging hellhole but by golly do we revel in a good sorry sesh. OK, my apologies could be partially due to Britishness, but I’d be willing to put serious dollar to it having something to do with my womanhood too.

It’d be a pretty risk-free bet though, as my intuition is supported by a decent amount of research. Though there isn’t much empirical evidence that women apologise more than men, there exist quite a few studies proving that gender can be a predictor of a person’s relationship with the word sorry; when it’s appropriate, when it’s overused and when it’s underused.

A 2015 YouGov poll of 1600 people found that on the whole, men believed both genders got the balance ‘about right’ when it comes to apologising. Meanwhile, 44% of women thought their own gender apologised too much, with only 29% thinking women got the balance ‘right’.

And what did women think about men’s apology patterns? Well, this time only 5% agreed that men apologised too much. A relatively stag-

June 2017

gering 49% of women thought men apologised too little, 22% stating that men got it ‘about right’.

Crossed wires much?

A cursory Google search yields all sorts of opinion pieces on the topic too, from the insightful to the patronising (no need to dwell on the latter). Essayist Sloane Crosley nailed it in her New York Times piece describing those oft mocked female apologies as “tiny acts of revolt, expressions of frustration or anger for what should be automatic... a Trojan horse for genuine annoyance.” Linguistics professor and workplace language expert Deborah Tannen agreed that women often don’t make their apologies with 100% sincerity; “Often, it has nothing whatsoever to do with an apology but just taking the other person’s feelings into account,” she told Refinery29, “And sometimes, it’s a way to get the other person to apologise.” Sounds about right.

Still, I think that’s only half of the story. I agree with Crosley and Tannen; some of my sorries feel like an arsenal for navigating sticky situations; they demonstrate empathy, they disarm enemies and they help me get what I want when properly asserting myself is proving ineffective or dangerous. Still, my own apology embargo taught me there’s a third strand to this yarn. When you strip away the subtext-rich sorries, left behind is something more toxic – the type of sorry which shows I learned ‘politeness’ through the lens of the patriarchy.

“ How does someone with a warped grasp of what’s worth an apology suddenly learn where to draw the line?”

I apologise when bumped into because I assume it’s a consequence of having occupied too much space. I apologise when interrupted because I take it as an indication that I’ve had my turn. I apologise for stating my opinion because that’s how I disarm anyone judging me on my gender, rather than my ideas. I apologise to men if I don’t want to sleep with them because years of being groped and harassed by strangers has taught me my body’s up for barters. I apologise when asking for more – even if it’s only a teaspoon – because somewhere I learned that if my needs even slightly inconvenience someone, I should rethink whether they’re worth fulfilling. That’s not to say I’m a hyper-considerate dreamboat of a human; rather that I’ve taken politeness strategies to the extreme in lieu of learning to assert myself. Caught in the moment, I have absolutely no idea what actually warrants a sorry.

And I’m not alone, by the sounds of it. The notion that women feel there’s simply more to apologise for was researched in a study led by researcher Karina Schumann, a doctoral student

in social psychology at Ontario’s University of Waterloo. For 12 days, volunteers kept ‘sorry’ diaries, reporting offenses committed and whether or not they apologised for them. Long story short, men tended to utter fewer sorries, but they weren’t actively resisting apologising for their actions – their threshold for what was worth an apology just turned out to be way, way higher.

So there you have it. Going cold turkey on sorries was not only an absolutely ballache, it solved nothing. Cutting down on apologies may well

DEVIANCE

fast-track me to radiating self-assuredness and watertight feminism, but since when was repression a solution to anything? Instead of real-time policing my language, it probably makes more sense to work on all of the shitty narratives lowering my threshold in the first place. ‘Sorry’ isn’t the canker compromising my self-worth and feminism; it’s just a symptom. And, if medical history’s anything to go by, treating the symptoms over the cause never ends well. So for now, the apologies stay. Sorry.

Lifestyle

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Here Comes the Pride LGBT Pride remains a contentious issue – one writer explains why he had his doubts, and a moment in Montréal that turned it all around...

M

ost large cities have a Pride: an event where queer people burst onto the street (and sometimes into song), prowl about together, and generally have a wicked ol’ time.

Fun as it can be, Pride can be a controversial topic. On one hand, you’ve got your usual throng of bigots, homophobes and moralistic blowhards railing against it, claiming that Pride runs the risk of upsetting children with displays of adult sexuality. Those people don’t seem to have noticed how depictions of sex and sexuality are plastered all over modern society, from billboards advertising lingerie to commercials where an M&M is caught sleeping with a married woman. I think the public is pretty used to displays of human sexuality, as long as they’re aimed at straight people.

On the other hand, many queer people express very legitimate concerns that some Pride festivals have become too corporate and too exclusive, becoming more of a tourist attraction for straight voyeurs than an easy-to-access, legitimate outpouring of queer joy. Similarly, there are disputes in some countries as to the roles that certain organisations should play in proceedings.

Canadian Pride festivals are debating whether or not to allow police to have floats in the rallies, as many attendees feel the police represent the fascist powers that oppress many queer people, particularly those of colour. Meanwhile, Los Angeles’ equivalent has attracted criticism for having sold out, by rebranding as an expensive musical festival for straight millennials with money to spare.

I have a pretty complicated relationship with Pride, as I’m sure many queer people do. Recently, one of those memories popped back into my brain.

You’ll know the kind – you drop your groceries or spill milk everywhere after suddenly recollecting a moment of true cringe, and spend an hour or two just gawping at how much one person can resent their past self. That kind of memory.

While talking about Pride with some friends, I suddenly flashed-back to being sixteen or so, and asked whether or not I’d attend London Pride. I’d been out as gay for a few years; self-consciously quirky and painfully eager to be accepted by literally anyone in earshot. I replied: “Me? Gay Pride? More like... GAY SHAME, amiright?!” The joke didn’t land too well. Even my straight friends were a little disgusted at how ready I was to hate on myself for a quick gag – to try to make it funnier, I continued to chat hot air about how gay people should just try to fit in with straights and “not go on about it all the time.”

I hate thinking about that moment. It makes my skin crawl remembering how I’d internalised so much homophobia, how I was so keen to let my peers know that I was gay, sure, but I wasn’t like ‘those other gays.’ I really was brainwashed: I thought that gay people should shut up and be quiet about their sexualities, that screaming about gay politics was counterproductive, and that things weren’t really that bad. I was horribly wrong.

The reality is that rights cannot be won in silence, and that what rights we have won are conditional and need defending; pretending to be copies of straight people won’t help us in the long run, and would be impossible for many queer people anyway. Pride is a place where we can be ourselves, openly and beautifully. There’s no pretence – rather, it’s an explosion of selfhood.

Thankfully, I got to grips with gay politics pretty quickly after that, and managed to get a little distance from those views. Even so, I didn’t attend my first Pride for years after that. I was scared – of all kinds of things. I worried that I’d somehow

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Lifestyle

Words: Toby Sharpe Illustration: Xenia Latii

be rejected from other queers, that I wouldn’t know what to do, that I’d be making myself a target for violence, and that I’d just be the kind of loud, stereotypical camp gay guy that straight people love to disparage, ignore, and persecute.

My first Pride was in Montréal during the first days of my year abroad. Groggy, lonely, and confused in a hostel, I was awoken by banging and shouts. Stumbling outside, I saw Justin Trudeau walk past me (then just a floppy-haired MP with a tight butt, gay fans, and less ability to legalise weed or sell arms on a mass scale). He was followed by thousands of queer people. It was sensational, not because of Trudeau, but because I was suddenly immersed in a huge group of people who were kind to me, who made me feel at home, and whom I recognised as being like me.

That’s the nuance I didn’t understand in my brief gay-self-hatred phase as a teen: the power of Pride, and other means of queer celebration, to make one feel validated and recognised. Especially if you’re lonely, or you’re in an unfriendly environment, or you’re struggling to come to terms with your identity, the need to connect to other queer people and feel wanted and included is incredible.

One can see the power of Pride after it ends: people peeling stickers off their cheeks, rubbing makeup away, resignedly putting carefully-chosen outfits back into bags as they switch back to regular clothing. People live joyfully in Pride, but then have to go back to the straight world, where they don’t always feel safe being themselves.

I still have some reservations about some Prides because they’ve been painfully commercialised, and I don’t exactly feel like big banks accurately represent the queer revolution. Pride is still a political and contentious topic, but the importance of its existence in times like ours cannot be overstated. We’re living in times where Chechen authorities can purge gay men with zero accountability, when the White House removes guidelines on trans students from educational policy. Even as gay marriage photos appear more frequently on your Instagram feed, this is still not a good time to be queer.

Many LGBT+ people across the globe do not feel safe, even in our supposed havens of Western democracy. We need to have a designated time to be ourselves: loudly, proudly, and happily.

I wish my younger self had actually seen the wonder of Pride, the messy, silly joy of it. Maybe I would have seen how lucky I was to have a festival so close by, while other cities across the globe still struggle to run a festival without having it shut down by violence from authorities or protesters.

Pride is so important. We need to relish the opportunity to be ourselves in the moments we can, and those moments where we can be together.

DEVIANCE

THE SKINNY

A Guide to Pride, Madrid-style Taking its reputation as one of Europe’s gayest capitals to the next level, in June Madrid plays host to World Pride. Let this former resident talk you through how to make the most of the ten day celebrations

Get to Chueca The barrio at the epicentre of Pride. Though a dedicated gay neighbourhood all year round, where bars, clubs and shops sit alongside residential buildings and gourmet destinations, during Pride the party spills out onto the street. Expect the area around Plaza de Chueca to be filled with more or less constant dancing, parties, concerts and other events to cater to every taste. The main attraction is the Pride Parade with floats representing a multitude of political parties, businessess and other organisations, with DJs, dancers and drag queens (or kings) from the ‘Pride Proclamation’ on the Wednesday to the closing party on Sunday, expect it to be heaving.

From its seedy reputation in the late 80s, Chueca’s largely LGBT-driven regeneration has not led to the flight of some of the area’s more senior residents. Do not be surprised, then, to find a typical Spanish señora out buying fruit as the neighbourhood parties around her. The Mercado San Antón is emblematic of this process, a space incorporating a trendy restaurant, art gallery and more traditional meat and veg stalls.

The area is proud of its diverse and respectful population, and a viral video from 2015 of a social experiment showing how the residents react when shown an abusive email directed at a gay couple explains exactly why.

Though this area is no stranger to an outdoor terrace for a couple of drinks in the afternoon, the nightlife is what really sets the place apart.

Why not?, Polana, Delirio and Black & White are some of Chueca’s best known clubs. For the more

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adventurous, no one is safe from LL’s acerbic drag shows, and Organic is the friendliest men’s club in town (I am a woman).

AND, instead of the customary one lesbian bar per city, Madrid offers a full four, all of which are varying degrees of terrible. That said, they play music, serve drinks, and are mostly frequented by women. As the Spanish would say, algo es algo. Hipster lesbian night MissMoustache usually hosts a party during Pride week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Get out of Chueca Whisper it, but not every gay’s a party animal, and the huge crowds that are attracted to Chueca’s narrow streets can get a little tiring. Luckily, Madrid is a buzzing city all of its own and, if you ask me, what really sets it apart is the gay friendly aspect of the rest of the barrios, not just the barrio gay. There’s Malasaña for the trendies, multicultural and soon to be gentrified (but not quite yet) Lavapiés for the politically aware, swanky Barrio Salamanca for people with cash to burn, and Paseo del Prado for some of the best art museums in Europe.

Charge your phone Grindr is the app of choice for men all over the world and Madrid is no exception. Open Grindr in the middle of town and you can expect it to be full within 100 metres. From anonymous hook-ups, to party buddies and hot dates, this is your go-to. Otherwise, head to SCRUFF for bears and leather enthusiasts.

For lesbians, the classic is Tinder, not free of its usual pitfalls of straight girls in an experimental phase, and body shots of couples searching for the pinnacle of their romantic triangle. Still, women mostly under 30 use this to swipe their way to love, sex, friendship, or to meet their ex’s ex. Alternatively you can try Wapa, a lesbian version of Grindr which has turned the classic tactic of ‘staring at a girl across the bar and praying she’ll make the first move’ into the ‘huellas’ (footprint) function, where you can let a lady know you’re interested without actually having to initiate conversation.

Stay out past 6am While in most European cities, the night will have died a death by this point, Madrid only really comes into its own after sunrise. As in the rest of Spain, pre-drinks will rarely start before midnight, and don’t expect the dancefloor to fill up until around 2.30am. Afters are clubs which open around 6am and can stay open until the mid-afternoon. Mostly hidden behind nondescript doors, they rely on word of mouth, flyers or a loyal customer base to drive business, so keep your eyes peeled. Operating in a legal grey area as ‘members clubs’ or ‘smokers clubs’, they may ask you to sign the members book upon entry, and many allow you to smoke inside.

Know your history Madrid pride stretches all the way back to the mid -80s when celebrations started in tandem with LGBT demonstrations. This political element was important in a country still trying to shake off its

TRAVEL

Words: Sian Creely Illustration: Sonny Ross

fascist past, and remain an important part of Pride to this day. Aside from the festivities, in 2005 Spain became the third country in the world to legalise same sex marriage, and in 2016 the regional government of Madrid went a step further, passing one of the most advanced pieces of LGBTI legislation in the world, which sanctions discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and mandates sexual diversity education in schools. Plaza Vázquez de Mella, where the ‘Pride Proclamation’ is held, was recently renamed to celebrate LGBT activist Pedro Zerolo.

Dismantle Heteropatriarchy Do you think Pride is a sellout? That it’s no more than a way for capitalist institutions to target an LGBT customer base, while ignoring the political movements that have fought for freedom from persecution for the LGBT community? Do you think it’s proof that the movement privileges the concerns of white, middle class gay men at the expense of the rest of the community? Sick of corporations’ shameless targeting of the pink pound?

Never fear, Spain, the country that gave us the Indignados, Pablo Iglesias and Podemos, shares your concerns. For the last few years, ‘Orgullo Crítico’ (Critical Pride) the ‘horizontal, anticapitalist, antiracist and transfeminist’ alternative to Pride has held a series of marches, lectures, workshops and parties during Pride week. This is not to be missed.

World Pride Madrid, 23 Jun-2 Jul | worldpridemadrid2017.com

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Anneli Holmstrom A

-}}}}}}, Anneli Holstrom, Installation, 2017

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Photo: Sarah Donley

-}}}}}}, Anneli Holstrom, Installation, 2017

In -}}}}}}, themes of present time are mirrored through an inner world of absence, which, like its counterpart, consists of one video and an installation. As such, -}}}}}} strives for nostalgic descriptions where narratives of entropy, loss, longing, desire and memory are merged, drawing upon a range of imagery from empty fountains, death rituals and the sentiment of Fado music. The accompanying video, Flood, was shot in Lisbon and made use of the city’s unique backdrop to enhance notions of melancholic romanticism. Like the Levitation video, the voiceover used draws upon three specially commissioned texts from poet Janette Ayachi; neuro-scientist David Carmel; and artist/comparative mythologist Dr Louise Milne. As in the {{{+}}} film, this work continues to explore how language and site can create a sense of displaced landscape, with the commissioned texts read in Portuguese.

Anneli Holmstrom’s upcoming shows include SUMMA, at the RSA, and Method of Loci, at Galerie Amu in Prague.

-}}}}}} : {{{+}}} runs in Summerhall until 14 July

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Photo: Sarah Donley

nneli Holmstrom is a visual artist, currently based between Lisbon and Edinburgh. Her work features a cross-disciplinary approach that explores the potential and limitations of materials to consider notions of the self. Whether merging paint with other plastic media or performance, her work values the materiality of creation and does not attempt to conceal the hand of its maker – granting viewers the opportunity to intimately explore personal narratives through the work and the spaces they inhabit.

Through this approach, her work seeks to move between image and object, inhabiting a world where the private and public, the pictorial and material territories become gradually enmeshed. Like the sensibility of folk art, her practice approaches materials that can infer a sense of proximity between object and maker; embracing a DIY aesthetic — where a sense of esoteric secrecy and physical closeness are used as allegory for private and internal perspectives.

-}}}}}} : {{{+}}} is the title of Anneli Holmstrom’s first UK solo show, presented as part of Summerhall’s curated programmes and kindly supported

by Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund.

The exhibition centres upon two new bodies of work, -}}}}}} and {{{+}}}, which, when viewed in conjunction, aim to visualise and consider temporal dualities between absence and presence. The result is a multimedia exhibition that strives for a visual experience that develops the sense of moving between two distinct – but interlocked – psychological worlds.

In {{{+}}}, metaphors of presence are explored through temporal narratives that explore the portrait of a self ‘at one’ with its environmental surroundings. Specifically, this work is comprised of one installation and one film work, fusing weightless sculptural properties with meditative and romantic references to create a feeling of ‘wholeness’. The accompanying video, Levitation, was shot on a small island in Finland, accompanied by a voiceover, featuring commissioned texts by poet JL Williams; particle-physicist Alex Murphy; and philanthropist Fatimah Ashrif. The commissioned texts featured within the film for {{{+}}}, will include a transcript read in Swedish, utilising language as a tool for conveying a sense of displacement and landscape which is ‘other’.

{{{+}}}, Anneli Holstrom, mixed media, 2017

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Photo: Sarah Donley Photo: Sarah Donley

Photo: Sarah Donley

{{{+}}}, Anneli Holstrom, mixed media, 2017 (detail)

{{{+}}}, Anneli Holstrom , film, 2017

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THE SKINNY

The Final Countdown As we enter our second year circling the Brexit drain, we take a look at what this all means for our food and drink. It should all be fine; just kidding, we’re completely fucked...

Words: Peter Simpson Illustration: Raj Dhunna

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t’s been around a year since we voted to leave the EU, and yet there hasn’t really been time for sober reflection. It’s been more of a horrified extended hangover; running around trying to undo bad decisions, rushing headlong into a world of pain while trying not to vomit on ourselves. But as with any hangover, the nausea eventually passes and it comes time to eat something. Unfortunately, many of those somethings come from that there Europe, which poses its own problems.

The modern British individual has pretty diverse tastes, and a palate that calls for a whole host of exotic and esoteric foods. Thanks to such revolutionary ideas as ‘cooperation’ and ‘trade’ we can currently sate those tastes fairly easily, regardless of the underlying logic of the situation.

Think about this – you can step outside right now, head to your nearest medium-sized shop, and buy a mango. A fresh mango, in Scotland, in late spring, like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

That you can go full mango at the drop of a hat is down to the network of trading connections built up between the UK, the EU and beyond.

More than half of the UK’s food supply comes from overseas, with a hefty chunk of that food mountain emanating from the EU, and it’s the growing role of pan-European grocers and food suppliers that helps make varied food affordable in a country where wages have largely stagnated in the last decade.

Before we get going, it’s important to point out the bad sides to this arrangement. If we can go into a shop in Edinburgh and buy a mango for £1, it stands to reason that someone, somewhere is getting ripped off in order to make this all possible. As usual, we don’t exactly have clean hands here – our need for avocado directly contributes to deforestation in Mexico, and our love affair with the frankly-overrated quinoa has led to the grain’s price yo-yoing as farmers rush to shift the stuff while we still care about it. Who are the ones who lose out? You guessed it, the original Andean farmers who’ve been growing the stuff for decades.

With Brexit, we could decide to change all that, and go fully self-sufficient in food and drink.

It’s not completely outside the realms of possibility, especially if we can get some sweet farming robots on the case, and a dramatic shift local ward certainly cuts down on the carbon footprint of our diet.

That’s the good news; the bad news, according to the National Farmers’ Union, is that such a move would involve “drastic shifts in consumption patterns... which may not be feasible or acceptable.” In short, you better learn how to make lassi out of turnips, ’cause your tropical fruit-having days are numbered.

Then there’s the international implications of deciding to go All Local Everything. Everyone who works in the food industry seems to agree that Britain needs some kind of deal with our erstwhile pals in Europe to make sure we can still buy cheese off them, while we can continue to send them the kind of British produce that is objectively too nice and too valuable to waste over here.

Now, admittedly, we just had a deal. We decided to fuck it out the window because we’re all idiots, and also because of something to do with Brussels (the city, not the sprout). Also, everyone keeps just using the word ‘deal’ like they’re in some kind of improv skit – ‘we need a good deal’, ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’, etc – with all the confidence of a parrot that’s just learned a new sound but isn’t sure if it’s endearing or a bit racist.

June 2017

Things just get worse from there. We’ll stop EU workers from coming to the UK, thus pushing up the cost of food produced here; we’ll also likely get lumbered with a set-up which will make stuff produced elsewhere more expensive. On the high seas, the UK’s fisheries plan has been compared to “blackmailing [Europe] on the way out”, which, for one thing, isn’t how you blackmail people – they tend to just let you leave and lock the door behind them. It’s almost as if none of this shit was thought through at all, which is why nobody seems to have any idea what the bloody hell’s going on. Will everything be fine? Will we all starve to death? Will we all be forced to survive on Michelin star-level langoustines? This lack of specifics, by the way, is why you’re reading this article now. Try to write something like this a year ago, and you’d end up with a three-hundred word scream and a load of terrified expletives; now we’re up to a full page.

“ It’s almost as if none of this shit was thought through at all...”

When routine gets upended, all bets are off, and when your food supply gets interrupted, weird things start happening. Norway is a lovely country, all austere architecture and bleak-butfriendly people, but it has a complex system of tariffs and duties on food coming into the country.

This is to protect the local farmers and ensure that the country doesn’t go wild with all its oil money, importing huge piles of ham and ending up with nowhere to put it. It rained a lot in Norway in 2011, which hit butter production, and Norwegians love their butter. When prices hit £120 per kilo for the yellow stuff, people were being stopped at the Swedish border for trying to sneak illegal butter into the country. Now imagine scenarios like that, for everything, all the time.

And then there’s all the other stuff – the simple trips to Italy or Spain to spark culinary ideas and broaden horizons, the European PDO scheme that lets you know that what you’re eating is definitely real actual Parmigiano Reggiano. Yes, we sound like the worst kind of urban liberal elite faux-sophisticates, now give us back that cheese before you get a screwdriver in the eye. We’re very miffed right now.

Food brings people together; it helps transcend our national and cultural boundaries, and gives us a shared experience to talk about and/or chow down on. As the New Yorker’s Bee Wilson puts it: “To contemplate Brexit is to see the extent to which Britain is not a food island.” We’ve seen what Britain has to offer food-wise – some of it good, some of it bad, a lot of it beige – and now we want to explore some new eats, and so do you.

You love pizza, and the more authentic the better; you want to try intriguing dishes from other cultures; you like to eat and drink new things, and experience new tastes. Let’s hope we don’t have to resort to sneaking our favourite recipes and ingredients over the border in the near-future; if we do, hopefully those farming robots can come up with a convincing alibi. theskinny.co.uk/food

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Food News June sees the cavalcade of boozy festivals continue, plus visits from a pair of inspirational breweries from far afield Words: Peter Simpson

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e kick off with a very special visit from Tallinn’s Põhjala Brewery to the Hanging Bat in Edinburgh. One of the leading craft breweries in the Baltics, Põhjala was founded six years ago by four Estonians and – shockingly – Aberdonian head brewer Chris Pilkington.

Pilkington will be present at the Bat to talk through the brewery’s beers (some of which have never reached these shores previously), so it’s an ideal chance to get well ahead of the cool beer curve. 1 Jun, 7pm, £22, tickets via EventBrite Over in Glasgow, the Hippo Taproom host the inaugural meeting of their Bottle Club. We’ll skip past the ‘first rule about bottle club...’ jokes to tell you that this club is all about trying rare and limited edition bottles that the Hippo crew have been saving for special occasions. You’ll try five great beers, and earn the sensation of being part of a super-secret beery inner circle.

Win-win. 4 Jun, 2pm, £20, hippotaproom.co.uk And now to dive into this month’s batch of food and drink festivals. First up is Juniper Festival which returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow, bringing dozens of gins from across Scotland, the UK and beyond together in one place, thus making it disconcertingly easy to try them all. If you want more from your gin festival than just to

try lots of delicious gins there are also talks, chances to meet the people behind the gins, as well as street food to power your gin-tasting and a bottle shop to help you continue at your leisure. 2-4 Jun, Summerhall, times vary, £21.50, summerhall.co.uk; 9-10 Jun, SWG3, times vary, £21.50, swg3.tv If you aren’t a big gin fan, don’t worry – the inaugural Rum Festival at the Briggait in Glasgow has you covered. With over 100 rums on offer, if you can’t find a delicious Caribbean spirit to love here, you’re doing something wrong. 9 Jun, 6.30pm, 10 Jun, 12.30 or 6.30pm, £12.50, tickets via Eventbrite. And if you don’t like rum or gin, redeem yourself with a trip to the latest iteration of North Hop beer festival at SWG3. Craft beers from across Scotland, cocktails, cider, street food – truly, something for everyone. We hope. 16 Jun, 7pm, 17 Jun, 12 or 7pm, £17.50, tickets via northhop.co.uk Stepping off the festival hamster wheel, Edinburgh Food Studio present a very special collaboration this month. Brooklyn Amici brings together Ben Reade of EFS with Brooklyn Brewery’s head of culinary programming Andrew Gerson.

The two were flatmates during their time together in Italy, where the duo hosted “countless dinner

Andrew Gerson (Brooklyn Amici)

parties, the extravagance of which has rarely been seen,” and they join forces again in Edinburgh this month for a very special tasting menu. The food will be matched with some of Brooklyn’s infamous ‘ghost bottle’ limited-run beers, which we can personally attest to being a) delicious and b) absolute rocket fuel. 15, 16 & 17 Jun, 7.30pm, £65 (inc. 7-course meal and beer), book via edinburghfoodstudio.com We finish this month by stepping back into the festival fold, for a pair of events at this year’s West End Festival in Glasgow. First up is Gin Genie, a Bowie-soundtracked meeting of

the Hillhead Gin Club that promises ‘talks, tastings and demonstrations of Scotland’s finest gins.’ How precisely does one ‘demonstrate’ a gin?

Only one way to find out, we suppose. At the same venue later in the week, Hip-hops sees craft beer aces New Wave bring together a host of brewers and beer experts together to talk beer, with a retro hip-hop accompaniment from the DJ booth. Sounds good to us. Gin Genie, 10 Jun, 12pm, Hillhead Bookclub, £10; Hip-hops, 15 Jun, 7pm, free; details at westendfestival.co.uk theskinny.co.uk/food

Ice, Ice Baby We pick the chocolate chips out of our collective beard to share details of some of our favourite ice creameries across Scotland

Credit: Creative Commons

Crolla’s 221 Byres Rd, Glasgow Crolla’s creations are oft-spotted on menus around the country, so it makes sense to go direct to the source for that sweet, cold ice cream hit. On the go since the 1890s, Crolla’s offer up dozens of flavours from the traditional to the experimental.

They’re hardly likely to go anywhere any time soon, so we say start with the vanilla and work your way through from there.

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t’s June! You know what that means – time to switch your ‘clichéd Scottish talking points’ board over from winter to summer! Don’t talk about it constantly chucking it down any more; for now it’s all ‘taps aff ’ and ‘well actually Moira, some parts of the country were warmer than Spain this afternoon’. Summer’s here, and that means excessive drinking and getting sunstroke and hypothermia on the same day. It also means ice cream, and Scotland’s got some cracking cones to choose from. I scream, you scream,

etc etc, let’s get this show on the road before it starts raining again.

Affogato 36 Queensferry St, Edinburgh A dinky little gelato spot just off the west end of Princes Street, Affogato tread the line of tradition and innovation quite nicely, then throw the contents of that line into incredible ice cream.

There’s a dog-friendly sit-in cafe, plus – incredibly – Affogato regularly stock dog-friendly gelato.

That’s ice cream... for dogs.

Ginesi’s 515 Victoria Rd, Glasgow Aka Queens Cafe. You won’t miss the southside institution from the outside – the all caps sign above the door is a bit of a giveaway – and the bright red booths inside mean you won’t get confused about where you are once you get inside.

Behind the counter it’s all fresh ice cream, made on the premises in an exciting array of flavours.

Mary’s Milk Bar 19 Grassmarket, Edinburgh There aren’t many places which have to leave their own queuing guides stuck to the pavement outside, but Mary’s Milk Bar isn’t like most places.

Armed with honours from the Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna, and a mind-blowing selection of flavours, Mary’s is the go-to for ice cream in Edinburgh. Get in the queue, grab a scoop of something exciting, then run up the stairs at the other side of the Grassmarket to get an underthe-Castle seat, like a particularly summery Rocky.

Words: Peter Simpson

Nardini’s 2 Greenock Rd, Largs We’re avowed city-slickers, so when we recommend a place in Largs, you know we’re serious.

Inside and out, Nardini’s is an art deco throwback to ‘good old days’ by the seaside, and the ice cream lives up to that nostalgic billing. If you can’t make it to the OG Nardini’s, check out their cafe on Byres Road in Glasgow’s west end.

S.Luca 16 Morningside Rd, Edinburgh Luca’s have been turning out some of Edinburgh’s best ice cream for over a century, with the result that everyone in the office has their own opinion on what to get when you head along. Is it Luca’s Irn-Bru sorbet? Is it one of their ice cream sponges? Or should you just get half-a-litre of their ice cream Deliveroo’d to your house so you don’t have to go outside? We suggest trying all three; S. Luca can also be found in their Popemobile-esque ice cream van at the beach in North Berwick (you won’t miss it – it’s the one that looks like a purple Popemobile).

Vittoria 19 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh Sometimes things don’t need to be complicated.

Sometimes you aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel; you’re just walking down the street looking for an ice cream because the sun’s out for a change.

Vittoria has you covered; classic Italian ice cream served from a handy time-saving hatch on George IV Bridge, which is all you really need. theskinny.co.uk/food

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Label of Love We speak to Triassic Tusk label founders Ziggy Campbell and Stephen Marshall to find out how it all began and what’s next

e’re not very good at this, we fuck up a lot of stuff, but I guess you just learn as you go,” laughs Ziggy Campbell, core member of experimental art collective FOUND, solo artist Lomond Campbell and co-chief of new DIY not-for-profit Fence Records offshoot, Triassic Tusk. “I don’t know if we’re in it for the long game, I just can’t predict how it will go. If it all goes tits up in two years at least we can say we’ve done some really cool albums.”

Campbell is labouring in the late spring sun at his home near Fort William; jubilant birdsong soundtracks the continuing toil refurbishing his Highland home. The once dilapidated, rural schoolhouse will double as a recording studio, eventually. It’s already heavily influenced the sound of his Lomond Campbell project, with the bones of the immense Black River Promise LP recorded there. It was the fledgling label’s debut album release proper, which snuck through without much fanfare at the end of last year. Buoyant with dense, spiraling string arrangements from Pete Harvey, it didn’t receive nearly as much exposure or praise as it deserved, and Campbell hints at a far more fitting rerelease for the title via a “well-established label” in the coming months.

Triassic Tusk’s co-owner Stephen Marshall is in the departures lounge at Heathrow, feeling down about an impending week-long business trip to Japan. He recently reassessed his life, quitting a high-powered job in the whisky industry after realising aspects of his work were “fucking dull” to pursue things that mattered more to him – time at home, music and records. He’s got a serious collection, buying at least one piece of vinyl every day.

A chance encounter with Frànçois Marry (of Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains) where he suggested Marshall DJ with some of his impressive vinyl cache led to developing a series of club nights called Moon Hop with Campbell; they pressed a compilation of tracks from his collection (Screamers, Bangers & Cosmic Synths) to promote the event. After the initial runs sold out quickly, there were a series of represses that led to the birth of Triassic Tusk. They’re still doing Moon Hop, though toying with changing the name.

Recent events have been under the banner of Wax & Wayne but Campbell says Marshall thinks that sounds “too sexual”.

The label is a labour of love. “Fucking hell, it loses me money, it costs me,” Marshall admits.

“If I charged the label for the time spent on it, it would have gone under.” He’s learning as he goes.

“I deliberately left the whisky industry because I didn’t want to be in an industry and I learned very quickly that I don’t want to be in the music industry,” he states. “People in the music industry are exactly the same as people in any other industry; they’re pretty much self-obsessed, money-obsessed, and that’s why I’ll not be part of a music industry, writing promotional things to send to the radio stations. [It’s about] getting nice records out and dealing with record shops.”

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He continues: “I was in Monorail yesterday.

I took them in the new King Creosote single, and it was an absolute pleasure talking to them. They’re all really nice folk and we talked about records, I bought some records (including the beautiful new State Broadcasters album A Different Past). It was a pleasant experience and it’s simple and there is no underhand stuff. But they’re a bit of a rarity. I’d rather just deal increasingly with specific record shops that are actually good and supportive of new music, particularly new Scottish music, and ignore the others.”

He’s simply motivated to make a difference, inspired by admiration for the likes of short-lived but hugely influential labels like Postcard Records.

He’s uncertain if it’s sustainable long-term. “I think I probably pay everybody too much money for gigs, so the gigs run at a massive loss,” he laughs.

Fence Records has also been a huge inspiration and Triassic Tusk is essentially a direct descendant of the Fife collective.

Ziggy Campbell

“ If it all goes tits up in two years at least we can say we’ve done some really cool albums” Ziggy Campbell

Stephen Marshall

Campbell, who was involved with Fence in its early days, says they took a lot of cues from the label. “I really liked the way they worked and I liked the kind of ‘no star’ ethos… everybody mucked in,” he recalls. “It’s a nice affiliation, to still be in bed with them so to speak. I think Fence has got a lot of legs on it yet but it does kind of make sense to fly the nest at some point and go and do something on your own.” Marshall adds: “[Fence Records is] run in a very specific way, so the way that Kenny [Anderson, aka King Creosote] runs it could never possibly grow.

“The influence motivates me more than money,” Marshall continues. “It’s an ego thing… I’m not ashamed to admit that I need an ego boost,” he laughs. “The motivation of putting things out there so that [people] know you did that. I specifically set out in my last whisky job to create five new brands; it was a legacy project, I wanted my gran to know that I had made these whiskies. My gran is on the cover of Jo Foster’s single for that reason. If you can do any kind of little bit of inspiring someone to do something, then that’s a really nice feeling. If us doing a small shitty label means that somebody else does another small shitty label and gets some records out then it’s a good thing.”

There’s a lot lined up for the label already, with such a strong and growing roster and an

impressive list of past and forthcoming releases.

The Sexual Objects are poised to put out their new album, followed by a specially remixed EP. But once Campbell’s home studio is fully wired up, it’s the forthcoming debut LP from Jo Foster that the pair are most enthused about.

“She’s got an amazing album in her, we just know she has,” Campbell asserts. “We’ve been putting her on quite a lot at our own nights and every time she plays she just seems to get more confident. She’s working with this multi-instrumentalist… and I just think she’s got a killer album sitting inside her that needs to come out.

She’s never actually sat down and focused and done an album. Even the single, when I handed it to her she was almost in tears because she’d never had her music on vinyl before, so it was a really big moment for her.”

“I’ve collected all of Jo Foster’s little EPs – she’s done like 20 copies of CDRs – and there’s enough music on that to put an album out let alone the supposed 100 songs that she’s written that are meant to be amazing,” says Marshall. “I heard a couple of demos as well, we’re just really excited about it. Hopefully we’ve got a few other people lined up to record at Ziggy’s as well.”

“Eventually we’ll lose money,” confesses

Music

Campbell. “All it would take would be for us to do one record that didn’t sell a single thing. You can’t always predict it, but I think that would probably wipe us out.” But so far they seem to be getting things right. Screamers… sold 500 copies in 10 days, Withered Hand’s recent single sold out and Black River Promise did well considering the lack of push it received.

“That’s something to aim towards, to try and do cool things and really good projects that we’re excited about. It’s kind of a hobby thing isn’t it; it’s not paying the bills, it’s just fun to do and it’s always really rewarding,” says Campbell. “We still don’t have a track record, you need to build these things up. When I look at folk like Song, by Toad and Chemikal and Fence, they’e been around for a long time... so I guess it just takes time to get in to the swing of it, I think it will get easier. I felt like I’d fallen out of the music scene a little bit so it’s quite nice to get back in there and be back on the radar a little. For now it’s just working with people that we like; it’s not worth the hassle of working with knobs.”

Lomond Campbell plays Black River Promise in full with The Pumpkinseeds as part of Sounding, with Modern Studies, Stockbridge Church, Edinburgh, 20, 21 & 22 Aug triassictusk.com

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Photo: Carol Campbell

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Photo: Carol Campbell

Interview: Susan Le May

Looking at Old Photos We call Edinburgh singer-songwriter Lou Mclean to chat about her new EP, her influences and inspirations, and Girls Rock School Interview: Megan Wallace Photo: Sarah Donley

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hile Lou Mclean’s particular brand of acoustic pop – soulful and confessional, cut with razor-sharp wit – is a tried-and-tested formula, there’s a secret ingredient in the mix which beckons you to listen more. It might be the music’s blinding sincerity or it might be the bright, bold personality shining through from behind each rhyme and rhythm. Whatever it is, there’s certainly something special about Lou Mclean.

When we start by asking about her new Good Morning Easter Road EP, Mclean dives straight into addressing its autobiographical nature: “The songwriting just happens, like a record of what happens in my life, so the EP’s like a year in the life (well, less than a year..) and flows through a narrative; after a break-up, getting more comfortable with myself and then on through to the crazy music journey I’m on now. I listened to the EP at the weekend and it was weird, like looking at old photos, it’s like ‘oh so that’s how I was feeling then’, like an old diary but less cringey.”

Trying to pick a favourite song from the EP, admittedly a tricky question, she exclaims: “That’s like making me choose between my kids! Shit!” before grudgingly elaborating: “I really like Poets & Flat Caps – it’s cheeky as anything and when I wrote it I was like, ‘Am I really going to do this?’

And Bedtime Reading. At the beginning I want people to think it’s about sex or something and then I give it a bit of a switcheroo and it’s about something completely different.” Quickly she adds: “Just so you know, I don’t actually have any kids!”

On the topic of evolution, Mclean tells us: “This EP’s a bit funnier than the last one [September to December], which was about the breakdown of a relationship, and it’s a bit more me. I think it sounds a lot more confident – when I brought the last EP out I’d only been playing gigs for two months and I was scared about what people would think about the music and about me.”

It might have been a bit slow in coming, but a future in music was an inevitability for Mclean, whose passion for music runs deep. As she puts it: “I’ve always been really into music but I had really terrible stage fright as a kid which stopped me getting into making and performing music

sooner, it’s only about four years ago that I got my first guitar. I guess because I waited so long to perform and write, I’ve been going for it extra hard.”

Talking about her influences, she tells us: “I grew up listening to my mum’s old CDs and records and as a kid I loved The Beatles. Then when I was thirteen, a Bikini Kill CD came up as a recommendation on Amazon. I was like ’Holy shit!!’ It was a whole new kind of music and the awakening of feminism for me.”

We ask about gigging and Mclean admits: “I love live shows. I used to get so nervous but the more I practised, the more I enjoyed it.” With characteristic zeal, she goes on to add: “The first year I was gigging, I just took all the offers given to me. One week I played Kelburn [Garden Party] and the next I was playing support for a bluegrass group at a bowling club party and singing my songs about break-ups and sex for retired people.

It was actually really good though! I got a feel for the room and just nattered away for ages.”

“ I’m having the time of my life with music right now but I remember what it was like when I wasn’t confident enough” Lou Mclean

In addition to intimate shows such as this, Mclean’s first year as a live performer saw her win a competition to headline the Famous Grouse House during the Edinburgh Fringe. She elaborates: “That was really special because I hadn’t been doing music for that long. I entered the

Do Not Miss

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Review

Kite Base

facebook.com/loumcleanmusic Lou Mclean plays Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 8 Jun

Mannequin Pussy

Mannequin Pussy, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 10 Jun. Broadcast, Glasgow, 11 Jun

Music

WHY?

Photo: Jacob Hand

Kite Base is the project of Savages bassist Ayşe Hassan, and fellow bassist Kendra Frost – their set-up includes vocals, electronics and, you guessed it, two basses. Their debut album Latent Whispers was released on 26 May, and they’re playing the Field Day festival in London’s Victoria Park this month, so they’re definite ones to watch – we reckon you won’t want to miss them in Glasgow this month.

Mannequin Pussy’s music is as good as their name and we’re excited they’re paying us a visit this June. Originally beginning life as a duo of childhood friends, with two albums now firmly under their belt (2014’s Gypsy Pervert and last year’s Romantic), they’re now a four-piece. While a couple of their songs last more than three minutes, the rest barely get close to one or two, so expect a fun-filled night of short, sharp, power pop and punk that’ll rock your socks off.

THE SKINNY

Photo: Sam Rudich

Treat yourself to a unique blend of indie and hip-hop with the Yoni Wolf-fronted WHY? tonight at Glasgow’s CCA. Having just released their fifth album Moh Lhean back in March, we have it on good authority that the live band will consist of the Elephant Eyelash-era (2005) line-up: Yoni and Josiah Wolf, Doug McDiarmid and Matt Meldon.

Hopefully that means there’ll be some classics thrown in alongside their excellent new record.

Kite Base, Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 7 Jun

Photo: Paul Johnson

Tinderbox Orchestra

Good Morning Easter Road is out on 9 Jun

WHY?, CCA, Glasgow, 8 Jun

Tinderbox Orchestra, Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, 4 Jun Back at the start of the year, Scotland’s premier youth music orchestra Tinderbox released their debut single Quetzalcoatl, and now they’re ready to unleash their debut album on the world. With a launch show as part of the closing night of Edinburgh’s Hidden Door festival, we reckon this is going to be one heck of a party. The collective’s self-titled debut is released on the same day and further celebrations are set to take place at Glasgow’s St Luke’s on 9 Jun.

concludes: “I’m having the time of my life with music right now but I remember what it was like when I wasn’t confident enough. Helping other girls get that confidence is pretty much the best thing ever!”

What’s next for Lou Mclean? Beyond the EP launch, she’s already started looking into new live dates and events with Girls Rock School, and hints at a full-length release. Whatever the future holds, we’re sure she’ll rise to the challenge.

competition thinking ‘it’s worth a shot’, not expecting it’d come to anything. Then I got it and it was like ‘this is amazing!’.”

As Mclean’s confidence continues to grow, she’s now heavily involved with Edinburgh’s Girls Rock School who offer music workshops run by women for women. She was a pupil of the school in 2015 but the student has become the master, with Mclean now running songwriting workshops there. “It’s a really nurturing environment full of women who don’t make excuses for creating.

Having other girls you can talk to, as support, when you’re trying to get into music is really important, it makes you feel like you belong.” She

Positive Punks We speak to Glasgow DIY punks Bridal Shower about being ingrained in Glasgow’s music scene and the anxiety that brings

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Musically, Negatives is a monster. It shifts and slides and is incapable of sitting still at any moment, to its credit. “We went through about three phases as we were writing the album, which probably explains our constantly shifting sound,” Gillon recounts. “We started off as a shoegaze band, then as a noise act, before finally settling on post-punk, which incorporates those earlier, noisier elements into something more melodic and palatable.” William Clapperton, the band’s bassist and other frontman who completes Bridal Shower’s line-up, elaborates: “We all love hardcore punk music, but wanted to create something that used the energy from it without all the needless aggression, like an organised chaos.” McColl concludes: “It’s too easy to hide behind a wall of noise, so by turning the gain down and exposing ourselves to more melody, we improved as songwriters as a result.”

Iain Gillon

This shift in sounds is consistent with one of the album’s major themes, anxiety. “The album is largely reflective of how modern society is full of creeping anxieties at every turn and how we as people rarely find an outlet for all that concern, imagined or otherwise,” Glass explains. “The music doesn’t sit still because we can’t in our daily lives,” Gillon adds, mentioning how the band’s lead single Negatives was inspired by the creepy thriller film One Hour Photo. Even the band’s use of duelling

The Maccabees, O2 Academy, Glasgow, 23 Jun

Six Organs of Admittance is the main project of Ben Chasny and with a plethora of releases since 1998, his 2015 Hexadic record saw him adopt an unconventional method for songwriting involving a guitar and a pack of playing cards. His latest offering Burning the Threshold released via Drag City earlier this year was his first acoustic-led record since 2011, receiving four stars from us back in February.

Catch him at Summerhall tonight.

After releasing four albums over the course of 14 years together, in August of last year The Maccabees decided to call it a day on their own terms, stating that “the decision has obviously been an incredibly difficult one.” Along with the announcement came a note that there would be some farewell shows and this is one of them – head along to the O2 Academy tonight and sing Toothpaste Kisses one last time at the top of your lungs. You’ll regret it otherwise.

June 2017

Photo: Elisa Ambrogio

Six Organs of Admittance

Pond, The Art School, Glasgow, 19 Jun

Photo: Matt Sav

Six Organs of Admittance, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 16 Jun

Pond

due to recent noise complaints and most people wandered in looking for the toilet, so it’s not always easy sailing.”

Ultimately there’s a bright future ahead for Bridal Shower on the basis of their first year of existence, which Negatives will only cement. The four-piece are looking forward to launching their album at the band’s studio space-cum-occasional-gig-venue, the Glassworks, as it will be a celebration of a year’s hard work. Gillon beams: “We are proud of the record and can’t wait to have it out there having been involved in its creation every step of the way.” Adding: “If it’s a success then maybe I can stop spending money on scratchcards just in case that funds us. One day.”

vocalists is a platform in which to explore this idea of anxiety and paranoia. Clapperton tells us: “I mostly do the more shouted vocals, while Lewis tends to do the softer spoken lyrics. It’s a balance we really liked being able to take advantage of and I think [it] works especially really well on [the band’s latest single] Tapeworm.”

Live, Bridal Shower are an entirely different beast, pushing all the nervous energy their punkier references expect while finding an outlet for the feelings of anxiety that permeate their debut record. As a result, the band have already supported such notable acts as Qui, Slowcoaches and most recently LVL UP as a result of their impressive live performances. “We have had some strange live experiences too,” Gillon tells us. “We played a show in Aberdeen with two completely different sounding acts to us, one was a folk act if I recall, where we had to work the doors in order to get paid. We were told to keep our amps turned down

Psychedelic Aussie rockers Pond make their way across the, um, pond… bad jokes aside, they’ll be here this month and you can catch them psyching out all over Glasgow’s Art School tonight.

Celebrating the release of their seventh album The Weather (released last month via Marathon Artists), it features Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on production duties and ‘is an evocative testament to not giving a shit.’ Read the full review online.

Music

The Maccabees

Negatives is released on 9 Jun via Glasseater Records Bridal Shower play Glassworks Recording Studio, Glasgow, 10 Jun bridalshower.bigcartel.com

Glass Mountain

Glass Mountain, King Tut’s, Glasgow, 29 Jun One of Bradford’s finest emerging bands, Glass Mountain stop by Glasgow’s King Tut’s tonight, and you should go and see them. The four-piece released their debut EP, Glacial, towards the end of last year, releasing a further double A-side at the start of this year. We premiered the music video for Cowboy Song; the other track on the release was a thoughtful cover of Bill Murray’s version of Roxy Music’s More Than This. Hopefully this gives you an idea of what they’re about.

Review

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Photo: Danny Payne

“ Great bands in Glasgow appear to come in waves.

We are very lucky to currently be on a particularly good one just now”

Photo: Jordan Hughes

reat bands in Glasgow appear to come in waves. We are very lucky to currently be on a particularly good one just now,” says Iain Gillon, drummer of Glasgow’s latest post-punk noiseniks Bridal Shower. Gillon should know, he also runs a monthly club night at Bloc+ called Repeater, which cultivates some of the best punk, indie and noise bands Glasgow has to offer. However, it is not all positive: “Glasgow is a great city but can be quite segregated in terms of its various music scenes,” he goes on to explain. “In our scene though, the bands and people we play with have always been very supportive and encouraging which makes it a great city to play in. It’s what [our] song Attention is about.”

Bridal Shower have a vested interest in Glasgow’s alternative music scene. Aside from Repeater, Lewis Glass, the band’s lead guitarist and one of two frontmen, runs the Glassworks Recording Studio in Glasgow’s southside, a fulltime operation now that some of the city’s best and brightest are queuing up to record there.

“It’s very demanding work, but very rewarding too and especially when I get to create my own music there,” Glass enthuses. While the Glassworks wasn’t finished in time to record Bridal Shower’s debut Negatives, which comes out on 9 Jun via their self-created label Glasseater Records (Glassworks + Repeater), they were able to mix the album entirely in their own studio.

Bridal Shower recorded their debut with Ewan Grant (of WOMPS fame) at 7 West Studio in central Glasgow and as rhythm guitarist, Scott McColl adds: “It was really useful to have an objective pair of ears listen to us recording, even if Lewis kept naturally wanting to interject.” When the mixing sessions were completed, the band sent the album off to Matthew J Barnhart, who has mastered the likes of Metz and Pissed Jeans (both major influences to the noisy-quartet) at the Chicago Mastering Service. “We waited for the right offer in terms of releasing the album, but nothing we received really suited us, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and self-release,” McColl explains. Given the fierce DIY ethic of the band’s members, specifically within Glasgow, it makes sense for them to take control of the releasing of their debut record too.

Interview: Adam Turner-Heffer

Album of the Month Kevin Morby

City Music [Dead Oceans, 16 Jun]

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The last time we heard Kevin Morby, he sounded immortal. On Singing Saw, the ex-Woods bass player and co-director of The Babies sang sweeping epics about fire and rain and facing the devil in his dreams. He’d been to the mountain, sung all the songs and watched as the flowers around him wilted, seeming more of a mythological figure who wandered in from the back pages of rock history than a regular guy strumming a guitar.

City Music finds Morby stepping out of that caricature into the bustling avenues of the modern metropolis. There, he reckons with what it is ‘to be a normal man, just to go out shaking hands’ and confronts the reality that his days are numbered.

It’s a journey beset by isolation and a kind of spiritual fatigue but just as prevalent are moments of awe and jubilation on an album that stitches together a panoramic view of the urban experience.

On Dry Your Eyes, we hear him crawl the night in search of companionship to the slow shuffle of brushes on a snare drum. He and Megan Duffy’s guitars stagger up against one another, sighing with a big roomy tone you could imagine spilling out a dive bar in some gloomy back alley of nowhere. The title track, meanwhile, is an up-

Listen to: Tin Can, City Music, Come To Me Now

Adam Stafford

Lou Mclean

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Helen Marnie’s second album is a pointed reminder that, given time to develop their identity, artists on sabbatical just might fashion an enriched output: a win-win situation for both them and their audience. The Ladytron singer’s 2013 solo debut Crystal World was a compelling electro adventure whose striving hinted at riches to come. And here they are. Strange Words and Weird Wars is deep-ly accomplished avant-pop: an artful and advanced enterprise. Marnie crams her developing songbook with a multitide of melodies and a lyrical acumen to match.

Aware that the very best dance pop sows a thread of melancholy between the beats, she confronts this delicious paradox head on. For every exquisitely sorrowful ballad (Summer Boys is a next-gen revision of Madonna’s Live To Tell), there is a clear-sighted take on the madness of the world around us (Lost Maps and its ‘Is someone out there looking for you?’ refrain, inspired in part by the plight of Syrian refugees). It retains its hold throughout and, once the tunes have planted their hooks, take time to consider the voice: something often passed over. At its best, as on the head-spinning chorus of Little Knives, it adds drama to the whole, every line delivered almost as a secret disclosed in confidence: little intrigues that hint at the dark underbelly. [Gary Kaill] Listen to: Heartbreak Kid, Little Knives

Review

beat jam that ebbs and flows with the energy of rush hour traffic. ‘Oh that city music, oh that city sound!’ goes the refrain, an exclamation that seems both overwhelmed and elated by the possibilities of so many lives happening in the same place.

Morby’s tools are the same as ever, but more refined. That once derivative Dylan-esque drawl is now unmistakably his own and on Tin Can we hear him perfect the art of saying lots with as little as possible. ‘Sun came up then it went down again,’ he sings, and you marvel as an entire day passes in eight words, a drum roll spinning the sky like a pinwheel.

Come To Me Now, recorded on a 19th century pump organ, could be the most yearning sound he’s put to tape while Aboard My Train pays tribute to the relationships that made him, and when he lets loose a solo with a euphoric yelp, you’ll want to run and hug everyone who was ever there for you. More candid but just as magical, City Music is another magnificent record from Morby. [Andrew Gordon]

Marnie

Strange Words and Weird Wars [Disco Piñata, 2 Jun]

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Photo: Adarsha Benjamin

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Reverse Drift [Gerry Loves Records, 30 Jun]

Certain musicians are like alchemists, turning sound into vision. They make abstract, texturally rich instrumental music that through some mysterious means projects vivid pictures onto our imaginations as we listen. We see landscapes, scenery, sunlight. For Reverse Drift, Adam Stafford inverted that process.

The Falkirk-based composer, award winning filmmaker and helmsman of defunct local heroes Y’All is Fantasy Island gathered some existing photographs and performed a soundtrack to accompany them, all of it recorded in a single forty minute take. The images are stark and eerie, depicting roads and trees shot through windows, patches of light on walls and other lonely tableaus.

Together with music, they offer an immersive, slightly unsettling three-act journey into a desolate twilight world where time seems to stand still.

Stafford approaches musical ideas like a meditator treats thoughts, allowing them to linger only briefly before setting them free and welcoming in the next. Stafford’s use of loops and delay means you can always hear a ghostly after-image of what’s come before, yet what lies ahead is a surprise right to the last. It makes for a demanding listen, but a rich and evocative one that rewards your attention. [Andrew Gordon] Listen to: “in one uninterrupted sitting, preferably with headphones or played incredibly loud”

Good Morning Easter Road EP [Self-Released, 9 Jun]

Immediately, you can’t help but notice how infectious Lou Mclean’s voice is: pleasant and warm, the lilting tones have you singing along even when you don’t know the words yet. She draws you in with an easy charisma to the way she plays, a quality surely honed through tireless gigging, which is particularly striking on confident, upbeat numbers like Poets & Flatcaps. There’s lots of humour here too, especially on the off-beat Bedtime Reading that gets you laughing because of the ironic tension between form and subject

Bridal Shower

Negatives [Glasseater Records, 9 Jun]

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Psych, grunge, shoegaze, emo… the list of revived genres over the last decade stretches on. One of the most fruitful, however (not to mention reassuringly off-radar), has been the underground explosion in noise rock, where bands like Pissed Jeans and Metz have taken post-punk’s gnarlier leanings back to the 80s heyday of labels like Touch and Go. Glasgow’s Bridal Shower are the latest to follow in this ear-shredding tradition, and there’s certainly a lot to love about debut album Negatives.

RECORDS

matter which is created by Mclean extolling the virtues of a good book in the sultriest of tones.

The lyrical highlights can be found elsewhere, on more melancholic tracks like Empty Cans and Play Dead which meditate unflinchingly upon the pain of struggling relationships, break-ups and heartbreak. The latter is the definite pinnacle of the EP, showcasing a talent for writing catchy hooks with lines like ‘Baby I’ll just lie here and play dead / And try not to listen to the voices in my head’, while also being able to inject some poetic flair with imagery and wordplay.

After having released such a promising and uplifting EP, it’s very easy to get excited about the prospect of a full-length release from Mclean in the near future. [Megan Wallace] Listen to: Green Shirt, Blue Eyes, Play Dead They’re best when either riffing aggressively and dissonantly (see third track Attention for a Scratch Acid throwback done right), or simply concocting fractured melodies with frazzled intensity – Tapeworm starts out like the Pixies at their most freaked-out, then dives into a restrained anti-chorus, like Robert Pollard at his most morose.

Sure, there are moments among these nine tracks that feel a little too polite – try as they might, they’ll struggle to fully replicate the unhinged mania of obvious heroes like David Yow – and you occasionally wonder if a rougher production job might have enhanced the enviable nastiness at their music’s core. Still, the ideas and the songs are all there – these are exciting beginnings indeed. [Will Fitzpatrick] Listen to: Attention, Tapeworm

THE SKINNY

The Drums

Abysmal Thoughts [ANTI-, 16 Jun]

Indie pop darlings The Drums have a habit of losing their bandmates. Following the departure of founding member Jacob Graham, The Drums are now a one-man band in the form of frontman Jonny Pierce. Abysmal Thoughts, their fourth album on as many labels, sees Pierce in full control, writing and recording the entire album in his apartment over the space of about 15 months.

The result, unsurprisingly, is a deeply personal record that explores themes of love and loss through the eyes of someone unsure about his place in the world.

Opening track Mirror sets the tone for the album; a deceptively upbeat pop tune chock-full of instantaneous hooks and introspective lyrics.

The punchy drum loops and angular guitar work create a stuttering backdrop drawn from 80s post punk, while the sleek vocals create a beguiling focal point that invites you to question the very purpose of your existence with surprising cheerfulness.

In the press release accompanying the album, Pierce describes creating the album as one

“longrunning therapy session”. In working through the chaos, he not only achieves moments of clarity but also crafts some of The Drums’ finest songs to date. On the title track, Pierce channels Paul Simon and layers his vocals in a cascade of countermelody, singing ‘Abysmal thoughts / Pushing me down to the ground’ before repeating a refrain of ‘Abysmal, abysmal, abysmal’ that wouldn’t feel out of place on Graceland. Never has an existential crisis sounded so catchy.

Abysmal Thoughts feels much more like The Drums we knew on Portamento. The stripped back production and poppy songwriting are likely to be a welcome return to form if 2014’s Encyclopedia felt like an experiment that didn’t quite yield the results you were hoping for. The overall charm is undeniable, even if it does feel very familiar. [Alastair Atcheson] Listen to: Mirror, Abysmal Thoughts, Blood Under My Belt

The Drums

Passion Pusher

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Your feelings about Passion Pusher will be determined by what you make of James Gage’s voice. If you’ve always leapt to the defence of Mark E. Smith when he gets described as singing like a barmy tramp on Spice, then Gage will give you more to defend. Off-key, stretched and out of tune, this is a vocal style that wouldn’t be out of place on a Glasgow street at three in the morning.

Big Thief

Alt-J

London Grammar

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Capacity [Saddle Creek, 9 Jun] Brooklyn-based indie band Big Thief ’s second album Capacity, released by Omaha’s famous Saddle Creek label, shows that despite their name they are the masters of little details, owing in no small part to the rich lyrics of their singer Adrianne Lenker.

Recorded in snowy upstate New York, Capacity is a warmly produced and soothing record which doesn’t fail to show off Big Thief’s three strengths: Buck Meek’s gently twisting guitar work, James Krivchenia’s crisp, off-kilter drums and the wavering voice of Lenker, whose sympathetic storytelling is the band’s most powerful quality. Big Thief aren’t the sort of band that will always hit you suddenly, such is their subtlety and restraint, but on Capacity they prove that when they do it’s powerful and memorable. [Chris Ogden] Listen to: Mythological Beauty, Haley, Mary

June 2017

RELAXER [Infectious Music, 2 Jun] Alt-J have knuckled down. Stripped of intros, interludes and all that posturing, this album feels – as its low-res computer graphical cover and robotically capitalised title RELAXER suggest – like an executable file, to be played in moments of emotional escape. Its compact eight tracks, running at a mere 40 minutes, offer controlled segments of medidative horizons and wry alt-pop – sequenced like binary code.

Each song on RELAXER has a lot going on, and for an album so brief its ability to evoke scale – while still carrying the distinctive sound of the band that surprised us all with An Awesome Wave back in 2012 – is testament to Alt-J’s demonstrable talents as artists. [George Sully]

Listen to: 3WW, In Cold Blood, Adeline

But there will be those for whom the lack of polish is the point. The fact that Gage had uploaded over 220 EPs, albums and demo tapes to Bandcamp by the age of 19 will also demonstrate to those kindred spirits that here is an uncompromising, unrefined soul pursuing a distinctive artistic furrow. For the rest of us, imagine badlytuned guitars and a powerful aversion to most kinds of melody. ‘We’ve had the worst week of our lives,’ he drawls on Pizza Club. Ah, we nod, we know how that sounds now. My Guy manages to attain a level of propulsion akin to early Brilliant Corners but irritates more than it charms. Really Wonderful powerfully isn’t. And so it goes...

Listen to: Sauchiehall Street

Com Truise

Marika Hackman

Pixx

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Truth is a Beautiful Thing [Ministry of Sound, 9 Jun]

Iteration [Ghostly International, 16 Jun]

In retrospect, the breathless anticipation which preempted London Grammar’s debut wasn’t so surprising given the timing. Released in 2013, If You Wait offered a sparse yet vast, tastefully gloomy sound.

Hannah Reid’s enormous voice set the group apart back then and she still sings the competition under the table this time around. While always admirable on a technical level, her flashy delivery also makes for a few memorable gut punches.

But these are rare instances of genuine feeling amongst what otherwise feels like palatable but empty theatrics. While the instrumentation on Truth is a Beautiful Thing still takes watered down cues from The xx, it also reveals what the whole melancholic echo-pop set owes to U2. [Andrew Gordon]

It’s been five years since Seth Haley, aka Com Truise, has put out a full-length album and we’re glad he’s back. The shimmering sounds and blasting beats on Iteration make you feel like you’ve fallen into the soundtrack to an eighties sci-fi movie. You almost have, given that there’s an intricate narrative behind the album, one crammed with space adventure, looming danger and far-flung planets.

It seems like Haley has set himself the personal challenge of seeing how much emotion can possibly be conveyed through electronic music and without the aid of lyrics.

Nostalgic, dramatic and not exactly short on synth, Iteration is the kind of record necessary to help us battle through the rest of 2017. [Megan Wallace]

Listen to: Rooting For You, Everyone Else

This is the kind of album that reminds you of that old Kit Kat advert in which a group of wannabe pop stars are told, ‘you can’t sing, you can’t play – you’ll go a long way’. Except instead of wanting to tell Passion Pusher he’ll go a long way, you want to say, instead of recording any more songs please eat a Kit Kat. Every time you want to record a song, eat a Kit Kat. In fact, eat nothing else but Kit Kats until you’ve cured yourself of ever wanting to share any of your music again.

[Pete Wild]

Listen to: Dryswch, Vacuume

RECORDS

I’m Not Your Man AMF Records, 2 Jun On her debut record, 2015’s We Slept At Last, Marika Hackman emerged as a moody folk songwriter characterised by her literate lyrics and acoustic arrangements. Supported this time around by friends The Big Moon, the London-based singer-songwriter throws off the folk garb on her second record I’m Not Your Man, serving up a more jagged, rockier offering that unflinchingly explores the brutality of relationships.

Not abandoning her folk roots entirely, I’m Not Your Man proves an emotional and sonic progression for Hackman, a record that at its best is affecting and fun. It shows her to be an artist growing in her stride, increasing her capacity to be more artful and at once more true. [Chris Ogden] Listen to: Boyfriend, My Lover Cindy, Time’s Been Reckless

The Age of Anxiety [4AD, 2 Jun] Try to imagine what it would sound like if Nico fronted an 80s synth band; now, stop imagining because that’s exactly what Pixx’s debut album The Age of Anxiety sounds like. While there are some straight up pop bangers on the record, as a whole it seems slightly confused and at times quite difficult to follow jumping from upbeat electro-pop, to lo-fi indie, to gloomy gothic rock with no real consistency.

With more thematic clarity and less of a throw in everything and the kitchen sink attitude, The Age of Anxiety could have been a phenomenal debut for Pixx. Despite the high quality of many of the tracks, there’s just a bit too much going on for it to all make sense. [Nadia Younes]

Listen to: Romance, Toes, The Girls

Review

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Photo: Moni Haworth

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Meet Me At The Club Newcastle’s star producer Patrick Topping talks upcoming Hot Creations releases, collaborations with Tiga and Idris Elba, and the secret to his energetic, party-hard performances

Interview: Claire Francis

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atrick Topping’s career has been on a steady rise ever since he started making music in his bedroom back in 2012. The Newcastle-born selector broke onto the scene with his debut EP Walk On, released on the Hot Creations sub-label Hot Trax, and a number of Beatport-topping tunes have since followed. A high-profile collaboration with Green Velvet resulted in the 2014 raver’s anthem Voicemail, and with a prolific work rate and a knack for throwing down crowd-pleasing tech house workouts, Topping has evolved into a globally-recognised DJ. After recently playing a huge five-hour show at Glasgow’s SWG3 back in late April, and with an upcoming set at Manchester’s Parklife Festival on the cards, we caught up with the hard-working Geordie superstar to hear about what he’s been up to in 2017, and what we can expect from him in the coming months.

You had a great 2016 topped off with the number 11 spot in Resident Advisor’s Top 100 DJs. Do you feel like you’re at a peak moment in your career with these kind of awards, or would you say you’re still evolving as a DJ? I actually wonder this myself and hope that it isn’t the peak, but if it is, then that’s fair enough! I never imagined I’d be where I am today. That being said I’m hoping to keep pushing on as much as I can, while also enjoying what’s already going on.

How did starting out in Newcastle influence your sound and the way you perform?

Having weekly residencies in Newcastle definitely made me more confident as a DJ. It didn’t influence my music that much, as there wasn’t a particular sound which the city was famous for, but there were options to listen to all sorts of dance music, which I suppose did influence me, and I got to see so many artists play.

What productions do you have in store for this year?

I have an EP coming on Hot Creations, which I’m buzzing about. I love releasing with the label and [I’m] really happy to maintain that regular output with them. I still feel it’s a big part of my musical identity. Then I’ve got some other darker tracks, which I’m dying to get out, just trying to work out the right label [for them]. Also I’ve just finished a remix for Tiga, which I’m really excited about, and I’m also working on one for Idris Elba!

On your recent UK tour you’ve been playing all-night-long sets. How do you prepare for such a lengthy performance?

I prepare for every set I do. I’ll create a playlist with tracks I think are appropriate to the gig, but most times I’ll end up playing tracks from beyond that playlist. So with an extended set, it’s just an even bigger playlist really. Or sometimes if it’s really long, like 8-10 hours, I might make a first part playlist, peak time one, then an end of the night list and also an eclectic one.

Your career has taken you to festivals and shows all over the world – which country or city have you most enjoyed? Is there anywhere that has a great clubbing scene that perhaps you weren’t expecting?

Venice is one the nicest cities I’ve been to. Tulum in Mexico just down from Playa del Carmen is also amazing. My favourite country has to be Australia, I just love it over there and the shows have been mint too. There are so many though, I’m so lucky to have travelled so much through music! South America is the one which has blown me away the most though, as I wasn’t sure what

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to expect and every single time I’ve played there it’s been amazing! Usually 1,000 plus people going mad for hours, even mid-week. It’s definitely one of my favourite places to play, the crowd proper go for it.

Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert? Do you think you need to have an outgoing personality to be a good DJ? If I had to choose I’d say introvert, but I can still be quite outgoing. I don’t think you have to be outgoing at all to be a DJ, there are plenty of quieter guys than me, who are massive DJs, it’s mainly about the music isn’t it! That being said, I do think being outgoing can be helpful.

What is the reality of a career in DJing like? What do you think are the most common misconceptions about the work and the lifestyle?

Well it’s the best job in the world in my eyes and I think most people who like the music would think the same too. It can be very intense and tiring, but I think most people seem to understand that to be honest. The only misconception I think is that some people don’t realise the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes.

What would people be most surprised to learn about you?

That’s quite a hard question and I’m not entirely sure, but maybe some people might think I’m really loud or confident, but I can actually be quite shy sometimes. Or perhaps that my political views are left-wing and progressive.

How does it feel to see things like the Meet Me At The Club tattoos that your fans have? It must be quite surreal?

It’s amazing! And blows me away! It is surreal and I suppose it’s one of the biggest compliments you can get, that someone loves the music so much they want to get it permanently tattooed on their body! I buzz off seeing them. The maddest one was that lad from Australia who has my face on his leg! I met him at a festival over there and had to give him my rider, as that’s something I’d never dreamed I would see! You have to give these people respect.

What have been the highlights of your year so far, and what are you most looking forward to in the coming months?

This year has been amazing so far. January I was

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mostly playing around South America, February I stayed at home making music, and in March and April the festivals kicked off! So yeah it’s been packed, busy and really fun. Career-wise I had been looking forward to Coachella the most, and now it’s probably all the Ibiza shows I’ve got lined up. Personally I can’t wait to get married! My fiancé and I have been to together for nearly 10 years, so it feels so special and I really can't wait.

You’re playing Parklife this month amongst a huge line-up of other big-name DJs. Is there anyone on the bill we should particularly look out for?

I’d love to see some of Stormzy’s set at Parklife, as I only caught his last song at Coachella and I’m really into him at the moment. I’m so excited for Parklife and it’s definitely one of the things I’m most looking forward to, especially after last year!

I posted a video from last year and said there were 10,000 people there, but got told later by the festival owner that there was actually 25,000!

Which is mental! And easily the biggest crowd I’ve played to. So if it’s anything like last year, it’s going to be unreal.

Patrick Topping plays Parklife 2017 on Sat 10 Jun

THE SKINNY

June 2017

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Special Projects and DJ Deep — Cuts serie Remixes Vol. 1, featuring Mr. G, Ben Sims, Steve Rachmad & Roman Poncet, on his own label — we asked him to share his ten favourite clubs releases of the year, so far.

1) Biosphere ­— The Petrified Forest [Kudos Records] This release sees Biosphere explore the universe and soundscape of Archie Mayo’s 1936 film The Petrified Forest, but through his own personal style and sound. I have always been a big fan of Biosphere, and 2017 has been a great year full of both reissues of his past work as well as great new, fresh material.

2) Various Artists — Dreamy Harbor [Tresor] My dear friend Paulo Reachi has done an amazing job putting this compilation together, which features exclusive tracks from the likes of Vainqueur, Jon Hassell, Terrence Dixon, Donato Dozzy and more. It includes beautiful electronic and ambient pieces, mixed in amongst some timeless techno.

3) Suso Saíz — Rainworks [Music From Memory] Music From Memory have done an amazing job at both releasing or re-issuing fascinating albums and 2017 has been a really great year from them so far. I collect all of their releases and they are always the perfect soundtrack for my beloved meditative moments while I’m travelling!

Guest Selector: DJ Deep French techno and house producer and Deeply Rooted label boss DJ Deep selects his ten favourite releases of 2017 to date Interview: Claire Francis

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veteran DJ and producer with a career spanning over 20 years, DJ Deep’s output has encompassed house, techno and everything in between. His label Deeply Rooted (formerly Deeply Rooted House) has also proven him to be a thoughtful and esteemed curator. DJ Deep (real name Cyril Etienne des Rosaies) is further

known for his collaborative project with fellow French selector Roman Poncet under the alias Sergie Rezza, following on from the two EPs they released together as Adventice for the renowned Berlin club Tresor.

With two forthcoming DJ Deep releases set to drop this month – the Parisian Kid EP on Rekids

4) Various Artists — Tribute to the King [Fragil Musique] This French label never fails to deliver, and this is a really nice four track EP that features a host of interesting beats and grooves throughout. Simo Cell produces (as always!) another really interesting jam that mixes mysterious keys alongside Afro-influenced beats.

5) Kilchhofer / Hainbach — Acosta [Marionette] This is a very nice split release. Electronica, deep techno and ambient territories are all fully explored here and this is done so in a really original and

unique way! I really like this album, and even the idea of a split release collaboration where nothing feels like it is forced or imposing, but there is a certain common and cohesive feel on both sides.

6) V.A. — Miracle Steps (Music From the Fourth World 1983-2017) [Optimo Music] This is ambient music at its finest. Some truly excellent work from the guys at Optimo which features tracks from O Yuki Conjugate and John Hassll to just name a few. Simply put, another timeless selection of more meditative music.

7) Various Artists — EXO2 [Ekster] This has to be another favourite soundtrack of mine for life on the road and my travels so far this year! It’s exotic, ambient and even features some dub elements at times. More excellent electronic(a) and a musical journey from start to finish!

8) Body Boys — H - [Civilised Life] I really like this EP. It somehow mixes the energy found within house and techno with bass music, leading to some super original sound textures and a great vibe! To me it’s the kind of record that really stands out as both a great piece of listening music, but also as an excellent secret DJ weapon.

9) Leroy Hutson - Get to This (You'll Get to Me) (Alex Attias edit) [LillyGood Party! France] Three words. Feel good music! It’s great to see Alex Attias’ name on a record again. Here he produces a super edit of this up-tempo boogie jam by Mr. Leroy Hutson. A really great track for summer!

10) Beatrice Dillon — Can I Change My Mind? [Boomkat Editions] I really love this one sided 12" release. It was released at the beginning of the year on Boomkat Editions and I have been completely obsessed with this — and with its groove in particular — ever since I managed to get my hands on this record.

DJ Deep — Cuts Serie Remixes Vol. 1 is released on Deeply Rooted on 2 Jun The Parisian Kid EP is released on Rekids Special Projects on 9 Jun

Clubbing Highlights Take your pick from fresh faces, local talents, or scene-stealing veterans – this month Scotland’s clubs are packed with all three Nicolas Jaar (Live), The Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, 1 Jun At just 27 years of age, Chilean-American whizz-kid Nicolas Jaar has marked himself as a prodigious talent, not least with his most recent release, last year’s inimitable LP Sirens. He’s also known for issuing eclectic and explorative releases on his label Other People, and for his work as one half of the ambient duo Darkside. A live show from Jaar in the cavernous Barrowland Ballroom is set to be something special.

Firecracker Recordings present Heal Yourself & Move @ Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 3 Jun Whodamanny, aka Raffaele Arcella, is an Italian producer who crafts experimental, left-of-centre tunes. A central figure in the Early Sounds Recordings collective, he’s one of the founders of Periodica Records, and also plays under aliases The Normalmen and The Mystic Jungle Tribe. Catch him in the capital as part of this Firecracker/Unthank label showcase.

All Good presents Jasper James, The Reading Rooms, Dundee, 3 Jun Local favourite Jasper James continues his busy

June 2017

Words: Claire Francis Illustration: Jamie Jones

rise to the top, with a mini-tour in India recently wrapped up, on the back of his dancefloor ready EP release Dirty Wrong. Pre-show playlist? The freshly issued Live from Mitchell Street mix, the third in a series with his pal (and housemate) Jackmaster.

Say No More with Lord of the Isles, La Cheetah Club, Glasgow, 9 Jun Speaking of the aforementioned Mitchell Street mix, its opening track – the cosmic, bubbling Plasma Nomad – comes from none other than Lord of the Isles. An esteemed DJ and producer known for his live sets and all-vinyl selections, Lord of the Isles (aka Neil McDonald) has played at the likes of Concrete, Corsica Studios, and Panorama Bar. This will be his first time in the La Cheetah basement, with support from the Say No More DJs Kanga and Baz. Maya Jane Coles, SWG3, Glasgow, 9 Jun Killer DJ Maya Jane Coles broke onto the scene in 2010; the Londoner counts a Fabric mix to her name, as well as an acclaimed DJ-Kicks effort.

The multi-talented Coles is known for her all-encompassing approach to her craft, from writing,

producing and engineering, to designing the album artwork. She’s been relatively quiet of late, so here’s your chance to see her skills in action, with support from Wax Wings and Jamie Roy. Kraftwerk, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 10 Jun The words ‘a group that need little introduction’ are usually – and ironically – followed by some form of introduction. None needed here. It’s Kraftwerk, people. A true don’t-miss event (they also play Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on 9 Jun).

Pressure Season Closing: Ben Klock (3hr Set), SWG3, Glasgow, 10 Jun It’s a simple yet powerful equation – take one of the world’s best DJs, the German superstar Ben Klock, add that it’s the Pressure closing party, and the result? Three hours of the best techno tunes you’re likely to experience, up close and personal.

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Nightmares On Wax, The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 17 Jun Nightmares On Wax is back at The Berkeley Suite this June, following his last roof-raising show at the venue in May of last year. George Evelyn, better known by his stage name Nightmares On Wax or DJ E.A.S.E, consistently delivers hugely danceable sets. Expect a blend of house, disco, and hip-hop alongside plenty of welcome samples from his own back catalogue.

Mike Servito, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, 29 Jun Known as a ‘DJ’s DJ’ Mike Servito boasts impeccable credentials. A New York based veteran of the scene, his style and sound is inspired by 80s and 90s Detroit. He made his debut in 1995 and has held the attention and the respect of his peers ever since. Here’s a rare chance to see this still widely-unknown rare talent in Sneaky’s intimate surrounds.

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Bard is a Four-Letter Word The Skinny’s regular poetry column speaks with a fresh and exciting voice – Kayo Chingonyi – about his new collection Kumukanda. We also visit Babbity Bowster on 25 June to experience quality poetry while raising money for refugees

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n the other end of a crackly line, Kayo Chingonyi is speaking about his debut collection, Kumukanda. Translated, the title means ‘initiation’, and is the name for the traditional coming of age rite for boys from the Luvale tribe – part of his own cultural heritage. The compilation of poems, some from previous publications and others completely new, is exceedingly powerful; by turns furious, tender and bittersweet, taking as it does the overall theme of in-betweens.

Ancestry versus contemporary rites of passage.

The ambiguous versus the undeniable. Who you are, and who you choose to be seen as, versus who others perceive you to be.

A young wordsmith of mixed cultures, who has had experience of both the northern and southern English poetry scenes and travelled widely around the world, Chingonyi is well versed in tackling matters of identity. So, did spending time up North have an influence on his writing in any way? “I studied my first degree in Sheffield,” says Chingonyi, “...it was good for my writing, because it was easy to connect to that kind of world – I could just walk into lots of open mics.

The title and ‘atmosphere’ of the work came about first in 2013, when I was on residency at Cove Park in Scotland. During the course of the residency, my mind kept coming back to the idea of ritual

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

By Patty Yumi Cottrell

and that became the title. Having the title also gave new shape to work I had already published.”

He goes on to talk about certain poems in more detail. “The title poem has a special significance, and is one I struggled to write. Another is H-O-R-S-E [an incredibly evocative poem about playing basketball – Chingonyi conjuring the figure of his late father into the game with himself] which thinks about our relationship with parents, and how we emulate them. My dad was very tall, and the sport of basketball has a very obvious relation to masculinity and how we measure up to a father figure.”

Grieving and memory are central threads; Chingonyi details moments around the loss of his mother in harrowing, photographic detail. Even after several days have gone by, the image of her yellow suit at the laying out remains vivid, ‘The bones of her skull vitiate a face that once stunned grown men into mumbling stupors.’ Another particularly vibrant thread throughout is music – his experiences of endlessly rewinding and repeating songs. Was it music he first fell in love with, or playing with words? “My first interest was in learning song lyrics, then I started to write my own song lyrics for fun. For me, the two aren’t separable.”

So far, the response to Kumukanda has been very positive in spite of its challenging and under-

represented content. “It’s an affirmation of a particular kind of selfhood,” Chingonyi suggests of his work. “...particularly in terms of Black boyhood and manhood – which gets a very limited showing in mainstream popular culture – and gives approval to others who want to speak as well. I was influenced by the likes of Roger Robinson and Jacob Sam-La Rose, and am now passing on the message by exploring these themes.

There’s a certain kinship with younger poets, and often I’ve found people are very open to hearing a different perspective, particularly abroad.” And what, in a nutshell, would be his message to any aspiring young poet writing now? “Anyone who has the aspiration to write is going against the inclination to passivity which helps capitalism thrive.

If you have decided to write, you have already done a bold thing. Follow that initial boldness, and try to challenge yourself in surprising ways.”

In other news: The Callum Macdonald Memorial Award winners were announced last month, a unique prize which rewards publishers with a connection with Scotland or Scottish culture. The winner this year was Hugh Bryden of Dumfries-based Roncadora Press (also the winner in 2009), with the pamphlet Sheep Penned by poet Hugh McMillan. He

Flights

Men Without Women

By Olga Tokarczuk

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By Haruki Murakami

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Patty Yumi Cottrell’s stand-out debut novel opens with our protagonist, Helen, receiving a new IKEA sofa alongside the news that her adoptive brother has killed himself, which sets a tone of existential dread juxtaposed with absurdist humour. Helen, who fashions herself as ‘Sister Reliable’, decides to return home to her adoptive parents and crashes back into her childhood town while investigating her suspicions around the aforementioned suicide.

Frustrated, aggressive, marginalised, and darkly funny, Helen is a kaleidoscope of contradictions and, despite her nickname, is the epitome of the unreliable narrator. She remarks on the novel’s titular apology: ‘It could mean, I’m sorry, I made a mistake. It could mean, I’m sorry, I’ll ruin you, bitch.’ Helen disturbs all levels of peace – her adoptive parents’, her childhood suburban home’s, her own, and the reader’s. Simultaneously absorbent and repellent, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace pushes and pulls the reader to the point of alienation but never over the edge. The novel’s acerbic humour, deep empathy, and electrifying voice grounds the story in all facets of humanity by shining a light on society’s seedy underbelly.

Sometimes jarring, sometimes heart-breaking, and sometimes hilarious, Helen’s voice will grab you by the scruff of the neck and drag you through its existential abyss. A detective story, family drama, and philosophical yarn, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace plays like Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska, but on crack. [Katie Goh]

Flights sets out as a dissection of modern travel, and becomes a diagnosis of the ancient human compulsion to move about. It is a loose travelogue, a collection of stories, a notebook of thoughts on modern life and airports and the human body. Fragmented and far-reaching, there are many windows into many lives: a man searches for his wife and child on a tiny island in Croatia; we follow Chopin’s heart on a secret journey from Paris to Warsaw; the recent beachings of whales around the world leads briefly into thoughts of animal suicide; and the strange, unworldly spaces of airport lounges come and go as the people that populate Flights drift in and out of focus.

It’s a bold, ragged book, a novel pushing at the limits of the form. At one point the narrator declares there are only two guidebooks worth having: an eighteenth century Polish travelogue that says even men with canine heads are worthy of salvation, and Moby-Dick. These are not accidental references. Like classic travel books and Melville’s masterpiece, Flights is full of oddities and digression, where facts and history and geography are interwoven with stories and analysis. Loosened from the bedrock of a continuous narrative, the book floats between fiction and non-fiction, story and essay. It’s no surprise that it won Poland’s biggest literary prize in 2008, and Jennifer Croft’s translation captures the energy and wit of a gifted European novelist.

[Galen O’Hanlon]

Out now, published by & Other Stories, RRP £10

Out now, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, RRP £12.99

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Ostensibly inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s collection of stories of the same name, Haruki Murakami’s latest offering could quite easily be viewed as a microcosm of his own literature. In these seven tales, we encounter men who fall in love with women, who have been jilted by them and who are entirely too nervous within their own skin to even get close enough for the jilting to be conceivable… just like in all of his novels.

All of Murakami’s tropes are here in full force: the lonely male protagonist, the mysterious female who beguiles and betrays, a preoccupation with ‘simple meals’ and an obsession with the Fab Four (two of the stories in the collection are even named after Beatles hits). Fans of his writing will revel in this unoriginal but highly engaging assortment of characters, and while two of the collection are entirely new works, Murakami says very little he hasn’t already said a thousand times over.

Of course, to berate him for repeating his wildly successful formula would be churlish, to say the least. He might be something of a one-trick pony, but the trick is sufficiently impressive to keep us all coming back for more with eager appetites. What’s more, his mastery of the cliffhanger ending – always enticing, never satisfying – is multiplied sevenfold with each new story; expect to be enrapt, just don’t expect resolution.

[Jonny Sweet]

Interview: Clare Mulley

was presented with the winning quaich and a cheque for £1,500 at a ceremony at the National Library of Scotland on 11 May. In second place was Duncan Lockerbie of Aberdeenshire-based Tapsalteerie Press, for the pamphlet tilt-shift, by Kate Tough, who received a cheque for £600.

In events news, get down to Babbity Bowster on Glasgow’s Blackfriars St on 25 Jun for their gala day, which is being held between 1-6pm in aid of the Scottish refugee council. In a nutshell, it is a day designed especially for bringing people together, celebrating differences and embracing the contributions we all make to our society, through the mediums of art, poetry, music and food. The programme will feature Ghazi Hussein, Palestinian born poet, writer and bafta award winning playwright, poets Ryan Van Winkle and Rachel Amy, movement artist and performance maker Sky Reynolds and Scottish musician and composer Finlay MacDonald, with Kueche catering company – Syrian, Congolese and Iraq cuisine specialists – providing the food.

Kumukanda is out now, published by Chatto and Windus, RRP £10 The Babbity Bowster Gala Day is on 25 Jun and is in aid of the Scottish Refugee Council

You Don’t Know Me

By Imran Mahmood

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You Don’t Know Me is a sharp, enticing, and thought provoking debut novel. The book begins with the evidence in a court case against a young male from London. Reading through the individual points, the defendant’s guilt looks absolute, but when he fires his attorney and opts to deliver his own closing statement, the trial is turned on its head. His own account provides not only a set of counter evidence, but the entire counter narrative of a human life understood from a different perspective.

What follows is an enthralling journey into the life of a young black male in London. From domestic abuse and absent fathers, to the love of a mysterious grey-eyed girl who is everything he’s not, this book weaves personal tragedy, redemption, and betrayal through London’s streets.

During his career in law, criminal barrister and now author Imran Mahmood was forced to keep an open mind and this sentiment is echoed throughout You Don’t Know Me. It’s a text that reminds the reader of the importance of not just the story, but how it is told. A daring and authentic work, Mahmood grabs the reader by the tongue, silencing stereotypes and giving a deafening voice to justice. Appropriate for such a voice driven novel, an audiobook version is being released starring Kidulthood lead Adam Deacon. [Rosie Barron] Out now, published by Penguin Books, RRP £12.99

Out now, published by Vintage, RRP £16.99

BOOKS

THE SKINNY

This Month in Scottish Art June brings degree shows up and down Scotland, as well as exciting events and exhibitions from The Common Guild, Telfer Gallery, Dundee Contemporary Arts and more Words: Adam Benmakhlouf

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Ambit

Street Level, Glasgow

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The Glasgow leg of Ambit shows a substantial body of work from each of the five photographers that comprise its line-up. Despite its deliberately and apparently diverse approaches, there are interesting instances of rapport throughout the group show.

For instance, a flatly cool and evocative northern light is used to different effect across the work of Margaret Mitchell and Blazej Marczak. In Mitchell’s work, overcast weather makes for the sense of a single long instant as she tracks the generations of her nieces and nephews, then their children in turn over the course of two decades.

For Marczak, it’s used as a signifier of the skies of Aberdeen but is recontextualised each time it appears. Sometimes it looks like glowing aluminium, then an enchanting fog.

Tine Bek and Sylwia Kowalczyk then each (through different means) engage a rich feeling of the uncanny. For Bek, throughout her presenta-

tion there are rococo curlicues, dramatically angled stances of people from behind, and sumptuous sculptural forms. There’s also a playful emphasis on the photograph as an object itself; so there is a picture of a spray of flowers against stylised floral wallpaper in front of a large leaning photograph of an oil painting of flowers.

For Kowalczyk an uncanny sense of depth and flatness recurs through her series of collages of scaled up details of carefully layered torn photographic prints. Taking away easy familiarities, Kowalczyk heightens the strangeness of the unknown photographic subject to make an alluring intrigue across her presentation. This idea of unfamiliarity is worked into a sense of disturbing otherness in Donnie MacLean’s rippling, skewed black and white street photography of worried and distressed looking passers-by.

Assembled on the basis of their very different practices, Ambit is nevertheless just as exciting for its below-the-surface network of surprising moments of conversation and common ground.

[Adam Benmakhlouf] Ambit at Street Level, Glasgow runs unil 18 Jun

tarting with a save-the-date for art school degree shows, Edinburgh College of Art opens on 3 Jun, Glasgow School of Art on 10 Jun and Gray’s in Aberdeen on 17 Jun. As overwhelming and exciting as an art fair without all the dodgy commercialism, each school will present the entirety of its undergraduate design and fine art students’ final year works, along with some of the Masters students as well. Take the tour and keep an eye out for our reviews online as each of the shows open.

In Glasgow from 2 Jun, Tramway presents work from American artist Tschabalala Self across the first five years of her artistic career. Through bold works on paper and paintings, Self is primarily concerned with the Black female body within contemporary culture. Using collage and parts of works and gifts of fabric from her mother in places, Self blends fact with fiction, reality with imagination as she explores how the Black female body functions as a social and political symbol. Self ’s exhibition continues until 20 Aug. Throughout the month, there are events from The Common Guild coinciding with the current exhibition by Steven Claydon which combines different museological formats, reproductions and impressive material experimentation. Marking the occasion, on 6 and 7 Jun, visits to the Glasgow Museum Resource Centre have been arranged. Led by two senior curators, the tour will focus on the Torres Strait Islands, classed as part of Australia.

Later in June again, there will also be a roundtable discussion on Steven Claydon’s exhibition led by The Common Guild curator Kitty Anderson, with artists Arne Wern and Lauren Gault and independent curator Lesley Young.

(6pm, 22 Jun) As part of its separate programme of events throughout 2017 by art writer Maria Fusco, on 8 Jun at 6pm, speaker Lauren Hall-Lew (Reader

in Sociolinguistics at University of Edinburgh) presents a talk on dialect, authenticity, and credibility, with a brief introduction to the mechanics of dialect analysis.

Telfer Gallery in Glasgow on 10 Jun preview their latest exhibition from 1-4pm. For this, invited artist Byzantia Harlow makes a series of works based on the film Aliens vs. Avatars, a knockoff that circulated around different outdoor markets and internet discussion forums, nominated on YouTube for ‘best fight scene ever.’ Harlow will exhibit and sell her own ‘knockoff of a knockoff ’ film featuring Aliens vs. Avatars audio in the Barras as an artist edition for a pound, alongside cast and modelled replicas of street rubbish resembling molten, oozing outer-space junk.

Polyester Breeze continues until 2 Jul. Dundee Contemporary Arts also present their summer show of artist Clare Woods’ raw and powerful new paintings. Woods paints onto large sheets of aluminium, using found images of people at their most vulnerable, bodies that are exposed or in a remote landscape. Her gestural work operates in long, curved brushstrokes as faces, limbs and outlines come to the fore, distorted into apparitions that are just out of reach. Using mainly a single predominant colour per work, there’s an emphasis on impact and economy of painterly means. (24 Jun-10 Sep, free) Rounding off the month, CCA hosts Glasgowbased comic company Black Hearted Press. From 27 Jun until 2 Jul, BHP present an exhibition of the work of comic book artist Neil Slorance, who has worked on projects by DC Thomson to versions of Doctor Who. He’s also been featured across STV and international Twitters for his indie comics that delighted the First Minister (and enraged UKIP’s David Coburn). theskinny.co.uk/art

Install View

After Hours

16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow

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After Hours by Jessica Higgins inhabits all three floors of the gallery during Open House. Relating to the relaxedness of the Glasgow festival of front room exhibitions, Higgins begins with a reading room with bean bags and new wooden sculptural partitions. Made out of wooden posts that have been angled together into geometric abstractions, the large new walls cut up the space in a skeletal way. Foot traffic is redirected and areas for pause are made, but not by making private cubicles.

A more recognisable kind of common space is quoted upstairs, as casts of little stubby beer bottles are left all around, along with handmade and painted sculptures of dried trail mix. There’s a relaxedness of the volume of work on display, allowing for a drifting gaze over the dozens of things on display, including draped garments over

June 2017

bespoke tables. Yet, there’s nevertheless these kinds of nods to a designed experience, something akin to a gesamtkunstwerk and the ideas of an intertwining art and lifestyle.

This twin sense of poise then repose relates to some of the repeated narratives of different rhythms of sleep and rest throughout history. In the publication and video on the top floor, Higgins includes descriptions of workers in the past waking up during the night to read for hours and this breaking of sleep being accepted and enjoyed.

Nevertheless, while this life-work model is referenced with an enthusiasm or curiosity, more prevalent is ambiguity of the work’s constructedness then informality and melding of handmade techniques and industrial materials (timber, plywood). What’s made and suggested instead is a niche for forming a different relationship to leisure, time off and social interaction, emphatically without a single prescription. [Adam Benmakhlouf]

ART

Tschabalala Self, Bodega Run, 2015, Oil, pigment and flashe on canvas

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In Cinemas Stockholm My Love

Director: Mark Cousins Starring: Neneh Cherry Released: 16 Jun Certificate: PG

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After exploring his hometown in I Am Belfast, prolific filmmaker Mark Cousins makes a welcome return to the cine-essay genre with Stockholm My Love, and again pairs with the magnificent cinematographer Christopher Doyle (famous for his work with Wong Kar-wai). Added into the mix is an unlikely collaboration with singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry.

The Swedish capital and its architecture is the focus of this stirring, emotionally affecting feature, which sees Cherry wandering through the various quarters of Stockholm while narrating a letter to her erstwhile architect father, and then, in a powerful tonal shift midway through, a tormented monologue delivered to a dead man.

Cherry projects a powerful presence on screen, flitting between sorrow, wonder and eventually elation, making you wonder why she has never considered acting until now. In an audacious scene which might have been dubious in hands other than Cousins’, she begins lip-syncing to a mournful rap on a lonely subway carriage; in another, the director deftly juxtaposes the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister with personal tragedy.

As an observant documentarian, Cousins has a canny talent for wringing the poetic qualities out of mundane street scenes, such as a gaggle of hi-viz wearing children (“mini-citizens on patrol”) or a boy and his father dropping their hats on the pavement. As one would expect, Doyle’s camerawork is resplendent, from the recurring motif of two oranges rolling on the ground, to the minimalist beauty of a broken tree branch suspended over water, to the image of what first appears to be a camera lens that soon reveals to be a mirrored hole in the stairwell of a cinema.

Stockholm My Love pays homage to similar city film dispatches such as Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil and Patrick Keiller’s London insofar that it blends the documentary and the imaginary with the resilient spirit of the city inhabitants who tread the concrete, stone and gravel. [Adam Stafford] Released by the BFI

My Life as a Courgette

Director: Claude Barras Starring: Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat, Paulin Jaccoud Released: Out Now Certificate: PG

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Icare, a bobble-headed boy who prefers to go by the moniker Courgette, has a shock of blue hair and eyes that betray a life of anxiety and fear. He lives in a stop-motion world realised in a wash of pallid greys with only rare splashes of vibrant colour. When his mother dies in a freak accident, little Courgette is taken into care. He has two souvenirs from his past life: an empty beer can, and a kite he made with a picture of his father as a superhero on one side and then a giant baby chicken on the other – a bittersweet detail of childlike naïvety of his parents’ failed marriage due to his father’s obsession with ‘chicks’.

The children at the foster home all have their own tragic tale. There is a girl who was abused by her father, another whose mother was deported back to Africa when she was at school, and a young girl on whom Courgette develops a crush, Camille, who witnessed her father kill her mother before committing suicide.

Suffice to say, this isn’t material you would expect to find in most children’s films, at least not displayed so openly. Courgette’s frankness – that ranges from sexual awakenings (jokes

My Life as a Courgette

about exploding penises) juxtaposed with hardhitting moments about domestic violence – is what gives the film its emotional resonance, drawing us into the plight and lives of the residents of this foster home.

It’s a frankness that comes, in part, from the skill of Claude Barras and the screenplay written

Berlin Syndrome

Director: Andrew Kötting Released: 23 Jun Certificate: PG

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Australian auteur Cate Shortland has a knack for casting promising young women in complex lead roles and drawing out powerful, authentic performances. Her latest meditation on female resilience, the bone-chilling Berlin Syndrome, follows the (mis)fortunes of wide-eyed backpacker Clare (Teresa Palmer), whose interest in GDR architecture has brought her to photograph Kreuzberg, Berlin. A modern day flâneuse, Clare’s radiant joie de vivre piques the interest of local Andi (Max Riemelt), who seduces and traps her in one of her beloved, abandoned Soviet buildings.

The genre mechanics of Berlin Syndrome’s overlong kidnap narrative, the visceral nausea felt by the audience – the will she or won’t she escape – almost eclipses the formal qualities of Shortland’s cinema, but not quite.

The way light is used to reflect Clare’s freedom or lack of it, the queasy shots of seemingly unlevel walls once Clare is locked in, the foregrounding of female gaze and banally psychopathic Andi’s obsession with its containment. As such, it’s a film that warrants repeat viewings, though only if viewers can cope with reliving Clare’s gruelling ordeal. [Rachel Bowles]

Edith Walks is the third collaborative travelogue from Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair, the reigning king of psychogeography. And like the brilliant Swandown and By Our Selves, it sees them embark on a mad symbolic pilgrimage that is at once piss-takingly absurd and profoundly resonant.

The project celebrates the marriage of Harold II and Edith the Fair, who found her husband’s mutilated remains in the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Hastings. An eerie sculpture on Hastings’ seafront commemorates the pair. Beginning at Harold’s Waltham Abbey tomb, Kötting and Sinclair take us by foot on the 108 miles journey to that sculpture, accompanied by a troupe of ‘mummers’ including Alan Moore, a former Pogue, and Edith the Fair herself (channeled by musician Claudia Barton).

Like the quixotic journey, Kötting’s style is willfully directionless, embracing happenstance alongside a bricolage of disparate material, from La Jetée to Captain Beefheart to James Joyce. There is something Joycean, too, about this gluttonous synthesising: even when it feels scattershot, Edith Walks is so literate and rich in myth one is inclined to go with the flow. [Thomas Hughes]

Released by Curzon Artificial Eye

Released by HOME Artist Film

Gifted

Baby Driver

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After time away from the (comparatively) lo-fi stylings of his debut, (500) Days of Summer – having gotten caught up in the big budget Hollywood machine with the two Amazing Spider-Man films, to which he was never quite suited – Marc Webb returns with something more grounded and real.

Frank (Chris Evans playing a reflective, rugged young man in the Nicholas Sparks-mould; damaged, yet soulful) is a single man raising a child prodigy, his young niece Mary – played by the (appropriately) preternaturally talented Mckenna Grace – in a coastal town in Florida. But Frank’s plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when her mathematical abilities are discovered

by Frank’s formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan).

Films about child prodigies are far from rare, and Tom Flynn’s script goes over some very familiar ground, but it does so with a lightness of touch, and the big emotional moments land well thanks to some excellent casting, with Evans elevating his Sparksian archetype, and Mckenna Grace proving to be as precocious a talent as Sunny Pawar in Lion. [Tom Charles]

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Released by Thunderbird

Edith Walks

Director: Cate Shortland Starring: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt Released: 9 Jun Certificate: 15

Director: Marc Webb Starring: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate, Octavia Spencer Released: 16 Jun Certificate: 12A

Stockholm My Love

by Girlhood’s Céline Sciamma. For all the sadness of this story, at the core is a defiant message of hope, teaching us that a tragic beginning doesn’t have to lead to a tragic end, and that for all the failings of society, a mere act of kindness can go a long way. [Joseph Walsh]

Released by 20th Century Fox

Director: Edgar Wright Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Jon Bernthal, CJ Jones Released: 28 Jun Certificate: 15 From his ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, some of the best recurring elements in the films of writer-director Edgar Wright are his memorable musical cues, often during action where the choreography is perfectly timed to the chosen song – think Shaun’s pool-cue-whacking of a zombie in sync with Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. The relationship between music and motion proves the defining attribute of Wright’s thrilling latest, Baby Driver, in which he’s back in North America with a somewhat more serious crime tale. The eponymous Baby (Ansel Elgort, charismatic in a tricky, dialogue-light role) is a tinnitusplagued getaway driver in debt to a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), and in burgeoning love with a waitress (Lily James). Baby’s the best in the business because of the bangin’ tunes he’s constantly playing to drown out the humming; the perfect playlists helps him pull off the perfect escapes. As such, the uniquely-styled Baby Driver is essentially a car chase movie as a musical – take that, Ryan Gosling. [Josh Slater-Williams] Released by Sony Pictures

FILM

THE SKINNY

Hardcore

Daughters of the Dust

Director: Paul Schrader Starring: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent, Leonard Gaines Released: Out Now Certificate: 18

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From Taxi Driver to American Gigolo to Light Sleeper, Paul Schrader’s characters have frequently lived by night, but Jake Van Dorn (the magnificent George C. Scott) is his most atypical nocturnal wanderer. A strict Calvinist and upright pillar of the community in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where Schrader hails from), Van Dorn is drawn into a dark underworld of pornography when his teenage daughter disappears. Hardcore’s most famous scene is undoubtedly the one in which Van Dorn sees the evidence of her downfall with his own eyes, his face contorted in pain as the explicit film plays. “Oh God, that’s my daughter,” he cries. “TURN IT OFF!” Beyond that anguished moment, what’s surprising about revisiting Hardcore is how much humour there is. Schrader seems to be fully aware of the inherent comedy in the incongruous sight of Scott awkwardly bumbling his way through sex shops and brothels, and the film peaks with a bizarre sequence in which he dons a terrible wig and moustache to play a porn producer auditioning male leads.

That this very funny sequence ends with a brutal beating is indicative of the tonal push-pull that exists throughout Hardcore.

The film can feel a little wayward, particularly towards its climax, and Schrader’s ideas are often bluntly delivered, but the tangibly seedy atmosphere and a collection of excellent performances (particularly Peter Boyle, Leonard Gaines and Season Hubley) hold this strange and engrossing odyssey together.

Extras The excellent transfer does justice to Michael Chapman’s lurid cinematography, but in a revealing interview on the disc he expresses his disappointment with the film’s development away from its 16mm verité origins when Scott got involved. There’s also an excerpt from a forthcoming documentary on composer Jack Nitzsche, and in a fascinating NFT interview from 1993, Schrader discusses projects both made and unmade and the state of contemporary American cinema. [Philip Concannon] Released on Blu-ray by Indicator

Taşkafa: Stories of the Street / Estate, a Reverie

Director: Julie Dash Starring: Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbara-O, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Trula Hoosier, Vertamae Grosvenor, Kaycee Moore Released: 26 Jun Certificate: PG

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Thanks to Beyoncé’s 2016 visual album Lemonade, there has been a renewed interest in Julie Dash’s little-seen but culturally important independent feature Daughters of the Dust, from 1991, which became the first film theatrically distributed in the US by an AfricanAmerican female director.

Dash’s film centre is a family drama about a generational schism between the old ways and the path of the young. Set on South Carolina’s Sea Islands at the turn of the 20th Century – a milieu of rolling sand dunes shifting in the wind, radiant weeping willows and endless stretches of beach – a multi-generational family of the Gullah community (descendants of West African slaves) are reaching crisis-point as matriarch Nana Peazant (Day) is visited by her haughty granddaughter Yellow Mary (Barbara-O), who intends to convince the remaining family members to travel back to the mainland with her.

Day is captivating as the wizened elder of the family, whose powerful and poetic voiceover recounts the many hardships that her ancestors endured, from back-breaking farming labour to their hands turning a deep purple by the constant work in the indigo dye trade. The refusal to give up on the superstitions of her lineage in the face of pious Christianity preached by her offspring brings out a great melancholy to her character.

A rich tapestry of overlapping pan-generational narratives and the refusal to dilute the indigenous Yoruba dialect coupled with Arthur Jafa’s exquisite magic-hour cinematography keeps the film wholly engaging. However, in the end, the production is let down by a distracting, dated score (incessant throughout the film, it calls to mind a 1980s thriller rather than a 1900s period drama) and some overwrought performances that often give the picture a TV-movie feel.

Extras BFI’s package includes audio commentary and interview with Dash; Q&A with Dash and Cheryl Lynn Bruce from the 2016 Chicago Film Festival; illustrated booklet, essays and more. [Adam Stafford]

Director: Andrea Luka Zimmerman Released: Out Now Certificate: PG

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These documentaries from filmmaker, artist and cultural activist Andrea Luka Zimmerman seem like strange bedfellows at first, but their seemingly incongruous subjects – Turkish street dogs and the residents of an East London housing estate – allow for compelling, passionate studies of dispossession.

Social cleansing, Zimmerman shows us, is a very real threat in even the most cosmopolitan societies. Those we don’t understand are too often treated as a nuisance and hidden out of sight, the vulnerable residents of Hackney’s Haggerston estate, who form the centre of Estate, a Reverie, being a case in point. Visited over seven years, the residents – immobile wheelchair users, widowers and Parkinson’s sufferers among them – offer an insight into the gradual deterioration of their quality of life in the 'problem estate' as well as their overall physical condition. Faced with eviction, each reflects on Britain’s failure to uphold its post-war socialist ideals and value its working class.

The director portrays her subjects almost as sacred observers of folk history and ritual, whose situations and experiences are firmly at odds with what capitalist, profit-driven society deems acceptable. By pairing Estate, a Reverie with Taşkafa: Stories of the Street for this release, Second Run are clear on this point. The latter film shows that the dogs that once swarmed the streets of Istanbul, proudly protecting the city and its residents, have been recast as a flea-bitten nuisance at odds with false, romanticised notions of Turkey. With the state doing its best to eradicate the animals, leaving them to starve on unpopulated islands and feeding them with poisoned meat, it’s fallen to the city’s equally downtrodden poor to care for the creatures.

Extras The director is happy to elucidate on these points in a bonus interview included here, while the essay accompanying the release is typically insightful. [Lewis Porteous] Released together on DVD by Second Run

Released on Blu-ray by BFI

Win the Scottish Album of the Year Longlist!

Win glasses and sunglasses from IOLLA!

W

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hat's better than winning an album?

Winning twenty of them. Following the announcement of this year's Scottish Album of the Year Longlist, we've teamed up with the organisers to give away, to one lucky winner, every single record competing for the crown and that prestigious £20,000 prize.

From The Jesus and e Mary Chain to TeenCanteen, Konx-Om-Pax to Rachel Newton, Honeyblood to Teenage Fanclub, this year’s Longlist is packed with some cracking Scottish albums – and you can win a copy of each by answering the following question:

amed after the Gaelic word for sight, IOLLA's aim is to change the glasses game. From slick redesigns to brand new frames and colours, IOLLA prove that glasses with attitude are always in style. Whether you need all-singing, all-dancing optical lenses, a statement cat-eye, or some super-versatile prescription sunglasses, the Glasgow company has all bases covered.

We’ve teamed up with IOLLA to give you the chance to win a pair of glasses or sunglasses of your choice. The prize includes frame, single vision lenses and coatings, and your pair come complete with a limited edition case!

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question: IOLLA is named after the Gaelic word for which of the senses? a) Sight b) Taste c) Smell Competition closes midnight Sun 2 Jul. The winner will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Terms & Conditions can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms iolla.com

The SAY Award wields one of the UK’s most lucrative prize funds. What is the prize for the winning album? a) £10,000 b) £15,000 c) £20,000 Competition closes midnight Thu 15 June. The winner will be notified via email within two working days of closing and will be required to respond within 48 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Our Terms & Conditions can be found at theskinny.co.uk/about/terms sayaward.com

June 2017

DVD / COMPETITIONS

Review

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Lost in Leith Theatre The Skinny gets an exclusive tour of Leith Theatre, closed for 30 years, and now the site of the 2017 Hidden Door Festival Interview: Amy Taylor

Ask Auntie Trash:

Who Can I Be Now? Illustration: Stephanie Hoffmann

Hi Trash, I’ve just submitted my dissertation and I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I don’t even know if I want to work in the same industry as my course anymore. I’m bored, I’m tired. I’ve done enough, frankly.

What do I do now? Who am I now?

Please help.

Yours, Utterly lost former student

H

ey gurl, or guy, or you, I know who you are now. You’re a badass motherfucker who finished their course. Well done on getting through university. Fucking well done on writing and submitting your dissertation by the deadline. I have no doubt that the last few months have been really hard work for you and all your classmates, so fuck yes, you did it! Celebrate!

Get pissed! Have a well-earned nap!

You’ve come to the point in your life where you’ve hit another one of the 'Great What Nows?'

That period you’ve been working towards for months, maybe even years. The taught classes are over, everything’s been handed in, and you find yourself wondering, “What the fuck am I going to do now?” It’s pretty terrifying.

I mean, it’s horrendously terrifying. Especially if you dare to see what your classmates are doing.

Oh look, one’s just landed an amazing internship.

And over there, another is preparing to move to another city to start their very first job in their chosen industry. Meanwhile, on Instagram, everyone else seems to be really happy, totally gorgeous, and having no problems at all.

It’s a lie. All of it. Nobody knows what the fuck they are doing, just like you. They’re probably agonising over what Instagram filters to use. Or fighting with their flatmates, or splitting up with

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their partners because now university has finished, they have to face their problems. So, don’t worry about them, worry about YOU. What is it that you want? I’m not talking about jobs, or future plans, what is it that you want right now that you can achieve? Look at your CV? Think about internships? How about just meet up with some friends and actually talk? What about going on holiday? It’s important to give yourself room to breathe and relax. University, while fun, takes its toll, and that’s why, now that it’s over, you absolutely have to listen to yourself, your body, and your mind. If you feel tired, rest. If you feel lonely, reach out and see a friend.

Also, yes, you can listen to what your family have to say, but you don’t have to follow it, it’s your life. They can have opinions about your life choices, and what not, but you make the final decision. Be polite, smile, thank them for their advice and then go forth and live your life in the best way that you deem fit.

Not a lot of people work in the same industry as the course they originally studied, and that’s fine. Just because you majored in whatever doesn’t mean you will always work in whatever.

Embrace the change, experiment.

You’re probably going to feel a lot more fear in the coming months, that’s normal. Feel it, but don’t let it control you. See fear you’re experiencing as a way of your mind telling you to be careful.

I was once in your position, and I know how it feels, but please remember to be kind to yourself.

Never forget how far you have come, and always, always take the time out to rest when you need it.

In undying love and solidarity, Yer Wee Pal, Trashy xxx Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science (bitch) [pending]

n arrival at Leith Theatre, the site of the 2017 Hidden Door festival, we get the sense that the building has been holding its breath, like it’s been waiting patiently to be rediscovered. On entering the disused parts of the building (the foyer and the Thomas Morton Hall are still used for weddings and functions) it's a bit like walking into the film Labyrinth; with each step further into the depths of this abandoned masterpiece, the building grows wilder. Each corner, every space reveals something new; another beautiful destruction, a brief glimpse into a world kept behind locked doors for nearly three decades.

Once a popular concert venue, where big name bands like Thin Lizzy and Kraftwerk once played, the theatre was closed in 1988 and fell into disrepair. Currently being refurbished, walking around the building generates this eerie feeling of waiting, and wanting.

“It’s got quite a lot of character to it,” agrees Matthew Ross, one of Hidden Door’s Theatre Co-ordinators, as he leads us around the site. In the main theatre, the tour zig-zags through piles of seat cushions (to be cleaned and re-used), tattered red carpets (definitely headed for the bin) and an army of builders, working on the main stage.

At the time of this visit the clean-up of the site is ongoing, helped immensely by the free labour provided by the festival’s volunteers, which included, Ross explains, a group of 100 Mormons.

“We had a fantastic army of people, 100 Mormons turned up. They came for a function and they needed a bonding exercise.” He shrugs.

The work of the unexpected tribe of Mormons and all the other volunteers, including the Edinburgh Tool Library, has had an impact, and Ross is proud that the building is looking a lot better than it did after nearly 30 years of neglect. Along with the fundraising campaign to fix the building’s leaky roof, which hit its £10,000 target and carried on to £20,000, “Anything else,” he assures us, “will go into making it the best possible festival.”

Thirty years of neglect has taken its toll on Leith Theatre. In some spaces, the plaster is crumbling, in others flaked shards of paint sigh to the floor like snow. In the former dressing rooms behind the stage, the porcelain basins festoon the floor like icebergs while the cracked remains of a toilet rise up out of the floor like forgotten shipwrecks.

THEATRE

We move throughout the theatre, ducking in the spaces that are being considered for use for screening films, hosting exhibitions, and performing live music and theatre. We climb stairs, we stagger around unlit spaces, under the stage, before losing ourselves down winding corridors, and chicken out of climbing ladders.

The words, “This might be used” “This has been cleared out,” follow us throughout the building as Ross discusses the plans for the venue. We invent one simple rule: open every door – and we do.

“It’s a big opportunity for Hidden Door to prove its worth as a festival and prove what it can do with different venues,” explains Ross, as we meander through the site. Last year, Hidden Door took place at King’s Stables Road Depot, and the change of venue has presented the team with new challenges. “King’s Stables is very different.

It has a logic to it,” Ross explains. Compared to that, Leith Theatre has been somewhat of a challenge. “If you’ve done Hidden Door before, you’ve got so much to think about.” He continues, “Every time you come back, there’s a new issue.

It’s still a challenge, it’s still intimidating.”

Intimidating is the word that he uses repeatedly when asked how it felt to be in Leith Theatre after it had lain derelict for so long.

Walking into the auditorium for the very first time earlier this year, was, according to Ross, a “really intimidating experience.” And it’s not hard to see why. While Hidden Door excels in breathing new life into Edinburgh’s forgotten buildings, the sheer scale of refurbishing the theatre that he calls “The Granddaddy of them all,” after it was closed for so long is massive. Especially as Hidden Door’s programme promises to be the best yet, featuring Idlewild, Tam Dean Burn and Loud Poets, amongst many, many others.

“It’s just absolutely fantastic. It would be good if we could keep it like this,” sighs Ross as he discusses the refuribishment. Eventually, our tour draws to an end. As we turn to leave, the sunshine illuminates a bit of graffiti in an old dressing room. Scrawled on the wall, in black biro pen, are three words: ‘We will return.’ Just how long has that been there?

Hidden Door runs from 26 May-4 Jun, for more information and tickets, visit: hiddendoorblog.org

Leith Theatre

THE SKINNY

Photo: Chris Scott

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SCRAM: Comedy Spotlight Ahead of their show at The Stand, The Skinny infliltrated SCRAM’s general meeting to discover the comedy collective’s influences, writing techniques and periodic use of an exclamation mark Words: Holly Callender

Minutes of meeting held on Friday 19 May 2017 Attendees: Stephen Buchanan (SB) Stand-Up Comedian Christopher Macarthur-Boyd (CMB) Stand-Up Comedian Marc Jennings (MJ) Stand-Up Comedian Rachel Graham (RG) MA Musical Theatre Holly Callender (HC) Freelance Journalist Apologies: Rosco McClelland (RM) Scottish Comedian of the Year 2016

Opening Remarks SCRAM discuss what animal Arthur is? CMB declares Arthur, the star of a popular children’s series, is neither anteater nor bear, but an aardvark. He then joins RG in singing the theme tune. SB and CMB order food. Once the pizzas arrive the meeting commences.

Matters Arising The inconsistency of the exclamation mark in SCRAM is discussed. It is SCRAM! on the Facebook event, but SCRAM on the poster advertising the next show. SB indicates original usage was a parody of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley 80s pop duo Wham! CMB states SCRAM is a horrific name, and therefore any punctuation disputes meaningless.

Information on SCRAM HC asks for information on SCRAM, to flesh out her upcoming article for The Skinny. MJ declares SCRAM performances as a night for stand-up comics to do something different with comedy. He emphasises SCRAM sketches reflect the lives of their audience. SB points out many sketch groups come from an acting rather than stand-up comedy background. RG (master of Musical Theatre) counters that each SCRAM member has a distinct approach to sketches and this allows variety in performance. Acting is reacting, she explains.

Ally Houston’s recent departure from SCRAM is queried. His PhD commitments and [redacted] are cited as reasons.

June 2017

Collective Influences It is agreed that It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the group’s favourite influence. Approximately 10 minutes are spent matching SCRAM members to Always Sunny characters. It is asserted SCRAM is Chewin’ the Fat on gear.

Sketch Writing Process MJ explains one person will have an idea, write a script then discuss and work through it with the group. CMB thinks most sketches originate from daft voices, which then build into characters.

CMB offers MJ a sliver of his pizza. It is declined.

Favourite Sketch RG states ‘Theatre in Education’ her favourite SCRAM sketch. It depicts a theatre group performing a play to school children on the dangers of drugs. SCRAM have performed this sketch for over a year. RG was recently employed in Theatre in Education, and finds the irony amusing.

MJ’s favourite sketch is the parody of George Bowie’s GBX show on Clyde 1. He indicates it is fun to perform, and the audience really enjoy it.

MJ continues by stating GBX is a stain on Scottish society.

AOB It is stated SCRAM is the most fun they all have performing comedy, and warmly invite anyone reading this public record to come along to the next performance.

Meeting adjourned SCRAM: The Stand, 333 Woodlands Road, G3 6NG, Monday 29 May at 8.30pm (doors at 7.30pm), £5/£4.

Check The Stand website for upcoming SCRAM shows.

Solo shows on sale at Edinburgh Fringe: Rosco McClelland: How I Got Over, Gilded Balloon, Rose Theatre (Attic), 2-28 Aug (not 14), 11pm, £6-9.

Christopher Macarthur-Boyd: The Boyd With the Thorn in His Side, Gilded Balloon, Rose Theatre (Attic), 2-28 Aug (not 14), 9.45pm, £6-9 thestand.co.uk/show/28734/scram

COMEDY

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THE SKINNY

Glasgow Music Thu 01 Jun JACK SAVORETTI

KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, FROM 18:30, £32.50

The Italian-English solo acoustic singer plays a set accompanied by his trusty guitar.

CHAMPS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Alt-pop bros from the Isle of Wight.

MO KENNEY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

LES SIRENES GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, FROM 19:30, £6 - £10

Les Sirenes host their annual summer concert, featuring current composers such as the Sarah Quartel and Paul Mealor alongside Billy Joel.

THE AFTERAFFECTS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

The Glaswegian electronic duo comprising Ricky Kyle and Alan Montgomery play a Sleazy gig.

The Canadian singer/songwriter plays a set of hits.

Sat 03 Jun

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £13.75

The Irish collective of songwriters celebrate their country of origin through song, as is their way.

EMMA BLACKERY

YouTuber with over a million subscribers who’s managed to release a good handful of EPs and records by the age of 24.

ELEPHANT SESSIONS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

Award-winning neo-trad quintet forged in the Highlands of Scotland.

CRYPTIC NIGHTS: SEMISPECIFIC TRUDAT SOUND AND LIGHT

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 21:00, £5 - £8

Semispecific is a night of live electronica and visuals, performed as an improvised DJ-set and using multi-channel audio, projection mapping and a reactive light installation.

WHYTE

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

The Gaelic ambient electronic duo swing by on a Scottish tour, fresh off the release of debut album Fairich.

HOWLING HOME

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £5

Alternative indie folk and rock band from Glasgow.

ROCK IT! FUNKY TOWN (SKAGHOORS + THE DROP + SKELLYS + THE VIEW FROM AUGUST) BOX, FROM 20:00, FREE

Let yourselves out for some upbeat, down and dirty funky music spanning various genres, from acoustic, to punk, to riffy alt-rock and topped off with a little bit of punk’n’roll.

SLIPPERY NIGHTS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

A veritable ice cream sundae of eclectic alt rock and fuzzy guitardrenched punk.

NICOLAS JAAR

BARROWLANDS, FROM 19:00, £18.50

The acclaimed Chilean-American composer brings his experimental dance masterpieces to Barrowlands.

Fri 02 Jun THE SAW DOCTORS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £25

The Irish collective of songwriters celebrate their country of origin through song, as is their way.

RAINTOWN

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £14

Multi award-winning Scottish duo.

MINUS THE BEAR

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £16

Seattle indie-rock lot made up of ex-members of Botch, Kill Sadie and Sharks Keep Moving.

THE BLIND SHAKE (ROCKET REDUCER)

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £8

Minneapolis punk rockers fronted by brothers Jim and Mike Blaha.

FISCHER-Z

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

John Watts’ 39-year career as Fischer-Z includes 19 albums and 3000 concerts worldwide.

THE SAW DOCTORS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £25

BRAND NEW HEAVIES

KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, FROM 15:00, £24.50

One of the UK’s biggest soul bands – and pioneers of the London acid jazz scene – take it out on the road once more.

PIXX

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

Young songwriter from south London with a captivating stage presence. Also known as Hannah Rodgers.

ONRA

BROADCAST, FROM 23:00, £10

Globetrotting producer Onra has staked his claim as one of the most exciting beat-makers of the past few years.

HALEY REINHART

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

The singer-songwriter and noted guest singer in Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox takes to the stage. Fun fact: her single Can’t Help Falling in Love With You was featured in an Extra chewing gum advert. Ring a bell?

JOE PURDY

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £7.50

From his home state Arkansas to his home in LA, Joe Purdy has recorded a baker’s dozen worth of albums. In recent years the singersongwriter has come to see the world and his role in it somewhat differently, charting this direction on his latest album.

MOLLY NILSSON + APOSTILLE (APOSTILLE)

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £8

THE REASON (THE NOVACS)

O2 ABC, FROM 18:00, £10

BARRALOADASOUL

BARROWLANDS, FROM 14:00, £20

FIRST HATE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 20:00, £7

Copenhagen lo-fi synth duo who’ve toured with Trentemøller and Iceage.

June 2017

FROTH (THE PALE KIDS + TINY MURDER)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

The art pop experimentalists play a headline set.

CALLAGHAN

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, FREE

Originally from Lincolnshire, Callaghan moved to the USA in summer 2010 to record and tour with Grammy-Nominee Shawn Mullins. Since then she’s been performing and winning fans all across the USA. THE PYRAMIDS

PLATFORM, FROM 19:00, TBC

The ‘intergalactic jazz mavericks’ who returned from hiatus in 2017 play their Scotland debut at Glasgow’s Platform.

Tue 06 Jun BEN OTTEWELL

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £17.25

Gomez singer and lead guitarist Ben Ottewell rides solo for a stint of Scotland sets.

TYCHO

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £15

Formerly the output of one man, Scott Hansen, Tycho is now the ambient music project of several, who recently released their latest album, Epoch.

THE PEOPLE’S VOICE: SCOTTISH POLITICAL POETRY, SONG AND THE FRANCHISE

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, FREE

The University of Glasgow and Strathclyde team behind the People’s Voice project host a night of comic and tragic poems from historical elections.

FOLKLUB: DAIMH + KIM CARNIE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 20:00, £10

Dàimh continue to take the world by storm with their highly successful yet uncompromising take on Gaelic and Highland music.

MELISA KELLY AND THE SMOKIN’ CROWS (UP IN SMOKE + GHENTLE GHOUL + DJANA GABRIELLE)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

STRATA

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Wed 07 Jun DAVID FORD

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:30, £15

The award-winning songwriter tours the UK this summer with forthcoming album Animal Spirits.

GNOOMES

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5

Sun 04 Jun

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7.50

BLACK SNAKE ROOTS

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

A free evening of stripped down blues at Òran Mór from the Glasgow trio.

ADAM BEATTIE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

DOUGLAS MACGREGOR (TOBY HAY)

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £5 - £6

Folk rock trio from Watford signed to Atlantic.

Trio from Perm, Russia who specialise in explosive guitar music that’s both blissy and abrasive.

KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, FROM 15:00, £49.50

The guitarist and composer strums up treats old and new at The Gladdie.

THE STAVES

THE ART SCHOOL, 00:00–23:00, £16

A showcase of DJ talent from across the country; vinyl records only. You’ll hear Northern soul, mod, funk, Latin, jazz and R’n’B.

The Scottish crooner and songwriter tours new tracks from his latest album The Road Not Taken.

The folky orchestral poppers tour their 11th album, Foreverland.

Mon 05 Jun

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

Headline from the Glasgow fourpiece as they showcase new EP How Does it Feel?.

CHAKA KHAN

She’s every woman, and she’s also playing Glasgow this month.

THE INDIGO PROJECT (FIRST TIGER + THE LUTRAS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £4

Leeds-based indie/rock/pop five-piece influenced by the likes of Little Comets, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Foals and The Wombats.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £15

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £5

Prog metal from Indiana.

Graham Costello’s sound world, blending minimalism, groove and free improv.

The Civil rights and gospel / soul music icon plays Glad Cafe with her family group.

FOUR YEAR STRONG

The US punk rock quartet return to the UK.

Blues and soul five-piece from local turf.

MAVIS!

The Canadian singer and crafter of songs brings his narration of human experience to The Glad Cafe.

CATHOUSE, FROM 18:30, £12

Endearing songwriter Molly Nilsson’s live performances manage to be captivating, essential experiences yet remain completely stoic in their refusal of fireworks.

KELVINGROVE BANDSTAND, FROM 18:30, £32.50

THE DIVINE COMEDY

THE CONTORTIONIST (BAD SIGN + COLOURS TO SHAME + TIBERIUS)

SEAN NICHOLAS SAVAGE (SPINNING COIN + LUSH PURR) THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £7

KITE BASE (EM | ME)

Electro duo uniting Savages’ Ay?e Hassann and Kendra Frost.

QUEEN ZEE AND THE SASSTONES

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9

Nice Swan-signed four-piece comprising Queen Zee, Em Dee, Meat Boy and Pink Eyes. Their latest single’s called Sissy Fits. You get the picture.

DORCELSIUS (FRA) + TUPPER WEREWOLF + HOSTEL FREAKS

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

French abstract electronic collaboration between two visual/ audio artists creating their own sound made of sparkling arpeggios and acid blips.

WEIRDS

Hypnotic psych-rockers from Leeds, out peddling debut album, Swarmculture.

DANIEL CAMPBELL (GLASSMASTERER)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, TBC

The Glaswegian electronic producer who’s created a 30 track album at the age of 18 celebrates with pals playing a range of genres.

WHY?

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 19:00, £15

Mastermind Yoni Wolf’s soursweet croon, deadpan poet’s drawl and ear for fluid psych-pop-folk arrangement is evident on new album Moh Lhean, which also looks past corporeal pain for something more cosmic and equally weird.

WHYTE

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

The Gaelic ambient electronic duo swing by on a Scottish tour, fresh off the release of debut album Fairich.

GOLD MOLD & NO ONE KNOWS PRESENTS: DIKEMBE + OTHER HALF

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

RONNIE AND OLIVIA

CAROL LAULA

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £15

Richard Dawson’s only Scottish date in support of new album Peasant, released via Weird World / Domino this month.

SICK PUPPIES

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12.50

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

THE URBAN VOODOO MACHINE

NEIL THOMSON

Singer-songwriter Neil Thomson performs treats from his 12-year anticipated LP Gandiegow.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9

ROB ZOMBIE

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £30

MANNEQUIN PUSSY

A free evening of stripped down blues at Òran Mór from the Glasgow trio.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £7

Dynamic punk four-piece who specialise in lyrically concise bangers.

KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE

CLASSIC GRAND, 16:00–22:00, £3.50

An all-dayer at Classic Grand featuring an array of bands, groups, poets and DJs.

Mon 12 Jun THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

SCARLET RASCAL (RUN INTO THE NIGHT)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9.50

KYLA LA GRANGE

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Watford singer/songwriter in possession of a heartstopper of a pop vocal.

EMMA STEVENS

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £15 - £20

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

KATHRYN JOSEPH + TINDERBOX ORCHESTRA + DAWANGGANG

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £8 - £10

SAY Award Winner Kathryn Joseph brings her brand of heartache to St Luke’s. She’ll also be showcasing new orchestral collaborations with Tinderbox orchestra. Further support from Chinese heroes of the avant-garde Dawanggang.

Sat 10 Jun SIANAR

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £10

Supergroup who’ve risen from the ashes of four disbanded outfits who’re launching a new EP. MELT BANANA

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £13.50

Noise rock band formed in Japan in the early 90s.

GNOD (KÜBLER-ROSS + L H COOK)

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £7 - £10

Salford krautrock group Gnod play Flying Duck.

THE STATLER PROJECT (OSKAR BRAVES + THE POCKETS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

An album launch from

STEVE IGNORANT: SLICE OF LIFE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £12.50

Acoustic project of anarcho-punk singer Steve Ignorant (Crass, Conflict, Thought Crime), joined by Carol Hodge and Pete Wilson.

TARTAN SPECIALS

KING TUT’S, FROM 12:00, £10

The Tartan Specials return for a King Tut’s set.

MATT SCOTT

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, TBC

Crooner and guitarist Matt Scott releases new EP Whoever That Is at King Tut’s.

ROYALE SATURDAYS AT THE CLUB ROOM

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £4 - £8

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £18.50

Sun 11 Jun THE MEDIA WHORES

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £9.50

Veteran punks rockers who recently opened for The Damned play a headline show.

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

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

The alt pop Edinburgian quartet headline Sleazy’s.

BLACK SNAKE ROOTS

Country pop-styled Surrey singersongwriter who began her musical journey when she was bought her first guitar at the age of 3.

Techy electronic lass Maya Jane Coles takes to the SWG3 stage.

Fri 16 Jun

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

Rob Zombie plays Zombie classics and material from his latest release, concisely entitled The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser.

MAYA JANE COLES

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 20:00, £7 - £9

Shadowy ne’er do wells’ hailing from London, led by Norwegian born songwriter and frontman Paul-Ronney Angel.

Tue 13 Jun

The Glasgow alternative rock trio play a hometown set.

THE SPACE LADY / LO KINDRE / KELORA

A triple header of music from Colorado, Glasgow and Outer Space.

Fri 09 Jun

TAKE TODAY (ROYAL BLOOM + FLAT SIX + TWISTED PLANET)

Expect mad electro and huge riffs at The Vacant Lots’ tour, taking place in support of new record Endless Night.

Australia modern rock trio made up of vocalist and guitarist Shim Moore, bassist Emma Anzai and drummer Mark Goodwin.

Bristolian quartet playing rock, ambient post-rock and shoegaze.

Thu 08 Jun The folk-inspired Danish singersongwriter takes to the road once more.

THE VACANT LOTS O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £10

Midwest-Emo from Florida meets Norwich indie punx like offa the 90’s.

Resident DJ Bobby Bluebell mixes up the house, R’n’B and chart.

AGNES OBEL

RICHARD DAWSON THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £10 - £12

DIALECTS (WHITEHILL GROVE + CAULDER)

Math rock at Sleazy’s.

HOUSE OF PAIN

O2 ABC, FROM 18:00, £18

The Jump Around lot head out on a 25th anniversary tour.

VIVA BELGRADO (SPA) + OLD GUARD

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Screamo / post rock all the way from Cordoba.

Wed 14 Jun

QUEER THEORY CABARET

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

An alternative evening of music, poetry, comedy and drag.

TOM POULSON (DANIELLE PRICE & TIMOTHY COOPER)

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

A programme of huge tuba and electronic bangers from Timothy Cooper, Alistair MacDonald, Stockhausen and Jonathan Harvey.

MIAMI MONROE + CRASHES

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Think Green Day, blink-182 and Sum 41 in a cocktail with a Buckfast mixer.

Thu 15 Jun REPEATER

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

An evening of tap-kwality alt rock, emo and punk.

CHASTITY BROWN

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12

Minneapolis-based banjo-playin’ soul singer, melding bits of soul, jazz and rootsy Americana into her mix.

OMMADON (BISMUTH)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

Droney doom from a band whose self-titled album supposedly explores ‘the intolerable agony, the paralysing misery, and the stifling alienation which make us who we are’. Cheerful.

THE BATS

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £15

New Zealand outfit celebrating the release of ninth LP - and the 30th anniversary of their first LP - with a European tour.

REBEL WESTERNS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

NASHVILLE IN CONCERT

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £37 - £52

The stars of TV show Nashville perform a mix of hits from the series and original material.

FOLKLUB: TOP FLOOR TAIVERS (JACK SMEDLEY + DAVID FOLEY)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 20:00, £10

Young up-and-comers performing trad and contemporary numbers.

TIJUAMA BIBLES (FEET OF CLAY + DEAD COYOTES + CARLY CONNOR + APACHE SUN)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12

Absolutely massive psychedelic rock FFO Wytches and Catholic Action.

DOJO SUMMER SESSION

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £7

Graham Doc of Magnetic North joins Dojo folk Mark Fazzini, Darran Mcneil and Neil Robertson for a summer party of house and techno.

JAMIE MCAULEY AND THE STRAYS (THE CAIRDS + STONE IVY + THE PONTANGZ + THE B.)

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

The Scottish singer-songwriter treats a Glasgow audience to her impassioned songcraft.

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £44.85 - £171

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

HANS ZIMMER

Hollywood’s most in-demand film music composer performs some of his most well-known scores alongside other cinematic soundtrack greats.

WEST END FESTIVAL ALL DAYER (RODDY HART AND THE LONESOME FIRE + PAWS + MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY + NEON WALTZ + KID CANAVERAL + RICK REDBEARD + HQFU) ORAN MOR, FROM 15:00, £15

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 21:00, £25

Increasingly mature indie group embarking on their farewell tour.

THE WINACHI TRIBE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £6

GREG GRIFFIN AND THE MIDNIGHT CLERGY

POND

THE ART SCHOOL, 19:00–23:00, £16

Australia’s Pond were conceived by two members of Tame Impala’s touring group, guitarist Nick Allbrook and drummer Jay Watson, along with Joseph Orion and Jamie Terry.

SHOW ME THE BODY

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

The Queens hardcore and hip-hop hybrid storm into Broadcast.

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Rock’n’rocll smarts at King Tut’s.

JANEK GWIZDALA

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £15

The bass players extraordinaire plays a Jazz Fest show.

BIG VERN ‘N’ THE SHOOTAHS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £20

Nine-piece soul band from Glasgow.

Tue 20 Jun

The all-female jazz collective hit St Luke’s for a Jazz Fest show.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £20

Sat 24 Jun

KOOL G RAP

The skilled MC heads out on his first UK tour in 25 years.

MARK LANEGAN BAND

Alt-rock singer-songwriter signed to Heavenly Recordings.

THE HUG AND PINT’S 2ND BIRTHDAY

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:00, £10

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

WORLDWIDE ANARCHY (NEOPHYTE + EVIL ACTIVITIES + THA PLAYAH + FURYAN + KASPAROV)

THE MACCABEES

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £28.50

Mon 19 Jun

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 16:00, £6 - £8

Four-piece indie rock from Greenock.

Fri 23 Jun

“The psychedelic Funk of George Clinton oozing with the brooding menace of Massive Attack”, supposedly.

Young Paisley crooner for fans of The 1975 and Elvis.

THE ALLIES (DOUBLE STANDARDS + EDGAR ROAD + THE HIGHWAY FIVE)

Two guitars, one drum, full throttle attack. Think Jon Spencer jamming early Wire songs – but this is no post-punk snooze fest.

West End Fest throw their annual all-day fest with a bill ft. all the above, plus Bloodlines, A New International, The Little Kicks, Campfires In Winter, Indigo Velvet, The Miss’s, Michael Cassidy, Roseanne Reid, Deni Smith and Flew The Arrow.

The lovely Hug and Pint celebrate their second birthday with a TOP SECRET line-up. Serio, top secret.

Have faith and book a ticket.

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £8

CUT

NERIJA (BITCHES BREW)

ST LUKE’S, FROM 19:00, £15

PANIC ROOM

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £16

Alternative rock of the awardwinning variety, served up with a distinctly sultry edge.

THE BEVVY SISTERS

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 20:00, TBC

Wed 21 Jun

The Bevvy Sisters mix equal measures of sweetness and sass, grit and glamour, heartbreak and hilarity cut with a dash of potent Scottish spirit. Expect a repertoire of vintage, contemporary and original songs.

BROADCAST, FROM 19:00, £10

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

MACHU + OSKAR + DIRTY HEPBURNS

Scottish post-punk, surf rock with alt rock gusto.

THE RED PAINTINGS

THE NICKAJACK MEN

Neophyte Records host their Worldwide Anarchy tour at Glasgow’s Classic Grand. Features all the above, plus MC Alee, Scott Brown, Smurf and Obsession.

Australia and LA-based five-part who career between gentle melodies to alt-rock thumpers.

The four-piece indie-rock / alt-country unit from Denny retun to Glasgow.

Sat 17 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £5

Mono hosts a monthy free music shindig featuring their fave bands and DJs, plus free pizza and cheapas-it-comes beer.

RAY HARRIS (DOPESICKFLY)

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 19:30, £10

Ray Harris returns to Glasgow Drygate to launch his brand new studio album Propaganda.

THE FILTHY TONGUES

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £12.50

The alt-rock veterans stop by for a set.

CHRIS HOLMES

CATHOUSE, FROM 19:00, £12.50

The legendary W.A.S.P. Guitar player joins us with his new band for a selection of solo and W.A.S.P. tracks.

THE GRAND PRICKS (HOME ECONOMICS + WHY NO?)

Record Label Gold Mold showcase headlined by ‘loser rock’ band Grand Pricks.

DAVID BOWDEN’S MEZCLA

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

New instrumental collective led by acclaimed bass player and composer David Bowden, playing a Glasgow Jazz Festival show.

BIKE (VOLKA)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Brazilian act Bike brings a brilliant dose of eclectic psych to Glasgow, with swirling soundscapes and archangelic vocals.

REKT-FEST 2017 (THE HOSTILES + THE RECOVERY + NORTHERN NIGHTLIGHTS + FALSE HOPES + SPOKE TOO SOON + DON’T LOOK DOWN + LOVE NASTY +THE DOUBLE STANDARDS + COLT 45)

Thu 22 Jun

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 15:00–23:00, £8

CCA: CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

Bubble Tea records host a poppunk / punk rock all-dayer, fuelled

by Tempo Tea Bar. TIJUAMA BIBLES (FEET OF CLAY + DEAD COYOTES + CARLY CONNOR + APACHE SUN)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12

Absolutely massive psychedelic rock FFO Wytches and Catholic Action.

Sun 18 Jun CALLUM BEATTIE

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:00, £10

The young Edinburgh singer/songwriter launches his debut album of acoustic indie-pop gems.

ALL WE ARE

STEREO, FROM 20:00, £8.50

Liverpudlian psychedelic boogiemeisters, self-described as ‘The Bee Gees on diazepam’.

PILE (CUTTY’S GYM + CODIST)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

The explosive Boston-based fourpiece come to the UK.

BREAKFAST MUFF (DRAWS CREATURE MASK)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 20:00, £5

Pop Punk from local turf.

SONIC BOTHY ENSEMBLE

Join Sonic Bothy Ensemble for an eclectic programme exploring the ensemble’s diverse interests in improvisation, chamber, experimental and dance music.

MICHAEL JANISCH PARADIGM SHIFT BAND (THE MURRAY BROTHERS TRIO)

STEREO, FROM 19:00, £8 - £15

The 2016 MOBO Award nominee for Best Jazz Act, Michael Janisch plays a Jazz Fest show at Stereo

SUGARWORK + GRAHAM COSTELLO’S STRATA

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £8

Spontaneity-soaked jazz fourpiece with an expansive range of influences including avant-rock, electronica and folk music. A Glasgow Jazz Festival show.

TWO TONE TELEVISION (THE ASURAS)

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £9

Glasgow based indie / alternative band headed up by Liam Mccombie.

HOME$LICE

MONO, FROM 21:00, FREE

VELS TRIO: MADLIB’S SHADES OF BLUE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £11

Glasgow Jazz Festival, Start to End and Total Refreshment Centre team up to stage a performance of Madlib’s Shades of Blue by Vels Trio.

GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL PRESENTS: BBC RADIO 3 JAZZ LINE-UP STAGE

DRYGATE BREWING CO., FROM 13:30, TBC

Special event presented by Kevin Le Gendre, featuring five exciting acts who are playing at Glasgow Jazz Fest, including Tommy Smith/ Brian Kellock and the Brian Molley Quartet.

Sun 25 Jun

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £17

Southern rock-meets-blues jam duo, inspired by the Mississippi Hill Country Blues tradition.

STUART MCCALLUM

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £10

A solo acoustic show with three different guitars in which Stuart plays originals and sculpts jazz standards of the past.

BLACK SNAKE ROOTS

ORAN MOR, FROM 17:00, FREE

A free evening of stripped down blues at Òran Mór from the Glasgow trio.

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £24

Americana string band from Nashville, fusing all-acoustic old-time instruments with original songwriting.

EUAN STEVENSON

TRON THEATRE, FROM 14:00, £10

A Glasgow Jazz Festival show from the Glasgow-based jazz and classical pianist and composer and a special guest.

Listings

55

CALUM GOURLAY ‘THELONIOUS AT 100’

YOUTH DISORDER (FR) + EVERYDAY PHAROAHS + JUNIOR BROGAN

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 16:00, £8

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

For Monk’s centenary in 2017, Thelonious (Martin Speake, Hans Koller, Calum Gourlay and James Maddren) will have completed their special mission of knowing the entire Monk songbook. Catch a couple of them at The Hug and Pint.

French quartet who will prove quite the treat for fans of Arctic Monkeys and Queens of the Stone Age.

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £10

Sunny LA-residing rockers formed back in 1998 by guitarist/singer Bobby Hecksher, moving between the psychedelic and drone soundscapes of the genre.

PAUPER KINGS

Bit of country pop for you at the O2.

CHRISTIAN HOLDEN + EMPEROR X (OLIVIA W-B + JOYCE DELANEY + COP GRAVEYARD ) 13TH NOTE, FROM 16:30, £6

The Hotelier’s Christian Holden and folksy dude Emperor X play a Glasgow show with stellar supports.

Mon 26 Jun THE BLAS COLLECTIVE

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

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

START TO END: JEFF BUCKLEY’S GRACE

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 20:00, £10

A live band’s interpretation of Jeff Buckley’s 1994 debut album Grace, played in full from start to end.

MORGAN EVANS

ORAN MOR, FROM 19:00, £12.50

Australian singer-songwriter currently based in Nashville.

Tue 27 Jun THE WOMBATS

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW, FROM 19:00, £27.50

The Liverpudlian indie-rock scamps return bigger, brighter, and with their new album in tow.

THE KIEFER SUTHERLAND BAND

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £25

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 at his Not Enough Whisky In Europe 2017 tour.

ROUNDEYE (THE ROCKING HORSE CLUB + THE PERFORMANCE ENHANCING SUPPOSITORIES)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £12

The Shanghai rock’n’rollers stop

by Sleazy’s as they tour their third studio album Monstervision.

ERIN RAE AND THE MEANWHILES

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £7

Jackson, Tennessee raised artist Erin Rae brings old school folk and Americana to the Hug and Pint.

BASH & POP

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £19

The American alt rock veterans play King Tut’s.

BILLY LIAR + EMPTY LUNGS (NI)

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

Scotland’s finest angry and articulate guitar-slinging storytelling songwriter.

Wed 28 Jun BEVERLEY KNIGHT

O2 ABC, FROM 19:00, £27.50

Contemporary soul singer returning with a brand new album set for a spring release this year.

MADBALL

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, FROM 18:30, £16.50

The New York City hardcore fourpiece hit the road again.

ANGUS MUNRO (KITTY + HEIR OF THE CURSED)

THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £6

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

JEFF LYNNE’S ELO

THE SSE HYDRO, FROM 18:30, £50 - £110

A reincarnation of Electric Light Orchestra play through their classics and songs from new album Alone in the Universe.

AMERICAN YOUNG

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £12

Nice dollop of country for you.

ROOTS OF MUSIC SESSION

TRON THEATRE, FROM 20:30, £8

Singer and actress Angie Darcy (known for her role in Janis Joplin: Full Tilt) teams up with Jon MacKenzie and Andy Barbour for a show. If bluegrass, honky-tonk blues and country are your thang, get involved.

OVER BEING UNDER (GIRLFRIEND + FLAKES + JOYCE DELANEY)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £4

Emo straight out of Dublin.

Thu 29 Jun THE WARLOCKS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 19:30, £10 - £13

DRUM-TRONICS (SPACEHAUL V INSTRUO )

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS , FROM 20:00, £5

A new event for Glasgow’s thriving Modular Synth community – expect to hear electronic sounds blended with experimental beats, break beats and techno all played to a backdrop of visuals and a set from Spacehaul.

GLASS MOUNTAIN

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, TBC

Bradford-based four-piece.

75 DOLLAR BILL (CONSTANT FOLLOWER + DUNCAN MARQUISS) THE HUG AND PINT, FROM 19:30, £9

NYC duo ft. guitarist Che Chen and percussion player Rick Brown, mixing Mississippi drone blues and Arabic modal music.

STRETCHED PRESENTS: NOSTRIL

BLOC+, FROM 21:00, FREE

The secret meeting place of contemporary jazz-enthused savants.

Fri 30 Jun SIOBHAN WILSON

THE GLAD CAFE, FROM 19:30, £12.50

The mellifluous singer hits the Glad for the night.

ST.MARTIINS

KING TUT’S, FROM 20:30, £8

Dundee-based indie duo who’ve drawn comparisons to Model Aeroplanes.

STATIC ROOTS

13TH NOTE, FROM 19:00, £5

Five-piece Glaswegian band Static Roots releasing their EP into the world (fiiiinally).

Edinburgh Music

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:45, £1 - £11

Conductor and soloist Peter Evans leads award-winning pianist Jack Westwell in a performance of one of Mozart’s most beloved piano concertos.

THE INDIGO PROJECT (THE ECHO ARCHADIA + THE LUTRAS)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 19:30, £5 - £7

Leeds-based indie/rock/pop five-piece influenced by the likes of Little Comets, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Foals and The Wombats.

Sun 04 Jun JOE PURDY

THE MASH HOUSE, FROM 19:00, £7.50

From his home state Arkansas to his home in LA, Joe Purdy has recorded a baker’s dozen worth of albums. In recent years the singersongwriter has come to see the world and his role in it somewhat differently, charting this direction on his latest album.

CALLAGHAN

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, £11

Originally from Lincolnshire, Callaghan moved to the USA in summer 2010 to record and tour with Grammy-Nominee Shawn Mullins.

Since then she’s been performing and winning fans all across the USA. MANU LOUIS

PARADISE PALMS, 20:00–10:00, FREE

Manu Louis is a prolific composer and performer of experimental chanson, influenced equally by pop, jazz, electronic and 20th century classical music.

TINDERBOX ORCHESTRA + KATHRYN JOSEPH

OLD LEITH THEATRE, FROM 17:00, £9 - £11

Edinburgh’s youth music orchestra headline the closing party of this year’s Hidden Door festival, showcasing new work and collaborations with Kathryn Joseph, who will also be performing solo.

SONG OF THE NIGHT (DAS LIED DER NACHT)

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:15, £11 - £28

UK premier of Hans Gál’s Das Lied der Nacht (Song of the Night), a romantic play last performed in 1930 before it was banned by Hitler.

Mon 05 Jun

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

THE STRYPES

Young Irish R’n’B four-piece with a level of skill well beyond their years.

PALM TREE MISERY

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

A twist of alt and desert rock.

CHAMELEONS VOX

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:30–01:00, £17

A show from Mark Burgess (vocalist and bassist of Chameleons), plus “whoever wants to play alongside him”.

Fri 02 Jun THE RED SHOES

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Kate Bush bangers from a dedicated tribute act.

GLOBAL ROOTS (DJ CHEERS + MARTYN FLYN)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Global Roots returns to Paradise Palms for a night of Afrobeat, world music and a large helping of disco and funk.

GLOBAL ROOTS (DJ CHEERS + MARTYN FLYN)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Global Roots returns to Paradise Palms for a night of Afrobeat, world music and a large helping of disco and funk.

RSNO SEASON FINALE! MAHLER THREE

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £12.50 - £39

Peter Oundjian leads the Ladies of the RSNO Chorus, the RSNO Junior Chorus and a specially-expanded orchestra in their season finale, featuring Gustav Mahler’s glittering Third Symphony.

Sat 03 Jun

RABBITS ROCK FESTIVAL: AOA (BRATAKUS + YOUR REPTILAN MASTERS + THEE GIRL FRIDAYS) BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Listings

MEADOWS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: EVANS/WESTWELL

Thu 01 Jun

Awarness gig in aid of Rabbit Welfare.

56

Edinburgh Music

SOUNDHOUSE: DIAMH

Taking their name from the Scottish Gaelic word for kinship, ‘Gaelic Supergroup’ Dàimh is a five-piece band blazing a new trail in the Scottish music scene with their own instrumental compositions skilfully integrated with traditional Gaelic Songs.

COURAGE MY LOVE (ALTERED SKY + START STATIC)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £8 - £10

Scottish debut for a band formed in 2009 and discovered at a battle of the bands in Stratford, Ontario.

Tue 06 Jun

GUADALUPE PLATA (LONESOME SHACK)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £8

Hardcore Andalucian delta blues outfit.

DORCELSIUS (HOSTEL FREAKS)

WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £5

Get hypnotised and riled by the synthy spirals and acid blips as Parisian electronic duo Dorcelsios play The Wee Red.

Wed 07 Jun CASSIA

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £6

Lads marrying the likeable Northern charm of Little Comets and the sunny pop vibrancy of Saint Raymond.

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: JAMES HICKMAN & DAN CASSIDY

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–22:30, £7 - £10

See Hickman’s emotive, soaring vocals and driving guitar, complemented by Cassidy’s ingenious and virtuosic fiddle playing at EFC.

MANNEQUIN FACTORY (BELL LUNGS + SLEET WALLS + BAMYA + ALLNIGHT VIGIL) HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, TBC

A big fat of noise, psych, doom and glitchy shoegaze.

Thu 08 Jun RICHARD DAWSON

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–23:00, £14

Richard Dawson’s only Scottish date in support of new album Peasant, released via Weird World / Domino this month.

PARADISE RADIO: THE JACUZZI YEARS (JACUZZI GENERAL)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–23:00, FREE

Weekly radio show presented by purveyor of passion and sensual positivity and Palms resident Jacuzzi General, exploring music from around the world.

PADDY BORT MEMORIAL CONCERT

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £18

An Edinburgh Folk Club memorialising their chair and host Paddy Bort, who passed away earlier this year.

Fri 09 Jun SAINT ETIENNE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £25

The 1990-formed English synthpopsters return with their new album, Home Counties.

AIRBOURNE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, TBC

Longhaired Aussie hard rockers known for crafting underdogchampioning anthems with reckless abandon.

STEVE IGNORANT: CRASS

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–23:00, £14

Having cut his punk teeth in Crass, Steve Ignorant’s latest project – Slice Of Life – allows for the more contemplative side of his songwriting to reveal itself.

SCOTT FREEMAN & THE TOKYO SEX WHALES

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Anthemic indie rock thrashed with an acoustic guitar.

FEAST’S 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY (NOAH NOAH) (POSABLE ACTION FIGURES) SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

FEAST’s annual ‘blog party’ celebrating their fifth birthday.

Sat 10 Jun

OTHER THUMPERS #5 (DONALD DUST)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Leather loving, trash talking synth fetishist Donald Dust returns for his monthly fiesta of italo, early eighties house music experiments and high energy cuts from the worldwide electronic disco spectrum.

AND THE HANGNAILS

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Indie psych-funk.

MANNEQUIN PUSSY

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £8

Sweet, nostalgic pop from Pennsylvania, tipped for big things for 2017.

GRS SUMMER SHOWCASE 2017 (SISTER GHOST) WEE RED BAR, FROM 19:00, £3 - £5

Girls Rock School host Sister Ghost for the night, with support from grads Loud South Ladies.

PRINCE PARTY

THE VOODOO ROOMS, 19:00–01:00, £10

Party with the purple funky people, celebrating the incredible life of Prince.

Sun 11 Jun

JOSEPH J. JONES SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £6

Joseph J. Jones has spent the last year collaborating with writer / producer Richard Frenneaux; he takes his inspiration from Inspired

by Johnny Cash, Chet Baker, Kanye West and West Ham United.

THE DEAD DASIES

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £17

Rock’n’roll band influenced by 70s and 80s hard rock.

Tue 13 Jun

[SPUNGE] (BIG FAT PANDA + AC RID) LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £10 - £11

Ska punk band who’ve reached their 23rd year of touring, recording, goofing off and loving every minute.

LOVE MUSIC COMMUNITY CHOIR: PUNKS, REBELS & RADICALS

USHER HALL, FROM 19:30, £7 - £14

A night of hair-raising musical adventures featuring internationally renowned percussionist Joby Burgess, the 330-strong Love Music Community Choir and Punkit, an explosive extravaganza with massed youth percussion from Wester Hailes.

Wed 14 Jun

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: STEVE HICKS & LYNN GOULBURN SUMMERHALL, 20:00–22:30, £7 - £10

With a mutual love of folk, roots and acoustic genres, Steve Hicks and Lynn Goulburn’s musical partnership has flourished and taken them to all corners of the UK, to Germany and the USA.

THE OLD PINK HOUSE (TEAM PLAYER + SHOTGUN CITY SUNSHINE) LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £7 - £9

Coming together through a shared enthusiasm for blissed out modern psychedelia and a keen pop sensibility, this band have quickly become a word-of-mouth band for their high energy live shows and ability to transcend genre.

EDINBURGH QUARTET: EQ DANCE

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

A dance focused concert at Queen’s Hall featuring works by Haydn, Tippett and Beethoven.

Thu 15 Jun

PARADISE RADIO: THE JACUZZI YEARS (JAUZZI GENERAL)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–23:00, FREE

Weekly radio show presented by purveyor of passion and sensual positivity and Palms resident Jacuzzi General, exploring music from around the world.

TMSA YOUNG TRAD TOUR (MOHSEN AMINI + CLAIRE HASTINGS + HANNAH MACRAE + ROBBIE GREIG + JESSICA BURTON + MURRAY WILLIS + RYAN YOUNG + JEAN DAMEI) SUMMERHALL, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Concert featuring seven talented young traditional musicians who were finalists or winners in the annual BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2016 Award, along with the winner of the previous year.

Fri 16 Jun THE RISING SOULS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 18:00, £10

Aberdeen based rock‘n’roll band playing loud, anthemic songs with driving riffs and soaring vocals.

Dynamic soulful rock band hailing from Scotland’s capital. Their music is a punchy and intoxicating amalgamation of rock and soul.

Think meaty riffs, intricate grooves and soaring vocals.

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £13.50

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

HARLITONES (BETTY & THE BASS + THE CITY BELOW)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £6

MELT BANANA

Noise rock band formed in Japan in the early 90s.

PRO8L3M

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £18 - £20

Warsaw hip-hop/rap duo PRO8L3M hit The Mash House.

LA PEGATINA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £16

Barcelona band fresh off the release of fourth album EUREKA!.

Mon 12 Jun

SOUNDHOUSE: THE RACHEL NEWTON TRIO

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Singer, harpist and member of The Furrow Collective Rachel Newton performs her own solo material with a five-piece line-up.

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN

Edinburgh tropical fun machine Samedia Shebeen continue their monthly residency at Paradise Palms.

KLAMMER (TRIPWIRE DC )

SMASH CLUB, FROM 19:00, TBC

Leeds-based dark pop band.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–23:00, £10

Solo guitarist extraordinaire Ben Chasny’s adventurous solo project Six Organs of Admittance has created some of the most introspective psychedelic folk music of the last 19 years or so.

BANSHEEMANS FESTIVAL

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £6 - £8

Two venues, one helluva load of metal bands.

Sat 17 Jun

MARTHA REEVES AND THE VANDELLAS

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

Motown at its finest –sure to be a heatwave of a performance.

THE YOUTH AND THE YOUNG (SKJØR + DENI SMITH) THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £5 - £7

TYATY celebrate the release of new single Lanterns at The Mash House.

STATIC UNION (FOTZE POLITIC)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Four-piece alt rock band from Glasgow’s Southside. Their sound is influenced by their love of The National, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, The Smiths, and Joy Division. This is their first time in Edinburgh.

CHANSONS DES FLEURS

CANONGATE KIRK, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

A bouquet of choral music on the theme of flowers, by some of the 20th century’s finest composers.

ARCADE TAPE MACHINE 002 (HOSTEL FREAKS + GLASSMASTERER)

THE SAFARI LOUNGE, 20:00–23:59, £4 - £5

Synthwave party feat the Turbo Syntharium, retro-wave aesthetics, TV installations and much more.

NIKO

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £8 - £10

The Livingston hip-hop fella Niko launches a new EP at the Wee Red.

Sun 18 Jun JACKSON BROWNE

FESTIVAL THEATRE, FROM 19:00, £42.50 - £47.50

The Californian singer-songwriter returns with his full band and a back catalogue of 14 studio albums.

SOUNDHOUSE: SECRET NORTH

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

Six world-class musicians from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia in a celebration of new music bridging the divide between folk and classical, traditional and avant-garde by combining ancient instruments with new composition.

JAPANESE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017 (RUINS ALONE + ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE SWR + AKATEN + ZOFFY + ZUBI ZUVA X + PSYCHE BUGYO + ATSUSHI TSUYAMA + MAKOTO KAWABATA) SUMMERHALL, 20:00–23:00, £14

The Japanese New Music Festival is a showcase tour in which the trio of Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Atsushi Tsuyama (Acid Mothers Temple), and Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) perform as multiple different units.

Mon 19 Jun DEAD KENNEDYS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 19:00, £22.50

Caustic 70s punk rockers now with Ron Greer on vocal duties.

SOUNDHOUSE: THE DANBERRYS

TRAVERSE THEATRE, FROM 20:00, £11

A band straight outta the rockier underbelly of Nashville’s music scene, showcasing the soulful pairing of Ben DeBerry and Dorothy Daniel.

CHRIS HOLMES MEAN MAN (ALEXA DE STRANGE)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £15 - £18

The ex-W.A.S.P. guitar legend is back.

Tue 20 Jun

BOOZE & GLORY (BRASSKNUCKLE + HALF CHARGE + LAST STAND)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Working class street oi punk at Bannermans.

Wed 21 Jun CALLUM BEATTIE

THE CAVES, 19:00–22:00, £8

The young Edinburgh singer/songwriter launches his debut album of acoustic indie-pop gems.

KAMIKAZE GIRLS (NERVUS + JOYCE DELANEY)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £6 - £8

THE SINKING FEELING (GRAND PRICKS + VETO) SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Record Label Gold Mold showcase headlined by ‘loser rock’ outfit Grand Pricks.

PARADISE RADIO: THE JACUZZI YEARS (JAUZZI GENERAL)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–23:00, FREE

Weekly radio show presented by purveyor of passion and sensual positivity and Palms resident Jacuzzi General, exploring music from around the world.

PARAMORE

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, TBC

Hayley Williams takes her Titanesque lungs back on tour. Sold out, obviously.

Fri 23 Jun KISS MY ACID

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £5

Loud, snotty, female-fronted punk trio making an Edinburgh debut.

FAT GOTH (FATALISTS + HAGAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

Uncool, uncouth, hilarious and excellent rockers Fat Goth have commanded love and acclaim through their humorous, brazen style which is best served live.

FLINT & PITCH (RM HUBBERT + KIRSTY LOGAN + DANIEL PIPER + ROSEANNE REID + NADINE AISHA JASSAT)

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 19:00, £6

F&P host their last revue of the 2016/17 season – and it’s a belter...

SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £12 - £15

Treat yourself to some sax courtesy of Tommy Smith, as he leads the SNJO in concert peppered with readings of Tom McGrath’s poetry and plays. Part of EIFF’s 2017 retrospective The Future is History.

Sat 24 Jun

HELLBOUND HEARTS (DRAMA CLUB REJECTS)

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £8 - £10

Two banging rock outfits made up of ex-terrorvision, The Wildhearts and The almighty.

ROLLOFEST (SONGS IN TRANSIT + CARO BRIDGES AND THE RIVER + DOG ON A SWING + BLAIR CORON + DRAWS CREATURE MASK)

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, TBC

Get a taste of Edinburgh’s live music scene at a gig which doubles up as a 30th birthday for organiser Martyn Andrew Rollo.

THE TWISTETTES’ TWISTED TEA PARTY (EARTH WIRE + MISC MEAT + EMPRESS + LOU MCLEAN + SARA THOMAS + SUKY GOODFELLOW)

LA BELLE ANGELE, 19:00–22:00, £6 - £7.25

The Glasgow punk duo bring a musical showcase to die for to the LBA stage.

HOSTILE (ANIMATOR + DOG TIRED + IFREANN + KEEP IT STEEL)

STUDIO 24, FROM 19:00, £7

Another high-tempo ska punk party o’ a gig from the Ayr ragers.

Sun 25 Jun

PORTALOOTH (RUDI ‘N’ SPIDER + BELLAROSE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:00, £5

BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, £7 - £9

A killer night of metal riffage.

Thu 29 Jun

ANGUS MUNRO (JOSEPHINE SILLARS + HINKS) SNEAKY PETE’S, 20:00–23:00, £5

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

PARADISE RADIO: THE JACUZZI YEARS (JAUZZI GENERAL)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–23:00, FREE

Weekly radio show presented by purveyor of passion and sensual positivity and Palms resident Jacuzzi General, exploring music from around the world.

ANI DIFRANCO

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:00, £24.50

The American singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and poet continues to take folk in new and interesting directions, now some 20+ albums into her career.

POLITICAL ASYLUM (OI POLLOI)

HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, FROM 20:00, £6.50

A reunion gig for the anarchic punk band who haven’t played in 30 years (and, apparently, may never play again).

Fri 30 Jun

SAMH FUNDRAISER (BIG FAT PANDA + LOKI + DEVILJOCKS +FACEHANDLE + RAJ KENNY + TICKLE) BANNERMANS, FROM 20:00, FREE

Heaps and heaps of music at Bannermans in a night raising funds for the Scottish Association for Mental Health.

A NIGHT OUT WITH REBUS

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £20.50 - £22.50

The fictional Edinburghian detective stars in a night of words and music curated by Ian Rankin. Part of RebusFest (yes, it’s a thing, Googe it).

Dundee Music Sat 03 Jun SINDERINS

DUNDEE REP, FROM 19:30, £9 - £16

Surreal folk and crafted pop from a band who take their name from a well-known junction in Dundee.

ANTON & THE COLTS

BAR 15, FROM 19:00, £6

BAR 15, FROM 17:00, £5 - £7

Wed 07 Jun

CASSIA (THE RANKINES + INERTIA)

The SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart perform Beethoven and Mahler under the masterful baton of Christop Echenbach.

Lads marrying the likeable Northern charm of Little Comets and the sunny pop vibrancy of Saint Raymond.

Mon 26 Jun

Thu 08 Jun

THE QUEEN’S HALL, FROM 19:30, £2 - £10

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:30, £6

ST MARY’S MUSIC SCHOOL SUMMER CONCERT

Tue 27 Jun

VICE (DIRTY JUDAS)

Bringing fresh life to the best of the tradition, Nicole Murray, John Thompson and Emma Nixon have carved themselves a niche internationally as outstanding performers of acoustic folk music.

USHER HALL, FROM 15:00, £12 - £32

SUNDAY CLASSICS: SWR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STUTTGART

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–22:30, £7 - £10

Thu 22 Jun

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: CLOUD STREET

SUMMERHALL, 20:00–22:30, £7 - £10

A headliner band made up of seasoned veterans of the folkacoustic scene.

The pupils of Scotland’s specialist music school perform a special programme of choral, orchestral, traditional and jazz music.

Tilden Krautz’s music is rooted in urban, old-time and rural mountain folk and bluegrass.

PARADISE PALMS, 19:30–22:00, £5

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

Portalooth head to Sneaky Pete’s for the first time as the final stop on their Boys On Tour tour. Expect high energy performances and crazy stage antics.

Riot Grrrl duo who challenge many a taboo.

EDINBURGH FOLK CLUB: TILDON KRAUTZ

JUKEBOX BINGO (SUSAN MORRISON + DJ LOLA LEOPARDSKIN)

START TO END: JEFF BUCKLEY’S GRACE

THE MASH HOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £10 - £12

A live band’s interpretation of Jeff Buckley’s 1994 debut album Grace, played in full from start to end.

SOHAM DE (RYAN WIGHTON + RYAN LAWRENCE + NEIL MORRISON)

Ultra young Durham-based singersongwriter who’s supported Gabrielle Aplin, Saint Raymond and Bondax, to name only a few.

Fri 09 Jun

THE CHANGES (THE RAHS + THE DICKSONS)

BAR 15, FROM 19:30, £5

Alternative Edinburgh foursome heavily-influenced by 90s indie.

Wed 28 Jun MOTHERSHIP (POSEIDON)

BANNERMANS, FROM 19:30, £8 - £10

Texas trio with a motorheadmeets-sludge vibe.

THE SKINNY

Thu 15 Jun BOO HEWERDINE

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 19:00, £7 - £10

Boo Hewerdine, aka Mark Hewerdine is an English singersongwriter who recently announced the release of Swimming In Mercury, his first new studio album in eight years.

Sat 17 Jun

DEAR JOHN (TOWARDS LIGHT + SPORKZ)

BAR 15, FROM 19:30, £5

Dundee show from the Aberdeen electronic-melodic-noise trio.

ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW AND THE LOW RIDERS

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, FROM 19:30, £21.50 - £23.50

The Amen Corner bloke heads out to perform a selection of hits at the Gardyne.

PUNK IN DUNDEE (GBH + THE EDDIES + PUNKADELIC + RIDE THE TIDES + ROTTEN APPLES + THE DREGGS + SKIZOFRENIK + TOLERATED) BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 13:00, £10

Punky all-dayer at BGL!.

Thu 22 Jun JOE LONGTHORNE

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £21 - £23

The singer, impressionist and regular Royal Variety performer returns to the stage.

Fri 23 Jun

TOY TIN SOLDIER (AARON WRIGHT + NEIL MORRISON)

BAR 15, FROM 19:30, £5

Scottish indie rock from singersongwriter Joe Gallacher AKA Toy Tin Soldier.

THE SINKING FEELING (LOVELY LADIES)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:00, £5

Record Label Gold Mold showcase headlined by ‘loser rock’ outfit Grand Pricks.

HELLBOUND HEARTS

THE FIREFLY, FROM 20:00, FREE

Two banging rock outfits made up of ex-terrorvision, The Wildhearts and The almighty.

Sat 24 Jun UPLOAD FESTIVAL

BEAT GENERATOR LIVE!, FROM 17:00, £6 - £8

Hunners of bands and a eight quid on the door – making this without a blaady doubt the best value hard-styled music extravaganza in Dundee this month.

FAT GOTH (INDICA + BED OF WASPS)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, TBC

FAT GOTH: the musical vehicle for three Scotsmen with a collective passion for all things guitar, drum and music-of-the-somewhatantisocial-nature orientated.

Thu 29 Jun

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

CLARKS ON LINDSAY STREET, FROM 20:00, £10

British country from Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish.

Fri 30 Jun

ALICE MARRA AND THE GAELS BLUE ORCHESTRA

THE GARDYNE THEATRE, 19:30–22:00, £16

The Hazey Janes band member heads out on her own with debut solo album Chain Up The Swings.

KAMIKAZE GIRLS (NERVUS + STONETHROWER)

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 19:30, £5

Riot Grrrl duo who challenge many a taboo.

Glasgow Clubs

Goth, post-punk, EBM, synth, coldwave, house, noise and disco.

Aaaand breathe.

Thu 01 Jun

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, FROM 19:00, £45 - £75

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R'n'B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

ALL NIGHT PASSION

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Be taken on a journey through disco, love and magic at La Cheetah.

BALKANARAMA’S 10TH BIRTHDAY (MUNICIPALE BALCANICA + UNUCAD POLYPHONIC BALKAN CHOIR + SWANK ‘N’ JAMS + DJ LUCAS + VJ SESTRA) THE ART SCHOOL, 00:00–03:00, £10 - £11

Balkanarama’s hottest Balkan instrumental orgy celebrates its 10th birthday. Expect lots of sweat, lots of dancing and heaps of fun.

Fri 02 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

GLITTERBANG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Exactly what it says on its sparkly tin – a dazzling night of disco Europop.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

MAGIC CITY (MULLY KUSH + KEOMA)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Magic City residents play hip-hop and R’n’B night all night long.

FRESH! FRIDAY AT THE CLUB ROOM

ORAN MOR, FROM 23:00, £0 - £6

Resident John McLean stirs up a fresh night of tunes for your delectation.

GHOST GIRLS

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

The female Scottish creative collective bring you an evening of 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s pop, R’n’B, dance and hip-hop.

JULIAN JEWEIL (QUAIL & TURTLE)

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 21:00, £10 £12.50

French artist Julian Jeweil, who specialises in a melodic breed of techno plays SWG3 with support from Animal Farm.

STEREOTONE (DEREK PLASLAIKO) (WHEELMAN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £8

Master of his craft, Derek Plaslaiko has played everywhere from warehouses in Detroit in the mid-90s to Panorama Bar just last year.` TEIKIRISI

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 19:30, £6 - £10

A night of dance classes, including casino, salsa, bachata and kizomba, followed by performances and a dance party.

DJ SUNNY EGG THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 17:00, £20 - £22

Rapid Tan and Breakfast Muff legend Eilidh McMillan plays pop and punk bangers.

The one man techno wrecking machine that is Ben Klock heads to SWG3 for a Pressure takeover.

Sat 03 Jun

Tue 06 Jun

NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE (ANDREW WEATHERALL & SEAN JOHNSTON)

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £7 - £9

Your second ALFOS of 2017, and it’s their Summer break up party. Breaking up is hard to do, but Andrew & Sean will see you through.

HARSH TUG

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Hip-hop and rap brought to you by Notorious B.A.G and pals.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

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.

A CELEBRATION OF YEEZY

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 22:00, £8

SWG3 loves Kanye as much as Kanye loves Kanye, so are set to host a night dedicated entirely to his music and influence.

LEZURE (BLACK MERLIN)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

Berceuse Heroique’s Black Merlin plays all things techno, industrial and EBM at Lezure 023.

2001 ROCK THE FUNKY BEATS

CLASSIC GRAND, FROM 22:00, £10 - £20

Mallorca Lee, William Daniel, Alan Belshaw and Anne Savage whip up the massive dance anthems needed for 2001’s first birthday.

SONGS YA BASS XIV

BUFF CLUB, FROM 19:00, FREE

THE club night for those in their 40s and 50s who claim they don’t go out anymore. You do now. (To this.) A ‘pre-request’ early club night where you choose the tunes.

Sun 04 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

GSA SUMMER BALL 2017

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £22 - £27

Dust off your glad rags for Glasgow School of Art’s annual night of hedonism and happiness.

Mon 05 Jun BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

June 2017

PRESSURE (BEN KLOCK)

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic cloob playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

SUPERMAX (DJ BILLY WOODS)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, £8

DJ Billy Woods, start to finish, open to close. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

I AM: BOAT PARTY & AFTERS (JOE GODDARD + BETA & KAPPA)

SUB CLUB, 19:30–03:00, £7 - £25

Set sail down the Clyde with the i Am as Subbie is left in the capable hands of Mr Joe Goddard for the full 4 hours.

Wed 07 Jun LIGHTSOUT

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

House techno brilliance and disco funk.

Thu 08 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R'n'B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

ELECTRIC SALSA (BISSET + KORAN JACKSON)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

A hot, hot night of strictly heaters ‘n’ steeshers as Bisset and Koran whip up fire in the booth. Dress to sweat and get ready to dance.

KEEP FIT (ROMEO TAYLOR)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Romeo Taylor gets on the ones at Sleazy’s for a midweek disco.

Fri 09 Jun OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

DEATHKILL4000

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Ultra-cutting edge dark electro, hip-hop and post punk.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

RETURN TO MONO (JOSEPH CAPRIATI) (SLAM)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £18

Monthly night from Soma Records taking in popular techno offerings of all hues, this edition welcoming Italian stallion Joseph Capriati for another show.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

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

FORMAL INVOCATION NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

KRAFTWERK

The German electronica pioneers bring their iconic 3D tour our way for an unsurprisingly sold out show.

LOOSE JOINTS

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Loose Joints play a residents night at La Cheetah.

WE SHOULD HANG OUT MORE IN AFRICA III (ESA) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 - £8

The WSHOM crew return to La Cheetah with one of South Africa (via Glasgow)’s finest exports, Esa. Funds raised go to Emfered Morogoro and Hanging Out More.

ENTERTEASEMENT: COMEDY! MAGIC! BURLESQUE BIRTHDAY SHOW (VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + RAYMOND MEARNS + MADAME MYFANWY + CHRIS DINWOODIE + SUZIE SEQUIN + TALLULAH BELLE)

THE ADMIRAL, FROM 19:20, £14

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

An extra special burlesque-based birthday show from one of Glasgow’s top cabaret purveyors.

SAY NO MORE (LORD OF THE ISLES)

Get down to the sound of Nile Rogers at The Buff Club.

SARRA WILD

OH141 honcho Sarra Wild plays her monthly disco / Afro / house and world boogie night.

LA CHEETAH CLUB, FROM 23:00, £7 - £9

An esteemed DJ and producer known for his live sets and allvinyl selections, Lord Of The Isles (aka Neil McDonald) has played at the likes of Concrete, Corsica Studios, and Panorama Bar. This will be his first time in the La Cheetah basement.

DEGREE SHOW STREET PARTY & AFTER PARTY 2017 (HEIDI CHIU + SARA OH141 + STILL HOUSE PLANTS + JULIANA HUXTABLE + JUNGLEHUSSY B2B POISONOUS RELATIONSHIP + HAPPY MEALS AND MORE)

THE ART SCHOOL, 17:00–03:00, £9 - £12

The Art School celebrates the end of its academic calendar with an outdoor street party and late night blow-out. A host of fresh Glasgow musical and DJ talent across three stages, performances pieces, venue dressing, installations and live visuals.

Sat 10 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

SINGLES NIGHT

LE FREAK, C’EST CHIC!

BUFF CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Sun 11 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

DANÇA! DANÇA!

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Dose up on world music at Sleazy’s.

Mon 12 Jun BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

LOOSEN UP (FERGUS CLARK + CHARLIE MCCANN + DAVID BARBAROSSA)

MONSTER HOSPITAL

Botch meets Beyoncé DJ smash.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

ENJOYABLE MOMENT

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Cosmic Dead-curated avanteelectro psyche-out DJs. GONZO (PODCART + LITTLE THOUGHTS)

THE RUM SHACK, 21:00–01:00, £3

An evening of MTV2 / 120 Minutes style music.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

YELLOW DOOR

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

A night of contemporary classics, unheard of gems and well-kent belters, all for your general dancing pleasure, natch.

ULTIMATE BELTERS (DJ TEACHERZ)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic cloob playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4

I AM: BREAKS SPECIAL

A deep dive into the world of breaks supplied by two of the country’s specialists.

Wed 14 Jun BREEZY AT SLEAZYS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

WRONG HANDS

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

Another night of eclectic selections from Subcity’s Wrong hands.

Sat 17 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Non-stop party house and techno stompers!.

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £4

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

AFRO MOVES & GROOVES (DJ VARDI AFRO BEAT)

LOVE MUSIC

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

PRESSURE (BEN KLOCK)

SWG3, 21:30, £20-22

A three-hour set from the mighty klock as Pressure wraps up for another season.

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

Mon 19 Jun BARE MONDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

BURN MONDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Tue 13 Jun

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 - £10

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

The collective responsible for creating space for female, queer and marginalised voices throw on a rammy.

SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

A night that’s been a long time in the making... A joint force effort to bring over LA’s own Leftfield techno flag-bearer Silent Servant for his first ever show in Glasgow.

Thu 15 Jun

SPITEHOUSE DJ SET

Sun 18 Jun

SILENT SERVANT (KRIS + ADAM + EWAN)

BURN MONDAYS

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

George Evelyn, better known by his stage name Nightmares on Wax or DJ E.A.S.E, consistently delivers hugely danceable sets.

Expect a blend of house, disco, and hip-hop alongside plenty of welcome samples from his own back catalogue.

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

Nathi Maphumulo – a producer and player of soul-drenched house –makes his Scottish debut.

Ayawara Ensemble play dance rhythms From Guinea and Mali.

For their first birthday the Fenix team have invited Pacific Rhythm label boss DJ D.Dee over the Atlantic from Vancouver for his Glasgow debut.

NIGHTMARES ON WAX

THE BERKELEY SUITE, FROM 23:00, £8 - £10

Eclectic cloob playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

BLACK COFFEE (JASPER JAMES)

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.

FENIX 1ST BIRTHDAY (DJ D.DEE + J WALBAUM & A.M.)

MOJO WORKIN (FELONIOUS MUNK)

THE RUM SHACK, 21:00–01:00, £2

Various guest DJs playing nothing but soul, 60s R’n’B, motown and Northern soul.

Tue 20 Jun

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

OLD SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £15

Fergus, Charlie and David delve into their vast record collections to bring you the best roots reggae, cosmic soca, Afro disco, island funk and more.

THE ART SCHOOL, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £6

LAPS (short for ‘Ladies As Pimps’) is the dynamic Glasgow-based duo of Alicia Matthews (SUE ZUKI/ Organs of Love) and Cassie Oji (Golden Teacher), whose second EP Who Me is released this month.

Fri 16 Jun

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Nightrave goes back in time to the golden era of UK garage, funky, bassline and grime. Expect all the hits and rare gems. Moschino jeans optional.

No bullshit, no compromise – Suzie Rodden melts the ego and burns the flag of inhibitions.

THE RUM SHACK, 21:00–01:00, £3

Pop, disco and rock action at Sleazy’s Singles Night.

NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR (LAPS)

DJ Adidadas brings vaporbeat and Eurowave hits to Sleazy’s.

NIGHTRAVE UK GARAGE SPECIAL (INKKE + REBECCA VASMANT + NIGHTWAVE)

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

SMALL TALK (DJ ADIDADAS) NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

FANTASTIC MAN

The worst club night in the world is back.

THE LANCE VANCE DANCE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £0 - £3

Sultry disco dance anthems set to the beat of a new generation.

SYCOPHANTASY

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

Cross-genre wild child Sycophantasy is one part of Push It, has played alongside Paula Temple and has risen through the ranks in the Glasgow DJ scene. Who knows what she’ll play, but it will be good.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

#TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

I AM (KRYSTAL KLEAR)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £8

The masterful Krystal Klear is joined by another of his master mates for the evening at Subbie.

Wed 21 Jun NOT MOVING

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Golden Teacher and Dick 50 DJs spinning outer-national sounds.

Thu 22 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

UNHOLY

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

BREAKFAST CLUB (GERRY LYONS)

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Gerry Lyons delivers 80s and 90s pop and rock hits.

IRN BRZ FIRST BIRTHDAY

SWG3 GLASGOW, FROM 00:00, £8 - £10

Respek BA hosts a special birthday edition of Irn Brz rap battles, featuring the likes of Mackenzie, Bobby Rex, Scott Earley, J Dillon and more. Plus, live hip-hop from Mistah Bohze and Delivery Room.

Listings

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BASSMENT (TELFORD) (BREEZY + GRAEME DREW + MARTY WATT)

SCARED TO DANCE: GLASGOW SPECIAL

SDC X YPIN (YOUR PLANET IS NEXT)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

STEREO, FROM 23:00, £6

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4 - £5

Sub Club Resident Telford swings

by La Cheetah playing a set alongside residents Breezy and Graeme.

Support from Marty Watt.

Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins plays a mix of indie-pop, post-punk, new wave and 60s tunes.

Fri 23 Jun

THE BERKELEY SUITE PRESENTS (TIM SWEENEY + OOFT!)

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Tim Sweeney’s beats in space show has unquestionably been one of the most important in electronic music history; his DJing ability carries the same stature.

OLD SKOOL

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul for your jivin’ pleasure.

CATHOUSE FRIDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Screamy, shouty, post-hardcore madness to help you shake off a week of stress in true punk style.

JAMMING FRIDAYS

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to 00s with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

FRESH BEAT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

Dance, chart and remixes in the main hall with Craig Guild, while DJ Nicola Walker keeps things nostalgic in G2 with flashback bangers galore.

HOT HOUSE

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, TBC

GONZO: INDIE DISCO

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

The quest to bring epic nostalgia back in the form of all things MTV2 (pre-trash) and 120 Minutes continues. The return of Indie Disco.

HOT FOOTIN (DIXON AVENUE BASMENT JAMS) (POSTHUMAN + KALA) LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8

DABJ throw a label party, welcoming some recent aditions to their roster including I Love Acid head honcho Posthuman and Kala.

MT AMBIENT (MT AMBIENT)

THE RUM SHACK, 20:00–01:00, £4

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Cat Reilly spins the best in joyous party magic.

JUNE DANSE MACABRE

STEREO, FROM 23:00, TBC

The Danse Macabre regulars unite those two happiest of bedfellows – er, that’d be goth rock and classic disco – at Stereo.

DENIS SULTA (BIG MIZ)

SUB CLUB, FROM 23:00, £10

Golden boy Denis Sulta pops into Subbie to lay down the law at what’s apparently his favourite night in town.

BAKESALE

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Celebrating the very best in contemporary and classic hip-hop with a keen emphasis on the left-of-field.

SLEAZE (ROBERT S) (HANS BOUFFMYHRE + LEX GORRIE)

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10

Sleaze return to their favourite Glasgow spot for another night of quality techno music. This time they bring in bring Portuguese talent Robert S over to play the main slot.

Sat 24 Jun NU SKOOL

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £7

Nick Peacock spins a Saturdayready selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS

CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 - £6

Or Caturdays, if you will. Two levels of the loudest, maddest music the DJs can muster; metal, rock and alt on floor one, and punky screamo upstairs.

THE ROCK SHOP

MAGGIE MAY’S, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

LOVE MUSIC

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Saturday night disco manned by your man Gerry Lyons and guests.

NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR

THE FLYING DUCK, FROM 22:00, FREE

LAPS (short for ‘Ladies As Pimps’) is the dynamic Glasgow-based duo of Alicia Matthews (SUE ZUKI/ Organs of Love) and Cassie Oji (Golden Teacher), whose second EP Who Me is released this month.

MELTING POT (JOHN MORALES)

THE ADMIRAL, FROM 22:30, £10 - £12

John Morales returns to the Melting Pot for round two of his unique M+M mixes.

SHAKA LOVES YOU

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, £3

Hip-hop and live percussion flanked by wicked visuals.

I LOVE GARAGE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

Garage by name, but not by musical nature. DJ Darren Donnelly carousels through chart, dance and classics, the Desperados bar is filled with funk, G2 keeps things urban and the Attic gets all indie on you.

Balearic, percussive, ambient oddities.

Sun 25 Jun SUNDAY SCIENCE

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

As scientific as a club filled with tipsy Sunday night partiers can get, really. LED lights, glow in the dark wands, ‘Science’ cocktails and cannons. Unlikely to instigate any eureka moments, but it’ll do.

MINI MANOEUVRES

THE RUM SHACK, 13:00–16:00, £5

A dance party for club-kids and parents.

Mon 26 Jun BARE MONDAYS

SHAKE APPEAL

BLOC+, FROM 23:00, FREE

Five decades of rock’n’roll on under one roof hosted by the ultimate DJ trivium.

EZUP

LA CHEETAH CLUB, 23:00–03:00, TBC

The Ezup lads get stuck in at the La Cheetah booth.

DOMESTIC EXILE

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Glasgow based Industrial and cold-wave cassette label Domestic Exile hosts an Art Schoolbased residency based around label live acts and their personal circle of DJ peers.

MAGIC CITY (MULLY KUSH + KEOMA)

THE BERKELEY SUITE, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Magic City residents play hip-hop and R’n’B night all night long.

Thu 01 Jun

JUICE (KA MI + DAN + DECLAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan and Kami make weird waves through house and techno.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

Tue 27 Jun KILLER KITSCH

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Eclectic cloob playing the best in house, techno and electronic – or, in their words ‘casually ignoring shite requests since 2005’.

I AM

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual fine mix of electronica and bass, with a special guest or two oft in tow. #TAG TUESDAYS

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Indoor hot tubs, inflatables as far as the eye can see and a Twitter feed dedicated to validating your drunk-eyed existence.

Wed 28 Jun DRUGSTORE GLAMOUR

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, FROM 23:30, FREE

Maxed out messy vibes; trashy, tacky, glamorous and ridiculous.

Oh, and fun, too. Very fun.

Thu 29 Jun HIP HOP THURSDAYS

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

Euan Neilson plays the best in classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

JELLY BABY

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Thursday nighter of chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

WTF FRIDAYS

SHED, 22:30–03:00, £4 - £6

Student-friendly Friday night party, playing (as one might expect) cheesy classics of every hue.

ELEMENT

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Ross McMillan plays chart, house and anthems with giveaways, bouncy castles and, most importantly, air hockey.

Cathouse’s Thursday night rock, metal and punk mash-up.

Samedia Shebeen brings the King of Brazilian beats and bass to Ediburgh for an unmissable session. The Rio de Janeiro-based DJ/producer is a veteran pioneer of global bass music, with 20+ years of dedicated experience searching out unheralded music.

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £7

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

FIRECRACKER RECORDINGS: HEAL YOURSELF & MOVE #9 (WHODAMANNY) (HOUSE OF TRAPS)

Fri 02 Jun

THE CLUB

DOMINO CLUB (P-STYLZ)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, FREE

Weekly institution Domino Club is back, with DJ P-Stylz at the helm of the mighty ship every Friday evening.

FLY CLUB

Sun 04 Jun THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

COALITION: (LIZ LOUISE) (BELIEVE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

Liz Louise is a fresh face on the DJ scene and you’ll soon be drawn in by her fiendish love for all things house and techno. A night inspired by the infectious grooves of Liverpool and Barcelona nightlife.

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £6

Mon 05 Jun

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10

HEADSET (FACTA & K-LONE)

Fledgling night mixed up by a selection of Edinburgh DJs, including the chaps behind the Witness, Coalition and Big ‘n’ Bashy nights.

MAIN INGREDIENT: 4TH BIRTHDAY (JAZZ SPASTIKS + PARTS UNKNOWN + CAMMY DE FELICE + NONLINE) THE MASH HOUSE, 22:00–03:00, £3 - £5

LA BELLE ANGELE, 22:00–03:00, £10 - £11

Long-running trade night with Normski and Mash spinning the disco beats.

FLY CLUB CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10

Slow jams, edits, Afro, disco, house played by the one and only Martin Valentine.

PLAYROOM (MARTIN VALENTINE )

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

BUFF CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £5

BURN MONDAYS

SAMEDIA SHEBEEN (DJ MAGA BO) THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

In an era when dance music gets weird as hell, Whodamanny, AKA Raffaele Arcella, still cuts an odd figure. The Neapolitan is a key player in the Early Sounds Recordings collective and one of the founders of the Periodica Records.

Lasers, bouncy castles and DJ Gav Somerville spinning out teasers and pleasers. Nice way to kick off the week, no?

UNHOLY

Listings

Fri 30 Jun

Edinburgh Clubs

Edinburgh-based Main Ingredient collective known for warehouse parties, analogue machinery, interactive visuals and great music celebrate going four years strong with their best pals.

THE GARAGE GLASGOW, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £4

CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 - £4

58

The Silver Dollar Club call in the talents of Your Planet is Next.

From dreamy-vocoder led booty calls, to acid house jams dedicated to his dog, expect the unexpected.

BALKANARAMA’S 10TH BIRTHDAY

Balkanarama’s hottest Balkan instrumental orgy celebrates its 10th birthday. Expect lots of sweat, lots of dancing and heaps of fun.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED (CRAIG BRATLEY)(STEVE CASS + JUSTIN WILSON)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £7

Craig’s back catalogue of productions and remixes are nothing short of magic, and his high quality output continues in 2017 with forthcoming remixes on Is it Balearic and Leng, and a track on Rack and Ruin.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

Sat 03 Jun BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

SOULSVILLE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £5

Raw, high energy R’n’B at Bongo.

REWIND

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Monthly party night that celebrating the best in soul, disco, rock and pop with music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and current bangers.

JACUZZI GENERAL (WERKHA)

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

The General returns after a tropical trip overseas, topping up his tan and promoting his latest jacuzzi model. This month JG is joined by Werkha, Glasgow-based producer of music.

STRUT!

THE VILLAGE, FROM 19:00, FREE

Funk, dynamite disco and house.

THE BOROUGH COLLECTIVE: FIND YOUR RHYTHM (CRAIG SMITH & THE REVENGE)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

A monthly takeover from house specialists Craig Smith and The Revenge.

MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

MINDSET (GARETH SOMMERVILLE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Strictly house grooves from Edinburgh house DJ don Gareth Sommerville.

Tue 06 Jun TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6

Since May 2012 Hector’s House, known affectionately to many simply as Hector’s, has become Edinburgh’s one of Edinburgh’s fave midweek shindigs. House, disco, techno, garage, hip-hop, soul, funk across three rooms.

Wed 07 Jun COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS (JOE GODDARD)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £8

A brilliant DJ and king of positive vibes across genres – who else could have released records on DFA, Moshi Moshi and Domino?

He’s the definition of indie-dance done right, and an inspiration for a generation of party-starters.

Thu 08 Jun

JUICE (KA MI + DAN + DECLAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan and Kami make weird waves through house and techno.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

PLAYROOM (MARTIN VALENTINE )

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Slow jams, edits, Afro, disco, house played by the one and only Martin Valentine.

Fri 09 Jun

DOMINO CLUB (P-STYLZ)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, FREE

Weekly institution Domino Club is back, with DJ P-Stylz at the helm of the mighty ship every Friday evening.

FLIP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

SUBSTANCE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, FREE

House, techno and electro club taking on awesome guest selectors every once in a while.

BIGFOOT’S TEA PARTY (WRICK + JAMES + CHRIS)

Big techno from up North. This year they’ve added a foothold in Sneaky Pete’s along with their residencies at Sub Club and Farbfernseher Berlin.

THE SKINNY TAKEOVER (GRANDMASTER BRASH + P-HAT + COMBO DEAL) PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Come party with The Skinny’s DJs as we the best in new music mixed with the best classic party tunes.

From Ibibio Sound Machine to William Onyeabor, LCD Soundsystem to Carly Rae Jepson,we’ve got your night’s soundtrack covered.

STRANGER (DISORDER DJS)

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6 - £8

Tipped as being one of Rotterdam’s best kept techno secret, DJ/ producer Stranger moves in mysterious ways and has quickly proven to be one to watch.

HEART BEATS: RELOADED (DIGITALINTRUSION + CONSCIOUS ROUTE + SUBTRONICS + THE MIGHTY CREAM + DORSIKA) STUDIO 24, FROM 23:00, £6

Drum and bass, trap and dubstep at the soon to close Studio 24.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

Sat 10 Jun BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

GASOLINE DANCE MACHINE (CHEAP PICASSO)

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £3 - £6

More classic Italo and straight-up boogie allied with contemporary house and disco, as Edinburgh’s GDM crew do their thing.

MESSENGER

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £6 - £7

Conscious roots and dub reggae rockin’ from the usual beefy Messenger Sound System.

ELECTRO CYCLE

THE VILLAGE, FROM 20:00, FREE

Chicago, deep and funky house music old and new with resident DJs Foxxy DJ and Hi Tech John.

KRAFTWERK

USHER HALL, FROM 19:00, £45 - £75

The German electronica pioneers bring their iconic 3D tour our way for an unsurprisingly sold out show.

TEESH: ALL YOU CAN EAT MIND BUFFET (DJ CHEERS + TOM

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Afro, cosmic disco, soul, funk, boogie, classics, house, hip-hop, techno, arps, clicks, warm weirdness, subtle highs and occasional strandbar.

THE BOROUGH COLLECTIVE: TOUCHE (DICKY TRISCO) CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

Monthly celebration of house and disco by some of Edinburgh’s finest and most experienced DJs. BOWIE VS PRINCE

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £6 - £7

Get yer gnashers into some Purple Rain and Starman in a night dedicated to a pair of beloved legends.

Sun 11 Jun

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED & SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Mon 12 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Sat 17 Jun MUMBO JUMBO

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £7

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

Funk, soul, beats and bumps from the Mumbo Jumbo regulars and pals.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £3

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

MINDSET (GARETH SOMMERVILLE)

BUBBLEGUM

Strictly house grooves from Edinburgh house DJ don Gareth Sommerville.

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

Tue 13 Jun

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6

Since May 2012 Hector’s House, known affectionately to many simply as Hector’s, has become Edinburgh’s one of Edinburgh’s fave midweek shindigs. House, disco, techno, garage, hip-hop, soul, funk across three rooms.

Wed 14 Jun COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

WASABI DISCO (KRIS WASABI)

DJ Kris Wasabi’s notorious sleazy disco party.

BOOGIE NIGHTS

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £4 - £6

Monthly party night that celebrating the best in soul and disco from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

THE BOROUGH COLLECTIVE PRESENTS: (DEEP EXCURSIONS)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

A night designed to showcase the best DJ talents from Scotland and further afield. This month welcomes the local heroes from Deep Excursions.

THE EGG

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

A salad of genres: sixties garage and soul plus 70s punk and new wave, peppered with psych and indie for good measure.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Sun 18 Jun

LUCKYME: SUICIDEYEAR (MIKE SLOTT)

Together for one night: two generations of LuckyMe affiliated artists who each took hip-hop apart and put it back together in weird and startling new shapes.

Expect ethereal yet percussive productions that are leave you both clear-eyed and woozy.

Thu 15 Jun

JUICE (KA MI + DAN + DECLAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan and Kami make weird waves through house and techno.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

PLAYROOM (MARTIN VALENTINE )

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Slow jams, edits, Afro, disco, house played by the one and only Martin Valentine.

LEITHLATE17 AFTERPARTY

HENDERSON HALLS, 21:00–00:30, £10

LeithLate teams up with Scottish independent music label Lost Map Records for the infamous LeithLate Afterparty, headlined by Kid Canaveral.

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED & SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Mon 19 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

MINDSET (GARETH SOMMERVILLE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Strictly house grooves from Edinburgh house DJ don Gareth Sommerville.

Tue 20 Jun TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6

Distinctly retro selections from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Since May 2012 Hector’s House, known affectionately to many simply as Hector’s, has become Edinburgh’s one of Edinburgh’s fave midweek shindigs. House, disco, techno, garage, hip-hop, soul, funk across three rooms.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Wed 21 Jun

Fri 16 Jun PLANET EARTH

SMASH CLUB, 23:30–00:00, £5

FLIP

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

DOMINO CLUB (P-STYLZ)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, FREE

Weekly institution Domino Club is back, with DJ P-Stylz at the helm of the mighty ship every Friday evening.

FLY CLUB

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

HEADSET

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, TBC

Fledgling night mixed up by a selection of Edinburgh DJs, including the chaps behind the Witness, Coalition and Big ‘n’ Bashy nights.

ELECTRIKAL

COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS + SQUELCHY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

House, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

Thu 22 Jun

JUICE (KA MI + DAN + DECLAN)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

Dan, Declan and Kami make weird waves through house and techno.

HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

PLAYROOM (MARTIN VALENTINE )

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Slow jams, edits, Afro, disco, house played by the one and only Martin Valentine.

131 NORTHSIDE SAVAGE CLUB

Fri 23 Jun

Soundsystem party-starters, part of a music and art collective specialising in all things bass.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £5

Trap, hip-hop, cloud, drill and garms from the local duo.

DOMINO CLUB (P-STYLZ)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, FREE

WEE RED BAR, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Weekly institution Domino Club is back, with DJ P-Stylz at the helm of the mighty ship every Friday evening.

PROPAGANDA

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

XOXO

The fledgling queer night returns to the Wee Red. THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

FLIP

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

THE SKINNY

FLY CLUB CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £10

Edinburgh and Glasgow-straddling night, with powerhouse of local residents joined by a selection of guest talent.

HOTLINE

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £3 - £5

Brand smashin’ new cloob at Bongo, ‘run by women, for everyone’. R’n’B, disco, funk and freeee dancing.

GHANA DOOR STUDIO FUNDRAISER (FERGUS CLARKE + KATIE SHAMBLES + YVES) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Green Door Studio raise cash for kit for musicians in Ghana, with a heavyweight line-up of Fergus Clarke (12th Isle), Katie Shambles (Domestic Exile / So Low) and Yves (Rhythm Machine / Lionoil).

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

Sat 24 Jun BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, £0 - £4

Saturday mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics thrown in for good measure.

RIDE (LAUREN + FRANCESCA)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Nineties and noughties hip-hop and R’n’B, right up to current jams.

You should go, shorty, if it’s your birthday.

MADCHESTER

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £5 - £7

Established in 1994, Madchester’s a long running Edinburgh club night celebrating the baggiest beats from the late 80s and early 90s.

THE BOROUGH COLLECTIVE: CRASH GOES LOVE (GARETH SOMMERVILLE & CUNNIE) CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5 - £7

The sexy, soulful, and disco-fuelled side of The Borough Collective.

BIG N BASHY

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, £4 - £5

Mighty mix of reggae, grime, dubstep and jungle played by inimitable residents Brother Most Righteous, Skillis, Era and Deburgh.

Sun 25 Jun

COALITION (BELIEVE + GAV MILLER + STU + JORDAN COCHRANE + GED & SKANKY B) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Weekly bass institution hosted by DJ Believe and friends.

THE CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of/ handle on a Sunday.

Mon 26 Jun MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Monday-brightening mix of hiphop, R’n’B and chart classics, with requests in the back room.

MINDSET (GARETH SOMMERVILLE)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Strictly house grooves from Edinburgh house DJ don Gareth Sommerville.

Tue 27 Jun TRASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative Tuesday anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie, punk, retro and more.

HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £6

Since May 2012 Hector’s House, known affectionately to many simply as Hector’s, has become Edinburgh’s one of Edinburgh’s fave midweek shindigs. House, disco, techno, garage, hip-hop, soul, funk across three rooms.

Wed 28 Jun COOKIE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Resident midweek student rammy of chart, club and electro hits.

WITNESS (ROSS BLACKWAX + FAULT LINES + SKILLIS + SQUELCHY)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £0 - £2

House, garage and bass adventures with Blackwax and Faultlines.

Thu 29 Jun HI-SOCIETY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Early weekend-welcoming (y’know, for students) chart anthems, bolstered by hip-hop, R’n’B and urban in the back room.

June 2017

JUICE (MIKE SERVITO) (KA MI + DAN + DECLAN) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Resident DJ at The Bunker New York and close friend of The Black Madonna, Detroit dude Mike Servito has earned his recent resurgence in popularity.

Fri 30 Jun HEADSET

THE BONGO CLUB, FROM 23:00, TBC

Dundee Clubs Sat 03 Jun

THE NEXT CHAPTER OF KAGE

CONROY’S BASEMENT, FROM 23:00, £5

Departed club Kage is resurrected at Conroy’s Basement.

ALL GOOD (JASPER JAMES)

Fledgling night mixed up by a selection of Edinburgh DJs, including the chaps behind the Witness, Coalition and Big ‘n’ Bashy nights.

The All Good folks hand over the decks to bright young Glasgow house music talent Jasper James.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £0 - £3

Fri 09 Jun

FLIP

Yer all-new Friday at Hive. Cheap entry, inevitably danceable, and novelty-stuffed. Perrrfect.

NIKNAK

PARADISE PALMS, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Nik and Nak are back for their lastFridayofeverymonth take over.

Expect boogalo, humpers, star funk, pumpers, discotechno, italo fudge, Pop, electroniqueefa, wild dance moves and possibly a special guest or two.

FRACTAL CLUB X UNTITLED: HARRY MCCANNA (E.WAN + CHRIS G)

THE MASH HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5

Fractal residents Ewan and Chris bring their London-based party Untitled up the road, along with London talent Harry McCanna.

HOT MESS (SIMONOTRON)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Queer dance party for friends and lovers. Simonotron plays the music all night long: disco, house, acid, synth, techno and all that jazz.

PROPAGANDA

THE LIQUID ROOM, FROM 22:30, £3 - £5

Clubber’s favourite of indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £14

PHAZED

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, £5 - £8

Phazed returns to Dundee’s Reading Rooms, sorting ye Dundonians out with a right good Friday night.

Sat 10 Jun LOCAL HEROES

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

More classic Italo and straight-up boogie at Reading Rooms.

Fri 16 Jun ROOMS RESIDENTS

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

A selection of Reading Room residents hold the fort for the evening, playing good vibe tunes all night long.

Sat 17 Jun LOCARNO

Theatre Glasgow Theatre CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art POLYURETHANE - KENCHINGTON - STONE 4 JUN, 8:00PM, FREE

Sarah Kenchington and Will Saunders’s bring an improvised performance to the CCA which will extend Kenchington’s practice in order to offer a tasteful peek into the daily workings of an important musical sculptor.

THE NATURAL WORLD OF STORIES, LEGENDS & SONGS WITH GRACE BANKS

6 JUN, 7:00PM, £0 - £6

Join storyteller, singer and author Grace Banks for a lively and interactive workshop as she tells the tale of who and what has influenced her creative writing journey.

GYPSY QUEEN

7 JUN, 5:30PM, £2.50 - £5

Fri 23 Jun

Can two men raised to fight ever learn to love? Bare-knuckle fighter and traveller meets gay boxer in a love story between two fighters who discover the greatest challenge lies outside the ring.

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

15 JUN, 8:00PM, £6 - £9

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

A night dedicated to the 50s and 60s that’s been running for over half a decade.

ROOMS RESIDENTS

A selection of Reading Room residents hold the fort for the evening, playing good vibe tunes all night long.

Sat 24 Jun BOOK CLUB

READING ROOMS, FROM 22:30, TBC

The Good Stuff DJs spin all genres of disco house and techno, alongside anything else they damn well fancy.

HACKING THE ANDROID CIRCUIT

The Robot and Bob perform a unique cyborg adaptation of Tom McGrath’s science fiction play The Android Circuit, featuring a robot vacuum cleaner and live collaboration with artificial intelligence.

ROB CHURM PERFORMANCE WITH KATHRYN ELKIN, CITY VEGETABLES & BLOOD STEREO 16 JUN, 7:00PM, FREE

Elkin’s performance with Churm will be a development of their 2015 performance Imaginary Magnitude at Glasgow Project Room. It stars Pramé, an alien who appears in Churm’s comic books and drawings.

City Vegetables is a live comic book and the solo project of Malcy Duff, comic book creator and performer of weird noise comedies with Ali Robertson as Usurper. Malcy has previously appeared with Churm in DCA Thompson (2016). Blood Stereo are Brighton-based duo Karen Constance and Dylan Nyoukis who layer tape manipulations with preverbal improvisations to make an absurd and demonic sound.

Citizens Theatre TRISTIAN & YSEULT

1-3 JUN, 7:30PM, £12.50 - £22.50

Kneehigh Theatre’s furiously acclaimed interpretation of the traditional Celtic romantic fairytale, reimagined and performed everywhere from Cornish castles to NYC warehouses.

PLEASURE AND PAIN

1-3 JUN, 7:30PM, £5 - £13.50

An evening with French writer Guy de Maupassant, charting his tragic journey from aspiring writer into the darkness of drug addiction and madness.

The King’s Theatre

DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS

12-17 JUN, 7:30PM, £15 - £57.40

65s-set musical singalong which finds two young musicians competing for the love of a certain lady.

DIRTY DANCING

12 JUN-22 JUL, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The cult 80s film revamped for the stage – cue Baby and Johnny, sexy dancing and a good dose of hungry eyes. Matinee performances also available.

THE RED SHOES

6-10 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Matthew Bourne's scintillating new show about one girl's dream to be the world's best dancer.

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

Theatre Royal THE CRUCIBLE

12-17 JUN, 7:30PM, £13.75 - £35.75

Arthur Miller’s famous Tony Award-winning re-telling of the 1692 Salem witch trial hysteria, a powerful modern tragedy of one man’s search for self.

HEARTBEAT

28 JUN-27 JUL, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Remember that ITV police drama set in Yorkshire? Well, they made a two-hour stage production out of it. Yep. A JUDGEMENT IN STONE

19-24 JUN, 7:30PM, £12.50 - £39.40

Ruth Rendell’s tale of a housekeeper named Eunice whose deeply held secrets lead her inexorably toward a tale of murder in cold blood – on Valentine’s Day.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

1-3 JUN, 7:30PM, £17 - £42.90

Adaptation of the classic story of two couples on the cusp of a long-working relationship, who at the end of a night of pleasantries descend into a devilish cat and mouse game of wits.

Tramway DEADLINE

21-23 JUN, 7:30PM, £6 - £8

A brand new show by Tramway youth theatre company Junction 25, co-produced by Glas(s) performance and Tramway.

Tron Theatre GIFTED

7 JUN, 7:30PM, £8

A play about a young woman whose ‘gift’, which she was born with, is the source of her troubles.

SHACKLETON

7-17 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Ireland’s longest-running theatre ensemble Blue Raincoat Theatre Company return to perform the story of, and about, Endurance, a ship on the Antarctic’s icy Weddell Sea. BLUEPRINT

8-9 JUN, 7:30PM, £5

A story about fate – accepting it, struggling with it and trying to change it. Part of Stages Festival, a programme of new work by Tron Young Company, Skillshop Seniors and YT Juniors.

OUTSIDE EYES

7 JUN, 7:45PM, £5

Tron’s dedicated scratch night, presenting ideas from across a multitude of disciplines.

STAGES FESTIVAL: BLUEPRINT

7 JUN, 7:30PM, £5

A story about fate – accepting it, struggling with it and trying to change it. Part of Stages Festival, a programme of new work by Tron Young Company, Skillshop Seniors and YT Juniors.

SPANGLED CABARET 7

30 JUN, 8:30PM, £8

A very special edition of the Seven Song Club in which seven performers perform a miscellaneous array of magic, dance, music, burlesque and more.

Edinburgh Theatre Festival Theatre M!LONGA

13-14 JUN, 7:30PM, £23 - £28.50

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui collaborates with a cast of 17 dancers to create a unique tango concert.

SCOTTISH OPERA: LA BOHÈME

4-10 JUN, TIMES VARY, £37 - £45.15

Director Renaud Doucet and designer André Barbe set Puccini’s La bohème within the context of Paris’s fleamarkets.

CATS: CRITICS AWARDS FOR THEATRE IN SCOTLAND

11 JUN, 4:00PM, £15

An afternoon of back-pats and accolades celebrating Scotland’s actors, directors, playwrighrs and other theatre artists.

THE AWFEY HUGE VARIETY SHOW 2

16 JUN, 6:00PM, £13.50

The Awfey Huge Variety Show slams into Festival Theatre with dance, film, comedy, animation, live music and the odd celeb cameo, too.

ASTRONOMICAL 2017: ASTRO GYMNASTICS

17 JUN, 6:00PM, £16.50

An extravaganza of tumbles, flips, acrobatics and dance from Edinburgh’s finest gymnasts.

King’s Theatre Edinburgh DEATH OF A SALESMAN

20-24 JUN, 7:30PM, £17 - £30.50

Reworking of one of Arthur Miller’s best-known plays, inspired by an encounter Miller had with his uncle, a salesman, at a performance of his first hit play, All My Sons.

SHIRLEY VALENTINE

1-24 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Jodie Prenger stars in Willy Russell’s heart-warming tale of a Liverpudlian housewife in a rut and her life-changing trip to Greece.

Matinees available.

THE WEDDING SINGER

1-10 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Stage adaptation of the Adam Sandler-starring film about the New Jersey wedding singer, Robbie Hart who loses his love of matrimony after being left at the alter...

CROSS CURRENTS

17 JUN, 7:30PM, £18

An eve of choreographic collaboration taking in work from a broad range of students from BTEC to degree level.

SHAKEDOWN: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

28 JUN, 7:30PM, £10

Five of Edinburgh’s high schools collaborate in a production of the Bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Edinburgh Playhouse DIRTY DANCING

12 JUN-22 JUL, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

The cult 80s film revamped for the stage – cue Baby and Johnny, sexy dancing and a good dose of hungry eyes. Matinee performances also available.

Traverse Theatre SHACKLETON

7-17 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

Ireland’s longest-running theatre ensemble Blue Raincoat Theatre Company return to perform the story of, and about, Endurance, a ship on the Antarctic’s icy Weddell Sea. FROM SHORE TO SHORE

8 JUN-8 JUN 21, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

A play based on real life stories of love and loss from Chinese interviewees living in the UK. Ticket price includes a sumptuous two-course meal (veggie options available).

IMAGINATE: EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL

1-4 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, PRICES VARY

Imaginate fest hits The Trav, bringing a nine day extravaganza of performance, live music and drop-in activities designed for 0-12 year olds.

CROSSING / LAST NIGHT ME

10-11 JUN, 7:00PM, £8.50 - £15.50

A double bill ft. Crossing, a new devised performance by Strange Town, using text and movement to find ways forward and trace the way back; and Alan Gordon’s play Last Night Me. THE MISS ANNABEL SINGS SHOW: POST-PRIDE DUVET REALNESS

18 JUN, 12:00PM, £4.50 - £6.50

Wind down from Pride with a daytime disco and a DIVE cabaret.

Dresscode: duvet and PJ realness.

Dundee Theatre Dundee Rep

DAPHNE ORAM’S WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOUND

2 JUN, 7:30PM, PRICES VARY

Live-scored by electronic sound artist Anneke Kampman, Daphne Oram’s Wonderful World of Sound is a journey through the amazing life of one of the great, unsung composers of the twentieth century.

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI

8-10 JUN, 7:00PM, £9 - £14

A play charting Hitler’s rise to power as a parable play. Arturo Ui is a wannabe gangster in 1930s Chicago, very firmly in Al Capone’s shadow. But with a bit of muscle from his companions and a few “acting” lessons, a man can run any town.

ROOM

13-17 JUN, 7:30PM, £9 - £19

Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel about Ma, a woman who was kidnapped as a teenager and whose child Jack has no concept of the outside world.

THE BLUE ROAD / HOME

23-24 JUN, 7:30PM, £5 - £10

A double bill of shows featuring acclaimed writer Laura Lomas’ The Blue Road, a show exploring loss and memories, plus Gemma Nicol’s Home.

ONE MILLION TINY PLAYS ABOUT BRITAIN

29-30 JUN, 7:30PM, TBC

A series of short works based on overheard conversations in the country’s towns and cities, spanning the funny and triumpant to the heartbreaking and horrifying.

Usher Hall

The Gardyne Theatre

1-4 JUN, 7:00PM, PRICES VARY

7-8 JUN, TIMES VARY, PRICES VARY

THE NEXT STEP

A brand new live show that celebrates dance in a concert-like setting, for fans of the ‘hit’ TV show.

Whitespace THE FIFTH EVENING

22 JUN, 7:45PM, £1.50

Multi-platform arts event featuring a multitude of performances, from spoken word to music, visual art and storytelling.

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE

1921s-set musical based on the classic Julie Andrews’ movie, all flapper girls, dashing chaps and singalong merriment.

OH! CAROL

1-2 JUN, 7:30PM – 10:00PM, £22 - £24

The story of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield realised as a glittery musical packed with such earworms as Calendar Girl, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, and Stupid Cupid.

DUNDEE DANCE FACTORY

10-10 JUN, TIMES VARY, TBC

Pupils from three years and upwards present show off their bangin’ tap, ballet, jazz and freestyle skills.

SEUSSICAL JR

13-16 JUN, 7:30PM, TBC

Old Leith Theatre

Dundee High School present a tribute to Dr Seuss.

HIDDEN DOOR FESTIVAL 2017

LEISURE & CULTURE DUNDEE DANCE FESTIVAL

1-4 JUN, 12:00PM – 11:45PM, PRICES VARY

24-25 JUN, 6:30PM – 9:30PM, TBC

The renovators and curators at Hidden Door return for another ma-hoosive programme of crossplatform entertainment. Check out facebook.com/hiddendoor for full, in-depth daytime and evening line-ups.

Dance concert showcasing the work of students enrolled in an ‘Urban Moves’ dance class.

Royal Lyceum Theatre LYCEUM VARIETY NIGHTS

4 JUN, 7:30PM, £15

Flint & Pitch team up with The Lyceum once more for another variety night of music, poetry and theatre hosted by Jenny Lindsay and Sian Bevan.

GLORY ON EARTH

1-10 JUN, 7:30PM, £15.50 - £30.50

Multi-award winning Scottish playwright Linda McLean’s tale of the fight for power between Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and protestant reformer John Knox.

Summerhall EQ: DANCE!

10 JUN, 7:30PM – 9:00PM, £5 - £12

The Edinburgh Quartet in collaboration with the National Youth Dance Company of Scotland; the inspirational Marc Brew has created stunning new choreography to string quartets by Tom Harrold, Helen Grime and James MacMillan.

Listings

59

Comedy Glasgow Comedy Thu 01 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (NICK REVELL + MARY BOURKE + TONY SLOAN + SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Thu 08 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (ADDY VAN DER BORGH + MICKY BARTLETT + JAY LAFFERTY + BIG MENTAL ROSS + RAY BRADSHAW) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 09 Jun

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

THE FRIDAY SHOW (ADDY VAN DER BORGH + MICKY BARTLETT + JAY LAFFERTY + BIG MENTAL ROSS + RAY BRADSHAW)

Fri 02 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

THE FRIDAY SHOW (NICK REVELL + MARY BOURKE + TONY SLOAN + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

WHO FED BENNY? TRAMP STAMP

TRON THEATRE, FROM 19:45, £10

Scarlett Mack and Michele Gallagher bring their debut hour of sketches Tramp Stamp to The Tron.

Sat 03 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (NICK REVELL + MARY BOURKE + TONY SLOAN + SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Sun 04 Jun

THE SONG OF FERGUS AND KATE

THE STAND GLASGOW, 14:30–15:00, £5

An interactive kids’ show using storytelling, music and animation to encourage children to celebrate their differences.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICHAEL REDMOND + CHRIS FORBES + GARY FAULDS)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

Mon 05 Jun

MONDAY NIGHT IMPROV (BILLY KIRKWOOD + STU & GARRY)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4 - £6

Two teams of comics battle it out for the biggest laughs under the watchful eye of ‘Improv Warlord’ Billy Kirkwood.

KOMEDY

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £3

From the people who brought you CHUNKS comes a night of actual komedy.

Tue 06 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

GLASGOW HAROLD NIGHT

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, 20:00–22:00, FREE

One hilarious show, completely improvised by two teams, based off an audience suggestion.

Wed 07 Jun

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT (JULIA SUTHERLAND )

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

COMEDIAN RAP BATTLES (THE WEE MAN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4 - £6

Ro Cambell and The Wee Man’s comedian rap battle-off, where a select batch of comics compete to see who’s got the most swagger when it comes to hippity-hop wit.

60

Listings

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 10 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (ADDY VAN DER BORGH + MICKY BARTLETT + JAY LAFFERTY + BIG MENTAL ROSS + RAY BRADSHAW) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

ENTERTEASEMENT (VLADIMIR MCTAVISH + RAYMOND MEARNS + MADAME MYFANWY + CHRIS DINWOODIE + SUZIE SEQUIN + TALLULAH BELLE) THE ADMIRAL, FROM 20:00, £14

Live stand-up, magic and burlesque dancing combined in one heady whole.

Sun 11 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICHAEL REDMOND + JOE HEENAN + KEVIN MCPADDEN)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

Mon 12 Jun

BRIGHT CLUB GLASGOW SCIENCE FESTIVAL SPECIAL

YESBAR VIRGINS YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 16 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + LARRY DEAN + ASHLEY STORRIE + RUTH COCKBURN + MARTIN MOR) THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 17 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + LARRY DEAN + ASHLEY STORRIE + RUTH COCKBURN + MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Sun 18 Jun

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (MICHAEL REDMOND + BRUCE FUMMEY + MATTHEW GALLAGHER) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

Tue 20 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

GLASGOW IMPROV JAM

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, 20:00–22:00, FREE

A monthly long-form improv comedy jam. Open to all, no experience necessary. Just turn up and perform (or watch).

Wed 21 Jun

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT (JULIA SUTHERLAND )

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BENEFIT IN AID OF TAYSIDE MOUNTAIN RESUCE (GARY LITTLE + CHRIS FORBES + ROSS MCLELLAND + KIRSTY MORRISON + RAYMOND MEARNS) THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5

Comedy and academia clash in a Glasgow Sicence Festival special.

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5

Comedy charity benefit with all ticket proceeds going to Tayside Mountain Rescue.

Tue 13 Jun

Thu 22 Jun

RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

NEW MATERIAL COMEDY NIGHT

YESBAR, 20:00–22:00, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

THE THURSDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + CHRIS FORBES + DAVID MILLS + DONALD ALEXANDER + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, 20:00–22:00, FREE

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Wed 14 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + CHRIS FORBES + DAVID MILLS + DONALD ALEXANDER + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

LIGHT BULB

An alternative comedy showcase and brand new night of stand up comedy.

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT (JULIA SUTHERLAND )

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BBC COMEDY PRESENTS

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4

BBC-selected sketch comedy showcase where handpicked new acts get their chance to shine – with each performer getting a quickfire 5-10 minutes on stage.

Thu 15 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + LARRY DEAN + ASHLEY STORRIE + RUTH COCKBURN + MARTIN MOR)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Mon 26 Jun CHUNKS

MCPHABBS, FROM 20:30, FREE

CHUNKS ain’t yer traditional comedy night; it’s a big night out entirely comprised of variety acts, sketches, monologues, character bits, animations, inanimations, contemporary dance, readings, or just anything silly, alternative and funny.

Tue 27 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Monkey Barrel’s rising comedy star showcase; swing by and catch the stars of tomorrow.

THE TBC IMPROV THEATRE

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 19:30, FREE

YESBAR, FROM 20:30, £3

Resident host Julia Sutherland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians from the Scottish circuit delivering all new material.

BENEFIT IN AID OF SCOTTISH SPORTS FUTURES

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £8

Comedy charity benefit with all ticket proceeds going to Scottish Sports Futures.

Thu 29 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + STEVEN DICK + AMY HOWERSKA + RICHARD BROWN + SCOTT GIBSON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

YESBAR VIRGINS

YESBAR, FROM 20:00, £3

Graham Barrie introduces a selection of fledgling comedy talent handpicked fae Scotland.

Fri 30 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (KEVIN GILDEA + STEVEN DICK + AMY HOWERSKA + RICHARD BROWN + SCOTT GIBSON)

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Edinburgh Comedy Thu 01 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (IMRAN YUSUF + JOHN ROSS + RACHEL FAIRBURN + DONALD ALEXANDER + JELLYBEAN MARTINEZ)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 02 Jun

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

THE STAND GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

PROGRESS!

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £5

Mon 05 Jun

NEW MATERIAL NIGHT (JULIA SUTHERLAND )

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (GAVIN WEBSTER + CHRIS FORBES + DAVID MILLS + DONALD ALEXANDER + JOJO SUTHERLAND)

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from off-the-cuff audience suggestions.

The To Be Continued crew return with more sketches, scenes and improvised antics.

Fri 23 Jun

Sat 24 Jun

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE

Wed 28 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (IMRAN YUSUF + JOHN ROSS + RACHEL FAIRBURN + DONALD ALEXANDER + CHRIS FORBES’)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Sat 03 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (IMRAN YUSUF + JOHN ROSS + RACHEL FAIRBURN + DONALD ALEXANDER + CHRIS FORBES’)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Sun 04 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (ROSS LESLIE) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

RED RAW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Tue 06 Jun PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.

Wed 07 Jun VIVA LA SHAMBLES

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £4 - £5

The Stand hosts a monthly evening of total joke-pandemonium as Edinburgh’s top comics join forces.

TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £2

FERN BRADY: SUFFER, FOOLS! THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 17:30–16:00, £5 - £7

Fern Brady previews a brand new Fringe show

Mon 12 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Tue 13 Jun

BONA FIDE (JAY LAFFERTY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:15, £5 - £6

Brand new material especially written for the theme of the night delivered by some of Scotland’s favourite comics.

PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.

Wed 14 Jun TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £2

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.

Thu 15 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SCOTT GIBSON + GEORGE LEWIS + STU MURPHY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

ALFIE BROWN: SCISSOR

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, £6 - £8

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.

Hear about alcohol, the Middle East and collective sexual repression at Alfie Brown’s new show.

Thu 08 Jun

Fri 16 Jun

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

THE THURSDAY SHOW (ANDREW STANLEY + FERN BRADY + BILLY KIRKWOOD)

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

SPONTANEOUS SHERLOCK’S MYSTERY

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £5

A completely improvised Sherlock Holmes mystery

Fri 09 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (ANDREW STANLEY + FERN BRADY + BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 10 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (ANDREW STANLEY + FERN BRADY + BILLY KIRKWOOD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

JELLYBEAN: WHEN WILL I BE FAMOUS? (JELLYBEAN)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 14:30–15:00, £4

Join Jellybean for an hour of kids’ comedy. Best Suited for 8-12 year olds.

Sun 11 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SCOTT GIBSON + GEORGE LEWIS + STU MURPHY)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 17 Jun

THE SATURDAY SHOW (DAVE FULTON + SCOTT GIBSON + GEORGE LEWIS + STU MURPHY)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

Sun 18 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (SCOTT GIBSON + LARAH BROSS + MEGAN SHANDLEY + PAUL MCDANIEL + JAY LAFFERTY) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from off-the-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 19 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:45, £3

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGHIN (FERN BRADY + DONALD ALEXANDER + BRYAN GHOSH)

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £1 - £6

Tue 20 Jun

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £5 - £7

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from off-the-cuff audience suggestions.

BENEFIT IN AID OF ABUSED MEN IN SCOTLAND

Comedy charity benefit to raise money for AMIS. PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X.

Wed 21 Jun

TOPICAL STORM (MARK NELSON + KEIR MCALLISTER + STUART MURPHY + VLADIMIR MCTAVISH) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5 - £7

Radical satire from Keir McAllister, Vladimir McTavish, Stu Murphy and Mark Nelson.

TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £2

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.

Thu 22 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + MARY BOURKE + JAMIE DALGLEISH + WIS JANTARASORN + JO CAULFIELD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

PETER PANCAKES’S COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:30, FREE

Phil O’Shea brings a handpicked selection of riotous lols to Monkey Barrel.

Fri 23 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + MARY BOURKE + JAMIE DALGLEISH + WIS JANTARASORN + JO CAULFIELD)

Wed 28 Jun

BEST OF SCOTTISH COMEDY

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £3 - £6

A selection of top comics from the contemporary Scottish circuit do their thing.

TOP BANANA

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £2

Monkey Barrel’s comedy competition for new folk on the scene.

Thu 29 Jun

THE THURSDAY SHOW (THE REVEREND OBADIAH STEPPENWOLFE III + TOM WRIGGLESWORTH + GEORGE FOX + ZAHRA BARRI + SUSAN MORRISON) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £5 - £10

Weekend-welcoming selection of handpicked headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

ALBERT

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, FROM 20:00, £3 - £5

Albert, Monkey Barrel Comedy’s resident sketch group, brings you a selection of its best sketches.

Fri 30 Jun

THE FRIDAY SHOW (THE REVEREND OBADIAH STEPPENWOLFE III + TOM WRIGGLESWORTH + GEORGE FOX + ZAHRA BARRI + SUSAN MORRISON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £6 - £12

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 24 Jun

Glasgow Art

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

THE SATURDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY + MARY BOURKE + JAMIE DALGLEISH + WIS JANTARASORN + JO CAULFIELD)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 21:00–23:00, £17.50

Packed Saturday evening bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes to jolly along your weekend.

COMEDY KIDS

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–14:00, £5

Eight mini comedians take to the stage. Best suited for 8-12 year-olds.

Sun 25 Jun

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (PLANET CARAMEL + DAVID CALLAN) THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:00, £1 - £6

Chilled Sunday night laughs to see the weekend out.

STU & GARRY’S FREE IMPROV SHOW (STUART MURPHY + GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 13:30–15:00, FREE

Long-running improvised comedy show with resident duo Stu & Garry weaving comedy magic from off-the-cuff audience suggestions.

Mon 26 Jun RED RAW

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:45, £3

Open mic-style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to road test new material.

Tue 27 Jun PROJECT X

MONKEY BARREL COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:50, £0 - £3

All-new student night themed around the film of the same name, Project X. STAND SPOTLIGHT: THE FUTURE (NEIL HARRIS + PETE POTTER + GARY FAULDS + WILL HUTCHBY + DONALD ALEXANDER + CHRISTOPHER MACARTHUR BOYD + KIMI LOUGHTNON)

THE STAND COMEDY CLUB, 20:30–22:30, £5

The Stand shines its comedy limelight on the topic with help from Scotland’s up-and-coming comedians. All ticket proceeds to charity.

ASPERGER’S ARE US

SUMMERHALL, 19:00–21:00, £12 - £15

The first comedy troupe composed of people with Asperger’s Syndrome makes its Scotland debut.

CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art ROB CHURM: PARASITE REX

1 JUN-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Glasgow-based artist Rob Churm presents a solo exhibition of drawings, prints, comic strips and digital elements that explore new ways of seeing and describing the world. Churm’s practice takes in a variety of references from science and weird-fiction, new-material, post-human thought, and cult film, layering them to construct stories that echo the life he is living.

ARIEH FROSH & JAY DELVES: ON WATER, SCULLED, QUIET

1-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A coming together of two projects that take bodies of water as their starting points, from synchronised swimming to spiritual cleansing the regulatory, the performative, the geography of both.

NEIL SLORANCE: CARTOONS + COMIC ART

27 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Neil Slorance is a Glasgow-based illustrator and comic book artist. Finding success with awardwinning series Dungeon Fun, his portfolio includes everything from DC Thomson to Doctor Who. His political comics has appeared on STV, in the pages of The National and on thousands of Twitter timelines across the world. From indie comics to art that delighted the First Minister (and enraged UKIP’s David Coburn), take a look into Slorance’s impressive journey so far.

BLACK HEARTED PRESS

27 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Rounding off the month, CCA hosts Glasgow-based comic company Black Hearted Press. From 27 June until 2 July, BHP present an exhibition of the work of comic book artist Neil Slorance, who has worked on projects by DC Thomson to versions of Doctor Who.

City of Glasgow College CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE DEGREE SHOW 2017

1 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Contemporary art practice graduates at the City of Glasgow College host their degree show, highlighting a collection of the students’ best work from throughout their fourth year.

THE SKINNY

June 2017

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Art David Dale Gallery and Studios PRIVATE SECRETARIES

1-3 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Glasgow-based artist Lauren Hall exhibits a new body of work which takes the form of a sculptural illustration unfolding over the gallery’s two spaces.

Glasgow Print Studio

RAY RICHARDSON: COUNTRY GOT SOUL

1 JUN-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Known to many as the Martin Scorsese of painting, Ray Richardson’s paintings and prints are drawn from his own experience of being born, bred and a worker in London, but also from his experiences beyond there.

Glasgow School of Art GSA DEGREE SHOW 2017

10-17 JUN, 10:00AM – 9:00PM, FREE

Undergraduate degree show featuring work by Glasgow School of Art students across a wide variety of disciplines, showing across the Glasgow School of Art, the Reid and Bourdon Buildings and the Tontine Building.

GoMA

PLEASE TURN US ON

1 JUN-31 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A group exhibition placing Glasgow at the core of a dialogue between early video art and international counterculture. Features What’s It To You?, a seminal work from Elsa Stansfield and Madelon Hooykaas, among other videographic works.

MAX BRAND AND JOANNE ROBERTSON: POPPIES

1-11 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A debut collaboration between Max Brand and Joanne Robertson, featuring new painting and sculpture along with a musical work co-produced in the lead-up to the exhibition’s opening.

POLYGRAPHS

1 JUN-20 MAY 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

A group exhibition with a central point of Hito Steyerl’s film Abstract, which explores truth, fiction and evidence in a complicated world. Features Jane Evelyn Atwood, Muirhead Bone, Boyle Family, Gerard Byrne, Graham Fagen, Ian Hamilton Finlay and more.

Hunterian Art Gallery

ART OF POWER: MASTERPIECES FROM THE BUTE COLLECTION

1 JUN-14 JAN 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

Take the oportunity to see major paintings from the Bute Collection at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute.

Exhibition split across two venues, The Hunterian and Mount Stuart – ticket price covers admission to both.

NEIL CLEMENTS: ELECTRIC EYE

1 JUN-8 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Hunterian showcases new paintings and sculptures by Glasgow-based artist Neil Clements, whose work concerns tends to take the form of monochromatic paintings, shaped canvases and geometric sculptures.

TURNER’S RHINE JOURNEY

1 JUN-30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Hunterian showcases a rediscovered watercolour which portrays a a romantic view of the town Bacharach and Stahleck on the Rhine, which the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner visited in 1817.

Intermedia Gallery

ARIEH FROSH AND JAY DELVES: ON WATER, SCULLED, QUIET

1-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A coming together of two projects that take bodies of water as their starting points, from synchronised swimming to spiritual cleansing – the regulatory, the performative, the geography of both.

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Listings

Mary Mary WEED BEACH

1 JUN-8 JUL, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Mary Mary hosts its first solo exhibition from LA-based sculptor Erika Vogt. Many of the works in this exhibition simultaneously function as sculpture, costume, prop and practical object; some even forming functioning vases or work tables further emphasizing their role as a plane for activity.

New Glasgow Society

ALFONSO RAMUNDO: DERELICT DECADENCE

16-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Alfonso Ramundo is an Italian photographer who has lived in Glasgow for almost two decades.

Throughout his career, he has focused on different areas of photography but there has always been a constant theme in his work decadent structures of any kind.

Street Level Photoworks AMBIT

1 JUN-9 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

Stills and Street Level Photoworks link arms in an exhibition of Scottish photography. SLP will showcase the work of Tine Bek, Sylwia Kowalczyk, Donnie MacLean, Blazej Marczak and Margaret Mitchell.

The Modern Institute @ Airds Lane RICHARD WRIGHT

1 JUN-26 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

The Turner Prize-winning artist beings a new body of work to The Modern Institute.

BRÜCKE2

1 JUN-26 AUG, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Berlin-based artist Manfred Pernice brings a new exhibition to Modern Institute’s Aird’s Lane branch.

The Telfer Gallery

BYZANTIA HARLOW: POLYESTER BREEZE

10 JUN-2 JUL, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Polyester Breeze, Byzantia Harlow’s first solo show and first time exhibiting in Glasgow, takes inspiration from DVD only ‘mockbuster’ Aliens versus Avatars, found on a market stall for one pound. It will take the form of a multi media installation of sculptures and printed material including cast and modelled replicas of street rubbish resembling molten, oozing outerspace junk.

Tramway

FLORIAN HECKER: SYNOPSIS

1 JUN-30 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Common Guild

A new commission by sonic experimental artist Florian Hecker in which he creates an immersive ‘hallucinatory’ space at Tramway.

1 JUN-30 DEC, TIMES VARY, FREE

21 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

MARIA FUSCO: RADICAL DIALECT

An ongoing project conceived by writer Maria Fusco, including a cycle of events, a series of commissioned publications and a major new performance, all taking shape across 2017 and 2018. See thecommonguild.org.uk for info.

THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CONTENTED PEOPLES: ENDURANCE GROUPS

1 JUN-8 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

London-based Steven Claydon’s first solo show in Scotland, in which he’ll present a group of new works spanning sculpture, installation and sound addressing the ideas of jeopardy and pressure – whether in their environmental, cultural or epistemological senses.

The Glue Factory MFA DEGREE SHOW 2017

8-18 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Annual exhibition of work from the Master of Fine Art postgraduate programme at The Glasgow School of Art. MFA AT CITIZENM

7-24 JUN, 10:00AM – 11:00PM, FREE

A selection of video from the Master of Fine Art programme at the GSA between 2014-2017.

The Lighthouse COLLECT SCOTLAND: SAMPLE

1-18 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Showcasing the work of 15 contemporary Scottish textile designers, Collect Scotland’s SAMPLE aims to shine a spotlight on usually anonymous innovators with one of the largest exhibitions of printed textiles in recent years.

Filling the whole of Gallery 1 at The Lighthouse, Scotland’s centre for design and architecture, with printed textiles and sculptural displays of large-scale fabrics in a huge, interactive exhibition featuring specially commissioned work around five key ‘trends’, SAMPLE shows off the versatility, vibrancy and too-often overlooked talent pool of Scottish textile design.

CREATIVE HEROES

1 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

A look at the history of Scotland’s design scene via an exhibition which documents around 100 years of design and advertising. The works will be presented on large-format graphic banners and will cover the likes of Rex Stewart, Forth Studios and Hall Advertising.

PLAYING WITH PLACE

1-25 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A new exhibition by Pidgin Perfect featuring a multi-screen movingimage work which combines personal stories to detail the hopes for places currently being redeveloped, from Sighthill, Glasgow to Lahore, Pakistan.

Edinburgh Art

NOMANSLANDING

The UK premier of a major international work by Graham Eatough, Robyn Backen, Nigel Helyer, Jennifer Turpin and Andre Dekker. A journey through Tramway’s theatre space in which audiences enter a seven metre high structure, reaching 20 metres end to end. Performances take place on the hour Tues-Fri 4pm-8pm and Sat-Sun 2pm-8pm.

TSCHABALALA SELF

3 JUN-20 AUG, TIMES VARY, FREE

Bold, confident and vibrant paintings and works on paper from artist Tschabalala Self, an artist primarily concerned with the concept of the Black female body within contemporary culture.

Transmission Gallery THE OTHER’D ARTIST/S

1-17 JUN, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Curated by Travis Alabanza, this exhibition is an exploration and documentation of how the Black body feels within space, in the gallery, out of the gallery. Through creative collaboration with more than 20 Black artists, Alabanza aims to turn the gallery into a living room. From a place we stand in quiet solitude, to a place where we can move, shout and lotion.

iota @ Unlimited Studios COLIN ROBERTSON: LOOKING ON THE SURFACE

3-17 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

Looking on the Surface presents new drawings by Colin Robertson.

Mixed media on Japanese paper.

Part of West End Festival.

City Art Centre EDINBURGH ALPHABET

1 JUN-8 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

An A-Z of Edinburgh’s collections, Edinburgh Alphabet takes place across four gallery floors and features over 300 objects from paintings to tapestries, ceramics to silver. Each letter of the alphabet has been given a theme around which objects have been grouped.

Collective Gallery EMOTIONAL NEED

1 JUN-2 JUL, 10:00AM – 4:00PM, FREE

Emotional Need explores the life and work of anarchist cartoonist Donald Rooum, who has been involved in political organising, publishing and comic illustration since the late-1940s. Donald’s work as an activist and educator are the catalyst for a new film and soft-sculpture exhibited alongside a selection of Donald’s original drawings and ephemera related to his Wildcat Comics series.

Dovecot Studios THE WEAVER’S APPRENTICE

1 JUN-1 JUL, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

An exhibition featuring objects from the Dovecot’s archive, as well as historic and current works – all intending to tell the story of the Dovecot apprenticeship.

BUILT IN TAPESTRY: DOVECOT TAPESTRIES AND ARCHITECTURE

1 JUN-22 DEC, 10:30AM – 5:30PM, FREE

A balcony-based exhibition at Dovecot highlighting projects from the studio’s history, featuring innovative and bold projects from commissions new and past.

Edinburgh College of Art ECA DEGREE SHOW 2017

3-11 JUN, 11:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Edinburgh College of Art present their annual graduate student round-up, showcasing the fruits of more than 500 budding graduating artists, filmmakers, designers and architects over an e’er eclectic programme.

Edinburgh Printmakers

MY CAT KNOWS WHAT I’M THINKING

1 JUN-15 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition consisting of nineteen handmade ceramic plates plus four stone lithographic editions. Surprising, humorous and insightful, Great-Rex’s exhibition draws on folk, outsider art and domestic commemorative wares and samplers.

IT WORKS! – EP AT 50

1 JUN-15 JUL, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition raising questions about the nature and purpose of archives, featuring publications and portfolios from Edinburgh Printmakers’ archive.

Embassy Gallery A NET MADE OF INDIVIDUAL KNOTS

1-11 JUN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Interdisciplinary artist Evan Ifekoya explores the role of language in cultivating​and nourishing spaces of belonging in this solo presentation of new works at Embassy. ¡ANNUALE 2017

23 JUN-9 JUL, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Embassy’s grassroots festival of visual contemporary art returns to venues across Edinburgh and online.

Check out annuale.org for more information.

Ingleby Gallery AND PER SE AND: PART VII

1-10 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Susan Collis and Richard Forster present part VII of rolling exhibition and per se and, with graphite on paper sculptures be joined by a triptych of sea drawings.

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

Jupiter Artland LIZ MAGIC LAER: PRIMAL SPEECH

1 JUN-1 OCT, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

Artist Liz Magic Laser responds to Brexit and Trump with a video and room dedicated to the primal scream technique, encouraging audiences to let out their frustrations.

National Museum of Scotland

SCOTTISH POTTERY: ART & INNOVATION EXHIBITION

1-25 JUN, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A lesser known part of Scotland’s pottery history will showcased at the National Museum of Scotland.

Select pieces from Wemyss Ware, one of Scotland’s most well-known potteries, will be showcased including original heart plaques commissioned by the Wemyss family who resided nearby at Wemyss Castle and painted by Karel Nekola.

Old Leith Theatre

HIDDEN DOOR FESTIVAL 2017

1-4 JUN, 12:00PM – 11:45PM, PRICES VARY

The renovators and curators at Hidden Door return for another ma-hoosive programme of crossplatform entertainment. Check out facebook.com/hiddendoor for full, in-depth daytime and evening line-ups.

Royal Scottish Academy RSA SUMMA

1 JUN-2 JUL, TIMES VARY, FREE

The Royal Scottish Academy exhibits works from recent Residency for Scotland artists, including Uist Corrigan, Carrie Fertig, Paul Furneaux RSA, Ilana Halperin, Anneli Holmstrom, Hannah Imlach, Stuart McAdam, Rachel McBrinn, Jock Mooney, Natasha Russell, Geneva Sills and Aeneas Wilder.

MUSIC FROM THE BALCONIES - ED RUSCHA AND LOS ANGELES

SYRIA IN PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND WORD

1 JUN-29 APR 18, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

1-4 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

A display highlighting the ways in which Ed Ruscha (b.1937, Nebraska, USA) draws upon urban landscape and architecture, cinema, brands, car culture and language that refer and relate to LA and Hollywood to create works about the American Dream.

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, ft. 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.

A PERFECT CHEMISTRY

1 JUN-1 OCT, TIMES VARY, £9 - £10

A showcase of photographs by two Scots, Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848) who mastered the medium four short years after its invention. The images featured have been said to be among the first examples of social documentary in the history of photography.

THE SLAVE’S LAMENT

1 JUN-29 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

Scottish National Gallery

Graham Fagen presents a ‘soundclash’ in which Robert Burns’ The Slave’s Lament is performed by the Scottish Ensemble and Reggae singer Ghetto Priest, and produced by legendary On-U-Sound founder Adrian Sherwood.

1 JUN-25 MAR 18, TIMES VARY, FREE

1 JUN-5 NOV, TIMES VARY, FREE

A MEETING OF TWO MASTERPIECES

Six-footer British masterpiece Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831) by John Constable, displayed alongside another celebrated landscape painting, William McTaggart’s The Storm (1890).

BEYOND CARAVAGGIO

17 JUN-24 SEP, TIMES VARY, £10 - £12

A collaboration between the National Gallery, London, the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Galleries of Scotland, this is Scotland’s very first exhibition of works

by Caravaggio and his followers (the so-called ‘Caravaggesque painters’).

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 20TH CENTURY: MASTERPIECES OF SCOTTISH AND EUROPEAN ART

1 JUN-18 FEB 18, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

An exhibition of works offering a historical overview of some of the most significant artistic contributions made during the last century. The exhibition also aims to place Scottish modern art within an international context.

NOW

1 JUN-24 SEP, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A programme of contemporary art exhibitions celebrating the diversity of contemporary artistic practice, and the unique role of artists in society. Features Nathan Coley, Mona Hatoum, Louise Hopkins, Pete Horobin, Tessa Lynch, Jock McFadyen, Rivane Neuenschwander, Tony Swain and more.

PLACES REAL AND IMAGINED

1 JUN-9 JUL, 10:00AM – 5:00PM, FREE

A display of works centred around the theme of place and which engage directly with environments.

Features work by Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, Charles Avery and Oskar Kokoschka.

GRAHAM MACINDOE: COMING CLEAN

Since recovering from years of his life as a heroin addict, Graham MacIndie uses this body of selfportraits as a means of opening up conversations about dependency and recovery.

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.

LOOKING GOOD - THE MALE GAZE FROM VAN DYCK TO LUCIAN FREUD

24 JUN-1 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

A selection of portraits, from the National Galleries of Scotland and National Portrait Gallery, London collections illustrating elaborate fashions and grooming of courtiers and cavaliers in the 16th and 16th centuries, the 18th century dandy, the rise of the celebrity, and representations of gender and sexuality.

Stills AMBIT

1 JUN-9 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Stills and Street Level Photoworks link arms in an exhibition of Scottish photography. Stills will showcase the work of Eden Hawkins, Lorna Macintyre, Norman McBeath, Kristian Smith and Karen L Vaughan.

Summerhall

BRILLIANT GEOMETRY: THE ART OF MATHEMATICAL PROJECTION THROUGH THE MAGIC OF 3D PRINTING

1-4 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Bringing the creativity and precision of mathematics to the general public with computer aided design, recent innovations in 3D printing, and very, very bright lights.

SANDI ANDERSON, THORN BARA, MARY WALTERS: LIGHT LAND LATITUDE

1-4 JUN, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Two Scots and an Icelander exhibit together, inspired by the wilderness landscapes of the North.

Syria in Painting, Photography, Film and Word brings together a broad selection of new works by both Edinburgh and internationallybased artists concerned with the current conflict in Syria.

The multi-sensory exhibition features an array of painting, photographic and digital works as well as contributions from other community-based organisations expressing similar concern towards the Syrian conflict. Exhibiting artists include Nihad Al Turk, Young Lens Dimashqi, Positive Negatives, CEC Lifelong Learning Art and Cookery Project, Delil Souleiman, Rami Shaya, Tomo Brody and more.

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1 JUN-14 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Scottish born artist Anneli Holmstrom’s compelling exhibition centres upon two new bodies of work (titled Levitation and Flood) which together strive for a visual experience conjuring the sense of “crossing between two distinct but interlocked psychological worlds”.

These works will be accompanied by texts from poets JL Williams and Janette Ayachi, scientific researchers Alex Murphy and David Carmel, artist-researcher Dr. Louise Milne and philanthropist Fatima Ashrif.

GET CREATIVE TAKEOVER: GROW WILD

24 JUN-9 JUL, 11:00AM – 6:00PM, FREE

Grow Wild invites young people aged 12-25 to apply for funding to produce creative works of art to raise awareness about the importance of UK native wild flowers and plants. Turn up to see how successful applicants interpreted the brief through different artistic mediums from poetry to embroidery, sculpture to steel band music.

Talbot Rice Gallery

FANS, VAMPIRES, TROLLS, MASTERS

1-3 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

An interim Masters’ show at the Talbot Rice, presenting diverse works influenced by the teachings of late cultural theorist Mark Fisher (1968 – 2017), author of influential book Capitalist Realism (2009).

The Fruitmarket Gallery MARK WALLINGER MARK

1-4 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A two-part exhibition in DCA and Fruitmarket, focussing on Wallinger’s id Paintings of 2015-16 (a series of Rorschach-esque images) and a selection of his films, sculpture and wall-based work.

OPEN OUT

12-18 JUN, PRICES VARY

A week of pop-ups, live performance pieces, screenings, Triassic Tusk live music and Paradise Palms DJs.

Various venues in Leith LEITHLATE17

15-18 JUN, PRICES VARY

Annual arts festival LeithLate have stepped it up this year, bringing a three-strand visual art programme, their e'er popular mural tours, a public poetry trail, an art bus, theatre, and dance and loads more to Leith-based venues for four days. See leithlate.co.uk for full details.

Dundee Art

DCA: Dundee Contemporary Arts MARK WALLINGER MARK

1-4 JUN, TIMES VARY, FREE

A two-part exhibition in DCA and Fruitmarket, focussing on Wallinger’s id Paintings of 2015-16 (a series of Rorschach-esque images) and a selection of his films, sculpture and wall-based work.

CLARE WOODS: VICTIM OF GEOGRAPHY

24 JUN-10 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

DCA exhibits a selection of vast oil-paintings by Clare Woods, in which found images of people at their most vulnerable are painted on large aluminium sheets. Propped up on frames, the works become sculptural objects, compelling the viewer to find a path between the structures.

Generator Projects

THE HAD FOUR YEARS 2017

1-11 JUN, 12:00PM – 5:00PM, FREE

Generator Projects’ annual graduate show featuring newly created work by four recent graduates from various art colleges across Scotland. This year’s artists include Timo Aho, Charlie Cook, Eleanor Elks Herrmanssen, Jack Mccombe and Grace Woodcock.

The McManus

A SENSE OF PLACE: TWENTIETH CENTURY SCOTTISH PAINTING

1 JUN-1 SEP, TIMES VARY, FREE

An exhibition of primarily landscape paintings, including work from the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colourists, James McIntosh Patrick and Joan Eardley.

FIRE AND STONE

1 JUN-8 OCT, TIMES VARY, FREE

An continuation of the NMS and British Museum’s Reflections on Celts spotlight tour, featuring a replica of the Monifieth II Pictish stone which has been commissioned from stone carver David McGovern.

The Number Shop RETURN FLIGHT

9-23 JUN, 12:00PM – 7:00PM, FREE

A cross-continental exhibition, publication and creative exchange between artists and writers in Edinburgh and Melbourne. Artists are often asked to illustrate writing. In Return Flight, the process is reversed; ten artists to respond to the idea of ‘place’, before assigning each work to a writer from the opposite city. The writers could respond however they liked, but without the luxury of context: both artwork and artist names were withheld until the end.

Whitespace

ROWAN PATON AND ANDREW PHILLIPS: BEFORE WE WERE EVEN DREAMED

1 JUN, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

Edinburgh-based artists Rowan Paton and Andrew Phillips present a body of work at Whitespace, comprising their related but distinctive styles of drawing and painting.

ANNA GLANTZ & TAM HARE: I WANT TO BE BORED

30 JUN-5 JUL, 12:00PM – 6:00PM, FREE

An exhibition about the importance of boredom and its implications as a ‘space for thought’. The works consist of painting, mixed media objects and sounds.

THE SKINNY

How Comedy Captured the Edinburgh Fringe: Part 2 Our first instalment of this series covered over three decades, when the Edinburgh Fringe was almost without comedians at all. Now in Part Two, we find one year alone – 1981 – influences comedy more than all the previous Fringes put together

I

n Edinburgh’s New Town, the glow of chandeliers is a familiar sight on George Street. Peering from the top deck of a bus into the Assembly Rooms, the lights seem inviting. But, the building’s majesty is also forbidding. It is the kind of place where it takes a certain amount of social confidence, or a tradesman’s entrance, to get inside.

The Assembly Rooms, for 33 years, had been an International Festival venue. But, the Festival Club housed there struggled to turn a profit. In 1981, William Burdett-Coutts, working at the Old Vic in London, applied a tad late to stage a play, The Madman and the Nun. Not only did he find room for the play at the now vacated Rooms, there was also plenty of space and time for others.

This helped solve a problem caused by the Fringe’s swelling girth. In 1976, under the administration of Alistair Moffat, under 200 groups performed. Five years later, that number was only a touch shy of 500. “When I began to sell the Fringe inside and outside Edinburgh, it became clear that the democratic nature of it (Thou shalt not promote one group above another) made selling it on merit very difficult. So I went for growth. Deliberately but always carefully I tried to get the highest number of groups into the Fringe Programme that I could.”

The Fringe can pour money into Edinburgh’s economy. Yet residents might only experience the city’s festivals as an intolerable intrusion into their lives led by drama students. They therefore aren’t always keen to help contribute too much with the outgoings. Meanwhile, the Fringe Society exists to guide and help artists rather than sell them, and has few sales pitches to choose from when trying to reach new audiences. This is why Moffat played his one pitch hard, and when he left the Fringe it was the biggest arts festival in the world.

June 2017

This bout of gigantism brought more money into the city but put pressure on the creaky old buildings used for performances. Then, it was common for one church hall to only host a couple of shows. While venue sharing answered this, it is a more complex arrangement, encourages subletting, and calls for someone to stay on top of it.

Burdett-Coutts, the man with the late application, formed a company and venue operator: Assembly Festival is now approaching its 37th Fringe.

The Assembly Rooms soon became dubbed a ‘super-venue’. Super-venues created convenience: convenience to see shows, eat at the cafe and drink at the bar. Convenience encourages visitors to become sticky to one venue and locale.

In effect, it is like a mini-festival within the Fringe.

One which can promote all its own shows without any restriction. By the next year, Assembly and their super-venue rival, Circuit, accounted for almost a quarter of the entire Fringe programme.

It’s easy to see all this through today’s weary cynicism. Sometimes the squabbles between venues seems to announce the Fringe is near far more than tickets going on sale. Yet, there is no doubt how exciting and innovative these hubs must have felt in the early 1980s. Stand-up comedians found themselves muscling in on spaces usually reserved for theatre. In London, the comedians within the loose movement known as Alternative Cabaret played The Comedy Store, a pioneering venue with its room above a strip club.

Alexei Sayle and Tony Allen had paved the way in 1980 to Edinburgh. Now, a year later, Allen and a handful of comedians found themselves on Assembly’s roster. Their show – titled Alternative Cabaret, featuring Allen, Jim Barclay, Andy de la Tour and Pauline Melville – became one of the critical hits of the Fringe. These four comedians may not have had the mainstream exposure TV

later granted some of their contemporaries, but they are no less important to stand-up. (Or indeed do not lack cultural impact: Pauline Melville became an accomplished novelist). What’s significant here is stand-ups now attracted audiences wherever they were; if in a debauched club in Soho, or an opulent building in Edinburgh’s New Town during an arts festival.

Comedy Awards As with the Assembly Rooms, the first Comedy Awards mark 1981 as a foundation year for the modern Fringe. Unlike the super-venue, it did not cause a sudden revolution. It took a slow evolution over several years before the awards’ grip tightened on stand-up. There was also a precedent: The Scotsman introduced Fringe Firsts in 1973 for theatre. Comedy never had a chance though. By excluding revues, it cut out its then dominant form.

The Comedy Awards seemed set to redress this. The sponsors, Perrier, even advertised that the £1,000 prize was for the ‘most outstanding revue.’ It is a shame that the awards, looking out for emerging artists, missed stand-up for several years. It was, after all, the most emergent comedy subgenre of all. But it’d take a hard heart to begrudge the first winners: Stephen Fry, Penny Dwyer, Hugh Laurie, Paul Shearer, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson. Especially as The Cellar Tapes still holds up as a strong hour of sketches.

The Cambridge Footlights’ entry in the programme is doubtless meant to convey confidence.

But, the cast’s future successes means it reads now with unintentional modesty and provincialism. “The annual revue: one of the strongest casts for several years, has already toured in Southern England to great success.”

The award continues to hold dear memories for Stephen Fry. He dismisses academic achieve-

COMEDY

Words: Ben Venables Illustration: Tom Saffill

ments in favour of this new fangled comedy prize: “The Vice-Chancellor placing in my hands a piece of paper that testified to my status as BA (Hons) was a small thing compared to this.” How much it changed their lives is a moot point. Ex-Oxford and Cambridge revue members tended to do OK after university anyway, offering each other jobs in ‘light entertainment’. That’s not to dismiss the award’s impact on their lives. It’s just that their later fame may have exagerrated its influence.

And in this sense, the Perrier in this year alone, holds a symbolism that continues to lure people to Edinburgh with the promises of riches that it never offered in the first place.

Miriam Attwood is a former media manager at Edinburgh Fringe society. Talking to critic and author Mark Fisher in 2012, she described the false incentive and crushing reality awaiting naïve hopefuls coming to the Fringe: “You read about the Cambridge footlights... some of the biggest names in British entertainment and you think, ‘I can go to to the Fringe, I’m quite funny, I’ll be made famous.’ But it doesn’t work like that.”

By the time a stand-up comedian won the award, in 1987, comedy had ceased to be a minor partner at the Fringe. This next story involves an employee of the Norwegian Embassy and a late licensed bar. And two Londoners, respectively known as the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ and ‘Darth Vader’ of comedy, trudging through the Edinburgh snow in February to find a room stand-up could call its own.

The 2017 Edinburgh Fringe programme is available from 7 June With grateful thanks to Alan Gordon, Edinburgh Fringe.

Sources: John Connor: Comics, Michael Dale: Sore Throats and Overdrafts, Edinburgh Fringe programme 1981, Mark Fisher: The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, Stephen Fry: The Fry Chronicles, Alistair Moffat: The Edinburgh Fringe

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